I Believe Her

from Donna Darko:

NETROOTS, A LISTERS, PROGRESSIVES, DEMOCRATS, FEMINIST BLOG NETWORK, WOMEN OF COLOR BLOGGERS, CLINTON BLOGGERS, TALLAHASSEE PROGRESSIVE COMMUNITY, ASIAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY, PROGRESSIVE FORUMS, FEMINIST FORUMS, ASIAN FORUMS, ALL MY FRIENDS AND RELATIVES PLEASE POST THIS EVERYWHERE. I AM COMPLETELY INNOCENT, a leftist, a progressive, and an extremely good, outstanding person. PLEASE HELP ME AND DEFEND ME. I AM COMPLETELY INNOCENT.

I found this on Open Left:

See Abusing Direct Democracy: Bad Actors in the Signature Gathering Business
November 2007
by the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center
www.ballot.org
About Arno’s massive history of fraud yet they never get in trouble. There are 40 cases in this packet. Why don’t THEY ever get in trouble? If every campaign is investigated, his industry is the problem. Their industry is corrupt with greed but they never reform it. They should pay per hour like ACORN instead of per petition but they’re too greedy to change. They should get in trouble instead of getting the little guys in trouble every time.

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“When we read about some crime in the paper or see it in the “crawl” on CNN, we don’t know the whole story. Everyone LOOKS guilty! It is just the nature of the media coverage. There is inherent bias in the media coverage of alleged crimes. When is the last time you looked at the newspaper and said ‘Wow - this guy must be innocent?’ The Ligon case seemed undefendable to most people, including me. I had prejudged Ligon as someone who didn’t deserve a good defense. Don’t wrote someone off because of your take on a crappy headline and biased news story. We have to take several steps back.”

–from Mickey Sherman, How Can You Defend Those People?

It was a media creation based on a personal agenda.

There are two reasons this campaign got attention. Ion Sancho, Head of Elections in Tallahassee, FL oversaw the Florida Recount in 2000. It took place at the Leon County Courthouse in Tallahassee under his watch. The whole episode was embarrassing for Tallahassee and him. A progressive colleague, Steve Payne, who is now an organizer with SEIU International in Minneapolis, worked close with him and said this whole investigation was to cover his ass after what happened in 2000. Sancho said he would investigate the hell out of any irregularity to cover his ass. This is why the whole thing was unfair to me from the beginning. Imagine my shock when it made the Tallahassee Democrat, someone as straight arrow and transparent as me who never did anything wrong in her life. In fact, I talked about all this to two of the three biggest progressive student leaders in Tallahassee, Alex Joyce and Steve Payne. They graduated and moved to Portland and Minneapolis in 2004. The third, Gabe Pendas, a very well known student activist, was younger and graduated later and never heard my side of the story. Maybe he is in on this because he only knows what the newspaper said and what students learned from the media. It was Ion Sancho’s personal agenda and a media creation that had nothing to do with me so it’s grossly unfair. What’s really strange is Sancho’s 16-year-old goddaughter, Dylan, worked for us and would totally vouch for my integrity. Doesn’t he know I was the well-known progressive in town? That’s what I never understood unless he didn’t know who I was.

Two, it got attention because we did 3000 registrations which is not that many for a four week campaign. The RNC pushed us to do 30,000. The man from the RNC, Clint Fuermann, kept calling and saying the guy down in Tampa did 1000 a day and that we were supposed to work 6 days a week and that we could only take Sundays off. 4.5 weeks, that’s 30,000. 3,000 is only 45 per week for 15 people. JSM also kept calling and saying we were doing way too few. JSM and the RNC, the middlemen should get in trouble for pushing the workers too hard and paying per petition. We only took orders from above and worked hard. I had NO IDEA WHATSOEVER anyone did anything wrong. There were some days they were alarmed because we got zero. I only did a couple hundred, painstakingly in 95 degree heat, and never used the petition. ARNO and middle men like JSM and the RNC should get in trouble not people who only take orders and listen to them.

There are seven groups of people who victimized me. The third is Arno which does thousands of campaigns and every other one is investigated. This means his industry is corrupt and that he has to reform it. The most important reform would be to pay per hour like the leftist grassroots groups such as ACORN which requires a reasonable quota of 45 petitions a day. Arno’s industry has tons of fraud because it pays per petition. He never gets in trouble. Only the little guys get in trouble. His industry is corrupt and fraudulent so he should get in trouble or reform it instead of getting the little guys in trouble. He’s a crook. I’m not a crook IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM. I’VE NEVER DONE ANYTHING WRONG IN MY LIFE! WHAT A JOKE! Meanwhile, Arno, JSM and Mark Jacoby are career criminals. This was 24 days of my life (I was out of town for the last 7 days).

