"Assimilationist", Irene is gone, and another day another stupid comment from a wingnut.

So O won't give a posthumous pardon to brother Marcus. (h/t to Asabagna over at the Afrospear for hipping me to this story) That's a shame. I know that it's all symbolism at this point, but it would send a nice signal to folks like moi. But then again, we know that it would send a totally different message to certain folks, and O needs their votes come November, 2012. He can always count on us Negroes for our support.  Forget the fact that Garvey was the hardest working man in the Negro self improvement business, and with his ideas for the advancement of African people (not just African Americans) he was way ahead of his time.

Anyway, I know that some folks are not pleased:

"The Obama administration has rejected a call for a posthumous presidential pardon for Marcus Garvey, calling it a waste of time and resources.
The denial of a pardon came only recently, in response to a campaign waged by attorney Donovan Parker, who had been writing Obama weekly since January 2011 calling for Garvey's pardon.
The denial letter stated:

"Many posthumous pardon requests would likely be based on a claim of manifest injustice, and given that decades have passed since the event and the historical record would have to be scoured to objectively and comprehensively investigate such applications, it is the Department's position that the limited resources which are available to process requests for Presidential clemency — now being submitted in record numbers — are best dedicated to requests submitted by persons who can truly benefit from a grant of the request."
So the Obama administration says pardoning Garvey is a waste of time and resources, yet he has found the time and resources to pardon a turkey on Thanksgiving.

The denial is ironic, considering that the struggle waged by the Garvey Movement in the early 1900s — and subsequent struggles influenced by it — set the stage for Obama's election.

That the U.S. government even needed to deliver a black president to African people as a last ditch effort to undermine struggle for true self-determination is a direct effect of the struggles influenced by the Garvey Movement.
Marcus Garvey was the founder and leader of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL), a global organization of African people that held at least 11 million members during the early 1900s.
His work to organize for self-determination for African people has influenced every subsequent struggle of African people.

The U.S. government sought to destroy Garvey and his organization, including utilizing FBI agents to infiltrate his organization.

J. Edgar Hoover — the FBI director who initiated the vicious COINTELPRO war on the Black Power Movement of the Sixties — first made his name by destroying the Garvey Movement. It was to infiltrate Garvey's movement that the FBI integrated.

Though Hoover stated in an October 1919 memo that Garvey had committed no "crime" to justify deporting him, the FBI eventually set the black leader up.
Garvey was imprisoned and, in 1927, deported to Jamaica.

Independentist vs. assimilationist struggle continues

While ironic, it is not surprising that the Obama administration has taken a denial stance on the question of pardoning Garvey.

Obama represents the same trend that opposed Garvey in the 1900s.
Garvey represented the aspirations of African people for independence, self-determination and power over our own lives.

In opposition to him were assimilationists like W.E.B. DuBois and the NAACP, those who saw their future working within the oppressive system that exploits African labor and resources for its continued existence.

The assimilationists attacked Garvey while he was alive, uniting with the U.S. government to undermine Garvey's movement, which was based among the African working masses.

Today, Obama represents the highest expression of the assimilationist trend.
His administration has already waged war on Africa in Libya, Somalia and elsewhere through AFRICOM, so it is only consistent that he would continue that trend by maintaining the criminalization of this African incredible leader." [Source]

Ouch!

Finally, Irene has come and gone, and, as is usually the case, the hype was more than the actual hit.

Some winners and losers:

Winners: The emergency management coordinators from state, municipal, and federal agencies. I know I always rip Governor Krispy Kreme, but he did a good job over in Jersey, and our HNIC here in Philly did a good job as well. Folks got the message to stay indoors and various public agencies were right on the spot when the going got tough.

Losers: The clueless news media. I know you have to hype and sensationalize every story for your ratings, but watching some clown stand in a puddle of water in the middle of Manhattan while the ticker is reading "BREAKING NEWS, NEW YORK FACES CATASTROPHE" is a bit much. This type of scene repeated itself over and over again. And when these idiots interviewed normal citizens who tried to tell them that things weren't as bad as they seemed, it was funny to see their reaction as they tried to scare more people into watching their over the top news cast.

One man who was just rescued from his truck here in Philly was being interviewed by a correspondent on the scene, when the anchor in the studio chimed in and asked the man if he managed to make it out -I swear to you that's what she said.-The poor man looked long and hard into the camera and and everyone watching made a silent connection with him. Everyone, of course, except the clueless anchor.

Folks, in the future, please give us less hyperbole and more of what is actually happening with the damn news.

Biggest Loser: Who else but a wingnutGlenn Beckkk for saying that Irene was actually a blessing.

"The Washington Post reports radio personality Glenn Beck has declared Hurricane Irene is a "blessing." He touts the strong storm lashing the East Coast of the United States as a harbinger to warn Americans to be prepared for anything and to stock up food."

I know Glenn, after we elect Governor Big Hair all these natural disasters will just suddenly go away. "Prayer changes things."