GOProud slams Meghan McCain for calling Breitbart ‘extremist’
GOProud slammed MSNBC’s favorite Republican, Meghan McCain, Friday for comments she made on Al Sharpton’s “PoliticsNation” Thursday evening about Andrew Breitbart.
“Meghan McCain should be absolutely ashamed of herself,” GOProud co-founders Christopher R. Barron and Jimmy LaSalvia said in a joint statement.
McCain referred to the recently departed Breitbart as an “extremist” who played into people’s “fears” and was involved in “hate” politics.
McCain's contextually weak, dumb and uncalled for attacks on Andrew Breitbart's character deserve harsh rebuke, but the response to her light-headed attack on the word "extremist" should also be handled correctly. You're damned right Andrew Breitbart was an extremist. It's what made him effective and I'm just not in the mood to bow to the cultural creep he so often fought against. The response to Meggie Mc Big Fat Ass ignorantly throwing around the word "extremist," especially in GOP politics, was written well enough in 1964 and it needn't be reinvented to acquiesce to a misguided notion born of nothing more than a political correctness already embraced by too many Republicans and even conservatives.
Anyone who joins us in all sincerity, we welcome. Those who do not care for our cause, we don't expect to enter our ranks in any case. And—and let our Republicanism, so focused and so dedicated, not be made fuzzy and futile by unthinking and stupid labels. I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.
OK, I'm done. No more coffee for me this morning! ; )
Brett Kimberlin and the Hall of Fame of Leftist Terrorists
Someone asked me this morning, how did this guy get away with this for so long? The fact is, he got away with it because he had the cover to do it. He didn't make the "Hall of Fame" on the Left because influential people didn't know who and what he was, no matter how much they will repeat that myth, if asked about Brett Kimberlin today and in the future.
And because of who and what Brett Kimberlin is, they can't simply throw him under the bus, not as easily as they might your run-of-the-mill political activist. He's been around too long and has been too big a player on the Left for that simple solution. In short, Brett Kimberlin knows things.
In the past, he has been called narcissistic, not just by bloggers - Yid With Lid points out Brett Kimberlin's narcissism in his post today.
I'm not a psychologist. I'm not going to claim I can make some diagnosis of Brett Kimberlin. But no one can deny that, if you've read enough past coverage of him, especially during his Speedway Bomber days, it contains words like narcissistic and worse, when it comes to personality types. I've read extremely disturbing opinions on whatever personality type he is attributed to legal professionals who have dealt with him. One can also easily begin with the book on Kimberlin by Mark Singer: "Citizen K: The Deeply Weird American Journey of Brett Kimberlin". This below is from a review at link above from Kirkus Reviews.
Singer is full of contrition, presenting himself as having been sucked into Kimberlin's ``narcissistic universe, a place far beyond the gravity-bound realities of politics, truth, and justice.'' But instead of drowning in regret, the repentant author turns his book into a lively revenge tale. In the delightful final chapters he cleverly tricks Kimberlin into exposing his own mendacity. For politicos, journalists, or anyone who has ever been pulled into the distorted worldview of a dangerous smooth talker, the story of Brett Kimberlin is a valuable one, expertly unearthed and reported by Singer.
Whatever Brett Kimberlin thinks of Progressive politics, it seems a fair bet that, he cares far more about himself. That is not a man to go quietly into any good night, cut off from the lifeline that has sustained him all these years. If the Progressive movement - and it's big money donors - drop a guy like Brett Kimberlin in a manner he doesn't much care for, he will turn on them. And as much damage he may have done to this, or that individual and often small in proportion to the mass, activist on the Right, his home and power-base is on and of the professional left. Big picture, that's where he can do the most damage going forward, not across the Right.
The professional left bought Brett Kimberlin. Now, they own him. What they do with him is their problem, not the Right's. But if they don't do what Brett Kimberlin believes to be the right, or correct thing, in what Mark Singer characterized as Brett Kimberlin's "weird world," they'll have hell to pay for it, as Brett Kimberlin, to the extent he's a product of and destined for anything in the end, it's Hell, make no mistake about that. Now, the professional Left has to figure out a way to get out of Brett Kimberlin's particular version of Hell without being burned by it.
