"Al Sharpton says report of FBI cooperation not new" Associated Press April 09, 2014
NEW YORK — The Rev. Al Sharpton admitted on Tuesday that he helped the FBI investigate New York Mafia figures in the 1980s, even making secret recordings that appeared to help bring down a mob boss.
But at a news conference, Sharpton insisted he never considered himself a confidential informant, despite a report identifying him as the ‘‘CI-7’’ referenced in recently released court records.
Why did Whitey Bulger just pass through my mind?
‘‘I was never told I was an informant with a number,’’ Sharpton told reporters at his Harlem headquarters in response to the report posted on The Smoking Gun website. ‘‘In my own mind, I was not an informant. I was cooperating with an investigation.’’
Denial is something to see, as is sophistry and rationalization! Something even monsters do!
The report’s timing became a distraction for Sharpton a day before he was to host President Obama as the keynote speaker at the annual convention of his civil rights group, the National Action Network. The MSNBC host complained that he was unfairly portrayed as a turncoat mob associate instead of a victim in front-page tabloid stories featuring headlines like ‘‘REV RAT’’ and 30-year-old photos of him when he was overweight and wore his hair in a bouffant.
He soaked it up when he was telling the Brawley lie -- and now he has a TV show!
For about two years, the FBI enlisted Sharpton to record conversations with mob figures using a bug hidden in a briefcase, he said. He added: ‘‘I made the right decision. . . . The only thing I’m embarrassed by are those old fat pictures.’’
He's no Rosa Parks, that's for sure!
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Related:
"Obama's fiery speech at civil rights activist and television talk host Al Sharpton's National Action Network conference crowd of about 1,600 in a New York hotel ballroom came a day after he marked the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act at the LBJ Library in Austin, Texas."
I will be getting to that in a moment, but first:
"Sen. Rand Paul has been criticizing President Obama for the NSA spying, especially in light of his distinction as the nation’s first African-American president. Rev. Sharpton explains why race shouldn’t have anything to do with it."
Then Al just doesn't get it or understand history!
"Paul, a Republican who is considering a presidential bid and is seen as one of several GOP front-runners ahead of the 2016 elections, noted that other black heroes such as Martin Luther King Jr. were targets of illegal government spying."
Al must have forgotten that.
Related: Caterpillar got support from Senator Rand Paul
He says nice things, but he's not the answer either.
Why the web version of this next article had to be a total rewrite from the print version is beyond me, but....
"Obama marks anniversary of Civil Rights Act signing; Says passage of law paved his way to presidency" by Peter Baker | New York Times April 11, 2014
AUSTIN, Texas — For three days, the veterans of a long-ago movement reunited and drew together their spiritual heirs to explore the legacy of the Civil Rights Act a half-century after it transformed America. And then the legacy walked onstage.
President Obama presented himself Thursday as the living, walking, talking and governing embodiment of the landmark 1964 law that banned discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, or national origin.
That's funny, because had Romney won he would have been the embodiment of corporate governance.
In a speech that stirred an audience of civil rights champions here at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library and Museum, Obama acknowledged that racism has hardly been erased and that government programs have not always succeeded.
But, he added, “I reject such cynicism because I have lived out the promise of LBJ’s efforts, because Michelle has lived out the legacy of those efforts, because my daughters have lived out the legacy of those efforts.”
Oh, I see a paragraph did make the cut.
Thanks to the law and the movement that spawned it and the progress made after it, Obama said, “new doors of opportunity and education swung open for everybody,” regardless of race, ethnicity, disability or sexual orientation. “They swung open for you, and they swung open for me,” he said. “And that’s why I’m standing here today, because of those efforts, because of that legacy.”
The president’s speech marking the 50th anniversary of the law Johnson signed in July 1964 was one more moment for Obama to address his own role in history. Although Obama often seemed reluctant to be drawn into discussions of race relations in his first term, insistent on being the president of everyone, he has been more open in talking about it since winning reelection.
