Who are the "Progressives" – New York Party Bosses' Picks

There is a lot of talk this year about "Progressive" Mayoral candidate Bill deBlasio, but many point to some upstarts who are expected to win in their districts for seats in the NY City Council as the "Proggressive challengers."

A sampling of those described as such were on the Joe Torres' Tiempo today (09/22/2013). Three Hispanic candidates running for New York City Council who won their primary races.

"There are 3.2 million registered Democrats in the city, only 510,000 Republicans, but there are more than 826,000 voters who identify with no party at all."

New York City Primary Excludes Nearly One Million Voters
– Independent Voter Network

The turn-out was historically low for the Democratic Primary.  This is more than just a trend, it's a situation fostered by the Unity Democrat/ Republican Parties that is "counted" on to continue for the scheduled November elections and in future elections. The Independent Voter Network explains: "There are There are 3.2 million registered Democrats in the city, only 510,000 Republicans, but there are more than 826,000 voters who identify with no party at all."

The Republican turn-out was even more lackluster, given that the scandal plagued Anthony Weiner, who was a distant fifth, got more votes placing last (5% / 31,874) in the Democratic Primary than the Republican winner, former MTA boss and Giuliani aide Joe Lhota (52.5% / 29,807).

In November, New Yorkers will elect a new Mayor to replace billionaire Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg was unelected to a third term with the help of Council Speaker, Christine Quinn. Hitching her political wagon to Bloomberg's proved to be Quinn's undoing. Her Democratic Mayoral rivals scored with voters by pointing out that Quinn helped change a city law so Mayor Michael Bloomberg could run for a third term in office.

Quinn had very low numbers in majority black neighborhoods for the Mayoral Primary -- just 4% of the votes, according to the Village Voice. Remember how she blocked the naming of a Brooklyn Street in honor of community activist, Sonny Carson? It was simply "a matter of self determination" for Brooklyn residents, but Quinn and Bloomberg didn't see it that way.

The "Proggressive" candidates. Not surprisingly, these folks (ditto deBlasio), were chosen to run and supported by the establishment, though there was a hint of discord from something Bill deBlasio said during his acceptance speech after his primary win. Candidates traditionally have deep connections within the Democratic party -- that's a prerequisite to get endorsements.

Bill deBlasio himself on the preceeding political talk show on local ABC channel 7 -- Diane Williams, touted how he preferred political insiders, saying that (paraphrasing) he would hire experienced public servants for his administration rather than people from the "private sector," because the work required a certain mindset.

What is the mindset of a politician? Like Bill deBlasio, they know instinctively what to say during the timeline of an electoral campaign to disparate interested parties to win their support. DeBlasio should know, he was Madam Clinton's Campaign Manager when she ran for the New York Senate... can't get more establishment than that.

That is, unless you're a GOP politician, then the prerequisite is that you say and do everything to appease your "conservative" base, while alienating your potential constituency and everybody else.

After decades of playing "bad cop" it's now time to play "good cop" in New York politics -- a microcosm of how the political game is played nationwide in the U.S.

As stated, Mr. Torres had on three Hispanics who won in the Democratic primary race for NY City Council in their districts: Ritchie Torres (Puerto Rican), Carlos Menchaca (Mexico), and Antonio Reynoso (Dominican); from the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens respectively.

ABOUT THE CANDIDATES

Ritchie Torres

25yr old Ritchie Torres won his primary in the Bronx's District 15 and is likely to become the first openly gay elected official in that borough. Torres won with 36% of the vote in a 6-way race. The Bronx-born Puerto Rican had support from labor, political groups and his formfer boss, East Bronx councilman Jimmy Vacca.

It's not surprising that three openly gay candidates were among those vying for the Bronx District 15 city council race. It was a Bronx state senator, Ruben Diaz Sr., who cast the lone Democratic vote in that chamber against the state’s 2011 same-sex marriage law.

Ritchie Torres raised more money than any of his opponents, not unrelated, young Torres' rivals question his living arrangements:

NY Daily News - Why is Ritchie Torres, a candidate for City Council, living in a building for the homeless, low-income and the mentally ill? Opponents are suspicious, but the candidate says poverty, not mental illness, is why he lives there. http://m.nydailynews.com/1.1414068
The general election is in November. The district overwhelmingly skews Democratic and Ritchie Torres is heavily favored to win.

More about Ritchie Torres at decidenyc.com
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Carlos Menchaca

Carlos Menchaca is the first Mexican-American NYC Council Candidate for the 38th District in Brooklyn. First openly gay legislator in Brooklyn.

33yr old Carlos Menchaca was born in the border town of El Paso, Texas. His immigrant single mother raised him and six of his brothers and sisters with support from government programs like food stamps, medicaid and Head Start where Carlos first learned English.

Newcomer Carlos Menchaca received the endorsement of Rep. Hakeem Jeffries. He beat out 10-year incumbent Sara Gonzalez for the 38th District council seat in a surprise primary upset. Menchaca was a former aide to Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Borough President Markowitz.

More about Carlos Menchaca at decidenyc.com

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Antonio Reynoso

Antonio Reynoso is the 2013 Candidate for New York City Council District 34 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

30yr old Antonio Reynoso was born and raised in the Los Sures section of Williamsburg to immigrant parents from the Dominican Republic.

Newcomer Antonio Reynoso upset Democratic party boss Vito Lopez, effectively ending his attempted political comeback from an embattled political career.

Lopez resigned his NY State Assembly seat of 28 years (1985-2013), was demoted, censured and fined $330,000 by an ethics panel of his peers in Albany for groping, attempting to kiss, and engaging in sexually charged discussions with young female staffers.

For the November general, Reynoso (who reportedly struck a deal with his Democratic opponent Tommy Torres* to stay in the race) has been quoted as stating, "We're getting a lot of momentum" -- http://nypost.com/2013/08/18/sex-scandal-plagued-vito-lopez-loses-ground-in-city-council-election/

*Torres has quietly been forced from the ballot over accusations of fraud. Torres had submitted “over 300 fraudulent petition” signatures, which Reynoso’s campaign challenged in Brooklyn Supreme Court.

With his main rival Lopez and now Torres gone, Brooklynpaper.com opines: "Council hopeful Antonio Reynoso has a clear path to City Hall... "

More about Antonio Reynoso at decidenyc.com

For a history of the 34th district NY City Council seat go to citycouncilwatch.

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Corey Johnson

The least experienced of the four openly gay candidates running for the NY City Council was not on Tiempo today to tout his candidacy, but Corey Johnson is a District 3 candidate, who his fellow candidate Menchaca says is "the strongest candidate."

Johnson is endorsed by the NY Times plus 4 other community papers, according to his campaign website.

Under his candidate profile, Johnson lists employment as: Director of Government Relations and Community Affairs at GFI Development Corporation, Organizer at GLAAD and Member of Community Board 4.

Former Congressman Barney Frank, as well as other Democrat luminaries and unions have endorsed Johnson.

More about Corey Johnson at decidenyc.com

Other gay City Council candidates who won their races are Danny Dromm, Jimmy Van Bramer, and Rosie Mendez.

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The 51 member New York City Council gets an annual salary of $112,500.  

There are those who are gloating that "Progressives [won] big in the elections," but just because Democrats have appropriated the term "Progressive," doesn't mean that it rings any more true for them as the moniker "Maverick" did for John McCain and Sarah Palin when they used it in their presidential bid. Party bosses determine who the selected "Progressives" are. 

Cronyism and back-door dealings are an essential component of the Democrat/Republican Unity Party system. The term Progressive is meaningless not only because it is merely populous political rhetoric in the context of the election season, it's meaningless because real Progressives are excluded from the vote.

This primary system leads to results determined by a select few, then to a run-off that usually has an even lower turnout. An exclusion of third-party and non-affiliated voters not only drives turnout down in the primary, but it creates a general election ballot that’s not representative of New York City.

New York City has been called the most progressive city in the country, but can the exclusionary political system described above be capable of fostering "a populous Insurgency" and is it "poised to elect its most progressive government." It's wishful thinking that's based on a shifty foundation.

If it's any consolation, at the Washington Post blog, Jonathan Capehart writes that money didn't play much of a role in the NYC Mayoral primaries, even with the Koch brothers money involved on the Republican side. Capehart believes "money buys votes," but that "only gives candidates the ability to get their message out to voters." Well, there goes campaign finance reform and why not let corporations spend as much as they want on elections? The SCOTUS has designated that as "people," corporations have a right to get their message out to voters that "fracking does not hurt the environment."

