Those are not churches, those are corporations masquerading as churches for the tax benefits. Investigate all of them.

An Open Letter
To TAVIS SMILEY
by: Sheila Price

Dear Mr. Smiley,

I would like to start out by saying that I am a 45 year old white middle class library professional. I am also a great admirer of yours and listen regularly to your television show and radio broadcasts. I have a lifetime of experiences watching the inequality and lack of empowerment suffered by our African American community and as a result of this I have a deep empathy and passion for the struggles of black people.

I felt compelled to write to you concerning not only your lack of endorsement for Barack Obama, but also what appears to be somewhat of a negative doubt-raising tone concerning Barack Obama. I must say I am absolutely shocked and amazed that you, one of the leading African American “thinkers” of contemporary culture, not to mention a significant role model for black youths, would even consider not endorsing Barack Obama for president let alone raise doubts about his competency.

With all due respect Mr.Smiley, it is because I have read your “Covenant with Black America” that I care so deeply for what appears to be a serious contradiction between what you stand for and what you are communicating to the public regarding your lack of support and empowerment for one of, if not the only, seriously credible candidate for President of the United States. I’m especially concerned about the message that sends to the African American youth of today. Surely, you, being a highly intelligent and competant man, are able to easily find the vast amount of information out there concerning Barack Obama’s exceptional experience and extremely respectable character not to mention his very effective and credible plans for the future of our country.

One only has to visit the Barack Obama website to find these things out or read one of his books or one of the books written about him. Yesterday was an historic day for our nation, for all of our nation, but especially so for our African American population when the Kennedy’s stood side by side with Barack Obama at his rally in Washington DC. This was an extremely powerful endorsement for Barack and a source of great pride for African Americans. It is with sincerity and urgency that I implore you Mr.Smiley to stand tall with us for Barack Obama.

The time is now for the blinders to come off and to cast off the seeds of doubt. Barack Obama is not only the best candidate for the job of President of the United States, white or black, he is the best person to realize the ideals you put forth in your “Covenant with Black America”. I’m not sure what the underlying reasons for your lack of support have been. I would be very interested to hear from you regarding them so that we could dispel any further doubt together. Because that’s what Barack stands for, bringing people together to gain a better understanding of eachother and to demolish fear and hatred.

Thank you for the opportunity to communicate with you. I look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.

Sincerely,
Sheila Price
Cleveland, Ohio

From a http://www.Blacks4Barack.org commenter

Let’s take a closer look at who’s really qualified and or who’s really working for the good of all of us in the Senate. Obama or Clinton.

Senator Clinton, who has served only one full term – 6yrs. – and another year campaigning, has managed to author and pass into law – 20 – twenty pieces of legislation in her first six years.

These bills can be found on the website of the Library of Congress http://www.thomas.loc.gov, but to save you trouble, I’ll post them here for you.

1. Establish the Kate Mullany National Historic Site.

2. Support the goals and ideals of Better Hearing and Speech Month.

3. Recognize the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.

4. Name courthouse after Thurgood Marshall.

5. Name courthouse after James L. Watson.

6. Name post office after Jonn A. O’Shea.

7. Designate Aug. 7, 2003, as National Purple Heart Recognition Day.

8. Support the goals and ideals of National Purple Heart Recognition Day.

9. Honor the life and legacy of Alexander Hamilton on the bicentennial of his death.

10. Congratulate the Syracuse Univ. Orange Men’s Lacrosse Team on winning the championship.

11. Congratulate the Le Moyne College Dolphins Men’s Lacrosse Team on winning the championship.

12. Establish the 225th Anniversary of the American Revolution Commemorative Program.

13. Name post office after Sergeant Riayan A. Tejeda.

14. Honor Shirley Chisholm for her service to the nation and express condolences on her death.

15. Honor John J. Downing, Brian Fahey, and Harry Ford, firefighters who lost their lives on duty. Only five of Clinton’s bills are, more substantive.

