Divide & Conquer

Dr. Cornel West, author and professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, and TV/radio talk host Tavis Smiley have created a lot of debate by criticizing President Obama's leadership. Earlier this month they conducted a nationwide "poverty tour" that took them to 16 poor communities across the United States. It is interesting that Dr. West and Tavis Smiley started their tour in August, the same month that: in 1964, the bodies of three civil rights workers who had been killed by members of the Ku Klux Klan with the aid of local sheriffs was found; in 1965 the Voting Rights Act was signed and five days later the Watts riots started. West and Smiley started their tour in Obama's hometown of Chicago.

Tom Joyner, also a nationally syndicated radio host with a large following, has had a public falling out first with Tavis Smiley and now Dr. West; apparently the falling out started during the presidential campaign in 2008. Tavis was clearly not a big supporter of Obama’s and Tom was. 

And it certainly is no secret that this past April on MSNBC Al Sharpton and Dr. West went toe to toe over President Obama’s focus, or lack thereof, on the Black agenda. Sharpton's position was that most Black leaders, except for Obama, are silently doing nothing for the Black community, while West called Obama no more than a "black mascot" for the wealthy. I should also mention that after this Rev. Sharpton was given a show on MSNBC. 

According to Dr. West the poverty tour, "is not an anti-Obama tour," he and Tavis Smiley seek to draw attention to and highlight what they believe is lack of effort by both the president and Congress to address the needs of the Americans hardest hit by the recession.  Unemployment is at 16% in the Black community.

As an African American woman looking at my elders duke it out in the media I am truly frustrated. There are not that many Black, activists - leaders who garner national attention. In the infamous words of Rodney King, “Can’t we all just get along?” And for goodness sake if they can’t get along is it necessary to air dirty laundry for all to see? 

I started off as a strong supporter of then Senator Barack Obama. I walked precincts, posted fliers, knocked on doors arranged and attended community meetings.  I was looking for change, hoping this president would do what no other had; use the historic nature of his presidency to bring a different perspective to some of the issues that have plagued my community for generations. But, when it comes to issues of particular concern to the African American community, the president’s response is, “I am president of all of America, not just a narrow special interest group.”

Special interest group? Every President that has sat in the Oval Office has been the “president of all of America,” yet they have attended to their own “special interest group” in some way or fashion. Now I wasn’t expecting Obama to order reparations or anything that spectacular but I, as was many other volunteers and supporters, was certainly expecting my community to garner some type of political capital. 

Where has the president expended any political capital on behalf of issues of particular interest (jobs, justice from the legal system, and civil liberties) to the Black community? So, the gays get all sorts of gay rights, Hispanics get a Supreme Court Justice, amnesty, and the D.R.E.A.M. Act; and Black people get “I’m president of all of America.”

I continue to support our President but it certainly isn’t blindly. It just seems that Dr. West, Travis Smiley, and Tom Joyner should be working together and at some point with President Obama; not causing factions to be developed in the community. Without a leader we face more of the divide and conquer that has gotten us nowhere.

No Humanitarian Intervention For Those Who Really Need It

According to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), poor sanitation conditions, a shortage of safe water, overcrowding and high malnutrition rates are the perfect combination for infectious diseases, such as cholera and pneumonia, to spread and increase death rates. UNICEF also noted that some 75 percent of all cases of highly infectious acute watery diarrhea are among children under the age of five. 

Health officials are reporting increasing rates of diarrheal illnesses in various regions of Somalia. Cholera outbreaks have also been identified in the Banaadir region (including the capital city, Mogadishu), Lower Shabeelle and Mudug regions. Cholera is a severe diarrheal disease transmitted directly through contaminated food or water. Cholera usually affects populations lacking good sanitation or clean drinking water. In order to minimize risks, it is recommended to wash hands thoroughly before meals, and to use uncontaminated water.

“Our major concern is to monitor and detect new disease outbreaks in the many informal settlements set up by internally displaced people in and around Mogadish,” World Health Organization (WHO) Representative for Somalia Marthe Everard said.

“For the last few years, a network of health workers reporting to the early warning system has been in place, however they report through a health facility or mobile clinic. Yet the large numbers of displaced people in Mogadishu are making it more difficult to record the various diseases,” she added.

