Harlem Mystery: Did Rangel's District Go for Barack
Obama?

By John Nichold
The Nation - blog
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?bid=1&pid=286025

New York Congressman Charlie Rangel was an early and
essential backer of Hillary Clinton's campaign for
president.

The support of the senior House Democrat was required
if the senator from New York was to be able to run
nationally with the assurance that her home turf was
"locked up." And Rangel, as the dean of New York's
Democratic House delegation, and a dominant player in
the politics of Harlem for four decades, helped to do
just that.

Along with the support of Georgia Congressman John
Lewis, Rangel's backing also gave Clinton credibility
in the African-American community beyond New York. But,
now, Lewis is wavering in his support for Clinton --
suggesting to the New York Times that, after his
Atlanta-area congressional district voted
overwhelmingly for Barack Obama, he is likely to cast
his superdelegate vote at the Democratic National
Convention for the surging senator from Illinois.

When word came that Lewis and other African-American
House members were starting to talk about "keeping
faith" with their constituents and voting for the
candidate who could be the first African-American
nominee for president, I immediately checked the
results from Rangel's congressional district.

According to figures reported after the February 5 New
York primary, Rangel's Harlem-based 15th district voted
rather comfortably for Clinton. The unofficial count
with 100 percent of the votes supposedly tabulated was:

Clinton -- 55,359 votes, 53 percent

Obama -- 47,514 votes, 45 percent

That was close enough to create a 3-3 delegate split.
But it was a clear Clinton win, and thus there would be
no pressure on Rangel to vote the will of a
congressional district that backed Obama.

Or so it seemed.

Now comes Saturday's New York Times Metro Section
report headlined: "Unofficial Tallies in City
Understated Obama Vote."

According to the paper:

"Black voters are heavily represented in the 94th
Election District in Harlem's 70th Assembly District.
Yet according to the unofficial results from the New
York Democratic primary last week, not a single vote in
the district was cast for Senator Barack Obama.

That anomaly was not unique. In fact, a review by The
New York Times of the unofficial results reported on
primary night found about 80 election districts among
the city's 6,106 where Mr. Obama supposedly did not
receive even one vote, including cases where he ran a
respectable race in a nearby district.

City election officials this week said that their
formal review of the results, which will not be
completed for weeks, had confirmed some major
discrepancies between the vote totals reported publicly
-- and unofficially -- on primary night and the actual
tally on hundreds of voting machines across the city.:

The Times adds this relevant information: "The 94th
Election District in Harlem, for instance, sits within
the Congressional district represented by Charles B.
Rangel, an original supporter of Mrs. Clinton."

No one is suggesting that Rangel did anything wrong,
nor should they. There are many explanations for why
vote counts are off, and there are many players in the
process -- and Rangel is one of the more honorable of
the lot.

What New Yorkers should be asking for, however, is a
complete review of the results in New York City, with a
heavy focus not just on the 80 election district where
Obama supposedly received no votes but also on those
where it appears that his vote was far below the level
of support that he received in surrounding districts --
and that might reasonably be expected.

Could there be another 8,000 votes for Obama in the
15th?

That's a lot. But it is not beyond the realm of
possibility that they exist.

No one, be they Clinton or Obama supporters, should
question that every effort must be made to find every
Obama vote in Harlem, along with "missing" Obama votes
from other congressional districts in Manhattan and
Brooklyn.

At issue may be a few more pledged delegates for Obama
-- no small matter in a close race for the nomination
-- and the broader question of how superdelegates who
want to respect the sentiments of their constituents, a
group that could include Rangel and several other House
members from New York, cast their votes at this
summer's convention.

_____________________________________________

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Wow...Toni Morrison

The Dead of September 11

Toni Morrison

Real Time With Bill Maher

I very much like Senator Clare McCaskill of Missouri.

The Many Faces of Nina Simone--Oh How Much and How Long Have I Loved Nina Simone?

Nina- To Be Young, Gifted, and Black

Revolution-Nina Simone

Lyrics

And now we got a revolution
Cause i see the face of things to come
Yeah, your Constitution
Well, my friend, its gonna have to bend
Im here to tell you about destruction
Of all the evil that will have to end.

Some folks are gonna get the notion
I know theyll say im preachin hate
but if i have to swim the ocean
well i would just to communicate
its not as simple as talkin jive
the daily struggle just to stay alive

Singin about a revolution
because were talkin about a change
its more than just air pollution
well you know you got to clean your brain
the only way that we can stand in fact
is when you get your foot off our back

Nina Simone-Revolution

I heard Shirley Bassey on Democracy Now tonight and that made me so giddy! I am such a queen....

I wanted to build on the theme of my last post, with the idea that the society we live in is sick. One of the clearest symptoms of this is the hostility that is housed in the language that has become part of the vernacular of our times--clear across popular culture.I wanted to address these issues because of the recent verbal abuse flung at Tiger Woods( and though he may make nothing of it, the larger Black community has and rightfully will. A white, female journalist in a joking manner--and I want to stress that --in a joking manner, said that he should be lynched. Ignoring the entire legacy of racism and lynching, this person now feels comfortable in making light of the dehumanization and murder of Black men. I posted a long time ago about the time that I was at a restaurant, when I was still in Lafayette, and a girl sitting at the table next to mine was on the phone with one of her friends and she was laughing and chatting and telling the friend on the phone that one of her other friends was just "so gay" and that she should just "kill him" because of it. The horrid part of it is that she was making fun-joking-as she said it. A bit of the carnivalesque? And this phrase "thats so gay" has become permeated throughout American youth culture. It is the privileged idea that you can ignore and need not respect the humanity of other people. This society has taught and teaches its children that the degradation and dehumanization of the Other is perfectly acceptable--that that which fits outside of the defined norm can be obliterated and degraded. This is unacceptable and I for one demand the recognition of my integrity- with no exceptions and no compromises. Progressive people must work to rebuild this society into a more holistic, egalitarian one and to rebuild it as one with its humanity intact, one with respect and dignity for all. More and more I am reminded of what bell hooks said--that the powers that be took Martin Luther King's dream of each person having their needs met and living with recognition of one's integrity and with respect and dignity--and these powers have hollowed that message out and turned it into something that serves the purposes of capitalism. "Each for what they can get. We all have the equal right to consume..." We must return to humanitarian values or else we are in trouble.

