Monday, March 01, 2010

A Conversation With Dr. Cornel West About The Obama Agenda & The Black Agenda

A Conversation With Dr. Cornel West About The Black Agenda & The Obama Agenda

Frederick Alexander Meade: African Americans Can't Just Expect President ObamaTo Deliver Because He's Black; Demands Must Be Articulated And Propelled.

African Americans Can't Just Expect President Obama To Deliver Because He's Black; Demands Must Be Articulated And Propelled

The African American community finds itself in a precarious position. While the Obama Administration has been and will continue to be confronted with a plethora of problematic occurrences and circumstances, this group must find a way to secure its seat at the table of, "political opportunity."

By Frederick Alexander Meade

May 10th, 2009

In recent times much discussion has spawned regarding President Barack Obama’s general performance throughout his first few months in office.

Not only have the President’s acts been measured within this context, but also his works as they relate to the addressing of the concerns of the African American community. While the Obama Administration has primarily had to contend with our nation’s economic crisis; some African Americans have still found cause to level criticism towards the President asserting that he has essentially ignored many of the communities’ issues and to some degree the group itself.

In mid April, Obama drew disapproval from African American activists as well as the Congressional Black Caucus, as the White House announced it would not send a delegation to the United Nations Conference on racism, in Geneva, Switzerland. Obama’s decision to forgo this event was stated to be predicated on his refusal to involve the United States in any discussions that would potentially inspire anti-Semitism in addressing relations between Israel and Palestine.

Obama’s pronouncement was received in some African American quarters as an act of "quasi-treason," as many members of this group empathize with the plight of the Palestinians in their efforts to overcome the oppressive measures imposed upon them by their Israeli neighbors.

Additional angst registered within segments of the African American body as sentiments emerged suggesting that Obama’s decision to skip the conference signified his willingness to acquiesce to Jewish interests at the expense of those of other ethnic populations. Further discontent regarding the Obama Administration has found its expression, as some Americans of African descent have begun to call the President’s legislative intentions into question.

In late April, a measure featured in Obama’s "Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan," that would have allowed scores of home owners facing foreclosure --many of whom are African American and where targeted by banking institutions engaged in predatory lending practices-- an opportunity to have their mortgage loans adjusted by bankruptcy court judges was rejected by the Senate.

Although multitudinal indicators suggested the provision would face defeat days prior to the Senate vote, the White House made little attempt to counter the actions of banking industry lobbyists conscripted to bring about the amendment’s demise. This circumstance prevailed in the face of Obama’s prior proclamations touting his Administration’s commitment to the legislation and his desire to bring it into law.

While Obama has perhaps made a significant overture towards addressing the interests of the African American community by the appointing of Eric Holder to the position of United States Attorney General, conceivably little else by way of action suggests that his Administration is principally intent on working to remedy the societal arrangements that have perpetually hampered African American prosperity. In light of this plausible reality, one question must be asked. What actions must the African American community take to ensure that our nation’s first President of African descent --as well as the political class in general-- acknowledges its issues to the extent they become integrated into the national and where necessary international agenda?

The answer to this question may be revealed through an analysis of what African Americans have unfortunately failed to do for many years as it relates to "group survival," within the political construct of our nation.

To this end, Americans of African descent have not been able to effectively organize on a national level where by a comprehensive analysis of its social, political and financial condition would be realized. Resultantly, an agenda encompassing a list of prioritized, "African American interests" which political figures would be expected to consider --with the understanding that the African American vote weighs in the balance-- has not been crafted.

This prevailing circumstance persisted and was further exacerbated during this past Presidential election cycle as the African American public, enamored with the prospect of our nation’s first President of African descent, as reflected by Obama’s 95% support rating among this group, intentionally sought not to make overt demands upon Obama. This approach was adopted as it was reasoned that such actions would have functioned to provide the foundation by which Obama’s opponents would have been able to portray him as the "Black Candidate," whose ultimate allegiance was to the group to which he belonged as opposed to that of the larger society, thus potentially alienating the then Illinois Junior Senator from large portions of the electorate. As a result of this reality, Obama has not had to "make good" on any promises to African Americans, as none were ever made.

Although the African American vote served to help propel Obama to our nation’s highest office, efforts in this area were done so without any real expressed contingencies. Americans of African descent as a result, have essentially been left to rely on the will of the Obama Administration to contend with the multitude of societal issues that function to constrict their collective advancement in an environment in which, the needs of the many are great, and political capital is at a premium.

