Obama's Big Sellout

This article appears courtesy of Rolling Stone Magazine author MATT TAIBBI

Barack Obama ran for president as a man of the people, standing up to Wall Street as the global economy melted down in that fateful fall of 2008. He pushed a tax plan to soak the rich, ripped NAFTA for hurting the middle class and tore into John McCain for supporting a bankruptcy bill that sided with wealthy bankers "at the expense of hardworking Americans." Obama may not have run to the left of Samuel Gompers or Cesar Chavez, but it's not like you saw him on the campaign trail flanked by bankers from Citigroup and Goldman Sachs. What inspired supporters who pushed him to his historic win was the sense that a genuine outsider was finally breaking into an exclusive club, that walls were being torn down, that things were, for lack of a better or more specific term, changing.
Then he got elected.
What's taken place in the year since Obama won the presidency has turned out to be one of the most dramatic political about-faces in our history. Elected in the midst of a crushing economic crisis brought on by a decade of orgiastic deregulation and unchecked greed, Obama had a clear mandate to rein in Wall Street and remake the entire structure of the American economy. What he did instead was ship even his most marginally progressive campaign advisers off to various bureaucratic Siberias, while packing the key economic positions in his White House with the very people who caused the crisis in the first place. This new team of bubble-fattened ex-bankers and laissez-faire intellectuals then proceeded to sell us all out, instituting a massive, trickle-up bailout and systematically gutting regulatory reform from the inside.
How could Obama let this happen? Is he just a rookie in the political big leagues, hoodwinked by Beltway old-timers? Or is the vacillating, ineffectual servant of banking interests we've been seeing on TV this fall who Obama really is?
Whatever the president's real motives are, the extensive series of loophole-rich financial "reforms" that the Democrats are currently pushing may ultimately do more harm than good. In fact, some parts of the new reforms border on insanity, threatening to vastly amplify Wall Street's political power by institutionalizing the taxpayer's role as a welfare provider for the financial-services industry. At one point in the debate, Obama's top economic advisers demanded the power to award future bailouts without even going to Congress for approval — and without providing taxpayers a single dime in equity on the deals.
How did we get here? It started just moments after the election — and almost nobody noticed
'Just look at the timeline of the Citigroup deal," says one leading Democratic consultant. "Just look at it. It's fucking amazing. Amazing! And nobody said a thing about it."
Barack Obama was still just the president-elect when it happened, but the revolting and inexcusable $306 billion bailout that Citigroup received was the first major act of his presidency. In order to grasp the full horror of what took place, however, one needs to go back a few weeks before the actual bailout — to November 5th, 2008, the day after Obama's election.
That was the day the jubilant Obama campaign announced its transition team. Though many of the names were familiar — former Bill Clinton chief of staff John Podesta, long-time Obama confidante Valerie Jarrett — the list was most notable for who was not on it, especially on the economic side. Austan Goolsbee, a University of Chicago economist who had served as one of Obama's chief advisers during the campaign, didn't make the cut. Neither did Karen Kornbluh, who had served as Obama's policy director and was instrumental in crafting the Democratic Party's platform. Both had emphasized populist themes during the campaign: Kornbluh was known for pushing Democrats to focus on the plight of the poor and middle class, while Goolsbee was an aggressive critic of Wall Street, declaring that AIG executives should receive "a Nobel Prize — for evil."
But come November 5th, both were banished from Obama's inner circle — and replaced with a group of Wall Street bankers. Leading the search for the president's new economic team was his close friend and Harvard Law classmate Michael Froman, a high-ranking executive at Citigroup. During the campaign, Froman had emerged as one of Obama's biggest fundraisers, bundling $200,000 in contributions and introducing the candidate to a host of heavy hitters — chief among them his mentor Bob Rubin, the former co-chairman of Goldman Sachs who served as Treasury secretary under Bill Clinton. Froman had served as chief of staff to Rubin at Treasury, and had followed his boss when Rubin left the Clinton administration to serve as a senior counselor to Citigroup (a massive new financial conglomerate created by deregulatory moves pushed through by Rubin himself).
Incredibly, Froman did not resign from the bank when he went to work for Obama: He remained in the employ of Citigroup for two more months, even as he helped appoint the very people who would shape the future of his own firm. And to help him pick Obama's economic team, Froman brought in none other than Jamie Rubin, who happens to be Bob Rubin's son. At the time, Jamie's dad was still earning roughly $15 million a year working for Citigroup, which was in the midst of a collapse brought on in part because Rubin had pushed the bank to invest heavily in mortgage-backed CDOs and other risky instruments.
Now here's where it gets really interesting. It's three weeks after the election. You have a lame-duck president in George W. Bush — still nominally in charge, but in reality already halfway to the golf-and-O'Doul's portion of his career and more than happy to vacate the scene. Left to deal with the still-reeling economy are lame-duck Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, a former head of Goldman Sachs, and New York Fed chief Timothy Geithner, who served under Bob Rubin in the Clinton White House. Running Obama's economic team are a still-employed Citigroup executive and the son of another Citigroup executive, who himself joined Obama's transition team that same month.
So on November 23rd, 2008, a deal is announced in which the government will bail out Rubin's messes at Citigroup with a massive buffet of taxpayer-funded cash and guarantees. It is a terrible deal for the government, almost universally panned by all serious economists, an outrage to anyone who pays taxes. Under the deal, the bank gets $20 billion in cash, on top of the $25 billion it had already received just weeks before as part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program. But that's just the appetizer. The government also agrees to charge taxpayers for up to $277 billion in losses on troubled Citi assets, many of them those toxic CDOs that Rubin had pushed Citi to invest in. No Citi executives are replaced, and few restrictions are placed on their compensation. It's the sweetheart deal of the century, putting generations of working-stiff taxpayers on the hook to pay off Bob Rubin's fuck-up-rich tenure at Citi. "If you had any doubts at all about the primacy of Wall Street over Main Street," former labor secretary Robert Reich declares when the bailout is announced, "your doubts should be laid to rest."
It is bad enough that one of Bob Rubin's former protégés from the Clinton years, the New York Fed chief Geithner, is intimately involved in the negotiations, which unsurprisingly leave the Federal Reserve massively exposed to future Citi losses. But the real stunner comes only hours after the bailout deal is struck, when the Obama transition team makes a cheerful announcement: Timothy Geithner is going to be Barack Obama's Treasury secretary!
Geithner, in other words, is hired to head the U.S. Treasury by an executive from Citigroup — Michael Froman — before the ink is even dry on a massive government giveaway to Citigroup that Geithner himself was instrumental in delivering. In the annals of brazen political swindles, this one has to go in the all-time Fuck-the-Optics Hall of Fame.
Wall Street loved the Citi bailout and the Geithner nomination so much that the Dow immediately posted its biggest two-day jump since 1987, rising 11.8 percent. Citi shares jumped 58 percent in a single day, and JP Morgan Chase, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley soared more than 20 percent, as Wall Street embraced the news that the government's bailout generosity would not die with George W. Bush and Hank Paulson. "Geithner assures a smooth transition between the Bush administration and that of Obama, because he's already co-managing what's happening now," observed Stephen Leeb, president of Leeb Capital Management.
Left unnoticed, however, was the fact that Geithner had been hired by a sitting Citigroup executive who still had a big bonus coming despite his proximity to Obama. In January 2009, just over a month after the bailout, Citigroup paid Froman a year-end bonus of $2.25 million. But as outrageous as it was, that payoff would prove to be chump change for the banker crowd, who were about to get everything they wanted — and more — from the new president.
The irony of Bob Rubin: He's an unapologetic arch-capitalist demagogue whose very career is proof that a free-market meritocracy is a myth. Much like Alan Greenspan, a staggeringly incompetent economic forecaster who was worshipped by four decades of politicians because he once dated Barbara Walters, Rubin has been held in awe by the American political elite for nearly 20 years despite having fucked up virtually every project he ever got his hands on. He went from running Goldman Sachs (1990-1992) to the Clinton White House (1993-1999) to Citigroup (1999-2009), leaving behind a trail of historic gaffes that somehow boosted his stature every step of the way.
As Treasury secretary under Clinton, Rubin was the driving force behind two monstrous deregulatory actions that would be primary causes of last year's financial crisis: the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act (passed specifically to legalize the Citigroup megamerger) and the deregulation of the derivatives market. Having set that time bomb, Rubin left government to join Citi, which promptly expressed its gratitude by giving him $126 million in compensation over the next eight years (they don't call it bribery in this country when they give you the money post factum). After urging management to amp up its risky investments in toxic vehicles, a strategy that very nearly destroyed the company, Rubin blamed Citi's board for his screw-ups and complained that he had been underpaid to boot. "I bet there's not a single year where I couldn't have gone somewhere else and made more," he said.
Despite being perhaps more responsible for last year's crash than any other single living person — his colossally stupid decisions at both the highest levels of government and the management of a private financial superpower make him unique — Rubin was the man Barack Obama chose to build his White House around.
There are four main ways to be connected to Bob Rubin: through Goldman Sachs, the Clinton administration, Citigroup and, finally, the Hamilton Project, a think tank Rubin spearheaded under the auspices of the Brookings Institute to promote his philosophy of balanced budgets, free trade and financial deregulation. The team Obama put in place to run his economic policy after his inauguration was dominated by people who boasted connections to at least one of these four institutions — so much so that the White House now looks like a backstage party for an episode of Bob Rubin, This Is Your Life!
At Treasury, there is Geithner, who worked under Rubin in the Clinton years. Serving as Geithner's "counselor" — a made-up post not subject to Senate confirmation — is Lewis Alexander, the former chief economist of Citigroup, who advised Citi back in 2007 that the upcoming housing crash was nothing to worry about. Two other top Geithner "counselors" — Gene Sperling and Lael Brainard — worked under Rubin at the National Economic Council, the key group that coordinates all economic policymaking for the White House.
As director of the NEC, meanwhile, Obama installed economic czar Larry Summers, who had served as Rubin's protégé at Treasury. Just below Summers is Jason Furman, who worked for Rubin in the Clinton White House and was one of the first directors of Rubin's Hamilton Project. The appointment of Furman — a persistent advocate of free-trade agreements like NAFTA and the author of droolingly pro-globalization reports with titles like "Walmart: A Progressive Success Story" — provided one of the first clues that Obama had only been posturing when he promised crowds of struggling Midwesterners during the campaign that he would renegotiate NAFTA, which facilitated the flight of blue-collar jobs to other countries. "NAFTA's shortcomings were evident when signed, and we must now amend the agreement to fix them," Obama declared. A few months after hiring Furman to help shape its economic policy, however, the White House quietly quashed any talk of renegotiating the trade deal. "The president has said we will look at all of our options, but I think they can be addressed without having to reopen the agreement," U.S. Trade Representative Ronald Kirk told reporters in a little-publicized conference call last April.
