BLACK REPUBLICAN: National Black Republican Association E-News

Celebrating School Choice Week

2012-01-24T10:48:00.001-05:00

CELEBRATING SCHOOL CHOICE WEEK

The following is an excerpt from an article by The Heritage Foundation. To view the complete article, click here.

________________________________

Morning Bell: Celebrating School Choice Week

By Mike Brownfield

What singular cause could bring together the likes of Democratic campaign strategist James Carville, Republican Governor Bobby Jindal (LA), actor Sacha Baron Cohen, and 2,000 families, all under one roof? The answer: school choice -- empowering parents with the ability to save their children from failing schools, thereby giving them a shot at a brighter future.

Those big names came together to kick off National School Choice Week in New Orleans over the weekend, a celebration that is being echoed in some 400 events across the country in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, with half the nation's governors declaring "School Choice Week" in their states. Actor, comedian, and education advocate Bill Cosby offered his support for school choice, as well: "I strongly support National School Choice Week because all children in America should be able to access the best schools possible. We have a moral and societal obligation to give our children the opportunity to succeed in school, at work, and in life. We cannot meet that obligation unless parents are empowered to select the best schools of their children. I encourage everyone who wants to see a transformation of American education to get involved in National School Choice Week."

The groundswell of support comes after a year of significant strides in the school choice movement. A total of 12 states and the District of Columbia either enacted or expanded school choice options in 2011. Heritage education expert Lindsey Burke explains that last year, "more families than ever before gained access to school choice options, freeing them from assignment-by-zip code policies that often relegate families to the public school closest to their home, regardless of whether it meet their child's needs." As a result, more families have access to school choice options -- including vouchers, tax credits, homeschooling, online learning, and even education savings accounts.

That expansion of school choice came after what appeared to be ominous news for some of America's schoolchildren in 2009 and 2010. In Washington, D.C., home to some of the country's most dangerous and under-performing schools, families of low-income children received vouchers through the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, giving them a chance to choose a brighter educational future. That light of hope, though, was about to be extinguished when Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) inserted a provision in a 2009 spending bill that would have ended the program. That changed, though, when the Tea Party revolution came to Congress, bringing with it a new movement toward school choice. In early 2011, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) successfully fought for the reauthorization of the D.C. scholarship program, ensuring that those families continued to have a choice in education.

The opportunities those children enjoy provide an example for the rest of the country. Heritage president Ed Feulner explains why school choice -- and improving education in America -- is such a central issue for our country's future: "There are many good public schools across this country with dedicated teachers who deserve praise. Unfortunately, there also are many bad schools, especially in urban areas. When you consider the damage those institutions inflict, making it nearly impossible for students to learn and fulfill their potential, you realize it's nothing short of a national crime. That's why it's so heartening to see the school-choice movement gaining ground."

You Can Help The NBRA

2012-01-17T14:13:00.001-05:00

DONATE TO THE NATIONAL BLACK REPUBLICAN ASSOCIATION

Dear NBRA Supporters:

The groundwork for victory in 2012 must be laid today. We must act now to take back the White House and make Barack Obama a one-term president!

To defeat Barack Obama and the Democrat Party, we Republicans must accomplish this one very important goal – win just 25% of the black vote. That's it. Win 25% of the black vote and we'll beat the Democrats and put an end to Obama's job killing agenda FOREVER.

But how do we win 25% of the black vote? Despite what you've heard from the liberal media, on issue after issue, most black voters favor conservative policies – not liberal ones. They are unhappy about the nearly 17% black unemployment caused by Obama's failed big government policies. They do not support higher taxes, bailouts for Obama's cronies and his out-of-control spending that's produced a massive debt that will crush our economy. For middle class blacks, voting their values NOW means voting Republican. A recent poll showed that Obama's approval rating among black voters has dropped by 20%, an amazing statistic which means Obama is, indeed, exceptionally vulnerable in the black community. That's why we must immediately gear up and put into action our NBRA 2012 VICTORY PLAN to educate and bring these black voters back to the Party of Lincoln.

We must take our conservative Republican message directly to black voters and black church and community leaders – through black voter outreach with our NBRA Civil Rights Newsletter and using ads on radio, TV and in black newspapers. We must battle Obama and the Democrat Party step by step until we've countered their divisive, race-baiting rhetoric, broadcast our conservative message and won 25% of the black vote. There's no doubt about it – we have some hard work cut out for us.

I think you see how our 2012 VICTORY PLAN will pull the rug out from under Obama and the Democrat Party. That's why I'm asking for your very best gift – at least $25 – and that you rush it to me immediately. Your contribution now will make a tremendous difference in stopping Barack Obama and the Democrats from turning our country into a failed socialist nation, going the way of Greece and the rest of Europe.

You can help pay the cost of printing and shipping the materials with donations in any amount by check or money order made payable to the National Black Republican Association and sent to:

National Black Republican Association
4594 Chase Oaks Drive
Sarasota, FL 34241-9183

or via PayPal, click here. Look for the PayPal donate button at the bottom of the page.

The NBRA is an IRS Section 501(c)4 organization. Donations are not tax deductible.

Thank you in advance for your assistance with this important endeavor at this crucial time in our nation's history.

Warm regards,

Frances Rice
Chairman
National Black Republican Association

MLK Fought For Civil Rights And Against Democrats

2012-01-14T23:26:00.001-05:00

MLK FOUGHT FOR CIVIL RIGHTS AND AGAINST DEMOCRATS

By Frances Rice

As we honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., let us pause to reflect on who he was and why his struggle to obtain civil rights for black Americans was necessary.

First, Dr. King was a Republican until the day he died because he knew that the Republican Party, from its founding in 1854 as the anti-slavery party, championed freedom and civil rights for blacks. For details on the history of civil rights, see the NBRA Civil Rights Newsletter posted on the NBRA's website.

Second, the nemesis of Dr. King's valiant and historic campaign to end discrimination and gain equality for blacks was the Democratic Party, the party of slavery, segregation and the Ku Klux Klan. Led by the former Senator and Klansman Robert Byrd, Democrats launched a despicable crusade to smear and undermine Dr. King. This relentless disparagement of Dr. King resulted in his being physically assaulted and ultimately to his tragic death.

When Dr. King left Memphis, Tennessee in March of 1968 after riots broke out where a teenager was killed, Byrd called Dr. King a "trouble-maker" who starts trouble, but runs like a coward after trouble is ignited. A few weeks later, Dr. King returned to Memphis and was assassinated on April 4, 1968.

Prior to his death, Democrats bombed Dr. King's home several times. The scurrilous efforts by the Democrats to harm Dr. King included spreading rumors that he was a Communist and accusing him of being a womanizer and a plagiarist.

An egregious act against Dr. King occurred on October 10, 1963. Democrat President John F. Kennedy authorized his brother, Democrat Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, to wiretap Dr. King's telephone using the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Wiretaps were placed by the FBI on Dr. King's telephones in his home and office. The FBI also bugged Dr. King's hotel rooms when he traveled around the country.

The trigger for this unsavory wiretapping was apparently Dr. Kings' criticism of President Kennedy for ignoring civil rights issues, according to the author David Garrow in his book, "Bearing the Cross".   As was pointed out in the book by Wayne Perryman "Whites, Blacks and Racist Democrats", Kennedy voted against the 1957 Civil Rights Act while he was a senator. After Kennedy became president, he was opposed to the 1963 March on Washington by Dr. King.

The justification given by the Kennedy Administration publicly for wiretapping Dr. King was that two of Dr. King's associates, including David Levinson, had ended their association with the Communist Party in order to work undercover and influence Dr. King.   However, after years of continuous and extensive wiretapping, the FBI found no direct links of Dr. King to the Communist Party.

Kennedy's disdain for blacks further manifested itself when the King family sought help with getting Dr. King out of a Birmingham jail. Kennedy's civil rights advisor, Harris Wofford who was a personal friend of Dr. King, made a telephone call on behalf of Kennedy without Kennedy's knowledge. That call resulted in Dr. King's release. Kennedy was angry about the call because he feared he would lose the Southern vote. History shows, though, that the call by Wofford eventually worked in Kennedy's favor and is the primary reason so many blacks today wrongly venerate Kennedy.

The unrelenting efforts by Democrats to tarnish Dr. King's reputation continued for years after his death. To his credit, Republican President Ronald Reagan ignored the Democrats' smear campaign and made Dr. King's birthday a holiday.

Today, while professing to revere Dr. King, Democrats are still attempting to sully his image by claiming that he was a socialist. In reality, Dr. King was a Christian, guided by his faith and Republican Party principles as he struggled to gain equality for blacks. He did not embrace the type of socialist agenda that is promoted by the Democratic Party today, which includes fostering dependency on government handouts that trap blacks in generational poverty.

Frances Rice is a retired US Army Lieutenant Colonel, a lawyer and chairman of the National Black Republican Association. She may be contacted at: www.NBRA.Info

Blacks Petition UN To Censure Obama and Democratic Party for Racism

2011-12-13T13:50:00.001-05:00

BLACKS PETITION UN TO CENSURE OBAMA AND DEMOCRATIC PARTY FOR RACISM

By Frances Rice

The NAACP, acting on behalf of President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party, launched an attack on Republicans with a false charge of racism because some states are trying to end voter fraud by requiring all voters to present identification when appearing at the polls to vote. The NAACP did their grandstanding in front of the United Nations on December 10th, the day the UN declared to be "International Human Rights Day". The NAACP also announced that in January 2012, they will present a petition to the UN, claiming that Republicans want to "take away the right to vote" from "the elderly and working families of all colors."

Notably, the NAACP has voiced no objection over identification required to do business in a bank, board an airplane, get medicine from a pharmacy, use a credit card in retail stores, drive a car and a host of other things. Even more telling, the NAACP is not targeting labor unions, major donors of the Democratic Party, even though unions require their own members to produce a photo ID in order to vote in union elections. To see an article with more details about unions, click here.

With aplomb the NAACP ignores who actually denied blacks the right to vote—the Democratic Party, the party that instituted those Jim Crow laws and poll taxes. No concern is shown by the NAACP about voter fraud by Democratic Party operatives, such as ACORN that was prosecuted in several states. There was nothing but silence from the NAACP when, on December 12th, two days after the NAACP's stunt at the UN, the head of the Indiana Democratic Party, Dan Parker, resigned as St. Joseph County Prosecutor Mike Dvorak launched an investigation into allegations of election fraud that stemmed from the 2008 Democratic presidential primary. According to reports, numerous signatures on petitions that placed then-candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton on the party's primary ballot were allegedly forged and then certified by the St. Joseph County Voter Registration Office in South Bend. Details about this investigation can be found by clicking here.

In reaction to the efforts by the NAACP to smear Republicans as racist, the National Black Republican Association sent a petition to the United Nations, seeking a censure resolution against President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party for that party's gross violations of human rights in contravention of the Charter of the United Nations and the United Nations' International Convention on Civil and Political Rights. That petition is shown below.

It is time for the Democratic Party to be held accountable for their reprehensible election year strategy designed to keep blacks poor, angry and voting for Democrats.

Frances Rice is a lawyer, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and chairman of the National Black Republican Association. She may be contacted on the Internet at: www.NBRA.info

                                                     ------------------------------

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon
The United Nations
1st Ave & E 44th Street
New York, NY 10017

Dear Secretary K-moon:

We, African American citizens of the United States,

Considering the obligation of States under the Charter of the United Nations to promote universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and freedoms,

Recognizing the principles proclaimed in the Charter of the United Nations and the United Nations' International Convention on Civil and Political Rights that States must create conditions whereby everyone may enjoy his civil and political rights, as well as his economic, social and cultural rights,

Herewith petition the United Nations to take the necessary measures to issue a censure resolution against the United States' Democratic Party and the head of that party, President Barack Obama, for the gross violations of human rights committed against African American citizens of the United States by the Democratic Party (with charges one and two happening today and charges three through 25 happening in prior years), to wit:

Democrats:

1.   Use what President Barack Obama described in his book "Dreams From My Father" as "plantation politics" to keep African Americans improvised and living in dilapidated communities with over 17% unemployment
2.   Keep poor African American children trapped in failing urban public schools
3.   Beat African Americans to death, cut them into pieces and burned them alive
4.   Burned down African Americans communities
5.   Bombed African Americans churches
6.   Lynched over two thousand African Americans
7.   Proudly endorsed the institution of slavery to enslave millions of African Americans
8.   Called Republicans "Nigger Lovers" for fighting for civil rights for African Americans
9.   Called the original Republican Party "Black Republicans"
10.   Killed African Americans outside the voting booth for voting for Republicans
11.   Killed white teachers who taught African Americans students
12.   Burned down African Americans schools
13.   Proudly called themselves "the Party of White Supremacy"
14.   Stacked the United States Supreme Court with pro-slavery and racist judges
15.   Sponsored racist legislation from Jim Crow Laws to Black Codes and Fugitive Slave Laws
16.   Supported Judge John Ferguson in the case of "Plessy v Ferguson" & opposed the case of "Brown v. Board of Education"
17.   Praised the Dred Scott Decision that classified African Americans as "property"
18.   Fought against the integration of public schools
19.   Forced African Americans to sit in the back of buses and restaurants and in the balcony of movie theatres
20.   Killed little African Americans girls in their Sunday school classes
21.   Hanged African Americans by the neck until dead without a trial
22.   Formed terrorist organizations, such as the Ku Klux Klan to lynch and terrorize African Americans
23.   Denied employment to African Americans
24.   Refused service to African Americans in restaurants and other public facilities, such as parks and swimming pools
25.   Made reprehensible racist statements, including the following by President Lyndon Johnson: "These Negroes, they're getting pretty uppity these days and that's a problem for us since they got something now that they never had before, the political pull to back up their uppityness. Now we got to do something about this, we've got to give them a little something, just enough to quiet them down and not enough to make a difference. For if we don't move at all, then their allies will line up against us and there'll be no way to stopping them, we will lose the filibuster and there'll be no way of putting a brake on all sorts of wild legislation. It'll be Reconstruction all over again...."

Historical references can be found in the book "Whites, Blacks and Racist Democrats" by Wayne Perryman and the NBRA Civil Rights Newsletter, copies of which are included with this petition. This petition is submitted on behalf of African American citizens of the United States by Frances P. Rice, Lieutenant Colonel, US Army (Retired) and Chairman, National Black Republican Association.

Signature: ________________________________                Date: December 13, 2011

Copy Provided To: The Human Rights Council

Herman Cain – The People's Champion

2011-12-06T16:10:00.001-05:00

HERMAN CAIN – THE PEOPLE'S CHAMPION

By Frances Rice

George Bernard Shaw once wrote: "You see things; and you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say, 'Why not?'" In making his bid to become our next president, Herman Cain showed that he is the champion of the people and the embodiment of the American spirit that has made this country great. His commentary as shown below is a testament to that and a demonstration of the old adage: "Failure is not falling down but refusing to get up."

Frances Rice is a lawyer, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and chairman of the National Black Republican Association. She may be contacted on the Internet at: www.NBRA.info

________________________________

Cain Commentary: "Brokenhearted, but not Broken"

You're not defeated as long as you never stop fighting. And while my presidential campaign is suspended, it's important to remember that my pursuit of the presidency was only a means to an end. As long as the end is achieved, victory will be at hand.

My incredible army of supporters, whom I can never thank enough for all they have done so far, have not labored in vain. The real prize is still ours for the taking.

I did not want to become president just for the sake of being president. I'm perfectly happy with what I've accomplished in my life and I don't need the ego boost. Rather, I sought the presidency because our nation has some big problems to deal with, and it's clear that our political class has neither the will nor the ability to solve them.

For that very reason, I was not surprised that I was viciously attacked once I rose in the polls. I was surprised by the nature of the attacks. Me, a womanizer? I would never have thought they'd come up with that one. But I knew the establishment would not like the idea of my success, because I will not get along by going along like so many do. I will not kick the can down the road to the next generation of leaders, because our problems are serious and they need to be solved now.

That threatens people who know there may be a political price to pay for enacting solutions that will work, and would rather wait things out and let someone else take the heat. That would not have been possible during a Cain presidency.

But if real solutions are achieved, it will not matter who achieved them. If Congress and the president take the right measures to ensure our fiscal strength, protect our national security, achieve energy independence, spur economic growth and accomplish health care reform that actually works – it won't matter to me whose signature is on the bills. Only that the bills become laws that get us to the goal.

And while I am disappointed, there are more than a few silver linings to doing this work outside the context of a presidential campaign. The process by which we choose our nation's leader is ridiculous. There is little focus on policy substance and even less on candidates' governing skills. If you're not warding off some wild accusation, you're explaining away a "gaffe," which is usually the sort of slip of the tongue that anyone can make, but because some reporter heard it, it turns into a news-cycle narrative with a shelf life of six or seven days.

That's behind us. All I need to do now is advocate for solutions that work, under the auspices of TheCainSolutions.com , and that will have two essential elements.

One is to better educate the American people about the nature of the problems we face. There is still too little understanding of the severity of our debt and fiscal crisis. That is why members of Congress lack the political will to solve the problem. They perceive that they will pay a steeper price for taking action than they will pay for doing nothing. That is no excuse for such poor leadership, but the fact remains that if we can change the political dynamic – so that the people are demanding action rather than rewarding inaction – we will be able to change the results.

The second element is to advocate for solutions that actually work. I was amused by the criticism I received for frequently mentioning my 9-9-9 tax reform, particularly by those who referred to it as a "catch phrase" and so forth, clearly demonstrating that they didn't grasp what it's all about. The 9-9-9 plan is the biggest transfer of power from government back to the people since the beginning of this nation. That's what they are afraid of.

I talked about 9-9-9 so often during the campaign because it's a major reform that would completely change the way we pay taxes, the way we do business and the way people manage their personal budgets. We need reform like that. Political consultants are forever telling candidates to "stay on message," but I guess that doesn't apply when the message is a substantive reform that would actually solve problems. Be that as it may, I am far from finished staying on message. The Cain Solutions effort will relentlessly push for an understanding of the real stakes our nation faces, and for a groundswell that demands real solutions.

As I said during my announcement on Saturday, becoming president was Plan A. Anyone with a big goal needs to recognize that you might need a Plan B, and our Plan B has a lot going for it.

Six months ago, most of you had never heard of me. You have now. A lot of what you've heard is not true, but I've got your attention. Keep listening, and if you care about the future of our country like I do, get involved. Unlike a presidential campaign, what we're doing now can't be stopped by scandal-mongering or polls. We'll only be defeated if we give up.

And we're not going to do that.

Herman Cain
www.HermanCain.com

Herman Cain – America Needs You

2011-11-30T15:40:00.001-05:00

HERMAN CAIN – AMERICA NEEDS YOU

By Frances Rice

This is a pivotal moment in our nation's history.

The concerted campaign of personal destruction against Republican Presidential Candidate Herman Cain by the liberal media is yet another clear demonstration that the left-wing press has long since abandoned any pretense of news reporting as envisioned by the First Amendment to our Constitution. Instead, the so-called main stream media has become the propaganda arm of the Democratic Party led by President Barack Obama who is determined to ram his failed socialist agenda down America's throat and turn our country into an economic basket case like Greece, Italy and Spain.

Herman Cain has an opportunity now to thwart the liberal press efforts to drive accomplished conservative candidates out of the political arena with lies, distortions and innuendos, while they glorify misbehaving liberal candidates and cover up their high crimes, misdemeanors and just plain bad behavior. Prime examples are Bill Clinton who lied under oath, Ted Kennedy who was responsible for a woman's drowning death and Barney Frank out of whose home his homosexual lover ran a brothel.

America needs Cain to stay in the presidential race and not buckle under the weight of the liberal smear machine. By the same token, Cain needs America to look at the facts and not condemn him based on unproven allegations.

When the Obama media realized their attempts to derail Cain's campaign with false charges of sexual harassment were not working, they were quick to give airtime to a clearly troubled woman, Ginger White, who presented zero evidence to support her allegations of an affair with Cain.

An unemployed single mother, Ms. White filed a sexual harassment claim against an employer in 2001, a cased that was settled. Financially strapped women employees, such as Ms. White, know full well they can extort money from companies by making false claims of sexual harassment.

On Ms. White's record is the bankruptcy she filed in Kentucky almost 23 years ago, as well as several eviction notices over a six-year period in the Atlanta area, demonstrations that she has massive financial difficulties.

Even more damning is the fact that Ms. White's former business partner once sought a "stalking temporary protective order" against her for "repeated e-mails/texts threatening lawsuit and defamation of character." After that case was dismissed, a libel lawsuit was filed against Ms. White where a judge entered an order against Ms. White when she failed to respond to that lawsuit. Click here to see an article with more details by Susan Saulny entitled "Woman Claims Affair With Cain, and He Denies It."

While appearing on television, Ms. White admitted that Cain helped her out financially with no exchange of "sexual favors." Then came the telling moment when Ms. White brazenly stated that she does not share Cain's political "views." It does not take a rocket scientist to discern that Ms. White, a black woman, is a Democrat. Without a doubt, if Ms. White had been a Republican woman making such an outlandish charge against a Democrat politician, her allegation would not have seen the light of day.

Below is an article by Day Gardner, a black woman, expressing the sentiments of average Americans who are disgusted by how the media is attempting to assassinate Cain's character. Click here to view a video by Dr. Alveda C. King, the niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who lives in Atlanta and has known Cain for many years. She voices her continued support for Cain, pointing out that the facts show that Ms. White lacks credibility.

Frances Rice is a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel, a lawyer and chairman of the National Black Republican Association. She can be contacted at: www.NBRA.info

_______________________________

America is Being Sucker-Punched! Commentary on Herman Cain and the Court of Public Opinion
By Day Gardner

There is a plot to destroy Herman Cain--we see it in the money hungry women vying for 15 minutes of fame and fortune and we see it in the liberal media's assassination of Herman Cain.

