Haitians Still Hungry, Must Get on List for Aid

PETIONVILLE, Haiti (Feb. 5) -- Mayor Claire Lydie Parent's office is directly in front of Place Saint Pierre, a central plaza that serves as the main camp for citizens of this suburb of Port-au-Prince who have been displaced by the Jan. 12 earthquake. Crowds have been gathering there for days, and the mayor's office has been a focal point for their anger.

"They think City Hall gives the food," the mayor says. "I tell them, 'Okay, I understand. If I had the food I would give it to you.' But [the international organizations] don't deal with City Hall."

On Sunday, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) began a major scale up of food distribution in Haiti, aiming to reach two million people in the next two weeks. But the WFP has been mired in complex coordination and distribution challenges, including gas shortages, security concerns, and communications problems.

And Mayor Lydie, as she is called, blocked aid after a conflict with UN coordinators and political competitors, resulting in even more protests and plenty of accusations hurled in every direction.

Place Saint Pierre is one of the area's biggest refugee camps, with perhaps 1,000 residents. Residents of the camp say that people are constantly coming around and taking names for lists of aid, but many of them are probably scam artists.

The problem in Petionville illustrates the challenges international organizations will face as they attempt to deliver foreign aid on a neighborhood level, with little or no inside knowledge of the country.

The WFP spent 18 days planning the distribution that began this week. Working with eight major partners, including Save the Children and World Vision International, the UN selected 16 distribution points in and around Port-au-Prince. The distribution points are mostly schoolyards or churches with a defendable perimeter.

The program works by distributing food coupons to needy women, who have been identified by local officials and community leaders. Their names are added to a list of recipients, and NGO volunteers give each woman a coupon for food. Women then come to the distribution points and exchange the coupon for a 25 kg. bag of rice.

The "lists" as people in the camps call them, are a hot political issue, as well as an opportunity for fraud. Everyone wants to get their name on a list, and rumors fly that local officials are only recording the names of their family and friends.

In reality, community representatives are supposed to make field assessments of populations in camps by working with knowledgeable insiders to determine who is genuinely at need. But this is one of the most difficult challenges of food distribution in any refugee camp, especially so in an urban environment, with one million newly homeless.

In Petionville, the problems are compounded by Haiti's indigenous political structure, where centralized authority usurped the power of municipalities.

"I don't know anything. I can't say anything. I don't see anything," Mayor Lydie says.

On Wednesday, a peaceful but boisterous crowd protested in front of Mayor Lydie's office and ran through the streets of Petionville demanding aid and attention. Mayor Lydie accused another local official, Magdalie Marc Pierre Louis, of organizing the demonstrations to hurt her.

Monique Excellence, the local UN representative, confirms she has never met with the mayor. But only because Lydie refuses, she says. Lydie says she has never even heard of Monique.

On the other side of town, crowds have also been gathering outside the home of Magdalie Marque Perrie, local elected authority, or CASEC (Conseils d'Administration de Sections Communales). Magdalie and Lydie are political rivals. Many contend that Magdalie is angling for the job of Mayor.

This past week Magdalie was usually followed by a small entourage, including distribution volunteers, all of whom had harsh words for the mayor. Hungry, angry residents surrounded the volunteers as they repeated the rumors they heard on the street: Mayor Lydie is selling food coupons, Mayor Lydie is only giving food to her friends, Mayor Lydie wants to be the only one giving out food.

At Route de Fréres on Tuesday, the first day of the distribution, aid delivery was almost halted after a representative of the mayor's office failed to appear. UN protocol for the operations requires four official individuals oversee the distribution: a representative of the Mayor's office, the CASEC, a WFP official, and a person from the partnering NGO. On the second day of distribution, the mayor still could not be reached, and the planned food delivery to 1,700 people did not take place.

