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Forget about "POST RACIAL" regarding the U.S. Senate. Yes, It's truly a helluva way to run a democracy. The All White Club of the U.S. Senate told the Black man today: Your papers are not in order! U.S. Senator (appointed) Burris entered the Capitol peacefullyand was denied his Senate seat in dramatic fashion. This spectacle edging on bigotry, was a live showdown that sounds in many ways like the politics, before and after the U.S. Civil War. When in 1870, the state of Mississippi was rejoining the union. Its two senate seats had been empty for nine years. Hiram R. Revels was elected to fill the seat left vacant by Jefferson Davis, who had left the United States senate to serve as president of the Confederacy. When Revels entered the Senate chamber for the first time on February 23, 1870, he met with opposition from Democrat senators, who argued that Revels had not been a citizen for nine years. Although Revels had been born free to free parents in North Carolina on September 27, 1822, the Democrats argued their points from the Constitution and the Dred Scott Case.
MSNBC and Associated Press (AP) report: The secretary of the Senate on Tuesday turned Roland Burris away from taking the seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.
Burris left the Capitol offices of the secretary, Nancy Erickson, after a meeting of about 20 minutes.
In a bizarre rainy-day scene on the Capitol grounds as lawmakers awaited the gaveling of the 111th Congress into session, Burris stood amid a huge throng of reporters and television cameras and declared that he had been informed that "my credentials are not in order and will not be accepted."
He said he was "not seeking to have any type of confrontation" over taking the seat that he was appointed to by embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. But Burris also said he was looking at options for taking the seat.
But Democratic leaders were determined to keep him out of the exclusive club. The immediate reason is that his letter of appointment has not been signed by the Illinois secretary of state.
AAPP: It's in many ways like the case of the first Black U.S. Senator Revels who arrived in Washington at the end of January 1870, but could not present his credentials until Mississippi was readmitted to the United States on February 23. Senate Republicans sought to swear in Revels immediately afterwards, but Senate Democrats were determined to block the effort. Led by Senator Garrett Davis of Kentucky and Senator Willard Saulsbury of Delaware, the Democrats claimed Revels’s election was null and void, arguing that Mississippi was under military rule and lacked a civil government to confirm his election. More HERE
Image courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration
In 1870, when Revels entered the Senate chamber for the first time on February 23, 1870, he met with opposition from Democrat senators, who argued that Revels had not been a citizen for nine years. Although Revels had been born free to free parents in North Carolina on September 27, 1822, the Democrats argued their points from the Constitution and the Dred Scott Case.
Article 1, Section 3 of the Constitution states that a person has to be a citizen for nine years to be eligible to serve as senator. The Fourteenth Amendment gave citizenship to Blacks, but that amendment had been ratified only in 1868; thus, the Democrats argued that Revels had been a citizen for two years at most, if at all, since the Dred Scott Case of 1857 had stated that Blacks could not be citizens.
Three Days of Senate Debate
The next three days saw the senate debating the merits of seating a black man as senator. They argued about the Civil War, about the Supreme Court, about the abilities of Blacks in general. The media covered the event lavishly, as the following excerpt from the February 25th addition of the New York Times demonstrates:
Mr. Vickers, of Maryland, opened the debate to-day, arguing against the admission, on the ground that Revels had not been a citizen for nine years, and therefore was not eligible. Mr. Wilson followed on the other side, and was succeeded by Mr. Casserly, who took a new departure and arraigned the entire reconstruction policy, charging that all the Southern Senators were put in their seats by the force of the bayonets of the regular army.
Democrats including Senators George Vickers of Maryland, Garret Davis of Kentucky, and Eli Saulsbury of Delaware strongly supported the fact that a black man could not ever be United States citizens, much less a senator.
Republicans argued just a strenuously that the Dred Scott decision had been a travesty. They could not believe that anyone, let alone senators, would cite that hideous decision for any purpose. Senator James Nye of Nevada said, “I never expected to hear read in the Senate of the United States, or any court of justice where authority was looked for, the Dred Scott decision.”