The saddest thing is that America is being sucker-punched by the liberal media. Most of them are so deep in Obama's trench that there are no limits to how low they will go. They knew that all they had to do was plant a seed... even if it's a seed pod filled with lies -- they knew they'd be successful in placing doubt in the minds of Cain supporters.

Gone are the days when newsmen and women sought hard facts before airing a story.

Instead we are left with 'fake' reality TV news programs -- very similar to the Jersey Shore, Real Housewives and Survivor. Today's media helps to create uncomfortable situations and then they sensationalize their report on how people react.

It is obvious that those who seek to defame Herman Cain's character see him as a definite threat to President Obama -- and they are absolutely correct!

There are those who have him convicted even though there are no hard facts to prove anything. It's a whole lot of "he said she said" which would never hold up in Judge Judy's court. As for me, there is no doubt in my mind... I'm still on the train.

Case dismissed!

Herman Cain – The Citizens' Candidate

2011-11-08T15:20:00.001-05:00

HERMAN CAIN – THE CITIZENS' CANDIDATE

By Frances Rice

Guilty until proven innocent. This is the un-American standard set for Republican candidates when attacked by the liberal media. Those who want to destroy Herman Cain's candidacy have given no consideration to the FACT that not one of the thousands of women Cain had contact with over his 40-year career has ever filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint for the record, an action that would have resulted in Cain being fired, if the allegations were proven true. Why was no such complaint ever filed, if Cain was, indeed, a serial sexual harasser and created a hostile work environment, as is being alleged? The answer is simple. Herman Cain has never sexually harassed any one.

Those who are relentlessly attacking Cain are ignoring the exculpatory statements made by National Restaurant Association (NRA) officials who spoke on the record, saying that Cain never harassed women. Those quotes are buried in the last paragraph of the original Politico story:

Ron Magruder, Denise Marie Fugo and Joseph Fassler, the chair, vice chair and immediate past chairman of the National Restaurant Association board of directors at the time of Cain's departure, said they hadn't heard about any complaints regarding Cain making unwanted advances.

"I have never heard that. It would be news to me," said Fugo, who runs a Cleveland, Ohio, catering company, adding such behavior would be totally out of character for the Cain she knew. "He's very gracious."

Fassler, who helped bring Cain on board as CEO of the restaurant association, said that any inappropriate behavior was not brought to his attention and that he would be upset to learn it had gone on and he was not made aware of it.

"That's a shock to me," Fassler said. "As an officer during all of Herman's years there as a paid executive… none of that stuff ever surfaced to me. Nobody ever called me, complained about this, nor did I ever hear that from Peter Kilgore, nor did I ever hear that from Herman Cain."

Fassler – who ran a Phoenix food-service company and finished his term as chairman the month before Cain's June 1999 departure but remained on the board's executive committee – described Cain as treating men and women identically and asserted it was "not within his character" to make unwanted advances. "It's not what I know of him," Fassler said.

Much like Fassler, almost all board members remember Cain fondly and say he left on good terms.

Cain was "extremely professional" and "fair" to female staffers at the restaurant association, recalled Lee Ellen Hayes, who said she "worked fairly closely with" Cain in the late 1990s, when she was an executive at the National Restaurant Association Education Fund, a Chicago-based offshoot of the group.

The payments made to two women by the NRA were made when Cain was no longer with the organization. Here is a link to an article "Sexual Harassment's Legal Morass" by Curt Levey that explains, in detail, why corporations will pay people off, even when complaints are baseless. It's cheaper than going through the legal process to prove the complaints are without merit. Disgruntled employees know this.

Here is a link to an article entitled "Witness: Cain accuser hugged him during Tea Party meeting a month ago" by Michael Sneed which shows that Cain's latest accuser, Chicagoan Sharon Bialek, was quite comfortable in Cain's presence just four weeks ago.

It would be a national travesty if we, as Republican primary voters, sanction the high-tech lynching of a decent, honest and accomplished black Republican who is being targeted for destruction by the liberal press because he dares to be a conservative. The liberals in the media don't care one wit about sexual harassment. Witness how they embraced and voted for egregiously philandering Democrats such as Bill Clinton, Ted Kennedy and John Edwards. Details are in the article entitled "Standards don't exist for Dems" by Holly Robichaud that can be read by clicking here.

The biased, hypocritical liberal journalists are hoping they can cause Republican primary voters to turn against Herman Cain, so we will get stuck with another moderate Republican as our presidential nominee who will not inspire the enthusiastic support of the Republican Party base. This will make it easier for the liberal press to drag President Barack Obama back into the White House so he can complete his systematic destruction of our economy with his out-of-control spending and crushing debt.

As author Michael Scheuer wrote, the Democratic Party is the party of the four S's: slavery, secession, segregation and now socialism. Obama is a socialist and is bent on foisting on America his failed socialist policies. A general election contest between a black Democrat socialist who harbors disdain for America and a black Republican conservative who embraces our free enterprise system and loves America would put in stark relief the choice facing our country. Below is a summary of Cain's educational and managerial experiences that make him imminently qualified to be our next president. A demonstration of how effective he is in debating Democrats can be seen from this video: "Herman Cain Educates Clinton on Economics in 1994 HC [Health Care] Town Hall Forum".

Unfortunately for liberals in the Obama-controlled state media who are busily destroying their own profession while gleefully attacking Cain, most Americans have their eyes wide open and many Republican primary voters have embraced Herman Cain as the Citizens' Candidate. An insight into why Cain's support among a plurality of Republicans has not diminished can be gained from reading the article "Why We Should Be Unfair to Herman Cain" by Andrew Klavan.

Cain is genuine, a man of integrity who has the courage to stand up for truth, justice and the American way.

Frances Rice is a lawyer, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and chairman of the National Black Republican Association. She may be contacted on the Internet at: www.NBRA.info

________________________________________

A Summary Of Herman Cain's BIO That's Better Than Any Candidate Of Any Party

* Bachelor's degree in Mathematics.

* Master's degree in Computer Science.

* Mathematician for the Navy, where he worked on missile ballistics (making him a rocket scientist).

* Computer systems analyst for Coca-Cola.

* VP of Corporate Data Systems and Services for Pillsbury (this is the top of the ladder in the computer world, being in charge of information systems for a major corporation).

All achieved before reaching the age of 35. Since he reached the top of the information systems world, he changed careers!

* Business Manager. Took charge of Pillsbury's 400 Burger King restaurants in the Philadelphia area, which were the company's poorest performers in the country.

He spent the first nine months learning the business from the ground up, cooking hamburger and yes, cleaning toilets. After three years he had turned them into the company's best performers.

* Godfather's Pizza CEO. Was asked by Pillsbury to take charge of their Godfather's Pizza chain (which was on the verge of bankruptcy). He made it profitable in 14 months.

* In 1988 he led a buyout of the Godfather's Pizza chain from Pillsbury. He was now the owner of a restaurant chain. Again he reached the top of the ladder of another industry.

* He was also chairman of the National Restaurant Association during this time. This is a group that interacts with government on behalf of the restaurant industry, and it gave him political experience from the non-politician side.

Having reached the top of a second industry, he changed careers again!

* Adviser to the Federal Reserve System. Herman Cain went to work for the Federal Reserve Banking System advising them on how monetary policy changes would affect American businesses.

* Chairman of the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank. He worked his way up to the chairmanship of a regional Federal Reserve Bank. This is only one step below the chairmanship of the entire Federal Reserve System (the top banking position in the country). This position allowed him to see how monetary policy is made from the inside, and understand the political forces that impact the monetary system.

After reaching the top of the banking industry, he changed careers for a fourth time!

* Writer and public speaker. He then started to write and speak on leadership. His books include "Speak as a Leader", "CEO of Self", "Leadership is Common Sense", and "They Think You're Stupid".

* Radio Host. Around 2007—after a remarkable 40-year career—he started hosting a radio show on WSB in Atlanta (the largest talk radio station in the country).

He did all this starting from rock bottom (his father was a chauffeur and his mother was a maid). When you add up his accomplishments in his life, including reaching the top of three unrelated industries (information systems, business management, and banking), you can see that Cain may have the most impressive resume of anyone that has run for the presidency in the last half century. He knows more about creating jobs and the economy than any of the other candidates running for president. He solves problems.

America Speaks: Beat Obama With A Cain

2011-10-26T20:27:00.001-04:00

AMERICA SPEAKS: BEAT OBAMA WITH A CAIN

By Frances Rice

America is gripped by economic devastation created by the failed socialist policies of President Barack Obama. Meanwhile, Obama is campaigning around the country, brazenly promising to continue his job-killing spending.   He's advocating more big government socialism and is intent on plunging our country into an economic grave, along with the Soviet Union and other failed socialist nations that tried to spend their way to prosperity.

The only thing standing in Obama's way is the American people who are now speaking loudly and clearly: We will beat Obama with a Cain.

Distortions by the liberal press about Herman Cain's positions on issues are not resonating because average Americans refuse to be influenced by the media's poison pen.

Recent polls from key states, including Florida, Iowa and New Hampshire show Cain surging.   Among the straw polls won by Cain by huge margins are the ones in Florida and Nevada. To the surprise of some naysaying pundits, a New York Times/CBS poll released on October 25th reveals that Cain is leading nationally among likely Republican voters with 25 percent support, compared to 21 percent for Gov. Mitt Romney, 10 percent for former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, 8 percent for Texas Rep. Ron Paul and 6 percent for Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

Even more important is the new poll released by Rasmussen Reports, showing Cain is ahead of Obama in a hypothetical general election contest, with Cain receiving 43 percent of the vote and Obama only 41 percent.

Here is what one person wrote on the Internet that expresses very well voter sentiment:

"I would vote for Herman Cain in a heartbeat. I see him more as a businessman than a politician and our country right now needs a businessman who can help start our country on the road to recovery. Also, as an African American, he is an example of overcoming prejudices and built himself up, he is an Horatio Alger example. Too many are still holding onto the past and the "Poor Me Syndrome". He carries no baggage and we should all remember that, like balloons, it is not the color that makes them rise, it's what inside. You go Herman!!!!!"

Americans are excited about Cain because he rose from humble roots, became a successful executive at corporations, including Godfather's, Burger King and Pillsbury and later served as a director of the Federal Reserve Bank in Kansas City. He knows how both the government and private sector worlds work.

Below is an article by an African American freelance journalist, voicing her support for Cain. More information about Herman Cain can be found by clicking here for a Herman Cain fact sheet and clicking here for the NBRA home page.

Frances Rice is a lawyer, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and chairman of the National Black Republican Association. She may be contacted on the Internet at: www.NBRA.info

                           ________________________________________

Herman Cain: A step above other GOP candidates
By Felicia Benamon

Once in a while, there comes a candidate that "up and grabs you" by the collar and demands you listen to the urgency of the time, the urgency of problems facing our nation. That person is Herman Cain. No politician he is to me, he represents the working man.

The straight-talking presidential candidate is leading the presidential pack with his common sense approach to our nation's problems — Cain has grabbed the attention of the American people. He is able to connect with a large base of people who recognize the soundness and straight forward approach of his ideas.

Mr. Cain is a man who has earned and worked his way to the top. He is a man with business experience who will know a little something about economics — to pull our nation out of this slump. He is someone who respects free enterprise, and believes in the individuals' ability through creativity and innovation to create jobs, wealth, and prosperity — not putting together useless "stimulus" packages that benefit no one in the long run.

CBS senior political reporter Brian Montopoli writes, "Certainly, the simplicity of his message — most notably, of course, in the form of his "9-9-9" plan — has captured primary voters' attention."

Of course in the same article, he questions whether Cain is knowledgeable enough to hold the high position from statements Cain has made before.

There is no perfect candidate, and presidents make mistakes. But assuredly, America needs a man who is in tune with and believes in the American people without making empty promises. Someone who has a plan. Someone who believes in America and her ability to pull herself out of the mire.

I've heard Cain reference former president Ronald Reagan, America as the "shining city on a hill." He elaborated and said, "...but of late, that shining city on a hill has started to slide down the hilltop."

Everyone knows running for president takes money. Cain has so far raised 2.8 million over the summer and has 1.3 million currently. This is a man who, to me, takes little resources/funds he has (compared to his competitors) and makes much use of it wisely. He has certainly passed the pack of top contenders who have far more to spend and are using more methods to reach voters.

People are looking for a candidate that is not tied to big money and Herman Cain is it. He does it his way and is having success at it. That is the mark of true leadership.

You will expect no political correctness from this candidate. Yes the GOP is not immune to the political correctness trap. If you want a no-nonsense man leading this nation, Herman Cain is that person who needs no-nonsense support behind him.

Montopoli continued: "Cain is essentially throwing out the playbook in favor of a seat-of-the-pants, cash-poor, lightly staffed operation that is leaving political insiders scratching their heads. If Cain is able to win the nomination, he'll not only shock the political establishment, he'll forever alter the way the political game is played. He might even shock himself."

Agreed!

I believe America is ready for someone with fresh, new ideas—Herman Cain's 9-9-9: A vision for Economic growth: YouTube and HermainCain.com

It's time to put on our big boy pants and get to work to support Herman Cain in this critical hour! www.hermancain.com

Felicia Benamon is a conservative columnist who writes from a political perspective, but occasionally deviates to write about other concerns facing her country. She comes from a military background and is currently a freelance reporter residing in Tennessee. You may contact Felicia at zcoolone2011@aol.com

Herman Cain Wins FL GOP Straw Poll

2011-09-25T22:13:00.001-04:00

HERMAN CAIN WINS FLORIDA GOP STRAW POLL

By Frances Rice

It was, indeed, a stunning victory. When the votes were counted Saturday, September 24th, Herman Cain was declared the winner of the Florida Republican Party's Presidency Five straw poll. He won by a substantial margin, 37.1% of the 2,657 delegate votes cast, more than the combined amounts for the governor of Texas, Rick Perry (15.4%) and the former governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney (14.0%). Herman Cain's unequivocal conservative message resonated well with the Florida Presidency Five delegates. He outlined clearly his detailed record of more than 40 years of job creation in the private sector and, as he stated, his "common sense solutions to restore fiscal sanity to government". To see an article about Mr. Cain's win, click here.

Frances Rice is a lawyer, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and chairman of the National Black Republican Association. She may be contacted on the Internet at: www.NBRA.info

Blacks Sue Obama & Democrats For Racial Discrimination

2011-09-13T13:30:00.000-04:00

BLACKS SUE OBAMA AND DEMOCRATS FOR RACIAL DISCRIMINATION

By Frances Rice

Courageous aptly describes Rev. Wayne Perryman who has just filed a historic and landmark lawsuit in federal district court demanding an apology from the Democratic Party for centuries of racist oppression. This is Rev. Perryman's second attempt to seek long overdue justice. His first lawsuit in 2005 went all the way to the United States Supreme Court. In that case, the Democrats hired an army of lawyers, admitted their racist past, but refused to apologize. The Democrats were let off the hook by the Court on the legal technicality of "standing," since Rev. Perryman had not suffered personally from the Democratic Party's horrendous racism. Different this time are two factors. First, President Barack Obama is a named defendant. Second, this writer has joined Rev. Perryman as a plaintiff since I did suffer personally at the hands of the racist Democrats during the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. Click here to see my bio with details that is posted on the National Black Republican Association website.

Below is a press release about Rev. Perryman's lawsuit issued by the Frederick Douglass Foundation. Click here to see the entire lawsuit brief.

Frances Rice is a lawyer, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and chairman of the National Black Republican Association. She may be contacted on the Internet at: www.NBRA.info

_______________

The Frederick Douglass Foundation

"Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe." Frederick Douglass

Immediate Press Release
September 12, 2011
Contact Person: Wayne Perryman
Email Address: doublebro@aol.com
Website: www.wayneperryman.com

Blacks File Class Action Racial Discrimination Suit Against Obama & Democrats

Seattle, WA. On September 11, 2011, blacks from the West Coast and the East Coast joined together and signed one of the most comprehensive legal briefs ever prepared on racial discrimination, then filed their brief today, September 12th, at 9:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time in US District Court in Seattle (Case No. C11 - 1503). The plaintiffs, who refer to the defendants as "Father of Racism," allege that as an organization, the Democratic Party has consistently refused to apologize for the role they played in slavery and Jim Crow laws and for other subsequent racist practices from 1792 to 2011.

Rev. Wayne Perryman, a former Democrat himself and the lead plaintiff in this class action lawsuit, said he was inspired to file this action after seeing the recent movie The Help. The movie takes place in the region that was exclusively controlled by Democrats for more than 150 years (the South). Mrs. Frances P. Rice, the Chair of the National Black Republican Association is also a plaintiff in the lawsuit. Mrs. Rice is a resident of Sarasota, Florida and has lived in the South most of her life.

The case cites the collective work of over 350 legal scholars and includes Congressional records, case law, research from our nation's top history professors, racist statements from Democratic elected officials, citations from the Democrat's National Platforms regarding their support of slavery, excepts of speeches from Senator Obama, individual testimonies from blacks who lived in the Jim Crow South and opinions from the NAACP.

Perryman said President Obama was named as a defendant not only because he is the official leader of the Democratic Party, but because of certain statements he made about his own party in his book, Dreams from My Father. In 2009, the President was asked to issue an apology to blacks on behalf of his party, but he refused. Unlike other reparations lawsuits, this lawsuit merely asks for a public apology, but no monetary damages.

In the 40-page brief, Rev. Perryman tells the court that the Democratic Party, (the party that is quick to call the Tea Party and Republicans racist), is the same party that refuses to confess and/or acknowledge (in public and on their website) that they are the party that supported the institution that packed millions of black men, women and children in the deep dark hulls of slave ships with just barely enough food and water to keep them alive, and forced them to lie in their own urine, feces, and vomit for the duration of a long trip across the Atlantic.

And after arriving in America, it was the members of their party that forced these poor souls to work from sunup to sundown for the next 70 years and never paid them one dime. And when the black victims were fortunate enough to escape, it was the Democratic Party that passed Fugitive Slave laws to return them to their brutal slave masters. When their inhumane institution of slavery was challenged by the opposing party, Democrats countered by placing threats in their political platforms (1844-1856), - threatening anyone who dared to interfere with what they called, "the sectional issue of Domestic Slavery."

In May 21, 1856, they carried out their threats when they attacked their opposition, Senator Charles Sumner with a walking cane on the Senate floor and when they attacked with guns, freed blacks and abolitionists on the streets of Lawrence, Kansas. Six years later, Democrats called themselves 'Confederates" and went to war killing thousands to defend and protect their racist institution of slavery.

After losing the war, they fought against constitutional amendments and civil rights legislation for blacks, and chose instead to form terrorist organizations, legislate Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws and support every landmark case that was designed to deny blacks their constitutional rights including the Slaughterhouse Case, Plessy v Ferguson, the Civil Rights Cases of 1881 to overturn the 1875 Civil Rights Act, and Brown v. the Board of Education. While many of these cases were pending, Democrats proudly adopted the name "The Party of White Supremacy" and committed every inhumane violent act known to mankind (from 1867 to 1977) to keep blacks in "their place." And to add insult to injury, after killing millions of blacks through their racist institutions, they hired powerful attorneys to keep this information from blacks and to avoid apologizing to blacks.

Perryman said, "Any organization that has such a racist history and receives 97% of the African American vote (after doing all they could to deny blacks the right to vote), should willingly apologize without being forced do so through a lawsuit. He said, "I guess they feel they have nothing to apologize for." Perryman went on to say that he is "convinced that Democrats will only apologize if the media, or the courts (with public pressure) will force them to do so. The man who authored the book: The Audacity of Hope, now has the "audacity" to refuse to apologize for his political party and their racist institutions, that took the lives of millions of his own people.
Apologies for Racism – Precedent Set

In the 40-page brief covering a period from 1792 to 2011, Perryman makes the following claims regarding past apologies for racism and racial injustices. Perryman said history reveals that an apology or reparation for blacks would not be an issue today had the Democratic President Andrew Johnson chosen to sign Senate Bill 60. Since Johnson's veto of Senate Bill 60, the door for reparations involving racial injustices remained closed for over 120 years.

In 1988, Congress opened that door with the passage of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. Under that new bill, Japanese internment victims received an apology plus $20,000 each in reparation pay. In 1993, the victims of the Rosewood, Florida Massacre received an apology and reparations from the State of Florida. On May 16, 1997, President Clinton issued an apology to the victims of the Tuskegee Experiment and paid the African American victims a total of $10,000,000 in reparations.
On February 7, 2005, the 109th Congress issued Senate Resolution 39 and apologized for not enacting lynching laws to protect those who were victims of lynching. In that resolution, Congress stopped short of acknowledging that all of the lynchings took place in regions controlled by Democrats.

And finally on January 20, 2007, the Executive Committee of the Democratic Party of North Carolina apologized for the 1898 riot and massacre that killed several black Republicans and drove them out of office.

Who is Rev. Perryman?

Rev. Perryman is the same Seattle minister who used his biblical research in 1994 to persuade the world's two largest Christian publishers and the Encyclopedia Britannica to apologize and remove the "Curse of Ham" theory from all of their publications. The curse theory had existed for over 500 years and was used by Southern Christians and Democrats to justify slavery and their mistreatment of blacks.

Will America Survive Obama?

2011-08-19T13:42:00.001-04:00

WILL AMERICA SURVIVE OBAMA?

By Frances Rice

A war is being waged against America by our own president, Barack Obama. The question is whether our country will survive Obama's socialist wrecking ball being rammed against our nation's economic house. We must wait until the 2012 election to determine who will be victorious—Obama and his fellow liberal Democrats who are seeking to destroy America with their failed socialist agenda, or fiscally conservative Republicans who are fighting to save our country.

