Something, something just ain't right

Maxine Waters

Maxine Waters and Charles Rangel have quite a bit in common these days. Both are members of the United States House of Representatives and have been for a long time. Rangel has been a member since 1971 and Waters since 1991. Both are Democrats and both are African American. Oh and one more thing, they are both under investigation for ethics violations.

Rangel who represents New York's 15th congressional district is under investigation for alleged improper fund raising and failing to report $600,000 in income, amongst other charges. Thirteen in total.

Charles Rangel

"The allegations include failure to report rental income from vacation property in the Dominican Republic and hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional income and assets on his financial disclosure statements.

Other charges focused on Rangel's use of congressional staff and stationery to raise money for a college center in New York named after him; accepting favors and benefits from the donors that may have influenced his congressional actions; use of a subsidized New York apartment as a campaign office instead of a residence; and misuse of the congressional free mail privilege." Yahoo News

Waters who represents California's 35th congressional district allegedly helped a friend of her husband get Federal bank bail-out money.

"Congressional sources confirmed late Friday that later this year Rep. Maxine Waters (D- Los Angeles) will face an ethics proceeding likely related to allegations that she sought to help a bank with ties to her husband receive federal bailout funds."- LA Times

First, I have no idea whether Waters or Rangel are guilty of these charges. Nor am I saying that they shouldn't be investigated. But it strikes me as odd that two African American members of the house are under investigation at the same time.

Now maybe at another time in our history these investigations wouldn't even be on my radar. But we all know that the Tea Party/ Republicans have been on a witch hunt since President Obama has been in the White House.

And it seems that all of the Tea Party/ Republican targets have been, you guessed it, African Americans. First there was Van Jones. Then ACORN. Then Desirée Rogers. Then Shirley Sherrod. And in all of those cases both the Obama administration and the Democrats ran like hell from the fight and threw them all to the wolves.

So in this political climate I'm wondering if the Tea Party/ Republicans have realized that if they attack African Americans that no one, not the Democrats nor the White House, will defend them. And if that is the case them maybe, just maybe, Waters and Rangel are just the African Americans who are next in-line.

As I said earlier, Waters and Rangel may indeed be guilty of these charges. But I think it's worth it to stop and think for a moment about the implications of two African American members of the house coming under investigation considering the current racial climate in American politics these days.

And it's also worth it to stop and wonder who is going to be the next Tea Party/ Republican target.

Or maybe I'm just being paranoid?

Another African American woman run over by the Obama bus

Shirley Sherrod

Well, President Barack "I love firing Black people" Obama has done it again. This time he fired Shirley Sherrod, formally the United States Department of Agriculture's Georgia director of Rural Development. Apparently the right wing crazies played half a video of Ms. Sherrod speaking before the NAACP in which she was telling a story of racial tolerance and Obama, rushing to shine right wing shoes as always, fired Ms. Sherrod.

In the first part of said video Ms. Sherrod was telling of her initial reluctance to help a White farmer. This happened decades ago. Anyway, Ms. Sherrod in the unseen part of the video went on to recount how she not only helped the farmer but helped him save his farm. By the way, the farmer and his wife have come out in support of Ms. Sherrod.

The point of her story was that she realized that he was a poor farmer and that was what she should focus on, not that he was White.

But of course in Obama's zeal to fire another Black person he apparently only watched the video on Fox News. So he only saw the first half and fired Ms. Sherrod post-haste. And on top of that Obama is too much of a wimp to admit that he ordered the firing and the USDA Director is taking the fall.

Desirée Rogers

As you can tell I'm pretty angry with Obama but I'm not at all surprised. This isn't the first time Obama has tap danced for right wing crazies and fired a Black person. There was Van Jones, then Desirée Rogers and now Shirley Sherrod.

Van Jones

Maybe Michelle Obama should start packing. One day the right wingers are going to work Barack into such a tizzy that he's going to fire her.

Photo de Jour

According to news and blog reports President Obama is getting pretty angry about the situation in the gulf. I think he's angry because he's starting to see his Presidency spill into the Gulf of Mexico along with all that oil.


Photo source

I hate to say I told you so but...

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about my being absolutely sure that President Obama was not going to nominate an African American woman to the Supreme Court. And I was right. Yesterday Obama nominated former Harvard Law School dean and current Solicitor General of the United States Elena Kagan. Anyway, I'm not disappointed as I don't expect Obama to show any love to his most loyal constituents. And if another Supreme Court Justice steps down I'm pretty sure Obama would nominate a judge from the planet Mars before he'd nominate a Black woman. I'm just calling it as I see it.

Obama nominates an African American women to the Supreme Court (just wishful thinking)

Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens notified The President yesterday that he is stepping down from the Court this summer. So that means Obama will be nominating his second person to the high court. The Obama administration has already thrown a few names to the media and among the top three two are White women and one is a White man. So it looks like Obama won't be considering a Black women.