U.S. Must Stop Supporting Fraudulent Haitian Elections

Special representative to the secretary general of the United Nations and chief of the United Nations mission in Haiti Edmond Mulet visits a voting station in Leogane, a town an hour out of Port au Prince, Haiti. Voting stations opened this morning, November 28, 2010, for Haiti's elections. Photo Logan Abassi UN/MINUSTAH

The November 28 Haiti elections were a "massive fraud." They were not inclusive of all of Haiti's political parties -- particularly its largest party, Fanmi Lavalas.

The planned March 20 run-off is illegitimate. Both of the current "selected" candidates Mirlande Manigat and Michel Martelly protested the elections prior to being told separately by the UN that they were leading in the count!

According to Mark Weisbrot of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), the OAS (Organization of American States) itself, which manipulated the results of the elections in order to allow Michel Martelly into the fraudulent run-off has not spoken out in support of their own flawed recommendations about the elections. That's because the left of center governments of Latin America, he says, do not support the OAS/UN/U.S./France/Canada attempts to control who gets elected in Haiti.

Surprisingly in January of this year, India took the unprecedented step of admonishing the UN for its involvement in elections in Haiti.

In early February of this year, a group of 12 presidential candidates have demanded the annulment of the Haiti elections.

[In mid-February, two candidates Jean Henry Céant and Yves Crystalline lodged an official complaint against the UN's Edmond Mulet for his interference in Haiti's elections. The two candidates want an investigation of Edmond Mulet for violating UN statutes. The candidates charge that the conduct, actions and statements of UN official Edmond Mulet, constitute a violation of Article 41-1 and paragraph 4-5 of the Vienna Convention.

Going against U.S. foreign policy is unusual for the Congressional Black Caucus and members of Congress, but these officials have also lodged complaints, firing-off letters to the State Department to call for the inclusion of Fanmi Lavalas and other excluded political parties from the ballot before the elections and for the annulment of the resulting fraudulent election.



Susan Rice, the U.S. permanent representative to the UN has threatened Haiti, saying the U.S. will stop aid if Haiti does not adopt the OAS' "recommendations" for the elections, i.e. putting their preferred candidate Michel "Sweet Mickey" Martelly on the ballot for a run-off.

The CEPR has reported that the OAS methods for calculating who should be in the run-off are arbitrary and flawed.

On January 21st, the U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley confirmed that some visas had been revoked and that Haitian officials were among those affected. This is in line with the usual threats that countries are subjected to who do not fall in line with U.S. demands.

Unfortunately, Preval and the rest of the Haitian government have acquiesced thus far to the bullying. Crucially, four out of the nine members of the CEP (Haiti's provisional electoral council) did not sign-off their approval of the November 28 elections, further de-legitimizing the scheduled March 20 run-off elections. A fifth member was absent and did not vote.

As we have pointed out previously, the English language media has all but ignored the news that – as reported by Haitian newspaper Le Nouvelliste – four CEP members may never have signed the document affirming the Council’s decision regarding the second round of elections. Given the major media's neglect in covering this story, one could be forgiven for thinking that the second round is a foregone conclusion, however in Haiti the controversy is very much still alive.

Last week, according to L'Agence Haitien de Presse (AHP), two presidential candidates, Jean Henry Ceant and Yves Cristalin filed a legal challenge that would require Richardson Dumel (the CEP spokesperson) to prove the authenticity of the document he read with the final results on February 3. After failing to come to court, on Friday the police were sent to bring him in. According to AHP, however, he has yet to present the evidence that was asked of him."

"In Haiti, Controversy over Election Continues; In U.S., Media Goes Silent"

Center for Economic and Policy Research | Tuesday, 15 February 2011

The remarkable exception to all the caving in by the Preval administration has been when he issued a new Haitian passport to Dr. Aristide! This is a very encouraging sign of independence. This resonates with many as a sign that Preval is coming to the realization that Haiti does not really need the U.S. in order to undertake reconstruction.

Not unrelated: It is rumored that his erstwhile Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive's new office digs are in the luxurious U.S. Embassy -- the 4th largest U.S. embassy in the world! Why is that?

Prime Minister Bellerive is playing second banana these days to Bill Clinton on the Interim Haiti Reconstruction Commission (IHRC) and selling off Haiti's natural assets.

The Visa and other threatened sanctions by the U.S. State Department, Hillary Clinton's "friendly" visit, and Susan Rice's threat to withhold U.S. aid to Haiti aside, Preval must be sweating bullets knowing that last year, an OAS official, Brazilian Ricardo Seitenfus (who was later fired) revealed that the OAS had discussed forcing Preval to resign and planned to fly him out on a plane just as the U.S. had Aristide in 2004.

In reality, Venezuela alone has pledged and given more reconstruction money than the U.S. As Mark Weisbrot points out, the U.S. is no longer the only source of aid money. In less than twenty years, the geo-political dynamics will have changed. Some analysts have concluded that by 2020, China, India and the U.S., in that order, could be the biggest economies in the world.

The Haitian government should consider the big picture and reject the control the West is trying to have in Haitian internal affairs and say: Hell with the IHRC! Get out of Haiti MINUSTAH! Eh, get lost Canada! Au voir France!

Haiti's Humanitarian Crisis Ignored as Media Focuses on Failed WyClef Bid

WyClef' Jean's candidacy dies with a wimper.

August 19, the night of the expected announcement from the Provisional Electoral Council (SEC), heavily armed United Nations blue helmets patrolled the streets in armored cars on the alert for a riot that never came. However, about 300 of WyClef's supporters did march through heavy rain to protest outside Haiti's electoral office in Port-au-Prince.

The Council rejected the singer-songwriter's candidacy because of the constitutional requirement that candidates who run must have lived in the country for five years prior to the November 28 election. WyClef moved to the United States when he was nine years old and his primary residence is New Jersey.

WyClef released a statement the next day that he would cooperate with the decision made by the SEC. "We must all honor the memories of those we've lost -- whether in the earthquake, or at anytime -- by responding peacefully and responsibly to this disappointment," he said.

That was then, now WyClef has announced that he is not abandoning his presidential bid. He will appeal the decision rejecting his candidacy. He plans to send a lawyer to a Haitian court to appeal the electoral commission's decision to keep him off the list of eligible presidential candidates. He says he has a document "which shows everything is correct" and that he and his aides "feel that what is going on here has everything to do with Haitian politics." Evidently, the appeal is being based on WyClef's honorary status as "Ambassador at large" for Haiti, a "post" he claims exempts him from residency requirements.

The whole elections process is a charade to begin with, given that it is being carried out under a brutal occupation, so it is not surprising that WyClef and his lawyers are pushing for inclusion in the elections in spite of being officially rejected. Unfortunately, the process is tainted, as WyClef suspects, but not because, "They are trying to keep us out of the race." It is primarily because Haiti is under occupation by the UN military (MINUSTAH).

Additionally, the legitimacy of the November 28 election is also questionable because Haiti’s largest political party Fanmi Lavalas has been barred from the election.

WyClef is being criticized not only because he is not qualified to run, nor because he does not meet the constitutional requirements, but because he does not have the political skills or savvy to deal with Haiti's multitude of problems. The elitist private business sector in Haiti will make mincemeat out of him. He is also not equipped to deal with the legions of multinational interests that occupy and run Haiti through the pulling of purse strings and the muscle of MINUSTAH’s occupying force.

WyClef has not even outlined a comprehensive political platform, except for the declaration that “Haiti is open for business” and other very general statements. It stands to reason that with the neophyte WyClef at the helm, Haiti will be open to further exploitation and the continued apartheid between the super-rich and the ultra-poor. The apartheid class system in Haiti needs to be addressed and acknowledged by Haiti’s next leader. There is also an urgent need to addressed the stranglehold that Non-governmental Agencies (NGOs) have on Haiti in order to determine how to regulate their activities.

Even if he were qualified to run, WyClef’s political constituency is tenuous at best. He has not built a base or electorate. People are asking: What's his platform? He’s a musician. While some are fans and enjoy his music, that does not necessarily translate into voting for him to be Haiti's next president.

Above all, the Haitian majority needs someone in the Presidency who will champion human development (education, health, food, security, housing and infrastructure), above sustaining foreign and private business interests which continue to plunder Haiti for cheap labor and rich natural resources, but do not support the local economy. A notable exception is the Irish-based cell phone company Digicel, which has promoted "the kind of grass-roots entrepreneurship long ignored by the business elite."

While all of the distraction over the candidacy of WyClef is going on, forced evictions continue in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps… and Haitians are tired of sleeping on garbage.

