Kerry - America's Second Black President

[madape]

Kerry speech invokes faith, civil rights themes
Avoid politics that divide us, worshippers told
By JULIE MASON
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle
JOHN KERRY


JACKSON, Miss. -- Aligning himself with the civil rights movement and elements of faith in the fight for equality, Sen. John Kerry on Sunday called on members of an African-American church here to march against cynicism and disaffection.

"I don't agree with the hollowness of the politics, nor do you, that tries to divide black from white, rich from poor, Massachusetts from Mississippi," Kerry told a crowd of about 600 at the predominantly black Greater Bethlehem Temple Church.

Democrats historically have relied on the support of African-Americans at the polls, a courtship that often begins in church. But this year, with the election expected to be extremely close, Democrats are saying they can no longer afford to take black votes for granted.

Visiting black churches is an honored rite of the presidential campaign, and Kerry used the occasion Sunday to debut a speech melding policy with religion, springing from the bedrock of civil rights.

Quoting James 2:14, Kerry, a Catholic, said, "We'll be tested to see how much we really remember the words of the Scripture, What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?"

Although civil rights activist Al Sharpton of New York is still in the Democratic race, black voters and elected officials said they want to support a candidate with a better chance at defeating President Bush.

President Clinton was often known as the first black president, Kerry said recently. "I wouldn't be upset if I could earn the right to be the second."

U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, who campaigned extensively for former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, made the switch to Kerry after Dean dropped out of the race, and appeared at Kerry's town hall meeting in Houston on Saturday.

State Rep. Garnet Coleman, a longtime Houston Democratic lawmaker, said African-Americans, like all Americans, are looking for the candidate who can put forth the policies to improve children's health insurance, restore college scholarship funding, and create economic opportunity.

There are people who are struggling, Coleman said. "And what they want to know is who is going to pull together the policy that is going to help them succeed, when they are doing everything they're supposed to do."

African-Americans have been hard-hit by the nation's job losses. A recent study by the National Urban League found black unemployment nearly double the national average.

In addition, college-educated and highly skilled black workers suffered greater job losses than their white counterparts, according to the Urban League report, which was based on Labor Department statistics.

Yolanda Smith, executive director of the NAACP in Houston, said black voters are paying close attention this year to the voting records of candidates on key issues.

``We are hoping that each candidate is cognitive of the huge disparity in black unemployment and racial profiling and other areas of concern,'' Smith said.

In 2000, Al Gore captured 90 percent of the black vote to President Bush's 9 percent, one of the lowest percentages for a Republican in decades, according to exit surveys.

Since then, Bush has worked to bring more black voters to the Republican Party, in part by promoting his education reforms, faith-based spending programs and tax cuts to selected black audiences other than the traditional civil rights groups, such as black churches and social service providers.

Kerry told his Sunday audience here that Bush has broken promises to all Americans, including in education, the environment, foreign policy and more. "We have to march against cynicism and disaffection," he said.

Before largely securing his party's nomination, Kerry came under fire from opponents for statements more than a decade ago on affirmative action.

In a 1992 speech, Kerry claimed that affirmative action kept Americans thinking in racial terms and promoted a culture of dependency.

Kerry said his statements at the time were describing what critics of affirmative action were saying about the program. In Houston earlier this week, Kerry told supporters that he supports affirmative action.

In Mississippi, Kerry said he plans to run the same campaign in all parts of the country, and not target specific communities of interest.

"I believe that we're one country," Kerry said.

[Drbio]

The "My brothers" comment got a lot of play last night on the talk shows. What a doofus.

[sike]

nobody as white as Kerry should ever attempt to emote any level of cool...it just aint gonna happen....AL GORE......NOW THATS A COOL GUY!

[madape]

The Secret Society That Ties Bush And Kerry
Posted: 02/07
From: Telegraph

Revelations That Leading Candidates For The US Presidency Were "Skull And Bones" Members Have Provoked Claims Of Elitism

By Charles Laurence
The Telegraph - UK

NEW YORK -- The "tomb" stands dark and hulking at the heart of the Yale University campus, almost windowless, and shuttered and padlocked in the thick snow of winter storms.

Built to mimic a Greco-Egyptian temple, it is the headquarters of the Order of the Skull and Bones, America's most elite and elusive secret society - and it has become the unlikely focus of this year's presidential election. It turns out that four leading contestants for the White House in November's election were 1960s undergraduates at Yale: President Bush and Democratic rivals Governor Howard Dean, Sen John Kerry and Sen Joseph Lieberman.

What is more, two are "Bonesmen". Both Sen Kerry, now the Democrat front runner, and President Bush belong to the 172-year-old society, which aims to get its members into positions of power. This presidential election seems destined to become the first in history to pit one Skull and Bones member against another.

The phenomenon of the "Yalies", as Yale alumni are known, has provoked an intense debate over apparent elitism among Americans amazed that - in a democracy of almost 300 million people - the battle for power should be waged among candidates drawn from the 4,000 who graduated from Yale in four different years of the 1960s.

"To today's Yale undergraduates it seems quite extraordinary," said Jacob Leibenluft, a student and a reporter on the Yale Daily News, the campus newspaper. "For some it's a source of pride, to others it's a source of shame."

In fact Yale, with annual tuition fees of $28,400 (£16,000), has long sent graduates to the top of all professions from the campus in New Haven, Connecticut, where it was founded in 1731.

The Skull and Bones is the most exclusive organisation on campus. Members have ranged from President William Taft to Henry Luce, the founder of the Time-Life magazine empire, and from Averill Harriman, the businessman and diplomat, to the first President George Bush.