The version of events, as described by the three women involved: Magdalie, Monique and Mayor Lydie, are a complicated patchwork of truths, near-truths, and outright accusations. The mayor says Magdalie is spreading lies about her and organized the protests in front of City Hall in order to hurt her reputation. Magdalie says the Mayor made a direct phone call to stop the aid, and should be blamed for its failures.

Monique, the WFP representative, contends she spoke directly with Lydie, and the mayor told her, "You already chose the place, you already chose the time, you guys just go with the distribution; you don't need me."

On the second day of distribution, Monique says the Mayor refused a meeting, so she decided, instead, to ask Haiti's secretary of state for agriculture, Michel Chancy, to intervene and force a representative to attend. As a result, aid delivery resumed on Wednesday.

At UN headquarters, now operating out of the former Logistics Base and airport, Natasha Scripture, a spokesperson for the WFP, said the organization, "can't get involved in local politics. Our job is to get food to people, there's always going to be food disputes and disruptions."

In an effort to avoid violence, officials only allowed women to receive this food aid. But for many women, the bag is heavy. At the distribution point on Route de Fréres, a younger woman offers to carry rice for an older, injured woman, but must negotiate a price to do so, and convince her she is not stealing the bag.

But for Christian Nzeyimana, the Acting Head of the Port-au-Prince Sub-Office for WFP, local politics is about to take a main stage. He takes on the responsibility of supervising the 30 local field monitors, like Monique Excellence, who work with local officials as UN liaisons on the ground.

On Thursday, he was aware of this week's problem in Petionville, but only heard that aid was stopped because of a "political problem."

Like almost all of his colleagues, Christian faces an enormous and unprecedented challenge in Haiti-- to deliver urgent aid to millions of people in crowded urban neighborhoods he has never actually seen. The needs of other cities, like Jacmel, St. Marc, Gonaives and Leogane have not yet been addressed.

Christian only arrived in the country on Saturday, coming from Burundi, a place he describes, with a smile, as "Pretty different."

Follow the URL below to see original article w/ more pics by Emily Troutman for AOL;

http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/politics-bureaucracy-get-in-the-way-of-feeding-haitians/19347200

BE SURE TO NOTE that at this same time also, the Pope parties in Rome;
Click on the title above to read more about this and remember, 75% of Haitians are Catholic;
http://thedailyphew.blogspot.com/2010/02/pope-parties-in-rome-while-homeless.html

Mr. Sarah Palin an Oil Man, Runs Stuff for Wifey Behind the Scenes;

What I find scariest of all is the fact that some people actually take the air-head (Sarah) seriously!

Todd Palin Had Big Role in Sarah's Politics
David Knowles Writer

(Feb. 5) -- Newly released e-mails show that Todd Palin, Sarah Palin's husband, played an active role during her term as Alaska governor and in her campaign for vice president.

Some 1,200 e-mails released to NBC News by the state of Alaska show that Todd Palin's role in policymaking was far-reaching. According to NBC News, "The governor's husband got involved in a judicial appointment, monitored contract negotiations with public employee unions, received background checks on a corporate CEO, added his approval or disapproval to state board appointments and passed financial information marked 'confidential' from his oil company employer to a state attorney."

David McNew, Getty Images
In one e-mail, Todd Palin advised his wife's press chief to remove a newspaper from a press list after it ran an op-ed piece critical of the governor. Here, Todd and Sarah Palin appear on stage during an election-night rally in Phoenix, Nov. 4, 2008.
NBC suggests that Palin and his wife sent many of the e-mails from private addresses outside the state system to try to put the information beyond the reach of public records laws.

The common perception of Todd Palin, often referred to as "the First Dude,'' had him spending his time racing snowmobiles, fishing for salmon and taking care of the Palins' children while his wife was in office. He was also seen as reluctant to dive into the nitty-gritty of the political world. But now that e-mail correspondence between Todd Palin and Alaska state officials has been released to NBC News, after a request was made under public records laws, that view may be up for revision.

