asoldier4justice's Blog

Obama is setting a new stage and hes a hard act to follow. Obama's charisma is stronger then a rock star, Obama, a President who reaches across the table and invites anyone who has the experience to assist in the redeveloping of this country and its economy- despite party affiliation.

I am here in the DC area now, what are you kidding; I happen to have the ability to go where I feel I need to be and I tell you, I have lived in these parts for 8 years and there is definitely a different feel; Corporations who have run amuck,  are now frightened when you question their ulterior motives; Heck they don't know what to do, after all Obama became President and I'm sure it was over their dead body. So what is happening in your neck of the woods are people changing, are they up for making a difference locally?

What are some of the ideals you have that could assist the President in making a triumphant shift in our American communities? How do you feel about his comments about Muslims, was it to soon to mention the subject? Did he become what others felt he was all along, interesting-right?

Dear Tonita,

A new report in The Nation1 documents what many have claimed for years -- for some Black New Orleanians the threat of being killed by White vigilantes in Katrina's aftermath became a bigger threat than the storm itself. After the storm, White vigilantes roamed Algiers Point shooting and, according to their own accounts, killing Black men at will-- with no threat of a police response. For the last three years, the shootings and the police force's role in them have been an open secret to many New Orleanians.

To date, no one has been charged with a crime and law enforcement officials have refused to investigate. The facts are finally seeing the light of day. Now we must demand action. Given Louisiana's horrible record when it comes to criminal justice and Black folks, it's the only path to justice. You can help. Join us in calling on Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, Louisiana's Attorney General Buddy Caldwell, and the U.S. Department of Justice to conduct a full investigation of these crimes and any police cover-up.

It takes only a moment to add your voice and to invite your friends and family to do the same: http://www.colorofchange.org/nation/?id=2426-315882 In the two weeks after Hurricane Katrina made landfall, the media created a climate of fear with trumped-up stories of Black lawlessness. Meanwhile, an armed group of White vigilantes took over the Algiers Point neighborhood in New Orleans and mercilessly hunted down Black people. "It was great!" said one vigilante. "It was like pheasant season in South Dakota. If it moved, you shot it." The Nation's article tells the story of Donnell Herrington, Marcel Alexander, and Chris Collins -- a group of friends who were attacked by shotgun-wielding White men as they entered Algiers Point on September 1, 2005.

As they tried to escape, Herrington recalls, their attackers shouted, "Get him! Get that nigger!" He managed to get away. Alexander and Collins were told that they would be allowed to live on the condition that they told other Black folks not to come to Algiers Point. Herrington, shot in the neck, barely survived. And there's the story of Henry Glover, who didn't survive after being shot by an unknown assailant. 2 Glover's brother flagged down a stranger for help, and the two men brought Glover to a police station. But instead of receiving aid, they were beaten by officers while Henry Glover bled to death in the back seat of the stranger's car. A police officer drove off in the car soon afterward. Both Glover's body and the car were found burnt to cinders a week later. It took DNA analysis to identify the body.

Then there's the story of White militiamen who tried to drive their Black neighbors from their homes. Reggie Bell, who lived just two blocks down the street from the vigilantes' ringleader, was told at gunpoint, "We don't want you around here. You loot, we shoot." Later, another group of armed White men confronted him at his home, asking, "Whatcha still doing around here? We don't want you around here. You gotta go." These are only a few of the stories of Black folks who were accosted in Algiers Point, and you can read more in The Nation. But unless you speak out, we may never learn the full extent of the violence. Journalists have encountered a wall of silence on the part of the authorities.

The coroner had to be sued to turn over autopsy records. When he finally complied, the records were incomplete, with files on several suspicious deaths suddenly empty. The New Orleans police and the District Attorney repeatedly refused to talk to journalists about Algiers Point. And according to journalist A.C. Thompson, "the city has in nearly every case refused to investigate or prosecute people for assaults and murders committed in the wake of the storm."

The Nation's article is important, but it's just a start. For more than three years now, these racist criminals have by their own admission gotten away with murder, while officials in New Orleans have systematically evaded any kind of accountability. We have to demand it.

