Think About It

National Legal Policy Center goes after Al Sharpton

Human Events has an interesting report on who’s bankrolling Al Sharpton.  And it’s not African-Americans, but corporations, large publicly held corporations.  I’m reprinting much of their report on this Blog, because the National Legal Policy Center (NLPC) seems to be the only one doing anything about Rev. Al and his gravy train.

Human Events is reporting that Sharpton is shaking down large publicly held corporations, including Abbot Laboratories, Allstate, Anheuser-Busch, Citigroup, Colgate-Palmolive, , FedEx, Ford, General Motors, Home Depot, Johnson & Johnson, PepsiCo, and Pfizer.

These companies make five and six figure donations to Sharpton’s National Action Network.

“WHAT IS NLPC?

Founded in 1993, their mission is to promote ethics in public life. We have a track record of accomplishment:

    * 1993 - NLPC successfully sued Hillary Rodham Clinton's secret health care task force to open its meetings and records. In their recent books, both Hillary and former Clinton aide Sidney Blumenthal acknowledged NLPC's role in sinking her plan. 1

    * 1996 - Liberal FDA Commissioner David Kessler resigned soon after NLPC secured documents under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) showing that he overbilled his expense reimbursements.

    * 2003 - NLPC exposed the Boeing Tanker Deal Scandal, eventually sending two Boeing executives to jail, and saving taxpayers $4-5 billion, and perhaps a lot more.

    * 2005 - Two PACs associated with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) were fined $21,000 as a result of an FEC Complaint.

    * 2006 - We exposed the earmarking scandal involving Rep. Alan Mollohan (WV), and triggered an ongoing FBI investigation. Mollohan resigned as ranking Democrat on the House Ethics Committee.

    * 2007 - Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) sold back land she had bought in a "sweetheart" deal a day after NLPC filed a Complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee.

NLPC VS. SHARPTON

At the 2007 PepsiCo annual meeting in Dallas, I made an issue of the company's support for Sharpton, who actually got paid to serve on its advisory board.

Indra Nooyi, the new PepsiCo CEO, read without conviction a prepared statement defending the company's relationship with Sharpton. She seemed embarrassed.

Sharpton has apparently now been dropped from the Pepsi advisory board, but Pepsi continues to support the National Action Network.

Sharpton's antics over the years have produced lots of criticism, but NLPC is the only group that has ever laid a glove on him.

Sharpton was fined $5,500 by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) for filing late disclosure reports for his presidential campaign, in response to a Complaint by NLPC.

Moreover, Sharpton was forced to pay back $100,000 in federal matching funds for his presidential campaign after we filed another FEC Complaint. He was denied another $70,000 in matching funds.

SHARPTON FUNNY?

Some people think Sharpton is "funny." I was asked about this by Joe Scarborough on MSNBC. I replied,

Sharpton is unfunny...He accused an innocent man of a rape...He incited demonstrators against a Jewish business in New York City. One of those demonstrators ended up shooting up and burning down the place, killing eight people.

I debated Sharpton himself on MSNBC. (O.J. Simpson's lawyer Johnny Cochran was also on, so it was actually two against one.) Never once did I call Sharpton "Reverend," because like Jackson, he is hardly a healer!

A few years ago, Sharpton's organization occupied a run-down, one room office. It was in debt and mired in tax problems.

In April, NAN held a glittering conference in Memphis with corporate executives and media luminaries taking part. The event enjoyed heavy corporate sponsorship.

Colgate-Palmolive accepted a "corporate excellence" award from Sharpton. We immediately demanded that the company repudiate the award. To press home the point, I went to the Colgate-Palmolive annual meeting in New York City and directly confronted its Chairman Reuben Mark.

It is through this kind of "direct action" that we can put corporate executives on the spot. Please consider a tax-deductible gift today in support of this effort. Click Here Now.

SHARPTON HAS NO CLOTHES

I think that the executives who "play ball" with Al Sharpton know exactly what they are dealing with: a racial extortionist whose real agenda is not civil rights, but his own enrichment.

The emperor of "racial justice" has no clothes.

Most Americans fully understand what Sharpton is up to, including most African-Americans.

I believe that this provides us with an opportunity. No one is comfortable defending the indefensible. So let's make these bigshot executives do it!

Our goal is nothing short of ending all corporate support for Al Sharpton.

NLPC is the only organization that regularly monitors and documents the statements of Al Sharpton.

We are in this fight for the long term.

Sincerely,

Peter Flaherty
President”

California Prisons to Integrate - Or "Can't We Just All Get Along"

When I first heard this one, I checked my calendar because I thought it must surely be April Fools Day.   No such luck.  The Christian Science Monitor is reporting that starting on July 1, the California prison authorities will start fully integrating its prison cells.  I wonder how that’s going to work out.

The change came about because of a legal challenge that went to the US Supreme Court in 2004.   California is now, according to CSM, only one of three remaining states who have segregated prisons

Needless to say, this has both inmates and guards more than a tad nervous about the pending change.  The California prison system is one of the more crowed prisons that has more than its share of gang related murders inside its prisons.  To put it euphemistically , the African Americans and the Hispanics don’t get along.

