Redistricting and the Electoral College: Two Reasons Why Obama May Loose in 2012

Around the media world and blogosphere I incessantly see articles suggesting how Barack Obama has assured a victory in the 2012 Presidential election after his decision to go into Pakistan and kill Osama bin Laden. Now I too, wrote a piece some weeks ago asserting six reasons why he had the inside road to winning in 2012. Although I stand by it, it was written before the raid on Osama bin Laden and more importantly, the actual redistricting of the GOP. Redistricting occurs once every ten years which just happens to be now.

Redistricting efforts will be very important in the 2012 Presidential elections since many states have become Republican dominated since the November 2010 elections which saw sweeping changes in legislations across the nation. The census shift that was documented last year will more than likely hurt Obama in 2012 since people have left traditional blue states for Red ones. Texas is one such case where it is expected to pick up three house seats and electoral college votes while Michigan, a traditional democratic state is expected to lose a house seat. In fact, census data indicate that states won by John McCain in 2009 are projected to gain six seats in congress, meaning states Obama won will lose six. New York and Ohio, also traditional democratic states are expected to lose congressional seats as well.

In North Carolina for example, the Republican-controlled state legislature looks to create new districts benefiting its party and are planning to try to re-draw the districts that would shift power to Republicans statewide by increasing GOP voting strength in non-Black regions. The reality is that November's elections put Republicans in control of dozens of state legislatures and governorships, just as states prepare to redraw their congressional and legislative district maps. Republicans now control the governor's offices and both legislative chambers in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, Indiana, Maine and Wisconsin. They are governors' in Nevada, New Mexico, Virginia and Iowa.

Those that assert his re-election is assured by the raid on the bin Laden compound are missing or lack the foresight to include the aforementioned and the electoral college on the selection of the Presidency. The Electoral College, administered by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), is a process that began as part of the original design of the U.S. Constitution. It was established to serve as a compromise between election of the president by Congress and election by popular vote. The political parties nominate electors at their State party conventions or by a vote of the party's central committee in each State and often recognize and are dedicated to their political party first.

Although Obama has a good chance of being re-elected, he may just as likely lose due to the census, gains in republican dominated states and the electoral college. So if he doesn’t win and the projections of pundits based on one political/military event that he would, just remember their failure was due to a lack of knowledge of the constitution and middle school civics.

MALCOLM X: We are Living in a Police State

Bye Bye 1st Amendment and Due Process

Imagine that there was no March on Washington led by the late great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., or that there was no Montgomery to Selma March or Bus boycott as a direct consequence of the actions of a Rosa Parks, or even no sit in's at Woolworths. All may have never have happened if legislation was existence during that time like the recently passed H.R. 347. Last week on a late Monday evening, the bill described by some as the Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011 was passed by the US House of Representatives voted 388-to-3.

In simple terms it is another way of further reducing the constitutional First Amendment rights guaranteed to all US citizens. Through this legislation, Congress makes it illegal to trespass on the grounds of the White House and any building or grounds where the president is visiting even if just for a moment or temporarily. According to the legislation, these are considered areas “restricted in conjunction with an event designated as a special event of national significance." Consequently it allows the government to charge anyone who enters a building without permission or with the intent to disrupt a government function via protest or civil disobedience with a federal offense if Secret Service is on the scene.

Yes that is correct, any person protected by the Secret Service is covered under the bill meaning it will be a federal offense to even accidently disrupts an event attended by a person thus abrogating the right to assemble and peacefully protest as stated in the constitution. We all know that they not only protect past Presidents and current candidates, they also protect foreign dignitaries, many of which are mass murderers, supporters of state sponsored terrorist and human rights violators. To protest the former South African regime that practiced apartheid or even the current Syrian President Haffad al- Assad would be a federal offence punishable by a fine under this title or imprisonment for not more than 10 years, or both, for a violation. In simple terms the federal government could consider a demonstration against any foreign president on American soil as a violation of federal law, if perceived to be “disruptive.”

