President Obama's Weekly Youtube Address

From Al Giordano over at The Field about the importance of this weeks Youtube Address:

Here's the money quote:

"I realize that passing this budget won't be easy. Because it represents real and dramatic change, it also represents a threat to the status quo in Washington. I know that the insurance industry won't like the idea that they'll have to bid competitively to continue offer ing Medicare coverage, but that's how we'll help preserve and protect Medicare and lower health care costs for American families. I know that banks and big student lenders won't like the idea that we're ending their huge taxpayer subsidies, but that's how we'll save taxpayers nearly $50 billion and make college more affordable. I know that oil and gas companies won't like us ending nearly $30 billion in tax breaks, but that's how we'll help fund a renewable energy economy that will create new jobs and new industries. I know these steps won't sit well with the special interests and lobbyists who are invested in the old way of doing business, and I know they're gearing up for a fight as we speak. My message to them is this:

"'So am I.'

"The system we have now might work for the powerful and well-connected interests that have run Washington for far too long, but I don’t. I work for the American people. I didn’t come here to do the same thing we’ve been doing or to take small steps forward, I came to provide the sweeping change that this country demanded when it went to the polls in November."

Okay, here's what I think just happened: The President has reframed the narrative from the stale dysfunction of Democrats demonizing Republicans and Republicans demonizing Democrats and stepped over that puddle of slime to create a more authentic narrative: The American people vs. the special interests (and note that the ones he mentions are universally from the corporate sector).

And let's keep in mind that the interests he mentions - "the insurance industry... the banks and big student lenders... the oil and gas companies..." - have their hooks and donations just as deeply into Congressional Democrats as they do for Congressional Republicans. They've all just been put on notice: oppose the reforms he's pushing and be portrayed as siding with those corporate interests against the American people.

This is is quite huge. It hasn't been done by a president since FDR. And the populist campaign rhetoric by Edwards, Clinton and even Obama in 2008 aside did not rise to this level of clarity by a longshot. Really, it hasn't been done this way by any Democratic presidential candidate since Oklahoma Senator Fred Harris ran in 1976.

This is the real "us against them" fight to be waged, far more important than the eternal and often childish skirmishes between Democrats and Republicans. He's just pulled the curtain to reveal those who are the real obstructionists behind the puppets. This is exactly to what I had referred to back on February 7 when I noted that bipartisanship is not all carrots, but is also a big stick to be wielded on Congressional Republicans and Democrats alike.

Tread carefully, oh members of Congress.

Love That Girl

Black History Month Daily Thread

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, activist and prominent leader in the African-American civil rights movement. His main legacy was to secure progress on civil rights in the United States and he is frequently referenced as a human rights icon today.

A Baptist minister,[1] King became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, serving as its first president.

King's efforts led to the 1963 March on Washington, where King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. There, he raised public consciousness of the civil rights movement and established himself as one of the greatest orators in U.S. history.

In 1964, King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end racial segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other non-violent means. By the time of his death in 1968, he had refocused his efforts on ending poverty and opposing the Vietnam War, both from a religious perspective.

King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and Congressional Gold Medal in 2004; Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was established as a U.S. national holiday in 1986.

Martin Luther King's Biography on the Nobel Site.

The King Center


Youtube:



Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam



I'm Sorry Sir, You Don't Know Me



A Time To Break Silence



I've Been To The Mountaintop, Part 1



I've Been To The Mountaintop, Part 2




Media:

The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. by Martin Luther King Jr. (Author), Clayborne Carson (Author)

A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. by Martin Luther King (Author), James M. Washington (Editor)

Martin Luther King Jr. - I Have a Dream (1986)-DVD

The Story of Martin Luther King Jr. [ILLUSTRATED] by Johnny Ray Moore (Author), Amy Wummer (Illustrator)

The Measure of a Man (Facets)by Martin Luther, Jr. King (Author)

King (History Channel) (2008)-DVD

Biography - Martin Luther King Jr.: The Man and the Dream (A&E DVD Archives)

King (1978)-DVD
Starring: Paul Winfield, Cicely Tyson

Boycott (2001)-DVD

Obama Speech About Withdrawing Troops From Iraq

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Official White House Portrait of First Lady Michelle Obama

Model Minorities Revisited

Here are two interesting articles on Indian Americans that I ran into recently. They illustrate the very old debate between those who would want to classify certain ethnic groups as the "model minority" and the burgeoning resistance by Asian-American communities in rejecting these ideologically-loaded ethnic stereotypes.

The author of the Forbes.com article, interestingly, is a fellow at the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute. If this is the type of stupid propaganda that the AEI is coming up with these days in their effort to indoctrinate Americans they are gonna have to do better as Deepa Iyer deftly demolishes Richwine's condescending, racist argument. Despite this note which perspective got the wider and more prominent distribution in Forbes Magazine.

Indian Americans: The New Model Minority by Jason Richwine
From Forbes.com

The superior educational attainment, academic culture and likely high IQ of Indian Americans has already made them an economic force in the U.S., and that strength can only grow. Does this continuing success imply they will become a political force? Here, Gov. Jindal is actually a rarity. Indians are still underrepresented in politics, and they do not specialize in the kinds of fields (law and finance) most conducive to political careers. Time will tell if they are able to convert economic power into serious political influence, as a Jindal presidency could.

A much clearer implication of Indian-American success is that immigrants need not be unskilled, nor must their economic integration take generations to achieve. In sharp contrast to Indian Americans, most U.S. immigrants, especially Mexican, are much less wealthy and educated than U.S. natives, even after many years in the country.

Model Minority? No, Thanks by Deepa Iyer
From RaceWire: The Colorlines Blog

In reality, Indian Americans, much like other immigrants, have diverse experiences and backgrounds. Indian Americans are doctors, engineers and lawyers, as well as small business owners, domestic workers, taxi drivers and convenience store employees. Community members hold a range of immigration statuses and include naturalized citizens and H-1B visa holders, guest workers and students, undocumented workers and green card holders. Some have access to higher education while others struggle to learn English in a new country. As with all communities, Indian Americans do not come in the same shape and form, and cannot be treated as a monolith.

Another danger with the model minority label is that it creates divisions between Indian Americans and other immigrant communities. Beneath the seemingly positive use of the “model minority” label is a pernicious racist undertone: the purpose, after all, is to compare one set of people with another, and the result is to pit people of color against one another.

Media Alert

The President is on the cover of new Black Enterprise Magazine.

The First Lady is on the cover of the new People Magazine.


And for those who wonder, the dress is Tracy Reese.

Black History Month Daily Thread

Marcus Garvey

Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr., National Hero of Jamaica (17 August 1887 – 10 June 1940), was a publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, Black nationalist, Pan-Africanist, and orator. Marcus Garvey was founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL).

Prior to the twentieth century, leaders such as Prince Hall, Martin Delany, Edward Wilmot Blyden, and Henry Highland Garnet advocated the involvement of the African diaspora in African affairs. Garvey was unique in advancing a Pan-African philosophy to inspire a global mass movement focusing on Africa known as Garveyism. Promoted by the UNIA as a movement of African Redemption, Garveyism would eventually inspire others, ranging from the Nation of Islam, to the Rastafari movement (which proclaims Garvey as a prophet). The intention of the movement was for those of African ancestry to "redeem" Africa and for the European colonial powers to leave it. The idea that African Americans should return to Africa was known as the Colonist Movement. His essential ideas about Africa were stated in an editorial in the Negro World entitled “African Fundamentalism” where he wrote:

“ Our union must know no clime, boundary, or nationality… let us hold together under all climes and in every country."

Youtube:




Media:
The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey, Or, Africa for the Africans by Marcus Garvey (Author), Amy Jacques Garvey (Author)

Selected Writings and Speeches of Marcus Garvey by Marcus Garvey (Author), Bob Blaisdell (Editor)

Negro with a Hat: The Rise and Fall of Marcus Garvey by Colin Grant

Message to the People: The Course of African Philosophy by Marcus Garvey

The American Experience - Marcus Garvey: Look for Me in the Whirlwind (2001)-DVD

The President's Speech: The Shock Doctrine Reversed

Al Giordano over at The Field had an interesting article about The President's speech. He brings up a point that was missed by plenty of the pundits.

About Last Night: The Shock Doctrine Reversed
Posted by Al Giordano - February 25, 2009 at 12:22 pm
By Al Giordano

After offering the soundbite heard ‘round the world - "We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before" - the President proceeded to make the case for three big domestic spending priorities: energy, health care, and education:

"The fact is, our economy did not fall into decline overnight. Nor did all of our problems begin when the housing market collapsed or the stock market sank. We have known for decades that our survival depends on finding new sources of energy. Yet we import more oil today than ever before. The cost of health care eats up more and more of our savings each year, yet we keep delaying reform. Our children will compete for jobs in a global economy that too many of our schools do not prepare them for. "

Those who liked to complain in recent weeks that the $787 billion dollar Stimulus Package was "not enough" behaved as if it were the only spending that would be proposed ever again from here to eternity. Yet we've already seen, just one day after the signing of the Stimulus, the rollout of $75 billion toward saving family homes during this housing crisis. And we'll look in a moment at what Obama, according to his speech last night, has on the docket for the immediate future.

First, it's important to note what is really going on here: The Obama-Axelrod-Emanuel war room has taken Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine - the observation that those in power use times of crisis to supplant the state with private sector capitalism - and turned it on its head. Instead, they're using the current economic crisis to bring back the New Deal (government stimulation of the economy and firmer regulation of the corporate sector) and the Great Society (domestic and social programs to create a safety net for American workers and the poor).

*********************************************



Regarding health care, the President boomed, "we can no longer afford to put health care reform on hold.":

"Already, we have done more to advance the cause of health care reform in the last thirty days than we have in the last decade. When it was days old, this Congress passed a law to provide and protect health insurance for eleven million American children whose parents work full-time. Our recovery plan will invest in electronic health records and new technology that will reduce errors, bring down costs, ensure privacy, and save lives. It will launch a new effort to conquer a disease that has touched the life of nearly every American by seeking a cure for cancer in our time. And it makes the largest investment ever in preventive care, because that is one of the best ways to keep our people healthy and our costs under control.

"This budget builds on these reforms. It includes an historic commitment to comprehensive health care reform - a down-payment on the principle that we must have quality, affordable health care for every American."

I didn't hear a single TV pundit last night or today pick up on what Obama is really up to here. It's in the bold type: "This budget builds on these reforms." He was talking about the budget he is about to propose. The next steps in creating national universal health care will come not in separate legislation which requires 60 out of 99 US Senate votes, but, rather, as part of the budget bill that, according to Congressional rules, needs simply a majority - 50 votes - to be passed and which cannot be subject to opposition filibuster.

That was exactly the point in the speech when Senate Republicans got those long unhappy looks on their faces. He had just ripped from them their only obstructionist power. They shifted nervously in their seats and scrunched their "holy crap" scowls. Skilled politicians all, they knew their goose had just been cooked. It was at that point in the speech that, after a couple of minutes of coming to grips with the new rules, they began to make a show of applause and standing ovations for the cameras. If you can't beat Obama, join him. It was a beautiful play to watch.

The rest of the article is HERE. Be sure to read the discussion in the comments section too. Interesting information there.

Another GOPer shows true colors

Hat tip: Prometheus 6

SEN. DAVE SCHULTHEIS, R-Colorado Springs, on Wednesday voted againt Senate Bill 179, which requires pregnant women to undergo HIV testing to ensure steps can be taken to reduce transferring the disease to the baby if the mother is infected.

* What he said during the debate: "This stems from sexual promiscuity for the most part and I just can't go there. We do things continually to remove the consequences of poor behavior, unacceptable behavior, quite frankly. I'm not convinced that part of the role of government should be to protect individuals from the negative consequences of their actions."

* What he said afterward: "What I'm hoping is that yes, that person may have AIDS, have it seriously as a baby and when they grow up, but the mother will begin to feel guilt as a result of that. The family will see the negative consequences of that promiscuity and it may make a number of people over the coming years ... begin to realize that there are negative consequences and maybe they should adjust their behavior. We can't keep people from being raped. We can't keep people from shooting each other. We can't keep people from jumping off bridges. People drink and drive, and they crash and kill people. Poor behavior has its consequences."

From the The Rocky Mountain News

There really are no words. This is disgusting.

Schooling the GOP - Barney Frank Style

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Barney Frank schools GOP Rep. Issa on the Budget

Senate Votes to Give DC Citizens Vote in Congress

From HuffingtonPost.com:

Senate Votes To Give DC Citizens Vote in Congress
JIM ABRAMS | February 26, 2009 07:39 PM EST |

WASHINGTON(AP _ The right to a vote in Congress denied the District of Columbia when it became the nation's capital two centuries ago would be granted under legislation the Senate passed Thursday.

Congress is "moving to right a centuries-old wrong," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid shortly before the 61-37 vote.

The House is expected to pass the measure with a strong majority next week and President Barack Obama, a co-sponsor when the bill failed to clear the Senate two years ago, has promised to sign it.

The measure is likely to face a court challenge immediately after becoming law; opponents argue that it is unconstitutional because D.C. is not a state and does not qualify for representation.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, who sponsored the bill with Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, expressed confidence that they could win the legal argument and noted that the bill contained an expedited appeals process to ensure a quick court decision.

The real issue, he said, is that the disenfranchisement of 600,000 residents of the nation's capital "is patently unjust and un-American in a sense of the best principles of this country."

"This is a historic moment," said Ilir Zherka, head of the advocacy group DC Vote. "In 2007 we were gaining tremendous momentum," he said. "The huge difference this year is that we have an advocate in the White House."

Rest of article at link above.

Could it be?

Taxation with sort-of representation for DC?

Rates of Incarceration Graphs

This decade has seen a noticeable increase in incarcerated whites, yet blacks still lead in this depressing statistic.



In another context, the race isn't even close. Per 100,000 blacks, more than 3000 are incarcerated, six times the rate for whites.



One obvious solution might be to move out of Louisiana to lessen your chance of going to jail.

Black History Month Daily Thread

Three women who sacrificed their families for ' The Movement' : Coretta Scott King, Betty Shabazz, Myrlie Evers Williams

Only picture of the three -hat tip, JJP reader





Coretta Scott King

Coretta Scott King (April 27, 1927 – January 30, 2006) was an American author and activist, and widow of Martin Luther King, Jr. Alongside her husband, Coretta Scott King helped lead the African-American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. Scott King's most prominent role may have been in the years after her husband's 1968 assassination; following Dr. King's death, Mrs. King was responsible for finding a new leader of the civil rights movement.

The King Center:Coretta Scott King

Betty Shabazz

Dr. Betty Shabazz (born Betty Jean Saunders) (May 28, 1936 – June 23, 1997), also known as Betty X, was the wife of Malcolm X.

After high school, Shabazz left the comfortable home of her foster parents in Detroit to study at the Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University), a well-known historically black college in Alabama. It was in Alabama that she encountered her first racial hostilities. She did not understand the causes for the racial issues, and her parents refused to acknowledge these issues. She mentioned this in an autobiographical essay she wrote in 1992, published in Essence Magazine: "They thought [the problems] were my fault."'

Shabazz moved to New York City to escape Southern racism, and enrolled as a nursing student at the Brooklyn State Hospital School of Nursing. While in New York, Shabazz's friend invited her to hear Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X from the Nation of Islam speak at an Islamic temple (Temple No. 7 in Harlem). According to the Essence essay, Shabazz's friend offered to introduce her to Malcolm X after his speech. Betty's initial reaction was "big deal". She continues: "But then, I looked over and saw this man on the extreme right aisle sort of galloping to the podium. He was tall, he was thin, and the way he was galloping it looked as though he was going someplace much more important than the podium... Well, he got to the podium and I sat up straight. I was impressed with him." They discussed the racism she encountered in Alabama, and she began to understand its causes, pervasiveness, and effects. Soon, Betty was attending all of Malcolm's lectures. By the time she graduated from nursing school in 1958, she was a member of the Nation of Islam. Muhammad bestowed of his followers the last name "X", representing the African family name they would never know. She changed her name to "Betty X" a result of her Nation of Islam influence.

When Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965, the couple had four daughters. Shabazz was pregnant with twins at the time of his assassination. She was a registered nurse, having earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the Brooklyn State Hospital School of Nursing in 1958. She continued her education by enrolling in Jersey City State College. Shabazz was determined to provide for her family and serve as a role model for her children. She received a Bachelor of Arts in public health education from Jersey City State College. She returned to pursue her Master of Arts in public health education from Jersey City State College in 1970. In 1975, she received her Ph.D. in education administration at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Betty Shabazz raised her six daughters, Attallah, Qubilah, Ilyasah, Gamilah, and twins Malikah and Malaak, in the Islamic faith.

Myrlie Evers Williams

Myrlie Evers-Williams (born March 17, 1933, nee Myrlie Beasley in Vicksburg, Mississippi) is an American activist. She was the first full-time chairman of the NAACP and is the former widow of murdered civil rights leader Medgar Evers. She met him when they were students at Alcorn A&M College in 1950. They married on December 24, 1951 and she left school before finishing her degree.

They moved to Mound Bayou where her husband sold insurance for Dr. T.R.M. Howard, a civil rights activist. She worked for Howard as a typist until the couple moved to Jackson in 1954.

She and Evers had three children before his murder. In 2001, their oldest son, Darrell Kenyatta Evers, died of colon cancer.[1] Their two surviving children are Reena Denise and James Van.

Evers-Williams went back to school after Evers' death and graduated from Pomona College, in 1968, with a degree in sociology. She served as director of consumer affairs for Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO), where she developed the concept for the first corporate booklet on women in non-traditional jobs. This booklet, Women at ARCO, was in great demand throughout many printings and revisions.

She twice ran for congress from California's 24th district. Both times (in a June 1970 special election and the general election later that November) she lost to Republican John Rousselot. In 1971 she helped found the National Women's Political Caucus.

In 1975, Evers-Williams married her second husband, Walter Williams. He died in 1995 of prostate cancer.

In 1987, Evers-Williams was the first African-American woman appointed to serve as commissioner on the Los Angeles Board of Public Works. Evers-Williams was chairman of the NAACP from 1995 to 1998. She is credited with spearheading the operations that restored the association to its original status as the premier civil rights organization in America. She is the author of For Us, the Living (1967) and Watch Me Fly: What I Learned On the Way to Becoming the Woman I Was Meant to Be (1999). In the best seller, I Dream A World: Black Women Who Changed America, Evers-Williams states that she "greets today and the future with open arms."





Media:

Coretta Scott by Ntozake Shange (Author), Kadir Nelson (Illustrator)

Coretta: The Story of Coretta Scott King by Octavia Vivian

Dare to Dream: Coretta Scott King and the Civil Rights Movement by Angela Shelf Medearis (Author), Anna Rich (Illustrator)

Coretta Scott King: First Lady of Civil Rights (Childhood of Famous Americans) by George E. Stanley and Meryl Henderson

Coretta Scott King (Journey to Freedom) by Cynthia Fitterer Klingel

King (1978)-DVD
Starring: Paul Winfield, Cicely Tyson

Boycott (2001)-DVD

Betty Shabazz, Surviving Malcolm X by Russell Rickford

Growing Up X by Ilyasah Shabazz

Betty Shabazz: Sharing the Vision of Malcolm X by Laura S. Jeffrey

Betty Shabazz: A Sisterfriends Tribute in Words and Pictures by Jamie Foster Brown

Malcolm X (Two-Disc Special Edition) (1992) - DVD

For Us, the Living by Myrlie Evers (Author), William Peters (Author), Willie Morris (Introduction)

Charlie Rose with Rob Reiner; Myrlie Evers- Williams & Bobby DeLaughter - DVD

Ghosts of Mississippi (1996) - DVD

Media Alert: Stevie Wonder Honored at The White House

Announcement from The White House:

Coverage Details about "Stevie Wonder In Performance at the White House: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize"

The 60-minute program, to be taped by WETA Washington, DC, will air Thursday, February 26, 2009, at 8:00PM ET on PBS stations nationwide. The concert will include performances by Wonder himself and Tony Bennett, Diana Krall, Martina McBride, Esperanza Spalding, Will.i.am, and the gospel duo Mary Mary, among others. President Obama will confer the Gershwin Prize upon Wonder during the event.

Media Alert- NEWBOS: The Rise of America's New Black Overclass

Video Link

CNBC's "NEWBOs: The Rise of the New Black Overclass" Will Premiere Thursday, February 26th at 9PM & 1AM ET on CNBC

CNBC's "NEWBOs: The Rise of America's New Black Overclass," is an original one-hour primetime documentary about the growing wave of young black multimillionaires coming out of the sports, media and entertainment industries. This project examines the rise of "Newbos," -- young black athletes, entertainers, and creative entrepreneurs –

who, with the right amount of financial literacy, collaboration, intergenerational mentorship and social awareness, could have a profound, positive impact on black America. The special, hosted by Wall Street Journal reporter and CNBC correspondent Lee Hawkins, who coined the term "Newbo," is based on Hawkins' forthcoming book of the same title.



