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Saturday, February 20, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
One Hundred Days to House One Thousand People Boston Activists and MIT Architect Respond to the Haiti Tragedy
“The emphases should be placed on building small communities to help with the overflow of people from Port-au-Prince, to act as a center for providing housing as well as a new sustainable model for the future,” said Prof. Wampler in a recent email. “This is a sad opportunity to try to help in a new way.”
"Jan wants to provide the underserved with the level of quality that only the rich can usually afford," said Lahens. "It touches my heart."
"The poor have only one house," said Wampler. "They should have the best architecture, not makeshift architecture." Boston Globe
"Lahens, 56, a former MIT research fellow and mother of an alumna, has a six-year history of partnering with professors and students at the institute for the betterment of her homeland. Past projects include purifying water, building a school, aiding fishing villages, and providing computer training. The scope of this project, though, would seem quixotic without Wampler's record of accomplishment: homes in earthquake-ravaged Turkey; schools in China and Sierra Leone; an orphanage in Ecuador; and community centers in Mexico and Thailand." Boston Globe
US Court of Appeals "Sidesteps" the issue of Mal-apportionment
MAP Appellate Court JUDMENT "Lack of Standing"
United States Court of Appeals
DC Circuit
February 1st, 2010
JUDGMENTORDERED and ADJUDGED that the judgment of the district court be affirmed.
... The plaintiff is not injured by the operation of the five states’ winner-take-all systems because he does not vote in those states ... Accordingly, we affirm the decision of the district court dismissing the plaintiff’s complaint for lack of standing.
... The plaintiff is not injured by the operation of the five states’ winner-take-all systems because he does not vote in those states ... Accordingly, we affirm the decision of the district court dismissing the plaintiff’s complaint for lack of standing.
Note: In March I will file a petition for a panel rehearing and rehearing en banc. The panel's Judgment is in Conflict with a Plethora of Supreme Court Decisions on Standing in Minority Vote Dilution Civil Actions, and presents a question of exceptional importance by leaving the congressional representatives of the unbounded states in Constitutional limbo. The decision in point of fact is not even a ruling on the actual case of controversy that formed the basis for my original complaint (mal-apportionment in the counting of votes cast not a mal-apportionment in the casting of votes) . Furthermore, the Panel decision without a declaratory order for proportional apportionment of the 2008 presidential electors for the unbounded southern states now places the pending reapportionment in the house of representatives based on the 2010 census in Constitutional jeopardy. Accordingly this is a petition that will far exceed the standards for a rehearing en banc pursuant to F. R. App. Pr. 35(b)(1)(A)&(B).
The Green's Civil Action to "Democratize the Electoral College" has exposed the constitutional vulnerability of the "winner take all" electoral college and has provided the legal blueprint on the basis of this Appellate Court Judgment that any voter of the states in question now have standing to file a constitutional claim to challenge the congressional apportionment of their respective states.
Asa'
Exe. Dir. DIG
Chair DCSGP-ECTF
Thursday, February 11, 2010
GPBLACK CAUCUS JOURNAL: Questions For A Neo-Confederate Justice? An Exposé of Legal Darwinism and Neo-Redemptionist Federalism by Asa Gordon
For Senators who will follow Justice Clarence Thomas’ lead and establish that the President has kept his word, the reason to reject his nominee is a given. President Bush made a campaign promise to nominate a justice in the tradition of conservative Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. The August 4, 2002 issue of The Washington Post Magazine reports in the article “Supreme Discomfort” that Ken Masugi, one of Thomas’ aides at the EEOC in the ’80s, spent many hours discussing ideas and ideology with Thomas. He recalls one such conversation in which Thomas posed this question:
“Is there some way to be a conservative without being a Confederate?”
{Q} How would you answer Justice Thomas? Why do you suppose Justice Thomas posed this question?
This opening question will lead the nominee into a reveiling public confrontation over the Old South/Confederate inheritance in our contemporary political culture. The nominee’s response will either alienate a major Republican base of Southern support or expose the historically crass underpinnings of the nominee’s Neo-Confederate judicial philosophy.
