Obama Needs To Take Off The Gloves and Float Like A Butterfly and Sting Like An Obama Bee."

The Clinton Negative Campaigning is Working - Take off The Gloves Obama!

The Media has jumped ship from Obama to Clinton. "It's time to float Like a Butterfly and Sting like an Obama Bee."



AAPP: OK, "Obama you have been Mr. Nice Guy, Mr. Cool, and Smooth. But at this point The Media and Billary redefining you to the electorate, you are no longer defining yourself." As an example it's crazy that Bill Clinton is sayiing that the Obama campaign played 'race card' on him. Bill Clinton is doing the rope a dope on you. The Clinton campaign along with the media are playing up "Color aroused" questions. You know the script they have been using. Bill Clinton saying about Barack Obama's campaign, "This whole thing is the biggest fairy tale I've ever seen..." Remarks made by Sen. Clinton, insulting one of the greatest Americans of our time, Martin Luther King, Jr, and the hundreds of thousands of black and other Americans who fought for civil rights in our country, when she said in regards to civil rights legislation, "It took a (white) president [Lyndon Johnson] to get it done."

Sam Stien has reported that the Obama campaign is aware of the color aroused strategy. From Clinton supporter and New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo insulting, "you can't shuck and jive at a press conference." To Bill Clinton implying that Hillary Clinton Is Stronger Than Nelson Mandela, when the former president declared, "I go to Nelson Mandela's birthday party every year and we're still very close. But if you said to me, 'You've got one last job for your country but it's hazardous and you may not get out with life and limb intact and you have to do it alone except I'll let you take one other person, and I had to pick one person whom I knew who would never blink, who would never turn back, who would make great decisions, I would pick Hillary.'" The Color Aroused campaigning should not go without a response.

I agree with Thomas B. Edsall when he wrote in Huffington Post that the Media has jumped ship from Obama to Clinton. He is right, as he wrote, "In a blink of an eye, the media has jumped ship from the Obama campaign and become a crucial Clinton ally, pressing just the message -- that Obama is a likely loser in the general election -- that Hillary and her allies have been promoting for the past six weeks. The new tenor of media coverage is visible almost everywhere, from Politico, Time and The New Republic to The Washington Post and The New York Times."

He is also right when he write, "For Hillary, the shift is a potential lifesaver as she struggles to keep her head above water; without it, she would, metaphorically, drown. Until now, she, her husband, and her campaign aides have been trying, with little success, to make the case that Obama has potentially fatal flaws. For the first time, reporters working for magazines, newspapers and web sites have abruptly decided that she might well be right, and the results for Obama have been brutal: The first hard punch was thrown by my friend and colleague John Judis in a widely distributed piece on The New Republic web site, filed sometime around 3AM Wednesday, seven hours after polls closed in Pennsylvania. In the article titled, "The Next McGovern." Read More HERE

Now we learn from the Washington Post's Perry Bacon, Jr that she also repeated her challenge to Obama to debate her in this state, after the senator from Illinois would not commit to a previously scheduled one. "I've said I will debate anytime, anywhere," Clinton told a crowd of several hundred in Fayetteville. "I think you deserve your own debate."

AAPP: Hell no, don't debate her, we have had over 20 debates. Enough of the debates. We don't need to see more debates with media attacking. Enough is enough.

AAPP: I agree Perry Bacon, Jr. Clinton's Hopes May Lie With N.C. As he reported, North Carolina, with its large African American population, has long been seen as a firewall for Obama after contests in Ohio, Pennsylvania and elsewhere that favored Clinton. A win here and in Indiana, which also votes May 6, could cement his status as the front-runner.

AAPP: I say, "It's time to end this color aroused camapign by the Clinton's once and for all." It's time to float Like a Butterfly and Sting like an Obama Bee. Now the question is, What are you going to do? Do you want to win this or what? I truly want you to win this with the style and grace of Ali and Jackie Robinson. Not the disgrace of Hillary and Bill Clinton.

Bloggers' Roundtable, April 17 2008

NPR's News & Notes , April 17, 2008

Farai Chideya holds it down again at NPR. This time asking the question:
Are historically black colleges doing enough to prepare the next generation of professionals?