Newbos captures the pressures and prominence of the fascinating Newbo class and includes data about the wealth and financial impact of black athletes and entrepreneurial black music moguls in America.Contradicting old-guard leaders who assert that Newbos offer little to the black community as a whole, Hawkins puts the spotlight on the entrepreneurial, social and charitable efforts of several Newbos and their contagious financial power. The documentary offers behind-the-marquee stories on several high-profile Newbos, including NBA superstar LeBron James, Major League All-Star Torii Hunter, The Williams brothers of Cash Money Records, Dallas Cowboy star Terrell Owens, billionaire entrepreneur and Newbo pioneer Bob Johnson and musician, Multiplatinum gospel star Kirk Franklin, and television network owner Wyclef Jean.

There are more black multimillionaires and potential billionaires in the United States than ever before, and a startling new black overclass has emerged out of these three industries, generating billions of dollars of income per year. While there is no shortage of coverage of the unfortunate realities of black America-such as crime, incarceration rates, and wealth disparities-this is the first analysis of the growing number of self-made young black multimillionaires and the impact fast-wealth has on them and others that surround them.

Newbos exposes and chronicles the experiences and insights of these men and women as they move from relative poverty to fantastic wealth at a very young age. Hawkins examines how the Newbos' unconventional paths to success have become blueprints for broader independence and entrepreneurship, and how this segment of black society has a disproportionately heavy influence over millions of people.

In a post-Obama victory era that has widened the range of role models for African-American youth, Hawkins turns the spotlight on some of the nation's highest profile athletes and entertainers and asks them poignant questions they are rarely asked. How exactly have they built their brands and their businesses? Does their fame and status insulate them from the problems of the broader black community? Do they feel they have a responsibility to the rest of black America? How important are social awareness and charitable involvement? What do they think about Barack Obama? Will they rise to the challenges and opportunities that accompany their wealth and fame or will they squander their clout in frivolity?

Site for program is HERE.

Media Alert: Roland Martin to fill in for Campbell Brown

CNN/U.S. made the following announcement today:

"In early April, Campbell Brown will take maternity leave for about 8 weeks and Roland S. Martin will fill in for her during that time.

"Roland is a solid journalist and a terrific communicator. He's been a regular part of the No Bias, No Bull family and our audience knows him well. He has also served as a contributor/analyst for CNN, and in fact, he's been transparent about whom he has supported for president, whether it was George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush or Barack Obama.

"We look forward to Roland's smart, energetic and spirited reporting in this role, and in the future on CNN. Following his stint filling in for Campbell, CNN plans to develop a weekend program with Roland."

Bobby Jindal Wants the Nation to Be Like Louisiana:

So says Rude Pundit.

2/25/2009
Bobby Jindal Wants the Nation to Be Like Louisiana:

Last night, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal looked for all the world like the winner of the "Most Likely To Be Quickly Raped in Prison" award. That poor bastard would be some neo-Nazi's punk within an hour, and he'd be glad for the protection that accompanies all the sodomizing. What we witnessed was the end of Jindal's presidential ambitions and thus the end of the future of the Republican party. For while Barack Obama was busy at the Capital dancing on Ronald Reagan's grave, Jindal was desperately trying to hand job the Gipper's corpse to life. But those bones are dead, man, so very dead.

Seriously, if you're the governor of a state that has an income tax, a lottery, and a tax on food and clothes and your state is still at or near the bottom on nearly every way in which states are measured (except in those things where being at or near the top sucks balls, like "Most Polluted"), in child health care, overall health of its citizens, education, pollution, and more, you probably ought to realize that you've fucked up and need the federal government. Desperately.

Not only was Jindal seemingly talking about some fantasy speech that the GOP expected Obama to give - at times, Jindal criticized things that Obama had directly addressed, like openness in government, personal responsibility in education, etc.- but he was giving a response that could have been lifted from Peggy Noonan's crate of unused words (it's right next to her shrine to Reagan's diapers). Speaking about government needing to get out of the way of "the American people," Jindal was at his most out-of-touch. You just wanted to stare at his dead, doll-like eyes and say, "Um, who the fuck is gonna get us out of this if it ain't the government? And didn't we kinda try your way for the last 30 years? And didn't it end up fucking us over completely and totally like we were sad old gay man thinking that the hot young dude that just fucked us meant it when he said he just needed to borrow some money for a little while?"

Jindal's analysis of the meaning of Hurricane Katrina seems to be at odds with the fact that Republicans were running the country - the Presidency and the Congress - at the time. Crassly using that tragedy like Bush used 9/11, Jindal squeaked, "We're grateful for the support we've received from across the nation for our ongoing recovery efforts. This spirit got Louisiana through the hurricanes, and this spirit will get our nation through the storms we face today." Where the fuck does Jindal think all that money came from? And, sorry, wasn't it the lack of the federal government's agencies being funded properly that didn't allow them to their jobs, thus leading to the catastrophe? It's almost mind-boggling.

Of course, the most idiotic line of Jindal's speech was his pointing with pride to cutting taxes in Louisiana: "Since I became governor, we cut more than 250 earmarks from our state budget. To create jobs for our citizens, we cut taxes six times, including the largest income tax cut in the history of our state. We passed those tax cuts with bipartisan majorities." One wonders that if all that money wasn't cut, Louisiana might have risen to the mid-40s in state rankings.

While Barack Obama once again elucidated liberal ideas in a way that made them sound new and achievable, while he undercut arguments against his agenda in an incisive way that should have Republicans shitting themselves, Jindal simply said that the future is the past. "Americans can do anything" was the line he returned to, the title of his wee little speech.

He's right. The fact of the matter is that we did something already, back in November. Now we wanna see where it leads. Luckily, Jindal is such a small man in so many ways that he'll be easy to roll right over.


// posted by Rude One @ 11:54 AM

Black History Month Daily Thread

Vivien Theodore Thomas (August 29, 1910 – November 26, 1985) was an African-American surgical technician and operative surgeon who helped develop the procedures used to treat blue baby syndrome in the 1940s. He was an assistant to Alfred Blalock at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee and later at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. Without any education past high school, Thomas rose above poverty and racism to become a cardiac surgery pioneer and a teacher to many of the country's most prominent surgeons.

From the very beginning Thomas showed an extraordinary aptitude for surgery and precise experimentation, and Blalock granted him wider and wider latitude in the execution of the protocols. Tutored in anatomy and physiology by Blalock and his young research fellow, Dr. Joseph Beard, Thomas rapidly mastered complex surgical techniques and research methodology. He and Blalock developed great respect for one another, forging such a close working relationship that they came to operate almost as a single mind. Outside the lab environment, however, they maintained the social distance dictated by the mores of the times. In an era when institutional racism was the norm, Thomas was classified, and paid, as a janitor, despite the fact that by the mid 1930s he was doing the work of a postdoctoral researcher in Blalock's lab.

Together he and Blalock did groundbreaking research into the causes of hemorrhagic and traumatic shock. This work later evolved into research on Crush syndrome and saved the lives of thousands of soldiers on the battlefields of World War II. In hundreds of flawlessly executed experiments, the two disproved traditional theories which held that shock was caused by toxins in the blood. Blalock, a highly original scientific thinker and something of an iconoclast, had theorized that shock resulted from fluid loss outside the vascular bed and that the condition could be effectively treated by fluid replacement. Assisted by Thomas, he was able to provide incontrovertible proof of this theory, and in so doing, he gained wide recognition in the medical community by the mid 1930s. At this same time, Blalock and Thomas began experimental work in vascular and cardiac surgery, defying medical taboos against operating upon the heart. It was this work that laid the foundation for the revolutionary lifesaving surgery they were to perform at Johns Hopkins a decade later.

Medical Archives: Vivien Thomes

Media:

Something the Lord Made (2004) - DVD
Starring: Alan Rickman, Mos Def Director: Joseph Sargent

Heart Man: Vivien Thomas, African-American Heart Surgery Pioneer by Edwin Brit Wyckoff

Partners of the Heart: Vivien Thomas and His Work with Alfred Blalock: An Autobiography by Vivien T. Thomas

American Experience - Partners Of The Heart (2003) -VHS
Starring: Morgan Freeman, Dr. Levi Watkins Director: Andrea Kalin, Bill Duke

Jindal lays a big egg (and may have lied while doing it)

The best thing about President George W. Bush was that he was a pure red-blooded Republican. He is a conservative's conservative. He allowed the American people the opportunity to see what the Republican Party truly believed. He was Reagan on steroids. The problem wasn't just big government. It was government.

This brings me to the new darling of the Republican Party Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal. Jindal has an impressive personal story. He went to college at Brown University and was accepted to Harvard medical school but instead went to Yale for law school. He then got a Masters degree in political science. In 1996 he was appointed Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals. From then through 2003 he was appointed to multiple different agencies at a state and national level. He lost a bid for governor in 2003. In 2004 he ran for Congress from Louisiana's first Congressional District. He won this election overwhelmingly. He ran for governor in 2007, again, and won. This brings us to the present.

The reason I mentioned President George W. Bush (in the first paragraph) was that Bobby Jindal's response (full text) was the typical conservative Republican response. He offered no new ideas (as I expected). He served up a smorgasbord of tax cuts, suggesting we "... create jobs by lowering income taxes for working families... cutting taxes for small businesses... strengthening incentives (tax credits) for businesses to invest in new equipment and hire new workers... and stabilizing homeowners by creating a new tax credit for homebuyers." Wasn't this the exact plan that George W. Bush proposed and passed in 2001 or was that his 2003 tax cut plan? This is more of the same.

The Republican hatred of government was on full display. The governor told us a story about Hurricane Katrina, the moral of which was that we don't need government to help us with anything. (This is kind of surprising since the governor's mother used to work for the government.) That was a lesson that he and other Republicans learned from Hurricane Katrina. They learned the government just can't function. I may be wrong but if you're running an agency in which disaster management expertise is called for from an agency and it is headed by a guy that has no experience in that field, it would seem to me that the agency may not function as well as it should. President Clinton and FEMA evacuated over a million people from Florida ahead of Hurricane Floyd. Now no one is comparing Hurricane Floyd to Hurricane Katrina. What I am saying is that the government can work if you put competent people in charge.

Watch the Republican response.

Finally, I was surprised at how poor the governor's presentation was. His gestures were wooden and his speech was halting. He never seemed to flow. I can get over the mechanical gestures if he only had something of substance to add to the discussion. Not one new idea. Not one new theme. Not even a direction where we can find an idea. He is simply the latest new, young face that the GOP has thrown in front of the American people.

Update: Could Governor Bobby Jindal have been mistaken about his touching story about the Louisiana Sheriff during Katrina? Did the Governor lie? Could it be that he wasn't in New Orleans until days after the Hurricane had passed? It sure seems like his story is very similar to President of Jefferson Parish Aaron Broussard's story that he told on Meet the Press. Then again, I might be mistaken. I'm sure that a Governor wouldn't go on national TV and make up facts. No way.

Update 2: America loved Obama's speech!!

The Announcement of the Night

Madam Speaker, the President of the United States.

Video Here

I tried copying the embed code, but it won't work for me.

The Republican Response to The President by Gov. Jindal

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Rude Pundit Asks: What fucking speech is Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal responding to? Because what he's saying has fuck-all to do with what Obama just said

LOL

The President's State of the Nation Address

From The White House Website:

Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 9:01 pm
Remarks of President Barack Obama -- Address to Joint Session of Congress
Remarks of President Barack Obama – As Prepared for Delivery
Address to Joint Session of Congress
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009

Madame Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, and the First Lady of the United States:

I’ve come here tonight not only to address the distinguished men and women in this great chamber, but to speak frankly and directly to the men and women who sent us here.

I know that for many Americans watching right now, the state of our economy is a concern that rises above all others. And rightly so. If you haven’t been personally affected by this recession, you probably know someone who has – a friend; a neighbor; a member of your family. You don’t need to hear another list of statistics to know that our economy is in crisis, because you live it every day. It’s the worry you wake up with and the source of sleepless nights. It’s the job you thought you’d retire from but now have lost; the business you built your dreams upon that’s now hanging by a thread; the college acceptance letter your child had to put back in the envelope. The impact of this recession is real, and it is everywhere.

But while our economy may be weakened and our confidence shaken; though we are living through difficult and uncertain times, tonight I want every American to know this:

We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before.

The weight of this crisis will not determine the destiny of this nation. The answers to our problems don’t lie beyond our reach. They exist in our laboratories and universities; in our fields and our factories; in the imaginations of our entrepreneurs and the pride of the hardest-working people on Earth. Those qualities that have made America the greatest force of progress and prosperity in human history we still possess in ample measure. What is required now is for this country to pull together, confront boldly the challenges we face, and take responsibility for our future once more.



Now, if we’re honest with ourselves, we’ll admit that for too long, we have not always met these responsibilities – as a government or as a people. I say this not to lay blame or look backwards, but because it is only by understanding how we arrived at this moment that we’ll be able to lift ourselves out of this predicament.

The fact is, our economy did not fall into decline overnight. Nor did all of our problems begin when the housing market collapsed or the stock market sank. We have known for decades that our survival depends on finding new sources of energy. Yet we import more oil today than ever before. The cost of health care eats up more and more of our savings each year, yet we keep delaying reform. Our children will compete for jobs in a global economy that too many of our schools do not prepare them for. And though all these challenges went unsolved, we still managed to spend more money and pile up more debt, both as individuals and through our government, than ever before.

In other words, we have lived through an era where too often, short-term gains were prized over long-term prosperity; where we failed to look beyond the next payment, the next quarter, or the next election. A surplus became an excuse to transfer wealth to the wealthy instead of an opportunity to invest in our future. Regulations were gutted for the sake of a quick profit at the expense of a healthy market. People bought homes they knew they couldn’t afford from banks and lenders who pushed those bad loans anyway. And all the while, critical debates and difficult decisions were put off for some other time on some other day.

Well that day of reckoning has arrived, and the time to take charge of our future is here.

Now is the time to act boldly and wisely – to not only revive this economy, but to build a new foundation for lasting prosperity. Now is the time to jumpstart job creation, re-start lending, and invest in areas like energy, health care, and education that will grow our economy, even as we make hard choices to bring our deficit down. That is what my economic agenda is designed to do, and that’s what I’d like to talk to you about tonight.

It’s an agenda that begins with jobs.

As soon as I took office, I asked this Congress to send me a recovery plan by President’s Day that would put people back to work and put money in their pockets. Not because I believe in bigger government – I don’t. Not because I’m not mindful of the massive debt we’ve inherited – I am. I called for action because the failure to do so would have cost more jobs and caused more hardships. In fact, a failure to act would have worsened our long-term deficit by assuring weak economic growth for years. That’s why I pushed for quick action. And tonight, I am grateful that this Congress delivered, and pleased to say that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is now law.

Over the next two years, this plan will save or create 3.5 million jobs. More than 90% of these jobs will be in the private sector – jobs rebuilding our roads and bridges; constructing wind turbines and solar panels; laying broadband and expanding mass transit.

Because of this plan, there are teachers who can now keep their jobs and educate our kids. Health care professionals can continue caring for our sick. There are 57 police officers who are still on the streets of Minneapolis tonight because this plan prevented the layoffs their department was about to make.

Because of this plan, 95% of the working households in America will receive a tax cut – a tax cut that you will see in your paychecks beginning on April 1st.

Because of this plan, families who are struggling to pay tuition costs will receive a $2,500 tax credit for all four years of college. And Americans who have lost their jobs in this recession will be able to receive extended unemployment benefits and continued health care coverage to help them weather this storm.

I know there are some in this chamber and watching at home who are skeptical of whether this plan will work. I understand that skepticism. Here in Washington, we’ve all seen how quickly good intentions can turn into broken promises and wasteful spending. And with a plan of this scale comes enormous responsibility to get it right.

That is why I have asked Vice President Biden to lead a tough, unprecedented oversight effort – because nobody messes with Joe. I have told each member of my Cabinet as well as mayors and governors across the country that they will be held accountable by me and the American people for every dollar they spend. I have appointed a proven and aggressive Inspector General to ferret out any and all cases of waste and fraud. And we have created a new website called recovery.gov so that every American can find out how and where their money is being spent.

So the recovery plan we passed is the first step in getting our economy back on track. But it is just the first step. Because even if we manage this plan flawlessly, there will be no real recovery unless we clean up the credit crisis that has severely weakened our financial system.

I want to speak plainly and candidly about this issue tonight, because every American should know that it directly affects you and your family’s well-being. You should also know that the money you’ve deposited in banks across the country is safe; your insurance is secure; and you can rely on the continued operation of our financial system. That is not the source of concern.

The concern is that if we do not re-start lending in this country, our recovery will be choked off before it even begins.

You see, the flow of credit is the lifeblood of our economy. The ability to get a loan is how you finance the purchase of everything from a home to a car to a college education; how stores stock their shelves, farms buy equipment, and businesses make payroll.

But credit has stopped flowing the way it should. Too many bad loans from the housing crisis have made their way onto the books of too many banks. With so much debt and so little confidence, these banks are now fearful of lending out any more money to households, to businesses, or to each other. When there is no lending, families can’t afford to buy homes or cars. So businesses are forced to make layoffs. Our economy suffers even more, and credit dries up even further.

That is why this administration is moving swiftly and aggressively to break this destructive cycle, restore confidence, and re-start lending.

We will do so in several ways. First, we are creating a new lending fund that represents the largest effort ever to help provide auto loans, college loans, and small business loans to the consumers and entrepreneurs who keep this economy running.

Second, we have launched a housing plan that will help responsible families facing the threat of foreclosure lower their monthly payments and re-finance their mortgages. It’s a plan that won’t help speculators or that neighbor down the street who bought a house he could never hope to afford, but it will help millions of Americans who are struggling with declining home values – Americans who will now be able to take advantage of the lower interest rates that this plan has already helped bring about. In fact, the average family who re-finances today can save nearly $2000 per year on their mortgage.

Third, we will act with the full force of the federal government to ensure that the major banks that Americans depend on have enough confidence and enough money to lend even in more difficult times. And when we learn that a major bank has serious problems, we will hold accountable those responsible, force the necessary adjustments, provide the support to clean up their balance sheets, and assure the continuity of a strong, viable institution that can serve our people and our economy.

I understand that on any given day, Wall Street may be more comforted by an approach that gives banks bailouts with no strings attached, and that holds nobody accountable for their reckless decisions. But such an approach won’t solve the problem. And our goal is to quicken the day when we re-start lending to the American people and American business and end this crisis once and for all.

I intend to hold these banks fully accountable for the assistance they receive, and this time, they will have to clearly demonstrate how taxpayer dollars result in more lending for the American taxpayer. This time, CEOs won’t be able to use taxpayer money to pad their paychecks or buy fancy drapes or disappear on a private jet. Those days are over.

Still, this plan will require significant resources from the federal government – and yes, probably more than we’ve already set aside. But while the cost of action will be great, I can assure you that the cost of inaction will be far greater, for it could result in an economy that sputters along for not months or years, but perhaps a decade. That would be worse for our deficit, worse for business, worse for you, and worse for the next generation. And I refuse to let that happen.

I understand that when the last administration asked this Congress to provide assistance for struggling banks, Democrats and Republicans alike were infuriated by the mismanagement and results that followed. So were the American taxpayers. So was I.

So I know how unpopular it is to be seen as helping banks right now, especially when everyone is suffering in part from their bad decisions. I promise you – I get it.

But I also know that in a time of crisis, we cannot afford to govern out of anger, or yield to the politics of the moment. My job – our job – is to solve the problem. Our job is to govern with a sense of responsibility. I will not spend a single penny for the purpose of rewarding a single Wall Street executive, but I will do whatever it takes to help the small business that can’t pay its workers or the family that has saved and still can’t get a mortgage.

That’s what this is about. It’s not about helping banks – it’s about helping people. Because when credit is available again, that young family can finally buy a new home. And then some company will hire workers to build it. And then those workers will have money to spend, and if they can get a loan too, maybe they’ll finally buy that car, or open their own business. Investors will return to the market, and American families will see their retirement secured once more. Slowly, but surely, confidence will return, and our economy will recover.

So I ask this Congress to join me in doing whatever proves necessary. Because we cannot consign our nation to an open-ended recession. And to ensure that a crisis of this magnitude never happens again, I ask Congress to move quickly on legislation that will finally reform our outdated regulatory system. It is time to put in place tough, new common-sense rules of the road so that our financial market rewards drive and innovation, and punishes short-cuts and abuse.

The recovery plan and the financial stability plan are the immediate steps we’re taking to revive our economy in the short-term. But the only way to fully restore America’s economic strength is to make the long-term investments that will lead to new jobs, new industries, and a renewed ability to compete with the rest of the world. The only way this century will be another American century is if we confront at last the price of our dependence on oil and the high cost of health care; the schools that aren’t preparing our children and the mountain of debt they stand to inherit. That is our responsibility.

In the next few days, I will submit a budget to Congress. So often, we have come to view these documents as simply numbers on a page or laundry lists of programs. I see this document differently. I see it as a vision for America – as a blueprint for our future.

My budget does not attempt to solve every problem or address every issue. It reflects the stark reality of what we’ve inherited – a trillion dollar deficit, a financial crisis, and a costly recession.

Given these realities, everyone in this chamber – Democrats and Republicans – will have to sacrifice some worthy priorities for which there are no dollars. And that includes me.

But that does not mean we can afford to ignore our long-term challenges. I reject the view that says our problems will simply take care of themselves; that says government has no role in laying the foundation for our common prosperity.

