Racist Tea Party Folks Attempt to get Violent with Pro-Immigrant Demonstrators.

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Last week we reported how the Tea Party folks were gonna be organizing Anti-Immigrant rallies in 50 cities around the country. The rhetoric being used was pretty inflammatory and it was noted that people should be aware of  attacks…

Quite naturally there were counterprotests, but what was interesting is to see how the Tea Baggers have been aggressive in confronting counterprotests… This video spells it out, although the Tea Party folks have tried to flip the script and say they were the ones assaulted. 

What needs to be noted is in most marches unless you are press you stay on your side of the street or in the area designated for your protest.  In almost every demonstration I’ve been to including the weekly ones that occur during our local farmer market each Saturday where Pro-Palestinian and Pro-Isreal folks hold simultaneous vigils and rallies.. They stay on opposite sides of the street and as instructed and later enforced by local police, one doesn’t roll off to the other side and start filming, holding up signs etc.. To do so is considered an antagonistic act.

When you view the video which was put out by the Tea Party people, you see what was clearly an act of provocation. This is just the beginning folks. Things are about to get ugly.

Update: someone sent me a copy of the anti-immigrant rally in Minneapolis.. Here these racist Tea Party folks get seriously punked.. pay close attention to the speaker at this ‘sparsely’ attended rally which was said to be ‘well attended’.. The speaker talks about the bigger problem of illegal immigrants..

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The progressive movement in America has lost a beautiful voice-Andrea Lewis

Losing Andrea is very shocking indeed, she was a cool sista, a valued colleague and a bright spirit. Sadly for us at KPFA, she is the second person we lost in the past couple of month… We lost longtime producer and  community activist icon Gina Hotto. many of us are still dealing with that loss… The fact that both women died of heart attacks at relatively young ages is even more disturbing..  They will be missed as each of us have to struggle with really understanding that no one is promised tomorrow and that we all have to pay close attention to our health…

-Davey D-

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Andrea Lewis, A Beautiful Voice

By Matthew Rothschild, November 16, 2009

The progressive movement in America has lost a beautiful voice.
Andrea Lewis, radio host at KPFA and a contributing writer for The Progressive magazine and Progressive Media Project, died this weekend of a massive heart attack. She was only 52.

She could write quickly and well on a whole range of subjects, but she was especially interested in combating racism, sexism, and homophobia. The last Progressive Media Project piece she wrote was about Billie Jean King receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

“King’s most memorable battles were not fought on the tennis court,” she wrote. “She lived as an out lesbian before it was remotely fashionable to do so. She fought for equal pay for women athletes, and by extension, women in general.” (For a compendium of her Progressive Media Project columns, click here.)

Andrea also applauded Billie Jean King for being “fluid and graceful.”

Those adjectives apply to Andrea, as well.

She was a natural at radio. Her voice was smooth, her manner conversational. And she knew how to listen. And she knew how to laugh. I always loved talking with her on the air. It was breezy and fun, even when the news was bleak.

I last saw Andrea this May when she helped co-host The Progressive’s 100th anniversary celebration in Madison, Wis.She did so with her usual aplomb (and for no money, I might add).

She and I would do tag-team introductions, and her impromptu intro for Dolores Huerta was especially moving.

During the conference, she also participated on a panel entitled “Defending Civil Rights for All.” She talked about the various oppressions she’d had to deal with her whole life: being black, being female, being a lesbian, being a woman of size, and becoming disabled. She stressed how important it was for all of us to call out bigotry of every stripe—and not to let it slide.

She reiterated that point in the last thing she wrote for The Progressive: her picks for “Favorite Books of 2009.” One book that she chose was Time Wise’s “Between Barack and a Hard Place: Racism and White Denial in the Age of Obama.”

“Wise’s analysis is centered on, but not limited to, black/white race relations in the United States,” she wrote. “Ultimately, however, his message is to whites, whom he challenges to speak out against racism wherever and whenever it occurs.”

She was proud of what she’d achieved in journalism, including being selected as a member of the Stanford University Knight Journalism Fellowship Class of 2008. And she was proud to have a quotation from her 2005 interview with Barbara Lee included in The Progressive’s 100th anniversary edition in April. The quote was: “Congress gave the President a blank check to wage an undefined war against an undefined enemy for an undefined period of time. We shouldn’t have given him that authority.” (To read that interview in its entirety, click here.)

Andrea Lewis was a woman with many talents. She sang in a S.F. choir, she knew music backwards and forwards, she read widely, she was a lifelong golfer, and she was an avid sports fan.

But beyond her accomplishments, she was just a lovely woman.

I will miss her passion for justice.

I will miss her fluid voice.

I will miss her belly laugh.

And I’ll miss the human touch of her notes.

In one of her last e-mails to me, knowing I’m a Shaquille O’Neal fan, she wrote a P.S. that said: “Shaq and LeBron. What do you think? Will this be Cleveland’s year?”

Now I won’t be able to kibitz with her about small things like that or large things like Obama anymore.

None of us will.

Not in person.

Not in print.

Not by e-mail.

Not on radio.

Such a loss.

-Matthew Rothschild-

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Army takes single mother’s 11 month old & force her off to Afghanistan

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AlexisHutchison-225

Alexis Hutchinson

This is further proof that America hates its children.  Why would women with children under 2 ever be separated from them in the first place?  There’s no good reason for that.  In fact, we should not even consider sending mothers with young children overseas to fight some damned imperialist war to enrich the corporate elite.  This ongoing destruction of families is an outrage, not to mention the ongoing genocidal wars against the civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Moreover, recent reports have exposed the huge number of rapes female soldiers have suffered often without recourse.  I can’t for the life of me see why a woman would ever want to join this reactionary, sexist military.  But then the propaganda machine and false recruitment promises play on the naivete of our sisters, no doubt.  In any case, we must demand an end to this practice of deploying parents with no regard for the welfare of their/our children. 

Sister Kiilu Nyasha

Army Sends Infant to Protective Services, Mom to Afghanistan
 By Dahr Jamail
Source: Inter Press Service
http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/23140

VENTURA, California, Nov 13 (IPS) – U.S. Army Specialist Alexis Hutchinson, a single mother, is being threatened with a military court-martial if she does not agree to deploy to Afghanistan, despite having been told she would be granted extra time to find someone to care for her 11-month-old son while she is overseas.

Hutchinson, of Oakland, California, is currently being confined at Hunter Army Airfield near Savannah, Georgia, after being arrested. Her son was placed into a county foster care system.

Hutchinson has been threatened with a court martial if she does not agree to deploy to Afghanistan on Sunday, Nov. 15. She has been attempting to find someone to take care of her child, Kamani, while she is deployed overseas, but to no avail.

According to the family care plan of the U.S. Army, Hutchinson was allowed to fly to California and leave her son with her mother, Angelique Hughes of Oakland.

However, after a week of caring for the child, Hughes realized she was unable to care for Kamani along with her other duties of caring for a daughter with special needs, her ailing mother, and an ailing sister.

In late October, Angelique Hughes told Hutchinson and her commander that she would be unable to care for Kamani after all. The Army then gave Hutchinson an extension of time to allow her to find someone else to care for Kamani. Meanwhile, Hughes brought Kamani back to Georgia to be with his mother.

However, only a few days before Hutchinson’s original deployment date, she was told by the Army she would not get the time extension after all, and would have to deploy, despite not having found anyone to care for her child.

Faced with this choice, Hutchinson chose not to show up for her plane to Afghanistan. The military arrested her and placed her child in the county foster care system.

Currently, Hutchinson is scheduled to fly to Afghanistan on Sunday for a special court martial, where she then faces up to one year in jail.

Hutchinson’s civilian lawyer, Rai Sue Sussman, told IPS, “The core issue is that they are asking her to make an inhumane choice. She did not have a complete family care plan, meaning she did not find someone to provide long-term care for her child. She’s required to have a complete family care plan, and was told she’d have an extension, but then they changed it on her.”

Asked why she believes the military revoked Hutchinson’s extension, Sussman responded, “I think they didn’t believe her that she was unable to find someone to care for her infant. They think she’s just trying to get out of her deployment. But she’s just trying to find someone she can trust to take care of her baby.”

Hutchinson’s mother has flown to Georgia to retrieve the baby, but is overwhelmed and does not feel able to provide long-term care for the child.

According to Sussman, the soldier needs more time to find someone to care for her infant, but does not as yet have friends or family able to do so.

Sussman says Hutchinson told her, “It is outrageous that they would deploy a single mother without a complete and current family care plan. I would like to find someone I trust who can take care of my son, but I cannot force my family to do this. They are dealing with their own health issues.”

Sussman told IPS that the Army’s JAG attorney, Captain Ed Whitford, “told me they thought her chain of command thought she was trying to get out of her deployment by using her child as an excuse.” ‘

Major Gallagher, of Hutchinson’s unit, also told Sussman that he did not believe it was a real family crisis, and that Hutchinson’s “mother should have been able to take care of the baby”.