16. Extend period of unemployment assistance to victims of 9/11.

17. Pay for city projects in response to 9/11 18. Assist landmine victims in other countries.

19. Assist family caregivers in accessing affordable respite care.

20. Designate part of the National Forest System in Puerto Rico as protected in the wilderness preservation system.

There you have it, the fact’s straight from the Senate Record
Now, I would post those of Obama’s, but the list is too substantive, so I’ll mainly categorize.
During the first – 8 – eight years of his elected service he sponsored over 820 bills. He introduced

233 regarding healthcare reform,

125 on poverty and public assistance,

112 crime fighting bills,

97 economic bills,

60 human rights and anti-discrimination bills,

21 ethics reform bills,

15 gun control,

6 veterans affairs and many others.

His first year in the U.S. Senate, he authored 152 bills and co-sponsored another 427. These included **the Coburn-Obama Government Transparency Act of 2006 – became law, **The Lugar-Obama Nuclear Non-proliferation and Conventional Weapons Threat Reduction Act, – became law, **The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act, passed the Senate, **The 2007 Government Ethics Bill, – became law, **The Protection Against Excessive Executive Compensation Bill, In committee, and many more.

In all, since entering the U.S. Senate, Senator Obama has written 890 bills and co-sponsored another 1096.

An impressive record, for someone who supposedly has no record according to some who would prefer that this comparison not be made public.

He’s not just a talker. He’s a doer. Pass it on….It’s impressive

I wonder what job she offered him…

What we NEED to do is keep an eye on all these sell-out fools and make sure the elected officials end up as greeters at Walmart… like Al Wynn who voters forcefully replaced during the potomac primaries. As for Tavis… I think he will get the picture when those ratings start droppin and he can’t GIVE a book away.

nuff said.

There is no reason for Obama to walk into the trap that is Tavis Smiley’s bullshit marketing conference (sponsored by McDonald’s, Walmart, etc.) The primary result of those conferences have been book sales for Tavis Smiley and perhaps a few cruise ship tickets for Tom Joyner’s Fantastic Voyage.

It is NOT pertinent for Obama to show up to this thing to appeal to MOST black people.

I think Hillary may have accepted the invitation to Smiley’s show only because she thought Obama would be there. Now she’s pressuring Smiley to make sure Obama shows up so she doesn’t sit there alone looking dumb. That’s not Obama’s problem, IMHO.

Yeah, right. Hillary Clinton has turned down SOTBU in the past too. She’s only going because she, her husband, Bob Johnson, Andrew Young and other surrogates screwed up South Carolina for her and the Negroes fled.

The SOTBU will turn out to be a Hillary Hankerchief Head Conference because the Negroes present will NOT challenge her and WILL GO OUT OF THEIR WAY to avoid making her feel uncomfortable.

If Obama’s calendar is really open on the 23rd (the campaign does not make every date public) then maybe he and Michelle can catch a breather and spend some quality time together.

About a week ago we started seeing references in the national media (ABC, New York Times, L.A. Times) to Mr. Obama spawning a “cult of personality” — a theme that had existed in Illinois for some time but mysteriously didn’t substantially appear in the national media until about Super Tuesday. The maxim in political strategy is always go at your opponent’s strength.

If you turn him on that, the battle is over. So, the cult of personality perfectly targets his strength: That Mr. Obama has a wonderful personality. The Clintons (presumably) are suggesting, in effect, that he may be delectable, but he’s not electable. That it is unhealthy to adore a leader — undemocratic, in fact.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080213/EDITORIAL/381006128

contrarian purists like xenophon will never be satisfied. he probably voted for nader.

what was the elitist “mayflower” quip for? nobody cares about your pedigree.

Obama doesn’t need to discuss policy with Hillary on Smiley’s show Feb 23rd, between the first and second debate with her.