“We urgently need more mobile clinics that will provide basic health care services to the many displaced and who will strengthen the reporting on new outbreaks. This is critical to our response and our ability to save lives,” Everard said.

Conditions in Somalia are extremely dangerous. Due to the general internal insecurity caused by the civil war along with dangerous levels of criminal activity. Poor sanitation has led to an increase in the number of confirmed cases of cholera and waterborne diseases across Somalia as more famine-stricken people arrive in already overcrowded camps.

It seems this is a humanitarian crisis if ever there was one. It would appear that since Somalia has no oil reserves, NATO and the West are uninterested in an "intervention" to save Somali lives.

Troy Anthony Davis

Troy Davis was convicted of murdering a Georgia police officer in 1991. Nearly two decades later, Davis remains on death row — even though the case against him has fallen apart.

On March 28, 2011 the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Troy Davis' appeals and set the stage for him to possibly face a fourth execution date. Troy Davis is at risk of getting a September execution date.  No executions will be scheduled in the month of August in Georgia given the state Supreme Court recess.

The case against him consisted entirely of witness testimony which contained inconsistencies even at the time of the trial. Since then, all but two of the state's non-police witnesses from the trial have recanted or contradicted their testimony. 

Many of these witnesses have stated in sworn affidavits that they were pressured or coerced by police into testifying or signing statements against Troy Davis.

One of the two witnesses who has not recanted his testimony is Sylvester "Red" Coles — the principle alternative suspect, according to the defense, against whom there is new evidence implicating him as the gunman. Nine individuals have signed affidavits implicating Sylvester Coles. 

Earlier this year Amnesty International issued an “Urgent Action” to mobilize its three million members in Georgia, the United States and around the world to write the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles to advocate for clemency for death row inmate Troy Anthony Davis. It is the fourth urgent action that the human rights organization has issued on behalf of Davis in as many years.

You can help @ http://www.troyanthonydavis.org/call-to-action.html

Dealing With The Devil

The Financial Times has published an article by the Council on Foreign Relations president Richard Haas titled, "Libya Now Needs Boots on the Ground," in which he indicates that the Libyan rebels are incapable of rebuilding Libya and will need an "international force" to uphold order. Haas readily admits that the NATO intrusion to "protect civilians" was indeed NATO and the United States securing their own economic and strategic interests by bringing about regime change. Waving the banner of “human rights” - the most hypocritical and deceitful of all justifications for imperialist war - the United States, along with NATO have embraced this action against Libya as democracy but have actually used it as a cloak for their predatory interests.

During civil war humanitarian concerns are last on the list of objectives. Consequently, it was deceitful for the United States, NATO, France, England, Italy, and Germany, to foster armed rebellion to conceive civil war in order to facilitate the assassination of Muammar Gaddafi and create regime change. NATO has not spent the last five months conducting airstrikes on Libya to "protect civilians" with the anticipation of turning around and going home. The initial uprising was provided for in Washington and London where opposition leaders were given resources and a safe-haven to conduct their subversion. NATO and its members intend to rebuild Libya by; taking away the universal health care, free education and monthly stipend each Libyan was receiving, in order to make a profit for themselves at the expense of the Libyan people. 

Haas also explains that NATO's "success” are what require this international assistance in the form of an occupation force to deal with rioting, Gadhafi supporters, inter-tribal conflict. Haas also beseeches President Obama to rethink his decision not to put troops on the ground in Libya. What we are witnessing is a crumbling empire seeking to hold on to power by expanding its reach by colonizing another independent nation.  The American government has been lying since its inception, lying so that it may acquire other peoples land, wealth, and resources; this is no different. 

So what’s next? As soon as the Libyan rebels secure Libya one of two things will happen: either the rebels will be codified into a puppet regime or if they are unwilling to acquiesce to NATO and the United States the Western allies will claim that they were actually misled by the rebels and now have no choice but to remove them from power just as they did Gadhafi. Either way the Libyan people loose and Libya will be occupied by Western forces and NATO ground troops for the foreseeable future. 

