Murder

I would have subtitled this video "America's New Civil War".

From the production company :
The New York Times and the Washington Post have recently reported on the "System of Neglect," namely, the state of immigration detention center conditions. As told by her sister June Everett, watch the story of Sandra Kenley, a 52- year-old grandmother, who after living in the U.S. legally for 33 years, was subjected to these very conditions and died in immigration detention.

Not all black and/or colored people in this country believed the very black OJ Simpson was "not guilty" in the death of his very white ex-wife, Nicole Brown. I believe he conspired to kill the mother of his children. I also believe was physically involved in the scene of the crime --if not during, then after the deed was done. Even though I believe he got away with murder in ways more Shakespearean that I would care to count, what I do agree with everybody who says the OJ Simpson murder trial was historic.

First, it gave the common person a closer look at the criminal justice system. It taught more than a few people the nuances of being tried for murder vis a vis manslaughter or homicide. There's no going back to trial once aquitted for murder; a painful realization to the millions who thought trying OJ Simpson on that count was a good idea.

Yet the most important lesson learned by the Simpson trial was how far the United States was socially from the days of "To kill a mockingbird". Why? The OJ Simpson trial proved that money and infuence can indeed a black man a "not guilty" verdict.

Which is why, when I read of Mr. Simpson's being held in a county jail without bail, I couldn't help but feel that justice, although deferred, will finally be served. OJ Simpson is waiting looking down the barrel of 30 years in prison for, of all things, stealing "back" his own football memoribilia from associates he claims were going to sell it without his consent.

Little by little I am getting more media traction and, quite frankly, I am down with that. I am going to post about a TV appearance I made on NY-ABC about two weeks ago but right now I am going to point to you to Farai Chideya's show on NPR, "News and Notes". I was on the show's Blogger Roundtable with Baratunde Thursoton in NYC and Avery Tooley in Washington DC shooting the breeze on the black elite's split between Obama and Hillary, on how Obama is redefining blackness and, more somberly, on the LaVena Johson case.

These 20 minutes are, by far, the funnest I have had in a loooong time. I used to be a voice over artist and, quite frankly, if I had to choose between being in front of a camera or microphone and typing, I would go for the talking --because its easier on the body. And as I said that, I still have my issues when it comes to on-camera work, but that's topic for a whole 'nother post.

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Fellow Culture Kitchen writer, Leo Igwe, from Nigeria, recently wrote about a murder in Nigeria where a mob tore a teacher apart because she was perceived as "defaming the Koran." He uses this incident to discuss the hypocrisy of religious fundamentalism where pieces of paper are considered sacred, but human life expendable.

Today Salon.com has another story of Fanatics Gone Wild, this time in Iraq. It seems that the traditional practice of honor killings is alive and well in post-Saddam Iraq.

Several readers have brought to our attention a truly horrible story: last month, Du'a Khalil Aswad, a 17-year-old Kurdish girl in Iraq, was stoned to death as an "honor killing" for presumably having a relationship with a Sunni Muslim boy. (She was a member of a minority Kurdish religious group called Yezidi.) Unfortunately, the fact that a girl was murdered for "honor" isn't the news here. The story has recently garnered attention because cell phone videos have surfaced of the killing itself.

...here is a description from The Assyrian National News Agency:

"In a short mobile video clip which appears to have been taken by locals at [the scene] of the murder, the girl is seen being ambushed on her way home by a group of up to 1000 men who were waiting for her to return; the men killed her in the most brutal way possible, by throwing large stones on her head. The following clips show that while she is alive and crying for help she is taunted and kicked in her stomach until someone finishes her off by throwing a large stone on her face. From the clips it appears that the girl was first stripped naked to symbolize that she had dishonored her family and her Yezidi religion. She is lying on the road naked while her smashed face is covered with blood and still breathing."

The face of a racist murderer : James Ford Seale

It took 43 years for the families of Henry Dee and Charles Moore to close the case on their murders but they've finally done it.

People believed that for 43 years the Ku Klux Klansman who killed them was dead. That was until a Canadian reporter and a team that included family members of the victims found the man in 2005 living miles away from the scene of the crime.

My first reaction is to say, "Amazing". Yet, there is only one obvious question to ask about this case : How the hell did this man walk free for 43 years? Oh right, he retired as a deputy sheriff.

