Help Find Chioma Gray

As reported by Electronic Village, Chioma Gray is a 15-year old girl abducted from her hometown of Oxnard, CA.

She is not blue-eyed and blonde ... so the mainstream media hasn't told you about her story yet. Electronic Village, Black and Missing But Not Forgotten, Wichita NAACP, and now African American Political Pundit, African American Opinion, African American Opinion and Social Newtworking, African American Political Opinion, Black Accountability Project, and Tasered While Black want to get her story out. We join Villager, at Electronic Village, as he ask all Villagers to be vigilant in looking after their own children ... and keeping an eye out for Chioma as well.

H/T: Electronic Village, Black and Missing But Not Forgotten, Wichita NAACP

Black Political Power in Indianapolis - Black Leadership Crisis in Indianapolis (Indy)

The Indianapolis Star Newspaper calls it Tempered leadership. They say this black man helped pave the way for other black leaders. They say he played a key role in helping the city rebuild a neglected Downtown. Yet, the Black Accountability Project - Indianapolis (Indy) is reporting there is a Black Leadership Crisis.The Black Accountability Project -Indianapolis (Indy) is concerned about the Future of Indy's black community. Rozelle Boyd steps down from City-County Council, blacks in Indianapolis and the Indianapolis Star are looking back at changes in Indy and the leadership he provided. OK, I must admit I don't know a lot about Indianapolis politics, but this brother seemed to be a mover and a shaker.



Read the article about Rozelle Boyd here. Also read about the Black Leadership Crisis in Indianapolis HERE

Tempered leadership.

Source: The Indianapolis Star

A framed newspaper article from 1965 reflects one of the more historically significant moments of his and the city's life. Its headline: "Boyd elected first Negro on county council."

Today, after 42 years of public service, Boyd is spending his last day in office, having lost his bid for another term in November. He was the longest-serving member of the council, its elder statesman. Despite the history-making nature of his political career, Boyd's time in power can be defined more by his work-within-the-system rather than a rock-the-establishment approach.

Eloquent, dignified and low-key, Boyd pushed for change on politically charged issues but took the reasoned and methodical rather than strident course. Critics say Boyd was sometimes too slow and too patient, but he was nonetheless widely respected. "He was always a gentleman," Mayor Bart Peterson said. "He elevated the council's dialogue, and civility was one of his core leadership values." Boyd's manner is credited with helping Indianapolis prevent the racial violence that consumed other cities during the civil rights era. More HERE

NPR: Best of 'News & Notes' 2007 and Black (African-American) Bloggers

The Best of 'News & Notes' 2007



Even with my controversial comments about black women and interracial marriages, NPR has placed Bloggers' Roundtable: The 'Browning' of America as one of "The Standout Interviews & Reporting from the Year Gone By."

Check out the others listed as the Best of 'News & Notes' 2007 in this Series.

Obama on the War, Race and America's Future

Literary Great Chinua Achebe on Prose and Politics

Civil Rights Division Turns 50

Janet Jackson, Tyler Perry 'Get Married'

Walking to Class, Into the History Books

Maj. Gen. Gaskin on the State of Iraq

Queen of Soul Continues Her Reign

Beating the Odds, Book by Book

Bloggers' Roundtable: The 'Browning' of America

Autism Poses Extra Obstacles for Blacks

Does Russell Simmons Serve Hip-Hop?

Sly and The Family Stone's 40 Years of Music

'Photo by Sammy Davis,' Scenes in Black and White

August 15, 2007 · Three leading bloggers discuss new data that suggests whites are becoming more of a minority in America, the increase in black women choosing interracial marriages, and Sen. John Edwards' racial handicap in his White House bid.



Check out NPR as they look at the Bloggers' Roundtable. Yes, it's a look back at 2007. As NPR notes, we can all say Black blogger power was definitely in effect in 2007. Our posts helped spread the word about the Jena 6 case and pushed for BET to change its programming. Here to look back on some of the year's top stories of the year. Helping with the analysis are bloggers Eisa Ulen, Nashieqa Washington of Your Black Friend and John McCann of Book of John. Listen Now [17 min 27 sec]

Also, News & Notes, Web producer Geoffrey Bennett counts down the show's best and most memorable reporting from 2007 and talks about the topics that are making the rounds on the show's blog. Highlighting the Best of 'News & Notes'

Listen Now [2 min 35 sec]

National Public Radio (NPR), Farai Chideya, Host of News & Notes, the team of producers and tech staff at NPR's New and Notes have been great at providing another vehicle for black bloggers to communicate with the general public about issues of importance to all Americans through The Bloggers' Roundtable. Thank you NPR!

