Anderson@Large

Election ’06: A Change is Gonna Come

     I was born by the river in a little tent
     And just like that river I've been running ever since
     It's been a long time coming
     But I know a change is gonna come, oh yes it will
     -- “A Change is Gonna Come”

Sam Cooke was the first to tell us that “a change is gonna come.”  And it did. Within months of the release of his soul classic, black folks marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge and demanded the right to vote.

If you’re among the 89 percent of black Americans who think the country is on the wrong track and want a new direction, then “be the change” and vote.

But before you go to the polls, the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation urges you to verify your voting status.

Melanie L. Campbell, convener of Unity ’06, says:

In 2004, the number one problem reported by national voter assistance hotlines was the identification of the caller’s correct polling place. We know tactics have been employed in past elections that disenfranchised a disproportionate number of Black, Latino, senior, student and low income voters. During the 2006 election cycle, we’re geared up to equip voters with empowering tools designed to protect their vote. Voters have got be their own change agents.

To verify your voting status, click here or call 1-866-MY-VOTE1.

Democrats and Black Voters: SOS

As predictable as the swallows of Capistrano, Democrats are hitting the panic button over whether black voters will show up on Election Day.

And they should be concerned. A high black voter turnout (and here) is crucial to victory in several states, including Florida, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee and Virginia.

While Republicans assiduously court their base, Democrats want to hook up with black voters in the final days leading up to the Nov. 7 election.

Tellingly, Democratic operatives didn’t sound the alarm when black folks were not at the table when the pie was being sliced. They said nothing as new organizations like America Votes, Americans United and the September Fund, reportedly named after the month in which its founder Harold Ickes (sounds like icky) was born, were being bankrolled by major Democratic donors.

Parenthetically, even folks with deep pockets have their limits. Ickes, who reportedly raised only $3 million of the $10 million to $25 million he was soliciting, has been told to get out of here.

So, while the money has gone to progressive (read: white) groups that have never won an election, traditional voting rights groups that have measurable track records are expected to jump through hoops for some last-minute crumbs.

Consider: The Census Bureau reported that in the 1998 midterm election “African Americans were the only race or ethnic group to defy the trend of declining voter participation in congressional elections, increasing their presence at the polls from 37 percent in 1994 to 40 percent in 1998."

Similarly, the Census Bureau found that a record number of people were registered and voted in the 2002 midterm election. Among those registered to vote, turnout was 71 percent for whites and 68 percent for blacks.

Simply put, the racial gap in voter registration and turnout was closed by black voter empowerment groups -- not white progressives.

BTW, traditional voting rights groups could have addressed black voters’ disillusionment following the 2004 presidential election when John Kerry arguably snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in Ohio.

Instead, they were pushed aside in favor of America Coming Together, an instant organization headed up by Ickes and the equally icky Steve Rosenthal.  Together, they burned through more than $100 million, and then packed up their PowerPoint slides and Palm Pilots and left black voters standing in the rain.

Yes, it’s a new election and the stakes are high (and here), but it’s the same old sh, well, you know.

Bring 'Em Home

                                     

                                     

                              

    

    

    

         

   

October isn’t over but already more troops have been killed than in any other month this year.  Much to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s chagrin, someone forgot to tell the insurgents to “back off.”

The senseless killing (and here) was made all too real when I read a news item forwarded by my friend, Florida state Sen. Tony Hill, chair of the Florida Legislative Black Caucus.   The item reads:

The nation is mourning the death of Lt. Emily Perez, 23, the first Black woman to serve as corps commander sergeant major at West Point. Perez, who graduated in the top 10 percent of her class, out-ran many men, directed a gospel choir, read the Bible every day.  She also headed a weekly convoy as it rolled down treacherous roads, pocked with bombs and bullets near Najaf, Iraq.  As platoon leader, she insisted on leading her troops from the front.  She died Sept. 12 when a bomb detonated near her Humvee in Kifl, south of Baghdad.  Shortly before shipping out to Iraq with the 204th Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, she flew cross-country to be a bone marrow donor for a stranger who was a match. She was the 64th woman from the U.S. military to be killed in Iraq or Afghanistan.

To send a message that you support our troops and want to bring them home alive, click here.

Black Conservatives Shortchanged, Again

This piece in the Los Angeles Times is spot-on about blacks and the Republican Party:

Complaints among black pastors who had been courted by the White House — while less pronounced than those of Latino leaders — have been fueled by a tell-all book by former White House aide David Kuo.

The new book says that Bush, referring to pastors from one major African American denomination, once griped: “Money. All these guys care about is money. They want money (emphasis added).”

A White House spokeswoman said Friday that nobody there recalled hearing such a comment from the president.

