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.

OBAMA BATTLE FATIGUE THAT'S NOT MY OWN

I've been lagging a lot with my posts on my own blog (too busy posting comments on other's blogs, LOL).

But this South Carolina primary that Sen. Barack Obama is trying his damndest to lose, is really giving me a battle fatigue I'm not really used to experencing.

I've said in earlier posts on this very blog, that Obama was, at best, a triangulating twit, and got royally flamed for my trouble. My fellow bloggers, such as Skeptical Brotha, or the Field Negro, didn't take as many hits (well, the Field didn't, anyway, cause SB and I took major ones). We tried to warn everyone drinking Obama's kool-aid and treating him in rock star fashion worthy of Derek Jeter, that Obama wasn't who you thought he was.

Black Agenda Report, and Black Commentator (when Glen Ford was the Editor), was on Obama early and often.

He showed considerable amounts of disingeniousness when he denounced his membership in the DLC, yet he takes campaign contributions from them and continues to benefit from their largesse to this very day.

But, what is causing me this fatigue now, is continual reading of how he's managing to screw up his budding Presidential campaign in particularly craptacular fashion. Let's review, shall we?

He announced his candidacy on the same day as Tavis Smiley's "State of the Black Union" conference down in Hampton, Virginia. It was presumed to steal thunder from somewhere, because C-Span cut out on the SOBU and went directly to Springfield, Illinois, where Obama had also disinvited his pastor to the event. - CHECK.

His campaign took over, usurped, bogarded a fan's MySpace page that was set up exclusively for him and his campaign. Something about copyrights and ownership - CHECK.

His lack of action in confirming Supreme Court Nominees Alito and Roberts to the Bench - CHECK.

His campaign pledge not to pull troops out of Iraq until 2013 should he get the White House. - CHECK.

Sending campaign workers ignorant of the demographics where they are campaigning, and insulting the very voters they are courting - CHECK.

And now, his Gospel Tour featuring a "cured" ex-homosexual who's spouting anti-gay rhetoric, Donnie McClurkin - CHECK.

Follow that up with in trying to balance out the shyt storm he's stirred up, Obama invited an openly gay pastor to open up the event. Two problems with that, though. The guy is WHITE, and the event is being held in SOUTH CAROLINA. Are you still with me at this point?

If you're trying to appeal for tolerance between African-Americans (who have a long history of being homophobic), gays and religion, what Obama has done is definitely NOT THE WAY TO GO. Especially since it's looking like you couldn't find any gay Black people to speak to a Black audience about Gays, and therefore, further confirm the myth that being gay is a white man's problem.

I don't know if being gay is genetic, biological, or learned, so, even though I'm a Christian, I can't buy off on treating them as perverts, pedophiles or anything else, and what's more, I don't want to. It's like being born African-American - I didn't have a choice, and I can't cover it up, or live in a closet, either. When you see me, you see I'm African-American (although some Latinos have tried to claim me, LOL) but it is what it is.

What the good Senator from Illinois has done is create a campaign atmosphere where no one is going to take him seriously anymore. The ever-growing list of gaffes, faux-pas and flat out crapping up, have prospective voters thinking "If he can't handle his campaign, how the hell is he going to handle the problems that go with being POTUS?"

Everyone's sobering up off the rock-star kool-aid, Senator. They're seeing you for what you really are - A TRIANGULATING TWIT, who's trying to be all things to all people. What's really pissing people off is your ego maniacal refusal to scrap shyt and admit when you've blown it; not to mention your tendency to sweep things under a rug, and your timidity in taking firm stands on anything - always, you have to put your finger up into the winds of political climate to determine which road you'll take. Hell, you didn't even offer to back Sen. Christopher Dodd on filibustering FISA until Sen. Russ Feingold got in the boat first.

And it's always to upstage and distinguish yourself from your closest rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton. Not out of motivation for it being the right thing to do.

Senator, I'm tired of seeing you shoot your campaign in the foot, and be the real test of whether or not America is ready for an African-American president. Judging by the millions of votes Jesse Jackson got in 1984 and 1988 was more than enough evidence that America was at least willing to entertain the idea of an African-American president, so all you really had to do was get in it to win it.

Additionally, John Aravosis at Americablog is foaming at the mouth and calling for Obama's head (read his posts for most of this week), Pam Spaulding at Pam's House Blend (and yes, she's steaming), not to mention my friend, Jasmyne Cannick on her blog as well. John, being the gentleman he is, posted a blog entry well worth reading:

And for the record, Jasymine, Pam and Keith Boykin are three African-American gay activists who make better friends than enemies, as Obama, in his constant triangulation, is finding out.

Face it, Senator; I'm tired of labeling you as a "TRIANGULATING TWIT", but lately, you've left me no other options.

SKEPTICAL BROTHA SEZ....

Just when I thought I was through saying anything about the Wh***, along comes Skeptical Brotha to pull me back in. I'm posting some tantalizing tidbits from his blog:

Harold Ford, Jr. Don Imus’s Nappy Headed Ho

April 24th, 2007

“The majority of Negro political leaders do not ascend to prominence on the shoulders of mass support. Although genuinely popular leaders are now emerging, most are selected by white leadership, elevated to position, supplied with resources, and inevitably subjected to white control. The mass of Negroes nurtures a healthy suspicion toward these manufactured leaders.” –Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

A tsunami of outrage has been blazing in the last ten days since Don Imus, Radio Shock jock and Harold Ford, Jr benefactor singled out the Rutgers Women’s Basketball Team with a racist and sexist epithet. In the midst of the firestorm, Tennessee’s black prince, corporate whore and senator-in-waiting, released the following obligatory and gutless statement:

I don’t want to be viewed as piling on right now because Don Imus is a good friend and a decent man. However, he did a reprehensible thing. His comments about the Rutgers women’s basketball team were hurtful and wrong. Moreover, the comments robbed these young women of an important time to celebrate a magnificent and positive moment in their lives.

I am a big believer in redemption, and I understand that Don has done many good deeds in his life. Yet, no amount of philanthropy gives anyone the license to offend innocent people—particularly when it comes to matters of race and gender. So I’m going to follow the lead of those brilliant and gracious women of the Rutgers basketball team and wait and see how the next two weeks unfold. I certainly hope Don can come to understand better the pain he has caused these young women and their families, and I will leave it to others to decide how his future in media should play out.

Is it any wonder that I have lampooned Harold as”Harold Whore, Jr” and “the Whore?”

The statement is brilliant in the way it deftly positions him as an acceptable House Negro and corporate servant, unlike Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Its brevity is telling and its faint praise and politically expedient criticism of Don Imus was not what the Anus in the Morning was hoping for. The Anus in the Morning needed a lifeline and instead, the Whore pushed his head under the water until he drowned. Harold Ford, Jr doesn’t intend to sacrifice a seat in the world’s most exclusive club for Don Imus. While grateful for the endorsement and exposure Imus provided, and God knows he enjoyed his time as Imus’s nappy-headed Ho, Harold has no use for a John that can’t pay.

Go read the rest of it. It's a Master Card moment....PRICELESS!!!

THAT'S WHAT I WANT TO KNOW, TOO...

Daily Kos has this up:

Sharpton went on to criticize Obama on other issues, including his relationship with Sen. Joe Lieberman, who's controversial within the Democratic Party.

"Senator Obama and I agree that the war is wrong, but then I want to know why he went to Connecticut and helped Lieberman, the biggest supporter of the war," Sharpton told TV.

Skeptical Brotha also informs us that John Edwards and Hillary Clinton are peeling off Congressional Black Caucus members to support them and not one of their own.

Which blows the "African-Americans are monolithic" theory to hell.

I've run out of adjectives to describe the junior Senator from Illinois...and it's getting very painful to watch him detonate his very own WMDs on his quest for the White House...which are Barack Obama himself.

Jeez....

OBAMA DISSES HIS PASTOR

IN CHURCH...THINKING ABOUT HOW TO DISS HIS PASTOR

It is said that "Absolute Power corrupts Absolutely". We may want to think the same thing when it comes to politicians, substituting the word "Power" for "Politics".

Because it appears that Senator Barack Obama, the newest Presidential candidate; the one so vocal about his Christian faith, has decided that being President is much more worthy than standing firm on said Christian beliefs and principles. So much so, that upon the advice of his campaign handlers, he's publicly dissed his own Pastor.

I don't know about you, but the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., a Nationally and globally respected Pastor of the Trinity United Church of Christ; a respected Christian author and political leader in Chicago, is NOT someone you diss, or dismiss in cavalier fashion as Obama has. Consider this tidbit from the New York Times:

The Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., senior pastor of the popular Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago and spiritual mentor to Senator Barack Obama, thought he knew what he would be doing on Feb. 10, the day of Senator Obama’s presidential announcement.