In addition, according to Sussman, a First Sergeant Gephart “told me he thought she [Hutchinson] was pulling her family care plan stuff to get out of her deployment”.

“To me it sounds completely bogus,” Sussman told IPS, “I think what they are actually going to do is have her spend her year deployment in Afghanistan, then court martial her back here upon her return. This would do irreparable harm to her child. I think they are doing this to punish her, because they think she is lying.”

Sussman explained that she believes the best possible outcome is for the Army to either give Hutchinson the extension they had said she would receive so that she can find someone to care for her infant, or barring this, to simply discharge her so she can take care of her child.

Nevertheless, Hutchinson is simply asking for the time extension to complete her family care plan, and not to be discharged.

“I’m outraged by this,” Sussman told IPS, “I’ve never gone to the media with a military client, but this situation is just completely over the top.”

here’s some local coverage of this incident

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/east_bay&id=7118010

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The TRUE Cost of War…TRUE LIVES for TRUE LIES

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The TRUE Cost of War…TRUE LIVES for TRUE LIES

by Tina Bell Wright
 
ProfTinaWright-225In April 2007 I was asked to write a commentary for PLAYAHATA.COM..I had to choose a modern day villian or playahater…I chose the corporate interest fueling the Iraq war. Many understood this war was unnecessary, but few were paying the physical, emotional, and mental price…only the Iraqis and our youngest men and women that join the military to serve this country or access better opportunities really understood the cost. Today (Nov 5th 2009) Texas (Fort Hood Massacre) and anyone by their TV got a little glimpse.

It is ironic that veteran’s day is around the corner. The irony has never been lost on me that we say we honor and respect our troops but we allow them to make unlivable wages (where some families must depend on AFDC). They fight on battlefields beside private entities that are often compensated 5 times what our soldiers make (Blackwater). Corporations and capitalists defend a system where banks that rip off consumers can then rob the treasury for bailouts in order to keep their 600 to 1 percent salary rate when compared to an enlisted Marine who puts his/her life and mental health on the line daily. Our GIs can’t get decent health care (Walter Reed) but the Walton family (Walmart) can go anywhere in the world for the best health care their money can buy (Walmart being richer than 160+ countries) with the money they make from outsourcing American jobs to China and paying Chinese workers a couple dollars a day. The irony of it all…we accept this as inevitable. We believe what we are told to be true…we buy the true lies…

But the only inevitable thing is this system is unsustainable…and cracks in the dam (the numerous anecdotal stories that do not get reported of soldiers suffering from PTSD and crimes they commit) will give way to the dam breaking soon enough (today’s massacre).

I went back to the commentary I wrote over two years ago…that day I had a first hand encounter with one of the many anecdotal situations that play out everyday in the lives of our returning soldiers…The writing has been on the wall…and here it is:

my playahater choice is a little more personal because of one person that

crossed my path two weeks ago. I was on a Southwest flight to

Sacramento.Sitting beside me was a young brotha (24). He was a Marine and had

already done 3 tours of duty in Iraq. He was supposed to finishing his time in

June and was getting out, but he was not feeling too secure in that

since the military can now call back discharged soldiers to tour, despite the

fact that they have completed their contracts and done their time.

Slavery is alive and well in 2007.

Back to the plane and the young brotha. He was from a military family;

His father had served as well as his aunt and uncle. He had always wanted

to be a marine. He has two young children. His hope now is that the

military service legacy that defined his family will end with him. He does not

want his children to follow in his footsteps. Why? War is hell and he has

lived it. This brother was real jittery and obviously had seen more

than any human being should. When asked what his job was in the marines, he

answered: “you don’t wanna know what I do” (saying this repeatedly).

Then coming with:”I’m a killer.” He then wanted to share with me the

4000 pictures and 100s of videos he had taken in Iraq. He watched the

slideshow of bodies mangled, children decapitated and blood and guts lining the

streets without any reaction. He wanted to talk about it and said it

helped, so I just listened, trying not to get nauseous from the gore.

And for all that they must bear: being away from their families, killing

men, women and children, living with that nightmare and coming home to

subpar medical facilities and families that can’t afford to live without

food stamps, they get abandoned and random strangers sitting beside them on

a plane must serve as psychiatrist. This war is my Playahater, and the

ITT Corporation embodies what’s wrong with the poor fighting the war for

the rich’s interests. We all deserve better than this, but especially

brothers like this, and the Iraqis with which they now share the dance

of death.

Original Link: http://www.playahata.com/?p=2352

Many believe the TRUE LIES that corporate interests fuel through corporate media…even when our TRUE LIVES…reality…is all we need to know.

TRUE LIES by Taalam Acey
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unntwxaF_LQ

 

“We are capable of bearing a great burden, once we discover the burden is reality and arrive where reality is.”
“Take no one’s word for anything, including mine – but trust your experience” – James Baldwin, The Fire next Time

one final note…

i went to see “This is it” again…and i think MJ really did say it best:

“The time has come. This is It. People are always saying.. ‘Oh they, they’ll take care of it.’ ‘The government will do it. They’ll’ …THEY WHO? It starts with US ..it’s US. Or else it’ll never be done.”
– Michael Jackson

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Elizabeth Méndez Berry: The Obama Generation, Revisited

This is a nice article from a good friend of ours Elizabeth Méndez Berry who has brings to light the important question about ‘where are the throngs of youth organizers that helped shape and elect President Obama. It’s an important article considering the low voter turnout around the country for this past 09 election and what’s at stake and may be in store for 2010 contest.

The Obama Generation, Revisited

By Elizabeth Méndez Berry

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091123/mendez_berry

Watch a video about the Obama youthquake, one year later, here.

ObamayouthNot everyone at President Obama’s healthcare rally at the University of Maryland on September 17 was as “fired up and ready to go” as he was. There were frat boys clowning around, students excited to see a president–any president–young men in matching T-shirts who were there solely because of their sheet metal workers union and one antiabortion activist with remarkable lungs. But it’s safe to say that on that drizzly day, the Comcast Center was packed with 12,000 mostly young people who supported the president and his healthcare plan. As the marching band played “Copacabana” not once, not twice, but three times, student volunteers made sure the spectators–some of whom had lined up at 5:30 am–stayed within the cordoned areas. Young women in Healthcare ’09 T-shirts craned to catch a glimpse of Obama, and after he finally emerged there was a cacophony of “I love you, Barack!”

On November 4, 2008, Barack Obama won 66 percent of voters under 30, increasing the Democratic share of the youth vote by 12 percent over 2004. Young people were among Obama’s earliest and most important supporters; people under 30, for example, represented Obama’s margin of victory in Iowa, the crucial first caucus. Rallies like this one, with thousands of young people putting their hands in the air for healthcare reform, are the most obvious indication of continuing youth enthusiasm for the president. Plenty in the crowd had volunteered for his campaign, including Eric Stehmer, 28, a University of Maryland graduate who has been unemployed for a year and has only catastrophic health coverage; Mouhamad Diabate, 21, a U of M student who canvassed for Obama and has several thousand dollars in medical bills that he’s trying to ignore; and Chrisi West, 30, an enthusiastic Virginia “supervolunteer” whose parents lost their home when she was a child after her father got sick, and who seemed to know all the student volunteers from their work together on the campaign.

West had never touched politics before Obama, and now she’s addicted, continuing to volunteer thirty-five hours a week for Organizing for America, the DNC group that grew out of the Obama campaign. The extraordinary impact of Obama’s election on young people is not limited to supporting his legislative priorities. It’s harder to measure than the audience at a rally, but the campaign is the reason, for example, a former professional cellist is now a union organizer and a former firefighter is an environmentalist. It galvanized a generation of first-time volunteers, and a year later many of them are still working for change they can believe in–which doesn’t necessarily mean they’re working for Obama himself.

In interviews with thirty young people around the country who worked on the Obama field campaign, almost all said that they continued their activism well after the endorphins of winning wore off. Obama has been called a rock star, but this group’s experiences suggest that the campaign instilled a commitment to service, not a cult of personality. Though many former campaigners are still fans and several now work for the Obama administration, most are less interested in Washington politics than they are in community organizing. As former staffer Marcus Ryan, 25, says, “Once you turn on that community organizing perspective, it’s hard to turn off.”

According to experts and campaign veterans, the Obama for America field operation hooked its workers on organizing in a way never seen before. As former New Mexico staffer Elizabeth Kistin, 28, puts it, “The candidate gets people in the door, but it’s the campaign that keeps them coming back.” The Obama for America catchphrase was “Respect, Empower, Include,” and the campaign offered young volunteers responsibility galore.

Still, not every worker had the same transformative experience. By all accounts this was the most diverse presidential field campaign ever, but it was largely white, middle-class college graduates who had the time and means to move from swing state to swing state as volunteers. Many of them earned staff positions as a result. But despite its weaknesses, the campaign seems to have achieved the near impossible: making crunchy old community organizing sexy. The question is: what will these freshly minted young organizers do with their new skills?

