From the Las Vegas Sun:

THE SENATOR’S SCANDAL :
Behind the closed doors on C Street
The Family — which has counseled Sen. John Ensign — lives and prays as a fundamentalist group with power at the center of its agenda
Sunday, July 19, 2009 | 2 a.m.

The scandal over Nevada Republican Sen. John Ensign’s extramarital affair with an employee has renewed interest in a secretive fundamentalist Christian group known as The Family, with whom he lives when in Washington, D.C.

Ensign last month admitted to an affair with Cynthia Hampton, whose husband, Doug Hampton, was a top aide to Ensign and his best friend. After Doug Hampton asked The Family to intervene, members confronted Ensign at the group’s house on C Street in Washington.

On Wednesday, the author of a book about The Family was interviewed on KNPR-FM’s public affairs show “State of Nevada.” Author Jeff Sharlet, a contributing editor to Harper’s and Rolling Stone magazines, lived with The Family in early 2002. His book, “The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power,” was published last year by HarperCollins.

The following is an account of the State of Nevada interview, conducted by host Dave Berns. It has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Dave Berns: Scandals involving John Ensign and South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford placed a spotlight on The Family. The group’s town house in Washington is a former convent with a chapel and, according to federal tax records, is registered as a church. Tenants pay below market rent.

We asked Sharlet which is the bigger story: the sex scandals, or the public conversation about The Family.

Jeff Sharlet: The story begins with these scandals. The question is, do you make the bigger connection? The real issue is not who Ensign or Sanford sleep with, but the organizations with which they pursue their policies and the sources to which they turn for moral and religious authority.

I think that is starting to come out, particularly with Ensign, because we see the role The Family plays in the cover-up. Doug Hampton said The Family had a role in moving money around for the affair, which I think a lot of outsiders look at as hypocritical. Knowing The Family, I understand that that’s not hypocritical from its perspective — that it’s actually a form of doing God’s work.

Berns: Talk about the relationship between members of The Family — they are men, not women — and the role they play as a larger group.

Sharlet: The Family began with this idea that God does not work through churches but rather through those whom The Family calls the “New Chosen.” They believe they’re chosen by God. They can’t be expected to pray with the rest of us. They need to pray in private with people of equal status.

Read the rest of this scary article at the link above.
As someone stated: this is straight out of a Dan Brown novel - but, it’s real.

Muhammad Ali and Bill Cosby at the All-Star game in St. Louis.

Good Morning.

As you begin a new week, don’t forget JJP.

Drop those links. Engage in debate. Give us trivia and gossip too.

And always, have a peaceful day.

Are you guys serious?

If “taking it the streets” is all we are, then kill me now.

I hear all this talk about “Afrocentric”, but most motherfuckers who can’t read don’t really know anything about Africa except kente cloth, Roots, and the STUFF THEY SEE ON TV that has been programmed by the same “whitey” you say you are afraid of acting like.

Nobody here is going back to Africa. NOBODY! Certainly not anybody I see standing on the corner, talking about “the man” is holding him down.

You can start a business IN THE HOOD with practically no money if you have an education. Brand new lawyers who have next to no experience do it everyday. Young doctors with 125K in loans do it and get paid year one if they take Medicaid patients, which our HOODS are full of. Even if you don’t get that far in school, you can either learn how to navigate the government grant system to get a loan to rehab your block, or start a small retail shop - IF YOU CAN FUCKING READ.

If I was Martin, or the beloved Malcolm that so many dumb ass thug wannabees holler about while they wave their 9mm’s around, killing US, I’d look down on your ridiculous asses and say “damn all of you fools who don’t know any better than to believe this bullshit.”

Malcolm didn’t get to be Malcolm cause he sold drugs or wore a conk. He got to be Malcolm because when his ass could have been rotting in that jail, he took the time to learn the language of the land.

Every African in Africa who has a bit of sense and the middle class luxuries many of us enjoy know two, three, or more languages, and they live on the biggest continent in the world.

So what the fuck are we afraid of?

If you can learn to cook crack properly, you can learn to be a pharmaceutical technician, and mix legal drugs.

If you can hotwire a car, you can learn to pull conduit and wire a house.

The only reason tunnel vision, “keeping it real” negroes like you even have half a chance to spew this nonsense is because some EDUCATED NEGROES took one for the team for the last hundred and fifty years, all the way back to Frederick Douglas, a real “G” if their ever was one.

