Lawmakers that pushed for the legislation hailed it as key to saving thousands of jobs in the state. Detroit Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, chair of the 43-member Congressional Black Caucus, played a major role in passage of the legislation. What many will call “corporate welfare” enables General Motors, Ford and Chrysler to get at least $5 billion each. This allows them to borrow money at interest rates as low as 4 percent. Over several years, the automakers could save hundreds of millions in financing costs. The car companies will have five years before they start repaying the loans.

Black Americans hold 13 percent of auto industry jobs and have significant interest in the Detroit 3’s survival. With approval of the low-interest loans, the U.S. auto industry won help it urgently needs to rework its vehicles. The plan was in the Congressional queue months before the Wall Street bailout came to the fore. But the loans are one of several government aids – from research funds to consumer tax credits – automakers will increasingly rely on to build technology they need to survive. The automakers first sought an installment of loans totaling about $6 billion, but the nationwide credit crunch crimped their ability to borrow. The $25 billion is just a down payment, automakers will seek another $25 billion next year to retool old assembly lines and develop advanced, fuel-efficient technology.

The idea behind the loans is to buy time while the Detroit 3 revamp their lineups, develop new hybrids and other fuel-sippers, and convert old SUV plants into factories turning out cars able to compete with comparable Japanese models. Consumers reeling from $4 gas have fled the big trucks and SUVs the manufacturers milked for two decades, and Detroit’s smaller cars tend to rate poorly compared with competitors. The domestics’ U.S. market share is now about 48 percent, a staggering fall of nearly 20 points since the start of the decade. GM and Ford are expected to produce about 1.3 million fewer cars this year than in 2007. Even cheap loans will do little to help erase years of red ink and it’s going to take some time to make a dent in their debt load.

Blacks have a stake in the trillion-dollar automotive industry, and many jobs are at jeopardy if the Detroit 3 stay in the doldrums. But, as taxpayers it’s time to consider what “a billion” actually means: Counting non-stop, one number a second, it would take almost 32 years to count to 1 billion. A billion here and a billion there and soon it adds up to real money that has to be repaid. But the reality is that automakers face a life-threatening crisis if the U.S. car market doesn’t rebound. General Motors reported a second-quarter loss of $15.5 billion and Ford Motor reported an $8.7 billion loss. GM and Ford could start to run out of cash by the second half of 2009. Chrysler’s sales are down even more than Ford and GM.

Vehicle purchases are the second-largest purchase most black families make. Import and domestic dealers, in total, have annual new car and truck sales of about $480 billion. Annual new and used car and truck sales in the US amount to a near-trillion dollar business. Minorities accounted for 22 percent of the US new-car market, but just 5 percent of dealerships.

African American should hope the loan infusion doesn’t just produce more of the same for them in the automotive marketplace. Due to discrimination, black buyers have to spend more than other groups at the time of their purchase of vehicles. On top of their taxpayer burden to the industry, blacks shouldn’t have to pay higher loans rates than whites on 60 to 72 month contracts after they’ve paid an average price of $30,000 for a new car or truck.

By William Reed, September 28, 2008

(William Reed – www.BlackPressInternational.com)

African American political icon, 76-year-old Charles Bernard Rangel is in hot water regarding his Chairmanship of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee of Ways and Means. Harlem’s Congressman heads the 110th Congress’ chief tax-writing committee. The U.S. Constitution requires that all bills regarding taxation originate in the House of Representatives, and House procedure is that all bills regarding taxation must go through Rangel’s committee. The 19-term Congressman is accused of slovenliness regarding his person financial and tax filings and real estate deals and under pressure to vacate his high position.

“Charlie” Rangel was born in New York City on June 11, 1930 and has been a Democratic member of Congress representing New York’s 15th Congressional District since 1971. Even though his district is the smallest in the country in geographic size, Harlem’s Congressman is one of Congress’ most senior and legendary Members. He became chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee in January 2007 and is the first African-American to chair the committee.