I was under the assumption that Brandenburg V. Ohio concluded that the state cannot prohibit inflammatory speech unless it incites or produces “imminent lawlessness.” Brandenburg, a leader in the Ku Klux Klan, made a speech at a Klan rally and was later convicted under an Ohio criminal syndicalism law. The Court's Per Curiam opinion held that the Ohio law violated Brandenburg's right to free speech. The Court used a two-pronged test to evaluate speech acts: (1) speech can be prohibited if it is "directed at inciting or producing imminent lawless action" and (2) it is "likely to incite or produce such action."

We as a people are slowly losing all of our constitutional guarantees. It may even be considered against the law to even assert such. We have already seen the president approve the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, essentially suspending habeas corpus from American citizens and now what is an obvious assault on the freedom to assemble via this “Trespass Bill”. In many places it is even illegal to film police making arrest on your own property. To top it off, US Attorney General Eric Holder made a speech at Northwestern University last week in which he gave the current administrations legal justification for assassination of U.S citizens. When asked about it while addressing a hearing on the FBIs budget held by House lawmakers, FBI Director Robert Mueller said he would have to check with the Department of Justice whether Attorney General Eric Holder's "three criteria" for the targeted killing of Americans also applied to Americans inside the U.S.

This albeit as former CIA Officer Philip Giraldi wrote, “The Fifth and Sixth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution guarantee a citizen due process and a public trial, as well as the right to confront his accuser. The Obama administration is arguing that these American turncoats do not have constitutional rights because they are not physically in the United States and are actively engaged in planning terrorist acts that the government has the right to disrupt by killing them preemptively.”

Giraldi also notes that the assignation of dissident “citizens without due process is not a unique practice. Libyans, Iranians, and Soviets all did it in the 1980s and 1990s” but suggest it is out of the ordinary for a self-purported “liberal democracy.”

So if any of you all have any bright ideas about expressing your constitutional right wile in Chicago this spring for the 2012 G8 and NATO summits, be forewarned. These fools or idiots have absolved the first amendment and have curtailed due process. Although it is written, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances,” this is not the case anymore.

What Dubois and Woodson had to say about interracial hatred?

“If you can control a man’s thinking, you don’t have to worry about his actions. If you can determine what a man thinks you do not have worry about what he will do. If you can make a man believe that he is inferior, you don’t have to compel him to seek an inferior status, he will do so without being told and if you can make a man believe that he is justly an outcast, you don’t have to order him to the back door, he will go to the back door on his own and if there is no back door, the very nature of the man will demand that you build one.”

The above statement was written by Dr. Carter G. Woodson. Born of slaves in Virginia he was self-taught and eventually obtained his B.A. and M.A. from the University of Chicago and his Ph.D. in History from Harvard, becoming the second African-American to receive this degree. Although he is the person who established Africa American history as a monthly celebration, he is best known for his ground breaking tractate: The Mis-Education of the Negro.

The book spoke of the American educational system, with special reference to its paralyzing impact on African Americans. Mis-education from his perspective was a tragedy, that relegated blacks to a brain-washed acceptance of the inferior role assigned to him whites. The book proffers a harsh critique on both criticizes the system, that eventually ends up with people and mis-educating others and even learning and spreading hate in terms of race by the miseducated.

W. E. B. Dubois would experience this and continue these sentiments in his book The Souls of Black Folk. Dubois saw race prejudice in the United States as a way for blacks to be “tolerated but they are not educated” For both this frequently ended up as becoming a deep-seated insecurity leading to, intra-racial strife between African Americans.

I wonder how these two great giants of pedagogy would describe Africa Americans today. Would they see how young African Americas, lacking a knowledge and understanding of their history are indoctrinated, lacking self-confidence, self-respect, and self-knowledge?

I think they would and would define the high levels of such as being factors why self-hate is increasing among our ranks daily. It is not hard to hypothesize such seeing that still today men and women speak of good hair and bad hair and often describe good looks and attractiveness with lighter over darker skin. Yes this too is racial hatred, because the sad reality is that many of us still look at ourselves through the eyes of people that hate us.

