The Atlantic Monthly chronicle of the long-term effects of unemployment demonstrates why empathy matters in policy.
Losing your job impacts more than just your income. Don Peck’s How a New Jobless Era Will Transform America lays this out in an expansive piece that looks at how joblessness wreaks havoc on people’s psyche, their relationships, and culture overall.
Defining and understanding a Depression requires more than economics; it requires empathy. Empathy is neither a progressive nor conservative trait. We all demonstrate it in different ways and in different circumstances. Empathy’s universality makes it something we can organize around and build upon.
Empathy is oft forgotten when policy remedies to crises are being considered. Policy is inherently mechanical and pedantic. But the way we frame policy debates does not have to be. Understanding the people impacted must be a the forefront of our politics.
Take, for example, today’s un[der]employment disaster. The debate on what to do about it has withered down to whether increasing the deficit is warranted. There is not a less human way to talk about this human catastrophe than that. Tell that to the recent college graduates that Peck writes about who will earn significantly less money over their careers because they were born in the wrong year and will be more likely to develop drinking, drug, and marital problems. They hear “deficit” and think “doesn’t matter.”
What matters is the broken promise made to them that if they worked hard and got a degree that they’d have a job. What matters is the lack of personal and collective responsibility that threw their professional trajectory off course. What matters is the steely feeling of student loan debt jammed into the back of their minds like a gun during a stickup. Using this, we should instead be debating how to get students the jobs they’ve been educated for and everyone the jobs they’ve trained for.
This principle should inform all of our work: enable people to build and pursue their talents and use them for the benefit of themselves and society. Applying this value to this and other debates sets the table for a progressive future on all fronts. Some examples:
Health care: Fear of sickness or injury must not deter hopeful and ambitious people; give them the protection they deserve.
Education: Properly equip public educational infrastructure with well-compensated teachers and staff, well-designed curricula and tools, and well-implemented + structures and practices.
Job creation: Full employment is full dignity; everyone working means everyone bettering themselves, their families, and society.
People must be at the forefront of our organizing and our politics. People don’t want rhetoric or process, they want answers.
Movement building occurs when we prioritize timeless principles over timely responses.
Because policy makers are thinking about the next election and not the next generation, our politics remain at a standstill.
Sadly, this is also true of the broader progressive movement that’s been rightly critical of elected Democrats. It is important to show power & numbers and tell elected officials that they’ll get unseated if they do the wrong things. What’s missing is a broader context.
A bigger, more important story
“Next election pressure” has to be part of a larger, cohesive narrative describing a progressive future. We worry too much about “speaking our elected officials’ language” instead of giving them a better vision of a future and a story that they can use to make the right policies and get re-elected. Run for office if you want to do that. Even then, telling a bigger, better, simpler story will still work better.
The difference between “we’ll un-elect you” and “there’s a train leaving the station that everyone’s on board except you” is subtle and substantial. The first narrative is timely. It is framed in terms of the next election that’s 2, 4, or 6 years away. It can be fired off quickly with context. The second, stronger narrative is timeless. It can be used candidates on the campaign trail just as easily as during my annual Christmas political “debates” with my family.
The legislative process has been much more responsive to the creation of crises that legislation is needed to resolve than it has been to, “Gee, wouldn’t it be a good idea if we made things work better?’ So, the job of those trying to create change is actually to create crises that require legislative solution.
What Ganz calls “creating crises” I call telling a story bigger than a specific policy or an election.
Example: Health Care
During President Obama’s nomination speech at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, he said something I wish he and others would remember: “don’t make a big election about small things.” That type of thinking would have benefited us all on health care reform.
Let’s describe what we want the days after the next election to be like. Instead of yelling and screaming about whose head you want on a silver platter, talk about the progressive future in a way that’s simple and compelling (and probably excludes your least-favorite elected officials).
Let’s replace “Democrats that block health care reform will be challenged in primaries and face the wrath of constituents on election day.” with the following:
America is a place where we give a damn about one another and are proud to see people be healthy and succeed in life. We pay homage to our heroes big and small every day. It is disgusting that being unlucky enough to inherit susceptibility to certain illnesses or being injured in a car accident puts not only our lives but our dreams in danger. The best way to protect our dreams and our future is to protect our health from any and everything that threatens it. Right now, the biggest threat to our health comes from insurance companies that determine who gets help and who doesn’t, who’s in pain and who isn’t, who lives and who dies. There are more people in this country who know this is unacceptable than who think this is OK. That majority will rule tomorrow.
This says the same thing while simultaneously communicating the values that are the foundation of a progressive framework for every policy debate. They are the values that define our progressive future.
Movements transcend elections.
Minutiae murders movements.
The necessity of elections must not distract us from our broader goals of building power and creating a better future. Don’t forget this tomorrow or the next time a politician does the wrong thing.
What’s up fam
This piece is going to be a mix of various things that have been on my mind.
1. If you haven’t noticed yet, the flurry of news surrounding Haiti relief is done. This is where the real work begins because character is what we do when no one is looking. So here we go, no more moving facebook updates, editorial cartoons, or grand speeches by political leaders. Now that no one is looking is the perfect opportunity to give more of your self. So let’s chill with the “We will never forget” slogans because if you remember and don’t do anything, what’s the point?
2. So it appears that the Dems have decided to finally commit to using reconciliation to finish health care reform. Senate Majority Leader Reid put forth a goal of having this done in 60 days and I hope and pray Democrats get this done because it is simply unconscionable for a country flush with so much wealth to have so many people go without adequate healthcare.
3. I wanted to share a quote that has had me thinking, “The greatest hindrance to living is expectancy, which depends upon the morrow and wastes to-day.”
-Lucius Annaeus Seneca
“On the Shortness of Life”
translated by John W. Basore, Loeb Classical Library
London: William Heinemann, 1932
In response to this quote, what expectations do you have of yourself and others? How do you think these expectations have helped or hindered? What informs these expectations? Do you really carpe diem or are you one of those people who go through the week like a zombie expecting to truly live when get off work on Friday?
4. I haven’t heard anything about the guy that flew his plane into the IRS building. See now if the guy was Muslim, it would be front page every day for at least two weeks. What I don’t want is more finger pointing based on race, what I want is appropriate and proportional responses based on behavior, not race.
5. Black History month is almost over and before we move on, I just want to thank all the Black people whose efforts and names will never make it into a history book or a PBS Black History month program. I represent am 27 years of Black History but I also stand on the shoulders of giants and so many elders have pulled me aside to show guidance and encouragement. Black History did not end with Civil Rights but it will be if we don’t have a burning desire to make the world better for our kids and grand kids. How much more would those coming after us resent us for being so selfish for not fighting as if all is well.
Stay up fam,
Brandon Q.
p.s. I really wish I could write more fam. Law school and life make it difficult to write the more in depth pieces I used to do more often. My apologies.
I get it. You inherited a hodgepodge of mess from the Bush administration and have tried to clean up house. However, your signature campaign issue, healthcare reform, appears to be on life support. Lest I be misunderstood, I am a strong supporter of the public option but that has gone by the political wayside. Unfortunately, your insistence on bipartisanship ad nauseam threatens any chance of meaningful reform that could be had.
As it stands, you have called for a bipartisanship healthcare summit but you have done your due diligence re: bipartisanship. The American people realize that Democrats and Republicans do not work well together. It’s probably time to put the bipartisanship bottle back on the shelf and get some results. If the Republicans want to filibuster a healthcare plan, I say let them do it. Call their bluff and let people know that when it counts, you are willing to fight for the average American. Of course, this move would be gutsy but substantively and politically, it would be brilliant. Valentine’s Day is fast approaching and the Republicans have no reason to show you love and that is all right. When all is said and done, despite the procedural hurdles of the Senate, the Democratic majorities are not so narrow that political hardball should be dismissed without consideration.
This is your moment President Obama, please seize the day.
The story of the Saints is a classic rags-to-riches tale. The team had never been to the championship game. They had 2 playoff wins in 42 years. They were so bad that their fans wore paper bags over their head for years and unaffectionately called the team “The Aints.”
A New Orleans "Aints" fan
New Orleans has also had a hell of a ride, going from “Las Vegas of the South” to the flash point of modern government incompetence, racism, and social injustice after Hurricane Katrina. The city and its football team were ripe for a comeback.
Our Progressive movement is too. Why? We took back Congress in 2006. We took back the White House in 2008. We passed health care reform We’re working on that. We need a comeback because we’re disoriented.
It’s like we just woke up. Our eyes are open, but our vision is blurred. We know our slippers are near the bed, but we have to feel around with our toes to find them.
We reorient ourselves by becoming clear in our purpose. Let’s take a page from the Saints and make that happen. Progressive organizers, activists, and politicians can learn a lot from these World Champions about how to win this year and beyond. Here are 3 key lessons.
Democratic systems flourish when people participate. Having a voice changes people’s relationship with that system and the system’s relationship with the people.
When everyone can’t participate, the system no longer reflects the values and perspectives of the people it impacts. Barriers to entry create divisions, inequality and unfairness.
El Dorado
The Internet was designed as an egalitarian utopia: the El Dorado of the “good ideas win” ethos. Anyone with access to the net could connect with anyone else. Every idea had an equal opportunity to succeed.
When the Internet was taken hostage by telecommunications companies, they threatened this order. They limited participation online by pricing most low-income communities out of the market, creating the Digital Divide. This practice of exclusion reduced the diversity of thought online. It put the Internet on an identical path to becoming an echo chamber of pale, stale, male attitudes.
Next Stop: Poll Taxes
The redlining was round one, but the next round is more sinister. Telecoms are now considering crushing freedom of expression online by creating Jim Crow-esque poll taxes on content they consider unfit for higher-speed, higher-quality Internet connections. This assault on the freedom by private interests is as wrong now as it has ever been.
This should raise specific concern within the civil rights community. Civil rights organizations fought and won the war against poll taxes over 40 years ago. It’s alarming that they are willing to open the door for this type of discrimination in the 21st century. It’s up to us, the membership, the foot-soldiers of these organizations and of this 21st century civil rights movement, to take a stand against this disgusting discrimination.
Protecting Internet Freedom by ensuring Net Neutrality
The FCC is considering creating rules to protect Internet Freedom. Learn more about the process at Save The Internet. I testified at a hearing in December to voice my strong support of protecting Internet Freedom.
You can join the fight by demanding that Congress work alongside the FCC to protect Internet Freedom and outlaw discrimination by telecom companies.
Challenges have the uncanny ability to sharpen our focus. A knee injury will make you more mindful of walking than ever before. Bad food introduces you to taste buds you never knew existed. Adrenaline enables amazing physical feats.
The same is true for political movements. Progressives are smarting now. Many on the left are disenchanted with the President, disappointed in the pending health care legislation and disillusioned about the 2010 mid-term elections. What’s a movement to do?
Real progress
We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope. – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Our renewed focus is an opportunity to build a foundation for future success, resilience and empowerment. This means taking stock of the real progress being made in this moment while simultaneously fighting to transition society from its peppered past to a progressive future.
…our predecessors were never so consumed with theoretical debates that they couldn’t see progress when it came…Let’s take a victory, he said, and then keep on marching. Forward steps, large and small, were recognized for what they were — which was progress.
What victories have we won? A few include:
Passed the Lilly Ledbetter Act, bringing us a step closer to fully realizing equal pay for equal work.
Martha Coakley and others’ recent electoral defeats echo the sentiment of the 2008 Presidential election: candidates who proactively or passively represent a broken status quo will fail. Insiders can no longer combine tepid emotions and bland appeals with party machines and expect victory. They instead must take the hope demonstrated by the 2008 election and marry it to action.
The infinite hope that Dr. King spoke of us present within the progressive movement. Young people are organizing like never before in favor of comprehensive immigration reform reflective of America’s ideals, not its demons. Their hope is moving them to action.
That infinite hope is present in the hearts of millions of ambitious yet unemployed Americans. People are coming together to petition their government to work on their behalf to create jobs rather than give handouts to industries that have turned their backs on their employees. The hope of these workers is moving them to action.
That hope still exists in health care. Amidst the angst of the centrists, the exasperation of many Progressives and the perverse cynicism of corporate and conservative interests, the American people remain thirsty for quality, affordable health care. The current proposals have their differences and flaws, but our communities are speaking up in unison when they demand a health care system that works for them. Listening to the practical, conscientious voice of constituents would have led to a substantive debate that disregarded idiocy while embracing the courageous optimism of the American spirit.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid made an unfortunate mistake when he said privately:
Obama, as a black candidate, could be successful thanks, in part, to his light-skinned appearance and speaking patterns with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one…He [Reid] was wowed by Obama’s oratorical gifts and believed that the country was ready to embrace a black presidential candidate, especially one such as Obama — a ‘light-skinned’ African American ‘with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.
The comments and the response to the comments have been laughable, disconcerting and indicative of the broader race-related issues that our country continually kicks down the road.
I’m frustrated that the only tellers at the Bank of Apologizing to Black People are still Rev. Al Sharpton and/or Jesse Jackson. Many have used the fact that Rev. Sharpton accepted Reid’s apology as grounds for vindication. Rev. Sharpton is as much a proxy for Black America’s social consciousness as the CEO of Goldman Sachs is a proxy for the interests of community banks. Just like there’s a movement to move our money out of big banks, Black folks should be moving their representation away from Rev. Sharpton and to community voices.
It’s further frustrating to think about how the latent prejudice of our politics has contributed to structural inequity reinforced by public policy.
Perhaps there is more at work than the latent racism that leads to remarks that are at their best in poor taste and at their worst indicative of utter moral failure. The way to work through a controversy like today’s uproar is to put these incidents into a larger narrative about the consequences of entrenched racism and prejudice. Once that narrative is constructed, we can create a solution.
Long time no hear from I know. This SuperSpade has been holding it down in law school and hasn’t had time to blog in a really long time. I am making a commitment to write at least once a week. So where do we begin? On Christmas Day, there was an attempted terrorist attack on a flight headed towards Detroit Metro Airport. Thankfully, no one was hurt thanks to the heroism of the flight’s passengers that subdued the attacker.
I was particularly moved by a story on 60 Minutes in Wilmington, OH where a small community is getting rocked to its core by the economic downturn. A mother was profiled in the story who was struggling to make ends meet and did not have health care but refused to get stop making life insurance payments. Her rationale was that she could handle being sick but she could not handle dying and having nothing to leave behind for her children. This is madness and a clear example of the need for universal health care and a sign that our country needs to put people first.
That is all for now. I know 2009 was rough for a lot of people but do not forget to count your blessings and live everyday to the fullest. Stay up fam,
On Tuesday, December 15, 2009, I testified at an FCC workshop entitled “Speech, Democratic Engagement and the Open Internet.” Video of the hearing is embedded below and available on YouTube. The moderator introduces me at 58:27, and my roughly 6 minute remarks begin at 59:07. The Q&A that begins at 1:26:18 (My answers are at 1:28:00-1:29:29 and 1:41:20-1:43:31).
My message was that an open internet is necessary for the political participation of all people of all shapes, sizes, races and income in the future. My full opening statement with references is below.
This is the first part of a series on how labor organizing will evolve in the coming years.
The Wall Street Journal ran a piece recently called Dave Bing’s last second shot. In it, they talk about the challenges facing Detroit’s mayor, devoting special attention to how they feel he must handle unionized city employees. The anti-union sentiment of this piece is regular fare for Wall Street Journal columnists.
The strategy and tactics of unions must evolve like everything else that’s ever existed on Earth. The economy has evolved beyond the wildest dreams of the original labor organizers, but their guiding principle endures. The problem is that the criticism of unions often comes from those that disagree with it’s premise (i.e. conservative columnists at the Wall Street Journal).
Space must be created within the labor movement and the broader liberal & progressive community for a dialog on what evolved unions look like and how they interact with business and government. This has not happened in any scalable, visible fashion for the same reason that there has yet to be a reasoned, meaningful dialog about US-Israel policy: fear of being called an anti-Semite. In the context of rethinking unions, the fear is that you’ll be labeled as anti-union or anti-worker/human rights. The nuance-less zero-sum game must end because it leaves us with broken union models like most teacher unions.
No matter how business and government evolve, there will always be a need to ensure that workers’ needs are met. Without that, businesses, economies and governments will inevitably fail. You could even argue that the economy being divorced from the everyday realties of workers is one underlying cause for our current economic situation.
I’m surprised that labor itself hasn’t driven this conversation more publicly, but my sense is that the hesitate to do so because they don’t want to give those that disagree with their existence any public statements to latch on to. A dose of boldness is needed to see through the short-term impact of a few negative news cycles if it means creating a more robust organizing model for workers in future generations (assuming that’s the goal).
I entered the Washington Post’s America’s Next Great Pundit contest a couple of weeks ago. I did not make the list of top 10 finalists, so the country will have to keep reading here to my punditry for a least the next little while.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed writing this opinion piece on gentrification. Take a look.
One Love. One II.
Are newly opened Starbucks, pedestrians with designer sunglasses, and big box retailers symbols of revitalization or the death of a neighborhood? Culturally speaking, it’s a funeral.
Neighborhoods become cool because of their history. History trumps gang wars, drug havens, and panhandlers when it comes to earning the “up and coming” title. Think Harlem. Its history as the Mecca of early 20th century black creativity made it a cool place to live despite the effects of its crack epidemic.
The model for capitalizing on the cool is simple: 1) buy a house, 2) renovate it, and 3) quadruple the price. This ensures that new, more attractive people will move in and manifest the coolness. The problem is that when black and Latino people are displaced, so are their memories, values, and relationships.
Revitalization brings us shiny new stores and unfamiliar neighbors. Unfortunately, new stores don’t mean new friends for our sons to play football with or our daughters to jump rope with. They also don’t mean new friends for our veterans to play dominoes with at the VFW.
What’s left are neighborhoods without souls. Gentrification has a way of inducing schizophrenia upon a place. A block that was once filled with locally-owned, locally-supported, complimentary businesses is now stuffed with unrelated chains fighting for attention. Cohesive cultural scenes become disjointed commercial conglomerates. Aimless neighborhood development does give at least one gift: bad traffic.
Neighborhoods can be made safer and redeveloped without economic displacement. This happens when capital investments are targeted toward strengthening communities rather than supplanting them.
We need less overpriced lattes and more family-owned restaurants. We need fewer high-rise, low-quality condominiums and more streets where everyone knows everyone else’s names. We must build on the genuine relationships that made our neighborhoods what they are, not break them apart and auction them to the highest bidder. Now is the time to double down on building America up in ways that celebrate the rich histories of every corner, of every neighborhood, everywhere.
Civil rights are fundamentally about protecting fairness, equality, and freedom for all people. Net neutrality is about protecting fairness, equality and freedom for all online data. From a values perspective, these two concepts are functionally equivalent.
Well, every day they’re not talking about net neutrality. On their off days, they “question” the impact of net neutrality in letters to the FCC:
If the history of civil rights in America teaches us anything, it is that facially neutral laws and regulations are not always applied neutrally to the constituencies we represent. We certainly don’t want that to happen to Internet regulation too, and we’re very concerned that, despite your very best intentions, some aspects of net neutrality might not turn out to be neutral as applied to our constituencies.
They don’t come out and say it, but this is setting the table for their rejection of fair content distribution online.
Neutral networks lead to empowered communities
The truth is network neutrality is critical to ensuring equal access to the Internet, its content, and the empowerment that comes with that. Without network neutrality protection, ISPs and telecom companies will have free reign to discriminate against the distribution of content created by minority producers. This will make the Internet just like other mass media channels in which the authentic voices of people of color have been marginalized.
Fairness, equality, and freedom must be protected on and offline.
What’s up fam, Long time no see I know. First let me say that I have started law school at UDC so any SuperSpade fam in the DMV, let me know what’s up. Moreover, my partner in crime Garlin got married and would you guess it, moved to DC!!! Suffice it to say that a ton of change has happened in the past couple months and our posting has been….well let’s just get back into it.
So I am really smarting over the Van Jones resignation and the implications it has on the next twenty years of political life in America. President Obama is wrong for allowing this to go through. This has nothing to do with Van’s liberal values but it is pure politics. Jones was ousted in large part to the enraged and deranged rhetoric of Glenn Beck…of all people. I get it you that can’t fight every fight but come on. I will even give you some slack if we are talking about appointments that need the consent of the Senate but this was not the case. Then, the communication’s director of the National Endowment for the Arts, Yosi Sergant is forced to resgin in part due to Glenn Beck. Obama, you can’t allow Glenn Beck to pick off your staff one at a time. This is crazy!!!!
The larger problem is what this says for the generation coming of and preparing to take the reins. What Van said about Republicans pales in comparison to what I hear Republicans have said and say about Obama. The signal being sent though is that if you are left/liberal/progressive, keep your mouth shut. We live in the information where even the most insignificant speech is recorded, and who knows what to think of what is going to happen to all the emails/facebook posts, blogs, blog comments, etc. I say that to say that anyone talking themselves out of politics (or influencing politicians) took the wrong lesson from the Jones resignation. We have to be bold in our principles. Seriously, I don’t know when this happened but “birthers” get regular play over the media airwaves. Where are we?
Let’s be honest shall we?
Have you deleted or re-worded a comment or email because while what you said was perfectly reasonable you didn’t want to be branded as a crazy liberal? -When in conversation have you bashed a liberal idea that you really support?
What rally did you want to go to but you didn’t want to risk being photographed?
My only point is that you are wrong if you are waiting for progressive values (that is the word I use, don’t get caught in semantics) to become mainstream, stop waiting! Politics doesn’t work when you don’t show up so don’t let this moment go to waste. Let principles guide you, not random reactions to the absurd.
You will be getting slightly dated feedback/analysis from yours truly regarding the super excellent Blogging While Brown Conference that took place in Chicago about a week and a half back. As stated in my title, one of the real gems from BWB was one Curtis Baker, founder of the blog (and movement) known as The JOBA (Joint Organization of Black America) Group: a group of progressive Americans seeking to organize on a national scale for the benefit of our institutions, communities, and families. I met Curtis over lunch and we broke bread about the dilemma regarding how expanded broadband access is useless unless people (Black people) learn to use the internet as an educational and professional tool and not just to check social media/gossip sites. We talked about other things as well but I don’t want to scoop myself or him over future posts. Just know that he is a good brother and he is in a word…sharp. Here is an excerpt from the blog, Read the rest of this entry »
Behind bars…sort of is one of the best descriptions of the myths of our modern imprisonment model I’ve read from traditional media.
The questions posed are ones that are raised by activists and those opposed to how our criminal justice system operates. Sadly, these questions rarely get substantive answers from policymakers.
What’s the point of prison? (Punishment? Rehabilitation? Humiliation?)
How do we define & measure a prison’s effectiveness?
Has increased imprisonment lead to improved quality of life for those not in prison?
3 R's: Reduce, Remove, Remake
Re-framing the debate: Reduce, Remove, Remake
Americans are viewing more and more issues through the lens of their wallets. Perhaps this can work for rethinking prisons too.
Cory Booker, mayor of Newark, NJ, made progress on prison reform in his jurisdiction in large part by framing sensible incarceration policy as a matter of fiscal responsibility. The premise is that a city needs a consistent tax base to function, and people who are being warehoused are not paying taxes. It’s a great example of using a seemingly centrist frame (“fiscal responsibility”) to execute on a progressive agenda (“prison reform”). Prisons like the one featured in this article cost no more to construct, yet they save the cost of inmate humiliation & dehumanization. Those of us not in prison feel in that cost terms of recidivism.
Perhaps this can work on a broader scale if this is adjusted slightly. Instead of focusing solely on “let’s quickly make them productive taxpayers again,” we should broaden that to the following “Reduce, Remove, Remake” approach:
As a society responsible for the protection of its citizens, we will raise everyone’s quality of life by insisting that we reduce the motivations for crime, remove the policy loopholes and resource lapses that allow crime to persist, and remake our prison system into one that benefits society more than it costs it.
Doing this takes political courage on behalf of citizens, activists, and policymakers, but it can be done. Let’s transform our system away from being “an expensive way to make bad people worse” into “an investment in our shared security and well-being.”
As new tools of civic and civil protest evolve – as in Iran, where protesters are using social networks to keep the rest of the world apprised of the response to that country’s recently held elections – they present both new opportunities and new challenges for freedom of speech.
Protesting using Twitter
Twitter has been singled out as the key communication platform for protesters and those watching them since last week’s election. It has enabled people around the globe to read real time accounts of the happenings.
It has also enabled people around the globe to participate in the protest in ways some have never seen before.
Such armchair activism has included setting up proxy servers to help Iranian tweeters get around government blockades of the site.
Another example was the attempted DDOS attacks on Iranian web servers from abroad (DDoS stands for Denial of Service, a method of hacking that involves sending lots of web requests every second with the hopes of overloading a web server and rendering a website unusable/unavailable).
Principally, the inclusion of non-Iranians in these protest efforts is a good thing. To paraphrase Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. However, these particular actions raise serious ethical and legal questions that must be thought through.
As interested activists and citizens, we must be prudent in our actions to ensure they help more than hurt.
By doing so, do we make our civilian network infrastructure a valid target to an adversary? What risks are associated with a group of private citizens sending an unintended message to a potential adversary in the form of a coordinated network disruption?
Perhaps we are, but I don’t think that’s the case.
Earlier this year, Russia basically did this to Georgia, and caught a lot of flack for it. This sets a precedent that is dangerous, especially if we don’t understand its consequences.
Another question: if the attacks were actually successful, wouldn’t we be destroying the only portals we have into the very place we’re so interested in?
Technology is an increasingly powerful and important part of our society and our culture. As it expands to touch more parts of our lives, we must be ever-mindful of its drawbacks as well as its benefits.
Read a great piece today by EJ Dionne from the Post where he talks about the current health care debate and how bipartisanship is weakening the prospects for real health care reform.
“Where did we get the idea that the only good health-care bill is a bipartisan bill? Is bipartisanship more important than whether a proposal is practical and effective?…
Most Democrats believe that fixing the system will require increased government intervention to guarantee universal coverage and to contain costs. Most Republicans oppose an expansion of government’s role and believe an even more market-oriented system would pave the way to health-care nirvana. Trying to achieve full bipartisanship by squaring those two views is a recipe for incoherence.”
What I dislike about bipartisanship is that while it is a noble goal, politicians have sorely abused it in the worst way. During the campaign trail, bipartisanship is often trumpeted as one way to get approval of what is considered the Holy Grail of American politics; the swing voter. Once candidates become elected, their almost certain decision to stand for re-election impacts what policies they choose and how their method of attack. Here again, bipartisanship is noted as a key goal of any major policy push. In this way, politicians have political cover if something goes wrong, said politician can say, “Now wait a minute, this bill was even supported by my friends from across the aisle.” (e.g. the vote to authorize force in Iraq) Which to translate means that because everyone is wrong, no one is wrong so chill out with this accountability. Read the rest of this entry »
Yes, I am corny for trying to make the title rhyme but I wanted to share with you all that I will be at Blogging While Brown this weekend in Chicago. From the website
The purpose of Blogging While Brown is to give Bloggers of Color an opportunity to meet each other for the first time, discuss current issues affecting Bloggers of Color, and learn about the latest technology that will assist them with publishing their work. Blogging While Brown was created in response to widespread dissatisfaction with the amount of diversity in some of the largest blogging conferences. A critical mass of Bloggers of Color has yet to attend these established conferences, however the initial response from Bloggers of Color to the idea of holding their own conference has been overwhelmingly enthusiastic. Bloggers of Color are excited about a conference, for, by and about them and look forward to moving beyond the single panel or discussion focusing on diversity that are typically featured at some of the larger blogging conferences.
The first conference was held in Atlanta, GA in July 2008. The second conference is being held in Chicago, IL on June 19-20, 2009.
I was upset that I wasn’t able to make it out last year but fortunately, I was able to kick it with Gina from What About Our Daughters (AN INCREDIBLE BLOG, BTW) who originally came up with the concept of Blogging While Brown. Gina was on my panel, Black Blogging Beyond Obama at Netroots Nation last year and I don’t say this often about people but Gina is the truth. I will be live blogging and providing new insights for my SuperSpade family. And if there are any SuperSpade family in Chicago, leave a comment and let me know what’s happening.
President Obama, bi-partisanship is over-rated. I understand you want a bi-partisan health care plan but as you often point out, “We shouldn’t let the perfect get in the way of the good.” Well here is the thing, many of us support single-payer but let’s not be crass here and pretend like a public option is perfect and therefore has to be off the table.
President Obama, Republicans and other special interests will not give you health care on a silver platter. Having said that, it is disconcerting when the bulk of your supporters want to see a public option when the public option was missing from the first draft of health care legislation coming out of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee (HELP).
The fight SHOULD NOT BE, “How can we lower costs if we can’t get a public option,” but rather, “This is the public plan and we want your input on how it should be implemented.” I understand some of the Democrats timidity when they were in the Senate but let’s not play the sixty-vote game. If Republicans want to filibuster health care reform in this economy, because of a public option, I say LET THEM DO IT!!! I know you care about bringing together and you should continue to do so but this is a time to fight!!!!
This is a public service announcement. Michigan is not going to die. Despite all the negative publicity Detroit and Michigan are receiving, we will rise.
Yesterday, I attended my cousin Cortni’s graduation from Mumford High (a Detroit Public School) and it was held at Chene Park. For those that don’t know, Chene Park is a concert venue off the Detroit River that is outside and covered by a giant tent. So during the entire graduation, it is pouring down raining and it is cold. So much so that the rain started to come in sideways and if you didn’t have a warm coat, you were probably miserable.
For a period of time, I was fascinated at how the wind and rain chopped up the river. And when I looked up to my right, I noticed the Renaissance Center where General Motors is headquartered. I almost didn’t notice the large GM sign through the clouds and rain. And the reason why Detroit (Michigan) will not die because there is a huge swath of people that live here now whose parents, grandparents or great grandparents came up from the South to make a living to make life better for their offspring. They didn’t come to help out Detroit but that’s what they ended up doing. The ship is making the necessary turns but it is only because the same drive that drove people to move up North is the same moxie that keeps Detroiters and Michiganders smiling amongst so much despair.
I find it ironic that the tragedy at the Holocaust museum took place after Homeland Security Napolitano was under enormous pressure to denounce her report that warned against an uptick in activity amongst White Supremacist groups. We know from this country that with great progress comes intense backlash.
And if there is still any doubt, we do not live in a post racial society. “But Brandon, that guy was crazy and was on the fringes of society.” This “he was crazy” argument doesn’t cut it with me. The killer (I refuse to his name) may have some warped views on our society but crazy, he is not. And the more we try to sweep issues like this under the rug, the more we delude ourselves of the need that dealing with hate must be done by us and some other representative.
And like the report from Homeland, some on the Right will respond by saying that “We denounce violence and never condone this sort of behavior. He acted alone and none of this can or should be connected to any conservative leaning commentators, so we shouldn’t over react here. I should also mention that there are some left-wing radicalas out there too, so we have to watch everybody.” In other words, “Things happen.”
So for all the people that praise the killing of George Tiller as saving babies, what will be the line for Stephen Johns? Better yet, I don’t want to know but do know that for as much as you claim to love America, America is not God. And please note Hebrews 10:30, “Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people.”
Stay up fam,
Our sincerest condolences to Stephen Johns family and friends.
Most interestingly, comparing these results with U.S. demographic statistics shows that the percentage of African Americans in each U.S. state is a predominant factor determining increase in call activity and therefore participation in the event, which instead was not necessarily influenced by the state’s proximity to Washington, D.C. or its political leaning.
In the midst of this economic downturn, it only makes sense that people take refuge in education. This is especially the thinking of minorities and disadvantaged people, and rightfully so. “Education,” they say, “is a great equalizer.”
Make no mistake: you have more security being educated than you do being under-educated. That being said, we may need a little more nuance in our thinking about the whole “get educated to get employed” approach that most of us take to education. As my mentor & friend Calvin Mackie often says, “if it only makes dollars, then it doesn’t make sense.”
In this time where cornerstone companies like GM are entering bankruptcy and promising to come out “leaner” (read: they’re going to fire/lay off/buy out a lot of people), we have to protect ourselves. The harsh truth is that even good people are being let go.
