Meet Lynn Westmoreland. He's a Republican Congressman from Georgia who once co-sponsored a bill to place the ten commandments in the House and Senate, even though he was unable to name more than three of those commandments during a visit to the Colbert Report. But that's not why I'm bringing up Westmoreland here today. This is why:

"Just from what little I’ve seen of [Mrs.] and Mr. Obama, Sen. Obama, they're a member of an elitist-class individual that thinks that they're uppity," Westmoreland said.

Asked to clarify that he used the word “uppity,” Westmoreland said, “Uppity, yeah.”

In other words, these are a couple of black folks who don't know their place, which is, presumably, polishing Westmoreland's ten commandment plague to a spit shine, not occupying the White House. Eventually, maybe even later today, the 58-year-old Southerner will release a statement saying that he is "sorry if anyone is offended," that his impromptu comments had nothing to do with race, and he might even try to make the argument that he had no idea that "uppity" had negative racial connotations. He, like so many others before him, will be lying through his teeth. [The Hill]

Many black retired police officers in Georgia are getting paid hundreds of dollars less in monthly pension payments than their white counterparts. Until 1976, black police officers were not allowed to join a state-supported supplemental police retirement fund, so black officers who retired before then are receiving far less than they should. Even though the Georgia State Constitution forbids the state from extending new benefits to employees after they've retired, the retirees have been fighting for an equal pension for eight years.

If lawmakers don't take action in the final weeks of the legislative session, the battle will move to the courthouse this spring, said state Rep. Tyrone Brooks, an Atlanta Democrat and civil rights activist leading the officers' campaign.

"I was hoping we wouldn't have to go this route, but litigation appears to be our only option," Brooks said.

Ronald Hampton, executive director of the National Black Police Association, said he knows of no other state with a similar pension situation. "Only Georgia is shameless enough to still have this out there," Hampton said.

Georgia's House passed an amendment resolution twice, but both times it has gone no where in the Senate. Considering the inequalities the men faced when they were on the job in a segregated, racist atmosphere, they deserve nothing less than equality now. [CNN]

• Georgia blacks are like the new South Carolina blacks! [WTVM]

• Poor women! How can they possibly choose between a racial first and a gender first? Can political reporters possibly choose a better election story? [ABC]

• Spain's ugly history of racism in sports. [Telegraph]

• Tom Joyner and the NAACP launch a voter empowerment hotline. [ADW]

• Happy Super Tuesday, y'all!

Genarlow Wilson, the Georgia man who has spent two year in prison since being convicted to a 10 years sentence for having consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old when he was 17, is officially out of jail. The Georgia Supreme Court agreed 4-3 that his sentence amounted to cruel and unusual punishment.

[CNN]

Genarlow Wilson, the Georgia man incarcerated for having consensual oral sex with a high school classmate when he was 17, caught a break yesterday. Relatively speaking, of course. The state supreme court moved up the attorney general's appeal hearing from August 5 to July 20th, a move that will have Wilson out of jail sooner, if all goes as planned.

Attorney General Thurbert Baker is appealing a Monroe County Superior Court judge's decision to reduce Wilson's felony conviction to a misdemeanor and free him from prison. Baker said the judge overstepped his authority when he granted Wilson's habeas corpus last month. Wilson's attorney is arguing his 10-year prison sentence is cruel and unusual punishment.

When Wilson gets out of jail, something I and most rationale people would like to happen, I wonder if he will be able to get back to any sort of normalcy. The cynic in me says that no matter how innocent you are when you go to jail, the company you keep while you're there can't be a great influence.

[AJC]

Genarlow Wilson, the young (black) man who was given 10 years for child molestation for having oral sex with a (white) 15-year-old when he was in high school, finally had his sentence voided by a judge today.

Wilson, now 21, has already served more than 27 months. An honors student, homecoming king and highly recruited defensive back from Douglas County High, Wilson is expected to remain behind bars while the appeal proceeds.

A jury found the honor student guilty in 2005 of aggravated child molestation for having oral sex with a 15-year-old girl during a 2003 New Year's Eve party involving alcohol and marijuana. Although the sex act was consensual it was illegal under Georgia law.

Wilson was also charged with rape for being one of several male partygoers at the Douglas County hotel to have sex with a 17-year-old girl, but was acquitted.

Even though lawmakers recently changed he law that allowed for Wilson's ridiculous sentence, the state of Georgia will still likely appeal the judge's decision, and Wilson has to stay behind bars until that process is over. I can't see how the state would persist with something that has been such a publicity disaster. Even Jimmy Carter spoke out in favor of the kid. Let the him go home and try to live the life that has been put on hold for two years. You really have to wonder about the justice system when Genarlow Wilson is in prison for a consensual sex act with one of his peers, and Michael Jackson still roams the streets.

[ESPN]

Clarence Thomas is conflicted. The resident African American justice on the U.S. Supreme Court is torn between a Georgia family that doesn't understand him and his responsibilities to United States citizens, who, uh, don't understand him. Instead of just being a Supreme Court Justice, like his colleagues, he has to be a black Supreme Court Justice. Boo hoo? The writers of his latest biography, Supreme Discomfort: The Divided Soul Of Clarence Thomas, explain Thomas's complex situation in the Washington Post.

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