Hate Crime Charges For Charleston Killer

Via the Post & Courier:

A grand jury indictment of Dylann Roof on federal hate crime charges could happen as soon as today, a move that would make the 21-year-old man a defendant in one of the worst racially motivated attacks since the Civil Rights era, according to sources close to the investigation. Roof, who is white, is accused of fatally shooting nine black worshippers during a June 17 Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston. That night, authorities first stated that the shooting would be considered a hate crime. The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division also sent FBI agents into the field to investigate the possible motive for what was thought to be South Carolina’s worst racial hate crime in history. An indictment could bring that aspect of the crime that has sparked conversations about race relations nationwide into the courtroom for the first time. Multiple sources confirmed that the indictment by a Columbia grand jury was imminent. They requested anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss a grand jury action.

Roof faces the death penalty.

President Obama Breaks Into "Amazing Grace" During Charleston Eulogy

The eulogy started out very somber and presidential, but became increasing preacher-like as it went on. And then Obama did something that will battle gay marriage for tomorrow's headlines.

Coulter Attacks SC Gov. Nikki Haley Over Confederate Flag: She's An Immigrant

Via Mediaite:

Ann Coulter has quite a knack for driving liberals crazy, but last night she made a comment that even has conservatives mind-boggled. On Fox Business Network, while talking with Kennedy about Charleston, Coulter brought up South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who announced she supports efforts to take down the Confederate flag at the state capitol, and said, “She is an immigrant and does not understand America’s history."  Haley was born in South Carolina. Her parents were immigrants. Coulter acknowledged this fact but otherwise stood by what she said in a pretty bizarre tweet this morning. Yes, in standing by her comments on Haley, Coulter invoked Major Nidal Hasan (the Fort Hood shooter), Anwar al-Awlaki (the U.S. citizen/Islamic militant taken out by a drone strike in 2011), and the Octomom, apparently lumping the Republican governor in with them.

American Family Association: Obama Caused Charleston By Inciting Racism

Huckabee: God Already Solved Racism

"I keep hearing people saying we need more conversations about race. Actually we don’t need more conversations. What we need is conversions [to Jesus] because the reconciliations that changes people is not a racial reconciliation, it’s a spiritual reconciliation when people are reconciled to God. When I love God and I know that God created other people regardless of their color as much as he made me, I don’t have a problem with racism. It’s solved!" - Mike Huckabee, speaking on Fox News.

Walmart: No More Confederate Flags

Obama Uses N-Word In Racism Interview

CNN reports:

President Barack Obama used the n-word to make a point about the reality of racism in America during an interview released Monday with comedian Marc Maron. Obama weighed in for the podcast "WTF with Marc Maron" on the national debate on race relations and gun control that has been reignited after the Charleston shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Obama said that progress on race relations has been made, citing his own experience as a young man who was born to a white mother and an African father. "I always tell young people, in particular, do not say that nothing has changed when it comes to race in America, unless you've lived through being a black man in the 1950s or '60s or '70s. It is incontrovertible that race relations have improved significantly during my lifetime and yours," Obama said. But he added that "the legacy of slavery, Jim Crow, discrimination" exists in institutions and casts "a long shadow and that's still part of our DNA that's passed on."

LGBT Rights For Charleston, SC

Add Charleston, South Carolina to the list.

Charleston City Council passed ordinances expanding the city’s existing policy prohibiting discrimination in housing to include age, sexual orientation and gender identity. The council also passed a public accommodations ordinance prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, disability, age or sexual orientation. The ordinances were presented to the mayor’s office in August by members of Charleston’s Alliance For Full Acceptance (AFFA), SC Stonewall Democrats, SC Log Cabin Republicans, American Civil Liberties Union and South Carolina Equality—who had successfully introduced similar ordinances in Columbia SC.

Charleston is the second city in the state with broad LGBT protections. Columbia was the first.