GET RID OF THE DLC

The Federal Reserve Violates the Constitution

2008-09-30T19:57:00.001-07:00

Cross-posted at JackandJillPolitics.

I linked to this in a response on the Tuesday Open Thread, but if you want to know why America is going to hell in a handbasket on the economic tip, you should watch the video, "FIAT EMPIRE - Why the Federal Reserve Violates the Constitution." It's a video you will not see in the United States unless its on late night TV with informercials. Here's a preview:

FIAT EMPIRE

This documentary helped me put the Wall Street failures into perspective and gave me a desire to break back out my econ books (as a matter of fact, I'll have a certificate in International Commerce Policy in the next six months, so you know what they say about an educated sista, here).

If this doesn't draw you to attention, you're already brain dead.

McCain Cheats During "Christian" Debates

2008-08-18T13:10:00.001-07:00

(cross-posted at JackandJillPolitics)
So says the New York Times, via the Christian Science Monitor. Pay attention to the following:

Seems that when John McCain was supposed to be in a soundproof vault Saturday night or as Saddleback church pastor Rick Warren put it, a “cone of silence,” he was actually in his motorcade.

The deal going in to the high-profile first meeting of the two candidates was that while Barack Obama was being questioned by the best-selling author, John McCain would be in a disclosed - but soundproof - location in the building unable to hear the exchange between the two.

Not so. Yesterday on CNN, Warren confirmed that McCain was not in the building when the forum began. So how do we know if McCain listened or watched any of the discussion beforehand?

Warren told CNN Sunday evening, “we flat out asked him” if he heard any of the questions. The McCain campaign “confirmed that McCain did not hear or see any of the broadcast” in the motorcade or after he arrived.

Or this:

FiveThirtyEight.com lays the foundation for what they say is factual.

If McCain was in the motorcade, then there would be absolutely nothing, other than his honor, that would prevent him from hearing Obama’s questions. However, it is probably impossible to verify whether McCain had in fact heard any of the questions. The only people who could say for sure were the people in the motorcade with John McCain.

What we can possibly verify is whether the McCain people had violated an implied or expressed promise to have arrived at the venue by the time that Barack Obama’s interview began. Warren implied to a national audience that McCain was in a quarantined area at the time Obama’s interview began, but in fact McCain was not.

McCain’s Honor? Get the Hell out of Here with that one. What this smells like is an appearing-to-be-partial mega-pastor sitting up his boy (McCain) and attempting at the highest level, on a national stage, to sandbag Obama, and say they didn’t.

If it weren’t true, why is the McCain camp squealing like stuck pigs?

“The insinuation from the Obama campaign that John McCain, a former prisoner of war, cheated is outrageous,” Ms. Wallace said.

Yeah, right. Your boy has to cheat in a debate, just like Gee Shrubya did back in 2004. Remember this?:

Gee Shrubya had to be fed the answers, and McCain’s absence from Saddleback Church gave him the opportunity to be fed the questions beforehand, like allowing him to cheat on an examination. An advantage Obama didn’t have, and is now being made to look like he didn’t do well on the debate, so it’s his people that are putting out the “McCain cheated” meme.

You can get the hell out of here with that one, too, Andrea Mitchell. You and Cokie Roberts (Hawaii as a foreign country) have really shown your drawers on this one, and can’t seem to stop. Whatever I might think about Obama’s platform, that brotha has played by the rules, because he knows harpies like you in the media would do your level best to spin and twist bullshyt for your gain.

The theft of the 2008 election has already started, and its looking like The Purpose-Driven Minister is complicit in its theft and makes him no better than his peers, Jim Dobson and Rod Parsley. It also means they don’t really want McCain, but he’s the only train leaving the station and they don’t want to be left behind.

However, when you want to steal in the name of Jesus, I’m getting out of your way because I don’t want to be in the vicinity when God takes aim with that lightening bolt.

This is How You Facilitate Party Discipline

2008-06-28T15:28:00.000-07:00

When pledging to go against the party nominee, even after you have agreed to support them, you should lose your credential to attend the National Convention. That's what happened to Debra Bartoshevich, a National Democratic Committee delegate, who publicly vowed that she would vote for John McCain, over the Democratic Party's nominee, Barack Obama.

Looks like the Wisconsin Democratic Party is going to make ole girl pay for her rebellion:

A Democratic National Convention delegate pledged to Hillary Rodham Clinton says she hopes to fight off an attempt by Wisconsin Democrats to take away her credentials because of her past statement that she would vote for John McCain if Clinton wasn't the nominee.

Well, you really don't help your cause in keeping your national credential when you engage is acts like this:

Wisconsin Democratic party chairman Joe Wineke said Friday he's confident Bartoshevich won't be at the national convention. Wineke said it's clear Bartoshevich violated party rules by failing to honor a pledge of intent to vote for the party's presidential ticket in the fall.

Wineke added that Bartoshevich would not have been chosen to be a delegate if people had known beforehand that she would vote for McCain if Obama were nominated.

Bartoshevich told the newspaper she felt Clinton was being treated unfairly and she questioned Obama's experience. She also said she had signed up with "Citizens for McCain," encouraged by her sister, who has served in Iraq and backs the Republican.

This is how you facilitate party discipline - you let renegades know that there will be consequences and repercussions for pulling stunts like this.

If only Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi could do likewise, we'd have the Democratic Party we've always wanted.

BLACK BLOGGERS DON'T WANT SCRAPS

2008-06-12T09:39:00.000-07:00

(CROSS-POSTED AT Jack and Jill Politics)

WE GET IT; YOU WERE THERE. CAN WE DRIVE NOW?

We demand a seat at the table. If you're going to discuss us, why don't you invite us to the discussion first?

And it isn't a fight we asked for. Most of us just wanted to be heard. But when we learned how to use this tool, the INTERNET, as a means of not just communication, but for political activism, organizing protests and marches - making demands of the MSM that our issues get media coverage fairly and objectively, it was only a matter of time before we get called into full-scale battle.

I just never thought the first ambush would come from the Vanguard of the Civil Rights Movement. I thought being in the blogsphere would better assist the old guard in the fight, and ensure them they could trust us to keep fighting the good fight against racism, sexism, all-isms, as well as bring attention to issues within our communities that matter to US, BLACK PEOPLE.

So, when I read that Jesse Jackson states that we bloggers are "good at serving the meal, but don't know how to farm and till the soil", I wanted to scream "If you take your hand off the plow and let us drive the mule, maybe we learn how to do that, too!"

And they wonder why we who are under 50 or original Black Panthers are challenging them. I don't care if the NAACP trots out a 35-year-old activist named Ben Jealous; now that I've read that piece in the Chicago Tribune, in addition to what I wrote here, I'm now convinced that the NAACP has sent in someone to infiltrate the blogsphere and immobilize US. All we're trying to do is advance the damned movement, and once again, we're being shown, through the outdated strategies of the Old Guard why we're still stuck like Chuck in the things that matter.

The Tribune article gives props to Black Bloggers for getting the word out on a lot of issues that flew under the radar:

Shaquanda Cotton - I first saw this at Skeptical Brotha and he didn't let up until other blogs picked up the shameful imprisonment of a 13-year old girl that her teacher didn't handle properly.

Genarlow Wilson and Marcus Dixon - imprisonment for giving into hormones.

Jena 6 - mass demonstration organized and had the proper impact to pressure the law into their release; as well as expose good-old fashioned bigotry. I think more than 20,000 Negroes invaded Jena, Louisiana, but the MSM can never admit to more than 25,000 Negroes doing anything in coordinated fashion - that scares the shyt out of them.

Pressuring Democratic Candidates to drop out of the Presidential Debate sponsored by Fox Network (I refuse to call it a news organization). Color of Change.org started that petition and it caught fire to the point John Edwards was the first candidate to drop out; Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton followed in rapid succession. With the three marquee names saying they weren't showing up, Fox had no choice but to drop the debate. Far worse was that the debate was organized by the Congressional Black Caucus.

Now, as a result of those successes, and others on the way, the Old Guard is whining that we're not respecting them. That we're saying they're irrelevant. I don't think I've read where we said we didn't need them anymore; I think we are urging them to rest on their laurels and show us how to carry the mantle of Civil Rights, political activism and demands for seats at the table of political and social civil discourse on a grander scale. We've never asked them to go away.

Ever see two people driving a car; I mean with both of their hands on the steering wheel? It cannot be done - that's why cars are built with ONE steering wheel and a passenger seat. Someone has to drive and others have to ride. I believe we've asked for permission to learn how to drive the car now, and just like old deacons, deaconess, old Pastors in church, they want to hang on until they physically die and kill the movement right along with them. They won't allow us to learn how to drive the car, and then they get upset when we take the keys and teach our damned selves how to put the car in gear and speed off.

They all holler about how they marched with Martin Luther King; but I wonder if they actually caught the man's VISION? I also wonder how many of them really stood with Dr. King, as opposed to kicking him out of their pulpits? Because not all Black preachers were on board with Dr. King; I'm willing to put on my tinfoil hat and propose that if we got a look at the FBI's payroll, some of them would be listed as paid informants. But, I digress.

Rev. Samuel "Billy" Kyles, a revered Memphis Pastor who was with Dr. King the night before his assassination, told me at a conference in DC four years ago, that Dr. King worried about the fact that he hadn't really trained anyone in the movement to carry forward the strategies of civil rights and political activism. He feared that all he'd done was to integrate Negroes into a "burning house". Dr. King instinctively knew that civil rights activism had to go further than being able to ride public transportation anytime or anywhere we wanted; go to schools wherever we wanted. In 1968, our issues turned on the economic scale. Rev. Kyles gets many speaking invitations where he rivets you with total recollection of Dr. King's last night; the cadence, the atmosphere - to hear him tell it is like re-living those moments; so I think he would know how Dr. King felt about what would happen after he left the scene.

In 2008, forty years after Dr. King's death, I think I'm comfortable in saying he had every reason to worry, considering the recent Civil Rights track records of whom he left behind to carry on his work - and the Congressional Black Caucus in particular.

The Old Guard is still waging the fight for scraps from the table when the reality is, we want a seat at that table. Forget scraps.

And yet, when we see them, or the Congressional Black Caucus in the current state, they continue to engage in fights for SCRAPS.

Getting Don Imus fired was SCRAPS. Getting Fox Network's FCC license yanked to stop them from spewing racist vitriol is MEAT ON THE BONE.

Getting a job on Wall Street, now, is SCRAPS. Being someone like Dick Parsons or Stan O'Neal, running thangs, is MEAT.

Old fashioned Civil Rights Marches in Demonstration and Protest, combined with advanced technology by means of the Internet is MEAT. Whining because Clint Eastwood made a historical picture without any Black People in it because it wouldn't be historically accurate because they weren't there at Iwo Jima, is SCRAPS. If they were there, you think a perfectionist like Eastwood didn't do his homework in making that pic? If brothas helped to lift that flag, they would have been in the picture, and not some unnamed Black soldiers either. Honestly, Spike needs to pick his battles better.

We've had scraps - we want a seat AT THE TABLE. We want the same things we thought the Old Guard wanted. Maybe we should challenge them as to what they really want versus what WE really want. Maybe because we're going about it differently, they may be scared we're going to leave them out. We're not; we will happily take them with us if they stop picking fights and battles with us and trust us to get the job done.

Now That Obama Has Closed the Deal...

2008-06-04T01:49:00.000-07:00

(cross-posted at JackandJillPolitics.com)

As being reported by the AP, my colleague, Jack Turner, has rightly pointed out, it's time to get down to business.

In the short time I've blogged here, I've read numerous comments about housecleaning in the Congressional Black Caucus. I recently posted about the CBC Monitor Report card, and we can always use some volunteers to track bills. More on that later.

The fire is hot, and it's time to strike. Now that the "inevitable" Democratic nominee is being told to take a hike as I write this, she's implying she'll concede if Obama puts her on the ticket.

As another colleague, Rikyrah, would say, "Hell to the NAW!"

I agree. She hasn't buck danced enough apologies to start the healing process yet.

At this moment, we have a bunch of CBC Hanky Heads that are scrambling for cover, because they are hearing loudly from their districts; many of them that went overwhelmingly for Obama, while they were toting Missy Clinton's water. However, merely fielding challengers to the incumbents because they supported Clinton defeats the entire Democratic process, such as it is. There are other reasons for challenging them. In case you're not aware, allow me to list a couple:

Iraq War Funding

Refusal to Filibuster bills that had no business passing

Bankruptcy Bill

Internet Neutrality

Campaign Finance Reform Laws that would make funding of National Campaigns Public Financed only and kicks out Lobbyists and Corporations (they refused to cosign on a bill introduced by Obama himself)

Hate Crime Study Bill (now you know such a bill is to reintroduce COINTELPRO)

Slinging a fellow member (Cynthia McKinney) under the bus for protesting about being molested by the Capitol Hill police, while providing a crooked member (Dollar, Dollar Bill Jefferson, y'all) total cover.

Colluding with Fox Network to Host a Presidential Debate.

There isn't enough room on this blog to list them all. But at least 25-40% of the Caucus voted on those atrocious bills; many of them with districts that could ill afford to have those bills pass.

Rep. Mel Watt once shouted at me that the CBC Monitor should have been looking at the Caucus' voting records on Civil Rights issues, like Ebony, Black Enterprise and Essence Magazines do. When I reminded him that the job of the Congressional Black Caucus wasn't just to vote on Civil Rights legislation (usually getting a damned Post Office named after a Black Luminary - face it, since the passage of MLK's birthday into a National Holiday, the caucus hasn't done much), he called me a damned blogger and one of my colleagues at CBC Monitor walked up to see why the Congressman was yelling at me before deciding whether or not to get in that arse.

We started CBC Monitor with the precise intention of putting a spotlight on why the Caucus was being infested and infected with DLC tendencies. When you examined the voting records, you found clear evidence that at least 30% of the Caucus was taking two and few payola from Corporate interests, and it wasn't even Tom DeLay-type cheddar, either.

The CBC sells out on the cheap, and leave the few remaining warriors hanging in the wind. That is what has to stop.

Donna Edwards has already done it. Al Wynn is gone, and being the ingrate he is, he's forcing the state of Maryland to pay for a special election that will give Ms. Edwards the seat earlier than January; but then she has to run again in November. The SOB didn't want to stick around, and has taken a job with one of those corporate interests he sold out to - DicksteinShapiro, one of the biggest energy lobbying firms in DC.

My friend, Kevin Powell, is trying to unseat Eldolphus Towns this year. When willing candidates with progressive records come forward and state they want to challenge the incumbents who have sat in Congress so long, their asses are glued to their offices, I say we hold fundraisers, canvass, pass out copies of the Report Card, so their constiuents get informed as to how well their interests have been represented.

One comment listed the following for primary challenges either in November or in 2010:

Stephanie Tubbs-Jones (Hanky Head)
Sheila Jackson-Lee (she's been banned from flying on American Airlines for acting a fool)
Kendrick Meek (he didn't learn jack from his mama)
Edolphus Towns
Artur Davis (DLC candidate recruiter)
Emmanuel Cleaver

Here's a few I want to add:

Hank Johnson (AIPAC funded him to oust McKinney)
David Scott (DLC money man)
Yvette Clarke (Replaced a competent Congressman in Major Owens and is stinking up the joint)
Bobby Rush (the former Black Panther co-authored the bill to restrict the Internet, y'all)
Danny Davis (strong ties to the Moonies)

Here' some we need to keep until we can train their replacement

John Conyers (we don't need his wife as his replacement - too ghetto and I wouldn't like to turn on C-Span and see her reaching across the aisle to tear off someone's weave or wig like she's in a Detroit club)
Barbara Lee - my home representative who fights the good fight
Bobby Scott and Jim Clyburn - they fight the good fight, especially for the brothers in the joint coming out and trying to reacclimate to being out of jail.

Some of you have said Maxine Waters should be on the list of those who got to go. I don't know; while she's made some mistakes, her voting records on the issues that matter to us has been stellar, and she's one of the few members of Congress still fighting to get legislation passed for victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Now that Obama has closed the Deal, I say it's time to send a message to those CBC members who are cowering in fear that they're going to get challengers to their seats, and that they're going to actually have to work to get re-elected, instead of mailing in their performances as legislators. And I'm all for that.

THAT'S THE WAY TO DEFEND YOUR WIFE

2008-05-19T12:37:00.000-07:00

I wondered how many potshots Senator Barack Obama was going to allow the opposition to take at his beautiful wife, Michelle, before firing back.

Apparantly, the brotha has more "brotha" in him than we gave him credit for:

Most notably is this line:

"The GOP, should I be the nominee, can say whatever they want to say about me, my track record," Obama said. "If they think that they're going to try to make Michelle an issue in this campaign, they should be careful because that I find unacceptable, the notion that you start attacking my wife or my family."

He called the strategy "low class."

And it is LOW CLASS. When you can't attack a candidate on the issues (and the GOP knows on the issues, 80% of the country is pissed at them)only the GOP would engage in an attack not on the issues, but the candidate's wife or family.

The only other person who has already gone there is Hillary Clinton, and y'all know how I feel about her. If you look up the phrase, "LOW CLASS" I swear there's a picture of Hillary Clinton next to the definition.

WHEN ASPIRING TO THE WHITE HOUSE...

