{"article":{"id":71293,"heading":"Al Sharpton","author":"Umar ben-Ivan","created":"2003-07-11 01:23:57","modified":"2004-08-03 13:50:29","last_modified":"Tue, 03 Aug 2004 20:50:29","article":"

There have been a lot of conversations on the Independent Media Center and on left-oriented websites and list-serves regarding who of the nine Democratic candidates should be supported.

My attitude regarding this has been that it is healthy to work with any of the nine candidates since they are all much better than George Bush.

Originally I was with the school of thought that maybe it would be best to support the candidate with the most realistic chance of beating Bush. That would have meant supporting Clark, Gephardt or any of the rest of the several Yellow Dog Democrats in the field, but I could only stomach that bullshit for so long. If you do not vote your conscious than you might as well stay at home. After all, at the end of the day, how much better is some asshole like Joe Lieberman than George Bush?

Looking at the field of candidates there where only three candidates who speak to the issues that I am concerned with and that I feel that most Progressives are concerned with. Those candidates are Howard Dean, Dennis Kucinich and the Rev. Al Sharpton.

So, I decided to take a good look at all three candidates, unlike most on the Left who while they have given a look to and support to Dean and Kucinich they have totally ignored Sharpton.

I soon realized that while Howard Dean opposed the war against the people of Iraq, he has been a strong and vocal supporter of even the most militant and controversial of Israeli policies. On economic issues he was essentially a fiscal-conservative as Governor of Vermont.

Not surprisingly Dean has gotten a large portion of his support from those Democratic voters who have little concern for economic issues and those that help the poor - urban yuppie liberals (the latte-left) who now, unfortunately, dominate the Democratic Party.

When it comes do Dean we get Bush-light economics, Wolfowitz foreign policy and very little commitment to tackle the current assault on civil liberties.

Kucinich is better on most of these issues and has proven to be a strong defender of the environment, a friend of labor and a fierce opponent to the Bush war machine. There is no doubt about it that he is an excellent candidate, however when he backtracked on the issue of abortion, in my opinion, in brought into question his character and could be a barometer of things to come as he could back down on other issues for the sake of political expediency in the future.

That left one candidate, the Rev. Al Sharpton. However, while Rev. Sharpton has been a grassroots activist for years and one can safely say the most Progressive candidate in the field, there has been an alarming absence of support for the Rev. Sharpton in Progressive circles.

Where are the endorsements for and the excitement for the most Progressive candidate in the field and the most progressive candidate in the history of the Democratic Party? The fact of the matter is that the excitement and endorsements are not there!

Why this one is must ask? Why are Progressives shying away from the Progressive candidate? Is it because it is inconceivable for some to see a black president? Is it because the issues that are important to African-Americans and Latinos are no longer important to White Liberals? Do Progressive Whites not care about the vicious attack on the civil liberties of Americans? Do they not care about the criminalization of Islam (oh! I forgot the latte-left hates all religion)? Do they not care about the millions of American parolees who have had their human right to vote removed, and Sharpton being the only candidate to fight for their rights? If not, then I see why many progressives will not support Sharpton.

Al Sharpton is the only candidate who has tirelessly worked with the Hip-Hop generation (Dean can have Generation X). He has worked to promote a positive message in the most important entertainment industry of our era.Al Sharpton has worked not only for economic justice, but he has worked for the reform of the criminal justice system and the repeal of unjust laws in the State of New York.

Rev. Sharpton has taken his message where no other candidate would dare go - the streets and ghettos of America! While Kucinich fought to prevent war in Iraq, just as Rev. Sharpton did, the Rev. Sharpton has fought to prevent the street wars in this country that have claimed the lives in the past decade than all of the Americans who died in the Second World War. Then again many who claim to be Progressives do not know, or care to know, the families of the thousands of youth and children who are gunned down every year.

Call me crazy, but call me crazy for Sharpton, and maybe you need to examine yourself and do some soul-searching for not supporting the Rev. Al Sharpton.

<\/p>\n","contact":"ubenivan@yahoo.com","link":"","address":"","phone":"314-452-6832","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"Why you should vote for Al Sharpton.","numcomment":11,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2003\/07\/71293.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":114924,"heading":"Are you kidding- The revron is just a famous criminal","article":"Al Sharpton is not a good candidate! Do you know what his past is??? He came to national prominence by hoaxing the entire country into believing a group of white guys raped a ghetto girl. Later on she came out to say that it was all prefabricated and a big lie. You need to learn your facts before you list a bunch of STUFF that you claim are facts. He became famous by performing a terrible hate crime that caused riots and murders which he is responsible for. What do you think of this???? Should that make him a candidate for president. ","author":"josh anderson","parent_id":71293,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2004-08-03 13:49:49","modified":"2004-08-03 13:49:49","fileurl":""},{"id":114925,"heading":"Are you kidding- The revron is just a famous criminal","article":"Al Sharpton is not a good candidate! Do you know what his past is??? He came to national prominence by hoaxing the entire country into believing a group of white guys raped a ghetto girl. Later on she came out to say that it was all prefabricated and a big lie. You need to learn your facts before you list a bunch of STUFF that you claim are facts. He became famous by performing a terrible hate crime that caused riots and murders which he is responsible for. What do you think of this???? Should that make him a candidate for president. Email me back and let me know what you think of that!!!!!!!!","author":"josh anderson","parent_id":71293,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2004-08-03 13:50:29","modified":"2004-08-03 13:50:29","fileurl":""},{"id":71297,"heading":"wasn't there a woman in the race too","article":"why is her name never mentioned, she's the most liberal. Personally, I believe Media Benjamin should run.","author":"mymicz","parent_id":71293,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-11 01:42:08","modified":"2003-07-11 01:42:08","fileurl":""},{"id":71314,"heading":"Get um Al!","article":"We the people should demand use of the airwaves. \r\nMandating ALL major channels interupt "regular" local primetime programming, having at least 10 national debates airing between the hours of 7P-9P, in all local times zones. Let's see Al debate Walker, he'll eat Walker alive! All candiates should be included these debates, then let the nation see who and what Walker really is, a murderous, racist, satanic, mindless Illuminati puppet. Walker & Company LIED for profit. For anyone to defeat this Fourth Reich in the Whitehouse the truth about the real evils of the current "administration" must be told to every person living in this great land, and on this planet! \r\n\r\nObviously this won't happen, America is waking too slow on this one. I am allowed to dream - they take my tax dollars, murder people of color the world round and I fear their just warming up...Let's pray we'll have a fu... election and not be under some bogus martial law, code red bushist..... ","author":"Fahrenheit 451","parent_id":71293,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-11 02:59:01","modified":"2003-07-11 02:59:01","fileurl":""},{"id":71318,"heading":"hmmmm","article":"hmmmmm bbb","author":"hmmmmm","parent_id":71293,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-11 03:06:39","modified":"2003-07-11 03:06:39","fileurl":""},{"id":71349,"heading":"Al sharpton - Portrait of a True Liberal","article":"The Tawana Brawley story emerged at a time when the civil rights movement \u201cwas coming unglued\u201d, in the words of Manning Marable, director of Columbia University\u2019s Institute for Research in African American Studies. Jesse Jackson was promoting himself as a presidential candidate; Louis Farrakhan was gaining influence as the voice of black separatism; Al Sharpton was eager for any media attention. These influential men, and many lesser racial careerists, were hungry for some dramatic event that would propel them into the spotlight. \r\n\r\nOn Saturday, November 28th, 1987,Tawana Brawley, a black teenager just three weeks shy of her sixteenth birthday, was \u201cfound\u201d inside a big plastic trash bag by one Mr Lloray, whose wife, Joyce Lloray, had seen Tawana sneak around the corner of the building opposite the Lloray\u2019s apartment, climb into the trash bag she had brought with her, and lie down. Mrs Lloray had sent Mr Lloray to see what was up. Tawana would not respond to Mr Lloray\u2019s questions. The police were summoned and the teenager was transported to a hospital. Tawana\u2019s mother, Glenda Brawley, and her mother\u2019s live-in boyfriend, Ralph King, were called to the hospital. Ralph arrived at Saint Francis Hospital reeking of alcohol and began ranting things such as \u201cDon\u2019t talk to those white fucking cops...,\u201d and \u201cI\u2019m not an ignorant nigger. I will call a lawyer!