For history tells a different story. History reminds us that at every moment of economic upheaval and transformation, this nation has responded with bold action and big ideas. In the midst of civil war, we laid railroad tracks from one coast to another that spurred commerce and industry. From the turmoil of the Industrial Revolution came a system of public high schools that prepared our citizens for a new age. In the wake of war and depression, the GI Bill sent a generation to college and created the largest middle-class in history. And a twilight struggle for freedom led to a nation of highways, an American on the moon, and an explosion of technology that still shapes our world.

In each case, government didn’t supplant private enterprise; it catalyzed private enterprise. It created the conditions for thousands of entrepreneurs and new businesses to adapt and to thrive.

We are a nation that has seen promise amid peril, and claimed opportunity from ordeal. Now we must be that nation again. That is why, even as it cuts back on the programs we don’t need, the budget I submit will invest in the three areas that are absolutely critical to our economic future: energy, health care, and education.

It begins with energy.

We know the country that harnesses the power of clean, renewable energy will lead the 21st century. And yet, it is China that has launched the largest effort in history to make their economy energy efficient. We invented solar technology, but we’ve fallen behind countries like Germany and Japan in producing it. New plug-in hybrids roll off our assembly lines, but they will run on batteries made in Korea.

Well I do not accept a future where the jobs and industries of tomorrow take root beyond our borders – and I know you don’t either. It is time for America to lead again.

Thanks to our recovery plan, we will double this nation’s supply of renewable energy in the next three years. We have also made the largest investment in basic research funding in American history – an investment that will spur not only new discoveries in energy, but breakthroughs in medicine, science, and technology.

We will soon lay down thousands of miles of power lines that can carry new energy to cities and towns across this country. And we will put Americans to work making our homes and buildings more efficient so that we can save billions of dollars on our energy bills.

But to truly transform our economy, protect our security, and save our planet from the ravages of climate change, we need to ultimately make clean, renewable energy the profitable kind of energy. So I ask this Congress to send me legislation that places a market-based cap on carbon pollution and drives the production of more renewable energy in America. And to support that innovation, we will invest fifteen billion dollars a year to develop technologies like wind power and solar power; advanced biofuels, clean coal, and more fuel-efficient cars and trucks built right here in America.

As for our auto industry, everyone recognizes that years of bad decision-making and a global recession have pushed our automakers to the brink. We should not, and will not, protect them from their own bad practices. But we are committed to the goal of a re-tooled, re-imagined auto industry that can compete and win. Millions of jobs depend on it. Scores of communities depend on it. And I believe the nation that invented the automobile cannot walk away from it.

None of this will come without cost, nor will it be easy. But this is America. We don’t do what’s easy. We do what is necessary to move this country forward.

For that same reason, we must also address the crushing cost of health care.

This is a cost that now causes a bankruptcy in America every thirty seconds. By the end of the year, it could cause 1.5 million Americans to lose their homes. In the last eight years, premiums have grown four times faster than wages. And in each of these years, one million more Americans have lost their health insurance. It is one of the major reasons why small businesses close their doors and corporations ship jobs overseas. And it’s one of the largest and fastest-growing parts of our budget.

Given these facts, we can no longer afford to put health care reform on hold.

Already, we have done more to advance the cause of health care reform in the last thirty days than we have in the last decade. When it was days old, this Congress passed a law to provide and protect health insurance for eleven million American children whose parents work full-time. Our recovery plan will invest in electronic health records and new technology that will reduce errors, bring down costs, ensure privacy, and save lives. It will launch a new effort to conquer a disease that has touched the life of nearly every American by seeking a cure for cancer in our time. And it makes the largest investment ever in preventive care, because that is one of the best ways to keep our people healthy and our costs under control.

This budget builds on these reforms. It includes an historic commitment to comprehensive health care reform – a down-payment on the principle that we must have quality, affordable health care for every American. It’s a commitment that’s paid for in part by efficiencies in our system that are long overdue. And it’s a step we must take if we hope to bring down our deficit in the years to come.

Now, there will be many different opinions and ideas about how to achieve reform, and that is why I’m bringing together businesses and workers, doctors and health care providers, Democrats and Republicans to begin work on this issue next week.

I suffer no illusions that this will be an easy process. It will be hard. But I also know that nearly a century after Teddy Roosevelt first called for reform, the cost of our health care has weighed down our economy and the conscience of our nation long enough. So let there be no doubt: health care reform cannot wait, it must not wait, and it will not wait another year.

The third challenge we must address is the urgent need to expand the promise of education in America.

In a global economy where the most valuable skill you can sell is your knowledge, a good education is no longer just a pathway to opportunity – it is a pre-requisite.

Right now, three-quarters of the fastest-growing occupations require more than a high school diploma. And yet, just over half of our citizens have that level of education. We have one of the highest high school dropout rates of any industrialized nation. And half of the students who begin college never finish.

This is a prescription for economic decline, because we know the countries that out-teach us today will out-compete us tomorrow. That is why it will be the goal of this administration to ensure that every child has access to a complete and competitive education – from the day they are born to the day they begin a career.

Already, we have made an historic investment in education through the economic recovery plan. We have dramatically expanded early childhood education and will continue to improve its quality, because we know that the most formative learning comes in those first years of life. We have made college affordable for nearly seven million more students. And we have provided the resources necessary to prevent painful cuts and teacher layoffs that would set back our children’s progress.

But we know that our schools don’t just need more resources. They need more reform. That is why this budget creates new incentives for teacher performance; pathways for advancement, and rewards for success. We’ll invest in innovative programs that are already helping schools meet high standards and close achievement gaps. And we will expand our commitment to charter schools.

It is our responsibility as lawmakers and educators to make this system work. But it is the responsibility of every citizen to participate in it. And so tonight, I ask every American to commit to at least one year or more of higher education or career training. This can be community college or a four-year school; vocational training or an apprenticeship. But whatever the training may be, every American will need to get more than a high school diploma. And dropping out of high school is no longer an option. It’s not just quitting on yourself, it’s quitting on your country – and this country needs and values the talents of every American. That is why we will provide the support necessary for you to complete college and meet a new goal: by 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world.

I know that the price of tuition is higher than ever, which is why if you are willing to volunteer in your neighborhood or give back to your community or serve your country, we will make sure that you can afford a higher education. And to encourage a renewed spirit of national service for this and future generations, I ask this Congress to send me the bipartisan legislation that bears the name of Senator Orrin Hatch as well as an American who has never stopped asking what he can do for his country – Senator Edward Kennedy.

These education policies will open the doors of opportunity for our children. But it is up to us to ensure they walk through them. In the end, there is no program or policy that can substitute for a mother or father who will attend those parent/teacher conferences, or help with homework after dinner, or turn off the TV, put away the video games, and read to their child. I speak to you not just as a President, but as a father when I say that responsibility for our children's education must begin at home.

There is, of course, another responsibility we have to our children. And that is the responsibility to ensure that we do not pass on to them a debt they cannot pay. With the deficit we inherited, the cost of the crisis we face, and the long-term challenges we must meet, it has never been more important to ensure that as our economy recovers, we do what it takes to bring this deficit down.

I’m proud that we passed the recovery plan free of earmarks, and I want to pass a budget next year that ensures that each dollar we spend reflects only our most important national priorities.

Yesterday, I held a fiscal summit where I pledged to cut the deficit in half by the end of my first term in office. My administration has also begun to go line by line through the federal budget in order to eliminate wasteful and ineffective programs. As you can imagine, this is a process that will take some time. But we’re starting with the biggest lines. We have already identified two trillion dollars in savings over the next decade.

In this budget, we will end education programs that don’t work and end direct payments to large agribusinesses that don’t need them. We’ll eliminate the no-bid contracts that have wasted billions in Iraq, and reform our defense budget so that we’re not paying for Cold War-era weapons systems we don’t use. We will root out the waste, fraud, and abuse in our Medicare program that doesn’t make our seniors any healthier, and we will restore a sense of fairness and balance to our tax code by finally ending the tax breaks for corporations that ship our jobs overseas.

In order to save our children from a future of debt, we will also end the tax breaks for the wealthiest 2% of Americans. But let me perfectly clear, because I know you’ll hear the same old claims that rolling back these tax breaks means a massive tax increase on the American people: if your family earns less than $250,000 a year, you will not see your taxes increased a single dime. I repeat: not one single dime. In fact, the recovery plan provides a tax cut – that’s right, a tax cut – for 95% of working families. And these checks are on the way.

To preserve our long-term fiscal health, we must also address the growing costs in Medicare and Social Security. Comprehensive health care reform is the best way to strengthen Medicare for years to come. And we must also begin a conversation on how to do the same for Social Security, while creating tax-free universal savings accounts for all Americans.

Finally, because we’re also suffering from a deficit of trust, I am committed to restoring a sense of honesty and accountability to our budget. That is why this budget looks ahead ten years and accounts for spending that was left out under the old rules – and for the first time, that includes the full cost of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. For seven years, we have been a nation at war. No longer will we hide its price.

We are now carefully reviewing our policies in both wars, and I will soon announce a way forward in Iraq that leaves Iraq to its people and responsibly ends this war.

And with our friends and allies, we will forge a new and comprehensive strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan to defeat al Qaeda and combat extremism. Because I will not allow terrorists to plot against the American people from safe havens half a world away.

As we meet here tonight, our men and women in uniform stand watch abroad and more are readying to deploy. To each and every one of them, and to the families who bear the quiet burden of their absence, Americans are united in sending one message: we honor your service, we are inspired by your sacrifice, and you have our unyielding support. To relieve the strain on our forces, my budget increases the number of our soldiers and Marines. And to keep our sacred trust with those who serve, we will raise their pay, and give our veterans the expanded health care and benefits that they have earned.

To overcome extremism, we must also be vigilant in upholding the values our troops defend – because there is no force in the world more powerful than the example of America. That is why I have ordered the closing of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, and will seek swift and certain justice for captured terrorists – because living our values doesn’t make us weaker, it makes us safer and it makes us stronger. And that is why I can stand here tonight and say without exception or equivocation that the United States of America does not torture.

In words and deeds, we are showing the world that a new era of engagement has begun. For we know that America cannot meet the threats of this century alone, but the world cannot meet them without America. We cannot shun the negotiating table, nor ignore the foes or forces that could do us harm. We are instead called to move forward with the sense of confidence and candor that serious times demand.

To seek progress toward a secure and lasting peace between Israel and her neighbors, we have appointed an envoy to sustain our effort. To meet the challenges of the 21st century – from terrorism to nuclear proliferation; from pandemic disease to cyber threats to crushing poverty – we will strengthen old alliances, forge new ones, and use all elements of our national power.

And to respond to an economic crisis that is global in scope, we are working with the nations of the G-20 to restore confidence in our financial system, avoid the possibility of escalating protectionism, and spur demand for American goods in markets across the globe. For the world depends on us to have a strong economy, just as our economy depends on the strength of the world’s.

As we stand at this crossroads of history, the eyes of all people in all nations are once again upon us – watching to see what we do with this moment; waiting for us to lead.

Those of us gathered here tonight have been called to govern in extraordinary times. It is a tremendous burden, but also a great privilege – one that has been entrusted to few generations of Americans. For in our hands lies the ability to shape our world for good or for ill.

I know that it is easy to lose sight of this truth – to become cynical and doubtful; consumed with the petty and the trivial.

But in my life, I have also learned that hope is found in unlikely places; that inspiration often comes not from those with the most power or celebrity, but from the dreams and aspirations of Americans who are anything but ordinary.

I think about Leonard Abess, the bank president from Miami who reportedly cashed out of his company, took a $60 million bonus, and gave it out to all 399 people who worked for him, plus another 72 who used to work for him. He didn’t tell anyone, but when the local newspaper found out, he simply said, ''I knew some of these people since I was 7 years old. I didn't feel right getting the money myself."

I think about Greensburg, Kansas, a town that was completely destroyed by a tornado, but is being rebuilt by its residents as a global example of how clean energy can power an entire community – how it can bring jobs and businesses to a place where piles of bricks and rubble once lay. "The tragedy was terrible," said one of the men who helped them rebuild. "But the folks here know that it also provided an incredible opportunity."

And I think about Ty’Sheoma Bethea, the young girl from that school I visited in Dillon, South Carolina – a place where the ceilings leak, the paint peels off the walls, and they have to stop teaching six times a day because the train barrels by their classroom. She has been told that her school is hopeless, but the other day after class she went to the public library and typed up a letter to the people sitting in this room. She even asked her principal for the money to buy a stamp. The letter asks us for help, and says, "We are just students trying to become lawyers, doctors, congressmen like yourself and one day president, so we can make a change to not just the state of South Carolina but also the world. We are not quitters."

We are not quitters.

These words and these stories tell us something about the spirit of the people who sent us here. They tell us that even in the most trying times, amid the most difficult circumstances, there is a generosity, a resilience, a decency, and a determination that perseveres; a willingness to take responsibility for our future and for posterity.

Their resolve must be our inspiration. Their concerns must be our cause. And we must show them and all our people that we are equal to the task before us.

I know that we haven’t agreed on every issue thus far, and there are surely times in the future when we will part ways. But I also know that every American who is sitting here tonight loves this country and wants it to succeed. That must be the starting point for every debate we have in the coming months, and where we return after those debates are done. That is the foundation on which the American people expect us to build common ground.

And if we do – if we come together and lift this nation from the depths of this crisis; if we put our people back to work and restart the engine of our prosperity; if we confront without fear the challenges of our time and summon that enduring spirit of an America that does not quit, then someday years from now our children can tell their children that this was the time when we performed, in the words that are carved into this very chamber, "something worthy to be remembered." Thank you, God Bless you, and may God Bless the United States of America.

State of the Nation Open Thread

What did you think of The President's speech?

Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger Speaks to Congress - Stresses Need for Better Pay and Conditions in Industry to Retain Good Pilots

The pilot & crew of U.S. Airways flight 1549 spoke to Congress today during a House Subcommittee Hearing. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger stressed the importance of providing good pay and benefits so that quality pilots can be recruited and retained in the Commercial aviation industry. To make his point, he highlighted recent pay cuts and the threat that this situation poses to the flying public.

Watch Video of Hearing

Black History Month Daily Thread

Mary McLeod Bethune

Mary Jane McLeod Bethune (July 10, 1875--May 18, 1955) was an American educator and civil rights leader best known for starting a school for black students in Daytona Beach, Florida that eventually became Bethune-Cookman University and for being an adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Born in South Carolina to parents who had been slaves, she took an early interest in her own education. With the help of benefactors, Bethune attended college hoping to become a missionary in Africa. When that did not materialize, she started a school for black girls in Daytona Beach. From six students it grew and merged with an institute for black boys and eventually became the Bethune-Cookman School. Its quality far surpassed the standards of education for black students, and rivaled those of white schools. Bethune worked tirelessly to ensure funding for the school, and used it as a showcase for tourists and donors, to exhibit what educated black people could do. She was president of the college from 1923 to 1942 and 1946 to 1947, one of the few women in the world who served as a college president at that time.

Bethune was also active in women's clubs, and her leadership in them allowed her to become nationally prominent. She worked for the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932, and became a member of Roosevelt's Black Cabinet, sharing the concerns of black people with the Roosevelt administration while spreading Roosevelt's message to blacks, who had been traditionally Republican voters. Upon her death, columnist Louis E. Martin said, "She gave out faith and hope as if they were pills and she some sort of doctor." Her home in Daytona Beach is a National Historic Landmark, her house in Washington, D.C. in Logan Circle is preserved by the National Park Service as a National Historic Site.

This is where mentoring can pay dividends. For Dr. Bethune was a major mentor of our next notable: Dr. Dorothy I. Height.

Dorothy Irene Height (born March 24, 1912) is an African American administrator, educator, social activist, and a recipient of the Congressional Gold Medal.

Height started working as a caseworker with the New York City Welfare Department and, at the age of twenty-five, she began a career as a civil rights activist when she joined the National Council of Negro Women. She fought for equal rights for both African Americans and women, and in 1944 she joined the national staff of the YWCA. She also served as National President of Delta Sigma Theta, Sorority Incorporated from 1946-1957.[1] She remains active with Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. While there she developed leadership training programs and interracial and ecumenical education programs.[2]

In 1957, Height was named president of the National Council of Negro Women, a position she held until 1997. During the height of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, Height organized "Wednesdays in Mississippi", which brought together black and white women from the North and South to create a dialogue of understanding. American leaders regularly took her counsel, including First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and Height also encouraged President Dwight D. Eisenhower to desegregate schools and President Lyndon B. Johnson to appoint African American women to positions in government. In the mid 1960s, Height wrote a column entitled "A Woman's Word" for the weekly African-American newspaper, the New York Amsterdam News. Her first column appeared in the March 20th, 1965 issue (p. 8).

Height has served on a number of committees, including as a consultant on African affairs to the Secretary of State, the President's Committee on the Employment of the Handicapped, and the President's Committee on the Status of Women. In 1974, Height was named to the National Council for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research, which published The Belmont Report [3]- a response to the infamous "Tuskegee Syphillis Study" and an international ethical touchstone for researchers to this day. She has received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Freedom From Want Award and the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP. She has also been inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.

Youtube:




Books:

Mary McLeod Bethune: Building a Better World, Essays and Selected by Audrey Thomas McCluskey (Editor), Elaine M. Smith (Editor)

Mary Mcleod Bethune: Voice of Black Hope (Women of Our Time) by Milton Meltzer

Mary McLeod Bethune & Black Women's Political Activism by Joyce Ann Hanson

Mary Mcleod Bethune: Matriarch Of Black America by Earl Devine Martin

Mary McLeod Bethune by Eloise Greenfield (Author), Jerry Pinkney (Illustrator)

Open Wide The Freedom Gates: A Memoir by Dorothy Height

Natural Mystic

Transportation In Heaven

Three men die and go to heaven. At the gate St. Peter tells them,
"Before you go into heaven, we are going to give you each a
vehicle with which to get around. The way we determine what type
of vehicle you will get is by how faithful you were to your
wives. Now," he says, turning to the first man,
"were you true to your wife?"

"Yes, I was, St. Peter," says the first man. "I never strayed.
From the day I married her to the day I died, I slept with no
woman other than my wife. I loved her very deeply."

"As reward for your complete fidelity," says St. Peter, "I now
give you these keys to a beautiful Rolls-Royce."

The man happily accepts the keys, and St. Peter turns to the
second man. "Sir," he says, "were you faithful to your wife?"

"Well, St. Peter," says the second man a little shyly, "I must
admit that when I was much younger, I did stray once or twice.
But I did love my wife very much, and after those minor
indiscretions, I was completely faithful until my dying day."

St. Peter looks down at the man and says, "As a reward for good
marital conduct, I am giving you these keys to a Pontiac."

As the man takes the keys.... St. Peter turns to the third
man. "Sir," he says, "were you faithful to your wife?"

"St. Peter," says the man, "I screwed everything I could, every
chance I got. There wasn't a week of my marriage that I didn't
sleep with someone other than my wife. But I must admit to you, St.
Peter, that it was a serious problem I had, because I really
did love my wife very much."

"Well," says St. Peter, "we do know that you did love your wife
and that does count for something, so this is what you get."
With that he rolls out a ten-speed bicycle and gives it to the
man. The gates of heaven open, and the three men enter.

Sometime later the man on the bicycle is riding along when he
sees that the man with the Rolls Royce has pulled over and is
sitting on the bumper of his car. He is sobbing uncontrollably.
The man pulls his bicycle up next to the man and says, "Hey, pal,
what's the matter? What could possibly be wrong? You have a
beautiful Rolls Royce to drive around in?"

"I know," says the man through his sobs,
"but I just saw my wife on roller skates!"

Media Alert - State of the Union

President Barack Hussein Obama will be giving his
first State of the Union Message.



Tuesday, February 24, 2009, 9 pm EST, we will hear the following:

"MADAM Speaker, The President of the United States."




I admit. It's going to be a goosebump moment for me.
MADAM Speaker isn't old to me yet.

Economic Meltdown 101

I consider myself someone who tries to be informed about current events but sometimes the issues get so complex and events happen so quickly that it is all but impossible to keep up and still keep things in proper context and have a full understanding of what is going on. This is true, for me, of the economic meltdown and the after effects it has had in the worlds of politics and culture.

That is why I am sharing these resources for ordinary laypeople like me who are trying to get a grip on the economic issues. Here are three links that I discovered this morning that I feel are excellent primers on the economic meltdown and the chain of events that led up to it. Hat tip to the Common Cause blog for this information.

Common Cause Blog: The Economic Downfall for Dummies

The economic crisis exposed the myriad ways in which our financial institutions are interconnected in an intricate web of relationships. When one element of this intricate web turns toxic the rest of the web get infected and the whole thing starts falling down like dominoes. For me, the best look at each domino and how its toppling led to the next.

PBS Frontline: Inside the Meltdown (VIDEO SERIES)

Time Magazine: 25 People to Blame for the Financial Crisis

In Defense of Higher Education

In Sunday's Jackson Clarion-Ledger, I have a column in defense of the value of higher education. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Stimulus Plan Likely To Do Little For Small Businesses

Lloyd Chapman, head of American Small Business League, was critical of the stimulus package in an interview with Tavis Smiley over the weekend. Chapman echoes some of the problems with the stimulus Bill that I mentioned back in January.

