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We publish press releases as we receive them. If you have one you think we should publish, send it to webmaster@radicalacademy.com, and we will consider it for publication. Because The Radical Academy publishes press releases on its website does not imply acceptance or approval of the content. Nor is the Academy responsible for any misrepresentation of the facts included. It is your job to be a critical reader. Posted Here on April 4, 2008 For Release: April 4, 2008 The National Center for Public Policy Research Washington, D.C. - Today the world commemorates the 40th anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. On April 4, 1968, Dr. King's storied civil rights career was cut short by an assassin's bullet at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. While Dr. King's legacy lives on and is still strong today, members of the Project 21 black leadership network are asking people in the black community to use this solemn anniversary to reignite a commitment to self-empowerment and shedding reliance on government. To follow are quotes from individual Project 21 members - including a former regional official of Dr. King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference - on the King assassination anniversary and the task of promoting personal progress: Joe R. Hicks (Los Angeles, CA) - "Perhaps the biggest disservice to the memory of Dr. King is the attempt to characterize him solely as a black leader. While much of his work did concentrate on the discrimination that faced that era's black Americans, his vision transcended narrow racial categorization. He viewed the civil rights struggles as crucial efforts aimed at making the nation live up to its lofty Constitutional ambitions, and were aimed at building a better nation for all Americans regardless of skin color, religion or national origin." (Hicks is a former executive director of the Greater Los Angeles chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference - the civil rights organization founded by Dr. King.) Bishop Council Nedd II (Harrisburg, PA) - "The assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. didn't simply cut short the life of one of mankind's great leaders. It also served as an excuse by some to divert the civil rights movement from King's vision of nonviolent protest and reconciliation to one of racial entitlement and resentment. Dr. King's greatness was manifested not only in his commitment to combating racial bigotry, but in his determination to stand up to the radicals in the civil rights movement who sought to effect change through violence, hatred and even revolution. The real tragedy is not only that a great man was struck down by an assassin's bullet, but that there are those who claim to be following in his footsteps who have so completely lost their way." Deneen Borelli (New York, NY) - "Our country could use more leaders like Dr. King to teach and reinforce his message of hope, love and equality to change the hearts and minds of those continuously exposed to words of hopelessness, hatred and racism. Our children would certainly benefit from the positive messages Dr. King spoke of 40 years ago for a better tomorrow." B.B. Robinson, Ph.D. (Honolulu, HI) - "No question about it, Dr. King was one of the most important black American leaders of his time. However, the rush of the civil rights movement and his untimely death hindered the development of optimal strategies and long-term plans for black Americans. Consequently, black Americans continue to falter from the absence and implementation of such strategies and plans today." Mychal Massie (Philadelphia, PA) - "Dr. King's assassination, along with those of President John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert Kennedy, marked a volatile period in America's history. It would be prudent if we advocated the implementation of the best of what these great men stood for, juxtaposed to reinventing the truth of the greatness to fit the self-serving machinations of race hustlers of today. Dr. King's vision has also been blunted by the misguided efforts of the Great Society Initiatives, which led to a decline of the family structure - the black family structure in particular." (Massie is the chairman of Project 21.) Project 21, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization sponsored by the National Center for Public Policy Research, has been a leading voice of the African-American community since 1992. For more information, contact David Almasi at (202) 543-4110 x11 or project21@nationalcenter.org, or visit Project 21's website at www.project21.org/P21Index.html. 501 Capitol Court, N.E. Washington, D.C. 20002 (202) 543-4110 Fax (202) 543-5975 E-Mail: info@nationalcenter.org
Posted Here on April 1, 2008 For Immediate Release EFF Uncovers Congressional Listening Program Elected Officials Caught Voting on Basis of the Results of Monitoring San Francisco - Shocking new evidence presented to the media by the Electronic Frontier Foundation today indicates that elected officials may have been monitoring the opinions of millions of citizens and using the data collected to directly determine how they should vote in Congress. The civil liberties organization made its claim today after the House's recent vote to deny retroactive immunity to telecommunication companies. EFF's technical experts claim that this unusual voting behavior was driven by a massive program of surveilling their own constituents' communications. "There's no way they would have voted this way without outsider information," said Cindy Cohn, EFF's Legal Director. "We have direct evidence showing that Congressional officials opened the letters of constituents, read their email and, -- with the craven complicity of the major telecommunications companies -- recorded phone calls left by thousands of innocent citizens. Having dragnetted the contents of those calls, they decided to vote down telecom immunity -- an act explicitly proscribed by expert industry lobbyists and Congress' own traditions and standards." Cohn was particularly disturbed at the particular target of this surveillance. "Whistleblowers within the Congressional leadership have indicated to me that a large number of these intercepted calls came from EFF's own membership." When contacted, most alleged victims said they had no proof they were being monitored. But some confessed they had become suspicious after the House of Representatives voted to keep telecom immunity out of their immunity bill earlier this month. "When I heard about the immunity bill, I have to say that I picked up my phone and called Washington," said one EFF member, who said she wished to remain anonymous. "Seconds after calling my Congressman's number, I heard clicking, then there was this muffled voice. I got the creepiest sensation that I was being listened to. A day later my representative voted exactly the way I had said he should. Right down to the word. It was like he was in my head. You think that was a coincidence?" Legal experts suggest that, while unusual, Congress using evidence collected through the wholesale datamining of constituent communications may not be unconstitutional. "Our founding fathers did not prohibit the federal use of evidence gathered from the mass surveillance of popular sentiment per se," said constitutional lawyer Mike Godwin, "although it has been traditionally a power used only under extremely rare conditions, such as close elections." 454 Shotwell Street San Francisco CA 94110-1914 USA 1 415 436 9333 (voice) - 1 415 436 9993 (fax)
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