This and That

Pete Souza: Pres Obama speaking in Jacksonville, Florida

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Steve Benen: AG Holder to fight Texas on voting rights

In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on the Voting Rights Act, Republican policymakers acted with remarkable speed – literally, less than 24 hours – to approve new voting restrictions, most notably a controversial voter-ID law.

When the Voting Rights Act was intact, changes to voting laws in the Lone Star State would need to be cleared with the Justice Department in advance of being implemented, but with the law gutted by a narrow Supreme Court majority, GOP officials in Texas assumed the Justice Department is no longer relevant, and they could do as they pleased.

The nation’s Attorney General apparently believes otherwise….

More here

And see TPM: Holder’s Move Against Texas Could Send The Voting Rights Act Back To The Supreme Court

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Steve Benen: Among voter-suppression bills, ‘This is the single worst’

Over the last few years, we’ve seen quite a few states take up new voting restrictions, immediately on the heels of Republican gains in the 2010 election cycle, so much so that the notion of a “Republican war on voting” was widely recognized and understood. After the 2012 elections, despite the failures of voter suppression, state GOP officials renewed their efforts.

But it’s probably fair to say we haven’t seen anything quite as astounding as the proposed restrictions in North Carolina. Barbara Arnwine, president of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said, “This is the single worst bill we have seen introduced since voter suppression bills began sweeping the country.”

More here

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I am sick and tired of Cornel West’s race and poverty pimping, and I am calling him out. http://t.co/5curU3yXnE

— The People’s View (@thepeoplesview) July 26, 2013

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BlackAmericaWeb: Is Anyone Black Enough for Cornel West?

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shock! “@BlackCanseco: #GeorgeZimmerman’s “heroic” car crash rescue may be fraudulent after all. http://t.co/ktNe1UsG3U #thanksgeorge #syg”

— Wieland (@lawscribe) July 25, 2013

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Zimmerman Juror B29 in her own words… http://t.co/VA0y5nRJ89

— Michael Skolnik (@MichaelSkolnik) July 25, 2013

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Trayvon Martin’s parents: Juror B29′s revelations ‘devastating’ http://t.co/J3EezZa8FJ

— theGrio.com (@theGrio) July 26, 2013

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More here

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To see the whole list of 25 Thoughts on Conservative Policies, visit http://t.co/amvoTfLJRR …,

— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) July 26, 2013

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This really is beyond belief:

ThinkProgress: Ohio Plans Unspeakably Cruel Appeal Of Dying Man’s Last Wish

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President Obama tours Jacksonville port with, from left, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx; Dennis Kelly, TracPac Regional Vice President and General Manager; Ray Schleicher, CEO of the Jacksonville Port Authority, and Fred Wakefield, International Longshoreman’s Association Representative

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Text of the President’s remarks in Jacksonville today here

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EXCLUSIVE: Inside Groundswell, the right-wing group where activists & journalists coordinate messaging http://t.co/9GZRllKxED #groundswell

— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) July 25, 2013

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President Obama talks with Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx aboard Air Force One during the flight to Jacksonville, July 25 (Photo by Pete Souza)

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Republicans Launch A Campaign to Convince The Uninsured NOT to Buy Health Insurance http://t.co/jYpAor88Bi via @politicususa #p2 #p2b #ctl

— Sarah Reese Jones (@srjones66) July 25, 2013

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Norm Ornstein: The Unprecedented, Contemptible GOP Quest to Sabotage Obamacare. What the Republicans are doing now goes beyond mere hardball politics – and could hurt millions of Americans affected by health-care reform.

And from Steve Benen: None dare call it sabotage

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So many OFA vols are calling @SpeakerBoehner today demanding action on #Immigration they are waiting on hold 40 min to leave a message

— Jon Carson OFA (@JonCarsonOFA) July 25, 2013

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What’s most telling re @thehill‘s f**k-up is their eagerness to create anti-Obama story when he wasn’t even mentioned pic.twitter.com/re95CMaBod

— TheObamaDiary.com (@TheObamaDiary) July 25, 2013

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President Obama reaches up to touch a media microphone while talking with people along a tarmac ropeline after arriving at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., July 24 (Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

