From the Huffington Post:
Chris Matthews is definitely going to take some heat for exclaiming that he “forgot [Obama] was black tonight for an hour… I said wait a minute, he’s an African American guy in front of a bunch of other white people.” Matthews was analyzing President Obama’s first State of the Union speech when he made the remark.
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A great deal of Massachusetts’ history is tied to the sea. Because of this, Massachusetts is also known for its lighthouses. Lighthouses were once the trusted tool that guided navigators through treacherous waters enabling them to avoid coastal rocks and running aground. Like the lighthouse, the election to fill the U.S. Senate seat from Massachusetts should serve as a beacon to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Obama administration.
As the Democrats navigate through these treacherous and rocky political waters, the election of Scott Brown as the Senator to replace Ted Kennedy should serve as a warning to the DNC of the dangers of arrogance, complacency, and disorganization. It should also serve notice to the Obama administration of the dangers of failing to articulate a consistent message and failing to deliver what was promised to your supporters.
First, the DNC should recognize that Scott Brown did not run a great campaign insomuch as Martha Coakley, like Cree Deeds in Virginia, ran a terrible one. Coakley ran an elitist campaign, failing to reach out to the communities that helped to elect Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and President Obama. According to the Boston Globe, “The lapses were particularly noticeable in minority communities, traditionally bastions of Democratic votes, which did not turn out in high numbers…” As a demonstration of her arrogance, Coakley took a week off and vacationed during the campaign. According to The Hill, “Martha Coakley’s New Year’s vacation may reign as one of the costliest political blunders of all time.” Even if you’ve “got it in the bag” you never leave the bag unattended!
Talking about giving back, Charlie Simpson, a 7-year-old boy from England has raised over $160-thousand for the relief fund for Haitian earthquake victims.
The unselfish kid asked his mother if he could set up a sponsored bicycle ride around his local park in West London. Originally expecting to raise around $1,000 for UNICEF Haiti appeal with a 5-mile bike ride on Sunday, donations poured in from his webpage and are still coming.
His mother Lenora Simpson stated,
" He was really upset by the pictures on TV. He actually burst into tears. He sat on my lap and we had a chat about the things he could do. He decided to do the cycle ride and he made me do a sponsorship form and that was it. We sent it out on the web and it just went everywhere."
PITTSBURGH – The photos taken by Jordan Miles’ mother show his face covered with raw, red bruises, his cheek and lip swollen, his right eye swollen shut. A bald spot mars the long black dreadlocks where the 18-year-old violist says police tore them from his head.
Now, 10 days after plainclothes officers stopped him on a street and arrested him after a struggle that they say revealed a soda bottle under his coat, not the gun they suspected, his right eye is still slightly swollen and bloodshot. His head is shaved. The three white officers who arrested him have been reassigned. And his mother says she is considering a lawsuit.
“I feel that my son was racially profiled,” Terez Miles said. “It’s a rough neighborhood; it was after dark. … They assumed he was up to no good because he’s black. My son, he knows nothing about the streets at all. He’s had a very sheltered life, he’s very quiet, he doesn’t know police officers sit in cars and stalk people like that.”
A judge continued the case until Feb. 18 after the officers failed to appear at a hearing Thursday, Miles’ attorney, Kerrington Lewis, said. The police department is saying little as it investigates, and isn’t releasing the officers’ names.
The firing of nearly one-quarter of the full-time faculty members at Clark Atlanta University a year go led to an investigation by the American Association of University Professors.
The investigatory committee has just released its report about the sudden termination of 55 faculty member, concluding that the college’s actions were egregious.
Among the findings:
The administration selected the particular faculty members for dismissal without any discernible prior consultation with appropriate faculty bodies. The administration in its selections also paid no heed to the rights of tenured over nontenured faculty with respect to retention.
- By not affording the dismissed faculty members opportunity for a hearing before a body of faculty peers, the Clark Atlanta University administration denied them academic due process to which they were entitled under stated university regulations as well as Association-supported standards.
Haiti’s musician Wyclef Jean, left, arrives at the airport in Port-au-Prince on Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010, the day after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit his country. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
(AP)
Groups that vet charities are raising doubts about the organization backed by Haitian-born rapper Wyclef Jean, questioning its accounting practices and ability to function in earthquake-hit Haiti.
Even as more than $2 million poured into The Wyclef Jean Foundation Inc. via text message after just two days, experts questioned how much of the money would help those in need.
"It’s questionable. There’s no way to get around that," said Art Taylor, president and chief executive of the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance, based in Arlington, Va.
