Wednesday, May 26, 2010

The Gulf Oil spill is Obama's Katrina and Waterloo rolled into one: Obama has shown a gross lack of leadership in managing the crisis in the Gulf.

BLACK BUZZ NEWS SERVICE
Cutoff, Louisiana
May 26, 2010


Cutoff Louisiana.... Its very unfortunate that our yes we can President Barack Obama, doesn't even have any semblance of a clue as to what to do in handling and managing the nations worst economic, ecological/environmental disaster of the modern day era with the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
At a time when all Americans are looking for sound effective leadership from Washington in dealing with the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Obama appears dumbfounded, perplexed, and narrow minded.
Leadership is predicated on three principles, which are the ability to lead, guide and direct. So far President Obama hasn't shown anything that remotely resembles leadership in dealing with the crisis in the Gulf.
The Republican Bobby Jindal, Governor of Louisiana has shown more intelligent steady leadership than Barack Obama in responding to the crisis in his state.
Obama ran a more effective campaign for the Presidency, but his inability to grasp the complexities of effectively managing the Government of the U.S is telling, and causing irreparable harm to the United States.
Obama doesn't know what the hell is going on inside of any of those regulatory agencies under his umbrella. The office of the Presidency is far above Obama's pay grade, but he would never admit it.
A May 14, story in the New York Times described a pattern of suppressing critical reports, ignoring permit requirements regarding wildlife habitat, and threatening staff scientists who impede the permit process-- which continues a year and five months into Obama administration.
The Times reported that the MMS U.S. Government's Mineral's Management Service ignored laws that require companies to obtain permits from Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration if endangered species or marine mammals are put at risk by exploration or drilling. Since January 2009, the MMS has approved "at least three huge lease sales, 103 seismic blasting projects, and 346 drilling plans, " in the Gulf of Mexico without the required permits. Barack Obama as President of the United States is ultimately responsible for the management of the MMS.
Although Interior Secretary Salazar said the permit process would be delayed after the collapse of the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform, five permits to drill in the Gulf were granted between May 3 and May 7. Note the following week, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected an appeal by environmental and Native American groups to stop oil drilling in the Chuckchi Sea, scheduled to begin this summer unless the Obama administration intervenes. Don't look for the weak, and timid Booker T. Obama to fire his good friend Mr. Salazar.
The relaxed standards, and procedures at the MMS caused this horrible disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, and the Obama administration should not be allowed to escape culpability along with the criminals at BP.
The BP crowd should be prosecuted for the various crimes against the people of the Gulf Coast, the ecological system, wildlife, marine life, and fowl life. And its very unfortunate that we cannot impeach a sitting President for malfeasance, and a dereliction of duty.
How would Obama have responded to one hundred thousands gallons of oil spilling into waters of Cape Cod Bay, or the water surrounding Martha's Vineyard.
Let it be said that Obama doesn't care of about the people in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, or Florida.

Monday, May 24, 2010

NCAA Men's Lacrosse: Virginia Beats Stony Brook,10-9

BLACK BUZZ SPORTS NEWS
Big Stone Gap, Virginia
May 24, 2010

The number one ranked University of Virginia Cavaliers Men's Lacrosse team, held off the upstart Stony Brook Seawolves, to advance to the final four with a 10-9 victory at Stony Brook. Virginia will now face the pesky Duke Devils in a classic final four match up, which will decide who will play in the NCAA National Championship on May 30, at the M & T Stadium in Baltimore Maryland. Duke was the only team to defeat Virginia during the regular season, when the Blue Devils captured a hard fought victory over the Cavaliers in Charlottesville Virginia, on April 17 by a score of 13-9. Virginia beat Duke in the ACC Championship 16-13. So this is the rubber match between these two perennial powerhouses in Men's Lacrosse.
Cornell will play Notre Dame in the other semi-final game at the M & T Stadium in Baltimore.
All four of the teams in this years final four rank in the top twenty five as the best academic institutions in the country, which shows that you can combine excellent academics and athletics. See U.S. News & World Report, 2010 Edition, America's Best Colleges.
Black Buzz predicts that the University of Virginia, will play the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame, for the coveted National title with Virginia winning 16-14 in a thriller.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Ronald B. Saunders Picks His All Time Los Angeles Lakers Starting Five ( 5 ) Kareem Vs. Wilt: Who Should Start ?

BLACK BUZZ SPORTS NEWS
West Point, Virginia
May 20, 2010

Blogger Black Buzz started playing basketball at the tender age of eight at the Centre Avenue YMCA, which is located in the Hill District section of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Black Buzz use to keep score of the powerful Hill District Church League games that were played at the Centre Avenue YMCA. The Hill District Church League, was a far more talented League than the Pittsburgh High School Scholastic League, and many of the best players elected to play church league ball rather than play for Schenley, Fifth Avenue, or any of the other local high schools in the Pittsburgh area.

The church league featured such outstanding ball players as Ray Daniels, the late Barry Nixon, and hundreds of other great players. And sometimes poor grades kept many of the better ball players from playing school boy ball.
The Hill District was the mecca for outstanding basketball, and for all sports.
Black Buzz never played organized basketball with any team in his youth. Black Buzz was known for excelling in playing baseball, swimming, running track, and playing football.

John Brewer Sr. who taught Black Buzz at the famed Robert L. Vann, Elementary School located on Watt Street in the Hill District once said in his fifth grade physical education class that " Saunders is the best baseball player that has ever come through Vann School. John Brewer Jr. is the present owner of the Coliseum in the Homewood section of Pittsburgh, and the founder of the Trolley Station. Black Buzz says that baseball, & football were the two sports that he enjoyed the most.

Black Buzz did manage to play JV., and Varsity basketball for Slippery Rock Area Joint High School in 1957-58, 1958-59, and 1959-1960. Black Buzz played on the same Slippery Rock basketball team as Schenley High(Pittsburgh PA. ) School retired football, and track & field coach Fred Raymond Lucas. Black Buzz's JV coach was Sid Bergman who was Jewish, and his Varsity coach was Donald Todaro. Black Buzz said he enjoyed playing for Bergman, but Bergman thought that Black Buzz should have been just like Oscar Robertson, and super human. What a stereotype !
Black Buzz stated that he didn't particularly care for his varsity coach, Donald Todaro, but he chooses not go into the reasons at this point in history.

Black Buzz was a student/pupil of the legendary basketball coach Carol Lucas of Central State University, in Wilberforce Ohio. Black Buzz earned a letter grade of B in the Coaching of Basketball, (201 ) from the famed coach Lucas. Coach Lucas was one of the most respected coaches in the history of College basketball. Central State University Marauders, won the 1965 NAIA National Championship, and they dominated the NAIA in 1950's, 1960's 1970's. Coach Lucas was coach of the year for the state of Ohio in 1965. That was a great feat for Coach Lucas, considering the fact that basketball powerhouses Ohio State, Cincinnati, and Dayton were also playing some of the best ball in the country. Centrals record for the 1964-65 season was 30-0, and coach Lucas's teams had won 54 out of the last 57 games. One of Central's players was a number 4 round draft choice of the Philadelphia 76ers, and his name was Kenny Wilburn of Inkster Michigan. Central's back court mates of Ted Day of Zenia Ohio, and Darius Cunningham of Chicago may have been the best two guards in all of college basketball. Black Buzz says he knows for a fact that Ted Day, and Darius Cunningham were quicker and more physical than UCLA's Gail Goodrich, Lacey or Gross. How many remember how the little small obscure team called Texas Western U, and their guards outplayed the All America guards from Kentucky. Texas Western won the NCAA Title in 1966 over the heavily favored Kentucky Wildcats ? And what about the play of big daddy Latin in the paint. If Day and Cunningham were playing today they be playing for Georgetown, or North Carolina. That's how good they were. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, only became effective in July of 1965, and that was roughly four months after Central won the NAIA National title. The great Negro prep ball players back in the sixties didn't have one third of the opportunities of today's high school players.