Also See: Alaskans Are Over Palin Mania

NBC says the e-mails indicate, among other things, that Sarah Palin detailed to her staff strategies to disguise the amount of electrical work required to hook up a new tanning bed at the governor's mansion. In another e-mail, Todd Palin advised his wife's press chief to remove the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner from a press list after it ran an op-ed piece critical of the governor.

"Take the news miner off the press release address list for a few days, see how long it takes them to realize their [sic] not on the list," Palin wrote in one e-mail.

Citing executive privilege, Alaska officials have withheld 243 e-mails from the media. A review of their subject lines by NBC, however, shows that many written by Todd Palin directly involved state politics.

Among the subjects covered in the unreleased e-mails are "media questions about Todd Palin's work and potential conflict of interests," "strategy for responding to media allegations" and "strategy for responding to questions about pregnancy."
Filed under: Nation, Politics


http://www.aolnews.com/politics/article/todd-palin-had-big-role-in-sarahs-politics-e-mails-show/19346679

SC to Enact "Subversive Activities Registration Act"

South Carolina Code of Laws
(Unannotated)
Current through the end of the 2009 Session
Leave it to SC

Title 23 - Law Enforcement and Public Safety

CHAPTER 29.

SUBVERSIVE ACTIVITIES REGISTRATION ACT
SECTION 23-29-10. Short title.

This chapter may be cited as the "Subversive Activities Registration Act."

SECTION 23-29-20. Definitions.

For the purposes of this chapter the following words, phrases and terms are defined as follows:

(1) "Subversive organization" means every corporation, society, association, camp, group, bund, political party, assembly, body or organization, composed of two or more persons, which directly or indirectly advocates, advises, teaches or practices the duty, necessity or propriety of controlling, conducting, seizing or overthrowing the government of the United States, of this State or of any political subdivision thereof by force or violence or other unlawful means;

(2) "Organization subject to foreign control" means every corporation, society, association, camp, group, bund, political party, assembly, body or other organization, composed of two or more persons, which comes within either of the following:

(a) it solicits or accepts financial contributions, loans or support of any kind directly or indirectly from, or is affiliated directly or indirectly with, a foreign government or a political subdivision thereof, an agent, agency or instrumentality of a foreign government or political subdivision thereof, a political party in a foreign country or an international political organization or

(b) its policies, or any of them, are determined by or at the suggestion of, or in collaboration with, a foreign government or political subdivision thereof, an agent, agency or instrumentality of a foreign government or a political subdivision thereof, a political party in a foreign country or an international political organization;

(3) "Foreign agent" means any person whose actions, or any of them, are determined by or at the suggestion of, or in collaboration with, a foreign government or political subdivision thereof, an instrumentality or agency of a foreign government or political subdivision thereof, a political party in a foreign country or an international political organization; and

(4) "Business" includes, but is not limited to, speaking engagements.

SECTION 23-29-30. Effect on freedom of press or speech.

Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to authorize, require or establish censorship or to limit in any way or infringe upon freedom of the press or of speech as guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States and no regulation shall be promulgated hereunder having that effect.

SECTION 23-29-40. Organizations exempt from application of chapter.

The terms of this chapter do not apply to any labor union or religious, fraternal or patriotic organization, society or association, or their members, whose objectives and aims do not contemplate the overthrow of the government of the United States, of this State or of any political subdivision thereof by force or violence or other unlawful means.

SECTION 23-29-50. Registration by subversive and foreign-controlled organizations.

Every subversive organization and organization subject to foreign control shall register with the Secretary of State on forms prescribed by him within thirty days after coming into existence in this State.

SECTION 23-29-60. Registration of members of subversive and foreign-controlled organizations.

Every member of a subversive organization, or an organization subject to foreign control, every foreign agent and every person who advocates, teaches, advises or practices the duty, necessity or propriety of controlling, conducting, seizing or overthrowing the government of the United States, of this State or of any political subdivision thereof by force or violence or other unlawful means, who resides, transacts any business or attempts to influence political action in this State, shall register with the Secretary of State on the forms and at the times prescribed by him.

