The 'Hood' Needs You: Support HR 4812 - “Local Jobs for America Act”

I've talked and talked y'all to death about how little anything is being done by the gov't to rescue our urban communities predominantly inhabited by people of color. Of that $787 billion dollar Stimulus Package of last year? Only about 1% has trickled down into these very communities.

Well, thanks to Congressmen Keith Ellison [MN-5] and George Miller [CA-7], the "Local Jobs for America Act," has been proposed on the floor of Congress. It is estimated that this bill would create up to 1 million jobs in communities that need it the most. Here's more from the good folks of colorofchange.org:

The economic crisis has hit Black folks especially hard — the unemployment rate is almost twice as high among African-Americans as among Whites. The picture is especially bleak for Black men — 19% are currently jobless [link].

Unless Congress does something big to create new jobs — and soon — the situation could just keep getting worse. Each wasted day means more lost jobs, more foreclosed homes, and more medical bankruptcies — all of which will drag the economy down even further.

The Local Jobs for America Act (H.R.4812) would do a lot to help. The bill would allocate $75 billion for creating and saving 750,000 jobs, with the most funds going to economically depressed areas [link].  It would allocate $25 billion to hire and retain teachers, police officers, and firefighters. Another $500 million would go to support on-the-job training programs.

Congressman Ellison has challenged us all to convince enough of our representatives to support this bill that its passage will be guaranteed. It’s a tall order, but Ellison has already gathered an amazing 139 cosponsors in just a few weeks. Now we must take advantage of that momentum.

So what can you do? First off, you must realize the positive impact this measure will provide. Secondly, take it upon yourself and encourage others to contact their representatives in Washington DC, to support this bill. To do so, take a moment to show your support by clicking the following link and helping the folks at colorofchange.org encourage Congress to sign onto a statement asking your representative to support the 'Local Jobs for America Act'. Lastly, do me a huge favor of spreading the word on this throughout the blogosphere and beyond, will you?

Support the Local Jobs for America Act


(AP photo/Paul Sancya)

Barack Obama invites black leadership to the White House for economic talks; and yes, Al Shapton was there too - Reparations, maybe?

In light of the extreme winter weather conditions across the country, and particularly here in the south where I reside. Screw global warming theorists; one only has to look to the White House to see that hell has frozen over this week. This past Wednesday, president Barack Obama invited black leadership to the people's house to discuss the plight of black folks in this economic shit-storm; or more appropriately, the economic tsunami from which many of us are drowning.

Not exactly a "beer summit", but an unprecedented move indeed; especially since it's been said that Obama cannot specifically help our melanin afflicted brothers and sisters in the struggle; a claim that I unequivocally dispute:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama and three prominent African-American leaders grappled Wednesday with how to improve economic opportunities for blacks, whose joblessness looms well above the national average and is nearly twice that of whites.

On a day of treacherous weather in Washington, Obama kept his scheduled meeting with Benjamin Jealous, president of the NAACP; Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League; and the Rev. Al Sharpton, president of the National Action Network. Dorothy Height, chairwoman of the National Council of Negro Women, could not make it to the White House because of the pounding snow and winds that kept most of the nation's capital shut down.

The meeting did not yield immediate announcements or initiatives.

Obama and the other leaders focused on targeting aid to regions to help black people and other groups that have been hit disproportionately hard by the recession, Jealous told The Associated Press.

"When you try to focus on how to lift all those boats, what you come back to are places -- geographic areas, urban and rural, where assistance should be located," he said. "That approach can work if Congress lets it work."

He added: "This is about place. It's not about race."

Obama, the nation's first black president, has consistently held that he cannot adopt employment strategies that are designed to solely help blacks. But he supports targeting help to regions most in need, which in turn, he says, would lift the African-American community. (Source)

Well look-a-here, look-a-here! Isn't this the same stuff I've been saying on this blog for some time now? Uh-huh, but yet I'm met with nothing but opposition from Neo-Negroes and trolls alike on this issue? I've said it from day one: steps should have been taken with the stimulus bill to ensure that these funds trickle down to the areas that are most affected. Areas within which a disproportionate population of people of color exist. And in the shaping of a so-called jobs package, it is imperative that these areas are considered.

Van Jones Resigns: Score one for the assholes of America who are always against progress.

From the minute I made my post the other week a day after Glen Beck dubbed Van Jones a communist Black supremacist I knew it was coming. I figured it was going to be a matter of time before he either resigned or was thrown under the bus by president Obama. Looking back at the rhetoric on my post it was clear; and as I stated, this was indeed an attack on Black intelligentsia and community activism. Well, score one for the assholes of America folks because Van Jones has resigned.

White House environmental adviser Van Jones resigned Saturday after weeks of controversy stemming from his past activism.

