Thursday, February 28th, 2008

2G2K Circus :: Green Jobs + Hip-Hop

2G2K continues. Ferentz asks, “What if Obama suddenly starts preaching the gospel of ‘green jobs?'”

He has, actually, and I think this is potentially very much a winning hip-hop gen angle. Before Sharpton claims credit for this too, I wanted to point out that the idea came from hip-hop activists at the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights here in Oakland.

A few years ago, these veterans of the anti-Prop 21 campaign pushed through legislation in the city to launch the Oakland Green Job Corps program, a $250K pilot project that brings together urban youth employment and green jobs, fighting pollution and poverty at the same time. It’s a simple idea that could be scaled up and gain broad popularity.

The plan has gained lots of traction since, with the key support of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Hillary’s co-sponsorship of the bill–titled the Green Jobs Act–is undoubtedly one of the reasons the topic came up as part of Obama’s agenda on Tuesday night.

posted by @ 11:47 am | 0 Comments

Wednesday, February 27th, 2008

2G2K Circus :: Debate Fatigue, Farrakhan, And Where’s The Plan?

After work out of town, flu bugs, cable news stuff, and other stuff, Two Guys, Two Keyboards And A Circus is back! Ferentz sets it off talking Hillary-Barack’s 20th debate last night:

Last night’s debate was fairly collegial and was essentially a draw. Obama is playing keep away these days and will not engage in anything unless it’s going to deliver the knockout punch to Clinton. Clinton, at least during the exchange on the question about Farrakhan appears ready to concede. She injected herself into that question in a peculiar way by rehashing how she was attacked by republicans in New York for allegedly supporting Palestine. There were a number of ways she could have entered that dialogue with the intent of harming Obama, but she did not and I think this represents a new tone in their debates.

They both actually seemed tired of these debates and it is becoming more evident that this process is wearing on both of them. Afterwards the pundits discussed the moderators’ inability to elicit any new answers from either candidates, but why would either Obama or Clinton say something substantial?

I agree that there is a sense of exhaustion to the debates.

But I think the Farrakhan exchange was really interesting. Farai Chideya actually played some of The Minister’s speech on her show today, and Debra Dickerson made the substantive point that this may be more about Farrakhan trying to move towards redemption than about Obama being painted into the nationalist corner, a la Jesse ’84 and ’88.

I think many of my friends sympathetic to Minister Farrakhan were probably appalled last night at the exchange, and I can’t say I’d blame them. But I thought Barack’s point about rebuilding Black-Jewish relations was really refreshing to hear. When’s the last time a presidential candidate was, uh, candid about issues like that? Oh yeah, never. The ease with which Obama brushed off the exchange with Russert over Farrakhan and Reverend Jeremiah Wright indicates how much things have changed since the 80s.

Or have they?

Judging by Bill Cunningham’s performance the other day, we’ll be getting lots more of this on right-wing radio this summer and fall if Obama is the nominee. Those fools are all too eager to refight the culture wars even if Obama is running like Gnarls Barkley from that era in his life.

I’ve made this point before: he should just put them to rest–embrace his activist days and talk about how the nation and world are all the better because students fought against apartheid and for diversity.

You asked:

One last point for now, is it me, or has health-care become a democratic proxy for the economy? It’s amazing actually how much time Clinton and Obama spend referring to their health-care proposals, when in effect neither proposal can be launched if the economy is not somehow revived. Think about it this way, our current health care system all but means you need a job in order to have health coverage. If somewhere between 10 – 17,000 people a month are losing their jobs, fewer people are obviously going to have health coverage and the economy is not going to be able to afford to pay for them to be covered. Regardless of how much money we shift from spending on Iraq or how quickly we bring the troops back, neither plan will work under our current economic conditions.

I actually think health care is about the only place Hillary can claim a philosophical difference, even if it’s mainly masks procedural differences. (And these are policy objections that scan as obscure to the average voter.) That, and foreign policy “hypotheticals” as she puts it, are what the campaign perceives to be her comparative advantages over Obama.