Take these nursery rhyme fantasies back where you got them and quit fooling our youth.

Do you see any rappers still living on the streets they came from?

Hell No!

So why brainwash our children into believing that attitude and swagger mean anything when they have no brainpower to back it up, no knowledge base to anchor it, and no way to communicate with the rest of the world, whether they are white, black or brown?

Brown Man, I don’t think you’re as far apart from Town as you think, but I FELT the passion of this comment.

This sight never gets old; no matter who is the President.
—REUTERS/Fahad Shadeed

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It’s funny how some people mock non-whites for getting an education by claiming they are “acting white.”

I have long held the belief that the “doing well in school = acting white” thing was started up by racist whites.

I think it’s interesting that most of the 80s era rappers were college students/college graduates and they all had on the HBCU T-shirts…but when Corporate America got their hands on rap you never heard a rapper again talk about black pride and you never saw an HBCU t-shirt on a rapper again.

I think it’s curious that conservatives tell blacks/hispanics they’re being discriminated against because they don’t have any education…but when the black/hispanic gets an education they tell them that education doesn’t mean anything.

I think it’s interesting that conservatives/GOP admonish hispanics for not knowing English and tell them they better learn English, no Spanish allowed…but when hispanics try to learn English, they are mocked.

Maybe the problem in this society isn’t education, because it really doesn’t matter if blacks and hispanics go to school and get an education because many whites will regard somebody like Palin, who went to 5 colleges in 6 years, has no command of the English language and is intellectually incurious as much more smarter and qualified than a black/hispanic summa cum laude graduate of an Ivy League school who continously strives to learn.

I suspect RayRay in the hood knows this. He doesn’t need a State of the Black Union to tell him what he already knows.

I think black and hispanic communities should stress education NOT as a way to assimilate and gain acceptance into the larger white society (that’s never going to happen) but stress education as a way to build up their own communities instead.

Good Morning.

As you enjoy your weekend with family and friends, don’t forget JJP.

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And always, have a peaceful day.

President Barack Obama walks with daughter Sasha as he hosts a luau on the South Lawn of the White House
for members of Congress and their families, Thursday, June 25, 2009, in Washington.
—-AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari

As you enjoy your weekend with family and friends, don’t forget JJP.

Drop those links. Engage in debate. Give us trivia and gossip too.

And always, have a peaceful day.

A side table in Senator Barack Obama’s office in
Washington’s Senate Hart Office Building.

Good Evening.

Drop those links. Engage in debate. Give us trivia and gossip too.

And continue to have a peaceful day.

From Wikipedia:

Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. (born November 4, 1916-died July 17, 2009) is a retired American broadcast journalist, best known as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years (1962–81). During the heyday of CBS News in the 1970s and 1980s, he was often cited in viewer opinion polls as “the most trusted man in America” because of his professional experience and kindly demeanor.

Early years at CBS
In 1950, Cronkite joined CBS News in its young and growing television division, recruited by Edward R. Murrow, who had previously tried to hire Cronkite from UP during the war. Cronkite began working at WTOP-TV, the CBS affiliate in Washington, D.C.. On July 7, 1952, the term “anchor” was coined to describe Cronkite’s role at both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, which marked the first nationally-televised convention coverage.[4] Cronkite anchored the network’s coverage of the 1952 presidential election as well as later conventions, until in 1964, he was temporarily replaced by the team of Robert Trout and Roger Mudd. This proved to be a mistake, and Cronkite was returned to the anchor chair for future political conventions.

From 1953 to 1957, Cronkite hosted the CBS program You Are There, which reenacted historical events, using the format of a news report. His famous last line for these programs was: “What sort of day was it? A day like all days, filled with those events that alter and illuminate our times… and you were there.” He also hosted The Twentieth Century, a documentary series about important historical events of the century which was made up almost exclusively of newsreel footage and interviews. It became a long-running hit. (Note: In the early 1970s, You Are There, hosted by Walter Cronkite, was revived and redesigned to attract an audience of teenagers and young adults. It aired on Saturday mornings.) He also hosted a game show called It’s News to Me, a game show based on news events.

The CBS Evening News
Cronkite succeeded Douglas Edwards as anchorman of the CBS Evening News on April 16, 1962, a job in which he became an American icon. The program expanded from 15 to 30 minutes on September 2, 1963, making Cronkite the anchor of American network television’s first nightly half-hour news program.

