It’s All Broken: Congress, Presidency, Courts…

It has been years in the “Breaking” but I think that the official diagnosis is we’re broke, broken, and continuing to break. This opinion comes from the observation that there is “No One” in government that is paying one whit of attention to what the people want and need. As America flips and flops like an oil coated fish gasping for its last breath, government is busy protecting itself. The Republicans are trying to keep the Tea Party from having an effect on the Party and Democrats are looking to tax oil, energy, manufactured goods and anything else they can.

Obama has proven that he has no use for the “Truth” or “America” as we have known it. Even now he hopes to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and fragment the US Military. The military has already advised that this is not the time to address this issue. After all Mr. Obama, who cares what the morale is of the majority of our fighting men and women is as long as you appease those who have decided to honor your promises to? You have made promises to All Americans but as of today you have not kept or have broken all but a few. The only thing I have seen for sure is your “Fundamental Change” of America. We don't want it.

Arizona has passed a law to get the federal government to act and the only action from that goverment has been ridicule and lies. The administration sticks to its talking points and refuses to engage Arizona’s problem on even the most basic level. Worse yet the problem is not just illegal Mexican Immigrants but rather Millions of Immigrants from every nation on earth who have come on vacation or whatever and never gone home. This includes your garden variety terrorist as well as others who have no investment financially or emotionally in this nation. Still there’s no action from Obama. In fact the only real action that Obama’s folks have taken is for ICE to say they may not take any prisoners that Arizona arrests. How arrogant and unreceptive can a Government be? We might as well be asking for China to give us Tibet. We would stand a much better chance than asking our government to do its job.

It is no wonder that there is an anti-incumbent sentiment in America. The truth is we want you all out of there, including you Mr. Obama, and we can’t get it done fast enough to suit us. In the meantime we are dealt blow after blow of government incompetence, neglect, corruption, and disregard. Worse still we Americans feel our liberties and freedoms being stripped from us. One would think that only an elite few in government and a select group of citizens matter. One would be very close to the truth if “One” thought that.

So what is the Congressional Black Caucus?

For so many years I have been one of those Americans who were comfortable in letting the system govern itself. That was until this year. This year the whole political system seemed to beg for my recognition. I have always voted for the President and tried to know their basic philosophies. I just never was interested in how the whole thing works, or as it is now, how it doesn’t work.

It seems that our government has broken itself into diverse groups with special agendas. One such group is the “Congressional Black Caucus”. Until Senator Obama joined the group it had been made up solely of legislators from the House of Representatives. Senator Obama was its first Senate member and the caucus’s first member elected president. Their second Senate member is Obama’s Senate seat replacement Roland Burris.

While they are not a Partisan group they currently consist entirely of Democratic Party politicians. It is not a rule. It just happens that way. Only four black Republicans have been elected to congress to date with J.C. Watts of Oklahoma refusing to join the group. Apparently Mr. Watts became labeled as an Uncle Tom for his refusal:

"...they [Jesse Jackson, et al.] said that I had sold out and Uncle Tom. And I said well, they deserve to have that view. But I have my thoughts. And I think they're race-hustling poverty pimps."

Officially you do not have to be black to be a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, but it seems that there has never been a white Black Caucus member even though there have been some interested in applying. However when pressed on the issue of whites joining the caucus, former and current members of the Caucus agreed that the group should remain "exclusively black." Rep. William Lacy Clay, Jr., D-Mo., the son of Rep. William Lacy Clay Sr., D-Mo., a co-founder of the caucus, is quoted as saying, "Mr. Cohen asked for admission, and he got his answer (referring to Rep. Steven Cohen D-TN). He's white and the Caucus is black. Some in Congress (and anyone else with half a brain) have seen these groups as divisive and called for their disbanding.

Representative Tom Tancredo, R-Co., spoke out against the continued existence of the Congressional Black Caucus as well as the Democratic Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Republican Congressional Hispanic Conference saying, "It is utterly hypocritical for Congress to extol the virtues of a color-blind society while officially sanctioning caucuses that are based solely on race. If we are serious about achieving the goal of a colorblind society, Congress should lead by example and end these divisive, race-based caucuses.”

During his presidential bid, Ralph Nader accused Rep. Melvin Watt of using an “obscene and racist epithet” when Watt supposedly said "You're just another arrogant white man - telling us what we can do - it's all about your ego - another f--king arrogant white man." It seems that the Caucus raised a ruckus when Nader wouldn’t step down as a candidate.

The National Leadership Network of Conservative African-Americans called for an Apology from Rep. Watts and the Congressional Black Caucus. I believe Mr. Nader is still waiting. Is it me or does there seem to be a large number of African Americans groups? Surely this can't be good for unifying this country. To quote 2 things from the late (African American) Booker T. Washington:

“I will permit no man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.”
Booker T. Washington

“There is a class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs-partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.” Booker T. Washington