Obama made unusually personal comments after the case of Trayvon Martin, the Florida teen whose death two years ago set off a roiling national debate about race, saying the slain young black man “could have been me.” He recently created an initiative called My Brother’s Keeper to help young men of color, and he has been more vocal about voting rights and equal pay for women. His administration has become more active in looking for ways to curb racial profiling by law enforcement and disparities in criminal sentencing. On Friday, he will address the Rev. Al Sharpton’s organization.
Yeah, I saw that.
“The second election and final election is behind him, so he’s free,” Representative John Lewis, Democrat of Georgia, the civil rights icon who introduced Obama, said in an interview afterward. “There’s something about not having to run again that frees you. He’s liberated, and I do think he’s speaking out more.”
Then why doesn't he tell Israel to take a hike and pull back on the war agenda?
Still, Obama used most of Thursday’s address to extol Johnson in what could be the most generous speech by any sitting president about the Texan since his funeral, one that all but ignored the Vietnam War. Obama offered little of his own personal journey on race.
Related:
"They are seeking a reconsideration of Johnson’s legacy as president, arguing that it has been overwhelmed by the tragedy of the Vietnam War, “Nobody wanted that war less than Lyndon Johnson”
Then why did he start it?
Notice, too, that the whole thing is a tragedy, not a planned and calculated effort resulting in the deliberate mass-murder of millions. They are trying to rehabilitate that war in the eyes of the public with no mention of the Gulf of Tonkin false flag that turned the reluctant Lyndon Johnson into a mass murderer. Hell, he is an AmeriKan hero now and being praised by his war criminal successors.
Nor did Obama use the speech to advance his policy priorities. He did not mention overhauling immigration, perhaps his biggest legislative goal, and did not say anything about same-sex marriage, which has been the most expansive social change during his presidency.
“He did a kind of inspiration and that’s important,” the Rev. Jesse Jackson, said in an interview. “But beyond inspiration, we need the legislation, the budget, and the policies to protect Johnson’s legacy.”
I'm tired of the inspiration, imagery, and illusion of politics myself.
Obama was one of four presidents to address the conference. Jimmy Carter spoke Tuesday and Bill Clinton on Wednesday. George W. Bush spoke Thursday evening.
Seems like a familiar paragraph.
Bush used an evening speech to call the achievement gap between white and black children “a national scandal” and to urge both parties to address it as the central civil rights issue of the modern era.
Bush, who as president signed the No Child Left Behind education law, lamented that “gains have stalled” and noted that a typical 17-year-old African-American student reads at the same level as a 13-year-old white student.
Isn't that a racist statement?
Addressing critics of No Child Left Behind, he said he did not object to adjustments.
“But the problem comes when people start to give up on the goal,” he said. “Some have ideological objections to any federal role in education. Some are too comfortable with status quo. The alliance between ideology and complacency seems to be getting stronger. I fear that the soft bigotry of low expectations is returning.”
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Here is the print version as verbatim as I could find:
AUSTIN, Texas — In a much-anticipated speech at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library and Museum marking the 50th anniversary of the landmark law, Obama said the push for equality and liberty had opened doors of opportunity for millions of Americans....
Obama said champions of civil rights should not succumb to cynicism in a cynical age, but, he added, "I reject such cynicism because I have lived out the promise of LBJ's efforts, because Michelle has lived out the legacy of those efforts, because my daughters have lived out the legacy of those efforts."
Speaking at a conference commemorating the law signed in July 1964, Obama lavished praise on Johnson, a leader to whom disappointed liberals sometimes compare him unfavorably.
Well, he does have Libya and Syria on his resume.
"He was charming when he needed to be, ruthless when required," Obama said. "He could wear you down with logic and argument, he could horse trade and he could flatter."
Yeah, he was a real SOB.
He went on to say: "President Johnson liked power. He liked the feel of it, the wielding of it. But that hunger was harnessed and redeemed by a deeper understanding of the human condition, by a sympathy for the underdog, for the downtrodden, for the outcast."
The Vietnamese can attest to his love for power, and I doubt he has been redeemed in the eyes of the world.
Obama implicitly linked his own health care program to the legacy of Johnson's creation of Medicare and Medicaid. Describing Johnson's legislative accomplishments, Obama noted with a sly tone that the former president had created "a health care law that opponents described as socialized medicine."
Yeah, except his worked from the start.
Ruminating on the nature of a presidency that produced big change, even as his own now seems frustrated by partisan deadlock with Republicans in Congress, Obama seemed to find some solace in the idea that his time in office, too, would be redeemed one day.
So many false narratives I'm sick of seeing.
"You're reminded daily that in this great democracy you are but a relay swimmer in the currents of history bound by decisions made by those who came before, reliant on the efforts of those who will follow to fully vindicate your vision" he said. "But the presidency also affords a unique opportunity to bend those currents by shaping our laws and by shaping our debates, by working within the confines of the world as it is but also by reimagining the world as it should be."
I can see why the print article had to be completely rewritten after that megalomaniacal and frightening statement full of hubris.
Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, toured the museum before his speech, accompanied by Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., the civil rights era icon.
Is he also an FBI informant?
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Related:
"Obama was one of four presidents to address the conference over three days. Jimmy Carter spoke on Tuesday and Bill Clinton on Wednesday. George W. Bush was scheduled to speak on Thursday evening. The event comes at a time when issues of rights and discrimination continue to shape the national debate. Mr. Obama has presided over a period of rapid change in the acceptance of gay and lesbian couples."
Looks like I'm not the only one who noted the changes!
Btw, the linking of the gay marriage issue is offensive to the struggle of black people for basic civil rights.
Found this during my search:
"In Houston, Bush 41 Greets Obama, Who Later Assails G.O.P." by PETER BAKERAPRIL 9, 2014
HOUSTON — President Obama came to this Texas metropolis on Wednesday to raise money for Democrats, but the first person to welcome him to town was the city’s most prominent Republican, the first President George Bush.
Mr. Bush, who just celebrated the 25th anniversary of the start of his presidency last weekend, decided on his own to travel to the Houston airport named after him to greet Mr. Obama when he landed Wednesday afternoon. Mr. Obama found Mr. Bush on the tarmac when he came down the stairs from Air Force One, and the two shared a convivial reunion.
Mr. Bush, who is 89 and uses a wheelchair because a form of Parkinson’s disease has made it hard for him to stand, seemed in a cheerful mood as he chatted with Mr. Obama and the first lady, Michelle Obama. Mrs. Obama held Mr. Bush’s hand for the entire conversation, almost like a dutiful daughter, while Mr. Obama kept his hand respectfully on the former president’s shoulder. Mr. Bush, for his part, reached out to pat the back of Mr. Obama’s leg in a grandfatherly gesture.
What a wonderful and warm scene, huh?
“I just wanted to say hello to the president and the first lady,” Mr. Bush told reporters afterward with a smile. “When the president comes to your hometown, you show up and welcome him.”
I wouldn't. I wouldn't want to be anywhere near him lest I start giving him a piece of my mind.
Mr. Obama and Mr. Bush have long had a respectful and friendly relationship despite the past tensions between the current president and his predecessor, George W. Bush.
Yeah, yeah, the fake political tension when the same intere$ts are serviced!
Mr. Obama has said publicly and privately how much he admires the elder Mr. Bush and even said he tries to emulate his foreign policy.
That would be the NEW WORLD ORDER Bush enunciated on.... September 11th?
Looks like Obama is continuing forward with the plan just like he said, and he expects the next president to do the same.
He gave the former president the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011 and brought him back to the White House last year to honor his work on volunteerism.
Mr. Bush had signaled to the White House in the last day or so that he might come to the airport to see Mr. Obama, depending on how he felt. Advisers to Mr. Bush say he often loses energy in the afternoon, so it was not a sure thing. Mr. Obama learned shortly before arriving here that the visit would happen.
