IT'S THE CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS' FAULT

It will be the fault of the Congressional Black Caucus if the Borg Queen burns so many bridges, a submarine wouldn’t be able to navigate her back to Black People to support her.

Back in 1984 and 1988, the powers that led the Democratic Party were smart enough to realize that if they burned bridges with Jesse Jackson, all bets were off on the Black vote. So they played it smart, and wisely kept Jesse in the loop.

In 1992 - Clinton almost burned a bridge with us when he wouldn’t put Jesse on the ticket at VP; but he had to promise Jesse a whole lot of Black Folks would get Cabinet positions in exchange for his support. Whomever Jesse supported, Black people followed.

Honestly, I think Bill Clinton was showing us what he was about in 1992, but we wanted Bush and remnants of Reagan out of the White House so bad - not to mention Perot got 19% of the vote that would have gone to Poppy - we fell for Clinton’s charm, hook, line and two sinkers.

I think it’s time Black People send a message in November - if the Borg Queen gets the nod, we should remind her of this mud slinging, and unless she’s willing to sign a Promissory Note on what she’s going to do to mend fences with Black people, we should tell her to go to hell, because it’s obvious she believes she can win POTUS without Black People’s support.

I blame the Congressional Black Caucus for that, because instead of staying true to the Game, these Mammys, Stepin Fetchits and Uncle Ruckeses - especially those who got there since 1998, have all shown how cheaply and easily they will sell out our interests. Hell, we saw them lead the charge to bring legislation like the BK bill, CAFTA and the Telecom bills to the floors for votes. They voted to continue spying on US, the American People. How quick they forgot COINTELPRO. And should we forget how fast they slung Cynthia McKinney under a bus for protesting being molested by the Capitol Hill Police, but threw a ring of protection around probably the most corrupt member of the CBC, William Jefferson, who gives new meaning to the phrase “Cold Hard Cash”?

The CBC could have kept their credibility and prevented this campaign from disintergrating into this slug fest, but they’re so angry with Obama for not shucking and jiving, that they would rather tote water for the Borg Queen, while she’s playing these strategies and set us back another 20 years.

Whatever she promised them, think that it is the equivalent of less than 30 pieces of silver - in other words, just like the Native Americans got bilked out of prime real estate now known as Manhattan, for some pretty sparkling beads you can get ten for a penny.

DEAR SENATOR OBAMA...

Everytime I'm convinced I should get on your bandwagon, you say or do shyt like this that forces me to think twice as to whether or not you're up for the job of POTUS.

When you praise the neocons who laid the groundwork for the economic situation that continues to screw over the poor to give to the rich; when you praise those who tell people of color, by their words, actions and deeds, that we are worth a damn; and especially when you continue to play nice with pit vipers and rattlesnakes in the hope they won't revert to their true natures and play nice, you keep convincing me that you're not up for the job.

Nevermind that House Negroes are beating you up - you don't help yourself when you give them ammunition like you did in that YouTube video.

How long do I have to see you shoot yourself in the foot, reload and continue shooting? Even Dead-Eye Dick Cheney hit his target - intentional or unintentional, we might never know.

I've already written about how you seemed to be a triangulating twit, inexperienced, and how your campaign seemed to be ran by the Keystone Kops. But somehow, you managed to right the ship and get it done in Iowa, followed by a strong finish in New Hampshire.

Then the Borg Queen decided to fire an arsenal of race clips, carefully concealed in code-words. Her trouble? She didn't count on "Gentleman" Jim Clyburn to call her and the Big Dog on the carpet for it. When you piss off the third ranking member of Congress who could practically deliver African-American Southern voting blocks to you on a gold platter, you know you've crossed the line.

Senator, you took the high road, and by doing so, you pushed the Borg Queen into a ditch, tore the covers off, and exposed her for the tool that she is. The white voters she counted on to cower in fear told her to her face that engaging in race-baiting was turning them off and driving them to consider you or John Edwards.

