Why Isn't GOP on BET?

The Republican-leaning Wall Street Journal's Jason Riley has this in today's paper. I don't agree with the central premise which seems to be that African American voters support the Democratic Party because the party does a better job of outreach through media.

Meanwhile, the Republican elites will sit back, carefully assess the demographic trends and reach the wrong conclusion. They will note that more and more blacks are stockholders, own homes, graduate from college and earn middle-class incomes. They will cite data showing high approval, particularly among black GenXers, for Republican hobbyhorses like school choice and personal retirement accounts. They will point to Colin Powell and Condi Rice as GOP role models. And they will tell themselves that it's only a matter of time before voting blacks break with Democrats in significant numbers.

They are kidding themselves. This isn't about issues; it's about perceptions.

Why don't people like Riley listen to people like Rev. Al Sharpton? Rev. Al addressed Bush's remarks at the DNC convention:

Mr. President, as I close, Mr. President, I heard you say Friday that you had questions for voters, particularly African- American voters. And you asked the question: Did the Democratic Party take us for granted? Well, I have raised questions. But let me answer your question.

You said the Republican Party was the party of Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. It is true that Mr. Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, after which there was a commitment to give 40 acres and a mule.

That's where the argument, to this day, of reparations starts. We never got the 40 acres. We went all the way to Herbert Hoover, and we never got the 40 acres.

We didn't get the mule. So we decided we'd ride this donkey as far as it would take us.

Mr. President, you said would we have more leverage if both parties got our votes, but we didn't come this far playing political games. It was those that earned our vote that got our vote. We got the Civil Rights Act under a Democrat. We got the Voting Rights Act under a Democrat. We got the right to organize under Democrats.

Mr. President, the reason we are fighting so hard, the reason we took Florida so seriously, is our right to vote wasn't gained because of our age. Our vote was soaked in the blood of martyrs, soaked in the blood of good men (inaudible) soaked in the blood of four little girls in Birmingham.

This vote is sacred to us.

This vote can't be bargained away.

This vote can't be given away.

Mr. President, in all due respect, Mr. President, read my lips: Our vote is not for sale.

While I don't agree that the modern Democratic Party has earned the African American vote, I do understand and respect Rev. Sharpton's perspective. The view that the GOP simply needs to do a better job of advertising is nonsense.

Calling Judicial Watch...

I was notified today that Judicial Watch, the public interest law firm that investigates and prosecutes government abuse and corruption, may help with the Luken/McAdams perjury case. Some people think Judical Watch is an extreme right-wing activist group that only attacks liberal Democrats like President Clinton. I'm not so sure. As you can see here, Judicial Watch filed suit against Vice President Cheney and Halliburton. I certainly hope Judicial Watch, whose slogan is "because no one is above the law!", joins the fight to bring Charlie Luken and Ernest McAdams (and Judges Guckenberger and Painter) to justice.

Prosecutor Pushed To Probe Perjury

I'm proud to tell you about a few new developments in the push to get Cincinnati Mayor Charlie Luken and Cincinnati Prosecutor Ernest McAdams, Sr. investigated and prosecuted for lying on the witness stand in Hamilton County Municipal Judge Guckenberger's courtroom.

1.) Today I wrote to Hamilton County Prosecutor Mike Allen asking him to appoint an independent prosecutor to review the perjury allegations.  A few points on why I asked for an independent prosecutor.

• Political Motivation - Because of the politics involved, I don't believe Republican Mike Allen can, or should, handle the investigation himself.  An independent prosecutor isolates him and his office from the inevitable charges that any investigation and subsequent prosecution is politically motivated.  You might expect Luken, a Democrat (even if in name only), and his supporters to claim parisanship is behind any investigation.  While Guckenberger, a Republican, may claim any investigation is designed to prevent him from advancing to the Court of Appeals if Mark Painter steps down and declares himself a candidate for mayor.
• Race - Very few people that I know believe Mike Allen is as tough on alleged white criminals as he is on alleged African American criminals.  By asking for an independent prosecutor, I seek to have someone who will look at the charges and prosecute accordingly.