Trouble is, if the two candidates essentially look the same, voters will tend to vote their aspirations. This is why Hillary’s women are still so committed to her. But Barack, though, has been more, what did Biden say, “articulate” in making a broader aspirational call.

Your main point–“Does anyone think that either of the three remaining candidates can oversee a economic renaissance?”–goes to the heart of this. What really is the economic agenda here?

posted by @ 1:48 pm | 1 Comment

Tuesday, February 26th, 2008

Joan Morgan Interviews Hillary Clinton on Vibe.com :: Clinton/Obama Dream Ticket?

Did we answer the wrong question on CNN? Here’s the great Joan Morgan interviewing Hillary Clinton on Vibe.com:

JOAN: Is there a chance Senator Clinton, that if you win the nomination that you will have Barack Obama on your ticket?

CLINTON: Of course there is. Of course there is. Now neither of us will answer this question [definitively] because we don’t want to look presumptuous and premature. But it is more than fair to say that—of course there is.

Lots more noteworthy stuff, including Hillary on African Americans and prisons, addressing young feminists, and more. A must-read.

posted by @ 3:55 pm | 2 Comments

Sunday, February 24th, 2008

Maths + English :: Your Boy CNNing

Hey fam, well the CNN thing has come and gone and what have we learned?

Time delays suck. I suck at looking where I’m sposed to look (the little smiley face above the camera thing). Lesson learned in kindergarten remains true: I suck at sitting still. And it all ends up looking so unpretty.

And I still suck at math, especially on TV.

So I was making some point about the real issue around John McCain is whether he supports corporate interests vs. the public interest (prompting “Right Wing” Mike from the Daily Standard to call me “boring”…ohhh man, if only!) and said it was something we’d all be looking at more closely over the next 5 months of this election. Mike corrected me, said 8. The actual answer is 8 and 1 week and 2 days.

Ah, so what. Still breaking stereotypes, I am!

Shout out to Jill “In The Middle” Zimon. They doubled us up this time so next time they should give us twice as long.

If anyone wants to send me a Youtube link of my date with infamy or a calculator, do that thing.

I’m no longer ridden with the flu, but I gotta head outta town for some work.

Back on Tuesday or Wednesday with more 2G2K and other hot sh*t…

Chuck/Flav 2012!

posted by @ 4:30 pm | 9 Comments

Sunday, February 24th, 2008

LA Times on Saving 1520

A piece from Louise Roug in today’s LAT on 1520 Sedgwick:

In August 1973, a hulking Jamaican American teenager named Clive Campbell started throwing back-to-school parties with his sister Cindy in their building, 1520 Sedgwick Ave.

Campbell, nicknamed Hercules because of his size, bought multiple copies of the same albums and, spinning his turntables, stitched together a new genre with a mix of music and break beats.

Soon teenagers were flocking to parties in the recreation room. Two-by-fours and metal crates served as chairs and tables, but no one was sitting down; the place was packed with dancing kids.

“It got a little out of control,” said Campbell, who became known as DJ Kool Herc. And so music and turntables moved from Sedgwick Avenue to the nearby Twilight Zone club, and hip-hop spread throughout the city.

“We weren’t doing [the parties] for money — it was just about music,” said Campbell, who is considered by many a founding father of hip-hop.

He sees the building on Sedgwick as a musical monument like Graceland or the Apollo Theater in Harlem. “This is part of the American dream,” Campbell said.

This summer, state officials declared the building the “birthplace of hip-hop,” making it eligible for national and state registers.

But for Pauline Beckham, 54, the battle to buy the building is not about preserving the past. She is fighting to save her home of eight years, a place where she has watched children hunt for Easter eggs in spring and attended barbecues in summer.

“I thought I had a safe environment,” Beckham said, referring to her modest two- bedroom apartment decorated with family pictures and ironwork above the kitchen door.

“Why are they taking the little bit we have?” she asked, despair creeping into her voice. “I didn’t think they could do that.”

