Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Georgia GOP State Convention: Peaches Have Black Pits..Usually

May 18, 2013 by slyram

The Georgia Republican State Convention is popping this weekend so it’s time to play “count the negroes.”   I will get calls from Black GOP friends and associates regarding the size vehicle you could put all of the African-Americans at this event in at one time comfortably.   Escalade seems appropriate because we love ourselves some Cadillacs.

 
Georgia contains the best Black area in the world, Atlanta, and therefore, the state has many many business-oriented, self-made Blacks who are conservative to moderate on paper.   Secondly, outside of Atlanta, Blacks are use to functioning with GOP elected leaders.   The opportunity has been there for GOP candidates to enjoy 10, 20, or maybe 30% of the Black vote but they don’t want it because the regular GOP crew would see sizable Black numbers as an indicator of liberalism.

 
The 2014 U.S. Senate primary on the GOP side could be decided by a few votes.   This week, former Secretary of State Karen Handel jumped into the race.   This former Atlanta area elected official could have been governor if she cultivated a little of the Black support she experienced in the ATL but she was defeated in a primary runoff by 2500 votes.   Of course, the maneuver I am suggesting would have required Black voting in the GOP primary but wise folks know that the Dem team is weak in Georgia so the GOP primary is often where leaders are picked. I do it all the time.
 

Rep. Jack Kingston is in the senate race also. …Jack…cool Jack….my man Jack.  Careful, Jack. Please.   One on one, Kingston is one friendly guy but the GOP information (or disinformation) machine requires the delivery of rough talking point (yes, the Dems do the same thing.)   Jack is well liked in the Black community from Augusta to Warner Robins to Valdosta because he supports our military bases and farms.   So, Kingston should play that Rep. Austin Scott/Rep. Sanford Bishop nice guy role by voting the party line but limited the non-policy attacks on the president from the other party.   The Obama administration is currently giving them plenty of real targets so fire away nicely.

 
Handel or Kingston could get 20% of their primary votes from crossover Blacks who aren’t GOP if they play their cards right.   The percentage is more than enough to tip the scales to victory and if Michelle Nunn doesn’t jump into the race, the whole state should vote in the GOP primary.

 

In the land of MLK, “I have a dream” that one day the GOP—the party of Lincoln- will have a state convention with brothers and sistas with goatees and naturals.   I mean the bros should have goatees.   You know, guys who grew up on Black self-reliance discussions at the dinner table. People who are uncomfortable with the government being all up in their business.   People who don’t need the state to tell them to care for and feed their children.

 
Surprisingly, Clarence Thomas is one the most afro-centric cats on the nation stage and as Chuck D said about someone else “don’t tell me that you understand until you hear the man.”   A new Black conservatism could be based on Thomas’s book about his grandfather. Black southerners are primed to be separated from real liberals and from the thug element of the hip hop culture.   However, we can’t find a home inside the Right because the far Right likes ugly talk too much.   What’s a brother to do?

Posted in politics | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Politics: Be Careful What You Say Out Loud

May 6, 2013 by slyram

An old southern adage states “be careful what you say out loud.”  Everything you think isn’t supposed to be said when and where you think it—maybe it shouldn’t be spoken at all but it’s clearly understood.   I wanted to touch on a few of those “out loud” matters.

 
A leader in the Democratic Party of Georgia recently got in hot water for saying that the party must “clear the field” in next year’s primaries. Everyone knows that the Dems here are poorly organized.  I want to say out loud that Dems create policies that support people who don’t vote—oh, they can go to every local high school football game but they can vote on the regular.  Non-voting working folks have no right to complaint governmental actions and laws.  Hush.

 
The only hope Dems have in southern red states is to go into those legendary, smoke-filled backrooms and decide who their candidates should be without primary contests.  I forgot that people can’t smoke inside anymore but you get the point.

 
For U.S. Senate, Rep. John Barrow and Michelle Nunn are the best options but they have zero hope if they battle in the summer.  Actually, their only hope is that the GOP primary voters will select controversial Rep. Paul Broun.   I am not supposed to say this out loud but the Dems should switch over and vote for Broun in the primary because he would be the easier target in the general election.   The Obama machine would be in full force in November against Broun.  Money would pour into Georgia from sea to shining sea.

 
I am not supposed to say that I voted for GOP Senator Saxby Chambliss in the past because south Georgia regional interests (ag, military, transportation) are more important than party politics to me.  I can’t believe that GOP voters won’t admit that Rep. Sanford Bishop has their backs on these issues—dam it, say it out loud.  Oh, Bishop is the enemy and Broun is a conservative super hero.  Yeah, “Senator” Broun would likely ended most farm programs.