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New CBO report finds sequester cuts will cost up to 1.6mill jobs by Sept. 2014. Time for GOP to move fwd on a budget: http://t.co/xioecdOjEB

— Nancy Pelosi (@NancyPelosi) July 25, 2013

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A southern strategy for the 21st century http://t.co/fcfDS4ZOjW

— Smartypants (@Smartypants32) July 25, 2013

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ThinkProgress: Washington Nationals Use Teddy Roosevelt Mascot To Promote Obamacare

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A MUST READ “@joshuafoust: I made a timeline of Edward Snowden’s flight from the U.S. It raises a lot of questions. http://t.co/MVbbc8jxYF”

— Jeff Gauvin (@JeffersonObama) July 25, 2013

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If you’ve ever wondered what landing on the South Lawn of the White House was like…here you go —> pic.twitter.com/QrqGpUlzEq

— The White House (@whitehouse) July 25, 2013

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USA Today: President Obama is declaring Saturday to be Korean War Veterans Armistice Day.

“I call upon all Americans to observe this day with appropriate ceremonies and activities that honor our distinguished Korean War veterans,” Obama said in a proclamation signed Thursday.

Obama will commemorate the event with a speech on Saturday at the Korean War memorial in Washington, D.C.

More here

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Pete Souza: Pres Obama signing photos backstage in Jacksonville

rise and shine

NYT: … Despite a school of thought in Washington that Mr. Obama’s support among blacks has weakened because of the poor economy and a sense of unmet expectations, interviews and public opinion surveys show that his standing remains remarkably strong among African-Americans.

….Some believe the president will be hard-pressed to reproduce those (2008) results, with a political narrative emerging in Washington that African-Americans have begun to sour on the president. Various black leaders – including Representative Maxine Waters of California, the television host Tavis Smiley and Cornel West, a prominent professor – have criticized Mr. Obama for what they see as not doing enough for black Americans…

Outside Washington, however, the story is markedly different. Mr. Obama’s support among African-Americans appears strikingly strong, even among many who are out of work, who might be expected to complain the loudest.

In a recent Pew Research Center poll, black voters preferred Mr. Obama 95 percent to 3 percent over Mitt Romney, “which is at least the margin he got in 2008,” said Michael Dimock, associate director for research at Pew. “There’s no erosion at all.”

Even more noteworthy, less than 10 percent of black voters in a New York Times/CBS News survey taken last month said that Mr. Obama had failed to meet their expectations as president, while nearly 3 in 10 said he had exceeded expectations…

…. Sitting in a chair at the Ultimate Choice Barber Shop in Charlotte, Brian Gainey, 28, a truck driver, initially hesitated when asked if he was going to vote again for Mr. Obama. “Yes,” he said finally, adding: “I’d almost like to see someone else win though. Maybe then they’ll see how much better Obama was than whoever will come after him.”

To Lemar Foster Jr., 48, a barber at Ultimate Choice, the Obama family epitomizes a bigger cultural change. …. “ … having the Obamas in the White House?” he asked. “Yeah, I’m very proud. And I’m definitely voting for him again.”

Full article here

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Bloomberg: President Barack Obama’s “tsunami” of new government regulations looks more like a summer swell.

Obama’s White House has approved fewer regulations than his predecessor George W. Bush at this same point in their tenures, and the estimated costs of those rules haven’t reached the annual peak set in fiscal 1992 under Bush’s father, according to government data reviewed by Bloomberg News.

…. The scope of government regulation has emerged as a major issue in the 2012 presidential race and on Capitol Hill. Republican presidential candidates have accused Obama of stifling job creation by imposing rules on businesses, and House Republicans have vowed to rein in proposed regulations on everything from the environment to health care to banking.

….. Obama’s White House approved 613 federal rules during the first 33 months of his term, 4.7 percent fewer than the 643 cleared by President George W. Bush’s administration in the same time frame….