What can we do?
Here are some things we can all do to survive & thrive in this economy:
Add as much value as you can. At your job, do what you can to over-achieve. This goes without saying typically, but it’s especially important now. This is good because a record of over-achievement will serve your career well.
Keep your resume up to date.
Even if you’re not looking for work, re-visit your resume every 6 months. Have you had interesting projects or achievements on the job? Have you attended trainings or acquired some type of certification? Promotion? Adding these things as they happen ensures that you’re never unprepared. Consider creating a profile on LinkedIn. (For an example, look at my profile).
Build transferable skills outside of your day job. Try to read, practice, volunteer and/or consult in areas of interest or expertise you have outside of your primary work. If there are things that you enjoy or are good at or want to learn that could have monetary value, grow these skills. After you’ve done some work on them, add them to your resume.
Network to net work.
The people you know can and will help you get the work you need and want. The old saying is “network or not work,” but I like this more positive, proactive version. We all know people that know people that are [at least] tangentially connected to whatever you want to pursue professionally. What we fail to realize is that they are often more than willing to talk with us, offer advice, and help us take our next step in our careers.
I’m sure many of you have tips we all can benefit from to help us find and keep jobs in this day and age. Please share them.
Tragic news in Detroit and not from the auto industry. Apparently,
Detroit Public Schools Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb released audit findings this morning that show sloppy bookkeeping at 189 of 194 school buildings, some of which could result in criminal charges. The tax-exempt schools also may have lost about $1.7 million that was wrongly paid in sales taxes, a meeting with a vendor revealed this morning
The audits showed loans made to school officials using school funds, missing funds from activities, school funds diverted to personal accounts, principals writing and signing checks, untimely deposits and money taken home by staff.
I am very strict about money and ethics so I get very upset when I see systematic fraud and mismanagement. Every little bit of money stolen adds up and over time, millions of dollars are being stolen from kids. This is out of control, especially when you have a culture of politics where the dominant discussion is who has control of the schools instead of making education better and cleaning up the waste and fraud right in front of our eyes. Is public integrity not cool any more? What gives? Frankly, I am tired of the old school politicians and administrators that know they do wrong but talk about the need for young people to take the reins. I don’t think Detroit is beyond saving but it is shameful to consider the type of city you left for us. Thanks,
Abandonment destroys the future of everything it touches: people, families, cities, states, countries. There is perhaps no city in our country that is living an abandonment fantasy nightmare more than Detroit, MI.
In light of this, GLUE (Great Lakes Urban Exchange) did a project where they asked Detroiters of all ages, shapes and sizes what it would take to keep them in the city called I Will Stay If…
The project asked people to complete the sentence “I will stay [in Detroit] if…” What a simple, elegant, brilliant concept. Some of the answers were very interesting.
This has been on my mind a lot over the past couple of days of bad news about GM and negatively framed analysis on the future of Detroit, of Michigan, and of the entire Midwest. For example, my fiancée & I heard an NPR BBC broadcast Monday night that had someone from Detroit’s Capuchin Soup Kitchen (incidentally, a place I worked in 2001) talking about how Detroit resembled a 3rd world country. His arguments were too ridiculous to repeat. Suffice it to say that this guy was not a good advocate neither for the disadvantaged nor the city.
As someone who, frankly, is a prototypical example of Southeastern Michigan brain drain, this troubles me. Not only does my home need people like me to stay & not leave in the first place, or come back home] we also need present ourselves in a positive way and share our vision for a future brighter than the present.
Finishing the “I Will Stay If…” sentence is a great way of beginning that.
Dick Cheney thinks that states should grant gay & lesbian couples the right to marry.
This isn’t suprising, but it is important. Cheney taking this position gives cover to a certain class of conservatives to embrace some form of equality.
Now if I could just get him to agree with me on torture…
We will have a new Supreme Court Justice by October 2009, and her name will be Sonia Sotomayor. This is a plain, simple fact.
I waited to write about this because I wanted to see the full range of juvenile, senseless, and viperous statements made be conservative critics of this nomination.
A laughable argument
The most ridiculous and confusing argument against soon-to-be-Justice Sotomayor is that she is unfit to be on the Supreme Court because her personal positions, ethnic heritage, and life experience could influence her decisions. Show me a person who’s life experience doesn’t reflect in their decisions, and I’ll show you a person’s life that is a rudderless, abject failure.
Last I checked, judges are people. Persons even. People, like you, me, your mother, your brother, your neighbor and everyone else you know all have histories, opinions and talents. To deny this is to deny the value of life, family, friendship, education, work, and everything else that happens during our time on this earth.
It is beyond ridiculous then to think that people’s decisions are not impacted by the things that they have seen or that have happened to them. Why must judges divorce themselves from their humanity in the name of something as transient and subjective as the law? Are these people saying that they want law machines and not judges? (Note: I’m absolutely not a lawyer, so I’d love to hear from lawyers on this.)
We elect/appoint people
The actual world and the movie world are different. We don’t live in the world of Terminator or iRobot. When we look for ways to solve problems, to explain happenings, or to interpret law, we look to people, not robots. The idea that judges appointed by conservatives apply no personal thought or empathy when deciding cases is as dishonest and supported neither anecdotally or statistically. The most recent example is [current & most recently appointed] Justice Sam Alito’s comments during his confirmation regarding applying his personal and family experiences to his judgements.
Should disagreement disqualify?
Maybe, maybe not. Disqualify is probably the wrong word, but in the real world, this is about more than qualifications. No one has said that Sotomayor is unqualified because that would be the only argument weaker than the laughable one described above.
Elections have consequences. The should have consequences; that’s the point. It is perfectly legitimate to vote against a judicial nominee because you disagree with their ideology as demonstrated in their record. It is not, however, legitimate to vote against a nominee because they do what all other people do: think about their history when making decisions in the present.
I pray that one day we can have an honest dialogue in our government and body politic without the salacious, counter-productive, dishonest rhetoric. If you don’t like her record, say you don’t like her record. That’d be a lot easier on all of us.
Today is going to mark the beginng of an on and off-again series I am entitling Simple Solutions. These will be random thoughts to make life better. I only ask that you give credit if you go on to make a billion dollars.
Shouldn’t there be a way to text 911? Think about it, if I am hiding from a would-be robber in my house and I have my phone, the last thing I would want to do is audibly tell my name, address, the situation, etc. Now think about a child that is being abused but doesn’t want to let the parent know they are calling 911. I know many would say that this would increase the risk of false text msgs and people playing pranks but I think there could be some safe guards built in where the person texting would have to provide an identifying piece of information like zip code or the color of the house, who knows. Moreover, we could increase the fines/consequences (if there are already) associated with prank calls to 911. What do you think?
For those that don’t know, Detroit elected a new mayor in a special election earlier this month to succeed disgraced former mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. Dave Bing beat out City Council President and then-acting Mayor Kenneth Cockrel. Only 15% of the city voted in the election, making his 52-47% similar to a basketball game without a ball. Problem: he lives in Franklin, MI, not Detroit, MI. (And yes, I know about his apartment in the city, but a married man lives where his wife lives, regardless of where his apartmnet is. Mrs. Bing lives in Franklin, so he lives in Franklin.)
Damaged credibility, authority, and standards
Just like it’s hard for me to accept pontification on the importance of public education from someone with kids in private school, it’s hard to believe someone who says they’re a leader invested in a city they don’t live in.
This idiocy, the idiocy of too little process for important things and too much process where it makes no sense, is unique neither to Michigan nor Detroit. This is the age of 2-page billion dollar bank bailout applications. It’s very troubling that it’s easier to get a multi-billion dollar loan or run for public office than it is to qualify for lower college tuition.
It sounds like a stupid question, but sometimes those are the best kind.
I am not an educator. But in my layman’s observation of schools systems and education policies, I know that the last thing we need is to apply business models to classrooms. This “classroom as cubicle” thinking that characterizes so many charter schools’ method0logies and get’s them business loans to creat schools fails for the same reason our banking system failed:
The more one focuses on a singular indicator, the more corrupt one becomes.
Banks & businesses focused on short-term profits sacrificed responsible risk management and long-term viability. It is unacceptable to think that sacrificing the long-term quality of our children’s education is a good way to think about reforming education.
Measurement without context is a brain without a body.
Instead, I’d like to see a reform approach proposed and supported by a coalition of education practitioners, teachers, administrators, and researchers who can speak to what works in the classroom.
I want these people to be the ones that determine how to contextualize reading comprehension, writing, math and science test data.
I want these individuals to collaboratively design a framework for measuring teacher, school, district, and policy metrics, performance, rewards and repercussions.
I want this coalition to be represented in the Department of Education and in a meaningful way.
I don’t know how to address these and other challenges, but these people do. We must trust and respect that. After all, public policy not designed by the people it touches should be called what it is: unkept promises.
Our New Education Secretary disagrees with me
Arne Duncan, our new Secretary of Education was never a teacher or administrator. He gave his first testimony to the House Education and Labor Committee this week. I am especially perturbed by Secretary Duncan’s affinity towards charter schools:
Successful, respected educators agree with me
Deborah Meier
Teacher, Principal, author, child advocate, and leader of the Small Schools movmentDeborah Meier posed this question and gave other critiques of today’s thinking on education reform on Democracy Now! yesterday:
Why do we have a Department of Education that is led by so few actual educators?
She went on to criticize the cracking of the door towards more support for charter schools, and eviscerated the notion that a business mindset will fix education:
Unfortunately, many believe that only people that know how to manipulate money know how to change the world for the better.
Below is an excerpt from the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education regarding the gender gap in bachelor’s degrees awarded to African Americans. I know statistics like these are often used to encourage young brothers to go to college but the implications are far more dire, especially in this economy.
To be sure, Black women doing well or better than men is not bad and women should not be berated for doing well. However, we as men have to step up and take our nephews and cousins under our wings.
The Gender Gap in Bachelor’s Degree Awards Among African Americans
In the 2006-07 academic year, black women earned 96,968 bachelor’s degrees, almost double the number earned by black men. Black women now earn two thirds of all bachelor’s degrees obtained by African Americans.
Do not be mistaken, black men too have made progress. Over the past decade, the number of bachelor’s degrees earned by black men is up more than 47 percent. But the result for black men pales in comparison to the huge gains posted by black women. Over the same 10-year period, the number of bachelor’s degrees won by black women has increased by nearly 60 percent.
The Michigan Policy Summit is over so I can get back to blogging more regularly. Below is a draft of a piece I plan on submitting to The Global Journal of Hip-Hop Culture. Please read the prompt (in italics) and provide any relevant feedback. I look forward to reading your comments,
Stay up fam,
p.s. Shout out to Eboni, a long time reader of the SuperSpade that was at the Summit,
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
“Sex and Hip-Hop Beyond Misogyny”
Many have stated that sex sells with regard to commodities, hip-hop culture in particular. However, in recent years the industries surrounding sex and hip-hop have developed a symbiotic relationship. For example, rappers often use strip clubs to premiere records and circumvent mainstream radio payola. In turn, the porn industry employs rappers to promote its DVDs and Web sites. This connection not only allows the two industries to benefit financially, but also results in their mutual exploitation. Read the rest of this entry »
Many people still think racism is intentional, conscious and personal. It’s not. As the economic crisis shows, we are facing racial inequities that have their roots in the explicit racism of earlier generations but which now devastate communities of color without intent. This is where we now need to turn our attention.
The common argument that “the racism that happened in the past is not important today” is flatly wrong. Some complain that pollution today hurts children in the future. Others say that poor financial decisions will burden our children with unthinkable debts & deficits. In exactly the same fashion, the racism of our forefathers hurts people in the here and now.
This is further evidence of the myth of the Post-Racial Society. In order for a Post-Racial Society to come into being, the racism and the remnants of that racism, and them impact of that racism must be dealt with justly.
The problem is racism is at a minimum both moral & economic. Once one agrees that racism [and other manifestations of prejudice] are morally wrong, there are economic questions that must be addressed. The Applied Research Center’s report outlines how racism hurt both the hearts and wallets of people of color during this very recession.
The solutions to the problem of racism help us all. I’m not a fan of playing the race card unjustifiably. However, when we justly and ethically deal with racist norms, policies and practices, all people benefit.
Fair lending practices benefit all people looking to qualify for a home or car loan.
Fair admissions & financial aid policies make college education accessible for all students.
A more responsible police force better protects all members of community.
I generally disdain the Cult of the Celebrity. It frustrates me when the unqualified, unverified, and unquestioned present weak arguments and empty claims that are accepted as facts given from experts. While I also reject the Cult of Expertise, I’d take that one over celebrity.
He addressed the graduating class of UPenn on Monday, the school he graduated from 10 years ago. At first, I saw this as a classic case of the Cult of the Celebrity:
Why exactly is this guy giving this address.
Is he really that interesting/compelling/appropriate?
I bet I’d give a better speech than him
While I will definitely not concede the third point, I was pleasantly surprised with the address he delivered. So much so in fact, that I’d like to share it with all of you.
My key takeaway from the speech was:
Now, I don’t assume that the truth is commonly found. Like its bedfellows of democracy and justice, I believe it is quite rare to find. It is born through process. It is gained through questioning. It is found in listening. It’s about accepting that complex problems require complicated solutions.
Enjoy this, and share it.
One Love. One II.
P.S. Now, back to my hating on the Cult of the Celebrity.
Take This Hammer is a 1963 documentary film that shows author/activist James Baldwin’s fact-finding mission to San Francisco that same year. His purpose was to answer the question: is the Negro in San Francisco, CA any better off than the Negro in Birmingham, AL? He concluded that:
There is no moral distance between the facts of life in San Francisco and the facts of life in Birmingham.
Baldwin presents an extraordinary social critique of America North & South, white liberalism, and the angst of Black teenagers. What’s exceptional are some of the specific barometers he uses to judge young Black people’s view on their future.
Will there ever be a Black President?
There is one exchange where he asks a group of young men if there will ever be a Negro President in this country. They flatly tell him “No, never.” Baldwin retorts with solidly nuanced optimism: “Yes, there will be a Negro President, but this country will be different from the one that exists now.”
Obviously, we have a Black President now. That begs the question: was Baldwin right? Is this a different country than it was in 1963? Yes in many ways, and no in many others.
The failure of Christianity
Near the end of the film, Baldwin opines on the almost comical hypocrisy of American [white] Christianity. Baldwin asserts that:
…these churches are absolutely meaningless and almost blasphemous…more social club than spiritual institution…the Christian church in this country has never, as far as i know, been Christian.
Baldwin is himself a Christian, but he sees and hears the spiritual frustrations of Black youth. One young man told him that the best way for Black people to organize [for revolution] was by “coming together as Muslims.” What does that mean? That spirituality & religion as forces of identification, pride, and community were as important then as they are today. It also speaks to the fluidity of religion, to people’s desire to find a spiritual persuasion that speaks to their needs. Baldwin’s critique on American Christianity shows that many young, militant Black folks rejected a faith they saw as hypocritical and weak. Today’s Christianity is still fighting this battle.
On “liberalism”
Baldwin shares an intellectual pedigree with Steve Biko with his disdain of “liberals” (in this context, they both mean White liberals). In the film, Baldwin has a lot to say about this:
Everywhere I’ve been in this country, white people think race relations are excellent.
Liberals are looking for an alleviation, a protection of their own consciousness.
Liberals can’t be fake and be heroic too.
White people think of themselves as missionaries…but we don’t want you to do it for the Negro, we want you to do it for you.
His critique is not of liberalism, but of dishonest, half-hearted activism. Activism and organizing are based upon trust, and Baldwin did not trust white liberal activists in many cases.
This tension still exists in some circles today. Most interestingly, it creates a chasm between those arguing over whether the shortest path to equality and freedom in this country is through racial reconciliation or class-based economic struggle. Baldwin, Biko, myself, and others saw this as a false choice, but it creates a very real debate for many activists and thinkers.
Where do we go from here?
Baldwin in the film is neither overly optimistic nor terribly pessimistic. He does offer some thoughts that give insight into his thoughts on the future:
Buildings without foundations will inevitably come down.
I can be fooled, but my kids won’t be…either we will correct what’s wrong, it will be corrected for us.
This is something that’s been hitting close to home with me in recent years. The aspirations and assumptions of one generation are often realized, debunked, and adjusted by the next. Baldwin speaks specifically about ideas such as the “fakeness” of the American dream (i.e. having a garage) and what is actually meant when politicians & developers say “redevelopment” (to Baldwin, that means “remove the Negro”).
As my generation of activists, thinkers, leaders, and citizens chart our course through this dynamic social landscape, we can learn a lot from those that came before us. However, learn means neither repeat nor ignore. Instead, it means absorbing the knowledge and experiences, examining the current context for similarities and differences, applying what we’ve absorbed where appropriate, and innovating where necessary.
Last week I signed a letterto the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) calling each out for stopping the acceptance of PAC & lobbyist money for one day — the day President Obama comes to fund-raise for them.
Why this is a problem
Private money perverts politics. It destroys electoral integrity by weighting the outcome in favor of moneyed interests. The DSCC & DCCC are perfectly fine with this. President Obama is not. I’m not either.
Campaigns & elections should be publicly financed. Our taxes pay the salaries of elected officials already, so why don’t we pay for their selection too? That way, things won’t get too out of control (we won’t waste money), and we’ll be more likely to hold people accountable (because we literally paid for them to be there).
Join me, several other prominentBlack & progressivebloggers, and 2,400+ other people in signing this letter and stopping this madness.
This post is part of: A day of blogging for justice: Standing up against the police pre-trial electrocution of black children, women and men by taser.
Tasers are instruments of torture.
Torture talk has been all over the news recently. The unfortunate [yet understandable] focus of the conversation is on torture in a military & international context.
This causes us to overlook the torture and murder of citizens here at home, victims of racial profiling, police brutality, and excessive use of lethal force by law enforcement.
This issue is not new, but the instruments of this type of torture are ever-evolving. While military torture involves tools like the waterboard, our domestic version uses the taser.
Torture mentality has perverted our entire system
What happens at the top always impacts the bottom. Lawless leadership leads to lawless practices on the ground. When the Bush Administration OK’d torture, low-level interrogators became torturers. On the local level, when police chiefs embrace tasers as “non-lethal” alternatives to guns, people get killed unnecessarily.
Leadership complicit in torture and murder must be held accountable at all levels.Further, we need to preemptively demand that our leaders craft policies that prevent death, not enable it.
Our wars here at home on petty criminals and the disenfranchised should not be ones that result in capital murder.
What you can do
Contact your local police chief and ask whether officers are carrying tasers. Look up their contact information by searching for their zip code on USACOPS. If they’re using tasers not, thank him or her. If they are carrying, do the following:
Ask: Is the entire force armed with tasers?
If not, which units have them?
Ask: Do officers carry both tasers and guns?
Ask what the motivation is for this policy.
Ask: What’s the usage protocol for tasers? This will answer the question “when should tasers be used in place of guns?”
Suggest: Stop carrying tasers
Direct them to our site documenting taser abuses in the US. Let them know that you’ll feel safer if police enagaged in non-lethal ways whenever possible. You know that the officers are well-trained and highly professional, and you just want them to do the best they can without taking lives.
Simply asking these questions will cause leadership to reflect on their policy. Reflection is the first step to change.
“Eighty-five percent of consumers have this intention to save energy, but only three percent do. What the hell is this massive gap between intention and action all about?” (Thomas Scaramellino, founder of Efficiency 2.0)
Today is Earth Day. This year needs to be Earth Year. This decade needs to be Earth Decade. This life needs to be Earth Life.
Why isn’t it?
Maybe it’s because the way we encourage people to get “green” is broken. Counter-productive. Wrong. The next time you see the promo during 24 that points you at a Fox website about how to get “green”, think twice.
Our approach to increasing environmental awareness is so devoid of nuance that what it gains in accesibility it sacrifices in effectiveness. Hearing “green” tips without context is like taking showers without water: nothing gets cleaner.
Yes, we all need to use real towels instead of paper ones. Yes, we all need to turn off the bathroom light when not in the bathroom. But we need more. We need better. We need smarter.
Take time next month to figure out what your environmental impact actually is. There are lots of ways to do this:
Everyone can see what their personal environmental impact is by answering the question: What’s my Carbon Footprint?
Consumers can use GoodGuide to find out the environmental impact of the things you buy.
Businesses can use Earthster to find out the environmental impact of their supply chains.
By taking stock of your environmental impact, you can then focus your efforts to reduce it in the most productive way. Better information opens the window to understanding. Understanding opens the door to action. Action opens the floodgates of change and progress.
Over on my man’s Field Negro blog, he wrote some fire today regarding Obama not fighting for a bill he introduced while in the Senate that would give justice to Black farmers. And rather than put it in my own words, I am going to re-post his thoughts in full. Please visit his site on a regular basis, he spits hot fiyah. (Dylan accent)
You Obamaholics might want to skip this next post. I will give you a little time to click away before I start……..
Okay, for those of you who are still reading, Quick, raise your hands if you have ever heard of the Pigford Case. If you haven’t let me help you out a little bit: It was a class action lawsuit filed by a bunch of black farmers because the federal government denied them loans and assistance that went to whites. (Gee, there is a surprise) Anyway, they filed a class action lawsuit, and there must have been some fire to go with the smoke because Uncle Sam settled for damn near a billion dollars with my overall clad brothers.
Happy ending right? Wrong. As is always the case with our slick Uncle, the deadline period to file was so short that thousands of farmers with legitimate claims missed out on the filing deadline and got zilch. So in comes Johnny Boyd and other farmer activist; they started pressing the government to open back up the case and give some of the farmers who missed out on the filing deadline to refile their claims.
Well guess who stepped up to the plate to help them? Yep, you guessed it; his O ness.
Let me give you a little passage from the AP story:
“…The cause gained momentum in August 2007 when Obama, then an Illinois senator, introduced Pigford legislation about six months into his presidential campaign.
Although the case was hardly a hot-button political issue, it had drawn intense interest among African-Americans in the rural South. It was seen as a way for Obama to reach out in those areas, where he was not well-known and where he would need strong support to win the Democratic primary.
The proposal won passage in May as sponsors rounded up enough support to incorporate it into the 2008 farm bill. The potential budget implications were huge: It could easily cost $2 billion or $3 billion given an estimated 65,000 pending claims.
With pressure to hold down costs, lawmakers set an artificially low $100 million budget. They called it a first step and said more money could be approved later.
But with 25,000 new claims and counting, the Obama administration is now arguing that the $100 million budget should be considered a cap to be split among the successful cases.
The position — spelled out in a legal motion filed in February and reiterated in recent settlement talks — would leave payments as low as $2,000 or $3,000 per farmer. Boyd called that ‘insulting.’
Boyd noted that Obama’s legislation specifically called for the new claimants to be eligible for the same awards as the initial lawsuit, including expedited payments of $50,000 plus $12,500 in tax breaks that the vast majority of the earlier farmers received.
‘I’m really disappointed,’ Boyd said. ‘This is the president’s bill.’
‘They did discriminate against these farmers, maybe not all of them, but a lot of these people would prevail if they could go to court,’ he said.
The administration wouldn’t discuss specific budget plans or commit to fully funding the claims. But in a statement to The Associated Press, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the department agrees that more needs to be done and is working with the Justice Department to ‘ensure that people are treated fairly’”
Now I know that his O ness is the President, and he has a lot on his plate, BUT HE SPONSORED THIS BILL! So now that he is the President would it kill his administration to give these farmers a fair settlement? You better be careful O man, these farmers literally have the pitchforks.
“You can’t blame it on the Bush administration anymore,” said John Boyd, head of the National Black Farmers Association, which has organized the lawsuits. ‘I can’t figure out for the life of me why the president wouldn’t want to implement a bill that he fought for as a U.S.
Senator’”
Well I would tell you why John, but I want my Obamaholic friends to come back.
My boy Calvin Williams asked that I cross post he wrote on Daily Kos re: Millenial Generation National Call in Day to support passage of the budget and making sure key priorities are upheld including but not limited to investments in education, sustainability, and health care. Cal, I apologize because I have been ripping and running all day but if you haven’t made that call, the numbers havent’ changed and you still impact change. See below
National Call-In Day April 21st! Millennial Generation calls on Senate to Support the Obama Budget!
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Mon Apr 20, 2009 at 12:22:24 PM PDT
Here in Brooklyn, we’ve been feeling the economic crisis at a personal level…
Between the cuts to MTA services, health care programs and public education; along with increased costs of living at every level,like a $20 increase in monthly MTA passes and a 5-8% increase in gas/electric bills, it can get tough for families on my block to make it through paycheck to paycheck.
I’m sure we all can relate to the economic crunch in our own ways–whether its accessing financial support from student loans and grants, trying to get affordable health coverage, or attempting to live sustainably and green on recession budget.
There is a solution to begin turning the corner on the crisis–we need our Senators to support the investments in health care, a clean energy economy and higher education to both offset these increased costs of living and rebuild a sustainable future for our generation!
On Tuesday, April 21st young people nationwide will call-in their Senators to support the Obama budget. The Millennial Generation voted because we were passionate about issues that deeply affect us like making sure everyone has access to health care, that education is accessible and affordable to all and that there are green jobs that both decrease our dependence on energy and create real jobs in our communities that we sorely need.
This year’s budget will decide how much money goes to the programs that address these issues. This is where we make our vote really count by holding our elected leaders accountable to the issues we care about! The House and Senate passed budget resolutions earlier this month that includes an increase for programs that support young people, students and working families.
Next week they will reconvene to pass a final budget. It is vital that the final budget includes reconciliation so Congress can vote up or down on the budget to support these bold investments in health care, higher education and green jobs. That is why we are participating in an National Call-In Day April 21st with young people across the country.
Here are several ways to directly engage your networks and put out the word about the upcoming National Call In Day:
On Tuesday, April 21 Call 1-888-299-1447 and let your representative know you support the President’s budget
Recruit 5 Friends to Participate and Forward Along!
This is an opportunity for us to get involved in passing this budget and receive the support our communities need. So on April 21st, join young people nationwide to tell Congress “PASS THE FEDERAL BUDGET & BRING CHANGE TO OUR COMMUNITIES NOW!”
In the car today, I had my attention split between driving, talking on the phone and listening to the BBC World Edition on NPR. On the show, they were discussing that how Britains (I could be wrong) have a more difficult time accepting immigrants into their culture because at least as far as recent history is concerned, Britain is a self-contained country by which those who live their have a distinct view of what being Britain truly entails. This state of affairs was contrasted with America where everyone, minus Native Americans are immigrants, can legitimately claim and believe to be truly American.
The part that jarred me is when an interviewer asks a Britain why its more difficult for Britains to accept immigrants (I should note that there appeard to be a tacit understanding that they were really talking about people of color) and a woman responded dryly, “It’s not about race, it’s about space.” For years now, I have considered how conflicts over land and resources become painted in race/culture specifiic terms in order for the powers that be to misdirect their true intentions. But I think the woman’s response more accurately depicts my thoughts and here is why.
Taken literally and figuratively, what keeps racism thriving is a perpetual denial of accepting “others” into your space. Literally, this “space” can be interpreted by where you live, where your kids go to school, where you hang out, etc. No less important is the figurative sense which can be interpreted via who you do/don’t allow to have access to your emotional space. There are a range of things people do with this void. Some fill this void with stereotypes that can serve as barriers to the type of humanity that God envisioned; Love your brother as yourself. Others are aware of their void and take steps to fill it with love and understanding. In the end, I suppose the takeaway from this post is that you should be mindful of how you filter who gets in your space and the morals and values that under gird these filters. It is impossible to allow poor morals to inform who gets into your space and not think these same values are expressed when you try to enter into another person’s space.
Today, I was at my mother’s preparing my plate for Easter dinner. I ask my mom if she made the green beans with ham because I stopped eating pork… years ago. My sisters, whom I love dearly, jokingly tell me that the green beans are safe because mom made them with turkey, not ham. Another family meal, another dish I can’t eat…the innocent jokes continue. But as you well know, health care is no laughing matter.
My experience was probably similar to many of my peers across the country today and that’s unfortunate because this concern (for some, an obsession) with leading a healthy lifestyle belies the new reality in American healthcare; being healthy is the new healthcare. Think about it, insurance companies only want to insure people who are healthy and God forbid, you have any preconditions. The costs of healthcare is simply out of control. More and more, we hear about people who are drowned in medical costs, even when they have health insurance.
So if you have a son or daughter coming of age (early twenties – early thirties) and you give them grief about eating healthy, cut them some slack… for real. The reality is that provided you are healthy, managing your health insurance can be nerve racking, especially when many young professionals are forced to do consulting, stay mobile, and manage the immense debt stemming from undergraduate and graduate school.
Now when you take that stress and add a baby into the mix and the stress levels go through the roof because even if you have a job, you know that a mild emergency can lead to financial ruin. And businesses know that people will be compelled to stay in a job for the sake of medical benefits for their kids. And when you find out your deductible and co pays are going up, complaining is impossible when so many millions of Americans are not covered at all.
We need universal health care like crazy…period. We are living in a world where if you really want health insurance, you need to insure your health. So while it may cost more to eat healthier or join a gym, you really can’t afford not to.
I have been incredibly busy planning the Michigan Policy Summit and there so many issues I want to address. Today, I want to highlight two stories that serve as a grim reminder of how devastating a situation we find ourselves with this economic crisis.
For starters, I want to highlight a story from Flint, one of Michigan’s larger cities where
Nearly a third of the homes in Flint have been abandoned. Some Flint officials say it’s time to consider shutting down parts of the shrinking city. Interim Mayor Mike Brown said last week the city might have to consider shutting down depopulated neighborhoods. His spokesperson later stressed the remark was hypothetical.
I sometimes jokingly say that if Michigan gets too bad, we may have to sell ourselves to Canada but after reading this story, I won’t be saying that anymore. Gennessee County Treasurer, “Dan Kildee says the city just can’t afford to provide public services for its large, underpopulated footprint.” I know it is easy to talk about our dying and/or disappearing cities but cities are on the verge of seriously disappearing. And if we know people need work, consider the decrease in social mobility when the place you live is being erased. Thankfully, I know one of the candidates for mayor, Dayne Walling and when he wins, I know he will do a great job but this state of affairs is tragic.
The second story comes from Detroit (current unemployment rate 22.2%) and the impending closing of one of my favorite places in the world, “Baker’s Keyboard Lounge,” one of the oldest jazz clubs in the country and is truly a jewel of Detroit and America. For seventy five years, most jazz greats you can think of during this era has made a stop at Baker’s. This recession is swallowing people whole and in a city and region suffering so bad economically, an evening Baker’s soothed your soul with music and an atmosphere that speaks to a value common amongst Michiganders; ruggedly positive. If you are living in Michigan, make a trip to Baker’s and do what you can to help keep it open.
Bless his heart, Rep. John Conyers is on the wrong side of a very important piece of legislation he sponsored known as the Fair Copyright in Research Works Act. In short, the way it stands now, researchers and scientists that get National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding are required to allow a copy of their work be published by PubMed Central, which is the free digital archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature. The operative in the previous statement is free, which is important because it allows people like you and I to review the research that informs our country’s health policies.
I flew to DC to get Rep. Conyers to sign the Health Care for Americans Now principles and I applaud his views on the need to reform our health care system but the fact is simple, citizens should get access to health research that they pay for, period. The larger point is that this bill is one shot across the bow to target open access, an important principle which means that citizen peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature should be free and more available on the internet.
If you want to get involved to help defeat this bill, link up with our good friends at Change Congress that are doing great work to root out special interests in our national politics.
I was recently asked to comment on an article by Linda Burnham about how the Left, specifically the anti-Capitalist Left, should feel about and work with the Obama Administration. It’s called “Notes on an Orientation to the Obama Presidency”.
There is real debate about how ardent Leftists, Progressive activists, think-tanks, etc. should approach the government under President Obama. Groups that have felt alienated by American politics and the pervasiveness of Conservative ideology have been frustrated & cynical for the past 60 years. They are not content with incremental solutions to big problems. They are almost offended when with presented with nuanced distinctions in policy or rhetoric that at the end of the day is not demonstrably different from the status quo.