During the early part of his tenure anchoring the CBS Evening News, Cronkite competed against NBC’s anchor team of Chet Huntley and David Brinkley, who anchored the Huntley-Brinkley Report. For most of the 1960s, the Huntley-Brinkley Report had more viewers than Cronkite’s broadcast. This began to change in the late 1960s, as RCA made a corporate decision not to fund NBC News at the levels CBS funded CBS News. Consequently, CBS News acquired a reputation for accuracy and depth in its broadcast journalism. This reputation meshed nicely with Cronkite’s wire service experience, and in 1968, the CBS Evening News began to surpass The Huntley-Brinkley Report in viewership during the summer months. In that same year, the faculty of the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University voted to award him the Carr Van Anda Award “for enduring contributions to journalism.”[5]

In 1969, with Apollo 11, and later with Apollo 13, Cronkite received the best ratings and made CBS the most-watched television network for the missions.

In 1970, Walter Cronkite received a “Freedom of the Press” George Polk Award. That same year, the CBS Evening News finally dominated the American TV news viewing audience, when Huntley retired. Although NBC finally settled on the skilled and well-respected broadcast journalist John Chancellor, Cronkite proved to be more popular and continued to be top-rated until his retirement in 1981. That year, President Jimmy Carter awarded Cronkite the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

One of Cronkite’s trademarks was ending the CBS Evening News with the phrase, “…And that’s the way it is:”, followed by the date (keeping to standards of objective journalism, he omitted this phrase on nights when he ended the newscast with opinion or commentary). Beginning with January 16, 1980, “Day 50″ of the Iran hostage crisis, Cronkite added the length of the hostages’ captivity to the show’s closing to remind the audience of the unresolved situation, ending only on “Day 444″, January 20, 1981.[6]

For many years, Cronkite was considered one of the most trusted figures in the United States. Affectionately known as “Uncle Walter”, he covered many of the important news events of the era so effectively that his image and voice are closely associated with the Cuban missile crisis, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the Vietnam War, the Apollo 11 Moon landing, and the Watergate scandal. Enjoying the cult of personality surrounding Cronkite in those years, CBS allowed some good-natured fun-poking of its star anchorman in some episodes of the network’s popular situation comedy, All in the Family, during which the lead character Archie Bunker would sometimes complain about the newsman, calling him “Pinko Cronkite.”

Cronkite trained himself to speak at a rate of 124 words per minute in his newscasts, so that viewers could clearly understand him.[citation needed] In contrast, Americans average about 165 words per minute, and fast, difficult-to-understand talkers speak close to 200 words per minute.[7] Currently, Walter Cronkite’s voice can be heard announcing CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric at the beginning of the news broadcast, and at Retirement Living TV’s Daily Cafe.

Historic moments as anchor

Kennedy assassination
Cronkite is vividly remembered by many Americans as breaking the news of the death of President Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Cronkite had been standing at the United Press International wire machine in the CBS newsroom as the bulletin of the President’s shooting broke and clamored to get on the air to break the news. However, cameras were not ready for use and Cronkite would be forced to break the news without them while one warmed up.

At 1:40 PM, A “CBS News Bulletin” bumper slide broke into the live broadcast of As the World Turns. Over the slide Cronkite began reading:

“Here is a bulletin from CBS News. In Dallas, Texas, three shots were fired at President Kennedy’s motorcade in downtown Dallas. The first reports say that President Kennedy has been seriously wounded by this shooting.”

A second bulletin arrived as Cronkite was reading the first one, which detailed the severity of President Kennedy’s wounds:

“More details just arrived. These details about the same as previously…President Kennedy shot today just as his motorcade left downtown Dallas. Mrs. Kennedy jumped up and grabbed Mr. Kennedy, she called “Oh no!,” the motorcade sped on. United Press [International] says that the wounds for President Kennedy perhaps could be fatal. Repeating, a bulletin from CBS News: President Kennedy has been shot by a would-be assassin in Dallas, Texas. Stay tuned to CBS News for further details.”

Just before the bulletin cut out, a CBS News staffer was heard saying “Connally too,” apparently hearing the news that Texas Governor John Connally had also been shot while riding in the Presidential limousine with his wife Nellie and Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy.

