Kwame Ture on the History of Haiti

Gary, Indiana: Unbroken spirit amid the ruins of the 20th Century

By Paul Mason
I've been to Gary,Indiana before.In April 2009, when the Obama fiscal stimulus had just begun, the city's mayor had told me that all the city needed was $400m of stimulus money in order to "fly like an eagle and make our country proud".

To put this in context you have to know that Gary, home to what is still US Steel Corp's biggest plant, is suffering from one of the most advanced cases of urban blight in the developed world. Its city centre is near-deserted by day.The texture of the urban landscape is cracked stone,grass,crumbled brick and buddleia.

Gary is one third poor, 84% African American, and has seen its population halve over the past three decades. If crime, as the official figures suggest, has recently dropped off then - say the critics - that is because population flight from the city is bigger than the census figures show.

Gary in the end got $266m of stimulus money and has, according to the federal "recipient reported data" created a grand total of 327 jobs. That's $800,000 per job.I went back determined to find out how the stimulus dollars had been spent; to get beyond the ideology and recriminations and see why President Barack Obama's stimulus has failed to turn the country around.

Because - if anywhere needs a stimulus it is Gary. If there were ever an easy win to be gained from state spending you would think it might be here.

David Tribby, professional photographer and son of a local steelworker, specialises in exploring urban decay. I persuaded Mr Tribby to take me into some of Gary's wrecked architectural masterpieces.

The striking thing is that they are all structurally dangerous and yet totally accessible. I did not have to cross a single piece of wire, tape or fencing to get in, nor did I encounter a security guard or dog patrol. The city seems to have given up even securing these ruins.

Urban dereliction

We toured the City Methodist Church - built in the 1920s with local stone. We stood on the once-sprung floor of the ballet studio in the Methodist School. We tramped through the remains of the post office, opened by Henry Morgenthau in 1936 as a New Deal reconstruction project, its wood-block floor coming apart; the peep-holes in the overhead walkway showing where Depression-era managers would check on the work-rate of the postal workers below.

I sat on the back row of the Seaman Hall, its seats creaking dustily, and imagined the young steelworkers and their girlfriends in the 1950s, playing Big Daddy and Maggie the Cat in an am-dram production of Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, whose playbill is still peeling off the stage door amid the crumbling stonework of the proscenium arch.

I stood where Frank Sinatra stood on the day he came to Gary in 1945.

It was a feisty occasion because hundreds of white Gary school kids had gone on strike against the right of black kids to swim one day a week in the same swimming pool, and share the instruments in the band room.

Ol' Blue Eyes cancelled a $10,000 gig, rushed to the Gary Memorial Auditorium, told the audience this was the most shameful event in the history of education, warned them he could "lick any S.O.B in the room" and then sang.

He did not, as in this 1945 propaganda film accuse them of being no better than a bunch of Nazis, but he did sing the song from that film - "The House I Live In" - a schmaltzy paean to what were then seen as core American values: religious tolerance and anti-racism. It was a film that would win Sinatra an Oscar, shortly followed, as the political climate changed, by a hounding from Senator Joe McCarthy.

What Sinatra fought against, three decades of industrial decline managed to complete. There has been "white flight" from Gary. More precisely there has been "middle class flight" - ie the salariat, including many of the steelworkers, has moved out, or moved into landscaped and patrolled communities on the edge of town.

Brink of bankruptcy?

So what's the story with Gary and the stimulus? The mayor believes the city is "last in line" when it comes to federal money - because the money is dispensed via the state of Indiana, which is Republican controlled. Mayor Rudy Clay tells me:

"I guess they thought, well, Gary voted in large numbers for the president, enabling him to take the state of Indiana, so he will look after them."

But it is more complex - Gary's public finances are a mess. It owes tens of millions of dollars to other entities. Its great get-out-of-jail card - tax revenue from casinos - turned out to be a busted flush. Its convention centre is dark most of the time. The one-time Sheraton Hotel, right next to the City Hall, is derelict.

With no ability to raise a local income tax it is reliant on property tax. But the State of Indiana passed laws capping tax raising powers, so by 2012 Gary's tax income from property will halve.

At that point, according to the fiscal monitor appointed by the city, it will lack the revenue to fund even its police, fire and ambulance services. The monitor calls for much of the rest of Gary's services to be privatised - but as city officials point out, once privatised they cannot enforce job guarantees that allow the city to employ local people. Says the monitor, bluntly:

"The city will simply have to give up some long-standing - and often important - services that are the responsibility of other governments, even when it is likely that those governments will not provide the same level of service."

In summary, Gary is about two years away from bankruptcy and is being forced to cut taxes and cut spending even as the federal government tries to pump money through.

In this context, with the stimulus money not available to fix the core financial problem, the results were always going to be patchy.

In the event the stimulus dollars have mainly gone to a one-off schools re-organisation project - you can see some of the results of that in my report tonight - and to street renovation, and beefing up the arsenal of the local police. Gary's police have to combine The Wire style policing with a kind of armed social work amid a Gary's night-time chaos of "recreational shooting" and domestic disputes.

