I remember Cynthia McKinney addressing this issue, and was ridiculed by some here

[CatWoman]

the only difference is, Al Gore was mentioned in the lawsuit:

E-Mail Shows Racial Jokes by Secret Service Supervisors

WASHINGTON — Secret Service supervisors shared crude sexual jokes and engaged in racially derogatory banter about blacks, and passed around an anecdote about a possible assassination of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, according to internal e-mail disclosed in a federal court filing on Friday by lawyers for black Secret Service agents.

The filing includes 10 e-mail messages that were among documents the agency recently turned over to lawyers for the black agents as part of an increasingly bitter discrimination lawsuit. The messages were written mainly from 2003 through 2005, and were sent to and from e-mail accounts of at least 20 Secret Service supervisors.

The messages offer a glimpse into the darker recesses of an agency known for protecting presidents and other dignitaries but whose culture is regarded as one of the most insular in federal law enforcement.

The disclosure of the messages follows an incident last month in which a noose was found in a room used by a black instructor at a Secret Service training facility in Beltsville, Md. Agency officials said that episode was under internal investigation.

Eric Zahren, a spokesman for the Secret Service, said he would not comment directly on the e-mail but said the agency deplored racially insensitive jokes.

“We are deeply disappointed by any communication or action on the part of our employees that exhibits racial or other insensitivity,” Mr. Zahren said.

Mr. Zahren said the messages were the result of a search of 20 million electronic documents over 16 years. He said that an internal inquiry had been opened and that the inspector general at the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Secret Service, had been alerted.

In some of the court documents, the senders of the e-mail messages are identified only by the jobs they currently occupy and the rank they held when the messages were sent. For example, an Oct. 9, 2003, message referring to a “Harlem Spelling Bee,” ridiculing black slang, was sent by Thomas Grupski, then assistant director for protective operations, who, according to the filing, now heads the Office of Government Liaison and Public Affairs.

A March 3, 2003, message describing Mr. Jackson as the “Righteous Reverend” was passed among several Secret Service supervisors. The message, about a missile striking an airplane in which Mr. Jackson and his wife were traveling, concludes, it “certainly wouldn’t be a great loss and it probably wouldn’t be an accident either.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/10/washington/10inquire.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1210450320-zJxzj/slQoPvQPDtzOgoAw

[seemslikeadream]

1. She also asked Rumsfeld about KBR "sex" stuff

I don't think he ever answered her questions

[bobbolink]

2. Well, if you're going to be a prophet and go after the truth on the big guys,

ridicule from "progressives" can't be far behind.

:patriot: for Cynthia!

I pray she will be vindicated!

[goclark]

14. Yes, Cynthia is a hero and speaks truth to power.

[ensho]

36. agree

nt

[bobbolink]

41. And pays the price for it, and keeps coming back for more.

Cynthia, :patriot:

[malaise]

3. Indeed I remember

Perhaps one day DUers will reexamine the swift-boating of Cynthia McKinney.

[seemslikeadream]

4. The Screwing of Cynthia McKinney

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0619-12.htm


Did I mention to you that (ex-)Congresswoman McKinney is black? And not just any kind of black. She’s the uppity kind of black. What I mean by uppity is this:

After George Bush Senior left the White House, he became an advisor and lobbyist for a Canadian gold-mining company, Barrick Gold. Hey, a guy’s got to work. But there were a couple of questions about Barrick, to say the least. For example, was Barrick’s Congo gold mine funding both sides of a civil war and perpetuating that bloody conflict? Only one Congressperson demanded hearings on the matter.

You’ve guessed: Cynthia McKinney.

That was covered in the . . . well, it wasn’t covered at all in the U.S. press.

McKinney contacted me at the BBC. She asked if I’d heard of Barrick. Indeed, I had. Top human rights investigators had evidence that a mine that Barrick bought in 1999 had, in clearing their Tanzanian properties three years earlier, bulldozed mine shafts . . . burying about 50 miners alive.

I certainly knew Barrick: They’d sued the Guardian for daring to run a story I’d written about the allegations of the killings. Barrick never sued an American paper for daring to run the story, because no American paper dared.

The primary source for my story, an internationally famous lawyer named Tundu Lissu, was charged by the Tanzanian police with sedition, and arrested, for calling for an investigation. McKinney has been trying to save his life with an international campaign aimed at Barrick.

That was another of her mistakes.

The New York Times wrote about McKinney that Atlanta’s “prominent Black leaders – including Julian Bond, the chairman of the NAACP and former Mayor Maynard Jackson – who had supported Ms. McKinney in the past – distanced themselves from her this time.”

