ODE TO A FRIEND ON CHRISTMAS

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

ODE TO A FRIEND ON CHRISTMAS

Casual friends will often tell you

they'll love you through thick and thin;

their love is without condition,

and they'll love you until the end.

But when times are good it's easy to love,

and proclaim devotion as a friend;

it's when the champagne is gone, and the music ends,

that true friendship begins.

It's when times are gloomy
and the party is over,
when one truly needs a friend,
and at times like those
you can always depend
on my friendship kickin' in.

Friendship
represents the meeting of two souls,
entwined in a comfortable embrace;
Not merely sensual, but warm like family,
in this cruel and unfriendly place.

Friends
validate their own existence,
lending independence to the soul;
They slay their dragons from a warm cocoon,
with a kindred spirit to console.

Friendship,
like a poem,
is the sweet breath of God,
as he sings to a loved one's ear;
A love song scored by a master,
but not always
for the masses to hear.

So,
sincere of heart
I sing my song
to one so warm and dear;
Your smile is a treasured work of art, 
and its essence

will always keep me near.

Eric L. Watttree
Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com

Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

America’s Biggest Problem - A Greedy, Self-Serving, and Unpatriotic Congress

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

America’s Biggest Problem - A Greedy, Self-Serving, and Unpatriotic Congress

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People used to run for congress in order to serve the nation. But that no longer seems to be the case. Today, far too many people run for congress in order to gain influence and seek personal fortune. While many may be willing to throw a bone to the American people on occasion, they’ll only do so if they can do it without hurting themselves, and always with an eye towards how the gesture will benefit them in the next election.
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Due to our apathy and ever increasing ignorance of the political process, the American people have presided over the birth of a monster - an entrenched political class whose interests are more aligned with those who seek to exploit us than they are the people they’re elected to represent.  In addition, we’ve allowed them to solidify their control over the system through gerrymandering, or realigning, their districts in such a way that it’s next to impossible to vote them out of office. As a result, the people we elect to office as our representatives - or, employees, as it were - have become our rulers. That’s not how this nation was designed to function.
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For the past thirty years, since the Reagan administration, this nation has been in the midst of a bloodless coup. The Republican Party’s intent is to reestablish a European-like caste system here in the United States, a social order that most of this nation’s founding fathers sought to avoid, and left Europe to escape.
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Alexander Hamilton, one of the premier founding fathers of the conservative movement, said the following:
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"All communities divide themselves into the few and the many. The first are the rich and wellborn, the other the mass of the people.... The people are turbulent and changing; they seldom judge or determine right. Give therefore to the first class a distinct, permanent share in government. They will check the unsteadiness of the second, and as they cannot receive an advantage by a change, they therefore will ever maintain good government."
Debates of the Federalist Convention (May 14-September 17, 1787).
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So there has always been a strain of thought in this country incline toward subjugating the poor and middle class.  During the federalist convention there were  many who advocated that only those with property should be allowed to vote. But the majority of the founding fathers opted for equal political, economic, social, and civil rights for all - with the notable exception of Black people and women, of course. That only came later, in theory.
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So why 226 years later do we find ourselves back to square one, and once again engaged in a class war?  It’s simple - greed.
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As we’ve pointed out many times before, in the new global economy, American corporations are now forced to compete with countries that pay their workers less per week than many American workers spend on lunch per day. Thus, in order to maximize their profits, U.S. corporations now have a vested interest in lowering the standard of living of the American middle class.
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That is the corporate agenda, and therefore, the Republican agenda. It’s also what accounts for the brutal attack on both unions, and our educational system - they’re attacking unions to take away the voice of the middle-class worker, and they’re attacking our educational system so we’ll be too ill-informed to see through their convoluted pretext for cutting our throats.
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A prime example of that is how we’ve allowed the corporatists and their congressional henchmen to convince us to subsidize corporations and enrich the top 1% of the population through the destruction of unions, accepting lower wages, and supporting a trillion dollar tax cut under the pretext that the rich create jobs.  That’s total and utter nonsense.
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No matter how big a tax break we give Schwinn, we’ll never be able to convince him to hire people to make bicycles that he can’t sell. While we commonly refer to “supply and demand,” in actuality, “demand” precedes “supply.”  Thus, the only way that we can get Schwinn to hire employees is to create a demand for bicycles by putting enough money in the pockets of the poor and middle class where they can afford to buy bicycles for their kids.
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Therefore,  jobs are actually created by the poor and middle class through the purchase of goods and services. And with every job created, it creates other supporting jobs. When Schwinn starts hiring people to make bicycles, others have to hire people to provide the steel and rubber used to make the bike, people have to be hired to produce, prepare, and serve the employees lunch, mechanics have to be hired to repair their vehicles so they can get to work, etc.
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So again, it’s the poor and middle class who create jobs. Clear evidence of that can be found in the fact that in spite of his huge tax cuts for the rich under George W. Bush, the country was hemorrhaging jobs at a rate of 800,000 jobs a month.
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The American people are supposed to have a built-in defense against this sort of deception through their elected representatives. But due to our apathy, naivete, the distractions of ESPN, BET, MTV, and the demagoguery and collusion of our non-elected “leaders,” we continue to re-elect self-serving demagogues that we’ve allowed to become so rich and spoiled that they’ve become a class in themselves - the political class.
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While the American people have been distracted by the hot pursuit of the American dream, the political class has been busy stealing that dream from right under our nose. According to a report by ABC News, “47% of Congress Members [are] Millionaires — a Status Shared by Only 1% of Americans.” And that’s with good reason.
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The median income of the average American is $32,140 a year. On the other hand, congress has raised its own salary from $98,400 a year in 1990, to currently, $174,000. That’s a $75,600 increase, or 57%. A rank-and-file member of congress makes $1596.33 a day, and it takes him or her only 20 days to make what the average American makes a year. In addition, over and above that, In January of 2009 - during the height of the Great Recession, and while many Americans were losing their jobs and homes - congress voted each member a $93,000 raise in “petty cash.”
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Now let’s take a look at their work schedule. In January of this year they worked 6 days in January, 14 days in February, and 13 days in March. The most days they’ve worked in any month this year was in February, in which they worked 14 days. So it’s no wonder that congress can’t identify with the American people - They’ve become a subset of the very class of people that we’ve elected them to protect us from. So in essence, we’ve elected the Mafia to defend us from crime.
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So it’s time for the American people to wake up, stop whining, and retake control of our government. The way we must go about that is to review the voting records of our elected officials and vote anyone out of office who’s giving the top 1% priority over the American people. In addition, we must pressure congress to bring their salary into conformity with that of the median income of the American people, and cap it at a given percentage above the minimum wage.
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We should also require congress to be in session, at least, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 33 weeks a year, and 8 hours a day, 4 days a week for 12 weeks a year. And the salary of any legislator that’s not present should be docked. That will keep them in touch with the way the rest of America has to live.
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We should also force congress to pass a "Workers' Bill of Rights." If a corporation wants to do business in the United States, there should be a base set of rules that force them to act responsibly. One of those rules should be that the corporation must maintain a certain level of employment based on the profits they're drawing out of the U.S. Market.
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And finally, we must insist that congress adhere to the principles of democracy by getting rid of all internal rules, like the filibuster, that allows one, or a handful of individual legislators, to obstruct the majority.
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So, in spite of the heated rhetoric from Obama-haters on both ends of the political spectrum, congress, not the president, is without question the source of most of America's problems. Congress controls the money, and they can vote to overrule anything that the president does. On the other hand, congress can initiate and pass laws without the president, and if he vetoes the law, they can override his veto. So while congress is free to act unilaterally, the president is limited to the consent of congress.
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Thus, while everyone seems to want to point a finger at the president, we must always keep one thing in mind - the president can’t do a thing without congress' blessing.  Most people are fully aware of that fundamental fact, but during these challenging times, we can't afford to make any assumptions.