Senator Jacob Howard of Michigan said he was “nauseated” that anyone would claim the status of Blacks based on the Dred Scott decision. And Charles Sumner of Massachusetts called the Dred Scott case, “born a putrid corpse.”
Revels Finally Seated
Despite all the protesting of the Democrats, the Republicans were able to welcome their colleague, and Revels was finally allowed to sit with the senate. More HERE
NOTE: We should remember that the 1st black U.S. Senator got his position based on the same bigoted politics played out in 1870 and now we have the same "color aroused or racial politics" being played out in 2008-2009.
Check this out, Before the Civil War, fewer than 1,000 free black Mississippians had access to a basic education. Thus, leadership from freedmen such as Revels became vital to the Republican Party for rallying the new electorate in the postwar years.6 It was through his work in education that Revels became involved in politics, taking his first elected position as a Natchez alderman in 1868. He entered politics reluctantly, fearing racial friction and interference with his religious work, but he quickly won over blacks and whites with his moderate and compassionate political opinions. In 1869, encouraged to run by a friend, future Representative John Roy Lynch, Revels won a seat in the Mississippi state senate.7 Under the newly installed Reconstruction government, Revels was one of more than 30 African Americans among the state’s 140 legislators.8 Upon his election, he wrote a friend in Leavenworth, Kansas: “We are in the midst of an exciting canvass…. I am working very hard in politics as well as in other matters. We are determined that Mississippi shall be settled on a basis of justice and political and legal equality.”9 A little-known politician, Revels attracted the attention of fellow legislators when he gave a moving prayer on the opening day of the session.
The primary task of the newly elected state senate was to fill U.S. Senate seats. In 1861, Democrat Albert Brown and future Confederate President Jefferson Davis both vacated Mississippi’s U.S. Senate seats when the state seceded from the Union.10 When their terms expired in 1865 and 1863, respectively, their seats were not filled and remained vacant. In 1870, the new Mississippi state legislature wished to elect a black man to fill the remainder of one term, due to expire in 1871 for the seat once held by Brown, but was determined to fill the other unexpired term, ending in 1875, with a white candidate.11 Black legislators agreed to the deal, believing, as Revels recalled, that an election of one of their own would “be a weakening blow against color line prejudice.” The Democratic minority also endorsed the plan, hoping a black Senator would “seriously damage the Republican Party.”12 After three days and seven ballots, on January 20, 1870, the Mississippi state legislature voted 85 to 15 to seat Hiram Revels in Brown’s former seat. They chose Union General Adelbert Ames to fill Davis’s former seat. More HERE
Let's see at what point the all white U.S. Senate willstop playing racial chicken and appoint U.S. Senator Roland Burris. Or will they play it all the way to the Supreme Court?
The attorney for the family of Oscar Grant III, fatally shot by an unidentified BART officer early New Year's Day, said Sunday he plans to file a $25 million lawsuit against the department and asked prosecutors to consider filing murder charges against the officer.
The shooting occurred shortly before 2 a.m. Thursday after five officers responded to the Fruitvale station to reports of a fight on a train, officials said, though they have not confirmed whether Grant was involved in the fight.
The new video, obtained by television station KTVU, shows two officers restraining a struggling suspect. While the man is lying face down on the ground, one officer appears to be seen pulling out a gun and firing a single shot into his back.
Civil rights attorney John Burris, known for his work in several high-profile cases involving police abuse and corruption, said at a Sunday news conference that the shooting was "the most unconscionable shooting" he has ever seen. He said that the Alameda County district attorney should consider filing charges of second degree murder or manslaughter against the officer. More HERE
To all Afrosphere and affiliated bloggers- be aware that someone may be milking your posts to trick your readers into going to sites you don't own (or like).
