'Complicity'

Complicity: How the North Promoted, Prolonged, and Profited from Slavery, by Anne Farrow, Joel Lang, and Jenifer Frank.

This book has a story of its own. When Aetna Insurance Company apologized to its shareholders in 2002 for having written insurance policies on slaves before the Civil War, three Connecticut journalists began to research the role of citizens and companies in their state in the promotion of slavery. Their work eventually expanded into the current book, which documents and describes how Northern shippers, factory owners, business magnates and even the makers of piano keys all depended on the slave system for their economic success.

Written in an easy-to-read newspaper style and generously illustrated with pictures and documents of the time, this book is as approachable as it is eye opening. ... If there is anyone who thinks that the division between the North and the South over the question of slavery was clean-cut and who is unaware that it was seriously proposed that New York City secede with the South, that person needs this book. Patricia Moore, Chestnut Hill, MA

View a discussion of Northern Slavery on the Atlanta Forum Network here.

Farai Chideya talks with Anne Farrow, co-author of the book Complicity: How the North Promoted, Prolonged, and Profited from Slavery, which reveals the history of the Northern slave market, and the stories of many of those who were bought, sold and survived. Listen to the program here.

"The Slaves' War"

The Slaves' War: The Civil War in the Words of Former Slaves (Hardcover)by Andrew Ward

This is the first narrative of the Civil War told by the very people that it freed.

Groundbreaking, compelling, and poignant, The Slaves' War delivers an unprecedented vision of the nation's bloodiest conflict. An acclaimed historian of nineteenth-century and African American history, Andrew Ward gives us the first narrative of the Civil War told from the perspective of those whose destiny it decided. Woven together from interviews, diaries, letters, and memoirs, here is the Civil War as seen not only from battlefields and camps but also from slave quarters, kitchens, roadsides, and fields. Speaking in a quintessentially American language of biblical power and intensity, body servants, army cooks and launderers, runaways, teamsters, and gravediggers bring the war to life. From slaves' theories about the war's causes to their frank assessments of such figures as Lincoln, Davis, Lee, and Grant; from their searing memories of the carnage of battle to their often startling attitudes toward masters and liberators alike; and from their initial jubilation at the Yankee invasion of the slave South to the crushing disappointment of freedom's promise unfulfilled, The Slaves' War is an engrossing vision of America.

Watch the enire C-Span Book TV program here.

Pilgrims and Abraham Lincoln

Take a listen to Sarah Vowell on St. Paul's NPR Thanksgiving edition of Midmorning. Ms. Vowell's discusses American history. She says the Puritans were not paragons of virtue, but were key to most Americans' views of themselves.

Sarah Vowell: Author and contributor to This American Life. Her new book is The Wordy Shipmates. Her other books include Assassination Vacation.

Countdown: Wal-Mart, The Republican Brand

Walmart Worker Dies In Stampeed

WORKER KILLED IN WAL-MART STAMPEDE

A 34-year-old man was trampled to death in a rush of Black Friday shoppers at a Long Island mall today, police said.

Long lines of shoppers thronged outside the Wal-Mart at the Green Acres mall in Valley Stream before it opened for post-Thanksgiving business at 5 a.m.
"When the doors opened, all hell broke loose," a law enforcement source told The Post.

Bargain-hungry shoppers stepped on a fallen Wal-Mart worker, who died Friday morning, after the crowd knocked down the store's front doors -- and the worker -- during the "utter chaos" of a Black Friday shopping melee, Nassau County police said.

"A throng of shoppers . . . physically broke down the doors" at around 5 a.m. Friday and knocked the 34-year-old part-time worker to the ground as the crowd pushed its way into the store at the Green Acres Mall, Nassau police said.

"This crowd was out of control," said Nassau Police Det. Lt. Michael Fleming, who is investigating the death. He characterized the melee as "utter chaos."

Fleming said an estimated 2,000 people had gathered in line around 5 a.m. as the store was preparing to open. Asked at a news conference whether the store had enough security given the crowds that Black Friday shopping typically attracts, Fleming said no. Four shoppers had minor injuries, police said.

People in the rear of the line began pushing, cascading the people in the front into the doors, which were knocked off their hinges, Fleming said.

Hundreds of shoppers who then streamed in literally stepped on the worker who later died, Fleming said.

Fleming said the worker, who has not been publicly identified, was a temporary worker sent by an employment agency. Fleming said criminal charges were possible in the case, though he said it would be nearly impossible to identify individual shoppers. But, he said, authorities were reviewing surveillance video.

Another police officer told Newsday the prelude to the death at the Green Acres Mall was "a mob scene."

Shoppers who surged past the fallen Wal-Mart worker into the store were asked to leave by other store workers, some of them crying and visibly upset, said one shopper, Kimberly Cribbs, of Far Rockaway.