There was a special Bloggers' Roundtable, in which NPR took a look at the issues of importance to Atlantans.

The group of Atlanta bloggers share their opinions about Election 2008. I must say this is a session you don't want to miss. It included some great bloggers, including afrospear member Amani Chanel of My Urban Report. Listen Now [17 min 11 sec]

Also joining in the conversation were two other dynamic bloggers, Andre Walker of Georgia Unfiltered, and the always insightful, Michael Fisher of The Assault on Black Folk's Sanity.

Thank you NPR for continuing to provide alternative views and opinions on important topics of the day. Thank You Farai Chideya and NPR's News & Notes producers for another great program.

AAPP

In Solidarity: Global Day for Darfur

Black American Indifference Is Not An Option!

This blog is joining with bloggers from around the world in an effort to to raise awareness to the genocide in Darfur. This blog is participating "In Solidarity: Global Day for Darfur" today, April 13th, 2008 along with several other afrospear bloggers. These bloggers includes but is not limited to:




Modern Musings
A Political Season
Black and Missing but not Forgotten
Black Perspective
Black Women Vote
CEO Mum
Darfur: An Unforgivable Hell on Earth
Eddie G. Griffin
Electronic Village
Musings of the Night
My African Diaspora
Regina's Family Seasons
Slant Truth
Take Political Action
The Jose Vilson
Travs Thoughts
Ultraviolet Underground
Vanessa: Unplugged
What About Our Daughters
Black and Missing - But Not Forgotten
African American Political Pundit.com
African American Opinion.com
African American Opinion and Social Networking
African American Political Opinion
Black Accountability Project

(H/T Black and Missing But Not Forgotten and Black Perspective for the links)

As reported by Save Dafur.org After five years of conflict in Darfur, children are reaching school age having experienced nothing but armed conflict. A million Darfuri children have grown up displaced, living in camps for refugees and internally displaced persons, many without opportunities for education, without knowing the meaning of home.

On the Global Day for Darfur on April 13, tens of thousands of citizens around the world will call on their governments and the United Nations to act decisively to get the U.N.-African Union peacekeepers deployed in Darfur as fully, effectively, and quickly as possible.

The children of Darfur - and the millions of civilians affected by five years of brutal violence - can wait no longer. They need the protection of peacekeepers NOW.

What Can Black Americans Do?

There is a great number of things black Americans can do to get involved. As an example we can find an existing Darfur activist group to get involved locally. We should learn about hot-button legislation under consideration in the United States Congress. Let us not forget the power of the pen, or computer in contacting world leaders. As reported by Darfur Genocide.org world leaders are closer than you think. As an example, Darfur Genocide.org has a new 24 Hours for Darfur initiative that helps concerned citizens understand the situation and transmit their concerns to political leaders.

Learn about the situation from expert videos. Watch testimony from Darfurians. View appeals from people around the world. Record a message for your representatives right in your browser, or upload a video file. And email any video message directly to world leaders.

The power is in the worlds hands to change Darfur.

What's wrong with Black people

AAPP: I recently posted Black Youth Out of Control. Has Black America Lost Total Control ? Little did I know I would get the answers to my questions in a vivid, clear, reasoned and thought provoking style from a local Branch of the NAACP. It comes from one of the NAACP Branch President's I have come to deeply admire and respect. Mr. K Myles. I know once you read his post you will understand why I respect this brother so much.

Please check out his post.

"What's wrong with Black people?"

By K. Myles

Last night, I watched the MSNBC special "Meeting David Wilson". During the special, they aired a segment of David Wilson's film where he asked people to answer the question "What's wrong with Black People?"
~~~~~~
Those of you who have attended forums with me know that I have often asked a variant of the same question; "Why have Black people gone crazy?" Without discounting or negating any of the social or institutional factors that share complicity in the genesis of our dysfunction, I believe the question is worthy of our contemplation. My colleagues in academia would certainly argue that the pathologies we see within the Black community are inextricably linked to the institutions of slavery, the black codes, and Jim Crow; the institutionalized philosophies of Willie Lynch, White Supremacy and Dred Scott; and their shared legacy of Black Self Hatred. And while the evidence of such is certainly compelling (to me), I am NOT sure that it truly explains the condition of our culture.
~~~~~~
Where I think the argument falls flat is that it does not acknowledge the fact that we survived the horrors of all of the aforementioned attacks with our culture in tact - More HERE

Tavis Smiley Held Accountable?

