Oli, I'm a scholar of the Rosenberg spy case, one of the worst examples of government persecution of innocent people, aided and abetted by incompetence of their counsel. In one example:

The FBI waited until the middle of their trial to arrest William Perl, a college classmate of Rosenberg's, and charged him with being a member of the so-called "Rosenberg spy ring." Perl had earlier come to the FBI to report that someone had offered him $2k to leave the US following Rosenberg's arrest. The prosecutor, Irving Saypol, announced to the media that he would call Perl as a prosecution witness in the Rosenberg trial. He never did: the FBI freed Perl a few days later because evidence was insufficient to bring him before a grand jury.

After the Rosenbergs' conviction, their lawyer, Emanuel Bloch, asked an appellate court to overturn the verdict because Saypol's statement was front-page news and the jury wasn't sequestered, probably prejudicing the jury. The appellate court found that Saypol's "behavior was wholly reprehensible," but they didn't order a new trial because Bloch had failed to move for a mistrial after Saypol made his statement to the media.

TB, I'm curious if you ever read "The Book of Daniel" by E.L. Doctow?? It's about the son of the Rosenbergs, who takes on the name of Daniel Isaacson to hide his past. It's historical fiction, but everything about the Rosenbergs and the case is true. It's a good read, if you like Doctorow's style, but not everyone does.

Do we ever learn?

Seven people are dead after a shooter entered the Christian school in Oakland, Calif., and opened fire. NBC's Kristen Dahlgren reports By msnbc.com staff and news services

Updated at 7:05 p.m. ET: Police said the suspect in shootings at a small religious college in Oakland, Calif., that left seven dead on Monday was arrested at an Alameda shopping center about five miles from the school, the Oakland Tribune reported.

According to the Tribune, Safeway grocery store employees who did not give their names said the suspect had told a store staffer that he had shot people and needed to be arrested.

I did read the Doctorow book, SB. Absolutely the Rosenberg case with names changed.

(CNN) -- A federal judge Wednesday sentenced five former New Orleans police officers to prison terms ranging from six to 65 years for the shootings of unarmed civilians in the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, prosecutors said.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/04/justice/louisiana-danziger-bridge-case/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

Video of man beaten, stripped prompting anger on Internet

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/blog/bal-video-of-man-beaten-stripped-prompting-anger-on-internet-20120404,0,6615221.story

What has prompted the anger? That this happened at all? That it was videotaped and put up on You Tube? That someone just stood there and watched and filmed it?

I've seen news reports of fights on You Tube, and it is revolting. For example, this one really gets me:

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/01/hockey_brawl_on_video_woodbrid.html

SB,

How awful that people resort to such violence.

You would think that maybe by their Jersey numbers the perps may be identified because you don't see any of their faces well enough to identify them.

TIS

I don't get it, TIS. It's the same with the recent riots after Kentucky won the championship, turning over cars and setting fires to them. Disgusting.

Spike Lee, get the address right next time. You'll save money.

Oli, I'm not a lawyer. But one of the things I've learned is that in our justice system, you may be considered "innocent until proven guilty" when you come to trial. But if you're convicted and file an appeal, you're guilty until proven innocent. Supposedly the only grounds for appeal are reversible judicial or prosecutorial errors, or new evidence that surfaced after the trial. But, your lawyer's failure to pick up on those errors at a trial, either by objecting or excepting, will enable the appellate court to let the conviction stand.

That's true. Generally, the only issues a criminal defendant has available on direct appeal are issues of law that have been preserved by counsel's timely objections during trial. If direct appeals have been exhausted, defendants may rely upon post-conviction petitions to allege other very limited issues, such as ineffective assistance of counsel. But usually before a reviewing court will address the merits of the issue, the appellant must establish that his/her counsel's ineffectiveness led to a result that so undermined the truth determining process that no reliable adjudication of guilt could have taken place. This is an extremely high burden for the defendant, and these petitions are rarely successful.

