Anderson@Large

All Soles to the Polls

Voters will go to the polls today to elect governors in New Jersey and Virginia (and here).  In New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg is expected to blow his opponent out of the water.

On Election Day 2000, Hurricane George blew off 175,000 uncounted ballots in Florida.  Then as now, black folks were caught in the eye of the storm.  While President Bush's name isn’t on any ballots, you still can send him and his party a message by taking your soles to the polls.  Remember, your vote is your voice.

By voting, the disaffected can give voice to their concern that in the five long years since this “different kind of Republican” was, ahem, elected, things have fallen apart (here and here).  Big time.

That's Why They're Called 'Uncle Toms'

I want to get the week started on a comedic note so I'm linking to a press release from a “black leadership group” whose bosses are a white man and a white woman (and here):

In light of the racial indignities being foisted upon Maryland Lt. Governor Michael Steele, a black Republican who recently announced his candidacy for U.S. Senate, members of the black leadership group Project 21 call on all candidates and political parties to shun both the use of such tactics and individuals who employ them.

Steele most recently was portrayed as a white minstrel in blackface on a left-wing blog, but has suffered other racial indignities such as being pelted with Oreo cookies at the historically-black Morgan State University in Baltimore and being called “Uncle Tom,” among other epithets.

Project 21 members say all electoral candidates should be open to criticism about their records, credentials and policy positions, but black candidates should not be subjected to race-based abuse. The way to end this, says Project 21, is for all political parties and candidates to repudiate and pledge to refrain from engaging in any activity that demeans on the basis of race, gender and/or other birth characteristics in favor of a robust debate on real issues affecting the public.

The sudden embrace of political correctness by supposed "free thinkers” is a transparent attempt to stifle free speech. 

And since I don't like to waste food, especially Oreo cookies, I'll just continue to call a spade a spade.

TGIF

President Bush is in South America (and here) this weekend so for the next few days he’s someone else’s problem (and here).  Enjoy the break.

Cry Me A River

Ken Mehlman’s remarks at a recent NAACP fundraiser are further proof that denial is not just a river in Egypt. I don't know whether to laugh or cry at these oldies-but-not-so-goodies:

That is why I have traveled across the country, meeting 32 times with African American groups, talking and listening about how the party of Lincoln can welcome more folks home.

'Give us a chance and we'll give you a choice' is what I am telling these groups...and it is more than a slogan.

It's a genuine commitment to offer those not satisfied - with their children's schools, with where they work, with where they live, with their retirement - real options and a better way.

All Americans also deserve a choice in politics.

Monopolies, whether in the private sector or politics, provide bad services at high costs.

NAACP President Bruce Gordon wasn’t moved by Mehlman’s sweet talk that “even though Rosa Parks is gone, her work continues.” The Associated Press reported:

I sense that this is a nomination [Samuel Alito] (and here) that may not be consistent with the America that Rosa Parks sat down to create.

Mehlman did move me to agree with him about one thing: Monopolies are bad. The GOP’s monopoly of national politics has produced bad services (and here) at high costs (here and here). As the Iraq casualties continue to mount, Republican control of the White House and Congress has made a mess of things at home and abroad (here and here).

Now that President Bush’s approval rating has hit a new low (and Vice President Cheney’s is on life support), Republican monopolists are likely crying in their beer.

Thank you, Sister Rosa

As I watched the celebration of the life of Rosa Parks earlier this week, it was one of the few times that I wished I still lived in DC.  I regret that I was not able to view her body lying in honor in the Capitol Rotunda (and here).

It was fitting that the memorial service took place at Metropolitan AME Church, where Frederick Douglass worshiped and his funeral was held.  Thanks to C-SPAN I at least got a chance to hear the tributes and hymns of praise for a woman on whose shoulders we all stand. As her childhood friend Johnnie Carr noted: "A woman sat down and the world turned around."

Oprah Winfrey expressed the sentiment of black folks everywhere when she thanked Sister Rosa "for every colored girl and colored boy who didn't have heroes...I thank you for not moving."

Mrs. Parks' funeral service will be held at Greater Grace Temple in Detroit at 11:00 a.m. today (the service will be carried on C-SPAN 3).  Sister Rosa's legacy will live on in anyone who dares to take a stand and, in the words of Frederick Douglass, "agitate, agitate, agitate."  Indeed, her life of quiet dignity is a testament that one person can make a difference.

Thank you, Miss Rosa for saying: "Enough is enough."  Your act of defiance "started our freedom movement" and inspired generations of agitators.

Thank you, Miss Rosa. May you rest in peace.

Collision Course

Rev. Jesse Jackson led yet another march last weekend to demand that residents of New Orleans be given first dibs at reconstruction jobs. Jackson was joined by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, who said:

But this is not just a story of government incompetence and neglect. Like a greedy animal of prey, the Bush gang swooped into New Orleans before the flood waters had even stopped rising. They suspended community wage protections and affirmative action requirements and opened the gates of New Orleans to plunder by corporate scavengers.

While Louisiana workers and their families were trapped in filthy shelters, they doled out billions of dollars in no-bid contracts so out-of-state companies could import low-wage workers to jack up their profits.

There is widespread concern that "brown will be the new black" in a city that was once 67 percent African American.  New Orleans City Council President Oliver M. Thomas Jr. told ABC News: "I have an affliction and my affliction is I love my people first."

The United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce is similarly afflicted.  It deplored as “offensive” Mayor Ray Nagin’s plea for help “to make sure that New Orleans is not overrun by Mexican workers.”  The USHCC says “immigrant hands helped to build this nation and it is immigrant hands that will help to rebuild New Orleans.”

Yeah, and that’s the problem.