Listen Here (you may need to disable firewall temporarily if audio does not load)

Black History Month Daily Thread

Four Little Girls
Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, Addie Mae Collins, and Cynthia Wesley

The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing was a racially motivated terrorist attack on September 15, 1963, by members of a Ku Klux Klan group in Birmingham, Alabama in the United States. The bombing of the African-American church resulted in the deaths of four girls. Although city leaders had reached a settlement in May with demonstrators and started to integrate public places, not everyone agreed with ending segregation. Other acts of violence followed the settlement. The bombing increased support for people working for civil rights. It marked a turning point in the U.S. civil-rights movement of the mid-twentieth century and contributed to support for passage of civil rights legislation in 1964.



The Victims
Denise McNair was born November 17, 1951, 11 at the time of her death. She was the first child of photo shop owner Chris and schoolteacher Maxine McNair. Her playmates called her Niecie. A pupil at Center Street Elementary School, she had many friends. She held tea parties, was a member of the Brownies guide organization, and played baseball. She helped raise money to support muscular dystrophy by creating plays, dance routines, and poetry readings. These events became an annual event. People gathered in the yard to watch the show in Denise's carport, the main stage. Children donated their pennies, dimes, and nickels. Denise was a schoolmate and friend of Condoleezza Rice. She is buried in Elmwood Cemetery. About five years after the bombing, Denise's parents had two more daughters.

Cynthia Diane Wesley was born April 30, 1949, 14 at the time of her death, she was the first adopted daughter of Claude and Gertrude Wesley, both of whom were teachers. Her mother made her clothes because of her petite size. Cynthia went to school at Ullman High School, which no longer exists. She excelled in math, reading, and band. Cynthia held parties in her backyard for all her friends. Upon Cynthia's death she was found because of the ring she wore, which was recognized by her father. She is buried in Greenwood Cemetery.

Carole Rosamond Robertson was born April 24, 1949, 14 at the time of her death. She was the third child of Alpha and Alvin Robinson. Her sister was Dianne and her brother was Alvin. Her father was a band master at the local elementary school. Her mother was a librarian, avid reader, dancer, and clarinet player. Carole, like her mother, enjoyed reading. She excelled at school and was a straight-A student, a member of Parker High School marching band and science club. She was also a Girl Scout and belonged to Jack and Jill of America. When she was at Wilkerson Elementary School she sang in the choir. Her legacy helped create the Carole Robertson Center for Learning in Chicago, a social service agency that serves children and their families. She is buried in Greenwood Cemetery.

Addie Mae Collins was born April 18, 1949, 14 at the time of her death, she was the daughter of Julius Collins. Her father was a janitor and her mother a homemaker. She was one of seven children. She was also an avid softball player. A youth center dedicated to Addie and her ideals was created in Birmingham. Her younger sister, Sarah was with her at the time and lost her right eye in the blast.[3] Addie Mae is buried in Greenwood Cemetery.

Media:

4 Little Girls (1997)-DVD
Director: Spike Lee

Freedom's Children: Young Civil Rights Activists Tell Their Own Stories by Ellen Levine

Free At Last: A History of the Civil Rights Movement and Those Who Died in the Struggle by Sara Bullard (Author), Julian Bond (Introduction)

The President and First Lady Host the Nation's Governors

The President and First Lady held their first formal dinner at The White House for the Nation's Governors

Time for Action to Fix The Banks & Bring Back Confidence - But Geithner Is Coming Up Short

Attention Team Obama - Peter Pan is not meeting the test.

I was skeptical about Obama’s choice for Treasury Secretary from the very beginning. Here is a man who had a hand in bungling the management of the financial crisis on Wall Street last year and who couldn’t keep up with his own Federal taxes. Now he is expected to be the chief financial steward for the nation? But I was willing to wait to see how he would perform. So far I have not been impressed. He has not instilled confidence, at a time when confidence is the key. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has been mostly a failure so far and, in fact, appears to be exacerbating the nations financial situation.

President Obama has not dealt with this situation very well as a whole. We still don’t have a Commerce Secretary a full month after the inauguration. In the middle of an economic situation as bad as this, it seems to me that it would be important for Obama to have a full economic team in place. Obama wasted weeks with the Judd Gregg fiasco and the Lincoln bi-partisan nonsense. Enough already!!! It’s time to get to work. We are on a ship that seems to be taking on more water by the day.

At least half of the problem that Obama, Geithner and the rest of the economic team faces has to do with a lack of confidence… a lack of confidence from investors, from voters, from bankers, and from business owners. It’s psychological. But the actions of the Obama Administration - or lack thereof- have only added to the uncertainty and anxiety in the financial sector. They have not even made any serious efforts to bring calm and confidence to the markets. Instead, Obama has played up the crisis a little too much by talking down the economy at every opportunity. That doesn’t instill confidence.

Investors and voters, uncertain about the intentions of the Bush Administration, took a pause from the panic of last year because they wanted to see what the Obama Administration would propose. Since January 20th, Americans have been waiting for a plan. They want to see details about how Banks will be stabilized. Particularly, everyone has been waiting to hear how the Obama team would deal with taking bad assets off the hands of the banks so that the banking system could rebound. Keep in mind that Americans have already witnessed the bungling of the first half of the TARP funding. Americans have also witnessed the uncertainty from Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who offered one plan (buying toxic assets or somehow relieving banks of these assets temporarily) but then changed his mind a few weeks later, and failed to follow-up with any sensible cogent alternative plan. That kept the nation in limbo for weeks.

With the inauguration of Barack Obama, people were hoping for a sense of stability and a rebound in stocks. But that hasn’t happened. Geithner tried to offer yet another plan on February 10th, but that plan was rejected outright by observers. There were not enough details offered. The reaction of the markets should have been a clue to someone that another approach was needed.

The Geithner plan calls for a system of “Stress Tests” for the nations biggest banks to determine which institutions have the most toxic assets and the most liquidity problems. According to plan, the Government would buy a greater stake in the banks that are more susceptible to the pressures of the “Stress Tests” and would need more Capital.

But this is not the plan that people were waiting all this time for. People don’t want to hear anything about “Stress Tests”. This doesn’t seem to be a well thought out plan, and in fact, it’s only making matters worse. The lack of detail on what will happen next is also compounding the crisis. Investors and voters want to hear details on what the Obama Administration plans to do to remove the toxic assets from the balance sheets of the banks. This was the single most important thing that observers and investors were concerned with. But Geithner failed to address it.

Dealing with the bad assets is the most logical approach proposed so far. Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke should have stayed with this original plan of parking bad assets until their values could improve (and they would have improved once the housing market and the overall economy began to recover). So why did the Obama Administration decide to float this idea? It only introduced more uncertainty. The situation is not likely to improve anytime soon unless and until the issue of the toxic assets is dealt with clearly and with certainty.

Obama misfired in his initial attack of the economic crisis. He allowed himself to get bogged down in too much political nonsense, spending far too much time selling the Stimulus bill and impersonating Abraham Lincoln, and not enough time dealing with the task at hand. He lost several weeks on his bi-partisan experiment, which ironically ended up being extremely partisan, when time was of the essence. Obama should have attacked these issues simultaneously - the banking system - jobs/recession - and the crisis in the housing market. Instead, he tried to take on these issues, almost one by one…. And in the wrong order. The fact is, team Obama appears to be just as clueless about how to tackle this problem as the Bush Administration was. Obama has assembled two economic advising committees, made up of what are supposed to be some of the greatest economic minds in the nation. Yet, no one seems to understand that at least half the problem (if not the majority) is psychological and that confidence is key to restoring some semblance of order. Why is this so hard for these people to understand? This problem is just as much about human psychology as it is about economic theory.

And after the pathetic Geithner announcement earlier this month (Feb.) regarding the “Stress Tests”, while the market tanked yet again… the Obama Administration failed to offer any sort of follow-up. We haven’t heard anything from Geithner since then. They allowed the uncertainty to fester….allowed rumors to swirl and left too many unanswered questions lingering. This has only exacerbated the crisis. The stock market has dropped around 700 points since Geithners’ announcement.

Eight years of the Bush Administration and the constant negative news reports have led to a sort of psychological malaise among Americans. People are now sitting around waiting for the next batch of bad news to react to, rejecting anything positive. And we have been stuck in this mindset for years. Obama managed to use his hope message to break through some of that during the campaign, but now, when hope is needed more than ever, he seems to be embracing the old politics of fear.

And I’m afraid that the temporary reprieve that investors and voters gave Obama might be about to end. Americans might resume their panic, now that they see that the toxic assets won’t be managed as originally thought and since plans keep changing. Geithner’s “Stress Test” approach will likely only lead to more speculation (and less certainty and confidence) about which banks might be in trouble. This could lead to crashes in bank stock and potentially a run on those banks. A run on any major bank may spread to even the healthy banks, causing a run on those banks as well. Remember, much of the problem is psychological and Americans, especially investors, are not behaving rationally at the present time. Anything can spook the financial markets.

The stock market…and banks may tank even further in the next few days and weeks… unless Obama and his economic team can find their voice and begin to instill some kind of confidence. Obama will be giving a big speech on Tuesday and it will be a chance to instill confidence & hope. And it would be nice if he offered a plan to fix the financial mess.

Mirror On America's Oscar Post

Today is Oscar Night.

There are two Black Actresses nominated this year:

Viola Davis for Doubt


Taraji P. Henson for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button




Here is a the list for All Black Nominees in the Academy's History.

Winner Acceptance Speeches:
Hattie McDaniel, Best Supporting Actress - 1939, Gone With The Wind


Sidney Poitier, Best Actor- 1963, Lilies of the Field


Cuba Gooding, Jr., Best Supporting Actor - 1996, Jerry Maguire
Denzel Washington, Best Actor - 2001, Training Day
Halle Berry, Best Actress- 2001, Monster's Ball
Sidney Poitier Accepting an Honorary Oscar - 2001
Jamie Foxx, Best Actor - 2004, Ray


Morgan Freeman, Best Supporting Actor - 2004, Million Dollar Baby
Forest Whitaker, Best Actor -2006, Last King of Scotland
Jennifer Hudson, Best Supporting Actress- 2006, Dreamgirls

Could not find videos for the Best Supporting Actor Wins of Louis Gossett, Jr - 1982, An Officer and a Gentleman and Denzel Washington - 1989, Glory or Whoopi Goldberg, Best Supporting Actress - 1990, Ghost.

Black History Month Daily Thread

Benjamin E. Mays

Dr. Benjamin Elijah Mays (August 1, 1895 - March 28, 1984) was an American minister, educator, scholar, social activist and the president of Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. He was also a significant mentor to civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and was among the most articulate and outspoken critics of segregation before the rise of the modern civil rights movement in the United States.

While working on his doctorate, Mays and Joseph Nicholson published a study entitled The Negro's Church, the first sociological study of African-American religion and clerical practices. Four years later in 1938, he published The Negro's God as Reflected in His Literature.

In 1926, he was appointed executive secretary of the Tampa, Florida Urban League. After two years at this post he became National Student Secretary of the YMCA.

Mays accepted the position of Dean of the School of Religion at Howard University in Washington, D.C. in 1934. At present, Mays Hall of Howard University is the home of the Howard University School of Divinity. During his six years there Mays traveled to India, where, at the urging of Howard Thurman, a fellow professor at Howard, he spoke at some length with Mahatma Gandhi.

In 1940, Mays became the president of Morehouse College. His most famous student there was Martin Luther King Jr. The two developed a close relationship that continued until King's death in 1968; As his lifelong mentor, Mays delivered the eulogy for King.

Mays emphasized two themes throughout his life: the dignity of all human beings and the gap between American democratic ideals and American social practices. Those became key elements of the message of King and the American civil rights movement. Mays explored these themes at length in his book Seeking to Be a Christian in Race Relations, published in 1957.

After his retirement in 1967 from Morehouse, Mays was elected president of the Atlanta Public Schools Board of Education, where he supervised the peaceful desegregation of Atlanta's public schools.

Youtube:
America Comes of Age - Part 1


See the rest of the above interview below:

America Comes of Age - Part 2

America Comes of Age - Part 3

America Comes of Age - Part 4

America Comes of Age - Part 5

Biography Clip

Quotes:

Every man and woman is born into the world to do something unique and something distinctive and if he or she does not do it, it will never be done.

It isn't a disgrace not to reach the stars, but it is a disgrace to have no stars to reach for.

It must be borne in mind that the tragedy of life does not lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy of life lies in having no goal to reach.

Not failure, but low aim is sin.

Media:
Born to Rebel: An Autobiography by Benjamin Elijah Mays

Quotable Quotes of Benjamin E. Mays by Benjamin Mays

Dr. Benjamin E. Mays Speaks: Representative Speeches of a Great American Orator by Freddie C. Colston

Posthumous reflections: A letter to my mentor, Dr. Benjamin Elijah Mays by Fred C Lofton

Benjamin E. Mays: His Drive, His Mission - DVD

Benjamin E Mays/Educator- DVD

Benjamin E. Mays - VHS

Brick House Dreams: Young Benjamin E. Mays by Melvin De Gree

Double Take - Oye Como Va

Late again this week (I won't be doing these for long...but there are a few interesting tunes I want to post over the next few months).

Oye Como Va

Written by the one and only Tito Puente

Tito Puente - Original (1963)


Santana (1970)


Verdict:

As much as I like Tito Puente... Santana took this tune to a whole new level. The original version has more texture...more layers... since it's more of a Latin Jazz/Salsa tune, and Puente typically had larger bands.

But Santana introduced a faster tempo...and much more energy with the electric guitar. I'm biased towards guitar in this case. The Santana version went on to become the more popular of the two recordings...so much so that Santana is often credited (mistakenly) for writing and recording the original.

“Free Trade” vs. “Protectionism” is a False Debate

Labor activist Jonathan Tasini over at the Working Life Blog makes a good point when he says:

[N]o one is against trade. Trade has taken place since the beginning of human history. The only question is what RULES we put in place to manage trade. The issue of so-called "free trade" and, by extension, how one views the power of corporate America to shape our economic lives is, from my little vantage point, THE deep, systemic change question on the economic vision side.

I have argued for a very long time that "free trade" is just a marketing phrase. It does not exist in the world today -- and perhaps never has. What we have are a very set of complex rules that are about one thing: seeking the lowest wage possible.

He adds:

So-called "free trade" lives in the same economic neighborhood as sub-prime mortgages, CEO greed, the attack against unions and the divide between rich and poor -- all of which point to the real challenge we must address: the collapse of wages for most Americans. Until we take that head on, we won't get out of the economic crisis we find ourselves mired in.

The issue of so-called "free trade" is precisely an area where we need to have a vigorous, consistent, unyielding "loyal opposition" to the Administration. We can't depend on the president to change the debate on trade because he is a captive of a system that can only see trade in the prism of the debate between two false marketing phrases: "protectionism" versus "free trade".

In another post, Tasini radically re-frames the argument on economic policy beyond the limitations of “free trade” versus “protectionism” to one that examines the relationship between wage growth and productivity. He says:

Basically, the basic bargain was roughly this -- if you worked hard and became more productive, you would see that sweat of the brow in your wages. And from the post-war era until the 1970s, that deal basically held -- as you can see from the lines that are basically close together until the 1970s. (The graphic in the link illustrates his point).

Then, the lines diverge--dramatically. You can see it yourself. If the lines had continued to track closely together as they did prior to the 1970s, the MINIMUM WAGE would be more than $19 an hour. THE MINIMUM WAGE!!!

So, in short: people had no money coming in their paychecks so they were forced to pay for their lives through credit -- either plastic or drawing down equity from their homes. There are lots of reasons that this happened -- greed, the attack against unions, de-regulation, dumb trade deals.

But, the point is: we will never fix the economic crisis, whether through short-term economic stimulus and certainly not through tax cuts, until paychecks are re-inflated. Dramatically.

Tasini argues for a radical way of re-framing the bailout and stimulus debate and designs a bailout plan for the working and middle class in this post.

What do you all think? I think Tasini is on to something. Whether or not you agree with his conclusions, I think he is absolutely right on target when he says the “free trade” vs. “protectionism” debate is a false one between two empty and meaningless marketing phrases. We have to get beyond that type of thinking if we are to come up with creative and effective ways to cope with and come up with solutions to this economic crisis.

Black History Month Daily Thread

Medgar Evers

Medgar Wiley Evers (July 2, 1925 – June 12, 1963) was an African American civil rights activist from Mississippi who was murdered by Byron De La Beckwith, a member of the Ku Klux Klan.

Evers was also the president of the Regional Council of Negro Leadership (RCNL), a civil rights and pro self-help organization. Involvement in the RCNL gave Evers crucial training in activism. He helped to organize the RCNL's boycott of service stations that denied blacks use of their restrooms. The boycotters distributed bumper stickers with the slogan "Don't Buy Gas Where You Can't Use the Restroom." Along with his brother, Charles Evers, he also attended the RCNL's annual conferences in Mound Bayou between 1952 and 1954 which drew crowds of ten thousand or more.

Evers applied to the then-segregated University of Mississippi Law School in February 1954. When his application was rejected, Evers became the focus of a NAACP campaign to desegregate the school, a case aided by the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education 347 U.S. 483 that segregation was unconstitutional.

NAACP Field Secretary
He was involved in a boycott campaign against white merchants and was instrumental in eventually desegregating the University of Mississippi when that institution was finally forced to enroll James Meredith in 1962.

In the weeks leading up to his death, Evers found himself the target of a number of threats. His public investigations into the murder of Emmett Till and his vocal support of Clyde Kennard made him a prominent black leader and therefore vulnerable to attack. On May 28, 1963, a molotov cocktail was thrown into the carport of his home. Five days before his death, Evers was nearly run down by a car after he emerged from the Jackson NAACP office. Civil rights demonstrations accelerated in Jackson during the first week of June 1963. A local television station granted Evers time for a short speech, his first in Mississippi, where he outlined the goals of the Jackson movement. Following the speech, threats on Evers' life increased.

Assassination
On June 12, 1963, Evers pulled into his driveway after just returning from a meeting with NAACP lawyers. Emerging from his car and carrying NAACP T-shirts that read "Jim Crow Must Go," Evers was struck in the back with a bullet fired from an Enfield 1917.303 rifle that ricocheted into his home. He staggered 30 feet before collapsing. He died at a local hospital 50 minutes later. Evers was murdered just hours after President John F. Kennedy's speech on national television in support of civil rights.

Youtube

Portrait of Medgar Evers



Murder In Mississippi: The Assassination of Medgar Evers



Media:

The Autobiography of Medgar Evers: A Hero's Life and Legacy Revealed Through His Writings, Letters, and Speeches by Myrlie Evers-Williams (Author), Manning Marable (Author)

Of Long Memory: Mississippi and the Murder of Medgar Evers by Adam Nossiter

The Ghosts of Medgar Evers: A Tale of Race, Murder, Mississippi, and Hollywood by Willie Morris

Ghosts of Mississippi (1996)-DVD

President Obama's Weekly Youtube Address

Alan Keyes Is At It Again

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

This lunatic is at it again. Shinning. Grinning. Shuffling.

Baratunde Thurston on MSNBC about the Fake NYPost 'Apology' for the Racist Cartoon

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Baratune Thurston (Jack Turner) from Jack and Jill Politics, on MSNBC's 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, discussing the so-called 'apology' from the New York Post.

Black History Month Daily Thread

Malcolm X

Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965), also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, was an African American Muslim minister, public speaker, and human rights activist. To his admirers, he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against black Americans. His detractors accused him of preaching racism and violence. He has been described as one of the greatest and most influential African Americans in history.

Malcolm X was born in Omaha, Nebraska. By the time he was 13, his father had died and his mother had been committed to a mental hospital. After living in a series of foster homes, Malcolm X became involved in the criminal underworld in Boston and New York. In 1945, Malcolm X was sentenced to eight to ten years in prison.

While in prison, Malcolm X became a member of the Nation of Islam. After his parole in 1952, he became one of the Nation's leaders and chief spokesmen. For nearly a dozen years, he was the public face of the Nation of Islam. Tension between Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad, head of the Nation of Islam, led to his departure from the organization in March 1964.

After leaving the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X made the pilgrimage, the Hajj, to Mecca and became a Sunni Muslim. He traveled extensively throughout Africa and the Middle East. He founded Muslim Mosque, Inc., a religious organization, and the secular, black nationalist Organization of Afro-American Unity. Less than a year after he left the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X was assassinated while giving a speech in New York.

Sites:
Malcolm X: A Research Site

Malcolm-X.org


Malcolm X on Youtube



Malcolm X: Oxford Union Debate



Malcolm X - Post Mecca Pilgrimage




Quotes:

The future belongs to those who prepare for it today.

Without education, you are not going anywhere in this world.

You're not to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it.

I don't even call it violence when it's in self defense; I call it intelligence.

Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery.

Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you're a man, you take it.

Power never takes a back step - only in the face of more power.

Usually when people are sad, they don't do anything. They just cry over their condition. But when they get angry, they bring about a change.

Media:

The Autobiography of Malcolm X As Told to Alex Haley by Malcolm X

Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements by George Breitman

Malcolm X: By Any Means Necessary by Walter Dean Myers

Malcolm X: A Graphic Biography by Andrew Helfer (Editor), Randy DuBurke (Illustrator)

Malcolm X (Two-Disc Special Edition) (1992)-DVD

Madoff Ponzi Scheme: No Indication Stocks Were Ever Purchased

From HuffingtonPost.com

NEW YORK — The trustee in charge of untangling the mess brought on by the Bernard Madoff scandal told investors Friday there was no indication the disgraced money manager bought securities for his clients.

