Anderson@Large

Unwelcomed Guests

It looks like the end of the rainbow for the Black-Brown coalition. According to Ruben Navarette, Rev. Jesse Jackson should be happy that “Latino immigrants are coming to New Orleans from as far away as California to repair homes, clear debris, rebuild roads and do other jobs.” Well, actually they’re coming from as far away as Mexico and Central America.

Unfortunately, Navarette is not alone in rooting for illegal immigrants. President Bush is gearing up to toss his corporate cronies another bone (here and here) with his proposed guest worker program:

If an employer has a job that no American is willing to take, we need to find a way to fill that demand by matching willing employers with willing workers from foreign countries on a temporary and legal basis. The best way to do that is through a temporary worker program that gives those workers we need a legal, honest way to come into our country and to return home. I'm going to work with members of Congress to create a program that can provide for our economy's labor needs, without harming American workers, without providing amnesty, and that will improve our ability to control our borders.

Bush repeats the fallacy that we can absorb millions of low-skill workers without harming American workers. American taxpayers are paying the price for cheap labor.  American workers are footing the bill for the unwelcomed guests’ anchor babies, emergency health care, education and other public services.

Already mired in controversies (and here), Bush should think about his base which wants to end illegal immigration. Oops, what am I thinking.  Bush’s “brain” may soon have an unwelcomed guest of his own (and here).

Make Some Noise

A little over a month ago, President Bush stood in Jackson Square and promised to “meet the immediate needs of those who had to flee their homes and leave all their possessions behind” (and here). Those immediate needs include housing, health care and cash assistance.

Tomorrow, the House of Representatives, the House that Tom DeLay built, is expected to vote to increase cuts in vital social programs from $35 billion to $50 billion. The programs to be slashed include Medicaid, food stamps and temporary assistance to families (TANF) -- services that the victims of Hurricane Katrina need now more than ever.

These reverse Robin Hoods are robbing the poor to give to the rich:

The same Republican zealots who demand fiscal responsibility by cutting $50 billion for the indigent sick are now also demanding a new $70 billion in tax cuts, including the permanent repeal of the estate tax, that would chiefly benefit the rich.  For a few brief weeks after Katrina, Republicans actually suspended the advocacy of tax cuts, but this onset of sanity came to a shuddering halt once the cameras were removed from the Superdome.

The Emergency Campaign for America’s Priorities has been organized to “demand the President and Congress change their misplaced priorities.”  Think back to how you felt watching black seniors, women and children stranded at the Superdome and the convention center without food and water. And think about all the pledges that the federal government would do what it takes to help them rebuild their lives.

Now stop thinking about it and do something. You can make a difference by picking up the phone and calling 1-800-426-8073.  You will be put through to the Capitol switchboard.  The long-distance calls won't even cost you any minutes; they're courtesy of the American Friends Service Committee.

Call or e-mail your Representative and Senators and tell them that it’s outrageous that “they got money for wars, but they can’t feed the poor” (and here).

A Family Affair

It was showtime on the National Mall and I was still in my hotel room trying to get excited about the Millions More Movement. I had C-SPAN Radio on and listened with dismay as Rev. Mary Wilson, the wife of the Rev. Willie Wilson, the movement’s national executive director, recounted with pride how in 1995 she stayed in the church basement while the men marched off to the Mall.

Unlike Mrs. Wilson, I didn’t wait for permission to go to the Million Man March ten years ago. I just went. When she heaped praise on Minister Louis Farrakhan for allowing black women to come out of the kitchen -- literally and figuratively -- what little enthusiasm I had was fast eroding. But in the end, I attended the rally.

I was riding back to New York with a friend as Minister Farrakhan was “descending” the steps of the United States Capitol. I later learned that he spoke for 80 minutes (we lost the radio signal about 20 minutes into his speech). I tuned him out as he was expounding on his platfom of “ministries of health and human services, agriculture, education, defense, justice, art and culture, trade and commerce, information and science and technology.”  I don’t think establishing separate government services, and picking and canning their own fruits and vegetables are solutions that many blacks will embrace.

This piece by Eugene Robinson really captures the spirit of the day:

Yes, the controversial Farrakhan was the engine behind Millions More, and his many minions, the bow-tie-wearing Fruit of Islam, were much in evidence acting as marshals. The same was true 10 years ago. At both events, it didn't matter whether you liked Farrakhan or hated him. The speeches droned on and on, but the speechifying wasn't the point, not in 1995 and not yesterday. The point was the feeling of community. The point was seeing with your own eyes that "black" and "crisis" are not synonyms unless we allow them to be…

But yesterday, on the Mall, you could once again behold that better world that we all saw 10 years ago. Tell me how that can hurt. Tell me how that can do anything but help.

Bottomed Out

I’ll post my take on the Millions More rally tomorrow because I’ve been champing at the bit to say, “I told you so.” Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman is wasting his breath asking black voters to give Republicans a “chance.”

According to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, only 2 percent of African Americans approve of President Bush’s job performance. With a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points, Bush’s real approval rating among blacks could be -1.4 percent.