There is a line of questions that can establish if any conservative judicial nominee by Bush embraces a judicial philosophy that is not constrained by “judicial restraint”, but represents an extreme conservative “judicial activism” infused with a socially adverse judicial ideology of 19th century “Legal Darwinism”and Neo-Confederate Redemptionist Federalism. Judicial “restraint” or “activism” are not ideologies, nor do they represent an exclusive conservative or liberal approach to the law. “Originalism”, “judicial restraint”, “judicial activism”,”strict constructionism”, “orthodox jurisprudence”, “textualism”, “fundamentalism”, “minimalism”, and “stare decisis” are all quasi-scientific rationales that a conservative Neo-Confederate Justice will evoke to cloak a judicial philosophy grounded in supremacist ideology.
The problem is that the questions that were posed to the recent Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts and will be asked of any conservative judicial nominee by Bush are revealing of inquisitors who are unaware or choose not to confront this unpleasant reality. The self-righteous bi-partisan liberal and conservative media pundits rebukes of veteran Civil Rights leaders John Lewis and Wade Henderson for their characterization of the “indisputably qualified conservative” Roberts as a pre Brown v Board of Education Justice as outrageous, make it clear that many Whites of any political persuasion just don’t get it, are totally clueless and in denial. Their paternal rebutes represent a belief in a race so supreme in reason that there is no doubt that fairness resides even where prejudice is assumed to exist. It is a faith that even moves “liberal” Senators Patrick J. Leahy, Herb Kohl, and Russell Feingold to vote on “hope” and garners the endorsement of the “liberal” Washington Post. Is there any wonder that Plessy v. Ferguson’s(1896) ruling “[I]t is not by reason of anything found in the act, but solely because the colored race chooses to put that construction upon it” remains this nations ageless judgment of racial conflict. Yes media pundits, the Pre-Brown Plessey Justices that made the decision to provide judicial sanction to legal apartheid in America were all “indisputably qualified conservative” justices that just knew they were not racist, that their judgment was not racist, and that the criticism of the blacks of their day was emotional.
Here is a historical factual generic question that exposes the underlining lies and denial inherent in all of this nation’s Civil Rights Jurisprudence and Supreme Court nominations. The Conservative justices are joined by their academic boosters in the distortion of history and contemporary reality.
{Q} In the years following the Civil War, senators demanded that nominees to the Court hold orthodox views on issues relating to Reconstruction. A Republican attorney, nominated by a Republican President was acknowledged to have been “a man of great ability who earned the respect of the Supreme Court bench and bar”, but was rejected by a Republican Congress that further temporarily depacked the court by eliminating the Supreme Court seat for which he was nominated, because he had recently drafted the President’s message vetoing the Civil Rights Bill that became the basis of the 14th Amendment. He was rejected for raising the same arguments against the passage of the 14th amendment that Conservative opponents and the present president have raised against affirmative action. Who is this attorney? Why should we not follow this congressional precedent by the framers of the 14th Amendment and reject your nomination for the same reasons?
Questions should seek to expose a covert Neo-Confederate Justice. Questions posed to a Conservative Justice should focus on identifying and exposing the historical context of the purported Conservative judicial ideology. The questions should not seek to determine how the nominee may rule on issues which may come before the high court in the future, but demonstrate how the nominee would have ruled on classic issues that have appeared before the high court in the past, with disastrous consequences for today. Such questions will establish that the “smoking gun” revelation that should disqualify the nominee resides not in the discovery of unknown position papers but in the examination and public exposure of the Conservative judicial philosophy of “Originalism” and “Strict Constructionism”. A truthful response will demonstrate that history has already judged this judicial philosophy represents a judicial strand of reasoning that abandons the protection of a citizen’s civil rights in the name of a supremacist federalism. An untruthful response will denigrate and alienate a large segment of the Republican base support. The problem lies in the fact that such questions will not only prove to be painful for the nominee, but painful to the American public in exposing the myth and fraud surrounding the debate over Supreme Court nominations and a sordid history of the high court itself. In either case, the public, and maybe even the punditocracy will have received an education.
ORIGINALISM?
{Q} Are you in agreement with Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas who divine attributes of a definitive “original intent” to the constitutional framers? Is it your view that “Judicial Restraint” requires that the constitutional framers “original intent” must provide the determinative standard by which all constitutional interpretation of legal precedents must be judged and condemn all departures as impermissible manifestations of “judicial activism”?
{Q} The original intent of the framers of the Constitution of 1787 restricted the franchise to white males with property. The original intent of the framers of the post Civil War Reconstruction 13th, 14th & 15th Amendments was to expand the franchise. Which of these “original intents” best represents our American values of democracy today?
