Will David Irving violate the Civil Rights Act on his upcoming U.S. speaking tour?

Buried within the mass of documents disclosed via Wikileaks are a series of Holocaust denier David Irving's emails concerning his 2009 speaking tour of the U.S. (Read here.) Along with embarrassing details of Irving's unsuccessful passes at his assistant, an Indianapolis-based far-right activist and former official of the Indiana Libertarian Party named Jaenelle Antas who is 50 years younger than Irving (read here and here and here), the leaked emails included details of Irving selling tickets for his speeches.  These emails appear to show that, when a prospective audience member contacted Irving's website for tickets to one of his speeches, they were vetted by Irving himself, and those who were suspected of being Jewish were flagged with the word "ACHTUNG" (in all capital letters). Here are some examples (with the names, phone numbers and email addresses of the applicants redacted):

Xxxx Wilson Xxxx
298 Gates Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11216
United States
555 555 5555
wilson.xxx@gmail.com


1 Not known to us

ACHTUNG, Jewish?

PayPal paid $15.00

November 4, 2009 @ 10:33 PM
I registered for the November 14th speaking engagement in New York City via
PayPal and received a confirmation e-mail and receipt, but nothing more. Please
confirm that Mr. Irving is scheduled to appear on Thanks,
Will
Will Xxxx
336 East 13th Street Apartment Xx
New York, New York 10003
(555) 555-5555
wilson.xxx@gmail.com
On Thu, Nov 5, 2009 at 10:54 AM, wrote:
We issue the actual location much closer to the event, for security reasons. I
can be reached by cell phone at 305 923 6779 in the event of difficulties.
Understood. In advance, thanks.
Best,
Will

Xxxxxxxx Patty Xxxxxxxx
235 Naples Terrace
Apt. Xx
Bronx, NY 10463
555-555-55555
freedompatty@xxxxx.com Not known to us

ACHTUNG is quarter-Jewish

October 31, 2009 @ 1:49 PM

Comments
I would be honored to hear and be in the presence of Mr. Irving. He is a lion of
truth.
She phoned 1.11.09 also pleading for details, says has no c.c., Paypal etc; I
explain problem.

Has not yet registered

Xxxxxx David M Xxxxxx
73-12 35th Ave. #x
Jackson Heights, New York 11372

555-555-55555
xxxxxxxx@yahoo.com
1 ACHTUNG: Jewish, notify of location at last moment only

While there is no indication in the leaked emails that Jews were denied entry to his speeches (they may have been, but these emails don't say), those thought by Irving to be Jewish were certainly treated differently from others attempting to purchase tickets.  At the least, for so-called "security reasons", the locations of the speeches were withheld from those he thought to be Jewish.  Non-Jews were not subjected to this.  (*See note below.)  That different treatment on the basis of religion has a name.  Discrimination.   Here's what the Civil Rights Act says about such discrimination:

SEC. 201. (a) All persons shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, and privileges, advantages, and accommodations of any place of public accommodation, as defined in this section, without discrimination or segregation on the ground of race, color, religion, or national origin.

United States law does not permit those holding events in public accommodations to treat people differently based upon their religion or ethnic group.  Not only must everyone be allowed access to speeches given in public places, they must be treated equally as well.  Federal law does not allow those selling tickets to public events to have different procedures for getting tickets or finding out where the event is taking place based on the audience member's race, religion or nationality.

David Irving's 2009 speaking tour of the U.S. featured events at public accommodations such as churches, restaurants, American Legion halls and motels, as well as at private homes.  I would be interested to know whether those events held at public accommodations violated the Civil Rights Act by discriminating against Jews.  I would also like to know if Irving's upcoming U.S. tour, which is scheduled to begin in a scant two weeks, will similarly discriminate.  Shouldn't either the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department or the Attorneys General of the states in which he spoke or intends to speak investigate past religious discrimination by Irving and act to prevent it from happening again?  Although the webpage for ordering tickets to Irving's upcoming speeches currently indicates that they all take place at "private locations", this claim can't be verified because event locations are kept secret until the applicant is approved to attend.  Moreover, if a private home were to be used for a publicly advertised, for-profit event, would that be defined as a public accommodation under the Civil Rights Act?    If  the Justice Department or state AG's offices are interested in attempting to purchase tickets to Irving's speeches under Jewish and non-Jewish names, they can do so at the following link:

https://irvingbooks.com/xcart/home.php?cat=250

The following tour schedule has been posted on an anti-fascist website:

February 28: Miami, FL
March 1: Orlando, FL
March 2: Savannah, GA
March 3: Columbia, SC
March 4: Raleigh, NC
March 5: Richmond, VA
March 6: Washington DC
April 9: Indianapolis, IN
April 10: St. Louis, MO
April 12: Dallas, TX
April 13: Houston, TX
April 15: San Antonio, TX
April 16: El Paso, TX
April 17: Albuquerque, NM
April 20: Las Vegas, NV
April 21: Phoenix, AZ
April 22: Sherman Oaks, CA
April 23: Orange County, CA
April 28: San Francisco, CA
April 29: Sacramento, CA
May 1: Portland, OR
May 2: Seattle, WA
May 3: Spokane, WA
May 4: Kalispell, MT
May 6: Billings, MT
May 8: Bismarck, ND
May 9: Fargo, ND
May 10: Minneapolis, MN
May 11: Madison, WI
May 12: Chicago, IL
May 13: Detroit, MI

Law enforcement officials can very easily verify whether Irving is continuing his apparent practice of discriminating against Jewish applicants for tickets to his speeches, and they should do so.


[NOTE:  With respect to Irving's treatment of non-Jews, the 2009 emails leaked to Wikileaks indicate that an applicant for tickets whose name was Turkish was tagged by Irving with the notation "Probably OK; BUT Not known to us".  No "ACHTUNG" for him.

Other applicants wrote brief statements indicating their credentials as pro-Nazi, a simpering fan of David Irving or at least non-Jewish. At least one person purchasing tickets was all three:

I attended your Miami talk in May 2005. My great-grandfather was a member of theGerman [sic] Intelligence Services overseas during WWII, and my grandfather was a member of the Waffen-SS. Currently I'm a college student, and my goal is to obtain a PhD in History, and another PhD in Philosophy. Needless to say, I GREATLY admire your work.

Other applicants got Irving's terse notation "Is OK" next to their names.  Among those was Jacques Pluss, a former professor at New Jersey's Farleigh Dickinson University who has proclaimed himself to be a Nazi, as if you couldn't already tell.  (Read here.)


Former professor Jacques Pluss: "OK" in David Irving's eyes.

Perhaps the most shocking revelation in the leaked David Irving emails is an email apparently sent to Irving by Col. Thomas W. McGuire Jr. of the U.S. Air Force.  This email asks

If I could arrange it, would you be interested in speaking at the US Air Force top professional military officers school the Air War College located here in Montgomery at Maxwell AFB on some future visits? The college has about 300 colonels/ lieutenant colonels in attendance. I was a senior faculty member at the College when I retired.

That email goes on to ask Irving's opinion of Pat Buchanan's loathsome work of historical revisionism "Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War", Buchanan's latest mainstreaming of pro-fascist propaganda.  McGuire, whose resume states that he "(f)lew 100 missions over North Vietnam in McDonnell Douglas F-4C Phantoms, leading 31 missions over Hanoi area known as Route Pack Six", is retired from active service, and is currently active in Military Officers for 9/11 Truth and Pilots for 9/11 Truth (read here).]

Below is a photo of David Irving's assistant and former official of the Indiana Libertarian Party, Jaenelle Antas, who posts on the racist website Stormfront under the screen name "Tristania".  In an interview with a neo-fascist website (read here), she describes herself as working full time running Irving's online bookstore.  Antas was key to organizing Irving's 2009 tour, and she appears to be working with Irving on his upcoming U.S. tour.  She also says that she is working to secure funding for republishing Irving's out-of-print books, and recently assisted Irving in conducting a tour of World War II sites in Poland  "for a group of about a dozen select guests".