With the exception of Bush political appointees (and here), paid propagandists and assorted nuts (and here), arguably, there’s not a single black person who likes Bush. That probably explains the popularity of the “George Bush doesn’t like black people” buttons and T-shirts for sale at the Millions More rally.

As Prof. Michael Fauntroy reminds us, what's to like (links added):

The DeLay indictments are another in a long line of recent events demonstrating that the Republican Party in Washington, D.C., from the White House to Capitol Hill, is shot through with corruption and besotted with power. They've looted the federal treasury of billions to pay for an unjustified war in Iraq (and the Coalition Provisional Authority has literally lost $8 billion there), no-bid contracts to their friends is their standard operating procedure, they've jeopardized people all over the country with that ridiculous bankruptcy bill they wrote and passed, they've been wasteful spenders of taxpayers money, and they don't seem to care about the damage their policies are doing to the federal deficit.

Cynthia Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitutional further reminds us, the party of limited government only recently got its fiscal groove back (link added):

Suddenly, congressional leaders have re-discovered fiscal restraint. After squandering a $2 trillion surplus and creating a tsunami of red ink, Republicans have come to see the benefits of simple arithmetic.

Oddly, their budget epiphany occurred only after they were asked to help the desperate victims of Hurricane Katrina. With Gulf Coast residents who have lost houses, jobs and even loved ones requesting assistance, the GOP wants to halt federal spending. They are threatening a bait-and-switch: They will provide assistance to Katrina's victims (much of it through handouts to business), but they will make up for it by cutting Medicare, food stamps and other programs designed to boost the most vulnerable Americans.

The Girl Can't Help It

Well, I'm here in DC on the eve of 10th anniversary of the Million Man March. I'm still not that into it but other events have piqued my interest, including forums at Howard University and the University of the District of Columbia, and the Black Family Conference entitled "Reparations, Healing and Hurricane Katrina" at Scripture Cathedral Church.

The UDC media forum will focus on the mainstream media lies and the breathless accounts of wanton lawlessness in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. As Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post wrote:

I got there [New Orleans] five days after the deluge, when the story, as the whole world understood it, was one of “Mad Max” depravity and violence. Hoodlums were raping and pillaging, I just "knew" -- even shooting at rescue helicopters trying to take hospital patients to safety. So it was a surprise when I rolled into the center of the city, with all my foreign-correspondent antennae bristling, and found the place as quiet as a tomb.

The media lies influenced the emergency response and stirred up opposition to survivors who were fleeing to higher ground.

This morning, Howard will host a summit of black leaders on “preserving and strengthening African American families collaboratively and holistically.”  A job remains the best way to preserve and strengthen any family so I'm going to the summit to find out what’s the plan to address Mayor Ray Nagin’s concern: “How do I ensure that New Orleans is not overrun by Mexican workers?”

According to the Los Angeles Times:  "Word has gotten out and each morning day laborers -- who come from Central America and Mexico by way of California, Texas and Arizona -- gather on street corners in the Kenner and Metairie neighborhoods on the western edge of the city."

With Minister Louis Farrakhan giving opening remarks, time may run out before I get an opening to ask: Where is the outrage?

Not Wild About Harry

I’ve been reluctant to weigh in on Supreme Court nominee Harriet “Harry” Miers because when your enemy is self-destructing (here, here and here), it’s better to step back and watch.

But I had to get my licks in over Miers’ reported contribution to the Bush-Cheney recount fund that financed the undermining of African Americans’ voting rights in the 2000 Florida presidential election.  It places yet another cloud over this desperate “office wife” (here and here) who may be more loyal to her man than to the Constitution.  Miers reportedly described President Bush as “the most brilliant man she had ever met.”

Reading that Miers "worships" the simian-eyed Bush and thinks he's "cool" makes me gag.  The stories bring to mind blues diva Denise LaSalle, who sang: “Hey Lady, honey, your husband is cheating on us.”  After all, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice once referred to Bush as her husband.  Who knew the White House was such a hotbed of man-sharing?

GOP Water Damage

Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman is back beating the drums about giving the GOP a chance. Republican outreach efforts were suspended in the wake of black bodies floating down Canal Street in New Orleans.

Given the GOP's leaky base (and here), I’m not "shocked" that Mehlman was in the Nutmeg State floating his lie that the Republican Party offers black voters a real choice:

I'm shocked that he would have the nerve to show his face in front of any African American organization after the way they treated those people in New Orleans.

The RNC’s response to Howard Dean reflects their delusion of illusion. A spokesman for Mehlman told the Hartford Courant:

While the president is unifying the country to help with recovery efforts along the Gulf Coast, Democrats continue to shamelessly use this tragedy to tear the country apart.

BTW, I wonder whether the one time "rising star" Gary Franks, a former Congressman whose district included Waterbury, was in the house.  Franks was supposed to attract black voters to the GOP.  He didn't; instead, he was kicked to the curb.  But I digress.

There is a kernel of truth to the GOP's tired spin -- President Bush is unifying the country against him. Bush’s approval rating is in the toilet, the base is alienated, and Republican candidates are bailing out on the midterm elections (and here).

Mehlman is nuts, stuck on stupid -- or both -- to think black folks have any interest in giving the GOP sinking ship (here and here) a second look.