People are living in the streets and no homes are being built, but already they’ve announced plans to build a new textiles factory. Sweatshops should not take precedence over people’s health and well-being.

In this day and age of technology, Haitians are being taught how to sew. This move cements Haiti's role as the low-cost, low-wage, low-tech center of the world.

In the meantime USAID is giving money to countries in Southeast Asia and elsewhere in Europe to train high tech workers.

The media attention should focus less on the distraction of WyClef Jean’s failed presidential bid and the ensuing circus, and more on the desperate humanitarian situation on the ground in Haiti.

Scandal Plagued Rapper Wyclef Jean for Haiti President?

The news is that Wyclef Jean will be announcing his candidacy for the Haitian Presidency on Larry King Live today, never mind that the man is not qualified for the office. Number one, his candidacy violates the Haitian Constitution. The requirements are that a candidate must have resided in Haiti for a period of 5 years and kept a home in Haiti in that time. Jean's primary residence is New Jersey.

Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) still has to validate Wyclef Jean's candidacy, so let's see what happens. Let's keep in mind that Haiti's majority party Fanmi Lavalas has been barred from running in the next elections because of a manufactured technical issue by the CEP. The CEP has said that Lavalas has not provided them with a proper signature from the party head (President Aristide). Not so, of course. It will be interesting to see how the CEP justifies inviting Wyclef Jean to take part in their electoral circus. There are currently 54 parties registered and the possibility of 54 presidential candidates from each. The U.S.-France-Canada cabal must be commissioning their "mission accomplished" sign right now.

Chris Matthews of MSNBC's prediction that Jean will easily win the Haitian presidency aside, Jean is being scrutinized closely for a number of serious matters such as: failing to pay his taxes, the fact that he paid his mistress with money from his charity, for personally banking money from the charity fund, and whatever else may crawl out of his closet.

This morning Wyclef Jean announced he is resigning from his charity. The move hardly puts a distance between Jean and the matter of alleged misappropriation of funds, as this occurred while he was at the helm of his scandal plagued charity, Yéle.

In a timely article that came out August 2nd at the SF BayView, Charlie Hinton outlines more reasons why Wyclef Jean should not get our support for a run for the Haitian presidency.

"PLEASE SPREAD THE NEWS: “WYCLEF JEAN IS NOT A FRIEND OF THE PEOPLE’S DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT OF HAITI.” The floating of his candidacy is just one more effort by the international forces, desperate to put a smiley face on a murderous military occupation, to undermine the will of the Haitian majority by making Wyclef Jean the Ronald Reagan of Haiti."

Below is an excerpt of the article:

Wyclef Jean holds a Haitian flag as he considers running for president of Haiti. Beware! Wyclef is Haitian, but he is no friend of the Haitian people as a whole, who remain loyal to President Aristide.

To cut to the chase, no election in Haiti, and no candidate in those elections, will be considered legitimate by the majority of Haiti’s population, unless it includes the full and fair participation of the Fanmi Lavalas Party of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Fanmi Lavalas is unquestionably the most popular party in the country, yet the “international community,” led by the United States, France and Canada, has done everything possible to undermine Aristide and Lavalas, overthrowing him twice by military coups in 1991 and 2004 and banishing Aristide, who now lives in South Africa with his family, from the Americas.

A United Nations army, led by Brazil, still occupies Haiti six years after the coup. Their unstated mission, under the name of “peacekeeping,” is to suppress the popular movement and prevent the return to power of Aristide’s Lavalas Party. One must understand a Wyclef Jean candidacy, first of all, in this context.

Every election since a 67 percent majority first brought Aristide to power in 1990 has demonstrated the enormous popularity of the Lavalas movement. When Lavalas could run, they won overwhelmingly. In 2006, when security conditions did not permit them to run candidates, they voted and demonstrated to make sure Rene Preval, a former Lavalas president, was re-elected.

Preval, however, turned against those who voted for him. He scheduled elections for 12 Senate seats in 2009 and supported the Electoral Council’s rejection of all Lavalas candidates. Lavalas called for a boycott, and as few as 3 percent of Haitians voted, with fewer than 1 percent voting in the runoff, once again demonstrating the people’s love and respect for President Aristide.

When Lavalas candidates were barred from the ballot for the Senate election of April 19, 2009, almost no one voted; even some poll workers refused to vote. That's how loyal Haitians are to the Lavalas Party. - Photo: Alice Smeets

Fanmi Lavalas has already been banned from the next round of elections, so enter Wyclef Jean. Jean comes from a prominent Haitian family that has virulently opposed Lavalas since the 1990 elections. His uncle is Raymond Joseph – also a rumored presidential candidate – who became Haitian ambassador to the United States under the coup government and remains so today. Kevin Pina writes in “It’s not all about that! Wyclef Jean is fronting in Haiti,” Joseph is “the co-publisher of Haiti Observateur, a right-wing rag that has been an apologist for the killers in the Haitian military going back as far as the brutal coup against Aristide in 1991.

“On Oct. 26 [2004] Haitian police entered the pro-Aristide slum of Fort Nationale and summarily executed 13 young men. Wyclef Jean said nothing. On Oct. 28 the Haitian police executed five young men, babies really, in the pro-Aristide slum of Bel Air. Wyclef said nothing. If Wyclef really wants to be part of Haiti’s political dialogue, he would acknowledge these facts. Unfortunately, Wyclef is fronting.”

As if to prove it, the Miami Herald reported on Feb. 28, 2010, “Secret polling by foreign powers in search of a new face to lead Haiti’s reconstruction …” might favor Jean’s candidacy, as someone with sufficient name recognition who could draw enough votes to overcome another Lavalas electoral boycott.

Wyclef Jean supported the 2004 coup. When gun-running former army and death squad members trained by the CIA were overrunning Haiti’s north on Feb. 25, 2004, MTV’s Gideon Yago wrote, “Wyclef Jean voiced his support for Haitian rebels on Wednesday, calling on embattled Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to step down and telling his fans in Haiti to ‘keep their head up’ as the country braces itself for possible civil war.”

During the Obama inaugural celebration, Jean famously and perversely serenaded Colin Powell, the Bush administration secretary of state during the U.S. destabilization campaign and eventual coup against Aristide, with Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song.”

Jean also produced the movie, “The Ghosts of Cite Soleil,” an anti-Aristide and Lavalas hit piece, which tells us that President Aristide left voluntarily, without mention of his kidnapping by the U.S. military, and presents the main coup leaders in a favorable light. It features interviews with sweatshop owners Andy Apaid and Charles Henry Baker without telling us they hate Aristide because he raised the minimum wage and sought to give all Haitians a seat at the table by democratizing Haiti’s economy, a program opposed by the rich in Haiti.

It uncritically interviews coup leader Louis Jodel Chamblain, without telling us he worked with the Duvalier dictatorship’s brutal militia, the Tonton Macoutes, in the 1980s; that following the coup against Aristide in 1991, he was the “operations guy” for the FRAPH paramilitary death squad, accused of murdering uncounted numbers of Aristide supporters and introducing gang rape into Haiti as a military weapon.

Wyclef Jean’s movie, “The Ghosts of Cite Soleil,” an anti-Aristide and Lavalas hit piece, features interviews with sweatshop owners Andy Apaid and Charles Henry Baker without telling us they hate Aristide because he raised the minimum wage and sought to give all Haitians a seat at the table by democratizing Haiti’s economy, a program opposed by the rich in Haiti.

It uncritically interviews coup leader Guy Phillipe, without telling us he’s a former Haitian police chief who was trained by U.S. Special Forces in Ecuador in the early 1990s or that the U.S. embassy admitted that Phillipe was involved in the transhipment of narcotics, one of the key sources of funds for paramilitary attacks on the poor in Haiti.

Read the full article at SF BayView

Outrage Over Rigged Feb. 2010 Elections in Haiti

Photo credit: blackagendareport.com

Once again, Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) has barred Fanmi Lavalas from participation in scheduled Congressional and Senate elections in Haiti. The vote is scheduled to be held on February 28, 2010.

"Ninety-eight of the 99 seats in the legislature's Chamber of Deputies will be at stake in the February election, along with one-third of the 30-member Senate. The vote for the remaining lower house seat will be held at a later date."--J. G. Delva (Reuters)

Fanmi Lavalas is Haiti's most popular political party. It is the party of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Aristide has spent six years in exile in South Africa since the US, France and Canada backed "Coupknapping" of Feb. 29, 2004. In spite of this, the CEP sought his signature on the application presented to the council by Fanmi Lavalas representative Dr. Maryse Narcisse. Such a signature has not been required prior to (boycotted) elections held back in February of this year (2009). Ideally, the CEP sought Aristide's presence in Haiti for the elections, which he graciously declined. See Aristide's letter to the CEP--translated below.

