Is Afro-Centrism relevant in a Post Obama America? Pt.1

Brothers Talking About Obama Part 2

Brothers Talking About Obama Part 1

And now, the super-duper-delegates

From the Pittsburgh Post Gazette

Some Democratic superdelegates have the power to create even more superdelegates

Friday, April 04, 2008

By Stephen Ohlemacher, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Some of those presidential superdelegates Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton are pursuing are more super than others.

One delegate, one vote doesn’t apply to them. These prominent Democrats can name additional superdelegates, giving them control over multiple convention votes, and that could be the difference in a race that may not be decided until the August convention.

The clout of the nearly 800 superdelegates is unprecedented in this year’s race because neither Obama nor Clinton can clinch the nomination with only the delegates won in state primaries and caucuses. Largely overlooked in the arcane process, though, is the power of a select few to complete the superdelegate ranks by naming 76 newbies, and Clinton and Obama are fighting hard over every one of those from state conventions to back rooms.

Separated by fewer than 140 delegates, both candidates are lobbying the hundreds of known superdelegates, employing family, friends and influential surrogates to woo the governors, lawmakers and other party leaders. Some are more important than others.

Consider Art Torres, chairman of the California Democratic Party. He remains uncommitted, yet he could be the most powerful superdelegate of all. Torres gets to name five additional superdelegates, giving him control over six votes at the national convention this summer.

“I am the super of supers!” Torres proclaims with a laugh.

He and other state party chairmen will appoint most of the additional 76, known in Democratic ranks as “unpledged add-ons.”

“They basically are gifts to the state party chairs,” Harold Ickes, a chief strategist for Clinton, said of the additional superdelegates.

The additional delegates represent a lot of votes in a race this tight, and neither Obama nor Clinton has really capitalized so far. Only 20 of the party’s 56 state and territory chairmen have endorsed a candidate, according to surveys of superdelegates by The Associated Press. Obama has 12 endorsements, Clinton eight.

The candidates also have split endorsements from Democratic governors, who often control state party matters. Both have 10 gubernatorial endorsements.

Superdelegates can vote for whomever they choose at the party’s convention this August in Denver, regardless of the results in primaries and caucuses. In all, there will be nearly 800 superdelegates, including the 76 extras.

Clinton has been leading in superdelegate endorsements since before the first primary, but Obama has gained ground in the past month and a half. The latest AP tally: Clinton, 250; Obama, 220. Obama has won more pledged delegates in primaries and caucuses, giving him the overall delegate lead, 1,634 to 1,500. Needed to win the nomination: 2,024.

The 76 “add-ons” are doled out to each state based on population and Democratic voting strength. Every state but Florida and Michigan, which were penalized for holding early primaries, gets at least one. California’s five are the most.

The extra delegates will be selected at state party conventions and committee meetings throughout the spring. In about half the states, including California, Georgia and Ohio, they must be chosen from lists compiled by the state party chairmen. If the chairmen list only one person for each slot, they effectively name the extra delegates.

In other states the additional delegates can be nominated from the floor of the convention or by simply applying, turning mundane state party gatherings into spirited debates about the presidential candidates.

Alabama’s extra delegate was decided by six votes on March 1, when Obama backer and labor leader Stewart Burkhalter was selected at a meeting of the state party’s executive committee. Burkhalter said he worked with the Obama campaign to get the nod.

In past years, states used their extra delegates to reward elected officials, donors or labor leaders, or to achieve racial balance in their delegations. This year, the battle for the extra delegates is one of many fronts in a historic fight for the Democratic nomination.

Aides to both campaigns say they are wading into local politics to try to make sure the new delegates are amenable to their candidate.

Some state party chairmen will consult governors or senators when making their choice; others will simply pick like-minded delegates.

That’s what Wyoming Democratic Chairman John Millin plans to do when he selects the state’s extra delegate in May. Millin, who has endorsed Obama, said he plans to choose another Obama supporter for the spot, though he hopes their votes are not decisive.

“The two votes that I get are frankly two more votes than I really want at the national convention,” Millin said. “The party as a whole needs to wrap this up soon after the primaries. I would like to see the decision made long before we get to Denver.”

In California, Torres has come up with a diplomatic way to select his five delegates. He said he plans to award them in proportion to the vote in California’s Democratic primary. Clinton received about 52 percent of the vote, so she gets three; Obama got 43 percent of the vote, so he gets two.

Torres said he will also use the slots to help meet the state’s affirmative action goals.

“I want to take a delegation to the convention that reflects the diversity of California,” Torres said.

Both campaigns lobbied Oklahoma Democratic Chairman Ivan Holmes before he picked the state’s extra delegate in February. It didn’t work.

Holmes, who hasn’t endorsed Clinton or Obama, said he selected another undecided superdelegate, the state party’s chief fundraiser, Reggie Whitten.

“I had all kinds of people wanting to do this, and Reggie never asked me,” Holmes said.

Holmes said he originally backed former Sen. John Edwards, believing he would do well in Oklahoma, perhaps providing coattails for local candidates. He said he has yet to see that trait in Obama or Clinton.

“Obama brings young people into the party that we haven’t had before, and Hillary brings in a lot of independent women,” Holmes said. “Unfortunately, the polls show that neither of them are going to win Oklahoma.”

For African American Brothers and Sisters

Prince Among Slaves: The Story of an African Muslim Ensalved in Mississippi 

Could your ancestors have been African Muslims enslaved in America as well?

AFRICAN MUSLIMS IN HAITI FATHER A REVOLUTION

                         

Haitian Flag

A reading from Sylvaine Diouf’s well recieved book, “Servants of Allah”: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas. Pg. 150-153.

The Muslim Factor in the Haitian Revolution

 

 

‘What the French did not realize was that their most profitable colony, Saint-Dominique (now Haiti), was fertile ground for Muslim maroons and rebels.  The island had always had numerous maroon communities, and an average of a thousand runaways were advertised every year.  The notices posted by the plantation owners, who listed the disappeared give a measure of the place of the Muslims among the maroons.  Although large numbers of Muslims had been forcibly baptized, some had retained their original names, such as Ayouba, Tamerlan, Aly, Soliman, Lamine, Thisiman, Yaya, Belaly, and Salomon who appear in the notices.  Female runaways, such as Fatme, Fatima, and Hayda, are also mentioned.

 The Africans fled individually and, more usually, in groups.  For instance, twelve Mandingo men, aged twenty-two to twenty-six, fled one night in 1783 from their owner’s house in Port-au-Prince.  They were all professionals—masons, carpenters, and bakers.

           

It is not known if some maroon communities were entirely composed of Muslims, but major communities had Muslim leaders. Yaya, also called Gillot, was a devastating presence in the parishes of Trou and Terrier Rouge, before he was executed in September 1787.  In Cul-de-Sac, an African Muslim named Halaou led a veritable army of thousands of maroons.

 

Part II

 

These Muslims were well known and feared, but the most famous of the pre-
Revolution maroon leaders was without a doubt Francois Macandal.  Macandal was a field hand, employed on a sugar plantation.  One day, as he was working the sugar mill, one of his hands got caught on the wheel and had to be severed.  As he could no longer cut the cane, he became a cattleman, later running away.  For eighteen years Macandal was at large, living in the mountains but making frequent incursions on the plantations to deliver death.  He organized a network of devoted followers and taught the slaves how to make poison, which they used against their owners or against other slaves in order to ruin the slaveholders.  His reputation was such that a French document of 1758 estimates—with much exaggeration, no doubt—the number of deaths he provoked at 6,000 over three years.  In eighteenth-century Saint-Domingue, poison was called macandal.

            An African born in “Guinea,” Francois Macandal was in all probability a Mandingo.  He came from an illustrious family and had been sold to the Europeans as a war captive.  He was a Muslim who “had instruction and possessed the Arabic language very well,” emphasized nineteenth-century Haitian historian Thomas Madiou, who gathered information through the veterans of the Haitian Revolution.  Macandal was most likely a marabout, for French official documents describe him as being able to predict the future and as having revelations.  He was also well known for his skills in amulet making—so much so that gris-gris were called macandals.  In addition, he was said to be a prophet, which indicates that he was perceived as having a direct connection to God.  Thus besides being a marabout he may have been a sharif, a descendant of the Prophet Muhammed (Peace Be Upon Him) ; but this is only speculation, as no evidence exists exists to confirm or inform this hypothesis.

Part III

Francois Macandal was much more than simply a maroon leader.  He had a long-term plan for the island and saw the maroons as the “center of an organized resistance of the blacks against the whites,” stressed an eighteenth-century French document.  He used practical symbolism to explain his vision for Saint-Domingue, Here are the first inhabitants of Saint -Domingue, they were yellow.  “Here are the present inhabitants”—and he showed the white handkerchief—“here, at last, are those who will remain the masters of the island; it is the black handkerchief.”

            To turn this prophecy into reality, Macandal planned to poison the wells of the city of Cap-Français.  Once the slaveholders were dead or in the middle of convulsions, the “old mand from the mountain,” as Macandal was sometimes called, followed by his captains and lieutenants, whould attack the city and kill the remaining whites.  Before he could launch his assault, however, a slave betrayed him and he was caught.  Tied up in a room with two guards, he somehow managed to escape.  If he had killed the men with the pistol that lay on a table between them, Macandal may have been able to remain at large.  But he had not.  The guards gave the alarm, and he was caught again, this time by dogs.

 

Part IV

 

On January 20, 1758, Macandal was burned at the stake.  The pole he was tied to collapsed, and the crowd saw this incident as a sign of his immortality.  He had told his followers that as he was put to death, he would turn into a fly and fly away.  The executioner asked to kill him with a sword as the coup de grâce, but his request was denied by the attorney general.  Macandal was tied to a plank and thrown into the fire again.

            The maroon leader Macandal can best be described as a marabout-warrior.  He used his occult knowledge and his charisma to gain allies to wage war against his enemy, and he participated in the action personally.

 

Part V

 

Another popular leader who attained quasi-mythical status in Haitian history was Boukman.  Very little is known about him.  He was not born in Saint-Domingue but came from Jamaica, smuggled by a British slaver.  As a slave, he became professional and rose to the rank of driver, later becoming a coachman.  Using a position that allowed him to travel from plantation to plantation, as well as his charismatic personality, he had built a network of followers in the north.  He definitely entered Haitian history when he galvanized a large assembly of slaves gathered on the night of August 14, 1791, in a clearing in the forest of Bois-Caiman.  During this voodoo ceremony, Boukman launched the general revolt of the slaves with a speech in Creole that has remained famous. He denounced the God of the whites, who asked for crime, whereas the God of the Slaves wanted only good.  “But this God who is so good, orders you to seek revenge,” he pounded.  “He will direct our arms, he will assist us.  Throw away the image of the God of the whites who is thirsty for our tears and listen to freedom which talks to our hearts.”

            A week later, two hundred sugar estates and eighteen hundred coffee plantations were destroyed by the slaves, who were said to have cut the throats of a thousand slaveholders.  At the beginning of November, Boukman was shot dead by an officer as he was fighting a detachment of the French army with a group of maroons.  His severed head was fixed on a pole and exposed on a public square in Cap-Français.

            There are indications that Boukman was a Muslim.  Coming from Jamaica, he had an English name that was rendered phonetically in French by Boukman or Boukmann; in English, however, it was Bookman.  Boukman was a “man of the book,” as the Muslims were referred to even in Africa—in Sierra Leone, for example, explained an English lieutenant, the Mandingo were “Prime Ministers” of every town, and they went “by the name bookman.”  It is likely that Boukman was a Jamaican Muslim who had a Koran, and that he got his nickname from this.

Part VI

As many Muslims had done, and would continue to do, he had climbed the echelons of the slaves’ power structure and had reached the top.  He was trusted, professional slave.  He was also at the top of the slaves’ hierarchy in another way: he was recognized as a priest.  He had passed down in history as a voodoo priest, but this does not mean that he was such.  Because the Muslim factor largely has been ignored, any religious leader of African origin in the Caribbean has been linked to voodoo or orbeah.

 

Part VII

 

There is thus compelling evidence that two major leaders in Haitian history—Macandal and Boukman—were not only Muslims, they did not embark on a jihad, but they were the leaders of the slave population, irrespective of religion.  What they provided was military expertise coupled with spiritual and occult assurance that the outcome of the fight would be positive.  Both skills were of extreme value, each in its own way; but put together, they conferred on these leaders the aura of mythical figures.  Because of their marabout knowledge they could galvanize the masses, push them to action and to surpass themselves.

            Other marabouts, and the Muslims in general, played a crucial role in the Haitian revolts and ultimately in the Haitian Revolution through their occult skills, literacy, and military traditions.  The marabouts provided protections to the insurgents in the form of gris-gris, as Colonel Malenfant recorded, and the Muslims used Arabic to communicate during uprisings.  Through their role and contribution have not been acknowledged, the Muslims were essential in the success of the Haitian Revolution’

P.S. War on Islam, war on Black people…do we see a nexus here?

27 ARRESTED IN MIAMI HAITIAN-AMERICAN HIGH SCHOOL BRAWL!

 

MIAMI EDISON PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL, LOCATED NEAR LITTLE HAITI, MIAMI HAS THE LARGEST PER CAPITA HAITIAN POPULATION OF STUDENTS IN ANY MIAMI DADE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL.

By CURT ANDERSON – Associated Press 2/29/08

MIAMI (AP) — A lunchtime protest at a high school erupted into a violent brawl on Friday, injuring seven police officers who responded and ending with the arrests of more than two dozen students.

The disturbance at Miami Edison Senior High School began with a protest over the arrest of another student a day earlier, said Detective Ed Torrens of the Miami-Dade Schools Police Department. There were claims the student had been handled roughly when he was arrested on charges of assaulting the assistant principal.

“We thought they were going to stage a walkout as a protest,” Torrens said. “It just mushroomed into students throwing chairs, throwing food, and that started a huge melee and fight.”

Twenty-seven students, both boys and girls, faced charges such as disorderly conduct, battery on police officers and resisting arrest with violence, Torrens said. All would likely be handled as juvenile cases, he said.

Dozens of police cars responded to the school north of downtown Miami, which has an enrollment of more than 1,100. Officers suffered injuries including a dislocated shoulder, a broken nose, a twisted ankle as well as cuts and bruises. None of the injuries was life-threatening.

No students or teachers were seriously injured, although at least two were taken to the hospital. Classes returned to normal and school was dismissed peacefully a few hours later.

Miami Edison recently celebrated its move from a designation of an “F” or failing to “D” based on Florida’s ranking of public schools. Last year only 10 percent of students met reading standards. Less than a third met state math standards.

P.S. WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND?

Video Clip of the kaos inside the school. WARNING: HARSH LANGUAGE USED 

IN HONOR OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH: THE SIEGE OF SAVANAH

During his visit in Haiti in March 31, 1995, Pres. Bill Clinton reminded the world that Haiti saved the U.S. Revolution when he said “History records back two centuries ago on the eve of your independence and during my nation’s Revolutionary war, more than 500 of your ancestors came from Haiti to my country and died in the fight to bring the United States to life.” Indeed, President Bill Clinton is right. Earl Caldwell of the Daily News wrote, “Attitude might be different, though, if Americans knew more of how history links the United States to Haiti (the first Black independent nation in the world).

In September 1779, when American troops were in full retreat at the hands of of the British in Savannah, Georgia, the U.S. army was saved by what was described as one of the most brilliant and bravest feats ever performed by foreign troops in the American cause. Haitians did that and these were freed black slaves fighting for a country that was to allow slavery for most of another century. …when the battle was over, instead of the Siege of Savannah, the battle became known as “The day Haiti saved the retreating Patriot army.” The U.S. owes a debt to Haiti. The Bush administration’s policy toward Haiti is as disastrous as Iraq’s.

Written by Smith Georges

Please visit http://www.RediscoverHaiti.com or http://www.ArtandFreeWorld.com

The picture quality is somewhat poor.

P.S. And the United States still harbors racism, at home and abroad.
 

VIVA OBAMA!

Who says latinos don’t like Obama?

SECURITY RELAXED AT OBAMA SPEECH IN DALLAS!!!

By JACK DOUGLAS Jr. Star-Telegram Staff Writer

STAR-TELEGRAM/RODGER MALLISON

Barack Obama speaks Wednesday at a Democratic rally in Dallas’ Reunion Arena. Police were told to stop screening people for weapons before the rally began.

DALLAS– Security details at Barack Obama’s rally Wednesday stopped screening people for weapons at the front gates more than an hour before the Democratic presidential candidate took the stage at Reunion Arena.

The order to put down the metal detectors and stop checking purses and laptop bags came as a surprise to several Dallas police officers who said they believed it was a lapse in security.

Dallas Deputy Police Chief T.W. Lawrence, head of the Police Department’s homeland security and special operations divisions, said the order — apparently made by the U.S. Secret Service — was meant to speed up the long lines outside and fill the arena’s vacant seats before Obama came on.

“Sure,” said Lawrence, when asked if he was concerned by the great number of people who had gotten into the building without being checked. But, he added, the turnout of more than 17,000 people seemed to be a “friendly crowd.”

The Secret Service did not return a call from the Star-Telegram seeking comment.

Doors opened to the public at 10 a.m., and for the first hour security officers scanned each person who came in and checked their belongings in a process that kept movement of the long lines at a crawl. Then, about 11 a.m., an order came down to allow the people in without being checked.

Several Dallas police officers said it worried them that the arena was packed with people who got in without even a cursory inspection.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because, they said, the order was made by federal officials who were in charge of security at the event.

“How can you not be concerned in this day and age,” said one policeman.

P.S. Wasn’t John F. Kennedy assassinated in Dallas?