African American Political Pundit

Black men getting convicted of crimes in Massachusetts they didn't commit

Ok, Now that I have celebrated the NewEngland Patriots. Yeah! Let's back to some serious business. Black folk.

Take a look at how many black folks get Wrongful Murder Convictions in Massachusetts. This includes Marlon Passley. who was recently highlighted in an article, Justice undenied by Adrian Walker, in the Boston Globe Newspaper (December 18, 2007).

AAPP: Why are so many black men and woman getting convicted for crimes they did not commit in Massachusetts? What is the (black) Governor of Massachusetts doing about it?

Adrian Walker writes: Marlon Passley didn't know his destination on the morning in April 1999 when he was awakened by guards at MCI-Cedar Junction.

His life sentence without parole for first-degree murder had been recently affirmed by the Supreme Judicial Court. Yet he was headed for a courtroom.

When he got to the SJC, he discovered that the Suffolk district attorney's office was about to argue for his freedom. In the course of an investigation into another crime, strong evidence had been uncovered that Passley was innocent. The state that had put him away was now asking the court to let him go.

Passley was released on his own recognizance that afternoon, and the charges were formally dropped a few months later.

Homicide prosecutors generally consider their work done once someone is behind bars. David Meier, the head of the Suffolk homicide unit, wasn't satisfied with that. Not even close.

"It was important to the integrity of the system, to the defendant, and to the victim's family," Meier said yesterday.

Meier will leave his job at the end of the year, closing the book on an exemplary 24-year career as a prosecutor in Middlesex and Suffolk counties. By no means are his greatest triumphs releasing the wrongfully convicted; he has sent dozens of murderers to prison.

But Passley's case - and at least five others that followed - exemplify his devotion to truth over expedience. Not everyone who works in law enforcement can claim that. More HERE

The New England Patriots Made History!

OK, Away from politics for a moment. I was raised in Boston, so this is for the Boston in me when I say, "Way To Go Patriots."

Just perfect

Just perfect

H/T Boston Globe: In a fitting finish to Boston's magical year in sports, the New England Patriots - Bill Belichick's History Boys - last night recovered from a 12-point, second-half deficit and defeated the New York Giants, 38-35, to complete the first 16-0 regular season in the history of the National Football League. More HERE

The FCC Don't Like Black People

H/T: Masternewmedia.org

Last week, the Federal Communications Commission voted three-to-two on party lines to approve a measure that would increase media consolidation.

The new approved rule was pushed through by FCC Chair Kevin Martin. This new rule lifts a thirty-year-old ban on companies seeking to own both a newspaper and television or radio station in the same city.

The reaction against the vote has been swift. Close to 200,000 people have signed an open letter urging Congress to overturn the December 18th vote. Less than twenty-four hours after the vote, Democratic Congressmember Jay Inslee and Republican Congressmember Dave Reichert introduced the Media Ownership Act of 2007, that would overturn the new rules by the FCC.

It was Bush-appointed FCC Chair Kevin Martin, now just forty-one years old, who rammed through the rule changes. He’s served President Bush well. As deputy general counsel for the Bush-Cheney campaign in 2000, he was active during the Florida recount. Before that, he worked for Kenneth Starr at the Office of Independent Counsel during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Rumor has it he may run for governor of his native North Carolina. His wife, Cathie Martin, was a spokeswoman for Vice President Dick Cheney in the midst of the scandal around the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame. She now works on Bush’s communications staff.

Here below is the speech of one of the two dissident FCC commissioners, Michael Copps.

Copps has been fighting media consolidation since he was appointed to the FCC in 2001. He is a former history professor. He called the vote a Christmas gift to corporations. More HERE

Politics - African American: Will Hillary Appoint Thurbert Baker as her U.S. Attorney General?