Built almost 40 years ago, the building is covered by the state Mitchell-Lama program, which helps moderate-income families afford housing.

Last year the owner announced plans to sell the building to high-profile New York investor Mark Karasick and opt out of the rent-control program.

A representative for the building’s management company didn’t return calls for comment.

Tenants raised money online and from city agencies and other organizations — about $11 million with high-profile help from DJ Kool Herc, Rep. Jose E. Serrano (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), who have lobbied the city and the owner on the residents’ behalf. But the tenants need $14 million.

The city, which can overrule the sale, is expected to make a decision before the end of the month, according to Amy Chan, an organizer with Tenants and Neighbors, a statewide tenants’ rights organization that is working with the Sedgwick Avenue residents…

posted by @ 8:56 am | 1 Comment

Friday, February 22nd, 2008

2G2K Circus :: This Post Is Not Original

Hey fam, still dealing with the flu bug in the family here but I wanted to drop in to let you know two things: first is that the estimable Ferentz Lafargue is continuing to rock the 2G2K, so check out his blog to see what you’ve missed.

The other is to talk some about Hillary’s last stand last night. She knew she only had two cards to play–health care and the phony plagiarism charge–and the panel handed her another with Cuba. I think she got some jabs in with health care and Cuba, but these were not new points. It would seem by now that voters have made up their minds that Obama’s differences on health care don’t trouble them greatly (tho I still think Hillary has a more coherent case for her plan). On foreign policy, she outflanked him with something like a Diplomacy 101 tutorial, and he sounded a bit awkward in his response. But again, this doesn’t seem to trouble voters who have shifted to his camp.

(LATE MORNING ADD-ON :: Ned Sublette emails to say that clearly neither candidate has a coherent Latin American policy, judging by their incoherence on Cuba. That’s worrisome.)

On the rest of the points Obama either won, or they had virtually no differences at all. And in that instance, Obama won too. In this primary, voters aren’t voting against a candidate. (This is why the theories about Asian Americans and Latinos being unable to vote for an African American candidate have all been garbage…uh, Hawai’i going 76% for Obama, hello? And the inexorable shift of Latinos post-Super Tuesday to Hillary’s camp? Real deal, Holyfield.) No, voters are going aspirational. So if the two candidates are just about the same, they’re moving to the one who inspires them.

Which brings me to the last point: Hillary’s ridiculous plagiarism charges. Most folks, I think, are Gnarls Barkley on this: she could go on and on and on, but who cares? If she wants originality, she can check Dreams From My Father from the library. Or she could pledge to fire her own speechwriters and write all of her stumps by herself in a distant cave away from the talking masses.

But she shouldn’t even try to argue borrowing is a character flaw. Campaign speeches don’t need to come footnoted. Martin Luther King, Jr., has been forgiven his own plagiarism because the moment demanded “I Have A Dream”, whether or not the three words were arranged by Republican Archibald Carey. (In which case, I bet there was still some 18th-century child who woke up one morning and said, “Mummy, I have a dream.”)

In a democracy, the best ideas, by definition, must have multiple authors.

Just to get all writerly for a second? Writing is like dancing. You can only move your body in certain directions. That’s why we are enthralled by people who can do seemingly impossible things with theirs. And while they remind us that the body is capable of amazing and beautiful things, they also remind us it still has its limits and it is locked in time.

Language is the same. If Deval Patrick and Barack Obama had the same thought, it could be because that idea’s time has come. If Patrick’s way of expressing that idea inspired Obama and that in turn inspired us, well that’s how an idea becomes manifested in the world. What did those people fond of the internets used to call it back in the day? Oh, yeah. A virus.

Before I go back to being Mother Theresa and tending to the sick babies, I did want to say that I thought Hillary ended the evening very well. “Whatever happens to Senator Obama or I,” she said, placing a hand on Obama’s shoulder, “we’ll be fine.” It was a graceful way to close her last debate, to say goodbye to the 2008 Democratic primary.

posted by @ 7:29 am | 1 Comment

Wednesday, February 20th, 2008

Your Boy On CNN Sunday

Shoot, guess I really am sick.