The announcement was not so surprising, given who Obama hired to serve alongside Furman at the NEC: management consultant Diana Farrell, who worked under Rubin at Goldman Sachs. In 2003, Farrell was the author of an infamous paper in which she argued that sending American jobs overseas might be "as beneficial to the U.S. as to the destination country, probably more so."
Joining Summers, Furman and Farrell at the NEC is Froman, who by then had been formally appointed to a unique position: He is not only Obama's international finance adviser at the National Economic Council, he simultaneously serves as deputy national security adviser at the National Security Council. The twin posts give Froman a direct line to the president, putting him in a position to coordinate Obama's international economic policy during a crisis. He'll have help from David Lipton, another joint appointee to the economics and security councils who worked with Rubin at Treasury and Citigroup, and from Jacob Lew, a former Citi colleague of Rubin's whom Obama named as deputy director at the State Department to focus on international finance.
Over at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which is supposed to regulate derivatives trading, Obama appointed Gary Gensler, a former Goldman banker who worked under Rubin in the Clinton White House. Gensler had been instrumental in helping to pass the infamous Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, which prevented regulation of derivative instruments like CDOs and credit-default swaps that played such a big role in cratering the economy last year. And as head of the powerful Office of Management and Budget, Obama named Peter Orszag, who served as the first director of Rubin's Hamilton Project. Orszag once succinctly summed up the project's ideology as a sort of liberal spin on trickle-down Reaganomics: "Market competition and globalization generate significant economic benefits."
Taken together, the rash of appointments with ties to Bob Rubin may well represent the most sweeping influence by a single Wall Street insider in the history of government. "Rather than having a team of rivals, they've got a team of Rubins," says Steven Clemons, director of the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation. "You see that in policy choices that have resuscitated — but not reformed — Wall Street."
While Rubin's allies and acolytes got all the important jobs in the Obama administration, the academics and progressives got banished to semi-meaningless, even comical roles. Kornbluh was rewarded for being the chief policy architect of Obama's meteoric rise by being outfitted with a pith helmet and booted across the ocean to Paris, where she now serves as America's never-again-to-be-seen-on-TV ambassador to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Goolsbee, meanwhile, was appointed as staff director of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board, a kind of dumping ground for Wall Street critics who had assisted Obama during the campaign; one top Democrat calls the panel "Siberia."
Joining Goolsbee as chairman of the PERAB gulag is former Fed chief Paul Volcker, who back in March 2008 helped candidate Obama write a speech declaring that the deregulatory efforts of the Eighties and Nineties had "excused and even embraced an ethic of greed, corner-cutting, insider dealing, things that have always threatened the long-term stability of our economic system." That speech met with rapturous applause, but the commission Obama gave Volcker to manage is so toothless that it didn't even meet for the first time until last May. The lone progressive in the White House, economist Jared Bernstein, holds the impressive-sounding title of chief economist and national policy adviser — except that the man he is advising is Joe Biden, who seems more interested in foreign policy than financial reform.
The significance of all of these appointments isn't that the Wall Street types are now in a position to provide direct favors to their former employers. It's that, with one or two exceptions, they collectively offer a microcosm of what the Democratic Party has come to stand for in the 21st century. Virtually all of the Rubinites brought in to manage the economy under Obama share the same fundamental political philosophy carefully articulated for years by the Hamilton Project: Expand the safety net to protect the poor, but let Wall Street do whatever it wants. "Bob Rubin, these guys, they're classic limousine liberals," says David Sirota, a former Democratic strategist. "These are basically people who have made shitloads of money in the speculative economy, but they want to call themselves good Democrats because they're willing to give a little more to the poor. That's the model for this Democratic Party: Let the rich do their thing, but give a fraction more to everyone else."
Even the members of Obama's economic team who have spent most of their lives in public office have managed to make small fortunes on Wall Street. The president's economic czar, Larry Summers, was paid more than $5.2 million in 2008 alone as a managing director of the hedge fund D.E. Shaw, and pocketed an additional $2.7 million in speaking fees from a smorgasbord of future bailout recipients, including Goldman Sachs and Citigroup. At Treasury, Geithner's aide Gene Sperling earned a staggering $887,727 from Goldman Sachs last year for performing the punch-line-worthy service of "advice on charitable giving." Sperling's fellow Treasury appointee, Mark Patterson, received $637,492 as a full-time lobbyist for Goldman Sachs, and another top Geithner aide, Lee Sachs, made more than $3 million working for a New York hedge fund called Mariner Investment Group. The list goes on and on. Even Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, who has been out of government for only 30 months of his adult life, managed to collect $18 million during his private-sector stint with a Wall Street firm called Wasserstein-Perella.
The point is that an economic team made up exclusively of callous millionaire-assholes has absolutely zero interest in reforming the gamed system that made them rich in the first place. "You can't expect these people to do anything other than protect Wall Street," says Rep. Cliff Stearns, a Republican from Florida. That thinking was clear from Obama's first address to Congress, when he stressed the importance of getting Americans to borrow like crazy again. "Credit is the lifeblood of the economy," he declared, pledging "the full force of the federal government to ensure that the major banks that Americans depend on have enough confidence and enough money." A president elected on a platform of change was announcing, in so many words, that he planned to change nothing fundamental when it came to the economy. Rather than doing what FDR had done during the Great Depression and institute stringent new rules to curb financial abuses, Obama planned to institutionalize the policy, firmly established during the Bush years, of keeping a few megafirms rich at the expense of everyone else.
Obama hasn't always toed the Rubin line when it comes to economic policy. Despite being surrounded by a team that is powerfully opposed to deficit spending — balanced budgets and deficit reduction have always been central to the Rubin way of thinking — Obama came out of the gate with a huge stimulus plan designed to kick-start the economy and address the job losses brought on by the 2008 crisis. "You have to give him credit there," says Sen. Bernie Sanders, an advocate of using government resources to address unemployment. "It's a very significant piece of legislation, and $787 billion is a lot of money."
But whatever jobs the stimulus has created or preserved so far — 640,329, according to an absurdly precise and already debunked calculation by the White House — the aid that Obama has provided to real people has been dwarfed in size and scope by the taxpayer money that has been handed over to America's financial giants. "They spent $75 billion on mortgage relief, but come on — look at how much they gave Wall Street," says a leading Democratic strategist. Neil Barofsky, the inspector general charged with overseeing TARP, estimates that the total cost of the Wall Street bailouts could eventually reach $23.7 trillion. And while the government continues to dole out big money to big banks, Obama and his team of Rubinites have done almost nothing to reform the warped financial system responsible for imploding the global economy in the first place.
The push for reform seemed to get off to a promising start. In the House, the charge was led by Rep. Barney Frank, the outspoken chair of the House Financial Services Committee, who emerged during last year's Bush bailouts as a sharp-tongued critic of Wall Street. Back when Obama was still a senator, he and Frank even worked together to introduce a populist bill targeting executive compensation. Last spring, with the economy shattered, Frank began to hold hearings on a host of reforms, crafted with significant input from the White House, that initially contained some very good elements. There were measures to curb abusive credit-card lending, prevent banks from charging excessive fees, force publicly traded firms to conduct meaningful risk assessment and allow shareholders to vote on executive compensation. There were even measures to crack down on risky derivatives and to bar firms like AIG from picking their own regulators.
Then the committee went to work — and the loopholes started to appear.
P.S I know there are the same people of no etos in the base of the democratic party,Racism is everywhere and I really don't believe the civil war was fought to free the slaves when you cut through the layers.And as far as the honorable solders on both sides they were probably defending against what they believed to be a life altering event to their home land.It kind of reminds me of the statement "The smoking gun will be in the form of a mushroom cloud."
Giovanna | December 16, 2009 11:52 AM EST
OwlRancher, I apologize. I suspected that you might have been being sarcastic, but it's not always easy to tell in this medium, and so I took the opportunity to set a few misconceptions straight, because I get extremely pissed off when federalist propaganda and anti-Southern bias are spouted in an effort to (1) promote federalism and discredit the ideal of confederation, (2) misrepresent the entire ideal of "states' rights" as a euphemism for racism and pro-slavery sentiments, and/or (3) malign the people of the South and praise Northerners as having somehow had anything remotely akin to moral superiority in the conflict that is popularly named "the American Civil War."
OwlRancher | December 16, 2009 11:30 AM EST
And "G: you are right and I had no intention to shame anyone but just point out the obserdity of NBF's statement that the base of the dems,(Which I am not)is all the differant illegal aliens who would get "Free" health care.Why he /she doesn't get that the beef should be against the very people who have allowed the siphning off of wealth of the middle class and what little the poor have.
The beef should be against those who brainwashed we people into beliving Corpratetism and Capitalism is Gooood.
When it is a economic method of making a small group of the wealthiest wealthier and if the have no ethos we are just pawn and slaves to them to be disguarded as they see fit.And BOTH parties are complicite in their EVIL.
And if We the People do not start understabding this fact and stop our partasan bull pissing contests we loss they win,if it's not already to late.
And if you have a perpencity to do it pray our president will step away from the darkness,no pun.
dlt | December 16, 2009 11:22 AM EST
Racism--"dimpled chads," etc--the reason why GW Bush won in 2000. Darwinian, Republican profit motive: health care only for those in the one percent income bracket
OwlRancher | December 16, 2009 11:12 AM EST
"G" The my first statement was not a slap at my southern brothers and sisters It was a to point out that brothers and sisters killed each other on the behalf of the wealthy white plantation owners (who yes did have red/white /yellow but mostly black slave labor),against the wealthy white industrialists (who payed little for long hazardous work with no reguard to the lives of the workers).BOTH ARE EVIL AND A VIRUS TO MANKIND!!
The rebublican base is made up of people like Trent Lott,Jeff Sessions,John Boner,Mel Blunt,Tom Delay.
All tied to the forced prostitution and forced tactile labor camps and forced abortions in the Merianis Islands through Jack Abramhof.
You are right,Hilliary is no libral she was a rich little Gooldwater girl in the late 60's and yes a opertunistic cerpetbagger whos' govenor husband,(a governor who has a not so good record of dealing with the needs of the people he was to serve in Ark.)
Some how got the nod to throw his hat in the ring for pres.( A deal with the power brokers I wont get into here.)
Giovanna | December 16, 2009 5:12 AM EST
(cont from last post)