JSM came up with the scam and petition. They gave us a script about a medical marijuana petition as a lead in to register voters. It’s quite simple and not illegal. It goes like this. “Would you like to sign a petition to legalize marijuana to help sick people? Finally, do you mind registering as a Republican? They’re paying for this campaign. Libertarian Republicans support the legalization of marijuana.” I had NO IDEA if anything went wrong and truly believed everyone was asked. I asked EVERYONE who gave me paperwork three times if they did it right while looking at them right in the eye. I drive people crazy with my straight-arrow ways and transparency. JSM pushed us to do many more than 3000 in 4 weeks. Maybe people are good at lying to me but I really don’t think anyone did anything wrong. Everything seemed perfectly fine. It’s a scam but nothing illegal. There’s no proof of anything illegal. Supposedly, having voters’ initials next to the R box is extra prove it’s legal. There’s no proof registrations without initials next to the R box weren’t asked. That’s like saying 99% of the people in a town killed someone because there’s no proof they didn’t. Steve also said 15 voters were called and asked if they were asked if they were Republicans and that he made this blanket statement about the rest. That’s really unfair. He said the answer also depends on the way the question is asked. They may have simply been asked if they were Republicans. If 15 voters said no, they weren’t asked or they weren’t Republicans it’s wouldn’t be fair to say the same for the rest. That season there were about 10 different petitions going around and he said someone might remember a petition about medical marijuana but have a hard time remembering the last thing they were asked which is whether or not they would mind registering as a Republican.

Mark Jacoby has been in the business for many years and literally teaches all his workers how to cheat or bait and switch. Ours was a very straight forward operation as I described and we never bait and switched. Everything was out in the open. I learned on the internet Jacoby uses bait and switch meaning people did not even know they were registering to vote. He and his entire crew spent one of the four weeks in Tallahassee and turned in registrations. Mark always seemed to always want to screw us over because he was competitive with Clark so I don’t know if he screwed over registrations he turned into the Leon county office. He did 900 in Gainesville. Again this is a guy who literally teaches his workers how to cheat and trick people. He should get in trouble cheating year after year, campaign after campaign. If 4000 registrations from us and Mark are being investigated, isn’t it Arno’s responsibility? And JSM’s? Shouldn’t it go to the top if every other campaign is investigated? It’s a corrupt business with corrupt players. Of course, I had no idea going into it that it was run by Republican backers. I knew NOTHING. ACORN’s minimum wage campaign ended and we met people in the field doing petitions. I had no idea if these petitions were liberal or conservative. It seems half were liberal, half were conservative.

So far we have Ion Sancho, Arno, the RNC, JSM and Mark Jacoby. Six, Clark took advantage of me. We met at ACORN. I recently posted about how I have a 1.5 paged, single spaced list of leftist activities from 2003-2005. I’ve been a radical leftist since I was 24 and have done hardcore leftist activism pretty much every day for the last 16 years. This is cosmic injustice considering how much I influenced the progressive narrative over the years through daily, leftist activism. I worked at ACORN for six months, from Feb-July 2004. We won the minimum wage campaign, the organizer of the entire campaign, Brian Kettering, thanked me personally for my work on the campaign. There are two kinds of people who work at ACORN. Activists and people who can’t get a job elsewhere. I worked with other ACORN workers in the private petition industry for only two months, July-Sept 2004, which we learned about through people in the field who said you can do petition work on a private basis. Half the petitions were liberal, half conservative. It was hard to tell. I didn’t know who funded campaigns or JSM until later. Do you judge a life on 24 days of that campaign or even 2 months compared to 16 years of daily, leftist activism? The progressive blogosphere is familiar with my daily, hardcore leftist activism on the web. This is how I’ve worked for 16 years since I became a liberal even before blogs. I used to write editors of progressive magazines to praise them, tell them off or make suggestions just like I do on blogs. He’s the only Republican I ever dated and NEVER would have done this Republican campaign at all or participated in anything resembling a scam. I’ve never participated in any kind of scam in my entire life and certainly have never been in ANY kind of trouble. I am also not the type of person who’s ambitious enough to do these big campaigns or be a coordinator. I hate Republicans in general. I hate scams. He never really paid me but took me to Disney World and bought me some simple jewelry. I was his secretary for this and he went out of town to work and did not realize until recently my name might be on this campaign. This is the ultimate cosmic injustice. I’m someone’s secretary for three months, never a coordinator, he goes out of town during a one month campaign, and I’m stuck with this? To this day, I don’t know if I was a coordinator. Ironically, JSM hired him as a coordinator because they said his girlfriend had integrity and they needed people like me in the business.