Following the first bulletin, a commercial for Nescafe coffee aired, followed by an As the World Turns sponsor bumper, a preview bumper for the scheduled episode of Route 66 to air that night, and a ten second station identification break for the CBS affiliates. Just as the sponsor bumper for the second part of As the World Turns began, it was cut off. The “CBS News Bulletin” slide came back on the screen and Cronkite reported further information on the shooting of the President, with this bulletin relaying to the viewing audience for the first time that Governor Connally had also been shot.

“Here is a bulletin from CBS News. Further details on an assassination attempt against President Kennedy in Dallas, Texas. President Kennedy was shot as he drove from Dallas Airport to downtown Dallas; Governor Connally of Texas, in the car with him, was also shot. It is reported that three bullets rang out. A Secret Service man has been…was heard to shout from the car, “He’s dead.” Whether he referred to President Kennedy or not is not yet known. The President, cradled in the arms of his wife Mrs. Kennedy, was carried to an ambulance and the car rushed to Parkland Hospital outside Dallas, the President was taken to an emergency room in the hospital. Other White House officials were in doubt in the corridors of the hospital as to the condition of President Kennedy. Repeating this bulletin: President Kennedy shot while driving in an open car from the airport in Dallas, Texas, to downtown Dallas.”

Cronkite then recapped the events as they had happened: that the President and Governor Connally were shot and in the emergency room at Parkland Hospital and no one knew their condition as of yet. He then reminded the viewers that CBS News would continue to provide updates as more information came in.

CBS then decided to return to ATWT, which was now midway through its second segment and continued as the cast had not apparently been told of the situation in Dallas. When the segment wrapped the show took its second scheduled commercial break, during which Cronkite broke in a third time with this bulletin.

“Here is a bulletin from CBS News…President Kennedy has been the victim of an assassin’s bullet in Dallas, Texas. It is not known as yet whether the President survived the attack against him.”

This particular bulletin went into greater detail than the other two, as for the first time Cronkite detailed where the shooting victims were wounded (Kennedy had been shot in the head, Connally in the chest). At the conclusion of the bulletin Cronkite told viewers to stay tuned for further details, perhaps implying that the network would be returning to regular programming. However, Cronkite remained on the air for the next ten minutes continuing to read bulletins as they were handed to him, followed by recapping the events as they were known and interspersing the new information he’d received where it was appropriate. He also brought up recent instances of assassination attempts against sitting Presidents (including the murder of Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak in a botched assassination attempt on then-President-elect Franklin Roosevelt), as well as a recent attack of United Nations ambassador Adlai Stevenson in Dallas which resulted in extra security measures being taken for Kennedy’s visit to the city. He also received word that Congressman Albert Thomas of Texas had been told that for the moment the President and Governor were still alive.

By 2:00 EST, Cronkite was informed that the camera was ready, and told the viewers over the air that CBS would be taking a station identification break so the affiliates could join the network. Within twenty seconds all the CBS affiliates (with the exception of KRLD in Dallas, who was covering the tragedy locally) joined the network’s coverage of what was taking place. Cronkite appeared on-air in shirt and tie but without his suit coat, given the urgent nature of the story, and opened with this:

“This is Walter Cronkite in our newsroom, and… there has been an attempt, as perhaps you know now, on the life of President Kennedy. He was wounded in an automobile driving from Dallas Airport into downtown Dallas, along with Governor Connally of Texas. They have been taken to Parkland Hospital there, where their condition is as yet unknown.”

Cronkite then tried to throw to KRLD’s coverage of the Dallas Trade Mart meeting that the President was supposed to address, but the camera was not ready. After a few seconds Cronkite began speaking again but after a few more, the broadcast abruptly cut into the aforementioned meeting where the station’s news director Eddie Barker was reporting (a director was audibly heard saying “Okay, go ahead. Switch it” while Cronkite was talking). He said that the President was still alive (as Cronkite had been told by the report from Congressman Thomas earlier and directly by Congressman Jim Wright just moments before Barker’s report was filed). About five minutes later Barker reported that rumors has begun to circulate that Kennedy was in fact dead.

Cronkite reappeared several minutes after Barker reported that Kennedy was rumored to have been killed, advising that two priests had been called to Kennedy’s bedside although the reasons for which were not made clear. He also played an audio report by KRLD’s Jim Underwood, recounting that someone had been arrested in the assassination attempt at the Texas School Book Depository. After said report, Cronkite was told that KRLD was reporting that that the President was dead and Barker was reporting that he had been told by a doctor at Parkland Hospital of the President’s death. While the coverage continued at the Dallas Trade Mart meeting Barker said that the assassination was officially confirmed, but neither the Associated Press or United Press International had done so. He then retracted the statement, saying that it still had yet to officially be confirmed that the President was dead. Shortly thereafter CBS stopped showing KRLD’s coverage and returned to their own coverage of the incident.

