Project 21: New Visions

If you're a supporter of President Obama, I beg of you to please ask your representatives to start speaking the truth and quit smearing sincere Americans. We've already seen "tea party" activists pooh-poohed and marginalized.  They've even been called racists.  They are just concerned citizens - concerned like our patriotic founders about high taxation and unresponsive government. Likewise, recent health care reform-related protests at town hall meetings across America are not the organized, subsidized "mobs" they are being portrayed as by many reports.  They are moms, dads, veterans, college students, plumbers, painters, senior citizens and other Americans who - unlike ...
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  Playing the Race Card Without a Full Deck by Kevin Martin (bio) It's not surprising that the Obama political machine began playing the race card once the President's policies began to lose popularity. What's surprising is how quickly it happened! Consider Obama's post-racial America as just another broken promise.  Add it to the pile including transparency in government and no new taxes for households earning less than $250,000 a year. People are upset.  The stimulus bill was rammed through Congress without much reading or debate of the bill.  Cap-and-trade legislation punishing people for using gas and coal instead of ...
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Green Hell: The Environmentalist Devil is in the Details by Devon Carlin Americans are bombarded with save-the-earth pleas to reduce their "carbon footprint."  In this latest environmental fad, Americans are urged to alter their lifestyles to combat global warming. Reducing a carbon footprint can entail driving less or buying a hybrid-fuel car, using organic cleaning products or sorting recyclables.  Green crusaders promote wind and solar power as alternatives to natural gas, coal and oil. It all seems simple enough, but it's hardly the whole story.  As Kermit the Frog sings, it's not easy being green. In his latest eye-opening book, ...
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  Special Treatment and Sotomayor by Deneen Borelli (bio) In a recent 5-to-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected race-based employment practices. In Ricci v. DeStefano, all Americans are put on equal footing regardless of race.  But some don't like this situation.  The Ricci case revolves around a 2003 exam that was given to firefighters seeking promotion in New Haven, Connecticut.  After the tests were scored, only two Hispanics and no blacks scored high enough to qualify for promotion. After black and Hispanic activists pushed to have the test results thrown out, the city's Civil Service Commission effectively did so ...
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  Buried Civil Rights Treasures Unearthed in New Texts by Cerere Kihoro (bio) To many, Barack Obama's election marked a new era of race relations - a time when Americans will come closer to resolving the lingering racial issues in politics and society.   Similarly, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech is often considered the catalyst that awakened the passion of freedom-loving, patriotic Americans to embrace genuine colorblindness, equality of opportunity and equality before the law.  After all, is there any doubt that America has - in Dr. King's words - "rise[n] from the dark and ...
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  Race, Police, Courtesy and Respect by Jimmie L. Hollis (bio) Racial profiling made headlines again recently when Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. was arrested by police in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A neighbor reported seeing two men forcing their way into the Gates home.  Gates, arriving back from a trip abroad, had his driver help try to force open a broken door.  Gates' arrest came not from this, but for angrily yelling at the responding officers and suggesting racial bias. All this reminded me of my own past brushes with the law.  Early one July evening in 1964, in Little ...
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Washington, DC - 76% of African-Americans want Congress to make economic recovery, not climate change, its top priority, says a newly-released nationwide poll of African-Americans conducted by the National Center for Public Policy Research. The poll's release comes as the U.S. House of Representatives is planning a Friday vote on the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade climate bill.  The legislation, if adopted, is expected to reduce aggregate GDP by $7.4 trillion in an effort to reduce global warming. The survey of 800 African-Americans, 80% of which were self-identified Democrats and 4% self-identified Republicans, found significant concern that government action on climate change would ...
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  Racism is Not the Cause of Health Disparities by Jeffery Temple (bio) In 2002, a congressionally-commissioned report by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) determined health disparities between whites and minorities were caused by racial bias in America's health care system. For those who see the world through the prism of race, it was a validation.  Dr. Lucille Perez, then president of the race-based National Medical Association, remarked, "It validates what many of us have been saying for so long - that racism is a major culprit in the mix of health disparities and has had a devastating impact on ...
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  The Liberal Version of Harriet Miers by Mychal Massie (bio) Here we go again with all the hubbub over race, sex and ethnicity. I care no more about the sex, ethnicity or life story of President Obama's nominee to replace Justice David Souter than if she is fat, chews gum or has three toes. What I do care about is Sonia Sotomayor's judicial demeanor, temperament and grasp of constitutional law. The Supreme Court is supposed to be the last point of address in our system of justice.  It is paramount that those before it have confidence that they are ...
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Enlightened Intolerance an Enemy of Democracy by Bishop Council Nedd II (bio) Just before last year's elections, I was dismayed to hear police speaking openly at a local restaurant about potential violence no matter who won the White House. Where I live in Central Pennsylvania, racial tension exists beneath everyday civility.  Thankfully, there and across America, the concerns of my local police never materialized.  America elected a black liberal to the presidency without feared "white rage" in "red states." While Obama handily and peacefully won in California, civil unrest occurred due to something else on the ballot - Proposition 8, ...