SECTION 23-29-70. Forms and schedule for filing information.

Every organization or person coming within the provisions of this chapter shall file with the Secretary of State all information which he may request, on the forms and at the times he may prescribe.

SECTION 23-29-80. Promulgation of rules and regulations.

The Secretary of State may adopt and promulgate any rules and regulations, not inconsistent with the terms of this chapter, which may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this chapter and may alter or repeal such rules and regulations.

SECTION 23-29-90. Penalties.

Any organization or person who violates any of the provisions of this chapter shall, upon conviction thereof, be punished by a fine of not more than twenty-five thousand dollars or imprisonment for not more than ten years, or by both fine and imprisonment.

http://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t23c029.htm

The Roberts Court Takes Aim at Campaign Finance Reform

by Alec Baldwin for HuffPost

It was the late actor Ron Silver who had introduced me to the Buckley v. Valeo decision, back in 1988, shortly after Silver, Susan Sarandon, Chris Reeve and HBO head Michael Fuchs had formed the advocacy group The Creative Coalition (TCC). The issue of campaign finance reform had begun to emerge as one of the organization's primary interests, along with government funding for the arts, abortion rights, gun control and environmental protection. I had studied political science at George Washington University from 1976 to 1979, but the Buckley v. Valeo case, hastily put into place for the 1976 Carter-Ford race, did not seem to loom in the political mainstream as it did in later years, oddly enough. And certainly not in the way it does right now.

Buckley v. Valeo was, ostensibly, a response to Nixon's 1972 campaign machine. Nixon, you will recall, never did much that his predecessors had not done. He just did more of it. An almost obscene amount of it. And he seemed to have little or no conscience about it. The Congress amended federal campaign law in 1974 over Gerald Ford's veto. The case was filed in federal district court in Washington, D.C. on January of 1975 against officials of the Federal Election Commission. The plaintiffs included former Senator and 1968 presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy. It made its way to the Supreme Court, who issued their decision in January of 1976. Some argued that the timing of the overall litigation was orchestrated to allow for any challenges and to insure the law would be in place for the Carter-Ford race. Some say the process was rushed.

Buckley v. Valeo is flawed. It basically states that the government can limit individual contributions to campaigns to address the appearance of a quid pro quo in the elective process. But it puts no limits on what candidates can spend, opening the door for the Michael Huffingtons, Jon Corzines and Michael Bloombergs of the landscape, wealthy men who manufacture absurd populist images by spending tens of millions of their own personal fortunes on their campaigns. The notion that "cash is speech" and that limitations on candidates' spending is an abridgment of their rights has been attacked vociferously by reform advocates. If cash is speech, reformers argue, then those with the most cash speak loudest, and progressives find this to be the fulcrum of the entire problem.

Public financing of certain races, which exists today, has been widely viewed as a possible answer. However, the intended benefits of such regulation are obviated unless all parties are functioning with essentially the same or nearly the same amounts of money. Candidates for public office may not need "ceilings" imposed on them for campaign spending, but they do need "floors," a publicly funded source of money that will insure that qualifying candidates receive enough cash to achieve "media saturation" in the region in which they are running. Additionally, the very issue of paid ads was analyzed by Marvin Kalb, the veteran broadcast journalist. Kalb was the frontman for the "Nine Sundays" proposal that came out of the Shorenstein Center on Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard. "Nine Sundays" proposed that the major networks broadcast the presidential debates, free of charge, with the major candidates during the weeks just prior to the actual vote. Sunday was viewed as the night of highest television viewership. This proposal not only addressed the issue of parity between candidates but also public access to the airwaves, which networks were increasingly sneering at, operating as if the broadcast bands were their own assets. The proposal did not get off the ground.

