Shaun King: Georgia Residents Mused Killing Black People in Facebook Group, Ahmaud Arbery Killing Followed

Ahmaud Arbery of Georgia was killed in Feb in an apparent
conspiracy that may have included several white community
residents.

Social justice worker Shaun King just broke a story tying the murder of Ahmaud Arbery to a secret Facebook group whose members publicly mused killing black people.

Writes King on Twitter:

"Neighbors have just sent me screenshots of other posts in their private Facebook group of Satilla Shores residents saying they indeed planned on killing the wrong (Black) people who came in their neighborhood if they got the chance to do so."

BREAKING: Neighbors have just sent me screenshots of other posts in their private Facebook group of Satilla Shores residents saying they indeed planned on killing the wrong (Black) people who came in their neighborhood if they got the chance to do so. https://t.co/oBiLBmkfGL

— Shaun King (@shaunking) May 21, 2020

The entire Satilla Shores neighborhood was in on this. Texting, calling.

Texting, messaging each other to come out and help track Ahmaud.

People started grabbing their handguns, shotguns, getting in their trucks and tracking Ahmaud for nearly 5 minutes.

Then they killed him https://t.co/oBiLBmkfGL

— Shaun King (@shaunking) May 21, 2020

BREAKING: Classmates of Travis McMichael, who shot and killed Ahmaud Arbery, said he was the single most racist man they ever knew.

Said it was obsessive.

Said the second they learned he killed Ahmaud that not a single person who knew him was shocked.

A lifelong open bigot.

— Shaun King (@shaunking) May 21, 2020

Ease up on Atlanta Folks about Weather

Growing up in Wisconsin, I used to hear funny stories from relatives from Georgia about how the state's Clayton and Fulton (Atlanta) counties would be become paralyzed with two inches of snow.

Now, an ice storm (with a little snow) leaving many stranded and endangered has brought down heat on Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports Reed is "battling back against criticisms he was ill-prepared for Winter Storm Leon and calling out TV networks for broadcasting images of stranded drivers outside city limits."

Guess what.

Reed cannot control the weather, nor the effect an ice storm has on Atlanta's infamously busy interstate highways.

So, everyone and that includes Georgia natives, ought to cut Reed a little slack.

I spoke to a relative living in Clayton County last night. She reports the ice is bad, but "if you don't like the weather, just wait a little bit and it will change."

Georgia residents can complain about the weather, but like the rest of the country there is very little anyone can do about it, and even in the northern states of our country there is even less anybody can do about ice.

Update on the Death Watch - Let's lynch this black guy on September 21

Troy Anthony Davis -
Innocent Dead Man Walking

In Memoriam: Troy Anthony Davis, 1968 - 2011

New report: No stay yet.

Stayed by U.S. Supreme Court at the last minute.

Watching Live feed outside the outrage.
"The state is in charge of a crucifixion. We are charged with a resurrection."
-Al Sharpton #TroyDavis

Government doen't get any bigger than when it murders innocent Americans. Who said that? Rick Perry? Some anonymous rightwinger shouting from the GOP presidential debate crowd? No, no one said that.

By the Brad Blog:

In August of 2007, Troy Anthony Davis was just weeks away from his then scheduled execution in the state of Georgia when The BRAD BLOG ran the following article, including an exclusive interview with Larry Young, the "forgotten victim" in the Davis case who now, like 7 of the 9 witnesses in the case, has recanted his testimony. Young says, as you'll read, that he was left to bleed while the police coerced him into identifying Davis as the assailant, even though he had never seen him before.

One of the only witnesses to not retract his testimony is Sylvester "Redd" Coles, who was with Davis before the 1989 murder of Savannah Police Officer Mark Allen MacPhail who Davis has been convicted of killing. During a party in June of 2009, Coles reportedly claimed to have been the actual assailant.

Davis' execution was delayed in 2007 as new evidence was presented, but he is now, once again, scheduled to be killed at 7pm local time on Wednesday, pending a grant of clemency by the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles (BPP) who are the sole authorities able to commute his death sentence to life in prison with or without the possibility of parole.

Since Emily Levy's exclusive article below ran on August 3rd, 2007, citing both the Indigo Girls and the Pope in calling for Davis to be spared, a host of dignitaries, such as President Jimmy Carter, former FBI Director William Sessions, former far-right Republican U.S. Congressman Bob Barr of Georgia, and former Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Norman Fletcher have all asked the BPP to grant clemency to Davis.

Moreover, among witnesses heard during today's impassioned hearing before the board was Brenda Forrest, a juror who voted to sentence Davis to death at his 1991 trial. According to to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution tonight, Forrest "now says she has doubt about her verdict and is asking the board to grant clemency. Two other jurors who voted to sentence Davis to death have signed affidavits asking the board to spare Davis from execution."

In her affidavit, Forrest says "she learned information that makes her no longer believe the case against Davis was ironclad. 'I feel, emphatically, that Mr. Davis cannot be executed under these circumstances,' she said."

The BPP has adjourned for the evening, having postponed deliberation until tomorrow on the fate of the man who has maintained his innocence without fail for 20 years now. (It had only been 17 years at the time of Levy's original article for The BRAD BLOG). In light of the possibility of the ultimate Big Government abuse of power being exercised against a citizen on Wednesday, it seems an appropriate moment to revisit Levy's original, and disturbing, exclusive ... . See Emily Levy's piee in 2007 Interview With 'Forgotten Victim' Larry Young, as We Await Georgia's Decision on the Fate of Troy Anthony Davis

Georgia Voter Obstruction Halted by Obama DOJ

The GOP will use most any tactic to obstruct the wrong kind of voter from voting.

