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=http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/04/25/make_poverty_a_priority.php= = = =Talk-Radio Host Don Imus Apologizes for On-Air Racial Slurs Against Rutgers Women's Basketball Team= Friday, April 06, 2007 Imus and his producer and on-air sidekick, **Bernard McGuirk**, went on to further attack the black members of the team, calling them "jigaboos and wannabees." In his apology, Imus called his comments "insensitive and ill-conceived." "It was completely inappropriate, and we can understand why people were offended," he told listeners at the opening of his broadcast Friday morning. He further called the comments "thoughtless and stupid" and said, "We're sorry." The apology came after Imus initially brushed aside criticism, telling The New York Times "not to worry about some idiot saying something meant to be amusing." Rutgers officials issued this statement: "We agree with Mr. Imus that this was, in his own words, an 'idiot comment.' We are very proud of the success of the Rutgers women's basketball team. Coach Stringer and the Rutgers players are outstanding ambassadors for this great institution." //(Story continues below)// [|**Advertise Here**] Advertisements Shortly after Imus made his comments about the Rutgers team, MSNBC released the following statement: "While simulcast by MSNBC, 'Imus in the Morning' is not a production of the cable network and is produced by WFAN Radio. As Imus makes clear every day, his views are not those of MSNBC. We regret that his remarks were aired on MSNBC and apologize for these offensive comments." The comments drew immediate outrage from the **National Association of Black Journalists** (NABJ), which had called for a boycott of Imus' show until he issued a "sincere and unequivocal apology," referring to him as a "sophomoric host." "Has he lost his mind?" asked NABJ President Bryan Monroe, vice president and editorial director for Ebony and Jet magazines in Chicago. "Those comments were beyond offensive. Imus needs to be fired. Today." The veteran talk-jock's remarks came during a discussion — that included WFAN show host Sid Rosenberg, McGuirk and show regular Charles McCord — about Rutgers' loss to Tennessee, 59-46, Tuesday night in the NCAA Women's Basketball Finals. Rosenberg was twice fired from the Imus show, once for racist comments about **Serena** and **Venus Williams**, and again for remarks about singer **Kylie Minogue**, who was battling breast cancer. "She won't look so pretty when she's bald with one [breast]," Rosenberg said on air. Each time, Imus rehired Rosenberg following on-air apologies.
 * NEW YORK** **— Syndicated talk-radio personality Don Imus apologized Friday for calling members of the Rutgers University women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos" during a segment yesterday in his "Imus in the Morning" show.**
 * //Imus//**//: So, I watched the basketball game last night between — a little bit of Rutgers and Tennessee, the women's final.//
 * //Rosenberg//**//: Yeah, Tennessee won last night — seventh championship for [Tennessee coach] Pat Summitt, I-Man. They beat Rutgers by 13 points.//
 * //Imus//**//: That's some rough girls from Rutgers. Man, they got tattoos and —//
 * //McGuirk//**//: Some hard-core hos.//
 * //Imus//**//:// **//That's some nappy-headed hos there.//** //I'm gonna tell you that now, man, that's some — woo. And the girls from Tennessee, they all look cute, you know, so, like — kinda like — I don't know.//
 * //McGuirk//**//: A// **//Spike Lee//** //thing.//
 * //Imus//**//: Yeah.//
 * //McGuirk//**//:// **//The Jigaboos vs. the Wannabes//** //— that movie that he had.//
 * //Imus//**//: Yeah, it was a tough —//
 * //Charles McCord//**//: Do The Right Thing.//
 * //McGuirk//**//: Yeah, yeah, yeah.//
 * //Imus//**//: I don't know if I'd have wanted to beat Rutgers or not, but they did, right?//
 * //Rosenberg//**//: It was a tough watch. The more I look at Rutgers, they look exactly like the Toronto Raptors.//

Questions: 1) Do you think Don should’ve lost his job? 2) Why did it take this long for him to get noticed for his racial comments? 3) Do you really think he is sorry for the comments he made, or did he just do it for the sake of pleasing people? 4) What, if anything, should and can be done about intolerant/racist/homophobic language in the media?

=Unjust and unfair: The death penalty in Iraq= ©AP GraphicsBank || Under the government of Saddam Hussein, the death penalty was applicable for a wide range of offences and was used extensively. Following the US-led invasion of Iraq, the death penalty was suspended in June 2003, but was reinstated by the Iraqi Interim Government in August 2004. The return to the death penalty was opposed by the European Union, the United Nations and international human rights organizations, including Amnesty International.
 * [[image:http://www.amnesty.org/images/resources/iraq/iraq_noose_200.jpg width="200" height="150"]] ||
 * Hanging rope at execution gallows, Baghdad, Iraq
 * The report's main findings include:* Insufficient or no investigation of allegations of torture despite frequent reliance on "confessions" made during detention to obtain convictions for capital offences;
 * Pre-trial televised "confessions" and the inclusion in court of evidence identifying the accused from witnesses who have previously seen the confession;
 * Inadequate access to defence lawyers and the intimidation of lawyers including death threats and attacks.[|Read the full report] ||

Since then, more than 270 people have been sentenced to death and at least 100 people have been reported executed.

During 2004, no executions were reported; at least three men were executed in 2005. There was a rapid rise in executions in 2006 with at least 65 people, including at least two women, reported to have been executed by hanging. These figures place Iraq among the countries with the highest numbers of executions reported in 2006. Higher totals were recorded only in China, Iran and Pakistan.

In a new report, entitled [|Unjust and unfair: The death penalty in Iraq], AI is calling on the Iraqi government to:
 * establish an immediate moratorium on executions
 * commute all pending death sentences;
 * move towards the abolition of the death penalty and to respect international standards restricting the scope of the death penalty pending abolition;
 * ensure the most rigorous standards for fair trial are respected in all cases