Good luck with that! As far as I'm concerned, it couldn't happen to a more deserving group of people.
I used the full main thread for my previous post. When I said it hadn't happened before, I was referring to this more complete list. The top section is a repeat. Below that, are the secondary discussions of Brett Kimberlin today via Memeorandum. And it's still growing as of 2:49 PM ET.
Interviewing Robert Stacy McCain About Brett Kimberlin — Robert Stacy McCain, who blogs at RWN on occasion, has become a story himself this week. After reporting on “Speedway Bomber” Brett Kimberlin, Stacy announced to the world that Kimberlin had been in touch with his wife's employer …
KIMBERLIN FUNDERS STUNNED TO DISCOVER THEY FUND KIMBERLIN — A Breitbart News investigation has revealed that many of the funders of the Justice Through Music Project (JTMP), a tax-exempt 501(c)3 organization of which convicted “Speedway bomber” Brett Kimberlin is a director, do not know about his criminal past.
I've seen a great deal in nine years out here, including major, major stories breaks. I've never seen anything before akin to what's going on out here today, via this link.
Today's blogospheric Progressive all star, Brett Kimberlin, has many faces, none of them that he wants you to know, or see. h/t Wizbang for the raw images used in the composite below. From small-time, small town drug dealer who went on an evil bombing spree, to federal inmate, become jail house lawyer, who went on to re-invent himself as a Progressive activist after gaining his release, this is Brett Kimberlin and today is his day of infamy across the Right-leaning blogosphere.
Unfortunately, at approximately 5'5" of slender young white meat and would be prison badass, I suspect the only come to Jesus moments Brett Kimberlin enjoyed during his time in federal lock up had more to do with perhaps unsolicited encounters in shower stalls and prison cells out of earshot of guards, than a prison chapel. Too bad he turned to political misdeeds and dirty tricks for any alleged salvation, rather than a higher calling. Here is how he got his start in 1988, after 9 years quite likely as Bubba and companies prison f*ck toy. I suspect that had far more to do with Brett Kimberlin wanting to get out of prison, than being anything like the poor, politically oppressed inmate the media went on to portray him to be. Yes, little Brett totally punked NPR's Nina Totenberg, who launched his dastardly and dishonest career as a political activist and serial politics-based terrorist by exploiting America's legal system.
Approximately one month before the 1988 presidential election Brett Kimberlin, who was incarcerated in federal prison since 1979, talked to National Public Radio reporter Nina Totenberg about his allegations of selling marijuana to vice president Dan Quayle in the 1970s. Shortly thereafter, Totenberg, without disclosing Kimberlin as the source, asked the deputy press secretary of the Bush-Quayle campaign, Mark Goodin, to comment on the allegations. When Goodin declined to comment without more information on who was making the allegations, Totenberg provided a signed affidavit from Kimberlin.
On November 3, 1988, five days before the presidential election, NBC News asked the prison warden at El Reno, Oklahoma, where Kimberlin was incarcerated, for an on-camera interview with Kimberlin. Prison authorities offered to schedule the interview on Wednesday of the following week, its regular scheduling day for media interviews. Because that day would be after the election, NBC asked that the interview take place before the election.
Kimberlin was released from detention the following day. He later attempted to give an interview to a group of reporters by telephone. He was then seized in his cell by six guards, handcuffed, marched to the detention unit in the cold, strip-searched and placed in a small cell. Prison officials issued the order, “No more calls for this inmate.” This order has been described by El Reno officials as unusual. Kimberlin remained in administrative detention for a week until well after the election. A month later, when the press again began to pay attention to Kimberlin’s allegations, the bureau again returned him to administrative detention. The Bureau of Prisons violated prison rules in its effort to silence Kimberlin.
