Political Poop '08

Jesse Jackson has done an exclusive interview with Essence. Let’s see what he has to say.

ESSENCE.COM: Many younger African-Americans have been complaining that the old guard civil rights leaders focus too much on African-Americans as victims rather than moving the race forward. What do you think about this point of view?

JACKSON: This “old guard, new guard” is an unhealthy division. Politics must be inter-generational. You need Barack on the one hand to talk, you need Charlie Rangel, chair of House Ways & Means [Committee], and John Conyers, chair of our House Judiciary [Committee]. In politics you grow by adding and multiplying, not by subtracting and dividing. So “old guard vs. new guard” is not a healthy combination. The reality is that we achieved the right to vote, we achieved freedom, but we didn’t achieve equality, and that is the remaining civil rights work.

ESSENCE.COM: The rapper Nas and writer Kevin Powell, who is running for Congress in Brooklyn, have said that you particularly, and other civil rights leaders, are no longer relevant and need to step aside. How do you remain relevant to this newer generation?

JACKSON: The reality is that if you’re running for Congress, you need the votes of senior citizens. You need the votes of churches. You are not getting in Congress on a youth vote. That’s not the mass that you need to win a congressional seat. You need an intergenerational, multicultural coalition. And that experience cannot be thrown away. In Dr. King’s time, Dr. King was 34, but he reached out to A. Philip Randolph. It took both A. Philip Randolph and Dr. King in tandem to make the March on Washington take place.

ESSENCE.COM: We’ve seen you champion African-American issues and fight against injustice. Many people simply want to know, when you mentioned the N-word in your off-air remarks about Obama last month—why? They want you to tell them, as an African-American, why did that happen?

JACKSON: It should not have happened. What was private talk became public controversy, and I am embarrassed by that. There is no virtue in that kind of talk, and it should always be discouraged. My appeal even then was that responsibility is a significant message, but our needs require real government intervention and private sector incentives to address the issues of unemployment, building affordable housing and making education more affordable, which really was my point. It was a very painful period for me to have gone through that. The good news is that it’s behind us now.

ESSENCE.COM: Have you talked to Obama about it?

JACKSON: Yes. As a matter of fact, he sent me a welcome to the convention and made credentials available to me. We’ve gone on to the next stage.

ESSENCE.COM: As Senator Obama moves forward in the campaign, do you have any words of advice for him?

JACKSON: I think we have an outstanding candidate. We have the burden now to fully register and vote. There are still maybe 6 to 8 million Blacks unregistered who should not miss this hour, this opportunity. Now that we have a who, let’s focus on the what. What is an urban policy that can begin a renewed commitment to educate our children and to employ adults and provide public health care? These are the issues he has embraced. We have a candidate who has a good grasp of the issues that matter. But the burden is upon us now to maximize registration and output. Read the Rest...

Want more Manifesto? Check me out at Today.com and Wordpress.com.

Political Poop '08

I’m sure most of you have heard about Jesse Jackson expressing his Opinion about Barack Obama on Fox News. Apparently he thought that the cameras weren’t rolling when he said that he wanted to “cut Obama’s nuts off”. I personally think that the video is hilarious. The only thing that would have made it better would be if he rhymed it.

You can check out the video above.


In Other Obama Pooloza…

An impromptu interview that Barack and his family did with Access Hollywood is coming under fire by critics. Maria Menounos was covering a birthday party for Obama’s oldest daughter Malia, who turned 10 this past Fourth of July holiday. It was the first time either Malia, or Sasha, 7, had spoken to the media.

Menounos said:

“….It was not something that they had told us was going to happen in any kind of way. We showed up that day. And they said, you know what, the girls really love The Jonas Brothers, and they`re kind of intrigued at the fact that we`re going to be doing this interview, they may want to say something at the end about The Jonas Brothers.

“And I said, hey, anything from the girls will be great, you know, wonderful. And the senator and his wife sat down, they were right next to each other, and all of the sudden after their miked and we`re about to go, the girls pop in.

“And Sasha sits in between. She like wedges her way in. And the senator goes, you look like you figured out where you want to sit….. So it just kind of happened. And I know that they may have discussed the possibility of it behind the scenes before, but it was not something that was intentional. When I first met the girls, they were very sweet but very shy and quiet.

On Wednesday CBS’ Russ Mitchell asked Obama if we’ll be seeing more of the girls and Barack said no.

“We had a unique situation in Montana where it was Malia’s birthday, and all of us, I think, got caught up in the festivities. And so they had a chance to be their adorable selves on TV, but generally we’ve been very protective of them. And, you know, in retrospect, I think if you’d asked me, we probably wouldn’t have done it then, and we wouldn’t do it again.” Source

I don’t really see the harm in it. The girls are so damn adorable that I think seeing their cute faces more will only help his campaign.
Check out the video below: