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Congress Recommends Pardon For African American Legend
The US Congress has recommended that a presidential pardon should be granted to the first black world heavyweight boxing champion.
Jack Johnson won the title in 1908 but was later convicted of transporting white women across US state lines for immoral purposes.
Johnson served nearly one year in prison for what is now seen as a racially motivated conviction.
Congress stated that Johnson's success motivated other black athletes.
His 1908 victory over Tommy Burns prompted the search for a "Great White Hope" who could defeat the black man, but Johnson held the title until 1915.
After his conviction in 1913, Johnson fled the US, returning in 1920 to serve his term.
He returned to boxing but was unable to regain his title.
'Victim of the times'
The congressional resolution urges President George W Bush to grant Johnson a pardon.
It states that the conviction was racially motivated, prompted by his sporting success and his relationships with white women.
"He was a victim of the times and we need to set the record straight - clear his name - and recognise him for his groundbreaking contribution to the sport of boxing," said member of the House of Representatives Peter King, the author of the resolution.
US authorities had at first tried to unsuccessfully prosecute Johnson over his relationship with a white woman whom he later married.
A second white woman then testified that Johnson had transported her across state lines in violation of the Mann Act.
A similar resolution, sponsored by presidential candidate John McCain, now goes before the Senate for consideration. The US Congress has recommended that a presidential pardon should be granted to the first black world heavyweight boxing champion. ... more -
Biden calls Bush comments 'bull***t'
The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Joe Biden, D-Delaware, called President Bush’s comments accusing Sen. Barack Obama and other Democrats of wanting to appease terrorists "bulls**t” and said if the president disagrees so strongly with the idea of talking to Iran then he needs to fire his secretaries of State and Defense, both of whom Biden said have pushed to sit down with the Iranians.
“This is bullshit. This is malarkey. This is outrageous. Outrageous for the president of the United States to go to a foreign country, sit in the Knesset…and make this kind of ridiculous statement,” Biden said angrily in a brief interview just off the Senate floor.
“He’s the guy who’s weakened us. He’s the guy that’s increased the number of terrorists in the world. His policies have produced this vulnerability the United States has. His intelligence community pointed that out not me. The NIE has pointed that out and what are you talking about, is he going to fire Condi Rice? Condi Rice has talked about the need to sit down. So his first two appeasers are Rice and Gates. I hope he comes home and does something.”
He quoted Gates saying Wednesday that we “need to figure out a way to develop some leverage and then sit down and talk with them.” The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Joe Biden, D-Delaware, called President Bush’s comments accusing Sen. Barack Ob... more -
Time For A Revolution? Ask The Founding Fathers
From the fantastic HBO series, 'John Adams.' Inspiring yet sad to see this spirit is now lost in our Congress. It will be up to us to bring it back. We cannot fail these men and women who gave all they had to birth this country. From the fantastic HBO series, 'John Adams.' Inspiring yet sad to see this spirit is now lost in our Congress. It will be up... more
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Arrgh! Taxes!
VC2's regular ranter Michael Gleason tells us why he hates taxes.
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"Change Congress" Launched by Lawrence Lessig
Want to change the US Congress? Want to have publicly funded elections? Want to get rid of lobbyist and PAC influence? Then you want to join CHANGE CONGRESS, started by Lawrence Lessig. Check out the video here, then read the links below, then tell your friends. This is NOT Republican or Democrat or Libertarian or Green. It's Multi-Party. So, let's have a "Party."
Wired: "Stanford Law Professor Larry Lessig Bets 'Wikipedia' Approach Will Transform Congress"
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/03/stanford-law-p...
San Jose Mercury News: "Tech law expert to take on Congress"
http://www.mercurynews.com//ci_8635224?IADID
American Prospect, Tapped: "The Passion of Lessig"
http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month...
According to Lessig: "We are just getting started. The seeds are being planted and we need your help to get this effort rolling. This is going to take a multi-partisan effort on behalf all of Americans, not just Democrats and Republicans. Its not going to rely on million-dollar ad campaigns or celebrity endorsements from Hollywood. It's going to rely on people like you and me in our own districts and communities willing to challenge our political leaders and offer them the opportunity to help create a better form of government." Want to change the US Congress? Want to have publicly funded elections? Want to get rid of lobbyist and PAC influence? Then you want t... more -
Next Smithsonian exhibit may be portraits of museum executives doing "perp�...
