RACE RELATIONS BLOG

Sunday, December 30, 2007

New videotape of Bhutto shooting emerges (video here)





Pakistan awaits election decision


ISLAMABAD - Pakistani electoral officials hold an emergency meeting on Monday to decide whether to go ahead with a January poll in a nation plunged into crisis by the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.
Bhutto's party chose her son and husband on Sunday to succeed her, but doubts grew about whether the parliamentary election aiming to shift Pakistan from military to civilian rule would take place as planned on Jan. 8.
Her 19-year-old son Bilawal, introduced at a news conference in Naudero in the south as Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, said the party's long struggle for democracy would avenge her death. "My mother always said, democracy is the best revenge," he said.
Bhutto's killing in a suicide attack on Thursday stoked bloodshed across the country and rage against President Pervez Musharraf, casting doubts on nuclear-armed Pakistan's stability and its transition to civilian rule.

Monday, January 22, 2007

Mexicans vow to force Blacks out of Los Angeles (video here)


The headlines are among the most stark documenting gang violence. A Latino gang member, without saying a word, guns down a 14-year-old black girl standing on a sidewalk. A black gang member shoots a Latino toddler point-blank in the chest.

For the most part, though, the role racial animosity has played in gang crime has gone unexamined, largely undocumented in crime statistics and often tamped down by politicians and law enforcement officials anxious about inflaming tensions.

That changed this month when Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Police Chief William J. Bratton and L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca all spoke with unusual candor of their concern that an increasing number of gang crimes appear to be born out of racial hatred. In a few instances, the Los Angeles Police Department has identified Latino gangs they say are indiscriminately targeting African American residents in what appear to be campaigns to drive blacks from some neighborhoods.

The acknowledgment by top officials, some activists say, has been a long time coming.

"What is happening is similar to small earthquakes taking place along a major fault line," said Khalid Shah, executive director of Stop the Violence Increase the Peace Foundation, who said he has heard from numerous communities across the region reporting rises in racially motivated gang attacks. "Ultimately the danger is that there will be an explosion, particularly, I think, if we put our heads in the sand and try to act like this issue isn't real."

But getting a handle on how much gang violence is rooted in racism is difficult.

Saturday, January 20, 2007

UFO frenzy ignited by Air Force officer Others report strange phenomenon, digital expert views possible 'pilot' (STORY)


A retired Air Force colonel who photographed mysterious, colorful lights hovering over western Arkansas last week has ignited a frenzy of interest in unexplained airborne phenomena, as WND has received numerous reports of similar sightings across the U.S., while a digital expert has filtered the pictures to reveal startling images of what he says could be the "pilot" of the unidentified craft.

"I believe these lights were not of this world, and I feel a duty and responsibility to come forward," said Col. Brian Fields, who spent nearly 32 years in the military piloting F-16 fighter jets. "I have no idea what they were."

Thursday, January 18, 2007

‘Mean girls’ trend points to deeper problem (video)


Even the officer leading the police investigation admits that the video of three New York girls beating up a classmate — widely available for a time on MySpace.com — is hard to take.

“Every time I watch it — the second time you watch it, the third time — it’s not any easier than the first time,” Suffolk County Lt. Robert Edwards said Thursday in an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Jansing. “It’s pretty traumatic and kind of graphic.”

But you need to watch it. Psychologists and educators say it points to a disturbing trend that is being left unchecked by parents and school officials: the eagerness of American girls to seek approbation by flaunting increasingly outrageous behavior.

Suffolk County police arrested three teenage girls this week and said they were the assailants seen kicking, punching and pulling the hair of a 13-year-old girl last month. Several boys could be seen watching the beating but doing nothing, and Edwards said further arrests were possible.

American Idol's ratings explode Whopping 36.9 million watch season’s second night, 17% above last year's


PASADENA, Calif. - The parade of awful amateurs on “American Idol” attracted viewers in staggering numbers this week as the series continues to grow in popularity.

An estimated 36.9 million people watched the two-hour special on Fox on Wednesday night, down only slightly from the 37.3 million who tuned in for Tuesday’s two-hour season premiere, according to Nielsen Media Research.

They were the two biggest nights of prime-time entertainment on Fox since it came onto the air nearly two decades ago.

Mo. Couple Say They Think Son Was Abused


UNION, Mo. (AP) -- The parents of a Missouri teen told Oprah Winfrey in a show airing Thursday that their son hasn't told them directly but they believe he was sexually abused during the more than four years he was missing.
"OK, I'm going to go there and ask you, what do you think happened? Do you think he was sexually abused?" Winfrey asked Craig and Pam Akers, parents of 15-year-old Shawn Hornbeck.



Both nodded and said, "Yes."

Chinese test missile obliterates satellite


WASHINGTON (CNN) -- China last week successfully used a missile to destroy an orbiting satellite, U.S. government officials told CNN on Thursday, in a test that could undermine relations with the West and pose a threat to satellites important to the U.S. military.

According to a spokesman for the National Security Council, the ground-based, medium-range ballistic missile knocked an old Chinese weather satellite from its orbit about 537 miles above Earth. The missile carried a "kill vehicle" and destroyed the satellite by ramming it.