New 2013 Proposed Budget Grows and Increase Prison Funding

We are all aware of the massive debt that has been accrued over the past six executive administrations. Likewise that a lot of it is either wasted for stuff I can’t figure out like $750,000 on a new soccer field for detainees held at Guantanamo Bay or giving one Alaska Airlines $500,000 "to paint a Chinook salmon" on the side of a Boeing 737 or given away massive loot to countries like Israel that don’t have or serve our best political interest as a nation.

As Africa Americans we expect this since historically no one I Washington seemed to care about us unless we were rioting or making folk loss money via protest. However, I am concerned about the recent budget (rather for show or actual) by President Obama. We all know about the racial disparity regarding incarceration and that disproportionately impact African Americans, especially males and how most of the crimes are economic in nature and are based on a small amount of cocaine and/or marijuana.

Even republican led stats like Georgia are trying to respond to this issue. Georgia Governor Nathan Deal is trying to reduce state corrections spending by softening sentencing laws. Last year the state’s GOP-led House of Representatives introduced legislation that calls for special courts to steer drug users into rehab, which Deal says is cheaper than a jail sentence. Georgia has the nation’s highest rate of correctional control with, one in 13 residents is locked up or on probation or parole and it spends 7 percent of its $15.9 billion budget on prisons.

Although many states are following Georgia’s led, the Obama administration is not and instead is increasing the funding of federal prisons. According to an analysis by the Federal Times. The Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is seeking a 4.2 percent increase, one of the largest of any federal agency, which would bring its total budget to more than $6.9 billion. According to Obama's new budget, four new federal prisons will open including in Mississippi and West Virginia.

Since less than 10 percent of Federal prisoners are locked up for violent crimes according to the Sentencing Project, more than half are drug offenders (federal prosecutions for drug offenses more than doubled between 1984 and 2005). Not to mention these funds will also be allocated to private prison which now holds around 20 percent of all federal prisoners.

Over the years, the federal prison population grew more than eight times. Between 1980 to 2010 the federal inmate population grew from 25,000 to more than 210,000 based on data from the Association of State Correctional Administrators.

Although while on the campaign Trail in fund-raiser in Harlem, NY, Nov. 29, 2007 Obama said, “I don’t want to wake up four years from now and discover that we still have more young black men in prison than in college,” it seems the President policy for increasing prison funding, will more likely insure more young black males are incarcerated than less. Sounds like chain gangs are backn in style and here to stay under the Obama budget as all budgets before his.

Why Obama Needs To Let Israel Fight For Themselves

“As President of the united States, I don’t bluff.” These were the words of President Obama, sounding as bellicose as the neocons of the prior administration and prior. I guess to take a lyric from a song from Sesame Street and replacing lulu with Be Be, “Be Be’s back in town. Not to mention I’m sure it was to impress Mr. Netanyahu, Israel and the AIPAC Zionist lobbyist who vote he will definitely need for a second term.

The statement from my perspective was disappointing and demonstrates the president, as Bush, do not understand history nor evince the capacity to learn from it as if re-election is the paramount of all things. As it stands we have sanctions already in place against Iran and an oil embargo, why do we need to purport military action as our only form of redress? Who are we to ask another nation on behalf of Israel to not pursue nuclear ambitions? Israel has nuclear weapons and we as a nation are the only one to us them on another nations, thus it seems logical that one would expect Israel to use them before Iran or even the United States.

Israel is not and never has been honest in its announcement it affirms the necessity of Palestinian self-determination. Even at the end of the Reagan years when the PLO accepted UN resolutions 242 and 338 – recognizing Israel’s right to exist within the 1967 borders. But still, Israel continues on its unilateral imperialistic religious intolerance and militaristic attacks against the good faith of Palestine and the diplomatic process.

