Greene County Democrat

Month: October 2018

  • Congresswoman Terri Sewell visits Greene County

     

     

    Congresswoman Terri Sewell visited the Eutaw City Hall last Monday for a “Congress in Your Community” session serving people who live in Greene County. Sewell who represents the Seventh Congressional District of Alabama that stretches from Birmingham through Tuscaloosa into the western Alabama Black Belt counties came to give a report to her constituents on the status of legislation and projects from the nation’s Capitol. “Things in Washington, D. C. are pretty dysfunctional. We are supposed to be seeking solutions but mostly we see politicians, like President Trump sowing discord,” said Sewell. “ I am watching the 2018 Farm Bill to be sure that this major agricultural legislation serves family farmers, especially African-American farmers, does not slash child nutrition and SNAP (food stamps) too far and helps our catfish farmers, who are endangered by imports of mislabeled fish grown under less than satisfactory environmental conditions,” said Sewell.

    Sewell indicated that much of the government, including farm programs, was operating under a Continuing Resolution for budgetary purposes until December 7, 2018. “ We still have to reach some decisions and compromises to fund the government. I hope we will be able to do this work during the lame duck session after the November election,” said Sewell. Sewell said she hopes Congress will take action on raising the minimum wage from $7.25 to a more livable wage in stages up to $15 an hour, depending on local economic conditions. She also said the issue of pay equity for women needs to be addressed. She also said changes and improvements were needed in the Affordable Care Act to make it more effective for people. “We don’t need to tear it apart, like the President and Republicans are doing but we need to fix it,” she said. Sewell said that she was focused on changes in Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates that would help rural hospitals in their efforts to survive and continue providing health services in disadvantaged communities. Sewell said she was also concerned about tariffs that President Trump had placed on steel, aluminum and automobile parts. “In Alabama, we are the nation’s third largest producer of automobiles and auto parts and these tariffs may hurt our automobile industry in the long run.” Sewell introduced William Scott of Selma who is working with the upcoming 2020 U. S. Census. Scott said that jobs will be available for people who want to work on the Census. He urged people who were interested to go to the website: http://www.2020census.gov/jobs or call 1-855-562-2020. Sewell concluded the program by urging everyone in attendance to be sure to vote in the up-coming Midterm elections in November. “Please go and vote and give the Democratic Party a chance to be a check and balance on this President and his party who have controlled the national government for the past two years.”

  • Editoria: Vote for Walt Maddox for Governor and Straight Democratic Ticket on Nov. 6

    In less than two weeks, all Alabama voters will have an important choice to make, on Tuesday, November 6, 2018. We urge you to use your vote for change and progress by voting for Walt Maddox for Governor and the straight Democratic ticket. Walt Maddox is a twelve-year Mayor of Tuscaloosa who has helped rebuild that city in a fair way after the April 2011 tornadoes. He has a positive vision for Alabama that is forward looking and inclusive. His opponent, incumbent Kay Ivey is looking to preserve the Confederate monuments and policies of the past. Walt Maddox says he will extend Medicaid to 300,000 low income Alabamians on the first hour of the first day he is in office. On this one issue, this one promise alone, we need to vote for Maddox and change the backward direction of Alabama. Extending Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act will bring health care and jobs to every county in the state. This action will help to save many rural hospitals that are on the brink of closing. Walt Maddox and the other Democratic candidates propose an ‘education lottery’ and other steps to generate new revenues to improve education from pre-k through college. The Democratic candidates also support increasing the minimum wage, reforms to our criminal justice system, an end to voter suppression, a more welcoming approach to immigrants and other changes that will make Alabama a more livable and equitable state for all of its residents. For Greene County in particular, Maddox and Democratic State Attorney General candidate Joe Siegelman will dismiss the current lawsuit against electronic bingo, promoted by the current incumbent AG and Governor. Allowed to continue, this lawsuit could end the benefits of bingo for Greene County in terms of jobs and revenues for government and charitable agencies. Much of the nation’s attention is fixed on the historic Governors and Senate races in neighboring Southern states, like Georgia, Florida and Texas, but we have a chance in Alabama to continue the trend we began with the election of Senator Doug Jones in December 2017. With historic turnouts in the Alabama Black Belt, inner cities and among voters who are disgusted with President Trump, we can change Alabama on November 6 and move it in a positive and progressive direction.

  • Newswire : Namibia agrees to ‘land deal’ with Russian billionaire

     

    Namibia Land Deal

     

    Oct. 22, 2018 (GIN) – The Namibian government has leased four farms for 99 years to a company owned by a Russian billionaire. The farms, valued at $3 million and measuring a total 42,000 acres, were registered as state property by the land reform ministry. Land reform minister Utoni Nujoma appears to be having second thoughts about being linked to the unusual transaction, struck two days before a national land conference began on Oct. 1. When news of the deal was leaked to the public, the official opposition Popular Democratic Movement threatened to take the government to court, while the Affirmative Repositioning movement said it would approach the Anti-Corruption Commission and the ombudsman to investigate the transaction. Documents seen by The Namibian newspaper revealed the name of Nujoma signing the title deeds of the farms on behalf of the government. Utoni Nujoma initially took responsibility for the sale, saying that he obtained Cabinet permission to grant approval to Sardarov’s company to take the farms “under stringent conditions.” The following day, however, there was a change of heart. Nujoma denied any part in the transaction and claimed the document made public was fake and that his signature was a forgery. In the meantime, criticism about the deal has escalated, with National Unity Democratic Organization deputy secretary general Vetaruhe Kandorozu calling on Nujoma to resign with immediate effect. He further called on President Hage Geingob to cancel the transaction between the government and the Russian billionaire. “Allocate those farms for the resettlement of the landless dispossessed and all Namibians to be resettled there as per the resolutions of the just-ended land conference,” he said. The conference addressed restoring property rights to the original Black property owners. An earlier land conference said that the complexities in redressing ancestral land claims and restitution of such claims in full was “impossible.” A presidential commission of inquiry on the issue was proposed to restore social justice and ensure the economic empowerment of the affected communities. The government can now confiscate foreign-owned farmland with just compensation and absentee landlords can now lose their underutilized commercial land if it is eligible for expropriation. The conference drew hundreds of protestors who charged that the outcome was premeditated, making the convention a “rubber stamping exercise.”

  • Newswire :   Senators urge Trump Administration to halt deportation of Mauritanians

    Senator Kamala Harris

    (D-CA) WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Kamala D. Harris (D-CA) and Representatives Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), and Joyce Beatty (D-OH) led a group of lawmakers in a bicameral letter calling on Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to cease the deportation of Black Mauritanian nationals, who face the threat of race-based discrimination, violence, or slavery if forced to return to Mauritania. “Most Mauritanians in the United States arrived here seeking refuge from government-led racial and ethnic persecution and extreme violence,” wrote the lawmakers. “For the following two decades our government declined to deport Mauritanians because of the dangerous and potentially life-threatening conditions they would face if they were returned to their country of origin.” There are approximately 3,000 Black Mauritanians in the United States, most of whom arrived in the 1990s after their government forcibly expelled them and stripped them of their citizenship on the basis of their race and ethnicity. So far in fiscal year 2018, the Trump administration has deported 79 Mauritanians, up from eight in FY 2017. The lawmakers continued, “Mauritanians deported from the United States face unacceptable threats of racial and ethnic discrimination and slavery…We ask DHS and the State Department to jointly respond within 60 days to the following questions to clarify U.S. policies and practices regarding deportations of Mauritanians.” In addition to Senator Harris and Representatives Thompson, Nadler, Lofgren, and Beatty, the letter was signed by Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Representatives Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ), Jim McGovern (D-MA), Alcee Hastings (D-FL), Debbie Dingell (D-MI), Yvette Clarke (D-NY), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ), John Lewis (D-GA), Colleen Hanabusa (D-HI), Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), Elijah Cummings (D-MD), Al Green (D-TX), Linda Sanchez (D-CA), Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), Nydia Velázquez (D-NY), Judy Chu (D-CA), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Albio Sires (D-NJ), Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Keith Ellison (D-MN), and David Cicilline (D-RI).

  • Newswire :White Supremacists release anti-Andrew Gillum robocall featuring monkey sounds in Florida’s Governors race

     By: Newsone

    Andrew Gillum

    A representative for Andrew Gillum spoke out Tuesday against a White supremacist website’s racist robocall referring to the African-American Democratic candidate for Governor of Florida as a “negro” and “monkey.” “These disgusting, abhorrent robocalls represent a continuation of the ugliest, most divisive campaign in Florida’s history,” Geoff Burgan told The Huffington Post after Gillum’s acclaimed performance during Sunday night’s debate. “We would hope that these calls, and the dangerous people who are behind them, are not given anymore attention than they already have been.” An actor, presumably hired or associated with the Neo-Nazi website The Road To Power, pretended to be Florida’s Democratic gubernatorial candidate during the call. The actor spoke in an exaggerated stereotypical Black southern voice over music from the minstrel era and “Amos ‘n’ Andy,” a TV sitcom that perpetuated several racist tropes about Black people in the 1950s. The person is heard saying, “Well hello there. I is the Negro Andrew Gillum, and I be asking you to make me governor of this here state of Florida.” A screeching monkey sound is also heard on the horrific robocall, which circulated on Tuesday. The ad veers into more terrible territory when the actor describes Gillum’s health care plan as “quite cheap” because “he’ll just give chicken feet to people as medicine.” The call also mentions that Jewish voters will support Gillum because Jews are “the ones that been putting Negroes in charge over the white folk, just like they done after the Civil War.” After the call ends, a disclaimer points out that The Road To Power website and podcast’s name is responsible for the ad. The Idaho-based group has a history of making racist robocalls, including those previously made against Gillum in August as well as in several other states such as Oregon and Virginia. As to whether Ron DeSantis has anything to do with the racist robocall, his camp fiercely denied any connection and denounced the ad in a statement. DeSantis, however, had blown a racist dog whistle with his comment advising Florida voters not to “monkey up” the election by voting for Gillum.

  • Newswire:  GOP plan to shame Stacey Abrams for burning Georgia’s racist confederate flag in 1992 backfires

     By Nigel Roberts

    Stacey Abrams campaigning to be Georgia Governor

    In a tight race to be Georgia’s next governor, an apparent Republican attempt to shame Democratic nominee Stacey Abrams for participating in the burning of Georgia’s racist flag back in college has backfired. Abrams, who would become the nation’s first Black woman governor if elected, defended her actions. An image from a 1992 Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper clip of the demonstration suddenly surfaced on social media on Monday night — the eve of Abrams’ first debate against her GOP rival Brian Kemp — the New York Times reported. The picture shows Abrams, during the end of her freshman year at Spelman College, burning the flag alongside two other African-American demonstrators. Abrams’ campaign confirmed to the Times that she indeed participated in the protest against the Confederate symbol on the flag. “During Stacey Abrams’ college years, Georgia was at a crossroads, struggling with how to overcome racially divisive issues, including symbols of the Confederacy, the sharpest of which was the inclusion of the Confederate emblem in the Georgia state flag,” a statement from the campaign read. “This conversation was sweeping across Georgia as numerous organizations, prominent leaders, and students engaged in the ultimately successful effort to change the flag.” Georgia changed its state flag in order to emblazon it with the Confederate flag after Brown v. Board in order to send a message to its black citizens about what white leadership felt about their rights. Black Atlanta mayors refused to fly it. The demonstration happened when then-governor Zell Miller made his first unsuccessful bid to remove the controversial Confederate symbol from the state flag, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Georgia’s last Democratic governor, Roy Barnes, successfully authorized a redesign of the flag in 2001—a move that contributed to his political defeat in 2002. Abrams’ opposition to Confederate symbols will likely become a debate topic on Tuesday night. Kemp has vowed to protect Confederate monuments.

  • Newswire: Jumping hurdles to get to the ballot box: Voter IDs and Registration

     By Rosemary Eng, NorthStarNewsToday.com

    Stop Voter Suppression

    (TriceEdneyWire.com) – The easy part of voting is voting. The hard part is getting through the minefield of obstacles on the way to the ballot box. Besides having to deal with oftentimes confusing voter registration regulations, getting the right voter ID is becoming another problem as states rework ID requirements. Too often it’s African Americans and Native Americans, the people who fought the bloodiest battles to gain voting rights in America, who have to struggle the hardest to meet differing government rules. The U.S. Supreme Court recently upheld a law that says North Dakota voter identification has to show a street address. This effectively blocks numbers of North Dakota native peoples such as the Sioux and Chippewa from voting since people living on reservations do not have street addresses. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) stated, “Since the U.S. Postal Service doesn’t provide residential mail delivery in remote areas, many members of North Dakota’s Native American tribes list their mailing addresses, like P.O. boxes, on their IDs. And some also don’t have supplemental documentation, like a utility bill or bank statement, because of homelessness or poverty.” P.O. boxes are not an accepted form of address for North Dakota voter ID. Connor Maxwell, research associate for race and ethnicity policy, at the nonpartisan Center of American Progress, in Washington, D.C. says voter ID requirements are particularly difficult for people of color, the elderly and the poor. “One of the most insidious voter suppression tactics levied against the African American community is difficult voter ID requirements,” he says. North Carolina legislators, he says, are working to put into place a constitutional amendment mandating voter ID for all residents. Voter ID is usually interpreted as meaning a drivers license because it shows a photo. The requirement is onerous for African Americans in North Carolina urban centers because they mostly use buses and trains and are less likely to have drivers licenses, he says. Maxwell says the voting-restrictive trend of demanding voter IDs seems to be growing. New U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who supported the North Dakota voter ID residential address requirement, upheld a strict voter ID law which has been said affected some 80,000 registered voters, mostly minorities, in South Carolina, Maxwell reports. Kavanaugh served in 2012 on the U.S. Court of Appeals for District of Columbia Circuit and wrote that the voter ID law “was not discriminatory, despite evidence from the U.S. Department of Justice that it would disenfranchise tens of thousands of voters of color. He also wrote that the law was not enacted for a discriminatory purpose, minimizing the fact that the bill’s author, state Rep. Alan Clemmons (R-SC), responded enthusiastically to a racially charged email from a constituent. That email stated that if African- Americans were offered money to get IDs, it would “be like a swarm of bees going after a watermelon.”

  • Newswire : Young medical worker executed by Boko Haram caliphate in Nigeria

    Hauwa Liman, aide worker

    Oct. 15, 2018 (GIN) – “We urge you: spare and release these women,” begged Patricia Danzi, director of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Africa. .. “Like all those abducted, they are not part of any fight.” “They are daughters and sisters, one is a mother — women with their futures ahead of them, children to raise, and families to return to.” Nonetheless, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), a self-declared caliphate of Boko Haram, rejected their entreaties and executed 24 year old Hauwa Liman, an aide worker. The insurgents further vowed to make another captive, schoolgirl Leah Sharibu, a slave for life. In a video seen by some journalists, Hauwa was forced to kneel down, with her hands tied inside a white hijab, and was then shot at a close range. A midwife with ICRC, Saifura Ahmed, who had been abducted at the same time, was executed by Boko Haram in September. ISWAP said the two women were killed because they were Murtads (apostates) by the group because they were once Muslims that abandoned their Islam when they chose to work with the Red Cross. The 24-year-old nurse and student of Health Education at the University of Maiduguri was among the three aid workers abducted in an attack on a heavily-guarded military facility in the small town of Rann, Borno State on March 1, 2018. The insurgents also abducted Alice Loksha Ngaddah, a nurse and mother of two, and Saifura Husseini Ahmed, a midwife. Four soldiers and four policemen were also killed. “From today, Sharibu and Ngaddah are now our slaves,” it said. “Based on our doctrines, it is now lawful for us to do whatever we want to do with them.” Regrets from Nigerian Information Minister Lai Mohammed did not persuade some Nigerian citizens that the government had done all it could possibly do to free the women. Dr Dípò (@OgbeniDipo), writing on The Nigerian Guardian, commented: “If she was a child of the elite, perhaps there would be more urgency and this wouldn’t happen.” Dr Chima Matthew Amadi (@AMADICHIMA) wrote: Hauwa Leman executed by ISWAP according to reports. We had 10 days to save her life but we were busy. Busy with politics; busy with useless Executive Order; busy with nothing. Sorry Hauwa, Nigeria failed you, like we failed Anita yesterday and countless others.” Meanwhile, a new entry into the political race for the presidency is Obiageli Ezekwesili. In 2014, Ms Ezekwesili, a graduate of Harvard and a founding director of Transparency International, captured the world’s attention with #BringBackOurGirls, a campaign to rescue 276 schoolgirls who had been kidnapped in Chibok, Nigeria. In announcing a presidential bid on Oct. 7, the former World Bank official now hopes to upend establishment politics in Africa’s most populous country.

  • Newswire: Harvard University honors Colin Kaepernick for his fight against social injustice

    By NewsOne Staff

     

    Colin Kaepernick

     

    Former football player Colin Kaepernick has continually used his platform as an avenue to bring attention to social injustice. He’s been honored by several institutions and organizations for lending his voice and resources to overcome issues faced by the Black community. The latest institution to recognize Kaepernick’s efforts is Harvard University. The school awarded him with the W.E.B. Du Bois medal on Thursday, the Huffington Post reported. Colin Kaepernick received Harvard’s prestigious W.E.B. Du Bois medal last week for his tireless protests of police brutality and racial inequality. The medal is awarded to individuals who are fierce advocates for human rights and who have contributed to shaping Black culture, the news outlet writes. Kaepernick joins a list of legends who have received the award in the past, including the late Muhammad Ali and Maya Angelou. While accepting the award, Kaepernick recounted interacting with a high school football team during his travels around the country. “ One of the young brothers says, ‘We don’t get to eat at home, so we’re going to eat on this field.’ That moment has never left me. And I’ve carried that everywhere I went,” he said, according to the news outlet. “I feel like it’s not only my responsibility but all our responsibilities as people that are in positions of privilege, in positions of power, to continue to fight for them and uplift them, empower them. Because if we don’t, we become complicit in the problem.” Amongst the other individuals who were honored included Bryan Stevenson of the Equal Justice Institute in Montgomery, Alabama, Florence Ladd, and Dave Chappelle. Kaepernick has won several awards for his brave decision to stay dedicated to what he believed in even though it impacted his career. Earlier this year, Amnesty International, a global human rights organization, awarded Kaepernick its 2018 Ambassador of Conscience Award. “This is an award that I share with all of the countless people throughout the world combating the human rights violations of police officers, and their uses of oppressive and excessive force,” he said during his acceptance speech.

  • Newswire : Election Day Countdown: Civil Rights Leaders fight for maximum voter participation; Georgia is unjustly holding 53,000 voter registrations

    By Hazel Trice Edney (TriceEdneyWire.com) – The Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law has filed suit against Georgia Secretary of State and Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp over the state’s “discriminatory and unlawful ‘exact match’ voter suppression scheme.” The suit alleges that Georgia’s “‘no match, no vote’ voter registration scheme violates the Voting Rights Act, the National Voter Registration Act, and the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution,” according to a statement from the organization. The alleged scheme appears to intentionally deter Black voters who intend to vote for Kemp’s opponent, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacie Abrams, who would become the nation’s first Black woman governor. Meanwhile, Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Cedric Richmond has written a scathing letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions strongly objecting to what appears to be his “abdication of his complete abdication of the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) voting rights oversight responsibilities” in the Georgia controversy. And NAACP President Derrick Johnson has announced that the historic civil rights organization is also monitoring the situation in Georgia, which he describes as “a stain on our system of democracy when less than a month before an election which could produce the first African-American female governor in our nation’s history, we are seeing this type of voter suppression scheme attempted by a state official whose candidacy for the governorship produces an irremediable conflict of interest.” The war for votes in the Nov. 6 election is on. And civil rights leaders across the country are fighting vigorously for each one. Despite the contention for political control of the U. S. House of Representatives, the historic gubernatorial election in Georgia is the ground zero of sorts as it tests fair elections after the 2013 Shelby v. Holder U. S. Supreme Court decision that outlawed the Section 5 “Pre-clearance Clause”, which once mandated Georgia and a list of other states to seek permission from the Justice Department before changing voting laws. “Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp has been a driving force behind multiple voter suppression efforts throughout the years in Georgia,” says Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee. “If there is one person in Georgia who knows that the ‘Exact Match’ scheme has a discriminatory impact on minority voters, it’s Brian Kemp because we successfully sued him over a mirror policy in 2016.” In a nutshell, Kemp’s “exact match” policy has placed more than 53,000 voter registration applications on “pending” status a month before the midterm election. They are on hold because of simple typos or for not exactly matching the registrants’ official identification for any reason. Though Kemp contends the 53,000 can still vote, lawyers contend that just the implication that the vote may not count or that they may be question at the polls could cause Black voters to become skittish and stay at home. There exists a stark parallel between the voter suppression schemes levied by states around the country prior to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the insidious tactics used by Secretary Kemp to capitalize on the Supreme Court’s decision in Shelby County to gut the Act and its protections for African Americans and other people of color that came with it. No less than 70 percent of people impacted by ‘Exact Match’ are African-American. We will continue fighting voter suppression to ensure a level playing field for voters across Georgia this election cycle.” In his letter to Attorney General Sessions, CBC Chairman Richmond says Georgia is just a tip of the iceberg for voter suppression antics going on around the country. “The current state of election integrity across the nation is in a tenuous position thanks to your intentionally lax approach to enforcement of voting rights laws. Bad actors in governments in various states have been deliberately compromising fair elections with impunity,” Richmond wrote. The NAACP’s Johnson says the organization will continue to monitor Georgia closely after a major win against voter suppression in the state just two months ago. In August the NAACP Georgia State Conference successfully fought against the closing of 7 of 9 polls in the nearly all Black area of Randolph County. The Associated Press has reported that Kemp has “cancelled over 1.4 million voter registrations since 2012. Nearly 670,000 registrations were cancelled in 2017 alone.”