DarkStar Spouts Off

CBC vs Obama: Ain't Nuthin' New

Some are pointing out the disagreement between the CBC and Obama concerning how much is "being done for Blacks" with the CBC saying there are not enough specific plans "for" Blacks while Obama is saying, essentially, what is good for America is good for Blacks since a rising tide lifts all boats.

So, what's new about disagreement between Black Democrats? Only demagogues or the politically ignorant would say this is something that doesn't happen in Black politics.

When Barry was running for mayor of D.C., at the core of his campaign was what he "would do" for Blacks in D.C. and not afraid of calling Blacks who didn't agree with him Uncle Tom. The same has happened in Baltimore and Camden mayoral races.

Let's not forget that half of the CBC supported Hillary Clinton and half supported Obama. So what makes anyone think they would be of one accord?

Oh. Wait. That's right. All Blacks think alike and so believe those who even say that Black Republicans show that all Blacks don't think alike. Think about it.

It's Time, Don't You Think?

Don't you think it's due time to cut off Jesse Jackson, Sr's nuts?

Observation On Unemployment Stats

Here is an interesting observation about the reporting of unemployment statistics.

During the Bush administration, conservatives , Republicans, and the conservative media crowed about the low unemployment numbers, and rarely, if at all, commented on the unemployment numbers for Blacks (unless the minimum wage was mentioned) or the "real unemployment numbers" that included people who "gave up" looking for a job. However Black progressives/liberals seemed to always use these statistics as well.

Now that Obama is the president, Republicans, conservatives, and the conservative media, are using these numbers (Black unemployment, "real" unemployment) to indict the Obama administration policies. Meanwhile, Black progressives/liberals are continuing to use those numbers as well.

I find that "interesting."

Interesting Thought From The Town Hall Meetings

Here's an interesting thought as a result of the town hall meetings.

Republicans and conservatives are attacking Democrat politicians for their response to the meetings that turn rowdy. In Maryland, when Ben Cardin mandated RSVPs for people who want to attend the meetings, people said Cardin was afraid to address people and that he should just take his lumps.

Now, contrast that to Republicans who won't go to Black groups to address them. Contrast that to the Republicans and conservatives who support the idea that Republicans should not address Black people because of the "hostility."

Bullet Point Brain Spew

Thoughts in bullet point form:

• I thought about posting my thoughts on one of the health care alternatives that was being "linked" about the Internet, especially the part about the potential for end of life counseling. After reading the offending section and a lot of the alternative, I decided to hold off on posting anything specific because it was one of 3 alternatives AND because the "end of life" counseling wasn't spelled out in the way critics of the health care reform effort have made it out to be.
• Any congress critter who didn't read the differing bills being put forth, but still trying to defend the effort, deserved to be yelled at.
• I'm not comfortable saying that people who really disagree with Obama are doing so mainly because he is Black, but a trusted "fly on the wall" has confirmed the number of threats against Obama has exceeded those of previous POTUS. I'm just sayin'.
• At a community cook out, besides learning how bad the previous "owner" of my home was, I learned other Black families moved into the area, even with the high cost of the homes, because of the school system. One family moved from a highly regarded area to this one because of concerns of the high school his children would be attending.
• You can't  have one Black American political agenda because the concerns of Blacks at the various socio-economic and family levels, will not come together enough for their to be a common Black political agenda.
• When you read this opinion article, keep in mind the following math:
  • Today you have 100 items. Tomorrow you have 200 items. That's a growth rate of 100%
  • The day after that, you have 300 items. That's a growth rate of 50%.
  • The day after that, you have 400 items. That's a growth rate of 33 1/3%.
  • The day after that, you have 500 items. That's a growth rate of 25%.
  My point is very simple. When you have low numbers to start with, any increase will be a large percentage even if the increase amount is constant. Walter Williams is relying on this math play to distort facts.
• Michael Vick In Philly?!?!?!?!?!?
• Go RAVENS!!!!

Raw: Young Brother Response

This is a "raw" response to this post. Real life calls and I don't know when I can get back around to this, so I'll put it out there and let the chip fall where they may.

