Category Archives: The Bush Administration

Iraq: 10 Years After Invasion | Costs of War

Iraq: 10 Years After Invasion | Costs of War.

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Unconditional, unrequited love? | By Kevin Alexander Gray

(Note: edited version, “Obama and Black America: Who Has Whose Back?”’ published in August 2011 edition of The Progressive | updated data –WashPost/ABC News Poll: Big Drop In Black Support For President Obama )

“I’ve said to you on many occasions that each of us is something of a schizophrenic personality. We’re split up and divided against ourselves. And there is something of a civil war going on within all of our lives. There is a recalcitrant South of our soul revolting against the North of our soul.”

—Martin Luther King, “Loving Your Enemies,” November 17, 1957

I ran into Congressman Jim Clyburn at Brookland Baptist Church, here in Columbia, during the 2010 midterm election season while campaigning with South Carolina Green Party senate candidate Tom Clements. As we all exchanged pleasantries, I jokingly mentioned to Jim that I had gotten his campaign mail with the picture of him and President Barack Obama on it. He seemed genuinely pleased, so much so that he walked me over to check out the special poster he had at his campaign material table. The poster was also of Clyburn with the commander-in-chief. Clyburn appears to be making a point in the President’s ear. Obama looks and leans as though he’s listening. The U.S. flag is in the background. At the bottom of the poster read the caption: “JIM HAS THE PRESIDENT’S EAR, AND WE MUST HAVE THEIR BACKS!!!”

Clyburn didn’t really need Obama’s help in getting reelected in his safe district, which is 57 percent African American. And he’s never had any serious opposition to his seat. But it would have taken some help from Obama for him to keep his spot as the second-ranking Democrat in the House after the drubbing their party took in the midterm elections. That help was not forthcoming. When the dust settled, Clyburn wasn’t even offered the minority whip job, which went to Steny Hoyer of Maryland. Clyburn was given the new title of assistant Democratic leader. Clyburn has fewer staff than before, he is no longer involved in vote-counting, nor is he a key party messenger. Clyburn’s demotion has not sat well with the Congressional Black Caucus, which he used to chair. But it typifies Obama’s indifference to African Americans across the board.

Last December, when he was polling in the mid-nineties among blacks, during a White House press conference a black reporter asked Obama about grumblings among the black leadership. He replied: “I think if you look at the polling, in terms of the attitudes of the African-American community, there’s overwhelming support for what we’ve tried to do.”

Yet even as he boasted, that same month the black unemployment rose from 15.7 percent to 16 percent, almost double the Dec. 9% national rate (Aug 2011- 9.1%). Black male unemployment rose from 16.3 percent to 16.7 percent as 1.3 million black men were out of work. For black women it jumped from 12.7 percent to 13.1, or roughly 1.2 million unemployed black women. And the unemployment rate for black teens stood at a staggering 46.5 percent (by contrast, the rate for white teenagers was 23.6 percent).

When Obama entered office, the black unemployment rate was 12.6 percent. But rising unemployment still didn’t dampen black optimism going into his second year. According to a Washington Post/Kaiser Family Foundation/Harvard University poll conducted Jan. 27-Feb. 9 of this year, 85 percent of blacks said they were optimistic about the future course of the economy while 72 percent of white held that view. Eighty-four percent of blacks felt hopeful about their personal financial situation, compared with 73 percent of whites.

Obama and Black AmericaObama is right that the African American community gives him overwhelming support, but it’s not as overwhelming as it used to be. In the most recent polls blacks see “the economy” or unemployment as the nation’s top problem with one in seven or 2.9 million African Americans out of work — the highest number in nearly a quarter century. And some economists argue that 16%+ rate isn’t the “real” or accurate rate. They say that if one takes into account those people who want work and cannot get it and have stopped looking, those not counted such as the 900,000 incarcerated black men and women, and those recently released from the military– the “real” underemployment rate may be 25% or higher.

Back in 2008, nearly all (95 percent) black voters cast their ballot for Obama. Presently, they give him approval ratings just above 80 percent although there are polls with higher numbers.