"We have no evidence to indicate securities were purchased for customer accounts," said Irving Picard, the court-appointed trustee overseeing the liquidation of Madoff's assets.

He told a meeting for investors that he has recovered $650 million so far and noted that victims could qualify for up to $500,000 in funds from the Securities Investor Protection Corp., also known as the SIPC.

Madoff was arrested in December after investigators said he confessed to his sons that he had swindled investors of $50 billion in a Ponzi scheme. The 70-year-old former Nasdaq chairman remains confined to his Manhattan apartment under house arrest.

Picard detailed the history of the case for the group and how claims will be processed. He said his office has received 2,350 claims so far and expects the number to double. He also said the deadline for submitting claims is July 2.

At the hearing, David Sheehan, a lawyer working for Picard, called the alleged fraud "a Ponzi scheme where no stock was purchased."

Sheehan also said the SIPC will be trying to recover "false profits" earned by some investors.

"There wasn't any stock bought or sold," he said. "It was all just made up. ... You got somebody else's money."

When I first read this headline, I just froze. I stared at it for a few moments. And let it digest.

There is no indication that stocks were EVER purchased.

There is NO indication that stocks were EVER purchased.

This isn't a case of where the man had a few good years of investing, but then things turned south as he chose bad investments.

He didn't purchase anything.

He straight up STOLE that money.

How does one run a company of this magnitude without FILING PAPERS WITH THE SEC sometime or another?

How can you be an investment fund, without there being some sort of PAPER TRAIL ON FILE WITH THE GOVERNMENT SHOWING WHAT YOU'RE DOING?

Am I not getting this?

Maybe some of you can break it down for me. Because FRAUD on this major a scale isn't done by one or two jokers. There's a whole parcel of THIEVES, in business AND IN THE GOVERNMENTAL AGENCIES THAT ARE SUPPOSED TO BE MONITORING THE INDUSTRY. Where were THE REGULATORS? Someone needs to be investigating the SEC and any other governmental agencies that have anything to do with this.

That this THIEF is out on bail is preposterous.

There are a whole lot of people who participated in this thievery and they need to be in jail too.

Obama Administration Priorities 8 thru 5

(I should have put this entire top 10 list in one post).

#8. Create a Plan to keep Americans in their homes. (seems to be doing this finally).

#7. Restore common sense budgeting... pay as you go, etc. Then create a plan to make annual payments on the National Debt (that's only if the U.S. gets through the current economic mess...especially with the banking system).

#6. Kill the idea of putting an anti-missile system in Poland.

#5. Provide more funding for schools...and require more programs and courses promoting civics, foreign studies, the arts, and more financial support for good teachers.

President Obama Arriving in Canada for His First Foreign Trip

Rick Santelli's Offensive Rant Against the Housing Bailout

Rick Santelli's Rant about President Obama's Housing Plan on CNBC



I wonder if this mofo was this outraged when WALL STREET went begging for 700 BILLION DOLLARS.

President Obama's housing plan is ONE-TENTH of the money that went to WALL STREET, and I bet his ass didn't say JACK about THAT money.

And you wonder why folks like me didn't want to give Wall Street ANYTHING?

Give it to Wall Street with no provisions...

But, the Auto Industry - which affects MILLIONS of jobs - it can only be a LOAN..
and, we must talk about the EARNING potential of UAW workers.

And now, that we're trying to help people on the ground - sure, some of them took out loans that they couldn't afford. But, how about those who were straight up DEFRAUDED. How about the ones who SHOULD have qualified for CONVENTIONAL mortgages, but because of INSTITUTIONAL RACISM IN THE BANKING INDUSTRY, were herded into SUBPRIME mortgages.

How entire communities of this country - on MAIN STREET - are being wiped out because of this foreclosure crisis. And, foreclosures just don't devastate those who lost their homes. Their neighbors see their property values plummet with every foreclosure in their neighborhoods. This is the reality on MAIN STREET.

Oh, to drop his ass off on Main Street, give him a megaphone, and see if he'd be that big and bad THEN.

The First Lady at the Department of Agriculture

Hear an Interview with Richard Prince of the Maynard Institute on the Issue of Diversity in Media

Hear an interview from last year with Richard Prince. He discusses the New Yorker Magazine controversy (the misguided "satirical" photo depicting the Obama's as terrorists). Prince talks about how the lack of editorial oversight and diversity contributes to this problem. And I think this could be tied in with the New York Post's Chimp Cartoon. Prince gives some interesting insight.

You can read Richard Prince's take on this latest fiasco in his "Journal-isms" column at the Maynard Institutes website.

Baratunde Thurston Discusses NY Post Cartoon

Baratunde Thurston... our neighbor from Jack and Jill Politics, discusses the NY Post fiasco on MSNBC. See video courtesy of Pam Spaulding's blog. Even host David Shuster couldn't hold back on how inappropriate this was.

Leave your comments in our original post here.

For all those GOP Hypocrites, I give you Rude Pundit

It has been making my blood pressure rise, and my eyes roll, watching these GOP lowlifes degrade the Stimulus package, all the while saying, ' sure we'll take the money'. Then there are the lunatics, whose states are collapsing around them, posturing that they're 'debating' about not taking the money.

I give you Rude Pundit:

2/19/2009
Shut the Fuck Up and Take the Money:

Really, Republican Governors Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Mark Sanford of South Carolina, and Sarah Palin of...well, you fuckin' know? Really? You're really thinking about rejecting some of the money coming to your states in the federal stimulus? Well, not really, since the law says your legislatures can take the money without your okay. So you can huff and puff and talk about "strings attached" or what-the-fuck-ever, but in the end, you know that you're gonna shut the fuck up and take the cash, bitches.

Of course, you won't admit why you find your state budgets going down the shitter. Because to do so would mean that Republicans would have to admit that their beloved federalism is a big fuckin' failure, another rank ideological stench emanating from the Reagan era. You put more and more control of projects in the individual states, you pile ungodly debt on top of tax cuts, you toss in a few unfunded mandates (see No Child Left [with a seat for their] Behind), and that piss sound you hear is trickle down, conservatives, except it's the costs that are trickling to the states, not any largesse. Until, you know, right now.

So, sure, Bobby Jindal, you exorcisin' great Republican hope, you go ahead and say you don't want the $308 million in highway construction funds or the half a billion or so in Medicaid money or the over $400 million for education in a state more notable for its official attempts to keep its students stupid (see creationism bills over the years). Which part are you gonna tell Washington to keep? The unemployment benefits? The tax credits?

You're fuckin' adorable. You go ahead and say it all you want. Say how you wouldn't have voted for the bill if you'd still been in Congress. And then, at some point, probably after you give your cute little response to Barack Obama's speech to Congress on Tuesday, with your state's budget shortfall on the fast track to $2 billion and cuts happening everywhere, you know you're gonna have to shut the fuck up and take the money. Same goes for all of the idiot Republicans.

And don't worry. No matter if it helps a little or a lot, no one will expect you to say, "Thanks." At this point, we all know what ungrateful, selfish dicks you are. Like what the quickly crumbling Governor Sanford said this morning. Being against the bill "doesn't preclude taking the money." The thought of that $8 billion not coming to his state? Well, no one's an atheist in a foxhole, right?

Ah, the sweet, plaintive, familiar sigh of Republican hypocrisy. It echoes from the domes of DC to the state houses around the nation.


// posted by Rude One @ 9:08 AM

AG Eric Holder - We are a ' nation of cowards' when it comes to race

I hadn't been watching the news yesterday, so the first I heard of the Attorney General's comments was on LOU DOBBS. You could imagine the slant on that. But, try as they may,they even had to play some of the context his phrase. Before it was even played, I was like, ' I know it's not the way these White folks want to make it sound', and sure enough, listening to that small snippet on Lou Dobbs that their attempted ' spin' on Holder's remarks in no ways related to his remarks.

That's when I knew I had to find Holder's speech in total, and would like to thank spirit_55z for helping me find the complete video.

Here is the video:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Holder told the truth during his speech. It was thoughtful, smart, historical, honest and contemplative. Of course, it was too deep for some folks to handle, so they ignore a 16 and a half minute speech and its content AND CONTEXT, and focus on one phrase uttered within the first MINUTE of the speech. You know what this reminds me of: Then Senator Obama's speech in Hampton, Virginia in October 2007, when the basics of an Urban Policy were given out, and the only thing the ' media' could point out was the phrase ' quiet riot'. Choosing 'points' which they can exploit, twist and bend, to get off the MAIN point of a speech of depth, substance and meaning.

The sentiments behind Holder's speech were nothing that MOA readers don't talk about routinely:
1. That in studying the REAL history of America, you have to study Black folk.
2. That to get to the HEART of this country, you have to go through Black folk.
3. When this country has been forced to live up to its creed, it's been Black faces behind it.
4. That Black History IS the history of America.
5. That separating out Black History somehow makes it seem like it's not mainstream American history.

Are these NOT conversations that we have routinely here at MOA?

Here is the ENTIRE text of the Attorney General's remarks. Read for yourself in how they have been PURPOSEFULLY DISTORTED.

Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by Attorney General Eric Holder at the Department of Justice African American History Month Program

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Every year, in February, we attempt to recognize and to appreciate black history. It is a worthwhile endeavor for the contributions of African Americans to this great nation are numerous and significant. Even as we fight a war against terrorism, deal with the reality of electing an African American as our President for the first time and deal with the other significant issues of the day, the need to confront our racial past, and our racial present, and to understand the history of African people in this country, endures. One cannot truly understand America without understanding the historical experience of black people in this nation. Simply put, to get to the heart of this country one must examine its racial soul.

Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards. Though race related issues continue to occupy a significant portion of our political discussion, and though there remain many unresolved racial issues in this nation, we, average Americans, simply do not talk enough with each other about race. It is an issue we have never been at ease with and given our nation’s history this is in some ways understandable. And yet, if we are to make progress in this area we must feel comfortable enough with one another, and tolerant enough of each other, to have frank conversations about the racial matters that continue to divide us. But we must do more- and we in this room bear a special responsibility. Through its work and through its example this Department of Justice, as long as I am here, must - and will - lead the nation to the "new birth of freedom" so long ago promised by our greatest President. This is our duty and our solemn obligation.

We commemorated five years ago, the 50th anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision. And though the world in which we now live is fundamentally different than that which existed then, this nation has still not come to grips with its racial past nor has it been willing to contemplate, in a truly meaningful way, the diverse future it is fated to have. To our detriment, this is typical of the way in which this nation deals with issues of race. And so I would suggest that we use February of every year to not only commemorate black history but also to foster a period of dialogue among the races. This is admittedly an artificial device to generate discussion that should come more naturally, but our history is such that we must find ways to force ourselves to confront that which we have become expert at avoiding.

As a nation we have done a pretty good job in melding the races in the workplace. We work with one another, lunch together and, when the event is at the workplace during work hours or shortly thereafter, we socialize with one another fairly well, irrespective of race. And yet even this interaction operates within certain limitations. We know, by "American instinct" and by learned behavior, that certain subjects are off limits and that to explore them risks, at best embarrassment, and, at worst, the questioning of one’s character. And outside the workplace the situation is even more bleak in that there is almost no significant interaction between us. On Saturdays and Sundays America in the year 2009 does not, in some ways, differ significantly from the country that existed some fifty years ago. This is truly sad. Given all that we as a nation went through during the civil rights struggle it is hard for me to accept that the result of those efforts was to create an America that is more prosperous, more positively race conscious and yet is voluntarily socially segregated.

As a nation we should use Black History month as a means to deal with this continuing problem. By creating what will admittedly be, at first, artificial opportunities to engage one another we can hasten the day when the dream of individual, character based, acceptance can actually be realized. To respect one another we must have a basic understanding of one another. And so we should use events such as this to not only learn more about the facts of black history but also to learn more about each other. This will be, at first, a process that is both awkward and painful but the rewards are potentially great. The alternative is to allow to continue the polite, restrained mixing that now passes as meaningful interaction but that accomplishes little. Imagine if you will situations where people- regardless of their skin color- could confront racial issues freely and without fear. The potential of this country, that is becoming increasingly diverse, would be greatly enhanced. I fear however, that we are taking steps that, rather than advancing us as a nation are actually dividing us even further. We still speak too much of "them" and not "us". There can, for instance, be very legitimate debate about the question of affirmative action. This debate can, and should, be nuanced, principled and spirited. But the conversation that we now engage in as a nation on this and other racial subjects is too often simplistic and left to those on the extremes who are not hesitant to use these issues to advance nothing more than their own, narrow self interest. Our history has demonstrated that the vast majority of Americans are uncomfortable with, and would like to not have to deal with, racial matters and that is why those, black or white, elected or self-appointed, who promise relief in easy, quick solutions, no matter how divisive, are embraced. We are then free to retreat to our race protected cocoons where much is comfortable and where progress is not really made. If we allow this attitude to persist in the face of the most significant demographic changes that this nation has ever confronted- and remember, there will be no majority race in America in about fifty years- the coming diversity that could be such a powerful, positive force will, instead, become a reason for stagnation and polarization. We cannot allow this to happen and one way to prevent such an unwelcome outcome is to engage one another more routinely- and to do so now.

As I indicated before, the artificial device that is Black History month is a perfect vehicle for the beginnings of such a dialogue. And so I urge all of you to use the opportunity of this month to talk with your friends and co-workers on the other side of the divide about racial matters. In this way we can hasten the day when we truly become one America.

It is also clear that if we are to better understand one another the study of black history is essential because the history of black America and the history of this nation are inextricably tied to each other. It is for this reason that the study of black history is important to everyone- black or white. For example, the history of the United States in the nineteenth century revolves around a resolution of the question of how America was going to deal with its black inhabitants. The great debates of that era and the war that was ultimately fought are all centered around the issue of, initially, slavery and then the reconstruction of the vanquished region. A dominant domestic issue throughout the twentieth century was, again, America's treatment of its black citizens. The civil rights movement of the 1950's and 1960's changed America in truly fundamental ways. Americans of all colors were forced to examine basic beliefs and long held views. Even so, most people, who are not conversant with history, still do not really comprehend the way in which that movement transformed America. In racial terms the country that existed before the civil rights struggle is almost unrecognizable to us today. Separate public facilities, separate entrances, poll taxes, legal discrimination, forced labor, in essence an American apartheid, all were part of an America that the movement destroyed. To attend her state’s taxpayer supported college in 1963 my late sister in law had to be escorted to class by United States Marshals and past the state’s governor, George Wallace. That frightening reality seems almost unthinkable to us now. The civil rights movement made America, if not perfect, better.

In addition, the other major social movements of the latter half of the twentieth century- feminism, the nation's treatment of other minority groups, even the anti-war effort- were all tied in some way to the spirit that was set free by the quest for African American equality. Those other movements may have occurred in the absence of the civil rights struggle but the fight for black equality came first and helped to shape the way in which other groups of people came to think of themselves and to raise their desire for equal treatment. Further, many of the tactics that were used by these other groups were developed in the civil rights movement.

And today the link between the black experience and this country is still evident. While the problems that continue to afflict the black community may be more severe, they are an indication of where the rest of the nation may be if corrective measures are not taken. Our inner cities are still too conversant with crime but the level of fear generated by that crime, now found in once quiet, and now electronically padlocked suburbs is alarming and further demonstrates that our past, present and future are linked. It is not safe for this nation to assume that the unaddressed social problems in the poorest parts of our country can be isolated and will not ultimately affect the larger society.

Black history is extremely important because it is American history. Given this, it is in some ways sad that there is a need for a black history month. Though we are all enlarged by our study and knowledge of the roles played by blacks in American history, and though there is a crying need for all of us to know and acknowledge the contributions of black America, a black history month is a testament to the problem that has afflicted blacks throughout our stay in this country. Black history is given a separate, and clearly not equal, treatment by our society in general and by our educational institutions in particular. As a former American history major I am struck by the fact that such a major part of our national story has been divorced from the whole. In law, culture, science, athletics, industry and other fields, knowledge of the roles played by blacks is critical to an understanding of the American experiment. For too long we have been too willing to segregate the study of black history. There is clearly a need at present for a device that focuses the attention of the country on the study of the history of its black citizens. But we must endeavor to integrate black history into our culture and into our curriculums in ways in which it has never occurred before so that the study of black history, and a recognition of the contributions of black Americans, become commonplace. Until that time, Black History Month must remain an important, vital concept. But we have to recognize that until black history is included in the standard curriculum in our schools and becomes a regular part of all our lives, it will be viewed as a novelty, relatively unimportant and not as weighty as so called "real" American history.

I, like many in my generation, have been fortunate in my life and have had a great number of wonderful opportunities. Some may consider me to be a part of black history. But we do a great disservice to the concept of black history recognition if we fail to understand that any success that I have had, cannot be viewed in isolation. I stood, and stand, on the shoulders of many other black Americans. Admittedly, the identities of some of these people, through the passage of time, have become lost to us- the men, and women, who labored long in fields, who were later legally and systemically discriminated against, who were lynched by the hundreds in the century just past and those others who have been too long denied the fruits of our great American culture. The names of too many of these people, these heroes and heroines, are lost to us. But the names of others of these people should strike a resonant chord in the historical ear of all in our nation: Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. DuBois, Walter White, Langston Hughes, Marcus Garvey, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Joe Louis, Jackie Robinson, Charles Drew, Paul Robeson, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Vivian Malone, Rosa Parks, Marion Anderson, Emmit Till. These are just some of the people who should be generally recognized and are just some of the people to whom all of us, black and white, owe such a debt of gratitude. It is on their broad shoulders that I stand as I hope that others will some day stand on my more narrow ones.

Black history is a subject worthy of study by all our nation's people. Blacks have played a unique, productive role in the development of America. Perhaps the greatest strength of the United States is the diversity of its people and to truly understand this country one must have knowledge of its constituent parts. But an unstudied, not discussed and ultimately misunderstood diversity can become a divisive force. An appreciation of the unique black past, acquired through the study of black history, will help lead to understanding and true compassion in the present, where it is still so sorely needed, and to a future where all of our people are truly valued.

Thank you.

Black History Month Daily Thread

Today, JJP presents 3 organizing foot soldiers in the Civil Rights Movement: E.D. Nixon, Vernon Johns, Daisy Bates. Three who definitely paved the way.

E.D. Nixon

Edgar Daniel Nixon (July 12, 1899 – February 25, 1987) was an American civil rights leader and union organizer who played a crucial role in organizing the famous Montgomery Bus Boycott in Montgomery, Alabama. Nixon also led the Montgomery branch of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters union, known as the Pullman Porters Union. Nixon also served as president of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Montgomery Welfare League, and the Montgomery Voters League.

In the early 1950s, Nixon and Jo Ann Robinson, president of the Women's Political Council decided to mount a court challenge to the discriminatory seating practices on Montgomery's municipal buses along with a boycott of the bus company. A Montgomery ordinance reserved the front seats on these buses for white passengers only, forcing African-American riders to sit in the back. Before the activists could mount the court challenge, they needed someone to voluntarily break this bus seating law and be arrested for it. Nixon carefully searched for a suitable plaintiff. He rejected one candidate because he didn't believe she had the fortitude to see the case through. Nixon rejected a second candidate because she was an unwed mother and a third candidate because her father was an alcoholic.

The final choice was Rosa Parks, the elected secretary of the Montgomery NAACP. On December 1, 1955, Parks entered a Montgomery bus, refused to give up her seat for a white passenger, and was then arrested. After being called about Parks' arrest, Nixon went to bail her out of jail. He arranged for Parks' friend Clifford Durr, a sympathetic white lawyer, to represent her. After years working with Parks, Nixon was certain that she was the ideal candidate to challenge the discriminatory seating policy. Even so, Nixon had to persuade Parks to lead the fight. After consulting with her mother and husband, Parks accepted the challenge.

Vernon Johns

Vernon Johns (April 22, 1892 – June 11, 1965) was an American minister and civil rights leader who was active in the struggle for civil rights for African Americans from the 1920s.

He is considered the father of the American Civil Rights Movement, having laid the foundation on which Martin Luther King, Jr. and others would build. He was Dr. King's predecessor as pastor at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama from 1947 to 1952, and a mentor of Ralph Abernathy, Wyatt Walker, and many others in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Johns was born in Darlington Heights, Prince Edward County, Virginia. He died of a heart attack in Washington, D.C. at age 73. David Anderson Elementary School in Petersburg, VA was renamed 'Vernon Johns Middle School' several years ago. In 2009 it will become the junior high school for the city school system.

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE PROPHET VERNON JOHNS: FATHER OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

Johns' Famous Sermon: Transfigured Moments



Daisy Bates

Daisy Lee Gatson Bates (November 11, 1914 in Huttig, Arkansas – November 4, 1999 in Little Rock, Arkansas) was an American civil rights leader, journalist, publisher, and author who played a leading role in the Little Rock integration crisis of 1957.

Bates' mother was murdered while resisting three local white men who were attempting to rape her. Her father left the family shortly after her mother's death and she was raised by friends of the family, Orle and Susie Smith.