Please join us in calling on state and federal officials to investigate these brutal attacks and the conduct of Orleans Parish law enforcement agencies, and please ask your friends and family to do the same.

http://www.colorofchange.org/nation/?id=2426-315882 Thanks and Peace, -- James, Gabriel, Clarissa, William, Dani, and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team December 18th, 2008 References 1. "Katrina's Hidden Race War," The Nation, 12-18-2008 http://www.colorofchange.org/link/?id=2426-315882&cat=nation&link=1 2. "Body of Evidence," The Nation, 12-18-2008 http://www.colorofchange.org/link/?id=2426-315882&cat=nation&link=2

I'm posting this blog because I enjoy feed back- it's finally here.

I must give honors to GOD and the FIRST FAMILY...

CONGRATS TO OUR NEW PRESIDENT ELECT AND THE FIRST FAMILY!!!

I have finally given birth to my Baby-- "Memoir, about Tonita 'Louise Redditt' Hall, A Soldier for Justice"

I know that's not a correct way to put it- however, I have been carrying this load for approximately eight years. Yes, it's been eights years, actually ten, since I first encountered injustice. Now I have laid it bare for all to read. Unfortunately, not everyone will get an opportunity to purchase first print.

IF I WAS YOU I WOULD RESERVE MY COPY TODAY!

Check out my site, although, it's under construction www. soldier4justice. com  I will be providing the information about my tour with my book and of course where to purchase your copy, so bookmark my spot. I will have some interesting information to share. Of course, I will be at the inauguration. And then its back to the grind of study. That's what it's all about for me next year.

you may contact me at 877.815. 5016

Thanks for all the love and support

Toni-Louise A Soldier for Justice

Chapter Four

The residents of South Fulton County, Georgia rallied the community together. In the demesne which my children frequented for summer camp, the winds of war were brewing.

People were holding meetings to address many concerns, which included the recreation and safety of children, the increased crime rate, and lack of adequate police protection for the neighborhoods.

Each meeting I was summoned to, I attended. Although I stood in the shadows, observing silently, others who had an interest in the development of South Fulton County gradually came to know me better. My IT business Cue-U.Net Inc. was growing slowly.

I was aware of my potential, but did not fully realize the benefits of having the first African-American female IT business in Fulton County, Georgia.

I was a community resident so I had concerns that had increased since I became a homeowner. I now demanded a better quality of life because I was a property owner.

My priority was the safety and education of my children. I hoped that being an entrepreneur would give me opportunities I could never have as an employee.

I spent late nights in beauty salons speaking before eager African-American women also seeking to take ownership of their dreams. If I were to survive as a minority business, I would have to build my reputation as a person of worth in a colony of hungry and aggressive African-American business men.

I was driven by this new freedom, but had to keep reminding myself that the benefit of being self-employed was my availability to my children. Unfortunately, the longing to spend more quality time with my children was not realized, at least in the beginning, because I spent excruciatingly long hours in my office.

When I wasn’t creating a site, I was attending community meetings and engaging in long debates about the future of South Fulton County.

Prior to the incidents that had taken place in Palmetto, Georgia, I had no interest in politics. Now I found myself engaged in conversations with parents who had a passion to learn and become more prominent in the development and safety of the place they called home.

With the corroboration of Commissioner Hightower, the community had chosen me to be one of their leaders but I wanted no part of it. However, the champion in me could not resist. My avocation became tending to the concerns of others in the Stone Wall Tell community who demanded a response, although I had once cared about Palmetto.

I had left the proletariat of Palmetto and joined a movement of people who wouldn’t give up. It was becoming exhausting as the momentum grew, but joining this force caused a massive growth in my character. The residents of the Stone Wall Tell community confided in me. They believed I knew the answer and if I didn’t, that I would find it. I was the knight charging ahead on my steed, determined to win the battle and come home with the prize, “a victory.”

The primary concern of most residents was childcare and the possible closing of the building that offered this service and recreation for their children. Many parents depended on the after-school program.