After the election, about half of the thirty interviewees are in school or returned to their old jobs, but the lives of the other half completely changed. Four work for the administration, five started their own Washington nonprofit, two are full-time organizers, two are organizers in training and one joined Teach for America. Three who were at different stages of becoming lawyers now have other plans. The interviewees joined the campaign for many reasons: because they identified with Obama, because they were sick of complaining, because they were antiwar, because they wanted healthcare reform, because they felt guilty for not helping John Kerry, because they loved Michelle.

Though most of them uprooted themselves and dedicated at least a month to the campaign, some integrated their activism into their everyday lives. Lana Wilson, 26, of New York, held a series of “Obamaerobics” fundraisers and sold Barack Your Body T-shirts to raise money for the campaign. Anthony Williams, 22, of Cincinnati, hired a white limousine to take people to the polls during a voter registration gig. Sgt. Mike Buchholz, 23, started a Soldiers for Obama Facebook group while he was in training at Fort Gordon, Georgia.

Longtime political observers are in awe of what Obama accomplished. “I spent most of my adult life where you say, Young people don’t vote,” says Democratic strategist Paul Maslin. “Now we have to throw aside those assumptions. That’s a terrific thing. Obama took what we did with [Howard] Dean to new heights. People clicked in and clicked on. That activism can’t be switched off easily.”

Professor Peter Dreier of Occidental College, who trained workers during the campaign and teaches community organizing, says that the key change from previous presidential elections is the difference between marketing a product and activating a community. “This campaign was about building relationships among people that last beyond election day,” he says. Partly because of the never-ending primary battle, Obama for America had offices in rural areas that had previously been ignored by candidates. In New Mexico, for example, the Obama campaign had thirty-nine offices in advance of the general election, compared with Kerry’s sixteen in 2004. But beyond the many warm bodies, there was the strategy that empowered them.

While the Edwards and Clinton campaigns skipped young people in favor of reliable older voters, former youth director Hans Riemer poured resources into cultivating the youth of Iowa. His team developed the Barack Stars program, which targeted 17-year-olds who would be eligible to participate in the caucuses. “Our whole student program was run by volunteers,” says Riemer, who previously worked for Rock the Vote. “Barack represents a thousand different answers to what young people were looking for,” he says. “Who he is, his background, the issues he’s worked on, his vision, his style.” Riemer and other strategists developed a campaign climate that kept volunteers coming back. Field organizers around the country built comfy offices that became rec centers for young people.

To veteran activists used to running campaigns on a shoestring, Obama for America‘s volunteer-driven strategy wasn’t rocket science, but it was breaking news to the establishment. Volunteers on most large-scale campaigns can expect to phone-bank or door-knock and not much else. But on the Obama campaign, they could be promoted to several key roles: team leader, campus captain, data coordinator, phone-bank captain or house party captain. The local field organizer would meet with a prospective volunteer one-on-one; this initial conversation usually involved storytelling, during which the staffer explained what brought him to the campaign and then asked the volunteer for her story. From there, he would ask her to commit to something: hosting a house party or recruiting other volunteers, for example.

“What was so remarkable about the Obama field campaign is that it took a leap of faith in ordinary people,” says Zack Exley, the former organizing director for MoveOn.org and the Kerry campaign’s online communications director. “For thousands and thousands of young people, it was the first big responsibility they took on.” Nicole Derse, 31, the training director of Organizing for America, agrees. “Our success as a campaign depended on young people’s leadership,” she says. “At Penn State, we told our volunteers, ‘If you don’t organize your dorms, they’re not going to get organized. If you don’t get them registered to vote, they probably won’t vote.’ Young people aren’t expected to do that.”

While many staffers and volunteers speak of the excitement in the campaign offices, the work wasn’t always fun. Zerlina Maxwell, 28, who took a year off from law school at Rutgers to work as a field organizer in Virginia, experienced the highs and lows. The high was Karl, a dedicated 89-year-old volunteer who arrived early for every Saturday-morning canvass. The low happened when she knocked on a door on a quiet street in Yorktown. “This woman said, Nigger, get off of my porch and take your shit with you!” says Maxwell. “She threw the literature back at me and slammed the door.”

Maxwell wasn’t the only young worker to experience racial tensions while working on the campaign for the first black president. Speaking off the record, many African-American staffers and volunteers noted that the static wasn’t just with belligerent voters. Some mention a lack of respect on the part of young white field organizers for fellow organizers or local volunteers, some of whom had much more experience. In some states, white field organizers were sent into any and all communities, but black organizers worked only in African-American areas.

Others were frustrated by the weaknesses of the campaign’s mostly young, inexperienced staff. Obamaerobics instructor Lana Wilson volunteered in Toledo, Ohio, for six weeks before the election and wasn’t entirely sold. “They had limitless energy and enthusiasm,” she says. “But they had no office experience and no experience delegating tasks or making people feel appreciated. I thought, There’ll be an arrogant generation of people saying, ‘I worked on the Obama campaign.'”

Wilson needn’t worry too much about their egos. Though some campaign staffers now work for the administration or nonprofits, it turns out that in this economy a year as a field organizer isn’t the résumé boost some may have hoped for. Young organizers emerged from victory into a full-blown recession, with high unemployment, huge cuts in the nonprofit sector and a 21 percent decrease in internships nationwide. Much of the scaffolding for civic engagement and the entry-level positions that come with it had shrunk or disappeared.

Plenty of former staffers went back to previous gigs or enrolled in grad school, but some faced bleaker prospects. According to Demond Drummer, 26, a field organizer during the primaries in South Carolina, one of his most dedicated volunteers was a high school student who got to chair a meeting with Obama’s sister. That young man had a history of discipline problems in school, and he is now behind bars (Drummer’s not sure why); he will be out this month. “He’s a leader, but he had nothing else to do after the election,” says Drummer. In Kansas City, Missouri, where he lives, Exley sees former superstar field organizers working at coffee shops

Exley, whose New Organizing Institute offered fellowships to several former field organizers, including Drummer, believes that Obama campaign veterans represent an extraordinary talent pool for the progressive movement. “On the right, they always suck up talent after elections to keep them warm and employed with healthcare until the next campaign,” he says. “I think [progressive] groups didn’t understand that the experience of being an Obama field organizer was something special and enriching, because on other campaigns people didn’t really get much out of it. In most places, the Kerry field campaign didn’t give young staff or volunteers a disciplined, accountable experience. The Obama field campaign was in most places an incredible work experience for young people.”

Absent any systematic attempts to recruit them, hundreds of Obama campaign vets flocked to Washington in hopes of finding work in the administration or the many nonprofits headquartered there. Many remained unemployed as the administration’s hiring process dragged on: after working for months with no days off, they found themselves on an extended unpaid vacation in an expensive city, draining their savings accounts.

Some who survived the long wait were rewarded with administration jobs. Hallie Montoya Tansey, 29, known for her work as field director for the League of Young Voters, joined the Obama campaign early and was a deputy field director in Wisconsin for the general election. She’s now a confidential assistant to the chief of staff of the education secretary.

At The Nation‘s request, Montoya Tansey compiled a list of 101 young staffers and dedicated volunteers she’d met while on the Obama field campaign. Their current occupations offer some insight into where field campaign grads have gone since the election. Of the 101 she profiled, about 70 had never worked on a political campaign before. Since the campaign, sixty-three have found jobs within the administration and its many departments. A former drug and alcohol counselor works for the Office of Drug Control Policy; a former producer on MTV’s The Hills was hired as a data manager at the DNC. Another nine have taken jobs on new campaigns or with elected officials. Others are back in school, unemployed, working for nonprofits or waiting tables. (Montoya Tansey’s sample is consistent with reports from other former field organizers.)

Since the election, two of the thirty campaigners I spoke with have worked on Organizing for America’s campaign for healthcare, and another, Nicole Derse, has a role in running it. Marianne von Nordeck, 29, is a former concert cellist who’d never participated in politics before. She was mentored by Derse during the primaries in Massachusetts and New Hampshire–“Nicole totally changed my life,” says von Nordeck–and went on to work as the field director of a State Senate campaign in the general election. She now works as a healthcare organizer for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), a union with 1.6 million members nationwide. Von Nordeck went a year without asthma inhaler refills because she had no health insurance, so the issue resonated with her.

“I couldn’t go back to what I did before,” she says. “We didn’t all drop what we were doing and change our lives just because we liked Obama. We wanted to move the country forward.” Of the nineteen campaign coordinators AFSCME hired last spring to work on healthcare reform, fifteen are Obama campaign veterans.

Not all of the former field campaign workers have von Nordeck’s zest for policy change, but even if they’re not active community organizers, several hope to return to organizing as soon as they can get jobs in the field. Many interviewees emphasized that the campaign gave them a new sense of community.

