Ohio Gov. John Kasich Sees Nothing Wrong With All-White Cabinet

John Kasich

Occasionally there are some news stories that just leave you open-mouthed with wonder. And that is how I felt when I heard the news that Ohio Gov. John Kasich recently named an all-white cabinet. This is the first time this has happened in more than 40 years.

It is not surprising that a Republican would be so blind about the issue of race, that he saw nothing wrong with an all-white cabinet in a state that has a 15 percent minority population.

When quizzed about his curious decision, Kasich fell back on a response often heard from white people when pressed about their monocultural office environments. He said that he wanted to get hire, “the best people.”

So is the governor saying that he couldn’t find any qualified Black, Latino or Asians candidates for these cabinet-level positions? Is he implying that people of color are not qualified?

Sadly Kasich doesn’t seem to understand how having an all-white executive team hurts his state. Apart offerning Ohioan minorities, he is also driving business away from his state. Can you imagine, how businessmen from ethnically-diverse states feel when they are courted by all-white Ohio delegations? I know that if I was a businessman who was considering moving to Ohio, I would be concerned about the lack of diversity at the top.

Kasich’s argument for the lack of diversity in his cabinet is full of holes and one of the glaring emissions is former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, a black Republican who has held a high-level position. Apart from the weak argument about hiring the most qualified person, Kasich’s decision also shows either glaring ignorance or stunning indifference. Governments are supposed to be representative of the people they serve, and that means hiring people who resemble the make up of your state.

I can just imagine the media outrage that would occur if a black politician named an all-black team of executives. Hate mongers like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck would be besides themselves, screaming that the blacks, were trying to take over the government, and turn marginalize white people. (Where is anti-racism activist Tim Wise when you need him?)

Sadly, Kasich’s actions mirrors Corporate America. Many blacks have run into the same glass ceiling and the same lame excuses. And like Kasich, many managers see nothing wrong with having all-white offices. In many cases, blacks only get hired when these companies are faced with legal action. I once worked for a state agency, that hired it’s first black employee in 1990, after they were threatened with legal action by the NAACP. Apparently for more than 30 years after the Civil Rights Act, they had operated without hiring any black employees and thought nothing of it.

And things are not better in supposedly liberal academia. CNN commentator Dr. Boyce Watkins has written about how Syracuse University’s Whitman School of Management has never offered a black professor tenure in 100 years! I find it hard to believe that in all its years of its existence the Whitman School of Management has never came across one black candidate who they thought was worthy of tenure! Just as I find it hard to believe that Kasich couldn't find one person of color to appoint to his cabinet.

Kasich’s comments mirror the actions of Republicans who simply refuse to deal with issues of race and diversity. It seems that many Republicans consider race problems to be about as real as a unicorn. They seem happy to hide behind the “most qualified candidate” lie, even if it produces a lily-white environment. And that’s what it is -- a lie. I have worked in Corporate America long enough to realize that best candidate doesn’t always get hired.

I have seen many “qualified” candidates get hired and flame out three months later. I have also seen white men hired, who were later fired for sexual harassment (one guy I knew e-mailed photos of his nipple piercings and tattoos to female employees.) I have also heard of white men who were fired for downloading kiddie porn and many other acts of staggering incompetence. At the same time I have known many talented people of color who can never get their foot in the door. And when they are hired, they are expected to be near perfect and are crucified if they make one mistake.

So please Gov. Kasich, don’t give me that BS about hiring the most qualified candidates. There are thousands of qualified minority candidates, you just hired an all-white cabinet, because you like it that way. And that’s scary.

Corporate Cynicism, Personality Clashes End Olbermann’s MSNBC Career

Keith Olbermann

People familiar with the workings of Corporate America should not be surprised by the sudden departure of MSNBC star Keith Olbermann.

Olbermann's focus on liberal issues, and passionate denunciation of the Bush administration and its disastrous Iraq war, turned him into star and raised the network’s profile. MSNBC carved out a reputation as place where progressives could go to hear opinions that echoed their views and even beat CNN in the ratings. Buoyed by the success of Olbermann’s “Countdown,” the network later added similar voices such as Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O’Donnell and Ed Shultz.

But cracks were beginning to appear in the Olbermann-MSNBC union. Olbermann himself is a prickly character, who had a history of clashing with networks chiefs and being fired from other cable channels. Things came to a head last year when he was suspended for making donations to Democratic politicians.

The suspension was odd, because the NBC’s policy was not clear. Olbermann said he was not aware of the ban on political donations, and other MSNBC hosts such as Joe Scarborough were only punished after Olbermann, even though they had done the same thing. But this foreshadowed things to come. Just like other corporations, MSNBC decided that they did not want to fire their problematic star, so they would just make life so difficult for him that he would not want to stay.

I am sure that MSNBC’s recent purchase by COMCAST had something to do with the hostility directed at Olbermann. COMCAST chairman Ed Snider also owns the Right Network which is trying to create another channel dedicated to conservative programming. The last thing he wanted was an employee, who had a reputation from mocking conservative icons like Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly.