Philosophical divide

When I speak to the Republican governor of Indiana, Mitch Daniels, about Gary's plight, he is blunt. He blames Congress for micromanagement of where the stimulus could be spent. Could nothing more have been done?

"If there been more flexibility about the funds [from the US Congress], it could have, but I think it's important to be charitable here - Gary has been a disaster for many, many years. It is a tragedy what has occurred there and in some other cities here in the US. There wasn't going to be an immediate turn around, no matter how many borrowed dollars you showered on the place. "

But, how can you enforce fiscal austerity on a place like Gary, at the same time as the official policy of the federal government is to reflate the economy? Surely, I ask Mr Daniels, something has to give? He says:

"Gary's the most extreme case that you could find in our state, but there are many others that are a lesser version of that same story, and as I say to those communities - their leaders - all the time: people aren't leaving here because you didn't tax them enough, because you didn't spend enough money on this or that public service - they left because you taxed them too much or you simply did not create the conditions for a private sector to flourish."

And that brings you right back up against the philosophical divide in American politics.

Large parts of the Indiana population believe all taxpayer dollars spent on Gary are wasted. Some Republican candidates in the 2 November election are standing on the explicit message that there has been no positive impact at all from the stimulus.

Whereas in Europe, and even parts of Asia, the national government would have taken charge of vectoring regeneration money to a place like Gary, the US does not seem in a mood to do public regeneration.

Uncertain future

Gary's city officials are well aware that there are templates for resurrecting their city, and they've got the basic first steps defined - demolishing 3,000 derelict homes, installing new street lights. The stimulus money applied for in each case has been slow in coming and less than asked for. Beyond the ideology, the American public sector seems very poorly geared to spending money, full stop, despite being in charge of quite a lot of it.

Gary's uncertain future fascinates economists and urban planning experts - along with cities like Detroit and Flint in Michigan it is in danger of just being reclaimed by nature. One of the black community leaders I met in Gary was passionately advocating that they simply raze whole blocks to the ground and set up urban farms.

When you go into the wreck of the Palace Theatre on Gary's Broadway - just across from the wreck of VJ Records, which released the Beatles' first ever single in the US - you get a sense of the splendour of an industrial community at its height.

When it opened, the theatre - like so much of Gary's architecture, built in the "Mission Revival" style - contained blue fountains and crushed velvet, each seat arm moulded into a Moroccan-style arch.

In the orchestra pit there is a squashed grand piano, made in Chicago by Adam Schaff, surely the original one installed there in 1927. I banged its grime encrusted keys and discovered to my astonishment that, amid the clunks and groans, a clear D-sharp three octaves above Middle C.

It took just a single century for Gary to rise and fall. Its people still carry that relaxed pride you find in black communities across the industrial mid-West. It's a developed and quite mature urban culture - where everybody seems to know each other, an edgy community but not really a broken one, despite the night-time drug and gun antics of some young men. Go into the schools and you can feel that its spirit is not broken. What is broken is the landscape.

If it is ever one day fixed we will know that America has found a way to cope with the urban collapse that comes with industrial decline. Conversely Gary may be just the first leafy oasis of a post-industrial dystopia that awaits, maybe a century down the line.

Census shows lingering racial income gap

Census shows lingering racial income gap

Being Bank Of America Means NEVER Having To Say You're Sorry For Countrywide Fraud -- Signs of the Times News

Being Bank Of America Means NEVER Having To Say You're Sorry For Countrywide Fraud -- Signs of the Times News: "http://www.sott.net/articles/show/216925-Being-Bank-Of-America-Means-NEVER-Having-To-Say-You-re-Sorry-For-Countrywide-Fraud"

Video: Tornado Makes Landfall in Texas -- Signs of the Times News

Video: Tornado Makes Landfall in Texas -- Signs of the Times News: "http://www.sott.net/articles/show/216976-Video-Tornado-Makes-Landfall-in-Texas"

Black Man Buys International Gatwick Airport...

Adebayo Ogunlesi, chairman of Global Infrastructure Partners, said he is going "to make Gatwick a truly first class experience".
However he cautioned it would take "somewhere between 12 and 18 months" before passengers started noticing a difference at the airport.
GIP agreed a £1.51bn deal with Gatwick's current operator BAA last week, which represented a "good price", Mr Ogunlesi said.
I would never have imagined in my lifetime that this was even possible, a black man buying Gatwick Airport ! Then again, I never thought that I'd see a black man in the Whitehouse either!! I was pleasantly surprised to learn about this story, Nigerian born Adebayo Ogunlesi will be the new owner of Gatwick airport!! I want to take this moment to acknowledge and congratulate Mr. Ogunlesi on what he's doing and say that he is a huge inspiration and living proof of what IS possible!!! I thank Wunmi for the "tip-off" on this!
Now, my question is, why did the mainstream media kept this so very, very quiet? I was even more surprised that not even the BBC covered this story, or any of the other major news networks including CNN! "What's that all about?" I asked myself and thought it quite strange that a man, Adebayo Ogunlesi spends over a billion pounds on an international airport in one of the world's major cities, the city that's recognised as the financial centre of the world and there's no real coverage?? - Strange!!

