Chuck Turner Wants Support from Pres. Obama and U.S. Attorney General?

File this under small time Crooks and liars.

The Boston Hearld is reporting that a newly fired-up Chuck Turner lashed out against “corrupt” prosecutors yesterday, calling on President Obama to come to his rescue and drop all bribery charges against him.

In a statement, Turner called on Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder to “drop the fraudulent charges in my case.”

Teaming up with former Attorney General Ramsey Clark, Turner also plans to crusade against what he called “eight years of corrupt practices of President Bush’s Department of Injustice.” Mote HERE

Ok, this is something I'm just not getting. Now City Councilor Chuck Turner of Boston who was caught red handed (above) on tape taking money in a pay to play scheme, is involved in what the Bay State Banner calls, "the latest salvo in the dramatic effort to rescue his reputation." Get this folks, as reported by the Bay State Banner, (Boston's Historically black newspaper) on Monday of this week, Turner has now attempted to tie his prosecution to what he termed "the judicial atrocities of the Bush administration" and asking his supporters to petition President Barack Obama to drop the federal charges against him. More HERE

Rewind: November 2008

As you may remember, I wrote about this situation back in November of 2008, when I reported that he was Caught On Tape and Arrested.

First it was, Massachusetts State Senator Diane Wilkerson "BUSTED" by FBI

This time again in Boston. Get this Chuck Turner, a Boston City Councilman, whom this AAPP has known for years is caught taking silly $1,000 dollar from federal agents. Damn, this brotha is going down for a $1,000 ??? silly man. I guess he will be going to Federal prison for taking a silly bribe instead of just doing his work. He gets paid enough as a city councilman, why is he disgracing himself and black folks like this? Now I understand why he defended Diane Wilkerson, who got caught on tape by the FBI as well. He has turned out to be just like her, a two-bit crook, who attacked Latino Leadership in Boston to cover himself and Dianne Wilkerson. I feel sorry for my old home of Roxbury, Massachusettts, as they come to grips with the fact that black leadership in Boston has Sold them out, If I lived in Boston I would run for his seat. as I said about a month ago, Diane Wilkerson and old Black Political Leaders in Boston are out of touch and corrupt.

As reported by the Boston Globe The FBI arrested Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner this morning on charges he accepted a $1,000 bribe and then lied about taking the money in a widening federal corruption probe.

Chuck Turner

A 12-page affidavit filed this morning in US District Court alleges that Turner was surreptitiously videotaped accepting the cash in his district office on Aug. 3, 2007, in exchange for pushing for a liquor license of the Roxbury nightclub Dejavu. Included with the affidavit are two photographs of Turner allegedly accepting the bribe. In one image, Turner's trademark white goatee is clearly visible as folded green bills are pressed into his hand.

Turner was arrested at 7 a.m. at City Hall on charges stemming from the undercover probe, which lead to the arrest on Oct. 28 of state Senator Dianne Wilkerson on allegations she accepted eight bribes worth $23,500. The day of Wilkerson's arrest, two FBI agents visited Turner at his City Hall office and he "repeatedly denied ever being offered the money," according to the affidavit. During the interview, however, Turner rued the pervasiveness of corruption among politicians.

"If you took out all the corrupt politicians, you take out 90 % and be left with us 10 %," Turner said, according to the affidavit.

The five-term city councilor is expected to make his initial appearance today in US District Court in Worcester before Magistrate Judge Timothy Hillman, who is handling Wilkerson's case. Turner's alleged crimes took place in Boston, but Hillman ordinarily sits in Worcester.

“The public deserves, and should expect, honest services from our public officials,” US Attorney Michael Sullivan said in a statement. “Public officials who line their pockets with cash while claiming to act in the public interest, violate our laws and the trust and confidence of the public we serve." More HERE

Photo by Ted Fitzgerald (File), FBI

As Reported by the Boston Hearld, City council President Maureen Feeney temporarily removed Turner from all committee assignments, including his chairmanship of the committees on Education and Human Rights, according to a statement from her office today.