Paul Farhi at the Washington Post reports that one of Sen. Barack Obama's toughest African American critics has quit his long association with a national radio show after listeners decried his views.

Tavis Smiley kissing up to Hillary Clinton at the "State Of The Black Union" symposium on February 23, 2008 in New Orleans. (Richard Alan Hannon - Getty Images)

Tavis Smiley has resigned as a twice-weekly commentator on the syndicated "Tom Joyner Morning Show" after 11 years on the air, citing fatigue and a busy schedule in a personal call to Joyner. Joyner disputed that on the air and in his blog, however, writing: "The real reason is that he can't take the hate he's been getting regarding the Barack issue -- hate from the black people that he loves so much."

Read more here on how Tavis Smiley has resigned from 'Tom Joyner Morning Show'

AAPP: Hey Tavis, If 70-90% of black American voters are going against the candidate that you want to be President, while you kiss up in public to Hillary and Bill Clinton, sorry buddy, you are on the wrong side of black America.

It seems that your can't take the heat, and you know your wrong.

I guess you will be Bill and Hillary's publicist real soon. You should be ashamed of yourself. But then again, there is no shame in your political "GAME."

See Yah!

Civil Rights In America, "A Chain of Change"

AAPP: Yesterday I wrote about listening in pure amazement and disgust to a broadcast over at one of the best bloggers in America, (also from Texas) Gina McCauley from the blog What About Our Daughters. As I noted, she was joined by her roundtable, along with Adora Obi Nweze, President, Fl State Conference NAACP and a member of the NAACP National Board of Directors and Richard "We Will Not Be Blamed" McIntire, the NAACP national spokesperson. The NAACP was invited to speak about their decision to support the bail request for the release of black boys who are alleged to have brutally raped, sodomized and beat a mother and son on June 18.

---

I discussed how I felt after listening to the state and national NAACP representatives make fools out of themselves. I pointed out I came to the same conclusion that Lee Walker and others have about what I termed a now disgraceful national organization. I posed questions like, When will black folks hold the NAACP Accountable? When will the NAACP hold itself accountable? When will black folks as the NAACP Board Chair to resign, and take that 60 Member Board with him? When will black women start a national organization that really fights for black women and their families? WHEN?

Well I must honestly say I did not know that The Washington Post (H/T Dallas Progress for the link) would provide additional answers to the questions raised, and in some ways pose additional questions for Black America and all America in its article, Civil Rights Groups see Gradual End of Their Era - Many groups that helped propel movement struggling, some have vanished. The article written by By Darryl Fears of the Washington Post highlights how after "Forty years after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, the storied organizations that propelled the modern-day civil rights movement alongside him are either struggling to stay relevant or struggling to stay alive.

in Atlanta, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) -- which was founded in 1957 after Alabama's Montgomery bus boycott and was led by King through the most difficult days of the movement -- clings to life. Three years ago, utilities shut off the lights and the phones when the group did not pay its bills.

In New York, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), which helped shape the movement's philosophy after adopting Mohandas K. Gandhi's doctrine of nonviolent protest, is scarcely known outside Manhattan. CORE conceded that it now has about 10 percent of the 150,000 members it listed in the 1960s.

In Baltimore, the near-century-old NAACP, which tore down racial barriers with deft lawyering in the courts, recently cut a third of its administrative staff because of budget shortfalls. For decades, the NAACP asserted that it was the largest civil rights group, with about half a million dues-paying members, but one of its former presidents recently acknowledged that it has fewer than 300,000.

Some groups have disappeared, such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which organized the Freedom Rides that drew sympathy to their cause and which was later led by firebrands such as Stokley Carmichael and H. Rap Brown. Others, such as the National Urban League, remain viable but have diminished visibility.

"They don't really exist now," said the Rev. C.T. Vivian, a former interim director of the SCLC, who spoke with pain in his voice. He added: "They're just names. There has been so little activity from so many of them. SCLC rose from the dead, but we're not so certain life has been blown into it yet. And the NAACP is vital, but they're not doing what I'd expect."

The groups' decline has been slow but inexorably driven by factors both within and outside their control. They were the subjects of government spying and harassment. A proliferation of black organizations with niche audiences -- lawyers, engineers, accountants, journalists -- took away middle-class members. The rise in the 1970s of groups such as the Black Panthers, which espoused a melodramatic militancy, made them seem tepid."

AAPP: The article provides commentary from many former insiders of the NAACP like
JoAnn Watson, a Detroit City Council member who ran the local NAACP office in the 1990s, who said the organizations are living off their reputations. "They benefit from the name that has been earned by the blood of the ancestors."

Check out what other former NAACP and Civil Rights organization official had to say in the article:

Michael Meyers, a former NAACP executive, recalled when the group's initials inspired fear. "People answered the phones; they thought they were going to be sued," he said. "But not now."

The drop in stature may have been inevitable, said Roger Wilkins, an assistant attorney general under President Lyndon B. Johnson who advised the groups. "Black people didn't have opportunities in the '30s and '40s and '50s," he said. "They couldn't be mayors, so they became presidents of black colleges or leaders of civil rights organizations. But at the end of the '60s, all kinds of pathways opened up, and civil rights organizations had to compete for leadership."

With advances in education, employment and buying power, some have argued, civil rights organizations have become passe. But group leaders bristle at the notion.

A report released this week by the Institute for Policy Studies, a liberal think tank, said that black America remains troubled. Despite marginal advances in education and jobs, the income gap between black and white Americans has grown so large since King's death that it would take more than 500 years for black people to catch up under the current pace of change, the report said. The divide between black and white wealth is so wide that achieving parity would take more than 600 years.

Organization leaders said that they have made mistakes since King's death but that they were also weakened by outside forces. As the White House was enacting civil rights laws, the FBI was infiltrating organizations under the secret Counter Intelligence Program known as COINTELPRO. After the 1970s, media attention turned away from the civil rights movement, the group leaders said."

AAPP: Get this folks, in the article the NAACP, Chairman Julian Bond said the future "looks good." He contends what I term his "board of the living dead" (OK not all the board) helped lead efforts to reauthorize the voting rights and civil rights acts, and provided relief for victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005. The article also reports that "NAACP officials say that their voter registration drives led to a surge of black voters in the past two presidential elections and that the group continues to fight discrimination in the courts, as it did with Brown v. Board of Education." More of the article HERE

AAPP: Whatever Julian Bond, Whatever! You and the other National NAACP 60 member "board of the living dead" are still believing your own bogus press releases." the NAACP has been Missing In Action on so many issues.

The questions remain, that I posed in my previous post: When will black folks hold the NAACP Accountable? When will the NAACP hold itself accountable? When will black folks ask the NAACP Board Chair to resign, and take that 60 Member Board with him? Maybe the Wichita NAACP President would consider becoming the National Chaiman, replacing Julian Bond. When will black women start a national organization that really fights for black women and their families. That time, is now! Groups like the Color of Change, The Afrospear (black bloggers group), Black Political and Internet social activist are now taking a leadership role. A Black While Brown Conference is planned for Atlanta, Georgia spearheaded by Gina McCauley from the blog What About Our Daughters. There is is now a sea of change in Black Political and social leadership in Black communities across America and around the world. Black bloggers are now leading the way. A word of caution to blacks ready to take the lead. There are still groups and organizations, including the media that will attack our new efforts. Let us stay focused. United we stand divided we will fall like the Civil Rights groups and political leaders we all know about.

NAACP Answers on Dunbar Village

The NAACP and Black Women

AAPP: I listened in pure amazement and disgust last night to a broadcast over at one of the best bloggers in America, (also from Texas) Gina McCauley from the blog What About Our Daughters. She was joined by her roundtable, along with Adora Obi Nweze, President, Fl State Conference NAACP and a member of the NAACP National Board of Directors and Richard "We Will Not Be Blamed" McIntire, the NAACP national spokesperson.

The NAACP was invited to speak about their decision to support the bail request for the release of black boys who are alleged to have brutally raped, sodomized and beat a mother and son on June 18.