Oh, speakng of that, tell me where the strongholds of the KKK and other racist groups were in the 20th century. Oh, right, the Pacific Northwest (KKK), Montana (Neo-Nazis), Wyoming (Neo-Nazis), New York (Skinheads), Missouri (Covenant, Sword, and Arm of the Lord), ... Goodness, states that were part of the Union, not part of the Confederacy. Now, I would be dissembling if I didn't admit that there have been racist organizations active in the South in the 20th century as well. There certainly have been, but once again, we see this attempt to shame the "white" Southerners, while the Yankees put on a show of how morally superior they were and are, and the truth, then and now, is something else.

But what is this about, really? This is about the same "Divide and conquer" policy I mentioned in one of my previous posts. This is about pitting Northerners against Southerners, fomenting bias, prejudice, even racism, all in order to keep us blinded to who the actual enemy is, and it's not "white" Southerners, or New England "Yankees," or blacks from anywhere, or "brown hordes," or "the Yellow Peril," or any other average human being struggling just as much as we are to make a living (or, in some cases, to merely survive). No, no, no, damn it!

The enemy is the wealthy and greedy capitalist, corporatist, financier, Wall Street insider -- AND their bought politicians.

So, yes, I take offense at the continuing propaganda that paints "the South" as something to do with pro-slavery and racism and other bullshit, and I'll correct that, but in the end, the real enemy isn't "the North." It's the same privileged leisure class and their toadies that it always has been since feudalistic "Landlords" and the colonial imperialists of the "Age of Exploration," and the conquering imperialists of the earlier empires like the Roman, Hellenistic, Medo-Persian, Assyro-Babylonian ...

Wake up and fight the real enemy.
On the Senate side, finance reform has yet to make it through the markup process, but there's every reason to believe that its final bill will be as watered down as the House version by the time it comes to a vote. The original measure, drafted by chairman Christopher Dodd of the Senate Banking Committee, is surprisingly tough on Wall Street — a fact that almost everyone in town chalks up to Dodd's desperation to shake the bad publicity he incurred by accepting a sweetheart mortgage from the notorious lender Countrywide. "He's got to do the shake-his-fist-at-Wall Street thing because of his, you know, problems," says a Democratic Senate aide. "So that's why the bill is starting out kind of tough."
The aide pauses. "The question is, though, what will it end up looking like?"
He's right — that is the question. Because the way it works is that all of these great-sounding reforms get whittled down bit by bit as they move through the committee markup process, until finally there's nothing left but the exceptions. In one example, a measure that would have forced financial companies to be more accountable to shareholders by holding elections for their entire boards every year has already been watered down to preserve the current system of staggered votes. In other cases, this being the Senate, loopholes were inserted before the debate even began: The Dodd bill included the exemption for foreign-currency swaps — a gift to Wall Street that only appeared in the Frank bill during the course of hearings — from the very outset.
The White House's refusal to push for real reform stands in stark contrast to what it should be doing. It was left to Rep. Paul Kanjorski in the House and Bernie Sanders in the Senate to propose bills to break up the so-called "too big to fail" banks. Both measures would give Congress the power to dismantle those pseudomonopolies controlling almost the entire derivatives market (Goldman, Citi, Chase, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America control 95 percent of the $290 trillion over-the-counter market) and the consumer-lending market (Citi, Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo issue one of every two mortgages, and two of every three credit cards). On November 18th, in a move that demonstrates just how nervous Democrats are getting about the growing outrage over taxpayer giveaways, Barney Frank's committee actually passed Kanjorski's measure. "It's a beginning," Kanjorski says hopefully. "We're on our way." But even if the Senate follows suit, big banks could well survive — depending on whom the president appoints to sit on the new regulatory board mandated by the measure. An oversight body filled with executives of the type Obama has favored to date from Citi and Goldman Sachs hardly seems like a strong bet to start taking an ax to concentrated wealth. And given the new bailout provisions that provide these megafirms a market advantage over smaller banks (those Paul Volcker calls "too small to save"), the failure to break them up qualifies as a major policy decision with potentially disastrous consequences.
"They should be doing what Teddy Roosevelt did," says Sanders. "They should be busting the trusts."
That probably won't happen anytime soon. But at a minimum, Obama should start on the road back to sanity by making a long-overdue move: firing Geithner. Not only are the mop-headed weenie of a Treasury secretary's fingerprints on virtually all the gross giveaways in the new reform legislation, he's a living symbol of the Rubinite gangrene crawling up the leg of this administration. Putting Geithner against the wall and replacing him with an actual human being not recently employed by a Wall Street megabank would do a lot to prove that Obama was listening this past Election Day. And while there are some who think Geithner is about to go — "he almost has to," says one Democratic strategist — at the moment, the president is still letting Wall Street do his talking.
Morning, the National Mall, November 5th. A year to the day after Obama named Michael Froman to his transition team, his political "opposition" has descended upon the city. Republican teabaggers from all 50 states have showed up, a vast horde of frowning, pissed-off middle-aged white people with their idiot placards in hand, ready to do cultural battle. They are here to protest Obama's "socialist" health care bill — you know, the one that even a bloodsucking capitalist interest group like Big Pharma spent $150 million to get passed.
These teabaggers don't know that, however. All they know is that a big government program might end up using tax dollars to pay the medical bills of rapidly breeding Dominican immigrants. So they hate it. They're also in a groove, knowing that at the polls a few days earlier, people like themselves had a big hand in ousting several Obama-allied Democrats, including a governor of New Jersey who just happened to be the former CEO of Goldman Sachs. A sign held up by New Jersey protesters bears the warning, "If You Vote For Obamacare, We Will Corzine You."
I approach a woman named Pat Defillipis from Toms River, New Jersey, and ask her why she's here. "To protest health care," she answers. "And then amnesty. You know, immigration amnesty."
I ask her if she's aware that there's a big hearing going on in the House today, where Barney Frank's committee is marking up a bill to reform the financial regulatory system. She recognizes Frank's name, wincing, but the rest of my question leaves her staring at me like I'm an alien.
"Do you care at all about economic regulation?" I ask. "There was sort of a big economic collapse last year. Do you have any ideas about how that whole deal should be fixed?"
"We got to slow down on spending," she says. "We can't afford it."
"But what do we do about the rules governing Wall Street . . ."
She walks away. She doesn't give a fuck. People like Pat aren't aware of it, but they're the best friends Obama has. They hate him, sure, but they don't hate him for any reasons that make sense. When it comes down to it, most of them hate the president for all the usual reasons they hate "liberals" — because he uses big words, doesn't believe in hell and doesn't flip out at the sight of gay people holding hands. Additionally, of course, he's black, and wasn't born in America, and is married to a woman who secretly hates our country.
These are the kinds of voters whom Obama's gang of Wall Street advisers is counting on: idiots. People whose votes depend not on whether the party in power delivers them jobs or protects them from economic villains, but on what cultural markers the candidate flashes on TV. Finance reform has become to Obama what Iraq War coffins were to Bush: something to be tucked safely out of sight.
Around the same time that finance reform was being watered down in Congress at the behest of his Treasury secretary, Obama was making a pit stop to raise money from Wall Street. On October 20th, the president went to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in New York and addressed some 200 financiers and business moguls, each of whom paid the maximum allowable contribution of $30,400 to the Democratic Party. But an organizer of the event, Daniel Fass, announced in advance that support for the president might be lighter than expected — bailed-out firms like JP Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs were expected to contribute a meager $91,000 to the event — because bankers were tired of being lectured about their misdeeds.
"The investment community feels very put-upon," Fass explained. "They feel there is no reason why they shouldn't earn $1 million to $200 million a year, and they don't want to be held responsible for the global financial meltdown."
Which makes sense. Shit, who could blame the investment community for the meltdown? What kind of assholes are we to put any of this on them?
This is the kind of person who is working for the Obama administration, which makes it unsurprising that we're getting no real reform of the finance industry. There's no other way to say it: Barack Obama, a once-in-a-generation political talent whose graceful conquest of America's racial dragons en route to the White House inspired the entire world, has for some reason allowed his presidency to be hijacked by sniveling, low-rent shitheads. Instead of reining in Wall Street, Obama has allowed himself to be seduced by it, leaving even his erstwhile campaign adviser, ex-Fed chief Paul Volcker, concerned about a "moral hazard" creeping over his administration.
"The obvious danger is that with the passage of time, risk-taking will be encouraged and efforts at prudential restraint will be resisted," Volcker told Congress in September, expressing concerns about all the regulatory loopholes in Frank's bill. "Ultimately, the possibility of further crises — even greater crises — will increase."
What's most troubling is that we don't know if Obama has changed, or if the influence of Wall Street is simply a fundamental and ineradicable element of our electoral system. What we do know is that Barack Obama pulled a bait-and-switch on us. If it were any other politician, we wouldn't be surprised. Maybe it's our fault, for thinking he was different.
Correction: Due to an editing error, the original version of this story incorrectly identified Jamie Rubin, Bob Rubin's son, as a former diplomat in the Clinton administration.

Community Service

“We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about progress and prosperity for our community... Our ambitions must be broad enough to include the aspirations and needs of others, for their sakes and for our own.”

--- Cesar Chavez

As most of you know, I started this blog/ site to offer an alternative perspective on this rich and storied community. I address the comforts and plagues; the unity and struggle; the exposure and the escape. Many times it’s not pretty or easy to digest, but I love this community. It is a treasure to me and for all of its ups and downs I will defend it until I’m buried in it.

What This Blog Isn’t
I wanted this blog to be void of the penmanship platform that duplicated the stories that flood the magazine racks on your neighborhood check out line. You know, stories like: Brad & Angelina giving birth to an 11 lb. turkey in the lobby of Bill Clinton’s Harlem Brownstone, during a Jewish holiday, with alternate side of street parking suspended because Mayor Bloomberg stole a third term in office. In short, I tried to leave the sensationalism to the detracting traditional media that continues to under serve the (seemingly) undeserving. After all, why would a sensible student tolerate such a media of mass distractions?

Today, however, I’m going to make an exception to that self-imposed sensationalized rule and offer my perspective on Eldrick Tont Woods or as his shrinking list of friends call him.., Tiger.



I never much cared for Tiger Woods and the under serving newsstands and (loosely-termed) 24-hour breaking news outlets haven’t done much to alter those feelings one way or the other.

Naturally, I don’t know him personally or I may have offered some playa tips. My overall, “beef” with Tiger is I just don’t like elitists or exclusionists. I firmly believe God gave this “green” to all of us, not just an elusive group of white males that (for as long as I can remember) thought a hoe was only used for plowing their manicured greens or sharing their Master’s “head” quarters.



Now I know this restricted sport had their man made clubhouse laws long before Tiger came pawing on the pavement of the pro circuit. But for some reason I got the feeling that Tiger enjoyed -- or at the very least condoned -- this discriminatory / exclusive behavior. You know, like he was immune to not-so-subtle racial, socioeconomic, special, sexist governance. Like his shade of black was better or more acceptable than other black people. The same black people that always seem to find the compassion to support people like Tiger even if they are still restricted from walking on the same green to console him. I got the feeling that Tiger felt like his do-do is more valued or smelled better because the bowl he shitted in had a shiny, more elegant flushing sound. Tiger (no matter what he calls himself) is black and (as of this post) is still married to a lilly white woman. For the record, a black man married to a white woman is cool with me, if that’s how you roll.... around.

I mean Charles Barkley may be the only black person left on Woods’ speed dial. My red flagged issue with Tiger’s marital union and transgression (as he nicely put it) is if you are a black man in America and you ONLY date white women EXCLUSIVELY!! That is a concern for me –not a HUGE concern like the abovementioned, but a concern nonetheless. Now, I don’t mind if you like your coffee with a tad more cream and a bit less rhythm than my taste will allow, but my deeper concern is if that’s the ONLY beverage you dance with. That type of exclusion probably says more about him and further fuels my dislike.

As of this post, Tiger’s sponsors still “like” him and are riding with him like a wrecked Escalade. This is “par for the course” as one would expect a profiteer to side with the color green -- not black, white or blond. That’s just good business nothing personal. Some of these sponsors will make statements like: “We offer our sincere hope that Woods and his family find a peaceful way to move forward.” What that really means is “I cannot wait until the pro golf tour starts again, so we can sell more products to the black families that cannot attend our exclusive events, but want to support Tiger in any way possible.” I don’t own any Woods’ paraphernalia and Buick isn’t even in my top 30 of car choices.

I will however keep my eye on the Tiger and keep you posted, as I feel this is my duty to the community and it’s a pleasure serving you.

If only Mr. Woods felt the same.


click on blog title/ arrow for bonus tracks


1 love,
Ray Lewis

Empire Stakes

"Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone." -- John Maynard Keynes

I found this statistic simply astonishing…., during the most recently completed NBA season (2008-09), almost 82% of NBA players were black. That 82% was the highest percentage of black players in the NBA in 15 years. Oddly, that fact was not the astonishing part. After all it was the great, black philosopher, Biggie Smalls who poetically described the only black male exodus from ‘hood as: "Either you slinging crack rock or you got a wicked jump-shot!" If the latter in Biggie’s lyrics sing true, the NBA’s personnel statistics support that verse. The rest of Notorious’ rhyme puppets are (either)in prison or resting next to him.


The amazing part doesn’t even rest with the fact that throughout the NBA’s 64-year history, there is STILL only one majority black owner. Yep, the former BET founding father Bob Johnson is the sole, not to be confused with the soul, NBA majority owner and his team is the Charlotte Bobcats. And, for the record, the team name (BOB cats) is not coincidental; but you have to meet him or watch BET to know just how seriously he takes himself and how little he cares about a black plight. The really astonishing fact is Bob Johnson is the only majority team owner of ANY professional team in American sports history!! If there is a slither of a silver lining looming among that empty black cloud it is…, black majority professional team ownership is outpacing black U.S. presidents by 300 centuries. Now that we clearly understand that covert racism, sexism, and collusion are all alive and well, I found the perfect remedy for this situation and it only took 25 years. The answer is.... LeBron Raymone James.

By the start of this NBA season LeBron James will be 24 (he'll turn 25 in December). Equally important is by the end of the 2009-10 NBA season LeBron will be an unrestricted free agent. “Free” being the operative word since we are talking about a league that doesn’t believe in black ownership -- no matter how many trillions the teams owners make off of their backs. In fact, those black players better make sure their tie is straight before and after the game. Ask yourself in what (other) industry could a owner MANIDATE what attaire is deemed "appropriate" before you get to work? Better yet, what group of people will ahere to it? I guess the black ownership rant I'm alluding to is probably nothing more than a hoop dream. As I digress.

LeBron James’ pro hoop dreams begun with his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers. But there is ample buzz that Cleveland is not where the bulk of his career will be spent. “Spent” being the operative word; since it’ll cost the Cavs’ owners 3 times what the franchise is actually worth to keep James. Signing LeBron could be really bad for business if the owners inked James to a long term contract and he suffered a career-ending injury or never brought a championship banner to Brownstown — both being real possibilities when you are balancing a balance sheet. Throwing a curve in the basketball equation is... Cleveland has been riddled with double-digit unemployment since the pre Clinton administration, but you’d have to search far outside of a Barack speech to address that fact – "speech" being the operative word. After all, you don't get many presidential donations (i.e. votes) from towns littered with double-digit unemployment.

There are many die hard fans that believe King James should just stay in Cleveland. Those fans translate a King James departure to be more disloyal than the transgressions of his biblical namesake. Now that’s astonishing. James is entering the prime of his career – mainly due to his disloyal departure from attending a college or university that is equally void of black owners. For the life of me I cannot figure out why black people continue to be loyal to people, places and ideas that are un apologetically unfaithful to them. That answer probably rests in the King James version.

There are a minimum of six NBA suitors that have all but tanked this season (which starts tonight at 7pm EST), by clearing salary cap space in hopes of landing James’jock in their draws. Given that there is only one King James (albeit many different versions) there is a good chance five of those jocking teams will NOT be renamed Jamestown. Additionally, two of the most notable suitors reside less than 20 miles apart... one is the the once famed New York Knicks and the other is the soon-to-be Brooklyn Nets.



Look no further than the Barack Bailout addresses to understand the economics of a New York City move. Add the trivial pursuit(ing) fact that Jay-Z -- a (very) minority owner in the Brooklyn-bound Nets has James’number on speed dial just behind B's and just ahead of O’s. Now,(should James leave Cleveland) his destination is probably easier to figure out than your child learning their ESPN’s.

The only way to improve minority anything is for minorities to use their leverage whenever that rare possibilty presents itself. James can sign a contract in a major market and make enough off-the-court endosemennts to improve 10 Ohio cities --even if he had to leave Ohio to do so. After all, what under or unemployed minority cares whether there is a championship banner hanging in a gym owned by a 1% (bailed out) majority? The fact that LeBron has this type leverage to change this at 25 is simply astonishing to me, the fact he may be too loyal to exercise it isn’t!

click on blog title for bonus beats


1 love,
Ray Lewis

THE BOO PRINT 3

"I don't know anything about music, In my line you don't have to." -Elvis Presley

What I really find insufferably painful about Jay-Z loyalists is… that blind cult of apologists feels as if a person does not like a Jigga Joint then that person is immediately dubbed a “hatar!!” This makes three things perfectly clear:

A. Jay-Z has officially reached Barack’s “above-all critique” status.
B. The days of good journalism hasn’t disappeared, it’s simply ignored—which essentially becomes one of the same.
C. Beyonce must (literally) be sitting on a gold mine.



For those of you that fall into categories A or B, I’ll have to ask that you put your Roc sign down, take your Barack outfit off (the flag pin too) and sprinkle some musical logic when reviewing Carter’s regrettable and unoriginal titled Blue Print 3. This is Jay-Z's 11th Hip Hop attempt and I feel the majestic music maker has penned at least two storied classics in his well documented career. The first is the ageless, street slaying Reasonable Doubt.

This debut was (get this).. both a gift and a curse. The gift was an up close, bird’s-eye view of the droppings that plague the inner city streets —- most notably, Brooklyn. The curse is now that Hova has moved into idyllic status his new address won’t allow him to tell those CNN-less stories anymore. After all, all board members care about is sums & totals, not the sum of the totals.
The second memorable LP in Jay’s catalog was the witty autobiographically depicted, Black Album.

Not many Hip Hop artists have the history, the ingenuity or the public relevance to tell their life story on wax without sounding preachy or self-righteous. The Black Album was truly unique in that regard. Jay-Z’s trifecta would be the Blueprint 1.

I’m not sure I’d call this one a classic (necessarily) but J (for the most part) did put the bottles & chains aside and steered clear of the overflowing boastfulness featured in: "In My Lifetime Vol. 1”, “Vol. 2, Hard Knock Life," “Life & Times of S. Carter” and really corny “Roc La Familia Dynasty” —- all of which collectively sold millions and led to this corny LP -- but more on that in a second. For record, if you turned your Hip Hop clock back to the summer of 1989 — 12 years before Jay-Z’s Blueprint 1 — you’ll find that KRS-One released an album called The Blueprint of Hip Hop. Perhaps, Jay was just paying homage with his thrice mirrored title, huh?

