Clinton supporter calls Obama an 'inadequate black male' at DNC rules meeting

Comments

[rob]

This woman is an idiot! Thank God she is voting for McOldman.

[Jay]

Shameful!

They want to be treated equally as women.

What happened to everyone being treated equally?

If you don't agree with Obama on merit that’s one thing. Why does he have to be an "inadequate BLACK male"? Why can't he be just an "inadequate male"?

This goes to show that the feminist movement has nothing to do with ALL women being treated equally. Just all WHITE WOMEN being treated equally.

You wanna know what being a second class citizen feels like?

Take a walk in my shoes as an AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMAN and then we can talk.

[simplycharming47 from Oklahoma City]

Once this Idiot comes down from all the METH ingested prior to attending todays meeting, she's going to be sooooooooooooo EMBARRASSED..I think!

Go Obama Go!!
simplycharming47

[april]

LOL, simplycharming47--i agree! girlfriend was tweaking HARD!!!!!! LOL!!!!

OBAMA '08-'16!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[candygirl]

Right on Jay !!!!

She knows absolutely nothing about being a second class citizen. She should try being apart of the double negative group (African American and female). I don't understand these Hillary supporters. Obama has said absolutely nothing about any of them but they are mad at him. I would understand if they were mad at Jeremiah Wright or Flegler but all of their anger is focused on Obama, and Obama has been the perfect gentleman to Hillary.

Another thing that I can't understand is HILLARY HAS BEEN IN THE WHITE HOUSE BEFORE. WHY IS IT ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY THAT SHE GOES BACK??? What is up with that? Maybe it's time for someone else. Has she ever thought about that?

Hillary is an inadequate candidate and that's why she lost.

[Heather Johnston]

If we are really about unity, and as Obama supporters we should be, then we have to incorporate the feelings of an older white woman who feels that Obama, with all his talent, would have waited had a candidate with Hillary's pull had been male. It was savvy of Obama;, 46 with 3 years on the senate, with Tom Daschle et al backing him to support a run against Hillary, she had an inherent weakness, her gender, as he did, his race. That is the salient take away of this video. All the rest is noise we've heard before. Obama is not inadequate, such comments are not worthy of your attention, Roland, it is way too defensive. He's fierce. Hillary Clinton got more votes than any other Democratic candidate (I think in History) save one, Barack Obama. You are fighting a battle that is already won.

We are about to have a Black Man as president of the United States. The world as we know it has already changed.

[Jiv]

Notice that the woman on the video is as old as Hillary and Ferraro. They are old and racists and feel as if they are entitled to lord it over the black man. They believe that they have more rights than black people and should be given more entitlements than blacks. This is why you see a lot of them in the US Congress, as governors all over the US, as City Council people in many cities in America. In many cities, where blacks constitute 30% to 50% of the entire population, the city jobs are occupied by 80% of white women like Ferraro and this moron on this video. This is why they feel as they do: we are second to them because they are white, even if they are as dumb as Hillary.

Hillary spent funds like an animal, yet she is their best candidate. She could not manage her campaign people well, yet she is the best to manage America. You see, there is really anything anybody can do about this group of racists. You just have to ignore them and move on with smart white women, young and old.

[Adedibru]

It is a fact that some people are beyond redemption. You simply have to leave them behind and concentrate on other segments of the population, on more progressive segments who are redeemable.

In fact, Obama should come out, hold a news conference and say, "If you are a racist, I do not need your vote; vote for McCain"

This will inform the racist white women like Ferraro and the lady on the clip that nobody cares about their antics. If everybody is like them, this nation will be divided down to every category and there will not be peace and order in any community in this nation.

I am Adedibu and I approved this rant!
========================================

Hillary's Supporters at the Meeting are a Disgrace (Updated)
by Delaware Dem
Sat May 31, 2008 at 04:01:31 PM PDT

The Clinton campaign and all of her supporters everywhere must be embarrassed and humiliated by the rudeness of her supporters present in the meeting room.

These rude and disgraceful supporters do their candidate no service, indeed, they do her a disservice. If anecdotal reports from the meeting and the protest outside are to be believed, then these supporters are expressing their intention to embrace the Bush Administration and all of their failures and crimes by refusing to support our Party's nominee. If the same anecdotal reports are to be believed, many of the Clinton supporters present are passing out scurrilous flyers telling horrible right wing lies about our nominee, Barack Obama. These flyers are calling him an adulterer and a murderer.

It is inconceivable to me how these Clinton supporters could do such a thing given the fact that the same right wing they now embrace spread the same lies and smears about Bill Clinton during the 1990's. Indeed, the right wing called Bill Clinton a murderer back then. And now the same Clinton supporters are accepting the same lies about Barack Obama.

At the same time, these same supporters pounce on any perceived slight from any minor Obama supporter and demand immediate reparations.

And that is a disgrace and it is hypocritical.