After talking with the president, Mr. Bush greeted several journalists he remembered from his own days on Air Force One.
“Look at you,” he told a photographer. “You don’t look any older.”
Jay Carney, a former Time magazine reporter who now serves as Mr. Obama’s White House press secretary, made a point of introducing himself to Mr. Bush.
“I know you,” Mr. Bush responded and shook his hand warmly.
The president went from the airport to a pair of high-dollar fund-raisers for three Democratic Party groups at the homes of some of Houston’s wealthiest donors.
Did he talk civil rights and opportunity with them?
The larger of the two was at the home of John Eddie Williams Jr., a prominent personal injury trial lawyer who won a landmark case against the tobacco industry in the 1990s. The president and about 70 guests mingled at Mr. Williams’s 26,000-square-foot home, which is worth $17 million and resembles a resort hotel, complete with five fireplaces, a swimming pool and an elevator.
This from the president and his party that is so concerned with unfairness and inequality!
Just hours after chatting with the former Republican president, Mr. Obama used the second fund-raiser to assail Republicans for producing “the least productive Congress” in modern times. “We have to have a Congress that works — not one that is marching lock step, not one that agrees with every proposal I put forward, but a Congress that is serious about governance and is thinking about the next generation, not just the next election,” he said.
Nothing like being a two-faced asshole playing the shit-show political fooleys to the hilt. Money has bought both parties, folks. That's why this country is a shit hole for all but the upper crust elite.
He singled out Republican votes against a bill intended to help reduce pay disparities between men and women and what he called Republican efforts to discourage some people from voting. “Un-American,” Mr. Obama declared about the latter. “How is it that we are putting up with that?”
Related:
"The administration said insurers could continue charging women more than men."
So let me get this straight. DISCRIMINATION against WOMEN is okay when it comes to their HEALTH?
How are we still putting up with him!?! Must be a glitch.
He added that Democrats suffered from “this congenital disease” of not turning out in the same numbers during midterm elections because they are not perceived as important as presidential contests. “Michelle made me promise that 2012 would be my last campaign,” he said. “This is my last campaign. This counts.”
Among those who traveled here with Mr. Obama was Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the House Democratic leader. Mayor Annise Parker, former Mayor Bill White, former Gov. Mark White and Representatives Sheila Jackson Lee and Al Green all attended. Not present was David Alameel, who is likely to be the Democratic nominee for Senate and whose campaign noted that he attended a fund-raiser with the president on a previous visit.
Mr. Obama’s earlier encounter with Mr. Bush came at a time when former presidents are much in the spotlight. Mr. Bush enjoyed a three-day reunion of his old aides and allies at his presidential library in College Station, Tex., over the weekend, and his son opened the first exhibit of his post-presidential art at his own library in Dallas.
Related: Artistic Annexations
Mr. Obama is one of four presidents who will be in Austin, Tex., this week for a conference commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act that has been organized by the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library and Museum. Jimmy Carter addressed the conference on Tuesday night, and Bill Clinton was scheduled to speak Wednesday. Mr. Obama is scheduled to deliver the keynote address on Thursday at midday, followed by the younger Mr. Bush that evening.
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"Ex-President Carter: US ‘dormant’ on inequality" by PAUL J. WEBER | Associated Press April 09, 2014
AUSTIN, Texas — Former President Jimmy Carter lamented Tuesday night the continuing inequalities between black and white Americans during a 50th anniversary celebration of the Civil Rights Act in Texas that will feature four of the five living US presidents this week.
Carter said ‘‘too many people are at ease’’ with black unemployment rates that exceed the national average and schools in some places that he described as basically still segregated.
Carter, 89, was the first president to speak at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, which is holding the three-day summit to mark the anniversary of the landmark 1964 law that banned widespread discrimination against racial and ethnic minorities and against women.