Antas is working on Stormfront to sell tickets to Irving's core audience.  (Read here and here.)  She writes there that

This year's talk should be pretty good. He's written about 12 chapters of the Himmler biography so far and these talks will be a foretaste of what is to come in that book. He's got a lot of interesting documents and anecdotes to share.

Illinois shul marks its own bit of civil rights history

from the Chicago Tribune:  Highland Park synagogue marks its own bit of civil rights history (By Robert Channick)

In the summer of 1966, three years after delivering his "I Have A Dream" speech, Rev. Martin Luther King spoke to several hundred congregants in the sanctuary of a Highland Park synagogue. 

Barely a footnote in the civil rights movement, King's visit continues to resonate at Congregation Solel, which for the first time will commemorate the unlikely event with a special service Friday, three days before Martin Luther King Day. 

"I believe that the presence of Dr. King in our sanctuary 42 years ago was a significant benchmark in our history as a congregation," said Michael H. Ebner, 66, a longtime congregant and retired Lake Forest College history professor who organized the commemoration. "That event ... should not be forgotten." 

Formed in 1957 as an offshoot of the venerable KAM Isaiah Israel Congregation in Hyde Park, Solel inherited a tradition of social justice, a mission that its founding rabbi, the late Arnold Jacob Wolf, would take to new heights during the turbulent '60s. From marching with King in Selma, Ala., in 1965 to protesting the Vietnam War in Washington, Wolf led congregants to the front lines of the civil rights movement.

When King came to Illinois in 1966 to organize the Chicago Freedom Movement—a campaign for fair housing in the inner city—he found a receptive audience for his message at Solel, a congregation of about 400 families which started its own initiative to foster diversity in the suburbs. 

Sponsored by the North Shore Fellowship of Rabbis, King was invited to speak on June 30. 

Beyond omnipresent concerns over King's safety, the event was not without its controversy, according to Ebner. 

The John Birch Society, a traditionally conservative political organization that opposed parts of the civil rights movement, was irate over King's visit to Highland Park, Ebner said.

Congregants, on the other hand, were enthused, according to Gail Goldstein, a longtime Highland Park resident who was one of about 600 people that packed the sanctuary on a Thursday night to hear King's speech. 

"If there were people that weren't happy about it, they didn't make their voices heard," said Goldstein, 71. 

"Certainly he got a rousing response from the audience that was there."

(Hat tip: History News Network)

Rest in peace Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf.  

from the New York Times:

Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf, a nationally prominent Reform rabbi known for his progressive, sometimes provocative public stances, including opposition to the Vietnam War, a speech at Yale accusing the university of a history of anti-Semitism and early political support for his neighbor Barack Obama, died last Tuesday in Chicago. He was 84.

Enlarge This Image

Arnold Jacob Wolf in 1994.

The apparent cause was a heart attack, his son Jonathan said.

At his death, Rabbi Wolf was rabbi emeritus of KAM Isaiah Israel Congregation in Chicago, where he had served as rabbi from 1980 until his retirement in 2000. The synagogue, the oldest in Illinois, is in the Hyde Park neighborhood, directly across the street from the Obamas’ home.

Throughout the 2008 presidential campaign, Rabbi Wolf was a highly visible advocate for Mr. Obama to Jews nationwide. In a letter Mr. Obama wrote to Rabbi Wolf’s family on Friday, which the family made available to a reporter, the president-elect said:

“My conversations with him were always lively. You knew that if he disagreed with you, he would let you know in no uncertain terms — especially if he thought you were overlooking the moral dimensions of an issue, or rationalizing your own failure to live up to the highest moral principles. But he did it with kindness, and often with a smile or a laugh to let you know that even though you were just plain wrong, and had no idea what you were talking about, he still loved you.”

Rabbi Wolf was a founding editor of Sh’ma, a magazine of Jewish social thought published 10 times a year. He wrote several books, most recently “Unfinished Rabbi: Selected Writings of Arnold Jacob Wolf,” published in 1998 by Ivan R. Dee.

