Oh, yeah! Wells-Fargo Under Investigation

I was dejected the other day after learning that the wealth gap between blacks and whites has widened. With the whole, ignorant debt-ceiling debate, I just wasn't in the mood for bad news.

But finding out Wells-Fargo is indeed being investigated for steering minority customer towards sub-prime loans, even if they qualified for prime rates. It's no secret that the black community has lost billions in wealth due to the bursting of the housing bubble. And Wells has already had to settle with the Federal Reserve. And this isn't the only bank involved in unscrupulous behavior. But learning that the government is gonna do something about this is . . . well, heartening.

Defending the Dream

Just remember, the full name of the 1963 event was the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Dr. King was in Memphis to support the AFSCME Memphis Sanitation Workers' strike.

Defend the Dream Action

Republicans in Congress are holding the middle class hostage—proposing a federal budget that would would cut 700,000 to 1 million jobs from our communities and slash funding to support preschool and college students, pregnant women, unemployed workers, and much more. This isn't a budget, it's a slap in the face to the public workers, services, and institutions making the American Dream possible. We have until the March 18 budget deadline to push Congress in another direction.

Progressives, Your Approval Waiting is Low

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
National Displeasure
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

Stewart puts it nicely. He makes us laugh. Or at least, he makes me laugh. Fair warning: after the jump, I stop laughing.

You'll Thank Me Later

Especially if you've been supporting Republicans without knowing the facts.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Budge This!!

This just in: I'm a genius. Let me at the budget cause I can balance the thang like riding a bike! 25% of the savings I found came in cuts, including cutting our "Cold" War era-military spending. I would've cut the Drug War spending, too, if it were an option. The other 75% came from tax increases, including increases on dividends, capital gains, and reinstating the estate tax.

Listen, when we say the rich aren't paying their "fair share," what we mean is that they use the roads more, and gain more from protection by the military, which is usuually made up of soldiers from lower- and middle-class families. With the exception of the police state of most inner-city neighborhoods, it's their wealth and property the police are most interested in protecting.

Don't worry. You can't getchu some, too. Go to this interactive link via NYTimes and see if you can balance the budget.

It's Not the Economy, Stupid! It's the Stupid!

You can just read my previous post if you haven't already. But the point is, regardless of the fears of the tea pots and kettles, the economy is don't relatively fair. It's not what anyone'd want. It's not what it would've been with a larger stimulus. But the sky isn't falling. At least not for white America. (So black folks, lets start working on our ungrammatical "Boehner Doesn't Care about Poeple" posters for our anti-Republican rallies.) Even conservative economists agree that the stimulus worked. Economists at Heritage and American Enterprise Institute agree raising taxes now would increase revenue. There's no economic value to keeping the Bush tax cuts for the rich.

So, assuming you're neither racist nor stupid even though I think you're both, exactly why are you supporting policies that have never been, and weren't supposed to be, in your economic interests? Quit blaming your stupid voting on the economy. Blame the economy on your stupid.

Just In: Felony Convictions Hurt Employment Opportunities

"Eh, duh," you say. (H/t Tim Wise)

So obviously, I'm hoping to make a point, right.

EAGLE, Colorado — A financial manager for wealthy clients will not face felony charges for a hit-and-run because it could jeopardize his job, prosecutors said Thursday.

Eagle, Colorado? Where have I heard . . . oh, yeah! That's where Kobe Bryant was charged with rape. But surely there must be a different DA. Kobe's case was seven years ago.

One would tend to think so. But . . .

Haddon and Hurlbert have squared off before. Haddon was one of Kobe Bryant's defense attorneys, with lead attorney Pamela Mackey, when Bryant faced sexual assault charges in Eagle County. Hurlbert was the lead prosecutor in that case.

Figure that out and get back to me. No seriously, cause that doesn't make sense. Cents, yes. Sense, no.

Racism in the Recent Forclosure Crisis? Eh, Duh

While other economic studies have concluded that leveraged refinancing, overbuilding, collapsing home prices and a poorly regulated mortgage market were primarily responsible for the rise in foreclosures, the authors of a new Princeton University study argue that the foreclosure crisis also had racial dimensions.

[. . .]

“While policy makers understand that the housing crisis affected minorities much more than others, they are quick to attribute this outcome to the personal failures of those losing their homes — poor credit and weaker economic position,” noted Douglas Massey, the study's other author and a professor at Woodrow Wilson.