Aviation Week and Space Technology first reported the test: "Details emerging from space sources indicate that the Chinese Feng Yun 1C (FY-1C) polar orbit weather satellite launched in 1999 was attacked by an asat (anti-satellite) system launched from or near the Xichang Space Center."

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Japan, China: N. Korea test unacceptable, shots fired across Korean border


BEIJING - Japan and China agreed Sunday that a North Korea nuclear test "cannot be tolerated" and that Pyongyang should return unconditionally to six-party negotiations on its nuclear programs, the Japanese prime minister said.
Shinzo Abe, speaking to reporters at the end of a day of meetings in Beijing, said he and China's President Hu Jintao agreed that a North Korean nuclear test would be unacceptable.

"We need to prevent a nuclear North Korea," Abe said. "We saw eye-to-eye that North Korea's announcement of a nuclear test cannot be tolerated because it is a great threat to East Asia and the international community

A midday incursion Saturday by North Korean troops into the southern side of the no-man's-land separating North and South Korea only stoked tensions.

South Korean soldiers rattled off 40 warning shots at the five communist troops who crossed the center line of the Demilitarized Zone.

It was unclear whether the North Korean advance was intended as a provocation, or was an attempt to go fishing at a nearby stream, an official at South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said on condition of anonymity, citing official policy. No one was hurt, and the North Koreans retreated.

While such border skirmishes are not unheard of, they are relatively rare

Saturday, October 07, 2006

Pervez Musharraf Meets Jon Stewart (video)


Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf visited Jon Stewart on The Daily Show this week to promote his new memoir In the Line of Fire (Free Press). Stewart graciously offered the president some jasmine green tea (a traditional offering in Pakistan) and a Twinkie. Then moved in for the killer opening question, "Where is Osama bin Laden?" Musharraf didnt' bat an eye, answering that he didn't know, but that if Stewart did he would gladly follow him to the terror leader's location. It was pretty surreal watching General Musharraf laughing, exchanging pleasantries and even cracking jokes about president Bush and the Iraq War (it has made us less safe, according to Musharraf).

Musharraf is fluent in English and uses idioms easily. He's incredibly media savvy. His publisher should be ecstatic -- he's a publicist's dream.

Friday, October 06, 2006

West Point buries first cadet from ‘Class of 9/11’


WEST POINT, N.Y. - The first member of West Point's "Class of 9/11" to die in combat was buried at the military academy Tuesday, two weeks after she was killed by a bomb at the head of a convoy in Iraq.

2nd Lt. Emily Perez, 23, was leading a platoon when a roadside bomb exploded Sept. 12 south of Baghdad. She was the first female West Point graduate to die in Iraq and the highest-ranking black and Hispanic woman cadet in the school's history.

Somali man in U.S. charged with killing his 4 children


LOUISVILLE, Kentucky A Somali man who went to police to say he had killed his family was charged with murdering his four young children and attacking his wife Friday.
Said Biyad, 42, had an argument with his estranged wife, Fatuma Amir, 29, over the children, police said. Biyad Amir with a blunt instrument before turning on the children, three girls and a boy, said Lt. Col. Phil Turner, an assistant chief of police.
"We believe she was assaulted first and then the children killed," Turner said.
Biyad was charged with four counts of murder and one count of criminal assault, Turner said. Biyad went to police headquarters around 9 a.m. EDT Friday and told police, "I've just killed my family," Turner said.
The three girls were ages 8, 7 and 4, and the boy was about to turn 3, Turner said. He said police do not yet know how the children were killed.

Sunday, April 23, 2006

Latino singers retool US National Anthem


Are you fucking kidding me? They changed the Star Spangeled Banner? What? Enough is enough. They have crossed the line this time. Do they think this will help there cause? By changing our fucking National Anthem!


NEW YORK — Mexican pop diva Gloria Trevi, Puerto Rican reggaeton Ivy Queen and Tito El Bambino and other Latino artists are recording a Spanish-language version of the U.S. national anthem in a show of support for migrants in the United States.

The Latino-oriented record label Urban Box Office (UBO) said Saturday it plans to release the new version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" to coincide with the U.S. Senate's debate on immigration legislation in the next few days.

Congressional debate over immigration bills proposing everything from toughened border security to the legalization of undocumented migrants in America have triggered huge demonstrations across the United States in recent weeks.

"We chose to re-record 'The Star-Spangled Banner' to show our solidarity with the undocumented immigrants and their quest for basic civil rights," UBO President Adam Kidron said in a news release.

Thursday, April 20, 2006

Bloods and Crips melee caught on tape (VIDEO)



Awesome footage from San Diego California of a full blown brawl at a concert. Watch how the Nation of Islam tries to keep the two sides from fighting.

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Man goes crazy on Arab Store Owners (video)


Now this is an amazing video from Florida of a dude who goes into a gas station and starts destroying everything. He is mad about September 11th and muslim violence. He demands that the Arabs leave America and he plans to do something about it starting right now. He then proceeds to smash up everything and pours lighter fluid all over the store, the police arrive just as he is about to light it up. WATCH IT!