Selling Wolf Tickets to White fans: Civil rights leaders question Timberwolves racial makeup

USAToday

Is it possible in 2012 to have a team that is too white or too black?

That question is being asked in Minnesota where the Timberwolves will have five black players on its 15-man roster.

"How did we get a roster that resembles the 1955 Lakers?" Tyrone Terrell, chairman of St. Paul's African American leadership council asked Jerry Zgoda and Dennis Brackin of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. "I think everything is a strategy. Nothing happens by happenstance."

Last season, African-Americans took 78% of the roster spots. So are the Timberwolves pandering to a fan-based that is white?

Team president David Kahn said that is "patently false" and points out that the team's reach for the best players have included stars from Russia, Spain and Puerto Rico.

The T-Wolves projected lineup (when everyone is healthy) has Brandon Roy as the only black player along with Nikola Pekovic, Ricky Rubio, Andrei Kirilenko and superstar Kevin Love.

"It's just basketball," Roy said. "I never really had to feel like I'm the only black guy out here. I've played on teams that maybe had all black guys and the feeling is just the same when I'm out there on the floor playing with these guys. The only problem we have is in the weight room, arguing over what music we're going to listen to."

But Ron Edwards, a local civil rights advocate said "I think, personally, that it was calculated. Is this an attempt to get fans back in the stands? Minnesota, after all, is a pretty white state."

Chicago surpasses 2011’s homicide total with South Side shooting

ChicagoSunTimes

More Than 50 Dead In Haiti As U.S. Braces For Sandy

ThinkProgress

While U.S. media coverage today will focus on the impact Hurricane Sandy will have in the states and on the coming election, the storm has already ravaged locations throughout the Caribbean. The majority of the 65 reported deaths came from Haiti, where over fifty were reported killed by rampant flooding.

Rains finally abated there after pummeling the island since Friday:

As the rains stopped and rivers began to recede, authorities were getting a fuller idea of how much damage Sandy brought on Haiti. Bridges collapsed. Banana crops were ruined. Homes were underwater. Officials said the death toll might still rise.

“This is a disaster of major proportions,” Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe told The Associated Press, adding with a touch of hyperbole, “The whole south is under water.”

Tropical storms and hurricanes have so far this year killed more and done greater comparable damage to island nations than they have once reaching the United States. Hurricane Issac, at the time a tropical storm, killed 29 in Haiti in August, compared to six deaths in the U.S. from the same storm system.

These storms can prove more devastating to Haiti and the surrounding states, despite often gaining strength as they move north, due to lower level of infrastructure development and mass deforestation. The amount of trees cleared to use in building shelters, cook-fires, and farm land wipes out natural barriers to flooding and landslides. Adding to the problem, hundreds of thousands of Haitians still live in tents and make-shift shelters as part of the ongoing aftermath of the 2010 earthquake.

While the United States pledged billions to help rebuild Haiti following the earthquake, the effect of what money has been delivered is lacking, and has done little the strengthen the island’s ability to weather hurricanes. Recent cuts of $8 billion dollars to international development funding by Congress is also unlikely to help Haiti and other states’ resilience against natural disasters in the future.

How Economic Inequality Makes Hurricanes More Deadly

ThinkProgress

While the Eastern seaboard braces for Hurricane Sandy, 65 people have already been killed by the storm in the Caribbean. The tragic death toll and accompanying widespread property damage are caused in part by poor infrastructure and poverty — problems that aren’t limited to the Caribbean. Indeed, America’s inequality problem is a key reason why natural disasters wreak such havoc inside the United States.

That our stratified society makes storms more deadly is nearly universally believed by disaster experts. According to a paper by three experts at the University of South Carolina (Cutter et al.), “[t]here is a general consensus within the social science community” that some key causes of vulnerability to storms include “lack of access to resources (including information, knowledge, and technology); limited access to political power and representation; social capital, including social networks and connections; beliefs and customs; building stock and age; frail and physically limited individuals; and type and density of infrastructure and lifelines.” Inequality was, the researchers found, the single most important predictor of vulnerability to storm damage — variation in the wealth of individual counties alone explained 12.4 percent of the differences in the impact of natural disasters between counties.

The reasons for this are fairly clear — poorer communities have less resources to evacuate and prepare for storms, and also live in housing that’s less likely to be build to withstand nature’s wrath. As Kathleen Tierney at the University of Colorado puts it:

[Dimensions] of social class, including education and income, affect the ability to engage in self-protective activities across all phases of the hazard cycle. Educational achievements and literacy competence influence access to information on disaster risks and risk-reduction measures…The lack of affordable housing in U.S. metropolitan areas forces the poor to live in substandard housing that is often located in physically vulnerable areas and also to live in overcrowded housing conditions. Manufactured housing may be the only viable housing option for people with limited resources, but mobile homes can become death traps during hurricanes and tornadoes…disaster evacuation scenarios are also based on other assumptions, such as the idea that in addition to having their own transportation, households also have the financial resources to leave endangered communities when ordered to do so. This is definitely not true for the poor.