Memeorandum is fast filling up with links, headed up by a shocking story posted at Patterico's blog. Yet, that's only one chilling tale from Kimberlin's long and still growing list of crimes and misdeeds, including felonies, from the record and rap sheet of Brett Kimberlin, a man embraced by some of the most powerful Progressives and their institutions in American politics.
Shame on them for embracing and empowering such a small, evil man, all this time ignoring his pathetic and pathological actions, only because he assisted them in moving their ideological and political objectives forward. Finally, the real face of Brett Kimberlin may be the ugly one of an immoral and un-American political movement, contemporary Progressivism, heralded by Barack Obama as far back as 1996, in re-making this great nation into something it was never intended to be.
Convicted Bomber Brett Kimberlin, Neal Rauhauser, Ron Brynaert, and Their Campaign of Political Terrorism
With too many truly good posts being done to link them all, I'll again refer you to Memorandum's Brett Kimberlin blog burst tracking link, now sitting atop their main page, and close with a personal note of support and care for friends like Liberty Chick and fellow bloggers such as Patterico, Aaron Walker (blogging as Aaron Worthing), and others, who suffered far too long in silence in the grip of this evil man. Know today we are here for you, my friends, this day is far more yours in my heart, than any day will ever be a day for a scumbag like Brett Kimberlin.
It’s great to use Facebook to filter through our personal and commercial interests. But when this filter extends to our intellectual life, it can trap us in an online echo chamber by gradually minimizing our interaction with opposing thoughts and cutting off our engagement with the broader world …
This is not being brought up for any substantive reason, or to right any alleged wrong from back in the day. I'm posting it simply because I had tears of laughter running down my face trying to relay it to someone via telephone. Also, it does at least somewhat convey how, even 3-4 years after it's basic beginnings, in 2005, it was still quite a bit like the wild west out here in the conservative blogosphere. Thank God not many people were, as yet, really watching.
In September of 2005, I would have been blogging about one year. So, how have things changed? Well, .... let's see.
I must have come across video of Kanye West standing next to Michael Myers at a Red Cross benefit for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. After stating that the government sent people in to shoot black people, he claimed, "George Bush doesn't care about black people". The look on Myers' face alone makes the video well worth watching all these many years later. It's at link, or see bottom of post.
I must have trolled it out broadly via email, subsequently taking exception to how Michelle Malkin handled same. Now, I am not asserting, re-asserting, nor interested in re-visiting all that today; however, it's an unavoidable sharing because of what I did then. It must have been on my YouTube account, as I went in and replaced it with a modified video some would later characterize as pornographic in nature. Consequently, that is what Michelle's readers were treated to, instead*. Note, I would take exception to a description of it as truly pornographic in nature. Saddam Hussein was simply dancing and stripping to the tune of "I'm too sexy for my jeans" with a mouse face over his genitals. I sh*t you not, ladies and gentlemen. LOL Sadly, that video may be lost to posterity, or atleast for now.
The link went to a satirical video of deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein stripping, eventually down to nothing but a G-string with a mouse face covering his genitals.
Me -- PS: For the record it would be a wonderful gesture were you to contact Patterico and Wizbang and tell them this was a simple misunderstanding and ask them to let it drop. But, I assume that is a lot to ask, and, frankly, is likely moot, as noone seems to be paying much attention to them in this regard, anyway.
Patterico did denounce me in 2005; however, I see by some updates, he has changed his mind a few times over the years. I assume it's all good, as for today. But I should probably make a note to keep checking in. ha ha
9/4/2005 - Dan Riehl Tries to Flush Embarrassing Post Down the Memory Hole — And Fails
[UPDATE 6-26-06: Since I first wrote this post, I have read Dan Riehl's site often. Although you can see from the post below that I was upset at the time, he's not a bad guy, and he has done some excellent work. Please read the post with that in mind. -- Patterico]
[UPDATE 9-14-10: Nah. I was right the first time. -- Patterico]
Now, I found all that merely looking for something else pertaining to the Natalee Holloway blog phenomenon, but unrelated to Michelle having noted it just three weeks later. I gather things had already smoothed over between us by then - which I was glad to see and would want it no other way, today. Evidently, I responded thoughtfully to her item. What thrilled me about that period and I still remember was, getting an email from Good Morning America asking when my next post was coming and saying they were following my reporting everyday. Post-RatherGate, it was, for me, another in what since has become a long line of blogs and new media accomplishing noteworthy things - regardless of the topic at issue. It really was about that, more than anything, at that point. And I only began covering it because of something called the Blogger News Network, to which I was a contributor.