\u201d \r\n\r\nTawana\u2019s mother and Ralph King requested that Tawana be interviewed by a black police officer. A black officer was brought in from Poughkeepsie to Wappingers Falls to interview her. Tawana would not speak, but when the officer gave her his duty notebook, she wrote down the words \u201cwhite cop\u201d. When he asked her if she meant that a cop had done whatever had been done to her, she nodded. The officer then asked Tawana where it had happened and she wrote down the word \u201cwoods\u201d. When the officer asked her the location of the woods, she gave no response. The officer then asked Tawana if she had been raped, and she responded by writing down the words \u201ca lot\u201d. He asked her if her assailant was white and she nodded \u201cyes\u201d. She did not respond when asked if there had been one assailant or two, but when asked if there had been three assailants, she nodded \u201cyes\u201d. A protracted series of questions drew occasional nods, from which a vague description of Tawana\u2019s \u201cattacker\u201d was drawn: strawberry blond, 32 years old, six foot four inches tall, and thin. \r\n\r\nThe police report stated that Tawana\u2019s body, hair and clothes were smeared with excrement and that the words \u201cNIGGER\u201d and \u201cBITCH\u201d and \u201cKKK\u201d were written on her torso with charcoal. \r\n\r\nThe volatile mix of sex and race and violence drew an eager pack of \u201cjournalists\u201d seeking sensational details. In this heated environment casual remarks became news and hearsay was accepted as fact. The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, and the Workers\u2019 World News Service fell over one another in their eagerness to print any sensational utterance. The white-hot spotlight was on Wappingers Falls, New York and that spotlight quickly drew the publicity-hungry racial-politics buccaneers. \r\n\r\nOn December 14, 1987, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan led one thousand chanting marchers through Newburgh, New York, in support of Tawana (see Nation of Islam in this series). On February 10th, Bill Cosby put up a $25,000 reward for information leading to \u201cthe truth\u201d, and revealed his darker side with a series of vile racist generalizations about white people. On April 4, 1988 the Reverend Al Sharpton and career activist Pete Seeger kept things boiling at a big protest rally in support of Brawley at the State Capitol in Albany. A big womens\u2019 march paraded through midtown Manhattan in support of Tawana. Mike Tyson (now a convicted rapist of a black woman) gave Tawana a diamond-studded Rolex watch. Phil Donahue broadcast live from a pro-Brawley rally. Every day for seven months, while the grand jury was investigating this case, protestors were bussed in to chant and rant outside the courthouse, often led by the Reverend Sharpton personally. \r\n\r\nTawana\u2019s mother and her mother\u2019s boyfriend, who stood to share a multi-million-dollar settlement paid by the taxpayers, quickly called in three advisers who were also three of America\u2019s most incendiary racial provocateurs: attorneys C.Vernon Mason and Alton H. Maddox, and the Reverend Al Sharpton. \r\n\r\nWhen Harry Crist, Jr., a part-time policeman who only slightly fit Tawana\u2019s vague description of her \u201cassailant\u201d, committed suicide days after Tawana was \u201cfound\u201d, investigators tracked his whereabouts for the time that Brawley was missing from her mother\u2019s home. Crist\u2019s alibi witnesses for his whereabouts were Assistant District Attorney Steven Pagones and State Trooper Scott Patterson. Further investigation revealed that Crist had been depressed over a series of career setbacks and he had killed himself only hours after the collapse of a relationship with a woman he loved intensely. \r\n\r\nWith no evidence whatsoever, and disregarding the cruelty his accusations would have on the Crist family, the ever-reckless Al Sharpton proclaimed that Harry Crist was one of Tawana