 
I am not supposed to say out loud that non-GOPers better consider voting for the best available candidate in the GOP primary because that is where the senator might be chosen.  Personally, I like candidates like Jack Kingston who- while being full-blooded conservative- have a history of explaining their views to those who vote against them.  That is called the democratic process.

 
Finally, I shouldn’t say out loud that we should cultivate the next crop of leaders now because waiting until they decide to retire is too late.  Who is next when Rep. John Lewis gracefully concludes that he has fought the good fight.  In southwest Georgia, the replacement for Rep. Bishop should be the next generation Black leader—someone who teaches about the limited role of government.  We have some folks in mind but we aren’t saying…out loud.

http://www.myajc.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/fearing-another-bruising-primary-democrats-seek-to/nXS7q/?icmp=ajc_internallink_textlink_apr2013_ajcstubtomyajc_launch

Posted in politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

T.V. Brainwashed: “Married To Medicine” isn’t Georgia

April 24, 2013 by slyram

The horrific, cowardly acts in Boston last year were carried out by young men who were brainwashed and/or radicalized. An argument can be made that all or most of us could be or have been radicalized on some level when inundated with too much of a particular point of view.

Blacks in America would be a good place to start this discussion. We knew upon arriving on these shores that wrongful actions brought us here. But, we had to patiently wait until the mid-1970s to experience the freedoms of this free nation. Americans who believe in the Christian Bible know our book is filled with references to waiting on the Lord and to me, being humbled by suffering prepares us for heaven as a proposed to those who think they have heaven on earth. Those cats might have a dated with a fire on the other side.

My friends from the Taxed Enough Already Party (TEA) are correct in many ways on taxes but they don’t have the patience of Black folks. If these guys don’t get what they want now, they are ready for an actual revolution…now.

People on both ends of the political spectrum often constantly listen to and read information from pumped-up sources. Too much of these opinions at one time can lead to an overdose. For example, viewers should know how to watch T.V. shows in their proper entertainment context.

Seinfeld doesn’t reflect all of my Jewish friends; Homeland doesn’t reflect all of my Muslim friends and the Real Housewives of Atlanta only reflects the lifestyles of about a dozen families in the ATL.

Oh, we should talk about Married To Medicine, the latest effort of the gay agenda at Bravo to make everyone else look foolish. (Kidding)

When I was a child, people said that politics was show business for ugly people. But, reality television has blown that out of the water…like blowing stumps on Swamp People. Today, the music T.V. channels have no music videos and the history channel has little history on it’s main channel. It’s all about reality shows and the affect of American culture could be cancerous.

The fight between lovely sistas in ball gowns last week on Married To Medicine should in no way reflect the behavior of Black professionals in Georgia. Bravo searched high and low (really low) for people who would trade dignity for instant fame. Oh, I knew as a child that lawyers, bankers, professors and physicians were regular people away from work and subject to the same drama as anyone else. Actually, my college sweetheart contends that her colleagues in the medical profession are socially awkward because they spent so many years in the books while others were learning social skills.

An old adage states “just because you paid for college, doesn’t mean you have class.” We have a problem in the Black community that centers on the desire for wealth. We like people to see us with shiny stuff in shiny cars heading to fancy meals at fancy places. If your natural abilities didn’t provide you the means to get this stuff, you can always marry well if you are smoking hot.

The Mariah lady to M to M is simply hood and will always be hood. The show is produced in some way in association with her production company. So, she sat in a board room at Bravo and pitched this product with promises of cattiness, ugliness and fights. The two lady doctors are classy as is the attractive woman Toya, who was basically jumped by Mariah. Of course, the hood has people without money who have class and they lack of money could be based on their refusal to compromise their integrity wealth.

So, people across America watch messy T.V. about groups of Americans they don’t know and formulate faulted opinions. “He is not this child’s father…either.” Then during the news hour, Fox News tells you that you are paying for these people to hang out all day while you are at work making money that a Kenyan born president will take from your check. On the other side of the extreme, MSNBC is doing the same thing from the stay point of “the government can fix all the problems in the nation with enough tax money….no one in America should be outside the middle class.” Huh? Can everyone be middle class? Isn’t the government ensuring a minimum quality of life basically socialism?