Though rumors circulated among the shoppers that someone had been badly injured, people ignored the Wal-Mart workers' requests that they stop shopping, move to the front of the store and exit, Cribbs said.

"They kept shopping. It's not right. They're savages," Cribbs said.

Cribbs said she entered the store after the injured worker was already being attended to by emergency personnel. As people waited, then pushed into the store, she said, "It was chaos."

Another shopper said people were screaming and shoving in line before the opening.

The police got an emergency call at 5:03 a.m. reporting that the worker had been injured, and he was taken to Franklin Hospital in Valley Stream where he was pronounced dead at 6:03 a.m.

As of Friday morning the cause of death was described as "undetermined", police said. An exact cause of death will be determined by the county medical examiner's office, police said.

Shopper Camla Brown described a disorganized mob that was thirsting to get into the store before the trampling.

"There was no organization," said Brown, a 47-year-old restaurant manager from Valley Stream.

Four other Wal-Mart shoppers at the Valley Stream store were taken to hospitals Friday morning. A 28-year-old pregnant woman was taken to a hospital for observation, and three other shoppers suffered minor injuries and were taken to hospitals for treatment, and they were expected to be released.

Dan Fogelman, spokesman at Wal-Mart corporate headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., said Friday, "The safety and security of our customers and associates are our top priority."

Fogelman called the death "a tragic situation" and said the company was cooperating fully with the Nassau County police investigation. He declined to comment on whether the company would review its practice of heavily-discounted holiday sales events, or whether the company was reviewing its crowd control measures at such sales.

Fogelman said company management were saddened by the death of the worker and the injuries to customers, adding, "Our thoughts and prayers are with them at this difficult time."

In a pace considerably more subdued, shoppers by the hundreds streamed into the Wal-Mart the moment it reopened in the early afternoon.

Nassau County police officers standing near the entrance asked the shoppers to take it easy as they walked in.

The store's front doors, the ones broken down by the earlier mob, have not been replaced.

A handwritten sign, apparently from Friday morning, said, "Blitz line starts here" with an arrow telling shoppers where to line up.

The Nassau Police Fifth Squad is investigating.

Source: NY Post by Keiran Crowley.

FIX IT!

Robert Gibbs, Obama's Press Secretary

From the AP Newswire: Two of the top qualities Robert Gibbs brings to the job of White House press secretary aren't found on his resume: He won't flinch at telling it like it is to the next president or telling it like he thinks it ought to be to the media.

Gibbs has been at the side of President-elect Barack Obama since his Senate campaign in 2004. A Southerner and tough fighter, Gibbs has been a passionate defender of Obama who can virtually channel the Illinois senator's thoughts.

"I look forward to serving both the president-elect as he works to get our economy moving again and the press to get what they need to cover that and other important stories," Gibbs told The Associated Press on Saturday.

During the presidential campaign, Gibbs, 37, served as communications director and was among the few who could frankly tell Obama what needed to improve.

He didn't hesitate to tell the media when he thought they got it wrong, either. He fiercely guarded Obama's image.

One critic called Gibbs "the bland face of brazenness" when he said Obama's decision to resign from his church amid the controversy over the Rev. Jeremiah Wright was "a deeply personal decision, not a political decision."

Others were surprised when he called Fox News' Bill O'Reilly a "bully" and asked Sean Hannity, "Are you anti-Semitic?" in response to the TV commentator's questions about Obama's relationship to William Ayers, a 1960s radical.

Continue reading the AP article on Robert Gibbs here.

Who Killed the Electric Car? Part1

Talkin Turkey with Sister Sarah

A low-key PR exercise has turned into another embarrassing incident for Sarah Palin as turkeys were graphically slaughtered behind her during a TV interview.

Palin was attending a media opportunity to "pardon" a turkey ahead of Thanksgiving — a tradition that sees an invited guest select one bird to be spared the dinner table.

But after "saving" one bird, the Alaskan governor then completes a short interview while a farm employee slaughters another two turkeys just metres behind her.

Lowering the animal's heads into a metal chute, the Triple D Farms worker holds them buy the feet as their throats are cut.

He repeatedly looks over and appears to nervously smile at the camera as the birds violently shake and writhe.

Palin does not acknowledge the activities behind her during the three-minute interview, but reportedly told the crew she had no problems with her graphic backdrop.

"I was happy to get to be invited to participate in this," a smiling Palin told KTUU-TV on the video.

"Certainly we'll probably invite criticism for even doing this, too, but at least this was fun."

Don't Go Away Mad, Just Go Away

Hillary for Secretary of State

Let them eat carburetors

Ben Stein writes: We are in an economic tailspin. We cannot allow the roughly three million workers connected to the Big Three auto industry to fall into the ranks of the unemployed. It is possible that this nightmare could push the oncoming recession into being a Depression, something we definitely do not want to ever again experience.

Plus, we need a powerful domestic motor industry for defense purposes, to be able to convert to making tanks and military trucks if they had to.

