Wish I'd Said That

“Black people gamble. Black people smoke. Black people drink. And so if these companies want to take some of the money they’ve earned off of our people and give it to us to support good causes, then we take it.” - Elsie Scott, Congressional Black Caucus Foundation

Not a pretty picture. Our colored representatives sell themselves cheaply for the sake of good parties. They get to stay in office and throw fabulous soirees while they do it. My people, my people.

Killer Professor

You can get away with a lot if you're both white and an Ivy Leaguer. Amy Bishop, the killer professor at the University of Alabama at Huntsville is an excellent example of this phenomenon.

Twenty-four years ago, Bishop shot and killed her brother and somehow managed not to be charged with a crime. I'm guessing that mom and dad are wealthy and or well connected. Stay tuned. It also turns out that the then District Attorney was William Delahunt, now a member of congress. Delahunt now says he remembers nothing about the case. Selective amnesia can be very useful.

Some years back two white men committed armed robberies in New York and shot people in the process. They were dubbed the "gentlemen bandits." Bishop kills three and is described as "Harvard educated." Being white never hurt anybody.

I'm sure there is a lot more to this sordid tale.

Non-Citizens Have Rights

Our constitutional rights benefit anyone in this country, citizen or not. You wouldn't know it because Newt Gingrich and other republicans claim that those rights apply only to U.S. citizens. That assertion is a lie.

Huffington Post makes a big deal about Gingrich falsely stating that "shoe bomber" Richard Reid is an American citizen and was therefore entitled to his rights against self-incrimination. Reid is a citizen of the U.K., but outrage shouldn't be directed at Gingrich only because he told a bald faced lie about Reid's nation of origin.

I have had my issues with Salon's Glenn Greenwald, but he is an attorney and he makes the best case I have heard so far against the GOP's most recent attempt to keep the nation stupid.

"The Boumediene Court held that it was unconstitutional for the Military Commissions Act to deny habeas corpus rights to Guantanamo detainees, none of whom was an American citizen (indeed, the detainees were all foreign nationals outside of the U.S.). If the Constitution applied only to U.S. citizens, that decision would obviously be impossible. What's more, although the decision was 5-4, none of the 9 Justices -- and, indeed, not even the Bush administration -- argued that the Constitution applies only to American citizens. "

"...to see how false this notion is that the Constitution only applies to U.S. citizens, one need do nothing more than read the Bill of Rights. It says nothing about 'citizens.' To the contrary, many of the provisions are simply restrictions on what the Government is permitted to do ('Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion . . . or abridging the freedom of speech'; 'No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner'). And where rights are expressly vested, they are pointedly not vested in 'citizens,' but rather in 'persons' or 'the accused' ('No person shall . . . . be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law'; 'In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed . . . . and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense').

So there you have it. The underwear bomber and the shoe bomber had the right to remain silent. Republican demagogery on the subject is just that.

Katrina Good for New Orleans Schools

"Obama Plots Against Children" or so a sensationalist writer claimed. That writer would be yours truly actually. My column written last September chronicled the horrors visited upon public education by the current Education Secretary, Arne Duncan. He brazenly brags about the corporate take over of public education he oversaw in Chicago.

"I am not a manager of 600 schools. I'm a portfolio manager of 600 schools and I'm trying to improve the portfolio.” I didn't know public schools were corporations, but what do I know?

Obama's basketball buddy let his true colors show in a recent interview. "I’ve spent a lot of time in New Orleans and this is a tough thing to say but I’m going to be really honest. The best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans was Hurricane Katrina. That education system was a disaster."

Now I don't know anything about NOLA public schools prior to Katrina, but I do know that a natural disaster which displaced thousands of people wasn't good for anything or anyone. On second thought, I have to take that back. The hurricane cleared much of the poor black population out of New Orleans and what better way to start a school system or any other system from scratch if there are no pesky colored people asking questions or horror of horrors, making demands.

Duncan is like Barbara Bush, who opined that "under privileged" black people were actually doing quite well living in shelters after they lost their homes. Duncan may not be as crass as Pat Robertson who asserted that the Haitians brought an earthquake upon themselves by practicing devil worship. He has a little more sophistication than that, but not much. He too thinks that black people are well served by disasters which allow white people to take over.

If Duncan's boss were a white republican, black people would demand an apology. But his boss is Obama and we know what that means. He gets away with things that a white guy couldn't. So we will have to look at the shameful Duncan for as long as Obama wants him to stay in his job.