Points to hit:

Organization racial uplift fails because such organizations don't scale and they are too abstract to be practical.

• Programs targeted towards education are too abstract?
• Helping people in prison turn their lives around too abstract?
• Teaching young men to be good fathers, too abstract?

The first is that I come from Los Angeles, a big city where people with big mouths try to make big organizations. I haven't seen it work much better than a good church, and well that's already done. In a smaller city, I think there might be a more pressing need and a greater commitment to make strong love out of weak links.

• Obama made a mistake spouting off on Gates with a situation you don't know and you do the same about areas that aren't LA?
• Or maybe it's the organizations which you have come in contact with.

Secondly, the objective progress of black Americans means that on average the organizational ability latent on the black communities is greater than it was when I was a young black man. So the chances of an honest effort ending up okeydoke is smaller today than it was 20, 30 years ago.

• Huh?

If you are middle class, the chances that you are going to lift poor people into the middle class are slim. Especially in times like this when times are hard and messianic politicians are taxing you back down into the ditch.  If you're rich, the chances are better. What I'm saying is that if you've got a 50k job, it's likely that the time you spend trying to get somebody with a 20k job into a 35k job might often come at the expense of you getting a 75k job. So volunteer your time very carefully, because it's the man with the 150k job who has the time to recognize the ways and means of the rich that paves the greater path. And if you don't believe that, then why aren't you moving to Cuba, comrade? But then again, that's just all about money.

• Many of the "racial uplift" groups aren't about lifting the poor to middle class but giving people the tools to make better decisions and/or helping people improve the stock in their lives. After that the goal is the improved decisions improve their lives.
• Isn't the goal of job training providing a person the opportunity to learn a new skill which will allow them to feed themselves and their families? What's wrong with that?
• Parental training. If you see some of the poor excuse for parenting that is happening now, and realize that poor parenting may lead to societal dysfunctional people, what's the beef?
• Educational tutoring
• So what if a person making 50K "prevents" themselves from making 75K with their efforts? The people doing the work are making a decision and it's not yours or anyone else business to tell them their decision is wrong because it may retard their economic progress.
• A false decision is laid out here

The people this hurts the most are those who have not experienced the ways and means of power, because they see the game but they can't tell where the game ends and the realness begins. I think that especially counts for young black men who are not in close proximity to the ways and means of social power in the mainstream. When the mainstream carries power over you and your boss is gaming rather than authentically civil, then you will instinctively reject. You'd be right, but you sacrifice your own promotion. People who come up like that carry the dual consciousness, it destroys confidence in self and society.

• Civility is taught and if the parents aren't teaching, because the bonds have been broken in some manner, who the hell are you to deride the efforts to mend some bonds?

So my advice to everyone is the same. Read Carter and know that civil people with integrity are out there, dispersed and often unavailable, trying to express something better than a game face and working with integrity to earn the trust they deserve. That's the civilized world I'm living in, person to person in America, because I don't have time for anything else.

• Fine, your choice, no time, cool. But who the hell are you to deride those who take the time to make the choice?
• Following your comments, AUTENTIC GOD FEARING pastors, men and women of God who preach, teach, and spread the Word of Jesus Christ, would not do so, or at least that's what I get from your hackery.

Maybe he's thinking things through and putting thoughts out as they become "solidified" or so he thinks, initially. Or maybe he is, as has been written, a "conservative" and is approaching things from that perspective instead of "organically" where your beliefs come from your core and then you identify an ideology into which you "neatly fit."

The Talented Tenth

There was a lot I intended to write about the NON-sense Cobb wrote about the idea of the Talented Tenth. Some day I may come back to it and break it down, but right now, all I have to write about it is this: The first hour of part one of "Black in America, 2" on CNN shows The Talented Tenth in action.

The problem with this and all black role modeling. Only people with racial hangups need black role models. And only people who want to affect people with racial hangups want to be black role models. It is one of the great temptations of my class of folks, those formerly known as the Talented Tenth.

The first hour put the lie to the above quote, with efficiency and quickness.