2008-04-29T17:08:00.000-07:00

...your candidacy facilitates you doing a whole lot of things you probably wouldn't otherwise do in order to win, by any means necessary.

That would also include slinging your Pastor under the bus.

Senator Barack Obama had to know his Christian faith, as well as the leadership he sat under while learning that Christian faith, was going to be the center of controversy at some point. I fault him for hoping the issue would go away before he was backed into a corner and forced to give a graceful speech on race before being backed again into a corner and forced to sling the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright under the bus.

The minute Sean Hannity decided to whine like a lil' byotch, Obama should have put him and his ilk on full blast and invited them to drink their cans of STHU.

Instead, he played nice. Again. And look where it got him.

I caught the good Dr.'s press conference, and I couldn't tell you if some of the things he said, he should have kept silent about, because the man was basically dropping knowledge on America and as usual, if you're not giving America her props, she tends to whine about it when the truth is less than praiseworthy.

Jeremiah Wright has seen and done things that Barack Obama will never even aspire to, and that has shaped, even developed, his Christian faith and philosophy. You are not going to tell me that Obama was absent from Trinity when some of these sermons were being preached by Dr. Wright; if he says so, he's lying. Even if Obama actually wins the Presidency - the bigger thing is, Jeremiah Wright decided long ago that his SOUL was NOT FOR SALE, while Barack Obama decided his soul could go to the highest bidder if it gets him the White House.

Does he not know that once he swears that oath of office, he will be far from being his own man, and will have to reward the labors of them that got him there - Corporate America, and not the grass-roots, as he has many of you believing? Because that is going to be the case. He will need a second term to become his own man - and he might be a one-term President because y'all know his margin for error is going to be more narrow than even Jimmy Carter's was.

He may get the White House. He may actually be the first African-American President in history.

But, what is the profit of history if you gain it, only to lose your SOUL?

I WILL STILL BLAME HILLARY

2008-04-28T19:55:00.000-07:00

It does not matter if she weakens Obama to the point he can't win the General Election.

It will not matter if she gets the nomination and destroys what's left of the Democratic Party.

It does not matter that the ReThugs are salivating at the thought of another one of their own getting the White House while the Democrats eat their own.

It does not matter that the more Dr. Jeremiah Wright defends himself, the farther Fake News and Crew will sling him under the bus as they tie him to Obama.

It does not matter that Hillary succeeded in racial polarization to get what she wants, by any means necessary; no matter what the cost; no matter the damned sense of entitlement.

I will still hold her responsible for the destruction of the Democratic Party, the alienation of the usually loyal African-American base, and most of all, I will hold her personally responsible if the ReThugs get the White House for another four years when she had the opportunity to be a real human being and think about what was best for this country. Her leadership (or lack thereof) is not what's best for America, no matter how you slice it. Just like Tonya Harding was not considered good for the sport of Professional Figure Skating - her attack on Nancy Kerrigan forced the Skating Authority to give her a lifetime ban from the sport of competitive figure skating.

Just like Hillary's destruction of a fellow Democrat should force her being banned from the party for not being a Democrat, but acting and reverting to the closet ReThug I've always suspected her of being.

Make no mistake - Obama could have helped his own cause and in some instances, he decided to keep shooting himself in the foot and reload to keep shooting. I mean, if there is no earthly reason for him to lift his "ban" on Fake News, why would he cave in at this point? So he can collect more war wounds? So he can convince whites who weren't going to vote for him anyway, to change their minds?

Arrrgh - I can't take it anymore. Someone give up, please. But it won't be Hillary; Hillpatine, the Borg Queen, and any other name you would call a destructive individual like her.

But in the end, whatever goes down in Denver this summer and in the General in the Fall, I'm blaming Hillary Rodham Clinton for her scorched earth tactics and a selfishness that will single handedly destroy what's left of the United States of America.

If Obama wins or loses in the Fall, put the blame on his wounds where they need to be; some on him - most on Hillary. Obama will have more than enough blame to collect on what he should and should not have done. But, would he really have gone as far as Hillary has? Despite my take on his platform, I think the answer would be "NO". The brotha would consider what's best for the Party.

Unlike Hillpatine.

We can't blame the ReThugs if we are calling John McCain "Mr. President" next January. But we can blame Hillary for it, should it come to pass.

I will still blame Hillary for the whole shebangabang and I won't lose any sleep over it, either. Book it.

GOOD LAWD, I HAVE TO HEAR THAT "CACKLE"

2008-04-23T05:04:00.000-07:00

...at least another day in this farce of a Democratic Primary campaign. Ugh.

The Borg Queen won't go away. She's like "Bebe's Kids". They don't die; they MULTIPLY.

God help us ALL if that happens.

So, she won the Pennsylvania primary, and I understand she got more than 50% of the vote from uneducated white people. It's not like she wasn't expected to win; in fact, it is one of the few primaries (maybe the only one) that Obama even expected he'd lose, but folks, he didn't lose by much; he still leads in delegates and the primary vote, and he might take Oregon and North Carolina, despite Rush Limbaugh's machinations.

The fact that the Borg Queen won with over half the electorate being uneducated white voters says a lot...not about her as a candidate, but about Pennsylvania as a state. It is uneducated voters like those in Pennsylvania, that sent George Bush back to office a second time, so he could continue to FUBAR the government and leave the mess for the next President.

They wanted a guy they could raise Coronas with - not someone with the intelligence to actually lead and entertain diversity of ideas and opinions.

I hope they like living below the poverty line and seeing their jobs leaving the country like Jefferson Airplane does. I never understood why poor whites would rather vote against their own interests in the name of keeping Black people out of leadership positions. I never understood why poor whites would continue to remain poor whites, when they have opportunities to improve their lots in life. They certainly have more opportunities than people of ethnicity, but in the idea of thinking themselves "superior" to ethnic people, they vote consistently to screw themselves over, content in the knowledge of holding down ethnic people, while feeling "superior" as the bank forecloses on their homes, their refrigerators go empty, their children go hungry and without healthcare to see a doctor when they need to.

The Borg Queen should be thanked for going "Tonya Harding" on poor whites, because if they would rather be screwed over than putting an effective leader in the White House, they get what they paid for, and I don't want to hear no pissing and moaning when they wake up and find out they're still being screwed.

As for African-Americans, Latinos, Asians, Native Americans, and educated, progressive Whites, I suggest we take our votes and go to another party, since the Democrats continue to diss US by allowing the Borg Queen to remain in the Democratic Party and destroy it to hell, because they're too cowardly to come out and say they don't want a brotha getting the nomination; yet, they would rather allow the Borg Queen to fling poo like monkeys do at the National Zoo. This party won't be worth staying in; especially if they find a way to cut a deal and make her the nominee, over the objection of those who have worked their asses off to get Obama elected.

A word for Obamaites - he is not the SAVIOR and stop treating him as such. Allow people who are truly skeptical of his position and platform to give voice to those skepticisms without going "Tavis Smiley" on them. And yeah, I certainly understand the hateration on Tavis - look, if my colleagues at Black Agenda Report are defending Tavis, that shows how much Obama-aid his supporters are drinking these days, and how far off the logic organization you have gone.

Yes, I've done my share of calling CBC members "Handkerchief Heads" "Mammy" and "Uncle Ruckus" because Bill and Hillary Clinton are throwing the race cards in their faces, and their hateration of Obama is such that they would rather throw in their lot with entities known for slinging misbehaving Blacks under the bus when they get in their way. Not because I'm an Obama fan - slinging Jeremiah Wright under the bus to shut up nuts like Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity, is still frosting my cookies to the point I might leave the POTUS slot blank in the General election, and especially if the Borg Queen steals the nomination.

And, after all that, we get a "I got my office in Harlem, how can I be a bigot" comment from Bubba; like we're supposed to shut up about how he's played the race card; hell, he made the campaign about race, ever since South Carolina, and Gentleman Jim Clyburn was doing his best to tell him to shut the hell up about race.

Now, this campaign is ALL ABOUT RACE. Thank you Bill and Hillary. Don't think having Bob Johnson tote your water gets you entre back into the Black Community - most of us are thinking about how to go into Northeast DC and burn down the BET station without getting caught and doing the Black Community some effective community service by pulling that nonsense of a television station off the air.

In the meantime, Good Lawd, can I be spared listening to that "CACKLE" for a while? How can that be shut the hell up?

CBC DECLARING WAR ON BLACK BLOGGERS

2008-04-04T07:18:00.000-07:00

My first post in April and it's an angry post. The CBC has just declared war on Black Bloggers demanding accountability from them. My colleagues at Jack and Jill Politics got sandbagged by CNN because they linked to a post from some more of my friends over at Color of Change on their activities to pressure Black superdelegates to respect the wishes of their constituencies that went heavily towards Sen. Barack Obama for POTUS.

Color of Change is free to engage in whatever political activism they feel is necessary to benefit the diverse communities they represent. However, Anderson Cooper and Soledad O'Brien, if you're going to report on what we say on the blogs, is it too much to ask to you act like responsible journalists and get it right?

I guess it is, because you've blown this out of context, and you enlisted two Congressional Black Caucus members to spin it as they choose.

I wrote the following on Jack and Jill in the comments section, and after reading it, I decided it was worthy of a blog entry of its own:

I'm going to jump in here and say that when the media attacks bloggers such as us and Skeptical Brotha, and allow DLC-bots like Emmanuel Cleaver and Kendrick Meek to frame issues without context, they have declared war on us.

The Congressional Black Caucus wants to use this issue to not only discredit the Black Blogsphere, but also people doing the work to hold their behinds accountable to the constituencies that voted for them. It's not about supporting Obama - because of the Jeremiah Wright flap and Obama's handling of it, I can't say I'm supporting him, but Hillary Clinton is sure as hell not getting my vote.

The CBC is saying they don't want to be held accountable; yet we should continue to support them and give them free passes because they are Black members of Congress. The same concept they are now trying to fight because half of them support Hillary Clinton. That's some sick crap and they need to know that we're not backing down from them.

Now Color of Change has done good work and maybe pressuring Black superdelegates to throw their support to Obama in light of Hillary donning a hood and robe - good in purist theory; not so good for the overall purpose of electing and implementing a progressive government that is of the people, for the people and by the people. Maybe a different tactic needed to be used here; I don't know, and I don't want to be critical of their actions, because it's their right to engage in activism that will result in what's best for the communities they serve.

However, I do agree with them that the CBC is being arrogant in ignoring, if not at least, listening to the voices of the people they purport to represent, and for that, it should cost them, because the next issue won't be Barack Obama, but something like the Bankruptcy Bill, school vouchers, increasing funding to the military and the prison industry complext, which does nothing but incarcerate more of US. The CBC has already demonstrated an inherent willingness to take small amounts of money to sell out for personal gain and presumed fortune.

Sorry for the rant, but I feel the CBC has declared war on Black Bloggers because we've been calling them out on their dereliction of duty to us and they need to be remind who they work for.

They work for US, the taxpaying Americans who elected them. If they don't want to do what we ask, on most jobs, it's called "being fired". Now, if they want to get fired like their buddy Al Wynn, they can step right up into primary challenges, either this year or 2010. I'm sick of these attempts to silence us when silence IS NOT GOLDEN.

THE CLINTONS GO "GANGSTA"

2008-03-27T12:22:00.000-07:00

Starring Hillary Clinton as Tonya Harding.

You can't make this stuff up.

Okay, so I have fatigue from both Obama and Clinton - and the obvious one (cough, Hillary, cough) is beyond clueless at this point to stand down and save the Democratic Party.

I've no great love for Obama, either. He's good at speechifying - but I want to hear some solid political platform positions come out his mouth instead of another platitude (although he ripped it with the speech on race). I'm not drunk off Obama-aid, and I'm not likely to be any time soon. But when you start hearing talk coming out of the Clinton camp that at this point, in order to get the nomination for the Borg Queen, they may have to resort to "knee-capping" Obama - man, the adrenalin kicks in.

"Knee-capping" Obama? Have we ran into a lost episode of "The Sopranos" now?

The Clintons better ask Tonya Harding how did kneecapping Nancy Kerrigan 15 years ago work out for her (I recall lifetime ban from the sport of competitive figure-skating and somebody went to jail).

They just had their big donors threaten House Speaker Nancy Pelosi - telling her she'd best back off that talk about allowing us voters to have their say, and not those Pesky superdelegates (sorry, Pesky, no pun intended).

Honestly, after all the race-baiting (thanks Gerry Ferraro), the 3am Phone calls (like she would be up at 3AM to take any kind of calls, except looking for Bill in the street), Mark Penn (Jabba's 1st cousin), Handkerchief Head Mammy Maggie Williams (aka Chief Crab in Barrel), and getting caught in a prize whopper that even Captain Ahab couldn't have envisioned with that Bosnia trip ("Hey, it's too dangerous for me to go over there, so I think I'll send my wife and daughter - oh, and take a comedian and a guitar player with you..."), it has come down to this:

Going GANGSTA.

And they're not even doing that well, either. They could use some lessons from chief original gangstas, like, say, Al Capone, or, for the kids, Suge Knight.

Rule of thumb - GANGSTAS do not put what they're planning to do in WRITING. Nor do they allow themselves to be caught in a lie by having their actions recorded on video.

That's more like Keystone Kops BS, right there.

I kept wondering after Texas, which Hillary Clinton persona would show up for the remainder of the primary season, and I have my answer.

Kitchen-sink/Scorched Earth Hillary</span>. She's lied, cried, hissed, booed, cussed, fussed, mussed, missed and dissed a fellow U. S. Senator, a fellow Democrat, by saying the ReThug opponent was more qualified to be POTUS, and has now threatened to destroy the entire Democratic Party if she can't get the nomination for the White House by blackmailing the DCCC over superdelegates.

I don't know about you, but I don't want this woman's hands on the chicken switch with all these mood swings and looking like someone who desperately needs an "INTERVENTION" (calling Candy Finnegan). And, she's making it bad for women political candidates, because you know, when the dust clears, someone's going to throw it back in our faces how women aren't ready to run anything of great significance, and they will point to every machination, every manipulation, every lie, every Swiftboating smear, every attempt to physically, mentally, emotionally and morally tear down a fellow member of the same political party for personal gain, bootstrapping, fun and profit, done by Missy Hillary. Dismissing voters, threatening donors, and calling supporters "Judas" because they got tired of how fast and how willing you were to sling people under the bus because they no longer benefitted you - we must ask ourselves: DO WE WANT THIS TYPE OF PERSON IN THE WHITE HOUSE?

We've already had that for the last eight years and look where that's gotten us. We can't afford another "gangsta" in the White House. We just can't.

EVEN AS A "NON-THREATENING NEGRO"...

2008-03-14T18:19:00.001-07:00

If you're Hillary Clinton (aka "The Borg Queen"), no matter how "non-threatening" you are as an African-American (Negro for ol' school), you're still considered a "Threat".

Senator Barack Obama, as stated by my colleague, Big Man at Raving Black Lunatic, played by every rule flung at him and some that fall into the "making ish up category"; yet, thanks to the Borg Queen, he has been made Blacker than Willie Horton.

You remember Willie Horton, don't you? Eh, some of you may be too young to remember when the elder Bush was running for POTUS, his opponent was a short Massachusetts governor named Michael Dukakis. Since Poppy wanted to portray Dukakis as soft on crime, during a debate, he brought up a brotha named Willie Horton, who was imprisoned for rape, got paroled, only to commit the crime again. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts had released Mr. Horton back into society, and he commits another rape while on parole.

Dukakis was asked by Poppy Bush to explain what he would do with Willie Horton if Horton had attacked his wife, Kitty.

As Dukakis tried in vain to respond, the collective groan of the Democratic Party could be heard from coast-to-coast. Twenty years later, I can still hear that groan, because we knew it was over and another ReThug was going to get the White House for at least another four years.

At the time, we had a "Rumsfeld" moment within the Democratic Party. We couldn't go with the candidate we wanted (Colorado Senator Gary Hart, cause he got busted cheating on Mrs. Hart) or Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy (the squeals about Mary Jo Kopechne and Chappaquidick are still being sung almost 40 years later), so the party was forced to go with who was left: Mike Dukakis.

Poppy Bush won in a landslide because he trotted out the "Threatening" Negro as Boogey Man extraordinaire. This, after the Democratic Party squeezed out Jesse Jackson with the "it's not your turn, yet, Negro" speech (and remember, Jesse picked up at least a million votes nationally both in 1984 and 1988)

Fast forward to 2008, and it appears we have an African-American bound and determined not to repeat what was considered the mistakes of Jesse, or Al Sharpton, or even Mike Dukakis. He was fresh and clean, articulate, too. Harvard-educated (affirmative action can get you in, but your merit and intelligence to do the work keeps you there), civil rights attorney; constitutional law professor. Married to a beautiful, career-oriented, got-her-own-thang-goin-on bonified SISTA. Total family man with two equally beautiful little girls. Throw biracial in the mix, and you have the perfect, appearing, non-threatening Negro in Senator Barack Obama.

He made White, Asian and Latinos comfortable with him. He could relate to them and they to him. We African-Americans were naturally suspicious - because every Black person other races embrace, we get suspicious because our history has been that one of those Negroes are usually sent into our communities on reconaisance missions to infiltrate and destroy the community from within and sell us off as chattel to their assigned masters.