Reviewing “Unfinished Rabbi,” Publishers Weekly said, “The volume presents a fascinating chronicle through writing of one of the great Jewish voices of the 20th century.”

Arnold Jacob Wolf was born in Chicago on March 19, 1924. His mother was a social worker; his father, a tailor, died when Arnold was 7. For several years, starting when he was about 10, Arnold acted in national radio dramas broadcast from Chicago on the Mutual Broadcasting System.

After receiving an associate’s degree from the University of Chicago, Arnold Wolf earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Cincinnati in 1945. He received his ordination from Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati in 1948 and later served as a Navy chaplain with United States occupation forces in Japan.

In choosing his vocation, Rabbi Wolf had been greatly influenced by an uncle and a great-uncle, both Reform rabbis. (The great-uncle was the leader of the KAM congregation, a precursor of KAM Isaiah Israel. Founded in 1847, KAM took its name — an acronym for the Hebrew phrase “Kehilath Anshe Ma’arav,” “Congregation of the People of the West” — in tribute to its frontier origins.)

“I became more traditional theologically than my family and more radical politically,” Rabbi Wolf told The Chicago Tribune last year. “I like that combination.”

In 1957, Rabbi Wolf became the first full-time rabbi of Congregation Solel, a Reform synagogue near Chicago. Guest speakers there over the years included the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Chicago Seven, the seven defendants charged with inciting to riot and other offenses stemming from protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

In 1965, the rabbi marched in Alabama with the civil rights leader John Lewis. Two years later, he led a group of congregants to Washington to lobby against the Vietnam War.

Starting in the early 1960s, Congregation Solel conducted an annual weekend of Holocaust remembrance, among the first synagogues in the country to do so.

In 1973, Rabbi Wolf helped found Breira, an organization of progressive American Jews that advocated a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The organization, whose name means “alternative” in Hebrew, was a target of frequent, bitter public attacks by American Zionists. It disbanded in 1977.

Beginning in 1972, Rabbi Wolf spent eight years at Yale as a chaplain and the director of the university’s chapter of the Hillel Foundation, the Jewish student organization. In 1980, when he was preparing to leave Yale and return to Chicago, he delivered a blistering Yom Kippur sermon in which he charged the university with a “long and dishonorable history of anti-Semitism” and accused its administration of “callousness” toward the needs of Jewish students and faculty members. The sermon, and the university’s subsequent denial of Rabbi Wolf’s accusations, attracted wide public attention.

Rabbi Wolf’s first marriage, to Margery Steiner, ended in divorce, as did his second, to Lois Blumberg. He is survived by his third wife, the former Grace Weiner; two sons from his first marriage, Jonathan and Benjamin; four stepdaughters, Sara Berger, Justine Henning, Sarah-Anne Schumann and Dara Henning; and 10 grandchildren.

Even in retirement, Rabbi Wolf was a familiar presence in the news. Last year, for instance, he was the subject of newspaper articles in Chicago and around the nation, though for a far less controversial reason than usual. At 83, Rabbi Wolf was having his bar mitzvah, 70 years behind schedule. (“In those days, Reform Jews didn’t do it,” he told The Chicago Sun-Times.) He was a little nervous, he confessed, about having to chant Torah in public.

This year, Rabbi Wolf was in the news again, for having looked all but clairvoyant in 1996, when he backed a young Chicagoan running for the Illinois Senate.

“I said to him, ‘Mr. Obama, someday you will be vice president of the United States,’ ” Rabbi Wolf told The Jerusalem Post in October. “And he said, ‘Why vice president?’ and laughed.”

from the Jews for Obama blog: "My neighbor Barack" by Arnold Jacob Wolf:

Not everyone can claim to be the neighbor of a Presidential candidate – I can, though, because I am.

Barack Obama’s Chicago home is across the street from KAM Isaiah Israel, the Hyde Park synagogue at which I’ve served for 27 years. He spoke to our congregation as an Illinois state senator; more recently, his Secret Service agents have made use of our, shall we say, facilities.