Honestly that is not a surprise to me. I really don't think African Americans can expect anything from Obama. He's shown us already that all he has for us are speeches about us being responsible. He apparently has made the political calculation that he can dismiss us during his first term as President and we will still show up in 2012 to help re-elect him.

Of course he thinks this because unfortunately it's probably true. Most African Americans don't expect much for their votes. The Democrats know this and use that knowledge to their advantage. They have a voting block that will support them year in and year out without asking for anything in return. So that's what they give us, nothing.

(Thanks for the help with the election, Kamala, just don't expect anything in return)

So when Obama announces his nominee for the Supreme Court I won't be expecting him to nominate San Francisco District Attorney and California Attorney General candidate Kamala Harris even though she was a strong supporter of candidate Obama during the election and is qualified. Also Obama has stated in the past that he would like to nominate someone with more real world experience other than being a judge, which Kamala has. Anyway, I won't be expecting Kamala Harris to be nominated because, you know, she's African American, but wouldn't it be wonderful if she was the nominee.

Health-Care Redux

If Obama and the Democrats can't pass the Health-Care Reform Bills this week then both the Party and the President are in serious, serious trouble. And so are all of the uninsured people in this country.

Desirée gets the axe

The media is reporting that White House Social Secretary Desirée Rogers resigned today. The media and republicans had been pushing for her dismissal after at least two uninvited people were able to gain access to a White House function a few months ago. Although it's primarily the job of the Secret Service to provide screening for entry to the White House Ms. Rogers was still blamed by many.

So apparently Obama didn't want it to appear that he threw another African American, Van Jones was the first, under the bus so he waited until the media cycle changed a few times and then asked for her resignation. Shame on Obama for letting the republican crazies and the media push him around and shame on him for so easily dismissing African Americans from his administration.

State of the Union

President Obama will give The State of the Union address tomorrow. I'm not really expecting anything he says to have much relevance to me and my life. I'm African American and The President does not address any issue directly related to African Americans. Well unless he gives a speech telling us Black folk to be responsible.

Oh and he cut funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

But he didn't make any promises to us while he was running for President (like he did for others). So how can we hold him accountable? Well as the Congressional Black Caucus found out, we can't.

So what has Obama done in his first year for everyone else? He didn't hesitate to give billions of dollars to the greedy incompetent bastards on Wall Street and in Detroit.

That's about it.

Oh by the way, wasn't it great theater when Obama pretended to be upset that Wall Street is giving billions in bonuses to its employees. You didn't fall for that faux outrage did you?

Anyway Obama hasn't really accomplished anything of real substance. Even though he is the leader of the Majority Party he still couldn't find a way to get Health-Care Reform passed. That's just pathetic. In fairness it wasn't all his fault. That idiot Nancy Pelosi is a total incompetent. But how can you have the majority and still not get your signature Bill passed?

Well I'll tell you how. Obama is a wimp politically.

The Tea-baggers walked all over him. The Republicans walked all over him. Pharmaceutical companies walked all over him. Even so-called Blue Dog Democrats walked all over him.

I guess Obama doesn't want to be the angry Black man.

So next November the Democrats will more than likely lose the Majority. When that happens The President will be even less effective than he is now. The Republicans will eat him alive.

So, there's nothing worthwhile The President can say on Wednesday. He's already a lame-duck President. Expect nothing to get done in the next three years much less in the next.

Sarah Palin might just make a comeback after all.

Senator Harry Reid says...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid apologized on Saturday for saying Barack Obama should seek -- and could win -- the White House because Obama was a "light skinned" African-American "with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one."

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President Obama has accepted Mr. Reid's apology. But did anyone think Obama wouldn't have? I mean Obama avoids anything that has to do with being Black in America. That is unless he's berating Black men for being deadbeat dads or telling Black people to take responsibility. Otherwise The President seems frightened to acknowledge Blackness or any problems associated with being Black.

Remember the Skip Gates debacle? Well The President could have started a National dialogue about the often bad and abusive relationship between police and African Americans. Instead he invited Gates and the cop for a beer. A truly WTF moment.

More recently The Congressional Black Caucus wanted The President to act on behalf of African Americans who had been disproportionately affected by the economic downturn. The President instead chose to embrace Ronald Reagan's Trickle Down Economics Theory.

"I will tell you that I think the most important thing I can do for the African-American community is the same thing I can do for the American community, period, and that is get the economy going again and get people hiring again..."

I'm sure if another group was suffering more during the recession than the general population The President wouldn't hesitate to speak on their behalf and take action to ease their plight. And I'm also sure that if Harry Reid made offensive remarks aimed at any other racial minority President Obama would have spoken out against Mr. Reid.