Blackhacker

TheAgitator.com: Cory Maye
Over the course of researching my paper, I came across the case of Cory Maye. Maye today sits on Mississippi’s death row, convicted of capital murder for shooting police officer Ron Jones. It’s probably worth mentioning that Jones is white, and Maye is black. It’s probably also worth mentioning that at the time of his death, Jones’ father was police chief of Prentiss, Mississippi, where the shooting took place. It’s probably also worth mentioning that the jury who convicted Maye was white. (Note added on 12/12: The jury was mostly white, not all-white)

So begins a post on The Agitator that apparently describes one of the sickest concoctions of official ineptness, government Tyranny and just plain bad luck this blogger has read in a good while. If you are to lazy to click here is the short version. A man, Corey Maye, asleep in his home with is 18 month old daughter is awaken by people breaking into his house. When one of them bust through the door. He shoots him and kills him. But the people breaking into the house where cops, serving a search warrant. Maye was not the target of the warrant but the occupants of the connecting home. Maye lived in a duplex. The police initially found no drugs in the house but has since changed their story saying they found a joint. Did I mention the father of the dead cop is also the chief of police? Maye apparently had at least 2 incompetent lawyers. The first insults the jury at trial, the second misses important filing deadlines for appeals.

Needless to say Maye is on death row now.

If there is a case that needs public outcry, celebs making movies, and Tavis Smiley doing interviews, THIS IS THE ONE. For all of the redemption Stanley Williams MAY have experienced, no one can deny that he reaped the fruit of his own choices. Maye defended his home, and the state of Mississippi, is going to kill him for it.

UPDATE:
Stay tuned to The Agitator for the latest on this case. Radley Balko, the blogger behind The Agitator not only broke this story but seems to have posted something about almost every day.

Dap: Bomani Jones

Australian Mobs Attack People Believed to Be of Arab Descent

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: December 13, 2005

SYDNEY, Australia, Tuesday, Dec. 13 (AP) - Thousands of drunken white youths attacked people they believed were of Arab descent at a beach outside Sydney on Sunday in one of Australia’s worst outbursts of ethnic violence.

The attack, apparently prompted by reports that Lebanese youths had assaulted two lifeguards, led to retaliation by young men of Arab descent in several Sydney suburbs on Monday. The young people fought with the police and smashed 40 cars with sticks and bats, the police said.

link

This post on Blackinformant got me thinking. It asks the question what if Tookie had been a KKK? A fair question. Their are some parallels. As a founding member of the Crips Tookie is responsible for the death of a lot of Black people. The Klan is responsible for the death of a lot of black people. Even if he is innocent of the murders he was convicted of Tookie isn’t innocent by any stretch of the imagination. What possible reason could their be to spare this man’s life? Good question.

< analogy >
When I help my son with his home work I almost NEVER give him the answer. I only ask him the questions that he is not asking himself. The right question can put many things into perspective.
< /analogy >

My question about Tookie is “What if he where a mobster?” There are many, KILLERS, who’s lives have been spared, even freedom preserved, because they had knowledge or experience that they could trade for their lives. Sometimes not just their lives but a whole new life. The Government is cool with this. They get a way to gain advantage over criminals who are more insulated from prosecution. Of course the criminals are cool with it. America is above all else a capitalist society and therefore as such just about everything is for sale to some degree.

So, what does Tookie have to sell? Tookie may have something that could be used to dissuade those who who take up a criminal life style, persuade those who have to change and be more productive. Tookie has “street cred.” he has used to write children’s books and to foster foster peace in the organization he help to found.

Working on the assumption that Tookie has some “pull” with would be “gangtas”, wouldn’t clemency for a killer be worth it? What is clemency anyway. It is not exoneration, or a pardon, it is merely mercy. No one is making any judgement about the guilt or innocence of Tookie, by granting his clemency, just that “i don’t feel like killing you anymore.” Like I said in the Capitalist society that is the US of A, we can’t just give mercy away. Let him FROM JAIL continue to work for peace. If we can get something for that mercy I’m cool with it.

UPDATE:
Gov. Schwarzenegger denies Stanley Williams Clemency
ps: I’m still cool with it.

“Son, I’m not going to pay your $30,000 a year tuition to junior college. Instead I’m going to write you a check.”

nytimes

WASHINGTON, Nov. 16 - Congressional Republicans decided Wednesday to take a legislative wrecking ball to two Alaskan bridge projects that had demolished the party’s reputation for fiscal austerity.

Straining to show new dedication to lower spending, House and Senate negotiators took the rare step of eliminating a requirement that $442 million be spent to build the two bridges, spans that became cemented in the national consciousness as “bridges to nowhere” because of the remote territory and small populations involved.

The change will not save the federal government any money. Instead, the $442 million will be turned over to the state with no strings attached, allowing lawmakers and the governor there to parcel it out for transportation projects as they see fit, including the bridges should they so choose.

Bridge to nowhere => Check to Nowhere

Dap: P6

NAACP chief makes switch to GOP - OrlandoSentinel.com
For decades, Republicans have struggled to reach out to black Americans. But now in Orange County, the GOP has to reach no further than the NAACP.

As of this week, Derrick Wallace, head of Orange County’s NAACP, has switched parties — to become a Republican.