That’s true for Mike Jones, 20, a sophomore at New York University. Jones was one of the young superstars of the primary season; he fundraised in order to volunteer for the campaign (“Working for free is very expensive,” he says) and was eventually hired as a field organizer. He worked in Nevada, Texas and his home state, North Carolina–all while he still had braces on his teeth. “If I had emerged from the campaign with only a reinforced political ideology I would have been missing the point,” says Jones. “Before, I didn’t think of community as an instrument for achieving.” Over the years, Jones’s sense of community has been shaky. Because of his parents’ financial difficulties, he spent high school in a Christian group home called Crossnore, which supported him financially during the campaign as well as in college.

Jones received an undergraduate research grant from NYU that he’s now using to invest in the community he left behind. He interviews young residents of group homes in California, New Jersey and North Carolina about how they construct their personal histories despite their transient lives. It’s a skill he developed on the campaign during those crucial one-on-one meetings with volunteers. “It was the experience of sharing a personal narrative with a complete stranger that laid the foundation for the organizing,” he says.

It’s clear that the Obama campaign has had a striking impact on the paths of young people who had never been involved in politics before. Until November 2007, Marcus Ryan was a firefighter with the Tatanka Hotshots in South Dakota. When he heard Obama’s speech during the New Hampshire primary, he says, “The hairs raised on the back of my neck. I realized something’s happening in America, and you either answer that call or you don’t.” The 25-year-old joined the Obama campaign as a volunteer in Texas. By the time of the general election, he was on staff as the regional field director in Miami. On November 4, after the election had been called for Obama, Ryan strategized with fellow campaign workers over rum and Cokes about how to use green jobs to fight poverty. Soon after, he and several other young Obama veterans came up with the DC Project, which aims to generate demand for green jobs [see “DC’s New Green Shoots,” page 17]. “It’s more exciting now, because the campaign was a promise of what was possible,” he says. “And now we’re trying to make sure that promise is granted.”

Caroline Gibbons, 22, had never voted before; she was eligible in 2004 but didn’t change her registration from Queens, where she grew up, to the Bronx, where she was studying at Fordham University. “I’m very liberal and outspoken, but I thought of elections as something for the wealthy and well connected,” she says. That changed her senior year. She’d been a fan of Obama’s since his 2004 DNC speech, and starting in the fall of 2007 she registered voters on street corners. After graduating, she forfeited her law school deposit and accepted a Teach for America position instead. “I thought I’d be a hypocrite if I took the ‘When in doubt, be a lawyer,’ route,” she says. In August 2008 Gibbons started as a second grade teacher in Coahoma County, a poor area in the Mississippi Delta. She changed her registration and drove people to the polls on November 4; the county went 73 percent for Obama. “My students think he’s the best president we’ve ever had,” she says. “Teaching is one way the momentum I felt from the campaign is actually carried out, day to day. These kids can keep it going.”

Some of the first-time volunteers are like Chrisi West: still behind Obama 100 percent–she phone-banks and campaigns for healthcare with Organizing for America at the same farmers’ markets she visited before the election, on top of her full-time job at a nonprofit. But others have been disappointed by the president on issues like civil liberties, the Iraq War, the presence of usual suspect lobbyists or because of the way the White House handled the Van Jones case. For Arizonan Jake Harvey, 20, who dedicated much of his freshman and sophomore years at Northern Arizona University to the field campaign, it’s gay rights.

Almost a year after the election, Harvey, who was diagnosed in April with leukemia, has mixed feelings about Obama’s presidency. “I still have a box of campaign gear and newspaper clippings from 2007 that I will one day share with my children, grandchildren and the students I teach,” he says. “But now that he’s been in office for nine months, I’ve become a little more cynical. As a gay person, I am holding him to the fire to deliver.”

Before the election, Harvey wasn’t in the legislative loop. He is now, and as soon as he’s recovered from chemo, he plans to get more involved in gay rights organizations focusing on issues like “don’t ask, don’t tell” and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Like everyone interviewed for this article, Harvey had his own reasons for devoting a year to Obama. But though the interviewees’ priorities are different, the skills they developed are similar, as is the sense that they can organize communities to win.

This is the “Yes We Can” generation. Working on the Obama field campaign has given them an unrestrained, sometimes naïve optimism, and if Obama indoctrinated them with anything, it’s a belief in the power of civic engagement. Some plan to use the tools they learned to hold the man they elected accountable. More want to advance their own issues on their own terms. But none of them want to be Associate No. 27 at a corporate law firm. They’re just hoping somebody notices and offers them a job.

Elizabeth Méndez Berry, an award-winning journalist, has written about culture and politics for publications including the Washington Post, the Village Voice and Vibe.

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The Fort Hood Massacre Should be Awake Up Call-There are ‘Crazy’ People All Around Us

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DaveyD-leather-225By now we all have heard and are in shock about the army psychiatrist Nidal Malik Hasan who went on a rampage and shot and killed 13 people while injuring up to 25 or 30. This mass killing is heart-wrenching, disturbing and left many of us with a whole lot of questions. Was it an act of terrorism? That is being suggested on some of the news stations? Was it a mental health situation? Was it Post Traumatic Stress (PST)? Combat fatigue? Hopelessness? All this has come up. But how deep and honest are people willing to look into any of these questions?

WinterSoldierGraphicIt was just a year and a half ago  (March 2008) on the 5th anniversary of the War in Iraq, 200 US military veterans and active duty soldiers came to the National Labor College in Silver Spring Maryland to give eye-witness accounts, riveting and disturbing testimony of what was going on in the trenches. Called Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan, it was inspired by a similar event called Winter Soldiers where Vietnam vets talked about what was really going on in the battlefield  back in 1971.

In both 1971 and in the three days of testimony in 2008, the mainstream media all but ignored what was going on. Seems like no one really wanted to discuss what these soldiers were talking about. Probably cause it would have called a lot of people to be accountable. Not just the politicians who voted for us to rush to war, but also the media which was complicit both in blindly going along and then not really reporting what was going on. If folks recall in 2008, we had what are called embedded reporters. They’re press people who are living alongside and riding with the soldiers. When they did their reports, their accounts were nothing like the accounts the Winter Soldiers gave. One has to wonder if these embedded reporters were really doing their job or just being a mouthpiece for the pentagon. Hence they attempted to downplay and ignore it. In 1971 there was an attempt to discredit the Winter Soldier testimonies, but time has shown that those soldiers were truthful and that there was political motivation at trying to shut them down..

Had you heard any of the 2008 testimonies and eye-witness accounts, the first thing that would have come to mind was that many folks who are on the battlefield and set to return to our communities are going to need some help to process all that they experienced. The Winter Soldier testimonies talked about the dehumanizing condition, things they did and witnessed. You have to be mentally disturbed if you weren’t moved or bothered by what was spoken.  The Winter Soldier Testimonies said to me, that as a country the mental well-being of these  returning young men and women had best be top priority.  It became clear to me that there is a huge separation of those who are on the battlefield and in combat and those who like to talk shit about going to war and barking orders.  You can check out Winter soldier stuff here: http://ivaw.org/wintersoldier.  You can also hear some of the reports here on Democracy Now http://www.democracynow.org/shows/2008/3/17, http://www.democracynow.org/shows/2008/3/18, http://www.democracynow.org/shows/2008/3/19

It was just two months ago that the Texas Observer ran a story called Under the Hood that talked about the growing ranks of soldiers stationed in Fort Hood who are resisting the war effort. Many are ready to bounce out but were forced to stay. many are seeking solace.  There was an accompanying mini documentary called Injured Hearts, Injured Minds that a friend of mine Mathew Gossage had shot. That story and report was ignored by many in the mainstream. We need to keep in mind that this is not the first shooting to take place at Fort Hood. NPR reported on its sordid past earlier today. I ran into Matt the last night and he remarked that there’s a strong possibility some of the people who he met when filming may have actually been counseled by Hasan. He explained that many were in support groups and that the gatherings they had were extremely important in helping them cope.

War is not a game. War is not a thing we should advocate for casually or advocate with all this bravado when we ourselves haven’t really been on the battlefield.  It’s brutal. It’s ugly and it should be something no one should have to experience. Unfortunately our collective humanity is put aside for politics. Back in 2008, our presidential candidates in particular Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama didn’t address the Winter Soldier Testimonies. If they showed any difference, they would’ve been crucified in the media and called ‘weak’ by ‘arm chair generals’ and fake ass-Studio Soldiers. Hence we heard Obama around the time of the Winter Soldier testimonies talk about how he would order military strikes on Al-Queda if we heard they hiding in another country risking the slaughter of innocent people which was one of the compelling dehumaizing aspects many tesitified about.

I bring all this up, because folks should have some sort of context of what may be going on inside the minds of these soldiers. I also bring this up because mental illness is not limited to army vets. It’s disturbing when they snap because they have military training and they are here to protect us… Who protects us from them? Who protects us when a doctor who is supposed to be there for the mental well-being of his fellow soldiers snaps?

masshootingsstockWhen I first got word of the Fort Hood massacre, my mind immediately went back to the onslaught of mass shootings that took place when over the past couple of years. Some of them were attributed to a downturning economy, others we suspect there was some sort of mental illness.  We saw a family of 6 get slain by an out of work distraught husband in Santa Clara. We saw 13 people get slain in upstate New York. We had the Virginia Tech shootings where 32 people were killed. We had a mass shooting at the University of Dekalb where 55 were killed and 18 wounded. We had the mall shooting in Omaha, Nebraska where 8 people were randomly killed.  We can also look at the recent discovery of 10 women raped in killed in Cleveland… The list is a long one. As I’m writing this we are getting word about a shooting rampage in an Orlando Florida office building. This is not even 24 hours after the Fort Hood incident.

