urban pro weekly, november 8, 2012
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The CSRA 's free weekly - featuring entertainment, arts, news, sports, and political commentary.TRANSCRIPT
NEWS • COMMENTARY ARTS ENTERTAINMENT
Newspaper
The CSRA’s
FREEWEEKLYUrban WeeklyPro
NOVEMBER 8-14, 2012
VOL.2 NO.10
ELECTION 2012 SPECIAL EDITION
It’s Obama, again
Roundtree becomes firstblack sheriff in Augusta
Bill Fennoy, Matt Aitken to face off in runoff election
HISTORY IN THE MAKING POWER SHIFT IN 1ST DISTRICT RACE?
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Continued on page 10
It’s Obama!
PublisherBen Hasan
706-394-9411
Managing EditorFrederick Benjamin Sr.
706-836-2018
UrbanProWeekly LLC
Mailing Address:3529 Monte Carlo DriveAugusta, Georgia 30906
Urban WeeklyPro Sales & MarketingPhone: 706-394-9411
New Media ConsultantDirector of Photography
Vincent Hobbs
email:Ben Hasan
Frederick Benjamin [email protected]
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By John NicholsThe NATION
It wasn’t even close. That’s the unexpected result of the November 6 election. And President Obama and his supporters must wrap their heads around this new reality — just as their Republican rivals are going to have to adjust to it.
After a very long, very hard cam-paign that began the night of the 2010 “Republican wave” election, a campaign defined by unprecedent-ed spending and take-no-prisoners debate strategies, Barack Obama was reelected president. And he did so with an ease that allowed him to claim what even his supporters dared not imagine until a little after 11 p.m. on the night of his last elec-tion: a credible, national win.
“We’re not as divided as our poli-tics suggest,” Obama told the crowd at his victory party in Chicago.
And he was on to something.Despite a brief delay by Republican
challenger Mitt Romney, and the commentators on Fox News, Obama claimed his victory on election night not the next day, as Richard Nixon did in 1960, or even later, as George Bush in 2000.
And it was a real victory.Obama did not have to deal with
the challenge of an Electoral College win combined with a popular-vote loss — as even some of his most ardent supporters feared might be the case..
By the time Romney conceded at 1 a.m., Obama had a 250,000 popular-vote lead, and it grew to roughly two million by dawn.
He was on track to win a major-ity of states and more than 300 Electoral Votes – at least 303 and, with the right result in Florida, 332.
Obama’s win was at least the equal of John Kennedy’s in 1960 (303 electoral votes), bigger than Richard Nixon’s in 1968 (303 electoral votes), bigger than Jimmy Carter’s in 1976 (297 electoral votes), bigger than George W. Bush’s in 2000 (271 elec-toral votes and a popular vote loss).
And, significantly, bigger than George W. Bush in 2004, when
Obama’s predecessor won just 286 electoral votes, and faced serious challenges to the result in the state that put him across the 270 line: Ohio.
Never mind, Bush claimed a broad mandate.
“When you win, there is… a feel-ing that the people have spoken and embraced your point of view,” Bush said. “And that’s what I intend to tell Congress, that I made it clear what I intend to do as the president; now let’s work.”
Bush told reporters: “I earned cap-ital in this campaign, political capi-tal, and now I intend to spend it. It is my style.”
When Bush tried to spend his capital “reforming” Social Security, he failed. Obama would be wise to avoid making the same mistake.
Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid do not need to be “reformed.”
They need to be strengthened and expanded.
The president could spend some of his capital on that project.
But he ought not stop there.As he embarks upon the sec-
ond term that not all presidents are given, Obama would do well to take the counsel of National Nurses United executive direector Rose Ann DeMoro, who said after the election,
”The President and Congress should stand with the people who elected them and reject any cuts in Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid, strengthen Medicare by expanding it to cover everyone, and insist that Wall Street begin to repay our nation for the damage it caused our econo-my with a small tax on Wall Street speculation, the Robin Hood tax.”
That reference to the Robin Hood tax is worthy of note.
President Obama ought to get seri-ous, in his second term, about find-ing the revenues to pay for the strengthening and expanding of nec-
Obama’s win was at least the equal of John Kennedy’s in 1960 (303 electoral votes), bigger than Richard Nixon’s in 1968 (303 electoral votes),
bigger than Jimmy Carter’s in 1976 (297 electoral votes), bigger than George W. Bush’s in 2000 (271 electoral votes and a popular vote loss).