In the blogosphere, Dan Riehl of Riehl World View has been providing continuing, breaking coverage of the story–and his traffic has skyrocketed as a result. As of today, his average visits per day now tops an impressive 58,000–surpassing this blog this week. Check out Dan’s year-to-date stats for a stark visual of his Natalee-fueled spike.
Dan Riehl has a much more thoughtful response here. As I’ve let all these gentlemen know, I wish them continued success with their blogs and will continue to read them with interest.
On the other hand - and as an example of how blogs rolled out here back in the day, an outfit called the Scared Monkees Blog I also later had issue with, didn't care for what Michelle had written. Someone apparently wanted to "bitch slap" her, as she duly noted at the time. LMAO
Update IV: I think my post has been completely misconstrued. The gentlemen at Scared Monkeys interpret my comments as “sniping” when all I was doing was politely observing that, despite my own misgivings, their work is finding a large audience. One of the Scared Monkeys’ commenters requests that someone “bitch slap” me for my post.
And that's a look at what the blogosphere was and wasn't in September of 2005. If you're a relatively new reader, or blogger, and wonder why some of us seem as crazy as we do, or carry along the reputations that we enjoy, I can assure you, in my case, it took a long time and a lot of work to earn it and I've simply grown beyond apologizing for anything, now - let along straining to remember, or care much about half of it. As to how any of us have survived all the bloggerly love and camaraderie, laced with fear and loathing from time-to-time, after all this time, well, your guess is as good as mine. ; ) In some ways, the more things change, the more they stay the same, perhaps. Don't take my word for it, just ask Kanye West.
Thanks to a short, compelling video by Lee Stranahan (below), in preparation for a Friday blogburst, more and more people are beginning to learn the story of convicted felon, Brett Kimberlin. That was before he became a Progressive activist, closely aligned with some of the movement's biggest names and donors.
For conservatives online, it is also a time-tested truism that there is great strength in numbers. When bloggers, activists, video content creators, and Twitter users on the Right unite behind common principles — fighting jihadi propaganda, exposing corruption, calling out media bias, following the progressive money trail, holding the Republican Party’s feet to the fire, etc. — we can accomplish uncommon things.
Looks like that time has come around for some of our friends in the blogosphere. Aaron Walker, Patterico, Liberty Chick, and Stacy McCain have written extensively about a man named Brett Kimberlin and connections to violent political action. I have only followed the story at a distance, and don’t hold myself out to be an expert on the subject. The result of their investigations has prompted a flurry of legal harassment in some cases, and worse in others. Today, the Boss Emeritus — who knows a thing or two about Unhinged reaction to free speech — rallies the blogosphere in defense of our friends:
ROSSLYN SMITH ON Stacy McCain, Brett Kimberlin, and the Tides Foundation. Kimberlin also got money from the Streisand Foundation, but apparently he’s never heard of the Streisand Effect. . . .
No doubt there are more posts and links out there, with still more to come. Friday, Conservative bloggers must put aside petty and personal agendas to stand up united as one in the name of free speech, liberty and against over-the-line and unacceptable political attacks and tactics. And if the Left doesn't get it, we will get around to shaming them into it, too.
Enough is enough - and Kimberlin is long past too much to tolerate, or turn away from in ignorance. It's well beyond time we draw a line in the sand when it comes to Brett Kimberlin. And a large number of bloggers, whether each is seen as significant, or not, is precisely the way to do it.