Blacks still seem to have Obama’s back, but does he have theirs? Continue reading

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Famous South Carolinians | Harvey Leroy “Lee” Atwater | By Kevin Alexander Gray

Aiken – Political consultant and strategist to the Republican Party 

 (February 27, 1951 March 29, 1991)

Atwater was born in Atlanta, Georgia, but grew up in Aiken, South Carolina, and graduated from Newberry College, a small private Lutheran institution in Newberry. He married and was father of three daughters.

Atwater was an advisor of  Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. He was also a political mentor and close friend of Republican strategist Karl Rove. Atwater invented or improved upon many of the techniques of modern electoral politics; including promulgating unflattering rumors and attempting to drive up opponents’ “negative” poll numbers as techniques. His foes have characterized him as the “happy hatchet man” and “the Darth Vader of the Republican party.”

112th Governor of South Carolina from 1987 to 1995 | Republican

Atwater rose during the 1970’s and the 1980 election in the South Carolina Republican party, working on the campaigns of Governor Carroll Campbell and Senator Strom Thurmond. During his years in South Carolina, Atwater became well known for running hard edged campaigns based on emotional “wedge issues.”

US Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-SC)

Atwater’s aggressive tactics were first demonstrated during the 1980 congressional campaigns. He was a campaign consultant to Republican incumbent Floyd Spence in his campaign for Congress against Democratic nominee Tom Turnipseed. Atwater’s tactics in that campaign included push polling in the form of fake surveys by “independent pollsters” to “inform” white suburbanites that Turnipseed was allegedly a member of the NAACP. Atwater also highlighted that Turnipseed had been “hooked up to jumper cables” as a teen undergoing electroshock therapy for depression.

Tom Turnipseed

After the 1980 election Atwater went to Washington and became an aide in the Ronald Reagan administration, working under political director Ed Rollins. During his years in Washington Atwater became aligned with Vice President Bush, who chose Atwater to run his 1988 presidential campaign.

 

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Lenny Kravitz, Mos Def and More Jam for Gulf Aid

“It Ain’t My Fault”

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Filed under Environmental, Movement & Message Music, NOLA, Obama Administration, The Bush Administration, The Obama Administration

“SMELLS LIKE SULFUR HERE” | Edited & arranged by John Sinclair

In September 2006,

the President of Venezuela ,

Hugo Chavez,

addressed the United Nations

with a speech titled Rise Up Against the Empire:

“The hegemonic pretensions

of the American empire,” he said,

“are placing at risk

the very survival

of the human species. T he devil

is right at home. T he devil,

the devil himself,

is right in the house. And the devil

came here yesterday. Yesterday

the devil came here.

Right here. [crosses himself]

And it smells

of sulfur

still today. Yesterday,

ladies & gentlemen,

from this rostrum,

the president of the United States ,

the gentleman

to whom I refer

as the devil,

came here,

talking as if he owned the world.

Truly. As the owner

of the world. Full

of this imperial hypocrisy

from the need they have

to control everything.

What type of democracy

do you impose

with marines & bombs? T he imperialists

see extremists everywhere. It’s not

that we are extremists. It’s that the world

is waking up. It’s waking

up all over. And people

are standing up.

You can call us extremists,

but we are rising up

against the empire, against the model

of domination. T hey kidnapped me

& they were going to kill me,

but I think God reached down

& our people came out

into the streets

& the army was too,

& so I’m here today.

Over & above all of this,

I think there are reasons

to be optimistic, because

over & above the wars

& the bombs

& the aggression

& the “preventive war”

& the destruction

of entire peoples, one can see

that a new era

is dawning.

As Silvio Rodriguez says,

the era

is giving birth

to a heart.

There are alternative ways of thinking.

There are young people

who think differently. It was shown

that the end of history

was a totally false assumption.

What we now have to do

is define the future

of the world. Dawn

is breaking out all over. You can see it

in Africa

& Europe

& Latin America

& Oceana. I want

to emphasize

that optimistic vision.

We have to strengthen ourselves,

our will

to do battle,

our awareness. We have to build

a new & better world.

We want ideas

to save our planet,

to save the planet

from the imperialist threat. And hopefully

in this very century,

in not too long a time,

we will see this,

we will see this new era,

& for our children

& our grandchildren

a world of peace. It smells

of sulfur here,

but God is with us

& I embrace you all. May God

bless us all. Good day to you.”

 

Edited & arranged by John Sinclair

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