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Dallas veteran receives thank you for President Obama

November 11, 2010 By No Comments

By Shirley Tarpley

Religious Editor

Eugene H. Tinner, who completed his duties in the Army CC Camp in 1941, went into the United States Army in 1943 and received his honorable discharge in 1948. Recently Tinner felt grateful and blessed of God when he recently received an official autographed picture and a congratulations card from President Barack and Mrs. Michelle Obama for his years of service in the Army and his birthday. 

Tinner served in the Philippines and in Tokyo, the capital city of Japan, located on Tokyo Bay on the eastern coast of Honshu Island.  He was in Tokyo, Japan the same time as Brigadier General Douglas MacArthur, who was fired by President Harry S. Truman in 1951 because of the constant friction between General MacArthur and the Joints Chiefs of Staff in Washington.

Tinner said that President Truman was the president who had the sign on his desk in the Oval Office, “The Bucks Stops Here” and he also coined the phrase, “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.” Truman was the president who gave the orders to drop the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945.  

Tinner mentioned that it is believed that the decision to drop the atomic bombs was another reason why there was a constant friction between General MacArthur and the Joints Chiefs.   President Truman fired General MacArthur on April 4, 1951, six years later. 

He said that General MacArthur was a popular General in the United States who believed that dropping the atomic bomb on Japan probably would cause World War III.  And General MacArthur disagreed over foreign policy in Korea, he also wanted to end communism for good by finishing off China while it was still weak.  President Truman and his advisers were hold-over’s from the communist ridden Roosevelt Administration, and they would not tolerate such actions and insubordination from General MacArthur.

When Tinner was stationed at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas he was an engineer who helped build bridges and roads while at Fort Sam Houston, the Philippians and in Japan.  When he was in the Philippians and Japan he and the other approximately 268 soldiers lived in tents. However, although the weather was cold in Japan, the tents kept the soldiers warm and dry, even in the rain.

Tinner is a faithful member of the First Baptist Church of Hamilton Park “First Church” where Dr. Gregory Foster is the Senior Pastor.  He shared First Church will honor all veterans starting with breakfast and continuing through morning worship on Sunday, November 14.

Tinner has been married to Phemia Tinner for 62 years; they live in Hamilton Park and are the parents of six children, Beverly, Ruena, Rebecca, Regina (Lawrence), Reginald (Iris) and Wilford (Peggy). 

 Their pride and joy are their grandchildren, Naarah, first grandchild of the Tinner’s is a graduate of Austin College in Sherman, Texas; Joshua; Ebony, a junior student at the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas; Jordan; Lee Ann; Jared; Leeah; Joseph; and great grandson, Joshua, Jr.

Filed Under: Community Spotlight, Lead Story, National Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Jobs remain No. 1 priority for One Nation marchers

October 6, 2010 By No Comments

By James Wright

(NNPA) Hundreds of thousands of people from across the country converged upon Washington, D.C., to participate in a rally to let the U.S. Congress and the White House know that job creation and fixing the ailing economy should be the number one priority.

The One Nation Working Together rally at the Lincoln Memorial was designed to counter the Tea Party movement’s rally in Washington in August and to caution Americans that a Republican-controlled Congress would turn back the hands of time. Members from various progressive organizations and unions traveled by bus, train, airplane, and on foot to let national leaders in Washington know that political squabbling will do little to heal people’s economic pain in the aftermath of one of the longest recessions since World War II.

“I came here to support the cause of the march,” Derrick Griffin, 43, said. “Our leaders here in D.C. should be about saving jobs and trying to put forth the change we voted for in 2008,” the Fort Washington, Md., resident said.

Event organizers estimated that 175,000 people gathered on a slightly breezy, but clear day to show a united front. They came from all walks of life and economic circumstances. Participants included the employed and unemployed, union workers and environmentalists, civil rights leaders and civic leaders, war veterans and peace activists, student leaders and those from the gay, lesbian, transgender community.

Speakers at the event included the Rev. Jesse Jackson of the Rainbow/Push Coalition, National Urban League President Marc Morial, NAACP President Benjamin Jealous, Rev. Al Sharpton of the National Action Network – all of whom stressed the need for jobs and emphasized the urgency of the situation.

The crowd congregated on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and fanned out onto the grounds of the Washington Monument. There were throngs of people on both sides of the Reflecting Pool as well as those who hunkered down around the World War II Memorial.