Full article here

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Today:

12:00 PM: Michelle Obama delivers remarks at a Democratic National Committee luncheon in Jacksonville, Florida

3:10 PM: President Obama holds a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Petr Necas of the Czech Republic

3:30 PM: Michelle Obama delivers remarks at a DNC reception in Tampa, Florida

5:05 PM: The President greets city and municipal leaders from across the country

6:45 PM: The President has dinner with winners of a campaign contest

7:00 PM: Michelle Obama delivers remarks at a DNC reception in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida

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Robert Shrum: Critics berate the president for taking his inspiring new progressive message to the American people. But it’s the critics who ought to be ashamed

The president must be doing something right. He’s now getting advice (from all the wrong quarters) that he ought to stop standing up for the people, not the privileged. Of course, such arguments largely rest on pre-cast assumptions and self-serving calculations.

…. New York Times columnist David Brooks, on the other hand, sounds agonized and genuinely disappointed as he mourns Obama’s passage from compromising to fighting for progressive values….. Brooks contends that instead of fighting such battles, Obama should “champion a Grand Bargain strategy.” When he did just that this summer during the debt-ceiling fight, the Republicans wouldn’t meet the president even a quarter of the way….

…. So fight on, Mr. President. You’re renewing your voice and your vision, and America is beginning to hear you again as it did in 2008….

As long as you keep fighting, the critics will keep complaining. Every time they do, think of Harry Truman in 1948, written off, facing a “do-nothing Congress,” assailed for class warfare, but clear in purpose and in principle. And think of what he promised as he came to the podium of a weary and worried Democratic convention: We “will win this election and make these Republicans like it — don’t you forget that…The reason is the Democratic Party is the people’s party, and the Republican Party is the party of special interest, and it always has been and always will be.”….

Full article here

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Steve Benen: By most measures, the third quarter – July through September – wasn’t pretty. The Eurozone crisis intensified; the debt-ceiling scandal rattled investors; and Republican intransigence generated a downgrade in U.S. debt. Talk of a “double-dip” recession was ubiquitous.

But as it turns out, the U.S. economy muddled through anyway. The Commerce Department released its report this morning showing that the nation’s gross domestic product rose at 2.5% annual rate in the third quarter. It’s the strongest economic growth in a year, and a marked improvement over the anemic growth we saw in the first two quarters (January through June).

Indeed, economic growth in the third quarter was nearly double the rate seen in the previous quarter.

That said, it’s important to note that 2.5% GDP growth is hardly great news. It’s a clear improvement relative to the first half of 2011, but as Neil Irwin put it, we’re still dealing with “the diminished economic expectations of the post-crisis age.”….

I mention this in part because, while faster economic growth is encouraging, policymakers and pundits would be making a tragic mistake if they saw today’s numbers as an excuse for inaction….

Full post here

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Gallup

Thanks VC

a demoralizing day

Here’s a world exclusive preview of what Mark Landler will (probably) write in the New York Times tomorrow:

“It was a demoralizing day for President Obama on his bus tour of North Carolina and Virginia, some of his lowest points, captured by our photographers, demonstrating just how much distance there now is between him and the people who once supported him.

From the moment he took to the stage in the morning to speak at the Guilford Technical Community College in Jamestown, it was evident how jaded and down he is, no spring in his step, no sign of the energy that he once displayed at these events:

Grim-faced and unsmiling….

….. his speech was so uninspiring it even prompted one member of the audience to start reading the book he’d brought with him just in case he was bored:

After the speech, the President displayed yet more of his professorial aloofness, failing to connect with his audience or show any human warmth:

It got worse later in the day when the President visited Bluestone High School in Skipwith, a group of teenagers (Jon Huntsman supporters, according to Mark Halperin) giving him an angry and hostile reception when he arrived:

There was a particularly ugly exchange with a student in pink:

…. which resulted in Secret Service having to step in:

On to Reidsville, N.C. and Brodnax, Virginia, where the President was confronted by several enraged women, two of them actually attempting to strangle him:

Stunned, the President ran for shelter in a Reidsville restaurant, where he hoped to find a warm and fuzzy reception, but there was to be no respite from the hostility, two enraged seniors confronting him, rather venomously:

The President, by now a broken man, left for Emporia, Virginia, where he gave another speech to a half-empty hall of largely unenthusiastic one-time supporters at Greensville County High School:

Once again, he ignored the issue that is, clearly, the most important to Americans – unemployment:

…. which might have explained the ugly incident that completed his day, when a young black man – possibly a Tavis Smiley and Cornel West fan – attempted to assault him by hitting his hand really hard:

Frankly, it’s hard to know how the President can recover from such a demoralizing day (#VoteMitt).”

al

87%

So, how many articles have we read recently that claimed the President is losing African American support? No, not the support of Maxine Waters, Cornel West and Tavis Smiley – African Americans living in the real world.