The present administration, the way I see it may get the nation in a quandary if it continues to play “Charles Atlas” for it is not Israel who is having sand kicked in its face. They continue to build settlements and close Palestinian schools in the name of self-preservation and Zionism before truthful dialogue. All US Presidents in the recent decades have confronted this. Just review the relationship between Yitzhak Shamir and George Bush – it was Bush who pointed out in concert with James Baker the obstacle with expansion and new settlements in the occupied terror to peace.

The Palestinians only had about 20 percent of their homeland left after 1948 and live in less area given the settlements are connected by a maze of roadblocks and military checkpoints. For more than forty years Israel has ruled the West Bank in such a manner that has created a system of Zionistic apartheid. In 2008, they waged war against the Palestinian people again, from the way I see it, to shift attention from them dealing with the real issue. Although not simple, the fact remains that Israel interest and US interest do not intersect let alone coincide. They ignore the reality of any solution that will require a Palestinian state and capital in East Jerusalem with folks who meanwhile take over the West bank giving praise to the beliefs of a psychopathic killer Baruch Goldstein.

Then here at home, if it aint the ADL it is AIPAC who would rather take the position of Be Be Netanyahu than a sitting President of the United States of America. This is treason to me and maybe they should replace the “A” with an “I” and go to Israel. Last I looked they were not fighting two wars or shoulder to shoulder with US service personnel in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Obama should forget even trying to convince this group of non-Americans and Israel of anything. Their interest as I have stated are not US interest. Moreover the stuff we do to try and show them support are not doing any good for America. Even our Joints Chief of Staff has gone on record as saying the manner in which the state of Israel deals with Palestinians motivates the Muslim world to ferment anti-US sentiment.

Obama, you need to be hard on Israel. Wee not their sugar daddy. We say we have their back regardless but as an African American man, I know guilt by association. I know that I am not going to jail for a rapist or a murderer even if my friend. We need to take the same position. We need to tell them not to start a war straight up or hit them with sanctions, cut off all streams of our funding to them and better yet, tell them no more tanks or jets. We cannot trust Israel as history has demonstrated inordinate times.

If Israel goes ahead with airstrikes, Iran will hit us also (another reason supporting their position is not in US interest). And If I were the President, no secret the US would come before them and if they did send jets to strike Iran, I would shoot them down via a no fly zone.

A lot of US don’t read and would not remember how they tried to bait us into a war before. In 1967, the USS Liberty was attacked by unmarked Israeli jets and ships and resulted in the deaths of more than 30 US service men, but this was covered up by Lyndon B. Johnson. I would not be surprised if the tried to do the same again and blame Iran.

Please Mr. President, do not fall into the trap of doing Israel’s dirty work for them. In the end, it will be our economy and the blood of our young men and women who pay for their insolence. Military spending is already draining our economy and fighting for a Jewish state, when we in policy deplore Islamic states, is undemocratic in principal if it ignores the Christians and Muslims who occupy that same nation state also.

Empowered by Super Fly Forty Years later

I was going on ten years of age when the movie SuperFly was released. It was the talk of nearly everyone I came in contact with. My first experience came with the album cover and soundtrack, the pictures and the music and although I would not be able to see it for another six years, when my family secured our first VCR, namely because back then parents would not take children to such foul language movies as many in our community do today, it has left a lasting impression on me.

Superfly was released in 1972. The movie is about Youngblood Priest a stylish and successful cocaine dealer who smart enough to know that there's no real future in dealing coke, and decides with his partner to purchase 30 kilograms of Coke to sell in four months and get out of the drug game for good with a million in cash (big paper in those days. Priest was played by Ron O'Neal

Ron O’Neal, who we lost to a battle with cancer in 2004, and which I wrote about on these very pages then, out did himself. His role, along with the movie showed me that my world and what I saw in Memphis occurred in another place – New York. Everything from the Eldorado’s and Cadillac’s to the way they dressed was what a ten year-old would see while walking down the streets of Memphis.

O’Neal’s first big break came in a Broadway production of Lonne Elder III's “Ceremonies In Dark Old Men”. In 1970, he appeared in Charles Gordone's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, “No Place to Be Somebody”. His performance earned him an Obie Award, Drama Desk Award, Clarence Derwent Award and the National Theater Award.

