the Houston Lab, a completely illegitimate governance structure, comprised of some 22 folks who voted for each other at a hastily assembled election fraud, has become the latest wave of successful in-house Pacifica Race-baiting.

The principle of race-baiting involves the creation of racial tension, where there is none, mis-applying the dynamics of racist culture where they do not operate, and usually involve hi-volume, public accusations of racism and bigotry, often by racists and bigots or elitists.

Race baiting knows no allegiances, or ethnic preference, it is simply a gutter tactic, well known in Pacifica, but somewhat new to the Pacifica community in Houston.

Here are some examples of race baiting underway in our community.

1. Donna De La Paz and Houston LAB member Greg Geiselman accused Bob Buzzanco of a racial slur on the premises of KPFT. iPNB member, and Garland Ganter appointee, George Barnstone, in a public, grandstanding play announced the launching of an investigation of Professor Bob Buzzanco at a sanctioned LAB meeting for 'anti-semitic' remarks based solely on the word of Donna De La Paz and Greg geiselman who are both obvious liars.

Dan Jones and Edwin Johnston used the authority of the iPNB and the Houston LAB's illegitimate investigation of Bob Buzzanco to launch a smear canpaign in all five signal areas. I am no longer willing to accept that certain HouLAB interests are independent of what is distributed as 'information' by Johnston and Jones since these interests stay in perfect alignment. Review the unabridged Jones and please explain why his rhetoric is dutifully translated into political action by certain HouLAB reactionaries. This band of reactionairies are not only out of step with the Pacifica activist community, but also out of step with listener sponsors, who are temporarily ignorant of their illegal interference with the day to day operations of KPFT.

Since the testimony of known public liars, De La Paz and Greg Geiselman totally contradict all other witnesses present, and George Barnstone lied to myself and others repeatedly during this episode, and the investigation was a charade of standard race baiting, no one in their right mind would condone what led to Professor Buzzanco's frustration and resignation from KPFT.

It is an old hack standard race-baiting tactic. To create the fiction of racial tension, where there is none, by lying, insinuation, inuendo and smear.

If anybody would like documentation that Donna De La Paz or Greg Geiselman are liars, please contact me, at 281 444 2372 and I will supply that documentation upon request.

Obviously if Barnstone or the Houston LAB had the best interests of KPFT in mind, and the accusations of racial misconduct had some foundation, it would have served every possible interest to handle this quietly until whatever charges could be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, and then, if the charges were true, deal with it decisively. Since it was, instead, handled as publicly as possible, with no attempt whatsoever to arrive at any conclusion, bungled, bumbled and highly publicized from the outset, there is no way that one can conclude that Barnstone or his co-conspirators had the best interests of KPFT or Pacifica in mind when they began this campaign.

It has come to my attention that members of the Houston Black community have accused the current management and the Pacifica Network of racist exclusion.

As one who is extremely active in the greater Pacifica movement to restore the Mission, I do not deny that there is racial exclusion still apparent at Pacifica, but to simply sling such an accusation so freely at the Houston station is wreckless, and treads rather heavily on sore and delicate balances. I am not going to counter this with a protest or insinuate that this is race baiting, but we just went through all those accusations and they WERE race baiting, so I need to mention that, and it simply evokes alarm bells in this community and can easily raise unnecessary barriers.

As a long time Pacifica activist, there is no one more sick and tired of the endless droning whiteBoy brainFree radio, that was the degenerate KPFT, than those who fought to free this network. Please remember that program proposals are more effective than hubris.

My reading of the current re-programming commitment to the creation of a black/white/hispanic/Asian etc voice is that it is more than the usual lip service that drones throughout the racist pinkBoy US landscape, is far more an active process at KPFT than anywhere else, and your input and cooperation in colorizing KPFT is essential... please trust those who have survived the flames of horrendous race-based attacks, the survivors are real, and we are not difficult to get ahold of, and we still have some pull and influence, get in touch.

I recommend listening to a conversation from radio4houston between Joe Wanzala and Fernando Velazquez on this subject particular to LA and San Fran, and a truly articulate vision of Pacifica's ideals, struggles and hopes among the faithful

It has come to my attention that Ms Rhonda Garner was also accused of racism when she interacted with an hispanic member of the houston community at an outreach commitee gathering, and that these accusations were obscenely innappropriate. Also that those responsible for those accusations are Houston iLAB members, once again, creating unnecessary or ficticious racism. In other words, race-baiting.

At the last Houston iLAB Meeting, when I chewed out Reiter and Barnstone for their silence in the face of Leid's atrocious anti-semitism, and their hypocrisy in the current pretense of anti-semitism, I was met in the parking lot by another Houston Lab member, who informed me that the people of color had fled the Shrine of the Black Madonna becuase they feared White Violence.

This was in the heart of the third ward.

This is probably the most absurd race baiting lie yet foisted by a Houston Lab member, because of the absurdity that Blacks would fear scrawny Pacifica activists, on their own turf. To imply that my presence, with the simple intention of chewing their butts in public implies an act of violence that would send the third ward running for cover is so outrageous it defies satire.

