Republicans Miss the Point. Again.

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November 8, 2012

OPINION by Devona Walker

Denial isn’t just a river in Africa friends. For the Republican Party, it’s a state of mind. Even now, in the day after their clear pummeling in this last election, they continue to ignore the demographic changes in the U.S. that contributed to the re-election of the nation’s first African-American President, Barack Obama. They are still propping up their dated “principles” as being their compass for the future. They are still spitting out their disdain for the President. Even after the billions of dollars in corporate Super Pac spending failed to buy them the White House, they continue to blame everyone else for their defeat.

Here’s the reality: The Republican Party cannot be sustained nationally by relying entirely on old white men, regardless of how angry they get or how much money they throw into dishonest political advertising. And they can’t deport or disenfranchise their way out of it.

One of the most striking things about this year’s presidential election was not the wide margins by which the President swept Swing States; it was the image of young, black and Latino voters in places like Miami-Dade County and Ohio who waited online for hours to vote.

It was the determination of an electorate who knew they were being actively disenfranchised and fought back by voting. It was the fact that blacks came out in larger numbers than they did in 2008 – to reelect the first black President. It was the fact that Latinos broke decidedly for the President despite an obstructionist Congress, which refused to allow the President to advance any of their concerns. The only thing the Republicans did successfully was remind older minority and women voters of tactics of oppression and liberties we have taken for granted while baptizing the younger ones with the spirit of resistance.

If there were voters going into this election who could not delineate the line between the parties, I doubt if they emerged from that election in the same way. While Democratic-leaning states were voting on things like gay marriage and legalizing pot, Republican states were trying to pass personhood amendments. While the President spoke about moving forward as one country, Republicans continued to cling to the past.

It is the past that will continue to haunt them, particularly if they fail to recognize the role that they continue to play in their certain demise.

Devona Walker is the politics editor for The Burton Wire.

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President Barack Obama Wins Second Term

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November 7, 2012

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ObamaWin2012 — President Obama and his family celebrate his victory over 2012 GOP Presidential contender Mitt Romney.

President Barack Obama has been elected to a second term of office on Tuesday, Nov. 7 with a solid thumping of GOP Presidential contender, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Keli Goff of The Root writes:

Four years after making history by becoming the first black president elected in the United States, Barack Obama has been elected to a second term. Bolstered by wins in key swing states, among them Ohio, Virginia and Pennsylvania, the President was declared the winner by multiple news outlets just after 11pm Eastern time. Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney took the stage to concede the race shortly after midnight.

Some Obama supporters feared that newly-enacted strict voter identification laws, and the controversy surrounding them, might suppress key segments of the president’s base of support — namely young people and voters of color — and tip a close race in the direction of Republican challenger Mitt Romney. That did not happen.

What did happen is that the idea of suppressing the vote drove record numbers of African-American, Latino, women and youth voters to the poll, helping President Obama win the electoral college and the popular vote over former Gov. Mitt Romney.

In his acceptance speech (click here for the full transcript), President Obama stated:

Tonight, in this election, you, the American people, reminded us that while our road has been hard, while our journey has been long, we have picked ourselves up, we have fought our way back, and we know in our hearts that for the United States of America the best is yet to come.

Read more at TheRoot.com.

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10 Reasons Why You Absolutely Need to Be Voting Today

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November 6, 2012

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I voted sticker — The Burton Wire’s politics editor Devona Walker gives you 10 reasons to vote in the 2012 U.S. Presidential election. (Google Images)

1. VOTER SUPPRESSION

Early voting lines in Miami-Dade County were four and five hours long over the weekend. This after Rep. Rick Scott successfully cut back on early voting days. In Ohio, the Republican Secretary of State fought early voting to the State Supreme Court before giving up. Republicans spent millions suppressing the vote (everything from intimidating billboards to deploying “poll watchers), and if you — we, choose not to vote because of it — they win. If they succeed, they will do it again. The only way to shut this down is to vote.

2. LIAR, LIAR PANTS ON FIRE

It’s obvious Mitt Romney will say just about anything for the sole purpose of getting elected. He seemingly has no real beliefs – whether climate change, abortion or gay rights – other than the sincere belief that he was born entitled to be President. He is the single most cynical politician I have ever witnessed. The only reason, in my opinion, he feels at liberty to lie so brazenly is because he thinks we’re stupid. He thinks we are too stupid to realize he’s lying. If Romney wins, we might as well be wearing dunce caps for the next four years.

