Entering Your Home While Black
Black scholar’s arrest raises profiling questions
Police responding to a call about “two black males” breaking into a home near Harvard University ended up arresting the man who lives there — Henry Louis Gates Jr., the nation’s pre-eminent black scholar.
Racial talk swirls with Gates arrest
“It’s unbelievable,’’ said Lawrence Bobo, a Harvard sociologist who visited Gates at the police station last Thursday and drove him home after Gates posted the $40 bail. “I felt as if I were in some kind of surreal moment, like ‘The Twilight Zone.’ I was mortified. . . . This is a humiliating thing and a pretty profound violation of the kind of trust we all take for granted.’’
From the Harvard Crimson
Renowned Af-Am Professor Gates Arrested for Disorderly Conduct
Gates, who was trying to enter his own home, reportedly accused police of being racist
Skip Gates tells his side of the story.
Lawyer’s Statement on the Arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Professor Gates immediately called the Harvard Real Estate office to report the damage to his door and requested that it be repaired immediately. As he was talking to the Harvard Real Estate office on his portable phone in his house, he observed a uniformed officer on his front porch. When Professor Gates opened the door, the officer immediately asked him to step outside. Professor Gates remained inside his home and asked the officer why he was there. The officer indicated that he was responding to a 911 call about a breaking and entering in progress at this address. Professor Gates informed the officer that he lived there and was a faculty member at Harvard University. The officer then asked Professor Gates whether he could prove that he lived there and taught at Harvard. Professor Gates said that he could, and turned to walk into his kitchen, where he had left his wallet. The officer followed him. Professor Gates handed both his Harvard University identification and his valid Massachusetts driver’s license to the officer. Both include Professor Gates’ photograph, and the license includes his address.
Professor Gates then asked the police officer if he would give him his name and his badge number. He made this request several times. The officer did not produce any identification nor did he respond to Professor Gates’ request for this information. After an additional request by Professor Gates for the officer’s name and badge number, the officer then turned and left the kitchen of Professor Gates’ home without ever acknowledging who he was or if there were charges against Professor Gates. As Professor Gates followed the officer to his own front door, he was astonished to see several police officers gathered on his front porch. Professor Gates asked the officer’s colleagues for his name and badge number. As Professor Gates stepped onto his front porch, the officer who had been inside and who had examined his identification, said to him, “Thank you for accommodating my earlier request,” and then placed Professor Gates under arrest. He was handcuffed on his own front porch.
Health-care Battle
‘Model’ Health Systems Press Case For Medicare Fix In Reform
Integrated health systems, such as Minnesota’s Mayo Clinic, have won kudos for efficiency and quality. But officials at the health systems say the reform bills being debated in Congress don’t reward them or encourage others to imitate them.
I know Democrats have been shooting themselves in all body parts with this health-care legislation, but when have Republican ever cared about healthcare? Sadly, as self-serving, destructive and hypocritical these buffoons are, they are not completely wrong.
Conservative Leaders Deplore Proposed Health-Care Reform
Emboldened by both Democratic division and polls showing rising public anxiety about President Obama’s policies, Republicans are launching an aggressive attack on the health-care bills moving through Congress, accusing the president of unwisely trying to rush through legislation that won’t improve the health care system.
Health care debate’s biggest players turn up volume
What took him so long?
Obama, GOP trade barbs in health care fight
In a visit to the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, the president seized on recent remarks by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-South Carolina. In reference to the health care debate, DeMint said, “If we’re able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him.”
[…]
He [Obama] said, “This is about a health care system that is breaking America’s families, breaking America’s businesses and breaking America’s economy. And we can’t afford the politics of delay and defeat when it comes to health care. Not this time, not now.”
Bush 44?
Ouch! This one hurts.
In stark legal turnaround, Obama now resembles Bush
President Barack Obama is morphing into George W. Bush, as administration attorneys repeatedly adopt the executive-authority and national-security rationales that their Republican predecessors preferred.