Other sorts of related inequalities also make the impact of storms worse. Cutter et al. found that black, Hispanic, and Asian communities in the United States were also more at risk from storms, as were communities dependent on one industry (like mining or fishing), ones with high percentages of residents living in mobile homes, and ones with high population density.

The most vulnerable place in the country, in their analysis? Manhattan Borough.

Birther-Linked Super PAC Runs Islamaphoic Ad Against Michigan Candidate

ThinkProgress

In a stunning appeal to Islamaphobia, a group linked to former Swiftboater and birther conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi has launched a smear attack ad on a Muslim-American Congressional candidate. The spot warns that Dr. Syed Taj, the Democratic nominee in Michigan’s 11th Congressional district, wants to “advance Muslim power in America.” 

Freedom’s Defense Fund, a right-wing PAC that has spent at least $150,000 on ads in support of Missouri Senate candidate Rep. Todd Akin (R) despite his comments that victims of “legitimate rape” are unlikely to become pregnant, reported spending at least $30,000 on ads against Taj and for his opponent Republican Kerry Bentivolio, a Tea Party activist and Santa Clause impersonator.

So far in the 2012 election cycle, the PAC has spent over $3 million to promote its far-right beliefs. Corsi, who has been tied to the Fund, has promoted a multitude of Islamophobic conspiracy theories, including that President Obama wears an Islamic inscription on the interior of his wedding ring. Despite his fringe beliefs, Corsi was recently permitted to ride on the Romney campaign plane with the press corps.

This spot, titled “What do we really know about Syed Taj?” warns:

ANNOUNCER: We know Syed Taj wants to advance Muslim power in America. Syed Taj: too extreme for Michigan. Too extreme for America.

The text on the screen shows a quote from a Muslim Observer article, in which Taj observed that “right now there are two elected Muslims in congress, with a third we can form a caucus, we will have more power.”

FBI: violent crime drops again in 2011

From [HERE] The FBI released its annual report on violent and property crime, Crime in the United States 2011 [materials; press release], on Monday, which found that the number of violent crimes reported to law enforcement decreased for the fifth consecutive year and the number of property crimes reported decreased for the ninth consecutive year. The report is based on the Uniform Crime Reporting Program (UCR) [official website]. The report found that violent crime decreased by 3.8 percent and property crime decreased by 0.5 percent in 2011 from 2010. The report further stated that there were approximately 1.2 million violent crimes, 9.6 million property crimes and 12.4 million arrests, excluding traffic violations, in the US in 2011. Furthermore, in 2011 64.8 percent of murders, 41.2 percent of forcible rapes and 56.9 percent of aggravated assaults were cleared. The Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] previously announced that both violent crime and property crime rates increased from 2010 to 2011 [JURIST report] based on a report compiled by the Bureau of Justice Statistics and estimates of data from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) [official websites]. However, the FBI cautioned that the two reports cannot be directly compared [FBI report]:

Both were designed to complement each other, providing valuable information about aspects of the nation's crime problem, but users should not compare crime trends between the two programs because of methodology and crime coverage differences. The UCR Program provides a reliable set of criminal justice statistics for law enforcement administration, operation, and management, as well as to indicate fluctuations in the level of crime, while the NCVS provides previously unavailable information about victims, offenders, and crime... including crimes not reported to police.

The DOJ nonetheless stressed in the NCVS-based report that crime was still overall trending downward. The differences from the two reports come from the facts that they were created to serve different purposes, rely on different methodology and define some crimes differently.

It is the fifth year in a row that violent crimes decreased according to the UCR-based report. The trend continued from the Preliminary Annual Uniform Crime Report [JURIST report] released in June and the Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report [JURIST report] released in December. The report for 2010 showed a decrease of 6.0 percent in violent crime and a decrease of 2.7 percent in property crime compared to 2009 statistics [JURIST reports]. The decrease began after 2006 and 2005 statistics [JURIST reports].

Former Colin Powell Aide States the Obvious: ‘My Party Is Full of Racists’

Gawker

The GOP is pretty racist. I could list examples, but we'd be here for the rest of eternity. This week's particular "widely believed racist conspiracy that some old, white Republican was dumb enough to say in public" comes from Mitt Romney co-chair and ex-George H.W. Bush chief of staff John Sununu, who said that Colin Powell endorsed Barack Obama because Powell disagrees with Romney's foreign policy. Wait, no, it's because they're both black.