At the age of 15, Daisy became the object of an older man’s attention. L.C. Bates, an insurance salesman who had also worked on newspapers in the South and West. L.C. dated her for several years, and they married in 1942, living in Little Rock. The Bates decided to act on a dream of theirs, to run their own newspaper, leasing a printing plant that belonged to a church publication and inaugurating the Arkansas State Press. The first issue appeared on May 9, 1941. The paper became an avid voice for civil rights even before a nationally recognized movement had emerged.

In 1952, Daisy Bates was elected president of the Arkansas State Conference of NAACP branches.

Bates and her husband L.C. Bates were important figures in the Little Rock Integration Crisis in 1957. The Bates published a local black newspaper, the Arkansas State Press, which publicized violations of the Supreme Court's desegregation rulings.

Bates guided and advised the nine students, known as the Little Rock Nine, when they attempted to enroll at Little Rock Central High School, a previously all white school, in 1957. The students' attempts to enroll provoked a confrontation with Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus, who called out the National Guard to prevent the students from enrolling. White mobs met at the school, threatening to kill the black students; these mobs harassed not only activists but also northern journalists who came to cover the story. Bates was a pivotal figure in that seminal moment of the civil rights movement. As a publisher and journalist, she was also a witness and advocate on a larger scale.

The city council instructed the Little Rock police chief to arrest Bates and other NAACP officials; she and the local branch president surrendered voluntarily. They were charged with failing to provide information about members for the public record, in violation of a city ordinance. Though Bates was charged a fine by the judge, NAACP lawyers appealed and eventually won a reversal in the United States Supreme Court.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower intervened by federalizing the Arkansas National Guard and dispatching the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock to ensure that the court orders were enforced.

Their involvement in the Little Rock Crisis resulted in the loss of much advertising revenue to their newspaper and it was forced to close in 1959. In 1960, Daisy Bates moved to New York City and wrote her memoir, The Long Shadow of Little Rock, which won a 1988 National Book Award.

Media:

Freedom is Never Free; a Biographical Portrait of E. D. Nixon, Sr. by Lewis V. Baldwin (Author), Aprille V. Woodson (Author)

The Vernon Johns Story (True Stories Collection TV Movie) (1994)-DVD
Starring: James Earl Jones, Garland Bunting

The Long Shadow of Little Rock: A Memoir by Daisy Bates (Author), Eleanor Roosevelt (Foreword), Clayborne Carson (Afterword)

The Power of One: Daisy Bates and the Little Rock Nine by Judith Bloom Fradin and Dennis Brindell Fradin

Daisy Bates: Civil Rights Crusader from Arkansas (Margaret Walker Alexander Series in African American Studies) by Grif Stockley

Rev. Al Sharpton on Olbermann (about the monkey cartoon)

The First Lady Hosts Children at The White House

New York Post Portrays Obama as An Ape

Then tries to say it's not racist.

I was waiting on the first Post-inaugural story where the President would be portrayed as an animal. We knew this was coming. And I'm sure we can count on seeing a lot more.

The NY Post published the above cartoon from artist Sean Delonas today... and they are now defending his work. They claim that it's no big deal... that the artist didn't mean anything by it. Afterall... we are in a Post-racial America now... so this stuff shouldn't bother you Blacks so much anymore. Grow Up!!! That was the gist of the papers' comments defending the blatantly racist cartoon.

So are we going to have to put up with this kind of sickness for at least the next 4 years... under this kind of reasoning?

If Obama doesn't come out, draw a line, and make it clear that this was inappropriate... then other such cartoons will follow in legitimate newspapers. They are under the false impression that this "post-racial" thing means that there are no boundaries.

As for Delonas... this apparently isn't his first slip up.

What's even more ominous about this cartoon... is that it sends a couple of troubling messages... not just one. Of course the racism is obvious. But it also desensitizes the idea of shooting the President. The shooting of the President in a political cartoon???? Yes, I know this is Amerikkka and all... but I don't recall ever seeing that portrayed in this particular kind of way...not in a cartoon...portrayed as something funny. I definitely don't recall this being done when the Presidents were from the white male club. Not in a legitimate mainstream newspaper. Something like that would usually be seen as patently offensive and wouldn't get passed the editors...and rightfully so.

Ahh... Angry Independent... stop overreacting... the scene in the cartoon refers to the shooting of the pet chimp in Connecticut. Yeah... what a convenient cover.

The fact is... the two stories don't even mesh well together... one has nothing to do with the other...and the cartoon isn't funny by any stretch of the imagination.
This isn't about the editors not seeing the cartoon prior to publication. I think they saw it...and approved it...and had their arguments ready. They simply responded too quick to the criticism. But how they can defend Sean Delonas or themselves, is beyond me. This is an especially strange move for a newspaper considering how the newspaper industry is struggling right now. Hopefully a few companies will pull their ads. Not likely... but it would be nice to see. Since the editors and the management officially want to stand by their racist employees... then they should be prepared to face any economic consequences that might come their way.



UPDATE:

Baratunde Thurston... our neighbor from Jack and Jill Politics, discusses the NY Post fiasco on MSNBC. See video courtesy of Pam Spaulding's blog. Even host David Shuster couldn't hold back on how inappropriate this was.


UPDATE 2:

Hear an interview with Richard Prince from last year regarding the New Yorker Magazine "satire". Some of the issues raised by Prince then also apply in this case. You can also read his comments on this latest fiasco at the New York Post.

Kit Bond and Other Republicans Are Being Slick

They are quietly playing both sides of the fence on the economic recovery legislation (when in reality they hope that the economy collapses because they see that as a path to return to power in 2010, 2012 and beyond). And by playing both sides, they are hoping that they can fool the public.... and sadly...they might succeed in doing it. Americans have a very short memory.

But this just shows how depraved the Republicans are.

Kit Bond has been traveling Missouri touting the creation of jobs from the Stimulus....basically taking credit for job creation that he had nothing to do with...since he voted against the legislation....twice. Wait a minute Mr. Bond... didn't you just slam the bill.... claiming that it wouldn't create jobs? Now you are taking credit for creating jobs from the stimulus in small town Missouri?

Unreal! Republicans are something else.

Update to the Rihanna Nonsense

Why are Blacks defending Chris Brown? And it's coming from at least a few Black women....

See post w/ update (prepare to throw up).

The President's Housing Plan

Text as posted for delivery:

I’m here today to talk about a crisis unlike any we’ve ever known — but one that you know very well here in Mesa, and throughout the Valley. In Phoenix and its surrounding suburbs, the American Dream is being tested by a home mortgage crisis that not only threatens the stability of our economy but also the stability of families and neighborhoods. It is a crisis that strikes at the heart of the middle class: the homes in which we invest our savings, build our lives, raise our families, and plant roots in our communities.

So many Americans have shared with me their personal experiences of this crisis. Many have written letters or emails or shared their stories with me at rallies and along rope lines. Their hardship and heartbreak are a reminder that while this crisis is vast, it begins just one house — and one family — at a time.

It begins with a young family — maybe in Mesa, or Glendale, or Tempe — or just as likely in suburban Las Vegas, Cleveland, or Miami. They save up. They search. They choose a home that feels like the perfect place to start a life. They secure a fixed-rate mortgage at a reasonable rate, make a down payment, and make their mortgage payments each month. They are as responsible as anyone could ask them to be.

But then they learn that acting responsibly often isn’t enough to escape this crisis. Perhaps someone loses a job in the latest round of layoffs, one of more than three and a half million jobs lost since this recession began — or maybe a child gets sick, or a spouse has his or her hours cut.

In the past, if you found yourself in a situation like this, you could have sold your home and bought a smaller one with more affordable payments. Or you could have refinanced your home at a lower rate. But today, home values have fallen so sharply that even if you made a large down payment, the current value of your mortgage may still be higher than the current value of your house. So no bank will return your calls, and no sale will return your investment.

You can't afford to leave and you can't afford to stay. So you cut back on luxuries. Then you cut back on necessities. You spend down your savings to keep up with your payments. Then you open the retirement fund. Then you use the credit cards. And when you’ve gone through everything you have, and done everything you can, you have no choice but to default on your loan. And so your home joins the nearly six million others in foreclosure or at risk of foreclosure across the country, including roughly 150,000 right here in Arizona.

But the foreclosures which are uprooting families and upending lives across America are only one part of this housing crisis. For while there are millions of families who face foreclosure, there are millions more who are in no danger of losing their homes, but who have still seen their dreams endangered. They are families who see “For Sale” signs lining the streets. Who see neighbors leave, and homes standing vacant, and lawns slowly turning brown. They see their own homes — their largest single assets — plummeting in value. One study in Chicago found that a foreclosed home reduces the price of nearby homes by as much as 9 percent. Home prices in cities across the country have fallen by more than 25 percent since 2006; in Phoenix, they’ve fallen by 43 percent.

Even if your neighborhood hasn’t been hit by foreclosures, you’re likely feeling the effects of the crisis in other ways. Companies in your community that depend on the housing market — construction companies and home furnishing stores, painters and landscapers — they’re cutting back and laying people off. The number of residential construction jobs has fallen by more than a quarter million since mid-2006. As businesses lose revenue and people lose income, the tax base shrinks, which means less money for schools and police and fire departments. And on top of this, the costs to a local government associated with a single foreclosure can be as high as $20,000.

The effects of this crisis have also reverberated across the financial markets. When the housing market collapsed, so did the availability of credit on which our economy depends. As that credit has dried up, it has been harder for families to find affordable loans to purchase a car or pay tuition and harder for businesses to secure the capital they need to expand and create jobs.

In the end, all of us are paying a price for this home mortgage crisis. And all of us will pay an even steeper price if we allow this crisis to deepen — a crisis which is unraveling homeownership, the middle class, and the American Dream itself. But if we act boldly and swiftly to arrest this downward spiral, every American will benefit. And that’s what I want to talk about today.

The plan I’m announcing focuses on rescuing families who have played by the rules and acted responsibly: by refinancing loans for millions of families in traditional mortgages who are underwater or close to it; by modifying loans for families stuck in subprime mortgages they can’t afford as a result of skyrocketing interest rates or personal misfortune; and by taking broader steps to keep mortgage rates low so that families can secure loans with affordable monthly payments.

At the same time, this plan must be viewed in a larger context. A lost home often begins with a lost job. Many businesses have laid off workers for a lack of revenue and available capital. Credit has become scarce as the markets have been overwhelmed by the collapse of securities backed by failing mortgages. In the end, the home mortgage crisis, the financial crisis, and this broader economic crisis are interconnected. We cannot successfully address any one of them without addressing them all.

Yesterday, in Denver, I signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act which will create or save three and a half million jobs over the next two years — including 70,000 in Arizona — doing the work America needs done. We will also work to stabilize, repair, and reform our financial system to get credit flowing again to families and businesses. And we will pursue the housing plan I am outlining today.

Through this plan, we will help between seven and nine million families restructure or refinance their mortgages so they can avoid foreclosure. And we are not just helping homeowners at risk of falling over the edge, we are preventing their neighbors from being pulled over that edge too — as defaults and foreclosures contribute to sinking home values, failing local businesses, and lost jobs.

But I also want to be very clear about what this plan will not do: It will not rescue the unscrupulous or irresponsible by throwing good taxpayer money after bad loans. It will not help speculators who took risky bets on a rising market and bought homes not to live in but to sell. It will not help dishonest lenders who acted irresponsibility, distorting the facts and dismissing the fine print at the expense of buyers who didn’t know better. And it will not reward folks who bought homes they knew from the beginning they would never be able to afford. In short, this plan will not save every home.

But it will give millions of families resigned to financial ruin a chance to rebuild. It will prevent the worst consequences of this crisis from wreaking even greater havoc on the economy. And by bringing down the foreclosure rate, it will help to shore up housing prices for everyone. According to estimates by the Treasury Department, this plan could stop the slide in home prices due to neighboring foreclosures by about $6,000 per home.

Here is how my plan works:

First, we will make it possible for an estimated four to five million currently ineligible homeowners who receive their mortgages through Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac to refinance their mortgages at lower rates.

Today, as a result of declining home values, millions of families are “underwater,” which means they owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth. These families are unable to sell their homes, and unable to refinance them. So in the event of a job loss or another emergency, their options are limited.

Right now, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — the institutions that guarantee home loans for millions of middle class families — are generally not permitted to guarantee refinancing for mortgages valued at more than 80 percent of the home’s worth. So families who are underwater — or close to being underwater — cannot turn to these lending institutions for help.

My plan changes that by removing this restriction on Fannie and Freddie so that they can refinance mortgages they already own or guarantee. This will allow millions of families stuck with loans at a higher rate to refinance. And the estimated cost to taxpayers would be roughly zero; while Fannie and Freddie would receive less money in payments, this would be balanced out by a reduction in defaults and foreclosures.

I also want to point out that millions of other households could benefit from historically low interest rates if they refinance, though many don't know that this opportunity is available to them — an opportunity that could save families hundreds of dollars each month. And the efforts we are taking to stabilize mortgage markets will help these borrowers to secure more affordable terms, too.

Second, we will create new incentives so that lenders work with borrowers to modify the terms of subprime loans at risk of default and foreclosure.

Subprime loans — loans with high rates and complex terms that often conceal their costs — make up only 12 percent of all mortgages, but account for roughly half of all foreclosures.

Right now, when families with these mortgages seek to modify a loan to avoid this fate, they often find themselves navigating a maze of rules and regulations but rarely finding answers. Some subprime lenders are willing to renegotiate; many aren’t. Your ability to restructure your loan depends on where you live, the company that owns or manages your loan, or even the agent who happens to answer the phone on the day you call.

My plan establishes clear guidelines for the entire mortgage industry that will encourage lenders to modify mortgages on primary residences. Any institution that wishes to receive financial assistance from the government, and to modify home mortgages, will have to do so according to these guidelines — which will be in place two weeks from today.

If lenders and homebuyers work together, and the lender agrees to offer rates that the borrower can afford, we’ll make up part of the gap between what the old payments were and what the new payments will be. And under this plan, lenders who participate will be required to reduce those payments to no more than 31 percent of a borrower’s income. This will enable as many as three to four million homeowners to modify the terms of their mortgages to avoid foreclosure.

So this part of the plan will require both buyers and lenders to step up and do their part. Lenders will need to lower interest rates and share in the costs of reduced monthly payments in order to prevent another wave of foreclosures. Borrowers will be required to make payments on time in return for this opportunity to reduce those payments.

I also want to be clear that there will be a cost associated with this plan. But by making these investments in foreclosure-prevention today, we will save ourselves the costs of foreclosure tomorrow — costs borne not just by families with troubled loans, but by their neighbors and communities and by our economy as a whole. Given the magnitude of these costs, it is a price well worth paying.

Third, we will take major steps to keep mortgage rates low for millions of middle class families looking to secure new mortgages.

Today, most new home loans are backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which guarantee loans and set standards to keep mortgage rates low and to keep mortgage financing available and predictable for middle class families. This function is profoundly important, especially now as we grapple with a crisis that would only worsen if we were to allow further disruptions in our mortgage markets.

Therefore, using the funds already approved by Congress for this purpose, the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve will continue to purchase Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage-backed securities so that there is stability and liquidity in the marketplace. Through its existing authority Treasury will provide up to $200 billion in capital to ensure that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can continue to stabilize markets and hold mortgage rates down.

We’re also going to work with Fannie and Freddie on other strategies to bolster the mortgage markets, like working with state housing finance agencies to increase their liquidity. And as we seek to ensure that these institutions continue to perform what is a vital function on behalf of middle class families, we also need to maintain transparency and strong oversight so that they do so in responsible and effective ways.

Fourth, we will pursue a wide range of reforms designed to help families stay in their homes and avoid foreclosure.

My administration will continue to support reforming our bankruptcy rules so that we allow judges to reduce home mortgages on primary residences to their fair market value — as long as borrowers pay their debts under a court-ordered plan. That’s the rule for investors who own two, three, and four homes. It should be the rule for ordinary homeowners too, as an alternative to foreclosure.

In addition, as part of the recovery plan I signed into law yesterday, we are going to award $2 billion in competitive grants to communities that are bringing together stakeholders and testing new and innovative ways to prevent foreclosures. Communities have shown a lot of initiative, taking responsibility for this crisis when many others have not. Supporting these neighborhood efforts is exactly what we should be doing.

Taken together, the provisions of this plan will help us end this crisis and preserve for millions of families their stake in the American Dream. But we must also acknowledge the limits of this plan.

Our housing crisis was born of eroding home values, but also of the erosion of our common values. It was brought about by big banks that traded in risky mortgages in return for profits that were literally too good to be true; by lenders who knowingly took advantage of homebuyers; by homebuyers who knowingly borrowed too much from lenders; by speculators who gambled on rising prices; and by leaders in our nation’s capital who failed to act amidst a deepening crisis.

So solving this crisis will require more than resources — it will require all of us to take responsibility. Government must take responsibility for setting rules of the road that are fair and fairly enforced. Banks and lenders must be held accountable for ending the practices that got us into this crisis in the first place. Individuals must take responsibility for their own actions. And all of us must learn to live within our means again.

These are the values that have defined this nation. These are values that have given substance to our faith in the American Dream. And these are the values that we must restore now at this defining moment.

It will not be easy. But if we move forward with purpose and resolve — with a deepened appreciation for how fundamental the American Dream is and how fragile it can be when we fail in our collective responsibilities — then I am confident we will overcome this crisis and once again secure that dream for ourselves and for generations to come.

Thank you, God Bless you, and God bless America.

44 Presidents

44 Presidents by Rhythm, Rhyme, Results

Black History Month Daily Thread

An Economic Freedom Fighter - Curt Flood

Curtis Charles Flood (January 18, 1938–January 20, 1997) was a Major League Baseball player who spent most of his career as a center fielder for the St. Louis Cardinals. A defensive standout, he led the National League in putouts four times and in fielding percentage twice, winning Gold Glove Awards in his last seven full seasons from 1963–1969. He also batted over .300 six times, and led the NL in hits (211) in 1964. He retired with the third most games in center field (1683) in NL history, trailing only Willie Mays and Richie Ashburn.

Flood became one of the pivotal figures in the sport's labor history when he refused to accept a trade following the 1969 season, ultimately appealing his case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Although his legal challenge was unsuccessful, it brought about additional solidarity among players as they fought against baseball's reserve clause and sought free agency.

Despite his outstanding playing career, Flood's principal legacy developed off the field. He believed that Major League Baseball's decades-old reserve clause was unfair in that it kept players beholden for life to the team with whom they originally signed, even when they had satisfied the terms and conditions of those contracts.

On October 7, 1969, the Cardinals traded Flood, catcher Tim McCarver, outfielder Byron Browne, and left-handed pitcher Joe Hoerner to the Philadelphia Phillies for first baseman Dick Allen, second baseman Cookie Rojas, and right-handed pitcher Jerry Johnson. However, Flood refused to report to the moribund Phillies, citing the team's poor record and the fact that they played in dilapidated Connie Mack Stadium before belligerent – and, Flood believed, racist – fans. Some reports say he was also irritated that he had learned of the trade from a reporter,but Flood's autobiography says he learned of the trade from mid-level Cardinal's management and he was angry that the call did not come from the general manager. He forfeited a relatively lucrative $100,000 contract by his refusal to be traded, and consulted with players' union head Marvin Miller.He also met with Phillies general manager John Quinn, who left the meeting with the belief that he had convinced Flood to report to the team. After being advised that the union was prepared to pay the costs of the lawsuit, he chose to proceed.

In a letter to Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, Flood demanded that the commissioner declare him a free agent:

December 24, 1969
After twelve years in the major leagues, I do not feel I am a piece of property to be bought and sold irrespective of my wishes. I believe that any system which produces that result violates my basic rights as a citizen and is inconsistent with the laws of the United States and of the several States.

It is my desire to play baseball in 1970, and I am capable of playing. I have received a contract offer from the Philadelphia club, but I believe I have the right to consider offers from other clubs before making any decision. I, therefore, request that you make known to all Major League clubs my feelings in this matter, and advise them of my availability for the 1970 season.





Commissioner Kuhn denied his request, citing the propriety of the reserve clause and its inclusion in Flood's 1969 contract. In response, Flood filed a $1 million lawsuit (which would be automatically tripled under the Sherman Act) against Kuhn and Major League Baseball on January 16, 1970, alleging that Major League Baseball had violated federal antitrust laws. Even though Flood was making $90,000 at the time, he likened the reserve clause to slavery; it was a controversial analogy, even among those who opposed the reserve clause. Among those testifying on his behalf were former players Jackie Robinson and Hank Greenberg, and former owner Bill Veeck; no active players testified, nor did any attend the trial. Although the player representatives had voted unanimously to support the suit, rank-and-file players were strongly divided, with many fervently supporting the management position.

The case, Flood v. Kuhn (407 U.S. 258), eventually went to the Supreme Court. Flood's attorney, former Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg, asserted that the reserve clause depressed wages and limited players to one team for life. Major League Baseball's counsel countered that Commissioner Kuhn acted in the way he did "for the good of the game."

Ultimately, the Supreme Court, acting on stare decisis "to stand by things decided", ruled 5–3 in favor of Major League Baseball, upholding a 1922 ruling in the case of Federal Baseball Club v. National League (259 U.S. 200). Justice Lewis Powell did not participate in the case due to his ownership of stock in Anheuser-Busch, which owned the Cardinals.

