centermovement.org

Fox News Poll: Little Confidence Obama Can Fix Economy Or That McCain Would Have Done Better

Guest Bloggers — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 00:49:00 +0000

Fox News Poll: Obama Job Approval Improves to 46 Percent

Guest Bloggers — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 00:44:00 +0000

Fox News Poll: Americans See Value in U.S. Iraq Involvement

Guest Bloggers — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 00:28:00 +0000

Employers Hire More Workers Than Expected

Guest Bloggers — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 22:19:00 +0000

ALAN KEYES OP-ED: Planned Parenthood’s Moral Insanity

Guest Bloggers — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 22:08:00 +0000

The conservative activist takes issue with Planned Parenthood's response to a Texas pro-life campaign that highlights that blacks disproportionately get abortions: "What especially provoked my interest was criticism of the project from a Planned Parenthood spokeswoman quoted in the report. 'This is about trying to interfere with women making private personal decisions and unfortunately and really shockingly, this group has decided to use racism as a wedge issue,' Rochelle Tafolla said. 'We think that is just reprehensible....' So its [sic] reprehensible to focus an individual’s attention on the impact her individual action has on her community. Could there be a more perfect illustration of Planned Parenthood’s moral insanity?"

More: "In the past, many Black Americans preferred to prepare and eat dishes that led to a disproportionately high incidence of disease and death in the Black community. All kinds of civic and fraternal organizations in the black community sought to focus attention on this fact. Was this reprehensible? But Planned Parenthood thinks it reprehensible to encourage black women in Texas to think about the genocidal impact of the decision to procure the murder of their nascent offspring. Though their spokeswoman points the accusation of racism at the black Americans seeking to encourage this awareness, the stink of real racism hangs about Planned Parenthood’s sly efforts to prevent blacks from wrestling with the communally self-destructive impact of their abortion decisions. Passionately working to keep individuals from realizing that what they do destroys their community surely raises the suspicion that the aim is to destroy their community."

To comment on ""Planned Parenthood's Moral Insanity" post, click here.

Tip of the Iceberg

Guest Bloggers — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 21:32:00 +0000

I feel like, of all the various repulsive things Glenn Beck has said, focusing on whether he actually held George Washington's inaugural address is kind of small potatoes.

To Put More Blacks In Tennis Pipeline, Own The Pipeline

Guest Bloggers — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 21:31:00 +0000

Angela Haynes, U.S. pro player

From The New York Times: "Richard Williams is one of the most intriguing figures in sports, and the story of how his daughters [Venus and Serena Williams] became the defining presence in women’s tennis continues to be the greatest story in contemporary American sports. Increasingly, the question has been raised: Why after all these years hasn’t another African-American tennis star been identified and developed? Tennis has had well-documented difficulties in establishing and maintaining an African-American presence in its championship pipeline. Critics point out that the cost of the journey is exorbitant. But Richard Williams said the problem went beyond money. 'You can only be good if you have a system behind you and not ahead of you, blocking you from getting there,' he said. 'Institutions that could help blacks refuse. I think they drive blacks away from tennis.'"

The article discusses the need for tennis academies that target African-American youth: "He said there would not be a significant black presence in tennis until African-Americans build and run their own tennis academies. His solution is self-sufficiency. His vision is to buy 100 acres in a centrally located area, perhaps Texas, and build a tennis academy that would also house a resort and a school. 'You have to establish your own,' Williams said, referring to a black tennis academy. 'If you can’t establish your own, this system has shown you that it is not going to accept you in their house. If I had black people who wanted to work with me and we independently could set up something, we could create black tennis players. Other than that it’ll never happen.'"

