BOND Action Blog

OCCUPY WALL STREET AND MLK? NO WAY!

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0600

Occupy Wall Street and Occupy The Dream seek to co-opt Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s message.

A coalition of left-wing black clergy joined forces with the Occupy Wall Street movement for a series of protests labeled “Occupy The Dream.” On Monday, the group organized what they call a “National Day of Action” on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday to “focus attention on the gross injustice visited upon the 99% by the financial elite.” Occupy The Dream protests were held in Washington D.C., New York, Boston, Chicago, and Los Angeles.

The whole thing sounded so absurd to me that I invited one of the main organizers of Occupy The Dream, Pastor Jamal Bryant of Baltimore’s 10,000-member Empowerment Temple AME Church on my radio show to find out more. The pastor appeared on my show and tried to make the case that Occupy Wall Street movement was an extension of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream.

For decades, Democrat Party operatives, with the aide of the Congressional Black Caucus, Jesse Jackson, the NAACP, Al Sharpton and labor union leaders have attempted to co-opt Dr. King’s message for political gain. Occupy The Dream is just the latest attempt to pervert King’s message and further divide this nation along class and racial lines to shore up the Democrat’s base.

In addition to Jamal Bryant, other organizers of Occupy The Dream include former NAACP chief and Million Man March national director, Dr. Benjamin Chavis, and rap mogul Russell Simmons (all the organizers are dyed-in-the-wool Barack Obama supporters).

A revealing article about the political motivations of Occupy The Dream leaders was posted on the liberal Black Agenda Report blog:

Occupy Wall Street organizer David DeGraw tied the knot with the Dream team at a Washington Press Club conference on December 14, invoking Dr. Martin Luther King’s Poor People’s campaign and the need to “penetrate deeper into the African American community.” Dr. Chavis said, “If Dr. King were alive today, he would be part of Occupy Wall Street,” and Rev. Bryant, pastor of Empowerment Temple AME Church pledged that Occupy The Dream will work “in lock-step” with OWS. The OWS/OTD alliance would begin, they announced, with a multi-city action at Federal Reserve Bank offices on MLK Day, January 16. The very next Sunday, Rev. Bryant was at his pulpit exhorting his congregation to get out the vote for President Obama!

The piece also points out that Ben Chavis is an active Obama booster. In his November 30 syndicated column for black newspapers, titled “Brilliant First Lady Michelle Obama,” Chavis praised the first couple and made a direct appeal to re-elect Obama:

“All of us should be responding by lending a helping hand, giving of our time, energy and money, and to make our own contributions to push forward for more progress to ensure the reelection of President Barack Obama. Let’s determine the future by how we act today.”

Like many black liberals, Rev. Jamal Bryant couldn’t stand up to the questions on my show and ended up running with his tail between his legs (listen to interview below). But before he ran, he told my audience that Occupy The Dream has put forth the following demands:

Absolute funding of Federal Pell Grants (which, unlike loans, do not have to be repaid).
A moratorium on foreclosures and reparations from banks for “predatory lending” practices (free homes with “Obama money”).
Lastly, $100 Billion from Wall Street for job training, “entrepreneurship” and placement (spread the wealth!).

Last Friday my organization BOND Action issued the following statement criticizing the attempt to connect OWS with MLK:

Occupy The Dream is a scam that seeks to rob American taxpayers and exploit Dr. King’s good name to get Obama re-elected. The black ministers taking part in these protests are shameless "problem profiteers" who have nothing in common with Martin Luther King, Jr. and are clueless about the spiritual aspect of King’s struggle for equality…. Occupy The Dream is a political tool of the Democratic Party organized to motivate entitlement-minded blacks to show up to vote for Obama. Read More

With these radical black liberals hijacking Dr. King’s good name, it’s just a matter of time before future generations will no longer recognize that MLK’s cause was a righteous one. Dr. King wanted black Americans to be free in order that they may work to take care of their families and take full advantage of Life…Liberty…. and the Pursuit of Happiness.

At no time did Dr. King preach class warfare. He never made demands for free housing for people who bought homes that they could not afford; nor did he ask for reparations for deadbeat minorities. These demands are those of an angry godless bunch who are trying to twist MLK’s message. We the people need to repudiate these false leaders and their attempts to rewrite history—so that future generations will not lose sight of these important truths.