She called for a special meeting of the City Council for 3 p.m. Monday to discuss further council action.

"These charges are disturbing and shake an already fragile public trust in elected leaders," she said.

"If these charges prove true, I will not let the actions of one member cast a dark cloud over this entire body," she continued.

Feeney said she was "outraged at the recent disgrace brought to public service." More HERE

H/T BlogTalkRadio Host/and activist, Seventies Soul Child for the link.

Fast Foward

Now as reported by St. John Barned-Smith at the Bay State Banner, City Councilor Chuck Turner fired off the latest salvo in the dramatic effort to rescue his reputation on Monday, tying his prosecution to what he termed “the judicial atrocities of the Bush administration” and asking his supporters to petition President Barack Obama to drop the federal charges against him.

“We move beyond the first phase of my Campaign for Truth, Light and Justice by focusing national and international attention not just on my arrest and indictment but also on the eight years of corrupt practices of President Bush’s Department of Injustice,” Turner wrote in an e-mail to supporters.

In the e-mail, sent just after 8 a.m. on Monday, the District 7 city councilor called for the president and newly confirmed U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to drop the “fraudulent” charges of bribery and conspiracy that have been filed against him and to examine whether the investigation against him had racial or political motivations.

Turner also asked supporters to sign an online petition created by the activist International Action Center, founded by former U.S. Attorney General and Turner supporter Ramsey Clark. Addressed to Obama and Holder, the petition requests that in addition to Turner’s own case, the attorney general also review the cases of all public officials tried during the Bush administration “to determine which ones should have new trials because of political and/or racial motivation.” The petition also asks Holder to “initiate legal action against those [state] Attorney Generals who set up politically and/or racially motivated indictments and prosecutions.”

In addition to Obama and Holder, electronic carbon copies of the petition are apparently being sent to a wide variety of parties, including local and national news outlets, civil rights organizations, the Congressional Black Caucus, Gov. Deval Patrick and even U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Finally, Turner called for legislation “to end collusion between prosecutors and media that destroys the opportunity for a fair trial by distributing governmental allegation as evidence before any arraignments, indictments or trials have taken place.”

Turner also used the letter to call into question the motivations of U.S. Attorney Michael J. Sullivan and Assistant U.S. Attorney Suzanne Sullivan, who are not related. The U.S. attorney’s office keyed the investigation that led to Turner’s arrest and subsequent charges. More HERE

AAPP says: OK, Chuck Turner is fired up and has lashed out against “corrupt” prosecutors. But the fact of the matter is he was "caught red handed" taking a bribe. His call on President Obama to come to his rescue and drop all bribery charges against him, makes great urban political theatre but no common sense. Chuck Turner unfortunately has it twisted. It's not the “eight years of what he called corrupt practices of President Bush’s Department of Injustice,” that residents of his district should be looking at, it is him taking that money. It's as simple as that.

African American Political Pundit, grew up in Boston, and was a long time resident of Roxbury, the district that Chuck Turner represents.

789 Billion Stimulus Plan - Democrats and Republicans, Slash Health Subsidies For Unemployed

Deal Struck $789 Billion Plan

Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

As reported by the NY Times, Senators Susan Collins, Harry Reid, Arlen Specter, Olympia J. Snowe and Joseph I. Lieberman after an agreement was reached.

Congressional negotiators announced Wednesday afternoon that they had reached agreement on a $789 billion economic stimulus bill, clearing the way for final action and President Obama’s signature.

“The differences between the House and Senate versions, we’ve resolved,” Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic majority leader, said in a Capitol news conference. The differences were resolved by a lot of intense “give and take,” Mr. Reid said, “and if you don’t mind my saying so, that’s an understatement.”

Negotiations had been going on all day, following extensive talks on Tuesday night, to close the gap between the Senate and House versions. In the end, the agreed-upon package will pare back Democrats’ proposed spending on education and health programs in favor of tax cuts that were needed to win Republican votes in the Senate.