For several perspectives on this move by members of the "proxy" René Preval government--read here, here, here and here.

The systemic attempt to marginalize Fanmi Lavalas and instituting "constitutional reforms" in order to steal the vote from the poor majority is in full swing. Please take note that in an article on the right-wing Boulos family funded Haiti Democracy Project website titled "Getting Back to a Constitutional Electoral Commission," the [former] president of the Provisional Electoral Council, Frantz Gerard Verret, wrote that "Since Professor Leslie Francois Manigat [defeated 2006, received 12.40% of the vote] left power in 1988... the Republic of Haiti exited constitutional legality and never returned to it."

In preparation for the "selection," Preval's party Lespwa is attempting to reinvent their party with a new name. The "new coalition close to President Rene Preval" is now a party called "Unity."

Interestingly, the "UN independent human rights expert Michel Forst admitted on Monday that he did not have access to all the files and information relating to the Provisional Election Council (CEP)’s decision to bar Fanmi Lavalas from upcoming elections." Wonder if the CEP will provide this "independent" UN body with this much sought evidence? Unfortunately, the CEP has neglected to mention what the missing "legal requirements" are that are the basis for its exclusion of FL. One can only speculate from what sources close to the CEP have told Reuters. Apparently the CEP is being extraordinarily cautious and "the decision to bar the party was motivated by suspicions that the signature on a faxed letter sent by Aristide, authorizing local representatives to register the party, was falsified."

June 21, 2009 — An ominous message by the UN is understood to mean that if Haitians don't vote, there will be more violence and hunger. Ironically, not even MINUSTAH showed a full ballot box with their own election propaganda displayed inside polling sites. Click image above to open the article from June Photo and caption credit: Haitiaction.net

The CEP can now be assured of the authenticity of the signature, because President Aristide has confirmed that he has authorized Dr. Narcisse to register the party.

"In a rare interview, Aristide confirmed on local Radio Solidarity on Wednesday that he had given authority to Narcisse to register the party, and questioned whether Haitian officials wanted to hold fair and democratic elections.

"That will depend on whether the electoral council wants to organize an election or to make a selection," Aristide said by phone from South Africa. "If they want to organize elections, I encourage them. But if they want to make a selection I urge them not to take that path because it will not serve the country's interests."

A copy of his letter to the head of the CEP, Gaillot Dorsivil, is posted on the Fanmi Lavalas website, here.

Whatever "legal requirements" the CEP can dream up next will most likely be insufficient to persuade any Haitian that they will be conducting democratic, free and fair elections next February. The Haitian populace are sure to have a problem with their exclusionary "selection" of a majority of the seats in the Haitian Senate and Congress.



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Aristide's letter to the head of the CEP authorizing Dr. Narcisse to register FL candidates

Mr Gaillot Dorsinvil
President of the Provisional Electoral Council
Republic of Haiti

Mr Dorsinvil,

I salute you and thank you for the letter that you wrote to me dated 9 November 2009. I would have been happy to participate in the meeting of 13 November, but unfortunately the notice was too short. The green-light from the Haitian government has not yet arrived here in South Africa; I will come for a future occasion.

In the meanwhile, I mandate Dr Maryse Narcisse to represent Fanmi Lavalas before the Provisional Electoral Council. She has the authority to register, for the post of deputy and senator, Fanmi Lavalas candidates who are prepared to participate in elections that are free, honest and democratic. She has the authority to speak with the Provisional Electoral Council in the name of Fanmi Lavalas until I return.

Mr Dorsinvil, when you deem it necessary, you can always write to me, as you did in your 9 of November letter.

I am happy to salute you again, and I hope that this time, this new Provisional Electoral Council will find the full and complete freedom to organize elections that are free, honest and democratic.

Every person is a human being.
Every person counts.
The vote of every person counts.

Patriotically,

Dr Jean-Bertrand Aristide
18 November 2009
Pretoria, South Africa

Translation courtesy of Haiti.net.

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UPDATE: 12.04.2009

Haiti the Struggle Continues, a radio program which airs on WBAI 99.5 FM in New York on the Pacifica Radio Network, covered this issue. Listen to the program here.

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UPDATE: 12.10.2009

Interview with President Jean-Bertrand Aristide November 25, 2009 on Radio Solidarité in Port-au-Prince. Listen to the hour long program on the Fanmi Lavalas website.

Haiti: News So Bizarre, you have to laugh...

Underaged US Embassy Hire Steals $800K?

CEP: Aristide Sign-Off Needed

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Haitian Man Hired to Handle Money When He Was Only 12 by the U.S. Embassy in Haiti Has Confessed to Embezzling more than $800,000

The U.S. Department of Justice has issued a press release announcing that a 25 year old employee named Gary Saint-Joy, who the U.S. Embassy in Haiti claims they hired as a cashier in 1995 when he would have only been 12 years old has confessed and pleaded guilty to stealing "approximately" a total of $849,000.

The U.S. Embassy in Haiti is described as a "behemoth" costing 75 million to build in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince. The compound, finished in 2007 is the fourth largest in cost -- coming in first is the U.S. embassy in Iraq. It is located on 10 acres and is entirely self-sufficient -- boasting a large interior atrium in the main building, state-of-the-art climate control, a water treatment plant and extensive landscaping.

In a brief statement, the Department of Justice describes the incident and charges:

"WASHINGTON – A former employee at the U.S. Embassy in Haiti pleaded guilty today to one count of theft for stealing more than $800,000 from the U.S. Department of State, Acting Assistant Attorney General Rita M. Glavin of the Criminal Division announced.

According to court documents, Jean G. Saint-Joy, 25, a/k/a Gary Saint-Joy, a/k/a Garry Saint-Joy, a citizen of Haiti, was employed as a cashier by the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, from approximately 1995 until July 2008.

Beginning in approximately 2003 and continuing until early 2008, Saint-Joy admitted he engaged in a scheme to embezzle funds from the State Department. As part of this scheme, Saint- Joy admitted he submitted and caused to be submitted false and fraudulent documents to the State Department claiming that he required reimbursement for the payment of legitimate embassy expenses."

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Haiti's "Provisional" Electoral Council bars a political party from participating in "democratic" elections because some lack former ousted president's signature

President of the Haiti's electoral council Frantz Gerard Verret, escorted by members of special forces, leaves his office in Port-au-Prince, Friday, Feb. 6, 2009. It will not let members of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's party or a former rebel leader compete in upcoming Senate elections, Verret said. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa) The Provisional Electoral Council has rejected 40 of 105 candidates for the April Senate elections in Haiti. The Council is not allowing members of Lavalas (Jean-Betrand Aristide's party) to participate, claiming irregularities in their applications. The AP reported that "All candidates of Aristide's Famni Lavalas Party were rejected for the April 19 election — in most cases because their documents lacked the signature of party leader Aristide" [bold mine] Lavalas leaders pledged to fight the decision. Electoral officials had assured the party in December that leaders in Haiti could sign for their candidates, said Maryse Narcisse, the head of Lavalas' executive council. "We think these are political machinations," Narcisse told The Associated Press. "Famni Lavalas followed the law. ... I think this is a provocation." The electoral council said its decision is final on all 17 Lavalas candidates and 23 others who were rejected, including former rebel leader Guy Philippe, whose rebels helped oust Aristide five years ago. Also barred from participation is former U.S. ally in the ousting of former Haitian President Jean-Betrand Aristide, Guy Philippe. Philippe is wanted by US law enforcement officials on unspecified charges. In the early morning hours of March 25, 2008, heavily armed commandos raided Philippe's home following his statements on a Haitian radio station that he was writing a book and was a victim of a political plot involving the US which put his life in danger. "Officials at the U.S. embassy in Port-au-Prince declined to comment on the raid. The U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of Florida, where media reports say a sealed indictment against Philippe has been brought, also would not comment." Back in 2004, the president of the Provisional Electoral Council, Frantz Gerard Verret, said in an article on the right-wing Boulos family funded Haiti Democracy Project website that "Since Professor Leslie Francois Manigat left power in 1988... the Republic of Haiti exited constitutional legality and never returned to it." The Haiti Action Committee (whose "Members foster extensive contacts with the grassroots movements in Haiti") has a statement on its website describing the history and purpose of the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP): "On February 7, 2006, a Provisional Electoral Council, or CEP, established by the so-called International Community, the bourgeoisie, the de facto government, and the traditional politicians, organized tailored elections, clearly in favor of the bourgeois' representative, industrialist Charles Henry Baker (Representative of the Goup of 184) and of the "macoute" sector, intellectual Leslie Francois Manigat. To continue to protest against the bloody coup of February 29, 2004 and to dissociate themselves from all these putschists, Fanmi Lavalas, by far the greatest political force of the country, refused to form part of the CEP and refused to participate in the electoral process. However, bribed by the Embassy of the United States, certain executives of the organization, joined by some opportunists, without the knowledge of the National Representative and other persons in charge of Fanmi Lavalas, could register the organization with the electoral process. Read more. Haiti Solidarity Meeting -- Haitiaction.net

HatTip: Ezili Danto List (Riseup)

Obama is the Rage

Ralph Nader in effect called Barack Obama an "Uncle Tom". Nader said that it was Obama's choice so far to be an Uncle Tom to the giant corporations. Ralph was a bad boy. He should apologize immediately.

