With this week's publication we intend to make
our best efforts to include this column in  on
a weekly basis. Avid reader,
Leutisha Stills has been waiting in Oakland, California for the
return of this column.
I hope you will revive "No Fools Allowed" one day
because if you do, I want to comment on your piece regarding
the "Biggest Whore of All" Armstrong Williams (See
the Cover
story of January 13,
2005). As usual, it was a spot-on piece.
I noticed your reference to Ward "I don't like Affirmative
Action or other Black People" Connerly - I think Armstrong
could have taken lessons from him. Who in California can forget
that Ward Connerly got his start in California as a businessman
through feeding at the government trough of affirmative action
by being eligible to participate in the Minority/Women Business
Enterprise Programs? That's where he made his millions, courtesy
of former Governor "Sneaky" Pete Wilson. Ironically,
with his push for Proposition 209, which eliminated Affirmative
Action in contracting opportunities as well as everything else
connected to the state, he continued to feed at the corporate
trough of Wilson and his ilk and was encouraged to take his act
to the state of Michigan. That resulted in an anti-Affirmative
Action ballot initiative to be decided either this year or in
2006.
One positive note - he is stepping down as a Board Member on
the University of California Board of Regents - the platform
from which he has been launching his initiatives, and using his
position on the Board to fool many people into thinking that
the University system was co-signing on anti-Affirmative Action.
The results have been devastating - minority enrollment has dropped
30% since Prop. 209 and it was a direct tie to Connerly's efforts
at prostitution; both the system and California government.
I hope you will start a "hit list" of Black politicians,
regardless of party affiliation, 'who dare to ho around in this
manner. It is the only way we can eradicate the disease of "sellout-itis" that
has affected our communities and planted them in a never-ending
cycle of poverty, neglect, and hopelessness. Since Armstrong
hijacked your show and got exposed, I guess the chickens do come
home to roost.
Marsha Hammond, PhD is a Licensed Psychologist who sent us the
following open letter to Williams.
Dear Mr. Williams:
I greatly value the voices of black Americans in the US. I have
massive respect for Jesse Jackson, Jesse Jackson, Jr., John Conyers,
Mell Watt (D-NC), Tubbs (D-OH).
When African-Americans allow their voices to be used to keep
a corrupt power mongering, war-loving, lying regime in place
e.g, the Bush regime, their voices are discounted and entered
into that so far short list associated with J. Kenneth Blackwell.
Please return that money.
Freedom Rider Reaction
Margaret Kimberley was thinking north in her March
3, 2005 Freedom Rider column entitled "Don't Bomb Canada".
Margaret expressed fear that oil greedy Americans are causing
some alarm among our neighbors.
In the bad old days only brown skinned nations that ran afoul
of U.S. whims had to grovel in the dirt. Now a mostly white,
capitalist country that borders Montana, Minnesota and Maine
is begging not to be mistreated.
From Tronto, reader Mohamad Khan sent a message of thanks.
I just finished reading your article on Missile Defence in the
Black Commentator; there was a link to it at Rabble.ca.
I wanted to thank you for expressing your opinion so simply,
so clearly, and so well.
Though I have the sense that my Prime Minister (Canadian Prime
Minister Paul Martin) was more or less forced by public opinion
to reject a Missile Defence initiative that he had earlier appeared
to endorse, I'm glad that things turned out as they did.
Thanks in particular for your analysis of
how this move on Canada's part appears to indicate a general
trend in the attitudes of
America's friends, toward ignoring Bush more and more. I don't
think that France or Russia, for example, necessarily have governments
that are motivated by the right reasons, but your article makes
me more optimistic that, whatever the motives, the situation
of which you speak will "contain" America to some extent.
Keep up the good work!
Jack Shultz of Pointe Claire, Que. also thanks sister Kimberley.
Seems to us that living next to George W. Bush's America is
the next most dangerous thing to living in George W. Bush's America.
If you took a poll in Canada, or in fact, in any country outside
the United States, and asked the question "do you regard
George W. Bush and the principals of his regime to be war criminals?,"
a large majority on
every continent, would answer in the affirmative.
Personally, I don't believe that George W. Bush legitimately won the election
of 2004, or that of 2000. But it doesn't matter.
What little remains of American democracy is dissipating in an insipid narcissistic
media haze. A haze in which the number of innocent Iraqi civilians, men,
women and children, being killed in this unjustifiable war, is considered
to be so inconsequential that it is a question not worth asking and not worth
reporting.
The fact that Americans did not protest and oppose a second theft of the
presidency, and accepted the legitimacy of his election, implicates Americans
in George W. Bush's America's war crimes. Beyond America's borders, people
can only believe that by electing George W. Bush to a second term in office,
a majority of Americans had endorsed the criminal and the crime.
What can foreigners think of Americans, especially those that have never
experienced the American media?
And you can take my word for it, there are plenty of Canadians who would
be willing to send Canadian troops to Iraq, or support the Star Wars project,
if there's something in it for them, and they are some pretty powerful people
here.. Canada is a thin reed to hang our hopes on, but I have no choice.
The Freeedom Rider column of February
24, 2005 told the tale of Jeff Gannon. He's the phony reporter
with the phony news service whom the corporate media refused
to uncover.
A reader
using the monicor Paradox2004 believes the story proves a desire
the hard right has to turn back the clock.
Good incisive piece and let me add that even
if the whole USA knew about Gannon they would all shug - including
the right wing
morals crowd. The reason is that they are hypocrites and "bad
faith" racists. What they really want - and this is deep
in the reptilian brain of most whites - they hanker for the Golden
Age of pre-1965. Some even hanker for pre-1865. What else are
those prisons bulging with blacks are for?: "can't keep
on the plantation - so let's shove em into the concentration
camps".
