"African American unemployment rates
The black unemployment rate in both the Detroit and Minneapolis metropolitan areas was just over 20% (see Table 4). These were the highest rates for blacks. Washington D.C. had the lowest black metro unemployment rate in 2009, 8.1%. Fourteen of the metro areas had black unemployment rates that exceeded 11.3%. None was less than 7.3%. By contrast, in 11 of the 18 metro areas analyzed for blacks, whites had unemployment rates below 7.3%.
The black-white unemployment ratio was highest in Minneapolis and Memphis. In these metropolitan areas, the black unemployment rate was three times the white rate. In both of these cities the black-white gap was also over 10 percentage points. The black-white ratio was lowest in Detroit, but blacks were still 1.5 times as likely to be unemployed as whites. On average, blacks were twice as likely to be unemployed as whites."
Friday, June 25, 2010
Unemployment And African-American Men : NPR
This story was part of a longer piece by the New York Times reporter Michael Lou, and he joins us in just a moment. But it's worth repeating his focus in these hard times: Black male college graduates are almost twice as likely to be unemployed as their white counterparts. The numbers come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and raise a number of provocative questions."
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Why Obama had to fire Gen. McChrystal
Politics is a funny game. In which one must always be aware of danger. Everyone, well almost everyone, would agree that the President has his hands full. To list everything here would fill up this blog. There is an old adage, "be careful what you wish for," comes to mind. Obama wanted this job so bad, however he is constantly tripping over himself with one political blunder after another.
Obama is a shrewd politician, more strategic then media savvy. The magic for this President happens behind the scenes which can sometimes convey the wrong message. The BP mess was something that he was on top of, despite the appearance the White House portrayed. America is exhausted of the behind the scenes President. American's want a up in your face President. Tell me what your going to do about this? When will this happen? How long will this take? Ok now go get this done, then come back with the next set of problems you promise to tackle.
Business leaderships is defined as: the capacity to establish direction and to influence and align others toward a common goal, motivating and committing them to action and making them responsible for their performance.
The mis-steps that keep happening are things that most political scientist majors know; Command the issue, get out in front of the problem and always keep your pulse on the public sentiment. Obama has been drinking his own Kool-Aid. The assumption that he would be able to move from the senate to the White House and everyone would just fall in line and follow his lead is just plain stupid thinking. The Republicans have managed to make this President look like a political novice and the BP mess is now bearing fruit.
When 9/11 happen Bush needed to do something that would give the impression that he was in charge, that he was the leader of the free world. So, an opportunity to go to war in Afghanistan and attack al qaeda then Iraq gave that perception.
With the Health Care debacle you would think that Obama would have been a little quicker on the uptake. Obama was a professor, I can only imagine what kind of nightmare that was for students and supporting staff. It is my understanding that Obama is a big delagator. Delegation is good with the appropriate amount of follow-up.
The Rolling Stone interview manage to do several things:
1- undermine the President
2- Questions the people he appoints to important positions
3- Exit strategy for July 2011 from Afghanistan
4- is the plan working? what is the plan?
Gen. McChrystal was a lose cannon from the start, clearly the article makes that point crystal clear. One cannot help but think why was this guy drinking and speaking so freely, clearly he had an agenda about why he was telling this writer these things.
Obama had no choice, Gen. McChrystal forced his hand. Obama needed to show leadership in a big way, and it needed to be fast and swift.
Obama is a shrewd politician, more strategic then media savvy. The magic for this President happens behind the scenes which can sometimes convey the wrong message. The BP mess was something that he was on top of, despite the appearance the White House portrayed. America is exhausted of the behind the scenes President. American's want a up in your face President. Tell me what your going to do about this? When will this happen? How long will this take? Ok now go get this done, then come back with the next set of problems you promise to tackle.
Business leaderships is defined as: the capacity to establish direction and to influence and align others toward a common goal, motivating and committing them to action and making them responsible for their performance.
The mis-steps that keep happening are things that most political scientist majors know; Command the issue, get out in front of the problem and always keep your pulse on the public sentiment. Obama has been drinking his own Kool-Aid. The assumption that he would be able to move from the senate to the White House and everyone would just fall in line and follow his lead is just plain stupid thinking. The Republicans have managed to make this President look like a political novice and the BP mess is now bearing fruit.
When 9/11 happen Bush needed to do something that would give the impression that he was in charge, that he was the leader of the free world. So, an opportunity to go to war in Afghanistan and attack al qaeda then Iraq gave that perception.