If Hillary's supporters have at any time demanded repudiation and denunciation on the part of the Obama campaign and his supporters, then they now must denounce and repudiate their own supporters who have engaged in the most disgraceful actions today.

And they must do it now.

And if they do not, they are entitled to no consideration by anyone anywhere ever again. If Hillary Clinton does not condemn her own supporters who have acted so rudely and immorally today, then she must be entitled to no further consideration, as a potential Vice Presidential candidate, as a Democratic Senator from the great state of New York, and as a Democrat herself.

I am outraged today by the disgraceful actions of those supporters who have spread such horrible lies. They must be ashamed of themselves if they have any principles or morals.

UPDATE For proof of the ancedotal reports I mention in this diary, please visit this report by Sam Stein at the Huffington Post.

COMMENTS:
1) by livosh1 on Sat May 31, 2008 at 04:03:45 PM PDT

No better than their candidate.

I wish we didn't need them in November.
============================

2) by turneresq on Sat May 31, 2008 at 04:23:47 PM PDT

Kudos for Obama for keeping his supporters under control and exercising some class as well.

===================
3)by QueenMaeve on Sat May 31, 2008 at 05:43:09 PM PDT

My Nanny (as we call her), was born and raised in Alabama, and has always been racist. Now, she thinks Obama is the greatest thing since electricity. This is a lady who disowned my brother for dating an African-American woman. Times change, and sometimes the most unexpected people can mellow with age. Nanny's turning 80 in 6 weeks. She's end-stage COPD, on Oxygen 24/7, and has terrible osteoarthritis, but if she could get within reach of McCain or either Clinton, I believe she would go to jail for assault.

=========================
4) by Christin on Sat May 31, 2008 at 05:53:41 PM PDT

so similar to my Mom - about the assault thing. She can't stand either one of them either.

But HRC grates on her like McCain can't.
My mom used to vote R, then Indy - but would never vote for him - and would never for for HRC either.

She said she would just sit it out if BO's not in it.
She also voted for Nader in 2000 and now regrets it.
I tease her all the time - and she gets upset - all the time - and then all the time i remind her our state was safely blue so it's okay.

But don't you love this journey they took?
The progression?

I see good things in younger people.
I see how they are more open minded, don't care about gay marriage or race etc. like the older generation does.

And I have so much hope for the future.
But what really makes me feel so damn good is to see someone come to that point after years n the dark. That is amazing.
They say people never change.

That is true for the most part - so when they do, it's like..hmmm.
Can't think of the word.
I'll just go with beautiful for now.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/5/31/91456/6724/836/525972

[Songbird, SC]

Wasn't she one of Real Housewives of NY? I mean.....really... this lady needs a xanax and a nap.

Attention Clinton Supporters: Get another truckin grip!!!

[Regine]

LOL the devil is a lier...does anyone find it funny that her last name is C-h-r-i-s-t-i-a-n...Christian?!?! Are yo kidding me...and she is on being so nasty? Thanks for this laugh on a beautiful Sunday Morning Roland...

Obama '08

[Pagee]

The she slurs her words sounded like she's drunk....I wonder if Hillary's campaign will denounce this person's behavior...instead I'm sure she will support the individual's "right" to "free" speech.....

I would love to see a woman president, just not this one and the thing her supporters refuse to accept is that Hillary lost the nomination because she ran a horrible campaign....she had no winning strategy....and true to the Clinton's philosophy, they lay blame for all their failures at other people feet.

Obama '08!

[New Yorker]

As McCain't might say of this klans woman, "Shut you fcuking kunt!" lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOl4iT46Eec

Low self-esteem in American women?

Why would female voters run to prop up a man, McCain't, who IN PUBLIC calls his wife a F-ing kunt? lol

Wouldn't females running to misogynist, McCain't, demonstrating a state of low self-esteem?

Wouldn't females running to McCain't be like Hilary remaining with Bill after enduring repeated bouts of public disrespect and PUBLIC HUMILIATIONS with the 'other women'?
\

[Carolyn]

Hillary,Geraldine, Bill and others have pushed this argument. It is not about 4 more years of bush in the whitehouse, economy etc but a woman in the whitehouse and other than that it is about a white man rather than a black man. You have hillary's black supporters saying things too. If blacks see other blacks saying things and they are hillary and bill supporters it is right. Recently, I was on the bus and two blacks were talking about hillary was the person and obama did not know what he was doing, because bill this for us and that for us. A few months ago while watching Tavis Smiley's annual summit, Dick Gregory said he wanted to apologize to bill clinton for black people calling him the first black president. He then asked the audience what is wrong with you all, black who is black. Is asked is he black enough, but bill clinton is white but the first black president. Hillary would not denounce this lady, not if she wants to run for any office.

[Adedibru]

Some black people are more dangerous than some white racists. If you doubt this statement, then go and read about Andrew Young and his friend, Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria from 1998 to 2007.