Senator Susan Collins of Maine, a centrist Republican whose support was crucial to the outcome, said the final package includes $150 billion in spending on infrastructure, including transportation facilities, and considerable tax relief. Moreover, she said, it includes significant money to aid state governments.

Despite intense lobbying by governors, the final deal slashed $35 billion from a proposed state fiscal stabilization fund, eliminated $16 billion in aid for school construction and sharply curtailed health care subsidies for the unemployed.

AAPP: you read it right, Despite intense lobbying by governors, the final deal slashed $35 billion from a proposed state fiscal stabilization fund, eliminated $16 billion in aid for school construction and sharply curtailed health care subsidies for the unemployed. More HERE

Black bloggers make an impact in Hub - online

Hat Tip and Shout Out to Talia Whyte, at my hometown black newspaper The Bay State Banner regarding the article on: Black bloggers make an impact in Hub, online

As more and more people head online to read commentary on the news of the day, black bloggers are riding the wave and making their voices heard. Some, like Wain Bennett, the Philadelphia attorney behind Field Negro (above), have been the subject of multiple news features. Here in Boston, South End writer Steve “Dart” Adams makes noise on his site, Poisonous Paragraphs. (Images courtesy of

http://poisonousparagraphs.blogspot.com; http://field-negro.blogspot.com)

Black bloggers make an impact in Hub, online

By Talia Whyte

Today, through the use of the Internet and new media tools like blogs, YouTube and Twitter, everyone can make their voices heard. An increasing share of the African American community is taking the opportunity to do just that, including a number based here in Boston.

Many are choosing to use blogs as a medium for mobilizing around political and social justice issues. According to a 2007 study conducted by Brown University researcher Antoinette Pole, 85 percent of blacks use their blogs to engage in political advocacy and to raise money for charitable causes.

Though there has as yet been no scholarly follow-up to measure the effect of Barack Obama’s landmark presidential campaign on the black blogosphere, the explosion of online conversations about race in America and in American politics suggests that the percentage may have significantly increased.

The presidential campaign also helped some black bloggers become “cyber-celebrities.” Bloggers like Wain Bennett, the Philadelphia attorney behind Field Negro, Gina McCauley of the feminist site What About Our Daughters and Harvard graduate Baratunde Thurston, one of the founders of Jack & Jill Politics, have been featured in print and on air to offer their perspectives on the news of the day.

Recent political controversies in Boston have also been bantered about in the black blogosphere. On his popular blog African American Political Pundit, Roxbury native L.N. Rock covered closely — and sometimes harshly — the ongoing legal and financial woes of embattled former state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson and City Councilor Chuck Turner. More HERE

Black Press, Window Dressing for President Obama?

H/T to Black Politics on The Web blog for the link to the The Washington Times story on how President Barack Obama ignored the black press. it appears that this is not the first time Barack Obama has snubbed the black Media. The Black Agenda Report has followed this situation for some time. I guess the Huffington Post article about Obama's Victory Prompting Major Changes In Black Press was window dressing. More on Black Press, Window Dressing for President Obama?

the Story of Jamie and Gladys Scott, Injustice In America 101

Original Post: Tue, 10 Feb 2009

H/T and shout out to Nancy R. Lockhart, M.J. and Jamie Scott, for the blog that exposes the injustice involving Jamie and Gladys Scott. Also H/T to the good folks at the Black Agenda Report, Queen Ifama, blogger, From my brown eyed view, Thug Life Army, black news junkie, black talkradio, Your Black World, The Responsibility Project, and so many other bloggers and community activist for taking up the story and cause of Jamie and Gladys Scott. Also a H/T to the many BlogTalkRadio program host and participants who have taken this cause up. This includes new blogger, Antoinette, Jerry, Spicy, Dale, Seventies Soul Child, Wildflower, Soulfully Thinking, The Poor People's Campaign, and so many others.



