Klan group ordered to pay $2.5 million. A jury on Friday ordered Imperial Klans of America grand wizard Ron Edwards and two former lieutenants to pay 19-year-old Jordan Gruver $1.5 million for lost wages and medical expenses and Edwards to pay $1 million in punitive damages.
AP: BRANDENBURG, Ky. - A Kentucky-based Ku Klux Klan group was ordered on Friday to pay $2.5 million in damages in a judgment that civil rights attorneys hope will bankrupt the chapter.
The Southern Poverty Law Center sued the nation’s second-largest Klan outfit on behalf of a Latino teen severely beaten in 2006 by two Klan members. The Klansmen were convicted and served two years in prison.
A jury on Friday ordered Imperial Klans of America grand wizard Ron Edwards and two former lieutenants to pay 19-year-old Jordan Gruver $1.5 million for lost wages and medical expenses and Edwards to pay $1 million in punitive damages.
“I’m overwhelmed. I’m victorious,” Gruver said. “And, I’m also sad. I’m sad because those guys are still going to be the same way that they were. That will never change.”
Morris Dees, the lead attorney for the center, said after the verdict he plans to seize Edwards’ property in Dawson Springs that serves as Klan headquarters along with any other assets that can be found. It wasn’t clear what the property is worth.
Click PICS To Enlarge
THE VICTIM Jordan Gruver
KKK Criminal Andrew Watkins
KKK Criminal Jarred Hensley
Imperial Klans T-Shirt
The GRAND WIZARD — KKK Criminal Ron Edwards
Earlier, in his closing statement, Dees told jurors that a substantial financial award would stop the Kentucky-based group in its tracks.
“It’s all about the money. It’s all about the money,” said Morris Dees. “If you stop the money, you’ll cut the organization off.”
The heavily tattooed Edwards plans to appeal the verdict. Despite the judgment, Edwards said the KKK will remain active.
“We’re not going away,” Edwards said.
Dees had argued during the civil trial that Edwards’ group incited violence against minorities with racist speeches and “hate metal,” leading to the attack on Gruver. Edwards, who represented himself during the trial, denied the charge and said his group’s not generally violent.
The case was similar to nearly a dozen others brought by the center against hate groups. A similar lawsuit bankrupted the white supremacist group Aryan Nations in Idaho in 1999.
The trial centered on a beating Gruver suffered at the hands of former Klan lieutenants Jarred Hensley and Andrew Watkins. Gruver suffered a broken jaw, bruised ribs and permanent nerve damage to his left arm.
The jury ordered Edwards to pay 20 percent of the compensatory damages, while splitting the remaining 80 percent evenly between Hensley and Watkins. The jury laid the $1 million in punitive damages solely on Edwards. Hensley, who had also represented himself, left the courthouse without commenting.
Watkins reached a confidential settlement with Gruver before the trial that will account for his share of Friday’s judgment.
Jurors deliberated for nearly six-and-a-half hours after a three-day trial at the Meade County Courthouse. As Meade Circuit Judge Bruce Butler read the verdicts, several skinheads in the courtroom shook their heads and looked down.
The judgment against Edwards and Hensley is active for 15 years, giving Gruver and the center time to pursue assets, Dees said.
“No matter what he gets, we’ll get a piece of it,” Dees said.
Gruver, who testified earlier Friday about having nightmares and the extent of his injuries, celebrated the verdict by hugging his mother, Cindy. He then joined his family and left the courthouse under heavy security into a cold rain.
From Publishers Weekly: Village Voice correspondent Ridgeway ( Powering Civilization ) traces the evolution of the “racialist right” in American politics up to George Bush’s bid for the presidency, which, the author asserts, had the issue of race at its very foundation. With startling detail, this volume sets forth the violent histories of such organizations as the Ku Klux Klan, founded in 1866 by six former Confederate soldiers; the John Birch Society, an anti-civil rights group masquerading as an anti-Communist force; and the Posse Comitatus, whose members gather in posses to “protect” the white race from the scourge of Jews, blacks and other minorities.
