Anderson@Large

Clinton Pollster Got $6 Million from Stimulus

The Obama administration is the most transparent in history. As Recovery.gov data are reviewed, some stimulus-funded projects are stimulating outrage.

Recovery.gov reports that Burson-Marsteller, a global public relations and communications firm, received $5,966,260 in stimulus funds to “educate and advertise the congressionally mandated switch to digital television.” The PR campaign targeted “difficult to reach communities.”

Mark Penn, the, um, brains behind Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, is CEO of Burson-Marsteller. With nearly $6 million in hand, Penn awarded a $2,797,377 subcontract to his “sister company,” Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates.

Burson-Marsteller claims Penn’s firm only received $142,000.00. Hey, tell it to Recovery.gov, which lists two subrecipients.

By the way, the number of jobs created: Zero:

This project preserved 3 full-time jobs (on an annualized basis) at Burson-Marsteller that would have been eliminated without the benefit of this assignment and the revenue earned from it.

Perhaps one of the jobs Penn preserved was his own.

In further Recovery news, ProPublica found that 2,500 recipients have not filed the required report. The missing reports account for at least $2 billion in stimulus funds.

Folks, if you’re not angry, you’re not paying attention.

Race Matters in the Age of Obama

I just got back from Orlando. It was fitting that I read the latest Gallup poll while waiting for my flight. After all, a “post-racial” America is as real as the Magic Kingdom.

Gallup reports:

A year out from the 2008 presidential election, the high hopes Americans had for race relations right after Barack Obama’s victory at the polls have yet to be fully realized. Currently, 41% of Americans believe race relations have gotten better since Obama’s win; another 35% think they have not changed, while 22% say they have gotten worse. Last November, 70% thought race relations would improve as a result of the landmark outcome.

Fifty-three percent of blacks and 39% of whites think relations have improved overall, but only 11% of blacks and 7% of whites think they have improved a lot.

Then as now, 24 percent of Americans believe President Obama “will go too far in promoting efforts to aid the black community.” In fact, more Americans think “Obama’s policies to aid blacks will not go far enough.”

Among African Americans, 32 percent now say Obama hasn’t done enough, up from 20 percent in June 2008.

It bears repeating: Black folks have to stop hoping for “the big payback.” They must push for the change they voted for in November 2008.

During a recent National Action Network weekly rally, the Rev. Al Sharpton observed:

We voted for the possibility of change. You can’t have one vote and think that’s the end of your contribution. There is no one-vote revolution.

To bring about change, one must stay engaged. Civic engagement is a process; voting is an event. You can have a record turnout on Election Day and record unemployment one year later.

So, while Gallup focuses on the perception of racial inequality, the reality is that in the age of Obama, blacks still do not enjoy the same opportunities that whites have.

Rap Session: Is America Post-Racial?

Next week will mark the first anniversary of Barack Obama’s historic election as the first African American President of the United States.

It seems like yesterday I was standing in front of the White House with thousands of young people screaming for President Bush to get out of Obama’s house.

I LOL that the outdoor lights had been turned off so that photographers and videographers wouldn’t be able to get clear images of Americans offering to pack up Bush’s sh stuff and send him back to Texas.

The euphoria of Election Night 2008 has given way to reality. A year ago, the black unemployment rate was 11.3 percent. Today, it’s 15.4 percent.

And even with President Obama’s commitment to increasing opportunities for minority business enterprises, African American-owned businesses are still fighting for access to procurement opportunities on stimulus-funded projects.

So life and race matters go on.

The question of whether America is “really post-racial” is the topic of a town hall meeting tomorrow at one of my favorite places, the Museum of the City of New York. A diverse panel of scholars, artists and activists will kick around race, post-race and whatever:

During the 2008 presidential primary, the word "post-racial" emerged as a watch word to describe one of the leading candidates and by extension an entire generation of young people. But what does it mean to be post-racial in the hip-hop generation? Hip-hop, the youth culture of our time, has become synonymous with race even as it appeals to global cultures. Likewise, have we truly arrived at a post-racial era when the n-word is daily prevalent in hip-hop lyrics and culture?

The post civil rights generation is American's most global and heterogeneous ever. At the same time, as the historically weighted n-word suggests, we still struggle with our country's unreconciled racial history. “Is America Really Post-Racial?” is a town hall meeting that attempts to answer the important question, “how has the election of Barack Obama and the increased participation of young people in electoral politics changed the racial climate in the U.S.?”

The interactive town hall is free but reservations are required. To RSVP, call (917) 492-3395.

Healthcare Rally at the White House

President Barack Obama will address a joint session of Congress tomorrow. He is expected to flesh out his plan to overhaul the nation’s healthcare system.

In the run-up to his speech, Obama supporters are rallying in front of the White House today at 12:15 p.m. to remind him that they volunteered, donated campaign contributions, voted and were fired up for change.