Really? Atlanta has four internationally recognized black leaders. Martin Luther King III did not abandon McKinney. I checked with him. Nor did Julian Bond (the Times ran a rare retraction on their website at Bond’s request). But that left Atlanta’s two other notables: Vernon Jordan and Andrew Young. Here, the Times had it right; no question that these two black faces of the Atlanta Establishment let McKinney twist slowly in the wind – because, the Times implied, of her alleged looniness.

But maybe there was another reason Young and Jordan let McKinney swing. Remember Barrick? George Bush’s former gold-mining company, the target of McKinney’s investigations? Did I mention to you that Andy Young and Vernon Jordan are both on Barrick’s payroll? Well, I just did.

Did the Times mention it? I guess that wasn’t fit to print.

I suppose it’s my fault, McKinney’s electronic lynching. Unlike other politicians, McKinney, who’s earning her doctorate at Princeton’s Fletcher School of Diplomacy, enjoys doing her own research, not relying on staff memos. She’s long been a reader of my reports from Britain, including transcripts of BBC Television investigations. On November 6, 2001, BBC Newsnight ran this report with a follow-up story in the Guardian the next day:

[bobbolink]

6. She's a she-roe. Thanks for posting this.... VERY important.

And, like so many women, ignored.

:cry:

[malaise]

7. I still wonder about

her election loss.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

5. Interesting what surfaces when individuals feel they are beyond scrutiny

and can let their innermost thoughts flow freely in an organization that is "one of the most insular in federal law enforcement".

[bean fidhleir]

8. Yes, and I remember the crap she got when that guard grabbed her

because he "didn't recognize" her. I mean, she's one of what...9 maybe?...Black women in Congress. Obviously that's far too many for any White male cop to be expected to identify on sight. He probably grabbes White male reps all the time. Sure.

[Uncle Joe]

10. Apparently the same thing happened to Reverend Wright while he was working to save the life

of President Johnson, while Johnson was in the hospital. This came out during the Bill Moyers interview, after Wright stepped out for a break as he tried to go back in see President Johnson, a secret service agent grabbed him and held him against the wall until a friend came out after hearing the commotion, telling the agent Wright had been there all morning long working to save the President.

[bean fidhleir]

11. Well, after all, how could anyone in a vital job like guard duty be expected

to remember individual Untermenschen? I mean, they all look alike anyway. From a certain point of view, at least.

[Uncle Joe]

13. I believe this is because people have forgotten over the eons

that everyone is family, branching out from the same DNA tree trunk, making it more difficult for distant branches to recognize each other as to who they are; distant relatives, long separated by time, geography, and environmental influenced breeding to the point of unfamiliarity. Unfamiliarity giving rise to suspicion and fear.

PBS had a program on a few months ago in which they traced the world's oldest DNA; a type everyone has to middle Asia. They even traced it to an individual man as having the world's most primitive DNA and he became somewhat ecstatic, grinning from ear to ear, when they told him all of humanity branched off from his family tree trunk.

[bean fidhleir]

16. "all of humanity branched off from his family tree trunk"

Weird, considering that our oldest shared ancestors lived in Africa, not Asia, per mDNA research. It was just in the news: we're all descended from about 2000 survivors, scattered around Africa, of a drought that ended 70K years ago. Perhaps what they meant is that the only people living a sufficiently isolated, inbred life to have conserved that archaic DNA pattern (and it would have to have been so isolated and inbred that it's a wonder they can reproduce at all) now live in central Asia.

[Uncle Joe]

18. Not according to that PBS documentary,

they covered Africa, the Australian Aborigines and it narrowed down to I believe one of the Stan nations, I forgot which one, they seemed Mongoloid in appearance. I searched PBS's website briefly earlier today to see if that particular program was listed but I didn't see it. I believe it aired no earlier than last fall or it may have been as late as January/February of this year.

[bean fidhleir]

19. And yet...

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/04/24/close.call.ap/

There certainly seems to be some kind of conflict between the two stories. I wonder what the resolution would be.

[Uncle Joe]

20. I always thought it was Africa as well,

I'm still searching PBS's website for that program but have had no luck so far.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

23. I saw that program: The man they found in Asia had the oldest

Y chromosome DNA found on the Eurasian landmass, not the oldest DNA of all humanity.

[malaise]

15. That was mind-blowing

I heard it. Remember though Wright is the racist :sarcasm:

[morgan2]

26. trying to save the life of president johnson?

I know he has a doctorate, but he's no medical doctor.

[Kitty Herder]

28. He was a medic in the Navy and, yes he was part of the team that did LBJ's heart surgery.

Read here:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=16&entry_id=25141

Did you even watch his interview on Bill Moyers? He talked about the incident. There were even pictures of him working on Johnson.