The African American community may have initially missed its opportunity to concisely specify its expectations of Obama and in so doing implicitly exercise its political girth however; it may not be too late to perform this maneuver.

If such an evolvement is brought to fruition perhaps the full breadth of "Change" may be experienced within the communities of this population.

The author is an educator and journalist providing analysis on social and political matters. His works have appeared in news magazines and publications around the country. Meade, who lives in Atlanta, GA, can be reached by E-mail at meade1900@yahoo.com
www.fredmeade.blogspot.com

Ezrah Aharone: Uncovering Indoctrinated Racism

President Obama’s Message For America’s Students

Uncovering Indoctrinated Racism

By Ezrah Aharone 10/09

Since he wasn’t the first and won’t be the last president to address the nation’s youth, it’s peculiar that claims and fears circulated that Barack Obama would somehow “indoctrinate” children during his recent back-to-school address. After all, everyone knows that America is a free country, while indoctrination only happens in foreign countries like North Korea . . . Right?

Well, apart from known connotations of brainwashing, “Indoctrination,” means exactly what its 3 words infer: To adhere “In” the “Doctrine” (teachings/beliefs) of a “Nation.” People in all nations are thusly impacted, good and bad, in varying degrees by ideals, ethos, traditions, and politics that are taught and believed. This particularly applies to the US because, more so than citizens in any other country, Americans are “American” by virtue of creed and ideology, as opposed to bloodline or ethnicity.

To be “American,” according to the US Foreign Policy Encyclopedia, is “not a birthright, but the willingness to believe in a certain set of political and social principles and values.” This explains why foreigners who desire to become US citizens must first learn Jeopardy game-like responses to be indoctrinated into Americanization.

In his book, American Exceptionalism: A Double Edged Sword, Seymour Martin Lipset writes about how the “American identity” is really just as much an “ism” as a nationality . . . Similar to how socialism and liberalism are “isms.” In this sense, Swedish or Greek people for instance, aren’t known to be Un-Swedish or Un-Greek, yet to violate or reject American values or beliefs can quickly contaminate offenders as being “Un-American.”

This “ism” of indoctrination was the trigger behind three “Un-American” teenagers to get thrown out Riverfront Stadium in New Jersey for not standing during the singing of God Bless America at a baseball game in June 2009. As North Korean-like as this may be, let me cite two other examples using President Obama and Michelle, to demonstrate the cunning of how this “ism” has been unfairly racialized to police our political and historical outlooks as African Americans.

First, Michelle faced torrent criticisms that unfavorably impacted the president’s campaign when she remarked in February 2008 that she “felt proud of her country for the first time.” Then, the loyalty of President Obama himself was challenged because he never wore flag pins on his lapel, which he consequently now wears religiously.

Like Michelle, the uncut truth is that many Blacks her age and older were born into times when we didn’t need Jimmy Carter to excavate hidden racism since segregated inequities pervaded “from sea to shining sea.” So we rightfully, understandably have less to be patriotically proud-of than Euro-Americans. But the “ism-affect” of indoctrination is so far-reaching that we are expected to pretend that we now share a retroactive “common history” with Euro-Americans, rather than a splintered “related history.”

The historical paths of various people have crossed throughout the ages. However, to share “common history,” people must largely experience or support the same sides, positions, interests, and outcomes during encounters. Otherwise, they have a “related history,” comprised of opposing interests with dissimilar experiences that aren’t necessarily irreconcilable, like Jews and Germans. Although such distinctions by us would automatically and unfairly be regarded in America as racism, the real truth is that, it bruises America’s “ism-ego” to concede the reality that America’s political character as a nation is inconsistent with the moral image it tries to sell us and portray to the world.

Regarding our embrace of the US flag – it’s a split-decision. The unspoken reality is that a sizeable percentage of Blacks feel little or no patriotic affinity towards Old Glory. Just do your own random samplings of diverse groups. You’ll discover (even among those who excitedly voted for Obama and stood in the cold for his inauguration) that many don’t pledge to the flag; won’t ever handle the flag; and they never sing a single word of the national anthem when it’s played.