The oil revenues that Col Gadhafi used to build hospitals with, provide every Libyan health care and an education, build water ways and public housing, will be siphoned out of the country and into the hands of Europe and the United States.  The lessons of history are clear in showing us that the outcome of this war will be in favor of the interests of the occupiers and certainly not in favor of democracy and self-determination for the people of Libya.

13 day - 167 mile Farm Worker March Starts on Tuesday

  This information was taken directly from the United Farm Workers Site.
Saying the time to act is now, farm workers will begin a 167-mile pilgrimage up the Central Valley to Sacramento to press for enactment of the Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Act. The march begins on August 23, 2011 in Madera, two months after Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed SB 104, a bill that would have made it easier for farm workers to join a union. The "The Fair Treatment For Farm Workers Now" march will end on Sept. 4th, Labor Day weekend, at the State Capitol.

In the two months sine Gov Brown's veto, another farm worker may have died of heat related illness --the second worker that California's blazing sun may have claimed this year. So farm workers are speaking with their marching feet and kicking off a 13 day march this to convince Gov. Jerry Brown to sign their new bills that are making their way through the legislature. These bills include a revised version of the Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Act and legislation giving farm workers the right to be paid overtime after 8 hours like other workers.

In Governor Brown's veto of the "Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Act," he says he is "not yet convinced." For farm workers, "not yet" means farm workers don't get water and shade. "Not yet" means farm workers continue to die of heat illness. "Not yet" means farm workers do not have basic justice implemented by the Agricultural Labor Relations Act. “Not yet” means hundreds of farm workers who last year voted for union representation have waited more than a year for the Agricultural Labor Relations Board to take the simple act of certifying the elections.

There will be up to 50 full time marchers who will be joined by farm workers and community people throughout the route and by thousands of farm workers when they arrive in Sacramento. To do a march of this size will cost close to $250,000--even with cutting corners as much as possible by housing marchers at supporters' houses along the route. Between meals, water & ice alone we are talking about $31 per marcher per day or $403 per marcher for 13 days or $20,150 just for the full time marchers. Farm workers from up and down the state want to join in on the weekends when they can get off work. On the last day United Farm Workers will need to rent buses for the thousands of workers who plan to attend.

You Can Help @ www.secure.ufw.org/page/contribute/167milemarch

Black, Jobless & Still Voting for Obama

Earlier this week President Obama toured the Midwest and today he started his vacation, and I am not saying the man doesn’t deserve a vacation. Meanwhile, the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) has been traveling the country with their Jobs Initiative tour. Yesterday they were in the city where I live, Atlanta, Georgia. Looking at the lines of people one couldn’t help notice that the majority, well over ninety percent, were African American. 

In the sweltering heat, some 4,000 people showed up at Atlanta Technical College where 90 employers spent the day reviewing resumes and scheduling interviews. With unemployment at 16% in the Black community, and that doesn’t include people whose unemployment benefits have run out, the CBC has termed the situation what it is, a crises. And with Congress preparing to consider more cuts in federal spending it doesn’t look as if the situation is going to get better anytime soon. 

Several job seekers here in Atlanta fainted as they waited in lines that wrapped around the building and nine were taken to area hospitals. While there have been a number of jobs bills introduced and a lot of discussion, nothing has happened that would ease the situation so that people would not think it necessary to risk their health waiting in line for the opportunity to speak with a potential employer. The crowds, the lines and heat took their toll on people, both mentally and physically.

Rep. John Lewis, a Democrat from Georgia and member of the CBC, urged job-seekers not to give up hope and called for a federal solution to unemployment. "It is my hope that some of the people here today will be promised a job -- at least an interview. We have to do something." Lewis said there must be a "massive effort on the part of this administration and on the part of all of us" in Congress to fund public works jobs similar to those created during the Great Depression. Lewis said he would push for more federal spending -- "millions and billions of dollars to create jobs, to put people back to work" but he offered no specific proposals other than a summer jobs program that failed to pass Congress.

The 12-member Congressional “super committee” is preparing to consider austerity measures that will likely cut programs disproportionately used by Blacks, Latinos and the poor and President Obama seems unwilling to fight for increased job spending or any solution that would unequivocally help the African American community. But if history is any indicator, those in the community who actually do get out and vote will vote to reelect Obama, they have no choice. The African American community is ninety percent Democrat and with the current crop of Republican presidential hopefuls being the worst choice of any GOP presidential candidate in an extremely long time it is almost a guarantee that Obama will get the Black vote by default.  

