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Some people insist that guilt by association is unfair. They often dredge up Sen. Joe McCarthy as an example of what that sort of thing can lead to. But the fact is that we all judge people by those with whom they choose to associate. That’s where the expression about people lying down with dogs and getting up with fleas originated. And the fact is, more often than not, McCarthy was right, although it was his own fault that he usually came off as a buffoon and drunken bully, thereby tainting even those of us who recognized that Soviet spies...

Rep. Marcia Fudge didn’t sugarcoat her feelings about the fact that President Barack Obama has not yet chosen any African-Americans to fill open high-level positions in his second term. “The people you have chosen to appoint in this new term have hardly been reflective of this country’s diversity,” the chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus wrote in a terse letter to Obama this month. “Their ire is compounded by the overwhelming support you’ve received from the African-American community.” The letter’s tone and tenor typifies the blunt, hard-charging style of Fudge, an Ohio Democrat, and signals a shift in how the...

OTTAWA, March 11, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Canada’s government-funded broadcaster is under fire after one of its popular comedy shows ran a skit mocking the Eucharist last month. On Feb. 19th, This Hour Has 22 Minutes ran a sketch to satirize how a Canadian Pope might “change the Church,” premised on the speculation that Cardinal Marc Ouellet is one of the leading contenders in the conclave, which begins Tuesday. The skit depicts a bishop leading Mass, but changing the words to make them more suited to Canadians’ stereotypical politeness. “Brothers and sisters, let us acknowledge our sins,” he says. “But don’t...

The chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus said she is concerned that President Obama has not yet appointed African-Americans to his second-term Cabinet. Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) said Obama's appointees do not reflect the nation's diverse population — at least, so far. “I am concerned that you have moved forward with new cabinet appointments and yet, to date, none of them have been African American,” her letter to Obama states. “You have publicly expressed your commitment to retaining diversity within your cabinet. However, the people you have chosen to appoint in this new term have hardly been reflective of this...

Responding to Republican criticism of UN Ambassador Susan Rice for claiming that the Benghazi attack on the US mission and annex there had been caused by a photo of a stuffed teddy bear named Mohammed, Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, the leader of the Congressional Black Caucus and Chairwoman of the House Subcommittee on 40 Acres, an Obamaphone and a Mule denounced any attacks on Rice as “horridly and unspeakably racist.” While Fudge could not point to any single word that was racist, she insisted that every single word used to criticize Rice was a racist code word. “If the language is...

Rep. Marcia Fudge (D.-Ohio), the incoming chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, is accusing Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz) of "sexism and racism" because the criticism leveled at U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice for telling the American people that the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi was a spontaneous reaction to a video posted on YouTube. “There is a clear, a clear in my opinion, sexism and racism that goes with these comments that are being made by, unfortunately, Senator McCain and others,” Fudge (D-Ohio.) said Friday at a Capitol Hill press conference. On Thursday, the Congressional Black...

House Democrats opened Wednesday’s House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing by attacking Republicans for cuts to embassy security funding — cuts that only happened thanks to overwhelming support from House Democrats, INCLUDING House Oversight Committee Ranking Democratic member Rep. Elijah Cummings. In fact, more House Democrats – 149 of them — voted for the cuts than did House Republicans, of which 147 voted for them.

House Democrats on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee used their opening statements today to blame Republicans for the lack of security in Benghazi, Libya, during a hearing on the security breaches surrounding the attack on the U.S. consulate last month, which killed four Americans, including the ambassador, and occurred on the anniversary of 9/11. “The chairman has said that our committee will examine not only the Libya attack but security at outposts across the Middle East,” said Ranking Member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) to Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who called the hearing today on Capitol Hill. “Mr. Chairman I fully...

CHICAGO — Battling mental illness and personal financial troubles, Rep. Jesse L. Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) is a heavy favorite for reelection Nov. 6 despite a surreal campaign from which he has been absent for almost four months. Jackson, 47, who disclosed this summer that he has bipolar depression and has undergone weeks of hospitalization, is convalescing in Washington and meeting occasionally with aides. He has been absent from the House of Representatives since June 8. Whether he will campaign at all is in question. His reelection bid is being led by his wife, Sandi Jackson, who turned down interview requests....

