Syracuse Prof Boyce Watkins Speaks on President Elect

I recall endorsing Barack Obama back when it was simply wishful thinking to hope for a Black President. During a CNN appearance over a year ago, I mentioned that his backing by Oprah Winfrey would change Obama from being “Hillary Clinton’s black baby brother” into a man who could run one of the most significant presidential campaigns in American history. This is one of the few times when I enjoy being able to say, “I told you so.”

President Obama is, quite simply, the Tiger Woods of American politics: another Black man of mixed heritage, who used the power of tremendous focus, creativity, intelligence and preparation to do the impossible. Like his counterpart Tiger Woods (who happens to be a Republican), Obama went into the domain of White males and dominated in ways that simply transcended his chosen field. Similar to the way that Tiger’s greatness attracted droves of fans that’d never cared much about golf, Obama brought in millions of voters who would never have cared much about a presidential election.

I am proud of Barack Obama for the way he ran his campaign. His choice of advisors and campaign strategy has changed the face of American politics for the next 100 years. He dismantled the “Death Star Clinton Regime” through the use of innovative, daring and powerful tactics, a sound choice of advisors and lots of good old fashioned intelligence.

I am proud of Barack Obama for liberating our minds. For the first time in quite a while, millions of Black boys had a chance to see an intelligent Black man consistently profiled in “mainstream” media. This man showed our kids that you can be a “balla” without dribbling a basketball and a major “playa” without being played. Greatness is not achieved with a football, a hand gun or a microphone; it is achieved with a textbook, a college diploma and a sound economic plan.
I was proud of Barack Obama long before he became our president. I don’t need validation from the rest of America to feel good about whom we are as a people. We were just as great, just as strong, and just as accomplished and just as meaningful on November 3 as we are right now. The presidential election is essentially a popularity contest which leads to uncomfortable tradeoffs and “deals with the devil” that reduce the glitter of addictive political gold. The respect I give Barack Obama for raising hundreds of millions of dollars to get access to the Whitehouse is matched by the respect I give Dr. Julianne Malveaux for raising tens of millions of dollars to educate young Black women at Bennett College. Being President of the United States is not what makes Barack Obama a great man: He is a great man because he is a great man.

I am proud of Barack Obama for marrying Michelle, who served as one of my primary reasons for trusting him. I have a hard time imagining a man who can sleep with Michelle Obama every night and not be influenced by her beautiful mind. Michelle Obama is not a “buppy” soccer mom, Stepford Wife, or wannabe Barbara Bush. Michelle is a super sharp and relentless “sister girl”, who demands the most of her African American husband. She makes the first family as beautiful as Barack Obama makes it strong.

I am proud of Barack Obama for his willingness to take his life and career into the lion’s den. He inherits a terrible economy, an unjust war, a sickening healthcare system and an educational system which cripples our children for life. Like the first Black football coaches in the NCAA, Obama has been granted the reigns of a team with a serious losing record. Furthermore, he must bend and twist to satisfy citizens of the same country that was naïve enough to consider mediocre characters like George Bush and Sarah Palin to possibly run our great nation. I sincerely wish Obama the best as he attacks these problems, and I hope that this brilliant Black man with the middle name “Hussein” can negotiate the balance between our quest for a better world and America’s consistent commitment to anti-intellectualism.

As proud as I am of President Obama, I am also proud of America for showing that it has the ability to choose the right person for the job, instead of the right WHITE person for the job. By choosing Obama, we have shown our capacity for fairness, and how much progress we’ve made to overcome some of our racial demons of the past. The easiest thing to do, however, is to think that having a Black president is going to change the lives of most Black people. The reality is that BLACK PEOPLE THEMSELVES is going to change the lives of Black people and if we do not embrace the power of financial independence and unity, we will simply remain perpetual socio-economic slaves in the domain of a new overseer. The same way America rolled back the political gains of the 1960s, the Washington-based rewards of the new millennium could be just as fleeting.

President Obama did his job, now it’s time for us to do ours. Good luck over the next 4 years.

Syracuse Prof Boyce Watkins Statement on Barack Obama

I recall endorsing Barack Obama back when it was simply wishful thinking to hope for a Black President. During a CNN appearance over a year ago, I mentioned that his backing by Oprah Winfrey would change Obama from being “Hillary Clinton’s black baby brother” into a man who could run one of the most significant presidential campaigns in American history. This is one of the few times when I enjoy being able to say, “I told you so.”

President Obama is, quite simply, the Tiger Woods of American politics: another Black man of mixed heritage, who used the power of tremendous focus, creativity, intelligence and preparation to do the impossible. Like his counterpart Tiger Woods (who happens to be a Republican), Obama went into the domain of White males and dominated in ways that simply transcended his chosen field. Similar to the way that Tiger’s greatness attracted droves of fans that’d never cared much about golf, Obama brought in millions of voters who would never have cared much about a presidential election.

I am proud of Barack Obama for the way he ran his campaign. His choice of advisors and campaign strategy has changed the face of American politics for the next 100 years. He dismantled the “Death Star Clinton Regime” through the use of innovative, daring and powerful tactics, a sound choice of advisors and lots of good old fashioned intelligence.