Let Them Eat Cake

The quotation, “Let them eat cake,” has been attributed to Marie Antoinette. Apparently, this was her statement when she learned that the people were suffering due to widespread famine. The quote reflects the princess's obliviousness to the condition of the people; fast forward 2011. The political elite, the rich, elected officials, and police are not oblivious; they are just greedy, uncaring, and immoral, both in the United States and in Britain.

Following the murder of 29-year-old father of four Mark Duggan by police in Tottenham, North London on August 4th of this year, riots ensued that astonished the both Europe and the United States. These riots are a call to the working class and poor in Britain and here in America. 

The rich, the elected officials and the police who maintain the status quo thought it not looting to plunder public funds in order to bail out the banks but have used the state as a weapon and are levying the most brutal class justice against and the poor. This is a case of the have’s versus the have not’s, the super-rich against the super-poor. 

The Labour Party, Prime Minister David Cameron and his Conservative-Liberal Democrat government have used water cannons and plastic bullets in an effort to curtail what they are labeling as rioting. Unfortunately, they are not addressing the root causes, first by dealing with those who murdered Mark Duggan and then addressing the underlying issues: the social deprivation and inequality, extremely high rates of unemployment and unabashed police brutality.

Follow The Money

Congress is on vacation and the President is on a 3-day Midwestern bus tour but as soon as the reconverge on Washington, the lobbying will commence. The new supercommitte will mean supperlobbying. And as we all know if nobody is lobbying on your behalf there is a slim to none chance that your issue will either not be heard or will be determined by those who can afford to hire lobbying firms. 

"Lobbyists are in many cases expert technicians capable of examining complex and difficult subjects in clear, understandable fashion. They engage in personal discussion with members of Congress in which they explain in detail the reasons for the positions they advocate...Because our congressional representation is based upon geographical boundaries, the lobbyists who speak for the various economic, commercial and other functional interests of the country serve a useful purpose and have assumed an important role in the legislative process." - Senator John F. Kennedy, 1956

So, take a look at the chart below: 

 Will your interest be served?

Live From Death Row

Born Wesley Cook in 1954, the man currently known as Mumia Abu Jamal was a member of the Philadelphia branch of the Black Panthers; he served as that group’s Information Minister when he was just 15 years old. Known, as many blacks have, for referring to police officers as “pigs,” a young Abu Jamal was a supporter of MOVE, a Philadelphia-based Black Power cult known for its demonstrations against local residents and its incitements against police officers and the city government. An outspoken, controversial figure, he was a frequent guest on television and radio programs. An advocacy journalist and well regarded in Philadelphia and beyond for his interviewing skills, Mumia Abu-Jamal was destined for fame as a news anchor or writer; for a while, he even hosted his own show on Philadelphia’s National Public Radio affiliate WUHY-FM -- though he was eventually fired from that job because of his radicalism.

Sentenced to death in 1982 for allegedly killing a police officer named Daniel Faulkner, Mumia Abu-Jamal is the most famous death row inmate in the United States, if not the world. Abu-Jamal is the author of six books and hundreds of columns and articles; he has been on death row for the last 29 years. In December 2001, his sentence - but not his conviction - was overturned by Federal District Court judge William Yohn. Both the prosecution and the defense appealed Yohn’s ruling. Abu Jamal is presently incarcerated in the maximum-security State Correctional Institution Greene, near Waynesburg, Pennsylvania.

Organizations that have publicly declared their solidarity with Mumia Abu Jamal include: the Committees of Correspondence, Refuse and Resist, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the National Lawyers Guild, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Products, the International Action Center, and the NAACP. The NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, whose officials frequently speak at “Free Mumia” rallies. Another notable backer is International ANSWER, which, at a large anti-war rally, played a videotaped message from Abu Jamal, recorded in his prison cell, to the cheering throngs in attendance.