On Friday night, ex-Powell chief of staff and Republican Lawrence Wilkerson went on "The Ed Show" and said something that's blatantly obvious to most people, but is rare to hear from inside the GOP:

Let me just be candid: My party is full of racists, and the real reason a considerable portion of my party wants President Obama out of the White House has nothing to do with the content of his character, nothing to do with his competence as commander-in-chief and president, and everything to do with the color of his skin, and that's despicable.

In the GOP's defense, Wilkerson willingly engaged in conversation with Ed Schultz, so it's possible that he's just insane, or was at least using a body double. But, let's not kid ourselves. Mitt Romney is polling at zero percent among blacks for a reason, and it's not because he's white.

Case of blond girl beggar rescued from streets strikes nerve in Mexico; activists decry racism

FoxNews

The photo shows a girl with a high half-ponytail begging for coins at an intersection. There is dirt beneath her fingernails and her pink shirt looks unwashed. The image could fit many Mexican children who beg in the streets, but for one thing: The girl in this picture is blond.

The attention to the Facebook photo and the way officials rushed to find her and detain her mother have renewed a debate about racism in Mexico, where millions of indigenous people live in poverty and passers-by often barely notice the dark-skinned children begging in the street.

Jalisco state prosecutors' spokesman Lino Gonzalez says officials "had to respond because there was suspicion a crime had been committed."

Relatives produced the girl's birth certificate, but she's still being kept in an orphanage.

Educating Black Boys

Aljazeera

Baltimore, Maryland has come to be known as 'Charm City' because of its harbour, which attracts a vibrant nightlife and thriving tourism business. But just beyond the harbour's calm waters is one of the toughest and most violent inner cities in the US. Baltimore is also home to Al Jazeera presenter Tony Harris and in this episode of Al Jazeera Correspondent he takes us on an up close and personal journey to his old neighbourhood to witness the challenges facing black youth today as they struggle to get out of the dead end of life on inner city streets. Most of the crime in Baltimore is committed by black males with other blacks as victims, making black males an easy target for the police. And many believe that the stereotyping of black kids starts at an early age in the US - as early as grade school. In this film, Harris examines how the education system has failed black boys and reflects upon why he managed to make it out successfully while so many of his friends did not. A visit to his former high school reveals the desperation felt by both the pupils and the teachers. "School and criminal justice systems biased against black boys; all echoes of my childhood. But I managed to avoid the trap of Baltimore's cycle of poverty and violence," he explains. "But now I was going back to my hometown to get to the bottom of what I considered the new civil rights fight in America - educating black boys."

First black James Bond? Idris Elba shortlisted to play next 007

Rt.com

Suave British secret agent 007 may get some extra tan in upcoming films. Idris Elba, the black star of Prometheus, Thor and Rocknrolla could possibly become the next James Bond.

Producer of the spy franchise Barbara Broccoli is considering Elba among several other candidates after Daniel Craig.

The news came from Naomie Harris, the star of the 23rd James Bond instalment Skyfall that is set for release in November.

Speaking to the Huffington Post while promoting the new movie, Harris said that Broccoli and Elba have already met to discuss the possibility of him starring in the next Bond movie.

“I didn’t realize that there was this talk and then I did a film with Idris and he said that he met Barbara Broccoli and that it does seem like there is a possibility in the future that there could very well be a black James Bond,” she told the Huffington Post.

Rumors that the producers are looking for someone slightly different to play James Bond emerged in January. However James Bond actor Daniel Craig has no intention of quitting Bond voluntarily. He has told the BBC that he will "keep going until they tell me to stop".

"I know there'll be someone after me, and hopefully someone after them – I'm just trying to keep [the series] going," he said.

Elba expressed his interest in the role of James Bond earlier, saying that he’s English and has enough charm to be very suave with the ladies.

"I would have to vote for Idris because I just finished working with him and he's a great guy," Harris said.

At the 69th Golden Globe Awards Elba won the Award for Best Actor in a Series, Mini-Series, or Motion Picture Made for Television for his portrayal of DCI Luther in the BBC Crime-Thriller series Luther.

Stop H.I.G. Owned EVoting Machines From Giving Mittens The White House

IndyBay

Republicans control over 81% of the U.S. voting machines. Through these machines 

George W Bush was installed twice though not elected. Election Systems and Software (ESS), Dominion, owned by a conservative Canadian corporation, and H.I.G. are 

3 of the culprits. 

Bobby Seale: Black Panthers gave power to movement

WinstonSalemjournal 

Bobby Seale, co-founder of the Black Panther Party, long ago traded his beret and black leather jacket for a coat and tie.

But, he said, that doesn’t mean he’s forgotten his roots.

The Panthers, he said, put action behind the words of its motto, “Power to the People,” developing as many 22 programs to help residents in inner-city neighborhoods in Oakland, Calif.

“We made it real,” Seale said. “It was a people’s democracy.”

Seale, 76, delivered that message Friday night to about 130 people who attended the second annual meeting of the National Alumni Association of the Black Panther Party.

During his 10-minute speech at the Carter G. Woodson School, Seale praised the leaders of the local Panthers’ chapter, who were honored recently with a marker at the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and Fifth Street, near the group's former headquarters.

The Winston-Salem chapter, organized in 1969, was the first to be formed in the Southeast. Among the founders were Larry Little, Nelson Malloy and Hazel Mack-Hilliard.

Little is now a political-science professor at Winston-Salem State University, Nelson Malloy is a former member of the Winston-Salem City Council, while Mack-Hilliard is an attorney with Legal Aid of North Carolina.

“They organized in a dedicated spirit and put some programs together,” Seale said. He pointed out the free ambulance service that the city chapter operated in eastern Winston-Salem.

Seale and Huey P. Newton founded the Panthers in 1966 in Oakland, advocating the right of self-defense for blacks and calling for decent housing for blacks, fair treatment in court and an end to police brutality.

The organization advocated carrying weapons in “militant self-defense” to counter such institutional racism as police brutality against blacks. The Black Panthers also organized free-lunch programs, health clinics and sickle-cell anemia screening.

Seale led the Black Panthers during the height of the civil-rights movement. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover described the Panthers as “the greatest threat to the internal security of the United States.”

Several Panthers engaged in deadly shootouts with Oakland police in the mid-1960s. The violence resulted in the deaths of 26 Panthers and 16 police officers, the Associated Press reported in a 1982 story about Seale.

In 1974, he ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Oakland. After his defeat, he resigned as chairman of the Black Panthers Party and left Oakland. But he remained in the public eye, writing books and lecturing at various colleges.

In his speech at Woodson, Seale talked about how the Oakland Panthers distributed 10,000 bags of groceries and registered 4,700 people to vote in one event.

He said that was an example of effective grassroots organizing by the Black Panther Party, whose ranks swelled after the 1968 assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

“I poured everything I had in creating these programs,” he said.

Before the Seale spoke, former members of the Winston-Salem chapter presented Malloy with a Black Panther Party lifetime achievement award.

Malloy said he was humbled and that other Black Panthers contributed more than he did to “end discrimination and oppression of black and poor people.”

Obama Dismisses John Sununu's Race Comment, Cory Booker Calls It 'Dumb'

Huffpost

In a radio interview on Friday, President Barack Obama responded to remarks by former New Hampshire governor John Sununu, a top adviser to GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who suggested former Secretary of State Colin Powell endorsed him because of his race.

"I'll let General Powell's statements stand for themselves," Obama told Michael Smerconish, the Philadelphia-based radio host. "He spoke about the fact that my foreign policy during a very difficult time had been steady and strong. He talked about, with respect to our economy, that we had helped to rescue America from a potential Great Depression and that we were moving in the right direction. I don't think that there are many people in America who would question General Powell's credibility, his patriotism, his willingness to tell it straight, and so any suggestion that General Powell would make such a profound statement in such an important election based on anything but what he thought was what's going to be best for America doesn't make much sense."

Obama did not appear eager to engage in a debate about the role of race in political discourse, or was content to let Sununu's comments stand. Newark, N.J. mayor Cory Booker, an Obama surrogate, however, seemed less reluctant to address the issue in an appearance on CNN's "Starting Point" Friday morning.

"Whether (Sununu) meant it or not, it was a statement that is unfortunate and just reflects a lack of understanding and sensitivity. He's got himself in a jam, and he's going to wear that jam for awhile," Booker said

"But the one thing I don't like about our political culture is we take one person's comments, stupid or not, and then we just try to spread it out and lay over everything. Mitt Romney didn't say this, you know, so it's for me just a dumb comment. It's unfortunately something that's worth talking about because we still in America--" he said before being cut off by Soledad O'Brien.

"This is days before this election," he continued later. "Really, I hope what Americans are is not the dumb racially-tinged comments of an individual. There's too much at stake. There are larger issues. What are the plans and platform of candidates? Let's make decisions on that."

Powell, a Republican, endorsed Obama's reelection on Thursday morning, having endorsed him previously in 2008. Sununu appeared on CNN Thursday evening and suggested that his endorsement had to do in part with the fact that both are African-Americans.

"Well, I think when you have somebody of your own race that you're proud of being president of the United States, I applaud Colin for standing with him," Sununu said. He later issued a statement that he did "not doubt that it was based on anything but his support of the president's policies," but didn't apologize for his initial statement.