The Stone Wall Tell parents were passionate about trying to solve the problem. It was astonishing to watch. I turned down the dark street leading to the recreation center and took a deep breath to slow myself down. I could hardly feel my heart beat at the speed I had been going since becoming self-employed. Reaching the parking lot at the community center, I signaled and slowed down, looking for a parking space. I punched the gas and then came to a sudden halt. The car jumped as I popped the clutch.

Slowly I released another breath, put my purse under the seat and got out. I hurried through the dark parking lot towards the light. The clicking of my heels echoed through the trees as I headed to the building. I could hear the laughter of kids who were playing, running in and out of the trees. I wondered where their parents were and why they allowed the kids to be outside in the dark.

I could see Ms. Peggy standing just outside the doors of the building, directing the children. Ms. Peggy was the nicest person I had met since moving to Atlanta. She was so genuine with her concerns about the children; definitely a woman of the South.

She was always in high spirits. Her relationship with her husband, Richard, and her boys completed her contentment in life.

I desired to have a similar relationship. She would always have a story to tell about the long walks she took with her husband, especially on a Sunday morning, when they walked to church. I used to listen in awe.

I reached the covered walkway and as I walked past the open door to say hello to Ms. Peggy, I noticed many people sitting inside the building.

“Good evening, Ms. Peggy,” I said warmly, extending my hand.

“Oh … come on,” she replied, opening her arms wide to embrace me. “Good evening, Louise. How are you?” she smiled.

“Oh, I’m fine … so what’s going on inside here?” I asked, as I peered across her shoulder to look inside the building.

“We had a little party for the kids. Where are your girls?”

“They’re at home; they have homework so I didn’t want to disturb their studies.”

Ms. Peggy linked arms and we turned to go into the building. “We have some problems here,” she explained.

I walked silently, thinking to myself, Why are you telling me this? I listened with interest while she explained the circumstances.

“Inside is the Director of Recreation, Mr. Marshall. He wants to close the building down; they found asbestos in the walls.” “Not the whole building,” she continued almost in a whisper, “but we have no place to put the children. In addition, some of us will be out of a job.”

“Uh-huh,” I replied with interest, stopping short of the door and turning to face her.

Thinking about what she had said, I tried to read deeper into the words, searching her face for any clues that would enlighten me.  I felt there was more to it but she said nothing more.

We walked inside and Ms. Peggy showed me to the area where they were serving refreshments. I looked around the room at the crowd of people.

What a turnout, I thought to myself.

There was a gentleman busying himself in the front of the room, wearing a nice navy business suit.He was surrounded by what appeared to be people assisting.

As I studied him, he glanced in my direction. I turned quickly to avoid eye contact and pretended to select some refreshments. I searched the perimeters of the table,  but most of the food had been picked over.

Behind the refreshment table inside the small kitchen, a woman was handing out small bags of treats and toys to the kids.

“Would you like one?” she asked invitingly, noticing I felt slightly out of place.

She walked over to me and extended her hand.

“I’m Margaret, in charge of the recreation program.”

“Hi,” I said, with a slight smile. “I apologize, I had a long day at work and I would rather be at home. I’m new to this community stuff and I’m running out of energy.”

“Here,” she said, offering a fresh plate of sandwiches. “This should help.”

“Why thank you,” I replied and picked up two of the finger sandwiches.

“I have more if you’re interested.” She sighed,

“Well, people are settling into the meeting, so I need to get the rest of the refreshments out on the tables; the children have demolished most of it. I’m sure you’re not the only hungry adult, with people coming straight from work.

Nice meeting you,” she concluded, sizing me up and down, as if to take a  final assessment of me.

“Sure,” I nodded. “Nice to meet you.”.....

____________________________________________________________________

Well that's it for now- but read more.  I will be posting a complimentary chapter on my official site by Sunday---December 14, 2008

 bookmark the site www,soldier4justice.com

Much luv-

Toni-Louise

I don't have a lot of available time at the moment with the book party, but I wanted to hear some of your thoughts about Mr. Holder and the possibilities.  If nothing learn the position of the Department of Justice and position yourself to fire off a barrage of issues that need to be addressed.  I'm serious this is great news, no its a miracle

WASHINGTON (NNPA) n Civil rights leaders across the nation are characterizing the possible nomination of former Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder for the spot of U. S. attorney general as a ‘bold choice’ for prospective upgrades in civil rights and criminal justice laws that have long hindered Black progress. “President-elect [Barack] Obama has made a bold choice in nominating Eric holder as the attorney general,” says Charles Ogletree, Harvard Law School professor and director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice.

