The Sable Verity

What happened?!

I stepped out for a few hours of Kendo with the boy child, and come home to find all hell is breaking loose here at the local level.  Suddenly everyone is jumping up and screaming race and discrimination.

Our Gov., Christine Gregoire, who, has zero respect in the Black community (hell, that’s why we all voted for the republican) has come out and said that Contrywide Lending is discriminatory in it’s lending practices.  A blurb:

Gov. Chris Gregoire has accused the Countrywide Financial company of discriminatory and predatory lending practices that targeted minority borrowers.  She told a Wednesday news conference at the Urban League office in Seattle that the Washington Department of Financial Institutions is seeking to revoke Countrywide’s license and impose a $1 million penalty.

No one can be sure exactly what it is that she says Countrywide did, because well, beyond that blurb, the highly biased Seattle Times didn’t give any more details.  So while we don’t know what they did here in Washington, apparently it was bad enough to get Chris “I don’t like Black women” Gregiore to say something…either that or the Urban League and James Kelley demanded that she speak up on something they uncovered about Countrywide.  We’ll see.

Also in the Seattle times comes word that a study has been conducted on the disproportionality in the child welfare system.  Another blurb:

Whether children of color are overrepresented in the child-welfare system is a topic that’s long been discussed in certain circles. An extensive report released today answers the question of racial disproportionality definitively.

“Does it exist?” said Department of Social and Health Services Secretary Robin Arnold-Williams. “Yes, very clearly.

Overall, the study showed that African-American and Native American children are more likely than white children to enter the child-welfare system and to be removed from their homes for long periods . Asian-American children, on the other hand, were no more likely to be removed and they were less likely to remain in long-term care than whites children. Hispanic children fared somewhere in the middle, faring worse than whites but better than African Americans and Native Americans.

Well now that we have another study that cost thousands of dollars and told us what we already know, I guess we can move on from that issue.

We flip over to the Seattle PI and find that Robert Jamieson, the Black columnist all the so-called “liberal” Seattle(et al)ites love to hate, has written another article about race, and guess what, crime, big shocker.  The title?  “Another dead black kid– still no justice”.  Hmmm…let’s take a look:

THERE IS no justice for Jessie Drungo. He’s dead, got a knife in the chest at 23.

The man authorities said killed him in Kent nearly two years ago now stands cleared of the crime. Last week, King County prosecutors quietly dismissed a second-degree homicide charge against Lonnie Lee Johnson. They couldn’t prove beyond a reasonable doubt whether he or another man stole Drungo’s life in a parking lot melee.

Translation: weak case.

Prosecutors concede the evidence was “not as strong as anticipated.” They re-interviewed witnesses who were “confused as to who did what.”

And so there’s no justice for Jessie.

Kent police insist they got it right. Lt. Ken Thomas says the witnesses saw a fight but none of them actually saw a knife go into Drungo. “People speculated it was (Johnson’s friend),” Thomas said of the accounts. “But speculation doesn’t get you to probable cause.”

In the end, detectives said they were “disappointed” by the prosecutors’ decision.

Drungo’s mother, meanwhile, feels as if the system failed her — and it did. She echoes others who say such a stunning turn shows some lives matter less, just another dead black kid.This case cries out for review, a do over. You’d want the same if Drungo were your friend, brother, son.

 

Prosecutors, of course, cannot rely on shaky evidence in court; they’d wind up losing. And no one ever wants to see the wrong man railroaded, or a push for revenge trump the pursuit of truth — those would layer more wrongs on this tragedy.

In life Drungo believed in social justice. It would be a shame if he, forever 23, doesn’t get one drop of it.

Just another dead black kid…that is the greater Seattle area for you (Kent is about 16 miles south).

And finally, and probably most surprising of all, came this late breaking bit of news.  It involves Gov. Chris Gregiore, the Democratic party, and her opponent, Dino Rossi, the republican mentioned above.  He ran against Chris and won…but then the Dems did what they do and had the courts overturn the election results…sorta like Bush did when he first stole the presidency. 

Anyhoo, Chris is up for election again real soon here, and Dino, knowing just how close he was to the Governor’s mansion, is taking her on again.

Apparently the Dems ran an ad against Rossi which immediately grabbed the attention of the Italian Club of Seattle, and pissed them off to the enth degree.  So, before I break it down, keep in mind Rossi is Italian (if you hadn’t figured it out).  Click on the video below and tell me if you can spot the racial insult:

I’ll be the first to admit, I watched this video twice and didn’t catch the insult. But I have a good reason; I don’t watch TV and we purposely do not have cable in this house.  I’ve never seen an episode of the Sopranos.  From the Seattle Italian Club (via the Seattle Times article) to Gregiore and the Dems:

The group says the video, which criticizes Rossi’s connections to the Building Industry Association of Washington, “aims to link Italian-American gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi to Italian-American criminals through the use of the theme song to The Sopranos .

