Perp Walk: House Panel Recommends Censure of Rep. Charlie Rangel

The House Ethics Committee recommended censure for Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY), the most serious punishment it can hand out short of expulsion. Rangel was found guilty of 11 ethics violations, including failing to pay taxes on rental property, failure to report personal income, and improper fund-raising.

It is a sad day for any of us that admire this 80-year old man. Much of his legacy is tarnished by this recommendation. It is a reminder to all of us that we need to check ourselves before we wreck ourselves.

Taser Lawsuit: Family of Javier Aguilar Wins $1 Million from City of Roswell

The government officials in Roswell, New Mexico blinked. The city decided to pay $1 million rather than face a lawsuit into the extra-judicial electrocution of Javier Aguilar back in March 2008.





We are seeing more and more of these 7-figure settlements as the 'powers-that-be' realize that they cannot defend many of the taser-related deaths that are taking place each week in America.

Sarah Palin: 'I Believe I Can Beat President Obama' [VIDEO]

Sarah Palin is starting to drink the Tea Party kool-aid. It is becoming more and more obvious that she plans to take her experience as a half-term governor and losing vice presidential candidate into a 2012 campaign for the presidency. She says as much in a interview with Barbara Walters:





The Republican Party truly is feeling the rush of adrenalin from the recent mid-term election results. Do any of you truly believe that Sarah Palin is presidential material?

Rangel Found Guilty of Violating House Ethics

I'm very disappointed in Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY). He allowed his arrogance, ego and pride to get in the way of his commonsense and ethics. As a result a House Ethics subcommittee was able to find him guilty of 11 ethics violations after a two-year investigation.


Rangel had been accused of 13 charges, including misusing rent-controlled apartments, using his office to solicit donations to an educational center and improperly filing taxes and financial statements. The committee found he had violated all but one charge; two of the counts were rolled into one in the final verdict.


The findings will be sent to the full committee, who will make a recommendation to the House regarding Rangel's punishment. The House ethics committee set a hearing for tomorrow on the appropriate punishment for Rangel, a Democrat who formerly wielded great influence as chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee.

Subcommittee chair Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) noted,

"We have tried to act with fairness, led only by the facts and the law, and I believe we have accomplished that mission."

The last time this subcommittee held a trial like this was in 2002 against Rep. James Traficant (D-OH). Traficant was eventually kicked out of the House of Representatives. Nobody thinks that 80-year old Rangel will face similiar punishment. Possible sanctions include a House vote deploring his conduct, a fine and denial of certain privileges.

Rangel didn't to himself any favors when the subcommittee met earlier this week. He walked out of the 'courtroom' when the subcommittee lawyer acting as the matter's prosecutor spent just minutes cycling through the evidence against him. After playing video clips of a speech in which the Harlem Democrat admitted wrongdoing, the lawyer, Blake Chisam, called no witnesses, an apparent testament to the strength of the case against Rangel, who openly admitted on the House floor that he broke some rules.


There are some who say that Rangel didn't do anything more than others have done before.  African Americans have always known that we cannot get away with the same things that others get away with.  We still need to operate on the premise of doing twice as much to get half as far.


Rangel is learning the hard way that nobody is above the law. It is a sad way for this old lion to end his career.

Wordless Wednesday: Sextuplets in Ohio

GOP Congressman Cantor Supports Foreign Leader Against President Obama

I guess it is inevitable that the Republican Party leadership will begin to get a swollen sense of ego. They will begin to demonstrate a feeling of entitlement. They will start to think that they are "all that and a bag of chips".

That is all I can conclude as I heard about the promise that Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) made to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu last week. Cantor wanted Netanyahu to know that the GOP had his back. Cantor met with Netanyahu -- the same day when the actual U.S. Secretary of State met with Netanyahu -- and vowed that he and his GOP colleagues would protect and defend Israeli interests against his own Government. According to a statement proudly issued by Cantor's own office:

"Eric stressed that the new Republican majority will serve as a check on the Administration and what has been, up until this point, one party rule in Washington," the readout continued. "He made clear that the Republican majority understands the special relationship between Israel and the United States, and that the security of each nation is reliant upon the other."

Even Jewish power brokers were shocked at Cantor's statement of loyalty to Netanyahu. Jewish Telegraphic Agency's bureau chief in Washington, Ron Kampeas, declared that Cantor's statement was "extraordinary." He wrote that he could not "remember an opposition leader telling a foreign leader, in a personal meeting, that he would side, as a policy, with that leader against the President."


I suspect that we will hear Cantor backtrack on his pledge to Netanyahu soon. It is one thing to be ego-driven in private. It's another thing when you ego-driven statements go public.

Village Tips: In Business, Fear = 1000 Deaths

Please welcome Anthony Hall to the Electronic Village. He agreed to share a Villager Tip that might prove useful for many of us!

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What is your worst sales or any type of presentation nightmare?

Is it spilling coffee all over your suit right before you go on? Or dumping a bowl spaghetti on your laptop and in your lap? How about getting a blue screen right in the middle of demonstrating your new software?

Everyone has had those kinds of near disasters and worse. You will have to be the judge, but I believe mine qualifies as a ‘worse case scenario’.

Imagine the scene: The historic German city of Bad Kreuznach, during Christmas, all white and lit up. The hardware partner had brought in all their software vendors, along with some choice prospective customers.

The wives and girlfriends are being entertained with shopping trips into town and a cruise on the Nahe river, a tributary of the Rhine. Dinners are set up in an old wine cellar below the hotel and small conference center. Everyone is having a merry time… except me.

I thought I was prepared; but it turned out, not quite well enough.

There is a panel of us vendors, fielding questions and tossing back answers – no problem. I am a rock.

But for some reason when it became my turn to have the floor to myself; it shifted beneath me and I could not regain my balance. It’s a good thing they couldn’t tell I was blushing.

Maybe I should have opened with a joke in German. I can do that much. Somehow I managed to get through it without totally falling all over the place, and ended on an up note.

Now on the surface, this may not seem like much; but the part I didn’t stress is that not only was I presenting in front of partners and customers, but also in front of all our chief competitors.

QStar, K-Par, KOM, BridgeHead and StorageQuest. How am I going to show my face at the next tradeshow or partner conference? I see these guys all the time; at shows or during RFQs (Request For Quotation).

Especially QStar.

We were pretty much #1 & #2, going back and forth in the rankings. They’d close a big deal, then we’d knock one out of the park. Sometimes they’d get a string of them going, and because I subscribed to their newsletter, I would know when they did.

My contemporary at QStar is a guy named Todd Deveney. We’d run into each other all over the place: from San Francisco to Vegas, Dallas to Chicago, New York to Orlando, London to Rotterdam, Hanover to Vienna.

Now Todd is a funny guy and keeps everyone laughing, but he can also make it sting. He’s good; and we’re always going at it.

I was in Munich a couple of years ago and while doing some shopping down town, came across a ‘Bob’s Big Boy’ sitting on the sidewalk. Like someone had just placed it there.

So I took a picture of it on my Blackberry and sent it to Todd saying, “I see they have erected a statue in your honor”.

He’s always giving me those kinds of cracks. Well, I got him with that one. We had a great laugh about it on the phone.

Todd was also there when I went down in flames, and he was real cool about it. I’ve always appreciated that about him, because he has never once mentioned it when we’re joking around. He’s a good friend.

What also helped me was the fact I acknowledged certain points that one or two of my other competitors made as part of my introduction. We had some good laughs later that night over a few “große Bier”.

This experience taught me that the only way to recover from such ‘disasters’, is to have people you can talk to about it with; ones who can really relate.

I also learned that if you look closely enough, such ones are all around you. One of them just might be in the most unlikely of places.

Maybe I’ll get that picture framed for Todd.

Copyright ©2010 Anthony Hall

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Asante sana to Anthony for sharing his tip with us. Have any of you experienced similar issues with making presentations in front of people?