Well, Well, Attorney General Thurbert Baker and Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond, the state's only two black statewide elected officials, are supporting Clinton.



You remember Attorney General Thurbert Baker the guy who refused to let Genarlow Wilson Free.



Let's do a rewind, the young man who was sentenced to ten years in prison for a crime of (having oral sex) now considered a misdemeanor with a much lighter sentence, and was not freed by Attorney General Thurbert Baker. Genarlow Wilson had to be freed by The Georgia Supreme Court. See the post by Exodus Mentality and What About Our Daughters.

One would hope that Hillary Clinton would not even be thinking about nominating him for Attorney General or head of it's Civil Rights Division. But hey, even staunch Hillary supporters may think appointing this guy to be Attorney General as bad news.

But why should this AAPP be concerned Barack Obama is probably going to win the nomination. If he does not Black folks should be concerned who Hillary would appoint in this and other key positions.

U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton received another boost from a prominent black leader on Wednesday as the head of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators threw his support behind her presidential campaign.

Georgia state Rep. Calvin Smyre said Clinton has "the strength and experience" to bring about needed change.

"Hillary is ready to lead this country on her first day in the White House and her agenda to expand economic and educational opportunities for all Americans will be a welcome change from the last seven years of presidential neglect," Smyre said in a statement.

Clinton is locked in a battle for the black vote with Sen. Barack Obama, who is trying to become the nation's first black president. That fight is heated in Georgia where blacks have made up nearly half the vote in the state's recent Democratic primaries. Georgia's presidential primary is Feb. More HERE

Cynthia McKinney - "Black Woman Running" for President of the United States

Remember Cynthia McKinney, the Congresswoman who stood up to Bush, said the war was bogus, and was treated like she was bad news by the Congressional Black Caucus. well, " She's Back," and running for public office.

Source: Atlanta Journal

Cynthia McKinney, who twice represented Georgia in Congress as a Democrat, is now a Californian seeking the Green Party's presidential nomination. She says the major parties and the news media are corrupt.

Critics call her a rabble-rouser and a 'joke.'

Madison, Wis. — It's a snowy day, and Cynthia McKinney is coming in from the cold to speak to supporters far from her old Georgia congressional district. About 30 people are gathered to greet her in a state Capitol conference room.

There's a guy in the front row wearing the mask of the murderous freedom fighter from the film "V for Vendetta."

Another is holding an "Impeach" sign that names nobody in particular. And a third is telling anybody who will listen that the Bush administration conspired with Osama bin Laden to launch the 9/11 attacks: "Sure! Cheney was in on it!"

They applaud as McKinney enters and the former Democrat launches into her stump speech, talking about why she is running for president as a Green Party member, ripping the left, ripping the right, and dumping trash on the middle of the road.

Republicans, she said, started an illegal war and stole the 2000 election by disenfranchising black voters. Democrats abdicated their obligation to vote against the war and impeach President Bush. The mainstream media is just as corrupt as the rest of the rotten system that is destroying America, she said.

"We can take control of our country and of our government," McKinney implored the group. "There are threats to the integrity of our democracy at every turn and at every place that we look."

No, the fire hasn't gone out of incendiary McKinney since voters of Georgia's 4th District ousted her from Congress in 2006.

Weary of what detractors called her conspiracy theories about the 9/11 attacks and turned off by her high-profile run-in with Capitol police, voters sent her packing for a second and, many assumed, final time.

But a year later, McKinney is trying for another political resurrection. This time, the stage isn't DeKalb County, the heart of her old district — it's America. She announced her candidacy for president last week.

Long a political lightning rod, McKinney has long inspired loyalty and derision — never indifference.

Now that she's on a one-in-a-trillion quest for the White House — to replace the man she notoriously suggested might have had advance knowledge of the 9/11 attacks — the obvious question is: Why?

The 2004 Green Party presidential candidate, after all, got about 100,000 of more than 121 million cast. That's less than half of 1 percent. read MORE HERE

Are black bloggers and black websites next multiplatform advertising opportunity?

Black Bloggers the next multiplatform advertising opportunity?