Seven, I can’t tell if workers lied to me. I am a very straight-forward person. I look people in the eye and ask them questions but still don’t know if people looked me in the eye and lied to me. I am naïve because I grew up sheltered. As far as I know, nothing was wrong with this campaign. Everything seemed fine. Imagine the shock when I read in the Tallahassee Democrat Ion Sancho said there were irregularities. Ironically, I was in the Tallahassee Democrat twice for good deeds that season. My picture was in the paper for being the leading voter registration person in Tallahassee and for raising Florida’s minimum wage. Many people came up to me and said they wanted to be like me. To give you some context on how progressive I am, I registered voters for eight progressive organizations OUTSIDE of this within the same six months and each boss from each progressive organization would vouch for my high integrity and validity rates. I registered voters for EIGHT DIFFERENT PROGRESSIVE ORGANIZATIONS: FSU student groups, ACORN, America Coming Together/The League of Pissed-Off Voters, The Tallahassee Voter Participation Program, The Tallahassee Practical Law Enforcement campaign, The League of Women Voters, The League of Conservation Voters and Coalition of Active Voter Education. Each praised me for my integrity and high validity rates. Each would vouch for me because I drive people crazy with my integrity, honesty and high standards. They can each be my defense witnesses for GOOD CHARACTER ON VOTER REGISTRATION ALONE. Anyone who knows me can vouch for my high integrity, honesty and standards. This is outrageous and must be a personal vendetta.

Eighth group of people who victimized me: This has to be a personal vendetta. The prosecution is unreasonable and biased. This person might live in Metarie, LA. Please prosecute this person. We will sue.

A final sticking point is a third or more of the registrations were from the black campus, FAMU. All the registrations done at FAMU were done by black guys because they REFUSED to work anywhere else, because they knew it was easier to get other blacks to help them. They did not like working on the white campuses because they did not do as well on white campuses. No white workers worked at FAMU. A couple tried but it was too hard so they went back to the white campuses. So it’s not what it looks like.

I am an absolute victim in all this. This is COSMIC INJUSTICE. I am the absolute, innocent victim. It’s extremely unfair Ion Sancho’s personal agenda makes me suffer. This was always HIS PERSONAL AGENDA. Investigate him instead and charge him for psychological distress and torture. I spent every day for the last 16 years on hardcore leftist activism and 24 days of my life doing something I HATED which doesn’t mean anything ESPECIALLY since I had NO IDEA anyone did anything wrong. You cannot establish mens rea. I had no idea anything was wrong. I can call up ten defense witnesses vouching for my good character ON VOTER REGISTRATION ALONE.

Seven Songs Meme!

Yay! I was tagged by joankelly!

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now, shaping your spring summer. Post these instructions in your blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they’re listening to.

Lemme see...

1. "Ye Ishq Hai", from the movie Jab We Met (have yet to see the movie)
2. "Koi No Dance Site", Morning Musume
3. "Brown Skin Girl", Santana feat. Bo Bice
4. "Let It Roll", Group 1 Crew
5. "Kiwi", Maroon 5
6. "Amore (Sexo)", Santana feat. Macy Gray
7. "New World Symphony", Miri Ben-Ari feat. Pharaoh Monch & John Legend

I tag Latoya Peterson, Angry Black Woman, Donna Darko, Tom, YeYe, and you! ^_~

I want to take him home!

Mauricia Grant

Let me get this out of the way first and foremost: I know diddly-squat about NASCAR and racing cars in general.

And, if the following comments are any indication of the "NASCAR community", then I would rather not have anything to do with it:

I am tired of black people holding up white people for thier hard earned money....either with a gun or a lawyer....its the same crime...this "get a check for racism" game is old....I like the facts...you should to....but you dont....and its all because "whitey" is a racisist and "de holdin me down"....and the attitude is commonly ghetto black....."they owe me" so I have a right to rob them.......or steal from them....or sue them....they are cowards with no personal fortitude or motivation.....unless it is to get a check....for not working...

Yea the Blacks in America are soooo repressed, That is why a black woman gets a job over a black man who gets the job over a white woman who gets the job over a white man. Oh yea the college funds and government programs that apply easier to some than others I am NOT racist this is fact.

