Black Suffering Is Not Obama’s Fault - It’s Ours!

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree
 

Black Suffering Is Not Obama’s Fault - It’s Ours!

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Any objective assessment of the Black community’s current predicament will clearly show that Black suffering is a direct result of two things: First, many of us in the Black community have a pronounced tendency to follow self-serving poverty pimps and fools instead of thinking for ourselves, following truth wherever it leads, and thereafter, addressing the issues that the truth reveals. Instead, we’d rather stick our heads in a comfortable patch of sand and pay a poverty pimp to tell us what we want to hear. Secondly, we’re more interested in appearances than reality. We’ll go absolutely broke to make it LOOK like we’re living high on the hog instead of living more modestly and investing our time, money, and resources into actually obtaining the lifestyle that we’re willing to go broke to pretend to already have. So the bottom line is, many of us are broke and suffering because we refuse to face up to, and address our shortcomings, and we also insist on living a lie (Of course, Black people aren't the only ones who suffer from these dysfunctions, but it is the Black community that's being addressed here).
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A perfect example of the first dysfunction is, many of us literally worship people like Cornel West. Then if you ask them what is it about West that they most admire, they’ll say something like, "He speaks the truth." But if you continue to question them it becomes abundantly clear that they not only don’t know the truth, but even worse, they can't recognize a glaring lie when they hear one (much like the Fox News crowd). In addition, they know absolutely nothing about Cornel West other than what they've HEARD.  So the fact is, they ACTUALLY admire West because he tells them what they want to hear, and what brings them comfort. But chasing emotional comfort rarely brings about an improvement in one’s life. In fact, more often than not, all it does provide is a convenient excuse for failure.  
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They're not getting the truth because the fact is, people like Cornel West can’t afford to tell them the truth. The reason for that is, if he spoke the unfettered truth West would have to admit that he himself is more than a little responsible for the Black community’s current suffering. He'd have to reveal that George W. Bush won the 2000 election by winning Florida by a mere 537 votes as a direct result of the Ralph Nader/Cornel West coalition taking away 97,488 Democratic-leaning votes. So in essence, Nader and West did more to elect George W. Bush President of the United States than the Republican Party. But of course, Cornel West defenders will claim, "No, the Supreme Court helped Bush STEAL the election." But the fact is, if it wasn’t for the 97,488 Democratic-leaning votes that the Nader/West coalition took away, the election wouldn’t have been close enough to even go before the Supreme Court. Thus, Nader and West were ESSENTIAL to Bush’s election.
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Thus, Cornel West is much more than a little responsible for the Black community’s current plight, and contrary to West’s mantra-like contention that Obama’s not doing enough for the Black community, the fact is, if it were not for Barack Obama, the community would be in much worse shape, because America, and the world, would currently be in the midst of a second Great Depression. Obama critics rarely stop to think about that, nor do they consider the impact of GOP obstructionism. All they think about is times are tough, and Barack Obama is President.
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Yes, times are tough, but we're very lucky that Obama is President, because they could've been a lot tougher. When Barack Obama took office this country was hemorrhaging 500,000 jobs A MONTH, and due to the gross irresponsibility of GOP obstructionism, he had to save this nation nearly single handedly. That's why we watched a young man grow grey before our eyes. And the irony is, many of the rabid middle-class conservatives who are calling him a socialist and the worst president in the nation's history, would have neither their jobs, nor their homes today if it weren't for Barack Obama. 
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But history will set the record straight, just like it did for another young man when many Black critics of Cornel West's disposition used to call him "Martin Luther Coon." They'll never admit it today, and fortunately for them, they've been obscured by the fog of history.  But that won't be the case for people like Tavis Smiley and Cornel West. The flawless memory of the internet will allow posterity to pull up their stupidity in living color, and in all it's glory, four hundred years from now, with just the touch of a button.
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Posterity will clearly see that when Cornel West tried to blame President Obama for our current condition, it was the perfect equivalent of his walking into a restaurant, taking a crap in the middle of the floor, and then calling the Health Department because the owner didn’t get it up fast enough. And considering Cornel’s Association with Tavis Smiley - the biggest corporate shill in the Black community - posterity will also see that when Cornel complained about the condition of the poor, it was as disingenuous as a man running down the street ranting about fascism after just having lunch with Mussolini.  
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You see, unlike West, posterity will understand that it’s not the President’s job to go from house-to-house handing out gift baskets. His job is to create an environment where we can help ourselves, and that shouldn't be a serious problem in the Black community. African Americans have a documented buying power of $1.1 trillion. That’s equal to the Gross National Product of Germany, the third richest industrial nation in the world. So there is absolutely no reason why we have to wait around for the White man to come and give us a job. Our problem is, we need to start taking care of business, and our failure to do that is not Obama’s fault - it’s OUR fault. Our biggest problem is, many of us are doing more whining than we are thinking. And instead of acting like responsible adults, many in the community are acting like helpless children, waiting for their White daddy to come home and feed them.
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Think about this: "Currently, a dollar circulates in Asian communities for a month, in Jewish communities approximately 20 days, and White communities 17 days. How long does a dollar circulate in the black community? 6 hours!!! African American buying power is at $1.1 trillion, and yet, only 2 cents of every dollar an African American spends in this country goes to black owned businesses." That’s why we don’t have jobs. Is that Obama’s fault? I don’t think so. So the fact is, it’s not money that the Black community needs; it’s an education that we’re in most dire need of.
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So contrary to popular belief, critics like Tavis Smiley and Cornel West do both the Black community, and America, a disservice. While they're taking bows for being willing to "speak truth to power," they're doing the complete opposite of what they should be doing. If they were REALLY concerned about the people, they wouldn't be calling the President names, and trying to play "The Dozens" with the President of the United States. They're only doing that to call attention to themselves and their self-serving agendas. If they REALLY cared about the people they would be trying to educate the people to how to best leverage their economic and political clout, and they would be supporting the President and offering CONSTRUCTIVE suggestions in order to help him maintain the political support necessary to get things done. But instead, they're trying to tear him down, which weakens him in his battle against GOP obstructionism. So their behavior suggests one of two things - either they're not very bright, or they're in collusion with the GOP. Whichever is the case, that's bad news for the people.
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One gentleman in the community told me the following:
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"All that you stated is all true, but how does it translate POLITICALLY? One can have a lot of consuming power, and that's what you are truly pointing out, but at the end of the day NO TRUE POWER EXIST because WE are dependent on policies created by others to help US. WE ARE NOT SITTING AT THE TABLE; I think that's what’s frustrating. The power of the POTUS becomes beneficial WHEN WE ARE AT THE TABLE. The only way to ensure that is to RAISE HELL, for he alone cannot bring us to the table. Our frustrations and dislikes must be shown and felt in order for any TRUE ADVANCEMENT. Seems that we are going backwards, when it comes to the Civil Rights struggle. Those gains in the past did not take place by having our people sitting on the sideline NOT CRITICIZING what needs to be criticized. OUR president NEEDS US to step up our game, [but] so far whatever it is we are doing IS NOT WORKING. Look at how they are slaughtering us in the streets, STATE SANCTION TERRORISM, with no regards on how upset we get...for we HAVE NO TRUE POLITICAL POWER."
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In response, I pointed out that the world doesn't set a place for you at the table. We have to set our OWN place at the table by getting our OWN affairs in order. The world only allows those at the table who it respects, and it doesn't respect us, because we don't respect ourselves. So we've got to change our cultural mores, begin to recognize who we are, and begin to understand that the adversity that we've endured over the years is a valuable source of unutilized knowledge that makes us MORE rather than less. In addition, we’ve got to learn how to leverage that $1.1 trillion that we have at our command, because the one thing that the White establishment is more enamored with than its passionate romance with racism, is money, and it’s not going to allow $1.1 trillion dollars - again, the gross national product of Germany - to slip through its fingers.
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That brings me to the second dysfunction that the Black community has to overcome, and that’s how we handle our money. Currently, the establishment doesn’t have to acknowledge the Black community, because we fall all over one another to take them every penny we have. But if we were more selective in how, and with whom we spent our money, they’d forget all about racism just to get their hands on it. If, for example, the community organized and decided that we weren’t going to put our money in Wells Fargo Bank, or Bank of America, you can bet that both of those institutions would open up branches in the Black community that would be run, and controlled, by Black people. As a result, when Black businesspeople needed a business loan, they’d be talking to another Black face, which would lead to more loans being approved, and more jobs in the community. And the very same thing would be true of many other national and international franchises coming into the community.
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Then, as a direct result of the improved economic conditions in the community, our young people would see other young adults being hired and prospering in this new economic environment. That would cause them to begin to see the wisdom of staying in school so they too could take advantage of this new prosperity. That, in turn, would lead to the building of new homes in the community, the stabilization of family life, expanded political clout, and a reduction in crime.
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So while peaceful demonstrations do have their place in calling the establishment’s attention to community concerns, we’ll never be able to scream, whine, or beg our way to a better life - and nobody will ever be able to give it to us, because even if they did, we wouldn’t have sense enough to hang on to it. So the only way that we’ll ever acquire, and then hold on to, the kind of life that we aspire to, is through careful thought, planning, responsibility, and above all, education.
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But Cornel won’t ever tell you that, because at $30,000 a speech, he makes a great living on faking compassion over your misery. Oh, how do I know he's faking? That's easy. Has he ever felt enough "compassion," or "love" for the people to teach in a predominately Black school?  Not once in his entire career.
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Eric L. Wattree
Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)
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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.   