Judging from the findings of a recent online survey, African Americans, and Black Bloggers may be advertisers next multiplatform demographic. Black bloggers and websites should not be surprised when advertisers start hitting them up with advertising opportunities. Check out this recent article in yahoo and Reuters:

Reuters Photo

H/T Carolyn Kay, MakeThemAccountable.com

Americans more wired: survey

The "State of the Media Democracy" notes that in Deloitte's first edition of the survey just eight months earlier, 24 percent of consumers used their cell phones as entertainment devices, meaning that usage has soared 50 percent.

About 62 percent of "millennials" (consumers 13-to-24-years-old) are using their cell phones as entertainment devices, up from 46 percent in the previous study conducted February 23-March 6, 2007. And among Generation X consumers (25-to-41-year-olds), the number grew to 47 percent from 29 percent in the earlier survey.

About 20 percent of consumers said they are viewing video content on their cell phones daily or almost daily.

The percentage of consumers watching TV online jumped from the 23 percent figure reported in the previous study. Roughly 54 percent of those surveyed said they are making their own entertainment content through editing photos, videos or music, 45 percent said they are producing that content for others to see, and 32 percent said they consider themselves to be "broadcasters" of their own media.

"I think for advertisers one of the conclusions is you don't make decisions to advertise either on television or the Internet when you want to hit all the demographics, but rather you need to have a multiplatform strategy," said Ken August, vice chairman and national sector leader for Deloitte & Touche's media and entertainment practice, which commissioned the study. "It shouldn't be an either or proposition." More HERE

Dr. Julia Hare at the State of Black America - Telling Black America Like It is

Dr. Julia Hare tells it how it is. Talks about leading blacks, Vs. Black leaders and how leading blacks get paid by corporations, while we the masses get played. Also check out her comments about the broadcast networks:

ABC = All Broadcasting Caucasian's
NBC = Nothing Broadcasting but Caucasion's
CBS = The Caucasion Broadcasting Systems
Dr. Julia Hare tells it how it is. Talks about leading blacks, Vs. Black leaders and how leading blacks get paid by corporations, while we the masses get played. Also check out her comments about the broadcast networks:

ABC - All Broadcasting Caucasian's
NBC - Nothing Broadcasting but Caucasion's
CBS - The Caucasion Broadcasting systems


H/T MartyBLOGs

Who killed Benazir Bhutto?

This is not a hard question to answer.

Body of Benazir Bhutto is carried out of the hospital in a wooden coffin by a crowd of supporters. (Getty)

As reported by WaPo the death of former Pakistani prime minister comes 12 days before national parliamentary elections; explosion following gunshots kills 20 others. WaPo reports the killing of Benazir Bhutto is a Blow to U.S. (Bush') Goal for Pakistan. Yet as the Washington Post Analysis points out, "Without Bhutto, Musharraf has no major allies willing to take positions unpopular in Pakistan but critical to U.S. interests."

What a wonderful women. A strong women of character. she knew the risk of death and she was not scared to take the risk. African American's, no all American's could learn from her character.

AAPP: So who really killed Benazir Bhutto? I have a thought. For example the name Musharraf keeps ringing in the ears of many both inside the country and around the world. What do you think?

Now Pakistan faces horror of civil war after Benazir Bhutto is laid to rest. Although Musharraf Blames Terrorists for Benazir Bhutto's Murder there are many possible scenarios after death of Bhutto. Candidly, I have no doubt that the assassination of Bhutto will deepen Musharraf's troubles.

The 744 Billion Dollar Negro, Black, African American, Consumers

Black folks have over 744 billion a year in income and don't even own a toilet paper factory. So with over 744 Billion in income, we depend on others to wipe our ass.

Well that's what the Latest Buying Power report shows. We make the money, 744 billion dollars a year and little of nothing to show for it.



The 2007 edition of "The Buying Power of Black America" has just been released by Target Market News. The one-of-a-kind report is the most quoted source of information on how African-American consumers spend their $744 billion in income.



AAPP: I guess black folks have been so interested in loving others that we have not kept our eyes on the ball and loved ourselves. Are we 40 Million Dollar Slaves?

Yes, for black athletes, but for the black folks overall, we appear to be a collective 744 Billion Dollar Negro, Black, African American Consumer, political and economic slaves.

