DOWNLOADS: (142)

PLAYS: (1140)

Embed

A 17-year-old student in Alabama was arrested last week for allegedly plotting to use dozens of homemade grenades to kill at least fellow six students and a teacher at Russell County High School.

Russell County Sheriff Heath Taylor on Sunday said that Derek Shrout had been arrested after a teacher turned over a journal which indicated that his homemade grenades were just "a step or two away from being ready to explode," according to the Ledger-Enquirer.

A Friday search of Shrout's home turned up bomb-making materials, including dozens of tobacco cans and two large cans filled with pellets to be used as shrapnel. The two large cans were labeled "Fat Boy" and "Little Man," a reference to the atomic bombs that the U.S. dropped on Japan during World War II.

Reports indicated that the 17-year-old student, who was part of the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC), had gotten mixed up with a white supremacist group after moving from Kansas to Fort Benning with his military family.

"At first through JROTC, he was confident, well-rounded, but as time went by, he was doing the whole white power thing," senior class president David Kelly told WTVM.

JROTC 1st Sgt. David White recalled that Shrout was often seen giving Nazi salutes while at school.

"In the hallway, at breakfast, at the lunch tables, after school where we have our bus parking lot, he'd have his big old group of friends and they'd go around doing the whole white power crazy stuff," White said.

"Why would you want to go to a school and blow it up? You know you're going to hit somebody else; you're not just going to, in particular, hit one person. You're going to injure more than one."

ABC News reported on Monday that Shrout's targets included five African-American students, one student who he believed was gay and one African-American teacher. Police believed that he learned to make explosives by searching the Internet.

For his part, Shrout told police that his journal was simply a work of fiction. He is being held in the Russell County Jail and is scheduled to be arraigned on Monday on charges of attempted assault.

DOWNLOADS: (229)

PLAYS: (2003)

Embed

Authorities in Port St. Joe, Florida say a man charged with a hate crime felt inconvenienced by his arrest because he had "only shot a n*gger."

Walton Henry Butler, 59, was arrested by Gulf County Sheriff's deputies on Monday night for shooting 32-year-old Everett Gant, who is black, in the head with a .22 caliber rifle.

According to a charging affidavit obtained by The Star, Butler had referred to Pamela Rogers' child and other children at his apartment complex with racial slurs.

Gant was shot between the eyes when he went to Butler's apartment to confront him over the remarks, the documents said. Butler allegedly closed his sliding glass door and left Gant bleeding on ground outside.

The suspect contacted 911 and had finished his dinner before Gulf County Sheriff Joe Nugent arrived.

Nugent recalled that Butler appeared "inconvenienced" by the arrest, saying that "he had only shot a n*gger."

"He was brought to the investigation unit where he was interviewed and basically admitted to shooting the victim and said he shot a, used a racial slur, and said that is what he shot and acted like it was not like a big deal or anything to him," Nugent told WJHG.

Butler was charged with attempted murder with a hate crime enhancement. He was being held in the Gulf County Jail after an appearance in court on Tuesday morning.

Gant was in stable condition at Bay Medical Center and is expected to survive.

DOWNLOADS: (199)

PLAYS: (1292)

Embed

A black couple in Crystal Springs, Mississippi says that a predominantly white Baptist church refused to let them get married because of their race.

Charles and Te'Andrea Wilson told WLBT that the day before they were to be married, the pastor of First Baptist Church of Crystal Springs informed them the ceremony would have to be moved due to the reaction of some white church members -- even though the couple had attended the church regularly.

"The church congregation had decided no black could be married at that church, and that if [the pastor] went on to marry her, then they would vote him out the church," Charles Wilson explained.

"He had people in the sanctuary that were pitching a fit about us being a black couple," Te'Andrea Wilson added. "I didn't like it at all, because I wasn't brought up to be racist. I was brought up to love and care for everybody."

Dr. Stan Weatherford, the church's pastor, was forced to perform the marriage at another church after he was taken by surprise by his congregation's outrage.

