Newspaper Page Text
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Februaq 24, 2005
National World
Julian Bond renews
criticism of Bush
By GEORGE E. CURRY
I&‘IPA Editor-in-Chief
YASHINGTIO N
(NNPA) - NAACP Board
Chair Julian Bond celebrat
ed Presidents Day weekend
by criticizing President
George W. Bush on issues as
varied as Social Security
reform to what he calls
Bush’s violation of several of
the Ten Commandments.
“We are meeting on Pres
ident’s Weekend, so 1 want
to say a few words about
presidents — one to whom
we bid farewell (NAACP
Immediate Past-President
Kweisi Mfume) and anoth
er who has never said
‘hello,” Bond said at the
annual meeting of the
NAACP in New York.
“...Unfortunately, as one
president left, another
stayed.”
Bond offered a withering
critique of Bush’s policies, a
clear indication that the
nation’s oldest civil rights
group will not temper its
criticism of the former
Texas governor simply
because it is the target of an
Internal Revenue investiga
tion. The IRS has ques
tioned whether the NAACP
violated its tax-exempt sta
tus by engaging in partisan
Emancipation
Proclamation
goes on public view
WASHINGTON (AP)
— President Abraham
Lincoln’s Emancipation
Proclamation declaring
the end to slavery goes
on public view Friday,
Feb. 18 as part of Amer
icais Black History
Month celebrations.
The document will be
on display at the Nation
al Archives, where visi
tors regularly see the
original Constitution
and Declaration of Inde
pendence.
The poor quality of the
paper and ink on the
final draft of the Eman
cipation Proclamation
make it vulnerable to
light, so it has been only
occasionally brought out
of storage. It was last
seen on Jan. 19, 2004,
the birthday of Martin
Luther King Jr.
The proclamation was
issued in the midst of the
U.S. Civil War on Jan. 1,
1863.
It was followed by state
and federal action over
the next two years until
the 13th Amendment to
the Constitution was rat
ified after the collapse of
the confederacy and Lin
coln’s assassination, end
ing two centuries of
bondage in North Amer
ica.
_ V|
Jullanßond
politics. The NAACP has
refused to cooperate with
what it calls an unwarranted
investigation and Bond
showed no signs over the
weekend of being intimi
dated by the inquiry.
“At the NAACP, we have
never opposed or supported
political parties,” Bond
said, emphasizing the word
parties. “Instead, we have
always opposed political
policies that are wrong...”
Debunking the notion that
Bush received a mandate in
the November presidential
election, Bond noted that
Bush won with the narrow
est margin of victory for a
sitting president since
Woodrow Wilson in 1916.
“So we have a country
Prosecutor: Bill Cosby won’t face
charges in alleged sexual assault
By MARYCLAIRE DALE
Associated Press Writer
PHILADELPHIA (AP)
— Authorities found insufficient
evidence to support a womans
claims that Bifi) Cosby fondled
her at his suburban mansion
after giving her medication that
made her dizy, a prosecutor
said.
Cosby will not face charges
stemming from the allegation
by a former employee at Tem
ple University, Cosbys alma
mater, Montgomery County
District Artorney Bruce L. Cas
tor Jr. said in a statement
Thursday, Feb. 17.
The woman, who now lives
in her native Ontario, told
Canadian authorities last
month that, after a night out
‘Matrix’ plot
By HENRY ALLEN HURST
Special to the NNPA
WASHINGTON
(NNPA) — As patrons in a
crowded movie theatre
watched a woman named
Trinity single-handedly dis
mantle police and, with
supernatural abilities, jump
from one rooftop to the
next as she made her get
away, they were amazed.
However, one woman in
the audience felt cheated:
not because she thought the
movie was bad, but because,
as she shouted in the the
atre, “I wrote that!”
On April 24, 2003,
screenwriter Sophia Stewart
filed a copyright infringe-
AUGUSTA FOCUS
divided roughly 50/50 but a
government held entirely by
one side,” Bond said. “Most
of us would rather have had
the election turn on issues
of war and peace than on
issues of race and sex. |
thought we had 10 com
mandments. What hap
pened to the ones against
lying, stealing, and killing.”
Repeating what has become
a familiar theme in his pub
lic speeches, Bond added,
“Bill Clinton may have lied
in the war between the
sexes. George W. Bush lied
about the war. When Clin
ton lied, no one died.”
In the past, Bond has
accused the Bush adminis
tration of engaging in racial
politics. He reiterated that
criticism last Saturday, say
ing: “The November elec
tion served as a reminder of
the extent to which the
body politic feeds off of
race.”
That is reflected, Bond
said, in the Bush adminis
tration’s approach to
reforming Social Security.
“Now they are trying to tell
us that privatizing Social
Security would be beneficial
to black people. This is
because, they say, blacks
don't live as long as whites,”
with friends in January 2004,
Cosby gave her medication
that m;uiA her woozy, then fon
dled her. She said she later
awoke to find her bra undone
and her dlothes in disarray.
Cosby, 67, a Temple alum
nus and booster, has (inied the
allegations. In a statement
Thursday, his lawyer said
Cosby was gratified by the deci
sion.
“Mr. Cosby looks forward to
moving on with his life,” attor
ney Walter M. Phillips Jr. said.
Castor has said that the
accuser’s yearlong delay in com
ing forward, and her contact
with Cosby in the past year,
weighed in the comedian’s
favor.
