The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
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    Does the West/Obama Controversy Constitute Blacks Airing Dirty Laundry?

    By Wattree on Sun, 05/29/2011 - 6:57pm |

    Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree
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    Does the West/Obama Controversy Constitute Blacks Airing Dirty Laundry?

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    There are some in the Black community who feel that the controversy ignited after Dr. Cornel West slandered President Obama is counterproductive. Dr. West of Princeton University accused President Obama of being “a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a black puppet of corporate plutocrats.” He then went on to say that Obama was  threatened by “a free Black man.” Critics of the resulting firestorm against Cornel West dismiss it as nothing but an exercise in Black intellectual elitists contemplating their navels and airing the Black community’s dirty laundry in public.
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    In her article,“Cornel West: The Fallout Continues Over Obama Comments,” that appeared in TheRoot, Dr. Nsenga Burton says the following:
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    “Isn't it interesting that black male commentators are using stereotypes ascribed to black males to critique West, and diminishing his intellectual contributions in the process? Instead of a 'bloody lip,' in the game of dozens when one goes too far, West's virtual 'bloody lip' is the result of blogosphere gone awry.”
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    The above take on this issue is so far off the mark on so many levels that I feel obliged to address much of it in the first person.
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    While admittedly, many of us will feel an innate visceral attachment to Dr. Burton's argument, our commitment to logical thought should force us to reject it out of hand. First, every debate is a source of knowledge, so to say that any source of knowledge has “gone awry” is counterintuitive on its face. Secondly, I personally reject the entire concept of fixating on Black stereotyping. Allowing ourselves to become consumed by this issue is a gross waste of intellectual energy, since we should never become more concerned about what other people think of us than what we think of ourselves.
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    Instead of becoming obsessed with how others portray us, our energies should be directed toward living above any kind of negative stereotyping. That’s one of the things that Obama does so well, and it’s the primary reason why he’s hated so intensely by his enemies - both Black and White. To my knowledge, Obama hasn’t said a word in response to Dr. West’s tirade. He’s handling it just like he handled Donald Trump - instead of preaching us a sermon, he’s living us one. While there's room to criticize any president, and I too have criticisms of Obama, every person in America should take great pride in the way that young brother represented this nation during his recent trip to Europe. That's the way you address negative stereotyping, through excellence.
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    But even if we do take stereotyping into consideration, I don’t see what calling an idiotic statement idiotic has to do with Black stereotyping, that is, unless we consider Cornel West's behavior representative of the quintessential Black man. If we do, and we feel that we have to hide it as "dirty laundry,"  that suggests we feel that Black people corner the market on idiocy, a position that I would vigorously reject.
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    Dr. Burton’s position also seems to suggest that the ongoing debate occupies intellectual terrain that is somehow remote from the average Black person’s frame of reference. Such a position is not only condescending to the Black community, but it also betrays an intellectual elitism that grossly underestimates the intelligence of the Black community.
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    She quotes me in the Black Star News as saying,
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    "The fact is, anyone who considers West's remarks toward President Obama merely an objective and scholarly critique of the political environment needs to go back and take a refresher course in both freshman English and forensics. The comments directed at President Obama by Cornel West was nothing short of a racist and petty personal tirade by a woefully presumptuous and undisciplined mind. His comments were not only less than constructive and nonspecific, but they were also saturated with unsubstantiated personal attacks against the president. They were, indeed, Palinesque in both nature and intent."
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    I stand by every syllable unequivocally, and I challenge anyone to show me where I was in error. Yet, Dr. Burton says the following regarding my comments, and the comments of others, attendant to this controversy:
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    “But we do hope that this plantation narrative that is spiraling out of control in the new-media space will right itself and become a discussion about something meaningful - explicit policies to protect the poor - as opposed to an abundance of attacks on a brother, even West, who admittedly was dead wrong. Bashing West the same way that he bashed Obama is hypocritical and is not moving the discussion, the intellectual community or this country forward.”
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    I find Dr. Burton’s position quite curious. Why is it that every other group in America feels free to debate and criticize one another ad nauseam, yet the minute we point out that Cornel West made a damn fool of himself it becomes “plantation” mentality? If we are ever to move forward in the Black community, we must feel just as free as any other segment of the population to call a hat a hat, and a fool a fool. If we embrace that as a tradition, maybe the next Cornel West will be much more circumspect before making a foolish and self-serving idiot of himself.
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    Thus, instead of refraining from criticizing fellow Blacks, we should do it much more often. If we’d spoken out more aggressively against Clarence Thomas we probably wouldn’t be suffering from his ignorance today. And frankly, I don’t see a discernable difference - a demagogue is a demagogue, regardless of political persuasion. If Obama would have embraced West after his election, believe me, West would have undoubtedly been one of Obama's most enthusiastic cheerleaders. He's clearly demonstrated his character in that regard.
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    So the fact is, with the benefit of hindsight, I wish I’d been even more critical. Because if West is indeed as concerned about the Black community as he claims, he needs to resign from the rarified environment of Princeton and come teach third grade in the hood. If that's too big a price to pay for the people he claims to love, he needs to just shut up and write a book; that way we'll have a choice as to whether or not we want to listen to him.
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    And by the way, I am far from an Obama cheerleader: http://wattree.blogspot.com/2011/01/obama-supporters-vs-cheerleaders.html. The only reason I have to point that out is because Tavis Smiley and West have muddied the waters so badly that now, when we speak out, we have to convince one another that we’re not lackeys for either one side or the other. That’s a gross disservice to both the Black community, and America.
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    Eric L. Wattree
    http://wattree.blogspot.com/
    [email protected]
    Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)
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    Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

    Comments

    The black community has been airing the disagreements between Tavis Smiley, Cornel West, Barack Obama and Al Sharpton for months on end. the mainstream media, Conservatives and Progressives ignored the debate. The details of the disagreement will never be fully described in mainstream media. Conservatives secretly enjoy the "infighting" between African-Americans. Progressives will take the side of Smiley and West even if the majority of Blacks disagree with the Princeton University professor. For the African-American community, it really doesn't matter what the Conservatives or Progressives  think, because many in the majority community will always think the worst.

    The truth of the matter is that Conservatives and Progressives have already decided which group they will side with in the West-Smiley versus Obama-Sharpton debate. The decision is based upon their personal view of Barack Obama and has nothing to do with the style that Cornel West used to criticize the President. All that matters is for them to choose those articles or opinions that support their biases. No one will change their mind about whether Cornel West is a prophet speaking truth to power or a charlatan scholar who enjoys the sound of his voice.

    Herman Cain is currently running for President and will aim criticisms equal to those of Cornel West at Barack Obama. When Herman Cain is attacked by blacks verbally, the Conservative defense will be that Cain is merely truth telling. While Cain attacks Obama as being a Socialist Kenyan who hates America, West will attack Obama as being a corporate shill.