I am proud of Barack Obama for liberating our minds. For the first time in quite a while, millions of Black boys had a chance to see an intelligent Black man consistently profiled in “mainstream” media. This man showed our kids that you can be a “balla” without dribbling a basketball and a major “playa” without being played. Greatness is not achieved with a football, a hand gun or a microphone; it is achieved with a textbook, a college diploma and a sound economic plan.
I was proud of Barack Obama long before he became our president. I don’t need validation from the rest of America to feel good about whom we are as a people. We were just as great, just as strong, and just as accomplished and just as meaningful on November 3 as we are right now. The presidential election is essentially a popularity contest which leads to uncomfortable tradeoffs and “deals with the devil” that reduce the glitter of addictive political gold. The respect I give Barack Obama for raising hundreds of millions of dollars to get access to the Whitehouse is matched by the respect I give Dr. Julianne Malveaux for raising tens of millions of dollars to educate young Black women at Bennett College. Being President of the United States is not what makes Barack Obama a great man: He is a great man because he is a great man.
I am proud of Barack Obama for marrying Michelle, who served as one of my primary reasons for trusting him. I have a hard time imagining a man who can sleep with Michelle Obama every night and not be influenced by her beautiful mind. Michelle Obama is not a “buppy” soccer mom, Stepford Wife, or wannabe Barbara Bush. Michelle is a super sharp and relentless “sister girl”, who demands the most of her African American husband. She makes the first family as beautiful as Barack Obama makes it strong.

I am proud of Barack Obama for his willingness to take his life and career into the lion’s den. He inherits a terrible economy, an unjust war, a sickening healthcare system and an educational system which cripples our children for life. Like the first Black football coaches in the NCAA, Obama has been granted the reigns of a team with a serious losing record. Furthermore, he must bend and twist to satisfy citizens of the same country that was naïve enough to consider mediocre characters like George Bush and Sarah Palin to possibly run our great nation. I sincerely wish Obama the best as he attacks these problems, and I hope that this brilliant Black man with the middle name “Hussein” can negotiate the balance between our quest for a better world and America’s consistent commitment to anti-intellectualism.

As proud as I am of President Obama, I am also proud of America for showing that it has the ability to choose the right person for the job, instead of the right WHITE person for the job. By choosing Obama, we have shown our capacity for fairness, and how much progress we’ve made to overcome some of our racial demons of the past. The easiest thing to do, however, is to think that having a Black president is going to change the lives of most Black people. The reality is that BLACK PEOPLE THEMSELVES is going to change the lives of Black people and if we do not embrace the power of financial independence and unity, we will simply remain perpetual socio-economic slaves in the domain of a new overseer. The same way America rolled back the political gains of the 1960s, the Washington-based rewards of the new millennium could be just as fleeting.

President Obama did his job, now it’s time for us to do ours. Good luck over the next 4 years.

Your Black Politics: Civil rights group renews Va. election lawsuit

RICHMOND, Va.—The NAACP on Friday resumed efforts to force Virginia to put more voting machines in minority polling places, setting up a court hearing 15 hours before voters head to polls in the battleground state.

The Virginia chapter of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's will return to federal court on Monday afternoon to argue the state is inadequately prepared to handle an enormous voter surge expected Tuesday.

State Republicans plan to oppose the NAACP's request on grounds that altering voting procedures on the eve of the election would be disruptive and could unfairly disadvantage their candidates.

Record turnout is expected as Democrat Barack Obama tries to win 13 electoral votes in state that has backed Republican presidential candidates since 1968. Obama would be the nation's first black president if elected.

The NAACP alleged the state failed to provide enough voting machines to handle the crowds, particularly in majority black precincts. The lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Richmond asked for paper ballots to be provided as one option if lines got too long.

More than 436,000 new voters registered since Jan. 1, a 10 percent increase that pushed voter rolls past 5 million for the first time in Virginia, a state of 7.7 million residents. Much of the increase results from the Obama campaign's aggressive registration drive.

At the close of the first fiercely contested presidential race in Virginia in generations, several polls show Obama slightly ahead.

Continued:

Your Black Politics: Barack Obama's Grandmother Passes Away

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (Reuters) - The grandmother who helped raise Democratic U.S. presidential candidateBarack Obama and whom he had credited with shaping his values has died of cancer, he said in a statement on Monday.

The news came on the day before the presidential election and a little more than a week after Obama interrupted his White House campaign to say goodbye to her in Hawaii.

Madelyn Dunham, 86, died peacefully at her home in Honolulu.

"She was the cornerstone of our family, and a woman of extraordinary accomplishment, strength and humility," Obama and his sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, said in a statement. "She was the person who encouraged and allowed us to take chances."

Dunham helped raise Obama from the age of 10 while his mother was working in Indonesia, and Obama took an emotional 22-hour trip to visit her on October 23 and 24.

He said afterward his grandmother had been flooded with cards, flowers and well-wishes from around the country, and he regularly thanked crowds at his campaign rallies for their prayers.

"Our family wants to thank all of those who sent flowers, cards, well-wishes and prayers during this difficult time," the statement said.

"It brought our grandmother and us great comfort. Our grandmother was a private woman, and we will respect her wish for a small private ceremony to be held at a later date," the statement said.

Dunham had followed Obama's presidential bid with great interest, and her death comes one day before U.S. voters will render their verdict in the race between Obama and Republican John McCain.

McCain and his wife, Cindy, issued a statement of condolence.

Continued:

Your Black Politics: One in Seven Voters Still Undecided

WASHINGTON (AP) — Patrick Campbell worries Barack Obama will raise his taxes but thinks John McCain will send people off to war. He says that leaves him leaning toward Obama ... maybe.

"I'm split right down the middle," said the 50-year-old Air Force Reserve technician from Amherst, N.Y. "Each one has things that are good for me and things that are bad for me. And people like me."

With the sand in the 2008 campaign hourglass about depleted, Campbell is part of a stubborn wedge of people who, somehow, are still making up their minds about who should be president. One in seven, or 14 percent, can't decide or back a candidate but might switch, according to an Associated Press-Yahoo! News poll of likely voters released Friday.

Who are they? They look a lot like the voters who've already locked onto a candidate, though they're more likely to be white and less likely to be liberal. And they disproportionately backed Hillary Rodham Clinton's failed run for the Democratic nomination.

For now, their indecision remains intact despite the fortunes that have been spent to tug people toward either McCain, the Republican, or the Democrat Obama. Fueling their uncertainty is a combination of disliking something about both candidates and frustration with this campaign and politics in general.