2.) Today I also publicly announced my intention to file complaints against Charlie Luken, Ernest McAdams, Sr., Judge Guy Guckenberger, and Judge Mark Painter with the Ohio Supreme Court's Disciplinary Counsel.  The Ohio Supreme Court's Rules require that investigations be confidential and limit what I can say once the complaints are filed.  If you are reading this you probably already know that the four people named above wield an enourmous amount of power in the City and at the State level.  You probably want to know what's the use?  Do I really think that anything is going to happen to these people?  Do I honestly believe that four of the City's most powerful people will be treated like you or I would be treated if we took the witness stand and lied?  (On a brief sidenote, I've been in court more times than I care to remember and witnessed judges throw the book at people for using fake documents or committing fraud.  So get your facts together before you tell me that the courts don't take lying seriously.)  While I don't believe for one moment that Jonathan E. Coughlan, the Supreme Court's Disciplinary Counsel, has the fortitude to properly deal with this situation and appropriately sanction these individuals, I feel compelled to file the complaints anyway.  You never know what might happen.

3.) You are hearing this here first.  Over the past few weeks I've been considering filing a lawsuit (actually called an Affidavit of Bias and Prejudice) against Judge Guckenberger.  The consultations are over with and I'm filing the lawsuit (may have it done by morning).  Even though Guckenberger didn't actually encourage people to lie under oath (at least I don't have proof that he did), the Judge had a responsibility to do something about Luken's and McAdams' perjury once he became aware of it.  Instead of doing that, Guckenberger has become an apologist for Luken and McAdams.  In open court, Guckenberger has pretended that Luken just misspoke.  Seriously!  That's why I put the seven Luken video clips up for you to see for yourself.  I figured someone might try to tell you that your eyes were playing tricks on you.

4.) I've arranged to provide copies of the courtroom video to the media tomorrow morning.  So the lazy local media might do something with this story after all.

Perjury

Last Tuesday, I promised to write on Judge Painter's conflict of interest in a case involving me.  This was going to be that post.  But after helping edit the video links included in this post, I decided to save my Judge Painter conflict of interest posting for another time.  This topic is more serious.

What do you think would happen to Cincinnati Mayor Charlie Luken if he was subpoenaed to testify in a criminal trial and lied on the stand?  What if the City's chief criminal prosecutor also lied on the stand?  If the trial was held in Hamilton County Municipal Court Judge Guy C. Guckenberger's courtroom, the answer is: Absolutely Nothing!!!

[The events described below actually happened in Judge Guckenberger's courtroom on April 22, 2004.  The names have not been changed to protect the guilty.]

This case involved me, Nathaniel Livingston, Jr., carrying a sign into City Hall on April 7, 2004.  The sign read: "John Cranley Says He Doesn't Want Any Nigger Neighbors".  Luken objected to the word "nigger", ordered the cops to remove me from City Council chamber, and had me arrested and charged with Criminal Trespass.  Here is what the Complaint read:

The complainant states that this complaint is based on Mayor Charles Luken ejecting arrested from City Council meeting and ordering officers to remove arrested.  Arrested was escorted out of meeting and repeatedly told not to re-enter.  Arrested knowingly and recklessly forced his way back into meeting and stated "the only way I'm leaving is if you arrest me for criminal trespass."

Of course I argued First Amendment, but my main defense was that the alleged Council meeting (referenced three times in the Complaint) hadn't actually commenced and therefore Mayor Luken had no authority to have the cops remove me or my sign Council chambers.  (The purpose of this post is not to argue the case here.  I was convicted.  The case is under appeal.  And a separate, but related, civil lawsuit challenging the legality of the rules governing City Council is pending in federal court.  I'll save my legal arguments for court.  This post is designed to do one thing: allow everyone to see and hear Mayor Luken and Ernest McAdams lie on the stand and Judge Guckenberger do nothing about it.  I only hope someone from the Ohio Supreme Court's Board of Commissioners on Grievances and Discipline stops by this blog.)  (Video links are provided to make it easier to follow along.)

Link number one shows me giving my opening statement.  

Greetings

Cincinnati's Black community has needed a blog for a long time.  Now we have one.  Initially, I'm going to do the posting and let you, the reader, do the commenting.  Eventually, I intend to have other people contribute postings to this blog.  I hope everyone enjoys this.