I worked hard on the Obama campaign here in NH. So I have to say congrats to the Clinton Campaign. It's still amazing that the battle for who will lead the Democratic party is between a woman and a Black man, with a unapologetic Southern Populist the wild card. Clinton, Obama Dig in for Long Fight
Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama dug in Wednesday for a campaign unlike any other, a woman and a black man drawing record voter turnout in an unpredictable race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
INTERNATIONAL
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Kenya Crisis Worsens as Opposition Cools to Talks
The political mood darkened again in Kenya on Tuesday, with opposition leaders cooling to the idea of negotiations with the government after the president unilaterally made major cabinet appointments, a move that set off riots across the country almost immediately.
Bonfires burned in Kisumu on Lake Victoria, ethnic clashes erupted in the slums around Nairobi, the capital, and protesters began to mass in the port city of Mombasa.
The political crisis here, which has claimed at least 486 lives and probably many more, seems to be raising wider concerns, with President Bush issuing a statement urging "both sides to engage in peaceful dialogue" and Senator Barack Obama speaking to opposition leaders by telephone.
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Liberia's former president is tried for war crimes
The war crimes trial against Liberia's former president has resumed—with the court funding Charles Taylor's defence. The trial will fuel debate over the creation of a war crimes tribunal in Liberia.
The trial of Liberia's former president, Charles Taylor, resumed at The Hague on January 7th. Mr Taylor—who is Africa's first former head of state to face an international war crimes court—faces a number of charges, ranging from rape, murder, mutilation and the recruitment of child soldiers, arising from his involvement in Sierra Leone's civil war between 1991 and 2002.
Mr Taylor's trial initially began in June 2007 under the jurisdiction of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, but he immediately raised objections to the process, sacking his lawyer and boycotting the trial. The former president now has a new lawyer, UK-based Courteney Griffiths, while the Special Court has increased the amount of legal aid to Mr Taylor to US$100,000 a month in response to his claims that he has no personal means to fund his defence. These assertions are highly controversial both in Liberia and internationally, since Mr Taylor is widely believed to have made substantial personal profits from sales of timber and diamonds during his period in office. Instead, many observers believe that the former president's comments about sufficient defence reflect his nervousness about the trial, which will see the prosecution call in around 150 witnesses. The process is expected to take up to 18 months: indeed, the final verdict is unlikely to be passed before 2010.
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POLITICS
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I know a few Black Republicans who are supporting Ron Paul. This Ron Paul. The bigoted past of Ron Paul.
As early as December 1989, a section of his Investment Letter, titled "What To Expect for the 1990s," predicted that "Racial Violence Will Fill Our Cities" because "mostly black welfare recipients will feel justified in stealing from mostly white 'haves.'" Two months later, a newsletter warned of "The Coming Race War," and, in November 1990, an item advised readers, "If you live in a major city, and can leave, do so. If not, but you can have a rural retreat, for investment and refuge, buy it." In June 1991, an entry on racial disturbances in Washington, DC's Adams Morgan neighborhood was titled, "Animals Take Over the D.C. Zoo." "This is only the first skirmish in the race war of the 1990s," the newsletter predicted. In an October 1992 item about urban crime, the newsletter's author--presumably Paul--wrote, "I've urged everyone in my family to know how to use a gun in self defense. For the animals are coming." That same year, a newsletter described the aftermath of a basketball game in which "blacks poured into the streets of Chicago in celebration. How to celebrate? How else? They broke the windows of stores to loot." The newsletter inveighed against liberals who "want to keep white America from taking action against black crime and welfare," adding, "Jury verdicts, basketball games, and even music are enough to set off black rage, it seems."
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HMMMMMM..... Think before you speak about heros and icons
Civil Rights Tone Prompts Talk of an Endorsement
Representative James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, the highest-ranking African-American in Congress, said he was rethinking his neutral stance in his state’s presidential primary out of disappointment at comments by Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton that he saw as diminishing the historic role of civil rights activists.
Mr. Clyburn, a veteran of the civil rights movement and a power in state Democratic politics, put himself on the sidelines more than a year ago to help secure an early primary for South Carolina, saying he wanted to encourage all candidates to take part. But he said recent remarks by the Clintons that he saw as distorting civil rights history could change his mind.
"We have to be very, very careful about how we speak about that era in American politics," said Mr. Clyburn, who was shaped by his searing experiences as a youth in the segregated South and his own activism in those days. "It is one thing to run a campaign and be respectful of everyone’s motives and actions, and it is something else to denigrate those. That bothered me a great deal."
In an interview with Fox News on Monday, Mrs. Clinton, who was locked in a running exchange with Senator Barack Obama, a rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, over the meaning of the legacies of President John F. Kennedy and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., tried to make a point about presidential leadership.
"Dr. King’s dream began to be realized when President Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964," Mrs. Clinton said in trying to make the case that her experience should mean more to voters than the uplifting words of Mr. Obama. "It took a president to get it done."
Quickly realizing that her comments could draw criticism, Mrs. Clinton returned to the subject at a later stop, recalling how Dr. King was beaten and jailed and how he worked with Johnson to pass the landmark law. Clinton advisers said her first remark had not captured what she meant to convey. And they said she would never detract from a movement that has driven her own public service.
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CULTURE
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What's a little Lynching between friends? The usual apologist are excusing it because the MSM asked "Al Sharpton" what he thought. That's the new defense, do something wrong, ask Sharpton what he thinks, then attack Sharpton not the person who said it.