What is troubling is that each of these incidents are often explained away in isolation. I see them all connected. As I’m writing this article, I’m hearing the news pundits attempting to spin this as Hasan being in conflict with religion. My fear is that his brutal act will not be seen as part of growing trend of mass shootings being a way in which some see as a way to resolve an issues. Instead, many will want to see him shooting up the army base as him being Muslim. Next we’ll have folks suggesting that if we screen for Muslims or get rid of them we’ll have no other mass shootings. That quick fix solution will come at the expense of us investing time, energy and resources into solving mental health issues.What will be overlooked are all the lesser reported events that point to PST and other mental illnesses. For example, are we asking ourselves, how many soldiers are committing acts of domestic violence? How many are on drugs? How many are alcoholics? Depressed? How many return from battlefield and wind up in jail?  Do we remember that there was big scandal of women being sexually assaulted? We remember the Tailhook scandal from Desert Storm back in ’91 right?  We’ve heard stories of rapes, even at Fort Hood there’s been allegations of rapes and cover ups . Are we looking at Hasan’s killing of 13 people with these other incidents in the backdrop? When folks are dehumanized we have to look at the mental well-being of both the victims and perpetrators

NidalMalikHasan

Nidal Malik Hasan is the suspect in the Fort Hood massacre. Do we see his involvement as isolated or is it part of a a larger and more disturbing trend of people snapping and committing atrocious acts like mass shootings?

How ironic is it that these shootings at Fort Hood took place one day before the Senate and Congress vote on the Healthcare bill? How ironic is this that we are seeing people even in the wake of this shooting saying we don’t need that industry to be reformed. No one wants to talk about that we have mentally disturbed folks not only in the army but living amongst us who will and are cracking as stressing situations increase-high unemployment, tanking economy and pressure to man up and be a tough guy and fight versus walk away and be peaceful.  Am I the only one who thinks that 20-25 high school students standing around watching while 5-10 boys rape a 15-year-old girl in Richmond, California for 2/1/2 hours is not a sign of mental instability? Am I the only one who sees the killings that routinely take place with increasing callousness in our respective communities as being a sign of mental instability? Hell, I’ll be honest, seeing the callousness of these greedy wall street bankers living high on the hog, giving out bonuses to the tune of 23 billion  and whooping it up in the face of one our worse economic crises in history is a sign of mental instability..

I think too many of us fall back on the stereotype of mentally disturbed person as being one who is slow speaking and drooling on himself, versus someone is extremely unhappy, angry  and callous toward the suffering of others.

There are no easy answers for yesterday’s tragedy. What we saw wasn’t isolated. It was indicative of a society that seems to be becoming more and more sick. It’s not limited to thugs and gangsters in the hood or conniving suit wearing types on Wall Street. It’s all of us who have in some shape or form no longer in touch with our humanity. It’s sick when we sit afar and tell people they are somehow weak for walking away from confrontation and demanding peace. It’s sick when we say such things when we say it in the hood. It’s sick when we have Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reily type pundits say it on TV. It’s sick when we have politicians like Dick Cheney or George Bush say it. It’s sick if our current President Barack Obama goes for war when people are calling for peace all in the name of political practicality.

The massacre at Fort Hood should serve as a wake up call. It should be a reminder that if we aren’t out there striving to uplift and bring equality and respect for all, the next victim of a mass shooting may be you or me. It’s a wake up call that says to me that we better be working to correct the wrongs that exist around us. They won’t correct themselves. They’ll explode in our face like they did yesterday. My condolences to the family of those slain and those injured and witness the carnage. What occurred yesterday reaffirms my belief that War is Not the Answer..

Something to Think About

Davey D

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The Big Story in Yesterday’s Election Wasn’t GOP Victories-It was Low Voter Turn Out?

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DaveyD-leather-225Everyone is talking about yesterday’s elections and how the gubernatorial victories in Virginia and New Jersey are key indicators that the Republican Party is back and on the attack.  I’m also hearing a lot of talk about the ‘impressive’ finish New York’s mayoral candidate Bill Thompson did up against the massive money (100 million dollars) spent by current Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Thompson came within 4% of winning after it was predicted that Bloomberg would ether him by as much 10-15%.

Because President Obama was backing Thompson and had his top aids along with himself stomping hard for NJ Governor Jon Corzine against Chris Christie, many are looking at those losses  as a sign that support for President Obama is weakening.

We’re hearing a lot of talk about how the economy was a key issue and not enough has been done, hence people voted to oust the Dems. We’re also hearing pundits talk about  how independent voters  need to be courted better because they appeared to have gone for the Republicans.

While all these things are factors we can ponder over and endlessly debate, what I’m not hearing are conversations around what I think is this election season’s most glaring story-Low Voter turnout. From here in Houston where they estimate a record low, 20% came out  to New York where less than 30 % turned out, and everywhere in between the story was the same. The question on my mind is where were all the young voters who came out in record numbers that put Obama into the White House? More importantly where was the outstanding community organizing that became the hallmark of the 08  election? Where was all the new technology and other slick tools of political engagement being put to use?

I ask these questions, not to simply find fault with President Obama and relentlessly criticize him, but what took place in 08 was touted to be a new beginning. It was touted as being something that would sustain itself and that the folks who came out in 08 were part of a new majority that would be a formidable force for years to come.  What made the 08 campaigns so exciting and fascinating was the independent nature of it. Many of the campaign organizers relished at how they had the freedom to really put their skill sets to the test and do some groundbreaking things to engage voters. This was important because what was noted over and over, was what was taking place was bigger than Obama. In fact President Obama said it himself, that the people organizing was bigger than him.. So where were those people? What happened that those stellar ground teams were not in place to hold it down in jersey, Virginia and in New York.  Was 08 really about a charismatic personality or was it about being part of the political process? Was it about uninspiring candidates who policies and politics were rejected by the people? To me that’s the big story?

billThompson-comptroller

NY mayoral candidate Bill Thompson

I can understand how people were excited around Bill Thompson coming so close in the NY mayor’s race, but obviously they weren’t that excited to come out and vote.  Forget about Michael Bloomberg and his millions for a minute. We already know that he wasn’t real popular at least this time around. He basically was out there buying votes.  There was a lot of anger out there toward Bloomberg because of the way he went about flipping the law to get term limits extended. That anger was coupled with widespread dissatisfaction with everything from an increase in police brutality ala Sean Bell to lack of affordable housing etc. People in NY were ready for change…So the question is was Bill Thompson that change? Was he inspiring to people?   Was it really a money thing or did people see or not see the relevancy in his campaign?

Former Vice Presidential green party candidate Rosa Clemente chimed in on a Facebook discussion last night and noted;

” less than 1.2 million people voted out of an electorate of over 5 million, the problem is no one voted, people are disgusted and disengaged at this point, the youth turnout was almost nonexistent, people see that voting does nothing and changes nothing at this point”

If young voters feel disengaged and we can discern this from the lack of turnout all over the country then we have some major problems coming down the pipe. We also have some important soul searching questions to answer.  On one hand, we may have to deal with a betrayal of sorts. During 08, there were many who were skeptical about elections being worth their while. There were many who timidly set aside their deep seeded doubts and allowed themselves to believe in ‘Hope and Change’.  Many young voters looked at the fiasco of the 2000 election and concluded that their votes didn’t count and all this was one big scam.  The 08 campaign help ease those doubts, but it was extremely important that people stay political engaged. One could not take these voters for granted. They could not be seen  just a ‘key demographic to be marketed to.. It was  important to remember that for many, promises that were made or implied would be taken seriously. Hence if they were no longer being engaged and they watched and saw promises no longer kept, many would feel betrayed and not bother to jump into the arena.

We know that was the case in places like Houston where more than a million people who were eligible to vote were un-registered.  When we went around prior to the 08 election, we saw that way too many people had been convinced that voting was not only a waste of time, but it could be misleading if one allowed themselves to get caught up in the hype.  We saw and heard similar sentiments expressed by young voters in places like Los Angeles.  It took a lot of hard work to get people on board and in the end the democrats benefitted.

With that in mind, everyone from Bill Thompson to Jon Corzine and anyone else running for office with left leaning politics had a responsibility to ask themselves how was their campaign engaging all those voters who help put their party in office?  In what ways were they continuing the process?  In a place like NY where almost half the voting population is within 18-40 age range the fact that so little came out is shameful.  Not just for Bill Thompson but for the Democratic Party that he belongs to..  This is important.  Thompson was not an independent guy who came out of no where nor is the Democratic Party without money and resources. He was a skilled politician who was comptroller for the one of the largest cities in the world. His election would be center stage. Where was the investment and does the lack of indicate what we should expect in the future? And yes, the same critique could be applied to Michael Bloomberg as well who actually had the nerve to stand on stage and give a victory speech with a sign behind him that said ‘Progress. What sort of progress did  his 100 million dollars do to inspire young and first and second time voters?