After all, back in January, Mr. Obama had asked Mr. Wright if he would begin the event by delivering a public invocation.

But Mr. Wright said Mr. Obama called him the night before the Feb. 10 announcement and rescinded the invitation to give the invocation.

“Fifteen minutes before Shabbos I get a call from Barack,” Mr. Wright said in an interview on Monday, recalling that he was at an interfaith conference at the time. “One of his members had talked him into uninviting me,” Mr. Wright said, referring to Mr. Obama’s campaign advisers.

Some black leaders are questioning Mr. Obama’s decision to distance his campaign from Mr. Wright because of the campaign’s apparent fear of criticism over Mr. Wright’s teachings, which some say are overly Afrocentric to the point of excluding whites.

Bill Burton, a spokesman for the Obama campaign, said the campaign disinvited Mr. Wright because it did not want the church to face negative attention. Mr. Wright did however, attend the announcement and prayed with Mr. Obama beforehand.

“Senator Obama is proud of his pastor and his church, but because of the type of attention it was receiving on blogs and conservative talk shows, he decided to avoid having statements and beliefs being used out of context and forcing the entire church to defend itself,” Mr. Burton said.

Instead, Mr. Obama asked Mr. Wright’s successor as pastor at Trinity, the Rev. Otis Moss III, to speak. Mr. Moss declined.

Many of you who read this blog have been very vocal in your objections to my opinions about the Senator. However, the fact that he will do anything and position himself any way to make himself appealing to white voters; to the point that he is apparently okay with dissing his own Pastor, should be enough to give you pause. This is what I, as well as Skeptical Brotha have been trying to communicate to you, since most of you say you're able to think for yourselves. We just wanted you to have the facts, and communicate our opinions about this brotha. We got flamed, accused of "crabs in barrel" mentality, etc., when your own responses to our posts appeared to continue suggesting a Jim Crow mentality that says Black people should celebrate "Black Faces In High Places".

It also means, just like the Edwards' camp, that the Democrats are going to cave in and run their campaigns like the ReThugs want them to, because they're complaining that Democrats aren't being "nice". Well, "Niceness" went out the door on Capitol Hill for twelve years, and really got nasty during the last six years of Bush Cartel rule. It's bullying and I will be glad when the Democrats grow a pair and tell the ReThugs to go to hell about how to run their own campaigns. Looks like Obama wants to play "nice" with the vipers in the snake pit.

And having Black Faces In High Places don't mean squat if said Black Faces are going to vote for and implement legislation and run the country in ways that because they are catering to corporate interests in exchange for money and personal favors - to the point that the Black Communities wholeheartedly supporting them get screwed over and over again.

If Barack Obama is an example of "New Black Leadership"... think about what I highlighted in red for your consideration. There is always something when a statement is divided by the word "But" that always indicates to me that the person is about to make a compromise in their "stand" or opinion. Sometimes, it qualifies the statement for clarification; but (LOL), it usually means they're about to backtrack on their previously stated position. There should be nothing that would not make Obama proud of his pastor...but, I digress.

You know the Rev. Al Sharpton was asked to weigh in on this and he didn't disappoint:

In recent weeks, word of Mr. Obama’s treatment of Mr. Wright has reached black leaders like the Rev. Al Sharpton and given them pause.

“I have not discussed this with Senator Obama in detail, but I can see why callers of mine and other clergymen would be concerned, because the issue is standing by your own pastor,” Mr. Sharpton said.

Exactly. If you can't stand by your own Pastor when it matters, you will cave in during a spring day when the temperature gets above 70 degrees.

For those of you who want to still support Obama after this, I say to you, "Thank God, we still live in a Democracy. That is your right." But, please, do not come to blogs with your whining and bellyaching when you feel as though you got screwed by your vote for Obama, because we've been like voices in the wilderness, giving you plenty of warning not to be taken in by Obama's bling.

Four years ago, when I first heard about Barack Obama, I had the Audacity to Hope that this brotha was on the real, and would be able to demonstrate to established sellouts like Harold Ford and Artur Davis that you could obtain National Office without engaging in the fine art of selling out.

How wrong I was. I won't go as far as calling him a "Harvard Law Grad Snake Oil Pimp" though I must admit, I'm sorely tempted.

Barack Obama is just another opportunistic politician who will once again take the African-American vote as his due, and for granted.

NOT EVERYONE LOVES OBAMA...

So sez the Skeptical Brotha. And I'm in agreement with him. I do apologize for the lengthy time between posts, though. And a belated Happy New Year.