3. SANDY vs. KATRINA

Let’s recall Hurricane Katrina: Nearly 2,000 dead, thousands more forced from their homes, turned out of their states even and deemed “refugees” as they were sent by the busload to other states after months of waiting. Even now, the city has not been entirely rebuilt. Remember Former George W. Bush’s infamous flyover and the delayed response? How many homes were unnecessarily destroyed due to this federal dereliction of duty? That’s what happens when you elect a disinterested president. Now, we have Hurricane Sandy to compare it with. Within days, the President, hundreds of Federal relief workers and the American Red Cross were on the scene. Soon, you even had displaced marathon runners perusing the Tri-State and offering help. That’s what you get with a President who actually gives a shit.

4. THE RETURN OF STATE’S RIGHTS

I have no interest in debating the virtue of federalism. But I do know that “state’s rights” appears to be the red herring backward, southern and often evangelical states use to deny the rights of others. Personally I much prefer being a citizen of the United States to a citizen of Rick Perry or Jan Brewer land.

5. WOMEN’S RIGHTS

Equal pay, safe and legal abortions, would both be threatened by a Romney presidency. While he may have no moral core, he is beholden to right-wingers with very limited moral cores — Some have actually stated publicly they believe in mandatory prison sentences for women who terminate their pregnancy even in the case of rape or incest.

6. MR. WRONG

One thing usually overlooked about Mitt Romney is that he is always wrong. This guy has the perfectly wrong record on every issue he has ever chosen to voice his opinion about: The Auto bailout, Osama bin Laden, Iran, the housing crisis. Dead wrong, every single time.

7. THE RETURN OF THE NEO-CONS

President Obama has not gotten us out of Afghanistan yet. But just consider the many military landmines he has successfully avoided. He, unlike most in our federal government, seems able to handle the complicated global national security climate without immediately resorting to military force. He is as a rational, reasonable and temperate commander-in-Chief fending off the real hawks that still, remarkably enough, hold influence within the Republican Party.

8. THE REALITY CHECK

The Republicans are due for one. They have been fighting the tide for the last decade, and the more the country changes, the more fervently and viciously they deny it. Hopefully, if they lose, the grownups inside the party will start to deal with reality and stop pandering to the wing nuts in order to remain relevant.

9. AND 10. POLICY FOR THE TIMES

For some reason, reducing the size of government is hugely attractive to many conservatives. Guess it plays into the whole lower taxes, entitlement society meme. But personally, I think President Obama has provided a fairly balanced host of policy measures. No, he was not able to achieve them through bipartisanship but he got it done anyway. And we are a better country because of it. Here’s a laundry list: The Affordable Care Act, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, ending Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and passing the Dream Act, just to name a few.

Devona Walker is political editor for The Burton Wire.

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Tea Party Groups Block Black Voters in Florida

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November 6, 2012

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Early Voting Starts In Florida — Tea Party groups have targeted black polling precincts for voter suppression efforts. (Google Images)

The Nation is reporting that Tea Party activists in Florida’s largely black and electorally significant Interstate 4 corridor have worked furiously to hamper the record-setting turnout by targeting black voters in voter suppression effors. The article states, “In one of the most striking examples of voter suppression to emerge, Voting Rights Watch obtained a list of several dozen Hillsborough County voters who will be surprised to learn they cannot vote regular ballots thanks to last-minute challenges filed against them.”

The article continues:

In Hillsborough County, seventy-seven people—forty of them in Tampa—won’t be able to file a regular ballot because the True the Vote–affiliated group Tampa Vote Fair has challenged their voting status. Of those, sixty-eight have been challenged because Tampa Vote Fair asserts they are ineligible due to a felony conviction. These people will not know that their vote has been challenged until they reach the polls and are forced to cast a provisional ballot. (Some of them may have already attempted to vote during the early voting period.)

According to documents provided to Voting Rights Watch by Hillsborough County Attorney’s office, all seventy-seven of the voter challenges were filed by Kimberly Kelley, Tampa Vote Fair’s president, and all are dated October 16, 2012—a full week after voter registration ended in Florida. Earlier this year, Kelley sent to the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections multiple lists of people she suspected were ineligible to vote because of felony convictions. One of those lists had 1,375 names on it, which the county supervisor forwarded on to the state to investigate, but which turned up no names yet of people improperly registered.

It is being reported that 40 percent of the voters on this voter suppression list are black despite the fact that only 15 percent of registered voters are black.

Read more at The Nation.