“In fact, something more profound was taking place; institutional racism played a big part in this crisis.”The authors call on the federal government to take stronger steps to rid U.S. real estate and lending markets of discrimination via amendment of the Civil Rights Act with enforcement mechanisms to uncover discrimination and sanction those who discriminate. The pair recommends sending "testers" — black and white purchasers into the marketplace to test whether they are treated differently.

I Wasn't Going to Comment on the Sherrod Story

But if you haven't read this, you really should. ~ No1KState

THE REAL STORY OF RACISM AT THE USDA

By Chris Kromm

Facing South - A New Voice for a Changing South The Online
Magazine of the Institute for Southern Studies

July 22, 2010

http://www.southernstudies.org/2010/07/the-real-story-of-racism-at-usda.html

Right now, if you do a web search of the words "racism" and
"USDA," the majority of links will steer you to coverage of
this week's Shirley Sherrod affair, in which the African-
American U.S. Department of Agriculture staffer based in
Georgia resigned after a conservative website reversed the
meaning of a speech she gave last year to imply she would
deny farm loans to whites.

It's an astonishing development given the history of race
relations at the USDA, an agency whose own Commission on
Small Farms admitted in 1998 that "the history of
discrimination at the U.S. Department of Agriculture ... is
well-documented" -- not against white farmers, but African-
American, Native American and other minorities who were
pushed off their land by decades of racially-biased laws and
practices.

The Result of Conservative and Neoliberal Economic Policies

Let's get this drilled into our collective consciences: the economy we're experiencing today started in 1981 (or thereabouts) with the election of Ronald Reagan as president. The crazies who call the unemployed "lazy" and unemployment benefits, that the unemployed have paid into mind you, a disincentive to seeking work - they're just saying what conservatives have said for decades.

And trust me, when trouble starts knocking at your door, you won't mind someone with a "bleeding heart" coming along to help you.

22 Statistics That Prove The Middle Class Is Being Systematically Wiped Out Of Existence In America

Hell, No! They Won't Go!

Reading a Salon article by Glenn Greenwald brought me to this:

“The expectation in Washington is that ‘We can kick you around, and you are still going to give us money,’ ”

Some Truth-telling and Devil Shaming on Haiti

Just thought I'd share this with you.

I imagine a media appealing to millions of indignant citizens who regularly take to the streets and offer solidarity with suffering Haitians – demanding not US military- conducted aid programs (after they have “secured” the areas) but empowerment of Haitians and of themselves. I am dreaming of course – the American dream, which happens only when you’re sleeping.

Bushwhacked, Again!! (Updated)

No new information, just a thought. Isn't it ironic that for all the whining and complaining about liberals using the Courts to push their agenda on the country, that's precisely what conservatives have done.
                                  __________________________________________
If the election of Scott Brown(ie), 'Publican of mASSachusetts, wasn't enough, now this:

By a 5-4 vote, the court on Thursday overturned a 20-year-old ruling that said corporations can be prohibited from using money from their general treasuries to pay for campaign ads.

I am near tears.

See Why We Need Nuts?

Check this out:

Key Democrat Blanche Lincoln To Oppose Employee Free Choice Act, As Is

In what is, perhaps, the most devastating blow yet to the fate of the Employee Free Choice Act, Sen. Blanche Lincoln said on Monday that she will oppose the union-backed legislation.

The Arkansas Democrat, whose home state includes WalMart, one of the major business groups fighting EFCA, announced her decision during a meeting of the Little Rock Political Animals Club.

"I cannot support that bill," Lincoln said, according to Arkansas Business. "Cannot support that bill in its current form. Cannot support and will not support moving it forward in its current form."

Labor forces can ill-afford to lose any Democrats in this legislative battle, given the partisan lines of the EFCA vote in 2007. Already, Sen. Arlen Specter, the lone Senate Republican to vote for cloture on the Employee Free Choice Act back then, has indicated he will oppose cloture if the bill were to be brought up in this Congress.

Lincoln, long considered a crucial Democratic vote on EFCA, was the focus of intense political pressure. Union groups were courting her support while the business community had made her a primary target for defection. Indeed, WalMart hired her former chief of staff for the precise purpose of lobbying on EFCA. Lincoln is up for reelection in 2010.

UPDATE: AFL-CIO spokesperson Eddie Vale says he isn't distraught with the news.

For the next two weeks, thousands of people are participating in hundreds of events across the country in support of the Employee Free Choice Act," he writes. "We're confident that labor law reform is going to pass in 2009. The Employee Free Choice Act is built on 3 fundamental things and we're continuing to talk to Senators to build 60 votes for a bill that stays true to those principles:
o Workers need to have a real choice to form a union and bargain for a better life, free from intimidation

o We have to stop the endless delays; companies can't just stall to stop workers' choice

o There have to be real penalties for violating the law.