U.S. President Barack Obama walks on stage with first lady Michelle Obama and daughters Sasha and Malia to deliver his victory speech on election night at McCormick Place November 6, 2012 in Chicago, Illinois. Obama won reelection against Republican candidate, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. Win McNamee/Getty Images
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Roundtree Victorious!
Ernest SmithHarry JamesKellie Kenner McIntyre Ashley Wright Marion Barnes
more winners . . .
Harry James (D) 48,307 65%Carleton Vaughn (R) 25,712 35%
Kellie McIntyre (D) 47,889 64%Chuck Evans (R) 26,419 36%
Ashley Wright (R) 77,491 55%Evita A. Paschall (D) 63,623 45%
Earnest Smith (D) 12,161 66% David Hopper (R) 6,404 34%
SOLICITOR GENERAL DISTRICT ATTORNEY SCHOOL BOARD DIST. 8 PROBATE JUDGE STATE HOUSE DIST. 125
Marion Barnes 6,195 76%Lucien Williams 2,000 24%
AUGUSTAAugustans made it official on Tuesday, Nov. 6,
2012. They elected the county’s first black sheriff in history. Former Richmond County Sheriff’s deputy Richard Roundtree successfully countered the heavily financed candidacies of Democrat Scott Peebles and Republican Freddie Sanders to win the powerful sheriff’s post. Despite the opposition from the established business community, the Augusta Chronicle editorial pages and former sheriff Ronnie
Strength, Roundtree won by a landslide with 63 per-cent of the ballots cast (49,389 to 28,395).
Supported by a record turnout of African American voters who were eager to re-elect President Barack Obama and boosted by a large field of successful African-American office seekers, Roundtree’s victory returned the sheriff’s office to real Democrats.
The Roundtree campaign effort was characterized by a strong get-out-the-vote effort and a promise to make the police department more diverse and
responsive to the needs of the community. He promised to enact a community policing agenda and to modernize the police department.
The Roundtree victory served to energize those in the community who realized that the status quo was not good enough. It also brought to the fore the duplicity of some local politicians to were Democrats in name only. The Roundtree campaign turned back a well organized Republican “raid” of the Democrat primary designed elect Scott Peebles.
Freddie Sanders (L) congratulates Sheriff-elect Richard Roundtree (R) after conceding the Sheriff’s race earlier in the evening. Photo by Vincent Hobbsou
Roundtree will become county’s first black sheriff
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U.S. House - District 12Barrow defeats Anderson
Matt Aitken Bill Fennoy
Commission District 1Deja vu Aitken vs. Fennoy in Dec. 5 runoffMatt Aitken 3,310 40%Bill Fennoy 2,491 30%Denice Traina 1,293 16%Stanley Hawes 1,235 15%
John Barrow (Dem / Inc.) 138,195 54% Lee Anderson (Rep) 118,936 46%
Harold Jones Marion Williams
Commission District 9
Williams defeats JonesMarion Williams 18,662 55% Harold Jones 15,072 45%
Election 2012 . . .
Donnie Smith
Mary Davis
Commission District 3
Davis beats EnochMary Davis 6,530 66%Ed Enoch 2,390 24%Cleveland O’Steen 981 10%
Commission District 7Smith defeats Echols
Donnie Smith 5,361 55%Kenneth Echols 4,329 45%
Board of
Education
District 8
Atkins defeats Cheek
Jimmy Atkins 5,136 62%Robert Cheek 3,127 38%
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Congressman Scott Barrow celebrates after his victory over opponent Lee Anderson during an election recep-tion at the Partridge Inn. Photo by Catherine Balducci/Special to UPW
SIGNS O’ THE TIME: A campaign worker holds a sign on Druid Park Avenue near Paine College. Photo by Vincent Hobbs
Charter School AmendmentGeorgians vote Yes on charter school measure that bypasses local control
YES - 42,089 NO - 33,532
On Tuesday, the state’s voters said yes to Amendment One — which will change the Georgia constitution to make sure the state can approve charter schools and establish a commission to consider applications for them.
Passage of the amendment is a huge boost to charter school proponents, who hail the schools as an alternative for parents whose children attend traditional public schools that are struggling.
The campaign drew millions in out-of-state money from big-money donors who saw the ballot question as a proxy for the broader question of whether parents should
have more choice.Opponents of the amendment had argued
that changing the state’s constitution was a drastic and unnecessary move. They noted that local school boards can already approve charter school applications. And if those applications are rejected by local boards, applicants can turn to the state Board of Education.
Adding a commission to serve as a third authorizer of charter schools is a waste of taxpayer resources that dilutes the authority of local boards, the amendment opponents argued.
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(Above) Sheriff-elect Richard Roundtree (R) is overcome with emotion as he greets a supporter after winning the Sheriff’s race. Photo by Vincent Hobbs
ROUNDTREE COUNTY
Nov. 6, 2012The fall chill, the long lines,
the agony & the ecstasy
of voting day in Augusta.
Sheriff elect Richard Roundtree collected nearly 50,000 votes to defeat his Republican rival. Photo by Vincent Hobbs
7UrbanProW
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Richmond County Board of Election members review voting documents at Election Headquarters. Photo by Vincent Hobbs
Marion Williams campaigns on MLK Boulevard near Olive Road with a group of supporters on Tuesday afternoon. Williams was the winner of the Augusta Commission, Super District 9. Photo by Vincent Hobbs
HARVESTING VOTES
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Paine Professor selected as keynote speaker at International conference
I would like to express my gratitude to each of you for the opportunity to serve as your School Board Trustee for Richmond County School Board District 5. I believe that I have been called to carry on the tradition for such a time as this! Because I believe in transparency, I will continue to be visible in the schools and community. To keep you informed, I will continue with the Quarterly Information Breakfast. You can count on me to be your voice on the Board!
National NEWS
By Amy Lieberman
NEW YORKThe last bus from Brooklyn rolled
into the Belle Harbor neighborhood of the Rockaways, Queens, on Friday evening just before 6 p.m., as darkness slipped quickly over the beach-town streets, obscuring curbside piles of discarded furniture and electronics.
No lights powered on inside the modest one and two-story houses, as they haven’t for the past five nights, since Hurricane Sandy – a post-trop-ical cyclone with 80 mile-per-hour winds – struck this small peninsula and the greater New York City area and New Jersey on Monday, knocking out power for 3.5 million homes and businesses.
When the bus stopped, the 11 pas-sengers scuttled out and set off for home, without lingering on the nor-mally commercial street. Residents describe the Rockaways as a family friendly place, with certain pockets of rough neighborhoods.
But some people say Sandy’s after-effect of darkness is making the area more dangerous, resulting in loot-ing and at-home robberies, despite an increased police presence.
“I saw this guy stealing televisions from a nursing home right on the boardwalk on Tuesday, and the work-ers were chasing him up the street,” said Ben Cooper, who lives in Belle Harbor. “Every time I saw him he had a different TV.”
Mr. Cooper and a few friends stood talking on his house’s porch. It was about 7:45 p.m. and they were the only people around. The ocean breeze was getting colder and stronger. He held his flashlight and looked out onto the street, which was still covered with sand.
“There’s no lights, there’s no cam-eras, there’s no alarms, there’s no nothing. It’s kind of scary, you know?” he said.
His neighbor, Talentin Gutierez showed a reporter a borrowed gen-erator, worth about $2,000. His was robbed the other day. Tonight, he will sleep in his car – wrecked from water damage – to guard the generator.
An hour later, a New York City Police Department officer looked on as four National Guards unloaded cases of bottled water and ready-to-eat emer-gency food packs outside a recently launched community center half a block away.
Looting and robberies have been up across all of New York City since Sandy hit, said the officer.
In Far Rockaway Peninsula, 15 peo-ple were charged with looting busi-nesses on Wednesday. Reported arrests in Manhattan, Coney Island, Brooklyn, and Staten Island for looting at busi-nesses like supermarkets and sneaker stores totaled 20 last week.
An NYPD spokesperson said in a phone interview that a team is cur-rently investigating how the blackout for swaths of the city has impacted
Hurricane Sandy’s darker side: Looting and other crime
Residents say the Rockaways section of the Queens in New York City is a family friendly place. But Hurricane Sandy has brought looting and robberies, despite an increased police presence.
looting and robbery rates in New York City.
In New Jersey, the Monmouth County prosecutor was quoted as saying that police made 25 arrests for burglaries and looting incidents. But Governor Chris Christie has said that there is no evidence of widespread looting in the state.
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9UrbanProW
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Harold V. Jones IIATTORNEY AT LAW
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AUGUSTAPaine College Associate Professor
of Chemistry, Dr. C.R. Nair, has been selected to serve as the open-ing conference keynote speaker at the International Global Biofuels & Bioproducts Summit 2012. The confer-ence begins on November 19, 2012 in San Antonio, Tx.
Dr. Nair will speak in regards to the theme of the conference “ D i s c o v e r i n g the Abilities of Microoganisms in Bioproduction and Bioremediation for a Safer Environment.”
The topic of his keynote address at Opening Day, is “Algae Based Biofuel: A Myth or a Reality”. The esteemed Professor will also lead a presenta-tion on his research on microbial bioremediation of hexavalent chro-mium.
The organizing committee for the Bioproducts 2012 conference stated Dr. Nair’s presence will, “add value to our conference as well as our Scientific Community.”
Dr. Nair believes having a presence at the conference will be an excel-lent opportunity for Paine College
to showcase and share the exper-tise and interest in metal-microbial interactions. “With an international audience, this will strengthen Paine College’s research base to newer heights in combating environmental pollution,” Dr. Nair stated.
About Dr. C. R. NairNair is the Director of Environmental
Science Programs/Associate Professor of Chemistry and is the Project Leader of Bioremediation Research supported by the Department of Energy at Paine College. He earned his Ph.D. in 1970 from the University of Allahabad, India, and did post-doctoral research at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tn. Nair also served as Research Professor of the LSU School of Medicine, located in New Orleans, La.
The professor is a licensed High Complexity Laboratory Director. Nair has been honored as a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemists, Fellow of the National Academy of Clinical Biochemistry, Fellow of the American College of Nutrition, and a host of other accolades. He has over 45 research publications in peer reviewed journals, held several senior positions, and served in vari-ous capacities in academia and indus-try for the past three decades.
Paine Professor selected as keynote speaker at International conference
Dr. C.R. Nair
AUGUSTA BRANCH NAACP President Dr. Charles Smith receives the Augusta City Classic Legacy Award from President and CEO Henry Ingram on Oct. 25, 2012. The Legacy Award honoree has demonstrated outstanding dedication and contributions to the community as well as life accomplishments. Dr. Smith is a 19 year Charter Member of the Augusta City Classic Board of Directors.
PEOPLE & organizations making a difference
Veterans Nursing Home will host Veterans Day Ceremony The Georgia War Veterans Nursing
Home will host its annual Veterans Day ceremony at 9 a.m. Monday, Nov. 12 in the courtyard. Maj. Gen. LaWarren V. Patterson, Commanding General of the U.S. Army Signal Center of Excellence at Fort Gordon, will be the guest speaker.
The ceremony will also feature
Fort Gordon’s U.S. Army Signal Corps Band and as well as the Butler High School Drill Team.
The Georgia War Veterans Nursing Home, operated through an inter-agency agreement between Georgia Health Sciences University and the Georgia Department of Veterans Service, is located at 1101 15th St.
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I would like to express my gratitude to each of you for the opportunity to serve as your School Board Trustee for Richmond County School Board District 5. I believe that I have been called to carry on the tradition for such a time as this! Because I believe in transparency, I will continue to be visible in the schools and community. To keep you informed, I will continue with the Quarterly Information Breakfast. You can count on me to be your voice on the Board!
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2 Urban WeeklyPro Commentary
OBAMA WINS from page 2
GUEST COMMENTARY
Wake Up Augusta! The Lions are Coming
Thank you for your vote of confidence in returning me to the Georgia General Assembly for a sixth term. Your support of my service is humbling and very much appreciated.
My terms as your State Representative have been a journey of legislative victories and some incomplete guests-but always a labor of love and respect for my constituency. As I begin my eleventh year in the Georgia House of Representatives, I look forward to your continued input for House District 127 and our never diminishing aspiration for our cities, counties and state.
I appreciate your faith in my representation and with God’s help, look forward to the 2013 legislative ses-sion. We will continue to keep you informed and up-dated and look forward to receiving your input as we move Richmond and Jefferson Counties forward.
Thank you for your prayers and support.
Yours for a better Georgia,
State Representative, House District 127
Stay In Touch With State Representative Quincy Murphy
404-656-0265 or 706-790-4600 [email protected] www.RepQuincyMurphy.com
Paid for by Rep. Quincy Murphy 3238 Peach Orchard Road | Augusta, GA 30906
essary programs: ideally by taxing the wealthy as they were in the days of America’s greatest eco-nomic expansion, and also by imposing that ”Robin Hood Tax” on financial transactions.
But Obama’s first task should be to fix the bro-ken political system that imposes so many burdens on America democracy.
In his victory speech, Obama referenced the long lines in which Americans waited to vote for him and declared: ”By the way, we need to fix that.”
That’s good. The need of democratic renewal is great after an unneces-sarily crude political cam-paign that was, as Obama acknowledged, frequently ”small… and silly.”
The place to begin is with a project he mentioned just before the Democratic National Convention: amending the constitution to overturn the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. ”Over the longer
term, I think we need to seriously consider mobiliz-ing a constitutional amend-ment process to overturn Citizens United (assuming the Supreme Court doesn’t revisit it),” the president wrote, in response to a question about the court decision to allow corpora-tions to spend as freely as they choose to influ-ence elections. ”Even if the amendment process falls short, it can shine a spot-light of the super PAC phe-nomenon and help apply pressure for change.”
Seeking to amend the constitution to reform our election system is an ambi-tious endeavor, especially for a president who has just beaten the combined power of Karl Rove and his billionaire boys club.
But it is a necessary endeavor.
And a president who has been comfortably reelect-ed ought not think small. He should ”spend his capi-tal” on projects worthy of the trust Americans have afforded him.
Race baiting and the Party of LincolnBy Charles J. Reid Jr.
“Like a dog returning to its vomit, is a fool who repeats his folly.” (Proverbs 26: 11).
John Sununu reminded me of this Bible verse with his bloviations about Colin Powell’s endorsement of President Obama. Sununu imagined that the only possible reason General Powell had for endorsing the President was racial solidarity. Breezily, conde-scendingly, Sununu surmised: “Well, I think when you have somebody of your own race that you’re proud of being president of the United States, I applaud Colin for standing with him.” (See Jonathan Capehart, “John Sununu: Race-Baiting Buffoon,” the Washington Post, October 26, 2012).
At how many levels is this patroniz-ing? Did Sununu, this former Bush aide who resigned from office for abuse of power (using a government limousine to travel from Washington, D.C. to New York City to attend a stamp col-lectors’ convention), have to address General Powell as “Colin?” Could not Sununu have thought there might be better reasons for a man of General Powell’s experience and background to endorse a president who successful-ly concluded the Iraq War and brought Osama bin Laden to richly-deserved justice?
The Republican Party was not always filled with race-baiting fools. Indeed, there was a time, a hundred years ago,
when it lived up to the title it has since lost all moral claim to use — “the Party of Lincoln.” For, truly, 1912 was the high point of race relations within the Grand Old Party. In that year, 6.5 per-cent of the delegates to the Republican Party Convention were African American. (David A. Bositis, Blacks and the 2012 Republican National Convention, p. 17). This was an aston-ishing number at a time when that hideous system of apartheid known as Jim Crow still locked the South in its foul embrace. In contrast, only 2.1 percent of delegates to the 2012 GOP Convention were African American.
From the 1910s to the 1950s, African Americans supported the Republican Party in significant numbers. In 1952 and 1956, Dwight Eisenhower received an estimated 35 percent of the African-American vote. (Georgia Anne Parsons, Race and Democracy in the Americas (2003), p. 220). Even Richard Nixon, in 1960, attracted roughly 30 percent of the African American vote. (Theodore Rueter, The Politics of Race: African-Americans and the Political System (1995), p. 17).
What happened? Why do African Americans now vote Democratic in numbers in excess of 90 percent? There are many reasons, of course, but a central explanation is the climate of hostility towards African Americans that has been an unpleasant feature of contemporary conservative politics since 1964. For it was in that year that Barry Goldwater, one of the few non-
Southern senators to vote against the 1964 Civil Rights Act, made his infa-mous play for the support of segrega-tionist whites.
The Goldwater campaign intro-duced something new and profoundly unsettling into Republican Party poli-tics — race-baiting. A perusal of back issues of the National Review — the unofficial voice of Goldwaterism — from the summer and fall of 1964 reveals just how ugly this race-bait-ing became. In the June 2nd issue, the National Review used the tenth anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education to denounce that decision for ignoring established precedent (Plessy v. Ferguson) and for ground-ing its opinion “more on sociology than law.” (“The Brown Decade.”) On August 25, it attacked “the anar-chistic Dr. King.” (“The Week.”) Also on August 25, it warned that the civil-rights movement had been infil-trated by “Communists of both the Moscow and the Maoist ultra variet-ies.” (“Equality Is a Two-Way Street.”) On June 30, the magazine celebrated Nelson Mandela’s life-sentence: “You would think the court had just fin-ished barbecuing St. Joan to hear the howls from the Liberal Press,” the National Review mocked Mandela in an article entitled “Oh, Shut Up.” The culmination of this months-long campaign of race-incitement came on October 6, when the National Review welcomed Strom Thurmond’s move to the Republican Party. This, the editors
exalted, would lead to an exodus of whites from the Democratic Party and help move the South permanently into the GOP column.