Another factor is politics:

A friend of mine was convicted of insider trading. He was CEO of a big company whose stock tanked during a general meltdown of that industry's securities about 10 years ago. A three-judge appellate court ordered a new trial. But then the prosecutor asked for another hearing en banc. That court voted 5-4 to reinstate his conviction. One of the judges who voted against him was assigned to hear his appeal to reduce his sentence. She didn't have to recuse herself. Up for re-election in a state in which everyone hated my friend, she didn't reduce her sentence.

WTF?

Rules for White People with how to deal with Black People.

Here's a sampling:

(10a) Avoid concentrations of blacks not all known to you personally.

(10b) Stay out of heavily black neighborhoods.

(10c) If planning a trip to a beach or amusement park at some date, find out whether it is likely to be swamped with blacks on that date (neglect of that one got me the closest I have ever gotten to death by gunshot).

(10d) Do not attend events likely to draw a lot of blacks.

(10e) If you are at some public event at which the number of blacks suddenly swells, leave as quickly as possible.

(10f) Do not settle in a district or municipality run by black politicians.

(10g) Before voting for a black politician, scrutinize his/her character much more carefully than you would a white.

(10h) Do not act the Good Samaritan to blacks in apparent distress, e.g., on the highway.

(10i) If accosted by a strange black in the street, smile and say something polite but keep moving.

http://takimag.com/article/the_talk_nonblack_version_john_derbyshire#axzz1rBeqdcIl

The guy in the video above might agree with some of those "rules."

NBC fires producer over edited Zimmerman 911 call
By Wendy Carpenter
April 7, 2012


A producer for NBC News has been fired for editing a recording of George Zimmerman's call to police the night he fatally shot Trayvon Martin.

The New York Times is reporting that "the person was fired on Thursday, according to two people with direct knowledge of the disciplinary action who declined to be identified discussing internal company matters."

The dismissal of the Miami-based producer, whose name has not been publicized, followed an internal investigation by NBC, which led to the network apologizing earlier this week for having aired the deceptive audio.

The recording aired on NBC's "Today" show on March 27, when the audio viewers heard suggested that Zimmerman volunteered to police, without provocation, that Martin was black: "This guy looks like he's up to no good. He looks black."

But the tape had been edited, and the portion where the 911 dispatcher specifically asks Zimmerman if the person in question was "black, white or Hispanic," was deleted.

The conversation that actually occurred between the dispatcher and Zimmerman is as follows:

"This guy looks like he's up to no good. Or he's on drugs or something. It's raining and he's just walking around, looking about." Then the dispatcher asked, "O.K., and this guy — is he white, black or Hispanic?" To which Zimmerman replied, "He looks black."

After that phone call on the night of Feb. 26, Zimmerman fatally shot Martin. The 17-year-old Martin was unarmed, and Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer in Sanford, Fla., told police he fired in self-defense after Martin attacked him.

Since then, it has been debated if Zimmerman was racially profiling the teenager, a notion the edited version of the tape reinforces.

The Times reports that NewsBusters, a conservative media monitoring group, first reported NBC's discrepancy on March 30.

The following day, NBC told The Washington Post that it would investigate. On Tuesday, NBC said in a statement that its investigation turned up "an error made in the production process that we deeply regret." The network promised that "necessary steps" would be taken "to prevent this from happening in the future" and NBC apologized to viewers.

No steps were specified, but the New York Times reports that the next day "a Miami-based producer who had worked at NBC for several years" was fired, and "people with direct knowledge of the firing characterized the misleading edit as a mistake, not a purposeful act."

On Thursday, Reuters cited an unnamed NBC executive saying "The "Today" show's editorial control policies -- which include a script editor, senior producer oversight, and in most cases legal and standards department reviews of material to be broadcast -- missed the selective editing of the call."

Staff members at NBC News, who had been working on the Trayvon Martin story for weeks in Florida, were initially "in shock" over the altered tape, and later furious, another source told Reuters.

Reuters also reports that "NBC News executives interviewed more than half a dozen employees during their investigation."