Dubai: Real Estate Crash Sends Prices, Rents Falling

Your Foreclosure Hero

Magic Johnson Sells Starbucks Shares

Basketball Hall-of-Famer Earvin "Magic" Johnson has sold his 50% stake in more than 100 urban Starbucks (SBUX) stores back to the company, Starbucks said Thursday. The news comes only three days after Johnson sold his minority stake in the Los Angeles Lakers to Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, a billionaire surgeon who's been a season-ticket holder for 25 years.

Through Magic Johnson Enterprises's Johnson Development Corp., Johnson in 1998 partnered with Starbucks in a joint venture, called Urban Coffee Opportunities, to open stores in underserved neighborhoods in Los Angeles, New York and Washington D.C.

"Together we opened several successful locations, including our Harlem store, which led the redevelopment of that now vibrant neighborhood," Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz said in a statement Thursday. "Thanks to this partnership, Starbucks has deepened our commitment to community development in urban areas and plans additional programs to sustain that commitment."

The company didn't disclose those stores' financials. But the Los Angeles Times, which got the news from an anonymous source Tuesday, put the combined value of Johnson's stake in Starbucks and the Lakers at about $100 million. The unnamed source called the sales "a good business decision."

Neither Starbucks nor the Lakers indicated why Johnson made the divestments. Since 1991, Johnson's extensive real estate investments have included shopping centers and movie theaters. In May, the Washington Hilton completed a $150 million renovation funded partly by Canyon-Johnson Urban Funds, in which Johnson is a partner.

The Story of Bottled Water (2010)

The Story of Bottled Water, released on March 22, 2010 (World Water Day) employs the Story of Stuff style to tell the story of manufactured demand—how you get Americans to buy more than half a billion bottles of water every week when it already flows from the tap. Over five minutes, the film explores the bottled water industrys attacks on tap water and its use of seductive, environmental-themed advertising to cover up the mountains of plastic waste it produces. The film concludes with a call to take back the tap, not only by making a personal commitment to avoid bottled water, but by supporting investments in clean, available tap water for all.

Our production partners on the bottled water film include five leading sustainability groups: Corporate Accountability International, Environmental Working Group, Food & Water Watch, Pacific Institute, and Polaris Institute.

The Story of Electronics (2010) -- Teaser

The Story of Electronics, releasing Tuesday, November 9, employs the Story of Stuff style to explore the high-tech revolution's collateral damage—6 billion tons of e-waste and counting, poisoned workers and a public left holding the bill. Host Annie Leonard takes viewers from the mines and factories where our gadgets begin to the horrific backyard recycling shops in China where many end up. The film concludes with a call for a green 'race to the top' where designers compete to make long-lasting, toxic-free products that are fully and easily recyclable.

Jimmy McMillan: The Rent Is Too Damn High Party

The Rent Is Too Damn High is actually a real party and Jimmy McMillan is the guy who runs the show.

On Monday night’s New York gubernatorial debate he made himself heard and stole the show.

“I represent ‘The Rent Is Too Damn High Party,’” McMillan started. “People are working 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week and some a third job. Women can’t afford to take care of their children, feed their children breakfast, lunch and dinner. My main job is to provide a roof over your head, food on the table and money in your pocket. This is politics as usual, playing the silly game, and this is not gonna happen

The Rent Is Too Damn High Party's Jimmy McMillan at the NY Governor Debate

Thousands hear Farrakhan speech

Thousands hear

Watch this at Tampa Bay Online

The day that changed the life of millions

By Troy Muhammad

I can't say enough about the Historical Million Man March.Just know that October 16th 1995 I was one of 2 million MEN who life was changed for the better.The Anointed spirit of The true and living God was with us and I have not been the same man since.I thank Allah(God) and The Honorable Minister Farrakhan for this day and know that if it was not for this day;I and many of us would not be alive or enjoy the success that has been granted to me or us since The Million Man March.So let us all no matter what your religion,tribe or political views are salute this Historical and life changing day and SHAME on you if you don't.

On October 16, 1995, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan led over 2-million men in taking this pledge during the historic Million Man March in Washington, D.C.

I PLEDGE, that from this day forward I will strive to love my brother as I love myself. I, from this day forward, will strive to improve myself spiritually, morally, mentally, socially, politically and economically for the benefit of myself, my family and my people.

I PLEDGE, that I will strive to build businesses, build houses, build hospitals, build factories and enter into international trade for the good of myself, my family and my people.

I PLEDGE, that from this day forward I will never raise my hand with a knife or a gun to beat, cut, or shoot any member of my family or any human being except in self-defense.

I PLEDGE, from this day forward I will never abuse my wife by striking her, disrespecting her, for she is the mother of my children and the producer of my future.

I PLEDGE, that from this day forward I will never engage in the abuse of children, little boys or little girls for sexual gratification. For I will let them grow in peace to be strong men and women for the future of our people.

I WILL NEVER, again use the ‘B word' to describe any female. But particularly my own Black sister.

I PLEDGE, from this day forward that I will not poison my body with drugs or that which is destructive to my health and my well-being.