(VIDEO AT LINK) The Congressional Black Caucus used National Voter Registration Day to launch a new voter protection initiative. On Tuesday members of the CBC partnered with community leaders as well as local and state elected officials in a series of events throughout the country to unveil “For the People“. The initiative draws attention to voter suppression efforts, like restrictive voter ID laws, that could prevent many minorities from voting in November. The goal of “For the People” is to provide information on what documents and procedures are needed to vote so that no eligible voter is turned away from...

CNS News: If blacks don't vote, 'snatch' the 'color back,' says CleaverBy: Devonia Smith September 22, 2012 Friday, CNS News surfaced a C-SPAN video of Chairman Emanuel Cleaver of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) passionately demanding that African-Americans who don't vote, "ought to give us their color back." The video was taped the evening before when Cleaver was speaking to a CBC forum on the subject of voting rights. There was no laughter from the audience when Cleaver angrily declared, "They (blacks) aren't worth the color if they don't vote; they ought to give us their color back." Apparently, that...

If you are black and you don’t vote, you do not deserve the color of your skin. That’s at least how Congressional Black Caucus head Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) put it during a recent speech on voting rights. After explaining the struggles blacks had to go through to get the right to vote, Cleaver launched into a tirade against those who decide not to exercise it. “That’s why I become so angry at any African-American who refuses to vote,” he said. “They are not worth the color if they don’t vote. They ought to give us their color back. Their...

MRS. OBAMA: Thank you so much. (Applause.) Thank you. It is truly a pleasure and an honor to be here with all of you tonight. Thank you so much for having me. I want to start by thanking Congressman Cleaver and Shuanise Washington for their outstanding work and for their introduction. I also want to recognize your terrific CBC Foundation President and CEO, Elsie Scott. (Applause.) And of course, I want to congratulate this year's Phoenix Award winners -- Attorney General Holder, Congresswoman Brown, Mayor Gantt, and George Lucas. Thank you all for your outstanding contributions to our nation, and...

[snip]Take Congressman John Lewis, for example. He was the son -- (applause.) Yes, indeed. He was the son of sharecroppers. [snip] And then there's Congressman Louis Stokes who was raised by a widowed mother in Cleveland's public housing. [snip] But from so many unlikely places, members of this caucus rose up and lived out their own version of the great American Dream. And that is why they came here to Washington. They came because they were determined to give others that same chance;

OTTAWA - CBC may be willing to take $1 billion from taxpayers each year to produce its news content, but the state broadcaster is tight-lipped about what it earns selling that same material to some of the biggest companies in the world. In a move that continues to pit the government-subsidized CBC against other privately owned media companies, CBC recently renewed an agreement to sell its news stories to Microsoft. Microsoft then posts CBC news stories on its website. An access to information request for details of the contract included several pages that were close to blank with all pertinent...

Rep. Allen West (R-FL) is someone I really like. I like that he says what he thinks and doesn’t mind if it ticks off the left. Apparently he made a nice gesture of providing free food for the Black Caucus. Instead of the Black Caucus being thankful that someone else provided food for them, they were offended. Why? Because what Rep. West sent them were Chick-Fil-A biscuits! Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL) said that it was a deliberate attempt to offend the members of the Congressional Black Caucus. “We have a rotation in the Congressional Black Caucus where every member provides...

A Democratic lawmaker says Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) offended the entire Congressional Black Caucus by delivering Chick-fil-A chicken and biscuits to their weekly meeting — and then walking out — when it was his turn to provide the group with a formal lunch.

Rep. Allen West's Chick-fil-A Treat Gnaws at Black Caucus By Amy Bingham | ABC OTUS News – 1 hr 13 mins ago Members of the Congressional Black Caucus have lunched on their fair share of fried chicken, but when the group's only Republican member, Rep. Allen West of Florida, brought Chick-fil-A for his turn to provide lunch, "every member" of the group was offended, caucus member Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., told the Huffington Post this week. West provided the now-controversial chicken sandwiches about six months ago, but Hastings' recollection of the delivery carries fresh potency in light of Chick-fil-A CEO...

Florida Republican Rep. Allen West said liberal Democrats in Congress — including many members of the Congressional Black Caucus — who walked out on the bipartisan votes to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in criminal and civil contempt of Congress did so because Holder is black. “Today the Congressional Black Caucus and other liberal Members of Congress judged the Attorney General by the color of his skin, and not by the content of his character,” West said of their walkout in a Facebook post. “I am disappointed my colleagues would rather engage in a political stunt to distract the American...

The Congressional Black Caucus has called a members-only "emergency" meeting on Thursday to plot a "walkout strategy" ahead of the scheduled contempt vote of Attorney General Eric Holder later in the day. The plans, detailed in an email from the executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus obtained by the Alley, include circulating a letter disapproving of the vote and having lawmakers walk out of the Capitol to hold a press conference during the roll call. The letter, a draft of which is being circulated for signatures, accuses the GOP leadership of "rushing recklessly to a contempt vote." The letter...

Race riots could ensue if George Zimmerman -- the shooter in the Trayvon Martin case -- is found not guilty of second-degree murder by a Florida jury, the Congressional Black Caucus' executive director allowed yesterday. "I think a 'not guilty' verdict is extremely problematic in 2012," said Angela Rye, the Executive Director and General Counsel for the Congressional Black Caucus. She said, "I don't know," when asked what would happen in the event of an acquittal. "I know that folks have talked about race riots -- I don't know that. I think that we live in a day and...

Angela Rye, Executive Director of the Congressional Black Caucus, argued that President Obama has struggled during his first term due to racially-motivated opposition from conservatives who dislike having a black president. "This is probably the toughest presidential term in my lifetime," Rye said during CSPAN's Q&A yesterday. "I think that a lot of what the president has experienced is because he's black. You know, whether it's questioning his intellect or whether or not he's Ivy League. It's always either he's not educated enough or he's too educated; or he's too black or he's not black enough; he's too Christian or...

The CBC is planning some counter-programming for female non-hockey fans who might be forced to tune into the Stanley Cup final next week. Viewers can go online to listen to an alternate commentary from Lena Sutherland and Jules Mancuso, who run WhileTheMenWatch.com. They describe their site as a sports talk show for women, “Sex and the City” meets ESPN, with banter “from a woman’s point of view.” “One afternoon while (our husbands) were both watching the same game on TV Jules and I were on the phone and we started just making comments to each other like, ‘Did you see...

The Socialist Party of America announced in their October 2009 newsletter that 70 Congressional democrats currently belong to their caucus. This admission was recently posted on Scribd.com:

In the wake of the slaying of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, House Democrats are drafting legislation designed to prevent similar tragedies in the future. The lawmakers want to adopt tougher rules for neighborhood watch programs, eliminate certain state gun laws, rein in racial profiling and require an examination of racial disparities nationwide. The Democrats behind the legislation – all members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) – say the steps might have prevented last month's fatal encounter between Martin, 17, an unarmed African-American walking home from a convenience store in Sanford, Fla., and George Zimmerman, 28, a Latino neighborhood watch...

WASHINGTON – Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) plans to send a “friendly, hand-written” note to House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) asking him to enforce the House dress code across the board, he told Fox News Wednesday night. Cleaver says he made the decision to contact Boehner after the incident where Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL) wore the hoodie to the House floor today. Rep. Rush was escorted from the House floor because the House dress code prohibits hats. Cleaver says that some CBC members believe that Rush was unfairly singled out because the House routinely allows other members to...

The Congressional Black Caucus wants the Justice Department to investigate the shooting death of a 17-year-old, unarmed black Florida high school student as a potential hate crime. “This case compromises the integrity of our legal system and sets a horrific precedent of vigilante justice,” Congressional Black Caucus Chair Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) said in a statement. “Members of the Congressional Black Caucus stand together in the name of justice for Trayvon. As a nation we cannot, should not, and will not ignore, Trayvon’s brutal murder and the inconceivable fact that his killer remains free. Contrary to the flippant way this case...

Odd question? Well yesterday Daniel Burke’s article in the Washington Post titled, “Will Mormons’ racial history be a problem for Mitt Romney?” tried to tarnish Romney with the brush of past discrimination in the Mormon priesthood. Burke states that “Until 1978, the LDS church banned men of African descent from its priesthood.” But if the actions of others in a group you belong to reflect on you then should Obama be tainted with the racial bigotry of the Democratic Party. For none other than Bull Connor was a Democrat and the history of many elected Democratic who were historically significant...

WASHINGTON — Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Tuesday are expected to publish a report on the disputed gun trafficking investigation called Operation Fast and Furious, concluding that agents in Arizona — not Obama administration officials — were responsible for the tactics used in the inquiry and for providing misleading information relayed to Congress. In an 89-page report, titled “Fatally Flawed: Five Years of Gun-walking in Arizona,” the Democratic staff portrays Fast and Furious as the fourth investigation, dating back to 2006, in which Arizona-based agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives employed...