Taser Death: Troy Hooftallen (Punxsutawney, PA)

The facts on this case are murky. Family members indicate that Troy Hooftallen, 26, of Punxsutawney, PA died on Tuesday, October 19 after being electrocuted multiple times by the taser of an unidentified police officer. I came across this comment to a posting on Solomon's Words For The Wise blog:

"He was Tazed by Police twice and had Head Trama from being knocked to the floor and was Choked By police at the Same time. All this was done after Police were called to the scene For a Man who Overdosed on some kind of drugs. I know this from family members whom i have spoke with Personally. His Uncle who showed up to the scene even tried to pull the police off of him when he was being choked by the officer after being Tazed Not once but Twice. He was unable to move after being tazed so why did they tackle and choke him. This young man was in need of medical help not this kind of treatment from the police. Nice work guys."

Criminal investigators from the Pennsylvania State Police are currently investigating the death of Mr. Hooftallen. All we know for certain at this point is that he was transported to Punxsutawney Hospital and then to Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, where he was pronounced dead.

An autopsy is being performed to determine the cause and manner of death.

Troy previously worked as the assistant manager at Price Chopper in Scranton. He was an avid Denver Broncos fan, enjoyed playing basketball, softball, lifting weights and being outdoors.

Please let this blog know if you hear any new information on this taser-related death.

Taser Lawsuit: Jeffry Woodward (Gallatin, TN)

Jeffry Woodward died as a result of electro-shock torture from Gallatin police officers last year.   Readers of this blog recall that Mr. Woodward called police on October 27, 2009 "to report a home invasion and that his mother was in danger."   He thought that someone had kidnapped his mother.

The police arrived.  They checked his home and saw that his mother was unharmed.   The police decided to arrest Woodward for "filing a false police report."    The video news report on what happened next is horrifying.

Unidentified Gallatin police officers took Woodward out of the car ... they allowed their police dog to bite him and they tasered him multiple times.  Not surprisingly, Mr. Woodward went into cardiac arrest and was soon dead.

All of this was witnessed by neighbors and Woodward's mother.   A recent lawsuit filed by Woodward's mother states,

"While on the ground with a police canine on top of him, officers subjected him to multiple Taser applications.  Eyewitnesses report that during this time, Mr. Woodward was crying out, 'Help me! Help me!' and that she was pleading with officers not to kill her son. ... (T)he gratuitous use of force by the defendant officers against the decedent was unnecessary and resulted in severe injuries and death."

Woodward's wife and mother have filed a lawsuit against Taser International (claiming it misrepresents its products as non-lethal and safe) and the Gallatin Police Department (history of allowing its officers to use excessive and illegal force on civilians, failing to discipline the officers for it, and covering for them by falsely claiming that the beatings were "justified and proper.")

Woodward's family are represented by Joe Bednarz of Nashville.   This blog is hopeful that successful lawsuits against Taser International will drive them into bankruptcy ... and that successful lawsuits against the police department will cause them to use tasers more responsibly.

2011 Blogging While Brown Conference: Call For Ideas (Deadline: 12/3/2010)

2011 BWB Call for Ideas Now Open!

This blog wants you to know about the opening of the Call for Ideas for the 2011 Blogging While Brown conference. This will be a Black Social Media Weekend extravaganza and you can help build it the way you want it.

For the first time attendees will be able to vote on ideas submitted. Ideas are being accepted for the following program tracks:

1. Online Activism
2. The Business of Blogging/
3. Niche and Lifestyle Blogging
4. Hands-On Technical Workshops

The deadline for submissions is December 3, 2010. So don't hold back.   Submit your ideas and help Gina and her crew take the 4th annual Blogging While Brown Conference to the next level in 2011. Next year the conference will be held in Los Angeles, CA on July 8-9, 2011.

Questions?

Email: Aminah@bloggingwhilebrown.com

Old School Friday * Patrice Rushen

Patrice Rushen was trained as a classical pianist. I remember enjoying her vibe back in the late 1970s when I was in college. Here are two of my favorite Rushen songs!







You can learn more about Patrice Rushen from her official website.   Are any of you ol' school enough to remember Sis. Rushen?

Blog Safari #45

Join our rhino guide, Nyabingi, as she takes you through the afrosphere to find some truly creative Black bloggers. We use this semi-regular blog safari to expose you to some Black bloggers that you might otherwise overlook. Visit the links below to enjoy these suggested blog posts!