{Q} The American Heritage History of “THE LAW IN AMERICA” by Bernard Schwartz (Editor, Alvin M. Josephy, Jr., 1974), declares, “[T]he Fourteenth Amendment was converted into a Magna Carta for business”. Do you agree or disagree? If not why not?
Questions should be posed to establish if a Conservative Judicial nominee is a throwback to the 19th century Legal Darwinists. The Legal Darwinists believed that the judiciary should limit itself to the role of arbiters (referees) to insure that the nation’s superior beings, especially its highest attainment the “corporate person”, should not be unduly constrained by the collective will of the inferior masses in the form of representative government. The government must be constrained from intervening in social contests determining the “survivor of the fittest” or providing unnatural support in sustaining inferior social classes that undermine the progressive evolution of the state. The Legal Darwinists seek to codify the “Social Darwinism” of the Victorian biologist Herbert Spencer, who declared, “I am simply carrying out the views of Mr. Darwin in their application to the human race.” The Legal Darwinist jurisprudence is guided by the “invisible hand” of Social Darwinism. The Legal Darwinists embrace William Graham Summer’s observation that “The millionaires are a product of natural selection.” The Legal Darwinist adopts a legal philosophy which would allow the nation’s weak and unfit to fail and expire, and holds that this not only represents good social policy but is morally right. Legal Darwinists reject Justice Holmes protestation in his Lochner v. New York dissent that “The Fourteenth Amendment does not enact Mr. Herbert Spencer’s Social Statics.” At the dawn of the Civil Rights era, Justice William O. Douglas declared, “For years, the Court struck down social legislation when a particular law did not fit the notions of a majority of Justices as to legislation appropriate for a free enterprise system.” Is this the kind of conservative judicial activism the nominee will continue to champion as a Supreme Court Justice?
{Q} Justice Roberts, in a memo sent to the Attorney General on Dec. 11, 1981, summarized a lecture by former Solicitor General Erwin N. Griswold at Washington and Lee University. In that memo he declared that Griswold’s lecture “devotes a section to the so-called ‘right to privacy,’ arguing as we have that such an amorphous right is not to be found in the Constitution. He specifically criticizes Roe v. Wade.” Would you characterize the so-called ‘corporate person’ as an amorphous right not found in the Constitution?
{Q} The constitutional protection of corporations by the courts required the judicial broadening of due process to include substantive, as well as procedural, limitations on governmental power. Is this an exercise of conservative or liberal judicial activism?
{Q} Legal history has judged that the preponderance of “activist” Supreme Court rulings on “due process clause” protections under the Fourteenth Amendment has overwhelmingly favored the “corporate person”, the creation of man, over the “human person”, the creation of God. The Supreme Court recently ruled to affirm property seizures from human persons through forced sales for private development by corporate persons. (1) Is this an example of Conservative “judicial restraint” or Liberal “judicial activism”?
{Q} Do you believe the “corporate person,” the creation of man, has the right to patent the creations of God for the “human person”?
{Q} A memo by Justice Roberts declared that legal efforts to address workplace discrimination against women were “highly objectionable” and that efforts to require employers to pay women the same as men performing jobs of “comparable worth” as “staggeringly pernicious” and “anti-capitalist.” Will you please explain for us how non-discrimination between men and women for equal pay for comparable work in the corporate workplace is incompatible with capitalism?
The Legal Darwinist primary commitment to personal freedoms is in opposition to regulation by our government of the behavior of “corporate” persons rather then concern for restraints on our personal behavior.
NEO-REDEMPTION FEDERALISM
“The Redeemers who overthrew Reconstruction and established `Home Rule’ in the Southern States conducted their campaign in the name of white supremacy.”, The Strange Career of Jim Crow,C. Vann Woodward, 1974.
Justice Roberts clerked for the late William H. Rehnquist, who as a Supreme Court clerk for Robert H. Jackson, wrote memos arguing against school desegregation. Conservative neo-confederate justices believe that the Confederate States of America interpreted the Constitution correctly, while the interpretation of the Constitution that preserved the union of the United States of America was wrong. This neo-confederate federalism is not the federalism of the framers of the Constitution, but the federalism of the Confederate States that seceded from the union and the “redeemer” state governments that overturned Reconstruction. Their solicitude for states’ rights and for curtailing federal power is grounded in the redemptionist era rulings of the Supreme Court. They believe in those legal precedents that provided the constitutional justification for state governments to “redeem” white supremacy.