Blacks are given more opportunites that whites in todays world. There are scholarships specifically for african/americans; grant programs for african/americans to get technical schooling free; a Miss Black America (do we have a Ms White America? no we don't cause that would be racist); welfare programs; food stamps; free housing; I could go on an on. If I wanted my kids to go to college, guess who had to pay for it.

The reverse racism is unbelievable. Blacks have the NAACP, Rainbow Coalition, BET, Jesse and Al, UNCF, etc. and none of those are racist organizations, however, any KKK member is racist because he believes in the protection of "white rights." This country remains divided because of the minorities who get the majority of welfare, college scholarships, oh and prison time.

as far as the n word, there is this thing called freedom of speech, people can say what they want no matter if it hurts feelings

I could go on, but there's an ever-increasing urge to punch my computer monitor...I like my monitor. ^_^

Not that these assholes need an excuse to be racist, but the reason they've "got their ire up" this time is the pending $225 Million lawsuit against NASCAR for racial and sexual discrimination filed by Mauricia Grant.

Ms. Grant, the first Black woman official at NASCAR, attended Spelman College and received a degree in sociology from SUNY-Stony Brook on Long Island.

Mo quickly tired of her desk job and adopted her stepfather's passion for working with tools. She was accepted in the Los Angeles Urban League Automotive Training Center and began an internship at Irwindale Speedway.

And she did it the hard way.

"When I started working at Irwindale Speedway, it was because of my own interest," Grant said. "I volunteered to work for free at the Dodge Weekly Racing (Series). It was something that I wanted to do. I was a L.A. girl and there was a short track close by — 30 miles from L.A. It had nothing to do with me wanting to help NASCAR diversify its sport.

"Once I was working at Irwindale and I got real great reviews from my bosses, Magic Johnson heard about me because Shav Glick wrote a story about me that appeared in the L.A. Times. Magic read it and invited me to speak on behalf of NASCAR at an event to celebrate John Mack, the former president of the L.A. Urban League."

When the late Shav Glick of the Times interviewed Irwindale Speedway principals, the reviews of Grant could not have been more admirable.

"Mauricia is a great asset to our officiating crew and to the track in general," track VP Bob DeFazio told the Times. "Her enthusiasm seems perfectly matched by her ability to learn. We've asked the people at the Automotive Training Center to please send us more like her."

"The best word to describe Mo is sharp," Director of Racing, Lester Boyer told the Times. "She's not only one of the hardest-working track officials, she's the most friendly. Tech inspection is always an us-vs.-them deal, like we're trying to find something wrong with someone's race car. In reality, that couldn't be further from the truth. We just love it when a car sails through the safety and rules compliance inspection. Mo's smile and the way she does this important job just puts everyone at ease.

According to Section 21 of the lawsuit:

Defendant NASCAR hired Plaintiff MAURICIA GRANT not only because of her skills and qualifications as a racing Official, but also as a symbol of NASCAR’s newfound, purported commitment to diversity. Indeed, throughout her employment, Defendant NASCAR repeatedly featured Plaintiff MAURICA GRANT at public out-reach programs designed to convince the media, corporate sponsors and others of the company’s diversity. At the same time, within Defendant NASCAR’s corporate headquarters and on its racetracks throughout the country, there was and remains a permissive and encouraging environment for racial and sexual discrimination and harassment among directors, managers, supervisors, officials and employees of the company against African-American and female employees.

Examples of the "permissive and encouraging environment for racial and sexual discrimination", were name calling ("Mohammed, "Nappy Headed Mo", "Queen Sheba", "Al Qaeda", "Black Sisters Revenge", "Mo from the Block", "Molicious", "bitch," "nigger", "Simpleton"), ignorant comments and questions ("How do you fix that hair?", "How come the palms of your hands are white?", "She's on Colored People Time", "It must be National Minority Day", "You can't possibly sunburn..", "What up, my nigga?"), and unwanted sexual propositioning ("Let me see your tits", "Do you wanna see my dick?"). There are too many allegations to post, but the lawsuit lists everything in excruciating detail. (***TRIGGER WARNING) The lawsuit also states:

123. Throughout her employment at Defendant NASCAR, Plaintiff MAURICIA
GRANT received positive performance evaluations, including from her direct supervisor, Public Relations Manager Doub Hanshaw. On numerous occasions, Plaintiff TRACEY WRIGHT was praised by her Supervisors for her natural aptitude in and enthusiasm for Public Relations, as well as for the excellent feedback Free People received from its media contacts concerning Plaintiff’s professionalism, responsiveness and demeanor.