I'm in. If you blog, Tweet, use Facebook, or social media of any type to support conservative and Republican politics, or just free speech, reasonable political argument and liberty, you need to be in on it, too. If you support those things, Brett Kimberlin stands against everything you believe in both in theory and practice. And it's time for his twisted combination of scam and petty self-indulgent but genuine form of political terrorism to come to an end.
Via Business Insider's Henry Blodget. If this is how it plays out, someone will be more than "un-friended," they will be well and truly f*cked in ways that matter. Cue lawsuits and federal investigations until they all get on the same page and decide who is going down - and for how much. They'll get around to letting the little guy know that, too, eventually. heh
Law enforcement officials have been made aware that convicted terrorist Brett Kimberlin appears to be engaged in an attempt to intimidate me into being silent about his sordid criminal history.
Really? Really? Can this be what it sounds like? Somebody is trying to out-crazy Stacy McCain? That’s not going to end well . . . .
Just to be perfectly clear, I'm happy to have my buddy Stacy's back in this and hope many others will, too. But I said Brett Kimberlin failed to learn the lessons of Vietnam on Twitter for a reason. When he goes down - and he will - it'll be by 1,000 cuts and blog posts from a guerrilla army, not one large enemy, God, or otherwise. That's precisely what he wants and no one should give it to him.
Now, maybe some potentially bigger enemies for Brett Kimberlin grew tired and bored with the bullshit of a 5'5" midget who needs to file lawsuits to get enough paper to stand on to reach the kitchen sink and are enjoying watching what's going on, then, again, maybe not.
But it was always and only an Army of Davids' approach that could take him down. Sometimes the best thing to do when it comes to the conservative blogosphere is to just sit back and enjoy watching it do it's thing. As with everything mystical, as to whether or not there's some unseen hand guiding it, for all anyone knows, it could be the hand of the late Andrew Breitbart reaching back to finish up some not gotten to otherwise minor piece of business.
We mere mortals just never get to know such things, and so we soldier on together believing in God, or magic, or whatever it is we require to inspire us to do good works. And figuratively speaking, ridding the right-leaning new media world of the likes of Brett Kimberlin will be a blessing, no matter if God, or no one force, is behind it, or not.
Hmm. Sixty percent of donor dollars go toward admin costs at Dr. Jill Biden's Biden Breast Health Initiative. And it appears as though some portion of its business was transacted out of Biden's then Senate office? Since when does, we're stealing from you equate to we care?
I can't claim to fully know at this point. But it looks interesting and is getting some play in the blogosphere. See here for the latest - with links.
The Arkansas Democratic primary is just a few days away. That is, the open Arkansas primary, in which President Barack Obama is only up 7 against Tennesee attorney John Wolfe (H/T Twitchy.com). Did I mention that this is an open primary?
My first reaction was, what were they thinking?? The truth is, back in the day, "retard" as in mentally retarded was commonly used. Of course, as "tard" and "retard" grew in use as pejoratives, the language changed. I still get criticized for using it, as in, "You retard," because I well remember a time when it was both acceptable and usually drew a laugh. It's more than fair to say, that was an open display of disparagement for a handicapped group of people.
There are positives that come out of this kind of speech policing. I think it also fair to say, well, we treat retards in our society better and with better care, than we once did. That's a wonderful thing and I welcome it. I'd never dream of calling someone I identified as handicapped in this way a "retard," liberals, on the otherhand, I have no trouble insulting, so I occasionally still call them "retards". Old habits and all that, perhaps.
Strange, this language of ours, as it evolves. But I was hard pressed to figure out who the real retard is in this news story. So, there's that, I suppose. I guess I've evolved, some, anyway!!
Texas school confiscates yearbooks over section labeling students 'mentally retarded'
It read "Some of the disabilities the students in the Special Education Program have are being blind, deaf or non-verbal … (students' names) are both blind and deaf, as well as mentally retarded."
There's been a story known to some, if not many, on the Right-side of the Internet. Call it, the story of Brett Kimberlin. It seems to be getting some attention today, what with some new information coming out.