Examining their influence on the political climate of the U.S., Ridgeway profiles such leaders as David Dukes, the former head of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in Louisiana who ran for the Senate in 1990. Readers may feel overwhelmed by the amount of information this fascinating book imparts, and less than smooth transitions give the work a scattered feeling. As a result, Ridgeway’s conclusions–including the obvious one that with the Cold War over, race will increasingly define “the social contours of society“–are more general than incisive.
From Library Journal: Ridgeway has written a series of compelling reports in the Village Voice on the extreme right in contemporary America, and on the impact of radical racist and anti-Semitic groups on mainstream politics and culture.
The articles are here rewritten to present a comprehensive view of racist politics in the United States (with some reference to Western European politics).
However, in the book Ridgeway relies on purple prose, unsubstantiated analysis, and superficial background, so the vivid details and acute perspective of the original reports are obscured.
Olbermann: Divisive politics is anti-American. GOP ticket’s willingness to say anything to win ultimately damages America.
In a Special Comment, Keith Olbermann lists examples of hateful, divisive politics from the right that actually do more to undermine America than the bogus accusations of anti-Americanism being leveled against Barack Obama.
The manipulation of the public image of Obama as a subversive presence who hates the nation rests on racially coded inferences about unreliable blackness as it tinges the face of American politics. — Michael Eric Dyson
By: MICHAEL ERIC DYSON Professor, Georgetown University
Race Has Affected the 2008 Presidential Election
There is little question that race has affected the 2008 presidential election, though often through inference and innuendo.
Initially, Barack Obama’s historic quest for the highest political office in the land was rife with suspicion from white and black quarters.
Eventually, millions of black voters signed on to his campaign after relinquishing skepticism about his being black enough and after he proved in Iowa that he could win over white voters.
Educated white voters followed suit, though Obama has had a far more difficult time effectively wooing working class white voters.
That has to do in large part with the effective, if cynical, effort of conservative activists to falsely paint Obama as an unpatriotic figure who pals around with terrorists because he is secretly a Muslim.
The manipulation of the public image of Obama as a subversive presence who hates the nation rests on racially coded inferences about unreliable blackness as it tinges the face of American politics.
Few quarters in American life have been tolerant of the complex black identities that constitute African American communities.
Republicans — Backward, Bigoted, Racist and Nativist FILTH of America
As a result, a punishing and narrow range of stereotypes have obscured the fact that black struggle for social equality and racial justice was never antithetical to the best interests of the nation.
Because black people loved the nation so much, they fought hard to make sure that it lived up to the true meaning of its creed, as Martin Luther King said.
Barack Obama represents both the maturing of black American politics, and the increased willingness of significant portions of the white population to embrace a worthy black presidential candidate.
Whether that is sufficient to propel Obama to the presidency remains to be seen. Still I am cautiously hopeful that it is.
[Enlarge] About The Author: Michael Eric Dyson (born October 23, 1958, in Detroit, Michigan) is an American writer, radio host, and professor at Georgetown University.
Dyson has a Ph.D. in religion from Princeton University. He is an ordained Baptist minister.
Since 2007, Dyson has been University Professor of Sociology at Georgetown University, teaching courses in theology, English, and African American studies. A University Professorship is said to be the highest position that a faculty member can have at Georgetown.
From January 2006 to February 2007 Dyson was the host of a daily syndicated talk radio program, The Michael Eric Dyson Show, which aired on weekdays from 10AM to 1PM (EST) on the Syndication One Radio Network (owned and operated by Radio One). He is also a regular commentator on National Public Radio, CNN, and the HBO TV program Real Time with Bill Maher. Dyson is best known for his commentary on American culture, particularly as it pertains to African Americans. Dyson uses the terms “Afristocracy” and “Ghettocracy” to describe a bifurcation in American black society. He is also a leading scholar on hip-hop music and the culture that surrounds it, as well as its roots in African and African-American cultures and influence on American popular culture. Dyson is well known to repeat his famous line, “Go Ahead. Axe me a question.”