{Q} Rayford W. Logan, author of The Betrayal of the Negro From Rutherford B. Hayes to Woodrow Wilson (1965), declares, “Practically all relevant decisions of the United States Supreme Court Court during Reconstruction and to the end of the century nullified or curtailed rights of Negroes which many of the Reconstruction ‘Radicals’ thought they had written into laws and into the Constitution. Some of these decisions are still generally accepted”. Do you agree or disagree? If not why not?
The Rehnquist Court, emulating the Supreme Court’s racist Redemption I judgments that undermined the Civil Rights Acts of the 1860’s, emasculated Reconstruction II by undercutting the 1960’s Civil Rights Acts in a series of cases decided in 1989. Rehnquist’s Neo-Redemptionist Civil Rights rulings were characterized by a conservative “judicial intervention” and “judicial activism” so extreme that even a conservative Congress determined that the Rehnquist Court had gone too far. During the 2nd Session of the 101st Congress, the Civil Rights Act of 1990 was introduced “to restore and strengthen civil rights laws that ban discrimination in employment. The bill responds to a number of recent decisions by the United States Supreme Court that sharply cut back on the scope and effectiveness of these important federal laws.”
Subsequently, the 102nd Congress passed the “Civil Rights Act of 1991,” which specified in Section 3(4) that one of its purposes was “to respond to recent decisions of the Supreme Court by expanding the scope of relevant civil rights statutes in order to provide adequate protection to victims of discrimination.”
Roberts Was Influenced by Critics of the Warren Court: Like Rehnquist, the Nominee Is a Skeptic on Judicial Intervention, headlines the September 6, 2005 issue of the Washington Post.
{Q} Can you cite a bill or any legislation that was passed by Congress to specifically overturn cited liberal “activist” rulings of the Warren Court that are comparable to the congressional legislation that was passed to overturn the cited conservative “activist” civil rights rulings of the Rehnquist Court?
{Q} Author Eric Foner in his work Reconstruction : America’s Unfinished Revolution 1863-1877, (1988) chronicles a case that arose from what he describes as “the bloodiest single act of carnage in all of Reconstruction”. He castigates the Supreme Court’s ruling, writing, ” In the name of federalism, the decision rendered national prosecution of crimes committed against blacks virtually impossible, and gave a green light to acts of terror where local officials either could not or would not enforce the law.” Please identify the Rehnquist court ruling that cites this same redemptionist decision as precedent for nullifying a contemporary congressional civil rights law giving victims of sex-based violent crimes the right to sue their attackers in federal court. Do you find this decision’s reliance on an infamous racist court ruling appalling? If not, why not?
{Q} Stetson Kennedy author of After Appomattox : How the South Won the War (1995), writes, “Not content with having knocked the props out from under the amendments, the Court went on to strike yet another blow at black rights … these two decisions by the highest court in the land occasioned a vast amount of celebration in the semiautonomous region of the country that had dedicated itself to white rule and apartheid. The hard-won Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Bill of Rights were still in the U.S. Constitution, but the statutes designed to enforce them had been largely wiped out. Black rights as dead letters were something the South’s white supremacists could live with.” Author Eric Lurio in The Cartoon Guide to The Constitution of the United States, (1987), describes one of these decisions as “A twisted wonder to behold” and declares, “It is very rare indeed, when the Supreme Court calls the Constitution a liar”. Can you cite the Rehnquist Court ruling that relies on these odious precedents while displaying no coherent legal principle ?
William J. Watkins, Jr. editor of the Freeman magazine, in his essay, Justice Thomas and-the Nature of the Union, published in the Southern Partisan (2nd Quarter 1995), declares, “On Tuesday! May 23, 1995, the Court came within one vote of vindicating the Confederates’ view of the Constitution. Writing for the four dissenting justices in the U.S. Term Limits v. Thornton, Justice Clarence Thomas declared: ‘The ultimate source of the Constitution’s authority is the consent of the people of each individual state, not the consent of the undifferentiated people of the nation as a whole.’ When one examines the words of Justice Thomas it is obvious that he has read the works of the intellectual father of the Confederate States of America, John C. Calhoun.” The New York Times was noticeably vexed as it nervously pointed out that “Justice Thomas’s dissenting opinion almost deposed the Federal Government from its primary role in the constitutional system and resurrected the states as the authentic organs of democratic government.”