Brawley\u2019s attackers. To dispose of Crist\u2019s inconvenient alibi witnesses, Sharpton declared that Pagones and Patterson were also among Tawana\u2019s attackers. He claimed that Pagones had murdered Crist to silence him and that the report of a suicide was part of a big coverup. Sharpton also made the berserk claim that Attorney General Robert Abrams had masturbated while leering at photos of Tawana Brawley. Sharpton compared Abrams, who is a Jew, to Adolf Hitler. The freebooting trio of Mason, Maddox and Sharpton declared a connection between then-Governor Mario Cuomo and organized crime as well as the Ku Klux Klan. In May 1988, the Reverend Al, then a guest on ABC\u2019s Geraldo Rivera Show, declared: \u201cMr Pagones and his organized crime cronies are suspects!\u201d a charge he repeated on Nightline, WWOR-TV, Phil Donahue\u2019s show and numerous other programs. On dozens of occasions Mason, Maddox and Sharpton depicted Steven Pagones as a racist sexual predator. \u201cHe was one of the attackers, yes,\u201d declared Alton Maddox in a nationally covered news conference. \u201cIf I didn\u2019t have direct evidence, I wouldn\u2019t be sitting here saying that.\u201d \r\n\r\nA grand jury patiently listened to seven months of testimony. They heard from one hundred eighty witnesses; they saw two hundred fifty exhibits and recorded six thousand pages of testimony. Finally, they released an extensive one-hundred-seventy-page report wherein they concluded that Tawana Brawley had never been abducted, assaulted, or raped and sodomized as had been claimed by Tawana, Sharpton, Mason and Maddox. The report further concluded that \u201cthe unsworn public allegations against Dutchess County Assistant District Attorney Steven Pagones\u201d were false and had no basis in fact. \r\n\r\nSubsequently, Steven Pagones, whose life had been made a shambles by repeated false accusations, answered a challenge from the reckless Al Sharpton to sue him if Sharpton\u2019s allegations were false. Pagones sued. \r\n\r\nMason, Maddox and Sharpton were all named as defendants because of their reckless public pronouncements. Tawana Brawley was also named because of her repeated endorsement of the allegations her advisers had made. On June 12, 1988 on WABC-TV (Channel 7 News) Tawana Brawley said: \u201c...we know what we\u2019re doing and approve of everything the Rev. Al Sharpton said and our lawyers said.\u201d Also: \u201cI know everything that is said in my name. . .I agree with everything they\u2019re doing.\u201d \r\n\r\nThere was never a shred of evidence that Tawana Brawley was ever abducted or sexually abused by anyone. She claimed to have been savagely raped repeatedly over a four day period by six burly men and yet not a single sperm cell could be found in her vagina. Despite her claim of violent bumping and grinding against her pubic area, not a single Caucasian pubic hair could be found on her body or clothing. She claimed to have been repeatedly subjected to violent anal rape (\u201cin two different ways\u201d according to Sharpton) over a four day period by six big men, and yet a medical examination found her anus to be perfectly intact without even the slightest abrasion or laceration. The same was found to be true of her sex organ. The words \u201cNIGGER\u201d and \u201cBITCH\u201d that were written on her torso with charcoal were upside-down, as though Tawana herself had written them. Charcoal was found under her fingernails, but on no one else. The excrement that was smeared on Tawana\u2019s body, at first falsely reported by the press as human excrement was, in fact, animal excrement. DNA testing proved beyond a doubt that this excrement was from a collie named Remi, who frollicked in a yard close to Tawana\u2019s mother\u2019s home. When she was \u201cfound\u201d, Tawana had cotton wads in her nostrils to ward off the stink of the dog poop. Was it given to her out of kindness by the monsters whom she claims abused and degraded her for four days, by the sub-humans who supposedly raped and sodomized her \u201ca lot\u201d? She was seen sneaking about and climbing into the plastic trash bag all by herself. She said she was raped in \u201cthe woods\u201d over a four day period, and yet no leaf fragments or plant matter could be found on her person or clothing. What was found on her body, hair and clothes were abundant bits of debris that matched debris from a vacant apartment that the Brawleys had recently moved out of, and to which Tawana had a key. \r\n\r\nTawana\u2019s teenage friends described her as a party girl. Was she partying at the