More on the Story of Jamie and Gladys Scott, Injustice In America 101

Was Lincoln a Racist?, Obama's love of Lincoln

Original post on: Mon, 09 Feb 2009

AAPP says: Some time ago I wrote a post(s) regarding Abraham Lincoln and Barack Obama. The post(s), Obama's love of Lincoln and Barack Obama Continues Myth of Abraham Lincoln, While Black Folks Lose Wealth. In both of those post I said, "as quiet as it may be kept, many African Americans are wondering whether Barack Obama is continuing American mythologyAbraham Lincoln was "the great emancipator." Well it looks like I'm not the only one interested in the mythology of Abraham Lincoln being the great Emancipator. Check out the article by Henry Louis Gates Jr; who writes, "The Great Emancipator was far more complicated than the mythical hero we have come to revere." I guess in some ways, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and I are thinking the same on this matter. I have not had the opportunity to meet Professor Gates but I would love too. As a American Civilization major I think this conversation would be an opportunity who's time has come. that

Check out Henry Louis Gates Jr's most recent work:

Was Lincoln a Racist?

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

I first encountered Abraham Lincoln in Piedmont, W.Va. When I was growing up, his picture was in nearly every black home I can recall, the only white man, other than Jesus himself, to grace black family walls. Lincoln was a hero to us.

One rainy Sunday afternoon in 1960, when I was 10 years old, I picked up a copy of our latest Reader’s Digest Condensed Books, and, thumbing through, stumbled upon Jim Bishop’s The Day Lincoln Was Shot, which had been published in 1955 and immediately became a runaway bestseller. It is an hour-by-hour chronicle of the last day of Lincoln’s life. I couldn’t help crying by the end. More on Was Lincoln a Racist?, Obama's love of Lincoln

I'm gonna whup Beyoncé's ass

Original Post: Fri, 06 Feb 2009

Etta James is pissed off at Beyonce for performing her signature song — "At Last" — as the first dance for Barack and Michelle Obama at an inaugural ball. Beyoncé for Barack and Michelle Obama's first dance, which took place at the ball on 20 January.

In this Nov. 24, 2008, file photo, Etta James arrives at the premiere of "Cadillac Records" in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, file) (Matt Sayles - AP)

'

Photo Source: The Insider.com

AAPP: Candidly I understand why she would be just a tad bit upset. The inaugural ball planning group should have had both of them there to sing the song. Old school and new school. But hey, Etta James is pisssed and let it rip at a Jan. 28 concert in Seattle when she said: "I tell you, that woman he has singing for him, singing my song, she gonna get her ... whipped. I can’t stand Beyonce, she had no business up there singing ... my song that I’ve been singing forever." She also said, "You guys know your president, right? You know the one with the big ears?" James asked from the stage of Seattle's Paramount Theatre. "Wait a minute, he ain't my president. He might be yours; he ain't my president. But I tell you that woman he had singing for him, singing my song — she's going to get her ass whupped." More on: Etta James pissed off with Beyoncé

Posted: Fri, 06 Feb 2009

Hate Crimes Against Blacks Growing - 7 White Teens Beat Black Man

Original Post: Fri, 06 Feb 2009

As reported by HATE WATCH and the new Post-Racial Blog, Richmond, Calif. police have arrested seven white teenagers on suspicion of felony hate crime assault with a deadly weapon in the attack on a 24-year-old black man whose face was fractured by kicks and punches from assailants who called him a “coon.” Read full article

H/T Antoinette, at her new blog, Antoinette's Point of View for tracking this incident.

SF Gate reports: 7 East Bay teens arrested - hate crime alleged
Brandon Manning, seen eight days after he was beaten, has broken bones in his face. (Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle)

One minute he was hanging out with seven seemingly friendly guys in a park, the next he said he was on the ground, the blows coming from all sides, a fist or foot landing hard enough to fracture six bones in his face.

But it was the words accompanying the blows that made Manning, 24, think he was about to die.

