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September 6, 2012

  • Tutu Says Bush and Blair Should Be Tried for Roles in Iraq War

    Tutu Says Bush and Blair Should Be Tried for Roles in Iraq War South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu wrote in a British newspaper that former President George W. Bush and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair should be tried by the International Criminal Court of Justice in the Hague, the Netherlands, for their roles in the Iraq War.

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  • Plan to Graduate More Black Men

     Plan to Graduate More Black Men The percentage of black men enrolled in college is equal to their percentage in the population by Frederick H.

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  • Ryan's College Girlfriend Spent Time In Prison

    Ryan's College Girlfriend Spent Time In Prison Deneeta Pope, Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan’s black college girlfriend, served five months in a federal prison after pleading guilty to stealing funds from Ernst & Young, one of the nation’s big four accounting firms. Paul Ryan TMZ, the celebrity news website, reported that a grand jury in November 1999 indicted Pope for allegedly swindling Ernst & Young out of $77,000.

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  • IRS Funks Up George Clinton’s Day with a Tax Lien

    IRS Funks Up George Clinton’s Day with a Tax Lien Funkmaster George Clinton may be in a funk after the IRS hit the legendary musician with another tax lien. Clinton failed to pay $7,457.89  worth of taxes in 2009 and $13,301.

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  • Oprah’s Rihanna Interview Puts OWN Ratings in Top 25 for First Time

    Oprah’s Rihanna Interview Puts OWN Ratings in Top 25 for First Time Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from Target Market News (TriceEdneyWire.com) The second season premiere of Oprah's Next Chapter, featuring singer Rihanna, gave OWN its highest ratings for a Sunday premiere since the network's launch in January 2011.

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  • Court Shoots Down Texas Voter-ID Law

    Court Shoots Down Texas Voter-ID Law by Frederick H. Lowe The United States District Court for the District of Columbia struck down Texas’ photo-ID law, which the three-judge panel called the most-stringent in the country, after ruling the law would place a significant financial burden on racial minorities to obtain required identification to vote in November’s election.

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  • Judge Orders Ohio to Restore Early Voting Days

    Judge Orders Ohio to Restore Early Voting Days by Frederick H. Lowe A U.S. District Court Judge has ordered Ohio officials to restore three days of early voting prior to the November 6 presidential election for all Ohio residents, not just state residents who are in the military and vote by absentee ballot. The ruling by Judge Peter C.

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  • Judge Signals Intent to Lift Burden on Voter Drives

    Judge Signals Intent to Lift Burden on Voter Drives A U.S. District Court  judge in Florida has indicated that he will remove severe restrictions on community-based voter-registration drives, handing civic groups a major victory in the voting-rights struggle in Florida, a battleground state in November’s presidential election. Judge Robert Hinkle ruled in League of Women Voters of Florida vs Kenneth W.

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  • Four Years Ago, Blacks Voted in Higher Numbers than Whites

    Four Years Ago, Blacks Voted in Higher Numbers than Whites by Frederick H. Lowe In the 2008 presidential election, the first ever in which a major political party nominated an African American for president, black-voter turnout exceeded white-voter turnout for the first time in U.S.

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  • 47 Black Delegates Attended the Republican Convention

    47 Black Delegates Attended the Republican Convention by Frederick H. Lowe The number of African-American delegates who attended last week’s Republican National Convention was higher than in 2008 but lower than in 2004, according to “Blacks and the 2012 Republican National Convention.” The study reported that 47 African-Americans, or 2.1 percent of the 2,286 delegates attended the 40th Annual Republican National convention in Tampa, Fla., wrote Dr.

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  • NAACP Urges Blacks To Support the Justice Department

    NAACP Urges Blacks To Support the Justice Department The NAACP is urging African Americans to sign an online petition supporting the U.S.

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  • Romney’s Campaign Wedge: Taxpayers vs. Welfare Queens

    Romney’s Campaign Wedge: Taxpayers vs. Welfare Queens Colorlines The issue of taxes is the Republican Party’s dog whistle on race.  Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan—engaged in a nail-biting political fight—have resorted to blowing it loudly and unashamedly.

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  • Romney’s Hoped-For Post-Convention Bounce Falls Flat

    Romney’s Hoped-For Post-Convention Bounce Falls Flat Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee for president, did not receive much of a bounce after his party’s national convention last week in Tampa, Fla., according to the Gallup organization.

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  • Peace Prize Winners Protest NBC War Show

    Peace Prize Winners Protest NBC War Show (TriceEdneyWire.com) – Seven Nobel Peace Prize winners, including Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu of South Africa, are protesting the new NBC  show Stars Earn Stripes, which, they say, glorifies war and armed violence. In a letter to NBC entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt, the Nobel laureates said, “It is our belief that this program ...

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  • West African Aluminum Refinery Remains Closed Over Wage Dispute

    West African Aluminum Refinery Remains Closed Over Wage Dispute Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from GIN (TriceEdneyWire.com) – Africa’s first aluminum refinery, in the town of Fria, north of Guinea’s capital Conakry, remains locked down five months after workers struck the plant in a fierce battle over wages.

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  • California Ethnic Voters Solidly Support Health Reform

    California Ethnic Voters Solidly Support Health Reform by Viji Sundaram New America Media SACRAMENTO, Calif.

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  • Michael Clarke Duncan, 54

    Michael Clarke Duncan, 54 Academy Award nominated actor Michael Clarke Duncan died Monday morning  at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, a Los Angeles hospital, following a July 13th heart attack.

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  • Chris Lighty, 44

    Chris Lighty, 44 Chris Lighty, a hip-hop mogul whose roster of clients included 50 Cent, Busta Rhymes, LL Cool J, Diddy and Mariah Carey, was found shot to death behind his home on August 30 in Riverdale, N.Y.

