Blacks are unemployed because there are too many broken 40 oz. bottles

Barak Obama speaking to 1199SEIU union staffers and excutive council members had a question posed to him by Kym Platt of askthisblackwoman.com asked the junior senator from Illinois "the African-American community suffer from a large unemployment problem, especially here in New York, what would your adminstration do to solve this problem?"

Barack Obama's response was to state

"that our government has failed them but also there seems to be too many broken 40 oz bottles in the streets."

Sen. Obama pivoted off the racial faux pas by pointing out that in Iowa the problem of unemployment leads to hopelessness as well and that they also turn to drinking. When he finally got around to answering the question he returned to an earlier answer about energy conservation and environmental concerns that would lead to "many new jobs for our young men and women." Obama, in my opinion, did not adequately dodge the racial issue that was couched in the question, nor did he answer the question in anything close to a straight forward manner.

Putting Students First - March 19, 2007 - The New York Sun

Putting Students First - March 19, 2007 - The New York Sun

So after being endorsed by 1199 just about a year ago, Spitzer is willing and able to leave the union and its members out to dry. You think that SEIU 1199 would have been so eager to push Spizter had they known that they would have made out to be the enemy in Spitzer's very first budget.

What of the rest of organized labor's bretheren? No other union is even attempting to put the squeeze on Spitzer or other state elected officials. This New York Sun article spells it out succinctly that next year the teachers union will be on the chopping block as Spitzer builds his street cred for being brass-balled-take-no-prisoner-tough. Spitzer for all his ivy league bravado fails see that weakening the bulwarks of the progressive establishment in New York State, weakens his own base.

To paraphrase Martin Niemöller
When Spitzer came for the Healthcare workers,I remained silent;I was not a I did not work in hospital. When Spitzer locked out the teachers, I remained silent; I was not a teacher.When Spitzer came for me,there was no one left to speak out.