Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 3 September 2004 — Page 8

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THE INDIANAPOLIS-RECORDER

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2004

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EDITORIAL

Bush promises much, but fails to deliver

By SHANNON WILLIAMS Recorder Editor

I 1

When I watched the news last Sunday evening and saw the enormous number of people protesting President Bush and the Republican National Convention, I was absolutely astonished to see the immensity of the crowd, but not at all surprised at

their reason for protesting.

As I watched the protesters carrying their anti-Bush signs my mind went back to Inauguration

Day 2000. Never in my lifetime had I seen such a lucid display of discontent for an American president on the day he was sworn into office. I remembered how in the

past, previous presi-dent-elects would be visible to a cheering crowd, yet how on that

a £ cold winter day, George JHdtS W. Bush and his wife

rode in an enclosed limousine. The reason they were not visible to the crowd was not because of the harshly cold temperature, but more because of the various objects being thrown at the car. At that precise time,

^ I remember wondering

“What in the world is

” ** going to happen to this

country?”

Now, four years later, I can answer my own question. Not only were thousands of American lives destroyed due to an unnecessary war, but we also are poorer than we’ve been since the

99 Great Depression, and

there are more Americans living without health insurance. But the problems don’t stop

there. As African Americans, our median household incomes have declined significantly. These are all reasons why Bush needs to be out of office. At press time, this week’s Republican National Convention was just shy of being complete, yet all week I have been incredibly unimpressed with what has been said on

the part of Republicans.

Unlike the Democratic National Convention, it was hard for me to stay tuned in because the whole thing seemed so scripted to me. From former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, to the Bush twins, and even Indy’s own Republican Senate candidate Marvin Scott...it all seemed so planned and spurious. Just like the 2000 convention, Republicans had their “chosen ones” representing the African-American and Hispanic cultures in an effort to appear diverse. How typical. And speaking of chosen ones, let’s not forget about Democrat sell-out Zell Miller, the self-proclaimed “conservative” senator from Georgia who spoke during the Republican Convention. Miller leads a small group of Democratic elected officials that support Bush because they feel it would be devastating to change presidents

during a war.

Over the past four years, Bush has talked a good game, but done little to back it up in an effective manner. What I’d like to hear, yet haven’t heard from Bush or the vast speakers of this year’s convention is exactly why they think Bush deserves to be reelected. We can spend all day coming up with great new ideas and initiatives for the country, but as the incumbent president, I’d like to know what Bush has already accomplished that is awesome enough to get him back in office for a second term.

Bush

talked a good game.

done

little to back it

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JUSTTEUiriT

Sobering facts on jobs, joblessness and politics this Labor Day weekend

By AMOS BROWN III

Let me try, on this Labor Day weekend, to make some sense out ofthe confusing data on employment and unemployment in America. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ monthly survey of who’s working and not working, 1.870.000 more Americans are working today than when George W. Bush took office. But before Republicans get happy, the same survey reports that since the president took office, 1.871.000 more Americans are unemployed! The reason both figures can grow is due to the country’s growing population. But the African-American population is also increasing, and unfortunately the job data is horrendous for us as 177,000 fewer African-Americans work today than when President Bush began. There’s 472,000 more Blacks unemployed now, with Black unemployment the highest in 10 years. During the Bush administration, the number of Blacks in poverty rose 300,000. AfricanAmerican median household income’s declining as Black households lost 2.7 times the income as whites. And this president thinks he’ll get Black votes? Hell get more votes in Baghdad than from our community! Fueling the closest governor’s race in decades is a confusing employment picture in Indiana. Again, back to the Bureau of Labor Statistics database. The Bush recession has resulted in virtually no job growth in Indiana the past four years. Since January 2001, the net increase of those employed in Indiana is a paltry 1,788 compared to an increase of 41,684 Hoosiers who became unemployed during the same period. The statewide data cheers Republicans and depresses Democrats. But conditions are far different in Indianapolis. The number of workers in the Indianapolis metro (old nine county version) jumped by