Economy Watch
This could get very ugly…
Bailouts could cost U.S. $23 trillion
A series of bailouts, bank rescues and other economic lifelines could end up costing the federal government as much as $23 trillion, the U.S. government’s watchdog over the effort says – a staggering amount that is nearly double the nation’s entire economic output for a year.
Cocksure
Malcolm Gladwell explores the psychology of overconfidence and its relation to the banking collapse. (Dr BB, this one is up your alley)
The world these people inhabited was competitive and stressful and complex. They had been given every reason to be confident in their own judgments. If they sat down next to you, with a tape recorder, it wouldn’t take much for them to believe that they had you in the palm of their hand. They were traders at an investment bank.
World stocks near 9-month high on earnings hopes
An inside tale of Lehman Brothers’ downfall
A bond trader’s new book, A Colossal Failure of Common Sense, tells how the firm’s leaders ignored all the warnings.
Can CIT make it? Not without new structure
Op-ed Columns
The FOMC Chair speaks.
The Fed’s Exit Strategy (By Ben S. Bernanke)
The depth and breadth of the global recession has required a highly accommodative monetary policy. Since the onset of the financial crisis nearly two years ago, the Federal Reserve has reduced the interest-rate target for overnight lending between banks (the federal-funds rate) nearly to zero. We have also greatly expanded the size of the Fed’s balance sheet through purchases of longer-term securities and through targeted lending programs aimed at restarting the flow of credit.
Inside My Fight For Universal Health Care (By Edward Kennedy)
[Q]uality care shouldn’t depend on your financial resources, or the type of job you have, or the medical condition you face. Every American should be able to get the same treatment that U.S. senators are entitled to.
What in the world is David Brooks talking about? I only wish Liberals were being listened to in this administration. Is this guy already preparing the terrain to blame Liberals for Obama’s failures? Liberals are actually being excluded. Paul Krugman just explained how the “leftish wing of economics” didn’t have a voice in the Obama Economic team, Liberals get squashed in both Houses of Congress. Maybe David should go back to discussing those infamous dinner parties where Republican Senatorstry to stimulate his package play with his junk hang on to his royals keep their hand in his inner thighs.
Liberal Suicide March (By David Brooks)
It’s not that interesting to watch the Democrats lose touch with America. That’s because the plotline is exactly the same. The party is led by insular liberals from big cities and the coasts, who neither understand nor sympathize with moderates. They have their own cherry-picking pollsters, their own media and activist cocoon, their own plans to lavishly spend borrowed money to buy votes.
We missed it last week but because it’s so good, we are bring it back
Losing my religion for equality (By Jimmy Carter, via Think Progress)
Women and girls have been discriminated against for too long in a twisted interpretation of the word of God.
I don’t the nerve for the guy. Dakinikat, he’s all yours. He’s your governor anyway.
‘A trillion here, a trillion there’ (By Bobby Jindal)
Things in Louisiana are looking up. We are announcing major economic development wins and private capital investment and reducing government spending in order to live within our means.
Clive Crook on success and failure of the stimulus package
A rocky road for the fiscal stimulus (By Clive Crook)
Madame Secretary In Asia
Clinton Makes Gains on India Defense Deals, Spars Over Climate
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s first trip to India opened the door for $20 billion in U.S. defense and nuclear energy sales, while making little headway on bridging divides over climate change and arms control.
Clinton pledges new era, closer ties between US, India
With both poetry and prose, the United States pledged Monday to embark on a new era of deeper relations with India — a partnership of what Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton likes to call the world’s largest democracy and its oldest continuously functioning one.
Rein in Pakistan: Advani to Hillary
9/11 ringleaders are in Pakistan, Clinton says
Hillary Clinton’s Asian Tour Continues; Heads To Thailand
War On Terror
Four U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan
The deaths would raise the total of U.S. military fatalities in Afghanistan to 30 in July, the highest monthly toll since the United States launched Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan in October 2001.