The McCain-Palin HATE MEETINGS are affecting Obama supporters worldwide — In a London street, a man wearing an Obama T-shirt was shot three times. Dube Egwuatu was shot three times in street by racist gunman. Mr Egwuatu, a data analyst with Croydon Council, said: “The venom in his attackers voice was frightening.” McCain and his side-kick Sarah Palin, are a sick, racist, divisive and deluded monster couple, unfit to lead a country struggling to dump it’s sordid racial past!. Click Here For HOPE
Republican racist bigots realizing that Obama is for real, are in frenzied panic. Barack Obama has momentum and John McCain cannot stop the Obama train. McCain-Palin Ticket in Racist ‘Kamikaze’ Mode.
And is spreading all the way to “Cousin-Land,” Great Britain — in London, where Dube Egwuatu was shot three times in street by racist gunman - for wearing Barack Obama T-shirt. Mr Egwuatu, a data analyst with Croydon Council, said: “The venom in his attackers voice was frightening.”
After two debates, McCain has nothing to offer but FEAR and RACIST INNUENDO.
First it was Sarah Palin, McCain’s sidekick barracuda, now he has thrown all he has left into the mix — his “Beer Inheritance,” Cindy McCain.
Invoking son’s military service, Cindy McCain said: “The day that Sen. Obama cast a vote to not to fund my son when he was serving sent a cold chill through my body let me tell you,” Cindy McCain said in introducing the GOP ticket. “I would suggest Sen. Obama change shoes with me for just one day. I suggest he take a day and go watch our men and women deploying.” READ: OBAMA IS UN-PATRIOTIC, YELLOW and DOES NOT BELONG
A couple of days ago Sarah Palin accused Obama of “Paling With Terrorists,” … in reference to Obama’s association with fellow Chicagoan, Bill Ayers, a reformed 1960’s anti-war radical, who is currently leading a productive life as a professor at the University of Illinois.
Ayers was protesting the VietNam War — another illegal war America lost, during which, just like in Iraq, U.S. military personnel often went on civilian LYNCHING rampages.
The spectacle of John McCain’s Town Hall campaign meetings reminds me of a Saturday Evening Lynching Meet ups in the not too distant past of America.
Lynching of black people in the United States often took place on “Market Days,” during which families accompanied by their young children would watch blacks humiliated, killed by hanging and sometimes by burning. To demonstrate a ritual of power, mobs sometimes tortured the victim first before hanging them.
1935 lynching of Rubin Stacy in Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Lynching was(is) highly associated with Southern efforts to retain and enforce white supremacy after their defeat in the American Civil War.
Many lynchings still happen today and go unreported, and they are not necessarily by rope or burning.
Guns, beatings and NOOSES have been hung on trees to afflict MENTAL LYNCHING on African-Americans.
McCain’s Town Hall Meetings have turned into Lynch Mob Meetings during which McCain, Cindy and Sarah Palin intentionally, knowingly and willfully, by using code-words have incited RETARDED Republicans to help them bring down Barack Obama, by hook or crook.
The BLOOD-CUDDLING braying goes like this:
“KILL HIM!”…. “TREASONER!”…. “NIGGER!”…. “NOBAMA!”…. “SOCIALIST!”…. “COMMUNISM!”…. “SOCIALIST SWINE!”…. “OBAMA IS A MUSLIM TERRORIST!”…. “SLEAZY SCUM OF THE EARTH!”…. “OBAMA REGISTERS DEAD PEOPLE!”…. “BARACK ‘HUSSEIN‘ OBAMA!”…. “OFF WITH HIS HEAD!”…. “OBAMA WILL PAINT THE WHITEHOUSE BLACK!”…. “OBAMA IS A BLACK MUSLIM TERRORIST!”….
Here is Sarah Palin calling Obama a Terrorist & Racist ScumBag
Republicans Responding in Kind.
“Obama is a Moslem Terrorist” ….McCain event in Bethlehem, PA
Terrorist!
