Where Are The Jobs?

Unemployment - Last Man Standing
Originally uploaded by iQoncept


With the political conversation being completely dominated by health care and banking reform, someone on Capitol Hill has finally said what I’ve been longing to hear for months.

That someone was Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who during a meeting of his Democratic colleagues earlier this week announced plans to “take up” a new jobs creation bill.

On the heels of Reid’s announcement came word that the White House is hosting a “jobs forum" in December.

It is about time.

I was beginning to wonder has anyone on the Hill or in the White House been paying attention to what’s happening out here on Main Street America.

Don’t look now, but everyone is out of work.

Well, maybe not everyone, but it sure feels like it.

In October the national unemployment rate officially hit 10.2 percent with nearly 16 million people out of work. Some economist say the real rate of unemployment is in the neighborhood of 17 percent when you factor in folks who have simply given up looking for a job.

Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the ranks of the unemployed have swollen by 8.2 million and the unemployment rate has gone up by 5.3 percentage points, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

There’s no denying that health care reform is important as is fixing the abuses on Wall Street. But with the jobless rate the worst it has been in a quarter-century, putting Americans to work is the No. 1 priority.

If you don’t agree consider the gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia where Republicans took back those statehouses. Voters in both states rated “jobs and the economy” as their top issue.

I believed the President and Democratic leaders when they promised that the $787 billion stimulus packaged passed at the start of the year, would save or create 3.5 million jobs. And, that well might be the case once all the money is spent and the funded projects are up and running. But so far the White House can only point to about 640,000 jobs being saved or created.

That just doesn’t cut it.

Enough with relying solely on business tax credits or investments in green technologies to spark hiring and create jobs. Those initiatives will most likely bear fruit in the long-run, but America needs to return to work now.

It’s time for more direct action. It’s time to roll out a public jobs plan.

I know for some the term “make work” is scary. But what should be more frightening is the prospect of ever increasing unemployment.

It’s time to use our tax dollars to hire people to clean-up parks, paint school buildings, fix-up vacant houses, and staff community centers.

It has worked before. Think New Deal and its WPA and Civilian Conservation Corps programs. Not only were the economic benefits significant but the psychological boost it gave Americans was incalculable.

You don’t have to leaf through the pages of a history book to see a more recent example of our government taking direct action to meet the economic needs of Main Street.

For most of the summer Americans excitedly watched as cars disappeared from auto lots and showed up in their driveways and those of their neighbors. According to researchers the $3 billion rebate program resulted in an estimated 700,000 new vehicles being sold.

The program was an immediate shot in the arm for consumers, local dealerships, the auto industry and for states’ budgets that saw roughly $875 million in sales tax revenue generated. It has been estimated that the overall impact of the program was north of $25 billion.

There is currently no bigger Clunker that the American economy.

It’s time that Congress and the White House get serious and creative about creating jobs and putting people back to work.

LeBron’s Big Lie

LeBron James
Originally uploaded by Mickey B. Photography

LeBron’s Big Lie
Black Clevelanders fail to heed The King’s Proclamation


By Carl C. Chancellor


In my city, where a 10-story tall LeBron, his arms outstretched proclaims: We All Are Witnesses–how is it that no one saw what was going on inside a duplex house on Imperial Avenue?

For years convicted rapist Anthony Sowell went about unnoticed as he allegedly beat, raped and then strangled women in his Imperial Avenue home on Cleveland’s near eastside. To date authorities have removed the remains of 11 women from the home.

All that murder and mayhem in the middle of a residential neighborhood and no one witnessed a thing?

Apparently, none of Sowell’s neighbors noticed the dozen or more black women, who walked into that three-story duplex but failed to come out.

Did it register with the families of these women that mom, sis, auntie, baby girl, hadn’t been around for quite sometime?

Perhaps the families had just grown accustomed to these women’s absences. Maybe, they had become used to them showing-up for awhile and then disappearing again, and believed there was no cause for concern.

Are the police to be blamed for not seeing the terror in Gladys Wade’s eyes, when nearly a year ago she ran to them bleeding and babbling about escaping from a man, who was trying to kill her?

Police, after all, hear hundreds if not thousands of similar stories from women just like Gladys–crackheads and strawberries–homeless black women, who wander the tough, unforgiving streets of inner city neighborhoods just like the streets around Imperial Avenue.

Still, the two officers, who were waved down by Gladys, listened to her story, albeit half-heartedly. Sowell would be taken in custody but he would released without charge, after telling police that it was Gladys who had tried to rob and assault him. Just another night in the hood.

Five more women would meet their end in the Imperial Avenue house after Gladys alerted police to her attack.

There has been a great deal of finger pointing since the bodies were first discovered earlier this month in Sowell’s home, with everyone trying to downplay their own culpability by noting the shortcomings of others. Even the women, the 11 known alleged victims of Sowell, have been blamed for being complicit in their own murders.

Some have attempted to ease guilty consciences by claiming these street-wandering women were focused only on getting high, and by giving no thought to their own safety, placed themselves in harm’s way .


But to buy that argument is to be blind to the dangers homeless women face everyday.

