CSPAN2 - Black Caucus swearing in ceremony...LIVE

[Viva_La_Revolution]

In the audience - Rev. Jesse Jackson... can you imagine the conversations going on in that room!! Oh, to be a fly!

edited for clarity

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Stephanie]

3. Whities?

wow

[Viva_La_Revolution]

4. Bah! take those comments elsewhere

[OrangeCountyDemocrat]

7. No Offense Intended

I'm just speaking from the perspective of the african-american members of congress. Face it, the caucasians in the senate are showing their true colors. They apparently don't even respect the black vote when it counts in their own house.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

11. Look at the audience....

and didn't they recognize a white repub. senator in the audience? Listening from the other room at the time... Jest member, we play nice in here...:thumbsup:

[genieroze]

12. the Caucasians in the senate are showing their true colors. lol

or lack thereof
True colors = white = surrender.
No wait, their color is yellow like the stripe going down their backs.
repukes maybe chickenhawks but who are the chickens? Demochickens.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

2. whooho! Conyers gets props!

[Darknyte7]

5. Is Barack visable?

I'm at work, so i can't look in...

[Viva_La_Revolution]

9. he just got a standing ovation!

only blk senator...

[cyberpj]

6. Pelosi welcoming speech now -

[cyberpj]

8. After this they'll repeat show of Bush welcome new Cong members

If you can stand to watch...um...interesting speech - even more interesting looks from the audience - and they did focus cameras on Obama standing at the back now and then.

[peacetalksforall]

10. The only guts in the Dem Party come from the Black Caucus and

the loyal Anglos who stand right up next to them and contribute on their Tuesday evening talks. Plus a few Senators.

Every time I talk about guts and loyalty I miss Paul Wellstone. I mean loyalty as in loyalty to the people.

[selmo7]

13. I'm crying hearing this beautiful song!

[cyberpj]

14. Gorgeous. And full of promise. Let's hope they feel that way

after they're in D.C. for a while. Maybe they can stand together and make a difference before the rich white men take control of them.

[cyberpj]

15. Rep Elijah Cummings - outgoing chairman speaking

D-Maryland, outgoing chairman - Rep Elijah Cummings

We hope that you are proud of us - and what we have done and tried to do.

When we stood and opposed Iraq war - and even when they said we were not patriotic, we stood...we stood... And now they see how right we were (smaller applause there).

We will continue to stand, even if no one else stands... we will stand... we will stand.

You may not win, but you will set the trend.

Where do you go from here and what path do you take.

Thanks, etc......
and so we turn to a new chapter, and we are fortunate to have a great leader as our new chairman. Not just that he's Phi Beta Kappa, Yale Grad, Constitutional scholar, married to wonderful woman named Uleta Watt (she takes a bow) -- not just that he understands and is willing to speak to power - but that he understands every person has a contribution to make and is respected by each and ever one of us......

From the great state of NC, congressman Mel Watt

Now passing the gavel

[cyberpj]

16. Rep Mel Watt takes over and speaks

I'll try to type main points quickly and accurately -

Rep Mel Watt, D-North Carolina, Congressional Black Caucus, Incoming Chairman

Thanks, thanks, and more thanks.......

[EFerrari]

17. (This is the man that also had to agree with Mr. Conyers for the

contest to go forward.)

[cyberpj]

19. Rep Mel Watt still speaking

And still thanking...

Introduces new members to applause.

Praises outgoing Elijah Cummings and Caucus applauds him.

Acknowledges his "Mamma", his wife, and his extended family members and has the entire number of family members stand for applause.

Says he can't do justice to Chisholm and Matsui here so it will be done rightly later.

Reviews the process to get him there and makes a few jokes and gives praise to all past chairpersons. The man is a very comfortable public speaker.

Quotes advice he gave his youngest son, Jason, who was experiencing a crisis of confidence -- deciding to take his own advice now, "inorder to understand anything and deal with it you've got to deal with it in relation to your own life experiences."

What has defined me as a black American and what I hope you will accept as preparation for this chairmanship for the next 2 years.

Has there ever been a CBC chairman who:
Was born and spent young years in a house with no electricity and no running water or indoor plumbing. Praises poor mother who never let them think there was anything they couldn't do. Lived directly across from Presbyterian church. Spent 12 years in segregated schools. Drove a school bush past 3 white schools to get to the black school. Raised in an area called "Dixie" - heard it almost daily at college - and actually feels sentimental today when hearing it. Studied constitutional law under Robert Bork! Learning about freedom of speech by being sent to represent those attacking black people.

Ok fans, didn't know it would go this long - I've got to get reay to go to work. But watch CSPAN if you want - they will probably repeat this.

Peace.
Out.

PJ

[Peace Patriot]

18. The once great Democratic Party, which wrote and passed the...

...Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and, at great political cost, told southern bigots that they must end desegregation; the party that created the "big tent," the Party in which we are ALL welcome, ALL Americans, MUST STAND UP FOR BLACK VOTERS AND FOR ALL VOTERS!

It MUST!

We WANT this Party to help us oust this illegitimate, criminal government, end their terrible war, and bring America back to sanity! But the very least that it must do is to support its most loyal voters, who fought so hard, through so much grief and sorrow, for the right to vote.

It MUST do this!

And if they instead choose surrender--even after Bruce Springsteen sang "No Surrender" at Kerry campaign rallies, and even after their promises to "count every vote," and their solicitation of funds to insure the count, and even after 2000, and even after that surrender scene in "F 9/11," and even after their surrender to Wally O'Dell and H. Ahmanson and secret source code and paperless voting, and even after the greatest get-out-vote-campaign ever mounted, by grass roots volunteers, and even after we raised half of Kerry's campaign chest in small donations on the Internet, and nearly matched the BushCons, and even after our astonishing victory followed by the networks alteration of the Exit Polls that showed a Kerry win, so that no one knew, and even with weird and impossible Bush numbers all over the election landscape, --if they choose to surrender NOW, after all this, they will prove themselves, finally, to be unworthy of our support, and lacking in even the most basic principles of loyalty and fairness, let alone belief in democracy.

I will feel positive about Jan. 6 no matter what happens! John Conyers' investigations and his announcement of a challenge have been so courageous and brilliant, as has been the work of so many others, outfront, in the trenches and behind the scenes, that we are already on the path to recovering our democracy. Still, this only one step, and we have a long, difficult struggle ahead of us. Jan. 6 will tell us who we can count on, of our elected representatives--who still believes in democracy, and who does not.

A telling moment. An important moment. Whatever happens, onward!