Any who, I will deliberate with anyone on the planet that Jay is the author of two (maybe three) Hip Hop classics and he is one of the top 25 emcees ever. Those facts should virtually exonerate me from being labeled a Jay-Z “hatar" right? Well, just stay tuned…

The Blueprint 3 by all accounts is WACK—even by a school bus strapped helmet standard. The tracks are laced with gimmicky, corn ball beats and underscored with Keisha Cole-ish choruses, which is a far cry from Song Cry. The track featuring Young Geezy is only missing rhyme rivals: Sneezy, Sleepy, Grumpy, Happy, Bashful, Doc and Dopey -— the latter doubling as producer.


The creative control handed to Kanye West was about as wise as a Kanye acceptance speech. Sprinkle producers; Tiny Timberland, Al Shux, the Incredibles, Swizz Beatz and The Neptunes and you have the equivalent of a Christopher Reeves' dance team. This is one of those unfortunate projects that suckered legendary Chi-Town producer, NO I.D. in and regulated his work on this CD to clichéd and corny status. Hope he invests wisely.

As usual, no matter how bad the music, Jay always seems to spit his ever-clever tête-à-tête. His wit was especially evident on his braggadocios, not-so-subtle, middle finger dagger, directed at a grade-school teacher, who apparently, said Shawn Carter wouldn’t amount to much. Maybe the teacher was just referring to this CD. Nevertheless, the Pharrell-propelled track is tolerable, but the lyrics on “So Ambitious” is the only thing that saved this CD from my plastic recycle bin.

Jay-Z The Blueprint 3, "So Ambitious" verse 1

I felt so inspired by what the teacher said/
Said I’d either be dead or be a reefer head/
Not sure if that’s how adults should speak to kids/
Especially when the only thing I did was speak in class/ I'll teach his ass/

Even better what my uncle did/
I popped my demo tape in start to beat my head/ Peeked out my eye, see if he was beatin’ his/
He might as well said beat it kid,/
He’s on the list/ It’s like im searching for kicks/
Like a sneaker head/ You gon’ keep pushing me til I reach the ledge/
And when I reach the ledge, I tellem all to eat a d----/
Take a leap of faith and let my eagle wings spread

Trust me, no matter how corny this CD really is you’ll be treated, by Jay’s loyalists, to many unjust justifications like…”you have to listen to it on Thursday with the kitchen window open and your left foot in the sink”. Or, as one of Hova's Hoes told me, after six Long Island’s, I thought the CD was banging!!

Side bar: after six Long Islands, it’s probably best to remember who you were bangin’ not what!

Fans of radio spins and sound scan swipes will need no justification, but you may need some ice and a designated driver.

click on blog arrow for bonus beats


1 love,
Ray Lewis

THE REAL VIC TIMS

How did you know that what you sought was redemption and not righteous vengeance?

---- PETE ABRAMS

If you listen closely you’ll hear Mike Vick apologizing (yet) again. And, to be honest it is starting to get on my last nerves. On the other hand, it’s hard for me to (get this) “feel sorry” for someone that in the next two years (or so) will probably net over $7 million dollars. Further punctuating the Vick apathy are people that cannot get a job as a Wal-Mart greeter because of a felony conviction on their permanent record. Those holding their breath waiting for the fairness ship to arrive should probably rent a room in one of those now-infamous dog kennels.

And, what the f#@! is PETA doing? I saw a fat female protester (I’m assuming that eats meat) showcasing her disgust. How ironic! Instead of holding up a sign, she should have considered a mirror. The fact that she had on leather shoes underscores this nation’s blatant hypocrisy. I often wonder if PETA considers transporting dogs in a cage an inch wider than the animal, sticking them in a cargo space under an airplane, all while their “masters” sip coffee in coach any less humane than Vick's crime?

And what in the world was James Brown doing?

Once considered a decent pregame football analyst, in this interview, I feel that James put the Uncle in Tom during his 60 Minutes cameo.


[view the entire interview here]

http://www.cbs.com/primetime/60_minutes/video/video.php?cid=927554855&category=episodes&play=true

All Brown needed was a gavel, a black robe and a Coke with pubic hair on the can's rim. While Brown peppered Vick with questions that my 6-year-old nephew had to answer after spilling milk on the floor... lost were the more prominent questions like:



What type of relationship do you have with the “friends” and family that ran the operation with you?

What would you do if you could NOT play football again?

You mentioned turning to God and reading the Bible; was their a particular passage that stood out for you?

Would you consider donating a portion of your salary to helping other convicted felons finding a job—outside of pro sports?

How has this experience changed your definition of friend?

What part of society (other than speaking to family) did you miss the most?

What do you think of Maxwell’s latest?
No matter what the situation, levity normally puts it in its proper perspective.


Shouts to Tony Dungy who continues to put a face on grace and to Eagles quarterback, Donavan McNabb who clearly knows a bit more about job security that your average 9-to-5er.

The moral of this story is always the same—race plays a part in everything you do in this society—only to be trumped (occasionally) by money, fame, PETA, or house Negros. And, for that....

I’m truly sorry.


1 love,

Ray Lewis

MAX WELL?

"Use the talents you possess, for the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except the best." - Henry Van Dyke

I have been listening to Maxwell’s new joint off & on, then on & off and right back on again. As a matter of fact, this went on for roughly 11 days straight…and my review is still a wee bit muddled. First and foremost, this nigga can BLOW!! And honestly, what more would one require from an extremely dope lyricist, whom by even the most average account, is a song writing machine? Ah, if it were only that simple.

Maxwell is on another planet when it comes to making memorable melodies — and that certainly has not changed. Add a near decade-long layoff and fans of this “liner notes lion” won’t critique this one very lightly. I was savagely eager to cut the plastic seal on Black Summers’ Night — all the while marinating on what I already knew Maxwell is capable of cooking-up... and this approach was a sure recipe for disaster. Trust me, you will be better served feasting on this methodical (three-part)mystery like you gorged on other (domestic) new artist debuts from Jill, India, Erykah or D’Angelo. Impossible approach in this case? Perhaps? But you’ll thank me for that tip later.

If you make the mistake of thinking urban hair Maxwell, you will be in for an “on/off” spin cycle that you may never untangle. As it stands “Playing Possum” is my absolute favorite track on this LP—possibly ever by Max.. but I've been told that I tend to exaggerate from time to time. Not this time...

Come back from the dead
You left my, my heart here
Say what you will and won't forget
Express disappointment, speak your regrets, yeah
Or baby call out my name, I'll be where you are
I'll be very still, step down to my heart and mend this broken
If only you'd wake up from your constant possum playing
If only you'd wake up
I'm begging you sugar, have some leniency
Call the president and ask him baby, to pardon me and bring you back to me
Oh, oh, oh, oh oooooh
Amend this broken
If only you'd quite this nonsense of your possum playing
If only you'd…..

This song takes a very, very long and deliberate approach to begging, and I mean BEGGING for a resolution to a relationship that left an everlasting scar right across the heart! Then, after two minutes and 50 seconds of complete pleading, some live horns join the track to underscore Max’s pain and sorrow. Clearly I haven’t the faintest idea who the girl is that crushed his heart, but I’m pretty sure she’s awake and drafting an apologetic retort. That is unless she is getting some really bad legal advice.
Maxwell owes no one the slightest act of contrition for the first of this love trilogy, but I may be in the minority in that assessment. Naturally, I don’t want you to take my word for it, especially since he took nine premeditated, reclusive—almost introspective tracks to do so himself. If I could draft a new category to put this one in, it would be something along the lines of Complicated Soul.



If this is the worst of Maxwell, it is still WAY better than anything on your local radio station right now. That is unless the Michael Jackson tributes are still spinning. And, if that’s the case, even Maxwell will understand your spin cycled patience… I think he's earned at least that much.

(dim the lights and click on blog title)

One Love,
Ray Lewis

One Day In The Life……

Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.

Booker T. Washington

The year was 1981 and the sun was pelting down on the concrete like a wide-nosed hose attached to an ocean. The urine scented streets made the unbearable heat…, unbearable. Clearly only the strong could survive such a hot and sticky atmosphere. Nevertheless, these city streets, as well as the surrounding Bronx blocks, made up the actual birthplace of Hip Hop. If a tree never grew in Brooklyn there are some unexplainable roots in the Bronx.
On this day, the Hip Hop culture was being cultivated on the corner of 163rd street and Union Avenue. And, by mid noon, the sun was hotter than a Do The Right Thing scene. The boogie down curtain opened in 23 Park, and as far as the eye could see the park is simply littered with litter and people littering. Twenty-three Park was so named for the public school that once rested adjacent to the playground. Now the (former) school is a part of the litter. It was not long ago PS 23 was the pick of the litter for parents choosing an educational facility for a young child. Rumor has it that the former Secretary of State, Colin Powell attended PS 23—severely challenging that tree growing in a concrete city theory.

There is a silver chain-linked fence that surrounds the basketball courts that are laced with variety of self-titled playground legends. Onlookers peeked through the fence at all of the ballers that are donned in low-top sneakers and high-top fades. At this juncture Nike, the Portland-based sneaker factory, was still a half a decade away from infiltrating this park—the NBA seemed even further. No time or space for advertising, just raining jump-shots drizzling from the blue collar hands of the likes of: Pee-Wee Smalls, Ivan Jackson and Morris High School legend, David Crosby. Spectators from all over the city watched as countless jump-shots and endless finger-rolls, rolled softly in the air, sometimes ricocheting off the metal backboards to a chorus line of ooohs and ahhhs. Witnessing the ball handling wizardry of Willie Mitchell underscores the gap between corporate interest and community confines.

Not far from the basketball goals—not to be confused with goals of playing basketball—are mounds and mounds of neighborhood kids statistically doomed for the grave or steel cage by 21. These kids are dressed in anything but swim wear, but that doesn't stop them from playing tirelessly in the front of an open hydrate. In some states this open hydrate "activity" would be illegal, but here in the Bronx its just another day in the life. The water “sport” that's taking place is just further proof that necessity has always been the mother of invention. The police cruised by, in police cruisers, overtly praying that they were anywhere else—on a cruise, perhaps. Almost simultaneously, the neighborhood B-boys stare back, each side not remotely trying to hide the mutual distain—sort of like a West Side Story script. On this very hot day, the ice grilling almost seems welcomed, if for no other reason than to add a chill to the mugging air. The chilling disdain from the two groups of people (that will never formerly meet) seems unreal—but is real. And, the light blue, Buick duce-and-a-quarter cruising in the one car parade, proves just how real, with the Shalamar hit blaring to a slow speed….

It’s got to be real/ girl, I can write a book on how you making me feel.

The contempt for both the police and the neighborhood B-boys can be cut with a knife—and sometimes it is. On the south end of the park sits a 25-foot high, graffiti –tatted, handball wall. The wall divides couples playing the inner city version of tennis or racket ball (minus the racket and tennis ball).

The ball of choice is a hard, pink rubber Spalding slightly larger than a plum. The Bronx is not far from the U.S. Open, which is annually held 7.4 miles away, (in Queens); but watching this game, that distance seems like 400 years.

As the night begins to creep in and the non-residents creep out, a white moving van (of sorts) pulls up. If U-haul were to do an inventory spot check, I’m pretty sure there would be one motor vehicle missing. Finding the truck wouldn’t be hard either, this despite the spray-painted attempt to hide the brand name. The driver (totally ignoring the NO PARKING sign), hops the curb and pulls right into the middle of 23 Park. About a dozen guys unfold from the two row seating and spill out into the park. Some people stare, while others just ignore them as they ignored the parking restrictions. One of the guys moved to the back of the truck, opened the lift and started to unload a cabin full of equipment. The unloading began: massive speakers & rolls of neatly wrapped speaker wire, a bull horn, lights, turntables, an eight-legged table, a mixer, night lamps, amps, a couple of receivers, another amp, an industrial fan, a orange extension cord, a police barricade—yep a police barricade, and 10 milk crates of records are all amongst the hurriedly emptying equipment. In less than 20 minutes, the crew is set up and ready to perform for the TOTALLY unsuspecting and now semi-circled crowd.

In an instant, with the equipment snuggly plugged into the tax payers street lamp a neighborhood kid from PS 23 named, Melvin Glover picks up the mic and spits….

Broken glass everywhere/people pissin’ on the streets ya know they just don’t care/I can’t take the smell, I can’t take the noise got no money to move out/I guess I got no choice. Rats in the front room, roaches in the back/junkies in the alley with a baseball bat/I tried to get away, but I couldn’t get far/cause the man with the tow truck repossessed my car.

For the rest of the world it’s apparent that a Hip Hop legend is born, but in the Bronx, this is simply just another day in the life.

click blog arrow for bonus beat

1 love,
Ray Lewis

POLITICS FROM A –to- Z

In a recent fire Bob Dole's library burned down. Both books were lost. And he hadn't even finished coloring one of them." —Jack Kemp

More and more often people have been asking me: “Why do I judge President Obama so harshly?

Not lost in this irony…. Is the fact that the essence of the question is fairly judgmental. I simply love people. The fact of the matter is I don’t judge any man—not even Barack. I take my salary-free job too serious.

Side bar: raise your hand if you are equally committed to a monthly task for no commission…, other than your community.

More times than I care to count, I turn down money for a Ghetto Proverbs post. My fear is compromising the authenticity for my perspective. So, to think that I would judge Barack personally, would be extremely insulting to me…, that is if trading wits with an unarmed person could be remotely insulting.

My universal task is to analyze, critique and offer constructive criticism on any man, woman or organization posing in a position of aid to the community—my community, and the birthplace of this inner city truth. You know, just like Hip Hop.But, I am sure you knew that just from this blog title. That is unless your chamber is empty.

The ultimate goal is to be a voice for the voiceless, while trying to get my community to understand why they feel the way they do. Honestly, I think I have more fun than they do. One day the feelings will be mutual. I have too much faith to believe otherwise.

I think Barack is an interesting person—almost fascinating. This is why he is mentioned in this blog more than any single person on earth. He is an extremely polarizing person. Barack is neutral (unless it’s popular)—then he’s assertive (that’s politics for ya). He’s witty when he has to be and charming (which is very popular) especially during an election. Barack is articulate (which is insulting when you think of the covert assumption). He is athletic (albeit horrible at basketball, bowling, and golf)—thus making him a fan more than an athlete. He is a smoker, which (of course) is almost never mentioned since it will nibble at his popularity—and no one with an unloaded chamber wants that, right? In fact, my dear sweet, sister once told me that Barack is a role model, but she thinks Pookie from New Jack City isn’t because he smokes. Sometimes life is truly stranger than fiction.


Barack denounced his life-long role model Jeremiah Wright, because Minister Wright was upsetting his popularity.I am so glad my mom didn’t take that (Barack) approach when I boo-booed in my pants during a tightly-fitted, close proximity church service. I think true friends and family are with you for life, regardless of how popular or unpopular. Clearly, politicians have different standards—making the title role model ever so quizzical.

Nevertheless, (and despite all the odds telling me otherwise) I decided to tackle this Barack phenomenon philosophically—from A-to-Z. When, I’m done hopefully, we all would have learned something—even if that something is…., how much of your stimulus check will be owed when you file next year’s taxes.

Ready?

A) Have you ever heard a white person described as articulate?

B) Why is it that black people never refer to Bill Clinton as the first black president anymore? Either he wasn’t and the comments were dim-witted or the chamber is jammed, searching for an answer.

C) Name an unarmed Caucasian male that has ever been shot in the back by a police officer. Take your time.

D) What do you think will happen first.., Pontiac will make a come back or (unaided) Barack will mention Darfur in a press conference?

E) How did Clinton lose his “black president” title, but more than half of Barack staff members are ex-Clinton members—including his wife or soon-to-be-ex?

F) Who do you think speaks more to the plight of black people, the largely popular Barack or the marginally popular Farrakhan?

G) I’m still waiting for Hollywood to release a major theatrical with a black man starring as God. FYI: this may be the only job Barack couldn’t apply for since his name is Islamic. Maybe life is stranger than fiction.

H) Who do you think make up the majority of Heaven’s, population democrats, republicans or activists?

I) …. probably, have been invited to my last Barack party.

J) Who do you think Barack will name as the new Supreme Court Justice?