But if he doesn't, so what? It's Ralph's thing to "rage against the machine." He's an activist gadfly for consumer protection. No one should expect Nader to give that up; though he should be more circumspect and respectful to President-Elect Obama. Obama has not even stepped into the oval office or sworn on the bible to uphold the constitution, unlike Bush, who should be the target of Nader's vitriol because of the full mess he's made of this country. Nader has lost control of his facial muscles and twitches and squints throughout the whole interview. I hope he gets it together. I want to still have some respect for him.

But the fact is, Barack Obama has suddenly become as establishment as you can get, and it stands to reason that many people will align against him. Who knows, if he continues to do the things that Nader outlined (he is a politician!), I might get in that long line.

I don't think Obama is going to be too offended--he will just brush off racial attacks by people like Nader, Berlusconi and that racist Austrian pundit or any others that have the balls to speak their bigoted, prejudicial or racist ideology--it's not acceptable to do so and it's progress that they will get plenty of criticism (even from unexpected quarters!)... IT'S THE PEOPLE THAT YOU DON'T HEAR FROM, THAT LET THEIR HATE SPEAK OUT THROUGH THE BARREL OF A GUN OR OTHER WEAPON WHO ARE DEADLY.

I don't know if this rumor is rooted in truth (see the links below; it's true), but I heard a caller to WBAI's Hugh Hamilton show voice the concern that many White people went out and brought guns after Obama won the Democratic nomination and even more armed themselves when Obama won the presidency. It is ironic that many of the guns purchased will most likely not protect or secure these folks, but may end up facilitating domestic violence, crime or a tragic accident.

Of course FOX "twilight zone" NEWS would jump on Ralph Nader for this – you know "Divisiveness R' US" is their unofficial motto. Surely, these propagandist, racist, ignorant buffoons have said much, much worst against Barack Obama in particular and Black people in general. I'm certainly not buying the bridge they are trying to sell with their feigned outrage over Ralph's misguided remarks.

On a positive note, the Obama administration is set to recognize science... first thing will be to reverse the Bush policy on prohibiting stem cell research. Yeah!

I can't find it, but I also wanted to put up a chart from the new change.gov website that was displayed on Keith Obermann that has all the branches of the government listed UNDER the constitution. Hey, that's CHANGE I CAN BELIEVE IN!

By the way; can Bush pardon himself?


Obama Countdown
created by James Miller

Further Reading:
On Concerns Over Gun Control, Gun Sales Are Up
"Sales of handguns, rifles and ammunition have surged in the last week, according to gun store owners around the nation..."

Gun sales up in N.C. after Obama win

Guns Sales are up ten billion percent

Gun Sales Up Before Election

Obama election prompts surge in US gun sales

Sarah Palin blamed by the US Secret Service over death threats against Barack Obama

Colin Powell Is No Hero

Colin Powell endorsed Senator Barack Obama on Sunday. All but a few are impressed by this "Powellful" endorsement. Some even see the endorsement has a "redemption" for Powell; in light of WMD lies at the UN in the prelude to the Iraq "war".

Revulsion and bitterness comes close to expressing my feelings. I haven't felt this type of emotion since I heard about how a South African who spoke at the "truth and reconciliation" sessions that were stage after the "end" of apartheid confessed that he held a "barbecue" with friends while a live Black African man was roasted on a spit as they chatted and carried on around the poor soul in careless disregard.

Until a truth and reconciliation session is held in regards to the crimes of the Bush administration, there are some who are not ready to give Powell "redemption."

In Haiti, Powell was the "Head Negro in Charge" of dismantling Haiti's democracy and installing the Bush administration's goon, Gerard Latortue.

Bush and his confederates lied in the faces of massed Black congressional representatives in the days leading up to Aristide’s departure (see “US House Members to Bush, Powell: Don’t Usurp Aristide’s Power,” February 26), with assurances from the President that, "We still hope to be able to achieve a political settlement between the current government and the rebels." We now know that the Bush men and France were even then seeking "perfect coordination" in removing Aristide. Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice sat like bookmarks at Bush’s side as he lied to nineteen Black members of Congress.

Are these two conspirators fit to speak at any Black gathering, ever again in life? Who in the Black community will debase their organizations with the presence of such “role models?” An invitation to Powell or Rice should be viewed as proof of a moral deficit on the part of the inviter.

Godfather Colin Powell, The Gangster of Haiti
by Kevin Pina

Fool me once... well it turns out that this is a pattern with Powell. He has the stain of Iraqi blood on his hands, no doubt; but there was a precedent for his immorality and blind ambition in his actions in Vietnam that foretold his lack of character.

...As the round-up continued, some Americans raped the girls. Then, under orders from junior officers on the ground, soldiers began emptying their M-16s into the terrified peasants. Some parents used their bodies futilely to shield their children from the bullets. Soldiers stepped among the corpses to finish off the wounded.

...Several months later, the American's brutality would become a moral test for Major Powell, too.

A letter had been written by a young specialist fourth class named Tom Glen, who had served in an American mortar platoon and was nearing the end of his Army tour. In the letter to Gen. Creighton Abrams, the commander of all U.S. forces in Vietnam, Glen accused the American division of routine brutality against civilians.

Glen's letter was forwarded to the American headquarters at Chu Lai where it landed on Major Powell's desk.

...After that cursory investigation, Powell drafted a response on Dec. 13, 1968. He admitted to no pattern of wrongdoing. Powell claimed that U.S. soldiers in Vietnam were taught to treat Vietnamese courteously and respectfully. The American troops also had gone through an hour-long course on how to treat prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions, Powell noted.

"There may be isolated cases of mistreatment of civilians and POWs," Powell wrote in 1968. But "this by no means reflects the general attitude throughout the Division." Indeed, Powell's memo faulted Glen for not complaining earlier and for failing to be more specific in his letter.

"In direct refutation of this [Glen's] portrayal," Powell concluded, "is the fact that relations between American soldiers and the Vietnamese people are excellent."

Powell's findings, of course, were false, though they were exactly what his superiors wanted to hear.

Behind Colin Powell's Legend
By Robert Parry & Norman Solomon

This is the man that people respect and consider to be an American hero?

There are many Americans who tell the truth. They are the heroes. Cindy Sheehan, who's son Casey died in Iraq is one. Cindy is campaigning for Nancy Pelosi's seat in California.

The real military heroes are the men who have resigned in protest over the sham military courts that have been convened to find the Guantanamo detainees "guilty."

A Brighter Day Will Come

Another great video to encourage the hip-hop generation to vote. Here is a description from the video's YouTube page --"Vote for Hope" was written by M.C. Yogi and produced by Robin Livingston. The "Vote for Hope" video was created at Ursa Minor Arts and Media in San Rafael, CA with chief animator James Curtis, using designs and direction from M.C. Yogi. Video funded and supported by grassroots donations."



Make sure to Vote on November 4th!
Here is where you can register: VoteforChange.com

Say, Isn't It Schmo?

In post-debate analysis of the finances of Joe the Plumber--it turns out Joe the Plumber's hypothetical small business will not pay more taxes with Obama's economic plan. Joe is not falling for that. His feeling: show me the money. Wall Street meltdown be damned, Joe the Plumber is his own man, he wants to handle his social security money himself. John McCain's surprise when Obama said that Joe the Plumber would pay zero penalty for not providing insurance to his would be employees was supposed to be mocking, but McCain just looked nonplussed instead. The debate was won by Obama according to the polls, so McCain's mugging throughout the debate must have turned quite a few people off.