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  • Hal David, Writer of Hits for Dionne Warwick, Dies

    Hal David, Writer of Hits for Dionne Warwick, Dies Hal David, who wrote some of singer Dionne Warwick’s greatest hits, including the classic, “Walk on By,” has died. David, who was 91, died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on Sept.

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  • Lost Decades: Longevity Gap Widening for Blacks, Latinos, Less Educated

    by Paul Kleyman New America Media CHICAGO—The longevity gap between “two Americas” has widened since 1990, says a new study.

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  • The NorthStar’s Week in Black History

    The NorthStar’s Week in Black History September 6 through September 12 September 6 1905 ----- Alonzo F. Herndon, a wealthy African-American barber and real estate investor, founded the Atlanta Life Insurance Company on this date.

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  • Third New Judge for George Zimmerman

     Third New Judge for George Zimmerman Seminole County Circuit Judge Debra Nelson has been assigned as the new judge to hear the case involving George Zimmerman. Zimmerman is charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.

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  • Acceptance Speech Moved Inside

     Acceptance Speech Moved Inside President Barack Obama will give his acceptance speech on Thursday night inside the Time Warner Cable Arena instead of outdoors at the Bank of America Stadium because of the threat of rain.

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Congressman Emanual Cleaver
Congressman Emanuel Cleaver

Convention Is a "Pep Rally and a Launching Pad’’ for Obama’s Re-election


by Hazel Trice Edney
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (TriceEdneyWire.com) - President Barack Obama is set to accept the nomination this week to lead America for four more years.

Despite the tough race ahead, he won't be alone says Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Emanuel Cleaver, who was attending the Democratic National Convention, which opened on Monday.

"This convention is primarily a pep rally and a launching pad -- a pep rally for those of us who are believers to go out and recapture the people who, for a variety of reasons, may have lost some of the enthusiasm and to some degree we've got to go out and secure the enthusiastic support of African Americans," says Cleaver, a Missouri Democrat.

"We've got to have an energized black vote,” Cleaver added. “When I say energized, we've got to get African Americans to the point where they're willing to stand in line for two hours to vote. We've got to get African Americans to the point where they come to the headquarters in cities all around this nation and volunteer and get signs and go out and create the atmosphere that a second term is inevitable. We've got to create an atmosphere of inevitability. We don't have it yet, so we're working on it.

Thousands were expected to pack in to the Time Warner Cable Arena for three days of speeches, music and exuberant activities aimed  at exciting voters and answering the attacks from last week's Republican convention in Tampa.

Among the highlighted speakers were First Lady Michelle Obama on Tuesday and President Bill Clinton, who was scheduled to nominate President Obama on Wednesday. President Obama was scheduled to address the crowd at the convention on Thursday evening.

With Republican nominee Mitt Romney nipping at his heels after an energized GOP convention, it is clear that the black vote will make the difference in the election that will determine whether America's first blackw President will continue in the White House. Complaints of high unemployment and disparate economic hardships among Blacks has caused enthusiasm to dissipate from the exuberance of four years ago.

But, Cleaver says all voters have to do is compare Obama's Democratic ticket with what they could get with Mitt Romney and the choice would be clear.

"People have to look at the reality of what we would have in a President Mitt Romney,” Cleaver said. “And I think anybody who looked at the convention last week and saw people stand up and make bold-faced untruthful declarations about things should know now that a presidency of Mitt Romney would be packed with insults...Mitt Romney will not in any way even consider programs that I think many African Americans will want and need."

As was expected, the Republican convention -- with a lily-white audience -- was devoid of any mention of the disastrous economic conditions inherited by President Obama from the administration of President George Bush.

Obama’s accomplishments, which included the first national health care program, saving General Motors and the assassination of September 11 mastermind Osama Bin Laden, were all but ignored or criticized vehemently.

Obama’s task in accepting the Democratic nomination for re-election Thursday evening was to make his record clear to his base, Cleaver says.

"And so the president needs to say that this second term will be infinitely more significant because incumbents are freer to implement their [ideas]," Cleaver said earlier this week. "It's going to be difficult for him to say I'm going to be more forceful for African Americans. However, some programs that the president will push will indisputably be put in place to help folk who are the urban poor."

He continued, "this is President Obama's opportunity to go to the American public and say, 'Look, we didn't get everything done that we wanted. But what we want you to do is give us a chance to finish the job. Give us a chance to get the job done. That's what he's got to say. The President is going to have to sell himself again and I think he can do that."

Over the next two months, Cleaver says members of the CBC will take campaigns to the streets to excite black people to go back to the polls in the high-90s percentile as they did four years ago. The activities will include huge concerts in key states such as Ohio, Florida, Michigan and Wisconsin. They will hold a voter-participation concert in Cincinnati, Ohio

"And in that concert we will have some of the top musical talent in the country performing in Cincinnati,” Cleaver said. “Everybody who is a registered voter will be admitted free. If you are not registered or if you moved and made a change of address or if you don't have ID, we will have lines and tables right there to help people. Once you are registered, you can come into this event free. We are doing the same thing in Florida. We will attract thousands of people who will come to these free events."

In 22 other cities around the nation, they will have smaller rallies, he said.

The biggest mistake that could be made for Black America at this point would be for voters to stay home, thinking someone else will carry the ball, Cleaver says.

"We must take nothing for granted. It is dangerous to be arrogant, to assume that we're going to automatically win," he said. "People will realize that President Obama was not able to accomplish everything he wanted. He was stymied by Republicans, but I'm not ready to even entertain the thought of a Romney presidency."

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