Both men killed more than 3 million black Africans and helped to destroy Nigeria.

[nic]

Where's the article?

[Jaco]

Adedibru is 100% on the money. I am sure he/she can provide better articles for you, but knowing what we know today about the obnoxious and reverse-racist attitude of Andrew Young against Obama like the racist woman in the video, I can tell you that Andrew Young is capable of anything.

Many articles are on the websites of hrw.org and amnestyusa.org

You can start here:

http://www.hrw.org/doc?t=africa&c=nigeri

http://www.amnestyusa.org/other-countries/nigeria/page.do?id=1011212&n1=3&n2=30&n3=962

=======================================
Andrew Young, bagman for US capitalism in Africa
By Lawrence Porter
30 April 2007

Andrew Young, the former black civil rights leader and confidant of Martin Luther King Jr., has recently come under criticism for his dirty dealings with corrupt African governments, especially for his close relationship with General Olusegan Obasanjo, Nigeria’s former president.

Young has followed the well-worn path from protest to politician to venal corporate bagman. His case is particularly repugnant in that his earlier struggles against segregation and police repression in the American South of the 1960s contrast starkly with his present political alliances with brutal dictators. While operating as a purveyor for American corporations in their plunder of African resources, he has, not incidentally, gotten very rich in the process.

Recently both the New York Times and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution published exposes on Young’s consulting firm, ironically named GoodWorks International (GWI), as a lucrative conduit for facilitating US interests in the “emerging markets” of Africa.

According to the New York Times article, questions about Young and GWI’s relationship with the corrupt outgoing president of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, became a lighting rod for those opposing Obasanjo’s anti-democratic policies during the run-up to the sham elections held last week.

The firm advertises that it “opens doors for corporations interested in doing business in Africa and the Caribbean.” The mayor of Atlanta, Shirley Franklin, who is also a friend of Young, praised GWI for practicing “public-purpose capitalism.”

This view is not shared by those following human rights issues in Africa. “Andrew Young has never been interested in these [humanitarian] issues,” Femi Falana, president of the West African Bar Association, told the Times “He is just here making money.”

Young put it another way, “For 40 years of my life,” he told the Times, “I was on the outside seeking change. I realized that I could be more effective being on the inside implementing it.”

What changes have GWI implemented? As the principal lobbying agent for the government of Nigeria in the US, it is making millions representing major companies like ChevronTexaco, General Electric, and Motorola seeking contracts from the Nigerian government.

The company generally receives a commission equal to 1 ½ percent of a contract’s value. This is a tidy sum when GoodWorks consults on contracts such as General Electric Energy’s agreement to provide $400 million in turbines for Nigeria, as they did last year.

The firm is a major shareholder in a Nigerian energy company, Suntrust Oil, which won a lease for offshore oil fields. According to the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, Nigeria provides as much as 40 percent of GoodWorks revenues, paying $1.75 million to the company since 2000, not including a retainer fee of $60,000 a month.

GWI also specializes in relations with other oil-producing African states, including Sudan and Angola. Moreover, it represents other American companies among the most notorious for their slave-wages and environmental destruction in Africa, including Nike, Coca-Cola and the gold mining concern Barrick Gold, a company connected with the Bush family

The principals at GWI represent a virtual “who’s who” of political and corporate Democrats. According to the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, Young set up GWI in 1997 with the help of Hamilton Jordon, President Carter’s former chief of staff. Foundation directors for GWI include President Bill Clinton, Alexis Herman, the former Secretary of Labor, and Maurice Tempelsman, a diamond merchant and fund raiser in the Democratic Party. Tempelsman has been implicated as an important figure in the DeBeers diamond cartel in Africa, now known as the “blood diamond” business.

Reports indicate that Young’s ties to Africa developed while he was the US ambassador to the UN in the late 70s, meeting Obasanjo, the military-installed president of Nigeria, at the time. “Obasanjo and I kind of hit it off immediately,” Young told the Times. “We were mainly interested in democracy.”

Actually, Obasanjo was a US operative, closely allied to the CIA, who took power in 1976 after his predecessor, Murtala Muhammad, was assassinated under unexplained circumstances. At the time, the US was still reeling from the OPEC oil embargo and was vitally concerned with Nigerian oil interests.

When Obasanjo left power the first time, in 1979, he was appointed to the board of directors of the CIA-run African American Institute, headed by the former US ambassador to Nigeria Donald B. Easum. In the 1980s, Obasanjo was sent on high-profile speaking tours by the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the US Institute for Peace.

Young has defended his relations with Obasanjo, portraying him as the defender of democracy in Nigeria who has broken the past practice of corruption that has been rampant since the country won its independence. Obasanjo has also received the praises of President George W. Bush and Colin Powell as an example of the type of democracy they would like to see in Africa.