    In his defense, Herman Cain will say that he is being called an Uncle Tom. Republican Old sons of the South and Northern Republicans who only see African-Americans as subordinates will come to Cain's defense. no matter what words he chooses, Cain will be defended by Conservatives just as West is defended by Progressives. Conservatives and Progressives who live to criticize Obama will try to suppress any arguments from the Black community that attack Cornel West and Herman Cain. The game is already afoot.

    Those Blacks with reasoned arguments about the wars, foreclosures and unemployment should feel free to openly criticize the President. Obama was able to stand in front of the public and openly criticize Netanyahu and Israel policy. If Obama can criticize Israel, he is capable of hearing criticism from the black community.

    Name-calling will have zero impact. Obama has been called a Socialist Muslim atheist radical Christian and a wingnut Republican mascot for corporate interests who is no different than GW Bush. Call Obama Barry and get laughed out of the room. The crazies on the Right and Left have spoken. The window for the sane to criticize Obama is wide open. However, it should be remembered that mainstream media will go out of their way to mangle the message.

    We live in interesting times.


    by rmrd0000 on Sun, 05/29/2011 - 11:53pm

    An excellent assessment, RM.

    I am supportive of Obama on some issues, and critical of him on others. That's the way I've been with every president, so I don't see why that should change now.  But when I'm critical of Obama I make sure that I restrict my criticism to a specific issue, and not his presidency as a whole.  


    by Wattree on Mon, 05/30/2011 - 12:03am

    I love this post, but I am quite taken by your comment.

    This short response is so well done. Of course that means it hit me in the gut.

    Things are not simple as some cartoon character might say.

    Somehow our views should be heard. There are sides and factions to every issue. It is just that when the left begins to argue with the left, the right just steps right in and says:

    SEE, I TOLD YA SO

    As a matter of fact that was the title of one of rush's dictated novels. ha

    The media makes it look like every Black man who steps up to the plate and attacks this Administration is either nutso or somehow misguided.

    I despise Justice Thomas with all my heart and soul; but I would hope that that hatred comes from the fact that he sides with Scalia every goddamn decision and not because he is Black.

    I do not despise Scalia because he is Italian for chrissakes.

    I think about Greenwald and he is as hard against this Administration as he was against the previous administration. And he pisses me off from time to time but I am sick and tired of war and torture and GTMO and....

    At any rate thanks for your thoughts.


    by Richard Day on Mon, 05/30/2011 - 12:56am

    Richard,

    When my daughter was about 16 years-old she said something to me that had absolutely nothing to do with politics, but I immediately adopted it as a political philosophy.  She said, "Daddy, just because you're my father doesn't mean that I have to agree with you."  She stopped me in my tracks as that simple profundity soaked in.  What was so gripping about it was how she reversed our roles.  I was literally shouting at her, but when she spoke the words she said them in the most quiet and respectful tone that she could manage, and then she simply walked into her room. The way she did it not only left me with an undeniable truth, but it spoke to several other issues - presumption, independent thought, and the crippling affects of anger.

    I always think about that moment whenever I'm dealing with political issues. I learned to always remain detached, and to neither love nor hate any politician or party. I simply see them for what they are - lobbyists that will say or do anything to get our support. So  I observe the political environment like I'm watching an ant farm, and every politician has to earn my support on a daily basis, one issue at a time. So, even though I supported Obama on this issue, I already have an article in the hamper where I intend to drag him through the mud.

    The fact is, nearly all politician are selfish demagogues, and the only difference between a good one and a bad one is the "good one" will try to help the people as long as he or she can do it without inconveniencing themselves. So as I told Dr. Watkins a couple of days ago, the best way for me to define myself is as a soldier on bullshit patrol - and there's plenty of it out there. 

    So it always amuses me when I see people up-in-arms over their favorite politician. I noticed that the very day the election season started Obama's voice started quivering like Martin Luther King.  So they're all so full of shit that the whites of their eyes are brown.


    by Wattree on Mon, 05/30/2011 - 6:23am

    The Black farmers who waited 20 years to be paid by the government for a discrimination lawsuit that had been won against the Department of Agriculture criticized President Obama's White House as being unresponsive in communicating with the gropu. In the end, it was during the Obama administration that legislation got passed that got the Black farmers paid.

    HBCU presidents argued that Obama was unresponsive to their needs. In the end, Obama signed an executive order increasing funding to historically Black colleges and universities.

    When Henry Louis Gates was arrrested and Obama voiced his opinion about police behavior, there was a big pushback from mainstream media. Obama was voicing concerns that many in the Black community have about police behavior. Obama is structurally limited in just how Black he can be.

    The Shirley Sherrod fiasco did raise concerns in the Black community that Obama would throw a sister under the bus when it was politically expendient. Obama ans Agriculture Sec. Vilsack did eventually apologize. Sherrod is now a "consultant" for race relations at the Agriculture Department.

    There is some tightrope walking going on. West's comments went overboard. Tavis Smiley is viewed as an oppurtunist. On the other hand, Obama got criticism from Black university Presidents and Black farmers. Their protests met with some success. Unemployment, education and foreclosures are the big issues on the minds of many African-Americans. Criticizing the lack of serious action in these areas is the patriotic thing to do.

    In NYC, Black parents are protesting the filing of a lawsuit by the teachers union and the NAACP aimed at preventing the expansion of charter school programs in the city. Geoffrey Canada would be an excellent spokesmen for the charter school argument. There are sane voices that are availabl to the media, but the media loves the entertainers.


    by rmrd0000 on Mon, 05/30/2011 - 8:47am

    Uhhhh...WRONG.

    The black farmers have NOT been paid.  Congress has yet to appropriate the funds.

    LOL


    by willyjsimmons (not verified) on Mon, 05/30/2011 - 7:23pm

    LOL. Wrong the funds have been appropriated. Obama signed the bill. Republicans like Michelle Bachmann. put up a process that prolongs the payment process. Bachmann feels that since Blacks are involeved the program must be "rife with fraud".

    http://m.blackvoices.com/blog/bvblackspin/2010/12/15/black-farmers-wont-...


    by rmrd0000 on Mon, 05/30/2011 - 11:27pm

    Geez... If Obama were white, or was conservative, he would be in jail by now. As a public figure, and an idiot, he is fair game. The only problem with this process is that the right's DNA requires them to bring knives to gunfights. The proper model for all this is "THE FOOD CHAIN". Number two, anyone? NO, THANK YOU!!! America, wake up, now, or revert to third world status and live with it... Geez...

    Run, Herman, Run!


    by Ed (not verified) on Mon, 05/30/2011 - 10:02am

    Well look at that. A talkin' horse.

    by quinn esq on Mon, 05/30/2011 - 4:23pm

    All righty then.

    I hereby render unto Q the Dayly Line of the Day Award for this here Dagblog Site, given to all of him from all of me!hahahahah


    by Richard Day on Mon, 05/30/2011 - 4:47pm

    Dream on, Ed.