"We have a lot of candidates who have never really hurt, have never had to struggle" economically, said Jeff Wofford, 28, a pastor and Republican from High Ridge, Mo., who may back McCain. "A lot of candidates are interested in working the political system but aren't really interested in changing things."

Continued:

Your Black Politics:McCain Endorses Joe The Plumber’s View That Obama Victory Means ‘Death To Israel’

Today, Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher hit the campaign trail on behalf of Sen. John McCain(R-AZ) for the first time, joining former Bush OMB Director Rob Portman on a GOP bus tour through Ohio. Stopping at a flag store, Wurzelbacher twice agreed with a questioner who said that “a vote for Obama is a vote for the death to Israel.”

Fox News brought Wurzelbacher on to discuss his claims, but despite host Shepard Smith’s best efforts, Wurzelbacher refused to explain why he agreed with the nonsensical claim:

SMITH: Joe, do you know Barack Obama’s positions on Israel?

WURZELBACHER: Listen, I know you wanna really get some answers on this one, I’m just not gonna help you out here, Shepherd. Let people go out and find, that’s what I’ve been telling people. […] Listen, you don’t want my opinion on foreign policy. I know just enough probably to be dangerous.

SMITH: Yeah, well that’s what I was kinda wondering.

Smith also read a statement from the McCain campaign standing firmly behind Wurzelbacher’s absurd claims:

While he’s clearly his own man, so far Joe has offered some penetrating and clear analysis that cuts to the core of many of the concerns that people have with Barack Obama’s statements and policies. … [T]here is good reason to question the judgement that Obama would bring to the Oval Office.

Source:

Your Black Politics: Obamamania Conquers The World

When Senator Barack Obama visited Berlin last July, he proclaimed himself a “citizen of the world” to a wildly cheering crowd. Now as the election draws near, the world’s citizens proclaim him as their preferred choice for president.

That terrific magazine, The Economist – too expensive to buy but can be perused while waiting to have one’s wisdom tooth extracted at the dentist – has an interesting interactive map of the world showing which candidate would win if people in various countries voted in the American election. While many are still voting, the total cast so far shows 86 percent for the Obama/Biden ticket and 14 percent for McCain/Palin.

Here are samples of a few countries:

• Russia: 86 percent for Obama and 14 percent for McCain.

• Germany: 88 percent for Obama and 12 percent for McCain.

• Vietnam: 91 percent for Obama and 9 percent McCain. (These could be seen as surprising numbers in a country where pundits said people have certain affections for the old flyboy who was kept in their prison for five years during the war, but also where three out of four Vietnamese were born after he left Vietnam.) 

This finding is consistent with several other polls. TheBBC conducted a poll on September 10 and found that global citizens preferred Obama 4-to-1, out of 22,000 people surveyed in 22 foreign countries. A Reader’s Digest magazine poll, released Oct 6, asked 17,000 people in 17 countries – including the U.S. – whom they would like to see elected president. It concluded: “It's a good thing for John McCain that only American citizens can vote in U.S. presidential elections. If the election were held overseas, or even in the rest of North America, the Republican nominee wouldn't stand a chance.”

Continued:

Your Black Politics: Ex-Felons in California Can Vote

Undaunted by the heat, ex-felon Curtis Griffin spends his late summer afternoons walking Rialto and Fontana's bleakest neighborhoods on the hunt for ex-cons - each a potential voter who might cast the decisive ballot in the historic November 4 national election.

Finding them isn't the hard part, explains Griffin, it's getting them to admit that a past mistake has kept them from the ballot box.

At voter registration events like this, activists and election officials are spreading the word: ‘For the record, felons can vote’

"Most ex-felons out here are under the false assumption they can't vote. In California you can vote! There's a lot of misinformation and confusion out there."

That's an understatement. Consider this: a 2001 U.S. Civil Rights Commission report concluded that the disenfranchisement of ex-convicts is "the biggest hindrance to Black voting since the poll tax."

The racial impact of racial disenfranchisement laws is particularly egregious. Thirteen percent of all Black men - 1.4 million cannot vote due to a patchwork of voting restrictions and the paralyzing grip of post Civil War Jim Crow laws. That represents just over one-third (36 percent) of the total disenfranchised population blocked from the vote even after they have completed their sentence and paid their debt to society: a rate seven times that of any other group in America.

The effects of voter disenfranchisement are universal except for Maine and Vermont, all states deprive individuals with felony convictions of the right to vote for varying periods of time.

Continued:

Your Black Politics: Bush Administration Snubs Palin

This week, Sens. John McCain (R-AZ), Barack Obama (D-IL), and Joe Biden (D-DE) all were contacted by Defense Secretary Robert Gates or Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice regarding the Iraq security agreement.

In today’s White House press briefing, spokesman Dana Perino explained that the adminstration contacted the candidates “to keep them equitably informed.” “One of them is going to win the election, and they will be taking over and having to deal with these issues,” Perino explained. But nobody called Gov. Sarah Palin. In today’s State Department briefing, reporters got a chuckle out of Palin being left out:

Q: You called Senator Biden, you called McCain. Did you also call Governor Palin?

McCORMACK: No. If you hadn’t noticed, she’s a governor. Not a senator or a congressman.

Q: She’s a vice presidential candidate.

McCORMACK: Right.

Q: She also has extensive foreign affairs experience. (LAUGHTER)

McCORMACK: Right. I explained to you the reasoning behind the phone call.

Q: Maybe if this has to do with Russia, you would have called her.

Continued:

Your Black Politics: How the GOP Will Suppress Minority Votes on November 4--Legally

News reports that state officials in the crucial battleground states of Colorado, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Nevada and North Carolina were purging thousands from voter rolls illegally drew a flurry of media and public attention. The crude, dubious, if not outright illegal, stuff to suppress votes such as the absence of polling places in minority neighborhoods, ballot and vote machine irregularities, using lists of foreclosed homes to challenge voter’s residences, rigid time lines for filing voter applications, the lack of information, misinformation or deliberate disinformation about voter registration forms and materials has also drawn plenty of media attention over the years.