Hat tip to Rox.
____________________________________________

Mississippi Alt-Weekly Revealed Indicted Klansman Was Still Alive
Source: AAN press release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WASHINGTON, D.C., January 24, 2007 -- The federal government today charged reputed Klansman James Ford Seale -- reported as dead by media for several years -- for his role in the kidnapping murders of two young black hitchhikers, Henry Dee and Charles Moore, in 1964 in Meadville, Mississippi, near Natchez. Seale's alleged accomplice, Charles Marcus Edwards, has not been charged and is expected to testify against Seale. The Department of Justice has granted Edwards immunity for his testimony.

Prolific cartoon creator Joseph Barbera dies at 95 - USATODAY.com, or yabba-dabba-doo Joe.

Argus Leader Media - News | Son: Dad back at work 'sooner rather than later', or he's not dead yet.

Penguins offer evidence of global warming - Yahoo! News, or how Adelie Penguins are memorializing the death of Antartica with their southern shuffle.

Graham to decide burial site with wife - Yahoo! News, or how not to raise children to be vulture-like money-grubbing bastards; 'cause you know the one son who wants them at the museum wants to sell tickets to their cript. Family values my ass.

Independent Online Edition > Crime| Litvinenko detectives may follow German toxic trail, or how in blog's name do you smuggle ten million dollars worth of polonium to kill a Russian spy?

2nd baby dies of virulent bacterium - Los Angeles Times, or another good reason to have your baby anywhere but a hospital.

Las night, from AP :

Any hopes of commercial reward were quickly overwhelmed by near universal revulsion to last week's announcement — from those who knew Goldman and Brown, from booksellers and advertisers, even from Fox News Channel personality Bill O'Reilly.

A dozen Fox network affiliates had already said they would not air the two-part sweeps month special, and numerous stores had either declined to sell the book or had promised to donate any profits to charity.

"I really don't think there would have been very many advertisers who would have been willing to participate in this show," said Brad Adgate of the ad buying firm Horizon Media.

With little advertising, Fox would miss the chance to profit from the show. If there were no advertisers, the show wouldn't even be rated by Nielsen Media Research — so the number of people watching would have done nothing to help Fox's season average, he said.

The cancellation was a stunning setback for ReganBooks — an imprint of HarperCollins — and Judith Regan, who had labeled the book and interview Simpson's "confession." She insisted that she had done it not for money, but as a victim of domestic violence anxious to face down a man she believed got away, literally, with murder.

I am writing this post if only because Roxanne Cooper pinged me this morning about the woman who gives a face to the expression media whore.

Rox was brainstorming with Amanda Marcotte and they came up with the idea of having a Dear Judith national campaign, urging her to donate ALL NET PROCEEDS from the sale of OJ Simpson's book to organizations that help women escape from living in abusive relationships.

Jill at Feministe is on the case as well.

Why it's taken me this long to write about the recycled OJ Simpson scandal? Well, words failed me. As Michael over at The Daily Gotham : Michael wrote, it seemed so much like a hoax that when I found out it was true, well, I was feklempt.

He finds the words that escaped me:

Bush's idea of staying the course is insane on almost all levels. Stay the course on a stagnant economy? Why? Stay the course on global warming? Stupid and a missed economic opportunity! Stay the course on al-Qaeda? Bush STILL doesn't seem to care about catching bin Laden, the man who actually attacked America. Stay the course on Iraq? The course in Iraq is a spiral of violence that is beyond Civil War. Civil War implies two organized sides. Iraq is descending into the chaos of Afghanistan and Somalia, the exact kind of chaos that ENCOURAGES al-Qaeda and destablilizes the entire region.

The latest sign that he Iraq quagmire is an out of control mess that Bush has fumbled about every way he can is the fact that Iraqi academics are being killed at an enormous rate and those who survive are fleeing the nation as fast as they can.

From Salon.com:

Gunmen killed the Shiite dean of Baghdad University's school of administration and economics along with his wife and son on Thursday, four days after the murder of a prominent Sunni academic.

Jassim al-Asadi was driving with his family in the northern Baghdad neighborhood of Azamiyah when unidentified assailants pulled alongside and opened fire, police Lt. Ahmed Ibrahim said.

The shooting follows the killing on Monday of geologist Essam al-Rawi, head of the University Professor's Union and a senior member of the hardline Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars, which is believed to have links to the anti-Shiite insurgency raging against U.S. forces and their Iraqi allies.