The emperor has no clothes. Rangel was an original founder of the Congressional Black Caucus, but instead of gaining standing as a paragon of African Americans’ political empowerment, his political chicanery has been more of an embarrassment. The man who heads the nation’s tax policies admits to a string of errors on his federal tax returns and congressional discourse forms that possibly go back 20 years. Rangel is being forced to re-do his state and local returns and has hired forensic accounting experts to “conduct a thorough, independent review” of his statements for the last 20 years.

The author of “And I Haven’t Had a Bad Since: From the Streets of Harlem to the Halls of Congress,” may have to give up his chairmanship due to “bad days” of ineptitude the House Ethics Committee may dredge up examining Rangel’s records. His transgressions include failure to report ownership of a Florida condo, and assessing the value of his Caribbean rental home at $250,000 one year and $40,000 another – and not reporting it at all in a third tax year. More galling is his four rent-stabilized apartments in Harlem and apparent failure to report income from the sale of a home he owned in the District of Columbia. In the face of Harlem residents seeking affordable housing, Rangel rents four apartments in the Lenox Towers, three of which he uses as a residence and the other as a campaign office. Because the units are rent-stabilized, Rangel’s monthly payments are well below market rates.

But, if you thought Rangel was irresponsible regarding his accounting practices, the antic that has Washington bureaucrats hopping mad involves his “vintage” Mercedes Benz. Reminiscent of rube neighbors that leave junk cars on blocks in front yards, Rangel used a House of Representatives parking garage for years as a free storage space for his old Benz – in direct violation of congressional rules. The 1972 silver sedan was parked in a coveted section of an indoor lot near elevators that led to his office. Before it was towed, the car sat covered with a protective tarp and no license plates. Records show Rangel’s registration on the vehicle expired in 2004.

In spite of his missteps, since his chairmanship Rangel has been one of the Democrats’ top fundraisers. Due to his position, Rangel is flooded with contributions from lobbyists and political action committees. Rangel regularly raises millions for the party, but says that corporate entities seeking his attention should “support policies that help mostly African-American and Hispanic constituencies” in inner-cities.

That’s big talk on his part, but the question of the moment is: “Should someone that ethically obtuse continue to sit as chairman of Ways and Means?” Should blacks blindly support Rangel to hold his chairmanship, or hold him to a high standard of performance? Friendly fellow that he is, Rangel’s antics, whether simply through slovenliness, neglect, or both, should be brought to an end.

By William Reed, September 21, 2208

(William Reed – www.BlackPressInternational.com)

Under Col. Muammar Gaddafi’s prolonged and persistent pressure for justice, Libya became the first African country to receive apologies and compensation from a former colonial power. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi recently apologized to the North African country for damage Italy inflicted during 40 years of colonial rule and signed an agreement to pay $5 billion as compensation to resolve colonial-era disputes.

Libya’s leader said the settlement opened the door to partnership between the two states. Long a pariah among Western powers, Gaddafi called the treaty “historic” and that it “marked the defeat of colonialism”. Gaddafi said “Tyranny has a price which must be borne by the perpetrators,” while Mr. Berlusconi said the deal ended “40 years of misunderstanding”.

Italy was a minor player in European whites’ “Manifest Destiny” of domination over lesser races to shape the world in their image. During their Colonization Period European nations extended their sovereignty over territories beyond their borders by establishment of either settler or exploitation colonies during which indigenous populations were directly ruled, displaced, or exterminated. For almost a century European countries engaged in systems of direct political, economic, and cultural intervention and hegemony over weaker, and almost always non-white, nations. Italy invaded Libya in 1911. It also invaded Ethiopia and occupied Eritrea and Somalia.

When Italy invaded the North African country that borders the Mediterranean, much of the European thinking was that colonialism was legal. Rome and Tripoli Rome have spent years arguing over compensation for the colonial period. But, Gaddafi doggedly pursued reparations and labeled colonialism as “crimes recognized in international law”.