Yet, the main ploys the GOP will use to damp down minority votes on November 4th have drawn virtually no media attention. They include letter writing challenges, residence and citizenship challenges of non-native born Latino voters, and reliance on a provision in the Help America Vote Act on provisional ballots. Worst of all, these tactics are all perfectly legal.

Federal court rulings flatly prohibit Republican organizations from sending letters to newly registered voters in solely low income, black and Hispanic neighborhoods to verify their address. If those letters aren’t returned, the GOP contends that the recipient's address on their voter registration form is incorrect and the registration is fraudulent. When the voter shows up at the polls they are challenged. Republicans insist that the legal prohibition against this tactic applies only to the Republican National Committee and not to state and local Republican organizations and “volunteer groups.” Since GOP groups have declared themselves exempt from the court rulings against the tactic, they fully intend to use the letter writing ploy to challenge the registrations of people in certain designated zip codes. The zip codes just happen to be those in predominantly black and Latino neighborhoods.

In April the Supreme Court handed the GOP an even more powerful weapon to water down minority votes. It upheld Indiana’s rigid voter registration law which requires government-issued identification, such as a driver’s license, a passport, or a state or military ID card. Though Indiana got much of the media attention when the court ruled, it’s hardly the only state to require rigid proof of identity. Florida and Georgia require photo IDs. Eighteen other states require either photo or non-photo IDs. In four states polling workers can demand that voters produce a photo ID. Many will. And they’ll likely have the blessing of nearly several dozen state election officials who were chosen in sharply partisan elections.

Continued: 

Your Black Politics: Palin Tries (Unsuccessfully) to Link Obama to Terrorists

BURLINGAME, Calif. - Sarah Palin defended her claim that Barack Obama "pals around with terrorists," saying the Democratic presidential nominee's association with a 1960s radical is an issue that is "fair to talk about."

Obama has denounced the radical views and actions of Bill Ayers, a founder of the violent Weather Underground group during the Vietnam era. On Sunday, Obama dismissed the criticism from the McCain campaign, leveled by Palin, as "smears" meant to distract voters from real problems such as the troubled economy.

Palin, the Republican vice presidential candidate, launched the attack Saturday and repeated it Sunday, signaling a new strategy by John McCain's presidential campaign to go after Obama's character.

Continued:

Your Black Politics: Polls Name Obama as Winner of First Presidential Debate

A new USA Today/Gallup Poll shows 46% of people who watched Friday night's presidential debate say Democrat Barack Obama fared better than Republican John McCain, who received 34% of the vote.

       Obama won 52%-35% when viewers were asked which candidate offered the best proposals for change to solve the country's problems. Three in 10 said their opinion of Obama became more favorable after seeing the debate, compared to 14% who said less favorable and 54% who said it didn't make much difference.       

       More than one-third of viewers, or 37%, said they had less confidence in McCain to fix economic problems after seeing the debate; 23% said more. For Obama, the survey results were 34% more confidence, 26% less.

       The CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey showed that 51 % of those polled thought Obama did the better job in Friday night's debate, while 38 percent said McCain did better.      

       Men were nearly evenly split between the two candidates in the CNN poll, with 46 percent giving the win to McCain and 43 percent to Obama. But women voters tended to give Obama higher marks, with 59 percent calling him the night's winner, while just 31 percent said McCain won.

      Obama also leads McCain in a CBS News/New York Times Poll of 500 uncommitted voters taken just after the debate. Thirty-nine percent felt that Obama won, while 24 % gave it to McCain and 37% called it a tie.

Continued: 

Today's Headlines

Read The Economic Bailout Bill in PDF

Video: Now vs. Then, The Bailout & The Depression

REP. DENNIS KUCINICH: This is a copy of the bill which will provide for a $700 billion bailout of Wall Street. It has provisions in it where it talks about helping homeowners, but when you read the fine print, you see it has language like "may" instead of "shall" and "encouraging" instead of "mandating" help for the millions of homeowners who are worried right now about whether they're going to lose their home. There's no help for them in this.

FDR in 1933: "There Must Be A Strict Supervision Of All Banking and Credits and Investments. There Must Be An End To Speculation With Other People's Money."

The country has been deep in debate over the $700 billion dollar bailout for Wall Street, but almost unnoticed, Congress approved another bill last week for over $600 billion. The Defense Authorization Bill for 2009 was passed by the House on Wednesday and cleared by the Senate on Saturday.

The bill authorizes $612 billion dollars for national security programs in the Defense and Energy departments, including $68 billion dollars for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to AP reports, the bill eliminated language barring private interrogators from US military facilities. It opens the door to a missile defense system in Europe but does not mention troop withdrawal from Iraq and no longer requires Congressional approval for a security pact with Iraq.

Article: Fall of Britain's Flamboyant Financiers Fuels a Debate About Greed

Article: New Rules for the FBI

Article: A New Sea is Forming
From the southern tip of the Red Sea southward through Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique, the continent is coming unstitched along a zone called the East African Rift.

Article: Watch out for higher 'Net costs

Article: Skyscraper Farming

Article: Earth's Oldest Rocks to Date

Article: Pakistanis flee into Afghanistan

Your Black Politics: Supremacist group distributes anti-Obama fliers

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Residents in one northern New Jersey town received fliers over the weekend attacking Barack Obama's candidacy on racial grounds, in what one national watchdog group is calling the first racist flier distribution against the candidate.

Roxbury Mayor Tim Smith said the fliers were dropped off at about 25 to 50 of the township's 8,000 homes. He said nothing like it had happened before in the community of 26,000 residents.

"I'm sickened by this," Smith said. "It's not at all representative of our community. I want the world at large to know we're not that kind of community — this is a place where people take care of each other and nobody cares where you're from or what you look like."