I PLEDGE, from this day forward I will support Black newspapers, Black radio, Black television. I will support Black artists who clean up their acts to show respect for themselves and respect for their people and respect for the ears of the human family.

I will do all of this so help me God.

Prince Announces New Concert Series

Today, Prince headed to Harlem to the iconic Apollo Theater to announce he would be serving as Master of Ceremonies for a new concert series called 'Welcome To America,' which will be kicking off this December.

Though he was mum on details like dates and tour stops, the 52 year-old singer/songwriter told the crowd that 'Welcome to America' will showcase some of his favorite artists including Maceo Parker, Janelle Monae, Mint Condition, Esperanza Spalding, Cassandra Wilson, Lalah Hathaway and Sheila E.

The Minnesota native also confirmed that he and the New Power Generation would also perform nightly alongside featured acts.

"If you've been to one of my shows, then you know what time it is," the usually media shy artist joked. "You need to come early and come often because every time we play it's always something new. I got a lot of hits. Bring friends, bring children, and bring foot spray because it's gonna be funky."

"I didn't want to talk too much but how many have seen 'Waiting for Superman,' " he asked before bringing out Harlem Children's Zone head Geoffrey Canada who also spoke briefly about how grateful he is Prince chose Harlem as the venue to announce the series.

Prince will play a special guitar for the duration of the concert series and then auction off the guitar for the benefit of Harlem Children's Zone.

BET's President of Music Programming Stephen Hill, a long-time fan of 'The Purple One,' introduced Prince to the throngs of media outlets present at the press conference. A few months back, the network awarded Prince with a Lifetime Achievement award at the 2010 BET Awards.

Hill reminisced on his first Prince concert in 1982 at the Apollo and more recently flying to Nice, France to see his two-hour set and another two-hour long after-hours set. "I know what I hope he's here to announce," but admitted he was out of the loop on what the big announcement was.

At the press conference, Prince also debuted the full version of his new song 'Rich Friends.'

Earlier this year, he released his album '20Ten' in newspapers across Europe and in the UK, but refused to allow access to the album to digital download services.

Two Kinds of Law

Will You Restore America - The Sovereign Journey

Qaddafi apologizes for Arab involvement in slave trade

CAIRO: Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi apologized for the slave trade on behalf of Arabs at the second Afro-Arab summit in Libya on Sunday. It may be the first time an Arab leader has admitted – much less apologized for – enslaving Africans.

While completely unprecedented, the statement falls in line with Qaddafi’s decade-long policy of aligning himself with African nations.

“I regret the behavior of the Arabs… They brought African children to North Africa, they made them slaves, they sold them like animals, and they took them as slaves and traded them in a shameful way. I regret and I am ashamed when we remember these practices. I apologize for this,” Qaddafi was quoted as saying.

A number of African leaders, including Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, were in attendance at the summit which covered topics ranging from the Palestinian issue to Sudanese separation.

Gaddafi continued his statement by saying, “Today we are embarrassed and shocked by these outrageous practices of rich Arabs who had treated their fellow Africans with contempt and condescension.” Gaddafi’s statement was broad, leaving a time reference open for debate.

There is very little documentation about the African enslavement in the Arab world. Most documentation and research focuses on the trans-Atlantic slave trade, but until the turn of the 19th Century, Arab slave traders dealt in a lucrative business in African slaves from the Congo, Rwanda, and particularly East Africa. In the middle of the ninth century, a revolt of the Zanj, African slaves held in modern-day Iraq, lasted for nearly fifteen years.

The Arab slave trade was also excuse used by Europeans, including King Leopold II of Belgium, to move into Africa during the age of European colonization.

There is some documentation of Arab enslavement up until the mid-1900s. According to a report by the United Nations in 1957, as much as 20% of the population of Saudi Arabia consisted of slaves. The report listed the worth of a girl under 5 years of age to be between 200-400 British pounds on the Jeddah slave market, while a man under 40 averaged 150 British pounds.

It is plausible that Gaddafi’s statements referenced modern enslavement by Arabs, from the era of European colonization to the present day. “We should now recognize this issue, denounce it vigorously and place it in its true dimension,” Ghaddafi said in his statement.

In September, UK Channel 4 released a film version of the story of a Nubian woman named Mende Nazer. The film, titled “I Am Slave,” tells the true story of a girl who was abducted from the Nuba mountains and was eventually sold into domestic servitude with an Arab family in London.

In 2000, Nazer’s story made international news when she managed to escape. Although the numbers of people living in such circumstances are difficult to determine, an August article in the UK’s Telegraph estimated around 5,000 people are currently working as domestic slaves in the UK.

Either way, the Libyan leader’s statement is remarkable, even for a man who likes to make headlines.

Bank of America halts foreclosures in all 50 states

By Your Foreclosure Hero
Bank of America Corp. is placing a moratorium on all foreclosure proceedings and sales across the U.S. due to mounting political pressure on large U.S. banks to examine foreclosure-documentation problems.