"Coon." And then, "How do you like this, you f-ing n-?"

A week after the Jan. 24 incident, Richmond police officers arrested seven East Bay teenagers on suspicion of felony assault with a deadly weapon - a hate crime investigation delayed five days because of a police clerical error.

The seven are white. Manning is black.

"I don't understand how somebody could do that in this day and age," Manning said Sunday. "I never, never thought it would happen to me."

Not in California and not in the East Bay, Manning said.

The arrest of the seven, including two juveniles, brought relief after nearly a week of anxiety, medical appointments - and especially deafening silence from the police department, Manning said.

The police report documenting the incident as an assault and identifying it as a possible hate crime sat unnoticed in the wrong in-box from the morning of Jan. 24 until Thursday, when Manning's mother showed up at the Richmond Police Department to ask about the case.

Hours later, Sgt. Lori Curran and a team of investigators got the paperwork. More HERE

It's interesting that there are so many cases of attacks on black men, women and children across America and it seems that none of the old school negro/colored organizations care. The national NAACP seems to be more concerned about holding Barack Obama accountable, when they could not even get the former President to attend any of thier events in 8 years, except for one time. I'm glad folks like the, Southern Poverty Law Center, Color of Change and the afrospear are stepping up to expose and organize against these crimes. I'm hopeful these groups get stronger, and can begin to really do the grassroot organizing our communities need and deserve.

More HERE on: Hate Crimes Against Blacks Growing - 7 White Teens Beat Black Man

Black Girl Beat By Police For Riding Bike

Original Posted: Thu, 05 Feb 2009

Source: NewsOne.BlackPlanet

My man Casey Gane-McCalla over at Newsone.blackplanet.com is reporting on another attack on blacks, young and old throughout America by some out of control police. This time it's a beat down of a teenage black girl for riding-bike.

Police Beat Teenage Black Girl For Riding Bike

By Casey Gane-McCalla, Assistant Editor

In this video, police beat a teenage black girl for riding her bike on the sidewalk in Millvillle, PA. Apparently one of the officers, Carlos Drogo, maced himself while trying to take in the girl for riding her bike on the sidewalk and became angry and started punching her. More HERE

Black Girl Beat By Police For Riding Bike

Tom Daschle is Out - What happen To The New Era of Responsibility?

Originally Posted on: Tue, 03 Feb 2009

AAPP: What happen to the president Obama's promise to break with the past and the new era of responsibility? Why is the Washington culture of personal riches and buying positions still part of a new Obama administration? As the NY Times notes, "During almost two years on the campaign trail, Barack Obama vowed to slay the demons of Washington, bar lobbyists from his administration and usher in what he would later call in his Inaugural Address a “new era of responsibility.”

My question... What happen Mr. President?

Yes, Tom Daschle is Out! President Obama acknowledged yesterday that he had "made a mistake" in trying to exempt some candidates for positions in his administration from strict ethics standards and accepted the withdrawal of two top nominees, including former Senate majority leader Thomas A. Daschle, in the first major setback of his young presidency. More HERE

Daschle announcing his withdrawal. "If 30 years of exposure to the challenges inherent in our system has taught me anything, it has taught me that this work will require a leader who can operate with the full faith of Congress and the American people, and without distraction," he said. "Right now, I am not that leader and I will not be a distraction." More HERE

As reported by The NY Times, The LA Times, The Washington Post, Former Senator Tom Daschle has withdrawn from consideration for health and human services secretary over his belated payment of federal taxes. More on how the ex-Senator is the 2nd Obama pick to pull out over tax issues.

AAPP: I have pointed out my concerns about how, former South Dakota Sen. Tom Daschle was getting "The New Black Politics Pass." It seems that I was not the only one concerned.

I agree with Steve Holland at Reuters, he is one of many former politicians and ex-government officials who have gotten rich by using their influence and powerful connections. It's too bad as a millionaire he failed to pay his taxes.

Now get this, he is not the only one, not paying his taxes, another appointee who wanted an Oversight Role in the Obama administration has withdrawn. Yes, Nancy Killefer withdrew from consideration for chief performance officer after coming forward with concerns about tax returns.

AAPP: I guess there are a few crooks and liars trying to get positions in the new Obama administration. See Who's Who in Barack Obama's White House. It's too bad Obama and others in Washington don't get it. As Steven Pearlstein at the Washington Post recently noted: Tom Daschle's problem wasn't that he didn't pay his taxes. It was that he -- along with those who vetted his nomination as health and human services secretary and many of his colleagues in the Senate -- found it perfectly ordinary and acceptable that he would be able to cash in on his time in the Senate by earning more than $5 million over two years as a law-firm rainmaker, equity fundraiser, corporate director and luncheon speaker, all the while being driven around town in a chauffeured town car. Not exactly Cincinnatus returning to the plow. For the American public, Daschle became the latest symbol of everything that is wrong with Washington -- the influence-peddling and corner-cutting and sacrifice of the public good to private interest. Now that this system has let them down, and left them poorer and anxious about the future, people are angry about it and no longer willing to accept the corruption of the public process and the whole notion of public service.

The irony, of course, is that Barack Obama understood all this and tapped into Americans' frustration as the central message of his "change" campaign. But even he, with only four years in Washington, failed to see the depth of the problem or anticipate the ferocity of the backlash. More HERE

Tom Daschle is Out! What happen To The New Era of Responsibility?

So... Jennifer Hudson lip "Sang" The National Anthem, Who CARES?

original post: Mon, 02 Feb 2009

As reported by MTV, By now, you're probably either read about or seen Jennifer Hudson's stirring rendition of the national anthem before Sunday night's Super Bowl. In her first public performance since seen her mother, brother and nephew were slain in October, Hudson delivered a stunning version of the anthem.

But after the game, the show's producer, "American Idol" music director Ricky Minor, told The Associated Press that, at his request, Hudson lip-synched the anthem to a previously recorded track.

AAPP: Who cares MTV, leave Jennifer Hudson alone! She "sang" that Anthem like very few have been able to do. The only people who have done any better are Marvin Gaye and let us not forget Ray Charles' America, The Beautiful. MTV needs to stop hating on black folks. More Here on - So... Jennifer Hudson lip "Sang" The National Anthem, Who CARES?

Post Racial America:I Don't Think So

Posted: Mon, 02 Feb 2009

By Ms. LadyDeboarah:

Since it was apparent that Barack Obama would be the 44th POTUS, the term "Post racial America" has been flowing in the national conversation.

I spent a considerable period of time searching for a definition for the term post-racial. It is interesting that there really is not one given by any viable source. I read plenty of definitions on conservative blogs. Which all seem to lean towards the theory that in a post-racial America the rights of white citizens would be lessened to the point where they would not be able to recover their positions of power.

Check out this statement by blogger Matt Moon on the subject of post-racial America.
But one of my greatest passions is the issue of race, which also leads to issues of immigration, assimilation, affirmative actions, social justice, etc. It irks me that the elitist liberal media has annointed Barack Obama as a "post-racial" candidate. (By the way, I have no idea what the working definition of "post-racial" is; when the media gets into the meta-sociological, it always turns out to be a disaster.)

I believe that The Right has a interesting opportunity to capture the sentiments of those who want to move beyond race, into a near color-blind society, by using conservative principles of old. I tell everybody that one of the top reasons I am a registered Republican is the fact that The Left is interested in what I can contribute as a Korean-American or Asian-American; The Right is simply interested in what I can contribute as an American. Source

I find this to be an interesting observation. Especially after the vicious racial tone of the national campaign. Read More HERE

Former South Dakota Sen. Tom Daschle Gets "The New Black Politics Pass"

Posted: Sun, 01 Feb 2009

If a black man or woman didn't pay his or her taxes they would not even be considered for employment with any Federal agency, let alone become head of the Department of Health and Human Services. Why is it that former South Dakota Sen. Tom Daschle is withstanding revelations about unpaid taxes, and can get a pass? This is change?

