Black Children Less Likely to be Treated for Pain in ER

Following on to a number of medical studies the last few years – How race impacts treatment and outcomes…

The pont here being 4 times more black children die due to lack of pre- and post natal care in their first year of life…

Than in all the drive bys by all the so called “Street pirates” in all the cities in the country.

Sp…Why are people abetting this?

Black Children Less Likely to Get Pain Meds in ER

Black children seen in the emergency department for abdominal pain are less likely to receive pain medication than white children, according to a new study.

The research, which also found that black and Hispanic children were more likely to experience an ER stay longer than six hours compared to white children — even when the same tests were ordered — raises questions on how race may affect hospital care when it comes to the youngest patients.

The study was presented Saturday at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Boston.

Lead study author Dr. Tiffani J. Johnson, pediatric emergency medicine fellow at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, says she has a strong interest in improving the quality and equity of care that kids receive in the ER.

“If we don’t recognize disparities, we’re never going to be able to close the gaps,” says Johnson.

Johnson and colleagues used data from the CDC’s National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, which included more than 2,000 children from 550 hospitals who visited the ER for abdominal pain between 2006 and 2009.

Black children were 39 percent less likely to receive pain medications compared to white children with similar medical situations. When their pain was severe, rated 7 or higher on a pain scale from 0 to 10, an even larger disparity was observed.

Dr. Marilyn Hughes Gaston, a pediatrician and co-director of The Gaston and Porter Health Improvement Center in Potomac, Md., has dedicated much of her professional career to improving the health of poor and minority families.

She said the study’s findings are an essential step towards achieving equality in health care and the focus on kids is especially important.

“Every study like this one gives us more and more information,” says Gaston. “We have to dispel stereotypes and assumptions that interfere with care.”

Children are always at greater risk to be undertreated or mistreated compared to adults because of their limited ability to communicate how they feel. Anything else that negatively impacts their care would be important to identify so that providers can be educated.

So what factors are to blame for this problem? Little is known about pain expression and perception in children, but the issue has been studied extensively in adults.

Past research has shown that race can affect the way that adults express their pain. A 2002 study published in the International Journal of Intercultural Relations found that black patients were less likely to disclose the fact that they were in pain than their white counterparts. When they did discuss their pain they were less likely to describe its intensity.

And doctors might also be less skilled in recognizing the pain of certain races. Specifically, doctors were almost twice as likely to underestimate the pain of black patients compared to other ethnicities in a 2007 study from the University of Tennessee College of Medicine.

Whether either of these findings applies to pain in children is simply not known. Johnson says we need additional studies to find out exactly what factors lead to variations in care.

“Now we need to look at where these differences are coming from,” says Johnson. “Are they at the patient level, the parent level or the physician level?”

In the meantime, Johnson says, her study’s findings offer an important reminder to doctors.

“I hope that providers caring for children will recognize this,” she says, “and make efforts to ensure they are proving appropriate pain control for children of all ethnicities.”

 

Bill Maher – Who is More Successful – Obama or Romney?

Interesting viewpoint…

 

 

 

The Death of America – Conservatism

This one from Author E.L. Doctorow. An apt description of what conservatives and conservative have done to America…

It wasn't a foreign enemy that destroyed America..

Unexceptionalism: A Primer

TO achieve unexceptionalism, the political ideal that would render the United States indistinguishable from the impoverished, traditionally undemocratic, brutal or catatonic countries of the world, do the following:

PHASE ONE

If you’re a justice of the Supreme Court, ignore the first sacrament of a democracy and suspend the counting of ballots in a presidential election. Appoint the candidate of your choice as president.

If you’re the newly anointed president, react to a terrorist attack by invading a nonterrorist country. Despite the loss or disablement of untold numbers of lives, manage your war so that its results will be indeterminate.

Using the state of war as justification, order secret surveillance of American citizens, data mine their phone calls and e-mail, make business, medical and public library records available to government agencies, perform illegal warrantless searches of homes and offices.

Take to torturing terrorism suspects, here or abroad, in violation of the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution, which prohibits the infliction of cruel and unusual punishment. Unilaterally abrogate the Convention Against Torture as well as the Geneva Conventions regarding the treatment of prisoners of war. Commit to indeterminate detention without trial those you decide are enemies. For good measure, trust that legislative supporters will eventually apply this policy as well to American citizens.