I HATE lazy thinking. Cobb is now demonstrating lazy ass thinking more and more and I'm disgusted, especially when shots like the above are made. Frankly, he ought to be embarrassed. If he watched the first hour, and re-reads what he wrote, if the man has any shred of decency and thought, he'd write something saying, at least, that he has to reconsider some things, since he claimed he thinks all of the time.

'nuff said. Now I'm done.

Da Truf Is Out: It's About Black Politics, AKA, Party Pettiness

Here's a money quote, right chayah....

When I get some free time, I'm going to compare Obama's address to GW Bush's. That should be more fun than a barrel of monkeys. In the meantime, read all of Obama's "you're on your own" rhetoric like you should: The well is empty and that fiction y'all call black politics ain't going to deliver squat.

That's at the core of that rhetorical sewer that I've come down on in a few posts. Instead of being straight up about the core of his thought, he wrote mainly a turd to drill down to this: Black politics, aka identity politics when the phrase is used by conservatives, doesn't work.

If he said the Black community is fractured enough that there is no core set of political goals that can fit under a "Black politics" umbrella, then I could have agreed. I could have pointed out on the AFROAM-L listserv I wrote that it makes little sense for people to expect a Black consensus in politics at this point. For example, my family members who are not doing well, are more worried about the safety of their neighborhoods, job opportunities, and public schools. My family members who are more well off are more worried about 401(K), moving into neighbhorhoods with good school systems, being a part of the schooling of their children, legacy wealth, politics, and other things. There's a disconnect and it's because of money.

Or maybe I would have pointed out my defense of Jack & Jill and how J&J is a part of Black America no matter how much people want to define the Black community as the poor Black America.

Or maybe I would have, again, written on his blog that the Congressional Black Caucus, as a group, is useless because, as a group, they don't know how to use the power they SHOULD have in the Democratic Party.

Or, maybe it, I would have pointed out, again, supporting Jewish causes to get the Jewish vote is identity politics. I would have pointed out that making sure you speak to Christian groups and throwing them "red meat" is identity politics. I also would have pointed out, again, that anti-identity politics IS identity politics. Refusing to address gay Republicans because "the religious Right" would see it as "pandering to gays" is identity politics. I would have pointed out that refusing to ask for the Black vote or address Black groups even when they ask Republicans to address them, is identity politics.

Or, if I was in a snarky mood, I would have pointed out that OUR party, the Republican party, has had some recent identity politics screw ups missteps and he, Cobb, hasn't written jack about it but will complain at times about non-Republican Blacks attacking Black Republicans?

Cobb's piece was pure rhetorical small minded partisan pettiness.

I ain't done...

[ Update ] Project 21 is identity politics.

Talented Tenth Horse Pukies

Another money quote:

See if you were Talented Tenth, then you already know about a litany of black role models, because you study prior role models with a bit of envy and a bit of spite. If you buy into what I call the role monkey circus, then you already know that somehow you have to overcome the same demons you intend to chase out of your followers. So you might start during Black History Month with Carter G. Woodson and get enough inspiration from him for you to be a beacon to others. And basically you need enough self-esteem to assume the task, that plus the initiative taken on Woodson, and an opportunity to play show and tell. Bam, instant role model. Do it enough times for enough media and you become a 'black leader'.  Do it in a calculatedly brilliant way in front of all America in the political arena and you might even become Barack Obama. But the underlying premise never changes, you're a show off in front of people who don't have the courage and demon-shields to do for self.

I am an acquaintance of a man who used to be in the correctional system. Many times he has said he was tired of seeing men, especially Black men, on that end of the system, so he left the system to help men BEFORE they even have a chance to enter the system.

He's a pastor who speaks many times to Black men about Black men needing to take care of our health, being men of God, being good husbands and leaders of the family, being good fathers, being good providers.... Not struggling alone in issues that other men have.

At the regular men's breakfast on Saturday, a meeting/minstry/bonding group that he started, another man spoke for about 15 minutes about how he and his wife adopted a son and about he is now mentoring another teenage boy and how that mentoring is starting to positively affect the teenager's life. He encouraged us to look around and see what young boy needs a man in their life and to engage.

