Politics

Two months after ending his annual State of the Black Union conference, Tavis Smiley is gathering African-American advocates to press the case for a “black agenda.”

The decision was motivated by what Smiley called recent statements from some black leaders downplaying the need for President Barack Obama to specifically help African-Americans.

“I was compelled to do it because of this debate,” the activist and PBS talk show host said Wednesday.

The panel discussion will be March 20 at Chicago State University. Panelists include advertising pioneer Tom Burrell, professors Michael Eric Dyson and Cornel West, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and Bennett College President Julianne Malveaux.

The meeting is free and open to the public. Negotiations to televise the event are in progress, Smiley spokeswoman Leshelle Sargent said.

Some black politicians and activists have recently begun to question Obama’s longtime stance that helping the overall economy will improve the fortunes of blacks who are disproportionately poor and unemployed.
…
Eric Deggans, who writes about the media and race for Florida’s St. Petersburg Times, said Smiley’s new event is consistent with his record of criticizing Obama’s race-neutral stance. But there is a perception that Smiley is personally invested in the issue, he said, because Obama declined to attend Smiley’s 2008 State of the Black Union event during the presidential campaign.

Source/Full Story: The Associated Press

If only Brown would have lost…

Collateral damage from President Barack Obama’s battle with the banks was strewn across the global financial theatre on Friday, as traders feared that similar proposals could be adopted in other trading centres and investors worried about the impact the move could have on fragile market sentiment.

“What the Obama administration is proposing may sound like a good idea to regulators trying to cut down ‘too big to fail’ financial institutions and remove the risk from the banking sector that is the financial life-blood of the economy,” said strategists at Royal Bank of Scotland.

“However, it is potentially a major overhaul of the whole financial sector, creating enormous uncertainty.”

The mood was not helped by a further exchange of verbal fire between Washington and Beijing over internet censorship and cyber attacks, a dispute that some fear could develop into a trade war.

And those bulls hoping for succour from the US fourth-quarter earnings season will have been disappointed, again, by the reaction to Google’s numbers overnight. The company that is a verb smashed analysts’ forecasts but saw its shares fall 5 per cent in out-of-hours trading.

Source/Full Story: FT.com

The Supreme Court today overturned a century-old restriction on corporations using their money to sway federal elections and ruled that companies have a free-speech right to spend as much as they wish to persuade voters to elect or defeat candidates for Congress and the White House.

In a 5-4 decision, the court’s conservative bloc said corporations have the same 1st Amendment rights as individuals and, for that reason, the government may not stop corporations from spending freely to influence the outcome of federal elections.

The decision is probably the most sweeping and consequential handed down under Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. And the outcome may well have an immediate impact on this year’s mid-term elections to Congress.

Source/Full Story: latimes.com

China’s Powerful State-Owned Enterprises Scour the Globe in a Bid to Quench the Country’s Insatiable Thirst for Oil & Gas

News reports over the past few weeks of two potential multi-billion dollar Chinese oil deals in Africa, and another significant gas-related acquisition in Kazakhstan, only further reinforces China’s insatiable appetite for energy.

The recent news that China, through one of its state-owned enterprises, is a likely bidder for 23 oil blocks in Nigeria, for up to a staggering US$ 30 Billion, and another, separate $5 billion deal in Uganda, certainly caught the eye of the international community.

However, while the intricacies of these potential deals are interesting in their own right, their significance is that they are only part of a much larger story. While this may seem like a short-term flurry of deal making, it is simply the continuance of feverish activities by the Chinese to secure oil & gas over the past few years, and most notably, in the year-to-date 2009.

Source/Full Story:  Seeking Alpha

Former Japanese Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa, who resigned from his post after appearing intoxicated at a news conference earlier this year, was found dead in his home Sunday, police said.

The cause of death was not clear and no will was found, police said.

Nakagawa, 56, resigned in February, three days after he appeared intoxicated at the G7 news conference in Rome, Italy. Japan’s prime minister quickly appointed Kaoru Yosano, the economics minister, to replace Nakagawa.