In other words, the shyt blew up in her face. She had to reverse course. And if she cries again, on cue, that might make everyone outside of New Hampshire suspicious enough to pass on her again. Eventually, you're gonna have to talk about race relations in this country, and what you might want to do to improve them if you got POTUS; but that's a battle you will be better equipped to handle if you can corral your impulse to self-implode.

But, that YouTube clip is not encouraging. In fact, I feel like a woman who had a man continue to promise he'd change, and then, once you're back in the fold, you revert to the same behavior that made me quit you in the first place.

Unlike Jack Twist in "Brokeback Mountain" I DO know how to quit you. In fact, it will be real simple. What was difficult for me was giving you consideration over the Borg Queen because she never had my consideration - given that she believes the POTUS should be hers by entitlement.

Let's be real; how serious are you about wanting the office of POTUS? I think you're deadly serious. So, stop with the self-annihilation, okay? Regardless of my supporting you or not, it is very painful to see you keep injuring yourself like this. Anyone else would have had the keys taken from them a long time ago...

IN A JUST WORLD

In a Just world - we'd have a good President who listens and responds to the people that he governs, and not act like he's the Dictator, who has FUBARed all our global relationships and made us a laughingstock.

In a Just World - the Congressional Black Caucus would be a strong body of Congress critters that would have the clout; so much so, that they would be like E. F. Hutton - when they collectively speak, you collectively LISTEN to what they have to say. In a Just World, the CBC wouldn't be the collection of Mammy, Stepin Fetchits, Rastus, Uncle Ben and Aunt Jemimas we see today, as they try to corral us "Uppity Negroes" back to the plantation that the Clintons operate these days.

In a Just World - Barack Obama would grow a backbone and stand for something, instead of falling for a whole lot of bullshyt, and tries to package it as REAL CHANGE. He could actively campaign on the content of his character, not the issue of his race - as hard as he tries to run from his race, in the hopes people will ignore the fact he's African-American. Those who want him to do that, you are telling me you want to control this brotha like Edgar Bergen did Charlie McCarthy.

In a Just World - Hillary Clinton wouldn't be the polarizing figure and political tool that she really is. Play the Race card and then have Charlie Rangel say it was Obama's fault? Puh-leeze, even Stevie Wonder can see that racial shyt came out of her camp, courtesy of minions like Bill Shaheen, Bob Kerrey and Bob "Lawn Jockey" Johnson.

In A Just World - John Edwards' platform would get the proper media coverage he deserves, and Dennis Kucinich wouldn't have to sue for the right to be included in Democratic debates until he bows out of the campaign.

In a Just World - no way in hell that Bush or Cheney ever see the White House except to clean that SOB (as in janitors).

In a Just World - people would have ignored Clarence Thomas playing the race card when it looked like his Supreme Court nomination was toast, and even when playing the race card, he would have been rejected because he wasn't qualified to serve on the bench.

In a Just World - Lani Guinier and Anita Hill would be Supreme Court justices - why do you think Stevens is hanging on for dear life until another moderate gets a seat on the bench and keep it from going dominionist?

In a Just World - Dr. Martin Luther King would be as he was in the imagination of the Boondocks' Huey Freeman; he didn't get killed - he was wounded and lay in a coma for 30+ years. He wakes up and tells all of us he didn't go out to have his life threatened, catch ass-whippings and be thrown in jail for all of us to have not made any further progress than where we were in 1968.

In a Just World - I'd be a size 8 and could eat all the junk food I want and never have to exercise and worry about diabetes, high blood pressure, and water weight gain. I'd also have the perfect man, too.

In a Just World - there would be peace, love for one's fellow man and good will towards all.

I know I don't live in a Just World. But I can still dream...

IT'S HARD OUT HERE FOR A PIMP(ESS)

LAWN JOCKEY ALERT! Sorry, Bob, to the Lawn you go...

Especially if you're Hillary Clinton. She's done everything to make this campaign about race.

Not the issues - cause she and Barack Obama are twins in the Senate. At least Obama can say he was anti-war; the Borg Queen has the Iraq War vote on her record and refuses to apologize for it.

