Today on Africana Media

The Times today profiled Zimbabwe’s Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor, Gideon Gono, who has become one of the biggest abusers of office in Zimbabwe and has looted and continues to loot the Zimbabwe treasury on his own behalf, and on behalf of his boss, Robert Mugage.

Gono is building a 47 en suite bedroom palace, with a glass swimming pool with underlights, a gym bigger than many good houses in the Zimbabwe capital, a mini-theater and landscaped gardens.  Read how this man lives the life of opulence while the 12 million Zimbabweans suffer.

The Action Congress should re-think their opposit’on to the Yar’Adua’s call to expunge the immunity clause from the constitution.  It smells of opposing something just for the sake of opposition, which have no basis in fact, to use the opposition’s words.  When the President, Vice President, Governors and their deputies, understand that they could not hide behind the immunity clause to brazenly loot their respective states’ treasuries, they will be frightened to moderate their kleptomania.

President Obama is in a position to tell African leaders these tough love statements as their “son”, because he is embarrassed as a black man of Africa being looked upon as a ignorant child by the rest of the world, incapable of taking care of itself.  It is time for tough love.  Obama is very good at that.  During the campaign, he chastised black American leaders for acts unbecoming of good citizenships.  It is the same epiphany he has to bring to Africa.  Anything less would be a failure of his administration.

On that first day of celebrations, the band will accompany me to the Isi Ogwe (village square).  There, I will join with other of my age mates, men and women.  We will proudly be seated in our uniformed outfit, which I have already paid for.  After the gun salutes, the age group will be called upon to officially present whatever they have done for the village.  After the presentation, our names will be called individually to pay a certain amount of money to the village.  Individually, those who can afford it, it is at this juncture that you get up and offer a more substantial sum of money to the village, or agree to individually accomplish a task.

Having said all this, I am compelled to say that there were and there still are definitely “Media Warriors for Obama,” who helped to make the Obama quest for the presidency a very successful one.  Sitting on top of that list is none other than Keith Olbermann of MSNBC’s Countdown, followed by Daily Kos founder, Markos Moulitsas, Huffingtonost.com founder Arianna Huffington, Joshia Micah Marshall of “Talkingpointsmemo” Chris Matthews of MSNBC’s ‘Hardball’, Rachel Maddow of the MSNBC and of course the jedreport’s Jed. 

Nothing bothered me more than seeing the Rev. Jesse Jackson shedding so much tears, especially after vowing to cut off Obama’s nuts.  I am so glad none of the networks bothered to interview him, although they continued to briefly switch to him.

And it seems the networks have decided to rehabilitate Tavis Smiley, after he thought he was so big until the black community pariahed him.  He saw that there was a force bigger than him.  And did you see Juan Williams of ‘Fixed News’ weeping tears.  Damn, all these renegades!!

We urge the electorate to send this man, Barack Obama, whose candidacy has been described as “transformational” by the former Secretary of State and Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, retired General Colin, to the White House.  We have no doubt that Obama would achieve greatness for America.  He will restore America to its past glories, a country that is feared for being the only super-power left in the world, but for being the country where the oppressed come to make their dreams come true. 

Well, the only good thing that has come out of this anxiety, is that I have been walking almost six miles every morning.  At least, it reduces the beating in my heart.

“Botswana demonstrates how a country with natural resources can promote sustainable development with good governance, on a continent where too often mineral wealth has become a curse,” Mr Annan, a 2001 UN Nobel Peace Prize winner, said.

The last presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain ended about an hour ago, and the insta-polls have just come in, showing Obama soundly trouncing McCain.  According to the CBS poll of uncommitted voters say Obama Won Final Debate.

“And tonight’s results have, by a wide margin, made it a clean sweep. Here are the final results of the survey of 638 uncommitted voters:

Fifty-three percent (53%) of the uncommitted voters surveyed identified Democratic nominee Barack Obama as the winner of tonight’s debate. Twenty-two percent (22%) said Republican rival John McCain won. Twenty-five (25%)percent saw the debate as a draw.” Read the full CBS News report

CNN had the result as McCain: 31 percent, Obama 58 percent. On the favorability:

Obama Favorable:

63 percent before debate --> 66 percent after debate.  Unfavorable: 35 percent before debate --> 33 percent after debate

McCain Favorables

Favorable: 51 percent before debate --> 49 percent after debate
Unfavorable: 45 percent before debate --> 49 percent after debate

Other findings from CNN:

Who would better handle the economy?
McCain: 35 percent
Obama: 59 percent

Who would better handle the financial crisis?

McCain: 35 percent
Obama: 56 percent

Who would better handle health care?

McCain: 31 percent
Obama: 62 percent

Who would better handle taxes?

McCain: 41 percent
Obama: 56 percent

Even Fox News pollster, Luntz said this:  “None had made a decision to support Sen. Obama before the debate, but more than half supported after the debate. It was a good night for Barack Obama.”