When you see this pattern repeat itself all over the country one has to ask, f this was intentional? Prior to 08, many of the young voters I encountered expressed that they felt like the people running these big parties didn’t really belive in them and weren’t all that welcoming. Obama changed that with his campaign, so people came out in droves, but did the rest of the party ever get the memo? Do many of these folks running for office see young voters as viable or do they have consultants in their ear saying don’t bother they are too risky and inconsistent?

jelanicobbred-225“There are many people who would be happy to not see young people and for that matter progressives further involved with electoral politics”, said  Jelani Cobb, former Obama delegate and current History department chairman for Spelman College.  He noted that in many local races where major party machinery can decide an election , there are many who don’t want to change the way they do business.

“You didn’t see a lot of courting of young people or progressive ” Cobb stated when contrasting 08 election to yesterday’s contest.  “In a day that had beautiful weather we had 24% voter turnout, this was far less than previous elections”.

He noted that in Atlanta less than 100 thousand people (24%) showed up to an election that got nationwide coverage because a white woman  was mounting a strong campaign to be mayor. It would be the first time in 4 decades that a white person became Mayor. What Cobb found even more interesting was the fact that even  though there were attempts to overstate the race an issue and there was a call to ‘save Black mayoralship’ of Atlanta,there was low turnout in districts that were heavily populated with African Americans.

Cobb concluded by noting the lack of money that was raised by the major candidates in yesterdays election. He pointed out that current Mayor Shirley Franklin had raised more money than all three in the last election.

YouthvoteWhen we went to one of the Houston mayoral debate that was billed as one where issues and concerns of the grassroots would be addressed.  Afterwards we spoke with a number of people including local activists, Tarsha Jackson and  Busi Peters-Maujhan who noted that there was a lot lacking both in the answers given at the debate as well as the how the candidates were campaigning. Jackson noted that she didn’t see a lot of activity in many of the precincts where she did work and at the time it concerned her. She felt like the mayoral candidates were giving lip service and people might not come out.  Her predictions proved to be correct.

Peters-Maujhan noted that these candidates were not engaging many of the people who had brushes with the law. Noting that Harris county which is the third largest in the country had an extremely high rate of people who have gone to jail, she stated that it was important that community not only be engaged, but also informed that they are eligible to vote if they were ‘off paper’ (no longer on probation or parole). She expressed one of the things we found during the 08 campaign that there was widespread belief that one could not vote if they behind in child support payments, had parking tickets or had been arrested.  Peters Maujhan wanted more politicians to be aggressive in courting those voters.

firsttimevotersWith all this in mind,  one has to ask what should community activists, organizers, elders and concerned people do to keep folks in their respective communities politically engaged especially if it appears that important sections of the population are being overlooked?  Do we run for office? Do we  have plans of action to keep folks excited and involved in electoral politics?   What has become apparent its going to take more than a few ‘Get Out To Vote” slogans uttered on the radio, MTV or BET  around election time. I am starting to hear more and more conversations of setting up leadership training classes that explain the ins and outs of civic engagement. I am  also hearing more and more people talk about trying to push to have civic classes in schools.

I think such ideas are great, I would personally like to see popular media outlets offer more discussions about politics all year round. I was disappointed to see that as soon as Obama took office urban outlets all over rthe country stopped having daily conversations about elections. many went back to meaningless chatter and gossip.

Maybe things will change in 2010, where the stakes will be even higher. All the congressional seats will be up for grabs. Many of the senatorial seats will also be up. Whoever wins in 210 will have some serious say so on how redistricting will work. That will have apolitical impact for the next 10 years. Until then all of us who have a concern about yesterdays’ election results need to ask ourselves that hard honest question. Where were the voters who stood to benefit by not having them come out?

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Jeff Johnson: The Future of Black Politics

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The Future of Black Politics

By Jeff Johnson
Host, BET News

jeff-johnson-brickwallThere have been two very different, yet related Mayoral races coming to a close tonight. Both have serious implication about the future of local Black politics in the United States.

Atlanta has been presented with the reality of having a non-Black Mayor for the first time in decades due to shifting demographics and the multitude of black political interests. In New York City many are questioning if Black leaders that have received donations and appointments from sitting Mayor Bloomberg have blocked Bill Thompson, a legitimate Black candidate, from gaining substantial African-American support and thus having a chance to win.

What is the real future of what used to be a monolithic and powerful Black-voting bloc in the face of new local demographics and ideological realities?

Cities like Atlanta, New Orleans, Washington D.C. and even Baltimore that have maintained overwhelmingly Black city leadership are being forced to rethink political methodology that has governed how things are done for decades.

The gentrification of urban cities has shifted primarily black populations from inner cities that are increasingly unaffordable to surrounding suburbs with more reasonable residential prices and taxes. These urban centers with shifting tax bases and more racially diverse populations will begin looking for political representation that is reflective of “their” (whatever demographics “they” may be) ideological beliefs.

While not rocket science, this reality has seemed to escape many Black leaders. It is making it more and more difficult for “old school” black leadership that is unwilling to embrace a broader political agenda vs. holding on to “race politics” that predicate their entire agenda on civil rights issues alone to survive.

In Atlanta I have heard more about the color of the candidates than what they have the capacity to DO. The universe of Black Political leadership is as diverse as the African-American community itself. For those that are concerned with maintaining some level of African-American political power in any city, it will take more than simply being Black. I for one am excited about it. How about elected officials (regardless of color) with the capacity to provide transformative representation for those who actually elected them.

While Atlanta is dealing with shifting political power, New York City is dealing with access to power as they question the integrity associated with Black leadership that receives resources, dollars, and appointments in exchange for their vote and support.

To put it in perspective, Calvin Butts, a well known and respected Black faith leader has been chastised for promising support to City Comptroller and Mayoral candidate Bill Thompson and in the late hours of the campaign, shifting his support to Mayor Bloomberg in the shadow of reports that his church’s community development corporation received considerable financial support from both Bloomberg’s foundation as well as from the Mayor personally.

This has cast a pejorative light on all the Black faith leaders, currently supporting the Mayor, who lead large Black congregations who would have typically supported the Black candidate. Many of these Black leader’s community development corporations have received large city contracts and some of the leaders have been appointed to city commissions. While it is easy to question Butts’ last minute shift, many of the other Black leaders have been working in cooperation with the Mayor since his last election. I thought that local leaders were always fighting to have city leadership provide access to resources and leadership opportunities often reserved for those outside the Black community. It seems a bit hypocritical to fight for that level of access, receive it, only to then say…”oh…now a black guy is running…so thanks, but no thanks”.

Thompson’s chances were less hijacked by Bloomberg’s support of Black leadership, than by the fact that he spent more money to run for a third term than any Mayoral candidate ever. It is important to support the development and advancement of candidates of color. I do hope my comments do not negate that point. However, as the realities of the shifting demographics of local communities change the face and agenda of the electorate, what once was effective black political strategy and mobilization will forever be changed.

original source:http://larrykinglive.blogs.cnn.com/2009/11/03/lkl-web-exclusive-the-future-of-black-politics/

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10 Races to Watch Across the Nation-What does it mean?

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 What does Today’s Election Ultimately Mean? 

by Davey D

ObamaNAACP-400

Will the outcome of today's election reflect what's in store for President Obama and his policies?

Today’s election is shaping up to be a referendum on President Obama and his theme of Change which propelled him into the White House. Many of the races, in particular the NJ governor’s race, The NY congressional race in NY’s 23rd district & the Virginia Governor’s race may be political bell weathers.

In NY’s 23rd district, it’s the battle of the Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh tea party crowd versus more traditional, moderate republicans. As of now the Republican candidate was bounced out of the race, by the crazies. Sarah Palin came through and endorsed a more conservative candidate, Douglas Hoffman who isn’t even in the GOP. The Republican who dropped out Dede Scozzafava went and endorsed the Democratic challenger Bill Owens. If Hoffman wins, the Tea party folks will see this as sea change of sorts and become even more emboldened. In other words look for them to wratch it up.

In Virgina and NJ, record number of people came out, in particular young people and folks of color. People are predicting low voter turn out and both states and Obama’s young enthusiastic crowd is nowhere to be seen. Thats speaking volumes. In Virginia the Democratic candidate, Creigh Deeds refused to work with the Obama administration for his election. He is now getting smashed and may set the state that the Dems worked so hard to win backwards.  It’s a bad look..