The letter, from club president Brian DiJulio, mentions that former Democratic Gov. Albert Rosellini is a member. DiJulio says the video is an attempt to “associate Dino Rossi with criminal activity through the use of negative ethnic stereotyping” and is “beyond offensive.”

Whether the State Democratic Party thought it clever to link Rossi to Italian-American criminals through the use of a popular mobster TV show is irrelevant; it is distasteful, and it is racist. Governor Gregoire, we believe we have your sympathy when we assert that using someone’s ethnic heritage as a negative should not be condoned in this campaign.

DiJulio said in the letter he wants the video pulled from the Democrats’ Web site and from YouTube and that Gregoire should ask that Democratic Chairman Dwight Pelz resign.

The Republicans, never ones to raise the racial flag (my words, not the Times), jumped on this like flies on ish:

Republican Party Chairman Luke Esser sent out a statement. It said, in part:

“It is outrageous that the Democrats would stoop to this level on Gregoire’s behalf. What’s next? Dino is also part Tlingit, Alaskan Native. Are they going to attack him for that, too? This type of racial stereotyping is unacceptable. Gregoire and the Democrats know they can’t win on the issues so instead they turn to ethnic attacks. It’s shameful and an insult to the voters of our state.”

The Dems, for there part, deny that their choice in song had anything to do with trying to frame Rossi as a criminal:

Democratic spokesman Kelly Steele responds:

Our video is in no way meant to allege or imply that Republican Dino Rossi or his extremist, right-wing developer allies have ties to the mafia or organized crime. It’s a catchy song, which we thought jibed stylistically with our communication about Rossi’s designated attack squad — the BIAW — who continue to pour millions into false and misleading attack ads against Gov. Gregoire. That being said, we’d like to apologize to Rossi’s friend Mr. DiJulio, his organization, and anyone else we may have inadvertently offended. The video will be replaced shortly with an identical message regarding Rossi and the BIAW’s sleazy attack campaign, using a different song.As an aside, Rossi doesn’t seem to have a problem with referencing The Sopranos when he’s attacking Gov. Gregoire. Here’s what he said in a speech just yesterday on Mercer Island:

“[Rossi] criticized the state’s reliance on the gas tax and ‘sin’ taxes from alcohol and cigarette sales. ‘Sin taxes are so easy to raise,’ he said. ‘But they are already so high they are one of the highest in the nation. If we raised them anymore, Tony Soprano would want to get some of that action.’”

Huh.  Well, I don’t know about the rest of ya’ll but, I’m guessing for those who watch(ed) the Soprano’s the connection wasn’t lost on them.  I’d never heard the song before because I hadn’t seen the show, but upon learning that the song used in the Rossi attack ad was the theme song for the Soprano’s well, I mean what more can you say?  The line between the two is pretty clear; they are suggesting that Rossi is shady.

Maybe he is.  But I know one thing that the Dems will have to deal with; Rossi pays attention to people Gregiore and the rest of them refuse to bother themselves with.  That snooty snobby snob attitude could cost them big time.  One thing is for sure, she hasn’t done a damn thing these past four years to earn my respect, or my vote.  Take the same add, and insert a Black candidate.  Then imagine these lyrics:

Well we’re movin on up,
To the east side.
To a deluxe apartment in the sky.
Movin on up,
To the east side.
We finally got a piece of the pie.

Fish don’t fry in the kitchen;
Beans don’t burn on the grill.
Took a whole lotta tryin’,
Just to get up that hill.
Now we’re up in the big leagues,
Gettin’ our turn at bat.
As long as we live, it’s you and me baby,
There ain’t nothin wrong with that.

Folks would be outraged if such an ad ran attacking a Black candidate in that way.  The theme song to the Jeffersons, “Moving on up”, used in this context would denote that the Black candidate was doing whatever he had do to, even deal with shady businesses, to move to where he wants to be, to where he otherwise wouldn’t be able to get to.  Therefore, all should feel the same over the Soprano/Rossi incident, period.  If I watched the show, I’d recognize the song.  Even not watching the show and knowing that is the theme song, it’s pretty obvious the Dems were trying to make that link between Rossi and a crime lord who was rutheless and never got enough therapy.  Violent, unethical, criminal and unstable.  Who wants a Governor like that?!

Another classic example of “look how far we haven’t come…