Guantanamo report on detainee policy delayed
A key report ordered by U.S. President Barack Obama as part of his effort to close the internationally condemned Guantanamo prison will be delayed six months, but officials insisted on Monday they were still on track to shut it down by January.
Missing U.S. Soldier May Be in Pakistan
The U.S. soldier kidnapped by Taliban forces in Afghanistan may have been taken across the border to Pakistan, complicating efforts to obtain his release, according to two people involved in U.S. and Afghan military efforts to locate him, and three Afghan soldiers captured with him.
What has happened to other captured soldiers?
The capture of Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl would appear to mark a rare failure of the military’s most basic operating procedures.
Around The World
Honduras crisis: Critics from both sides slam US
Conscious of its historical dominance in Latin America – including a track record of supporting brutal right-wing dictatorships – the United States quickly sought a place on the sidelines after military leaders ousted Honduras’s leftist President Manuel Zelaya on June 28.
Hardliners hit back at Rafsanjani for criticism
Iranian hardliners hit back at former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on Saturday for criticising the conduct of last month’s election and its aftermath, highlighting deepening establishment divisions.
Will Kremlin Really Investigate Natalya Estemirova’s Murder?
The Kremlin has expressed regret over the murder of human rights activist Natalya Estemirova and promised a thorough investigation. Yet observers expect little to come of it.
East Afghan cities hit by Taliban
‘We didn’t sleep a wink’: escort releases recording of her night with Berlusconi
If Silvio Berlusconi thought he’d shaken off the furore over his alleged use of escort girls, he was in for a nasty surprise today.
This And That
The battle against body hair has reached the genital areas. Young people increasingly feel that their pubic hair is disgusting and unsexy and are undertaking drastic measures to get rid of it. The idea is a not new one, but the possible motives behind the current trend has a number of people worried.
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Didn’t sleep a wink??
I wonder how that sounds in Italian?
Non abbiamo chiuso occhio stanotte 😉
http://tinyurl.com/np8xlc
Then she complains about not having been paid, which the Italian right wing press is spinning as showing, that it’s all a left wing smear and Berlusconi does not make use of prostitutes, but only of showgirls.
This is her BTW:
http://tinyurl.com/l6klg5
Oh-and she’s also going to write a book about her one night stand with Silvio… No lack of ghost writers clamoring !
I thought “sex scandal” was an oxymoron in Italy and France
Great job mablue2. I can’t compete with that, but hope you don’t mind me putting in a little local news of mine?
It’s about the wife of Denmark’s new PM, Sòlrun Løkke Rasmussen, who has decided to re-enter politics and will be running for office in the town counsil in November. No one has objected yet – and I doubt anyone will.
(Our previous PM’s wife participated in the equivalence of Dancing with the Stars. She later quit her job and among other things travelled, performing with her dancing partner. Her husbond was very supportive all the way and expressed great pride in her!)
The first couple are from the same party, Venstre, which means Left, is rightwing and calls itself Denmark’s Civil Liberal Party. They make up Government with The Conservatives (which they are, lol) and have essential support from the far right party Fremskridtspartiet which means The Progressive Party!
The center party calls itself The Radicals, while the far left party is The Unity Party.
Sometimes explaining about political party affiliations can be like this:
Lol, lol, lol! Some skits just never grow old!
And the PM himself is now for the third year in a row on his way – on bike – to Paris with team “Wrinkle Town”, to attend the finale of Tour de France on Saturday. The WT-tour is part of a benefit for the Children’s Cancer Foundation, and 7 teams/265 people and 60 service people participate in the almost 1.300 km race.
On the third stage the PM had a crash, sliding on slippery railroad rails. He himself called it a supervised parking.
Local news from here too – or rather NYC Tabloids take on some news – not all local
Coinkydink that there are two articles on webnews frontpage in regards to racism?… one about the call of the intruder and the other about a segregated prom from 2008. I think not. This is to, once again, use racism as a weapon of convenience.
Who is using racism as a weapon of convenience?
Ginger,
what the fuck are you talking about?