{Q} Have you read the works of the intellectual father of the Confederate States of America, John C. Calhoun? Which of these two presidents best represents your view of federalism, i.e. the nature of the union, Abraham Lincoln, the former president of the United States of America, or Jefferson Davis, the former president of the Confederate States of America?
The Southern Partisan essay goes on to observe:
“That we could come so close to seeing our view of the federal compact triumphant 131 years after the surrender at Appomattox ought to hearten all Southerners and friends of constitutional government. The cause that the men in Butternut fought for was a just one whose decision is not yet final. Only by the intelligent use of time, experience, and the history of the federal compact, will we see the tables completely turned. The nature of the union was and remains a critical issue in the life of the Republic…. Though the South came up one vote short of vindicating her view of the Constitution in US. Term Limits, the retirement of one justice could remedy the situation.”
Monday, January 18, 2010
From Cynthia McKinney: An Unwelcome Katrina Redux
President Obama's response to the tragedy in Haiti has been robust in military deployment and puny in what the Haitians need most: food; first responders and their specialized equipment; doctors and medical facilities and equipment; and engineers, heavy equipment, and heavy movers. Sadly, President Obama is dispatching Presidents Bush and Clinton, and thousands of Marines and U.S. soldiers. By contrast, Cuba has over 400 doctors on the ground and is sending in more; Cubans, Argentinians, Icelanders, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans, and many others are already on the ground working--saving lives and treating the injured. Senegal has offered land to Haitians willing to relocate to Africa.
The United States, on the day after the tragedy struck, confirmed that an entire Marine Expeditionary Force was being considered "to help restore order," when the "disorder" had been caused by an earthquake striking Haiti; not since 1751, 1770, 1842, 1860, and 1887 had Haiti experienced an earthquake. But, I remember the bogus reports of chaos and violence that led to the deployment of military assets, including Blackwater, in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. One Katrina survivor noted that the people needed food and shelter and the U.S. government sent men with guns. Much to my disquiet, it seems, here we go again. From the very beginning, U.S. assistance to Haiti has looked to me more like an invasion than a humanitarian relief operation.
On Day Two of the tragedy, a C-130 plane with a military assessment team landed in Haiti, with the rest of the team expected to land soon thereafter. The stated purpose of this team was to determine what military resources were needed.
An Air Force special operations team was also expected to land to provide air traffic control. Now, the reports are that the U.S. is not allowing assistance in, shades of Hurricane Katrina, all over again.
On President Obama's orders military aircraft "flew over the island, mapping the destruction." So, the first U.S. contribution to the humanitarian relief needed in Haiti were reconnaissance drones whose staffing are more accustomed to looking for hidden weapon sites and surface-to-air missile batteries than wrecked infrastructure. The scope of the U.S. response soon became clear: aircraft carrier, Marine transport ship, four C-140 airlifts, and evacuations to Guantanamo. By the end of Day Two, according to the Washington Post report, the United States had evacuated to Guantanamo Bay about eight [8] severely injured patients, in addition to U.S. Embassy staffers, who had been "designated as priorities by the U.S. Ambassador and his staff."
On Day Three we learned that other U.S. ships, including destroyers, were moving toward Haiti. Interestingly, the Washington Post reported that the standing task force that coordinates the U.S. response to mass migration events from Cuba or Haiti was monitoring events, but had not yet ramped up its operations. That tidbit was interesting in and of itself, that those two countries are attended to by a standing task force, but the treatment of their nationals is vastly different, with Cubans being awarded immediate acceptance from the U.S. government, and by contrast, internment for Haitian nationals.
U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral James Watson IV reassured Americans, "Our focus right now is to prevent that, and we are going to work with the Defense Department, the State Department, FEMA and all the agencies of the federal government to minimize the risk of Haitians who want to flee their country," Watson said. "We want to provide them those relief supplies so they can live in Haiti."
By the end of Day Four, the U.S. reportedly had evacuated over 800 U.S. nationals.
For those of us who have been following events in Haiti before the tragic earthquake, it is worth noting that several items have caused deep concern:
1. the continued exile of Haiti's democratically-elected and well-loved, yet twice-removed former priest, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide;
2. the unexplained continued occupation of the country by United Nations troops who have killed innocent Haitians and are hardly there for "security" (I've personally seen them on the roads that only lead to Haiti's sparsely-populated areas teeming with beautiful beaches);
3. U.S. construction of its fifth-largest embassy in the world in Port-au-Prince, Haiti;
4. mining and port licenses and contracts, including the privatization of Haiti's deep water ports, because certain off-shore oil and transshipment arrangements would not be possible inside the U.S. for environmental and other considerations; and
5. Extensive foreign NGO presence in Haiti that could be rendered unnecessary if, instead, appropriate U.S. and other government policy allowed the Haitian people some modicum of political and economic self-determination.