But this too is unrelated to racism. Considering that African Americans are “American,” and understanding that the anthem and flag are revered symbols of the nation’s sovereignty, this disconnect is symptomatic of deep, genuine, unresolved Black concerns that require equally deep and genuine political resolutions. But here’s the obstacle – Although our enslavement was incontestably wrong, the “ism-factors” have indoctrinated society to presuppose that subsequent measures to Americanize us were incontestably right.

This explains why and how it’s possible that even though segregation was immoral and criminal, “pardons” were recently issued to Rosa Parks and other civil rights activists who refused to adhere “In” the “Doctrine” of this “Nation” during the 1960s. We should however consider this a human and political insult since it was America’s democracy – not us – that needed correction. To regard such pardons as “racial progress” is the political equivalent of going out to dinner with someone who knowingly stole your wallet, and then you thank them after they pay the check with your money.

The central issue here is not America’s “ism” per se, but the fact that the “ism” blurs historical and political realities in order to deflect the onus that American democracy, like uranium, has a proven capacity to be weaponized for human harm. History is not like a cookbook recipe that can be remade to suit the taste buds of consumers. The onus therefore is upon us as African Americans to uncover and defeat all sneaky, lingering remnants of indoctrinated racism that now hides itself institutionally and ideologically.

Ezrah Aharone is the author of two political books: Sovereign Evolution: Manifest Destiny from Civil Rights to Sovereign Rights (2009) and Pawned Sovereignty: Sharpened Black Perspectives on Americanization, Africa, War and Reparations (2003). He is also a founding member of the Center for Sovereignty Advancement. He can be reached at Ezrah@theCSA.org.

Michael Fauntroy: A Black Agenda for President Obama To Address? Yes!

A Black Agenda For President Obama to Address? Yes!

A spat has developed among some prominent Black leaders about the extent to which President Barack Obama should be pushed to give special attention to African American issues. Some believe that holding the President’s feet to the fire is not necessary (or potentially politically perilous for him) and that some of the unique issues facing Black people can be addressed within the context of larger solutions. They, in supporting their position, have erected a ridiculous straw man to under gird their position: President Obama is not the President of Black America and should not be held to that standard. This straw man that, if unchecked, will get in the way of addressing some of the crushing issues facing African Americans. For me, it’s perfectly acceptable for groups of Americans to push the government to deal with their causes, so black leaders who want to go easy on this President because he is Black are failing their constituents and need to reverse course. Now.

I believe this argument is a straw man because I have yet to hear one reasonable, credible person argue that Obama should be the President of Black America or solely any other segment of the nation. But that doesn’t mean that issues of particular importance to different constituencies should not be given extra attention. Special problems require special attention. Need proof? Consider what has happened with Wall Street. A massive problem – created by Wall Street’s own greed left to run amuck in a deregulated environment – resulted in taxpayers convulsing more than ONE TRILLION DOLLARS to attempt to fix the problem.

The Black community certainly has some responsibility for its current situation. The reality is, however, that with some Black communities suffering from unemployment rates above 30 percent (In October 2009, the jobless rate for black males age 16-to-24 was 34.5 percent in my home city of Washington, D.C., a place that has made out reasonably well in the current recession and Milwaukee, Wisconsin has recently had a Black male unemployment rate hovering around 50 percent) and dangerously high dropout and criminal justice supervision rates, a unique, special, and acute problem has been established that requires attention above and beyond what our leaders – elected and appointed, and without regard to race are willing to acknowledge.

Black unemployment won’t get significantly reversed by treating it the same as White unemployment. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, 10.7 percent of White men over the age of 20 were unemployed; 17.3 percent of Black males were unemployed at the same time. White women over the age of 20 have an unemployment rate of 7.1 percent, while 13.3 percent of Black women are jobless (this is a devastating number given the disproportionate number of single-woman headed households in the Black community). Whites between the ages of 16-19 had an unemployment rate of 24.1 percent; the Black unemployment rate for same aged Blacks was 43.5 percent.

Groups of Americans, whether organized along ideological, religious, cultural, business, or other kinds of lines can, and do, ask the President for special attention to their issues. African Americans, however, are expected to sit in a corner and wait for the President to get around to their concerns whenever it’s convenient. I say no. Credibility requires Black leaders to make sure that Congress and the White House, without regard to partisan control or the race of the leadership, that Black issues are not ignored.

