Fox's Sean Hannity Confronted Over Relationship with Neo-Nazi Hal Turner

Turner: "I can tell you from my firsthand, personal experience that Sean Hannity does, in fact, agree with many of my political and social views."

The folks over at NewsHounds have been watching their Fox News Channel quarry dither over Senator Barack Obama's associations with pastor Jeremiah Wright, and noted Fox's own Sean Hannity getting himself tripped up in the guilt-by-association tango. Seems that one of Hannity's close chums is a neo-Nazi named Hal Turner who used to be a radio host, is apparently the top man in Bergen, NJ white-supremacist circles, and probably spends a lot of his time in his basement with Star Wars action figures acting out Holocaust-denier versions of The Return of the Jedi. In short, just the sort of person with whom you'd imagine Sean Hannity spends a lot of formational time with.

Anyway, a few days ago, Hannity brought Malik Shabazz of the New Black Panther Party on the show. Shabazz and his organization had previously chosen to endorse Barack Obama, who subsequently rejected the endorsement. It was up to Hannity to make some hay out of this, but the tables got turned very quickly. From NewsHounds:

Hannity added, "What I don't think you're understanding here, Malik, is that when you hear the minister of him for 20 years, when you hear the associations with Louis Farrakhan, one of the biggest racists and anti-Semites in the country, what you're not understanding is, America hears extremism at its worst."

Shabazz responded, "Let me ask you this. Are you to be judged by your promotion and association with Hal Turner?"

Hannity waved his arm around. "I don't know anybody named - this is nonsense. I don't..." Then Hannity changed his tune. "Sir, sir... That was a man that was banned from my radio show ten years ago, that ran a Senate campaign in New Jersey."

Then, as Shabazz refused to stop talking or back down, Hannity, in a tacit admission, said, "I'm not running for president."

"A neo Nazi, you backed his career," Shabazz said.

Hannity answered, "That is an absolute, positive, lie and you've been reading the wrong websites..., my friend. Good try."

Well, there's plenty of evidence to the contrary (Max Blumenthal's piece in Nation is good for a start), but it hardly matters, because don't you know, days later, Turner himself was doing his pal a total solid by coming out and stating, "Oh, yeah! We're best of buds!"

I was quite disappointed when Sean Hannity at first tried to say he didn't know me and then went on to say that I ran some senate campaign in New Jersey. In fact, Sean Hannity does know me and we were quite friendly a number of years ago.

When Hannity took over Bob Grant's spot on 77 WABC in New York City, I was a well-known, regular and welcome caller to his show. Through those calls, Sean and I got to know each other a bit and at some point, I can't remember exactly when, Sean gave me the secret "Guest call-in number" at WABC so that my calls could always get on the air.

I mean, Hannity gave Turner his Super Secret Little Anti-Semite Annie Decoder Ring so he could call him up whenever he wanted to! If the two men had been younger - and mentally eligible for a high school education - they surely would have gone to prom together!

Anyway, Turner and Hannity have a nice, long, intimate, chummy history, and Turner offers the essential blow-by-blow. "I can tell you from my firsthand, personal experience that Sean Hannity does, in fact, agree with many of my political and social views. I can also tell you that Sean Hannity disagrees with some of my political and social views. I won't go subject-by-subject to say which he agrees with and which he disagrees with. You can figure that out easy enough on your own!" Can we? What if we're not enthusiastic fans of the thought processes of nimrods, though?

Naturally, Turner has got a blustery warning for us all: "Another big difference is that I am perfectly willing to use force and violence against my enemies while Sean Hannity and others are not. Those using me as a prop to attack Sean Hannity would do well to remember this fact. Rest assured I will remember them when the opportunity presents itself; especially as it pertains to that douche bag sodomite Max Blumenthal for the falsehoods and total trash he wrote about me in 'The Nation' magazine."

Source: Alternet

Harvard Study: Immigration Reduces Crime Rates

LiveScience.com Tue Mar 18, 4:11 PM ET

Contrary to popular stereotypes, areas undergoing immigration are associated with lower violence, not spiraling crime, according to a new study.