Flood sat out the entire 1970 season. Eventually, the Cardinals were forced to give up two minor leaguers to the Phillies in compensation for Flood's refusal to report, one of whom – center fielder Willie Montañez – went on to have a 14-year career. Meanwhile, in November 1970 Flood was sent by the Phillies to the Washington Senators in a five-player trade, and signed a $110,000 contract with Washington. He ended his career with 13 games for the Senators in 1971, in which he batted only .200 and had lackluster play in center field. Former teammate Gibson later wrote that Flood once returned to his locker to find a funeral wreath on it. Despite manager Ted Williams' vote of confidence, Flood retired. He had a lifetime batting average of .293 with 1861 hits, 85 home runs, 851 runs and 636 RBI. Lou Brock called him a primary reason for his great success during the prime of his career.

Later that year, Flood wrote an autobiography entitled The Way It Is. He also indulged in his love of painting. Ultimately, the reserve clause was struck down in 1975 when arbitrator Peter Seitz ruled that since pitchers Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally played for one season without a contract, they could become free agents. This decision essentially dismantled the reserve clause and opened the door to widespread free agency.

Flood vs. Kuhn

Books:

The Way It Is by Curt Flood

A Well-Paid Slave: Curt Flood's Fight for Free Agency in Professional Sports by Brad Snyder

One Man Out: Curt Flood Versus Baseball by Robert M. Goldman

The Curt Flood Story: The Man Behind the Myth by Stuart L. Weiss

Stepping Up: The Story of All-Star Curt Flood and His Fight for Baseball Players' Rights by Alex Belth (Author), Tim McCarver (Foreword)

Baseball's Reserve System: The Case and Trial of Curt Flood Vs. Major League Baseball by Neil F. Flynn

U.S. Senate to vote on DC House seat

From UPI

U.S. Senate to vote on DC House seat
Published: Feb. 15, 2009 at 8:07

WASHINGTON, Feb. 15 (UPI) -- District of Columbia leaders say a milestone in their efforts to gain a voting member in the U.S. House of Representative is approaching.

The U.S. Senate is scheduled to vote this week on a bill to establish a House seat for the District, which includes the city of Washington, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., moved Friday to send the bill to the Senate floor for debate Feb. 23 -- the first major bill on tap after Congress returns from the Presidents' Day break -- with a preliminary vote scheduled for Feb. 24, the newspaper said.

A similar effort failed in 2007 when Democrats could not secure the 60 votes needed to push the bill through the Senate.

Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District's non-voting delegate to the House, predicted a bipartisan group of 63 or 64 senators will support the move this year.

"We do believe we have the votes," she said, adding she expects "mischief" from senators who are opposed to the bill.


© 2009 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Well, it's past time that this happened. I could be conspiratorial, but I won't.

Dr. Cornel West Unplugged!

Or should I say plugged in?

Hear Dr. Cornel West giving his annual address at the St. Sabina Catholic Church in Chicago earlier this month.

I don't agree with everything Cornel West has to say or believes... but he usually makes a cogent argument in his speeches.

He takes the gloves off in this one :)

Enjoy!

Listen Here (you may need to turn off your firewall temporarily so that the audio will load)

More on Roland Burris - Yet Another Revelation

Not only did Burris fail to mention that he was approached for a bribe by someone in the Blago camp.... but it now looks like he failed to mention an even more explosive fact - That he actually tried to pay the bribe.

Lord Please Have Mercy!!!!

This is why I was so skeptical and cautious about Burris... this is why I am cautious when Black folks are screaming about the need for a Black person to be in a certain position just because they are Black (I really hate that nonsense) ignoring all context - ignoring everything else about the individual or the circumstances surrounding the appointment. This kind of blind race allegiance can lead down a rat hole so easily and leave Black folks worse off in the end. I wish more Black people would stop with this mentality... and realize that they should judge individuals on the merits.... not based on Race. I believe that race can be a factor sometimes.... but not most of the time and it certainly shouldn't be the only factor or even factor number one. An occasional factor under certain circumstances-- yes. Blind allegiance for a Black person at all costs...because they are Black-- absolutely not. This is one of the reasons why Black folks are in the condition that they are in today. The racial litmus test has not been good for them (although many are so brain screwed that they are convinced that it has been great for them). Just look at America's chocolate cities where Blacks have been running the show for years. And yes, I still believe that Tammy Duckworth (a white woman...an extraordinary woman) would have been a kick ass Senator...probably one of the greatest to ever serve. But Negroes are too worried about skin color (as if they have a claim on a Senate seat based on some legally established race quota... it's sickening and embarrassing).

Now exactly what I stated would happen...is probably going to happen after this. Burris has made the road tougher for decent, qualified Blacks who may seek a Senate seat in the future. Future Black Senate candidates will have to be burdened by this Bull----. We know that's true. Blacks are so often judged by the wider society by what some other fool has done before...even when we have nothing to do with that person. It happens in the workplace all the time (I can tell you some stories that involved me in the workplace...but i'll spare you). This is especially true when Blacks are just breaking ground in a new area.... just like the U.S. Senate...an institution where Blacks are so much of a minority and where they are slowly trying to gain footing. This will make it especially difficult for those Black candidates who may come behind Burris. The damage is incalculable.

Harry Reid should be removed from his position immediately.... There are plenty of Democratic Senators who could provide real leadership. Reid is a disgrace. Not only did Reid cave and embarrass himself and his Party... but he helped to facilitate and enable Burris and Blago. Nice going.

Oh.. by the way... Burris is now under criminal investigation in Illinois for all of this. (See additional report from the New York Times). Hopefully he will be indicted and removed from office (only a remote possibility at this point, but it's the most hopeful sign in months that something might finally be done).

_______________________

Related Post

Politico - Burris Admits to Fundraising Effort

Black History Month Daily Thread

Paul Williams

Paul Revere Williams (February 18, 1894 – January 23, 1980) was an American architect. He based his practice largely in Los Angeles, and the Southern California area. Orphaned at the age of four, he was the only African American student in his elementary school. He studied at the Los Angeles School of Art and Design and at the Los Angeles branch of the New York Beaux-Arts Institute of Design Atelier, subsequently working as a landscape architect. He went on to attend the University of Southern California, School of Engineering designing several residential buildings while still a student there. Williams became a certified architect in 1921, and the first certified African American architect west of the Mississippi.

On June 27, 1917 he married Della Mae Givens at the First AME Church in Los Angeles. They had three children, Paul Revere Williams, Jr. (born and died June 30, 1925, buried in Evergreen Cemetery, Los Angeles); Marilyn Frances Williams (born December 25, 1926); and Norma Lucille Williams (born September 18, 1928).

Williams won an architectural competition at age 25 and three years later opened his own office. Known as an outstanding draftsman, he perfected the skill of rendering drawings "upside down." This skill was developed so that his clients (who may have been uncomfortable sitting next to a "Black" architect) would see the drawings rendered right side up across the table from him. Fighting to gain attention, he served on the first Los Angeles City Planning Commission in 1920. Williams was the first African American member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). In 1939, he won the AIA Award of Merit for his design of the MCA Building in Los Angeles (now headquarters of the Paradigm Talent Agency).



During World War II, Williams worked for the Navy Department as an architect. Following the war he published his first book, The Small Home of Tomorrow (1945), with a successor volume New Homes for Today the following year. In 1957 became the first African American to be voted an AIA Fellow.

In 1951, he won the Omega Psi Phi Man of the Year award and in 1953 Williams received the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP for his outstanding contributions as an architect and member of the African American community. Williams also received honorary doctorates from Howard University (doctor of architecture), Lincoln University (doctor of science), and the Tuskegee Institute (doctor of fine arts). In 2004, USC honored him by listing him among its distinguished alumni, in the television commercial for the school shown during its football games.

Williams famously remarked upon the bitter irony of the fact that most of the homes he designed, and whose construction he oversaw, were on parcels whose deeds included segregation covenants barring blacks from purchasing them.

Books:

The Will and the Way: Paul R. Williams, Architect by Karen E. Hudson

Paul R. Williams Architect by Karen E. Hudson

Paul R. Williams: A Collection of House Plans (California Architecture & Architects) by Paul R. Williams

An In-Depth Interview With Former President Carter

President Jimmy Carter discussed the Middle East in an interview in St. Louis last week. He lays out the history and the current issues surrounding the conflict in detail. He also talks about the book We Can Have Peace In the Holy Land: A Plan That Will Work. He explains why diplomacy (the willingness to talk and to have contacts with other nations...even with enemies) is so important.

Listen Here

Listen in Flash Format

Review of the Book, We Can Have Peace In the Holy Land: A Plan That Will Work.

______________________________


A Discussion from Democracy Now

Roland Burris: Oh Yeah... There's One Little Thing I Forgot to Tell You Guys....

You guys aren't going to believe this... but I just remembered that Blago did try to bribe me for the Senate seat. I might have remembered to tell you earlier but.... you didn't ask me. Sorry about that.

And oh.. by the way, thanks for letting me into the Senate...(suckers). I just love my new office space and DC is just so nice. Everyone has been so wonderful. I especially want to thank my new girlfriend my new friend Harry Reid. He's been so accommodating.

And so the Blago saga continues. They couldn't write Soap Operas with this much drama.

Of course Burris is lying his ass off. And yes... he should resign. Of course he won't... because he's the type who will only do something if he's forced to...just like his buddy Blago. And with someone as pathetic as Harry Reid running the Senate... Burris knows that he has nothing to worry about...his seat is safe. Safe at least until 2010. This revelation makes this seat even more vulnerable. Burris was already considered a weak potential candidate... now he'll be even weaker.

And the blame should rest with Harry Reid, Barack Obama, Dick Durbin and other Democrats for not standing their ground. Like I have mentioned before... if there's one thing impressive about the Republicans... it is the fact that they rarely cave. They may be wrong on most everything...but at least they stick together and stand their ground to defend what they believe in. Sometimes you just have to stand for something...come what may.

_________________

Articles

From the Chicago Sun Times - Burris Lied and Liars Get Fired

Burris Under Ethical Cloud

Burris Should Step Down

Belated Double Take of the Week - Inner City Blues

I meant to post this last week... but I have been swamped by nonsense of all kinds over the past few days.

This was a suggestion from blog contributor Liberal Arts Dude (Redante). I originally had a different idea for this tune... but Redante's suggestion was a little more interesting.... because it mixes genres.

Inner City Blues

written by Marvin Gaye & James Nyx, Jr. and featured on Marvin Gaye's classic "What's Going On" Album (1971).

Marvin Gaye - Original (1971)


Sevendust (2003)



Verdict:

It's all in the ear of the beholder IMO. Sevendust put their own stamp on this song, and didn't seem to want to clone the original sound at all. This kind of crossover shows the appeal of Gaye's music...and shows how universal music really is... and how most people can relate to the lyrics no matter where they are from or what genre they prefer.

They did justice to the lyrics, even though they incorporated their own sound. I like the guitar energy in the Sevendust rendition. But nothing tops the original for me. Gil Scott Heron's version is also good.... that one is close... but he didn't displace the original either... and I don't think he was trying to (Gil Scott changed it around quite a bit to add his own sound).

There is actually a long tradition of Rockers blending their sound with Classic Soul... (I will be doing a few of those double-takes eventually)... and that tradition goes all the way back to the 1950's and 60's.

Tavis Smiley Discusses Miscegenation Laws

Hear discussion with Dr. Peggy Pascoe. Discussion from last week.

See Reviews
________________________

Related Post

Interracial Relationships still threatening to some (esp. Blacks).

Interesting information about Japan's Recession

See here and here.

Black History Month Daily Thread

Charles Hamilton Houston



Always, throughout history, there are those that go before. Those that prepare the way. Some are even deliberate architects of 'the path'. Charles Hamilton Houston is one such architect.

Charles Hamilton Houston (September 3, 1895 – April 22, 1950) was an African American lawyer, Dean of Howard University Law School and NAACP Litigation Director who helped play a role in dismantling the Jim Crow laws and helped train future Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall. He was educated at Amherst College, where he was valedictorian, and at Harvard Law School, where he graduated cum laude and was a member of the Harvard Law Review. Known as "The Man Who Killed Jim Crow."[1], he played a role in nearly every civil rights case before the Supreme Court between 1930 and Brown v. Board of Education (1954). Houston's plan to attack and defeat Jim Crow segregation by using the inequality of the "separate but equal" doctrine (from the Supreme Court's Plessy v. Ferguson decision) as it pertained to public education in the United States was the masterstroke that brought about the landmark Brown decision.

The Charles Hamilton Houston Institute

Books:
Groundwork: Charles Hamilton Houston and the Struggle for Civil Rights by Genna Rae McNeil (Author), A. Leon Higginbotham (Foreword)

Emancipation: The Making of the Black Lawyer, 1844-1944 by Jr, J. Clay Smith (Author), Thurgood Marshall (Foreword)

The NAACP's Legal Strategy against Segregated Education, 1925-1950, With a New Epilogue by the Author by Mark V. Tushnet

Operation David Palmer A Success!

Here's some humor for this morning.

This is a Black Snob Classic.

Top Secret: Operation David Palmer A Success
Saturday, February 14, 2009 at 9:55AM

Shortly after the election of 44th president of the United States Barack Hussein Obama and before the Inauguration, the Obamas took part in a pre-Inaugural celebration on Saint Sojourner, SCAN's(Secret Council of American Negroes) Fortress Island in an undisclosed location in the West Indies.

Separated from the press pack after disappearing into a local Hawaiian shaved ice stand and water park Dec. 27, 2008, the Obama's were quickly spirited away by SCAN FORCE ONE to the island to take part in the top secret festivities planned, late as usual, for the new First Family.

There high ranking members of the Secret Council of American Negroes, along with their Conservative sister organizations, Negroes of North American (NONA), threw a joint "Mission Accomplished" party for the incoming president and family.

In attendance were the shadowy, HNIC, pivitol members of Operation Real David Palmer, high level members of SCAN's governing council.

Here is a brief, heavily edited transcript and description of the on-goings.

DATE: Dec. 30, 2008

EVENT: Black Caesar Arrives

RE: Success of "Operation David Palmer"

An event more than 100 years in planning, the excitement on St. Sojourner was at a fever pitch. Famous and covert SCAN and NONA operatives found convenient excuses to flee the mainland for two days and two nights on St. Sojourner to celebrate what had become a life-long obsession with the Council -- Revolutionary change through elections.

Finally, the tools that had held SCAN back for decades had worked in their favor and operatives were sunning themselves on the island in good spirits, remarking on their success in getting Special Agent 001, Barack Hussein Obama, Code name: Black Caesar, elected.

It was before Obama, his wife Lt. Special Class Michelle LaVaughn Obama, and their children, Sasha and Malia arrived via the HNIC's special transport that the HNIC engaged in the following conversation with NONA co-chairpersons, Colin Powell and Double-Agent Condoleeza Rice.

"Good work," said the HNIC, sipping on a pina colada in the shadows, stroking a cat. "I'm so glad you both could come."

"I'm just sorry we couldn't convince more to join us, but as you know, relations are still a tad hostile with some at NONA," Powell said, "But Condoleeza and I wouldn't have missed this historical day."

"I'm especially surprised to see you, Condoleeza," said the HNIC.

"I'm willing to let bygones be bygones as long as you keep Councilwoman J away from me. I have a restraining order against her," she said.

"Is this about the pig's blood?" asked the HNIC.

"And the cow hearts with the nails through them. I mean ... I was just doing my job, HNIC. I don't see the need for the brutality."

"Well, you break the eggs ..."

"I just wrote out the paper work for the egg breaking. Those were Rumsefled's eggs."

Colin rolls his eyes.

Read the rest of this here.

Nationalize the Banks?

Thank Icebergslim for the hat tip



Now, Lindsay Graham is talking about nationalization of the banks. Can it be anymore clear as to how phony he and the Republicans are? Yelping about the Stimulus, yet, when push comes to shove, the good old ' free market' Graham can't even pretend that the banks of this country are stable. They are PHONIES. This should also tell you something else - that when a ' free market' disciple can even utter the word ' nationalization', that means the banks are in far more trouble than even we believed them to be.

What Did We Get In The Stimulus Bill?

From Al Giordano over at The Field:

Stimulating!
Posted by Al Giordano - February 13, 2009 at 6:25 pm

The US House has approved the final House-Senate conference committee agreement on the Stimulus Bill by a vote of 246 to 183 and the Senate is voting on it now (where it will pass with at least 60 votes later on tonight).

That means that more than half-a-trillion ($500 billion) dollars will go to job creation and social programs, much of that through state governments. That includes:

$127 billion to health care

$101 billion to education

$63 billion in aid to the poor

$61 billion to green energy ($30 billion for improving the electric grid, $20 million in loan guarantees for alternative energy development, $6 billion for weatherizing state and federal buildings, $5 billion for weatherizing homes...)

$53 billion to roads, bridges and other infrastructure

$22 billion to development of technology

$18 billion to environmental clean-up and protection

...and about $60 billion more for direct cash subsidies to people and other miscellaneous programs.

It also includes $285 billion in "tax cuts" but a different kind of tax cut than the term has meant over the past eight years (aimed at people, not for corporations, and not for the five percent of wealthiest Americans).

Rest of article at link above.

The President did his job. Got a little messy, but he pulled it through.

Post -racial? Not so fast

Hat tip: Anovelista

From author Jill Nelson

The Audacity of Whiteness: Framing Barack Obama

"This country cannot be the country we want it to be if its story is told by only one group of citizens. Our goal is to give all Americans front-door access to the truth." -- Robert C. Maynard (Maynard was one of the founders of the 30-year-old Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, which works to increase diversity in staffing, content and business operations of American media.)

I know its bad form to mention race and upset the new post-racial apple cart, the one that doesn't even have a black chauffer like the genial Hoke to drive Miss Daisy around. Nope, in this post-racial world Hoke's been laid off or taken the buy-out. (At least 300 black journalists left the print media in 2007, and there's every indication that 2008 was worse. Richard Prince's Journal-isms column at www.mije.org is an ongoing record of attrition.) In this brave new world the playing field's level, Dr. King's dream's been realized, and it's all about the meritocracy. Yet a look at the unbearably white American media reminds us that even with a black president little has changed in terms of who frames the issues. With the exception of CNN, which probably employs more black people than BET and definitely has more news coverage, for the most part media looks like a meeting of the White Citizens Council, circa 1956. As determined to retain control of the dialogue as those racists were to maintain the Southern way of life.



Why is it okay for George Will to have President Obama to dinner with conservative journalists with not a black face in the room? How many journalists attended parties in Washington during the inauguration where there were no journalists of color present? Isn't it disturbing to the journalistic establishment that the vast majority of journalists, commentators, talking heads, pundits, and experts discussing the new president and his administration are white? In 2009 can anyone seriously argue that aren't more than a handful of black, Latino, Asian, or Native Americans who fit these categories? Is this time for change we can believe in, or is it still time for black to get back?

For two years I'd managed, along with most black people, to go along with one of the unspoken shibboleths to the election of Barack Obama and kept my mouth closed about racial issues, fearing that such a discussion would be harmful to Obama. This in spite of Bill Clinton showing his ass in South Carolina; Hillary's absurd suggestion that Obama wouldn't know what to do when the phone rang at 3 AM; and John McCain's barely veiled white supremacist campaign. Yet the failure of much of the media to recognize the words of the Negro National Anthem as the first words of Reverend Joseph Lowery's benediction at the inauguration was truly pitiful. That, followed by the general incomprehension of the rhyme at the end of Lowery's remarks -- "When black will not be asked to get in back/When brown can stick around..." -- and then its erroneous attribution by a CNN employee to a civil rights song, rather than rooted in African American folk and oral tradition and the dozens -- a game of verbal insult and one-upmanship -- made it impossible to maintain silence.

It's profoundly dishonest and morally wrong that media coverage of Barack Obama and his presidency is framed by an almost exclusively white press corp. Not just the White House press corps, whose unbearable whiteness Sam Fulwood III wrote eloquently about ontheRoot.com in December, 2008. Turn on the television. Most of the reporters -- the ones with shows of their own, steady jobs and influence - are white. Is there no other journalist of color in America besides Gwen Ifill of PBS' Washington Week (fabulous as she is) who could host a news show? (Sorry, CNN, the comedian D.L. Hughley doesn't count.) Apparently not, since when Ifill takes the occasional Friday off her show often becomes segregated.

The absence of African Americans is appalling in light of the plethora of white people from someplace else, especially England, getting paid to frame, spin and explain Barack Obama to Americans. I doubt that I could get a job parsing Gordon Brown to the Brits. At the "serious" magazines, the situation is dismal. Years ago, an editor at The New Yorker told me the reason there weren't more black writers at the magazine was that they didn't understand the publication's "zeitgeist."

What's really changed if the American media continues to view this new administration, and a world that is overwhelmingly populated by black, brown, and yellow people, through white eyes? In this same old world but with a new name, a Black man is president of the United States, but it takes a white man to play him on Saturday Night Live. Arrogance and privilege by another name?

Call me a retro, angry black woman -- or Stokely Carmichael in a designer dress, as Juan Williams, one of the few journalists of color white journalists deign to recognize, called Michelle Obama last weekend -- but why is it that whenever the impact of race is analyzed the role that white privilege plays is absent? In journalism, the result is always the same: white people who are granted the role of analyzing everything and everyone, including African Americans, who are as likely as not to be dismissed, overlooked, or spoken for by white expert opinion.