---

This is a case, as reported by MSNBC a mother and son huddled together, battered and beaten, in the bathroom — sobbing, wondering why no one came to help. For three hours, the pair say, they endured sheer terror as the 35-year-old Haitian immigrant was raped and sodomized by up to 10 masked teenagers and her 12-year-old son was beaten in another room. hen, mother and son were reunited to endure the unspeakable: At gunpoint, the woman was forced to perform oral sex on the boy, she later told a TV station. Afterward, they were doused with household cleansers, perhaps in a haphazard attempt to scrub the crime scene, or maybe simply to torture the victims even more. The solutions burned the boy’s eyes. The thugs then fled, taking with them a couple of hundred dollars’ worth of cash, jewelry and cell phones. In the interview with WPTV, the mother described how she and her son sobbed in the bathroom, too shocked to move. Then, in the dark of night, they walked a mile to the hospital because they had no phone to call for help. More HERE

AAPP: After listening to the state and national NAACP representatives make fools out of themselves, I came to the same conclusion that Lee Walker and others have about this disgraceful national organization. As Lee walker wrote, " It is neither the powerful organization of my youth nor the courageous and dignified body I identify with Roy Wilkins. After Mr. Wilkins died, he was succeeded by Ben Hooks, a former judge from Tennessee. After Mr. Hook stepped down, the bottom fell out and the NAACP lost touch with black America. A survey taken in 1992 by the Detroit News revealed that 94 percent of black Americans thought the NAACP was out of touch with the everyday problems of most blacks, and the poor in particular.

One glaring problem with the NAACP is the enormous board of directors, over 60 at last count. Mr. Wilkins once advised me over lunch never to run an organization with too many board members. From the statements of former CEO Ben Gordon, it appears that the board’s meddling played a significant role in his decision to step down. Unless the absurdly large board contributes significant amounts of money or brings in new members, the board will be more of a hindrance than a help. And at the moment, it looks to be doing neither."

Read more of Lee Walkers thoughts in the post below:

NAACP Needs New Leadership

Written By: Lee Walker
Published In: Chicago Defender
Publication Date: March 9, 2007
Publisher: Chicago Defender

This Op-Ed originally appeared in the Chicago Defender on March 9, 2007

The current leadership crisis at the NAACP raises an interesting question, did black folks win or lose when Booker T. Washington died in 1915 of high blood pressure and overwork? At the age of only 59, Washington could have led the black race for many years had his health not deteriorated. His untimely death allowed the NAACP, founded and run by northern white liberals, to take over leadership of black America.

Washington was never a fan of the NAACP, and the feeling was quite mutual. Washington was, however, a trustee of the National Urban League, an organization that stimulated black business development and facilitated educational progress for blacks. Sadly, it was unable to stay the course. Although the National Urban league also had white leaders, they encouraged the blacks running it to buy a building for the organization. Due to their paternalistic attitude towards blacks, the white NAACP leaders never encouraged blacks to take this step. The result of course was that high rent prices forced the NAACP to leave Manhattan in the mid 1980's. Today, the NAACP is the oldest surviving civil rights organization in the country. Unfortunately, though it is the oldest tree in the forest, it is also the deadest.

To make clear my long-standing relationship with the NAACP, I should disclose that I was vice president of the Brooklyn Chapter in the 1970's. I was a personal friend of Roy Wilkins, the national executive secretary, and I keep a picture of us, decked out in three bottoms vest and suit ensemble, in my office. The dignified Mr. Wilkins actually wore that three bottoms vest to work every day. During my years at the Brooklyn NAACP he became my role model.

I had dreamed of volunteering for the NAACP ever since high school. When George Wallace banned the organization from the state during the Montgomery Bus Boycott, I knew I needed to be a member. Since the group was banned, however, blacks had to send their membership forms to individuals at the 42nd street address in Manhattan without referencing the NAACP directly. Additionally, the NAACP could not send us the Crisis Magazine in the standard organizational package lest white postal workers identify us as members.

Unfortunately, I no longer recognize the once great NAACP. It is neither the powerful organization of my youth nor the courageous and dignified body I identify with Roy Wilkins. After Mr. Wilkins died, he was succeeded by Ben Hooks, a former judge from Tennessee. After Mr. Hook stepped down, the bottom fell out and the NAACP lost touch with black America. A survey taken in 1992 by the Detroit News revealed that 94 percent of black Americans thought the NAACP was out of touch with the everyday problems of most blacks, and the poor in particular.