Harvard University sociologist Robert Sampson examined crime and immigration in Chicago and around the United States to find the truth behind the popular perception that increasing immigration leads to crime.

Sampson's study results, detailed in the winter issue of the American Sociological Association's Contexts magazine, summarizes patterns from seven years' worth of violent acts in Chicago committed by whites, blacks and Hispanics from 180 neighborhoods of varying levels of integration. He also analyzed recent data from police records and the U.S. Census for all communities in Chicago.

Based on assumptions that immigrants are more likely to commit crimes and settle in poor, disorganized communities, prevailing wisdom holds that the concentration of immigrants and an influx of foreigners drive up crime rates.

However, Sampson shows that concentrated immigration predicts lower rates of violence across communities in Chicago, with the relationship strongest in poor neighborhoods.

Not only does immigration appear to be "protective" against violence in poverty areas, violence was significantly lower among Mexican-Americans compared to blacks and whites. Sampson refers to this as the "Latino Paradox," whereby Hispanic Americans do better on a range of social indicators - including propensity to violence - than one would expect, given their socioeconomic disadvantages.

Sampson's analysis also revealed that first-generation immigrants were 45 percent less likely to commit violence than third-generation Americans. Controlling for immigrant generation even narrowed the violence gap between whites and blacks in Chicago by 14 percent.

"The pattern of immigrant generational status and lower crime rates is not restricted to Latinos; it extends to help explain white-black differences as well," Sampson said. "We're so used to thinking about immigrant assimilation that we've failed to fully appreciate how immigrants themselves shape their host society."

Immigration is therefore not just a Hispanic issue; although little noticed, increasing foreign-born diversity among blacks (e.g., from the West Indies and Africa) is associated with lower crime even within segregated black communities.

Sampson's arguments are supported at the national level as well. Significant immigration growth - including by illegal aliens - occurred in the mid-1990s, peaking at the end of the decade. During this time, the national homicide rate plunged. Crime dropped even in immigration hot spots, such as Los Angeles (where it dropped 45 percent overall), San Jose, Dallas and Phoenix.

Reasons commonly cited for the apparent paradox of first generation immigrants, especially Mexicans, are motivation to work, ambition and a desire not to be deported, characteristics that predispose them to low crime. Sampson also argues that contemporary immigrants tend to come from a multitude of cultures around the world where violence isn't rewarded as a strategy for establishing reputation or preserving honor, as in American "street culture."

"In today's society," Sampson said, "immigration and the increasing cultural diversity that accompanies it generate the sort of conflicts of culture that lead not to increased crime but nearly the opposite."

Source: Yahoo

Texas City Council Member in Hot Water for Racist Comment on Public Document

A Texas city council member is under pressure to resign from office after he published a racist comment in a public document, according to a report on MyFOXAustin.com.

Mustang Ridge City Council member Charles Laws referred to a proposed immigrant detention center as a “holding pen for wetbacks” on the March 12 meeting agenda, MyFOXAustin.com reports.

When first asked for comment, Laws told the TV station, "I'm 74 years old, and that's what we called them when I was growing up. I don't care about political crap."

Laws later softened his stance, saying, "I wasn't thinking when I put it in there. I didn't mean to offend anybody, I was just passing on the information.”

Mike Martinez, a city council member from nearby Austin, is leading the movement to remove Laws.

"When I asked him to explain himself, his explanation was 'That's what it is, and that's what they are,'" Martinez told MyFOXAustin.com.

Source: FoxNews

Obama guilty by association? What about Sean Hannity?

Or is there a double standard?

From White Supremacist Hal Turner:

About Sean Hannity and Me. . . . .
Yes, we were friends and yes, Sean agreed with some of my views

Recently, Barak Obama has come under serious scrutiny for attending a church whose Reverend Wright espouses anti-American and racist views. One media outlet that has been especially critical of Obama has been the show "Hannity & Colmes" on Fox News Channel.

