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Friday, July 20, 2012


Man calling himself the Joker kills 12, injures 59 at 'Dark Knight Rises' screening in Aurora, Colorado, authorities say
By Pete Williams and M. Alex Johnson, NBC News
July 20, 2012, 3:41 pm
NBCNews.com
Updated at 5:45 p.m. ET: A graduate student with dyed red or orange hair who told police he was the Joker opened fire in a theater showing the premiere of the latest Batman movie near Denver early Friday, killing 12 people and wounding 59 others, many of them seriously, a law enforcement official told NBC News. 

University of Colorado James Holmes, identified as the suspect in the Colorado shootings, in a photo from the University of Colorado.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed reports that the suspect, identified as James Eagan Holmes, 24, told police in Aurora, Colo., that he was the Joker, a reference to one of the most prominent villains in the Batman canon.
The source told NBC News that the suspect had dyed his hair red or orange, which isn't typically associated with the green-haired Joker character. The character also doesn't appear in the newest movie, "The Dark Knight Rises," one of the most eagerly awaited films of the year.
Holmes also told police that his apartment had been booby-trapped. When investigators arrived, they peered in through a window from a hook-and-ladder truck and discovered numerous bottles containing an unknown liquid, fire officials said. The bottles were connected to wires.
"It's nothing I've ever seen before," said Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates, who said the area was evacuated and that police were expected to remain on the scene "for hours or days."
Authorities still hadn't entered the apartment late Friday afternoon. They were examining photographs of the scene to figure out how to deal with the materials. 
Holmes, a graduate student from San Diego who was in the process of withdrawing from the neuroscience program at University of Colorado-Denver medical school, put up no resistance when he was arrested in a parking lot at the theater, police said. He retained legal counsel and wasn't answering investigators' questions, police said.

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Witnesses describe what they saw at the theater in Aurora, Colo.

"We are confident he acted alone," Oates said of Holmes, who was scheduled to appear in court Monday morning to face unspecified charges. Authorities refused to speculate on his possible motive.
The victims, who were being treated in six hospitals, included a 6-year-old child. A 4-month-old baby also was treated and released. The oldest reported patient was 45.
One of those killed was Jessica Ghawi, a sportswriter who survived a June 2 mass shooting at a mall in Toronto in which two people were killed and seven others were injured. Ghawi blogged under the name Jessica Redfield.
Defense officials told NBC News that a sailor at Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora was missing and presumed to have been killed. A second sailor and two airmen from Buckley were also shot. Their identities and conditions weren't available. 
Authorities said the gunman appeared at the front of the theater at 12:39 a.m., about 20 minutes into the film, and released two canisters of gas. Witnesses told reporters that the gunfire erupted during a shootout scene. Authorities responded within a minute and a half, Oates said.
'Mass chaos'
"It was mass chaos," witness Jennifer Seeger told TODAY. The gunman shot the ceiling and then "he threw in the gas can, and then I knew it was real."
Witnesses said the gunman entered the Century 16 Movie Theaters at Aurora Town Center through an emergency exit door. But a federal law enforcement official told The Associated Press that the suspect bought a ticket and went in as part of the crowd. He is believed to have propped open an exit door as the movie was playing, the official said.

Watch live video from KUSA
Aurora is a suburb less than 10 miles east of downtown Denver and just 15 miles northeast of Littleton, scene what had been the worst mass shooting in Colorado: the Columbine High School massacre on April 20, 1999, when two gunmen killed 12 fellow students and a teacher and wounded 26 other people before killing themselves.
Tune in Friday night to NBC News to watch a "Dateline NBC" special on the shootings in Colorado. Ann Curry will report live from Aurora at 9 p.m. ET.
The suspect was found in possession of a helmet, a gas mask, a tactical vest, throat and groin protectors and black tactical gloves, authorities said. 
Oates said the gunman had four weapons: two 40-caliber Glock handguns, a Remington 870 single-barrel pump shotgun and a Smith & Wesson AR-15 assault-style rifle. Three of the weapons were found in the suspect's white Hyundai parked at the back entrance to the theater; one of the handguns was found in the theater.
Law enforcement officials told NBC News that the weapons were legally bought from local stores of two national chains — Gander Mountain Guns and Bass Pro Shop — beginning in May.

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Former FBI profiler Clint Van Zandt tells Daily Rundown's Chuck Todd "this was a pre-planned event."

Oates didn't say what kind of magazines were used, but he said "many, many rounds were fired." Some rounds penetrated an adjoining theater and injured at least one person, he said.
Police name alleged gunman in Colorado theater shooting
James Yacone, the FBI's agent in charge in Denver, said there was no early indication of a link to terrorism. Holmes wasn't on any federal law enforcement watch lists, authorities told NBC News, and Oates said he had no police record beyond a speeding ticket last year.
In his apartment rental application early last year, Holmes described himself as a "quiet and easy-going" student. A pharmacy student who lives in the building, which is reserved for students, faculty and staff of the medical campus, said he kept to himself.
Experts: Mass killers usually seeking revenge
"No one knew him. No one," the man, who asked to be identified only as "Ben," told The Denver Post.
The University of California-Riverside confirmed that a man named James Holmes graduated from the university with a degree in neuroscience in 2010. His last known address was in San Diego, it said.

The Poway United School District told NBC News that Holmes attended Westview High School in San Diego, graduating in 2006.
'Pain and grief ... too intense for words'
Gov. John Hickenlooper said at a news conference that "our hearts are broken as we think of the friends and family of the victims of this senseless tragedy." He called the shootings "the act of an apparently very deranged mind."
"The pain and grief (are) too intense for words, but we can't let it keep us from our lives," Hickenlooper said. "We are going to come back stronger from this, but it is obviously going to be a very long process."
President Barack Obama cut short a campaign visit to Florida to return to Washington ahead of schedule.
He called for reflection after the attack. "There are going to be other days for politics," Obama said during an abbreviated appearance in Fort Myers, where he led a moment of silence on behalf of the victims and their families.
More on this story from breakingnews.com
At a campaign appearance in Bow, N.H., Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney said:
"Today is to remember and reach out and remember our blessings in life. Each of us will hold family close and spend a little less time thinking about worries of day and helping those in need of compassion."
'We need to go' Moviegoers described scenes of chaos and terror inside the movie theater. Tanner Coon, who was in the theater with a friend and the friend's 12-year-old brother when the shooter came in, said he told them to "get down" when he heard the gunshots.


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Tanner Coon, 17, describes seeing flashes of gunfire, which he thought were fireworks, amid the chaos of trying to escape the shooting as he was "trying to calm" his friend's 12-year-old brother.

The shooter fired off about 20 rounds and there was then a pause and a "period of quietness when everybody started running out," Coon said.
"I slipped on some blood and landed on a lady. I shook her and said, 'We need to go.' There was no response, so I presume she was dead," Coon said.
At least three people had been treated for chemical exposure, KUSA reported.
Colorado shooting survivor: 'He pointed the gun right at me'
PhotoBlog: More images from the scene of the shooting in Aurora
Further local coverage from KUSA
Paris premiere canceled
Reviewers of "The Dark Knight Rises," the third installment of the Batman franchise, have noted its dark, anxiety-fueled themes, which reminded some of the atmosphere in the days after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. It had been one of the most eagerly awaited films of the year, and theaters around the world began showing it at 12:01 a.m. Friday.
Warner Bros. canceled the Paris premiere, which was scheduled for Friday evening.
"Warner Bros. and the filmmakers are deeply saddened to learn about this shocking incident. We extend our sincere sympathies to the families and loved ones of the victims at this tragic time," it said in a statement.
Chris Dodd, chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America, said in a statement:
"We share the shock and sadness of everyone in the motion picture community at the news of this terrible event. We extend our prayers and deepest sympathies to the victims, their loved ones and all those affected by this tragedy."
F. Brinley Bruton, Kristen Dahlgren, Jay Gray, Charles Greene, Garrett Haake, Ian Johnston, Zoya Khan, Jim Miklaszewski, Daniel Strieff, Shawna Thomas, David Wyllie and Edgar Zuniga of NBC News and NBC stations KUSA of Denver and KNSD of San Diego contributed to this report.
Related content from NBCNews.com:
  • Theater shooter believed to be ex-graduate student at Colorado medical school
  • Police: 'Sophisticated' booby-trap in Colorado shooting suspect's apartment
  • Woman who died in Colo. movie rampage narrowly escaped being shot last month
  • Witnesses react online to 'Dark Knight' theater shooting

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Marriage Equality Will Not Hurt Obama Among Black Voters At All


MAY 14 2012, 4:06 PM ET


The opinions of whites largely reflect the population as a whole: 49% say Obama's expression of support for gay marriage did not alter their opinion of the president. Among those who say it did, somewhat more say it made their view of him less favorable than more (29% vs. 20%). 

Most African Americans, on the other hand, say the announcement did not alter their opinion of Obama. About twothirds (68%) say this, while about as many say it made them view Obama more favorably (16%) as less favorably (13%).