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Milt Campbell: First Black Olympian to Win Gold in Decathlon Dies

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November 5, 2012

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The Associated Press is reporting that Milt Campbell, who became the first African-American to win the Olympic decathlon in 1956 and went on to play pro football and become a motivational speaker, has died, his family said. Linda Rusch, Campbell’s partner of 13 years, said the trailblazer died Friday at his home in Gainesville, GA after fighting prostate cancer for a decade. The article states:

A native of Plainfield, N.J., Campbell was a rising high school senior when he won the silver medal in the decathlon at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, finishing second to Bob Mathias. The Americans swept the decathlon that year. Four years later, Campbell won gold at the Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia.

The 6-foot-3, 217-pound Campbell, who attended Indiana University, was drafted in 1957 by the Cleveland Browns, where he played one season in the same backfield as Jim Brown. Campbell then played for various teams in the Canadian Football League until his football career in 1964.

Campbell was inducted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1999 and was honored this year by the International Swimming Hall of Fame. In 2000, the New Jersey Sportswriters Association named Campbell its New Jersey Athlete of the Century.

In June, he was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame along with nine others, including actor Michael Douglas, author Joyce Carol Oates and the late New York Giants owner Wellington Mara.

Milt Campbell was 78.

Read more at Yahoo Sports.

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Dominica Observes 34 Years of Political Independence

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November 5, 2012

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Caribbean 360 is reporting that Dominica is celebrating 34 years of political independence from Britain with the country’s newly elected head of state, Eliud Williams, telling citizens “we can be justifiably proud of the progress that we have made over those 34 years.” Caribbean 360 writes:

Williams, who replaced prominent jurist Dr. Nicholas Liverpool last month, said that over the past three decades, Dominica had improved its social and physical infrastructure, electrified the entire country; built businesses and industries, schools and colleges, and developed a primary health care system which is a model to the developing world.

“Our scholars and artistes have achieved international recognition in various fields of endeavour which is a tribute to our resolve and intellectual capacity,” he said, adding when he examines the achievement “I am comforted that none of these developments could have occurred without the guidance of our Heavenly Father and the active support and engagement of our people.

“It is precisely because of these joint efforts and the engagement of all stakeholders that I believe that this year’s theme “Partnering for Further Progress and Development” is so appropriate.”

President Williams also called for more exploration of economic opportunities, pointing to Dominica’s participation in the development of broadband technology over the past decade.

Officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, Dominica is an island nation in the Lesser Antilles region of the Caribbean Sea, south-southeast of Guadeloupe and northwest of Martinique.

Read more at Caribbean 360.

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Zuma Celebrates Castro: S.A. Needs Greater Economic Voice

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November 4, 2012

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Jacob Zuma, Raul Castro — South African President Jacob Zuma meets Raul Castro, brother of reportedly ailing Cuban Communist leader Fidel Castro. (Google Images)

Writing for TheRoot.com, Anita Powell reports that South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma celebrated the accomplishments of 94-year-old anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela and Cuban Communist Leader Fidel Castro in remarks made to the Foreign Correspondents Association. Powell believes that this is Zuma’s attempt to distance South Africa from the economic crises of the West and to call for a greater voice for South Africa in the area of economics on the world’s stage. Powell writes:

‘In that speech earlier this week, Zuma hailed Castro as “one of the revolutionary icons in the fight for freedom and equity in a world free from oppression, exploitation and prejudice.”

South Africa has historically leaned left — Zuma and his cohorts in the African National Congress refer to one another as “comrade,” and the ruling coalition counts the South African Communist Party as an important member of the bloc. But one of the reasons South Africa may be pulling back from Western hegemony could be that it wants to distance itself from the current global economic crisis. Also, South Africa pushed for its finance minister to head the World Bank and clearly feels that its economic voice is not being heard.

The United States has close and positive diplomatic relations with South Africa, but this hasn’t always been the case. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney dredged up that fact from the past in the third presidential debate, when he equated Iran with apartheid-era South Africa.

“I would also make sure that their diplomats are treated like the pariah they are around the world,” he said, referring to Iran, “the same way we treated the apartheid diplomats of South Africa.”

These days, it seems as if South Africa is the one turning away a little bit. That’s exemplified by two recent South African actions: its decision to join a grouping of developing nations in 2011 and Zuma’s current crusade for more African representation on the United Nations Security Council.

Learn more about President Zuma’s remarks and read the piece in its entirety on TheRoot.com.