On Wednesday, March 19, Malik Zulu Shabazz of the New Black Panther Party appeared as a guest on "Hannity & Colmes" to discuss the Obama / Reverend Wright controversy. During that appearance, Sean Hannity asked Shabazz if Barak Obama shouldn't be judged by his past affiliations with Reverend Wright, to which Shabazz replied by asking Sean Hannity "Should you be judged by your past association with Hal Turner, a neo-Nazi?"

I was quite disappointed when Sean Hannity at first tried to say he didn't know me and then went on to say that I ran some senate campaign in New Jersey. In fact, Sean Hannity does know me and we were quite friendly a number of years ago.

When Hannity took over Bob Grant's spot on 77 WABC in New York City, I was a well-known, regular and welcome caller to his show. Through those calls, Sean and I got to know each other a bit and at some point, I can't remember exactly when, Sean gave me the secret "Guest call-in number" at WABC so that my calls could always get on the air.

When I utlized that call-in number, Sean would very often come onto that line during commercial breaks so we could chat before I went on the air. Our off-the-air chats grew to an exchange of other phone numbers, me giving Sean my home and cellular number and Sean giving me his direct dial-in number at Fox News channel.

In 1993, My wife got pregnant and around a month later, Sean reported that he and his wife were expecting their first child. We got to talking about things expectant dads talk about and the relationship grew.

My wife gave birth to our son in June 1994, Seans wife gave birth to their child about a month later.

Over the course of the next three or four years, Sean and I spoke regularly off the air about our kids, politics and news of the day. My on-air calls to his show remained regular and welcome.

Around 1997, Sean invited me and my then-three-year-old-son, to come to Fox News Channel to be in the studio (NOT ON THE AIR) during a live broadcast of "Hannity & Colmes". I accepted the invitation and my son and I went. We were inside the studio standing between the camera men as the show aired live. We got to speak with both Sean Hannity and Allan Colmes before the show. Like most three year olds, my son's willingness to stay quiet didn't last, so I thought it best to take him home rather than have his noise air during their show.

Sean and I spoke by phone the next day. I thanked him for the chance to be there and he said it was a real pleasure meeting me and my son.

In the year 2000, I sought the Republican nomination to the US House of Representatives from the 13th Congressional District of New Jersey. Since I was a candidate for federal office and since WABC served the area in which I was running for election, WABC was FORCED by federal law to accept my campaign radio ads, many of which were quite explicit. The station did not want to air the ads but the law left them no choice.

At about the same time, WABC changed program directors from John Mainelli to Phil Boyce. It seems to me that Mr. Boyce objected vehemently to my campaign commercials and political beliefs and I suspect he told Sean Hannity that I was not to be welcomed on WABC anymore. Since Boyce had the power to fire Hannity, it appears to me that Hannity did what he was told. From that point on, Sean Hannity never spoke to me again. Not on the air or off.

Here we are, more than eight years later, my friendship with Sean has become some sort of hot issue. *****s are trying to equate my relationship with Sean Hannity, with Reverend Wright's relationship with Barak Obama, a man who may well become President of the United States. It is an intellectually dishonest - even meaningless - comparison but someone thinks they should make this fuss. Fine. So be it.

I can tell you from my firsthand, personal experience that Sean Hannity does, in fact, agree with many of my political and social views. I can also tell you that Sean Hannity disagrees with some of my political and social views. I won't go subject-by-subject to say which he agrees with and which he disagrees with. You can figure that out easy enough on your own! Suffice it to say that my recollection is that when Sean and I spoke by phone, while no one else was listening, he and I exchanged the kinds of views that most White, Irish-Catholic guys hold, but won't speak in public.

In my opinion, based on my first hand experience, I believe Sean Hannity is, in fact, a Hal Turner sort of guy. It seems to me that a big difference between Sean and me is that I am willing to say publicly what I think about savage Black criminals, diseased, uneducated illegal aliens and the grotesque cultural destruction wrought by satanic jews while Sean and many others keep quiet to protect their paychecks.

