links for 2010-05-15

It’s about 2,500 miles from this green, rural town in the rolling hills near Vermont to the Mexican border at Nogales, but that hasn’t stopped Jackson from making a bid to be New York’s small version of Arizona in the immigration wars. Or that’s how it is beginning to feel two months after Jackson — which has 1,700 people, no village, no grocery store or place to buy gasoline, no church, no school, two restaurants and maybe a few Spanish-speaking farm workers — decided it needed a law requiring that all town business be conducted in English.

Smiling proudly as she wraps her arms around her two children, Cynthia Keene's family paint a happy picture. But as they roll up their sleeves to reveal dozens of swastika tattoos it's clear there is nothing average about their lifestyle. Because the Keenes are just one of a growing number of Nazi families who have joined the racist group, the NSM (National Socialist Movement)…They idolise Hitler, believe the Holocaust never happened and want all non-white people deported from America…"All-non white people in America should be sent back to where they came from, and me and my kids will fight to make that happen,' said Cynthia speaking from a motel room in Los Angeles where she and two of her children, Brad, 23 and Ariana, 17 were preparing to attend a Nazi rally.

Three men are accused of branding a swastika on a mentally challenged man's arm with a heated metal clothes hanger, and could face hate crime charges. "We'll explore every conceivable available avenue in charging them with a hate crime because what happened to the victim was so horribly wrong," said Chief Deputy District Attorney Sarah Weaver…The three white men are accused of forcing the 22-year-old victim from the Navajo Indian reservation into a car on April 29, and driving him to an apartment…"We haven't identified this as a gang-related crime. That is still under investigation," Perez said. "But they appear to be associated in some fashion to the white supremacist movement."…[Alleged assailant] Sanford claimed that the victim, who wanted a haircut and a tattoo, "wanted the swastika design because it was a tribal symbol," according to the court records.

…- In Pennsylvania alone, the city of Scranton in 2008 agreed to pay a woman $19,000 plus legal costs after she was charged for swearing at her overflowing toilet. The city of Pittsburgh paid $50,000 last year to settle a free-speech lawsuit filed by a man cited for an obscene gesture. In that case, the ACLU found city police had written 188 disorderly conduct citations over a 32-month period for swearing, gestures and other disrespectful conduct.
- Philly police Sgt. Robert Ralston finally admitted yesterday that when he said a "black man with cornrows" shot him last month, what he really meant was "I purposely shot myself in the shoulder."…

A new Interview editorial from the magazine's May 2010 issue, "Let's Get Lost," photographed by Mikael Jansson and styled by Karl Templer, is described with the following tagline: "Let's get lost. The hour is late, the air is thick, and the evening is charged with a steamy sensuality. What works? Tone-on-tone swimsuits, slithers of silk, and plenty of skin, as flesh meets flesh, body meets soul, and Daria gets lost in the heat of the night." But since being posted online, the editorial, which highlights Daria Werbowy among an all-black cast (save for Brazilian model Lisalla Montenegro), is eliciting adverse reactions around the web. Commenters on The Fashion Spot write: "I expect more from Interview than some stereotypical, white person enters into strange and exotic world of brown people editorial."

Conservative criticism of Elena Kagan’s nomination to the Supreme Court was all but guaranteed. But critiques are also coming from more unlikely sources, as a groundswell of progressive scholars question her past commitments to minorities. Of special interest to Indian country, her positions on tribal and Indian legal issues are unknown, and she has lacked engagement on some major Native topics.