One glaring problem with the NAACP is the enormous board of directors, over 60 at last count. Mr. Wilkins once advised me over lunch never to run an organization with too many board members. From the statements of former CEO Ben Gordon, it appears that the board’s meddling played a significant role in his decision to step down. Unless the absurdly large board contributes significant amounts of money or brings in new members, the board will be more of a hindrance than a help. And at the moment, it looks to be doing neither.

Leadership has been the central problem for the NAACP since the 1990's and Ben Gordon’s departure shouldn’t encourage any of us that these problems are being solved. It is now time for Chairman Julian Bond to step down. It was mentioned recently that Ben Gordon did not have a civil rights background and was therefore unqualified to serve as CEO. However, it is worth remembering that neither Roy Wilkins nor Martin Luther King Jr. had extensive civil rights experience before assuming the mantle of leadership. Indeed, King had only recently earned his Ph.D. when the Montgomery Bus Boycott thrust him into a national leadership role.

Regardless of who leads the NAACP, there is no dispute that the organization is still needed. Whether it will ever again be the force for change it once was, will depend on its ability to refocus and develop new leadership.

As one New Yorker said in a NY Times article in 1994 "I don't see the N.A.A.C.P. as an organization for the masses of black people, and that's the problem," said Mr. Rhymes, who lives in a city housing project named after an early civil rights crusader, Ida B. Wells. "They're looking for that mainstream, middle-class person who doesn't need half as much help as the people I know. The N.A.A.C.P. is lost on the Yellow Brick Road somewhere."

AAPP: Now the question is WHEN.

When will black folks hold the NAACP Accountable? When will the NAACP hold itself accountable? When will black folks as the NAACP Board Chair to resign, and take that 60 Member Board with him? When will black women start a national organization that really fights for black women and their families? WHEN?

UPDATE: Maybe once organized, a new national black womans organization can get the blacks in the media to highlight important issues like not allowing bail for alleged rapist. Oh, but that's right black media, like white media, seem to be more concerned about Naomi Campbell being released on bail.

Soledad O’Brien speaks with Dallas South

OK, I don't live in Dallas, or Memphis, or for that matter Boston (well anymore). At the time Martin Luther King was shot I lived in Boston. I attended the James Brown concert at the Boston Gardens. James Brown and the JB's stopped the rioting that evening in Boston. It was one of the most painful days in American History. It was similar to one day in Dallas, when the world seemed to stand still. I'm reminded Dallas, Memphis and Boston , like Washington, DC and other cities across America became connected and made history in many ways. Connected by the killer(s) of a dreamers and dreams. Today we are once again connected as blacks, and as a nation. Connected by the possibility of electing the first black president of the United States. This would be a dramatic step in achieving Dr King’s dream of racial equality.

Rather than give my perspective on what all this means in the various parts of the country,
I think it would be wiser to share with you an interview conducted by one of the America's great black bloggers and afrospear member, Shawn Williams, publisher of Dallas South.

Shawn had the opportunity with interview one of America's greatest news icon's CNN Anchor and special correspondent Soledad O’Brien. They talked about tonight’s special airing at 8 p.m. Central on CNN titled The King Assassination:Witness to Murder more HERE

Listen now.

I know you will find it as interesting and informative as I have.

AAPP

Is "Sunday Morning Apartheid" really gone?

Is Sunday Morning Apartheid gone? Is there still a very clear division, an exclusion of blacks to a large degree on Sunday Morning Talk shows? Is America still a nation involved in " Sunday Morning Apartheid" or is Felicia Lee at New York Times right when she wrote, "Like the Candidates, TV’s Political Pundits Show Signs of Diversity?

In 2006, the National Urban League released a report showing how racially segregated the Sunday morning talk shows are. According to their report, more than 60% of all of the broadcasts of the Sunday morning talk shows had no black guests on them at all. And 80% of the roundtables had no black participants.