A very different picture is drawn in the February 14 issue of the International Herald Tribune, in an article entitled, “Fooling people some of the time,” which reports that Obasanjo has done nothing about corruption in the country with “as much as $600 billion in ill-gotten gains sitting in foreign bank accounts while the rural farmers live on less than one dollar a day.”

The paper accuses Obasanjo of “monopolizing power the day he entered office,” and of keeping “the oil portfolio for himself so that he could use Nigeria’s vast oil wealth for political ends.” As a result, all politicians in the government were “beholden to him for money.”

In an attempt change the constitution so that he could run a third term, he tried to pressure state governors and members of Parliament with bribes as high as $400,000, the Herald Tribune said. “Governors who refused were threatened with impeachment,” as was the case with his former ally and vice president, Atiku Abubakar, who broke with Obasanjo and ran against his hand picked successor for president.

In 2004 Transparency International ranked Nigeria the most corrupt regime in Africa. According to the BBC, out of 145 countries, only Haiti and Bangladesh ranked worse. That year, Obasanjo, despite sitting on the world’s sixth largest reserves of oil, ended government subsidies on oil, sparking a series of strikes and pitched battles in which the police and military murdered protesters. The removal of subsidies was part of an IMF restructuring program that Obasanjo imposed with a vengeance.

“Who benefits from Andy Young’s relationship with the government of Nigeria? It’s not the Nigerian people,” remarked Ken Silverstein, a reporter for Harper’s Magazine. “As I see it, the primary beneficiaries of his work in Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa are those corrupt, authoritarian regimes he works with and his private corporate clients.”

Young has provided his services both to enrich his clients and himself, but also to assist the United States as it joins hands with various blood-soaked dictatorships and strongman in order to secure American strategic interests in the pivotal continent.

Young is a member of the National Security Study Group and therefore would have been briefed on the Bush administration’s newly established United States Africa Command (AFRICOM).

Young is aware that the US has developed strategic interests in the oil states of Africa and has made plans for the establishment of strategic military bases. West Africa alone has an estimated 15 percent of the world’s oil reserves. And by 2015, the region is expected to provide 25 percent of the US energy market.

Meanwhile, the funds flowing into GWI and the hands of Andrew Young are at the expense of the Nigerian and African masses. Despite the nation’s wealth in natural resources, 70 percent of its population of 140 million lives on less than US $1 per day.

[Jaco]

Adedibru is 100% on the money. I am sure he/she can provide better articles for you, but knowing what we know today about the obnoxious and reverse-racist attitude of Andrew Young against Obama like the racist woman in the video, I can tell you that Andrew Young is capable of anything.

Many articles are on the websites of hrw.org and amnestyusa.org

You can start here:

http://www.hrw.org/doc?t=africa&c=nigeri

http://www.amnestyusa.org/other-countries/nigeria/page.do?id=1011212&n1=3&n2=30&n3=962

=======================================
Andrew Young, bagman for US capitalism in Africa
By Lawrence Porter
30 April 2007

Andrew Young, the former black civil rights leader and confidant of Martin Luther King Jr., has recently come under criticism for his dirty dealings with corrupt African governments, especially for his close relationship with General Olusegan Obasanjo, Nigeria’s former president.

Young has followed the well-worn path from protest to politician to venal corporate bagman. His case is particularly repugnant in that his earlier struggles against segregation and police repression in the American South of the 1960s contrast starkly with his present political alliances with brutal dictators. While operating as a purveyor for American corporations in their plunder of African resources, he has, not incidentally, gotten very rich in the process.

Recently both the New York Times and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution published exposes on Young’s consulting firm, ironically named GoodWorks International (GWI), as a lucrative conduit for facilitating US interests in the “emerging markets” of Africa.

According to the New York Times article, questions about Young and GWI’s relationship with the corrupt outgoing president of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, became a lighting rod for those opposing Obasanjo’s anti-democratic policies during the run-up to the sham elections held last week.

The firm advertises that it “opens doors for corporations interested in doing business in Africa and the Caribbean.” The mayor of Atlanta, Shirley Franklin, who is also a friend of Young, praised GWI for practicing “public-purpose capitalism.”

This view is not shared by those following human rights issues in Africa. “Andrew Young has never been interested in these [humanitarian] issues,” Femi Falana, president of the West African Bar Association, told the Times “He is just here making money.”

Young put it another way, “For 40 years of my life,” he told the Times, “I was on the outside seeking change. I realized that I could be more effective being on the inside implementing it.”

What changes have GWI implemented? As the principal lobbying agent for the government of Nigeria in the US, it is making millions representing major companies like ChevronTexaco, General Electric, and Motorola seeking contracts from the Nigerian government.

The company generally receives a commission equal to 1 ½ percent of a contract’s value. This is a tidy sum when GoodWorks consults on contracts such as General Electric Energy’s agreement to provide $400 million in turbines for Nigeria, as they did last year.