Why? To steal your ad revenue as well as infect other people's computers (re: those non Youtube youtube videos).
It came to my attention after a famous Korean blogger got hit and reported his case to the local media.
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti...
The vast spread of the blog as a form of Internet culture has led to the emergence of on-line tricksters who make money by illegally appropriating content written by others. They help themselves to text from famous blogs or to popular writings and images such as entertainment news, piling them up in the repositories of their own blogs. They differ from the ordinary blogs linking to other sites in that their goal is to generate profits, taking advantage of programs like Google AdSense and Daum Ad Clicks that give blog operators a portion of advertising revenues generated as more people visit their sites. As a result, the operators of these sites randomly copy and post any interesting content to increase the number of visitors to form a base for advertising capital. There have even been programs that automatically copy content, without any need to hand-pick writings, resulting in the appearance of professionals who reap profits by posting thousands of entries a day.
Recently, shameless bloggers have even resorted to simply copying the search results from search engine sites. For example, if someone goes to a portal site and selects the sites listed under the search term "Moon Geun-young donation," some of the blogs they find will have no content at all, with only the search keyword listed. They mainly use a method of "fishing" for Internet user clicks by posting hundreds of writings a day in real time based on popular search phrases.
The problem isn't contained to bloggers outside of the states. The problem is so severe that 1 in 5 blogs on Blogspot may be spam blogs (wikipedia, via adweek.com).
Bloggers, check your site statistics. If you notice any drops in readership not related to your quality or level of work/output or demographic/readership change, then you, in the words of the Dorknet, may have some splogger 'in ur North Pole, sniping ur elves'.
What happen to the word "change?" I guess Obama's Cabinet may be short on reformers. I guess America will have to get ready for middle-of-the-road no change politics. it appears that Obama is surrounding himself with a cabinet full of intellectuals. Or as some have said, it seems like a third Clinton administration, with a few political retiirees. No change here folks, just political debts repaid. No back to diversity:
As an example, As reported by bloomberg "there is Ivy league diversity." If Obama’s choices are confirmed, his Ivy Leaguers will represent a more diverse range of elite schools, as an example, two will hold degrees from Harvard -- Education Secretary- designee Arne Duncan and Housing and Urban Development Department-designee Shaun Donovan; two from Princeton -- Obama’s choice for OMB director Peter Orszag and EPA administrator Lisa Jackson; and one each from Yale, Dartmouth and Columbia -- Clinton, Treasury Secretary-designee Tim Geithner and Obama’s choice for attorney general, Eric Holder. More HERE
There is surely Latino and women diverity, bloomberg notes with Bill Richardson as commerce secretary, Hilda Solis as labor secretary and Ken Salazar as interior secretary, Obama has picked more Hispanics than Clinton or Bush. Bush named five women in his first Cabinet, while Obama ties Clinton with four. Obama has also named several women to White House posts and to head agencies -- Mary Schapiro will lead the Securities and Exchange Commission, Christina Romer will head the Council of Economic Advisers and Melody Barnes will direct his Domestic Policy Council.
Obama has mostly picked current and former lawmakers from states that helped win him the presidency. Some appointees were named even though they supported Hillary Clinton during the primary battle, including Clinton herself.
Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack, who campaigned unsuccessfully for Clinton, is Obama’s choice for agriculture secretary; Solis was also a Clinton backer. Obama has chosen past and present lawmakers from Colorado, New York, California, Illinois, Iowa and New Mexico -- all states that went for him.
The exceptions: Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, who will lead the Department of Homeland Security, and former South Dakota Senator Tom Daschle, Obama’s pick for the Department of Health and Human Services. Their states went for Republican John McCain.
He “has explicitly indicated he wants people to take diverse positions and argue,” said Fred Greenstein, a presidential historian at Princeton University.