124. Unfortunately, after Plaintiff MAURICIA GRANT complained of racial discrimination and harassment, she was subjected to heightened scrutiny, unwarranted disciplinary action, degrading treatment and continued harassment culminating in her unlawful termination, in direct retaliation for her complaints.

Ms. Grant was terminated from her job on October 27, 2007 for "poor work performance".

The bullshit...it is strong...

NASCAR CEO Brian France claims he knew nothing about these allegations before the lawsuit.

"If any of those claims turn out to be accurate and have substance, we would have liked to have known about that two years ago, so that we could react and have done something about it because it's inconsistent with anything ... from a policy standpoint about how a work environment for our officials should be," France said.

First of all, I call bullshit. Secondly, given the circumstances, I could see why someone would be hesitant to approach their supervisors (emphasis mine):

40. Throughout her employment from approximately January 2005 through her
wrongful termination on or about October 27, 2007, Plaintiff MAURICIA GRANT was one of approximately 30 Officials employed by Defendant NASCAR for its Busch Series. In 2005, only approximately five of those 30 Officials (or 17%), including Plaintiff, were women. In 2006, the number of female Officials decreased to four when one of the women was fired after she complained about the sexually hostile work environment. In 2007, Plaintiff MAURICIA GRANT was one of only three women employed as Officials in the NASCAR Busch Series.

41. Throughout her employment with Defendant NASCAR from approximately
January 2005 through her wrongful termination on or about October 27, 2007, Plaintiff MAURICIA GRANT was the only Black Official employed in the NASCAR Busch Series.

42. Throughout her employment with Defendant NASCAR from approximately
January 2005 through her wrongful termination on or about October 27, 2007, Plaintiff MAURICIA GRANT was the only Black female Official employed by Defendant NASCAR out of some 75 Officials employed for all its racing competitions.

As long she remained the "poster-girl" for NASCAR's Drive for Diversity initiative and kept for mouth shut, there wasn't any problem. Now that she's asserted herself and is fighting against a racist corporation, "She chose to make this about money and about a lawsuit."

I wanted to get into all of the bigotry surrounding this sport, but I just don't have the strength right now. (I'm sure there'll be quite a few NASCAR trolls knocking on my door as soon as I hit "Publish".) I'm tired. I'm frustrated. And I'm mad.

I think I'll just end (for now) with Bill Center:

“NASCAR races are different for me,” [Milton Hines, the program and operations director for ESPN Radio 800] said. “From officials to fans, I do get looks. I find myself keeping my hands in my pockets. I love the sport, but there are a lot of places I wouldn't go. I'm sorry, but it's just a fact"...

...

I do know that I've heard racist comments like the ones she puts forward in NASCAR settings. And I do know that when Milton Hines walks through the garages at Fontana, he gets strange looks. I've been there. I've seen it.

*Cross-posted at Purple.

That's Hot

*h/t to Karnythia

Mental Illness and the Black Community

"We in the black community would rather say that we have a relative on drugs or in jail than utter the words 'mental illness".

- Terrie Williams, author of Black Pain, on Depression: Out of the Shadows

"You can call it what you want: bi-polar, schitzophrenia, brain/mental disorder, etc., but the fact of the matter remains that this "disease" has been around since the guy in the Bible and back then they called it: possessed with many devils (or in our terms: demon possession). The only cure for bi-polar, schitzophrenia, etc. is to cast these devils out by the power of the Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus the Christ. Medication is a temporary relief, but casting out is a permanent fix, and one has to be prayed and fasted up in order to have power to be able to cast out devils."

- customer review for the book 72 Hour Hold

"Between 1980 and 2000, black male youths aged 10-14 showed the largest increase in suicide rates relative to sex and ethnicity, increasing by 180%. Among 15-19 year old black males, rates have increased 80%".

- "Suicide and Youth", Tennessee Suicide Prevention Network

Thoughts?

Overheard Stupidity

*In the waiting room at the doctor's office. Made-for-TV movie "10.0", about an earthquake that breaks off a chunk of California, is playing on the television. Two people at the other end of the room are talking...

Person A: ...y'know, like [the earthquake] in China?

Person B: Didn't that kill, like, 90% of the population?

*I take out a pencil and paper, and listen for more gold.

Person A: It was 90,000. (*Note: As of 10:00 AM CST today, the number is at 34,073.)

Person B: Well, isn't that, like, more than half of their population?

...

Although the death toll wasn't that high, it's still very devastating and it continues to climb. CNN has compiled a list of reputable(?) charity agencies that are accepting donations for the relief efforts in both China and Myanmar. If there are any that are not listed, or if there are some that may not be so reputable, let me know.