Lighting up in North Carolina, and a president who lit up back in the day.

If there is a lack of comments after this post from from my wingnut friends tomorrow, it might be because most of them are in Reidsville, North Carolina for a big Memorial Day weekend bash. There is nothing like a little cross burning to bring friends together.

Anywhoo, I wish them luck with that. This is America, and they should be free to assemble as they please. As long as they are not being violent or breaking any laws, I say let them burn their crosses. (h/t Tia for this story)

Speaking of fire, it seems that our president liked to fire up the good collie weed back in the day. ("The Choom Gang"? I know I liked something about that dude) O even had rules for burning the collie. That sounds downright Rastafarian to me.  I bet Mitt didn't burn the collie weed back in the day. I know he spent some time in Paris, but he was on a mission from God, and the last time I checked Mormons didn't hit the blunt for inspiration.

Finally, it's time to attack black. My House Negro of the day is a woman named Wanette Gibson. She is the woman who lied about a budding football star raping her, and cost the young man five years of his life and a possible lucrative professional career.

"A woman who claimed that she was raped by a star high school football player -- sending him to prison for five years -- is not likely to be charged with making a false accusation, prosecutors said.

In the summer of 2002, Wanette Gibson accused Brian Banks, now 26, of rape. The two were students at Long Beach Poly High School. Rather than take the he-said-she-said case to trial and risk a 41-years-to-life prison sentence, Banks pleaded no contest to forcible rape, spent five years in prison and, after his release, was forced to register as a sex offender and wear an electronic monitoring bracelet.

"It's been a struggle, it's been a nightmare," he said. "It's more than I can describe, the things that I've been through."

Banks was considered a top college football prospect. A 6-foot-4, 225-pound middle linebacker, he had been courted by USC, UCLA and other football powerhouses, he said.

He asked the California Innocence Project for help, but with no new evidence there was little the organization could do.

Then, last year, the woman sent him a friend request on Facebook.
She felt guilty that he had lost out on going to college and playing football and had "a desire to make amends," Banks' attorneys said in court documents.

When Banks heard from her, he recalled, "I stopped what I was doing and got down on my knees and prayed to God to help me play my cards right."

She agreed to meet him and a private investigator. Their conversation was taped and Gibson said, "No, he did not rape me."

That admission set off an extraordinary chain of events that culminated Thursday morning. A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge dismissed Banks' conviction, ending 10 years of turmoil in a hearing that lasted less than a minute.

According to Banks and his private investigator, Gibson refused to tell prosecutors that she had lied, so that she wouldn't have to return the $1.5-million settlement her family won in court after suing the Long Beach Unified School District." [Source]

Now let's keep it real folks. If a white woman had falsely accused Brian Banks of raping her there would have been hell to pay. Yours truly would have been blogging about it for sure. The fact that he was taken down by a sister does not make this story any less tragic.

The sad thing about this story is that when women like Wanette Gibson lie about something as serious as rape, it makes it harder for the next victim who legitimately comes forward seem less believable.

The woman's family got 1.5 million to settle with the School District. It's a shame that Brian Banks couldn't have gotten some or all of that money.

*Pic courtesy of The Grio.