If elected in November, Love would be the first black Republican woman in Congress and Utah's first black representative. She said she would join the Congressional Black Caucus in Washington, D.C., should she win. "Yes, yes. I would join the Congressional Black Caucus and try to take that thing apart from the inside out," she said.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) said Tuesday that President Obama "absolutely" should use his executive power to continue the unemployment benefits and payroll tax cut extension and said she hoped to discuss the option with the White House later in the day. "It is extraordinary, don't get me wrong. But I'm feeling the pain of the constituents I left [at] home," Jackson Lee said, speaking on the progressive Ed Schultz's radio show. "I consider this a crisis. I consider leaving Americans without unemployment insurance for January and February a crime. I consider not extending the payroll tax cut ... a...

When the Civil War ended, and after Republican President Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves, Democrats initiated Jim Crow laws to keep the black man down. Democrats didn’t much like blacks. In fact, the KKK, as you know, was founded as the the terrorist wing of the Democrat Party. Setting the Record Straight A group of black activists led by Wayne Perryman has filed a brief against the Democrat Party for its long history of racism and discrimination of the black community.

A Democratic lawmaker said Wednesday on the House floor that Republican legislators around the country are purposefully trying to deny blacks the right to vote by pushing for voter identification laws. “It’s no coincidence that a disproportionate number of these affected voters come from communities of color as well as the poor, the elderly and students,” said Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), a former chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus. “Having been born and raised in Texas, this certainly looks like a poll tax to me, which those of us remember as a way to prevent African Americans from voting. These...

I understand that the NAACP opposes voter-ID laws. Given the long history of fighting against uses of state law to deny blacks and other minorities the franchise until the Civil Rights Movement prevailed, their deep skepticism over proposed stricter enforcement of eligibility laws can’t help but recall echoes of voter suppression in their communities, even if the new laws are innocent of any racial animus. We still have plenty of mistrust that will take generations to undo, especially given that we still have those with living memories of having been denied the right to vote. Still, if the NAACP wants...

I just finished listening to President Obama’s speech at the Congressional Black Caucus dinner and I’m still reeling with anger. Honestly, I’ve never been more afraid for my country or my people than I am right now. In his speech, Obama told the mostly black audience; “Take off your bedroom slippers. Shake it off. Stop complainin’. Stop grumblin’. Stop cryin’. We are going to press on. We have work to do.” As writer Charing Ball noted, Obama may as well have said “take off your head scarf and wave caps, put away the jug of Kool-Aid and grape drink, stop...

MRC visited the Congressional Black Caucus Annual Dinner in Washington to ask attendees if the tea party is racist. The attendees are also asked about Allen West and Herman Cain and what they think of black members of the tea party. One man says they can go to hell, another lady calls them 'oreos.' Here's the video

Barack Obama speech reopens rift with black criticsBy JOSEPH WILLIAMS | 9/29/11 5:03 AM EDT It was a speech intended to be a rousing call to arms for his 2012 re-election campaign and his jobs bill. But when President Barack Obama told a gala dinner of the Congressional Black Caucus over the weekend that it was time to “stop complaining, stop grumbling, stop crying” and get to work, he instead gave new ammunition to some prominent African American critics who say the nation’s first black president gets tough only when he’s talking to other black people. **SNIP** By the middle...

WASHINGTON -- A rattled tone of desperation has taken hold of President Obama's once self-confident rhetoric as he struggles to rally his party's dispirited political base. With the Gallup daily tracking poll showing his job approval score falling to 39 percent over the weekend, Obama shocked Congressional Black Caucus Democrats at a dinner Saturday with an intemperate scolding for daring to criticize his mishandling of the economy. "I don't have time to feel sorry for myself. I don't have time to complain," he told the assembled black leaders. "I am going to press on. I expect all of you to...

At a speech before the Congressional Black Caucus this weekend, President Obama told the crowd, “I don’t have time to feel sorry for myself. I don’t have time to complain.” He also told the CBC to “take off your bedroom slippers” and “put on your marching shoes.” And he scolded them to “stop complaining, stop grumbling, stop crying.” I have written before about Obama’s deep, almost desperate, need to portray himself as the opposite of what he is, to conceive of himself in a way that is at odds with reality. We have seen it in all sorts of areas,...