I think Obama ultimately will lose roughly seven or eight votes because of his stand on marriage equality. As I said on Twitter, I think about two of those votes will be black people who claimed to support Obama, but never really did.


4-25-12 #8

There's also the data cited above. As of April, the gap between African-Americans and white support for gay marriage was eight points (39 percent of African-Americans support, while 47 percent of white support.)  The gap between the same groups in terms of opposition was four points (47 percent of blacks oppose and 43 percent of whites opposed.) 

This not strike me as the kind of yawning gulf which could sever Obama from his base. I would go further. Given black America's particular characteristics--more Southern, more culturally conservative, and more religious--focusing on "race" as the defining difference seems like a bad idea. 

It also isn't a very forward-thinking one:

Since 2008, the proportion of African Americans favoring gay marriage has increased from 26% to 39%, while opposition has fallen from 63% to 49%.

Finally it's worth considering what happened the last time someone attempted to turn homophobia into a decisive election issue among a black electorate:

In future races, religious people are going to start going after people's political careers," Jackson, the head of Stand4MarriageDC, told U.S. News and World Report. "You're going to see a bloodletting that is going to mark a new style of engagement for people who are against same-sex marriage." Jackson's was no idle threat. 

Stand4MarriageDC is backed by the National Organization for Marriage. NOM's president, Brian Brown, serves as Stand4MarriageDC's treasurer. In the past two years, NOM has successfully exploited local backlashes against advances in gay rights. In Maine, NOM worked to secure a ballot initiative to outlaw same-sex marriage. 

In New York, it helped torpedo the nomination of moderate, marriage-equality-supporting Republican Dede Scozzafava, which left the contest to two candidates who both opposed same-sex-marriage rights. It aided in the passage of Proposition 8, the California ballot initiative that banned same-sex marriage in the same election that sent Barack Obama to the White House. 

The California victory was initially pinned on the increased turnout of black voters, so on paper, it's easy to see why NOM might have seen Washington, D.C. -- which is more than 50 percent African American -- as the site of another potential victory. Last night's primary election was the time to make good on Jackson's threat. 

But in the nine months since, there's been a lot of cash spent with little blood spilled. According to filings with D.C.'s Office of Campaign Finance, NOM has spent around $140,000 opposing pro-equality candidates in Washington, D.C., all of whom won last night or were defeated by other pro-equality candidates.

If marriage equality opponents can't even throttle a city councilmember, what evidence is there that they would actually be able to touch the first black president? Marshaling support for a homophobic ballot initiative is very different than using homophobia to hurt a presidential candidate. People elect presidents for a variety of reasons. Banning marriage equality, not so much.
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Urban League State of Black America-2012 Report: Black Equality Relies on the Vote

by Zenitha Prince
Special to the AFRO  Originally published March 09, 2012

    (Courtesy Image)

It’s as if time has stood still—decades after civil rights leaders and lawmakers secured the right to vote freely, African Americans are fighting the same old battles at the polls, according to the latest edition of a major annual report.

Voting rights remain the biggest issue facing Black America today, according to the National Urban League’s “The State of Black America 2012: Occupy the Vote to Educate, Employ and Empower” report.

“More than the economy, more than jobs, more than an excellent education for all children, the single issue that arguably stands to have the greatest impact on the future of Black America in 2012 is the vote,” National Urban League President and CEO Marc Morial wrote in his introduction.

Several states over the last few years have claimed incidents of voter fraud and use them to attempt to impose restrictions on voting. In 2012 alone, according to the report, 34 states attempted to pass legislation that would require a government-issued photo ID, shorten voting hours, curtail early voting, and/or impose penalties limiting the registration process. So far, laws were passed in 14 states with 26 still pending.

“The voting rights of colored people are under attack,” the Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., president of the Hip Hop Caucus, said in his essay. “The outcry today is lackluster, however, because people don’t even know it’s happening.”

The impediments to voting may be a factor in the outcome of the report’s central feature, the Equality Index of Black America, which stands at 71.5 percent compared to last year’s 71.4 percent. The index measures Black attainment compared to Whites across five major categories.

The area of least parity was economics (56.3 percent), followed by social justice (56.8 percent), health (76.5 percent), education (79.7 percent) and civic engagement (98.3 percent).

Civic engagement is usually an area where Black equality exceeds that of White America, but the number fell below 100 percent this year because of a trend toward low voter registration and voting in non-presidential elections. Social justice parity also decreased because of rise in the number of Black drivers who were stopped by police compared to Whites. And economic parity continued its downward decline, driven by a worsening of the poverty rate, homeownership, educational attainment, and school enrollment.

“It’s no coincidence that a nationwide rollback in voting rights for America’s most vulnerable citizens is happening just as elected officials mount unprecedented campaign to slash investments in education and economic development. [But] keeping the nation on a path to economic recovery and equality requires the full participation of every citizen,” Morial said.

“If we are to address the challenges facing those served by the National Urban League, we must start with the vote,” he added. “We must fight voter suppression, we must educate citizens so that new laws won’t catch them unaware on Election Day, and we must empower them to get to the polls.”

To read the report, visit: www.iamempowered.com/node/23900
Cannot embed report, can read it here
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Brainwashed Blacks on the Democrat's plantation?

Obama
One of the main, political criticisms of African-Americans is the conventional wisdom that approximately about 90% of the entire Black vote routinely goes in favor of the Democratic Party, and that didn’t just start with the emergence of Barack Obama the candidate. Nevertheless, the argument could be made that there is significantly more left wing, pro-Black, anti-Democratic Party chatter now than there has been in a very long time. African-Americans in general loved President Bill Clinton back during the 1990’s, and it certainly does not strike my recollection that there was nearly as much overt negativity towards the Democratic Party being initiated then, specifically by other non-conservative, Black, leadership voices.
Usually the only real, boisterous complaints over the consistent, Black, voting block of the Democratic Party was distributed by conservatives/Republicans. Recently, Congressman Allen West and former, presidential nominee Herman Cain voiced their extreme displeasure at the African-American community’s loyalty to the Democratic Party. On Bill O’Reilly’s show the Factor,West told Laura Ingram that there is ‘this 21st century plantation that’s been out there, where the Democrat Party has forever taken the Black vote for granite, and you have established certain Black leaders who are nothing more than the overseers of that plantation.’ And then, there is Cain who said: “I left the Democrat plantation a long time ago!” He also said that over half of all Black voters have been brainwashed into supporting the Democratic Party, because not enough Blacks are thinking for themselves.
Now enter Rob Redding the Independent of the Redding News Review, who has made it a point to use his radio show and books that he has written like Where’s The Change? to voice almost the precise ideology of Cain and West—the ideology that more than suggests that too many African-Americans are indeed running around the Democratic Party’s plantation brainwashed.
So if you really want to break it down to the unabashed minimum, here is the bottom line to what is being said about President Obama and the Democrats, once you combine the comments of West, Cain and Redding. Basically the argument is suggesting that unbeknownst to many of the brainwashed, Black slaves who willingly and happily put on and keep on the Democratic Party shackles, somewhere off in the distance of the great, racist, American plain there is this huge, antebellum plantation, which is now owned by the Clintons, and their top overseer is this housenegro named Barack Obama, who is just light-skinned enough to pass the ‘paper bag test’, and it is his job to keep the field negroes pacified with welfare wine, cognitively immobile, and apathetically opposed to real change.
Now all of that sounds very harsh, but there is no other way to put it in simple enough terms where the real point is visible enough for all to see and consume. With statements like Senator HarryReid’s words when he described Obama as a "light-skinned, African-American who didn't have a ‘Negro dialect’, unless he wanted to have one," and Joe Biden’s statement when he described Obama by saying: “I mean, you got the first mainstream African American [Barack Obama] who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice looking guy," it is demonstrably apparent that there is some level of racism in both political parties and in all parties, and that’s the ugly truth.
And while two wrongs don’t make a right, it’s also true that all wrongs are not created or manifested equally. If the Democrats have truly failed the Black community, then the conservative/Republican/Tea Party brand has not only failed the Black community, but it has totally abandoned it, which brings me to my question for Rob Redding as to where politically the Black community can or should go?
Now I understand the points of Herman Cain, Allen West and Rob Redding of keeping the door open to exploring other options, and I agree wholly. By all means, check out the Republican Party, check out the Tea Party, check out the Green Party, check out the Libertarian Party, check out the Realacrat Party, or even the New Black Panther Party.
I watch Fox News everyday, and I learn about the other parties regularly. There is nothing wrong with shopping around, but there are only so many aisles in the store. So before we romp too hard on the narrative of the brainwashed Blacks who are too stupid to come in out of the Democratic downpour of pacification rain, I personally would like to lay some of the blame on the wretched state of our political, choice selections.
Speaking as a former Democrat, although I would never tell anyone to get off of the plantation, it is my opinion that if any of these other parties would sincerely put forth the effort needed to offer a real selection to the Black community, maybe the Black, Democratic trend would change. But during my days as a Democrat, none of the other parties ever showed me much of anything—not the Libertarian Party and certainly not the Republican Party or the Tea Party! What these other parties should try to understand is this. You can’t really recruit the Black community from the safety or the comfort zones of the non-Black community, and that goes for boots on the ground and policies!
It just seems like telling African-Americans to get off of the ‘Democratic Plantation’ can be easily misleading, because it can give the misguided impression that the other plantation right across the street from it is supposedly better, when clearly it is not. What we as the people of this country should do is tell whichever party that is in control that if our needs continue to be thrown on the backburner for the top 1%, big corporations, domestic and abroad; and big money, foreign players; we will start our own party—a people’s party and finance our candidates with our money—no corporate or foreign money allowed. Win, lose or draw; at least we would be sending a clear message to the pied pipers about how tired we are of dancing to their antiquated tunes of ‘one more chance—we’ll get it right this time!’
If we could find a candidate gutsy enough to run with it, and if we could find the political will to get behind it, we might finally be able to do some actual damage to the systemic corruption of politics overall, from Washington D.C. to your home state and even in your hometown!
But until then, people can get off of the ‘Democratic Plantation’ all they want, but they’ll just be switching one plantation for another plantation. And compared to President Bush 43’s plantation, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer’s plantation, Florida Governor Rick Scott’s plantation, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s plantation, or former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour’s plantation, the ‘Democratic Plantation’ is not necessarily the worst that you can do. Consider this. If it took centuries for the Democratic 'Plantation' Party to finally muster up enough conviction to put an African-American/non-White candidate at the top of the presidential ticket for the first time in American history and then push that non-White candidate into the White House, what does that say about the convictions of the other parties that are still yet to do it? Doesn't the Democratic Party deserve some credit, if not all of the credit for that?
So as Rob Redding did admit on his radio show recently, right now and only for right now his bestinterests, along with my best interests, lie squarely with President Obama and the Democrats, but this doesn’t mean that either Rob or myself are going back to the exclusivity of the Democratic Party.
For me, it just means that I will swim through high water, jump across high fences, and kick through high weeds just to cast my ballot against the conservative ideology as a whole. And if there just happens to be a Democrat standing right beside me doing the same thing on what many will label as the ‘Democratic Plantation,’ then so be it. When it comes to thwarting the not so subtle, Jim Crow, racism of conservatism, the end justifies the means! Even a brainwashed Black is smart enough to figure that out. Democrats might not always be the best, but conservatives are almost always the worst, and until that dynamic changes my vote and the votes of most African-Americans will probably continue to lean heavily towards the Democrats.