    The GOP has been totally discredited.  after the 2012 election you'll be lucky if there's enough of you left in Washington to throw a card party.


    by Wattree on Mon, 05/30/2011 - 6:10pm

    Shorter Wattre: blacks should be attacked more frequently - so long as they are Cornel West being attacked by me and not Obama being attacked by Cornel West.

    Bonus amazing insight: If Obama had embraced Cornel West's objectives after the election; Cornel West would be an Obama cheerleader. Well, no shit Sherlock. Put me on that list. If Obama would focus on accomplishing things that matter to me, I'd cheer-lead for his ass too. For most Americans who simply hold opinions and objectives, this is the way politics works. If a politician doesn't embrace what matters to you, what kind of idiot would you have to be to not express dissatisfaction?

    But your observation on this point indicates to me you recognize Obama has specifically NOT embraced West's objectives. Doesn't that kind of blow your entire "He's a lying racist just like Palin who didn't raise a single valid point" dismissal out of the water? What I heard West say is that he's disappointed specifically because Obama has not embraced (or even given lip service to) programs and policies that advance economic and social justice for the poor and working classes. And what I hear you saying is that, empirically, he's right. (And he is right, you know - Obama hasn't done SHIT on that front).

    So even though it's pretty obvious Obama has not embraced the things that matter to West ... West is not supposed to criticize because both he and Obama are black? Jesus, Wattree. Did it ever occur to you that maybe these are just two Americans who have very different visions for how to approach policy ... and maybe it's not a "black thing" at all?

    Also, please, drop the "hood" bullshit. Cornel West has more hood in his little toe than Obama has in his entire being (hell, *I* have more hood in me than Obama). West watched his family members lynched and wrapped in the American flag for chrissake. What was Obama's life? Oh yeah, he lived the childhood of a world-traveling middle-class white kid who's biggest sad was a result of not having a close enough relationship with his father; some hard-core shit there. If any SOB needs to get out and teach third grade in the hood, it's the guy who signed an executive order to create Simpson's debt commission (and who's team tossed Shirley Sherrod overboard without even hearing her side of the story). I am amazed you would try dump *this* bullshit on a man who literally and legitimately pulled himself up - from an environment so suppressive and abusive that our presidential "hood rat" could never even fathom it - to earn a place as one of the preeminent thinkers in America. That was an unnecessary, disgusting and superficial dig.

    Obama isn't street, dude, it's bullshit to try and project hood cred on him he simply doesn't deserve. But even if he were, IMO, the "black man of worth = ghetto" meme you have been promoting of late sucks ass.


    by kgb999 on Mon, 05/30/2011 - 9:38pm

    Funny; that 'come to the hood and teach third grade' thing kept ringin' in my brain.


    by we are stardust on Mon, 05/30/2011 - 10:08pm

    Wattree  has criticized Obama. I thought the thrust of the argument was the tone and words used by West. Click on Wattree's link to note some of his criticism. No where does Wattree say that Obama can't be criticized.

     


    by rmrd0000 on Mon, 05/30/2011 - 11:41pm

    "And what I hear you saying is that, empirically, he's right. (And he is right, you know - Obama hasn't done SHIT on that front)."

    Obama did a fuck of a lot more for economic and social justice by the time he was thirty than a preening fool like Cornel West has done in his entire life.

    From wikipedia:

    "...Two years after graduating [college], Obama was hired in Chicago as director of the Developing Communities Project (DCP), a church-based community organization originally comprising eight Catholic parishes in Greater Roseland (Roseland, West Pullman and Riverdale) on Chicago's far South Side. He worked there as a community organizer from June 1985 to May 1988.[25][26] During his three years as the DCP's director, its staff grew from one to thirteen. He helped set up a job training program, a college preparatory tutoring program, and a tenants' rights organization in Altgeld Gardens.[27]... 

    ...From April to October 1992, Obama directed Illinois's Project Vote, a voter registration drive with ten staffers and seven hundred volunteer registrars; it achieved its goal of registering 150,000 of 400,000 unregistered African Americans in the state, and led to Crain's Chicago Business naming Obama to its 1993 list of "40 under Forty" powers to be."


    by brewmn on Mon, 05/30/2011 - 11:52pm

    '(hell, *I* have more hood in me than Obama).."

    Why don't you bring your "hood" cred down to Roseland, tough guy?  I'll come down a few minutes later with a spatula to scrape what's left of you off of the sidewalk. 


    by brewmn on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 12:11am

    And this is utterly, hilariously wrong:

    "...West watched his family members lynched and wrapped in the American flag for chrissake..."

    Uh, no he din't:

    "In West’s family, old stories were surfacing: Cornel had learned about a great uncle who’d been lynched years before, his broken body wrapped by his killers in a flag."

    The link is http://killingthebuddha.com/mag/witness/the-supreme-love-and-revolutiona...

    I'm posting it just to show how easily a bunch of pseudo-intellectual, wannabe "Marxist" types can be fooled by a charismatic charlatan who can plausibly assume a veneer of authentic "outsider" experience.  "Hagiographic" doesn't quite do that piece justice; "pornographic" comes closer, I think.     


    by brewmn on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 12:27am

    KGB,

    It was hard for me to even get through your comment because you started it by putting your own erronious twist on what I said. You said:

     "If Obama had embraced Cornel West's objectives after the election; Cornel West would be an Obama cheerleader. Well, no shit Sherlock. Put me on that list. If Obama would focus on accomplishing things that matter to me, I'd cheer-lead for his ass too. For most Americans who simply hold opinions and objectives, this is the way politics works."

    Show me anywhere in the piece where I spoke of West's "objectives."  I said if "Obama had embrace West."  Once I saw that blatant misrepresentation of my words it discredited everything else you said thereafter. Whenever you want to debate an issue, never start by trying to conjure up your own facts. You won't be taken seriously. So I'll simply dismiss the rest of you argument.

    And by the way, Cornel West's primary objective was to be given deferential treatment. Contrary to all of his rhetoric, he clearly feels a sense of superiority and entitlement over the very people who he claims to love and want to protect.  How dare Obama not give him tickets to the inaugural, then give tickets to the lowly germ who  carries his bags? 

    I'd say that just about says it all about Cornel West. What I find so ironic, however, is that you have tried to twist the facts to try to defend a man who undoubtedly would consider you beneath him. No wonder America is going down the drain. It clearly demonstrates that we must make the rescue of our educational system our very top priority. 


    by Wattree on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 3:59am

    I couldn't believe you were actually making this assertion so I gave you the benefit of the doubt. Seriously, West has a lifetime of documented work dedicated to advocating for every issue he has raised. Fact. And you are honestly advancing a premise that he spoke out for the one and only reason that he hasn't been invited to enough WH soirees?

    And by the way, Cornel West's primary objective was to be given deferential treatment. Contrary to all of his rhetoric, he clearly feels a sense of superiority and entitlement over the very people who he claims to love and want to protect.  How dare Obama not give him tickets to the inaugural, then give tickets to the lowly germ who  carries his bags?