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Obama Transnationalist Agenda Undermines U.S. Sovereignty by Jeffery Temple (bio) Our nation came about from a rebellion against colonial rule. Now, 233 years after that independence was declared, the Obama Administration is poised to accelerate a trend to once again place Americans under the thumb of foreign authority. President Obama has nominated Yale professor Harold Koh - a self-described "transnationalist" - to be his top legal adviser at the State Department. According to Koh in a 2006 Penn State Law Review article, "Transnationalists believe that U.S. courts can and should use their interpretive powers to promote the development of a ...
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  Raising Taxes By the Mile by Ak'Bar A. Shabazz (bio) During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama endeared himself to many voters with a promise that 95 percent of Americans would get a tax cut and those making under $250,000 "would not see a single dime of tax increase - not on anything." Since Obama won and he's already spent so much, it was only a matter of time before his pledge went by the wayside. First came new taxes on tobacco to pay for middle-class kids' health care. Now Representative James Oberstar (D-MN), chairman of the House Transportation and ...
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Green Trumps Black and White for Television Diversity by Devon Carlin Complaints about a racial "white-out" on television are common, but are they valid? As network executives contemplate fall schedules, they undoubtedly have the concerns of the NAACP on their minds.  The veteran civil rights group recently released "Out of Focus - Out of Sync, Take 4," its latest assessment of network diversity. Analyzing the major broadcast networks between the fall of 2003 and the spring of 2007, the NAACP acknowledges diversity has increased.  This progress is nonetheless derided as marginal. But the measure of diversity seems to be little ...
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Disconnect on Accuracy Doesn't Add Up by Jeffery Temple (bio) Remember how important every vote was in the 2000 election?  Back then, and in subsequent close elections, the message has been that every vote counts. Imagine that those votes were not actually "counted," that government instead estimated the outcomes based on a sample of ballots. Imagine the outcry.  Imagine the potential for abuse. Yet the government is now moving toward doing exactly that during the upcoming 2010 census.  Census data is used to draw congressional districts, make federal spending decisions and apportion the Electoral College.  At issue is the use ...
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  World Peace Comes Through Strength by Ak'Bar A. Shabazz (bio) Imagine if, when local governments meet to create a budget for their police departments, they entertain requests from criminals against buying bulletproof vests and other protective gear. After all, allowing the police to armor-up puts criminals at a disadvantage.  How can crooks succeed if cops can block their bullets? Worse still, imagine the government agreed.  While some lawmakers might commend themselves for saving money or "leveling the playing field," police officers would be left crossing their fingers and hoping they never find themselves outgunned. This obviously doesn't happen - ...
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Anti-Gun Laws Favor Criminals by Mychal Massie (bio) On April 3, three Pittsburgh cops were brutally murdered in the line of duty. Eric Kelly, Stephen Mayhle and Paul Sciullo II were senselessly murdered while responding to a domestic violence call.  Two weeks earlier, four police officers were similarly murdered in Oakland. It's no surprise that, in the aftermath of such brutality, politicians seized upon these horrific acts of the criminally deranged to create more restrictions on gun ownership.  Some anti-gun groups even want an end to private gun ownership altogether. Increasing restrictions on or removing firearms from responsible gun owners ...
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Hurricane Katrina Hypocrisy by Kevin Martin (bio) Since Hurricane Katrina, liberal critics have hung the plight of New Orleans around the neck of former President Bush like an albatross. These critics relentlessly hounded the Bush Administration for its "inadequate" response to Katrina.  So, now that many of these critics run the federal government, one can expect natural disasters to be handled with prompt and effective action, right? No so fast. That opportunity came and went.  The Obama Administration was found to be lacking. When a brutal ice storm crippled several Midwestern states, particularly Kentucky and Arkansas, in January it took ...
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Americans are justifiably distraught over the home foreclosure crisis and the glut of delinquent debt.  They are also upset and perplexed by the capricious nature of the government's rush to rescue the financial institutions central to the problem. It's not a luxury afforded to the average American.  Why are banks being treated differently?  Among businesses, why are banks being treated differently from automakers? As the comedian and social commentator Jon Stewart said about the U.S. Congress:  "[They] won't bail out the people who make cars.  You'll only bail out the people who make car loans.  Not even car loans!  The ...
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Banks pushed risky loans to people who could not afford them.  Homeownership was promoted as a right for all instead of one for those who saved. Since the mortgage bubble burst, leaving many in financial trouble, a lot of anger has been directed at banks and the bankers involved. Lawmakers are worked up in a lather, but this should not remove them from scrutiny.  In the case of Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), criticism of her involvement in one aspect of this crisis is extremely justified. Yet she is playing the race card to defend herself.  That's just wrong. More facts ...
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In July of 1967, Detroit and Newark were bathed in fire and blood.  Anguished and hurt, people in poor and minority communities in these cities had had enough of crippling policies foisted on them by the ruling political establishment.  They stood up and screamed for change. In the collective melees, 66 died, 1,914 were injured and around 8,500 people were arrested. It was an uprising against police brutality.  It was an uprising against poverty.  And it was an uprising against urban renewal and the government's abuse of eminent domain. Meant to acquire land for public projects, eminent domain was used ...
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