Therefore, we note here the writings of Ms. Marguerite Laurent, whom I met in her capacity as attorney for ousted President of Haiti Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Ms. Laurent reminds us of Haiti's offshore oil and other mineral riches and recent revival of an old idea to use Haiti and an oil refinery to be built there as a transshipment terminal for U.S. supertankers. Ms. Laurent, also known as Ezili Danto of the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network (HLLN), writes:
"There is evidence that the United States found oil in Haiti decades ago and due to the geopolitical circumstances and big business interests of that era made the decision to keep Haitian oil in reserve for when Middle Eastern oil had dried up. This is detailed by Dr. Georges Michel in an article dated March 27, 2004 outlining the history of oil explorations and oil reserves in Haiti and in the research of Dr. Ginette and Daniel Mathurin.
"There is also good evidence that these very same big US oil companies and their inter-related monopolies of engineering and defense contractors made plans, decades ago, to use Haiti's deep water ports either for oil refineries or to develop oil tank farm sites or depots where crude oil could be stored and later transferred to small tankers to serve U.S. and Caribbean ports. This is detailed in a paper about the Dunn Plantation at Fort Liberte in Haiti.
"Ezili's HLLN underlines these two papers on Haiti's oil resources and the works of Dr. Ginette and Daniel Mathurin in order to provide a view one will not find in the mainstream media nor anywhere else as to the economic and strategic reasons the US has constructed its fifth largest embassy in the world - fifth only besides the US embassy in China, Iraq, Iran and Germany - in tiny Haiti, post the 2004 Haiti Bush regime change."
Unfortunately, before the tragedy struck, and despite pleading to the Administration by Haiti activists inside the United States, President Obama failed to stop the deportation of Haitians inside the United States and failed to grant TPS, temporary protected status, to Haitians inside the U.S. in peril of being deported due to visa expirations. That was corrected on Day Three of Haiti's earthquake tragedy with the January 15, 2010 announcement that Haiti would join Honduras, Nicaragua, Somalia, El Salvador, and Sudan as a country granted TPS by the Secretary of Homeland Security.
President Obama's appointment of President Bush to the Haiti relief effort is a swift left jab to the face, in my opinion. After President Bush's performance in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the fact that still today, Hurricane Katrina survivors who want to return still have not been provided a way back home, the appointment might augur well for fundraising activities, but I doubt that it bodes well for the Haitian people. Afterall, the coup against and the kidnapping of President Aristide occurred under the watch of a Bush Presidency.
Finally, those with an appreciation of French literature know that among France's most beloved authors are Alexandre Dumas, son of a Haitian slave, and Victor Hugo who wrote: "Haiti est une lumiere." [Haiti is a light.] Indeed, Haiti for millions is a light: light into the methodology and evil of slavery; light into a successful slave rebellion, light into nationhood and notions of liberty, the rights of man, and of human dignity. Haiti is a light. And an example that makes the enemies of black liberation tremble. It is precisely because of Haiti's light into the evil genius of some individuals who wield power over others and man's ability, through unity and purpose, to overcome that evil, that some segments of the world have been at war with Haiti ever since 1804, the year of Haiti's creation as a Republic.
I'm not surprised at "Reverend" Pat Robertson's racist vitriol. Robertson's comments mirror, exactly, statements made by Napoleon's Cabinet when the Haitians defeated them. But in 2010, Robertson's statements reveal much more: Haitians are not the only ones who know their importance to the struggle against hatred, imperialism, and European domination.
This pesky, persistent, stubbornly non-Western, proudly African people of this piece of land that we call Haiti know their history and they know that they militarily defeated the ruling world empire of the day, Napoleon's France, and the global elite at that time who supported him. They know that they defeated the armies of England and Spain.
Haitians know that they used their status as a free state to help liberate Latin Americans from Spain, by funding and fighting alongside Simon Bolivar; their example inspired their still-enslaved African brothers and sisters on the American mainland; and before Haitians were even free, they fought against the British inside the U.S. during its war of independence and won a decisive battle in Savannah, Georgia, where I have visited the statue commemorating that victory.