Source/Full Story: CNN.com
Technorati Tags: Shoichi Nakagawa

A former really lame President defending the current really lame President, how surprising. Unfortunately, Carter is still full of crap after all these years.  The only thing racist about Joe Wilson’s”outburst” is the way opportunists such as Carter have behaved since the incident.

…
“That racism inclination still exists, and I think it’s bubbled up to the surface because of belief among many white people — not just in the South but around the country — that African-Americans are not qualified to lead this great country. It’s an abominable circumstance, and it grieves me and concerns me very deeply,” Carter said.

Carter made similar remarks at an event at his presidential center in Atlanta, Georgia, The Associated Press reported Tuesday, pointing to some protesters who have compared Obama to a Nazi. “Those kind of things are not just casual outcomes of a sincere debate on whether we should have a national program on health care,” the former president said at the Carter Center, according to AP. “It’s deeper than that.”

He grouped Wilson’s shout of “You lie!” during Obama’s speech in that category, according to AP. “I think it’s based on racism. There is an inherent feeling among many in this country that an African-American should not be president,” he said.

“The president is not only the head of government, he is the head of state. And no matter who he is or how much we disagree with his policies, the president should be treated with respect.”

The House voted Tuesday to formally disapprove of Wilson’s behavior during the joint session of Congress. The resolution was approved largely along party lines, with Republicans calling the measure unnecessary partisan politics.

Wilson apologized to the White House last week, but congressional Democrats said he owed the chamber a similar statement of regret.

Source/Full Story:: CNN.com

Outspoken Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann says she’s so worried that information from next year’s national census will be abused that she will refuse to fill out anything more than the number of people in her household.

In an interview Wednesday morning with The Washington Times “America’s Morning News,” Mrs. Bachmann, Minnesota Republican, said the questions have become “very intricate, very personal” and she also fears ACORN, the community organizing group that came under fire for its voter registration efforts last year, will be part of the Census Bureau’s door-to-door information collection efforts.

“I know for my family the only question we will be answering is how many people are in our home,” she said. “We won’t be answering any information beyond that, because the Constitution doesn’t require any information beyond that.”

Shelly Lowe, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Census Bureau, said Mrs. Bachmann is “misreading” the law.

She sent a portion of the U.S. legal code that says anyone over 18 years of age who refuses to answer “any of the questions” on the census can be fined up to $5,000.

The Constitution requires a census be taken every 10 years. Questions range from number of persons in the household and racial information to employment status and whether anyone receives social services such as food stamps.

Source/Full Story: Washington Times

ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: President Obama’s health care push will continue next week with a primetime event at the White House, with ABC’s Charlie Gibson and Diane Sawyer set to moderate a nationally televised event called “Questions for the President: Prescription for America.”

The president will answer questions offered by audience members “selected by ABC News who have divergent opinions in this historic debate,” as well as some submitted via ABCNews.com, according to the press release announcing the event.

The special edition of “Primetime” will air from the White House on Wednesday, June 24, at 10 pm ET. “Good Morning America,” “World News,” “Nightline,” and ABCNews.com’s “Top Line” will all feature special programming on the president’s health care agenda.

Diane Sawyer will have an exclusive interview with President Obama airing Wednesday on “Good Morning America.”

Here’s the full release from ABC:

“QUESTIONS FOR THE PRESIDENT: PRESCRIPTION FOR AMERICA”

ABC News’ Charles Gibson and Diane Sawyer to Moderate a Primetime Conversation with President Barack Obama about the Future of the Nation’s Healthcare System

Special Edition of “Primetime” to Air from the White House Wednesday, June 24th at 10pm ET

“Questions for the President: Prescription for America” will continue on “Nightline” at 11:35pm ET on Wed. June 24th.

“Good Morning America” and “World News” to Originate From the White House on Wednesday

“GMA” to Feature Exclusive Interview with President Obama

Source/Full Story:: The Note

There are less than a handful of men living today that I admire. Celente is one of them.  he tells it like it is, and does so rather fearlessly.  This was cross posted to The Gates of Hell

Texas Governor Rick Perry suggested after a tax day tea party rally that his state might consider seceding from the union.