100 Black Men of America, Inc

Concerned Black Men

Project Alpha

The Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, the first black Greek letter fraternity in the nation, understands the importance of a community of support in every youth’s life, specifically focusing on fatherless African American boys and their need for a strong, male role model. The word mentor means a wise and trusted counselor or teacher or an influential senior sponsor of supporter. Even boys with supportive fathers in their lives can benefit from the program objectives set forth by this altruistic group of young men and their mission to nurture other male youth.

Through their partnership with the March of Dimes, Alpha Phi Alpha’s Project Alpha seeks to provide mentoring to at-risk youth working within the African American community. Project Alpha is a national initiative that seeks to provide “education, motivation and skill-building on issues of responsibility,” teaching young men ages 12 to 15 about fatherhood and the role of males in healthy relationships. Their program includes education on abstinence, birth control, sexually transmitted diseases and teen pregnancy in the hopes of inspiring wise decision making in the future.

I listed "Project Alpha" because Cobb is an Alpha Man.

But why did I point out mentoring groups?

I pointed them out because mentoring IS role modeling, which Mike makes lite of in the quote above. When that kind of non-sense is put out there, it has to be smacked down with the fierceness.

But I ain't done...

Project Alpha

The Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, the first black Greek letter fraternity in the nation, understands the importance of a community of support in every youth’s life, specifically focusing on fatherless African American boys and their need for a strong, male role model. The word mentor means a wise and trusted counselor or teacher or an influential senior sponsor of supporter. Even boys with supportive fathers in their lives can benefit from the program objectives set forth by this altruistic group of young men and their mission to nurture other male youth.

Through their partnership with the March of Dimes, Alpha Phi Alpha’s Project Alpha seeks to provide mentoring to at-risk youth working within the African American community. Project Alpha is a national initiative that seeks to provide “education, motivation and skill-building on issues of responsibility,” teaching young men ages 12 to 15 about fatherhood and the role of males in healthy relationships. Their program includes education on abstinence, birth control, sexually transmitted diseases and teen pregnancy in the hopes of inspiring wise decision making in the future.

I listed "Project Alpha" because Cobb is an Alpha Man.

But why did I point out mentoring groups?

I pointed them out because mentoring IS role modeling, which Mike makes lite of in the quote above. When that kind of non-sense is put out there, it has to be smacked down with the fierceness.

But I ain't done...

Credulity

A money quote to me:

Obama has proven to be, in my opinion, a great litmus test for American credulity.

OK, that's just straight partisan b.s. and although I think Obama's policies, largely, are wrong, I'm calling Cobb out on this one.

Wasn't "credulity" exactly what Christians were guilty of in supporting George Bush, especially with the faith based initiative?

A former senior presidential aide has accused the Bush administration of using evangelical Christians to win votes but then privately ridiculing them once in office. The allegations by David Kuo, the former deputy director of the White House office of faith-based initiatives, come at a devastating time, when the administration is counting on born-again Christians to vote in sufficient numbers to save the Republicans' hold on Congress in the November elections.

In a book entitled Tempting Faith: an Inside Story of Political Seduction, to be published on Monday, Mr Kuo portrays the Bush White House's commitment to evangelical causes as little more than a cynical facade designed to win votes.

"National Christian leaders received hugs and smiles in person and then were dismissed behind their backs and described as ridiculous, out of control, and just plain goofy," Mr Kuo wrote, according to MSNBC television, which obtained an early copy of the book. In particular, he quotes Karl Rove, the president's long-serving political adviser and mentor, as describing evangelical Christians as "nuts".

From what I could tell, largely based on this, and the fact that Bill Clinton was the epitome of immoral, Bush was able to ride the wave of evangelicals into office.

Or what about the so-called "compassionate conservative" nonsense? What exactly did that mean? If you asked 10 different people who were politically aware what it means to them, you would get 10 different answers. Isn't THAT the definition of credulity? People assigning beliefs to something that is not really spelled out?

How about this one? How about people believing Republicans will cut government spending when, during the Bush administration, they spent this country into the toilet just like the Democrats are doing right now?

I'm not done.

