Month: March 2012

Rick Santorum says he’s not an unreasonable man and he’ll drop out of the race if it becomes clear that he can’t win:

“When I feel comfortable that we’ve done the best we possibly could and there’s just no more we can do and this race is, you know, we’ve run the course, then you know I’m not an unrealistic person,” Santorum said.

“I mean if that happens – I don’t believe it’s going to happen, but if it does happen – you know then we’ll face it, we’ll cross that bridge. But until that point – less than half the delegates have been voted for – I mean we’ve got a long way to go in this race,” he said.

Of course, if Santorum was realistic, he never would have run for president. He’s done better than he had any right to expect. Ironically, I think he wound up doing the best of the anti-Romneys because he was the worst of the anti-Romney candidates and, thus, the last to rise to the top and get real scrutiny. Had he been a more plausible candidate or a more compelling personality, he would have peaked early and flamed out early. But he was the absolutely most pathetic candidate and person in the field, and so everyone else had crashed and burned, leaving him as the last man standing.

Okay. I’m being slightly unfair. Santorum did put in a lot of effort in Iowa and he won. But what good does that do when you don’t plan for success and make sure your name in on the ballot and you have delegate slates in later states? The truth is Santorum isn’t very good at what he does. He’s a shitty politician. And a horrible insufferable person. I’m just glad Pennsylvania had the opportunity to share him with the rest of the world so you see why we hated him so much.

I keep seeing these articles from the right about how appalling the whole Trayvon Martin case is because people are “politicizing” it, or “jumping to conclusions,” or assuming a racist motive. I find it all crushingly boring. At its simplest, this case is about a boy who was minding his own business and lost his life. But it’s also about the man who killed him and remains free. Why is he free? Is it because the police believed his story? No, the lead investigator recommended charging him with manslaughter. Is it because of the Florida Stand Your Ground law? The chief of police claimed that the same day his department asked the prosecutor to bring charges. Plus, the law doesn’t seem to apply to the facts in this case. The Stand Your Ground law would not appear to have anything to do with why Zimmerman wasn’t charged. Is he free because witness testimony backs up his story? Not that I can tell. Other than officer Tim Smith’s police report, I haven’t seen any witness testimony that backs up his story.

For some unknown reason, this man killed someone and was not charged with a crime. We know the state prosecutor made the call, and then recused himself from the case to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. But we don’t know what that conflict might be. Did he know Zimmerman’s father? Did they talk to each other the night of the incident? We don’t know.

But it isn’t appalling that people think this poor unfortunate boy’s death should be adjudicated. By all means, let Zimmerman bring forth any evidence he can to sustain his claim that he was attacked, injured, and fearful for his life. Let him prove that he received medical care, that his head had a wound so bad it ordinarily would need stitches, and that his nose was broken. He can bring forth the medical records his family says will back up his case. He can bring forth the fire department medic who supposedly tended to his wounds.

But none of these witnesses can be compelled to speak up until there is an arrest, charges are brought, and there is a discovery process.

That’s all people want. Zimmerman killed a boy. Let him explain why he had to do that to a jury of his peers. And let’s have another investigation into why the state prosecutor did not bring charges and find out why he had a conflict of interest in the case.

Is that so hard? Do we have to inject all kinds of irrelevant crap into this case?

I recently saw some video footage of Mitt Romney and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) on stage together and I thought they looked good together. Their statures, physiques, and overall appearances seemed to complement each other. Visually, at least, they looked like a good ticket. Considering the fact that Romney’s campaign has no grassroots component, the optics become vitally important. His campaign has to look right because it is going to be run entirely on television, mainly through advertising. Paul Ryan fits that bill a lot better than Mitch Daniels, Bobby Jindal, or Chris Christie. But, when it comes to selecting a running mate, optics are not the only consideration. I don’t know the law in Wisconsin, but it’s often against the law to appear on the ballot for two separate federal offices. It’s possible that Paul Ryan would have to give up his House seat in order to run for vice-president. Should the ticket lose, that would be a big sacrifice for Ryan and the movement he is leading.

But who else can make a plausible running mate? Santorum and Gingrich are fighting to force themselves onto the ticket, but Romney will not pick them willingly. The other presidential candidates flamed out in embarrassing fashion. Marco Rubio is a crook. The only other sitting senator that ever seems to get mentioned is John Thune of South Dakota, but I think that’s more for his tall stature and jutting jaw than for his brains or campaigning ability.