In NJ, the race is highly contentious between  Republican challenger Chris Christie and current Governor  Jon Corzine.  Christie has been running a campaign that speaks to the discontent of an ineffective Obama backed Goldman Sach’s candidate. He’s tapped into the tea party crowd. Corzine who was endorsed by Obama has run a campaign that is anything but Obama like. he’s been doing all the negative ads etc… He’s not staying above the fray. One may be disappointed in the approach but it’s moved him from behind in the polls to a dead even heat.   Again the big question maybe why didn’t Corzine or the Obama machine tap into those millions of young voters who came out to put him in office. How is this administration keeping all those new voters politically engaged?  

Stay tuned folks cause after today 2010 will be a doozie.

-Davey D

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  Races to Watch Across the Nation

By Kate Phillips

It may be an off-year, election-wise, but a few key races have certainly caught the buzz of Republicans and Democrats alike. Whether they augur for a lesser staying power of President Obama’s influence and electoral pull heading into the 2010 midterm elections, or offer Republican conservatives a map for consolidating their base against a more moderate wing of the party, all remain to be seen.

The Times’s Adam Nagourney provides an overview of the top races, counseling caution against taking stock in overly broad interpretations of results in these contests as harbingers for the midterm elections.

And several of our national correspondents offer their takes below on mayoral races in the nation’s larger cities, and on a few referenda from Maine to Washington State.

Gubernatorial Contests

VIRGINIA: Robert McDonnell, the Republican candidate, has pulled ahead of Creigh Deeds, the Democrat, in recent weeks, in a race that’s been closely watched. President Obama carried the state last year, in an effort that demonstrated the purplish swing regions, especially in northern Virginia. But voters have been focused on much more local issues, especially transportation and roads in areas where gridlock and tolls prevail. Both made high-profile appeals for the women’s vote. Polls close at 7 p.m.

NEW JERSEY: Gov. Jon Corzine’s bid for reelection has been bumpy and his race against Chris Christie, the Republican, has been close for weeks. A third-party candidate, Christopher Daggett, had also had some influence in earlier polls. The Times’s David Halbfinger notes that this statewide race may come down again to the suburbs, as many Jersey elections usually do. In perhaps a sign of what’s at stake for the White House and national Democrats, President Obama campaigned for Mr. Corzine just last Sunday. Polls close at 8 p.m.

Congressional Races

New York’s 23rd District: The twists and turns in this race to replace John McHugh, the Republican selected to become secretary of the Army, have conservatives salivating for a victory that they hope will keep energizing the G.O.P. base into the 2010 cycle.

Their opposition to Dede Scozzafava, the moderate Republican who dropped out over the weekend and threw her support to Democrat Bill Owens, has been clamorous, with high-profile Republicans like former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and others backing Douglas Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate.

On Monday, Vice President Joseph R. Biden stumped for Mr. Owens, highlighting the extraordinary pitch of this race. Jeremy Peters offers up the final glimpses in a district brimming with ideological influences.

California’s 22nd District: The special election to replace former Representative Ellen Tauscher, who became an undersecretary in the State Department, seems destined to remain Democratic. Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, the Democratic candidate, is considered the frontrunner against David Harmer, the Republican.

Same-Sex Issues

MAINE: Voters will decide whether to repeal a law allowing same-sex marriage, passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. John Baldacci in May. With the two sides in an apparent dead heat, both have intensified get-out-the-vote efforts in recent days, bombarding voters with phone calls, e-mails and ads.

Still, state officials are predicting that only about 35 percent of voters will turn out because there are no elections, only referenda, on the ballot.

The campaign has been closely watched around the nation: gay-rights advocates, still reeling from last year’s passage of a ballot measure banning gay marriage in California, say that losing in Maine would further a perception that only judges and politicians embrace it. Iowa, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire all permit same-sex marriage, through either legislation or court decisions. But voters in about 30 states have rejected same-sex marriage in constitutional amendments placed on the their ballots.

Opponents of gay marriage have taken a page from the California playbook, warning that if same-sex marriage survives in Maine, it will be taught in public schools. Supporters, who have raised more money, have stressed that all people, including gay men and lesbians, should be treated equally under the law. Here’s the latest on the battle. –Abby Goodnough

WASHINGTON: Voters here will decide today whether to expand legal protections for couples registered as domestic partners under a state ballot measure nicknamed “everything but marriage.”

The measure, Referendum 71, asks voters to approve or reject a bill passed by the Democratically controlled Legislature in April and signed by Gov. Christine Gregoire, a Democrat, in May.

Under Washington State law, a law passed by the Legislature can be put to a state referendum if enough petition signatures are gathered. A group called Protect Marriage Washington gathered just more than the necessary 120,000 valid signatures to force the referendum.

Although the campaign has not received as much attention as the fight in Maine over gay marriage, Protect Marriage Washington has tried to generate opposition to Referendum 71 by casting it as a last stand against same-sex marriage.

The election in Washington is largely vote-by-mail, with ballots required to be postmarked by Tuesday. Results may not be clear until later in the week. — William Yardley

Mayoral Races

ATLANTA: In the mayor’s race, poll watchers are focused on the chance that the frontrunner, Mary Norwood, may win without a runoff, making her the first white mayor of Atlanta since 1974, when Maynard Jackson became the first in a long line of black mayors.

Ms. Norwood, who has served as an at-large member of city council for eight years, is squaring off against Lisa Borders, a black business executive who has served as council president, another citywide position, for seven years, and Kasim Reed, a black lawyer who served in the state Legislature for 11 years before stepping down to run for mayor. Mr. Reed has raised $1.6 million, Ms. Norwood $1.5 million and Ms. Borders $1.3 million.

But the race has heated up in the last few days as the state Democratic Party and Mr. Reed have attacked Ms. Norwood for being a Republican, putting her on the defensive. Ms. Norwood, who lives in the largely white, conservative community of Buckhead and has voted more often in Republican than Democratic primaries, has risked alienating her base with a new ad in which she ticks off a list of Democratic presidential candidates that she voted for. “I believe in President Obama’s call for change and accountability,” she says in the ad. Georgians do not register by party.

The ad may dampen voter enthusiasm for Ms. Norwood, who had successfully tapped into anger at the current administration over crime, poor financial accounting and a recent tax increase, leading some analysts to predict that she would have the edge in a race expected to have very low turnout.

“The voter intensity on the white side was  pre=”was “>much stronger” than among blacks before the new ad came out, said Matt Towery, who has been polling the race. “It doesn’t mean that she’s not going to still capture the lion’s share of the white vote,” he said, “but 1,500 to 2,000 diehard Republicans who get offended and don’t show up it could put you in a runoff.”

Ms. Borders, the favored candidate of the downtown business establishment because she was seen as a “bridge” candidate who could pull white voters away from Ms. Norwood, has gotten significant support from Republicans herself. She was once in second place but has lost considerable ground in the last two weeks to Mr. Reed, who has been tailoring his message to black voters, announcing endorsements such as that of Mr. Jackson’s daughter, Brooke Jackson-Edmond. Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark, and Willie Brown, the former mayor of San Francisco, have campaigned for Mr. Reed.

For her part, Ms. Borders has focused on female voters – her advisers say the largest group of undecided voters are black women – by running her ads on cable channels like Hallmark and Lifetime. — Shaila Dewan

BOSTON: Mayor Thomas Menino is seeking an unprecedented fifth term for office, in a wild race with a popular candidate, Michael H. Flaherty, a councilor at large. The Boston Globe indicates today that voter turnout and the outcome may largely depend on who has the biggest boots on the ground.

annise-parker

Houston may make history and elect its first openly gay mayor Anisse Parker. Does her run for office reflect the change that Obama campaigned on?

HOUSTON: Voters go to the polls to decide a mayor’s race between a former gay activist, a prominent black lawyer and a wealthy city councilman who has pumped more than $2.4 million of his family fortune into the race.

A fourth candidate, a Hispanic Republican with a conservative message, is trailing so badly in the polls, he is considered a longshot, at best. Most voters have found the race incredibly tedious, since the current mayor, Bill White, is popular and there is little anger at City Hall. Plus, the three major Democratic candidates are so close to one another on the issues they have almost nothing to argue about.

Mayor White cannot stand for re-election because of term limits; he is running for the United States Senate.

Despite its ho-hum rhetoric, the contest might give the nation’s fourth-largest city the chance to make history. Houston would become the largest city in the country to elect an openly gay candidate to the mayor’s office if it gives the nod to the City Controller, Annise Parker. Ms. Parker has been elected citywide twice before and tends to play down her sexual orientation on the campaign trail, focusing instead on bread and butter issues. She is running second in most polls with about 20 percent of the vote.

The front runner has been Peter Brown, a city councilman and an architect who wants to establish a master plan in a city adverse to planning. Mr. Brown says he is the independent candidate in the race since he has financed his campaign largely with his own fortune and the money of his wife, a heiress to the Schlumberger oil services fortune. The only black candidate in the race is Gene Locke, a former student radical-turned-establishment lawyer who has the support of business leaders and many black politicians.

In the last week, the candidates have been lobbing some negative attacks at one another in a desperate attempt to break the deadlock. Mr. Locke, for instance, has accused Mr. Brown of trying to buy the election.