For his final project in the coaching of basketball, Black Buzz had to run, and coach his own offense, and then run and coach a defense to stop that offense. Black Buzz ran a figure 8 offense, which required constant running, and moving with precision flawless passing. In Black Buzz's figure 8 offense you couldn't stand around, and watch what was going on like in today's game. You had to run, and screen, and pick constantly. The figure 8 was run just like the number 8 from high to low, and back out. Black Buzz ran a shifting zone defense, to the defend the figure 8 but, coach Lucas felt that a man to man defense would work better. Coach Lucas was right; The man to man defense did work better. I got a B out of that class, which was 3 credits. Most of the players Black Buzz used for his project were players on the Varsity, and JV basketball team. Central State ran a fast break offense, and they also played a very disciplined high octane methodical offense that utilizes constant movement. Black Buzz also says that coach Lucas, taught him how to run the full court zone trap press, which relied on relentless up in your face pressure, and more pressure.

Black Buzz says he successfully used the full court zone trap press defense in the Salvation Army Junior League, and that defense caused many turnovers, which were converted to 2 points.
The other League coaches tried to make the necessary adjustments to the full court zone trap press, but by the time they figured out how to counter that defense the game was out of their reach.

Black Buzz began his formal coaching career at the Pittsburgh Temple of the Salvation Army in 1976. Black Buzz's teams won the Salvation Army Junior League Title in 1976, 1977, and 1978. In 1976, Black Buzz and his Pittsburgh Temple team, received an Award from Captain James Lovell, who was the Chair of President Ford's Council On Youth Fitness, and Sports. Also in 1977 Black Buzz's Pittsburgh Temple team was the runner up in the Big Beaver Valley Basketball Tournament. One of teams they beat had future Pitt star Big Boo Kirby on the squad, but Black Buzz's Temple team froze the ball, and won 14-13. Black Buzz's Salvation Army Pittsburgh Temple team was all white, and all the young men hailed from the Mt. Oliver section of Pittsburgh Pa. During the entire year of 1976/1977 Mt. Oliver, and the Beltzhoover section of Pittsburgh engaged in an intense racial mini war, were two citizens lost their lives.
Members of the Temple team were as follows
1. Donald Matthews- Little Mat
2 JJ Staley
3. Derk
4. Smitty Brown + Others

* Black Buzz's Salvation Army Team finished third in the famous Father Barry Tournament in 1977 and Eddie Haynesworth from Black Buzz's team was the MVP of the Tournament. Black Buzz also received the Coaches Award. Black Buzz's team also had the great Chris Gamboa and retired Pennsylvania State Police Sergeant Big David Penn on that squad. Note David Penn was an All American tackle at West Virginia State College. Eddie Haynesworth played professional basketball in the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, and South America. Eddie, Chris and David all lived on Whiteside road in the Hill District section of Pittsburgh PA. There was more talent on that one block on Whiteside road than any other block in the city of Pittsburgh, PA.
Black Buzz played on Herron Hill Jr. High School's solftball team with Jerry and Kenny Williams who also lived on that same block on White House Road.
David Dead Eye Trent who led Tuskegee in scoring (hoops) also lived on that block on White Side Road.  Leslie Cox, a Fifth Avenue high school Graduate won the mile run in the Pittsburgh Public School Track& Field  Championship, and he lived on that same block on Whiteside road.  Donald Mackey placed in the Pittsburgh Public School Scholastic championship in swimming while at Fifth Avenue High School, and he lived on that same block on Whiteside road.
The Fifth Avenue high school legendary hoopster Jeffrey Junkhead Burton lived on that same block on Whiteside road.

In 1977 Black Buzz's New Pittsburgh Courier team won the Adult Salvation Army League Championship.. Few of the players on that teams were as follows :

*1. Cleveland Edwards- Jr. College All American, Robert Jr. Morris College, Point Guard, University of Pittsburgh
*2. Kirk Bruce- Guard, Pitt- Final Four Member
*3. Jim Bolla- Center, Pitt-Final Four Member
*4. Carl Morris- Forward, Pitt-Final Four Member
5. Mickey Hornak-Guard/Forward, West Virginia, Wesleyan
6. Bucky Phillips- Guard, California University of PA.
7. Freeman Pee Wee Pamplin- Guard
8. Larry Mitchell- Guard
9. Ronald B. Saunders, Guard-Coach
10. Joel Vanucci- Center, Clarion University.

*In 1978, Black Buzz's Chatham Sports Center Team won the Hilltop YMCA Basketball League Championship with an 18-0 record.

*In 1978, Black Buzz's Chatham Sports Center team captured East End United Tournament in Uniontown PA. A team that featured the late Larry "Burg" Richardson, Ronnie McCray, Richard Cotton, Bum Cokes, Carl Grinage,  and Hoon Johnson. The boys from Uniontown featuring H. E. Johns and Buzzy Skillings could hang with the ball players from Manchester and Carl Grinage.

*Black Buzz's Chatham Sports Center team finished second runner-up in the Connie Hawkins Adult Summer League Tournament in 1978.

*In 1980, Black Buzz's Chathman Sports Center team won the Vandergrift Pa, Basketball Tournament, in which the late Nathan Sonny Lewis stoled the show. Also on that Black Buzz coached team was Duquesne University star B.B. Flenory, and the great Hosea Champine from Braddock Pa.
Sonny Lewis, and Hosea Champine were also drafted by NBA teams.

*In July of 1981, Black Buzz coached a squad from West Liberty State College that won the first annual Nathan Sonny Lewis Memorial Basketball Tournament held at the Homewood -Brushton YMCA. Black Buzz's squad beat the Cosmic Echoes in a hard fought game 87-75. The Cosmic Echoes were coached by Meat  Ball Johnson. Eddie Jeffries wrote about that victory on the front page of the New Pittsburgh Courier.

*In 1982, Black Buzz's Chatham Sports Center team captured second place in the rough, and tumble Homewood-Brushton YMCA League, that featured players from over twenty six colleges, and pro players.

 I coached a teenage all white girl's team from Monroeville Pennsylvania in the Greater Pittsburgh YWCA League in 1985 and
 Black Buzz's girl's beat a team from Wilkinsburg coached by Evelyn Tunie, 53-19 for the League Championship.
 Black Buzz retired from coaching in 1985 and he is more than qualified to Pick his All Time Los Angeles Lakers team.


*These are Black Buzz's selections for his All Time Los Angeles Lakers team.
At Point Guard- Ervin Magic Johnsont 6'9' inches how would 6'2' Bob Cousy match up against Magic ? Even if you put Sam Jones on Magic, could Cousy effectively guard Jerry West or 6'6' Kobe Bryant ?
Advantage Lakers at Guard.

Shooting Guard- Jerry West or Kobe Bryant. West was Mr. Clutch, and Kobe is the best player since Jordan to play the game. The match-up at the off-guard, or shooting guard between the Lakers, and the Celtics is more equal. Sam Jones could not stop West or Kobe, and Sam Jones or Hondo would score their fair share of points against West and Kobe. Hondo or Sam Jones may not have faced anyone with Kobe's overall intensity or defensive skills. Dennis Johnson would have matched up better against Magic than Cousy. Jo Jo White would have the same problem defending Magic as Cousy, lack of height. A Hondo (Kobe) match up would have been interesting. K.C. Jones was one of the greatest defensive players to ever play the game, and he have might slowed down Magic, Kobe, and West.
Advantage Lakers, but it could go to the Celtics in a 7 game series.
Magic Johnson gives the edge to Lakers, in a classic Lakers- Celtics seven game series.

Center- Wilt Chamberlain or Kareem Abdul Jabbar; Bill Russell didn't take a back seat to any center. Bill was arguably the greatest defensive center to ever play the game. If Wilt was told the only thing that he had to do was rebound it would have been an interesting match-up with Big Bill.
Wilt once had 52 rebounds against Russell.
Kareem could score on Russell with the sky hook, but Bill would dominate on the glass. Parish would back up Russell, and Dave Cowens could also spell McHale at the power forward position. Wilt and Kareem against Russell, Parish, Cowens, and Bill Walton. What about a young Shaq ?

How many people know that Bill Russell was a world class high jumper, and he would have made the U.S. Olympic Team in Track & Field if he chose not to play on the U.S. Olympic basketball team. Russell once jumped 6 feet 10 inches in a dual meet, and big Wilt once ran a quarter mile in 48 second flat at the fame Overbrook high school in Philadelphia. Not one of today's center's comes remotely close to matching the gifted physical talents, and skills of Russell or big Wilt. I have never seen a center run the court like Russell. Dave Cowens ran the court well, but he wasn't in Russell's class. Walt Bellamay and Nate Thurmond were tremendous physical ball players, but they couldn't run like Bill Russell. Wes Unseld was strong as an Ox, but he couldn't run like Russell. Moses Malone was one of the hardest working center's in the history of the NBA, but he couldn't run like Russell. The all world Dr. Erving couldn't win a title with the 76ers until they obtained Moses Malone. Bill Walton ran the court well, but he wasn't in the class with Russell or big Wilt. Russell had the best technical skills combined with great power, and speed. The key to rebounding is timing and great positioning. Every rebound that went up on the court, Russell had a plan in his mind that it was his rebound.
Its not how high you can jump.
*
Hakeem Olajuwon was the best center in the NBA in the mid-nineties, but he was a quarter step down from Russell and Wilt. Hakeem is one of the top five greatest centers in NBA history.
TIE, Only Because Bill Russell was that great.

Small Forward- The great Elgin Baylor; Truly the greatest all time Small Forward in NBA History. He would have to go-up against Larry Bird, who was the NBA's best all around forward in League history. Bird is really not a small forward at 6'9'. Baylor would score his points because of his great quickness, and skill in shooting the ball. But Bird would also score his share of points, and rebound well. Baylor was the greatest rebound er at 6'5' in League history. Baylor was heads and shoulders above Dr. J and Charles Barkley. Baylor could float, glide and walk on air driving with the ball toward the basket. Baylor was flying, and gliding in the air long before MJ or the Doctor.
But Bird at 6'9' is a difficult match-up for Baylor. Baylor played against many 6'9' players, but none had the overall talent of Bird.
Advantage-Celtics

*Power Forward- James Worthy; A Worthy, McHale match-up maybe the most difficult to predict. Charles Barkley said McHale was the greatest post-up player he ever played against. In a seven game series I'm leading toward McHale, but I'm not completely sold on McHale winning this battle. After all James has more rings at five ( 5 ). Who won those battles in 1980's and early 1990's ? KG could spell McHale, and McAdoo could spell Worthy.
Advantage- Celtics, but very close.

Riley Against Auerbach ! The Lakers win the seven games series because of the play of the guards Magic Johnson, Jerry West and Kobe Bryant. But what if the Celtics throw in Jo Jo White, Dennis Johnson along with Hondo, and Paul Pierce into the equation ?
I don't think Red would let the likes of Pat Riley, beating him two years in a row.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Bye Bye Bye Arlen Specter: I Thank The Good People Of Pennsylvania ! We did it !

BLACK BUZZ NEWS SERVICE
Pittsburgh PA.
May 19, 2010
(BBNS)
Pittsburgh PA.. Specter cannot blame the calculating Obama, for his great defeat in last night's Pennsylvania Primary. If Barry would have come into the Keystone state, Sestak would have won by 17 percent. Why did Arlen loose the election ? Mr. Specter only voted with the Democrats 23 percent of the time. The sagacious voters of Pennsylvania knew that old Arlen was in the hip pocket of Republican Presidents, Reagan, and the Bush family members, which was evidenced by his blind naked support for the war in Iraq, tax cuts for the rich, and voting for all of those right-wing extremist on the United States Supreme Court. I never voted for the sly Specter. Pennsylvania has lost over 289,000 jobs since Specter started pimping the voters of Pennsylvania in 1980. We good people in PA. don't like turncoats of any kind. Hey Arlen the Jokes on you.
Anita Hill has to be elated by Specter's defeat.
HOW SWEET IT IS !

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Elena Kagan is No Thurgood Marshall

By Dom Apollon

Despite all the hubbub Solicitor General Elena Kagan’s Supreme Court nomination will generate, the truth of the matter is Kagan won’t make much difference to a judicial balance of power that leans rightward. She’ll maintain the status quo: four reliably liberal justices, four reliably conservative justices and one center-right swing voter in Justice Anthony Kennedy. Importantly, that means she will also do little to alter the court’s rightward trajectory on racial justice.

Both Kagan and the White House have made much of her time as a clerk for her self-described mentor, Thurgood Marshall. The hapless Republican National Committee has responded with a bizarre effort to tar her association with one of history’s most celebrated justices. But both sides overstate the connection. Kagan hasn't exactly spent her career as a champion of the racial justice principles Marshall articulated. We need to be asking why that’s the case.

As a Democratic president’s nominee, to be confirmed by a Democratic Senate, we can expect a would-be Justice Kagan to align herself consistently with the liberal voting bloc. After all, today’s Supreme Court appointments rarely let down the presidents who nominate them. Sure, David Souter—whom a wise Latina replaced last summer—was the bane of George H.W. Bush’s existence because of his pro-choice opinions. And retiring Justice John Paul Stevens certainly grew, during his three and a half decades on the court, to become a disappointment for President Gerald Ford’s legacy. I just don’t see that happening to our current constitutional-law-professor president.

Still, don’t expect much from Kagan. Her thin record may be hard to parse, but that fact alone suggests she's unlikely to be a leader on racial justice issues on the court—which is precisely what’s needed, given the rush to declare ours a post-racial society.

A few short years after Kagan clerked for Marshall—the former lead counsel of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case—the justice wrote his last impassioned dissent, in a capital punishment case called Payne v. Tennessee. He criticized the naked hypocrisy of the conservative majority’s judicial activism as it broke from the court’s general practice of upholding recent precedents. “Power, not reason is the new currency of this Court’s decision making,” Marshall famously wrote. It was his bitter, parting shot as he watched the civil rights and civil liberties gains of his four-decade career erode.

In the 22 years since Kagan left Marshall’s chambers, she hasn’t developed much of a record to suggest she’ll reverse the slide that so embittered her mentor, beyond some indication she’ll be friendly to free speech rights. Given how little she has written, we practically have to go back to her 1986 application to clerk for Marshall to get an assessment of her ideas on race discrimination cases. (For what it’s worth, Professor Randall Kennedy gave her an A+ in his race and constitutional law class at Harvard, according to materials the Legal Times found in Marshall’s papers.) But a look at the cases Marshall weighed during the term Kagan clerked could be instructive.

Probably the most-often taught civil liberties case from that term is Frisby v. Schultz—which interestingly tested the limits of free speech. Marshall voted against the majority, which upheld a ban on residential sidewalk protesting of abortion foes. But the real jewels may be found in Kagan’s memos to Justice Marshall for his powerful dissent in Kadrmas v. Dickinson Public School (North Dakota).

In Kadrmas, Marshall concluded that a North Dakota statute discriminated on the basis of economic status, but he could only garner three other votes. His dissent blasted the court for “continu[ing] the retreat from the promise of equal educational opportunity by holding that a school district's refusal to allow an indigent child who lives 16 miles from the nearest school to use a school bus service without paying a fee does not violate the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause.”

Elena Kagan's Cultural Competence Questioned

Duchess Harris
Author, "Black Feminist Politics from Kennedy to Clinton"; Race-Talk contributor
Posted: May 14, 2010

No one is more delighted than I am that esteemed presidential historian, Annette Gordon- Reed will join the faculty at Harvard Law School. Despite the fact that she was recruited by then Dean Elena Kagan, I respectfully disagree with Charles Ogletree that Elena Kagan is a good choice for the Supreme Court.

Ogletree argues that from 2003 until the end of Kagan's deanship in 2009, the number of African American students matriculating rose to an all time high. I am sure this is accurate, but how relevant is it?

Do these numbers speak to the quality and caliber of student life? Are Harvard graduates fully engaged and can they provide an effective and vigorous understanding with matters pertaining to race? Or, are they merely defenders and justifiers of the status quo?

I suggest that Professor Ogletree look at the April 30, 2010 blog post written by Diane Lucas. Ms. Lucas was a guest blogger for FEMINISTE and authored a piece entitled, "The Racist Breeding Grounds of Harvard Law School". Lucas wrote this article to discuss the racist behavior of Stephanie Grace, a graduating student, and to discuss her own experience as a Black student at HLS. Lucas critiqued Kagan's leadership before she knew that Kagan was the U.S. Supreme Court nominee.

Lucas writes,

"When I was at HLS in 2006, there was a student-run but HLS-endorsed parody play featuring students and professors, in which individual students, mostly women of color, were roasted using highly offensive racial, gender and classist stereotypes-basically a modern day minstrel show. I was disgusted. When we protested and communicated how upset many of the black and Latino students were, we were criticized as being too sensitive, for not being able to take a joke and for trying to suppress free speech."

