Oct. 12, 2014

Secret Service Failures are Cause for Concern After Numerous Extremist Plots
By Richard Cohen

NEWS ANALYSIS

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Southern Poverty Law Center

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - With its recent bumbling, the long-respected U.S. Secret Service is beginning to look like the Keystone Kops. But there’s nothing funny about the agency’s security lapses, particularly for the nation’s first Black president, a man who is the target of enormous rage on America’s radical right.

For those of us who monitor racist and antigovernment extremists, it’s not surprising that, as The Washington Post reported, President Obama has faced three times as many threats as his predecessors. After all, ever since he arrived on the scene as a serious presidential contender, he has been portrayed by even “mainstream” commentators and politicians on the right as nothing less than an existential threat to America – a Manchurian candidate who sympathizes with terrorists, a Marxist intent on installing a totalitarian government.

Some of the Republican Party’s most prominent politicians have engaged in the demonization of Obama as “the other.” Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, for example, has said Obama exhibits “Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior.” And former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu has said he wished Obama “would learn how to be an American.”

Nothing in his political record remotely supports the characterization of Obama as anything but a mainstream politician, of course, but the purveyors of extremist propaganda have found a robust market for it on the country’s reactionary right, including fringe elements of the Tea Party. To this segment of the American public, Obama is more than a left-of-center president. He symbolizes the changing face of America, the growing diversity that will result in non-Hispanic whites losing their majority status around the year 2043 – and with it, perhaps, White hegemony.

This is why we have seen, as illustrated by the persistent claims about the provenance of Obama’s birth certificate, a stubborn refusal among many on the right to accept his legitimacy as president. And it’s why we’ve seen the emergence of eliminationist rhetoric, such as when angry opponents shouted “Kill him!” at a political rally in 2008 and when effigies of Obama appeared hanging from nooses on university campuses that year.

Obama’s election also ignited volcanic growth in radical-right groups, particularly within the “Patriot” movement. This collection of armed militias and similar organizations is animated by the belief that the U.S. government is an illegitimate, evil entity and part of a global conspiracy to institute martial law and a socialistic government called the “New World Order.” In 1995, it  led to the deadliest act of domestic terrorism on U.S. soil, the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people.

In 2008, the year Obama was elected, there were 149 “Patriot” groups. Today, there are nearly 1,100. At the same time, numerous studies have documented a significant increase in right-wing domestic terrorist attacks in recent years. These include the 2012 slaughter of six Sikh worshipers at a temple in Wisconsin by a neo-Nazi who apparently believed he was killing Muslims. Obama has been the target of numerous radical-right plots.

In August 2008, even before he left the Democratic National Convention that nominated him, three white supremacists were arrested with high-powered rifles, disguises and a bulletproof vest as they discussed ways to kill Obama. Then, just before the election, two members of a racist skinhead group were arrested in Tennessee in a plot to assassinate the Democratic nominee after killing more than 100 people, mostly at an African-American school.

A month after Obama’s inauguration, a U.S. Marine corporal was indicted for threatening to kill the president after a search of his barracks in North Carolina turned up White supremacist materials and a journal containing his plans.

Two years later, a neo-Nazi in Spokane, Wash., was indicted on terrorism charges in a plot to kill Obama. “Take care of business,” he said in a conversation recorded by the FBI. “Got to stop Barry Soetoro [Obama] from being re-elected. Absolutely.”

Sadly, there is no shortage of American extremists who wish the president harm. And, as we’ve seen through decades of studying the radical right, many of them are willing to spill blood for their cause. That’s why the Secret Service’s recent failings are no laughing matter. And that’s why political leaders should tone down their rhetoric.

Richard Cohen is president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, America's foremost monitor of hate groups and activities.

Oct. 12, 2014

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The U.S. Department of Edu­cation is opening an investigation into a civil rights complaint filed in May by community groups concerned about allegedly discriminatory practices in the New Orleans education system.

The complaint contends that African-Americans have been disproportionately affected by school closures, and then not provided with adequate alternatives. The complaint also details admission policies described as discriminatory.

“John White called the complaint a joke,” said Frank Buckley, co-founder of Con-scious Concerned Citizens Con-trolling Community Changes (C6). “I’m glad to see the Office of Civil Rights saw it differently.”

Buckley spoke in reference to White’s response to the compliant in May, in which White also contended that the complaint was part of a national pro-union agenda.