If Hillary Clinton sticks to the issues, that would have been enough to continue facilitating our suspicions about Obama. But the moment she and the Big Dog (Bill Clinton) started playing the race card with Obama (this after she lost nine straight contests at the time), all hell broke loose and all bets were off the tables.

First shot across the bow: the husband of New Hampshire Governor Jeanne Shaheen, implies Obama may have been a drug dealer in his youth.

Like Shaheen wasn't sitting on some college campus during the 1970's tooting on some blow or passing a joint in college. Cause that's what most kids did (I went to a liberal arts Catholic college in Northern Cal and those kids majored in keg parties, so I know of what I speak).

After we raised a fuss, the Borg Queen gets rid of Mr. Shaheen. But the words have been flung and the damage done; but pretty minor at this point.

Second, Andrew Cuomo, the son of former New York Gov, Mario, describes Obama as a speaker full of "shuck and jive".

OOOOkayyyy, but what does Mr. Cuomo know about "shucking and jiving"? Don't tell me he's hanging out with Champagne Charlie Rangel down on 125th and Lennox Avenue, learning street slang from the brothas. After more firestorm, Cuomo protests his comments were "taken out of context".

To me, "taken out of context" is code speak of "I didn't know I'd get caught sticking my foot in my mouth for saying what I really mean."

Third, after South Carolina, the Big Dog disses Obama's win, and comes pretty close to calling him "boy" when he called him "kid". Cue the torches from Black folk at this point because we are shocked that the "first Black POTUS" would diss his peeps that way.

I think we revoked Bill Clinton's honorary Black card after that - many of us say we never gave it to him and that Toni Morrison should have checked with us before passing it out to him just because he blew sax on Arsenio's show, and eats fried chicken, collard greens and Big Mama's peach cobbler.

Fouth, someone from the Clinton camp (Campaign Manager and the Biggest Potential Crab in the Barrel, Maggie Williams, perhaps) starts circulating a picture of Obama in native land dress and whispers he's Muslim.

Ah, I think Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) is in a better position to identify who's a Muslim, isn't he?

There were other incidents which are being tracked by my friends over at Jack and Jill Politics, and the list keeps growing and growing.

Then she gets a platform to make nice to us at Tavis Smiley's Negro Super Bowl, better known as the "State of the Black Union" - where she proceeds to give us a "My Husband did a lot for you ungrateful Negroes" speech.

Yeah, Hillary, we need to thank Bill for "Mend It, Don't End It" attacks on Affirmative Action, the three strikes rule on law enforcement where if you have a $10 crack rock you get 25 to life in the joint, while someone with $1 million dollars of blow can walk away with the slap on the wrist. We'd also like to thank him for the growth of the prison industry complex, and I'm sure the gays and lesbians want to thank him for putting that bulls' eye on their backs when he had the chance to fully integrate the armed forces by implementing a non-discriminatory policy to include protection of gays - but he exchanged it with that "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" BS and thought they wouldn't notice. We'd also like to thank him for deregulation in the media that guarantees monopolization of the airwaves and non coverage of real news because we have to suffer Fake News and Sean Hannity or Bill O'Reilly.

But the biggest play of the race card yet, has come from another Clinton surrogate, former Rep. and VP candidate, Geraldine Ferraro, with her "Obama is lucky to be a Black Man in America" comments, for which she has only apologized because Hillary has slung her under the bus. And if that wasn't enough, some enterprising individuals in the internet world, dug up similar comments she made about Jesse Jackson 20 years earlier.

The Borg Queen responded by saying Ferraro's comments were "regrettable"; but when Obama's foreign policy advisor, Samantha Power, called the Borg Queen a "monster", she was fired from the Obama camp before sunrise the next day after Hillary whined.

We have been treated to crying, throwing fits, and now, racial politics that threaten to destroy what's left of the Democratic Party. I say "what's left" because Hillary Clinton just tore the covers off that sucka and exposed the Democratic Party in all of its' glorious bigotry and exclusion that we Black people suspected was there, but didn't want to believe it was true.

The evidence has been presented and we must render a verdict. We can no longer be silent on the things that matter like our vote, or where we are included in the Democratic party platform. For Hillary Clinton to resort to race-baiting, scorched earth, kitchen-sink tactics, with a "win at all costs" mentality, she doesn't seem to care that in slinging Black people under a bus for her personal agenda, she sends the Democratic Party back to where it was preferable for Black people to be Republicans.

She doesn't seem to realize that if she eviscerates Obama, she still needs to come back to the Black community and beg for our votes. What happens if 99% of 36 million people (and that's the estimated Black population, y'all) decides that we won't vote for her, and we can't vote for John McCain, we'll decide that we'll just sit the 2008 elections out?

I'm not prepared to sit out 2008, but I am past ready to send a loud message.

Senator Clinton, you're not ready to be POTUS. You don't DESERVE to be POTUS simply because you put up with Bill's cheating behind for 35 years, cause from what I can see, that's where your experience lies. If you were sitting up taking phone calls at 3am in the White House, maybe it's because Bill was in the street and you didn't know which ho's bed he was coming from.

I've already said your voting record and Obama's are almost mirror images; however, he's not on record as authorizing money for a war that we were lied into. Former Senator John Edwards, as well as current Senator John Kerry, have apologized for their vote, but when you get asked, you raise a lot of hell and change the subject.

This campaign has demonstrated that you are highly emotional, and use a blowtorch to light a cigarette, when a match will do the job. You would rather destroy it for others, if you can't have it yourself. A good number of women in DC are really pissed at you right now, because they wanted you to be a strong woman in challenging Barack Obama. They are upset that you decided to channel Karl Rove, and think that when the dust clears and you have the nomination in your pocket through back room deals that thwart the will of the voters, you can make a nice speech to the African-Americas you've ridiculed and insulted, and we'll fall back onto the plantation, line up and happily vote for you.

I've got news for you; we Negroes have woke up. Like the Japanese said when they bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, "you have awakened a sleeping GIANT".

That's what you've done. Even Blacks like me, who are still suspicious of what Obama's bringing to the table, are willing to send you the message, if you didn't get it from the smackdown Keith Olbermann put on you on "Countdown" Thursday night. And he was worked up about it, too, because you could hear it in his voice; that he didn't want to have to be the one to administer that can of whip-ass on you. Olbermann's sense of decency demanded he call you out. The problem is: WERE YOU LISTENING?

That's how stank your campaign has become. That's how stank you have become. You even broke a cardinal rule in the Democratic Party: THOU SHALT NOT TRASH A MEMBER OF YOUR OWN PARTY. You did that when you said McCain was more qualified than Obama to be President. If you think that sets you up for 2012 if you don't get the nod this year. I've beachfront property in Arizona to sell you. We don't forget, and we won't be fooled again.

Obama was a non-threatening Negro who managed somehow, some way, to be a threat to your ambition and your agenda. After all, why did you stay with Bill unless it was part of your agenda to get the White House in exchange for being humiliated as a wife?

You don't get the White House cause you got cheated on. You're not ENTITLED to it because you suffered Bill's inability to keep it in his pants. And now, you'd rather destroy an otherwise decent human being politically, personally, morally, spiritually and career-wise, to get your way. We've had eight years of that under the current POTUS; we don't need another four years of that coming from you, nor do we need another four years of "meet the new boss, same as the old boss" from John McCain.

If you go away quietly and with grace and dignity, you create an opportunity to rehab yourself back into the liberal we thought you were. If not, just quit the party, turn Republican and take Harold Ford and Joe Lieberman with you, because the Party can't afford you anymore.

REASON #501 WHY I WON'T ATTEND THE SOTBU ANYMORE

2008-02-27T07:40:00.000-08:00

I like to know if you're going to pimp me. Hat tip to Big Man at Raving Black Lunatic for this post:

Y'all know this weekend in New Orleans they had this little thing called the State of the Black Union hosted by Tavis Smiley.

Smiley invited several black "leaders" and politicians to discuss topics of interest regarding the black community. Regular citizens were invited to attend for free to rub shoulders with the elite and make sure the crowd looked good on C-Span.

Only it turns out the event wasn't really free.

Now, there wasn't actually an admission fee. But, every attendee had to register online to get into the New Orleans Convention Center. And that, as they say, was the catch.

See, Tavis, being the wily business man that he is, required prospective attendees to fill out extensive questionnaires to register. Not only did these surveys ask for individuals' addresses, phone numbers and email addresses, but they also required much more detailed information.

Attendees had to list how many times they ate out every week, which restaurants they ate at, how much money they made, which auto insurance company they used and a host of other questions that clearly delineated their income levels and spending habits. In fact, if a prospective attendee left any question blank, they were promptly told they couldn't register.

Now, some of you may wonder how this qualifies as an admission fee. Well, as a friend of mine explained it to me, those surveys were likely converted into detailed mailing lists that Tavis either provided free to his sponsors (lovely companies like McDonalds, Allstate and Wal-Mart) or sold to other interested parties looking to tap into the black market. In fact, Tavis most likely kept some of the info for himself in order to better market his next self-help book or video for the black community. After all, there was some fine print that said that if you signed up all your info became property of Mr. Covenant to do with as he wished.

According to my friend, just for the names and addresses alone Tavis could get $5-$10 a head. Considering there were thousands of folks at the conference, that's no chump change. But, the real money is in selling specially culled lists to those individuals looking to get the best bang for their marketing buck.

If you're State Farm looking to attract new customer, you ask for all the individuals who use another insurance company and make sure they get a nice call from a telemarketer at dinner time. Or, say you're a credit card company look for some new suckers, I mean customers, now you know who loves to shop and how much money they make. Whether by selling part of the list or the whole thing, Tavis has an opportunity to make a pretty penny off those individuals who were looking for enlightenment on the state of the black community.

Now, I don't know about y'all, but I find it funny that the same man who was quick to call Obama out for taking black people for granted or trying use our votes to win the election without addressing our issues is pimping out black people to the highest bidder. There is something a tad bit unseemly about a man who pretends to be putting on an event for the edification of black folks when he's really trying to assemble a valuable mailing list on the cheap.

You know, Smiley and several elected officials spent a lot of time complaining that their Negro bona fides had come under attack because they supported Clinton instead of Obama. They noted that it was ridiculous for black people to expect each other to think and act in lockstep.

They were right about that.

But, they missed the point that black folks weren't mad at them for thinking differently, they were mad at them for co-signing the despicable racist tactics of Hillary's campaign. They were mad at them for being willing to sell out our community for funding for their pet projects. See, black people have far too much experience at being used not to be able to pick a hustler out of the crowd, and the only thing we hate more than a hustler is a hustler who tells us he's bilking us for our own good.

So, the next time Tavis decides to climb his ass up on his mangy, knock-kneed high horse I want everybody to know that all his grand talk about being a caretaker of black interests is bullshit.

He done already sold us out.

From the Christian Progressive Liberal:

I've attended three of the SOTBU's and can verify that when you register to attend, while it is free admission, you have to supply all that information in responding to the questions the registration form asks - otherwise the computer will not accept your registration and you can't get in to the event.

I've often wondered why that was. Now it appears Mr. Smiley is not above collecting marketing information on his people and selling it to the highest bidder.

You want our money for goods and services, and you still want to diss us while taking our hard-earned cash, facilitated by Smiley and the SOTBU. Bootstrapping for fun and profit.

The irony is, if Tavis hadn't decided to engage in hateration of Barack Obama, we probably wouldn't have looked at his methods, or his motives for hosting this event every year, but because he decided to tote water for Obama's race-baiting opponent, Senator Hillary Clinton, Tavis Smiley succeeded in getting Black America to do something he probably wishes we wouldn't.

He is facilitating the very demand of accountability from us that he's demanding from Obama. If you're not willing to be held equally accountable, Tavis, fold up your traveling minstrel show and go home. We're watching you now, bro, and it's not pretty to find out you're not above using the very people you claim to love by gathering marketing information about us and selling it to those who want our money, but don't honor and respect us. No amount of Wal-Mart showboating with an African-American History Exhibit for the next five years will clean up the slime or stench that leaves behind.

Shame on you, Tavis, for not considering our intelligence above that of your corporate masters. You've sold out in the worst possible way, and you're not qualified to call out anyone on anything you're not willing to be called out on yourself.

It might be time for you to fold up your tent and go home with this traveling minstrel show, while opening the doors for someone else to host this forum and get things done. The days of shucking and jiving are over and we can't afford you anymore.

MARYLAND HAS A NEW CONGRESSWOMAN

2008-02-13T10:58:00.000-08:00

HOW DO YOU SPELL "UMEMPLOYED"
A-L-B-E-R-T W-Y-N-N

Congratulations to Donna Edwards in MD-04. Fat Albert Wynn will now be unemployed as of January 20, 2009, when Ms. Edwards takes her seat as the Freshman Congresswoman from Prince Georges and Montgomery Counties. Makes a Political Junkie like me very proud to have had a hand in Mr. Wynn's exit from Capitol Hill.

Second, there is no reason why Hillary Clinton should be demanding that MSNBC's David Shuster and Keith Olbermann apologize for the "pimping" comment he made about Chelsea Clinton, when no one called out Andrew Cuomo on his "shuck and jive" comment regarding Barack Obama. Obama, who has swept the Chesapeake Primary and has the Borg Queen reeling this icy morning.

And, the Rude Pundit agrees with me. Particularly with this comment:

That means that she leapt at Shuster's remark as a way of keeping sympathy for her and her family in the news, a distraction from Obama's primary/caucus sweep this weekend. She used this Chelsea situation as a way to kick start some desperately needed fundraising.

And that, motherfuckers, is pretty much the definition of pimping.

'Nuff said.

THE RUDE PUNDIT SEZ....

2008-02-08T12:22:00.000-08:00

In an interesting conversation with his mama, no less. Since he doesn't link, I'm pasting his chat with his mama, here. I apologize for the "Rudeness" in advance, but I think you'll get what he's trying to say, and imagine ourselves in similar conversations with our parents. Enjoy.

A Conversation That Bodes Ill For the Coming Contest: A Play:
Characters:
The Rude Pundit - a wanton blogger
The Rude Mom - an AARP member who previously voted for Clinton, Gore, and Kerry. And, once upon a time, JFK

Setting: The Rude Pundit is home at Casa de Rude, in the midst of a phone call with the Rude Mom.

Time: Last night, prior to an evening of vodka and Ukrainian karaoke that would make the Rude Pundit wake up late, thus delaying his bloggery for the day.

Rude Pundit: So you're voting in the primary.

Rude Mom: I think we'll be out of town.

RP: You know your primary actually matters this year.

RM: Oh, no, it doesn't.

RP: (After a moment of incoherent sputtering) Are you voting for Obama or Clinton?

RM: I really like John McCain.

RP: (After comically loud sputtering) Wait, McCain? Why the fuck would you vote for McCain?

RM: (Who has learned to ignore RP's little Tourette's-like outbursts) I like him. He's always seemed like a fair man. He's a moderate Republican, not like the others.

RP: (Secretly knowing the answer is "Lieberman") But why do you support him?

RM: I just said. He's very fair.

RP: So you want the war to continue.

RM: No, of course not.

RP: If you vote for McCain, that's what you're voting for. You're saying you want the war to keep going as it is.

RM: The war is not the only issue.

RP: Um, if you want to get anything else done in this country, ya gotta stop the war. The war is the only issue.

RM: No, it isn't.

RP: So you're pro-life.

RM: Of course not. Don't be silly.

RP: So that means you're pro-choice.

RM: (Realizing that, if they were in the same room, she would be slapping the shit out of RP) Yes.

RP: You know McCain wants to put judges on the Supreme Court that'll overturn Roe v. Wade. Motherfucker's pro-life.

RM: Oh, he's not really. He's just been saying that since 2000 to try to get the conservatives to vote for him.

RP: No, he's pro-life.

RM: But he supports stem cell research.

RP: Yeah, but he's pro-life.

RM: Look, I don't know right now. I just like him. I admire him.

RP: What about Obama?

RM: I don't like him. I don't like some of the things he said at the debates.

RP: What do you mean?

RM: He was just arrogant. I didn't like him.

RP: You mean he was an uppity nigger?

RM: (Almost audibly rolling her eyes) Stop it.

RP: No, I mean, what didn't you like?

RM: Didn't he get his home half price from someone in the mafia?

RP: I don't think that's the story.

RM: That's what they said at one of the debates.

RP: Have you heard him give a speech?

RM: He's wonderful. Very inspiring.

RP: What about Clinton?

RM: Oh, no, I don't like her. I could never vote for her.

RP: I can't believe you're seriously thinking about McCain.

RM: I don't know yet. What difference does it make?

IT'S THE CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS' FAULT

2008-01-24T08:28:00.000-08:00

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...

2008-01-17T06:27:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-16T07:43:00.000-08:00

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)

2008-01-14T07:28:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-12T17:40:00.000-08:00

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"

2008-01-11T09:00:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-09T10:25:00.000-08:00

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.

THE BORG QUEEN RENTS A NEGRO

2007-12-20T07:03:00.000-08:00

THE BORG QUEEN AND HER RENTAL NEGRO

Y'all knew that the Borg Queen (aka Senator Hillary Clinton) wasn't going to take Sen. Barack Obama's stealth move in bringing out talk-show mogul Oprah Winfrey to campaign for him lying down.

