Leadership Defined in the Gulf

After two months of BP's deep water well still leaking oil, Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal has been working himself to the bone to stop or even just slow the oil from encroaching on his state's shorelines and clean up the oil already washing up there. At every turn, the federal government and Barack Obama have thwarted his efforts. It's one thing for the administration's cold indifference to the consequences of this spill, but it's sinks to a rotten level when it stands in the way of cleanup and prevention and then uses the tragedy to push their anti-domestically obtained fossil fuel agenda.

Listen to Jindal. You can here the passion and sincerity in the tone of his voice. His words aren't rolling off a teleprompter. They are genuine and the signs of real leadership, the signs of someone who has executive experience.

link: Governor Jindal speaking on talk radio

Racism and Obama

A few months ago, I heard a commentator accuse President Barack Obama of being a racist. While I've shared many views with said commentator, I considered this statement far over the top. The basis of that accusation sat on the fact that the stimulus bill (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009) Obama signed into law required that all funds spend only went to organizations that satisfied racial quotas. This means that any business applying for work paid from stimulus funds that did not satisfy this requirement had no eligibility to earn such contracts. I don't agree with the basic premise of affirmative action as I view it as mostly counter-productive to its supporters' intent, but I've never thought of such an idea as racist because I believe the motivation stems from sincere efforts to help the disadvantaged, misguided as I view it.

Further along into Obama's term, I have taken notice of some particular events, each on their own warranting acknowledgement. I'll catalog these in chronological order.

First, on election day 2008, a group of members of the New Black Panthers stood outside of a polling station in Philadelphia, PA holding nightsticks using the racial slur, "cracker," in their words of intimidation to scare white people away from the polling station. The Department of Justice (DOJ) took up the case shortly thereafter.

In May of 2009, President Obama nominates Sonia Sotomayor to fill a Supreme Court vacancy. He declares the need for the court to have increased diversity in its representation in the form of race and gender. Sotomayor's past includes membership in La Raza ("The Race"), a race-based interest organization, and comments that a latina woman can better reach some decisions than others. Justice has blindness to race, wealth, background, and demographics. Justice means equal and fair application of the law. Anything else is not justice.

In July of 2009 Harvard professor Henry Gates encountered a policeman visiting his home in response to a call from a concerned neighbor. Gates, feeling as though the visit amounted to an unnecessary intrusion and spoke belligerently towards the officer while invoking a racial tone. The arresting officer is a white man, and Professor Gates is a black man. After Gates' language escalated to a level that the officer found inappropriate and disrespectful of a policeman, the officer arrested Gates. I don't know the exact exchange that happened between the two; only their respective recounts and those of witnesses paint the picture. I suspect that the officer didn't really need to arrest Gates and could have simply left the scene in due course, but I only speculate. At Obama's next press conference, one of the press pool members asked a planted question about the Gates incident. (If you don't think that question was planted, you really were born yesterday.) Obama, despite not even knowing much about the incident as he later admitted, immediately lashed out at the officer by saying that the police acted, "stupidly." The scenario culminated with Gates and the officer having a beer at the White House in a gesture of making up with one another at the invitation of President Obama.

Only a matter of weeks later Lionel McIntyre, a Columbia University black, male professor, was engaged in a political argument in a Harlem bar with a white, female Columbia University employee working under him. In the moment of a heated exchanged, he punched her in the face, and the police arrested him. Obama made no reference to the matter at all despite the fresh tone of racial tension just set by the Gates arrest.

During the town hall protests against proposed health care legislation in August of 2009 in Missouri, a black man named Kenneth Gladney stood outside of the town hall event selling flags that read, "Don't Tread on Me," with the image of a coiled snake. The symbols has its roots in the anti-tax attitude of the American colonists towards their British rulers. Many have today invoked that image to show opposition to increased government control (in areas such as health care) and high taxes. Upon seeing this, a group of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) members spotted Gladney and physically assaulted him, beating him down onto the concrete sidewalk. Obama has strong support from SEIU in money and campaigning manpower, and throughout his Presidential campaign declared their agenda as his agenda. Obama makes no mention of Gladney.

In October of 2009, President Obama signs racial hate speech legislation into law. He makes no mention of the New Black Panthers at the polling station nor any mention of Kenneth Gladney.

In July of 2010, the US Commission on Civil Rights called formal DOJ official J. Christian Adams to testify at a hearing. His testimony revealed that the DOJ under Obama had aggressively suppressed any action against the New Black Panther members who intimidated voters at the Philadelphia polling station. The DOJ dropped the charges reported because the members promised they wouldn't wield nightsticks at polling stations...UNTIL 2012! One of these members has gone so far as to preach in public that blacks need to kill, "cracker," to be free. He says blacks need to, "kill white babies!"

Also in July of 2010, Obama praised the late Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) for years of service. Byrd joied a filibuster against the Civil Rights Act at the age of 47 years old.

President Obama has a biracial background, but simply having a particular background doesn't exonerate behavior. Each person defines their character by their actions. Racism is prejudice or discrimination against people because of their race. Some in the media have tried to reclassify racism as something only people in power can exhibit. Obama's actions combined with certain inaction meets both of these criteria. His actions prop up one group of people at the behest of others, based on race.