I have been told by Houston iLAB members that George Barnstone's behavior and smearing tactics are 'okay' because he is Jewish so it's okay for him to slnder people with insinuations of anti-semitism with no credible evidence.

That is race-baiting.

As far as accusations that I am dredging up old news by attempting to awaken the Houston community to the historic tragedy of race baiting at Pacifica, (briefly described below) as a destructive tactic, I will happily cease to address that subject once the practice is abandoned in Houston, and the iLAB forums no longer exhibit horrendous destructive devisive race baiting posts, and iLAB members cease to employ those tactics.

I should also mention that I no longer have patience for these tactics, and I am not alone.

As far as accusations (from race-baiting proponents) that I am embarrassing or denigrating the 'integrity' of the Houston Pacifica community, my response is that they are embarrassing and denigrating us all, I am simply reporting on their activities.

All of these behaviors and incidents are going to be heavily reported, and I am warning other programmers who speak accross racial lines that they are asurrounded by race-baiters, watch your behinds, don't allow certain people in their confidence, and I believe most programmers at KPFT are considered fair game by race-baiters, power players and iLAB liars.

Anyone from the Houston iLAB who would like to issue statements condemning race-baiting in Houston, is welcome to do so. My e-mail is spotty, please call me at the number provided above, and I will gladly exclude you from these written statements. If you wish to apologize or waffle on these issues, you will have to do so on your own accord, I will not accept nor will I include any apologies.

These are national issuues, and these tactics are rampant in public and commercial media at present. Do not be deluded into thinking that this behavior can be covered up or kept local. Pacifica is an internationally respected institution and all eyes are upon us, from the near hundred affiliates of community stations nationally, and all those who have built their hopes upon our mission and our once proud example of justice and truth.

It's a free country, and everyone is welcome to behave as they see fit, however, where independent media and Pacifica are involved, it will not go unnoticed. This may be new to this neck of the woods, and perhaps it is difficult to tell the dupes and fools from the liars and operators, but I could care less about intentions. I could care less what goes on in the hearts and minds or thoughts of those involved in what continues to unfold before me. All I am qualified to report is an honest and straightforward exposure of the activities and behaviors I see around me. And they are absurdly familiar.

If you don't like my analysis or conclusions, make some of your own, but good luck trying to foist this on a wise old crowd. The illusion of support from any community you may pretend to represent, will blow away like okie dust on naked wind.

There seems to be some confusion over the definition of race baiting, and since it is now the number 1 means of political discourse in HOUSTON, allow me to define the principle, its practice and history in Pacifica.

The most notorious Pacifica Race Baiter of all time is certainly Utrice Leid, who was appointed by Bessie Wash.

Mary Frances Berry certainly gets honorable mention in this unsavory tradition, and her civil rights credentials are purely pedantic on close examination.

Since Leid is the most horrendous, I'll focus on her, and make myself available at 281 444 2372 on the subjects of Wash and MFBarry.

Utrice Leid is a Carribean immigrant and it's speculated she left the islands one step ahead of a popular rebellion. She is pompous, wordy, self absorbed, clearly a bigot, mixed race-(in the racist culture of the USA she is considered Black or AA or whatever).

When the Pacifica Hijacking was in its final push, there was a concerted and successful effort to remove Amy Goodman from the airwaves of Pacifica. Bessie Wash appointed Utrice Leid as GM to purge Goodman from WBAI, and with Steve Yasko as head of national programming, they accomplished exactly that. If there are doubts about this, I can document that. This was foretold by Juan Gonzales and Amy at the Houston iPNB meeting and also by myself and a large handful of activists years in advance of that.

Utrice Leid's tactics were on-air race baiting, and in-station firings, bannings and assault and battery in some cases.

Amy Goodman is Jewish, Leid is AA.

Now there is a history of both deep alliances and great animosity between these two ethnic communities in NYC.

I personally was given a crash course, six hour, vodka fueled, all nite, in person, Queens based, primer on the background of some of the local animosity, which was a gift from Steffie Brooks, I will grossly abbreviate that issue with what seems to be a looming historical rift.

a There was a problem with school district self determination
b The schools were black, the teachers primarily Jewish
c it radicalized and escalated, and was complicated by Unions and activists and this became a very serious divide, which remains somewhat unresolved.
d mistakes on both sides, and the vocabulary of racism, class privelege, and anti-semitism still festers in this wound.

Obviously the great alliances between these communities are historic, and need no review here, and certainly there are other tensions as well.

When Utrice Leid took over as GM at WBAI she intentionally focused on this animosity, as well as the general black/white tensions in NYC. As she began purging programmers at WBAI, the hypocrisy was evident, since the it was mostly Black Folks, closest to Goodman, who were the first to go. She explained this by dismissing them in "Uncle Tom" rhetoric.