The complaint was filed May 13 by C6 and the Coalition for Community Schools under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination in the use of federal funds. The complaint was filed with the Education Oppor­tunities Section of the Depart­ment of Justice’s Civil Rights Division and the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.

According to the complaint, white students make up about 10 percent of the student population in New Orleans but about 40 percent of the population at most high-performing schools.

In addition, the complaint states that “African-American students comprise roughly 82 percent of all public school students in New Orleans, but are 96.64 percent of the students in the five schools slated to close.”

The schools that closed last June were Benjamin Banneker Ele­mentary School, A.P. Tureaud Elementary School, Walter L. Cohen High School, George Washington Carver High School, and Sarah T. Reed High School.

“Nearly all of the schools had shown consistent improvements in student performance,” the complaint states. In addition, several schools with higher than average white student populations that had low performance scores and/or fiscal mismanagement, but to which the RSD and BESE “turned a blind eye and allowed those schools to remain open.”

In terms of discriminatory admission practices, the complaint points out that the only two schools that give preference to nearby residents are high-performing schools located in majority-white neighborhoods.

And while the OneApp enrollment system is designed to provide uniformity, the complaint alleges that by allowing a handful of the city’s top-ranked schools to continue in their refusal to participate, OneApp instead becomes another tool of discrimination.

Critics have pointed to other forms of discrimination – such as a school like Lusher Charter School charging hundreds of dollars in fees. An itemized bill lists fees including an “enrichment fee” of $150, a “certificate of artistry” fee of $400, a “biology fee” of $20, $116 per Advanced Placement class, and $35 per “visual arts elective.”

Jadine Johnson, an attorney with Advancement Project, said that the next step will be an investigation and fact-finding mission conducted by the USDOE.

Advancement Project is a Washington D.C.-based organization that assisted in the filing of the complaint.

The three entities the federal agency will be investigating are the Recovery School District (RSD), the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) and the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE).

Buckley said it was necessary to take the complaint to the federal level because the concerns were dismissed on a local and state level.

“The charter movement is not about educating kids,” Buckley said. “It’s about a lot of people making millions of dollars on the backs of African American children.”

According to a statement released by RSD Superintendent Patrick Dobard:

“Our system of schools in New Orleans seeks to protect the basic civil rights of all students to receive a quality education. In our city, students have made significant academic strides over the last nine years. In 2005 over 60 percent of students, nearly all African-Ameri­can, attended failing schools. Today that number is just five percent. Since 2011, African-American students have surpassed their peers statewide in performance on state standardized tests. “

But Buckley doesn’t buy the numbers. For one, Buckley said it’s not possible to directly compare pre-Katrina schools to post-Katrina schools.

In addition, Buckley pointed out that in order to take almost all of the city’s schools, the state had to pass legislation (Act 35) that changed the definition of “failing.” And subsequently, the state continues to change the definition and move the benchmarks.

Buckley also notes that the RSD itself is a failing district.

“In New Orleans there is a distortion of data that is occurring that at the end of the day is harming children, families, and communities, Johnson said.”

Dobard wrote that the letter received by the RSD from the USDOE notifying him of the investigation “clearly states that this process does not imply anything about the merits of their allegations.”

Buckley described the devastating effect the school closures have had on communities, and the damage incurred when students are forced to change schools every year, being sent from failing school to failing school.

“Neighborhood schools are community institutions,” Johnson said. They often act as community centers, she said, and with them comes “a sense of pride around the school, a sense of tradition and history, and a sense of community gets built up. They employ people from the community, and create a space where kids are accepted and heard.”

If a school is closed because it was failing, then that student should be sent to an A or B rated school, Buckley said, not another D or F school.

Labeling a child as a failure also hurts them, he said.

Too many people have been too quiet for too long, Buckley said. “That’s why we need the federal government to come in and see what’s really going on.”

Buckley says he sees hope for change in the other cities across the nation that are pushing back. Similar complaints were filed in Newark, New Jersey and Chicago.

“People on the ground are standing up for their own communities and saying ‘We’re not going to take this – we deserve better,’” Johnson said.

Johnson said that if the USDOE finds merit in the complaint, there then could be a settlement requiring policy change at a district or school level.

It is significant that all three entities will be examined in the investigation – RSD, LDOE, and BESE – particularly because of their “common culture of shifting blame, denying wrongdoing, and lauding each other with unearned praise,” Johnson said.