"This had never been done before here, so it was setting a new precedent, and there are those who reacted to that because of that," Weatherford said. "I didn't want to have a controversy within the church, and I didn't want a controversy to affect the wedding of Charles and Te' Andrea. I wanted to make sure their wedding day was a special day."

Church officials said they would hold meetings to decide what to do if another non-white couple wanted to use their facility in the future. They insisted that all races were welcome at the church.

"I blame the First Baptist Church of Crystal Springs, I blame those members who knew and call themselves Christians and didn't stand up," Charles Wilson said.

Last year, a small church in Pike County, Kentucky voted to ban interracial couples from most church activities “to promote greater unity among the church body.”

A resolution passed by members of the congregation stated that "Gulnare Freewill Baptist Church does not condone interracial marriage."

"Parties of such marriages will not be received as members, nor will they be used in worship services and other church functions, with the exception being funerals," the resolution said.

After a firestorm of criticism and public pressure, the church eventually dropped the interracial ban.

DOWNLOADS: (224)

PLAYS: (2507)

Embed

A group of pastors in Alabama says that they are not racist even though only "white Christians" were invited to their three-day conference, which will include a cross burning and be attended by Ku Klux Klan (KKK) members.

Residents in Guin, Alabama became outraged earlier this week after they noticed flyers posted around the town that read, "Annual Pastors Conference All White Christians Invited." The groups Christian Identity Ministries and the Church of God's Chosen told WIAT that they just didn't have the "facilities" to accommodate non-whites.

"We're seldom ever have been invited to black Muslim events and we never have been invited to NAACP events and we never have been invited to join Jewish synagogues events and stuff," Christian Identity Ministries Pastor William J. Collier explained.

"It has nothing whatsoever to do with any kind of racism or hate or anything like that," he added. "And anybody who would brand it as that would be a racist and a hater themselves, you know."

Collier insisted that the "Sacred Christian Cross Lighting Ceremony" to be held on final day of the event symbolized an "opposition to tyranny."

"We are not burning a cross, look at the word is says it says light a cross," Christian Identity Ministries Reverend Mel Lewis told WIAT. "If you light a light in your house do you burn down your house. We often use fire. Our ancient fathers said fire was a cleansing element. Even the Bible says the earth will be purified with fire what purer element can we use as a symbol of our worship."

But the president of the NAACP's Birmingham Metro Chapter could not recall any past cross burning that had not been associated with racism or hate.

"The only context that I'm familiar with is one that is not very positive," Hezekiah Jackson said. "And one that really symbolizes an era that many of us have hoped to put behind us. And that is this whole era of Jim Crow, this whole era of white supremacy, this whole era of discrimination and racial hatred."

"I think it's really hard to clarify what's going on, but it seems to be some vestiges of what we call white supremacy here in Alabama. We just have to be honest about it."

The "Annual Pastors Conference All White Christians Invited" event ends on Friday. It is the fourth year that the whites-only conference has been held in Lamar county.

(h/t: Think Progress)

DOWNLOADS: (250)

PLAYS: (855)

Embed

Fox News host Sean Hannity on Tuesday denied he was a "birther," but found it "odd" that President Barack Obama took so long to release his birth certificate.

"You know, I've never been a birther," the Fox News host declared. "You know, it was odd that they didn't release the birth certificate to me. I'm like, you ask me for my birth certificate, it's pretty easy to get."

"Absolutely," Fox News "Medical A Team" member Dr. Marc Siegel agreed. "And it's very suspicious, at least, that he's not coming forward -- the president is not coming forward with his college records."

During his 2008 bid for the White House then-Sen. Obama did release his short-form birth certificate. FactCheck.org concluded at the time that "it meets all of the requirements from the State Department for proving U.S. citizenship. ... Obama was born in the U.S.A. just as he has always said."