Political and civil rights organizations set up tables that displayed their wares and various organizations passed out literature. Throughout the four-hour event, organizations joined in by marching around the grounds for their respective causes while others listened to the speakers.

Most of the marchers donned colored Tee-shirts that announced their cause or organization and sat together throughout the event. For example, members of the Communications Workers of America donned red Tee-shirts with white printed messages on both the front and back of their shirts. The group congregated on the south side of the Reflecting Pool.

The marchers may have been from different parts of the country, but the common thread among all who attended focused on their financial pain and the lack of jobs. Jeffrey Dunkin, 53, traveled from New York City to attend the march and to show support for fellow New Yorkers who are suffering in his home town. “I want to help people that have lost their jobs,” said Dunkin, who lives in Brooklyn. “Things do not look good in New York City and I know a lot of unemployed people. I hope this march will help secure more jobs for the unemployed because things are not looking good.”

Deborah Maxwell, president of the New Hanover County, N.C. NAACP, said she and about 20 others from her branch, primarily residents of Wilmington, traveled to Washington to call for more action from the federal government.

“It is important that we fight for jobs, justice, and education and that is why we decided to come from Wilmington to [Washington, D.C.],” said Maxwell, 54, and a resident of Wilmington. “Some of us have come at a sacrifice because [we] are still dealing with issues regarding the recent floods. Still, others are in distress because of job loss,” said Maxwell, adding two of her members recently lost their jobs working for the local government and their job prospects are grim despite Wilmington’s strong tourism economy.

Maxwell isn’t alone. Individuals from other states also feel the sting of the recession.

Harrisburg’s situation mirrors that of the District of Columbia in terms of firing teachers and school personnel. Harrisburg is the capital of the Keystone State and its 47,472 population is 54 percent Black. The Harrisburg school district consists of 8,401 students and approximately 1,200 faculty and staff.

Trea Buck, a high school science teacher in Harrisburg, said that 57 teachers have been laid off since the 2010-2011 school year started. “I am here for my fallen brethren. Our school system has had to undergo a lot of cuts,” said Buck, 39, and a resident of Harrisburg. “Teachers who were emergency certified were cut and many of us will have to be furloughed at some point. Plus, our school system administration was cut in half,” he said.

Buck joined a large group of National Education Association members at the Reflecting Pool during the rally. Buck said that she traveled to Washington to advocate not only for her fellow colleagues, but for the next generation. “What are we going to do for the children,” she said, “How are these cuts going to support our future?”

A weak economy and a struggling school system have plagued Detroit for years. Members of the Metro Detroit Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta traveled to the District to voice their opinions during the rally.

“We came to show our support for President Obama and to stand up for jobs, justice, and education,” Mardi Woods, president of the chapter, said. “We also have a get out the vote effort to make sure our voices are heard on Nov. 2.”

Woods, 42, and a resident of Farmington Hills, Mich., outside of Detroit, said that the Motor City has been hit hard by a high rate of home foreclosures and job layoffs. She said that the layoffs, particularly in the school system, have adversely affected her members. “Many of our members are educators and Deltas are at the table when these things happen,” she said.

The Detroit Public School system laid-off nearly 1,000 school personnel last August due to budgetary problems. However, the action was stopped when money was located due to retirements. The school system has 84,000 non-charter school students and about 15,000 administrators, faculty and staff. The entire school system has a total of 138,000 students enrolled in both public and charter schools.

Robert Bobb, who served as the city administrator of Washington, D.C. from 2002-2006 and was an unsuccessful candidate for the presidency of the D.C. Board of Education, is the current emergency financial director for Detroit Public Schools. Bobb was appointed by Gov. Jennifer Granholm, D-MI, in 2009 to manage the school system’s muddled finances. The massive layoffs were proposed by Bobb last spring because of declining enrollment and the costs of running the system.

Woods said she supports Bobb “because he is trying to do the right thing for the children of Detroit.”

A number of youth groups also attended the rally. They contend that young people care about what is going on in the country. Leilani Irvin, a senior political science major at Benedict College in Columbia, S.C., said that young people have been particularly hurt by the struggling economy. “I know of many of my former school mates, who graduated in May, are still looking for jobs,” Irvin, 21, said. “This is a crisis with youth. I read where 27 percent of college graduates cannot find a job and I don’t think my employment prospects for the spring will be better.”