apartment for those four days? Or was she hiding out? Her relationship with her mother, who bore Tawana at age 16, had always been stormy. She was raised by an aunt. Her mother\u2019s live-in boyfriend, Ralph King, didn\u2019t like it when Tawana stayed out late and Ralph had a nasty temper. He was a tough ex-con who had done prison time for murder. What would he have done to her when she finally came home after a four-day absence with no good explanation? Tawana would need a doozie of an explanation. Newspapers quoted a former boyfriend as claiming that Tawana made up the rape story to avoid a nasty beating. \r\n\r\nTawana and her family left New York State in 1988 having refused to cooperate with the grand jury and having refused all invitations to testify under oath. Tawana has never signed an accusatory statement or participated in a proper identification proceedure. \r\n\r\nDuring the Steven Pagones defamation trial the defendants, Mason, Maddox and Sharpton, continued their bluster and buffoonery. Mason submitted an offer of proof and requested permission of the court to call Tawana Brawley to testify in his behalf. He said Tawana would finally appear in court and testify. Mason alerted the media and everyone eagerly awaited her appearance. Tawana never showed. At the commencement of the trial Steven Pagones generously offered to hold Tawana not liable for damages if she would testify. She refused. \r\n\r\nShortly thereafter, Tawana appeared before a partisan audience of eight hundred in Brooklyn and caustically dismissed Pagones\u2019 offer as \u201ca bribe\u201d. A video tape of this rally was entered into evidence. In his finding, Judge Hickman noted: \u201cThe Court was appalled that Brawley would see fit to travel from the Washington, DC area to a rally in Brooklyn, but not see fit to travel to Poughkeepsie to testify under oath before the jury.\u201d \r\n\r\nWeirdly, the defendants Mason and Maddox chose to use as their defense the notion that Tawana had told the truth about being repeatedly raped and violently sodomized by six big white men over a four-day period. The Court then opened the door for Mason and Maddox to do so, affording them every opportunity. The Reverend Sharpton took the position that, under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, Al Sharpton could say anything in public that popped into his head, without regard to the truth of those statements. \r\n\r\nThroughout the trial Mason and Maddox were given every assistance in acquiring records from the Attorney General, the Medical Examiner, the ambulance personnel, the Sheriff and many other sources. The Court issued many subpoenas on their behalf. The Court assisted in arranging for the appearance of a convict and an FBI agent, whom Mason and Maddox wished to question. \r\n\r\nThroughout the trial Mason and Maddox insisted that they would prove that Brawley\u2019s allegations were true. It was all bluster. On repeated occasions, having subpoenaed witnesses to the courthouse, they withdrew their subpoenas and the witnesses were sent away without testifying. Their reckless claim that Harry Crist, Jr. had been murdered by Steven Pagones remained unsupported by any evidence. Their attempt to link Tawana Brawley\u2019s chlamydia infection to Steven Pagones also fell flat. Mason\u2019s early claim that medical records revealed five different types of sperm found on Tawana Brawley turned out to be completely bogus. There was nothing whatever in the records to support this claim. \r\n\r\nTo quote from the Court\u2019s finding: "Meaningful medical evidence that Brawley was raped and as Mason claimed, sodomized in two ways, was totally lacking. It is inconceivable, even to lay persons without medical expertise such as those serving on the jury, that Brawley, a fifteen year old, could have been repeatedly raped and sodomized in two ways by six men over a four day period without significant physical evidence to support her allegations. The extensive cross-examination of those who treated and those who observed Brawley after she was discovered produced nothing of substance to sustain these allegations." \r\n\r\nThe Court signed a subpoena for the appearance of Michael Baden, an expert in forensic pathology, now widely known for his appearance at the O.J. Simpson murder trial. At the last moment, the defendants withdrew the subpoena. No other expert witnesses were called to contradict the mountain of evidence against the defendants. The renowned Dr Park Dietz, famous for his study of the psychotic gay cannibal Jeffery Dahmer, concluded that \u201cTawana Brawley\u2019s physical appearance when she was found is consistent with self-infliction and a false accusation.