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Black Caucus Chairman Treads Line Between Criticizing, Supporting Obama sfdsdf

Submitted by adurfee on September 21, 2011 - 11:23am
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Title: 
Black Caucus Chairman Treads Line Between Criticizing, Supporting Obama
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Authors: 
David Goldstein
Publication Date: 
September 19, 2011
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As the debate over jobs turns into the latest political tug-of-war, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri walks a careful but candid line.

As chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, he has been at odds with President Barack Obama over the administration's response to soaring unemployment in the African-American community.

Nearing 17 percent, joblessness among blacks is at a three-decade high and almost twice the overall unemployment rate. The black caucus wants the president to do more.

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"He is a not a fire-breather, that's not his style, and I don't think he is, or for that matter, the caucus is genuinely angry at Obama," said David Bositis, an expert on voting rights and black politics at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. "I think they know that Obama is doing everything he can."

 

Read more at thestate.com or New Haven Register..

It was formerly available at The Miami Herald, macon.com, and kansascity.com.

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David A. Bositis, Ph.D.
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Social Security Advocates Warn Against Cuts sfdsdf

Submitted by adurfee on September 20, 2011 - 5:30pm
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Social Security Advocates Warn Against Cuts
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Authors: 
Elianna Mintz
Publication Date: 
September 16, 2011
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In a briefing held Friday by the National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI), Social Security advocates said cutting seniors’ benefits to pay down the nation’s deficit would be highly destructive for current Social Security recipients and future beneficiaries.

Recently, lawmakers have suggested reforming America’s Social Security plan out of concern that it will run out of money by 2036.

Wilhelmina Leigh, Senior Research Associate at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, pointed to the deficit reduction plan co-authored last year by Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson.

Under the proposal, the full-benefit retirement age would be increased beyond 67, the cost-of-living adjustment would be lowered for current and future beneficiaries and the formula for calculating benefits would be heavily altered.

Leigh said the proposal “will close the shortfall by cutting benefits.”

 

Read more at The Talk Radio News Service.

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Wilhelmina A. Leigh, Ph.D.
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Civic Engagement & Governance
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Black-White Marriages on the Rise sfdsdf

Submitted by adurfee on September 20, 2011 - 3:53pm
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Black-White Marriages on the Rise
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Authors: 
Haya El Nasser
Publication Date: 
September 20, 2011
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Black-white marriages are on the rise, a sign that those racial barriers are slowly eroding, but they still lag far behind the rate of mixed-race marriages between whites and other minorities.

"It does suggest that the social distance between the two groups has narrowed," says Zhenchao Qian, a sociology professor at Ohio State University and lead author of a new study on interracial marriages. "The racial boundary is blurred, but it is still there."

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"Blacks are still the least assimilated," says Roderick Harrison, a demographer at Howard University and the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington. "It does suggest that the divide in this country remains between blacks and everybody else."

 

Read more at USA Today.

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Roderick J. Harrison, Ph.D.
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Voter identification laws should be a non-issue sfdsdf

Submitted by dhendricks on September 15, 2011 - 2:33pm
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Voter identification laws should be a non-issue
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Publication Date: 
September 15, 2011
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Aside from an economy that’s going haywire, an obstinate Libyan dictator, and a mushrooming level of debt, U.S. officials are sparring over an issue that seems oddly antiquated and minor. Texas, Alabama, Kansas, South Carolina, Tennessee, Wisconsin, and Rhode Island recently passed legislation that requires all voters to show a photo-ID at the polls.

Voter mischief, like mail-fraud or jaywalking, is not exactly an existential threat to American society. Even so, there have been enough flagrant and documented examples over the years – particularly in municipal politics – to make IDs a reasonable initiative. One would assume something as simple as confirming you are who you say you are on Election Day upholds the essential ethics of citizenship and cracks down on voter-impersonation, double-voting, and voting by non-citizens.

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Data from Georgia from the 2008 presidential election reveals that Georgia had its largest voter turnout in state history, despite it being the first major election in which ID laws were in effect. Amazingly, the black share of the vote jumped from 25 percent in the 2004 race to 30 in 2008, according to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. Yes, this was a watershed election with Barack Obama on the ballot, but Mississippi, which has an equal black population and no voter ID measures, only experienced a 2% jump in black participation. Similarly, Indiana, the state with the supposedly tyrannical voting laws, saw its Democratic primary turnout quadruple from 2004 to 2008. Meanwhile, in neighboring Illinois (Obama’s home state) turnout increased by less than half of the Indiana swell.

Read more at The Phoenix.

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David A. Bositis, Ph.D.
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Democrats Suffer Embarrassing Loss in New York Special Election sfdsdf

Submitted by dhendricks on September 15, 2011 - 2:30pm
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Democrats Suffer Embarrassing Loss in New York Special Election
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Publication Date: 
September 14, 2011
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Republicans are crowing after winning not one, but two, special elections Tuesday night. Their win in Nevada was predictable — one Republican simply replaced another. New York’s election to replace disgraced former Rep. Anthony Weiner, however, is an entirely different story. A Democrat has represented the district since the 1920s and President Obama carried it in 2008 with 55 percent of the vote, but Republican Bob Turner, a retired cable television executive and political novice, took it away by a margin of eight points. 

 “Tonight the voters overwhelmingly rejected the Obama agenda,” tweeted Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus.

 David Bositis, a political analyst at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, said that voters were sending a message that they’re angry and scared about the nation’s economic climate and want Washington to do something about it.

 “In the long term, however, it doesn’t mean anything with regard to Obama’s re-election prospects. Whether he wins or loses next year will depend on who the Republicans nominate and how the economy is doing,” he said. “I have no doubt Obama’s team is very concerned, simply because the economy is still on a razor’s edge and everybody’s worried about it.”