Congressional Pay Analysis

__________________________________________________________________

The median income of the average Middle Class American is $32,140. 

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Congressional pay raises since 1990 increased from $98,400 to $174,000 in 2012 ($75,600 increase, or 57%).

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The current salary (2011-2012) for rank-and-file members of the House and Senate is $174,000 per year ($1487.18 a day).

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It takes a congressperson 20 days to equal what the average citizen makes a year.

__________________________________________________________________

Congressional Work Schedule

(2012)

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Month - Days of Work

Jan - 6, Feb - 14, Mar - 13, Apr - 8, May - 10, Jun - 13

Jul - 13, Aug - 3, Sep - 8, Oct - 5, Nov - 8, Dec - 8

__________________________________________________________________

Eric L. Wattree

Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)

Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

Black Critics Need to Recognize That There Are Some Things That Obama Just Can’t Do - or is That Really the Problem?

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

Black  Critics Need to Recognize That There Are Some Things That Obama Just Can’t Do - or is That Really the Problem?

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I'm not here to defend President Obama, because I don’t agree with everything he does, or fails to do, myself. But there are those in the Black community who need to come to terms with the fact that there are some things that even the president can’t do - and signing a bill abolishing ignorance is at the very top of that list. That's what it would take to accomplish some of the objectives that they're trying to force upon him. That’s also what lets me know that much of the ranting and raving of some of these so-called Black intellectuals are disingenuous at best, and blatant intraracial bigotry at worst.
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The president can’t just wave a magic wand and instantly make everyone upwardly mobile.  It doesn’t work that way. There’s an educational process that goes along with upward mobility, and that goes for whether the person is Black, or White. While there are many in the Black community who have the skills to hit the ground running, there are others who need to be trained, motivated, and refocused in order to simply maintain a job that pays wages high enough to lift them out of poverty, even if it was given to them.
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So if these educators, intellectuals, and pundits were serious about their concern for the poor, instead of holding televised seminars and book signings, they’d be in the community with their sleeves up, helping to upgrade the skill sets of those who need it. That’s what Barack Obama did. As the first Black president of the Harvard Law Review, when Obama graduated from law school he could have gone to work as a law clerk for the Supreme Court, or pursued wealth by going into any one of the top law firms in the country. He could have also tried to make a name for himself by running all over the country selling books, doing lectures, and trying to sound profound. But he didn't do that. Instead, he quietly went back into the community and went to work helping people to get their heaters fixed. That's the way to show that you care. Words are meaningless. It's deeds that count.
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So for that reason - and yes, because he's a lone Black man struggling to carve out a new chapter in our history - I'll always give him the benefit of the doubt over lesser men who criticize him. No, he's not perfect, but neither am I - and neither was Washington, Jefferson, or Lincoln - but why does a Black man have to be perfect to be accepted as a man worthy of respect?

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Many of the very same Black "intellectuals" who can barely contain themselves today, just sat back and allowed Ronald Reagan, both Bushs, and the GOP in general, to cut our throats for the past 30 years with nothing more than a whimper in most cases, and a profound silence in others.
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So why do they now try to hold Barack Obama to a different standard than they hold other men?  The sad truth is, America has conditioned them to view this Black man with a jaundiced eye. Their attitudes and motivations are exactly the same as with White racists - whenever a Black man demonstrates exceptional excellence, they see it as diminishing their own accomplishments. So the fact is, the very existence of Barack Obama represents an assault on their self-esteem, and it's killing them. He represents a pie in the face of their delusions of grandeur.  I suspect President Obama knows this, but he's precluded from saying it, so I am. 

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These critics didn’t lift a finger in the 2000 election when the Black community, and others, were literally disenfranchised to elect George W. Bush, and they were all but mute in the last election while, once again, the GOP passed laws all over the country in an attempt  to obstruct the Black vote. Yet, after enduring all of that, just like their White racist counterparts, the mere idea of having a Black man living in the White House seems to be just more than they can stomach. From the way some of these people are screaming, you’d think someone appointed the Grand Dragon of the Klan to head the NAACP.  No other group of people in the world suffers from that kind of stupidity, and that’s a much more serious problem in the Black community than anything that President Obama can possibly address.
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Surely these "intellectuals" have enough education to know that the United States Constitution states that the House of Representatives controls ALL spending, and they also know that the House of Representatives is controlled by the Republican Party. So exactly what do they expect President Obama to do other than what he is - trying to hold together a fragile coalition of Blacks, Asians, Hispanics, gays, women, the young, the old, etc., and design policies that are broad enough to help ALL of these groups in order to put enough pressure on congress to loosen the purse strings? These “public intellectuals” know that. Nevertheless, they continue to rant, rave, and insist that Obama attempt to play poker at a blackjack table.
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They should also know enough about history to remember what brought down the  Civil Rights Movement. Many people don’t realize it, but Republican, Richard Nixon, helped to promote and signed important parts of Affirmation Action into effect - but he had his tongue firmly implanted in cheek as he was signing the memorandum. You see, he knew that many of the White folks who supported the civil rights movement and marched with Martin Luther King would have a change of heart once Black people started taking their jobs and replacing their children in college admissions across the country - and that’s exactly what happened.
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We made a huge mistake while formulating affirmative action legislation. We should have insisted that it be based on need rather than race.  That way, Black people would have still been at the head of the line, but we wouldn’t have given the GOP the leverage to convince poor and middle-class White people that it was an assault on their rights.
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So shortly after it went into effect, White people started to protest, and hordes of formerly moderate White people raced over to the Republican Party. That ushered in the Ronald Reagan era, with his “trickle-down economics,” the assault on Fair Labor Standards Act, and the abolishment of the Fairness Doctrine. That , in turn, led directly to the rise of Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, the policies that led to the Wall Street collapse, and directly to the dire straits that we find ourselves in today.
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Yet, once again, many of these Black “intellectuals” are criticizing President Obama for having the good sense not to repeat history by refusing to throw his fist in the air. While they say it’s all about advocating against poverty, just like with White demagogues, they’re conflating the term “poverty” with race, in spite of the fact that they know full well that even the scent of racial politics is grist for the Republican mill. That's exactly why Obama has to avoid the issue, because the Republicans can use it to drum up support to block anything he tries to do for the people at all.
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So if these "intellectuals" were actually concerned about the best interest of the Black community, while President Obama is trying to navigate the Republican minefield they’d be in the community organizing, educating, and discussing what we can do to improve our own condition in the meantime.  But of course, that's too much like real work.
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These people should be educating Black people to understand that more money passes through the Black community than through most countries, so we could create our own jobs.  But we don't, and I’ll tell you why - because Black people are the product of the very same racist environment as White people, so we’re just as reluctant to patronize Black businesses as any Hillbilly. Unlike any other community in the world, we’d rather take our money and patronize other people - ANY other people - as long as they aren’t Black. That’s a hard pill to swallow, but it is, what it is.
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So our bigoted attitude towards other Black people is the primary reason why we’re lingering at the very bottom of the social and economic ladder - and it’s that very same bigotry that’s being reflected in the attitudes of Tavis Smiley, Cornel West, and others of their ilk, towards President Obama.  Essentially, all they’re saying is, “Obama ain’t nobody - he’s just another nigga, just like you.”
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Think about it. Think about the kind of respect that these people afforded Bush and Cheney, and those two were trying to cut our throats - in fact, they did!  But in spite of that, many of these Black critics limited their criticism to mumbling under their breath. But now, with Obama, they've pulled out their bullhorns. And Cornel West, in his typically attention-seeking  fashion, has even resorted to playing the dozens - with THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!!! That's not only highly disrespectful of the president, but in my opinion, speaks volumes regarding his lack of respect, and his arrogant disdain, for the Black community as a whole. But doesn't West love his people?  Sure he does, just like a pimp loves his whoes.
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So it’s time for Black people to come to terms with our racist attitudes toward one another. If we’re going to hold a seminar on poverty, the major topic of discussion shouldn’t be Barack Obama, but why we’re so willing to pass by hundreds of Black businesses in the community to take our money to Walmart. Now, I’d be a hypocrite to say never shop at Walmart.  I realize that sometimes our finances force us to deal with the Devil, but we should, at the very least, balance our spending.  Because, until we come to terms with what is essentially a boycott of Black businesses, whining about high unemployment is silly.
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So, again, one of the many things that President Obama can’t do, is to sign a bill bestowing common sense upon the people. Learning to love and respect other Black people, and acting with common sense, are two things that no one else can give us.
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Related Articles

An Open Letter to Cornel West

http://wattree.blogspot.com/2012/12/beneath-spin-eric-l_8.html

Eric L. Wattree
Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)

Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

An Open Letter to Cornel West

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

An Open Letter to Cornel West

"Brother" West,
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Your explanation for your comment that President Obama is a "Rockefeller Republican in blackface" is as lame and disingenuous a cop out as I've ever heard. You claimed that your critics are trivializing your comment by not getting to the core of your assertion, which was President Obama is a "Rockefeller Republican." Then YOU tried to trivialize the significance of the addendum, "in blackface," as though it was meaningless, by saying, "I have a black face, you have a black face, my mother has a black face," etc.

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Well, if you know that the phrase "in blackface" is going to distract from the core issue, why don't you stick to the core issue and stop adding such racially offensive language? Could it be for the publicity? I think it is, and your cavalier attitude in this matter speaks volumes. Obviously, your passionate craving for publicity and need to promote the Smiley/West Corporation takes precedence over whether or not you offend the Black community.  So it seems that your infamous "love for your people" stops at your pocketbook.

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You’re not a complete idiot, so you knew full well that the addendum to your comment was drenched in racial innuendo, and you've become a serial offender in that regard. You know very well that the phrase, "in blackface," conjures up images of White minstrels portraying Black people by painting their faces jet black, with huge oversized white lips, and then running across the stage shouting, "mammy!" So the subtext of your comment was clear - you think President Obama is a White clown beneath a painted blackface. That’s a grossly racist and disrespectful statement to be directed at anyone, and particularly the President of the United States. Who do you think you are!!?
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Then just as bad, and just as disrespectful - this time, however, directed at the entire Black community - you have the unmitigated gall to now come on this show, and in your most self-righteous and condescending tone, try to tell Black people who took issue with your comment that they’re just being silly for objecting to your blatantly racist statement. In other words, we’re too stupid to know a racist comment when we hear one.
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Cornel, you’re indulging in the exact same kind of racist act of conflation as any vicious, petty, and unrepentant bigot. You know the kind - the ones who go on Fox News and talk about "Welfare Queens," when everybody in the world knows they’re actually talking about black women in general; or say, "We’ve got to do something about crime," when they actually mean, it’s time to start brutalizing and killing more Black men. Then when they’re confronted with it, just like you, they say, "Ooooh, where did you find that race card? That wasn’t what I meant at all!"
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So "brother," you ain’t foolin’ nobody. The depth of your self-serving racist behavior would make Jesse Helms blush.
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And regarding this so-called "Poverty Summit" at the White House that you and Tavis are calling for - I assume you and Smiley expect to attend to advocate on behalf of "the people." Well, I have one question - what people? No one elected you and Tavis to represent the Black community, and we don't need you to speak for us.
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The Black community is communicating with the White House on a daily basis through thousands of letters, emails, phone calls, and our ELECTED officials. In addition, we just touched base with the president through the polls in the last election. So the president undoubtedly knows more about what's on the mind of the Black community than you do - that's how he knows you're irrevelant.
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So is this so-call summit that you two are calling for designed to help the poor and Black community - after all, you've never done anything for us before - or is it actually about shining a national spotlight on a group of nonproductive, loudmouth, egomaniacs who crave national attention? If your history is any indication, I'd say the latter. So here's a news flash. Your time has passed, and the Black community is sick to death of you. So, please, go away and let us handle our business.
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FOLLOWUP COMMUNICATION

Cornel,
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Once again you’re trying to defend the indefensible. And once again, you’re trying to blame your critics for your failure to communicate effectively. When you make a comment, it is up to YOU to keep your message focused and uncluttered enough to communicate your ideas effectively, not the listener.
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In addition, when a listener listens to a speaker, he or she is not simply listening to the content of the speaker’s message, he’s also assessing the messenger himself for any subtleties or nuances that might suggest a hidden agenda, reckless and inefficient thinking, or any other shortcomings that might mitigate the weight that he should assign to the speaker’s message. Thus, when you added “in blackface” to your comment, considering it’s racist connotation, you should have known that it would overwhelm what you insist was the “core” of your statement. So the mere fact that you now, in my opinion, feign that the uproar caught you by complete surprise, speaks volumes about either your judgment, or your veracity.
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West, I used to be a huge fan of both you and Smiley’s. But your tendency to engage in reckless, irresponsible, and unsubstantiated statements like the one currently under discussion led me to start researching who you really are nearly five years ago, and what I’ve found is literally embarrassing. Now, with this latest controversy, you’re merely reinforcing what I already know - if you were even close to the “powerful intellectual” that your 35 years of hype has suggested, we wouldn’t even be having this discussion. And brother, that’s comin’ from a common hood rat.
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http://smileyandwest.ning.com/forum/topics/take-em-to-task-blackface-comments

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Related Articles

Black  Critics Need to Recognize That There Are Some Things That Obama Just Can’t Do - or is That Really the Problem?

http://wattree.blogspot.com/2012/12/beneath-spin-eric-l_10.html

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Does Cornel West Harbor Racist Attitudes Towards Black People?

(http://wattree.blogspot.com/2012/12/cornel-wests-attack-on-jay-z-prime.html)
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Black  Critics Need to Recognize That There Are Some Things That Obama Just Can’t Do - or is That Really the Problem?
http://wattree.blogspot.com/2012/12/beneath-spin-eric-l_10.html
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Tavis, West, and Malcolm
http://wattree.blogspot.com/2012/11/tavis-west-and-malcolm.html
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It’s Time to Boycott Tavis,West, and All Black-on-Black Racists
http://wattree.blogspot.com/2012/09/its-time-to-boycott-tavis-west-and-all.html

Eric L. Wattree
Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com

Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)

Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

These Hands, And This Face, Are Worth Fighting For

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

These Hands, And This Face, Are Worth Fighting For

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These Hands Represent the Blood, Sweat, and Tears of Selfless Sacrifice . . .

 



 

And this Face, is What that Sacrifice Was All About

 

Wake Up, My people

 

  

Eric L. Wattree

Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)

Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

Does Cornel West Harbor Racist Attitudes Towards Black People?

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree



Does Cornel West Harbor Racist Attitudes Towards Black People?

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Dr. Cornel West seems to have gone on a shameless mission to disparage anyone in the Black community who tends to overshadow him. Now he’s after music mogul and entrepreneur, Jay-Z, regarding his business holdings. West seems to be bound and determined to demonstrate to the world that Jay-Z's business holdings aren't as impressive as he's increasingly being given credit.

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But what Jay-Z owns or doesn't own is not the point of this piece. The bigger issue is the pettiness of a mind that can become so fixated on such a trivial issue. Considering West's, fading, yet substantial influence in the Black community, the possible impact of such a petty mind during a time when we are fighting for our very existence is indeed frightening.

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During a time in this nation's history when powerful forces in this country are hell-bent on establishing an era of corporate feudalism, how does Cornel West's attack on Jay-Z show "love" for the Black community? How does it help to reinforce the Black community and abolish poverty, as West insists to any and everyone who will listen, is his primary goal? In short, it doesn't - and that, is the point of this piece.

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Cornel West's petty fixation on such issues as the extent and source of Jay-Z's wealth, why a baggage handler could get inauguration tickets over his own illustrious personage, and why the President of the United States failed to return his personal phone call, clearly demonstrates that poverty and suffering within the Black community, and America as a whole, is not only less than his primary concern, but is, in fact, merely being used as a tool to gain personal attention and to promote his own self-aggrandizing agenda.

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In addition, West's all consuming penchant for attacking high-profile Black people - and in racially drenched terms - suggests far more than what many attribute to West's exaggerated sense of self-importance. It more clearly suggests a form of black-on-Black racism - an intense disdain and condescending attitude toward his own people. Black people tend not to look closely enough at this syndrome, but we should, because it's one of the most toxic maladies in the Black community. It's been killing us for over 400 years, and it's past time to bring it to an end.

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I was discussing this issue with a friend the other day, and she insisted, "No, it's not racism; it's a form of self-hatred." But I beg to differ. People like Cornel West, Tavis Smiley, Larry Elder (who Smiley just recently had on his show), Clarence Thomas, and Herman Cain, don't hate themselves at all - it's not themselves, but the Black community that they look down their noses at. During the Republican primaries Herman Cain said that Black people weren't supporting him because we were brainwashed. That's politispeak for stupid. But as things turned out, stupidity notwithstanding, with respect to Cain, it seems that the Black community was way ahead of the Republican Party. We saw right through Herman Cain from day one, so who's stupid?
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But we're not quite as practiced at seeing through people like Tavis Smiley and Cornel West, because Tavis and West have put a different spin on their game through the use of reverse psychology. Herman Cain tried to use the direct approach - using our ignorance to bamboozle us into supporting Republicans. Tavis and West, on the other hand, knew that wouldn't work, so they tried to accomplish the same goal, but through the back door - using our anger to hornswoggle us into NOT supporting the president. But in the end, it amounts to the same thing - our being flimflammed into cutting our own throats.   

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The Black community needs to start wrapping it's head around the fact that you don't have to be White to have racist attitudes towards Black people. Clear evidence of that fact can be had by simply asking yourself when was the last time you heard of a drive-by being perpetrated by a shooter wearing a sheet?
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One Black man responded to the above assertion with the following comment:
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 "I don’t hate myself. I'm dark and a handsome man, but niggas I can’t stand. I love my lineage enough to not put it with a group I see going downhill real fast. Black people have become a scab that will not heal as a collective. I’m doing like my Moorish/Kemetic ancestors and exploring the world. Blacks have shown to me that they can’t/won’t defend themselves because they don’t love each other. Blacks just have lost the luster they once had."

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You see, I know a little something about Black racism. It's not a new concept to me. I've been observing Black racists plying their trade for most of my adult life. I worked for the United States Postal Service for 28 years, and for 12 of those years I was a union representative who specialized in EEO claims. And during that time I witnessed Black managers and supervisors engage in some of the most vicious forms of racism against other Black employees that I've ever seen - in fact, a White manager wouldn't have been able to get away with it.

