By way of Michelle Malkin and WizBang, we learn:
Farrakhan Gathering To Focus On Katrina
Hurricane Katrina thrust racial disparities onto the nation's political agenda and top civil rights leaders, fueled by outrage over the disaster, are heading to Washington. The occasion is the 10th anniversary of Louis Farrakhan's Million Man March, a long-planned event that now is shaping up as a stage for black America to respond to the devastation in New Orleans.
"Because Katrina put it out there, no one can play the pretend game any more that there isn't poverty and inequality in this country," said Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League. "The Millions More Movement Katrina gives it added significance."
Though Farrakhan has long stirred controversy and lately he has speculated that New Orleans' levees were bombed to destroy black neighborhoods his event will unite a wide array of prominent social justice advocates. The guest list for Saturday's event includes members of Congress, hip-hop artists, civil rights activists, media pundits, academics and business leaders. Muslim and Christian religious figures will also participate.
"The need to save our people it's so much bigger than the personality or the baggage that has been heaped on Louis Farrakhan or others," Farrakhan said. "Katrina has focused this agenda."
I'm sure that the wrath of The Charmer and his cohorts will be magically deflected away from personalities like Ray Nagin, Eddie Compass, and Kathleen Blanco. Instead, it will be directed toward those evil white males in charge of the secret Zionist Jew white male neo-Nazi Halliburton Klan conspiracy now running our nation.
Of course the usual race baiters and agitators will show up:
The Millions More Movement is being orchestrated by a broad coalition of national organizations including Minister Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, Dr. Dorothy Height and the National Council of Negro Women, Bruce Gordon and the NAACP, Mark Morial and the National Urban League, Russell Simmons and the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, Dr. Charles Steele and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Reverend Jesse Jackson and the National Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, the Reverend Al Sharpton and the National Action Network and Congressman Mel Watt and the Congressional Black Caucus, among others...
Other celebrities endorsing or participating include Harry Belafonte, Cornell West, Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, Susan Taylor, Dr. Julianne Malveaux, Steve Harvey, Tavis Smiley, Tom Joyner, Cathy Hughes and many others.
And check out the brain trust from the entertainment industry that Farrakhan is bringing along:
...Hip-hop leaders helping to galvanize the movement include Reverend Run, Sean "Diddy" Combs, Damon Dash, Jermaine Dupri, Kanye West, Ludacris, LL Cool J, Queen Latifah, Common, Wyclef Jean, Missy Elliott, Foxy Brown, David Banner (the Hulk?), Snoop Dogg, Ice T, Jim Jones (didn't he kill himself in 1979?), Juelz Santana and Jha Jha (Gabor?) of the Diplomats, Masta P, Juvenile (will be be delinquent?), Erykah Badu, Questlove of The Roots, MC Lyte, Fab Five Freddy, Biz Markie, Kid Capri, Cassidy, the Wu Tang Clan, Xzibit, Tony Austin, Humpty Hump, the Ruff Ryders and dead prez, among others.
* Sigh. * How anyone with two working brain cells could show up at an event hosted by a certified loony who believes nonsense like this is simply beyond my comprehension.
...
On a related note, check out this pitiful rant from Rev. Jesse Jackson, which Ms. Malkin is also reporting:
Jackson says his Chicago-based Rainbow-PUSH Coalition has formed a commission to help Hurricane Katrina survivors get jobs.
Jackson says able-bodied but displaced citizens of New Orleans should have priority over imported workers when it comes to rebuilding the city after Hurricane Katrina.
Jackson said today that thousands of hurricane evacuees are languishing in 40 states while outside contractors and imported workers rebuild.
He says service-sector jobs in restaurants and hotels are plentiful and that returning residents will live in hotel rooms and trailers and on military bases....
“You have the indigenous citizens having to sharecrop or subcontract to Halliburton and Bechtel,’’ he said.
Jackson said President Bush's chief political strategist, Karl Rove, is overseeing reconstruction of the Gulf Coast, and that he and others in the White House are using Katrina to push their political agenda. He said black, Democratic-leaning voters have been radically dislocated and are being kept in "permanent exile."
"Karl Rove is a political reconstructionist" who wants to "change the character" of Louisiana politics from the mayor's office to its congressional representation.