Another big difference is that I am perfectly willing to use force and violence against my enemies while Sean Hannity and others are not. Those using me as a prop to attack Sean Hannity would do well to remember this fact. Rest assured I will remember them when the opportunity presents itself; especially as it pertains to that douche bag sodomite Max Blumenthal for the falsehoods and total trash he wrote about me in "The Nation" magazine.

Source: The Hal Turner Show

Hate crime motive considered in fires at Mexican restaurants

By CARRI GEER THEVENOT
REVIEW-JOURNAL

Investigators are trying to determine whether hate was the motive behind fires that were intentionally set Saturday morning at two Mexican restaurants in Pahrump.

"Not to investigate it as a possible hate crime would be remiss on our part," said Capt. Bill Becht of the Nye County Sheriff's Office.

Sheriff's deputies first responded around 4:20 a.m. Saturday to a fire at Su Mesa Mexican Restaurant, 1560 E. Calvada Blvd.

They found two improvised incendiary weapons, known as "Molotov cocktails," at the scene.

While there, deputies learned of a second fire down the street at El Leon de Oro Mexican Restaurant, 1720 E. Calvada Blvd. Again, evidence was found that pointed to arson.

Roberto Guerra and his older brother, Mario, opened El Leon de Oro in May 2003. Roberto Guerra, who lives in Beatty, said he visited the scene of the fire Saturday.

"Everything's gone inside," he said during a telephone interview Wednesday.

Roberto Guerra, a native of Mexico who is "very proud" of his U.S. citizenship, said he has never experienced racial discrimination and has no idea whether it motivated someone to damage his restaurant.

"I don't want to point my finger to nobody," he said.

In November 2006, the Pahrump Town Board enacted a controversial ordinance that declared English the official town language, set restrictions on flying foreign flags and denied town benefits to undocumented immigrants. It was never enforced.

Three months later, after four of the panel's five members had been replaced, the board voted to repeal the ordinance.

"Pahrump is a nice town," said Roberto Guerra. "I think it's a place to grow a family."

He and his family have lived in Beatty for 23 years; his brother lives in Las Vegas. He said they have never received any threats.

Roberto Guerra said he wept Saturday when he saw his restaurant. He said he cried for the half dozen employees who lost their jobs because of the fire.

Roberto Guerra vowed to reopen the business as soon as possible.

For now, he is left wondering why his restaurant was targeted. "It's something I don't understand," he said.

According to a statement from the Nye County Sheriff's Office, the front window of Su Mesa was broken when deputies arrived, and they saw flames inside.

They also saw a beer bottle stuffed with a rag, which was on fire, under the bench in front of the business. Molotov cocktails are typically made by filling a glass bottle with fuel and a "fuse" that consists of a fuel-soaked rag. Someone then lights the fuse and hurls the bottle at a target, causing a fireball.

According to the statement from the Sheriff's Office, a second Molotov cocktail was found inside Su Mesa at the origin of the fire.

"Deputies' quick actions preserved evidence and were able to contain the fire until Pahrump Fire arrived and took command of the scene," according to the statement.

A spokeswoman at the Nye County Assessor's Office said Maria Zepeda purchased the Su Mesa property in October 2004 from a relative. Zepeda could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

"Further investigation revealed that a raised, white SUV-type vehicle was seen rapidly leaving the area prior to the Su Mesa fire being called in," according to the statement from the Sheriff's Office.

While deputies were at the scene of the Su Mesa fire, a witness informed them that white smoke was coming from the rooftop of El Leon de Oro. Authorities said they again found evidence of arson, but they did not elaborate.

Becht said both restaurants remained closed Wednesday.

Becht said authorities had no suspects. The state Fire Marshal's Division is leading the investigation.

"We've been in contact with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and it's a coordinated effort to determine the cause of this," said Lt. Mike Dzyak of the Fire Marshal's Division.