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Personally, I believe the postal service incorporates that fact into its business model. You see, it's next to impossible for a Black employee to file a successful claim of discrimination against another Black person, so part of the postal service's business model is to elevate Black people to rob, steal, intimidate, harass, and fire other Black people. As a direct result, I have a friend who's an Asian woman with a Master's degree who's been passed over for promotion for over 10 years in lieu of an endless parade of Black racists who barely made it through high school. The reason for that is the primary qualification for promotion is their willingness to abuse other Black people. That's a huge part of the postal service's rapid downhill slide in both competence, and customer service.
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The following is an eye witness account of a Black bigot at work:

Customer Statement

"Atten: Miss Stanley, Station Manager
To Whom It May Concern:

“My name is Elizabeth Crawford. I along with my wife Michelle Lo, own [address withheld].  On August 13, 2011 we were landscaping our front yard and witnessed an altercation between our mail carrier, Sylvester Burton and a woman whom I later learned was Juanita, his supervisor.

“At first I only heard a woman (Juanita) shouting and cursing. Since my back was to them I did not see who was yelling. Then I saw our letter carrier Mr. Burton drive by in his mail truck and pull over to the curb just past our driveway. A black woman raced over to the now parked mail truck cursing and shouting at Mr. Burton saying “you tried to run me over” and that she was going to “call the police”. As I watched I became very very alarmed because I could not tell at first from the casual attire she was clothed in that she was a postal employee. All I could see was an extremely unhinged woman going ballistic and attacking our mailman. I watched Juanita as she reached inside the mail truck and shook her hand in Mr. Burton’s face as she shouted ‘I don’t give a fuck about you and by the way I think your ass is GAY!’ Then she shouted ‘you take your ass back to the station right now…this is MY ROUTE, MY ROUTE…and you take your ass back to the station right now...’ She then shouted ‘I’m calling the postal police on your ass you take your ass back to the station right now.’

“Mr. Burton drove away in the mail truck. I don’t know what Mr. Burton was saying in response to all this as he NEVER raised his voice or shouted back during the entire episode.

“My entire family including my seven year-old niece had to witness this entirely unprofessional vulgar outburst. The cursing and swearing peppered with the f-word and the homophobic remarks was nothing less than shocking and completely inappropriate. I was extremely offended by her homophobic remarks and I am myself gay, not to mention the cursing and swearing in front of our child.

“Don’t know and I really don’t care what prompted Juanita’s tirade. I was shocked to see someone in a so-called “supervisory position” treating someone who works for her so brutally. Needless to say law in the state of California the law prohibits the attack on Mr. Burton based on his sexual identification in the workplace! You should take note of this.

“You need to DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS WOMAN. While representing the USPS no one should be able to behave that badly and make that big of a scene in public plus publicly attacking a subordinates sexual orientation and be allowed to keep their job.

“If Mr. Burton sues for harassment I will gladly be a witness on his behalf.

Signed,
M. Elizabeth J. Crawford"
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The postal service lost the case and gave the supervisor involved a tap on the wrist (sensitivity training). Now it's back to business as usual. All of the above took place because the carrier was rushed out of the office, and as a result inadvertently left some of the mail at the station. And by the way, once the supervisor found out there was a witness, she never again mentioned her allegation that the carrier tried to run over her.
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So with respect to Cornel West, just take a minute to ask yourself the following questions. First, with everything the Republican Party is trying to do to Black people - obstructing our right to vote, trying to destroy our educational system, attempting to take away our parents' and grandparents' access to Medicare and Social Security, and trying to destroy our future by making higher education beyond our children's reach - why is West focused on something as unimportant to our welfare as what Jay-Z is doing?  In addition, West is as quiet as a church mouse regarding the role that his buddy, Tavis Smiley, played in helping Wells Fargo Bank swindle Black homeowners - at least, former Black homeowners. All of a sudden, "accountability" doesn't apply in that case.  http://washingtonindependent.com/59633/suit-alleges-trusted-black-figures-drew-minorities-to-high-rate-loans

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And secondly, since the most direct road out of poverty is to ensure that our young people obtain a quality education, why is it that Dr. Cornel West has failed to teach at any school that more than 1% of Black students can even afford to get into in his entire career? Wouldn't you think that one who is renowned as an educator, and who claims to "love" his people so passionately that he was "forced" to publicly attack the first Black President of the United States, would at the very least, apply his skills to educating Black youth? Come on, people. Connect the dots.   

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What we have to begin to understand regarding people like Cornel West and others of his ilk is, Black people are the product of the very same racist environment as White people. And as a result, many of us are just as racist and condescending towards other Black people as any racist Hillbilly. So what West is clearly demonstrating is, in spite of everything that's coming together to destroy the Black community, it all has to take a backseat to America's favorite pastime - dragging a successful Black man through the mud. And West’s attack on Jay-Z is not just an aberration - he’s done the exact same thing to President Obama, Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry, Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, and Rev. Al Sharpton. Yet, he seems to be fine with Walmart, and the others who are trying to cut the Black community's throat.

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No other group of people in the world think that way about their own, and for that reason, Black people are at the very bottom of the social and economic ladder. New arrivals to this country all but stumble over us as they move forward and leave us behind. So we need to wake up, and stop tolerating this sort of thing, regardless to how we might feel about Jay-Z's wealth. We shouldn't be doggin' Jay-Z. We should take pride in what he's accomplished, because whether you're a hip hop fan or not, the brother has demonstrated the intellect to rise to the top - and without Walmart.

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Finally, it's easy to understand why West is so popular among many - he's the most prolific champion of intellectual masturbation in the Black community - bar none. He's an entertainer. But don't be bamboozled by a wooly head and hardcore rhetoric. While Cornel West has been hyped by the establishment as one of the Black community’s premier intellectuals, he’s been repeatedly demonstrating the very worst in Black behavior for over twelve years now. So while it’s both understandable, and appropriate, for the Black community to despair over this public embarrassment, we should use it as a teaching moment: Always look beneath the hype, and never allow others to define our heroes.

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RELATED ARTICLES

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What Has Obama Done for the Poor and Middle Class?

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Tavis, West, and Malcolm

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It’s Time to Boycott Tavis,West, and All Black-on-Black Racists

 

Eric L. Wattree
Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com

Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)

Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

What Has Obama Done for the Poor and Middle Class?

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree
 

What Has Obama Done for the Poor and Middle Class?