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Are The American People The Victim of Their Own Stupidity?

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

Are The American People The Victim of Their Own Stupidity?

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It's amazing how clueless people can be. I'm currently focused on how people can't see the negative impact that some of these ego maniacs like Cornel West and Ralph Nader are having on their lives. How can they not see that when you divide the vote of like-minded people that it only serves to help the people that they like least? So when they blindly follow people like Nader and West they’re allowing the mysterious agenda of these people to have a direct, and undue, impact on their very lives.
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In an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, Seth Masket and Hans Noel points out that "The last third-party candidate to win the presidency was Abraham Lincoln, in 1860, 151 years ago. But Lincoln's campaign was hardly independent. The Republican Party had been organizing for years, and it had representation in Congress. And one of the previous major parties, the Whigs, was collapsing, its followers mostly switching to the Republicans." (http://articles.latimes.com/.../la-oe-masketnoel-indies...)
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In a similar article, "Third-party candidacies: Rarely successful, often influential," that ran in The Washington Times, Henry Olsen, who heads the National Research Initiative at the American Enterprise Institute, was quoted as saying, "‘Fringe candidates can affect the outcome of an election . . . They can be decisive in a lot of ways, often in ways that don’t necessarily show up in how well the candidates do, but rather where they do [it],’ said Mr. Olsen, who suggested George W. Bush may not have become president in 2000 were it not for Green Party candidate Ralph Nader . . . Mr. Nader was ‘inconsequential nationally, but because of our electoral system, he cost [Al] Gore Florida, and hence cost him the election,’ Mr. Olsen said" - and that’s what led to the Iraq war, the deaths of over a million Iraqi citizens, the death or disabling of thousands of American troops, and our current economic condition. Was it worth it, for the need of ideological puritans to simply vote their conscious? Personally, I don’t think so.
(http://www.washingtontimes.com/.../third-party.../...)
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So again, why can't these "ideological puritans," who claim they want to "vote their conscience," recognize that by dividing the vote of like-minded people, they’re actually helping the people that they like the least? In essence, they’re so upset with the Bogeyman, that they're leaving the backdoor unlocked for the Devil. It's pure stupidity.
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George W. Bush, and his trickle-up policies are the primary reason that we’re in the condition that we’re in, and the Nader/West coalition is the primary reason that Bush was elected. But in spite of that, now we have Cornel West going all over the country doing $30,000 an hour speeches demonizing President Obama for not doing enough to remedy the situation.
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The sheer gall of this guy is unbelievable. West is like a guy who walks into a restaurant and craps on the floor, and then calls the Health Department because the owner didn’t get it up fast enough. People like Ralph Nader, Cornel West, Tavis Smiley, and Boyce Watkins are the quintessential hypocrites. People like these are pursuing their own limited and self-serving agendas while portraying themselves as the saviors of the very people they’re hurting the most.
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After Ralph Nader was rejected for the 2000 presidential nomination by the Democratic voters, instead of acknowledging his rejection and falling into line to help defeat the Republicans, Nader went into a petulant snit and ran as a third party candidate. It was clear that he purposely ran as a third party candidate with the mean-spirited intent of sabotaging the Democratic effort, because third parties never win; the only purpose that third parties ever serve is to help elect the people that you like least, because they divide the vote of like-minded people.
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Cornel West joined Nader in this foolish - or treacherous, you make the determination - campaign, and as a result, George W. Bush won the election over Al Gore by winning Florida by a mere 537 votes. The Nader/West coalition peeled off 97,488 votes from Gore in Florida alone. So when I say that Cornel West is more than a little responsible for George W. Bush becoming President of the United States, and thus, your current economic condition, don’t take my word for it – you do the math.
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Most people, if they were sincere, would look at the disastrous results of their activities and be devastated. After all, causing Bush to be elected was the worst possible outcome for everything West is SUPPOSE to represent. So most people would conclude that they had made a grave error, and that they would never do anything to divide the progressive vote again. But not Cornel West, he teamed up with Ralph Nader yet again in the 2012 election against Obama, and tried do the very same thing that they'd done in the 2000 election that resulted in Bush's presidency. The only thing that stopped them was, this time the people weren’t buying it.
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So yes, in September of 2011 Ralph Nader and Cornel West teamed up to try to sabotage the Democratic Party yet again. They canvassed the country for Democratic opponents to challenge Obama in the primaries. According to Nader, "Without debates by challengers inside the Democratic Party’s presidential primaries, the liberal/majoritarian agenda will be muted and ignored." And he goes on to say, "The one-man Democratic primaries will be dull, repetitive, and draining of both voter enthusiasm and real bright lines between the two parties that excite voters." What he failed to say, however, was it kept the liberal voice solid and united. So if Nader and West had been successful, they would have divided the Democratic Party just enough for Mitt Romney to squeak out a victory, and the nation would now be under conservative leadership. Now, just take a moment and think about what life would have been like for poor people then. But did the illustrious Cornel "I love My People" West care about that?  Not a bit. (http://wattree.blogspot.com/2014/10/is-cornel-west-judas-goat-when-was-last.html).
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Proof That The Ralph Nader/Cornel West Coalition Purposely Helped Bush Become President
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Outside Magazine, August 2000:
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"If California tips Green enough, Bush could win the state and the whole damn election. Which, Nader confided to Outside in June, wouldn't be so bad. When asked if someone put a gun to his head and told him to vote for either Gore or Bush, which he would choose, Nader answered without hesitation: ‘Bush.’ Not that he actually thinks the man he calls ‘Bush Inc.’ deserves to be elected: ‘He'll do whatever industry wants done.’ The rumpled crusader clearly prefers to sink his righteous teeth into Al Gore, ... [and] concludes with the sotto voce realpolitik of a ward heeler: ‘If you want the parties to diverge from one another, have Bush win.’
(http://www.hereinstead.com/QUOTATIONS-FROM-RALPH-NADER.htm)

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Those are the words of a clueless and self-serving lunatic who is more interested in his own agenda than he is the best interest of the American people, as the results of his activity clearly demonstrates. Thus, it was no accident that Nader and West teamed up. They are of the very same ilk - they’re brothers in self-serving indifference to America. In addition, they’re both self-absorbed, they both crave attention, and they’re both extremely petty and spiteful, as demonstrated by Nader’s antipathy toward Al Gore, and West’s spitefulness toward Barack Obama.
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Nevertheless, in the past, they were both highly respected for what appeared to be their selfless advocacy for the people. But their current activities clearly demonstrate that what seemed to be "selfless advocacy" was actually self-promotion. As mentioned, they both crave attention, and they both have a contrarian nature, so in the past, it just turn out that their contrarian dispositions just happened to coincided with the public interest, so they seized upon the opportunity in order to promote themselves. But now, they’ve both made it perfectly clear that they’re willing to turn their backs on everything that they were suppose to believe in so passionately if it's in conflict with either their pettiness, or own self-interest. A perfect example of that is to ask yourself, how many people did Cornel West influence to stay away from the polls in the last election by the suggestion that it was alright not to vote if they disagreed with any one of President Obama’s policies - he said in a Time.com article, "I couldn’t vote for a war criminal." (http://time.com/3475306/hear-cornel-west-on-obama-a-drone-presidency/)
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As a direct result of such messages being sent to the American people, we now have a Republican controlled house and senate - and what kind of compassion does this Republican controlled congress have for the people who West is supposed to "love" so passionately . . . ?
The GOP is engaged in an unconscionable effort to obstruct the implementation of Obamacare, which provides affordable health care to millions of Americans.

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Retraction

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Previously we reported that "Congress Eliminates Child Tax Credit, Mortgage Deduction And E.I.T.C From Tax Code." That was in error.  What we should have reported was congress has failed to renew the expiration of many of these middle class tax deductions.

