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:
[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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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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