She goes on to describe how then Dean Elena Kagan refused to take a stand, stating that she could not take responsibility for the parody -- even though she actually had an on-stage role in its performance. Professor Charles Ogletree, Jr. and Professor Martha Minow (now Dean Minow) took the lead in organizing a well-attended town hall. The students specifically asked Dean Kagan to start diversity sessions to keep the conversation going, and nothing happened. Dean Kagan's failure to take a stance is deeply concerning, and personally, I think Ms. Lucas has a point.
I consider myself to be one of the most privileged law students in America. In this economic downturn, not only will I return to a tenured professorship when I graduate, I will rejoin a faculty that was given a 2.5 % salary increase. My colleagues are looking forward to my return, yet supported my paid leave. Every day I drive to school in a decent car, return to a lovely home, and I am greeted by a family who supports me.

The curriculum has been challenging, but given my career security, the stakes have been low. Even with these advantages, law school is among the most hostile experiences of my adult life. The faculty of my law school has exactly one member from my racial group. At age 40, I can't believe this actually matters, but here's an anecdote to explain why it does.

In the fall, I took a course in which the white male professor explained to the class that in 1999, during a budget discussion among three Washington, D.C., municipal officials, one of them, David Howard, said that he would have to be "niggardly with the fund because it's not going to be a lot of money." His Black colleague "stormed out" and got the new Black mayor, Anthony Williams to force Howard's resignation. My professor argued that Howard's reinstatement was just, because what had occurred was not a racist act.

How does this relate to the nomination of Elena Kagan? What happened in my classroom was to be expected. We are located in Minnesota, one of the most homogenous states in the country, and that makes it difficult to recruit students who have enough lived experience or academic training in Ethnic studies to challenge the faculty. We are also not an institution with a $1.7 Billion endowment that draws thousands of applications for one tenure track position.

And yet the hiring of professors of color is better at my school than Harvard's. Yes, I did just say better. Therefore, it became apparent to me why Stephanie Grace could earn an illustrious JD from Harvard Law School, and yet send out a mass email seriously entertaining "the possibility that African Americans are, on average, genetically predisposed to be less intelligent."

Clearly, Grace has not been exposed to the racial analysis and legal prowess exhibited by professors of color. Too bad she's going to miss the opportunity to discuss her ideas with Annette Gordon-Reed.

Which points back to why Kagan is the wrong choice for the Supreme Court. Until last week, with all the resources at her disposal, of her 29 hires as the dean of Harvard Law School she could not find one Black professor worthy of an appointment.

For this fact alone, she should not be approved for the U.S. Supreme Court. We can't reward cultural incompetence. Thurgood Marshall knew better, and Kagan should have done better. Failure to find a more culturally competent Justice of any background is just wrong.

Actually, it's down right niggardly.

The author thanks Kathleen Wells and Lori Stee

Leading Black Women's Groups Unhappy with the Kagan Appointment

Black Women Speak Out about SCOTUS Appointment

Posted by Kris Broughton in The District4 days ago

The announcement of Elena Kagan could not really be called a surprise, since the White House went out of its way to all but announce her as their pick over the last week. The Obama Administration dropped hints by the dozens to their favored reporters, who dutifully shared their information with the rest of us. I had come to accept it as a done deal, even though I had been a little perturbed at the way the D.C. pundits only mentioned three or four names from the president’s short list, as if the rest of the names on it, like Georgia’s own Leah Ward Sears, were invisible.

It wasn’t until I called a friend of mine, an African American lawyer here in Atlanta who had been a diehard Hillary supporter and then a reluctant Barack Obama supporter after he became the Democratic nominee, that I realized that others felt the same way. “First he puts a Hispanic woman on the court. Fine. He’s paying back the Hispanics for their support,” she said. “Then he puts a white woman on the court. Okay – he’s paying them back for coming over to his side after Hillary lost. I see that.

But why do I have to be last? Why do black women always have to be last? I don’t think he cares.”

She was audibly hot by the time she got to “I don’t think he cares” – hot enough that I knew better than to keep teasing her about Kagan’s appointment.

My friend is a former corporate bigwig who has been around the block long enough to know how politics works at its most basic level. Granted, as an individual, her personal support came late in the game, and she has always been more than a little skeptical of Obama, even after signing on with him in August. But the vast majority of African American women, professional or otherwise, have been some of the president’s staunchest supporters since the South Carolina primaries, helping him to win extra delegates in many primaries, and many states in the general election.

President Barack Obama, the nation’s first African-American president is unperturbed by Kagan’s blind-eye to racial and gender diversity at HLS, in spite of the fact that the young Obama protested this very same issue during his time of matriculation there.

What are we to make of these jaw-dropping statistics, not to mention the White House’s inexplicable defense of the indefensible? And there are so many more questions, many of which are heartbreaking for me, who walked the streets knocking doors, volunteered at Obama’s local campaign headquarters, and wrote numerous pieces in support of candidate Obama.

On Elena Kagan: Is the Supreme Court Not a Civil Rights Issue?
Dr. Pamela D. Reed

So I asked my friend, who also grew up in the South, if she had considered the racial implications of seating another African American on the Supreme Court for a black president who has his eye on re-election in a deeply polarized nation, a country that is just starting to get used to him being in the White House. “I don’t care,” she said. “The only way he can get me back is to put a black woman on the Supreme Court and some black women on the federal bench. As far as I’m concerned, he just put his momma on the Supreme Court.”

She sounded genuinely hurt. Betrayed. Disgusted. I myself was flabbergasted, because I’d never thought of Kagan’s appointment in quite that way.

The Black Women’s Roundtable supports efforts to maintain a proper balance on the Supreme Court that protect the interests of all while simultaneously ensuring the Court is finally representative of all Americans in this society. Needless to say, we are disconcerted by the perceived lack of real consideration of any of the extremely qualified African American women as potential nominees.

As we have throughout history, African American women played a significant role in the 2008 election because we were especially aware of the impact this presidency would have for generations to come. As the late Dr. Dorothy I. Height, founding board member of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation and co-convener of BWR, stated in our previous meeting with the Administration, we believe it is time for African American women to be represented in all sectors of government – including the Supreme Court of the United States, which in its 221 year history has not had a Black woman nominated to serve on our highest court in the land.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

The White House's Kagan talking points are wrong

Salon.com Mobile
May 10, 2010

We questioned Harvard Law's diversity record under Elena Kagan. The White House pushed back. But they got it wrong

Guy-Uriel Charles, Anupam Chander, Luis Fuentes-Rohwer, and Angela Onwuachi-Willig

Like everyone in the legal academy over the last decade, we have watched with admiration the amazing changes that Elena Kagan brought to Harvard Law School. A fractured faculty, divided among ideological lines, seemed finally content, if not united. A boisterous student body was finally pacified. The logjam that had stopped faculty hiring had burst. Indeed, she hired so many new faculty the Harvard Law School’s newspaper’s 2008 April Fool’s issue declared, "Dean Kagan Hires Every Law Professor in the Country."

The first woman Dean of Harvard Law School had presided over an unprecedented expansion of the faculty -- growing it by almost a half. She had hired 32 tenured and tenure-track academic faculty members (non-clinical, non-practice). But when we sat down to review the actual record, we were frankly shocked. Not only were there shockingly few people of color, there were very few women. Where were the people of color? Where were the women? Of these 32 tenured and tenure-track academic hires, only one was a minority. Of these 32, only seven were women. All this in the 21st Century.

One of us aired some of these concerns, which we expressed in a joint letter to the White House, on a blog. The White House never responded directly to us, but it did provide a defense of the Solicitor General’s record to concerned civil rights groups, who then made the document public. (Salon obtained a copy, which can be found here.) We are glad that the White House has responded to some of the questions that we have raised.

Unfortunately, the White House’s defense of the solicitor general’s hiring record while she was Dean at Harvard is surprisingly weak.

To begin, and most notably, the White House does not dispute our basic facts. When Kagan was dean of Harvard Law School, four-out-of-every five hires to its faculty were white men. She did not hire a single African American, Latino, or Native American tenured or tenure track academic law professor. She hired 25 men, all of whom were white, and seven women, six of whom were white and one Asian American. Just 3 percent of her hires were non-white -- a statistic that should raise eyebrows in the 21st Century.
These are the facts that the White House does not try to defend because these facts are indefensible. For those who think that more women and minorities qualified to serve on the Harvard Law faculty were simply nonexistent, one need only look at Harvard’s primary rival--Yale Law School. There Dean Harold Koh led the law school during almost the same period (Dean Koh, from 2004 to 2009, and Dean Kagan, from 2003 to 2009). Dean Koh hired far fewer faculty members--just ten--but he still managed to hire nearly as many women (5 of 10 at 50 percent), and just as many minorities (1 of 10 at 10 percent) as Dean Kagan.

Yet another comparison seems appropriate: A knowledgeable source tells us that Seventh Circuit Judge Diane Wood has had a splendid history of hiring women and minorities as law clerks.

The White House’s primary response -- like the magician performing a trick--is to point our attention elsewhere. The White House says the hiring numbers are misleading because they do not reflect the number of offers that Dean Kagan made to women and scholars of color. But this seems a bit hard to believe. Do women and people of color find a tenured or tenure-track professorship at Harvard Law School less attractive than white men? Do they really prefer to teach at less prestigious schools? Or if they only prefer not to teach at Harvard because of perceived hostilities to women and people of color, why is it that Kagan could somehow overcome these perceptions when it came to conservatives, but not women and people of color? After all, part of the praise for Kagan is that she made Harvard Law School welcoming again for conservatives—in this case, conservative white men.

In order to assess whether Dean Kagan effectively reached out to women and scholars of color, we need the number of tenure and tenure-track offers she made to women and scholars of color. But the White House does not provide us the number of tenure and tenure-track offers that Dean Kagan made to women and scholars of color. In fact, they provide everything but those numbers. An honest defense would provide those numbers in the first instance. (The White House memo implicitly cites the privacy of the individuals who received offers as a basis for refusing to release names -- but we wonder how many law professors would be embarrassed by the public revelation that they turned down a Harvard Law School offer.)

In a sleight of hand, the White House instead provides the statistics for the number of visiting offers made under Dean Kagan. A visiting offer, however, is hardly tantamount to an offer to join the tenured faculty. Many visits are not offered with an eye towards permanent appointment. In other words, "visiting professor offers" without actual offers for permanent hire do nothing to increase meaningful faculty diversity. Many visits are made simply because the institution needs a temporary person to teach a class; law schools call these "podium" visits. Moreover, many visitors are foreign law professors who are temporarily rounding out the school’s curricular offerings. These foreign law professors could conceivably be cast as "minorities" in the American scheme, but such casting would be extremely misleading as many of these professors do not share the history and experiences of people of color in the United States and may not even identify as racial minorities, especially if they are part of the controlling majority or even minority in their own country.

In any event, even if the visiting numbers were probative they could be seen as undermining the claim that Dean Kagan did what she could for faculty diversity. Apparently, there were women and minorities available to serve as visitors, but very few to actually hire permanently. When permanent offers are made by a law school faculty, it is the dean’s charge to convince that person to come. What would it say of Dean Kagan’s powers of persuasion that she could not attract more minorities and women with offers to join one of the most prestigious faculties in the world? Should we wonder about her ability to convince people to join her in other enterprises, when the rewards are not so obvious?

The question raised by Kagan’s hiring record is quite simple: what accounts for it? The inevitable conclusion is that gender and racial equality was not a pressing agenda for then-Dean Kagan. To this way of thinking, it does not matter if you don't hire people of color and it does not matter if you only hire one-in-five women because no one is going to care. A commitment by a dean to hiring women and people of color in tenure and tenure-track positions often takes courage and conviction. It is reflective of one’s core commitments that all opportunities must be made available without regard to race and gender and a willingness to fight for that commitment. It reflects the fact that you are willing to visibly take a stand -- to risk something.

Who but ivory tower types care who teaches at Harvard Law School? Whether deserved or not, the reality is that the nation’s elected officials and business leaders often call upon Harvard’s law faculty. Indeed, many serve in the Obama Administration, as exemplified by Solicitor General Kagan herself. Equally important, its faculty serve as role models for generations of future leaders -- the future Barack Obama’s of the world. Today, President Obama continues to recognize the importance of having an administration, federal judiciary, and indeed a Supreme Court that reflects the diversity of Americans. Yet General Kagan, who herself would benefit from his vision if chosen for the Supreme Court, showed no similar carry-through as Harvard Law School’s first female dean. In others words, there is a Latina on the Supreme Court, but there is no Latino on the Harvard Law School faculty.

Finally, supporters contend that minority student matriculation increased slightly (from 29 percent to 31 percent) during Kagan’s tenure as dean. We offer two observations about this claim. First, the memo does not give us a longer historical view to allow us to assess whether the 29 percent in 2003 was a statistical blip. Second, and most important, should not Harvard’s faculty hiring more closely resemble its student percentages—the exact pool from which Harvard would pull much of its faculty? How could the total percentage of minority students at the end of Kagan’s tenure be 31 percent, while the percentage of her minority faculty hires remain only 3 percent? What signal does that send to the students--both minority and non-minority--at Harvard Law School?

We do not know Dean Kagan personally. She cites Justice Thurgood Marshall, for whom she clerked, as her legal hero. She clerked for Judge Abner Mikva, second-to-none in his commitment to equality. She became the first Charles Hamilton Houston Professor of Law. All of these facts give us some heart. But we can rely only on her record of accomplishment as she is considered for a lifetime appointment to a position of such constitutional significance. That record raises a significant question about her willingness to go to bat for racial and gender equality.

When he was a law student, the young Barack Obama protested the lack of diversity on the Harvard Law faculty. He praised the legendary Derrick Bell for leading these protests. Professor Bell, in an act of enormous courage, was willing to yield his Harvard Law professorship to the cause of increasing faculty diversity. What a twist of fate if the first black president -- of both the Harvard Law Review and the United States of America--seemed to be untroubled by a 21st Century Harvard faculty that hired largely white men.

The writers are all professors of law: Guy-Uriel Charles is at Duke Law School; Anupam Chander is at the University of California-Davis School of Law; Luis Fuentes-Rohwer is at Indiana University's School of Law; and Angela Onwuachi-Willig is at the University of Iowa College of Law.

This piece has been slightly revised since its initial publication.


Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Who's Right Specter or Obama? Specter said Kagan wasn't qualified to be Solicitor General: Obama said she is highly qualified to be on the high court!

Black Buzz News Service
Harrisburg PA.
May 11, 2010
(BBNS)
Senator Arlen Specter found that Elena Kagan, was not remotely qualified for the Mickey Mouse Job of Solicitor General of the United States. But the inexperience Barack Obama, states that Kagan is highly qualified to serve as an Associate Justice on the United States Supreme Court.
Hopefully the selection of Kagan by Obama, will result in his Harriet Miers moment. So what gives Mr. President, and Mr. Specter ?
President Obama, and his top aides again look awfully amateurish, and out of sync in vetting Ms. Kagan, and Senator Specter.
Specter has no credibility whatsoever with the voters of Pennsylvania.
If Obama comes into the Keystone state, that will seal the deal for Mr. Sestak.
YES WE CAN


Turncoat Specter Voted Against Kagan for Solicitor General: Now Specter says she is highly qualified to serve on the high court. (Strange)

BLACK BUZZ NEWS SERVICE
Pittsburgh PA.
May 11, 2010
Breaking News
( BBNS )
Arlen Specter, who is Pennsylvania's modern day version of Benedict Arnold, voted against Elena Kagan, for the position of Solicitor General of the United States, in which he claimed she didn't have the necessary legal experience or qualifications to be the Solicitor General of the United States. Now since Specter has changed Parties, he has found the same Kagan to be highly qualified to sit on the highest court in the land.
So this is just business as usual ?
The Democrats in the state of Pennsylvania must think all the voters in the keystone state are complete idiots and morons.
Our boy Specter is most proud of having voted 92.2 percent of the time for the policies Ronald Reagan, George W.H Bush, and George W. Bush.
Like a typical political trader, Arlen Specter thinks that he can have his cake and eat it too.
If I was Specter, I would keep Barry Obama, out of the Keystone state. You see what happened when Obama when into state of Massachusetts.
The Democratic candidate ( Martha Coakely ) lost by 18 percent to an obscure State Legislator named bad news Brown. The old Plymouth Bay Colony is a lot more liberal than Pennsylvania.
Well I say to voters of the great state of Pennsylvania don't let Specter play you for a fool, and reject him on May 18, 2010
Hey Arlen, which way is the Political wind blowing today ?

Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee must ask themselves this question: Has Kagan really earned a lifetime appointment to the highest court ?

BLACK BUZZ NEWS SERVICE
Why, Arizona
May 11, 2010
( BBNS )

Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee/ full Senate must ask themselves this question: Has Elena Kagan really truly earned a lifetime appointment as an Associate Justice, on the U.S. Supreme Court ?
If your answer is yes. Then you should vote to confirm her weak candidacy.
If your answer is no. Then you should vote NO
How can any good American that has a reasonable amount of intelligence vote to confirm Kagan ?
Do you need a smoking gun ? How about Goldman Sachs ?

Yes Elena Kagan Is The Democratic Version Of Harriet Miers

BLACK BUZZ NEWS SERVICE
Chevy Chase, Maryland
May 11, 2010
( BBNS)

Elena Kagan is the principal person responsible for banning the U.S. Military from recruiting at the Harvard Law School. This is the same U.S. military that is helping to keep Ms. Kagan safe at home, and whose members are shedding their blood and dying for the stars and stripes around the globe.
Kagan's actions in the case of banning U.S. Military from the Harvard campus gives the appearance that she is Anti-American.
So the Harvard men, and women are too good to serve their country ?
So why should Kagan have a lifetime position on the nations highest court while holding such Anti-American views of the U.S. Military ?
Kagan also has a very thin paper trail, and she has published very little on academic scholarship.
Kagan like Obama is in the hip pocket of Goldman Sachs. Watch how Kagan ducks, and dodges questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee about her role in the Goldman Sachs fiasco.
Perhaps Booker T. Obama will give Kagan some free Tap dance lessons.
Kagan is a closet Bircher, and the right should be totally satisfied with her candidacy.
Elena Kagan is another Harriet Miers.
Aren't there any attractive women in the USA legal profession ?
YES WE CAN

Monday, May 10, 2010

Black Women Get Taken For Granted Again: As Obama Nominates A Closet Bircher In Elana Kagan To The U.S. Supreme Court.

BLACK BUZZ NEWS SERVICE
Washington D.C.
May 9, 2010
Breaking News

President Barack Obama has selected Elena Kagan, as his nominee to fill Justice John Paul Stevens seat on the U.S. Supreme Court.
As I stated in my previous blog posting on April 23, 2010 and April 15, 2010 at http://blackbuzz.blogspot.com/ that the Boston Celtics will start an American White player on their basketball team before Barack Obama nominates a Black woman to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Indeed the cold calculating politician Obama, has taken Black women for granted again by selecting an American Jewish woman, who has deep roots in the Ivy League.
Obama listened to the advice of his AI PAC advisers in selecting Kagan, and that was part of the deal that when Obama brought Kagan into the administration that she would get a Supreme Court nomination. American Jews didn't give Obama nearly the number of votes that Blacks gave him, but Blacks don't own or control anything on Wall Street or Madison Avenue. And for the most part many American Jews remain hostile toward Obama for his perceived Anti-Israeli views. Perhaps now B'nai Brith will give Obama their annual Man of the Year Award.
Kagan and Obama were law school buddies ( faculty members) at the University of Chicago School of Law. And the University of Chicago Law School is not known as a liberal or progressive law school.
So Black folks are to accept Kagan because she clerked for "Our Titan Thurgood Marshall ? " I don't give a damn whether Kagan clerked for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., she is the wrong choice at the wrong time for the position of Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Kagan has too many Conservatives backing her, and that should signal a major red flag to progressives. Furthermore Kagan doesn't have any Judicial experience, and she is not as remotely qualified as the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the state of Georgia, Leah Ward Sears.
Its quite apparent that Obama didn't give a tinker's damn about the number of Black women who voted for his tired behind.
Black females were Obama's strongest constituents, and they did all the heavy lifting in getting Obama into the White House. The numbers don't lie. But Black women must again be regulated to the back of the bus in being last in line for a Supreme Court appointment. ( Yes We Can )
When will Black people finally wake up, and see Obama for the true conniving fraudulent political hustler that he is ? Is Obama any different than the horrible plantation owner of the antebellum period, who only used Black women to satisfy their lust and personal interest ? Obama had designs on being President while attending Harvard University, and he knew that he couldn't have a white blue eyed blond as his mate so in comes Michele Robinson. I surmise that his marriage to Michele Robinson was a bold political calculation solely for his own career benefit.
Can one imagine Obama, traveling down in Alabama, or Mississippi or anywhere in the USA with a white blond, blue eyed, on his arm as his wife while seeking the office of President of the United States ? Black women would have correctly told Barry Obama to take a hike.
The ambivalent Democratic Party has always taken Black support, and our votes for granted. When election day is over the Democrats say the "hell with those darkies." Look at the way Obama, and Democrats treated the Black farmers who won their law suit against the USDA.
Why must we continue to let the Democratic Party treat us as second class citizens, even with a tan face in the White House who appears to be cleverly anti-Black? If any Black person ever again votes for Obama for the Presidency then you need to get your little pea brain examined.
I suspect that Black Americans will moan, and gripe about Obama's selection of Kagan for the high court, but they will religiously adjust like "good little pickaninny's.
The painful thing is that so many Black people have their heads so far up Obama's posterior that they don't even have the heart to fight anymore. Black Americans have become psychologically neutered. Black people should make Obama pay a terrible political price for his duplicity in selecting the closet Bircher Kagan.
Watch the corporate sponsored media give us a steady diet of Negro apologists like the slick head Rev. Al Sharpton, the sell out Ben Jealous, the former Mayor of San Fransisco Willie Brown, Cynthia Tucker, Michele Bernard, and others who will attempt to give political cover to the condescending Obama.
Black people have been duped, and tricked by the smooth slick- hip pimp talking Obama, whose is only concern is about brokering and furthering the interest of his corporate sponsors on Wall Street and Madison Ave. Obama serves at the behest of his well heeled corporate sponsors, but Obama should be aware of the fact that the"Lord giveth, and the good Lord taketh away.
Oh ! Obama does have an agenda, but it hasn't nothing to do with Black Americans, or the middle class its all about beholden to his AI PAC friends and cronies.
The appointment of a Supreme Court Jurist is the most important appointment that President Obama will make in his presidency.
Our Yes we can President Obama, will never nominate a Black person for any opening for the Supreme Court even if he's in office for 8 years.
Is this the change you voted for ?
May 10, 2010 will go down in U.S. history as one the darkest days of the young republic.

"The two Parties have combined against us to nullify our power by a gentleman's agreement of non-recognition, no matter how we vote.
May God write us down as Asses, if ever again we are found putting our trust in either the Republican or Democratic Parties, "
W.E. Dubois ( 1868-1963 )









Sunday, May 9, 2010

Lacrosse player George Huguely charged in fellow U-Va. student Yeardley Love's death

By Mary Pat Flaherty and Jenna JohnsonWashington Post Staff Writers

Tuesday, May 4, 2010
CHARLOTTESVILLE -- They were standout athletes who went to the University of Virginia to play for the school's nationally ranked lacrosse teams.

George Huguely, 22, of Chevy Chase had been the starting quarterback, an honor roll student and a lacrosse all-American at the renowned Landon School.

Yeardley Love, 22, of Baltimore County had been a four-year member of the lacrosse and field hockey teams at Notre Dame Prep in Baltimore.

At some point, they had a romantic relationship. But early Monday, Love was found dead inside her apartment, and a few hours later, Huguely was charged in her death.

The university community was grappling with Love's slaying. Members of the men's and women's lacrosse teams closed ranks and were keeping to themselves. But the rest of the campus was openly devastated by the news. "This death moves us to deep anguish for the loss of a student of uncommon talent and promise," U-Va. President John Casteen said.

Charlottesville Police Chief Tim Longo said there were no previous reports to police of violence between the U-Va. seniors.

Officers responded to a call about 2:15 a.m. Monday for a possible alcohol overdose at Love's apartment, but once there, Longo said, they found Love dead in her bedroom with "obvious physical trauma." The chief declined to describe Love's injuries but said police do not think a weapon was involved.