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Nevertheless, in the 2014 midterm election, the American people decided to thumb their nose at the man who prevented them from going into a second Great Depression, saved the American auto industry, and provided affordable health care for millions of Americans, to follow demagogues, and the very people who are directly responsible for their dire economic straits. I’d call that, blatant stupidity.
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A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves. - Edward R. Murrow.
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Eric L. Wattree
Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)
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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.

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An Open Letter to a Clueless Dr. Boyce Watkins

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

An Open Letter to a Clueless Dr. Boyce Watkins

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Dr. Watkins, you said,

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"If you’ll notice, most of those seeking to discredit Dr. Cornel West (i.e. Melissa Harris-Perry and a few others) have a difficult, if not impossible, time proving that Cornel is wrong. Instead, they tried to make us believe he was crazy, obsessed, petty, neurotic and hostile. This is how political operatives operate, and the last four years have led to Dr. West emerging as the winner of the stealth game of "IncogNegro Politics," where numerous black surrogates have been well-paid to undermine the legacy of a man who only wanted to help his people.
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It is for these reasons that that Dr. Cornel West could be the greatest black man alive. They wanted him gone, and it only made him more visible. They tried to break his back, and his spine transformed to iron. They tried to shut him down and it was like pouring grease on a bonfire. Cornel West is no longer a man….he has officially turned himself into a LEGEND."http://thyblackman.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/cornel-west-2014.jpg
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Are you Kidding!!! You’re making yourself sound like a completely bamboozled, hero-worshiping idiot. Independent thinkers are not followers; they seek to become their own heroes. This is EXACTLY why I started to question your intellect and stopped writing for "Your Black World" - and that was BEFORE I recognized that you were an undercover conservative who supported ANYONE who was against the first Black President of the United States. You, Cornel West, and Tavis Smiley are clueless in so many ways that my woman is pressuring me to write a book about it so I can buy her a house with a gazebo in Beverly Hills - and she’s trying to sweeten her argument by insisting that I owe it to the Black community. How is this for a few reasons to prove that your hero, Cornel West, is a self-serving, egotistical, maniac?

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Is Cornel West A Judas Goat - When Was The Last Time You Heard Him Attack A Conservative Republican?
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During the 1960s J. Edgar Hoover disrupted the Civil Rights movement by using provocateurs to infiltrate the various civil rights groups and disrupt their activities. The operation was called "Cointelpro." One tactic that was used was to have loud and disruptive Judas goat "super-militants" join the groups and divide the membership by accusing the groups' leadership of being weak, or "Uncle Toms." That seems to be the very tactic that Cornel West has been using very effectively every since the 2000 election where he was very effective in helping to get George W. Bush elected. .
In my previous article, The "Black Prophetic" Mouth of Cornel West is At It Again - And As Usual, Just In Time To Sabotage Democrats In The Upcoming Election, I pointed out the following:
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After Ralph Nader was rejected for the 2000 presidential nomination by the Democratic voters, instead of acknowledging his rejection and falling into line to help defeat the Republicans, Nader went into a petulant snit and ran as a third party candidate. It was clear that he purposely ran as a third party candidate with the mean-spirited intent of sabotaging the Democratic effort, because third parties never win; the only purpose that third parties ever serve is to help elect the people that you like least, because they divide the vote of like-minded people.

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Cornel West joined Nader in this foolish - or treacherous, you make the determination - campaign, and as a result, George W. Bush won the election over Al Gore by winning Florida by a mere 537 votes. The Nader/West coalition peeled off 97,488 votes from Gore in Florida alone. So when I say that Cornel West is more than a little responsible for George W. Bush becoming President of the United States, and thus, your current economic condition, don’t take my word for it – you do the math.
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Most people, if they were sincere, would look at the disastrous results of their activities and be devastated. After all, causing Bush to be elected was the worst possible outcome for everything West is SUPPOSE to represent. So most people would conclude that they had made a grave error, and that they would never do anything to divide the progressive vote again. But not Cornel West, he teamed up with Ralph Nader yet again in the 2012 election against Obama, and tried do the very same thing that they'd done in the 2000 election that resulted in Bush's presidency. The only thing that stopped them was, this time the people weren’t buying it.
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So yes, in September of 2011 Ralph Nader and Cornel West teamed up to try to sabotage the Democratic Party yet again. They canvassed the country for Democratic opponents to challenge Obama in the primaries. According to Nader, "Without debates by challengers inside the Democratic Party’s presidential primaries, the liberal/majoritarian agenda will be muted and ignored." And he goes on to say, "The one-man Democratic primaries will be dull, repetitive, and draining of both voter enthusiasm and real bright lines between the two parties that excite voters." What he failed to say, however, was it kept the liberal voice solid and united. So if Nader and West had been successful, they would have divided the Democratic Party just enough for Mitt Romney to squeak out a victory, and the nation would now be under conservative leadership. Now, just take a moment and think about what life would have been like for poor people then.
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Yet, there’s still room to give West the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he’s just politically naive and has more passion than he does common sense. One could say that, I guess, but over the years, too many issues have popped up where West’s position just HAPPENS to coincide with what’s in the best interest of conservatives and the Republican Party - his close association with Tavis Smiley, for example. Smiley just HAPPENS to be the biggest corporate shill in the Black community, and his closest business association is with ALEC-connected Walmart, the biggest abuser of the working poor in America. Now is that the kind of association that you would expect from someone who claims to "love" the poor and minorities? I don’t think so.
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So Cornel West is a man who should be watched very closely. Another clear demonstration of just how untrustworthy, disingenuous, and wishy-washy West can be is how he tried to revise history after Barack Obama won the 2008 election. When Barack Obama won the Presidency and didn’t roll out the red carpet to the White House for West, he tried to frame the situation in a way that made Obama look like an ingrate. He complained that after he went out campaigning for Obama, he couldn’t even get a returned phone call from the newly elected Obama. But he failed to point out what a fool he acted on Tavis Smiley’s "State of Black America" broadcast on the very day that Obama threw his hat in the ring to run for President. He all but flat-out alleged that Obama couldn’t be trusted. He even asked Obama, "Where’s your money coming from?" But in spite of that, when it became clear that Obama could actually win, only THEN did Cornel West jump the fence on Tavis Smiley and started campaigning for Obama.
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Most people, if they were sincere, would look at the disastrous results of their activities and be devastated. After all, causing Bush to be elected was the worst possible outcome for everything West is SUPPOSE to represent. So most people would conclude that they had made a grave error, and that they would never do anything to divide the progressive vote again. But not Cornel West, he teamed up with Ralph Nader yet again in the 2012 election against Obama, and tried do the very same thing that they'd done in the 2000 election that resulted in Bush's presidency. The only thing that stopped them was, this time the people weren’t buying it.
So the question is, why would West campaign for someone that he insisted couldn’t be trusted, in the first place? The answer is very simple - Cornel is "Have Mouth, Will Travel." He jumps onboard whatever train he thinks is going his way. At the time that the video below was shot, West benefitted from the exposure that he could gain from Tavis Smiley, and since it was assumed that Hillary Clinton was going to win the election, West had everything to gain by slamming Obama for not coming to kiss Tavis' ring on Tavis' dog-n-pony show. But again, when it became clear that Obama just might win, West jumped the fence on Tavis Smiley and started grinning in Obama's face - and without a bit of shame.

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A MESSAGE TO CORNEL WEST AND THE OTHER ‘WILLIE LYNCHERS’

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Black People Don’t Resent Criticism of Obama - But We do Resent Slander - Which is What You Engage In. You've said:
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1). President Obama is "a war criminal."
2). President Obama is "a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs . . ."
3). President Obama is "a black puppet of corporate plutocrats."
4). President Obama is "a Rockefeller Republican in Blackface."
5). President Obama "has a certain rootlessness, a deracination."
6). President Obama Is "Afraid Of Free Black Men."
7). President Obama is "a global George Zimmerman."