Here’s the official PR thang from the good folks at Picador Books:

Jeff Chang will appear in CNN’s “Blog Buzz” segment this Sunday, February 24, at 6:30 PM EST live/3:30 PM PST. This weekly segment, hosted by Tony Harris, features two people, one from the Left and one from the Right, discussing the political issues currently being buzzed about online. The program is broken into two segments of approximately 2 and a half minutes each. For a sample, the Blog Buzz segment for January 13 can be viewed here.

Tune in. I’ll be talking about all the things I said I was too diseased to talk about in the last post. At least whatever fits into 5 minutes. And don’t worry, I’ll dress nice.

posted by @ 3:55 pm | 0 Comments

Wednesday, February 20th, 2008

I’m Sick!

Hey fam, I’m sick. No metaphor there. I’m just sick. After a great weekend in Ithaca–thank you ECAASU, Thu, Blue Scholars and Brian, D-Lo, NAASCONers, my family–the Lins–out there, and everyone for the warm hospitality in the cold cold weather–I’m flat on my back fighting off the flu bug I’d managed to buck the whole winter.

So while I have mad stuff I want to say regarding Plagiarism-gate, McCain, Michelle, the seemingly inexorable shift of Latinos to Obama, whether Obama has an Asian problem (answer: nope), my homestate of Hawai’i going 3-1 for Obama–uh, who was saying that Latinos and Asian Americans won’t vote for an African American?–and a whole bunch of other stuff, I’ma catch some sleep and get back into fighting condition first.

In the meantime, go Ramielle!

posted by @ 10:16 am | 0 Comments

Tuesday, February 12th, 2008

LBTV, Part 2 :: My So-Called Writing Career

Hey fam, I’m going underground to prep then head to Ithaca for the ECAASU conference. Please come holla if you’re in the area code.

In the meantime, Ferentz will be continuing 2G2K Circus.

And for you, here’s Part 2 from Lyrics Born TV shot by the indomitable JB. I’m conjuring breakdowns and yapping about stuff from SoleSides and KDVS up through the writing of CSWS.

Don’t forget, LB’s new album Everywhere At Once drops in 68 days. In the meantime, you can cop The Lyrics Born Variety Show Part 3 now via download or CD.

Enjoy…

posted by @ 1:25 pm | 0 Comments

Tuesday, February 12th, 2008

2G2K Circus :: The Evolution Of Obama’s "Post-Racial" Politics + Mad Linkage

Ferentz has a great post comparing Hillary to Mitt and a ton of great links here and here.

I wanted to add this one: Ginger Thompson, Jeff Zeleny, and Kitty Bennett doing some really great reporting for the NY Times on Obama and his staff’s internal wrangling over the place of race in the campaign. They show Obama’s evolving sense of what it means to be “post-racial”.

Thompson begins with an early strategy meeting, in which Obama lays out his philosophy in five words:

Halfway into the session, Broderick Johnson, a Washington lawyer and informal adviser to Mr. Obama, spoke up. “What about race?” he asked.

Mr. Obama’s dismissal was swift and unequivocal.

He had been able to navigate racial politics in Illinois, Mr. Obama told the group, and was confident he could do so across the nation. “I believe America is ready,” one aide recalled him saying.

The race issue got all of five minutes at that meeting, setting what Mr. Obama and his advisers hoped would be the tone of a campaign they were determined not to define by the color of his skin.

Obama has shown a desire to box away his experiences as a student activist during the 80s. In his autobiography, he has been dismissive of his days in the anti-apartheid, pro-multiculturalism, pro-affirmative action battles at Occidental, Columbia, and Harvard. He regards his experiences in Chicago’s Southside, which he still cites as the transformative period of his life, as certainly more authentic. Yet his language–drawing freely from Gandhi and Chavez–suggests he has a more conflicted relationship to his student activism years than he is ready to admit.