The flier shows unflattering photos of Obama, including a doctored one making him look like Osama Bin Laden, above text that reads: "Black Ruled Nations most unstable and violent in the world."

The flier cites poverty, HIV, and unemployment rates in Haiti and South Africa, and warns: "The United States of America will be next! Why should we seal our fate by allowing a black ruler to destroy us?"

Continued

Your Black Politics: Is Sarah Palin Racist?

Sarah Palin admittedly hasn’t had much of a track record when it comes to acknowledging—let alone promoting—diversity during her short tenure as Alaska governor. She’s on record with a terse utterance on hate crimes legislation and on cultural diversity. But Palin’s skimpy track record and paucity of words on diversity is relatively tame compared to the far more damaging accusation that’s making the rounds. 

On April 29, 14 black leaders in Alaska, including prominent ministers, NAACP officials, and community activists, met with Palin to voice their complaint over minority hiring and job opportunities. During the meeting she allegedly said that she didn’t have to hire any blacks. Even more damning, she purportedly said that she didn’t intend to hire any.

Gwen Alexander, president of the African-American Historical Society of Alaska, initially reported Palin’s quip. This charge is so racially incendiary that it sounded like yet another one of the legion of Palin urban legends that have fueled the cyber gossip mill from the moment Republican presidential contender John McCain put her on his ticket. The charge had to be confirmed or denied. If Governor Palin or any other public official flatly said that they had no intention to hire blacks, that would be politically unpardonable. And for a potential vice-president, it would and should be the kiss of death. 

Continued

The Info Today

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/26763771
Regulation, although best policy, not natural to McCain.
"Fundamentally a deregulator."
"We need a return to the Reagan administration."
The Reagan administration was the beginning of neocon mentality, and employment of supply side economics.
Video: Truth of Reagan (I love this)
Video: Bad Economics
(The Economic Meltdown in a Nutshell continued below)


EPA Unlikely to Limit A Component of Rocket Fuel in Tap Water

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/26798324
2: 32 - McCain's campaign operatives & their effects on U.S. economics


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/26798551
2:06 - Funny ignorance
2:58 - She so didn't answer the question, lol
3:40 - Sarah Palin is guided by Cheney's former spokesman
4:20 - Unconstitutional Cheney admin rhetoric

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/26782378
McCain got caught up on trying to score points about the economy...got it wrong.
Several McCain foreign policy "misspeaks."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/26782086
The PLUSES of off-shore drilling? HURRICANES! They allow total write-offs for ginormous oil companies.

Video: Palin's Rev has history of medieval nutcasery


Vermont Candidate Pledges to Prosecute Bush for Murder
In Vermont, the Progressive Party candidate for state attorney general says she plans to prosecute President Bush for murder if she is elected. Charlotte Dennett made the announcement alongside the famed prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi, who recently wrote the book The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder. Bugliosi said any state attorney general or local district attorney can bring criminal charges against Bush once he leaves office early next year.

Interesting Reading

Taro Aso, who delivers snappy speeches, reads Japanese "manga" comics and talks tough about China, was selected Monday to be Japan's next prime minister

Wasps proven to have memory

Europe's 1st civilization made optical illusion art

Russian court convicts 13 in hate crimes

usaspending.gov

The Economic Meltdown in a Nutshell

ROBERT SCHEER: Yeah, well, the point is, when Bush and McCain and Paulson, who was head of Goldman Sachs before he was head of the Treasury, say they don't know how this happened, they designed this system. We had a regulatory regime in place ever since the Great Depression to prevent this kind of meltdown, and that said that stockbrokers, insurance companies, banks, investment banks, commercial banks, could not merge. And in 1999, they passed legislation, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. Gramm is the guy who McCain supported for president in '96. He was co-chair of his campaign until he complained about the whiners out there, meaning the public. And that legislation is what caused this. It allowed the swaps and everything else.

And then, in 2000, hours before the Christmas break, Gramm introduced legislation. I'm holding it in my hand. This smoking gun is available on the internet; you can read it. And what it said is that the swaps is defined in the Financial Service Modernization Act, meaning that instead of going into a bank and somebody said, "OK, we'll give you a loan, and we expect you to pay it over thirty years. We know your house has the equity. We know you have the means to pay it"—that was the traditional way—instead, they allowed these mergers, and as a result, they could buy insurance on it, they could do these swaps, they could do what they call hybrid instruments. And it is legislation that was never discussed, was—never had hearings or anything, says that all of this stuff is exempted from all previous regulation. The SEC cannot regulate it, the Commodity Futures Board cannot regulate it.

So they gave these institutions, of which Goldman Sachs was critical—so was Citigroup, where Robert Rubin, who was Clinton's Treasury secretary, he had also come from Goldman Sachs. And, by the way, even though this is Republican-led, there were plenty of Democrats, in fact, a majority of Democrats, who voted for this. And Robert Rubin, who unfortunately is advising Barack Obama—I don't know how this guy can wake up and—you know, and not be embarrassed and how he can appear on television—and Lawrence Summers, these are the two guys in the Clinton administration who teamed up with Phil Gramm to pass that atrocious legislation.

And now, you know, it seems to me, in terms of the bailout, why don't they do what Hillary Clinton said during the primaries: just put a freeze on foreclosures? Start out with helping the homeowners and say, "OK, we're not going to foreclose your house for the next year. We're going to force the banks to work out reasonable payments. We'll try to help you hold on to it." That would have stopped the bleeding here much more effectively than throwing $700 billion at these bandits.

I don't know why we're not considering criminal charges against these people. They have done more to hurt this nation than bin Laden could ever dream of.

DEAN BAKER: Absolutely, and this speaks to the nature of the bailout. The bailout should not be fun, if it's constructed right. The way this should be constructed is, if you're on the edge of bankruptcy, you come to the Treasury, and you get the money. But guess what? You're selling your company, and you also have serious limits on CEO pay. You know, you only get $2 million a year; how's that? Or maybe less.