The firm is a major shareholder in a Nigerian energy company, Suntrust Oil, which won a lease for offshore oil fields. According to the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, Nigeria provides as much as 40 percent of GoodWorks revenues, paying $1.75 million to the company since 2000, not including a retainer fee of $60,000 a month.

GWI also specializes in relations with other oil-producing African states, including Sudan and Angola. Moreover, it represents other American companies among the most notorious for their slave-wages and environmental destruction in Africa, including Nike, Coca-Cola and the gold mining concern Barrick Gold, a company connected with the Bush family

The principals at GWI represent a virtual “who’s who” of political and corporate Democrats. According to the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, Young set up GWI in 1997 with the help of Hamilton Jordon, President Carter’s former chief of staff. Foundation directors for GWI include President Bill Clinton, Alexis Herman, the former Secretary of Labor, and Maurice Tempelsman, a diamond merchant and fund raiser in the Democratic Party. Tempelsman has been implicated as an important figure in the DeBeers diamond cartel in Africa, now known as the “blood diamond” business.

Reports indicate that Young’s ties to Africa developed while he was the US ambassador to the UN in the late 70s, meeting Obasanjo, the military-installed president of Nigeria, at the time. “Obasanjo and I kind of hit it off immediately,” Young told the Times. “We were mainly interested in democracy.”

Actually, Obasanjo was a US operative, closely allied to the CIA, who took power in 1976 after his predecessor, Murtala Muhammad, was assassinated under unexplained circumstances. At the time, the US was still reeling from the OPEC oil embargo and was vitally concerned with Nigerian oil interests.

When Obasanjo left power the first time, in 1979, he was appointed to the board of directors of the CIA-run African American Institute, headed by the former US ambassador to Nigeria Donald B. Easum. In the 1980s, Obasanjo was sent on high-profile speaking tours by the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the US Institute for Peace.

Young has defended his relations with Obasanjo, portraying him as the defender of democracy in Nigeria who has broken the past practice of corruption that has been rampant since the country won its independence. Obasanjo has also received the praises of President George W. Bush and Colin Powell as an example of the type of democracy they would like to see in Africa.

A very different picture is drawn in the February 14 issue of the International Herald Tribune, in an article entitled, “Fooling people some of the time,” which reports that Obasanjo has done nothing about corruption in the country with “as much as $600 billion in ill-gotten gains sitting in foreign bank accounts while the rural farmers live on less than one dollar a day.”

The paper accuses Obasanjo of “monopolizing power the day he entered office,” and of keeping “the oil portfolio for himself so that he could use Nigeria’s vast oil wealth for political ends.” As a result, all politicians in the government were “beholden to him for money.”

In an attempt change the constitution so that he could run a third term, he tried to pressure state governors and members of Parliament with bribes as high as $400,000, the Herald Tribune said. “Governors who refused were threatened with impeachment,” as was the case with his former ally and vice president, Atiku Abubakar, who broke with Obasanjo and ran against his hand picked successor for president.

In 2004 Transparency International ranked Nigeria the most corrupt regime in Africa. According to the BBC, out of 145 countries, only Haiti and Bangladesh ranked worse. That year, Obasanjo, despite sitting on the world’s sixth largest reserves of oil, ended government subsidies on oil, sparking a series of strikes and pitched battles in which the police and military murdered protesters. The removal of subsidies was part of an IMF restructuring program that Obasanjo imposed with a vengeance.

“Who benefits from Andy Young’s relationship with the government of Nigeria? It’s not the Nigerian people,” remarked Ken Silverstein, a reporter for Harper’s Magazine. “As I see it, the primary beneficiaries of his work in Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa are those corrupt, authoritarian regimes he works with and his private corporate clients.”

Young has provided his services both to enrich his clients and himself, but also to assist the United States as it joins hands with various blood-soaked dictatorships and strongman in order to secure American strategic interests in the pivotal continent.

Young is a member of the National Security Study Group and therefore would have been briefed on the Bush administration’s newly established United States Africa Command (AFRICOM).

Young is aware that the US has developed strategic interests in the oil states of Africa and has made plans for the establishment of strategic military bases. West Africa alone has an estimated 15 percent of the world’s oil reserves. And by 2015, the region is expected to provide 25 percent of the US energy market.

Meanwhile, the funds flowing into GWI and the hands of Andrew Young are at the expense of the Nigerian and African masses. Despite the nation’s wealth in natural resources, 70 percent of its population of 140 million lives on less than US $1 per day.

[Jaco]

Andrew Young, Carl Masters and Obasanjo's connection in Florida exposed.
By BARRY MEIER
April 18, 2007

LAGOS, Nigeria — For years, Andrew Young, the civil rights leader, has been deeply involved in this country through the lobbying and consulting firm he heads, GoodWorks International. Its motto is: “We do well by doing good.”