Rhetorical Butt Whippin' To Commence

I don't have time right now, but before the weekend is done, I'm going to deliver a rhetorical butt whippin' to Cobb. I respect the man's thinking ability but what has frustrated me more and more lately is his complete LACK of thinking and relying on "conservative" vs. "liberal" b.s. instead of looking at things they way they are. Before he went comment-less, I stated that it seemed his "thoughts" were based on "I am a conservative thus I think..." vs. "I think this way and because of this, I'm a conservative."

To me, this piece proves it, and I'm gonna use him like an old dish rag; I promise.

A Black Republican Shows Spine

I like this.

North Carolina political and social activist Lenny McAllister is standing with other Young Republican leaders in denouncing the recent racial intolerant behavior by a major candidate for leadership of the Young Republican National Federation.

Louisianan Audra Shay, a candidate for chairman at this month’s national convention in Indianapolis, IN, was previously endorsed by her home state governor Bobby Jindal (R-LA.)

Ms. Shay’s recent public support of comments alluding to a need to “…to take this country back from all these mad coons...” and "...and if your ass is black don't let the sun set on it in a southern town (sic)" have touched off a firestorm among young Republican activists looking to move away from this trend.

Others speaking out in defiance of this include former RNC Communications and current DC Young Republicans Chairman Sean Conner. 

Really.
More at the link provided.

To My Black GOP Brothers and Sisters...

In your glee and rapid fire shots you are taking at Colin Powell, I'd like to ask you pure "conservative" idealists a very simple question: When a conservative Black man ran for the Republican presidential nomination, how come you didn't all get together and back him, one Mr. Alan Keyes?

The Urban League, Project 21, and Rush Limbaugh

The Urban League came out with this year's State of Black America Report, and as usually, they presented the negative information, at least that's what I get out of the executive summary. Excuse me, but I ain't a fraction, 71.1%, of any person. And in the areas of solutions, the executive summary points to other people instead of Blacks. I have a real problem with that aspect.

Along these lines, Project 21 comes out with press release blasting the report.

Overall, Project 21's Martin noted: "The black community does not need to be protected from capitalism, as the National Urban League's report seems to imply.  The black community needs to embrace capitalism.  The free market is where true opportunity lies."

I find it interesting, for example, the executive summary of the NUL report and Project 21 neglects to mention the growth in Black owned businesses. I find it interesting, that as I have pointed out before, both Black conservatives and Black liberals are overall negative about the Black community.

But it's interesting that Project 21 would criticize the NUL report as "unnecessarily dreary" but not say a word when Rush Limbaugh said the Black community hasn't advanced in 40 years.

Roland Martin: Dems Standing In School House Doorway

I've said before that the Congressional Democrats are standing in the school house doorway as did George Wallace, years ago.

Here is Roland Martin in his own words.

D.S. co-signs.

Suuuuuuuuure.......

Yep, suuuuuuuurrrreeeeeee......

The vice president of Baltimore's NAACP chapter said yesterday during a rally for taxicab drivers that his reputation has been damaged after police arrested him, claiming to have found drugs in his car.

Ellis L. Staten Jr., 44, was not charged with a crime, although officers said they recovered heroin and marijuana during a search of his vehicle Thursday near Pennsylvania Avenue and Dolphin Street.

Staten said he was targeted by police because of his work with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which held an organizing meeting yesterday for city cabdrivers.

...

Staten said the drugs that police found belonged to a volunteer who was helping pass out fliers about the rally. Kevin Logan, 44, who was in the back seat of the car, was charged with two counts of drug possession.

But police said they found Staten in possession of Suboxone pills, or buprenorphine, which is prescribed to treat heroin addiction.

"They singled me out because I'm the one responsible for getting the cabdrivers together. No more perfect person to defame than the NAACP," Staten said.

Is it possible it was another person's stash?

Yes.

I want to know what "in possession" means. On his person or in his car. And if in his car, was it a bag owned by him or in the open under a seat, on the seat...

It doesn't look good.

Go 34 Minutes Into It and Play

Go 34 minutes into it and play.

Then go 49 minutes into it and play.

Then go 1:45 into it and play.

