The Vote/Why Vote?
from p. 7
By Danny Simon, Contributing Writer
Los Angeles Doctor Convicted of Defrauding Medicare
Trailblazing Black Leaders Speak
September 21 - October 4, 2012
“I’m running for office for Pete’s sake, we can’t have illegals”
On Sept. 8, the California African American Museum presented the second of its three part series of panel discussions entitled, “The Vote/Why Vote? Black Politics—Past, Present, & Future.” Moderator USC Vice President Emerita Carolyn Webb Macias led a panel that featured former Los Angeles City Council members Robert C. Farrell and Nathaniel R. Holden, and former U.S. Ambassador to Micronesia and former Congresswoman Diane Watson. The panel described by Macias as “living history and living legends” addressed a wide range of issues including leadership, political gamesmanship, and the re-election campaign of President Barack Obama. “Politics is all about power,” says Holden of a leader’s ability to affect change just by picking up the phone and knowing who to call on the behalf of a constituent. Political access up and down the ladder of power is the key. Holden referred to a phone call between President Jimmy Carter and himself that was the result of Holden’s marshalling of political muscle. Holden argues that political leadership has to cultivate a line of succession so that progress is created intergenerationally. He proudly listed off his political heirs which includes his son, Chris Holden who is running for the 41st seat in the State Assembly. Political power is captured through diligent coalition building, Holden as-
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serts, and then passed on to the next generation. “When you are a representative, you have the power to speak for the voiceless,” says Watson. Trained as an educator, she recalls her reluctance to run for her first political position, a seat on the Los Angeles Board of Education. She was convinced to enter the political arena by a relentless group of community voices who trusted her to fight on Former Los Angeles City Councilmembers Robert C. Farrell and Nathaniel Holden, their behalf. Watson gracious- and former Congresswoman Diane Watson were part of a Sept. 8 forum presented the California African American Museum. The panel was the second of a threely thanked political leadership by part series of panel discussions entitled, “The Vote/Why Vote? Black Politics like Holden and Mervyn Dy- Past, Present, & Future.” Photo: Danny Simon. mally for “passing the baton” swing states where Republican leadership is attempting to and “paving the way.” As the first African American woman to serve disenfranchise aspects of the black vote with legal pracin the State Senate, Watson recalls suffering end- tices that harken back to the era of Jim Crow. The panel addressed the “Bradley Factor,” wherein less racial abuse. She found that writing down that abuse on yellow legal pads allowed her to white voters tell pollsters that they will vote for a black transcend. Advising would-be politicians, Watson candidate and then proceed to vote for a white candidate. says, “you have to put your head in the air and It’s widely believed that former L.A. Mayor Tom Bradley lost both his gubernatorial runs because his organization know who you are and go out and get the vote.” Inevitably, the discussion moved from per- misunderstood the depth of his base’s support. Holden is sonal biography and legacy maintenance to the concerned that the President might find himself in similar re-election campaign of President Barack Obama. waters and broadly asserted that Bradley’s defeat and quite Holden called for tenacious ground action in key possibly the President’s would be the result of organizational over-confidence or incompetence. Farrell was responsible for getting out the black and brown vote to support Bradley in 1982. In responding to Holden’s broad attack, Farrell deftly explained that conflicting political agendas within the Democratic Party—the issue of gun control in 1982—can weaken a campaign’s strength and blur it’s message. “My desire to participate is to be in the acquisition and sharing of power,” says Farrell who’s long career includes the roles of freedom rider, journalist and long-standing member of the Los Angeles City Council. Farrell describes himself as a political tactician who eschews ideology in favor of winning the horse races by bringing out the vote. But winning the vote is not enough, asserts Farrell. Whether addressing basic concerns like road paving or urgently demanding police reform, Farrell believes that, at heart, a good leader must understand the needs of his or her constituency. All three panelists rose to power by cultivating the support of black constituencies amid a period of profound change in the racial nature of Los Angeles politics. Identity politics is a constant issue for black politicians whose loyalty seems too often suspect. During Q & A, the panel addressed questions about the president and identity politics reflecting the questions of those in attendance, the larger black community, perhaps including those on the radio. Vocal critics within the black community have criticized the President for not specifically addressing the concerns of aspects of his black base; for example, the President’s continuation of the War on Drugs. “We don’t need a black agenda,” says Watson of politically divisive run along racial lines. She argues that the President’s agenda is all encompassing, even if she continues to be personally invested in the upliftment of aspects of the black community that continues to suffer. Farrell voices understandable skepticism of partisanship. He asserted that local politics is unique with unique concerns that are sometimes lost in the larger contests. In light of the fierce obstructionist partisanship the President faces in both the House and the Senate, the panel asserts that American’s understand the President’s role in history. While no longer defined by intoxicating hope, the President follows his pursuit of the possible following in the footsteps of the political leadership that preceded him, the panel in collective spirit.
LOS ANGELES—A doctor already serving a lengthy prison sentence in a narcotics case has been convicted of health care fraud for submitting approximately $1 million in fraudulent bills to Medicare in just 7 months. After less than a day of deliberations, a federal jury on Monday afternoon convicted Dr. Owusu Ananeh Firempong of five counts of health care fraud. Firempong, 61, who resided in the Crenshaw district of Los Angeles and had been practicing in Los Angeles for more than three decades, submitted fraudulent bills for nerve conduction tests and sleep studies that were never performed. As a result of the fraudulent bills, Medicare paid him nearly $700,000. During a four-day trial in U.S. District Court, prosecutors presented evidence that Firempong obtained information about Medicare beneficiaries who were not his patients and then used that information to bill Medicare. The evidence presented at trial showed that Firempong repeatedly lied to Medicare about services he claimed to have provided at clinic locations from which he had been evicted. The jury also heard expert testimony from a neurologist about Firempong’s patient files, which contained so many internal inconsistencies and improbably identical results that they appeared to have been a “copy-and-paste job.” As a result of the guilty verdicts, Firempong faces up to 50 years in federal prison. Firempong is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 10.
Occupy Wall Street’s One Year Anniversary
New York—A New York University professor, a group of veterans and an artist featured in The Nation magazine in September were among more than 100 people arrested Sept. 17 as Occupy Wall Street marked its first anniversary with various demonstrations in New York City. “Just grabbed off sidewalk, along with everyone else,” artist Molly Crabapple said on Twitter shortly after being picked up by police. She continued tweeting from the back of a police van—“Everyone in this police van is wicked smart and funny except for the driver,” she said at one point—before other activists said her phone was shut off. Crabapple had recently contributed illustrations as part of the magazine’s Sept. 24 coverage of the movement’s first anniversary and possible future. Gideon Oliver, president of the New York chapter of the National Lawyers Guild said more than 70 arrests had been reported by 10 a.m. EST. Elsewhere, Jacobin magazine founding editor Bhaskar Sunkara reported that New York University Social and Cultural Analysis professor Andrew Ross, was arrested as part of a demonstration in the lobby of the JP Morgan Chase building on Park Avenue. “Cops are never friendly, but these cops aren’t cops,” Sunkara said. “They’re militarized beyond comprehension.”