Haitians know that France imposed reparations on them for being free, and Haiti paid them in full, but that President Aristide called for France to give that money back ($21 billion in 2003 dollars).
Haitians know that their "brother," then-Secretary of State Colin Powell lied to the world upon the kidnapping and second ouster of their President. (Sadly, it wouldn't be the last time that Secretary of State Colin Powell would lie to the world.) Haitians know, all-too-well, that high-ranking blacks in the United States are capable of helping them and of betraying them.
Haitians know, too, that the United States has installed its political proxies and even its own soldiers onto Haitian soil when the U.S. felt it was necessary. All in an effort to control the indomitable Haitian spirit that directs much-needed light to the rest of the oppressed world.
While the tears of the people of Haiti swell in my own eyes, and I remember their tremendous capacity for love, my broken heart and wet eyes don't dampen my ability to understand the grave danger that now faces my friends in Haiti.
I shudder to think that the "rollback" policies believed in by some foreign policy advisers to President Obama could use a prolonged U.S. military presence in Haiti as a springboard for rollback of areas in Latin America that have liberated themselves from U.S. neo-colonial domination. I would hate to think that this would even be attempted under the Presidency of Barack Obama. All of us must have our eyes wide open on Haiti and other parts of the world now dripping in blood as a result of the relentless onward march of the U.S. military machine.
So, on this remembrance of the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I note that it was the U.S. government's own illegal Operation Lantern Spike that snuffed out the promise and light of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Every plane of humanitarian assistance that is turned away by the U.S. military (so far from CARICOM, the Caribbean Community, Médecins Sans Frontieres, Brazil, France, Italy, and even the U.S. Red Cross)--as was done in the wake of Hurricane Katrina--and the expected arrival on this very day of up to 10,000 U.S. troops, are lasting reminders of the existential threat that now looms over the valiant, proud people and the Republic of Haiti.
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Thursday, January 14, 2010
Green Party Black Caucus partners with Brothers and Sisters International and Bassin Zim EDF to help earthquake victims in Haiti
Our hearts go out to our Brothers and Sisters in Haiti in the wake of yet another terrible disaster. The Green Party Black Caucus in Partnership with Brothers and Sisters International have supported the efforts of Bassin Zim Education and Development Fund's SEEDS for HAITI emergency initiative since its launch in March 2009. The goal at that time was to raise $115,000, provide 5,000 Haitian peasant families each with enough to buy bean and corn seeds to prevent post-hurricane famine.
That goal is a mere drop in the bucket compared to what is needed now. We need to increase our efforts by doing all we can and then some. By working directly with Black Caucus member, Paul Pumphrey of Brothers and Sisters International we increase the chances of getting the help directly to victims and their families both here in the United States and in Haiti.
Please help the earthquake victims in Haiti...
Or send your contributions to
Bassin Zim EDF
PO Box 360125
Brooklyn, NY 11236
Telephone: (917) 378-2192
Bassin Zim EDF is a non-profit organization that provides short term aid to disaster victims, and supports long-term agricultural and environmental improvement in Haiti . Bassin Zim EDF supports peasant organizing, education, and women owned businesses, and serve as a conduit for financial donations to Haitian organizations.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
NEW Court Order to Rule on Gordon v. Biden without Oral Argument
Asa Gordon's Oral Argument on Democratizing the Electoral College, a major voting rights civil action endorsed by the Green Party Black Caucus in 2004, had been scheduled for oral argument in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (No. 09-5142) on Thursday, January 14, 2010. "...Accordingly, the court will dispose of the appeal without oral argument on the basis of the record and the presentations in the briefs. See Fed. R. App. 34(a)(2); D.C. Cir. Rule 34(j)."
Asa Gordon, chair of the DC Statehood Green Party's Electoral College Task Force and executive director of the Douglass Institute of Government filed this civil action in the US District Court for the District of Columbia (1:08-cv-01294) on July 28, 2008 to protect the rights of presidential electors and the voters they represent.