Washingtonians - and others with big egos - have a portrait fetish that is obscene especially when it involves taxpayers money.
Even half that nealry 50 grand could have been significant funding for the non-profit Native American and environment projects I volunteer for in northern Michigan.
More comment after a few sentences of the article and a look at this portrait:
Portrait Cost Indian Museum $48,500: Senators, Trustees Question Spending By Former Director
By James V. Grimaldi
Washington Post Staff Writer
W. Richard West Jr., the founding director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, spent $48,500 in museum funds to commission a portrait of himself.
The portrait of West by New York artist Burton Silverman hangs in the patrons' lounge on the fourth floor of the flagship museum, which is dedicated to the arts and culture of American Indians.
Silverman said West picked him after he saw a portrait Silverman had done of former Smithsonian secretary Robert McCormick Adams.
The Adams portrait, completed about a decade earlier, was smaller and cost about half as much.
Rest of the Washington Post story:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...
Portrait:
http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2...
[IMG http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee225/YOOPERNEWSMAN/...[/IMG]
Native American on Native American crime - much like black on black crime - is especially insidious because so much good could have been done for First Nations peoples heritage with this wasted and misappropriated money.
It's also a crime against taxpayers and common decency.
Spending $48,500 on a self portrait is among the disgraceful financial crimes of W. Richard West Jr., the founding director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian.
For this crime to occur in the hallowed halls of the Smithsonian shows again thievery knows no class boundaries - and should be treated just as severely as the poor man who sticks a gun into the face of a 7-11 clerk.
The Smithsonian needs to be thoroughly audited from top to bottom as this is at least the second huge scandal to tarnish its once respected reputation.
No doubt it's only the tip of the fiduciary iceberg that's tearing through the Smithsonian's highbrow richly-protected hull.
I do volunteer work for several Native American related non-profits whose budgets are much smaller than even the cost of that disgraceful portrait.
And the suggestion that it could not have been painted by an American Indian artist is as laughable as it is sickening with a hint of racism against one's own culture.
Even the portrait stance is borrowed and unoriginal, as a buttoned-down Mr. West gazes thoughtfully off to the east, his coat hanging on a crooked forefinger and tossed over suspenders with his soft thumb and the remaining fingers forming the "OK" sign.
The Washington ego commands that a portrait much be painted to prove one's importance.
No doubt many law offices, banking institutions and the halls of officialdom are plastered with the self-aggrandizing crafty art.
Prior to the Polaroid, a self-portrait may have been necessary to preserve one's historic legacy but in today's world it's merely a measure of one's self-importance that is more often scoffed at than admired by those it's meant to impress. Perhaps, a modern definition of irony.
Maybe the next exhibit at the Smithsonian will be portraits of former executives doing the proverbial "perp walk" - cuffed and stuffed for perp-etuity. Washingtonians - and others with big egos - have a portrait fetish that is obscene especially when it involves taxpayers money. ... more -
Will DC Finally Get Representation Along With Taxation?
