Dear Europe: No, it wasn't your imagination. In the year 2013, the only current African-American member of the 100-member U.S. Senate was NOT invited to the 50th Anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech. It wasn't an oversight, it was intentional by the event organizers. And some African-American members of the U.S. news media are quick to say they're happy about that decision. Really! When Obama arrives in Sweden soon, if you see some of these "journalists," like DeWayne Wickham, you might want to ask them about that

Screenshot of The Drudge Report of 2013-08-29 at 1:45 a.m.

Dear Europe: 

No, it wasn't your imagination. 
In the year 2013, the only current African-American member of the 100-member U.S. Senate was NOT invited to the 50th Anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech. 
It wasn't an oversight, it was intentional by the event organizers. 
And some African-American members of the U.S. news media are quick to say they're happy about that decision. Really! 
When Obama arrives in Sweden soon, if you see some of these "journalists," like DeWayne Wickham, you might want to ask them about that.

This was our front page after the #MarchonWashington in 1963 http://t.co/tYG67jHIYt pic.twitter.com/DkaCvTNWsW
— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) August 24, 2013

Amy Ridenour's National Center Blog
Where Was Senator Scott?
by David W. Almasi
August 28, 2013 at 10:12 PM

This morning, the Project 21 office received an e-mail asking for the organization’s comment on the fact that Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush would not be attending today’s event to mark the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington.

Obviously, the person asking for the comment assumed it a slight among the highest order of racism that neither living Republican president would be there while Democrats Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton were there with the current Commander-in-Chief.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://www.conservativeblog.org/amyridenour/2013/8/28/where-was-senator-scott.html

Nobody is suggesting that South Carolina's junior U.S. Senator Tim Scott should've been speaking at the ceremony. 
Nobody -not even his supporters.
But why wasn't he even invited?

Here's what all honest and smart people I know inherently know, regardless of ideology.

If this had been a scene from a documentary film being directed by any number of the top dozen or so American film directors of the past 50 years, say Steven Spielberg or Sydney Pollack, they'd have figured out a way to not only shoot it on a day when it didn't rain, they'd have figured out a powerful way to end the film by showing via quick succession of shots of the assembled crowd the many elected Black leaders that make up American society, and show that it was many people, familiar and unfamiliar who benefitted from Dr. King's words.
Not just Barack Obama.
You know, inclusive, not exclusive.
Unlike the event organizers' way of doing things.

Lest anyone forget March on Washington 50th anniv is Al Sharpton production, Sharpton is introduced for keynote as 'the voice of this era'..
— Byron York (@ByronYork) August 24, 2013

CNN Guest: Why Should ‘Appointed’ Sen. Tim Scott Have Been Invited to MLK Anniversary?
by Noah Rothman, 5:13 pm, August 28th, 2013
Video at:
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/cnn-guest-why-should-appointed-sen-tim-scott-have-been-invited-to-mlk-anniversary/

Mini-History lesson for Today: Something to keep in mind as you watch this video excerpt.

In case some of you longtime readers of the blog have forgotten, or, you are one of the newer readers to the the blog who never knew in the first place, I was one of Bill Clinton's first supporters in Northern Virginia in early 1991, though to be honest, I'd been waiting since 1988 for him to run. 

1992 Bill Clinton for President buttons from my collection

(c) 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

I actually thought long-and-hard about running to be a DNC delegate to the 1992 Convention in Los Angeles from my Congressional District, then as now represented by pugnacious Jim Moran. In fact, in early 1991, I was the first person in the whole state to ask the Virginia Democratic Party down in Richmond for the information and forms I needed to file and run as a delegate. (They didn't have them yet.)

Because I'm me and have my personality, interests and background, and was blessed to have as my best friend in all of the world when I lived in the Washington, D.C. area in the 1990's, a wonderful woman was not only from the same small town in Arkansas that Bill Clinton was born in, Hope, a woman whose own mother had grown-up across the street from him before he and his mother moved him down to Hot Springs with her parents while she was out-of-state studying nursing -my friend had a framed photo of herself while in high school and then-Governor Clinton on her desk at the National Press Building two blocks from The White House, where she worked as a producer and sometimes on-air reporter and was a member of the White House press corps- there is almost nothing about Bill Clinton pre-1997 that I don't know, haven't heard and then heard repeated as well.

My "license" to talk about Arkansas -which I first saw in 1965. That is, my Arkansas key chain 'license' is courtesy of Shannon, my thoughtful, beautiful, brainy, beguiling, globe-trotting and multi-lingual friend. (And Asian foreign policy expert, too!)