Suspend progressive taxation so that the wealthiest pay less proportionately than the middle class. See to it that the wealth of the country accumulates to a small fraction of the population so that the gap between rich and poor widens exponentially.

By cutting taxes and raising wartime expenditures, deplete the national treasury so that Congress and state and municipal legislatures cut back on domestic services, ensuring that there will be less money for the education of the young, for government health programs, for the care of veterans, for the maintenance of roads and bridges, for free public libraries, and so forth.

Deregulate the banking industry so as to create a severe recession in which enormous numbers of people lose their homes and jobs.

Before you leave office add to the Supreme Court justices like the ones who awarded you the presidency.

PHASE TWO

If you’re one of the conservative majority of a refurbished Supreme Court, rule that corporations, no less than human beings, have the right under the First Amendment to express their political point of view. To come to this judgment, do not acknowledge that corporations lack the range of feelings or values that define what it is to be human. That humans can act against their own interest, whereas corporations cannot act otherwise than in their own interest. That the corporation’s only purpose is to produce wealth, regardless of social consequences.

This decision of the court will ensure tremendous infusions of corporate money into the political process and lead to the election in national and state legislatures of majorities of de facto corporate lobbyists.

PHASE THREE

Given corporate control of legislative bodies, enact laws to the benefit of corporate interests. For example, those laws sponsored by weapons manufacturers wherein people may carry concealed weapons and shoot and kill anyone by whom they feel threatened.

Give the running of state prisons over to private corporations whose profits increase with the increase in inmate populations. See to it that a majority of prisoners are African-American.

When possible, treat immigrants as criminals.

Deplete and underfinance a viable system of free public schools and give the education of children over to private for-profit corporations.

Make college education unaffordable.

Inject religious precepts into public policy so as to control women’s bodies.

Enact laws prohibiting collective bargaining. Portray trade unions as un-American.

Enact laws restricting the voting rights of possibly unruly constituencies.

Propagandize against scientific facts that would affect corporate profits. Portray global warming as a conspiracy of scientists.

Having subverted the Constitution and enervated the nation with these measures,  portray the federal government as unwieldy, bumbling and shot through with elitist liberals.  Create mental states of maladaptive populism among the citizenry to support this view.

PHASE FOUR

If you’re a justice of the Supreme Court, decide that the police of any and all cities and towns and villages have the absolute authority to strip-search any person whom they, for whatever reason, put under arrest.

With this ruling, the reduction of America to unexceptionalism is complete.

 

Black Hockey Hero Subjected to Racist Slurs

Couple of places in America where black folks are noticeably thin on the ground -Republican and conservative meetings and conventions…

And in the sport of Professional Hockey.

Now – the NHL isn’t doing anything to keep black players out… It’s just a confluence of circumstance which results in few high level black Hockey players being developed to matriculate into the professional level.

I am not a Hockey fan, although to be honest you can’t avoid the hype for the local team, the Washington Capitals, the hoopla when they make the playoffs, or the catchy moniker someone came up with for their former Goalie (Oalie the Goalie) …And under the heading that when a local franchise does well and excels – it is worth everyone in the neighborhood at least giving some recognition – there is the fact that the Capitals made the playoffs this year despite dire predictions to the contrary.

A pleasant surprise last night when turning on the local news was the breathless announcement by the sports announcer lady that the Caps had won a last game, last minute, last second victory to move on in the playoffs against the former champion Boston Bruins.

An even bigger surprise was that the player who sunk the winning goal was a black man.

A very self-depreciating, modest, and well spoken black man.

Think all those Caps fans could give a damn about that last, they are too ecstatic about the fact his goal won the game.

Caps’ Ward: Racist tweets ‘didn’t ruin my day’

Washington Capitals forward Joel Ward said the racial slurs directed at him on Twitter after he scored the series-winning overtime goal to eliminate the Boston Bruins were “shocking to see, but it didn’t ruin my day.”

“It doesn’t faze me at all,” Ward told USA TODAY Sports. “We won, and we are moving on. … People are going to say what they want to say.”

He said he didn’t know about the issue until Washington teammate Jeff Halpern brought it to his attention on the team plane heading home from Boston. Ward said Halpern “apologized” that Ward had to see that.

“Halpern just took offense that people weren’t talking about the goal, (but rather) getting into racist remarks,” Ward said. “I think he was telling me he had my back, and felt bad that (some Twitter users) were talking about the negative side, instead of how we are moving on.”

The NHL, in a statement, said, “The racially charged comments distributed via digital media following last night’s game were ignorant and unacceptable. The people responsible for these comments have no place associating themselves with our game.”

Ward, 31, a four-year NHL veteran, says he never has before experienced any racist remarks directed toward him at the NHL level.

“Growing up, at a few minor tournaments, you catch a few kids saying things,” Ward said. “But at that age, I didn’t even know what the terminology meant. But (at this level) I’ve never heard anything. I know other guys have, I believe, but I’ve had nothing directed to me like that.”

Ward’s goal at 2:57 of overtime knocked off the defending Stanley Cup champions and put the Capitals into the second round against a still-undetermined opponent. Ward had six goals in 73 games this season. “It was definitely the biggest goal I’ve ever been a part of,” he said.

Said Ward’s teammate, Matt Hendricks: “It was the greatest feeling ever after the game, winning Game 7 in Boston. Then you get on the plane afterward, and have all of this come to life. … It just made me sick to my stomach.”

Hendricks said he couldn’t get the tweets out of his mind. “What we accomplished just went out the window,” he said. “I couldn’t think about that any more. It was very disappointing.”

Philadelphia Flyers winger Wayne Simmonds, who trains with Ward in the offseason, called the tweets disgusting.

“Obviously, things get said,” Simmonds said. “It’s the internet. They can say whatever they want and they don’t have to show their face. It’s disgusting. I’ve had things like that happen to me before.”

During a Flyers-Detroit Red Wings preseason game in London, Ontario last Sept. 22, a 26-year-old hockey fan threw a banana peel onto the ice as Simmonds was attempting a shootout attempt.

“It’s not something that you want to happen, but it’s sad in this day and age that it continues to happen,” Simmonds said. “I’m sure Ward is not even paying attention to it. It is what it is. People can be as gutless as they want and they don’t have to show up. They just throw a comment out there on the internet. It’s getting kind of ridiculous.

“I think social media is not meant for that. It’s to say, ‘Hey, nice goal, congratulations.’ ”

Ward said he hasn’t had time to comb through all of the comments on his own personal Twitter account, but he has seen a summary of the racist-tone posts on various website blogs.

“I think it is just kids,” Ward said. “It has no effect on me whatsoever. I’ve been playing this game long enough and I’ve not had any encounters of that nature.”

He said he has always felt comfortable in an NHL dressing room and on the ice.

“There is no lying about it. …I’m definitely the one black guy in a room with 20 white guys,” Ward said. “There are definitely some cultural differences, such as taste in music, but I’ve never heard anything derogatory.”

He says he has no concern about his safety moving forward in the playoffs.

“I’m pretty laid-back and I get along with a lot of people,” Ward said. “I don’t fear anything like that, and I have a good group of guys to protect me.”

Ward said his goal today is to go on his Twitter account and thank the people who came to his defense through social media. Many have gone after those who posted racist remarks. Some who have made racist comments have already closed their accounts. One person apologized.

“I’m definitely getting a lot of support,” Ward said. “There have been a lot of Boston fans who have supported me, which is very cool to see. No hard feelings from me. This is a game.”

 

Norwegians Sing of Peace and Love to Deny Killer

Now = This is the way to let scumbags like Breivik know exactly how his fellow countrymen feel about him and his despicable acts.

Thousands gather in Norway to denounce Breivik

 Tens of thousands of rose-waving Norwegians gathered in rain-drenched Oslo Thursday to deride mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik by singing a song he hates, viewing it as Marxist indoctrination.

Some 40,000 people, according to police, massed in the rain at a square near the courthouse where Breivik is on trial for his July 22 attacks that killed 77 people, to sing “Children of the Rainbow” by Norwegian folk singer Lillebjoern Nilsen.

