Thousands of people held a silent march in New York City on Sunday to protest the New York City Police Department’s controversial "stop-and-frisk" policies. The warrantless search initiative has drawn accusations of being unconstitutional, while mostly targeting people of color, overwhelmingly black and Latino men. We hear from several voices at the march: Reverend Al Sharpton, Donna Lieberman of the New York Civil Liberties Union, Benjamin Jealous of the NAACP, and New York City residents who have endured dozens of stop-and-frisk searches.

Transcript:

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Thousands of people took to the streets Sunday to protest the New York City Police Department’s controversial stop-and-frisk policies. Organized by the NAACP, the protest marked only the second time the organization has held a silent march. The last time was in 1917 to protest lynching. Last year, the New York police officers stopped ...

Attorney General Eric Holder spoke to attendees at a summit of the Congressional Black Caucus and the Conference of National Black Churches about the importance of voting as well as the significance of new voter ID laws, which disproportionately affect minorities. The summit was designed, in part, to help black leaders learn about the new laws -- yet Rush Limbaugh and a Fox News contributor attacked Holder's appearance as “reprehensible” and “unseemly.”

Attorney General Eric Holder delivered the keynote address at a meeting of the Congressional Black Caucus and the Conference of National Black Churches.

The day also features panels on the state of voting rights, protecting a church's non-profit status, and energizing constituents and congregants to vote.

The Attorney General has announced that he will vigorously defend the Voting Rights Act of 1965, including the Section 5 provision that Southern states or those that have historically disenfranchised black voters must clear any changes to voting law or electoral systems with the Justice Department. [C-SPAN.org, 5/30/12]

McClatchy: Summit Was Planned To “Discuss The New Laws, Their Potential Impact On African-American Voters And How Churches Can Educate Parishioners.” From McClatchy:

African-American churches, historically at the forefront of the nation's civil and voting rights efforts, are grappling this election year with how to navigate through the wave of new voting-access laws approved in ...

The smoldering ruin called Rush Limbaugh dramatizes one political truism: seemingly impregnable fortresses are most vulnerable to suicidal implosions. Despite decades of volcanic vitriol, no outside force had yet penetrated Rush’s propaganda bubble chamber, full of pretend entertainment. No doubt, the fall of the Ditto head Dynasty reflects both the gratuity of Limbaugh’s latest abuse and the wholesomeness of the victim. For the record, Sandra Fluke’s noble decency stared down a serial miscreant. After all, other fringe charlatans haven’t suddenly lost 140 sponsors, nor did some new-found Democratic charge deter Rush’s grotesque buffoonery. 

Though the bully pulpit resides in the White House, shifty, snarling bullies still sneer their way to fame and fortune. The historic bully pulpit, a powerful tool for past leaders, has withered, crowded out by bullying puppets that speak for backroom billionaires. When a Limbaugh commandeers 900 stations and spans four presidencies, enough ballast still hoodwinks a shipload of fools, suckers, and bigots. 

Though rightwing politicians are doing their best, the prize for broadcast browbeating goes clearly to this master of contempt. Rush is the moral equivalent of a toxic super-fund site. For decades, his career and obscene income depended on one monotonous regime: every day finds some new fury to outdo yesterday’s outrage, feeding on minorities, foreigners, and liberals when women don’t work. The plotline is no mystery: spew forth wanton abuse, express incredulity anyone would take offense, then muddy the waters and cap off with the pained grievance of the professional victim. Sarah Palin learned from a master. 

After this latest fiasco, Rush was true to form, blaming everyone but himself with false apologies and crude indirection: "Against my own instincts, against my own knowledge, against everything that ...

The Reverend Al Sharpton and various labor unions have announced a March for Jobs. But I’m afraid we’ll need more than marches to get jobs back.

Since the start of the Great Recession at the end of 2007, America’s potential labor force – that is, working-age people who want jobs - has grown by over 7 million. But since then, the number of Americans who actually have jobs has shrunk by more than 300,000.

In other words, we’re in a deep hole and the hole is deepening. In August, the United States created no jobs at all. Zero.

America’s ongoing jobs depression - which is what it deserves to be called - is the worst economic calamity to hit this nation since the Great Depression. It’s also terrible news for President Obama, whose chances for re-election now depend almost entirely on the Republican party putting up someone so vacuous and extremist that the nation rallies to Obama regardless.

The problem is on the demand side. Consumers (whose spending is 70% of the economy) ...