Report back from the BlackRiders press conference (tags)
LOS ANGELES, March 4, 2008 - Members of the BlackRiders Liberation Party and their supporters held a press conference today in Leimert Park. Only three media outlets attended: KPFK, LA Indymedia and a reporter for the Final Call. No other media was present.
CYNTHIA MCKINNEY: A Tale of Two Members of Congress & the Police – by Jeffrey Blankfort (tags)
The Democrat Party leadership was overjoyed when McKinney was defeated for re-election in 2002. After she had served five terms, AIPAC decided to make an example of her for having criticized Israel's treatment of the Palestinians. ...The Democrats were, in turn, mortified two years later when, without their help, the plucky McKinney ran and was re-elected to her seat. ...To show the party's displeasure, McKinney was denied the return of her seniority by a tight-lipped Nancy Pelosi, the San Francisco congresswoman who serves as the Democrats' minority House whip. ...McKinney, of course, is African-American, and one of the few members of the Congressional Black Caucus who has not been cowed into submission by the Democratic Party and the only one who has refused to genuflect to the Israel lobby. ...To make matters worse – for McKinney, not for the pursuit of truth and justice – she has refused to accept the official Bush administration explanation of the events of 9-11.