In the years I worked with TCC, perhaps the most satisfying experience I had was getting on a bus early one morning and heading to western Massachusetts to gather petition signatures to get a clean campaign law on the ballot there. We succeeded. We went to Maine, as the guests of the Maine Citizen Leadership Fund and my friend George Christie, where we raised money for the legal defense of their clean election law. Eventually, when a Republican of John McCain's stripe sponsored his historic bill with Russ Feingold, my colleagues and I had real hope on the national level.

Now, the issue of campaign finance reform, which I believe is the lynchpin of most political problems in this country (just as I believe energy is at the center of our economic troubles) has suffered a tremendous blow with the current court's decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. Do you really want the sociopaths from AIG, Wall Street trading firms and bailed out banks, who have driven the US economy off of a cliff in pursuit of their own enrichment, to have an unfettered and insurmountable war chest with which to campaign for candidates of their choice? Campaign finance reform insures that more people have a chance to participate in the process beyond voting. They have a chance to run, even win, if the playing field is somewhat leveled. If I wish to run for office, if you wish to run for office, that can only be a good thing. The country has been run by men with Ivy League credentials, and the attendant access to vast campaign resources, since 1988. You think things have been going well? Now issue ads and soft money will suffocate real debate and rapacious bankers will push the US economy further to a brink we may never return from.

Once again, the Supreme Court of John Roberts proves it is the escort service of choice for corporate polluters, financial swindlers and and rich, white men who think they own this country, with everyone else as either their guest, or "the help."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alec-baldwin/the-roberts-court-takes-a_b_434711.html

Obama Aide's Fiasco Goes On, Despite Apologies

Carl Franzen Contributor

(Feb. 3) – White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel has long been known for his foul mouth and ferocious temper. But one particularly inelegant remark he made last fall resurfaced with a vengeance recently and may yet turn out to be the most contentious of his career.

Emanuel is reported to have told several liberal groups their idea was "f---ing retarded," during a political strategy meeting in August.

The groups wanted to air attack ads against Democratic lawmakers who were unsupportive of President Obama's health care reform initiative, which was already facing tough opposition from town hall protesters and Republicans.

The Wall Street Journal's Peter Wallsten broke the news of this incident last week in a story about Emanuel's escalating conflicts with the progressive factions that make up Obama's base. Now the story has taken on a life of its own, provoking a controversy across the political spectrum about the use of the "R-word."


AFP / Getty Images
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel met with disability advocates Wednesday to apologize for a remark he made last year, when he told several liberal groups their idea was "f---ing retarded."

Newly minted Fox News contributor Sarah Palin quickly responded via Facebook on Monday, calling upon the president to dismiss Emanuel as chief of staff for his "slur on all God's children with cognitive and development disabilities – and the people who love them." Palin's son Trig was born with Down syndrome.

On Tuesday, a White House official claimed in an e-mail to Politico that Emanuel apologized for his remark by telephone to Tim Shriver, chairman and CEO of the Special Olympics.

Shriver was perhaps chosen to receive the apology because of his organization's work with people with disabilities. Besides hosting the pre-eminent international competition for athletes with disabilities, the Special Olympics last year launched a public-awareness campaign to discourage use of the word "retarded," which the organization calls the "R-word," citing its frequent pejorative connotation and discriminatory context.

As others have pointed out, this is actually the second time in less than a year the White House has run afoul of the Special Olympics. Back in March 2009, it was the President evaluating his poor bowling score (129) on the Jay Leno Show, saying it was "like the Special Olympics," a remark for which he also apologized.

One big problem with Emanuel's mea culpa quickly arose, though: It wasn't accepted, at least not at first. According to a spokeswoman for the Special Olympics, the White House's initial statement that it was accepted was "inaccurate."

"Tim didn't accept his apology," the spokeswoman revealed to Politico today. "Tim can't do that. He can't accept an apology on behalf of all people with disabilities."