 

Read more at BET.

 

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David A. Bositis, Ph.D.
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Study finds minorities with college degrees earn less than Whites sfdsdf

Submitted by dhendricks on September 14, 2011 - 12:30pm
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Study finds minorities with college degrees earn less than Whites
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Publication Date: 
September 13, 2011
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Minorities, particularly African-Americans and Latinos, earn less income even with college degrees as opposed to their white or Asian colleagues, according to a recent study by Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce.

“I’m not surprised because we’ve known this for a long time, in part because of stereotyping,” said Dr. Karin Stanford, department chair for Pan African studies.

White professionals earn about 20 times that of African Americans, and 18 times that of Latinos, according to 2010 U.S. Census data.

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Many minorities live in communities where there is little to no economic opportunity, according to a report by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

Read more at The Daily Sundial (Cal State Northridge).

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Black Community At Reagan-Era Jobless Rate, White Jobless Rate Goes Down sfdsdf

Submitted by dhendricks on September 14, 2011 - 12:24pm
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Black Community At Reagan-Era Jobless Rate, White Jobless Rate Goes Down
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Publication Date: 
September 14, 2011
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What Will the President Say In His Speech This Week?

(TriceEdney Wire) – It’s a pivotal moment for the Obama White House. The Black unemployment rate is now at its highest in almost 30 years. All eyes are on the President as he gives what some view as the most important economic speech of his nearly three-year tenure this week.

“The Republican field is still extremely weak. And the Republicans are not offering anything as an alternative,” says David Bositis, spokesman for the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

Bositis, considered a foremost expert on Black politics, indicated that Obama’s re-election is at stake. “It depends on whether the jobless numbers get better or get worse. Even if they get worse, the Republicans are still not offering anything as an alternative,” he said.

Just before the official start of the election season on Labor Day came revelations of the worst Black unemployment numbers since the Reagan Administration in July 1984.

 

This article was formerly available at The Seattle Medium.

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David A. Bositis, Ph.D.
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Obama jobs plan quietly targets solutions to double-digit black unemployment, energizes base sfdsdf

Submitted by dhendricks on September 12, 2011 - 12:53pm
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Obama jobs plan quietly targets solutions to double-digit black unemployment, energizes base
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September 10, 2011
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ATLANTA — President Barack Obama’s jobs pitch is already playing well with blacks, who had grown plenty irked with him over what they perceived as his indifference to their needs.

A day after Obama laid out before Congress his plan to kick-start job growth, many blacks hoped it would translate into reduced misery for them over the coming months. While the country’s unemployment rate stands at 9.1 percent, black unemployment has hit 16.7 percent, the highest since 1984. Unemployment among male blacks is at 18 percent, and black teens are unemployed at a rate of 46.5 percent.

The early signs of their reaction were positive.

Social media sites were abuzz with highlights from the president’s plan. Amid the comments were excited responses to the proposal, especially from the black community. Twitter was full of similar bursts of excitement over the plan, with some black Tweeters defending the president and applauding his message. One user tweeted: “Taking a sharp tone ‘cause the NumbersDontLie! Pass this bill and put America back to work.”

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The jobs plan was praised by Ralph Everett, president and chief executive of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a nonpartisan black think tank.

Read more at MSNBC, Yahoo! Finance, The Huffington Post, cnbc.com, Bloomberg Businessweek, The Charlotte Post, and The Marietta GA Daily Journal.

It was previously available at The Washington Post, Star Tribune, Google News, and NewsLeader.com.

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Ralph B. Everett, Esq.
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Statement of Ralph B. Everett, Esq., President and CEO, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies sfdsdf

Submitted by dhendricks on September 10, 2011 - 4:35am
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Title: 
Statement of Ralph B. Everett, Esq., President and CEO, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies
Publication Date: 
September 9, 2011
Body: 

WASHINGTON, DC-- What the country needs right now is jobs, and that is especially true in minority communities across this nation, where the unemployment rate is much higher than for the nation at large and residents have the most to fear from a stalling economy.

There is also a crying need for work to be done on the country’s critical infrastructure and in our public education system.  And small businesses everywhere can use some help with the cost of hiring, which in itself will help ignite the economy.

The President’s plan appears to be our best shot for connecting all the dots and addressing these critical needs in the most rapid fashion possible.  It is grounded in fairness and in the objective of helping those most in need during these difficult times.
 

Read more by downloading the full press release below.

PDF: 
application/pdf iconEverett-Jobs Bill Statement 090911-1x.pdf
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Ralph B. Everett, Esq.
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A Balanced Approach Will Lead to America's Prosperity sfdsdf

Submitted by dhendricks on August 31, 2011 - 2:07pm
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Title: 
A Balanced Approach Will Lead to America's Prosperity
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Authors: 
Ralph B. Everett Esq.
Publication Date: 
August 18, 2011
Body: 

Despite what many of us may wish, the political argument over the federal budget and the future direction of our nation's fiscal policy has not been settled, but rather has merely wrapped up an initial phase with the agreement reached in Congress. Still to be decided is how to reduce the nation's debt by another $1.5 trillion, which is a matter to be decided through a process involving a bi-partisan Congressional "Super Committee" this autumn. With a voluntary government default having been avoided, the next stage of debate will be played out under the threat of across-the-board program cuts being automatically deployed, if agreement cannot be reached. On the block will be military and key domestic programs, raising the specter of deep budget cuts that many would find intolerable.

This was previously available at Washington Informer.

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Ralph B. Everett, Esq.
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