Romney could choose South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley or New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez, but picking untested rookie governors is probably not at the top of Romney’s priority list. Plus, Gov. Haley has some tax and relationship issues.

I think Romney’s best option among elected officials are Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana, Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, and Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio. But I don’t think any of these choices are very good.

Mitch Daniels reinforces Romney’s unhip milquetoast image. And his ties to the Bush economic team are a problem. Plus, his family didn’t want him to run for president.

Bobby Jindal reminds everyone of Kenneth from 30 Rock. He’s awkward and not very good on the stump.

Chris Christie is a great attack dog, but he’s on the record as saying he’s not prepared to be president. Also, speaking as a Jersey Boy myself I can tell you firsthand that our abrasive bombastic style goes over like a lead balloon in the Midwest. Finally, Chris Christie is morbidly obese. His health cannot be very good.

Rob Portman is almost synonymous with Bush’s failed economic policies. He’s also a boring politician in the Mitch Daniels/CPA mold. I think he’s the best choice though. Romney needs to win Ohio. And Portman’s strengths (he understands the federal budget and trade issues) reinforce what Romney’s trying to sell the public. Portman doesn’t have any embarrassing personal problems that I’m aware of. And, while he won’t excite the base of the party, he won’t alienate them either. Finally, he won’t upstage Romney the way Palin upstaged McCain.

So, I’d go with Portman, but I’d actually try to do something else. I’d try to find someone in business or the military to put on the ticket. The CEO of an admired company would be ideal. Mark Zuckerberg???

Not sure what went on with Current TV and Keith Olbermann. Olbermann served a very useful purpose in a very dark time in our nation’s history. But he got too full of himself. I don’t think we’ll be seeing too much of him anymore. Or are their fourth acts in American celebrity?

In an open letter to Current viewers, Gore and co-founder Joel Hyatt wrote “We created Current to give voice to those Americans who refuse to rely on corporate-controlled media and are seeking an authentic progressive outlet. We are more committed to those goals today than ever before. Current was also founded on the values of respect, openness, collegiality, and loyalty to our viewers. Unfortunately these values are no longer reflected in our relationship with Keith Olbermann and we have ended it.”

My cable provider charges extra for Current TV, so I’ll never know the difference.

The funeral director who embalmed Trayvon Martin’s body saw no bruising or cuts on his hands or any other evidence that he’d been in some kind of altercation. He saw a bullet wound in his upper chest. That’s it. This fits with the video evidence from George Zimmerman’s arrival at the police station a mere thirty-four minutes after the police arrived at the scene. Zimmerman also showed no signs of having been in any kind of altercation.

Of course we know from the testimony of several witnesses that an altercation took place. It just doesn’t seem like it lasted very long or that either of them was able to do much damage to the other.

What’s become even more clear is that the story being told from the Zimmerman camp, and even to a certain degree the police department, doesn’t look plausible because it doesn’t match up with any of the disinterested evidence in the case.

Let’s just take a look at the testimony of three separate neighbors, one of which watched the fatal moment, and the other two who heard it and then saw the immediate aftermath.

The witness recounted seeing two men on the grass, one on top of the other. “And at that point, not looking out the window, I heard the yell for help, one yell for help, and then I heard another … excruciating type of yell. It didn’t almost sound like ‘help.’ It just sounded so painful. But I wasn’t watching out the window during that. And then the next time I looked out the window, there’s the same thing: two men on the grass, one on top of each other. I couldn’t see a lot of movement. It was very dark, but I felt like they were scuffling. And then I heard the gunshots, which, to me, were more like pops than they were like a bang.”

The witness recalled hearing more than one shot. “It definitely was more than one pop noise, so I don’t know if it was an echo or anything else. But it definitely made more than one pop.”

Also:

The witness says: “As I said it was dark, but after the shot … one man got up … it was only in a couple seconds or so that he was walking towards where I was watching. And I could see him a little bit clearer, and see that he was a Hispanic man and he was, you know, he didn’t appear hurt or anything else, he just kind of seemed very, worried or whatever, walked on the sidewalk at that point, with his hand up to his forehead and then another man came out with a flashlight.”

And:

Mary Cutcher was in her kitchen making coffee that night with her roommate, Selma Mora Lamilla. The window was open, she said.

“We heard a whining. Not like a crying, boohoo, but like a whining, someone in distress, and then the gunshot,” she said.
They looked out the window but saw nothing. It was dark.
They ran out the sliding glass door, and within seconds, they saw Zimmerman.