With the Health Care debacle you would think that Obama would have been a little quicker on the uptake. Obama was a professor, I can only imagine what kind of nightmare that was for students and supporting staff. It is my understanding that Obama is a big delagator. Delegation is good with the appropriate amount of follow-up.
The Rolling Stone interview manage to do several things:
1- undermine the President
2- Questions the people he appoints to important positions
3- Exit strategy for July 2011 from Afghanistan
4- is the plan working? what is the plan?
Gen. McChrystal was a lose cannon from the start, clearly the article makes that point crystal clear. One cannot help but think why was this guy drinking and speaking so freely, clearly he had an agenda about why he was telling this writer these things.
Obama had no choice, Gen. McChrystal forced his hand. Obama needed to show leadership in a big way, and it needed to be fast and swift.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Friday, June 4, 2010
Racial profiling meet Ethnic profiling
When I think about the Holocaust, outside of the gruesome images of people being mistreated and killed, I'm sure everyone would agree that these were outrages acts against humanity. The horrifying image that always comes to mind is those arm bands affixed to their shirts. The Nazis used triangular badges or patches to identify prisoners in the concentration camps. Different colored patches represented different groups. The Nazi holocaust begun with enemies of the state who were slowly segmented out and and removed from society.
Now, fast-forward to what's happening in the state of Arizona passing a new law that is asking law officials to look for illegal immigrants that my be in United States illegally. Stopping individuals that look like, could be or not sure, to carry documents that say they are in this country legally. So basically anyone of Mexican descent has now become an enemy in the state of Arizona.
Legislators make the laws. Police Officers enforce the laws. However, with a law like this who is watching to ensure that we all have the same equal protections under the law? This law gives Police Officers the legal right to ethnically profile individuals! How could legislators believe that creating a Police State is the most prudent and effective way to enforce this law? How? Being a minority in United States is hard enough now extending and making law the right to question individuals the could "possibly be" illegal is outrageous.
Imagine a Police Officer entering a local restaurant in the fascist State of Arizona. When he enters he sees three families. One family is white, another is black and the other family is of course of some Mexican descent. More than likely under the provisions of this new law he will no doubt observe the Mexican family the most, make them feel as uncomfortable as he can and then eventually he will stop them, first.
Who wants to live the Cooper state? Not me. The constant harassment and compromising of ones civil liberties being violated just attempting to go to the movie on a Friday night. Another unknown factor is not knowing what personal biases the Police officer may harbor. Anyone who appears to be Mexican descent. Anyone who looks like they could be be and illegal immigrant can be stopped. Now, legal citizens are being forced to basically live underground in some George Orwell like Police state. Nice!
A police report was released at the end of April regarding the use of Force by the Michigan Police Department (MPD). The 20 page documented that 76% of the subjects in the report were black. Furthermore, In 2009, MPD officers conducted 27,270 subject stops and 53 of them involved the use of force. As one would expect, there were more subject stops conducted in the summer months than in the winter months. There were, on average, 515 subject stops for each stop that involved the use of force (27,270 / 53 = 515). what is troubling is that we all know this is happening what will happen in a State that Police Officers are ethnically profiling individuals.
Maybe they should assign an arm band to citizens who have a legal right to be here!
Oh, yeah, that did not work in Germany, maybe it will work in Arizona.
VBVP: Who represents your local District? Who represents and protects your rights and issues you care about?
Thursday, December 17, 2009
The Revenge of the Spurned
Connecticut liberal voters played a dangerous game by turning on Lieberman in 2006, successfully pushing him off of the Democratic bus, but he surprised them by winning the general election and taking back his place in the senate.
This shows how an active and charged activist base can undermine the cause of a party and drag it from its center of gravity. Now that Senator Lieberman is effectively on his own, he has far more power to influence legislation than anyone else in the Senate. He reminded us of this fact this week.
At this point, with liberals actively jumping ship and Howard Dean and the White House taking pot shots at each other through the press, it's going to take more than a Beer (Egg Nog?) summit to restore unity in the party.
My observation is that Obama will be assigned the role of scapegoat, and be given the burden of this failure to carry alone into the desert.
But it doesn't need to be this way. What is amazing about the relationship between Obama and Lieberman is that Lieberman is actively assuming the role that Obama campaigned on. In reality, it doesn't matter WHAT the U.S. Congress comes up with for legislation, because if Obama doesn't sign it into law then it's all wasted time and breath anyway. Lieberman is playing obstructionist, but the Office of the President is the ultimate obstruction in passing legislation.