The cinematography was ground breaking at the time, with the chase scenes on the street of new York, on the Bronx River Parkway and the camera angles. But such was to be expected seeing it was directed by the legendary and historic Gordon Parks, Jr. The writing also was exceptional, being written by Phillip Fenty, the father of Adrian Fenty, former Mayor of D.C.

The movie was a box-office smash and even with that, one of the few movies in which its soundtrack made more money. The soundtrack was produced and written by another American legend – guitarist, singer and songwriter Curtist Mayfield. It was his third album and considered by many in concert with Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On,” as one of the most socially conscious collection of messages in the form of song for positive, pro-active Black consciousness. “No Thing on Me”, “Pusherman,” “Superfly” and “Little Child Runnin' Wild” were all popular along with most of the singles released from the album. My personal favorite was “Think.”

I could never figure out why years later such a film would be described as “black exploitation,” seeing it provide opportunities for artist the likes it would be hard to find comparison too currently. Strange is it that the folks who say such consider “Boys in the Hood” and “Menace to Society” as being great and something to be proud of. I would disagree and place “Superfly” above both. It was not exploitive but rater empowering.

CNN: Ad tells Obama to 'go to hell'

120 French Troops Captured In Homs, Syria

The Illusion of Economic Recovery

They say that the economy is growing and that we are in the midst of an economic recovery, but as I look at my neighbors who are losing their homes and the parents in the PTA who are under-employed and looking for full-time employment, I must admit I do not see or feel it.

I figure Obama and the democrats have to say such to make themselves look good. Likewise, the Republicans have to intentionally imped programs and the efforts of the President to make him look bad. Regardless, the view from the ground level remains one of wealthy politicians bickering like caddy nanny goats. Charlie Brown’s sister Sally said it best in “The Great Pumpkin”…”You elect them then they weasel out of their promises.”

Maybe we get what we deserve. We have been on this trajectory since Nixon accepted the Britton-Woods agreement, removing American from the Gold standard and an asset based monetary system. Now artificial asset bubbles are retro chic and occur everywhere we look in our economy. That’s what happens when one has no asset to back paper. All the government has to do when they are short on cash and need to pay someone is print as much paper money as needed, borrowing more and more and growing more debt (something us regular folk cannot do) creating an environment where everyone from the Government to the Banks accrue debt to capitalization ratios, like MF Global of more than 30 to 1. USB for example is leveraged at 50 to 1.

The question for remains how can one assert that there is an economic recovery occurring in the United States presently and even worse, how can anyone that can do basic math accept this premise? Especially after the credit and derivative based, over leveraged bubble economy we have just experienced that resulted in the financial meltdown in 2008? I cannot put this at the feet of Obama singularly seeing that Republican don’t even have nor have proffered any leadership for improving the economy on anything from the need for state regulation or tax reform, albeit the Democrats especially Obama seem to always cave-in in practice what they dare not abnegate in dictum.

Likewise is the hypocrisy of the GOP, which is on center stage with Mitt “anybody but” Romney. He points fingers at china but seems to ignore the fact that in that nation, spending represents 23% of GDP compared to the United States with 44%. Romney is quick to also say that we are down a path to being like socialist Europe although Germany level of government spending accounting for 48 percent of GDP. In other words that by his logic our goals is heading towards Europe when the facts suggest we are competing with China and playing catches up. He claims that in order to succeed and grow the economy that he will cut spending and balance the budget and lower taxes, which is funny in itself given what we know about our dysfunctional government.