The nation’s largest bank by assets is the first financial institution to stop all foreclosure actions due to revelations that the banking industry had used “robo-signers” — people who sign hundreds of documents a day without reviewing their contents — when foreclosing on homes. Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Ally Financial Inc. last week postponed foreclosures in 23 states where a court’s approval is required to foreclose on a home.
The decision by Bank of America to extend its postponement to all 50 states takes effect Saturday. The bank doesn’t intend to lift the moratorium until its assessment of all documentation is complete, a spokesman said.

On Thursday, Rep. Edolphus Towns (D, N,Y.), chairman of the House oversight committee, became the latest lawmaker to call for a nationwide moratorium on foreclosures.

Bank of America Chief Executive Brian Moynihan plans to be in Washington, D.C., Friday for an appearance before the National Press Club, but a person close to him said he isn’t expected to discuss the moratorium decision.
www.yourforeclosurehero.com

Judge declares a mistrial for reggae star Buju Banton

TAMPA, Florida (AP) - A Florida judge Sept. 27 declared a mistrial for Jamaican reggae star Buju Banton, who was accused of conspiring to buy cocaine from an undercover police officer last year.

U.S. District Judge James Moody made the decision after the 12-person jury sent him a second note saying they couldn't reach a verdict.

In an earlier note, jurors said they were having trouble reaching an agreement shortly after returning from a weekend recess. Judge Moody then sent them back to keep trying. Deliberations had begun Sept. 27 after a four-day trial.

The jurors declined to tell reporters about their deliberations.

Mr. Banton's attorney asked Judge Moody to release Mr. Banton on bond. He has been held without bond since his Dec. 10 arrest.

The attorneys and Judge Moody discussed scheduling a new trial in December.

Mr. Banton, a four-time Grammy nominee, had been charged with conspiracy to possess and distribute cocaine and aiding two others in possessing a firearm during the course of cocaine distribution. He faced up to life in prison.

Mr. Banton's attorney, David Markus, had argued that the singer was entrapped by a U.S. government informant.

“We were hoping to get a good verdict today. That said, 12 jurors did not believe Buju did it,” said Mr. Banton's attorney, David Markus. “The government tried to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt, and they did not do it.”

Before being led away in leg shackles, Mr. Banton reached out his arms to about two dozen family, friends and fans seated in the federal courtroom in Tampa.

“Thank you all. Love you, too,” he said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney James Preston declined to comment after court adjourned.

The 37-year-old singer, whose real name is Mark Myrie, testified that he talked a lot about cocaine with the informant, Alexander Johnson, but he was only trying to impress the man, who claimed to have music industry connections, and not secure a drug deal.

Mr. Johnson testified that Mr. Banton admitted involvement in drug trafficking, and he wanted to give Mr. Johnson money so he could buy and sell cocaine.

Excerpts from their recorded conversations from July 2009 through December were played for the jury.

Mr. Banton said he never wanted nor expected Mr. Johnson to set up a cocaine deal, despite what he said in the recordings. The singer had told Mr. Johnson that he financed drug deals, wanted to sell drugs in Europe, buy drugs from the Caribbean and South America and use Mr. Johnson's boat to transport drugs.

Mr. Johnson testified that he surprised Mr. Banton with cocaine at an undercover police warehouse in Sarasota on Dec. 8. Surveillance video shows Mr. Banton peering over co-defendant Ian Thomas' shoulder at the cocaine, and the singer tasting the drugs with a finger.

On Dec. 10, Mr. Thomas and another co-defendant, James Mack, were arrested at the warehouse after trying to buy the drugs. Mr. Banton was not present and was arrested at his Miami-area home.

Suspects Thomas and Mack pleaded guilty, and each faces up to life in prison. Neither testified in the trial in Tampa federal court.

Mr. Banton's new album, “Before the Dawn,” was released Sept. 28. The album's 10 songs, including one titled “Innocent,” were recorded in Kingston, Jamaica, last year before Mr. Banton's arrest.

“It speaks volumes about what's going on now in Buju's life,” said his manager, Tracii McGregor. “Buju has said his body is locked away, but Buju is with us; he lives through his music.”

Opposition hopes to stunt Venezuela's revolution

CARACAS (IPS/GIN) - The vigorous comeback of the opposition in Venezuela's newly elected parliament strengthens pluralism in this oil-rich country, although it may presage a new political crisis in the medium term, according to analysts.

With almost 99 percent of the ballots counted, the electoral branch announced that the governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and its small ally, the Communist Party, won 98 of the 165 seats in parliament, compared to 63 for the opposition Democratic Unity Coalition.

Two seats were taken by Fatherland for All, a leftwing party that broke away from President Hugo Chávez earlier this year, and two further seats were still too close to call after Sept. 26 elections.

In terms of actual vote counts, however, 5.4 million ballots were cast for opposition politicians (48 percent of those counted so far) compared to 5.2 million (46.4 percent) for the PSUV and its ally. The Fatherland party got 330,260 votes and the rest went to small parties, mostly opposed to Mr. Chávez, or were blank or spoiled votes.

The authorities said voter turnout was 66.45 percent of the 17.6 million registered voters in this country of 28.8 million people.