Black GOP
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Obama fights back against war on women with new video

March 30, 2012


After conservative state legislatures across the country proposed bills this month that restrict the contraceptive freedoms of American women, it’s no surprise that Obama is polling well among women. And Mitt Romney’s nonchalant comment that he would “get rid of” Planned Parenthood if elected, (which actually isn’t possible since it’s privately owned), shows just how out of touch with the female demographic the GOP remains.
The Pew Research Center reported this month that Obama led Romney by 20 points (58 percent to 38 percent) and that 61 percent of women said they would choose Obama over Santorum. In fact, the percentage of women voting Democratically has steadily risen over the last 30 years. With such a focus on issues directly related to women’s health, it will be no surprise if those figures continue to rise. On the heels of releasing this graphic depicting the disparity in health care costs between men and women, the president released the video below reiterating his commitment to giving women the freedom to make their own health care decisions, and to ensuring important women’s health services. Watch it here:
In ‘The War Room’ we’ve covered the war on women extensively. Below you’ll find some great moments from the show, which focus on on a range of key issues that have pushed women, their health and their freedom to the forefront of the political debate.
Fired Up! Republicans are taking the country back … in time
Do Republicans want to take the country back — or do they want to take it back in time? Jennifer Granholm takes on the latest battle in the ‘War on Women’ with a look at life in America decades ago, in a black and white era where women’s rights were few and far between.
Health care is the key to women voters, and to whether women vote at all
Pollster Celinda Lake delves into how unmarried women may vote in the upcoming election – and whether they will vote at all. She tells Jennifer Granholm the health care issue will make a big difference to women voters: “They now realize that these political choices matter.”
More of our coverage of the war on women:
  1. Fired Up! GOP must stop their war on women, focus on job creation. Watch it here.
  2. Outrage moves ‘troops’ fighting against the war on women. Watch it here.
  3. Call to Action: Raise your voice against Rush. Watch it here.
  4. Christine Pelosi on Romney’s Planned Parenthood attack: ‘If you don’t respect us, don’t expect us.’ Watch it here.
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House Members Seek National Security Answers from Inspectors General 


Washington, Jun 13 - 
Today, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (MN-06) and Congressmen Trent Franks (AZ-02), Louie Gohmert (TX-01), Tom Rooney (FL-16) and Lynn Westmoreland (GA-03) sent letters to the Inspectors General of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice and the Department of State. These letters seek answers about the U.S. government’s involvement with the Muslim Brotherhood, a group that calls for "civilization jihad."

In the letter, Bachmann, Franks, Gohmert, Rooney and Westmoreland questioned the Inspectors General about the direct influence within the intelligence community of Muslim Brotherhood operatives. They explained that the U.S. government in federal court has established that the group’s mission in the U.S. is "destroying the Western civilization from within." The members went on to request that the respective offices of the Inspectors General conduct a formal investigation or evaluation of the extent to which Muslim Brotherhood-tied individuals or entities are involved.

"The national security of our country depends on getting straight answers from the Inspectors General to the questions we posed in these letters," said Bachmann. "The Muslim Brotherhood is not shy about their call for jihad against the United States. We seek answers through these letters because we will not tolerate this group and its affiliates holding positions of power in our government or influencing our nation’s leaders."

"Evidence indicates that this administration continues to bow before groups associated with the goal of ‘destroying Western civilization from within,’ and about whom the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has found that there is plenty of evidence indicating that they support terrorism," said Gohmert. "For departments of this administration to continue meeting with such groups and agreeing to further blind our government agents charged with looking for enemies wanting to destroy us is at best foolhardy. At a minimum, we need an independent inspection regarding the role, the roots and the results of such destructive groups within this administration. Our enemies have been identified; now we need to know what they have done to our ability to protect ourselves."

"The Muslim Brotherhood openly calls for violence against the United States, but we’re learning that this organization may be infiltrating our ranks, even within our military," said Rooney. "We need our top security agencies to investigate thoroughly the degree to which members of this organization are active in our defense and intelligence communities, and what impact that has on our national security."

"We must always stay vigilant when fighting against those who want to destroy our way of life," said Westmoreland. "The Muslim Brotherhood may not have the name recognition of al-Qaeda or the Taliban, but that does not mean they don't have the potential to be just as deadly. I'm hoping these letters will send the message to our country's intelligence, law enforcement and diplomatic agencies that we cannot ignore the Muslim Brotherhood and must look into their operations and membership with the seriousness that is necessary in order to root them out of our government."

Founded in 1928, the Muslim Brotherhood’s motto reads, "Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. The Qur'an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope."

Signers of the letter serve on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (Bachmann, Rooney and Westmoreland), the Armed Services Committee (Franks and Rooney) and the Judiciary Committee (Franks and Gohmert). Additionally, Gohmert is the Vice Chair of the Judiciary subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security.



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The State of Black America 2012

BY NISA ISLAM MUHAMMAD -STAFF WRITER- | LAST UPDATED: MAR 15, 2012 - 12:01:53 PM

NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE Mar 7 2012
2012 State of Black America Report: Occupy the Vote to Educate, Employ & Empower Release of report followed by a town hall conversation with commentators and students. Welcome: Dr. Sidney Ribeau Howard University President Speakers: Janet Murguia President and CEO of the National Council of La Raza Benjamin Jealous President and Chief Executive Officer of the NAACP Marc Morial National Urban League President & CEO Panel: Keli Goff blogger, author and political analyst Kevin Powell activist, writer, public speaker, Nolan Rollins President & CEO, Urban League of Greater New Orleans Warren Ballentine attorney, host of the Warren Ballentine Show, motivational speaker Lennox Yearwood President and CEO of the Hip Hop Caucus MODERATORS Marc Morial National Urban League President & CEO Jeff Johnson journalist, social activist and political commentator 7-9p Howard University Crampton Hall 2455 Sixth Street, NW For more information: http://www.nul.org/ http://www.iamempowered.com/