Obama would do well to take a lesson from Lieberman in courting the center. Lieberman knows that the current legislation in the senate is so compromised that it will never pass. The Democrats climbed the burning ladder of their agenda all summer and fall, but nobody paid attention to the true power center, the base of each party, which is the Main Street Independent voter. When the crushing 10.2% unemployment figures came in for October, everyone had to face reality with respect to the failures of their bailout policy for the last 18 months.
Since assuming power in 2006, the Democratic Congress has done nearly nothing to improve the lot of regular people who live on Main Street, USA. Petty infighting and executive ambitions, compounded with a grueling 2 year presidential election battle, have distracted them from their center of gravity. They have lost their presence of mind.
What Obama should do is move more closely to the center. He should force the Democrats to play his game, or to be absolutely useless for the next two years. Instead of asking them for what he wants, he ought to make it clear what HE refuses to sign into legislation, and to frame the boundaries of the debate. He should do this in a way that unilaterally reaches across both isles, as Senator Lieberman has done.
Frankly, Lieberman may have consigned a flawed, broken, compromised, worthless bill that gives millions to insurance agencies, does nothing to force innovation and competition in the national market, to the dustbin of history. Obama's term is fresh yet, and he can reorient his focus on job growth, putting Joe the Independent on the inside track. In time, we might even see more defectors from the ideological wings of each party, and have senators such as Olympia Snowe take a page from Senator Lieberman's book.
But it's a shame that Obama doesn't wield the power of the pen and force his party to come to the table and court his favor for a change. If he makes it clear what his standards are, and if he does not succumb to the "legislation at any cost" fever that is so typical of the beltway, he might find his liberation in Senator Lieberman's example.
This shows how an active and charged activist base can undermine the cause of a party and drag it from its center of gravity. Now that Senator Lieberman is effectively on his own, he has far more power to influence legislation than anyone else in the Senate. He reminded us of this fact this week.
At this point, with liberals actively jumping ship and Howard Dean and the White House taking pot shots at each other through the press, it's going to take more than a Beer (Egg Nog?) summit to restore unity in the party.
My observation is that Obama will be assigned the role of scapegoat, and be given the burden of this failure to carry alone into the desert.
But it doesn't need to be this way. What is amazing about the relationship between Obama and Lieberman is that Lieberman is actively assuming the role that Obama campaigned on. In reality, it doesn't matter WHAT the U.S. Congress comes up with for legislation, because if Obama doesn't sign it into law then it's all wasted time and breath anyway. Lieberman is playing obstructionist, but the Office of the President is the ultimate obstruction in passing legislation.
Obama would do well to take a lesson from Lieberman in courting the center. Lieberman knows that the current legislation in the senate is so compromised that it will never pass. The Democrats climbed the burning ladder of their agenda all summer and fall, but nobody paid attention to the true power center, the base of each party, which is the Main Street Independent voter. When the crushing 10.2% unemployment figures came in for October, everyone had to face reality with respect to the failures of their bailout policy for the last 18 months.
Since assuming power in 2006, the Democratic Congress has done nearly nothing to improve the lot of regular people who live on Main Street, USA. Petty infighting and executive ambitions, compounded with a grueling 2 year presidential election battle, have distracted them from their center of gravity. They have lost their presence of mind.
What Obama should do is move more closely to the center. He should force the Democrats to play his game, or to be absolutely useless for the next two years. Instead of asking them for what he wants, he ought to make it clear what HE refuses to sign into legislation, and to frame the boundaries of the debate. He should do this in a way that unilaterally reaches across both isles, as Senator Lieberman has done.
Frankly, Lieberman may have consigned a flawed, broken, compromised, worthless bill that gives millions to insurance agencies, does nothing to force innovation and competition in the national market, to the dustbin of history. Obama's term is fresh yet, and he can reorient his focus on job growth, putting Joe the Independent on the inside track. In time, we might even see more defectors from the ideological wings of each party, and have senators such as Olympia Snowe take a page from Senator Lieberman's book.
But it's a shame that Obama doesn't wield the power of the pen and force his party to come to the table and court his favor for a change. If he makes it clear what his standards are, and if he does not succumb to the "legislation at any cost" fever that is so typical of the beltway, he might find his liberation in Senator Lieberman's example.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
I wanted to wait until after all the numbers had come in to talk about the recent elections. Many are saying that the election results are the beginning of the end for Obama. The Republicans have pushed out their talking heads prematurely claiming a shift in their favor. Remember, the devil is always in the details. The devil in this case are the numbers, the voters, who showed up to vote. The exit polling is problematic for both Republicans and Democrats.