MSNBC was always an oddity. It recently billed itself as a home for liberal voices, but it was still owned by corporate titan, GE, the same company that owns major defense contractors. This was the same station that fired Phil Donohue, also it’s top-rated star at the time, for his criticism of the Iraq War, back when they were trying to be conservative.

And although MSNBC promoted liberal talkers like Maddow and Olbermann, you had to believe that they didn’t want them to be too critical of right-wing politics. The network probably decided that Olbermann was too much of a wild card and decided to offload him before the new management started sending them angry memos. So much for progressive commentary on TV.

But, I am not worried, I get most of my information from the Internet, and I am sure Olbermann will turn up on another outlet. He has a following, who will stay with him, if he has a radio show, newspaper column, TV program or Internet production. The firing of Keith Olbermann shows me that there is little room for independent thought on network TV. And as for Maddow and co., I would suggest they start dusting off their resumes. Olbermann was first, but your next on the chopping block.

Political Violence Confirms We’re Living in Third World America

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords

Jan. 8., that was the day when Americans realized how screwed up their country really is. Left-wing journalist Arianna Huffington has been recently hawking her book called “Third World America,” and how can you argue with her? A Third World country is characterized by massive debt, (check), corrupt and broken elections (check), and a powerful ruling class (check.) And now we can add to that list political violence as seen in the Tuscon, Ariz. shooting that left six people dead and moderate Democrat Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in critical condition.

Of course, this is shocking but not surprising. In fact it was inevitable. For the past year I have been playing Cassandra and warning that the hatred coming from the right wing would eventually push people over the edge. We are in a precarious time in our country, with mass unemployment, home foreclosures, looming debt, foreign wars and a political system that has been strangled by corporate interests. It is easy for working class Americans to feel frustrated and want to lash out at someone.

After the 2008 elections, the right wing, realizing that working class was beginning to get riled up at the corporate class, diverted this anger to the Tea Party, which is funded by corporate interests. In a brilliant piece of bait and switch, the GOP, badly-tarnished by the disastrous Bush years, was re-branded as the Tea Party, which is essentially GOP 2.0 -- same bullshit, but in a different package.

So now, all those Americans who were angry about bailouts and government spending now are now mad at President Barack Obama, even though George W. Bush approved the bank bailout and ran up the budget with tax cuts to the rich and two unfunded wars. That would have been bad enough, but this rage wasn’t mere political annoyance, it was white-hot rage that had all the possibility of turning into violence. And the end product was politically-motivated terrorism that saw overweight seniors on Medicare screaming about how they wanted to keep government out of health care. During the 2009 health care debate, several Democratic legislators were targeted by violence, including having shots fired at their offices, having their offices targeted by racist graffiti and having gas lines cut at their homes.

Violence has been encouraged with demagogues like Sarah Palin calling for her followers to “reload” and putting Democrats, including Giffords, in cross hairs. Tea Party darling Sen. Sharron Angle suggested people take “second amendment remedies,” if the ballot didn’t work, and Rep. Michelle Bachmann, who is rapidly gaining a reputation as the nuttiest person in Congress, said she wanted her followers “armed and dangerous” about Barack Obama.

And of course there is the 24-hour stream of vitriol and disinformation coming from the right-wing media. FOX News regularly features commentators who accuse the president of being the anti Christ and warn of his government’s administrations attempts to destroy America. And FOX star commentator Glenn Beck has shot to prominence selling his brand of apocalyptic nonsense to people who fear that a black, moderate Democrat will destroy America as they know it.

Beck is the worst culprit and his acolytes have a considerable history of violence. In August 2009, Nancy Genovese was arrested outside an Air Force base along with a pair of binoculars, an assault rifle, shotgun and several rounds of ammunition. A year later Byron Williams, an unemployed carpenter and Beck fan, was arrested by the California Highway Partrol, while wearing body armor and carrying several guns. Williams was on his way to start a revolution by attacking the Tides Foundation, a little know left-wing non profit that was a regular target of Beck’s ire. After his arrest, Williams’ mother said her son was a regularly viewer of FOX News and Glenn Beck in particular.

What has been going on over the past 20 years is an increasing stream of eliminationist rhetoric directed at the left. According to David Neiwert, author of “The Eliminationists: How Hate Talk Radicalized the American Right,” "Eliminationism is a politics and a culture that shuns dialogue and the democratic exchange of ideas in favor of the pursuit of outright elimination of the opposing side, either through suppression, exile, and ejection, or extermination."

This attitude was largely inspired by Rush Limbaugh, who did his best to turn liberal into a curse word, and carried on by harpy Ann Coulter, who has called for liberals to be executed and said The New York Times’ building needed to be blown up. Beck merely put the icing on the fruit cake.

Democrats have long warned of this. Former speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was ridiculed when she warned that right-wing rhetoric would lead to ‘60s style violence . Speaking to the Huffington Post, Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., who received death threats and racist literature for his stance against Arizona’s immigration laws said, “The climate has gotten so toxic in our political discourse, setting up for this kind of reaction for too long. It's unfortunate to say that. I hate to say that. If you're an opponent, you're a deadly enemy."

In April 2009, the Department of Homeland Security release a much-maligned report, warning of the danger of right-wing terrorism. Turns out they were all to right. We have seen the enemy -- and the enemy is us.