    You need to prove this assertion. Let's see some quotes from Cornel West that support your point of view. From where I sit this is just a mean-spirited personal attack with no supporting basis. I don't see West as placing himself above me, I see him embracing life as an equal. Although, frankly, I feel the man is my better on many levels.

    Maybe I'm missing a big chunk of what West has done in his life or something. If so, I await enlightenment.


    by kgb999 on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 1:27pm

    "Seriously, West has a lifetime of documented work dedicated to advocating for every issue he has raised. Fact."

    Is this "fact" on the same level as the "fact" of his witnessing the lynching of his family?

    Look, it's cool that West has been able to get on TV and talk about things from from a leftist perspective.  But his record pretty much shows that media savviness and talk are about all he's ever contributed to the cause.  As I noted upthread, say what you will about Obama, but he actually left academia to work in some of the poorest communities in America. 

    Compared to Obama, West is all talk and no action.  It's beyond ridiculous that a supposedly "reality-based" liberal would favorably compare West to Obama in terms of tangible benefits provided to the poor.  Let them eat rhetoric, perhaps?

    When I was younger, I had a romantic fascination with African-American culture; so much so, in fact that I was married to an AA woman for eight years.  But, even back when I had that fascination with both outsider subcultures and with outsider politics, I thought Cornel West was a poser and a clown.  And I didn't know anyone in the community who held the man in the esteem that a bunch of "liberal white cornballs" (h/t Stanley Crouch) do.     


    by brewmn on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 2:36pm

    Ok, KGB,

    You said,

    "I don't see West as placing himself above me, I see him embracing life as an equal."

    How is this?

    “I used to call my dear brother [Obama] every two weeks. I said a prayer on the phone for him, especially before a debate. And I never got a call back. And when I ran into him in the state Capitol in South Carolina when I was down there campaigning for him he was very kind. The first thing he told me was, ‘Brother West, I feel so bad. I haven’t called you back. You been calling me so much. You been giving me so much love, so much support and what have you.’ And I said, ‘I know you’re busy.’ But then a month and half later I would run into other people on the campaign and he’s calling them all the time. I said, wow, this is kind of strange. He doesn’t have time, even two seconds, to say thank you or I’m glad you’re pulling for me and praying for me, but he’s calling these other people. I said, this is very interesting. And then as it turns out with the inauguration I couldn’t get a ticket with my mother and my brother. I said this is very strange. We drive into the hotel and the guy who picks up my bags from the hotel has a ticket to the inauguration. My mom says, ‘That’s something that this dear brother can get a ticket and you can’t get one, honey, all the work you did for him from Iowa.’ Beginning in Iowa to Ohio. We had to watch the thing in the hotel.”
    .

    Those are the words of an arrogant and condescending man with an aristocratic sense of entitlement. "How could the lowly servant who carries my bags get tickets to the inaugural while,  I, Dr. Cornel West, have been relagated to watching it on television from a hotel room?  How dare that impudent swine?!!!"


    by Wattree on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 8:59pm

    That last sentence about education kinda pisses me off, Wattree.  I also had high hopes for education under Obama; he was going to be The Education President, no?

    I'm not much interested in tackling your list of 'inititatives' from his budget; hell, he didn't even put out a budget last year, which is why this year is full of continuing resolutions hostage to Ryan, et.al.  But education, nope.

    Arne Duncan (thus, the administration) has failed worse than I'd have thought possible.  Instead of unwinding NCLB, he and Obama not only put it on steroids with Race to the Flop Top, but went bullish on charter schools with private corporate money and allowing those corporate educators to 'help; with administration.  How many schools get the money?

    Reading about education 'reform' over the past year, I remember that black educators were howling the loudest, and for good reason.  Now that it's campaign season, he's making some new pledges about NCLB, but it's hard to see how the current vector they are on will change.

    Now you may think union are in the way of better education, but this is what Valerie Strauss says:

    "The Obama administration, through its Race to the Top competition, dangled federal money to encourage the expansion of charter schools, which are largely non-union. It has provided verbal and cash support for teacher training programs that have as their distinguishing feature not the fact that they are anti-union (which they are) but that they believe a young person with little training is “highly qualified” to teach the neediest students.

    And it has made standardized tests the main measurement of students, schools and, now, teachers. This obsession has bastardized the entire learning process, narrowing curriculum, fostering cheating scandals, harming real student achievement and putting teachers in a position of being blamed for things for which they are not responsible.

    The administration has squeezed unions into accepting assessment schemes that link student standardized test scores to a varying but significant percentage of a teacher’s pay -- even though research shows that outside influences play at least as much a role in how a student does on a test as a teacher. Also ignored: Research showing the unreliability of systems that use scores to evaluate how much “value” a teacher has brought to a student.

    What Obama’s policies have not done to any serious degree is provide support so that teachers are properly trained and developed, and so that teacher assessments fairly evaluate whether a teacher belongs in a classroom."

    And here's an Oakland Master Teacher wondering after listening to Obama on education if he even knows what his Ed. Dept. is actually doing.  He calls it Obama Blasts His Own Education Policies. 

    So it ain't kgb who is evidence that American Education is going down the drain; you can grandsstand on some of this stuff, but please: not our kids' education. 


    by we are stardust on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 5:31pm

    The charter school issue is heating up in Harlem. Many parents love the expansion of charter schools and are attacking the teachers federation and the NAACP for supporting a lawsuit trying to curtail the charter school expansion.

    http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/05/27/new.york.naacp.school/


    by rmrd0000 on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 7:30pm

    KGB,

    You're comments have made one thing abundantly clear - you tend to shoot from the hip without gathering facts.  I've written several articles that are critical of Obama. I even attached a link to the last paragraph of this article outlining my position in that regard.

    But it seems that facts aren't important to you. Some people are like that.  They tend to do more feeling than they do thinking. They'll have a knee-jerk reaction to an issue, then instead of gathering facts and following the facts wherever they lead, they tend to cherry-pick only those facts to support what they want to believe.

    Now, I don't agree with everything that Obama does, or fails to do, but here are inescapable facts:

    Obama Initiatives

    - Spur Job Creation: "In addition, to help those most affected by the recession, the Budget will extend emergency assistance to seniors and families with children, Unemployment Insurance benefits, COBRA tax credits, and relief to states and localities to prevent layoffs."

    - Reforming the Job Training System: "The Budget calls for reform of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), which supports almost 3,000 One-Stop Career Centers nationwide and a range of other services. With $6 billion for WIA at DOL—and an additional $4 billion in the Department of Education—the Budget calls for reforms to improve WIA." Strengthen Anti-Discrimination Enforcement: "To strengthen civil rights enforcement against racial, ethnic, sexual orientation, religious, and gender discrimination, the Budget includes an 11 percent increase in funding to the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. This investment will help the Division handle implementation of a historic new hate crimes law. The Budget also provides an $18 million, or 5 percent increase, for the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC), which is responsible for enforcing federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or an employee. This increased investment will allow for more staff to reduce the backlog of private sector charges."