Vale also contested my characterization of Lincoln's remarks being a real hit for EFCA proponents saying: "This certainly isn't 'devastating' as you described it, it's political science 101.A bill is introduced and then Congress works through the process of committees, amendments, and debates and 99 out of 100 times the final bill is different from when it started."

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/06/key-democrat-blanche-linc_n_183613.html?view=print

Not-Shop List

Yeah, there's a lot going on, including the ignorance of the 9/12ers. But I decline to give them much more attention than calling them ignorant requires. But here's some ignorance you need to be aware of in California, people saying that would try a pro-white party.

By the by, Kurt Warner is ruining my fantasy score! Urgh!

What I really want to share with you is some info about products being sold in the US that are made with slave labor. The Department of Labor just released a list, and change.org blogged about it.

I Love This President

Update: Click here to send a message to your Congresspeople.

Here's my favorite part of his speech:

It's -- it's worth noting that a strong majority of Americans still favor a public insurance option of the sort I've proposed tonight. But its impact shouldn't be exaggerated by the left or the right or the media. It is only one part of my plan, and shouldn't be used as a handy excuse for the usual Washington ideological battles.

To my progressive friends, I would remind you that for decades, the driving idea behind reform has been to end insurance company abuses and make coverage available for those without it.

The public option -- the public option is only a means to that end, and we should remain open to other ideas that accomplish our ultimate goal.

And to my Republican friends, I say that rather than making wild claims about a government takeover of health care, we should work together to address any legitimate concerns you may have.

For example -- for example, some have suggested that the public option go into effect only in those markets where insurance companies are not providing affordable policies. Others have proposed a co-op or another nonprofit entity to administer the plan.

These are all constructive ideas worth exploring. But I will not back down on the basic principle that, if Americans can't find affordable coverage, we will provide you with a choice.

Here's my favorite part of the Obama plan (pdf):

Immediately offers new, low-cost coverage through a national "high risk"
pool to protect people with preexisting conditions from financial ruin until the new Exchange is created. For those Americans who cannot get insurance coverage today because of a pre-existing condition, the President’s plan will immediately make available coverage without a mark-up due to their health condition. This policy will offer protection against financial ruin until a wider array of choices become available in the new exchange in 2013 (pdf).

And for the Joe Wilsons of the world who want "their" country back, let me say this: It's my country, too.

Here's a link to the late Senator Ted Kennedy's letter. Wow. It's really touching.

More on Van Jones

via, colorofchange.org:

Saturday night, Van Jones resigned from his job as the White House special adviser on Green Jobs.1 Van's resignation came after a vicious smear campaign by Fox television host Glenn Beck, and it is the latest evidence of why our campaign against Beck is so important.

Van is a passionate thinker and leader and we are grateful to him for co-founding ColorOfChange. But this campaign is not about Van. It's about stopping Glenn Beck, who has promised to take his witch-hunt to others in the administration. Beck's overall plan is to create an atmosphere in which the White House can accomplish nothing, and he's carrying it out by preying on race-based fears and mobilizing hate.

The good news is that our campaign is working. More than 175,000 of you have stood up, and advertisers have followed suit. As of today, 62 companies have stopped their ads from running on Beck's show. Every national company with a name you'd recognize is gone. What's left are mostly far-right groups and direct marketing companies selling things like gold coins and discounted exercise equipment.

The reality of Beck's attacks on Van

After we launched this campaign, some bloggers and reporters tried to discredit the effort by claiming that the White House or Van was somehow involved, or that we launched the campaign to protect Van. It's an absurd accusation. Van hasn't worked with ColorOfChange in years, and when we decided to launch the campaign we didn't even know that Beck had attacked him. The reality is that we began our campaign for the same reason 175,000 of you have now joined it: Glenn Beck called the president of the United States a "racist" who "has a deep seated hatred for White people," which is part of a pattern of Beck using lies and distortions to race-bait and fear-monger.2

As Beck started losing advertisers in response to our campaign, he went into full-scale attack mode on Van--exaggerating or distorting his record on 23 shows and devoting an entire segment to discrediting him. Beck presented his attacks on Van as honest journalistic inquiry, while dishonestly failing to mention that Van co-founded the group leading a successful advertiser boycott against him.

But Beck's real goals were clear: Take down Van. Undermine the White House. Set the stage for his followers to say our campaign was about protecting Van. And of course, create a distraction from our campaign and the real reasons major companies are ditching Beck's show.