America should not fear a “Black agenda” any more than it would fear an “environmental agenda” or an “education agenda”. As I see it, the “Black agenda” is simply about making sure that some of the most acute issues facing Black communities across the country are respected and acted upon. Black leaders who run from a “Black agenda” to protect the “Black President” need to be reassessed by those who put them in their positions.

Michael K. Fauntroy is assistant professor of public policy at George Mason University and blogs at MichaelFauntroy.com. He can be reached on Facebook at Michael K. Fauntroy.

Ezrah Aharone: The Makings Of Modern Mis-Education

Even schools for Negroes, then, are places where they must be convinced of their inferiority.

The large majority of the Negroes who have put on the finishing touches of our best colleges are all but worthless in the development of their people.
-Carter G. Woodson

The Makings Of Modern Mis-Education

By Ezrah Aharone

Dr. Carter G. Woodson, the father of Black History Month and second Black PhD to graduate from Harvard, wrote the acclaimed The Mis-Education of the Negro way back in 1933. In the 1940s, psychologist Kenneth Clark’s “Doll Test,” demonstrated that Black children were being psychologically conditioned to yearn and favor the looks of White people at the expense of self-dislike. His critical findings were cited during Brown vs. Board of Education when the Supreme Court desegregated schools in 1954.

Here we are, decades removed and Dr. Woodson’s book is still widely sold and studied, while Black children are still predisposed to view White dolls as “prettier and nicer” with hair that’s “better” than Black dolls. Educationally, we face ever-dismal challenges where Black children enter kindergarten a full year behind Whites; by high school the gap extends to 4 to 5 years; and 58 percent of Black males don’t even graduate high school.

Princeton researchers recently published a 7-year study, concluding that a 20-year “Manhattan Project-effort” is necessary to close today’s education and economic gaps of racial inequality. Just so you’ll know, the original Manhattan Project was a massive pursuit, costing the equivalent of $22 billion and comprising thousands of scientists who developed the A-Bomb in 1945 to nuke Japan into a crisp. So, to infer this same category of endeavor, speaks to the comparative enormity of the challenge.

There’s good reason for skepticism since Black kids who dropout commonly say “classes aren’t interesting.” And as far back as my childhood in the 1960s, “Acting White” has been a tagline used by Black kids to ridicule those who academically excel. Naturally, adults respond by saying, “there’s nothing White about being smart.” Although this is absolutely true, it absolutely misses the point and fails to address the sociopolitical and mis-educational factors that confound young minds to misconstrue smartness with Whiteness.

Children worldwide learn that the earth is round and 1 + 1 = 2. These are universal facts that are neither Black nor White. However, the functions and end-uses that nations apply such facts to educate kids are neither neutral nor universal. Hence, “Acting White” is a troubled way that youngsters express something that we have lacked the power to change – Which is that the functions and end-uses of America’s “System of Education and Intellect” are based on skewed purposes, processes, and interpretations that place European images, ideals, and institutions as the central and supreme frame of reference and relevance. This lack of intellectual and institutional equality, encapsulates the essence of the mis-education identified by Dr. Woodson.

Our mistake is that we consider it sufficient to simply insert Black people into existing White institutions, and then paste tidbits of sanitized versions of “Black History” into America’s larger body of education. By contributing without properly correcting the end-uses and known partialities within America’s “System of Education and Intellect,” we have allowed “the problem to masquerade as a solution.”

Ask yourself – To what end-use is our current system of thought being applied, and who are the ultimate beneficiaries and end-users? With our 4 centuries of collective intellect and institutions, we can’t stop our youngsters from shooting and killing each other. We can’t even stop them from cursing in front of elders. We have communities nationwide being held hostage to Black-on-Black crime. Mis-education is making us intellectually and functionally unfit to “rescue ourselves from ourselves.”

Black leaders and educators have convened for decades to debate and decipher “what’s wrong.” But here’s a hard truth – The very psychological inducements that trap Black children to idolize and overvalue White dolls, mutates into sociopolitical mindsets that induce Black adults to idolize and overvalue European ideals and institutions just the same . . . its one yoke with two levels of shackles.

Centuries of mis-education won’t simply evaporate, yet the purging process would undress America’s character and historiography in ways that America would find uncomfortable and unwilling to concede. So unless we mount ample intellectual and institutional capacities, The Mis-Education of the Negro will not only be the title of Dr. Woodson’s book, it will be an accurate description of a permanent reality.