WTF?! Racism is a serious issue, and when it comes up in the news we’ll talk about it. If you don’t like it, lump it.
Weren’t we supposed to be having a “national dialogue on race?”
You can’t solve problems if you refuse to discuss them.
Notice how “Ginger” doesn’t stick around for an actual discussion. Classic Tr0ll behavior.
I’m not quite sure what she was alleging or who she was alleging it against.
It’s kinda early for drunk blogging.
“It’s kinda early for drunk blogging.”
Really???? I thought at least you would understand. 🙂
I guess up must be down and left must be right, or is it right must be left and down must be up…I’m confused again… It’s all Pips fault.
This always happens when I try to sober up!!! 😦
I only drink on days that end in “Y”
LOL!
I’m so sorry MMW. Didn’t mean to meddle with your sobering up. Honestly!
Wow, blue, what a complete gathering of today’s stories. Well done.
Thanks, again, mablue 2, for the great roundup.
What was the one article I just had to read right away?
That’s right: back, sack and crack.
From my local paper:
Racist or not he was major league stupid and should resign. What he did was inexcusable.
Anyone know what the “racist emails” were?
Some of them are described here:
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/story/955392.html
Those are pretty harsh.
I wondered if it was cartoons, jokes or his personal “rants.”
There is no defending this, it is clearly racist.
passing on racist emails is being racist.
This is why I fear the economy is not going to recover (significantly, at least) any time soon:
http://www.gallup.com/poll/121757/One-Third-Set-Spending-Less-New-Normal.aspx
“A new Gallup Poll shows 32% of Americans reporting that their recently depressed spending habits will become a “new normal” in the years ahead. These Americans say they have been spending less and plan on continuing that pattern in the future. Eight percent say their new normal will be spending more in the years ahead.”
Now this is definitely a bad cop:
Believe it or not he still carries a gun and badge.
I believe it.
Great line-up of news stories, MABlue. My folks are still visiting, and I’m in NH; so I may have to read some of them later tonight when I get home.
I’m very upset about the incident with Henry Louis Gates. It fits a pattern of what I have seen of the Cambridge police over the 40-plus years I’ve lived in this area. In fact, back in 1967, I lived on Ware Street, believe it or not. In those days, the rent on a 2BR apt., just a block from Harvard Yard was $165.00. Can you believe it?
ZOMG:
I just love Skip Gates’ story vs. the cops. From each point of view, they were the nicest humans on the planet. Something tells me neither story is quite right. Just a guess. 🙂
If I was the cop and everything happened just the way he says it did, when I walked out of Gate’s home I would have got into my patrol car and driven away, leaving Gates with nobody to yell at.
Same here. A little ringing in the ear never hurt anyone. Ooooh, I’m being yelled at. Boo hoo. So what if the prof was a total @sshole. Like he’s the only one. If being an @sshole were a crime, we’d all be in jail at one time or another.
Some days I have this problem
We all do.
LOL.
That stuff always gave me a paranoia, even as a kid. It made me write really good papers as a student, but the the terror of whomever was in my group.
I thought “writer’s crap” was when you get on a roll and you don’t want to stop so you take the laptop with you into the “euphemism” and keep typing away.
Oh, deah.
Too crude? Sorry. Sometimes I am a potty-blogger. 🙂
We sometimes refer to that room as the home office. 😉
http://www.thrfeed.com/2009/07/cbs-obama-news-conference.html
Profits anyone? Backtrack costs money
WOMEN WITH INTELLIGENCE AND EXPERIENCE,MEN WHO SUPPORT THEM AND COUNTRY BEFORE PARTY ALWAYS
PUMAS, BUBBAS,EQUALISTS AND THOSE PEOPLE RULE
Racial is the problem would never have utmost when not be done the communication between various side.
In the current era there are people who despise other people with a variety of reasons that do not make sense.
Hillary to be interviewed by Greta tonight on FOX 10 p.m.
For some reason I have a hard time believing that either Gates account or that of the police is the whole story.