“Eric brings nearly three decades of public service to this enormous task and will usher in a new appreciation for civil rights and dignity and respect for individual liberties. I applaud this decision and so should anyone deeply concerned about the fair and rational application of the rule of law.” The slot of attorney general, among the most important top nominations to be made by the incoming president, oversees the U. S. Department of Justice. The DOJ deals with a variety of issues, including public policies under the Civil Rights Division that disparately affect Black people. They include affirmative action, racial profiling, police misconduct, hate crimes, judicial discretion in mandatory minimum sentences, the death penalty and other sentencing disparities, voting rights and redistricting reviews. Obama has not yet made the Holder nomination official, but the transition team has strongly signaled that he is the president-elect's top choice. A formal announcement is pending.

Meanwhile, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton Obama's arch rival will likely become his secretary of state; Gen. James L. Jones, a former NATO commander, will likely become his national security adviser, and Robert M. Gates will like remain secretary defense secretary. The Clinton, Jones and Gates announcements are key this week in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai,India's largest city. Well more than 200 are dead from gunshots. The Obama nominations reveal that he is focusing on national security issues as well as justice issues at home. Holder, who would be the first African-American to serve as attorney general, comes one year after New York activist Al Sharpton led a march of thousands around the Justice Department, decrying policies that have failed to fairly deal with police misconduct and hate crimes. Holder, whose pending appointment must first be confirmed by the U. S. Senate, would not only be the first African-American to serve as attorney general, but is viewed as a fair-minded former judge whose civil rights record reputedly bespeaks balance, fairness and equity.

Legal experts who deal in racial justice say these are the qualities that have been missing in the Bush Justice Department, largely characterized by decisions made by Republican political appointees viewed as cold to civil rights laws. A widely held complaint has been that Bush administrative appointees have often undermined opinions and legal advice of lawyers n especially in the civil rights division. “The last eight years have probably been the most disastrous for the Department of Justice in its history. They have been catastrophic for the Civil Rights Division,” says John Payton, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. “The mission of the Civil Rights Division has been literally abandoned; its career attorneys forced out or demoralized, its leadership compromised by political considerations. In many important ways, we have not really had a Civil Rights Division for the past eight years.” Holder could help fix that, says Payton. “The mission of the next attorney general will be to restore - not just the integrity of the Department of Justice but its very soul,” says Payton. “Eric Holder is a spectacular pick.”

Among those issues of greatest concern is affirmative action, which the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights defines as ''a contemporary term that encompasses any measure, beyond simple termination of a discriminatory practice, which permits the consideration of race, national origin, sex and disability, along with other criteria, and which is adopted to provide opportunities to a class of qualified individuals who have either historically or actually been denied those opportunities, and to prevent the reoccurrence of discrimination in the future.'' In other words, public agencies and institutions are allowed to consider race, national origin, gender and disability n among other factors n when seeking qualified candidates for admissions and contracts. However the obscurity of recent Supreme Court rulings have caused some universities and public contracting agencies to fear executing programs to bring racial inclusion, a hesitation called a ''chilling affect.'' Holder has a history of judicial posts, in which he revealed his bend toward civil rights. In 1988, then-President Ronald Reagan appointed him to serve on the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. He stepped down in 1993 to accept an appointment from President Bill Clinton as U. S. attorney for the District of Columbia. He was the first African-American U.S. Attorney in that office. Then, in 1997, Clinton appointed Holder as deputy attorney general to then Attn. General Janet Reno. He was also the first African-American to hold that office. In 2001, after the election of President George Bush, Holder joined the private law firm of Covington and Burling, where he has largely handled civil and criminal cases as well as internal corporate investigations. According to

Thehistorymakers.com, Holder’s civil rights record includes early clerkships for the NAACPLDF and the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division as a student at Columbia law school in 1974 and 1975. During his four-year tenure as U. S. attorney in D. C., he created a domestic violence unit, implemented a community prosecution project, and developed Operation Cease-Fire, a program aimed at gun ownership by criminals, according to the website, which documents the lives of African-American heroes. As deputy attorney general - in addition to supervising the litigating, enforcement, and administrative components in both civil and criminal matters of the DOJ, he created a program called Lawyers for One America, which aimed to diversify the legal profession and provide free legal work to those in need across the nation.