• Anna Renee Is Still Talking - Obama, Black America's King Saul?
• Black Agenda Report - We Know Tea Party Repubs Are Scary ... Are Democrats Worth Defending At All?
• Black Web 2.0 - Bridging the Digital Divide in Africa
• Field Negro - Daddy's Home (NOT!)
• Pam's House Blend - Five Reasons Why I Am Happy the Republicans Took Over the House of Representatives

Let us know if you come across any remarkable posts that should be shared in our next Blog Safari!

Taser Lawsuit: Linda Hicks (Toledo, OH)

I was glad to see that a lawsuit has been filed against the City of Toledo, the Toledo Police Department and TPD Officer Diane Chandler for their involvement in the taser electrocution of 62-year old Linda Hicks.  Villagers may recall that Ms. Hicks was fatally shot by Officer Chandler on December 14, 2009 at Marria's Adult Family Home.

The lawsuit was filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of Ohio by Charles Boyk, Esq. against the following parties: the City of Toledo (for violation of civil rights and wrongful death); the Toledo Police Department (for violation of civil rights and wrongful death); Officer Diane Chandler, in her individual capacity (for violation of civil rights, gross negligence, assault, battery and wrongful death); and Marria’s Adult Family Home (for negligence and wrongful death).

Ms. Hicks was, at the time of her death, a 5’2”, 62-year-old woman who suffered from schizophrenia and a heart condition that required a pacemaker. She was a resident at Marria’s Adult Family Home.  Police were summoned to that location because Ms. Hicks was reported to be agitated and holding a pair of craft scissors in her room.

Crisis police were requested, but Officer Chandler and another officer, who were not crisis police officers, responded to the scene. Disregarding their lack of proper training with crisis situations and with the mentally ill, Marria’s Adult Family Home allowed the officers to approach Ms. Hicks with weapons drawn.

When the officers arrived at her room, Ms. Hicks was laying facedown on her bed with her hands under her pillow. She was asked to show her hands, and when she did not comply the officers proceeded to Taser her twice (without regard to her pacemaker). After the second shock, Ms. Hicks got out of bed and approached the two officers with the craft scissors in her hand.

At this point, Officer Chandler and the other officer successfully exited the bedroom into the hallway. For a moment, both officers were in the hallway while Ms. Hicks was still in her room. The second officer descended down nearby stairs and exited the scene, while Officer Chandler chose to remain in the hallway. As Ms. Hicks approached Officer Chandler, the officer proceeded to shoot and kill Ms. Hicks.





The lawsuit claims that this sad situation was wholly avoidable. Ms. Hicks was not given her proper medication by Marria’s Adult Family Home; if she had received her medication the scenario could likely have been avoided. The home also allowed Ms. Hicks to have access to the scissors and allowed non-crisis police officers to attempt to diffuse the situation.

I think that it may take lawsuits like this one to get police departments to take more proactive approaches to taser training.  Perhaps if the police have to pay the steep costs of lawsuits they will think twice before using their taser guns for convenience rather than for protection against immediate danger.

After all, how dangerous could a 5'2'' elderly woman with a pair of scissors actually be to trained police officers?

Dr. Melodie Mayberry-Stewart Will Keynote 2010 BDPA New York Scholarship Awards Dinner

Melodie Mayberry-Stewart is the chief information officer for the state of New York. She was recently named one of the Top 50 African Americans in Technology. I'm looking forward to meeting her on Wednesday, November 10, 2010 in Brooklyn NY. I will be the master of ceremonies at the BDPA New York Chapter Scholarship & Awards Dinner. Ms. Mayberry-Stewart will be the keynote speaker.

The purpose of the dinner is to recognize the outstanding contributions of BDPA New York chapter’s community supporters and corporate sponsors as well as award college scholarships to our students, who are members of the BDPA Student Information Technology Education & Scholarship (SITES) program. The SITES program affords students the opportunity to get hands-on computer and web development training, exposure to various careers in Information Technology and develop professional and interpersonal skills (i.e. business etiquette skills, resume writing and team building). This program is designed to develop the next generation of IT Professionals, and encourage African American youth to explore careers in such traditionally underrepresented fields as Computer Science and Information Technology.