    .
    - Support Historically Black Colleges and Universities: "The Budget proposes $642 million, an increase of $30 million over the 2010 level, to support Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs), including Historically Black Colleges and Universities. In addition to this discretionary funding increase for MSIs, the Administration supports legislation passed by the House of Representatives and pending in the Senate that would provide $2.55 billion in mandatory funding to MSIs over 10 years."
    .
    - Help Families Struggling with Child Care Costs: "The Budget will nearly double the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit for middle-class families making under $85,000 a year by increasing their credit rate from 20 percent to 35 percent of child care expenses. Nearly all eligible families making under $115,000 a year would see a larger credit. The Budget also provides critical support for young children and their families by building on historic increases provided in ARRA. The Budget provides an additional $989 million for Head Start and Early Head Start to continue to serve 64,000 additional children and families funded in ARRA."
    .
    - Reform Elementary and Secondary School Funding: "The Budget supports the Administration’s new vision for the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) … The Budget provides a $3 billion increase in funding for K-12 education programs authorized in the ESEA, including $900 million for School Turnaround Grants, and the Administration will request up to $1 billion in additional funding if Congress successfully completes ESEA reauthorization."
    .
    - Increase Pell Grants: "The Recovery Act and 2009 appropriations bill increased the maximum Pell Grant by more than $600 for a total award of $5,350. The Budget proposes to make that increase permanent and put them on a path to grow faster than inflation every year, increasing the maximum grant by $1,000, expanding eligibility, and nearly doubling the total amount of Pell grants since the President took office."

    .
    - Help Relieve Student Loan Debt: "To help graduates overburdened with student loan debt, the Administration will strengthen income-based repayment plans for student loans by reducing monthly payments and shortening the repayment period so that overburdened borrowers will pay only 10 percent of their discretionary income in loan repayments and can have their remaining debt forgiven after 20 years. Those in public service careers will have their debt forgiven after 10 years. The Budget also expands low-cost Perkins student loans."
    .
    - Prevent Hunger and Improve Nutrition: "The President’s Budget provides $8.1 billion for discretionary nutrition program supports, which is a $400 million increase over the 2010 enacted level. Funding supports 10 million participants in the WIC program, which is critical to the health of pregnant women, new mothers, and their infants. The Budget also supports a strong Child Nutrition and WIC reauthorization package that will ensure that school children have access to healthy meals and to help fulfill the President’s pledge to end childhood hunger. The President continues to support the nutrition provisions incorporated in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)."
    .
    - Revitalize Distressed Urban Neighborhoods: "The Budget includes $250 million for HUD’s Choice Neighborhoods program, which will target neighborhoods anchored by distressed public or assisted housing with physical and social revitalization grounded in promising, measurable, and evidence-based strategies."
    .
    - Increase Funding for the Housing Choice Voucher Program: "The President’s Budget requests $19.6 billion for the Housing Choice Voucher program to help more than two million extremely low income families with rental assistance to live in decent housing in neighborhoods of their choice. The Budget continues funding for all existing mainstream vouchers and provides flexibility to support new vouchers that were leased and $85 million in special purpose vouchers for homeless families with children, families at risk of homelessness, and persons with disabilities."
    .
    - Preserve 1.3 Million Affordable Rental Units through Project-Based Rental Assistance Program: "The President’s Budget provides $9.4 billion for the Project-Based Rental Assistance program to preserve approximately 1.3 million affordable rental units through increased funding for contracts with private owners of multifamily properties. This critical investment will help low-income households to obtain or retain decent, safe and sanitary housing. In addition, the Administration requests $350 million to fund the first phase of this multi-year initiative to regionalize the Housing Choice Voucher program and convert Public Housing to project-based vouchers."
    .
    - Promote Affordable Homeownership and Protect Families from Mortgage Fraud: "The Budget requests $88 million for HUD to support homeownership and foreclosure prevention through Housing Counseling and $20 million to combat mortgage fraud. In addition, the Budget requests $250 million for the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation’s (NRC) grant and training programs. Of the $250 million, $113 million is requested for foreclosure prevention activities, a $48 million increase (74 percent) over 2010."

    .
    - Fight Gang Violence and Violent Crime: "The Budget provides $112 million for place-based, evidence supported, initiatives to combat violence in local communities, including $25 million for the Community-Based Violence Prevention Initiatives that aim to reduce gun and other violence among youth gangs in cities and towns across the country, and $37 million for the Attorney General’s Children Exposed to Violence Initiative, which targets the youth most affected by violence and most susceptible to propagating it as they grow up."
    .
    - Expand Prisoner Re-entry Programs: "The Budget provides $144 million for Department Justice prisoner re-entry programs, including an additional $100 million for the Office of Justice Programs to administer grant programs authorized by the Second Chance Act and $30 million for residential substance abuse treatment programs in State and local prisons and jails. In addition, the Budget provides $98 million for Department of Labor programs that provide employment-centered services to adult and youth ex-offenders and at-risk youth.."
    .
    - Fully Fund the Community Development Block Grant Program: "The Budget provides $4.4 billion for the Community Development Fund, including $3.99 billion for the Community Development Block Grant Formula Program (CDBG), and $150 million for the creation of a Catalytic Investment Competition Grants program. The new Catalytic Competition Grants program uses the authorities of CDBG, but will provide capital to bring innovative economic development projects to scale to make a measurable impact.

      


    by Wattree on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 4:33am

    I don't think I said anything to challenge that you have criticized Obama in the past. I sure didn't mean to - I totally noticed you highlighted a past instance of doing so. I didn't fail to gather that particular fact so much as fail to understand it's relevance in the current context.

    I felt myself to be picking up the gauntlet you threw down regarding your specific rhetoric in attacking West's statements about Obama. A gauntlet I wouldn't have picked up had you used a rational methodology such as this for making your case instead of the aggressive personal insults and attacks that characterize the rhetoric you used in the post here - and pretty much dared anyone to challenge. Don't have the energy to analyze if this list represents real accomplishments or if it's the typical fare that crumbles under scrutiny; but either way, this is a method of making your case that starts debate out on a far more reasonable footing.

    I think you highlight an important difference in perspective. You appear to judge Obama exclusively from the perspective of the black community. I didn't perceive West to have separated or segregated poor and working people by race in any way shape or form. I don't think he'd say "Oh, you hooked up the brothers ... cool, fuck everyone else." As such to answer his critique honestly, you need to widen your scope and assess Obama's performance across the board for poor and working class people of all races.

    One other observation, I saw West's critique being more related to the impact of Obama's wider economic and trade policies and posture he has adopted in relation to the elite powers, not his budget items. In that regard, a list such as this doesn't appear to entirely answer his criticism very well unless it includes a major policy shift on economics or trade.


    by kgb999 on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 6:47am

    The post asked the question of whether the Obama-West controversy constituted African-Americans airing dirty laundry. Perhaps it's just a side issue to you, but it is one that resonates in the African-American community. Republicans accuse Blacks of having a plantation mentality because of the high percentage of African-American's who vote for Democrats. Progressives accused Blacks of voting for Obama because of race.Race is always in the background on both sides of the aisle.