A Dept. of Corrections spokesperson said, "In the other states where this has been done, it has assisted in gang management, reduced violence, reduced racial tension. And it helps with breaking down prejudicial barriers and reflects community norms."

Proponents of the integration plan say there will initially be an uptick in racial violence, but in the long run there will be less.

Questions:

Will this work in the California prisons, where Black and Chicano gangs are prevalent?

The gangs usually coalesce along racial lines in their free time.  Will the new order cut down on that?

What impact will this have on gangs operating criminal enterprises on the outside?

How much will this impact correctional officers?

What will be the overall impact to the Dept. of Corrections?

No Negroes on Iwo Jima says Spike Lee

Clint Eastwood has drawn a bead on Spike Lee and uttered his famous line, “Make my day.”  Well, not really, but Eastwood may have fantasized about it.  A feud started when Spike Lee charged Clint Eastwood with racism in the making of Eastwood’s film, “Flags of Our Fathers.”  Iwo Jima was one of the last critical islands captured by 30,000 U.S. Marines.   Eastwood’s movie centered around the men who actually participated in the famous flag raising scene. 

Lee chose the Cannes Film Festival to take his shot at Eastwood.  Lee said, "Clint Eastwood made two films about Iwo Jima that ran for more than four hours total, and there was not one Negro actor on the screen."  Yikes, Negro!  I thought that word had been added to the No-No List.   Eastwood squinted and fired back: “Has he ever studied history?  African American soldiers didn’t raise the flag.  If I go ahead and put an African-American actor in there, they’d say, ‘This guy’s lost his mind.’”  

Lee escalated the row, which resulted in Eastwood telling Lee to “shut his face.”  Lee pulled out the plantation card: “He’s not my father and we’re not on a plantation, either.  I’m not making this up.  I know history.”

As it turns out, there were about 30,000 Marines who stormed ashore on Iwo Jima.  There were about 800 African-Americans who participated in the battle for Iwo Jima.  These soldiers, however, were restricted to non-combat roles, driving trucks and unloading and carrying ammunition to the front lines.  One thing is certain; anyone who was on Iwo Jima was certainly in harms way. 

I’m sure if one looked at the makeup of the American landing force, one would also find a significant percentage of Hispanics, and other ethnic groups.  The usual group of African-American community “spokesmen” have rushed in to echo Spike Lee’s allegations.  It’s getting old, Spike.

Questions:

Now that Obama has been elected as a candidate for President, will this bring an end to these kinds of charges?

If there is a backlash against these kinds of spurious allegations, what form or forms will this take?
Will there ever come a time when the people who make these allegations will be held up to ridicule?

Obama and the PC Police

Hillary Clinton, as expected, trounced Barack Obama by a 2- 1 margin in the West Virginia primary last night.  Probably the most interesting thing to come out of this primary is the spin that is coming out of the Obama camp.  Obama’s spinmeisters, CNN,  and the mainstream media are hinting the reason Obama lost West Virginia is because the state is inhabited by working class whites (code for a bunch of inbred Jethros who are clinging to their guns and their religion).  It’s interesting to note that Fox is the only network that questioned the fact that Obama pulled in 92% of the African-American vote in North Carolina.  The not-so-subtle racist charge is intended as a warning for potential voters in the remaining primary states who intend to vote for Hillary.   CNN and other networks are reminding voters that it is not PC to vote for the white candidate.  How could you?  Shame on you?  The PC police are watching you.

This message, of course, is intended to carry over to the general election; however, allegations of racism, no matter how subtle, can backfire.  Americans are weary of the likes of Sharpton, Jackson, and the Reverend Wright. 

Questions:

Does Hillary stand a chance of winning the Democratic nomination?

Can Obama deny her the VP spot if she wants it?

Racism in America

Barack Obama won the North Carolina Democratic primary last night with 91% of the African-American vote.  Obama has racked up wins with 90+% of the African-American votes in other states, as well.  The pundits have said little about these startling statistics other than to merely cite the numbers. 

One can only wonder what the media pundits would be saying if Hillary Clinton had won 91% of the white vote.  Democratic Chairman Howard Dean, in a recent interview with Chris Wallace, charged the Clinton campaign with interjecting “race baiting” into the campaign by mentioning Obama’s connection with the racist Reverend Jeremiah Wright.
Wallace did not ask Dean if he felt the nearly unanimous Black vote for Obama was racist.   African-Americans in their quest for equality have filled hundreds if not thousands of lawsuits based on these kind of “underrepresentation” statistics that show that there is discrimination against them.  They often cite these types of statistics when Blacks are under “parity” in the work place, or these types of statistics are often brought out when they allege “red-lining” by insurance companies, and the list is endless.  I don’t hear anyone in the media mentioning these lopsided statics when racism is directed towards whites.

The questions are:

Is the media afraid to bring up the topic of Black racism?

Is it a matter of white guilt saying, “Let’s give the Black candidate a pass?”

Will the media ever challenge these lopsided statistics?