In my favorite moment, McCain, in answering a question about "Free" Trade, accused Obama of "not understanding" that signing the Columbia Free Trade agreement was a "no brainer." I thoroughly enjoyed Obama's response. He said he was concerned about the worker's human rights. Workers, he said, are being targeted and murdered for standing up to management. This is a new mindset for an American presidential candidate... expressing concern for worker's rights outside of the U.S.! It was a nice comment for the folks in Columbia to hear. I listened to "First Voices Indigenous Radio" this morning and a Columbian spoke to Obama's comment and expressed gratitude for the positive support. Columbians are being terrorized right now for standing up for their indigenous rights.

John McCain's theatrics in naming Bill Ayers and questioning Obama's association was a moot point given that McCain preceded his statement with the comment that he didn't "care about an old, washed-up terrorist." This so reminded me of George W. Bush saying that Iraq had "nothing" to do with 9/11--surprising to some since Bush had accused Iraq of aiding in the attacks therefore justifying an invasion of Iraq.

How do you become "an old, washed-up terrorist"? I guess that's why Bush doesn't think about Bin Laden.

Hat tip to Angry Asian Man

US "Tapeworm" Economics Causes World Financial Crisis

A pre- 850 billion bailout analysis of the American economic system written in February 2007 makes the point that we will change nothing unless we "change the way money works in our personal lives, our communities, and our world." The author Carolyn Baker credits Catherine Austin Fitts as the one person "on earth who has... clearly articulated the way sustainable and unsustainable economic systems work." Ms. Baker teaches history to college students and has written several books. She believes that US presidents have little influence and control over the American economic system, which she terms the "neo-liberal tapeworm" that feeds on its host (the U.S. citizen) and the world.

Naomi Klein, who wrote the book "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism." thinks that the current economic crisis and bail out is the "shock" that will prevent a president Obama from instituting the changes that his campaign is promoting; such as new sources of sustainable energy, universal healthcare, an overhaul of the education system and middle class tax relief.

"Tapeworm” is the name Fitts applies to the economic system of the U.S. which seeks to feed upon both its inhabitants and its neighbors, near and far, and at the same time, ingest them with toxins which cause them to crave the very elements which feed the Tapeworm, thereby establishing a perpetual search-and-destroy economic system. Inherent in Tapeworm economics is the primacy of centralized financial systems such as the Federal Reserve, national and worldwide banking networks, a complex global economic apparatus, reliance on agribusiness for food supply and distribution, and the privatization of resources—all without financial transparency or accountability.

Conversely, a sustainable economy is de-centralized and locally-focused, relying on small, well-managed local banks; food supplies which are grown, financed, and distributed locally; community ownership of land and resources; local commerce and industry; and above all, financial transparency.

Among the myriad advantages of categorizing economic systems in this way is the immediate exposure of federal election campaigns as unequivocally by, for, and about centralized financial systems which offer the illusions of “choice” and “change”.

No sincere proponent of a sustainable economy has the slightest possibility of emerging victorious in a country where centralized financial systems furnish, finance, and in the current milieu, manage electoral outcomes. Or as Aaron Russo’s documentary “America From Freedom To Fascism” underscored, voting in a national election is essentially making a choice between two crime families who are ostensibly at war with each other but will always join forces when their mutual interests are threatened.

Barack Obama has taken an active part in supporting the unpopular bailout of Wall Street to the tune of $850 billion dollars, so it should come as no surprise that the very same Wall Street firms to benefit from the bailout are the top five funders of the Obama campaign. OpenSecrets.org lists the top five Obama contributors as Merrill Lynch, Citigroup Inc, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase & Co. The organizations themselves did not donate , rather the money came from the organization's PAC, its individual members or employees or owners, and those individuals' immediate families. Organization totals include subsidiaries and affiliates. The same top five contributors are listed for Senator John McCain.

Unfortunately, the bailout did not include measures to help middle class Americans; such as a moratorium on foreclosures, mortgage relief and restructuring and bankruptcy relief. The U.S. government is complicit in giving Treasury Secretary Paulson and his cronies on Wall Street a blank check and very little transparency and oversight to stop them from further theft and mismanagement. The very people who have exploited the system have been rewarded and are set to use this bailout as a windfall that will cover more risky investments and their assets.

The Baker article maintains:

If we attentively read United States history, we learn that particularly in recent times, financial systems, not presidents, dictate policy and that “Chief Executives” are themselves at the mercy of those systems--before, during, and after their term of office. Electing presidents changes little, but changing how money works changes everything.

Indigenous People Respond to the World Financial Crisis
An article in the Mohawk Nation News uses the parasite analogy to describe the U.S. economic system and its precipitous collapse, suggesting the necessity for revolutionary change:

"The public is crying out for major change to end the colonial racist greedy system. They have to look at Indigenous culture and harmonize their society with ours to survive. They need to renew all their arrangements with us to live, think and govern themselves so that the parasites are pushed aside. Sacrifices are necessary or humanity will destroy itself.

There is another world, a world of resistance. Our fate rests in our own humble hands. Indigenous people have survived. We kept our philosophy, our notions of governance, our duties to mother earth and our way of life which was terribly damaged. We have been able to resuscitate it and bring it back to a healthy life. We all have our strengths. We have an enormous evolved consciousness. People are beginning to see through this capitalist fraud.

Do U.S. President George Bush, Republican candidate John McCain and Democratic candidate Barack Obama want to really re-arrange the economy and society on a new basis? Do they want to dig up the roots of the colonial past and harmonize relations with the Indigenous people and mother earth?"

Ms. Baker writes that the "neoliberal tapeworm" is also being rejected in Latin America in countries like Venezuela, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, and Nicaragua for more sustainable economic systems. In Brazil, Senator Eduardo Matarazzo Suplicy sponsored "Citizen's Basic Income" legislation. In their book "The Ethics And Economics of the Basic Income Guarantee", Karl Widerquist and Michael Anthony describe Brazil's basic income law. A citizen in Brazil has the right to a basic income and to contribute to that developing nation building "a just and civilized society." Interestingly, in the U.S., Alaska has a guaranteed income in the form of the "Alaska Permanent Fund" which provides a guaranteed income to all of Alaska's citizens. This economic instrument is also being introduced in Iraq as an oil shares "dividend" to be distributed to Iraq's citizens.

Ms. Baker theorizes that an economic transformation must take place in the United States in order for humankind and the ecosystems to survive beyond the age of oil

"It first begins with a commitment to financial literacy in concert with sustainable economics.

Next, one must increase one’s learning curve regarding the reality of corruption in the United States. American “exceptionalism”, the puerile illusion that other countries are corrupt, but the U.S. is not, must be shattered...

As a result of this recognition, it then becomes crucial to illuminate corruption and Tapeworm economics in one’s own community, i.e., narcotics trafficking, fraud, entities such as universities, foundations, churches, non-profit agencies, and media that accept contributions from the Tapeworm and serve its interests...

...we have no business depositing our money in Tapeworm banks or using credit cards from those institutions. It is our responsibility to transact with institutions that keep the money in our communities, rather than drain it out...

Understand that personal debt finances the Tapeworm and ensures its continued success. Get out of debt, and if you must use credit cards at all, pay them off in full monthly... Investigate people-to-people lending arrangements such as those found at www.prosper.com.

Become involved with other activists in your community to block the privatization of land and resources and demand public ownership of them.

Recognize that “socially responsible investing” usually isn’t. Consult the Solari website for investment opportunities that genuinely promote sustainability while bringing an optimum return.

Consider investing in precious metals—silver or gold, and consult the Solari site for ways to begin doing so with small, affordable amounts. If you deposit money in a savings account, why not invest some of it in precious metals instead?

If we attentively read United States history, we learn that particularly in recent times, financial systems, not presidents, dictate policy and that “Chief Executives” are themselves at the mercy of those systems--before, during, and after their term of office. Electing presidents changes little, but changing how money works changes everything.

Update 10.22.08
I have the wrong link for Barack Obama's top contributors. Obama's top contributors are here. I mistakenly have John McCain's top campaign contributors instead. I regret the error.

A Racist Liberal – Shocking!

A new AP/Yahoo poll finds that "white" Americans of all political stripes are racist.

"Deep-seated racial misgivings could cost Barack Obama the White House if the election is close, according to an AP-Yahoo News poll that found one-third of white Democrats harbor negative views toward blacks — many calling them "lazy," "violent," responsible for their own troubles.

...40 percent of all white Americans hold at least a partly negative view toward blacks, and that includes many Democrats and independents."