Another highlight of the evening will be the announcement of the winners of the Roger Dunn Memorial Scholarship and the Renee McClure Scholarship Awards. These awards go to BDPA SITES students who have demonstrated strong excellent leaderships skills. BETF helped to fund both of these awards in the past.

I hope that you will consider supporting this annual event with your presence in person or via an advertisement in the program guide. Those of you that are unable to find a business-related reason to support the chapter can do so with a tax-deductible donation to the BDPA Education and Technology Foundation.

Taser Death: Robert Neill, Jr. (Mt. Joy, PA)

I think that the Mount Joy Borough Police Department may have screwed up bigtime. They electrocuted a highly decorated Vietnam War veteran and former U.S. Marine with their taser guns last weekend. Robert Neill, Jr. was an unarmed 61-year old man described by those who knew him as a gentle person.

The Lancaster County Vietnam Veterans of America director, Gary Levinson, said

"He was just a really sweet person, a good guy. That's why this was just such a shock to hear something like this."

Mr. Neill made the mistake of calling the police for help. He thought he was being harassed by neighbors. The police thought he had a mental illness and they were coming to take him into custody for a mental commitment.

The police shade their side of the story when it is told to put the dead man in the worst possible light. Here is what Fox affiliate WPMT reports:

“As the police tried to investigate the harassment claims Neil became very aggressive and combative. Neill continued to struggle with the officers after several attempts to calm him down and the officers used a taser on him which did calm him down.”

No shyt Sherlock!? You think that pumping 50,000 volts of electricity into a person might "calm him down"? Perhaps it is not the best way to handle an UNARMED senior citizen, but, why let the facts get in the way of a good story, huh?!

Anyhow, after unidentified officers from the Mount Joy Borough Police Department had tranquilized Neill through a mild dose of taser-torture, officers from two other agencies — the Susquehanna Regional Police Department and the Pennsylvania State Police — arrived on the scene to “assist” the assailants. Thus fortified in their confrontation with the “aggressive,” “combative” man, the heroes once again deployed the taser against Neill. This succeeded in “subduing” the frantic man, who was collected by EMTs and died en route to the hospital. [SOURCE]






State police are investigating the unidentified Mount Joy Borough officers who used Tasers and mace on Neill.

Autopsy results are still pending. The Lancaster County coroner performed an autopsy Monday, but the results are pending a toxicology report.  


Please let this blog know if you become aware of any new information on the taser-related death.

Good News Tuesday: Jonecia Keels and Jazmine Miller (Spelman College)

Jonecia Keels and Jazmine Miller are full-time students at Spelman College. They are the 2010 Big Mobile on Campus winners.

There winning mobile application is called HBCU Buddy. HBCU Buddy is a mobile application created to educate and inform users, including both prospective and current college students, about Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) across the United States.

The application opens with a directory profiling each HBCU with information on academics, admissions, research, student life, alumni and other details. After selecting a school students can navigate through the school – literally – by accessing virtual tours of buildings, on-campus videos, and local GPS and directions. The application also provides students with customizable social networking features to connect with each other, their school and community. Students can use the application to follow the latest on school club and campus happenings, local events, hot spots around the community and more.

Here is interview that Ms. Keel and Ms. Miller gave to NBC on HBCU Buddy:





The future face of technology is all around us ... and that is good news!

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This blog plans to share some good news about people of African descent each and every Tuesday. You can help ... let me know if you see a good news story that you think would inspire our Villagers!

Keith Olberman is BACK!

Keith Olbermann will be back on his MSNBC show tomorrow. He issued the following note:

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Statement To The Viewers Of Countdown

I want to sincerely thank you for the honor of your extraordinary and ground-rattling support.

Your efforts have been integral to the remedying of these recent events, and the results should remind us of the power of individuals spontaneously acting together to correct injustices great or small.

I would also like to acknowledge with respect the many commentators and reporters, including those with whom my politics do not overlap, for their support.

I also wish to apologize to you viewers for having precipitated such anxiety and unnecessary drama. You should know that I mistakenly violated an inconsistently applied rule – which I previously knew nothing about -- that pertains to the process by which such political contributions are approved by NBC. Certainly this mistake merited a form of public acknowledgment and/or internal warning, and an on-air discussion about the merits of limitations on such campaign contributions by all employees of news organizations.

