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The politics of a quick three-pointer

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OK, dear readers and listeners, here are three quick, straightforward points: two new and one fleshed out more.

First, Claud Anderson, Ed.D., is coming back to Los Angeles on Saturday. The primary theme for his lecture will be, “An Emergency Call to Action: What Black America Must Know and Do to Thrive Versus Merely Survive. Get the Nuts and Bolts Necessary to Save Yourself and the Next Generation.” He will present from 9 a.m.- 1 p.m. at Crenshaw Christian Center, 7901 S. Vermont.

Anderson is an expert on reparations, a renow-ned author of serious books about Black folk and our lives in America, and he is the owner of one of the few successful fisheries in this country.

Also, for those who have heard about, and want to know more about the Black Indian struggle to stay within the Cherokee, Creek and Seminole tribes as a reparations issue, Saturday will be your time to get in good, informed questions and learn from a very accomplished Black spokesman for progress and moving forward (and not merely complaining about how bad things are). See you there.

Secondly, a few weeks ago, I wrote an article about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his need to recuse himself from the coming case on President Barack Obama’s new healthcare law. No, he has not yet done that, but in terms of updating OW readers, there is a growing chorus of U.S. congresspersons demanding an ethics probe into how this very smart man mysteriously failed to file papers that identified more than $1.6 million in income his wife received across 13 years (1997-2011) from the Heritage Foundation and other sources related to conservative politics. A letter signed by more than 75 congresspersons has already been sent to the House Judiciary Committee, calling for public hearings on the matter, along with allegations that Justice Thomas improperly accepted gifts and donations from wealthy conservatives with potential issues before the court.

Justice Thomas has said that he is currently amending his required disclosure forms for the last 21 years, because he did not understand how to properly fill them out. This is from a person entrusted with the most complicated legal issues of our times. But the problem for him in all this is that at least 73 congresspersons had signed a July letter previously authored by former Congressman Anthony Weiner requesting a legal investigation; then in late September, 19 other Democratic lawmakers again requested such an inquiry by the Justice Department on possible violations of the Federal Ethics in Government Act. Two congressmen have also recently introduced new legislation that would apply the current code of judicial ethics–not presently required for the Supreme Court but which other federal judges have to adhere to–to the Supreme Court itself.

Justice Thomas just may force a precedent-setting change in the way the Court does business and how it is scrutinized and monitored.

Additionally, two hugely influential public-interest, watchdog groups– Common Cause and Alliance for Justice–have also begun seriously advocating to the Judicial Conference, the government commission that monitors federal judges, that it request the Justice Department inquiry. Both groups provided the Conference with papers Justice Thomas had previously filled out properly, then had abruptly stopped doing so for the next 13 years as it related to his wife’s activities. The Conference has now instituted an internal investigation into the matter.

The end result of all this, as more momentum builds, will be Justice Thomas’ eventual recusal from the healthcare case, to save himself and the court profound embarrassment. It may go a lot further, but that should be a minimum consequence.

Thirdly, in a “we could have told you that” situation, the Pew Research firm, which does a lot of credible public polling, this week disclosed that the regular media has been blasting the president of the United States with negative reporting far more than it has any of the GOP hopefuls, whether they are seen as serious or lightweight candidates.

Based on reviewing more than 1,500 news stories from the last 23 weeks, Pew concluded that the negative reporting of President Obama was 4 to 1 (negative to positive), which gave him the lowest amount of positive coverage of any recent president and any current candidate for president. Both Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin, by contrast, had 3 to 2 ratios of negative to positive.

And to think that some of our most prominent Black folk are contributing to this negative feeding frenzy. My people, my people, when will we learn?

Professor David L. Horne is founder and executive director of PAPPEI, the Pan African Public Policy and Ethical Institute, which is a new 501(c)(3) pending community-based organization or non-governmental organization (NGO). It is the stepparent organization for the California Black Think Tank which still operates and which meets every fourth Friday.

DISCLAIMER: The beliefs and viewpoints expressed in opinion pieces, letters to the editor, by columnists and/or contributing writers are not necessarily those of OurWeekly.

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