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Issue: 76

February 5, 2004

Commentary

The Problem with Al Sharpton

By The Black Commentator Guest Commentator

Rev. Al Sharpton’s race for the Democratic presidential nomination should be considered a resounding success – for just about everyone except the candidate himself. By sheer dint of will and force of personality, Sharpton imposed a vibrant Black presence on the party’s primary process. (Had Sharpton not run, Carol Moseley-Braun would not have been drawn…

Rev. Al Sharpton’s race for the Democratic presidential nomination should be considered a resounding success – for just about everyone except the candidate himself. By sheer…

Continue reading 8 min

Commentary

e-Mailbox: Charting Bush’s”Osama Surprise”and more…. Issue 76

By The Black Commentator Guest Commentator

A generation ago, campaign observers anticipated the “October Surprise” that presidential incumbents might spring to suddenly alter the political landscape just before Election Day. Today, with the media reflexively responsive to the corporate regime in power, manufactured “surprises” can occur at any time. Thus, when thoroughly politicized American generals in Afghanistan announced last week that…

A generation ago, campaign observers anticipated the “October Surprise” that presidential incumbents might spring to suddenly alter the political landscape just before Election Day. Today, with…

Continue reading 27 min

Commentary

Freedom Rider: No More Souls to the Polls

By Margaret Kimberley Guest Commentator

American politicians, of all races, do not know how to address the concerns and needs of black voters without making a mad dash to the church pulpit. The tradition of candidates for county sheriff or President of the United States visiting black churches has become a parody, an insult to the intelligence of black voters,…

American politicians, of all races, do not know how to address the concerns and needs of black voters without making a mad dash to the church…

Continue reading 5 min

Guest Commentary

George W. Bush and Why White Males Love Him

By Reynard N. Blake, Jr Guest Commentator

Whenever this issue of contemporary or preferential treatment for the Negro is raised, some of our friends recoil in horror. The Negro should be granted equality, they agree; but he should ask nothing more. On the surface, this appears reasonable, but it is not realistic. For it is obvious that if a man is entered…

Whenever this issue of contemporary or preferential treatment for the Negro is raised, some of our friends recoil in horror. The Negro should be granted equality,…

Continue reading 8 min

Commentary

Why the Right Hates Public Education

By Barbara Miner

e) Privatization rhetoric can be used to woo African American and Latino voters to the Republican Party. OK, I admit it, the answer’s obvious: all of the above. But in the debates over education policy, the Republican political agenda (see d and e) is often invisible. Occasionally, Republican strategists let the cat out of the…

e) Privatization rhetoric can be used to woo African American and Latino voters to the Republican Party. OK, I admit it, the answer's obvious: all of…

Continue reading 8 min

Commentary

Chump Change for Minority Business

By The Black Commentator Guest Commentator

The following was adapted from the February issue of Online Vanguard, an organ of the Minority Business Enterprise Legal Defense and Education Fund Inc., founded in 1980 by former Congressman Parren J. Mitchell. MBELDEF has obtained from the United States Government a report dated October 30, 2002 that reveals that the NEC-Mitsubishi Corporation is laughing…

The following was adapted from the February issue of Online Vanguard, an organ of the Minority Business Enterprise Legal Defense and Education Fund Inc., founded in…

Continue reading 4 min

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