I don't know what's annoying me more: Harold Ford, Jr. becoming the next Whore for the DLC, or the manufactured ascendency of Barack Obama to the White House, and he hasn't even done anything of significance yet.

I stole this from Skeptical Brotha. Read it and then head over to his site and show him some love, okay?

“And so we shall have to do more than register and more than vote; we shall have to create leaders who embody virtues we can respect, who have moral and ethical principles we can applaud with an enthusiasm that enables us to rally support for them based on confidence and trust. We will have to demand high standards and give consistent, loyal support to those who merit it. We will have to be a reliable constituency for those who prove themselves to be committed political warriors in our behalf. When our movement has partisan political personalities whose unity with their people is unshakable and whose independence is genuine, they will be treated in white political councils with the respect those who embody such power deserve. ” -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

As we profess to honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr this week, we should be mindful of his words. As the leader of a movement tasked with dealing with politicians large and small, he came to become intimately familiar with human nature and the psyche of the black politician. He came to understand what made each tick and was able to separate the wheat from the chaff. Barack Obama has taken a step this week on a journey that no other African American has ever been on. It is a step leading to the precipice of ultimate power: the Presidency. We, along with the entire world, will get a chance to see what this brotha is really made of. Unlike the dashing enigma that some in the corporate media have portrayed him to be, in reality, he is nothing of the sort.

His path to power has been eased by his gracious personality and his craven political accommodations to those of greater power. His unique positioning in the field of 2008 contenders is both calculated and largely deceptive. While Senator Obama is one of us, his candidacy is not from us.

This boom-let of uncritical and fawning praise and publicity culminating in his announcement for President is not a creation of the black community. We actually chose Jesse Jackson. He spoke for an undiluted consensus of black political thought. He did so eloquently and forthrightly despite the enormity of his vanity and ego. In contrast, Al Sharpton’s political persona is substantially weaker and his vanity, ego, and manifold character flaws are even greater. However, the substance of his critique of the Democratic Party as an institution which takes African Americans for granted is valid. Obama, on the other hand, speaks for those to whom he is indebted.

Dr. King was insightful when he wrote, “The majority of Negro political leaders do not ascend to prominence on the shoulders of mass support. Although genuinely popular leaders are now emerging, most are selected by white leadership, elevated to position, supplied with resources, and inevitably subjected to white control. The mass of Negroes nurtures a healthy suspicion toward these manufactured leaders.”

Obama is a manufactured leader who has allowed himself to be advanced by a cabal of media elites and “DLC centrist” political actors determined to choose an alternative to Hillary Rodham Clinton. Those of us in the progressive black blogosphere have ample reasons to be suspicious of brotha Barack. While it is important to examine what a politician stands for, it is just as important to examine who stands behind them pulling the strings.

Standing foursquare behind Senator Obama is the Chicago Daley machine. The Daley machine of old led by their father, and the Daley machine of today, have always stood for the maximization of white ethnic political power and the subjugation of minority communities to their corporate backed rule. As I’ve said before, Mayor Daley has endorsed Obama for President in a self-serving power move designed to eliminate the looming black threat against his re-election in a metropolis that long ceased to be majority white. His brotha Bill Daley, the former Gore Campaign Chairman and Secretary of Commerce in the Clinton Administration, has also come aboard ship Obama, signing on as a senior advisor.

In the Daley Machine of old, the contenders had to make a great show of coming to Chicago and kissing daddy’s ring. During that time, he controlled the Illinois delegation of convention delegates to the Democratic National Convention. His active support was usually critical and his active efforts in 1960 led to JFK’s narrow win over Nixon. Today, the Daley brothers exercise that power as a team.

Mayor Daley heads a Chicago political fiefdom in which he is virtually unchallenged. He has maintained that control by buying off black elected officials with patronage and pork barrel projects and by shamelessly catering to rapacious corporate interests. He issued his first Veto in 17 years as Mayor to prevent the City of Chicago from mandating that Wal-Mart and other big box retailers pay living wages of at least $10.00 an hour. He did this despite an accumulation of over $78.9 billion in assets for Wal-Mart’s founding family.

Mayor Daley’s brotha Bill Daley negotiated NAFTA on behalf of the Clinton Administration and PNTR with China. These, and other regressive free trade packages advanced by the corporate friendly Clinton Administration facilitated the ongoing destruction of America’s manufacturing base by shipping jobs to Mexico and other developing nations better suited to paying workers poverty wages and leaving Americans unemployed. He is now the Chicago front-man for the investment banking firm of JPMorgan.