Opposition Democratic Unity Coalition coordinator Ramón Aveledo said, “The Venezuelan people have spoken.” Combining all the votes not cast for the governing party, he added: “The opposition comprises 52 percent of the electorate, and the present parliament (which ends its term of office in January) no longer represents Venezuela: it should not, and morally and politically cannot, take legislative decisions.”

In reply, Aristóbulo Istúriz, a President Chavas party lawmaker-elect and head of the party's electoral campaign, said: “We are going to legislate right up to the very last day, so be prepared. We did not reach our target of two-thirds (of the seats) but we won a resounding victory.”

President Chávez wrote in his Twitter account that the elections were “another victory for the people,” and said “we must keep on strengthening the revolution.”

Political analyst Eduardo Semtei said Chávez would “keep his foot on the accelerator” and drive ahead with his initiatives for changing Venezuelan politics, economy and society, which will lead him into fresh conflicts with the opposition.

Sociologist and professor of political sciences Carlos Raúl Hernández told IPS “a political crisis is looming, possibly within the next few months, because the part of society that opposes Chávez's project will be emboldened by this electoral success, and will react when measures are taken against it.”

According to Mr. Hernández, “at the risk of falling into clichés, what has happened in Venezuela can be termed historic, because the country is bringing to a halt and wrecking—at the ballot box—the project to exhume and renew communist-style socialism, after its demise as a Western cultural phenomenon in the last century.”

For the consumption of the public and of international opinion, the opposition will try to maintain its campaign slogan, “we are the majority,” while the government and its allies will take their stand on legal formality and the control the president's followers exercise over nearly all the levers of political and economic power, nationally and regionally.

In parliament, the government will not have the two-thirds majority that Mr. Chávez had aimed for as his party's necessary electoral goal. A two-thirds majority is required to pass certain laws, as well as to reconfigure the political, economic, social and institutional architecture of the country.

A crisis may be brewing, driven by deteriorating social and economic indicators, which are already regarded as causing or contributing to the electoral decline of Mr. Chávez and his government, observers say. High inflation, long-term unemployment and under-employment, high crime rates, and lack of housing and of services like electricity are some of the problems they highlight

Court refuses to hear appeal from reputed Klansman

Court refuses to hear appeal from reputed Klansman

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court won't hear an appeal from reputed Ku Klux Klansman James Ford Seale for the killing of two black men in rural Mississippi in 1964.

The high court on Monday turned away Seale's appeal without comment.



In March, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the evidence against Seale was sufficient for the jury conviction in the trial that took place 43 years after the crimes. Seale, now 75, was convicted in 2007 of two counts of kidnapping and one of conspiracy to commit kidnapping. He was given three life sentences.



Authorities say Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore, both 19, were beaten by Klansmen and thrown, possibly still alive, into a muddy backwater of the Mississippi River.



Thomas Moore of Colorado Springs, Colo., the brother of victim Charles Moore, said he received a phone call from the Justice Department, informing him the Supreme Court wouldn't hear the case.

"It's a good feeling for me. It's a good feeling for the family members. It's been three years since this thing got started and now we can finally rest and move on with our lives," Thomas Moore said Monday. "Thank God justice has been done and I was convinced of it all the time."

Kathy Nester, Seale's defense attorney, was out of the office on Monday, and couldn't be reached immediately for comment.



The victims in the case were kidnapped in the woods of southwestern Mississippi near Natchez. According to testimony at the trial, the two 19-year-olds were beaten by Klansmen in the Homochitto National Forest as they were interrogated about rumors that blacks in the area were planning an armed uprising.



The teens were tossed into the trunk of a car and driven more than an hour through Louisiana and Mississippi before being weighted down and thrown into waters near Vicksburg.

Seale is serving his sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Terre Haute, Ind.



The case is Seale v. United States, 09-11229

Bill Gates says vaccines can help reduce world population

(NATURAL NEWS)In a recent TED conference presentation, Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates, who has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to new vaccine efforts, speaks on the issue of CO2 emissions and its effects on climate change. He presents a formula for tracking CO2 emissions as follows: CO2 = P x S x E x C.

P = People
S = Services per person
E = Energy per service
C = CO2 per energy unit

Then he adds that in order to get CO2 to zero, "probably one of these numbers is going to have to get pretty close to zero."

Following that, Bill Gates begins to describe how the first number -- P (for People) -- might be reduced. He says:

"The world today has 6.8 billion people... that's headed up to about 9 billion. Now if we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services, we could lower that by perhaps 10 or 15 percent."

Reducing the world population through vaccines
This statement by Bill Gates was not made with any hesitation, stuttering or other indication that it might have been a mistake. It appears to have been a deliberate, calculated part of a well developed and coherent presentation.

So what does it mean when Bill Gates says "if we do a really great job on new vaccines... we could lower [world population] by 10 or 15 percent?"

Clearly, this statement implies that vaccines are a method of population reduction. So is "health care," which all NaturalNews readers already know to be more of a "sick care" system that actually harms more people than it helps.

Perhaps that's the whole point of it. Given that vaccines technology help almost no one from a scientific point of view (http://www.naturalnews.com/029641_v...), it raises the question: For what purpose are vaccines being so heavily pushed in the first place?