The Rev. Eugene Rivers, a Boston Pentecostal minister and one of about two dozen black clergy invited to a series of White House meetings with Bush, said Friday that black leaders had been wooed with assurances that their social service groups would receive money from the president’s faith-based initiative. But, Rivers said, the bulk of the money had gone to white organizations, leaving black churches on the sidelines.

Rivers plans to send a letter early this week to the White House demanding to know how much social services money has been directed to black churches under the faith-based initiative, and requesting a “new conversation” with Bush.

”There’s a growing frustration and anger in the black religious community nationally as the Kuo book makes the rounds,” Rivers said. “Meetings at the White House show you the door, but they don’t necessarily open the door.”

Long before black evangelicals darkened the door of the White House, I sent a reality check about the GOP illusion of inclusion.

You can’t play an inside game with this bunch in the hope that they will grant you some chump change. If you do, they’ll make a chump out of you because they know that the only thing you bring to the table is your hand out.

Bush Iraq Policy Stuck on Stupid

Just how stupid does President Bush and his minions (and here) think we are?

For years, the now dwindling band of Iraq war defenders questioned the patriotism of anyone who dared to criticize Bush’s “stay the course” mantra. With polls showing that Americans want to change course and get the hell out of Iraq, the top U.S. general is preparing to cut and run.  Oops, he's establishing a timeline for "benchmarks."

It’s been said that there are none so blind as those who will not see. But a blind man can see that the presence of American troops is fueling the violence. This fact was underscored by Medea Benjamin at the Fourth Annual Brooklyn Peace Fair.

While President Bush and his three blind mice -- Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice -- stupidly claimed that Americans would be “greeted as liberators,” they can only visit the heavily fortified Green Zone under the cover of darkness and secrecy.

By contrast, armed with just her passion and commitment to social justice, Medea has traveled throughout Iraq on her five visits.  She has spoken with ordinary Iraqis who are horrified that Bush “has taken the cradle of civilization and turned it into a hellhole” in pursuit of an “illegal, immoral, unjustified and unprovoked war.”

Medea said:

We must listen to what the Iraqi people are saying. They’re saying even if you want to protect us, you can’t do it. You can’t even protect the Green Zone.

Iraqis don’t trust American troops with their security; their presence leads to violence. There will be no security until the American troops leave.

Fortunately, it looks like the midterm elections will force a midcourse correction.

Election ’06: GOPers Fade to Black

It looks like this is not the “year of the black Republican,” after all.

In Maryland, the Man of Steele isn't expected to steal away too many black votes. As my buddy DeWayne Wickham writes:

Running as a Washington outsider is nothing new for political candidates of either party. But for someone who was heavily recruited by national GOP leaders to strike such an independent position is an example of either great hubris or shameless hucksterism.

In Pennsylvania, Hall of Fame wide receiver Lynn Swann is running on empty.

In Ohio, Ken Blackwell ain’t doing too well. Since he's not likely to be a player much longer, he’s become a playa-hater.

And let’s not forget the self-styled “black Jesse Helms” in North Carolina. Oh, let’s.

Clearly, it’s not a good year to be a black Republican candidate. Meanwhile, professional black Republicans are slavishly doing their masters’ bidding and playing the race card in a futile effort to try to bamboozle blacks (and here) into voting Republican.

In a radio ad reportedly paid for by right-wing billionaire J. Patrick Rooney, black women are called “‘hos:"

BLACK MAN #1: “If you make a little mistake with one of your ‘hos,’ you'll want to dispose of that problem tout suite, no questions asked.”

BLACK MAN #2: “That’s too cold. I don't snuff my own seed.”

BLACK MAN #1: “Maybe you do have a reason to vote Republican.”

The ad is being placed by a GOP front group, Americas PAC, supposedly run by Herman Cain. I knew Herman when he headed up the National Restaurant Association. Now he’s just out to lunch.

Katrina: Art Not Just for Art’s Sake

Last week, Rep. Gene Taylor, chair of the Democratic Caucus Katrina Task Force, released a report, “Katrina and Beyond,” which includes recommendations for legislative action to bolster hurricane rebuilding and recovery efforts.

Rep. Taylor’s news conference was aired live on C-SPAN. If any Katrina survivors were watching, I hope that they were heartened knowing that they have not been forgotten – at least not by House Democrats (and here).

While the mainstream media have largely moved on, artists are telling the story of survival, loss and hope in film, on stage (and here) and in photographs (here and here).

Over the weekend, I viewed a special exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Photographer Robert Polidori went to New Orleans to “bear witness to the stunning scope of the crisis and to ensure that New Orleans and its citizens will not be forgotten.”  His hauntingly beautiful photographs capture the “poignancy of absence.”

Polidor's photographs will be on view until Dec. 10, 2006. For more info, click here.