The problem with Beck

Glenn Beck's show is described as news analysis and commentary, and he claims to be bringing his viewers "the facts"; but his attacks on the President's character, agenda and advisers are anything but news. They are political character assassination of the worst form, relying on dishonesty, distortion, exaggeration, and fear. And Beck has promised to launch more attacks on new targets.3 Our country is facing numerous challenges, including a struggling economy, a climate and energy crisis, and a broken health care system. The media should be promoting thoughtful, rational dialogue about how to solve these problems, not launching dishonest political attacks to distract and divide us.

Our team is working hard to use all the tools at our disposal to take away Beck's platform. In the coming weeks there will be more for you to do. But for now, we ask you to do something simple. If you haven't done so already, please email your friends and family, and ask them to sign on to our campaign against Glenn Beck. There's a message you can send them at the link below:

http://colorofchange.org/beck/passalong.html?id=1756-227036

Thanks and Peace,

-- James, Gabriel, William, Dani and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team
September 9th, 2009

Help support our work. ColorOfChange.org is powered by YOU -- your energy and dollars. We take no money from lobbyists or large corporations that don't share our values, and our tiny staff ensures your contributions go a long way. You can contribute here:

https://secure.colorofchange.org/contribute/?id=1756-227036

References

1. "White House Official Resigns After G.O.P. Criticism," New York Times, 9-06-09
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/07/us/politics/07vanjones.html

2. "Beck caps off week of race-baiting by calling Obama a 'racist'," Media Matters, 7-30-09
http://mediamatters.org/research/200907300019

3. @glennbeck on Twitter, 9-03-09
http://twitter.com/glennbeck/status/3749169499 (You'll have to copy/paste that on your own.)

This Is a Big Loss

Apparently, fringers on the right are celebrating the resignation of Van Jones as "czar" of green jobs. Now, I can't vouch for the article and refuse to cruise through conservative sites, so you'll either have to take my word for it or google yourself.

Here's where I first came across Van Jones. Van Jones is someone who combines economic justice, eco-activism, and racial equality; basically, he promotes green jobs for inner-city residents. The right based their attacks on him, cause basically they attack everything Pres. Obama does, on his early association with communism and his signing some 9/11 "truthers" petition. Now, when it comes to 9/11 . . . I don't want to believe that BushCo would have allowed thousands of Americans to die as a pretext for war. I don't put it past them; and it's certainly clear that if they didn't know, they should've; so, I don't think his signing the petition is something extraordinarily radical. But you know the right. These are people who block nominations because they have questions the agency the nominee will direct hasn't "adequately" answered. That's what David Vitter did to Craig Fugate. Vitter had questions FEMA hadn't adequately answered so he blocked the nomination. Yes, FEMA would be in a better position to answer Vitter's questions if there were a director; so you get my point.

But anyway, Jones' idea was to protect the environment by going green - windmills, solar panels, retro-fitting buildings to make them greener, etc. Doing that involves lots of stuff I'm not adequately informed about to explain to you. Suffice it to say that moving to a green economy would create a lot of jobs that would be difficult to out-source. So there's that.

What's really exciting to me about Jones' idea is that he wants to base the factories and plants in the inner-city!! Wow! Amazing! It's very rare that you find someone who has a vision for killing three birds with one stone. I gotta admit, even I'm not that bright, and we all know I'm incredibly bright!

The third bird? Well. Let's say racism was completely eradicated, but the basics of our social-economy remained the same: there would still be a drag on the black community. This is because of our disproportionate rate of concentrated poverty. Now, I should probably go through everything that's happened that's lead to the situation, but I don't feel up to it. Just . . . understand that the black unemployment rate was around 10% before the bottom fell out of the economy. Some of that is because there're no jobs in the inner-city. So you get concentrated poverty and from concentrated poverty you get high crime rates and high rates of high school drop-outs, etc and so on. Putting jobs in the inner-city would improve the economic outlook of the black community and diffuse a great deal of our social ills.

Don't misunderstand, he's anti-racist, too. But in the absence of more white people catching a clue, his idea would do just, :sigh:, do so much to improve the lives of soooo many people. And I hate that the right won on this. Glen Beck sucks even more than I originally thought, and what I originally thought, er, lets just say it involves a backhanded insult to teenage girls.

Holla dolla! Get at me!

And in International News . . .

I promised awhile back to start adding more of an international flavor to my blog. I haven't kept up with international news as well as I had hoped. But then again, I haven't kept up with national news as well as I had hoped, either.

But, reading this book asking wondering just how stupid are American voters has encouraged me again to try to understand international events as well as the economy. So here we go.

