ACLU Statement on President's Guantánamo Comments

NEW YORK – At a press briefing today, President Obama restated his belief that the prison at Guantánamo should be closed. Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, responded to the president's comments by detailing immediate actions the president could take.

"We welcome the president's continuing commitment to closing Guantánamo and putting an end to the indefinite detention regime there," Romero said. "There are two things the president should do. One is to appoint a senior point person so that the administration's Guantánamo closure policy is directed by the White House and not by Pentagon bureaucrats. The president can also order the secretary of defense to start certifying for transfer detainees who have been cleared, which is more than half the Guantánamo population."

"There's more to be done, but these are the two essential first steps the president can take now to break the Guantánamo logjam," Romero said. "We couldn't agree more with President Obama's statement that the 'idea that we would still maintain forever a group of individuals who have not been tried – that is contrary to who we are, it is contrary to our interests, and it needs to stop.'"

ACLU Statement on President's Guantánamo Comments

Raped five-year-old Indian girl dies

A five-year-old girl has died two weeks after being raped in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

The girl died on Monday evening, said the hospital in Nagpur City where she was being treated.

At least one person has been arrested in connection with the attack.

This is the latest in a spate of similar cases. Earlier this month, the rape and abduction of another five-year-old girl in Delhi sparked protests.

She is said to be recovering slowly after she was kidnapped, raped, tortured and abandoned in a locked room for more than 48 hours, rescued only after neighbours heard her cries. Two men have been held over the incident.

Raped five-year-old Indian girl dies

What really happened to Valdosta, GA teen Kendrick Johnson? - BlackCommunityWeb -

What really happened to Valdosta, GA teen Kendrick Johnson?

28 Apr 2013

Marcus Johnson

The story of Kendrick Johnson is finally starting to be seen by the public eye, even if it’s three full months after the 17 year old was found dead at Lowndes High School, where he attended in Georgia. On Janurary 11th, Johnson was found dead in the high school’s gymnasium, rolled up inside wrestling mats and his face heavily swollen as if beaten. He also had lacerations on his face and on other parts of his body. The local Sheriff’s investigators have said that they believe Johnson fell into the mats and wasn’t able to get out, and they ruled the death an accident. The investigators clearly wanted to close the case and move on, but the family of Kendrick Johnson has pressed on for answers. They were able to get the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to take on the case, but their investigation has lagged, possibly due to department funding issues. The GBI has not released any information on their findings, now ten weeks after they’ve taken on the case. 

The family of Kendrick Johnson has tried to use political pressure in order to get answers. Kendrick’s father Kenneth Johnson was quoted as saying: “We haven’t gotten any information. So if they’re still investigating why haven’t they brought fourth the evidence? We don’t think, we know that he was murdered.” This past week, Johnson’s family took action, and blocked the entrance of the Lowndes County Judaical Complex in a non-violent protest. They were arrested and booked, but their protest worked–it garnered national attention to a case that has lagged and that sheriff’s investigators in Lowndes hoped would quietly fade away.

What really happened to Valdosta, GA teen Kendrick Johnson? - BlackCommunityWeb -

NBCNews.com video: NBA athlete announces he’s gay

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

NBCNews.com video: NBA athlete announces he’s gay: ""

(Via.)

Massacre in Nigeria Spurs Outcry Over Military Tactics - NYTimes.com

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — Days later, the survivors’ faces tensed at the memory of the grim evening: soldiers dousing thatched-roof homes with gasoline, setting them on fire and shooting residents when they tried to flee. As the village rose up in smoke, one said, a soldier threw a child back into the flames.

Even by the scorched-earth standards of the Nigerian military’s campaign against Islamist insurgents stalking the nation’s north, what happened on the muddy shores of Lake Chad this month appears exceptional.

The village, Baga, found itself in the cross hairs of Nigerian soldiers enraged by the killing of one of their own, said survivors who fled here to the state capital, 100 miles south. Their home had paid a heavy price: as many as 200 civilians, maybe more, were killed during the military’s rampage, according to refugees, senior relief workers, civilian officials and human rights organizations.

Martin Luther King Jr. Speech Against the Vietnam War

Martin Luther King Jr. Speech Against the Vietnam War ""

(Via.)

Martin Luther King Peace March. Thousands Oppose Vietnam War - I remember this day well.

Martin Luther King Peace March. Thousands Oppose Vietnam War - YouTube: ""

(Via.)

Melissa Harris-Perry: One woman’s story reflects urgent need for immigration reform

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Melissa Harris-Perry: One woman’s story reflects urgent need for immigration reform: ""

(Via.)