But it’s not neighborly instinct that’s led me to support the Obama candidacy: I support Barack Obama because he stands for what I believe, what our tradition demands.

We sometimes forget, but an integral part of that tradition is dialogue and a willingness to disagree. Certainly many who call me their rabbi have taken political positions far from mine – just as Barack Obama’s opinions have differed from those of his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

The candidate recently gave a speech which made abundantly clear that he and Wright often disagree. Obama condemned Wright’s “incendiary language,” and “views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but… that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation.”

Of course, race is only one issue on which Wright has stepped beyond the bounds of civil discourse. He’s frequently made statements regarding Israel and the Jewish community that I find troubling. But to limit our understanding of Obama to the ill-conceived comments of the man who once led his church is dishonest and self-defeating.

Obama’s strong positions on poverty and the climate, his early and consistent opposition to the Iraq War, his commitment to ending the Darfur genocide – all these speak directly to Jewish concerns. If we’re sidetracked by Wright’s words, we’ll be working against these interests. After all, a preacher speaks to a congregation, not for the congregation.

And still many remain concerned that Obama isn’t committed to Israel. Some want him to fall in line behind the intransigent, conservative thinking that has silenced Jewish debate on Israeli policy, and enabled the Bush Administration’s criminal neglect of the diplomatic process.

Clearly, though, anyone who thinks Obama waffles on Israel hasn’t been paying attention. In 2007, he spoke to AIPAC about “a clear and strong commitment to the security of Israel”; today, his website states clearly that America’s “first and incontrovertible commitment in the Middle East must be to the security of Israel.”

For my part, I’ve sometimes found Obama too cautious on Israel. He, like all our politicians, knows he mustn’t stray too far from the conventional line, and that can be disappointing. But unlike anyone else on the stump, Obama has also made it clear that he’ll broaden the dialogue. He knows what peace entails.

Speaking recently before a Jewish audience in Cleveland, Obama did the unthinkable – he challenged the room. He talked about the need to ask “difficult questions” on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: “I sat down with the head of Israeli security forces,” he said “and his view of the Palestinians was incredibly nuanced…. There’s good and there’s bad, and he was willing to say sometimes we make mistakes… and if we’re just pressing down on these folks constantly, without giving them some prospects for hope, that’s not good for our security.”

Yet, in spite of all of Obama’s strengths, there’s another truth we’ve been loathe to admit: Among some American Jews,  race plays a key role in the hesitation to support the Obama candidacy. We’ve forgotten that Black and Jewish America once shared a common vision; in the civil rights era, I and many in our community stood shoulder to shoulder with the giants of our generation, demanding freedom for all Americans.

Obama himself doesn’t share our amnesia, however. “I would not be sitting here,” he said in Cleveland, “if it were not for a whole host of Jewish Americans.”  That was literal truth, but not everyone remembers it.

I’ve worked with Obama for more than a decade, as has my son, a lawyer who represents children and people with disabilities. He has admired Obama’s dedication and skill as he worked on issues affecting our most vulnerable citizens.

Obama is no anti-Semite. He is not anti-Israel. He is one of our own, the one figure on the political scene who remembers our past, and has a real vision for repairing our present.

Barack Obama is brilliant and open-hearted; he is wiser and more thoughtful than his former minister. He offers what America, Israel, and the Jewish community need: a US President willing to ask hard questions, and grapple with difficult answers.

I am very proud to be his neighbor. I hope someday to visit him in the White House.

Angry White Man

James Kirchick of the New Republic has done a great job of debunking Ron Paul by tracking down archived copies of Paul's newsletter and by closely examining Paul's ideological roots and associations. This piece is a must read for anyone interested, as I am, in making sure that extremism doesn't sneak into the political mainstream within a Trojan horse.

from The New Republic: Angry White Man:

If you are a critic of the Bush administration, chances are that, at some point over the past six months, Ron Paul has said something that appealed to you. Paul describes himself as a libertarian, but, since his presidential campaign took off earlier this year, the Republican congressman has attracted donations and plaudits from across the ideological spectrum. Antiwar conservatives, disaffected centrists, even young liberal activists have all flocked to Paul, hailing him as a throwback to an earlier age, when politicians were less mealy-mouthed and American government was more modest in its ambitions, both at home and abroad. In The New York Times Magazine, conservative writer Christopher Caldwell gushed that Paul is a "formidable stander on constitutional principle," while The Nation praised "his full-throated rejection of the imperial project in Iraq." Former TNR editor Andrew Sullivan endorsed Paul for the GOP nomination, and ABC's Jake Tapper described the candidate as "the one true straight-talker in this race." Even The Wall Street Journal, the newspaper of the elite bankers whom Paul detests, recently advised other Republican presidential contenders not to "dismiss the passion he's tapped."

Most voters had never heard of Paul before he launched his quixotic bid for the Republican nomination. But the Texan has been active in politics for decades. And, long before he was the darling of antiwar activists on the left and right, Paul was in the newsletter business. In the age before blogs, newsletters occupied a prominent place in right-wing political discourse. With the pages of mainstream political magazines typically off-limits to their views (National Review editor William F. Buckley having famously denounced the John Birch Society), hardline conservatives resorted to putting out their own, less glossy publications. These were often paranoid and rambling--dominated by talk of international banking conspiracies, the Trilateral Commission's plans for world government, and warnings about coming Armageddon--but some of them had wide and devoted audiences. And a few of the most prominent bore the name of Ron Paul.

Paul's newsletters have carried different titles over the years--Ron Paul's Freedom Report, Ron Paul Political Report, The Ron Paul Survival Report--but they generally seem to have been published on a monthly basis since at least 1978. (Paul, an OB-GYN and former U.S. Air Force surgeon, was first elected to Congress in 1976.) During some periods, the newsletters were published by the Foundation for Rational Economics and Education, a nonprofit Paul founded in 1976; at other times, they were published by Ron Paul & Associates, a now-defunct entity in which Paul owned a minority stake, according to his campaign spokesman. The Freedom Report claimed to have over 100,000 readers in 1984. At one point, Ron Paul & Associates also put out a monthly publication called The Ron Paul Investment Letter.
The Freedom Report's online archives only go back to 1999, but I was curious to see older editions of Paul's newsletters, in part because of a controversy dating to 1996, when Charles "Lefty" Morris, a Democrat running against Paul for a House seat, released excerpts stating that "opinion polls consistently show only about 5% of blacks have sensible political opinions," that "if you have ever been robbed by a black teen-aged male, you know how unbelievably fleet-footed they can be," and that black representative Barbara Jordan is "the archetypical half-educated victimologist" whose "race and sex protect her from criticism." At the time, Paul's campaign said that Morris had quoted the newsletter out of context. Later, in 2001, Paul would claim that someone else had written the controversial passages. (Few of the newsletters contain actual bylines.) Caldwell, writing in the Times Magazine last year, said he found Paul's explanation believable, "since the style diverges widely from his own."

Finding the pre-1999 newsletters was no easy task, but I was able to track many of them down at the libraries of the University of Kansas and the Wisconsin Historical Society. Of course, with few bylines, it is difficult to know whether any particular article was written by Paul himself. Some of the earlier newsletters are signed by him, though the vast majority of the editions I saw contain no bylines at all. Complicating matters, many of the unbylined newsletters were written in the first person, implying that Paul was the author.
But, whoever actually wrote them, the newsletters I saw all had one thing in common: They were published under a banner containing Paul's name, and the articles (except for one special edition of a newsletter that contained the byline of another writer) seem designed to create the impression that they were written by him--and reflected his views. What they reveal are decades worth of obsession with conspiracies, sympathy for the right-wing militia movement, and deeply held bigotry against blacks, Jews, and gays. In short, they suggest that Ron Paul is not the plain-speaking antiwar activist his supporters believe they are backing--but rather a member in good standing of some of the oldest and ugliest traditions in American politics.

read the rest...