And the whites are good social scientists because they know
that human behavior is a function of the environment - so create
an environment that would prompt people to behave in such a way
that large numbers of them would be shoveled into the camps.
There could be 10 Gannons uncovered now but
whites won't care because they are heading for "closing the deal" now--
back to the glorious days of pre-1965.
So what else is new?
When a three star Marine General said it was
a "hoot" and "fun" to
shoot people, Freedom Rider took notice. Ms. Kimberley's column
of February 10, 2005 brought this reaction from David Antoon who
is a retired Air Force Colonel, Vietnam Vet and Antiwar Activist.
Thank you for your article. America has no conscience anymore.
As I have become more wise with years, I am learning that we
have not for years.
I found the Marine General's comments repulsive
as I did Gen Boykin's. The obliteration of Falluja is a war
crime. The estimated
100,000 civilian deaths in Iraq is a war crime. Where is our
national conscience? As a former military man, I find it difficult
to understand that the military leaders did not "can" these
people immediately. This leads me to believe that fascism in
America is complete. Keep writing!
Those Sellout Black Preachers
On Febryary
3, 2005 wrote
a commentary entitled: Bribes + Vouchers = Black Bush Supporters.
Rev. Jeanette Pollard thinks the issue should be the subject of
a national broadcast forum.
I have an idea. Why not Black Commentator
host a forum--it could be on the radio or on C-SPAN. Get a
debate going between
a few of these faith based black sell outs, vs. some stand up
preachers of the Gospel. That self proclaimed "bishop" Harry
Jackson, for the sell outs (who I don't think even went to seminary),
and some other uncle toms, versus PREACHERS such as Rev. Clarence
L. James, Sr.(Philly), Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr.(Chicago),
Rev. Charles G. Adams(Detroit), and Rev. Rudolph McKissick,
Jr., (Jacksonville,FL). The PREACHERS would surely expose the others and
help their congregants see that faith based is no good for them. Its a crock!
Keep up the good work of keeping us informed!!
Co-Publisher,
Glen Ford answered Rev. Pollard.
Good to hear from you. It is a flattering suggestion
and something we will think about.
I tend to think that there aren't too many Reverends like yourself,
who will tell it like it is in public, especially in a forum
of their "peers." There
are a number of preachers in my family, and I'm familiar with the (counterproductive)
etiquette.
This is a project for progressive clergy to handle, just as
it is the duty - so far unfulfilled - of progressive Black
lawmakers to confront politicians
like Harold Ford, who purposely position themselves as closely as possible
to the enemy. We must reevaluate our historic imperative to erect facades
of unity, since the malfactors among us constantly violate the terms of the "understanding." False
unity holds progressives back, but allows the Uncle Toms free range.
We'll continue our mission of making good folks like you mad enough that
you'll kick the (faith-based) money changers out of the (Black) temple.
The Decline of the USA and leaving Iraq
has
written extensively about what we have called "The Redlining
of America". The most recent commentary, "Rice Arrives
Just In Time To Oversee U.S. Decline", appeared on January
27, 2005.
From Oakland, California Joe Osorio agrees with the view through
our crystal ball.
I recall reading a piece in a
while back, essentially making the case that political and economic
leaders worldwide would begin working to undermine US unilateral
aggression, in fact they already had begun working together.
Excluding the US from agreements and deals and otherwise circumventing
the Pirates. Strengthening the Euro and other currencies in relation
to the Dollar.
More and more evidence is now coming to the forefront of this happening.
Reading between the lines only enforces what we are seeing.
Great work. When may I expect to see Super Bowl predictions
and maybe some Lottery numbers?
replied
to Brother Osorio.
Yes, we scare ourselves, sometimes. The defeat of U.S. imperialism
is the Mother of All Superbowls. Lots of folks are already betting
their lives on it, and the elites of the world are making sure
they don't lose their shirts.
A Think
Piece entitled "The Global Descent of America" (January
27, 2005) caused reader J Hutton to exclaim that author, Aijaz
Ahmad is "trying too hard".
The American forces will be out of Iraq very soon, and then
out of the Muslim world by the time Bush is out of office. It
will happen just as it did in Viet Nam; when things fall apart
they do so acceleratedly. As soon as the Bush administration
grasps that they have been outflanked by the Chinese, and the
Muslims are never going to stop killing the occupation troops
and their collaborators; that the US is going to be cut out of
the global economy while pursuing their militaristic solutions,
the whole effort is going to fold.
The world does not need the US, period. Not the economy, not
the debt, not the murders, not the tortures, not the aid, not
the meddling and posturing, not anything. Bush and his cohorts
have gone too far. It is clear to view, that America has no power
but weapons and the subhuman mentality to use them on any animate
or inanimate life. Make no mistake about it, the world has seen
how the US and Britain have brought out the animality in their
citizens and how easily others have followed.
Europeans have a closer view of the concentration camps of
W.W.II and the Nazi guards; to them the whole US and British
campaign is a repeat of Adolf Hitler. And all this at the time
of the War Crimes trials. Bush et al, had better really be careful,
because it is not beyond imagination that many of them will be
indicted for war crimes. What is more, they all know it.
Send your e-Mail to [email protected].
Thank you very much for your readership and keep writing.
gratefully
acknowledges the following Websites for sending visitors our way:
http://www.buzzflash.com
http://
www.informationclearinghouse.info
http://iraqwar.mirror-world.ru/
http://www.bartcop.com/
http://
membersf.blackplanet.com
http://
www.democraticunderground.com
http://www.cursor.org |