Since the debacle of the 2000 presidential election, the DC Statehood Green Party, in partnership with the Douglass Institute of Government, has led the way in educating the general citizenry of their constitutional "right to vote" under the provisions of paragraph two of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (Amend. XIV§2) and statutory code (2U.S.C.§6)
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Green Party Black Caucus (GPBC) Protest Odious Redemptionist-era rulings being invoked by the Department of Justice
The BLACK CAUCUS OF THE GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES (GPBC) in a letter of protest to Attorney General, Eric Holder registered their strong objection that in this case of controversy an Assistant United States Attorney in the Department of Justice in argument before the Appellate Court has invoked odious Redemptionist-era rulings of the Supreme Court that reestablished white supremacy and overturned Reconstruction. A position that denigrates the memory of that provision of the constitution that gave full expression to the founding principle of our nation for which that "band of brothers" of European and African descent "gave the last full measure of devotion" in the United States Civil War.
Asa Gordon's Oral Argument on Democratizing the Electoral College, a major voting rights civil action endorsed by the Green Party Black Caucus in 2004, has been scheduled for oral argument in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (No. 09-5142) on Thursday, January 14, 2010.
The civil action, Gordon v. Biden (formerly Gordon v. Cheney), addresses the mal-apportionment of Electoral College votes, voter dilution by race and/or party affiliation with the popular vote misrepresented by the winner-take-all system of allocating electoral votes. The civil action seeks relief against the Vice President who presides over the tabulation of "unbound Southern electoral states" who by practice, unsupported by state or federal statute, traditionally award Presidential Electors on a "winner-take-all basis" in violation of the mal-apportionment penalty clause pursuant to Amend. XIV§2 as implemented by 2U.S.C.§6. All Court Documents, links, Green Party of the United States Press Releases and other materials related to the action are available online at http://www.electors.us.
"This is an unconscionable position to be taken by the Department of Justice under the leadership of an Attorney General of the United States of African descent serving in the Administration of the first President of the United States of African descent", say Black Caucus officials in their letter to Attorney General Eric Holder.
Gordon filed the Democratizing the Electoral College Civil Action on July 28th, 2008, to commemorate the Century and Two Score years anniversary of the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Environmental Justice Small Grant Program to emphasize the need to address Climate Change in Environmental Justice Communities.
Fair treatment means that no group of people should bear a disproportionate share of the negative environmental consequences resulting from industrial, governmental and commercial operations or policies. Meaningful involvement means that all people have an opportunity to participate in decisions about activities that may affect their environment and/or health and Influence the regulatory agency's decision. Meaningful involvement also means that the concerns of the people will be considered in the decision making process and that the decision makers seek out and facilitate the involvement of those potentially affected.
The environmental justice movement started in urban and rural communities populated by blacks, the poor and people of color, who sought to address the lack of environmental protection in their communities. Grounded in the struggles of the 1960's Civil Rights Movement, this movement continues to sound the alarm about public health dangers to these families, their communities and themselves. The Philadelphia Front Page News, a community sponsored online news exchange is committed to sounding these alarms loud and clear. with the FPN Environmental News Videos which post continuously to the site, demonstrating the commitment of its volunteer staff to bringing its readers the most up to date information possible along with the resources and tools the community needs to influence the decision makers.
The EPA has been providing small environmental justice grants for the past 15 years. The goal of the Environmental Justice Small Grants Program (EJSG) is to support and empower environmental justice communities working on solutions to local environmental and public health issues. They have recently released the Application Guidance(43 pp, 528K) for FY2010. This year's EJSG program focuses on the need to address the disproportionate impacts of climate change in communities with environmental justice concerns. The EPA EJ Small Grants Program is a national program with total funding available for the 2010FY at $1,000,000. EPA anticipates awarding approximately 40 grants in the amount of $25,000 each.
your name; the name of your organization; the address of your organization; your phone number; and the preferred date for the call.
Date
Time (EST)
December 3, 2009
1:30 – 2:30 p.m.
December 17, 2009
1:30 – 2:30 p.m.
The Philadelphia Front Page News is committed to bringing you the latest on Environmental Justice.
For more information on Environmental Justice visit:
National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC)
A Federal committee providing recommendations to EPA on environmental justice matters
Meetings | Recommendations | Subcommittees
Environmental Justice Grants
Providing financial assistance to for projects to address local environmental concerns
Federal Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice (IWG)
Various Federal agencies and White House offices working to integrate environmental justice into its individual programs
Environmental Justice Achievement Awards
Recognizing the achievements of organizations that undertake environmental justice initiatives which make a positive impact in the community.
Environmental Justice | Compliance and Enforcement | US EPA
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OnTheWilderSide
Supporters of progressive activism, Green Party politics, and noncorporate cultural workers.