‘‘We’re pretty much dormant now,’’ Carter said. ‘‘We accept self-congratulations about the wonderful 50th anniversary — which is wonderful — but we feel like Lyndon Johnson did it and we don’t have to do anything anymore.’’
The unemployment rate for blacks was 12 percent in February, compared with 5.8 percent for whites.
The 39th president touched on wage gaps between women and men and reiterated his support for gay marriage. During a wide-ranging interview to a packed auditorium, Carter also chalked up loosened rules on political campaign contributions as partly the reason for a new era of gridlock in Washington.
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Also see:
King’s Bible, Nobel turned over in dispute
Lawyer booted from MLK estate case
Harry Belafonte can keep Martin Luther King documents
Those overshadowed the anniversary of his assassination, and even I forgot to note it here.
Someone else forgotten, remembered, then forgotten again:
"Man cleared of NYC murder after 25 years in prison" by Jennifer Peltz | Associated Press April 09, 2014
NEW YORK — From the day of his 1989 arrest in a deadly New York City shooting, Jonathan Fleming said he had been 1,100 miles away, on a Disney World vacation. Despite having documents to back him up, he was convicted of murder.
Prosecutors now agree with him, and Fleming left a Brooklyn court as a free man Tuesday after spending nearly a quarter-century behind bars.
The 51-year-old Fleming tearfully hugged his lawyers as relatives cheered ‘‘Thank you, God!’’ after a judge dismissed the case. A key eyewitness had recanted, newly found witnesses implicated someone else, and prosecutors’ review of their own files turned up documents supporting Fleming’s alibi.
*******************
The exoneration, first reported by the New York Daily News, comes amid scrutiny of Brooklyn prosecutors’ process for reviewing questionable convictions — scrutiny that comes partly from the new district attorney, Kenneth Thompson. He said in a statement that after a months-long review, he decided to drop the case against Fleming because of ‘‘key alibi facts that place Fleming in Florida at the time of the murder.’’
From the start, Fleming told authorities he had been in Orlando when a friend, Darryl ‘‘Black’’ Rush, was shot to death in Brooklyn early on Aug. 15, 1989. Authorities suggested the shooting was motivated by a dispute over money.
Fleming had plane tickets, videos, and postcards from his trip, said his lawyers, Anthony Mayol and Taylor Koss. But prosecutors at the time suggested he could have made a quick round-trip plane jaunt to be in New York, and a woman testified that she had seen him shoot Rush. He was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison and was due to have his first parole hearing soon.
The eyewitness recanted her testimony soon after Fleming’s 1990 conviction, saying she had lied so police would cut her loose for an unrelated arrest, but Fleming lost his appeals.
The defense asked the district attorneys’s office to review the case last year. Defense investigators found previously untapped witnesses who implicated someone else as the gunman, the attorneys said, declining to give the witnesses’ or potential suspect’s names before prosecutors look into them.
Meaning the government never bothered to talk to people who contradicted the tailor-made case they had in mind.
Prosecutors’ own review produced a hotel receipt that Fleming paid in Florida about five hours before the shooting — a document that police evidently had found in Fleming’s pocket when they arrested him. Prosecutors also found an October 1989 Orlando police letter to New York detectives, saying some employees at an Orlando hotel had told investigators they remembered Fleming.
Neither the receipt nor the police letter had been provided to Fleming’s initial defense lawyer, despite rules that generally require investigators to turn over possibly exculpatory material.
Then it's STATE CRIMINALITY, isn't it?
Sad thing is it is STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE for LAW ENFORCEMENT in AmeriKa -- and HAS BEEN FOR a LONG TIME!
On Tuesday, Jonathan Fleming left court with an arm around his mother’s shoulders and the process of rebuilding his life ahead of him.
Any money coming his way?
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This happens far more often than is reported or acknowledged by authority in AmeriKa, but doesn't seem to be much of a concern regarding our eloquent leaders.