Noted individual supporters include: Maya Angelou, Ed Asner, Alec Baldwin, Noam Chomsky, Ramsey Clark, Ben Cohen, Susan Sarandon, Snoop Dogg, Roger Ebert, Mike Farrell, Howard Zinn, Molly Ivins, Norman Mailer, Robert Meerepol, Michael Moore, Paul Newman, Spike Lee, Oliver Stone, John Landis, Joyce Carol Oates, Naomi Campbell, Salman Rushdie, and Angela Davis. When the city of Paris made Abu Jamal an honorary citizen, Ms. Davis picked up the parchment for him. Another supporter was the late actor Ossie Davis.

Abu Jamal has been a guest speaker at several college commencement ceremonies -- in each instance delivering his addresses from the confines of his prison cell. In 1999, for instance, Abu Jamal spoke to the graduating class of Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. Likening himself to persecuted social-justice leaders of the past, he explained that he was a revolutionary seeking to raise public consciousness about America’s alleged repression of blacks and other minorities. “Revolution,” he said, “according to the Declaration of Independence, is a right” of all oppressed people. Among the other schools whose graduates Abu Jamal has addressed are Antioch College, UC Santa Cruz, Occidental College, and Kent State University.

The book, The Framing of Mumia Abu Jamal, by longtime investigative reporter and Crime Magazine editor and publisher J. Patrick O'Connor argues that Mumia was set up. O'Connor confirms Abu Jamal’s work as a peace activist while a student at ultraliberal Goddard College and the fact that he was seemingly on the path to becoming a Rastafarian ascetic when he was charged with murder. Abu-Jamal admittedly carried a gun; a part-time cab driver since being fired from the public radio station for his unscripted political commentary, Mumia had twice been robbed and was concerned for his safety. Connected by several threads to the "back-to-nature group MOVE," which had drawn the ire and bullets of Philadelphia police during the Frank Rizzo years, Abu-Jamal was framed, perhaps to keep him from looking too deeply into police counterintelligence operations. The police investigation was incomplete, confused and much-revised, and the forensics were improbable. O'Connor states that, "It would not come out until trial that the police had not bothered to run any tests of Abu-Jamal's hands or clothing to determine if he had fired a gun or even if [his] .38 had been fired." Such tests being commonplace at shooting scenes, O'Connor correctly advances the view that the results did not fit the setup and were consequently discarded. Compounding all this was the flawed physical evidence, a biased judge, perjured testimony and a district attorney known as the " Queen of Death' because of her zeal for seeking the death penalty," particularly for black capital offenders. O'Connor sets forth a careful, well-constructed argument. O'Connor clearly lays out the case that Abu-Jamal should receive at least a new trial, if not complete exoneration; the investigation into Faulkner's murder deserves another look.

Write To Mumia:  AM 8335, SCI-Greene, 175 Progress Drive, Waynesburg, PA 15370
Listen To Mumia's Radio Show: www.prisonradio.org/mumia/htm

08/13/11 Millions in Harlem March

SEE RELATED POST 080811

Waving the banner of “human rights” - the most hypocritical and deceitful of all justifications for imperialist war - my government, the United States, along with NATO have embraced this action against Libya as democracy, but are using it as a cloak for their predatory interests.

Justifications for the US-NATO bombing of Libya are thick with moral outrage against Muammar Gadhafi, but provide virtually nothing in the way of analysis of the motives and interests of the forces, within Libya and internationally, that are seeking his overthrow. NATO and the United States have stepped in in order to secure their own economic and strategic interests. As we all know during civil war humanitarian concerns are last on the list of objectives. Consequently, it is deceitful for the United States, the United Nations, NATO, France, England, Italy, and Germany, to foster armed rebellion in order to conceive civil war, so that the assassination of President Gadhafi will create regime change allowing Western allies to put a puppet government in place.

For those of you still wondering why China and Russia didn't press to veto the invasion of Libya, take a look at: China holds trillions of United States Government Treasury Bonds, the introduction of a single currency based on the value of gold aka the "African Dinar" as proposed by Col. Gadhafi, would automatically flip the balance of economic power in favor of the so-called "third world" countries where most of the world's resources are. China's trillion dollar reserves would have become mere worthless paper.

Russia believed that this would also not bode well for its long term geopolitical aspirations in the Mediterranean and on the continent itself. What does introducing a single African currency mean? In simple terms the price of African commodities would become simply unaffordable for most Western nations and you know the basic laws of economics will apply: African nations will "see" their wealth reserves hit the roof at the expense of developed countries that will, for the first time have to pay the real prices for our commodities.