“Zimmerman was standing over the body with — basically straddling the body with his hands on Trayvon’s back,” Cutcher said. “And it didn’t seem to me that he was trying to help him in any way. I didn’t hear any struggle prior to the gunshot.

“And I feel like it was Trayvon Martin that was crying out, because the minute that the gunshot went off, the whining stopped.”
The two women said they could not see whether Zimmerman was bruised or hurt. It was too dark.

“Selma asked him three times, ‘what’s going on over there?’ ” Cutcher said. “He looks back and doesn’t say anything. She asks him again, ‘everything OK? What’s going on?’ Same thing: looked at us, looked back. Finally, the third time, he said, ‘just call the police.’

Also:

Lamilla said that Zimmerman appeared to be pacing after the shooting: “He started walking back and forth like three times with his hand on the head and kind of, he was walking like kind of confused.”

Cutcher said of Martin’s last moments: “It sounded young. It didn’t sound like a grown man is my point. It sounded to me like someone was in distress and it wasn’t like a crying, sobbing boo-hoo, it was a definite whine.”

There are some very minor disparities between these two accounts, but together they paint a consistent picture. There was some yelling. Then there was a very heartbreaking kind of pleading sound. Then a gun shot. There weren’t any sounds indicating a fight. One witness described more of a scuffle with one man on top of the other. None of the witnesses thought that Zimmerman appeared to be injured, but they all agreed that he appeared to be worried, holding a hand to his head in kind of a “what just happened?” fashion.

To go with this, we also have Trayvon Martin’s girlfriend’s account. She was on the phone up until about a minute before the police arrived on the scene, and she felt like she heard a pushing match that caused Trayvon’s earpiece to fall out and the call to cut off. Independent records confirm the timing of the call. The last spoken words she heard were Trayvon asking Zimmerman why he was following him and Zimmerman replying by asking Trayvon what he was doing in the neighborhood.

Considering how tight the timeline is here, it appears that this is what happened. Trayvon interrupted his conversation with his girlfriend to confront Zimmerman. Zimmerman was verbally aggressive in return. They approached each other and started pushing. Loud words were exchanged. The fight went to the ground. Zimmerman wound up on top. Martin cried out for help. Then Zimmerman pulled his gun on him, causing Martin to make a frightened desperate plea. And then he was executed.

Then Zimmerman got up and started pacing around in a worried fashion. Within moments the first police officer arrived. At some point, it was decided to concoct a cover story, which involved Officer Timothy Smith fabricating evidence about Zimmerman bleeding from the nose and head and having grass all over his back. Most likely, he never received any medical attention from the fire department at all.

Within 34 minutes, Zimmerman was at the police station looking to be completely uninjured and with no signs of grass or wetness on his jacket.

From there, we can conjecture about a lot more, including the role of the prosecutor in the case who overruled the lead investigator and decided not to press charges.

But the evidence does not support the story that Trayvon attacked Zimmerman, punched him in the face, broke his nose, or slammed his head into the walkway repeatedly. About the only thing left to argue is that Trayvon went for his gun.

But that doesn’t explain an apparently fabricated story that was filed by an officer at the scene.

Last year, after the House of Representatives passed Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) budget plan, Democrats accused the Republicans of voting to kill Medicare. That claim was then named Lie of the Year by Politifact. It was a semantic disagreement that was mainly based on different value systems. For Democrats, Medicare’s main attraction is that it is a guaranteed benefit and that it is a single-payer system. If it could actually pass, most Democrats would line up in favor of giving Medicare to everyone, not just our seniors. Republicans tend to look at Medicare more as a wealth redistribution scheme and as a heavy financial burden. For Democrats, if you voucherize Medicare, you wipe out what makes it uniquely valuable. For Republicans, you’re still subsidizing health care for people who can’t afford it. For Democrats, a Medicare that isn’t guaranteed isn’t Medicare. For Republicans, a privatized Medicare is nothing more than a tweak.

Given this difference of worldview, I think it was grossly unfair for Politifact to call the Democrats’ claim the Lie of the Year. In every way that the issue matters to Democrats, their statement was true. If you just change the language a little and say that the Republicans voted “to kill Medicare as we know it,” it becomes a less contentious assertion. And that’s what the White House is going with now. After the Republicans approved Paul Ryan’s budget plan yesterday, which still includes a slightly modified Medicare privatization scheme, the president’s press secretary released a statement that began:

House Republicans today banded together to shower millionaires and billionaires with a massive tax cut paid for by ending Medicare as we know it and making extremely deep cuts to critical programs needed to create jobs and strengthen the middle class. The Ryan Republican budget would give every millionaire an average tax cut of at least $150,000, while preserving taxpayer giveaways to oil companies and breaks for Wall Street hedge fund managers.