But the question of what exactly GoodWorks is or is not doing here has turned Mr. Young and his firm into something of a lightning rod, as Nigerians prepare to elect a successor Saturday to this country’s president, Olusegun Obasanjo, whom Mr. Young has known for 30 years.

“We believe that the relationship between GoodWorks International and Nigeria is foisted on juicy financial benefits to the former,” said an editorial earlier this year in a newspaper here, This Day.

For his part, Mr. Young, the former congressman, United Nations ambassador and mayor of Atlanta, dismissed such comments as sniping by opponents of Mr. Obasanjo’s party, which is expected to win the weekend election.

But there is also little question that Nigeria has been very good for GoodWorks; thanks in part to Mr. Young’s long ties to Mr. Obasanjo, his firm in Atlanta has earned millions of dollars here over the years through a network of business dealings that extend far beyond lobbying.

As business has gone increasingly global, many consulting firms based in the United States, like GoodWorks, have increased their operations abroad, taking on assignments in developing nations like Nigeria where power and wealth are frequently concentrated in a few hands. And consulting experts say it is common for United States firms that lobby for foreign governments in Washington to also have business interests in those countries.

A look at GoodWorks’ activities in Nigeria, based on interviews and documents, provides a window into how embedded such lobbyists can become in developing economies.

Along with lobbying for Nigeria, for example, GoodWorks is paid to represent many major companies like Chevron, General Electric and Motorola that seek big contracts from the Nigerian government.

In addition, executives of GoodWorks have stakes in Nigeria’s oil industry, the country’s main source of wealth. And several years ago, the firm’s chief executive, Carlton A. Masters, started an American company with close relatives of President Obasanjo that bought an expensive Miami property with Mr. Masters’s money, Florida records show.

It is not illegal for lobbyists simultaneously to represent foreign countries and companies seeking business from them. And they are not barred from having business interests in countries they represent in Washington.

Mr. Young and Mr. Masters also said in recent interviews that they had been scrupulous in avoiding conflicts between their governmental and corporate clients. They added that their clients who have won contracts in Nigeria have done so fairly, by outbidding competitors.

“We don’t pay anyone under the table, and we don’t accept any kind of questionable payments or relationships,” Mr. Young said. “We don’t work with people where there are questions of integrity involved.”

For Mr. Young, the involvement of GoodWorks in Nigeria is also one of the lesser-known chapters in a long, celebrated and at times controversial career.

Last year, for example, Mr. Young, who first became known as a top aide to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., resigned as a consultant to Wal-Mart after he said that Jewish, Arab and Korean store owners had “ripped off” black communities by “selling us stale bread and bad meat.” He subsequently apologized for the remarks.

GoodWorks has also generated controversy here. Two years ago, for instance, one local activist filed a complaint that, among other things, criticized Mr. Masters for his role in fund-raising for a $50 million, American-style presidential library named after Mr. Obasanjo that is being built in his hometown north of this chaotic and desperately poor city.

Also in 2005, the Nigerian leader was the host for Mr. Masters’s wedding at the official presidential banquet hall, an event that drew outcries from Mr. Obasanjo’s critics.

Several activists in Nigeria said in recent interviews that they believed that Mr. Young had decided simply to profit here from his legacy rather than use it to help a country that remains beset by problems of political corruption, crumbling infrastructure and failed school systems.

“Andrew Young has never been interested in these issues,” said Femi Falana, a human rights lawyer who is also president of the West African Bar Association. “He is just here making money.”

Mr. Young said that while some people still viewed him as an “activist trapped in the ’60s,” he had decided long ago that he could effect more change by attracting private investment to places like Nigeria that needed it.

He also said that the Obasanjo library, which is being underwritten by donations from local politicians and companies, would benefit all Nigerians by serving as a conference center.

“For 40 years of my life, I was on the outside seeking change,” he said. “I realized that I could be more effective being on the inside implementing it.”

GoodWorks, which Mr. Young and Mr. Masters helped found in 1996, has also lobbied in the United States for Rwanda and Turks and Caicos Islands. Mr. Young declined to disclose the firm’s revenue but said that the vast bulk of it came from its operations here.

A spokesman for Mr. Obasanjo, Uba Sani, said that the Nigerian government was pleased with GoodWorks’ performance, describing the firm as “good friends of Nigeria.” And Mr. Masters said much of the recent criticism of GoodWorks was coming from those who did not want to see the firm’s lobbying contract, which expired in April, renewed by Nigeria’s next president. After eight consecutive years as president, Mr. Obasanjo is barred from running again.

GoodWorks’ dealings in Nigeria reflect Mr. Young’s relationship over three decades with Mr. Obasanjo. And like much else in Mr. Young’s life, it is a relationship filled with a mix of drama, ideals and opportunism.

The two men met in the late 1970s, when Mr. Obasanjo, then a general, first served as this country’s president, one in a long line of military figures who ruled Nigeria.

“Obasanjo and I kind of hit it off immediately,” said Mr. Young, who was the United States ambassador to the United Nations at the time. “We were mainly concerned with democracy.”