First, it's a given that John Stossel, a conservative, thinks that blacks should stop complaining about racism in this "colorblind meritocracy" of "black privilege":

"Complaints about racism still dominate media discussion of the disparity between black and white success... There is black privilege -- and white privilege. It's time to stop complaining about past discrimination and to treat people as individuals, not as members of a certain race."

But is it a shock to anyone that Geraldine Ferraro, a liberal, implied that Barack Obama is an affirmative action/quota candidate?

"If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position... And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept"

Or that Andrew Cuomo, another Hillary supporter, referred to Barack Obama's campaigning style in this way:

"You can't shuck and jive at a press conference. All those moves you can make with the press don't work when you're in someone's living room."

Race is the "elephant" in the election and a subject that Barack Obama has been avoiding whenever possible, but which he has addressed masterfully when necessary. Race is also why John McCain is running so close in the polls to Barack Obama, in spite of his blunders, ineptitude, temperament and incoherence. It's true that Obama has eked a small lead, but not what you would expect.

This Week in Blackness (TWiB) on whether race matters in this election:

What Haitian-Americans are asking of the next US president

Marguerite "Ezili Danto" Laurent, Esq. Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network. PRESS RELEASE September 17, 2008 Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network 203 829 7210 • erzilidanto@yahoo.com ********************************************************** What Haitian-Americans are asking of the next US president End the UN military occupation Grant Temporary Protected Status (TPS) with a specification to stop all deportations Stop trading through USAID, start trading with Haiti Support Haitian food production. After the storm emergency, calibrate food aid to assist and not further destroy Haiti's food production Support post storm rebuilding and reconstruction of environmentally degraded areas Demand oversight of USAID earmarked funds for Haiti, fiscal accountability, transparency and quantifiable evidence of self-sustainable development achievements. Support the institutionalization of the rule of law PRIORITIES: Haitian-Americans ask the new U.S. president to: Stop the United States' unequal immigration treatment of Haitian refugees, grant Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and work permits to Haitian nationals in the US with a specification to stop all deportations until Haiti has recovered from the ravages of hurricanes, floods and instability. Haitians in the United States should receive equal treatment and protection under all the immigration laws. (See, Ezili Dantò on Help for the Storm Victims and HLLN Links for granting TPS). Immigration advocates estimate that there are 20,000 Haitians living in the United States illegally who could benefit from TPS entitling them to temporary residency and work permits for up to 18 months. The remittances these workers provide to their families in Haiti are critical lifelines in these hard economic times of high food and fuel prices, hurricane devastations, flood damages and the destruction of Haiti's rice and other crops by the back-to-back 2008 storms and floods. End the U.N. military occupation of Haiti, provide reparation and restitution for the victims of 2004 Bush regime change in Haiti. The U.N. troops in Haiti are paid $601.58 million per year and have been in Haiti for four years. That is $50.13 million per month, $1.64 million per day. Yet, during the recent floods and hurricane season in Haiti, the Haitian President had to call for international help from the international community. Wasn't that help already in Haiti, to the tune of 9,000 U.N. - MINUSTAH- troops already cashing in $1.64 million per day? Why are they there, if incapable of providing emergency help? If they had not one amphibious unit, temporary bridge, caravan of trucks or equipment to reach Haitians in distress, what use are they to the people of Haiti? Are their war tanks, heavy artillery, guns and military presence in Haiti making Haitians more secure, more safe, more free, more prosperous, better nourished, educated and healthier than before they landed four years ago? No. See: – Report of David Josue tour in Brazil Demanding withdrawal of UN/Brazilian Troops from Haiti; – The alleged illegal confiscation of private property by DYNCORPS, USAID, MINUSTAH and US Embassy in Haiti; – Video: U.N. Massacre on July 6, 2005 in Site Soley; – Video: U.N. Massive Attack on Dec. 22, 2006 on Site Soley civilians; – The Cite Soleil Massacre Declassification Project; and, – Humanitarian aid workers and UN peacekeepers raping, abusing Haiti's children. Direct that U.S. trades with the Haitian government, not with the U.S. Agency of International Development ("USAID") and foreign NGO's and charities in the name of Haitians. For this US policy only undermines Haiti’s sovereignty, emboldens and empowers NGOs with no public responsibility or accountability to Haitians or Haiti’s long term well-being. It is in the best interest of the United States to support Haitian democracy, good governance, development, self-reliance and self-sufficiency. This cannot be done if the Haitian government has to compete with foreign funded NGOs and charities who are not elected or accountable to the people of Haiti, but to promoting dependency and their own organizations' interests for self-perpetuation in Haiti. Provide that the U.S. only rewards or give incentives, (i.e. USAID subcontracting bids, jobs) to transnational U.S. corporations in Haiti that abide by Haitian labor, human rights, minimum wage and environmental laws and that show corporate responsibility by patronizing the informal sector of local service providers and by generally not exporting all profits and capital but committing to investing a very small percentage of their Haiti profits in Haiti. (See, Economic proposals that make sense for the reality of Haiti). Invest in Haitian domestic and commercial production of food. The US must stop dumping food in Haiti. It eviscerates Haiti's food sovereignty. (See, HLLN Links to US "free trade" fraud promoting famine in Haiti, Dumping food- USAID to send $25 million more). The only sustainable solution is to calibrate emergency food aid focusing all efforts on supporting Haiti's national food production, consumption and local distribution. The famine situation was dire before the four 2008 storms, but after the storms that destroyed bridges, roads, caused severe property damage, killed over a thousand people, left millions homeless and flooded the rice-producing region of Haiti, it will be unspeakable. The charity Christian Aid estimates that roughly one third of the country's 60,000-ton annual production of rice may have been ruined by floods. Farm tools, seeds to plant next year's crop, livestock that farmers live off and irrigation systems vital for rice production were also destroyed. The damage is all the more serious because it came at harvest time." (Haiti could face new food crisis after storms, Sept. 15, 2008, Reuters By Matthew Bigg). U.S. agricultural aid to Haiti should support local people-centered, self-sustaining projects to rebuild the flood-devastated former bread baskets areas of Haiti in the Artibonite valley and Plaine du Sud. According to a Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, (FAO) report, the rice bowl areas in Haiti alone, are capable of producing food to feed 10 million people. Haiti has a population of 8.5 people and thus, Haiti has the capacity to feed itself. The U.S. should eschew old failed USAID and State Department policies proven to promote famine, hunger and political instability evidenced by the food riots that forced the resignation of the Alexis government and support this capacity. Haiti needs cash crops, food and energy immediately. The US may provide authentic assistance by supporting projects that donates modern farm equipment, tools, fertilizers, emergency seeds, et al...to help increase food production; projects that creates local agriculture, engineering and construction jobs and planting crops that can stabilize the soil and be sold or used for bio-fuels. It should simultaneously support the planting of fruit trees in Haiti that can feed Haitian families and be used as cash crops for domestic trade and investments. Without trees to anchor the soil, erosion will continue to reduce Haiti's scarce agricultural land, making Haiti more vulnerable to devastating floods each hurricane season. Efforts at reforestation must be tailored to planting to the needs of specific areas in Haiti, not to what USAID contractors want to do. For it has been proven beyond a doubt, the poor will not cut down fruit trees (to sell for charcoal) that feed their families and help them earn a living. Haiti is a country filled with "non-workers" by US standards. But this informal working sector (small local producers, distributors, retailers and marketwomen) is the economic backbone of Ti Pèp La - the masses in Haiti. Haiti is a place with gold, copper, lignite, coal and uranium mines, gas reserves, precious minerals, limestone, construction aggregate, marble, chalk, and stone quarries, gem stones, underwater sea treasures and where the poorest of the poor own property. USAID neo-liberal economic policies that doesn't calibrate these factors and the Haitian peoples' right to equitable distribution of their country's own assets, will always fail. (See, Energy and Mining in Haiti: The wealthy, powerful and well-armed are robbing the Haitian people blind ; Haitian Riches). USAID and the foreign, religious and other NGOs and non-for-profits purporting to act for the Haitian people are fighting for earmarked money, not for getting productive results in Haiti. They have historically and continue to deny the Haitian peoples' sovereign civil, cultural, religious and human rights. Their projects ultimately promote endless debt, dependency, famine, death and instability in Haiti. The US Congress must demand fiscal accountability, transparency and quantifiable evidence of sustainable development achievements from reform projects designed, supervised and financed through USAID and their subcontractors, corporate consultants and charity workers using federal funds in Haiti. In particular, the new US President should ask Congress to review and investigate which US corporations and political officials pocketed and benefited from