I listened to all of Tavis Smiley’s initial morning show commentary, and it seemed disjointed and amorphous. It featured a strained metaphor of a choir rehearsal — although oddly including Farrakhan.

So, I could see how the show could cause a lot of trouble, given Smiley basically called out a lot of people that listeners would immediately recognize e.g. Ben Jealous, Al Sharpton and others; yet, Smiley did not do a good job of attributing direct quotable positions to those names. Worse, from the stand point of those mentioned, Smiley sort of placed them in a very awkward position of seeming to be against Smiley’s unspecified “Black Agenda.”

From the start there were several strikes against the Smiley characterization of “black leaders,” no clear “black agenda,” no specific quotes about people mentioned by name, and no real context of their leadership. Smiley just sort of went through a awkward statement casting himself on the side of Black America and basically “Al Sharpton, Ben Jealous, Charles Ogletree, Valerie Jarrett, Marc Morial, Dr. Dorothy Height” as some sort of villains — but “love-ing-ly.” ROTFLOL

Further, Smiley definitely characterizes the question “Is there a need for a black agenda,” without following up on specific outline of that black agenda on the air, while promoting the resolution of his issues against Al Sharpton and others to be decided at Smiley’s own venue.

Tavis Smiley basically said, “I’m on your side” while these guys — with all do respect “don’t care about black people” (In my Kayne voice–appropriate since the proposed site is in Chi-town).

Quotes from the Tavis Smiley Talks after the jump
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I’ve come up with more Al Sharpton Versus Tavis Smiley via YourBlackWorld.com

I’m rating this as a MUST LISTEN!

More from Dr. Boyce Watkins @ YourBlackWorld.com

Nytimes Article that Sharpton discusses with Tavis Smiley is linked here:
Obama’s Approach on Race (Feb. 9)

Key Quote Smiley discusses is here:

The conventional wisdom about Mr. Obama is that he tries to duck the issue of race, but close advisers say he is acutely aware of his role as the first African-American president and is trying to heighten racial sensitivity in constructive ways.

Many black leaders view this as wise. The Rev. Al Sharpton, who is working with Mr. Obama to close the achievement gap in education, says the president is smart not to ballyhoo “a black agenda.”

Instead, Mr. Obama has been trying to shine a spotlight on the history that laid the foundation for his presidency, with events like Wednesday’s concert and the celebration of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, which offer a peek into his style.

More bits after the jump…

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Congressman James Clyburn admonishes Steve King (IA-5) for saying the Austin Plane terrorism was a noble act. I’ve detailed my thoughts on the Austin event here.

Interestingly enough Vernon Hunter, the man killed in the terrorist act, was a two-tour Vietnam Veteran.

Update I To finish the thoughts on Vernon Hunter, generally politicians from both sides are quick to praise military service members sacrifice. In this instance, the plight of Vernon Hunter and his family, a federal worker doing his job has been largely ignored by both the media and both Republicans and until recently Democrats. I seriously doubt Vernon Hunter’s family will receive millions of dollars like the victims of other terrorist attacks have received.

According to celebrity web site TMZ.com (Three Mile Zone), Fantasia Barrino received an incredibly hate-filled letter containing a substantial number of racial epithets and directed Barrino to “go back where you came from and die.”

Read more at TMZ.com

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The NYtimes “The Caucus” blog catches an interesting speaker at CPAC…

How can conservatives win the youth vote that overwhelmingly went for Barack Obama in 2008? At the Conservative Political Action Conference, apparently, some are betting on using racial stereotypes.

In a panel appealing to conservatives under 30, Jason Mattera, author of a forthcoming book called “Obama Zombies: How the Liberal Machine Brainwashed My Generation,” likened the gathering to “our Woodstock.”

NYtimes the Caucus

It’s interesting CPAC still chooses to go after people in such stark racial terms and all the while talk about freedom and liberty. While I don’t think this speaker is representative of CPAC, you wonder how comforting these sorts of images are to non-Evangelical candidates like Romney.