Two decades later, the names of Mr. Young and Mr. Obasanjo, who was no longer in public office, appeared together in a United States Senate report about the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, the rogue financial institution.

The report criticized Mr. Young for, among other things, trying to obtain a bank loan to help Mr. Obasanjo start a farm equipment company for which he would have worked as a consultant.

That deal never went forward. But in the mid-1990s, Mr. Young found himself urging Gen. Sani Abacha, then Nigeria’s president, to release a number of political opponents he had jailed, including Mr. Obasanjo. In 1999, the year after his release, Mr. Obasanjo was voted president in democratic elections.

Mr. Young said he believed that his old ally had since reshaped the country for the better by eliminating entrenched corruption and raising the quality of life.

“There isn’t anything that’s happened in Africa worthwhile, almost since 1960, that he hasn’t been involved in,” Mr. Young said.

Some activists credit Mr. Obasanjo for certain improvements, like taking some steps to increase the transparency of how this country’s oil wealth is distributed. But they added that he has allowed Nigeria’s infrastructure to disintegrate further while a small group of insiders has grown richer; electrical blackouts are routine and highways are so bad that short journeys can take hours.

Mr. Masters said that GoodWorks, which became Nigeria’s lobbyist in 2001, had worked with officials there to reduce the country’s international debts. But unlike some lobbyists for foreign governments, the firm appears to have done little to influence American policy toward its client. For instance, GoodWorks said that it had “no recollection” of a single instance in which it represented Nigeria in talks with any federal overseas development agencies.

Instead, the firm, apparently in keeping with Mr. Young’s philosophy, has focused its energies on business development in Nigeria and representing companies before Mr. Obasanjo’s government.

Mr. Masters said that GoodWorks typically received a “success fee” equal to 1 ½ percent of a contract’s value, a fee that can lead to big payouts. In 2005, for example, G.E. Energy, a GoodWorks client, won a $400 million contract to supply generating turbines in Nigeria.

The company, a subsidiary of General Electric, said in a statement that it had a “standard sales representative agreement” with GoodWorks, but declined to elaborate.

Mr. Young said that GoodWorks has started small companies here that employ Nigerians. But the company also has other local business interests. For example, the head of the company’s Nigerian office is the major shareholder in a local energy company, Suntrust Oil, which won a lease during a 2002 government auction of offshore fields that did not interest major energy companies.

While Mr. Young, 75, still serves as the firm’s public face, it is Mr. Masters, in his late 50s, who spends much of his time traveling through Africa and the Caribbean. Along the way he has made his own connections.

In 2001, for instance, Mr. Masters formed a Florida company, Sunscope Investments, with Mr. Obasanjo’s brother-in-law and his wife, that purchased a Miami condominium for about $750,000, Florida public records indicate.

Asked about the issue, Mr. Masters said in a written statement that he had put up the money that Sunscope used to buy the property. He added, however, that Mr. Obasanjo’s relatives had quickly lost interest in the venture and had not profited from it in any way.

Florida records indicate that Mr. Obasanjo’s sister-in-law, Yamisi Abebe, remained an officer of Sunscope until last year, when the company was dissolved and transferred its interest in the condominium to Mr. Masters for a nominal sum.

One lobbying expert, Charles Lewis, the founder of the Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan group in Washington that monitors lobbying, said that given Mr. Masters’s multiple lobbying roles in Nigeria, his decision to involve President Obasanjo’s relatives in his business dealings was troubling.

“It looks like hell,” Mr. Lewis said.

Mr. Masters stated he had done nothing wrong.

This weekend’s election will decide whether Umaru Yar’Adua, the candidate of Mr. Obasanjo’s party, will succeed him. If he does, it is far more likely that GoodWorks will remain Nigeria’s lobbyist than if one of the opposing parties is elected.

“We’ve never gotten involved in politics,” Mr. Young said earlier this year. “We’ve tried to stay friendly with everyone.”

[Jaco]

If we can find ways to rationalize Andrew Young's disagreements with the political opponents of Obasanjo in Nigeria, then we can also discover rational ways to explain Andrew Young's hatred of Obama's presidency in America and his dubious efforts to undermine the interest of the civil rights of the masses in the African-American communities in America.

As the saying goes, wars and peace begin at home and spread beyond the confines of the home. If you fight against the civil rights of your own people at home, you are more than likely to fight against the civil rights of other people outside your home.

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Obasanjo, Young, and Masters: What kind of cabal?
Written by Jonathan Elendu
Monday, 13 June 2005

Hope Sullivan, the daughter of the late Rev. Leon Sullivan a former civil rights leader, is the bride-to-be of Carlton Masters. The wedding is inter-continental as it is scheduled to be held in both the United States and Abuja, Nigeria in August. As earlier reported exclusively by Elendureports.com, Pres. Olusegun Obasanjo has signed on to be the father of the day for the August wedding in Abuja. Masters, an Obasanjo friend and lobbyist is the Pres/CEO of Goodworks International, LLC, and an Atlanta-Georgia based lobbying firm co-founded by Amb. Andrew Young.

