Civil Rights a Non Issue for Leahy

Today the Huffington Post breathlessly reported what first appeared to be good news. Huffpo said that Senator Patrick Leahy, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, would “throw cold water” on the Bush, I mean Obama administration plan to gut fifth amendment rights against self-incrimination for terror suspects.

The truth turns out to be less than wonderful. "The question is not so much whether I'm concerned about the civil rights one way or another, it is what a court will agree to. After all, it was the Supreme Court that set down the rules of Miranda. Whatever changes might be made, have to made within the confines of what the United States Supreme Court has already said.”

It doesn’t matter if he cares or not? Well apparently he doesn’t. Civil rights, no biggie for the white house or for the senate either. I suppose we have to take some comfort in his tepid response, but sooner or later our rights will be watered down into nothingness, by Obama and the democrats.

The Supreme Court and the Ruling Class

Barack Obama’s nomination of Elena Kagan is an absolute disaster for the democratic party and for democracy itself. The nomination is just the latest proof of Obama’s obliteration of black politics and his victory over all progressives. Anyone praised by the likes of Joseph Lieberman for moving the court in a “less liberal” direction is a bad bet for the progressive cause.

Kagan could not find one black person worthy to hire as a tenure track law professor when she served as dean of Harvard law school. Indeed, this white woman could find only six white women to hire, out of a total of 32 tenure track positions filled in her tenure.

Yet it is the Harvard connection which is one of the more disturbing elements of the Kagan nomination. If Kagan is confirmed, all nine supreme court justices will have attended either Harvard or Yale universities (Ruth Bader Ginsburg attended Harvard for a time but ultimately graduated from Columbia).

Americans love to believe in their self-aggrandizing myth of a classless society, a meritocracy. In this well rehearsed lie, this country purported to be one in which any individual might rise as a result of hard work and determination.

The fact that only two out of 160 law schools in the country have been deemed worthy for consideration to the highest court is an indicator of a very disturbing change in our society. There is no longer any pretense that this country is a meritocracy. The ever intensifying class stratification is being more and more solidified and is expressed in new and awful ways on a daily basis.

The truly awful justice Antonin Scalia said so himself, out loud and in a public venue. When asked by a student at the American University law school how she could succeed without connections, Scalia at first told her to, “Just work hard and be very good.“ When the discussion moved to the likelihood that she might reach the holy grail of being a clerk for a Supreme Court justice, Scalia set her straight.  He quickly remembered himself and told her the honest truth, that she could pretty much forget about getting anywhere when she attended such a lowly institution.

“By and large I’m going to be picking from the law schools that basically are the hardest to get into. They admit the best and the brightest, and they may not teach very well, but you can’t make a sow’s ear out of a silk purse. If they come in the best and the brightest, they’re probably going to leave the best and the brightest, O.K.?”

It isn’t clear what the young woman thought about being referred to as a sow’s ear, but she certainly went home knowing that she shouldn’t even think about venturing out of her place on the class system totem pole.

Kagan’s defenders can’t defend the blank slate technocrat on the merits, they just talk about how wonderful and brilliant she is. Period. That is proof enough of Kagan’s lack of qualifications to serve as a justice on the nation’s highest court and of a more insidious form of corruption at work as Jonathan Turley points out.

“Nominations like Kagan’s are the result of a network of graduates who work consciously or unconsciously to see that their own are nominated. Notably, after Kagan’s nomination, powerful figures from her Harvard years came forward to vouch for her abilities. Their message was the same: Despite her lack of a record, she is known in our circle as a real winner. She is, in a phrase, one of us. Indeed, reporters breathlessly reported how Kagan and Scalia are good friends and how she knows many of the main players from Harvard, as if it is the judicial equivalent to having graduated from the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The favoritism shown Harvard and Yale should be viewed not just as incestuous but as scandalous. It undermines educational institutions across the country by maintaining a clearly arbitrary and capricious basis for selection. It also runs against the grain of a nation based on meritocracy and opportunity.”

Turley should have said allegedly based on meritocracy and opportunity. I will have more to say about the Kagan nomination and black America in my Black Agenda Report column on Wednesday.

Death Unmasked

Saw this Leon Kuhn cartoon. Had to post it.

John Brown

“Had he succeeded, the Civil War would have been started not by the secessionists but by the abolitionists, and the issue from the first shot would have been freedom, not union. The conflict might have been shorter and the outcome less bloody.”

I missed his birthday. Brown was born on May 9, 1800 and my blogging inactivity has caused me to miss that and other events. John is one of America’s greatest heroes.  If not for John Brown, slavery might not have ended until the twentieth century. The south controlled congress and the courts, and was adamant that the “peculiar institution” continue and spread to newly settled territories. Northerners were tired of being controlled by the slave powers, but most weren’t willing to fight back. Brown was, and he hastened the start of the war and the end of slavery.Terry Bisson and  Kevin Gray explain why Brown is so important.

Twin Disasters: Elena Kagan and Oil

No, I haven't posted in a long time, three months to be exact. Much has happened in that time, and I must have been suffering from outrage fatigue. I have of course been regularly writing my Black Agenda Report column, but alas I have neglected this blog and that means I have neglected myself as well. No mas!

Since February the president ended the moratorium on offshore drilling and told a bold faced lie in the process. "It turns out, by the way, that oil rigs today don't cause spills. Technologically they are very advanced. Even during Katrina the spills didn't come from the oil rigs, they came from the refineries onshore."

Well, that was before the Deepwater Horizon blew up in the Gulf of Mexico and put egg squarely on Obama's face. Oh and by the way, oil rigs did cause spills in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. Liar, liar pants on fire.

What does the oil disaster in the gulf have to do with Elena Kagan, Obama's supreme court nominee? Because the hits just keep on coming. My worst fears about Obama are being realized and in very short order. Every week brings a new outrage that I need to get over and be outraged about.

As I said in my BAR column, we are told to keep voting for democrats because of the importance of federal judicial nominations. But if a democratic president chooses a conservative democrat, what is the point of supporting him?

As dean of Harvard law school, Kagan did not appoint one black law professor during her tenure, not one. Out of 32 tenure or tenure track positions, she hired only seven women, one of whom was Asian. No African Americans, Latinos or Native Americans were hired. All 25 men hired were white.

Why did Obama choose her? Glenn Greenwald explained it all very well. "Nothing is a better fit for this white house than a blank slate, institution-loyal, seemingly principle free careerist, who spent the last 15 months as the Obama administration's lawyer vigorously defending every one of his assertions of extremely broad executive authority."

So here we are with a mediocre butt kisser on the court, a court devoid of anyone who didn't attend Yale or Harvard. The outrage is back!

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.