White men dominate the hierarchy of Obama administration. There are only fivewomen, if one includes Jackson and Susan Rice, the nominee for U.N. ambassador, whose positions Obama considers Cabinet-rank. (Also named yesterday to head the sub-Cabinet Small Business Administration was Karen Mills, a Maine businesswoman.) Obama overlooks Northwest in cabinet choices.
There are three Latinos, four blacks and two Republicans. Hmm.. I'm not happy with the number of black folks in his administration, But I have no control over it, so I guess I will just let it go....
There are those who still pick the white doll even though the black doll may be the most qualified today.
We should all remember that some will never let Barack obama forget he is black,
1 Presidency and no U.S. Senate seat(s)... Barack got a great deal, lets hope black America get's a good deal in the long run. In the meantime, all we black folks need to do is to act like President Elect Barack Obama—and our problems will be over. RIGHT!
Here’s an updated list after the Solis and Kirk picks:
-- 8 State Schoolers (Daschle, Vilsack, Chu, Napolitano, Salazar, Gates, Solis, Kirk) -- 7 Ivy Leaguers (Clinton, Duncan, Geithner, Holder, Donovan, Orszag, Jackson) -- 5 Raised in the Midwest (Clinton, Daschle, Gates, Duncan, LaHood, Vilsack) Note: This doesn’t include Chu, who was born in Missouri but grew up in New York or Vilsack who can be now considered a "midwesterner" since he had lived in and lives in Iowa, but he grew up in Pennsylvania. -- 5 Women (Clinton, Napolitano, Solis, Rice, Jackson) -- 4 Raised in New York (Holder, Donovan, Geithner, Chu -- who grew up on Long Island) Note: This does not include Napolitano who was born in NYC or Clinton who currently lives there. -- 4 Basketball Players (Duncan, Rice, Holder, Kirk -- who also was a cheerleader in college) -- 4 African Americans (Holder, Kirk, Rice, Jackson) -- 3 Hispanics (Salazar, Richardson, Solis) -- 3 Westerners (Salazar, Richardson, Napolitano -- who was born in NYC but raised in Albuquerque) Note: Solis is from L.A., but is that really a Westerner? -- 2 Asian Americans (Shinseki, Chu) -- 2 Republicans (Gates, LaHood) -- 2 Sitting Senators (Clinton, Salazar) -- 2 Sitting Governors (Napolitano, Richardson) -- 2 Raised in the South (Kirk, Jackson -- who was born in Philadelphia, but adopted a few weeks later and grew up in New Orleans’ Ninth Ward)
Special Note, as reported by the NY Times, I'm glad to see that Elizabeth Alexander, who teaches at Yale, was plucked last week from the relatively obscure recesses of contemporary poetry for a moment on the world stage. President-elect Barack Obama has commissioned her to compose and read a poem for his inauguration, making her only the fourth poet in American history to read at one and elevating the art to unaccustomed prominence in the national psyche, at least for a day. More HERE
Has Jesse Jackson been "Wired" whenever he talks with people about politics? Is Jesse sending the wrong message about blacks involved in politics? How long has Jesse Jackson been working for the Fed's, as a FBI Informant? Will Jesse Jackson be the fall guy?
Now some are wondering if the Blagojevich case, is a crime, or just talk? for that matter, it may seem like the real problem, is Jesse Jackson, Jr. becoming a federal informant.
The Washington Post reports, Rep. Jesse L. Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) told federal investigators that Gov. Rod Blagojevich asked for a $25,000 campaign contribution during Blagojevich's 2002 run for governor and may have exacted retribution when the money did not arrive, a political source close to Jackson said Tuesday.
After Blagojevich (D) won, he considered and rejected Jackson's wife, Sandi, for the job of state lottery director, the source said.
Later, the governor saw Rep. Jackson at an event in Washington and, according to the source, told him he bet Jackson regretted not paying up.
The allegation surfaced as a specialimpeachmentcommittee of the Illinois House of Representatives in Springfield began to investigate Blagojevich's conduct in the wake of his arrest by FBI agents last week on public corruption charges. Blagojevich signaled that he intends to battle for his job.