Now in the NY Times article Felicia Lee notes, The historic and long-running presidential campaigns of Senator Barack ObamaHillary Rodham Clinton have injected issues of race and gender into politics as never before. With campaign coverage center stage on the cable channels, producers and critics are again assessing the diversity among pundits, who talk (and talk) about things like Mr. Obama’s pastor, the Hispanic vote, Iraq and the economy. and Senator

In the article Felicia notes, "Both MSNBC and CNN this election season have given new prominence to a handful of contributing commentators from varied backgrounds and perspectives: blacks, Hispanics and women."

Felicia's article also points out, "Whether such moves signal real progress in diversifying the punditocracy or merely reflect the needs of a particular news cycle is the question, some media experts say."

Here are some other key points in the NY Times article:

1. The most prominent positions on television remain overwhelmingly with those who are white and male, and some critics note how striking that non-inclusion can seem during this election year.

2. Whatever progress has been made with contributors and commentators as of late, the cable networks have a long way to go before they look like the American people,” said Karl Frisch, the spokesman for Media Matters for America, a liberal television watchdog group. He added that white men were the hosts of all the major Sunday morning talk shows, the major prime-time cable news programs and — except for Katie Couric, a relative newcomer — the network evening news broadcasts.

3. Diversity is not just good journalism but also good business, Ms. Ciara and others said.

Generally Felicia Lee's article is on point. And you know this African American Political Pundit is in agreement with Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, who points out in the article that cable programs relied more and more on people who can analyze campaign developments, rather than just report them. So television needs more pundits and more kinds of pundits."

AAPP: It's great to see and hear, as the article points out, the 2008 lineup at CNN which also includes Alex Castellanos, a Cuban-born Republican strategist, and Leslie Sanchez, a Mexican-American Republican strategist who has also appeared on Fox News. It's also great to see and hear Donna Brazile, journalist and radio host Roland S. Martin; Amy Holmes, a conservative strategist and a former senior speechwriter for Bill Frist, Republican of Tennessee, the former Senate majority leader; and Jamal Simmons, a Democratic strategist, Obama supporter and veteran press spokesman. The other networks are making, let us call it "attempts."

As I read the article I wondered when are the Sunday Morning Talk Shows and other Political Talk Shows going to desegregate and include black political bloggers as pundits on these talk shows? Then I had to be honest with myself, the networks are scared to place black political bloggers on the networks. Why? One word "Fear."

We all know black political and social commentary bloggers like The Field Negro, Electronic Village, Jack & Jill Politics, Pams House Blend, Prometheus 6, The Super Spade, Black Agenda Report, Eddie Griffin (BASG), Exodus Mentality, Francis L. Holland Blog, Mirror on America, Anderson at Large, Skeptical Brotha this African American Political Pundit and many others would also bring a fresh perspective that America is unaccustomed to hearing in the mainstream media.

Network Executives may be fearful that America is so unaccustomed to hearing honest political commentary and analysis that the black bloggers noted above and other black bloggers like Back Yard Beacon, Black Political Thought, AfroNetizen, AfroSpear Think Tank, Black Perspective, Black Smythe, Dallas South Blog, Mrs. Grapevine, Republic of T, What About Our Daughters?, Wichita NAACP Blog, Charcoal Ink, Bygbaby's Mind Spill, A Political Season and yes this African American Political Pundit would be to much for America to handle.

Well, Network TV executives and producers who may be reading this post, your wrong. There is no need to fear. By the way, you may want to consider following in the footsteps of the good folks at NPR's News and Notes, Bloggers Roundtable hosted by Farai Chideya. They have been providing bloggers from across America the opportunity to have a conversation with the American people. Farai Chideya and the folks at NPR are accustomed to providing honest political commentary and analysis that the black bloggers bring to America through The Bloggers Roundtable program.

OK now getting back to the question, Is "Sunday Morning Apartheid" gone?

Answer: Not when the most prominent positions on television remain overwhelmingly with those who are white and male. Not when a critical part of the "new media" is left out of the conversation - black bloggers. It's looking just a tad different on America's airwaves. As far as this African American Political Pundit is concerned, but It could be a lot better.

Then again who cares about black faces, for black faces sake. Are the current group of black faces saying what needs to be said? Well, this African American Political Pundit has the hook up. I have my own BlogTalkRadio program and I love being a regular contributor to NPR's Bloggers Roundtable.