Then go 2:39 into it and play. Hear what causes Michael Steele to rise to his feet can applaud.

A Question For Other Black Republicans

I have a question for other Black Republicans.

• It's a white Republican, Rush Limbaugh, who is saying Blacks have not advanced in 40 years. That is false and I've proved it. Anyone else who holds true to that belief, is race baiting.
• It's white and some Black Republicans who say the CRA caused the financial meltdown when it's proven that most of the subprime loans were made by institutions that aren't under the CRA.
• It was a white Republican president who used a tale of a Black woman on welfare, getting into a Caddy after buying food with food stamps. It was that white Republican's own staff who later said it was not true and an "illustration."
• It was a white Republican, Jack Kemp, who said he was, essentially, in exile from his own party by saying the GOP needed to address Black voters.
• It was a white Republican, Tony Snow, who said he was, essentially, fired from the first Bush administration (Bush "Sr"), for saying they needed to address Black voters.
• It was a white Republican, Mary Matalin, who confirmed Tony Snow's comments about the "old" GOP guard not wanting to address Black voters.
• It was a white Republican, Lee Atwater, who said he used race baiting to get Republican votes.
• It was a white Republican, Ken Melhman, who said Republicans used race baiting, "The Southern Strategy" and that the Republican party was wrong for doing so.

Why must Black Republicans be responsible for cleaning up the mess we, by and large, didn't create?

Comments R Me: Venting On Michael Steele

Comments I wrote elsewhere when a Black Republican challenged me for being a Republican and writing "bad" about the Republican party, or rather, not "good enough" about the Republican party:

For anyone else who cares, besides folks trying to make all Black people think like them...

When Ellen Sauerbry lost her last race for governor of Maryland, the Maryland GOP asked her to head the party. She refused and said the party should choose Michael Steele. Sauerbry got her head handed to her in Baltimore City, Howard, and Montgomery Counties. Part of the reason why she was trounced in Baltimore is because of the Black vote, but most of the reason is she ran her race pitting the state against Baltimore City. When she ran 2nd time, she was trounced even worse than the first time. However, during the race, Paris Glendenning (Spend-dening) called her a racist. Kurt Schmoke and the PG County executive Wayne Curry, both Black Dems, said Sauerby is not racist and called on Glendenning to stop. She said the MD GOP needed Steele because the GOP doesn't get Black votes.

While Steele was head of the Maryland GOP, he approached WOLB, a Black talk radio station that is part of Radio One and sister station of WOL, the station that started it all for Kathy Hughes, about hosting a talk show. They gave him a weekly show where he addressed Black callers and pulled no shots. I listened to the show when I could and he made sense most of the time, but he was coming from the Old School that I grew up with, the Old School that I live, the Old School that I'm trying hard to pass on. And he admitted the GOP shortcomings.

Robert Ehrlich ran for govenor of Maryland and selected Steele as his running mate, and Ehrlich won. Unlike the current MIA Lt. Gov, Ehrlich gave Steele many high profile tasks and Steele made his presence known in the Black community, as did Ehrlich. In fact, Ehrlich laid out his plans for addressing concerns of Blacks and they both signed their names. Dude kept most promises, including increasing funding to the Maryland HBCUs which have been historically underfunded by the state.

Steele got big props from me for attempting to address education issues in Baltimore city

So, race forward to Steele running for Senator of Maryland. Steele said that Mfume was his friend and if it turned out he would face Mfume, the race would be about issues, no racial politics. Of course, later, Steele was quoted as saying if Mfume was his opponent, race would be on the table and he, Steele, would bring it up by pointing to Mfume leading the NAACP. Of course, this ignores that Steele knew that Mfume and Juilan Bond didn't see eye to eye, or that Mfume made overtures to the GOP and was publicly spurned, but addressed in private.

That ticked me off but one day on WOLB, Steele was whining about the treatment some were giving him and he said, "Black voters need to develop an insult level about the insults being thrown towards Black politicians."

That hit the target with me. I was someone who defended the man when I thought he was correct in what he said. But it always irked me when he used the "Blacks on the plantation" slur, so from that point on, I decided to challenge him on it.