FCC adopts “No Urban Dictates” in advertising practices

FCC adopts proposal to eliminate “No Urban Dictates” advertising practices

By Ken Smikle
Target Market News

The Federal Communications Commission at yesterday’s monthly meeting took what is being called an historic step to address the discriminatory advertising practice that exclude black-oriented and Hispanic-oriented radio stations from receiving a fair share of advertising revenues.

The use of the “no urban dictate” policy, as it’s called, occurs when advertisers and their agencies intentionally by-pass urban and Latino stations, supposedly because the advertiser client has dictated that its ads not be placed with those outlets. African-American broadcasters have long...
Story continued..

Blacks, Clinton's, The Presidency and Ron Brown

There remains issues and questions that black voters must take a look at before voting for the Clinton's in their efforts to take back the white house. In this upcoming election year, black voters are beginning to asks questions about what really happened with Ron Brown? There remains questions and issues that still haunt the Clinton's regarding the death of Ron Brown that must be addressed. I guess that is the reason why, blogger Backyard Beacon believes:

Ron Brown still haunts the Clintons.

The Late Ron Brown

by Backyard Beacon

*Editor’s Note: This entry is cross-posted at Blogher.

Clinton aides may be weeds themselves — only to be uprooted after planting a seed of doubt about Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) in the minds of voters. Worst yet, “comments from associates of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton … could be construed as jabs at Obama’s race,” The Washington Post writes.

Whistle-blowers beware, however. Remember Commerce Secretary Ron Brown who died when his Air Force Plane crashed into a Croatian hillside in 1996?

Or did he die from a gunshot wound to the head?

“A circular hole in the skull … could have been a gunshot wound and certainly should have prompted an autopsy, according to an Air Force lieutenant colonel and forensic pathologist who investigated the jet crash in which Brown died,” the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported in 1997.

“Ten years later, the cliché headline reads like this, “Unanswered Questions Haunt Death of Ron Brown,” said Jack Cashill, the author of Ron Brown’s Body.

Read More HERE

Blacks Voters & White Voters - Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama

Is Barack Obama risky business for black folks to vote for? Or is Hillary and Bill Clinton playing the "race card" against Obama and black voters with a new 21st century southern strategy ?
Hat/Tip: Mia T

"Black Leaders" Jesse, Al, and Obama

Here is an interesting post By The Huffington Post News Editors.

What do you think are Black Leaders Feeling Eclipsed In Obama Era?

By The Huffington Post News Editors

Jesse Jackson can still get a crowd going--when he can find one. He appeared at a Los Angeles restaurant this fall, primed to discuss school dropout rates and home foreclosures. But only eight people showed up, mostly reporters. It's no longer Reverend Jackson's day in the sun, or any other black leader's whose name isn't Barack Obama. So where does that leave the leaders to whom black America has long turned in times of crisis--Jackson, and the Revs. Andrew Young and Al Sharpton? At times they can seem like jealous, cranky old men, as in December when Young suggested Bill Clinton was "every bit as black as Barack." Or when Jackson said Obama was "acting white'' by skipping a giant rally for the Jena Six. More HERE

Hillary Clinton's Southern Strategy - Black Voters and Black Bloggers

Unlike when White Liberal Bloggers met with Bill Clinton to kiss his ring in Harlem, NY, Black political bloggers are truly seeing the Clinton's for who they are. Black bloggers are asking many of the same questions and coming to pretty much the same conclusions regarding Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton's "Southern Strategy." You know "the southern strategy," started under Richard M. Nixon in 1968, which described Republican efforts to use race as a wedge issue -- on matters such as desegregation and busing -- to appeal to white southern voters.

Black bloggers are seeing that same "Southern Strategy" being played out by Hillary and Bill Clinton, along with their supporters, like John Kerrey this time the wedge they are trying to create in Obama the black man. You see race matters to the Clinton's.

Black bloggers have eyeballed and posted about Hillary's efforts to cast Obama as a Muslim! radical, and black bloggers have translated Bob Kerrey comments on Barack Obama.