Rep. Waters: Obama ‘got carried away’By Alicia M. Cohn, Daniel Strauss and Mike Lillis 09/26/11 09:19 PM ET Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) on Monday tried to downplay friction between the black community and President Obama but warned the president might have gotten “carried away” in remarks made over the weekend. Waters, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), appeared in a number of media interviews on Monday following Obama’s speech to the CBC Gala on Saturday, where the president told the audience to “stop complaining, stop grumbling, stop crying.” Waters said that there was room for improvement in the...

While speaking with Tavis Smiley of PBS, Texas Democrat Sheila Jackson Lee said conservative bloggers should "shut up" and "stop playing racial politics." This from a member of the caucus that does little else but play the race card. Seconds later, Jackson Lee went on to say that buy American should be "buy African American." She also said that if Obama's jobs bill is passed, that contractors who "do not look like" her need to make sure that if they get federal money, their workforce "better be reflective of those suffering double-digit unemployment." "I don't consider it discrimination, I don't...

Nothing is worse for Black Americans, African-Americans, Afro-Americans, soul brothers and sisters, people of color, non-ofays, or whatever you choose to call that particular minority segment of our society than the Congressional Black Caucus. No, I take that back. There are worse things — for all of us — like a national debt the size of the Horsehead Nebula — but it is pretty bad. Like a Boris Karloff mummy escaped from some indestructible subterranean tomb, the Black Caucus has come back to haunt us with an ideology so outdated you can’t even find it on the Rosetta Stone. We’re...

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) on Monday complained that President Obama had unfairly singled out the African-American community and characterized them as complainers over the weekend. "Despite the fact that he's appointed [Sonia] Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, he has an office for excellence in Hispanic education right in the White House, [the Hispanic caucus is] still pushing him," she said. "He certainly didn't tell them to stop complaining, and he would never say that to the gay and lesbian community, who really pushed him on Don't Ask Don't Tell. Even in a speech to AIPAC [the American Israel Public Affairs...

..."a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, says she found the president's language "a bit curious." She says Obama didn't address Hispanics in such a blunt manner and would never use that language in a speech to a gathering of gays or Jews."

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a fiery summons to an important voting bloc, President Barack Obama told blacks on Saturday to quit crying and complaining and "put on your marching shoes" to follow him into battle for jobs and opportunity. And though he didn't say it directly, for a second term, too. Obama's speech to the annual awards dinner of the Congressional Black Caucus was his answer to increasingly vocal griping from black leaders that he's been giving away too much in talks with Republicans -- and not doing enough to fight black unemployment, which is nearly double the national average...

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Against a backdrop of slipping support among African Americans and widely acknowledged tension with black members of Congress, President Barack Obama delivered a fiery defense of his record at a Congressional Black Caucus gala Saturday night. Judging by the audience’s reaction — the president’s words often brought the crowd to their feet — Obama went a long way toward silencing his critics. Like a minister preaching to a restive choir, Obama used familiar cultural touchstones to remind the audience of his roots, including Biblical references, a rhythmic cadence and his own humble beginnings as the son of a single mother...

Obama Tells Congressional Black Caucus To 'Stop Grumbling' Zeke Miller Sep. 24, 2011, 11:22 PM Image: AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta President Barack Obama addressed the Congressional Black Caucus Annual Phoenix Award Dinner Saturday night to send a message to an increasingly restless base that he has not forsaken them. Members of the CBC spent much of the August recess hosting jobs fairs across the country — and on occasion were not shy about venting their frustration with the nation's first black President. But Obama used the occasion to make it clear that while progress has been slow, he has not...

When President Obama takes the stage Saturday for his annual address to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, it is certain to be a warm and festive affair, but probably a little less festive and lot more more urgent than on previous occasions. In the audience will be Rep. Maxine Waters (D), the California congresswoman who has been a lead critic of the president and his administration for not being sufficiently focused on the stubborn problem of black unemployment. Waters says she expects more from Obama on Saturday. “African Americans are very proud that there is an African American man who...

Rep. Waters urges Obama to drop nice-guy act and fight Republicans, Tea Party By Mike Lillis - 09/22/11 02:46 PM ET It’s time for President Obama to quit watching sports and drinking beer with his political opponents in the hope it will lead to a bipartisan agreement, Rep. Maxine Waters said Thursday. The outspoken California Democrat needs to fight harder against the GOP and Tea Party and for Democratic policy priorities, outspoken Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said Thursday. “He's been very nice about it,” Waters said of Obama’s budget negotiations with Republicans. “He's been on the other side of the...