8). Dr. Harris-Perry is "a fake and a fraud"
9). Dr. Michael Eric Dyson "is a sellout."
10). Al Sharpton "is a sellout."
11). MSNBC is the "Rent a Negro Network."
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Yet, when comedian Steve Harvey called him an Uncle Tom, he said, "When you are trying to talk about issues that affect the people, name calling gets in the way. Name-calling is nothing but another weapon of mass distraction."
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So name-calling is only objectionable when it’s directed at him. Such unmitigated hypocrisy is mind boggling - but for once, he’s right. Not one of the above assertions is a disciplined, constructive, or scholarly assessment of the facts. On the contrary, they're the reckless and intellectually undisciplined rants of a bitter, self-serving, and severely discredited academic fraud.
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For Cornel West, there’s something ‘racially defective’ about every Black person who has the audacity to preempt Cornel West from the limelight. West has a propensity for trying to denigrate the character of people whose been in the trenches for years, while West, himself, has done absolutely nothing beyond running his mouth. In order to gain clear evidence of that fact one simply has to ask oneself, what efforts have West made to try to improve the plight of the Black community?
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1). Is he in the community teaching 3^rd grade to help ensure a better education for our children, or teaching at an Historically Black College or University to help "enlighten" young Black students?
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No. He’s never taught at a school that more than 1% of Black students can even afford to have lunch in throughout his entire career. He’s rather gain props for teaching the children of the economic elites, who he CLAIMS, is the enemy, whenever he MANAGES to do a "Drive-by" in the hood.
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2). Is he in the community teaching our young men to cherish, honor, and respect our Black women - the very womb of our culture?
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No. He’s out trying to sell books filled with inane and misleading information, doing $30,000 an hour speeches, and trying to become a hip hop star.
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3). Is he advising his good friend and business partner, Tavis Smiley, to be consistent with his sermons by being "accountable" to the community, and returning the money that he made on the Wells Fargo "Ghetto Scam" loans that he helped to herd over 30,000 poor minorities into?
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Nope, not a peep.
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So what West and his ilk actually sees is Black outrage over his indulging in the crabs-in-a-barrel tradition that was inbred in us as slaves. Black people recognize that many of President Obama’s Black critics, including Cornel West, aren’t really interested in policy; they’re just using public policy as a pretext for attacking the President himself, and they’re so steeped in their Willie Lynch mentality that they either don’t realize, or don’t care that they’re doing a grave disservice not only to the African-American community, but to Black people all over the world.
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Because the fact is, many of Obama’s White conservative critics aren’t really interested in policy either. Like Obama’s Black critics, they have an ulterior motive as well, but their motive has nothing to do with crabs-in-a-barrel. Their primary motive is defending their claim of White superiority, and President Obama, in his soft-spoken, laid-back way, is dragging that claim through the mud. That’s why racists and conservatives hate him so.
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Conservatives recognize, as we all should - and especially Black people - that President Obama is not just another president. President Obama is the most high-profile symbol of Black competence in the world. In addition, what he has accomplished is the perfect equivalent of a conquered slave rising to become the emperor of Rome - and, one of its greatest. So Barack Obama is going to be remembered by posterity as one of the greatest men in ALL of human history, and his story will be inspiring Black children a thousand years from now.
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Racists and conservatives recognize that fact, so naturally, they’re desperate to tear down Barack Obama’s image, and build up the image of criminals like Ronald Wilson Reagan, and there is no excuse for Black idiots like Tavis Smiley, Cornel West, and Boyce Watkins not to recognize that fact. That’s what makes them so detestable. Instead of trying to help racists tear down this Black icon, they should be offering RESPECTFUL suggestions in an attempt to ensure that Barack Obama is remembered as one of the greatest Presidents that this nation has ever had, even if they have to drag him up Mt. Rushmore kicking and screaming. But instead, they’re allowing themselves to be pointed to by racists who are claiming, "See, even Black people know he doesn’t live up to the standard of White presidents.
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Thus, people like West are giving their own egos, self-service, and their Willie Lynch-inspired need to tear-down a Black historic icon priority over Black history, and the role that history is going to play in helping to raise the self-concept of the Black culture. In short, they’re trying to sabotage the self-esteem of Black children who are yet unborn. The mere thought of that kind of ignorant selfishness is absolutely disgusting - and especially when clothed in faux scholarship. Cornel West and the others like him are not Black leaders, they’re clueless Black cultural afflictions, and if I wanted to take the time, I could take apart every argument that Watkins has put forward. But the short version is, there are some things we have to do for ourselves - and with good reason.
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As alleged "educated" men, they should all realize that Obama is merely President, not King. And the United States Constitution is very specific in giving SOLE power over spending to the House of Representatives, which is controlled by Republicans (that’s why they could refuse to pay the light bill and shutdown the government). So President Obama can’t do a damn thing for us without getting the Republicans to go along with him. That’s why he has to slip us everything on the down-low, because if the GOP know it’s for us, they’re going to dig-in.
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So Cornel - and also you others who share his backward-thinking proclivities - you need to use some of that alleged brain power to think, instead of burning it up trying to maintain your image, or attempting to hide your true motivations for attacking this President. I didn’t hear you saying a damn thing when Bush was in office. So you can try to clothe your true motivations in a tux, but it still has the funky smell of Willie Lynch all over it.

About the Rise And Fall of Cornel West

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I used to be a big fan of Cornel West. I’ll never forget how during the Clarence Thomas confirmation when some old condescending senator started talking down to him West said something to the effect of, "Wait a minute, senator. I have more education than you do." I loved that, because at the time I thought it was simply a Black man being assertive and "standing his ground," as it were. But only later did I begin to recognize that the senator had played right into West’s hands, and what I took for assertiveness was merely an introduction to the Cornel West show. But before I became aware of his "shtick," he immediately became my main man.
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But later on, after West started making intellectually reckless and questionable remarks, I began to research him, and it became increasingly clear that his reputation, and his entire persona, was all smoke and mirrors. Now, upon reflection and the insight derived from 20/20 hindsight, it’s become perfectly clear to me how West rose to prominence.
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Cornel West came up during the time when there was a raging debate going on over the racist claim that due to the "artificial boost" that Black professionals were getting from affirmative action, they weren’t as competent as their White counterparts. And during that same time there was a debate going on over the claim by some White scholars that Black people were innately intellectually inferior to White people and the rest of the population.
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As a result of those debates, and the fact that West had an association with White Ivy League universities, the Black community embraced him as the poster child for Black intellectual competence, but without taking the time to vet him like we should have. It was that mistake that has led to the flawed intellectual monster - and the total embarrassment to the Black community - that we have today. http://wattree.blogspot.com/2013/08/black-racists-and-their-thinly-veiled.html
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But Cornel West has allowed himself to become a little too bigheaded, and as a result, he's allowed his card to be peeped. And as I pointed out above, he's betrayed to any objective observer the fact that he's at best, the Liberace of faux intellectualism, and at worst, a Harvard anointed preacher searching for a flock. As Stanley Crouch pointed out, he's revealed himself to be a mile wide and an inch deep. So he'd be doing himself a tremendous service if at this point he'd simply shut up, but he doesn't even seem to have sense enough to do that. . . (MORE)
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So, Dr. Watkins, what you are is a Cornel West wannabe, and I hope you succeed, so you can join West and Tavis Smiley in the ash can of Black history - and when you get there, please give my regards to Steppin’ Fetchit.

Nobel Prize-winning Economist

 

Is Cornel West A Judas Goat - When Was The Last Time You Heard Him Attack A White Conservative?

http://wattree.blogspot.com/2014/10/is-cornel-west-judas-goat-when-was-last.html

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Forbes Magazine

 

It’s Official: President Obama Is The Best Economic President In Modern Times

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[AND THIS IS IN SPITE OF A RACIST AND OBSTRUCTIONIST CONGRESS!!!]

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/09/06/its-official-president-obama-is-the-best-economic-president-in-modern-times

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A List of President Obama's Accomplishments

http://pleasecutthecrap.com/obama-accomplishments/

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

Sphere: Related Content

The "Black Prophetic" Mouth of Cornel West is At It Again - And As Usual, Just In Time To Sabotage Democrats In The Upcoming Election

BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE
 

The "Black Prophetic" Mouth of Cornel West is At It Again - And As Usual, Just In Time To Sabotage Democrats In The Upcoming Election
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Cornel West seems to be mad at President Obama for a myriad of reasons, most of which are petty, envious, and self-serving. But even West’s most legitimately political, and debatable reason, is arrogant and uninformed. In this area, essentially, West seems to be angry with Obama because the President’s style is not his style, and that the President has given priority to stabilizing the nation and bringing relief to the American people over engaging in a national spitball contest with the GOP.
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But it’s hard to determine the true motivation behind West’s criticism, because it’s next to impossible to determine where West actually stands on the political spectrum. He mentioned on national television, and in a print interview, that he has "libertarian sensibilities." Admittedly, that can be taken many ways, but libertarian is also politi-speak for a very specific conservative point of view, and I’m sure that West is precise enough in his language to recognize that fact.
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At any rate, West joined Ralph Nader to play an invaluable role in getting George Bush elected in the 2000 election - Bush won the election by winning Florida by a mere 537 votes, while the Nader/West coalition stripped away 97,488 votes - and then, Nader and West tried to do the same thing against Obama in the 2012 election, but that time the people didn’t buy it. So is Cornel West’s criticism of President Obama actually due to the President giving priority to national stabilization over engaging in a petty spitball fight with the GOP, or is West simply engaged in the role of Judas-goat for the GOP prior to the upcoming election? It’s hard to determine with any degree of certainty. You be the judge. This is my take on an excerpt from West’s latest book, "Black Prophetic Fire."