Inside the court, the 33-year-old accused right-wing extremist sat listening without showing emotion to powerful testimony from survivors of his bloodbath on the ninth day of his trial.

Last Friday, Breivik had said that Nilsen was “a very good example of a Marxist” who had infiltrated the cultural scene and that his song was typical of the “brainwashing of Norwegian pupils.”

Protesters ranging from elderly in wheelchairs to young school children streamed into Youngstorget Square wearing colourful raincoats and carrying Norwegian flags and roses, which have come to represent Norway’s peaceful response to the horrifying attacks.

The culture ministers of the Nordic countries were also at the square to participate, while other similar events were to take place across Norway.

Norwegian Culture Minister Anniken Huitfeldt admitted she had wept as Nilsen led the chorus and the crowd sang along, waving roses in the air.

Afterwards they walked slowly together, still singing the song, to the courthouse to add their roses to the piles of flowers already lining the security barriers outside in memory of Breivik’s victims.

The song is an adaptation of US folk singer Pete Seeger’s “My Rainbow Race” and is very popular in the Scandinavian country. Its chorus goes: “Together, we will live, each sister and each brother, small children of the rainbow and a green earth.”

“The song has never been so beautiful before,” said Lill Hjoennevaag, who was one of people who started a Facebook campaign last Friday in reaction to Breivik’s comments about Nilsen’s song, calling on the public to “reclaim the song” and sing it together near the courthouse.

“The turnout was far better than I had expected,” Hjoennevaag told AFP.

Only around 5,000 people had announced on the social networking site that they would be participating.

 

150 Girls Poisoned For Going to School in Afghanistan

Sometimes I come to the conclusion that the only way to “solve” the Islamic nutcase problem in Afghanistan is to go “Roman”.

That is, like in Biblical times – go scorched earth and kill every male child over the age of 6 in the country.

Look up “chickenshit” on the Web – Shortly there will be a picture of the punk azz Afghani fathers who let the Taliban who committed this crime live afterwards.

Report: 150 Afghan schoolgirls poisoned

KUNDUZ, Afghanistan – About 150 schoolgirls were poisoned Tuesday after drinking water at their high school that was contaminated, Reuters reports. Local officials blamed the incident on radicals opposed to women attending school.

Reuters said the girls suffered headaches and vomiting, with some in critical condition.

“This is not a natural illness. It’s an intentional act to poison schoolgirls,” Haffizullah Safi, head of Takhar province’s public health department, told Reuters.

The Taliban banned education for women when it controlled Afghanistan, saying it was anti-Islamic.

Girls have gone back to school since the Taliban were toppled, but attacks against female students, teachers and school buildings have occurred, particularly in southern and eastern areas of the country, when Taliban insurgents enjoy more public support.

 

Juan Williams on Race and This Election Cycle

Juan Williams put together a good article over on “The Hill” – the only problem is it misses the key driver in this election cycle – Women. It isn’t race that is going to drive this election. The white male dominated GOP has done an incredible job of alienating white women, which will undoubtedly pay dividends in terms of local election, House of Representative and even Senate losses.

The Republican party is increasingly looking more like “Custer’s Last Stand” instead of a political entity – damage which done almost exclusively by their own hands.

Yes – blacks, Hispanics, and now Asians are going to vote against them – but if women split 60-40 against Republicans…

It’s over. Perhaps that is why President Obama isn’t sweating the election.

Anyway – Juan makes some good points…

How race may affect this year’s election

Last week several political strategists predicted to me that every racial button is going to get pushed hard in this fall’s presidential campaign. Their forecast is based on racial fears that are already being exposed. White Republican men form the strongest block of opposition to reelection of a black president — who, in turn, has near-unanimous support from blacks, and overwhelming backing from Hispanics and Asians.

Their predictions come against the backdrop of two white male political writers, Pat Buchanan and John Derbyshire, losing their jobs at MSNBC and National Review, respectively, after writing racially charged pieces. Buchanan lamented in a book that immigration and high Hispanic birthrates were leading to the “end of white America.” Derbyshire, writing in a small magazine, advised his children to avoid “concentrations of blacks,” and to not settle in any place run by black politicians.