Duncan is a human disaster and the best thing that could happen to children all over this country would be to have an Education Secretary who truly cares for them. Lots of luck kids. You are stuck with Obama and Duncan too.

Wish I'd Said That

"But Obama is not 'failing'; he is doing exactly what he set out to do: be the president. That's it. That's all he wanted to do. And he's doing it. The panic now emanating from the White House is not that of a man watching a chance to realize his deeply held ideals for a better world slipping away from him; it's just the flopsweat of a guy trying to stay perched on top of the greasy pole for another term."

Chris Floyd

Rest In Peace Howard Zinn

"No Donation Without Agitation"

Should you give to Haiti relief? To whom? How much? Don't text or write a check until you read my Black Agenda Report column.

Worthless Democrats

I have been dealing with a family health emergency, so I have not been able to post this week. I would have loved posting on the Scott Brown victory in Massachusetts, but I have not had time. I did comment briefly to Paul Street on Facebook, who quoted me on Znet, so I will just quote myself.

"Coakley loses. Ha ha ha ha ha. Don't be fooled by this 60 vote super majority crap. Dems did nothing with it. Loss of a seat is no loss to the citizens of this country whose interests are never represented no matter who is in charge. If 60 was so wonderful, why is the health care bill so worthless?"

Indeed, Obama's reaction to this setback is typical of him. He is now vowing to balance the budget and he prevented democrats from passing his health care bill when he had the chance to do so before Scott Brown was seated.

Brown in 2012? Don't bet against him, he is the hottest political commodity in the country. If the democrats react to defeat the way Clinton did in 1994, we are in for more right wingery and more democrats slavishly devoted to doing just that.

Michael Eric Dyson Please Shut Up

Two years ago Dyson debated Black Agenda Report's Glen Ford on Democracy Now. Their debate took place after Obama won the Iowa caucuses and finished a close second in New Hampshire. Dyson's comments were useless and just plain dumb.

"To limit the scope of African American intelligence, interest or political concern to the fact that a president is being put forth who happens to be a black man versus the interests of African American people, I would not be so naive as to assume that the presidency of a Barack Obama would in any way mitigate against or militate against the vast region of problems that black people face. "

So said Dyson in 2008. What is he saying in 2010?

"I think that we should push the president. This president runs from race like a black man runs from a cop. What we have to do is ask Mr. Obama to stand up and use his bully pulpit to help us. He is loathe to speak about race."

Of course he is Dyson. You and the rest of the Love Barack or Die crowd eplicitly gave him permission to do just that. Unlike the foolish Dyson, Glen Ford made the right point two years ago. ". . . he has accomplished the central mission of his entire campaign, which is to prove that a black man can be embraced by masses of white people. The problem is, he has done that at the expense of black people, by constantly, relentlessly sending out signals to white people that a vote for Barack Obama, an Obama presidency, would signal the beginning of the end of black-specific agitation, that it would take race discourse off of the table. And he’s gone to extraordinary lengths to accomplish that."

So Dyson, just STFU already. It is too late for you and your friends to act as though you didn't say what we remember you saying. Sadly for you, we don't have amnesia.

Earthquake in New York

Am I the only one who remembers an earthquake taking place near New York City in the early morning hours of Saturday, October 19, 1985? The quake epicenter was located in Ardsley, about 20 miles north of New York City in Westchester County. It sticks in my mind because it literally shook me out of bed. There have been other earthquakes in the New York City area in recent years.

At any rate, I thought about it while watching the coverage of Haiti's post earthquake tragedy. I also thought about the government reaction or rather non-reaction to hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast. We would probably be no better off than the Haitians if we were to suffer the same fate of natural disaster.

Dr. MLK Jr.: Struggling Not To Lose Him

As Glen says, King made a very public break from Lyndon Johnson, the most powerful man on earth. Remember that when you honor King.

US set Haiti up for disaster

Glen keeps it real. Thanks Glen.

Uganda, Fundamentalists and Money

"While it is largely U.S. evangelical money displacing mainline funds supporting African churches, renewal movements within mainline U.S. churches reap the rewards by securing the alliance of Africans in fighting their battles over gay ordination and other issues at home and in international venues." - Rev. Kapya Kaomo

The New York Times finally caught up with everyone else in the world. Yesterday the Times got around to reporting what Freedom Rider, Black Agenda Report, Rev. Kapya Kaoma and many others had written about one month ago.

White, right wing American Christians are behind the proposed Ugandan legislation which calls for the execution of gay people. When I first sat down to right about this issue, I was going to expound on neocolonialism, racism, fundamentalist conservative politics and so on. But the more I thought about it, I realized that money had to be behind this story.