As for David Brooks… he is the quintessential member of the urban coastal elite
also I appreciate Carter’s words but he is not a scholar of religion nor a historian so should stay away from making statements about those areas even as he distances himself from a position he doesn’t agree with.
Well actually:
The Hornet’s Nest (2003) ISBN 0-7432-5542-9, a historical novel about the American Revolution, and the first work of fiction written by a U.S. President, also available on Audio CD (2003)
And he’s been an absolute godbag for seventy years.
I thought a godbag (obnoxious bigoted expression) was someone who thought their religions didn’t stink while all others do or that religion made them superior beings. Carter has never impressed me as that person.
I’ve noticed that many progressives are contemptuous of religion and believers.
Freedom of religion means allowing others to practice their religion in peace, and giving their beliefs the same deference and respect that you expect of yours.
Atheism is a religious belief too.
he actually is a scholar of religion. And he is a scholar of the mid east particularly I/P.
no he ain’t…. he’s a guy with an opinion and because most everyone practices religion or is at least vaguely aware of the tenets of some world religious, people think they “know” religion or can make “informed” statements that they would never make for instance about sociology, physiology, archaeology, or subterranean geology.
Brooks is a Village idiot
(one of many)
I agree re Gates and the police officer. I hope some more reliable and complete information is presented soon.
“This guest post was contributed by Elizabeth Warren, chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel and the Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law at Harvard University. (Update: more on the case for a CFPA in her YouTube video, released yesterday.)
I’ve written a lot about the creation of a new Consumer Protection Financial Agency (CFPA), starting with an article I wrote in the Democracy Journal in the summer of 2007. My writing has helped me work through the idea and has advanced a conversation about what kind of changes in financial products would be most effective. A couple of weeks ago, I testified before the House Financial Services Committee about why I think a new consumer agency is so important, and I’ve argued the case many times.
Today, though, I’d like to post specifically about some of the push back that has developed on this issue. In particular, I’d like to focus on three big myths – myths designed to protect the same status quo that triggered the economic crisis.”
I was reading this … sheesh, it just keeps getting worse doesn’t it?
I agree with much of what I’ve read regarding the Gates arrest. Once the cop establishes there i no break in and no “domestic violence” he should leave. On the other hand, why did Gates follow? Let him leave already. As has been said, we don’t know enough about this to render fair judgement.
I will say this though, Gates has always had great credibility with me and nothing would impress me more than if the Professor came forward and said, “I was angry and embarassed at having the cops show up at my house. I lost my temper and it got out of hand. I don’t wish to add any more energy to this unfortunate incident.”
I think the cop overreacted but I don’t think it was racial. At least not based on what has been reported so far.
“I lost my temper and it got out of hand. I don’t wish to add any more energy to this unfortunate incident.””
That would be pretty cool. It’s almost like a pacifist’s way of winning a war. If Gates did say that, all the air would fly out of the balloon. If the cops did have racist motivations, they’d be left sputtering in the wind.
As I said in the previous thread, Skip Gates is someone I know fairly well. He is a very very reasonable fellow.
I have a tough time believing he would gratuitously be such a boor. I’m from Boston and I know how the police there can be.
Even reasonable people get tired and have bad days. We’re all human.
If he just returned from a trip to China he was probably tired and sore, plus his lawyer said he was sick.
I could easily imagine him thinking “Finally! I’m home at last. If one more thing goes wrong today I’m gonna lose it!”
From the AP:
Sounds to me like they may have looked back at the incidence and attempted to see it from the others viewpoint. I’m glad they both decided not to waste the court’s time with petty vindictiveness and agreed that it was better to move on.
Wow. If that is the end of it I am impressed with how both sides handled themselves.
A day late and a dollar short but—I wondered why the blogs I read (here and new agenda, and a few others,+Hillary groups) never had a question about why Obama was nominating a supreme court candidate who ruled in such a way that Republicans would agree with her over 90% of the time? And nothing in her rulings showed any lean to the left. I think she will not do much to counteract the far righties already on the court and who are young enough to be there a long time. To me this was telling. He nominated a pc person, not a progressive. OK, I just wanted to put this out there. I know today’s news is on to other things.
