In July 2007, black leaders held a funeral for the “n” word at the NAACP annual convention. Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick gave an eloquent eulogy imploring those gathered to bury the “n” word once and for all.

“Today we’re not just burying the N-word, we’re taking it out of our spirit,” said Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. “We gather burying all the things that go with the N-word. We have to bury the ’pimps’ and the ’hos’ that go with it.”

He continued: “Die, N-word, and we don’t want to see you ’round here no more.”
[NAACP delegates ‘bury’ N-word in ceremony - AP - 07-09-07]

Watch and listen to Kilpatrick this week resurrecting the “n” word on live television in what was supposed to be his report card to the people of Detroit. Mayor Kilpatrick, who lied under oath about an affair with a top aid, instead lashed out at opponents by lumping them in with racists.

Here is a copy of the racist flier distributed in Tennessee’s 9th District from the Rev. George Brooks.

“Memphis Congressman Steve Cohen and the JEWS HATE Jesus.” That’s what a flier warns voters in Memphis. The racist and anti-semitic flier was written by African-American minister Rev. George Brooks here in Murfreesboro, TN to help Steve Cohen’s African-American opponent, Nikki Tinker, in an upcoming election in Tennessee’s 9th District.

Circulated by an African-American minister from Murfreesboro Tenn., which isn’t even in Cohen’s district, the literature encourages other black leaders in Memphis to “see to it that one and ONLY one black Christian faces this opponent of Christ and Christianity in the 2008 election.”
[Jewish Rep. Cohen Battles Antisemitism and Racism In Re-Election - WashingtonPost - 02-13-08]

The flier is the product of an African-American minister from the Middle Tennessee town of Murfreesboro. Rev. George Brooks said he distributed it because the 9th District is “about 90-something percent black.” (The actual figure is close to 60 percent.) Does the Tinker campaign agree with the Anti-Defamation League that the document “attempts to incite tension” between African-Americans and Jews? They aren’t saying.
[Race-baiting in the 9th - Commerical Appeal - 02-13-08]

It’s up to the 9th District of Tennessee to decide if hate and racism best represents them in the U.S. Congress, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to sit back and let anyone win on such a disgraceful platform.

Until Nikki Tinker publicly and specificly admonishes the racism and hate in this flier, and especially the man who created it, I urge bloggers across the state to help fund Steve Cohen’s campaign. I am pledging $100 today. 

And let’s not forget the person who is ultimately responsible for injecting racism and hate into Tennessee politics: Rev. George Brooks. I don’t know enough about the guy, but all of you will know as much as I learn over the coming months.

UPDATE 02-15-08 3:18pm - $100 pledge fulfilled. Now, on to getting to know our friend the Rev. George Brooks.

Watch this video on [shorts] of Al Gore posted just minutes ago on YouTube by WarnerBrosRecords on the eve of the Iowa caucuses. The video and timing of the post raises Gore’s environmental cause as Democrats and Republicans face voters tomorrow in Iowa.

In the video, Al Gore talks about “the seven point pledge.” He stopped counting, but there is an inaudible moment in the video. What did he say?

“I pledge: 1) to demand my nation join an international treaty within two years to cut global warming polution by 90% in developed countries and by more than half world wide. Now the second part of the pledge is a little more personal. 2) I pledge to reduce my CO2 polution as much as I can and offset the rest in order to become carbon neutral. The other parts of the pledge focuses on things like renewable energy, conservation, planting trees, and protecting rainforests, fighting for legislation, new laws, new policies to greatly increase energy efficiency. Also, on the personal side the focus is on my home, my school, my work, my place of worship, [—-inaudible—-] to make sure those changes are underway there as well.”
[YOUTUBE: Live Earth - The Concerts for a Climate in Crisis - Al Gore - 01-02-07]

Watch this peice on [news] from the Wall Street Journal’s Timothy Farnam. Listen as Farnam sounds … well, he REALLY wants to warn you about the kind of trolls and goblins he interviewed. The troll’s name is Brian O’Neill, a 33-year-old student at Northern Kentucky University.

“And while politics is certainly not the only blog topic PLAGUED BY TROLLS, it is an attractive prize for online goblins given its controversial nature. In the real world, the website Technorati now tracks 40,000 English language politics blogs. And by all accounts, the number of TROLLS has grown like MAGIC right along with them.”
[YOUTUBE: Web trolls plague politicians - Wall Street Journal - 01-02-08]