Julian Bond's got brass ones. If only some of our elected Dems had them. The chairman of the NAACP blasted the Chimperor administration last night at the civil rights organization's national convention, held in Milwaukee. You'll recall that the IRS is investigating the NAACP, reviewing its tax-exempt status after Bond's scathing keynote address at last year's convention in Philadelphia. He didn't hold back this time, either. Read after the jump and weep with joy that someone is telling it like it is.
Calling the Bush administration's approach to civil rights "deceptive," Bond suggested that the White House has "tried an aggressive campaign to seduce black clergy" to support the administration through its faith-based grant campaign.
"The president likes to talk the talk, but he doesn't walk the walk," Bond told a crowd of about 3,000 gathered at Milwaukee's Midwest Airlines Center to hear his introduction to the annual convention. Bond said the administration "at best has neglected civil rights issues, and at worst has been aggressively hostile to them" - buttressing that remark with mention of a recent U.S. Commission on Civil Rights report that was critical of the administration.
Bond landed the Baltimore-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in hot water with the Internal Revenue Service after a speech last summer, in which he attacked President Bush on the Iraq war and for being the first sitting president since Herbert Hoover not to address the group.
...The IRS has said its investigation is limited to whether Bond stepped over the line into partisan politics in his critique of Bush, which could cost the NAACP its tax-exempt status. But the NAACP is continuing to fight the federal investigation, and Bond - unapologetic for his remarks - has denounced the audit as partisan bullying.
Bond named and condemned eight U.S. senators who he said dodged an apology for the federal government's failure to pass anti-lynching laws as the Senate - on a voice vote rather than a roll call - passed a nonbinding resolution of apology last month.
Bond also criticized Democrats for not blocking Bush's judicial nominees. He called confirmed U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Janice Rogers Brown the "female Clarence Thomas."
Bond accused black conservatives and blamed foundations that finance conservative groups for rolling back gains for which civil rights leaders have fought. "Having stolen our vocabulary, they also want to steal the just spoils of our righteous war," he said. "They've had a collection of black hustlers and hucksters on their payrolls for more than 20 years, promoting them as a new generation of black leaders." Reiterating comments from his keynote convention address two years ago about Bush and his black supporters, Bond said, "Like ventriloquists' dummies, they speak in the puppet master's voice, but we can see his lips moving, and we can hear his money talk." [OMFG - say, it brother. Please, please, can others call this out?!]
Lest you've forgotten, here are some of those hustlers he's talking about:
Televangelist Frederick K.C. Price of L.A.'s Crenshaw Christian Center backs Bush and took part in a 100-minister summit opposing same-sex civil marriage; Bishop Harry R. Jackson Jr. (Mr. Contract w/Black America) has gotten into political bed with Ken Mehlman.
Bishop Sedgwick Daniels of Milwaukee's Holy Redeemer Church of God in Christ buys into Bush's faith-based initiatives and "values;" homophobe Rev. Dwight McKissic, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, TX is on board with the homo-hating agenda.
* Philadelphia's Rev. Herb Lusk, pastor of the Greater Exodus Baptist Church has had his coffers filled with a cool million to run faith-based initiatives by the Administration (He gave the invocation at the 2000 Republican convention and called Bush's 2004 win "a great victory."); and last (and most disappointing), Walter Fauntroy, key lieutenant to Martin Luther King and pastor of the New Bethel Baptist Church, who held a much-covered press conference with Bill Frist and Rick Santorum in support of the Federal Marriage Amendment.
It should be noted that Julian Bond is publicly in favor of same-sex marriage, though the national NAACP has not taken a position on the issue. You best believe he's getting heat from many in the religious black community because of his view.
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Here's an oddity of an appearance at the convention... Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (Repug-WI) was applauded when he promised to lead federal lawmakers in extending provisions of the voting rights act that are to expire in 2007. You may recall in an earlier Blend post that our president was asked about extending and strengthening the 1965 Voting Rights Act and he told members of the Congressional Black Caucus that he did not know enough about that particular law to respond to it, he said, and that he would deal with the legislation when it comes up.
He's not off the hook: Sensenbrenner shut down Patriot Act hearings and cut off the mics in the middle of testimony, deep-sixing testimony without comment or issuing any kind of statement.
Cross-posted at Pam's House Blend