I waited to see what she would do. At first, all it looked like she was going to do was throw down roundhouse punches at Obama's campaign, by digging up what the brotha wrote on his Kindergarten essay, then trying to play on American's fears by bringing up his full name, which his middle name is Hussein (y'all know where she tried to make that connection), and finally, enlisting the aid of Bill Shaheen, the husband of former New Hampshire governor Jeanne Shaheen, to start talking about Barack's youthful indiscretion (cocaine use), and allegeging he was probably a drug dealer.

Obama a drug dealer? You can't make this stuff up.

But, not to my surprise, the Borg Queen came back with a lil' stealth move of her own.

Magic Johnson. Yes, that Magic Johnson (how many did you think there were?). He joined the Borg Queen on her campaign in Iowa, and instantly went from hero to Handkerchief Head Negro with sly digs and comments about Hillary's "experience" and how we didn't need an inexperienced person getting the White House.

To which, I say, "Negro, please!" As in "Please shut your friggin' mouth; you don't know jack about politics."

Now, this is painful for me to write, because I've always been a Magic Johnson fan. Long after his HIV status forced him to retire from the game. I remember when he made the announcement about his status, thinking, "If anyone can beat this, it's Magic Johnson."

But, to turn into a Handkerchief Head is hard for me to swallow, because Magic Johnson is the last African-American I'd care to pin that label on. Campaigning for the Borg Queen, after her husband goes on Charlie Rose's show and literally dissed an African-American for even daring to consider any other candidate except his wife, frosted my cookies in a huge way that I won't be forgetting too soon.

If Obama's candidacy shows anything to politicos, it should be this: YOU CAN'T CONTINUE TO TAKE AFRICAN-AMERICANS VOTES FOR GRANTED AND NOT HAVE IT COME BACK TO BITE YOU IN THE ASS. We are not a monolithic group - and we don't like African-Americans like Magic Johnson trying to lecture us on who we should elect as POTUS. Especially when the brotha's only foray into politics was a worthy one - stepping up legislative efforts on HIV research, education and prevention.

At least he's done better than Michael Jordan - Mike wants you to "be like him" when he's collecting his checks. Political forays into issues like, say, CIVIL RIGHTS, are alien to him and problematic when it comes to getting that check. Magic eschewed that and remade himself into a remarkable businessman, purchasing and running Starbuck establishments and his Magic Johnson theaters, where going to see a movie can be a really fun experience (he even employs people to throw out those who would talk at the screen non-stop during a movie, and he has good eating going on in there, too). Magic's even gone on to make some forays into Civil Rights issues as well, so going over to what I consider "The Dark Syde" is making me toss my breakfast this morning.

Now, you're probably saying I'm being too hard on Magic, by tagging him a Handkerchief Head for spewing Hillary's talking points about Obama. Even if he didn't mention Obama by name, we all knew who he was talking about. I thought Lawn Jockey was too strong - he didn't go that far off...yet. He should be able to endorse anyone he wants - everyone African-American doesn't have to get on board with Obama. And, you're right, because at this point in the game, this African-American woman is not on board the good ship Obama, because his vagueness on his political platform reminds me of John Kerry - whenever someone asked Kerry for specifics on his campaign promises, he'd tell you to "go to www.JohnKerry.com" for more information, when it's just easier to tell us what you got planned.

A gospel tour with Donnie McClurkin damned near gave the LGBT community apoplexy - I thought John Aravosis at Americablog was going to do more than lynch Obama on his blog. And sending white campaign workers to black hair salons to ask sistas getting perms or their weaves hooked up, what they thought about Obama, showed an inherent unfamiliarity with the demographics of the very base of voters Obama was trying to reach.

My friend Skeptical Brotha, cynically referred to this period of the Obama campaign as "Amateur Hour", and I couldn't have agreed with him more.

Obama appears to have corrected that - just as the Borg Queen begins her own fumbling of her front-runner status.

Should the Borg Queen win - will there be a Cabinet position for loyalist Negroes like Magic? Create a government agency that provides oversight of professional sports, perhaps? I want to know what's in it for African-Americans like Magic Johnson, or, for that matter, half of the Congressional Black Caucus that have hitched your wagons to Hillary Clinton's campaign. You need to review just what the Clinton Administration did for people of ethnic background during the 1990s:

Gave us trade agreements that took your jobs out of the country (NAFTA & CAFTA);
Increased taxes on the working and middle-class;
Opened the door for media consolidation and monopoly (and probably gave birth to Pravda networks like Fox Network);
Dismantled any and all gains made by Civil Rights and Affirmative Action with that "Mend it, don't end it" shyt;
Refused to stand up like Harry S. Truman and further integrate the Armed Forces by allowing gay and lesbians to be open about their sexual identity, instead of hiding it with that "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" shyt;
Pushed through all legislation that the ReThugs wanted that would screw over anyone else through cutbacks in social policies and programs;
Slung people like Joycelyn Elders and Lani Guinier under the bus because Oren Hatch whined about their positions on masturbation and affirmative action like a lil' byotch.

So, I want to know what's in it for you that support the Clintons when it's well documented that everytime he had the opportunity to do some real Field Negro stuff, he always choked and put away that honorary Negro card Toni Morrison gave him. Because his wife is no better on her track record either. You can find continuous votes to fund the mess in Iraq among her atrocities, and her recent attacks on Obama should wake all of us the hell up.

I'm on record about Obama - he has not articulated his policy platform well enough for me to co-sign. But whenever I see a brotha being attacked, as if, by virtue of being Mrs. William Jefferson Clinton, Hillary thinks she's entitled to the White House because she hitched her ambition wagon to Bill and suffered the public humiliation of being cheated on because her husband got a blow job in the Oval Office; well, what qualification for the job is that?

Magic Johnson - you can add him to the list of Rent-A-Negroes. I'm wondering who's going to be next, because you know, John Edwards is going to have to trot out a rental Negro, too.

SAY WHAT?

2007-12-18T07:50:00.000-08:00

The following is an exchange on one of my favorite blogs, Jack and Jill Politics:
The blog entry is entitled "What "Diana Ross and Mahogany can Teach Us about Oprah and Obama."

In case you weren't paying attention, the civil rights struggle migrated from politics to the board room sometime in the 1980s and 90s. An actual historian might be able to tell us why but perhaps it might have something to do with disillusionment and impatience that political power didn't translate as quickly into gains for ordinary African-Americans as climbing the corporate ladder as affirmative action began to open doors and fill wallets. The best and the brightest African-Americans seemed less interested in running for office or leading protests and more interested in leaping over loosened barriers to get Harvard MBAs and socially climb. Progressive meant sitting or speaking in all-white boardrooms and proving your intelligence and equality as many times as it took to get promoted.

To gain financial muscle, many leading African-Americans appeared to feel they had to cloak their political leanings behind a friendly, harmless smile. To appear as "safe Negroes", people like Michael Jordan, Oprah Winfrey, Al Roker and Jay-Z strove to show America that the most important color to them and other mercantile blacks was not black but green, baby. Whether you were conservative or liberal, white, black, brown, whatever -- you could love your favorite black celebrity/mogul without resentment or guilt. Even Queen Latifah and Whoopi Goldberg toned down their images to appear safer. The message was all about sameness and minimizing difference. At the same time, awed whites began to make jokes about how rich Oprah had become and blacks started worshiping at the alter of prosperity, reading books like "Girl, Get Your Money Straight!". Mercantile blacks had taken over.

That all started to change in reaction to the Bush Administration. It started in hip hop with Russell Simmons and the Hip Hop Political Summit and Sean "P.Diddy" Combs and his Vote or Die voter registration campaign. It was prima facie non-partisan but if your target audiences are young people and minorities, we all know the demographics are going to skew Democratic.

Deval Patrick of Massachusetts and Barack Obama of Illinois are a flashback to the optimism and determination of Billy Dee Williams. They represent the best and brightest that chose not to work for Merrill Lynch for example where they might make more money or become world-famous doctors like Ben Carson MD but take what many middle-class African-Americans would see as the riskier route of politics as their road to success.

What's different from the 60s and 70s is that their message is the hope of a brighter future not for African-Americans but for all Americans in their states no matter the color of their skin nor the size of their pocketbooks. They've taken the language of sameness pioneered by the mercantile blacks and have adopted it as a canny political strategy to cross socio-racial lines. They are the new Black Panthers, moving stealthily through the jungle of a new era.

What's different from the 70s is we may be on the verge of another alliance between mercantile blacks and political blacks. Oprah Winfrey has stepped out of the political shadows out of her neutral comfort zone to throw her voice and her money behind Barack Obama. She knows she may lose some of her audience and doesn't seem to care. She's willing to trade the The goals of mercantile blacks and political blacks are becoming re-aligned. In part out of desperation to push the people who have sent our relatives to maiming and death in Iraq out of office. This force -- last seen during the struggle for civil rights in the 1940s-60s -- is what drove incredible progress and prosperity in America and not only for African-Americans, dig. It introduced lasting change from which we continue to profit as a nation today.

I've been telling people not to sleep on the Oprah/Obama combination for almost a year now. We'll just have to see how powerful this force really is and what it might mean for the relationship between mercantile and political African-Americans in the new millennium.

What happens when the Black Crusaders meet the new Black Panthers -- watch out!

As part of the generation that was a child when Martin Luther King was killed, yet heard these Civil Rights war stories from my parents (who thought Jesse Jackson was nothing more than a hustler even back in the 60s), I saw the logic of Jill's arguments, but I've also dealt with the likes of Harold Ford, Jr., Artur Davis - those brothas on Capitol Hill who are 40 and under (in other words, my age or thereabouts) who should be able to both appreciate the Civil Rights vets, yet be savvy and respectful enough to not flat out diss their contributions by their willingness to collect a check from the corporat masters, hastily pick up their lanterns and take up their positions on the lawn, for their own personal gain.

So, before I decide if I'm going to comment or not, I find that my colleague, Bruce Dixon of Black Agenda Report, has his own ideas on the subject:

I would fundamentally disagree with the author's statement that “the struggle has “migrated” from the street to the board room,” though that's precisely the way some of the black faces in the board room like to tell it. More accurately, at the end of the sixties, the board room doors swung open for the few that were already prepared to enter. On their way in the door they turned around to the rest of us in the street. They assured us that this was the next phase of the struggle, that marching, boycotting, grassroots organizing, and nearly everything that violated the law was obsolete, to buy from Black businesses, and that they'd be back to tell us how to vote every year or two.

A second generation of conscienceless black politicos followed at their heels, folks like Greg Meeks of NY and Artur Davis of AL and of course Harold Ford of TN, whose crossover to the realm of shills for big business has been so thorough as to leave room for only the most cursory nod to the train that got them there, let alone the sacrifices of ordinary folks who laid the rails and what motivated them.

The ascendancy of Obama, Patrick and the rest is a kind of fork off that branch, a slicker and more privileged generation who seek to renew their legitimacy by cynically evoking the ghost of movements past to cloak the fact that they offer nothing of substance policy-wise that would line up with the goals of those movements. This generation of co-opted “black leadership” relies on a a compliant media and the absence of black radio news to keep its place in the front pew among black folks, at the same time it sends messages to whites assuring them that it has nothing to do with those loud black folks in the street who make them uncomfortable.

Thus Obama helped register a six figure number of Illinois voters in 1992, but as a senator would not stand up to oppose the disenfranchisement of Black voters in Ohio in 2005. Thus he is for “universal health care” but against single payer, which is the only practical way to achieve it. He is supposedly”the peace candidate”, but vows he will not bring home the troops till at least his second term in office, intends to add another 100,00 bodies to the military and has advocated bombing Iran and Pakistan to show how tough he is. Thus he campaigned against the Patriot Act when running for the US Senate, but voted for it once in office, and voted for so-called tort reform that keeps ordinary citizens from suing wealthy corporations.

The alliance with Oprah makes eminent good sense for Obama, whose career at this moment is now built on the endorsement of corporate media who sell for him the PR packaged personae --- the celebrity, the non-threatening Negro to some whites, the “Joshua generation” guy to some blacks. It's a marketing proposition that dovetails with the practice of a master marketer, like Oprah, and appeals to large parts of the same audience.

It must be said that the corporate mainstream media are not fools, and they do not boost the folks who work in OUR interest. They boost the candidates who work in THEIRS. If Barack has, in their pages and broadcasts, metamorphosed into their darling “rock star” he has indeed been anointed. Some baton has definitely been passed to him. And not by us.

Well, I have to say, since I've made my government career as a Civil Rights/EEO Specialist for the last 20 years, my sentiments are more with my colleague, but to Jill's credit, she made good points as well. Which is why I'm thanking both of you for writing my blog post today; you made it very easy.

The above discourse is proof that African-Americans are no longer a monolithic race and we should never have been approached in that way, be they Republicans or Democrats, because at this point, both parties are really two heads of the same snake, looking to strike for any thing that gives them the advantage. It's a mistake the Borg Queen (aka Hillary Clinton) is making at this very point in her campaign, when she had front-runner status before she even declared her candidacy.

If her campaign had only spent $3.00 to rent an old DVD of "Mahogany" instead of James Carville trying to bust his best KKKarl Rove impersonation, we'd still have respect for her, and we'd return to asking Obama to prove himself. The fact that no politician, not even John Edwards, has bothered to take their "Mahogany" class on how to approach African-Americans as a voting block, will all be to their detriment.

We have clout. It's way past time we acted like it, especially on the journey of political influcence.

A TRUE LOVE

2007-11-27T06:38:00.000-08:00

Lurking about at Kos' place (again). But the diary I just read has me in tears. Tears for the diarist's loss. Tears of joy at what the diarist celebrated with his beloved Lauren. Tears of hope that I met a man who loves me the way the diarist loved his wife. I hope he won't mind me sharing excerpts of his diary here, and I hope you will head over to Kos' and show him some love.

Fifteen years ago, on an ordinary March night in an ordinary town, I opened the door to an ordinary pub and first laid eyes upon the extraordinary woman who would change my life forever. I’ll never, ever forget the first time I saw Lauren: those beautiful cornflower blue eyes and her long, curly auburn hair made my heart skip a beat, or maybe two, and a strange feeling came over me; a feeling that something important had just happened.

She happened to be sitting with some people I knew from school, so I sat down at the table, across from her, and it was then that I got to hear for the first time that lovely, lilting English accent. I felt smitten, and I proceeded to spend the next hour or two flirting shamelessly with her, trying to make her laugh, and sometimes even succeeding.

Over the next few months a deepening friendship developed between us. I noticed she had the gift of making others feel comfortable with themselves; she had an infectious and generous smile; she had a serenity about her. As the months passed and we drew closer, I found myself opening up to her more and more; I felt like I could tell her anything about myself, and she made me feel like whatever particularly unflattering detail I might reveal could never lower her opinion of me. Lauren had an innate understanding of the inevitability of imperfection and this allowed her to see past faults and to focus on the good side of people.

As that year drew to a close, Lauren neared the completion of her master’s degree, which meant that her student visa would soon expire and she’d have to return home to England. As her last couple of weeks here passed by, I felt sadness over her leaving, but the sadness puzzled me; I hadn’t yet realized I’d fallen in love with her.

Two nights before she was to head back home – Saturday, December 19th, 1992, for the record – in the deep, late night quiet of her living room, we finally both gave in and confessed our true feelings to each other.

So began a very long distance love affair, her in northern England and me in upstate New York. This was the early 90’s, remember; the days before email and cheap long distance. A couple of two to three hour phone calls every week, even if made during off-peak hours, could eat a big chunk out of your paycheck. So we’d write these long, long love letters to each other. Lauren would scent her letters with her perfumes, and oh, how my heart soared when I smelled the arrival of a new letter in the mail. I’d hold the letter up to my face to breathe in the perfume, and then I’d tear open the envelope and read the letter over and over and over again.

Four months into our affair, in April of 1993, she came out to see me for two weeks and those two weeks were, without a doubt, the best two weeks of my life to that point. And when those two weeks ended, I took her down to JFK to see her off, and after she walked away from me and through the doors marked passengers only, I sat down and cried my eyes out, because I knew, for certain, that I had found the one thing I truly wanted in life.

A year and three months after that painful goodbye at Kennedy, me and Lauren married, on July 23rd, 1994. A gorgeous and magical day on the shores on Lake Windermere – right out of a movie, my father always says – that set the tone for the next thirteen years. We honeymooned in the Lake District and then I had to come home and wait for Lauren to get her green card, and a long wait it was; nine months in fact, and she couldn’t travel here during that time, and I had just started a new job that I needed to keep to prove to the INS I could support her, so we did not see each other once during those nine months. When that wait finally ended, we treated ourselves to a second honeymoon, a week in Maine in April of 1995.

But truly, for me and Lauren, the honeymoon never ended. Our love for each other never stopped growing. During all the time we spent apart, we always used to say, in letters and over the phone, that ALL we wanted, ALL we cared about, was being together. And when the time came for us to be together, we savored it. We truly and deeply appreciated the gift of being present with each other.

WHY RATIONAL WOMEN WON'T VOTE FOR THE BORG QUEEN

2007-11-23T06:02:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, there are bloggers who make my job easier.