First up, U.S. defender Oguchi Onyewu is suing an Anderlecht player over an alleged racial insult, hoping the case will help eradicate on-field racist abuse in European soccer. You know I'm a big sports fan. When I played basketball, one of the things I was best at was trash talk. I really didn't want to get into the dozens, though. Just more generic, "Wave to the ball. You won't be seeing it while I'm guarding you." Just thinking about it gives me shivers! But including someone's race in your trash talk is less King Jamesian than just the regular "yo mama" joke. It needs to be stopped. Racialized insults and condescension has a history and it cannot be tolerated. I understand it's hard to control the fans; but it should quite easy work to put players in check.

Next up, and last for the edition (LOL!) is: President Hugo Chavez on Tuesday threatened to sanction private banks that fail to collaborate with his government's regulations as it moves toward a socialist economy. Now, you probably think Chavez is a demagogic prick, and I'm actually leaning in that direction. But you can't really question the logic here. His issue, as I understand it, is not private banks earning a profit - that's what banks do. It's how the stay in business and "pay" depositors for use of their money. His problem, as I understand it, is banks making sick amounts of money while regular people suffer. And I think if we in the US had the same sort of courage to tell bankers not to screw us, our economy would be doing a lot better how.

Just Keeping You Informed

"U.S. consumers, Prendergrast said, can also help by pressuring major electronic companies - from Apple to Sony - to certify that cell phones, computers and other products contain "conflict-free minerals," a campaign tactic popularized by the Sierra Leone-based film "Blood Diamonds." "

Rape Crisis in Congo Tied to Mining Activity

Monday 01 June 2009

by: Dominique Soguel Visit article original @ Women's eNews

Washington - Activists concerned by this year's escalation of sexual violence in eastern Congo are trying to turn up the heat on those benefitting - directly or indirectly - from illicit mineral extractions.

"Conflict minerals power our entire electronic industry," John Prendergast, co-founder of the Enough Project, told U.S. senators at a May 13 hearing on sexual violence in eastern Congo and Sudan.

The Enough Project is a Washington-based organization campaigning against genocide and crimes against humanity, including rape in eastern Congo.

Prendergast said that Congo would only have a chance at peace when something is done about the conflict-inducing demands of North America, Asia and Europe.

Eve Ensler, author of "The Vagina Monologues," helped launch an international awareness raising campaign called V-Day in 2007 to end sexual violence in eastern Congo.

UNICEF estimates that hundreds of thousands of girls have been raped in the last decade in the two eastern provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu.

A Single Nightmare

"Corporate greed, fueled by capitalist consumption, and the rape of women have merged into a single nightmare," Eve Ensler said at U.S. Senate hearings on May 13. "Women's bodies are the battleground of an economic war."

Ensler said that international mining companies with significant investments in eastern Congo value economic interest over the bodies of women by trading with rebels who use rape as a tactic of war in areas rich in coltan, gold and tin.

"Military solutions are no longer an option," she said. "All they do is bring about the rape of more women."

The United States has invested more than $700 million in humanitarian aid and peacekeeping to Congo, according to the U.S. Department of State.

Prendergast said this money will do nothing to root out the economic causes of eastern Congo's conflict and sexual violence.

He said a comprehensive long-term strategy to combat rape needs to change the economic calculus of armed groups.

Seeking Conflict-Free Minerals

Prendergast asked senators to support the Congo Conflict Minerals Act, which was introduced by Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback, Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin and Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold in April of this year.

The bill aims to break the link between resource exploitation and armed conflict in eastern Congo by requiring companies trading minerals with Congo or neighboring states to disclose mine locations and monitor the financing of armed groups in eastern Congo's mineral-rich areas.

"The sooner the illicit conflict minerals trade is eliminated, the sooner the people of Congo will benefit from their own resources," said Prendergrast.

U.S. consumers, Prendergrast said, can also help by pressuring major electronic companies - from Apple to Sony - to certify that cell phones, computers and other products contain "conflict-free minerals," a campaign tactic popularized by the Sierra Leone-based film "Blood Diamonds."

Such a process would use a tracking system for components, similar to that developed in 2007 under the Kimberly Process. This international certification scheme ensures that trade in rough diamonds doesn't fuel war, as it did in Angola, Cote d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sierra Leone during the 1990s.

Germany has already developed a pilot fingerprinting system for tin that could be expanded to other minerals and help establish certified trading chains, linking legitimate mining sites to the international market.

--------

Dominique Soguel is Women's eNews Arabic editor.
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