I would assume the reason we weren’t surprised here is because we never saw Obama as “left wing.” His court pick was no better or worse than expected from someone who reveres Reagan.
As for her being “progressive”, I’m not overly fond of the term. I’ve come to equate progressive as an ideology akin to the GOPs. It gives one liscense to savage people simply because you disagree with them. It means you jettison principles so that you can win. I prefer liberal.
Honestly, I would have been surprised if he’d nominated a clearly pro-choice liberal, but we all know that wasn’t gonna happen.
There is a certain amount of “what did you expect” about the Sotomayor pick. Obama is a “corporatist” Chicago Boy in “community organizer’s” clothing, and I get the sense that Judge Sonia is a little to the right of him. .
I wonder what the CNBC talking heads view their role as? They seemed pretty upset with Barofsky in this video posted at market ticker (when one talking head couldn’t beat him up sufficiently, they started to tag team, and still lost in my opinion).
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/1245-CNBC-Attempts-Assasination-on-Barofsky.html
Here’s a good one to read on Social Security and the bonus class.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124813343694466841.html
That basically means 1/3 of the nation’s income goes to the bonus class whose top wages are off limits to social security taxes.
David Vitter and “Depends” in the same headline! Tee hee!
Juvenile, I know, but I can’t help but laugh.
However, look at his polling numbers when up against a Dem. He’s still way in the lead. What does it take to get this guy out of office? Can’t believe anyone would vote for him.
http://publicpolicypolling.blogspot.com/2009/07/vitter-vulnerable-depends.html
Check this out for tomorrow
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_July_22,_2009
WOMEN WITH INTELLIGENCE AND EXPERIENCE,MEN WHO SUPPORT THEM AND COUNTRY BEFORE PARTY ALWAYS
PUMAS,BUBBAS,EQUALISTS AND THOSE PEOPLE RULE
The next point is very true. Some of us find cultural dress a form of connecting to who we are as people, no different than Irish dancers in their cultural dress or anyone who wants to maintain their cultural heritage and its richness and beauty.
It is sad to see that ethnicity/culture differences are being used to denote health care, by attacking Obama rather than using logic and proposing a better solution, if they have one. These ‘personal’ attacks do nothing for 50 million Americans without health care, for the other millions who have sub-standard plans, for those with only catastrophic insurance and it certainly does nothing for the 60 Americans that die every day because they have no health care.
I find it difficult to distinguish between some of the scurrilous verbiage of the leftwing-nuts aimed at Repubs and the same kind of attack from the right wing nuts aimed at Obama. Remembering our famous recent presidential election, I think you need to forget about the pot calling the kettle black. All sides seem to grow a slimy side. What I do notice is that Obieone and company appears to be attracting some of the viler attacks now when before there was not much of that going on. I am thinking about this incident and the attack recently on his daughter. 6 months ago I do not recall seeing any such traffic. Maybe it is just a sign of the times. Don’t think this is any more reprehensible that the HRC nut cracker or that groping of the cardboard image of her. I can’t get too upset about this.
The HRC nut cracker was worse because it was sold out in the open by MSN, in their shops, in airports and promoted as something trendy to do (participating in misogyny and debasing of woman). The press didn’t call it out and commentators laughed and even gave it credibility. I even saw one at a university and everyone didn’t seem the least bit bothered in promoting it, including women (that was most lamentable for me). The cardboard groper reinforced in a non-direct way that it was OK to continue the attacks on HRC, with a wink and a nod, as nothing was done (no firing or apologies).
I don’t think we will see any dolls of Obama (ala the Nut Cracker doll), being sold in MSN shops or people bringing them to the uni for show and tell like the Hillary Nut Cracker dolls. Having said that, the personal attacks are not right, and I am still disappointed in the low level of politics and wonder if it will ever improve.
We Must Divest From Misogyny NOW!