As the purges continued, she surrounded herself in Black Nationalist rhetoric, then began dismissing dissident AA programmers as tools of the "Svengali" (an anti semitic reference to Goodman). She then widened that rift, surrounding herself with right-wing blacks, like Clayton Riley and Earl Caldwell, airheads like Marjorie Moore, and immigrant black folks, who waged further smearing on-air campaigns against American born black folks with long histories as activists and broadcasters with more rhetoric around 'slavenames' and uncle tomming.

This was identified early in that campaign by Errol Maitland and Anthony Sloane, who spoke very specifically and articulatly to this topic of race baiting. It was supremely displayed when Djiabel Faye openly taunted Dick Gregory on Democracy Now, and Gregory's brilliant response "I have survived the FBI, CIA and the Ku Klux Klan, I'm not about to get my ass kicked at a RADIO STATION!!."

This was at the end of that year long campaign, however.

I am an expert on Utrice Leid on-air commentary, I have studied, edited, and listened and relistened to Utrice Leid's bigoted racial rantings still available at radio4all by searching Utrice Leid, or accessible in realAudio at WBAI:an unauthorized autobiography which is one of my edits of on-air hijacked insanity.

However, the history of Pacifica race-baiting goes back through Bob Dole's 'hate-radio' and phony accusations of rampant anti-semitism and even earlier than that, and is a tried, true destructive tactic, recognized easily by everybody in New York, and all Pacifica activists paying attention. It is certainly worth mentioning that no one who thinks clearly would deny that anti-semitism WAS rampant at WBAI, but it was under Utrice Leid, whose main topic was how racist everyone else was.

What is most striking about Leid's race based devisive rhetoric is her mastery of the race-baiting craft.

90% of what Utrice Leid had to say about 'intellectual colonialism', disrespect, racial dynamics, the oppression of Black folks in the US, white privelege, and even some of the one-sided black/jew tension in NYC was essentially right on the money. I happen to agree with alot more of what Utrice Leid had to say than most white folks, call me self-hating. However, she took these truths, which were self-evident, and twisted them, and she mis-applied them.

It is simply a horrendous distortion of reality to imply that Amy Goodman associated with Black Folks in order to control them, or that her commitment to racial equality is disingenuous. It is insane to imply that Errol Maitland has Uncle Tom tendencies. It is bizzarre to imply that Anthony Sloane or Bernard White are tools of some neo-liberal white supremicist smokescreen.

The primary dynamic of race baiting is the implication of
racial turmoil where there is none.

If we criticized Utrice Leid's assertion that Amy Goodman encircled herself with servile Blacks to present a neo-liberal front for Jewish interests, we were described as white supremicists, unwilling to accept Black empowerment, or Uncle Toms. This is Mau Mau-ing to the nth dsegree, this is race baiting, because Leid mis-applied the true dynamics of a racist society to those very people who were most active in combatting the heart of racism, and those people who were most instrumental in speaking for themselves as Black activists, or as white folks defining the sins of their own traditions, and rejecting the bonds of their own racist upbringing, and cutting against the grain of popular, racist culture.

Leid and her band of Mau Maus freely attacked Zinn, Chomsky, Herman, Sloane, White, Maitland, Dick Gregory, and the kitchen sink over the airwaves of WBAI in an unparalleled race baiting attack that made the Klan bomb attacks on KPFT pale in comparison.

The voice is mightier than the bomb.

It is a very simple tactic in the end, imply racism and bigotry where there is none.

When Mary Frances Barry invaded the station with armed guards, part of her campaign included accusations that Black Folks were excluded from KPFA, part of her attack was a 'civil rights' campaign. However, she is descended through direct appointment from Pat Scott, who purged Black political programming from KPFA in ther first place. It did not work at all. Her accusations that racial exclusion and the marginalization of minorities ast KPFA was race baiting and disingenuous because of the context of the source. She was part of what had transformed partially into a juke Box, and was aligned with the juke Box orchestraitors at WPFW, KPFA, and KPFT.

However, when Pacifica Activist, Joseph Wanzala, speaks on the subject of KPFA's schedule, and notes that KPFA seems to ghetto-ize the black programming into the music pocket, this is not race baiting, because he is not a juke box disciple, and there is one detail that cannot be over-looked in Wanzala's criticism: he happens to be telling the truth. Nor does Wanzala resort to slinging knee-jerk accusations of white-supremecy and racism.

There are nuances in this issue, lost on the less observant, and politically incompetent.

Beore Leid was deposed, she also suppressed speech in the aftermath of 9-11, supported hawkish retribution against Afghanistan, excluded East Indian voices from WBAI's airwaves, supported Bloomberg for NYC mayor, and drained the maximum from Pacifica's coffers by renting a Lincoln Town Car for six months, and running up restaurant and hotel bills that could have paid my rent for twenty years.

She was also spectacularly unsuccessful in recruiting Sharpton and other notable black activists in her campaign of racial divisiveness.

It is remarkably apparent in retrospect, even to the most arrivista Pacifica Ostrich herd, just who was the tool of whitey, regardless of melanin.

-scooter

Once again, I would like to remind anyone who would persist in accusations that I indulge in violence or any other illegal activities....

you'd better have a damn good lawyer.

I do.