http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20015583-503544.html

The NAACP, which earlier this year caused a firestorm by passing a resolution condemning racism in the Tea Party movement, has joined with three liberal web sites to create a "Tea Party Tracker" site devoted to documenting "racism and other forms of extremism within he Tea Party movement."

"We call on the Tea Party to repudiate extremists among their ranks and join in civil dialogue with all Americans," says the Tea Party Tracker web site, which includes the tagline "A Watched Teapot Never Boils."

Among the items posted on the site so far are a video clip showing interviews with attendees at Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally and a photo of a man at the rally wearing a t-shirt reading, "Blacks own Slaves in Mauritania, Sudan Niger and Haiti."

Members of the Tea Party movement strongly deny that there is a racist element to their movement. Many believe that participants expressing racism at Tea Party rallies are actually liberal plants trying to make them look bad.

They also complain of a double-standard under which extremists at Tea Party rallies are spotlighted while extremists at liberal rallies go ignored.

In addition to the NAACP, the "Tea Party Tracker" site is a project of Media Matters, Think Progress and New Left Media. The groups hope to provide a central clearinghouse for evidence that there is racism in Tea Party Movement, which is responsible for much of the voter enthusiasm on the right.

The groups appear to hope that convincing moderate voters that Tea Party-backed candidates are supported by a movement tied to racism will depress support for those candidates in the midterm elections and help Democrats retain control of Congress.

"I do not want to suggest that the tea party is a hate group, but there are some disturbing elements within," Hilary Shelton, director of the NAACP's Washington bureau told the Washington Post.

In April, a CBS News poll found that 52 percent of Tea Party members believe too much has been made of the problems facing black people. Far fewer Americans overall -- 28 percent -- believe as much. Among non-Tea Party whites, the percentage who say too much attention has been paid to the problems of black people is 23 percent.

 The "Tea Party Tracker" site is reminiscent of a Democratic National Committee site launched in June where citizen journalists can upload video of Republican candidates. The point of that site, "The Accountability Project," is to unearth embarrassing moments like the so-called "macaca moment" that helped end the political career of former Republican Sen. George Allen.

Joe Miller is the Republican candidate for US Senate in Alaska; he defeated incumbent Republican Lisa Murkowski in a hotly contested primary.  While visiting CNN's "John King USA," the following exchange took place as they discussed Social Security (emphasis added):

KING: "It is an issue that you well know can be easily demagogued, so I want to deliver a statement. You tell me if it's fair or not: That anybody in the system or close to the system is fine. We won't do anything significant to change your benefits. But how about an American born tomorrow or born the day after Joe Miller was sworn in in Washington? Would that person perhaps grow up in an America where there is not a federal Social Security program if you got your way?

MILLER: "Absolutely.

KING: "That's a fair statement?"

MILLER: "No demagoguery there at all."

Now, Miller's overall idea for Social Security, as quoted in the article, is to "transfer the power back to the states so that states can take up the mantle of those programs if they so desire."  He also talks about "short-term" fixes such as privatization, but make no mistake - he ultimately supports the abolition of Social Security.

Even 62% of self-identified "tea party" conservatives (in what seems to be the one decent poll taken of that group) agreed that they considered "the benefits from government programs such as Social Security and Medicare worth the costs of those programs".  I think that both the abolitionist and privatization arguments may run into trouble, even among conservatives.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/09/03/maryland.discovery.channel/index.html?section=cnn_latest

The gunman who held three people hostage at the Discovery Channel headquarters was once convicted of smuggling an illegal immigrant into the country from Mexico.

In 2003, James Lee, pleaded guilty to smuggling a woman from Tijuana, according to documents from a California federal court. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison for the crime.

In court documents, Lee admitted to smuggling immigrants at least three times and being paid for it.

A deep recession and tougher border enforcement have led to a sharp decline in the number of immigrants entering the United States illegally in the past five years, contributing to the first significant reversal in the growth of their numbers in two decades, according to a new report by the Pew Hispanic Center.

The number of illegal immigrants entering the United States plunged by almost two-thirds between 2005 and 2009, a dramatic shift after years of growth in the population, according to the report.

Some would have us believe that illegal immigration is an ever-increasing flood, but Pew's report seems to indicate otherwise.   In fact, the total population of illegal immigrants is estimated to be 11.1 million; that takes us back to 2005 levels.   The states with the largest populations of illegal immigrants are California, Texas, Florida, New York, Illinois, New Jersey, and Georgia.  Check out the interactive map on Pew's website for state-by-state estimates.  (Now, it's obviously difficult to determine "hard numbers" on illegal immigrations, so Pew accounts for underreporting by adjusting the underlying statistics up by 10-15%.)

It's probably true that the economy has made illegal immigration less attractive in recent years, but a drop of 66% is still remarkable.  When coupled with recent reports that the rates of various crimes in border areas are down, it seems that we should revisit our assumptions on both sides of this issue.