    Obama had to produce a birth certificate to validate his Presidency. Mainstream media played a large role in keeping Trump's birther nonsense in the public's face. There is a concern that the media will distort discussions when Blacks criticize other Blacks. Wattree is saying that the discussion should occur and the concerns about how "they" will interpret the discussion should be ignored.

    Wattree notes that the tone and language used by West, blunted the criticism. West questioned Obama's manhood and Blackness. The discussion focused on the personal attack. The response to the personal attack has been "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." West is not without sin and is being criticized.

    Michael Eric Dyson has divided Blacks into intentionally Black, incidentally Black and accidentally Black. Progressives would consider West intentionally Black. Obama would be considered incidentally Black because despite marrying Michelle (an intentionally Black act), Obama identifies with White elites. Clarence Thomas would be accidentally Black.

    Billie Jean King said hat she was more Black than Arthur Ashe. Bill Clinton was the "first" Black President, pushing Abraham Lincoln from that position. Tupac was  Blacker than Will Smith. Now we have Progressives telling us how much Blacker Cornel West is compared with Obama, then complaining that the discussion has become too Black. This is truly Black humor.

    In my mind's eye, I see some of the Blacker than thou Progressives doing a Justin Timberlake impression when the heat turns up. I offer the apology Dick Gergory gave to Bill Clinton, the first Black President, at our dear brother Tavis Smiley's State of the Black Union event in 2008.


    by rmrd0000 on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 8:48am

    I don't think the West/Obama controversy is a case of African-Americans airing their dirty laundry if we view it in terms of the incident that caused the controversy (the subsequent response by the AA community seems to fit the bill though). It's a case of one American in the public sphere expressing dissatisfaction with the direction of the presidency (and to my knowledge, he was ignored by the presidency just like every other advocate that doesn't represent a mega-corp has been). It had nothing to do with exclusively black laundry. I did make this point in my original comment.

    I'm aware of the "types of blackness" formulas and such but I don't think any of that stuff is helpful (I sort of think you are criticizing it too - but not sure on that). I view both West and Obama as American humans. Period. More black, less black ... whatever. Be green for all I care. Just be honest about who people are as a person. In the end, I feel Wattree is criticizing West primarily based on assertions regarding what is in the man's mind, presented as a given, which go well beyond what I believe can be derived from his actual words (or his life). I don't think West, or anyone, should be above criticism. I just don't think the criticism leveled by Wattree is honest nor fair on a human level. If there is a different measuring stick I'm supposed to break out to use when judging the actions of black people, I am at a loss to do so (much less if we must take into account a sliding scale of blackness).

    One assumption I am making is that we are discussing the controversy related to West's AJE interview (the post references nonspecific "controversy"). As far as statements up to that interview go, I don't agree that his purpose was to challenge Obama's manhood nor "blackness." If there are subsequent statements by West, I am not aware of them ... did he go off the deep end somewhere after that and I missed it? If that's the case, than I'll do my best Emily Litella. But if we are still primarily discussing that interview, it seems like West is being excoriated on a personal level (and an entire lifetime of advocacy mooted) for daring to express an opinion while black that apparently violates an arbitrary orthodoxy within the black activist community more than he is being challenged on the substance of his criticism.

    As for the birth certificate; give me a break. Obama has been stringing the teabaggers along for two years and fucking with them on that. Since the inauguration, the Democratic wing of the media has forced damn near every single republican to go on record and either demonstrate themselves as crazy or alienate an important constituency. That helped Obama, not hindered him. He used it until just before campaign season cranked up then responded to Donald Trump (after ignoring a plethora of far more credible political figures who raised the same challenge) because Trump's nonsense was well timed to bury the whole thing under the Bin Laden operation. That is hardly a case of "poor Obama victimized by racism," it was political gamesmanship on Obama's part at a very high level. And while I personally think less of Obama for doing it - I can't deny it was effective.


    by kgb999 on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 5:05pm

    Cornel West says that Barack Obama fears being in the presence of a free Black man. That is a challenge to manhood. Obama was raised n a White household in Kansas and identifies with elites and Jews. That is a challenge to Blackness.

    You see the Donald Trump birther push as a political move on Obama's part. Blacks saw it as a Blck President having o show his papers. We see things through different lenses.

    When you opine that you have more "hood" in you than Obama, that is a statement made from a standpoint of White privilege. You are Blacker than the Black Guy. It creates an image of White arrogance. You can criticize me for stating what I see as a plain fact, but ask yourself how you think that your words would come across to a mainly Black audience.

    Words create images. West led with the image of Obama as the incidentally Black emasculated male. That led to the controversy. Again, we have different viewpoints.


    by rmrd0000 on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 5:54pm

    You have brought this concept up many times over these Cornell West blogs of Watree's many times now: "a challenge to Obama's manhood".  I wonder if you'd explain it since I may have been taking it wrong. 

    I think a) Obama is quite secure in his manhood (even discounting that he's Commander in Chief), and b) it reminds me of the similar concept of "you disrespected me" curious bar of imagined offense that leads people to shoot each other for it.  Both constructs are pretty foreign to me, and seem to rely on some metrics that don't seem altogether healthy.  (My son-in-law sometimes indicates that same standard has been breached, and simply will not ever be wrong or challenged.)


    by we are stardust on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 6:30pm

    I can assure that I'm healthy and not about to shot anyone because of being disrespected. Obama has stayed above the fray in the West situation. West is fond of calling people mascots. West called Al Sharpton a mascot for corporations on MSNBC In front of White folks :). West also called Barack Obama a mascot. Mascot may translate to you as puppet, but in other arenas, mascot translates a lawn jockey ready to serve the massa's will. West's contention that Obama fears free Black men translate as meaning that Obama is insecure and needs support to face real men. The conclusion, West is saying Obama is weak-willed and not manly.

    The Stereotyping  done by West is not uncommon and has been used on other figures. Jalen Rose an ex-pro basketball player said that he thought Grant Hill was an Uncle Tom and soft when the two played on different college teams. The Uncle Tom label means subservient and soft means effeminate. Grant responded to the slur with an op-ed in the New York Times. Hill and Rose are scheduled to appear together at a charity event for children, so along with absence of gunfire comes money for a charity.

    Both West and Rose knew the message their words were sending.

     

     


    by rmrd0000 on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 7:19pm

    Not the answer to my question, nor did I imply you were about to shoot someone.  Somehow, we talk right past each other; but yes, I know the terms, have for decades.


    by we are stardust on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 7:24pm

    Okay, Gestalt (maybe) here.  This conversation (and the previous two or three) remind me of the ones at the Cafe with you and Wheezie and the gang.  Same narrative, same responses, and to me, too much of it ends up being about you being pre-disposed to taking offense, as with this crap nonsense that if kgb or anyone else indicated they'd lived in an urban area, or the ghetto, el barrio, that as whites, they were playing some kind of 'blacker than Obama' stuff. 