………………………………………………………………….

Vietnam War

Cronkite reported on location during the Vietnam War.Following Cronkite’s editorial report during the Tet Offensive that the Vietnam War was unwinnable, President Lyndon Johnson is reported to have said, “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost Middle America.”[8]

During the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Cronkite was anchoring the CBS network coverage as violence and protests occurred outside the convention, as well as scuffles inside the convention hall. When Dan Rather was punched to the floor (on camera) by security personnel, Cronkite commented, “I think we’ve got a bunch of thugs here, Dan.”

[edit] Other historic events
General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower returned to his former SHAEF headquarters for an interview by Cronkite on the CBS News Special Report D-Day + 20. This program was telecast on June 6, 1964. “SHAEF” means “Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force,” and it had various locations, including in London, England, and in France.

Cronkite is also remembered for his coverage of the United States space program, and at times was visibly enthusiastic, rubbing his hands together on camera with a smile on July 20, 1969, when the Apollo 11 Lunar Landing mission put the first men on the Moon. Cronkite has criticized himself for being at a loss for journalistic words at that moment.

According to the 2006 PBS documentary on Cronkite, there was “nothing new” in his reports on the Watergate affair; however, Cronkite brought together a wide range of reporting, and his credibility and status is credited by many with pushing the Watergate story to the forefront with the American public, ultimately resulting in the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon on August 9, 1974. Cronkite had anchored the CBS coverage of Nixon’s address, announcing his impending resignation, the night before.

Cronkite also was one of the first to receive word of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s death, receiving the information during the January 22, 1973, broadcast of the CBS Evening News[9]. While a videotaped report by Peter Kalischer about the apparently successful Vietnam war peace talks was being shown to the nation, Johnson’s press secretary Tom Johnson (no relative of Lyndon Johnson) telephoned Cronkite to inform him of Johnson’s death. CBS cut abruptly from the report at 6:38 p.m. Eastern Standard Time to Cronkite, who was still speaking to Johnson on the phone. After holding up a finger to pause and let Johnson finish, he broke the news to the nation that the former President had died, then continued to speak with Johnson (who was not patched through to the air) for a few more seconds to gather whatever remaining details he could, then hung up the phone and relayed those details to the audience.[10] During the final ten minutes of that broadcast, Cronkite reported on the death, giving a retrospective on the life of nation’s 36th president, and announced that CBS would air a special on Lyndon Johnson later that evening.

From the Museum of Broadcast Communications
———————-

Good Afternoon.

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And continue to have a peaceful day.

So, here was the headline of the NYTimes:
Obama Tells Fellow Blacks: ‘No Excuses’ for Failure

It was a 36 minute speech, and THIS is what The NYTimes got from it.

Ta-Nehisi Coates brought this to my attention.

And, here is an abbsolutely fabulous reply in the comments over at Ta-Nehisi Coates:

Sorn
July 17, 2009 3:59 AM

Why he’s in church. I mean, not sitting in the pew, but the President’s in church. This isn’t the speech you give to people to convince a hostile crowd. This is a speech you give to people who know that they have to face a hostile crowd, but for now they’re safe and they need their spirits built up, so tomorrow they can get through the grind again.

I’ve seen the same theme play out again and again in small churches all over. I’ve seen Crow Preachers, White Preachers, Cheyenne Preachers, Blackfoot Preachers, Catholic Priests, all give this type of message. I’ve seen this type of speech at revival tent meetings, and in places where the pews were so plush people were afraid to fart. I’ve even seen my father give this type of sermon, but that part of my upbringing is another story.

Obama’s at the high church of blackness –meaning no offense to anyone– he knows the drill. The general theme of these speaches is always the same. First make people feel good about themselves and connect them with their history. Then illustrate present problems and dificulties. Step on a few toes and let people know that they can’t rest on their laurels. Link the present dificulties to the triumphs of the past. Tell people that if an older generation can over come harder things that they should have no problems overcoming present dificulties. Make a few appeals to personal responsibility. Finally, End with a benediction or a story that links everything together and shows the indomitability of the human spirit.