Via Election Law at Moritz, news from Georgia on GOP voter obstruction (echoing the failed attempt by the Wisconsin GOP last year).

DOJ Issues a Finding on Georgia Program

On Monday (6/1), the Department of Justice rejected Georgia's voter verification program, which included the use of Social Security numbers and driver's license data to determine citizenship (See the AP story from the Atlanta Journal Constitution for more details). The Georgia Secretary of State has also issued a press release commenting on the decision.

Similar voter obstruction efforts in Wisconsin in the GOP and former McCain-Palin co-chair and Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen's obstruction suit last year were tossed out of court here.

From the AP on the Georgia obstruction program:

In a letter released on Monday, the Justice Department said the (Georgia) state's voter verification program is frequently inaccurate and has a 'discriminatory effect' on minority voters. The decision means Georgia must halt the citizenship checks,
although the state can still ask the Justice Department to reconsider, according to the letter and to the Georgia secretary of state's office.

'This flawed system frequently subjects a disproportionate number of African-American, Asian and/or Hispanic voters to additional, and more importantly, erroneous burdens on the right to register to vote,' Loretta King, acting assistant attorney general of the Justice Department's civil rights division, said. King's letter was sent to Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker on Friday.

And from the decision tossing J.B. Van Hollen's obstruction suit that misstated the mandates of federal law (HAVA):

With respect to maintenance of this list, HAVA is explicit that removal of names occurs only in accordance with state law for states, like Wisconsin, which permit voter registration at the polls on the day of election. HAVA is also quite clear on each state's discretion. For purposes of HAVA's election technology and administration requirements, which include the voter list requirement, the law provides, HAVA provides, 'The specific choices on the methods of complying with the requirements of this subchapter shall be left to the discretion of the state.' ...

On November 4th each qualified voter in Wisconsin will go to the polls, as our Supreme Court said ... vested with the franchise. It doesn't matter if the DOT has misspelled his name or if her middle initial is missing on the voter list.

Neither HAVA nor state law require a database match as a precondition to voting. Nor do they require that the voter show any proof of eligibility, essentially to
reregister, in the event of a mismatch.

Hundreds of pages of paper have been filed and they boil down to this one reality. Nothing in state or federal law requires that there be a data match as a condition on the right to vote. HAVA does not supplant Wisconsin's constitutionally protected
right to establish its own voter eligibility standards.

Campaign Notes

In what political pundits see as the most extraordinary presidential race in modern history, recent deployments have Americans looking to the electoral arena with passion and hope not seen since RFK and 1968. Some notes:

Edwards

Populist-progressive John Edwards has dropped out the race for the Democratic nomination, and appears poised to consolidate the growing progressive direction of the national political Democratic party, as activists and white men congeal around Barack Obama. However, Hillary’s coalition includes activists as well as strong Hispanic and womens’ support.

Hillary

But Hillary's grandstanding in Florida (in what was supposed to be a state in which no campaigning was to take place among Democratic candidates) reveals a desperate campaign. From the Evans-Novak Political Report:

The combination of Sen. Barack Obama's (Ill.) unexpected landslide in South Carolina and Sen. Teddy Kennedy's (Mass.) dramatic endorsement mean real trouble for Sen. Hillary Clinton (N.Y.). This is not what she expected on a smooth run to the nomination. Her name ID may be enough in Super Tuesday states, but she can no longer be so certain.

McCain

From the Evans-Novak Political Report:

Sen. John McCain's (Ariz.) successive wins in South Carolina and Florida mean he clearly is the front-runner in a two-man race with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Everything is in his favor in the high population states, and he could come close to wrapping up the nomination because of winner-take-all Republican rules. Time is growing short for the right wing of the GOP to stop McCain or even wrest concessions from him.

Huckabee

Mike Huckabee has enough organization and appeal to evangelicals to stay in the race after Super Tuesday. As Huckabee notes in his e-mail sent to supporters today:

Our focus turns now to Super Tuesday. Recent polling shows us in first or tied for first place in Georgia, Arkansas, Alabama, Missouri, Tennessee and Oklahoma… If the Republican nominee appears out of touch with regular voters or has cast votes that were an anathema to his Party, that candidate will fail to unite the Republican Party against the Democrat nominee, no matter who that nominee is. I have what it takes, our campaign is still standing and drawing new support everyday and I am prepared to lead America forward. Spread the word. I am fighting for you and will continue to do so every step of the way.

Obama and Hillary

The Obama and Hillary race will be a clash of political titans that all Democratic activists hope will stay relatively good-spirited and on the high road.

The Obama-Hillary race is a 50/50 bet, and a political junkie’s dream:

Salon’s Joan Walsh writes:

Barack Obama went up with a new ad in Northern California that I just saw this morning, and I have to say it's powerful. It's about healthcare, and he tells a story that's now a staple of many of his speeches, about his mother's troubles with insurance while she was fighting and ultimately dying of cancer at age 53. One noteworthy image in the first frames: A photo of Obama as a child, with his adoring mother, Ann Dunham, who was, of course, white.

Rudy

Defeated Giuliani Endorses McCain
Rudy was his own worst enemy: Arrogant, authoritarian, Nixonian and so enamored of himself that he believed people would flock to him even though he skipped political campaigning.

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