In essence, in the three debates Obama has won resoundingly.  Stay tuned for more report

With the shrillness reminiscent of the Jim Crow era, the right-wing of the Republican party was whipped into frenzy of hate and fear by Ms. Palin.  When she mentioned Obama at her rallies, there have been vocal shouts of “kill him,” “terrorist,” “off his head.” When you hear these epithets being shouted at Obama, you remember all the Black leaders who have been murdered in cold blood, all those who were lynched during Jim Crow, and you wonder whether there is a subtle message here about what should happen to Obama.  Is it an indirect way of convincing someone to do to Obama what was done to President John Kennedy, Senator Bobby Kennedy, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, or even Reagan?

Given how most African countries are ruled by tyrants and dictators, there is no doubt that those who love democracy in Africa would proclaim Mbe’s honor.  He has given South Africa that preminent position for advancing the cause of democracy in Africa, by heeding the demands of the electorate as represented by elected officials of the African National Congress.

On ther other hand, his sacking is demeaning and smells of vendetta - it didn’t show statesmanship on the part of Jacob Zuma.  Why continuing to kick a man who is already down?  Thabo Mbeki was due to step down as President after the elections in April, 2009.  Why was the rush in having him removed except as an vindictive payback, notwithstanding what this would do internationally to the interests of South Africa.  It was a bad judgment call.

As I sat down to think about his questions and the fact that the African community is quite lacking in all these areas, I began to understand how our culture of entitlement because we are educated, our ego to be recognized for our accomplishments, our laziness and anathema to being acclimatized to realities of our surroundings and situations, our glorification of what we would have been if we were back in our respective countries, our faked elitism in looking down and thinking we are better and brighter than our brothers and sisters in this country, and finally our egregious sin and stupidity in believing that we should be given something for nothing rather than work for that something, have all combined to this prostrate state.  Unfortunately for us, that’s not how the system works in this country.

Now, we know that in war or in a shoot-out in an “OK Coral” movie, the person who blinks first loses, because your opponent pulls out his gun and shoots you squarely on your temple.  And that’s exactly what happened in that high-stakes brinksmanship that Senator McCain orchestrated.  McCain, a war hero, who should have known better to issue a challenge to a much more accurate and younger quick draw, lost badly and got it on his temple.

Just on a personal and professional level, it would be stupid not to sympathize with Clinton. Just yesterday, September 17, Mrs. Clinton was forced to pull out of a protest rally to be held against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the United Nations, when she learnt that the organizers had also invited Governor Palin without informing her.

Since the end of both the Democratic and Republican conventions, McCain, who has been excoriated by the press for lying about Barack, took the lead in polls, fanning seeds of discontent among Democrats.  Well, the tide seems to have turned again, and Obama leads in the polls, though it is not really significant.  As has been suggested by two people, the polls shows nothing but racism as a factor in the race.

The “Palin” phenomenon would not have arisen if the Obama campaign had been pragmatic in selecting Clinton as his running-mate rather than emotional with assumed unforgivable and destructive attacks by Senator Clinton.  That’s is ‘Politics 101’; if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.  I say bring back those who devised the “kitchen-sink strategy,” the Mark Penns, the James Carvilles and the Paul Begala’s.  McCain understands what he needs to do to win, and by his pick of Governor Palin, a strategic decision made by Karl Roves students, it is beginning to appear that Obama should have done the right thing.

As Obama said, this is the greatest moment in history, and that history should be completed with the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States of America.  And when November 5, 2008, arrives and the results of the election would have been counted, Barack Obama would have won in a landslide.  He has prepared for this a long time, and has earned the right to be POTUS.

Andrew Sullivan is dissecting the real McCain, and the Obama campaign better start taking note from what he writes.

I am very sad that I would not be going to Denver, Colorado for the Democratic National Convention.  Nevertheless, I am going to attempt to bring you all the details of what is going on there.  So, as an African, this is the place to be to get the true coverage of what’s going on in Denver.  Anyway, I would be one of more than 15,000 journalists already there.  From outside and way out of the Convention, I would have an unimpeded view of all the goings-on there.  So, buckle your belt and enjoy the view with me. 

The first thing you have to know is that the Convention starts today, Monday, the 25th of August, at 3 pm, Denver time, but 5 pm here in the New York area and will end on Thursday, when Obama accepts his party’s nomination, the first black man ever to be nominated for the post of president of America by any major political party.  If you wish to check the schedule for the beginning ceremonies, go here. The Republicans start their own on September 2, 2007 and end on September 5.

There will be all kinds of pomp and pageantry, razzmatazz, prayers and displays of patriotism.  Americans love America, whether true or not, but they certainly display and want you as a politician to wear your patriotism on your sleeve.  The Republican party has been trying to paint Obama as unpatriotic, because he initially didn’t wear lapel pins, which he has started wearing.  Contrast this: Obama was born in Hawaii, which is the 50th state of the United States of America, and McCain was born in Panama, where America had bases where his father was stationed.

VICE PRESIDENTIAL PICK

If you are remotely reading or listening to the news, I am sure Africans are more than tuned in this election because of Barack Obama, I know you already have heard of who Senator Obama picked as his vice-presidential running mate, Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware, a very small state in America, but one of the 13 states in the Union, which is now 50. 