In electing Obama to be our president in 2008, most Americans decided to ignore his Socialist/Marxist leanings and vote for him because he is black; thus, sacrifice our country on the altar of Affirmative Action. Now Obama is on a fast track to imposing government supremacy over the people, countering our nation's founding principle where our Constitution made the government subordinate to the people.

Will the majority of Americans now vote to re-elect Obama in 2012 while ignoring how he is doggedly clinging to his well-publicized failed economic policies? Every time Obama speaks, he offers more of the same—a socialist agenda that's anchored on pure absurdity, the ludicrous notion that more spending on an expanding government propped up by a declining or, at best, stagnant private sector will somehow magically produce robust job growth and economic prosperity.

Most Americans voted in 2008 while wearing skin-colored glasses and, in a little over a year, we will see if the majority of Americans have opened their eyes and now see Obama in the same light as does Mychal Massie who described Obama as a congenital liar in his article "Nero in the White House" that can be found on the Internet by clicking on the below title.

Frances Rice is a lawyer, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and chairman of the National Black Republican Association. She may be contacted on the Internet at: www.NBRA.info

_______________________________

Nero in the White House
By Mychal Massie

Three significant historical events have been eclipsed by Obama: 1) Jimmy Carter will no longer be looked upon as the worst president in American history; 2) Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton will no longer be recognized as the greatest liars in presidential history; 3) Clinton's stain on Monica's dress, and what that did to the White House in general and the office of the president specifically, will forever pale in comparison to the stain and stench of Obama.

I need not spend much time on the failure of Obama as president. His tenure has been a failure on every measurable level. So much so, in fact, that some of the staunchest, most respected liberal Democrats and Democratic supporters have not only openly criticized him – some even more harshly than this essayist – but they have called for him to step down.

Richard Nixon's words "I am not a crook," punctuated with his involvement in Watergate, and Bill Clinton's finger-wagging as he told one of the most pathetic lies in presidential history, in the aftermath of Obama, will be viewed as mere prevarications.

Mr. Nixon and Clinton lied to save their backsides. Although, I would argue there are no plausible explanations for doing what they did, I could entertain arguments pursuant to understanding their rationales for lying. But in the case of Obama, he lies because he is a liar. He doesn't only lie to cover his misdeeds – he lies to get his way. He lies to belittle others and to make himself look presentable at their expense. He lies about his faith, his associations, his mother, his father and his wife. He lies and bullies to keep his background secret. His lying is congenital and compounded by socio-psychological factors of his life.

Never in my life, inside or outside of politics, have I witnessed such dishonesty in a political leader. He is the most mendacious political figure I have ever witnessed. Even by the low standards of his presidential predecessors, his narcissistic, contumacious arrogance is unequalled. Using Obama as the bar, Nero would have to be elevated to sainthood.

As the stock markets were crashing, taking with them the remaining life savings of untold tens of thousands, Obama was hosting his own birthday celebration, which was an event of epicurean splendidness. The shamelessness of the event was that it was not a state dinner to welcome foreign dignitaries, nor was it to honor an American accomplishment – it was to honor the Pharaoh, Barack Hussein Obama. The event's sole purpose was for the Pharaoh to have his loyal subjects swill wine, indulge in gluttony and behavior unfit to take place on the property of taxpayers, as they suffer. It was of a magnitude comparable to that of Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski's $2 million birthday extravaganza for its pure lack of respect for the people.

Permit me to digress momentarily. The U.S. Capitol and the White House were built with the intent of bringing awe and respect to America and her people. They were also built with the intent of being the greatest of equalizers. I can tell you, having personally been to both, there is a moment of awe and humility associated with being in the presence of the history of those buildings. They are to be honored and inscribed into our national psyche, not treated as a Saturday night house party at Chicago's Cabrini-Green.

The people of America own that home Obama and his wife continue to debase with their pan-ghetto behavior. It is clear that Obama and family view themselves as royalty, but they're not. They are employees of "we the people," who are suffering because of his failed policies. What message does this behavior send to those who today are suffering as never before?

What message does it send to all Americans who are struggling? Has anyone stopped to think what the stock market downturn forebodes for those 80 million baby boomers who will be retiring in the next period of years? Is there a snowball's chance in the Sahara that every news program on the air would applaud this behavior if it were George W. Bush? To that point, do you remember the media thrashing Bush took for having a barbecue at the White House?

Like Nero – who was only slightly less debaucherous than Caligula – with wine on his lips Obama treated "we the people" the way Caligula treated those over whom he lorded.

Many in America wanted to be proud when the first person of color was elected president, but instead, they have been witness to a congenital liar, a woman who has been ashamed of America her entire life, failed policies, intimidation and a commonality hitherto not witnessed in political leaders. He and his wife view their life at our expense as an entitlement – while America's people go homeless, hungry and unemployed.

Mychal Massie is chairman of the National Leadership Network of Black Conservatives-Project 21 – a conservative black think tank located in Washington, D.C. He was recognized as the 2008 Conservative Man of the Year by the Conservative Party of Suffolk County, N.Y. He is a nationally recognized political activist, pundit and columnist. He has appeared on Fox News Channel, CNN, MSNBC, C-SPAN, NBC, Comcast Cable and talk radio programming nationwide. A former self-employed business owner of more than 30 years, Massie can be followed at mychal-massie.com

Affirmative Action President

2011-08-18T21:27:00.001-04:00

VERDICT - THE AFFIRMATIVE ACTION PRESIDENT

By Frances Rice

A scathing and absolutely accurate assessment of the Obama Presidency has been rendered by knowledgeable pundits. The following article provides a clear-eyed analysis of the fact that, indeed, Barack Hussein Obama is an Affirmative Action president. To view the article on the Internet, click on the below title.

Frances Rice is a lawyer, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and chairman of the National Black Republican Association.

She may be contacted on the Internet at: www.NBRA.info

______________________

Obama: The Affirmative Action President
By Matt Patterson

Years from now, historians may regard the 2008 election of Barack Obama as an inscrutable and disturbing phenomenon, a baffling breed of mass hysteria akin perhaps to the witch craze of the Middle Ages. How, they will wonder, did a man so devoid of professional accomplishment beguile so many into thinking he could manage the world's largest economy, direct the world's most powerful military, execute the world's most consequential job?

Imagine a future historian examining Obama's pre-presidential life: ushered into and through the Ivy League despite unremarkable grades and test scores along the way; a cushy non-job as a "community organizer"; a brief career as a state legislator devoid of legislative achievement (and in fact nearly devoid of his attention, so often did he vote "present"); and finally an unaccomplished single term in United States Senate, the entirety of which was devoted to his presidential ambitions. He left no academic legacy in academia, authored no signature legislation as legislator.

And then there is the matter of his troubling associations: the white-hating, America-loathing preacher who for decades served as Obama's "spiritual mentor"; a real-life, actual terrorist who served as Obama's colleague and political sponsor. It is easy to imagine a future historian looking at it all and asking: how on Earth was such a man elected president?

Not content to wait for history, the incomparable Norman Podhoretz addressed the question recently in the Wall Street Journal:

To be sure, no white candidate who had close associations with an outspoken hater of America like Jeremiah Wright and an unrepentant terrorist like Bill Ayers would have lasted a single day. But because Mr. Obama was black, and therefore entitled in the eyes of liberaldom to have hung out with protesters against various American injustices, even if they were a bit extreme, he was given a pass.

Let that sink in: Obama was given a pass -- held to a lower standard -- because of the color of his skin. Podhoretz continues:

And in any case, what did such ancient history matter when he was also articulate and elegant and (as he himself had said) "non-threatening," all of which gave him a fighting chance to become the first black president and thereby to lay the curse of racism to rest?

Podhoretz puts his finger, I think, on the animating pulse of the Obama phenomenon -- affirmative action. Not in the legal sense, of course. But certainly in the motivating sentiment behind all affirmative action laws and regulations, which are designed primarily to make white people, and especially white liberals, feel good about themselves.

Unfortunately, minorities often suffer so that whites can pat themselves on the back. Liberals routinely admit minorities to schools for which they are not qualified, yet take no responsibility for the inevitable poor performance and high drop-out rates which follow. Liberals don't care if these minority students fail; liberals aren't around to witness the emotional devastation and deflated self esteem resulting from the racist policy that is affirmative action. Yes, racist. Holding someone to a separate standard merely because of the color of his skin -- that's affirmative action in a nutshell, and if that isn't racism, then nothing is. And that is what America did to Obama.

True, Obama himself was never troubled by his lack of achievements, but why would he be? As many have noted, Obama was told he was good enough for Columbia despite undistinguished grades at Occidental; he was told he was good enough for the US Senate despite a mediocre record in Illinois; he was told he was good enough to be president despite no record at all in the Senate. All his life, every step of the way, Obama was told he was good enough for the next step, in spite of ample evidence to the contrary. What could this breed if not the sort of empty narcissism on display every time Obama speaks?

In 2008, many who agreed that he lacked executive qualifications nonetheless raved about Obama's oratory skills, intellect, and cool character. Those people -- conservatives included -- ought now to be deeply embarrassed. The man thinks and speaks in the hoariest of clichés, and that's when he has his teleprompter in front of him; when the prompter is absent he can barely think or speak at all. Not one original idea has ever issued from his mouth -- it's all warmed-over Marxism of the kind that has failed over and over again for 100 years.

And what about his character? Obama is constantly blaming anything and everything else for his troubles. Bush did it; it was bad luck; I inherited this mess. It is embarrassing to see a president so willing to advertise his own powerlessness, so comfortable with his own incompetence. But really, what were we to expect? The man has never been responsible for anything, so how do we expect him to act responsibly?

In short: our president is a small and small-minded man, with neither the temperament nor the intellect to handle his job. When you understand that, and only when you understand that, will the current erosion of liberty and prosperity make sense. It could not have gone otherwise with such a man in the Oval Office.

But hey, at least we got to feel good about ourselves for a little while. And really, isn't that all that matters these days?

Bill "Bull Connor" Clinton

2011-08-08T13:12:00.001-04:00

BILL "BULL CONNOR" CLINTON

By Frances Rice

Playing the race card is no longer working for the Democratic Party. That stunning pronouncement was made by Bernard Goldberg, author of "A Slobbering Love Affair". This momentous turn of events highlighted by Goldberg was welcome news to us in the National Black Republican Association (NBRA) who launched our educational campaign six years ago aimed at stopping the Democrats' race-baiting.

Into the spotlight stepped former President Bill Clinton, brazenly engaging in race mongering by declaring that the passage of voter ID laws by some states was a return to Jim Crow. Clinton told a group of students: "There has never been in my lifetime, since we got rid of the poll tax and all the other Jim Crow burdens on voting, the determined effort to limit the franchise that we see today."

Clinton's racism charge is particularly irksome since it is the Democrats who passed those Jim Crow laws as is explained in detail by Wayne Perryman in his book "Whites, Blacks and Racist Democrats" and Ann Coulter in her book "Demonic".

It was gratifying to observe that Clinton's incendiary charge was not echoed to any great extent in the liberal media as was done in the past. Instead, he was lambasted by the Wall Street Journal in an article entitled "Bill Clinton Does 'Jim Crow' " That article can be found on the Internet by clicking here.

Even more grating is the fact that Bill Clinton, himself, engaged in unconscionable racism against black Americans while governor of Arkansas and president, benefiting from the poisonous racial climate engendered by his fellow Democrats. A particularly odious Democrat was Public Safety Commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor in Birmingham who let loose vicious dogs and turned skin-burning fire hoses on black civil rights demonstrators during the 60s. Another racist Democrat was Alabama Governor George Wallace. Michael Barone described Wallace as "a man who really didn't believe in anything—a political opportunist who used opposition to integration to try and get himself ahead." This description aptly fits Bill Clinton, too.

Following in the footsteps of his mentor J. William Fulbright, a staunch segregationist, Clinton refused to enforce a court-ordered affirmative action plan while president and was himself sued for discriminating against his black employees while he was a governor. Clinton also had his Attorney General, Janet Reno, file a class action, reverse discrimination lawsuit on behalf of a group of white janitors at Illinois State University to stop the University from hiring blacks. None of Clinton's inner-circle of advisors was black, and Clinton failed to take action to stop the massacre of over 800,000 Rwandans. Without congressional or UN approval, Clinton sent 20,000 troops to help the white Europeans in Bosnia, but refused to send troops to help the 800,000 blacks in Africa.

Clinton showed the extent of his disdain for black Americans when he praised former Ku Klux Klansman Senator Robert Byrd at his funeral and gave Byrd a pass for being a recruiter for the Klan. Never mind the Klan was responsible for killing (lynching) 3,000 Republicans—2,000 blacks and 1,000 whites.

His anti-black actions and attitude show he clearly deserves the moniker: Bill "Bull Connor" Clinton.

Frances Rice is a lawyer, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and chairman of the National Black Republican Association. She may be contacted on the Internet at: www.NBRA.info

Obama Devastates Poor And Middle Class Blacks

2011-08-06T17:37:00.001-04:00

OBAMA DEVASTATES POOR AND MIDDLE CLASS BLACKS

By Frances Rice

Showing not a modicum of compassion, President Barack Obama is steadily pushing his socialist agenda that is spiraling black Americans into the depths of economic ruination. His unyielding mantra of "tax the rich" is just a smoke screen for his desire to punish job creators, mostly small business owners, who produce the majority of the jobs in this country. Hurt most by Obama's failed socialist policies are the poor and middle class. Below is an excerpt from an article by Chidike Okeem that provides the troubling details about how Obama is devastating the black community. The article in its entirety is posted on the Internet and may be found by clicking on the title below.

___________________

Barack Obama and the Betrayal of Black America
By Chidike Okeem

When Barack Obama was elected as the president of the United States, black liberals dreamily believed that the numerous maladies in the black community would cease to exist. They believed that his election was indicative of a vigorous wind of political and social change that was blowing across the country. Barack Obama himself vowed that his election would demarcate the conclusion of grisly "politics as usual" from the commencement of political and democratic freshness. However, as this administration continues on, it is abundantly clear that Obama has not only failed to deliver in a general sense, but he has also completely betrayed his most loyal constituency -- the black community.

After passing a gargantuan stimulus plan that was supposed to fix the economy, the unemployment rate continued to rise -- until it only recently began falling. Although we are currently at a 9.1 percent unemployment rate, the rate in the black community is at an unpardonably enormous 16.1 percent -- the highest of any ethnic group in the country. It is also important to note that black unemployment was lower under Bush than it has been at any point during Obama's administration. In point of fact, black unemployment was even lower under Bush than it was under Clinton.
More egregious than the high rate of black unemployment is the fact that Obama has been completely disconnected with the black community. He has failed to articulate any policy that would deal with the crisis that is evident in urban America. Rather, Obama is much more focused on articulating and enacting policies about issues that are close to his heart, such as allowing gays to serve openly in the military, as well as becoming a potent mouthpiece for the immoral Arab scam to steal Israeli land and annihilate the Jewish people.

Any intellectually honest person in America must look at Obama's demonstrable disregard for black issues and come to the unavoidable conclusion that black America is the very least of Obama's concerns. So obvious is this fact that even some of Barack Obama's most ardent supporters in the black intelligentsia have begun voicing strident denunciations of the president. The latest assault on Obama from his left-wing compatriot Cornel West is evidence of this phenomenon.

Although West's critique of Obama was partly personal and laden with his characteristically asinine divisive racial rhetoric, there was some substance to his criticism to which left-wing Obama cheerleaders in the black community remain willfully blind. West accused Obama of being "a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a black puppet of corporate plutocrats."

While West foolishly assumes that support for black issues and being in favor of business are mutually exclusive, the unstated and basic premise in West's critique is that Obama does not care enough about, and expresses no interest in, black people and black issues. As absurd as the rest of his intellectually messy ramblings are, West is right about that fundamental point.

Obama's sycophants are used to writing off all criticism of the president coming from whites as racist, and they are equally used to describing all criticism from black conservatives as being the puerile rants of Uncle Toms obsequiously looking for approval from "the white man"; however, although Cornel West is one of the black left's most revered academics, they would much rather write him off as entirely crazy than to admit that any criticism he has of Barack Obama contains even a scintilla of merit.

Big Government is the Problem, Not the Solution

By arguing that Obama has betrayed the black community, I am not arguing that Obama needs to spend his time carving out black-specific governmental policies. Manifestly, the black-specific liberal policies that have been attempted in the past have done nothing more than stimulate a metastasizing of the very social cancers that they were designed to treat. My argument is, however, that Obama has failed to enact the economic policies that would provide the necessary environment for blacks to fend for themselves independent of government -- despite the fact that he presented himself during his campaign as someone who was inimitably skilled and uniquely well-positioned to do so.

Without attempting to cater to blacks specifically, President Reagan managed to create economic prosperity throughout the entire country which, in point of fact, benefited blacks more than it did whites. The facts cannot be disputed: Reaganomics had a salubrious effect on the black community, whereas Obamanomics is having an unequivocally deleterious effect on black economics and the black community at large.

Obama Is Not The President of African Americans?

One of the talking points formulated by Obama's apologists in the media is the notion that Obama is not the president of black America. They argue he is the president of the United States of America. This pathetically feeble argument exists for the sole purpose of deflecting legitimate criticism of Obama's failure to meet the needs of the black community.

The fact of the matter is that Obama is the president of African Americans, just as he is the president of white Americans. It takes a shocking display of intellectual dishonesty to suddenly release Obama of any responsibility for black America, especially when previous presidents have always been held responsible for their treatment of the black community.

In 1998, the Nobel-Prize-winning writer Toni Morrison gave Bill Clinton the honorary moniker of "America's first black president" because, according to her, he "display[ed] almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald's-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas."

Leaving aside the recognizably insulting view of what constitutes blackness in Morrison's perverse mind, had white, southern Clinton possessed all these qualities while presiding over 16.1 percent unemployment, I am positive that this endearing nickname would never have been created -- much less believed by black liberals for many years until the emergence of Obama.

By contrast, the left, with unutterable alacrity, vociferously argued that George W. Bush's less-than-stellar handling of Hurricane Katrina was indicative of his incurable allergy toward black skin. Even largely apolitical rapper Kanye West took the time out to accuse Bush of not caring about blacks. The fact that Bush packed his administration with exceptionally well-qualified minorities was completely disregarded when the black left gave Bush his failing report card. One can only imagine the panic-stricken cries of racism that would have been heard for years if Bush had overseen 16.1 percent black unemployment.

It is nothing more than liberal hypocrisy to see the crisis evident in the black community under Obama's watch and simply respond with the contemptible shibboleth stating, "Obama is not the president of black America; he's the president of the United States of America" -- especially when every other president in recent history has been critically judged on their treatment of the black community. Mr. Okeem is a freelance writer and can be contacted at mrokeem@gmail.com . His blog on politics and culture can be read at voiceofchid.com

___________________

"Socialism is a philosophy of failure,

The creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy,

Its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery..."

Supporting Black Republican Candidates

2011-07-11T16:27:00.001-04:00

SUPPORTING BLACK REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES

By Frances Rice

A disturbing disinformation campaign is being waged by the Democrats to drive a wedge between black Republicans and the Republican Party.

For example, under the guise of helping black Republicans get elected, a notice is being circulated on the Internet, which includes the false charge that Republican Party leaders are denying access to voter registration rolls to black Republican candidates. In fact, voter registration rolls are made available, free of charge, to all political candidates by county and state election officials.

One group that is waging a disinformation campaign is called the "Majority Patriotic Pac" that is funded by unions and other far-left wing groups. They have launched an "educational" drive aimed at Republicans and Independents. Here is a link to their website.

One can only wonder why the look and feel of that website is so similar to that of the "Patriotic Pac" that has launched a campaign aimed at black Republicans. Here is a link to their website.

When black Republicans get elected, they do so in largely white Republican districts. It is Democrats who demean black Republicans in their efforts to stop black Republicans from getting elected. For more information about how Democrats attack black Republicans, see the article by Lloyd Marcus entitled "Stop Allowing The Left To Set The Rules".

Frances Rice is a retired US Army Lieutenant Colonel, a lawyer and chairman of the National Black Republican Association. She may be contacted at: www.NBRA.Info

The NBRA has launched a nationwide voter education billboard campaign and those who wish to participate in this important endeavor may please donate online by visiting our website.

The Truth About Democrat Racism

2011-06-08T19:41:00.001-04:00

THE TRUTH ABOUT DEMOCRAT RACISM

By Frances Rice

Contemptible aptly describes the race mongering by Democrats for partisan political gain. No issue, from ObamaCare to Voter ID, escapes being demagogue by Democrats with false accusations of racism leveled at Republicans who disagree with Democrats on policy. With not an ounce of shame, Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz went on the African-American network TV One's program "Washington Watch" and accused Republicans of wanting to return America to Jim Crow segregation laws, merely because they are seeking to require photo identification to register to vote.

It takes Weiner-level hubris for Democrats to conjure up the specter of Jim Crow against Republicans since Democrats enacted those discriminatory laws. The roots of modern-day racism rest squarely in the Democratic Party. As author Michael Scheuer wrote, the Democratic Party is the party of the four S's: slavery, secession, segregation and now socialism. Details about the true history of civil rights can be found in the book "Whites, Blacks and Racist Democrats" by Wayne Perryman. An excellent summary of the issue of civil rights is contained in Chapter 10 of Ann Coulter's new book "Demonic", an excerpt of which is posted on the Human Events website and shown below.

Frances Rice is a lawyer, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and chairman of the National Black Republican Association. She may be contacted on the Internet at: www.NBRA.info

_________________________________________________________

Civil Rights and the Mob: George Wallace, Bull Connor, Orval Faubus And Other Democrats
by Ann Coulter
June 7, 2011

An excerpt from Ann Coulter's new book, Demonic: How The Liberal Mob Is Endangering America.

CHAPTER 10: CIVIL RIGHTS AND THE MOB: GEORGE WALLACE, BULL CONNOR, ORVAL FAUBUS AND OTHER DEMOCRATS

It was the Democratic Party that ginned up the racist mob against blacks and it is the Democratic Party ginning every new mob today— ironically, all portraying themselves as the equivalent of the Freedom Riders. With real civil rights secure—try to find a restaurant that won't serve a black person—modern civil rights laws benefit only the mob, not the victims of the mob, as American blacks had been. Just as fire seeks oxygen, Democrats seek power, which is why they will always be found championing the mob whether the mob consists of Democrats lynching blacks or Democrats slandering the critics of ObamaCare as racists.

Democrats have gone from demagoguing white (trash) voters with claims that Republicans are the party of blacks, to demagoguing black voters telling them Republicans are the party of racists. Any mob in a storm.

The liberal fairy tale that Southern bigots simply switched parties, from Democrat to Republican, is exactly wrong. What happened is: The Democrats switched mobs. Democrats will champion any group of hooligans in order to attain power. As Michael Barone said of the vicious segregationist (and Democrat) George Wallace, he was "a man who really didn't believe in anything—a political opportunist who used opposition to integration to try and get himself ahead."

This is why the Democrats are able to transition so seamlessly from defending Bull Connor racists to defending Black Panthers, hippies, yippies, Weathermen, feminists, Bush derangement syndrome liberals, Moveon.org, and every other indignant, angry mob.

Every segregationist who ever served in the Senate was a Democrat and remained a Democrat except one. Even Strom Thurmond—the only one who later became a Republican—remained a Democrat for eighteen years after running for president as a Dixiecrat. There's a reason they were not called the "Dixiecans."

A curious sleight of hand is required to hide from the children the fact that all the segregationists in the Senate were Democrats. In history books, such as Robert A. Caro's biography of Lyndon Johnson, the segregationists are not called "Democrats." They're called "Southerners."3

Except it wasn't just "Southerners" voting against civil rights. Not every senator who opposed black civil rights was a Southerner, but every one was a Democrat. In addition to the Southern Democrats who voted against putting the 1957 civil rights bill on the Senate calendar, for example, there were five Democrats from nowhere near the South: Democratic senator Wayne Morse of Oregon—a favorite target of Senator Joe McCarthy—Democratic senator Warren Magnuson of Washington, Democratic senator James Murray of Montana, Democratic senator Mike Mansfield of Montana, and Democratic senator Joseph O'Mahoney of Wyoming.4

According to Caro, the Western Democrats traded their votes on civil rights for a dam authorization on the Idaho-Oregon border. That's how dear black civil rights were to liberals—they traded them away for a dam.

While Democrats are the party of the mob, Republicans are the party of calm order, willing to breach the peace only when it comes to great transgressions against humanity—slavery, abortion, and terrorism.

After the Civil War, it was Republicans who passed the Thirteenth Amendment, granting slaves their freedom; the Fourteenth Amendment, granting them citizenship; and Fifteenth Amendment, giving them the right to vote. It was Republicans who sent federal troops to the Democratic South to enforce the hard-won rights of the freed slaves.

Then, as now, the Democrats favored the hooligans. The Ku Klux Klan was originally formed as a terrorist group to attack Republicans who had come to the Democratic South after the Civil War to help enforce legal equality for freed slaves.

It was—again—Republicans who passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the Reconstruction Act of 1867, both signed into law by Re- publican president Ulysses S. Grant. Under the "living Constitution," the Supreme Court upheld fraudulent "separate but equal" accommodations for blacks in the 1896 case Plessy v. Ferguson.

Republicans kept introducing federal civil rights bills and Democrats kept blocking them—a bill to protect black voters in the South in 1890; anti lynching bills in 1922, 1935, and 1938; and anti–poll tax bills in 1942, 1944, and 1946.

With a lock on the racist mob vote, Democratic politicians won elections and promptly re-segregated the entire South with Jim Crow laws. In 1913, Progressive Democrat president Woodrow Wilson even instituted segregation in Washington, D.C., bringing Jim Crow to the federal workforce. Wilson summarily dismissed black officials from their federal jobs in the South and in D.C.

A friend of Wilson said that with him running the country, "Negroes should expect to be treated as a servile race."7 There's your post- racial Democratic Party.

A crucial part of the Democrats' victim folklore is that they have been losing the South to Republicans over the past half century because the Democrats stood on principle to oppose race discrimination, while the Republican Party pandered to racists in the South—a region of the country liberals believe is composed primarily of Klan members. (That might be your first clue as to why Southerners don't like liberals.) The Republican Party's allegedly racist appeal to Southerners is darkly referred to seventeen times a day in the mainstream media as the "Southern Strategy."

In fact, it was Eisenhower who broke the Democrats' hold on the South in 1952, and if anyone was appealing to bigots that year, it wasn't Eisenhower. Democrat Adlai Stevenson, known to experience "personal discomfort in the presence of Negroes,"12 chose as his running mate John Sparkman of Alabama, a Democrat segregationist.

And yet the Old South—which according to mainstream media accounts voted Republican solely out of racial resentment—suddenly started voting Republican in 1952. Ike carried Tennessee, Virginia, and Florida outright, and nearly stole Kentucky, North Carolina, and West Virginia from Stevenson. (Eisenhower lost Kentucky by a microscopic .07 percent and lost West Virginia and South Carolina by fewer than 4 percentage points.)

This was just four years after Democrat-turned-Dixiecrat Strom Thurmond won four Southern states. But running with a segregationist didn't help Stevenson in the South a few years later.

Then, in 1956, the Republican Party platform endorsed the Supreme Court's 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education that desegregated public schools; the Democratic platform did not, and would not, as long as Democrats were winning elections by appealing to the racist mob. This led the black congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr. to break with his party and endorse Eisenhower for president.

Governor Orval Faubus, progressive New Deal Democrat, blocked the schoolhouse door to the Little Rock Central High School with the state's National Guard rather than allow nine black students to attend. In response, President Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National Guard to take it out of Faubus's hands. Then he sent the 101st Air- borne Division to walk the black children to school and stay with them throughout the day.

Eisenhower implemented the 1948 executive order President Truman had issued—but then ignored—desegregating the military. Also unlike Truman, Eisenhower hired blacks for prominent positions in his administration.

It was Republicans who overwhelmingly introduced, promoted, and passed every civil rights act from the end of the Civil War right up to and including the 1964 Civil Rights Act. President Eisenhower pushed the Civil Rights Act of 1957, written by Attorney General Herbert Brownell, guaranteeing black voting rights, to be enforced by the U.S. Department of Justice.

During the endless deliberation on Eisenhower's civil rights bill, Senator Lyndon Johnson warned his fellow segregationist Democrats, "Be ready to take up the goddamned nigra bill again." Senator Sam Ervin, another liberal luminary—instrumental in the destruction of anti-communist Republicans Joe McCarthy and Richard Nixon—told his fellow segregationists, "I'm on your side, not theirs," and advised them to face up to the fact that "we've got to give the goddamned niggers something."14

Until 1964, every civil rights act had presented no possible constitutional problems—those federal laws were fully within Congress's enumerated powers to enact because they were directed at government officials (Democrats) who were violating the Constitution by denying black citizens the right to vote.

Federal laws aimed at discrimination by government actors are expressly within Congress's authority under the Fourteenth Amendment. The Democrats opposed these civil rights laws not because of any questions about Congress's authority to enact them—they couldn't care less about the Constitution—but because they wanted to keep discriminating.

The 1964 Civil Rights Act was again supported overwhelmingly by Republicans and less so by Democrats. As with the 1957 and 1960 civil rights acts, it was Republicans who passed the 1964 Civil Rights Act by huge majorities, with a distinctly smaller majority of Democrats sup- porting it. In the Senate, for example, 82 percent of Republicans voted for the 1964 Civil Rights Act, compared with only 66 percent of Democrats. In the House, 80 percent of Republicans supported the '64 bill, compared with only 63 percent of Democrats.

The only reason Democratic majorities were beginning to support civil rights for blacks was that by 1964—thanks to Republican voting rights acts—more blacks were voting. Democrats couldn't keep winning elections in some parts of the country by appealing to the racist mob.

As Democratic senator Carter Glass of Virginia had explained years earlier, "Discrimination! Why that is exactly what we propose," saying the Democrats sought to "remove every negro voter who can be gotten rid of, legally, without materially impairing the numerical strength of the white electorate." The Democrats' position on civil rights depended on where the votes were.

Once the Democrats got involved, civil rights became just another racket with another mob. Unlike previous civil rights laws, the 1964 Civil Rights Act included provisions aimed at purely private actors, raising the hackles of some constitutional purists, notably Barry Goldwater, the Republicans' 1964 presidential nominee. Goldwater, like the rest of his party, had supported every single civil rights bill until the 1964 act. But he broke with the vast majority of his fellow Republicans to oppose the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Like many other conservatives opposed to a living, growing, breathing Constitution, Goldwater actually opposed only two of the seven major provisions of the bill—those regulating privately owned housing and public accommodations. But there were other provisions he would have made tougher. For example, Goldwater wanted to make it mandatory that federal funds be withheld from programs practicing discrimination, rather than discretionary, as President Kennedy had requested.

Goldwater was a vehement foe of segregation. He was a founder of the NAACP in Arizona, donating the equivalent of several thousand dollars to the organization's efforts to integrate the public schools. When he was head of the Arizona National Guard, he had integrated the state Guard before Harry Truman announced he was integrating the U.S. military. As the Washington Post said, Goldwater "ended racial segregation in his family department stores, and he was instrumental in ending it in Phoenix schools and restaurants and in the Arizona National Guard."

But he was also a believer in limited government. It was, after all, racist Democratic politicians in the South using the force of the government to violate private property rights by enforcing the Jim Crow laws in the first place. As Sowell points out, it wasn't the private bus companies demanding that blacks sit in the back of the bus, it was the government.

Goldwater not only had personally promoted desegregation, he be-longed to a party that had been fighting for civil rights for the previous century against Democratic obstructionism. Lyndon Johnson voted against every civil rights bill during his tenure in the Senate. But by the time he became president, he had flipped 180 degrees. Appealing to regional mobs wouldn't work with a national electorate.

Unlike mob-appeasing Democrats, Goldwater based his objections to certain parts of the 1964 Civil Rights Act on purely constitutional principles. Along with other constitutional purists in the Republican Party, Goldwater opposed federal initiatives in a lot of areas, not just those involving race. By contrast, segregationist Democrats routinely criticized the exercise of federal power and expenditure of federal funds when it involved ending discrimination against blacks—but gladly accepted federal pork projects for their states.

It would be as if, after fighting the Democrats for a hundred years over the issue of abortion, Republicans finally got Roe v. Wade over- turned, and then, out of pure political calculation, Democrats jumped on the bandwagon and demanded a federal law outlawing abortion. Some pro-life Republicans would probably object that federal law outlawing abortion is not one of Congress's enumerated powers.

On the basis of Republicans' constitutional objections, Democrats would then reverse the entire history of the pro-life movement and start claiming the Democratic Party alone fought to end abortion in America. That is exactly what they have done with the history of civil rights.

Ann Coulter is Legal Affairs Correspondent for HUMAN EVENTS and author of High Crimes and Misdemeanors, Slander, Treason, How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must), Godless, If Democrats Had Any Brains, They'd Be Republicans, Guilty: Liberal "Victims" and their Assault on America, and the forthcoming Demonic: How The Liberal Mob Is Endangering America.

Donate To The NBRA

2011-02-16T13:00:00.001-05:00

DONATE TO THE NATIONAL BLACK REPUBLICAN ASSOCIATION

You can help.

We have launched our 2011-2012 NBRA Youth Voter Education Campaign that will enlighten young people about the conservative values and rich civil rights legacy of the Republican Party, in time for the 2012 election.

Our NBRA Youth Voter Education Tool Kit will be sent to Republican groups and our NBRA grassroots activists on college campuses around the country. Included are our educational materials that have already proven to be very effective in opening the eyes of ordinary Americans, such as yourself.

You can help pay the cost of printing and shipping the materials with donations in any amount by check or money order made payable to the National Black Republican Association and sent to:

National Black Republican Association
4594 Chase Oaks Drive
Sarasota, FL 34241-9183

The NBRA is an IRS Section 501(c)4 organization. Donations are not tax deductible.

Thank you in advance for your assistance with this important endeavor at this crucial time in our nation's history.

Warm regards,

Frances Rice
Chairman
National Black Republican Association
www.NBRA.Info

_________________________________

About The NBRA

Our vision is that black Americans will become power players in the political arena so that they can seize control over their own destiny and move into our ownership society through small business and home ownership.

MISSION: The mission of the National Black Republican Association (NBRA) is to be a resource for the black community on Republican ideals and promote the traditional values of the black community which are the core values of the Republican Party: strong families, faith in God, personal responsibility, quality education, and equal opportunities for all.

GOAL: The goal of the NBRA is to return black Americans to their Republican Party roots by enlightening them about how Republicans fought for their freedom and civil rights, and are now fighting for their educational and economic advancement.

OBJECTIVES: The objectives of the NBRA are to conduct a nationwide grassroots educational campaign in black communities; champion school choice opportunity scholarships to give black parents educational options and access to a quality education for their children; and provide training and resources for grassroots activists and candidates for elected office.

Obama Fights Against School Choice For Black Children

2011-01-31T15:27:00.001-05:00

OBAMA FIGHTS AGAINST SCHOOL CHOICE FOR BLACK CHILDREN

By Frances Rice

With not one scintilla of shame, President Barack Obama continuously blocks all efforts to provide school choice opportunity scholarships for poor black children that would help them get out of failed inner-city schools. Obama's total lack of concern about the plight of the poor is stunning, but not surprising in light of his socialist ideology and slavish loyalty to teachers' unions who put their own selfish economic interest above the basic educational needs of poor blacks.

Ignoring the tears and pleas of black students, Obama terminated the school choice program in the District of Columbia in his 2011 budget, sending impoverished children back into the failed DC public school system where they are not even being taught to read, write and do simple math. This lack of basic skills needed for employment and prosperity provides the toxic fuel for the deplorable conditions in black inner-city communities. In those urban cesspools there is staggering school truancy and black-on-black crime, ranging from rape, car-jacking, drug-trafficking, theft and murder. Seventy-percent of black babies are born out of wedlock, the school drop-out rate is over fifty-percent and the unemployment rate is an incredible seventeen-percent.

The documented crisis in black communities stirs no emotional reaction in Obama. Undoubtedly, the disgraceful situation in black neighborhoods is the direct result of the disastrous socialist policies of Democrats who have been running those communities for the past 60 years. Even more contemptible is the fact that Obama and his fellow Democrats have built their power base on the backs of poor blacks and readily engage in the despicable practice of race-baiting and victim mongering to win elections.

While Obama is busily catering to teachers' unions for his own partisan political gain, black parents are frantically trying to elevate the worth of their children's education. Sadly, a low-income mother in Ohio, Kelley Williams-Bolar who got her daughters into a quality school outside of her district of residence, was prosecuted, convicted and sentenced severely because she did not comply with the strict letter of the law. This desperate act by a loving mother, which resulted in her being deemed a criminal, demonstrates clearly that black parents do, indeed, want their children to be well-educated.

The untenable public school status quo has resulted in parents binding together in groups around the country in a quest to obtain educational reform and parental choice. One such organization is the Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO), and that group can be found on the Internet at: www.baeo.org. The National Black Republican Association supports this effort and urges all concerned citizens to join the cause and help ensure a better, brighter future for all of America's children, especially the disadvantaged.

Frances Rice is a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel and Chairman of the National Black Republican Association. She may be contacted at: www.NBRA.info

Thank You, Chairman Steele

2010-12-03T21:51:00.001-05:00

THANK YOU, CHAIRMAN STEELE

By Frances Rice

The mark of a great leader is success on the battlefield. This axiom applies equally to military and political campaigns. A testament to the extraordinarily successful leadership of Michael Steele as chairman of the Republican National Committee is reflected in the 2010 tidal wave election that propelled a record number of Republicans into office and shocked Democrats to their core.

Two years ago when Chairman Steele was first elected after a spirited and hard-fought battle where several other candidates were vying for the RNC chairmanship, the political landscape for Republicans looked bleak. Faced with the results of the 2006 Congressional election debacle for Republicans and the loss of the presidency in 2008 to a charismatic liberal Democrat, President Barack Obama, Chairman Steele launched a bold strategy for a Republican resurgence. His vision was to focus on listening to average Americans and communicating the Republican Party's founding principles of lower taxes, less government, more freedom and individual responsibility. This tactical move proved providential as average Americans spontaneously started a grassroots Tea Party movement against the Democratic Party's out-of-control spending that destroyed our economy, grew the government and eroded our basic freedoms.

The following statement issued by Chairman Steele after the astonishing 2010 election results shows his recognition of and respect for the power of the people.

"Tonight, we learned that our democracy is alive and well and that voters, not politicians, will be the ones who direct the course of our great nation. After two years of arrogance on behalf of Democrats towards their constituents, the American people have taken an important step to reclaim the reins of their country by making the important decision to fire Nancy Pelosi. Tonight, voters rejected the economic policies that have resulted in nearly double-digit unemployment and record-breaking budget deficits. They have rejected the belief that government can run our health care system, automobile companies, and student loan industry better then we can. Most importantly, they have rejected the politics of President Obama where the people's business is conducted behind closed doors.

"Two years ago, the Republican Party was said to be in the wilderness without a cohesive message or a plan of action. So we listened to the American people and remained true to our core principles of limited government and fiscal responsibility. Today, the Republican Party has reemerged stronger and closer to the people who put their faith in us. The new Republican majority in the House of Representatives was elected on a promise to put a check on the liberal agenda and reckless spending of the Obama Administration. We intend to make good on that promise so that the families of today can once again afford the American dream."

Without a doubt, Chairman Steele possesses the qualities of all great leaders who are able to develop and execute a winning strategy while bravely enduring hostile fire from opponents and detractors. With this article we in the National Black Republican Association wish to express our gratitude to Chairman Steele for his dedication and untiring labors on behalf of our nation during a time of grave economic and political peril. The Republican Party would be well served if Chairman Steele seeks a second term and is so elected.

Frances Rice, a lawyer and retired Army lieutenant colonel, is the chairman of the National Black Republican Association. She may be contacted at: www.NBRA.info

____________________________

A note from NBRA Chairman Frances Rice: Absent from media speculation about a second term for RNC Chairman Michael Steele is a recounting of details about his accomplishments. Listed below are but a few of his achievements extracted from an RNC fact sheet released before the 2010 election.

____________________________

For Information Contact: Republican National Committee
310 First Street, SE | Washington, D.C. 20003
| p: 202.863.8500 | f: 202.863.8820 | e: info@gop.com

The RNC By The Numbers

Building at the Grassroots by Affirming Conservative Principles

The RNC has gotten back to the values that define the party, and won back the support of grassroots conservative voters, thus boosting turnout for GOP candidates, and averting third party challenges.

The result: for the first time since 1930, more Republican voters voted in statewide primaries. Four million more GOP than Democrat voters voted in 35 primaries held before September 1^st.

Fundraising

The RNC has raised and spent more money on behalf of Republican candidates-by far-than any other entity, including both official GOP campaign committees and nominally independent groups that are not bound by the legal limits that apply to the RNC.

The RNC already has smashed the record for most money collected in a cycle by any committee whose party does not control Congress or the White House. Thus far, RNC receipts already exceed $175 MILLION, 34% more than the previous record set by the DNC over the entire 2006 cycle.

Thus far in the 2010 cycle, the RNC already has exceeded the amount of hard money raised by the RNC in 1994, even after adjusting for inflation.

Over 1,000,000 donors have given so far this year-far more than the last mid-term election year-with over 220,000 donations in September alone.

To date, the RNC has gained over 665,000 NEW donors this cycle, far more than the last mid-term.

The RNC's expanded donor base reflects its grassroots focus: the average gift is $43.71.

Ground Game, Technology, and GOTV

The RNC has established 360 Victory offices with paid and volunteer staff all across the country, compared to just 154 Victory offices in 2008 and 140 in 2006.

The RNC is fighting for votes in every part of the country, in every community, and among every voter group, with a renewed focus on the state and local levels. The RNC invested $9.5 million in the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial races, up from $1.2 million in 2005, ensuring that those wins provided critical momentum for the Republican Revival of 2010.

The RNC already has made over 34 million voter contacts, far more than even the 2008 presidential.

The RNC website has been completely revamped in 2009, making it a true "web platform". The number of page views are up 159%. Email has been vastly improved: the RNC has a 40% open rate-up from about 3% in 2008-and a click through rate of close to 15%.

Black Republicans and Election 2010

2010-11-04T16:44:00.001-04:00

BLACK REPUBLICANS AND ELECTION 2010

By Frances Rice

The message from voters in the 2010 election was two-fold: a rejection of President Barack Obama's job-killing Socialist agenda and a denunciation of the Democratic Party's divisive politics of race-baiting. The accusation by Democrats that the Republican Party is a racist party was exposed, once again, to be absolutely false when these three black Republicans, shown below, won their elections and were added to the long list of black Republicans already serving in elected positions in multiple states at various levels of government. Newly elected to Congress are Tim Scott in South Carolina and Allen West in Florida. Also in Florida, Jennifer Carroll became that state's lieutenant governor, the first black woman Republican ever elected to this position. These victorious candidates received scant media coverage since they contradict the image promoted by Democrats that the Republican Party is racist.

During the election, Obama and his fellow Democrats tried to avoid the political tsunami by resorting to acts of desperation, including scraping the bottom of the Democratic Party's racist barrel. Blacks in Florida were startled and incensed when former President Bill Clinton, at the apparent behest of Obama, tried to get black Democrat U. S. Rep. Kendrick Meek to drop out of the race for U. S. Senate and endorse white Gov. Charlie Crist, the one-time Republican who ran as an independent after withdrawing from the Republican Party primary. There would have been a firestorm of charges of racism by the liberal media and black civil rights organizations, such as the NAACP, had a white Republican tried to force a black Democrat out of a race for any elected office.

So, what was a focus for the NAACP during the 2010 election? That once great organization was busily digging its own grave of irrelevancy by issuing a bogus and racially incendiary report written by far left wingers in the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights. That report falsely accused the Tea Party activists of being racist because they oppose Obama's socialist agenda and want to reduce the size of our government, cut spending and keep our taxes low. Without a doubt, the NAACP report was a blatant attempt to get black voters to the polls by stirring up hatred against their fellow white Americans who Obama described as "the enemy."

Not surprising, the NAACP's report backfired and may well have been the final nail in the coffin of white guilt. In his Internet blog posting entitled "Why I Won't Be Reading the NAACP's Report on Tea Party Racism," pundit Roger Simon wrote the following analysis.

"[T]he NAACP has become a creator, not a fighter, of racism. They are in the racism business, fanning the flames in order to survive, and I won't be reading their shameful, phony propagandistic report on the supposed bigotry in the Tea Party movement just being issued today in time for the election. Life is too short. If it were centuries long, it would be too short.

"But am I attacking this report without reading it? Indeed I am. If Nancy Pelosi can shove through Congress sweeping health care legislation that changes the economy of our country without reading it, I certainly can attack some trivial report on my little Internet blog after only glancing at the first paragraph and the names of the authors.

"There is, however, a serious issue represented by this report. We have come to a moment in our national development when identity based organizations like the NAACP have a strong vested interest in impeding progress, especially for the groups they purport to represent. If things get better for black people, the NAACP has no reason for being — or must devolve into some kind of social club."

Frances Rice is a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel and Chairman of the National Black Republican Association. She may be contacted at: www.NBRA.info

NBRA Fifth Anniversary Event Report

2010-09-18T17:12:00.001-04:00

<http://www.nationalblackrepublicans.com/images/background.gif>

NBRA FIFTH ANNIVERSARY EVENT REPORT

<http://cache.trustedpartner.com/images/library/NationalBlackRepublicanAssoc
iation2009/Jennifer%20Carroll.png>
Representative Jennifer Carroll

Florida House Representative Jennifer Carroll who is the Republican Party's
candidate for Florida's lieutenant governor was the keynote speaker for the
Fifth Anniversary Celebration of the National Black Republican Association
that was held in Sarasota, Florida on September 16, 2010. During the
festivities a congratulatory letter from RNC Chairman Michael Steele was
read and awards were presented to NBRA grassroots activists and supporters.
Among the awardees were Sarasota County Commissioner Carolyn Mason who was
presented with the NBRA's Chairman's Award and seven of our grassroots
activists who were recognized as NBRA Pioneers. At a previous quarterly
meeting of the Republican Party of Florida, Rep. Carroll was honored with
the NBRA's Booker T. Washington Award. Photographs of the NBRA Fifth
Anniversary Celebration can be seen on the NBRA website
<http://www.nbra.info/index.cfm?fuseaction=photo.album&id=37&x=4373494> and
NBRA Facebook page
<http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=493002&id=10150140745820471> .

Announced during the NBRA Fifth Anniversary event was the play, The Women of
Bradville, written by NBRA Chairman Frances Rice about the true history of
civil rights that is being produced by Bowie State University (BSU) in
Maryland. The first reading of the play was held at The Kennedy Center on
September 5, 2010 and will be premiered at BSU in 2011. A notice will be
posted on the NBRA website and NBRA Facebook page as soon as the date of the
premier is announced by BSU.

We extend our thanks to all of our grassroots activists and supporters for
your help with making our educational campaign so successful over the past
five years. We greatly appreciate your continued hard work as we move forth
with our mission of enlightening our fellow citizens about the rich civil
rights legacy and principles of the Republican Party so that we can return
African Americans to their Republican Party roots.

To learn more about the NBRA visit our website at: www.NBRA.info

To learn more about the
<http://www.rickscottforflorida.com/home/uncategorized/2010/09/10/2701/>
Rick Scott/Jennifer Carroll campaign click here.

Frances Rice
Chairman

<http://hydra.trustedpartner.com/fusion/count.cfm?mqid=1074&cid=47143&d=Nati
onalBlackRepublicanAssociation2009>

Black Rep. Jennifer Carroll - Rick Scott's Choice for FL Lt Governor

2010-09-02T13:49:00.001-04:00

BLACK REPUBLICAN JENNIFER CARROLL - RICK SCOTT'S CHOICE FOR FLORIDA'S LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR

By Frances Rice

The NBRA congratulates Florida State Representative Jennifer Carroll who was selected by Rick Scott, the Republican nominee for Florida's governor, to be his running mate. A 20-year U. S. Navy veteran and small business woman with over seven years of experience in the Florida legislature, Rep. Carroll is a superb choice to be Florida's first black Republican lieutenant governor. She is the Florida House Representative for District 13, which is in Jacksonville, and is the first black Republican woman to be part of a statewide ticket in Florida.

Rep. Carroll has realized the American Dream. As a young girl, she legally immigrated to America from Trinidad, West Indies and served her country in the United States Navy, starting as an enlisted member and retiring as a Lieutenant Commander. She obtained a higher education and subsequently started a small business. She was first elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 2003 and was subsequently re-elected in 2004, 2006, and 2008. She was appointed Deputy Majority Leader by Speaker Johnnie Byrd for the period 2003 to 2004 and served as the Majority Whip from 2004 to 2006.

Rep. Carroll was the recipient of the NBRA's Pioneer Award in 2007. She was also a keynote speaker at NBRA's first annual Black Republican Forum and was featured in the 2007 edition of the NBRA magazine, The Black Republican.

She is the former Executive Director of the Florida Department of Veterans' Affairs. While serving with that agency, she was responsible for the claims and benefits of over 1.8 million veterans. Under her leadership, more than $63 million in retroactive compensation was awarded in 2001 to Florida Veterans. She was responsible for the agency's $30 million budget, legislation, three state nursing homes and one domiciliary home.

Rep. Carroll is the former Chairperson of the Florida's Council on Homelessness, and the Honorary Chair of the Florida Assembly of Black Republicans. Currently, she is the Chairperson of the Republican Party of Florida African American Leadership Council.

Among her honors, Rep. Carroll received the First Coast African American Women Award in 1998; the Clay County Chamber of Commerce Military Person of the Year Award in 1996; the YMCA Black Achievers Award in 1996; and the Clay County Young Republican Club "One of Clay's Most Influential People" Award.

As a small business owner, she knows what is required to create jobs. Rep. Carroll is a perfect match for Rick Scott since she shares his conservative values of smaller government, lower taxes, reducing regulation, individual freedom and personal responsibility. She also opposes the out-of-control spending of stimulus money that creates massive deficits, grows the government and kills private-sector jobs. She has vowed to fight to end government control of healthcare through ObamaCare and increased regulations, such as cap and trade.

"I want to thank Rick Scott for the opportunity to join him in this race as his pick for Lieutenant Governor," Rep. Carroll said during an interview. "Floridians are ready to elect a conservative outsider with private sector experience and a plan to create 700,000 jobs. Rick and I share core conservative principles like lower taxes, less regulation, and smaller government. I look forward to campaigning with Rick against Alex Sink, Rod Smith and their liberal agenda."

Scott's choice of Rep. Carroll, a smart and capable black woman, to be his running mate demonstrates his continued commitment to equality of opportunity, a founding principle of the Republican Party that was started in 1854 as the anti-slavery party and championed civil rights for blacks from the 1860's through the 1960's until today.

To learn more about the historic Scott-Carroll gubernatorial campaign, visit their website.

Frances Rice is a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel, a lawyer and chairman of the National Black Republican Association.

Related links:

Scott Carroll press release

Florida Times-Union - Rick Scott: Jennifer Carroll will help me get state moving again

The Lesson of Dr. Laura – Impeach Obama?

2010-08-22T21:54:00.001-04:00

THE LESSON OF DR. LAURA – IMPEACH OBAMA?

By Frances Rice

Since zero tolerance for those who hurt blacks is the lesson learned from the Dr. Laura Schlessinger N-word controversy, then the question becomes should President Barack Obama be impeached for the massive hurt he inflicted on black Americans with his corrupt failed socialism?

There is abundant evidence that Obama has repeatedly violated the "Schlessinger Standard" that justifies driving from the public square all who harm blacks.

In his book "Dreams from My Father", Obama describes what he and other Democrats do to poor blacks as "plantation politics" – a strategy that condemns blacks to dependency on government handouts and generational poverty. Obama and the Democrats have built their power base on the backs of poor blacks and want to keep blacks poor, angry and voting for Democrats.

Stark details about the crisis in black communities created by the socialist policies of Obama and his fellow Democrats are provide by Phillip Jackson in his article "Black America loses gamble in electing first black president." Jackson opines that "Black America mistakenly traded the future of its young black men for a black president."

Further, Jackson points out how black families are in deep despair, with 70% of black children born into single, female-headed households. Jackson reveals the fact that black men are living beyond a "state of emergency." The black male population is only 1% to 3% on many major college campuses, while black men comprise up to 50% to 80% of the prison rolls, even though they are only 7% of the total population in the United States. A report from the National Center for Children in Poverty shows that 35% of black children live in poverty. In the ten most populated states, "rates of child poverty among black children range from 26% in California to 51% in Ohio."

In the face of the dismal conditions in black communities, Obama cut funding for historical black colleges. He ended school choice scholarships in the District of Columbia and sent poor black children back to failing schools, showing that he cares more about the special interest of teachers unions than he does about poor black children. He denied thousands of black farmers their full court award of over three billion dollars that they were awarded from a discrimination law suit and caused many black farmers to lose their farms. Obama's out-of-control spending killed private-sector jobs and created nearly twenty percent black unemployment.

Since Obama became president, an ignominious end has come to the Boys Choir of Harlem after 40 years of award-winning singing, starting in 1968, by young performers with world-class voices who had emerged from some of the most difficult neighborhoods of New York. Many of the choir's materials, like copies of handwritten scores and its trademark burgundy blazers, now sit in black garbage bags and open boxes in a church's damp dirt-floor basement, amid overturned tables and sacks of plaster of Paris.

Another casualty of the Obama economy is the Ebony Fashion Fair starring black models, a show sponsored by the Johnson Publishing Company that also publishes Ebony and Jet magazines. The Miami Herald described the 50-year-old fair as a traveling style show that showcases the work of dozens of designers from around the world, while also raising money for scholarships, cancer research and local charities in the areas where it stops.

The pain wreaked by Obama and Democrats on poor blacks dwarfs any smarting felt by black Americans from Schlessinger's tirade on her talk show, using the N-word to demonstrate the hypocrisy of blacks freely using the N-word while whites are forbidden from exercising the same freedom of speech.

In his article "Dr. Laura Got it Right About the N Word" Earl Ofari Hutchinson provides an unvarnished analysis of Schlessinger's actions when he wrote the following.

"[S]he got it right about the word, or more particularly who uses it, condones it, and even glories in it. And that's the legion of black comedians and rappers that have virtually canonized the word. They sprinkle the word throughout their rap lyrics and comedy lines; and black writers, and filmmakers go through lengthy gyrations to justify using the word. During a panel discussion at the Summer Television Critics Association tour in 2005, Aaron McGruder, creator of the popular comic strip, Boondocks, defiantly told the audience that he'd use the N' word as much as he pleased in his comic strip and in his series on the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. If folks didn't like it, well tough, said McGruder.

"N word users and apologists serve up the lame rationale that the more a black person uses the word, the less offensive it becomes, which is precisely the point Dr. Laura picked apart. They claim that they are cleansing the word of its negative connotations so that racists can no longer use it to hurt blacks. Comedian-turned-activist Dick Gregory had the same idea some years ago when he titled his autobiography, Nigger. Black writer, Robert DeCoy also tried to apply the same racial shock therapy to whites when he titled his novel, The Nigger Bible.

"The black N word apologists tick off an endless storehouse of defenses to justify use of the word. They claim that that it is a term of endearingly or affectionately. They say to each other, "You're my nigger if you don't get no bigger." Or, "that nigger sure is something." Others use it in anger or disdain, "Nigger you sure got an attitude." Or, "A nigger ain't s…." Still, others are defiant. They say they don't care what a white person calls them since words can't harm them."

In the face of such blatant use of the N-word by blacks themselves, Schlessinger was disingenuously condemned by those professing to be offended by the mere sound of the word. To be consistent with the newly established Schlessinger Standard, all blacks who invoke the N-word must be publicly castigated by anyone within earshot. Also, all black entertainers who use the N-word must be driven out of the entertainment arena now. Most important of all, this zero tolerance for hurting blacks requires that Obama be impeached immediately for the irreparable harm he has caused to poor black Americans.

All things considered, it is highly unlikely that blacks can be ever stopped from using the N-word, or that Obama will be impeached. So, our only alternative is to toss the Schlessinger Standard into the dust bin and retrieve our Constitution from the trash heap where it has been tossed by Obama. Then we can all have what Schlessinger pined for when she said "I want my freedom of speech back."

That freedom will bring to a screeching halt the labeling of people as racist because some blacks feel offended by certain words, including such innocent words as "niggardly" which simply means "stingy" or "meager." Recapturing our freedom of speech will also allow people, such as Schlessinger, to discuss openly—without being labeled a racist—whether everyone, black and white, should eliminate certain words from our public discourse, given the historical context.

It is interesting to note that while we are admonished to consider the hurt "feelings" of blacks when choosing what words may be spoken, Obama has declared that it is acceptable for a mosque to be built near Ground Zero without regard for the feelings of the victims of the Islamo-fascist terrorist attacks on September 11th.

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Frances Rice is a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel, a lawyer and chairman of the National Black Republican Association. She can be contacted at: www.NBRA.info

NBRA's 5th Anniversary

2010-08-08T20:42:00.001-04:00

NBRA FIFTH ANNIVERSARY

NBRA Fifth Anniversary – This year, we are commemorating the fifth anniversary of the National Black Republican Association (NBRA) that was organized as an all-volunteer group of grassroots activists with an education mission and a focus on recapturing the rich civil rights legacy of the Republican Party.

Since the inception of the NBRA on August 15, 2005, we have accomplished a great deal. Our activities over the past five years include (1) sponsoring two grassroots activist training courses – one in Florida and the other in Washington, DC; (2) co-sponsoring three Conservative Political Action (CPAC) Conference; (3) publishing four editions of our magazine, The Black Republican; (4) airing election-year radio ads in 2006 and 2008 on stations that target black Americans; (5) placing over 80 "Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Republican" billboards in battleground states – 50 of which were put up in Denver, Colorado during the Democratic Party's National Convention; (6) co-sponsoring our first annual Black Republican Forum at the Women's National Republican Club in New York City; and (7) placing NBRA booths at the national NAACP Convention and the National Urban League Conference. As a result of our grassroots activism, we garnered over five million hits on our website in 2008 alone, and we are well on our way to exceeding that number for 2010.

Our plans for the future include implementing an ambitious strategy for communicating our message further nationwide, with a particular emphasis on reaching more young people through college campus forums and the Internet. An exciting project is promoting a play I wrote about the history of civil rights that is being produced by a historical black college. The expectation is that the play will be taken on the road and performed at various college campuses and community theaters around the country.

NBRA Facebook Page - We encourage you to visit our new NBRA Facebook fan page and share information about our Facebook page with all who may be interested. Please click here for the NBRA Facebook page.

Thank you,

Frances Rice
Chairman
www.NBRA.Info

The Racist Wolf Bites Obama

2010-07-27T14:11:00.001-04:00

The Racist Wolf Bites Obama

By Frances Rice

The spectacle of the racist wolf biting President Barack Obama on his political posterior in the Shirley Sherrod firing debacle was, indeed, ugly and poetic justice, too, considering that the Democratic Party unleashed the beast of racial politics on America more than 150 years ago. Details about civil rights history are posted on the National Black Republican Association (NBRA) website.

Long before the Sherrod shame, Obama played the race card by wrongly accusing a white police officer in Boston of racism for arresting a black college professor after Obama acknowledged he didn’t know all the facts. Obama also authorized the Justice Department to dismiss a case against the New Black Panthers who were caught on video intimidating white voters in Philadelphia during the 2008 election.

Jockeying for political advantage, Obama attacked Arizona for trying to protect its citizens from the ravages of illegal immigration, falsely accusing the state of racial profiling in order to harvest Hispanic votes. Obama launched his assault even though he had not read Arizona’s law that mirrors federal law and explicitly prohibits racial profiling. Demonstrating just how sinister his ploy is against Arizona, racial profiling is not even mentioned in the lawsuit filed by Obama’s Justice Department. Not being sued by Obama are the sanctuary cities that are openly defying the federal immigration law which, notably, does not prohibit racial profiling and requires the reporting of illegal immigrants to federal officials.

Bolstered by not being held accountable by the liberal media for his blatant race-baiting, Obama boldly used NAACP surrogates to brand as racist Tea Party activists, just for the purpose of intimidating into silence average Americans protesting against his socialist agenda, while cleverly shoring up his black voter base.

While Obama was busily and gleefully counting the spoils of his divisive racial politics, along came Shirley Sherrod. Part of Sherrod’s NAACP speech was featured in a video Andrew Breitbart posted on the Internet. Breitbart’s intent was to expose the racial hypocrisy shown when the NAACP audience cheered as Sherrod recounted past acts of racism toward a white farmer. Included in the Breitbart video was the segment where Sherrod revealed—after the NAACP crowd had voiced approval of her prior racist actions—how she had repented.

Spooked by the specter of having the NAACP’s racial duplicity expose on the Glenn Beck television show, Obama ordered Sherrod fired immediately by Tom Vilsack, secretary of the Department of Agriculture, without due process. The NAACP covered Obama’s back by denouncing Sherrod as a racist and supporting Obama’s decision to fire her. Neither Obama nor the NAACP bothered viewing the entire video that was in the possession of the NAACP. Contrary to false assertions by Obama’s minions, Sherrod’s name was not even mentioned by either Glenn Beck or FOX News until after Obama fired her. Glenn Beck actually defended Sherrod on his program because she had expressed repentance.

While unfairly attacking FOX News, Obama’s defenders ignored how stories about Sherrod were aired on the alphabet liberal media from ABC to NBC, to CNN, to MSNBC, and so on. A liar is how Obama characterized Sherrod through his liberal media mouthpieces after Sherrod revealed during television interviews that she was told the White House wanted her fired. Conveniently omitted from most liberal press accounts about the Sherrod saga is how she, in the spirit of a committed left-winger, smeared Republicans as racists during her NAACP speech and recently advocated shutting down FOX News.

Witnessing Obama and his Democratic Party cohorts being hoisted on their own racist petard is not a pretty sight. On reflection, though, this despicable exhibition of rank race mongering may well be a turning point, the seminal moment where Obama and the Democrats cried racist wolf one time too many and were not believed by the American people.

Frances Rice, a retired lawyer and Army Lieutenant Colonel, is chairman of the National Black Republican Association and may be contacted at: www.NBRA.info

The NAACP's Racist Agenda

2010-07-13T22:44:00.000-04:00

The NAACP’s Racist Agenda

By Frances Rice

Through its double vision racial lens, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is falsely declaring as racist Tea Party Movement activists—average Americans who do not agree with the socialist agenda of the Democratic Party—while hypocritically giving a pass to Democrats who engage in real racism.

For instance, the NAACP showed no outrage over the beating by SEIU (Service Employees International Union) thugs of a black man, Kenneth Gladney, who was kicked and called a racist name while working as a vendor at a health care reform town hall meeting in St. Louis on August 6, 2009 called by U.S. Rep. Democrat Russ Carnahan. Neither does the NAACP express any concern when Democrats regularly demean black Republicans, calling us “Uncle Toms”, “Sellouts”, “House Negroes”, “House N-word”, or worse. Leaders of the NAACP seem quite comfortable being aligned with the Democratic Party described by author Michael Scheuer as the party of the four S’s: slavery, secession, segregation and now socialism. The deplorable conditions in black communities that the NAACP complains about were created by the socialist policies of the Democrats who have been running those communities for the past 50 years.

Like the hypocrites they are, the NAACP has jumped on their racial high horse in an effort to discredit average citizens involved in the Tea Party Movement, accusing them of racism, simply because they are concerned about how President Barack Obama’s massive deficit spending is turning our country into a failed socialist nation.

It matters not that the inflammatory charge of racism aimed at Tea Party protestors in Washington, DC was demonstrated to be absolutely false in the article "A Closer Look at the Capitol Steps Conspiracy" by Jack Cashill. The Democrats making the allegations produced no documentation to support the charge of racism—not one photo, not one audio, not one video—in spite of the $100,000 reward offered by Andrew Breitbart.

It is quite clear that the motivation for the NAACP’s attack on Tea Party activists is to divert the public's attention away from the fact that President Barack Obama and the Democrats in control of Congress are slowly and deliberately transforming America from a free society into one that is government-controlled, the antithesis of our nation’s foundation.

Frances Rice is a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel and Chairman of the National Black Republican Association. She may be contacted at: www.NBRA.info

Supreme Court Affirms Racist Origins of Gun Control

2010-06-28T23:08:00.001-04:00

SUPREME COURT AFFIRMS RACIST ORIGINS OF GUN CONTROL

By Frances Rice

How ironic that, on the day former exalted cyclop of the Ku Klux Klan Democrat Senator Robert Byrd died, the US Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional the gun control laws that are embedded firmly in the Democratic Party's racist roots.

At the heart of the McDonald v. City of Chicago case that is posted on the US Supreme Count's Internet site is the Court's decision that the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution - that was pushed through by Republicans after the Civil War, led by Republican Senator Charles Sumner - is the anchor that binds state and local governments to the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms for self defense.

Otis McDonald, one of the plaintiffs, is a black man who just wanted to have the right to protect himself from criminals who terrorized him in his home with frequent break-ins. The only current black US Supreme Court member, Justice Clarence Thomas who was appointed by Republican President George H. W. Bush, courageously delved into the racist origins of gun control laws to demonstrate that such laws have no place in a nation of free people. The liberal justices on the Court, including Justice Sonia Sotomayor who was appointed last year by Democrat President Barack Obama, voted against the black plaintiff and his fellow Chicago residents.

The McDonald case provides a bird eye's view of the history of Democratic Party racism. Referenced in the Court's opinion is the 1856 Republican Party Platform that includes language about the "right of the people to keep and bear arms." A key source used by the Court is the book "Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution 1863-1877" by Dr. Eric Foner whose biography can be found on the Internet.

Forner's book reveals how, before the Civil War ended, Southern States enacted "Slave Codes" that prohibited slaves from owning firearms. After Republican President Abraham Lincoln issued the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation that freed slaves in the rebelling States, and after Republicans pushed through the Thirteenth Amendment freeing all the remaining slaves, Democrats in the South persisted in keeping the newly freed slaves from owning the means to protect themselves - guns.

The Supreme Court in the McDonald decision wrote about how, after the Civil War, the Southern States started passing laws, called "Black Codes", to systematically disarm blacks, specifically the over 180,000 blacks who returned to the States of the old Confederacy after serving in the Union Army. In response to the "Black Codes," the Republican-controlled Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866. But the Democrats would not be deterred. Very soon after the 1866 law was enacted, Alabama, followed by other Southern States, again passed "Black Codes" that made it illegal for blacks to own firearms.

Cited by the Court in the McDonald case, as an example of such a discriminatory code, is the Mississippi law that stated: "no freedman, free negro or mulatto, not in the military service of the United States government, and not licensed so to do by the board of police of his or her county, shall keep or carry fire-arms of any kind, or any ammunition, dirk or bowie knife." In one Southern town, according to the Supreme Court, the marshal confiscated the weapons of the returning black Union soldiers and, at every opportunity, promptly shot black people.

The Court's McDonald decision records that: "Throughout the South, armed parties, often consisting of ex-Confederate soldiers serving in the state militias, forcibly took firearms from newly freed slaves". In his book about Reconstruction, Dr. Foner revealed that in 1866, the Ku Klux Klan was started as a Tennessee social club. The Klan then became a military force serving the interests of the Democratic Party and spread into other Southern States, launching a "reign of terror" against Republican leaders, black and white. The Klan would "order the colored men to give up their arms; saying that everybody would be Kukluxed in whose house fire-arms were found".

In the McDonald decision, the Court pointed out how the Republican-controlled Congress, while debating the Fourteenth Amendment, referred to the right to keep and bear arms as a fundamental right deserving of protection. Republican Senator Samuel Pomeroy described three "indispensable" "safeguards of liberty under our form of Government", one of which was the right to keep and bear arms. Pomeroy said: "Every man . . . should have the right to bear arms for the defense of himself and family and his homestead. And if the cabin door of the freedman is broken open and the intruder enters for purposes as vile as were known to slavery, then should a well-loaded musket be in the hand of the occupant to send the polluted wretch to another world, where his wretchedness will forever remain complete".

Pomeroy's words reflect exactly the sentiment expressed by Otis McDonald when he and his fellow Chicagoans filed a law suit against the Democrat-controlled City of Chicago that had confiscated their weapons, leaving them to the mercy of intruders who had broken open his door and entered his home for vile purposes.

Frances Rice, a retired lawyer and Army Lieutenant Colonel, is chairman of the National Black Republican Association and may be contacted at: www.NBRA.info

Black Republicans Make History

2010-06-24T18:08:00.000-04:00

BLACK REPUBLICANS MAKE HISTORY

By Frances Rice

Congratulations to the black Republican candidates who won their primaries several months ago, as well as on June 22nd, the most notable of whom is Tim Scott of South Carolina who received over 68 percent of the vote in the Republican Party runoff. A Charleston resident, Scott is also a state representative and previously served 13 years on the Charleston County Council. He is vying to become South Carolina's first black Republican congressman in more than a century. If successful in November, Scott would be among the first black Republican legislators elected since the 2003 retirement of J.C. Watts from Oklahoma.

Scott and the other black Republican nominees, if elected in 2010, would join the ranks of the first blacks who were elected to Congress during the Reconstruction era - all Republicans. On the list that is posted on the NBRA website are the first two black Senators and the 21 black members of the House of Representatives.

Hiram Rhodes Revels of Mississippi was the first black elected as a United States Senator, serving from 1870 to 1871. He was followed in the Senate by black Republican Blanche K. Bruce of Mississippi. Republican Joseph Rainey of South Carolina was the first black to enter the House of Representatives.

During the era of Reconstruction, Democrats - using the Ku Klux Klan - launched a reign of terror against Republican leaders, especially black Republican elected officials. The brutal acts by Democrats was the reason there were no more black Republicans elected to Congress for nearly one hundred years, until the election of Edward Brooks of Massachusetts in 1966.

Racism in the Democratic Party - past and present - is buried by the liberal press since it does not fit within the media template where the Republican Party is painted as a racist party. The charge that the Republican Party lacks diversity prevails in spite of the existence of around two million black Republicans in America. Also disregarded by the media is the fact that a black man, Michael Steele, is chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Invisible to liberal journalists are talented black Republicans such as NFL hall of famer Lynn Swann; boxing promoter Don King; singer/songwriter Lloyd Marcus; actor/wrestler Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson; rapper/actor James "LL Cool J" Todd Smith; and businessman/talk show host Herman Cain.

Virtually no credit is given to Republican leaders for their inclusiveness, including President George W. Bush who appointed more blacks to high-level positions than any president in our nation's history. Bush's appointees included Gen. Colin Powell as the first black Secretary of State and Dr. Condoleezza Rice as the first black woman Secretary of State. Both of these accomplished black Republicans were derided as "House Negroes" by Democrats.

While denouncing the Republican Party because so few blacks attend Republican meetings, journalists overlook how the denigration of black Republicans by Democrats instills in most blacks a reluctance to become politically active in the Republican Party.

Systematically ignored by the press are Republican-sponsored meetings attended by large numbers of blacks. Journalists avoided the regional faith-based imitative meetings held during the Bush Administration attended by thousands of blacks. The liberal media displayed a decided lack of interest in the Washington, DC leadership conferences sponsored by Republican Senators Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson and Rick Santorum that attracted over 500 blacks each year for several years. Hardly any reporters covered the meetings hosted by the Republican Party of Florida for seven years where over 500 black Republicans attended each time. Although all media outlets were invited to the NBRA Black Republican Forum held in New York City where football hero Lynn Swann was the keynote speaker, only C-Span bothered to show up.

The media also pays scant attention to the numerous black Republican elected officials serving around the country, most of whom were elected in largely Republican districts. Some excellent examples can be found in the sunshine state, including Florida Representative Jennifer Carroll (R-Fleming Island); Mayor Gow Field of Lakeland; County Commissioner Carolyn Mason of Sarasota and City Commissioner Phillip Walker of Lakeland. Also noteworthy is NBRA Vice Chairman Richard St. Paul who was elected to serve on the New Rochelle City Council in New York.

The press perked up a bit after a record number of black Republicans, 32 candidates, threw their hats into the political ring for the 2010 elections. Those who won their primaries and secured their Republican Party's nomination in the past few months are: Star Parker (California's 57th congressional district); Issac Hayes (Illinois' 2nd congressional district); Chuck Smith (Virginia's 3rd congressional district); Marvin Scott (Indiana's 10th congressional district); Damon Dunn (candidate for California Secretary of State); C. Morgan Edwards (North Carolina State Senate); Gwen Patrick (California House District 52); Stephen Broden (Texas House District 30); James White (Texas House District 12); Marilyn Jackson (Texas House District 51).

The two other black Republicans who won their June 22nd primaries, in addition to Tim Scott, are Bill Randall (North Carolina 13th congressional district) and Bill Marcy (Mississippi 2nd congressional district).

A laughable feature of the media's reporting on Tim Scott is the assertion by liberal journalists that Republicans had to overcome their racism in order to nominate Scott. The reporters used the racist past of South Carolina as the basis for their slam against Republicans. Never mind the fact that the Democratic Party controlled South Carolina for over 100 years after the Civil War, and it was the Democrats who were discriminating against blacks. As is explained in the article"The Myth of the Racist Republicans" by Gerard Alexander that is posted on the Claremont Institute's website, the 30-year odyssey of the South switching to the Republican Party begun in the 1970's by Richard Nixon was not an appeal to the racists.

In a 2002 article posted on the Internet, the co-architect of Nixon's Southern Strategy, Pat Buchanan, explained the genesis and purpose of the strategy. Buchanan wrote that Nixon declared that the Republican Party would be built on a foundation of states rights, human rights, small government and a strong national defense, and leave it to the Democratic Party - the party of Maddox, Mahoney and Wallace -- to "squeeze the last ounce of political juice out of the rotting fruit of racial injustice."

The racist Democrats (some of whom became known as "Dixiecrats" when they formed the "State's Rights Democratic Party" just for the 1948 election) did not all join the Republican Party- the party of freedom and equality for blacks. In fact, those racists declared they would rather vote for a "yellow dog" than a Republican. Sadly, most blacks today have taken on the hatred for the Republican Party from the Democrats without understanding the origin of that hatred.

Once Democrats cease their insidious racism toward black Republicans, all black Americans will be free to stop having their vote taken for granted, seize control over their own destiny and vote for candidates based on the content of their policies, not merely the label of their party.

Frances Rice, a retired lawyer and Army Lieutenant Colonel, is chairman of the National Black Republican Association and may be contacted at: www.NBRA.info

Commemoration Of Juneteenth - The Celebration Of Black Freedom

2010-06-19T15:06:00.000-04:00

COMMEMORATION OF JUNETEENTH - THE CELEBRATION OF BLACK FREEDOM

By Frances Rice

As we celebrate Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day or Emancipation Day, it is fitting that we pause to recognize the origin of this important part of our African American heritage.

June 19th marks the day in 1865 when word reached blacks in Texas that slavery in the United States had been abolished. More than two years earlier, on January 1, 1863, Republican President Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

Delivered during the American Civil War, this proclamation ordered the freeing of all slaves in states that were rebelling against Union forces. The proclamation had little effect in Texas, where there were few Union troops to enforce the order.

News of the proclamation officially reached Texas on June 19, 1865, when Union General Gordon Granger, backed by nearly 2,000 troops, arrived in the city of Galveston and publicly announced that slavery in the United States had ended. Republicans had passed the Thirteenth Amendment on January 31, 1865 that was ratified on December 6, 1865 to abolish slavery in the United States.

Reactions among newly freed slaves ranged from shock and disbelief to jubilant celebration. That day has been known ever since as Juneteenth, a name probably derived from the slang combination of the words June and nineteenth.

Juneteenth commemorations began in Texas in 1866. Within a few years they had spread to other states and became an annual tradition, celebrating freedom for blacks in addition to many other themes, including education, self-improvement, African American accomplishments throughout history, and tolerance and respect for all cultures.

The racial divisiveness prevalent today would not exist if the Democrats in control of the Southern states had left African Americans alone at the moment in history when blacks were freed from slavery and the Juneteenth celebrations began. Instead Democrats set for themselves the horrendous task of keeping blacks in virtual slavery.

Southern Democrats passed discriminatory Black Codes in 1865 to suppress, restrict, and deny blacks the same privileges as whites. The Codes forced blacks to serve as apprentices to their former slave masters.

In 1866, the Ku Klux Klan was started by Democrats to lynch and terrorize Republicans, black and white, and the Ku Klux Klan became the terrorist arm of the Democratic Party.

To counter the discriminatory and terrorizing actions by Democrats, Republicans passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the Reconstruction Act of 1867 that was designed to establish a new government system in the Democrat-controlled South, one that was fair to blacks.

Further, the Fourteenth Amendment pushed by Republicans was ratified in1868 that granted blacks citizenship. The Fifteenth Amendment also pushed by Republicans was ratified in 1870 that granted blacks the right to vote.

Undaunted, Democrats passed discriminatory Jim Crow Laws in 1875 to restrict the rights of blacks to use public facilities. In response, Republicans passed the Civil Rights Act of 1875 which prohibited racial discrimination in public facilities.

Shamefully, Democrats fought against anti-lynching laws, and when the Democrats regained control of Congress in 1892, they passed the Repeal Act of 1894 that overturned civil right laws enacted by Republicans. Further, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with Democrats and issued a ruling in the case of "Plessy v. Ferguson" in 1896 that established the "separate but equal" doctrine. That opinion stated that it was not a violation of the Constitution to have separate facilities for blacks. It took Republicans nearly six decades to finally get the civil rights laws of the 1950's and 1960's passed over the objection of the Democrats.

To advance civil rights for blacks, Republicans started the NAACP on February 12, 1909, the 100th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. The first black head of the NAACP was black Republican James Weldon Johnson who became general secretary in 1920 and wrote the lyrics to the song "Lift Every Voice and Sing". Republicans also founded the HBCU's (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) because Democrats were trying to prevent blacks from getting a good education.

During the civil rights era of the 1960's, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. fought to stop Democrats from denying civil rights to blacks. It should come as no surprise that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as a Republican as has been affirmed by his niece, Dr. Alveda C. King in a video posted on YouTube.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would not have joined the Democratic Party, the party of the Ku Klux Klan and segregation.

Dr. King fought against Democrat Public Safety Commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor in Birmingham who let loose vicious dogs and turned skin-burning fire hoses on black civil rights demonstrators.

Democrat Georgia Governor Lester Maddox famously brandished ax handles to prevent blacks from patronizing his restaurant. Democrat Alabama Governor George Wallace stood in front of the Alabama schoolhouse in 1963 and thundered, "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever." All of these racist Democrats remained Democrats until the day they died.

The so-called "Dixiecrats" remained Democrats and did not migrate to the Republican Party. The Dixiecrats were a group of Southern Democrats who, in the 1948 national election, ran a third party ticket that supported segregation and Jim Crow laws passed by Democrats. Even so, they continued to be Democrats for all local and state elections, as well as for all future national elections.

Unknown today is the fact that the Democratic Party supported the Topeka, Kansas school board in the 1954 "Brown v. Topeka Board of Education" Supreme Court decision by Chief Justice Earl Warren who was appointed by Republican President Dwight Eisenhower. This landmark decision declared that the "separate but equal" doctrine violated the 14th Amendment and ended school segregation.

After the Brown decision, Democrat Arkansas Governor Orville Faubus tried to prevent desegregation of a Little Rock public school. President Eisenhower sent troops to Arkansas to desegregate the schools and pushed through the 1957 Civil Rights Act. In 1958, Eisenhower established a permanent US Civil Rights Commission that had been rejected by prior Democrat presidents, including President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Ignored today is the fact that it was Roosevelt who started blacks on the path to dependency on government handouts during the Great Depression with his "New Deal" that turned out to be a bad deal for blacks. Even though Roosevelt received the vote of many blacks, Roosevelt banned black American newspapers from the military because he was convinced the newspapers were communists.

Much is made of Democrat President Harry Truman's issuing an Executive Order in 1948 to desegregate the military. Not mentioned is the fact that it was Eisenhower who actually took action to effectively end segregation in the military.

Little known is the fact that it was Republican Senator Everett Dirksen from Illinois, not Democrat President Lyndon Johnson, who pushed through the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act. In fact, Dirksen was instrumental in the passage of civil rights legislation in 1957, 1960, 1964, 1965 and 1968. The chief opponents of the 1964 Civil Rights Act were Democrat Senators Sam Ervin, Albert Gore, Sr. and Robert Byrd, a former official in the Ku Klux Klan who is still in Congress. None of these racist Democrats became Republicans.

Democrats ignore the pivotal role played by Senator Dirksen in obtaining passage of the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act, while heralding President Johnson as a civil rights advocate for signing the bill.

Notably, in his 4,500-word State of the Union Address delivered on January 4, 1965, Johnson mentioned scores of topics for federal action, but only thirty five words were devoted to civil rights. He did not mention one word about voting rights. Information about Johnson's anemic civil rights policy positions can be found in the "Public Papers of the President, Lyndon B. Johnson," 1965, vol. 1, p.1-9..

In their campaign to unfairly paint the Republican Party today as racists, Democrats point to President Johnson's prediction that there would be an exodus from the Democratic Party because of Johnson's signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Omitted from the Democrats' rewritten history is what Johnson actually meant by his prediction. Johnson's statement was not made out of a concern that racist Democrats would suddenly join the Republican Party that was fighting for the civil rights of blacks. Instead, Johnson feared that the racist Democrats would again form a third party, such as the short-lived States Rights Democratic Party. In fact, Alabama's Democrat Governor George C. Wallace in 1968 started the American Independent Party that attracted other racist candidates, including Democrat Atlanta Mayor (later Governor of Georgia) Lester Maddox.

Democrat President John F. Kennedy is also lauded as a civil rights advocate. In reality, Kennedy voted against the 1957 Civil rights Act while he was a senator. After he became president, John F. Kennedy opposed the 1963 March on Washington by Dr. King that was organized by A. Phillip Randolph who was a black Republican.

President Kennedy, through his brother Attorney General Robert Kennedy, had Dr. King wiretapped and investigated by the FBI on suspicion of being a Communist in order to undermine Dr. King. To his credit, Republican President Ronald Reagan made Dr. King's birthday a federal holiday, ignoring how the Democrats had smeared Dr. King.

Democrats denounced Senator Trent Lott for his remarks about Senator Strom Thurmond. However, there was silence when Democrat Senator Christopher Dodd praised Senator Byrd, a former official in the Ku Klux Klan, as someone who would have been "a great senator for any moment." Senator Thurmond was never in the Ku Klux Klan and, after he became a Republican, Thurmond defended blacks against lynching and the discriminatory poll taxes imposed on blacks by Democrats.

Democrats today castigate Republican Senator Barry Goldwater as anti-black. However a review of Senator Barry Goldwater's record shows that he was a Libertarian, not a racist. Goldwater was a member of the Arizona NAACP and was involved in desegregating the Arizona National Guard.

Goldwater also supported the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and the Civil Rights Act of 1960, as well as the constitutional amendment banning the poll tax. His opposition to the more comprehensive Civil Rights Act of 1964 was based on his libertarian views about government. Goldwater believed that the 1964 Act, as written, unconstitutionally extended the federal government's commerce power to private citizens, furthering the government's efforts to "legislate morality" and restrict the rights of employers.

It is instructive to read the entire text of Goldwater's 1964 speech at the 28th Republican National Convention, accepting the nomination for president that is available from the Arizona Historical Foundation. By the end of his career, Goldwater was one of the most respected members of either party and was considered a stabilizing influence in the Senate. Senator Goldwater's speech may be found also on the Internet.

In the arsenal of the Democrats is a condemnation of Republican President Richard Nixon for his so-called "Southern Strategy." These same Democrats expressed no concern when the racially segregated South voted solidly for Democrats for over 100 years, yet unfairly deride Republicans because of the thirty-year odyssey of the South switching to the Republican Party that began in the 1970's. Nixon's "Southern Strategy" was an effort on his part to get fair-minded people in the South to stop voting for Democrats who did not share their values and were discriminating against blacks. Georgia did not switch until 2004, and Louisiana was controlled by Democrats until the election of Republican Governor Bobby Jindal in 2007.

As the co-architect of Nixon's "Southern Strategy", Pat Buchanan provided a first-hand account of the origin and intent of that strategy in a 2002 article that can be found on the Internet.

In that article, Buchanan wrote that when Nixon kicked off his historic comeback in 1966 with a column about the South (written by Buchanan), Nixon declared that the Republican Party would be built on a foundation of states rights, human rights, small government and a strong national defense, and leave it to the "party of Maddox, Mahoney and Wallace to squeeze the last ounce of political juice out of the rotting fruit of racial injustice."

During the 1966 campaign, Nixon was personally thanked by Dr. King for his help in passing the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Nixon also endorsed all Republicans, except the members of the John Birch Society.

Notably, the enforcement of affirmative action began with Richard Nixon's 1969 Philadelphia Plan (crafted by black Republican Art Fletcher who became know as "the father of affirmative action enforcement") that set the nation's first goals and timetables. Nixon was also responsible for the passage of civil rights legislation in the 1970's.

Fletcher, as president of the United Negro College Fund, coined the phrase "the mind is a terrible thing to waste." Fletcher was also one of the original nine plaintiffs in the famous "Brown v. Topeka Board of Education" decision. Fletcher briefly pursued a bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 1995.

Nixon began his merit-based affirmative action program to overcome the harm caused by Democrat President Woodrow Wilson who, after he was elected in 1912, kicked blacks out of federal government jobs and prevented blacks from obtaining federal contracts. Also, while Wilson was president and Congress was controlled by the Democrats, more discriminatory bills were introduced in Congress than ever before in our nation's history. Today, Democrats have turned affirmative action into an unfair quota system that even most blacks do not support.

For more details on the true history of civil rights please read the book "Blacks, Whites and Racist Democrats: The Untold History of Race and Politics within the Democratic Party from 1792-2009" by Wayne Perryman.

Just as Democrats built their economic power base on the backs of poor blacks during the time of slavery, Democrats today have built their political power base on the backs of poor blacks today.

As author Michael Scheuer stated, the Democratic Party is the party of the four S's: slavery, secession, segregation and now socialism.