So, that said, since many of you might not know it, when Clinton worked on Capitol Hill as an intern, he worked in the office of one of the most-powerful senators in the country, especially on foreign policy: Arkansas Sen. J. William Fulbright. 
(Correct, the Fullbright of the Fulbright Program.)
Another thing they had in common besides their great love of Arkansas was that like Clinton, Fulbright was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford.

But whatever else he was besides being a strong voice for an American foreign policy that has a strong multi-lateral approach, Senator Fulbright, being from Arkansas and having the background he had, was also an ardent segregationist.
No, being a Rhodes Scholar didn't prevent him from voting against the 1964 Voting Rights Act, as did a powerful senator from neighboring Tennessee -Al Gore's father, Al Gore, Sr.

(Blog historical nugget: My family moved from San Antonio where I and a younger sister were born, to Memphis on Easter Weekend in 1965. We left in 1968 for Miami just months after Dr. King was assassinated there while supporting striking city sanitation workers. I was there for all the rioting. Saw the Army tanks come rolling down the street from the armory towards downtown. Not that most people appearing regularly on TV today could even tell you who Dr. King was in Memphis to see unless a show producer whispered it into their hidden earpiece. But history matters!)     

The Voting Rights Act of 1964 only passed because of the votes and influence of Northern Republicans in Congress, and among the Black Republican voters in New York who championed it was someone whom you may've heard of: Jackie Robinson.
Did you know that Jackie Robinson was a Republican?

I'm guessing not.
Yes, given the generally sorry state of political discourse today, and the embarrassing lack of knowledge about basic American history among many people who regularly appear on U.S. TV, to say nothing of the Mainstream Media's well-known bias for liberal orthodoxy and hiring policies, there are a lot of otherwise smart people who would prefer that you not learn the true history that happened, but rather the history that best supports their political narrative and view of the world.
But as we know, facts are funny.
Sometimes they get in the way.

That's why in this particular case, with smug and history-deficient USA Today columnist DeWayne Wickham in the video above, it's great that he was given the opportunity to publicly show that when it comes to all sorts of common knowledge, he's someone who doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground -and certainly shouldn't be lecturing anyone on anything.
He's just further proof of the powerful role of the Peter Principle in American journalism.

And see, now you know that he's a horse's ass, so that mystery is solved and the next time you see him on TV, you'll know enough to change the channel.
The worst part of all is not his embarrassing performance, and showing his ignorance, but that by CNN putting someone of his ilk on the air, it prevented someone we've never heard of with something original and insightful from appearing and sharing their insight.
I'd love to play him in Jeopardy!!!

-----
The State (Columbia, South Carolina)
A Tim Scott-Rick Wade U.S. Senate race would be historic
Published: August 29, 2013
TIM DOMINICK/TDOMINICK@THESTATE.

By Warren Bolton — Associate Editor
http://www.thestate.com/2013/08/29/2947208/bolton-a-tim-scott-rick-wade-us.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._William_Fulbright

Even with his 57 states, Wash. Post says O is the loner president -'Beyond the economy, the wars and the polls, President Obama has a problem: People'

While we were busy dodging downpours of rain on Friday in South Florida, trying NOT to get drenched walking from a parking lot to wherever we needed to be, or NOT get blindsided on the local, often-poorly lit roads by one of the LARGE NUMBER of South Florida drivers who DON'T believe in using their headlights when it rains -a higher percentage in HB, it goes without saying- the Washington Post was running White House correspondent Scott Wilson's latest piece, and it's devastating.

It's one of the most insightful and persuasive articles of the year, detailing how President Obama's own personality comes into conflict with what he needs to do on a practical level in order to be successful with his own supporters on Capitol Hill, let alone, House Speaker John Boehner and the Hill Republicans and the nation at large.

The Washington Post

Obama, the loner president

By Scott Wilson

October 7, 2011

Beyond the economy, the wars and the polls, President Obama has a problem: people.

This president endures with little joy the small talk and back-slapping of retail politics, rarely spends more than a few minutes on a rope line, refuses to coddle even his biggest donors. His relationship with Democrats on Capitol Hill is frosty, to be generous. Personal lobbying on behalf of legislation? He prefers to leave that to Vice President Biden, an old-school political charmer.

Obama’s circle of close advisers is as small as the cluster of personal friends that predates his presidency. There is no entourage, no Friends of Barack to explain or defend a politician who has confounded many supporters with his cool personality and penchant for compromise.

Read the rest of the article at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/obama-the-loner-president/2011/10/03/gIQAHFcSTL_story.html

WaPo reader comments at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/obama-the-loner-president/2011/10/03/gIQAHFcSTL_allComments.html?ctab=all_&#comments

2,830 comments as of Sunday the 9th at 2:10 p.m.