I have also given my own observations of Bob Kerrey comments. There are some really angry black women who feel Hillary's efforts are not the kind of history a angry black bitch wants. For many black bloggers it's easy as 1-2-3 to understand what is going on. Clinton acolytes' racist attacks are nothing more than the the real race card. Black bloggers like The Field Negro have attempted to give some advice from the field. But the Clinton's have not been listening. Black bloggers are wondering not only about Hillary Clinton, but also the mastermind of her campaign Bill Clinton, you know the Bill Clinton who is suppose to be the first black President. What! Black bloggers got a chance to watch Bill Clinton on Charlie Rose talking about Obama: Who does he think he is? No Bill Clinton is not the first black President. And Hillary may not be the first women president, if she keeps on trying to 'Willie Horton' Barack Obama and stick to her position AGAINST Retroactivity for Drug Sentencing.

But guess what, I dont expect anything different but for Hillary Clinton to continue down that same road. She refuses to say she was wrong supporting the Iraq war, when black folks did not support the war from the beginning. Oh yeah, and Hillary, your husband was not the first black president.

Blacks will choose a presidential candidate who will bring the nation together: Barack Obama

AAPP: The Writer of this article, Fawaz Turkiis is right on point!

Hat Tip: Gulf News

Candidly this blogger is sick of Hillary Clinton's Color Arousal (racist campaigning).

Illustration by Luis Vazquez/Gulf News

The Barack Obama factor

By Fawaz Turki, Special to Gulf News

For the Democrats it's down to the wire: will they choose the first woman, or the first black, to run for president next year? Almost exactly two weeks from today, the primary race to choose a contender for the presidential election begins in Iowa, followed a few days later in New Hampshire, two states that command extraordinary clout in the process. And it is a contest between Hillary Clinton, an accomplished practitioner of political warfare, and Barak Obama, who at 46 is still learning the tricks of the trade. I leave it to you to consider whether the first woman, or the the first African-American president is the more remarkable event in American political life. And to consider further who for the Democrats is the safer bet to take on the Republican machine in November. Mere weeks ago, Clinton looked not only electable but unbeatable. Polls put her in the lead, way ahead of Obama, in every primary state, sure to win her party's nomination. That was then. Obama is now ahead in Iowa, albeit by a small margin, and seems to have eliminated the gap in New Hampshire. Moreover, some polls show him ahead in South Carolina, the third state to vote in the primaries. Hillary Clinton may appeal to voters on the basis of her intelligence (and she has that in spades), but Americans, and that includes a lot of independents, may in the end choose a presidential candidate who will bring them together, and show their country's new face to the world, after the polarisations caused by eight years of Republican misrule. More HERE

Black Voter's are seeing through Hillary Clinton

Well, Well, It's not Just black bloggers like Jack and Jill Politics who are seeing Hillary and Bill Clinton's use of the race card in this year's Presidential election campaigning. Check out the Washington Post article on the Racial undercurrent in the Clinton Campaign.

Candidly, I feel she and her husband have been playing the race card for too long!





She even thinks she can talk like a black woman!




Soon Hillary will come into a meeting of black women looking like this:




Candidly, I have not been been surprised or shocked with the Clinton racial undercurrent or just pure color arousal (racism). I posted on how Hillary is creating web sites to paint Obama as "cowardly." last week. Although one writer at WaPo believes:

"It has unfolded mostly under the radar. But an important development in the 2008 Democratic battle may be the building backlash among African Americans over comments from associates of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton that could be construed as jabs at Sen. Barack Obama's race.

These officials, including Clinton aides and prominent surrogates, have raised questions or dropped references about Obama's position on sentencing guidelines for crack vs. powder cocaine offenses; on his handgun control record; and on his admitted use of drugs as a youth. The context was always Obama's "electability." But the Illinois senator's campaign advisers said some African American leaders detect a pattern, and they believe it could erode Clinton's strong base of black support." Read More HERE

I always knew Clinton would use Obama's position on sentencing guidelines against him. I said so in a recent response to a great post by Rikyrah regarding Hillary Clinton coming out AGAINST Retroactivity for Drug Sentencing. - part of, what Rikyrah identifies as a "Southern Strategy."

Black Voter's are seeing through Hillary Clinton

I guess black folks will be voting differently!

New Orleans: My thought of the day

There have been many people within our communities and outside of our communities wondering where is the new Martin Luther King?