Bankruptcy is not a good option. Who would buy a car made by a company in bankruptcy? After all, would the company even be there when you wanted your car serviced or repaired? And how could workers handle extended layoffs while it all got sorted out?

Read also "Let them eat carburetors" by Bill Gallagher.

GM's Flint, Michigan

American Capitalism: Rot in Peace

From Slate Magazine's article "Rot in Peace," a photo journalism piece on the urban decay and the death of capitalism in the inner cities across the USA.

Letting man-made structures decay to the point of disappearance is not an idea with a lot of popular or professional support, at least in America. In the mid-1990s, however, sociologist and photographer Camilo José Vergara proposed a "ruins park" for the mostly empty urban core of Detroit. In his "American Acropolis," the vacant buildings would become habitat for peregrine falcons and intrepid plants. The prairie would reseed the city streets. People would gather to witness a "memorial to a disappearing urban civilization." Detroit citizens did not welcome the proposal. It mattered little to them that Vergara found redemption and beauty, as well as regret, in their husk of a city.

In this slide, Vergara's photo of the derelict reading room of the Camden Free Library in New Jersey, a thicket of saplings reaches toward a tattered ceiling's filtered light. Historian Elizabeth Blackmar detects in Vergara's photos an "aesthetic pause," which leads us to wonder how we could have avoided the wasting away of these 20th-century landmarks—and to reflect on what we are to learn from their demise.

GOP to Detroit: "Drop Dead"

Pat Buchanan's article "As GM Goes, So Goes the GOP," states: "...Republicans are right to be enraged. They are victims of the biggest bait-and-switch in political history. But they are now about to do something terminally stupid. With GM, Ford and Chrysler teetering on the brink, they are turning a cold stone face to Detroit... "

Mr. Buchanan continues, "Are Republicans aware of what they are about to do? "

"When workers, execs, engineers, dealers, salesmen and suppliers are all factored in, the Big Three employ 3 million people who contribute $21 billion a year to Social Security and Medicare, and $25 billion in federal income taxes. Add in all the businesses that depend on the auto industry, and we are talking about one-tenth of the U.S. labor force."

"As columnist Tom Piatak of Chronicles and Takimag.com writes, 850,000 retirees, and their families, depend for pensions and health care on the Big Three. If they go under, the burden falls on us. "

"And to let the auto industry die is to write America out of much of the economic future of the planet."

Read the entire article here.

Photo: Camilo José Vergara

The First Granny

The Homecoming Fight

Tickets Now On Sale For Lamon Brewster vs.Bruce Seldon on November 29, 2008 Homecoming Card in Indianapolis.

Who: "Relentless" Lamon Brewster's Homecoming fight in Indianapolis are now on sale and priced to move. The former WBO heavyweight champion, (34-4, 30 KO) will be competing in front of his home crowd for the first time since his amateur days. "The Homecoming", promoted by Relentless Events and C'Believe, will take place November 29 at the Conseco Fieldhouse.What:

The fight is scheduled for twelve rounds with the North American Boxing Association Heavyweight title at stake.

When:

Saturday, November 29, 2008; Doors open at 7:00 PM and first bout begins at 7:30 PM.

Where:

Conseco Fieldhouse: One Conseco Court; 125 S. Pennsylvania Street; Indianapolis, IN 46204

Tickets:

$17 to $152, are available at Ticketmaster outlets, by phone 317-239-5151 or http://www.ticketmaster.com/. Tickets can be purchased at the Conseco Fieldhouse box office, Mon.-Sat., 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

VIP Tables are also available for purchase. For more information on this and other Relentless Events, visit http://www.relentlessevents.net/ .

Shelby Steele Wrong Again

Why do people keep paying Shelby Steele's crazy and outdated notions of race and caste.

Author and professional Republican sellout Shelby Steele wrote a book entitled, A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can't Win.

The whitest man in America, conservative columnist George Will wrote a review on Steele's book in the Washington Post last Novemeber. Will says that Steele's "argument is ultimately unconvincing because he fundamentally misreads Barack Obama. Nevertheless, so fecund is Steele's mind, he illuminates the racial landscape that Obama might transform."

George Will continues by stating, "Obama has chosen to resolve his ambiguous racial identity by embracing the social determinism and identity politics of post-'60s black dogmas. Hence he is a "bound man." He is "bound against himself" because he has fit himself into the world by often taking his experience out of account.'"

"...Steele radically misreads Obama, missing his emancipation from those perversities. Obama seems to understand America's race fatigue, the unbearable boredom occasioned by today's stale politics generally and by the perfunctory theatrics of race especially."

Mr. Will concludes by asserting, that "So far, Obama is the Fred Astaire of politics -- graceful and elegant, with a surface so pleasing to the eye that it seems mistaken, even greedy, to demand depth."

Here's a clip of Steele making an historic fool out of himself: