Tuesday, January 17, 2012

THE VERTIGO OF SOLEDAD O’BRIEN

THE VERTIGO OF SOLEDAD O’BRIEN
The New Racism of the Left
By
GEOFFREY GRISWOLD FISHER
Tuesday, January 17, 2012

The old one-drop rule of the Jim Crow south has been dusted off and this time applied by the new left – if you think you have one drop of sub-Saharan African blood then brother, you’re black.

How else can you explain this statement from CNN’s Soledad O’Brien?

I'm on the phone with a confused reporter, and I'm confused too. She keeps asking me why I "count myself as black... And why does Barack Obama?" My answer (for Sen. Obama, at least) is "have you seen him?" But she won't let it go. "Is your father annoyed that you deny him?" My dad is white. I interject. "Let's conference him in," I say. "Listen, he married a black woman, he has six black children. He'd be the first person to tell you I'm black."
The questions, to me, reveal more about the asker. This reporter surely doesn't know a lot of black people, or she wouldn't be struggling so hard. She'd know black people come in all hues. 
O'Brien's parents married in 1958 in Washington, D.C. Her father Edward, an Australian (from Toowoomba, Queensland) of Irish descent, was a mechanical engineering professor. Her mother, Estella, who is Afro-Cuban, was a French and English teacher. O'Brien is the fifth of six children, who all graduated from Harvard University;

So what would make a Harvard educated child who is ¼ black or to put it more directly, ¾ white, chastise a female reporter for suggesting the obvious – namely, that Soledad is primarily European.  Remember that Cuba was conquered and settled by white Spanish Conquistadors.  Further, one look at Ms. O’Brien would hammer home the obvious, that she is an attractive woman of European descent with a mixture of other cultural traits.  What would make her deny the obvious?  A pandemic of Hypodescent Fever.

Now it appears that Ms. O’Brien is not faking it.  Obviously, Time Warner, the current owners of CNN have a similar mindset - they hired Soledad O’Brien to host of all things the CNN series Black in America.  Ms. O’Brien’s dismissive posture and righteousness on this topic seems Orwellian.  Indeed, her full name is María de la Soledad Teresa O'Brien.  Soledad and her husband Brad Raymond have four beautiful children – and it is important to remember that these children are American.  Only a severe case of Hypodescent Fever could lead any mother to decide that they are black – that is, to ignore there full heritage. 

Of course due to the pervasiveness of political correctness in the national media, no one at CNN or at the other cable news outlets have called her out on this point or even question the wisdom of having a predominately Caucasian woman hosting Black in America.  It is just like having an able body actor playing the role of a wheel-bound character – it only works with the willing suspension of disbelief.
  
THE NEW LEFT EMBRACES THE ONE DROP RULE
Soledad O’Brien might as well be the poster girl for the New Racism of the Left – namely, Hypodescent Fever.  But she’s not alone.  Consider the racists behavior of the Black Congressional Caucus (CBC).
White members of Congress have never been welcomed into the caucus, although CBC by-laws specifically prohibit any discrimination, (yet) when Mr. Cohen (Steve Cohen, white representative, D-Tn.) asked for admission, he got (this) answer. 
Rep. William Lacy Clay, Jr., D-Mo., responded on behalf of the CBC: He's (Cohen’s) white and the Caucus is black. It's time to move on.  We have racial policies to pursue and we are pursuing them, as Mr. Cohen has learned. It's an unwritten rule. It's understood.  Quite simply, Rep. Cohen will have to accept what the rest of the country will have to accept - there has been an unofficial Congressional White Caucus for over 200 years, and now it's our turn to say who can join 'the club.' He does not, and cannot, meet the membership criteria, unless he can change his skin color (or can prove one-drop of black blood.)  Primarily, we are concerned with the needs and concerns of the black population, and we will not allow white America to infringe on those objectives. Hearn, Josephine (January 23, 2007). "Black Caucus: Whites Not Allowed". Politico.com.
So let’s follow the logic: The Congressional Black Caucus is made up of black members of congress, okay – yet, there is a bylaw against racial discrimination in its make-up, and that bylaw is always ignored, even though the preponderance of the funding for this group is provided by non-black taxpayers.  The spokesman for the black only membership policy with the CBC is of course of mixed race – he is included in the CBC by the one-drop rule.  Even Mr. Orwell would be scratching his head.  That doesn’t matter to the new left ravaged by Hypodescent Fever.  Non Sequiturs are the norm rather than the exception.
So CNN is practicing a non sequitur when it trying to satisfy a diversity policy vis-à-vis race by hiring a Caucasian with 25% black heritage to host Black in America.  The most hate filled racist from 1910 Atlanta, Georgia (home of CNN today) would have shouted “bravo – one drop of black blood makes Soledad and her children black.”

Hypodescent Fever does allow us, however, greater insight into the history of race relations in this country.  Consider the controversy surrounding Sally Hemings vis-à-vis Thomas Jefferson, arguably the greatest founding father after George Washington.

So when we look into the eyes of Soledad O’Brien we’re looking into the eyes of Sally Hemings.  Both women in 1790 Virginia would have been considered slaves even though both were ¾ white.  The only difference is that Soledad O’Brien would have had her hand in the air saying, “That’s right, I’m black.”  The problem with that type of bluster becomes apparent during Miss Hemings’ time – Brad and Soledad’s children would have been sold into slavery, just like the freckled face, red headed children of Miss Hemings.  Octoroons were 7/8th white and 1/8th black and as slaves fetched the highest price at the slave auction, especially the girls for obvious reasons.

If Ms. O’Brien acknowledge her full racial heritage as a facet of who she is rather than picking one aspect of her racial background and making it her sole identify she might restore some balance to her life – that is eliminate her current racial vertigo.

The one-drop rule was wrong in 1910 Atlanta, Georgia and it is still wrong in 2012 America.  Listen to the following words from a man of God more than 43 years ago and you’ll feel the power of one of greatest national mottos: E Pluribus Unum – Out of Many, One.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

Delivered from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial
Washington, DC, Wednesday, August 28, 1963

Word Count: 1147

Saturday, January 14, 2012

GINGRICH'S BAIN FREEZE

GINGRICH’S BAIN FREEZE
THE FORMER SPEAKER’S VIDEO RANT IS RELEASED

Geoffrey G. Fisher
Saturday, January 14, 2012

Recently, a friend of mine from college emailed me the long awaited video, “When Mitt Romney Came to Town.”  I made a decision to watch all of it – all 28 minutes and 6 seconds of it. 

The film was disturbing, not because of substance of the script itself but rather because of the maniacal mind behind the film - Newton Leroy McPherson Gingrich.  This political “ad” is 56 times longer than conventional ads for one reason – to fully vent Mr. Gingrich’s anger for his poor showing in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Most republicans will find this video creepy because it represents everything they are not.  The themes include the rich versus the poor, and the nefarious Wall Street financiers versus regular Joes.  Issues such as labor negotiations are ignored as was the need of any company or venture to make a profit.  The film was melodramatic to the point of being cheesy.

Some will argue that Newt’s actions are prepping the campaign strategy for President Obama – they are correct.  But at the same time the former speaker is inoculating Mr. Romney with a mild pathogen - the antibodies should be ready for the general campaign against the president, David Axelrod and company.  Many Democrats wallow in the atmosphere of class warfare which is why the Occupy movement prospered so much during the warm months of the summer and the fall.  The tone of Newt’s video was set when the narrator states that Mitt Romney was set to take his well-heeled Harvard Education and go ravage middle class America.

Republicans and clear-thinking Democrats should react to his educational pedigree differently.  Mr. Romney was Valedictorian and commencement speaker at his BYU graduation; he then went on to Cambridge, Massachusetts to obtain both MBA and JD degrees from Harvard University.  Many of the left including the Gingrich fringe chide the former governor for looking like a president from central casting, with a beautiful wide and five strapping boys. 

Those attributes didn’t hurt John F. Kennedy with his contemporizes or with historians and it shouldn’t be seen as a liability.  Indeed, no one should hold Newt’s looks against him either even though he looks like he fell off the turnip truck, landing on his head as he was completing a lengthy sentence.  Would it be fair to say that Newt Gingrich looks like MAD magazine’s Alfred E. Neuman all grown up?  The answer is no.  To launch any type of attack against someone’s looks or good looks is simply wrong.
    
University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business economist Steven Kaplan has said "[Romney] came up with a model that was very successful and very innovative and that now everybody uses”.  All Romney did was to add partial ownership in a company to the customary consulting fees of a venture capitalist.  After 16 years at Bain Capital (1983-1999) and 22 years with Bain and Company (1977-1999) Mitt Romney had built an impressive career as a man who can get things done.  Governor Romney only enhanced this reputation with his stewardship of the 2002 Utah Winter Olympics. 

And yes, there were failures as noted in Newt's video tome, but there were many more success stories in the private sector.  Just look at a partial list of Mr. Romney’s accomplishments: Monsanto Company, Outboard Marine Corporation, Burlington Industries, Corning Incorporated, Staples Inc. Accuride, Brookstone, Domino's Pizza, Sealy Corporation, Sports Authority, and Artisan Entertainment.  I think it is safe to say that nearly every American has patronized on of these American companies.  It is also safe to say that Mr. Romney directly created more jobs than all of his Republican competitors combined.

Mr. Gingrich contents that Mr. Romney is a corporate raider bent on looting companies and in turn ruining small town America.  Steven N. Kaplan, an expert on the private equity industry, says that's "ridiculous." – NPR interview

"Looting a company and destroying a company does not create value," says Chicago’s Kaplan. "At the end of the day, in order to make money, you have to sell the company to somebody, and if the company ... has been looted and is unproductive, nobody is going to buy it."

According to NPR, “…Colin Blaydon, who heads the Tuck Center for Private Equity and Entrepreneurship at Dartmouth College, says sometimes boosting value can also mean cutting costs.

You might ask your employees to take lower pay. You may shift the jobs somewhere else. You may replace people with robots, he says.

In that case, the gains are not so widely shared…that while private equity's bare-knuckle cost-cutting may be painful, it's really what any good manager should do…(t)hat's what we want in our economy, if our economy is going to be more valuable and more competitive," he said.

Bain Capital's approach of applying consulting expertise to the companies it invested in became widely copied within the private equity industry.  Steven Kaplan still maintains that "[Romney] came up with a model that was very successful and very innovative and that now everybody uses”. – NPR interview

The larger issue that Mr. Gingrich’s video inadvertently raises is that of character.  It was Mr. Gingrich, not Mr. Romney who was charged with 84 ethics charges, including a $300,000 fine as Speaker of the House of Representatives.  More importantly, it was Speaker Gingrich and not Governor Romney who cheated on his first two wives, and is now married to his former mistress Callista Bisek.  This is Hubris not conservatism.

Speaker Gingrich is not suited to be president because of temperament and because of his lack of control in his personal life.  In essence, he has too many shared traits with another poor boy from the south, William Jefferson Clinton. 

Newt Gingrich does have a supple mind for public policy and navigating legislation though congress – he would make an excellent Chief of Staff or Legislative Policy Advisor to President Romney.
Word Count: 972

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

MRS. PELOSI’S ONE-NIGHT STAND

MRS. PELOSI’S ONE-NIGHT STAND

While millions of Americans stayed up late on Christmas Eve wrapping modest presents – parents everywhere were thinking of excuses of why Santa didn’t deliver the more expensive gifts that were requested. 

Top excuses included, “Emily, Santa could not hire as many elves this year so he had fewer workers.  Be thankful for what you got because many children will be getting even less.  As fathers took the hands of mother’s to saunter off to bed, thermostats across American went down another two degrees.  No one complained because these parents like most parents in our country count their blessings to be Americans. After all, a big beach towel can serve as a quick blanket. 

Five hours behind Eastern Standard Time is the Hawaii-Aleutian Time Zone.  As this loving couple starts up the stairs a giant jet plane lands on the tarmac of Kona International Airport.  Out steps Nancy Patricia D'Alesandro Pelosi, an Italian-American practicing Catholic.  As a former Speaker of the House of Representatives and the current Minority Leader she commands a police escort waiting for her and heads off to the Four Seasons Resort Hualalai at Historic Ka’upulehu in Kona on the island of Hawaii.

Mrs. Pelosi should not be blamed for the $34,000 police detail during her stay in Hawaii but she can and should be held responsible for choosing a hotel suite that cost a jaw-dropping $10,000 for one night.  Consider the following facts:
  1. A luxury room at the same hotel with an ocean view and a king-size bed cost $775 per night.  Why would any human being need to spend an extra $9,225 to sleep?
  2. Consider that Mrs. Pelosi could have donated the money of her one-night stand for 50 weeks of food for a family of four according to the USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion.
It is interesting that a woman who routinely excoriates wealthy Americans for not paying more taxes is allowed to squander $10,000 in an obscene fashion.  Well, Madame Speaker, in America we allow people the liberty to spend their own money as they please.  Liberty is such a treasured commodity that it allows hypocrites to harangue Americans in Washington D.C. while spending money like the Nouveau Riche in Hawaii.  It is unfortunate that with $58 million in net worth plus all the trappings of power, Mrs. Pelosi still acts like a peasant.

Madame Speaker, Americans do not hate the wealthy, despite the antics of the Occupy misfits, but they do appreciate understated elegance.  The road to rehabilitation Mrs. Pelosi is to tone down the self-serving class warfare rhetoric and try a Holiday Inn next time – we might all get a better night’s sleep.
         
WORD COUNT: 439