George Curry: Tavis Goes Into Battle Of Wits With Sharpton Unarmed

Tavis Goes Into Battle Of Wits With Sharpton Unarmed
By George E. Curry
NNPA Columnist
Mar 1, 2010

If Tavis Smiley were doing the commentary on the Tom Joyner Morning Show, he might begin by saying, “As Big Mama would say, he created a new behind in his opponent.” But Tavis is not providing disinterested commentary on this feud, primarily because it was Rev. Al Sharpton who created a new butt in Tavis when the verbose talk show host tried to take on The Greater Debater.

It was a Tavis commentary on February 23 that ignited the fireworks between Sharpton and Smiley. He accused Black leaders – Al Sharpton, Ben Jealous, Marc Morial, Dorothy Height, Professor Charles Ogletree and Valerie Jarrett – of singing the song that President Obama does not need to focus on a Black agenda.

“I must have missed that choir rehearsal, J., because I don’t know the words to this new hymn,” Tavis proclaimed. “The president doesn’t need a Black agenda, they sing. He’s not the president of Black America, he’s the president of all America and he need not focus specifically on the unique challenges Black America is facing, they sing.”

Sharpton said not only was Tavis off key, he cited the wrong lyrics.

“First of all, we never said that,” an enraged Sharpton told Smiley. “And second of all, the New York Times never said we said that.”

Sharpton said he placed a call to Tavis and did not get a return call. And when Tavis unexpectedly called Sharpton’s syndicated radio show, the civil rights leader issued a scorching point-by-point rebuttal.

Tavis kept saying how much he loved Sharpton and no matter what Sharpton does, he can’t diminish Tavis’ love for him. Sharpton basically said, “What’s love got to do with it?” and proceeded to dismantle Tavis’ feeble defense. Tavis Smiley essentially showed up for a battle of wits unarmed.

For the record, I’ve never been a Tavis fan. I think he is a poor interviewer who has more style than substance. No journalist worth his or her salt makes the question in an interview longer than the answer. But Tavis is not a journalist. Never has been one. And it shows. Until now, I’ve never mentioned Tavis’ name in print. But now that he has publicly questioned the integrity of civil rights leaders he formerly courted, it’s time to place some additional things on the record.

When I was editor of Emerge magazine, I got a call from Deborah Tang, his producer and one of my longtime friends. “Tavis wants to be on the cover of Emerge,” she said. I thought Deborah was joking and replied, “People in hell want ice water.” She continued, “George, I’m serious. Can we go to lunch to talk about it?”

Realizing that she wasn’t joking, I asked, “Has Tavis ever read Emerge? If he had, he would already know that he’ll never be on the cover of Emerge.” Tang persisted until I told her that I could afford my own lunch and there was no need to waste time discussing the prospect of Tavis being on the cover of Emerge.

I chalked the exchange up to Tavis’ oversized ego and didn’t think about the it again until more than five years later when two producers on Tavis’ radio show independently asked me if I knew I was on Tavis’ secret hit list. I replied that I didn’t know that Tavis kept such a list. Each producer told me in separate conversations that they had suggested using me to discuss stories on his radio show and were later taken aside by other staffers and informed that I would never be on his show because I had done something in the past to offend Tavis (I was actually on time once when Karen Bates was the guest host).

When told that I had offended Tavis, I searched my memory but came up with a blank. Tavis and I were always cordial when we met in public. We were neither friends nor enemies. At least, I didn’t consider him an enemy. I was never a fan of his in any sense of the word. I was never invited to any of his dog-and-pony shows and never wanted to participate in them.

One of the producers told me that I was on Tavis’ enemies list because I didn’t put him on the cover of Emerge. All I could do at the time was laugh and shake my head. What an egomaniac, I thought.

The nation got a glimpse of Tavis being a legend in his own mind during the presidential election. In 2008, he asked candidate Barack Obama to participate in one of his town hall self-promotions in Louisiana, a state that he had already carried two weeks earlier. Hillary Clinton, seeking to win over more Black voters, accepted Tavis’ invitation. Obama, trailing Clinton in Texas, declined to attend but offered to send his wife, Michelle. Tavis rejected the offer as well as a second plea from Obama that Michelle participate. Consequently, many of Tavis’ previous followers on Tom Joyner turned against him, prompting him to quit the show.