When I received mailers asking for donations, I wrote back saying he needs to stop using "stuck on the Dem plantation" and why. I stopped receiving the mailers. I emailed his campaign stating the same thing.

After he got in trouble with the Jewish "leadership" in Maryland for comments he made, I called into a talk show that he was on and said that I thought his use of "Blacks are stuck on the Democrat plantation" is foul and brought up his earlier comments about insult level. I finished it off by saying that he wouldn't dare say that Jewish voters were stuck wandering in the Democrat wilderness or that Jewish voters were stuck in the Democrat concentration camp. He said he thought there was nothing wrong with what he had said.

After some thought, when the election rolled around, I voted for the Libertarian/Green candidate, Keven Zeese.

If you are a Republican and don't like my "talking bad" about the Republican party, that's your problem. Learn to think for yourself.

Rikyrah Does Ill Politics

I've spouted off about the happening with Blago and the Senate seat appointment. Rikyrah provided more information about it in the comment section of my post.

Rikyrah goes into more detail on Jack and Jill Politics and does a durn good job.

The ‘Black Street’ don’t know Dan Seals. I know him,because I’m a poltiical junkie, but color me cynical about this. I’m going to tell you why this is SUS-PECT to me. Quinn had all the time to get this out to the newspapers when this first broke about Blago (to position himself for when he became Governor). You don’t nominate someone Black that Black people have never heard of, and has no connection to the Black community - other than skin color.

If Quinn had ‘dropped’ his intentions of nominating someone African-American, or at least making it clear that Black folks were on this list, it would be a whole other story. But, He DID NOT.

Sorry, if my cynical self isn’t buying it.

What is his base?

I’m just askin’.

He’s a Half-Black man with a NON-Black wife, who has NO Chicago connections whatsoever. The Black vote IS Cook County, and we don’t know him.

So, the thought that they’d throw away Burris - who IS well known and rooted in the Black community.

For Seals, who is a NOBODY in the Black community.

I know some folks live in post-Obama racial delusion. But, wake up.

That SEALS would be chosen over the numerous presently elected Black officials?

I don't know Ill. politics so I can't say if what was written is accurate, but the post seems credible to me. Read the whole thing please.

I Have A Suggestion, Start With SELF

Sophia A. Nelson writes an interesting piece, and it is one that I think is largely correct:

After such a devastating loss, Republicans will have to do some retooling. We'll have to decide whether we want to be the party that believes in smaller government, lower taxes and less regulation, or whether we're going to be a litmus-test party that responds only to the demands of social conservatives. But most important, we'll have to confront our most disastrous modern legacy: our poor relationship with black Americans, the very people the party was formed to protect from the expansion of slavery into Kansas and Nebraska in 1854.

That relationship may be lost for generations, thanks to a campaign by Sen. John McCain that seemed to simply concede the black vote. According to one senior aide, McCain had been polling close to 20 percent of the black vote before the primaries ended. But then his "Forgotten America" tour, which started soon after, never seemed to go anywhere. I knew of only one high-level black adviser or spokesperson on his full-time paid campaign staff. The GOP convention was embarrassingly devoid of people of color -- among more than 2,000 delegates, only 36 were black.

The problem, former Maryland lieutenant governor Michael Steele told the Washington Times last week, is that party officials "don't give a damn." To them, he said, "outreach means let's throw a cocktail party, find some black folks and Hispanics and women, wrap our arms around them -- 'See, look at us.' And then we go back to the same old, same old."

However, I have another suggestion, one that I think needs to happen first. First, how many times has a Black Republican in position to do something done something like this?

And truth be told, it's sometimes an ill fit. Consider the comments of Shannon Reeves, an African American who started a college Republican chapter at Grambling State University in 1988. In 2003, he wrote an open letter to the party after it was disclosed that in 1999, a newsletter published by the then-vice chairman of the California Republican Party had carried an essay suggesting that the country would have been better off if the South had won the Civil War.

Second, and this gets to the core of the title I chose:

"It's not our message as much as it is our messengers that are killing us."