the more than $4 billion U.S. dollars spent in Haiti by US through USAID and their sub-contractors from 1994 to 1998 and who profited and were made wealthier from the over $8 billion dollars and counting spent during the second Bush coup d'etat from Feb. 29, 2004 continuing on through today. What improvements have the use of these US taxpayer monies made, in any, in the lives of the Haitian majority? None. They are suffering now from famine, the foreign soldiers' rape, assault, molestation and moreover... worst insecurity, injustice, impunity, standard of living and degraded environment than what they had before the US regime change and US/UN 2004 occupation. (See also, HLLN's Free Haiti Movement Demands, May 18, 2008). In particular, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokeswoman, Ana Santiago, "The U.S. has given nearly $400 million in assistance to Haiti since 2004, including $64 million for disaster relief after Jeanne and Hurricane Dennis in 2005. (See, Haitians seek temporary halt to deportations By JENNIFER KAY, AP, Sept. 12, 2008). In 2004 Hurricane Jeanne killed over 3,000 Haitians and flooded the City of Gonaives. Like then, in a replay of the same scenario, the media rushed in and published the lines of folks in flood waters, receiving aid, photographed the dead, told the tragic and dying stories. Like then USAID and the U.S. government also rushed in and committed millions of dollars to “help.” International help has been occupying Haiti for four years. Why was the City of Gonaives never rebuilt? Why did it remain filled with flood damage, weak and devastated, battered from hurricane Jeanne, Dennis, Mitch, Noel and the subsequent hurricanes from 2004 up until to this season with Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike? Where did the $400 U.S. million, including $64 million in disaster relief, go? Not one bridge was reinforced, not one flood barrier or road in or to Gonaives was ever built or re-built. Yet, USAID subcontractors, US NGOs, humanitarian and charity workers raised millions of funds based on Haiti's misfortunes and were photographed distributing bags upon bags of rice and water immediately after each major hurricane and flood, and then... nothing. The flurry of activity subsided. The media cameras were gone; only to return again during storm Noel last October 2007, and again for the food riots to show starving Haitians rebelling in April of 2008. And the story repeats itself. After the April 2008 food riots in Haiti, the U.S. government and U.N. World Food Program committed to send a combined total of $117 million in food and agricultural aid. Yet three months later, just a small fraction of this pledge had actually been distributed to starving Haitians. None of it had reached the starving Haitians in the countryside. On July 20, 2008, speaking about the food riots, an Associated Press article quoted a U.S. Agency of International Development report and stated that: "of the outpouring of international pledges... that included more than 40,000 tons of beans, rice and other food intended to quell the emergency, as of early July, less than 2 percent of that had been distributed. Some 16,000 tons has reached Haiti. But more than 11,000 tons of that is still in port; nearly all the rest lies undistributed in World Vision International and Catholic Relief Services warehouses. Only 724 tons of food has reached distribution centers". (See, Haiti food aid lags, hunger deepens By JONATHAN M. KATZ Associated Press Writer , July 20, 2008) But there's more. In fact, two months after the April, 2008 food riots, on June 13, 2008, President Rene Preval is quoted in a Nouvelliste article as saying that "...in these last months, more than 40 to 50% of the imported rice that is subsidized by the Haitian government is CONSUMED IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC.... [And that] even Haitian clandestinely subsidized petroleum products, cheaper Haiti oil products, are also being consumed by wealthy foreign ships passing through Haitian waters, instead of the impoverished and starving Haitians, these food and gas subsidies were intended to benefit..." (See the role of the Haitian oligarchs and rich families in Haiti.) For all the reasons above mentioned, Haitian-Americans hereby request that the next President of the United States directs that the US Congress must demand fiscal accountability, transparency and quantifiable evidence of sustainable development achievements from reform projects designed, supervised and financed through USAID and their subcontractors, corporate consultants and charity workers using federal funds in Haiti. The next U.S. president should support the institutionalization of Haitian laws, not USAID/IRI/NED "democracy enhancement" projects that promote coup d'etat, instability and financial colonialism and containment-in-poverty in Haiti through neo-liberalism - "free trade", "globalization" and other such "privatization" - schemes. Every time the United States supports the destabilization of a duly elected government it visits enormous economic pressures and political turmoil upon Haiti. The turmoil and pressures undermine Haitian justice, participatory democracy, self sufficiency, sovereignty, self-determination and promotes insecurity, debt, dependency, foreign domination, injustice, a rise in fleeing refugees and a structural containment in poverty. This instability has widespread and deep and disturbing repercussions. For instance, the Haitian Diaspora invests $2 billion dollars per year in Haiti. That investment is destroyed, diluted and undermined when it must be used to bury family members killed in political turmoil, kidnapped in the chaos of anarchy, instability that follows coup d'etats, or to move and help rebuilt the family of a relative or friend traumatized by the UN soldiers' rapes, molestation, arbitrary detention and indefinite incarcerations of their children relatives and friends in Haiti, instead of being used to buy books for their children and relatives to go to school, to buy supplies to carry out a viable family business, seeds to plant next year's harvest, or invest remittances in Haiti's tourism, schools, reforestation, agriculture, road construction, flood barriers, or health needs. US-sponsored coup d'etats in Haiti destroy grassroots and community organizations as well. When this human community infrastructure is gone, Haitians cannot respond to the hurricane seasons, worldwide rising food and gas prices or any other sort of emergency; laws requiring that all children go to school cannot be implemented and the Haitians' capacity to help themselves is eviscerated. Just one more example suffices: as Environmental Minister Jean-Marie Claude Germain indicated in an AP article titled Haiti's Efforts to Save Trees Falters, "reforestation projects and efforts to preserve trees in three protected zones were set back by the violent rebellion that ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004 and prompted the U.N. to send in thousands of peacekeepers to restore order. Even though there were agricultural laws, the laws were not respected," Germain said. When there's food instability because of the U.S. dumping of imported under low tariffs into Haiti; when there is no security because of US-orchestrated regime change rebellion in Haiti, then children don't go to school, parents don't go about trying to earn a living and the $2 billion remittances from Haitians living abroad cannot be maximized. The only folks who make out like fat rats are the U.S. middlemen - the sweatshop corporations who don't have a democratic government to account to in terms of abiding by Haitian labor and other laws, the NGOs and non-for-profits fighting over "aid" monies for Haiti and to be designated as subcontractors for USAID, U.N., State Department and other such agencies providing earmarked "recovery/reform" funds. Haitian blood and manufactured chaos and instability lines the pockets of certain of these U.S. corporations, defense contractors, security firms, so-called development experts and "charity organization." This pattern must stop. Haitian-Americans ask that the next U.S. President stop supporting endless IMF/WB/IRI death-projects in Haiti. Stop supporting debt, dependency and foreign domination. End the UN occupation, grant TPS and work permits with a specification to stop all deportations to h elp Haiti's recovery process. Stop the rampant discrimination in all areas of immigration vis-à-vis Haitian nationals in the U.S. Stop trading with USAID, Catholic Relief Services, World Vision International and other such NGO's and calling it "help" or "trading with Haiti." Invest not in "free trade" and low-wage assembly plant jobs that will only end up creating slums like Site Soley and destroying rural Haiti, but in sustainable development projects - grass-roots environmental rehabilitation, and increased food and energy production projects, designed by local Haitians with a bottoms-up grassroots approach that recognizes Haiti's economic backbone is its informal working sector. Stop the militarization of Haiti in order to quell and pacify dissent. Support restitution for the coup d'etat victims and the promotion of Haitian sovereignty, laws, community organizing, community policing, transparency and participatory democracy. Stop imposing failed USAID policies. The constructive help the US can provide is to help Haitians help themselves and step out of the way of Haitianist grassroots, bottoms-up, community development. As illustrated above, the bulk of USAID aid and NGO emergency handouts never reach the poorest of the poor. So, the reality is that it's not US "aid" or NGO handouts that sustains the Haitian people, but the over $2 billion dollars sent each year to Haiti directly by Haitians living abroad to their families in Haiti. These Haitian remittances should be encouraged and protected, not destroyed by cruel deportations, coup d'etat, free trade that promotes famine or a US/UN occupation that traumatizes and militarizes Haiti instead of helping with reconstruction, viable reforestation, engineering projects, community-based policing and development, educational initiatives, building of flood barriers, roads, bridges, viable farms, schools, hospitals and health centers. Marguerite "Ezili Dantò" Laurent, Esq. President, Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network September, 2008 **************************************** Forwarded by Ezili's Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network **************************************** FOR MORE BACKGROUND INFORMATION FOR: What Haitian-Americans are asking of the next US president, go here.