Longo said police have no other suspects in the case. Love and Huguely, he said, "have had a romantic relationship, but the exact status of that at this time is part of our investigation."

Love was found by a roommate, Longo said, at their apartment about three blocks off campus in the 200 block of 14th Street NW. Huguely was found at his nearby apartment, questioned and arrested by about 9 a.m., Longo said. Huguely was being held in Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail and was scheduled for a bond hearing Tuesday.

At the Cockeysville, Md., home of Love's family, a woman who answered the telephone Monday and identified herself as a designated spokesman said, "The family has no comment at this time."

When reached by telephone, Huguely's grandfather, George Huguely III, said: "He was a wonderful child, and he was going to graduate. Hopefully he will be graduating. That's all I can tell you, okay? I'm sorry."

Huguely is an anthropology major, according to his online university team profile. He was a high-school all-American before joining the university lacrosse team, which is ranked No. 1 in the U.S. Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association coaches' poll.

Huguely, a reserve for the Cavaliers who has four goals and three assists in 15 games, was quoted in a 2006 Washington Post story defending his former Landon teammates, who were among the Duke University players involved in a controversial sexual assault case. They were later exonerated.

Love's profile, like Huguely's, shows a record of sports achievement, from playing for Notre Dame Prep to becoming a collegiate starter. She majored in government with a Spanish minor. She was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority, where members gathered on a porch Monday night, trying to avoid television crews setting up across the street.
Notre Dame headmistress Sister Patricia McCarron said Love, who played varsity lacrosse and field hockey for four years, was a joyous, spirited person. Mary Bartel, who coached Love in lacrosse at the school, said she was the core personality of the team and an outstanding athlete.

The possibility that one accomplished U-Va. student might have killed another caused Casteen to react with anger and anguish in a statement released Monday.

"We express the University's and our own sympathy for Yeardley's family, team-mates and friends," he said. "That she appears now to have been murdered by another student compounds this sense of loss by suggesting that Yeardley died without comfort or consolation from those closest to her. We mourn her death and feel anger on reading that the investigators believe that another student caused it."

Elizabeth VanDyke, 22, lives in a building across from Love's and said she was rousted by sirens. When she looked onto a driveway that crosses between the buildings, VanDyke said, she saw a woman she recognized as one of Love's roommates "wailing on her cellphone," as a man tried to calm her.

The scene was frightening, said VanDyke, a U-Va. senior nursing major. "We were too afraid to come outside and see what was going on," she said Monday afternoon, as two police cars were stationed outside the complex. "It feels very surreal. Like I am in an episode of CSI."

Neither Robinson Bordley, Landon School's lacrosse and football coach, nor Drew Johnson, the school's athletic director, were made available to comment. A Landon communications officer said no one at the school would have any comment on Huguely until the criminal investigation had run its course.

Casteen went on to say in his statement "that, however little we may know now about Yeardley Love's death, we do know that she did not have or deserve to die -- that she deserved the bright future she earned growing up, studying here, and developing her talents as a lacrosse player. She deserves to be remembered for her human goodness, her capacity for future greatness, and not for the terrible way in which her young life has ended."

Flaherty reported from Washington. Staff writers Zach Berman and Mark Viera in Charlottesville and Steve Yanda in Washington contributed to this report.













For victim, a lacrosse dream cut short

By Whitey Reid THE CHARLOTTESVILLE DAILY PROGRESS
Published: May 3, 2010

Coming out of Notre Dame Preparatory in Towson, Md., Yeardley Love’s college decision was a fairly easy one.

“I had wanted to play lacrosse at Virginia since I was little,” Love told Virginiasports.com last March, “so coming here was like a dream come true.”

The dream ended in tragedy when Love was found dead in her apartment early Monday morning.

The news left her friends grief-stricken, such that several former teammates said they were too upset to talk.

George Huguely, a member of the men’s lacrosse team at UVa, has been charged with first-degree murder in connection with the 22-year-old’s death.

Those who knew Love from her days at Notre Dame Preparatory spoke warmly about the student, person and player.

“Yeardley was an outstanding young lady — joyous, spirited, a wonderful person,” said Sister Patricia McCarron, Notre Dame’s headmistress.

“I know we all enjoyed watching her on the lacrosse field and seeing her walk the hallways at NDP. We are proud to call Yeardley one of our girls.”

A Cockeysville, Md., native, Love essentially grew up in one of lacrosse’s biggest hotbeds. She was named second-team all-Baltimore County by the Baltimore Sun in 2005. As a freshman at Virginia in 2007, Love — a defender who wore uniform No. 1 — was part of the Cavaliers’ team that made it to the NCAA championship in Philadelphia.

As a junior, Love started nine of the team’s 16 games. This season, she started three times.

In the interview with Virginiasports.com last spring, Love said one of her biggest influences was Mary Bartel, her coach at Notre Dame.

“She was an awesome coach that always pushed me to work harder,” Love said. “She not only prepared me to play at the college level, but she taught me important life lessons. She always put a strong focus on good sportsmanship and working together as a team.”

To hear Bartel tell it, Love was the glue to her squads, which always ranked among the most competitive in the area.

“Yeardley was the core of the personality of the team — she was our laughter, a good soul,” Bartel said in a news release. “She always found an appropriate way to lighten things up.

“I don’t think there is a soul in this [school] building who couldn’t say her name without smiling. Yeardley loved NDP and NDP loved her. She was a good soul and an outstanding athlete.”

Other Notre Dame faculty members echoed Bartel.

“Everyone here who knew Yeardley is really struck with disbelief and devastation,” said Cami Colarossi, the school’s director of communications. “She was a lovely girl. All the teachers who knew her — she was just a lovely girl.”

A Notre Dame school receptionist, who wasn’t permitted to give her name, per school policy, said Love always had a smile on her face.

“She was a tremendously lovely girl and a wonderful student, wonderful person,” she said. “It’s a big loss.

“She was always a friendly and caring individual. You can pretty much tell when kids come from a home where there is a lot of refinement, and she was definitely one.”

Elite Program, Awful Crime

May 3, 2010, 06:55 PM ET

By Libby Sander, THE CHRONICLE of Higher Education

The University of Virginia is reeling today from the news that a member of its top-ranked men's lacrosse team has been accused of murdering a player on the women's lacrosse team.

George Huguely, a senior, was arrested this morning and has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Yeardley Love, also a senior, authorities in Charlottesville said earlier today. Mr. Huguely is in custody.

Few details have emerged at this early stage, but here's what we do know: Police were called to Ms. Love's apartment around 2 a.m. for a possible alcohol overdose, and found Ms. Love, who was pronounced dead at the scene and had "suffered visible physical trauma," according to a police statement. Mr. Huguely was arrested a short time later.

The university's president, John T. Casteen III, said the death "moves us to deep anguish." In what is clearly a carefully crafted statement, he went on to say: "That she appears now to have been murdered by another student compounds this sense of loss."

Appears. What a difference one word makes. Earlier in the day, one of Mr. Casteen's colleagues, Leonard W. Sandridge, the university's chief operating officer, was markedly less guarded in his choice of words. "The shock and disappointment and concern is magnified by the fact that she was murdered by one of our own," he told the Roanoke Times.

It's a strong statement given that university officials usually walk on eggshells to avoid doing what we in the news business call "convicting someone in print." Maybe it was a misquote. Or maybe it was a candid comment from a man who was simply stunned—and had yet to be coached by lawyers on how (or how not) to talk to the press.

For the next few days, Virginia will be known as the site of a murder involving two photogenic athletes from a top lacrosse program. And officials will learn, quickly, how to grapple with the unwelcome scrutiny that only a shocking crime can bring.

Message from President Casteen, University of Virginia

Monday, May 3, 2010 (1:33 p.m.)

Earlier today, we released a statement about a Charlottesville Police investigation of an apparent homicide in which the victim is a University of Virginia student. A just-released update of an earlier Charlottesville Police statement about this investigation identifies the victim as Yeardley Love, a fourth-year student from Cockeysville, Maryland, and a Varsity lacrosse player. The updated Charlottesville Police Department statement appears just below this one along with advice to students from University Police Chief Michael Gibson. The Charlottesville Police statement also discloses that George Huguely, a fourth-year student from Chevy Chase, Maryland, and a Varsity men's lacrosse player, has been charged with First Degree Murder, and is in custody at the Charlottesville/Albemarle jail. We urge all students and faculty/staff to read both of the following statements with care.

Although we know nothing other than what appears in the Charlottesville Police Department's more recent statement, this death moves us to deep anguish for the loss of a student of uncommon talent and promise, and we express the University's and our own sympathy for Yeardley's family, team-mates, and friends. That she appears now to have been murdered by another student compounds this sense of loss by suggesting that Yeardley died without comfort or consolation from those closest to her. We mourn her death and feel anger on reading that the investigators believe that another student caused it. Like students who have contacted us in the last few minutes, we know no explanation of what appears now to have happened.

Police investigators and the courts will eventually determine what happened and make judgments on the basis of evidence submitted by the police and the Commonwealth's Attorney. Meantime, along with all in the University and family members and friends elsewhere, we grieve and ache for this loss. It is easy to imagine that professional counseling services may prove useful to any number of students as we try to assimilate this information. If you wish to meet with a counselor or one of the deans, call the office of the dean of students at 924-7133, and if you believe that a friend or acquaintance needs support and is not asking for it, call the same number, and explain what you have seen. Don't hesitate to call. Don't feel embarrassment about calling. Don't keep quiet about a grieving friend who seems to need assistance but to be unable to request it.

And let us all acknowledge that, however little we may not know now about Yeardley Love's death, we do know that she did not have or deserve to die--that she deserved the bright future she earned growing up, studying here, and developing her talents as a lacrosse player. She deserves to be remembered for her human goodness, her capacity for future greatness, and not for the terrible way in which her young life has ended.

John Casteen

A Statement from the Charlottesville Police Department

Monday, May 3, 2010 (1:33 p.m.)

University Student Found Deceased (Update)

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA – Regarding the death of a University of Virginia student occurring at a 14th ST N.W. apartment, the victim has since been identified as 22 year old, Yeardley Love. Ms. Love was a fourth year University of Virginia Student from Cockeysville, Maryland who played on the Women’s Lacrosse Team.

Preliminary investigation by detectives revealed that Ms. Love is the victim of an apparent homicide. She suffered visible physical trauma, however the specific cause of death is undetermined pending an autopsy.

George Huguely, a senior at the University of Virginia from Chevy Chase MD who plays for the UVA Men’s lacrosse team, has been charged with First Degree Murder and is in custody at the Charlottesville/Albemarle jail.

According to witnesses, Huguely and Love had a past relationship.

Charlottesville Police are continuing to investigate the case and will provide more details as they become available.

Anyone with additional information about this incident is asked to call Charlottesville Police Sergeant Mark Brake at 970-3970 or Crime Stoppers at 977-4000.

A Message from Mike Gibson, Chief of Police

Monday, May 3, 2010 (9:18 a.m.)

This email is to alert the community that the Charlottesville Police Department is conducting an investigation on the suspicious death of one of our students in a private residence in the 14th Street area. While very few details are available at this time we would encourage the community to visit the UVA Homepage for updated information.

While Charlottesville remains a relatively safe environment, crimes do occur in our community. The best defense is to be prepared and to take responsibility for your own safety and for that of your friends and fellow students. A few key reminders:

*Trust your instincts about a person or situation. If you feel uncomfortable, immediately report your concerns to police by calling 911.
*If you are on the Grounds and need help, pick up one of the blue-light telephones. You will be immediately connected to University Police. Be aware of your surroundings. Do not let a cell phone conversation or listening to music distract you when crossing the street or in any type of situation that calls for your full attention.
*Avoid isolated areas and walking alone at night. Use SafeRide (434-242-1122), walk with friends, or take a late-night weekend bus.
*Keep your doors and windows locked.
*Never allow strangers to follow you into a locked building and gain entry by “tailgating” you once you swipe the card reader in a residence hall. Also, never prop open card-reader doors.
*If you see any of the following, immediately call the police at 911: a prowler, someone peeping into a residence, an individual watching, photographing or filming an area, or any other suspicious behavior.
*Work with your neighbors and fellow community members to ensure a safe environment.
For additional safety tips from University Police, please see http://www.virginia.edu/uvapolice/prevention.html#Residence.

Friday, May 7, 2010

Thomas Opposed for Supreme Court

BLACK BUZZ NEWS SERVICE
The National Black Political
Caucus, Archives
Pittsburgh PA.


The following article appeared in The Pittsburgh Press on August 20, 1991 titled Thomas opposed for Supreme Court

Thomas opposed for Supreme Court

The National Black Political Caucus, a Pittsburgh based group has announced it will oppose the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the U. S. Supreme Court.
The Caucus has criticized Thomas' opposition to Affirmative Action and said his tenure as chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission "was a total disaster."
It is our considered belief that when Judge Thomas was director of the EEOC he seriously undermined and severely weakened on the highest law enforcement agencies in the Country by repeatedly using voluntary compliance rather than enforcement," the Caucus, said in a statement.
Ronald B. Saunders is Chairman and Reginald D. Plato is President of the Caucus.

Officers of the National Black Political Caucus along with U. S. Senator Howard Metzenbaum, ( D ) of Ohio met with Clarence Thomas, Chair of the EEOC and EEOC staff Attorney's on June 26, 1986 at the EEOC office in Washington D.C.

Senator Metzenbaum began the meeting by informing Mr. Thomas that he had received complaints from various members of the National Black Political Caucus in Steubenville Ohio and Warren Ohio. Senator Mezenbaum further stated that he had also received complaints from Pittsburgh PA, and throughout the U.S. for the lack of in-depth investigations of complaints filed with the EEOC. Metzenbaum said he was sick and tired, of the EEOC treating Charging Party's as though they were aliens in there own country with such legal jargon that the average Joe can't understand.
Mr. Edward Mixon, the first African American elected to public office ( Councilman ) in the City of Steubenville Ohio, and an officer of the National Black Political Caucus, said the EEOC Office had his case for well over three years and had failed to contact him on the progress of the case. William Snyder, another officer of the National Black Political Caucus, from Wheeling West Virginia said over 21 people had come to him about the lack of progress on there cases, and when the EEOC did contact his constituents it was to tell them they found no cause to credit the allegations of their charges. Tim Holt, another officer of the Caucus in Detroit Michigan, said he had received many complaints from his people on the number of times that the EEOC found no cause for their charges.. Reginald D. Plato, President of the NBPC said that the Pittsburgh office was not living up to its statutory mandates by dismissing so many charges do to a lack of Jurisdiction.
Janis W. Henfield, Secretary of the National Black Political Caucus in Arlington Virginia, said the she knew that the EECO had a very high rate of no cause findings in race discrimination complaints, and she requested that Senator Mezenbaum and his colleagues on the Senate Labor & Government Committee begin to conduct hearings on lack of accountability in handling race discrimination charges in all the EEOC District Offices throughout the USA.
Ronald B. Saunders, Chairman of the National Black Political Caucus, said in case after case throughout the U.S. that the EEOC had substituted good law enforcement of its statue's with voluntary compliance which is basically a sham. Saunders said voluntary compliance does not get to root cause of the discrimination and that most individual charges have pattern implications which the EEOC avoids like the plague.
Alton Jones, of the National Black Political Caucus D. C. Office, said most charges at EEOC are dismissed for a lack of Jurisdiction, and he considered many of the charges to be valid, but people who file charges can't get anyone at EEOC to explain what is going on with their charges.
The EEOC staff attorney's listen very attentively and they requested information on specific cases and they informed all parties present that they would look into all of our concerns in an expeditious fashion.
Senator Metzenbaum informed Clarence Thomas, that the public perception of EEOC was very negative. Senator Metzenbaum said "Mr. Thomas you people at EEOC know you are not doing your jobs, and the little man and women in the street can't get any relief when they file charges because you talk to them in a language that is over there head."
Senator Metzenbaum further stated that either this agency is going to shape up and enforce the law or there will be changes made at this agency. The only thing that Clarence Thomas said was I thank everyone for their attendance, and that he would review all of our concerns with all his attorney's, and Regional Directors and report back to Senator Metzenbaum, and members of the National Black Political Caucus.

* The National Black Political Caucus did testify against Clarence Thomas at his Confirmation Hearing for the position of Justice on said U.S. Supreme Court.