OK, I’ll Give Him A Chance…
Here’s a word to the wise, if both sides of the aisle is asking what is in this stimulus bill, then maybe it’s not a good idea. That is the sentiment from both Democrats and Republicans who believe that this stimulus does not help the American people.
“C4″ on WBAL Radio this afternoon said that this stimulus bill in particular is not giving any god-like powers like the one passed before President Bush left office. Remember that bill? That was the one where money went to rum, toy bow and arrows and to buy other banks. It did not necessarily got to the American people…well, the ones who needed the money I should say.
Looking at this bill should embarass President Barack Obama (D) because he had vowed that there would be no earmarks in the stimulus bill. Not only did Mr. Obama stated this, but a couple of weeks before, Vice President Joe Biden also vowed the same thing, no pet projects in the stimulus bill. Despite this vow from the two top officials in the land, congress has bucked the trend by asking for through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act:
- $600 million for new cars for federal agencies.
- $ 1 billion for Amtrak
- $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts
- $400 million for global warming research
- $650 million for more Digital TV converter coupons
- $2 billion for National Parks. I guess it helps when the chief lobbyists’ father is a Republican congressman
source: WALL STREET JOURNAL
While Capitol Hill makes a mockery of the American people, I have decided to give President Obama a chance to do something that would involve common sense. I am asking him that if this bill is full of pork, vote NO. In other words, I am asking him to at least keep his word about not having any pork in a stimulus bill that does not have anything in regards to stimulating jobs.
So everyone keeps telling me (especially Obama supporters) to give him a chance. On this one, I will give him a chance. If he fails to keep his word, I will not be surprised.
Don’t Go To Al, Go To Bea
As we get ready to go into Black History and Heritage Month in the next week or so, I think it’s important to ask our political leaders, particularly if they are White, from now on that if they want to reach out to the African-American Community, please do not go to the Revs. Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson.
Instead go to the Bea Gaddy Thanksgiving Event in Baltimore. Go to a community event that isn’t being attended by any members of the Black Boy Network (or the Secret Order now that I think of it.) Stop by a church on Sunday to let them know, hey I know you guys are here. Visit a HBCU. Put please, oh please, do not reach out to Sharpton or Jackson. They do not represent all of us, they only represent the few that feel they are constantly being held down through the generational passing down of knowledge.
Racism and discrimination still exists. Things will not change simply because we have a Black President. The problem is that Jackson and Sharpton still view things from the scope of the 1960s. The truth is that race relations have greatly improved since that time, to the point that the pay gap between college educated whites and blacks is shrinking.
However, there are still many problems, particularly in Urban areas that have been ignored by both Black and White politicians. Either the Black politicians are not gaining the support they need to address the problem or the White politicians thinking that they have done enough. The truth of the matter is that both are using the wrong means to address these issues, or should I say, the wrong people.
The people who really know what is happening in the community are those getting their hands dirty, helping the homeless, the single parents, the children and others who are at a disadvantage. They are not grandstanding on the cable news networks talking about how things have not changed. They are not publishing websites where all they do is take pictures of them and other people who have the means and the influence to do something in their community, but all they do is gather and talk about how to get more money from the government through minority subcontracting. One thing I would like to do is get my hands dirty. It’s one thing to talk about it, but it’s a completely different thing to talk it and walk it.
If politicians would spend more time with the actual populace and not with the alleged power brokers, then we might just come a little bit closer to building better communities overall. As the great television news journalist Bill Bonds said when he came out of retirement to do a reunion newscast for WXYZ-TV in Detroit (it was their 60th Anniversary,) Bonds said that someone needs to tell politicians that before they were Democrat or Republican, they were American. Right now those Americans at the top of the hill need to visit Americans at the bottom of the hill and see reality.
Memo of Understanding Concerning Obama
OK, let’s get this out of the way. I am happy President Barack Obama broke the glass ceiling while at the same time, take power away from Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. I am happy that race was not a factor in the election, and that we got along for at least one more day.
At the same time, I am also a realist and I cannot deny the fact that I not only have concerns and doubt about the President, but I have a few observations I also have a problem with. For starters, those people telling me give him a chance. Why should I. Most people didn’t give Bush a chance, as a matter of fact they protested eight years ago. Is he my President, yes I’m an American. Am I going to pray for him, yes. But am I looking forward to him trying to implement what he wants and then having Congress run him, not at all.
And speaking of Congress, no one wants to plame the last two congresses under Bush that didn’t do anything (2005-209). Bush may have made some mistakes, but it was the Republican congress that abused their power and the Democratic congress that wanted to school petty political points more than help the people. It was these congresses that wanted to build a fence along the Southern border and PUBLICLY take the troops out of Iraq. I’m for an orderly withdrawl, but the world does not need to know when it is, unless we really want to repeat Vietnam.