I was inclined to vote for Michael Steele for Senate, but something he said convicted me. On WOLB, a Black talk radio station, he asked the listeners how much they are willing to put up with concerning insults towards Black politicians, particularly Black Republicans, and how much are they willing to put up with insults towards them. He was referencing Democrats taking Black voters for granted. But I took it a step further and decided not to vote for Steele because he kept using, "Blacks are on the Democrat plantation" and strongly defended its use when I challenged him on air. It doesn't matter if you are Black or white, insulting the people you want to vote for you, doesn't make sense. I voted for Kevin Zeese.

So, while you are challenging your, OUR, own party, how about challenging some of the Black messengers as well?

Michael Steele Wants The RNC Chair Job

Michael Steele wants to be RNC chair. Listen to the audio in it's entirety.

He's buddies with Julian Bond?
Wants to open dialog with the Urban League?
Wants to open dialog with the NAACP?

Personally, I have no problem with it and think it's the right thing to do, especially since there are Black Republicans who are members of the group anyway!

But this is a man who says Blacks on are the Democratic plantation!

Note the irony there.

This Is Why I Miss William Raspberry

This is why I miss William Raspberry. Even when I disagreed with his writing, as I do partially here, the logic was lucid and the writing was well put together. The "replacement" for Raspberry, Eugene Robinson, doesn't even fill the bunyon dent of Raspberry's shoe.

I wish. What we have witnessed, I think, is something less profound but still hugely significant. Obama's election means that in America, including at the highest levels of our politics, race is no longer an automatic deal-breaker. That's a major step forward in the thinking of white America.

For black America, Obama may be the harbinger of a different transformation: the movement away from what might be called the civil rights paradigm. Since the astounding success of the civil rights movement nearly half a century ago, America's black leadership has been a civil rights leadership, focused almost exclusively on grievance -- America owes us the right to vote, to enjoy places of public accommodation, to attend nonsegregated schools, to be free of the laws that underlie American-style apartheid.

...

What more recent black leaders have not acknowledged is that there are some problems that the grievance model cannot address. The schools black children attend don't work as well as they should -- but most often for reasons that have less to do with white attitudes than with our own. Many black children -- and too many of their parents -- don't value education. If they do, they see it as a debt owed rather than a prize to be earned. Their resulting undereducation renders them specially vulnerable to the vicissitudes of the job market. Black communities are beset by crime and violence but, again, less because of racism than because of lack of discipline in those communities. One key reason for this failure of discipline is the dissolution of black families -- not because of discrimination but because black Americans lead the nation in fatherlessness, having allowed marriage to fall to an all-time-low priority.

I wish Raspberry would have named the people to whom he is referring, because I don't think, for example, that Cory Booker fits that model. It can be said that Tavis Smiley does get into the grievance model but, for those who read his last book carefully, he also pointed out where Black individuals can do things on their level to improve their lives and community.

How many African American parents proffer their children another script: They won't let you succeed (except as entertainers and athletes). If you expect to do well elsewhere, you have to be twice as good.

And unless I'm not Black, parents who are involved are saying the entertainers and athletes are the exception and it would be best to follow the "rule" path. Additionally, the "twice as good" is more from his generation, isn't it?

And once again I am forced go grapple with the idea of having Obama as a role model. Raspberry writes as if Stanely O'Neil, Ben Carson, Tavis Smiley, Roland Martin, etc, don't exist. And, again, is it more important to have people involved in children's lives on a daily level or have the shining role model?

I miss that man's writing.

Comments R Us: Black Republicans, Doing vs Being

From this thread over a Cobb's spot, I wrote:

All that to say, politics and principle is an oxymoron. That's why I take the pot shots I do. If anyone is going to evangelize a political point of view, for my sanity, I have to examine it for holes and exploit said holes.

Black conservatives need to divorce politics from a "conservative view" as much as possible. If they did that, minds would give a second look. But when Black conservatives don't give Rush Limbaugh a beat down over his bullshit about Blacks not advancing, then the hater-aide is hard NOT to justify, even if I think it's not productive.

I think that was good stuff.

Oh Yeah....

"Old School" vs. "New School."

The New School won.

It's time to adjust to a "new" reality.