He said the fire has been classified as "incendiary." He declined to speculate on a motive and said he did not have a damage estimate.

Nina Delgadillo, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said the case could lead to federal charges because it involves commercial buildings and because Molotov cocktails were used.

Contact reporter Carri Geer Thevenot at cgeer@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0264.

Source: LVRJ

Hispanic man attacked, spit on because of race

Two 19-year-olds charged with bias-motivated assault

by Eli Stokols, News2

March 13, 2008

BOULDER (KWGN) — Two 19-year-olds are behind bars after allegedly yelling racial slurs at and punching a Hispanic man who was leaving a convenience store Tuesday night.

Josh Ruzek and Abraham Paquet are charged with bias-motivated assault. Police officers, who were quick to arrive on the scene, witnessed Paquet punching the victim, Ivan Ponce DeLeon, in the face.

It started as DeLeon was walking away from the PDQ store at 5200 Manhattan Circle, just off South Boulder Road.

"I walked by and heard them call me a Spic," De Leon said. "They said, 'Why are you stealing all our jobs?'"

DeLeon thought about fighting back -- "I wanted to," he said -- but held back and tried instead to go back inside the store and wait for police.

"They blocked me from going back in and pushed me out into the parking lot," DeLeon said. "Then one of them punched me, and the other spit on me."

According to police reports, Paquet stated he "hit the [sic] illegal alien because he shouldn't even be here"; and he lashed out at police.

"He called me and the other officers "pigs, just protecting the rights of the [sic] illegal aliens of this country," one officer wrote in his report. "We were just [sic] and cowards for not being able to stick up for our own rights and so on."

DeLeon came to the United States from his native Mexico six years ago and is married to a U.S. citizen. In two weeks, he will also take the oath of citizenship. The father of a 14-month-old son, he hopes that his son never has to endure the same kind of demeaning racial slurs he did.

DeLeon does plan to file charges against Ruzek and Paquet.

"I don't want this to happen to another guy," DeLeon said. "These guys need to learn that this isn't the way."

But, in DeLeon's mind, it increasingly is the way. Over the last year, as the national debate over immigration has intensified, he has been the target of other abuses, including another hate-laced tirade at a bar a few months back.

"It's gotten worse," he said.

Ruzek and Paquet are also suspected in another misdemeanor theft reported just a few hours before the assault at the gas station. In that case, a 15-year-old boy alleges that Ruzek and Paquet attacked him on a city bus and stole his skateboard and cell phone.

No charges are likely to be filed in connection with that report.

Copyright © 2008, KWGN

Source: TRB

New Latino Wave Helps Revitalize Detroit

By COREY WILLIAMS

DETROIT (AP) — The broad-brimmed western hats, colorful festival dance dresses and Mayan-style pottery that line the shelves at Xochi's Mexican Imports are common sights at stores in the Southwest.

But it's southwest Detroit on a cold, dreary winter day, not sunny El Paso, San Diego, Tucson or other cities just north of the Mexican border.

From its Mexican Town restaurant district to the new shops of the La Plaza Mercado retail development, southwest Detroit is doing something it hasn't done in years — grow and prosper.

"We come starving for a better life," 32-year-old dance instructor Valeria Montes said. "We want to strive and we've found in southwest Detroit a place to do it. The opportunity was here for us and we took it."

Latinos are carving out a niche in neighborhoods far from the southern border more and more — from Bagley Street here to the Mitchell Street area in Milwaukee to Bailey's Crossroads in Fairfax County, Va.

A new wave of Latino immigrants is following others who established communities in northern cities in the 1950s after getting jobs in the auto and other manufacturing industries. The attraction now is employment in restaurants, shops and other service-oriented businesses that cater primarily to residents in those communities but also draw non-Latinos.

"A number of folks who are coming up — documented or undocumented — are finding jobs," said Enrique Figueroa, director of the Roberto Hernandez Center at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

The now-vibrant neighborhood wasn't always so.