There is a belief that the retired are not affected by the economic downturn, but Kenneth Davis, a retired autoworker from Detroit disagrees. “I came to this march because too many people are suffering,” Davis, 54, said. “As a member of the United Auto Workers Union, those of us who receive retirement benefits had to give up our dental [coverage]. That is not right that we are giving up concessions to the auto companies while their profits are going up.”

Davis said that he received an e-mail recently that said Chrysler’s profits were up 65 percent from last year. He said that he knows of fellow retirees who are experiencing economic difficulties, such as foreclosures. At one time, they could get help from the union “but that is not possible now because everyone needs help,” Davis said.

Many of the participants could not get close enough to the front of the Lincoln Memorial or even close enough to the four Jumbotrons to hear the speakers. Martina Beauford of Baltimore, Md., saw the crowds huddled near the front of the Lincoln Memorial from her bench close by the Washington Monument and decided to stay put. While she could not hear what was going on, she felt the vibe that was coming from the event. “I am here to make a statement on everything that is going on with people’s pay, health benefits and lack of job security,” Beauford, 42, said. “This is my first march and I like it because it is exciting and different.”

Beauford, a Maryland Department of Corrections employee said she felt a connection with everyone at the rally. “We are all hurting,” she said. “This is why it is important for all of us to come together because everyone in all 50 states is hurting.”

Filed Under: Lead Story, National Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Republicans Pledge: A Trick Bag for America

September 30, 2010 By No Comments

by Danny J. Bakewell, Sr., NNPA Chairman

The Republican Party has spent most of the past two years as the “Party of No,” opposing nearly every policy proposed by President Obama and Democrats in Congress –a strategy that has worked politically, according to polls that say this November’s election could sweep Republicans back into the majority in the House and possibly the Senate. But until last week, the Republican Party had offered no agenda of its own–so party leaders finally produced one: the lofty-sounding “Pledge to America.”

Sadly but predictably, this Pledge is nothing more than a promise to return to the failed policies that created the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and threw millions of Americans out of work–with most of the pain doled out to those at the bottom of the ladder.

Those who yearn for a return to George W. Bush’s philosophy will cheer the Pledge’s promises of tax cuts for the rich and lax regulation of Wall Street. They will applaud the Republican call to repeal universal health insurance and to hand the Social Security Trust Fund over to Wall Street.

But for African-Americans, this retrograde Pledge is a recipe for disaster.

Our communities were hit hard by the Great Recession, and the economic crisis continues. African-American unemployment now stands at 16.3%. Working families are struggling to pay the rent and keep food on the table. And the situation is critical for our youngest generation: among African-Americans ages 16 to 19, the unemployment rate is 26.2% — and that doesn’t include those with low-paying part-time jobs or those who have given up looking. For these youth, the American Dream is turning into a nightmare.

President Obama and this Democratic Congress led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Whip James Clyburn (the highest-ranking African American in Congress) inherited this dire recession from Bush and the Republicans, and they’ve directed help toward those who need it most — despite stiff opposition from Republicans in Congress. If the “Party of No” had gotten its way, the Great Recession could have been worse than the Great Depression – an economic hurricane instead of a bad storm. They opposed the Recovery Act. They opposed healthcare reform. They opposed ending tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. They even opposed 7 of the 8 tax cuts Congress has passed to help small business owners.

We don’t need to imagine what would have happened if Republicans ran Congress. We know their record – and now we can read their Pledge: to restore the immoral policies of Presidents Reagan, Bush and Bush II: tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires and benefit cuts for everyone else and of course, nothing special for Blacks.

It is unconscionable that at a time of our nation’s highest unemployment in more than 60 years, the Republicans propose a $4 trillion tax cut for the rich. They’re trotting out the same tired argument they’ve recycled for 30 years: cut taxes for billionaires, and some of their wealth will trickle down to the rest of us. Meanwhile, the Republicans promise to repeal President Obama’s Recovery Act, which cut taxes for 110 million families who don’t happen to be rich.

We already know the harmful impact of trickle-down economics – nothing ever trickles down for Blacks, minorities and the poor. Under Presidents Reagan and Bush, the economic divide widened to historic proportions due to huge tax cuts for millionaires while workers’ wages stagnated. President Clinton made a dent in pervasive inequality by raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans and investing in education, healthcare, jobs and tax breaks for working families.