WASHINGTON (FinalCall.com) - The state of Black America is simple according to the National Urban League president and CEO Marc Morial: “It’s under attack.”
morial2012.jpg
Marc H. Morial, Urban League
The civil rights organization’s latest annual report details areas of Black life and most pressing concerns for 2012. Along with the economy, jobs, and education for all children, the major issue for this year is the vote. Thus the name of this year’s State of Black America report, “Occupy the Vote to Educate, Employ and Empower.”
“It’s no coincidence that a nationwide rollback in voting rights for America’s most vulnerable citizens is happening just as elected officials mount unprecedented campaigns to slash investments in education and economic development,” said Mr. Morial.
“As the nation struggles toward a financial recovery, public investments in education, job training and job growth are more vital than ever. Yet those very investments are targeted for sacrifice in favor of diverting more and more of the nation’s resources to those at the very top of the economic pyramid.”
“At the same time, a coordinated effort is underway to exclude from the political process the very citizens whose futures hang in the balance,” he said.
The Urban League took the report public in a March 7 town hall meeting, webcast live and covered by CSPAN at Howard University. It was moderated by Mr. Morial and award-winning journalist Jeff Johnson.
Students, community members and Urban League professionals engaged a panel of leaders and economic experts including activist and writer Kevin Powell, radio host Warren Ballentine, Chanelle Hardy of the National Urban League Policy Institute; Nolan Rollins, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater New Orleans; Leslie Fenwick, Ph.D., dean of the Howard University School of Education and author and political analyst Kelli Goff.
Voter Rights
NAACP head Benjamin Jealous connected the high rates of incarceration for Blacks and Latinos with voter suppression.
“Blacks and Latinos are disproportionately incarcerated even though they are not disproportionately more likely to commit crimes,” he said. “In 1906 Virginia enacted a law that said ex-felons can’t vote. The law was racist then and the law is racist now.”
“Florida enacted a law that pushed 500,000 people off the (voter) rolls. They were mostly Black and Brown.”
black_amerc_mhm_speaks.jpg
Artwork from the Muhammad Speaks Newspaper shows dejected Blacks exiting closed American factories, an image presented in the 1960s fulfilled today.
'This is our lunch counter moment. If we don’t get it right, it will have catastrophic consequences in the next 10 years.'
—Rev. Lennox Yearwood, president and CEO of the Hip Hop Caucus

Melanie Campbell, of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, said Americans are witnessing the largest voting rights assault since passage of the Voting Rights Act.
The report includes two articles that detail the assault on voter rights—“Minority Voter Participation: Reviving Past and Present Barriers to the Polls” by Rep. Bobby C. Scott and “The Rise and Fall and Rise Again of Jim Crow Laws” by Rev. Lennox Yearwood, president and CEO of the Hip Hop Caucus.
“This is our lunch counter moment. If we don’t get it right, it will have catastrophic consequences in the next 10 years,” said Rev. Yearwood.
Defense of the right to vote remains critical as legislation that would require a government-issued photo ID, shorten voting hours, curtail early voting, and/or impose absurd penalties limiting the registration process is pending in 27 states, said analysts.
Education
“Young people today have not had access to African American teachers as generations before. They’ve missed the models of intellectual authorities,” said Dr. Fenwick. “Seventy-three percent of inner city teachers are White … the majority of public school children are Black and Latino.”
She explained that the children have little if any access to diverse teachers and said there is a need for Black educational leadership. Research shows Black students with Black teachers are less likely to be targeted for special education, less likely to be suspended and less likely to be expelled. They are also more likely to be targeted for gifted and talented programs, said experts.
The report includes articles by Dr. Steve Perry, “Real Reform is Getting Kids One Step Closer to Quality Schools” and “Sacrifice If You Must-The Reward is Clear” by Gregory Carr, Ph.D. and J.D.
“The current challenges facing American higher education places students from Black, Brown and poor communities at a crossroads nearly 60 years since the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision,” wrote Dr. Carr.
“Faced with the prospect of taking on mounting post- secondary debt but seemingly facing uncertain prospects of employment with only a high school diploma, many of these students ask themselves, should I go to college?”
His answer is an unequivocal, “Yes.”
“The fight to fund schools equally, make college tuition affordable, economically revitalize impoverished communities, or to continue to improve access to affordable health care for all Americans will not be won without increased civic participation,” Mr. Morial commented.
The State of Black America report, issued annually by the National Urban League since 1976, includes an “Equality Index,” which compares Black and Latino progress to White Americans on issues such as income, homeownership, health insurance and education.
The 2012 National Urban League Equality Index documents significantly reduced minority voter registration and voter participation in the 2010 mid-term elections. This lost ground in civic engagement offset modest gains in education and health.
For Blacks, this resulted in an essentially unchanged 2012 Equality Index of 71.5 percent and for Latinos, a decline from 76.7 percent in 2011 to 76.1 percent in 2012.
Jeff Johnson of BET fame encouraged the panel to offer solutions.
“Change some of the ways we describe our situation,” offered Mr. Powell. “We have to have a level of compassion for our people …We’ve abandoned the masses of our people. We must challenge our people with love.”
“Find something to be engaged in. We all have a responsibility. … You are a leader. You have a responsibility to go to communities and show people how to be. Change the direction of the conversation, create institutions and be accessible. Love the people.”
Start an economic movement, said nationally syndicated radio host Warren Ballentine. “Open accounts in Black banks. The government won’t save us. The only ones who will save us is us.”