With strong Democratic majorities in both the House and the Senate, it is expected that the Congress will work closely with Holder to remove barriers to Black progress. Democratic members of Congress have largely received straight As and Bs on NAACP Legislative Report Cards, including former Sen. Obama. U. S. Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), who serves as the highest-ranking African-American in Congress as House Majority Whip, says he anticipates the removal of long-held barriers as the Congress works with Holder - if his pending nomination is confirmed by the Senate. “We want somebody who will protect the rights and privileges...of being Americans that African-Americans have. And the current administration, time and time again, trampled upon those rights,” Clyburn says. “So, if you’ve got an Eric Holder over there that says, ‘I’m going to protect everybody’s rights. I’m not going to be out here politicizing the Justice Department. We’re aren’t going to let people go out here and just trample upon your rights,’ that’s all African-Americans want.”

In the announcement of President Elect Barack Obama's plan to focus on government programs, it lead me to post this blog. What does Obama have in mind?  Is he hoping that by attacking old problems, programs, that have been modified by former Presidents of the Democratic race such as welfare reform e.g.,....and by implementing new strategies, will lead this country to a new profound economic CHANGE?   Do you know of any government programs that have not succeeded in modifying our communities towards positive change? Will the government take control of corporate America, will they enact strict policies after bailing out several top fortune 500 companies, what does he hope to gain by this proposal?  I would love to hear your feedback on this:  Check out this post...

In summer 1937, basking in what appeared to be the success of the New Deal, Roosevelt moved to cut government expenditures and raise interest rates, hoping to slow inflation and begin to withdraw the heavy hand of the government from the economy. Within weeks, however, the economy was in a tailspin, and by autumn 1937 the economy was back in the doldrums. Suddenly, four million workers were out of work, and economic.....

Dixiecrats — conservative Southern Democrats in Congress — had long disrupted Roosevelt's reform legislation. In 1938, convinced that his landslide victory in 1936 proved the American people were behind him, Roosevelt set out to "purge" the party ranks of those Democrats he considered the most noxious. His efforts met with little success and contributed to the collapse of the New Deal majority in Congress. For the remaining two years of his second term as president, Roosevelt and the New Deal were on the defensive. In fact, many historians argue that the New Deal came to an end with the congressional elections of 1938.

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama fleshed out his government reform agenda in a campaign appearance Monday, promising to fire managers of poor-performing programs and appoint a White House "SWAT team" made up of government professionals to review programs for waste and inefficiency. "I am not a Democrat who believes that we can or should defend every government program just because it's there," Obama said during a campaign event in Green Bay, Wis. Obama pledged to create a "high-performance team" to evaluate every federal agency and office. After such reviews, he said, "We will fire government managers who aren't getting results, we will cut funding for programs that are wasting your money, and we will use technology and lessons from the private sector to improve efficiency across every level of government -- because we cannot meet 21st century challenges with a 20th century bureaucracy."

Obama's campaign released a plan stating that "in many areas of the federal government there is too much Washington bureaucracy -- too many layers of managers, and too much paperwork that does not contribute to directly improving the lives of the American people. At the same time, there are too few workers on the front lines in local offices around the country." In the plan, Obama pledged to "thin the ranks of Washington middle managers, freeing up resources both for deficit reduction and for increasing the number of frontline workers." The plan also seeks to "eliminate wasteful redundancy" in federal programs.

