Jim Crow Comes To The North, Wisconsin Face in Voter Id.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist Eugene Kane says that if minority-group members want to avoid hassles at the polls on Feb. 21 in the state's first election since new stringent photo-ID requirements were put in place, they should simply come equipped. If not, they will be relegated to the sidelines, just like in the days of Jim Crow.

... But the photo ID law is the result of some politicians and many state residents who didn't feel all that confident about the old system for varying reasons. So that means Wisconsin joined a number of other states that have passed new photo ID laws since President Barack Obama was elected in 2008, a fact that strikes some as coincidental and others not so much.

Read More http://www.theroot.com/buzz/wisconsin-face-first-voter-id-election

Thirty-one States Have New Jim Crow Voter ID Laws.

Challenges to voter ID laws are building as voters cast ballots in primaries and gear up for the general election this fall.

Thirty-one states have voter identification laws, including eight — Alabama, Kansas, Mississippi, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin — that were enacted or toughened last year. Of the 31 laws, 27 are expected to be in effect for the general election this year, says Meagan Dorsch, spokeswoman for the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), a bipartisan research group. One has been blocked by federal action; three have later effective dates.

Laws requiring voters to show identification at the polls have been around since 1970, but they are becoming more numerous and stringent. Once a voter registration card or utility bill sufficed. Now a growing number of laws require voters to show picture IDs.

Most of the new laws have been passed by Republican legislatures, the NCSL says. Supporters say they are necessary to prevent fraud. Opponents say they keep the poor, minorities and seniors — who often back Democrats — from voting because those groups are less likely than the general population to have government-issued IDs.

The Justice Department and civil liberties groups are challenging laws in several states:

Read More http://m.usatoday.com/article/news/53160530

One Of The Face Of The New Jim Crow...The Overseer

" The more things change, the more they remain the same" Michelle Alexander, " The New Jim Crow'

It is a disgrace and d*mn shame that people who are sworn to uphold the law, serve and protect the people of this country do so by such evil, crooked and immoral means. It makes me wonder just who are the real criminals!  Police officers in these great states of America, cross these lines every single day and to what retribution? I say how much and how long. Why are we paying them to honestly uphold the law, and stand by watching them use that very platform to break it. I am no longer in fear of any burglar, rapist, thief, or drunken driver. No, what I now fear are these monstrous cops in their unjust, brutal force  intoxicated by power forgetting their oath. An oath they took with their right hands raised, swearing to honor and uphold everything just. Instead they look for an opportunity, any opportunity to abuse that authority and think the world owes them respect! And let me say, this is not about African Americans, Caucasians, Hispanic, purple, or green. It’s about STINKING PIGS IN BLUE and the dirty sh*t they do!

Read More http://blacklikemoi.com/2012/02/inconceivable/to-protect-serve-and-beat/

The Billion dollar new slave market...Prison.

Today, Monday, January 16th, all across the country people will be marching on the Federal Reserve Bank to promote racial and economic justice.  I will be at the Federal Reserve Bank in NYC on Liberty Street and Broadway at 11:30AM.  Join me and thousands of others around the country as we honor the legacy of Dr. King and continue his fight for a better and more just country.  To find a march in your city, please visit: http://www.occupythedream.org

MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan and I penned a piece for the Huffington Post in honor of the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Here is an excerpt from our piece "Occupy the Dream: The Mathematics of Racism":

As we celebrate the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr, it appears we are a far less prejudiced country than we once were.

Individual expressions of racism are less tolerated than ever, we have an African-American President, and African-Americans are increasingly being accepted into executive suites.

Yet when we look closer, we find that Greedy Bastards have re-branded racism and made it acceptable again, by calling it "the war on drugs."

These statistics compiled by New York Times columnist Charles Blow and author Michelle Alexander (author of The New Jim Crow) are mind-blowing. 

• Since 1971, there have been more than 40 million arrests for drug-related offenses. Even though blacks and whites have similar levels of drug use, blacks are ten times as likely to be incarcerated for drug crimes. 

• "There are more blacks under correctional control today -- in prison or jail, on probation or parole -- than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began." 

• "As of 2004, more African American men were disenfranchised (due to felon disenfranchisement laws) than in 1870, the year the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified prohibiting laws that explicitly deny the right to vote on the basis of race."
  In 2005, 4 out of 5 drug arrests were for possession not trafficking, and 80% of the increase in drug arrests in the 1990s was for marijuana.

There are 50,000 arrests for low-level pot possession a year in New York City, representing one out of every seven cases that turn up in criminal courts. Most of these arrested are black and Hispanic men.

Why is this happening, when personal prejudice is so much less common, medicinal marijuana initiatives routinely pass around the country, and illicit drug use is accepted enough that Steve Jobs could praise psychedelic drugs as key to his creative success at Apple Computer?

The modern drug war in politics can be traced back to political operative named Clifford White, an advisor to Barry Goldwater, who recognized that there were votes to be had in the backlash against the civil rights movement.

From the 1970s to the 1990s, the war on drugs became convenient code for politicians who wanted to appeal to certain working class white voters with coded racist appeals. President Reagan used this political support to escalate the war on drugs.

Read more: http://globalgrind.com/news/russell-simmons-occupy-the-dream-dylan-ratigan-msnbc-occupy-wall-street-exclusive-blog#ixzz1jgXDCepD