"He's not stepping aside. He hasn't done anything wrong. We're going to fight this case," Ed Genson, Blagojevich's attorney, declared as he prepared for a Wednesday appearance before the bipartisan impeachment committee. More HERE
Politico and AP has reported that Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., a.k.a. Senate Candidate 5 in the complaint against Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, has shared information about public corruption with the U.S. attorney’s office for at least five years, the congressman’s spokesman, Kenneth Edmonds, said.
Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)
Edmonds declined to elaborate on the kind of information Jackson has shared.
Edmonds faced questions about Jackson’s relationship with the feds after Chicago’s WLS-TV reported unidentified sources saying that Jackson told the feds that Blagojevich refused to appoint Jackson's wife as state lottery director because the congressman wouldn't donate $25,000 to the governor's campaign fund. More HERE
Jackson has been identified as one of the candidates Blagojevich was considering for the seat, and a criminal complaint said his supporters were willing to raise $1.5 million for the governor if he picked the congressman. More HERE
Huffington Post reports the complaint quotes Blagojevich as saying on federal wiretaps that an associate of the candidate offered to raise money for him if he made the Jackson appointment happen.
Jackson spokesman Kenneth Edmonds declined to comment on the account of the exchange shortly after Blagojevich's 2002 election but said the congressman, the son of civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, has approached federal investigators to discuss the governor and others for years.
"He has shared information with federal prosecutors about public corruption during the past several years, including information about Blagojevich and others," Edmonds said.... More HERE>>>
Here's a great article in the May issue of Ebony (yeah, catching up on my reading) about a couple that collects African American art from around the world. They collect it to promote the learning of the past and to help people explore some amazing work. The way Mrs. Kinsey puts it :
"It's a journey. And we all share in it. As we were traveling, we were learning about other cultures, in Italy, Greece and Pakistan. At some point we said, 'We've also got to learn more about our own people"
Checking out some links from around the world. Gettin up on some neat sites I missed last month. Caama has an interesting story about the "letterstick", made by some award winning producers and directors. Check out the Akamai site, too :
Not as far as New York activist Al Sharpton is concerned. He said in a statement that he is neutral but also defended Caroline Kennedy.
"I unequivocally disagree with those that say she is not qualified," he said, adding that Kennedy's civic involvement makes her qualified. More HERE I guess Al Sharpton feels that she deserves to be eased into a U.S. Senate seat because of her class and name? I guess her calls Sharpton worked. Al must believe that she will fight harder NY residents and black folks hard hit in this economy.
Get this Rev. Al, as the New York Times reported, "She has not held a full-time job in years, has not run for even the lowliest office." More HERE Rev. Al you know here background, just as much as the NY Times who are reporting that she has no real work experience, aside from a 22-month, three-day-a-week stint as director of strategic partnerships for the New York City schools, her commitments generally involve nonprofit boards: the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc., the American Ballet Theater, the Commission on Presidential Debates and the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation. More HERE
Rev. Al, you know, News Day also reports that Caroline Bouvier Kennedy, JFK's only surviving child, has spent a lifetime on one podium or another, but has never sought elected office, a gap in her resume that is leading some fellow Democrats to ridicule the notion of naming her as Hillary Rodham Clinton's replacement in the U.S. Senate. More HERE
AAPP: Not everyone in Black NY or in BlackChicago are kissing up like Al Sharpton. But I will tell yah, the possibility of two or three black U.S. Senate seatsseems to be over. It seems that black leadership in America is quiet of the Kennedy issue, or are kissing up... big time. There are many grassroot black folks who are concerned about the message being sent about Class and Race in the U.S. and whether OBAMA's CHANGE in his backdoor support of another Kennedy, or Biden, is just another day of old-school American politics that people are sick of. For me, I don't get this, is Carolyn Kennedy's only claim to fame, that she was raised on New York's Fifth Avenue after the assassination of her father, President John F. Kennedy?