 But the real fallout will be in 2011 and 2012. That is because the collected census date is used to determine what representation states will receive. Some states will lose congressional seats. Some will gain them. This also plays a role in the US presidentual elections as states electors are determined based on congressional seats (one for each Congressperson and one for each senator that a state has). They then vote for the President in the electorial college.

 This brings up the folllowing Redistricting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redistricting

Redistricting, a form of redistribution, is the process in the United States of changing political borders. This often means changing electoral district and constituency boundaries, usually in response to periodic census results. In 36 states, the state legislature has primary responsibility for creating a redistricting plan.

--------------------------------------------

The bolded part is from me. It will be the state legislatures that will do the redisctricting.

Polster Michael Barone offers his thoughts on this

http://www.nationalledger.com/artman/publish/article_272634287.shtml?ref=rss

Reapportionment is automatic: A statutory formula takes the Census figures and apportions the 435 House districts among the 50 states. Wyoming and five other states will each get one, California will probably get 53, and the rest some number in between.

Seven states, according to projections by Polidata Inc., will gain a House seat, and Texas will gain four -- nine states will lose a House seat, and Ohio will lose two. Overall, states carried by John McCain in 2008 will gain a net seven seats (and electoral votes), and states carried by Barack Obama will lose seven.

But that doesn't necessarily mean Republicans will gain House seats. That depends on redistricting -- how the lines are drawn by the politicians in each state (or, in a couple of cases, by nonpartisan commissions).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As can be seen the battle lines are already being drawn

 The NAACP is already stepping into the fight

http://newsblaze.com/story/2010082512250200001.pnw/topstory.html

Civil Rights Organizations Release Redistricting Guide to Promote Community Participation in 2011 Redistricting Processes

Today, three leading civil rights groups launched a campaign to promote their collaborative redistricting guide for the upcoming local, state and congressional redistricting processes. MALDEF, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), and the Asian American Justice Center (AAJC), a member of the Asian American Center for Advancing Justice, have joined forces to produce "The Impact of Redistricting In Your Community: A Guide to Redistricting."

The coalition designed the manual for a broad set of audiences that include community members, activists and policy makers. The manual provides the legal and policy framework for redistricting, and outlines how communities can participate in the redistricting process, keep the line drawers accountable and help ensure that the voting strength of minority communities is not unjustly weakened. Key features of the manual include a "Frequently Asked Questions" section on redistricting, an overview of the redistricting process and the role of the Voting Rights Act, an explanation of the importance of community participation, particularly in minority communities, and a directory of state-by-state information on local redistricting.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

And the battle in California is already intense

http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2010/09/am-alert-thursday-3.html

 http://www.infozine.com/news/stories/op/storiesView/sid/43269/

http://www.tmz.com/2010/09/01/discovery-channel-james-jay-lee-mental-instution-instabilty-arrest-protest/

Lee was arrested for disorderly conduct during his protest outside Discovery headquarters in Maryland two years ago -- after allegedly trying to draw a crowd by throwing money all over the sidewalk.

Lee was found guilty of disorderly conduct -- and the court ordered him to serve time in a mental institution.

But according to sources, Lee never stepped inside a hospital -- we're told he was released after 14 days in a local jail ... and got off with 2 years supervised probation.

In case you weren't already convinced that the one-man crusade against Silver Spring's Discovery Channel, which also produced a series of ads promoting the protest in the print edition of Express, was more than a little light on widespread support, take a look at the photo above. Flickr contributor chip py the photo guy snapped this shot yesterday of a man who was paid by the organizer to join the protest.

After a low turnout for the planned protest of the Discovery Channel, homeless people from the nearby Progress Place were paid ten dollars an hour to demonstrate. On Monday when it began to rain many of the demonstrators, such as this man right here, demanded to get paid and left.

We previously expressed some skepticism about the "Save the Planet Protest Against the Discovery Channel", which was planned from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. for the entire week of February 15—23. 

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/08/27/99767/hate-crimes-against-muslims-rare.html

Unemployment Falls After Export Surge, Investment Fueled Record GDP Growth

German unemployment declined for a 14th month in August after surging exports and investment fuelled record economic growth in the second quarter.

The number of people out of work declined a seasonally adjusted 17,000 to 3.19 million, the Nuremberg-based Federal Labor Agency said today. Economists forecast a decrease of 20,000, according to the median of 31 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. The jobless rate was unchanged at 7.6 percent.

The German economy is leading Europe’s recovery as exports and investment surge, prompting companies from Daimler AG to Bayerische Motoren Werke AG to add workers. That may already be feeding through to consumer spending, which rose the most in almost two years in the second quarter.

“Looking at order books of German companies, we’ll see this miracle continue at least this year,” said Carsten Brzeski, an economist at ING Group in Brussels. “We’ll see positive surprises in the second half of the year, that’s all we need for a self-sustained recovery in Germany.”