Now, I expect the Republicans to claim that the White House is lying, but it won’t be that easy when Republican columnists are conceding the point. Here’s former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson, writing in the Washington Post:

By the 2030s, federal health-care commitments, along with interest on the debt, will consume just about all government revenue. Federal health spending is expected to grow from 5.6 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) to nearly 20 percent — about the modern average for the whole federal government. Maintaining “Medicare as we know it” and other unreformed health entitlements will make every other function of government as we know it impossible.

In other words, Paul Ryan’s proposal eliminates Medicare as we know it, but it does so out of necessity. Gerson’s overall argument is misleading and disingenuous, but his argument on killing Medicare is clear. He admits it will be killed “as we know it.”

The Republicans’ job, then, will be to convince us that this is necessary:

Americans are not suddenly enthusiastic about Medicare reform. But Ryan has made a sophisticated case for its necessity. His proposals have been generally embraced by congressional Republicans and the GOP’s likely presidential candidate. If Mitt Romney manages to win, the presentation of Ryan’s budget in 2013 would kick off a momentous national debate on the size and role of government…

…Ryan is all Wisconsin cheerful earnestness — the Boy Scout earning his federal budget badge. But this manner masks considerable ideological ambition. “We knew we were defining the movement,” he tells me. By setting out the case against unsustainable entitlement commitments, Ryan forced his GOP colleagues to pick a side, often against their will. The whole Republican Party will now defend and advance Ryan’s budget views — or suffer from their repudiation.

A third possibility exists. The Republican Party may defend and advance Ryan’s budget views and suffer from their repudiation. That’s what happened when, after he “won” a second term, President Bush sought to kill Social Security “as we know it.”

Overall, I think the Republicans have their work cut out for them. To begin with, they’re trying to pull off a giant snow-job. It’s hard to argue that it is absolutely necessary to kill Medicare as we know it when you’re increasing the defense budget and slashing taxes. As Steve Benen points out, Ryan is not only ignoring the Pentagon’s proposal to cut a half trillion out of their budget over the next decade, he’s calling the generals a bunch of liars who don’t really mean what they say. When has that kind of approach ever succeeded politically? Remember General Betray-Us?

Here’s the rest of the administration’s statement on the Ryan budget:

Today’s vote stands as another example of the Republican establishment grasping onto the same failed economic policies that stacked the deck against the middle class and created the worst financial crisis in decades. If the Ryan Republican budget is made a reality and the radical discretionary cuts fall across the board, by 2014, more than nine million students would see their Pell Grants fall by as much as $1100, and about 900,000 would lose their grants altogether. Clean energy programs would be cut nearly 20 percent, Head Start would offer 200,000 fewer slots per year, and critical medical research and science programs would see drastic cuts.

The President has put forward a balanced plan that would reduce our deficit by over $4 trillion by asking the wealthiest to pay their fair share, enacting responsible spending cuts and achieving significant health savings while still investing in the programs we need to grow our economy and bring economic security back to the middle class and seniors. Any serious attempt at tackling our deficits must be balanced, fair and demand shared responsibility. The Ryan Republican budget clearly fails that test.

Maybe the most important thing to remember is this:

“We knew we were defining the movement,” [Ryan] told me.

Now it is up to us to define their movement.

RTE Radio 1 are running a flash fiction competition. I don’t read much fiction and write less. I had never even heard of flash fiction which, in this case, is a challenge to write a story in less than 500 words. Even I must be able to do that methought. So here goes below. Attempt #1.

White hole

John Kelly was on a journey.

He wasn’t quite sure where he was going, or how he was going to get there, but the sensation of travel was unmistakeable. Things would hove into view, hover, change shape, and slowly disappear.  The Doppler effect of drones turning to whines was also in evidence, the pitch change proportionate to the speed of passage – although the speed of travel didn’t seem to matter.  He was getting there.

He wasn’t in control of the process, of course, but for once that sense of drifting helplessly through space didn’t bother him. He had been there before. He used to refer to them as his black hole episodes: periods in his life when he didn’t feel in control of how things were going and he was falling – always falling – into some kind of dark space or black whole from which their appeared to be no escape.

But this time there was no flailing, no scratching around desperately trying to get some purchase on the world around him. No fingertip search. No painful collisions. No hurt withdrawals arising from unpleasant confrontations. No losing battles. Always losing.

This time he seemed to be willing himself on, looking forward to the journey, excited at the prospects, enjoying the experience, happy to go along for the ride.  As someone who always liked to have a plan, with goalposts, milestones, key objectives, and risk mitigation strategies, it was a strange but exhilarating experience. There was no one whispering into his ear “Where are you going? What do you think you are doing? Have you thought of the consequences? Just what to you think you are going to achieve with all this effort?”

There was no effort. Whatever it was, it wasn’t being driven by him. Winning or losing didn’t matter. There wasn’t time for all of that; there was no rush. And yet, in a strange way it was just like one of those dreaded black hole experiences. You didn’t know where you were, never mind where you were going. All attempts at understanding or control were futile.

But this time there was light. There was brightness. There was colour. There were sounds of nature. There was a sense of going home without having the slightest sense of where or what that home might be. This time, he was travelling through a white hole.

And the strangest thing was that nothing in his “real” life seemed to have changed. His health was more or less the same. His doctor had noticed no change. The same humdrum tasks and jobs filled his day. No special virtue or dream or aspiration was driving him on. There was no particular project he was working on, no achievement he could put down to this particular feeling of exhilaration.  

A dark cloud seemed to have vanished and it was sunny all day. The longing was over.

FBI Special Agent Dave Couvertier in the Tampa field office and Department of Justice spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa in Washington spoke to the Los Angeles Times about their investigation of the Trayvon Martin case. They made it completely clear that their investigation is not focused on the Sanford police department. And if they’re running into problems with the department, they’re keeping a tight poker face.

So there’s no federal investigation into the local police?

Hinojosa: When the Justice Department investigates a whole police department, like we did in New Orleans or in L.A., that is a pattern of practice investigation — that’s something different. We are not doing that here.

What happens if, in the course of your investigation, you uncover improprieties by local police or prosecutors?

Couvertier: If something like that did come up, that would be addressed accordingly, either by state [investigators], federal, or both. But right now we are focused on the circumstances surrounding Trayvon’s death and his civil rights. The state attorney’s office is looking at the death and how everything was handled so they would be aware of any issues and address those accordingly.

I think we’ve been witnessing an ongoing conspiracy and cover-up, and I think the entire investigation of the Trayvon Martin case has been compromised. I think false police reports were filed. I think witnesses were mishandled. I can’t imagine that the FBI can get the facts of this case without running up against false statements and unethical behavior by police officers and their higher-ups.

That’s also true for the Florida state investigator. But I don’t think Roscoe P. Coltrane and Enos are going to be able to keep their stories straight.

Anyone else out there feeling deluged with requests for political contributions?

She might as well be called Jane Doe for all the media cares about her. But she has a name. Her story didn’t even make the front page of her city’s local paper. It was buried in a middle section of the print edition which combines local community news with business news. If she were a white 17 year-old young woman from a wealthy family, no doubt her disappearance would have been on the front page. Indeed, perhaps an Amber alert would have been issued and broadcast by the major cable news networks.

Unfortunately, though, Larie Butler, is a poor black teenager. And despite the suspicious circumstances that led to her disappearance, news coverage of her plight is rather limited, to say the least. Which raises the question (a rhetorical one, I know): If a young black woman goes missing and no one in the national media notices it, does her life mean anything?

Well, it does to her family, and it does to me:

Larie Butler’s mother said she talked to her daughter by phone at about 3:30 p.m. Saturday. The 17-year-old told her she loved her, and said a friend was going to pick her up to take her to The Marketplace mall.

“That’s the last time I talked to her and that was four days ago and I want my baby back,” said Karen Snipes. “It’s been too long. I don’t know how I am going to keep holding up.”

Rochester Police Chief James Sheppard on Tuesday called the disappearance “suspicious” and said investigators do not believe Butler is a runaway.

At a news conference late Wednesday morning, Sheppard said the situation is “very serious,” adding that Larie is considered a good student and has no history of running away.

In fact the family is desperately trying to get Larie’s story out, hoping against hope that she is still alive and that someone will recognize her from photographs they have released to the local press and passed out on flyers to the general public. Here is one of the photos of Larie:

Larie has beautiful smile, don’t you think? A lovely face. Just a lovely as any white teenager who goes missing. But Larie lives in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Rochester, NY. I know. I’ve driven through there. The homes are run down and many of them are abandoned. She goes to a public high school that is roughly 70% African-American. The Rochester City School District, of which her high school is a part, has a graduation rate of 46%. Compare that to suburban, predominately white schools in the same area. Fairport: 99% graduation rate. Penfield: 96%. Rush-Henrietta: 92%. Churchville-Chile: 94%. Pittsford-Mendon: 98%. The lowest graduation rates for suburban or exurban high schools in the Rochester area are all above 80%. Schools that are predominately white. Statewide, the average graduation rate for all New York high schools was 73% (2010 figures).

