Archive for January, 2008

The one episode of Sex in the City I ever tried to watch depicted the main characters taking a trip to the Hamptons. I lived in New York for 7 years and never went or was enticed by the Hamptons. I do not even know what ‘The Hamptons’ are. Are they mountains? A beach? I’m not sure, but I know that in August many rich New Yorkers go there. I always associated the place with negative ideas: conspicuous consumption, sequestered wealth, conservatism, and ignorance. I was therefore never open to discussing or watching Sex and the City after catching the opening of that episode and I am still baffled at how many people of color and social conscience remain fans. Sound harsh? Today I was vindicated. Check out this column from the Hamptons section of plumtv.com describing a recent humor column in the Hamptons based Independent. Here is the apology posted on the Independent’s website..

Funny recutting of this speach speaks louder than words to the emptiness of these types of events and the disconnected state of the nation.

Why has the media let Hillary Clinton get away with employing the Faust of African America as a political attack dog biting a viable Black presidential candidate. Whether you like Obama or not, affiliating with the man who fired Bev Johnson and canceled Job Man Caravan in order to make more room for Jewels Santana videos should be an unpardonable sin against African America. I am slowly becoming less interested in supporting Barak as the least of Presidential evils and more interested in undermining the Clinton oligarchy. Here is a video from someone else who was offended by the Johnson comments:

This call for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one’s tribe, race, class, and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all mankind. This oft misunderstood, this oft misinterpreted concept, so readily dismissed by the Nietzsches of the world as a weak and cowardly force, has now become an absolute necessity for the survival of man. When I speak of love I am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response. I am not speaking of that force which is just emotional bosh. I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality.

Excerpt from a speech delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4th, 1967 at Riverside Church in New York City exactly one year before he was assassinated.
Full Text and Recording

The Huffington post reports that the Kucinich camp is funding a recount of the New Hampshire primary vote.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kirsten-anderson/request-for-nh-recount-gr_b_81306.html

By doing this, Kucinich is posing a public challenge based on what many may have been privately wondering: “How the hell did Clinton surge ahead in NH in such a short period of time stunning every major national pollster?” Is this Why Obama was the only of the three Democratic front-runners to make a statement about NBC’s last minute barring of Rep. Denis Kucinich from Tuesday’s debate in Nevada?

Obama’s reference to Reagan’s presidency as transformative may turn out to have been as sinisterly brilliant as it seemed ill advised. Since the Reagan era the American electorate has been micro-trended and polled down to a false dichotomy between conservatives and democrats (you can’t say liberal anymore). On both sides certain groups are taken for granted (the religious right on the republican side and blacks on the democratic side). The result is that elections micro thin majorities of 51 - 55%. Congress bounces back and forth between control by either side and “gridlock” prevails. Obama and his team are planning to change this calculus. Hence they have made every effort to invite independents and even disaffected republicans into their tent even if only rhetorically. The idea is brilliant: Take advantage of the historical moment and build what Obama calls a “Working Majority.”

Contrast that with Clinton.

How far will the effects of Senator Clinton’s mis begotten remarks about Dr. King spread out into this nomination race? Usually you can count on Americans to forget the missteps of their leaders as soon as Brittney has the next breakdown, but their are reasons to believe that this moment could be a tiny crack in the Clinton campaign with large implications:

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/14/clinton-receives-tepid-reception-at-mlk-event/

If you missed the beginning of this rowe, the Las Vegas Sun does a great job of quickly outlining not only the remarks about Dr. King but the slough of faux pas that have come from the Clinton side of the party recently:

From J. Patrick Coolican in Las Vegas Sun:

In recent weeks, Clinton allies have made a series of awkward and sometimes crass remarks that play to stereotypes about black men.

Billy Shaheen, her then-New Hampshire chairman, speaking about Obama’s admission in his memoir that he used drugs as a teenager, said Obama would have to answer questions about whether he’d sold drugs. Shaheen resigned.

Andrew Cuomo, a Clinton supporter and New York’s attorney general, said about New Hampshire, “You can’t shuck and jive” there.

Robert Johnson, founder of Black Entertainment Television, seemed to imply that while Clinton and her husband, Bill Clinton, were working hard for black people, Obama was off doing drugs. Johnson later released a statement denying that that’s what he meant.

Clinton recently seemed to downplay the role of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in the passage of the Civil Rights Act.

“Dr. King’s dream began to be realized when President Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, when he was able to get through Congress something that President Kennedy was hopeful to do, the president before had not even tried. But it took a president to get it done.”

This series of events, which the Clinton camp says are discrete and easily explained, carries considerable risk of a backlash for her. Black voters could make up to 20 percent of Democratic caucusgoers in Nevada. White Democrats might react angrily to any impression that the Clinton campaign hascoordinated an effort to use race against Obama.

Upadate 1/15/08:
Washington Times article claims Clinton is losing Black support

From article by CARL HULSE of The New York Times
Published: January 11, 2008

In an interview with Fox News on Monday, Mrs. Clinton, who was locked in a running exchange with Senator Barack Obama, a rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, over the meaning of the legacies of President John F. Kennedy and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., tried to make a point about presidential leadership.

“Dr. King’s dream began to be realized when President Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” Mrs. Clinton said in trying to make the case that her experience should mean more to voters than the uplifting words of Mr. Obama. “It took a president to get it done.”

According to the article, this mistake could swing a key endorsement from SC Representative James E. Clyburn toward Obama.

You can ignore the heart tugging b-roll footage of mobilizing voters, but pay attention to the speech. After having his rhetoric hijacked by the Clinton camp who began addressing the voters more directly in Hillary’s NH speech by utilizing the ever elusive pronoun “you,” Barak reinvigorates a message that he used in the New Hampshire debate. If he’s smart - and he seems to be - he will ride these three words into the White House.

One thing that bothers me however, is the way he affects his speech to sound like Dr. King. Notice how he says “opportunita” instead of “opportunity” with a long ‘e’ sound at the end. Dr. King used to pronounce “issue” isha. I am not saying this is a wrong way of speaking. Dr. King was master of the language and just think of the whole Kennedy family if you need a foil. But, did Barak grow up pronouncing words that way? Just a thought.