As reported by the NY Times, During almost two years on the campaign trail, Barack Obama vowed to slay the demons of Washington, bar lobbyists from his administration and usher in what he would later call in his Inaugural Address a “new era of responsibility.” What he did not talk much about were the asterisks.

The exceptions that went unmentioned now include a pair of cabinet nominees who did not pay all of their taxes. Then there is the lobbyist for a military contractor who is now slated to become the No. 2 official in the Pentagon. And there are the others brought into government from the influence industry even if not formally registered as lobbyists.

President Obama said Monday that he was “absolutely” standing behind former Senator Tom Daschle, his nominee for health and human services secretary, and Mr. Daschle, who met late in the day with leading senators in an effort to keep his confirmation on track, said he had “no excuse” and wanted to “deeply apologize” for his failure to pay $128,000 in federal taxes. More HERE

As reported by The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune the news that former Sen. Tom Daschle (S.D.), President Barack Obama's nominee to head the Health and Human Service Department had not paid more than $128,000 in back taxes over the past several years threatened to further slow the momentum built by the president during the transition process. The new Republican leader is also having none of this. As reported in USA Today, Michael Steele said in a telephone interview that Republicans should oppose former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle's nomination to be secretary of Health and Human Services. Daschle is the second Cabinet nominee to acknowledge he didn't pay thousands of dollars in taxes.

"We've already let one cat out of the bag with (Treasury Secretary Timothy) Geithner," Steele said. "So what's the standard down to, to be a Cabinet secretary? You don't have to pay your taxes? Come on." More HERE

AAPP: OK, I'm a former Democrat, and Republican, but I'm now Independent. I have to say, enough is enough. Now we learn his chief of staff is a lobbyist. Steele just may be on point when he says, Steele said. "So what's the standard down to, to be a Cabinet secretary?

AAPP: I guess I agree with John Brummett, who wrties: "There is nothing new, nothing that changes Washington, nothing in the vein of “yes, we can,” in nominating for secretary of health and human services a former veteran senator whose wife is a big-time Washington lobbyist for the airline industry (which she once regulated as acting FAA administrator), then standing by him when it comes out that he didn’t pay taxes on income from a car and driver provided him by a big corporation, and didn’t tell you about the problem, of which he became aware last summer, until after you’d nominated him.

We need public officials who pay their taxes, in full, on time, even without being nominated for cabinet jobs. Holding our noses for a treasury secretary who came up short on his income taxes was enough to ask. Plenty." More HERE

As The Washington Post reports, Daschle, who paid more than $100,000 in back taxes to the IRS in recent days according to a spokeswoman, is set to meet in a closed door session on Monday with the full Senate Finance Committee to explain the oversight.

Daschle is the third Obama Cabinet pick to run into trouble. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Obama's initial choice as Commerce Secretary, stepped aside due to an ongoing federal investigation into pay for play allegations in the Land of Enchantment. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner acknowledged he had failed to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes for several years, describing the failure as an accounting oversight; he was confirmed by a vote of 60-34 earlier in the week.

AAPP: Change? Right! I guess this can be called, The New Black Politics pass.

The New Black Politics

Sunday, February 01, 2009 10:56 AM

AAPP says: Here is a great article in The Harvard Crimson by Dr. Jonathan David Farley ’91 is the 2004 Harvard Foundation Distinguished Scientist of the Year. He writes about the new black politics and how it just may not be "all that" for black Americans. It's a great article. I just finished doing a radio program about this issue on my BlogTalkRadio program.

The New Black Politics
by Dr. Jonathan David Farley



As an African-American, people expect me to be excited by the inauguration of the first black president of the United States last week. Of course, symbols matter. A black man could not have ascended to the presidency 40 years ago. But the inauguration of President Barack Obama means considerably less than what the pundits say it means.