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Salon.com has just released Cornel West’s latest rant in the form of an excerpt from his latest book, "Black Prophetic Fire." The book would have been more appropriately titled "The Book That I’m Releasing Just Before the Election, Because I’m Mad at Obama, the Democrats, Every Black Person Who Accepted A Job With A Major Network Without Me, And All Those Who Think I’ve Lost My Damn Mind - Or, Why I’m Helping The Republican Party, Again," because that’s exactly how the excerpt reads.
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West, literally, sounds like a man who’s lost touch with reality, and only the most wild-eyed sycophant would even take him seriously. Not one word in the 1600 word excerpt is substantiated; and typical of Cornel West, it doesn’t contain one constructive suggestion on how the President can improve his current policies. It’s a typical convoluted Cornel West rant. By the time you get to the end of a sentence, you’ve forgotten what the subject was. And of course, it’s filled with allusions to "the Black prophetic tradition" - What is that, anyway?  
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The first thing that jumped out at me, other than the pure cluelessness of his rant, is West’s poor scholarship. For a man who’s alleged to be a renowned, and world-class scholar, one would think that he would have, at the very least, taken a breath long enough to check his facts. He says, for example, "The bailout of Wall Street by the Obama administration, rather than the bailout of homeowners, hurt millions of working people."

Wall Street

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It would have only taken about two minutes of Google research by the most inexperienced and pedestrian researcher to find that it was George W. Bush who bailed out Wall Street, not Barack Obama. Bush signed the $700 billion "Troubled Asset Relief Program" (TARP) only hours after it was passed by congress. Thereafter it was reported by Bloomberg that the Federal Reserve had committed $7.77 trillion to rescuing Wall Street - that was equal to one half of EVERYTHING produced in the United States that year .

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The fact is, President Obama not only WASN’T responsible for bailing out Wall Street, but he aggressively held Wall Street’s feet to the fire to make sure that the American taxpayer was reimbursed in a timely manner - and with interest. He's made Wall Street pay all of the bailout money back to the American taxpayer, with interest (Bailout Payment Tracker), reimburse customers, admit guilt (which leaves them open to private lawsuits), made them pay billions of dollars over and above what they stole, in fines and penalties, and beyond that, he’s making them cooperate in their OWN criminal prosecution! At this point Wall Street’s debt to the American people is all but paid in full, and aggressive legal action is continuing against many banks that engaged in activities that led to the Wall Street debacle.

 

JPMORGAN AGREED TO PAY $13 BILLION, AND IN A FIRST, ADMIT GUILT

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An example of just how aggressively President Obama has gone after Wall Street, let’s take a look at the action that’s been taken against just one Wall Street firm, JPMorgan. To sum up the pound of flesh that Obama is extracted from this one corporation (and one of his biggest supporters) for the abuses that it perpetrated against the American people, Obama has demanded the following:
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1). Of the $13 billion, $9 billion is fines or penalties and $4 billion will go to consumer relief for struggling homeowners.
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2). JPMorgan also agreed to provide cooperation in investigations against individuals within the company.
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3). JPMorgan settled SEC charges in June 2011 by agreeing to pay $153.6 million and reached another such agreement for $296.9 million last November.
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4). As part of the tentative agreement, JPMorgan dropped its demand for the Justice Department to take a "non-prosecution agreement" off the table, which means a criminal investigation of the bank's conduct being handled by federal prosecutors in Sacramento, Calif., continues.
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"Mounting legal costs from government proceedings pushed JPMorgan to a rare loss in the third quarter, the first under Dimon's leadership. The bank reported Oct. 11 that it set aside $9.2 billion in the July-September quarter to cover a string of litigation stemming from the financial crisis and its "London Whale" trading debacle. JPMorgan said it has placed a total of $23 billion in reserve to cover potential legal costs."
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And they’re not through paying yet, because in spite of this "settlement" the administration is STILL coming after them with MORE charges, including criminal. And again, in another first - the head of JPMorgan, James Dimon, was one of Obama's biggest supporters. So Obama has taken a "take no prisoners" approach - if you screwed the American people, you're going down, no matter who you are. That’s a new wrinkle in American politics (http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57608321/jpmorgan-chase-justice-department-reach-tentative-$13-billion-deal-over-mortgage-backed-securities/).
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The above facts seem to be completely lost on Cornel West. That’s a shocking level of ignorance for a person who professes to be a scholar and public intellectual. It also suggests that he paid little or no attention to the machinations of George W. Bush, yet, every time Barack Obama sneezes, West and/or his former cohort, Tavis Smiley, are running to hold a news conference, or going before the cameras to titillate the viewers of Fox news with the information. Why is that?
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It is also curious that while West spews on to anyone who will listen about his deep love and compassion for the poor, all of his ire seems to be directed at Barack Obama and the liberal establishment. If we base our assessment on his public pronouncements, he doesn’t seem to have any problem at all with the GOP, in spite of the fact that they’ve morphed into the domestic enemy of the United States, and has been engaged in the very worst kind of assault on the very people that he professes to love most - the poor, and minorities.
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Over the past six years the GOP has obstructed any and every effort by the Obama administration to assist the poor and middle class. They’ve obstructed legislation to create jobs, raise the minimum wage, extend unemployment insurance, provide affordable healthcare, and their even trying to obstruct the right of the poor and minorities to vote, yet, Cornel West, and his "Black prophetic voice" for the poor, has little or nothing to say about the Republican Party, AT ALL. In this current rant he mentions liberal, neoliberal, or Democrat over 15 times, and according to my count, mentions the Republicans only once, and then, in only the most benign fashion. There’s something about that, that just screams counterintuitive.

 Does Obama Care About the Poor and Middle Class? 

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West also seems to be clueless in his assertion that Obama gave priority to bailing out Wall Street over bailing out homeowners, which he claims hurt the poor. West is obviously so desperate to find chinks in Obama’s armor that he hasn’t heard of the "Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP)." Jackie Calmes of the New York Times reports:
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"Under HAMP, the federal government gives financial incentives to mortgage providers to modify the loans of eligible borrowers so the homeowners’ monthly payments do not exceed 31 percent of their monthly income. Beneficiaries have included homeowners with negative equity where property values plummeted and those who lost jobs . . .
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"According to the Treasury Department, about 1.3 million homeowners received direct assistance from the Making Home Affordable initiatives. Another 300,000 have received other relief, like forbearance in mortgage payments for homeowners who suddenly lost their jobs.
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"As of March 2013, Treasury said, more than 1.1 million homeowners had moved from trial modifications to permanent modifications of their mortgages, for median savings of $546 a month, an amount that exceeds the median relief resulting from private sector modifications."
This writer has benefitted from the program. One day my mortgage company called me out of the blue and informed me that I qualified to have the interest rate on my mortgage lowered from 6% to 2%.
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"Mr. Wattree, my name is Ashley. We’ve been looking over your loan and we’ve noticed that you’re eligible for a loan modification. It looks like we’ll be able to lower your interest rate from your current 6% to 2%. We’ll send you the paperwork tomorrow. Just fill them out and either fax or email them back to us."
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While it may have been Ashley who called, it was Barack Obama on the other end of the line, with unprecedented relief for over a million Americans. But curiously, I haven’t heard a word regarding any kind of assistance from the "Black prophetic voice" of Cornel West.

