When analyzing the consequences of and remedies for discrimination against African Americans, courts and scholars characterize African Americans as a minority.  This Article shows that the traditional approach is wrong: When it mattered, when the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments were enacted and for decades after, African Americans were a majority or controlling plurality in the states where most lived. African American-backed majoritarian governments controlled the South after the Civil War; while in power, they enacted strong civil rights laws and created a public education system. These policies were reversed, and segregation imposed, not because African Americans were a minority, destined to lose in the majoritarian political process, but rather through elimination of democratic politics and imposition of minority rule.  African Americans and their white allies were stripped of their electoral majority through fraud, violence and illegal disenfranchisement. This Article argues that the most important harm African Americans suffered was something that the law has until now overlooked: Loss of the right to control the governments of several
An Iraq vet named Charlie Anderson told me that he likes to get his photo taken with senators and House members, and then have his friend fiddle with the camera, so that Charlie gets to talk while the elected official has to stand there and smile. And this is what Charlie says: "Congressman, I work every day to try to end this war. You only talk about it. I'd like it if we switched roles: you do something, and I'll talk about what you're doing."

Thus far, any senators and House members taking Charlie up on his offer are not part of the leadership of either major party. Congressional leaders have elevated talking above action to the extent that many on Capitol Hill are now apparently incapable of distinguishing one from the other.

Right now, the House is debating the resolution against escalation in Iraq. While this is an important first step, we know that it's going to take more than non-binding resolutions to stop the surge and bring the war to an end. We've signed petitions, held rallies, and made phone calls -- now it's time to get face to face with Congress to hold them accountable to Iraq.

On Tuesday, February 20th, everyday people will be meeting with Representatives at their district offices to tell them that we expect them to act now to start bringing our troops home. Will you set up a meeting with Representative Patrick Tiberi?

Congressional contacts

It's a lot easier than it sounds. Click here to get all the information you need to start setting up a meeting with your Representative about Iraq.

Representatives will be home from Washington all next week and it's the perfect time to start talking to them about the next steps in Iraq. Congress has the power to stop the escalation once and for all and it's up to us to hold them accountable.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Several groups concerned about the integrity of our voting systems are insisting that contract language be inserted into San Francisco's pending 12.5 million dollar contract with Sequoia Voting Systems that will enable fully public scrutiny of the voting technology. Alan Dechert of the Open Voting Consortium will be available to answer questions at 12:30 PM Wednesday 14 FEB at City Hall ( on the steps ) before the budget and finance meeting ( at 1:00 PM ).

"We insist that the Contract Provision for Public Disclosure [1] drafted by Open Voting Consortium be included in the contract. Otherwise, the contract should be rejected by the Board of Supervisors," said Alan Dechert, President of Open Voting Consortium. Secret software and secret processes have no place in the voting system. This practice must end and we feel the place and time for this to happen is here and now."

DemocracyAction, Democracy For America, California Election Protection and the San Francisco Election Integrity League will be there in support of the Open Voting Consortium.

Journalism is not a profession or a trade. It is a cheap catch-all for fuckoffs and misfits - a false doorway to the backside of life, a filthy piss-ridden little hole nailed off by the building inspector, but just deep enough for a wino to curl up from the sidewalk and masturbate like a chimp in a zoo-cage."~~Hunter Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

If the Bush administration and the US mainstream media are united on any one issue, it's an absolute refusal to rock the political boat as they sail mercilessly through the seas of corporate profit on the good ship Terrorbush. For the most part, each group is an incurious lot -- undead creatures who neither care, nor dare, to glance over the side of the ship at the bloated, swirling bodies in the blood-red water below. From the beginning, their mission has been to perform so fantastically against a backdrop of such violent, explosive madness on so many fronts that we watch hypnotically but do not see -- listen intently but do not hear.

They are very good at what they do.

With the Bush administration taking increasingly provocative actions toward Iran, like the deployment of aircraft carriers to the Gulf, the arrest of Iranian representatives in Iraq, and the sharp escalation in bellicose rhetoric it seems clear that they’re at least considering a military strike. Here’s an idea that might help deter it.

Suppose groups like MoveOn, TrueMajority, and Democracy For America circulated a petition where those who signed it would ask our Senators, Representatives, and any of the other Democratic Presidential Candidates to pledge to oppose any attack on Iran and to also promise to initiate impeachment hearings if Bush attacked Iran without getting explicit Congressional authorization.

How does sex differ from torture?  The one is good and the other bad, might be your immediate reply.  But were I to describe an act of torture, this would be taken as a serious article.  Were I to describe an act of sex, then political publications wouldn't publish it, spam filters wouldn't allow you to receive it, and if you did receive it, you might turn away.  In fact, we have set up numerous mechanisms, external and internal, to protect you from sex that just don't exist for torture and should possibly be considered.  Such as:

1.-The Federal Communications Commission.  Numerous things sex-related are banned from the airwaves for our protection, while discussions of torture and an expanding range of depiction of torture is acceptable.  Police shows and exciting crime dramas depict torture and techniques bordering on torture as noble and good, while either avoiding sex or treating it so grotesquely as to unintentionally turn you off it.

President, International Association of Educators for World Peace
Dedicated to United Nations Goals of Peace Education,
Environmental Protection, Human Rights & Disarmament
Professor Emeritus, Alabama A&M University

One of the best religious experiences that one can possibly have is through participation in the liturgical function of the Orthodox Mother of God Church Derjevnaya in Russia. It is commonly known by its adherents as the Mother of God Church. This providential and inspirational Church fuses the best of traditional orthodoxy with some of the most meaningful liturgical events in the Roman Catholic Church.

Weekly Spiritual Celebration

Its weekly spiritual celebration injects in participants plenty of energy, dynamism, and enthusiasm, coupled with such virtues as faith, hope, humility, love and dedication to one’s neighbors. In addition to these spiritual benefits, this weekly spiritual celebration enhances great and genuine devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. In both the Orthodox and Catholic churches, this spiritual event is known as the celebration of the Mass.

Charles Mercieca, Ph.D.
President, International Association of Educators for World Peace
Dedicated to United Nations Goals of Peace Education,
Environmental Protection, Human Rights & Disarmament
Professor Emeritus, Alabama A&M University

Since the collapse of the communist system, Russia has emerged to become a spiritually oriented nation which has put a special focus on the Virgin Mary. In one of her apparitions to the six children of Medjugorje during the decade of the eighties, the Blessed Mother stated that the east is moving closer to God while the west is distancing itself from Him. All those religious and spiritual organizations that functioned underground during the communist era began to come out into the open to practice visibly and courageously their spirituality.

Church of the Catacombs

Pages

Subscribe to ColumbusFreePress.com  RSS