K) Who do you think will win a political battle between Karl Rove and David Axelrod?

L) Lemmie guess how many people voted for Barack, but wouldn’t know the difference between David Axelrod or Axel Foley.



M) In the next 4–to-8 years, Michelle Obama will appear on more “Most Influential People List” without a job, than she would if she did hold one.

N) Never go to law school if you have an opportunity to marry a half white president. After all, the latter is far more influential (see M for more details).

O) Someone reading this just crossed me off Oprah’s book club.

P) If the President’s slogan is change, why did America skip the Geneva Convention on Change? Maybe, “CHANGE” is regional.

Q) I am grading these questions on a curve.

R) During the next election, it’s important to remember that change rarely (if ever) works from the top down.

S) I think it stinks that an American can vote without (first) passing a test in social studies, political science, philosophy, psychology or Greek mythology—especially since capitalisms could never exists without them.

T) Ever wonder why 99% of all media outlet’s headlines only have three words in the title? (i.e. War on Terror).

U) Most portable devices that you own make it much easier for your Barack-led government to keep you under surveillance. FYI: for the device(s) you don’t own, The Patriot Act will take care of that!

V) I saw an “apology expert” on CNN that was analyzing Mike Vick’s face to determine whether Vick’sapology was sincere.

W) WWJD? I saw this on a bumper sticker on my way home from church on Easter Sunday. Maybe the driver left before the pastor got to the resurrection portion of the service.

X) After this post, I have a feeling that X-Ray will take on a whole new meaning.

Y) What are you supposed to YELL if there was an actual fire in a movie theater?

Z) I pray one day that the Zip Codes in America will one day regain their value.

My main man Robert Carter taught me to always end on a positive note. (Z) was just my way of saying thanks, bruth. Rest in peace.

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1 Love,
Ray Lewis

Warn er Brother

Slaves lose everything in their chains, even the desire of escaping from them.

Jean Jacques Rousseau

If someone stopped me on the mean streets of Lithonia, Georgia and asked me who I believed are the best musical artists of my 44-year generation…





I’d first say, hey man, where’s your Obama shirt?

When I got a bit more serious, the names: Stevie Wonder, Beethoven, Marvin Gaye, Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, Quincy Jones, Ray Charles, Earth Wind and Fire or (my personal favorite) but not necessarily my final answer, Omar, would probably come to mind.






However, if the street talker asked me who the most relevant artist of my generation was or is? My answer (without hesitation) would be Prince.

While his live show is simply a must for the living, his recorded music is (for the most part) hit or miss with me. I rarely toggle through my music collection and pull a Prince joint off shelf. However, I love his middle finger industry swag so much that you’ll find countless discs of his in my assortment of artists.



On Tuesday, March 31, The Artist Currently Known As, added another gem to his storied catalog. This time, unveiling the pop life’s protégé, Bria Valente, as a bonus disc to this neatly completed electronic trifecta, just in time for spring break. Aside from the outstanding and refreshing new music, the soon-to-be 51-year-old musicologist just continues to shatter the realm of conventional [industry] wisdom, while driving a stake through the radio slave owner’s counterproductive heart. That fact alone earned my recession-friendly, $11.98 and honestly, it’s worth twice that. Most gems are. His latest sparkler, LotusFlow3R, was unleashed with an exclusive distribution deal with local retailer, Target, and the Purple One’s member’s only website. You don’t have to be a fan of Prince’s music, but rather a champion of revolutionary change (there’s that word again) to understand why his pivotal positioning is paving the way for aspiring artists not even born.

The head-nodding, down-tempo (78 BPM), rock-laced Colonized Mind is currently my favorite, but that could change at the next listening session. Right now, the headphones sound like this:

If you look, you’re sure gonna find
throughout mankind’s history
A Colonized Mind
the one in power makes law
under which the colonized fall
without God, it’s just the blind leading the blind

Quite naturally, when you are digesting lyrics of that magnitude, it becomes increasingly difficult to listen to a melody about an umbrella. Prince’s not-so-passive “rain” on commercial radio’s formulated success is greeted equally with your local radio station [and corporately held entity] shunning any FM rotation spins from anything outside his Warner Bros contract. And, to think they lock Bloods and Cripps up for being gangstas. Now that’s funny.

I think people have gotten so complacent and indifferent to some of America’s subtle, yet shackled conditions that an independent artist is the equivalent to an Independent. Sadly, you’ll never live long enough to see either center stage in the White House.

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1 Love,
Ray Lewis

It's About Time

There is never time in the future in which we will work out our salvation. The challenge is in the moment; the time is always now.

James Baldwin


In a feeble attempt to save what’s left of the earth’s ozone layers every spring and fall we mere mortals fine-tune our time on earth by flipping our clocks back and forth like a NaS single. Man, I sure hope Jesus has a sense of humor... but doesn’t wear a watch. Apparently, not even saving energy was a good enough reason for Americans to toy with time. So, in the fall of 2008, we delayed the seasonally scheduled time change to fire up our deteriorating economy.

Wouldn’t you just love to meet the stimulus scholar who penned the amendment to convince the earth’s Creator to delay Daylight Savings by four weeks, just so we had more time to frequent shopping malls? Now, that’s taking In God We Trust to a whole new level.

Along the shores of the U.S., the cloudy economy has overpowered the warm and fuzzy sentiments that usually greet our spring-forward daylight savings. And, from the porch & patio views on Wall Street, this appears to be the only savings plan in America still in tack. In fairness, I haven’t read the entire Stimulus Package, so I trust there just might be a provision in there to bail out the sun too.

Side Bar: Can a package be (both) a Bill and a Stimulus?

Isn’t that humorously ironic fact the equivalent of Chris and Rihanna recording a HIT on domestic violence?



Hmmm, a stimulus bill??? That's almost as funny as losing a pie-eating contest to Paris Hilton? Or, obtaining video footage of a police officer shooting an unarmed white kid in the back.

Side Bar 2: Did you know that Chris “Ike” Brown and Rihanna "Left Eye" Fenty's single drops next month and a Body Guard II movie deal is pending for Rihanna... further proof that there is no such thing as bad publicity.

Speaking of Barack….

The other day I was in the grocery store and a neatly packaged lady was on line in front of me. She was very cute and built like a seldom traveled Himalayan mountain. In the interest of full disclosure, most Saturdays in any southern grocery store is flooded with such scenic wonders.... However, underscoring the theory of quality vs. quantity is the fact that this sista was donned in a black velour Barack Obama warm-up suit. The mobile mural of President Obama on the back was simply impossible to ignore. This would probably be a good time to mention my NO such thing as bad publicity hypothesis.

As she turned her back to me, I presumed that I was chuckling to myself. But as luck would have it, she (over) heard me and asked, "What's so funny?" Ignoring the obvious retort, I said…, "Ah, nothing!!" Then I said, "So…., I see you are a HUGE Barack fan."


She rejoiced with a thunderous, "Yep, and I would’ve voted twice if I could." I smiled at the Floridian voting irony and thought (this time firmly to myself)…, I would have voted for a different clothing selection. Apparently, my silent thoughts grew increasingly uncomfortable, so she turned to me…., stared for a second, and sharply asked: "Aren’t you a Barack Obama fan?" Not alert enough to phone a friend who actually might be, I shot back… "ah, I’m more of a NY Knick fan... the outcome of their games are far less predicable."

[Had the hoop conversation ensued, I would have admitted Knick games are much less entertaining than her jogging suit]. Lucky for both of us that conversation never materialized — no pun intended.

She (obviously annoyed by my actual response) said, "All you Republicans are all alike." Brilliant observation, I thought, even though I am not actually a member of any political party. Afraid to burst her false assumption I shot back, "How do you know I am not an Independent?" She said, "I don’t care how many people live in your house, Barack is the only real option we black people have."

I thought, hmm, I moved my clock forward, but it’s still going to be a long summer.

As we walked towards our cars in the parking lot, an old school Chevy Impala cruised by playing a really loud (loosely-termed) song that sounded more like a Lil' Wayne auction. At this point, I offered my buggy and suggested she looked both ways before crossing.

She probably thought I meant the street.


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1 love,
Ray Lewis