"On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me," Jones, special adviser for green jobs at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said in a statement announcing his resignation just after midnight Saturday. "They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide."

He continued: "I have been inundated with calls -- from across the political spectrum -- urging me to 'stay and fight.' But I came here to fight for others, not for myself. I cannot in good conscience ask my colleagues to expend precious time and energy defending or explaining my past. We need all hands on deck, fighting for the future." [Source: The Washington Post]

Way to go muthafuckas; so much for the whole Green Jobs concept being trickled down to our urban communities. Yep, just a day or so after it was revealed that the current unemployment rate (9.7%) is at a 26yr high. Ya happy now bitches? While Republicans and the Glenn Beck Fool-Aid drinking crew relish in this as a victory, ultimately, it is the country who loses. Yes, America loses at the hands of dis-informed mental midgets who would love nothing better than to see the current president, and former "community organizer" fail.

Well you know what? Like Bernie Mack, we ain't scared of you muthafuckas; and us Nazi's in the community are going to keep fighting. We're going to keep organizing and fighting the big machine for social justice and change. If anything, this should be a wake-up call for progressive minded political individuals the likes of myself (i.e. Progressive Negroes). As a group we must fight fire with fire. No, unlike the opposition we should not push lies and espouse vitriolic rhetoric for political expediency. What we should do is speak truth to power and educate the masses harder than ever. Surely we cannot change the minds of all. But our voice is powerful, and with the truth is on our side, we'll never lose.

Black people, it is imperative that we do a better job of defending our images and distorted perceptions in the face of the right wing sharks who do not have our best interests at heart. Van Jones will be ok; he's going to continue the good work he has always done. He will continue to champion the fight for the disenfranchised among us, the fight for saving our environment, and the fight for economic equality among ethnic groups. If these issues makes him a communist, or a Black Supremacist as he has been labeled, then I guess him and I are one in the same. On Friday Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) called on Jones to resign, saying in a statement, "His extremist views and coarse rhetoric have no place in this administration or the public debate." Really? This coming from a representative of a party who welcomes racially divisive and extremist rhetoric at town hall meetings?

My only disappointment through all of this, is that as a people (Black people) we slept on this one. We pitched a bitch about not enough key Black appointees within the current administration. But we stood bye and allowed another one of ours to be railroaded in the media. We did the same thing with the good old Rev. Jeremiah Wright as the media with it's soundbite after soundbite made him out to be a pariah. Well, are we just going to continue to allow them to do that to everything and everyone Black associated with Barack Obama? Jones was right, those of us who are not Barack Hussien Obama, are going to have to get uppity.

Well done assholes...

Van Jones a Communist? Really Glenn Beck? Uh oh, those smart Negroes are always up to something aren't they?!!

I'm gonna go ahead and say it: Glenn Beck is a slimy bastard, and I hope he gets booted off the airwaves. To date, he has lost a host of sponsors of his show due to collective activism, and the efforts of colorofchange.org. All of this because of his proclamation that Barack Obama is racist and has a problem with white people. And last night I heard he was attacking Obama's appointed Green Jobs Czar Van Jones. Yes, this asshole had the nerve to do what he does best which would be to motivate the ignorant among us with lies.

Check it out:

[you should see the comments to this video on Youtube]

Wait, you mean to tell me that we're still in the 60's where every "revolutionary" was viewed as being communists? Shit, wasn't that the same thing they said about W.E.B. DuBois before he eventually said fuck this country and moved to Africa? We're back on that weak stuff?

Listen, I happen to love Van Jones and what he has been doing for years as a "community organizer". That said, who the fuck is Glenn Beck, and what has he done for anybody but espouse the most idiotic vitriol ever on airwaves to benefit himself as he makes $20 million a year. We've seen this all before, right? Intelligent Black man becomes capable of making moves and affecting positive change, and then he suddenly becomes a threat. You know how they do Smart Negroes; shit, every once in a while they end up becoming president and we can't have that. So, instead of telling people the truth, it's more effective to attack Black intellectualism by using buzz words like Socialist, Nazi, and now Communist.

You wanna know the truth about this whole thing. Van Jones and James Rucker started the organization Color of Change. Yes, the very same organization that is responsible for corporate advertisers dropping sponsorship of Glen Beck's show. Yes, this isn't about Van Jones, or Obama, this is about Beck trying to fight back the best way his punk-ass can. And that would be with lies. I just wanted to take a minute to weigh in on this and as always, tell the damn truth.You see, the real truth here people, is that people of color, who God forbid become educated and attempt to go against the status quo, will always be a threat to the likes of Glenn Beck and the rest of the idiots in this country.

If you have no idea who Van Jones the "community organizer" really is...

check out this following clip and tell me if he sounds as dangerous as Beck makes him out to be:

Um, I don't know about you, but that doesn't sound quite like Communism to me.