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee is circulating a petition calling for a public option:

We worked so hard for real change. President Obama, please demand a strong public health insurance option in your speech to Congress. Letting the insurance companies win would not be change we can believe in.

Their message to the President: Yes we can.

From Fired Up to ‘Wee-weed Up’

A year ago today, Barack Obama accepted the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. Obama’s supporters left Invesco Field “fired up, ready to go.”

A year later, President Obama’s job approval rating is 50 percent and his supporters are “wee-weed up.”

New York Times columnist Bob Herbert recently wrote:

It’s still early, but people are starting to lose faith in the president. I hear almost daily from men and women who voted enthusiastically for Mr. Obama but are feeling disappointed. They feel that the banks made out like bandits in the bailouts, and that the health care initiative could become a boondoggle. Their biggest worry is that Mr. Obama is soft, that he is unwilling or incapable of fighting hard enough to counter the forces responsible for the sorry state the country is in.

More and more the president is being seen by his own supporters as someone who would like to please everybody, who is naïve about the prospects for bipartisanship, who believes that his strongest supporters will stay with him because they have nowhere else to go, and who will retreat whenever the Republicans and the corporate crowd come after him.

As for Obama’s supporters having “nowhere else to go,” Obama voters in, say, Virginia and New Jersey may decide to go to the mall rather than their polling place in November.

Obama may not have lost his mojo, but it ain’t working on a broad cross-section of Americans, according to Gallup’s weekly poll.

Among black Americans, Obama’s job approval is 91 percent, down from 96 percent at the beginning of August.

Obama Addresses NAACP

A year ago, then-candidate Barack Obama spoke before the NAACP’s 99th convention in Cincinnati, Ohio and rocked the house.

Tonight in New York City, President Barack Obama will bring down the house.

Obama will fulfill the promise made last year:

So I’m grateful to you for all you’ve done for this campaign, but we’ve got work to do and we cannot rest. And I know that if you put your shoulders to the wheel of history and take up the cause of perfecting our union just as earlier generations of Americans did before you; if you take up the fight for opportunity and equality and prosperity for all; if you march with me and fight with me, and get your friends registered to vote, and if you stand with me this fall – then not only will we help close the responsibility deficit in this country, and not only will we help achieve social justice and economic justice for all, but I will come back here next year on the 100th anniversary of the NAACP, and I will stand before you as the President of the United States of America.

Obama will address the Spingarn Dinner at the NAACP Centennial Convention. The Spingarn Medal is awarded annually by the NAACP for outstanding achievement by an African American. This year’s honoree is NAACP Chairman Julian Bond.

You can view a live webcast of Obama’s address here at 7:00pm ET.

Voting Rights and One Wrong

The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which requires jurisdictions with a history of voting discrimination to have their election rules “precleared” by the Department of Justice.

Opponents had argued that President Barack Obama’s election shows the preclearance provisions are relics of a bygone era. They pointed to the record registration and turnout of African American voters as further proof that the mission of the Voting Rights has been accomplished.

Writing for an eight-member majority, Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. acknowledged:

The historic accomplishments of the Voting Rights Act are undeniable. When it was first passed, unconstitutional discrimination was rampant and the “registration of voting-age whites ran roughly 50 percentage points or more ahead” of black registration in many covered States.

Hinting that Section 5’s days may be numbered, Roberts noted:

Today, the registration gap between white and black voters is in single digits in the covered States; in some of those States, blacks now register and vote at higher rates than whites…Voter turnout and registration rates now approach parity. Blatantly discriminatory evasions of federal decrees are rare. And minority candidates hold office at unprecedented levels.

Rep. Barbara Lee, chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said in a statement:

By an overwhelming 8 to 1 majority the Supreme Court has rejected an attempt to turn the clock back on civil rights and acknowledged Congress’s authority to protect the right to vote.

With the exception of Justice Clarence Thomas, the Justices of the Supreme Court understand the importance of the Voting Rights Act and the progress this country has made since 1964.

As a result of today’s ruling, the VRA and its “preclearance” provision remain effective tools in this nation’s ongoing struggle to guarantee an equal vote to all, regardless of race.

In Thomas’ worldview, black folks have overcome:

Congress passed §5 of the VRA in 1965 because that promise had remained unfulfilled for far too long. But now—more than 40 years later––the violence, intimidation, and subterfuge that led Congress to pass §5 and this Court to uphold it no longer remains. An acknowledgment of §5’s unconstitutionality represents a fulfillment of the Fifteenth Amendment’s promise of full enfranchisement and honors the success achieved by the VRA.

Thomas conveniently ignores the racial disparities in voters’ experiences on Election Day 2008. And don’t get me started on the voting rights violations in the 2000 election.

Perhaps Judge Sonia Sotomayor will be able to talk some sense into her fellow Yale Law grad when she joins him on the bench.

The case is Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District v. Holder. Background info is available here.