\u201d, according to the Grand Jury report. \r\n\r\nIn the end the Court found that Mason and Maddox had failed to establish Brawley\u2019s allegations. In Judge Hickman\u2019s words: \u201cIt is probable that in the history of this state, never has a teenager turned the prosecutorial and judicial systems literally upside down with such false claims.\u201d \r\n\r\nJudge Hickman concluded that while allowances might have been made for the teenage Tawana, more than a decade had passed and today\u2019s college-educated Tawana was still making false and defamatory allegations. A grand jury had spent seven months considering the evidence which included 180 witnesses and 250 exhibits and producing 6000 pages of testimony. A subsequent trial had demanded the patience of jurors for eight and one half months. The total cost was staggering. \r\n\r\nAt the August 14, 1998 Brooklyn rally Tawana received an award and claimed \u201ca crime was committed on me.\u201d Judge Hickman noted: \u201cIt is indeed a sad day when one receives an award for seeking to perpetuate lies and falsehoods.\u201d He called it \u201can absolute affront to the citizens who gave of their time and talent to sit as members of the Grand Jury and especially to the members of the trial jury, who afforded a fair trial and rendered a true verdict at great personal sacrifice while Brawley literally thumbed her nose at the jury by not appearing to testify under oath.\u201d \r\n\r\nJudge Hickman continued: \u201cThe Court therefore determines that punitive damages should be awarded to send a clear message to others that false allegations of abduction, rape and murder or any other crimes against innocent persons will not and cannot be tolerated.\u201d And further: \u201cTawana Brawley appears caught up in her own fiction and unwilling or unable to recognize the grief and hurt she caused those she wrongly accused, especially the Crist Family, who the Court hopes has found solace in the verdict of the jury after all their suffering.\u201d \r\n\r\nThe court awarded a punitive award against Tawana Brawley of $180,000 in favor of Steven Pagones. Alton Maddox was suspended from practicing law in 1990 because he refused to participate in an ethics investigation of his role in the Brawley case. C.Vernon Mason was barred from his profession in 1995 because of \u201ca pattern of professional misconduct.\u201d When last heard from he was a seminary student. Perhaps he will return as yet another racial racketeer like the Reverend Jesse Jackson or the Reverend Al Sharpton. \r\n\r\nIn 1998 Al Sharpton was ordered to pay Steven Pagones $65,000 in damages. Sharpton did not pay. With interest and penalties, the sum rose to $87,000. By January, 2001, Pagones had only collected $15,000 by having Sharpton\u2019s salary garnisheed. Pagones claimed that Sharpton was concealing his wealth. Then a group of wealthy black men stepped in to pay off Sharpton\u2019s penalty. These rich men include Percy Sutton, who heads Inner City Broadcasting Corp.; Black Enterprise magazine Chairman Earl Graves, Sr.; Essence publisher Ed Lewis; lawyer Johnnie Cochran; Amsterdam News publisher Bill Tatum; and auto dealer Richard Gidron. Sutton was quoted in the New York Post as saying: \u201c. . .there were enough people who thought it should be done to insulate (Sharpton) from any further controversy.\u201d, which is laughable, because you can\u2019t isolate a dedicated racial polarizer from controversy. \r\n\r\nAnd what of the morally decrepit Tawana Brawley? She has made an after-the-fact career of touring college campuses at the invitation of black student associations who reward her with fat fees for repeating her filthy lies. \r\n","author":"TB","parent_id":71293,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-11 11:17:46","modified":"2013-11-11 00:23:48","fileurl":""},{"id":71361,"heading":"Al Sharpton was on Hannity and Colmes last night.","article":"Sean ate his lunch.","author":"Eric","parent_id":71293,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-11 11:50:17","modified":"2003-07-11 11:50:17","fileurl":""},{"id":71439,"heading":"Logical Fallacy","article":""Sean ate his lunch."