The 2012 election comes at a time when the country is in the middle of a seismic shift in its demographics. Racial attitudes are also changing, for better or worse, with rising numbers of minorities and immigrants now more than 30 percent of the population. But in political terms, the GOP has failed to bring any substantial part of that growing population into its ranks. The heart of the party remains senior white voters who are resisting the loss of the America they grew up in 50 years ago.

A whole catalogue of racial fears was revealed during the Aspen Institute Symposium on Race in America, attended last week by a number of prominent experts and televised on C-SPAN:

— White fear of the increasing voting power of Hispanics, Asians and blacks. In the GOP primaries, the nation’s first black president was labeled as the “food stamp president.” He was charged with being a “socialist” and wanting to lead the country to become an “entitlement society.” This racially provocative language suggested hard-working white people being ripped off by lazy minorities. The experts see it a warning sign of the approaching racial storm. 

 

Wyclef Jean and “Justice – If You Are 17″”

Met Wyclef last year in the Airport Lounge of the Port au Prince Airport. Really a personable, well spoken guy. We talked a bit about some of his Yele Haiti projects, which you can see in action in a number of parts of the city.

Wyclef Jean wants ‘Justice’ for Trayvon Martin

Celebs have been tweeting their thoughts on the controversial Trayvon Martin case, in which a 17-year-old boy was shot to death this past February by neighborhood-watch volunteer George Zimmerman.

But Wyclef Jean has decided to spread Martin’s story with a different approach…

The Fugees musician teamed up with Prescribed and J. Williams to create a track titled “Justice (If You’re 17)” in dedication to Martin, which was dropped today as a free download.

“Justice” starts with the lyrics, “If you’re 17/And you’re wearing a hoodie/You’re on the phone/Talking to your shorty/Make no mistake/There’s one like you/In every city/You know the story,” and later continues with, “If you’re 17 with a hoodie on/ Watch out for the neighborhood watcher/ If you’re at the right neighborhood at the wrong time/ Neighborhood watcher/ This might be your last call to your girlfriend/ The neighborhood watcher/ Man I feel for you if you’re 17.”

Along with the track, J. Williams and Prescribed made a short called “I Am”which deals with not only the Trayvon Martin case, but profiling globally.

A music video for “Justice” is expected to be released April 20.

 

Pachyderm Peppers

Sometimes a low tech solution far outperforms more high tech or direct measures. In this case red hot chili peppers serve to save farmer’s crops from elephants.

Get a whiff of this!

Elephants Now Think Twice About Midnight Snacks in Tanzania

MIKUMI VILLAGE, Tanzania—Snap. Crack. Pop.

That’s the sound of an African elephant with a dangerous case of the munchies crashing through underbrush at 25 miles per hour.

Said Longwa, a 52-year-old farmer and father of nine, used to face down crop-raiding elephants with nothing but a flashlight. Others in Mikumi village would beat tin cans or light fires; some exploded homemade pipe bombs. But the sound and fury didn’t deter the largest land mammals on Earth from staging nightly assaults on fields of corn and watermelon.

A BULL ELEPHANT

During the worst period of crop raids several years ago, charging elephants killed three people from Mr. Longwa’s village, in the Morogoro region in central Tanzania, more than 118 miles from the coastal capital of Dar es Salaam.

When the elephants visit Mr. Longwa’s cornfield these days, they screw up their long noses and trumpet in consternation.

Mr. Longwa has treated his fence with chili mixed with engine oil—a preparation that adheres to the fence, even in heavy rain. “They will mull it over and often circle two to three times,” the farmer says of the elephants that approach his fence. “But once they get a real whiff of the chili, they snuffle and sneeze.” And leave the scene.

 

Ugandan Kids Get Serious About Baseball

Looks like the American Pastime Sport may not die out after all. Africa may provide an entirely new market wich revitalizes the sport.

Ugandan children’s new favorite sport: Baseball

 

KAMPALA, Uganda – Unlike in most of Africa, soccer is not the top sport at the Rev. John Foundation School in Uganda’s capital. Instead, a fairly foreign American game is No. 1 and catching on quickly.

“Baseball is our main game here,” head teacher Emmanuel Bazannye said of his school. “Even the girls love it. The girls want to participate after seeing the boys doing it. We say that what the boys can do, even the girls can do.”