 

Many of the people who go around talking about Obama hasn't done anything for the poor and middle class generally break down into two categories - self-serving demagogues who are out to mislead the people for their own gain, and the victims of those demagogues who are basing their opinion on what they've been told, since most of them obviously haven't read anything beyond the sports page in twenty years.
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While the former group are disgusting for trying to mislead the people for personal gain, at least they’re trying to better their condition. The latter, on the other hand, are not only disgusting, but sad. These people are obviously too lazy-minded to, at the very least, keep themselves informed enough to protect their own families.
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What's so sad is, many of these people or highly educated - or at least, spent a lot of years sitting in various classrooms - and others can tell you the name and birthdate of the bat boy who cleaned the bat that was used to score the winning run in the 1936 World Series. Yet, these very same people can't, or won't, spare a couple of minutes to gather the necessary information to make sure their families aren't victimized by demagogues.
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They don't seem to understand that corporate fascists are poised to take away everything we've worked all of our lives to acquire. The GOP has rigged the system to allow international corporations to pour unlimited amounts of money into buying the very people who are suppose to protect us, they've mounted a brutal assault on our educational system to render us too uninformed to understand what's going on around us, they've organized a campaign to obstruct our right to vote, they're trying to abolish the Fair Labor Standards Act in an attempt to destroy our labor unions, and finally, they've mounted a campaign to abolish Social Security and Medicare. In short, the Republican Party is leaving no stone unturned to undermine our lives from cradle to grave. Yet, all these so-called "defenders of the poor" can focus on is attacking Obama, and implying on sites like "BlackBlueDog.com" (The term "Blue Dog Democrat" is credited to Texas Democratic Rep. Pete Geren - who later joined the Bush Administration)  that Black people are intellectually challenged for feeling obliged to vote Democratic. Really!!!?  Are these people idiots, or do they think we are?
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There's something terribly wrong with that picture, and it's something that the American people should take a close look at - and since many of these so-called intellectuals profess to be Black "scholars," the Black community should be especially curious about what's going on.
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But then, maybe these people aren't malevolent at all. Maybe they're just not as bright as their hype has led us to believe.  Maybe they're simply wannabes who, while supposedly being educated, were actually being indoctrinated out of their connection with reality. That used to happen so routinely that the old folks had a name for such people - "educated fools." And such people were so toxic that the old folks were always on the look out for them. 
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When I went to college, my grandparents were very proud of me. Nevertheless, the first thing my grandmother said was, "Eric, don't let them educate the common sense out of you." I promised that I wouldn't, but it has indeed been a struggle. But nonsense, and the worship of talking dead folks are so pervasive in our educational system that the propensity for independent thought has been all but abandoned. That's clearly what's happen to Cornel West and many of his followers - they've come to believe that since West is a product of Harvard and Princeton - and thus, privy to the thoughts of dead White folks - that his water is wetter than our own. Well, it's not. Dr. West is just as capable of being a damn fool as anyone else - and in this case, I'm afraid he is.
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So perhaps it would be more effective if instead of trying to reeducate these people into understanding that corporate fascists are trying to enslave our families, we should simply tell them that the fascists are poised to abolish ESPN and the Soul Train Awards. Then, perhaps they'd have an incentive to become the true political scholars that they profess to be.  I mean, they don’t have to be brilliant to recapture reality; all they have to do is look it up on Google under "Wake up, fool!"
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So what has Obama done for the Poor, you ask?  He's done the following - and this is just the short list:

1). He stopped the nation from hemorrhaging 800,000 jobs A MONTH under Bush.  I'd say that  helped the poor and middle class.

2). He stopped the nation from going into a second Great Depression. I would think, that also helped the poor and middle class.

3). He saved the American auto industry. I’m pretty sure that also qualifies as helping the poor and middle class.

4). He was the first president to successfully passed healthcare reform in 70 years. That not only helped, but will save the lives of many of the poor and middle class.

5). He created more jobs in 27 months than Bush did in 7 years. That definitely helped the poor and middle class.