I know, too many to count.

Take GOPolitico. For months they’ve promoted the line that the President is disproportionately losing Jewish support, much to the amusement of serious commentators – because the polls repeatedly contradicted their claims. (See here, here and here)

That didn’t work too well, so now they’re pushing the ‘African Americans Desert Obama’ line.

In a piece today they talk about the President’s “relationship with African-Americans (being) complicated from the beginning by questions about whether a mixed-race senator born in Hawaii was “authentically black” enough to win their support”.

Seriously, almost three years after he was elected, GOPolitico is still wondering if he’s black enough. (The author, who has written three similar pieces in the last month, is African American, so that’s okay).

The most critical quotes in the piece are from two ‘sources’ “speaking under condition of anonymity”. GOPolitico really do love their anonymous sources, especially when they give them quotes that neatly match their agenda. Whether they are real people or not, hey, who knows?

But if their thesis is true, that African-Americans are rising up against the President, how come they need to quote people anonymously? Surely if there was that much anger out there they could find someone other than Waters willing to lash out publicly?

The problem?

The President isn’t losing the support of African Americans living in the real world – in fact, that support is increasing.

GOPolitico and most other outlets – including supposedly ‘progressive’ ones – love quoting Gallup polls when their findings aren’t good for the President.

The latest Gallup poll? They’re not mentioning that much.

Why?

Because it shows that African American support for the President is up five points to 87%.

Link

Considering how the struggling economy has impacted on his figures across most groups, and bearing in mind how African Americans suffer disproportionately in terms of unemployment, that 87% figure is remarkable.

But still we’re told that Waters, West, Smiley and Co speak for African Americans. Well, clearly they don’t for 87% of them.

Just like that other media darling, Dan Choi, doesn’t speak for the entire gay community, most of whom appreciate the work this administration has done – and is trying to do – to promote equality.

That GOPolitico produces this kind of dishonesty is, of course, no surprise at all – it’s their area of expertise. But, as we all know, the Firebagger crew – especially at Salon – are relentlessly spreading the lie too. Rather than mentioning that 87%, they persist in claiming that Waters, West and Smiley speak for African Americans.

Of course, Salon’s Joan Walsh doesn’t have much time for that 87%:

April 2011

After all, only those who oppose the President represent the base, right?

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I see Gene Lyons at Salon has described Melissa Harris-Perry as “a left-wing Michele Bachmann, an attractive woman seeking fame and fortune by saying silly things on cable TV”. That was the level of his response to her thoughtful article on white ‘liberal’ racism. “A photo negative of KKK racial thought,” he wrote.

See the Reid Report on the article here

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And see this post by Flaming Emilia

nader & west ….. wow

November, 2008:

Dragonflyeye: Just watch the f**king video. Ralph sez: we love them neegras, unless they step out of line. Then, they’s all Uncle Toms. Nicole Bell said it best on Crooks and Liars: “You know you’re going bad when a Fox News anchor looks more racially tolerant than the former Green Party candidate.”

SFGate: As if Ralph Nader wasn’t a big enough tool already, he went on Fox News on election night – the very night Barack Obama broke the racial barrier on the presidency – and uttered the words “Uncle Tom”.

… It’s a stunning bit of television …. Give Shep Smith a lot of credit here. “Really? Ralph Nader – what was that?” And then he just fried Nader….

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June 2008:

Howard Kurtz (Washington Post): … Nader is quite media savvy. He knows he’s getting little attention, he knows why, and he knows how to remedy that: by throwing a stink bomb. One with a pungency that the MSM would find impossible to ignore.

He did just that yesterday, in an interview with the Rocky Mountain News:

“Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader accused Sen. Barack Obama, the presumed Democratic Party nominee, of downplaying poverty issues, trying to ‘talk white’ and appealing to ‘white guilt’ during his run for the White House.