Then I have to say this in regards to the Black community, looking at the Blue Line today going to work is sad. Many of the folks on the train probably are the ones than Jam Donaldson described in her blog post last month, about how it took someone who was “magical” to inspire people to start caring. She used the term “magical negro” to illustrate this point. I am asking myself now that they put all of their time and energy into getting Obama elected and then going down to celebrate and witness history, what are they going to do when they get home. Are they going to wait for him to wave his magic wand and everything in the Black community will be instantly alright, or will they do something and use some self-initiative.
Obama does not have nor did he use pixie dust to run, he ran because he wanted to, despite the fact that the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Shaprton discouraged him from running. John Lewis wanted him to run in 2016. As a matter of fact, these gentlemen, thought that Obama was not Black enough (with Jackson wanting to castrate him for allegedly speaking down to Black people.) I would not be surprised that a number of people who were proud to pile on the metrorail to make their way down to the Mall to view President Obama, had similar thoughts.
I also have a problem with people all of a sudden respecting the office of the President. If you disagree with Bush, fine, but no one had any respect for the office, that is a problem. Unlike many of you who direspected the office of President, I will continue to do so.
While I am along this line, a message to my fellow conservatives regardless of color, can you all please grow the hell up? McCain lost. Many of you all did not really want to vote for him anyway and you allowed Obama to win. If you stayed home on election day and you were not an Obama supporter, you have no right to complain. If this is a democracy and if we believe that this is our government to, then start pounding phone lines to your representatives and let your voice be heard. It worked for the immigration reform that was withdrawn in 2007, it will work again.
We are going to disagree with the President, it’s apart of life. However, supporting the mindset of Ann Coulter and the like will not help the cause in the future. It will make us look like heartless, unitelligent boobs. Let’s stop with the childish name calling. Stop trying to evoke him as a terrorist, he had no choice in his middle name. Find some more intelligent ways to voice your dissent and start making sure that we have some real compromise and show how much better our side is.
If it sounds like I’m a little cranky, I am. For the last few weeks leading into the election, I had my blackness questioned because I believed in voting my values over my race. I get dirty looks from people when I told them that I didn’t vote for Obama. I’m sorry folks, Obama does not fit my values. I do not believe he will be a true ally of Israel and I do not believe that he has respect for all religions or for the sanctity of life. I was told that I do not understand the plight of Black people and that I was crazy for voting for McCain. As a Black conservative, I am not looking forward to the next four years because I disagree with the President.
In addition, it’s a pain in the ass to try and defend your viewpoint when you have a two fold fight when you are lumped into the likes of Coulter, Hannity and Limbaugh while being accused of being a sellout, ignorant, unintelligent AND/OR a house negro.
Guess what, all black people are not monolithic, some of use actually did not vote for Obama, some conservatives are making us look bad and change does not happen right away, let alone overnight. Stop thinking that with Obama in office, life will become better. YOU DO NOT KNOW IF IT WILL.
Obama is still a politician. Let’s wait and see how things play out.
Spare me the coverage…
As we all know, unless you have been in hiding, we are going to inaugurate the first Black President of these United States of America in a couple of weeks. BET and TV One will be covering the inauguration on January 20. The Associated Press says that BET will be covering the parade and swearing in from four different angles, while TVOne will be doing 21 straight hours of live coverage, especially since this is their big fifth anniversary weekend. With BET and TVOne investing all of this coverage into the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama (D), I have to ask…why?
Why are these two networks, who have not cared about news coverage before Barack Obama ran for office (although BET did have some moments,) all of a sudden decide to cover a presidential inauguration. I understand that this is suppose to be a great celebratory story, but they were not covering JACK before Barack Obama ran for president. As a matter of fact none of them lifted a finger until get got the nomination. For me to sit here and say, hey that’s great would be a lie because I don’t think that it’s great. I think it’s a sad commentary on how these networks , especially BET, would rather entertain more than they would inform.
BET had a news department, then they canceled it, and now…well, they do not have much of anything. MTV News has more of a news department than BET. TVOne was an entertainment channel from the start, however, they should of had some committment to public affairs. Although TVOne is at least tasteful (sans Michael Baisden), BET has been mired in controversy for it’s choice in programming content. They have been in existence for nearly 30 years, yet they have not consistently kept a stronger News or Public Affairs presence. The reason why is between Viacom’s budget cutting and Bob Johnson’s lack of interest.
Here is the problem, we have two strong black networks that can level the playing field at the drop of a hat (probably not so much now because of the economy,) but they would rather not do anything unless there is something in it for them. For them to all of a sudden give live coverage as if they were in the know the entire time, is an insult to the many black journalists (or should I say journalists who are black) who are trying to give a fair and balanced view of the world. I would rather have them film it as the entertainment spectacle they are planning to do live for playback whever they feel like, than to play pretend. Especially since one person (Joe Madison) more than likely did not think that Obama was Black enough at some point.
