Justice for Charles Rangel

[TheBlackList]

What ever happened to the presumption of innocence? Or does it not apply to black leaders? Beginning in 2008, Rangel has faced a series of allegations of ethics violations. In February 2010, the House Ethics Committee concluded that Rangel had violated House gift rules by accepting payment fromCaribNews newspaper for reimbursement for travel to conferences in the Caribbean. Rangel has maintained his innocence and has been demanding a trial.

The gall of him, demanding a trial! Pelosi and other Democratic bigwigs have been virtually demanding that he just cave in and quit the House. He has already been forced out of his chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee without a trial.

They claim he should give up his right for a trial for the trial might embarrass the Democrats in an election year. What bunk! I am sure his constituents will reelect him. No embarrassment there. In Mississippi it might be different, but then they probably hate him regardless.

Is he guilty? I don’t know. What I do know is that black leaders are prime targets and when attacks come, supporters flee, rush to judgment or throw them under the bus. Just recently when Shirley Sherrod and Acorn were smeared, they were victimized and abandoned without even an investigation. It seems black people are now guilty by accusation.

Rangel has already lost even if found innocent. He has already spent $2 million dollars in legal fees with no end in sight. The strategy is to hit him with a barrage of charges, run up his defense costs and force him to quit untried but disgraced. One of the charges dug up from a NY times article consists of parking his car illegally in the House garage. War criminals strut around exalted but this brave fighter for the poor, must withdraw untried with his tail between his legs.

This is a flagrant injustice!

One of the reasons they get away with this flagrant injustice is because black organisations are silent. The NAACP actually joined the persecution of Shirley Sherrod. Acorn was left to twist in the wind and even though they were found innocent, they have been ruined.

Do you remember Mike Espy, President Clinton’s Secretary of Agriculture? He was forced to resign when ethics charges were filed against him. The prosecution presented more than 70 witnesses in the trial and spent more than $20 million preparing and trying to nail him. Espy won. In the trial by jury the case against him was so weak that the defense did not need to call a single witness to testify. I bet most people don’t know that, but all they recall is the charges against him. Despite Mike Espy’s convincing victory, he never regained his position of Secretary of Agriculture.

It is time for not just black organisation but any organisation that values human rights and justice to rally around Charles Rangel against this flagrant injustice. Or will they just sit around silently and watch brave black leaders be picked off one by one? The brave Maxine Waters is the latest victim up for that crucifixion.

To arms! I myself intend to circulate this letter to my Hot Calaloo email list and every discussion group of which I am a member. NAACP has an excellent chance to redeem themselves after their Shirley Sherrod fiasco. They should join with other black organisations to champion justice for Charles Rangel loud, clear and persistently. Ministers should use the pulpit to mobilize their congregations. Other black leaders, join this fight too. Take to the airwaves, to the podium. But meanwhile you had better watch your back. You might be next. At this very moment, Fox News may be doctoring a video just for you.

This is just not an attack on Charles Rangel. It is an attack on the future of black leadership. By undermining black leadership, they will force out real leaders to leave behind cowed, intimidated, submissive and ineffective leaders in their place.

But this fight is not just against blacks. Charles Rangel is a progressive leader. It is also against progressives. The progressive leadership is guilty of cowardly timidity too. Blacks are easy pickings, and if that scheme works, then I predict progressive leaders such as peace activists, environmentalists, advocates for the poor, regardless of race, will be next.