The prosecutor said he also
reviewed daims by other peo-
ment case charging that
Andy and Larry Wachows
ki, directors of The Matrix
movies, 20th Century Fox,
Warner Bros. and director
Joel Silver infringed upon
her copyrights for two man
uscripts — both titled 7he
Third Eye — and used them
to create the Matrix and
Terminator trilogies.
The defendants have filed
several unsuccessful motions
in their attempts to have the
pending copyright infringe
ment lawsuit dismissed.
Stewart and her lawyers are
preparing for a July trial
against the Hollywood
tycoons. If successful, Stew
art will receive damages
Bond said. “It isnt Social
Security that’s a bad deal for
blacks — dying too early is
the real bad deal! Theyd
rather play the race card
than actually address black’s
shorter life expectancy.”
According to ‘the National
Center for Health Statistics,
white women in the U.S.
live to be 80, followed by
black women at 74.8 years,
white men, 74.5 years and
black males at 67.6 years.
Of the 15 leading causes of
death, blacks had higher
rates of deaths than whites
in 11 areas, according to the
Centers for Disease Control
in Atanta. Although blacks
and whites have improved
their health over the years,
the gap between Whites
and blacks has increased in
recent years, according to
federal statistics.
Bush and some his sup
porters have tried to garner
support for the president’s
Social Security proposal by
arguing that because blacks
die earlier than whites, they
should support a program
that purportedly allows
them to cash in sooner.
“Using’ shorter life
expectancy as an excuse for
privatizing Social Security
Sec Bond, page 7A
b e . f ’
M
Bill Cosby
ple that Cosby had “behaved
inappropriately” toward them,
but that detectives could find
no instance “where anyone
from both trilogies. With
the gross receipts of both
films and their sequels
totaling over $2.5 billion,
she could receive one of the
largest payoffs in copyright
infringement history -
over $1.5 billion.
Stewart, who has only
seen the first Matrix movie,
says, “It hurts too much” to
see the movie’s sequels.
Born and raised in New
York City, Stewart was
known to be very articulate
and creative as a child. By
the ninth grade, her aca
demic skills were so devel
oped she was allowed to
Sec Matrix, page 7A
200 applicants
interviewed for
top spot at NAACP
BALTIMORE (AP) - A
search firm hired by the
NAACP has intlcrvicwlzt{ more
than 200 e seeking the
top job at Pt}c:::pnation’sn(g)ldca
,cvil %hts orEa.nization. while
NAACP Chairman Julian
Bond and others have come up
with their wish list of addition
al candidates.
When the leadership of the
National Association for the
Advancement of Colored Peo
ple meets in New York this
weekend, board members will
discuss the search process.
But names being considered
as successors to Kweisit Mfume,
who resigned in December
after nmrFynninc years as presi
dent, wont be mcntiunexf said
Coleman Peterson, a member
of the search committee.
“Its a confidential process,”
said DPeterson, who once
recruited senior managers for
Wal-Mart before starting a
consulting business, Hollis
Enterprises LLC.
It’s a critical time for the Bal
timore-based organization.
The NAACP has refused to
comply with an Internal Rev
enue Service audit that could
cost the group its tax-exempt
status. 'l%re E*adership's reg
tionship with the Bush admin
istration is still frigid.
And some question the
groups relevance in the post
avil rights era.
Since last month, the search
up — comprised of NAACP
E:ani members and organiza-
complained to law enforce
ment of conduct which would
constitute a criminal offense.”
The woman’s attorney,
Dolores M. Troiani, called the
evidence strong and said her
dlient is likely to sue Cosby.
“She felt, as we did, that its a
very strong case and that she
was telling the truth and that
Mr. Castor’s opinion does not
change the facts,” Troiani said.
Trotani said her dient gave
prosecutors tapes of telephone
calls between Cosby and the
family that bolster the allega
tions. The calls occurred after
her client contacted police, the
lawyer said.
Cosby’s publicist, David
Brokaw of West Hollywood,
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tion outsiders — has met twice
in Washington.
Everyone from urban radio
disc jockeys to legendary civil
‘rifxm leaders have speculated
o will land the high-profile
job, with names ranging from
Baltimore Democratic U.S.
. Elijah E. Cummings to
Ei‘ghop mogul Russell Sim
mons.
The NAACP search com
mittee is (J'Aa.r%:'d with whit
thing down the candidates,
whi%e the full 64-member
board will make the final deci
sion.
The NAACP annual meet
ing is held in New York, where
it was founded in 1909.
It consists of two days of
committee meetings, held yes
terday and today, as well as a
meeting tomorrow of mem
bers and the public where
Bond will discuss the state of
the organization.
This year, the NAACP is in
the midst of an IRS audit that
Bond has alleged is politically
motivated.
The audit questioned
whether Bond had improperly
interfered in a political cam
paign during a speech at last
summers convention when he
sharply criticized President
Bush. Last month, Bond said
he would not comply with the
IRS probe, refusing to tum
over requested documents.
The issue probably will be
decided in federal court.
Calif,, declined comment
Thursday, Feb. 17 on whether
the comedian had any tele
phone contact with the family
since the investigation began.
The long-married Cosby —
best-known as a warm, wise
cracking TV dad - has pro
voked debate this past year with
blunt remarks on personal
responsibility aimed at the
black community. In 1997, the
year his son Ennis was mur
dered, he acknowledged a brief
affair with the mother of a
young woman later convicted
of extorting him.
It is the policy of The Associ
ated Press not to publish names
of alleged sexual assault victims
without their consent.