African-American News and Commentary: 2011-02-06

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Stupid People Are Ruining America

Posted: 02/12/11 02:15 PM

Important Funny Typical Scary Outrageous Amazing Innovative Finally

SHARE THIS STORY

Get Politics Alerts

Submit this story

Herman Cain, who has already formed a presidential exploratory committee for the next election cycle, alleged "stupid people are ruining America" on Friday at this year's Conservative Political Action Conference.

"It's sad," he said in a speech at the annual event before going on to take aim at the left side of the political spectrum. "The objective of the liberals is to destroy this country. The objective of the liberals is to make America mediocre."

Cain also addressed the issue of race at the conservative gathering. The Hill reports:

"They call me racist too because I happen to disagree with the president," Cain said at the Conservative Political Action Conference Friday. "If you disagree about their liberal leader you must be a racist no matter what color you are."
Cain said his disagreement with Obama was based on policies, not race. "Some black people can think for themselves," he said.
He told the crowd: "You are not racist."

Joshua Green at the Atlantic caught up with Cain at the conference and asked him whether he thinks the president was born in the United States. Here's what Cain had to say about the matter:

I have no idea. The fact that it has become an issue, or a controversy, does raise a question that I can't say that I feel one way or the other because I have not reviewed all the various "proof" one way or another.

Just hours before his speech at CPAC, Cain told Hotline on Call that he wasn't entirely sure what he was going to say when he addressed the conservative crowd.

"I have some idea of what I'm going to say, of course," he said before the speech. "I like to get a feel for the audience and read their reaction to certain things, and based upon their reaction I'll decide where to go next."

The Atlanta Journal Constitution recently reported that Cain is on "hiatus" from his radio talk show as he mulls a campaign for the White House. According to the National Journal, the potential presidential contender plans to spend more time making appearances on television and at Tea Party events.

Via Right Wing Watch comes a clip of Cain's speech:

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Allen West to close CPAC

Allen West speaks in Florida. | AP Photo

The tea party-allied Florida congressman says he is 'humbled' by the opportunity to speak. | AP PhotoClose

By MOLLY BALL | 2/9/11 10:35 AM EST Updated: 2/10/11 6:02 AM EST

Rep. Allen West, the tea party-allied Florida congressman, has been tapped to give the keynote speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday.

West announced he’d been given the prestigious final speaking slot in a tweet from his official account Wednesday morning.

“I’ve been asked today to have the honor of giving the closing keynote address at CPAC Saturday,” the Republican freshman wrote. “I’m humbled.”

CPAC begins Thursday, but until today, the closing address had been a major void on a schedule otherwise filled with potential 2012 presidential contenders and other Republican luminaries.

The keynote spot was offered to Sarah Palin, but she turned it down, citing schedule conflicts. For four straight years, Palin has been invited but has snubbed the conference that brings together the right’s biggest names.

The concluding speech is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Saturday at Washington’s Marriott Wardman Park Hotel.

African Americans have fewer options for donor organs and bone marrow

Wake Forest baseball coach Tom Walter visits with player Kevin Jordan a day after donating a kidney to Jordan. (Steve Shutt / Wake Forest University)

By Shari Roan, Los Angeles Times

February 10, 2011, 10:10 a.m.

The story this week on Wake Forest baseball coach Tom Walter who donated a kidney to one of his players is a reminder not only of the depth of some people's generosity but also of the need for more tissue donation to serve African Americans and other under-represented minority groups.

Walter donated a kidney to Kevin Jordan, 19, after Jordan became ill from a disease called anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibody vasculitis. Jordan, an African American, was undergoing kidney dialysis while in search of a donor kidney. His relatives were not matches for donation. Although his coach is white, Walter was a match. Typically, people are more likely to find a donor match from someone of their own race or ethnicity.

African Americans have a much harder time finding donor organs and donor bone marrow. Nordstrom Inc. is running a campaign this month to raise awareness of the need for more African American marrow and umbilical cord blood donors. For every person who joins the "Be the Match Registry" as a potential marrow donor, Nordstrom will cover the $100 registry cost.

Proposed Mississippi license plate to honor KKK leader

By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS, Associated Press – 28 mins ago

JACKSON, Miss. – A fight is brewing in Mississippi over a proposal to issue specialty license plates honoring Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, who was an early leader of the Ku Klux Klan.

The Mississippi Division of Sons of Confederate Veterans wants to sponsor a series of state-issued license plates to mark the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, which it calls the "War Between the States." The group proposes a different design each year between now and 2015, with Forrest slated for 2014.

"Seriously?" state NAACP president Derrick Johnson said when he was told about the Forrest plate. "Wow."

Forrest, a Tennessee native, is revered by some as a military genius and reviled by others for leading the 1864 massacre of black Union troops at Fort Pillow, Tenn. Forrest was a Klan grand wizard in Tennessee after the war.

Sons of Confederate Veterans member Greg Stewart said he believes Forrest distanced himself from the Klan later in life. It's a point many historians agree upon, though some believe it was too little, too late, because the Klan had already turned violent before Forrest left.

"If Christian redemption means anything — and we all want redemption, I think — he redeemed himself in his own time, in his own actions, in his own words," Stewart said. "We should respect that."

State Department of Revenue spokeswoman Kathy Waterbury said legislators would have to approve a series of Civil War license plates. She said if every group that has a specialty license plate wanted a redesign every year, it would take an inordinate amount time from Department of Revenue employees who have other duties.

SCV has not decided what the Forrest license plate would look like, Stewart said. Opponents are using their imagination.

A Facebook group called "Mississippians Against The Commemoration Of Grand Wizard Nathan Forrest" features a drawing of a hooded klansman in the center of a regular Mississippi car tag.

Robert McElvaine, director of history department at the private Millsaps College in Jackson, joined the Facebook group. McElvaine said Forrest's role at Fort Pillow and involvement in the Klan make him unworthy of being honored, even on the bumpers of cars.

"The idea of celebrating such a person, whatever his accomplishments in other areas may have been, seems like a very poor idea," McElvaine told The Associated Press.

Mississippi lawmakers have shown a decidedly laissez-faire attitude toward allowing a wide variety of groups to have speciality license plates, which usually sell for an extra $30 to $50 a year. The state sells more than 100 specialty plates for everything from wildlife conservation to breast cancer awareness. One design says "God Bless America," another depicts Elvis Presley. Among the biggest sellers are NASCAR designs and one with the slogan "Choose Life."

The Mississippi Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans has had a state-issued specialty license plate since 2003 to raise money for restoration of Civil War-era flags. From 2003 through 2010, the design featured a small Confederate battle flag.

The Department of Revenue allowed the group to revise the license plate this year for the first of the Civil War sesquicentennial designs. The 2011 plate, now on sale, depicts the Beauvoir mansion in Biloxi, Miss., the final home of Jefferson Davis, the Confederate president.

SCV wants license plates to feature Civil War battles that took place in Mississippi. It proposes a Battle of Corinth design for 2012 and Siege of Vicksburg design for 2013. Stewart said the 2015 plate would be a tribute to Confederate veterans.

Johnson, with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said he's not bothered by Civil War commemorative license plates generally. But he said Mississippi shouldn't honor Forrest, who was an early leader of what he calls "a terrorist group."

"He should be viewed in the same light that we view Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden," Johnson said of Forrest. "The state of Mississippi should deny any vanity tags which would highlight racial hatred in this state."

Democratic Rep. Willie Bailey, who handles license plate requests in the House, said he has no problem with SCV seeking any design it wants.

"If they want a tag commemorating veterans of the Confederacy, I don't have a problem with it," said Bailey, who is black. "They have that right. We'll look at it. As long as it's not offensive to anybody, then they have the same rights as anybody else has."

___

Online:

Mississippi Department of Revenue, specialty license plates: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/ap_on_re_us/storytext/us_confederate_license_plates/40124092/SIG=11e620dl4/*http://www.dor.ms.gov/mvl/availabletags.html