Democrats have been running black communities for the past 40 years, and the socialist policies of the Democrats have destroyed the economic and social fabric of black communities. A wise man once wrote that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

It is way past time for blacks to end their unfounded loyalty to the Democratic Party, stop having their vote taken for granted and seize control over their own destiny.

Only then will blacks be truly free.

Frances Rice is a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel, a lawyer and chairman of the National Black Republican Association. She can be contacted at: www.NBRA.info

2010-06-09T15:36:00.001-04:00

NEW NBRA FACEBOOK PAGE

We encourage you to visit the new Facebook fan page of the National Black Republican Association (NBRA) and share information about this page with all who may be interested.

Please click here for the NBRA Facebook page.

Thank you,

Frances Rice
Chairman
www.NBRA.Info

Saga of Rand Paul - Democratic Party Racial Politics In Action

2010-05-26T20:01:00.001-04:00

THE SAGA OF RAND PAUL - DEMOCRATIC PARTY RACIAL POLITICS IN ACTION

By Frances Rice

Regardless of the issue - from immigration to ObamaCare - Democrats, with the complicity of the liberal media, demonize as racist average Americans who oppose their socialist agenda and are unhappy about how President Barack Obama and the Democrats in control of Congress are ruining our economy with massive deficit spending.

Incredibly, Democrats even stoop to condemning as racist anyone who dares to engage in philosophical discussions about the constitutional limitations on federal powers - just ask Rand Paul who dared to voice the fact that a few aspects of the 1964 Civil Rights Act lacked constitutional authority.

Lost in the media-generated firestorm designed to falsely paint Paul as a racist and derail his bid for a US Senate seat is any discussion about the reason why civil rights laws were necessary in the first place - Democratic Party racism.

In his new book, "Whites Blacks & Racist Democrats", Wayne Perryman provides startling details about racism in the Democratic Party from 1792 to 2009. Perryman describes how the Democratic Party became known as the "Party of White Supremacy" that fought to preserve slavery and enacted discriminatory laws to deny civil rights to blacks.

Included in Perryman's book are facts about how the Republican Party that was founded in 1854 as the anti-slavery party became the party of freedom and equality for blacks. Republicans fought to end slavery; amended the U.S. Constitution to grant blacks freedom, citizenship and the right to vote; and pushed to enact every piece of civil rights legislation from the 1860's to the 1960's over the objection of the Democrats.

Perryman brought to light the 1875 Civil Rights Act, the first law that dealt with accommodations and equality and was passed by a Republican-dominated Congress. To their eternal shame, Democrats in 1883 convinced the United States Supreme Court to declare the 1875 Civil Rights Act as "unconstitutional." Eleven years later in 1894, Democrats passed the 1894 Repeal Act to overturn the previous civil rights legislation passed during Reconstruction by Republicans.

Perryman also revealed that in 1964 while debating the accommodations portion of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Democrat Senator Olin Johnson of South Carolina argued: "Mr. President, this is the blackest day in the U.S. Senate since 1875, when the Congress passed a Civil Rights bill similar to this one. It was 89 years ago that the [Republican] Congress passed the nefarious Reconstruction era Civil Right laws, identical with what we are now discussing, which were later declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Senate, if it passes this measure before us, will be compounding that unconstitutional error made back in 1875. I predict that this bill will never be enforced without turning our nation into a police state and without the cost of bloodshed and violence..."

Ignored by the media today, as they attempt to paint all Republicans as racist, is the fact that Jim Crow laws were enacted by Democrats to force private businesses to refuse services to blacks. Those Jim Crow laws were in violation of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which states, in part: "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." The entire text of section 1 of the 14th Amendment is below.

It is rank hypocrisy for the liberal press to give Democrats, including former Klansman Democrat Senator Robert Byrd, a pass for their real racism, while attacking Rand Paul, labeling him as a racist for his theoretical musings about the 1964 Civil Rights Act. In essence, Paul, who said he detested racism in any form, wondered whether other means, such as boycotts, may have been effective in forcing an end to non-governmental racial discrimination. Paul focused on the fact that the 14th Amendment to U.S. Constitution provides the federal government only with the power to stop racial discrimination by state and local governments.

Our nation will continue to be divided along racial lines until we bring an end to the Democrats' despicable race-baiting by holding Democrats accountable for their racism - past and present.

_____________

Amendment 14 - Citizenship Rights. Ratified 7/9/1868.

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Frances Rice is a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel and Chairman of the National Black Republican Association. She may be contacted at: www.NBRA.info

Do Democrats Commit Hate Crimes Against Black Republicans?

2010-03-30T21:36:00.001-04:00

DO DEMOCRATS COMMIT HATE CRIMES AGAINST BLACK REPUBLICANS?

Racists! That incendiary charge hurled by Democrats at Tea Party activists protesting against ObamaCare was shown to be totally false by Jack Cashill in his article "A Closer Look at the Capitol Steps Conspiracy".

Given the Democratic Party's 150-year record of racist rhetoric and racial violence - from the days of slavery until today - it is astonishing to see Democrats sanctimoniously playing the race card. A display of unmitigated gall describes how Democrats are falsely comparing anti-ObamaCare protestors to the anti-civil rights racists of the 1960's who were Democrats. Democrats get away with this racial hypocrisy because they know with absolute certainty that the true history of civil rights has long been buried, and the racism exhibited today by Democrats against blacks, particularly black Republicans, will be ignored by the mainstream media.

For instance, the liberal media expressed no outrage and not one word of condemnation was uttered by any Democrat after SEIU (Service Employees International Union) thugs attacked Kenneth Gladney, a black man. Gladney was beaten, kicked and called a racist name while working as a vendor at a health care reform town hall meeting in St. Louis on August 6, 2009 called by U.S. Rep. Democrat Russ Carnahan.

The assault was a calculated attempt to intimidate and silence Tea Party protestors and town hall activists. On the morning of the Gladney attack, the White House presented to Senate Democrats a "battle plan" to quell the protests. The advice given to the Democrats by the White House was to "punch back twice as hard", and the first casualty was Kenneth Gladney. In the emergency room of the St. John's Mercy Medical Center, Gladney was treated for injuries to his knee, back, elbow, shoulder and face suffered in the attack.

The six people arrested in the Gladney case, including a Post-Dispatch reporter, were charged with mere misdemeanor ordinance violations, with a total of ten charges spread out among the six offenders. Not one Democrat rushed to a microphone to denounce the attack against Gladney as a "hate crime".

Based on the lack of any outrage by Democrats over the Gladney beating, it seems that the newly enacted "hate crime" legislation pushed by Democrats would not apply to cases of hateful brutality against black Republicans. The Hate Crimes Prevention Act was signed into law by President Barack Obama on October 28, 2009 and is designed to punish crimes of violence against people because of their race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.

At the core of why Democrats are feverishly painting conservatives and Republicans as racist, especially Tea Party activists, is the need to divert the public's attention away from the fact that President Barack Obama and the Democrats in control of Congress are slowly and deliberately transforming America from a free society with a representative form of government into a socialist dictatorship. A move applauded by the Cuban Communist dictator Fidel Castro.

Obama is now governing as a hard-core leftist, after campaigning for president as a centrist. His cynical charade was designed to convince the majority of white Americans to vote for him, the very citizens Obama now castigates as racist.

What Obama and the Democrats are ignoring while trying to silence protestors with charges of racism is the fact that average American citizens are angry because they do not want socialism. They understand that ObamaCare and Obama's out-of-control spending will produce massive deficits, high costs for consumer goods and fewer jobs. Citizens have tried to communicate this message to Obama and the Democrats in every way possible, from protesting in record numbers to historic votes against Democrats in New Jersey, Virginia and Massachusetts.

Obama and the Democrats have chosen, at their peril, to ignore the will of the people and enact the economy-wrecking ObamaCare with one-party rule, bribing unprincipled Democrats with sleazy deals.

The powerful video posted on YouTube called "America Rising: An Open Letter to Democrat Politicians Patriotic Resistance" implores Americans to hold Democrats accountable in the 2010 elections.

A video posted on YouTube called "We The People" provides an inspiring call for us to take back our country from the socialists.

In the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., this call is made for all Americans to unite, engage in nonviolent civil disobedience and vote in November to stop the Democrats from shredding our Constitution and governing without the consent of the governed.

History shows that during the 1960's Democrats used racist slurs and brutality against Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a Republican until the day he died, and other nonviolent activists who were trying to stop the Democrats from denying civil rights to black Americans. Today, Democrats are using similar reprehensible tactics against conservatives and Republicans, especially black Republicans, who are trying to stop the Democrats from stripping civil liberties from all Americans.

While claiming to be racially sensitive, Democrats use racist invectives to denigrate black Republicans, demeaning them as "sellouts", "Uncle Toms", "House Negroes", "House N-word", or worse. The list of black Republicans attacked by Democrats is long and includes RNC Chairman Michael Steel, Dr. Condoleezza Rice, General Colin Powell and Justice Clarence Thomas.

On the left-wing Internet website called "The News Blog," Democrats posted a doctored photograph of RNC Chairman Michael Steele while he was the Lt. Governor of Maryland and running for a Senate seat. Democrats depicted Steele as a "Simple Sambo" with a blackened minstrel-style face, nappy hair and big, think red lips. The cartoon caption read: "Simple Sambo wants to move to the big house". This contemptible racist stereotype is the same one Democrats used to demean black men during the era of slavery and segregation.

Dr. Condoleezza Rice was the object of particularly vicious racist attacks by Democrats. In addition to several other appalling images of Dr. Rice produced by several Democrats, cartoonist Jeff Danziger denigrated Dr. Rice as an ignorant, barefoot "mammy", reminiscent of the stereotyped black woman in the movie "Gone with the Wind" about the slave era black woman who remarked: "I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' no babies". This is the type of racist stereotype Democrats used to demean black women during the era of slavery and segregation.

A video was shot by WKRN Video Journalist Beau Fleenor at Tennessee State University in Nashville, Tennessee that shows Al Sharpton demeaning Gen. Powell and Dr. Rice, when Sharpton was asked to give his opinions about whether Powell and Rice were "House Negroes".

An article that appeared in a Portland, Oregon paper was one of many exposing how hardly a ripple of protest was made by black Democrats when Harry Belafonte publicly denounced Gen. Powell as a "House Negro".

Posted on the Internet is an article entitled "A Black Man, The Progressive's Perfect Trojan Horse" by black entertainer Lloyd Marcus exposing Democratic Party racism toward black Tea Party protestors.

The truth about Democratic Party racism can be harsh medicine, but is sorely needed to finally eject the race-baiting poison injected into our body politic by Democrats, the architects of modern-day racism. As stated by author Michael Scheuer, the Democratic Party is the party of the four S's: slavery secession, segregation and now socialism. A prominent pundit affirmed that the Republican Party is the party of the four F's: family, faith, freedom and fairness. Civil rights history details are in the NBRA Civil Rights Newsletter that is posted on the website of the National Black Republican Association.

Written out of our history books are the following facts. The Republican Party was started in 1854 as the anti-slavery party and, after the Civil War, Republicans amended the US Constitution to grant blacks freedom (13th Amendment), citizenship (14th Amendment) and the right to vote (15th Amendment). Republicans then passed the civil rights laws to ensure blacks could exercise their Constitutional rights, including the Civil Rights Acts of 1866, 1867 and 1875. After Democrats took control of Congress in 1892, Democrats passed the Repeal Act of 1894 that overturned civil rights legislation enacted by the Republicans. It took Republicans nearly six decades to finally achieve passage of civil rights legislation in the 1950's and 1960's pushed through by Republican Senator Everett Dirksen over the objection of the Democrats.

In addition to their reprehensible of record of fighting against civil rights legislation, Democrats have a long history of racial violence. Recorded by liberal professor Dr. Eric Foner in his book "A Short History of Reconstruction", is the horrifying fact that Democrats started the Ku Klux Klan in 1866 to lynch and terrorize Republicans - black and white. The Klan became the terrorist arm of the Democratic Party, killing over 2,000 black Republicans and over 1,000 white Republicans.

The violence against the 1960's era civil rights protestors was inflicted by Democrats. Democrat Public Safety Commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor in Birmingham let loose vicious dogs and turned skin-burning fire hoses on black civil rights demonstrators. Democrat Georgia Governor Lester Maddox famously brandished ax handles to prevent blacks from patronizing his restaurant. In 1954, Democrat Arkansas Governor Orville Faubus tried to prevent desegregation of a Little Rock public school. Democrat Alabama Governor George Wallace stood in front of the Alabama schoolhouse in 1963 and thundered, "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever."

All of these racist Democrats remained Democrats until the day they died. One survivor from that era, Democrat Senator Robert Byrd, a former recruiter in the Ku Klux Klan, is still a Democrat and a prominent leader in the Democrat-controlled Congress where he was honored by his fellow Democrats as the "conscience of the Senate." It does not even make common sense to believe that after the Republicans spent over 150 years fighting the Democrats and won, the racist Democrats suddenly rushed into the arms of the Republicans. In fact Democrats declared that they would rather vote for a "yellow dog" than any one in the Republican Party, the party for blacks.

If our soldiers did and do voluntarily put their lives on the line to preserve our freedoms, then we can do no less. If Dr. King had the courage to fight for civil rights for blacks in the face of racist slurs by Democrats and threats of imprisonment or death, then we surely have the courage to stand up for our civil liberties in the face of such threats. This we owe to ourselves, our country and future generations..

Frances Rice is a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel and Chairman of the National Black Republican Association. She may be contacted at: www.NBRA.info

GALLUP Underemployed Report Spending 36% Less Than Employed - perhaps of interest

2010-02-23T18:46:00.001-05:00

http://www.gallup.com/poll/125960/Underemployed-Report-Spending-Less-Employed.aspx
GALLUP
February 23, 2010

Underemployed Report Spending 36% Less Than Employed

Gallup's new daily metric estimates that 30 million U.S. workers were underemployed in January

by Jenny Marlar

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Gallup's daily measure of U.S. employment reveals that 19.9% of the U.S. workforce was underemployed during the month of January, translating to close to 30 million Americans who are working less than their desired capacity. Those who were underemployed reported spending 36% less than those who were employed, $48 per day versus $75 per day.

These results are based on January interviews with more than 20,000 adults in the U.S. workforce, aged 18 and older. Gallup classifies respondents as "employed" if they are employed full time or are employed part time but do not want to work full time. Gallup classifies respondents as "underemployed" if they are employed part time but want to work full time or are unemployed.

"The underemployed are less likely than the employed to say they are able to make a major purchase, such as a car or home repair, if needed."

As unemployment rates remain high, reduced spending by millions of underemployed Americans has obvious implications for economic recovery. Spending is, however, just one of many ways underemployment costs the U.S. and hurts its workforce. Gallup's employment measure also reveals further disparities between the employed and the underemployed on vital indicators such as attitudes toward money, access to healthcare, demographics, and wellbeing.

Personal Finances

Underemployment is generally associated with a less-than-desired income, and Gallup data highlight the stark contrast in spending attitudes between the employed and the underemployed. Sixty percent of employed respondents feel good about the amount of money they have to spend, while only half as many (29%) of the underemployed report feeling good. Further, the underemployed are less likely than the employed to say they are able to make a major purchase, such as a car or home repair, if needed (25% vs. 58%, respectively).

Particularly noteworthy are the differences in the groups' reported ability to afford basic necessities. Slightly more than half (56%) of underemployed respondents say they have enough money to buy the things they need, compared to 84% of employed respondents.

Additionally, respondents who are underemployed are more likely to report that they did not have enough money for food, shelter, or healthcare at some time during the past 12 months.

Healthcare

Access to preventative care and health insurance also differ between the employed and the underemployed, illustrating the strain that high underemployment can place on the healthcare system. The underemployed are less likely than the employed to have health insurance (59% vs. 87%, respectively), to have had enough money for healthcare (63% vs. 85%), to have a personal doctor (63% vs. 81%) or to have visited a dentist in the last 12 months (57% vs. 72%).

Demographics

There are several important demographic differences between the employed and the underemployed. While numerous reports have highlighted men's struggles to find employment during the current economic downturn, Gallup data indicate that underemployment levels among women (21%) are similar to those among men (19%).

Adults aged 18 to 29 are almost twice as likely (31%) to be underemployed as 30- to 49-year olds (17%) and 50- to 65-year-olds (17%) are.

Underemployment declines with increasing education levels. While nearly 4 in 10 respondents (38%) with less than a high school diploma are underemployed, the figure drops to 12% among those with a four-year college degree and further to 10% for those with education beyond college.

Among racial and ethnic groups, blacks (27%) and Hispanics (29%) are most likely to be underemployed, while non-Hispanic whites (17%) are least likely.

Taken as a whole, the employment status of certain demographic groups is bleak. Gallup's data illustrate that full employment is not available to all U.S. workers, and opportunities for employment are in short supply for American youth and minorities.

Presidential Approval

Employment status is related to a number of political and ideological variables. As one example, underemployed Americans (55%) are more likely than the employed (48%) to approve of the way Barack Obama is handling his job as president. During the same time period, 49% of the American population approved of Obama's job performance. As a point of reference, among the employed, 29% identify themselves as Republicans, 31% as Democrats, and 33% as independents. Twenty-two percent of the underemployed identify as Republicans, 34% as Democrats, and 35% as independents.

Wellbeing

Individuals who are employed (60%) are more likely than the underemployed (40%) to be classified by Gallup as "thriving." Those who are thriving respond affirmatively to present- and future-circumstance questions based on the Cantril Self-Anchoring Striving Scale, which asks respondents to evaluate their present and future lives on a ladder scale, with steps numbered from 0 to 10. By comparison, 53% of the U.S. population in general was classified as thriving during the same period.

Bottom Line

Gallup data spotlight the stressors faced by 30 million underemployed Americans. Underemployed Americans report spending 36% less than their employed counterparts on average, potentially costing the U.S. economy hundreds of millions of dollars as underemployment continues to remain high. Compared with employed respondents, underemployed respondents also report greater difficulty in affording basic necessities, have lower levels of access to healthcare, have less satisfaction with their financial resources, and evaluate their lives less favorably.

Learn more about Gallup's economic measures.

Survey Methods

Results are based on telephone interviews with 20,503 national adults, aged 18 and older, conducted Jan. 2-31, 2010. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±1 percentage point.

Interviews are conducted with respondents on land-line telephones (for respondents with a landline telephone) and cellular phones (for respondents who are cell-phone only).

In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

The Massachusetts Message

2010-01-20T21:26:00.000-05:00

THE MASSACHUSETTS MESSAGE

By Frances Rice

From the voters of Massachusetts came a stunning rebuke of President Barack Obama and his Democrat cohorts in Congress. Unmistakable was the clear and concise message shouted by Bay State voters across the political spectrum – WE DO NOT WANT SOCIALISM.

The repudiation of Obama's socialist agenda began as a murmur of protest in the spring of 2009. During town hall meetings over that summer, the voices of citizens grew louder. For months, Tea Party protests drew millions of average Americans across the country, with over 2 million descending on Washington DC in September, according to National Park Service estimates. Obama and his Democrat congressional minions mocked the protesting citizenry. They expressed a lack of concern when in November the voters in Virginia and liberal New Jersey sent an anti-socialism shock wave throughout our body politic by electing Republicans as their governors.

Ignoring outraged citizens, Democrats on Christmas Eve passed the Senate version of their disastrous health care legislation, egregiously bribing senators for their votes, including the multi-million dollar payoffs to Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson and Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu. Blatantly dismissing Obama's promise of transparency, Democrats proceeded to reconcile the Senate and House bills behind closed doors. Gleefully, Democrats sent a chilling message to the American public that there was nothing we could do to stop them.

Then came Scott Brown. A witty, down-to-earth guy from a small town, he traveled his state in a pickup truck, clearly articulating the dissatisfaction of Americans across the country. Seeking to capture the seat that Senator Ted Kennedy held for nearly a half century and that had not been held by a Republican in over three and a half decades, Brown boldly proclaimed that he would be the 41st vote against ObamaCare. He stated plainly that he would vote to halt the Democrats' spending our nation into bankruptcy, giving billions of bailout dollars to corporations, and providing terrorists the same rights and privileges afforded American citizens. His message resonated well with the freedom-loving people of Massachusetts, the home of the Boston Tea Party of 1773 and the 1775 Concord shot that was heard around the world, the genesis of our nation's blood-soaked journey to independence.

So, how did Obama and the Democrats respond to the Massachusetts earth-shattering vote that reverberated around our nation? They resolved to double down and cram down ObamaCare, gambling that Americans love entitlements more than they love freedom. A lesson Democrats learned from black Americans who consistently vote for Democrats in exchange for government handouts, even though the Democrats' socialist policies have turned black communities into economic and social cesspools. A video posted on the Internet "Detroit in RUINS! (Crowder goes Ghetto)" provides a look at the type of devastation all of America will face, unless the voters in around the country rebel as urged in the video "America Rising: An Open Letter To The Democrats" and repeat in November the Massachusetts Miracle of January.

Frances Rice is a retired US Army Lieutenant Colonel, a lawyer and chairman of the National Black Republican Association. She may be contacted at: www.NBRA.Info

MLK Fought for Civil Rights and Against Democrats

2010-01-18T16:36:00.000-05:00

MLK FOUGHT FOR CIVIL RIGHTS AND AGAINST DEMOCRATS

By Frances Rice

As we honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., let us pause to reflect on who he was and why his struggle to obtain civil rights for black Americans was necessary.

First, Dr. King was a Republican until the day he died because he knew that the Republican Party, from its founding in 1854 as the anti-slavery party, championed freedom and civil rights for blacks. For details on the history of civil rights, see the NBRA Civil Rights Newsletter posted on the NBRA's website.