Michael Phillips,
Editor, Hot Calaloo
http://www.hotcalaloo.com

Author, Boycott Money and Save Your Soul
- Launching The Goodwill Revolution".
http://www.goodwillie.org

[ms. gg owens aka QUEEN AKEBA]

HOTEP FAMILY...I AM PLEASED TO SEE THAT NOT ONLY ME IS CONCERNED ABOUT MR. RANGEL,,HE HAS REPRESENTED OUR COMMUNITIES FOR MANY YEARS AND HAS DONE HIS JOB..THEY AS WELL AS MAXINE WATERS ARE BEING TOTALLY DISRESPECTED AND IT APPEARS THAT NOBODY WANTS TO STEP UP AND SAY ANYTHING ON THIER BEHALF..THEY ARE BOTH INNOCENT....THEY SHOULD NOT BE MADE TO BE "SCAPEGOATS".. F____! WHAT CONGRESS AND THE SENATE HAVE TO SAY OR PROLONGING TO SAY...."STAND UP FOR JUSTIVE LEAVE CHARLES RANGEL AND MAXINE ALONE " !!!!!!!!!!

[Munirah El-Bomani]

What has Cong. Charles Rangel done for Black people? Show me his progress report, if you got one.

[Munirah El-Bomani]

Now Congresswoman Maxine Waters got a spine in here back.....I support her, but where the men at standing by her side?? A bunch of cowards....knock it off!!!

[TheBlackList]

Thursday, July 29, 2010
HANDS OFF CHARLIE RANGEL & MAXINE WATERS!!!!
http://gloria-dulan-wilson.blogspot.com/2010/07/hands-off-charlie-r...
By Gloria Dulan-Wilson


Well, it’s déjà vu all over again. The so-called ethics committee is going to “investigate” Congressman Charlie Rangel, for alleged unethical practices.

Don’t you find it interesting that this is similar to the b.s. investigation they leveled against Adam Clayton Powell Jr., when he became head of the House Ways and Means Committee, and attached more bills in favor of African Americans to any bill on the floor in the history of Congress? They came up with trumped up charges against him as well, and finally were able to use their bogus allegations to drive him out of office.

Interesting isn’t it that both men are Black, both from New York, both take principled stands, and both were head of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee?

Does anyone see the parallel between that and now? Is this a familiar issue to us? You bet your sweet a___ it is! Who here really believe that Charlie Rangel is guilty of anything egregious enough to be brought before the so-called "Ethics" committee. Who really understands that the same yellow journalism that has been leveled against President Obama, by mainstream media has been leveled against Congressman Rangel? The mainstream media have been used by the right wing to hound him, in much the same way they did Bill Clinton, to blow out of proportion issues that should not have even made a quarter inch column.

Compared to his track record, this is minutiae blown out of proportion. But, as with anything, we are not only ten times more talented, we are generally painted as ten times more guilty and culpable than any white (yes I said it) white congress person, white president, etc.

We have to see it for what it really is.

There is no ethics in the ethics committee. It’s in name only. It’s convenient when they have allowed the court of media-fanned public opinion to push them into knee jerk action.

Case in point: Where was the ethics committee when people like Strom Thurmond or Robert Byrd were around? Both were blatant racists; both card carrying members of the KKK. Both were segregationists, racists. Their just making an apology does not mitigate what African Americans suffered at their hands. How many were hung, burned, or castrated under their watch, while they were still in office?? Apology from them brought exoneration. Now isn't that special!

How can we be sure that Charlie Rangel is being dealt with ethically, equitably, with the same criteria the give their Caucasian peers. Why should we give credence to this trial; where they tie his feet to the fire, while the others are able to skulk around, flying low under the radar.

Where was the ethics committee when the Vice President Cheyney under George Bush, Jr., accidentally on purpose shot someone during a hunting trip? Where were they when Cheyney was running the White House and ruining America by fiat? Where were they when the entire bottom dropped out of our economy, under the advise and consent of key people in the Republican dominated administration?

I find it highly unethical that the ethics committee is basing its so-called investigation of Rangel on media hype and dirt digging; kind of funny, because I’d be willing to bet that most of our elected officials have one or more homes; have one or more business connections; and have raised funds in some of the most "creative" fashions..

