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Congressional Black Caucus Wants Green-light To "Unleash" On Obama

Just last week I highlighted the negative reaction some residents of Detroit had to Tavis Smiley and Dr. Cornel West’s Poverty Tour. The tour as I explained, sought to highlight the struggles people are facing in this economy; and as stated, Detroit should be the last city in the country against anyone seeking to chronicle their pain. But of course Detroit protesters of the Poverty Tour wouldn’t agree with me. As a matter of fact, to this day, I’m sure they would still contend that is was an anti-Obama campaign; and, was never intended to have their best interest in mind.

Fast-forward a week later and the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) who has been on a poverty tour of sorts within the last week., pulls into town. Taking a break from their own “jobs tour” as they traversed the country bringing together employers with job seekers, they held a town hall meeting in Detroit last night, and was met by a very different crowd. A crowd who answered the call for the CBC to be “unleashed” on president Obama. Who in the CBC’s opinion, has ignored the plight of jobless urban communities, only to take his bus tour to rural America.

Jeff Johnson at theGrio,com writes:

Sparks flew Tuesday during the Congressional Black Caucus “For the People Jobs Tour” town hall in Detroit, MI, as black caucus members told the mostly black audience to “unleash” them to confront President Barack Obama on the issue of jobs.

During the sometimes heated town hall, peoples’ frustration over their economic conditions overwhelmed decorum and order.

California Rep. Maxine Waters expressed her and other Black Caucus members’ dilemma of having to walk a line. As representatives from communities that have had great love for President Barack Obama, it can be anywhere from difficult to impossible for Waters and the other members to be as critical of the president as she wanted to be.

“We don’t put pressure on the president,” said Waters. “Let me tell you why. We don’t put pressure on the president because ya’ll love the president. You love the president. You’re very proud…to have a black man [in the White House] …First time in the history of the United States of America. If we go after the president too hard, you’re going after us.”

I’ve written much about Black America’s love affair with president Obama, his wife, and his beautiful children. And as I’ve pointed out in the past, there’s nothing wrong doing so. After all, it’s not like he isn’t the first Black man to hold the highest political office in the land; and if you ask me, he might be the last. However, the way I see it, there’s quite a bit of that battered wife syndrome going around. Many of us in defense of the president are in many ways like the woman who says,”he beats me because he loves me.” A ridiculous justification for domestic violence we can all agree. But this is what I see in response to some of the legitimate critiques of president Obama. It’s really sad, and it must stop. Hell, if white America holds him to certain expectations, who are we as Black people not to? Shit, we ain’t asking him to make sure there’s a Bentley parked in the driveway of every Black household. Hello? Like er’body, we just want jobs’ or at least to feel like we’re gonna get one any day now. If wealthy people can get tax cuts, is it too much for a Negro to ask for a job?

As Michael Arcenaeux recently pointed out over at The Trrot: he’s not your boyfriend, he’s your president. There’s a big difference; but, I suppose discernment for those who are known to give of the booty or dick all free and willy nilly, this might be a problem. Well I don’t know about you, but when I vote for someone, much like when I decided to say “I do” to my wife, I do expect to hold her to a standard, with expectations. Now I’m not telling you to divorce Barack Obama. I am however telling you, much like the CBC, to stop allowing your husband, wife, or lover to spend his and your hard earned money on that other bitch from up the block while you sit at home cooking, cleaning, and washing his draws. I don’t know about you, but I bet Michelle Obama ain’t going for that mess.

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About the Author: Rippa

RiPPa is the creator, publisher, and editor-in-chief of The Intersection of Madness & Reality. As a writer, he uses his sense of humor, sarcasm, and sardonic negro wit to convey his opinion. Being the habitual line-stepper and fire-breathing liberal-progressive, whether others agree with him, isn’t his concern. He loves fried chicken, watermelon, and President Barack Obama. Yes, he's Black; yes, he's proud; and yes, he says it loud. As such, he's often misunderstood.

Written by: Rippa

Published on: August 17, 2011

Filled Under: Uncategorized

Congressional Black Caucus, Detroit, Jobs, politics, Unemplyment

http://twitter.com/For_The_Masses For_The_Masses

You kept it real, and you were right on point. This part of the article that stuck out to me was: “A crowd who answered the call for the CBC to be “unleashed” on
president Obama. Who in the CBC’s opinion, has ignored the plight of
jobless urban communities, only to take his bus tour to rural America.”He has been ignoring us for quite some time, enough is enough. I would love for him to give a speech in urban communities in Brooklyn, Harlem, etc. Of course he does not want to be seen as catering to “us”, so he ignores “us”. Keep it up, I’ll give him a taste of his own medicine, when I just might ignore him ignore when it is time for me to pull that lever in 2012. He is taking our vote for granted, and that is a mistake.
- http://www.rippdemup.com/ RiPPa
  
  It’s a political move him being out in Iowa and the miswest with his bus tour. But I feel you: he needs to come to the hood and see just how the shit is real. The problem is, people really underestimate just how messed up it is for us. Shit is really, really, really messed up for us right now.
Anonymous

Nice post Rippa. Shared.
Ivan Ivanovich Renko

Despite the famous graphic, the man is not Super. He can’t stare at the Teahadis with his Heat Ray Vision; and he can’t blow up a mighty wind to push their intransigence aside.

Don’t look now, but unemployment is large amongst all communities, and the Confederate Party is perfectly happy to keep it high or make it higher in the hope of achieving their ONE STATED AIM- to make Barack Obama’s first term his last term.

And yes, I know, I know, our unemployment rate is double that of white people even after controlling for age, education, etc. etc. etc. These are structural issues that no President can change on his own, full stop. The truth is that the Teahadists want to make him unemployed, too.

I don’t agree with every decision he’s made (I think getting the flock out of Afghanistan is the wise thing to do- there’s a reason they call it “The Graveyard of Empires”), but given where he is, and who he has to work and negotiate with, I believe he’s done damned well.

Perhaps your standards are higher.

Those of us trying to make it day by day in Corporate America understand– the black guy has to work twice as hard to get half the recognition.
From all that I’ve seen, that’s true of the black guy in the White House, too.

So, forgive me, brother, but unleash the CBC on him? Man, fuck that shit. I got the man’s back. And I ain’t alone.
- http://www.rippdemup.com/ RiPPa
  
  Can you picture anyone Black defending George Bush’s slow response in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina down in New Orleans? Probably not, right? Well, as far as the economic fallout, it is “our” Katrina; and, the president has been slow to act or even speak to, or about a solution to fixing it. have you noticed that it took a dismal jobs report for June for him to finally speak up? Wanna know why? Because the reality of this is that it is a political threat to re-election. Collectively people of color have had it bad through this mess – hell, a report just came out showing that while we’ve been in a slow two year recovery, Black women have lost the most jobs. So no, I refuse to make excuses for the president in office now, much like I didn’t do for the asshole who was in office before him.
  - Anonymous
    
    * Patriot Act renewed..again
    *FISA
    *Black Unemployment/poverty at epidemic levels
    * Wars ongoing in Iraq and Afghanistan, new wars initiated in Libya, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia and…????
    *Assertion of right to murder US citizen without trial
    *Bush Tax cuts continued
    *SS and Medicare/Medicaid in gun sights of the Right
    *Continued support of Israeli settlements and murderous policy toward Palestinians.
    *Attacks on whistleblowers
    *Continued support of state secrets
    *blah , blah, blah
    
    And this is different from McCain how exactly? McCain would have done all of this or overseen all of it. The only difference is the same people apologizing for or explaining the current President’s policies or actions/inactions would have used all of the list above to go hard after McCain.
    
    I get that it’s different for Black men. I live that every day. But PBO knew the job was tough when he took it. Like any other group, black voters have the duty to press their issues and to hold PBO accountable.
    
    So exactly, no excuses for the President. He can be fairly and intelligently criticized just like any other President.
    - Ivan Ivanovich Renko
      
      I have to take issue with one thing, shady– yes, the Bush tax cuts were extended, because that was the only thing the Republicans would take to extend unemployment benefits. With unemployment in the crazy place it is now, I think it was the best bargain he could get for the most people who desperately needed it.
      
      But I take your point that intelligent criticism of this president is rightful and that he is not perfect by any stretch.
      
      I just think he’s pretty damn good.
      - http://www.rippdemup.com/ RiPPa
        
        But those unemployment benefits expire at the end of this year – the Bush Tax Cuts don’t. Also, the deal made in December had Obama beating his chest about the payroll tax holiday and it putting an extra $1000 in everybody’s pockets. That too wasn’t extenbded as this time around as part of the debt ceiling compromise…. so who’s losing?
        
        Wait until this November when we’re bitching about those triggers kicking in when the “Super-Committe” can’t come up with anything as far as cutting that $1.9 trillion. We’ll see who’s hurting even more then. Truth is, this manufactured crisis is the precursor for privatization – rich folks tend to make a lot of money betting on shit in times of so-called crisis. Ultimately they’re sitting on cash just waiting to make that move.
  - Ivan Ivanovich Renko
    
    Because the reality of this is that it is a political threat to re-election.
    
    Of course. Politician is politicking.
    
    I don’t hold that against him, because I accept the reality that he is a politician. In fact, I appreciate it and applaud it, because it does let him get things done,In the face of the most… well, hell, batshit fucking insane opposition a President has seen since… well, at least since I started observing presidential politics in 1976.
    
    Politicians politicking is how our government works. Politicians politicking is how any (small-d) democratic government works.
    
    I’ve never heard of a first-term President who didn’t want a second term. And I don’t know how you get a second term (or a first one) without politicking. And if he doesn’t carefully deal with white anxieties (anxieties stoked by the right wing since Lee Atwater’s day) and, he will not get that second term.
    
    I accept that simply because the President is black that he can’t miraculously solve problems centuries in the making, I accept that he has to make compromises to get anything done, and I accept that he has to make political decisions that I may not like.
    
    What I expect of him is a proper stewardship of his office. To use the powers of his office to meet the responibilities of the office and to the nation. To play the political game (deadly serious it may be, but politics is still a game) to the best of his ability- and begin the long pushback against the neo-Confederate conservatives who’ve dominated public discourse since the “Reagan Revolution.”
    
    I think he’s doing that quite well.
    - http://www.rippdemup.com/ RiPPa
      
      But see t e unemployment rate as it is now, isn’t centuries in the making. Fact is, this explosion has taken place since 2008. And him being Black and thus being limited, isn’t an acceptable excuse. Truth is, there are a number of things he can do, or can be done to tackle unemplpoyment. And speaking of political or politicking? Much of what’s not being done is a direct result of just that. For example, the big banks who actually run this country are borrowing money from the Feds at record low interest rates. In turn, they’re sitting on trillions and not loaning to small businesses, or investing in the economy. If the gov’t were to tax their reserves this will force them to get up off that moola, and thus spark a creation of jobs, consumer demand, and speed up the recovery process.
      
      This is just a short-term fix or something to get the ball rolling. Of course there has been a lot of talk about infrastructure investment and this is good. However, the problem I see with that is muvh like the problem with the stimulus: it won’t trickle down to where it’s needed the most. Add to that the fact that as was the case with the stimulus, most of those “shovel ready” projects went to white-owned companies with minority companies left out in the cold. Ask Mark Moriial about that one and how it played itself out in Philly for example.
      
      Obama has touted the notion that America does big things and we should jold him to that. We shouldn’t be suggesting that he is limited because of the color of his skin. The way I see it, Black folks are every bit of Amnerican
      as anybody else of ethnic origin.
      - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_XYC54CZJ7TUENGQBUJYJSLNXIA Kerry
        
        I agree with you Rippa. That “he can’t do it because he’s black” excuse is hogwash. If anything he should be doing things bigger because he is black. Harold Washington, Coleman Young and Maynard Jackson were the first black mayors of major cities, and they were anything but shrinking violets. Instead of using Lincoln as his model, he should have picked one of these dudes. Lincoln, after all, got shot.
      - Ivan Ivanovich Renko
        
        I am surely not going to argue with you about where The Great Recession came from, and oh hell yes communities of color have been massively impacted, way more than white people.
        
        My point was that the disproportion has been centuries in the making, not this current godawful mess. And my perception is that the President is working for jobs and for more but has been stymied at every turn by the intransigent confederates. Beyond that, what can a President do?
        
        The Constitution gives the power of the purse to the Congress, the House of Reps specifically; and with Boehner-Cantor in the leadership they’ve gone completely fucking crazy.
        
        Tax policy is a matter of legislation, and once again you’re up against the confederates who will never agree to any kind of tax increase for the wealthiest.
        
        And do please understand that I’m not saying he can’t do because he’s black- I’m saying that the confederate led House will never ever cooperate with him because he’s black. Anything Barack Hussein Obama is in favor of, they’re ag’in’ it.
        
        As you say, the banks are getting bundles from the Fed at crazy low interest and they’re not putting it forward to create jobs (as they never would- you and I both know that “trickle down” doesn’t)– but what lever does the Oval Office have to force them to change their behavior?
        
        From a serious policy prescription point of view, what would you have him do?
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