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Countdown to Election Day

In less than 100 days, Americans will go to the polls and I hope cast their vote for the “new direction” that Congressional Democrats are promising with their “Six for ‘06”:

With the country at a crossroads, facing a historic choice between the status quo and a change in course, House and Senate Democrats joined together today to call for a New Direction for America. After years of paying the price for a Congress that has favored the special interests and enduring the failed leadership and incompetent policies of Republicans in Washington, the American people have had enough, and they want change.

Mind you, I’m registered with no party affiliation.  I believe Will Rogers was on point when he said: “I am not a member of any organized party — I am a Democrat.”

Rogers also said: “The more you read and observe about this Politics thing, you got to admit that each party is worse than the other. The one that’s out always looks the best.”

Congressional Democrats have been on the outs since 1994.  But like the 66 percent of Americans who think things are out of whack, I’ve had enough.  So, I’m rooting for the Dems to get their together and whack Republicans.

For info on how you can get involved, click here.

Steele Trap

Over lunch with some reporters, Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele was hoisted by his own petard.  In hindsight, he should have shut his trap and stuffed his face with rolls like his patron, President Bush.  Instead, he ran his mouth and committed a political faux pas: he spoke the truth.

Some excerpts:

The candidate, immersed in one of the most competitive Senate races in the country, sat down to lunch yesterday with reporters at a Capitol Hill steakhouse and shared his views about this year’s political currents.

On the Iraq war: “It didn’t work. . . . We didn’t prepare for the peace.

On the response to Hurricane Katrina: “A monumental failure of government.”

On the national mood: “There’s a palpable frustration right now in the country.”

It’s all fairly standard Democratic boilerplate -- except the candidate is a Republican. And he’s getting all kinds of cooperation from the White House, the Republican National Committee and GOP congressional leaders.

Not that he necessarily wants it. “Well, you know, I don’t know,” the candidate said when asked if he wanted President Bush to campaign for him. Noting Bush’s low standing in his home state, he finally added: “To be honest with you, probably not.”

…

That left the candidate in a difficult spot. “For me to pretend I’m not a Republican would be a lie,” he reasoned. But to run as a proud Republican? “That’s going to be tough, it’s going to be tough to do,” he said. “If this race is about Republicans and Democrats, I lose.”

Steele now says he was joking:

So I was making a joke about the fact that in this political climate, in Maryland, being a Republican is like wearing a scarlet letter. That’s all it is.

OK, then the joke is on him. According to the latest CBS News/New York Times poll, 52 percent of Americans have a favorable view of Democrats compared to 43 percent who view Republicans favorably.

And as for Steele’s “homeboy”  (and here), 14 percent of those polled said their vote for Congress will be a “vote for the President” while 33 percent say it will be a “vote against the President.”

Pretty funny, huh?

Voting Rights

Finally, there’s something other than terrible news (here and here) coming out of the Bush White House.

Today, President Bush signed into law the “Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006,” which renews the special provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights that were set to expire next year.

Still, with Bush, one has to read the fine print to make sure he doesn’t slip something into the signing statement (here, here and here) that will undermine enforcement of the law.

New York Minutemen

The Minutemen are coming.  And in a New York minute, the May 1 Immigrants Rights Coalition and other illegal immigrant advocates organized a counter-protest.

But it will take more than some flag-waving illegals to deter Americans like Minutemen Founder Jim Gilchrist, author of the new book, “Minutemen: The Battle to Secure America's Borders.” Gilchrist is coming to Ground Zero with a message for those who would surrender our sovereignty to foreign nationals:

The threat posed by out-of-control illegal immigration extends way beyond the border states, and our whole republic is threatened… Why does our government want to keep the true costs of illegal immigration hidden from the public? And why are American taxpayers forced to pay the staggering economic and cultural price tag of illegal immigration?

For more info, click here.

Who Let the Lapdogs Out

The dog days of summer are still a week away, but some black conservative lapdogs will try to heat things up at the right-wing Heritage Foundation tomorrow.

Led by Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, these shameless revisionists are convening a “moral reconstruction” conference to propose solutions for ending poverty and rebuilding the Gulf Coast.  Rev. Peterson (does he have a church?) froths:

We need a transformation of the human spirit in New Orleans and across America’s inner cities. There’s an epidemic of moral poverty among too many black Americans. It will take black Americans to stop depending on the government and embrace self-reliance to change this crisis. To that end we’re convening the best and brightest minds to offer real solutions to these problems.

Get real.  With the peak hurricane season looming, the untalented tenth will propose that black folks let FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers off the hook and take personal responsibility for natural and manmade disasters.

If you want to hear some bought professional conservatives blow hot air about what’s in the best interest of black folks, then click here.

We See Black People

Over the weekend, I attended the Harlem Book Fair. One of the highlights was a panel discussion on the roles and responsibilities of the black media that was aired live on Book TV.

The discussion was moderated by the inestimable Cathy Hughes, founder and chairwoman of Radio One. The panelists included Dick Gregory, Roland Martin and Juan Williams. The speakers reminded the Schomburg Center and C-SPAN audiences that the black press dates back to 1827 and the founding of “Freedom’s Journal.”

Then as now, “we wish to plead our own cause. Too long have others spoken for us.”  Indeed, there’s an African proverb that says, “Until the lion writes his own history, the account of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.”

The black media – both old and new – continue to play a vital role in telling our stories and glorifying our accomplishments. And with the rise of disruptive technologies, Dick Gregory said the mainstream media “have to think twice because there’s another voice out there that can put in what you left out.”

As Cathy Hughes teaches us, information is power.

Bush to NAACP: I Care

Woody Allen famously said that “80 percent of success is just showing up.”  President Bush, a C student at Yale, received a rare 80 for showing up (here and here) at the NAACP convention and tested the patience of the delegates.  Message: I care (and here).
         

But as USA Today reported:

He got a polite, but not rousing, reception. He drew applause on several occasions, particularly when he talked about education, aid to Katrina victims and helping minority businesses. And he got a standing ovation when he said he looked forward to signing the voting rights bill.

He drew scattered boos when he said he was in favor of charter schools and two men stood up and began shouting something about the war and (Vice President) Cheney. They were escorted out by ushers, not police. I heard one say as he passed, “nobody wants him here.”

No $#&*!.