Just as in other countries this war has been waged under the pretense of humanitarian intervention. But just as in Iraq and Afghanistan, military intervention by the U.S. and its allies is being done for the benefit of the rich and powerful at the expense of working and oppressed people both here and in Libya. Countless civilians have died and will continue to die as a result of these attacks. And countless dollars will be taken from over-stretched budgets and social programs to fund this imperialist aggression. The lessons of history are clear in showing us that the outcome of this war, if the United States, Britain and France have their way, will be in favor of the interests of the rich, not in favor of democracy and self-determination for the people of Libya.

Watch the Millions in Harlem March at: http://noi.org/webcast/millionsinharlem/

Close the Gap Between Rich & Poor & This Type Of Thing Would Not Happen

Part 3: A Hard Look At Latin America

TRADE AS A WEAPON

Part 2: The United States “Re-Conquest” - was posted on August 6, 2011

Why does the Unites States support elitist, undemocratic governments? The answer is money. Chilean copper, Columbian oil and Ecuadorian natural gas are among the prizes. The selling off of natural resources and state enterprises such as railroads, telephone companies, and airlines to private investors is a fountain of wealth. Local elites help arrange the deals on behalf of the U.S. and other transnational elites, and are well compensated. This economic invasion takes the form of a business deal or a “development” loan.

In Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, John Perkins explains how the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) development loans never actually reach the countries to which they are “loaned”. Up to ninety percent of the money comes back to the United States through contracts given to American companies hired to build projects being funded. Of the remaining ten percent, a large portion goes to local elites who have approved and will administer the projects. Very little of this money actually reaches the people or improves their standard of living in any way. However, the people are taxed to repay the money.

International “free trade” agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) are nothing more than economic domination, a way for the rich to get richer. At a 2004 Mexico City forum, numerous scholars called these treaties a “process of subordination,” designed to give the United States control of Latin American resources. DR-CAFTA, the Dominican Republic – Central America Free Trade Agreement includes: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, as well as the Dominican Republic.

A wide range of grassroots social movements, recognizing the threats to the economic sovereignty of their nations, have expressed disapproval in the “free trade” agreements that benefit the rich and elite here in the United States and elites in countries where the United States has imposed economic colonialism. Developing a socially responsive model of economic integration between rich and poor economies is essential. Given the influence of the United States in setting the rules for the global economy, a visible, sustained challenge to the NAFTA model here in the United States is the most important contribution we as concerned people on this continent can make towards the building of a more just global economic system.

Jim Crow Jr. Is In the House

AND ALTHOUGH HE IS BOLDER THAN HIS FATHER AMERICANS ACT AS IF THEY CANNOT SEE HIM

My grandfather worked for years in a racist environment. He was called nigger to his face while at work and told the job he had was too good for him. He managed to buy a house in a neighborhood where at the time most of the properties on the block had exclusionary clauses; meaning in the deed of the house it expressly said the property was not to be sold to Blacks. My dad had no idea of what my grandfather went through until he himself started working at the same place in his early twenties.

At some point my father went to his supervisor to complain about the nigger jokes that were being told out loud for the benefit of the whole dept. The supervisor’s response was, “they’re just havin’ a little fun, what you can’t take it?” My dad wrote a letter to his supervisors’ boss and they immediately came and got on the supervisor. As soon as the bosses left my dad was called in by his supervisor and chewed out.

My father endured co-workers playing dirty tricks on him that made his workmanship appear inferior. Someone would change a needed component on his project or “borrow” his tools. All in an effort to have him “downgraded.” At some point my father wrote a letter requesting to go to school through an upward mobility program. His supervisor balled the letter up and threw it away telling him to get back to work or he would have him mopping floors before the end of the week. According to the G.I. Bill the agency was supposed to make it as convenient as possible for my father to go to school. Eventually my father was allowed to go to college but the hoops he had to jump through due to ignorant, jealous, racists were in my mind inconceivable until earlier this week. I can’t remember experiencing such outright racism in my life, but as I look at today’s headlines:

World’s Most Powerful Man Seems . . . Powerless

White House Refuses To Take Charge & Lead

More To Obama: Show Some Guts

Just Another Black Man With Bad Credit

Associating With Obama Is Like Touching A Tar Baby

I am seeing ignorant, jealous, racists at work in 2011. I have no idea what actually goes on behind closed doors on the Hill. But from where I sit it appears to me that these bigoted Tea Partiers have put President Obama in a place where he cannot do his job then they go to the media and complain that he’s not doing his job.

