The white folks are coming and the illegals better leave.

*

Let me start this post by saying that I love D.C., it's one of my favorite cities in the world.

Even though gentrification is making what was once "chocolate city" more like butter pecan, I still love the place.

Of course, I didn’t grow up there, so my sensibilities are different. To me it's just a nice place to visit, do business, and hang out with friends who have made their homes in the area.

For the folks who grew up there, the writing of Natalie Hopkinson hits home, and it’s something that I hear in a lot of other cities where gentrification (or reverse white flight) is pricing working class minority groups out of their old neighborhoods.

So why isn’t this a good thing? Property values will go up, and conventional wisdom says that the overall quality of life in the city will improve. But some things can't be measured in dollars and cents.

"My own initiation in the ways of Chocolate City came nearly 20 years ago when, after growing up black in nearly all-white environments, I arrived in Washington as a freshman at historically black Howard University. The Washington I encountered then was a strange, alternate universe: I saw black schools taught by black teachers and run by black principals reporting to black superintendents. Black restaurants. Black hospitals run by black doctors and staff members. Black suburbs. Black judges ordering black police officers to deliver black suspects to black jail wardens. And of course a black-owned music industry, go-go.

      

In Washington, we were not “minorities,” with the whiff of inferiority that label carries; we were “normal.” For the first time in my life, I felt at home."

You shouldn't feel inferior. When that "whiff" tries to take hold of you just hold your nose. And remember, home is where the heart is.

Finally, the supremes made a ruling today which , in essence, told the clowns in Arizona that they can't make laws which supersede federal statutes. They shot down three key provisions of SB1070 ,but unfortunately said it was cool for the po po to profile with their "papers please" clause.   

The white house was not exactly doing cart wheels but they managed to do a half of a victory lap. (Still waiting on Flipper to take an actual position on immigration, and the gutless media to call him out for not doing it.)  I guess that with this court you take whatever victory you can get.    

The supremes still have some more hits to come this week, and I suspect that those of us on the left will not be liking the tunes.

Folks, if you don't think it's important to put the right person in the White House, just remember that the president of these divided states is the person who ultimately selects the members of the supremes.  

*Pic from the New York Times.  

Did Justice Sam Alito Get It Right In Westboro - Phelps Dissent?

Who does not want Albert Snyder, father of Matthew Snyder (Marine Lance Corporal killed in Iraq) to win his case? Fred Phelps and the family members who protest have a good lawyer in the family.
But, really, at a ritualistically sacred space like a funeral
 (in our culture, it is a separate space. Like, you can yell FIRE at a picnic and not get arrested; but you cannot yell FIRE in a theatre as it is a Space that can not be violated that way)
perhaps it is not free speech but psychological violence.

A Compelling Dissent?
or
alitos-weird-dissent-in-westboro.html
You decide.

READ entire ruling here:
http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/10pdf/09-751.pdf

a couple of excerpts:
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES SNYDER v. PHELPS ET AL No. 09–751. Argued October 6, 2010—Decided March 2, 2011

For the past 20 years, the congregation of the Westboro Baptist Church has picketed military funerals to communicate its belief that Godhates the United States for its tolerance of homosexuality, particu-larly in America’s military. The church’s picketing has also con-demned the Catholic Church for scandals involving its clergy. Fred Phelps, who founded the church, and six Westboro Baptist parishion-ers (all relatives of Phelps) traveled to Maryland to picket the funeral of Marine Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder, who was killed in Iraq inthe line of duty. The picketing took place on public land approxi-mately 1,000 feet from the church where the funeral was held, in ac-cordance with guidance from local law enforcement officers. The picketers peacefully displayed their signs—stating, e.g., “Thank God for Dead Soldiers,” “Fags Doom Nations,” “America is Doomed,” “Priests Rape Boys,” and “You’re Going to Hell”—for about 30 min-utes before the funeral began. ..

JUSTICE ALITO, dissenting.

Our profound national commitment to free and opendebate is not a license for the vicious verbal assault that occurred in this case. Petitioner Albert Snyder is not a public figure. He is simply a parent whose son, Marine Lance Corporal Mat-thew Snyder, was killed in Iraq. Mr. Snyder wanted what is surely the right of any parent who experiences such anincalculable loss: to bury his son in peace. But respon-dents, members of the Westboro Baptist Church, deprivedhim of that elementary right. They first issued a pressrelease and thus turned Matthew’s funeral into a tumul-tuous media event. They then appeared at the church, approached as closely as they could without trespassing,and launched a malevolent verbal attack on Matthew and his family at a time of acute emotional vulnerability. As a result, Albert Snyder suffered severe and lasting emo-tional injury.1 The Court now holds that the First Amendment protected respondents’ right to brutalize ...

Phelpses at KSU Arts and Scinces graduation

Our group blocking the families' view of phelps for over a decade now.