Its fate had mirrored most other areas of Detroit that began to lose businesses and people following the city's 1967 riot. Boarded-up buildings and an unappealing mix of fast-food stops, dank bars and seedy strip clubs lined the streets.

Gang violence was rampant and the housing stock crumbled.

"It wasn't a neighborhood where you could walk down the street," Southwest Detroit Business Association deputy director Edith J. Castillo said. "Now, you can actually walk down West Vernor. You can take your family out for ice cream after church."

Castillo's nonprofit is one of several working with city officials and businesses to resurrect the area.

More than $200 million has been invested in southwest Detroit in the past 15 years, which has attracted retail and new homes, including an $11 million condo development.

"It's one of the few places in the city where you are seeing a lot of private investment," said Olga Savic, of the Detroit Economic Growth Corp., the city's public/private development arm. "West Vernor Avenue was once primarily vacant. Now, it's 90 percent full."

The neighborhood is doing so well the mayor didn't include it in his plan to pump millions of dollars into distressed areas.

Blight hasn't been totally wiped out, but older Latinos and the new immigrants are helping with the transformation.

"These are people who are risk takers ... and understand if they are going to make it, it's up to them to make it successful," said Ruben Martinez, director of the Julian Samora Research Institute at Michigan State University. "Many others, who have been here for several generations, don't have that."

The Detroit neighborhood is known as "Mexican Town," but it truly is a melting pot.

About half the residents claim a Hispanic heritage, 25 percent are black, 20 percent are white and 5 percent are Arab-American, according to the Southwest Detroit Business Association.

In contrast, more than 80 percent of Detroit's 920,000 residents are black.

And while the city's overall population has plummeted in recent decades because of white flight and more recently the exodus of the black middle class, the southwest side's population has grown considerably, up 6.9 percent to more than 96,000 people from 1990 to 2000.

The city's Latino population grew by nearly 19,000 over that period to more than 47,000.

Without the manufacturing jobs that attracted many to places like Detroit, Milwaukee, Minneapolis and Chicago in the 1950s and 1960s, Latinos have found opportunities in their own backyards, Figueroa said.

"Once you had a cousin, uncle or aunt there, that was a logical place to come because there were still jobs," he said. "The Detroit economy and Milwaukee economy have not done so well in the '80s and '90s. But what has occurred in the Latino community is the establishment of new businesses, primarily service-oriented businesses that serve the Latino communities that were established in the '50s and '60s."

Mexican restaurants and bars along Mitchell Street and in other parts of Milwaukee attract non-Latinos, but it's Latinos that keep the bakeries and grocery stores open, Figueroa said.

"There is enough money in the economy that people can sustain retail establishments by primarily relying on Latino clientele," he said.

It's that sense of community that led Montes and her husband to move from a downriver suburb of Detroit to the southwest side.

"I feel like I'm at home," she said. "I go to get a haircut, I speak Spanish. I go to mercado (market), I speak Spanish. My daughter goes to school and there are a lot of Latino kids. It's a great feeling."

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Immigration agent kills self amid porn, swastika flag

Agent fires at other officers, shoots himself after standoff.

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Thursday, February 28, 2008

GRAND PRAIRIE — An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent killed himself after an armed standoff with a police officer and three colleagues, Grand Prairie police said Wednesday.

Police discovered a suitcase full of pornography, a flag with a swastika and more than a half-dozen weapons after finding Mark Juvette dead early Wednesday.

Juvette, 40, worked for the agency's Dallas Office of Detention and Removal.

Agency officials did not comment.

A police officer was sent to Juvette's apartment Tuesday night after co-workers expressed concern for his welfare. The officer and three immigration agents couldn't get in the apartment, and Juvette began shooting at them through the door.

Officers found Juvette dead with a gunshot wound to the head early Wednesday. The Tarrant County medical examiner ruled his death a suicide.

Officers processing the scene said they found a large canvas suitcase full of pornographic magazines in the bedroom and a red flag with a black swastika hung in a closet with a few older-style military jackets.

Source: Statesman