State of Black America Report  Mar 10, 2012


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C-SPAN | Washington Journal
Marc Morial discussed the findings of the National Urban League's State of Black America report and what it means for the U.S. socially, politically, and economically. He responded to telephone calls and electronic communications. Topics included the recent new voting identification state laws in various states, and the 2012 elections,  





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BACHMANN HITS BACK AT CRITICS REGARDING HER LETTER ABOUT MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD AND ITS U.S. TENTACLES

Michele Bachmann refuses to back down from her criticism of the Muslim Brotherhood and its tentacles within the United States. The congresswoman from Minnesota joined Glenn Beck on radio Thursday morning and continued to herald the warning about the Brotherhood. She also hit back at her critics, who have panned her for a letter she sent last Friday to the Inspectors General of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
“After the Fort Hood tragedy, a report was issued that said the real problem in our government is that we are not teaching FBI agents or our military to recognize radical Islam.  So that’s what we need to do,” Bachmann told Beck. “We need to teach about it.”
But recent developments — such as taking such curriculum from training programs — has made that nearly impossible. That prompted her to write the letter with four other members of Congress. And it hasn’t been welcomed.
Michele Bachmann Responds to Critics Over Muslim Brotherhood
Michele Bachmann (Getty Images)
“Never before in the history of the country have we seen this level of leaks coming out, but at the same time there’s also a parallel track of influence from the Muslim Brotherhood in the highest levels of the federal government, and we think that we need to get answers to these questions,” Bachmann said in the interview.  “And that’s the purpose of our letters.  We’re asking that the inspectors general answer these questions, and Keith Ellison is trying to shut this, these questions down from getting addressed.”
Ellison, Bachmann’s fellow Rep. from Minnesota, has called Bachmann’s inquiry “nonsense.”
Bachmann also responded to those such as John McCain who have criticized her for raising questions about the wife of disgraced Rep. Anthony Weiner, Huma Abedin. Abedin is a top aide to Hillary Clinton, but she has family ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.
“She is the chief aid for the ‑‑ to the Secretary of State, and we quoted from a document, and this has been well reported all across Arab media, that her father ‑‑ her late father who’s now deceased was a part of the Muslim Brotherhood, Bachmann explained. She continued:
Her brother was a part of the Muslim Brotherhood, and her mother was a part of what’s called the Muslim Sisterhood.  It would be, we have requirements to get a high level security clearance.  One thing that the government looks at are your associations, and in particular your family associations.  And this applies to everyone.  It would be the same that is true with me.  If my family members were associated with Hamas, a terrorist organization, that alone could be sufficient to disqualify me from getting a security clearance.  So all we did is ask, did the federal government look into her family associations before she got a high level security clearance.
“And it’s not an unreasonable thing to ask seeing that this president and this administration has ‑‑ didn’t know ‑‑ apparently didn’t know that Van Jones was the founding ‑‑ one of the founding members of a radical revolutionary, anti‑American, Communist organization, and he’s in the White House,” Beck responded.
“But you’re not saying that she is compromised?  he asked later. “You’re saying have we looked into this, right?”
“That’s right,” she responded. “That‘s all we’re saying because we did not infer that she is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood or that she’s working on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood.”
You might be wondering: What is all this Muslim Brotherhood stuff about? Luckily, we have you covered. In April, Beck aired an extensive documentary that detailed the Muslim Brotherhood’s influence in America. It was called “Rumors of War III: Target U.S.” You can read up on the background in our extensive piece here. TheBlaze’s national security expert, Buck Sexton, alsooffers some background:
As ROW III shows, the problem starts with America’s current conception of the radical Islamist enemy, stretches up to the most senior reaches of government, and has allowed a number of strategic– some even say existential– threats to magnify against the United States and its citizens.
Rumors of War III makes the case that international Islamist organizations have learned to thrive in the United States as part of a coordinated Psychological Operation. Hardline Islamist groups– including Muslim Brotherhood affiliates and their mouthpieces in the western media– have learned to code their language and make arguments about the intent of groups like the Muslim Brotherhood that are seemingly palatable to the average American.
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[...] [T]hose on the front lines of combating Islamic terrorism are increasingly unable to be frank in their analysis or open with their conclusions. Somewhere along the way, a series of highly-placed advisers to the White House, Department of Defense, and other crucial government agencies have apparently convinced senior U.S. leadership that the mere discussion of radical Islam is inherently an offense to all people of Islamic faith.
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You can watch the full documentary by signing up for GBTV here.
This is a breaking story. Updates will be added.
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