Tavis likes to pretend public opinion turned against him because he had the gall to stand up to Barack Obama. No, people were more disappointed that he was eager to lie down for Hillary Clinton. And he still lies down for the Clintons, even calling Bill the nation’s first Black president.

Tavis’ testy exchange with Al Sharpton is merely exposing a side of him that others of us had already experienced. It’s a pity that he chose to be so petty.

(George E. Curry, former editor-in-chief of Emerge magazine and the NNPA News Service, is a keynote speaker, moderator, and media coach. He can be reached through his Web site, www.georgecurry.com. You can also follow him at www.twitter.com/currygeorge.)

Hear Bro. George Curry On W.E. A.L.L. B.E. Radio:

2010 State Of The Black Union

“It Ain’t About Tavis, It’s About Us, & It's About Time!”

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/weallbe/2010/02/25/tha-artivist-presentswe-all-be-radio

Star Parker: We Need Green Money, Not Green Jobs

Green For All Founder & Green Movement Leader Bro. Van Jones with W.E. A.L.L. B.E. News & Radio Founder And Leader Bro. R2C2H2 Tha Artivist...As you all can see Bro. Van Jones is a fan of the art of Tha Artivist (picture-"Howling Wolf")

We Need Green Money, Not Green Jobs

Environmentalism is a new platform to welcome poor blacks onto the government plantation.

Van Jones is back, reconstructed and rehabilitated.

Jones, recall, departed from his White House job as "green jobs czar" after publicity about his association with a "9/11 truther" organization that alleges complicity of the Bush administration with the 9/11 attack.

He was already a lightening rod, having characterized President Bush as a "crackhead", using profanity to describe Republicans, and offering gems like blaming "white polluters and white environmentalists" for "steering poison" to minority communities.

But as White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel understands that power brokers should "never waste a crisis", those on the left grasp that you never waste an asset like a black self-described communist from the 1990's with an Ivy League degree and a best selling "green jobs" book.

So now Jones has new jobs at Princeton University and Washington's Center for American Progress. And, to seal the public rehabilitation, he will be awarded the NAACP's Image Award, and has been called by NAACP president Benjamin Jealous a "national treasure."

Central to Jones' work will, of course, be the continuation of his "green jobs" agenda. The Center for American Progress announcement says he'll be a senior fellow and leader with its Green Opportunity Initiative.

CAP was founded by rich liberals who thought the left needed a think tank like conservatives have (as they concluded they needed talk radio, and hence founded the now defunct Air America). One of the major sources of funding of CAP was Marion and Herbert Sandler who got rich building Golden West Financial selling Adjustable Rate Mortgages with teaser rates to unsophisticated buyers. Yes, the very greedy kind of businesspeople that the Obama administration would have us believe caused our current economic crisis.

But the beauty of the left is that facts will never get in the way of ideology.

The recent scandal associated with the use of research data at the Climate Research Unit in England -- which has been essentially the headquarters of global warming research -- has brought claims of man-made climate change into serious doubt.

Sober minds realize that this must be a time for reassessment about assumptions driving the belief that irreversible climate change has occurred and that this alleged change is caused by human activity. As expressed in an editorial in Britain's Prospect Magazine, "We cannot rely on highly imperfect climate models as a basis for policy initiatives that cost billions and change how we live."

But this hasn't put a dent in the green jobs movement. President Obama continues to push this idea as central to economic recovery, as he did the other day speaking to CEOs at the Business Roundtable in Washington.

The love affair on the left with "green jobs" is, of course, about ideology, which is why facts are irrelevant. It is another excuse to grow government and bring European socialism to America. What could be a better opportunity than to claim that the planet's atmosphere is now out of whack because of capitalism?

Van Jones is important because he uses environmentalism as a new platform to welcome poor blacks onto the government plantation.

This is important spin because poor folks do have common sense. In a Zogby poll done after the presidential election, 73 percent of blacks said they were opposed to taxing fossil fuels to promote alternative energy.

The Carter Administration invested $2.1 billion in the Great Plains Coal Gasification Plant to convert coal to gas. The result? Zero. Federal government spending since 1961 on "advanced energy technologies and basic energy science research" totals $187 billion with hardly anything to show.