But who's counting?

Miami Hurricanes scandal -Michael Putney interviews U-M Trustee Mike Abrams re his disappointment with Donna Shalala & UM's pathetic public response

Channel 10/WPLG-TV News: Trustee: Shalala's Response To UM Scandal Disappointing.

UM President Refuses To Speak To Reporters. August 19, 2011

Story and video at: http://www.local10.com/canes/28919960/detail.html

Local10's Senior Political Correspondent Micheal Putney interviews University of Miami Trustee Michael I. "Mike" Abrams about the national scandal that broke this past week Courtesy of Yahoo! Sports involving the university's football team, and the school's response to it, particularly, President Donna Shalala's.

I've always liked Shalala personally and since returning to South Florida from the Washington area in late 2003 -where she had been President Clinton's HHS Secretary- I have often found myself defending her efforts to improve things in Coral Gables, mainly by raising academic standards - and expectations- against other sports fans who seemed a little too quick to intentionally misunderstand her and paint her with too broad a brush.

Given the flood of information that has already appeared in so many different national media outlets about her longstanding love of athletics, how anyone can remain ignorant of all that, I don't know, yet even after all her time down here, I still hear her attacked by know-it-all dopes on local Miami sports radio stations as being part of the (genuine) anti-athletics adademe, which could NOT be further from the truth.

(As I've written in this space a few times previously, what I've personally long found most galling about the UM's varsity athletic program -and never ever see anything about in the South Florida news media- is how truly un-competitive the UM Women's sports teams are nationally and within the ACC, and in particular, the very strange choices the school has made about what teams to field.

The decision to have a Rowing team but NOT field either a Field Hockey or Lacrosse program -or both- when the ACC is by far the most-dominant conference for those two popular sports nationally -esp Maryland, North Carolina and UVA, where my niece goes- while elsewhere in the state, the Gators have become a clear top-caliber Women's Lacrosse program almost overnight -making it to NCAA Quarterfinals- by actually investing resources and actively recruiting many top-flight players from the Mid-Atlantic areas where the sports are huge is a very, very puzzling and hugely disappointing choice indeed.

I'm not saying this just because all three of my nieces play(played) both sports, but both sports are very popular among female high school students in a fertile recruiting area for the UM student body, so NOT having them puts the UM at a real dis-advantage, and frankly, in my opinion, makes it hard to take the UM's commitment seriously.)

Frankly, because of Shalala's demonstrated ability to think both clearly and long-range, skills sadly lacking in numbers in South Florida, I've long thought that if this were a more normal part of the country, she'd actually already be the Mayor of Miami-Dade County.

She'd make sure there was a LOT MORE accountability to the taxpayer with the public dime than the crowd in downtown Miami is used to.

She's friendly-but-firm, and demands a lot of herself, but also expects others to produce RESULTS, not excuses, and a steady diet of excuses is what South Florida residents have been hearing everyday from their local elected officials since I returned to this area.

I could very easily write pages and pages here on the blog about the latest scandal involving the University of Miami football team, based on the extensive things I have read and heard and know.

I could also write about the many side-stories that, curiously, are NOT appearing in print or TV but which really ought to be.

I'll soon be writing about one of those important journalism side-stories that EVERYONE in South Florida is currently ignoring, and when you hear it, trust me, you'll have to nod in agreement -everyone really is ignoring it.

Surprise! It involved the Miami Herald.

But for now, at a little past 1 a.m. on a Saturday morning, both tired and bored silly from watching the dreadfully tedious Dolphins-Panthers preseason game earlier tonight, I'm going to confine myself to one thing at a time.

In this case, Michael Putney's very interesting interview airing Friday night with University of Miami Trustee Mike Abrams, whom I first met in 1976.

Mike has become the very first person with any weight in South Florida thus far to publicly go on the record about their dis-satisfaction with the way this whole story has been dealt with from Day One the university's administrators.

I sort of botched my comments on Channel 10's website and approved them before I noticed some small mistakes. I'll have more on this scandal in the days ahead, but for now, here's what I meant to post there:

I know from longstanding personal experience what a straight-shooter Mike Abrams is, and how dedicated he is to the UM and how much he wants it to strive to be even better. This scandal must really pain him, both as both an alumnus and as a Trustee, and when he says that the school administrators need to be more forthright, from President Shalala on down, he is 100% right.

Since it's not mentioned here, for context's sake, I should mention that before he graduated, Mike was the UM Student Government president in 1969, and years later, became the Dade County Democratic Party Chair in the mid-1970's -when I met him and began working with him- as he played a crucially important role in helping underdog Jimmy Carter win the 1976 Florida primary -a win that helped make Carter a national candidate in the minds of voters and the national news media- which helped propel him to the Democratic nomination.
(I worked in all sorts of capacities for the Carter-Mondale presidential campaign.)