The Wells Fargo "Ghetto Loan" Scam

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But that wasn’t the only time that the "prophetic voice" of Cornel West fell Silent. He was also uncharacteristically silent when in January of 2013 I asked both he and his then, closest associate, Tavis Smiley, the following question:
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Mr. Smiley, do you intend to return the Millions of dollars to the people who lost their homes and life savings that you reportedly made from herding poor Black people and Hispanics into the Wells Fargo "Ghetto Loan" Scam? And Dr. West, in your learned opinion, what is the appropriate course of action for your friend and associate to take, in accordance with the "prophetic tradition," of course?
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A discrimination lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice, and several articles, including one seeded on Newsvine entitle, "Tavis Smiley - "Ghetto Loan" Peddler for Wells Fargo," closely associates PBS talk show host, Tavis Smiley, with the Wells Fargo Bank scam targeting poor and middle-class Black and Hispanic borrowers. The article quotes Kelvin Boston, host of "Moneywise, and Keith Corbett, of the Center for Responsible Lending, as calling Tavis Smiley "the big draw" of the Wells Fargo scam. Specifically, the article states the following:
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"Smiley was the keynote speaker, and the big draw, according to Boston [host of "Moneywise"] and Keith Corbett, executive vice president of the Center for Responsible Lending, who attended two of the seminars. Smiley would charge up the audience — and rattle the Wells Fargo executives in attendance — by launching into a story about how he hated banks, and how they used to refuse to lend him money for his real estate projects in Compton, Calif., and elsewhere... But what appeared on the surface as a way to help black borrowers build wealth was actually just the opposite, according to a little-noticed explanation of the "Wealth Building" seminar strategy, contained in a lawsuit recently filed by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan.
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"Wells' plan for the seminars all along was to target black borrowers for higher-cost subprime mortgages, not for wealth-building, the suit charged. And the seminars were a part of the bank's overall illegal and discriminatory practice of steering black and Hispanic borrowers into riskier and more expensive loans, the suit said."
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On July 12, 2012 Charlie Savage reported in the New York Times that Wells Fargo Bank agreed to pay $175 million to settle the discrimination suit which, according to the Department of Justice, targeted over 30,000 Black and Hispanic borrowers for subprime loans with a higher interest rate than for similarly situated White borrowers between 2004 and 2009.
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The settlement includes Wells Fargo paying the Black and Hispanic victims of discrimination $125 million in compensation, and an additional $50 million in down-payment assistance to borrowers in the affected communities.
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In a statement by Wells Fargo put out after the bank agreed to a settlement of $175 Million, they said that while not admitting to any wrong doing, Wells Fargo agreed to a settlement of the law suit because the bank felt that it was the right thing to do.
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So the question that remains is, if Wells Fargo Bank feels that paying compensating to the poor and middle-class victims of this scam is the right thing to do, shouldn’t Tavis Smiley, the most strident advocate of "accountability" and fervent crusader for the interest of the poor, feel obliged to do the same? Certainly, benefitting from the misery of the poor and minority community would run counter to Mr. Smiley's zeal for the need of the powerful to maintain accountability.
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We’d also like to put that question to Smiley’s friend and associate, Dr. Cornel West. What do you think your good friend and associate should do, Dr. West? What does the "prophetic tradition" dictate is the proper course of action? We’ll be anxiously awaiting your response.
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In response to that question West’s "Black prophetic voice" for the poor and downtrodden must have been drowned out by the sound of crickets.

The Black Prophetic Voice of Cornel West Was Also Silent in the Demonstrations Against Walmart

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During the "Black Friday" demonstrations against Walmart, the most hostile and abusive corporation in the country toward the working poor, in spite of the fact that Tavis Smiley and Cornel West claimed to be so concerned for the poor - BEFORE the election and when they had books to sell - that they rode all across the country on a bus, I called them out prior to the demonstrations against Walmart, and predicted that they weren’t going to show up - and one of the demonstrations was taking place right down the street from Tavis Smiley’s office. I knew they weren’t going to show up because the ALEC -connected Walmart (ALEC are the people who are trying to obstruct the poor and minority right to vote) has Tavis Smiley in their pocket. They helped to finance the Tavis Smiley show, which he has to pay for to stay on the air - Oh, you didn’t think Tavis Smiley has been on the air all these years because he’s such a great television personality, did you? Oh no. He has to BUY his television time, and  Walmart helps him to pay for that time, which gives him a high profile, that he turns around and uses to influence the Black community on Walmart’s behalf (http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-tavis-smiley-pbs-20131212-story.html#axzz2ndUlDFtL&page=1). 
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So here’s the challenge that I leveled at Tavis Smiley and Cornel West just days before the demonstrations against Walmart:
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TAVIS SMILEY, CORNEL WEST, HERE’S YOUR CHANCE TO REALLY STRIKE A BLOW AGAINST POVERTY. COME TAKE A STAND WITH THE PEOPLE AGAINST YOUR BUDDIES AT WALMART.  GET OUT FRONT AND TELL THOSE SUCKAS OFF.
PRETEND THEY’RE OBAMA!
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THIS BLACK FRIDAY - STAND WITH SO. CAL. WALMART EMPLOYEES!
November 29, 2013• 11:30 AM
CRENSHAW WALMART• 4101 Crenshaw Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90008
https://www.facebook.com/thelastword/posts/633485613366120
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But of course, they failed to show up - and there was no excuse for them to miss these demonstrations, because not only was the demonstration above taking place down the street from Tavis’ office, but they were also taking place all across the country. Now, ask yourself, when was the last time that Cornel West’s "Black prophetic voice of the poor" missed an opportunity to flap his lips in front television cameras? I bet you can’t think of one other instance, can you? So I guess there’s a limit to Smiley and West’s "love" for the poor.

Is Cornel West Partially Responsible for Your Current Economic Misery?

The Answer Is An Unequivocal Yes

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Cornel West is quoted as saying, "The state of Black America in the age of Obama has been one of desperation, confusion and capitulation," but let’s take a look at who’s more responsible for the Black community’s current state of economic misery, Barack Obama, or Cornel West.
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It cannot be denied that not only the Black community, but all of America, is suffering from this great recession, and yes, Barack Obama is President. But this situation needs to be placed in perspective. The reason that the nation is suffering has absolutely nothing to do with Barack Obama. We’re suffering due to the policies of the Bush administration, and the current obstructionism of the Republican congress, who sees it as being in their best interest to keep America hungry, miserable, and angry.
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But IN SPITE of Republican obstructionism, President Obama has added 4.54 million jobs. When he entered office, George W. Bush was LOSING 800,000 jobs PER MONTH. So while there are people still suffering under President Obama, we’re not suffering anywhere near the way we could be suffering if it weren't for him, because President Obama saved the world from going into a second Great Depression. Forbes Magazine ran the following article:

Forbes Magazine: "It’s Official: President Obama Is The Best Economic President In Modern Times"

 [AND THIS IS IN SPITE OF A RACIST AND OBSTRUCTIONIST CONGRESS!!!]

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/09/06/its-official-president-obama-is-the-best-economic-president-in-modern-times/

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Thus, all but the most rabid conservative partisans acknowledge that we slipped into the "Great Recession" as a direct result of the policies of the Bush administration, but how did Bush get into office in the first place? Those of us who are students of political history remember only too well.
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Cornel West Helps Put George W. Bush Over the Top 

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After Ralph Nader was rejected for the 2000 presidential nomination by the Democratic voters, instead of acknowledging his rejection and falling into line to help defeat the Republicans, Nader went into a petulant snit and ran as a third party candidate. It was clear that he purposely ran as a third party candidate with the mean-spirited intent of sabotaging the Democratic effort, because third parties never win; the only purpose that third parties ever serve is to help elect the people that you like least, because they divide the vote of like-minded people.

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Cornel West joined Nader in this foolish (or treacherous; you make the determination) campaign, and as a result, George W. Bush won the election over Al Gore by winning Florida by a mere 537 votes. The Nader/West coalition peeled off 97,488 votes from Gore in Florida alone. So when I say that Cornel West is more than a little responsible for George W. Bush becoming President of the United States, and thus, the current economic distress of the Black community, don’t take my word for it – you do the math.
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So when West claims that "The state of Black America in the age of Obama has been one of desperation, confusion and capitulation," I say, West has a lot of nerve. The above statement by Cornel West is the exact equivalent of a man walking into a restaurant, crapping on the floor, and then calling the Health Department because the proprietor didn’t get it up fast enough. And with respect to his claim to love poor people, in light of his close association with Tavis "Ghetto Scam" Smiley, he’s like a guy on the street ranting about fascism, after just having lunch with Mussolini. Thus, Cornel West has absolutely no credibility, and anyone who even stops to listen to him has to be either completely out of touch with reality, or grossly uninformed - and that's not just an opinion.
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Think about it. First, Cornel helped Bush get elected, which led to Black misery - at least, additional Black misery - and then he scurried back into his ivory tower to command $30,000 a speech to discuss Black misery. Then, later, he rode all across the country on a bus professing to love poor minorities, while sitting next to a man (Tavis Smiley) who was involved in a scam that caused 30,000 poor minorities to lose their homes and life savings, and that the Justice Department says was the second largest housing discrimination case in the history of this country. Now, he’s telling us that Black misery is Obama's fault!!!?  A person would have to be a fool to believe that, but obviously, there's plenty of them out there.
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West also said that he didn’t vote in 2012. Is he serious!!!? Doesn’t he realize how many people died for our right to vote? Yet, he claims to love the poor but would rather not vote than to vote against the people who would rather shutdown the government than to provide jobs, affordable healthcare, extended unemployment insurance, and food stamps for the poor? And he claims to hate killing and war, yet, would rather not vote than to vote against the people who lied to go to war, and then killed over a million people in Iraq? Such a position strains the limits of credulity.
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Doesn’t he have the intelligence to realize that there is no such thing as not voting, and that failing to vote for one side is a vote for the other? There are two ways for the bad guys to win an election, by either getting more bad guys to vote, or getting more good guys not to vote. So that was a very irresponsible message to drop into our dire political environment.
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Thus, one of two things have to be at work here - either West knows exactly what he’s doing and is scamming the people, or he’s the dumbest so-called intellectual that the Black community has ever produced. But either way, he’s not a person that anyone with sense would want to listen to.