Then, she trots out her husband to tell us "Uppity Negroes" to get in line and vote for his wife, because, to hear him put it, Barack Obama is nothing more than a "kid" whose campaign is a "fairy tale". She's even got Bob "Sell-Out" Johnson to crack that whip on us uppity Negroes, and round us up back to the plantation.

Excuse me, but since I was born during "Camelot", I kinda like that shyt, and wouldn't mind seeing it revisited, even in the guise of Barack Obama.

Why? Because his campaign is about hope. And if you give up Hope, you have given up, period.

No, the Christian Progressive Liberal hasn't hopped on the Obama train just yet. He needs to quit talking noise about bombing Pakistan, and keeping troops in Iraq until 2013. He also needs to come clean on where he's getting his cheddar for this race. Grass roots can do plenty, but he's beyond grass roots (I'm smelling DLC largesse here).

However, having the Big Dog to imply that I need to get in my place and vote for his wife is giving me gas. His wife can't win on the issues; so they dig up race. Need we be reminded that when all is said and done, while Hillary may have the nomination at a very high and bitter cost, unlike 1980, when Ted Kennedy and Jimmy Carter kissed and made up, Hillary Clinton's smoking the good stuff that would facilitate such delusions if her camp keeps it up with the Obama attacks.

And trotting out Bob Johnson, the biggest corporate sell-out ever, does not do the campaign good; in fact, it might help Obama. African-Americans are still trying to live down that minstrel show known as Black Entertainment Television. Johnson sold out to Viacom, took his payday and told us Black people to "piss off; I never knew ya."

African-Americans like me have been trying to beg Comcast to extract BET from our cable lineup, as well as Faux Network. We shouldn't have to pay for cable channels we don't watch.

Well, guess what Bob? You're not "Big-Time" Bob Horry and this campaign is not the NBA playoffs. You want to be a fool, do it on your own dime. You can even carry the Borg Queen's water. I'm just wondering what the hell has she promised you, Magic Johnson, the Congressional Black Caucus members like John Lewis, Stephanie Tubbs-Jones, Sheila Jackson-Lee, Eddie Bernice Johnson and Champagne Charlie Rangel, to go out and diss Obama like y'all doing?

I know, I know - the brotha stepped into Congress and when he didn't do his "lawd-mercy; I's glad to be up in here Senate" dance and jive for y'all; when he didn't start up with passing out the money train passes for campaigns like you wanted, and when you damned near had to put a gun on him to venture into Tennessee and campaign for someone he absolutely could not stand (Harold Ford, Jr.), Obama pissed off all of you with his independence. Not to mention some of you sistas were engaging in reverse sexual harassment and the brotha has a fine woman at the house. Why would you think he'd want ground round when he had filet mignon waiting for him at home?

So you're now engaging in a deranged and retarded form of payback on Obama by endorsing the Borg Queen. That was fine, as long as race wasn't the factor.

But her husband, her minions, with their code words "fresh & clean" "Shuck & Jive", "fairy-tale", "Kid", accusing the man of being a drug dealer, and trashing speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., so damned close to his birthday - well, as it did for the top Negro in Congress, Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), you should be having second and third thoughts about hitching your wagon to this woman.

You know why Clyburn's having second thoughts? That brotha's a Southern brother who's fluent in code-speak, as most African-Americans who know their history, are fluent in code-speak. We know what a white person is trying to say when they want to be racist, but not sound racist. We know what "kid" means (calling a Black Man a boy as insult); we know what "he speaks so well" mean (as in "Damn, he can talk good for a Negro!?). Clyburn is now thinking, "If that's how the Clintons really feel about African-Americans like me, I might need to give Obama another look-see, cause I'm not feeling the Clintons."

In other words - "If I can't eat at your table, I damned sure don't want your scraps."

As a matter of fact, until Clyburn went public with his remarks, all of this was flying under the radar, but riding high in the Black Blogsphere. You know this pattern of "code-speak" has gotten bad, to the point that Donna Brazile quit straddling the fence and calling a spade a damned spade.

Like anyone else who actually wants to diss MLK, but knows better, you quote his speeches and stretch them the hell out of actual content and context to fit your dissin'. When called on it, you say in protest that you didn't mean what you said. That it came out wrong than you intended. Taken "out of context", if you will.

But, you cannot unring a bell. You cannot recycle a postage stamp. And you damned sure can't eat words back up into your mouth as if they were never said, no matter who's telling you "she didn't mean what she said."

I know Hillary Clinton's getting a bad deal from the press - let's face it, in one of her proudest moments on the "Today" show sixteen years ago, she said that it was a "vast, Right-Wing conspiracy" out to get her and the Big Dog. And, guess what? We cheered that shyt - we loved having a First Lady who was smart, and knew how to hold down a friggin' 9-to-5, and could call the press on their bullshyt, not to mention being politically savvy and not zoned out on Prozac as is the current First Lady. They only trot out Miss Laura when Bush needs to look human.

Hillary's had a target on her back ever since. But that does not give her the right to make this campaign about race, because she has nothing in her arsenal upon which to fight Barack Obama in this campaign. So, because they are determined that nothing - NOTHING, will stop the Clinton agenda, they resort to the one weapon of mass destruction guarateed to destroy the progress made in this country, miminal as it is; that's guaranteed we take our eyes of George Bush's machinations that continue to send this country to hell, and finally, guarantees that the damage done from using this weapon will be of nuclear magnitude. Once those wounds are created, no soft words of apologies or kind words spoken to African-Americans; even the gesture of naming these House Negroes to positions in your Administration where they become nothing more than Lawn Jockeys, will be enough to facilitate healing the breach and polarization that weapon will cause.

And it will all be for nothing, because the rifts caused between the Clintons and African-Americans will be so wide, John McCain and another ReThug Administration will be able to drive right on through, pass "GO!" and collect their $200 dollars.

I hope the Clintons can live with gambling against such high stakes and we all look on, knowing she bet against the House and the House always wins. Even if you have Bob and Magic Johnson in your hip pocket to try and round up the rest of us who ran off and escaped the plantation, because we're hoping for the better.

CODE WORDS, PART II - YOU AIN'T SLICK

I caught this comment from my girl, Rikyrah, over at the Field Negro's Blog, regarding the Borg Queen and her husband's use of code words regarding Barack Obama's challenge to her getting POTUS:

rikyrah said...

Like so many in the media, until Donna Brazile and Rep. Clyburn brought it up, the MSM chose to ignore it.

There are plenty of us, on Black radio, Black talk radio, in the Black Blogosphere, who have been bringing this up.

We brought it up, after it became obvious that it was a PATTERN.

The disingenousness of the 'media' to connect the dots is what has disgusted some of us out here.

These are not 'Isolated Incidents'.

They are neither ISOLATED nor INCIDENTAL.

They begin with Sheehan.
Then his false apology; Clinton's fake apology - fake, why? Because PENN was on Hardball shuffling the same swill not an hour after the debate.

Then there were the THREE Iowa organizers that had to resign because of the Madrassa LIE.

Then came the Bob Kerrey endorsement of Clinton and his 'it's great Obama can relate to the Black Youth/Islamic Manchurian Candidate/Secular Madrassa' SMEAR...followed by oops, an apology.

Then came the Charlie Rose interview, which dripped with 'Who-Does-This-Negro-Think-He-Is?'

Then
The MLK insult....which supposedly The Community ' Misunderstood'.

The Mandela insult....which supposedly The Community ' Misunderstood'.

Hillary - the Country going ' backwards' by electing Obama

Then, we have the comments by Donna Brazile:
For him to go after Obama using "fairy tale," calling him a "kid," as he did last week, it's an insult. And I tell you, as an African-American, I find his words and his tone to be very depressing.


BOTH Clyburn & Brazille are from the SOUTH - they know what KID means when referencing a Black Man...it's first cousin to BOY- and I assume, even with all the MSM's deliberate cluelessness, they get why THAT is offensive.

Then, we have the Cuomo ' Shuck and Jive' - yet another ' misinterpretation' of the English Language.