This is not an isolated instance, by the way. Kimberlin and his supporters have used frivolous accusations of criminal activity, frivolous lawsuits, and harassment and intimidation to attack every blogger who dared reveal anything about his past — including me. That story is coming.
Team Romney ought to start running on this theme, can we really afford to risk an Obama second term? What if something happens to him? Man, have we ever dodged a bullet with this asshat as number two!
When the felons who haven't been caught fail you, why not turn to the ones who have been?
QUESTION: “In the West Virginia primary, a lot was made of the fact that this guy in a Texas prison cell was able to grab 40 percent of the vote in the presidential primary. What do you make of that?
BIDEN: “Look, I come from a household where whenever there’s a recession, somebody around my grand-pop or my dad’s table lost a job. A brother, a sister a friend, a neighbor. When you’re out of work, man, it’s a depression. And a lot of people are still hurting because of this god-awful recession we inherited that cost 8.4 million jobs before we could really get going. And so I don’t blame people, they’re frustrated, they’re angry.”
There are messages, then there are messages and ways to send them. After Buzzfeed's Zeke Miller broke a story regarding Citizen's United... note the match between the headline and url below. Yes, it is easy to make them differ and they do, occasionally.
Huckabee Letter: Obama Surrounds Himself “With Morally Repugnant Political Whores”
A letter sent by the group Citizens United, over Hucakbee's signature, says the day Obama was sworn into office is “the day the country started going to pot.” Huckabee demands the letter be “pulled,” while Citizens United denies sending it — and then reversed itself.
When the story broke, Politico's Dylan Byers purportedly debunked it - severely.
Huckabee demands fundraising letter pulled
Mike Huckabee is firmly denying that he approved a fundraising letter which refers to President Obama's advisers as "morally repugnant political whores."
An update was later added noting that Jeff Marschner, a spokesman for Citizens United, "categorically denies" the letter was sent by his organization.
An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated Huckabee was denying the report. He is denying that he approved the letter BuzzFeed attributes to him.
But, by altering the headline between the draft and posting process, Byers sent an even more severe message to Buzzfeed's Miller, with pitch perfect plausible deniability.
Well played, Byers. But then, most of us in conservative new media for awhile don't really need Politico, or Buzzfeed to tell us that all of you guys down there in the Beltway are a bunch of media whores!
It was a day of puzzling contrasts in the case of George Zimmerman, whose attorney is just beginning to receive the evidence prosecutors intend to use against his client for shooting and killing Trayvon Martin. It's said the FBI may be looking at charging Zimmerman with a hate crime. Additionally, Zimmerman appears to have mentored a black child, at some point in his life.
SANFORD, Fla. — WFTV has learned charges against George Zimmerman could be getting more serious. State prosecutors said Zimmerman, a neighborhood watchman, profiled and stalked 17-year-old Trayvon Martin before killing him, so the FBI is now looking into charging him with a hate crime.
As of late Monday, Zimmerman’s attorney, Mark O’Mara, told WFTV that he's gotten the first prosecution documents containing the evidence against his client. O’Mara said he's gotten a redacted witness list with 22 witnesses listed only as numbers.
Zimmerman's mother testified at his bond hearing that she has met the black child whom he mentored and even risked his safety in a dangerous neighborhood to do it, because he didn't want to abandon the child.
Meanwhile, Orlando attorney and CNN analyst Mark NeJame has unearthed a photo of what is claimed to be Zimmerman's family. It would appear that in order for the slaying of Trayvon Martin to have been a hate crime, George Zimmerman may have to have possessed a bit of self-loathing - or hated his family to some extent.
CNN analyst Mark NeJame pointed to a black-and-white picture of a family of three, including a dark-skinned man he claims was Zimmerman's great-grandfather.
He also identified a woman pictured standing above the man as Zimmerman's grandmother, and a small child in the man's arms as Zimmerman's mother.
ABC looks to have been stirred by it's eventually laughed at previous big scoop hyping a grainy police video that supposedly showed George Zimmerman wasn't injured in a physical confrontation of some kind before shooting and killing Trayvon Martin in a Florida confrontation that became national news That firestorm was driven by other mainstream media coverage just like ABC's that day.