(You'll need to read the full post linked above in order to get the context of the event that spawned Jackson's comments.)
How sad that Rev. Jackson's primary response to the Katrina tragedy is to spew this racist gobbledygook at the only people that he believes are ignorant enough to buy it -- the poorly-educated people from the impoverished and culturally isolated slums of New Orleans.
"Sharecrop." Now there's an example of original thinking. Why, it's almost like it's Selma all over again, right Jesse? And can't you just see the stampede of poor blacks that will swarm back into New Orleans when they learn that Jesse Jackson will get them jobs as dishwashers and busboys.
The truth is that hundreds of thousands of New Orleans area residents won't be going back. Ever. And it doesn't have anything to do with jack-booted Imperial stormtroopers forcing them to live in rural Iowa.
I think what scares Jackson the most is that Katrina dissolved one of the nation's largest concentrations of poor blacks -- the people that Jackson and his fellow poverty pimps have long considered to be low-hanging fruit. It's got to be tough to lose such a soft-sell crowd.
On the other hand, if Jackson has knowledge of a secret group of skilled craftsmen, heavy equipment operators, hazardous waste cleanup technicians and the like who were just sitting around in the slums of New Orleans twiddling their thumbs before Katrina hit the city, then he should let us know about them. Those workers are desperately needed in New Orleans right now.
(Postscript: the number of rappers and hip-hoppers swarming Washington DC this weekend almost inspired me to title this post "Niggapalooza '05;" however, I decided against it.)
As I prepare for a civil service exam scheduled for October 18, 2005, I struggle with a desire to travel to Washington, D.C. for the Millions More Movement activities, rather than voyaging half way across Pennsylvania to take another test.
Do I really want to take this exam and attempt to get on another civil service list?
Since 2003, I have participated and completed the State Civil Service process more than a dozen times. In fact, I have tested within the “Rule of Three” mandate (State must hire from within the top three), but they have yet to call me for an interview.
The Civil Service Commission has tactically explained their hiring practice, i.e., Pennsylvania agencies often “opt out” and instead use a little known exception to the process (management directive that grants an unfettered discretion) that allows them to ignore the employment list and promote almost any available lower classification (a current employee).
The Commonwealth’s excuse for not hiring me is no different that the excuse a local temporary employment agency (Robert Half International) recently provided. That is, despite the fact that I scored a perfect 100 percent on their required testing (the average score for everyone else is only 85 percent), and was given an almost perfect score for my interview, the employment agency has insisted since August 2004 that it can’t place me. And, the Pittsburgh EEOC district office, a federal regulatory agency with authority to enforce Title VII has suggested that there appears to be nothing wrong with the company’s reason for not placing me: Robert Half claims its clients continue to select (whites) other candidates who have tested well below my scores and have inferior work experience and there is nothing they can do about it.
Nonetheless, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan (Nation of Islam) has challenged all of us to rise above the things that have kept us divided in the past. The agenda of his Millions More Movement is to see how all of us, with all our varied differences, can come together and direct our energy, not at each other, but at the condition of the reality of the suffering of our people. He has directed us to use all of our skills, gifts and talents to create a better world for ourselves, our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, and the like. True That (word is bond)!
I really want to participate and get my swerve on (enter the conflict of eliminating poverty and injustice in American society). But, this year, I have to tend to my family’s needs. That is, they have cut off all of my utilities, placed tax liens on my property, and have us struggling on food stamps. But, I am a proud “functionally unemployed” black man, flexed, and bout it (real, not fake and true to the game).
No! I’m not going to make it to Washington, D.C. for the Millions More Movement Activities. I have to take the civil service exam. . . . I have to score within the top three to force the white man to get creative again.
The Honorable Minister hopes to help poor people learn how to help themselves, beginning with the knowledge that there is strength in numbers. I may not be there on October 16, 2005, in person, but as a black man tight (straight, legitimate and feeling really good at the moment) and on his hustle (taking care of my family), I’m already there in sprit.
If I could go to the Millions More Movement activities, I would hope to hear about the marked change of October 2005, from the last two political cycles when President George Bush (Karl Rove) used the power of the White house to coax first-tier candidates into important congressional races. In these crucial few months when candidates are entering races, raising money and recruiting staffs, republican hopefuls are quietly stepping off. There’s one obvious reason why republican hopefuls aren’t listening to the White House: Bush is an unpopular president.
Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, Bush won the admiration of most Americans (even some blacks) for resolute leadership in the face of a foreign threat. But, after the recent simpleton response to hurricane Katrina and his tone-deaf reaction to the needs of America’s poor, the GOP and the world now well understand that Bush has slipped into a hole and unfortunately it appears the HNIC won’t be climbing back out. That is, his message remains essentially hopeless worries and hopeful faith. He’s back again portraying the world as too treacherous, too dangerous, and too risky for anyone but the GOP. Karl Rove wants to keep America focused on terror and national security. And, then they went public with wacked (crazy stupid) information suggesting possible subway attacks in New York (a city on orange alert the second-highest-level-indicating a high risk of terror attack since the color-coded warning system was established after the September 11, 2002 attacks). Bush backed the decision to announce the threat publicly despite questions by most federal officials about its credibility. They even claimed the source of the threat had passed a polygraph test. In short, like always, the GOP knew America can’t second-guess the motive behind a terror alert.
If I could go to the Millions More Movement activities, I would hope to hear about black GOP conservatives who have gone out their way in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina to play the race and irresponsibility card hoping to cultivate the most reactionary forms of Christian fundamentalism alongside the extreme right for whom racism is an essential ideological component. Just yesterday black GOP conservatives gathered to discuss race and irresponsibility. BOND (The Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny) and the Heritage Foundation cosponsored the event: The New Black Vanguard Conference II. It was moderated by Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, Founder and President of BOND. Dr. Shelby Steele (Hoover Institution Senior Fellow), Joseph Phillips (Actor & Columnist), Linda Porter (Founder Jochbed Education Project), and La Shawn Barber (lashawnbarber.com) attempted to reflect upon policy questions they claimed of major significance to black communities.
In the course of a denunciation of current black leadership they enumerated some of the standard racist conceptions often voiced by the right wing: The view that welfare programs had created among blacks a culture of irresponsibility; there is an enormous cost for risky behavior within the black family (promiscuous women and fatherless households); and, one generation of blacks has followed another into poverty.
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson has suggested in the past that America shouldn’t blame racism or President Bush and the GOP for what happened to thousands of poor blacks during and after hurricane Katrina. He said “The truth is black people died, not because of President Bush or racism, they died because of their unhealthy dependence on the government and the incompetence of Mayor Ray Nagin (a black man) and Governor Kathleen Blanco.” The black GOP conservative singled out Rev. Jesse Jackson, members of the Congressional Black Caucus, and Rapper Kanye West, all of whom he says blamed President Bush for not doing enough to help black people.
Yes! Rev. Jesse Jackson is on the record calling the president’s response “incompetent.”
Yes! During NBC’s celebrity telethon for hurricane Katrine victims on September 2, 2005, the scripted program took an unexpected turn, when Rapper Kanye West went off the script during the live broadcast, declaring “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.”
But, black GOP conservatives are nothing but house slaves. They blindly follow simple-minded people. In slavery days we had house slaves and field slaves. The house slaves were “well behaved” and “rewarded” by being allowed to work in the “big house” close to the master. The field slaves were “rough” and “functionally unemployed.” Thus the people were divided and pitted against themselves, instead the common enemy (extreme right forces and Christian fundamentalists).
If I could go to the Millions More Movement activities, I would hope to hear about how da fam in the Burgh (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) can get rid of some punk ass black politicians that are indifferent to the plight of "functionally unemployed" individuals and their families. The last time da fam in the Burgh had oportunity to "break bread" with a bout it black leader was August 19, 1997. On that particular day the Honorable Minister accepted my question (from the audience) related to how black males can be a better father to their children. Among other things, he eloquently advised the group of black politicians on how we can come together and direct our energy, not at each other, but at the condition of the reality of the suffering or our people. But it's October 2005, conditions for blacks in the Burgh have become more precarious. The city is now controled by (in the closet) black GOP conservative house slaves.
No Diggety!
kstreetfriend.blogspot.com
Posted by: kstreetfriend.blogspot.com | October 12, 2005 at 07:36 PM
There is a great piece here on Poverty Pimps
Posted by: Toronto Tenants | April 24, 2006 at 12:54 PM