VIRGINIA NUMBERS:(CNN Exit Polling)
24% Health Care reform concerns
15% Taxes
7% Transportation issues-Local
56% Obama NOT a factor
10% was 18-29 and Republicans captured 54% for their vote
10% Turn out of African-American Voters !!- This is awful
18% Stated that their vote was in support of President
24% stated that their vote was in opposition of the President
51% Current Presidents approval ratings...same if and close to election day a year ago.
Democratic candidate (Deeds) was behind 10% points prior to elections.
Deeds had flip-flopped on a tax question and had a poor performance at the debates.
Historical trend in Governors seat; has changed after every election since Clinton to the opposite party that just won the White House. This happen with Bush -43 also.
NEW JERSEY:
26% Property Taxes-Local
20% Corruption -Local
9% age 18-29 and Republicans Captured 36% of their vote
60% of Independent voters supported Republican Christie
14% Turn out of African-American Voters!! This is awful
19% Stated that their vote was in support of President
20% stated that their vote was in opposition of the President
57% Current Presidents approval ratings...same if and close to election day a year ago.
Democratic Candidate (Corzine) Approval ratings was in the low 30-40 since Mid 2008. The state had many financial problems and high property taxes.
The election results in these to states were clearly known prior to election night and not unforeseen. The change was more determined by local issues and not the President.
However, there are lessons to be learned for both Parties. First, the Democrats need to pay attention to how the Independents voters voted. It appears that they are basically putting the Democrats' on a verbal warning, things need to get better or we will take your power away. Democrats need to show the Independent voters that they did not make a mistake in 2008 and that you can work together, turn the economy around, create jobs and pass health care reform. Democrats, you will not be successful at mid-term elections if you cannot get the young voters to turnout as well as people of color your mid-term election hopes are damned. Your future lies with them, don't forget that!!
Secondly, the Republicans need to find a National Leader other than Rush Limbaugh. If you are going to play obstructionist you need to find and articulate spokesperson that at a minimum can state what you want to do for the nation instead of what you don't like about Obama. We are willing to follow (almost) anyone who can effectively lead us out of this mess. While keeping in mind how we actually got here!
VIRGINIA NUMBERS:(CNN Exit Polling)
24% Health Care reform concerns
15% Taxes
7% Transportation issues-Local
56% Obama NOT a factor
10% was 18-29 and Republicans captured 54% for their vote
10% Turn out of African-American Voters !!- This is awful
18% Stated that their vote was in support of President
24% stated that their vote was in opposition of the President
51% Current Presidents approval ratings...same if and close to election day a year ago.
Democratic candidate (Deeds) was behind 10% points prior to elections.
Deeds had flip-flopped on a tax question and had a poor performance at the debates.
Historical trend in Governors seat; has changed after every election since Clinton to the opposite party that just won the White House. This happen with Bush -43 also.
NEW JERSEY:
26% Property Taxes-Local
20% Corruption -Local
9% age 18-29 and Republicans Captured 36% of their vote
60% of Independent voters supported Republican Christie
14% Turn out of African-American Voters!! This is awful
19% Stated that their vote was in support of President
20% stated that their vote was in opposition of the President
57% Current Presidents approval ratings...same if and close to election day a year ago.
Democratic Candidate (Corzine) Approval ratings was in the low 30-40 since Mid 2008. The state had many financial problems and high property taxes.
The election results in these to states were clearly known prior to election night and not unforeseen. The change was more determined by local issues and not the President.
However, there are lessons to be learned for both Parties. First, the Democrats need to pay attention to how the Independents voters voted. It appears that they are basically putting the Democrats' on a verbal warning, things need to get better or we will take your power away. Democrats need to show the Independent voters that they did not make a mistake in 2008 and that you can work together, turn the economy around, create jobs and pass health care reform. Democrats, you will not be successful at mid-term elections if you cannot get the young voters to turnout as well as people of color your mid-term election hopes are damned. Your future lies with them, don't forget that!!
Secondly, the Republicans need to find a National Leader other than Rush Limbaugh. If you are going to play obstructionist you need to find and articulate spokesperson that at a minimum can state what you want to do for the nation instead of what you don't like about Obama. We are willing to follow (almost) anyone who can effectively lead us out of this mess. While keeping in mind how we actually got here!
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