What a difference new media makes. Breitbart.com fired back in March: ABC'S RECKLESS ZIMMERMAN VIDEO 'EXCLUSIVE' REVEALS NOTHING - as did many conservative blogs and other new media outlets when it was determined their big scoop was more poop on their shoe, than genuine news.
Congratulations to ABC for now appearing to have gotten into line behind the right's fair and accurate coverage at the time, which debunked their own big exclusive. One story down and too many to count, in terms of keeping an eye on the media. As regards the Zimmerman/Martin story back then, not to be outdone by ABC, MSNBC used a convenient ellipses to join the media lynch mob after Zimmerman at the time.
Breitbart.com took MSNBC on and exposed their malicious reporting at link above. Increasingly every day, new media is demonstrating it's positive significant impact on mainstream media malpractice. This latest exclusive via ABC is just one more instance that serves as proof.
Some interesting dots to connect in a breaking story suggesting a close friend of Obama attempted to bribe Jeremiah Wright to keep quiet. Just off the top, what's notable is that the Post didn't put a timeline to the alleged bribe offer to Wright and a meeting Wright had with Obama, in which Barry asked Wright to stand down. Hmm.
Edward Klein interviewed Wright, who told him Obama’s team tried to buy his silence.
‘Man, the media ate me alive,” Wright told me when we met in his office at Chicago’s Kwame Nkrumah Academy. “After the media went ballistic on me, I received an e-mail offering me money not to preach at all until the November presidential election.”
“And one of the first things Barack said was, ‘I really wish you wouldn’t do any more public speaking until after the November election.’ He knew I had some speaking engagements lined up, and he said, ‘I wish you wouldn’t speak. It’s gonna hurt the campaign if you do that.’
Africa has produced many crazy dictators but none of them ever dreamt of turning into a one-man electoral commission like Nkrumah. In a yet to be broken record in the continent, the late Ghanaian leader ‘elected’ an entire parliament of 198 MPs single-handedly within minutes. In February 1966, while Nkrumah on a state visit to Vietnam, his government was overthrown in a military coup — backed by the CIA.
Below more tidbits that might be of interest.
The Rt. Hon. Dr. Kwame Nkrumah (21 September 1909 – 27 April 1972), P.C.,[1] was the leader of Ghana and its predecessor state, the Gold Coast, from 1951 to 1966. Overseeing the nation's independence from British colonial rule in 1957, Nkrumah was the first President of Ghana and the first Prime Minister of Ghana. An influential 20th-century advocate of Pan-Africanism, he was a founding member of the Organization of African Unity and was the winner of the Lenin Peace Prize in 1963.
The corporation has already bought the first 27 acres for $8million, provided by Trinity, Eggleston said. The nonprofit would not disclose how much additional money has been raised for the project so far.
Bennett said he hopes Imani Village becomes an anchor to stimulate the economy in the deindustrialized area, which offers limited access to healthy foods, jobs and education. Emphasis will be placed on living off the land and "ownership."
Children will be able to walk to school at Kwame Nkrumah Academy and play sports in a professionally certified arena. Residents will grow their own food. Mom-and-pop retailers on site will buy it.
Chicago Annenberg Challenge records also indicate that SSAVC educators invited Asa Hilliard, a pioneer of African-centered curricula and a close colleague of Carruthers, to offer a keynote address at yet another Annenberg-funded teacher training session. Hilliard’s ties to Wright run still deeper than Carruthers’s.
A close Wright mentor and friend, Hilliard died in 2007 while on a trip to Kemet (Egypt) with Wright and members of Wright’s congregation. Hillard was scheduled to deliver several lectures to the congregants, and to speak at a meeting of the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilization, which he co-founded with Carruthers and other “African-centered” scholars. On that last trip, Hilliard accepted an appointment to the board of Wright’s new elementary school, Kwame Nkrumah Academy.
Tiffany Gabbay / 