"Obama will conduct an immediate and periodic public inventory of administrative offices and functions and require agency leaders to work together to root our redundancy," the plan states. Under the plan, Obama and vice presidential nominee Joseph Biden would set up a "SWAT team" in the White House to work with agency leaders and the Office of Management and Budget that would be "composed of top-performing and highly paid government professionals" and be headed by a new chief performance officer reporting directly to the president. The Democrat said he also would "experiment with giving government managers the ability to work with their teams to establish goals and to give bonuses when those goals are met.

These steps will be guided by performance measures and will be transparent and visible to the public and Congress." The plan appears to revive many of the principles of the Clinton-Gore National Performance Review and its reinventing government doctrine for improving government efficiency and reducing costs. In the plan, Obama said President Bush's Program Assessment Rating Tool had failed to meet expectations and would be drastically re-organized. The document said Obama would "open up the insular performance measurement process to the public, Congress and outside experts.

Obama will eliminate ideological performance goals and replace them with goals Americans care about and that are based on congressional intent and feedback from the people served by government programs. Obama will also ensure that programs are not only measured in isolation, but are assessed in the context of other programs that are serving the same population or meeting the same goals." The last round of performance ratings under the Bush administration, released earlier this month, provided detailed assessments of more than 1,000 federal programs. The final evaluation, which incorporated ratings for 67 programs that were reviewed for the first time or reassessed in the past year, found that 80 percent of initiatives were performing adequately or better.

Evaluations are based on managers' answers to a 25-part questionnaire, which are available on the ExpectMore.gov Web site. While PART has been a relatively uncontroversial aspect of Bush's President's Management Agenda, the Obama campaign cited critics who suggested that the system is "insular, arbitrary and is used to promote ideological goals rather than true performance standards." "Obama's performance improvement effort will include cross-agency performance where service delivery requires coordination across federal agencies and multiple levels of government," the document said. The policy document cited a July Government Accountability Office report which found that among federal managers, only 26 percent used PART to make management decisions. The watchdog also said that PART examiners at OMB may be spread too thin, unable to provide accurate assessments because they lack sufficient knowledge of the programs they are reviewing. Obama also pledged to cut spending on government contracts, hire more contract overseers and improve training for federal contracting officers.

"The federal government's ability to manage contracts has not kept up with the increase in the volume and complexity of federal contracts," the plan said. "Barack Obama will hire more contract managers and improve training. He also will ensure that contract oversight remains within the federal government so that a contract's oversight is not outsourced to a business partner of the company doing the contract's work." At the Monday event, Obama said, "We are facing the largest deficit in history. We are facing the largest government bailout in history. And we are also facing some of the greatest challenges in our history. All of this will cost money -- to fix our health care system and our schools and build a new energy economy. And the only way we can do all this without leaving our children with an even larger debt is if Washington starts taking responsibility for every dime that it spends." Obama renewed a pledge made in his speech accepting the Democratic presidential nomination to "go through the entire federal budget, page by page, line by line" and "eliminate the programs that don't work and aren't needed."

I thought this was very interesting and from where I stand this is only the beginning. I'm telling my BP family that Obama is not playing. He has waited in the ethers of politics for his opportunity to do something about the injustice of this country. I welcome you to experience and share in the most miraculous events of our lifetime. I know in my heart what needs to be done, and Obama contrary to popular belief, is more than a President- he is a very intelligent individual who doesn't know any better. He contains a natural  and effective hungar, that desires with passion ,to do what it is that he must do... that is grind righteousness.

Knowledge is powerful, but sometimes a person who knows to much is dangerous. How do I know, watch and see what transitions this country is going to experience. I welcome your input. I don't know about you, but I know through my spiritual intuition that we are in for a surprise. Follow and experience, the articale reads as such:

A South Texas grand jury has returned multi-count indictments against Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on charges related to the alleged abuse of prisoners in Willacy County's federal detention centers:

The indictment accuses Cheney and Gonzales of engaging in organized criminal activity. It criticizes Cheney's investment in the Vanguard Group, which holds interests in the private prison companies running the federal detention centers. It accuses Cheney of a conflict of interest and "at least misdemeanor assaults" on detainees by working through the prison companies. Gonzales is accused of using his position while in office to stop an investigation into abuses at the federal detention centers. Digg!