I know you're sick of it, but a very interesting read about hate crimes by Arianna.

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TB2K spinoff uncensored : One Thread

I have taken the liberty of highlighting some intersting points...

Hate Crimes Legislation: The NAACP's Misguided Priority by Arianna Huffington With a week to go before the election, the NAACP is expending a lot of capital, both political and financial, on what at first blush sounds like a good idea: a high-profile ad campaign for hate crimes legislation. A closer look, however, reveals that this campaign has more to do with the sordid realities of electoral politics than with waging the good fight for social justice.

It's like the old joke about the cop who comes upon a drunk crawling around under a streetlight. "What are you doing?" he asks. "Looking for my keys," the drunk answers. "Where did you lose them?" "Back at the bar." "Well, why are you looking for them here?" "Because the lighting is so much better."

This is the same muddled logic behind the NAACP's focus on hate crimes legislation. Like the drunk following the light, many African-American leaders, with a political investment in the Democratic party, follow any exploitable difference between Al Gore and George Bush -- leaving the real crises, like so many car keys, forgotten and far behind.

"This focus on hate crimes legislation is stunning and virtually inexplicable," civil rights leader and president of TransAfrica Randall Robinson told me. "How can this be as important as incarceration rates, prison building, the inequities of the drug war, the private prison industry? Yet hate crimes legislation is taking priority over all these troubling trends that affect millions of African Americans."

I asked NAACP chairman Julian Bond why hate crime legislation had been moved to the front burner, ahead of more urgent needs. "I grant you that hate crimes legislation is a smaller matter," he replied, "but if there had been hate crimes legislation, all three of the men who dragged James Byrd to death would have been put to death in Texas." "But you don't even believe in the death penalty," I pointed out. "That's right, I don't," he answered.

Such are the contortions of venerable political leaders when partisan politics -- in this case, inflating the importance of an issue on which there is a clear difference between Bush and Gore -- takes precedence over the fundamental interests of their constituents, consistently ignored by both candidates. This is not to say that we should oppose hate crimes legislation. It's rather that expending political capital on it is a sleight of hand that gives the impression of doing the right thing for the most vulnerable while, in fact, they continue to be, at best, abandoned and forgotten, at worst locked up and forgotten.

Seventy-four percent of those jailed for drug offenses are African Americans, and we're incarcerating black men at eight times the rate of white men. Indeed, the total number of blacks in state prisons has doubled on the watch of a Democratic administration, and the heady novelty of being "tough on drugs" shows no sign of wearing off. But it's hard to draw distinctions between the presidential candidates on these injustices since both of them are equally culpable of refusing even to address them.

It's no wonder that young African-American activists are increasingly disenchanted with the old guard. "We work with low-income people of color all day, every day," says Van Jones, director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, which works to reform the criminal justice system. "And all I hear about is bad schools, police harassment and brutality, and the appalling racial bias of the drug war. Anybody who came around trying to get people marching and excited about stopping 'hate crimes' would have a really, really tough sell. I just can't believe the NAACP is pushing so hard for this."

What is hardly mentioned in this debate -- or the NAACP's expensive ad campaign -- is that 45 states already have hate crimes legislation. And so far, these laws have been a blunt weapon wielded disproportionately against those they were designed to protect. Sound familiar?

"It is demonstrable," says Christopher Plourd, a criminal defense lawyer who has represented a number of clients charged with hate crimes, "that these laws hit the poor and minorities hardest. It wasn't meant that way, but that's the way it is." In Los Angeles, for instance, more than half of the hate crime charges filed in 1999 were filed against minority defendants.

"We already have too many mechanisms for arbitrary sentence-enhancement," Jones says, "which cops and district attorneys invariably overuse against people of color. In the same way that they don't go on white college campuses trying to enforce drug laws but come to the 'hood, they'll use these new hate crime laws against the NAACP's own constituents."

With 88 percent of blacks voting Democratic in the last election, an increase in black turnout could be the difference between victory and defeat for Gore. But even with this political trump card up its sleeve, the NAACP leadership has made no demands from Gore on drug policy reform -- like calling a halt to the wholesale jailing of young people of color, doing away with draconian mandatory minimums or appointing a drug czar who'll put the emphasis on treatment rather than incarceration. In fact, the NAACP is spending $9 million on an unprecedented effort to get out the black vote for a candidate who hasn't said a word about policies so clearly detrimental to these voters.