\r\nUNSUBSTANTIATED ALLEGATION\r\n\r\nFor more on logic at your level, try reading "Logic for Dummies."","author":"debate coach","parent_id":71293,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-11 14:28:45","modified":"2003-07-11 14:28:45","fileurl":""},{"id":71716,"heading":"Simple","article":"Selective censorship is really the last refuge of cowards. I feel sorry for you people.","author":"Simple Simon","parent_id":71293,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-12 13:38:03","modified":"2003-07-12 13:38:03","fileurl":""},{"id":71720,"heading":"Yeah, look at that.","article":"Go ahead and delete away. You can't silence the truth, you parasitic little pissants.\r\n\r\nHAR!","author":"Eric","parent_id":71293,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-12 13:50:23","modified":"2003-07-12 13:50:23","fileurl":""},{"id":71725,"heading":"Deleting","article":"We are NOT deleting. We are editing. If we were deleting, we would be getting rid of that faker\/KOBE guy, but we like him. In fact, we love him. He's one of us. He embodies all that is true about our movement. It is he who is the brightest thinker and best commentator among us. Without him, the world wouldn't be going the way it is right now, which is exactly how we want it to be, all in peace and harmony, and all men shaking off the needless class heirarchy and living as one, all equally in misery. He is our hero. Let's sit around and talk about him.","author":"activist community","parent_id":71293,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-12 13:59:35","modified":"2003-07-12 13:59:35","fileurl":""},{"id":71742,"heading":"sphere","article":""You can't silence the truth, you parasitic little pissants."\r\n\r\ncircle \r\ncircle going nowhere \r\ncircle stuck in neutral \r\n","author":"circle","parent_id":71293,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-12 14:17:39","modified":"2003-07-12 14:17:39","fileurl":""},{"id":71749,"heading":"^","article":"He's right. We CAN silence the truth and we WILL silence the truth.","author":"LA-IMC Editor","parent_id":71293,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-12 14:26:38","modified":"2003-07-12 14:26:38","fileurl":""},{"id":71751,"heading":"^(Eric)","article":"circle \r\ncircle going nowhere \r\ncircle stuck in neutral \r\n\r\n\r\n","author":"circle","parent_id":71293,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-12 14:28:03","modified":"2003-07-12 14:28:03","fileurl":""},{"id":81326,"heading":"the progressive view of Islam","article":"I am no latee liberal and I agree with you on Dean. But one thing the progressive left has to do is see the clash between progressive ideas and Islamic ideas! This is a fascist religion [Sufis are the execption] that is incompatible with our 18th century enlightment values, so is fundementalist christanity as it is artiiculated by the Falwells of our time.\r\n\r\nBut until you guys grow up on this issue and realize that vilification of white male western european christians along with sugar-coating everybody else is giving you guys a warped view of reality.\r\n\r\nBeing a Syrian with a Jewish mother & a christian Father, all I want to say is fuck Islam, fuck the Imams, and their fascist religion. It takes Christanity & Judaism with all their stupid ideas about an insecure God at the helm and makes it worse, more violent, more oppressive to woman, and more intolerant. O and again, the Sufis are the grand exception (and I take my hat off to those guys), they are also 5% of the Islamic population and more persicuted than my Christian & Jewish ancestors were (and that's pretty bad!) \r\n\r\nAllah! Allah! Allah! Huah Al-Haqq!\r\n\r\nSalams! Ya all \r\n\r\n-Aki","author":"Akiva As-Saddiq","parent_id":71293,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-09-08 02:31:01","modified":"2003-09-08 02:31:01","fileurl":""},{"id":81327,"heading":"the progressive view of Islam","article":"I am no latee liberal and I agree with you on Dean. But one thing the progressive left has to do is see the clash between progressive ideas and Islamic ideas! This is a fascist religion [Sufis are the execption] that is incompatible with our 18th century enlightment values, so is fundementalist christanity as it is artiiculated by the Falwells of our time.\r\n\r\nBut until you guys grow up on this issue and realize that vilification of white male western european christians along with sugar-coating everybody else is giving you guys a warped view of reality.\r\n\r\nBeing a Syrian with a Jewish mother & a christian Father, all I want to say is fuck Islam, fuck the Imams, and their fascist religion. It takes Christanity & Judaism with all their stupid ideas about an insecure God at the helm and makes it worse, more violent, more oppressive to woman, and more intolerant. O and again, the Sufis are the grand exception (and I take my hat off to those guys), they are also 5% of the Islamic population and more persicuted than my Christian & Jewish ancestors were (and that's pretty bad!) \r\n\r\nAllah! Allah! Allah! Huah Al-Haqq!