He is truly a compassionate conservative. And he may the Jimmy Carter of the 2008 campaign on the Republican side. While people here are consumed with Obama’s race, he is looking out for Africa and the little guys: Senator Brownback and Congresswoman Lee
Senator Samuel D. Brownback (R-KS) and Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) will be honored at The Africa Society of the National Summit on Africa's Annual Visionaries Awards Luncheon for their leadership on Africa-related initiatives in the U.S. Congress. The luncheon will be held on Thursday, December 7, from 12:00 to 2:30 p.m. in the Members Room of the Jefferson Building, Library of Congress.
Leading Africa champion, Congressman Donald M. Payne, (D-NJ) Ranking Member of Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations and South African Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs, Ms. Lulama Xingwana, a member of President Thabo Mbeki's cabinet, will be among those joining in the tribute to Senator Brownback and Congresswoman Lee. C. Payne Lucas, prominent Africanist, Senior Advisor to allafrica.com and Africare founder, will be the keynote speaker
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Last year's honorees for the Visionaries Award were Senator Richard G. Lugar, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Congressman Charles B. Rangel, Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee.
The Africa Society is exclusively committed to educating all Americans about Africa
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Senator Obama puts spotlight back on Africa
When US Sen. Barack Obama visited his ancestral village in Kenya, he gave a big hug to his stepgrandmother Sarah Hussein Onyango Obama. His trip has refocused some attention on Africa issues.
.............. ...religious conservatives like Sen. Sam Brownback (R) of Kansas have taken on Africa-related issues like Darfur, AIDS, and poverty as moral imperatives for US foreign policy. Others say it is the unheralded, behind-the-scenes contacts with rising African officials, parliamentarians, and civil society
It is amazing that other than Obama no Democratic Senator was so honored or has taken a leading role in advocating African issues yet they expect blacks to vote for them en masse.
Further, instead of whining about prisoners' abuse, Harsh sentencing by right wing judges, etc, he decided to be an inmate for one day and one night to know first-hand "how the other halves live"Brownback takes campaign to jail
Sen. Sam Brownback took his budding presidential campaign to prison this weekend, spent a restless night among inmates and pressed his message that faith can work even to improve the lives of hardened criminals.
The Kansas Republican had no expectation that the drug cartel hit man, serial rapist or other convicts in his cell block would vote for him. After all, about nine in 10 of the inmates are serving life sentences. His mission at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, rather, was to promote religious-based prison efforts to curtail violence and provide inmates with an alternative to crime once - or if they got out.
On Friday night, Brownback joined hundreds of inmates at a prayer service before prison officials escorted him to his modest sleeping quarters. On Saturday morning, he emerged from his 7-by-10-foot cell to tour the maximum-security facility and take a walk down death row.
"There aren't probably a lot of votes for me here," he said. "There can be a lot of prayers, though."
Brownback may face long odds against candidates with much better name recognition, but he hopes to broaden his appeal by accentuating issues such as prison reform and AIDS. He recently took an AIDS test with Sen. Barack Obama - an Illinois Democrat considering a presidential run, too - to encourage others to be tested.
Brownback, who also has stayed overnight at a Kansas prison and at a homeless shelter in Washington, D.C., said his night at Angola was a "little rough." One of the inmates on his cell block was a hit man for a drug cartel. Another was a serial rapist serving 19 life sentences.
"I didn't sleep the best," he said. "But to go and feel and smell it, I think it gives you a feel for something you just can't read about."
When he addressed the inmates on Friday, he assured them he is not "soft on crime." On Saturday, as he shook hands and chatted with prisoners on death row, one inmate pressed him for his stance on capital punishment. Brownback said he preferred it be "limited in its use."
"I only support it in cases where we can't protect society from a person who perpetuates the crime," he told the inmate.
I have always said it and I say it again that John McCain is a mirage. McCain is a figment of the Mainstream Media and will soon fade away. I predict that Like Carter, Sen. Brownback has what it takes to win the GOP Nomination in 2008.
I also think that the Democratic nomination is Obama’s to lose and he won’t lose it. You watch, Hillary will fall by the wayside as John McCain.
I predict that Obama will win it all. But, it will be a win win for Africa if Obama and Brownback are the nominees. So help me God.