While I find myself in this group much more often than not, there are some real opportunities to make progress on a fundamentally Progressive agenda. We must take proper advantage of these times, lest this once-in-a-generation opportunity pass us by.
I know times are hard for folks and not a week goes by where someone doesn’t tell me about how they heard about some new company giving people the pink slip. However, all of this gloom and doom that the media and we in turn regurgitate is bad for our mental and emotional health. For those of us that had the pleasure of going to school, you will recall the best times of your life was spent scrounging up change to order a small pizza to be split amongst five people, or going to every event that offered food, or any other but-gusting story you can reflect on. On one hand, you could suffer knowing that eventually, you would get a job where you could pay your bills.
I submit to you that our mental and emotional states should not ebb and flow with the economic outlook for the quarter. I was raised that God always provides a way of escape and we should look to the hills from which cometh our help. Moreover, I wrote a list of reasons we all should be looking for the silver lining in the midst of this economic crisis.
• You are probably drinking more water now than you ever thought possible.
• There is less pressure to keep up with the Joneses because most people you know are hurting.
• The times you probably went out to eat you now spend cooking at home and actually to eat food you cook.
• Count your blessings for not having a criminal record because with a record, it is difficult (not impossible) to work or even go to school. This means that once the economy recovers, you will be able to ride out while many people probably in your family will be left behind. Don’t forget about them and show love.
• Hopefully, something miraculous has or will happen to you (got a job, someone paid a bill for you, etc.) and there is no other way for you to explain it other than a blessing from God.
• You are cutting the things out of your life that satisfies your selfish desires and not your spirit.
• You realize that you have a lot more hustle inside you than you thought possible.
• You realize that your loved ones would much rather you tell them about a problem than have you suffer in silence.
• You finally took the time to do that sometimes painful self-evaluation.
• You either have or will find out who your real friends are when your enjoyment isn’t lubricated by what money can buy.
Stimulus details and strategy
A friend of mine put me on a website called www.stimuluswatch.org which according to the website
“was built to help the new administration keep its pledge to invest stimulus money smartly, and to hold public officials to account for the taxpayer money they spend. We do this by allowing you, citizens around the country with local knowledge about the proposed “shovel-ready” projects in your city, to find, discuss and rate those projects. These projects are not part of the stimulus bill. They are candidates for funding by federal grant programs once the bill passes.”
It is pretty cool to see what projects in your state or city are “shovel ready.” There is a voting/comments section where you can talk about the viability of any project. Each project has the estimated cost and how many jobs will be created. I think we really have to use these tools that help us understand what the government is doing with our money. Let me know what you think,
I have been thinking about how we as Americans talk about our President and how scary it resembles idolatry. To be sure, this post is about the institution of the President and about President Obama. (I really like typing President Obama) A couple quotes that are familiar to Americans include the following;
1) “I serve at the pleasure of the President of the United States.”
2)“Well if the President asks you to do something, you absolutely have to give it serious consideration.”
Indulge me for a moment and re-read quotes one and two with God and tell me if most people you know live their lives as such.
Moreover, the first quote is interesting because it is really just a fancy way of saying you are an at-will employee, which is not different from the experience of many American workers who are not a part of a union. The “pleasure” piece is weird for me because it suggests, if accidentally, a level of loyalty that should be reserved for God.
Likewise, the second quote makes me think about all the times we reject helping someone we care about because it is often times slightly inconvenient. This presents another dichotomy that I don’t appreciate. What makes a President asking you to do something any more valuable than your family member that needs some money to help make ends meet? I don’t think we should all say yes to every request made of us but this suggestion that the President’s will shall not be denied is a quality that again, should be reserved to God.
The current debating and posturing on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, commonly referred to as the “Obama Stimulus Bill” is troubling and unproductive. All of the partisan rhetoric and time-wasting by Republicans, Democrats, and the President could have been avoided by framing this bill properly and sticking to that frame.
The bill is going to pass. No one, not even Conservative critics, dispute this inevitability. It would have passed with little opposition if one thing would have been done differently: if they would have called it from jump a Jobs Bill, not a Stimulus Bill.
What’s the difference between a Jobs Bill and a Stimulus Bill?
No Congressperson, no matter how much they hate it, can make a justifiable political argument against job creation. Politicians and pundits can, however, make arguments against stimulus. By the way, what exactly is stimulus? Is it spending? Is it tax cuts?
President Obama and I think it’s the former, but the problem is there is room for debate. There is room for conservatives to attempt [with some success] to recast this bill as a spending bill, which to hardcore conservatives make it the Devil’s bill.
Winning the War on Policy happens when you win the War of Words
The President in recent days has gone on the offensive to defend this legislation. This is the right thing to do. What would have been even better to do was not even talk about stimulus plans in the first place, even during the campaign. After all, saying stimulus plan conjures up images of the Bush “Stimulus Checks”, which barely evened registered on any scale of positive economic impact. When you describe your plans and policies with the same language as failed plans and policies, it gives people the wrong mental images. And it is those mental images that are crucial for achieving buy-in in politics.
I’ll be watching this administration and how it frames policy debates. The Obama team was pretty good during the campaign season at framing. They shouldn’t forget that going forward.
Let me first start out by saying Happy Black History Month. For starters, let me say that I am truly dismayed at the plethora of Black writers that are claiming in large part due to Obama, we should no longer celebrate Black History Month. Obama’s presidency is the culmination, promise, and continuation of Black History. For all the Black people believing this garbage, let’s cut a deal. When Black History is honored and celebrated in our history books and cultural norms as much as White folks, let’s stop celebrating Black History month. Until then, stop propogating the mistaken myth that Obama represents the end of Black history.
I always get this weird sense that regardless of election outcomes, Republicans find a way to win. If you look at Obama’s charm offensive towards House Republicans regarding the stimulus package, it resulted in no Republican votes. I am sure there will be some Republican votes once the final bill comes out of conference. The larger point however, (with full complicity from MSM) is that Obama has somehow failed because no House Republicans voted for the bill.
Last I checked, the Democrats control the White House, Senate, and House so if the Democrats can pass bills without Republican support, why are we so committed to Republican ideas, especially now. To help illustrate, Bob Herbert said in a recent column,
The truth, of course, is that the country is hemorrhaging jobs and Americans are heading to the poorhouse by the millions. The stock markets and the value of the family home have collapsed, and there is virtual across-the-board agreement that the country is caught up in the worst economic disaster since at least World War II.
The Republican answer to this turmoil?
Tax cuts.
They need to go into rehab.
The question that I would like answered is why anyone listens to this crowd anymore. G.O.P. policies have been an absolute backbreaker for the middle class. (Forget the poor. Nobody talks about them anymore, not even the Democrats.) The G.O.P. has successfully engineered a wholesale redistribution of wealth to those already at the top of the income ladder and then, in a remarkable display of chutzpah, dared anyone to talk about class warfare.
I applaud Obama’s efforts at bipartisanship but I hope that Obama’s bad cop is really, really good. In a normal world, Obama’s success won’t be determined by how many Republicans he can win over. I just hope that Obama and Democrats do not feel compelled to have to trade away tax cuts for any legislation that they think requires broad bipartisan support. The problem is that tax cuts as an answer to everything is not good public policy. Elections do have consequences right?
Long time I know but I wanted to share some thoughts regarding where we are in history. Like you I was excited to see Obama inaugurated as President of the United States but my heart is still heavy when I reflect on Oscar Grant. Right now I am reading Martin Luther King Jr.’s book entitled, Where Do We Go From Here and it is an excellent read. One of the most powerful ideas is when King makes the argument that America has received justice on the cheap and needs to make a real investment in justice and equality. Read the rest of this entry »
I am so astonished at the vitriol being directed towards Detroit in terms of this bailout of the auto industry. For the record, I was really upset with the bailout of the financial industry because it reminded me of how we got involved in Iraq which was, “Pass this bill now or the world is going to end!” I mean the financial bill had to be passed in what, a week? Didn’t it seem like this emergency came out of nowhere? Even emergencies should require due diligence and too many in Congress were not willing to put the brakes on and say, “If we are going to give you $700 billion dollars, you can wait a minute.” Do you remember trying to ask your parents really fast so they don’t catch all the details? That was the financial bailout.
I think Congress should help the auto industry for the following reasons;
We are talking about a $25 billion dollar loan (there is precedent a la Chrysler, Lee Iacocca) which is a fraction of the $140 billion tax cut that Paulson tucked in the bailout bill.
Some people say we should let the Big Three die. We are not just talking about 3 million jobs being lost, we are talking about ripple effects that run deep in our communities. Take healthcare for example. I have a friend who works at a hospital here in Michigan that is announcing major layoffs. Why? Because as the auto industry announces more and more layoffs, these laid off workers lose their health care which then forces people to sign up for Medicare and Medicaid. And because Medicare and Medicaid reimburse at lower rates than do say Blue Cross/Blue Shield. So for real, a world without the Big Three is not going to be contained to Detroit and trust me, it will impact you in a very real way.
Framing
I find it interesting that most coverage of the auto industry is framed in terms of saving or not saving “Detroit.” Detroit is not being saved, the auto industry is asking for a loan. Although Detroit is known for the auto industry, this framing has negative consequences. For starters, the economic bailout of Wall Street was never framed in terms of saving New York. Instead, the framing was that Wall St. is the engine behind your paycheck and small businesses all across America. One doesn’t have to think long to conjure up negative images about the city of Detroit and we end up pitting city against other cities. Again, this is about America, not Detroit. My city has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country. No economic bailout is going to put Detroiters to work again but failure to do so will guarantee millions of people not directly working for the industry will see an economic downturn that will be peanuts compared to what we are seeing with the economic mess.
We are all in this together. Congress, do the right thing
I am getting so upset with the vile being directed towards the auto industry’s request for $25 billion because after the 700 billion dollars doled out to Wall St. (and they are still not lending!), we find out that the Department of Treasury just gave Wall St. a tax deal worth up to $140 billion. See the excerpt below form the Washington Post.
The financial world was fixated on Capitol Hill as Congress battled over the Bush administration’s request for a $700 billion bailout of the banking industry. In the midst of this late-September drama, the Treasury Department issued a five-sentence notice that attracted almost no public attention.
But corporate tax lawyers quickly realized the enormous implications of the document: Administration officials had just given American banks a windfall of as much as $140 billion.
The sweeping change to two decades of tax policy escaped the notice of lawmakers for several days, as they remained consumed with the controversial bailout bill. When they found out, some legislators were furious. Some congressional staff members have privately concluded that the notice was illegal. But they have worried that saying so publicly could unravel several recent bank mergers made possible by the change and send the economy into an even deeper tailspin.
“Did the Treasury Department have the authority to do this? I think almost every tax expert would agree that the answer is no,” said George K. Yin, the former chief of staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation, the nonpartisan congressional authority on taxes. “They basically repealed a 22-year-old law that Congress passed as a backdoor way of providing aid to banks.”
It can not be said enough how much this financial bailout process mirrored the invasion of Iraq. Bush use fear tactics in asking demanding that Congress give him unchecked powers. Congress accepts this horrible framing and capitulates and then use Congressional hearings to explain why they voted the way they did while trying to lambast whoever they asked to appear before their committee. If it is so hard to be in Congress and do the right thing, don’t take the job!!!
If there is anything true about the Bush years is how Congress never debated saying no but they instead focused on trivial issues concerning oversight. It will be interesting to see how many on the hill will suddenly discover checks and balances under Obama.
I have been non-partisan voter registration efforts for some years now and one line that was particularly salient (given Obama’s candidacy) during the campaign was that “People died so that you could have the right to vote.” I am excited that millions took up this call and participated in this election but what will be our generation’s clarion call? I know people died for us to have the right to vote but many more put to death their selfish tendencies as they invested their dreams in the generations to come. What do you think we should be fighting for?
UPDATE: Thankfully, there is an organization, Generation Vote that is at the forefront of defining and shaping the youth agenda.
I wanted to wait to write about the historic election until it seemed normal. True to form, I wanted to share with you some thoughts I have concerning the Obama administration.
1. MLK’s dream was not that there would one day be a Black President of the United States. W.E.B. DuBois never claimed that a Black President would break the color line. The themes and tropes that Ralph Ellison highlighted in his book, the Invisible Man, is just as relevant today as it was when it was published in 1952.
2. Our role as Obama supporters should be to provide the political space for Obama to make bold decisions rather than be his reliable defenders. Not only does Obama not need coddling (Michelle has that locked up), he also shown he can take a punch. This means that you need to stay engaged with local advocacy groups and make sure your communities are prepared for the change Obama seeks. Even positive change can be difficult for most people so know that voting for Obama was the easy part.
3. I really want Obama to break with tradition and use a computer in the Oval Office because not only would it represent his own appreciation of technology but it would hopefully shed light on the digital divide that still plagues communities all across the country.
4. I know many men admire Michelle because let’s face it, she is a rider and sacrificed a ton so that Barack could have the freedom to chase his dreams. So as men, I know many of us, (including me) have said that we need a “Michelle” in our lives. In case you didn’t know, Michelle has many of the same qualities as Barack and could just as easily be President of the United States. The implication here is that as men, our “Obama fantasy” may mean that we are supporting our partners running for office or helping to found a business.
5. I wonder if there will be an increase in people of color joining the army now that Obama is Commander-in-Cheif? Morally speaking, I wonder if and how Obama will internalize the deaths and injuries endured in Afghanistan and Iraq. I raise that because at least with Bush, he decided that we were going to war so when he meets with the families of fallen soldiers, there is a direct line of responsibility that he must shoulder. Obama, on the other hand, not only opposed the war but he did not decide that we fight so will Obama be able to mentally shift responsibility to Bush?
More to come later,
Stay up fam,
Brandon Q.
UPDATE: I just came across an article where we learn that Obama does plan to use a laptop (a first for any President) in the Oval Office but he will be forced to give up his Blackberry, (I feel bad for you Barack, I say you push back) apparently due to security reasons. From the Statesman, “Aides said he hopes to have a laptop on his desk in the Oval Office. He would be the first American president to do so.” Wouldn’t it be sweet if Obama had a family portrait set as his background?
Barack Obama warned us that some would try to make this big election be about small things. My warning is that we don’t let this big opportunity only lead to small change.
Big Opportunity
More than 137 million voters cast ballots this election, up 14% from 2004. 63.7 million (56%) of those people voted for Barack Obama, giving him more votes than any candidate in the history of US Presidential Election history. That is what you call a mandate.
Being the candidate with more supporters than any other President has ever had, Obama has been given a chance to serve more people than anyone could imagine. He can impact the finances of millions of people. He can improve the health of hundreds of millions of people. He can increase the moral standing of a nation in the eyes of billions of people. What a great opportunity to carry out public service and set the tone for the spirit of shared service & shared sacrifice that he so eloquently espouses.
Big Change
To whom much is given, much is required. (Luke 12:48)
The level of support and passion surrounding Barack Obama says more about the people supporting him than about Obama himself. It says that Obama is an inspirational figure, but that was evident before he started running for President. More importantly, it says that people are hungry. Hungry for change. Hungry for a new approach. Hungry for something to do. This is why Obama always talks about this election not being about him, but instead being about us.
With everybody so hungry, the onus is on the Obama team to give us something to eat. I don’t want a snack. I want a full, seven course meal. Legions of people do not organize for incremental change. Armies form to march forth into bold victory.
Now is our chance to make real, fundamental change in very progressive ways. This change will not happen because Barack Obama is a progressive. It can & will happen if we push our government, our newly-elected President, and, most importantly, ourselves to work towards the new kind of politics that Barack Obama helped us to believe was possible.
Let’s be bold. Let’s ask for a lot out of this administration. Let’s make Barack Obama a successful President by ensuring that he keeps his promise to start making big changes to the way America works. We helped him make history on November 4th. Let’s keep making history for the next 4 years.
One Love. One II.
P.S. Homework assignment: Everyone under 30 should talk to someone over 60 about what this election means to them.
Like the majority of you, I am following the election on CNN. Like you, I am extremely proud of what President Obama has been able to accomplish. He has single-handedly had to put up with more bull than any presidential candidate…ever. Yet, like a true Superspade, he has been able to surmount adversity and prevail. This arguably, makes him the most influential person in politics since JFK and the most important African American figure since Martin and Malcolm. Yet, the question everyone is struggling with is this: what does this really mean? And where do we go from here? Read the rest of this entry »
That’s going to be the question people are asking one another years from now about tomorrow’s important election.
Will you say you worked hard? Did all you could? Did nothing?
What “Black Leaders” Said
This morning, Sen. Obama held an African American Leadership Conference Call featuring Donna Brazile, Rev. Joseph Lowery, Oprah, Diddy, and others. What those people had to say was really nothing remarkable. Brazile did give another number to use if you have trouble at the polls: 877-US-4-OBAMA. Use it.
What Senator Obama Said
Senator Obama spent much more time speaking with all of us than I expected him to. During his 5 or 6 minute remarks (I expected maybe 2 minutes), he sounded exceptionally calm, thoughtful, and reflective. Wouldn’t it be great to have leadership like that?
He talked about the importance of the journey that he has traveled with his supporters. He talked about the historical importance of his campaign and potential election for Black adults and children alike. He talked about why the “fierce urgency of now” must energize everyone to work through tomorrow to ensure that people are heard and able to vote. He did not give us a stump speech. He did not repeat his closing arguments. Instead, he gave a personal set of remarks that really gave insight onto who he is as a person. And all of this was after he already found out about the passing of his grandmother. Wow.
What were you doing?
I was working. Phone banking. Canvassing. Door-knocking. Posting updates on Facebook. Posting Bulletins on MySpace. Text Messaging. Blogging.
I’m not saying that to brag. I’m saying that to show that we all have things that we can do. It’s not enough to vote. We deserve the leadership we work for.
Barack Obama understood that and empowered everyday people to do more this season than any campaign ever has. Let’s use this collective power to work for better leadership this Election Day, and every day after.
Brandon and I have been hearing all kinds of weird interesting things that people are doing between now and the close of the polls tomorrow. A couple examples:
“Man, I’m not gonna _________ until _________ gets elected tomorrow.” Fill in the blanks with whatever you want: eat, shower, shave, hoop, whatever. After you finish working your ass off today or tomorrow, take time and do what you have or want to do. This isn’t the time for silly superstitions.
If Obama doesn’t win, I’m going to _________.
Fill in this blank with something riotous, violent, or offensive. While many people may be upset at McCain winning, burning up poor neighborhoods probably isn’t going to accomplish much. Consider doing something more productive.
Let’s work hard. Let’s be smart. Let’s vote. Let’s make sure others vote. But in doing that, let’s still take care of our kids tonight. Let’s still stay clean while we await the next President.
Don’t do anything stupid. Trust me, everything will be alright.
For the past couple weeks, wherever I go people tell me, “Brandon, you look tired.” I always want to respond by saying, “You don’t so why don’t you put in some work so you can look tired too.” For real though, I know many of you are really excited about the prospect of an Obama Presidency and may even be trying to figure out who is going to be hosting be best celebratory party. STOP and keep your nose to the ground. If you think Obama has enough money, he doesn’t. If you think everyone is volunteering so why should you, they are not. If you think there is no way Obama can lose this election, he can.
Bottom line, you don’t deserve a celebratory drink unless you put in work and ARE tired on Election night. Stop the foolishness.
I wrote this letter (see below) to a number of c(3) organizations in Michigan that do civic engagement. Some of us in Michigan were concerned about the potential for race-based violence inflicted on our canvassers. I have received some interesting feedback so I wanted to share it with my SuperSpade family. Enjoy.
Stay up fam,
Brandon Q.
Friends,
I wanted to follow up from our conversation at Friday’s meeting regarding the increasing negative tenor of this year’s presidential campaign and how that may feed into issues of election protection and to be frank, violence. To be sure, the scope of the conversation is not about how any Presidential candidate handles race issues, but about how our work (especially when we are canvassing) is impacted by racist and xenophobic rhetoric. Our staff and volunteers are at the vanguard of connecting with voters in Michigan who have been racially primed (due to the recent debates surrounding affirmative action) in ways that many other states have not.
From my conversations with most of you, there appears to be a common theme in our canvassing philosophy that says when you encounter any contact that is belligerent or otherwise not receptive, the canvasser should promptly remove themselves from the situation. I believe this measure is very responsible as it maximizes the safety of our volunteers and ensures efficient use of our time. Read the rest of this entry »
While making calls, I’ve noticed an interesting trend: people ardently refusing to share how they voted in a particular race or on a particular issue.
Do most people feel this way?
I don’t understand the harm in sharing the way that you voted with another person after you’ve already voted. The vote is cast, the deal is done, so why not talk about it?
At first I thought that the people were just annoyed by the phone call, but that wasn’t the case, as most of them were quite talkative. Then I thought, maybe they’re ashamed or embarrassed by their vote, not wanting to tell me because they voted against the cause I was pedaling. Could be. Then I thought, maybe it’s generational, with older voters holding their votes more private & sacred, but this was dispelled when an 18 year-old people told me he wouldn’t share.
I guess I’ll just put this in the “things other people do that I’d never do” pile.
A little while ago I told you about Know How To Vote, a simple way to get early & absentee voting information for your state from your cell phone or computer built by my web development company, Opportunity Technology.
In partnership with the NAACP Civic Engagement efforts, Know How To Vote will be a key part of their Get Out The Vote (GOTV) effort. I am very excited to be a part of this effort in an official capacity, and to specifically help the NAACP’s new President & CEO Ben Jealous integrate new media, new technology, and new strategies to achieving realizing the vision of the organization:
To ensure a society in which all individuals have equal rights and there is no racial hatred or racial discrimination.
I look forward to working with the NAACP and all other groups that share this vision in the future.
YES! Magazine released today their 12 Ways You Can Safeguard the Vote tool. It contains links to lots of great resources, and tips for what you can do before, on, and after Election Day to make sure that your vote is properly counted.
Check Your Registration. Make sure there are no errors, mistakes, or discrepancies which would prevent you from being able to vote.
Vote Now. Vote early, in person or by mail, if you can in your state. Check if you can using Know How To Vote.
Learn how to vote. Read your voter pamphlet to understand how your paper ballot works, and if voting using an electronic machine, get a clear demonstration first.
Identify State & Local election officials. Get their names and numbers because these are the people to call if there are problems.
Vote as early as possible on Election Day to avoid long lines & hassle.
If you have ID, bring it with you. If you have a cell phone, bring that too.
Avoid straight-party voting. Vote for each race individually, to make sure your votes each count exactly as you want them to.
Observe, Document, Report. If you or anyone else that you see has issues voting, take good notes & inform the authorities using resources such as 866-OUR-VOTE.
They save the most important pieces of advice for last. These are the steps we can take to make all future elections exercises in democracy, not insanity.
Call your candidate. Encourage them to challenge results you don’t trust. Sign up to help.
Call your election officials. Hold them accountable to their responsibility to ensure clean elections
On Monday, I was interviewed as part of a small series on Politics and Technology by Jeffrey Powers of Geekazine. We talked at length about early voting, why it’s such a big issue this election, what are the types of good & bad things that we can do with early voting data, and ways that people can find out early voting information with tools like Know How To Vote.
I’m looking forward to talking with Jeff again about Politics and Technology soon.
Per usual, below are my top ten take aways from last night’s final debate between Senator Obama and Senator McCain.
1. Obama nailed McCain on the Lily Ledbetter case where a woman was underpaid compared to her male counterparts. If you are an undecided woman and don’t know McCain’s stance on furthering gender inequity, get it together.
2. How many times was McCain going to interrupt Obama? Show some respect.
3. John, you referenced Joe the plumber 21 times. Personal anecdotes are good when you use them sparingly. No one person in America represents everyone.
4. How can we live in a country where quality education is an afterthought?
5. McCain, please stop rolling your eyes sista girl!
6. Did McCain really put women’s health in air quotes? That line would have worked had he actually explained how “women’s health” could be used in an extreme case to justify abortion. It came off as very dismissive and insensitive.
7. I loved Obama’s comeback on pointing out the need for funding to support kids with special needs. McCain, you can’t do this with an across the board spending freeze now can you?
8. Did you peep how McCain tried to briefly mention Ayers while looking at Bob and not Obama? It seemed like a throw away line so that his campaign could say, “See we did it.” BTW, Obama did not bring up Keating, Alaska Independence Party, seven houses, etc…..in a word classy.
9. Republicans need a much better line on the economy than cutting taxes. You can’t get a return on anything you don’t invest in right? So when all you do is cut taxes, the economy really doesn’t grow and you find yourself in situations like we are in now when people need the government’s help, but the “beast” as it were is so starved that it really can’t do anything and we continue the cycle of cynicism.
10. McCain came across as erratic. This is a time for reasoned, steady leadership and dear friend, you didn’t do that tonight.
In case any of you undecideds can’t get over your mental block of voting for Senator Barack Obama, take a mental poll of where you stand financially and read this great piece from the New York Times,
Bulls, Bears, Donkeys and Elephants
By TOMMY McCALL
Since 1929, Republicans and Democrats have each controlled the presidency for nearly 40 years. So which party has been better for American pocketbooks and capitalism as a whole? Well, here’s an experiment: imagine that during these years you had to invest exclusively under either Democratic or Republican administrations. How would you have fared?
As of Friday, a $10,000 investment in the S.& P. stock market index* would have grown to $11,733 if invested under Republican presidents only, although that would be $51,211 if we exclude Herbert Hoover’s presidency during the Great Depression. Invested under Democratic presidents only, $10,000 would have grown to $300,671 at a compound rate of 8.9 percent over nearly 40 years.
I wanted to let you all know that my good friend Dumi will be on television tonight (10/8/08) at 9pm on WTVS (Detroit Public TV), 760am WJR, 101.9fm. The show is also available online. Dumi will be an expert panelist on Bridging the Racial Divide: Part Four. Over the last two years, the series has taken a candid and often contentious look at the role of race in Metro Detroit. The series has gotten a lot of great feedback and the good folks at Kingberry productions have brought some past panelists and new panelists together to discuss what’s happening and on the horizon for Metro Detroit. There are some heavy hitters on board joining Dumi on the panel including Dave Bing, Peter Karmanos, and others.
I was fortunate enough to see the taping and have an audience with the panelists in the green room. And for those who don’t know, Dave Bing is currently the safest bet in terms of trying to predict the next mayor of Detroit. Check out the show tonight and show Dumi some love.
Keep your head up fam, we are living in perilous times and if folks are being shot for wearing Obama T-shirts, it is up to us to not go forth with a spirit of fear, but of love, power and a sound mind. If this is any preview of an October surprise, then I suggest folks watch V for Vendetta.h/t to Baratunde from Jack and Jill Politics.
Keep your head up fam, we are living in perilous times and if folks are being shot for wearing Obama T-shirts, it is up to us to not go forth with a spirit of fear, but of love, power and a sound mind.
UPDATE: What kind of world are we living in? The few times some crazies threatened to assassinate Obama, I had already sort of mentally and emotionally prepared so I wasn’t that affected. And reading this story, I am thinking about how when people feel like they can’t hurt you, they hurt the ones closest to you. I am currently thinking about the four Black girls that died in the bombing Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. God please replace my rage with love. My people have suffered too much. Tears. Slavery, Disrespect. Spat upon. Raped. Pillaged. Fear. My people only want to leave the world better than they found it and for centuries, we have to sacrifice for shit that makes no sense. I will stand up Lord. I pray that your angels are round about me and keep me safe, my family and my friends, as we continue to fight for a better world.
A man told today how he was shot three times in a London street for wearing a Barack Obama T-shirt.
Dube Egwuatu was buying a mobile telephone top-up card in an off-licence when the gunman confronted him and glared at the top, which carries an image of the Democrat US presidential candidate underneath the legend ‘Believe’.
The man then launched into a tirade of racist slurs, shouting ‘I f***ing hate n*****s’ and urging 36-year-old Mr Egwuatu to leave the shop with him.
Respect: Dube Egwuatu wearing the Obama T-shirt that provoked a racist attack
The man then left the shop but when Mr Egwuatu re-emerged, the attacker was waiting for him in broad daylight with a threatening-looking dog and holding a gun behind his back.
Realising what had sparked the increasingly violent assault, the terrified Mr Egwuatu zipped up his jacket to cover the image of Mr Obama and walked to his car.
But the shaven-headed man, who was white, followed Mr Egwuatu and after pulling open the passenger door pointed the gun at him.
After pleading with the man to leave him alone, the married former street warden put the keys in the ignition and turned the engine on.
The attacker then fired the gas-powered ball-bearing pistol three times, hitting the civil servant in the face, hand and shoulder.
Fearing for his life and bleeding heavily, Mr Egwuatu raced away in his car and found somewhere safe to call for help.
He was taken to hospital and later sent to have a piece of metal removed from his jaw.
Mr Egwuatu, a data analyst with Croydon Council, said: ‘The venom in his voice was frightening. Read the rest of this entry »
Voter Education means making sure people know the rules & laws of voting in their state so that they can exercise their right to vote in the way that is legal and most convenient for them. Brandon’s list of MI Voting Rights is a great education tool, and something similar exists for each state. Election protection is the process of making sure that every vote that is cast is correctly counted. We’ll get to this one shortly…
Vote Early or Absentee if you can
Here’s why you should vote early:
If there are issues or problems with your registration, you can have them addressed long before election day.
Voting earlier means your vote is counted earlier, which means that there’s less of a chance of your vote magically changing on election night.
It just makes your life easier. Take a look at this great blog post on Early Voting at Daily Kos.
KnowHowToVote.us
In the spirit of Voter Education & encouraging voters to vote smart and vote early, I created a site called Know How To Vote (www.knowhowtovote.us). Know How To Vote will tell you how to vote early in your state (if it’s possible), and how to vote absentee in your state. You can find the info in 2 ways:
From your cell phone: Text HOWTOVOTE & your state’s 2-letter abbreviation (e.g. MI for Michigan) to 41411.This will let you know if you can vote early in your state and if voting absentee in your state requires an excuse. It will also give you a website URL that you can go to for more detailed information.
From the web @ www.knowhowtovote.us
Go to the site and type in your state’s 2-letter abbreviation to see detailed early & absentee voting info for any state, including whether you can vote early at all, in person, or by mail, and how to submit your reason/excuse for early/absentee voting according to state law
Find out quickly how to vote early in your state, wherever you are. If you’re talking about voting with your friends at work and on the bus, show them on the spot how to vote early by sending a text message.
In this election season, using technology to help the electoral process is not only easier than ever, it’s more important than ever. Sending text messages is already fun; let’s make it meaningful.
What’s up fam, I wanted to share with our Michigan readers an email I received from the Michigan ACLU regarding essential information surrounding our voting rights. Please read below and thanks Mary!
Fact: You have the right to vote without photo ID in Michigan
Just ask to sign the affidavit form at the polls. Michigan’s new photo ID law allows registered voters who don’t have photo identification, or those who have forgotten to bring photo ID, to vote by signing a form at the polls stating they are not in possession of photo ID. Voters without ID need to know their right to vote because Michigan cities are getting this wrong. Shortly before the August 2008 primary election, both the cities of Allen Park and Grand Blanc sent newsletters to city residents stating the need for photo ID with no mention of the affidavit form for those without ID. The Secretary of State estimates that approximately 370,000 Michigan residents have no form of photo identification.
Fact: You have the right to vote in Michigan if you are an ex-felon.
Even those still on probation or parole can register and cast their vote on Election Day. Michigan law only prohibits those serving a sentence on election day from voting. People in jail awaiting trial or sentencing may vote by absentee ballot, and those who have been released but who are on probation or parole may vote after registering.
Fact: You have the right to vote if your home is in foreclosure
The Michigan State Department of Elections is informing poll workers statewide that voters with homes in foreclosure may not lose their right to vote nor be challenged on their right to vote. Those who have moved from their homes may vote in the same precinct up to 60 days after they have left that address.