After billionaire Donald Trump and other prominent birthers refused to drop the issue, the White House released the president's long-form birth certificate in April 2011.

Even with the overwhelming evidence of the president's citizenship, Trump recently told The Daily Beast that Obama’s former literary agent had erroneously said the president was born in Kenya because it was the “truth.”

“He didn’t know he was running for president, so he told the truth,” the billionaire mogul insisted. “He said he was born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia… Now they’re saying it was a mistake. Just like his Kenyan grandmother said he was born in Kenya, and she pointed down the road to the hospital, and after people started screaming at her she said, ‘Oh, I mean Hawaii.’ Give me a break.”

Only hours before attending a fundraiser with presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney on Tuesday night, Trump continued to insist to CNN that "a lot of people don’t think it’s authentic."

(h/t: Media Matters)

DOWNLOADS: (302)

PLAYS: (1327)

Embed

A Fox News guest on Monday rejected calls to drop the use of term "illegals," and suggested that undocumented immigrants could "return to their country" if they didn't like the slur.

The Daily Caller's Michelle Fields told Fox News host Sean Hannity that liberals were trying to "demonize" conservatives in the Colorlines campaign to "Drop the I-Word."

"I'm not stopping it," Hannity insisted. "Illegal immigrant! Illegal!"

"People that enter into the country illegally are illegal," Fields remarked. "OK, that's not a racial slur. That's not racist. This is simply just liberals trying so hard to change the subject, to distract voters from Obama's failed policies."

"I think it's a racial slur, to be sure," left-leaning Fox News contributor Bob Beckel replied. "It's hate speech, which you right-wingers are pretty good at."

"So, you think I'm a racist?" Hannity wondered.

"I just think that in and of itself it is a racist word," Beckel replied.

"If illegals are so upset about the term 'illegal,' why don't they return to their country, apply for a visa and then come back legally," Fields advised. "And then we won't call them illegals."

In a online video produced for the Drop the I-Word campaign, Baruch College Professor Robert Smith explains why the word is so dangerous in political discourse: "'Illegal' functions like a racial epithet. It’s a way of legitimizing violence against a particular group of people because of what they are. That the definition of a hate crime."

(h/t: Media Matters)

DOWNLOADS: (881)

PLAYS: (1584)

Embed

An African-American pastor affiliated with Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum is demanding that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney "renounce his racist Mormon religion."

At a press conference on Monday, Rev. O'Neal Dozier, who is an honorary chairman of Santorum's Florida campaign, said that he was speaking out to "foster and maintain good race relations here in America."

"The Mormon religion is prejudiced against blacks, Jews and native Americans," Dozier insisted, adding that Romney's nomination would widen the racial divide because "the Republican Party would be viewed as a racist political party."

"Romney's nomination would cause the erroneous view that has long existed in the minds of black people that the Republican Party is prejudiced to become a reality. Why? Because Romney will become the face and the leader of the Republican Party."

In a statement released on Friday, the Florida pastor explained that The Book of Mormon "accuses God of cursing African people and causing them to have black skin in order for them not to be attractive to white people."

For its part, the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints admits that it once had a policy against ordaining men of African descent.

"Church leaders sought divine guidance regarding the issue and more than three decades ago extended the priesthood to all worthy male members," according to an official statement. "The Church unequivocally condemns racism, including any and all past racism by individuals both inside and outside the Church."

Dozier, however, is also been accused of a different kind of bigotry.

In a 2003 Broward-Palm Beach New Times report, he was quoted as saying that homosexuality was "something so nasty and disgusting that it makes God want to vomit."

Santorum kicked off his Florida campaign in January with a stop at Dozier's Worldwide Christian Center in Pompano Beach.

"Blacks are not going to vote for anyone of the Mormon faith," the pastor said during the event.

A few days later, CNN host Brooke Baldwin asked Dozier if Santorum shared his views on homosexuality and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

"I've had a face to face talk with him, but I don't know if he really shares my views," he admitted. "Rick Santorum is not a politically correct person. He's going to speak the truth as it is."