Regarding Cornel West and Drones

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When Tavis Smiley and Cornel West began to lose the confidence of the Black community, they tried to broaden their constituency by refocusing their criticism of President Obama from poverty to the war in Afghanistan. Time.com reported West as saying in 2012 that he didn’t vote. "I couldn’t vote for a war criminal," he said, calling Obama’s administration a "drone presidency."
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While I don't like killing machines either, I've had to take into account the fact that Obama is charged with the responsibility of seeing to it that Al Qaeda, or any other terrorist group, don’t manage to get their hands on Pakistan's nuclear arsenal. And let us not forget that they located Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan living comfortably, and casually, within the shadow of that arsenal. So while West would have us believe that Obama is in Afghanistan just killing people for the hell of it, or for the oil companies, that’s a myth. He’s trying to make sure that YOUR family is not blown up by angry religious fanatics who think that God will bless them if they blow up the United States.
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So while war, and killing, is an ugly business, it is very much a reality in the world we live in. So as I see it, if we have to lob missiles into an area filled with innocent people - since hiding behind human shields seems to be the terrorists' preferred mode of defense - the drone is a far better alternative than simply firing missiles and such blindly.
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Consider this. If you were an Afghan and lived next door to a terrorist, would want to have someone blindly firing missiles in your direction, possibly taking out your home and family, or maybe even the entire town just to get one man, or would you rather they sent in drones with television cameras where they can specifically target the person they’re after? One drone pilot said that they even wait for the target’s family to leave the house before they fire a missile to take out the target. So the fact is, if you have to go to war, drones often SAVE lives.
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So what is West jumping up and down about? This is one of the reasons that I often question the popular belief that West has such a powerful intellect. It’s one thing to have the ability to remember and regurgitate the words of dead White men, and yet another to be able to think for yourself and connect the dots. So on this issue, West is either grossly uninformed, has an inability to connect the dots, or he’s purposely trying to mislead the people  (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/30/us/drone-pilots-waiting-for-a-kill-shot-7000-miles-away.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&).

West: Obama Supporters Think That the President is Above Criticism

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West and his supporters often claim that Black people, and many other Obama supporters, think that the President is above criticism. But notice how West’s "criticism" isn’t a discussion on policy at all. What West is calling "criticism," is actually grade-school slander. So he’s right. Serious-minded people don’t like that. He sounds like a 10-year-old. It’s silly, undignified, and disrespectful of the President of the United States, and through extension, the Black community, and, the American people.
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One would think that anyone with just a little bit of intelligence would recognize that fact - and I think West, indeed, does understand that fact very clearly, his level of intelligence notwithstanding. In response to comedian Steve Harvey callingWest and Tavis Smiley "Uncle Toms," West said, "When you are trying to talk about issues that affect the people, name calling gets in the way," said Cornel. "Name calling is nothing but another weapon of mass distraction." Hmmmm. Then why is name-calling such a prominent part of his campaign against President Obama - and everyone else who disagrees with him? Why is it only a distraction when it’s directed at him (http://www.eurweb.com/2011/08/steve-harvey-ain%e2%80%99t-sorry-about-what-he-said-except-the-uncle-tom-thing/#eIRaiVcexmt73zug.99)?
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Yet, West claims that there’s a "neoliberal" conspiracy to shutout the "Black prophetic Voice," and to subject those of the "Black prophetic tradition" to character assassination - I assume he’s referring to his own voice. If he is, I don’t see where he’s being shutout at all. In fact, it seems that every time I turn on the television I’m forced to watch him gesticulating and flappin’ his lips. And as for character assassination, his character didn’t have to be assassinated. When Obama failed to roll out the red carpet to the White House for him, he went into such a hissy fit that whatever character he might of had crawled out through his mouth and committed suicide.

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What West actually sees is Black outrage over his indulging in the crabs-in-a-barrel tradition that was inbred in us as slaves. Black people recognize that many of President Obama’s Black critics, including Cornel West, aren’t really interested in policy; they’re just using public policy as a pretext for attacking the President himself, and they’re so steeped in their Willie Lynch mentality that they either don’t realize, or don’t care that they’re doing a grave disservice not only to the African-American community, but to Black people all over the world.

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Because the fact is, many of Obama’s White conservative critics aren’t really interested in policy either. Like Obama’s Black critics, they have an ulterior motive as well, but their motive has nothing to do with crabs-in-a-barrel. Their primary motive is defending their claim of White superiority, and President Obama, in his soft-spoken, laid-back way, is dragging that claim through the mud. That’s why racists and conservatives hate him so.
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Conservatives recognize, as we all should - and especially Black people - that President Obama is not just another president. President Obama is the most high-profile symbol of Black competence in the world. In addition, what he has accomplished is the perfect equivalent of a conquered slave rising to become the emperor of Rome - and, one of its greatest. So Barack Obama is going to be remembered by posterity as one of the greatest men in ALL of human history, and his story will be inspiring Black children a thousand years from now. 
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Racists and conservatives recognize that fact, so naturally, they’re desperate to tear down Barack
Obama’s image, and build up the image of criminals like Ronald Wilson Reagan, and there is no excuse for Black idiots like Tavis Smiley, Cornel West, and Boyce Watkins not to recognize that fact. That’s what makes them so detestable. Instead of trying to help racists tear down this Black icon, they should be offering RESPECTFUL suggestions in an attempt to ensure that Barack Obama is remembered as one of the greatest presidents that this nation has ever had, even if they have to drag him up Mt. Rushmore kicking and screaming. But instead, they’re allowing themselves to be pointed to by racists who are claiming, "See, even Black people know he doesn’t live up to the standard of White presidents.
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Thus, people like West are giving their own egos, self-service, and their Willie Lynch-inspired need to tear-down a Black historic icon priority over Black history, and the role that history is going to play in helping to raise the self-concept of the Black culture. In short, they’re trying to sabotage the self-esteem of Black children who are yet unborn. The mere thought of that kind of ignorant selfishness is absolutely disgusting - and especially when clothed in faux scholarship.
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Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman: Obama among the most ‘successful presidents in American history’

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Initially an Obama critic, Nobel laureate Paul Krugman now says,
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"For much of the country, consequential presidencies are defined by a handful of landmark events. Years from now, when someone utters the name "Barack Obama," the thumb-nail sketch may very well be a president who rescued the nation from the Great Recession, overhauled a broken health care system and brought coverage to tens of millions of people, brought some accountability to Wall Street, and started the country on a path towards climate sanity, among other accomplishments.
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It may seem odd to think about Obama now as a historical giant, but Krugman probably won’t be the last to see him as among the most "successful presidents in American history"  (http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/krugman-obama-among-the-most-successful-presidents-american-history).
   