My suspicion of this witch hunt grew even more when I found that they are investigating 8 (eight) Black congressmembers, among them the honorable Maxine Waters of California. It then begins to smell like exactly what is is. Not ethics - but a kind of ethnic cleansing under the guise of ethics. If it looks like a snake and hisses like a snake, it's a snake. Shades of McCarthyism running rampant in the halls of Congress, under the guise of ethics -- trying to assuage the yellow journalists -- we see you for who and what you are.

If the Democrats are worried about this splitting the party, they should be.

But the Republicans should be petrified with fear. Because we truly do recognize where this is coming from. These are the same people who tried to have Clinton impeached. These are the same people who brought you Sarah Palin, Richard TD Nixon, George Bush (1 & 2); Ford, Goldwater, and the ever unpopular Reagan. Each time they've had a hand on this country, we've been left eviscerated, disgraced, embarrassed and broke. And they leave with their pockets lined with our money, while they tread on our dignity and our trust. We have just had a blatant example of how little the Republicans care for Americans, when they filibustered over the extension of Unemployment funds to desperate families, who lost jobs as a result of their completely bankrupting the country under the Bush Administration. We know who you are.

We over understand the situation. That does not mean that so-called "blue dog Democrats" are not on our radar, but character assassination is the province of the Republican party. In either case, both parties will be walking on eggs if harm politically, socially, financially or emotionally comes to Congressman Rangel, Maxine Waters or any of the other Black congress members undergoing this ignominiously disgraceful grilling.

And always remember, there is the LARRY FLYNT FACTOR. The rep and office you save may be your own.

WE ARE WATCHING AND REGISTERING AND VOTING. Consider the consequences.

In case you missed my point, I reiterate, the blatant issue is that both Charlie Rangel and Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. were and are Black, and in charge of the most powerful committee in the nation. So the racist hounds of hell went after them the way they do whenever a Black person wields power. The allegations are pure racist b.s.

Yes, I said it! It’s racist b.s.

Charlies apartments and real estate were purchased nearly 30 years ago. It wasn't an issue then, and it's not an issue now. Having a property in the Dominican Republic is not a crime. And as far as I know, no one has died as a result of either of these two acts. But, I can almost bet you that under KKK Byrd in West Virginia many a Black man and woman have become "strange fruit"; segregated, denigrated, violated. Where is the real standard? Where is the real moral compass? Since the ethics committee didn’t deal with Byrd, or any of the other characters who have committed egregious acts against America, Republican and Democrat, they get a vote of no confidence from me.

By the way, exactly what does the Ethics Committee’s standard, or code of ethics consists of? Share them with the world, so we can see if they are truly equitable. List them so we can all see them. Then I think we should have full disclosure as to where each member of the ethics committee stands or falls along that criteria. Additionally, who are their contributors? How did they get elected? Who’s in their closet? What’s their track record? If they can’t stand the litmus test, they shouldn’t serve on the committee.

Biblically speaking, he or she who is without sin can cast the first stone.

Otherwise, HANDS OFF CHARLIE RANGEL and MAXINE WATERS!!!! And the other members of Congress of African heritage.

To all of you who are likewise reading this, don't just sit there and nod your heads in agreement. Pass this on, and get your people together to make sure that we are VOTING OUT OF OFFICE THOSE WHO WOULD UNDERMINE THE PEOPLE WHO ARE SUPPORTING PRESIDENT OBAMA -- because this is really where it's coming from. Let's make sure we send home a few more Republicans. Let's not be sitting on our hands and sitting at home when we need to be at the polls. It's the bigger picture time. And it's time to let them know those days are over.

Time to take out the trash.

Stay Blessed &
ECLECTICALLY BLESSED
Gloria Dulan-Wilson
http://gloria-dulan-wilson.blogspot.com/2010/07/hands-off-charlie-r...
STAY BLESSED

[Allison Prince]

Why is it when people like Tom Delay are hit with ethics charges that they can go on "Dancing With the Stars" or some other nonsense shows and make tons of $$$? Yet, a person of colour is automatically considered guilty. Justice is not equal in the United States even if a person is a government official.