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Returning to the Beloved Community--Open Thread Version
First of all, some of you may not know about Shirley Chisholm, the first African-American woman in Congress, a candidate for the Presidency in 1972, and one of the most inspiring politicians ever, but watch the first 2 minutes and 24 seconds of this video and you will understand a great deal:
Think of Shirley as a canary in a coal mine, one who hung in there and fought long and hard and straight and clean, and who, in the end succumbed to the insider politics that characterized the Democratic party at that time. Newly emerging as the party of the people, the antiwar and anti-racism party, those leaders wore the mantle uncomfortably., looking over their shoulders at all times in fear of being called too liberal. In the end, they could not support the smart, dark-skinned woman who told it like it was. They could support the mild-mannered white guy, equally clear but not as forceful, and so, in their timidity, the little bird of truth in the coal mine gasped, and fell to the ground.
Sound familiar?
Listen to Barack Obama's speech from a week ago: his Sunday sermon on the mount:
Now we do not endorse candidates here at the DCP and this piece is no endorsement for any candidate. But I want to highlight a small segment of the Obama speech; one we have discussed before, and that is his invocation of Dr. King's concept of the Beloved Community.
From an article entitled "Martin Luther King's Vision of a Beloved Community":
Integration, as King understood it, is much more inclusive and positive than desegregation. Desegregation is essentially negative in that it eliminates discrimination against blacks in public accommodations, education, housing and employment -- in those aspects of social life that can be corrected by laws. Integration, however, is "the positive acceptance of desegregation and the welcomed participation of Negroes in the total range of human activities." But King did not believe that the transition from desegregation to integration would be inevitable or automatic. Whereas desegregation can be brought about by laws, integration requires a change in attitudes. It involves personal and social relationships that are created by love -- and these cannot be legislated. Once segregation has been abolished and desegregation accomplished, blacks and whites will have to learn to relate to each other across those nonrational, psychological barriers which have traditionally separated them in our society. All of us will have to become color blind. As King said, desegregation will only produce "a society where men are physically desegregated and spiritually segregated, where elbows are together and hearts apart. It gives us social togetherness and spiritual apartness. It leaves us with a stagnant equality of sameness rather than a constructive equality of oneness." But integration will bring in an entirely different kind of society whose character is best summed up in the phrase "Black and White Together" -- the title of one of the chapters of Why We Can’t Wait and the theme of one stanza of the civil rights movement’s hymn "We Shall Overcome." Integration will enlarge "the concept of brotherhood to a vision of total interrelatedness."Behind King’s conception of the Beloved Community lay his assumption that human existence is social in nature. "The solidarity of the human family" is a phrase he frequently used to express this idea. "We are tied together in the single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality," he said in one of his addresses. This was a way of affirming that reality is made up of structures that form an interrelated whole; in other words, that human beings are dependent upon each other. Whatever a person is or possesses he owes to others who have preceded him. As King wrote: "Whether we realize it or not, each of us lives eternally ‘in the red.’ " Recognition of one’s indebtedness to past generations should inhibit the sense of self-sufficiency and promote awareness that personal growth cannot take place apart from meaningful relationships with other persons, that the "I" cannot attain fulfillment without the "Thou."
As the political temperature heats up, as each person here selects their particular brand of hope for the future, let us also ponder what it means to be part of an "inescapable network of mutuality." We all came together in hope, after all. We came together and witnessed the death of hope and the shared understanding of the crimes that were committed against us that led to the death of hope. We lost. But we did not lose the lesson, did we?
Fighting for hope, marching for sanity, unpacking lies, and still each day, we awake and fight some more. As we adapt to the changes in our circumstances -- new life, deaths, losses, gains, new discoveries and the release of old beliefs -- we have those shared experiences to return to, in moments of fear and despair, as well as in moments of fragile joy.
On this Sunday morn, let's be grateful for this particular beloved community. In all it's strange and occasionally bizarre configurations, it is a beloved community in the sense that MKL Jr. meant: I and Thou dance together.
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She'll be buying next time we get together...
What a wonderful achievment, congratulations to her Karen.
Well JK is endorsing him, and he has something like a 3 million mailing list doesn't he, Senator Ted Kennedy and JFKs' Daughter are now endorsing him, the one who dissappointed me is Robert Kennedy endorsing Hillary, I find that very hard to understand, and I will be very pissed off if John Edwards gives his delegates to Hilliary, because then he will be going against the people I would say, if Obama goes on to the convention and the delegates are up for grabs.
It very easily could be who is John Edwards going to give his delegates to for the final outcome
NMP (on the last thread)
Thanks for the yearly images.
I DON'T need France when it's led by homophobic Sarko, however!
Also, there is one "country" where US-style perversion of the "national" flag is more than acceptable. It's our soon-to-be 51st state. Welcome to "Republic" of South Korea.
Those barbaric bastards (especially the Christian population, the most treasonous national religious group ANYWHERE in ANY country) will be HONORED to join the US as its 51st state, and help build a PERMANENT Republican majority.
Seriously, I just heard over the ethnic radio waves that the US Congress is preparing a "welcome" resolution for South Korea's new right-wing "government," an unprecedented move.
It's led by Ed Royce, a Korean puppet Congressman (of course, Republican) in Orange County, California. To make it "bipartisan," a few Democrats (such as Diane Watson, also of SoCal) have been enlisted.
Smacks of the same shit they've done for the "Korean-American Day" five years ago (and "celebrated" annually thereafter), the only special-interest holiday to celebrate a specific ethnic minority. It was a Republican giveaway, with Democrats like Dick Durbin on board for an appearance of "bipartisanism."
JUNK YOUR HYUNDAI!
From now on, anyone applying to work with my business will have to produce a legal work document produced by a sovereign nation or a US state.
South Korean passports, in other words, are NOT acceptable, since it's not a sovereign nation.
Ted Kennedy will endorse Obama in DC tomorrow so I will probably caucus for Obama.
Kangaroo
Don't think Edwards delegates are going to Hillary. Of Hillary and Obama, Obama is less of the "establishment" and more of the "change" candidate - the very qualities Edwards wants.
Of course, you never know until Edwards commits himself to either one, but that's my thought.
Of course, you never know until Edwards commits himself to either one, but that's my thought.
That's what I am Hoping Ally
Is it the Democratic primaries on Tuesday as well as the Republican primaries, I know there are no delegates which is unbelievable to me, but Obama, Edwards, and Hillary are all on the
ballet at least, so Hillary won't get a walk in at least.
Obama Victory Speech in South Carolina
Off subject this is what I was talking about the other day with Ally, and just came across this video
"THE AMERICAN PUBLIC OPINION IS THE MOST POWERFUL WEAPON THE IDF HAS"!!!!!!!
Burning Conscience: Israeli Soldiers Speak Out
Now isn't this what is happening in Iraq? Only It is the US military doing the same thing.
Kangaroo
Israel has NO obligation to honor "American public opinion." Especially since it's about Christian Dominionism, and doesn't care the least bit about the Jewish people in the end.
For the Israelis to turn themselves into American puppets in violation of their own principles and priorities is downright shameful. I know that lots of American aid packages hinge on this submission, but Israel must wake up.
Thanks for that video roo. I'm passing that on. Our Foreign Affairs and Defence ministers need to watch it. So does our PM. Time to stop the BS of believing the words that come from either Olmert or Bush re the Palestinians. So does our media.
"Israel has NO obligation to honor "American public opinion." Especially since it's about Christian Dominionism, and doesn't care the least bit about the Jewish people in the end."
Hell yes Isreal does have an obligation to our opinion since we are their daddy. They could not do what they do unless we say it is ok.
AND, it does not matter that we are all a bunch of Christians. As long as Jesus was a Jew and we can be reminded of it, there are MANY MANY christians among us that will always equate Isreal with the Baby Jesus Party and excuse anything they do, no matter how horrific. Because how can Baby Jesus be wrong?
I get so freaking sick of the christians down here that whiper the name of Israel as if the name itself is a Holy Relic. They will excuse and defend anything Israel does, yet they can't find it on a map.
I love Shirley Chisholm. Thank you for that.
Very brave woman.
Christy
One excuse for the Baby Jesus Party and its ability to get away with ANYTHING may be that it does have to fight a very hostile crowd.
Namely, one that believes in very primitive moral laws (sharia), and wants Israel wiped off the map completely (and all Jews murdered).
Just because Israel is misbehaving does NOT make the Muslims any less of a threat.