…. “There’s only one thing different about Barack Obama when it comes to being a Democratic presidential candidate. He’s half African-American. Whether that will make any difference, I don’t know. I haven’t heard him have a strong crackdown on economic exploitation in the ghettos …. What’s keeping him from doing that? Is it because he wants to talk white? He doesn’t want to appear like Jesse Jackson?….”.

What can you say about that? If there’s ever been an African-American candidate who went out of his way not to frame his message in racial terms, not to appeal to white guilt, it’s Barack.

Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs told MSNBC the comments were “reprehensible and basically delusional,” but I wonder whether he should have just ignored them.

…. At Hot Air, Ed Morrissey is, well, disgusted: “Maybe Barack Obama was onto something when he warned about race-based attacks in the upcoming general election. However, the first such attack hasn’t come from Obama’s right, but from his left ….

‘Talk white’? Do people still think this way? Apparently Nader does, and the arrogance here is simply stunning. On what basis does Ralph Nader think that he qualifies to be the arbiter of black authenticity? “

Full article here

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December, 2009:

Michael Tomasky: Can there be anyone worse than Joe Lieberman? Actually, yes. From Benjy Sarlin’s interview at the Daily Beast with Ralph Nader, who naturally opposes the healthcare bill:

Is the title of your article ‘I told you so?'” he asked. “This is what I meant a year ago when I said the next year will determine whether Barack Obama will be an Uncle Tom groveling before the demands of the corporations that are running our country or he’ll be an Uncle Sam standing up for the American people.”

Nice. Personally, I’m long past the point of saying the perfunctory liberal thing about Nader, you know, “I have great respect for his accomplishments, but in this case…” He’s just become a preening megalomaniac. In fact he’s quite like Lieberman.

Amptoons: … You know, words really fail me. I don’t really know what possesses an old white guy to use the words “Uncle Tom,” you know, ever, but I really don’t get why a soi disant progressive would use those words to describe the first African American to serve as president. Quite frankly, it’s disgusting, and it stands as exhibit 3,492 in my ongoing argument that Ralph Nader is one of the worst humans alive today.

…. given his record since 2000, if Ralph Nader says the sky is blue, I’m going to assume it’s pink until further examination. After all, he once declared there wasn’t a dime’s worth of difference between Al Gore and George W. Bush, and … well, let’s just say that didn’t exactly work out for the United States, humanity as a whole, or the universe in general.

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Today:

Washington Post: Liberal activists and academics displeased with the Obama administration’s handling of several issues popular with progressives say they are seeking candidates willing to mount a primary challenge against President Obama next year.

The group, led by consumer advocate Ralph Nader and scholar Cornel West, said it faults Obama for the escalation of military campaigns in Afghanistan and Pakistan, for extending tax cuts first enacted by George W. Bush and for his actions during the recent debt ceiling negotiations.

Full article here

“done”

The Fly Jock / Tom Joyner (Blackamericaweb.com):  … I said I’d wait until something pissed me off so bad that I would have the words harsh enough to express what I was really feeling about Tavis Smiley and his side piece – I mean side kick – Cornel West.

Well, yesterday, when Mark Halperin … had the audacity to call the president of the United States a dick, that was all I needed … I’m even more disgusted with Smiley and West, two brothers who I did have expectations of – and thought I knew. These two have done much worse than what Halperin has done because they set the tone for it, opened the door to it, and must take much of the blame for creating a climate that would make a white, professional journalist feel comfortable verbally and vulgarly attacking the first black president of the United States.

When you think you know a person, when you’ve given a person a forum to present his views, when you’ve had a hand in a person’s success, you want to believe that he is the same person he always was.

Remember THAT Tavis … For a while, I thought he was still with us, even though people around me (and many of you) tried to convince me otherwise. “Tavis is a hater.” “Tavis is only about himself.” “Tavis is jealous of the president.” I wouldn’t believe any of it. I had so much respect for him before his primary goal became selling books, and, later, selling out.

…. Tavis, Cornel and Mark Halperin …. When dangerous words incite and brew up hatred and violence, there is a line. And these three crossed it.

…. So, yes, MSNBC, fire Mark Halperin. I hope he never works again. I’ve already fired Tavis and Cornel. There’s nothing either can ever do for me or with me again.