True, it indicates that racism is lessening in America. But the black unemployment rate will stay the same. The black poverty rate will stay the same. Policemen will still murder elderly black women with impunity. Confederate flags honoring those who killed to preserve slavery and racial segregation will still disgrace our public spaces. And Obama will not do or say anything about any of this.

Certainly, having a black president will be a first. But just because you are a first for blacks does not mean blacks are first for you. For example, Thurgood Marshall, the first black Supreme Court justice, informed on other blacks at the behest of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He also hated black America’s Saul of Tarsus and shining prince, Malcolm X.

While it would be absurd for blacks to practice “shadism”—the great Harvard graduate W. E. B. DuBois, intellectual and freedom fighter, had the blood of two continents in his veins—it would be naïve to ignore the weighty significance of the truth: that many black political “firsts” in America, such as Marshall, have been light-skinned mulattoes, like Obama.

Admittedly, Obama represents a new type of African-American politician: He is not a minister, he did not march with Dr. King, he has no line item in his budget for pregnant mistresses and keeps food—not cash—in his refrigerator. Brotherman is no Uncle Sambo. He is not an embarrassment in that sense.

Yet he is an embarrassment in another sense. At least the misleaders and pied pipers who came out of the bowels of the civil-rights movement paid lip service to the idea of uplifting the race. Obama and the new generation of black policy-makers, such as Newark, New Jersey, mayor Cory Booker, self-professed drug-dealer-cum-Harvard-professor Roland Fryer, and former Tennessee congressman Harold Ford, Jr., pay scant allegiance to the past or feel little obligation to their fellow blacks as blacks.

Unlike black conservatives, such as Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas, whom the African-American community mostly derides, the new black politician does not usually declare openly that he is against the issues blacks support. He just never declares that he is for those issues. For instance, the issue of reparations for slavery is avoided. At one presidential debate, white congressman Dennis Kucinich said he was for it, while Obama dodged the question.

Blacks make the false assumption that, because the new black politicians have somewhat dark skin, they in fact share the same goals and do not need to say so. When pressed a year after the aforementioned debate, Obama admitted he was against reparations for slavery. He can support giving $700 billion to corporate crooks and incompetents, but he cannot support reparations for slavery. Obviously, he knew he would still get 99 percent of the black vote.

African-Americans are like dogs at the park: If you fake throwing a Frisbee, they run away looking for the Frisbee you didn’t throw. When the dog comes back, you do it again—and the dog falls for it again, drooling. Blacks who swoon over Obama are akin to the blacks who dance to the song “Sweet Home Alabama.” They clearly haven’t listened to the words.

This is why the inauguration of Obama as the nation’s first half-white president was nothing to celebrate. One can only succeed as a black American—in politics or at your job—by submitting to majority authority and control. You can’t say you don’t want to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. You can’t suggest you were ever not proud of the country that murdered Indians with gifts infected by smallpox and that blew up little girls as they prayed.You certainly can’t speak the truth about racism, as Obama’s pastor, Jeremiah Wright, proved.

Obama’s rival, Senator John McCain, all but called Obama a child molester, all but called Obama a traitor, and in response Obama called McCain a “hero.” Wright, on the other hand, praised Obama endlessly, officiated at Obama’s wedding, baptized his children, and gave him the title of his best-selling book. But he also made a few correct remarks about American racism, labeled too “controversial” to keep them from being discussed seriously. Instead of standing by his friend and supporter as the statesman Nelson Mandela would have done, new black politician Barack Obama assailed Wright without mercy.
Obama’s election is exactly the wrong signal to send to America’s ebony youth: that, if you don’t raise any issues that make the majority uncomfortable, you, too, can become the president. We can only celebrate the election and inauguration of a black president when he can represent and articulate black interests, and not before.

Dr. Jonathan David Farley ’91 is the 2004 Harvard Foundation Distinguished Scientist of the Year.

Link to full article HERE

I wonder what more conservative bloggers like Pros and Cons would say about this article?

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