Ron Paul opposes federal civil rights laws

More on the shameful record of Rep. Paul. In June, Paul was one of only two congressmen to vote against the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act (HR 923), the other being Westmoreland of Georgia.

Here's what the bill calls for (from opencongress.org):

Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act - Establishes an Unsolved Crimes Section in the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and an Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Investigative Office in the Civil Rights Unit of the Federal Bureau of Investiga more...tion (FBI). Makes the Chief of the Section (Chief) and the Chief Investigator of the Office responsible for investigating violations of criminal civil rights statutes in which the alleged violation occurred before January 1, 1970 and resulted in death. Requires: (1) consultation with state or local officials regarding venue when there has been a violation of a criminal civil rights statute that is also a violation of a state or local law; and (2) referral to the Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division if the subject of the complaint has violated a criminal civil rights statute but the violation does not meet the requirements for the Unsolved Crimes Section. Amends the Crime Control Act of 1990 to authorize staff of an Inspector General to assist the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children by conducting reviews of inactive case files to develop recommendations for further investigations and engaging in similar activities.

Paul's reasoning? He doesn't believe that the federal government should be involved in enforcing civil rights laws. In 2004, Rep. Paul was the only member of Congress to vote against commemorating the fortieth anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. (Quote: "Relations between the races have improved despite, not because of, the 1964 Civil Rights Act.") Right. He wants all civil rights laws enforced locally. Sounds familiar somehow. Where have I heard that before? Have you been wondering why the extreme racist right like David Duke, National Vanguard, Stormfront, Hal Turner, Council of Conservative Citizens, etc. are supportive of Rep. Paul? Here's one reason.

Rep. Westmoreland, through a spokesman, said that the Justice Department should be able to pursue the more than 100 outstanding cases at issue with their existing budget. Right.

Final Vote Results for U.S. House of Representatives Roll Call 512

And on the fate of the bill in the Senate: Daily Kos: "Tom Coburn: The Shame of the Senate"

Here's more alleged wisdom from Rep. Paul on civil rights:

"(T)he forced integration dictated by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 increased racial tensions while diminishing individual liberty...The Civil Rights Act of 1964 gave the federal government unprecedented power over the hiring, employee relations, and customer service practices of every business in the country. The result was a massive violation of the rights of private property and contract, which are the bedrocks of free society. The federal government has no legitimate authority to infringe on the rights of private property owners to use their property as they please and to form (or not form) contracts with terms mutually agreeable to all parties."

What this means, for those without the historical background to understand (Paul supporters), is that Ron Paul would essentially undo all federal civil rights law since Brown v. Board of Ed. All the federal court rulings, legislation, programs, rules, enforcement policies, etc. relating to the protection of civil rights. He just doesn't believe that the federal government should get involved.

Ironically, Paul's dream world could not come into being without undoing so much constitutional law as to totally upset the Constitution he's allegedly defending. Of course, there is no danger that this could occur in the real world. The rule of law, stare decisis, and the good will and common sense of the electorate would never allow President Paul (pause for laughter) to succeed in undoing our civil rights laws. But it is an important object lesson in how dangerous a little knowledge is. Paul, in protecting a fictional Constitution of his imagination, would destroy the real Constitution. That would be very dangerous indeed.

UPDATE:

Paul also opposed renewal of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Racist groups threaten violence against Southern Poverty Law Center

from the Montgomery (Alabama) Advertiser "Southern Poverty Law Center beefs up security" by Kym Klass

The Southern Poverty Law Center has increased security following threats from white supremacists to blow up its building.

The threats began after the SPLC filed suit against the Imperial Klans of America, the nation's second-largest Klan group.

The Montgomery-based center filed suit last month in Kentucky's Meade County Circuit Court. The suit against the IKA contends that in July 2006, five Klansmen -- two on a recruiting mission for the group -- savagely beat Jordan Gruver, a 16-year-old boy at a Kentucky county fair.

"The latest case against the IKA promises to be as dangerous as anything we've faced," Morris Dees, SPLC co-founder stated in an e-mail "threat alert" Monday. "We won't back down from these threats, but we'll have to increase our security to ensure the safety of our staff."