Instead of upping the ante on issues that affect the lives of hundreds of thousands of African Americans, they've been bluffed into bashing Bush on hate crimes legislation -- turning a winning hand into just another squandered opportunity.



-- Uncle Deedah (unkeed@yahoo.com), November 02, 2000

Answers

Black Lies, White Lies : The Truth According to Tony Brown

A real eye-opener. Should be available in most local public libraries.

-- Bingo1 (howe9@shentel.net), November 02, 2000.


Also good is "It's the Little Things...The Everyday Interactions that Get under the Skin of Blacks and Whites"...by Lena Williams. Brand new on the shelves and a real eye opener.

Arianna is a racist..IMHO..BTw.

-- kritter (kritter@adelphia.net), November 02, 2000.


>> But even with this political trump card up its sleeve, the NAACP leadership has made no demands from Gore on drug policy reform -- like calling a halt to the wholesale jailing of young people of color, doing away with draconian mandatory minimums or appointing a drug czar who'll put the emphasis on treatment rather than incarceration. In fact, the NAACP is spending $9 million on an unprecedented effort to get out the black vote for a candidate who hasn't said a word about policies so clearly detrimental to these voters. <<

You have no idea how frustrating it is for me to realize this is 100% correct. These are issues that Gore should be talking about. Nader does address them. Ralph puts these issues in every speech. He knows that the drug war as it is currently pursued is a disaster (especially for young blacks) and must end.

The NAACP and Sierra Club leadership are completely frozen in the joints like advanced arthritics.

-- Brian McLaughlin (brianm@ims.com), November 02, 2000.


"From Hate Rhetoric to Hate Crime: A Link Acknowledged Too Late"

http://humanist.net/publications/humanist/articles/scott.html

Dished up for Deedah

-- flora (***@__._), November 02, 2000.


*PRAY=THY KINGDOM--THY WILL BE DONE* OTHERWISE YOUR WASTING YOUR BREATH!!

MAN CAN,T DO IT-IN PRESENT STATE!!

SPIN THOSE WHEEL'S-MAKE THOSE DEAL'S-NOT!!

THE SECRET=SURRENDER-CONTROL!

-- al-d. (DOGS@ZIANET.COM), November 02, 2000.



TONY BROWN IS A FRUIT LOOP WHO STATED THAT Y2K WAS A **WHITE PLOT** TO ELIMINATE BLACKS. THE BOOK CITED GOT THE FOLLOWING CRITIQUE AT AMAZON: ".....So he relies on weasel phrases like "could usefully be called" when he should be giving evidence. I watch his program, and he seems normal. This book is weird......" (MORE BELOW): http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0688151310/qid%3D973180145/sr% 3D1-11/002-8492421-3738426 1 out 
of 5 stars Bizarre Conspiracy Theories From Planet Tony Brown, August 16, 1999
Reviewer: A reader from Cydonia, Mars

At first, I thought that Tony Brown's "conspiracy" was a rhetorical device. You know, in the sense that impersonal global economic forces and (often, but not always) unconscious racist and/or bigoted mindsets produce a "conspiracy" to enslave or marginalize other social classes, races, countries, etc. But Tony Brown really means actual dues-paying, lodge-going, smoking-jacket-wearing, elitist secret societies with world-wide nefarious intentions. I think he wrote this while watching that TV series where outer space alien lizards that look like people but are really lizards are running the government and dating most of the really good-looking women. He sure doesn't offer evidence, probably because he's "preaching to the choir" and doesn't want to clutter our minds with facts. So he relies on weasel phrases like "could usefully be called" when he should be giving evidence. I watch his program, and he seems normal. This book is weird.

-- cpr (buytexas@swbell.net), November 02, 2000.

It is obvious to me you have not read Brown's book, cpr.

But since he had an opinion on Y2k which was WRONG, he is in your opinion a fruit loop. So be it. I never heard him speak of what you state he did regarding Y2k, and I watched many of his PBS shows during the late 1990's, including a few regarding Y2k. You may wish to check your facts again.

That review which you chose to quote (out of many, many positive ones on the site), bears no resemblance to the actual contents of the book. It is a distortion of major proportions.

Rich

-- Bingo1 (howe9@shentel.net), November 02, 2000.


Tony Brown believes the world is controlled by a Ruling Elite known as GUESS WHAT.....the ILLUMINATI.

I would neither waste my time nor my money reading anything written by anyone espousing such tripe.

-- cpr (buytexas@swbell.net), November 02, 2000.


Translation: I have no idea what I'm talking about, and I'm *proud* of it.

Personally, I'd never heard of Tony Brown before. But I'm amused at the description of "hate crimes" law as an arbitrary blunt instrument being used by those in power against those without power, rather than the other way around. Imagine that!

-- Flint (flintc@mindspring.com), November 02, 2000.


TRANSLATION FOR FLINT: YOU'RE STILL AN ASSHOLE. QUOTE:
'.......I just kept peeling this onion and what I found was there was a deliberate and systematic attempt, or system, of keeping people, Black and white, in a subservient position, Brown said. And I found that behind (this system) was a group of people who practice a political religion called Illuminism. This is a form of Devil worship...that opposes God (as most people perceive God)."
UNQUOTE

THIS IS TONY BROWN. LAST YEAR Y2K. THIS YEAR SOME OTHER BULLSHIT ISSUE TO RANT WITH HIS "CONSPIRACY THEORIES". HE SHOULD PARTNER WITH "MINISTER" LEWIS F. http://pnonews.com/Brown.htm Content-Type: text/html; charset=us- ascii; name="Brown.htm" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content- Disposition: inline; filename="Brown.htm" Content- Base: "http://pnonews.com/Brown.htm" Content- Location: "http://pnonews.com/Brown.htm" Home Tonybrow.gif (3367 bytes)Tony Brown Reveals The Ultimate Conspiracy by Helen Blue Imagine on January 1, 2000, you wake to a cold house with no electricity. The car won't start and the phone line is dead. You can't access your money in the bank and life as you know it has come to a grinding halt. While this may sound like a science fiction nightmare, this frightening scenario is based on a troublesome fact: Come January 1, 2000, most of the computers in the world will think it is January 1, 1900 and this glitch in program memory banks will cause these mighty information machines to crash. From that moment on, you will be living a Y2K nightmare, said award winning journalist and author Tony Brown in his new book: Empower The People: A 7 Step Plan To Overthrow The Conspiracy that Is Stealing Your Money and Freedom (William Morrow and Company). Whether it's the computer that tracks our nation's money supply or controls our missile defense system-if it hasn't been reengineered to recognize Year 2000 (Y2K), it will crash-or continue to operate but spin out inaccurate information, Brown writes in his book. Alerting the American public to the perils of the Y2K computer crisis and other perils that will effect life in the 21st Century is the crux of Brown's 372 page book about ongoing and long range global conspiracies and solutions for finding a way around them in the 21st Century. Brown, a respected journalist and a stickler for detail and research, said his book contains enough cloak and dagger scenarios and outlines of evil plots and conspiracies by secret cults to fill a Robert Ludlum spy novel. But, he maintains, the information in Empower The People is researched and points to an organized conspiracy by the world's richest families. His says these wealthy families control 90 percent of the world's wealth and are bent on maintaining a world order by causing chaos and confusion among the masses. I didn't start out to write a book like this, said Brown who was in Philadelphia recently on the first leg of a national book tour. I don't believe in secret helicopters or men in black suits. This book started out as a book on empowerment. I was looking for solutions as we move into the 21st Century. Brown said, however, that every time he got to a place where he could suggest a solution, he would find an obstacle. He said like peeling an onion, he began to unravel the plots and conspiracies that are stealing power and freedom from the general population. I just kept peeling this onion and what I found was there was a deliberate and systematic attempt, or system, of keeping people, Black and white, in a subservient position, Brown said. And I found that behind (this system) was a group of people who practice a political religion called Illuminism. This is a form of Devil worship...that opposes God (as most people perceive God). Brown said this elite group is composed of some 300 families who possess enormous financial wealth and keep their religion secret. He said group members practice deception and lying as a means of keeping the balance of power firmly in membership hands. This is a political religion, Brown said. And the members of the group have built themselves into various organizations, like the Freemasons. They have set up a secret inner core cell inside Freemasonry. I refer to them as the Illumanati Freemasons. In his book Brown states: The Black community is a planned failure. The Illuminati programmed Blacks to avoid self-empowerment. But he also points out that Blacks are not singled out for mistreatment. The government's economic policies have created a very huge class of have- nots, who are giving birth to a new breed of 21st Century patriots...the faces of these home-grown terrorists belong to farmers, teachers, television repairmen, aircraft workers, ordinary working Americans-mostly working poor, middle-to-low income White people... Brown said this all-powerful, worldwide society often engineers' global catastrophes in an effort to keep the masses weak and confused. He cites the Y2K computer glitch, a documented problem with the capacity to cause grave damage in less than two years as an example. The governments of the world have known about this problem for 30 years, Brown said. Why hasn't anyone done anything about it. It's because the (the Illuminati) want you on your knees. Essentially the Year 2000 problem, as it is called, is the result of a computer program that tells a computer to recognize the date by its last two digits. The year 1998 is read by a computer as 98. When 00 rolls around in 2000, computers that have not been reengineered will understand this to mean 1900. Brown said this simple error will cause an estimated 60 percent of computers worldwide to crash. While some big businesses and portions of the government are working towards fixing individual systems, Brown said it would take some one- half million programmers 10 years to correct all the computers in the world. But why aren't we training these people, Brown said. Why can't we train all these people coming off welfare for these high paying jobs? Carrying around a large white plastic bag filled with news clips and research papers, Brown is quick to share his ever mounting collection of facts that he says give proof and credence to his claims of conspiracy and world domination by a secret society of super rich families. All of what I'm saying is not Tony Brown, he said. These are not my opinions. I'm the messenger, not the message. I have to tell audiences this everywhere I go because they get so upset that they say, well wait a minute, you're making this up. But this is what I have read and this is what is documented, he continued. There are almost 1000 sources in the back of my book where you can go and check up on me. I recently met a man who had checked out all the references in the back of the book and he told me he had to leave Masonry because he didn't know what he was in. Clueing in the public on what they are in, is Tony Brown's mission. It's a cause that draws large audiences as his talks introduce controversial and thought provoking ideas and concepts. Copyright 1998, The Philadelphia New Observer, All Rights Reserved Web Design by Times Squared