For a whole week, there was media frenzy about who Obama was going to pick.  Speculation abounded as to whether it would be Senator Biden, Senator Batch Bayh of Indiana, Governor Kaine of Virginia or even those of us who were hoping for the miraculous candidacy of Senator Hillary Clinton of New York, who fought Obama to a standstill during the primaries.  We were hoping that Obama would do a Jack Kennedy, who chose Lyndon Johnson, or a Reagan who chose current Bush’s father, after a very bitter primary campaign.  Well, no need crying over a split milk.  The pick of Biden is a great pick, though Clinton would have more than unified the party.  I don’t believe in the so-called baggage she would have brought to the ticket with her husband, former President Clinton as a loose cannon.

Anyway, as founder of DailyKos website, Markos Moulitsas wrote, “The more I read stuff like this (from Stephanopolous on Good Morning America Weekend Sunday), the more comfortable I am with Biden’s selection.

“I have never seen a vice-presidential candidate, in the announcement, come out with THAT KIND of ferocity. Usually, you see it a little bit later in the campaign – not at the announcement. But Joe Biden showed one of the main reasons that Barack Obama picked him. They WANTED a scrapper out there. They WANT a fighter out there. They know Senator Biden will be able to get UNDER Senator McCain’s skin. They’ve known each other for an AWFUL long time – more than 35 years. As one Obama aide told me yesterday: We know that Joe Biden can go out there with a 2-BY-4 if he has to.”

There’s really no faster way to my heart than having a Democrat go after Republicans with a (rhetorical) 2-by-4.”

WHO’S SENATOR BIDEN

This information is from the Wikipedia:

Biden was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the son of Joseph Robinette Biden, Sr. (Baltimore, Maryland, November 13, 1915 – Wilmington, Delaware, September 2, 2002), and wife (m. 1941) Catherine Eugenia “Jean” Finnegan (Scranton, Pennsylvania, ca. June, 1918 –).[2][3] He was the first of four siblings[3] and is of English heritage on his father’s side and Irish heritage on his mother’s side. He has two brothers, James Brian Biden and Francis W. Biden, and a sister, Valerie (Biden) Owens.[4] The Biden family moved to Claymont, Delaware, when Biden was 10 years old,[3] and he grew up in suburban New Castle County, Delaware, where his father was a car salesman. In 1961, Biden graduated from Archmere Academy in Claymont, Delaware[3] and, in 1965, from the University of Delaware in Newark,[5] where he double majored in history and political science.[3] He went on to receive his Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Syracuse University College of Law in 1968, and was admitted to the Delaware Bar in 1969.[5][6]
In 1966, while in law school, Biden married Neilia Hunter. They had three children, Joseph R. “Beau” Biden III, Robert Hunter, and Naomi Christina. His wife and infant daughter died in a car accident shortly after he was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972. His two young sons, Beau and Hunter, were seriously injured in the accident, but both eventually made full recoveries. Biden was sworn into office from their bedside. Persuaded not to resign in order to care for them, Biden began the practice of commuting an hour and a half each day on the train from his home in the Wilmington suburbs to Washington, DC, which he continues to do.
In 1977, Biden married Jill Tracy Jacobs. They have one daughter, Ashley, and are members of the Roman Catholic Church. In February 1988, after suffering from neck pains, Biden was hospitalized and underwent lifesaving surgery to correct two brain aneurysms, one of which began leaking.[7] The hospitalization and recovery kept him from the Senate for seven months.
Biden’s elder son, Beau, was a partner in the Wilmington law firm of Bifferato, Gentilotti, Biden & Balick, LLC and was elected Attorney General of Delaware in 2006. He is a captain in the Delaware Army National Guard, where he serves in the Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps. He is set to be deployed to Iraq in October, 2008.[8] Biden’s younger son, Hunter, works as a lawyer in Washington, D.C., serves on the board of directors of Amtrak, and previously worked in the Commerce Department.
Hunter Biden was also briefly the president of a hedge fund group. That enterprise ended badly, in mutual recriminations between the Bidens and a business partner, and lawsuits in New York State.
Since 1991, Biden has also served as an adjunct professor at the Widener University School of Law. He teaches a seminar on constitutional law.
In 2002, Biden became a member of the exclusive Washington, D.C. Alfalfa Club. Biden has attended the World Economic Forum in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2007. He sits on the board of advisors of the Close Up Foundation and is a part of the NATO Observer Group in the U.S. Senate.

There’s praise for Biden’s pick by the general public.  According to Zogby polls, 43% approved of Obama’s decision, 22% disapprove, 26% said it made no difference and 9% were undecided.

THE CONVENTION

As I already pointed out, the Convention begins today Monday, August 25, at 3pm Central time, but 5pm Eastern time.  Obama’s wife, Michelle, will headline the speeches - she will be the first to speak, and will be joined by their two daughters, Malia and Sasha, her mother Marian Robinson, and her brother Craig Robinson, who is to introduce her.

Other speakers include Rep. Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the house of reps, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill.  There will also be a tribute to Senator Kennedy, whose endorsement of Obama in January was great news for the Obama camp.