dagblog - Comments for "Is the Attack on Prof. Melissa Harris-Perry’s Article Criticizing Prof. Cornel West Due to Male Academic Cronyism?"

Try this. Insert the names

quinn esq — Fri, 27 May 2011 13:54:11 +0000

In reply to Quinn, You're reading some

Try this. Insert the names Krugman and Summers in place of the two combatants listed in the original, and see how it reads. Try out lines like "Paul" wanting to "destroy" that man, etc. At which point, you'll recognize that the ORIGINAL piece is sexist. As for me being sexist... I'm just gonna say, you have a pleasant day.

Sorry about being involved in

rmrd0000 — Fri, 27 May 2011 03:59:35 +0000

In reply to West is a poor man's version

Sorry about being involved in the distraction on your blog.

I think tht West may provide African-Americans with a framework on how to disagree with Obama. There is the danger of playing into the hands of the wingnuts, but I think that has been blunted by The wingnut attack on unions, women's rights and Medicare. The GOP has damaged it's image in much of the country. Everyone expecs a nutty attack on Obama from the wingnuts.

The death of Osama and the coninued failed stte in Afghanistan can provide the basis for getting the heck of that country. Obama had enough guts to say out load what was a known fact about Palestine and Israel, a two-state solution is the only way to solve the problem. When he came before the Senate, Bibi mimicked Obama's words about the two-state option. Bibi also praised Obama during the Senate speech.

Personally , I think that the econmy is making a sluggish recovery, so more job should return. For the Black community the foreclosure issue is one that neds more attention from my POV. The DOJ batting down the GOP voter suppression program is important since wingnut Governors are in charge in many states.

Local action is going to be required for breaking up the prison industrial complex and ture education reform. It cannot be argued that Obama did nothing or that Obama is no different than Bush. But African-Americans can make their demands just like everyone else.

Thought you might appreciate

artappraiser — Fri, 27 May 2011 03:57:42 +0000

In reply to Is the Attack on Prof. Melissa Harris-Perry’s Article Criticizing Prof. Cornel West Due to Male Academic Cronyism?

Thought you might appreciate seeing this April 16, 2002 Timothy Noah piece that I ran across following some links, especially as you're speaking about academic games in your post.

Also, Paul Devlin @ The Root asks a good question.

Thanks for this.

Elusive Trope — Fri, 27 May 2011 03:43:51 +0000

In reply to Obama Initiatives - Spur Job

Thanks for this.

Obama Initiatives - Spur Job

Wattree — Fri, 27 May 2011 03:06:15 +0000

In reply to West is a poor man's version

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."

West is a poor man's version

Wattree — Fri, 27 May 2011 03:03:02 +0000

In reply to They should just ignore him,

West is a poor man's version of Donald Trump, and he's going to suffer the very same fate. How can he rant about oligarchs and plutocrats while at the same time attached at the hip to Tavis smiley, the biggest corporate shill in the Black community. Tavis went all over the country on a "Nationwide is on your side" tour. In addition, Tavis was waging a Walmart lobbying campaign in Inglewood, Ca. Does anyone believe that either Walmart or Nationwide Insurance Corp. is on the side of the Black Community? give me a break!

I've been around along to be completely fed up with demagogues - and especially when they're Black and their demagogueing the Black community? Don't we have enough problems?

I'm not one of those Obama cheerleaders who are opposed to anyone saying anything negative about him. I've written several critical articles on him myself (I haven't Totally Given Up on Obama, but Like My Late Wife Used to Say, He's Getting on My Last Nerve). I reserve the right to criticize him just like I would any White president. But when I do criticize him, I make sure I criticize specific policies, and not his entire presidency. So it's not that I resent Cornel West criticizing Obama, what I resent, however, is his motives for criticizing him, and the way he's gone about it.

He reminds me of this former blues singer turned preacher who sold away the rights to his hit records then tried to wrap himself in God to try to get JZ to pay him for their use. Instead of going out and getting himself an attorney if he thought he'd been wronged, he was trying to contend that the use of his music was an assault on Jesus - unless he got a cut of the profits, of course.

Essentially, Cornel West is doing the same thing. He's wrapping himself in the so-called interest of the Black community in order to promote his own interest. If Obama had embraced him after he won the election West would be his biggest supporter. So he's engaged in pure hypocrisy, and I hate it.

You're reading wrong; read

we are stardust — Fri, 27 May 2011 02:55:54 +0000

In reply to Quinn, You're reading some

You're reading wrong; read again.

They should just ignore him,

Wattree — Fri, 27 May 2011 02:47:58 +0000

In reply to Thanks for posting this.

They should just ignore him, Rm.

West is getting a lot of flack for what he's done, and since he specializes in telling the people what they want to hear, I predict that he's going to strat backtracking in the very near future. He's either going to claim that he was misunderstood, like Newt Gingrich, or he's going to find something to compliment Obama on, so it will look like he's simply an objective observer - nothing personal, you understand.

Peter, I don't mind stepping

Wattree — Fri, 27 May 2011 02:38:09 +0000

In reply to Sounds like folks need to

Peter,

I don't mind stepping in a little quicksand. That's what I do. I don't have a dog in the fight. I look at the world like I'm watching an ant farm. And in this case, I think that Dr. Perry's comments represented a completely accurate assessment of the facts.

Quinn, You're reading some

Wattree — Fri, 27 May 2011 02:33:01 +0000

In reply to Personally, I think this

Quinn,

You're reading some way, way out unwarranted assumptions into this. I spoke to Dr. Watkins on this today, and he was basing him comment on the fact that Dr. Perry didn't get a promotion that she was seeking, and Dr. Boyce speculated that she might have gotten it if Dr. West had supported her. But even that is unwarranted speculation, because, unlike West, Perry has never mentioned having any feelings whatsoever regarding the incident, so even that was an unsubstantiated assumption. But your comment is very telling. It shows just how fast people will take an issue, project their own prejudices into it, and run with it. A woman scorned? Please! I hate to say this Quinn, but that is a grossly sexist comment, and it takes unsubstantiated assumptions to a new level.