I still lurk around at DailyKos. Occasionally, I post a comment or two - but I don't diary there anymore, because far from allowing for dissenting opinions and meaningful discussions, Kos' blog has turned more into Kool-aid drinkers who flame you for disagreering with Kos himself, and not backing down from that position until Kos does. (Sigh).

Oh, well, I didn't want to rant about Kos (that's for another post when I good and pissed off). What I wanted to post was a good diary I found at Kos' place that provided a rational, well-articulated, analytical post from a young woman about what she can't vote for Hillary Clinton (aka "The Borg Queen"). Read it and then, head over to Kos's to give Progress for America some love:

This is an appeal to rational women.

I’d like to talk to you about Hillary Clinton. Almost 15 years ago, I asked my mother why so many people hated the President’s wife. She didn’t have an answer that she was comfortable giving her 10 year old daughter. Even if the answer would have been appropriate, she would have withheld it. In my family, women did not assert their political (or otherwise) opinions fiercely. And support for either of the Clintons would have been in great opposition to my neoconservative father.

My mother’s father, my paw-paw (what we call our grandpas in Louisiana), was a lifelong democrat. I remember my paw-paw telling me about the Great Depression. He told me that he had to walk miles to sell a bucket of snap beans for 5 cents. He said at that time, the world was without a bright light at the end of the tunnel. He taught me the value of work. He taught me the value of integrity. And he taught me about Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

He told me that FDR saved not just the United States, but the entire world by exuding extreme courage and conviction, and challenging conventional thought. My paw-paw told me that when his country needed him, he proudly served. He did it without thinking twice. He did it because his country had not forgotten him when he was in need. He told me that America defeated fascism abroad and had sown the seeds for democracy in Europe. He told me why democracy was so important and why America was so great. He told me that the American people are the government. That a [man] who didn’t represent the people’s needs was a “traitor to democracy.” He said, “money and power can corrupt even the most noble [man]” and so “the people must hold the government accountable.” That’s tough language from a strong willed patriot.

He told me that my college money had been depleted by the neocon’s policy of deregulation throughout the 1980’s. He said Ronald Reagan hurt many small business owners like himself (he installed septic tanks for 30 years with his three sons). He said that things were starting to get better in 1992. He said it was because “...a democrat has been elected.”

I was pretty excited. My paw-paw got a breath of fresh air. But then my paw-paw got sick. After two open-heart surgeries (the second one partially due to poor care at the hospital facility), his savings were completely depleted. His surgeries added 5 years to his life, instead of 10-15 years which some recipients enjoy, due to the poor care. In those 5 years, he mostly talked to me about the influence of money in our political system. He probably didn’t fully understand Washington lobbyists, but he understood greed.

And then there was Hillary Clinton. She was a hero to me. Maybe because she was the first woman I had heard pushing to make a change for women and children. I was young, but she was what I wanted to be. Someone speaking for the voices of those who would otherwise fall through the cracks. She was smart. She was tough. She was a role model.

I am sorry to say that she is no longer that role model.

Sisters, I know that many of you see Mrs. Clinton as the living example of the progress that women have made in America. It is our birthright to be treated and valued as absolute equal, capable members of society. We will hold every office in this land. After 231 years, the country is finally ready for a Woman to lead the free world.

I know that you see Mrs. Clinton as ready to assume the highest leader position in the nation, the Presidency. There is no doubt that she is also ready to assume the role. She is ready, but is she right?

Her strongest points seem to be that she is experienced. She points to her prior years as an advocate for women and children. She points to her work in the Clinton administration (as the first First Lady to have an office in the West Wing!). She points to her work as a Senator serving the state of New York. She is ready to lead, “from the first day she’s in office.”

Point 1: Prior years as an advocate for children and women’s rights.

I applaud Mrs. Clinton on everything she has done for women and children. She has led an extraordinary life of service.

Point 2: Experience in the White House

Mrs. Clinton’s most prominent role in the Clinton administration was her health care plan in 1993. Unfortunately, it was defeated, not even receiving enough support from the House or Senate to get a vote on the floor, with Democrats in both houses. America would have been better if her bill had won, but it was defeated by lobbyists and cheap politics. The Democratic Senators and Congressmen did not support Mrs. Clinton’s health care plan because they were (and still are) taking money from Healthcare Industry lobbyists.

Mrs. Clinton now receives more money from those same special interests than the top three Republican candidates for President combined.

Point 3: Her work as a New York Senator

Mrs. Clinton has been a consistent Democratic vote in the U.S. Senate. No one would dispute that. However, the Democratic party has done a very poor job of representing the American people for at least the last 15 years. This is mostly due to the influence of big money and corporate interests in our government. This is not a difficult concept.

How has your life improved over the last 15 years? Is it easier now to care for your family? Has providing healthcare for you and your loved ones become easier or harder? Cheaper or more expensive? Have your wages (in real dollars) increased or decreased? What about child care? Are we providing more for our mothers in need or less? And although Democrats haven’t been in charge this whole time, they’ve proven to lack leadership in the face of great challenge.

Many would argue that the Clinton administration used the idea of the “welfare queen” to reduce the social programs that disproportionately benefit single, needy moms. This is not an attempt to discredit the economic prosperity that we experienced under his administration, rather to make the point that fighting Republicans is harder than saying you are fighting Republicans. Bill Clinton adopted the Republican talking point about welfare and using it as a political tool, made it central to his campaign. Today, we have more women living far below the poverty line trying to care for their children. They have five years, working thirty hours a week to “get back in line” then we exclude them from receiving benefits. This has worked against the ultimate goal of lifting our nation’s poor out of poverty. This system, instead, punishes those women and their children. What happened in the 1990’s with social programs in this country is a perfect example of corruption infiltrating the Democratic Party. If you take bribes from lobbyists, you are telling the American people that their needs are second to those of business. This is what Mrs. Clinton has done.

This party once stood for regular people.
This party once stood for the working class.
This party once stood with single mothers.
This party once swore to protect the rights and interests of the voiceless minorities.
This party once cared for our nation’s children.

We cannot be that party and be the party of big business. There is no room for compromise.

Many people ask me, “Do you think that Hillary Clinton is really that bad? You know about her early work with children.” The fact of the matter is that when you are evaluating a presidential candidate, you have to consider who they are now and what they will do in the future. As much as I respect Mrs. Clinton for her service, I must look to who she is now. I must recognize who she represents. And as a woman in America, whose right to vote has only been guaranteed for 87 years, I must make the decision that guarantees each woman after me a better life. That better life lies in economic equality. The next president will have to address the role that American business has played in women's struggles.

I have not disposed who I am voting for. It is each of our responsibilities’ to look at the candidates and their platforms. Look at where they stand on the issues and look at what they say. Do not become distracted by political language. We have a right to compare these people based on what they stand for and who they represent. If they appear frightened to use strong, clear language, you should be weary. We’ve been down that road. It’s time to change course.

Who will make the best candidate for women? The candidate who places poverty above all else.

This will take great courage and conviction. This will take challenging conventional thought. Our country needs us.

It is time to proudly serve.

As a clarification has been requested, I will not support Clinton in the primary. Until we have a candidate chosen, I will not reference who I will or will not vote for in the general election.

'Nuff Said.

DEALING WITH BUREAUCRACY- THE SIINGLES' DILEMMA

2007-11-20T08:46:00.000-08:00

I could write about what a maroon Bush is, or how the Democrats never fail to engage in their own circular firing squad while the ReThugs have basically giftwrapped the POTUS as an early Christmas present if they could slow down long enough to stop shooting themselves.

I could. But I'm not going to. And here's why.

Yesterday, I had to deal with the IRS. Unless you're anticipating a tax refund, you don't want to think about the IRS until April, and if you're like me, April 15th, to be precise. When Bill Clinton, and now, George Bush, decided that more of the working class needed to make up for the taxes that the wealthy weren't paying, all I will say is that they weren't thinking about single people who make up the working class. Especially GeeShrubya. I remember that tax refund we all were supposed to get back in 2001 (the tax cut that got former Tresury Secretary Paul O'Neill fired for asking who was going to pay for it). Something about $300.00, right?

Well, since I owed the IRS about $250.00, they sent me a note, first telling me I was going to get the money; then a second note telling me they were going to keep the whole $300.00.

"So, where's the $50 you still owe me?" I whined on the phone.

"You're not getting it, even though you only owed $250.00" said the voice on the phone before I slammed it down in anger.

That, was but the beginning of my frustration with the IRS. I can't help it if I'm single, and I can't afford to own my own house yet. I can't help it if I don't have children. But, according to GeeShrubya (set into motion by Bill Clinton, I might add), if you're not married, don't own a home or other property, don't have kids - well, we're going to take 40% of what you earn out of your hide, or threaten you with jail if you don't pay up.

I remember watching a documentary where a couple had to actually get a divorce because the wife's deadbeat ex-husband had an IRS garnishment on his wages, and since they couldn't find the ex-husband, the IRS came after the ex-wife and her new husband (a doctor with a decent practice). How fair is that, since, by the IRS' admission, the husband incurred that tax liability after he'd divorced his wife?

It took girlfriend a literal act of Congress by Rep. Henry Waxman to clear that up. But if Waxman lets up, how much you want to bet the IRS will come after homegirl again? For taxes she doesn't owe, but her deadbeat ex-husband?

The IRS is but one glaring example of the lack of oversight on the part of Congress. It is an agency run amok. They harrass, snatch your bank accounts, garnish your wages, all without warning, and without proof that you actually owe them. If Congress does its job, there's real oversight and the head of the Agency would be having his ass fried on C-Span.

Now, the IRS are coming after me for tax years I've settled already, and the statute of limitations have run out. I sent in the paperwork to prove these facts.

After three hours on the phone calling everyone and their mother (besides breathing foul invectives under my breath) here's the "responsible goverment" we supposed to have:

Me: "So, that should clear things up, right? I proved I don't owe for those years."

IRS: "No, it means you need to agree to a payment arrangement until we can sort this out."

Me: "But, I've sent you the paperwork showing that I'm not responsible for those tax years. Why are you asking for a payment arrangement for tax years I've clearly proven I don't owe?"

IRS: "Until we get more documentation..."

Me: "What more documentation can I give you apart from what you requested from me?"

IRS: "We don't know yet. Just set up the payment plan or else we'll place a garnishment on your paycheck..."

Now, I'm pissed. So, we proceed to set up the payment plan, after they ask me how much do I make (gross, never mind that I take home 50% of that gross), what do I spend for groceries, rent, car payment, health insurance, property tax (yes, in the commonwealth of Virginia, even if you rent a damned apartment, you're paying property taxes if you live in Metro Northern Virginny). After demonstrating I'm pretty tapped out, I'm asked:

"Can you pay $1400 a month? Based on your gross, you can afford that?"

Me: (after hollering WTF at the top of my lungs) "If I had $1400 a month extra after paying my bills, I sure as hell wouldn't be on the phone to the IRS because I wouldn't owe shyt! Am I not supposed to do the normal things, like eating, on a payment plan?"

IRS: "Can't you borrow the money, or get a family member to co-sign a loan for you to pay off the debt?"

Me: "Let me get this straight - I'm supposed to incur more debt to pay off the IRS of a debt, by your own admission, you're not even sure I still owe? And you don't know me well enough to ask me if I have family members that will co-sign a loan to get me out of this. So, what happens if I'm right, and I don't owe this money - if I agree to a payment plan, and you find out you're wrong, do I get the money refunded to me?"

IRS: "Unfortunately, that might not be the case. So, I'll take that as a 'No.""

Me: (perverse female mode now) "You damned right, that's a "no"! And since you're insisting I go on this payment plan or get garnished, I offer to pay $200 a month. Not a penny more than that."

I need a drink at this point - I have developed a raging headache between my eyes, and I want to call out for my mother to make this boogey man go away.

Now, keep in mind, I pay a tax accountant out in California to look after shyt like this, right?

He's MIA. Not to mention FIRED, because he has me stuck like Chuck on this.

Now I know how it feels to be waterboarded, because I literally drowned in this bureaucratic red-tape, where they tell you to get out of debt by incurring more debt to pay it off. How sick is that shyt?

And, because of this problem, even in Bill Clinton's administration, I could still call on Congress to bail a sista out. Now, because we have a Congress with an 11% approval rating; with leaders who are more inclined to blow Bush as opposed to standing up to him and his bullying; and all the infighting going on, if Waxman were my Congressman, I would probably call him with this tale of woe with the IRS. Hell, I'd probably still call Waxman anyway, even though he's not my Rep. But he's at least going after bastards like the IRS. Even if I still lived in Oaktown, I could take this to Barbara Lee. And now, I have a glimmer of hope with Jim Moran (cause I'm in his district), but I've decided not to go to him until after Christmas (when I have to start paying on the arrangement, yes?) Cause I want Mr. Moran to demonstrate he has a smidgen of Henry Waxman's cojones in fighting for me, the tax-paying constituent strung up by the IRS.

For all of you facing similar troubles, let me hear from you. Even if you can rage, rage, rage about agencies like the IRS, I welcome you to comment. You're not alone in this.

Imagine, being punished by the Government because you're single. Jeez

OBAMA BATTLE FATIGUE THAT'S NOT MY OWN

2007-10-26T06:54:00.001-07:00

I've been lagging a lot with my posts on my own blog (too busy posting comments on other's blogs, LOL).

But this South Carolina primary that Sen. Barack Obama is trying his damndest to lose, is really giving me a battle fatigue I'm not really used to experencing.

I've said in earlier posts on this very blog, that Obama was, at best, a triangulating twit, and got royally flamed for my trouble. My fellow bloggers, such as Skeptical Brotha, or the Field Negro, didn't take as many hits (well, the Field didn't, anyway, cause SB and I took major ones). We tried to warn everyone drinking Obama's kool-aid and treating him in rock star fashion worthy of Derek Jeter, that Obama wasn't who you thought he was.

Black Agenda Report, and Black Commentator (when Glen Ford was the Editor), was on Obama early and often.

He showed considerable amounts of disingeniousness when he denounced his membership in the DLC, yet he takes campaign contributions from them and continues to benefit from their largesse to this very day.

But, what is causing me this fatigue now, is continual reading of how he's managing to screw up his budding Presidential campaign in particularly craptacular fashion. Let's review, shall we?

He announced his candidacy on the same day as Tavis Smiley's "State of the Black Union" conference down in Hampton, Virginia. It was presumed to steal thunder from somewhere, because C-Span cut out on the SOBU and went directly to Springfield, Illinois, where Obama had also disinvited his pastor to the event. - CHECK.

His campaign took over, usurped, bogarded a fan's MySpace page that was set up exclusively for him and his campaign. Something about copyrights and ownership - CHECK.

His lack of action in confirming Supreme Court Nominees Alito and Roberts to the Bench - CHECK.

His campaign pledge not to pull troops out of Iraq until 2013 should he get the White House. - CHECK.

Sending campaign workers ignorant of the demographics where they are campaigning, and insulting the very voters they are courting - CHECK.

And now, his Gospel Tour featuring a "cured" ex-homosexual who's spouting anti-gay rhetoric, Donnie McClurkin - CHECK.

Follow that up with in trying to balance out the shyt storm he's stirred up, Obama invited an openly gay pastor to open up the event. Two problems with that, though. The guy is WHITE, and the event is being held in SOUTH CAROLINA. Are you still with me at this point?

If you're trying to appeal for tolerance between African-Americans (who have a long history of being homophobic), gays and religion, what Obama has done is definitely NOT THE WAY TO GO. Especially since it's looking like you couldn't find any gay Black people to speak to a Black audience about Gays, and therefore, further confirm the myth that being gay is a white man's problem.

I don't know if being gay is genetic, biological, or learned, so, even though I'm a Christian, I can't buy off on treating them as perverts, pedophiles or anything else, and what's more, I don't want to. It's like being born African-American - I didn't have a choice, and I can't cover it up, or live in a closet, either. When you see me, you see I'm African-American (although some Latinos have tried to claim me, LOL) but it is what it is.

What the good Senator from Illinois has done is create a campaign atmosphere where no one is going to take him seriously anymore. The ever-growing list of gaffes, faux-pas and flat out crapping up, have prospective voters thinking "If he can't handle his campaign, how the hell is he going to handle the problems that go with being POTUS?"

Everyone's sobering up off the rock-star kool-aid, Senator. They're seeing you for what you really are - A TRIANGULATING TWIT, who's trying to be all things to all people. What's really pissing people off is your ego maniacal refusal to scrap shyt and admit when you've blown it; not to mention your tendency to sweep things under a rug, and your timidity in taking firm stands on anything - always, you have to put your finger up into the winds of political climate to determine which road you'll take. Hell, you didn't even offer to back Sen. Christopher Dodd on filibustering FISA until Sen. Russ Feingold got in the boat first.

And it's always to upstage and distinguish yourself from your closest rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton. Not out of motivation for it being the right thing to do.

Senator, I'm tired of seeing you shoot your campaign in the foot, and be the real test of whether or not America is ready for an African-American president. Judging by the millions of votes Jesse Jackson got in 1984 and 1988 was more than enough evidence that America was at least willing to entertain the idea of an African-American president, so all you really had to do was get in it to win it.