    'Black audiences' aren't monolithic, either; there are comedy clubs, PTA's, political groups, acitivist groups, groups who go expressly to hear Cornell West, groups to support the Prez, on and on.  But you have one kind in mid, I think and all participants are like you.  Another sortt of strawman you create in your head.

    In real life, face-to-face, I have rarely seen from blacks or mixed-race blacks, the inherent bad will to miscontrue even the most innocuous comments that I do from you. 

    I guess I think it's all mixed up with defense of Obama, and you despised West like Wattree before he shot his mouth off so crappily, but I sorta doubt it, especailly if we leave Smileyu outta the mix.  But for me, you make it impossible to have any sort of honest conversations about all this, like those of us who 'aren't black' have to tip-toe around lest we get it wrong.  Get yourself a little humor, and especially self-deprecating humor; you'll live longer. 

    I hope I'm done here.  ;o)  


    by we are stardust on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 9:45pm

    KGB,

    You said:

    One other observation, I saw West's critique being more related to the impact of Obama's wider economic and trade policies and posture he has adopted in relation to the elite powers, not his budget items. In that regard, a list such as this doesn't appear to entirely answer his criticism very well unless it includes a major policy shift on economics or trade.

    Carnel West, along with his buddy, Tavis Smiley, have been using the umbrella approach to criticizing Obama since the day he through his hat in the ring. Instead of criticizing specific issues they're attacking his entire presidency. They didn't even give the man time to get directions to the White House before they started making these charges.

    In addition, if West has such disdain for the oligarchs and corporate plutocrats, why did he choose Tavis Smiley, the most pronounced corporate shill in the Black community, as his best friend?  Look at the sign emblazened in the background of this photo:

    Do you really believe that Nationwide is on the side of the Black community, or poor and middle-class people in general? 

    So Carnel West's credibility on this issue is equivalent to a man ranting in the street against fascism after just having lunch with Mussolini.

    Have you ever seen such suckin' up - and this is after he and Tavis had been doggin' Obama all during the campaign. Look at him skinnin' and grinnin', and look at the way Obama is looking at him.

    Carnel West is a self-serving demagogic suck-up who's not worthy of anyone's respect.  He wraps himself in the misery of the poor, middle-class, and minorities in the exact same way that the GOP wrap themselves in the flag.


    by Wattree on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 10:03pm

    "Carnell skinnin' and grinnin'.  Wow.

    Tech tip: if an imported graphic is too large for you, click on it, and eight tabs will appear.  If you click on a corner one, drag it diagonally with your mouse, you can resize it and keep the same height-width ratio.  Check it in Preview; and if your're still not satisfied, try again.


    by we are stardust on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 10:09pm

    So.... how does being detached and fact-based and outraged at West's character attack stand alongside 3 posts full of rage at West, an apparent inability even spell the man's name without insult, comments all in bold, pictures apparently meant to show the fact that he's a suck-up, and descriptions comparing his integrity to that of a man dining with Mussolini?

    Jeez. Cornel may very well be a shit - I haven't followed the twists and turns of his work and pronouncements closely enough to judge - but it's tough to argue that all this is about objectivity or "detachment." 

    So how about we run a poll on West. That seems democratic and proper, right? Okay then.

    Cornel West is:

    A demagogic suck-up.

    A suck up.

    An idiot.

    A foolish and self-serving idiot.

    A racist and petty person.

    A woefully presumptuous and undisciplined person. 

    Palinesque.

    A damn fool.

    An arrogant and condescending man with an aristocratic sense of entitlement

    Very much like a hypocritical fascist

    An embittered egomaniac full of irate petulance

    A pure hypocrite

    Reckless and vain

    An academic loudmouth full of gross speculation and vapors. 

    Tavis Smiley's puppet

    All of the above, as described in my recent posts.


    by quinn esq on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 10:30pm

    Quinn,

     I don't write hard news.  I write an opinion column, and that is my opinion. Yes, I do make every effort to drive my point of view home, but I think that it is important in this case. The self-service and demagoguery of people like smiley and West are a highly destructive force in the Black community, and it needs to come to an end. The only way that's going to happen is if they have to pay a severe price for engaging in it.  So yes, I've made it a point in these articles to rip out a pound of flesh.


    by Wattree on Thu, 06/16/2011 - 12:40am

    The folk at Black Agenda Report (BAR) agree with Cornel West's point of view. BAR also agrees with Wattree that West's tone and language allowed the deabte to be diverted from the lack of attention to the poor. Of course, they take a much harsher tone than Wattree. The post at the link was written by Glen Ford, the executive editor of Black Agenda Report.

    http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/how-cornel-west-did-obamites-favor

     

    A photo of the executive director of BARGlen Ford


    by rmrd0000 on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 9:35am

    Now, there's a revolutionary!


    by brewmn on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 2:37pm

    Beacuase Obama doesn't give a flip about poor peoplw ith pre-existing conditions, premiums for the Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plan will be decreasing to make it easier to enroll.

    Fom the press conference announcing the decrease:

    PCIP enrollee Suzanne Hannon of Fallston, Maryland, joined Sebelius on the conference call. Hannon said she lost her insurance when her husband turned 65 and became eligible for Medicare. She was 58.

    "I applied many times to various insurance companies only to be denied. The last application I submitted was in September and I was turned down due to a high cholesterol level," Hannon said. Rejection letter in hand, Hannon applied for the PCIP in Maryland, and just in the nick of time.

    "I was approved in November and I was diagnosed with cancer in December," she said. "Because I had insurance, at the first symptom I sought immediate medical care. Quickly I was treated with surgery, chemo, and radiation, ending with a good prognosis. Without the insurance I would not have sought treatment right away."

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/31/pre-existing-condition_n_869040...

    But Obama hasn't done ANYTHING.

     


    by rmrd0000 on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 2:55pm

    Yes. That's great.

    But. as always, the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away...

    Feds help states seeking to cut Medicaid rolls

    So on the one hand the plan for those with pre-existing conditions is helping 18'000 so far, and on the other hand his failure to fund Medicaid beyond june this year has hurt 250'000 so far... in one state, and maybe a couple of million more in the rest of the country.

    Though of course, it seems that it must be said - the GOP are worse on this than Obama. As are Hitler, Attila the Hun, Beelzebub, and the Anti-Christ.

    OBAMA 2012, baby!!


    by Obey on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 3:40pm

    From the article that you cite:

    Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer had asked for a waiver from a requirement in the new health care law that states maintain current eligibility levels for Medicaid between now and 2014, when a huge expansion of the program begins. But Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told Brewer that she didn’t need Washington’s permission to cut the state’s Medicaid rolls.

    Years ago, Arizona voluntarily expanded its program to include many childless adults not normally covered by Medicaid, the federal-state health care program that covers 48 million poor, disabled and elderly people nationwide. Federal authority for that expires Sept. 30, after which the state can revamp its program, according to Sebelius.