There have been almost a dozen threats in relation to the suit, which was filed July 25. The SPLC began receiving the threats shortly after the suit was filed.

Although SPLC security director Tom Brinkman said it is company policy not to disclose details about security measures, he confirmed that additional measures have been taken.

A letter dated July 29 states: "If you do not change your stance soon, you will face a wrath of fury that you will never be able to defend yourself against. We have the ability to reach out and touch someone."

The letter allegedly came from Hal Turner, a white supremacist talk show host, Brinkman said.

Another threat to the organization states: "I say we should blow up their buildings."

The law center was torched in July 1983, when it was located on South Hull Street. So the organization takes threats like these seriously, Dees stated.

"Over 30 people have been jailed in connection with plots to kill me or blow up the center," he added.

Last month's lawsuit claims that as part of an official recruiting drive organized by the leadership of IKA, several members went to the Meade County Fairgrounds in Brandenburg, Ky., to hand out business cards and fliers advertising a "white-only" IKA function, according to a news release.

Two of the Klansmen at the fair began harassing a 16-year-old boy of Panamanian descent, calling him a "spic," according to the lawsuit. The suit said the boy, who stood 5-foot-3 and weighed 150 pounds, was beaten to the ground and kicked by the Klansmen, one of whom is 6-foot-5 and 300 pounds. The beating left the boy with two cracked ribs, a broken left forearm, multiple cuts and bruises and jaw injuries requiring extensive dental repair.

Two then-IKA members -- Jarred R. Hensley, 24, of Cincinnati and Andrew R. Watkins, 26, of Louisville -- each are serving three-year prison terms after pleading guilty to second-degree assault.

The center sued Hensley and Watkins for their actions in late February, with the July 25 filing adding the IKA and three other individuals.

Two calls were left on the IKA 24-hour hot line requesting a response from the organization. Attempts to reach an attorney for the group were unsuccessful because the IKA has not responded in court to the suit.

Capt. Huey Thornton, Montgomery police spokesman, said he is unaware of the SPLC informing police of any threats the center has received.

DA investigates 1965 shooting by Alabama State Trooper that precipitated Selma march

History News Network: "A shooting before 1965 Selma-Montgomery march gets new look"

Source: AP (5-3-07)

MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- A fatal shooting by a state trooper that helped inspire the march from Selma in 1965 and the ''Bloody Sunday'' protest that preceded it will get a fresh look next week by a special grand jury.

Former State Trooper James Bonard Fowler has insisted for years that he shot black Vietnam War veteran Jimmie Lee Jackson in self-defense when Jackson grabbed Fowler's pistol during a melee in a Marion cafe.

''There is no question about who did the shooting. The question is whether this was a murder or it was something else,'' said District Attorney Michael Jackson, who is not related to the victim...

Fowler's version of the events the night Jimmie Lee Jackson was hurt was accepted by state officials in 1965. But in recent years, as prosecutors began to solve old civil rights-era slayings -- including the Birmingham church bombing that killed four girls in 1963 and the slaying of three civil rights workers Mississippi in 1964 -- people in west Alabama began to call for a new examination of Jackson's death.

Racial Cleansing, American Style

Interview with Elliot Jaspin: Racial Cleansing in America

from History News Network (hnn.us)



Elliot Jaspin, a winner of the Pulitzer Prize (1979), is the author of the just-published book, Buried in the Bitter Waters: The Hiden History of Racial Cleansing in America (Basic Books)





"What I found was that from as early as 1864
until at least 1923 white Americans engaged in campaigns of racial
cleansing. The white community would issue an ultimatum to blacks that
they would have to leave within a certain amount of time – usually
measured in hours – or they would be killed. These racial cleansings
occurred both in the North and South and in at least 12 cases emptied
whole counties. Because this has been a very painful chapter in
America’s history, the story of these expulsions has largely been
hidden. Yet the legacy of these events has been enduring. The twelve
countywide racial cleansings I describe in my book have all been
successful. That is to say the counties remain virtually all-white
today."

Powered by ScribeFire.