Is class and raceinvolved? Of course it is. But guess what, Hillary Clinton is said to like the idea of Buffalo mayor Byron Brown. No idealist, he'd bring a hardball game to Washington. He'd be the first black Senator from New York. More HERE
As Karen Tumulty of the Times.com also noted, "The state has no shortage of more seasoned politicians who are also interested in the job. Among those who are being mentioned as possible candidates are Kennedy's former cousin-in-law, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo; at least four current House members, including Kirsten Gillibrand, Carolyn Maloney, Brian Higgins and Steve Israel; Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown; and Nassau County executive Tom Suozzi. Last week, New York Congressman Gary Ackerman said he didn't know of any qualifications that Kennedy has, "except that she has name recognition — but so does J. Lo." (See other possible candidates for Clinton's Senate seat.)" More HERE
Kennedy, daughter of the late President John F. Kennedy and niece of another Kennedy who previously held the seat — the late Robert F. Kennedy — decided "after a series of deeply personal and political conversations, in which Ms. Kennedy, who friends describe as unflashy but determined, wrestled with whether to give up what has been a lifetime of avoiding the spotlight." That, according to the Times' Nicholas Confessore, who reports that Kennedy will ask Gov. David Paterson (D) for consideration for the appointment. Source: NPR's Political Junkie
Two years after JFK was elected president, his brother Ted won a Senate seat in Massachusetts, and brother Bobby was elected in New York two years after that. JFK's grandfather John "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, mayor of Boston, failed in a 1916 Senate bid against Republican Henry Cabot Lodge. Source: NPR's Political Junkie
As NPR's Political Junkie notes, "There has been no shortage of names thrown in the mix of potential candidates for the Senate post. As we wrote on Dec. 2, the list is thought to include state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand from upstate, Rep. Brian Higgins of Buffalo, Rep. Carolyn Maloney of Manhattan, and Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi." More HERE
As reported by Elizabeth Moore of Newsday, Kennedy campaigned with her "Uncle Teddy" to elect Hillary Clinton to the Senate. But it was Obama, not Clinton, who got her endorsement at a critical moment this year, in words that not so subtly slighted Bill Clinton as well.
"I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them," she wrote in a New York Times op-ed in January. "But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president."
Elizabeth Moore notes that Clinton allies -- and those of state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who is divorced from one of Kennedy's cousins -- were blunt last week in airing their doubts on Kennedy's fitness for the office. It's a debate that is fast becoming a proxy for the larger turf battles within the Obama-era Democratic Party. More HERE
Like the Political Junkie I also have to wonder how much warmth there is between Caroline and Hillary. The Clintons had lobbied hard for the endorsement of Sen. Ted Kennedy, and many in the Clinton camp were thrown for a loop when Ted and Caroline joined the Obama bandwagon.
Reuters file photo
AAPP: I have been reading a lot about Caroline Kennedy lately, and as John Mecurio recently wrote in the National Journal, "Caroline Kennedy seems like an intelligent, competent woman. Her family should be proud of how she has conducted her life: as a (relatively) private citizen who, unlike many of her more ambitious relatives, has never openly sought advantage, political or financial, from her famous family name. She's never shown any enthusiasm for a job that people work tirelessly to acquire. Which is why she would be a bizarre choice." More HERE
John Mecurio also notes, "The choice is particularly curious in the wake of Obama's victory last month. I've always found it awkward to watch Obama embrace the Kennedy legacy as part of his mantra for "change." In some ways, they couldn't be more different. The story of Obama, who spent the past two years calming Americans' concerns about his untraditional family tree, centers on the claim that anyone can achieve anything, regardless of race or class. The story of the Kennedys, meanwhile, is America's most beloved bow to political dynasties and inherited prominence.