Poor folks don't need socialism or green jobs. They need green money. They'll get more of it being free, going to school, getting married and going to work.

Star Parker is president of CURE, Coalition for Urban Renewal and Education, and can be reached at parker@urbancure.org.

Doctors Without Morals...

Doctors Without Morals

By LEONARD S. RUBENSTEIN and STEPHEN N. XENAKIS

March 1, 2010

Op-Ed Contributors

AFTER five years of investigation, the Justice Department has released its findings regarding the government lawyers who authorized waterboarding and other forms of torture during the interrogation of suspected terrorists at Guantánamo Bay and elsewhere. The report’s conclusion, that the lawyers exercised poor judgment but were not guilty of professional misconduct, is questionable at best. Still, the review reflects a commitment to a transparent investigation of professional behavior.

In contrast, the government doctors and psychologists who participated in and authorized the torture of detainees have escaped discipline, accountability or even internal investigation.

It is hardly news that medical staff at the C.I.A. and the Pentagon played a critical role in developing and carrying out torture procedures. Psychologists and at least one doctor designed or recommended coercive interrogation methods including sleep deprivation, stress positions, isolation and waterboarding. The military’s Behavioral Science Consultation Teams evaluated detainees, consulted their medical records to ascertain vulnerabilities and advised interrogators when to push harder for intelligence information.

Psychologists designed a program for new arrivals at Guantánamo that kept them in isolation to “enhance and exploit” their “disorientation and disorganization.” Medical officials monitored interrogations and ordered medical interventions so they could continue even when the detainee was in obvious distress. In one case, an interrogation log obtained by Time magazine shows, a medical corpsman ordered intravenous fluids to be administered to a dehydrated detainee even as loud music was played to deprive him of sleep.

When the C.I.A.’s inspector general challenged these “enhanced interrogation” methods, the agency’s Office of Medical Services was brought in to determine, in consultation with the Justice Department, whether the techniques inflicted severe mental pain or suffering, the legal definition of torture. Once again, doctors played a critical role, providing professional opinions that no severe pain or suffering was being inflicted.

According to Justice Department memos released last year, the medical service opined that sleep deprivation up to 180 hours didn’t qualify as torture. It determined that confinement in a dark, small space for 18 hours a day was acceptable. It said detainees could be exposed to cold air or hosed down with cold water for up to two-thirds of the time it takes for hypothermia to set in. And it advised that placing a detainee in handcuffs attached by a chain to a ceiling, then forcing him to stand with his feet shackled to a bolt in the floor, “does not result in significant pain for the subject.”

The service did allow that waterboarding could be dangerous, and that the experience of feeling unable to breathe is extremely frightening. But it noted that the C.I.A. had limited its use to 12 applications over two sessions within 24 hours, and to five days in any 30-day period. As a result, the lawyers noted the office’s “professional judgment that the use of the waterboard on a healthy individual subject to these limitations would be ‘medically acceptable.’”

The medical basis for these opinions was nonexistent. The Office of Medical Services cited no studies of individuals who had been subjected to these techniques. Its sources included a wilderness medical manual, the National Institute of Mental Health Web site and guidelines from the World Health Organization.

The only medical source cited by the service was a book by Dr. James Horne, a sleep expert at Loughborough University in Britain; when Dr. Horne learned that his book had been used as a reference, he said the C.I.A. had distorted his findings and misrepresented his research, and that its conclusions on sleep deprivation were nonsense.

Dr. Horne had used healthy volunteers who were subject to no other stresses and could withdraw at any time, while C.I.A. and Pentagon interrogators used a broad array of stresses in combination on the detainees. Sleep deprivation, he said, mixed with pain-inducing positioning, intimidation and a host of other stresses, would probably exhaust the body’s defense mechanisms, cause physical collapse and worsen existing illness. And that doesn’t begin to acknowledge the dire psychological consequences.

The shabbiness of the medical judgments, though, pales in comparison to the ethical breaches by the doctors and psychologists involved. Health professionals have a responsibility extending well beyond nonparticipation in torture; the historic maxim is, after all, “First do no harm.” These health professionals did the polar opposite.

Nevertheless, no agency — not the Pentagon, the C.I.A., state licensing boards or professional medical societies — has initiated any action to investigate, much less discipline, these individuals. They have ignored the gross and appalling violations by medical personnel. This is an unconscionable disservice to the thousands of ethical doctors and psychologists in the country’s service. It is not too late to begin investigations. They should start now.