Fact: You have the right to vote if you wear campaign gear to the polls
You cannot lose your right to vote if you wear a t-shirt, hat, button or other garb endorsing a candidate or an issue into the polling place. You will, however, be asked to remove these items by a poll worker or risk misdemeanor charges. Any and all campaign materials, including apparel, must be a minimum of 100 ft. outside of the polling place at all times. Fact: You have the right to be free of intimidation or harassment at the polls
Voters should not be intimidated or discouraged from voting by questions like, “Have you paid your rent?” or “Have you paid your child support?” During the last presidential election, ACLU heard stories of voter intimidation like these occurring in precincts with low-income and African American voters. If voters are harassed or intimidated by anyone at the polling place, they should tell a poll worker immediately and call the Election Protection Hotline at 1-866-OUR-VOTE, a joint project of state and national civil rights organizations, including the ACLU of Michigan.
I understand the back and forth between candidates and the media but Palin’s insistence on not answering questions reached a level or rudeness I haven’t seen in a long time. Answer the question! And I didn’t appreciate Palin’s snub of Ifill, show some respect.
Palin did not answer any question pertaining McCain’s push for deregulation and opted to talk about taxes when it didn’t even come up.
Joe Biden is smart. Take that back, really smart. Why is being smart so disdained in American politics?
I don’t know what Palin would do without talking points. Chris Matthews said (and I agree) that Palin sounded like she was at a spelling bee; say the word, spell the word, say the word again.
Biden is a fighter and Obama should go directly at McCain’s image as a maverick.
You can actually win a debate by not looking dumb? And why were follow up questions disallowed?
Why are you winking? I am sorry, why are you winking multiple times? I would never appreciate someone I work with who winked.
Umm… if McSame voted with Bush 90% of the time then the past definitely matters. This means McSame can’t disown the Bush legacy. In the words of Jay-Z, “We don’t believe you, you need more people!
UPDATE:
No you can’t call me Joe!!! I am a Senator and you will address me as Senator Biden. I will address you as Governor Palin.
What’s really eating at me though is the way that it passed. In an attempt to make the bill more palatable to members of Republicans in the House, they packed the bill with pork. Sure, this is how business gets done in Washington, but in this case it’s really, really, really sick. See some examples of the garbage in this bill here.
With all of the quasi-economic-populist rhetoric going on as this election draws nearer, why not throw in substantive measures to make this bill more palatable to homeowners, consumers, and everyday citizens? Isn’t that what economic populism is all about?
We need a change in Washington. Yes, I agree that we need a new President, and I think that new President should be Barack Obama. But what we really need is a change in how Washington works. This bill passed the way most bills pass in Washington: too quickly, without enough scrutiny, packed with “sweeteners” for politicians instead of people.
So here are the two possible McCain story lines post-debate;
Palin lost because Gwen Ifill is writing a book about Obama.
OR
Palin won inspite of Gwen Ifill is writing a book about Obama.
Either way, Gwen Ifill’s credibility is being attacked and I don’t see any in the MSM addressing this crap. First, let me say that Gwen Ifill is one of my favorite people to watch analyze politics because she does it in a way that is fair and balanced. And after the untimely death of Tim Russert, guess who was in the top tier to replace him? Gwen Ifill. Now if that is not a sign of respect, I don’t know what it is. So to see Gwen’s image and reputation being besmirched is making me pissed. To her credit, Ifill responded to McCain’s campaign saying,
“Do you think they made the same assumptions about Lou Cannon (who is white) when he wrote his book about Reagan?” said Ifill, who is black. Asked if there were racial motives at play, she said, “I don’t know what it is. I find it curious.”
Stay strong Gwen, you are a true SuperSpade and we got your back,
I supported Bush going into Afghanistan because I thought we were going to capture bin Laden and those responsible for 9/11.
But now I am worried when I hear Barack Obama and others talk about the infamous border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. This border by all accounts is the headquarters for evil and apparently everyone knows it but I guess we need more than seven years to figure out how to maneuver those mountains. I have a problem with Obama’s hubris regarding the launching of targeted attacks against al-Qaeda and the Taliban if the Pakistan government is not cooperative. The problem with this logic is that it sounds reasonable on face value but if President Obama were to decide that the Pakistani government is not doing all it that it can to help root out bin Laden and company, he would have already the justification for launching full attacks against Pakistan. This is because there is not a large intellectual gap from not being cooperative to being part of the problem.
Bush had a tricky relationship with Pakistan’s former President Musharraff because Musharraff was a dictator that promised to help to the US in the so-called war on terror. Of course, we have little or nothing to show for it but now that the US doesn’t have to pretend to like Musharraff, there is a window of opportunity to do what the neocons probably wanted to do all along; maintain a significant troop presence in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. This strategy ensures that America can keep a strategic base near China and Russia, further isolate Iran, and bolster the mutually assured destruction principle with respect to Israel.
I think Obama should not trade Iraq for Afghanistan. In Iraq, we were supposed to secure the weapons of mass destruction that didn’t exist, and then it turned into a war against Iraq, and then we had to stay to catch the terrorists that migrated to Iraq, and now we have to stay in Iraq to not only rebuild the country, but establish a democracy. Senator Obama, I understood the Afghanistan theater to be focused on holding those responsible for the 9/11 attacks. We don’t need to occupy Afghanistan (like we are doing in Iraq) to achieve this goal. Let’s get back to basics.
Today, the Democrats managed a quad-fecta (I just made that word up) by creating a space for Republicans to vote against the bail out which allowed them to simultaneously be,
Anti-Bush and make it popular for Republicans to run against Bush economic policies
Appear on the side of the people and seem more populist than Democrats
Republicans can remain stalwarts of the free-market, less regulation ideology that got us in this mess in the first place
Republicans can run against Wall St. which is something I would never see in my lifetime.
I don’t like this bill and the lack of protections for homeowners but if Pelosi felt that she had to do it, why didn’t she tell Bush that she wouldn’t put it up for vote until she secured a certain number of votes from Republicans? And why in the world is the media not hounding McCain for claiming that his presence helped seal the deal when we don’t have a deal!! That is not the type of leadership America needs. Make sure you get out and vote.
I co-hosted a Debate Party on Friday night that doubled as a Fundraiser for Barack Obama. The party was fun, the food was delicious, and the people I watched the debate with, including the Bus Chick & people from YES! Magazine and Reclaim the Media, couldn’t have been cooler.
What could have been better was my candidate’s performance. Here’s why this debate was a lost opportunity:
Too much agreement
Posturing on Pakistan & Afghanistan
Nuclear Iran only posing a threat to Israel
Iran’s army is a terrorist organization
Venezuela is a rogue nation
(All the references I make here can be seen in the Debate Transcript, courtesy of the New York Times.)
First off I want to say Happy Birthday to my partner in crime…Mr. Garlin Gilchrist II.
This current crisis reminds me of something Bill Maher said, (I am paraphrasing) “Conservatives have the easiest job in the world because when they mess up doing things like governing, they can claim that government itself is the problem and whatever they planned to do wasn’t supposed to work anyways.” So now you have Democrats bending over backwards to make this deal work with House Republicans posturing against the bill.
And here is the problem, people keep saying that this bill is going to end up with a nice return for taxpayers right? If that was the case, then shouldn’t someone in the free market see this gem and buy it up so that taxpayers don’t have endure this socialism for the rich? What’s more is that if Obama said he wanted to invest $100 billion in education, conservatives would cry, “We already spent $700 billion on bailing out Wall Street and we can’t just throw away taxpayer money.” And a bold Democrat would respond by saying, “Wait, you just robbed taxpayers of a trillion dollars because businesses were too big to fail but we can definitely afford to let our children down in the form of disinvesting in education. And if money is not the cure all for whatever the issue, why does this logic apply to Wall St. and not education?”
Seriously, if there was ever anything that would prove a guaranteed return on investment, wouldn’t it be investing in education? Your money is where your heart is.
If nothing else is true in the world, “Your money is where your heart is.” The Republican Bush Administration is asking for $700,000,000,000 to bail out banks, not the average tax payer. Bush would never put up $700,000,000,000 for health care or education, you know the things that will directly help you. Do you still support this ideology? Where do you spend your money? WWJD?
So this means bootstraps only applies to individuals but not business right?
This crisis will separate the wheat from the chaffe. I am sick and tired of Democrats ceding that we have to pass this bill before they say anything else.
Because when it looks like the outcome is not what those in charge would like to see, a statistical poll is published to scare the masses into doing something else. Check out the results of the following poll about the “Racial Divide” in America:
Asked how much of America’s existing racial tension is created by blacks, more than one-third of white respondents said “most” or “all,” and 9 percent said “not much.” Only 3 percent of blacks said “most” or “all,” while half said “not much at all.”
Nearly three-fourths of blacks said white people have too much influence in American politics. Only 12 percent of whites agreed. Almost three times as many blacks as whites said blacks have too little influence.
Far more blacks than whites say government officials “usually pay less attention to a request or complaint from a black person than a white person.”
One in five whites have felt admiration for blacks “very” or “extremely” often. Seventy percent of blacks have felt the same about whites.
I have several problems with this poll. First, it was conducted by individuals at Stanford University. Given that Stanford is indeed, a premier, Ivy League of the West Coast College; the fact remains that it is also one of the most politically conservative colleges in the collegiate education system. Because this is a historic election year, in which the real test will be in whether or not white people can really put aside their bigotry and make a choice based on qualification as opposed to race. Read the rest of this entry »
I need to speak my piece about the financial crisis facing America. This will be free form but take from it what you will.
Real people
Many families are in a situation where the only real safety net is that of other family members who are relatively well off. To be clear, we are not talking about McCain rich; rather I am defining well off by having good credit and being able to give “loans” to the family that rarely get paid back. These family anchors (including some in my own family) are being wiped out with this economic crisis. And I am tired of real people being categorized as “Main Street” and banks being characterized as “Wall Street.” This level of distance from real people in our media leaves everyone and no one responsible for our current crisis. In the end, the real victims are faceless and nameless. Read the rest of this entry »
What’s up fam, the debacle in the form of purging that took place in the 2000 Florida election appears to be a standing pattern for the GOP running from Florida to Ohio to now Michigan. But we don’t play here in the great state. Below is a press release regarding a federal lawsuit filed by the Advancement Project, United States Student Assocation (USSA) and the ACLU of Michigan, and the law firm of Pepper Hamilton LLP.
Advancement Project, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Michigan and the law firm of Pepper Hamilton LLP filed a federal lawsuit challenging two statewide voter purge programs that could potentially disfranchise hundreds of thousands of Michigan voters in advance of the November 2008 presidential election. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court in Detroit against Michigan Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land, Michigan Bureau of Elections Director Christopher M. Thomas and Ypsilanti Clerk Frances McMullen. Read the rest of this entry »
By now, many of you have heard about what is happening in Michigan with the GOP trying to prey on people who are going through foreclosure and trying to disenfranchise them. So for all the call and emails I have received, I want people to know that we are on top of the situation. However, for as fun as it may be to beat up on Republicans, we need to make sure that our folks know how to fight back. First, being foreclosed on your home is not a valid reason for you to be challenged at the polls. So for the record:
If you move within 60 days of the election and you don’t change the address on your driver’s license or ID, you’re still eligible to vote at your old address, even if that address has been foreclosed.
I work with the Michigan Election Coalition and we are coordinating efforts to make sure have the proper information and the other way we fight back is by making sure that OUR folks are poll watchers and actually sign up to work the polls. For people that want to be poll watchers and otherwise get involved, contact the Michigan Election Coalition Coordinator, Tierney Eaton at michiganelectioncoalition@gmail.com and visit the website by clicking here.
According to Jealous, the NAACP National Office sent 3 of its staff people to do two things:
Ensure fairness in the distribution of aid
Ensure the sins of Katrina are not repeated
They’ve got their work cut out for them, and Jealous actually told us something else disturbing about the lead-up to the storm:
Some poor communities complained to the NAACP that they were not adequately warned of the storm, its seriousness, or the voluntary/mandatory evacuations. This is because the warnings happened almost exclusively on TV, and these people had no TV.
People with questions in the state and out of state can call the NAACP Command Center, which is at their Texas State Conference, at (512) 322-9547.It is a travesty that the NAACP’s Command Center is set up before FEMA’s.
Making sure peoplve vote
While Jealous is working to make sure that folks in the wake of Ike get proper aid and electrical power, he and the NAACP are working hard to make sure that those folks’ electoral power is also fully restored and available. The rights of voters in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina was a major issue, and I actually marched in support of the re-enfranchisement of those voters.
In what Jealous called “a sign of things to come,” he announced Upload 2 Uplift, a website that gives people the ability to do 2 things:
Register themselves to vote online, or print out registration forms that they can mail in
Register their friends and contacts to vote
#2 is very important, and it’s this “social voter registration” capability that really sets this tool apart from other online voter registration tools. Many people know they have friends that are not registered to vote. If you know that person’s email address, you can give them a very simple way to register quickly online. Additionally, the system will send people reminders by email and/or text message to let them know when to vote and where to vote, if they want it too. Pretty cool.
A great start
This was a good meeting for Jealous, and he demonstrated a new way of thinking about the NAACP and about advocacy & civic engagement. By including Black bloggers in his first press conference, Ben Jealous showed that blogging and other forms of new and online media will be an important part of the NAACP’s strategy going forward. By creating its first real online tool, the NAACP shows that technology and the Internet will be important parts of their strategy going forward. I am looking forward to see what they do with this momentum.
Hurricane Ike did serious damage in Galveston and other parts of Texas, and is still causing weather-related issues for people as far north as Ohio. Our prayers have been in full force for all of those impacted.
The Local, State, and Federal government response is under close scrutiny. While we should always pay attention to how a government takes care of and tends to its citizens, natural disaster response watching has be come a professional sport since the governmental disaster that was the response to Hurricane Katrina. Oh boy, is there a lot to talk about. Read the rest of this entry »
Lately, the economy has taken center stage in the media and the upcoming election. With the collapse of Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch, coupled with the Feds taking over Fannie and Freddie, Wall Street is getting religion in a major way. What does this mean to the average person? Why should you care about the credit crisis? Have you made sense of it? Read the rest of this entry »
“McCain has gone in some of his ads — similarly gone one step too far,” he told Fox News, “and sort of attributing to Obama things that are, you know, beyond the ‘100 percent truth’ test.”
Sometimes I wish I was a scientist so I wouldn’t be embroiled in all the craziness of electoral politics.
So the mortgage crisis is steadily swimming upstream and reports show that Bank of America just bought out Merrill Lynch. After what appeared to be Treasury Secretary Paulson’s unwillingness to use taxpayer money to help bail out Lehman Brothers, Merrill saw the writing on the wall and took care of their investors before time ran out. In the interest of full disclosure, I interned for Merrill when I was in college when Stan O’Neal was there. Nevertheless, it is interesting to see writers talk about how difficult it is for banks in this economic turmoil. Trust me on this, people who lost their homes in a far worse situation than the top folks at Merrill. What worse is that for as bad as this situation is, what will prevent our economic system from riding the boom and bust of the bubble. In the 90’s it was the tech bubble. The first decade of the 21st century is witnessing the bust of the housing bubble. I say we use the 10s to ride a clean and renewable energy that only busts global warming, poverty, and a national security dependent on oil security.
7 years ago today the world stood still in the face of tragedy as Americans, Black, white, and everyone else stared in pure horror as we saw real planes crash into real buildings with living, breathing people inside them in real time. Then, few saw it as a teaching moment: a moment that we could learn from. Since then, the majority of us have activated our analytical minds and searched for understanding regarding the events that took place on that day and the series of happenings that led to that disaster.
As we remember that day, those who were injured and killed, those who demonstrated the apex of human bravery, and those who have since perished in events related to 9/11, I ask that we contemplate a basic truth exemplified on that day:
Jesus realized something basic: that if a man will lie, he will steal. And if a man will steal, he will kill. So instead of just getting bogged down on one thing, Jesus looked at him and said, “Nicodemus, you must be born again.” In other words, “Your whole structure must be changed.”
In other words, many big, huge, terrible, evil things start off itty bitty lies. Lies that went unchallenged. Fallacies that were presented and accepted. Falsehoods that are seen then ignored.
Enough!
Barack Obama said this plainly during his Acceptance Speech at the DNC in Denver. It bears repeating and applying here when talking about how we need to stop accepting the lies that politicians tell. (…cough…John McCain…cough…Sarah Palin…cough…)
I don’t like being lied to, and frankly, you shouldn’t either. It’s insulting and disrespectful, and it leads to people getting harmed, hurt, and killed.
So in rememberance of 9/11, its victims, and its survivors, let’s reject lying in our homes, lying in our workplaces, and lying in our politics. Who knows how many lives we can save by just doing that.
Commenter John Paul Reeves left what Brandon & I felt was a thought-provoking comment on Brandon’s Obama Drops the Ball on Energy post. I was responding to the comment, but my response got pretty long, so I felt it’d be more appropriate to write it up as a full post for everyone to be able to read and respond to easily. This is my full response:
@John Paul Reeves,
On Obama’s Religion
As for how I as a Black Christian (not speaking for that entire demographic) feel, I have no “concern” about Obama’s religion. In fact, I bet most people don’t have any concern about Obama’s religion. Frankly, I don’t care what his religion is, and the people who say that he’s a Muslim in a derogatory way are actually not only insulting Muslims by implying that being Muslim is bad, but they are also note acting in a Christ-like manner by bearing false witness against another person. So there are two questions to pose to Christians or anyone else who has a problem with a candidate’s religion:
What’s wrong with voting for a fellow Christian?
What in your Christianity would stop you from voting for someone who was of a different religion if there was a non-Christian in the race?
On Qualified Black Candidates
As to your question on qualified Black candidates that could run for President and VP, the issue is not qualification. There are qualified people of every type: race, sex, gender, ideology, religion, sexual orientation, age, etc. The issue is actually one of prejudice and access.Read the rest of this entry »
I’m just as excited as the next activist to see so many people engaging in the electoral process this year. People are phone-banking, canvasing, knocking on doors, calling their congress members, etc. All of this volunteerism is beautiful, an expression what passionate political participation by an informed and interested citizenry should look like in a democracy.
What’s not to like?
Well, there is actually one big thing not to like: Very, very little of this is sustainable. That’s right. 95% of this enthusiasm and participation will likely die the day after election day, with the other 5% dying the day after inauguration day.
Republicans don’t like Community Organizers. Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin ridiculed them specifically in their speeches last Wednesday at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, MN. This modern crop of Republicans has demonstrated how much they hate grassroots organizing in many ways with their hatred or unionization, their damnation of dissenters inside and outside of the government, and their willingness to ignore the rights, thoughts, and actions of the people of foreign nations that they decide to invadedestroyoccupy “help”.
While these positions on their own are outrageous and not in line with the ideals of the America that Republicans claim to love so much, it is consistent with another thread of modern-day Republican rhetoric and practice: racism.
For every generation leading up to [and including] the current one, the only foray for Black people to better their lives collectively has been through community organizing. When I say community organizing, I don’t just mean the highly visible ones like Malcolm & Martin, I mean the invisible ones that most of us will never hear or speak of that sacrifice their time, treasure, and talents so that people’s day-to-day lives are better and that their voices are heard. This is the path that nearly all Black politicians have taken to attain the capital needed to even run for office, let alone win. For one to minimize the work of organizers is to minimize the thoughts, actions, and efforts of all minorities and underrepresented groups who wish to uplift themselves individually and as a whole.
Anyone who knows me that if I am in town, I play pool with my dad…religiously. But last weekend I had a life changing experience. While my Dad and I were wrapping up our last game (and I did win last week, by the way) a White guy stumbles up to me with a beer in his hand (who we will call Dave) whose breath reeks of alcohol, spiked hair, plaid shorts, and flip flops. Through stuttering and some mumbling, Dave tells me that he always wanted to play pool with someone from Detroit.
Politely, I try to decline Dave and tell him that I am about to go leave. For some reason, Dave doesn’t quite understand what I am saying and I get the sense he is going to be heart broken if I don’t play pool with him. So I tell my Dad to pay for the time and tell the cashier to restart the time.
Dave was born and raised in Southfield, MI, a suburb that borders Detroit and his game is nine-ball and as I rack the balls, Dave reveals that he just got back from Iraq. He tells me about the horrors of war and how I should never ever join the army. Dave needs to vent more than anything so I listen as he says, “Man I would rather cut grass than scissors than go back over there. It’s like we’re sitting ducks just driving around waiting to get blown up…It’s nothing like the movies.” As we play, I am entranced at Dave’s anguish and misery, thinking to myself, “Dave will never be the same as a result of this war.” Read the rest of this entry »
Lest there be any doubt about Palin’s complete inadequacy to be Vice President of the United States, TIME’s correspondent found out that Palin won’t be dealing with the press. Check out this piece I pulled from Jay,
According to Nicole Wallace of the McCain campaign, the American people don’t care whether Sarah Palin can answer specific questions about foreign and domestic policy. According to Wallace — in an appearance I did with her this morning on Joe Scarborough’s show — the American people will learn all they need to know (and all they deserve to know) from Palin’s scripted speeches and choreographed appearances on the campaign trail and in campaign ads.
Wallace’s bash-the-media exercise has its merits as a campaign tactic. It certainly rallies the base. But the base won’t lift McCain to 50% in November. More importantly, in her smug dismissal of the media’s role in asking questions of the candidates, Wallace was really showing contempt not for reporters, but for voters. I bet there are a lot of undecided voters out there who were intrigued by Sarah Palin last night, but who don’t yet know enough about her — what she believes, what she knows — to be comfortable with the idea of her as vice president of the United States. It’s important to them to know if Palin can handle herself in an environment that isn’t controlled and sanitized by campaign image makers and message mavens. Maybe she can, maybe she can’t. As far as Wallace is concerned, it’s none of their — or your — business.
If you haven’t heard yet, Kwame Kilpatrick resigned today, ending an eight month long text-messaging scandal that has ravaged Detroit and the entire state of Michigan. I am too tired to explain all the minutiae of these cases because it is too emotionally draining but if you want to learn about it, go to the Detroit Free Press.
To be frank, I didn’t want to write about this story until it was over because I knew that 1) The text messages would be the downfall of the mayor and 2) I choose to focus and work on far more important issues that deserves attention like foreclosed homes, the lack of a quality transit system, failing schools, sky-rocket car insurance rates, just to name a few.
Here is the thing, I don’t believe in kicking a man when he is down. Kwame is out of office and while there needs to be healing for the citizens of Detroit, I rebuke anyone who claims to seriously care about Detroit that will harp on this situation as a reason why they won’t fight the good fight. But let’s keep it really real, I really don’t care about what you think about the court cases. I care about whether you care about the citizens of Detroit. This is where I stood before the scandal, during the scandal, and where I stand today.
So as we look towards the future, there are a couple things to keep in mind. Just because Kwame is out of office does not mean that you have to run for mayor next year. Many folks have said today that this is a unique opportunity for Detroit to make a turn for the better. Those opportunities are present every single day and if you are waiting for the next scandal to sort-a-kinda get involved, don’t talk to me. And don’t wallow in despair. So when someone says it’s a sad day in Detroit, tell them that you look towards the hills from which cometh your help.
Governor Sarah Palin. I am speechless really. I have been following the coverage since she she was announced as McSame’s VP candidate. Later on I will outline the outright lies she spewed in her speech last night. But first, let me say that I am scared with this Palin nomination because I fear that Democrats will underestimate her ability to sway people toward McCain. Someone once told me that people never remember what you say, they only remember how you make them feel. And if that logic holds true, Palin’s life story is very compelling and will go a long way towards her becoming the Trojan Horse that gets McSame in the White House. Now mind you I have said nothing about issues (of which I disagree with her on so many levels) but in the end issues really don’t matter. And if you don’t believe me, check out this excerpt from George Lakoff,
But the Palin nomination changes the game. The initial response has been to try to keep the focus on external realities, the “issues,” and differences on the issues. But the Palin nomination is not basically about external realities and what Democrats call “issues,” but about the symbolic mechanisms of the political mind — the worldviews, frames, metaphors, cultural narratives, and stereotypes. The Republicans can’t win on realities. Her job is to speak the language of conservatism, activate the conservative view of the world, and use the advantages that conservatives have in dominating political discourse.
Democrats, if you want to win, realize that for as much as issues matter, you can’t do anything about the issues until you win so I beg that anyone supporting Obama imagine that you are the perpetual underdog until the polls close November 4th. Below is a clip from the Daily Show that debunks this whole gender card foolishness followed by an abbreviated breakdown of how Palin lied to America last night.
If that wasn’t enough, here is a more detailed fact-based analysis of how she lied in her unusually cynical speech, (Thanks Laurin!)
It’s taking me much longer than I anticipated to wrap my head around the DNC. Nevertheless, life, and politics, go on.
Now that the Republicans have a Vice Presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, a good friend of mine and of The SuperSpade’s has some reactions to her selection and her speech.
Below are links to Clarence Wardell III’s Giant Steps blog, which has two posts on Palin & much more great content.
By picking Palin, McCain has made himself out to be a hypocrite and liar. The immediate instinct is to react as Obama’s communication’s director did, and talk about how much Palin is unqualified, but that is not the winning attack line, and Democrats would be wise to stay away from this as much as possible. Based on Obama’s response to the Palin nomination on Friday, he gets it, which isn’t surprising at all. One thing we’vecome to find out about Obama is that he’s much more politically savvy than people tend to give him credit for being. By attacking on the front of Palin’s inexperience the Obama campaign opens themselves up to the response that she’s qualified as Obama (which is not true). The central line of attack must be that it was not Obama who thought he lacked experience, but McCain who thought Obama lacked experience. With this pick McCain has shown that either:
He’s a liar and Obama does have the appropriate experience, or that
Palin is inexperienced too, and he just picked someone who is not the most qualified.
Some have commented that this speech was on par with the Obama speech of 2004.I have to laugh at this, because for one the speech that Sarah Palin read was clearly written by someone for her, packed with about 30 minutes of lines pulled straight out of the McCain commercials we’ve seen for the past month.Obama’s speech was written by him, and then tweaked by others.Palin’s was a speech predicated on division, while Obama’s was a salvo for unity.For all the energy put into the conservative base by the Palin pick, I can only imagine that her speech tonight did the same for the liberal base.
Michelle Obama gave a phenomenal speech on Monday night. I have no idea how her husband is going to top her.
I found it fitting that both Obama & Clinton, archetypes for women’s rights and advancement, set the stage for the future of this country’s Democratic agenda. Specifically, both women will be re-defining what their next positions as First Lady and Senator/Former Presidential Candidate mean and how they are managed. Both Mrs. Obama and Sen. Clinton were tasked with re-presenting themselves to the people, for different reasons. Obama had to give us a new image because hers is being assaulted by the conservative press.
Creating an Era of Understanding
Michelle Obama’s speech (full text & video) was one of the most tactically written, beautifully executed addresses in this generation, and she isn’t even a politician. Her and her speech writers successfully reframed both her and Sen. Obama as family people, as Americans, as people who have a Black version of white America’s experience. The reason that she even had to give that speech is because there is a fundamental misunderstanding between Black people and other people about the similarities and differences between one another’s life experiences. One would think that in a society where Black and white have been juxtaposed for approaching 400 years, white people’s pre-conceived notions about Black women would bear some semblance of accuracy. This is not the case, and it is up to the future First Lady to do what Black men & women have to do all too often: carry the image of their entire race on their shoulders in everything that they say and do.
This unfortunate reality will persist as long as there is misunderstanding. There can be no “post-racial” society (sidebar: I hate the term post-racial) or “post-anything” society without first building bridges of understanding and empathy between races, sexes, genders, cultures, sexual orientations, etc. The understanding is something that must be both actively pursued and actively distributed, meaning that we can’t just close our eyes and snap our fingers and have everyone magically move beyond racial tensions. Michelle and Barack Obama have the largest megaphone with which they can usher in this Era of Understanding, and I’m looking to them to set an example for others to emulate.
Just when I think that MSM can’t get worse, I am disgusted at the gross coverage of the DNC National Convention. You are truly missing out on some great speeches because you would think that no one is on stage save for the keynote speakers. Right now, my main man Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer is talking and he is one of the most dynamic politicians I have come across but you wouldn’t know that by watching CNN or MSNBC. For anyone interested in actually watching the convention and not talking heads, watch C-SPAN or listen to NPR instead of supporting MSM.
I’m finally at a place where I can write a full on post about what I’ve seen thus far at the Convention. It’s been interesting. In order to stay up to the minute on what I’m seeing, follow The SuperSpade on Twitter at http://twitter.com/superspade, where I’ll be sending updates from my phone on various events.
My shuttle ride in from the airport was 2.5 hours long. I shared that shuttle with an Obama volunteer, 2 Hillary Clinton delegates from Virginia, and a woman from Real Democrats in DC. What I found in them all were women that were ostensibly passionate about democratic and the Democratic Party, but who underneath were actually angry and disappointed in their party’s treatment of Hillary Clinton and how the party selects its nominee.
Some of the arguments made sense, but others had a strange hint of ‘my discrimination is better than yours’, even if it wasn’t intentional. For example, the Hillary folks never liked the caucus process, and I never really understood why. Now I do. They felt like caucuses gave some voters the chance to intimidate other voters in certain districts. Ladies and gentlemen, don’t be confused: that is code for Black voters scared away white voters in Black districts. It’s just like calling Barack Obama arrogant: the “pc” way of saying that he is out of place.
They did have a different take on why her time as First Lady should count as experience: the analogy was a family-owned business. In many cases, the husband’s name is on everything (loans, bills, etc.) and the wife may not even be on the official payroll. Nevertheless, she contributes to the business operations (management of paperwork, employees, travel planning, etc.) and also is effectively a consultant on business strategy and decisions (e.g. Should we open another store across town? Should I hire an intern? etc.). This I think has merit, since I KNOW that I consult significant other when making business decisions. The nuance of this though was probably lost in the election mayhem.
Something has to be done to bring these women to the table. When I asked the woman from Real Democrats who she wanted held accountable, her answers were:
The Democratic National Committee for ignoring their complaints on caucus practices
The Obama Campaign for doing that and taking these upset voters for granted
None of these women had plans to vote for John McCain. They said that most of these women in their movement were hardcore Democrats that wouldn’t cross over; they’d rather stay home than do that. The problem is, crossing over and staying home have the same effect. I pushed her on this point and here response was “no stance, no respect.” Truer words were never spoken, even if I don’t like this particular context.
The really scary part: Hillary doesn’t control them
The press and the Obama campaign keeps saying that Hillary Clinton needs to “get her supporters in line.” These women were very clear when they said to me that there was nothing that Hillary Clinton could do or say to change their position. Nothing. What that means is that this thing has legs all its own, and their going to keep kicking and screaming.
Michelle Obama is a great woman not because she gives a good speech or she is clearly chock full of class and grace. She is great because she did one of the most difficult things there is to do: truly honor your parents by doing what you are told. In her speech tonight, Michelle talked about how her parents often complained that too often people go off to college and never come back. Michelle followed her parents advice and married a man who devoted his life to public service when both of them combined could be raking in major dough. Read the rest of this entry »
Things are about to get really interesting here at The SuperSpade. Our very own Garlin will be attending the DNC National Convention and giving us behind the scenes insights. My hope is that each of you take time to reflect on how far we have come and how far we have to go in this country to not just work out our racial issues but to deal with pressing issues included but not limited to recidivism, war, global warming, oil dependence, and the economy rooted in the progressive movement. Read the rest of this entry »
I am responding to James’ article this week where he lauds Obama’s recent policy reversal on supporting off-shore drilling, essentially claiming that when it comes to comprehensive energy policy reform, there is no magic bullet and we need to embrace all solutions and not the solution. And Obama gave red meat to conservatives by explaining that he would support offshore drilling as part of an overall package in part because “we shouldn’t allow the Perfect to be the enemy of the Good.” Read the rest of this entry »
I hope all is well with you. A friend of mine just recently body sort of shut down due to the heat so be careful out there and stay hydrated. Speaking of heat, the cost of heating your home this fall and winter will more than likely be higher than last year so start considering putting money away now to deal with those bills.
However, I am here today to talk about the myth of the Christian candidate. Too often, the two wedge issues that conservatives use to determine if a candidate is moral or Christian enough are gay marriage and abortion. What I hate about this debate is that it forces God into a political framework that is too small and quite frankly, disrespectful.