Bill Gates seems to be saying that one of the primary purposes is to reduce the global population as a mechanism by which we can reduce CO2 emissions. Once again, watch the video yourself to hear him say it in his own words:
http://www.naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=A...


How can vaccines actually be used to reduce world population?
Let's conduct a mental experiment on this issue. If vaccines are to be used to reduce world population, they obviously need to be accepted by the majority of the people. Otherwise the population reduction effort wouldn't be very effective.

And in order for them to be accepted by the majority of the people, they obviously can't just kill people outright. If everybody started dropping dead within 24 hours of receiving the flu shot, the danger of vaccines would become obvious rather quickly and the vaccines would be recalled.

Thus, if vaccines are to be used as an effective population reduction effort, there are really only three ways in which they might theoretically be "effective" from the point of view of those who wish to reduce world population:

#1) They might kill people slowly in a way that's unnoticeable, taking effect over perhaps 10 - 30 years by accelerating degenerative diseases.

#2) They might reduce fertility and therefore dramatically lower birth rates around the world, thereby reducing the world population over successive generations. This "soft kill" method might seem more acceptable to scientists who want to see the world population fall but don't quite have the stomach to outright kill people with conventional medicine. There is already evidence that vaccines may promote miscarriages (http://www.naturalnews.com/027512_v...).

#3) They might increase the death rate from a future pandemic. Theoretically, widespread vaccination efforts could be followed by a deliberate release of a highly virulent flu strain with a high fatality rate. This "bioweapon" approach could kill millions of people whose immune systems have been weakened by previous vaccine injections.

This is a known side effect of some vaccines, by the way. A study documenting this was published in PLoS. Read the story here: http://www.naturalnews.com/028538_s...

Here's the study title and citation: Does Seasonal Influenza Vaccination Increase the Risk of Illness with the 2009 A/H1N1 Pandemic Virus?
Viboud C, Simonsen L (2010) Does Seasonal Influenza Vaccination Increase the Risk of Illness with the 2009 A/H1N1 Pandemic Virus? PLoS Med 7(4): e1000259. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000259

The short answer is yes, seasonal flu vaccines do cause increased susceptibility to the H1N1 pandemic virus. In other words, seasonal flu vaccines could set up the population for a "hard kill" pandemic that could wipe out a significant portion of the global population (perhaps 10 to 15 percent, as Bill Gates suggested).

Conveniently, their deaths could be blamed on the pandemic, thereby diverting blame from those who were really responsible for the plot. As yet another beneficial side effect for the global population killers, the widespread deaths could be used as a fear tool to urge more people to get vaccinated yet again, and the entire cycle could be repeated until world population was brought down to whatever manageable level was desired... all in the name of health care!

The more people around the world are vaccinated before the release of the "hard kill" pandemic virus, the more powerful the effect of this approach.


The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Perhaps not coincidentally, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has funneled hundreds of millions of dollars into vaccine programs targeting people all over the world. One such program is researching the development of "sweat-triggered vaccines" that could use specially-coated nano-materials to deliver vaccines to people without using injections.

More interestingly, his foundation has also invested millions in sterilization technologies that have been called a "temporary castration" solution. (http://www.naturalnews.com/028887_v...)

It seems that the actions of the Gates foundation are entirely consistent with the formula for CO2 reduction that Bill Gates eluded to in his TED conference speech: CO2 = P x S x E x C.

By reducing birth rates (through sterilization technologies) and increasing vaccine penetration throughout the world population (by using sweat-triggered nano-vaccines), his stated goal of reducing the world population by 10 to 15 percent could be reached within just a few years.


Who will be left alive? The smart people
The interesting thing about all this is that this campaign to reduce global population through vaccines will obviously not impact people who consciously avoid vaccines. And those people, by and large, tend to be the more intelligent, capable people who actually have an improved ability to move human civilization forward with thoughtful consideration.

I can only imagine that those people designing this vaccine-induced population control measure might be sitting around a table chuckling to themselves and saying, "It's only the stupid people that are going to be killed off anyway, so this is actually helping the future of humankind!" (Their words, not mine.)

In a weird world government kind of way, this effort might actually be based on some distorted vision of philanthropy where some of the most powerful people in the world quite literally believe the way to save humanity is to kill off as many of the gullible people as possible. Vaccines are, in effect, an "evil genius" kind of way to conduct an IQ test on the population at large: If you go get vaccinated every flu season, you're not too bright and probably don't engage the kind of strong mental faculties that humanity will no doubt need if it is to face a future where it is now all but obvious we are not alone in the universe.

If humanity is to save itself from its own destruction and compete as an uplifted species in our universe, killing off the least intelligent members of society (or making them infertile) may appear to the world controllers to be a perfectly reasonable approach. I disagree with that approach, but it may be precisely what they are thinking.

In any case, choosing to receive a seasonal flu shot is undoubtedly an admission that you have failed some sort of universal IQ test, whether or not this is the intention of world influencers such as Bill Gates. More importantly, it is also a betrayal of your own biology, because it indicates you don't believe in the ability of your own immune system to protect you even from mild infections.

