http://nnpa.org/blacks-commit-less-crimes-than-whites-think-by-freddie-allen/
http://nnpa.org/black-having-tougher-time-recovering-from-recession-by-freddie-allen/
http://nnpa.org/black-lawyers-to-challenge-police-brutality-in-25-cities-by-freddie-allen/
CASH IN THE APPLE
9-11-14
By Cash Michaels
ALWAYS
REMEMBER – Today is the 13th anniversary of the devastating
terrorist attack on our nation, resulting in the destruction of the first World
Trade Center in New York, and the crash of United Flight 93 in Pennsylvania on
Sept. 11th, 2001.
It’s the
one day in our history, beyond perhaps Dec. 7, 1941, the “day of infamy” when
the Japanese empire attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, that it didn’t matter what
your race, gender or politics were – we were all Americans.
We have
long lost that sense of shared citizenship, except when there is a national
tragedy, the horror of which brings us together for at least a short while
before the politicians begin running their mouths.
It is a
shame and disgrace that those who have vowed to do us harm could care less
about our differences. All they see is an “evil” society they feel they must
destroy, and they don’t make any of the distinctions we take the trouble to
point out.
So maybe
one day we, as Americans, will learn to come together, and do what’s right for
all of us. Maybe we’ll learn to work harder at solving our problems and
tolerating our differences, instead of finding ways to further enflame our
disagreements, and work harder to destroy one another.
On this
tragic 13th anniversary of one of the most painful days in American
history, I think it is just so sad that we aren’t better Americans.
RAY AND JANAY – By now I’m pretty sure you are absolutely sick
and tired of seeing the inside-the-elevator video from last February of now
former NFL Baltimore Ravens star Ray Rice punching out his then fiancée, Janay
Palmer. It was a vicious, brutal and heartless act. Yes, there was an argument,
and yes, a lot could be said about her hitting him and spitting on him. Couples
do fight. But at the end of the day, using restraint, NOT hauling off and
almost killing her with one blow, was clearly wrong on the part of Ray Rice,
and he’s paying for that now for sure.
When TMZ.com originally published
the first tape showing the immediate aftermath of the Ray and Janay incident,
it was shocking to see him literally dragging her prostate body out of the
elevator. She had been knocked cold, and he showed absolutely no remorse, care
or concern. Ray just let her lay there on the cold ground as a hotel employee
came over to see what was happening.
Was Janay still breathing? Did she
have a pulse? Could she come too? Rice didn’t seem to even realize that what he
did was so monumentally wrong. He just acted as if what happened was par for the coarse when you mess with
him, never mind the aftermath.
Putting both tapes together this
week gave us the complete crime, and it was much, much more than we were led to
believe by Rice, Janay, the Baltimore Ravens and the NFL. How do I know?
Because there is no way Rice would have received only a two-game suspension if
the sheer brutality of the tapes had been appreciated.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell
swears that he saw the elevator tape for the first time Monday when the world
saw it, and was so appalled that he immediately suspended Rice from the league,
and urged the Ravens to cancel Rice’s multi-million dollar contract,
effectively firing him.
No one in their right mind believes
that Goodell went about handling this whole, putrid scandal in an honest and
above board way. From the very beginning, he cut every corner possible to
protect the NFL, and the NFL’s bank account. Ray Rice was one of the league’s
top stars. Even something like almost killing his then fiancée wasn’t enough to
exhibit some forthright decency.
Heck, Goodell even made Janay take
full responsibility for “making” Ray knock her out at a press conference.
So now the
nation has domestic violence once again on its long to-do list when it comes to
needed discussion. But before we “discuss,” please pray for the health, safety
and sanity and Janay Rice.
She should
leave Ray, but she won’t. She feels trapped, and she has a child to care for.
She needs help, and a lot of prayer
JOAN RIVERS
– Celebrities came from all over to pay tribute to the late Joan Rivers last
weekend in New York, who died at age 81 after something went really wrong with
a throat surgery she was having.
Many
remember Rivers as a pioneer who impressed the likes of late-night talk show
king Johnny Carson, and was indeed in line to succeed him before the two had a
falling out after she got her own show without him. She was a brash, biting
comic, but was mostly harmless and entertaining in the scheme of things.
But in her
later years, Joan Rivers became disgusting, harsh and racist. She made crude
remarks about blacks, handicapped people, and apparently anyone she didn’t
like, and when she got called on it, Rivers would hide behind the weak façade
of her harsh rhetoric only being “a joke,” and that those who didn’t like it needed
to get over it.
Saying that
we “already had a gay president and his name is Barack Obama”; or calling First
Lady Michelle Obama a “tranny”, meaning a transgender person, or, after
mentioning former First Lady Jackie O, to quip that “now we have Blackie O” was
way, way, way beyond the pale. They were brutal, unwarranted attacks, but Joan
Rivers didn’t care.
She’s gone
now, and GOD rest her troubled soul. For us to enjoy her “jokes” w had to agree
with her jokes.
We did not.
We did not.
THE PRESIDENT’S CHARGE – On this 13th
anniversary of 9/11, our nation is once again concerned about terrorism and war,
as Pres. Obama went on television to share with the nation and the world his
plan to defend against the emerging terrorist group Islamic State (or ISIS or
ISIL).
These are those who have criticized
this president for not being gung ho about going back go war, or not anxious to
send in American troops at the drop of a hat. They normally have a political
agenda to try to destroy this president anyway.
But then there are those who know
that this president is trying his best not to make the hasty mistakes that have
been made in the past that have gotten us into conflicts that we really had no
business getting into.
Some say this president has no
guts. Others say he has plenty of brains and common sense, and is using both to
make sure that we don’t make the same mistakes of the past.
I’m with that last group. Go forward,
Mr. President. Intelligent Americans are with you.
Make sure you tune in every Thursday afternoon at 4 p.m. for my talk
radio show, ''Make It Happen'' on Power 750 WAUG-AM, or online at www.waug-network.com.
And read more about my thoughts and opinions exclusively at my blog, ‘The Cash
Roc” (http://thecashroc.blogspot.com/2011/01/cash-roc-begins.html).
Cash in
the Apple - honored as the Best Column Writing of 2006 by the National
Newspaper Publishers Association. Columnist Cash Michaels was also honored by
the NNPA for Best Feature Story Journalist of 2009, and was the recipient of
the Raleigh-Apex NAACP’s President’s Award for Media Excellence in Sept. 2011.
Until
next week, keep a smile on your face, GOD in your heart, and The Carolinian in
your life. Bye, bye.
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TRIANGLE NEWS BRIEFS 9-11-14
CREEDMOOR MAYOR WON’T
RUN IN 2015
This week,
after serving the community as both an appointed and elected official for 25
years, Creedmoor Mayor Daryl Moss announced this week that he will not run for
re-election in 2015. “ We
have built a strong organization, everyday striving to reach great heights to
accomplish everything that we can for our community,” Mayor Moss wrote in a
letter. “From my perspective we have done some really good things for
Creedmoor. I make this announcement now to give those interested in public
service ample time to decide and prepare to run for the office of mayor.” Moss
called Creedmoor “…the best place in America.”
ST. AUG U FIRES HEAD
FOOTBALL COACH COSTA
When the Mighty Falcons of St.
Augustine’s College hit the football field this weekend, it will be without
head Coach Michael Costa. Costa, who had been with the school for 12 seasons,
was abruptly fired earlier this week. Costa was one losing game into his 13th
season when the axe fell. Athletics Director George Williams said the school
decided to go in another direction with its football program. Published reports
say there was controversy about the football program’s budget being cut as part
of the campus-wide austerity measures the school has put in place. “We
appreciate what Coach Costa has done for the team and Saint Augustine’s
University,” Williams said.
WCPSS PROBES TEACHER’S
SCHOOL LIKE “CONCENTRATION CAMP” REMARKS
The Wake County Public School System
is investigating what many consider to be damaging remarks by a Fuquay-Varina
High School teacher in an online article comparing the school to “…a
concentration camp dedicated to the spiritual death of those imprisoned
imprisoned behind these walls.” The teacher, Ray Fournier, has apologized for
that, and for also writing that conditions at the school have also allegedly
made two female students gay. Fournier justified his writings on his Christian
beliefs, and urged Christian parents to home school their children. School
officials are trying to determine if Fournier violated the system’s school
employee code of ethics. If so, he could be dismissed.
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STATE NEWS BRIEFS 9-11-14
4TH US CIRCUIT APPELLATE COURT TO
HEAR VOTER ID CASE SEPT. 25TH
[CHARLOTTE]
Several weeks ago, a federal court judge in Winston-Salem did not agree that
voter restrictions made law by the NC General Assembly would “irreparably” harm
anyone’s voting rights in the November elections, and refused to stop them
until a full trial in 2015. But the Fourth US Circuit Court of Appeals has set
Sept. 25th in Charlotte to hear the emergency appeal arguments of
the NCNAACP, League of Women Voters, and the US Justice Dept., among others,
urging the court to hold the midterm elections under 2012 election laws.
Supporters of the new voter ID laws say they will help prevent voter fraud,
though very little has been proven to exist.
DHHS SECRETARY
JUSTIFIES AWARDING $6.8 MILLION NO-BID
CONTRACT
[RALEIGH]
Once again state lawmakers were probing the administration of Secretary Aldona
Wos at the state Dept. of Health and Human Services this week during a
committee hearing, and the focus was on a no-bid, sole-source $6.8 million
contract given to a firm of “turnaround consultants” hired to quickly fix
problems with North Carolina’s Medicaid program. Wos said because of the work
of Alvarez and Marsal, Medicaid finished in the black, instead of at a deficit.
Lawmakers, however, questioned the cost, wondering if the state was paying much
more than it actually had to. Wos said the money was well spent, given the
understaffing at DHHS.
CANNON DEFENSE TEAM
WANTS SENTENCING DELAYED
[CHARLOTTE]
The defense team for former Charlotte Mayor Patrick Cannon has filed a motion
in federal court wanting the scheduled Sept. 25th sentencing
postponed to Oct. 13th so that a New York city psychiatrist can
testify on Cannon’s behalf. Defense
attorneys James Ferguson and Henderson Hill say the psychiatrist is one of the
many character witnesses they want to testify. They say because of a prior
engagement scheduled for Sept. 25th, Dr. Richard Dudley will be
unavailable until Oct. 13th. Mayor Cannon, elected last November,
was arrested in March after an FBI sting operation nailed him on public
corruption after taking bribery money. He faces 20 years in prison and a
$250,000 fine.
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HAGAN FAILS TO RALLY
BLACK
VOTE IN FIRST DEBATE
By Cash Michaels
An analysis
Why did the
Hagan for US Senate campaign ignore the opportunity during last week’s
televised debate to signal to black voters that she needed their support,
especially after enraging many the week before by criticizing Pres. Obama when
he visited the state?
The first
of a possible three US Senate debates last week between incumbent Democratic Sen.
Kay Hagan and Republican challenger NC House Speaker Thom Tillis (a third has
been scheduled for late October, but there’s word that Hagan may not take
part), was characterized by neither candidate being able to clearly define themselves,
or do serious damage to their opponent. Thus the verbal counterpunching
sustained no real political injuries that could be capitalized on.
That means,
many observers agree, that Sen. Hagan, the incumbent, allowed Speaker Tillis to
establish himself as a valid alternative to do her job. Even though the latest
polls show Hagan currently with a slight lead, if she fails again in the second
debate on Oct. 7th to put daylight between her last five-and-a-half
years in office, and what Tillis says he would bring to the table if elected in
November, Hagan could very well lose her seat.
And yet,
faced with the very real prospect of being outspent and outgunned by a moderate
Republican candidate who not only has the overwhelming support of powerful
conservative groups across the nation, but Republican Gov. Pat McCrory, who has
vowed to campaign for Tillis, Sen. Hagan did not use her first televised debate
appearance to sure up a key component in her base of support – the
African-American vote, which is seen as weak.
While Hagan
did touch on Speaker Tillis overseeing laws passed in the NC General Assembly
which cut the state’s education budget by $500 million, and failed to expand
Medicaid to over 500,000 poor North Carolinians, those issues were generic enough
to negatively impact a broad cross-section of the state’s citizens.
But glaringly,
Hagan failed to nail Tillis for his key role in passing what many critics say
are the most repressive voter suppression laws in the nation, laws that even
the US Justice Dept. has said in court are designed to target
African-Americans, and limit their voting rights through the requirement of
voter photo ID, and the elimination of Sunday and straight ticket voting, among
other restrictions.
Forcefully
holding Tillis’ feet to the fire during the debate on his leadership in
enacting voter suppression laws currently in federal litigation, would not only
have forced him to defend his actions and the law, especially with the still
unproven GOP charge of voter fraud being “rampant,” but it would have given
Hagan the appearance of championing the cause of voter rights for all North
Carolinians – especially African-Americans – in the face of alleged Republican
tyranny.
It would
have been the one issue Speaker Tillis wouldn’t have had a strong reply for.
But
instead, Hagan ignored the opportunity to telegraph to North Carolina’s strong
Democratic base of African-American voters that she was with them, and that she
needed their support once again.
In some
political circles, Hagan’s mistake could be seen as political malfeasance. Both
The New York Times and The Washington Post have recently
reported that if Democrats in the South can deliver the black vote, then
Democratic senatorial candidates could beat back strong GOP challenges for the
midterms, and the US Senate will stay in Democratic hands.
But those
Democrats, especially Sen. Hagan, have to ask African-Americans for that
support, and then excite the base to get it. Can she do it?
Black
voters have mightily helped Kay Hagan before.
After
serving ten years in the NC Senate representing Guilford County, the Shelby
native ran to unseat then popular Republican US Sen. Elizabeth Dole in 2008,
the same year that Dole’s Democratic Senate colleague from Illinois, Barack
Obama, mounted his historic bid for the White House as the nation’s first black
president.
The Obama
campaign generated huge excitement across the nation during the nail-biting
primary races against Hillary Clinton, and that excitement came to North
Carolina in May 2008 when, in dramatic fashion, Obama defeated Clinton,
essentially clinching his bid for the Democratic nomination.
During the
2008 general election, the Obama campaign was able to attract large numbers of
African-Americans, college students, women and the elderly to vote in large
numbers during early voting. That meant that other Democratic candidates like
Hagan, considered to be a moderate Democrat, also benefitted from those votes.
Indeed on
Election night November 2008, Kay Hagan, helped substantially by the plethora
of black voters attracted to the polls by the Obama campaign in North Carolina,
actually totaled more votes than he did in the state.
Hagan’s
defeat of Elizabeth Dole, who was seen as a powerful national conservative
figure, was huge.
But it
wasn’t long after Sen. Hagan took office in January 2009 that she ran afoul of
the black community when she fired, without explanation, two black staffers
from her office.
On the plus
side, years later, Hagan took up the cause of having the black veteran US
Marines of Montford Point, NC honored with the Congressional Gold Medal for
their brave service. She then championed a bill to help black farmers, who had
their lands taken from them by the US Dept. of Agriculture decades ago, share
in a $1.25 billion federal settlement.
Sen. Hagan also
expressed support for helping historically-black colleges and universities, but
that good work was countered by Hagan dragging her feet on supporting Pres.
Obama’s Affordable Care Act to provided cheaper, more comprehensive health
insurance coverage for struggling Americans.
Even though
the ACA was badly needed, Hagan equivocated on her support, fearing that
Republicans would tag her with its initial shortcomings and problems.
And in
2012, Sen. Hagan ‘s office, despite letters of support from other Democratic
office holders to then-Gov. Beverly Perdue, urging her to issue pardons of
innocence to the Wilmington Ten, ignored repeated requests to also publicly
support the cause.
Gov. Perdue
did ultimately pardon the Ten, but Sen. Hagan was not among the numerous state
and congressional lawmakers who helped to make it happen,a nd to this day, has
not said why.
Hagan’s
“moderate” rating in the US Senate maybe attractive to conservative North
Carolinians, but it has left a bad taste in the mouths of many progressive and
African-American Democratic voters, a hurdle she has tried to tackle with
meetings across the state with black clergy and others.
Indeed the
Hagan-Tillis race is considered among the hottest of all of the US Senate races
in November which could decide the balance of power in Congress. With 35 of the 100 Senate seats up for
midterm election – 21 held by Democrats - there are a handful of Democrat-held
seats that are considered by most political experts as vulnerable, and likely
to fall to the Republicans, possibly giving them the majority in the US Senate,
and ultimately total control of Congress. The GOP-led House has already given
Pres. Obama fits, and has been stopping his agenda at every turn.
The Hagan–Tillis
race is seen as the most prominent when it comes to Democrats in trouble. In a
state where the president’s poll numbers are weak, Tillis and his supporters
have been trying mightily to taint Sen. Hagan as a strong supporter of Pres.
Obama, voting for his policies 96 percent of the time, and thus being
responsible for policies like the unpopular Affordable Care Act, among others.
In an
effort to put distance between herself and the president, hoping that would
make her more attractive to North Carolina’s substantial right-leaning
registered independent and undecided voters, Hagan, like many other Democratic
candidates across the nation, has openly criticized Obama, particularly two
weeks ago when he came to the state to address a military veterans’ convention
in Charlotte.
Hagan’s
goal was to separate herself from the recent Veterans Administration scandal
where there were allegations of long waits for medical treatment at VA
hospitals, and inadequate facilities. She touted her own credentials as a
moderate who has always been in full support of the military and those who have
served, and chided the president for the administrations mistakes and ‘not earning
the last trust” of military veterans, even though Obama was to address the
veterans about his reforms.
But in
doing so, Hagan also angered many of the state’s black voters, who felt that
openly criticizing the president right before he arrived in the state was disrespectful,
especially when there was still a
question of whether she’d allow herself to be seen greeting Obama at the
airport.
Hagan
ultimately did, with the president giving her a warm kiss on the cheek. The
Republicans immediately tweeted the picture, seeking whatever political gain
the Hagan campaign originally feared.
Most
observers believe that a kiss on the cheek is the closest Hagan will allow
Pres. Obama to get to her. She is not expected to ask him to come back to North
Carolina to campaign for her.
Going into
the second debate, Senator Hagan will have her work even further cut out for
her. Speaker Tillis will be better prepared after his first experience, and
will be going for the jugular in an effort to slice her lead in the polls going
into November.
If Hagan
doesn’t do or say something to excite black Democratic voters to show up in
November for her candidacy, especially since the name “Barack Obama” will not
be on the ballot to attract them and help her, then the chances of her being
re-elected to a second term as North Carolina’s junior US senator will be slim,
to none.
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