quote:

---

Rev. Al Sharpton and President Barack Obama have a thing going on - and I predict it will turn out badly for both of them.

Sharpton has assumed the role of Obama's political muscle among what passes for Black leadership. His job is to bully into submission those Blacks that dare to even suggest that African Americans need to agitate for their own interests, to speak Truth to Power, even when that Power is represented by a Black man in the White House. In his capacity as the president's junkyard dog, Sharpton verbally savages even the mildest critics of an administration that has greatly expanded U.S. wars while overseeing the biggest transfer in history of public wealth to private pockets. Sharpton bit into Tavis Smiley when the talk-show entrepreneur proposed that Black America formulate its own political agenda, separate from Obama's policies, which have seen Black unemployment, evictions and foreclosures reach Depression-era levels. Sharpton snarled that folks like Smiley were trying to hold Obama to a "double-standard," demanding more from a Black president than they would from a white Democrat - which is absolute nonsense, since so-called Black leadership has made virtually no demands on Obama since he announced his candidacy three years ago.

Sharpton joined in a salt-and-pepper White House-sponsored tour with right wing rabble rouser and former Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. Gingrich and Sharpton teamed up to shill for Obama's corporate-inspired attempt to massively transform public schools into non-union, charter schools.
....
Sharpton's sleazy dealings are legendary in Black activist circles, but he has only once been deeply scrutinized by the media. That was in 2004, when the New York Village Voice revealed that Sharpton's presidential campaign was largely financed by Republican dirty-trickster Roger Stone. Now that Sharpton has truly hit the big time, the media spotlights will surely burn him to a crisp. Al Sharpton's financial dealings cannot stand serious scrutiny. His service to Power is going to cost him dearly - and  President Obama will find himself covered with the slime, as well.

--Glen Ford http://blackagendareport.com/?q=content/al-sharpton-obamas-junkyard-dog

---