Ms. Sullivan, 42, is a lawyer and President of the Washington based, The Leon H. Sullivan Foundation, a non-profit organization named after her father. Andrew Young is the Chairman of the Foundation and Sullivan's fiancé, Carlton Masters, is the Secretary of the Board of Directors of the Foundation. Masters and Ms. Sullivan each have children from previous marriages.

Pres. Olusegun Obasanjo was a Special Guest at The Gala Reception and Tribute Dinner to honour former US Secretary of State, Colin Powell on May 7th of this year organized by The Leon H. Sullivan Foundation. Apart from the President who was the guest of honour, Vice President Abubakar Tiku was also there. According to The Washington Informer, Obasanjo referred to Powell as a brother and friend, stating: "In my part of the world one of the things we cherish most is relationships. Relationships in the sense that if you find two Africans from the same village, they would introduce themselves as brothers. Powell is a brother across the Atlantic. In Colin, we have an officer and a gentleman. In all of his achievements, I feel most proud to call him my friend."

It is not Obasanjo's relationship with Colin Powell that Nigerians are worried about. More worrisome to many discerning Nigerians, however, is the relationship between Obasanjo, Andrew Young, and Carlton Masters. Although Young and Obasanjo have been friends for a long time, some analysts believe the relationship has impacted Nigerians negatively. There is a story of a meeting between Obasanjo and former Vice President Alex Ekwueme at Obasanjo's residence. While the meeting was going on, Young came in and without acknowledging the former Vice President, walked into Pres. Obasanjo's bedroom. This is a clear indication of how deep the relationship is. Young's reaction to former Vice President Ekwueme also reflects Obasanjo's denigration of past leaders especially Alex Ekwueme, who was his primary challenger at the last election.

A few curious points to consider: The Leon Sullivan Foundation dinner in honour of Colin Powell was also a fundraiser. Guests for the dinner paid a minimum of $175 a plate. The main attraction was Pres. Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria. Exactly one week later, on May 15th, Carlton Masters, who is the Secretary of the Board of Directors, husband-to-be of the President, and CEO of The Leon Sullivan Foundation, launches The Obasanjo Presidential Library in Abeokuta. The library project which has generated a lot of controversy raised more than fifty million dollars in one day. Some have argued that this is a clear case of quid pro quo and there is some validity to that claim. Also Chevron Texaco, a multi-national oil conglomerate is rumoured to have sponsored both events. From all available records at the disposal of this reporter, the involvement of the Chevron Texaco conglomerate in the affairs of the Leon Sullivan Foundation and the Sullivan family started after 1999 when Olusegun Obasanjo was elected the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Chevron Texaco is a major player in Nigeria's lucrative oil industry. We are reliably informed that MTN Nigeria, a major player in the Nigeria telecom industry, was one of the sponsors of the Washington dinner cum fundraiser.

According to a very well informed politician in Nigeria, who would not want to be named, "The relationship between the President, Andrew Young, and this Masters' guy has to be looked into. The President is thumping his chest about his so-called anti-graft war and yet for all intents and purposes he is keeping relationships that at best paints a picture of impropriety, and at worse, it's like a criminal cabal. The National Assembly is doing nothing about it and Nigerian journalists are not investigating it. One day we'll wake up and discover that Obasanjo and his friends have sold Nigeria," he concluded dramatically.

Rev. Leon Sullivan was a highly respected civil rights leader and minister. His life of service led him to establish many institutions in service of others. The organizations include, OIC for America, OIC International, The International Foundation For Education and Self Help, among others. His work and service also extended to Africa. Rev. Sullivan died on April 24, 2001.

An Abuja-based politician told Elendureports.com, "Among government insiders in Abuja, there is a saying: "Wherever Obasanjo is there you will find Andrew Young and Carlton Masters. By the way, add Hope Sullivan to the mix." Whether this was a joke or not, the President has to show by his words and actions that his much touted anti-corruption crusade is not just farce. It is now time for him to explain the Young-Masters link to Nigerians.

[Chris D dot ca]

This is a great post. Nice blog you have here too!

[Nola]

It sad to be a drunk ignorant person. This woman needs to find Hillary and then the two should walk away into the unknown

[Crap Talker]

I wish people wouldn't post these long a** articles that people have to sift through to read short and well written thought provoking comments. It's rude to other commenters.

OBAMA 08'.

[youtalktoomuch]

Crap Talker,

I totally agree with your comments. This ---- has really gotten out of hand!!!! Suggestion People, Just give the damn website!!

[wewillwin]

Amen..

[simplycharming47 from Oklahoma City]

exactly...

Go Obama'08
Yes We Can!!