Baseball is not widely played in Africa, but Uganda looks poised to be the launching pad for the game’s entry into this soccer-dominated continent.

Last year a team of young Ugandan ballers made international news in heartbreaking fashion. They qualified for the Little League World Series in South Williamsport, Pa., but were denied travel visas by the U.S. State Department because of a lack of documentation.

“We cried for two good days,” said George Mukhobe, the coach who would have led the team to America. “It meant a lot for those kids.”

Augustus Owinyi was the team’s first baseman. Although now too old for Little League, he still shows up during practices, pleasing coaches who see it as a sign of his commitment.

Owinyi wants to be like Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins. The 13-year-old Owinyi met Rollins when the American visited Uganda in January and that memory makes him dream of playing Major League Baseball someday. His hopes for a career in baseball made the State Department’s visa denial especially painful.

“I felt very sad,” he said. “They gave us back our passports and said we were not to go. Some of us cried. I love this game. I see my future in this game.”

Ugandan sports followers say the school’s success in international competition has contributed to baseball’s popularity among schools that once were skeptical about the American game.

The school is preparing for a national baseball competition, where the winner will travel to Poland in July. It’s the first international opportunity for Ugandan youngsters following the failure to go to the Little League World Series.

The visa refusal spawned a wave of sympathy, but also inspired a fundraising drive that raised enough money to bring to Uganda a team from Canada that the Ugandans would have faced if they had competed in South Williamsport.

In January, the Ugandans beat the Canadians 2-1. Coach Mukhobe said that the win was more proof that Uganda had baseball talent.

Baseball still lags behind soccer across Uganda. But it’s catching on among schools attracted to its relative novelty and the government now backs the game’s introduction in schools.

About 60 schools encourage baseball, Mukhobe said, and this year a national baseball league was launched after it was endorsed by sports authorities. The baseball season started in mid-March.

 

Mayor Cory Booker… Hero!

New reports this morning that Mayor Cory Booker of Newark ran into a burning house to rescue a woman trapped in a bedroom.

Kudos Mr. Mayor!

Newark mayor rescues neighbor from burning house, is treated at hospital for smoke inhalation

The mayor of New Jersey’s largest city said Friday he thought he might die when he dashed through a burning, smoky kitchen to find and rescue a neighbor from her second-floor bedroom.

“I felt fear. I really didn’t think we were going to get out of there,” Mayor Cory Booker, his burned right hand still bandaged, told a news conference in front of the boarded-up home.

The 42-year-old mayor said it was very difficult to breathe as he looked for the woman, Zina Hodge, 47, whose mother had screamed she was still trapped inside the burning house.

As he got to the bedroom, Booker said he could hear, “I’m here, I’m here, help I’m here.”

The mayor, who was coughing heavily after the rescue, was taken to the hospital and treated for smoke inhalation and second-degree burns after the rescue late Thursday night.

Booker downplayed his actions, saying he just did what any neighbor would do, “which is jump into action to help a friend.”

“I didn’t feel bravery, I felt terror,” he said. “It was a moment I felt very religious, let me put it that way.”

Hodge remains in stable condition at a hospital, suffering from second-degree burns.

“I think he’s a super mayor — and should become president,” said her mother, Jacqualine Williams.

Fire officials said she and the mayor were apparently burned as embers fell from the ceiling, with the woman slung over the mayor’s shoulder. The officials said the fire likely started in the kitchen.

Two members of the mayor’s security detail had already taken several members of the family from the home when the mayor arrived and heard the mother screaming that her daughter was still inside.

His security detail tried to drag him away, but Booker told them that the woman was going to die, Detective Alex Rodriguez said.

“Without thinking twice, he ran into the flames and rescued this young lady,” Rodriguez said in an interview earlier in the day with “CBS This Morning.”

Booker, an up-and-coming Democratic politician who has been mentioned as a possible future candidate for statewide office, said Rodriquez also helped him take Hodge down the stairwell. Once they were outside, “we both just collapsed,” he said.

“I had my proverbial come-to-Jesus moment in my life,” he said.

The mayor said he did not feel heroic. “It all happened very, very quickly,” he said.