Fox, MSMBC and Bravo don’t brainwashing as well as the hip hop culture. Did I love hip hop as a college student? Yes sir, I was proud that urban youth created an art medium to reflect the realities of their situations. But today, life is imitating art because youth are glamorizing thugs and strippers while some students are actually downplaying their academic success. On his quality reality show last week, rapper T.I. told his kids that he never met a thug who wanted to be a thug. My man told them to rap about having a nice life. T.I. is the king of the South.

In summary, we need to be careful what we watch and hear because forces can radicalize you before you know it. In a diverse nation, there is no substitute for getting to know (humanizing) others. When we know each other, we can start the process of explaining now personal choices and decisions have consequences. If not, the next generation of Black southerners might include people that some people (including positive Blacks) will want to rightfully avoid.

Posted in politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Education Management Corporation: Legal Troubles Continue

April 17, 2013 by slyram

Education Management Corporation (EDMC) (NASDAQ:EDMC) Legal Troubles Continue

Posted on Monday, April 15, 2013

PRESS RELEASE

http://www.sbwire.com/press-releases/print/236572

http://www.sbwire.com/press-releases/education-management-corporation-edmc-nasdaqedmc-legal-troubles-continue-236572.htm

EDMC (NASDAQ:EDMC) is embroiled in a multibillion dollar fraud case brought by the Department of Justice (DOJ); several employee whistleblower suits; a recent investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC); and now a unfair labor charge filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

Sylvester, GA — (SBWIRE) — 04/15/2013 — Education Management Corporation (EDMC) (NASDAQ:EDMC), the nation’s second largest provider of for-profit education, is under investigation by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) as a result of charges that the company discriminated against employees for union organizing efforts, enforced illegal company policies and engaged in a number of other unfair labor practices.

A number of current and former EDMC (http://www.edmc.edu/) employees allege that EDMC engaged in unfair labor practices and policies that violated federal labor laws and the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). The employees filed charges with the NLRB against EDMC and the Art Institute of California. According to the charges, EDMC routinely subjected employees to harassment for requesting and taking entitled sick leave, maternity leave and vacation time. In addition, certain employees complained of being harassed over taking legally entitled rest breaks and properly recording work hours that resulted in overtime pay.

Employees were said to have also complained of questionable compliance practices and being pressured to break rules and enroll unqualified students in order to meet hyper aggressive revenue goals. After complaining of untenable work conditions, reporting the abuses to senior management and engaging in efforts to organize a labor union, the employees say they faced retaliatory discipline, reduced work privileges, poor performance reviews and termination in some cases. If the allegations are true, EDMC violated employees Section 7 rights under the NLRA which gives both union and non-union employees the right to engage in concerted activities such as discussing work conditions and acting together to resolve work related issues.

The latest NLRB controversy is just one of many charges and lawsuits currently pending against EDMC, which is owned by Goldman Sachs (41%). Both EDMC stock price and its student enrollment numbers have been severely impacted by its negative publicity. On March 12, 2013, NASDAQ:EDMC stock shares closed at $4.627 per share, which is significantly below its current 52 week High of $16.16 per share. The company is engaged in a multi-billion dollar fraud suit commenced by the Department of Justice (DOJ) under the False Claims Act (FCA) that is currently pending. It also faces a shareholder derivative suit brought by the Oklahoma Law Enforcement Retirement Systems (OLERS) and scrutiny by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). EDMC recently announced an SEC investigation few weeks ago and also has additional pending whistleblower suits under the FCA, Sarbanes-Oxley (S0X), the Dodd-Frank Act and the SEC Whistleblower Bounty Program.

EDMC employees who have additional information regarding questionable company practices or would like to learn more about ongoing employees claims, or who may have questions concerning EDMC employee rights or upcoming union organizing activities, please contact Ted Sadler at projectlogicga.com

Media Relations Contact

Ted Sadler or Helen Blocker
helen@hbagroup-intl.com Contact HBAGroup

http://www.helenblockeradams.com/

Posted in politics | 1 Comment »

Carlton Fletcher on Half-raised Fools

April 15, 2013 by slyram

I have had it up to here with half-raised folks and don’t want to hear about rights and bla bla bla. Yes, in our free society, people have a right to have kids when they want and with whom they want. But, someone must say that developing a baby into a productive, responsible person is one of the hardest things in life. Young people who terrorize senior citzens are actually domestic terrorists to me.