Amid a String of Rapes, Delhi Police Release Whimsical Ads

Earlier this month, on the same day as the horrifying news on the front page of a national newspaper, the Hindustan Times, about a 5-year-old who had been brutally raped, there was something puzzling on page 3. It was an advertisement from the Delhi Police (DP). It showed a graphic of a happy human talking on a mobile phone and crossing the road on a crosswalk. The caption said in bold print, "Talking while crossing is a bad idea." Then, in a smaller font it advised, "Avoid talking on the phone while crossing the road. It could lead to accidents." There were several other similar ads scattered through the paper that day from the DP, speaking of equally innocuous non-issues.

Amid a String of Rapes, Delhi Police Release Whimsical Ads

Weak Constitution - The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, A Masterpiece - 04/24/13 | Comedy Central

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Daily Show on Facebook

Weak Constitution - The Daily Show with Jon Stewart - 04/24/13 - Video Clip | Comedy Central: ""

(Via.)

Will Hatred Kill the Dream of a Peaceful, Democratic Myanmar?

VICIOUS sectarian and ethnic violence has set back the fragile political reforms introduced inMyanmar last year. As tensions flare in the majority-Buddhist country that I and other exiles still call Burma, many fear that the deadly anti-Muslim riots are no accident but the product of an effort led by army hard-liners to thwart both the reforms and Myanmar’s opening to the world.

Will Hatred Kill the Dream of a Peaceful, Democratic Myanmar?

A new day for the 'war on drugs'

 ""

(Via.)

NBCNews.com video: The real terror threat

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

NBCNews.com video: The real terror threat: ""

(Via.)

D.C.’s Race Disparity in Marijuana Charges Is Getting Worse - City Desk

This weekend, dozens of marijuana activists converged on the National Mall to celebrate 4/20 and push for the drug's legalization. If photos and videos are any indication, most of the attendees were white. As a black man, I find their efforts laudable and hearteningly altruistic. D.C.'s campaign against marijuana is racist. If it wasn't, District marijuana enforcement would look a lot less abominable.

In 2010, I wrote about how Jon Gettman, a public policy professor at Shenandoah University, pored through the city's 2007 marijuana arrest records to discover the District had arrested more pot offenders per capita than any other jurisdiction in the country. Gettman also found that the overwhelming majority of pot miscreants the city went after that year—91 percent—was black.

His analysis suggested yet another black-white divide (like the one for incomeand the one for achievement) driving through the federal city. In 2007, a black person was eight times more likely to be arrested for a District marijuana offense than a white person, even though researchers have exposed what any college pot dealer can tell you from the comfort of his Barcalounger: Members of both racial groups consume cannabis at nearly equal rates.

D.C.'s dope divide is just as striking when you zoom out. According to arrest numbers obtained from the Metropolitan Police Department and crunched by a statistician, between 2005 and 2011, D.C. cops filed 30,126 marijuana offense charges. A staggering number of those—27,560, or 91 percent—were filed against African-Americans. Only 2,097 were filed against whites.

D.C.’s Race Disparity in Marijuana Charges Is Getting Worse - City Desk

Broken Justice in the Bronx - NYTimes.com

Broken Justice in the Bronx - NYTimes.com: "Quietly over time, the gleaming glass building near Yankee Stadium that houses the Bronx criminal courts has become a place where delay and dysfunction are the norm and central ideals of the American justice system — especially the promise of a speedy trial — have been disgracefully subverted."

(Via.)

A Blogger on Trial in Russia - NYTimes.com

A Blogger on Trial in Russia - NYTimes.com: "IF you set out to design a political nemesis who would give Vladimir Putin the shivers, you might well come up with Aleksei Navalny. That is why the trial of the popular Russian activist on Wednesday is the most important political trial in Russia in decades."

(Via.)

Judge Sentences Mosque Arsonist, Likens Crime to Boston Bombings | Hatewatch | Southern Poverty Law Center

The “American psyche” was damaged when an armed arsonist set fire to a Toledo mosque, much like the impact of Monday’s bombings in Boston, a federal judge said in sentencing an Indiana man to 20 years in prison.

Randolph Linn, 52, of St. Joe, Ind., was also ordered to pay restitution of more than $1.4 million. He pleaded guilty in December to setting fire to the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo last September. He told the court he was inspired by media accounts, specificially those on Fox News, suggesting Muslims were threatening Americans and controlling parts of the federal government.

Judge Sentences Mosque Arsonist, Likens Crime to Boston Bombings | Hatewatch | Southern Poverty Law Center

Cory Booker- incarceration for drug crime up, drug use has not drooped. This is a failed strategy.

US drug related incarceration are up, and drug use is NOT down. We will not arrest our way out of this problem. #ReformNow. Mayor Cory Booker