Additionally, John Aravosis at Americablog is foaming at the mouth and calling for Obama's head (read his posts for most of this week), Pam Spaulding at Pam's House Blend (and yes, she's steaming), not to mention my friend, Jasmyne Cannick on her blog as well. John, being the gentleman he is, posted a blog entry well worth reading:

And for the record, Jasymine, Pam and Keith Boykin are three African-American gay activists who make better friends than enemies, as Obama, in his constant triangulation, is finding out.

Face it, Senator; I'm tired of labeling you as a "TRIANGULATING TWIT", but lately, you've left me no other options.

MEMO TO CONGRESS....YOU SUCK

2007-10-02T11:30:00.000-07:00

Although I have my issues with Daily Kos, sometimes, their diarists posts diaries of sheer prosaic genius. They make my job as a blogger easy, because I can cross-post their diaries here.

Ladies and gentlemen, the latest from BondDad:

To Congress: You Suck

by bonddad

Tue Oct 02, 2007 at 04:19:50 AM PDT

I use to have respect for Senators and Representatives. They use to actually do something -- as in accomplish something good for the country. Unfortunately, that time has past at least for now. So, to everyone in Congress: you suck.

I first expressed my dissatisfaction with the new Democratic majority in this article on June 20 where I wrote:

But the Democratic victory in 2006 has left me feeling extremely hollow. More than anything I simply wanted someone to stand-up to the spoiled drunken frat boy currently inhabiting the While House. But the Dems blinked on war funding. While I understand the reasons for their backing down (not having a veto proof majority), I wanted someone at long last to say, "no". And the Dems didn't. So my disappointment grew.

The Dems have continued to disappoint. They have issued toothless subpoenas, failed to expose the extreme mismanagement of "War on Terror" fundinig and have now thrown in the towel in their opposition to Mr. 29%. For some reason, Democrats are afraid of standing up for what a majority of Americans want.

But the Republicans have done no better. They act in classic passive/aggressive manner. In one breath they are the oppressed minority, taken advantage of by the "liberal media" (save for Fox, and Rush, and Hannity, and Prager, and Medved....you get the idea). Yet with their next breath they use the same standard attack of personal destruction while acting as if they don't.

The final straw for me is the dueling resolutions about Moveon.org and Rush Limbaugh. To the Republicans, I would remind you of this funny little document called the Constitution, specifically the First Amendment:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

If you don't like the ad, fine. But you can't stop someone from printing it. It's that simple. And considering some of the ads you guys have run, well, see the above paragraph on passive/aggressive behavior.

And now the Democrats are offering a resolution condemning Rush Limbaugh, only to have the Republicans offer a resolution praising Rush Limbaugh.

To the Democrats, I would like you to please re-read the First Amendment.

I give up.

This is beyond madness.

This is beyond stupidity.

Do you guys wonder why no one likes politicians? Anybody?

This country has serious issues.

We have a war that a majority of Americans oppose, yet we continue to fight.

(crickets chirping)

We have a mountain of debt that we have to pay-off sometime.

(crickets chirping)

We have millions of Americans who have no health insurance.

(crickets chirping)

We have an ever-increasing gap between rich and poor.

(crickets chirping)

We have students leaving college with debt levels so high that they can't climb the socio-economic ladder.

(crickets chirping)

So, to Congress...please, take this very personally.

You suck.

I couldn't have said it better myself. Oops, that's right, it's the reason why I copied it here, LOL.

THE RUDE PUNDIT SEZ....

2007-09-25T11:15:00.000-07:00

Ten Other Things That Surprise Bill O'Reilly About Black People:
Thus spake O'Reilly: "I couldn't get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia's restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City. I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it's run by blacks, primarily black patronship. It was the same, and that's really what this society's all about now here in the U.S.A. There's no difference." So, in honor of Bill O'Reilly's approval that black people act like white people:

1. Black women also don't like when their bosses call in the middle of the night to tell them how nice it'd be to rub their big boobs with a falafel.

2. When you berate them on national radio or television, black men also get upset.

3. Black mothers also don't like it when their children are killed in useless wars.

4. When you throw your whiskey glass at the black help at the Hamptons, they cry in pain just like the Hispanics.

5. Black crackheads in Harlem will knife you for the change in your pockets just like the white crackheads on the Upper East Side.

6. Black people also died on 9/11 and are susceptible to the inflammatory rumblings of a rabid blowhard.

7. While you're beating black whores to death in your uncontrollable priapic rage before fucking their corpses, they also plead for their lives.

8. And the blood they bleed is red, too.

9. When they're enjoying fried chicken and ribs with a side of watermelon, black people are known to use napkins.

10. Black people don't need to say "motherfucker" to know who is one.

(By the way, the Rude Pundit's been to a lot of restaurants in the skeeviest neighborhoods in black, white, yellow, and brown sections of town and, unless someone spoke it in another language, no one's ever said, "Motherfucker, I want more iced tea." Iced tea generally doesn't evoke such passion, unless you're Joe Pesci in about 1992.)

Yeah, just when you think the Falafel Man can't open his already big mouth to shove his foot further down in it, he comes along and surprises you with how much of his foot he can eat.

JENA

2007-09-21T11:28:00.000-07:00

This town is getting the same notoriety that its' neighbor over in Jasper, Texas, got seven years ago (James Byrd being dragged down the road behind a pickup truck for sport until he was decaptitated). And if it serves to embarass people into the 21st Century on issues of racism, I'm all for something good coming out of this mess.

The town's residents don't want to be known as a town full of bigots. Thanks to some high school students who were taught that bigotry, by residents of that town, well, Jena, you got the scarlett letter on your back now. 25, 000 African-Americans crowding your town to demand justice for six young African-Americans who are facing prison sentences meant for hard-core crimes (you know, like rape, murder, industrial-strength drug dealing, lying this country into a war) for getting into a school fight, earned you that Scarlett Letter of Bigoty.

Why don't bigots want to be publicly known as bigots? Saves people like me a lot of trouble and time trying to ID your behinds. Why do you need to hide behind a hood, robe and burning cross? Could it be, that maybe, just maybe, you know deep down in your hearts that you're supporting something morally wrong (like hating people because they don't look like YOU, perhaps?)

My father used to always say if he was given the chance of fighting a water mocassin and a rattlesnake, he'd take on the rattler every time, because the rattler lets you know he's going to fight back by rattling his tail. He used this analogy when talking about bigots, people.

Chopping down the tree where this fight got started doesn't eliminate that the local D.A., Reed Walters, went after those kids, now known as the Jena 6, for the wrong reasons, and that reason was race.

Some might compare this incident to the rape allegations against the Duke LaCrosse team made by an African-American stripper. I didn't think race should have played a role then - to me, it was a matter of a woman alleging she'd been gang raped by a bunch of athletes. Now, when you got the story, that racial epithets were hurled at the woman, that fact turned the incident racial, and rather than D.A. Mike Nifong looking for factual evidence he could take to build up an actual case against the Duke players, he used the racial aspect to ensure African-Americans re-elected him in droves, with the promise of continuing to vigorously prosecute this case.

Well, it worked. For a hot minute anyway. Wasn't long before his antics caught up with him, plus the fact that the Duke boys' parents had fat bank accounts to hire them serious legal representation. But, anyway...

Funny, how he (Nifong) used race to get re-elected, but the facts got him kicked out of office, out of a job, and out of his license to practice law elsewhere. But, the Jena 6 is different because race has been a direct factor from the outset. And while Reed Walters denies that fact, what's more important to note is that he's not doing anything to quiet down speculation about it being about nothing else than RACE.

Jena, Louisiana highlights, as did Jasper, Texas, that there are Americans who advanced to the 1960s and are still stuck there. It highlights that racism and bigotry is a taught science, and is passed down from generation to generation. Those of us born during the turbulent 60s are the generation who should have learned from mistakes made before we were born, and our parents taught us the determination not to repeat them. However, some were perfectly okay with training their children to be the next generation of Klansmen (ever see those film clips with babies in KKK hoods and robes? That should have been enough to scare you; those kids are in their late 30s and early 40s now, with spawn of their own)

Somewhere along the way, those lessons didn't get taught to a few white kids in Jena. But the lessons of bigotry did stick with them. That was where they got their motivation to hang a noose on that tree, after African-American kids decided to peacefull protest by sitting under that tree. Kinda like the kids did back in the 1960s at those lunch room counters at Woolworth's. And the Black kids got a noose to greet them for their trouble to protest bigotry.

The white kids thought hanging a damned noose is nothing more than a prank. Their parents probablly told them that. Tell that shyt to African-Americans who lived with those threats every damned day of their lives; despite laws being passed to outlaw such terrorism.

But you know what's worse than what's going on in Jena? The refusal of the so-called, "progressive" bloggers to give any time and space on their blogs to such a salient issue for African-Americans, for Latino Americans, for Asian Americans, for women, for the LGBT community, because just substitute "African-American" for any of the groups I've named here, and you have the same problem, if not worse. You have bigotry on a massive scale.

Pam Spaulding of Pam's House Blend called out her fellow progressive bloggers on their dereliction of duty in being the aspects of journalists we have been longing for, for the last 10 years. At best, DailyKos' MissLaura did a full post on Jena, today, but FireDogLake is mailing in the "Dog Ate My Homework" on their dereliction. HuffPo has been eerily silent as well.

My take on this - until "progressives" get their collective heads out of their asses on this one, you need to stop calling on us African-American bloggers to carry your water when it suits you to include us at the table. Until our issues are synonymous with your issues, (which means you don't get to pooh-pooh issues like the Jena 6, but we're expected to demonstrate outrage when Bill O'Reilly attacks you) you need to get that beam out of your eye before you tell me I have one in mine. Your silence tells me that my issues don't matter to you, so don't get upset if you come knocking on the door of Black Bloggers and we're not home.

BEING IN THE POSITION TO DO NOTHING

2007-08-07T06:43:00.000-07:00

There has to be a reason why the Democratic Party won't stand up for basic civil liberties, freedoms and rights. There has to be a reason that they won't stand up to a President whose approval ratings are 25% (or less, depending on who you ask), with a VP whose ratings are so low they don't even register in polling.

When you see this Democratic Majority:

cave in to Bush on funding the Iraq quagmire
cave in on this wiretapping legislation that is so horrendous, Alberto Gonzales couldn't get then-Attorney General John Ashcroft to sign off on it because it violated the Constitution;
Threaten vetoes for legislation designed to help the working masses of people in America and have no back up plan
Get Pelosi and Reid to announce "Impeachement is off the table" and watch how this Administration continues to lie, cheat, steal and piss on the Constitution without impunity;

Then I think we have to look at other reasons why the Democrats are giving us, who elected them in 2006, the "finger".

If you're like me, you got pissed when Harry Reid said to the press on the Iraq authorization that "Americans had too high an expectation of the Democratic Majority" after hearing from constituents all over the United States about his piss-poor performance in "keeping his powder" dry.

Dammit, I'm choking on all that dry powder; how about you?

When there was a ReThug majority in both Houses of Congress, the Democrats had a ready-made excuse for doing nothing. Now that they're in charge, it is no different than when the ReThugs were running things; as a matter of fact, there is no difference between the ReThugs and the current Democratic Leadership.

When you want change, you go about effecting change. You create strategies for change, and you become responsive to the demand by the masses for change. I did not give up my hard-earned money, wear out shoe leather, monitor voting places for fraudulent turning away of voters, drive old people to polling places to vote, and everything else an activist citizen does, to get Democrats elected so they could piss on me and reprimand me for expecting them to do their jobs by challenging Bush on his BS legislation and running of this country. The fact that this current crop of Democrats are "all hat, no cattle" is pissing me off to heights of pissivity I've never imagined before now.

In pondering my frustration, it began to occur to me to ask what do certain Democrats gain by maintaining status quo? We see what it's getting faux-Democrat Joe Lieberman; a platform upon which to blackmail his Democratic colleagues in the Senate if he doesn't get what he wants. He always threatens to vote with the ReThugs - Reid pacifies him, and Holy Joe votes with the ReThugs, anyway.

So much for maintaining that majority. But when you see the obvious, and you have made your demand of those who you elected to public office, and they literally ignore your demand, for me, there is only one conclusion, and it's not about Reid and Pelosi being cowards.

I'm talking about liking the status quo and being unwilling to change it.

Most of you know that I've got this research project on accountability going with the Congressional Black Caucus because many African-Americans felt that for achieving the goal of getting 10% of Congressional Representation by African-Americans, we should have some bang for our buck. We couldn't figure out why we suddenly had a faction of that caucus voting directly in conflict with the long-held ideas and consensus of most African-Americans.

You know, stuff like quality education for our children, a safe and livable environment, jobs paying a living wage, universal healthcare.....STUFF LIKE THAT.

STUFF that is not unique to African-Americans, but is the desire of all Americans.

We wanted to know why there was a faction of that caucus that voted for Iraq war authorizations, knowing that money could have gone to fund all those things I listed in the above paragraphs; why they would vote for a bankruptcy bill that would worsen an already tanking economy; why they would vote to eviscerate our basic civil liberties and freedoms- many of which our ancestors fought and died for.

So, we began a project to start holding them accountable. While it's working, I find in my observations of Congress, that there may be an even bigger problem than demanding accountability on the part of our lawmakers. I think the Democratic Leadership actually likes being in this position of do-nothing. I think someone's benefitting from ReThug largesse, and to actually have to respond to the demand of the American people, would actually upset that largesse. What other explanation can there be of a Congress who still caves into a President that has no clothes on and the entire world knows it?

It is not about cowardice, or lack of spine or backbone. Plain and simple, there are some Democrats who actually like being in this position, because they have ready-made excuses for not listening to our demands, or for not representing our interests. Now the question is, who are they, and how do we go about getting rid of them?

You are not going to accept my vote and then piss on me and tell me it's raining. Those days are over - if they ever really got started. If you like being in this position, and you believe your constituents will understand, then dammit, switch parties. I would rather have a number of Democrats who walk their talk and who mean what they say, rather than a bunch of undercover ReThugs posing as Democrats, who spit on us every chance they get and tell us they're not spitting on us, despite evidence to the contrary.

If they like this status quo, let them "status" their "quo" somewhere else. They can enable the Bush Administration on their own dime and their own time, while someone else gets the actual job of legislating done.

AIDES GONE WILD...ELIOT SPITZER EDITION

2007-07-30T09:09:00.000-07:00

This is a good leader, clear of mind and sound thinking:

Albany

WE made mistakes.

Though two independent investigations proved that no illegal activity occurred on my watch, it is crystal clear that what members of my administration did was wrong — no ifs, ands or buts.

I have apologized to Joe Bruno, the Senate majority leader, and now I want to apologize to all New Yorkers.

This is an excerpt from the New York Times; a public apology, written by the Governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer.

No passing of the buck, no scapegoating, no seeking to escape responsibility, even if it wasn't Eliot Spitzer himself.

Which is more than I can say for the President of the United States.

NO REASON NOT TO IMPEACH

2007-07-06T06:55:00.000-07:00

Okay, fine - I know Bush was exercising his constitutional privilage when he chose to commute Scooter Libby's sentence and make the man pay a fine. That just basically laid the groundwork for the full pardon he will grant Libby on January 20, 2009.

Funny how Bush remembers his privilages under the Constitution when he's not crapping on it.

Anyhow, Bush's latest flipping of the bird to the judiciary system, just compounds the continually piling on of offenses he's brought to the Presidency. This, after promising to restore dignity and honor to the White House, a "dignity and honor" that was supposedly trashed because Bill Clinton was getting his groove on in the Oval Office. At least, Clinton didn't go out and start wars because he wanted to, nor did he turn the White House into La Cosa Nostra and politicize the Justice Department, where the incompetent Alberto Gonzales still wears the job title of Attorney General, despite breaking the laws he swore to uphold.

That politicizing of the Justice Department also extended to a Supreme Court who has their collective foot on the gas to return this country to "those good ol' days" where Reamus shined shoes, Bessie cooked and cleaned someone else's house in order to support her family, and every person of color was spat upon, shat upon, beaten to the back of the bus that Black Men couldn't even get a job driving. Clarence Thomas actually believes that segregation and discrimination would have eventually been resolved ala Booker T. Washington.

W.E.B DuBois had other ideas about that. But, I'm digressing here. You want to know about why there's no reason not to impeach Bush and Cheney. Considering that Reagan's former NSA Chief, William Odom, is not only saying there's reason to impeach, he feels it's imperative, to the point, he's laid out a plan for impeachment, if the wimpy, spineless Democrats would only use it.

From DailyKos, via the Angry Rakkastan:

Retired three-star Army General William Odom threw Commander Guy under the bus today. And Odom is no ordinary three-star. From 1985-1988 he served as chief of the NSA under Ronald Reagan.

So take a deep breath, Red America: It’s going to be hard to spin this one.

Writing for Harvard University’s Nieman Watchdog, Odom called for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. Now, he’s done this before, so that’s not where the news is. Rather, the good stuff came at the end of Odom’s piece—when he delivered a three-step plan by which Congress can force the President to give in. Here’s a summation of what Odom said:

Redefine what "supporting the troops" means.

Flatly refuse to appropriate war funds "for anything but withdrawal operations with a clear deadline for completion."

If that doesn’t work, Congress should impeach the President for "the ‘high crime’ of squandering the lives of soldiers and Marines for his own personal interest."