You know, some people have proposed less than that. But the bailout has to be punitive, if it's serious. It shouldn't be a field day. We shouldn't have people lining up to get in. That's telling us that this is not a serious bailout. So the idea that the administration is proposing is that the people who were engaged in incredibly reckless behavior, who made out like bandits, getting tens of millions of dollars in salary and compensation over the last few years are now going to get this $700 billion blank check from the American taxpayer. It's just unbelievable. If Henry Paulson doesn't want it to be punitive, that's telling us, from the word go, he is not the guy to run this.

This is not supposed to be a giveaway. You know, these are the richest people in the whole country. And if it's not punitive, what we're telling them is just, you know, "Go out, run your banks in a reckless manner" — because that's what they did; they wouldn't be here if they didn't run their banks in a reckless manner — "pay yourself $30, $40, $50 million a year in compensation. Then, when you get in trouble, go running to the government, and we'll just hand you hundreds of billions of more." If this isn't punitive, if this isn't really painful for them to come to the government, then we've messed up with the bailout. Think of what we do to welfare people, when they—you know, everything they have to go through to get, you know, a $500-a-month check, and these people want billions, no questions asked.

ROBERT SCHEER: Well, I think Senator Sanders made a very important point, that, you know, Barack Obama, back in March at Cooper Union—Robert Rubin, who is now unfortunately close to the campaign, in January of this year—he's the guy who in the Clinton administration pushed through the Financial Services Modernization Act, allowing this madness—but in January, he said we don't have a problem, this is just the normal fluctuation of the market. That was in a speech he gave at Cooper Union. However, in March, Barack Obama gave a very good speech on the economy. He said much of what we have been saying on this show so far. Unfortunately, he lost that voice temporarily, and these people like Summers and Rubin moved over to his campaign. So, I think if Barack Obama can recover his populist voice that got him where he—so far in the primaries, I think this should be a runaway. I mean, it's unbelievable that the American people would want four more years of this madness.

I would point out, you have asked the question about covering foreign banks. One of those foreign banks, UBS, Swiss bank, is where Phil Gramm works. He was rewarded after being head of the Banking Committee, pushing through this deregulation. His wife Wendy Gramm went to work for Enron, was on their audit committee. She runs a big institute for deregulation that the big corporations put a lot of money into. Phil Gramm went to work for UBS, a foreign-based banking conglomerate. And now they want to extend this coverage to those banks. These people have no shame.

I think it's time, as I said before, to really talk about criminal investigation. They have defrauded the American people, and they changed the laws. You know the old folk song, Woody Guthrie, I guess, you know, some will rob you with a gun, and others with a fountain pen. I mean, imagine, these people came in, rewrote federal regulation to exempt the kind of credit swaps—I notice people find this a bit confusing, but I'm saying they've got to read up on it. The hybrid instruments that they talk about, that's what allowed all of this. That's why AIG got in trouble. They're supposed to be selling insurance; they're not supposed to be backing security packages. And all of this stuff was hidden, it was murky. The bankers themselves admit they don't know what was going on.

And all of that was made legal; it was illegal up until, you know, less than ten years ago. It was made legal by acts of Congress, led by the Republicans, and unfortunately a majority of Democrats backed it, and Bill Clinton signed off on that first major legislation.

Staying Informed

EPA Unlikely to Limit A Component of Rocket Fuel in Tap Water


From DemocracyNow!
The Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a lawsuit against the NSA, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, challenging the legality of the administration's electronic surveillance program. The class-action lawsuit was filed on behalf of all residential AT&T customers and alleges that the NSA is conducting mass surveillance on US residents in violation of their First and Fourth Amendment rights. (Luckily for AT&T, Congress and the Bush Admin signed Telecom immunity against such civil lawsuits!)
A new book by award-winning journalist Barton Gellman reveals that the Vice President played a crucial role in maintaining this program of warrantless spying, even after Justice department officials began to doubt its legality in 2004. The book is called Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency.
Washington Post editorial on the subject

AMY GOODMAN: By the way, this is just a side story, but Cheney has the White House email all blindly going to him, so everyone who writes to each other in the White House, Cheney gets that email?

BARTON GELLMAN: Early on in the administration, he made arrangements that he and his office would be copied with all the significant paperwork in the White House on issues. Now, it was not true that if you wrote to the person in the cubicle next door, he was going to get a blind copy. But if you sent to the working group on Asia or on arms control, you would see that it was going to your colleagues in the White House in the appropriate directorates; you would not see that it was also going to Cheney. And there were people who made the mistake of giving very frank advice and making very frank statements about the positions of the Vice President's Office without knowing that they were being read right over there.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/26728520
Palin's record portrays several Bush & Rovian tactics:

strict press silence/secrecy

conducting official biz through personal emails to deflect public records requests & subpoenas

vast cronyism

and a distinct disinterest in foreign affairs

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/26764294
3 minutes in: McCain looking retarded when asked about how to fix the economy
McCain: "I'd like to tell you that I did anticipate [the banking crash], but I have to give you straight-talk. I did not."
Also admits that he was surprised at the dot-com collapse.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/26764592
Irony: Elite class maven, Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild finds Obama to be "an elitist."
(A day later, it was released that she finds him elitist because he called "rednecks" bitter. Yes, this daughter of the Rothschild banking dynasty said "rednecks.")

3 Minutes in: Palin's ugly record on women's issues.


http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/09/17/palin_mayor/
As Wasilla's mayor, Palin "spent more than $50,000 in city funds to redecorate her office, without the council's authorization."


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/26763824
McCain campaign interfering in & stalling the Alaska investigation on Palin's trooper scandal.
(They now call the investigation partisan, though the council is comprised of 3 Rs & 2 Dems.)