Rev. Wright is the kind of hero that chickenhawks like Cheney only wish they could be. He was in both the Marines and the Navy. How very unpatriotic of him. :sarcasm:

[countryjake]

33. irrefutable evidence

[roody]

34. I am still waiting to see the video.

[EFerrari]

9. Cowards have to deride Cynthia because she is usually right.

I met her last fall. She was about six inches shorter than I am and I still looked up a long way. :toast:

[seemslikeadream]

12. and she had to deal with being labeled anitSemetic

[Lydia Leftcoast]

24. Because of something her FATHER said

I'm glad I'm not held responsible for some of the things my relatives have said about other races and religions.

[seemslikeadream]

25. I like your sigline and wondering if

I could use it and include this link of Philippe Sands telling congress that the world was waiting for us to clean up our torture mess but if we do not they will. I believe a couple of republicans were listening very closely to what he had to say.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPAGNNsrwUw

[seemslikeadream]

27. Like this it's plain text if you want to use it

[link:tinyurl.com/5syu26|The U.S. has committed war crimes
according to the standards established at the Nuremberg
Trials. The invasion and occupation is costing $250 million
per day. Your annual income taxes pay for less than 1 second
of the Iraq War.]

[Lydia Leftcoast]

31. Why sure, always happy to contribute a good sig line

:-)

[dmr]

17. That was not an insensitive joke - it was out and out dirty bigotry

The disclosure of the messages follows an incident last month in which a noose was found in a room used by a black instructor at a Secret Service training facility in Beltsville, Md. Agency officials said that episode was under internal investigation.

Eric Zahren, a spokesman for the Secret Service, said he would not comment directly on the e-mail but said the agency deplored racially insensitive jokes.

Deplored? Bullshit! If it were deplored it wouldn't be so prevalent ESPECIALLY amongst the supervisors who are the example setters - most especially in official email accounts!

Now that this is being talked about here, I am very worried about Senator, and soon-to-be President Obama. Who can he trust?

When he literally puts his and his family's lives in the hand of those who are to be the most trusted, and here we have documented proof that this bigotry exists, what assurances do we have?

Investigations and penalties from investigations creates increased hostilities in an already bigoted atmosphere, just what can we expect? It takes one - just one to MIHOP or LIHOP.

There are a lot of nuts out there, and a prominent few who have the airways to provoke their chaos.

[stranger81]

21. and this is the Secret Service that will protect Obama?!?

God help us all.

[Kitty Herder]

29. I was thinking that, too.

:scared:

[KG]

22. racism- alive and doing well in america!

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

30. If Obama caves in to Clinton-M$M blackmail and puts her on his ticket...

I will proudly cast my vote for Cynthia McKinney in protest. Years ago, I worked on her GA congressional campaign, and I am happy to vote for her again! She certainly is a true American hero.

I hope that Obama will not be pressured or strong-armed into selecting Clinton. She's too polarizing and divisive. As a HARD-WORKING black woman who *earned* a doctorate in political science, I was greatly offended by Clinton's racist statements this week. Her behavior during this entire campaign has been disgusting and appalling!!!

[bluesmail]

32. I just saw Cynthia McKinney she is running for President

on the Green Ticket. I saw her in Ukiah, Ca. As I was leaving they were auctioning off a DVD with her calling Rumsfeld on the missing trillions. HA!

[roody]

35. I saw her too! She is the REAL thing.

[LWolf]

37. I have never ridiculed McKinney.

As a matter of fact, I may just vote for her in November. I have more respect for her than for the other options.

[Octafish]

38. “certainly wouldn’t be a great loss and it probably wouldn’t be an accident either.”

These bastards haven't done much to protect Liberal presidents, either.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6741103875607821823&q=secret+service+JFK&ei=vyonSOGiIKPQ4AK25rzKCQ&hl=en

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1503803&mesg_id=1517674

Sorry if it sounds like I'm railing off-point:

President Kennedy ordered the integration of the FBI and Secret Service.

Abraham Bolden later was framed because he said he knew there was a conspiracy in Dallas.

And today Cynthia McKinney is a victim of this Org's treasons.

[Rex]

39. So the SS is run by racist assholes, who would have guessed?

What are they going to do when Barack Obama comes for them? SS takes on a whole new meaning now.

[bean fidhleir]

40. He's not going to "come for them", except perhaps in a sexual sense

I honestly don't think it's healthy for anyone to expect that he'll do anything important and substantive that benefits us. His speech at the 2004 convention should have made it clear to everyone whose side he's on, and it's not ours. It certainly made it clear to the ruling class, which is why he didn't get the Kucinich-McKinney treatment.

I would somehow scrounge up and donate $500 to the charity of your choice if he even does 1 major thing out of every 10 major things that desperately need doing.

[duhneece]

42. See "American Blackout"

Cynthia asked the right questions and was swiftboated. The movie explained how Black voters were 'caged' and their votes denied.
Yes Cynthia is a shero.

[CatWoman]

43. I have that movie

I bought it to make copies to distribute to those in my circle who fell for the media bullshit.