Alexandra Robbins, a Yale graduate and author of a book on the Skull and Bones, Secrets of the Tomb, said: "It is staggering that so many of the candidates are from Yale, and even more so that we are looking at a presidential face-off between two members of the Skull and Bones. It is a tiny club with only 800 living members and 15 new members a year.

"But there has always been a sentiment at Yale to push students into public service, an ethos of the elite making their way through the corridors of power - and the sole purpose of the Bones is power."

The four candidates' time at Yale spans the period from 1960, when Sen Lieberman began his studies, through Sen Kerry's arrival in 1962 and Mr Bush's two years later, to 1971, when Mr Dean graduated - a period that swung through the bright hopes of the Kennedy presidency to tumult and bitterness over Vietnam.

Mr Lieberman and Mr Kerry served on the same committee to oppose resistance to the Vietnam war draft, but otherwise the four appear not to have known each other at the time. They all studied history and political science, however, and had some of the same professors and academic mentors.

Robert Dahl, the then head of the political science department, said: "Many of us had the sense we were preparing future leaders, but I don't think any of us had any idea we were teaching so many presidential candidates."

While at Yale all four showed hints of the varying character traits that would eventually propel them, on different paths, towards the top of American politics.

Mr Lieberman, the grandson of immigrants, arrived from a state school, probably a beneficiary of an unofficial 10 per cent quota of places for Jews that Yale then operated. Politically ambitious, he chaired the Yale Daily News, the most sought-after student position on campus.

Sen Kerry is remembered as "running for president since freshman year". One of his contemporaries said: "He was obsessed by politics to the exclusion of all else. At that age, it's a bit creepy." He dated Janet Auchincloss, the half-sister of Jackie Kennedy, the First Lady, won the presidency of the Yale Political Union, and was initiated into the Skull and Bones before joining the United States Navy for service in Vietnam.

In laid-back contrast, Mr Bush achieved only a "C" grade academically and took little interest in politics. He joined a "sports jock" fraternity and followed his father into the Skull and Bones.

By the time Mr Dean arrived in 1967, Yale was admitting women and setting more store by applicants' academic merit than their social background. The future Vermont governor showed a disdain for Yale politics and resigned from a fraternity order in a dispute over a coffee bar.

Whether the four men's Yale backgrounds is a plus with voters is uncertain. Mr Dean seems embarrassed, once saying he studied "in New Haven, Connecticut" to avoid mentioning Yale by name. Mr Bush makes light of his student years, apparently revelling in his reputation for socialising, not studying.

The Skull and Bones connection is more troublesome. Mr Kerry laughed nervously when questioned about his and Mr Bush's membership on television. "You both were members of the Skull and Bones; what does that tell us?" he was asked. "Yup. Not much," he replied.

Not surprisingly, the club's rituals fascinate many Americans. Robbins's book describes a social club with arcane rules, a hoard of relics ranging from Hitler's silver collection to the skull of the Indian chief Geronimo - plus a resident prostitute.

She says initiation rites include a mud-wrestling bout, receiving a beating and the recitation by a new member of his sexual history - delivered while he lies naked in a coffin. Elevation of a Bonesman creates opportunities for his fellows, and Robbins says that President Bush has appointed 10 members to his administration, including the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

She recently surveyed 100 of the estimated 800 living Bonesmen on their preferred election winner - Sen Kerry or President Bush. Perhaps not surprisingly, given that both are pledged to advance the interests of fellow Bonesmen, "They answered that they didn't care. Whichever way it went, it was a win-win for them."

[Chiwas]

And I thought Reagan was weird using diviners.

[Mavdog]

Ever notice how a white guy gets an unusual voice inflection when they are around young african americans, trying to be a "brother"? That's what happened to Kerry....although I do like this quote: "I believe that we're one country," Kerry said

and what's with the 1962 photo of Kerry sailing with John Kennedy? It has nothing to do with the story...

"I don't agree with the hollowness of the politics, nor do you, that tries to divide black from white, rich from poor, Massachusetts from Mississippi," Kerry told a crowd of about 600 at the predominantly black Greater Bethlehem Temple Church.

Anybody disagree with that statement?

African-Americans have been hard-hit by the nation's job losses. A recent study by the National Urban League found black unemployment nearly double the national average.

In addition, college-educated and highly skilled black workers suffered greater job losses than their white counterparts, according to the Urban League report, which was based on Labor Department statistics.

I'd like to hear what each candidate proposes to do to combat this situation, the stats clearly show an inequality.

[FishForLunch]

Civil Rights Group Seeks Kerry Apology

Mon Mar 8, 8:49 PM ET


WASHINGTON - The head of a civil rights and legal services advocacy group wants Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites) to apologize for saying he wouldn't be upset if he could be known as the second black president.


"John Kerry is not a black man — he is a privileged white man who has no idea what it is in this country to be a poor white in this country, let alone a black man," said Paula Diane Harris, founder of the Andrew Young National Center for Social Change.

Last week, Kerry told the American Urban Radio Network: "President Clinton (news - web sites) was often known as the first black president. I wouldn't be upset if I could earn the right to be the second."

Kerry's spokesman Chad Clanton said: "This was intended as a light-natured remark about President Clinton's strong legacy with African Americans It is a legacy that John Kerry would like to build upon if elected president. John Kerry has a record of fighting for civil rights and as president he will continue this fight."

Harris also criticized civil rights leaders who "sit back and ignore these types of comments, a practice that further insults African Americans."

"It seems that all these leaders care about is their personal agendas in how a 'John Kerry' will keep up their personal causes," she said.

The Andrew Young National Center for Social Change, based in Harrisburg, Pa., provides legal services to the poor.