Later, Mike became one of the most-influential and respected members of the Florida Legislature while representing my hometown of North Miami Beach and surrounding NE Dade in the State House.
I'm also pretty sure that while I was living up in the Washington, D.C. area, Mike was tapped and invited into the UM's Iron Arrow Honor Society, the most prestigious honor for a UM student or alumnus.

So who's going to be the next person in South Florida -after Mike- to stand up publicly and demand that the UM be more publicly accountable to the larger South Florida community?
Those of us who care about this school and this community will be watching carefully

-----

Some information about me and my longtime interest in the U-M and the Hurricanes, copied from my other blog, South Beach Hoosier, http://southbeachhoosier.blogspot.com/

which is soon to be renovated before the new college football season starts with a new face in charge at IU.

Not mentioned below is that my nephew Mario graduated from the UM in 2010.

SEBASTIAN THE IBIS, THE SPIRITED MASCOT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI HURRICANES

Before going to my first U-M game at the Orange Bowl in 1972, a friend's father often would bring me home an extra 'Canes game program. That's how I came to have the Alabama at U-M game program from Nov. 16, 1968, which was the first nationally-televised college football night game in color. (A 14-6 loss to the Crimson Tide.)

After that first ballgame against Tulane, as I often did for Dolphin games if my father wasn't going, I'd get dropped off at the Levitz parking lot near the 836 & I-95 Cloverleaf in NMB, and catch a Dade County Park & Ride bus, going straight to the Orange Bowl. Onboard, I'd get next to the window and listen to WIOD's pre-game show on my Radio Shack transistor radio.

A few times, I was just about the only person on-board besides the bus driver, which was alright by me. Once at the Orange Bowl, if I didn't already have a ticket, I'd buy a game program for myself and one or two for friends or teachers before heading to the ticket window, since you usually couldn't find a program vendor once inside.

I probaly had a friend or my father with me for just under 40% of the U-M games I ever went to, but you have to remember that the team, though blessed with several talented players, like Chuck Foreman and Burgess Owens, was just so-so to average at best, and the games were usually played on Friday nights, so it wasn't exactly high on everyone's list of things to do.

Depending upon the opponent, if I was alone, I'd often have entire areas of the Orange Bowl to myself. (Wish I had photos of that now!)

For instance, I had a good portion of the East (open) End Zone to myself against Oklahoma in the mid-70's, when the Boomer Schooner and the Schooner Crew went out on the field after an Oklahoma TD, and the Schooner received an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty from the refs, as would happen years later in an Orangle Bowl Classic game. (Against FSU?)

I was there for the wins and losses under Pete Elliott, Carl Selmer & Lou Saban, and the huge on-field fight in '73 when under eventual national champion Notre Dame (under Ara Parseghian), they called a time-out with less than a minute to go, and already up 37-0. Their rationale?

To score another TD and impress the AP football writers; final score 44-0. Well, they got their wish and beat Alabama 24-23 for the title at the Sugar Bowl. A year later, thanks to my Mom's boss, she and I saw Ara's last game as head coach of the Irish in the Orange Bowl Game from the East End Zone -in front of the Alabama cheerleaders!!!- in an exciting 13-11 Notre Dame win over Alabama and Bear Bryant, a rematch of the '73 national title game.

I was also present for the U-M's huge 20-15 win under Pete Elliott against Darrel Royal's Texas Longhorns, the week Sports Illustrated's College Football preview issue came out with Texas on the cover, below. I was also present for lots of wins against schools called College of the Pacific, UNLV and Cal-Poly San Luis Obsispo, which I'd then never heard of before.

THE ISSUE I TOOK WITH ME THE NIGHT OF U-M'S 20-15 UPSET OF #1 TEXAS AT THE ORANGE BOWL

College Football, Texas No. 1, Hook 'em Horns, September 10, 1973.

Living in North Miami Beach in the '70's, my Sports Illustrated usually showed up in my mailbox on the Thursday or Friday before the Monday cover date. And was read cover-to-cover by Sunday morning!

And for those of you who forgot or never read my previous references to it, on January 2nd, 1984, at the 50th Anniversary Orange Bowl game where the Hurricanes upset Nebraska 31-30 for their first national championship, I was out on the field celebrating within seconds, having watched the entire last quarter in the row directly behind the team's bench. Now THAT was a night to remember!

MIRACLE IN MIAMI

The Hurricanes Storm Past Nebraska, Halfback Keith Griffin, January 9, 1984