Oct. 5, 2014

Ebola in America: CDC, White House Fighting Fears with Information
By Hazel Trice Edney

President Barack Obama talks on the phone with Dr. Tom Frieden,
Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in the
Oval Office, Sept. 30, 2014. Dr. Frieden updated the President on the
recently-diagnosed Ebola case in Dallas, Texas.  PHOTO: Pete Souza/The White House.

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - As the first death from the deadly Ebola virus has occurred in the U. S. this week, the Centers for Disease Control and the White House are pressing to thwart fears with information. 

Thomas Eric Duncan, a native Liberian, who had traveled to Dallas, Texas from West Africa,  died Wednesday, Oct 8, after he was diagnosed Sept. 30. Duncan had shown no symptoms until a few days after he arrived in the U. S. Sept. 20. He had been isolated at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas since Sept. 28 where he has died.

The CDC says officials are desperately trying to prevent spread of the virus by monitoring at least 50 people who came in contact with Duncan; with nine being at higher risk. As of Sunday, none had shown any symptoms.

News of America now dealing with its first death from Ebola has sparked worry across the U. S. because the disease has killed more than 3,400 people in West Africa. Two American aid workers, Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, were diagnosed in Africa, but successfully treated in America with experimental drugs. A 33-year-old NBC freelance cameraman Ashoka Mukpo was being transported from Liberia to the U.S. on Monday also with the deadly virus.

There is no known cure or vaccine. But, the CDC also reports that half of the people who have contracted the virus in Africa have survived it. 

President Obama has announced he will send 3,000 troops to help keep order, build hospitals, labs and other medical facilities. He said this week that an additional 1,000 might be sent. Meanwhile, Americans are on edge with questions about how the virus spreads, what the symptoms are and how to avoid contracting the disease. The following is information that has been posted by the CDC and the White House in attempt to answer questions, dispel myths and educate about the disease:

Ebola History and Background

Ebola was first discovered in 1976 near the Ebola River in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Since then, outbreaks of Ebola among humans have appeared sporadically in Africa. Ebola viruses are found in several African countries, including Liberia, Guinea, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone.

Symptoms of Ebola

Fever, headache, joint and muscle aches, weakness, diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain, lack of appetite, and abnormal bleeding are the common symptoms. Symptoms may appear anywhere from 2 to 21 days after exposure to Ebola virus though 8-10 days is most common.

How Ebola is Transmitted

It is transmitted through direct contact with the blood or bodily fluids of an infected symptomatic person or through exposure to objects (such as needles) that have been contaminated with infected secretions. Ebola is not a respiratory disease like the flu, so it is not transmitted through the air. Neither is Ebola transmitted through food or water in the United States. Individuals who are not symptomatic are not contagious. In order for the virus to be transmitted, an individual would have to have direct contact with an individual who is experiencing symptoms or has died of the disease. Individuals who are not symptomatic are not contagious.

In order for the virus to be transmitted, an individual would have to have direct contact with an individual who is experiencing symptoms or has died of the disease. Ebola is spread through direct contact (through broken skin or mucous membranes in, for example, the eyes, nose, or mouth) with blood or body fluids (including but not limited to urine, saliva, sweat, feces, vomit, breast milk, and semen) of a person who is sick with Ebola; objects (like needles and syringes) that have been contaminated with the virus; infected animals.

Though Ebola is not spread through the air , water, or generally by food,  Ebola may be spread as a result of handling bushmeat (wild animals hunted for food) and contact with infected bats. There is no evidence that mosquitos or other insects can transmit the Ebola virus. Only mammals (like  humans, bats, monkeys, and apes) have shown the ability to become infected with and spread Ebola virus.

Treatment

CDC Director Tom Frieden said the medical response for anyone who has contracted the disease is threefold:

Prevention

To protect yourself from Ebola, wash your hands often with soap and water or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer; Medical personnel must wear protective gear; Do not touch the blood or body fluids (like urine, feces,saliva, vomit, sweat, and semen) of people who are sick; Do not handle items that may have come in contact with a sick person’s blood or body fluids, like clothes, bedding, needles, or medical equipment. Do not touch the body of someone who has died of Ebola.

"I have no doubt," Dr. Frieden said, "that we will control this case of Ebola, so that it does not spread widely in this country."