So Emanuel met with disabilities advocates later this afternoon, during which time he "sincerely apologized for his mistake and the pain it caused," and pledged to join the "Spread the Word to End the Word" campaign. He also committed to using his capacity within the administration to examine "pending legislation in Congress to remove the R-word from federal law."

That has scarcely halted the heated debate within the punditry, however, many of whom have now turned to attacking one another for their respective positions on the use of the "R-word."

For example, The Atlantic writer Andrew Sullivan contested Palin's call for Emanuel's removal with a blog entry that has been deemed by one blogger to be "the ugliest post ever to appear on a highly trafficked, allegedly serious political blog." While Sullivan claims not to like the term "retarded," he defends Emanuel's apology and accuses Palin of using the term frequently to poke fun at her own disabled son. Going further, he theorizes that she named Trig after the medical classification for Down syndrome, trisomy G.

Rush Limbaugh, on the other hand, maintaining his longstanding aversion to political correctness, took the opportunity to redirect Emanuel's controversial quote into an indictment of the media and the left.

"I think the big news is the crack-up going on," Limbaugh said on his radio show. "Our political society is acting like some giant insult's taken place by calling a bunch of people who are retards retards. I mean, these people, these liberal activists are kooks, they are loony tunes. I'm not going to apologize for it, I'm just quoting Emanuel, it's in the news."

Meanwhile, liberal commentators like Jane Hamsher at the blog FireDogLake are still waiting for Emanuel to apologize to the progressive groups he was addressing last August, in the tense meeting that started it all.

Apologies notwithstanding, Emanuel's offensive language appears scarcely forgiven, let alone forgotten. How long the matter embroils him and what effect it will have on the upcoming political climate, already gearing up for the 2010 midterm elections, remains to be seen.
Filed under: Nation, Politics


http://www.aolnews.com/politics/article/rahm-emanuels-fiasco-continues-despite-multiple-apologies/19344132?icid=main|hp-desktop|dl1|link1|http://www.aolnews.com/politics/article/rahm-emanuels-fiasco-continues-despite-multiple-apologies/19344132

Turned Out; Sexual Assault in Prison;

Click on title above to view vid; WARNING: EXPLICIT LANGUAGE

http://vodpod.com/watch/2946951-omg-so-disturbing-documentary-turned-out-sexual-assault-behind-bars-must-be-18-to-view-this-post?pod=louisedd

Reid's Black History Month Column Raises Questions

Steve Friess Contributor

LAS VEGAS (Feb. 2) -- Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, who last month apologized for privately praising President Barack Obama's lack of a "Negro dialect," posted a Black History Month essay on his Web site Monday in which he takes credit for racial integration in Las Vegas.

One problem: Some local black leaders and historians don't remember him having had a significant role in that effort and the senator himself made no reference to it in his 2008 memoir.


Haraz N. Ghanbari, AP
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., recently wrote that he "worked hard" to integrate the gaming industry in Nevada, but his 2008 memoir doesn't mention that he played a role in integration.

In the essay, which was also published as an opinion piece for the black-issues Web site The Grio under Harry Reid's byline, the Senate majority leader wrote: "I worked hard during my time in local politics in Nevada to integrate the Las Vegas strip [sic] and the gaming industry."

Yet Joe Neal, a former Democratic state senator who was a key figure in the civil rights movement in Nevada, was baffled by the claim. For one thing, Reid was only 20 when a famous 1960 meeting between casino owners, progressive government officials and NAACP leaders resulted in an accord to integrate Las Vegas casinos for customers.

The Nevada Legislature passed a civil rights act in 1965, but Reid did not become a member of that body until his 1966 election as an assemblyman. And a federal court decree in 1971 that set quotas for the hiring of minority casino workers was negotiated by the U.S. Department of Justice and handed down just months after he was sworn in as lieutenant governor.