Obama’s vote for the Oman free trade agreement is probably the source of Bill Daley’s enthusiasm and should be a basis for progressive skepticism. Oman prohibits union organizing and is nothing more than a top down dictatorship with a record of human rights abuses. Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis as he supported a strike by black sanitation workers for living wages and collective bargaining rights. It is an affront to King’s legacy and contrary to his dream to support right-wing trade agreements that fail to uphold people’s basic human right to a living wage.

Political Scientist Michael Parenti has postulated that “American capitalism represents more than just an economic system; it is an entire cultural and social order, a plutocracy — that is, a system of rule by and for the rich — for the most part.” Now that Obama’s moderate, mealy-mouthed political manifesto has met with critical acclaim and made him a millionaire, he is acceptable to the ruling class as a colored proxy and Trojan horse for their malevolent interests.

During the contentious debate over the nomination of dangerous black reactionary Janice Rogers Brown to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, the nations second highest and most important appellate court besides the Supreme Court itself, Obama said, “I am not somebody who subscribes to the view that because somebody is a member of a minority group they somehow have to subscribe to a particular ideology or a particular political party. I think it is wonderful that Asian Americans, Latinos, African Americans, and others are represented in all parties and across the political spectrum. When such representation exists, then those groups are less likely to be taken for granted by any political party.” Part of that statement contains a kernel of truth but also reveals a stunning lack of insight about liberation movements and progressive social change. Nobody tasted freedom by becoming an Uncle Tom reactionary.

None of the groups he has mentioned has been unscathed by a bald-faced economic, social, and politically directed racism meant to subjugate them under a paternalistic white hand. His lack of fortitude in filibustering the nominations of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court and Appellate Judges like Clarence Thomas Clone Janice Rogers Brown, reveal a political moderation that goes against the progressive grain of the black political consensus and a capitulation to the contemporary forces of reaction.

This betrayal and lack of fortitude make him palatable to the teeming masses of white political activists yearning for the chance to wave their support of Obama in our faces as proof of their liberalism while the racist underpinnings of our imperialistic domestic and foreign policy remain intact. I believe in the old adage “show and prove.” Both Obama and the liberal white blogosphere must do copious amounts of both before they are “absolved of all sin” by me. His run for the White House was paved by the efforts of Jesse Jackson and the black community 20 years ago. Obama has yet to show himself worthy.

While Jesse Jackson was at heart a black politician and part-time preacher in search of political legitimacy. Al Sharpton is a street hustler with a clerical collar in search of a better hustle. If that means partially representing the black political consensus by running for President while simultaneously living the high life on campaign funds solicited by GOP operatives trying to embarrass and weaken the democratic party, he seems to be O.K. with that. That, in a nutshell, describes Reverend Al’s 2004 Presidential bid.

Al is always getting in bed with disreputable people he has no business dealing with in an unscrupulous effort to make a damn dollar. Rhetorically however, he comes closer to being on point than most of his so-called mainstream brethren. He sounds the right notes at the right times from an undiluted, and politically honest sheet of authentically black music.

“This is not about a party. This is about living up to the promise of America. The promise of America says we will guarantee quality education for all children and not spend more money on metal detectors than computers in our schools.”

“The promise of America guarantees health care for all of its citizens and doesn’t force seniors to travel to Canada to buy prescription drugs they can’t afford here at home.”

“The promise of America provides that those who work in our health care system can afford to be hospitalized in the very beds they clean up every day.”

“The promise of America is that government does not seek to regulate your behavior in the bedroom, but to guarantee your right to provide food in the kitchen.”

“The issue of government is not to determine who may sleep together in the bedroom, it’s to help those that might not be eating in the kitchen.”

“The promise of America [is] that we stand for human rights, whether it’s fighting against slavery in the Sudan, …AIDS in Lesotho; (or)… police misconduct in this country.”

For the aforementioned reasons, I feel it necessary to sanction another run by Al Sharpton. America, especially black America, could use a sober dose of candor regarding race and its relationship to the Democratic Party. While this falls far, far, short of an endorsement, I feel his presence necessary to articulate what Obama always fails to say. If for no other reason, I relish the chance to see Sharpton “spank the donkey” one more time. If he has to slap some damn rhetorical and policy sense into Barack Obama in the process, so be it. If nothin’ else, it might keep Barack honest enough for black folks to eventually support and honor the legacy and dream of a King.