"I want to say again, I love the homosexual people and God does also," Dozier added. "God hates the act of homosexuality. That's what he hates."

(H/T: New York Daily News)

DOWNLOADS: (658)

PLAYS: (2095)

Embed

Former Republican presidential candidate Pat Buchanan is defending Donald Trump against charges of racial insensitivity.

On a conservative radio show Thursday, Trump said that he was concerned that he wouldn't get many African American votes given President Barack Obama's high poll numbers with that demographic.

"I have a great relationship with the blacks," Trump said. "I've always had a great relationship with the blacks."

"I don't find any malice in what he said in that statement about the black folks," Buchanan told MSNBC host Chris Jansing Friday. "I mean, I'm a Catholic and if he said 'I have a great relationship with the Catholics,' I don't think I would take great offense."

"Well, Pat, you know it's a completely different dynamic," journalist Karen Hunter objected. "Give me a break."

"What do you think he meant?" Buchanan asked.

"It's that thing: 'you people,'" Hunter replied. "We're not aliens. We're Americans."

"Maybe you're hearing something Donald Trump didn't really say," Buchanan suggested.

"I think you can listen to it and it's very clear what 'The Donald' had to say," Jansing concluded.

DOWNLOADS: (205)

PLAYS: (371)

Embed

A conservative radio host that repeatedly used a racial epithet on the air has apologized but it may be too little too late.

Thursday night, Rev. Al Sharpton called Dr. Laura Schlessinger's use of the n-word "despicable" and said her advertisers should be worried.

During a conversation with an African-American caller Tuesday who was concerned about racist comments by her white husband's friends, Schlessinger used the n-word 11 times over a five minute period.

CALLER: How about the n-word though? The n-word has been thrown around --

SCHLESSINGER: Black guys use it all of the time. Turn on HBO, listen to a black comic and all you here is n*****, n*****, n*****.

When the show returned from a commercial break, the caller confronted Schlessinger but she continued to use the word.

CALLER: I hope everybody heard it.

SCHLESSINGER: They did, and I'll say it again.

CALLER: So what makes it OK for you to say the word?

SCHLESSINGER: n*****, n*****, n***** is what you hear on HB -- why don't you let me finish a sentence?

CALLER: OK.

SCHLESSINGER: Don't take things out of context. Don't double NAACP me.

The doctor went on to say that the caller was being too sensitive. "If you're that hypersensitive about color and don't have a sense of humor, don't marry out of your race," she said.

Schlessinger posted an apology on her blog Wednesday.

I talk every day about doing the right thing. And yesterday, I did the wrong thing.

I didn't intend to hurt people, but I did. And that makes it the wrong thing to have done.

I was attempting to make a philosophical point, and I articulated the "n" word all the way out - more than one time. And that was wrong. I'll say it again - that was wrong.

HLN host Jane Velez-Mitchell told CNN's Rick Sanchez Thursday that a simple apology wasn't going to make the controversy go away.

"She apparently thinks she can say anything she wants and there's going to be an uproar and she's going to say I'm sorry and it's going to go away," said Velez-Mitchell. "I don't think it's going to happen this time around. I don't think she can put the genie back in the bottle."

Appearing on CNN Thursday, Sharpton suggested that advertisers might want to think twice about associating with Schlessinger.

"The advertising and the people that carry her show should be very concerned about someone who freely using this word over and over again," he said.

But the reverend was most incensed by Schlessinger's suggestion that sensitive people shouldn't marry out of their race.

"I mean, that is absolutely despicable," said Sharpton. "That means if you're that sensitive, don't marry out of your race. So, now, we've gone from her just repeating the N-word to her saying interracial marriage maybe should not be for those that have sensitivity that she would call hyper, and then she went back into using the N-word."

Cenk takes apart Pat Buchanan's op-ed at Human Events on Sonia Sotomayor.