Unfortunately, Martin Luther King has been gone for many years, But there are Black Men, Black Women and Black Youth across America fighting the good fight against racial injustice, class injustice, and 21st century hatred. No there will never be another Martin Luther King, Jr., but there will always be black Americans who will follow the teachings of one of the greatest American's of the 20th Century, Dr. Martin Luther King , Jr., who's words guide us today:

"An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law."

- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Mitt Romney Disgracing The Name of MLK

It would be great to hold those who want to be President accountable for their lies? There is one big liar running for president Mitt "Liar" Romney. You know the guy, who as the NY Times reports, "Mitt Romney claimed while campaigning in Iowa and New Hampshire that he had been a hunter “pretty much all my life,” only to have to admit later that he had seriously hunted only on two occasions." Read More Here

"Then there was the endorsement Mr. Romney claimed on the NBC News program “Meet the Press” last Sunday that he received from the National Rifle Association while running for governor of Massachusetts in 2002, when it turned out the group had never endorsed him.

Mr. Romney’s latest concession is that he only “figuratively” saw his father, George, march with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., something he claimed in his highly publicized speech about his Mormon faith this month. Some publications have raised doubts that Mr. Romney’s father ever marched with Dr. King." More HERE

AAPP: We are finding out a lot about people like Mitt Romney, who in a 1978 interview with Boston Herald said:

"My father and I marched with Martin Luther King Jr. through the streets of Detroit."

AAPP: Well we are learning that he was a lying then, and he is a lying now.

The folks at the Washington Post have been doing a little political fact checking themselves:

Mitt Romney never marched through Detroit with Martin Luther King, as the Romney campaign now acknowledges. Nor is it true that the GOP candidate "saw" his father, a former governor of Michigan, join King on a civil rights march, as he has been claiming on the presidential campaign trail. (He now says that "saw" was a "figure of speech.") It is conceivable that George Romney marched with King at some point, but this is disputed.

Romney's correction of the record on the King story follows a number of other campaign missteps. Over the last few days, he has had to withdraw a claim that he received an official endorsement from the National Rifle Association while running for governor of Massachusetts in 2002. He has previously claimed, incorrectly, that "every action" he took as governor of Massachusetts was "pro-life."

The Facts

Mitt Romney was 16 years old in 1963 at the time that Martin Luther King organized a series of "Freedom Marches" through American cities, including Detroit. At the time, the Mormon Church, of which the Romneys were prominent members, still maintained an official ban on the full participation of African-Americans in religious rites, a ban that was not lifted until 1978. Nevertheless, the senior Romney sympathized with the Civil Rights movement and issued a proclamation in support of a civil rights march through Detroit in June attended by King.

According to researchers at the Martin Luther King Jr. Papers Project at Stanford University, George Romney declined to attend the first march on June 23, a Sunday, on the grounds that he would not take part in political activity on the Sabbath. Susan Englander, who is associate editor of the King papers, said that Romney participated in a different march six days later through the suburb of Grosse Pointe. She believes that it is unlikely that King was present on that occasion, as contemporaneous newspaper reports fail to mention him. More HERE

Congressional Black Caucus Asks Louisiana Gov. To Pardon Bell, Jena 6

Well who would expect anything different from Gov. Blanco. You see, Blanco quickly finds cover by having her spokeswoman say that the governor is unable to grant pardons without a recommendation from the Louisiana Pardon Board.

Read more:

New Orleans, LA (AHN) -- Fifteen lawmakers from the Congressional Black Caucus have asked Gov. Kathleen Blanco for clemency on behalf of Mychal Bell and five other black teens dubbed the "Jena 6."

"We believe Mychal Bell and the Jena 6 have paid a sufficient debt to society for any transgressions they may have committed," Lee wrote in her letter on Wednesday. "The pardon power was regarded by the Founding Fathers as the 'power of grace' because of its capacity to bring about healing and reconciliation. That is what is sorely needed in Jena today."

Blanco's spokeswoman, Marie Centanni, is quoted by the Associated Press as saying that the governor is unable to grant pardons without a recommendation from the Louisiana Pardon Board.

A similar request made by the caucus to Blanco in September was received with a statement from Blanco's office saying the governor can only grant pardons after a person has been convicted and sentenced. More HERE