The New York Times description of this speech misses the boat entirely. However, I think that’s for a few important reasons. First how many reporters go to church? No offense intended but the structure of a sermon, which is what this is, is different from the structure of an ordinary political speech. I think if more reporters were more familiar with a bit more puplit pounding they’d understand. Second, and I’ve seen this play out with Native Americans if not with African Americans. Mainstream society has two stereotypes that they love to continually play out when they talk about minorities. Either members of minority groups are portrayed as drunk, lazy, good-for-nothings, or they are pictured as noble savages resisting the incursions of the evil white man. An alternate variant on the “noble savage” stereotype exists as well. Usually in this variation the “good minority” adapts themselves to the progress of “civilization.”

I think the headline of the NYT article, if not the entire article, is a lazy, half-assed, way of reporting on a sermon that was meant to be and was inspiring, if only in a typical Sunday got-to-meeting type of way. In the article the two ways that mainstream society have of viewing those outside are fused. We get both types of stereotypes. On the one hand there’s the noble savage stereotype in Barrack Obama. On the other hand, there’s an element, in the article, of the “good” minority who’s come back to tell the “bad” minority how to adopt the white man’s ways and be successfull.

The problem with this entire way of reporting is that somewhere in the fusion of stereotypes people loose their humanity. I said before that the speech was a sermon, and, in the best sermons, people are preached to both individually and collectively. Collectively the president brings everyone into contact with their history. Individually he brings his struggle into relationship with the individual stuggle of the audience members. The end result is to give strength to the individual by preaching a collective message of hope, and to inspire the collective by preaching an individual message of perserverence. Watch the conclusion of the speech again, like all good preachers, and I maintain that on this occasion Obama is a preacher, Obama uses the individual stories of people like Moses Wright to give a strength and a voice to the communal experience of African Americans.

Of course the NYT got it wrong. First they don’t understand the tradition, and second they don’t understand the dynamic between the individual and his group. Of course if their reporters went to church a bit more, or if they stopped viewing ethnic minorities as monolithic communities they might get a bit more right. However I don’t see either of those two things happening in the near future.

Sorry for the long post.

No Sorn. Thank you. On point - all the way.

Photo: White House

I had a chance to watch Barack Obama’s speech before the NAACP just now. It was a very powerful speech and I admit I was moved when he quoted from the Black National Anthem by James Weldon Johnson at the end of his talk. Gave me goosebumps. There’s more to the story of his appearance yesterday, however.

Here’s the New Black Power in action. Dig (Read the full article at Essence.com):

Several hours before President Obama gave his much-anticipated speech at the NAACP centennial convention in New York City, he spoke before another probing audience of African-Americans aboard Air Force One. Accompanying the President on the quick flight over from Washington, seven reporters representing various Black media outlets questioned the President about his plans for improving conditions for African-Americans, and what he says is the single most important issue they face today.

The conversation, held in a brown leather-interior conference room on the jetliner, opened on a familiar critique-the President’s resistance to implement a policy specifically addressing racial disparities, such as the 14.7 percent Black unemployment rate.

Asked about Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele’s recent criticism of the President for failing to promote a race agenda, Obama replied dryly, “First of all, I think Mr. Steele should focus on what the Republican Party’s going to do.” But he stood by his position that fixing the economy overall is the most urgent thing he can do for the Black community, touting provisions in his recovery package that kept teachers and police officers employed, provided extended unemployment insurance, and created new jobs. “All these things help everybody, but obviously they’re especially important to African-Americans in this economy.”

That said, the President continued that he is, in fact, targeting communities most in need through the new White House Office of Urban Affairs aimed at improving employment and housing in American cities. One of his urban policy proposals, called Promise Neighborhoods, focuses on children in low-income neighborhoods with early childhood education and weekend community centers.

Uh huh.

On last night’s Rachel Maddow show, here’s MSNBC’s Resident Racist, well, being who we know him to be:

Maddow: Why do you think that 108 of the 110 Supreme Court Justices have been white?

Buchanan: White men built this country. White men drafted the Constitution. Almost all the people who fought on the beaches of Normandy were white men.

White men built this country?

Oh really?

Actually, they didn’t. The economic foundation of this country is built upon SLAVERY, Pat Buchanan. It is on the backs of AFRICAN SLAVES, for HUNDREDS of years of FREE LABOR, upon which this country was built. Find an industry in this country, and it was built upon SLAVERY.

Black people are a Founding Population of this country, Buchanan.