Respectful Criticism of Obama’s Policies

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There’s absolutely nothing wrong with criticizing the policies of ANY president, including Barack Obama. But Cornel West is not interested in debating policy; he wants to play the "Dozens" against the first Black President of the United States, and that’s highly inappropriate. But for the past six years, that’s exactly what he’s been doing. He’s been behaving in a manner that’s been very unscholarly, irresponsible, and immature.
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I’ve written articles criticizing some of President Obama’s policies myself. But when I do, I make absolutely sure that my criticisms are respectful, issue-specific, include suggestions on how the policies can be improved, and the reasoning behind my suggestions. I also send a copy to the President. In my article,"Could Obama Fall Victim to a Change We Can't Believe in?" (http://wattree.blogspot.com/2009/11/could-obama-fall-victim-to-change-we.html), I said the following:
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"The President needs to recognize that there is nothing he can do that's going to make him acceptable to the GOP - that is, unless he agrees to appoint a Republican vice president, then resign. By now it should be clear that even while he's asleep, the GOP is trying to hatch plans to destroy him. So by spending more time thinking about them than he is his base, he's playing right into their hands.
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"I mentioned power as one of the reasons that Cheney's trying to rush the president into Afghanistan. I wonder if the president has considered the fact that Cheney just might be trying to get him to make the same kind of mistake in Afghanistan that the Bush Administration made in Iraq in order to take the Iraq issue off the table for the 2012 election? If during the 2012 campaign America is bogged down in Afghanistan with the useless death of thousands of U.S. troops, all of a sudden, Bush, Cheney, and the GOP won't look all that bad. The President should think about that possibility, since the machinations of Dick Cheney makes Machiavelli look like a trainee.
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"On the other hand, if the president would have the CIA go after Osama Bin Laden (through the use of intelligence, instead of blindly shooting at rocks), then pull out of Afghanistan, and make an agreement with the government of Pakistan to help them protect their nuclear arsenal, he'll be looking pretty good in 2012, and he won't have the deaths of thousands of U.S. troops to have to justify."
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Now, I’m not making the claim that Obama followed my advice. That might have been his game plan from the beginning, but if he did, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised, because he constantly solicits input from the public, and he probably got the very same advice from thousands of people - because if there’s one thing I’ve learned through the internet, it’s that there’s no thought that’s unique to one individual. And President Obama is a very smart man, so I’m sure that he recognizes that he and his staff don’t corner the market on ideas about public policy. But obviously people like Tavis Smiley and Cornel West think that they’re so brilliant that they believe what they think should be given top priority. They’re clearly a couple of wannabes who are absolutely outraged that the nation doesn’t share their high opinion of themselves.

CORNEL WEST - THE LIBERACE OF FAUX INTELLECTUALISM

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Have you ever noticed that nearly every public pronouncement that spews from the mouth of Cornel West is literally dripping with racial innuendo? An example of that is his racist slander that MSNBC is the ‘Rent a Negro’ network - but of course, he wouldn't have said a word if they had rented him, because he's on there every chance he gets.
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Cornel West spews more racist rhetoric than any Republican in America. The reason for that is, he’s essentially an entertainer who specializes in shock and race-baiting as his one and only routine. Clear evidence of that is he's over the top in everything that defines him - he's over the top in his personal image, in his overly gesticulative presentation, and his rhetoric is invariably inflammatory. Everything about him is a contrivance that’s specifically designed to bring attention to himself. The actual issues are meaningless to him. They're nothing more than a platform to launch his performance. In short, Cornel West is the Liberace of faux intellectualism.

CORNEL WEST ROUTINELY USES A FALSE "LOVE OF BLACK PEOPLE" TO SLANDER BLACK PEOPLE WHO OVERSHADOW HIM

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West routinely uses policy differences as a pretext for making unsubstantiated and slanderous assertions about the character of the President and every other high-profile Black person who overshadows him:

1). President Obama is "a war criminal."
2). President Obama is "a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs . . ."
3). President Obama is "a black puppet of corporate plutocrats."
4). President Obama is "a Rockefeller Republican in Blackface."
5). President Obama "has a certain rootlessness, a deracination."
6). President Obama Is "Afraid Of Free Black Men."
7). President Obama is "a global George Zimmerman."
8). Dr. Harris-Perry is "a fake and a fraud"
9). Dr. Michael Eric Dyson "is a sellout."
10). Al Sharpton "is a sellout."
11). MSNBC is the "Rent a Negro Network."
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Yet, when comedian Steve Harvey called him an Uncle Tom, he said, "When you are trying to talk about issues that affect the people, name calling gets in the way. Name-calling is nothing but another weapon of mass distraction."
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In other words, the only time that name-calling is objectionable is when it's directed at Cornel West. Such unmitigated hypocrisy is mind boggling - but for once, he’s right. Not one of the above assertions is a disciplined, constructive, or scholarly assessment of the facts. On the contrary, they're the reckless and intellectually undisciplined rants of a bitter, self-serving, and severely discredited academic fraud.
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For Cornel West there’s something ‘racially defective’ about every Black person who has the audacity to preempt Cornel West from the limelight. West has a propensity to try to denigrate the character of people whose been in the trenches for years, while West himself has done absolutely nothing beyond running his mouth. In order to gain clear evidence of that fact one simply has to ask oneself, what efforts have West made to try to improve the plight of the Black community?
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1). Is he in the community teaching 3^rd grade to help ensure a better education for our children, or teaching at an Historically Black College or University to help "enlighten" young Black students?
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No. He’s never taught at a school that more than 1% of Black students can even afford to have lunch in throughout his entire career. He'd rather gather the perks and props of teaching the children of the economic elites - the children of the very people who he CLAMS is the enemy, whenever he MANAGES  to do a "drive-by" in the hood to sell a few books.
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2). Is he in the community teaching our young men to cherish, honor, and respect our Black women - the very womb of our culture?
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No. He’s out trying to sell books filled with inane and misleading information, doing $30,000 an hour speeches, and trying to become a hip hop star.
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3). Is he advising his good friend and business partner, Tavis Smiley, to be consistent with his sermons by being "accountable" to the community, and returning the money that he made on the Wells Fargo "Ghetto Scam" loans that he helped to herd over 30,000 poor minorities into?
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Nope, not a peep.

About the Rise And Fall of Cornel West

I used to be a big fan of Cornel West. I’ll never forget how during the Clarence Thomas confirmation Cornel West’s remarks to some old condescending senator who started talking down to him and he said something to the effect of, "Wait a minute, senator. I have more education than you do." I loved that, because at the time I thought it was simply a Black man being assertive, and "standing his ground," as it were. But only later did I begin to recognize that the senator had played right into West’s hands, and what I took for assertiveness was merely an introduction to the Cornel West show. But before I became aware of his "shtick," he immediately became my main man.
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But later on, after West started making reckless and questionable remarks, I began to research him, and it became increasingly clear that his reputation, and his entire persona, was all smoke and mirrors. Now, upon reflection and the insight derived from 20/20 hindsight, it’s become perfectly clear to me how West rose to prominence.
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Cornel West came up during the time when their was a raging debate going on over the racist claim that due to the "artificial boost" that Black professionals were getting from affirmative action, they weren’t as competent as their White counterparts. And during that same time there was a debate going on over the claim by some White scholars that Black people were innately intellectually inferior to White people and the rest of the population.
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As a result of those debates, and the fact that West had an association with White Ivy League universities, the Black community embraced him as the poster child for Black intellectual competence without taking the time to vet him like we should have. It was that mistake that has led to the flawed intellectual monster - and the total embarrassment to many in the Black community - that we have today.
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Again, Cornel West has been before the public eye for over 35 years. Yet, can ANYBODY tell me even ONE universally recognizable pronouncement, quotation, or profound assessment of reality that the public would recognize as associated with Cornel West? Not even one. He’s made several valiant efforts to come up with memorable quotations, but they’ve ALL fallen on their face, because they were ALWAYS trite, simplistic, and even simple-minded - "The Santa Clausification of Nelson Mandela!!!?" Come on! He must have stayed up all night trying to come up with that inane contrivance.
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The only reason we even listen to Cornel West is because the White establishment told us to. They hailed him as brilliant, but back when West was coming up, many White folks considered a Black man brilliant if he could read without moving his lips. A pseudo-intellectual is one who relates common knowledge as though he’s telling you something new. That’s Cornel West to a Tee. "Race Matters?" You’re kidding! It’s lucky West came along, because I never would have known that.
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Here’s what one of his former students had to say about him in a letter to the Daily Princetonian:
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May 12, 2003
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"I know you've gotten lots of response on this, but, as a student who's taken Prof. West's class, I thought I might chime in. Here is a letter I sent to the Daily Princetonian.
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"I took Prof. West's large lecture course, Philosophic, Religious, and Literary Dimensions of DuBois, Baldwin and Morrison, this semester hoping to experience first-hand the teaching of the man behind the hype. While I found the class entertaining, I did not find Prof. West to be particularly informative or critical in his approach whatsoever. Most lectures boiled down to animated though repetitive paeans to the authors, rather than a critical appraisal or contextualization of the material.
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"Despite students' obvious appreciation of Prof. West's charismatic personality and gesticulating style, his acclaim stems from the histrionics he provides "on stage" in lecture, rather than the depth of scholarship displayed therein. If Princeton was looking to garner the publicity born of employing a fascinating personality, the "steal" of Prof. West was truly a coup. If it was hoping to improve the quality of the teaching faculty, I believe Harvard [that got rid of him] was the real winner in the exchange."
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Jessica Manley '03
Princeton University
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I'd say, that just about says it all.

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A List of Obama Accomplishments

http://pleasecutthecrap.com/obama-accomplishments/

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

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