The Sheriff’s GESTAPO Also Joined In — In FULL UNIFORM
[Enlarge] Joining in the chorus, a local Black talk show host, a Mr. James T. Harris, took great umbrage in begging McCain to “HIT” Obama.
“I am begging you sir, I am begging you — take it to him,” pleaded the Mr. Harris, earning himself a standing ovation!. “We have the good Reverend Wright. We have [the Rev. Michael L.] Pfleger.
We have all of these shady characters that have surrounded him,” Harris bellowed. “We have corruption here in Wisconsin and voting across the nation. I am begging you, sir. I am begging you.
CNN’s Campbell Brown Laments McCain’s “Hate Speech”
As you can see McCain-Palin campaign is inciting violence and racial hatred against Senator Obama.
They call it “Rallying Their Base.” A base consisting of the most despicable racists on earth.
And it is no surprise that Sarah Palin feels mighty comfortable in this setting. She has a history of association with Alaskan Extremists. Right-wing extremists Mark Chryson and Steve Stoll helped launch Palin’s political career in Alaska, and in return had influence over policy. “Her door was open,” says Chryson — and still is. …. [READ MORE]
Any little respect I had for McCain is gone forever.
Mr. McCain you are racist pig not fit to lead a nation trying so hard to progress beyond bigotry and racism. You are unfit to run this country.
You are totally sick, divisive, “Viet-Cong deluded,” monster!.
That you referred to a crowd at one of your rally’s as “My Fellow Prisoners!” instead of “My Fellow Citizens” …in a “Prepared” speech!, ….is proof that you have lost your mind,…completely!
“My Fellow Prisoners!”
As for Sarah Palin, first, you are a RACIST, next let me paraphrase the RUSSIANS: “Palin, the shrieking cow from Alaska is the joke of American politics. You are a “housewife, chosen by mere chance.” A Mrs. Nobody “know-it-all.” You are a “Hockey Mom” housewife-cum-small-town gossip merchant and cheap little guttersnipe. You pith-headed little bimbo from the back of beyond. Keep your mouth shut and while you’re at it, make sure the members of your family keep their legs shut too.”
I didn’t say that, the Russians who are equally pissed off at you did: Read PRAVDA
On The Issue of McCain’s Character
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By: bcblue84’s
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I forgot to mention John McCain was a POW. While John McCain was a POW, he endured torture, and he dreamt of his beautiful wife and children back home. Carol McCain was John’s first wife. She kept the faith back home. She and her 3 young children struggled to get by. While he was still imprisoned, Carol McCain was in a horrific, near fatal car accident, which left her alive, but crippled and disfigured. Carol McCain endured and whispered not a word of these horrors to her husband because she wanted to spare him the agony and worry. Upon his return from Vietnam, seeing his wife was not the woman he once knew, John McCain, forsake his marital vows, and forsake his wife and his family. John McCain committed an act that women all across America fear. He deserted his wife in her hour of need. He turned his back on her, and took a second wife, a woman nearly 20 years his junior.
This truth makes me uncomfortable. This truth reveals to me the horror of who John McCain really is. He is a man who would rid himself of a woman who he had sworn to protect, who he had sworn to build a life with. He is a man who in his lust for political power, and his overriding vanity, would abandon his first wife, crippled and disfigured, in favor of a blond beauty, nearly 20 years his junior.
John McCain does not embody honor or sacrifice or duty. John McCain embodies a man who would abandon his wife, a man who places no value on sacred marital vows, a man who does not know the meaning of family sacrifice or family commitment.
John McCain and his campaign does nothing but call a lie to the sacrifice and earnest endeavors of military wives. He presents himself as a man with whom Military families can identify. But would they still identify with him if they knew he abandoned the wife and family who supported him when he was in the military?
For every woman who devotes herself to her home and her family, John McCain embodies their worst nightmare. John McCain is the husband who would instantly and arbitrarily discount the work and devotion a wife commits, for a lifetime, to her home and family, the husband who would toss her aside for a younger woman, the husband who would dismiss his solemn marital vows as “a mistake,” the husband with no conscience and no heart and no smidgen of duty. Would the women of America stand by John McCain if they knew even the smallest hint of his first forgotten wife?