Scoville Jenkins, U.S. pro player

More: "The United States Tennis Association would probably disagree. It would point to the number of its programs aimed at increasing diversity. But the history speaks for itself: the championship gap between Althea Gibson’s last title in a major in 1958 and the Williams sisters is enormous, and there hasn’t been a male African-American Grand Slam champion since Arthur Ashe in 1975. Clearly there needs to be another model. African-Americans have been playing tennis since the last part of the 19th century, not long after the modern game originated. They had their own clubs and their own champions — Gibson most famously. These clubs were a response to a legacy of racism — African-Americans being denied access to exclusive clubs, tournaments and training. Today large numbers of affluent African-Americans belong to predominantly white country clubs, but the vast majority of African-Americans do not. Some families can afford to give their children the lessons, camps, clubs and tournaments necessary to travel on the tennis conveyor belt. But the vast majority cannot. But beyond money, Williams points out that the tennis environment — what he calls the system — has not been welcoming to African-Americans. He uses his experiences with his daughters as Exhibit A."

The New York Times article continues about blacks in the tennis world: "Perhaps, it was suggested, Williams suffered from being a pioneer, and the next black star will have an easier time. Williams doesn’t think so. The resistance is deeply rooted, he said. 'When they tried to pick on me and Venus and Serena, they weren’t picking at them, in all reality,' Williams said. 'They were picking at other blacks, saying, ‘This is what’s going to happen to you if you come here, so keep your butts away.’ They aren’t doing this to hurt us, they do it to discourage little black girls and black boys so they won’t take over tennis like they did football and basketball and baseball.' There is an abundance of talent throughout the United States just waiting to be developed. Their families may not have hundreds of thousands of dollars to invest in the process, but Richard Williams demonstrated that you don’t need hundreds of thousands of dollars."

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The Song Remains the Same

Guest Bloggers — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 20:37:52 +0000

Here’s what others are saying:

Some thoughts on those angry voters. Ask parents of any two-year-old and they can tell you about those temper tantrums: the stomping feet, the rolling eyes, the screaming. It’s clear that the anger controls the child and not the other way around. It’s the job of the parent to teach the child to control the anger and channel it in a positive way. Imagine a nation full of uncontrolled two-year-old rage. The voters had a temper tantrum last week….Parenting and governing don’t have to be dirty words: the nation can’t be run by an angry two-year-old.

Actually, that was Peter Jennings in 1994.

Hankster Summer Friday: Live-blogging Friday Afternoon, September 3, 2010 — Let’s Get Philosophical!

Guest Bloggers — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 20:11:00 +0000

Last Early Friday of the season.... sorry to see it go.

Here's some of what I'm thinking about this afternoon:

Was the Sixties a more giving time? [SEE BELOW FOR THE VID] Maybe. But more urgent -- how can we develop given the times and conditions and culture we live in? Thinking of taking my own advice... which is that if we are to move forward as a nation, as a people, as a species (and we are ever closer to extinction according the the experts as well as the common sensibility of every day life here on earth....) we need to develop.

Can the Age of Philosophy give way to the Age of Life as Lived or more accurately living?

What are you thinking about on this Friday afternoon before Labor Day holiday (in the US circa 2010...)

4:18pm: This just in from the Upper East Side of Manhattan -- a common NYC scene (thanks Marian)

4:47pm: and now this from Celeste Katz at the NY Daily News -- Big endorsement day for Gustavo Rivera, the man who hopes to unseat incumbent state Sen. Pedro Espada, Jr. in the Sept. 14 primary: He got The Daily News, The Rev. Al Sharpton and Assemblyman Chuck Lavine.

6:28 pm -- ok this just in from twitter #followfriday #FF: @keder @PragmaticCenter@CentristZealot @riseofthecenter @NancyHanks @erikkain@poliblogger @PoliticalMath
about 3 hours ago via web from The Pajama Pundit which has just garnered the latest Now THAT's Good Bloggin' award succeeding TheIndyExpress, an important new and becoming independent voice in the independent political blogosphere.

Ok last word -- NY has a brand new bag for voting.... Check in for information on how this new fangled thang works!

G'nite!
NH

Blacks, Young Voters Not Poised for High Turnout on Nov. 2

Guest Bloggers — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 18:15:00 +0000