Although the Italian Reparations have numerous self-serving tenets, African leaders are pondering: “Will the move set a precedent?” And, “Whether other former colonial masters will pay reparations for the civil wrongs and human rights abuses they visited on former ‘subjects’”?

Until Italian confession and penance, former colonial powers had refused to acknowledge the legal and moral basis for reparations for genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, human rights abuses and other international injustices they committed in Africa. Mr. Berlusconi told Libyan journalists that the $5 billion compensation was a “material and emotional recognition of the mistakes” that Italy had made during colonialism. But, many said say that the deal has much more to do with Italy’s concern about oil and immigrants.

Mr. Berlusconi said he’d pay $200 million for infrastructure projects over the next 25 years, including a coastal highway across Libya from Tunisia to Egypt – to be built by Italian contractors. There will also be a colonial-era mine clearing project. Italy also returned an ancient statue of Venus, the headless “Venus of Cyrene”, taken to Rome during colonial times.

Italy has been swamped by thousands of African migrants trying to reach its shores by boat and Berlusconi wants Gaddafi to crack down on African migrants and Italy is to pay for $500 million of electronic monitors along Libya’s coast as part of the compensation package.

“In this historic document, Italy apologizes for killing, destruction and repression Libyans during the colonial rule,” Col Gaddafi said. Gaddafi has pushed for the United States of Africa for years. Libya is a North African country that borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north and lies between Egypt to the east and Sudan to the southeast, the former Ottoman territory is an area of almost 700,000 square miles, 90 percent of which is desert. Libya is the fourth largest country in Africa by area, and the 17th largest in the world. Oil was discovered in 1958 and has transformed its economy. The capital, Tripoli, is home to 1.7 million of Libya’s 5.7 million people.

Now that Libya has been compensated by its former colonial master, who will follow suit? France, a major ex-colonial force in Africa, downplayed the treaty as “strictly an arrangement between Italy and Libya to enhance relations between Libya and the international community, including European”.

Proper restitutions will begin when all Europeans acknowledge they benefited from colonialism and that it was a crime against humanity whose consequences are still with us.

By William Reed, September 8, 2008

(William Reed – www.BlackPressInternational.com)

Black Americans’ most successful period in business occurred during Reconstruction and the Jim Crow Era when segregation provided a market for transportation, goods via retail outlets and professional services for celebrations, construction, financial services, funerals and media to promote them all.

To help defuse racial enmity, in 1972 President Richard Nixon called for a mixture of Government loans, tax incentives, private business aid and self-help to bring more blacks into classic American capitalism: ownership of businesses. Under the conviction that broad-based ownership of businesses by blacks was essential to national progress, Richard Nixon declared that blacks had “a basic right to be an employer as well as an employee” and formed the Office of Minority Business Development.

The Nixon Era is a symbol of success for black business development. It created a demonstrable movement that allied black and white businesspeople, bankers and bureaucrats to equip aspiring black entrepreneurs with capital, business training and markets. Nixon put in place significant initiatives toward black business development. During and after the Nixon Administration blacks were first among “minorities” in business ownership. Thirty years later, black business owners are black on the bottom. Now, Hispanics are first, Asians second and blacks third. Actually Asians are the leaders of the pack. Their businesses are bigger, with average, annual revenue of $336,200 versus $155,200 for Hispanic companies and $86,500 for black-owned companies. Concentration on business pursuits made Asians America’s wealthiest minority group.

In declaring August 31st through September 6th, 2008 as Minority Enterprise Development Week, President George W. Bush wants the nation to “recognize minority entrepreneurs and recommit ourselves to fostering an environment where everyone can attain the American dream”. Black American would do well to rethink their role in the nation’s economy. Less than 10 of every 1000 blacks are in business pursuits compared to 70 of every 1000 whites.