How can Cindy McCain voice a need “to make sure the American people understand what we have to say, what we stand for as a husband and wife” when what they stand for is adultery, betrayal, privilege, entitlement, and cover up. Maybe Cindy thinks she deserves respect and instant credibility because she is John McCain’s second wife, or because she is rich and wears $280,000 earrings, or because she owns 8 houses so she has perspective on the economic crisis because she can retreat to one of those 8 houses and wait till her stock portfolio recovers
One Nation Under Fear: Scaredy Cats and Fear-Mongers in the Home of the Brave (And What You Can Do About It) — by Bob Cesca
Editorial Reviews
“Bob Cesca is easily one of the most incisive political writers on the scene today. Nobody else can make me think, laugh and cry–all at once–by simply giving his take on the corrupt political establishment that runs things in Washington.” — Cliff Schecter, Author of The Real McCain: Why Conservatives Don’t Trust Him and Why Independents Shouldn’t
“The great irony of this book is that Bob’s writing is totally fearless. That’s what I love about it. Are you allowed to write a fearless book about country living under fear? Whether he is allowed or not, Bob has done it.” — Cenk Uygur, “The Young Turks”
“Fearless and funny, Bob Cesca captures the smart brawling style of today’s blogosphere, while putting the press and Republicans on notice.” — Eric Boehlert,Media Matters
“As a liberal blogger of profound depth, righteous outrage and sly humor, Cesca’s like a combination of Molly Ivins, H.L. Mencken and Wavy Gravy. I’m not sure what that means but it looks nice in a sentence.” — Steven Weber,Actor/Hockey Mom
Product Description
In post-9/11 America, authoritarians and politicians are happily leaning on the panic button for fun, profit, and the ongoing oppression of a frightened populace. This timely book examines that fear: where it came from, how it’s promoted, and what can be done about it. Author Bob Cesca hits a bracingly wide range of targets — the right-wing noise machine, climate change deniers, creeping fascism from the Bush White House — before presenting a sober, sensible plan for fighting and overcoming this potentially irreversible trend.
Columnist - John Sammon You’ve heard of a Freudian slip. This is where you accidentally reveal some hidden thing in which you believe. Time and again, Republicans have revealed, sometimes outright, while at the same time attempting to pander to the American people as working class heroes, that they consider Americans to be superior to other peoples. Especially white Americans.
Do you? Because you’re American, do you feel you’re better? One of the chosen people?
During the first debate, McCain wouldn’t look at Obama. This is because McCain thinks of Obama as an upstart nigger.
McCain’s handlers told him about this gaff, and in their last debate, McCain literally hugged Obama (a theatrical ploy to gain votes by trying to show he’s friendly to blacks).
The reason for the original snub is also the reason McCain is against any dialog (communication) with countries we’ve decided we don’t like, like Syria. Syria might use its influence in the region to help control terrorism.
I’m only saying it’s a possibility.
Instead, turn your back. Because hostility and non-communication are better, despite the fact that in the past we’ve befriended some ruthless dictatorships, while selectively condemning others. We originally befriended Saddam Hussein, and only turned on him when he wouldn’t act like the good puppet we thought we had in our pocket.
Why do Republicans constantly talk about God and America as though we’re the only country in the world whom God favors? As though we’re the only country that matters?
Here’s the way they (Republicans) word it.
• “I’m fearful his America is not my America” (implies ownership of America).
• “Our troops are on a mission from God” (implies God is a four-star American general).
“Bomb bomb bomb…bomb bomb Iran” (sung to the tune of the Beach Boys’ Barbara Ann). Meant as a joke by McCain, it trivializes, dismisses as nothing, the violent deaths of thousands of innocent people, including women and children.
There are three main dysfunctional reasons to think we’re better.
1. We’re more powerful militarily.
2. We’re richer.
3. We know God. Others don’t.
To Republicans, there are niggers here in this country, that we (whites) are better than. But there are others. Many others.
Here is a partial list of countries, who, according to the right wing, could also be considered niggers:
Canada – A bunch of displaced French frogs and faggots in Mountie suits up in the north woods. Even though they’re socialistic and soft on terror, at least, they stay where they are.
Unlike –
Mexico – Cactus niggers. Ruining the United States by coming here, illegally populating huge tracts of land of which they used to own that we illegally but patriotically stole from them. I don’t like ‘em, but I’ll let ‘em landscape my yard.
Arabs – Sand niggers. A worthless bunch of stinking, sheep-stealing, turban-wearing Sabu-fetch-my-slippers assbites…..except the Saudis (the springboard for Al-Qaeda), whom, even though they’re inferior…we can tolerate because of their oil. Their royal family act a lot like we do.
The British – They support every war we engage in. They’re faggy and weak looking but at least they’re white, and they gave us the Beatles.
Japan – They’re still just Japs. We’ve watched too many old World War Two movies to change that.
The Russians – Godless, communistic-inclined Bolsheviks who attacked Georgia. Only the United States has the right to attack other countries (Palin said we might attack Russia).
China – A bunch of modernizing Chinks whom we as yet have no problem with.
South America – All those countries down there, a bunch of stupid looking, weak-coffee-colored Indians walking around like they don’t have a clue. Sandals on their feet. No shopping malls. They’re lucky we tolerate them.
All of Africa – If God didn’t intend them to be unlucky, he wouldn’t have put them in huts as ignorant, disease-ridden savages. If you want the true story of Africa, watch Tarzan movies.
Pakistan – More turban heads. We’re going to violate their sovereignty without their permission to go after terrorists. We can fight a war with them since we have two other wars we haven’t won. We’ll have ourselves in a war with those ignorant bastards and we’ll make it look like they started it.
“[America on Notice] deserves to be read widely…sets out an alternative agenda of engagement with other cultures and states.” — Roger Eatwell,Professor of European Politics, Head of Department of European Studies and Modern Languages, University of Bath, UK
Product Description:
During the past decade, the image of America in many parts of the world has steadily deteriorated. In this perceptive analysis of the causes of anti-Americanism, Glenn and Carole Schweitzer—coauthors of the acclaimed Superterrorism: Assassins, Mobsters, and Weapons of Mass Destruction—chart a proactive course for change that will create a more positive attitude toward America and deter terrorism, while encouraging international cooperation to solve some of the world’s most pressing problems.
The authors begin by showing how and why growing American military and economic power in recent years, coupled with questionable foreign policy choices, have generated negative foreign perceptions of America, especially in Muslim countries. They also address how the growing Muslim populations, with few resources and little room to expand, display increased resentment toward American wealth, while their overcrowded cities have become breeding grounds for hatred directed toward America.
Beyond highlighting key problem areas, the Schweitzers devote most of the book to recommending realistic, doable solutions. They want to see U.S. leadership that gives priority to: a new emphasis in foreign assistance on job creation and sustainable solutions; expanded international educational opportunities and the adoption of modern university curricula, particularly in the Muslim world; a change in current U.S. policies that justify military interventions; greater support of capabilities in the developing countries to control infectious diseases; modification of the U.S. double standard that allows for the increase in American nuclear weapons capabilities while denying others the use of nuclear technology for peaceful purposes; a strengthening of the role of the United Nations to prevent and resolve international security crises; and more assertive U.S. actions in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a major source of much of the anti-American feeling in the Middle East.
The authors also stress the importance of listening to and considering the views of leaders of other societies, in contrast to simply pronouncing U.S. policies and intentions. Also, they urge more effective support of local television stations to communicate accurate and balanced views of American society, culture, and policies. Reflecting decades of experience in international relations, this important assessment of America’s role in the world will interest everyone concerned with American security and the prospects for global peace.
About The Author: Michael Eric Dyson (born October 23, 1958, in Detroit, Michigan) is an American writer, radio host, and professor at 
Editorial Reviews