"The motion coming up on the Senate floor would merely clear the way for lawmakers to consider the bill." Some oppose DC getting a Representative in the House because the District is not a state. So what's the ruling on those US land masses that call themselves "Commonwealth" (Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts) hmmmmmm? "The motion coming up on the Senate floor would merely clear the way for lawmakers to consider the bill." Some oppose DC get... more
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Petraeus Can't Heal the Iraq Divide
General David Petraeus came to Capitol Hill Monday with the weight of history on his four-starred shoulders. Not since April 29, 1967, when General William Westmoreland tried to sell the Vietnam War to a querulous Congress, has a military officer's testimony been so freighted with import for the nation's military, its foreign policy, and its place in the world for the coming generation. And like Westmoreland before him as one Democratic congressman even noted during the hearing Petraeus appeared as a marked-down commodity, his prescription for the future in Iraq already scrutinized and discarded by Democrats who see him increasingly as a shill for the White House. General David Petraeus came to Capitol Hill Monday with the weight of history on his four-starred shoulders. Not since April 29, 1967,... more
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Craig decided not to seek re-election before scandal broke
Advisers of Senator Larry Craig claimed that the beleaguered Republican had already decided even before his recent arrest for soliciting sex in a Minneapolis public bathroom that he would not seek re-election in 2008. Craig was supposedly looking to return home to his home state of Idaho after deciding with his wife Suzanne that almost three decades in U.S. Congress had been long enough. Advisers of Senator Larry Craig claimed that the beleaguered Republican had already decided even before his recent arrest for soliciti... more
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Study: US should lower profile in Iraq
U.S. forces in Iraq should be reduced significantly, according to a new study on Iraq's security forces that inflamed debate in Congress on how quickly that can happen without hurling the country into chaos. U.S. forces in Iraq should be reduced significantly, according to a new study on Iraq's security forces that inflamed debate in C... more
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Homeland Security Department woes cited
In a stinging assessment, congressional auditors say the Homeland Security Department has fallen far short of meeting its performance expectations in the first four years of its existence. In a stinging assessment, congressional auditors say the Homeland Security Department has fallen far short of meeting its performance ... more
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Sen. Craig may reconsider resignation, spokesman says
Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho may reconsider his resignation if he is cleared of a disorderly conduct charge to which he pleaded guilty last month, his spokesman told CNN on Tuesday. Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho may reconsider his resignation if he is cleared of a disorderly conduct charge to which he pleaded guilty la... more
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For Idaho Paper And Reporter, Craig Story Posed a Moral Dilemma
The kind of dilemma facing the Statesman has played out repeatedly in recent years as news organizations have grappled with secondhand accounts about political figures and questionable sexual conduct. Among the issues: What is an adequate level of proof? Are affairs or the hiring of prostitutes, even if documented, fit to print? Or do they require an element of public hypocrisy, such as gay sex involving a lawmaker who holds forth on the sanctity of marriage? The kind of dilemma facing the Statesman has played out repeatedly in recent years as news organizations have grappled with secondhand... more
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The Most Feared Man on the Hill?
For three years now, Roger's been a feared one-man machine, "outing," he says, nearly three dozen senior political and congressional staffers, White House aides and, most damagingly, Congress members on his blog. On Capitol Hill, a typical phone call from Rogers -- "Are you gay?" he'd ask -- is "a call from Satan himself," says a former high-ranking congressional staffer whose name is on the list. For three years now, Roger's been a feared one-man machine, "outing," he says, nearly three dozen senior political and ... more
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Brokeback Hill
Video profile of gay blogger Mike Rogers, whose recent outing of Idaho Senator Larry Craig is only the latest in his series of exposés of politicos on the Hill. Video profile of gay blogger Mike Rogers, whose recent outing of Idaho Senator Larry Craig is only the latest in his series of exposés... more
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Why is Larry Craig waiting until the end of the month to leave the Senate?
Probably to give the Idaho governor time to vet and appoint his successor. He'll also try to finish up some businesshis Senate Web site says his office will use the extra time to wrap up unresolved complaints from constituents about passports, Social Security, and pensions. Craig might also want to help make sure his staffers can find other jobs. (Slate) Probably to give the Idaho governor time to vet and appoint his successor. He'll also try to finish up some businesshis Senate W... more
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Craig Blogger Responds to Resignation
Michael Rogers, the blogger who outed Larry Craig, responds to the senator's resignation.
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Larry Craig Resignation Speech
As expected ... but now what? What does this mean for the Republican Party and national attitudes about closeted homosexuality?
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Craig will "fight like hell"
As expected, the senator steps down. His next battle: trying to get his guilty plea expunged from his record.
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Senate Landscape Favors Dems
Politicians have already been prepping for the resignation of Sen. John Warner of Virginia for some time. Coincidentally, the possible favorite to replace Warner in the Senate is another Warner Mark Warner, newly elected governor of the state. Politicians have already been prepping for the resignation of Sen. John Warner of Virginia for some time. Coincidentally, the possible... more
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U.S. Congress