Was he so eager to suppress the memory of that era’s campus culture wars (over multicultural curriculum, affirmative action, hate speech, etc.) that he had embraced too naive a view of how to articulate an approach to race in his campaign?

Staff divisions didn’t help. Early on, high-ranking white advisors deliberately steered him away from African American audiences.

Instead of following a plotted course, Mr. Obama’s campaign has zigged and zagged, reacting to outside forces and internal differences between the predominantly white team of top advisers and the mostly black tier of aides.

The dynamic began the first day of Mr. Obama’s presidential bid, when white advisers encouraged him to withdraw an invitation to his pastor, whose Afro-centric sermons have been construed as antiwhite, to deliver the invocation at the official campaign kickoff. Then, when his candidacy was met by a wave of African-American suspicion, the senator’s black aides pulled in prominent black scholars, business leaders and elected officials as advisers.

Aides to Mr. Obama, who asked not to be identified because the campaign would not authorize them to speak to the press, said he stayed away from a civil rights demonstration and did not publicize visits to black churches when he was struggling to win over white voters in Iowa.

Remember this Cornel West rant on the weekend Obama announced his candidacy? Black aides struggled to rectify this mistake. Thompson later describes how Obama took care of the snub of Reverend Jeremiah Wright and the Covenant With Black America. (West is now prObama.)

(In an aside, Rev. Al Sharpton takes credit for Jena 6, not only inviting comparison of himself to Martin Luther King Jr. and Obama to LBJ, but entirely rewriting the history of the protest. It was actually called by Color of Change and organized by hundreds of thousands of young activists working in an entirely decentralized manner on the web and in the schools.)

Obama’s Black advisors pushed to make Michelle Obama central to the campaign.

“It took Barack a while to agree,” said Charles J. Ogletree Jr., a Harvard professor who is part of the black advisory group. “But we told him she had to be the one to confront the myths and fears of black voters.

“Here was a black woman, a mother, who grew up poor, learned to sleep without heat and rose above that to get an Ivy League education,” Professor Ogletree added. “But she was also the kind of woman who would take her shoes off because her feet hurt. She was real from the moment she stepped on stage.”

In other words, Obama’s Black advisors told him, forget the “color-blind” pitch. Michelle embodied the idea that no one could escape history, that a “post-racial” politics still needed to account for racial solidarity and to directly address the desires and needs of racially oppressed communities. She delivered big-time in South Carolina, the turning point for Obama in the African American electorate.

But, in no small part because of their denial of the realities of race, Obama and his campaign still had to play catchup against the Clinton campaign with Latino leaders and communities.

The campaign’s strategy in the first contests left Mr. Obama vulnerable with Latinos, which hurt him in California and could do the same in the Texas primary on March 4.

Faulted by Latino leaders as not being visible enough in their communities and not understanding what issues resonated with immigrants, the campaign has been trying hard to catch up, scheduling more face-to-face meetings with voters, snaring endorsements from Latino politicians and fine-tuning his message.

The campaign claims it has learned from California, and his Latino field director says Obama will apply to Texas the same kind of attention it has lavished on Iowa and South Carolina.

Mr. Obama’s national field director, Cuauhtemoc Figueroa, vowed that Mr. Obama’s effort in Texas would be different.

“You are going to see Senator Obama campaign the way he did in Iowa,” Mr. Figueroa said. “We’re going to take him to little communities so that he’s not only going to touch voters with his words, he’s going to be able to reach out and physically touch them.”

One revealing quote should raise worries. Here’s his top advisor, David Axelrod, who seems to suggest that the campaign still views even African Americans more as emergent–useful for votes and campaign donations–than insurgent–needing to be considered carefully in agenda discussions.

“He believes you can have the support of the black community, appealing to the pride they feel in his candidacy, and still win support among whites,” Mr. Axelrod said.

Do “post-racial” politics merely mean a new way of marginalizing a racial justice agenda?

posted by @ 7:56 am | 0 Comments



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