6). While he was doing all of the things above, he also managed to get Osama Bin Laden in his spare time - and if you remember, Bush spent 7 years, upward of a TRILLION dollars, and killed or maimed thousands of American troops in that effort. But Obama managed to pull it off with two helicopters and a handful of men.
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Bush and Cheney’s incompetence and greed in this matter destroyed and/or disrupted thousands of poor and middle class families, while the rich had to look at their ever-swelling war profits just to know that the nation was involved in conflict. The war had no impact on them at all, because the rich no longer send their kids to die for this country - that's a job for poor folks - and now they want us to pay for the war as well.
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Thus, Bush and Cheney's mismanagement of both the economy, and the war in Iraq, played a major role in what got us in this economic quagmire in the first place. Yet, we didn’t hear a word from critics like Tavis Smiley and Cornel West during George W. Bush’s fiasco. Where were these two defenders of the poor and middle class then?
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But Obama didn’t complain about that at all - he didn’t have time to complain, and he didn't have time to respond to the ridiculous charges of envious Black-on-Black racists. The president is an adult, with adult concerns, so he was, and is, much too busy cleaning up the mess left behind by the relative ear-splitting silence during the Bush administration of those who have suddenly discovered a newfound concern for "the least of these."    
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So while others were plotting, fighting for attention, and whining, President Obama was busy doing following:
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- Spur Job Creation: "In addition, to help those most affected by the recession, the Budget will extend emergency assistance to seniors and families with children, Unemployment Insurance benefits, COBRA tax credits, and relief to states and localities to prevent layoffs."
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- Reforming the Job Training System: "The Budget calls for reform of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), which supports almost 3,000 One-Stop Career Centers nationwide and a range of other services. With $6 billion for WIA at DOL—and an additional $4 billion in the Department of Education—the Budget calls for reforms to improve WIA." Strengthen Anti-Discrimination Enforcement: "To strengthen civil rights enforcement against racial, ethnic, sexual orientation, religious, and gender discrimination, the Budget includes an 11 percent increase in funding to the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. This investment will help the Division handle implementation of a historic new hate crimes law. The Budget also provides an $18 million, or 5 percent increase, for the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC), which is responsible for enforcing federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or an employee. This increased investment will allow for more staff to reduce the backlog of private sector charges."
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- Support Historically Black Colleges and Universities: "The Budget proposes $642 million, an increase of $30 million over the 2010 level, to support Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs), including Historically Black Colleges and Universities. In addition to this discretionary funding increase for MSIs, the Administration supports legislation passed by the House of Representatives and pending in the Senate that would provide $2.55 billion in mandatory funding to MSIs over 10 years."
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- Help Families Struggling with Child Care Costs: "The Budget will nearly double the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit for middle-class families making under $85,000 a year by increasing their credit rate from 20 percent to 35 percent of child care expenses. Nearly all eligible families making under $115,000 a year would see a larger credit. The Budget also provides critical support for young children and their families by building on historic increases provided in ARRA. The Budget provides an additional $989 million for Head Start and Early Head Start to continue to serve 64,000 additional children and families funded in ARRA."
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- Reform Elementary and Secondary School Funding: "The Budget supports the Administration’s new vision for the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) … The Budget provides a $3 billion increase in funding for K-12 education programs authorized in the ESEA, including $900 million for School Turnaround Grants, and the Administration will request up to $1 billion in additional funding if Congress successfully completes ESEA reauthorization."
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- Increase Pell Grants: "The Recovery Act and 2009 appropriations bill increased the maximum Pell Grant by more than $600 for a total award of $5,350. The Budget proposes to make that increase permanent and put them on a path to grow faster than inflation every year, increasing the maximum grant by $1,000, expanding eligibility, and nearly doubling the total amount of Pell grants since the President took office."
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- Help Relieve Student Loan Debt: "To help graduates overburdened with student loan debt, the Administration will strengthen income-based repayment plans for student loans by reducing monthly payments and shortening the repayment period so that overburdened borrowers will pay only 10 percent of their discretionary income in loan repayments and can have their remaining debt forgiven after 20 years. Those in public service careers will have their debt forgiven after 10 years. The Budget also expands low-cost Perkins student loans."
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- Prevent Hunger and Improve Nutrition: "The President’s Budget provides $8.1 billion for discretionary nutrition program supports, which is a $400 million increase over the 2010 enacted level. Funding supports 10 million participants in the WIC program, which is critical to the health of pregnant women, new mothers, and their infants. The Budget also supports a strong Child Nutrition and WIC reauthorization package that will ensure that school children have access to healthy meals and to help fulfill the President’s pledge to end childhood hunger. The President continues to support the nutrition provisions incorporated in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)."
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- Revitalize Distressed Urban Neighborhoods: "The Budget includes $250 million for HUD’s Choice Neighborhoods program, which will target neighborhoods anchored by distressed public or assisted housing with physical and social revitalization grounded in promising, measurable, and evidence-based strategies."
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- Increase Funding for the Housing Choice Voucher Program: "The President’s Budget requests $19.6 billion for the Housing Choice Voucher program to help more than two million extremely low income families with rental assistance to live in decent housing in neighborhoods of their choice. The Budget continues funding for all existing mainstream vouchers and provides flexibility to support new vouchers that were leased and $85 million in special purpose vouchers for homeless families with children, families at risk of homelessness, and persons with disabilities."
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- Preserve 1.3 Million Affordable Rental Units through Project-Based Rental Assistance Program: "The President’s Budget provides $9.4 billion for the Project-Based Rental Assistance program to preserve approximately 1.3 million affordable rental units through increased funding for contracts with private owners of multifamily properties. This critical investment will help low-income households to obtain or retain decent, safe and sanitary housing. In addition, the Administration requests $350 million to fund the first phase of this multi-year initiative to regionalize the Housing Choice Voucher program and convert Public Housing to project-based vouchers."
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- Promote Affordable Homeownership and Protect Families from Mortgage Fraud: "The Budget requests $88 million for HUD to support homeownership and foreclosure prevention through Housing Counseling and $20 million to combat mortgage fraud. In addition, the Budget requests $250 million for the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation’s (NRC) grant and training programs. Of the $250 million, $113 million is requested for foreclosure prevention activities, a $48 million increase (74 percent) over 2010."
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- Fight Gang Violence and Violent Crime: "The Budget provides $112 million for place-based, evidence supported, initiatives to combat violence in local communities, including $25 million for the Community-Based Violence Prevention Initiatives that aim to reduce gun and other violence among youth gangs in cities and towns across the country, and $37 million for the Attorney General’s Children Exposed to Violence Initiative, which targets the youth most affected by violence and most susceptible to propagating it as they grow up."
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- Expand Prisoner Re-entry Programs: "The Budget provides $144 million for Department Justice prisoner re-entry programs, including an additional $100 million for the Office of Justice Programs to administer grant programs authorized by the Second Chance Act and $30 million for residential substance abuse treatment programs in State and local prisons and jails. In addition, the Budget provides $98 million for Department of Labor programs that provide employment-centered services to adult and youth ex-offenders and at-risk youth.."
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- Fully Fund the Community Development Block Grant Program: "The Budget provides $4.4 billion for the Community Development Fund, including $3.99 billion for the Community Development Block Grant Formula Program (CDBG), and $150 million for the creation of a Catalytic Investment Competition Grants program. The new Catalytic Competition Grants program uses the authorities of CDBG, but will provide capital to bring innovative economic development projects to scale to make a measurable impact."
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Now, what has Tavis Smiley and Cornel West done - other than promote their shows and try to sell you books and "ghetto loans?"  Absolutely nothing.

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Here are 206 Obama Accomplishments, With Citations!

http://pleasecutthecrap.typepad.com/main/what-has-obama-done-since-january-20-2009.html

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The GOP: A One Hundred Year Record of Swindling the American People 

http://wattree.blogspot.com/2010/10/gop-one-hundred-year-record-of.html

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 WELLS FARGO HIRED TAVIS SMILEY TO ALLEGEDLY DRAW MINORITIES TO HIGH-RATE LOANS

http://washingtonindependent.com/59633/suit-alleges-trusted-black-figures-drew-minorities-to-high-rate-loans

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Tavis, West, and Malcolm

http://wattree.blogspot.com/2012/11/tavis-west-and-malcolm.html

 

 

Eric L. Wattree
Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com
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Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

Tavis, West, and Malcolm

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

Tavis, West, and Malcolm



While browsing the web this morning I came across an article written by Dr. Boyce Watkins blaring, "Cornel West Says that Sharpton, Dyson are “Up for Sale”: Let’s Talk about That One, Shall We?" My first reaction was, "Hmmmm, Dr. Dyson must have gotten a new job."
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The reason that's the first thing that came to mind was because Cornel West is rapidly building a reputation for attacking anyone in the Black community who tends to overshadow him. This tendency, and the reckless and petty way in which he pursues it, has become so pronounced in West that it's beginning to betray his primary agenda as a whole. He's not interested in the Black community at all. All Cornel West is interested in is keeping Cornel West in the media spotlight.

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West is quick to drag out any shortcomings that he can conjure up regarding anyone black that tends to step into his spotlight. Take President Obama, for example. I don't recall West ever being so disrespectful to George W. Bush. That speaks volumes about his mentality and both he and Tavis' lack of respect for Black people in general. But they always try to claim that their critics are simply "trying to kill the messenger."  Well, in a sense they're right, because with respect to President Obama, their true message is, "How dare that spook try to con us into believing that he's good enough to do a White man's job?"  And that's a message worth killing.
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And West's hatred and envy continue with his disrespectful remarks about Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry. Just like with Obama, West was fine with Dr. Perry at first. He recruited her to come to Princeton and they were colleagues. But once it became clear that Dr. Perry had a mind of her own, and that she wasn't prone to hero worship, West began to undermine her at Princeton, so she quietly left.
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That should have been the end of it, but once West found out that she had been given a show on MSNBC, all hell broke lose. Instead of this good brother - who only lives to serve his people - being gratified that another intelligent Black voice gained access to the national media - as anyone who is genuinely concerned about the Black community should be - he caved in to his petty personal sentiments and publicly insulted Dr. Perry by calling her “a fake and a fraud.”  That’s not the behavior of either an intellectual, a mature adult, or even an intelligent Black man, at least, one who has even an iota of respect for the very womb of his culture.
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So again, it seems that Cornel West is always prepared to preach a much better sermon on black love and respect than he's willing to live. His comments were extremely disrespectful toward both Black women, and the Black community as a whole. A true brother - a true man - wouldn't even speak to a lady like that in private, much less, badmouth her like that publicly.