And finally, we have today's ' Isolated Incident' from The Guardian:

In the words of that Clinton adviser: "If you have a social need, you're with Hillary. If you want Obama to be your imaginary hip black friend and you're young and you have no social needs, then he's cool."

But, of course, I know....tomorrow, the Clintons will explain how THIS TOO, was ' misinterpreted'.

Funny how many times the ENGLISH LANGUAGE has to be ' reinterpreted' and 'explained' to folks for whom English IS THEIR FIRST LANGUAGE.

I will say it again:


When 'Isolated Incidents' are neither

ISOLATED

nor

INCIDENTAL..

They form a PATTERN.

Be smart and choose to accept what the PATTERN tells you and go on accordingly.

It's 'Dogwhistle' politics, and Black folk understand the call of that whistle better than anyone..

Because our SURVIVAL in America depends on it.

But, it's ok. I know. It's all in my ' imagination'.

Uh huh.


Someone on another blog wrote this, and they weren't the first to write this:

the clintons are smart politicians. furthermore, they are smarter than most white politicians about racial politics. they and their surrogates are goading blacks (i'm korean-american) into reacting to these loaded words and narratives (that strike a nerve with blacks) to remind white voters that black voters are "overly sensitive" and supposedly will never accept white people's "innocent" comments. can't win my friends.

seoul,

Thanks for the comments.

I think James Brown said it:

I'd rather die standing than live on my knees.

That is what this is about.

It's about being insulted by supposed ' friends'.

I said, in the beginning, if this was a Republican, it would be one thing. Because Republicans are SUPPOSED to do this sort of shit.

But, to accept this from a Democrat?

Unacceptable.

Period.

And, yeah, I know, 'innocent' comments that we ' imagine'.

I know the drill, but unlike 40 years ago, we can speak up now. THAT is one thing our forefathers and mothers obtained for us.

As my fellow blogger ABB says about the Clintons and their shills:

The Shit Ain't Subtle, and You Ain't Slick.

TAKEN OUT OF CONTEXT - LOOK FOR THE "CODE"

FIRST "BLACK" PRESIDENT....YEAH, RIGHT

It was only a matter of time before Andrew Cuomo would take his "shuck and jive" comments, catch heat for them and complain they were "taken out of context".

"Taken out of context" is always used to explain away a racial comment. As in saying, "I said something racist, but it really wasn't racist."

Why don't you just say "I don't want that N----er to become President" and get it over with?

I knew it was only a matter of time before the “my comments were taken out of context” line would be used by Cuomo, and hopes that this all blows over.

The Clintons and their surrogates are now using “code words” racism regarding Obama, and it’s time we exposed their desperation. First the Big Dog coins Obama’s campaign as a “fairy tale”; now Cuomo with the “shuck and jive” comment, a phrase, which was coined by African-Americans when we called out those who were House Negroes back in the 1920s.

The Clintons have lost this African-American voter, and not because it’s Barack Obama, because he’s not my first choice for President.

They lost me because they assumed that all African-Americans are monolithic and we’re showing them we’re not. Some of us are in the Obama camp; some were in Richardson’s camp and a good deal were on the Edwards train. The Clintons lost me because they think they can easily traverse between Blacks and Whites, burn Blacks and think it won’t come back to haunt them. They think people like me are stupid and so loyal in the voting booth because of past history.

Past history also shows African-Americans have long damned memories - if they engage in this “Southern Strategy” (ala Richard Nixon) to get the White House, African-Americans won’t forget how they got POTUS, no matter how many House Negroes they trot out to persuade us to return to the plantation.

I’m betting Al Gore might come out and endorse Obama - that would be a bigger blow to the Clinton campaign than Kerry endorsing Obama over Edwards, because it would be swift payback to the Clintons for slinging him under the bus in 2000 to clear the way for Hillary in the first place.

The Clintons are showing their true colors and Toni Morrison needs to apologize for giving Clinton the label of “first Black President” when he slung Blacks under the bus at a faster rate than Ronald Reagan did.

WE SHOULD KNOW BETTER

No, I'm not talking about the primary or the results. Hell, I'm already tired, and it's just getting through New Hampshire. Barack Obama has already been somewhat slung under a bus and the MSM craps their pants because Hillary Clinton came back from the dead like Lazarus.

But, that's not what I want to talk about. I want to talk about how those of us of ethnic background should know better to engage in racist or bigoted acts against people who don't look like us. The white guy isn't always out to get people of color - even though George Bush has succeeded in making it look so.

I want to share a little story, and then I'm cross posting a blog entry I read over at the Pesky Fly's place.

Last January, I went to Memphis to attend the Media Reform Conference. While there, I finally got a chance to meet the guys I blog with over at the Pesky Fly: you might know them as Pesky (of course) Autoegocrat, Jeff and Kibbiter. You may have even seen my screen name on the masthead, so I'm one of the bloggers, too.

Anyway, Pesky invites me and my colleague, Bruce Dixon, over to his house to break bread (actually smacking up some live ribs from a place called the Kozy Corner). While visiting, his two adorable little girls, were constantly vying for my attention and crawling into my lap to talk to me, or cuddle with me. Someone they just met, but because I was Daddy's colleague, they automatically considered me a friend. What pleased me was that these little girls are far advanced in their ability to interface with people of all ethncities and races, because that's how they were reared.

We African-Americans may think we're bringing up our children in similar fashion, but the following entry on the Fly's blog shamed me, and let me know, we're not there yet, and we can't demand that we be treated as equal to whites, if we're not going to return the demand:

Together We Learn to Read and Write

This morning while brushing our teeth and taking our Flintstone's one of the twins broke my heart. Although she said she was glad her holiday break was over, and she was excited about returning to kindergarden, something was weighing heavily on her mind. She told me there was a girl she wanted to be friends with but the girl wouldn't "be her friend back." You know, typical kid stuff, right? "I can't play with her because my skin's not brown," she said. The twins have grown up in an overwhelmingly brown skinned neighborhood. Their first Santa had gold teeth and many of their daycare teachers and most of their playmates have been African American. Until now, to my great delight, they thought living and playing with people who look different was perfectly normal. "Somebody needs to tell her daddy," my daughter said. "Then he could tell her a person's skin doesn't matter." Well, what can a parent do but tell the truth? I told her that nobody's born worrying about skin color. "It's something you have to learn," I said. "And she probably learned to act that way from her parents." Big brown eyes that look like smaller versions of my own welled up with tears. "That doesn't make sense," she wailed. And given her experience, how could it? "Don't let it get you down," I said, hugging her as tightly as I could. "You just keep on being her friend even if she won't be yours." "Will it ever change," she asked. "Maybe not," I said, unable to lie. "But let's hope." She cried until my shoulder was soaked. Not because she doesn't have plenty of friends at school, she does. But because she just couldn't wrap her sweet little head around something so totally foreign; so completely illogical.

We know we can use the excuse of our past treatment by whites to justify, but it doesn't make it right. In fact, those who fought the good fight in Civil Rights, constantly warned those who were coming after them, not to allow our anger to cause us to sin (translation: OVERCOME EVIL WITH GOOD).

So, why, in the 21st Century, we still hear of incidents of bigotry being taught by Black parents to their children? It makes us no better than any other ethnicity whose members are teaching their children how to feed from the poisionous well of hate and bigotry that we, as well as our forefathers, fought to eliminate. If you don't want your child coming home and sharing a similar story like Pesky's daughter did, you still have work to do to make sure your child is being raised in a way that makes you proud.

We could blow this off and say that's the dynamics of Memphis, Tennessee, but that would be too easy. The hard work is learning to facilitate and teach, love, tolerance and respect based on the content of character, as opposed to the physicalities of race.

Today, a little girl learned her first lesson about racism and bigotry, and it was not taught by her White parents; it was taught to her by her classmate, a little African-American girl, who was taught to shun white children by her African-American parents.

That's a shaming and damning way to begin 2008, especially since an African-American is making history by wininng a Presidential caucus and knocking out the pre-determined front runner for the job. If we can't set the example for tolerance and respect, at least, we should not contribute to the problem by being the problem.