In reality, this post-modern, post-racial apple cart is for whites only, a dishonest and opportunistic effort to pretend race no longer matters now that Americans have elected Barack Obama president. Post racial is nothing but segregation under a kinder, gentler name, yet another effort to further enshrine white privilege and white supremacy.

What a waste, in this time of profound crisis and the possibilities Barack Obama's presidency presents, to have those possibilities identified and interpreted by whites only. Filtered through the tired lens of whiteness in a twenty-first century in which the attacks of 9/11, American failures in Iraq and Afghanistan, the implosion of the markets and the collapse of capitalism are signposts along the road of the dying white culture.

In this auspicious moment, media organizations should be seeking out journalists of color and youth. Instead it's the same old white guys, many of whom seem to verge on apoplexy as they struggle to "explain" Obama. It's as if he, like Klaatu from The Day the Earth Stood Still, fell from the sky, ahistorical, exceptionalist, and, I fear, soon to be, like Oprah or Michael Jordan, conveniently de-raced. This inability to fathom Barack Obama doesn't come as a surprise. For the most part these media heads have managed to live lives absent any serious engagement with black people or black culture. If they had, they would be familiar with the existence of the black middle class, a long-established group of overachievers whose mantra is that you have to work harder, smarter, and be better than your white counterparts to achieve the same results.

Barack Obama is neither an anomaly nor an aberration. He is simply the most successful member of this class of overachievers. His election lays to rest the myth of the meritocracy. Perhaps more amazing than the election of Barack Obama is that someone of his intellect and limitless possibility even wanted the job. Be clear: Barack Obama is part of a continuum. Now that he's broken the glass ceiling it's time for whites to step up their game. Stay tuned.

As candidate and President Obama has made clear, change we need requires sacrifice from all of us. It's not just about black kids pulling up their pants, or working harder in school, or more parental involvement. Nor is it just the overt racists and skinheads who need to get it together. The less obvious and likely more difficult change must come from the chattering class, many of them entrenched liberals and progressives to whom it has never occurred that they are the beneficiaries of white skin privilege.

There are countless black journalists and other journalists of color who can add skill, knowledge, cultural context and depth to covering America's first black president, as part of the White House press corps and in every area of journalism. They should be hired. Post-racial, bah humbug! Meritocracy, ha! I know the road to white privilege when I see it, Miss Daisy, whatever you want to call it.

Piercing truth and on point.

The Dark Sith for Commerce Secretary?

From Chuck Todd:

Is Commerce Dept. Built Ford Tough? Posted: Friday, February 13, 2009 6:01 PM by Chuck Todd
From NBC's Chuck Todd

Harold Ford Jr. for Commerce Secretary? It's something a few Democrats around town are pushing and, according to sources, the idea of appointing the former Tennessee Congressman is being given serious thought by folks high up in the Obama administration.

On paper, Ford checks a lot of boxes for a an easy-to-confirm nominee for this post: He's a pro-business Democrat (remember, this is Commerce Secretary so the job is to be a promoter of business); he's a former member of the Congressional Black Caucus (you'll recall this whole kerfuffle over control of the census under a Judd Gregg-led Commerce Dept. was started by complaints from the CBC); and he's a practiced spokesperson on TV (the Geithner rollout this week is a reminder that the administration doesn't have enough solid media savvy members of his team who can sell the administration's policies.).

Mr. President, I know I don't need to tell you this. I know you're smart enough to know that appointing Harold Ford, Jr. to ANYTHING is a mistake. He is a snake that can't be trusted. There are enough Black folk who were actually loyal and supportive of you that you could nominate - HERE IS A POST GIVING YOU A LIST - than for you to nominate someone who had nothing good to say about you, and repeatedly- throughout the ENTIRE ELECTION SEASON - did nothing but try and undermine you at every turn.You loved your grandmother; he LIED on his for votes.


Reward those that supported YOU, Mr. President. Harold Ford, Jr. would never be YOUR choice. You could NEVER doubt that he'd be trying to undermine you at every turn. While I and others would welcome an African-American in the position of Secretary of Commerce, I'd rather someone honest, than a complete, untrustworthy snake like Ford. Besides the 'character' question, how is he remotely qualified?

President Obama's Weekly Youtube Address

The President at the Lincoln Association Banquet

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

The President at the Lincoln Association Banquet- Springfield, IL

Black History Month Daily Thread

Oscar Micheaux

Oscar Devereaux Micheaux (2 January 1884 – 25 March 1951) was an American author and film director. Although predated by the short lived Lincoln Motion Picture Company that put out smaller films, he is regarded as the first African-American feature filmmaker, and the most prominent producer of race films.[1]

The advent of the motion picture industry intrigued him as a vehicle to tell his stories. He formed his own movie production company and in 1919 became the first African American to make a film. He wrote, directed and produced the silent motion picture The Homesteader, starring pioneering African-American actress Evelyn Preer, based on his novel of the same name. He again used autobiographical elements in The Exile, his first feature film with sound, in which the central character leaves Chicago to buy and operate a ranch in South Dakota. In 1924 he introduced the moviegoing world to Paul Robeson in his film, Body and Soul.

Given the times, his accomplishments in publishing and film are extraordinary, including being the first African American to produce a film to be shown in "white" movie theaters. In his motion pictures, he moved away from the "Negro stereotypes" being portrayed in film at the time. In his film Within Our Gates, Micheaux attacked the racism depicted in the D.W. Griffith film, The Birth of a Nation.

The Producers Guild of America called him "The most prolific black - if not most prolific independent - filmmaker in American cinema." Over his illustrious career, Oscar Micheaux wrote, produced and directed forty-four feature-length films between 1919 and 1948 and wrote seven novels, one of which was a national bestseller.

Sites:
Oscar Micheaux Home Page

Oscar Micheaux at IMDB.com

Media:
Oscar Micheaux: The Great and Only: The Life of America's First Black Filmmaker by Patrick Mcgilligan

Writing Himself into History : Oscar Micheaux, His Silent Films, and His Audiences by Pearl Bowser (Author), Louise Spence (Author), Thulani Davis (Foreward)

A Century of Black Cinema (1997) - DVD

African American Cinema I, Oscar Micheaux's "Within Our Gates" (1919) (Library of Congress & Smithsonian Video) (1919) - VHS

Veiled Aristocrats (Directed by Oscar Micheaux) (1932)-DVD

We Are Not a Movement?

Interesting article over at the Open Left blog which makes the observation that:

In their articles today on how "the left" is failing under the Obama administration John Judis and Glenn Greenwald decry the lack of a mass popular movement agitating all political actors, including President Obama, to enact a specific policy agenda. However, the decentralized, self-producing, public sphere multiplying reorganization of our society brought on by the self-publishing, network neutral Internet is in direct contradiction with the vision of a discrete, hierarchical organization working to enact specific policy agenda. That just isn't going to happen anymore...

As such, even mass membership institutions themselves will be variable in how, and why, they continue to operate. Their goals will be vague, and even those vague goals will not be fixed. This is less comment on the state of the American Left than it is a comment on broader changes in our largest cultural institutions. There is simply no way for the sort of left-wing movement implied by Judis and Greenwald to come into existing given our larger societal trends.

An interesting take on social movements in the Internet Age -- basically, the type of hierarachical, top-down organizations such as a political party or a membership organization (like the NAACP) will become less relevant for Progressive political action and a diffused, decentralized network will take (or has taken) its place.

I am taking the discussion out of Open Left and bringing it here to MOA to get a feel for how a more racially diverse and politically independent audience might see this argument. Do you agree? Is "movement" obsolete for Progressive politics and activism is best channeled via a decentralized, diffuse network? Can such a diffuse, amorphous network of people be effective in enacting policy changes and forcing political parties to take it seriously if it is not organized in a way traditional organizations are organized?

Senate Passes The Economic Stimulus Bill

From DailyKos:

Senate Passes The Economic Stimulus Bill
by Barbara Morrill aka BarbinMD
Fri Feb 13, 2009 at 07:48:13 PM PST


Following the House of Representative's lead, the U.S. Senate has passed the $789 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, by a vote of 60 - 38.

While Senate Republicans weren't able to match their House brethren's perfect, browbeating effort, they did remain true to their family values by forcing Sherrod Brown to fly back from Ohio, where he was attending his mother's wake, to cast the crucial 60th and deciding vote. Comity ain't what it used to be.

President Obama is expected to sign the bill on Monday.

The First Lady Celebrating Her Birthday

Gregg: Mr. President, I have some issues...

Senator Judd Gregg put on his partisan hat today and announced that he is withdrawing his name as the nominee for Secretary of Commerce. Really?

From WaPo: "It became clear to me to me that it would be very difficult day in and day out to serve in this Cabinet," Gregg said in a press conference late Thursday. He added that in the days since he was nominated he realized that to be "part of a team but not 100 percent with the team" was an untenable position.

Come on. Seriously? Barack Obama hasn't changed his position on the economic stimulus package, so I'm confused. What in the census would be worth quitting over?



The Republican talking point is that Gregg is putting principle over ambition. Did Gregg just grow a set of principles over the last couple of days? My problem with this whole thing is nothing has really changed but Gregg. Was he too awe-stuck to ask questions before? Was he tongue-tied? Or was it that the Obama administration made it clear that the American people would be the first priority, NOT business. Maybe that was the sticking point. Being Secretary of Commerce and putting the American people first would be a terrible conflict in the eyes of a Republican.

I wonder if this was all a ploy to make the new president look bad. Another cabinet post bites the dust. This is Obama's third appointment requiring replacement (Daschle, Richardson). Or was this a local problem? There were some reports out of New Hampshire that Democratic Rep. Paul Hodes was looking very strong for 2010. I know I'm dwelling on bad motives, but sudden moves like this make me very suspicious.

I found this interesting -

Judd Gregg last week on the Obama fiscal boost plan:

We need a robust [bill]. I think the one that's pending is in the range we need. I do believe it's a good idea to do it at two levels, which this bill basically does, which is immediate stimulus and long-term initiatives which actually improve our competitiveness and our productivity.

Judd Gregg today:

Republican Sen. Judd Gregg is putting a final exclamation point on his withdrawal as Barack Obama's designee for Commerce Secretary with a promise to vote against the president's economic stimulus package. Gregg's office confirmed the decision Friday.

Gregg waffled on this reason for pulling out of the Obama Cabinet today, saying that it really wasn't about the census after all.

But in an interview with CNBC today, Gregg suggested that the census procedures weren’t much of an issue to him. “The way it was explained to me is that the Census would still report to the Commerce Secretary, but the White House wanted to have a major interest in the census process also,” he said. Gregg even praised the White House:

GREGG: The person that the White House has proposed to manage the Census, Ken Pruitt, did it in 2000 when I was chairman of the Appropriations Committee that had oversight over Commerce Dept. And I thought he did an excellent job. So I thought the people were going to be in place to do a pretty good census.

So, can you make any sense out of this?

Suggestions for Commerce Secretary

Since Judd Gregg has flown the coop, let's put forth a list of possible Commerce Secretary replacements.


Dick Parsons -though the new Chairman of Citigroup, let them fend for themselves and serve your country, Mr. Parsons.


Kenneth Chenault - I know..he's the Chairman of American Express, but, he's more than qualified.


Mellody Hobson- I can't see her leaving Ariel, but I'd love to see her in this position.


Ann Fudge - Her business credentials established, Fudge would do well in this position.


Pamela Thomas-Graham- I believe she is an old classmate of The President.


Alexis Herman - Former Labor Secretary.


Earl Graves, Sr. - Entepreneur, founder Black Enterprise Magazine.


John W. Thompson, Chairman of the Board and CEO of Symantec

Black History Month Daily Thread

The NAACP celebrates its 100th Anniversary.

No matter how we may believe that the NAACP is outdated. How it has failed to change with the times, the truth is that the NAACP has had a positive effect on all of our lives.

From the Niagara Movement, to its formation 100 years ago, the NAACP casts a long shadow on this country's history. Fighting for this country to live up to its creed. The list of those involved with the NAACP is like a Who's Who of Freedom Fighters.

From Wikipedia:

History
In 1905, a group of 32 prominent, outspoken African Americans met to discuss the challenges facing "people of color" - a term that was used to describe people who were not white) - and possible strategies and solutions. Among the issues they were concerned about was the disfranchisement of blacks in the South starting in 1890 to 1908, when Southern legislatures ratified new constitutions creating barriers to voter registration and more complex election rules. Voter registration and turnout dropped markedly in the South as a result. Men who had been voting for 30 years were told they did not "qualify" to register.

Because hotels in the U.S. were segregated, the men convened under the leadership of Harvard scholar W. E. B. Du Bois at a hotel situated on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. As a result, the group came to be known as the Niagara Movement. A year later, three whites joined the group: journalist William E. Walling, social worker Mary White Ovington, and Jewish social worker Henry Moskowitz, then Associate Leader of the New York Society for Ethical Culture.

The fledgling group struggled for a time with limited resources and decided to broaden its membership to increase its scope and effectiveness. Solicitations for support went out to more than 60 prominent Americans, and a meeting date was set for February 12, 1909. This was intended to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the birth of President Abraham Lincoln, who emancipated enslaved African Americans. While the meeting did not take place until three months later, this date is often cited as the founding date of the organization.

The Race Riot of 1908 in Lincoln's hometown of Springfield, Illinois, the previous summer had highlighted the urgent need for an effective civil rights organization in the U.S. This event is often cited as the catalyst for the formation of the NAACP.

The NAACP was founded on February 12, 1909, by a diverse group composed of W. E. B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells, Archibald Grimké, Henry Moskowitz, Mary White Ovington, Oswald Garrison Villard, and William English Walling (the last the son of a former slaveholding family).[6][7]

On May 30, 1909, the Niagara Movement conference took place at New York City's Henry Street Settlement House, from which an organization of more than 40 individuals emerged, calling itself the National Negro Committee. Du Bois played a key role in organizing the event and presided over the proceedings. Also in attendance was African-American journalist and anti-lynching crusader Ida B. Wells-Barnett. At its second conference on May 30, 1910, members chose as the organization's name the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and elected its first officers, who were [8]:

National President, Moorfield Storey, Boston
Chairman of the Executive Committee, William English Walling
Treasurer, John E. Milholland (a Lincoln Republican and Presbyterian from New York City and Lewis, NY)
Disbursing Treasurer, Oswald Garrison Villard
Executive Secretary, Frances Blascoer
Director of Publicity and Research, Dr. W.E.B. DuBois.

I don't think it's 'hateration' to point out that the NAACP has not kept up with the times. As an organization, it has too many people stuck in the past, and who have not been willing to listen to new ideas. When Bruce Gordon was fired, I have to admit that I felt deflated. I thought that Gordon was at least attempting to bring the NAACP into the 20th Century. I am not against Mr. Jealous, in fact I wish him all the luck in the world, and hope that he is successful. I'm just not that positive about it. Mainly because folks like Julian Bond don't know when to leave the stage. He, and that 64 member board are just ridiculous. How the heck does one have a 64 member Board of Directors for ANYTHING and believe that something will get done. I believe that somewhere along the way, the NAACP lost its focus on what's important for the Black community ' at the street level'.

So, what of the future? I think that belongs to US. At its core, the NAACP has always been as strong as its local branches. And, local branches means boots on the ground. People like you and me deciding to step up to the plate. Roland Martin always goes on a rant when people talk about how ineffective the NAACP. If you want it to be effective, he used to chide on his radio show, then get you and a 100 friends together, and decide to join your local branch. That's the shortest route to making the change that you want to see happen. To join, it only costs $30.00 for an adult, and $15.00 for youth.

The official NAACP website

Some Articles:

The Washington Post asks about The Next Chapter of the NAACP.

The Root asks: Crisis on the Color Line:
After 100 years of 'pleading our own cause,' is the NAACP equal to the task ahead?

While Jack White says Yes, 'Colored People' Still Need Advancement
It may seem tired, but the NAACP is still relevant.

Judd Gregg Withdraws As Commerce Secretary

Just saw it on MSNBC.

The reason why the Commerce Secretary is important this time, is because of the 2010 Census. Getting folks accurately counted, and holding onto Black political representation - through Congressional Districts - is important to me. That’s why I thought it was a positive to see The Census moved into The White House.

Also, the Commerce Secretary also holds the office of the SBA, if I’m thinking correctly. And, if there’s anything Black folk need, it’s more businesses in the community.

So, that’s why I think the Commerce Secretary is still needed.

I’m not sad about Gregg leaving. I believe there has to be a business-minded Democrat, interested in improving AMERICAN Businesses, that could be chosen. I admit that I'd like to see a Black businesswoman get the post.

White House Social Secretary, Desiree Rogers, on CNN

Desiree Rogers

I also am tickled pink that the White House Social Secretary has an MBA from Harvard, thus shutting anyone up about having a BLACK White House Social Secretary.

Black History Month Daily Thread

Jackie Robinson

Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was the first African-American Major League Baseball player of the modern era.[2] Although not the first African-American professional baseball player in United States history, Robinson's 1947 Major League debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers ended approximately 60 years of baseball segregation, breaking the baseball color line, or color barrier.[3] At that time in the United States, many white people believed that blacks and whites should be kept apart in many aspects of life, including sports.[4] Despite this obstacle, Robinson went on to have an exceptional baseball career.

Robinson played on six World Series teams and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962. He earned six consecutive All-Star Game nominations and won several awards during his career. In 1947, Jackie won The Sporting News Rookie of the Year Award and the first MLB Rookie of the Year Award. Two years later, he won the National League MVP Award—the first black player to do so.[5] On April 15, 1997, the 50-year anniversary of his debut, Major League Baseball retired Robinson's jersey number 42 across all MLB teams in recognition of his accomplishments in a ceremony at Shea Stadium.[6]

He also had success away from the baseball field. Robinson was the first African-American Major League Baseball analyst and the first black vice president of a major American corporation.[7] In the 1960s, he helped to establish the Freedom National Bank, an African-American owned and controlled entity based in Harlem, New York.[8] Due to his achievements, Robinson was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal.[7][9] In 1950, he played himself in the biographical film The Jackie Robinson Story.[10] In 1946, Robinson married Rachel Annetta Isum,[11] and after Robinson died of a heart attack in 1972, she founded the Jackie Robinson Foundation.[12][13]

It should be noted that Robinson was NOT the best player of the Negro League. But, he had the CHARACTER to withstand the two years of racial torment that went with the position of being ' The First Black'. Robinson was the first player at UCLA to letter in FOUR SPORTS in one year. He was also an OFFICER in the Army, and was once arrested by military police for refusing to move to the back of a bus on account of his race. Jackie Robinson was, in every way, a ' Race Man'.


Sites:
The Official Site of Jackie Robinson

The Jackie Robinson Foundation

Youtube:


Media:

I Never Had It Made: An Autobiography of Jackie Robinson by Jackie Robinson, Alfred Duckett

Jackie Robinson: A Biography by Arnold Rampersad

Promises To Keep: How Jackie Robinson Changed America by Sharon Robinson

Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season by Jonathan Eig

A Picture Book of Jackie Robinson (Picture Book Biography)by David A. Adler (Author), Robert Casilla (Illustrator)

The Story of Jackie Robinson: Bravest Man in Baseball by Margaret Davidson

Baseball's Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy by Jules Tygiel

The Jackie Robinson Story - DVD
In COLOR! Also Includes the Original Black-and-White Version which has been Beautifully Restored and Enhanced! (1950)
Starring: Jackie Robinson, Ruby Dee

Court Martial of Jackie Robinson (1990)-VHS
Starring: Andre Braugher, Daniel Stern

Michael Steele vs. Tim Kaine

Black History Month Daily Thread

KEEP THE FAITH, BABY!

Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. (November 29, 1908 – April 4, 1972) was an American politician and pastor who represented Harlem, New York in the United States House of Representatives between 1945 and 1971. He was the first African-American elected to Congress from New York. He became chairman of the Education and Labor Committee in 1961. As committee chairman, he supported the passage of important social legislation.

During the Depression years, Powell, a handsome and charismatic figure, became a prominent civil rights leader in Harlem, New York, where he succeeded his father in 1937 as pastor of Abyssinian Baptist Church. He developed a formidable public following in the Harlem community through his crusades for jobs and housing. As chairman of the Coordinating Committee for Employment, he organized mass meetings, rent strikes and public campaigns, forcing companies and utilities, and Harlem Hospital to hire black workers. Powell organized a picket line during the 1939 New York World's Fair at the Fair's executive offices in the Empire State Building; as a result, the number of black employees was increased from about 200 to 732 [2]. A bus boycott in 1941 led to the hiring of 200 black workers by the transit authority. When Negro pharmacists were failing to get hired, Powell led a fight in 1941 to have drugstores in Harlem hire them all.[3]

In 1937 he succeeded his father as pastor of Abyssinian Baptist Church. In 1941 he was elected to the New York City Council as the city's first Black council representative with the aid of New York City's use of the Single Transferable Vote.[1] He received 65,736 votes, the third best total among the six successful council candidates [4]

"Mass action is the most powerful force on earth," Mr. Powell once said, adding, "As long as it is within the law, it's not wrong; if the law is wrong, change the law." He was elected to Congress in 1944.

Youtube clips:

Biographical Clip

" What's In Your Hand"-very powerful


Media:

Adam Clayton Powell (1989)-DVD

King of the Cats: The Life and Times of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. by Wil Haygood