Immigration

Overpopulation Alarmists Join the Fear Party

Written by Jill Garvey

Along with astroturfing town hall protests, another topic tinged with extremism is weaving fear into mainstream media. Making the rounds on the conglomerate news networks is a study by a pair of Oregon State University statisticians titled Reproduction and the carbon legacies of individuals. In a nutshell it explains to Americans that the best way to be environmentally friendly is to have less children. And population alarmist groups are eating it up.

The general premise of the study is that each human being has a carbon footprint and eliminating this footprint is a significant way to combat environmental problems. Population… Read more

Immigration

White Hot: The Health Care and Immigration Debacle

Written by Rev. David L. Ostendorf

While not as crude as the raucous Rushian rabble with their swastika placards at town hall actions, serious white nationalists are unfolding their three-for-one strategy to derail health care and immigration reform, and the Obama Administration itself. In light of the tepid response of Administration and Congressional reformists to the health care debacle, the possibility of more setbacks on all fronts grows by the day: to wit, the President’s announcement this week that immigration reform will see action “when we come back next year.”

When Members of the U.S. House of Representatives lamely cut and run in the face of “angry crowds” screaming about the alleged repeal of Medicare, forced euthanasia of… Read more

News

Racial Profiling – Not Just for Middle-aged Elite University Professors Any More!

Written by Guest Blogger

By Andrew Grant-Thomas

Exhibit 1:

Florida kindergartner (African American) acts up in class (kicking, scratching). School officials call the police, wisely concluding that dozens of adults can avail little against the unleashed fury of a six year-old.

Arriving in the nick of time, law enforcement officers cuff the pint-sized perpetrator around the forearms, her wrists being too small for the cuffs (is there no end to her villainy!). They put her in a police cruiser. Somber-faced adults stand about, tsk-tsking.

Politics

Sotomayor, Birthers, and the Rise of White Nationalism

Written by Eric Ward

Remember Y2K? The whole country was going to be plunged into barbarism because of a simple computer glitch. Millions of ordinary Americans stockpiled water and food in their basements and stayed home on New Year’s Eve shaking in fear.

It was December 1999 and there were four days left in the year. Phone calls from journalists just wouldn’t stop and they all wanted to know the same thing. “Would hate groups attempt to terrorize communities on Y2K?”

It was during a time when the Aryan Nations was attempting to establish a white nationalist homeland in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming- an idea they labeled the Northwest Imperative. I was part of a coalition… Read more

That 1 Guy Reviewed

Written by Guest Blogger

by Tif Harrison

I don’t listen to jam bands. I have been known to attend a festival, or two, where jam bands played but my motive to go was never the music. You can imagine the height of my expectations as I walked into the back room of Schuba’s to catch that1guy. I listened to a few tracks from that1guy’s newest album, but could not make it through any of the songs. As the crowd of fans began to file in, I took a deep breath, found a spot on the wall and waited.

Mike Silverman is shorter than I expected. Or maybe the giant steel pipe he plays dwarfs him. When he unveiled… Read more

Politics

Venezuela’s President Silences TV and Radio

Written by Katie Bezrouch

Back in 2006 Hugo Chávez began to intimidate the private media industry in Venezuela. Last week, he started to follow through with his threats and implement closure tactics.

In ’06 the Venezuelan president said he would not renew the license for the Radio Caracas Television which he said expired in March 2007. The head of RCT – the county’s second largest media company – insisted it must be an error, as its license was not up for renewal in the near future. Then in 2007, “The same month that RCTV’s license expired, also expired the broadcasting licenses to Venevision, VTVChávez supporter station), among other stations, but the only one not… Read more

Illinois University Scandal Continues

Written by Amy Spicer

The president of a major university is refusing to step down amid corruption scandal. University of Illinois President B. Joseph White announced today that he had no plans yet to resign amid the admissions scandal. Call me perplexed but I’m fairly certain if he doesn’t step down by his own accord then the University should dismiss him.

Thursday concluded a months-long investigation which found that President White and Chancellor Richard Herman had enabled an admissions process that allowed substandard students who were connected to politically and financially powerful individuals, to get into the state’s most prestigious public campus.

The New Future is One of Bright Individuality

Written by George Garza

It took nearly two weeks after my trip to Detroit for the Allied Media Conference to get back into the swing of things here at home. An overabundance of inspiration and a new charge of progressive ambition landed me back in Texas with triumph on the brain.

I have seen, heard, and experienced refreshing insights from around the globe only to realize that this network of proactive pioneers has always existed. This loose-knit family of dreamers and hopefuls stretches beyond all borders of race, nationality, class, and age.

The 5 days I spent in Detroit were all too grand.

The setting was captivating enough; a once thriving industrial mecca now in a rebuilding phase… Read more

Immigration

So Much for “Post-racial” America…

Written by Rev. David L. Ostendorf

Last November’s post-election euphoria led numerous pundits of all political stripes to acclaim the dawn of a new, “post-racial” America—a nation that had finally beat back its sordid racial history by electing an African American to the White House. The acclamation was ludicrous then; it is utterly unimaginable now. The vicious dogs of racism are being unabashedly unleashed in countless ways that make the Cambridge Gatesgate look like the normal, everyday profiling it was and is for men of color in America.

The inane “birthers” lead the pack here, fronting the organized racist movement’s yen for obliterating the 14th Amendment to the Constitution (birthright citizenship) in its frenzy for the President’s Hawaiian birth certificate. The… Read more

Politics

Kobach on Colbert? You Must be Kidding

Written by Jill Garvey

I laughed so hard when Stephen Colbert had Sheriff Joe on his show I almost fell of my chair! Hahah-actually not really. Because there’s nothing funny about racists on TV kids. In fact I was a little creeped out.

Sorry Colbert, I’m usually a big fan, but that one didn’t really work for me (or most people who value human dignity). So I’m wondering why The Colbert Report’s producers think it’s a good idea to have Kris Kobach on the show tomorrow night. Kobach may be younger, prettier, and a smidgen more intelligent than “worst sheriff in America” Joe, but I… Read more