Perhaps the world vaccine conspirators figure that if people are willing to betray themselves anyway, it's not much different for governments and institutions to betray them as well. In other words, if you don't even care enough about your own health to take care of your health, why should any government care about protecting your health, either?

As you ponder this, also consider something else: The U.S. is going broke due to sick-care costs which are rising dramatically under the new federal health care reform guidelines. Can you guess the fastest and easiest way to reduce those health care costs? If you guessed, "unleash a hard-kill pandemic that takes out a significant portion of the weak or sick people" then you guessed right. Sadly, killing off those most vulnerable to sickness could save the U.S. government literally billions of dollars in sick-care expenditures. Plus, it would save Social Security yet more billions by avoiding ongoing monthly payouts. (Again, I am completely against such an approach because I value human life, but I also know we live in a world where the people in charge have little or no respect for human life and will readily sacrifice human lives to achieve their aims.)

As far as Bill Gates goes, consider his statement in the context of what we've discussed here: "The world today has 6.8 billion people... that's headed up to about 9 billion. Now if we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services, we could lower that by perhaps 10 or 15 percent."

It suddenly seems to make a lot of sense when you understand that reducing the population reduces CO2 emissions, and using more vaccines on more people increases the death rate of the population.

My advice? Try to avoid being among those 10 to 15 percent who get culled through global vaccine programs. You will not only save your life, you'll also pass the "universal IQ test" which determines whether you're smart enough to know that injecting your body with chemicals and viral fragments in order to stop "seasonal flu" is a foolish endeavor.

Be healthy and wise, and you'll survive the world depopulation effort that victimizes conventional thinkers who don't have the intelligence to question what they're being told to do by their own corrupt governments.

CLICK BELOW TO WATCH VIDEO OF BILL GATES
http://www.naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=A155D113455FAC882A3290536575C723

FBI Tracked Lena Horne’s Activist Life

The FBI tracked trailblazing entertainer Lena Horne for nearly 30 years because of her involvement with civil rights – and eyed her as a Communist sympathizer during the height of the McCarthy era, newly disclosed documents reveal.



“She is sympathetic to the Communist cause and is extremely race conscious,” reads a memo placed in Horne’s FBI file in 1948.



Horne, who vehemently denied any Communist leanings, ultimately defended herself in a handwritten letter contained in the 136-page file compiled on the renowned actress and singer.

The NYCity News Service obtained Horne’s FBI file under the Freedom of Information Act, which allows certain documents to be released after the subject’s death. Horne, perhaps best known for her signature tune, “Stormy Weather,” died in May at age 92.



Actress and Activist

The FBI began keeping a file on Horne in 1947 as she rose to fame, becoming one of the first African-American entertainers to hit the heights of Hollywood stardom.



Using her prominence as a celebrity, Horne advocated for civil rights – and caught the attention of the FBI. Horne’s file contains a list of events she attended for organizations the Bureau considered “Communist-influenced.”



Much of the file focuses on her association with entertainer and activist Paul Robeson. The FBI documented appearances Horne, Robeson and others made at civil rights events with groups like the American Youth for Democracy, Civil Rights Congress and the Council on African Affairs. The FBI described the groups as “Communist front” organizations.



Internal FBI memos indicate Horne was not a Communist, but was “sympathetic to the Communist cause and is extremely race conscious.” Confidential informants told the FBI that Horne “often cooperated with Communist groups if she believed that they were assisting in obtaining equality for the Negro people.”



In Her Own Defense

Horne felt the weight of those accusations and came to her own defense. The files include a letter she wrote in 1953 denying she was a Communist. The 12-page missive, handwritten on stationery from the Las Vegas Sands Hotel, is addressed to Roy M. Brewer, a member of the Motion Picture Industry Council.



Horne wrote, “If at anytime I have said or done anything that might have been construed as being sympathetic toward Communism, I hope the following will refute this misconception.”

In the letter, Horne describes her relationship with Robeson, who she said was a long-standing family friend. He encouraged her to “take an active interest in the problems of other people, generally, and in the Negro people, specifically.”



Horne wrote that Robeson suggested she help raise money for a milk fund being sponsored by the Council for African Affairs for the benefit of African mothers.



Seen as “Window Dressing”


Robeson, a former star athlete, scholar and internationally known performer, was active in a wide range of civil rights and humanitarian causes. He testified before Congress that he was not a member of the Communist Party, but was an advocate of socialism. He ultimately was condemned by both Congress and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for his beliefs.



Confidential informants described Horne as “window dressing” used by various Communist Party fronts to attract members. The informants, whose names were redacted, said that almost of her time was devoted to show business. Her supposed sympathy for the Community Party was based “solely upon her desire for racial equality for negroes [sic],” according to one document.

The Los Angeles Police Department added a memo to her file in 1947, about her and Hollywood mogul Louis B. Mayer. Mayer, head of studio productions at MGM, allegedly “visited Horne several nights a week, occasionally arriving early in the evening and not leaving until the next day.” According to the memo, Mayer provided Horne with a residence and “lavished expensive gifts on her.”



Horne’s file was last updated in 1976, when she was among those considered to serve as treasurer for a campaign to raise funds for the defense of Black Panthers member Angela Davis.