On Saturday, the "Today" portion of MSNBC's Web site posted a Reuter's story on the producer's firing.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/upshot/nbc-fires-producer-over-edited-zimmerman-911-call-201124740.html

Massive manhunt for Oklahoma gunman who killed 3
By ABC News
April 7, 2012


Local and federal investigators are searching for a lone white male in a pickup truck who went on a shooting spree in Tulsa, Okla., early Friday morning, killing three pedestrians.

Five black males were shot, three fatally, in four separate incidents during a span of less than two hours on the same side of town and not far from one another, police said. Two males were critically wounded in the shooting spree. All of the victims were targeted while they were out walking.

The suspect is reported to be white, but the crimes have yet to been deemed racially motivated. The task force's job will be to determine whether federal hate crime laws were violated, Tulsa World reported.

The FBI and the U.S. Marshals are assisting in the investigation.

Police Chief Chuck Jordan said "logic would lead you to believe that" these are hate crimes, but the police haven't yet assessed all of the evidence to make that determination.

Sgt. Dave Walker of the Tulsa Police Department says the victims apparently did not know each other.

"We have not been able to find any commonality between the victims other than they were walking on the street," said Walker.

But Dr. Warren Blakney, who heads the local chapter of the NAACP, believes the shooter did group his prey together.

"We feel like he's targeting African Americans in this part of town. And I think some parts of law enforcement feel the same way," said Blakney.

Jordan, who described the suspect as a "Lone Wolf," said police are actively pursuing tips in the case and asking residents to contact police if they've seen anything.

"This is one where we have to stand together with our community. We need their help, we want their help and we hope we will get some good calls to give us some leads," Jordan said.

"We are doing what we can do, someone needs to step up and somebody needs to come forward and say you know we know who did this," Walker told ABC affiliate KTUL.

Police are looking for a white male driving a white pick-up truck, the station reported.

"As long as that person is loose, then we're in danger, all of us are in danger, and I don't want any vigilante stuff to start happening. I don't want no race riot, I just want this person caught," said City Councilor Jack Henderson.

Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett says the shootings are hard to stomach.

"It pains me to talk about such a violent event that we in this community have not seen certainly in modern history," said Bartlett. "We as a community need to be very involved with helping the police bring this person to justice. This is not a game."

http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/fbi...topstories.html

Like a lot of conservatives, Derbyshire is a racist. He is a firm believer in white supremacy, or more precisely Non-Asian Minority inferiority. To the chagrin of some racists at Takimag, Derbyshire makes allowances for East Asians, as he happens to be married to one.

The only difference between Derbyshire and his former comrades at the National Review is that he's willing to say things openly that others say silently.
I think he is a great example of why the US needs a more restrictive immigration policy. Why this particular essay touched nerves is difficult to say. It's not radically different from the hateful bs he's been writing for years.

As the US continues to become browner I expect that we shall see more eruptions like this from an older and whiter generation. But soon they will pass.

Lilo,

Why do you think that conservatives are racist?

I don't think we'll see more "eruptions" like this. Only reason it's such a big story is because white on black crime is not nearly as common as black on white crime. Whites are held to a higher standard by the media and society and when they "erupt" it's more interesting to read about.

I don't know anything about this Derbyshire guy but, nowadays, even saying the above - no matter how true it may be - gets you labeled as a racist or a bigot. Liberals figured out a long time ago that that accusing conservatives of being racist, hateful bigots wins half the battle immediately for them. So they're very quick to play that card, again, no matter how true it may be.

I wrote "like a lot of conservatives."
When you make common cause with people who believe that black people are biologically or culturally inferior, that's the definition of racism.

Derbyshire is racist. That's beyond dispute.

The conservative movement has been stoking white racist resentment in modern times back to Nixon and Wallace. Under Buckley, its founder, The National Review took an editorial position in favor of denying Black people the vote and in full support of white supremacy and segregation. The only reason Derbyshire got fired is likely because he was a bit too upfront and embarrassed people like Lowry who would much prefer to maintain a plausible deniability on such issues. But Derbyshire and his countryman and fellow hate merchant Peter Brimelow have been quite upfront about their beliefs for a long time.