While turning the budget deficit into a surplus those policies were good for all America.  But President George W. Bush pulled a 180 degree turnaround, cutting taxes for the richest of the rich, letting Wall Street run wild, and slashing federal aid to working families. The result: rising inequality, the largest budget deficits in U.S. history, a cataclysmic financial crisis and net loss of eight million jobs.

That’s what the Republicans pledge to repeat.

One of the starkest contrasts between the Democrats and Republicans can be seen when it comes to healthcare. Today, one in five African-Americans is without health insurance. They can’t afford doctor’s bills if they get sick, and an emergency room visit or hospital stay can wipe out their life’s savings. But we have reason to hope that this shameful situation will be eliminated in a few short years.  Thanks to the landmark Healthcare Reform Law passed by Congress and signed by President Obama this year – unless the Republicans regain control of Congress. That is why we Blacks have to vote and get our neighbors, friends and community to vote. NNPA and our 200 Black publishers are asking our leaders to help us in rallying our base: churches, sororities, fraternities, Black students, community clubs, Black radio, community organizers, Black social media experts and all progressive people of goodwill. 

That’s right: with the U.S. finally on the brink of joining other developed nations that guarantee healthcare to all their citizens, the Republicans want to repeal universal health insurance, snatching healthcare away from tens of millions of people.

The Republicans’ Pledge makes it crystal clear what’s at stake in November. We can’t sit home on Election Day and let the Republican Party turn back the clock on our country and on Black people definitely. I pledge, on behalf of 200 Black newspapers in this country, to do what we can to stop them!

You can mark my words:If they take back the House (of Representatives), they will launch an investigation on President Obama that will make the investigation on President Clinton look like child’s play.  They will make his next two years untenable and miserable, leading up to 2012.

We will also lose two of our most visionary leaders of the 21st century in Speaker Pelosi and Majority Whip Clyburn. We can’t let that happen!

Filed Under: Feature Story, National, Op Ed Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A hasty and embarrassing rush to judgment by the White House and NAACP

July 22, 2010 By No Comments

By Ruth Ferguson
NDG Editor

The election of President Barack Obama was heralded as the beginning of a post-racial era in America. Perhaps the White House did not get that memo. Once again, the Administration’s hyper-sensitivity to appear fair to all was on full display with their overreaction to a conservative media driven attack on an African American federal employee.

Monday Fox News broadcast a short clip showing former USDA’s director of rural development in Georgia Shirley Sherrod indicating she was less inclined to provide assistance to a White farmer facing foreclosure. As this spread across the Internet it prompted a swift reaction from the White House and the NAACP.

The White House’s reaction was so swift and harsh that Sherrod was informed via a telephone call with the USDA’s deputy undersecretary to pull her car over and submit her resignation via Blackberry. Sherrod complied.

The NAACP eventually joined the party by issuing a statement indicating they applauded Sherrod decision to resign. Saying they had no tolerance for discrimination of any sort. Sherrod’s comments were made at an NAACP event.

Now, we would like to hope the President and his staff is busy trying to figure out how to put millions of Americans back to work, keeping their eye on BP’s efforts to stop the Gulf oil leak and managing two wars. However, surely someone could have taken the time to watch the entire video rather than rely on the “fair and balanced” job we all know Fox does.

Had someone bothered to watch the entire video – which was filmed in 1986 by the way – they would have discovered that Sherrod shared the true lesson she learned. Sherrod did in fact help the White farmer and said it lead her to realize that is it not a black and white issue but a poor issue.

This entire incident was retaliation by supporters of the Tea Party – which clearly includes the Fox Network – for the fact the NAACP’s outcry lead to the ouster of a prominent Tea Party official recently.

To the credit of the president of the NAACP, Benjamin Jealous, the organization did issue an apology and retracted their earlier statement once the full facts came to light.

In the NAACP’s released comments they suggested this incident should be a “teachable moment for activists and journalists.” Given the fact the Secretary of the USDA thus far has refused to reinstate Sherrod, one might suggest it is a teachable moment for President Obama and his staff as well

Filed Under: Lead Story, National, Op Ed Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Truth Clinic: Obama subdues the GOP dragon

March 29, 2010 By No Comments

By James W. Breedlove

And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. (Rev 12:7-9)

He said he would do it and he did it. With a steadfast tenacity and an eye on the prize President Barack Obama has subdued the vaunted GOP dragon after some 15 months of battle.

In Christian symbolism, the dragon has often been associated with the serpent also known as Satan. Cast out of heaven by St. Michael and his angels, the enraged dragon consumed by selfish desire, blindly strikes out against the vulnerable innocents in an effort to satiate these desires. In reality, the dragon’s efforts to deceive and devour tend to feed its hunger rather than allay it; the more he gets the more he wants. Because of the resultant chaos and its destructive power the dragon has increasingly represented the evil inherent in the world and the perpetual conflict between good and evil.

It was onto this age old battlefield of conflict and controversy, where the GOP consistently bedeviled Democrats, that Barack Obama became President of the United States of America. Several generations of democratic presidents and presidential contenders have been smeared, slandered, and attacked with insidious innuendo and outright lies. Their response was to take the high road without fighting back. The result has usually been that the scurrilous underhanded tactics used by the GOP dragon have made them victorious on critical issues even when they were not the voting majority.

For over a year it seemed that the historical tactics of the GOP dragon were working as the relatively inexperienced but calm, cool and collected Barack Obama took over the White House. Certainly the total shock of a black man vanquishing the GOP presidential candidate by an electoral margin of 365 to 173 was the last straw. The coordinated muckraking campaign the GOP dragon unleashed was only exceeded by the breadth of change that Obama undertook.

In his speech accepting the Democratic nomination Obama meticulously outlined the critical problems facing Americans with the war, the economy and the inability to enjoy the American promise because of the total failure of Washington’s broken politics.

Obama’s specifics for addressing the American Promise was to: cut taxes for working families, end America’s dependence on foreign oil, provide every child with a world-class education, guarantee affordable healthcare, reform bankruptcy laws, protect social security, and provide equal pay for an equal day of work.

President Obama did not get the usual time to transition into the presidency. His administration had to immediately deal with the relentless decline in the economy that began in late 2008 and whether or not to bail out the financial institutions. Getting the $787 billion dollar stimulus package through congress presaged the partisan rancor that followed.

Not a single Republican in the House voted for the package, and it took the votes of three Republican senators to avert a filibuster fight.

Partisan hell broke loose when health care reform was introduced. As various bills made their way through Congress over the summer and fall of 2009, there was practically no bipartisan support.

Congressional Republicans were in lock-step agreement to stop any health care measure that Obama backed.

Buoyed by the special election win of Scott Brown to the senate seat of the late Ted Kennedy the GOP dragon went into overdrive mode to derail healthcare reform. The party of NO had dedicated itself to prevent Black President Obama from achieving success where no other (White) president had succeeded in over 45 years.

But they underestimated the resolve of a determined Obama.

He rolled up his sleeves and went back into campaign mode to talk directly to the people about the failed status quo and the need to look to the future. After the bitterest of debates, the House passed the health care legislation late Sunday night on March 21, 2010 ensuring that whatever any adverse political price, history will show President Obama as one of the few presidents who found a way to reshape the nation’s social system.

Mr. Obama proved to the skeptics in his own party and to the GOP dragon that he is willing to fight for something that he believes in no matter the potential political consequences.

And if winning the healthcare battle over the GOP dragon was not enough five days latter Obama concluded a new strategic arms treaty agreement with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Two huge wins for Barack Obama at home and abroad in a span of six days.

President Obama, you have taken the best hits the GOP dragon could muster and prevailed. You have shown that you are a domestic and international leader but most importantly you have proven that you can deliver on what you promise and that you will stick with a task, no matter how treacherous the obstructing dragon, until it is finished.

But the GOP dragon shall rise again. They will be forever dogging your footsteps, looking for an opening to launch another attack.

Comments or opinions may be sent to the writer at: www.truthclinic.com

Filed Under: Lead Story, National, Op Ed Tagged With: , , ,

TRUTH CLINIC: Solving the Black job crisis

March 1, 2010 By No Comments

by James W. Breedlove

While the contentious debate continues over the deplorable state of America’s economy and how to fix it one thing is certain: Blacks are still riding in the nation’s economic caboose despite the Administration’s massive stimulus efforts.

The statistics tell a depressing story.  Black joblessness is hovering well above the national average and is nearly twice that of whites. The unemployment rate for blacks was 16.5 percent in January, compared to a 9.7 percent national rate and 8.7 percent for whites.

In light of this dire situation NACCP chief executive Benjamin Todd Jealous, Rev. Al Sharpton of the National Action Network and National Urban League president Marc Morial met with President Barack Obama purportedly to discuss ways to improve economic opportunities for Blacks by spending money initially reserved for bank bailouts on areas suffering from chronically high unemployment.  Their efforts were supported by the CBC chairperson, Congresswoman Barbara Lee.

