Charles Sahm notes that the president will give a speech tomorrow to the National Urban League:

?We?ve got a president that?s prepared to take us back to the days of Jim Crow segregation and dominance,? says NAACP president Kweisi Mfume. Republicans? ?idea of equal rights is the American flag and Confederate swastika flying side by side,? says NAACP chairman Julian Bond. And the leaders of this supposedly nonpartisan organization are surprised President Bush declined to attend their convention last week?

Instead, tomorrow the president will address the National Urban League, a black organization whose mainstream leadership is focused on ideas for improving life in inner cities rather than on politics and racial demagoguery. The president will have a lot to talk about. Issues number one and two on his domestic agenda have been education reform and his faith-based initiative, both specifically targeted to help inner city minority residents, and both implemented by two accomplished African-American cabinet members, education secretary Rod Paige and HUD secretary Alphonso Jackson.

He goes on to list some of the notable accomplishments made during a highly contentious first term to date:

• The No Child Left Behind Act, “increased federal education funding by nearly 50 percent, has brought elements of accountability and competition into the equation for the first time.”
• “…he joined forces with Washington D.C.?s black Democratic mayor, Anthony Williams, to win passage of the first federally funded voucher program, which will provide $7,500 each to poor minority children in the nation?s capital, giving them some of the same educational options that their wealthier neighbors enjoy.”
• He created the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, “making it easier for inner-city black churches to receive public support for providing social services.”
• The president “pledged $15 billion?a twenty-fold increase from Clinton-era funding levels?to help stem the AIDS pandemic sweeping the continent.”
• “He has sent troops and diplomatic envoys to try to quell violence in Liberia and Sudan.”
• He “launched the Millennial Challenge program, which seeks to make sure that our foreign aid is not misused and that governments that receive it abide by certain human rights standards.”