Ridiculous.
Perhaps you should take the trouble to find out something about "this Derbyshire guy" before you write such things.

1) When I write that Derbyshire is a racist, that's not just a description from my POV. It's from Derbyshire's own words.

"I am a homophobe, though a mild and tolerant one, and a racist, though an even more mild and tolerant one, and those things are going to be illegal pretty soon, the way we are going." Source

2) The overwhelming number of murders are intra-racial, not interracial. Whites who seek to criticize blacks as somehow uniquely biologically or culturally depraved are, you guessed it, racist.

Source

3) It's nonsensical for anyone to write or believe that whites are held to a higher standard criminally. That's not reality. The overwhelming majority of studies of the criminal justice system show that at every level-all else equal-blacks get harsher sentences than whites for the same crime. This bias also infects the death penalty machinery:



Source

Link

I guess it depends on what you mean by "a lot of conservatives." Total numbers? Maybe. But to say that most, or even a significant percentage, of conservatives are racist may be a stretch. Also, one can question the sincerity of some liberals on the race issue extending beyond winning the black vote and what not.

And I mean truly racist, i.e. believing black people are biologically or culturally inferior. In my opinion, the racist accusations fly so easily nowadays, that the significance of really being a racist has lost much of it's meaning.

Maybe a good illustration of what I'm talking about is Mel Gibson. In his ranting phone conversations with his last girlfriend a while back, he was yelling at her for the way she dressed and said if she was "raped by a pack of n---ers, it was her fault." Now the immediate conclusion by many is that Mel's a racist. I disagree. He certainly said a mean thing, based on a race stereotype, but if he were truly racist, he wouldn't have done the Lethal Weapon movies with Danny Glover, go over to Whoopi Goldberg's house, etc. In other words, do I think that, just because he dropped the N word, Mel believes blacks are biologically or culturally inferior? No.

Again, I wasn't commenting on Derbyshire. I've never heard of him and I'm not arguing that he is or isn't racist. Rather, I question you basically saying he (or any avowed racist) is a good representative of "a lot" of conservatives.

And for the record AFAIK the first person to call for Derbyshire's firing was a conservative economist who writes for Forbes, Why Derbyshire must be fired while the first person to widely, if somewhat needlessly point out that Derbyshire had a long history of hating black people, was a diarist at that noted bastion of liberal thinking, Redstate.

So even some conservatives are moral, wise and smart enough to recognize pure hatred when they see it and take steps to distance themselves.

Use of that word doesn't make Mel Gibson a racist? Who else BUT a racist would use that word? Who else BUT a racist would go on an anti-Semitic rant when pulled over by a police officer? Who else but a small-minded pig would refer to the mother of his child as a c**t whore?

No, the use of that word does not necessarily make somebody a racist. Again, for somebody to be truly racist, they have to actually believe that an entire race is naturally inferior. Or that a race is naturally superior to others. Gibson dropping the N-word, or having a beef with Jews about world events, doesn't necessarily equate to that. Once again, Gibson is good friends with Danny Glover and Whoopi Goldberg. And, as a practicing Catholic, he worships a Man who was a Jew. As for his treatment of his ex-girlfriend, I certainly can't explain that away. He obviously has his demons, which is why he divorced his wife of so many years.

My point being, the racism card gets played so much today, and so quickly, that it's become watered down and people have forgotten what it really means. The KKK is truly racist. The Nazis were truly racist.

Sorry, that's BS. He's friendly with a couple of blacks? Maybe that's what he does for his public persona, but the rants bring out the true man. Only a racist uses racist slurs. Those terms are not allowed in my home, neither are people who use them, and I've taught my children to never associate with people who use those terms. That's the only way to eradicate it, teach your children.

Mel worships Christ so much, he would know that Jesus taught that we are all God's children, that He loves us all and that we can all find our way to His side. Apparently, Mel thinks that being raped by blacks is the worst thing that could happen to a white woman, since that's what he wished on the mother of his child. That doesn't sound like he loves his fellow man the way that Jesus did.