Taylor reviewed Internal Revenue Service tax returns for the organization also known as Yele Haiti Foundation from 2005 through 2007. He said the first red flag of poor accounting practices was that three years of returns were filed on the same day — Aug. 10 of last year.
In 2007, the foundation’s spending exceeded its revenues by $411,000. It brought in just $79,000 that year.
Michael Eric Dyson, professor of African American studies at Georgetown, addressed the Harry Reid “negro dialect” controversy last night on MSNBC. He criticized Obama for avoiding racial issue.
You ain’t talking about civil rights, you ain’t talking bout affirmative action, you’re not pressing the issue.”
He also said that Barack Obama does not sound Black.
If Barack Obama was standing forth in America to speak brilliantly and courageously about the issues of race, he’d sound a lot more black too.
From The New York Daily News
Bill Clinton helped sink his wife’s chances for an endorsement from Ted Kennedy by belittling Barack Obama as nothing but a race-based candidate.
“A few years ago, this guy would have been getting us coffee,” the former president told the liberal lion from Massachusetts, according to the gossipy new campaign book, “Game Change.”
The book says Kennedy was deeply offended and recounted the conversation to friends with fury.
After Kennedy sided with Obama, Clinton reportedly griped, “the only reason you are endorsing him is because he’s black. Let’s just be clear.”
by Dr. Julianne Malveaux, President – Bennett College For Women
Had Dr. Martin Luther King lived until his birthday, January 15, he would be 81. It is interesting to speculate how the octogenarian might spend his time. If he is anything like some of his peers – Ambassador Andrew Young or Rev. Joseph Lowery – he’d still be involved in some form of activism, perhaps combining religious service with involvement in domestic and international affairs, perhaps with dimensions that included some involvement in commerce (such as Mr. Young’s consulting company Good Works). What might Dr. King think or say about the state we find ourselves in today? A year since the inauguration of President Barack Obama, would he embrace the concept of post-racialism that some bandy about? Would he reflect on his words during the March on Washington and conclude that the dream he so brilliantly articulated had been realized? Or would he be forced to conclude that the check is still marked "insufficient funds".
Elliot Millner, J.D.
Danny Glover recently directed some criticism at President Obama, regarding his lack of action in dealing with issues disproportionately impacting the Black community. President Obama fired back, saying that he was not neglecting Black issues, and that the issues he was being asked to address could not be fixed in one term, much less one year.
So, who is right? I’m not a fence-rider, however in many instances there is truth on both sides of a dispute or issue, and that is the case here. To be accurate, Danny Glover didn’t call out President Obama for simply not paying enough attention to Black people; he called him out for his overall policy approach, and it’s similarities (in Glover’s opinion) to the policies and approach of the Bush administration. This is a fair criticism, for a couple of reasons. Despite the conservative media’s protests to the contrary, Obama ran as a moderate, and that is basically what he is on most issues (if you don’t think so, compare Obama’s campaign platform to that of Dennis Kucinich or John Edwards). Former President Bush, although a Republican, was also considered a moderate (too moderate for many Republicans) on many issues. So, it is no surprise that President Obama may look similar to President Bush in his views and actions on some issues (most obviously in his war policy). I’m not saying I like it, but that is the reality. This is not an issue new to our current President, or to politics as a whole. Many (especially those who argue for the need of a strong third-party in American politics) have made the argument that there is little difference between Republicans and Democrats (often calling them "Republicrats") in general, especially when dealing with higher offices, such as the House, Senate, and presidency.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — As New Year’s revelers count down to the end of 2009, time is also running out for Time Warner Cable and Fox to agree to a new contract.
Time Warner Cable and News Corp. (NWS, Fortune 500), Fox’s parent company, have been locked in a public battle over how much the cable giant should pay for the right to deliver Fox networks into its subscribers’ homes.
If a deal is not reached before midnight Thursday, all of the Fox-owned broadcast networks and some of its cable channels could disappear for most of Time Warner Cable’s 13 million subscribers on New Year’s Day.
News Corp. wants to charge Time Warner Cable (TWC) $1 per subscriber for airing its broadcast station, Fox. The contracts for six Fox cable channels — FX, Speed, Fuel TV, Fox Reality, Fox Soccer and Fox Sports en Español — as well as certain regional sports networks are also slated to expire. But Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network will not be affected.
Public officials weigh in
As the deadline approaches, a flurry of government officials are trying to intervene. On Thursday, Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., wrote a letter calling for a 30-day "cooling off period" to avoid programming blackouts. Time Warner Cable responded that it would agree to an interim agreement, but a Fox Network representative said the company was not ready to agree to that temporary deal and would continue to negotiate.
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