“We’ve got a great union,” Perry said. “There’s absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, you know, who knows what might come out of that. But Texas is a very unique place, and we’re a pretty independent lot to boot.”

Texas Democrats ripped the governor for his secession talk, calling it “anti-American.”

Unfortunately for Perry’s detractors, the U.S. Department of State (until Friday morning) was with the governor on this one. On its website listing of 16 foreign countries visited by Secretary Hillary Clinton, State had Texas right there between Turkey and Switzerland.

State scrubbed the Texas listing, but the Huffington Post has a screen grab.

Source/Full Story::  Huffington Post

<cue=”bonanza theme song”>Yee haw!</cue>

Source: Wikileaks

The 6,780 reports, current as of this month, comprise over 127,000 pages of material on some of the most contentious issues in the nation, from the U.S. relationship with Israel to the financial collapse. Nearly 2,300 of the reports were updated in the last 12 months, while the oldest report goes back to 1990. The release represents the total output of the Congressional Research Service (CRS) electronically available to Congressional offices. The CRS is Congress’s analytical agency and has a budget in excess of $100M per year.

Open government lawmakers such as Senators John McCain (R-Arizona) and Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vermont) have fought for years to make the reports public, with bills being introduced–and rejected–almost every year since 1998. The CRS, as a branch of Congress, is exempt from the Freedom of Information Act.

CRS reports are highly regarded as non-partisan, in-depth, and timely. The reports top the list of the “10 Most-Wanted Government Documents” compiled by the Washington based Center for Democracy and Technology[1]. The Federation of American Scientists, in pushing for the reports to be made public, stated that the “CRS is Congress’ Brain and it’s useful for the public to be plugged into it,”[2]. While Wired magazine called their concealment “The biggest Congressional scandal of the digital age”[3].

Although all CRS reports are legally in the public domain, they are quasi-secret because the CRS, as a matter of policy, makes the reports available only to members of Congress, Congressional committees and select sister agencies such as the GAO.

Members of Congress are free to selectively release CRS reports to the public but are only motivated to do so when they feel the results would assist them politically. Universally embarrassing reports are kept quiet.

Full Story

Source: businessandmedia.org

Is the new Obama administration taking cues from the Bush administration to get Congress to act? It certainly seemed that way to, South Carolina’s junior Republican senator, Jim DeMint.

DeMint, speaking Jan. 27 at The Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., explained the Obama administration will “create crisis and widespread panic” just like its predecessor in order to get Congress to act expeditiously.

“I’ve been around long enough to know whenever someone tells me I have to make a decision right now, my response is no,” DeMint said. “That clears it up right away and I think more and more the Bush administration and now this administration knows that they’re not going to get a quick reaction out of Congress unless they create crisis and widespread panic. And that’s going to be their M.O. to get Congress to act.”

Another senator, James Inhofe, R-Okla., explained the Bush administration used a similar tactic, under the direction of former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, to get the $700-billion TARP bailout bill passed by Congress back on Oct. 4, 2008.

DeMint said some Republicans now regret they voted for the TARP package, even though there is no way to gauge what might have happened had it not been passed.

Full Story

Technorati Tags: Stimulus, Heritage Foundation

This guy hit the nail on the head…

Source: Gerald Warner

This will end in tears. The Obama hysteria is not merely embarrassing to witness, it is itself contributory to the scale of the disaster that is coming. What we are experiencing, in the deepening days of a global depression, is the desperate suspension of disbelief by people of intelligence – la trahison des clercs – in a pathetic effort to hypnotise themselves into the delusion that it will be all right on the night. It will not be all right.

We have been here before. In the spring of 1997, to be precise, when a charismatic, young prime minister entered Downing Street, cheered by children bussed in for the occasion waving plastic Union Jacks. A very few of us at that time incurred searing reproaches for denouncing the Great Charlatan (as I have always denominated Tony Blair) and dissenting from the public hysteria. Three times a deluded Britain elected that transparent fraud. Yesterday, when national bankruptcy became a formal reality, we reaped the bitter harvest of the Blair/Brown imposture.

The burnt child, contrary to conventional wisdom, does not fear the fire. After the Blair experience there is no excuse for anybody in Britain falling for Obama. Yet today, in this country, even some of those who remained sane during the emotional spasm of the Diana aberration are pumping the air for Princess Barack. At a time of gross economic and geopolitical instability throughout the Western world, this is beyond irresponsibility.

To anyone who kept his head, the string of Christmas cracker mottoes booming through the public address system on Washington’s National Mall can only excite scepticism. It is crucial to recall the reality that lies behind the rhetoric. Denouncing “those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents” comes ill from a man whose flagship legislation, the Freedom of Choice Act, will impose abortion, including partial-birth abortion, on every state in the Union. It seems the era of Hope is to be inaugurated with a slaughter of the innocents.

Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan is like one of those toxic packages traded by bankers: it camouflages many unaffordable gifts to his client state. With a federal deficit already at $1.2 trillion, Obama wants to squander $825 billion (which will undoubtedly mushroom to more than $1 trillion) on creating 600,000 more government jobs and a further 459,000 in “green energy” (useless wind turbines and other Heath-Robinson contraptions favoured by Beltway environmentalists).

It is frightening to think there is a real possibility that the entire world economy could go into complete meltdown and famine kill millions. Yet Western – and British – commentators are cocooned in a warm comfort zone of infatuation with America’s answer to Neil Kinnock. We should be long past applauding politicians of any hue: they got us into this mess. The best deserve a probationary opportunity to prove themselves, the worst should be in jail.

It is questionable whether the present political system can survive the coming crisis. Whatever the solution, teenage swooning sentimentality over a celebrity cult has no part in it. The most powerful nation on earth is confronting its worst economic crisis under the leadership of its most extremely liberal politician, who has virtually no experience of federal politics. That is not an opportunity but a catastrophe.

These are frank, even ungracious, words: they have the one merit that, unlike almost everything else written today about Obama, they will not require to be eaten in the future.

Technorati Tags: Obama, global depression, famine

The sheeple might be swayed by the pomp and circumstance surrounding the new President Obama, but the markets were absent at the celebrations.  The markets have a mind of their own, and they seem to be thinking something different than “hope over fear, unity of purpose over … discord”.  These things might sound great, but in practical terms it doesn’t put any bread on the table, nor logs in the fire.  In short, it’s a large steaming loaf of bull crap, and the markets seem to know it too.

Source: CNN.com

President Obama’s inaugural address was cooler, more measured and reassuring than that of other presidents making it, perhaps, the right speech for the times.

Some inaugural addresses are known for their soaring, inspirational language. Like John F. Kennedy’s in 1961: “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”

Obama’s address was less stirring, perhaps, but it was also more candid and down-to-earth.

“Starting today,” the new president said, “we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and begin the work of remaking America.” Video Watch Obama’s inaugural address »

At a time of crisis, a president needs to be reassuring. Like Franklin Roosevelt, who said in his first inaugural in 1933, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Or Bill Clinton, who took office during the economic crisis of the early 1990s. “There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be fixed by what is right with America,” Clinton declared at his first inaugural.

Obama, too, offered reassurance.

“We gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord,” Obama said.

Obama’s call to unity after decades of political division echoed Abraham Lincoln’s first inaugural address in 1861. Even though he delivered it at the onset of a terrible civil war, Lincoln’s speech was not a call to battle. It was a call to look beyond the war, toward reconciliation based on what he called “the better angels of our nature.”

Full Story

Technorati Tags: inaugural address

Source:  Reuters

U.S. stock indexes extended losses and hit session lows on Tuesday after President Barack Obama’s inauguration speech provided few new details about measures to tackle the growing economic crisis.

“I think people were looking for something, new plans, new hopes,” said Joe Saluzzi, co-manager of trading at Themis Trading in Chatam, New Jersey.

“They didn’t hear something new.”

Full Story

Technorati Tags: inauguration , stock market