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/26764014
Issue: "Lose Your House, Lose Your Vote"
"Caging lists" have been a regular tactic of the GOP.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/3956129.stm

http://www.gnn.tv/articles/3078/Do_Rove_s_Missing_Emails_Prove_Illegal_Caging

http://www.cnn.com/video//video/politics/2008/09/19/obama.protests.kkk.cnn
What's wrong w/ these idiots?
Black people who believe Obama is supported by the KKK


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/26780079
3:09 in: I love Chuck Hagel!
8 minutes in: Why I love Chris Matthews


Get ready for another hike: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/26782485
But be prepared: GA Office of Consumer Affairs

Informative reading:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FISA_Amendments_Act_of_2008
Extended research on the "compromises" in the new FISA Act approved by Congress.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/18/AR2008091803914.html?nav=rss_world

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/20/AR2008092002144.html?nav=rss_politics

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/09/19/large-hadron-collider.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7626944.stm

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/09/19/plants-stress-aspirin.html

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=egyptian-fossil-discovery

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4a336662-8636-11dd-959e-0000779fd18c.html

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/fad66726-8640-11dd-959e-0000779fd18c.html

Rallying Against the Low Information Voter

So I was talking to my Aunt during a road trip down to my parents' house and we got onto politics. She brought up the current financial crises and voiced that she didn't understand how people would trust McCain to solve the problem. Then she got on some Bill Clinton being a better president stuff. Sigh... That Arsenio Hall appearance just won't quit.

I brought up all the problems in his past: Travelgate, his bad political appointments (Zoe Baird, Kimba Wood, Lani Gunier), Hillarycare, Whitewater, Welfare-to-(not) Work, NAFTA, and finally, repealing the Glass-Steagall Act. I explained what all these problems meant, and that they weren't simply partisan nit-picking. Further, I proved how his administration was closer to being Republican than progressive. Even with all of these staring in her face, she found the will to utter, "I still like his personality."

Therein lies the problem with American politics: our electorate's chosen state of ignorance of the issues in favor of a mythical fireplace coziness with a candidate. The fatuous idea that the guy on TV could be your neighbor is paramount, even though every day you buy products by people (Steve Ballmer, Steve Jobs, Howard Stringer, J. Edward Coleman) whose personalities you have no idea about.

Two weeks ago, I was hanging with my friend at a local restaurant over in Cabbagetown. We were chatting a bit, waiting for our food, when I overheard a few patrons next to us talking politics. I couldn't resist the chance to run my mouth about this subject to which I've become so addicted. So I asked them if we could join the convo. "Sure," they responded.

The people were certainly nice, and a couple of them were pretty aware of the issues, although they didn't know that Obama has all his policies PDF'd on his website, or that they've been there the entire time. At any rate, they'd been trying to convince their friend to vote for Obama. The guy, I came to find out, was aware of detrimental facts about McCain's record and associations, yet still not willing to let go of voting for him. At the time, he admitted that he was a McCain supporter but visibly unhappy with his choice of Palin. Ironically, he said that he couldn't see himself voting for Obama because "Obama," he said, "is ideological." When I asked him to explain that one, he couldn't. Which tells me that he is the ideological one.

When I talked to the guy last week, he mentioned that he's starting to accept Palin. He's getting used to her being on the ticket and he even kind of likes her. Since I'm a news nut and I'm aware of some really bad characteristics (such as not knowing her own party's policies, being a religious extremist, her charging rape victims for their hospital rape kits, and slashing the budget for the Alaska Special Olympics), I had to ask why. "She just seems so much more real than before," he said.

What is it with this? She seems "real"?!?! Really?? As opposed to, what? Cubic Zirconia? How about she has no idea how to deal with the economy? She's saying - on television - that she understands foreign policy because you can see Russia from the edge of Alaska. She even spoke of going to war with Russia with relative ease. Cold War part II is okay for her, I guess, even though we don't have the money to outspend them this time. Hell, we didn't have it the first time, but the debt wasn't as bad as it is now. She must want us to be the People's Republic of China @ America, since it's apparently okay by her to continue borrowing money from them. She also thinks it's okay to let Israel do whatever it wants. So, while our country is essentially folding in on itself how will we be able to help Israel?

Ideological voters are worse than uninformed voters, though both are equally annoying. Ideological voters know and ignore the better option in favor of some inane sense of duty. The McCain guy can overlook the history of the Keating 5, with the savings and loans scandal back in the 80s, in favor of just having a republican in office. Even though McCain will do nothing to help people making his pay grade.

Low information voters vote stupid simply because they don't know. But they equally annoy me because we are in the effin information age and they choose not to find out. The Washington Post, Newsweek, Vanity Fair and all those mags can report the truth all they want, but the dumbasses in West Virginia (1) don't read those, and (2) still think Obama's Muslim - even though it's unconstitutional for anyone's religion to even be up for debate. Not that the constitution is even an issue, since they're essentially voting for the guy they can have a beer with. (Even though they'll never know him.)

Just like the people at the table that night who were dumbfounded when I answered the McCain guy about Obama not defining his stances, by directing him to the PDFs on his website. It wouldn't have taken them more than 5 minutes to go to his site to see what's on it, yet 80 years into this campaign, they obviously never have. They could've even looked on Wikipedia. That site had a breakdown of all the major points for each candidate during the primary season. But clearly, America is more taken with a cozy smile than actually knowing the policies behind it.

The stock market fell 500 points for the first time since Black Monday in the Reagan administration, yet the IVs (ideological voters) and the LIVs (low information voters) will never know that it's the same failed policy that didn't work the first time it was implemented that has fucked things up again. They'll elect the guy who's all about the deregulation that caused this mess.