    "States can allow their waivers to expire," said Mary Kahn, a spokeswoman at the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Waivers are time limited, she said, and states have "no obligation to renew them. Once they expire, the Affordable Care Act is pretty clear that they can trim their Medicaid rolls for two populations – nondisabled and non-pregnant adults."

    Matt Salo, executive director of the National Association of Medicaid Directors, says that the Obama administration is "walking that fine line of trying to be helpful [to states] but trying not to undermine health reform."

    Your characterization of the waiver is overblown. The Hitler reference is crap. In a post above, someone is suggesting that they are "Blacker" than Barack Obama. That is also nonsense

    Yes, Obama 2012


    by rmrd0000 on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 4:52pm

    It was more for to provide context: you trumpet 18000 getting helped while hundreds of thousands, probably into the low millions are getting thown off the Medicaid rolls as stimulus money runs out.

    I don't see anything overblown about that perspective.

    As for someone being blacker than Obama, I agree that's silly. But I haven't been following that particular debate, so let's not confuse everything, shall we?

     


    by Obey on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 5:16pm

    The way I read the Arizona situation was that the state lowered the minmum Medicaid requirements and are now wanting to correct the expansion. If I read it correctly people covered under the Arizona waiver would not have been covered in many other states. Is that a correct assessment?


    by rmrd0000 on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 5:39pm

    Yup. They have a more generous Medicaid system. That's why the end of Stimulus-related Medicaid funding next month hits Arizona's poor disproportionately. 250'000 are going to lose coverage. Nationwide it is hard to estimate. But, sure, one can't extrapolate in a linear fashion from Arizona's situation.

    I'm not saying this is primarily Obama's fault. Just when the inevitable question comes up in 2012, "are you better off than four years ago?", it ain't going to look pretty. The 18'000 covered by PCIP, nice as that is, remains a drop in the ocean.


    by Obey on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 5:52pm

    Obama is lowering the premiums on pre-existing conditions. Arizona is readjusting it's own Medicaid program. The way legislation was written, Arizona is free to discontinue the waivers. I'm not sure that the action by Arizona can be overruled by anything other than a literal act of Congress.

    The Obama administration is also shifting from the Bush policy of putting abuse of citizens by big city police departments on the back burner. Investigations of civil rights abuses by police departments are ramping up.

    http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/05/30/justice_departmen...


    by rmrd0000 on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 6:53pm

    Well, if you are referring to me, I said I had more "hood" in me than Obama. I'm as white as white can be; never claimed different. 

    So, your premise is that no white people are stuck in "the 'hood?" I guess that's must be right ... after all, most rich bankers are white.


    by kgb999 on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 6:08pm

    Coming in the context of West claiming to be more authentically Black than Obama, you seemed to be claiming the same mantle of Blackness. Given the time Obama spent in the African-American community, I'm still not sure that your experience trumps Obama's experience.


    by rmrd0000 on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 7:00pm

    These comparisons are getting pretty arcane, aren't they?  Can we lighten it up a mite?  (There's a whole series.)

     


    by we are stardust on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 7:18pm

    Stardust, you heart is in the right place, but we can have an adult conversation about issues that invlve race. kgb used the word "hood". I nitrepreted him as saying one thing (as Black as or Blacker than Obama) when he was really saying that he lived in the hood. We both get an understanding of the context of what "hood" meant. That's an important discussion.

    You were asking about the "manhood" issue. That issue is a common one in he Black community.Gaining an understanding of each other is important.There are many times that for lack of a better term, Progressives, use on this blog that just seem tone deaf or uncaring. If we can have an adult discussion about how certain words are perceived helps everyone.

    I have to admit that sometimes the video diversions are frustrating. Yes, I know, I have a video up. My point is we don't have to run from a discussion even if it's uncomfortable.


    by rmrd0000 on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 9:23pm

    See upthread; I'm done.


    by we are stardust on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 9:48pm

    "...on the other hand his failure to fund Medicaid beyond june this year..."

    You really don't seem to understand how the US government works.  Here, we have a legislative, judicial and executive branch.  The legislative branch is responsible for passing legislation, including passing fiscal budgets.  The executive branch carries out those laws, but doe not pass them.

    Here. it seems your criticism would be more correctly focused on failures of the legislative branch.  Hope this helps.


    by brewmn on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 11:22pm

    LOL. Address that comment to Rmrd and the praise he extends for carrying out the PPACA measures.

    More generally, you really need to decide on whether you choose the "presidential elections are important because Presidents have power" line or the "presidential elections don't matter because Presidents don't matter" line. You can't sprinkle him with credit for the half-decent things the Health Care bill does and absolve him of blame for the not-so-decent things the budget bills on things like Medicaid do. That was all I was pointing out.

    Hilarious, brew. Just keep setting them up so I can knock em down. Have a good night.


    by Obey on Wed, 06/01/2011 - 2:54am

    Eric. I'm not sure Burton is doing much more than pointing out the difficulty I pointed out the other day - that attacks on West could easily become too focussed on his "character." This is fair, to a degree, but it loses its value when it becomes the core response. After all, West's original sin was.... to attack Obama's character.

    As we all know, character-based debates are incredibly interesting, but often end up with exchanges of slurs between opposed commentators - and so, unchecked, they spiral downward. With the result not just of both sides falling into a pit of rage, but also, a complete loss of the original point. (What was it again?)

    To my mind, West messed up and shot his mouth off in an overly-personal and overly-totalistic way, and it blew up the force of his original criticism. So it's fair that he get smacked down for that. But in "character" debates, it's incredibly hard to pin anyone as being "all this" or "all that." Most of the people I've known have had major and minor elements and aspects to their personalities, they've changed over time, etc. Which means that West's one-sided character-based denunciations ignore a lot of evidence about Obama, and thus be at least partially wrong - but so too are the critics who aim the "character" gun back at West.

    Therefore, even though I find it very difficult to do, it seems to me the most useful approach would simply be to smack down West for the nonsense bits, and then either move on to the substance of his comments about Obama, OR - if this sort of thing comes from West repeatedly - to show the PATTERN of him making these personal attacks. 

    As for whether it's a "black thing" or not, I donno. I think anybody who's pissed off or wants change or feels unjustly treated, and works on behalf of that group, is gonna periodically want to smack the idiots on his own side who aren't getting it right. Pretty common human trait, I would think. (See: Entire history of Scotland.)

    That said, I'm not sure you're as detached as your comment further down would present. In the interests of honesty, when you concluded your post by blaming West and Smiley for muddying waters and making people think others might be "lackeys," I think you're probably letting your irritation with them personally show... just a tad. Because people have been creating distrust for a lonnnnnnng time now.

    In a similar, vein, it struck me as unusual to see a completely out of the blue posting of someone's photo in the comments... Unless, of course, it was to hold that person's appearance up for ridicule (as it immediately received), since it fits a certain stereotype. Odd. ;-)


    by quinn esq on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 9:38pm

    It demonstrates that every person within any race is not a part of a monolithic stream of thought or consciousness.


    by Sandra (not verified) on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 11:11pm