In my Sunday morning newspaper, columnist Carlton Fletcher of the Albany Herald details a story about a group of young punks being disrespectful to an older couple. We must have a new type politician/policy maker that design public policy in a way that encourages people having kids when they are really ready.

The passage of time is the ultimate neutralizer in life

 

http://www.albanyherald.com/news/2013/apr/13/passage-time-ultimate-neutralizer-life/

Carlton Fletcher

Time waits for no one, and we’re running out of time.

— Friends of Distinction

My blood started boiling as I surveyed the scene, and I found myself amazed anew at the human race’s capacity for cruelty.

A pack of young men, four strong, walked away from where an older couple stood looking warily after them. The four were laughing uncontrolably, pointing at the couple and falling all over each other in their mirth.

The old couple looked wounded, but not in any physical way. It was more a look of embarrassed resignation, of stunned disbelief. I noticed tears on the woman’s cheeks.

Trying to size up the situation, I asked the couple if they were OK. The man waved off my concern.

“No big deal,” he said. “Just some young hoodlums showing off and letting off steam.”

The woman, though, said nothing. She silently walked away, the tears flowing freely. I watched her slip quietly into their nearby vehicle and asked the man again if they were really all right.

He stood looking at me for a moment before saying anything.

“You know how it is with young kids,” he said with a long sigh. “They’re out roaming around with all that energy and nothing to do, and they have to let it out somewhere. I figure we’ve all done that at some time in our lives.

“But that doesn’t stop their words from hurting.”

The man stopped talking abruptly, as if he’d said too much. I actually looked around to see if the kids were coming back, then let the silence linger for a moment before asking if he wanted to talk about the incident.

“Oh, it’s just kids being stupid kids,” he said. “They made some cracks about us being old and used some language that got my dander up. I said something to them — told them to have some respect — and that got them going.

“They ran at us like they meant to hurt us, then stopped and said some real mean things.”

The man stopped again, and this time a look of hurt enveloped his face. It’s a look that touched my heart.

“They called my wife things like ‘pig’ and ‘sow’ and screamed how ugly she was,” the man said quietly. “They called her some nasty things that I wouldn’t repeat. I wanted to go after them, but I was scared they’d hurt my wife.”

Tears welled in the man’s eyes.

“That woman is the sweetest, kindest woman God ever created,” he said. “She’s been through more than her share over the years, put up with just about every kind of hardship you can think of. She just doesn’t deserve to be treated so mean.”

I offered my condolences and asked the man if he wanted me to contact law enforcement.

“Nah,” he said, “ain’t no need for that. We’re just gonna head on home now. I’ll have to see if I can’t find a way to make my wife feel better.”

I offer what I know are insufficient words to try and bolster the man’s feelings, but he waves me off.

“Son,” he said, “I’m not really concerned about those young punks. It makes me mad that they hurt my wife’s feelings, but she’ll get over it in time. I probably would have fought all four of them in my younger days, but those days are long gone.

“That’s one thing about life: It marches on. I was like those boys in a lot of ways when I was their age, but look at me now. And my wife may not win any beauty contests, these days, but, son, back in her day she turned every man’s eye. Heck, she’s still that beautiful young woman to me.”

He smiled at the memory.

“I figure time will catch up with those boys like it does all of us,” he said. “I won’t be around to see them get theirs, but I can rest easy knowing that, sooner or later, it will happen.

“Time gets us all.”

As the man shuffled off to join his wife in their car, I watched him with mixed feelings of respect and sadness. I was thankful that I’d happened upon him — in spite of the circumstances — but I couldn’t help but think about that look of bewildered hurt on his wife’s face.

As the couple drove away, I found myself dwelling on the man’s parting words: Time gets us all.

Email Metro Editor Carlton Fletcher at carlton.fletcher@albanyherald.com.

Posted in politics | Tagged , , | Leave a Comment »

Jackie Robinson, Arthur Ashe, Muhammad Ali and Clarence Thomas: Race Men

April 11, 2013 by slyram

With Mr. Jackie Robinson on the big screen and Tiger Woods on the little screen, we have the perfect opportunity to have a discussion about the influence of sports stars.  I don’t need a film to tell me about Mr. Robinson because my father did.

 
Jack Roosevelt Robinson, a Cairo, Georgia native, is the reason I dreamed as a kid about attending UCLA rather than playing ball in the Southeastern Conference.  If it takes the National Guard to get folks like me into a college, it will be a while before that school and is cool with me. Robison was a letterman in four sports in Westwood before becoming one of the first Black officers in the military.  Have you seen the film about Robinson being court-martialed for not going to the back of the bus in Fort Hood, Texas?