You want the TRUEST Americans, Buchanan - look no further than the Black folks that you so blithely dismiss.

Because, you’ve never once had to find a REASON to fight FOR this country. To actually THINK about it in any seriousness, and then decide, ‘Yes, America is a country worth fighting for. ‘ Your mindless version of patriotism is so shallow and insincere, it’s an utter farce. I don’t believe, for all your patriotic yammering, that your ass put on an uniform to actually DEFEND this country…which puts you in good company with a whole lot of chickenhawks named Cheney, Limbaugh, etc. Name one, and somehow, there’s some EXCUSE as to why you didn’t fight for this country when the opportunity availed itself.

You want TRUE PATRIOTISM - how about men like my Father, and millions like him, who put on the uniform for this country, risking their lives for this country, when, officially on the LAWBOOKS, my father and others for generations, were SECOND CLASS CITIZENS.

THAT is a patriot.

You are a poseur.

A racist poseur.

There were nearly a million Black men who fought for this country during WWII, though none of the movies nor newsreels from that time would indicate such. Why would they - those men were putting their lives on the line in a SEGREGATED ARMY that treated German PRISONERS OF WAR better than Black soldiers.

The Black people who get a paycheck from MSNBC won’t tell you what they REALLY think about you, but why don’t you try this:

Go to the local barbershop and start spouting your racist BS and see what happens.

We’re not going to the Back of the Bus.

No matter what you might think.

And Sotomayor isn’t going to clean your house.

The TRUE beneficiaries of Affirmative Action?

WHITE WOMEN.

I’ll say it again.

WHITE WOMEN.
WHITE WOMEN.
WHITE WOMEN.

And until that bit of truth slips past your lips, your condemnation of Affirmative Action will be seen for what it is and has always been:

RACIST DEMAGOGUERY.

Sonia Sotomayor, a Phi Beta Kappa from Princeton….who has more judicial experience than any nominee in 70 years…

Is unqualified?

But Sarah Palin, Miss 4 colleges in 5 years …and we’ve STILL not seen PROOF of her degree..

Oh, SHE’s qualified, says BuKKKanan.

G-T-F-O-H.

MSNBC must take responsibility for their actions in putting this racist on our tv screen. What the hell must this mofo say to get himself FIRED?

From CNN.com:

Commentary: Gay is not the new Black
By LZ Granderson
Special to CNN

Editor’s note: LZ Granderson is a senior writer and columnist for ESPN The Magazine and ESPN.com, and has contributed to ESPN’s Sports Center, Outside the Lines and First Take. He is the 2009 Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) award winner for online journalism and the 2008 National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA) winner for column writing.

(CNN) — Far from flowing rainbow flags, the sound of Lady Gaga and, quite honestly, white people, stands a nightclub just outside of Wicker Park in Chicago, Illinois, by the name of The Prop House.

The line to get in usually stretches down the block, and unlike many of the clubs in Boystown and Andersonville, this one plays hip-hop and caters to men who may or may not openly identify as gay, but without question are black and proud.

And a good number of them are tired of hearing how the gay community is disappointed in President Obama, because they are not.

In recent weeks, one would have thought the nation’s first black president was also the nation’s biggest homophobe. Everyone from Oscar winner Dustin Lance Black and radio personality Rachel Maddow to Joe Solmonese, the president of Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest gay advocacy group, seem to be blasting Obama for everything from “don’t ask don’t tell” to Adam Lambert not winning American Idol.

In their minds, Obama is not moving fast enough on behalf of the GLBT community. The outcry is not completely without merit — the Justice Department’s unnerving brief on the Defense of Marriage Act immediately comes to mind. I was upset by some of the statements, but not surprised. (After the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, President Ronald Reagan’s initial handling of AIDS and, more recently, Katrina, there is little that surprises me when it comes to the government and the treatment of its people.)

Still, rarely has criticism regarding Obama and the GLBT community come from the kind of person you would find standing in line at a spot like The Prop House, and there’s a reason for that.

Despite the catchiness of the slogan, gay is not the new black.

Black is still black.

And if any group should know this, it’s the gay community.

Bars such as The Prop House, or Bulldogs in Atlanta, Georgia, exist because a large number of gay Blacks — particularly those who date other Blacks, and live in the Black community — do not feel a part of the larger gay movement. There are Gay Pride celebrations, and then there are Black Gay Prides.