\r\n\r\nSalams! Ya all \r\n\r\n-Aki","author":"Akiva As-Saddiq","parent_id":71293,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-09-08 02:32:45","modified":"2003-09-08 02:32:45","fileurl":""},{"id":81328,"heading":"the progressive view of Islam","article":"I am no latee liberal and I agree with you on Dean. But one thing the progressive left has to do is see the clash between progressive ideas and Islamic ideas! This is a fascist religion [Sufis are the execption] that is incompatible with our 18th century enlightment values, so is fundementalist christanity as it is artiiculated by the Falwells of our time.\r\n\r\nBut until you guys grow up on this issue and realize that vilification of white male western european christians along with sugar-coating everybody else is giving you guys a warped view of reality.\r\n\r\nBeing a Syrian with a Jewish mother & a christian Father, all I want to say is fuck Islam, fuck the Imams, and their fascist religion. It takes Christanity & Judaism with all their stupid ideas about an insecure God at the helm and makes it worse, more violent, more oppressive to woman, and more intolerant. O and again, the Sufis are the grand exception (and I take my hat off to those guys), they are also 5% of the Islamic population and more persicuted than my Christian & Jewish ancestors were (and that's pretty bad!) \r\n\r\nAllah! Allah! Allah! Huah Al-Haqq!\r\n\r\nSalams! Ya all \r\n\r\n-Aki","author":"Akiva As-Saddiq","parent_id":71293,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-09-08 02:32:45","modified":"2003-09-08 02:32:45","fileurl":""},{"id":81329,"heading":"heh","article":"there's always tomorrow. Sometimes","author":"still have a few bugs, hmm?","parent_id":71293,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-09-08 02:51:54","modified":"2003-09-08 02:51:54","fileurl":""},{"id":84992,"heading":"AL SHARPTON","article":"AL SHARPTON? HAAAAA-HAA...HA-HA-HA..HE\r\nHE...HAAAAA-AHAAAAAA...:) AND HA...","author":"R.LEE","parent_id":71293,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-09-27 14:33:03","modified":"2003-09-27 14:33:03","fileurl":""},{"id":85442,"heading":"bush is toast","article":"And so are his supporters","author":"Hex anon w\/ encryption","parent_id":71293,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","created":"2003-09-29 22:56:05","modified":"2005-08-15 01:35:49","fileurl":"\/usr\/local\/www-domains\/la.indymedia.org\/public\/uploads\/2003\/09\/doughboy.jpg","image":{"original":"\/usr\/local\/www-domains\/la.indymedia.org\/public\/uploads\/2003\/09\/doughboy.jpg"}},{"id":85661,"heading":"so is Fox news","article":"their recent poll showed if the election was now.\r\nBush would lose.\r\nBut of course, if the information dosent fit your scheme of bushit....then it is heckled.\r\nIt's Fox news though....I'm sure youve seen the link.\r\n\r\nWe have information, you have nothing.\r\n\r\nPriceless","author":"reporter","parent_id":71293,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-09-30 18:43:03","modified":"2003-09-30 18:43:03","fileurl":""},{"id":85742,"heading":"exactly","article":"Sharpton is a cartoon buffoon\r\n\r\n"Al Sharpton is the only candidate who has tirelessly worked with the Hip-Hop generation "\r\n\r\nAnd this just about proves that.\r\n\r\nNot to mention a coke dealer (on video, mind you) and an outright LIAR and racist (can anybody say Tawanna Brawley?).\r\n\r\nSo, please, by all means....nominate Sharpton!\r\n\r\nExcuse me, the "Rev" Sharpton.","author":"fresca","parent_id":71293,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-09-30 22:46:10","modified":"2003-09-30 22:46:10","fileurl":""},{"id":85776,"heading":"FOX NEWS REPORTS","article":"Bush wins?\r\nlandslide?\r\nEven your cronies at fox news disagree with you.\r\n\r\nBush Jr will lose the reelection bid for the same reasons his father lost.\r\n\r\nOut of control warmongering.\r\nRunning up the deficit\r\nNo credibility.\r\n\r\nPS\r\nPLEASE COMMENT ON THE FOX NEWS REPORT.\r\n","author":"bushit = dumbass","parent_id":71293,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-10-01 04:32:29","modified":"2003-10-01 04:32:29","fileurl":""},{"id":85858,"heading":"wheres bushit ad"mire"er","article":"still waiting for your rebuttal for the above comment.............","author":"wheres bushit admirers comment now","parent_id":71293,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-10-02 07:24:30","modified":"2003-10-02 07:24:30","fileurl":""}]}