School Shootings

This culture is sick. People in this country think they live in utopia and don't need to reevaluate how they live. The people of this country are in dire need of reevaluating their value system and the way they live.

The other day I found the address for the school that was named for Fess MacDavid's first wife. The scool was located on Hardaway street in Montgomery

Everyday I am more and more convinced that the best way to get rid of patriarchy is to remain beautiful and free in spite of it. What a process, but oh how worth it.

Patriarchy

I listen to tne television...and to popular culture in general and it is troubling that we nave returned to the era of "keep an eye on your neighbor." A good example of this is the line in the zonic commercial "friend or no friend, Ill turn you in." I think we need to reconsider the way we live in this world and we need to eliminate (castrate?) patriarchy in order to liberate ourselves and live more fully, freely, and wholly, in the world.

Jane Fonda and Eve Ensler on the Today Show! Wonderful stuff!!

Project Runway

Tiki Barber is sooo hot! Let me design for him lol.

Reasons Why I Love O

I Love O Magazine. I learn so much from it and I love to learn. This month's interview with Sally Field is very informative. I have learned a lot from Sally Field over the years. I especially took a lot from her interview on the Actors Studio.

Say No To Bush's Wiretapping Legislation

Everyone should be on the phone calling their representatives and telling them to stand against George Bush's wiretapping program. This man has to be stopped.

Revelation

I finally understand, after many years, the sentiment of Shirley Maclaine's Charity in Sweet Charity at the end of the film. I very much understand it now.

I so want to see The Other Boleyn Sister. It should be intriguing.

Poem I was Inspired to Write this Morning

The white automaton
stood before me
demanding conformity and consent
the ultimate of peace in the ultimate of war

Death drive and destruction
cloaked in the vise of a lamb
demand a rendering of my power
so that it can better stand
to rape, malign, and make war
I think not and underscore
the fact that in this house
of the universe
where all humanity rests
the strongest and the meanest of us
with blood flowing through our veins
will learn with surest certainty
the meaning of human pain.

Repost

I love this response. bell hooks' reports that in response to a letter from a white farm boy concerning the solution to the "Negro Question," Lorraine Hansberry wrote

"the condition of our people dictates that what can only be called revolutionary attitudes.... I Think,then, that Negroes must concern themselves with every single means of struggle:legal,illegal,passive,active,violent,and nonviolent. That they must harrass, debate, petition, give money to court struggle,sit-in,lie-down,strike,boycott,sing hymns,pray on steps-and shoot from their windows when the racists come cruising through their communities."

There is a reason why I love Lorraine Hansberry.

This morning, I thought about my time at Price. The first two years I was in Aunt Johnnie's classroom, Head Start and Kindergarten. The third year they placed me in Mrs. Bull's class. I also thought about the time Aunt Johnnie's car broke down on the expressway and Mrs. Bull was behind us and gave us a ride to school. What fond memories.

U.S. Government Harrasses Puerto Rican Activists

Democracy Now also reported tonight that U.S. federal authorities are harrassing Puerto Rican Independence activists. Avelino Gonzalez Claudio has been arrested on charges related to a 1983 bank robbery. Everyone should throw there support behind the Puerto Rican people and their push for independence and self-determination.

U.S. EvilDoings in Bolivia

There needs to be some castration going on. Democracy Now ran a story tonight about u.s. officials, acting on either official or unofficial policy of the United States government, asking Fulbright Scholars and Peace Corp Volunteers in Bolivia to spy on Cubans and Venezuelans present in Bolivia. The story was broke when 2007 Fulbright Scholar, Alexander Von Schaick, contacted independent journalist, Jean Friedman Rudovsky, and expressed his concern that a u.s. official at the u.s. embassy in Bolivia asked Schaick and other Fulbright Scholars during a security briefing to "report to the embassy the names and locations of Cubans and Venezeualans that they encountered in Bolivia." After some investigating, it was uncovered that the same thing had been asked of Peace Corp recruits, at which Peace Corp officials lodged a complaint with the State Department about this violation of international law and breach of the goals and aims of the Peace Corp program. So far, it has not been reported that the Fulbright Program has done the same.

The u.s. government has declared that these two separate incidents were "abberations" but journalist Bengamin Dangl says that it is a part of a larger effort on the part of the Bush adminstration to destabilize the government of President Evo Morales in Bolivia. The u.s. government, through the USAID program has channeled millions of dollars to right-wing groups in Bolivia in the effort of decentralizing the Bolivian government, giving greater autonomy to right-wing forces within the country with the intended results of toppling Evo Morales as president of Bolivia. USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy have both been used as tools by the Bush administration in these efforts. Please read the interview that Amy does with Schaick, Rudovsky, and Dangl above. This is a serious affront to the integrity of people all across the globe to define their own destiny and choose the ways in which they intend to live.

Bird Jackson's Blues

I finished my novel last night. ;-)