44,515 since January2001to now, while those unemployed increased by 17,136. Again, due to population growth. In Indianapolis/Marion County both employed and unemployed numbers increased. Since January 2001,17,372 more city residents are employed while 11,135 are unemployed. Population growth again. Individuals living in poverty in Indianapolis/Marion County rose sharply 18 percent between 2002 and 2003, and the number of children living in poverty, a statistic which disproportionately includes African Americans, climbed a stunning 30.3 percent since 2000. The mixed story on employment is why the presidential election is close nationally and the governor’s race is close here. The government doesn’t provide African-American employment data for the Indianapolis area. We assume Black joblessness here mirrors the national data; Black employment down and joblessness up. Mitch Daniels and Joe Kern an face a conundrum in our Black community. The Daniels campaign’s message that Indiana’s hurting economically could get undercut in a Black community that understands its economic pain is caused by economic policies created by Daniels’ former boss. The Keman campaign’s message that Indiana’s economy’s coming back may fall on deaf ears in a Black community feeling the pain of Bush’s recession. How Keman campaign balances theparadoxofHoosieremplqyment/ unemployment, and the economy's pain in our African-American community, will determine if the campaign can energize the AfricanAmerican votes Keman needs to win Nov. 2. What I’m hearing in the streets The new National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati is impressive. The new museum on the evils of slavery and the joys of freedom sits on the most prestigious piece of real estate in Cincinnati, on the Ohio Riverfront, between Cincinnati’s new football and baseball stadiums. There’s an Indianapolis connection as the Freedom’s Center

architect was the late Walter Blackburn. His wife Alpha and their Blackburn Associates finished Walter’s innovative design of three buildings, connected by glass skywalks, that sits beside the rolling river and raucous sports palaces. Our WTLC-AM (1310) “Afternoons with Amos” talk show was the only Indianapolis media to attend the Freedom Center’s Dedication Day last Aug. 23. In interviews, Cincinnati’s top African-American elected official, Vice-Mayor Alicia Reece acknowledged that Cincinnati still has deep, deep racial divisions but that a new generation of young African-American elected officials and leaders are working to heal the racial gaps. Freedom Center CEO Dr. Spencer Crew believes that his institution can help “heal” and “bring the city together.” There was a heavy police presence, but officers were friendly and courteous. Demonstrators were embarrassingly few. The biggest problem during my visit was the incompetence ofthe center’s and city’s PR machine. Though broadcasting live, I wasn’t allowed to tour the center’s exhibits. “Security sweeps,” I was told, though I saw VIP’s and workers roaming the building. Even though the dedication received national publicity, inexplicably TV stations from Dayton, Columbus, Louisville, Lexington and Indianapolis were absent, though Indy stations were preoccupied with covering I PD officer Timothy Laird’s homegoing. Maybe, Cincy’s convention and visitors PR mavens will invite me back to tour the Freedom Center’s exhibits; especially the centerpiece, an intact 1830’s “slave pen,” an artifact that visually conveys the holocaust our ancestors endured in this land. ***** As I feared, the Community Centers of Indianapolis (CCI) demise seriously harmed the budgets of the multi-service centers serving majority-Black neighborhoods. Last week’s release of United Way allocations shows the centers received funds for administrative and transportation functions previously handled by CCI. But, United Way cut the centers’ program funding.

Centers serving Black-major-ity neighborhoods received the least funding from United Way, while centers that serve whitemajority neighborhoods received far more funding. The United Way’s shortchanging funding to multi-service centers in Black neighborhoods is unconscionable. Especially since United Way’s backdoor politicking and shenanigans caused CCI to be dissolved. With poverty increasing in Black neighborhoods, the United Way harms the very groups poised to help our community. African Americans should remember the United Way’s insensitive funding policies when they come asking for your money this fall. ***** GOP congressional candidate Andy Homing’s mad Congresswoman Julia Carson didn’t attend adebate attended byjust 23 people last week. A “debate” sponsored by an alleged Black neighborhood group, held in a Black church with a white Indianapolis Star reporter moderating. Instead of caterwauling, Homing should get his aides with Carson’s aides and arrange meaningful joint appearances. ***** Why didn’t Democratic superintendent of public instruction candidate Susan Williams show up at last week’s big back-to-school rally at School 110? Her GOP opponent did. Where was Williams? ***** Simon Malls has yet to respond to our Aug. 20 column on racism at their Denver mall and our community’s concerns about Lafayette Square’s deterioration. I hope Simon’s silence doesn’t mean they’ve written off Indy’s Black consumers. ***** WTHR/Channel 13’s Linsey Davis, who excelled with her reports from the Athens Olympics, returns home to new responsibilities - co-anchoring Channel 13’s top rated weekend morning newscasts. Davis becomes the first African-American weekend morning anchor in years. See ‘ya next week! Amos Brown’s opinions are not necessarily those of the Indianapolis Recorder. You can contact him at (317) 2210915 or e-mail him at [email protected].