The Times reported that a group of anti-gay activists visited Uganda and railed against the evils of gay people. That is true, but it is only a small part of the story. As Kaoma points out, there is a much larger effort to buy African support on a variety of issues that helps fundamentalists make their case around the world.

"U.S. evangelical money is attractive because it does not come with the demands for strict accountability made by mainline churches.[19] Bishops can spend it as they like. Ironically, U.S. conservatives have always campaigned against "unrestricted" giving in U.S. mainline churches. But in Africa, they prefer unrestricted giving as another way of undermining progressives."

The only reason this story has "legs" so to speak, is that the legislation was so awful, it could not escape world wide attention. That is a good thing, but the efforts of the right wing to buy support, and the willingness of corrupt Africans to accept should not be forgotten either.

Thanks to Znet and to The World Can't Wait

I always appreciate a shout out from a good publication. Znet and World Can't Wait both printed my Black Agenda Report column Guantanamo, Illinois. Thanks to both.

'Obama is new words, but old tricks as US acts like empire'

Yours truly on Russia Today. Big thanks to host Marina Portnaya.

Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab Boarded Plane Without a Passport

Nigerian "Terrorist" a Patsy?

Only Black Agenda Report would give you the scoop.

KPFK's Hutchinson Report

I was interviewed by Sikivu Hutchinson yesterday. You can listen to yours truly here.

Guantanamo Illinois

"To all those who repeatedly claimed that, no matter what 'mistakes' he might make and regardless of the scope of the devastating effects of those errors, Obama had to represent a markedly better choice than McCain, take note: in certain respects, Obama is far more dangerous than McCain could have been. For the same reasons, Obama is also more dangerous than Bush was. " - Arthur Silber

Once again, Barack Obama has accomplished what George W. Bush never could. There was a method to the madness of establishing this secret police apparatus off shore. The Bush administration were opening up a whole new legal territory, and believed they needed to keep "enemy combatants" off of American soil in order to justify their actions.

But along comes Obama. He claimed he would close Guantanamo, which never impressed me, because he didn't address the legality of holding prisoners with this new and special designation. It didn't address the issue of whether or not a president could declare anyone an enemy and have them held indefinitely without charge or trial or perhaps worse yet, set up military tribunals instead of courts of law if they were ever tried. The state of Illinois will the first victim, with Guantanamo prisoners scheduled to be transferred there.

I argued with my friend Arthur Silber when he first stated that Obama would be more dangerous than McCain. "In large part, the danger represented by Obama arises from the fact that Obama's election gutted whatever effective opposition might have existed." Of course he hit the nail on the head. Obamaites will support whatever he says or does. He can accept a Nobel peace prize and do so in the name of continuing endless warfare and no one says a word. Yes, Arthur, you told me so.

I will have more to say about the Nobel disgrace in the latest issue of Black Agenda Report which will be posted later today.

"What I can't figure out," Tiger Woods asks Vincent, the limo driver, "is why so may good-looking women hang around baseball and basketball. Is it because, you know, people always say that, like, black guys have big dicks?" - Tiger Woods

Woods made this and other remarks in a GQ interview back in 1997. The then up and coming phenom may have known how to play golf, but he didn't know that if you don't want to see something in print, you shouldn't say it in front of a reporter. Tiger was on a roll that day.

"The Little Rascals are at school. The teacher wants them to use various words in sentences. The first word is love. Spanky answers, "I love dogs." The second word is respect. Alfalfa answers, "I respect how much Spanky loves dogs." The third word is dictate. There is a pause in the room. Finally, Buckwheat puts up his hand. "Hey, Darla," says Buckwheat. "How my dick ta'te?"

But wait, there was even more. "He puts the tips of his expensive shoes together, and he rubs them up and down against each other. 'What's this?' he asks the women, who do not know the answer. 'It's a black guy taking off his condom,' Tiger explains."

It is clear from these exchanges that Tiger doesn't see himself as a black man. He made it official when he told Oprah that he was "Cablinasian." OK, fine, up to him, but his self-proclaimed non-black identity gave him even less right to make jokes at the expense of the group he claimed no allegiance to.

Now Tiger is the butt of jokes and fodder for media over kill. The over kill part does bother me, if only because I'm not very interested in his life. But I don't feel sorry for Tiger the man. He is a self-hating asshole and assholes eventually do themselves in.

I doubt that the public relations problems will last. The sponsors will stick with him and he will be wealthy for the rest of his life. I should have such problems.