CBC DECLARING WAR ON BLACK BLOGGERS
My first post in April and it's an angry post. The CBC has just declared war on Black Bloggers demanding accountability from them. My colleagues at Jack and Jill Politics got sandbagged by CNN because they linked to a post from some more of my friends over at Color of Change on their activities to pressure Black superdelegates to respect the wishes of their constituencies that went heavily towards Sen. Barack Obama for POTUS.
Color of Change is free to engage in whatever political activism they feel is necessary to benefit the diverse communities they represent. However, Anderson Cooper and Soledad O'Brien, if you're going to report on what we say on the blogs, is it too much to ask to you act like responsible journalists and get it right?
I guess it is, because you've blown this out of context, and you enlisted two Congressional Black Caucus members to spin it as they choose.
I wrote the following on Jack and Jill in the comments section, and after reading it, I decided it was worthy of a blog entry of its own:
I'm going to jump in here and say that when the media attacks bloggers such as us and Skeptical Brotha, and allow DLC-bots like Emmanuel Cleaver and Kendrick Meek to frame issues without context, they have declared war on us.
The Congressional Black Caucus wants to use this issue to not only discredit the Black Blogsphere, but also people doing the work to hold their behinds accountable to the constituencies that voted for them. It's not about supporting Obama - because of the Jeremiah Wright flap and Obama's handling of it, I can't say I'm supporting him, but Hillary Clinton is sure as hell not getting my vote.
The CBC is saying they don't want to be held accountable; yet we should continue to support them and give them free passes because they are Black members of Congress. The same concept they are now trying to fight because half of them support Hillary Clinton. That's some sick crap and they need to know that we're not backing down from them.
Now Color of Change has done good work and maybe pressuring Black superdelegates to throw their support to Obama in light of Hillary donning a hood and robe - good in purist theory; not so good for the overall purpose of electing and implementing a progressive government that is of the people, for the people and by the people. Maybe a different tactic needed to be used here; I don't know, and I don't want to be critical of their actions, because it's their right to engage in activism that will result in what's best for the communities they serve.
However, I do agree with them that the CBC is being arrogant in ignoring, if not at least, listening to the voices of the people they purport to represent, and for that, it should cost them, because the next issue won't be Barack Obama, but something like the Bankruptcy Bill, school vouchers, increasing funding to the military and the prison industry complext, which does nothing but incarcerate more of US. The CBC has already demonstrated an inherent willingness to take small amounts of money to sell out for personal gain and presumed fortune.
Sorry for the rant, but I feel the CBC has declared war on Black Bloggers because we've been calling them out on their dereliction of duty to us and they need to be remind who they work for.
They work for US, the taxpaying Americans who elected them. If they don't want to do what we ask, on most jobs, it's called "being fired". Now, if they want to get fired like their buddy Al Wynn, they can step right up into primary challenges, either this year or 2010. I'm sick of these attempts to silence us when silence IS NOT GOLDEN.
Labels: CNN, Color of Change, Jack and Jill Politics, Skeptical Brotha
posted by The Christian Progressive Liberal at 7:18 AM
5 Comments:
oddly, I haven't been able to post at Skeptical Brotha for the past few days. I'm not sure why - technical glitch I'm sure - but whatever the reason, I have enormous respect for SB, his work, and the vitality of his forum.
It's all good!
I do not understand how the writer can say that the CBC does not support the interest of African-Americans. Last year the CBC was instrumental in getting minimum wage, Katrina Housing Tax Relief, Hurricane Katrina and Rita Federal Relief Match, Darfur Accountability and Divestment Act, Emmett Till unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act, Childern's Health Insurance Program reauthorization and lastly the expansion of Head Start. This sort of discussion is reckless and not driven by the facts.
Truth:
The CBC can be instrumental in areas of congressional action that are seen as non-threatening. We expect them to be pro-active on the things you mentioned, but allow me to ask you this:
The Bankruptcy bill. By far, the worst piece of legislation ever to come out of Congress, and you had 15 CBC members voting in favor of the bill. Half of them had districts with high rates of bankruptcy filings - tell me, how does voting for legislation that would further hurt the interests of your constituency instrumental representation in Congress?
Net Neutrality Bill - you had 10 CBC members voting on this bill, especially when Black Bloggers began calling BS on their positions and broadcasting on the subject matter. They started getting phone calls from their district and they didn't like having to account for being cavalier with their voting records.
At least 10 member of the CBC vote more in favor of corporate interests as opposed to voting for the interests and needs of the districts that elected them. Al Wynn is gone from Congress because his voting record showed that he voted to authorize the Iraq war, and kept on voting for authorization of funds until the CBC Monitor published his voting record for his district to see how they were being screwed over by his representation.
CBC members voted on Katrina relief efforts, Dafur Accountability, etc., but if you look at who's spearheading the efforts to bring this legislation to the table, it is not within the CBC leadership because they are too busy pandering to corporate interests, but want to make a show of "looking good" for black constituents, so they throw a bone in the way of Katrina relief bills, and the Emmett Till unsolved Civil Rights Act - which they should, but legislation dealing with the economy, other social justice issues, and overall accounting of the operation of the Federal Government, OVERSIGHT, is sadly lacking among their ranks, and only the usual suspects; John Conyers, Maxine Waters, Barbara Lee and maybe John Lewis, are the ones actually introducing legislation to address these issues.
Maxine Waters personally told me that she's introduced several bills to aid Katrina victims rebuild and relocate back to the Ninth Ward, and that she couldn't get more than two or three CBC members to even sponsor the legislation, and when it got to the Senate, Barack Obama could have used his Senate position to advance and champion the legislation, but he's too busy running for POTUS, and would probably take it up if it helps him in the General Election in the Fall.
Five CBC members have whole districts affected by Katrina, yet Maxine Waters, a representative from California, is the one spearheading the efforts. Why hasn't Sheila Jackson-Lee, Eddie Bernice Johnson, Bennie Thompson or William Jefferson (and Jefferson's district is the 9th Ward) taken this issue and ran with it? That's representing your districts, is it not?
They get on board with the majority - we're asking for them to LEAD. It's easy to cast a vote with the masses; it's another to actually lead the effort to effect change and the CBC doesn't do that, so they declare war on Black Bloggers who shine a spotlight on their many peccadilloes and get mad when their constituents demand they be held accountable to them that voted.
You will see several challenges to sitting CBC members in the next two years, because people are tired of Black Faces in presumed high places and those faces are either talking loud and doing nothing, or using their positions for personal gain and profit, while screwing over the people who have entrusted their voice to them in Congress.
I will have no truck with that and I will continue to call BS when I smell it coming from them.
"DLC-bots" for sure. They're indeed just like Republicans. The DLC supports "trade" agreements that have devastated the U.S. economy. See The NAFTA Nemesis, Jobs & 'Trade' Data Update Apr08, & The Trade Deficit and the Fallacy of Composition on my site: exponentialimprovement.com.
Who knows where to download XRumer 5.0 Palladium?
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