Why is it that we never talk about tax policy in terms of Christian values? Are tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy really in line with this mistaken notion that God wants everyone to be rich? Man often defines as rich as monetary wealth, none of which we can take with us when we leave this earth. It is the love we give and receive from each other that makes one truly rich. Just think about it, anyone reading this column that went to college and stayed in the dorm remember how fun it was to be a broke college student, eating Ramen noodles, finding the most creative ways to eat and pay bills, always knowing that you had to laugh to keep from crying.
Having said that, what if we had a tax policy reflected in Proverbs 30:8-9 that reads,
8 Keep falsehood and lies far from me, give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. 9 Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say , ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or I may become poor and steal and so dishonor the name of my God.
And let’s consider war and consider the fact that yes, sometimes war is justified but if we honest with ourselves, sending troops to fight a wars chiefly designed support our conspicuous consumption as opposed to ending genocide is crazy to me.
Our health care system is designed to make sure that when you need health care most, insurance companies profit margins grow to the extent that they find ways to deny payment for needed services. And we are talking about people with health care so you can imagine the fear of not having it. I am just trying to imagine Jesus charging payment before he healed the sick and I just can’t see it.
The problem is that we all need help because even bad things happen to good people. You may do everything right and may have to end up taking care of a sick parent or child or enduring a debilitating disease yourself. I don’t know about you but I want to elect candidates that realize that we can’t put God in a box or a political party, but we can apply Biblical principles to the full spectrum of issues facing our society.
I asked Cliff to talk with me about John McCain’s record on issues of relevance to Black voters. With all of the talk in the news over the past couple of days about race in this election, his answers are interesting to say the least.
The Interview
The SuperSpade: In your view, what’s been the most instructive example of John McCain’s ideology to civil rights?
Cliff Schecter: First Garlin, thanks so much for providing these questions. And now onto business.
When it comes to Civil Rights, it’s an easy one. While he has hired a white supremacist to work on his campaign, employed the man who created the racist ads against Harold Ford Jr. in 2006 and voted against MLK day, the one that sticks out is the Confederate Flag. And here is why: McCain has even admitted himself that he threw African Americans under the bus for political reasons in South Carolina in 2000. McCain blatantly changed his position on the Confederate Flag when he thought it would help get him votes–to appear more racist.
In January 2000, McCain said that “The Confederate flag is offensive in many, many ways, as we all know. It’s a symbol of racism and slavery.” Yet, three days later, after talking to consultants and deciding that winning was more important than civil rights, he changed his tune to “personally, I see the flag as a symbol of heritage.” When the campaign was over, he admitted that if he had “answered honestly” he feared that he “could not win the South Carolina primary.” So winning is what mattered. Not as important an issue in this country as the ongoing inequality and racism that African Americans are forced to endure.
Today we look again at the concept of individuality. James wrote a piece today called Am I destroying the black community? that is a response to something I wrote last November called How the myth of individualism is destroying the Black community. In it, he refutes many of my points, but I think at the core he misses some fundamental truths that are necessary for individual success and collective advancement.
Today, The SuperSpade is teaming up with Black bloggers across the country for “A Day of Blogging for Justice – Against – Extra – Judicial Electrocution – Tasers.” This project is being headed up by African American Political Pundit and Francis Holland, who have created Electrocuted While Black for “tracking and reporting on pre-trial, extra-judicial death penalty, because it’s 21st century lynching, by another name.”
More from the website, “We are blogging today against police and other security entities across America, Canada and around the world involved in Extra-Judicial Electrocution by Tasers. African American political Pundit has called it a campaign against “on the spot pre-trial electrocution” of members of the public (many who are of African descent).”
The sick thing about the use of tasers is that it is often portrayed as a less severe form of punishment because proponents say, “Well, at least I am not using a gun.” This belies the fact that you can die from being tasered such as how “17-year-old Darryl Wayne Turner died: He had cardiac arrest after a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer shot him with a Taser gun.
And I know that it is very strategic for blogs to insert pictures or use videos to help illustrate their points. However, the downside of this strategy is that things are not “real” unless someone can supply visual evidence. So when I think about tasers, I automatically revert to one of my favorite books, “The Invisible Man.” In the opening scene, our nameless protagonist gives a speech in front of the city’s leading White men accepting a scholarship and after the speech, he is pressured to fight with other Black boys in a ring blindfolded. After being pummeled, the White men put a couple coins and dollars on a rug and force the boys to fight over the money. Little to the boy’s knowledge, there is an electric current running through the rug and in excruciating detail, the protagonist describes the pain of being electrocuted.
Again, being tasered is a small but significant part of being Black in America. Our stories must be told by us because according to an African Proverb, “Until the Lions have Their Historians, Tales of the Hunted will Always Glorify the Hunter.”
I think CNN did a better job tonight. They showed the challenges both sides face. They showed the average black man and his struggle. Although I think they still did not focus on answers, and it was more of the same as yesterday, this was more powerful and effective. Here are my quick hit thoughts… Read the rest of this entry »
What’s up fam, this week James Dickson ripped into The New York Times (NYT) for their not publishing an article on the conflict in Iraq penned by Senator John McCain. For context, McCain’s piece was a defense of his supporting the conflict in Iraq and it was a response to an article written by Senator Barack Obama that was published the week before.
James said,
Rather than the nation ignoring McCain’s piece, as it almost certainly would have, the NYT has made it the first must-read political tract of 2008. Rather than bypass the piece when it would’ve run in the NYT, I instead read the piece — which, admittedly, was the typical “BUT THE DEMOCRATS ARE WORSE!!!1″ Republican attack line — on CNN.com, a site that, if it has lower circulation than NYT, isn’t by much.
I actually disagree that McCain’s piece is now a must-read political tract. This type of analogy is is akin to people buying NWA’s music solely because it was banned. And not for nothing, Obama is a really good writer and it is painfully obvious that he wrote his article while it appears that McCain’s article was written by the Communications staff and quite frankly, it read like it went through the campaign filter about ten times before they sent it to the NYT.
James himself admitted that McCain’s piece was lackluster which begs the question, why does the NYT editors have to publish bad journalism? Regardless, James went on to point out that decisions like the one made by NYT serve to highlight the growing prominence of the blogosphere and the decline of mainstream media. I think this claim is a bit overblown because the vast majority of political blogs react to articles in the mainstream media via commentary/analysis. (like we are doing right now)
The larger issue is that McCain is losing in the marketplace of ideas and by that I mean that his ability to paint an inspiring vision of a better America is similar to the article he submitted to the NYT; lackluster. And while the notion of fair and balanced news analysis is seductive, it is fleeting, which is why you can get more in-depth analysis by reading Black on Black Thought.
This is important because how candidates and Presidents deal with the media is indicative of how they will deal with the people at large. By Obama rejecting Fox News, he is rejecting their practices as an organization,which is a win for tolerance and open-mindedness. I fervently applaud such actions, and you should too.
On Obama’s Trip
I haven’t said anything about Barack Obama’s current trip to Europe and the Middle East for a few reasons:
Everyone else is talking about it, so there’s not a lot of new news to share
It is reactive action. Obama has been very good about taking ownership of issues, national defense in particular, away from the Republicans. For a generation, it has been true that if the debate was about national security, then Republicans & conservatives automatically won. Obama has done quite a bit to change that, but this trip was a step backward because the action was based on the acceptance of John McCain’s completely idiotic premise for critiquing Obama’s war policy. The premise is that Obama is “naive” and that he “doesn’t really know what’s going on”, both of which are wrong. The critique was that he needed to “see things for himself”. By taking the trip, he accepted these. Instead, I would have liked for him to define a different narrative that shows how strong he is and has been in terms of the correctness of his judgement, one that exudes pride in America taking the position as the worlds wisest diplomat with Obama as President. I digress…
I want Progressives and Democrats to stop accepting Republican/Conservative frames of issues. This is the reason that we are always on the defensive. It’s time to go on offense.
The SuperSpade is partnering with Color of Change, Brave New Films, MoveOn.org, and now rapper Nas to outline just how racist Fox News is and how this racism has been used to stir up fear, uncertainty, and doubt about Barack Obama.
We encourage everyone to sign this petition that Color of Change created to show your support for shining light on the many, many, many examples of racism at Fox. Over 620,000 people have signed on already.
The petition itself will be delivered to Fox News HQ by Color of Change, Nas, and other supporters on Wednesday, 23 July 2008. Make sure you sign it to be a part of this action!
Also, listen to this Nas song from his latest album that talks specifically about Fox News.
Guess what? Gas is expensive. Expensive gas impacts almost everything in Americans’ day-to-day lives by making almost everything we do or consume more costly. One of the large contributors to the high cost of fuel is speculation, which in simple terms means to buy something you have no purpose for other than to make money off of its unstable price.
Well, the argument against excessive speculation, especially on commodities like oil, has brought together groups of citizens, organizations, and companies that often times are at odds with one another. The Stop Oil Speculation Now effort has caused many to join in a call for smarter, more responsible government regulation and an end to one of the major drivers if high gas prices.
Wlady Plesczynski, longtime editorial director of The American Spectator, blogged that the cover was “too clever by half, taking some generally known unserious tropes and having a field day with them, as if at some level the magazine actually thought such a caricature had some basis in fact.” That is exactly right. If the cover were an attempt to pre-empt and ridicule conservative attacks on Obama, two things went terribly wrong in that thinking:
This will only embolden — it certainly won’t scare — conservatives. Now that a liberal publication has fired the first salvo, one far worse than any that Republicans have conjured up to date, it’s far more likely that we’ve entered Open Season than any chance of conservatives shying away from playing the race angle.
Most Americans are, in the words of a former colleague, “only negligibly literate.” While the inside-the-Beltway types will see the cartoon for what it is — a poorly done jab at the right-wing — I doubt that the people in “Flag City, USA,” many of whom actually do believe that Obama is, or was, a Muslim, will see the nuance. More likely they’ll just take it as proof that see, I knew that Obama he was some kind of Muslim; my friends were right all along — even The New Yorker said so.
I agree with James that this is satire done with the skill of dog writing poetry. However, we differ on the underlying reason why this article cartoon cover failed so miserably.
I received an email today from Dennis Kucinich (remember him?) regarding his introduction of an Article of Impeachment on the House floor, which is scheduled to take place today. In the message was a link to a petition that people can sign to show support.
From the email:
The article of Impeachment will deal directly with President Bush fraudulently obtaining support for an attack on Iraq by creating a false case for war. Full details of the Article of Impeachment will be available after they are read on the floor of the House by Congressman Kucinich.
I have written on this site that I support impeachment. Further, I conducted an online survey in which 54% of people said that they too supported impeachment. Sign the petition and show your support too!
Movements are based on principles
Kucinich is taking a principled stance on impeachment, and I believe it is not only an important stance, but it also sets an excellent example of how politics should be conducted.
Election-based politics are not based on principle, they instead are based on convenience, expediency, and the electability myth. On the other hand, movement-based politics are based on agreement on ideology, on goals, on a way of doing things.
Let’s strongly support politicians who do not compromise their integrity and principles in search of a mythical middle ground. If you agree with someone in principle, you can work through differences in implementation. But the foundation of meaningful conversation must be a common goal. By being open, asking the right questions, and talking honestly, we can find the commonality we need to move forward.
I am happy to kick off Black on Black Thought. This week, James wrote about CNN’s Black in America special (that will highlight life in Black America in all its complexity) and considers whether or not this series will over saturate America with “race talk” and its possible impact on the 2008 election. James basic conclusion is that we are reaching a saturation point in our “race-talk.” I think we are far from the point of saturation.
The tag line for The SuperSpade is Black Thought at the Highest Level. So it is in the spirit of elevating Black political discourse that we launch a unique new series called Black on Black Thought, a collaboration between us and James Dickson, a Black libertarian conservative blogger who is the author of The Young and the Conservative at The Washington Times.
With Black on Black Thought, twice weekly we’ll explore various topics with James presenting a conservative perspective at his site and us presenting a progressive perspective here. To date Black conservative and Black progressive have never been juxtaposed in this way. Showcasing the diversity existent in Black political thought is not only a timely experiment in ideological exploration, but it is a necessary conversation that lays the foundation for Black political pride and Black political power.
We look forward to your participation in this journey with us.
This is not a typo as I am sure you probably thought about the 3/5 Compromise that helped to solidify the political marginalization of Black people in America. This historical update is fitting coming off the heels of the July 4th holiday weekend. Leading up the Constitutional Convention in 1787, there was a growing divide between Northern states and southern states of if and how slaves (the vast majority of which were Black) should be counted for purposes of representation and taxation.
Delegates that opposed slavery (and not all of these delegates were morally pure) only wanted to count free inhabitants of each state. On the other hand, delegates that supported slavery wanted to count their slave population as part of the total population despite the fact that slaves could not vote and were commonly regarded as property. Of course, delegates that supported the latter position would be over represented in the House of Representatives. The “Great Compromise” resulted in what we now understand as the three-fifths compromise. This compromise has been updated for the times and has serious consequences for the future. Read the rest of this entry »
Last week I recorded an interview for the Day to Day show on NPR. I was asked a series of questions relating Barack & Michelle Obama’s “terrorist fist bump,” as well as the election as a whole and whether or not there was an understanding of the Black experience in white America.
That interview is set to air on Thursday, 25 June 2008.Check your local listings to find out when it’s on in your area so you can hear it live. For those that can’t here it or those who are in places where there’s no NPR, I’ll put a link on this site as soon as I have one.
What’s up fam, I will be out of town for work this week but I wanted to drop some lines before I leave. I have been thinking about Obama and the ramifications of his being elected President. An old adage in the Black community is that “The army ain’t no place for a Black man.” Of course, scores of Black folks and people from all types of backgrounds have served with distinction in America’s armed forces. And just so you know, if Obama is elected President, he will be presiding over wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as the Commander-in-Chief. It is hard enough for any President to end a war and I fear that his not serving will place tremendous pressure on Obama to show how much he bleeds red, white, and blue. Obama’s perceived need to show how much he loves America can and will be spun into continuing (and perhaps emboldening) the military-industrial complex.
Obama’s stance on the military includes the following excerpt from his website,
Expand the Military: We have learned from Iraq that our military needs more men and women in uniform to reduce the strain on our active force. Obama will increase the size of ground forces, adding 65,000 soldiers to the Army and 27,000 Marines.
I have no doubt that on the strength of Obama’s oratory and conviction, thousands of young people will be inspired to serve in the armed forces but what will happen when Obama calls on you or your loved ones to serve? Can you envision there being more trust of the armed forces with Obama at the helm? I think that it is possible but not likely. Many liberals decry war and its ravaging impacts but will war appear to be more noble knowing that you are serving under President Obama?
There is a disturbing trend happening in politics & political discussion today. In the name of compromise or searching for the “middle ground,” people doing nothing more than diluting their positions to the point where they are actually not positions at all.
What I’m saying is this: for the larger issues we face, there is no middle ground. That’s right. Most issues in today’s political discourse are simple binary, yes or no, support or no support questions.Read the rest of this entry »
Breaking News: “Sen. Barack Obama on Thursday called and apologized to the two Muslim women who say they were told they could not stand behind the candidate at a rally in Detroit on Monday because they were wearing traditional hijab.”
Just yesterday, I wrote that Obama’s campaign wrong and that he needed to call these two women (one of whom I know incidentally) and apologize, so I will take some satisfaction in helping put pressure on Obama to do the right thing.
This is a teachable moment because for starters, how you campaign is a good indication of how you will govern. If Obama, through his campaign is willing to take the low road by offending the Arab-American community, then what would prevent him from doing so once he got elected? And contrary to popular belief, holding Obama’s feet to the fire will not cause him to lose the election.
In his stump speech, Obama tells people that he is a better candidate after going against Clinton in all fifty states (save MI and FL). In the same way, Obama will be a better candidate for making those two calls. Not for nothin’ we are talking about making two phone calls and I know Obama is busy but he ain’t THAT busy. And now, his campaign will be much more sensitive to offending various constituency groups not just during the campaign but translate these lessons into governing the country.
Why is it so outrageous for people to think that Obama should be held accountable to a higher and dare I say progressive standard?
I went to the Obama rally that was held in Detroit and it was a great event. My homegirl Monique Perry (a fellow Detroit native I have known since high school and went to the University of Michigan with me) pumped up the crowd and encouraged folks to register and organize. Obama thanked her on national television. Let’s get em’ Mo and GO BLUE! Obama gave a relatively standard stump speech but it surely didn’t sound like one. The brother has conviction and I am happy to see him as the Democratic nominee.
However, I was grieved to learn that someone from Obama’s team “barred two Muslim women from sitting behind the podium by campaign volunteers seeking to prevent the women’s headscarves from appearing in photographs or on television with the candidate.” For context, the city of Dearborn which borders Detroit is home to the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the country so you really can’t be in Detroit and avoid the Arab-American community. And can we way hijjab instead of headscarves? Ok, thanks.
Now if Obama personally called the Detroit reporter and apologized for calling her sweetie the same day the incident happened, his staff needs to find these women’s numbers and make sure Obama himself apologizes. I say that because anybody who knows me, knows that I am all about process and how you win is very important.
I actually think that Obama should have over-indulged himself in the Arab-American community to demonstrate that he is secure enough in himself to be photographed with Arab-Americans. Doing so would not only send a strong message to Arabs across the globe that we are all deserving of respect and it would help end the post-911 classification of the Arab community as “them”. This is a moment where the Obama campaign can continue to do the right thing and not what is politically expedient. How you win matters.
The price of gas is comfortably over $4 and is not expected to come down soon. We are at the point where you need to buy gas cap locks to keep people from siphoning off your gas. People are breaking even just to go to work and this is even more pressing for places like Metro-Detroit where you don’t have a reliable and efficient mass transit infrastructure. However, the MS M focus on the price of gas ignores a more sinister problem; hunger. The price of gas is probably more important than Obama getting the nomination as Fred Pearce from the Yale Environment reports,
“food prices have been soaring this year, causing more misery for the world’s poor than any credit crunch. The geopolitical shockwaves have spread round the world, with food riots in Haiti, strikes over rice shortages in Bangladesh, tortilla wars in Mexico, and protests over bread prices in Egypt.”Read the rest of this entry »
Let me preface this post by saying that I’m not a lawyer, nor have I ever tried to be one. The following is a lay person’s interpretation of the U.S. Constitution, so any/all lawyers are more than welcome to jump in and add to/correct this interpretation.
On the plane back from the National Conference for Media Reform, I had a discussion with a labor attorney who also attended the conference and was from Seattle. Among other things, he told me the following:
The Constitution only grants one right: the right to bear arms [the 2nd amendment]. Everything else described in the document is essentially a limit on the government, not the granting of a particular right.
I thought that was really fascinating if it was true. If that is the case, then we really need take a hard look at how we talk about our “rights,” and about how we defend, ensure, and advocate for those “rights.” By telling me this, he almost made me want to quit my job and apply to law school as soon as I deplaned. Read the rest of this entry »
Last night, Dennis Kucinich introduced a resolution that included 35 articles of impeachment against George W. Bush. Why no one had the wherewithal to do this earlier is beyond me. Wait, I guess Kucinich did introduce articles of impeachment against Cheney last year, but that resolution didn’t get far.
I met some folks from the Backbone Campaign while in Minneapolis this past weekend. This made me think of them because I doubt that very many House Reps. will have the audacity to stand with Kucinich. I also wonder if any Senators will show support. Three people specifically come to mind here:
Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House: She said that impeachment was off the table. Will she stick by this nonsense?
John Conyers, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee: This committee would handle the proceedings, should they take place. Will he challenge Pelosi and live up to his reputation as a protector of the law?
Barack Obama, Senator & presumptive Democratic Presidential Nominee: Will he go out on a limb and show support for Kucinich’s resolution? If not, will he say why he won’t? My guess is that he’ll make no statement on this, especially not one in support.
But the most valuable part of the conference was the opportunity to meet so many great people in the hallways, at the parties, and around the city. I met folks I’d only worked with online, and others for the first time. These people I met and interacted with for the first time in person included:
I also was on a panel Sunday morning called Where We’ll Take It: Young Leaders on the Future of Media. I was on the panel with Jenny Lee from Detroit Summer and 2 other young activists (I was actually the oldest member of the panel). It was a very passionate discussion, and one that was extremely well received by the large audience that attended. I spoke mainly on the importance of localization and new media focusing more on local news and stories, as well as the rise of Black activism online. As soon as Free Press sends me the audio and the video, I’ll put it up on the site. (UPDATE: The audio is here.)
I enjoyed myself, I enjoyed my panel, and I enjoyed interacting with all of the great people I met. This conference has great energy, even better than last year’s. Though it still has a long way to go as far as having more people of color in attendance, they better on that than they did last year as well. All in all, this was a definite step in the right direction.
Throughout the coming year, I’ll be doing more media reform work with Free Press, and I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.
Yes, The SuperSpade is brand new again. I’ll write about that specifically later, but I am elated that the first post on this new website is about a genuine Black History, American History moment.
[After giving his wife dap,] Barack Obama stepped to the podium and declared himself the undisputed [by everyone except Hillary Clinton] Democratic nominee for the President of the United States. In the same moment, he made broad statements about who he is, what he wants, and what he believes, and coupled those with thanks to Hillary Clinton and harsh words for hs Republican opponent, John McCain. I actually don’t think it was his best speech of the campaign thus far. But nevertheless, on the biggest night of his political life, he did not disappoint.
1) First off, why is there not more coverage of the relief efforts of people impacted by the earthquakes in China and Myanmar? In case you hadn’t read, nearly 70,000 people died in this earthquake and millions more are now homeless. To help put it in context, imagine instantly losing 7 people in your life without being able to say goodbye and multiply that grief by 100,000. I guess coverage of the earthquake is worth far less than what the DNC RBC planned to do with the Michigan and Florida delegates. Read the rest of this entry »
Let me first say I appreciate Garlin’s update as to what the SuperSpade has been up to. I am currently recovering from the Michigan Policy Summit that was a huge success. I write today because I am livid at what Senator Clinton told the South Dakota’s Sioux Falls Argus-Leader in explaining why she would stay in the race. Have you ever heard someone say something and think, “I know they just didn’t say what I thought they said.” This is one of those times because Senator Clinton said,
“My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. I don’t understand it.”
I am so mad these primaries are happening the week of the Michigan Policy Summit happening May 10th at the Lansing Center. Chris Matthews just broke it down as to how Hillary lost the Democratic nomination.
He said that ‘change’ worked in the 2006 and 2008 election cycles because people were upset about the war in Iraq. Matthews said that the only way to be a real change candidate was to be opposed to the war and if Clinton opposed the war, Obama would not be able to lay claim to being the change candidate. Couldn’t have said it better myself.
I look forward to writing after the Michigan Policy Summit is over, whew! I wanted to let the fam know that I will be on the radio tomorrow from 11:00am to 11:30am on 101.9 WDET talking to Craig Fahle about the Michigan Policy Summit. You can listen live through the website or just tune in to the show if you are in the Detroit area. Please tune in and show love,
Stay up fam,
Brandon Q.
UPDATE: The show was great and you can check out the show here. I don’t know how to splice it down to my segment but try to fast forward to about halfway through the 2 hour segment.
Like many of you, I am outraged that the three detectives were acquitted of killing Sean Bell. Sean was 23 the night he was set to be married the next day and though he was unarmed, the cops thought him dangerous enough to deserve being killed. And Sean wasn’t just killed, he was shot 50 times. It is crap like this that make me upset as to why Black people fear and distrust the police.
I know there will be rallies held in New York to protest this miscarriage of justice and if you are in the area, you should go. After the marches though, Bell’s story like Amadou Diallo and others will be filed in the Black consciousness as the continuing saga of injustice that has plagued Black folk since we were kidnapped from Africa. Surely this is worth Black folk being bitter right?
Bell was killed at a strip club and the undercover detectives were there to investigate if there was prostitution going on. Prostitution is wrong I get it. But quite frankly, how in the world do you investigate prostitution? I mean you tell me that these detectives couldn’t have set up a camera and watch the footage from the precinct? Aren’t there enough unsolved murders in the hood that could be a better use of these detectives’s time? And while I don’t have a J.D., how is it these detectives were not brought before a jury?
I try to imagine the hell I would raise if one of my people suffered a death like Sean Bell. The fact is that while I never knew Sean, he is my brother and your brother too. Our prayers go out to Bell’s family and friends as they and we try to sort out this injustice.
I don’t usually write on stuff like this, but I was struck last night and got to thinking about whether talent is enough, or whether the right person always wins. And in the event that the wrong person is winning, is there a way to correct that?
I saw two of the most talented individuals participating in the vanguard of American cultural expression that is American Idol get sent to the elimination round yesterday, with one of them having to be sent home. If that show had an electoral college (the judges?), that probably would not have happened.
Today is Earth Day, and as I walked out of my work cafeteria this afternoon, I realized why so many “environmentalists” annoy me. It’s not because they’re bad people or because they I disagree with their ideas, but it’s because I really think that they go about promoting their cause in the wrong way. Many of them attempt to get people to change their ways out of some sort of guilty moral obligation. Straight up, this approach will not work in the medium or long term.Read the rest of this entry »
H/t to my folks at Jack and Jill Politics for featuring this video of Michael Pfleger, a Catholic Priest based out of Chicago. When I wrote earlier about Black silence on Jeremiah Wright, I wanted to hear someone break it down like this. Enjoy and please watch the whole video. Stay up fam,
What’s up fam, I know folks are like dang, what happened to the Spade? By way of updates, Steve is a newlywed so he deserves time to enjoy his wife and Garlin is probably busy creating a new business venture. I for one am up to my neck in the Michigan Policy Summit and if you are in Michigan, you will definitely want to be a part of this annual gathering of progressives. Two dynamic keynotes in Amy Goodman and Jim Hightower along with policy focused discussions on health care, education, and environment and did I mention skills workshops for individuals and organizations ranging from social entrepreneurship to fundraising? Come out and show love May 10th and register now at www.mipolicysummit.org.
Below is an article I pulled from Crain’s in Detroit. If Detroit can turn the corner on transit, we will be on a good path. Enjoy the article and please pray for me. Stay up fam,
Mass-transit groups to meet
By Bill Shea Organizers of a $371 million project to build a light-rail line along Woodward Avenue from downtown Detroit to the State Fairgrounds were to begin meeting Monday with the backers of a privately funded plan with similar goals.Read the rest of this entry »
One of the most enduring debates in the Black Community is the philosophical divide Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois pitting the need for practical work and a liberal arts education against each other.
My former professor and now friend informed during vigorous debate once that they (Washington and DuBois) were both right in many respects and Black folks have been hoodwinked into thinking that things are “either, or” versus “both, and.” So for my people that have heard me make that argument, that is where it comes from but I digress.
My question to you is this, what would a hybrid vision of DuBois and Washington thought look like in 2008?
Our good friend and true SuperSpade Jill Tubman from Jack and Jill Politics put up this awesome piece about the future of the Civil Rights Movement and how technology figures into the equation. I have posted the piece in its entirety and it is a must read.
“What would happen if W.E.B. Du Bois or Marcus Garvey had a laptop?” Du Bois helped found the NAACP in 1909, and Garvey, a rival, started a back-to-Africa movement around the same time.
We are the answer to that question. In the vacuum of black leadership 40 years after Martin Luther King’s death, it’s his spiritual grandchildren that are carrying his mission forward now and not the civil rights groups he might have recognized. From the WaPo piece (emphasis mine):
In New York, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), which helped shape the movement’s philosophy after adopting Mohandas K. Gandhi’s doctrine of nonviolent protest, is scarcely known outside Manhattan. CORE conceded that it now has about 10 percent of the 150,000 members it listed in the 1960s. Read the rest of this entry »
Our very own Garlin was featured in an article in Al Jazeera (English edition) discussing Dr. Martin Luther King’s legacy 40 years later. Garlin’s contribution is below but you can read the entire post here along with our friend Professor R L’Heureux Lewis, affectionately known as Dumi. Read the rest of this entry »
R. L’Heureux Lewis, better know to SuperSpade readers as Dumi, is one of my intellectual heroes. Since I met him at the University of Michigan, he has always challenged me to look more deeply into issues and events to understand how to more effectively respond.
Last week, he was on the Bill O’Reilly’s The O’Reilly Factor discussing the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and his recent statements. I can summarize it like this: Bill O’Reilly doesn’t really understand anything he said.
The nation that Barack Obama and many others feels can heal its racial wounds still has people that create images and craft messages of hatred and misunderstanding. With Kerry, it was patriotism. With Obama, it’s Blackness.
The “let’s not talk this up too much until after the election” strategy is no longer workable or relevant in the face of such attacks. This is the door that has been officially kicked open after Obama’s “race speech.” He could have locked the door permanently and thrown away the key had that speech been given earlier. Now, it is up to him and his supporters to overcome this mockery and mis-construction of the Black experience in this country and tell the story of a people who’s hope and pride have made them the most resilient people on earth.
This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected.
Barack Obama gave a speech on race this morning in Philadelphia that many consider to be his most direct campaign speech dealing with the “issue.” Given the pretext of the speech, the talk seems to be one that was forced into necessity more by the media, Obama’s supporters, and detractors than by Obama’s desired to address race Blackness in this campaign and in this country head-on. I have always felt that had this been something that Obama wanted to do out of his own volition, he would have done so long ago, thus pre-empting the ignorant racial undertones of attacks made against him, and laying a foundation for healing in this nation that started with race and class, and grew to overcome the entire of spectrum of challenges this nation and this world face.
Nevertheless, the time has come for this conversation between Barack Obama and the Democratic American electorate. In this speech Barack Obama succeeded in opening the door to a legitimate, meaningful, and potentially productive dialogue of understanding, empathy, and unity among people from diverse backgrounds and experiences. By Barack Obama actually publicly acknowledging that not only is there a race issue, but one that must be dealt with, he is responsibly using his position and status and recognition to create an atmosphere of abundant possibility and environment of empirical hope that builds much needed problem-solving momentum in all areas that change must occur.
During this election cycle, I’ve seen the candidates I’ve supported strongly fall by the wayside for various reasons. I contributed money to both the Kucinich and Edwards campaigns, as I saw those candidates as the two that most closely exemplified my brand of Progressive, populist politics. I have done work on behalf of the Obama campaign, building websites to organize supporters for him in South Carolina, New Hampshire, and Iowa out of respect and admiration for Obama and his supporters, many of whom are friends of mine. This, however, is the first bit of hope I’ve gleaned from Obama. My challenge to him and others who support him to take ownership how race is framed and use this opportunity as a stepping stone to reconciliation, to actual, effective, visibile change in the hearts, minds, lives of everyday people, and to a brighter future for all to enjoy.
Will Obama’s speech on “the larger issue of race” tomorrow be the speech I have been begging him to give for over a year?
I have wanted Obama to outwardly embrace his Blackness from jump. Not in a confrontational way, but in a confident way that lets everyone know that it is alright to be Black. At the basis of all of the race-based attacks on him is the idea that there is something wrong with being Black. Sadly, the Obama campaign’s approach to managing this part of his identity, while above-board and admirable, does little to reject this notion. Talking past is not addressing an issue.
Vote and share what you think Obama should say in his speech on race and the campaign tomorrow.
No I don’t think this should be the case. However, a recent development has occurred whereby a woman that posts regularly posts on dailykos has resigned for what she deemed as unfair bias against her preferred candidate, Senator Hillary Clinton. Here is an excerpt from her open letter to the blogosphere.Read the rest of this entry »
Maybe I missed this but given the outcry over the potshots taken at Obama’s pastor Jeremiah Wright, where is the push back from the Black Church and church leaders in particular? Just so people are clear, Wright is being demonized by mainstream media for being everything from being a Black separatist to anti-Jew. This is an obvious smear campaign and forget about Obama for a second, this is about the Black Church, that despite its shortcomings, is a very important institution in the Black community.
We are a congregation which is Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian… Our roots in the Black religious experience and tradition are deep, lasting and permanent. We are an African people, and remain “true to our native land,” the mother continent, the cradle of civilization. God has superintended our pilgrimage through the days of slavery, the days of segregation, and the long night of racism. It is God who gives us the strength and courage to continuously address injustice as a people, and as a congregation. We constantly affirm our trust in God through cultural expression of a Black worship service and ministries which address the Black Community.