There’s a popular bar in the heart of the nation’s capital that might as well rename itself Antebellum, because all of the White patrons tend to stay upstairs and the Black patrons are on the first floor. Last year at the annual Human Rights Campaign national fundraiser in Washington, D.C. — an event that lasted more than three hours — the only Black person to make it on stage was the entertainment.

Rest of article at link above.

Not because of your values or beliefs or core ideology.

Maybe because as each day passes, you are continually being confronted with the fact that despite your best efforts, you can’t escape the fact that there are some die-hard bigots in your political party - the one that claims to be the party of Abe Lincoln, who’s claim to fame is the Emancipation Proclaimation freeing the slaves.

Uh-huh.  And yes, there are an equal number of bigots in the Democratic Party (which explains why they continue to shoot themselves in the foot on issues that are slam-dunk wins, but I digress), but when they succumb to the temptation to pull out their hood and robe, there is generally a Paul Wellstone, a Ted Kennedy or now, an AL FRANKEN around on the floor of Congress to call out their asses and tell them to either shut up that noise or get a beat down right out of the party.

Seems like someone in your party would have put that beat-down on one Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, and his pals, Senator (Ms.) Lindsay Graham, and the crazy one, Senator Jim Coburn, but y’all as quiet as mice pissing on cotton.  Especially after what the Field Negro is saying:

The irony of this entire episode is so thick that you could cut it with a knife. Sessions, himself, was shot down for a federal bench because of his little race problem, and now, like a bad horror movie, the GOP has brought him back. This time to be their face of these confirmation hearings. Nice.

This cannot sit well with my black friends in the republiklan party (Oh yes, I am on them again) and some of them have not been shy about making their feelings known about it. I can’t say that I blame them. I would be pissed off as well. You would think my fiends (that’s a typo but I am leaving it. It fits) from the party of Lincoln (oh, and let’s not forget MLK) would be smarter than this. Alienating an entire voting block (Hispanics) by having your racist front man beat up on one of their own might be good red meat (no pun intended) to throw to your base, but it’s dumb politics.

I totally agree with the Field on this one regarding Jeff Sessions.  Told y’all he’s going batshyt at the thought that someone he thinks should be cleaning his house or cutting his grass is probably going to get a seat at the Big Table he was denied back in 1986 because he was too much of a bigoted cracker even for the William Buckley crowd:

… The man flat out denied that he was a racist at his own confirmation hearing. “I am not a racist” Now tell me, if the man was a racist for crying out loud, would he have said that? Ahhh yes. In fact, that is exactly why he would say it. Here is the thing: if you have to declare that you are not a racist, there is a pretty good chance that you just might be one. Ok wise guy, consider this:

“A few years ago, when Sessions appeared on “Meet the Press” to discuss confirmations, he found himself staring at an old image of Kennedy speaking in 1986. “Mr. Sessions is a throwback to a shameful era which I know both black and white Americans thought was in our past,” Kennedy said. It wasn’t something Sessions enjoyed reliving.

‘That was the most unkind thing that has ever been said about me,’ Sessions says. ‘it was exceedingly painful to hear someone of that prominence make that statement, and it was hurtful because it wasn’t true.”’ 

Like I said,  if you’re an Afrcan-American in the GOP these days, it must POSITIVITELY SUCK to be there having to listen to this shyt and trying to defend the mofos that spew it because they are party members JUST LIKE YOU.

Especially since Hip-Hop MC Steele Moe Bling is on the warpath trying to sell your party to the likes of US.  News Flash - HE AIN’T DOING TOO GOOD. Not when you’re offering to bring the Fried Chicken and Potato Salad to the party in an attempt to WOO Black People.  And y’all know some of us might damn well go just to get that two-piece and a biscuit from Hip-Hop Mike (h/t Field Negro).

What, no Watermelon?  No Super-Sized Grape Soda or Red Kool-Aid?  Big Mama’s Peach Cobbler or Aunt Ticey’s Pound Cake?  (eye roll)

Oh, so that noise I head was the collective groan from Black Republicans at Mike Steele’s talking points.

What is must be to be Black and in the GOP.  Tell us what else you have in store to “Woo” us to your party.  Even though the Democrats continue to piss us off, at least we get to break out cans of Whip-Ass when they act like they’re going to lose their doggone minds.

What do you guys do when you have to contend with someone like Jeff Sessions, or Rush Limbaugh, who really is the Head of Your Political Party these days?

Don’t worry, I’ll wait….(cue Katt Williams impression)

Discuss.

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