Meanwhile, Larie’s teachers at East High are frustrated with what they perceive to be a lack of effort on the part of authorities and the media to diligently search for Larie:

Several teachers have called media outlets to express their frustration with what they perceive as an apparent lack of effort in the search. Many have used Facebook pages and Twitter accounts to announce Butler’s disappearance.

“I think we’re all frustrated there doesn’t seem to be anything happening,” said Noreen Gallagher, a speech pathologist at the school. “We are all one family and people are very concerned. If this girl was from Pittsford something would be happening.”

Pittsford, by the way, for those of you unfamiliar with this area of the country, is by far the wealthiest community in the Rochester metro area, and is over 90% white. Her teachers are correct. If a Pittsford teen was missing, it would be all over the TV and radio, and plastered on the front page of the local paper. Not to mention that the police would be putting a full court press on to find her. The family of that hypothetical girl wouldn’t be forced to hand our flyers to the general public to draw attention to her disappearance:

Family members hope someone will recognize Larie’s picture, and remember seeing her Saturday.

Tonight, they searched and handed out flyers in Mark[et]place Mall. They left a little disappointed, as they found many people just weren’t interested in what they had to say. But loved ones say they will not give up until they find 17-year-old Larie Butler, who’s been missing since Saturday afternoon.

Here we have a promising student, doing well in one of the worst schools in New York State (based on graduation rates), who mysteriously disappears under suspicious circumstances and it is just a blip on the local news radar. Then again, until recently, Trayvon Martin was just a blip on the local news media, too. Larie’s grandfather believes she is being held against her will (though that may be wishful thinking on his part). There can be no denial of the fact that greater media attention regarding Larie’s disappearance would be a great aid to finding her, just as the media’s intense focus on Trayvon Martin’s death has led to increased efforts being made by the Federal government (and presumably local officials, also) to determine if George Zimmerman should be arrested and indicted for Trayvon’s murder.

How did the Trayvon Martin killing finally get national media attention? It wasn’t because the national news media cared about the case. It was driven by the internet: blogs, twitter and other social media created a groundswell of outrage that the national news networks and major newspapers could no longer ignore. Does the disappearance of Larie Butler deserve that same level of attention? Well, if the disappearances or murders of Lisa Irwin, Jon Benet Ramsey, Natalie Holloway, and Elizabeth Smart (to name but a few white children whose disappearances led to major mass media feeding frenzies) deserve such attention, shouldn’t the Larie Butler, and all the instances of missing women of color, deserve the same level of attention as well?

I know, another rhetorical question. Let’s be honest, boys and girls. We still live in a racist society, racism about which the majority of white people living in America are in deep denial. Seventeen year old Trayvon Martin’s death by a 250 pound male with a semiautomatic handgun is the exception that proves the rule. Indeed, if we are honest with each other, the fact that Trayvon’s murder reached the level of media attention that it did is extremely rare. How many young black males who are gunned down (not counting famous athletes or rappers, etc.) ever make the national news? Well, I think you can count them on one hand. How many women of color who go missing or are murdered garner media attention of the scope that consumed this country in the cases of Natalie Holloway and Elizabeth Smart? I frankly can’t think of any.

Locally, yes, these cases get some media attention but it usually goes away pretty quickly. People of color know the reason why this occurs. They don’t matter to a news media dominated by white people, mostly white men. They don’t have the same rights white people do, either. Legally, yes, they are considered equal under the law but in practice, no. In practice, they don’t even count as 3/5 of a person, that famous fraction included in the Constitution for determining how to count a slave for purposes of assigning the number of officials from each state who could be elected to the House of Representatives. In practice, for many white people, people of color count for less than zero. And that is especially true among the elites who dominate the political, judicial and media institutions of this country.

If it were otherwise, George Zimmerman would have been arrested and indicted weeks ago, and Larie Butler would be as well known across the country as Natalie Holloway, or Elisabeth Smart or any of those other white women from upper class backgrounds who also mysteriously disappeared under “suspicious circumstances.” But we don’t live in that alternative universe, do we?