I want people to know the mission of Wright’s church, the Trinity United Church of Christ.
A congregation with a non-negotiable COMMITMENT TO AFRICA.
A congregation committed to BIBLICAL EDUCATION.
A congregation committed to CULTURAL EDUCATION.
A congregation committed to the HISTORICAL EDUCATION OF AFRICAN PEOPLE IN DIASPORA.
A congregation committed to LIBERATION.
A congregation committed to RESTORATION.
A congregation working towards ECONOMIC PARITY.
I have three main observations.1. Being pro-Black does not equate to being anti-anything. If you need clarification on this point, email me at bqwhite@gmail.com
2. Why don’t more Black churches have missions that are similar to that of Trinity United? I am not saying all Black churches must have the same mission statement but how many times have you seen a Black church make an explicit commitment to Africa? And why is it radical to support Africa?
3. Any sensible Black church leader who refuses to stick up for Wright is out of their mind. If a Black church can successfully be branded racist and/or separatist because they express love and support for Black people, then we as a people really need to get back to basics.
Two things you can do, call or email support to Pastor Wright ((773) 962-5650 or info@tucc.org) and if you do go to church, ask your pastor to address this issue to your congregation.
It appears that Michigan is prepared to do another Michigan primary set for June 3rd, pending approval by the Michigan State Legislature and the Obama campaign. This is great news for me because I am planning the Michigan Policy Summit on May 10th and if this contest is not settled by then, this Summit could end up playing a critical role in determining the Democratic nominee.
I suppose the conventional wisdom is that Obama is poised to snag the nomination but like most things in life; I will believe it when I see it in writing. Having said that, I will be writing about the Michigan Policy Summit much more frequently but the potential of being in a position of nominee-maker is very exciting and daunting.
This confirms my belief that the most potent power in America’s republic is local power. Early on, I flirted with the idea of working for the Obama campaign full time. At the time, I would have had to work in a different state.
So I should definitely should have been packing and sleeping by now but hey, life is life. I think this election has the potential to end up serving as a catalyst for a major political realignment whereby Black people largely disassociate themselves from the Democratic Party. I believe this of course provided that it appears the powers that be Clinton “stole” the nomination from Obama. One simple fact in politics is that you dance with the person who brought you to the ball.
In this respect, Black voters have shown overwhelming support for Obama while Clinton has focused heavily on Latinos. I am sure some of Clinton’s advisers are trying to devise a general election strategy where they can get Latinos to pick up the slack that Black folk used to be reliable for. If enacted, this plan would hopefully generate a sustainable grassroots movement where Black people start to seek solutions from each other and not the Party. What do you think?
Teachers are one of the most under appreciated professions in this country and not only should they be paid more, many teachers pay money out of their own pocket for supplies.
There is a site, www.donorschoose.org that seeks to make it easier to teachers to do their job. Here is how the site work; 1. Teachers make requests for materials and experiences that SHOULD be provided (but that is another story) 2. You as a donor choose to donate to the project of your choice and 3. Student’s learn more and you get a specialized note from the class that benefited from your donation.
I can’t tell you how many of my teacher friends have sent out emails asking help to pay for materials. This site is absolutely amazing and if you know of any teachers, let them know about this program and make it a point to donate TODAY.
Southeast Michigan is poised for a huge turn around as it pertains to mass transit. This week, the Detroit Department of Transportation announced that Woodward Avenue (downtown to 8 mile) would be the locally preferred alternative (LPA) as to where some form of light rail would be constructed. The announcement is just one of a series of steps Detroit is involved in as part of a formal application to the feds to help pay for some form of rapid transit. The application is being conducted through the Detroit Transit Options for Growth Study with help from URS. For more information on this, please click here. Read the rest of this entry »
Last year, a big question around this event was whether or not Barack Obama was going to attend the event. He did not, but he was doing something that was much bigger: deciding to and formally announcing his run for the Presidency. Now, one year later, in the midst of a very competitive primary season, Obama faces the same question: will he go? Should he go?
Obama is not attending. Tavis Smiley is on record saying that he’s cool with that. Roland Martin at Essence Magazine thinks this was the right decision. His primary argument is that Obama must “look forward, not in the past” and that Obama “can’t be defined as the Black candidate.” He thinks that Obama should send his wife Michelle, and continue campaigning in Texas and Idaho.
I think that’s a terrible move and completely wrong, and here’s why.
Barack and Michelle Obama should both attend the Black State of the Union event. Any criticism of their attendance of this day, arguably the most important discussion of the state of this country’s Black affairs, would not only by unfounded and irresponsible, but easily refutable.
Those who know me have heard me talk passionately about my fear of how I think “water wars” is going to be the single greatest cause of our lifetime. The drought we are seeing in places in the Southwest and Southeast are not cyclical and as countries throughout the world become more developed, the need to be better stewards as it relates to water increases dramatically. Having said that, I pulled this article from alternet.org, regarding a new book on water policy that is a must read. The book is entitled, Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water,
The link to the article by Tara Lohan is here and I posted the article in its entirety here.
A noted civil rights leader weighed in the Democratic race by calling on the Democratic National Committee to seat delegates from Florida Michigan.
The AP reports that “In a Feb. 8 letter to DNC Chairman Howard Dean, NAACP chairman Julian Bond expressed “great concern at the prospect that million of voters in Michigan and Florida could ultimately have their votes completely discounted.” Refusing to seat the states’ delegations could remind voters of the “sordid history of racially discriminatory primaries,” he said.”Read the rest of this entry »
I am writing to let you know that Garlin will be giving a keynote address in Detroit, MI for DAPCEP. DAPCEP is acronym for the Detroit Area Pre College Engineering Program. For those that are not from Detroit, this is a really big deal because parents from all over Metro Detroit clamor over themselves trying to get their kids involved in this program. I know parents and students alike wil be inspired to see a DAPCEP Alumni who is young and doing it big for himself and the community.
DAPCEP is a great program and I highly recommend it. Just look at their mission,
DAPCEP’s mission is to increase the number of historically under-represented minorities (African American, Hispanic American, and Native American) who are motivated and prepared academically to pursue careers in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology related fields.
If you are in Detroit and would like to get your kids involved in DAPCEP and/or hear Garlin bring the house down, find yourself at Cobo Hall tomorrow morning at 7:30am, the program starts at 8:00am. Per usual, Garlin will provide an audio file of his presentation upon his return to Seattle.
Stay up G,
For more information on DAPCEP, click here, www.dapcep.org
According to The Stranger, as well as a caller into the Thom Hartmann radio program (great show), robocalls are going out to some in Washington telling them that the caucus in on Sunday, not Saturday (the actual date).
The calls apparently came from Meyer Associates Teleservices, a St. Cloud, MN-based direct marketing company. This company has done extensive work for the Obama campaign in Illinois, New Hampshire, and other states.
This is sad, and I really, really want this to be untrue, but the evidence is not looking that way at this point. I want honest, ethical politics, not this stuff.
Conventional wisdom and polls strongly suggest that Democrats are virtually guaranteed victory in November 2008. And as we come down from Super Tuesday, Senator Clinton and Senator Obama will have to continue to compete for delegates maybe all the way to the Democratic convention. However, if Senator Clinton wins the nomination, I am all but certain that John McCain will win the general election for a number of reasons. 1) There are throngs of Democrats and progressives that will never vote for any candidate that voted for the war. 2) I have had extensive conversations with Obama and Edwards supporters that will never vote for Hillary. 3) McCain would do a better job winning over Independents even though he may not have full throttle support from social conservatives. No matter the outcome, there will be widespread motivation to either vote against Clinton by voting for McCain or sitting at home.
If Clinton wins the nomination Obama will be under tremendous pressure to open up his rolodex of donors and supporters to stomp for Clinton. This will put Obama in a difficult situation because Clinton would not pick him as her running mate and the bulk of his supporters will want to see him run again.
Former Senator John Edwards is expected to announce today that he will no longer be running for President. With the exception of Iowa, Edwards consistently placed third behind Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in the early primaries and caucuses. Edwards’ campaign was defined by the need to end poverty and fighting for the working and middle class against corporate greed.
Edwards decision to withdraw before Super Tuesday on February 5th where twenty-two states will go to the polls has fueled speculation that he would strongly consider running as Vice President under the eventual Democratic nominee.
If Edwards decides to endorse someone before February 5th, it may prove to be the extra boost that that candidate will need to lock up the nomination.
Edwards is expected to make his announcement at 1 p.m. from New Orleans, the same place where he launched his bid for the 2008 Democratic nomination.
The irony of Senator Barack Obama’s recent South Carolina victory and endorsement by Senator Kennedy is soured by the chaos and violence in Kenya. For those that don’t know, Obama’s father is from Kenya and since elections last month, Kenya has been engulfed in a vicious conflict, pitting the Kikuyus against the Luos and Kalenjins. For context, the elected President Mwai Kibaki is supported by the Kikuyus and Kibaki’s rival Mr Raila Odinga is supported by the Luou and the Kalenjins. Odinga accuses Kibaki of stealing the election. To date, reports estimate the death toll at 800.Unfortunately, I am not knowledgeable enough about Kenya to take sides or offer meaningful commentary.
I am just frustrated because among Black folk in America, we have been somewhat vitriolic in our treatment of Black folks who do not support Obama. Supporting Clinton or Edwards does not make you a coon or an Uncle Tom. And my fear is that unlike Kenya, supporters of Clinton or Edwards (or other) have not had to fear for their life but respect and civility have taken some body blows. Maybe we could help heal those wounds by coming together to find out ways to help our Kenyan brothers and sisters.
What’s up fam, we have a special guest contributor today in the form of Clarence Wardell, a colleague from my days at U of Michigan who is a political activist when he is not working on his Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering. Enjoy!
There is a scene in the movie “Something New” where Sanaa Lathan’s character and Blair Underwood’s character have an exchange over their exasperation with having to constantly deal with the “black tax” in their respective careers. The “black tax” is the notion that a Black person has to work twice as hard as a White person to gain the same level of recognition and compensation within the work environment. Whether or not it continues to exist in some circles is debatable, but whether or not such a figurative tax ever existed is undeniable. Given such a standard once existed it is hard to completely erase it from the memory of a people, even when faced with stark evidence that it no longer does. Read the rest of this entry »
What’s up fam, I found this great article in Salon.com that discussed how we can all save energy by running appliances that run all night. Though this was not mentioned in the article, I did think about my slight obsession with making sure all of my gadgets are fully charged because I am on the road so much. I posted the article in its entirety, enjoy.
Cut up to 10 percent of your electric bill simply by turning off “vampire” appliances that run all night. Read the rest of this entry »
Now that Martin Luther King Day is firmly behind us, the best way to honor King is by leading a life of service the other 364 days out of the year. This line is oft repeated but it is ironically made on King Day in most instances. To be sure, Americans are notorious for neatly arranging our compassion in departments reserved for special days and if we are lucky, we might even get the day off. Just think of the emotions and fund raisers that are reserved for Hurricane Katrina, 9/11, and the tsunamis that hit Southeast Asia. All of these actions are noteworthy but the sad part is that compassion is not in vogue if it’s out of season. Read the rest of this entry »
[COMMENTARY] In an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul responded to charges of being a racist because of his association with a racist newsletter. Since this incident and other allegations, including a Michigan Messenger report that Paul’s campaign was receiving support from neo-Nazis and white supremacists, his campaign has tried to distance itself from racist accusations. Read the rest of this entry »
Now let’s assume Obama wins the nomination and shoot, goes on to be the next President. What do you think would happen to the civil rights–donor–industrial complex?I am not sure but I think along the way, it will be increasingly difficult for Black “leaders” that came out early for other candidates to 1) go negative against Obama like Andrew Young, who claimed that Bill is blacker than Obama and 2) making the transition to supporting Obama if and when he wins the nomination. My hope is that Obama’s candidacy will bring young folks out the shadows and fill in leadership vacuums by doing real work. Read the rest of this entry »
I am excited that Obama won although to be honest, I never expected him to lose. Regardless, this is a historic time and I am happy to be a part of the process. (full disclosure: I have donated money to the Obama campaign) I think the real story from Iowa is the coveted No. 2 spot and I think this bodes well for Edwards and my prediction is that Clinton comes out of Iowa but Obama pulls out of South Carolina because hopefully the Black folks in SC will feel safer voting for Obama.
Regardless of who gets the nomination, real change starts with you.
Kucinich asks IA supporters to caucus for Obama
by kos
Tue Jan 01, 2008 at 06:57:21 PM PST
in 2004, Kucinich instructed his caucus supporters to cast their lot with Edwards, playing a role in killing Howard Dean’s presidential ambitions. This year, he’s abandoning Edwards for Obama.
“I hope Iowans will caucus for me as their first choice this Thursday, because of my singular positions on the war, on health care, and trade. This is an opportunity for people to stand up for themselves. But in those caucus locations where my support doesn’t reach the necessary threshold, I strongly encourage all of my supporters to make Barack Obama their second choice. Sen. Obama and I have one thing in common: Change.”
Funny that Kucinich endorsed the war-supporting conservative Edwards in 2004, but has now ditched the far more progressive 2008 edition. I’ll never understand that guy.
Now in 2004, Kucinich clocked in at 4 percent in the entrance poll, while he’s polling around 1 percent this time around. Then again, he polled at around 2 percent last time and doubled that in actual results. So if history repeats itself, that’s two percentage points at stake. Not exactly decisive, but definitely helpful. This thing is so tight, that every percentage point will matter.
More important will be the five percent Biden seems to be getting, and the seven percent Richardson is polling.
I have a feeling that Biden’s supporters are more the Hillary type, so maybe Richardson will get to play kingmaker.
When Woodbridge Estates redeveloped the decaying Jeffries Projects site just west of Wayne State University in Detroit, they renovated one of the old towers that are visible from the Lodge Freeway and outfitted the tower with a giant clock. The clock is a tangible symbol that it’s a new time in Detroit.
Yet some fear such gentrification of the city will in time become a social problem of its own, pushing out current residents in favor of suburbanites with more money. Read the rest of this entry »
The murder of Benazir Bhutto leaves the world with many questions, puzzles the world with many implications, and presents to the world both challenges and opportunities. There are political realities in Pakistan, throughout the Middle East, and across the world that now exist due the killing of this woman. However, these are neither the most sensible nor the most appropriate issues to be discussed at this point. What we, the media, and anyone conversing on this subject should be grappling with is the fact that a woman, a daughter, a wife, a mother of three, was murdered because she had different ideas. Read the rest of this entry »
What’s up fam, for those that haven’t heard, former Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated two weeks before before parliamentary elections where her party (Pakistan’s People’s Party) was widely expected to win the majority of the seats, making her Prime Minister. She was someone who truly believed in democracy. Politically, this is groundbreaking because Pakistan’s leader, Pervez Musharraf will rightly or wrongly be suspected of having his hand in allowing or ordering this attack to occur. No matter what, the US again pledges allegiance to an “ally” who really isn’t helping with the so-called war on terror and has a horrible record on human rights. Bush called on Musharraf to continue with elections. And what is Bush going to do if Musharraf doesn’t follow through? Nothing. Did I mention Pakistan has nuclear weapons?
More importantly, Bhutto’s father was hanged, one brother dies mysteriously and her other brother died in a shoot out. Her life embodies the importance to not think of progressive values as a fad. Being a martyr is appealing when it is not you or someone you love. Martyrs can be the heroes we admire and have all the super human qualities we can imagine. The downside is that too many of us think we could never be martyrs but if we are all going to die, then effectively we are all martyrs in a sense, provided we live a life of meaning and purpose.
Like leaders before her, there will be a long standing debate as to who is best suited to carry on Bhutto’s dream. I just ask that when we think about our heroes and honoring their legacy, we should be very careful to make sure we support their ideas over their personality. And I know it’s cool to rock t-shirts of Che, Malcolm, MLK, and others but I have a new rule: You can’t wear apparel that features activists until you read their book(s) AND are doing something in your life to further their vision. Bhutto’s loss is very unfortunate but if you think democracy (or any other cause worth fighting for) was accomplished by one person, you are sadly mistaken and never use the term movement in your vocabulary.
Condolences to family, friends, and supporters of the dream that is and life that was Benazir Bhutto.
Black people have come up with a surefire way to end the occupation in Iraq [and Afghanistan, and pretty much everywhere that America has no business being]: stop enlisting! I am glad to see that so many brothers and sisters are seeing through the trumped-up incentives, increasd military advertising (why the hell does the military even have an ad budget???), and huge enlistment bonuses and understanding that there are other ways to achieve their goals [especially when the president's George W. Bush].
Michigan’s native son Mitt Romney falsely claimed that he watched his father, former Michigan governor George Romney marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Romney’s campaign had to backtrack when called to the carpet because when yesterday “Romney’s campaign said his recollections of watching his father, an ardent civil rights supporter, march with King were meant to be figurative.”
Not that I am surprised but when I think about the currency that King holds in the American psyche, I am trying to figure out if we need a new claim to truly honoring the civil rights movement…like working on civil rights!!! Lest Romney stand alone, I am specifically skeptical of people like Andrew Young and Jesse Jackson who can honestly say they have marched with MLK and have reaped (and sold unfortunately) an inordinate amount moral authority as a result. Read the rest of this entry »
In my conversations with people over the years, I have heard people tell me that they are really communists at heart. That Indeed, something can be said for a classless society. To be sure, there are various forms of Communism and I didn’t know this, but there is an ideology known as Christian Communism, which says that based on the teachings of Jesus Christ, Christians are impelled to support this system. Below is an interview with Harvard Chaplain Peter Gomes speaking on the connection between Christianity and Communism. Let me know what you think,
Michigan is studying whether to hold more sessions to help homeowners who fear foreclosure, after thousands of people came to Detroit’s Cobo Center last week for a forum to learn how to save their homes.
The forum was hosted by state Attorney General Mike Cox and the banks and lenders present represented 98 percent of the Michigan mortgage market. Participants were able to interact directly with their lenders, talk to independent loan counselors and the Federal National Mortgage Association, and attend 45-minute classes on topics like options to avoid foreclosure, dealing with property taxes and what to do when you are in foreclosure. Read the rest of this entry »
With the holidays, the premium on good food takes precedent over nice gifts. With that said, one disease that is prevalent in America and Black folks in particular is diabetes. We have to start taking better care of ourselves and allow others in our lives to hold us accountable.
Sentencing Commission votes in favor of crack cocaine retroactivity
WASHINGTON, D.C.: Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM), the nation’s leading sentencing reform organization with 13,000 members — many of whom are incarcerated people and their families — praises the U.S. Sentencing Commission for its courage and leadership on improving crack cocaine sentencing policies for future defendants and current prisoners.
Today in an historic vote, the Commission agreed to allow prisoners serving crack cocaine sentences to seek sentence reductions that went into effect on November 1. Retroactivity will affect 19,500 federal prisoners, almost 2,520 of whom could be eligible for early release in the first year. Federal courts will administer the application of the retroactive guideline, which is not automatic. Courts may refuse to grant sentence reductions to individuals if they believe they could pose a public safety risk. Read the rest of this entry »
With Compuware, Quicken Loans and other businesses setting up in Detroit, the city’s downtown is experiencing what some would consider an economic renaissance. While these developments give the city much-needed economic activity, experts disagree as to whether these changes could have a negative impact on neighborhoods in the form of gentrification. Read the rest of this entry »
I am writing this post from a hotel in Providence, Rhode Island. I am here doing a training for Campus Camp Wellstone at Brown University, teaching students how to become organizers.
If I could steal a page from Garlin’s book, I want to give you a glimpse of what is happening as I travel. In 2005, Rhode Island boasted a Black population of 6.2% and when over the past two days, I have seen about three Black people and they were all students. Regardless, it’s a cute city and has a ton of character. Right now I am looking at the famous (and very ritzy) Biltmore hotel, which is ironic because Biltmore was the name of the street I lived on growing up in Detroit. Life is a trip right? Read the rest of this entry »
Today, President Bush announced a private sector plan to address the mortgage crisis by freezing the subprime mortgage rates of some borrowers. In a speech today outlining the centerpiece of his plan, President Bush said, “We’ve launched a new initiative at the Federal Housing Administration called FHA Secure. This program gives the FHA greater flexibility to offset refinancing to homeowners — to offer refinancing to homeowners who have good credit histories but cannot afford their current payments.”
The focus on helping homeowners with good credit will exclude many of the people who have bad credit and should not have been offered mortgages to begin with. It’s funny how assistance to rich people is deemed essential to growing the economy but government assistance to low-income people is depicted as crippling the economy.
Among the critics of the plan, Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow released a press release that said in part, “The President’s announcement today is a good first step, but I believe more action is needed to assist families in danger of losing their homes…we must immediately do everything we can to help families faced with losing their home. I will continue to lead efforts to pass my measure that will relieve families of a tax burden when their lender forgives a part of their mortgage. No one who is faced with losing their home should be faced with an additional tax bill.”
If you are feeling the pain of this mortgage crisis, call this number 24 hrs a day, 1-800-995-4673.
As you prepare to wrap up the year, I want to alert everyone to a very important event regarding drug sentencing. On December 11, the U.S. Sentencing Commission plans to hold a public meeting where they are expected to vote on whether to make the new, lower crack cocaine guideline retroactive.
On May 1, 2007, the U.S. Sentencing Commission proposed an amendment to the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines to reduce the sentencing ranges for crack cocaine offenses by two levels. The amendment went into effect on November 1, 2007, and will affect 70 percent of crack cocaine cases sentenced in federal courts, reducing sentences by an average of 15 months.
In breaking but not surprising news, it was revealed today that Iran is not actually developing nuclear weapons. From the New York Times via truthout.org.
Washington – A new assessment by American intelligence agencies concludes that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that the program remains on hold, contradicting an assessment two years ago that Tehran was working inexorably toward building a bomb.
The conclusions of the new assessment are likely to be a major factor in the tense international negotiations aimed at getting Iran to halt its nuclear energy program. Concerns about Iran were raised sharply after President Bush had suggested in October that a nuclear-armed Iran could lead to “World War III,” and Vice President Dick Cheney promised “serious consequences” if the government in Tehran did not abandon its nuclear program.
Now before you think that this report will actually end the saber-rattling regarding Iran, please put your dancing shoes back in the closet. The Bush administration has already shifted its justification against Iran by citing Iran’s meddling in Iraq. We are very much not out the woods yet and I would ask for all of my liberal-minded friends to not think that evidence or facts prevail in Bush’s world. Please continue to speak out against war escalation and not just in safe progressive bubbles.
With its shortage of big-box grocery stores and the lack of enough fresh produce, much of Detroit could be said to be in a food desert. An urban agricultural movement is emerging as a solution to the problem. Read the rest of this entry »
My piece begins at the 14.18 mark and lasts for approximately 8 minutes, through 22.32, but I encourage you to listen to the voices and perspectives of the other Black bloggers featured. They are:
We’ve stated our position here, and this interview was a chance to communicate it on another platform. The issue to me is about embracing the next generation of activism and respecting the results that online activism has produced. The SuperSpade, Color of Change, and members of the blacknetaction coalition are committed to making a difference today, tomorrow, and beyond in a transparent, accountable, and measurable way.
Date: November 13, 2007
Subject: Baisden’s “apology”
Dear family,
Last Friday, less than 24 hours after you and thousands of other ColorOfChange.org members wrote to his bosses at ABC Radio, Michael Baisden issued an “apology.” It shows that we got Baisden’s attention, and that wouldn’t have happened without you.
We hoped Baisden was really going to step up, but he didn’t. Baisden’s statement fails every test of a decent apology. First, it misleads listeners about how he came to defame us. Then, it misrepresents the real interests of the Jena 6 families, to take another shot at us. Finally, it tries to sweep all the damage Baisden has caused under the rug, while doing very little to rebuild his listeners’ confidence in ColorOfChange or in online organizing as a strategy. Read the rest of this entry »
A majority of black Americans blame individual failings — not racial prejudice — for the lack of economic progress by lower-income African Americans, according to a survey released Tuesday — a significant change in attitudes from the early 1990s.
This sentence lead off an LA Times piece on class division in the Black community today. These results are not unique to Black people in this country, but they represent a dangerous trend of ignorance, selfishness, and a lack of empathy that does not paint a bright picture of the future. According to this, the "it takes a village…" proverb must be nearing obselescence.
Popular talk radio host Michael Baisden should be commended for his efforts raising attention to the Jena 6 but he foolishly squandered all that when he got involved in the same old crabs in a bucket mentality that consistently cripples the efforts of Black folk to do good. I can not put it better than Jack and Jill Politics, “For reasons that appear at best, self-serving, he and another DJ have gone on the attack against the laudable leadership Color of Change has shown in bringing needed attention to the plight of the Jena 6 families.” The SuperSpade enthusiastically supports the work of Color of Change because they have four characteristics that are sorely missing in traditional Black leadership model; principled, transparent, bold, and accountable. I challenge you to go to their site and tell me what you disagree with. Read the rest of this entry »
For adults that do not have a background in education or counseling, their ability to directly help students is severely hampered. To counter this lack of community involvement inside schools, I want to present to you an idea I have stewed over for the past week. Read the rest of this entry »
It was reported today that the US Census revised Detroit’s 2006 estimates upwards to 918,849, which is 47,728 more than the 2006 estimate. This revision bodes well for validating the work of Social Compact, a non-profit group dedicated to revealing the hidden strengths of traditionally undervalued communities to promote business investment. Social Compact conducted a study estimating Detroit’s population to be 933,043, nearly 62,000 above the 2006 Census estimates.
John Talmage, President and CEO of Social Compact said of the revised estimate, “The city did a terrific job challenging the census and we were happy to be a part of that process. Not only was Mayor Kilpatrick correct in his intuition that the city had stronger market potential, we feel good about our ability to identify where that potential is.” This official data will help the city’s ability to acquire federal funds for services that are based on population. Leaders of Detroit also hope that this new data will help them market the city as a viable place for residence and business.
Stay up fam,
Brandon Q.
(My username is bqw, instead of Brandon Q. but it’s the same guy)
“Do not wear yourself out to become rich; have the wisdom to show restraint”
-Proverbs 23:4
“One man pretends to be rich, yet has nothing; another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth.”
-Proverbs 13:7
“Havin’ money aint everything, not having it is”-Kanye West
I have spoken of this many times, but it is a topic that has turned up many times as of late. So I am taking that as a sign that I should revisit this topic. And topic has to do with money and our relation to it. Read the rest of this entry »
Is Detroit doing better than the U.S. Census indicates? A study, funded with money the city helped raise, says household income and total population are higher than the census reported, but a critic doubts the accuracy of the study.
On October 1st, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick announced the findings of the “Detroit Neighborhood Drilldown” study conducted by Social Compact. Among other highlights, the study reported that Detroit has an average household income that is 17% higher than the Census 2000 estimate and estimates the current population to be 933,043, nearly 62,000 above the 2006 Census estimates. While this is good news, there is some speculation that the report is perhaps too good to be true.
According to their website, “Social Compact is a coalition of business leaders from across the country who are promoting successful business investment in lower-income communities for the benefit of current residents.” Their signature market analysis tool is the Neighborhood Market DrillDown that provides business-oriented data that reveal the hidden strengths of traditionally undervalued communities.
I spoke to John Talmage, President and CEO of Social Compact whose expertise in local government and quantitative research stems from his serving as Deputy Director for Economic Development for the City of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and before that spending 12 years working in New York City government.
Talmage explained that through the Neighborhood Market DrillDown,
We are able to take between 30-50 data bases, both private and public, (commonly understood as data mining) and able to pick up things that are missed, so by the time you look at utility hook ups, DMV records, building permits, credit bureau reports, you are able to find things that are usually missed by traditional market analysis.
The positive news provided by the Detroit DrillDown report is designed to give potential investors and/or retailers a different way to evaluate the market. The DrillDown report will help the Kilpatrick administration rebuff negative statistics and stereotypes regarding business opportunities within Detroit. But according to Reynolds Farley, Dudley Duncan Professor and Research Scientist Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, “I spent a number of years working at the Census Bureau. I tend to trust the Census Bureau’s population estimates and I am skeptical of most other population estimates, especially those by people who have a strong interest in larger populations.”
The DrillDown study estimated Detroit’s current population to be 933,043, nearly 62,000 above the 2006 Census estimates. According to Professor Farley, this seven percent difference is a stretch because “You might be able to defend a reasonable argument that Detroit’s population is as much as three percent greater than the Census Bureau’s estimate because it does not compensate for net census undercount.”
Moreover, the issue of business interests is poignant for Social Compact, as a large majority of their board members and partners are banks. Talmage explained that “The reason you see so many banks is because at the end of the day, we want to take the community aspirations for what they want for commercial development and we need to find capital to invest in those aspirations.” Talmage added that “We make sure we are connected to the communities themselves. In Detroit we work with the One Detroit Initiative, City Connect, and others. We are much more connected to the community in Detroit than we might ordinarily be.”
During the initial DrillDown, Social Compact partnered with the Brookings Institution and the University of Michigan at the behest of the Downtown Detroit Partnership, which then led to a partnership with George Jackson, CEO of the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation. Social Compact is committed to working in Detroit for three years and conduct another DrillDown study to provide two points of data to measure their success. Talmage plans to “build a predictive model in Detroit that shows where growth is heading in the next five or ten years.”
Though the city does not pay any money for Social Compact’s services, their “fee” can best be understood as access. I asked Talmage how he quantifies success and access for Social Compact is an integral piece. Talmage explained, “That is we have to stay involved in the city because I want to be in the room when the negotiations are happening with national retailers because 1) the city shouldn’t have to justify my methodology, I should be doing that and 2) I have my own independent relationships with national retailers and banks through my board, so I can bring the investments to the table as well.”
She essentially points out that many people who are against immigration reform legislation are doing it from a racist foundation. They are worried about high numbers of illegal immigrants, not because of their effects on domestic jobs, the hospital and health care system, or education, but because they will poison the purity that is whiteness.
If you’ve ever seen Birth of a Nation, then this sentiment sounds pretty familiar to you.
Regardless of how you feel about the legality/outcome of the Jena 6 situation, this is pretty twisted. It isn't funny to act out someone getting beat up. It also isn't funny to act out threatening someone with a noose. It also isn't funny to do it all in a mud-wrestling outfit that looks eerily similar to blackface (funny how the kid getting beat up didn't have on mudface, for all those who think the mud doesn't represent anything).
Facebook is great, isn't it? That's where we found all this.
Don't vote for Clinton because she's a woman or Obama because he's Black; vote because you agree with them. Vote on thingsthatshould matter, not things that shouldn't.
Minority owned and operated newspapers and radio stations play a critical role in the African American and Latino communities and bring minority issues to the forefront of our national discussion.
I am glad to see Obama be explicit here about the impact of media consolidation on minority communities. It is clear that the interests of minorities are not a particularly high priority in this administration, I hope that everyone's interests matter to the next President.
I borrowed the title of this article from a t-shirt that a friend of mine once wore. For far too many Michiganders, Detroit’s problems are wholly their fault and any help directed towards the city would be a waste. Often times, when people talk about disparagingly about Detroit, the conversation often focuses on Kwame Kilpatrick, the crime rate, and the quality of the school system. While you can find statistics to support anything you want, the energy invested in negativity should instead be spent on how to help Detroit because the fate of Metro Detroit suburbs is intimately tied to the fate of Detroit.
My favorite member of the Supreme Court has been whining ever since his book was released recently. His latest rant is about his Yale Law Degree's lack of value.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has a 15-cent price tag stuck to his Yale law degree, blaming the school's affirmative action policies in the 1970s for his difficulty finding a job after he graduated.
Thomas thinks that Black peopls should stop acting like "victims." He sure sounds like a victim to me here.
I'd graduated from one of America's top law schools, but racial preference had robbed my achievement of its true value.
This is stupid. "Racial preference" does not make dumb people smart; it gives all smart people a chance. Maybe there are professors that think of [the demon that is] Affirmative Action when handing out grades on mid-terms. I've never seen nor heard of one, and I had more than a fair chance of running into a few during my time at the University of Michigan from 2000 to 2005 (when our Affirmative Action policies were argued in front of the Supreme Court).
In recent months, our nation's attention has been focused on the racial strife in Jena, Louisiana, and the disparate treatment of six African American youths. As Attorney General, will you commit the investigative resources of the Civil Rights Division to ensuring the fair treatment and execution of the law in cases such as the Jena 6, as well as the recent acquittal by an all-white jury of eight prison guards accused of killing a young black male at a juvenile detention center in Florida?
I am happy that Obama is showing some character here. It is called the Department of Justice, so he is calling for Justice to be served to everyone everywhere. I want to see more, concrete Civil Rights-related statements like this from Obama.
Until we have federal legislation in place regarding these hate crimes, as African Americans we need to band together to show our “Economic Power” by refusing to spend ANY money that day from fast food restaurants to gas.
There are calls for these sorts of actions all the time, and they are usually motivated by positive intentions: solidarity, taking a stand, being deliberate with your economic power. We see them on all sorts of issues, from gas prices to impeachment. These are all good things, but I question their effectiveness. For one, this sort of action can only successful if it is extremely specific and if it is sustained.
Here are B’s thoughts on the S-CHIP. He is dead on as usual.
I am so mad that Bush and Republicans dug their heels in to block passage of the S-CHIP program. Seriously, if you don’t have the number of your Congressman/Senator on speed dial, don’t talk to me. We spend daytime minutes to talk about the most frivolous things so please take 2 minutes to contact your Representative, provided they voted against the program, and give them the business like your cell phone carrier just overcharged you $200.
This is not just about the S-CHIP program, it is about all the issues you care about but only talk about with people who already agree with you. Progressive bubbles and echo chambers are not helping so I have come up with a new rule. Don’t profess any progressive policy goal unless you do three things,
Be on public record communicating this position amongst all of your relevant elected officials (local, county, state, federal)
Challenge yourself to talk about this policy goal with someone you know would be against it.
Tell other progressives about why we should support this policy goal.
The problem as I see it is that too many progressives never move past part 3.
I apologize for being incognito fam. I think the government is trying to shut me down because I have been unable to login to The SuperSpade (for weeks now). Garlin and Steve, thank you for holding me down. In other news, “President Bush says world leaders risk bringing about World War Three if they do not do more to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons.” Are we using WWIII now? This to me is scary because it reminds me of the “mushroom cloud” that Condoleezza Rice often invoked.
This fear mongering by Bush and Co. must be confronted with truth, integrity and reason. I have said before that I am worried that Bush has no intention of leaving office and it is talk like this that reminds me why I feel this way. Seriously, when was the last time you heard of a President enter the lame duck stage of his presidency with so much bravado?
Nearly 70 percent of those surveyed were employed before the storm, with half of respondents holding full-time jobs. And 60 percent of evacuees polled were looking for jobs at the time of the survey.
"…lazy and reliant on government aid…" That's the same thing ignorant people think about poor Black folks in general, isn't it? I guess I should start believing in coincidences.
A group of concerned individuals and groups, including our very own Brandon Q., met last week to address issues facing inner-city Detroit: incarceration, the militarization of schools, etc. The Detroit Gathering as it is called, was inpsired by Harry Belafonte’s Gatherings for Justice. Belafonte met with the activists who would organize and participate in The Detroit Gathering this past June 2007.
On October 5th and 6th, participants in engaged in group dialogues and listened to performances and lectures all focused on a common goal: to transform social justice from an abstract ideal to a concrete, everyday reality in the city of Detroit.
The spirit of this meeting is in line with the purpose of this website. We want to translate the abstract into the concrete, the cloudy into the clear. There are issues that matter to each and every one of us, whether we realize it or not. This is changed by people coming together and sharing their experiences, their successes, their struggles, and their solutions. That was what the Detroit Gather was all about. That is what The SuperSpade is about as well.
While the Road Home is expected to deliver more than 90,000 grants to Louisiana homeowners by the end of the year and our programs to restore more than 30,000 rental units are in full swing, the bottom line is that not all of these units will be available before March, and we are still experiencing a severe housing shortage at every level.
When you have “severe housing shortages,” bad things happen: people get sick, crime increases, kids are left homeless and hungry. I thought Republicans were the party with the moral high ground; this sure doesn’t help promote families.
Bill Cosby was on Meet the Press yesterday talking up his new book, Come On People, co-written with Dr. Alvin Poussaint. The show, surprisingly, spent the entire hour with the two men, jumping between issues addressed in the book. They talked about a fair amount, but the analysis given during this interview was as thin as the paper the text was printed on.
Williams described the part of the torture like this:
They kicked me in the head with steel toed boots, they hit me in the head with several objects, I remember seeing a knife, and they tried to cut my foot off. They told me that is what they did to Kunta Kinte when they cut his foot off so he couldn’t run and that is what they were going to do to me.
My calendar says it's 2007, but this makes me seriously wonder.
While I think this is interestingly timed agree with Sharpton that [probably most of] the motivation behind this is likely in "revenge by this judge for the Jena Six movement," it does appear that at the end of the day his probation was indeed violated. That being the case, I can't get too mad; at least it's not an adult sentence. Now, why they tried to go for Bell's jugular instead of pursuing a more logical route is beyond most thinking, non-racist peoples' cognition.
I'm sick of consistent acts of justice being sprinkled with random acts of justice in this country. The promise of America is fairness, and fairness should be consistent. If it was, we wouldn't have ever had a Jena 6.
The Center for Creative Voices in Media’s The Case for Universal Broadband: Now! study was released today. It says that this country needs everyone to have equal access to reliable high-speed Internet connections. I agree, and I think this is especially true for Black people.
The lack of grocery stores and healthy food options in the city of Detroit are major setbacks in the city’s attempt to raise the quality of life and maintain a sustainable tax base. To address this issue, last week the NORR and the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce hosted a panel entitled, “What are the Issues in Attracting Grocers to Downtown Detroit?”
Detroit is in what many describe a food desert, a situation in which communities have little or no access to healthy food and where grocery stores are few and far in between. A report by the Mari Gallagher Research and Consulting Group found,
Over half a million Detroit residents live in areas that have an imbalance of healthy food options. They are statistically more likely to suffer or die prematurely from a diet-related disease, holding other key factors constant.
What is the unforgivable sin for a black man? One would think calling a black woman out of her name, but apparently hip-hop and Isaiah Thomas have taken the sting out of that one. It used to be taboo to participate in interracial dating, but even that has lost its bite.
Actually, it is something a lot less politically charged than that or is it? It took me 24 years to figure it out, but the unforgivable sin for a black man is…to be unemployed. I did not realize it, now I am faced with the looming prospect of unemployment upon completing my post-graduate studies. And as the song says, I am living under pressure.
Up until this point, I have tried to be a pretty responsible guy. I have done my best to be the Dream of Dr. King and what not. But apparently, I did not realize how quickly that accounts for nothing when you do not have a J-O-B.
SuperSpade guest contributor Jameelah has blessed us again with another great piece of work; this time in the form of a poem. Let me add that art (in all its forms) are the true galvanizing force in advancing the causes we all keep dear to our heart. And if you are like me, then it is somewhat difficult for you to truly appreciate the ways in which movement politics and art must never be separated. The same way I get goose bumps when I hear Sam Cooke’s, “A Change is Gonna Come,” I had goose bumps when I read this poem and I was reminded that my source of energy must encompass more than the facts. Thanks Jameelah. Read the rest of this entry »
Let me tell you why this not only insufficient, but it is another example of [democratic] politicians’ lack of backbone on the issues that matter in America.
A note from Dr. Calvin Mackie from the day before the Jena 6 rally.
One Love. One II.
–
Brothers and Sisters,
When you get to Jena please tell all those Black people that when they leave Jena, come to New Orleans in support of the injustice towards the New Orleans 200,000! Tell them that Charles Rangel (D) from NY still hasn’t visited New Orleans and that over 200,000 citizens, mostly Black, are still displaced to over 5500 cities in America. Where is our justice? Where is the outcry over a government who damaged and destroyed generations of Black fiscal, cultural and historical wealth via political and engineering neglect?
Okay, I have just awakened and realized that i dreamed that people, especially Black people, gave a damn about the greatest catastrophe in the history of the country. I guess racism and levees don’t mix, or we just can’t put it together. I guess we don’t see that civil rights is tied to equal protection, protection in the judicial system as well as in infrastructure. I’m awake now and I apologize for thinking and questioning, because I know a Black man is not suppose to do that.
I used to have a quote that I used in my signature that said, “Until lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunters.” Fortunately, the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast have a historian through the International Tribunal on Hurricane Katrina and Rita.
The tribunal was formed to hear testimony by experts and survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. After 30 hours of testimony, the preliminary findings are unfortunately not surprising.
Jill Soffiyah Elijah, the Deputy Director of the Criminal Justice Institute at Harvard Law School and Chief Judge for the International Tribunal on Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, announced the Tribunal’s preliminary findings “It is our view that the U.S. government has committed crimes against humanity particularly in relation to its failure to maintain functional levees that should have protected the City of New Orleans from flooding; … it was the reckless disregard and, in some instances, negligence of the U.S. government, the state of Louisiana and the city of New Orleans that created the devastation we continue to see today.” Read the rest of this entry »
These events that hold the government publicly accountable are not only [sadly] entertaining, but they are fundamental to the success & survival of representative democracy. This political age is too familiar with politicians who thumb their noses at the people they represent, caring only about a small, influentialrich subset of their constituency.
The Congressional Black Caucus is just as guilty of this as any other subset of the legislature. However, given the general lack of attention afforded to Black issues in media and government, this adversely the Black folks the caucus represents even further.
I'd like to see "awards" like this given out for every caucus within the Congress. It's time to start getting politicians to put their votes where their rhetoric is. Too often these two do not align.
On August 31, 2007 Detroit Public Schools announced they would be setting up mini-police stations within certain high schools in their attempt to ebb crime in and around schools.
Additionally, the Detroit News reports, “This year is historic because thousands of high school students are being forced to transfer to new schools because four high schools largely serving students from the city’s west side — Redford, Mackenzie, Murray-Wright and Detroit Northern — closed at the end of the last school year.”
When I was in high school, the extent to which school could feel like a precinct was the use of metal detectors. Between the violence stemming from guns and knives especially, the metal detectors were draconian, but I could see how others could see the logic. The police mini-stations are logical but they create an extremely stigmatizing environment for students. It is time for a wholesale revision of how justice is administered to people, school-age in particular. Read the rest of this entry »
“And [God] delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds.”
-2 Peter 2:7-8
Everyday, I face a decision: either stick my head in the sand like an ostrich or be aware of what is going on around me. Why is this such a difficult decision. If I bury my head in the sand (i.e. work, routine), then I am in control. I am the King of My Comfort Zone. In this realm, I am King Comfort. And King Comfort is extremely selfish. However, if I choose awareness, I choose to be challenged, and on some level, see things I do not like. I choose to feel. And sometimes, feeling is frustrating.
The World’s Gone Mad…
Lately, this decision has become more immediate. Personally, the injustice in the world seems especially intense. From the Jena 6 to the Genarlow Wilson case, to the War, to the extremely poor race relations, to the woman who was tortured-our justice system has become a mockery. We are more concerned about the death of some dogs than our brothers and sisters. Our government has become mockery because it seems like it has silently and not so subtly declared war on its citizens.
The question I have really been dealing with is whether things have gotten worse or are things just the same. Throughout history, when law was born, so was injustice. I used to thing that the days were getting darker, but I am beginning to believe that it is just a re-run of the same fight, good v. evil. And each generation has had their own battle to fight to maintain and restore justice on the earth.
Righteous Lot
In the book of Genesis, Abraham’s nephew Lot followed Abraham out of Mesopotamia. When God had blessed them to where the land could not contain them, they parted ways. Lot settled by the city of Sodom. Sodom was extremely wicked, to the point where God could not find ten righteous people in the city. Lot lived in the city, but he did not condone their lifestyle. The new testament said that his soul was vexed. Lot was so righteous that the inhabitants were sick of him. So God decided to save Lot and his family and destroy the city (Genesis 19).
How many of you have been vexed by the injustice that you have seen? The next question is what have you done about it? Or have you been too “busy”? Busy is how most of the atrocities that take place occur. In the Book of Ezekiel, God calls us “watchmen.” What do watchmen do? They are aware and they sound the alarm when something happens that should not be happening. How have you been doing as a watchman?
I am not saying that it is your job to try to whistleblow on every injustice in the world. However, do not turn a blind eye to the suffering and injustice in the world, that way you know you are supposed to do something to make this world a better place. We can always do more, but do something small, repeatedly over time, is better than not doing anything at all. People are hurting, the world is hurting. I have been challenged in my spirit to do a better job. The least I can do is speak up.
That is the entire mission of The Superspade and that is what we work for. To not only be aware and speak up but to put our action, time and resources behind our beliefs. We and our readers are people of conviction and action. So, do not lose heart. I have not lost hope. All this madness that surrounds us is a call to action and a call to battle. We must fight until either peace is restored or the world comes to an end. That is the mentality of a warrior, it is all our nothin’. But it will not come easy.
We must do our part. And if we allow ourselves to get uncomfortable, God said we will be comforted. But you cannot comfort someone who is already comfortable. I just had to get that off my chest, because I am disgusted with what has been going on in this country and the world on all fronts. So, sign a petition, educate yourself and those around you, work your governmental system, discuss the issues. Just do something.
For the Love of God, we are WATCHMEN. And if you are already involved, push it to the limit and don’t give up.
Today’s announcement gives new hope to many of our citizens that have been longing to return, and we look forward to the coming days and weeks as they begin to access these much needed funds and begin making their way back home.
B has covered the rally in Jena on the 20th. The following is a press release from AfroSpear (a group that The SuperSpade is a member of) that gives a bit more information. We’re expecting this to be one of the largest demonstrations in the history of the state of Louisiana. I encourage as many of you that can go to go.
Going forward, we have to fix our criminal justice system. Whether it’s Jena 6 or Genarlow Wilson, it’s long past time for us to admit that we have more work to do to ensure that our criminal justice system is fair. We must ensure that both victims and defendants can receive equal justice under the law, regardless of race, wealth, or other circumstances.
Disney, the 800,000,000 pound gorilla of kids fantasy entertainment, annouced that they are going forward with their plans to have their first Black princess in 2009's The Frog Princess.
Disney has had opportunities to show the uniqueness of non-white cultures in it's films, but has failed miserably at doing so in a respectful, non-stereotypical way (see Aladdin and Mulan). I have zero confidence that this film will be any different.
Apparently, Republican front-runners Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani declined to participate in Tavis Smiley’s All-American Presidential Forums. Undeclared-but-likely-Republican-candidate Fred Thopson has not committed fully.
A question for all of my Black republican friends: why are your beloved republicans so against talking to Black folks face-to-face? Probably because they only do hand-picked audiences.
Why would they want to do that? Probably because instead of being better than the Republicans, some members would secretly rather be just like the Republicans, at least in the way they handle the political process. What these members fail to realize is that it’s pretty hard to find Washington Republicans that have Black folks’ best interests at heart, and even harder to find a major US Corporation that has Black folks’ best interests at heart.
Funny how no one is calling this gang violence (see "Just in my opinion's" comment on this post). Oh, right, it's probably because the suspects are white…
Rev. Lennox Yearwood released a statement today in response to his 10 Sep 2007 arrest.
My role is to make government more transparent to the people, especially people of color. How am I supposed to convince other African-Americans to come to Capitol Hill to participate in democracy, when Capitol Police will go so far as to jump me when I question my exclusion from a hearing that is open to the public? We all know what 'driving while Black' is, well I'd call this 'democracy while Black.'"
What is so sinister about the demonizing of dissenting voices is precisely what the Yearwood calls out here: if they make examples of a couple of "unfriendly" visitors, others who share their views will be less likely to speak up or act. Sadly, this draconian, Machiavellian sort of opinion squashing is precisely the goal of today's neo-Conservative.
Minority and marginalized people's fragile will to speak up is too often crushed by these sorts of scare tactics. It is therefore imperative that we use this as yet another reason to drive out these leaders who are neither able nor mature enough to answer questions posed by those who do not share their beliefs.
Clarification: Rev. Yearwood's leg is not broken. The police said that yesterday, but after people were actually able to speak to the Reverend, it was made clear that he instead has severe damage to ligaments in his ankles and is on crutches.
Things like this make it hard to convince young & marginalized people to get involved in the political process when they disagree with the establishment. Sadly, this is exactly the goal of Republicans these days.
One Love. One II.
Update & Clarification: Rev. Yearwood’s leg is not broken. The police said that yesterday, but after people were actually able to speak to the Reverend, it was made clear that he instead has severe damage to ligaments in his ankles and is on crutches.
I want to alert folks who live in Michigan that there is an opportunity for you to get down to Jena, LA to support the Jena 6 as Mychal Bell is sentenced. Thankfully, Arielle Tours Charters have offered to take people down to Jena.
The bus leaves September 19th at midnight (from Oak Park) to return on September 21st at 5pm. If there was ever a reason you needed to use your sick time, this is it. The cost for the trip (which includes lodging) is only $168!!!! This is when you think to yourself, “They are only charging $168?” You read that right and for folks that have money but can’t make it, please sponsor someone else to go. I know folks are diligent in signing petitions but this experience will be a special moment because at our core, this miscarriage of justice infected us with outrage the moment we were first introduced to this story.
Don’t ask, just do.
For more information for the Michigan trip, click here
Stay up fam,
Brandon Q.
p.s. For folks that live elsewhere, I would encourage you to find out if there are local organizations that would be willing to organize buses for folks to get to Jena. And if no one steps up to the plate, YOU step up.
I just want to say thank you to all my people that wished me a happy birthday (Aug 31st). I was in Minnesota getting trained with some dynamic folks over at Wellstone Action. The retreat was out in the woods and I was out of cell phone range. So for all the folks that sent me love, I apologize for not responding in a timely manner.
Something that has been on my heart for a couple weeks is the lack of meaningful communication between people. The two groups I have in mind are based on W.E.B. DuBois model of the “Talented Tenth.” In short, the “Talented Tenth” represents the most gifted and talented among us and it is their responsibility to provide the necessary leadership to improve the condition of the masses. Read the rest of this entry »
The Jena 6 got a bit of a break today. Mychal Bell, the kid who was to get 22 years, has now gotten one of the charges dropped against him. That means that instead of facing up to 22 years, he'll now only face up to 15.
Louisiana and the city of New Orleans are participating and rebounding in the most complex reconstruction effort in American history. As you know, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita wreaked unprecedented havoc upon South Louisiana in the fall of 2005, creating the first and third most expensive natural disasters in United States history. Presently, schools are reopening. Homes are being rebuilt. Life as we knew it is gradually returning. But this was an unprecedented catastrophe. Pushing the recovery forward will take an extraordinary effort and a commitment to do what it takes for the people of this state, especially the residents of New Orleans.
This is significant not only because it is practically historic when someone is not excited in Texas, but because it brings attention to what the Governor refers to as “…Texas law that allows capital murder defendants to be tried simultaneously…” What he’s talking about is Texas’ “Law of Parties,” which imposes the death penalty on any person involved in a crime where a murder occurs.
So what now? Use this link to send a message to Governor Perry, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, and other members of the Texas legislature to ease/eliminate the use of the Law of Parties going forward.
While we’re on the subject, I wish this guy could have gotten clemency too.
This isn’t a school dress code issue, since Jena High School has no dress code. This is simply the administrators at the school being scared to deal with the realities of a situation that they allowed to become a bonafide tragedy right under their noses.
The Jena 6 are a group of young Black men that could use some lobbyists, lawyers, advocates in the Justice Department, something. If you get sentenced to 22 years for a schoolyard fight by a jury of your peers consisting on no one that looks like you, it is obvious that something or someone is out to get you for some reason. What therefore must be made equally obvious is that there are people that are out to help you as well.
The Jena 6 need your help. Please take a look at the petition here.
I read somewhere that only people with options ask, what do we do? People who don’t have a choice know what needs to be done and don’t hesitate to do that and more. The time has passed to stop thinking, stop accussing, and start doing.
The mentality of needing to “weed out” weaker students in college majors — especially in the more quantitative disciplines — disproportionately weeds out women. This is not necessarily because women are failing. Rather, women often perceive “Bs” as inadequate grades and drop out, while men with “Cs” will persist with the class.
I agree that this weed-out mentality is complete BS and is actually anti-competitive because it eliminates diversity in total competition.
Also, am I the only one to read this and think, “Man, the perceived bar for success is much lower for boys than it is for girls.” Perhaps those C-student boys should have been weeded-out too…
If you live in Michigan, you need to make your presence felt at the Michigan Policy Summit, 2007. It is going to be held at the Lansing Center in Lansing, MI. From the site: This dynamic, first-of-its-kind daylong policy forum initiated by Michigan’s progressive community is taking place in Lansing on Sept. 8, and we want you to be a part of it! Read the rest of this entry »
Alotofgreat people made this happen, and we were thrilled to be a part of an effor that demonstrated how a few people caring and acting can destroy disease-ridden partnerships.
I just checked my email to see that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales resigned and that was a great way to wake up. I am still trying to figure out how this guy got confirmed in the first place. It will take years to appreciate how much he has done to undermine our civil liberties. In other news, I was listening to a radio show and of course, they were talking about Michael Vick. One of the co-hosts of Mojo in the morning poignantly noted that while the NFL and local police turn a blind eye to domestic abuse against women, people are getting really worked up over some dogs. How did we get to a place where animals get more respect than women?
I typically don’t listen to talk radio outside of NPR, but thankfully I came across the Michael Baisden show today and he was focusing on the Jena 6. I know his show is broadcast across the country and I hope that his show raises the consciousness of his listeners as he lent huge support to the rally taking place on September 20th.
In a small still mostly segregated section of rural Louisiana, an all-white jury heard a series of white witnesses called by a white prosecutor testify in a courtroom overseen by a white judge in a trial about a fight at the local high school where a white student who had been making racial taunts was hit by Black students. Read the rest of this entry »
I don’t have any kids but I have been around them enough to know that they have a very short attention span. This reminds me of the Bush administration. An article in WaPo states,
“The United States has decided to designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, the country’s 125,000-strong elite military branch, as a “specially designated global terrorist,” according to U.S. officials, a move that allows Washington to target the group’s business operations and finances.” Read the rest of this entry »
I don’t know about you, but Obama always seems to hold back in presidential debates. Thankfully, Obama showed us a glimpse of heart during the AFL-CIO debate. Enjoy the video.
In the vast history of war and mass movements, artists have always set the cadence. Just think back to the drummer boys of the Revolutionary War or the song Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday during the Civil Rights Movement;
Given the post I just wrote about saving our girls, this post broke my heart. I pulled this from BronzeTrinity. Read all of this post!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Austin, TX – August, 5 2007- Fresh off a battle with Black Entertainment Television, Gina McCauley isn’t slowing down on her blog, What About Our Daughters? McCauley is outraged over Al Sharpton’s planned ” Day of Outrage” scheduled for August 7, 2007, also sponsored by the BloggingWhileBrown Blog. Her next targets are Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, the NAACP and other African American elites who have been noticeably silent about what may be one of the most horrific crimes committed against a Black woman in recent history, she’s talking about the June 18th gang rape of a 35-year- old woman that took place in Dunbar Village, a housing project in West Palm Beach, Florida. Read the rest of this entry »
When I was in Chicago for the YearlyKos Convention, I took the bus to the convention site. On Thursday I took the bus and a young girl, no older than 11, boarded the bus. She had thick braids, an attitude, and pimples on her face. There were no places for her to sit so she had to stand. Read the rest of this entry »
The SuperSpade has joined a collective of bloggers to strategically combat the bashing of blogs in the mainstream media. Here is a video that summarizes Fox News’ disdain for [liberal] bloggers and blogs. There are even jabs in there about Yearly Kos.
They say necessity is the mother of ingenuity. No where is this more true than in Michigan. The budget situation in Michigan is in shambles as critical services and revenue sharing programs are being downsized. What’s more troubling of course is the insane amount of money that is spent on incarceration to the tune of $2 billion dollars a year. Read the rest of this entry »
This is not a surprise by any means but Bush has a timeline for the Iraq catastrophe. There is a “classified plan, which represents the coordinated strategy of the top American commander and the American ambassador, calls for restoring security in local areas, including Baghdad, by the summer of 2008. ‘Sustainable security’ is to be established on a nationwide basis by the summer of 2009, according to American officials familiar with the document.” Read the rest of this entry »
If you find it hard to read the stories that detail the deaths of soldiers and civilians in Iraq, watch this video. Who in their right mind would continue to support this war? These are humans being sacrificed for perpetual lies. Thanks, Dailykos.
In a widely expected decision, the Michigan Supreme Court affirmed the voter I.D. law, requiring photo or other proof that voters are who they say they are. Michigan now joins 19 other states in disenfranchising people of color and low-income folks. The ironic conservative argument is that they want to prevent election fraud when they are experts at election fraud. (see Bush’s election in 2000 and 2004)
Regardless, I am happy to know good people that are challenging this ruling on legal grounds. While that is happening however, we must be vigilant in making sure that securing proper identification is an integral part of our voter registration campaigns. I personally am going to work with election reform minded folks here in Michigan and see if we can get the Secretary of State to allow groups that do voter registration work to get the information (photo, address, etc.) so that our people will be allowed to vote without standing in line for hours
One of the greatest lines in hip hop is when Common said, “If I had I.D., I wouldn’t need I.D.” The stakes are high.
I just wanted to take a step back to really observe blogging as part of the broader national progressive movement. The universal nature of blogs naturally encourages writers to pen stories that are national in scope so as to capture the broadest swath of readers. The problem as I see it is that too many bloggers follow three troubling paths,
1) Writing relentlessly on the latest breaking story (often national in scope) and expressing the progressive interpretation.
2) Fear of writing original commentary for fear of being too exposed.
3) General lack of writing about local stories, fearing a lack of interest and/or possibly burning bridges.
Do you see these things happening on progressive blogs at-large? What do you look for when reading blogs? What do you see in The SuperSpade? I think that the national movement we all think or talk about is being impeded when we all write about the same thing. Our real power is finding the common values amongst our very unique stories and instigating change at the local level that organically builds into a national movement. Your thoughts?
I love Detroit and the people that give the city its distinct character. One thing that I am not proud of though is the lack of history I have regarding Detroit. For that, I just pulled up a couple of site that do a good job of helping Detroiters and non-Detroiters understand the stories that helped shape a city which has seen the best of times and the worst of times.
A lot of people think that Presidential debates don’t really mean a lot. They see them as a bunch of people making meaningless, empty, rhetorical statements.
I think that is sentiment is true for the most part. I do think that there is a solution: One-on-one debates. The reason is simple. It is much harder to get away with B.S. statements when you are giving them to one person than it is when giving it to a group.
Number of official Republican Presidential hopefuls: 10
Number of official Republican Presidential hopefuls invited to NAACP Presidential Forum in Detroit: 10
Number of official Republican Presidential hopefuls invited to NAACP Presidential Forum in Detroit that actually showed up: 1
Wow. Not surprising, but still, wow.
Whatever you think about the relevance or irrelevance of groups like the NAACP, that is still a significant group to ignore. Also remember that G. W. Bush ignored the NAACP until finally appearing in front of them in 2006.
Shirley Chisholm is a hero to many because she was the first Black woman to run for president. This was a tremendous act for women and Black people in this country.
In what I think is her most interesting quote, she said the following:
“I’ve always met more discrimination being a woman than being black,” she told The Associated Press in December 1982, shortly before she left Washington to teach at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. “When I ran for the Congress, when I ran for president, I met more discrimination as a woman than for being black. Men are men.
I’m interested what people think here. Is society more sexist than racist, as Chisholm suggests?
With a white woman (Hillary Clinton) and and a Black man (Barack Obama) both having a great chance at being the next president, this election season could potentially bring such a question to the forefront, for better of for worse.
This is interesting to me. Have we come a long way now? Are people less racist? Or was the tragedy of Katrina enough to get people to look past their race and find commonality on a human-to-human level?
One more interesting thing: does anyone know what this means?
Caucasians who say they do not identify with their ethnic group
AgentX’s creative comment regarding new possible names for the CBC got me thinking about the sad paradigm of current Black and/or progressive organizations whose work is mostly or wholly supported by corporate donations. This model is crippling our communities because the leaders of these organizations can’t really say nor do what needs to be done for fear of disrupting the money stream. On the other hand, the masses accuse these same organizations for not doing anything to help the people that are really hurting. This cycle breeds distrust and non-results. I believe the work we really need to do can happen until we do two things, 1) actively want less and 2) build up our own socially conscious businesses/institutions that are supported by the community. Talk to me,
What’s up family, long time no see huh? I am up here roasting in this hot weather and looking forward to the fall. Anyways, I wanted to try something new and talk about different books I have read, share how I felt about them and most importantly, get your feedback. Today’s book is The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Read the rest of this entry »
Many moons ago, I wrote a piece about the concept of Indivisible Freedom, which essentially came to the conclusion that the notion is does not really exist in practical terms. Today, this “Independence” Day, I’d like to do a similar exploration of the the concept of independence.
Senator Obama raised about $5 millionmore than Senator Hilary Clinton this quarter from 258,000 donors. This is a big deal because what this shows is that even if Obama doesn’t win the nomination (though I hope he does) he has all but assured his viability as VP candidate regardless of who wins the nomination. The man is a force to be reckoned with, period.
“At least $31 million of Obama’s total is for party primaries,” whereas Clinton has not reported her primary/general election breakout, which effectively means that Obama has more money for the primaries. Obama, if any of your staff are reading this, don’t get comfortable and know this is a marathon, not a race. I should note I threw up the fist when I read this article.
The Supreme Court just struck a major blow for K-12 districts to conduct voluntary school integration plans. The opinion can be summed up by Roberts when he wrote, “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” Apparently, using race to bring people together is just as bad as using race to keep people apart. You can learn alot about how America by reading Supreme Court decisions. Nevertheless, the justices claim that they are not over turning Brown v. Board but that is essentially what happened. But this is less of a crisis than it is a call for action.Read the rest of this entry »
Let me just say for all my people that are planning on coming back to Detroit in the future, don’t wait too long. This past week, my city shined. The new and improved Riverfront was unveiled at The River Days festival and it was breathtakingly amazing. There were three main stages with fantastic music. Hotsauce, an incredible R&B/funk group that performs original music and all purpose classics, brought the house down, symbolizing how young people are vital to Detroit’s success. Families from all backgrounds were out smiling, dancing, and otherwise having a good time. Read the rest of this entry »
I know people really don’t watch TV during the summer but I need you to watch the Presidential Debate tonight on PBS, hosted by Tavis Smiley at 9 ET. If you will recall, Tavis Smiley announced these debates when The Covenant was released and the topics covered in the debate will focus on the key priorities outlined in the book. Tonight will feature Democratic candidates and Republicans will debate on September 27th. If any of you have ever heard Tavis, give an interview, the brother is extremely adept at asking probing questions. I forgot to mention that both debates will be held at HBCUs with Howard hosting tonight and Morgan State hosting in September. We are giving a hat tip to Tavis and the great work he continues to do for the community. Check your local listings, and if you can’t be at home, you can watch the debate online. Expect follow-up coverage from The SuperSpade.
Hope is a very delicate feeling that if damaged, can cause irreparable damage. Bush and the RNC’s strong arm tactics scuttled the hope of many minority voters as tried to vote in hopes of seeing real change. The one thing that people hate more than a bad situation is being denied the choice for something better. That is why we here at The SuperSpade are teaming up with our good friends from Color of Change to oppose the nomination of Hans von Spakovsky to the Federal Election Commission. This man helped engineer the “felon” voter purge in Florida that disenfranchised thousands of Black people. The last thing we need are guys like Spakovsky having positions of great influence where he can dash the hopes of more people of color. The dangers of more conservative lunacy is like living in a real-life nightmare.
Father’s Day has just passed and hopefully you took the time to appreciate the father in your life, whomever it may be. As I have written before, Father’s Day is an interesting holiday to me. I am not a father, but I think the relationship between a father and a child is a unique one and it tends to be a more complicated one than the mother and child dynamic.
As I was driving around the city last week, enjoying the excellent weather, for the first time I noticed that there were women and children everywhere, but you rarely saw the fathers or men. I am not talking about young men, but grown men. And I not only asked where are all the fathers, but where are all the men period?
Honestly now, how much is racial integration (work, where you live, social life, etc.) important to you? I ask that because my take is that racial integration in is not vitally important and it would be…(hold your breath) OK if groups more or less kept to themselves while having the freedom to experience different races/cultures. It seriously has to be alright to be with your own sometimes. And for Black people, it pains me when we praise the solidarity of other races/cultures but scoff at the notion of having such solidarity amongst ourselves. Something has to give, can you help me understand?
After reading Garlin’s fantastic post on the Black Middle Class, I was inspired to think of ways that we can maintain an engaged and active middle class. This idea is not original, but I think the answer comes from actively wanting less. Read the rest of this entry »
My colleagues at the Northwest Progressive Institute pointed to a disturbing story about a document put out by the Obama camp. It was basically a slap in the face to Hillary Clinton’s India supporters. I would never have expected this from Obama. Read the rest of this entry »
New rule: If you are Black person of any influence and want to endorse a Presidential candidate, avoid saying dumb stuff!!! My outrage is directed towards Daryl McDaniels, founding member of the legendary Run D.M.C. This guy, speaking to reporters says he is Read the rest of this entry »
I keep seeing “hat tip” on many Black Blogs so I am giving a hat tip to Jack and Jill for posting a video featuring the video of Dr. Maya Angelou endorsing Senator Hilary Clinton for President. Read the rest of this entry »
I am sure many of you have heard about the recent fighting between Hamas and Fatah in Palestine. I don’t claim to be an expert on this issue but the hypocrisy of the United States and the West is beyond the pale. Read the rest of this entry »
What’s up fam, I hope everyone is enduring the summer better than I am. I was remiss in not letting the family know I had the opportunity to speak at a press conference with Al Sharpton a couple weeks ago dealing with decency in hip hop that is calling on the record industry and artists to stop using the n-word, b-word, and the h-word. For those of you that read the SuperSpade often, you know that we very rarely discuss entertainment or sports related issues and this post will be no different. Read the rest of this entry »
A good friend of mine, Jameelah, has a fascinating knack for science and political issues. Recently, she penned an amazing piece describing the relationship between Stem Cells and Affirmative Action. I was floored after reading this and I think you will be too. Thank you Jameelah, you are a true SuperSpade. Read the rest of this entry »
They are really just off the cuff when it comes to people of color. In an all too-familiar case of universal Blackness, Fox News “mistakenly” ran video of Representative John Conyers while the segment is describing the legal indictments handed down against Representative Bill Jefferson. Fox knew what they were doing and we do too and for that, I am proud to stand in coalition with Color of Change in praising Conyers for calling Fox out on their relentless “disrespect of people of color.” Conyers was upset of course and had this to say, Read the rest of this entry »
Many people have never heard of Dennis Kucinich, a Democratic Congressman from Ohio. Kucinich is running for President in 2008, and is considered to be one of the most progressive candidates on the Democratic side. In my view is right on on most of today’s issues: Iraq, the media, health care, and others. I think he did very well in the debate this week. All in all, a guy I’d vote for.
I don’t have any kids but I know many people that read this site either will be mothers or fathers in the near future or already have young ones probably tugging at you right now. And as you consider different educational options, the lines are often drawn over to send your kids to public, charter, or private schools, with you choosing the best option available to your family. But as a New York Times magazine article by Elizabeth Weil so elegantly explains, perhaps a bigger factor in your child’s academic and social development may hinge greatly on your kid’s birthday and when they start kindergarten. Read the rest of this entry »
If your family lived in a major city with a poor educational system, do you think it would be morally wrong for you to use a relative’s address that lives in the suburbs so your kids could access a higher quality education?
I ask this question because false address changes are probably the easiest way many parents access better schooling for their children. And for as much we want to see positive change for K-12 public schools, it is very difficult to ask a parent of a low-achieving school district to wait for these changes to take root. My hunch is that many people think it is bad, but permissible. Nevertheless, what does it say to our kids when we tell them to lie if and when they are asked where they’re from?
And let me flip the script, if you were living in a high-achieving school district and were asked to lend your address so the child of a relative/friend could access your school district, how would you evaluate whether or not to grant that request?
Do you think Bush could be in office past January 20, 2009? I do and so does Bush apparently. An article from Alternet.org reads,
The National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive, signed on May 9, 2007, would place all governmental power in the hands of the President and effectively abolish the checks and balances in the Constitution. Read the rest of this entry »
This past Friday, 25 May 2007, I participated in a panel discussion at the Annual Blacks In Government Conference in Seattle entitled, “Say What? Keeping Information and Ideas Moving in the Black community.” The panel was moderated by K. Wyking Garrett, CEO of Remix Marketing and Communications, and included myself and Monique Carillo, Founder of Carillo PR.
The discussion, which was well attended by enthusiastic participants, grew from a general exchange on definitions of knowledge and information to an all-out brainstorming session on ways to communicate better with one another.
Last week I recorded my first podcast for the Northwest Progressive Institute, a Washington-based think tank for which I serve as Senior Policy Analyst for Technology.
The title is “Reframing Net Neutrality,” and it talks about why an accessible and public and non-discriminatory Internet is important to preserve. You can listen to the audio here.
I have written about environmental issues here on the site and the more I try to make a positive impact, I realize how much it requires a completely different approach to almost every aspect of our lives. I am at the point where I don’t even keep my alarm clock plugged in until I get ready for bed. What is the purpose of wasting energy by keeping small appliances plugged in during the day when you are not at home? Read the rest of this entry »
Below is an open letter to Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John Edwards, created by Color of Change, which The SuperSpade has signed officially (along with otherBlackbloggers). The letter is encouraging the three of them to stand their ground and not participate in the CBCI debates. If you are interested in signing it too, let us know so we can add you to the list.
Now former World Bank President, Paul Wolfowitz said of his departure,“People were reacting to a whole string of inaccurate statements and by the time we got to anything approximating accuracy the passions were around the bend.” That’s funny, as a major architect of the war, that seems to be the same strategy Wolfowitz used to push for war in Iraq by getting the public and media to associate 9/11 with Iraq and exaggerating threats concerning WMDs.
Once those lies were discredited, the Bush administration just came up with new reasons to stay like us having to stay in Iraq to rebuild the government, establish some form of democracy, and fight Al-Qaeda there so we don’t have to fight them here. Sorry Paul, karma is a trip.
After dropping the ball on timelines, I wish the Democrats would have made regular coverage of flag-draped caskets coming from Iraq a requirement for funding the war. The people sacrificed as a result of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are real and the time has long past for the disingenuous policy of putting our lost soldiers out of sight and out of mind.
I am sending a huge and shout out to Jack and Jill Politics for featuring a video by Martin Luther King and his opposition to the war in Vietnam. I won’t go into detail about why I oppose this war but if you listen to this speech and replace Vietnam with Iraq, his speech is even more poignant. One quote I pulled from the speech is that the “A nation that year after year, spends more money on military defense, than on programs of social uplift, is approaching spiritual death.” Meditate on this as you prepare for Memorial Day.
The Congressional Black Caucus is breaking my heart. The frustration exposed over this Fox debate is starting to reveal deeper cracks in their armor and Black leadership in general (those primarily funded via corporations). The campaign that we have signed onto has reached the front pages of the New York Times. Read the rest of this entry »
Immigration reform is a hot issue right now (we have discussed this issue before) and I want to talk about immigration without a supercharged discussion about the benefits and/or drawbacks of Black Brown unity. Having said that, one contentious point in the proposed Senate bill “would put a higher premium on immigrants’ education, earnings level, or job skills.” If this bill passes as is, it would represent a reversal of long standing US policy to prioritize reunification of families. So before you decide whether you support or oppose this bill, let’s take it bite-size pieces, shall we? Read the rest of this entry »
This will be the type of ignorant but calculating excuse that Bush would use if and when a conflict would breakout with Iran. In the latest development, “the U.S. Navy staged its latest show of military force off the Iranian coastline on Wednesday, sending two aircraft carriers and landing ships packed with 17,000 U.S. Marines and sailors to carry out unannounced exercises in the Persian Gulf.” Read the rest of this entry »
Check this out, “Twenty-six members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) have signed letters to Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) urging them to reconsider their decisions to skip a debate cosponsored by the CBC Institute and Fox News.” Read the rest of this entry »
I’m not writing about this because I want to see better movies or better television (which I do, for the record). I am writing about this because more than being an issue about specific content, this is an issue about gaining access not only to the media, but to the people.
The Democrats in Congress acquiesced to Bush by agreeing to scuttle a timeline for withdrawing the troops. The bill does “include conditions prodding Baghdad to make better progress toward quelling violence or risk losing around $1.3 billion in U.S. reconstruction aid. Bush could waive the provision, however.” Read the rest of this entry »
While such a vote is “meaningless” in terms of being respected by the federal government, it does demonstrate yet another local body/group of citizens (therehavebeenothers) publicly communicating their frustration with everything that is the Bush Administration.
If you had a vote, would you vote to impeach the president?
Last week, I was able to participate in a roundtable discussion with leaders from progressive organizations here in Michigan. The discussion was led by Professor John Powell, a simply brilliant man who is the executive director of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at The Ohio State University. I am proud to add that he is a Detroit native. It took me days before I could talk about what I learned. This will be the first of many posts related to this dialogue. Read the rest of this entry »
I really, really don’t like this guy. Why do he and his political allies talk all this noise about “supporting the troops” when they treat them like the little green army men that small children play war with?
It takes a lot for most politicians to be explicit about something. Anything. These two are definitely no exception. The strange similarities between Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton’s stances on Iraq continue, but they took a turn for the better yesterday. Instead of dancing around the idea of having a firm date for US troop withdrawal like they did in the past, both of them voted yesterday to set a 31 March 2008 for US troops to be out of Iraq. While it is sad that these two candidates are some of the last to have some Iraq sense knocked into them, this is actually a good sign for anti-occupation efforts.
Apparently, there has been a lot of controversy over Senator Barack Obama’s statements regarding affirmative action. The statements were part of a larger interview Senator Obama had with George Stephanopoulos on his show, This Week. I have an opinion on what he said but I will let you read the transcript of the interview first.Read the rest of this entry »
Two nights ago, my power went out. For those that have been through this experience, you know it is a big nuisance. However, the clarity I received through that night inspired a metaphor for Detroit and similar cities that was truly profound. Read the rest of this entry »
The idea of “not having time” to deal with social and political issues is a real one for most people. Many times, people can’t worry about such broad concepts, or plan action against big issues because all of their time has to be spent working to provide for their lifestyle. This is no accident. I’ll get into why in a later writing, but today I want to share 2 ways you can re-prioritize and infuse politics into your life and lay a foundation for impacting your community at large.
As you know, Mother’s Day is right around the corner and the malls and restaurants are filled with last minute shoppers trying to do something special for the woman who brought them into this world. This week, since I finished my exams, I was laying in my bed and flipping through channels when I landed on The Learning Channel. It must have been baby week or something because every show was about pregnancy and how families adjust to childbirth. It was so real. I knew, but did not fully appreciate what it really takes to be a mother.
There was a consistent theme I notice throughout all the shows and stories I watched that day, and that was motherhood is all about pain and sacrifice. I was looking at all these women and the discomfort on their face was palpable. Lord have mercy! It made me realize that the road to motherhood is one birthed in pain. After they give birth to you, the pregnancy wreaks havoc on the body. Not to mention that babies have some of the strangest sleeping habits I have ever seen. One of my good friends has a baby and it is like he never sleeps. She sleeps when he sleeps, and when he is up, she is up. And the sacrifice goes on. Man, when I saw that, I just wanted to say “Mama, I am sorry if I kept you up.” Because I know I would go crazy having such erratic sleeping behaviors. But I digress.
I don’t know who was first to offer a face-saving way to get out of Iraq but the one I remember distinctly goes like this; if the Iraqi people say they want the US out, we should bring the troops home. This logic always stumped me because it tacitly assumes that we invaded Iraq based on the expressed will of the Iraqi people. The logic spelled says the Iraqi people wanted us to occupy their country so all they have to do is ask us to leave and we’ll go. Now we can put that political rhetoric to the test. Read the rest of this entry »
The House of Representatives “overwhelmingly approved the Student Loan Sunshine Act on Wednesday in the wake of scandals that have implicated some of the country’s largest lenders and elite educational institutions.”
The act passed 414-3 with strong bipartisan support, and bans gifts and revenue-sharing agreements between lenders and schools, requires institutions to disclose all relationships with lenders and allows only “preferred lender lists” with assurances that they were created with the students’ best interest in mind, among other items.
This is a welcome development when you consider that the average student debt load is hovering around 20,000, the last thing we need is private lenders putting the squeeze on colleges to distribute loans that in the end, put unnecessary financial burdens on students. The Senate is expected to follow suit when they mark up the Higher Education Act. This is a good day for students. You can read the act here.
I came across a great article today which found that “After an eight-month, barbershop-based intervention, men with high blood pressure were much more likely to start receiving treatment and to get their blood pressure under control than their peers given standard care, Dr. Paul L. Hess of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and colleagues found.” Read the rest of this entry »
People that know me understand that I am fascinated by strategy, broadly defined. To that end, the GOP down in Florida has me stumped. Across America, there is a wave of restoring voter rights to ex-felons. I welcome these developments and I strongly support the re-enfranchisement of ex-felons. But there’s a catch. Read the rest of this entry »
I was simultaneously excited and dismayed when I learned that Senator Obama is receiving protection from the Secret Service. I was excited because I was reminded of the first season of the hit show 24, where the character, Senator David Palmer was on the campaign trail to become the first Black president. (Yes, he ended up winning)
On a more serious note though, I was dismayed because of the symbolic irony. Senator Obama raised $25 million dollars and boom, an elite Secret Service detail. But when I think about Black men in America, we are not safe from the government in the form of Driving While Black, higher insurance rates, inadequate health care, under funded schools, poor infrastructure, and in some cases, Breathing While Black.
I am thankful for the extra protection provided to Senator Obama and his family. I pray for his safety in his comings and his goings. Nevertheless, what does it take for a Black man in America to get basic protection from the government? Is the irony just lost on me?
Whether you call it the movement or the revolution, most people I know desperately want to see a major shift in America and the world’s priorities including; pulling people out of poverty, reforming public education, ending this senseless war, helping put an end to the Darfur conflict, saving the planet, etc. Regardless of the issue, we are down for the “cause” so to speak. For those of us that share this burning desire, it is sometimes hard to understand why so many people just don’t get it. Read the rest of this entry »
The fight for Black entertainment more-positive-than-the-joke-that-is-BET is bracing itself for a serious blow. The Black Family Channel is close to being bought out. Unless something extraordinary happens, there will be two major, 24-hour “Black” channels left: TV One and [my least favorite,] BET (purposely not linking to website). What is the future of Black Entertainment?Read the rest of this entry »
If someone insults, consistently insults and hurts you, and does not repent/apologize/beg for forgiveness/something, you probably would not want to do busines with them.
Did you know that it is illegal to show clips of Presidential Debates on YouTube? That’s because TV networks have exclusive rights to the video. That’s ridiculous, don’t you think? If these people are running for public office, then the things they do to campaign should be publicly available, right?
The top U.S. commander in Iraq says an Iraqi group affiliated with an elite Iranian force carried out an attack last year in which five U.S. soldiers were killed near the Iraqi town of Karbala. The statement by General David Petraeus follows months of suspicion about Iranian involvement in the incident, but the general says he cannot directly connect Iranian agents to the attack.
First of all, if you can’t confirm your claims with evidence, shut up. Do I need to remind you of Colin Powell’s presentation of mobile lab cartoons and the empty vile prop? I am sick and tired of this administration being able to make claims that are passed off as facts but cannot be confirmed.
And seriously, with all of the work that General Patraeus has to do in making the “surge” successful, why are we trying to link Iran to an incident from last year? Maybe if we were more focused on rebuilding Iraq than we were trying to scrimp for reasons to invade Iran, we could bring home the troops. I’m done.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid recently said that the “Iraq war is lost.” I happen to agree with him and I am shocked at how much the truth rattles Washington insiders. Nevertheless, I haven’t really taken time to consider the immediate or future implications for American foreign policy and the geopolitical balance of the Middle East.
There will come a time when our troops come home. But lest we forget, Bush waged preemptive war in our name so once it is “over” it won’t ever be back to normal. People in Iraq, our allies and our enemies resent the arrogance of our actions in Iraq. This resentment will fester for generations to come and I pray that American leaders have the wisdom to foresee the future harm this war is causing.
And with the loss in blood and treasure, I think we have yet to see the true costs of this war. How do you think these costs will be materialized?
This is the campaign being spearheaded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation to make education a key priority issue in the presidential elections for 2008. With a war chest upwards of $60 million dollars, this is the largest single-issue advocacy campaign ever seen. What’s more appealing is that the campaign is not seeking to endorse a presidential candidate or even take stances on legislation. It simply wants to make sure education is a top priority on our national agenda. Read the rest of this entry »
Was Imus the last "media provocateur"? If most media are controlled by major corporations, who is going to be willing to put their job on the line and say something that might catch the fancy of tabloid news, and in turn upset the board of directors? Who is going to be willing to knowingly take an unpopular position and accept the accompanying risk?
This basically translates to asking if any network will have any gall to support people who say crazy and/or stupid things. Cuban mentions that he thinks Fox News would. He's right, and they have demonstrated that time and time again.
This is important to ponder when thinking about media and media reform. What level of controversy and/or offensiveness is acceptable or should be permitted?Should any?
Let's flip this and ask the same question: If [insert your "prominent" Black non-sports media personality here, but for the purposes of example I'll say] Tom Joyner said some horribly offensive things about white or Hispanic women, would you want him fired?
Let’s be careful with our double standards. We all know that they exist. The question is where/if they ever make sense.
As high school students prepare for graduate, their friends and family members will bombard them with the same question, “So where are you going to college?” To a large extent, I applaud the strong push for higher education but by college, most people assume college to mean a 4-year university. So when HS graduates say, “I am going to community college,” I get sick to my stomach to see the tacit disappointment register on the face of the person asking the question. Read the rest of this entry »
If you haven’t heard yet, 32 people were shot dead at Virginia Tech’s campus in what is being described as the deadliest mass shooting in US history. As a person who works with college students and a recent graduate myself, this tragedy hits very close to home.
I know it’s hard to appreciate how fragile life is. As a result, tragedies like these often shock us into making sure our loved ones know they are loved. As I have stated before,the best reason is just because. This extends to calling, emailing, texting, making plans to go out, etc. with your loved ones.
I refuse to discuss the politics of the right to bear arms or the implications of the identity of the shooter or the victims. It doesn’t really matter. 33 people died today and there is a time for everything. Now is the time to mourn and reflect.
To all the family and friends of the victims, my heart goes out to you. I pray that the initial resentment and confusion will be replaced by peace, harmony and joy.
For all of my family and friends who read The SuperSpade, I love you. Each of you enrich my life and I will continue to try and do the same.
It looks like it just might. According to this NY Times article,
nongovernmental organizations and other groups appear to have scored a surprising success in an effort to link the Olympics, which the Chinese government holds very dear, to the killings in Darfur, which, until recently, Beijing had not seemed too concerned about.
Nearly any angle that is used to make headway here is worth pursuing in my mind, so this one is no different.
I have just returned from a vacation trip to Italy, which was absolutely amazing. However, on my way back to Seattle from New York, I had a run-in with my friends from the Transportation Security Administration, and now I’m mad at a bunch of people. “President” George Bush. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff. TSA Director Kip Hawley. LaGuardia Airport General Manager Warren Kroeppel. The TSA Supervisor who was working LaGuardia’s Security at 530 AM Eastern on Wednesday, 11 April 2007.
Thanks to a friend on facebook, I came across a New York Times article highlighting a mentoring program in Ossining, NY that focused on improving the academic performance and cultural awareness of Black boys. The district is sort of unorthodox in how it achieves racial diversity. “Its six school buildings are divided not by neighborhood but by grade level. All of the second and third graders in the Ossining Union Free School District attend the Brookside School.” Read the rest of this entry »
Again, why is no one from the CBC not saying anything? Do they even want to sponsor a debate? Their silence is driving me crazy.
Thanks again to Color of Change and all the other online communities that worked together to put pressure on the candidates to back down from participating in this debate.
I listen to National Public Radio (NPR)…a lot. They have new show called The Story that is simply amazing.The aim of the story is to put the news in the context of how it affects real people not having their story filtered by the experts.
The unfolding drama of the Fox Presidential debates sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus Institute is gaining more traction. Through it all, we at The SuperSpade will sift through the facts and get to the truth. Read the rest of this entry »
Amid a flood of controversy, the Detroit Public School Board voted to approve a “realignment” plan to close 34 schools by the end of this year. This is a true turning point in the history of Detroit. The reality is that enrollment has declined all over the district along with horrible mismanagement (administrative and financial) at the central office. There is enough blame to go around but cities can not be sustained without a sustainable tax base. This is best achieved when families live in the same city where their kids go to school.
Unfortunately, previous boards have been privy to the deep financial problems of the district but instead of making tough decisions, chose instead to punt. Now we are in a situation of literal “slash and burn.” This decision will be the first of many for Detroit that highlight how times have changed and that responsibility and accountability most come from the leadership and citizenry alike. God willing, we will make make Detroit Public Schools better and make this city better.
It seems that Sen. Clinton’s camp wants Sen. Obama to keep his day of glory minimized to one day. When Sen. Clinton released her first quarter fundraising numbers, she originally did not reveal the breakdown between primary and general election funds. But given the ground breaking news of Sen. Obama’s announcing that he only raised $1 million dollars less than Sen. Clinton, her hand was forced.
SUre enough, it appears that Sen. Obama’s funds raised for the primaries surpassed those of Sen. Obama. Here’s an excerpt from an ABC article,
ABC News has learned that the $23.5 million Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., raised for his presidential campaign for use in the primaries is more than that raised by the Democratic frontrunner, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.
Of the $26 million Clinton has raised in the first quarter of 2007 for her presidential campaign, approximately $20 million is to be used in the primaries and caucuses, sources told ABC News.
“President Bush was asked by a reporter in Washington on Tuesday whether the United States would be willing to give up the five Iranians to help obtain release of the Britons.”
“I support the Blair government’s attempts to solve this issue peacefully. So we’re in close consultation with the British government,” he responded. “I also strongly support the prime minister’s declaration that there should be no quid pro quos when it comes to the hostages.”
For clarity, Bush was saying that the U.S. won’t release the Iranian officials in exchange for Iran releasing the British sailors. My fear is that this conflict over the British sailors will be twisted around to serve as a launching pad for starting war with Iran.
There was an article in Blackelectorate today entitled, “Whole Life Times: Eco Apartheid.” In it, author Van Jones goes through the history of the environmental movement in America across three major stages, conservation, regulation, and investment. For each stage, Jones points out the very homogeneous (almost exclusively White) make up of the environmental movement and the clear benefits of broadening that tent. Read the rest of this entry »
In lieu of the outrage caused by the agreement reached between the Congressional Black Caucus Institute and Fox News to host 2 Presidential debates, I want to direct your attention to a petition being collected by the good folks at Color of Change. The SuperSpade has signed on to the petition as we help to fulfill our mission to helping solve offline problems with online solutions.
It is wrong for Black leaders to legitimize FOX — a network that calls Black churches a cult, implies that Senator Barack Obama is a terrorist, and uses the solemn occasion of Coretta Scott King’s funeral to call Black leaders “racist.”
The Congressional Black Caucus Institute must end their partnership with FOX, and presidential candidates should reject the FOX debate in favor of the CBC Institute’s CNN debate.
In a follow up to Garlin’s post on this issue, Fox News has announced that it cut a deal with the Congressional Black Caucus Institute to sponsor not one, but two debates. According to Fox, “the first of the two debates will be among Democratic candidates and will be held on September 23rd at the Fox Theater in Detroit. The second debate will be among Republican candidates and will take place in the fall of 2007 at a location to be determined.” Read the rest of this entry »
So Rev. Jesse Jackson has endorsed Senator Obama for President. Given the close friendship between Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. and the Senator along with hometown loyalty, it is smart politics for Rev. Jesse to endorse Senator Obama. It might take a bit longer for Sharpton to come around and that is fine. And while Rev. Jackson has lost some of his former luster, he is a symbol of Black American leadership and in politics, symbolism matters.
This morning on the radio I heard about a group called the National Priorities Project. This group gives people an easy way to visualize how the government spends money. This is an important thing to know. Read the rest of this entry »
“Men might be the head of the household, but women are the neck that determines what the head does.” I am really butchering that quote but I think you get the gist; women truly run the world. Read the rest of this entry »
With the swirling debate concerning Iraq, there is often mention of the Shia and Sunni Muslims. Of course, it is easy for the media to portray these groups are monolothic groups but it is much more nuanced than that. I received an email from IslamiCity that gives a brief history of Shia and Sunni Muslims and how they have alot more in common than most are led to believe. Hopefully, this will help nuance our understanding of what is happening in the region.
What’s good fam, I have the honor of writing my first post on the new site. I want to send a special thanks and appreciation to Garlin for doing all the behind the scenes work to make the new site possible. Please send us feedback and let us know what you think. Great work Garlin! So, in the spirit of the new site, I am inspired to share one of my dreams. As you know, I am a native Detroiter and one thing that has always fascinated me is the mass transit systems in cities like Chicago, D.C., and New York. Read the rest of this entry »
I saw this cartoon in a Christian Science Monitor article and I wanted to know what issue you think our generation should tackle. Have we seen an issue (or set of issues) whose reach is long enough to be a call for our generation? I would hate to have been one of those people who just sat around during the Civil Rights Movement because I was too selfish or otherwise not engaged. But is it possible we are doing that right now?
To be sure, we should take stock to make sure that history will not look back on us and have our silence be recorded in the face of mass injustice. What is your vision and barriers do you think exist to communicating this vision?
And we loved him cause, in him we, saw some of us
He walked like ussss, talked like ussss – Jay Z
From the song, Meet the Parents
I think the excerpt above epitomizes the appeal of one, Senator and Presidential candidate, Barack Obama. It simultaneously, explains the vigor by which individuals will defend and support Senator Obama whenever he is attacked by mainstream media or leading political figures. So are people too sensitive when it comes to Obama that they can’t at the same time hold him accountable?
In some of my conversations with other Black folk, I have often heard that we must take care to be just as objective in our analysis of Obama as we are towards other candidates. And I agree with this logic up to a point. I think that it is unwise to bottle the excitement that the Obama campaign is generating. The only way that the Democrats will take the White House is if new voters are mobilized, young people, and so-called independents and right of center Republicans switch sides. But even if Obama does not win the nomination, who else do you think is capable of mobilizing these crucial groups?
Having said that, I know it seems like many people have drank the Obama Kool-Aid without knowing the flavor as it were. But that is OK. And here’s why. If we, (as activists who try to achieve positive change with as many people as possible) are really honest, we don’ think there are enough “conscious” folks who are willing to do the grassroots work that will inspire real change. In my opinion, we should think about Obama’s campaign as a way to pull people into the movement that would otherwise not be engaged.
So my fear is that in our quest to make sure that we hold Obama accountable, we miss out on tapping the groundswell of excitement that can be used for things that have nothing to do with politics. In so many ways, Presidential elections have very little to do with the actual candidate. While I agree that we should Obama accountable, we should first ask if we are holding each other accountable. When that happens, we can achieve greatness regardless of who holds the White House.
Fortunately, The Royal Navy said the men, who were on a routine patrol in Iraqi waters, were understood to be unharmed.
In the continuing stand off between the West and the Iranian nuclear program, it will be situations like the one just described that will be the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back.
I predict that the Iran government will return the soldiers home unharmed in part to show the world that they are much more humane and reasonable than their Western counterparts would have you believe.
For people who may have just recently joined our site, we present an opportunity to get a taste of things we’ve talked about in the past. We’re going to start doing this once per month.
Did you learn about the Vietnam war in history class in middle or high school? Did you learn about the Watergate Scandal? Maybe if we did, our generation would care more about the goings on in today’s government and better understand the importance of participation.
There have been many comparisons drawn between the situation in Iraq and the situation in Vietnam a generation ago. These comparisons speak to the similarities in the shady nature in which the conflicts were handled by the US government, the way that those that did not blindly support the war were ridiculed and negatively typecasted as weak pacifists, how so many principled politicians sat by idly as thousands of soldiers were killed in another country’s civil war, and the idea of the domino theory that once “applied” to communism now “applies” to terrorism.
One thing that characterized the US during the Vietnam War was the effectiveness of protests. There have been protests to the conflict in Iraq since before it began, and the momentum that they are building is reminiscent of those that took place in the 1960s and 70s against Vietnam. These public citizen actions were a catalyst for the Congressional action that ultimately ended the war. Prayerfully, the same will be said about Iraq protests in the very near future.
So why don’t curriculum designers teach students about their country’s activist past? Why don’t standardized tests include reading comprehension sections comprised of pieces describing Vietnam, a war that was taking place only 3 decades ago? It’s hard to believe that this is not on purpose.
What’s the solution?
Contemporary study should cover contemporary events. If you are a parent, why not lobby your school board/district to have unit(s) on Vietnam added? At least ask the question. If it can be done over the useless Intelligent Design debate, it surely can be done over a subject in which a student’s knowledge can allow them to immediately take action in the world today. If you are a student, write a compare-contrast paper on America during Vietnam and America during today’s Iraq conflict. Doing so will educate yourself, your peers, and your instructors. If you are just a concerned citizen, read up on Vietnam.
It’s important to answer questions, especially ones that are never asked.
Here are a couple examples of alarming things that were happening during the Bush Administration that we did not know or would never have found out about until we had Congressional Oversight:
The Democrats are now the Majority Party in the Senate and the House of Representatives, due to the result of the elections this past November. Now that they have been in for a couple of months (they were elected in November 2006 but not officially sworn in until 4 Jan 2007), you are beginning to see some differences in how things are working.
The act of exposing and acting as a check and balance within the government is called oversight (when done by Congress, it is Congressional Oversight). That is something we haven’t seen since 2000. What this means is that there is now one branch that can look over the shoulder of the other two. There is someone there to hit the brakes on crazy or dangerous governmental intentions. There is a way now for people to be able to see what is happening in our government and not be stonewalled in the name of national security or not needing to know.
A concept key to how our government works is called Checks and Balances. This basically means that each branch of government (in the U.S., the branches are: Executive (President), Legislative (Senate & House), Judicial (Supreme Court)) has a way to keep the other branches in check and keep power evenly balanced between the branches. If all three branches of government are operating checking and balancing one another, no one branch should dominate the other two. When this is not case, it can lead to terrible things.
Since 2000 when G. W. Bush took office, we have been experiencing governance without checks and balances. The Republican-led Congress laid down for whatever the Republican President said or demanded. The conservative-leaning Supreme Court, which installed Bush, also sat by idly. That changed with the 2006 election, and now we have a situation where there is a Republican President and a conservative Supreme Court, but there is a Democratic House and Senate, meaning that we are no longer effectively a one-party system.
This is important to understand because understanding how and why things happen the way they do is key to understanding how to make things happen in ways that we want. I believe that we are only scratching the surface when it comes to all of the shady stuff we may find out about that has been going on over the past 6 years. I am also afraid that it will take longer for the Democrats to undo what it only took the Republicans 6 years to do. Thank God they have started down this long road.
So the next time that you or someone asks, “What’s this Congress doing?” You can say, “Their Job.”
For those that missed it, you can listen the interview here. A big Thank You from The SuperSpade to Ben & Cenk of The Young Turks and and Air America Radio.
I was recently asked to comment on an article by Linda Burnham about how the Left, specifically the anti-Capitalist Left, should feel about and work with the Obama Administration. It’s called 
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This is part of the bi-weekly 
This is part of the bi-weekly 