If the National Review’s summer of hate mostly consisted of affluent kids dipping their toes into gutter politics, Richard Nixon knew how to play the game for keeps. In 1968, he implemented a deliberately-craft-ed politics of racial division known as the “Southern Strategy.” His great ambition was to unite white northern ethnics and white southerners in a single political movement based on perceived racial grievance.
From this dishonorable birth have sprung modern Republican campaigns of race incitement. Racism depends for its success on the use of stereotypes and archetypes. And Republicans have known how to use them all too well. Consider the notorious Willie Horton commercial -- the mugshot, glower-ing from the television screen, used to depict Michael Dukakis as soft on crime. Or the Jesse Helms television spot — the white hands, crumpling the rejection letter, as the announcer intones how you needed that job, how it should have been yours, had it not been for affirmative action.
The Republican Party of 2012 con-tinues to dive deep in the sewer of racial politics. The whole “birther” controversy, the manufactured cam-paign to delegitimize President
Obama’s claim to office by suggesting that he was born in Kenya is one manifestation of this ugliness. The Drudge Report’s continued low-level gutter-sniping is yet another. From red-lettered headlines about Somalis being bused to the polls, to African American women talking about the cellphones President Obama is hand-ing out on campaign stops), these stories are mostly untrue but intended to bestir the racist vote to the polls.
Regrettably, Mitt Romney has not really dis-
REPUBLICANS from page 10
Continued on next page
11UrbanProW
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Quick Way Flower Shop
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After more than a 50 year absence, Paine college officials recently announced that it will field a football team come 2014. Athletic director Tim Duncan said the football program will boost the economy and increase student enrollment. The Lions will compete in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (Division II). Le Moyne-Owen and Paine are the only SIAC schools without football programs. Despite Paine’s financial troubles, the news of reviving the football program,gives a shot of encouragement and promise to the Paine College community and the Garden City. Where else could a true college football fan savor the taste of tailgating, comradery, and the spirit of competition without having to leave Augusta?
Well folks, football will be in our own backyard. Will the community support it? I’m confident that it will thrive with the same enthusiasm and candor that is shown at the annual CSRA Classic. It will take commitment and resources for Paine to build a competitive program,but this challenge can be met and also serves as a good recruiting tool to attract students. The new multi-million dollar Health Education Activities Learning Complex has come to
fruition. That alone,is enough to be excited about. Augusta is slowly becoming a sports town. I can’t believe it. What took so long?
I can only imagine how the late legendary high school football coach David Dupree would have felt about the return of the pigskin rivalries in our community on the college level. Augusta-Richmond County school board member Marion Barnes played for Paine in the early 1950’s. Paine’s last football game was in 1962,with an 8-0 over Livingstone College. It would be fitting to renew that rivalry.
Augusta could host its own version of the Bayou Classic,one of the biggest rivalries in Black College Football that is played out in the Superdome in New Orleans every Thanksgiving weekend. Augusta State University can boast about its success with their men’s basket-ball and golf programs,but Paine has shown perserverence through struggle and adversity. Restoring the football program at Paine is like a dream deferred and a blessing delivered.
Come on, Livingstone College, Benedict
College, and Shaw University! We’ll be ready for you come showtime. Strap Up!
By Thurman K. Brown
GUEST COMMENTARY
Wake Up Augusta! The Lions are Coming
Obama’s claim to office by suggesting that he was born in Kenya is one manifestation of this ugliness. The Drudge Report’s continued low-level gutter-sniping is yet another. From red-lettered headlines about Somalis being bused to the polls, to African American women talking about the cellphones President Obama is hand-ing out on campaign stops), these stories are mostly untrue but intended to bestir the racist vote to the polls.
Regrettably, Mitt Romney has not really dis-
tanced himself from this filth, and indeed dab-bles in it himself (credentialing the infamous birther-conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi to fly on his campaign plane, inveighing, falsely, against President Obama’s roll-back of welfare reform).
The vomit of racism still finds a place in Republican Party politics. It is sad to watch John Sununu -- twenty years ago, a younger Sununu might have known better. But it is even sadder to watch the rest of Lincoln’s old party sink in the mire.
REPUBLICANS from page 10
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