Black Americans should be more attuned to how effective use of public policy breaks down barriers of racism and economic injustice. Richard Nixon’s executive order was key to thousands of black-owned businesses’ growth in America. Today, 3 decades after Nixon signed the order, the incidence of economic empowerment of African-Americans can be measured in direct proportion to the degree that black capitalism is expressed through initiative, and not rhetoric.

Such an initiative is National Minority Enterprise Development (MED) Week occurring in Washington, DC, September 3-5th, 2008. MED Week is the largest federally sponsored conference on behalf of minority entrepreneurs and business enterprises. The Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) is the only Federal Agency created specifically to foster the establishment and growth of minority owned businesses. Ron Langston is President Bush’s appointee to head the MBDA. The agency’s mission is “to actively promote the growth and competitiveness of minority-owned businesses by providing access to public/private debt and equity financing, market opportunities, and management and business information; coordinating and leveraging public and private resources; and, facilitating strategic alliances.”

While Mr. Langston is an African American, statistics show little leverage being given black-oriented programs and projects at MBDA. In 2008 Hispanic initiatives were those most prevalent in the MBDA. People funding, running, supporting or benefiting from minority business programs agree not enough has being achieved for black businesses in recent years. Blacks need to focus more on the role of commerce in America and engage political processes to have federal programs, such as the MBDA, return to initiatives that support and empower black businesses.

Blacks have to become more enterprise than employment-oriented. To become more mainstream in economics black individuals, families, churches, community groups and our media have to use and reinforce business ownership and entrepreneurship toward an increase in the number of men and women who will consider entrepreneurship as much of a viable financial option as working for corporate America. MBDA programs/projects are located at www.mbda.gov

By William Reed, August 24, 2008

(William Reed – www.BlackPressINternational.com)

As they head into their conventions, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has raised $345 million and has $65 million currently on hand. Republican John McCain has raised almost $150 million. Obama reports over 2 million people have contributed to his campaign. When these contributors and party officials arrive at the Democratic and Republican conclaves in Denver and St. Paul, MN they will be treated to lavish festivities.

The political parties’ parties will be financed by some of the nation’s largest corporations. From AT&T to Xcel Energy, companies will pay over $112 million in exchange for access to the nation’s most powerful politicians. Roughly $55 million in private financing is being provided to support the Democratic convention in Denver, and $57 million for the Republican convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul. These donors provided another $100 million to federal candidates and parties since 2005 and spent a total of $721.3 million lobbying the federal government during the same period. During the 2008 conventions they will put on public display examples of how to buy influence and access. Minnesota’s Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty asked corporations to give generously for the chance to “connect with influential government officials (Cabinet, President, and next President).” Colorado Democrats also are offering donors invitations to private events attended by prominent politicians.

The corporations, trade groups, lobbyists and unions are sponsoring hundreds of invitation-only affairs that include cruises, concerts, trapshooting and golf tournaments and even glow-in-the-dark bowling. Major contributors include: $6 million donor, Qwest Communications, and million-dollar-level contributors Level 3 Communications, Molson Coors, Xcel Energy, US Bancorp, UnitedHealth, and Union Pacific.

AFLAC, the for-profit health insurance company, is a donor to both conventions. The corporation spent $12.6 million over the last four years lobbying Congress and the White House on issues such as pressuring Japan to loosen restrictions on its health-insurance market and fighting regulation of prescription drug prices. Anheuser-Busch also supports both conventions. The brewing behemoth provided $2.6 million in campaign contributions during the last two election cycles and spent $10.4 million on lobbying efforts. Among Bud’s peoples’ areas of interest are loosening international trade regulations and fighting restrictions on alcohol advertising.