Ditching the rules to confirm conservative judges

By GEORGE E. CURRY For NNPA

flHHjjjjjHH Speakers at the Republican National Con- | vention have accused i )cm(K ' rat - s() i (, i )stnK ' tm K the judicial system by not Hi confirming all of President Bush’s nominees to the federal bench. However, an examination of the record shows that not only are Republican nominees being confirmed at a rate faster than judges appointed by Bill Clinton, all but a handful of Bush’s most extreme nominees have been approved by the Senate. Moreover, this was done as Senate Republicans ignored traditions and rules that had been used for years to assure bi-parti-san cooperation. Political harangues notwithstanding, of the 226 nominations Bush has made to the federal courts, the Senate has approved 198 or 88 percent of them. During Clinton’s first term, he nominated 239 judges and 202 or 85 percent were confirmed. Of the 876 federal district and appellate seats, only 28 - 3 percent - are now vacant. That represents the lowest vacancy rate in two decades. Bush - who considers Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia paragon Supreme Court justices - has run into difficulty only when he has tried to get his most extreme appointees seated. For example, he wanted to appoint California SupremeCourt Justice Janice Rogers Brown to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Brown, a frequent dissenter on a court where six of the seven justices were appointed by Republican governors, was described by People for the American Way as “to the right of Thomas and Scalia.” She was never approved. When Bush couldn’t get Judge Charles Pickering Sr., whose rulings have generally

been hostile to civil rights, elevated to the appeals level by the Senate, he appointed the Mississippi judge during a congressional recess, bypassing the confirmation process. He did the same with former Alabama Atty. Gen. Bill Pryor, another nominee with a similar

background.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, typifies the hard-ball politics that Republicans play. The committee has had in place what it calls a “blue slip” policy, meaning that if either home-state senator objected to a nomination to the federal bench,

is moving close to becoming one.

Nan Aron, president of the Alliance for Justice, a group dedicated to promoting an independent judiciary, has noted that 53 percent of the federal judiciary is made up of Republican appointees. They are in the majority in 10 of the 13 federal circuits. By the end of the year, she predicts, Republican ap-

pointees will control all but one circuit.

In an analysis of the judicial nominations, Ralph G. Neas, president of the People for the American Way, observes: “Having engaged in raw abuses of power when it comes to

it would not go forward. When Clinton was judicial nominations, Republicans leaders

president, Hatch did not allow a single nominee to be considered without the support of

both home state senators.

After Bush assumed office, however, Hatch ditched that tradition as Republicans tried tp ram through controversial nominees. The Judiciary Committee proceeded with the nominations of Carolyn Kuhl to the Ninth Circuit and Henry Saad, Richard Griffin and

David McKeague to the Sixth Circuit although also patently untrue.” bothMichigansenatorsobjectedtothenomi- That’s the truth,

nations. Hatch ultimately failed, when all

three nominations were rejected.

Another tradition, one that required the support of at least one member of the minority party before debate on any matter could be terminated, was also jettisoned by Hatch. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee has been equally hypocritical. Today, he says: “If filibusters are going to be made part ofthe judicial nominee process, 1 think you will see increasing discussion over

whether the rules should be changed.” But he saw no need for the rules to change

when he favored acontinued filibuster against

Clinton’s nomination of Richani Paez

Ninth Circuit. When that failed^Tirvaiecfto indefinitely postponeavote on thePeaznomi-

nation.

Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, has accused Bush of attempting to “turn the independent federal judiciary into an arm of the Republican Party." If the judiciary is not an arm of the GOP, it

now have the temerity to claim that the Democrats are not playing by the rules. Part of the administration’s ‘obstructionism’ charge is that Senate Democrats are using what the Republicans call an illegitimate and unprecedented means - the filibuster - to prevent the most extreme of the president’s judicial nominees from being confirmed. This charge, like the charge of ‘obstructionism’ itself, is

George E. Curry is editor-in-chief of the NNPA News Service and BlackPressUSA.com. He can be reached through his Web site, georgecurry.com.