While the efforts of the three civil rights leaders was no doubt made in earnest the potential for significant results has an extremely low probability.  The post meeting statements of the attendees and historical precedent are supportive of this conclusion.

The meeting did not provide any indication of hope in the form of initiatives or specific promises of assistance.  In fact the President did not make any comment on the meeting or give it any sense of urgency by making a joint statement with the attendees.

But the president has consistently said he shouldn’t be expected to create policies exclusively for the African-American community.  “The only thing I cannot do is, by law I can’t pass laws that say I’m just helping black folks,” Obama told American Urban Radio Networks’ April Ryan in December.  Strangely enough the 43 previous presidents found a way to help their own in spite of the need to help all the people.

The three leaders discussed trying to get a jobs bill through Congress.

Mr. Jealous said, “It needs to be passed.  It’s not enough for the Republicans in the Senate to say ‘no, no, no’ when the people are suffering.  That’s our focus right now.” The question: what leverage does Mr. Jealous or any black organization have with obstructionist Republican congress members?

Forty years of waiting for a government economic Marshall Plan to revitalize distressed black communities should send a strong message to Blacks that something different needs to be done if their economic fate is to change.

One thing that must change is the lack of a quantified Black economic strategy that defines what needs to be done.  The buzzwords ‘economic development’ and ‘job creation’ are meaningless without a specific plan to measure progress against.  The three black advocates that met with the President did not have a plan for any of the distressed areas of concern.

Using a South Dallas Metropolitan Statistical Area as an example, assume the Black Community decides to develop as part of an overall economic development and job creation program a strategy that focused on bringing the black unemployment rate into parity with the majority rate.  Except for a difference in scale factor the development process, which could be used for any urban community, would be quantified as follows.

Census data indicates the average unemployment rate for the Dallas MSA is 6.0 percent while Black unemployment is about 12 percent.  To achieve parity, set an objective the creation of enough jobs to make the Black unemployment rate 6 percent.  How many jobs will it take?

Bureau of Labor unemployment tables indicate that the number of Blacks unemployed in the South Dallas MSA total 22,419.  For parity to be achieved the Black unemployment must be reduced to 11,197.   How many businesses are needed to absorb 11,197 workers?

Census data shows the average small business employs four persons.  Therefore, to create 11,197 jobs would require establishing approximately 3,000 equivalent businesses.  The term equivalent considers that an existing business can expand in multiples of 4 employees.

Next we need to know how many dollars it takes to create 3,000 businesses.  At an average investment of $100,000 per business the cost would be $300 million.  If this were made into a five-year plan it would require a $60 million per year infusion into South Dallas without considering inflation.

With a quantified economic development plan Black leaders are in a position to educate and galvanize the community so that no matter what group, organization, or individual a politician meets with the same request for funds can be put on the table.  Similar goals can be quantified for housing, schools, crime prevention, infrastructure and any other elements needed to revitalize our communities.

Without quantified plans the very process of asking for economic development and job creation assistance becomes a sham and worse an ongoing source of frustration for hard-pressed Black communities.

In reality, federal assistance should be an adjunct to economic programs initiated by blacks.  Millions of dollars are spent each year by black organizations on award shows, conferences, conventions, and lavish parties that could be better used as economic development and job creation seed capital.    

Mr. Jealous, Rev. Sharpton, Mr. Morial and Congresswoman Lee it’s time for our black leaders to get to work on pragmatic solutions blacks control and not wishful benevolence.

Comments or opinions may be sent to the writer at: www.truthclinic.com

Filed Under: Business, National, Op Ed Tagged With: , , , , ,

Tea Party Slams Obama Voters

February 8, 2010 By 1 Comment

Tom Cancredo

Did you know that if you voted for President Barack Obama then you probably do not know how to spell the word vote nor do you understand the basics of the United States? 

Well according to former Colorado Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo, “People who could not spell the word vote or say it in English put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House — name is Barack Hussein Obama,” as reported by FOX News. 

Tancredo threw his hat in the ring for the 2008 Presidential campaign but failed to gain support because of his strong opposition on illegal immigration.  Thank goodness he did not receive the nominations to become the Republican Party front man because he would surely send this country back to the dark ages with civic testing for voting, poll taxes and maybe even slave trading.

Filed Under: People in the News, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , ,

Open Letter to President Barack Obama

October 17, 2009 By 6 Comments

SHIRLEY DEMUS TARPLEY
NDG RELIGIOUS EDITOR,
On October 11, 2007, NDG published a story on Mr. Ray de Beasley and the creation of his Identity Theft Management System (Cover Story: UT-Dallas Proposes to Develop Inventor’s Identity Management System, page 9) that would guarantee that only legitimate U. S. residents receive and use Social Security numbers that are issued by our Federal Government. The following ‘open letter’ to President Barack Obama is a follow up story on our first printing about Mr. Beasley, his new partnership and the jobs that are expected from this project, which will be printed in NDG’s Classified section in the future for the benefit of our readers, family and friends

September 9, 2009

The Honorable Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20500

Re: Effective Identity Management
       $50 – $85 Billion Generated Annually For SSA Program

Dear Mr. President:

My name is Raymond D. Beasley.  After seeing the partisan attack against your Back-to-School message to encourage our youth to stay in school and not fail themselves or their country, I decided to come out of the shadows to report to you how obtaining a higher education in prison provided me with opportunity today.

In 1981, I obtained an athletic scholarship to University of Houston.  While excelling in football, I was also a track State Champion in the shot-put event.  I attended one year of college, dropped out and became a drug dealer.  In 1991, I was convicted and sentenced to 99 Years and given a $1,000,000.00 fine. 

While on bond, I was introduced to individuals in Dallas, Texas operating a check cashing and check fraud ring.  For my drug charge, I needed quick money and a new way to make it.  What seemed like an instant opportunity to criminally participate in the check-cashing ring, turned into my ability to master the art of creating new financial bank scams.   Prior to identity theft being officially established as a name for the illegal use of other people’s personal data, I became a quick study of bank laws, the procedures of banks, checking cashing businesses and how checks were processed.

In prison on the drug charge, I started an ‘In-Prison Think Tank and Research Project’. The purpose for research was the need to make determinations as to why my criminal capabilities were so easily created and successfully operated against banks and businesses.  Over a nine-year period, several hundred convicted criminal minds were interviewed for obtaining numerous common denominators, which lead to the success of financial crimes.  By 1996, my research required that I obtain Computer-Programming skills to understand the capabilities of software and computer hardware.   It was then that my future changed for the rest of my life.  As a convicted prisoner, I enrolled in the College Education Program provided by The State of Texas.

President Obama, financial expertise knowledge combined with obtaining a higher education has afforded me the creation of a positive future.    The facts as to where I am today as a member of society and what I offer my country is well reported in several news reports.

Please Google me as listed below:

Ray de Beasley Joint Venture
Ray de Beasley Inventor
Ray Beasley Ex-con
Cyber Security: Latest Trend in Economic Development
Hit www.bsecuritysystem.com open the Solution Tab.  Please read The de Beasley Brief in its entirety.

Mr. President, without violating any civil liberties of the American people, there is a way to effectively protect the issuing and the use of the federal Social Security Number (SSN), where the SSN could be legislated for legal use as identity.   Sir, by way of a created subsidized corporation, there is a way that the SSA could create a for-use fee, when governments use the SSN and also when the SSN is used commercially to establish consumer accounts.

Knowing that you are a quick study, please permit me to present you with a known fact.  In 2008, FDIC protected banks lost over $50 billion to fraud.  Although not protected by taxpayers, many other commercial industries lose hundreds of billions to fraud annually.  This includes the Health Care Industry. Frauds that start with the request and use of the SSA owned and issued SSN to establish consumer accounts.

If a federal subsidized corporation was formed and the banking industry paid $10.00 per-use of a citizens SSN (to establish a for-profit consumer account), the ‘for-use fee’ would cost the entire banking industry less than half of what is lost to criminals and that is repaid by taxpayers.  Combine the fact that providing a deterrent that will deter criminals from attempting fraud and identity theft, to effectively management the issuing and the use of the SSN will save local, state and the federal government tens of billions of dollars annually from having to investigate, adjudicate, probate, incarcerate and from monitoring offenders once released on parole.

President Obama, within a few years, it is reported that GAO expects the SSA Program to run out of funding; this is the case sir, when trillions of dollars are earned off transactions from commercially established consumer accounts that exist by and because of the free use of a government owned and issued number.  For less than a dollar a month, B-Security System Identity Management System (software) can effectively put the federal government in the position of verifying the use of the SSN when used as identity.

Fraud and identity theft negatively affects our economies.   When victims of identity theft have their good names destroyed they lose credit ratings that affect the ability to obtain goods and services.  Likewise, fraud alerts prevent impulse shoppers from making purchases.   A government provided effective identity management of the use of the SSN would eliminate the need for fraud alerts.

Taxpayers of all political affiliations have a serious concern about an increase in taxes.  Creating a ‘for-use’ fee to commercially use SSNs to generate profits will not be considered a tax.  Likewise sir, the capabilities provided by the federal government’s subsidized corporation to entities, will make the IT Security Solution and service free to and free for the American people. 

Mr. President, solving fraud and identity theft will also deter illegal immigration.  If the practice of becoming an illegal immigrant involves the use of an illegally obtained American SSN, such practices will be a thing of the past when an effective Identity Management System manages SSNs.  I have discovered the algorithm that will provide the method for system capabilities to deliver the innovative technology that will secure our nationally accepted identifying number.  Once the SSN is nationally protected from domestic and international financial criminal attacks, the capabilities will also provide a needed tech fence.  Innovative technology that will force immigrants to comply with current and future immigration rules, laws and programs that would promote documented existence while residing and working legally in the U.S.

Mr. Tom Hill, S.E., Senior Fellow Electronic Data Systems (EDS) in Plano, Texas,  provided a technical review of the B-System Identity Management System.  The review  determined that the B-System solutions would create over 200,000 jobs.  Add the fact that a subsidized corporation will have to be established with regional offices throughout the country, solving fraud in the U.S. could easily create 225,000 permanent new jobs.  This does not include the fact that over 60 million retailers and merchants will require new compatible hardware for at the Point-Of-Sale consumer transactions. 

President Obama, when the United States made the decision to enter World War II, the country was forced to mobilize for war.    In the 1920s the needs of the War Department represented the bulk of requirements for a war production program. The supporting mobilization plans for raw materials, labor, power, fuel, and transport, as well as the associated development of economic controls, were seen as derivative functions.  Mobilizing for WWII stimulated local, state and national economies.

Solving fraud in the U.S. will create a need to mobilize numerous divisions of production.  This will include equipment that will have to be manufactured: assembled, delivered, leased, installed, and repaired as needed. 

The question Mr. President is what’s needed in order to start us towards economically benefiting from solving fraud?  As reported in the Sunday, August 30, 2009 Dallas Morning News report, B-Security System is in need of a working prototype that can be demonstrated to Mr. Tom Hill.  Once effectively demonstrated, Mr. Hill is quoted in the report as saying, “I will recommend the application to the EDS Corporation”.  With EDS on board, the ability to lobby Congress towards creating change will exist for the management of the Federal SSN.

Using a Biblical analogy, there was a man that was thrown in prison for a crime that he did not commit.  While in prison, he successfully interpreted dreams of two men that were thrown in prison by Pharaoh.   Once released, when Pharaoh was having dreams that his cabinet could not interpret, the former prisoner remembered the man in prison and his special ability of interpreting dreams.   Humbly, the Pharaoh sent for Joseph.  Blessed with God’s favor, Joseph interpreted the Pharaoh’s dream and all of Egypt was saved from a seven-year famine.

I am your modern day Joseph, I can provide the innovative technological solution that will provide national security and the solution to fraud within the homeland.  Fraud and identity theft has created famines within American’s Society.  National security wise, people living in caves in countries that hate us, know all that is needed is an American SSN and they can live amongst us while planning to kill Americans. 

When the Dallas Morning News made me a cover story on May 11, 2008 (Ray Beasley Ex-Con), I made a comment in the last paragraph that holds true today.  I was asked what is it  going to take in order for b-System to become a reality?  I ended my interview by stating “I have not met the right Pharaoh yet.”

Finally sir, I made the decision to better myself that would increase my chances for not returning to prison.  Prison offered college education programs and provided me the opportunity to obtain a higher education.  Without basic computer skills, I could not use the computer to type you this letter.  

Education helped me to become an asset to my country.  I have a great sense of pride each month when I make my reimbursing payments to the State of Texas for an education provided to me when I was in “my hell and getting myself together.”  Education is the best means to reduce recidivism.  Education can provide hope for the hopeful.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely yours,

Raymond D. Beasley
Chief Creating Officer
bSecurity Systems, LLC
P.O. Box 202210
Arlington, TX 76006
214-988-5418 Ext. 2

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