The Minneapolis-St. Paul 2008 Host Committee’s donations range from $6 million from telecom giant Qwest to $50,000 from Kraft Foods. New York Jets owner Robert W. “Woody” Johnson IV raised funds for the convention and more than $500,000 for McCain. Minnesota-based companies contributing to the Republican convention include: 3M, Best Buy, Cargill, General Mills, Hubbard Broadcasting, Northwest Airlines, St. Jude Medical, SuperValue, St. Jude Medical, Travelers, United Health Group, US Bank and Xcel Energy.

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, American Federation of Teachers and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) gave over a million dollars to the Democrat’s convention. Among the parties the Denver Host Committee has scheduled include events by Coca-Cola, Xcel, Amgen, JP Morgan, Solar Energy Industries Association, American Wind Energy Association, Wind Energy Institute, Service Employees International Union, Target, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7, CH2MHill, and Qwest.

Major event venues are Denver’s Art Museum, Invesco Field, and Coors Field. The Denver Art Museum is booked for many private events. CH2MHill will host a private opening event at Invesco Field focused on sustainability. The Solar Energy Industries Association and Molson Coors will host an event at Coors Field called “Sunfest.” On August 25, Mayor Hickenlooper co-hosts a party with the Wind Energy Industry group at the Wynkoop Brewing Co. The United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 event at the Colorado History Museum will include a panel on immigration issues and premiere a documentary about immigration raids at the Swift & Co. meatpacking plant.

People sitting at home have a role to play too; each convention is being subsidized with $16.4 million in taxpayer dollars, money that comes from a voluntary check off on individual income tax returns.

By William Reed, August 17, 2008

(William Reed – www.BlackPressInternational.com)

Political Parties’ purpose is to join people, who hold similar points of view about government together. They work to participate in and influence government by having its members elected to government positions. In America we have a two-party system where Republicans and Democrats dominate political structures. Parties must promote a broad set of core beliefs to reach their members as well as independent voters. Currently, the major political parties are constructing their party platforms. But, blacks would be hard-pressed to find race – and/or issue-specific and issues agenda for them among the list of the principles which the party supports to appeal to the general public for the purpose of having their candidates voted into office. This takes the form of a list of support for, or opposition to, controversial topics. Individual topics, such as Affirmative Action, are called planks of the platform.

The United States is not a true democracy, but more of a representative republic. Instead of a logistical nightmare of 300 million individuals running for elected office, different political parties actively seek out qualified candidates with the necessary skills and belief structure to represent their party’s platform while serving their terms. Are black needs represented in either party’s candidate or platform?

Americans have one of the highest standards of living in the world. But, indexes for blacks are akin to Third World. White households’ average net worth of $468,200 is six times that of black households’ $75,000. Blacks’ plight is not being represented in political parties’ platforms and if nothing is done to accelerate black progress, it will take blacks 6 years to close the high school graduation gap, 71 years to close the disparities in college graduation and 581 years to close gaps in per-capita income gap and 1,664 years for the one in home ownership.

It’s not evident that black people know how to get what want from their politics. The standard of living indexes indicates how much blacks need to flex their political muscle to turn their situation around. When will blacks realize that a government that is not accountable to them should be changed to one that includes people who’ve pledged to act on their behalf? That goes for political parties, too. Their vulnerability comes as a result of the policies they have chosen to support. Blacks’ collective interests are not being represented and the party and people they elect should be able to articulate the next phase toward African Americans’ achievement. To do this, the Democratic and Republican parties have to be made to understand the importance of what we want to change. Like healthcare and the fact that African Americans are uninsured at a devastating rate, and are more likely to die from certain diseases/illnesses.

What do African Americans consider as the major issues for the upcoming election? Never mind mainstream-oriented blacks who will cry “they don’t represent my views”, the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement (InPDUM) may be on to something. InPDUM has invited Barack Obama, John McCain and Cynthia McKinney to attend their convention September 27-28 in St. Petersburg, Florida, to clarify their programs to address the pressing concerns of Black Americans. InPDUM’s international organizer unfurled a banner that read, “What About the Black Community, Obama?” at a stump speech the senator made in the state. InPDUM says its “dedicated to winning self-determination for the African community as the highest expression of democracy”.