Homeless women are in constant danger of sexual assault. According to the National Coalition of the Homeless, eight percent of reported crime against the homeless in 2008 were rapes and sexual assaults, with women being the victims in all of those cases. Keep in mind that rapes and sexually attacks against homeless women tend to go unreported.

Another study by the National Institute of Mental Health reported that 27 percent of homeless women receive medical treatment because of physical violence.

Sure some of the women were lured into that house on Imperial Avenue by the promise of drugs and malt liquor. But I would wager that many of Sowell’s alleged victims were looking to get off the mean streets for just a little while. Looking for a place they thought offered a bit more security and comfort than an abandoned car, or a bus shelter, or a boarded-up house.

Unfortunately, these women didn’t see the evil in the man they foolishly followed into that duplex on Imperial Avenue.

Eleven women, their bodies found decomposing in Sowell’s house and yard, and nobody witnessed a thing.

Predictably, directly across the street from the duplex on Imperial is one of those ubiquitous makeshift memorials, strewed with stuffed animals, bouquets of flowers, colorful ribbons and hastily written notes and cards bemoaning the tragic deaths. We in the black community are quick to erect our little inner city monuments to call attention to lives lost to the violence of our neighborhoods. But it is a recognition that always comes too late.

It’s easier, and honestly, probably safer, to turn a blind eye to the ugliness in our neighborhoods. That is why when the furor of these serial killings dies down we will return to not seeing these homeless women as they stumble along inner city streets, stand on corners, and hunch in doorways.

Oh, they might cross our field of vision as we make our way to work, to school, or to church, but we won’t see them-- won’t see these throwaway women because we don’t want to see them.

It's clear from the No Snitch campaign, to the horror on Imperial Avenue, that no one in the black community is willing to be a witness. And that is just what the Anthony Sowells of the world count on.

American Muslim Under A Hateful Eye, Again

american muslim
Originally uploaded by Art Peace

By Carl C. Chancellor

As soon as the name of the alleged Ft. Hood shooter was broadcast, I am sure the communications director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations couldn’t hit the send button quick enough on the group’s press release condemning the horrific attack.

Just like hundreds of other American-Muslim groups and individuals, CAIR, America’s largest Muslim civil liberties organization, knew that the backlash, with its ugly recriminations, the questioning of their loyalty, the hateful rhetoric, the suspicious stares, was coming just as it had come before. They knew the drill and did the only thing they could do–denounce the heinous act, point out that Islam doesn’t condone such acts of violence and stress that “American Muslims stand with our fellow citizens in offering both prayers for the victims and sincere condolences to the families of those killed or injured.”

But is America listening? Does it even want to hear?

Any message of shared pain, of condemnation coming from the American Muslim community is being drowned out by the hyperbolic, demonizing rhetoric spewing from flame-fanning conservative talk show hosts and broadcasters. Maybe that is the point–divide our country and foment fear and hatred.

One American-Muslim leader confessed to listening to the news as it came in Thursday and praying that a fellow Muslim wasn’t involved.

I know the feeling, because I was saying a similar prayer when it was reported that the shooter was a convert to Islam. I didn’t want the gunman to be an African-American brother.
It’s a reflex action of those who know the sting of having to answer for the actions of another simply because you happen to share the same pigmentation or worship the same God.

We now know the alleged shooter was Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a medical doctor and licensed psychiatrist, who was born in Virginia to Palestinian immigrant parents and is a Muslim.

What we don’t know is why he did it.

Of course to some that doesn’t matter. He is a Muslim, a follower of the Islamic faith. Enough said. Case closed.

Because of that attitude, which has manifested in anonymous phone threats and bigoted rants filling the blogosphere, Muslim communities across the country are fearful and on alert.

Media personality Michelle Malkin called Maj. Hasan just another “MSA–Muslim Soldier with an Attitude.” Her counterpart, columnist Debbie Schlussel, told her readers to think of Hasan “whenever you hear about how Muslims serve their country in the U.S. military.”
It will serve us better to think of the estimated 15,000 Muslims serving with honor in the U.S. military, according to figures compiled by the American Muslim Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Council in Washington, D.C.

It will serve us better to heed the advice of U.S. Rep. Andre Carson, D-Indiana, one of two Muslims serving in Congress, who said the focus should be on the alleged shooter’s mental state rather than on his religion.

“This is no way a reflection of Islam any more than Timothy McVeigh’s actions are a reflection of Christianity,” said Carson, who was in charge of an anti-terrorism unit in Indiana’s Department of Homeland Security.

And, it will serve us better to remember Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, who was awarded a Purple Heart and Bronze Star for his service in Iraq and who now rests in Arlington National Cemetery.

Do Some Kids Deserve To Die Behind Bars?

Kids Locked Down For Life
Originally uploaded by Ryan_Brady


By Carl C. Chancellor

At what age is it appropriate to determine a child irredeemable and therefore prudent to lock them up and throw away the key?

That is the question the U.S. Supreme Court will take up on Monday, Nov.9, when it hears two Florida cases involving teenagers given life sentences with no chance of parole despite that fact they didn’t kill anyone.

Joe Sullivan was sent away for life for raping an elderly woman when he was only 13 years old.

A Florida judge told Terrance Graham he had “thrown away his life” before sentencing him to life. Graham had been convicted of armed robbery committed when he was 17 and on parole for another felony.

It will up to the Court to decide if the life without parole sentences handed out to Sullivan, now 33, and Graham, 22, are cruel and unusual and therefore, unconstitutional. Both men are currently in Florida prisons.

The United States is one of only a few countries that allows juveniles to receive life sentences and the only country that currently has teens serving life sentences. According to figures compiled by human rights agencies, there are about 2,500 juveniles doing life behind bars.

Lawyers for Sullivan and Graham note that draconian sentences for juveniles fail to take into account that children’s brains and bodies are not fully formed and that the possibility for reform and rehabilitation exists. They also point out that every state in the nation restricts young adolescents from certain activities seen as requiring mature judgment, including voting, buying alcohol, driving, entering into contracts, and consenting to sexual activity.

However, the attorneys for the state of Florida argue that it and other states need flexibility in sentencing to address the “particularly heinous” nature of certain series crimes. Offenders they say, even children, need to be held accountable for their actions.

In 2005, when the Supreme last took up the issue of how to punish young criminals, it ruled that the death penalty couldn’t be applied to anyone younger that 18. In that case –Roper v. Simmons–the justices decreed that the juvenile death penalty constituted cruel and unusual punishment. The court noted that “it would be misguided to equate the failings of a minor with those of an adult, for a greater possibility exists that a minor’s character deficiencies will be reformed.”

It is past time that the United States fall in line with the rest of the world and admit that passing final judgment on a child is morally repugnant and legally indefensible.

But, unless the Supreme Court sees it that way, Sullivan and Graham are likely to die in prison.

Note to Saint Elizabeth:

Come on Elizabeth—“It”?

Okay, I understand you have been deeply hurt and humiliated by your husband, iconic pretty boy, charmer and erstwhile political star, John (I’m all that) Edwards.

In the words of another famous philander, but still political star, Bill Clinton–“I feel your pain.”

But–“it”?

Come on Elizabeth, do you really want to disparage this innocent child, who had nothing to do with orchestrating the circumstances of her birth, by calling her–“it.” The word is so hurtfully, condescending, ugly, demeaning—Hell, just plain MEAN.

“It” brings to mind that oft used term, which I pray has been forever relegated to colloquial trash heap-- illegitimate child.

There is no way to measure the unfathomable damage and pain wrought by those two words. Just as there can be no way to anticipate the psychological hurt and corrosiveness that one word – “it”– will have on this little baby girl when year’s from now she sees, or reads, or is told about the discussion of her birth being viewed by millions on the top rated television interview show.

Lash out at Rielle Hunter, a true video-vixen if there ever was one (move over Karrine Steffans), if you want.

Go on, rip your husband a new ass hole, if you must.

Unleash the righteous (or is it self-righteous, whatever..) fury of a woman-done-wrong on those two, but pull back your demon dogs of vengeance when it comes to the baby.

I’m sure if you had given just a little thought, you would have never have used the word “it” in your conversation with Oprah, when you explained you weren’t sure if the baby was indeed your husbands. “It...” you say to Ophra–“It doesn’t look like my children, but I don’t have any idea...” if the baby is John’s.

I’m sure if there was some way you could appeal to Ophra’s people to edit that word out of the interview, which airs tomorrow, you would.

I’m sure, because Elizabeth I know you are better than that.

I also know it is easy to lose sight of the bigger picture when we are focused on ourselves, on our humiliation, on our pain. That’s all too human. All too, each and everyone of us.

And while I don’t begrudge you your right to hawk your new book, Resilience, I question the real motivation.

I fully understand the desire to get back at those who have wronged and hurt us. I can’t imagine battling cancer, fighting for your life and the person, who should be your tower of strength, standing by your side, putting his needs and wants on hold, is getting his freak on behind your back.

John Edwards acknowledged the affair last year, months after dropping his presidential bid, a candidacy he should have never subjected any of us too knowing what was lurking in his closet.

In her recent NYT column Maureen Dowd noted that Resilience has been billed by its publisher as an “inspirational meditation on the gifts we can find among life’s biggest challenges.”

I hope the book lives up to its lofty billing and is not just serving up titillating, gossipy, behind the scenes details of a private, family tragedy, nor simply providing a clearly wronged woman an opportunity to pillory the two people who hurt her most.

But most of all I hope, that all involved will promise to be mindful to protect the little baby girl at the center of this story – the one truly innocent person in this entire tale.

What is the blog?

Poli-Psi is a political opinion blog that takes its name from the combination of the words Poli (politics) and Psi (the 23 letter of the Greek alphabet)
Poli-Psi takes a critical look at all things political through the prism of the 23 Enigma –a philosophy based on the belief that most incidents and events are directly connected to the number 23, some permutation of the number 23, or a number related to the number 23, given enough ingenuity on the part of the interpreter.