Free Republic

Al Sharpton, Trayvon Martin family urge peace on 20th anniversary of L.A. race riots To mark the 2oth anniversary of the deadly riots that engulfed Los Angeles following the 1992 Rodney King verdict, civil rights activist Al Sharpton and Trayvon Martin's parents are urging peace at events. Sharpton spoke to Yahoo News before he and Martin's family addressed a church on Thursday night. -snip- "I think even though people are angry and as concerned as I am, we don't feel like we have no options," he says. "Unlike [with] Rodney King, there's defined leadership in Trayvon Martin's case who have...

Disgraced former Obama “green jobs czar” Van Jones made an appearance in Hawaii last night in which he ripped on the “American fantasy” and called for socialistic approaches to wealth redistribution, while castigating Obama opponents as America-haters. In his keynote address, he stated that the American dream was under threat: Not the American dream they talk about on TV. There are two American dreams. One of them I call the ‘American fantasy.’ You know that one? Everyone is going to be rich. Everybody.

Occupy Protesters Consider Political FutureBy Don Gonyea Thu., December 1, 2011 3:45am (EST) **SNIP** One who has been watching the Occupy movement closely is Van Jones, an activist who once worked in the Obama White House, and who now heads an organization called Rebuild the Dream. Jones has spoken at Occupy encampments and met with those working on the next steps. He thinks that the movement can work on multiple fronts. Protests and demonstrations are important, Jones says, but so too are elections. "There's no reason to do an either or here. This can be one of the biggest movements...

I found the press release Obama issued to get Project Vote rolling, in the ACORN archives at the Wisconsin Historical Society. (Obama worked closely with ACORN on this campaign, his later denials notwithstanding.) The release quotes Obama explaining the need for Project Vote by pointing to the rioting in Los Angeles. Said Obama in 1992: “The Los Angeles riots reflect a deep distrust and disaffection with the existing power pattern in our society.” That’s Alinsky-speak for “We’ve got to use the power of the angry underclass to put capitalism in check.” Naturally, we’ll continue to disagree about whether Obama’s...

Cop brutality figure Rodney King turns celeb boxer King in the ring By O’Ryan Johnson / Herald Exclusive Sunday, November 1, 2009 Rodney King, the famed police punching bag whose beating caught on tape put a bull’s eye on cops and eventually led to the 1992 Los Angeles riots, has turned celebrity boxer and says he’s aching for a rematch with one of the members of L.A.’s “finest” who viciously pummeled him in March 1991. “I was supposed to fight one of the police officers that beat me. I worked out to get ready for it. But then somebody started...

This Monday Night, 9/28/2009:What do Barack & Michelle Obama, Valerie Jarrett, Van Jones, David Axelrod, Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, Carol Browner, Ron Bloom, Hilda Solis, Samantha Power and Rosa Brooks have in common? TREVOR LOUDON bothers them a great deal -- because he blows their cover -- and he does it from New Zealand. We will have two hours to compare notes. And, listen for other Obamologists calling in. Stream it live, or listen/call in at (646) 727-2652 ~ 9-11pm ET,,, 6-8pm PT.

The Hill: Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said that it's not enough for African-Americans to levy allegations of racism against the right-leaning protesters, and that the media must look into their views. "I want those people talked to; I want them interviewed," Waters told the liberal Bill Press Radio show in a podcast. "I want journalists to be all over those rallies and the marches with the birthers and the teabaggers."

Here is video from California Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy holding a Town Hall Meeting in Bakersfield where he was asked why the Congress was allowing President Obama to create all the "Czars" he is creating. Just before he answered there were shouts from the audience of "He's a communist!" McCarthy answered the question by saying he did not believe Obama had the right to appoint these "Czars" AND give them powers that encroach on the "Checks and Balances" the Constitution requires. . . . . (Watch Video)

CNN: The longtime congresswoman, whose district includes much of Los Angeles, also described some senators who are opposed to the health care reform bill as "Neanderthals." "Not only are we going to do everything we can to organize and put pressure on the senators — some of whom are Neanderthals — we're going to say to the president, 'We want you to use every weapon in your basket in order to get those senators to do what they should be doing,'" Rep. Maxine Waters said.

Rodney King shot in San Bernardino 10:41 AM PST on Thursday, November 29, 2007 By PAUL LAROCCO The Press-Enterprise Rodney King was apparently shot and wounded on a San Bernardino street corner late Wednesday night before biking home to Rialto to report the incident, police said. King, the 42-year-old man who gained national fame when his 1991 beating by Los Angeles police was caught on videotape, called Rialto police at 11:39 p.m. to report the shooting, said Sgt. Don Lewis. He had been struck in the face and arm with a shotgun, Lewis said. King reported that the shooting occurred...

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear an international copyright fight over the alleged misuse of videotaped images of truck driver Reginald Denny being pulled to the pavement and beaten during the 1992 Los Angeles riots. The pictures showed several black men pulling the white driver from the cab of his truck, kicking and beating him, then smashing his skull with bricks and a fire extinguisher. The Denny beating came at the start of riots that erupted when white police officers were acquitted in the earlier beating of black motorist Rodney King. A Los Angeles couple filmed the scene...

The looting in Iraq that the U.S.-led war spawned has a familiar look. It appears an awful lot like Los Angeles and other major American cities after the first verdicts in the police beating of Rodney King 11 years ago this month. In Iraq, people have broken into warehouses, government buildings, shops and homes to take everything they could carry. That included TVs, computers, tools, furniture, toilets, air conditioners, plants, refrigerators, light bulbs, ceiling fans, food and money. Priceless antiquities in museums and books in libraries in the birthplace of civilization have been stolen. The losses are among the high,...

Toogood Reports [Wednesday, April 16, 2003; 12:01 a.m. EST]URL: http://ToogoodReports.com/ Weeks before Saddam Hussein was toppled — in person and symbolically, in the form of statues — the New York Times started its campaign for the postwar defeat of the American military. Columnists Nicholas Kristof and Thomas Friedman, and the Times' editorial writers, insisted that virtually immediately after victory, America would have to turn over control to the democratic will of the Iraqi people, and get out of the country. Our rivals and enemies (take your pick) in France, Germany, and Russia, have informed us that the U.S. enjoys neither...

I admit my back was to the television when I heard it. So I suppose it is possible it was really Maxine Waters, the ultra-leftist Congressperson from Los Angeles, doing her best impersonation of George W. But the Texas drawl was so distinctive it just wasn’t possible. "Civil Unrest." It was him and that’s what he said. Civil unrest. It’s the code word used by the likes of Maxine Waters to attempt to justify the Los Angeles riots of 1992 following the acquittal of the police officers in the Rodney King arrest…er, beating. They weren't riots - it was unrest...

King in rehabilitation as fortune drains away By Danny PollockAssociated Press Shadowed by trouble since uttering his famous "Can we all get along" plea, Rodney King will spend the 10th anniversary of the Los Angeles riots in a Pomona rehabilitation center. Rodney King during a 1992 press conference. (A.P.) The drug use and indecent exposure charges that sent him there are just the latest in a long string of legal entanglements for the man whose name will be forever linked to the race riots that left 54 people dead and caused $1 billion in property damage. His constant run-ins with...