 
Better yet, my man Ken Burn’s documentary “Baseball” spent an episode on Robinson and viewers learned that he was considered a “race man.” I like that term.    If you are a person who has a preoccupation with moving your race forward, you are a race man.  The opposite of race men would be Tiger Woods and Michael Jeffery Jordan.    Oh, I love the sports success of these two but their first concern is Nike…not Negro.

 
When the Black pride protest of Carlos and Smith with the Black gloves at the Mexico City Olympics took place, Jackie Robinson said they were wrong for bringing protest on the field of sports.   UCLA race man Arthur Ashe was a hero to me because he blended sports performance with appropriate social change.   Most Americans first learned that we should fight apartheid in South Africa because Ashe refused to play tennis there.   Ashe was the epitome of elegance and smoothness and the youth today would be benefit from getting to know him.

 
Muhammad Ali’s embrace of Black Nationalism was bolder than his courage in the ring.   What if …what if…what if. What if Malcolm X wasn’t killed and his post-Mecca approach became the blueprint for race men rather than the King model.  I still can’t get with the idea of non-violent protest.  To me, getting your rifle when someone is burning a church (while people are inside) is natural self-defense.

 
But, most importantly, America in general never listened to the fundamental principles of nationalism.  The core beliefs are simply a form of conservatism.   Yeah, Clarence Thomas should have been more important than Jesse Jackson because his grandfather raised a young man who was a serious race man.

 
Thomas is pissed that governmental involvement made some of Black Americans soft and weak. Before Jackie Robinson broke into Major League Baseball, we had a Negro League whose all-stars beat the New York Yankees.  Cobb, Ruth and DiMaggio did complete against us during the regular season.   Before the color line was broken, we also had strong business districts in every city and town—usually across the train tracks.  Today, Black people spend money all over town but those businesses aren’t invested in the community.

 
Robinson and Ashe would be disappointed with the negativity that African Americans are bring on ourselves today—you can’t blame that on others. Finally, the marriage of Jackie and Rachel Robinson is how it is done. She is lovely to this day.

 
The character building part of sports is more important that physical fitness. If our youth spent half the time they spend on basketball and football on homework, they would be successful in professional life.  Many major league baseball teams have only one or two African Americans players. The bros aren’t feeling baseball but baseball players can make money into their forties.   We are going to be fine when we get back to who we use to be.

Posted in politics | Leave a Comment »

Shady For-Profit Colleges: Waste, Fraud and a Ruse

April 7, 2013 by slyram

Recently, we came across the issue of faux colleges and their activities with federal funds. These so-called schools are hitting the economically challenged communities in America in several different ways.

http://www.sbwire.com/press-releases/education-management-corporation-nasdaqedmc-accused-by-employees-of-concealing-evidence-in-billion-dollar-fraud-case-231823.htm

First, many of these proprietary schools sign up students for degrees and programs that wouldn’t be useful in the job market. They actually target people who aren’t savvy enough to realize that the money they will be receiving is a student loan rather than a grant. These students trust these shady schools because their involvement with the federal student loan system gives them the creditability of the U.S. government.

 
In 1991 while working as a congressional staffer, I spent an hour in the congressman’s office with a local school officials explaining why said school was on new list of high default institutions and was being kicked out of the federal student finance system. Come on now; your “graduates” default rate is over 80%. Clearly, your clients weren’t students searching for financial aid but were financial aid searching for students.
Secondly, employees of these schools who have functioning moral compasses don’t have the hearts to continue selling false hope and future personal money pitfalls. Remember, student loan debt is one of the only debts that cannot be discharged in bankruptcy. Employees who don’t meet recruitment quotas or those who question the fudging of numbers to governmental oversight entities will feel the wrath of management.

 
But, where are the Black and Hispanic members of congress during this fleecing of minority America. Oh, those brothers and sisters are at their own fund-raisers with their hands out to the parent companies of these schools. Taxpayers fund K-12, state colleges and state technical schools. So, why pay much more to attend for-profit schools. This article about Everest College explains the whole mess.

http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/noquarter/jobplacement-performance-of-everest-college-proves-dismal-gp6s4go-169976496.html

Okay, I will admit that I am one of the people who likes the Everest parodies on you tube but this is serious. We need a grassroot movement to educate the public and members of congress about this schools and their treatment of students and employees.

Posted in politics | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments »

Older Posts »

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.