Reid spokesman Jon Summers responded to questions about the claim with a one-sentence e-mail: "He and Mike O'Callaghan worked together as governor and lieutenant governor to apply pressure on business leaders to integrate the industry." Reid served as lieutenant governor under O'Callaghan for one term, from 1971 to 1974, before leaving the post for his first, unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate.

When pressed for specifics, Summers pointed to a Politico piece from June 2008 in which Reid told a journalist he helped negotiate the 1971 settlement that required casinos to begin hiring blacks in hotel casino jobs other than as maids and porters.

"I don't recall him being involved in any of that," said Neal, the first black state senator and first black gubernatorial nominee from a major party when the Democrat lost in 2002. He attended several meetings related to the federal settlement and was heavily involved as the state's top elected black official. "I don't think he would have an involvement" in the federal court decree.

Historians who have studied the era were similarly uncertain to what Reid referred. A 2004 doctoral dissertation [pdf] by sociologist Jeffrey J. Sallaz specifically examined the outcome of that federal decree and didn't reference either O'Callaghan or Reid. Instead, Sallaz laid out the history as a tussle between federal authorities and casino executives.

Eugene Moehring, whose chapter on racial integration in his 2000 book "Resort City in the Sunbelt" makes no mention of Reid, said he's willing to assume Reid, as an O'Callaghan protégé, may have been involved in some capacity because O'Callaghan was a staunch advocate of equal rights. Yet of Reid, Moehring said, "No, he was not a big official doing big things."

Rainier Spencer, who founded the Afro-American Studies program and the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, went further: "It's sort of like Al Gore inventing the Internet. Politicians say strange things."

Reid's 2008 memoir, "The Good Fight," does not mention his possible involvement in the civil rights struggle of that era. The words "integration" and "African-American" do not appear anywhere in the book and the only reference to black people is a recollection of Jackie Robinson breaking the baseball color barrier and an instance where he defended a black man accused in a robbery-homicide whose case no other attorney would take. Others, including Neal, credited Reid for doing pro bono work for black clients as a young lawyer, but Reid's office did not mention that in explaining the claim in the Black History Month essay.

Reid, who is trailing badly in polls assessing his chances for re-election to a fifth term this year, is under scrutiny on racial issues after confirming an account in the political tome "Game Change" that he privately described then-Sen. Barack Obama as "light skinned" and having "no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one" in 2008. The senator apologized for the remark and the White House issued a statement reaffirming its support for its top ally in the Senate.

That recent flap makes Las Vegas CityLife editor and liberal political pundit Steve Sebelius wonder how Reid's staff could open the vulnerable senator up to this questionable claim.

"To have something like this come up in that context is, for him, pretty dicey, because this is something people are paying attention to now," Sebelius said. "Joe Neal was there. He was a pioneer in those struggles. I would trust people who were involved in that."

Republicans vying to unseat Reid were only too eager to make hay out of the situation. Businessman Danny Tarkanian, ahead by eight points against Reid in a Review-Journal poll taken last month, said the Black History Month essay was a ham-fisted effort to try to make up for the "Negro dialect" remark.

"He's making these comments because he understands that he has offended those in the African-American race, so he wants to give himself more credit than he deserves," said Tarkanian, son of legendary college basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian. "He's making one outlandish statement after the other and I don't think he feels it'll ever catch up with him."

Neal was quick to note that as a U.S. senator, Reid's record on diversity is impressive. This may explain why the state's black leadership quickly accepted his apology for the "Negro dialect" comment and why his latest remarks are unlikely to dampen enthusiasm for him, said NAACP Las Vegas president Frank Hawkings.

Yet Hawkings said Reid does need to sell himself to the black business community, which is feeling slighted as it pursues building contracts from local governmental entities and credit from banks.

"They ask, 'What has Sen. Reid or anybody else done for us?' " Hawkings said. "That's what the people want to ask. It's not what did he do back then, it's going to be what has Sen. Reid done for minority business folks."






http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/sen-harry-reids-black-history-month-column-raises-questions/19341444