I’ve got a new D-word for the two of them: Done.

Full post here

Thank you Tulips

‘a self-aggrandizing, victimology sermon’

I had no intention at all of even mentioning today’s vile interview with the hideous Cornel West (if you want to read it, it’s here), but Dorothy just sent me a link to this great response (thanks, too, to Claire):

Melissa Harris-Perry (The Nation): Professor Cornel West is President Obama’s silenced, disregarded, disrespected moral conscience, according to Chris Hedges’s recent column, “The Obama Deception: Why Cornel West went Ballistic.” In a self-aggrandizing, victimology sermon deceptively wrapped in the discourse of prophetic witness, Professor West offers thin criticism of President Obama and stunning insight into the delicate ego of the self-appointed black leadership class that has been largely supplanted in recent years.

West begins with a bit of historical revision. West suggests that the President discarded him without provocation after he offered the Obama for America campaign his loyal service and prayers. But anyone with a casual knowledge of this rift knows it began during the Democratic primary not after the election. It began, not with a puffed up President, but when Cornel West’s “dear brother” Tavis Smiley threw a public tantrum because Senator Obama refused to attend Smiley’s annual State of Black America.

Smiley repeatedly suggested that his forum was the necessary black vetting space for the Democratic nominees. He needed to ask Obama and Clinton tough questions so that black America could get the answers it needed. But black America was doing a fine job making up its own mind in the primaries and didn’t need Smiley’s blessing to determine their own electoral preferences.

Indeed, when Smiley got a chance to hold candidate Clinton “accountable” he spent more time fawning over her than probing about her symbolic or substantive policy stances that impacted black communities. Fiercely loyal to his friend, Professor West chose sides and began to undermine candidate Obama is small and large ways. Candidate Obama ceased calling West back because he was in the middle of a fierce campaign and West’s loyalties were, at best, divided. I suspect candidate Obama did not trust his “dear brother” to keep the campaign secrets and strategies. I also suspect he was not inaccurate in his hesitancy……

Read the full post here

**** you, john king

I’ve already ranted about CNN’s John King recently (here and here) and honestly intended ignoring the creature and focusing on media people with a hint of intelligence. But then I read this post on Mediaite tonight (“CNN’s John King Manages To Out-Crazy Birther Queen Orly Taitz In Wild Interview”).

So, King invited the vile knucklehead that is Orly Taitz on his show, and allowed her spew her racist-fueled venom at the President for 12 minutes. Classy.

For fear of upsetting the birther section of his audience, King said this:

Let’s look again at what he said: “This is the cynic in me, Cornel Belcher, the White House says they don’t worry about this, but every now and then, you start to hear things where I think that somebody, quietly, is trying to at least use a subtle message to rebut this. Listen to these several recent snippets of the President and things around him.”

Then he plays clips of the President saying…. “We’re all Americans” … “this isn’t a Democratic or Republican idea, it’s patriotism” … “this is what America is all about” … “the thing about America that is great is that we’re bold, we’re tough…” …. “we showed the world that all things are possible in the United States of America.”

Let’s get this clear – John King is ‘cynical‘ about the President of the United States using phrases like ….“We’re all Americans”???

Why? Well, how can you avoid the conclusion that King doesn’t view this man – you know, the black guy – as a true American? If he did, why on earth would he be cynical about the President of the United States of America using a phrase like “We’re all Americans”? Did he express such cynicism when, say, George Bush talked about ‘we Americans’? No, of course not. So, what innocent explanation could there possibly be for King to be cynical about President Obama using “we” when he talks about Americans?

Sounds to me like John King just unveiled his inner Orly Taitz.

John King? **** you.

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Twitter: @JohnKingCNN

CNN’s contact page for John King here

John King on Facebook

‘president obama & the black agenda’

Thank you ‘Proud of Obama’ for the link.

(I wouldn’t normally post videos that feature Ed Shultz and Cornel West – life is just way too short to have to listen to these people – but a lot of you have been commenting on this discussion today, so I thought some of those who didn’t hear it might want to see the video. Rev Al Sharpton’s contribution makes it, I think, possible to endure)