I’m wondering how long before he decides that the grass over there isn’t any greener.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush’s nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, White House counsel Harriet Miers, abruptly withdrew from consideration on Thursday after fierce criticism from the right and the left about her credentials for the lifetime job. (link)

Buffalo Chips !!! The right criticized her because they weren’t sure if she drank the Neo-con Coolaid. If Repubs had gotten behind the nomination, the Dems would have tried to block it but I bet within a month she would be sitting on the bench.

Prediction:
Look for the next nomination to be ANOTHER person with close ties to the business community. Everybody is talking about Roe V Wade, but Bush, is trying to secure drilling rights. So he is going to pick somebody who will put a lid on environmental laws.

During the 2003 to 2004 outbreak of avian influenza A (H5N1) virus in Asia, there were anecdotal reports of fatal infection in domestic cats, although this species is considered resistant to influenza. We experimentally inoculated cats with H5N1 virus intratracheally and by feeding them virus-infected chickens. The cats excreted virus, developed severe diffuse alveolar damage, and transmitted virus to sentinel cats. These results show that domestic cats are at risk of disease or death from H5N1 virus, can be infected by horizontal transmission, and may play a role in the epidemiology of this virus. (link)

dap: The Long Tail (no pun intended)

Evangelical Outpost

If after spending a quarter of a century in the church, a Christian woman can uphold the most unjust ruling since Dred Scott, then we have failed as a church. If the best we can say about an evangelical is that she “brings donuts” rather than that she brings a passion for justice, then the blood of the innocent will be on our hands. We will have failed to fulfill the calling of the church.

So why do we have this strange feeling in our stomachs about this nomination? Because deep down we know that being a member of a “conservative evangelical church” may make you an evangelical, but it doesn’t make you a disciple.

I am very tired of those on the right defining what it means to be a Christian by what your beliefs are on hot button issues. THIS is the calling of the Church. And This is how you can tell a disciple. The Christian Right are neither masters of Heaven nor Hell. They are squirrels like me just trying to get a nut. It is apparent to me that too many Christians have lost focus on what the mission of the Church is. It is NOT to overturn Roe v Wade. It NOT to see that gay marriage is banned from America. It is NOT see that prayer is returned to public schools. It is not even to feed the poor, or provide relief for the homeless, or ANY of the stuff that we find churches doing these days. It is preach the Gospel. That is the mission. ALLLLLLLLLLLLLL the other stuff is only a means to that end. If your end Goal is not to proclaim the Gospel you are NOT doing the work of the Church.

They Took Prayer out the Schools and Let the Devil in.

I could really careless if “under God” is in the Pledge, or if the Commandments are displayed on a stone monument in front of a court house. This is immaterial to me. It is more important to God that the Commandments be in your heart than on some hunk of rock. It didn’t work for the children of Israel. They carried the ORIGINAL Stones, and for 40 years and grumbled and complained the whole time. So much so that God had to smite them with one thing or another from time to time, just remind them of what God has done for them. And when they finally came into the Promised Land they couldn’t stay right for more than 1 generation at a time before God had to allow an enemy to come in and oppress them for a while. These where God’s CHOSEN people.

I said all of that to say this. If we are worried about how God is represented in American life then BE LIGHT, BE SALT. The healing of America is in the hearts and minds of the Christians.

I find it very ironic and hypocritical that Christian Conservatives want the Government to do what Christians should be doing. They want the Government to advocate for Christ and stand for Christian principles. But when the rocks cry out they the Government but for Christians who refuse to glorify Christ in the manifestations of his love.

What we see a lot of today is patriotism, disguised as a genuine love for Christ. We should stop trying to be a Christian Nation and be strive to be a Nation of Christians. In the end it will not matter from which nation you come from anyway. America is part of the WORLD and if you read the end of the Bible the fate of the world is sealed.

Yesterday, I went nearly the whole day before realizing that it was the 4th anniversary of 9/11. You don’t even have to say the year anymore for people to understand what you are talking about. Its like the day itself is a superstar like Cher, Madonna, or Oprah that you don’t have e to say their last name. (What is Cher’s last name anyway?). Anyway, I went to church, attended my nieces Christening, took a nap, took the family to the park for a few hours, it was beautiful sunny day, did some shopping, got some dinner, tried to get my kids into bed on time, failed, put together a gliding rocking chair, and fell a sleep on the couch. Watched the ending of ‘Ocean’s Eleven’, which went of at 11:30 PM EDT. It wasn’t until the news came on, and it had all of the 9/11 memorial services, around the Del-Valley that I got up and checked the calendar.

I felt a guilty for not remembering, like forgetting your wife’s birthday. You are supposed to remember. At the same time we have lived with the memory of that day and of those times every day since. Everything has a 9/11 tie in, we went to war because of 9/11. We re-elcted a President for 9/11. 9/11 dictates our energy policy. 9/11 dictates our relations with Mexico, & S. America. Can’t even go to McDonald s and and order French fries, I’m sorry Freedom Fies, and not think of 9/11.

After 4 years of living with 9/11, I am thankful for a pleasant day of rest and worship, without it.

Nagin Interview
Dap: Xenophon