I just don’t have the words to express how painful it is to learn that the great Michael Jackson is dead at 50 years old. I am just blown away. I grew up listening to his music and admiring his talents. He was just plain brilliant.
He was a brilliant entertainer who died far too young.
Rest in peace, Michael Jackson … you left us way too soon.
The more I think about it, it’s sad to think that someone who has done so little for civil rights (Clarence Thomas) replaced someone so great (Thurgood Marshall) who did so much for civil rights. It’s almost unforgivable that George H.W. Bush, in 1991, nominated Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court to replace one of the important figures in black history, Thurgood Marshall.
Here is a lengthy excerpt from Wikipedia:
Marshall won his very first U.S. Supreme Court case, Chambers v. Florida, 309 U.S. 227 (1940), at the age of 32. That same year, he was appointed Chief Counsel for the NAACP. He argued many other cases before the Supreme Court, most of them successfully, including Smith v. Allwright, 321 U.S. 649 (1944); Shelley v. Kraemer, 334 U.S. 1 (1948); Sweatt v. Painter, 339 U.S. 629 (1950); and McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents, 339 U.S. 637 (1950). His most famous case as a lawyer was Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954), the case in which the Supreme Court ruled that “separate but equal” public education was unconstitutional because it could never be truly equal. In total, Marshall won 29 out of the 32 cases he argued before the Supreme Court.
During the 1950s, Thurgood Marshall developed a friendly relationship with J. Edgar Hoover, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In 1956, for example, he privately praised Hoover’s campaign to discredit T.R.M. Howard, a maverick civil rights leader from Mississippi. During a national speaking tour, Howard had criticized the FBI’s failure to seriously investigate cases such as the 1955 killers of George W. Lee and Emmett Till. An FBI informant reported that Marshall had “no use for Howard and nothing would please him more than to see Howard completely crushed.” Ironically, two years earlier Howard had arranged for Marshall to deliver a well-received speech at a rally of his Regional Council of Negro Leadership in Mound Bayou, Mississippi only days before the Brown decision. [4]
President John F. Kennedy appointed Marshall to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 1961. A group of Democratic Party Senators led by Mississippi’s James Eastland held up his confirmation, so he served for the first several months under a recess appointment. Marshall remained on that court until 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed him Solicitor General.
On June 13, 1967, President Johnson appointed Marshall to the Supreme Court following the retirement of Justice Tom C. Clark, saying that this was “the right thing to do, the right time to do it, the right man and the right place.” Marshall was confirmed as an Associate Justice by a Senate vote of 69-11 on August 31, 1967.[5] He was the 96th person to hold the position, and the first African-American.
Meanwhile, Thomas fought against civil rights and continues to fight against civil rights.
From The Daily Voice:
In an 8-1 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Justice Clarence Thomas cast the lone vote against a key provision of the Voting Rights Act on Monday (June 22).
The Court, in Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District Number One v. Holder (PDF link) declined to overturn the 1965 Voting Rights Act that has often been challenged by conservative critics as unnecessary. Instead it avoided the “difficult” question about the constitutionality of the law. But the Court did allow a tiny Texas municipality to be exempted from a requirement to provide advance notice before making changes to its election procedures.
In his dissent, Thomas seemed to argue that the Voting Rights Act is no longer necessary because the explicit racial segregation of the Jim Crow era is gone.
”The violence, intimidation and subterfuge that led Congress to pass Section 5 and this court to uphold it no longer remains,” Thomas wrote. He admitted that in 1965, “Congress had every reason to conclude that States with a history of disenfranchising voters based on race would continue to do all they could to evade the constitutional ban on voting discrimination.” But, Thomas added, “The extensive pattern of discrimination that led the Court to previously uphold Section 5 . . . no longer exists…And the days of ‘grandfather clauses, property qualifications, ‘good character’ tests, and the requirement that registrants ‘understand’ or ‘interpret’ certain matter,’ are gone.”
Some things change, but other things remain the same.
It hurts to think this man replaced the great Thurgood Marshall.
I would encourage readers to check out one of my favorite blogs on the Web, Field Negro. In one blog I just took an opportunity to read, Field takes on Clarence Thomas for yet another inexplicable slap in the face to black people.
Here is an excerpt:
Some sister must have really done Clarence wrong back in the day, because that Negro seriously hates his people. I bet he vowed to get the entire Negro race back for those black folks who dissed him in his early life.
Honestly, how could Uncle Clarence be the only one of the Supremes to vote against not scrapping a certain provision of the Voting Rights Act? (He even went against his closet lover, Antonin Scalia, on this one) A provision which pretty much insured that certain states would not be messing with the civil rights of minority voters? Has this Negro taken leave of his senses? Does he just do this kind of shit to get attention? Folks, believe me, in spite of what some folks in certain states would have you believe, that provision is still needed today. Those pesky little literacy tests could come back faster than you can say Jig Clarence, Jig.