I think Hillary may have accepted the invitation to Smiley’s show only because she thought Obama would be there. Now she’s pressuring Smiley to make sure Obama shows up so she doesn’t sit there alone looking dumb. That’s not Obama’s problem, IMHO.

Reason #1: OHio
Reason #2: TeXas
Reason #3: Polls that show *O* slightly behind Billary in both states.

*O* needs to be in TX with a sombrero on his head, hollering “Si se puede!” until March 4th arrives.

@Xenophon, thanks for instigating this debate. You think that Obama is, “dismissing a portion of the constituency on which his success depends,” and what’s interesting to me is that I DO NOT FEEL DISMISSED at all…but i’m an AA who has an income that exceeds the poverty level.

Why does *O* have to specifically target AA poverty to make you happy? Why does *O* have to be the “black” candidate for you as opposed to being the “universal” candidate? There are poor caucasians and latinos in this country who need support as much as AAs…should they be ignored too?

There are more NON-AAs on welfare than AAs…it’s the Republicans who have traditionally equated being poor to being black…and thus exploited that racist premise to win elections.

“Even though I normally wouldn’t do this (I find something vulgar about violating the sanctity of the voting booth). I have a state that allocates the electoral votes to the winner of the majority of popular votes in the caucus. So yes. I will vote (in spite of the unsecure electronic machines). I cannot vote for president (a little thing like the Constitution of the United States prevents that – me not being an elector and all). I will vote in the caucus for electoral votes (I suggest you have your state adopt a similar procedure). And finally, I will vote for His Lord and Glory Barack. May Big Pimpin’ rule forever.”

I live in Maine. We elect our 4 electors proportionally. Well, sort of. But that’s another story…

I abhor the Electoral College.

Even though I normally wouldn’t do this (I find something vulgar about violating the sanctity of the voting booth). I have a state that allocates the electoral votes to the winner of the majority of popular votes in the caucus. So yes. I will vote (in spite of the unsecure electronic machines). I cannot vote for president (a little thing like the Constitution of the United States prevents that – me not being an elector and all). I will vote in the caucus for electoral votes (I suggest you have your state adopt a similar procedure). And finally, I will vote for His Lord and Glory Barack. May Big Pimpin’ rule forever.

Now, why does that matter?

Some of us have read all the material, understand it and still have questions. Some of us our serious about our democratic system and participation in it. Some of us play to win. So when an employee of mine tells me he has better things to do than worry about my vote …

Does that exempt him from answering questios about his platform? Does it prevet him from better articualting and integrating his information, especialy if it’s online? Since he hasn’t passed very many bills its kind of hard to figure out which pieces of legislation he is refering to or intended to refer to. Sometimes the details matter.

what threat?!?

Breath, chill …

In terms of political strategy, yes, I totally agree, Identity politics is long dead. If I had to hear another people of color remark I’d gag. But if “post racial” were to mean, as some take it to mean, color blind I have to object. I don’t want to be colorless. I don’t want it to be ignored. I don’t want to be homogenized into some mutant form of latte drinking yuppie. My culture has served me well and the people who participate in it are dear to me. (Notice never a word about race). I think the process, the democratic one in which we are so passionately engaged, can handle me not thinking very much of the Pilgrims or any of the colonist that invaded America so long as we abide by the rules of the constitution. They can also hadle me questioning a public servant for dismissing a portion of the constituency on which his success depends. He may not win without Texas; he absolutely will not win without the black vote. We can agree to disagree. We can argue over the issues of allocation of wealth and methods of determining need within the framework of our civil society. That way the cultural identity of Blackness isn’t reduced to the experience of slavery and racism. Racism is a symptom secondary to exploitation. Let’s end the exploitation and then, I think, racism will be rather easy to relegate to the past.

“BTW, if anybody other than the Electoral College voted to elect a president, I would vote for … Barack.”

Does that mean you aren’t going to vote at all? Or you’re going to vote for the candidate you think the Electoral College is going to vote for? And if so, who’s that?