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Whatever happen to the concept of cherishing our women?  No one should have to teach Cornel about that. As a so-called Black intellectual, that's exactly what he should be teaching our young people - that it's impossible for them to have any respect for themselves, if they don't respect the very womb of their culture. How can anyone profess to be an intellectual and fail to understand that very fundamental concept?  West also betrayed his elitist sense of entitlement, as well as his disdain for the poor and working class, when he complained about a mere baggage handler getting tickets to the Presidential Inauguration while he couldn't.

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And it doesn't end there. West has also seen fit to go after Jay-Z. Obviously Jay-Z was getting a little too much publicity over his part ownership of the Brooklyn Nets and the Barclay Center. So West took it upon himself to set the record straight. In essence, he said, "Wait a minute, world! That pickaninny don't own nothing. TheWhite man owns it! So you see, I'm still the man!" Okay West, but what does fronting off Jay-Z have to do with moving Black people forward?
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So Cornel West is not only a demagogue, but he's a demagogue of the very worst kind. Just before he sticks a knife in your back, he starts talking about "how much he loves his brother, however . . ."  That may be so, but with "good brothers" like Cornel West, we'd all be better off orphans. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_E6lS0gLH18

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Now he's also badmouthing Rev. Al Sharpton and Dr.Michael Eric Dyson, saying they're "up for sale." What's wrong with this guy? What evidence does he have of that? If he has evidence to substantiate what he's saying, he should produce it.  If he doesn't, he should shut up.   How does it benefit the Black community by his running all over the country slandering every high-profile Black person who doesn't see things his way? He seems to have something to say about everybody but his buddy, Tavis, who's one of the most prolific corporate shills in the Black community. Tavis also have close associations with several corporations, including Walmart, that are, or have been, a member of ALEC, an organization that's left no stone unturned to deprive Black people of their right to vote - and we've got evidence of that.

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DO YOU BELIEVE NATIONWIDE
IS ON YOUR SIDE?

So the fact is, many in the Black community have allowed themselves to be hornswoggled by both the media, and Cornel West. The bottom line is,West is nothing more than a self-absorbed, egomaniacal fraud who hasn’t had an original thought in 35 years, and it looks like the Black community is the last to recognize that.

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Some of us have allowed ourselves to be bedazzled by two words - Harvard and Princeton. The establishment has effectively used those two words to convince many of us to accept, without examination, that Cornel West has more sense than we do. That's what accounts for the rabid defense of him in some quarters. These people need to step out of their media-constructed bubble, open their eyes, ears, and minds, and stop letting others dictate who they listen to.
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The White establishment has been propping West up with their very special kind of hype for all of his 35 years in the public eye. Yet, I have never met one person who can tell me one profound sentence he’s uttered in the three-and-a-half decades that he’s been on the public stage - and a stage is exactly what it's been, because West is more of an entertainer than an intellectual.
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Tavis and West are exactly like Herman Cain, but with one exception - at least Herman Cain is honest about supporting the GOP. But Tavis and West are using a technique used by the FBI during COINTELPRO, when J. Edgar Hoover was trying to bring down the civil rights movement in the sixties. During that time Hoover sent in a bunch of "undercover brothers" just like Tavis and West. They were so radically militant that they turned off the American people, and they were so divisive that they caused the movement to turn on itself. That’s exactly what Tavis and West are doing today.
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These two turncoats are trying to place Obama in an untenable position. They’re using militant rhetoric to insist that President Obama play Blackjack at a poker table, knowing damn well that he can’t do that. If he tries, he'll turn the American people against him - in which case, he becomes impotent and can't get anything done for anyone. But if he doesn’t, Tavis and West are going to try to turn Black people against him, which would also serve to destroy his presidency.
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That’s exactly the same thing the FBI did in the sixties. In the end, they had young Black people (who supported the harder line of Malcolm) calling Martin Luther King, "Martin Luther Coon" - including myself, I’m ashamed to admit. That’s exactly what Tavis and West are doing today. I saw the parallel immediately, and that’s why I’m dead on their asses. Maybe I can make up, just a little bit, for the stupidity of my youth.
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Malcolm saw through the problem back in the sixties and tried to instruct his followers not to allow the establishment to divide us among ourselves. He’s said that it didn’t matter whether or not we saw eye-to-eye with Martin's approach on every issue. Our goal was the same, therefore, we were allies. He then made it a point to join with Martin, but they took him out before he could complete the process.
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So while Tavis and West are always talking about, "Brother Malcolm," Malcolm would have long since seen through their game, and he would be absolutely disgusted with both of them, just as I am.

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Related Articles

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Wells Fargo to pay $175 million
. "If Tavis Smiley was white, Wells Fargo and ‘Ghetto Loans’ would be front page news," 'wrote Genma Stringer Holmes, a Nashville, Tenn., business owner and blogger who has blasted out several posts on the seminars."'
http://washingtonindependent.com/59633/suit-alleges-trusted-black-figures-drew-minorities-to-high-rate-loans
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WELLS FARGO HIRED TRUSTED BLACK FIGURES TO ALLEGEDLY DRAW MINORITIES TO HIGH-RATE LOANS

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Tavis Smiley Headlined Seminars
Targeting African Americans

"The Washington Independent

reports that Wells Fargo & Co. allegedly targeted African American borrowers for higher-cost subprime mortgages. The bank attracted attendees to a series of day-long "Wealth Building" seminars held in black neighborhoods in eight cities across the country by featuring trusted black speakers.

"The seminars, promoted heavily in black media, featured prominent African American commentator and PBS talk show host Tavis Smiley as well as Kelvin Boston, the host of "Moneywise," a multicultural financial affairs show."

http://www.mysanantonio.com//business/article/Wells-Fargo-to-pay-175-million-3703567.php*
　

It's Time to Boycott Tavis, West, and All Black on Black Racists

http://wattree.blogspot.com/2012/09/its-time-to-boycott-tavis-west-and-all.html

Eric L. Wattree
Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com

Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.