Instead, after my representative was assured that no suspension was contemplated, I was suspended without a hearing, and learned of that suspension through the media.

You should also know that I did not attempt to keep any of these political
contributions secret; I knew they would be known to you and the rest of the public. I did not make them through a relative, friend, corporation, PAC, or any other intermediary, and I did not blame them on some kind of convenient 'mistake' by their recipients.

When a website contacted NBC about one of the donations, I immediately volunteered that there were in fact three of them; and contrary to much of the subsequent reporting, I immediately volunteered to explain all this, on-air and off, in the fashion MSNBC desired.

I genuinely look forward to rejoining you on Countdown on Tuesday, to begin the repayment of your latest display of support and loyalty - support and loyalty that is truly mutual.

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It is nice to see that MSNBC listened to the voice of the people. Villagers who are so inclined should feel free to congratulate Keith on his return.

Taser Death: Mark Shaver (Brimfield, OH)

The penalty for stealing $990 worth of video-games from Wal-Mart Stores should not be death. However, 32-year old Mark Shaver was killed by taser-wielding police in Portage County, Ohio last week.

Here is the story as shared by the folks at E-Portage News. Mark Shaver and Stephanie Eikelberry, 29, entered the Brimfield Wal-Mart store on Tuesday, November 2nd. Shaver allegedly stole $990 work of video games and DVDs and then ran out of the store into a nearby apartment complex. He was chased by Wal-Mart security staff and Brimfield Police Department Sergeant David Knarr and a police dog named 'Havoc'.

Knarr and Havoc chased Shaver for over 1.5 miles before finding him in the woods. Sgt. Knarr didn't feel that Shaver showed respect quickly enough ... so he electrocuted Shaver multiple times with his taser gun. He was then subdued and handcuffed.

He was booked in the early morning hours of Saturday in the Portage County Jail. While in jail Shaver began vomiting and had some diarrhea. Shaver family members indicate that he was found later that weekend in his cell, face down, with no heartbeat. The family feels that the taser shock was part of what killed him.

Brimfield Police Chief Blough thinks that Shaver killed himself as he stated,

"My understanding is that for about 4 to 6 weeks he had been complaining of bad chest pains to his girlfriend, and he refused to go to the doctor. My understanding, is that he allegedly had a pretty strong heroine habit and smoked two to three packs of cigarettes a day. It had absolutely nothing to do with the taser."

I guess we will learn more when the autopsy report is issued.

The BDPA Insider - November 7, 2010

Former National BDPA president Milt Haynes issued The BDPA Insider for the week beginning November 7, 2010.

In this issue:

1. BDPAtoday  [USA Edition]
2. Black Faces in White Places by Randal Pinkett and Jeffrey Robinson
3. IT Job Seeker Accountability Groups
4. Microsoft Charlotte Campus Kicks Off Citizen Schools Computer Apprenticeship Program
5. Bing does THIS & Google does THAT…
6. Can BDPA IT Showcase Winners Join White House Science Fair Next Year?
7. This Week in BDPA (Oct 31 – Nov 7)
8. Rochester Post-Bulletin, 11/1/2010 (Charlie Perkins)
9. Are your skills ready for the opportunities in networking?
10. Tech Corps Ohio
11. Newman Networks News November 4th, 2010
12. How to Network: 7 Ways to Give, Not Just Receive
13. Become a BDPA Lifetime Member and Be Part of the Founder’s Club
14. Top 50+ Novels for Tech Geeks
15. BDPA Today [Chapter Edition]
16. Unemployed find old jobs now require more skills

 You can locate past issues of The BDPA Insider in the archives housed by Blacks Gone Geek.

This Week in Blackness: 'George W. Bush Doesn't Care About Earthlings'

Somehow I've managed to miss the fact that Elon James White is still putting out his This Week in Blackness videos. In fact, when I saw the topic for this week's episode I thought perhaps I had messed up and gotten the dates wrong. After all, this week the big political news was the beat-down given to the Democratic Party in the mid-term elections ... what was Elon doing with his emphasis on the forgotten George W. Bush?

You be the judge!





Do you plan to read George W. Bush book when it comes out?