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Rawandan Authorities: 50,000 Genocide Suspects

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November 2, 2012

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skulls — Skulls from the Hutu-Tutsi civil war in Rwanda in 1994 often referred to as the Rwandan genocides. (Google Images)

AllAfrica.com is reporting that Rwanda justice officials have compiled a list of 50,000 suspects that are alleged to have participated in the 1994 genocides. Rwandan authorities have issued arrest warrants for 146 of these suspects, but state they are working on the case files of the others. Most of these people have been tried and convicted in absentia by the semi-traditional gacaca courts which finished working at the end of June. The author writes:

‘We have confidence in our cooperation with the different states concerned,” said Jean Bosco Siboyintore, head of the genocide accused tracking unit of the Rwandan Prosecutor’s office.”Sooner or later these people will be arrested.’

‘They must either serve their sentences here, or get their trial reviewed,” he told Hirondelle (news agency located in Lausanne).’

While most of those thought to have participated in the genocides reside in Africa, namely the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia, the largest number of suspects living in Europe are residing in France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Read more at AllAfrica.com.

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RZA Releases "The Man With the Iron Fists"

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November 2, 2012

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Iron Fists (Google Images) — Wu-Tang Clan producer RZA’s film *The Man With the Iron Fists* was released nationwide on November 2. (Google Images)

by Christopher A. Daniel

RZA recalls being in Beijing beside award-winning filmmaker Quentin Tarantino watching a final playback on a camera monitor. Just a few years prior, the two creative minds were collaborating in the exact same place on Kill Bill: Vol. 1. At that moment, RZA – in déjà vu – knew he was onto something special. “The student has become a master,” Tarantino whispers to him.

The controversial director was referring to the Wu-Tang Clan’s iconic producer completing his directorial debut, The Man With The Iron Fists. The Nov. 2 nationwide release chronicles a 19^th Century blacksmith – played by RZA – who creates weapons and joins a slew of warriors to protect a Chinese village. RZA also co-wrote the screenplay with famed writer/director Eli Roth. The film also stars Russell Crowe, Lucy Liu, Rick Yun, David Bautista, Byron Mann and Jamie Chung.

The Brooklyn-born, Staten Island-raised connoisseur of martial arts films – born Robert Fitzgerald Diggs – took pointers from Tarantino. In addition to screening numerous films and having multiple conversations with Tarantino, RZA heavily studied director John Woo’s ability to capture multiple action sequences in one scene. “I picked up so much from him, I can write a book,” RZA says during the Atlanta press conference. “I can’t really say I got one thing. He’s my teacher. If I belong to any school of filmmaking, I belong to the school of Tarantino.”

More recently, the trendsetting, interpersonal Grammy Award-winning producer has composed a slew of film scores and flexed his acting chops. Much like his musical career, RZA designed a five-year plan for the film. His vision was met with some skepticism from peers, colleagues and family members. Still, The Man With The Iron Fists is paramount to RZA’s artistry. “It was a natural progression of art and creativity that I wanted to express,” RZA says. “I wanted to take hip hop [and I think I’m doing it with this film] to another level.” The Man With The Iron Fists came into fruition with its share of sacrifices. RZA put his music career on hold briefly. The producer says his wife, who was the only person with knowledge of his blueprint, supported him throughout the entire process.

“My family had to be patient with me putting in the time with Quentin,” RZA adds. “A couple of New Years I didn’t spend at home. It took a lot of perseverance, patience, tolerance, will power and determination for me to do this. People enter the path, but few prepare themselves for the path. The most important thing is preparation.”

RZA hit the road with an intimate, 11-city promo tour. Hosting his Atlanta stop at Vinyl on Oct. 10, he performed his set with Wu-Tang cohort U-God. Along with composer Howard Drossin, RZA was able to secure soundtrack contributions from Kanye West, Corinne Bailey Rae, Wiz Khalifa, Kool G Rap, Talib Kweli, The Black Keys and the entire Wu-Tang Clan among others. “I’ve always been an artist that likes to share the energy, the wisdom and keep the culture going. Music is a part of that effort,” RZA says.

The Man With The Iron Fists might be RZA’s first major film project, but he reiterates that having goals comes with preparation. “Know before you do. Don’t do before you know. If you know before you do, the results are already understood. You already know the path.”

Christopher A. Daniel is a pop cultural critic and music editor for The Burton Wire. He is also a contributing writer for Urban Lux Magazine and Blues & Soul Magazine. Follow Christopher @Journalistorian on Twitter.

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RZA Releases “The Man With the Iron Fists”