W's complete siding with the Israeli neocon government escalated the situation around the area. And so will the liberals' turning the blind eye to the Muslims' injustices (even as they condemn lesser injustices by the Jews).
" ...may be that it does have to fight a very hostile crowd."
And why are they hostile? If you feel you can come in, kick me out of my ancient home and lands, cut off my water and snipe my kids at the dinner table or on their way to school, I would probably strap a bomb to myself and teach you what 'hostile' really means as well.
Being Muslim has almost nothing to do with it.
I saw a documentary once, where they were asking this little Isreali kid where did Palestinians come from. She said so sweetly "Pigs and dogs!" I knew I would never forget it. Then about 3 days later I was watching the news, and they had this little Palestinian boy on and they asked him why Isrealis should die.
He said, 'Because they are no more than pigs and dogs.'
It was then I decided both sides make me sick.
Ally and Christy,
Let's not get into the who-is-worse conversation. I agree that great injustices have occurred on all sides, and the historic reasons for such rage go way back, but are not ancient. This is, in large part, the result of empire gone awry.
I went to Israel in 1968 and I was distressed by the arrogance of our Israeli tour guide, who spoke of Israel's inherent dominance over the land and the Arabs lack of caretaking of it. I also saw people my own age (17) with rifles standing guard against attacks by Arab youths of the same age. It all seemed so futile, and of course, in the US that summer, the cities were aflame over the assassinations of King and Kennedy, so my own sensitivities to futile violence were a bit heightened.
What has been created in the Middle East is distrust and mutual fear and loathing, and I suspect we contribute to it because it serves our economic purposes to have this instability and the need for our intervention. I wish I was not so cynical, but after watching us invade a country that had nothing to do with any threat to us, I look at what happens elsewhere in the ME with a jaded eye.
My friends in Israel have a much fuller picture of the whys and wherefores, and they are just sick about the violence, on both sides. Until we support peace and not just a ceasing of hostilities, we are part of the problem, not the solution.
".. we contribute to it because it serves our economic purposes to have this instability and the need for our intervention"
Amen. And, that is where it starts to really tick me off. I am so sick of the world these warmongers make us live in. Warmongers from all sides, all races, all governments.
I am tired of paying their bills in the blood of children. Ours or anyone elses.
I know that there are a lot of Jewish people here, and I don't mean to offend anyone by seeming to defend Palestinians more than Isrealis, like I said, both sides make me ill.
No matter what Isralis do, they can justify it by saying 'But, But, Muslims!'. And no matter what Palestinians do, they can justify it by saying, 'But, But.. Israel!'.
After a lifetime of it, I find it one of the most stupid and disgusting things I have ever seen.
Christy and Karen
Thanks for recognizing that the problem does lie with BOTH sides.
Unfortunately, the US foreign policy, as it is today, supports extremism on both the Israeli (the current government) and the Muslim (the Saudis, for example) sides.
The whole mess of course goes back to the very creation of Israel, in the aftermath of the Holocaust. The Muslims wanted to wipe Israel off the map - because Israel was suddenly occupying much of Palestine. The Israelis have responded with hostility of their own.
As for me, I am certainly not happy with the conduct of the Israeli government. And I am certainly NOT happy at all with the rampant homophobia and the human rights violations on the Muslim side either. I am not obligated to support and defend those who want me dead.
Trust me Ally, down here it is not a very popular position for me to take.
In fact, it is almost unheard of that I would defend Palestinians at all. This is a region of rampant evangical...radicalism. Israel is above reproach to them.
Otherwise Baby Jesus may set your hair on fire. Or something like that.
Christy
SoCal isn't much different, really, between the Pentecostal past and the Central American/Korean present. Fundamentalist Christianity is the law of the land here.
Nobody sympathizes with the Palestinians here, except maybe in Tehrangeles (our Iranian community, where most of our Muslims are).
I can't take sides, as both sides want the likes of me exterminated.
LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley dies
http://www.sltrib.com/ci_8095453
Bad day for the Mormons.
Hugo Chavez's proposed anti-American alliance:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7212457.stm
I am not liking the tone of this, given that Nicaragua is part of the mix. Whether it's ruled by the right wingers (many of whom have now fled to the US), or by the left wingers (as is now), Nicaragua butchers LGBTs actively, and doesn't allow abortions even in case of rape or incest.