Well, well, now. Even the Reaganites have had it with GeeShrubya. But, GeeShrubya has never, really been all of the problem. We've had a predatory overlord running this country under the guise of being a Vice-President. A VP who shot his friend in the face...and made him apologize for shooting him in the face.

A Vice-President who just claimed he's not a member of the Executive Branch of government, when asked (subpeoned) to turn over his records regarding who visited him regarding the development of energy policy, and anything else that smelled of Eau De Criminale, with a touch of Fred Thompson's stale cigar and English Leather, Hai Karate or Brut.

A Vice President who told the now Senate Chair of the Judiciary, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, to go "F---" himself, and didn't draw a peep of a censure from the Senate for dissing one of its own members.

A Vice-President, who has a lesbian daughter that just made him a grandfather, and yet, he's in a government that's so homophobic, her partner, Heather Poe, has no rights as a human being because she's gay, and no parental rights to little Sam Cheney; how do you explain that?

It's bad enough that six children in this world has Richard Bruce Cheney for a grandfather. If my grandfathers were one soupcon of the evil that is Dick Cheney, I would shoot them both with those Winchester rifles they owned, and get off for justifiable homicide.

A Vice-President who's dared us to challenge him on anything pertaining to being constitutional, while he controls our "Decider Guy" like Edgar Bergen controlled Charlie McCarthy for the last seven years.

Well, in all honesty, I'd be a little intimidated, too, seeing as he shot his friend, Carl Worthington, in the face, and the guy came out of the hospital apologizing for all the trouble he caused Cheney by getting shot. WTH?

Read that DKos post. Then try to tell me there's no reason to impeach Bush and Cheney, when the evidence clearly shows there's no reason NOT to impeach. We will be forever derelict in our duties as American citizens if we do not.

CAN A SUPREME COURT JUSTICE BE IMPEACHED?

2007-06-29T12:44:00.000-07:00

Ever since Roberts and Alito got confirmed to the bench, and ever since all of those 5-4 decisions with House Negro Clarence Thomas acting as the swing guy on all of them, I've been wondering, because Roberts and Alito were questioned about their ideologies and would they allow them to influence how they rule on the Court.

They said their personal ideologies would have no influence.

They've been influencing their opinions ever since convening of their session last Fall.

So, in other words, they lied, and they lied under oath to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Isn't lying under oath to Congress is not only an impeachable defense, but one for which a person can be sent to jail?

And the Rude Pundit agrees with me:

As long as we're all talking about impeaching people, shit, let's gear up for a post-2008 impeachment of Roberts and Alito for lying to the Senate Judiciary Committee by saying, without any hint of hedging, that they believed in the principle of stare decisis, or respecting precedent. Shit, the tortured way in which Roberts attempts to wedge a respect for precedent into the integration case is a genius turn of Rovean rhetoric: "If I just say I'm upholding Brown, then no one can accuse me of not upholding it." Or, in other words, they won't say they're overturning precedent - they'll just make it impossible to enforce the precedent.

Well, I don't know about impeachment of anybody in this corrupt administration, since Nancy Pelosi took impeachment off the table...

BYPASS CONGRESS? HMMM....

2007-06-21T11:37:00.000-07:00

Here's some food for thought. From Joel Hirschhorn, writing for OpEd News:

Are Americans Unready to Boil?

By Joel S. Hirschhorn

The frog-in-boiling water model helps us understand political upheavals: how citizens wake up early enough (or too late) to respond to social and economic oppression. Sometimes the greed and arrogance of Ruling Classes makes them careless and social waters heat too quickly. Sensing doom, alert citizen-frogs escape or revolt. Or they stay complacent and boil. The Bush Administration has turned the heat up on us, explaining why nearly 75 percent of Americans believe their country is on the wrong track and 70 percent think the economy is worsening.

Mexico is the richest Latin American country but has extreme economic inequality, which measures social temperature. Mexicans are jumping out of oppressive waters en masse, right into the U.S., exacerbating our rising inequality. The Chinese have learned to offset oppressive communist forces with materialistic capitalism – like our affordable materialism keeps Americans distracted and docile (with help from Chinese imports). In colonial America the greedy British motivated our Revolutionary War, but with oppression now coming from within, will Americans wait too long?

Some Americans keep warning us – people like Michael Moore, Cindy Sheehan, Aaron Russo, Dennis Kucinich, Lou Dobbs, Ralph Nader, Ron Paul, Bill Moyers, Jon Stewart, and Keith Olbermann. They entertain complacent “frogs” and preach to the choir of alert “frogs” that also know the temperature is rising dangerously. Many of the former keep hoping that putting better Democrats or Republicans in office will get us back on the right track. Many of the latter are ready to jump to what our Constitution offers us: an Article V convention.

And once you know that plutocratic elites from both major parties have for decades opposed the Article V convention to propose constitutional amendments, YOU should favor what THEY oppose.

We frequently see a knee-jerk fear reaction to an Article V convention. Such fear is misplaced and baseless. Only the rich and powerful elites running and ruining our nation should fear a convention.

It is fatalistic to fear that a convention could make things worse by removing valued parts of the Constitution or adding terrible things. Naturally, no one knows with certainty what a convention might propose. But we do know with certainty that whatever a convention proposes must satisfy the Constitution’s rigorous ratification requirement. That two step process is part of the genius of the Constitution. Recall that a convention is the alternative to Congress proposing amendments. And what do Americans think of Congress?

A measly 23 percent view Congress positively. Expecting Congress to enact really good laws, spend our taxes wisely, and keep the president and executive branch agencies from abusing us is like a joke on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. It is laugh-at-loud funny to put trust and faith in Congress. It matters not whether Democrats or Republicans control Congress. Nearly all members are under the thrall of moneyed interests. Congress is a national embarrassment. Our misrepresentatives are partners in corruption, dishonesty and oppression. Over decades they have allowed the presidency to accumulate imperial powers. Do you really believe they are worth $165,200 a year, with generous health and pension benefits?

Still, we live in a great nation. But great nations rise and fall.

America is no longer close to what it should be – or once was. It no longer fairly serves and protects all Americans. Too many Americans are working poor, hungry, homeless, poorly educated, imprisoned, debt-ridden, crime victims, facing economic insecurity, nonvoters, and lacking health care.

What we have is a plutocracy run by and for the Upper Class that sucks up a huge fraction of the nation’s wealth. Lobbyists ensure that public policy increases economic inequality and rewards corporate interests, even if it requires preemptive wars like the Iraq fiasco, sanctions massive illegal immigration, and sends good jobs overseas. That so many people escaping other nations (with hot or boiling water) want to come to the USA should not blind us to the creeping decline of our democracy and the heating of our social waters.
How much worse does American democracy have to get before public outrage demands what the Constitution’s Framers gave us in case citizens lost confidence in the federal government?

Maybe we need to seriously quite relying on Congress to act on the things that matter. I'm just not sure anymore, cause it's hard to make a complacent Congress listen to you, and then get in your face and tell you it's your fault for having high expectations of them to do the jobs for which they got hired.

ON BULLSHIT, PART II - LEGACIES

2007-05-30T09:18:00.001-07:00

leg·a·cy (lěg'ə-sē) Pronunciation Key
n. pl. leg·a·cies

Money or property bequeathed to another by will.
Something handed down from an ancestor or a predecessor or from the past: a legacy of religious freedom.

I said I would continue this discussion on bullshit. Since I began discussing Pumpkinhead's pimping of his own father for financial gain while shytting on everything his father taught him, that led me to thinking about the legacies our parents or our leaders leave us, and our responsibility to do those legacies proud. So, I write with the second definition of legacy in mind.

It is bothersome when those who had fathers or mothers in positions of power believe they are entitled to succeed them when they retire or die out of their position because they are biologically related; for some strange reason, as a means to distinguish themselves from their parent, the child inheriting his parent's legacy means that he/she has a license to ill and shit on what their parent stood for.

You may want some examples. Look no further than Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s children. Out of the four of them, ironicially the oldest, Yolanda, was the only one who seemed to have full understanding of the legacy her father left with his activism, and fully embraced that. She spent her life living out his legacy, and never displayed a need to crap on it like used newspaper. Her baby sister, Bernice, on the other hand, plays at the legacy, but compromises it when it's convenient for her to do so (i. e. lead protest marches against civil unions, while her mother is leading protest marches in support of civil unions because that's what Martin would have wanted.) Martin III has tried to embrace his father's legacy, but it appears that Dexter has all but run away from it. But at least they haven't attempted to crap on it as Bernice has, especially under the unction and mentoring of snake-oil Bishop Eddie Long out of the ATL. They uninvited Harry Belafonte from Coretta's funeral, because Shrub was attending and Harry had already gotten into his grill.

Belafonte paid for their father's funeral back in 1968 and supported them until Coretta got things together to support her family and her husband's legacy. But Bernice crapped on her father's legacy when she dissed Belafonte, one of her father's closest friends and still, at 80, a stauch fighter in the battle for civil and human rights.

Get the picture? Maybe not, so I'll give you a few more.

Let's take the Man-Who-Wanted-To-Be-Senator, but he wasn't "white" enough for the "devils" in East Memphis. I took the liberty to peruse the voting legacy of Senior while first doing research for CBC Monitor's report cards. The difference between him and his son were such that one wonders if Junior wasn't just found on Senior's doorstep, having been left there by wolves. Again, he shat on his father's legacy as a congressman, because he was so ashamed of his father, and the family who gave him that name he consistently cashed in on when convenient, he tried to check out of the African-American race and voted the straight ReThug ticket in a way that made GeeShrubya proud.

All for personal gain. No wonder he's still referred to in DC as the "Ho".

Which leads me to GeeShrubya. While Poppy can brag he was President and Chief Spook in the CIA back in the 1960s, Shrubya can brag that he literally sent this country to hell in a handbasket and is still going at it. I won't go into all of his craptacular screw-ups, but he can at least brag he had the job four years longer than Dear Old Dad, and really established the Bush legacy as that of being spectacularly f-wads.

Some Congresscritters are in Congress as parts of legacies, too. Except, when you point to Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), at least he's not crapping on the legacy left by his uncles and now, his father. So, if he could get it right on the legacy thing, what happened to the others like Rep. Lacy Clay (D-MO), or Kendrick Meek (D-FL), whose parents were progressives during their terms in office, only to hand it over to their sons who consistently flirt with the DLC, and engage in bullshit like this?

If a Congresscritter's kid gets the job after his parent has stepped down, maybe we won't be so disappointed to expect the kid to be like the parent, and honor the legacy they left, when they get caught up in the "bling"of being an elected official and foolishly determine they should not be like their parents, even if their parents were right in their decisions and performance as elected officials. Their attempts to distinguish themselves from their parents indicates they're ashamed of what their parent stood for, and they intend to play with triangulation, circular firing squads, getting paid and selling out for personal gain while screwing over the people who elected them, in an attempt to not be like their parent, but their own person.

Some of them need to emulate their parent, because being their own person has them so full of bullshit that they feed to us and tell us it's filet mignon.

Bush is worrying about his legacy as President right now. Needless to say, I wish someone would spare him the suspense and tell him that not only he gets rated as Worst.President.Ever., but also, Worst-American-Whoever-Lived-in-This-Country status.

And you see the legacies of Mike Wallace get shat on by his weasel of a son schilling for Fox Noise, not to mention the legacies of Cronkite, Rather, Brinkley and maybe Brokaw get trashed by those more fond of their Beltway Cocktail Weenies and parties, than dedicated to do their jobs and report actual news. You don't have to be biologically related to those who created the legacies. But if you're going to follow in their footsteps, you damn well have an obligation to do no harm to the legacy and/or profession they left behind. The willingness to demonstrate partisan postering in media reporting rather than be objective journalists is a warning to us all that not only facism will come wrapped in the American flag and carrying a cross, but will use the media to advance an agenda all of us didn't sign on for. I remember when Cronkite and Rather reported the news; it didn't matter what political affiliation they had. Many journalists didn't even register to vote for fear of impacting their objectiveness in their professions; they were that dedicated to the ethics of journalism and the public's right to know what the hell is going on and being done in their name.

Timmeh, Hannity and O'Reilly missed that class in J-school, I guess.

Finally, there's the legacy that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi inherited. The seat she holds in San Francisco came from a rich history of progressive politics, first being held by the late Phillip Burton, and upon his death, his widow, Sala Burton held the seat until her death in 1986. Pelosi was part of the circle that got both of them elected, and they set the foundation for her to get that seat in the '86 election upon Sala's death. Until Nancy got those leadership positions, she led the way on progressivism and progressive issues. Now that she's House Speaker, she negotiated the compromise that stripped out the timeframes for pullout in Iraq, and then insults us by saying she's not going to vote for a bill that she helped negotiate.

The whole Democratic Caucus basically told us to go Cheney ourselves - well, maybe we need to think about giving Pelosi, Rahm Emmanuel, Steiny Hoyer and Chuck Schumer timelines for doing what we elected them to do or else they get deployed elsewhere.

Like off Capitol Hill and sent home in 2008.

Pelosi's disingeniousness reminds me of Lieberman voting for cloture on Sam Alito's confirmation to the Bench, but not voting to confirm Alito to the Supreme Court. The real issue was voting on the procedure that would have kept Alito from coming up for a confirmation vote; just like the real issue with Pelosi was to keep sending Bush that Iraq funding bill as it was, without any changes and let him keep vetoing it - not to vote against the bill, itself.

Ah, legacies. Maybe those who leave them, need to consider who they are entrusting them with, because rather than uphold them, they allow them to disintergrate into bullshit.

ON BULLSHIT

2007-05-30T09:16:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'm back, and yes, you read the title correctly.

I've been mulling this around in my pea-sized brain for the last few weeks, wondering if I should even write a blog post titled "On Bullshit". After all, I am the Christian Progressive Liberal, and as the late Jerry Falwell would have you know, us Christians aren't supposed to use words like "Bullshit".

But, then again, Jerry Falwell didn't have Burdett Stills as a father. If he had, he wouldn't have spent so much time hating on anyone who was not white.

My father taught me how to use my bullshit detector very early in life. How about at the age of five years old, and on a trip to catch crabs in the San Jacinto Bay in Houston, Texas? Our family had gone, "crabbing" as it was referred to in those days. After filling up a shiny new garbage pail full of the soon to be tasty critters, my father calls me over to look inside the pail.

"What do you see, pumpkin?" he asked. "Lotsa crabs, Daddy!" I replied as only a five-year old could.

"What do you see the crabs doing, baby girl?" Dad asked. "Look at the blue one", he directed to me. "Keep your eye on 'im", he said.

So, I watch the blue crab try to climb out of the pail, amidst a sea of orange backed crabs. The blue crab almost made it to the top, until two giant orange claws hauled him back in. I looked up at my father, puzzled, as only a five year old could be. My father picked me up in his arms, and had me look across the river, and said to me "There will always be those in life who try to tear you down and pull you back in to their 'bullshit'. Always stay ahead of them, and don't let them do that to you. You always remember that, and you will go far, baby girl."

My mother, who watched the whole thing, said to my dad, "Burdett, she's only five years old. She can't understand what you said, and she certainly won't remember it."

"Not Leutisha", my dad said. "She's the one born with a veil over her face. She'll remember that when she makes us proud, doing what she's born to do, and not letting anyone tell her she can't because of the color of her skin."

And guess what? Some thirty five years later, as you can read, I remembered every bit of that wisdom, that lesson in "Bullshitology" that my father taught me. So, what does that have to do with the story?

It has to do with when someone remembers what wisdom and values that were imparted on them by their parents, and how we're expected not to forget them. So, when I was reading this drivel (below) by Tim "Beat The Press" Russert, and thought about how he literally pimped his father, Big Russ, for financial gain, and to further butter up his inside-Beltway stature; I couldn't help but wonder if Big Russ was ashamed that Little Russ sold out everything he taught him in exchange for the accolades of those who couldn't give a rat's ass about him as a human being, not to mention said financial gain.

“Let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God’s work must truly be our own.”

--John F. Kennedy
January 20, 1961

I was ten years old when I heard those words. They still resonate with me nearly a half century later. Am I doing God’s work? Is being a journalist my vocation? How does my faith influence my judgment as a reporter? Should it? Are the demands of my chosen profession leaving enough time for my responsibilities as a son, brother, husband, father and friend?

St. Luke teaches us “to whom much is given, much is expected.” Am I hearing that admonition—and responding to it in a generous way? Do I have a true appreciation of the uniqueness and goodness of others? More questions than answers, I’m afraid.

One particular day provided some clarity. September 11, 2001. I don’t think the English language has yet found the words to describe the pain and anguish we felt that day. And yet we learned much about each other. The bravery of the first responders who went up the stairs of burning buildings. The heroic selfless souls on United flight #93. The patience of tens of thousands of drivers who left the devastated areas in an orderly way.

I have not honked my car horn since September 11 as a gesture of respect to all of them. 9/11 also gave me a whole new insight into my Dad and why he left school in the 10th grade to enlist after Pearl Harbor. I wrote a book affirming his life. It changed my life and my relationship with my father—and my son—forever. We now share openly the love and respect and pride we have in each other. A day doesn’t go by when other sons and daughters want to share stories of their dad with me. Now that’s a journey I never expected, but one which is so meaningful—perhaps even more important than my “career.”