Leonard S. Rubenstein is a visiting scholar at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Stephen N. Xenakis is a psychiatrist and a retired Army brigadier general.

Mumia Speaks: Black History Month?

"If a race has no history, if it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated."
Dr. Carter G. Woodson

Black History Month?

[col. writ. 2/21/10] (c) '10 Mumia Abu-Jamal

For some reason, this February doesn't feel like Black History Month.

Historically, the long, hard history of resistance has been at the heart of the recognition, but this year seems different.

Wonder why?

Part of it must be the horrendous suffering that struck Haiti a month ago. The Haitian Revolution has been an inspiration for Blacks the world over, for over 2 centuries.

But even that doesn't explain it.

It may be the fact of a Black person in the nation's highest office - something that seemed unthinkable just a few years ago.

But that ain't all of it. For though this was unexpected and a source of immense pride, there's also the dawning recognition that, for millions of Blacks, things aren't just 'not better' - they are immensely worse.

For the brunt of the foreclosure crisis hit Blacks and Latinos who owned homes, for they were most subject to the explosive sub prime loans. As the economy fell, the Black community faced disproportionate joblessness and longer job searches.

All the indicators of social well being, health, jobs, education, police violence, judicial treatment, etc. are trending negatively.

And while polls show Blacks are the President's most loyal supporters, some must truly wonder: "Is it the most powerful politician in the country (if not the world), powerless when it comes to addressing the survival struggles of Blacks?'

Thus falls a pall over Black History Month.

====================

The Power of Truth is Final -- Free Mumia!

URGENT Need for Petition Signatures at: http://www.iacenter.org/mumiapetition/

Audio of most of Mumia's essays are at: http://www.prisonradio.org

http://mumiapodcast.libsyn.com/

Mumia's got a podcast! Mumia Abu-Jamal's Radio Essays - Subscribe at the website or on iTunes and get Mumia's radio commentaries online.

Mumia Abu-Jamal's new book -- JAILHOUSE LAWYERS: PRISONERS DEFENDING PRISONERS V. THE USA, featuring an introduction by Angela Y. Davis -- has been released! It is available from City Lights Books: http://www.citylights.com/book/?GCOI=87286100448090

If you are planning to organize an event or would like to order in bulk, you can also receive a 45% discount on any bulk orders of 20 copies or more. The book retails for $16.95, for orders of 20 copies or more the discounted price would be $9.32 per book, plus shipping and handling. Prepayment would be required and books are nonreturnable. If you or your organization would like to place a bulk order, please contact Stacey Lewis at 415.362.1901 or stacey@citylights.com

Let's use the opportunity of the publication of this brilliant, moving, vintage Mumia book to build the momentum for his case, to raise the money we desperately need in these challenging economic times, to get the word out – to produce literature, flyers, posters, videos, DVD's; to send organizers out to help build new chapters and strengthen old ones, TO GET THE PEOPLE OUT IN THE STREETS … all the work that we must do in order to FREE MUMIA as he faces LIFE IN PRISON WITHOUT PAROLE OR EXECUTION!

Please make a contribution to help free Mumia. Donations to the grassroots work will go to both INTERNATIONAL CONCERNED FAMILY AND FRIENDS OF MUMIA ABU-JAMAL and the FREE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL COALITION (NYC).

http://www.freemumia.com/

Please mail donations/ checks to:

FREE MUMIA ABU JAMAL COALITION

PO BOX 16, NEW YORK,

NY 10030

(CHECKS FOR BOTH ORGANIZATIONS PAYABLE TO: FMAJC/IFCO)

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

215 476-8812

212-330-8029

Send our brotha some LOVE and LIGHT at:

Mumia Abu-Jamal

AM 8335

SCI-Greene

175 Progress Drive

Waynesburg, PA 15370

WE WHO BELIEVE IN FREEDOM CAN *NOT* REST!!

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W.E. A.L.L. B.E.

Monday, March 01, 2010

A Conversation With Dr. Cornel West About The Obama Agenda & The Black Agenda

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Michael Fauntroy: A Black Agenda for President Obama To Address? Yes!

A Black Agenda For President Obama to Address? Yes!

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George Curry: Tavis Goes Into Battle Of Wits With Sharpton Unarmed

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