Chavez better understand that he can't befriend such a barbaric nation, and still call himself an ally of the progressive cause. (Chavez also befriends Iran and Zimbabwe.) He certainly doesn't have the support of this "liberal."
You guys are discussing some heavy shit that I would have to take a long time to weigh in on because it's tricky business, but I love it that you're taking it on!
Whatever Cheney thinks, I'm again' it!
& for the record, I am going to caucus for Obama. Thank you Ted Kennedy. I will have to go against my own mother but we will be unified by 11/4/08.
I have been in touch with foreign people via social networking sites. I suppose the government is reading it.
My friends in Israel have a much fuller picture of the whys and wherefores, and they are just sick about the violence, on both sides. Until we support peace and not just a ceasing of hostilities, we are part of the problem, not the solution.
As I said it is not the people themselves it is the Govt.
As Far as I am concerned Bush caused a lot of what is going on now, I remember not 2 weeks into his Presidency he plaunted Sharon on the red carpet in the White House to the Palistinians, and I said to myself that is it we are in big big trouble now.
And then Georgie and Condi wonder why the hell the Palistinian People went out and voted for Hamas.
flaunted Sharon on the red carpet
American Liberty Teetering on Edge of Abyss
by Paul Craig Roberts
"Your papers please" has long been a phrase associated with Hitler's Gestapo. People without the Third Reich's stamp of approval were hauled off to Nazi Germany's version of Halliburton detention centers.
Today Americans are on the verge of being asked for their papers, although probably without the "please."
Thanks to a government that has turned its back on the U.S. Constitution, Americans now have an unaccountable Department of Homeland Security that is already asserting tyrannical powers over U.S. citizens and state governments. Headed by the neocon fanatic Michael Chertoff, the Orwellian-sounding Department of Homeland Security has mandated a national identity card for Americans, without which Americans may not enter airports or courthouses.
There is no more need for this card than there is for a Department of Homeland Security. Neither are compatible with a free society.
However, Bush, the neocons, Republicans, and Democrats do not want America to any longer be a free society, and they are taking freedom away from us just as they took away the independence of the media.
Free and informed people get in the way of power-mad zealots with agendas.
It is the agendas that are supreme, not the American people, who have less and less say about less and less.
George W. Bush, an elected president, has behaved like a dictator since Sept. 11, 2001. If "our" representatives in Congress care, they haven't done anything about it. Bush has pretty much cut Congress out of the action.
In truth, Congress gave up its lawmaking powers to the executive branch during the New Deal. For three-quarters of a century, the bills passed by Congress have been authorizations for executive branch agencies to make laws in the form of regulations. The executive branch has come to the realization that it doesn't really need Congress. President Bush appends his own "signing statements" to the authorizations from Congress in which the president says what the legislation means. So what is the point of Congress? >>>>cont
http://www.antiwar.com/roberts/?articleid=12275
Good morning friends... in Florida for the week, going to vote in the primary tomorrow.
Gimme an O!!!!!!!
O
29 things to be happy about
Mark Morford, SF Gate http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2008/01/25/notes012508.DTL&nl=fix
Kayakbiker made top recommended at Docudharma, but it's a good diary too - what ever happened to Fallujah? We never hear about that but the whole city was devastated. What's it like now?
http://www.docudharma.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=4045
(also at our site by clicking on my name)
I wish I were in Florida right now.
Google is in Legos today. It must be because Pet Goat is speaking.
99 failures of the Bush administration, on the day of the Lame Duck Address
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/01/99problems.html
Gimme an O!!!!!!!
Make it count Monkey, will be thinking on you voting for one that has a different vision for America and the World Community
These Democratic Senators voted last week with Republicans to table the version of the FISA bill that excluded telcom amnesty. One of them, Sen. Rockefeller, has already said he'll vote no on cloture on this bill. That means we need to convince three other Democrats on this list to vote against cloture:
Bayh (202) 224-5623
Carper (202) 224-2441
Inouye (202) 224-3934
Johnson (202) 224-5842
Landrieu (202)224-5824
McCaskill (202) 224-6154
Mikulski (202) 224-4654
Nelson (FL) (202) 224-5274
Nelson (NE) (202) 224-6551
Pryor (202) 224-2353
Salazar (202) 224-5852
What Happened to Fallujah?
Anyone wanting to know what happened in Fallujah, just have to go to Dahr Jamail's Weblog @ http://dahrjamailiraq.com/weblog/,
it will give you pictures and stories that will make you wonder at the atrocities humans can commit on other humans. Georgies kind of atrocities, you can go straight into Fallujah and find out what happened, at a time when Georgie was looking for WMDs under the table at the Correspondents Dinner, his military where using the most Toxic of them in Fallujah.
Georgies Freedom on the march
I advise you to have a stgrong stomach if you look at the photo gallery of Fallujah
Independent journalist Dahr Jamail:“Life in Falluja is a horror story”
http://dahrjamailiraq.com/weblog/archives/interviews/000229.php
What I saw in Fallujah
http://dahrjamailiraq.com/weblog/archives/informational_posting/000676.php
Incendiary Weapons Are No 'Allegation'
http://dahrjamailiraq.com/weblog/archives/informational_posting/000600.php
Fallujah Revisited
http://dahrjamailiraq.com/weblog/archives/iraq_dispatches/000317.php
“Pacified” Fallujah
http://dahrjamailiraq.com/weblog/archives/iraq_dispatches/000333.php
NY Times Responds Again on Fallujah
http://dahrjamailiraq.com/weblog/archives/informational_posting/000615.php
FAIR: NY Times Responds on Fallujah Weapons
http://dahrjamailiraq.com/weblog/archives/informational_posting/000613.php
5 more soldiers won't be returning home,
U.S. MILITARY DEATHS (IRAQ): 3934
U.S. MILITARY WOUNDED (IRAQ): 28938
They say, if you believe them, and their numbers.
5 US Soldiers Killed In Iraq By Roadside Bomb
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/01/28/5-us-soldiers-killed-in-n_n_83564.html
These Democratic Senators voted last week with Republicans to table the version of the FISA bill that excluded telcom amnesty
Arn't they voting on this bill today? in the Senate
Kangaroo
As I mentioned a few threads ago, freedom is also on the march in Pakistan, Kuwait, and Afghanistan.
Some death cults do deserve to be exterminated.
Ex-CEO of eBay, Meg Whitman, may run for California governor in 2010, on the Republican ticket.
http://blogs.moneycentral.msn.com/topstocks/archive/2008/01/25/ebay-ceo-bidding-for-schwarzenegger-s-job.aspx
And it will actually happen, if the state Democrats stay as brain-dead as they are today.
"Some death cults do deserve to be exterminated."
Why? Then you just fufill their prophecies and prop up their theology.
O Monkey. I really mean it too. OOOOOOO Monkey!
Some death cults do deserve to be exterminated.
Are we also referring to the death cult in the White House?
Number Of Iraqis Slaughtered In U.S. War On Iraq "1,168,058"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In U.S. War And Occupation Of Iraq 3,934
Christy
In late 2001/early 2002, a liberal woman's LTE got published in National Geographic, in response to articles on the Middle East and Islam that had been published right after 9/11.
She said that as much as she wanted to understand and respect other religions and cultures, including Islam, in the end she got fed up with Islam, due to its intolerance of other beliefs - and people like her. She stated "why shall I respect a religion that doesn't respect me?"
That woman really does speak for how I feel. Not just on Islam, but on the barbaric version of Christianity that's practiced in Nicaragua, Korea, and most of the US.
Kangaroo
Of course.
Kennedy To Actively Campaign For Obama
Kennedy kin back Obama
Not Robert Kennedy
http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=BCD77237-3048-5C12-003B0005FE714F31
Momentum Grows For Edwards As Attorney General
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/01/28/premature_maybe_ag_edwards.html
I am listening to talk in Washington, that if McCain gets the nomination and makes Bloomberg his Vice President, they will be hard to beat by Democrats.
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200504/wallace
Good piece on rightwing radio.
The change in FCC regulations in '95 resulted in lots of "translator stations" popping up cross country acting as repeaters for plenty of right wing radio, whereas they used to only be allowed to extend the reach
"locally".
Kangaroo
Also go to http://www.silencedmajority.blogs.com or Docudharma & see what Kayakbiker put up - it references The Independent article. Kayakbiker is a vet and never forgets things like this. He also illustrated it with photos he's taken at rallies, back when people were still remembering about Fallujah. I think he was probably inspired to put the piece up by reading the same stuff you are citing from the Independent.
Sorry to toot the horn twice but when I posted this I was talking about the same piece:
January 28, 2008 10:07 AM
not my president said:
Kayakbiker made top recommended at Docudharma, but it's a good diary too - what ever happened to Fallujah? We never hear about that but the whole city was devastated. What's it like now?
http://www.docudharma.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=4045
(also at our site by clicking on my name)
Why Kennedy's endorsement is timely
Resegregation of US Schools Deepening
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/012808H.shtml
Amanda Paulson, reporting for The Christian Science Monitor, writes: "At one time, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District in North Carolina was a model of court-ordered integration. Today, nearly a decade after a court struck down its racial-balancing busing program, the school district is moving in the opposite direction. More than half of its
elementary schools are either more than 90 percent black or 90 percent white."
Momentum Grows For Edwards As Attorney General
They are sure as hell trying to out him from the Presidential Nominations arn't they, throwing Attorney General at him. Don't think he is going anywhere if he thinks his delegates will decide who the nomination will be, they will be all over him to give him whatever he wants for his delegates.
Kangaroo
Also go to http://www.silencedmajority.blogs.com or Docudharma & see what Kayakbiker put up - it references The Independent article. Kayakbiker is a vet and never forgets things like this. He also illustrated it with photos he's taken at rallies, back when people were still remembering about Fallujah.
Already been there NMP, that why I posted journalist Dahr Jamail, I have been reading him since the outset of the war and occupation of Iraq.
not my president said:
Why Kennedy's endorsement is timely
Resegregation of US Schools Deepening
======
Absolutely amazing in the year 2008, isn't it. UNFRIKINGBELIEVABLE
"She stated "why shall I respect a religion that doesn't respect me?"
Because Ally, it is not about THEM, it is about you.
Do you know how often people literally threaten to KILL ME? I just have one of those personalities I guess.
And yet not one of them were ever worth enough for me to kill them. Certainly not worth MY freedom, or MY soul.
And since I ain't dead yet, I will believe it when someone actually has the guts to follow through.
Do you know what caused my parents to divorce after 26 years of hell...? Me. My daddy tried to kill me when I was 16 years old. My mother risked her own life to save me.
Of all the people on this earth Ally, I could understand the constant threat you live under,and even your reasons for reacting, but I am too worried about the constant threat FROM you.
And after we form a death cult to kill all death cults, then what?
At some point in your life you either need to force them to kill you or realize theirs is an empty threat. Even if it isn't an empty threat, you can not control what they do.
All you can do is hope to die well with your own soul intact.
I love you Ally.
But who can save your soul?
You can.
BTW, why did he come after me that night? 7 words.
"I am not afraid of you anymore."
Your fear of them is far more useful to them than your life.
Senator Chris Dodd is currently fighting for our Constitution and the rule of law.
hit this link:
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/01/critical-senate-vote-surveillance-imminent
Don't let the GOP give huge corporations immunity from the laws they've already broken. Call your senators now as the vote will likely happen within the next 30 minutes.
villager (1000+ posts) Mon Jan-28-08 03:04 PM
Original message
The First Bank Failure of 2008
Source: US News & World Reports
The First Bank Failure of 2008
Bad commercial real estate loans sink a small financial institution in Kansas City
By Luke Mullins
A tiny bank in Kansas City, Mo., has become the first bank in the country to fail this year—but it's unlikely to be the last.
Federal regulators on Friday shuttered Douglass National Bank, an African-American-owned bank with $59 million in assets that was named in honor of the 19th-century abolitionist Frederick Douglass. The bank, which has roots stretching back to the 1940s, had struggled of late, losing $1.3 million in 2007 and $4.3 million in 2006.
Although its recent losses were tied to bad commercial real estate loans, not residential mortgages, the bank's problems are nonetheless linked to the global mortgage crisis that has ripped through the financial services industry, says William Michael Cunningham of Creative Investment Research. "It's this secondary and tertiary impact of the crisis in the subprime market that's beginning to impact smaller institutions mainly through consumer spending," Cunningham says.
Douglass is the first bank to fail in 2008 and the fourth since February of last year. Before that, federal regulators hadn't shuttered a bank since June 2004.
http://www.usnews.com/articles/business/economy/2008/01...
new thread.