Field Negro:
http://field-negro.blogspot.com/2009/06/most-dangerous-negro-in-merry-ca.html
The infamous Hal Turner, a Neo-Nazi commentator through various mediums, finds himself in some hot water again these days:
CHICAGO, June 24 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/– Hal Turner, an intermittent Internet radio talk show host and blogger, was arrested today by FBI agents at his home in North Bergen, N.J., on a federal complaint filed in Chicago alleging that he made Internet postings threatening to assault and murder three federal appeals court judges in Chicago in retaliation for their recent ruling upholding handgun bans in Chicago and a suburb.
Turner, who has had an association over the years with Fox News conservative host Sean Hannity, was cuffed up by the Feds.
Yeah, it was interesting when all of those people slammed Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and the Obama Administration for the release of the report on extremism.
Included in the report was this:
Gun-related violence: “Heightened interest in legislation for tighter firearms…may be invigorating rightwing extremist activity, specifically the white supremacist and militia movements.”
More on Hal Turner from Wikipedia:
Harold Charles “Hal” Turner is an American white nationalist and white supremacist from North Bergen, New Jersey. He runs his program, The Hal Turner Show, as a webcast from his home once a week, and depends on donations from his listeners. He quit the show in July 2008 and resumed in April 2009. In August 2008 his website also closed down, though he retains a blog, though currently that presence was shut down by his host, Google‘s Blogger, for violations of terms of service.
It’s a sad day to those of us who were fans of actress Farrah Fawcett.
Farrah Fawcett, the “Charlie’s Angels” star whose feathered blond hair and dazzling smile made her one of the biggest sex symbols of the 1970s, died Thursday after battling cancer. She was 62.
She played some memorable roles and certainly left an impression on the world that will be remembered by her family, friends and fans for years to come.
Yahoo News:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090625/ap_en_tv/us_obit_fawcett
As DJay said in the movie Hustle and Flow, “You know it’s hard out here for a pimp.”
G. Gordon Liddy turned into a pimp as he turned out Jesse Lee Peterson to once again serve his primary purpose in life – attacking black people (including President Obama) to keep conservative white extremists from getting their hands dirty.
Thanks to Media Matters for America for again exposing Peterson.
Media Matters for America:
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200906250011
It will be interesting to see if the media (particularly Fox News) points out how tough Gov, Mark Sanford once was on former President Bill Clinton.
This is from an AP story posted by Yahoo News:
COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina’s governor once cited “moral legitimacy” when he was a congressman voting for President Bill Clinton’s impeachment. He became a darling of fiscal conservatives over his ideological opposition to federal stimulus cash.
I wonder if Bill O’Reilly will mention this on his show or if he will just proceed with an one-sided attack (joined by Karl Rove and Bernie Goldberg) on the so-called liberal press.
I wonder if Bill O’Reilly and others will call out that “moral legitimacy” hypocrisy.
This also is a good example of why we shouldn’t put politicians on a pedestal.
After the media (liberal and conservative) pounded former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, I look up and see this is what it appears Fox News conservative commentator Bill O’Reilly has on tap for tonight’s edition of The O’Reilly Factor:
The O’Reilly Factor
The media & Mark Sanford! Is the liberal press celebrating the Governor’s scandal? Both Bernie Goldberg & Karl Rove have reaction and analysis!
With Bernie Goldberg and Karl Rove, two hardcore conservatives (teaming with O’Reilly, who makes it three conservatives), as analysts the segment already appears destined to have little credibility and zero balance (as advertised here).
Was the conservative press celebrating John Edwards’ affair when he was being pounded relentlessly (and still is)? I doubt you’ll hear Bill O’Reilly presenting such a topic with three left wingers.
Leave it to O’Reilly to spin a scandal that stains the conservatives into an attack on liberals. Maybe O’Reilly will begin talking about the John Ensign scandal, too.
The Phoenix Suns have agreed to assist the Cleveland Cavaliers’ pursuit of an NBA championship by handing them Shaquille O’Neal for Sasha Pavlovic, Ben Wallace and some money. From the Phoenix perspective, this seems to be a salary-cap trade. Shaq makes like $21 million a year so bringing in Ben and Pavlovic will give them some salary relief and possibly put the Suns on course to be a player in the free-agent market in the near future. The new question is this: How much will the acquisition of Shaq help the Cleveland Cavaliers move closer to winning an NBA championship? In my mind, Cleveland was going to be maybe the third-best team in the Eastern Conference next season behind Boston (presuming they return a healthy Kevin Garnett) and Orlando. Will Shaq alter Cleveland’s up-tempo style of play? LeBron James can co-exist with pretty much any kind of player, but it will be interesting to see how Mike Brown adjusts the offense to accommodate Shaq who doesn’t run the floor the way he used to, but still is a beast in the paint.
Yahoo Sports:
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=aw-shaq062409&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
Sandy Gholston