The point is we need to expand our sense of representational expectancy beyond a potential Obama presidency. The precious few of us living in gated communities need to join in demanding that the lifestyle of blacks be increased beyond just 73 percent of that of whites. In 2008 black healthcare, life expectancy, safety, resources, environmental economics and social justice is at the bottom of all indexes and racial inequalities in employment, family income, imprisonment and average wealth are worse than when MLK was killed.

By William Reed, August 10, 2008

(William Reed – www.BlackPressInternational.com)

Sadly, such black empowerment activities have been put on the back burner. African Americans are allowing themselves to be swayed away from issues critical for them, such as affirmative action and reparations, to mainstream propositions such as “colorblind” standards. Blacks’ unflinching dedication to America’s two-party system establishment negates any notion of these parties engaging to correct public policies and practices that keep us at the bottom of America’s pile of plenty.

Status quo adherents use black spokespeople to posture positions of both major political parties that, in reality, are impediments to African American advancement through political policy. They staunchly support Republican and Democrat party officials’ positions opposing Affirmative Action and minority set-aside programs as “un-American”.

Maturing into the mainstream is the mindset of many middle-class blacks. They have willingly bought into two bogus ideas establishment political parties and media have sold them – America is colorblind and centuries of injustices should be ceded. Barack Obama’s mainstream candidacy dispenses a yarn that America has solved its race problem and can now be viewed as color-blind. They say “racism is dead” and race-specific policies, such as affirmative action, cannot be justified and are in fact “detrimental”. Even the most well-meaning liberal tends to believe that institutional racism is a thing of the past and that any racial inequalities – in criminal justice, wages, family income, and access to housing or health care – can be attributed to African Americans’ cultural and individual failures.

In spite of America’s “official line” that we are now a colorblind society, Black Americans are foolish not insisting on Affirmative Action legislation and reparations remedies. Affirmative Action was supposed to correct injustices blacks had been subjected to over centuries. Now, affirmative action has such a bad reputation that liberals and conservatives entice us to join the clamor for a colorblind society. Blacks are the least color-blind segment of American society and any who buy into the deception are just plain blind; taking the public pronouncements of politicians and pundits at face value over their conventional wisdom of the serious public problems two-thirds of blacks experience every day.

Color-blindness is a mainstream media myth. The concept continues racial inequality and impediments to Black Americans gaining racial justice and appropriate public policy. The establishment’s policy-making structure erodes affirmative action; dilute civil rights and spend fortunes building new prisons most of whose occupants will be black. America’s Establishment has sidetracked any movement toward equal justice for African Americans and few seem worried.

Neither party offers us “a chicken in every pot,” or mentions racial equity and too many blacks blissfully accept this. Racism persists in the effects of organized racial advantage across many institutions in American society – including the labor market, the welfare state, and criminal justice system; yet the tone of presentations of African American pundits and officeholders are more about political positions and personalities than championing core issues to end persist racism in employment, education, criminal justice, and politics.

African Americans hired under “affirmative action tenets” are among its principal antagonists. If America’s “colorblind society” is measured by the 30 percent of blacks who have assimilated into the American Dream by the “content of their character,” what does it say about the none-to-moderate-income 70 percent still suffering from institutionalized practices such as persistently double unemployment rates; having less than 10 percent the wealth of average whites; half the homeownership rates and triple the loan decline rates caused by the color of their skin?

The concept of America being “colorblind” is disingenuous in purpose and practice, and a costly proposition for blacks. We are foolish to discard debts due us; but if we do “buy in” we have to realize that we are joining in on elimination of billions, possibly, trillions of dollars that could lead us actual racial parity and real equity.

By William Reed, August 3, 2008

(William Reed – www.Black PressInternational.com)