He planned to go take a nap after the news conference.

Booker, who is 6-foot-3, was a tight end for the varsity football team at Stanford University, where he got his undergraduate and master’s degrees. He got a law degree from Yale University and as a Rhodes scholar also got a degree from Oxford.

Despite his past as an athlete, he said is now “somewhat out of shape.”

The mayor said he now has an even more profound respect for firefighters.

Booker is known for his hands-on assistance to his constituents, even shoveling snow during a blizzard that snarled his city and the Northeast in 2010.

A prolific social media user, he tweeted late Thursday that he was fine and thanked his followers for their well-wishes.

“Thanks 2 all who are concerned. Just suffering smoke inhalation,” Booker tweeted. “We got the woman out of the house. We are both off to hospital. I will b ok.”

He then posted a tweet early Friday morning that read: “Thanks everyone, my injuries were relatively minor. Thanks to Det. Alex Rodriguez who helped get all of the people out of the house.”

 

National Review Cleans House and Empties the Sewer

For far too long periodicals and conservative organizations have provided legitimate cover for the likes of neo-Nazis and white supremacist like John Derbyshire. Conservatives would be claiming to be holding their noses – but it’s hard to see, after such a long association that they were holding their noses tight enough to affect their breathing the foul miasma drifting from these scumbags.

I think the sudden decision by this conservative periodical and think tanks to alleviate themselves of racists has a lot to do with successful efforts by organizations such as Color of Change to de-finance them by going after their commercial sponsors. The latest victim of that being ALEC, which is the author and promoter of Jim Crow Voter ID Laws, and a number of unpopular laws taken up by Republican legislatures over the past 2 years.

Could National Review be feeling that heat?

Robert Weissberg at White Supremacist American Renaissance Conference.

National Review Fires Another Racist Writer

Following the uproar over John Derbyshire’s racist rant that led to his firinglast week, National Review ended its relationship with another racist writer today. Robert Weissberg, who was a contributing writer to the magazine for years, was fired for his ties to the white nationalist group American Renaissance.

“Unbeknowst to us, occasional Phi Beta Cons contributor Robert Weissberg (whose book was published a few years ago by Transaction) participated in an American Renaissance conference where he delivered a noxious talk about the future of white nationalism,” National Review editor Rich Lowry said in a post today. Though National Review may not have known, Weissberg’s involvement with the group is clearly statedon his Wikipedia page. And the fact that National Review’s vetting process is so weak that they routinely published two openly racist authors for years raises serious questions about who else they may be publishing and what ideas those writers may share.

Also a retired professor of political science, Weissberg once called for a “politically viable alternative to white nationalism” at American Renaissance conferences, at which Weissberg hasan attendee and been a speaker. He has received extensive praise from the group. A cached copy of the group’s website from shortly after one conference reveals that Weissberg played to the group’s racist tendencies during his speech:

The first speaker Saturday morning was the always stimulating Robert Weissberg, Emeritus professor of University of Illinois at Champagne, who proposed “A Politically Viable Alternative to White Nationalism.” He argued that any movement that is explicitly based on white racial identity is “dead on arrival,” and must be repackaged in order to win successful recognition. The reality—that racial nationalism “is intuitive and written in our genes” […]

Prof. Weissberg argued that an “80 percent solution” would be one that enforced the “First-World” standards of excellence and hard work that attract and reward whites. He pointed out that there are still many “Whitopias” in America and that there are many ways to keep them white, such as zoning that requires large houses, and a cultural ambiance or classical music and refined demeanor that repels undesirables. This approach to maintaining whiteness has the advantage that people can make a living catering to whites in their enclaves.

Prof. Weissberg went on to argue that liberals are beyond reason when it comes to race, that explaining the facts of IQ or the necessity of racial consciousness for whites “is like trying to explain to an eight-year-old why sex is more fun than chocolate ice cream.”

Weissberg’s attendance at the conference was not a one-off occurrence. He’s talked before about “the stupid black” (WARNING: link contains offensive language) in relationship with the Jewish community, and talked about the “shortage” of white males on college campuses.

 

Murder She Wrote – George Zimmerman to be Charged

It looks like the accused murderer of Trayvon Martin is going to be charged with something finally. The point being even if he is found innocent after a full investigation, or a trial by jury…

At lease the law enforcement and judicial system have worked the way they should in a case of this seriousness.

Now the game with the lawyers quoting becomes much clearer.

 

Report: Zimmerman to be charged today in Trayvon Martin case

Florida State Attorney Angela Corey will hold a 6 p.m. ET news conference today to “release new information” about the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. The Associated Press is reporting that she will announce charges against George Zimmerman, the 28-year-old neighborhood watch volunteer who has claimed he shot the 17-year-old in self-defense Feb. 26 in Sanford, Fla.

The unidentified law enforcement source who spoke to the AP did not know the exact charge or charges that Corey is expected to announce at the state attorney’s office in Jacksonville. Zimmerman is also expected to be arrested soon, the AP said.

Zimmerman has been in hiding and not spoken publicly since the shooting. Tuesday, two attorneys withdrew as his counsel after they learned he had contacted Corey’s office and news media without their knowledge. They said they had lost contact with him Sunday.

Monday, Zimmerman launched a website to collect donations he said would be used “only for living expenses and legal defense.”

 

Lawn Ornament Alert! Alan West

This Lawn Jockey is crazy!

A debate…With President Obama? Think it was Richard Pryor who put it best on one of his albums…”This N(*&(**^ is Crazy!”

Allen West: I’ve ‘Heard’ 80 House Democrats Are Communist Party Members

As many as 80 House Democrats are communists, according to Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.).

West warned constituents at a Tuesday town hall event that he’s “heard” that dozens of his Democratic colleagues in the House are members of the Communist Party, thePalm Beach Post reported. West wouldn’t elaborate beyond that, however, and didn’t offer up any names. There are currently 190 House Democrats.

A request for comment from West’s spokeswoman was not immediately returned.

During the same event, which took place at Florida Atlantic University, the freshman Republican said President Barack Obama wouldn’t have a public debate with him over their policy differences because he was “scared.” The president was in Florida on Tuesday giving remarks about the economy and holding campaign events.

“I really wish that, standing here before you, was Allen West and President Obama,” West said, according to the Palm Beach Post. “We could have a simple discussion. But that ain’t ever gonna happen.”

When an audience member asked why, West said in “a mocking voice” that it was because Obama “was too scared.”

 

The New Jim Crow – Voter ID Vote Suppression

I cannot remember — even sitting in an Orangeburg County jail — when I had as much anxiety as I’m experiencing today. Back then, even when we were at the back of the bus and we were not able to sit down at lunch counters, we really felt strong that what’s happening to me here in Orangeburg, SC or Columbia, SC, ah, if I can get my plight before the United States Supreme Court, the promise of this country will be delivered for me. That’s what we felt, and I can remember our discussions in meetings — yeah, we’re going to jail now. We are going to be convicted. But we know that that conviction is going to be overturned by the United States Supreme Court.

I don’t feel that today.

Congressman Jim Clyburn (South Carolina)

The ‘Voter Fraud’ Fraud

As President Obama spoke about Representative Paul Ryan’s budget yesterday, Fox News broke away from the president’s remarks to cover “a stunning case in South Bend, Indiana.” The story covered an indictment by the St. Joseph County prosecutor’s office alleging that local Democratic officials forged signatures to get Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards on the Indiana Democratic Primary ballot in 2008. “Indiana State Police investigators identified a total of 22 petitions that appeared to be faked, yet sailed through the Voter Registration Board as legitimate documents,” Fox reported. Eric Shawn, of the Fox News Voter Fraud Unit, said that a local election worker was “ordered to forge presidential petitions for Barack Obama, illegally faking the names and signatures of unsuspecting voters to put the then-Illinois senator on the presidential primary ballot.”

The new report will no doubt underscore the belief among Fox News viewers that Obama was illegitimately elected in 2008. According to a 2009 poll by Public Policy Polling, “52% majority of GOP voters nationally think that ACORN stole the Presidential election for Barack Obama last year, with only 27% granting that he won it legitimately.” Conservative commenters are pointing to the indictment as further proof of rampant voter fraud and more evidence of the need for voter ID laws nationwide.

There are at least two major problems with this argument.