-- cpr (buytexas@swbell.net), November 03, 2000.



TRANSLATION FOR FLINT: YOU'RE STILL AN ASSHOLE. QUOTE:
'.......I just kept peeling this onion and what I found was there was a deliberate and systematic attempt, or system, of keeping people, Black and white, in a subservient position, Brown said. And I found that behind (this system) was a group of people who practice a political religion called Illuminism. This is a form of Devil worship...that opposes God (as most people perceive God)."
UNQUOTE

THIS IS TONY BROWN. LAST YEAR Y2K. THIS YEAR SOME OTHER BULLSHIT ISSUE TO RANT WITH HIS "CONSPIRACY THEORIES". HE SHOULD PARTNER WITH "MINISTER" LEWIS F.
NOTE..... THE BANDWIDTH WASTED ON BROWN'S PROGRAM ON PBS IS FUNDED BY TAX PAYERS MONEY.
http://pnonews.com/Brown.htm Content-Type: text/html; charset=us- ascii; name="Brown.htm" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content- Disposition: inline; filename="Brown.htm" Content- Base: "http://pnonews.com/Brown.htm" Content- Location: "http://pnonews.com/Brown.htm" Home Tonybrow.gif (3367 bytes)Tony Brown Reveals The Ultimate Conspiracy by Helen Blue Imagine on January 1, 2000, you wake to a cold house with no electricity. The car won't start and the phone line is dead. You can't access your money in the bank and life as you know it has come to a grinding halt. While this may sound like a science fiction nightmare, this frightening scenario is based on a troublesome fact: Come January 1, 2000, most of the computers in the world will think it is January 1, 1900 and this glitch in program memory banks will cause these mighty information machines to crash. From that moment on, you will be living a Y2K nightmare, said award winning journalist and author Tony Brown in his new book: Empower The People: A 7 Step Plan To Overthrow The Conspiracy that Is Stealing Your Money and Freedom (William Morrow and Company). Whether it's the computer that tracks our nation's money supply or controls our missile defense system-if it hasn't been reengineered to recognize Year 2000 (Y2K), it will crash-or continue to operate but spin out inaccurate information, Brown writes in his book. Alerting the American public to the perils of the Y2K computer crisis and other perils that will effect life in the 21st Century is the crux of Brown's 372 page book about ongoing and long range global conspiracies and solutions for finding a way around them in the 21st Century. Brown, a respected journalist and a stickler for detail and research, said his book contains enough cloak and dagger scenarios and outlines of evil plots and conspiracies by secret cults to fill a Robert Ludlum spy novel. But, he maintains, the information in Empower The People is researched and points to an organized conspiracy by the world's richest families. His says these wealthy families control 90 percent of the world's wealth and are bent on maintaining a world order by causing chaos and confusion among the masses. I didn't start out to write a book like this, said Brown who was in Philadelphia recently on the first leg of a national book tour. I don't believe in secret helicopters or men in black suits. This book started out as a book on empowerment. I was looking for solutions as we move into the 21st Century. Brown said, however, that every time he got to a place where he could suggest a solution, he would find an obstacle. He said like peeling an onion, he began to unravel the plots and conspiracies that are stealing power and freedom from the general population. I just kept peeling this onion and what I found was there was a deliberate and systematic attempt, or system, of keeping people, Black and white, in a subservient position, Brown said. And I found that behind (this system) was a group of people who practice a political religion called Illuminism. This is a form of Devil worship...that opposes God (as most people perceive God). Brown said this elite group is composed of some 300 families who possess enormous financial wealth and keep their religion secret. He said group members practice deception and lying as a means of keeping the balance of power firmly in membership hands. This is a political religion, Brown said. And the members of the group have built themselves into various organizations, like the Freemasons. They have set up a secret inner core cell inside Freemasonry. I refer to them as the Illumanati Freemasons. In his book Brown states: The Black community is a planned failure. The Illuminati programmed Blacks to avoid self-empowerment. But he also points out that Blacks are not singled out for mistreatment. The government's economic policies have created a very huge class of have- nots, who are giving birth to a new breed of 21st Century patriots...the faces of these home-grown terrorists belong to farmers, teachers, television repairmen, aircraft workers, ordinary working Americans-mostly working poor, middle-to-low income White people... Brown said this all-powerful, worldwide society often engineers' global catastrophes in an effort to keep the masses weak and confused. He cites the Y2K computer glitch, a documented problem with the capacity to cause grave damage in less than two years as an example. The governments of the world have known about this problem for 30 years, Brown said. Why hasn't anyone done anything about it. It's because the (the Illuminati) want you on your knees. Essentially the Year 2000 problem, as it is called, is the result of a computer program that tells a computer to recognize the date by its last two digits. The year 1998 is read by a computer as 98. When 00 rolls around in 2000, computers that have not been reengineered will understand this to mean 1900. Brown said this simple error will cause an estimated 60 percent of computers worldwide to crash. While some big businesses and portions of the government are working towards fixing individual systems, Brown said it would take some one- half million programmers 10 years to correct all the computers in the world. But why aren't we training these people, Brown said. Why can't we train all these people coming off welfare for these high paying jobs? Carrying around a large white plastic bag filled with news clips and research papers, Brown is quick to share his ever mounting collection of facts that he says give proof and credence to his claims of conspiracy and world domination by a secret society of super rich families. All of what I'm saying is not Tony Brown, he said. These are not my opinions. I'm the messenger, not the message. I have to tell audiences this everywhere I go because they get so upset that they say, well wait a minute, you're making this up. But this is what I have read and this is what is documented, he continued. There are almost 1000 sources in the back of my book where you can go and check up on me. I recently met a man who had checked out all the references in the back of the book and he told me he had to leave Masonry because he didn't know what he was in. Clueing in the public on what they are in, is Tony Brown's mission. It's a cause that draws large audiences as his talks introduce controversial and thought provoking ideas and concepts. Copyright 1998, The Philadelphia New Observer, All Rights Reserved Web Design by Times Squared

-- cpr (buytexas@swbell.net), November 03, 2000.


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