Second, the nemesis of Dr. King's valiant and historic campaign to end discrimination and gain equality for blacks was the Democratic Party, the party of slavery, segregation and the Ku Klux Klan. Led by former Klansman Robert Byrd, Democrats launched a despicable crusade to smear and undermine Dr. King. This relentless disparagement of Dr. King resulted in his being physically assaulted and ultimately to his tragic death.

When Dr. King left Memphis, Tennessee in March of 1968 after riots broke out where a teenager was killed, Byrd called Dr. King a "trouble-maker" who starts trouble, but runs like a coward after trouble is ignited. A few weeks later, Dr. King returned to Memphis and was assassinated on April 4, 1968.

Prior to his death, Democrats bombed Dr. King's home several times. The scurrilous efforts by the Democrats to harm Dr. King included spreading rumors that he was a Communist and accusing him of being a womanizer and a plagiarist.

An egregious act against Dr. King occurred on October 10, 1963. Democrat President John F. Kennedy authorized his brother, Democrat Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, to wiretap Dr. King's telephone using the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Wiretaps were placed by the FBI on Dr. King's telephones in his home and office. The FBI also bugged Dr. King's hotel rooms when he traveled around the country.

The trigger for this unsavory wiretapping was apparently Dr. Kings' criticism of President Kennedy for ignoring civil rights issues, according to the author David Garrow in his book, "Bearing the Cross". As was pointed out in the book by Wayne Perryman "Blacks, Whites and Racist Democrats", Kennedy voted against the 1957 Civil Rights Act while he was a senator. After Kennedy became president, he was opposed to the 1963 March on Washington by Dr. King.

The justification given by the Kennedy Administration publicly for wiretapping Dr. King was that two of Dr. King's associates, including David Levinson, had ended their association with the Communist Party in order to work undercover and influence Dr. King. However, after years of continuous and extensive wiretapping, the FBI found no direct links of Dr. King to the Communist Party.

Kennedy's disdain for blacks further manifested itself when the King family sought help with getting Dr. King out of a Birmingham jail. Kennedy's civil rights advisor, Harris Wofford who was a personal friend of Dr. King made a telephone call on behalf of Kennedy without Kennedy's knowledge. That call resulted in Dr. King's release. Kennedy was angry about the call because he feared he would lose the Southern vote. History shows, though, that the call by Wofford eventually worked in Kennedy's favor and is the primary reason so many blacks today wrongly venerate Kennedy.

The unrelenting efforts by Democrats to tarnish Dr. King's reputation continued for years after his death. To his credit, Republican President Ronald Reagan ignored the Democrats' smear campaign and made Dr. King's birthday a holiday.

Today, while professing to revere Dr. King, Democrats are still attempting to sully his image by claiming that he was a socialist. In reality, Dr. King was a Christian, guided by his faith and Republican Party principles as he struggled to gain equality for blacks. He did not embrace the type of socialist agenda that is promoted by the Democratic Party today, which includes fostering dependency on government handouts that trap blacks in generational poverty.

Frances Rice is a retired US Army Lieutenant Colonel, a lawyer and chairman of the National Black Republican Association. She may be contacted at: www.NBRA.Info

Harry Reid Must Resign!

2010-01-11T12:39:00.001-05:00

HARRY REID MUST RESIGN!

By Frances Rice

Wielding a sharp racial sword, Democrats ruthlessly destroy the careers of Republicans on racial matters, accepting no apologies. Yet, using a glaring double standard, those same Democrats quickly give a pass to any Democrat, such as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid who again displayed egregious racism.

Hardly a ripple of protest was made in 2004 when Reid shamelessly slurred Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as an incompetent Negro who could not write good English. "Slap at Thomas stinks of racism," was the headline of the New York Daily News' December 7, 2004 editorial.

Now, Reid has described then-Senator Barack Obama as "light skinned" and "with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one." With this racial slur, Reid denigrates not only Obama, but also the entire population of black Americans as being uneducated Negroes who cannot speak standard English, the same type of disgusting remark he made over five years ago about Justice Thomas, a graduate of Yale Law School. A tribute to Justice Thomas that includes details about his stellar career is posted on the NBRA website.

Any American with an ounce of decency would not tolerate the type of disgusting racial epithets hurled by Reid at black Americans. If Reid had a scrap of politesse or common decency, he would apologize immediately to all black Americans, not just President Obama, and resign. It says a lot about his character and his innate disdain for blacks that he has refused to do so.

Obama's readiness to give Reid a pass is in sharp contrast to how Obama reacted in 2002, wasting no time issuing a challenge to the Republican Party to repudiate Republican Senator Trent Lott's remarks about Senator Strom Thurmond and seek his resignation as the Republican senate majority leader. The article "Obama in '02: 'The Republican Party itself has to drive out Trent Lott'" by John McCormack uncovers the following quote from Obama that was printed in the December 12, 2002 issue of the "Chicago Defender".

"It seems to be that we can forgive a 100-year-old senator for some of the indiscretion of his youth, but, what is more difficult to forgive is the current president of the U.S. Senate (Lott) suggesting we had been better off if we had followed a segregationist path in this country after all of the battles and fights for civil rights and all the work that we still have to do," said Obama.

He said: "The Republican Party itself has to drive out Trent Lott. If they have to stand for something, they have to stand up and say this is not the person we want representing our party."

In the arsenal of excuses for Reid not resigning, as did Lott, is the claim that Reid's racist comments were not of the same caliber as Lott's remarks made on the occasion of Thurmond's 100th birthday. Lott was criticized and later apologized for his favorable comments about Thurmond's life's work that encompassed his ill-fated 1948 presidential bid when Thurmond was a racist Democrat, and Lott was only seven years old. Thurmond died in 2003.

The fine line of racial calibration afforded Reid is never permitted any Republican under any circumstances. Resign! That's the universal cry from Democrats to Republicans, regardless of the nature of the charge of racism, and even when the charges are false. Further, Democrats are not shy about embracing or speaking well of their aging leaders who have engaged in horrendous acts of racism.

Democrats who called for Lott's resignation were silent when Democrat Senator Christopher Dodd praised former Klansman Democrat Senator Robert Byrd as someone who would have been "a great senator for any moment". Unlike Byrd, Thurmond was never in the Ku Klux Klan that was the terrorist arm of the Democratic Party. After he reformed on racial issues and joined the Republican Party - the party of freedom and equality for blacks - Thurmond defended blacks against lynching and the discriminatory poll taxes imposed on blacks by Democrats.

Egregiously Byrd, in March of 1968, while referring to the fact that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. left Memphis, Tennessee after riots broke out where a teenager was killed, called Dr. King a "trouble-maker" who starts trouble, but runs like a coward after trouble is ignited. This motivated Dr. King to return to Memphis a few weeks later where he was assassinated on April 4, 1968.

Byrd was also a fierce opponent of desegregating the military and complained in one letter: "I would rather die a thousand times and see old glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again than see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen of the wilds."

In the early 1970's, Byrd pushed to have the senate's main office building named after a former "Dixiecrat," Democrat Senator Richard Russell who was Senator Byrd's mentor and leading opponent of anti-lynching legislation and other civil rights laws of the 1950's and 1960's that were championed by Republicans. Recently, in 2001 Byrd was forced to apologize for using the N-word on television. During Byrd's last bid for re-election to the senate, Obama wrote a letter of support for the racist Byrd, and not one murmur of indignation was uttered about the fact that Obama was honoring a former Klansman. Democrats showed no shame when they heralded Byrd as "the conscience of the senate." Can we say hypocrisy?

Why is there omitted from most discussions about racism all the racists words and deeds of numerous other Democratic Party leaders, including President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, former President Bill Clinton and former President Jimmy Carter? Instances or racism on the part of these and other Democrats are detailed in articles posted on the NBRA website.

The new book by Wayne Perryman "Whites, Blacks & Racist Democrats" provides details about the origin and depth of the contempt Democrats have always had for black Americans, starting in 1792. In his book on page 184, Perryman reports what Democrat President Lyndon Johnson said to his closest friend, Democrat Senator Richard B. Russell of Georgia. Historical documents show that Johnson told Russell the following:

"These Negroes, they're getting pretty uppity these days and that's a problem for us since they got something now that they never had before, the political pull to back up their uppityness. Now we've got to do something about this, we got to give them a little something, just enough to quiet them down, but not enough to make a difference. For if we don't move at all, then their allies will line up against us and there'll be no way of stopping them.... It will be Reconstruction all over again..."

Until and unless we hold Democrats to the same standard of racial purity imposed on their political opponents, we will never end the Democrats' use of racial tactics designed to keep our nation divided along hyphenated lines.

The resignation of Senator Harry Reid would signal an end to the Democrats' era of race mongering for partisan political gain. However, all signs show that Reid will not resign, and the Democrats will never loosen their race-baiting grip around the throat of America.

So, it is up to the people of Nevada to vote Reid out of office during the November 2010 election, and the rest of us to kick the Democrats out of Congress, since they are determined to tax and spend our nation into a long socialist winter.

Frances Rice is a retired US Army Lieutenant Colonel, a lawyer and chairman of the National Black Republican Association. She may be contacted at: www.NBRA.Info

Progressive Professor Trashes Obama

2009-12-27T22:32:00.001-05:00

PROGRESSIVE PROFESSOR TRASHES OBAMA

by Frances Rice

The far left is not happy with President Barack Obama, their Messiah.

"Now I'm Really Getting Pissed Off" is an article by David Michael Green, a progressive professor at Hofstra University in New York, that provides a devastatingly negative critique of Obama and his economy-wrecking policies, including his disastrous healthcare reform legislation. Below is the text of his article. Professor Green's occasional Republican whack with his anti-capitalism club pales in comparison to his shocking blow to Obama's socialist solar plexus, using the same type of rhetorical bludgeon. As one of our grassroots activists, Dan, wrote: "We live in really bizarre times".

Although the article is a view from the far left, it shows that liberals are finally realizing the danger posed to our nation by the inept Obama and out-of-control Democrats in Congress. What took liberals so long to wake up from their Obama-worship stupor?

Now that progressives/liberals are starting to remove their rose-colored Obama glasses, is there any possibility they will also take off their socialist blinders? If they did, then we might witness an abrupt halt to their quest to turn our country into a failed socialist nation. Sadly, though, the brains of progressives/liberals may be so marinated in socialist dogma they may never understand socialism is like a Vampire that sucks the blood out of an economy, forever turning a nation into the "living" dead, like Cuba and North Korea.

Please Note: In his article, Professor Green also continues to promulgate the Democratic Party's false version of civil rights history while we, in the NBRA, are working hard to set the civil rights record straight. History shows that it was Republicans, not Democrats, who championed civil rights for blacks. For details see our NBRA Civil Rights Newsletter that is posted on our website.

Frances Rice is a retired US Army Lieutenant Colonel, a lawyer and chairman of the National Black Republican Association. She may be contacted at: www.NBRA.Info

________________________________________________

Now I'm Really Getting Pissed Off

By DAVID MICHAEL GREEN

Hey did you hear about the iconic African-American guy who plays golf, and whose relationship with the public is in a free-fall lately?

No, as a matter of fact – I'm not talking about Tiger Woods.

You know, I've really been trying not to write an article every other week about all the things I don't like about Barack Obama.

But the little prick is making it very hard.

Like any good progressive, I've gone from admiration to hope to disappointment to anger when it comes to this president. Now I'm fast getting to rage.

How much rage? I find myself thinking that the thing I want most from the 2010 elections is for his party to get absolutely clobbered, even if that means a repeat of 1994. And that what I most want from 2012 is for him to be utterly humiliated, even if that means President Palin at the helm. That much rage.

Did this clown really say on national television that "I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of you know, fat cat bankers on Wall Street"?

Really, Barack? So, like, my question is: Then why the hell did you help out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street? Why the hell did you surround yourself with nothing but Robert Rubin proteges in all the key economic positions in your government? Why did you allow them to open a Washington branch of Goldman Sachs in the West Wing? Why have your policies been tailored to helping Wall Street bankers, rather than the other 300 million of us, who just happen to be suffering badly right now?

Are you freakin' kidding me? What's up with the passive president routine, anyhow, Fool? You hold the most powerful position in the world. Or maybe Rahm forgot to mention that to you. Or maybe the fat cat bankers don't actually let do that whole decision-making thing often enough that it would actually matter...

But, really, are you going to spend the next three interminable years perfecting your whiney victim persona? I don't really think I could bear that. Hearing you complain about how rough it all is, when you have vastly more power than any of us to fix it? Please. Not that.

Are you going to tell us that "I did not run for office to be shovel-feeding the military-industrial complex"? But what – they're just so darned pushy?

"...I did not run for office to continue George Bush's valiant effort at shredding the Bill of Rights. It's just that those government-limiting rules are so darned pesky."

"...I did not run for office to dump a ton of taxpayer money into the coffers of health insurance companies. It's just that they asked so nicely."

"...I did not run for office to block equality for gay Americans. I just never got around to doing anything about it."

"...I did not run for office to turn Afghanistan into Vietnam. I just didn't want to say no to all the nice generals asking for more troops."

Here's a guy who was supposed to actually do something with his presidency, and he's turned into the skinny little geek on Cell Block D who gets passed around like a rag doll for the pleasure of all the fellas with the tattoos there. He's being punked by John Boehner, for chrisakes. He's being rolled by the likes of Joe Lieberman. He calls a come-to-Jesus meeting with Wall Street bank CEOs, and half of them literally phone it in. Everyone from Bibi Netanyahu to the Japanese prime minister to sundry Iranian mullahs is stomping all over Mr. Happy.

And he doesn't even seem to realize it.

Did you see him tell Oprah that he gave himself "a good solid B+" for his first year in office? And that it will be an A, if he gets his healthcare legislation passed?

Somebody please pick me up and set me back on my chair, wouldya?

I am seriously beginning to worry that this cat is delusional. He has lopped off twenty full points from his job approval rating in less than a year's time, falling now below fifty percent. His party, once dominant in generic congressional election poll questions, is today almost even with hated Republicans in the public mind. Last month, Obama's inverted coattails (don't even ask where those go) got two Democrats clobbered running for governor in New Jersey and Virginia. The otherwise obnoxious George F. Will (very) rightly points out that in Kentucky, "a Republican candidate succeeded in nationalizing a state Senate race. Hugely outspent in a district in which Democrats have a lopsided registration advantage, the Republican won by 12 points a seat in Frankfort by running against Washington". Wow. Obama is now wrecking state senate races! What's next? Will local Republican candidates for sheriff win office just by opposing the embarrassment in the White House who chooses abysmal policies and then refuses to fight for them, lest he should ruffle any feathers?

"For Democrats, the red flags are flying at full mast," said Democratic pollster Peter Hart in a recent AP article. "What we don't know for certain is: Have we reached a bottoming-out point?"

Au contraire, Peter. Au contraire. I think anyone more sentient than a newborn amoeba can answer that question. The first thing to note is that the economy is not coming back anytime soon, if it comes back at all. Unless, of course, you're a fat cat Wall Street banker. Then you're just fine, because the Bush-Obama administration took care of you quite nicely, thanks very much. The rest of us poor slobs out here in real-world land, on the other hand, got a "jobs summit".

I can't even begin to describe how insulting Obama conducting a "jobs summit" is to me, or what an unbelievably ham-fisted piece of public relations that was for the White House, which is increasingly showing itself not just to be sickeningly regressive, but also fully inept. I think I speak for a whole lot of Americans when I say that, one year into his stewardship over a destroyed economy that was actually atomizing for at least six months before inauguration day, I don't want my president sitting around a table, running a dog-and-pony show, pretending to kick around ideas on how to generate jobs. I wanted him to have those ideas, himself, before he was inaugurated. I wanted those to be real ideas, that produce real jobs for real Americans who are really hurting. I wanted that to be, and still be, the be-all and end-all of his presidency, not some distant fourth-place priority, behind healthcare and the White House dog selection process. And, especially not some fourth-place priority behind jive healthcare reform.

Which brings us to the second answer to Mr. Hart's question. If Democrats think they'll be screwed next November because of unemployment, wait till Congress passes this healthcare monstrosity. Or doesn't. At this point, either way they're gonna get slammed for it, and rightly so.

If they don't pass anything, they will be seen as unable to govern. This perception will be quite true because they will have failed to pass a major piece of legislation, despite having 60-40 majorities in both houses of Congress and control of the presidency. It doesn't get much better than that for a governing party in the American system. But it will be true in an even more profound sense, because the whole priority structure of the Democratic agenda is wrong. Sure, people want healthcare reform right now (especially if it were to miraculously also have the virtue of being authentic healthcare reform), but what they really want, overwhelmingly, is jobs. This choice of priorities is the equivalent of, say, invading Iraq when you've been attacked by people in Afghanistan. Surely no president would be that stupid, right? Surely any political party would realize the costs of having priorities so divorced from those of the voters, right?

On the other hand, the Democrats and their hapless president are probably in worse shape if they actually pass this legislation. Especially now that it's been stripped of nearly every real progressive reform imaginable, it has become an incredibly stupid bill, from the political perspective. It will force people who can't afford it to spend a giant amount of money on lousy insurance, without any real choice to hold down costs, and it will fund this by hacking away at the Medicare budget. No wonder an insurance industry lobbyist broadcast an email last week declaring: "We WIN. Administered by private insurance companies. No government funding. No government insurance competitor."

But here's a little riddle that any sixth-grader can easily figure out, although it seems to have eluded the brain trust at the White House: If insurance companies are winning big-time, then who is doing the losing? Something tells me that if Democrats are dumb enough to pass their own legislation, voters will provide them the answer to that puzzle in November of 2010, and then again two years later. What could be stupider than saddling thirty-five million Americans with a new monthly bill that will probably represent the second or third biggest item in their budget, in exchange for crappy private sector health insurance that is unlikely to pay out when needed, and wastes a third of the dollars paid in premiums on bureaucracy and profits anyhow? Slapping big fines on them if they don't pony up for the insurance, perhaps? Yep, that's in there too.

This bill alone could mobilize legions of people to go to the polls and vote for whichever party didn't do it, and I'm pretty sure the GOP won't be shy about reminding Americans who that is. I mean, if Democrats were searching for legislation less likely to win them votes, why didn't they just bring back slavery or the debtor's prison? Why not come out for pedophilia? It would have been so much more efficient. At least they wouldn't have spent the last year looking like idiotic bunglers who, in addition to sponsoring really unpopular ideas, also inadvertently left their testicles at the coat check and have spent the last thirty years trying to find their way back to the gala.

Ah, but wait! If you order now, there's more!

As I understand it, the bill doesn't even actually force insurance companies to cover people, at least in the sense that they can charge prohibitive amounts to those with whatever they define as pre-existing conditions. You know, like the young woman who had a policy but died when she was denied cancer treatment because she had a bad case of acne as a teenager.

This will be a total train wreck for the Democratic Party. Already, the public opposes the plan by a ratio of 47 to 32 percent. And they haven't even been handed the bill for it yet. And they haven't even had their premiums skyrocket yet. And they haven't even seen insurance corporation executives buy small countries for use as second homes with the increased compensation they will be floating in. And they haven't even found out what this does to their Medicare yet. And they haven't even seen the impact on the national debt yet. And they haven't even realized that the 'good' parts of the bill don't go into effect until FOUR YEARS from now.

You know, elite Republicans may be sociopaths, and they may be lower on the moral totem pole than your basic cannibal, but they're not stupid. I bet they're salivating at the idea that this thing passes. I bet they'd even have Olympia Snowe vote for it if necessary, just to put it over the top. They must be laughing their asses off at this gift. All they have to do is oppose it right down the line, then say "Told ya so!" at the next election, squashing the pathetic Demognats, one after the next. Hey, even if worse comes to worse and the thing eventually becomes popular, they can always wait a decade or two and become champions of the new publically beloved healthcare system – just like they did for Medicare, Social Security, civil rights, etc.

This is President Nothingburger's great gift to America, along with doing nothing about jobs, doing nothing about the Middle East, nothing about civil liberties, nothing about civil rights, and now doing nothing at Copenhagen. Regarding the latter, the world is literally on fire, and he jets in, gives a speech haranguing the delegates that "Now is not the time for talk, now is the time for action", then splits even before the vote in order to beat the snowstorm headed to the east coast that might delay him getting home to his comfy bed. I'm not kidding. You can't make this shit up, man.

This guy is killing me, though at the same time I still can't quite figure him out.

Here's what I get: This president is a corporate hack. Like Bush or Clinton, he has constituents, alright – but you and I are not on that particular list.

Here's what I don't get: He is radically tanking, at a moment when people no longer have patience for those kind of politics anymore.

Here's what I get: This president has his fingers in many pies, as he needs to, ranging from global warming to economic implosion to two wars abroad to massive federal debt.

Here's what I don't get: Why does he bother to do these things in a way that pleases no one, and only dramatically undercuts his own political standing? Why does he refuse to make anyone his enemy, thus making everyone his enemy?

Is he just massively deluded? I wouldn't have thought so, but watching the guy give himself a very good grade for 2009 – straight face and all – during the same year he's lost twenty points off his job approval rating, and at a moment when even blacks and gays are deserting him, you know, you have to wonder.

Is he happy just to be a one-term president – just to say he's been there and done that, and then sell some more books – even if he is reviled as one of the worst in history?

Maybe. But what about the rest of us?

The rest of us, indeed. It's been quite some time since anyone in the White House ever cared about that sorry pack of rabble.

Obama looked like he could've been something different. He ain't.

So this is it, folks.

Change you can believe in?

More like bullshit you can take a bath in, if you ask me.

David Michael Green is a professor of political science at Hofstra University in New York. He is delighted to receive readers' reactions to his articles (dmg@regressiveantidote.net), but regrets that time constraints do not always allow him to respond. More of his work can be found at his website, www.regressiveantidote.net

www.NBRA.Info