Most pundits and political strategists believe the race is headed for a run-off in December, as most Houston mayoral contests do. The calculus of who eventually wins depends heavily on which two candidates face off in the final round. One wild card in the calculations is where will Republicans, who are about a third of the vote, go if their candidate is knocked out, as is likely. And if Mr. Locke is knocked out of the race, then the black vote will be up for grabs, some strategists say. — James McKinley

DETROIT: Dave Bing, a former basketball star, is widely favored to be re-elected as mayor of Detroit on Tuesday night. It’s the fourth mayoral election in this city, which has been stricken financially, since February – a result of the departure last year of Kwame M. Kilpatrick, the former mayor who pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in a scandal over his romantic relationship with his chief of staff.

In a poll last month, Mr. Bing, a longtime businessman in the Detroit area, led Tom Barrow, his opponent in the nonpartisan election, by more than 20 percentage points. Mr. Bing had beaten Mr. Barrow 74 percent to 11 percent in an August primary election, but Mr. Bing had tangled with city unions in the months since then and had offered a painful – realistic, he would say – assessment of all that needs to be cut to make the city’s government financially stable again.

Far more change is anticipated Tuesday night on Detroit’s city council, an entity often criticized for its bickering, battling with mayors and other woes. Earlier this year, Monica Conyers, a city council member (and the wife of John Conyers, the United States Representative), pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit bribery and awaits sentencing. Another city council member, Martha Reeves, the former Motown singer, lost her chance to return to the council during the August primary, when she was vastly outpaced by a wide array of challengers.

Five incumbents and 13 challengers – including former police officers and a former local television newscaster – are seeking the nine council seats, all of which are open this election. Some observers, including Mr. Bing, have predicted significant change to the council.

Among other issues facing Detroiters on Tuesday’s ballot: Whether to support a $500 million bond for construction and renovations in the Detroit Public Schools, an institution whose troubles led Michigan’s governor to send in an emergency financial manager. — Monica Davey

MIAMI: This mayoral election is occurring after a relatively drab campaign between two city commissioners who stand on opposite sides of one important issue: whether current Mayor Manny Diaz did a good job.

Tomás Regalado, known to many here as the “just say no” commissioner, has regularly attacked the Diaz administration for over-building at the behest of developers. At 62, with a slight stoop, he has pitched his campaign to voters as a “back to basics” effort that will let Miami “take a breather” after the go-go years of construction.

Commission Chairman Joe Sanchez has also tried to mine frustration with Mr. Diaz, who is leaving because of term limits. Mr. Sanchez recently voted against a new, more pedestrian-friendly zoning plan that that the mayor views as his legacy. Yet after years of supporting Mr. Diaz’s ambitious plans – for a port tunnel and a new baseball stadium downtown – Mr. Sanchez, 44, is still largely seen as pro-business, and in favor of big plans.

Is this city up for that, when downtown remains marked by conflicting signs of the Diaz reign – a new restaurant here, a condo tower in bankruptcy there? This is one of the questions that Tuesday’s nonpartisan election may begin to answer. — Damien Cave

NEW YORK: Mayor Michael Bloomberg is expected to sail into his third-term, with his challenger, William Thompson, unable to gain enough traction in recent weeks. But as Michael Barbaro reports in this morning’s paper, the mayor’s outsized spending on the race — expected to reach $100 million — has turned off some voters. In addition, the contest has exposed deep class and borough divisions between supporters of either candidate.

PITTSBURGH: Ian Urbina wrote this weekend that Luke Ravenstahl, the young mayor of the municipality formerly known as the “Steel City” is favored for reelection.

SEATTLE: >Mayor Greg Nickels, a two-term Democrat, came in third in an August primary in which only the top two finishers moved on to the general election.

Mr. Nickels was defeated by two relative unknowns, Mike McGinn, a lawyer and former head of the local Sierra Club chapter, and Joe Mallahan, a vice president with T-Mobile. Mr. McGinn, who initially built his campaign around opposition to a multibillion plan to build a highway tunnel beneath the Seattle waterfront, but has since said he would not stop the project, fared best among the city’s most liberal voters during the primary. Mr. Mallahan, who has said from the beginning that the tunnel project should go forward, did better with more moderate and affluent voters; he has won endorsements from many business leaders and top elected officials. — William Yardley

Other Notable Issues

OHIO: For the fifth time, Buckeye State voters get a chance to determine whether they should allow casino gambling, with a referendum labeled Issue 3 on the ballot. If approved, the measure would permit casinos in four cities; Cincinnati, Toledo, Columbus and Cleveland.

This time around, the vote is being viewed through the prism of the recession, with proponents arguing that it could create hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in revenue in a state where the unemployment rate hovers near 10 percent or more in some pockets. Proponents alone had spent more than $30 million through mid-October to campaign for the measure’s passage.

PHILADELPHIA: Talk about going deeply local. Karl Rove, the former top Bush adviser, sent out an appeal on Monday to voters seeking support for Joan Orie Melvin, the Republican candidate for a state Supreme Court seat in Philadelphia. She and Democrat Jack Panella have been vying for a vacancy that has pitted big money and major interests like the trial lawyers against major G.O.P. players like Mr. Rove. Both candidates are already judges, both received the highest ratings.

ELDERPOLITICS: We found one of the most amusing pieces in this off-year — and perhaps telling in terms of an aging electorate — emanating out of Pennsylvania. The Wall Street Journal took a deeper look at smalltown races in the Keystone State, which has a very high number of little governments and has a whole lot of elderly politicians seeking reelection to oh, like their 15th terms.

original source: http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/races-to-watch-across-the-nation/

Return to Davey D’s Hip Hop Corner

Is Gang rape becoming a Spectator Sport? Give National Attention to End Violence Against Women

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Young Girl Gang raped for 2 Hours Outside High School Dance
Give National Attention to End Violence Against Women
 
by Tachelle Shamash Wilkes
 
Classes were back in session at Richmond High School in San Francisco’s East Bay Tuesday, with counselors available for students to talk about Saturday night’s horrific crime – the gang rape on campus of a 15-year-old student who had just left the homecoming dance… What makes this crime so shocking is that police say at least 20 people were involved in the rape or stood and watched the crime without going for help.
-cbsnews.com
 
Here’s a radio show that people may wanna peep  that raises the question…is gang rape a spectator sport
It was recorded the day or so after this happened and gives an excellent breatdown on the physcology behind gang rapes—
 
Author Tachelle Wilkes

Tachelle Shamash Wilkes

When I heard about the brutal rape of this high school girl, I was deeply saddened to the core that something like this could go on. “The Code of the Street” was meant to protect our women. However, somewhere down the line it was misconstrued to fit the agenda of men to cover up an array of sins. For these twenty-plus young onlookers to sit there and say or do nothing says a lot about the plight of this world. What if it were your sister who laid on that ground? As a matter of fact, what if she was your mother? Blood runs through this young girl’s veins just as yours. Her reflection is yours.

There laid our young sister who was brutally raped for two hours. This is something that we can’t let go. There is a total disconnect that has emerged in the form of hatred for our women. This is not just a call to stop the violence of young girls, but this is the call to heal our community. Our young boys just as our young girls need mental and spiritual healing. Mothers: Know what your children are doing at all times. Fathers: Be an integral part of your child’s life. They need you. Truth is there are many things that we as women can not teach our young boys, and that is to be a man.

richmond_high_school_1We need to take a moment and really look at where we are heading as a community. Here is a situation that needs light so we can drive negative forces away and bring a new day. Here is the perfect opportunity for the hip hop community to speak out and let the world know that a human life is the most valuable possession on earth. It’s time that we go back to our roots and use our voices as a means to heal and uplift. An atrocity as to what this young girl experienced has to end in this generation, so that we can insure a bright future for our children. The village has to come out of hiding and help raise our youth.

I think that we as a people talk too much. We need to be more action oriented. People need to “adopt” young people. Just because a child isn’t biologically yours doesn’t mean that you don’t have a moral responsibility to be there for them as well. I do, however, think it’s important that we make media who allow the promotion of violence and degradation against women to be held accountable to doing something to rectify this. They need to be put on blast.

Here’s a call for women, activists, and the community to speak out. Contact BET Networks at 202-608-2000 demanding a forum where hip hop artists who have tremendous drawing power for our youth to denounce the rape of our women and girls & contact your local radio stations, schools, churches to create workshops and forums to rid our community of this inhumanity.

Sincerely,

Tachelle Shamash Wilkes
Educator
Author of “Amanda’s Ray”

Update: 4 people have been arrested with police saying there will be more to come.. They will appear in court today and are expected to be charged as adults. The rape took place for 2 1/2 hours with people coming watching, leaving coming back and watching again.. She was beaten and robbed.. and if thats not enough some are actually blaming the young lady because she knew the attackers and was drinking with them…Also this is not the first time this has happened. Earlier this year in Richmond there was gang rape of a lesbian women which sparked outrage.