The Golf Channel suspended anchor Kelly Tilghman for two weeks on Wednesday for saying last week that young players who wanted to challenge Tiger Woods should "lynch him in a back alley."
Tilghman was laughing during the exchange Friday with analyst Nick Faldo at the Mercedes-Benz Championship, and Woods' agent at IMG said he didn't think there was any ill intent.
But the comments became prevalent on news shows Wednesday, and the Rev. Al Sharpton joined the fray by demanding she be fired immediately. Golf Channel didn't know who would replace Tilghman in the booth this week at the Sony Open or next week at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic.
"There is simply no place on our network for offensive language like this," Golf Channel said in a statement.
Tilghman became golf's first female anchor last year when the PGA Tour signed a 15-year deal in which Golf Channel broadcasts the first three events of the year, weekday coverage of all tour events, and full coverage of the Fall Series and opposite-field events.
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MONEY
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I have seen studies that show that Banks will charge different rates to Whites, and Blacks even when they have similar incomes, and education levels. That is why I am keeping an eye out for the results of this case.
Baltimore Sues Wells Fargo for Subprimes
Black neighborhoods in Baltimore were disproportionately affected by the subprime mortgage fallout, according to a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday by the city, which is attempting to recoup the costs of maintaining neighborhoods wracked by foreclosures.
The lawsuit alleges Wells Fargo Bank NA engaged in a pattern of predatory lending practices in Baltimore's poorest neighborhoods, leading to foreclosure rates nearly double the citywide average.
"When you have foreclosures, the property values drop, and you get less tax revenue. There's fire and police costs that come from abandoned and boarded-up and vacant properties," said John P. Relman, a Washington-based attorney who is representing the city in the lawsuit. "It leads to crime and drugs and school problems as the community is being destabilized."
While the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, does not specify compensatory or punitive damages, City Solicitor George Nilson said foreclosures have cost Baltimore tens of millions of dollars.
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Update
this one was to good to keep of the list.
Bill Cosby may be right about African-Americans spending a lot on expensive sneakers—but he's wrong about why.
A few years ago, Bill Cosby set off a firestorm with a speech excoriating his fellow African-Americans for, among other things, buying $500 sneakers instead of educational toys for their children. In a recent book, Come On People, he repeats his argument that black Americans spend too much money on designer clothes and fancy cars, and don't invest sufficiently in their futures.
Many in the black community have been critical of Cosby for blaming poor people rather than poor public policies. Others have defended Cosby's comments as an honest expression of uncomfortable truths. But notably absent from the Cosby affair have been the underlying economic facts. Do blacks actually spend more on consumerist indulgences than whites? And if so, what, exactly, makes black Americans more vulnerable to the allure of these luxury goods?
Economists Kerwin Charles, Erik Hurst, and Nikolai Roussanov have taken up this rather sensitive question in a recent unpublished study, "Conspicuous Consumption and Race." Using data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey for 1986-2002, they find that blacks and Hispanics indeed spend more than whites with comparable incomes on what the authors classify as "visible goods" (clothes, cars, and jewelry). A lot more, in fact—up to an additional 30 percent of their annual income. The authors provide evidence, however, that this is not because of some inherent weakness on the part of blacks and Hispanics. The disparity, they suggest, is related to the way that all people—black, Hispanic, and white—strive for social status within their respective communities.
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LAW
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I'm sure this has been reported in other cases before now. But this is the first time I have read a story on this. I find the implications from this facinating. But it's also a sad commentary on the state of equal justice in this country.
Jurors in a Cape Cod Murder Case Testify About Racial Remarks
More than a year after it convicted a black trash hauler of a shocking murder on Cape Cod, a jury returned to court here Thursday for an extraordinary hearing on whether racism influenced its verdict.
Judge Nickerson questioned 7 of the 14 jurors on Thursday, calling them into the courtroom one at a time and asking whether the issue of race came up during their deliberations. Some of the jurors’ answers contradicted those of others, and many said their memories of the deliberations, which took place in November 2006, were vague.
Most of the testimony Thursday concerned comments that the only black woman on the jury, Roshena Bohanna, said she heard two white jurors make
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Diaries of Note
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'Bout Time by Robinswing
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I don't usual promote my own diary but I'm making an exception. Black Kos, Obama in NH edition by ME
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A Black Woman's Musings on Coffee with Dad, Racism, and Barack Obama by shanikka
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[Updated] No, I'm Not Waiting For White Approval and
No, I'm Not Waiting For White Approval - Part II
by
sephius1
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There was a lot of diaries all dealing with Race and the NH elections. It was hard to pick them all out.
So here they ALL are
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A link to DKOS diaries on the NH and race
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I wish people would stop acting like jack-asses when new writers come to daily kos. This is a perfect example of why it's hard to get more bloggers of color on daily kos.
Jack ass comment by A jack ass user to this story Republicans and Respect for Blacks: Judge Janet King & Marie Corrigan in Atlanta it's why I told the Jack Ass of like this, even though I didn't troll rate the punk. I didn't mainly because I'm slightly violating the rules by calling someone out.
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Sorry to all my readers, I am exhausted from campaigning for Obama in NH so this diary was on the short side This diary ended up not being that short, I found some cool articles this morning, enjoy!