Black Caucus Members Attack Tea Party, Again!

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) was recently interviewed on MSNBC after President Obama’s speech on his $447 Billion jobs plan and was asked how much the president was listening directly to the Congressional Black Caucus. Waters responded:

“We can see our handprint all over this proposal. We’re pleased about it and wish it had been even bigger, but it’s substantial and it targets the communities in need….”

The CBC’s entitlement-laced jobs plan was on full display at their shameless political pep-rally, which masqueraded as a townhall for jobs, on August 30^th in Los Angeles. Black lawmakers demanded government programs, attacked the tea party, and lavished one another with compliments in front of an audience of more than 700 people.

The South Central L.A. Tea Party attended the forum and we were able to get some revealing video footage of these lawmakers in action.

Maxine Waters got the crowd worked up and encouraged them to organize and march against the tea party. She also called for money for a “national housing trust fund” and threatened to tax the “gangsters on Wall Street” out of business. She went on to say:

“…We have been fighting to get the banks and financial institutions to do loan modifications….They didn’t want bankruptcy, they don’t want to reduce the principle, it’s time for the bully pulpit of the White House to bring the gangsters in, put them around the table and let them know that if they don’t come up with loan modifications to keep people in their homes…we’re going to tax them out of business! [Loud audience applause] We need money….One of the things that we’re going for is a national housing trust fund to build more housing and rental units….”

Keep in mind that Waters is currently under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for allegations that she improperly tried to obtain a federal bailout for a bank where her husband owns stock. Waters has denied any wrongdoing.

It’s also been well documented that Waters’ allies in the Democratic Party helped cripple the U.S. economy by pushing lenders to give home loans to low-income minorities who couldn’t afford them.

The “For the People” jobs townhall had little to do with real job creation ideas. The forum was mostly about ways the Congressional Black Caucus could get money from American tax payers and how they needed Obama’s help to make sure they got “targeted” programs and money for them to distribute to “communities in need.”

Rev. Jesse Jackson called for a “Hurricane Irene bill” to fix black unemployment and accused tea party Republicans of wanting to put blacks back into slavery. He said:

“…. This is the state right group [which] intends to take back the government and then take it backwards. Are you with the union or the state righters? They [Republicans] had the debate in Iowa and all of them are for the 10^th amendment…that’s the slave amendment, they want to undermine the 13^th, 14, and 15^th amendment.”

Maxine Waters was asked why a small group like the tea party has so much power. She said:

“They came to D.C., took over the Hill, spat at our members, knocked on doors. They were loud…boisterous…threatening….” She also told the crowd, “You better get up and join with us and put the numbers together and show up. Are you ready to do some organizing? [Crowd screams “Yeah!”….] Is the tea party stronger than you are? I don’t think so!”

Notice how Waters is still repeating the lie that tea party people spat on CBC members event though Andrew Breitbart offered a $100,000 reward if anyone produced evidence that such an event occurred. We’re still waiting for the CBC to produce their proof!

Then the demure and gentle Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas told the audience that the country is “not broke.”

“I’ve introduced legislation that says that if you’re unemployed and getting training, give you a stipend, so while you’re training pay you. We are not broke!”

Then came Rep. Al Green (D-TX) who told the crowd that the tea party and conservative Republican’s have a secret “agenda” to hurt children and seniors.

“There’s an agenda that would eliminate the Department of Education, they have put it in writing. It would eliminate early child development; they will do away with hate crime laws…. They have said that they will privatize social security, voucherize Medicare and minimize Medicaid, but we won’t let them.”

The political pep rally was also an opportunity for shameless self-aggrandizement and ego stroking for these useless black politicians and poverty pimps. Here’s a sample of what they said:

You just got an inside look at the people who helped author Obama’s fraud of a jobs plan. These people are out of control and they’re hell bent on bankrupting this nation with their endless entitlement programs. Now they have an ally in the White House who’s marching lock step with them.

Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson is the head of The South Central L.A. Tea Party. He’s also the Founder and President of two-dynamic nonprofit organizations (BOND, the Brotherhood Organization of A New Destiny and BOND Action). He’s the host of “The Jesse Lee Peterson Radio Show”, a national talk show which airs M-F, 6-9 a.m. PT / 9 a.m.-12 Noon ET. For more information visit www.bondaction.org