First, the reality is that Obama and Romney are lying out the sides of their necks. On the one hand none of what is being done or said by either can lead to economic growth or a recovery sufficient enough for stable growth in the next decade. It is not the people (although we do have a minor role) the real problem is corporate welfare in the form of state and federal aid to the folk who already have the money and not the folks at ground zero. Yes the Americans with the most loot and corporations have redistribution and shifted wealth and income in America from the middle class to the uber rich and been doing so in plain view since the end of the Regan era. Yet the Republicans claim class warfare on behalf of the Obama Administration and the Obama Administration say he is for Main Street when his actions exhibit otherwise. There is a reason again why The United States has more government debt per capita than Greece, Portugal, Italy, Ireland or Spain. Not to mention that total consumer debt rose at an annual rate of 9.3 percent in December. It is now sitting at a grand total of 2.498 trillion dollars.

Let us examine American International Group, Inc. (AIG). This week AIG with the assistance of the Bush and more so the Obama administrations, reported $19.8 billion in profits last quarter. This the result of a tax break consequent the Treasury Department for AIG and a few other major corporations that helped create the financial crisis of 2008 that exempts them from its right to employ using net operating losses (NOL).

What the past few administrations, the present one and the GOP Presidential contenders are doing is Machiavellian – hiding the truth about how bad our economy is. The unemployment rate today is computed differently from the way it was in 1994. Back then, people who stopped looking for employment and the underemployed—folk who want to work full-time but cannot—were still counted in the numbers. Now they do not. Yet drop in unemployment rates are reported when in reality the US Government measures unemployment using a survey and sample of approximately 110,000 individuals and not number of persons claiming unemployment benefits.

Folks are right when they say there is limited difference between The President and Romney. Both promote economic policies that tighten the association between larger corporations and government. We all know for example that Obama’s former chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel was once a partner at Goldman Sachs and that former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, who now advises the President on Health care reform, is a well-paid lobbyist for the health-industry. Then there is the observation that the Obama administration talks a god game against corporatism, the problem is like Romney the facts state otherwise – at least Romney admits he believes “corporations are people. “Washington has and always will subsidize big industry and provide loot for their research.

Obama knows this and this is probably why General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt Started a PAC to collect money from its employees for candidates “who share GE’s values and goals” of which Obama got more than any other politician. Immelt was appointed to Obama’s economic recovery board and eventually was named to head his Jobs Council (although it continues to ships jobs abroad). His company stands to make a mint on its investing in “carbon offset” assets if the Obama administration institutes its cap-and-trade energy plans via, HR 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009. If passed, GE will get “incentives” to sell energy-efficient appliances ($75 for each dishwasher sold until 2013 and $200 for each refrigerator) that will make it a bundle.

Romney by the same token is no different. He talks the same game. His tax cuts from what I have read and worked out will result in more than $500 billion in lost revenue over the next decade if he is elected, meaning he will balloon the deficit even more than Obama – Greek economic mathematics revisited if you ask me.

All I am saying is that what they say is an economic recovery to me is an allusion, a penumbra of false light. Alexander Hamilton wrote The Federalist No. 85 for a reason - that is possible for wealth to corrupt and result in a central government that is too powerful that serves the elite at the expense of the many. The republicans and the democrats, as articulated through their economic policy don’t see to get this. Obama or a Romney will still continue programs like the why H1-B visas, which are provided for foreign workers in areas such as engineering, when folk like one of my neighbors, a chemical engineer can’t find a job. In general because they cannot problem solve or accept that neither fiscal austerity nor monetary stimulus will work because neither targets nor deal with limiting inflation or increasing employment. Instead they focus on nominal GDP growth, which will get more US citizens to get more and more in debt, which only make things worse.

All while China sits on the side line, with about $2 trillion dollars of our debt, that may eventually depreciate in value because eventually we going to have to deal with the possibility of runaway inflation in a time when it will become more difficult to borrow. We see and feel it o the ground but I doubt Romney or Obama have bought a gallon of milk or a loaf of bread lately. In the “Dunciad”, Alexander Pope wrote “Thy hand, great Anarch! lets the curtain fall,
And universal darkness buries all.”

That us the way I see things now. Like I said, they say that the economy is growing and that we are in the midst of an economic recovery, but as I look at my neighbors who are losing their homes and the parents in the PTA who are under-employed and looking for full-time employment, I must admit I do not see or feel it.