Democrats can, of course, honor both stories. They did so in Denver this summer, when convention-goers watched a heartwarming video tribute to Ted Kennedy and then heard an inspiring speech from the ailing senator himself. But that tribute focused on the Democratic ideals Obama and the Kennedys do share, not the culture of American power, which they don't. If Paterson appoints Caroline Kennedy to the Senate, he will blur those lines, contradicting one of the biggest reasons that Obama's election inspired so many people across the country and the world."
In the current and incoming Senates, at least 16 members are the children or spouses of prominent politicians. Do we really need another?
It doesn't get too much better even if Paterson decides on someone with .... Read More HERE
Get this folks, as reported by the NY Times and the LA Times an Iraqi journalist shouted in Arabic — “This is a gift from the Iraqis; this is the farewell kiss, you dog” — and threw one of his shoes at the president, who ducked and narrowly avoided being struck. As chaos ensued, he threw his other shoe, shouting, “This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq.”
The incident will serve as a vivid reminder of the widespread opposition to the US-led invasion of, and subsequent war in, Iraq - the conflict which has come to define Bush's presidency says Aljazeera.
WaPo and Reuters, are also reporting on how George Bush arrived in Baghdad today for a farewell visit. WaPo reports Bush staunchly defended a war that has taken far more time, money and lives than anticipated, saying the conflict "has not been easy" but was necessary for U.S. security, Iraqi stability and "world peace."
But during a press conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Bush received a taste of the immense resentment many Iraqis feel toward toward his policies: an Iraqi journalist took off his shoes and hurled both of them at Bush, one after the other.
The incident lent an air of chaos and farce to a trip intended to highlight improving security conditions in the war-torn country.
An Iraqi man throws a shoe at President George W. Bush during a new conference with Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Sunday, Dec. 14, 2008, in Baghdad. A man threw two shoes at Bush, one after another, during the news conference. Bush ducked both throws, and neither man was hit. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
"This is the end!" the man, identified as Muntadar al-Zaidi, a reporter with the Cairo-based network Al Baghdadia Television, yelled as he threw the first shoe at Bush. The president narrowly missed being hit, according to on-scene reports.
The man then managed to toss a second shoe close to Bush before a scrum of security agents tackled him to the floor and removed him from an ornate room where the press conference was taking place.
Bush was not injured and joked about the incident. "All I can report is it is a size 10," he said.
Zaidi was seated in the second row of seats, about 12 feet from Bush's lectern. Zaidi, colleagues said, was kidnapped by Shiite militiamen last year and was later released. Throwing a shoe at someone is considered the worst possible insult in Iraq, and is meant to show extreme disrespect and hatred towards someone More HERE
AAPP: I guess his trip like his troubled presidency is nothing more than a horrible joke to the American people and the world. As US News notes Bush, "thought his presidency would somehow conclude on a high note despite his abysmal job-approval ratings and his unpopular policies." More HERE
Get this, President-elect Barack Obama approaches the White House with a deep well of public support, according to a new Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll. they report that nearly three-quarters of those surveyed felt positive about Obama's election as president. I do too, but
I must say, "I'm still concerned that Barack Obama has failed to reach the bar created by Bill Clinton who promised to change the government's complexion. Bill Clinton did a great job at it." Black Americans waited in long lines to vote for Change. African-American voters waited more than twice as long as others to vote in last month's presidential election, and Hispanics were asked to show identification more often-More HERE. Bill Clinton appointed blacks into his administration in great numbers, Why can't Barack Obama?
I pointed out that US Today noted a number of years ago, until Bill Clinton, Presidential Cabinets were overwhelmingly the province of white Anglo men. They made up 85% of the appointments by President Reagan, who over eight years had only one African-American and one Hispanic in his Cabinet. White Anglo men made up 71% of the first President Bush's Cabinet. (The Cabinet statistics in this story reflect those offices designated by law as Cabinet posts. Some presidents have chosen to give other officials comparable Cabinet-level status.) More HERE