"...he has never departed in any major way from his party's embrace of deregulation and relying more on market forces than on the government to exert discipline," as the New York Times reported. A decade ago, McCain embraced legislation designed "to broadly deregulate the banking and insurance industries, helping to sweep aside a thicket of rules established over decades in favor of a less restricted financial marketplace." Sponsored by top McCain economic advisor Phil Gramm--then a Texas senator--that bill ultimately "helped pave the way for companies such as AIG and Lehman Brothers to become behemoths laden with bad loans and investments," according to the Washington Post. McCain's ideological commitment to deregulation has resurfaced multiple times during the 2008 campaign. Shortly before Bear Stearns collapsed last March, for example, the candidate characterized himself as "fundamentally a deregulator" who's "always for less regulation," and even as AIG faced collapse yesterday, he told Matt Lauer that "we cannot have the taxpayers bail out AIG or anybody else." (He's reversed his position now that the government was forced to commit $85 billion to stop AIG's collapse.)

Yet right now, we're basically socializing the banking industry. I'd think that Republicans would be blowing their stacks right now. Government takeover of anything always seemed to induce the red scare in the past, even though national healthcare is in our best interest for the sake of keeping workers healthy and relieving companies of those expenses. An underreported fact is Walmart wanting national health care. GM has moved it's production to Canada because they already have national health care. But any time they bring it up here, the Republicans scream communism. It's retarded. On the other hand, maybe the AIG bailout will actually help us move closer to national health care. :-)

It's Been A Long Time...

There's a lot that's gone on since I last blogged. And believe me, I've been raging over it all. But I haven't posted because I didn't see the point in venting ideas that have been posted elsewhere. I, for one, realize how annoying it is to see or hear the same thing said ad nauseum. At the same time, though, there's been a definite angst bubbling inside me.

Those who know me know that it's my own fault because I can't stay away from political information. Every day, I watch no fewer than five political shows, then read more via WashingtonPost.com RSS and iGoogle. It's an addiction. At the same time, though, I get irritated at how inexplicably daft people can be. For instance, on an episode of DemocracyNow!, a reporter interviewed a DNC goer about the Obama-Hillary rift. She lamented that she can't get over Hillary losing because "it was women's time." Why? Because of "all the discrimination." Wow. So... what? Black people haven't endured discrimination? Or, is it that women have endured more? Or women's discrimination is more important?

If they could take their ass hats off, they'd see that discrimination has run side-by-side for most people in America besides white men. Despite Women's Suffrage, which only benefited white women, many couldn't get loans by themselves even into the early 80s. Funny thing is, even by 1990, some black people weren't able to do the same thing! Granted, Obama is still a man, but they can't delight in that big wall coming down. It doesn't matter that it still hasn't come down for born-here Latinos, Indians, or Far Easterners, or (GASP) Indigenous Americans. And that's still not even the issue.

Some of these yahoos are willing to do a complete 180 from Hillary's domestic platform in order to vote McCain out of spite. SPITE! I may not trust her or her husband, but I at least know that they don't support supply-side economics. Oh, wait... Bill signed NAFTA and repealed the Glass-Steagall Act. Hmmm...

Well, anyway, McCain and his boy Phil Gramm are all about the Trickle-Down ditty, and won't do anything to help things in the midst of this economic shit storm. Hell, Phil was the guy who lobbied to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act. And it led to the current mortgage crisis - not that it exists to him. He actually said that our current economy is the best in American history. I'm not sure from what year he's counting, but he's clearly ideological. And this was [is] the guy planning McCain's economic agenda. This is the agenda that the hardcore Hillraisers are willing to support because... ... they never can really say. They're just mad she didn't win. I just don't understand that kind of unreason. Especially when Obama's policies are this damn close to hers. But, y'know, that's just by-the-by. Obama clearly cheated since Hillary supported their state to violate party rules, thusly, disqualifying all their votes. And this is just part one of my journey. I have more, but I have to go to sleep now.

Vera's Appeal To Senator Obama For Justice In Discrimination Case

Senator Obama I am a loyal supporter of your quest to be the President for "All" Americans. In an article on CNN.com you were quoted as saying, “I do think part of the role of president is to offer his or her opinions about critical issues, not all of which can be solved by government, but make a big difference in the quality of our society. That doesn’t mean that we’re going to solve these problems overnight, but I’d like to think that if a president says that something’s important, that some people might pay some attention.”

As a Black American I want what everyone else in America wants. I want to be treated fairly according to the rules, according to the law, and according to the United States Constitution. To be Black in America means that as a race of people we are not only victims of injustice in criminal court cases but also victims of an unjust civil court system. In my discrimination lawsuit and in my disability retirement legal proceedings the America judicial system including the United States Supreme Court failed me. A judicial system that has failed and continues to fail many Black citizens of this great nation.

Senator Obama please read all of my I-Reports on CNN that detail my discriminatory employment experience with NYS Department of Correction, the fact that Eliot Spitzer’s staff of the NYS Attorney General’s Office filed perjured declarations in federal court and the unjust ruling by the American judicial systems that included the United States Supreme Court. I have posted several I-Reports on CNN and my blogs on Oprah.com and yourblackworld.com that present my credible argument to support the fact that for twelve years I have been denied equal justice in America.

Senator Obama please help me to help myself. I am entitled to justice and my case of employment discrimination is "true" just like your statement that some black men have been missing in their children's physical and financial lives.

Obama if you mean what you said about personal accountability and responsibility I need your personal and legal opinion on this critical issue (employment discrimination) in my life and the lives of many other hard working Americans.

The New York State Attorney General’s Office must be held “ACCOUNTABLE” for their actions in my case. You can take a stand on this issue even if that stand means using your newly status as the head of the Democratic Party. The current governor of New York (Patterson) and the current NYS Attorney General Cuomo are both members of our party. I have contact both Patterson and Cuomo and haven't gotten any results.
Respectfully Submitted,

Vera Richardson author of “A Case of Racial Discrimination and Retaliation Real or Imagined.” http://books.google.com/books?id=sx1cLRaobBQC