The Republicans refused to negotiate and compromise over the debt ceiling/debt reduction agreement interlocking two issues that have never been handled together and drawing out the process. This put the President in a position where he could not do what he needed to for the country and consequently the United States lost their stellar credit rating. This is akin to taking someone’s tools so they cannot perform their job.

Now don’t get me wrong I am not in agreement with everything President Obama has done since taking office, however neither am I blind. At no time in history has Congress fought EVERYTHING the President has attempted to do with the express intent of wanting his administration to fail. The only difference in this case is that a Black man holds the presidency.

It is asinine to say Obama’s lack of leadership caused the credit downgrade when it is obvious that his "co-workers” were playing games in order to make his performance seem inferior. The Tea Partiers “havin’ a little fun” at the expense of the country, members of Congress screaming “You Lie” at the President and people referring to him as a Tar Baby are outright racist attacks. This country should not allow the primitive behavior of a few to diminish the significant racial gains that have been made over the last fifty years as evidenced by a Black man in the White House.

London Is Burning - Washington Should Take Notice

NBC News: "Is rioting the correct way to express your discontent?” Yes," said the young man. "You wouldn't be talking to me now if we didn't riot, would you?" The TV reporter had no response. So the young man pressed his advantage. "Two months ago we marched to Scotland Yard, more than 2,000 of us, all blacks, and it was peaceful and calm and you know what? Not a word in the press."

Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old father of four, was fatally shot last Thursday night in North London’s Tottenham Hale section. Duggan, who was a passenger in a minicab at the time of the shooting, was initially stopped as a part of an initiative to recover illegal guns in the area. Although an illegal firearm was found at the scene ballistic reports now show that all of the gunfire came from police.

After Duggan was shot, his family and the Tottenham community were in shock. A peaceful protest was planned for Friday evening, and the family wanted to meet with police officials to get answers about the shooting. However, police representatives refused to meet with them and the protests turned violent.  Duggan's death was the tipping point. 

Areas such as Tottenham were a powder keg waiting to go off with all the key ingredients: increasing police brutality, growing social inequality and government cuts. Now the violence has spread to other parts of the capital and even to other UK cities such as Birmingham. The poor of all races have taken the signal provided by Duggan's death to engage in the worst rioting Britain has seen since 1981. 

The actions of racist police who are known to harass poor blacks by abusing their stop and search powers, in addition to other violations, has coupled with the ongoing poverty and chronic unemployment; causing the situation to explode.  The poor of all races are suffering from the Tory-Lib Dem Coalition Government's budget cuts in health, education and social service budgets. The economic and social policies of the current government (combined with that of the former Labour Government) have been exacerbated by the economic crisis and served to worsen the situation as employment opportunities diminish further.

It has been 30 years since the Brixton and Northern England riots in the summer of 1981. At the time the Conservative Government of Margaret Thatcher instituted a similar regime of fiscal and economic austerity as part of moves to destroy the Keynesian Social Democratic consensus that had provided jobs for even the poorest Britons. Once unemployment began to escalate social disturbances followed. Riot affected Britons today have made the link between government cuts and the disorder we are seeing. Is Washington paying attention? 

How long before Los Angeles is burning again? How long before New York, San Francisco, Chicago and Atlanta are burning. The unemployment rate for blacks in the United States is at 16%. Unemployment benefits have run out or are about to run out for 6 million Americans. Police brutality is at an all-time high all across the country. The Republicans are unwilling to increase revenue through taxes which leaves social cuts as the only way to balance the budget. Americans are hungry, homeless, and have restricted access to health-care and education.  The powers that be here in the United States should be paying very close attention to the poor in Britain because the poor all across America will not continue to sit on their laurels. 

"Nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them." – Assata Shakur