Bottom line. I’m working hard, laughing often and praying with purpose. On with life!

I friggin' hate when someone wants to write books and pontificate in front of a microphone about how we should be living up to moral standards, values and beliefs, and they don't walk their own talk. Now, we don't know if Russert's cheated on his wife, or is on the DC Madam's list, but it appears that since Jerry Falwell died, the Reverend's death has forced Little Russ to remember some unsavory things he's done in his life as a journalist, like championing a war that has sent over 3000 Americans and over 600,000 Iraqis to their deaths for something a walking bucket of pus wanted to do and sell it to wingnuttia that Jesus told him to do it.

Or trying to defend Don Imus, known racist prick on the airwaves, but also looking like he wanted to choke the hell out of Gwen Ifill when she called him out on his hypocracy.

Or never, ever, giving Dick Cheney the well-deserved grilling we've been waiting for whenever that SOB is on "Meet The Press", but lobbies softball or spitball questions at him. But then again, how do you question someone who shot his friend in the face, made that friend apologize for "all the trouble he caused the VP" and literally got away with attempted murder?

I read Timmeh's column. It reminded me of my own father. And how he taught me to fire up the bullshit detector at 500 yards. And I also thought about the paragon of fathers being held up to most Americans by Timmeh - Big Russ, through those books he wrote.

Most of our fathers were no different than Big Russ. Hell, like Big Russ, my father lied about his age to enlist in WWII as well. He worked three jobs. He bought our first house with his GI bill. I remember Christmases, birthdays, when he sold scrap metal and hustled in a pool hall to make extra money, so his children had the best clothes, food on the table, and a little allowance when my brothers and I went to school. My father could probably buy and sell Big Russ every day of the week and twice on weekends.

You may not ever see anything written about Burdett Stills, Jr.; what a great father he was. But he was my father, and though not always perfect, he did the best he could with what he knew at the time he knew it. And I am the woman I am today because of what he taught me.

While Timmeh writes a book about similar experiences, and because he was a high-priced media whore verses being a real, Greg Palast-Jackson Baker-Chris Davis-Steve Gilliard type of journalist, he got fat paid for spouting the same accolades about his father that any of us could have about spouted about our own fathers. All the while, he literally shits on everything and every value Big Russ ever taught him, because his DC Masters were greater than his own humble father.

That's why I titled this piece "On Bullshit". That, and the fact that there's a book out with the same title. Plus, I think my father would be pleased because he always called people on their bullshit. He had a Ph.D in "Bullshitology".

Part II of "On Bullshit" will deal with the legacies left by our fathers, and whether or not we're entitled to said legacies. You know where I'm going with this, so stay tuned.

SKEPTICAL BROTHA SEZ....

2007-04-25T07:45:00.000-07:00

Just when I thought I was through saying anything about the Wh***, along comes Skeptical Brotha to pull me back in. I'm posting some tantalizing tidbits from his blog:

Harold Ford, Jr. Don Imus’s Nappy Headed Ho

April 24th, 2007

“The majority of Negro political leaders do not ascend to prominence on the shoulders of mass support. Although genuinely popular leaders are now emerging, most are selected by white leadership, elevated to position, supplied with resources, and inevitably subjected to white control. The mass of Negroes nurtures a healthy suspicion toward these manufactured leaders.” –Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

A tsunami of outrage has been blazing in the last ten days since Don Imus, Radio Shock jock and Harold Ford, Jr benefactor singled out the Rutgers Women’s Basketball Team with a racist and sexist epithet. In the midst of the firestorm, Tennessee’s black prince, corporate whore and senator-in-waiting, released the following obligatory and gutless statement:

I don’t want to be viewed as piling on right now because Don Imus is a good friend and a decent man. However, he did a reprehensible thing. His comments about the Rutgers women’s basketball team were hurtful and wrong. Moreover, the comments robbed these young women of an important time to celebrate a magnificent and positive moment in their lives.

I am a big believer in redemption, and I understand that Don has done many good deeds in his life. Yet, no amount of philanthropy gives anyone the license to offend innocent people—particularly when it comes to matters of race and gender. So I’m going to follow the lead of those brilliant and gracious women of the Rutgers basketball team and wait and see how the next two weeks unfold. I certainly hope Don can come to understand better the pain he has caused these young women and their families, and I will leave it to others to decide how his future in media should play out.

Is it any wonder that I have lampooned Harold as”Harold Whore, Jr” and “the Whore?”

The statement is brilliant in the way it deftly positions him as an acceptable House Negro and corporate servant, unlike Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Its brevity is telling and its faint praise and politically expedient criticism of Don Imus was not what the Anus in the Morning was hoping for. The Anus in the Morning needed a lifeline and instead, the Whore pushed his head under the water until he drowned. Harold Ford, Jr doesn’t intend to sacrifice a seat in the world’s most exclusive club for Don Imus. While grateful for the endorsement and exposure Imus provided, and God knows he enjoyed his time as Imus’s nappy-headed Ho, Harold has no use for a John that can’t pay.

Go read the rest of it. It's a Master Card moment....PRICELESS!!!

FROM AN ANGRY SOLDIER...

2007-04-23T12:46:00.000-07:00

The following lament probably won't bother you, but it should. I don't apologize for the coarse language of the author, because she's in real pain, and the Government, nor the Preznit could care less:

From an Angry Soldier

by shii

Mon Apr 23, 2007 at 10:07:19 AM PDT

The following anonymous message was posted to craigslist by a soldier and widow in San Francisco.

One thing people have noted about this is that she refers to herself as a Marine but calls the armed forces in general "soldiers". However, since she's been out of action for six months she may have gotten used to lay terms for the armed forces.

I'm having the worst damn week of my whole damn life so I'm going to write this while I'm pissed off enough to do it right.

I am SICK of all this bullshit people are writing about the Iraq war. I am abso-fucking-lutely sick to death of it. What the fuck do most of you know about it? You watch it on TV and read the commentaries in the newspaper or Newsweek or whatever god damn yuppie news rag you subscribe to and think you're all such fucking experts that you can scream at each other like five year old about whether you're right or not. Let me tell you something: unless you've been there, you don't know a god damn thing about it. It you haven't been shot at in that fucking hell hole, SHUT THE FUCK UP!

shii's diary :: ::

How do I dare say this to you moronic war supporters who are "Supporting our Troops" and waving the flag and all that happy horse shit? I'll tell you why. I'm a Marine and I served my tour in Iraq. My husband, also a Marine, served several. I left the service six months ago because I got pregnant while he was home on leave and three days ago I get a visit from two men in uniform who hand me a letter and tell me my husband died in that fucking festering sand-pit. He should have been home a month ago but they extended his tour and now he's coming home in a box.

You fuckers and that god-damn lying sack of shit they call a president are the reason my husband will never see his baby and my kid will never meet his dad.

And you know what the most fucked up thing about this Iraq shit is? They don't want us there. They're not happy we came and they want us out NOW. We fucked up their lives even worse than they already were and they're pissed off. We didn't help them and we're not helping them now. That's what our soldiers are dying for.

Oh while I'm good and worked up, the government doesn't even have the decency to help out the soldiers whos lives they ruined. If you really believe the military and the government had no idea the veterans' hospitals were so fucked up, you are a god-damn retard. They don't care about us. We're disposable. We're numbers on a page and they'd rather forget we exist so they don't have to be reminded about the families and lives they ruined while they're sipping their cocktails at another fund raiser dinner. If they were really concerned about supporting the troops, they'd bring them home so their families wouldn't have to cry at a graveside and explain to their children why mommy or daddy isn't coming home. Because you can't explain it. We're not fighting for our country, we're not fighting for the good of Iraq's people, we're fighting for Bush's personal agenda. Patriotism my ass. You know what? My dad served in Vietnam and NOTHING HAS CHANGED.

So I'm pissed. I'm beyond pissed. And I'm going to go to my husband funeral and recieve that flag and hang it up on the wall for my baby to see when he's older. But I'm not going to tell him that his father died for the stupidty of the American government. I'm going to tell him that his father was a hero and the best man I ever met and that he loved his country enough to die for it, because that's all true and nothing will be solved by telling my son that his father was sent to die by people who didn't care about him at all.

Fuck you, war supporters, George W. Bush, and all the god damn mother fuckers who made the war possible. I hope you burn in hell.

I want O'Reilly, Hannity, Glenn Beck, Amy Holmes, Larry Elder, Armstrong Williams, and any other ditto head fighting keyboardist cheerleader to go and face this woman, or people like this woman and tell them why they still support burgeoning facism and this hellhole of a war, which is now known over at DKos as "This Generation's Vietnam".

Because we know that the ReThugs aren't going to say crap, and they will be enabled by the DLC.

BUSH SHOULD HAVE STAYED HOME

2007-04-17T15:50:00.000-07:00

PRETENDING ONCE AGAIN...

There are times when GeeDubya acts Presidential. However, he always chooses the times of tragedy and horror, to show off. And, he's not good at it, either.

Like now, when he decided to grace the campus of Virginia Tech, where a massacre took place yesterday, with his presence, at the memorial service for the victims.

You would think that his presence anywhere reminds one of his incompetence, as well as his absence on the things that really mattered, such as:

Hurricane Katrina
9/11
Iraq War
Walter Reed Hospital.

But, nooooooooo, he has to go and be "Presidential" today, of all days. An alumnus of Virginia Tech couldn't have expressed my sentiments any better than he did in his DKos diary:

I find your desire to attend the memorial service on Virginia Tech to be just another callous and manipulative act. Do these people suffering from an inexplicable tragedy the favor of staying in Washington. You have nothing but empty sentiment to offer. However, to accommodate and protect your monstrous ego, security procedures will destroy the emotional sanctity of the memorial service. You know that, but you cannot resist the temptation to distract people from your failed foreign and domestic policies, not to mention the corruption threatening the survival of your terrible tenure as the president.

You have a history of the cheap political stunts to encourage people to think you are capable of caring about others. Your many visits to the destroyed Gulf Coast are perfect examples. You politicized and gutted FEMA. You were warned Katrina was a serious threat, but did nothing. You visited devastated areas time and again, but your administration accomplished little to clean up the mess. The least fortune and most vulnerable suffered the most from Katrina. Your words and sympathy did not translate into action.
You now want to pretend to grieve the loss of young lives. Before you bring your security circus to my alma mater, please explain your failure to attend the funerals of the 3300 young men and women killed in Iraq and 380 killed in Afghanistan.

TIME FOR A GOOD LAUGH

2007-03-29T19:01:00.000-07:00

After watching the CBC become Fox Noise Whores. I will blog on this tomorrow or over the weekend, but for now, enjoy this picture.

WE HAVE A RIGHT TO BE ANGRY

2007-03-14T20:18:00.000-07:00

IF THIS GUY WERE ALIVE, HE'D BE ANGRY, TOO

Says Tom Paine. An excerpt, and no one could have said it better:

We’re angry that the federal government is brimming with people fundamentally opposed to the mission of the agencies over which they preside, the anti-environmentalists who run the Interior department, the mining company lobbyists in charge of mine safety and the union-busters in charge of worker safety. We’re still angry about Hurricane Katrina, that our government left thousands of its citizens stranded to suffer and die, while the president thought that the guy presiding over the disastrous failure was doing a heckuva job. We’re angry that our government sends religious fundamentalists around the world to discourage condom use, thus condemning untold numbers of people to unwanted pregnancy, disease and death.

We’re angry that forty years after the Voting Rights Act, the Republican Party continues to exploit racism and do everything in its power to stop black people from voting in each and every election. We’re angry that in the richest country in the world we can’t seem to find our way to a system in which you go to the polls, cast your ballot and know that it will be counted. And yes, we’re still angry about what happened in Florida in 2000, that through lying and cheating and pure luck the Republicans were able to steal a presidential election, and five unprincipled partisans on the Supreme Court helped them do it. We’re angry that every time we look at Al Gore all that pain and frustration and outrage comes bubbling up through our guts no matter how hard we try to “get over it.”

Go read the rest of it. I'm just glad that I can be angry at what's happening to our government, because I have a right to be angry.

THAT'S WHAT I WANT TO KNOW, TOO...

2007-03-13T14:38:00.000-07:00

Daily Kos has this up:

Sharpton went on to criticize Obama on other issues, including his relationship with Sen. Joe Lieberman, who's controversial within the Democratic Party.

"Senator Obama and I agree that the war is wrong, but then I want to know why he went to Connecticut and helped Lieberman, the biggest supporter of the war," Sharpton told TV.

Skeptical Brotha also informs us that John Edwards and Hillary Clinton are peeling off Congressional Black Caucus members to support them and not one of their own.

Which blows the "African-Americans are monolithic" theory to hell.

I've run out of adjectives to describe the junior Senator from Illinois...and it's getting very painful to watch him detonate his very own WMDs on his quest for the White House...which are Barack Obama himself.

Jeez....

OBAMA DISSES HIS PASTOR

2007-03-07T08:10:00.000-08:00

IN CHURCH...THINKING ABOUT HOW TO DISS HIS PASTOR

It is said that "Absolute Power corrupts Absolutely". We may want to think the same thing when it comes to politicians, substituting the word "Power" for "Politics".

Because it appears that Senator Barack Obama, the newest Presidential candidate; the one so vocal about his Christian faith, has decided that being President is much more worthy than standing firm on said Christian beliefs and principles. So much so, that upon the advice of his campaign handlers, he's publicly dissed his own Pastor.

I don't know about you, but the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., a Nationally and globally respected Pastor of the Trinity United Church of Christ; a respected Christian author and political leader in Chicago, is NOT someone you diss, or dismiss in cavalier fashion as Obama has. Consider this tidbit from the New York Times:

The Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., senior pastor of the popular Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago and spiritual mentor to Senator Barack Obama, thought he knew what he would be doing on Feb. 10, the day of Senator Obama’s presidential announcement.
After all, back in January, Mr. Obama had asked Mr. Wright if he would begin the event by delivering a public invocation.

But Mr. Wright said Mr. Obama called him the night before the Feb. 10 announcement and rescinded the invitation to give the invocation.

“Fifteen minutes before Shabbos I get a call from Barack,” Mr. Wright said in an interview on Monday, recalling that he was at an interfaith conference at the time. “One of his members had talked him into uninviting me,” Mr. Wright said, referring to Mr. Obama’s campaign advisers.

Some black leaders are questioning Mr. Obama’s decision to distance his campaign from Mr. Wright because of the campaign’s apparent fear of criticism over Mr. Wright’s teachings, which some say are overly Afrocentric to the point of excluding whites.

Bill Burton, a spokesman for the Obama campaign, said the campaign disinvited Mr. Wright because it did not want the church to face negative attention. Mr. Wright did however, attend the announcement and prayed with Mr. Obama beforehand.

“Senator Obama is proud of his pastor and his church, but because of the type of attention it was receiving on blogs and conservative talk shows, he decided to avoid having statements and beliefs being used out of context and forcing the entire church to defend itself,” Mr. Burton said.

Instead, Mr. Obama asked Mr. Wright’s successor as pastor at Trinity, the Rev. Otis Moss III, to speak. Mr. Moss declined.

Many of you who read this blog have been very vocal in your objections to my opinions about the Senator. However, the fact that he will do anything and position himself any way to make himself appealing to white voters; to the point that he is apparently okay with dissing his own Pastor, should be enough to give you pause. This is what I, as well as Skeptical Brotha have been trying to communicate to you, since most of you say you're able to think for yourselves. We just wanted you to have the facts, and communicate our opinions about this brotha. We got flamed, accused of "crabs in barrel" mentality, etc., when your own responses to our posts appeared to continue suggesting a Jim Crow mentality that says Black people should celebrate "Black Faces In High Places".

It also means, just like the Edwards' camp, that the Democrats are going to cave in and run their campaigns like the ReThugs want them to, because they're complaining that Democrats aren't being "nice". Well, "Niceness" went out the door on Capitol Hill for twelve years, and really got nasty during the last six years of Bush Cartel rule. It's bullying and I will be glad when the Democrats grow a pair and tell the ReThugs to go to hell about how to run their own campaigns. Looks like Obama wants to play "nice" with the vipers in the snake pit.

And having Black Faces In High Places don't mean squat if said Black Faces are going to vote for and implement legislation and run the country in ways that because they are catering to corporate interests in exchange for money and personal favors - to the point that the Black Communities wholeheartedly supporting them get screwed over and over again.

If Barack Obama is an example of "New Black Leadership"... think about what I highlighted in red for your consideration. There is always something when a statement is divided by the word "But" that always indicates to me that the person is about to make a compromise in their "stand" or opinion. Sometimes, it qualifies the statement for clarification; but (LOL), it usually means they're about to backtrack on their previously stated position. There should be nothing that would not make Obama proud of his pastor...but, I digress.

You know the Rev. Al Sharpton was asked to weigh in on this and he didn't disappoint:

In recent weeks, word of Mr. Obama’s treatment of Mr. Wright has reached black leaders like the Rev. Al Sharpton and given them pause.

“I have not discussed this with Senator Obama in detail, but I can see why callers of mine and other clergymen would be concerned, because the issue is standing by your own pastor,” Mr. Sharpton said.

Exactly. If you can't stand by your own Pastor when it matters, you will cave in during a spring day when the temperature gets above 70 degrees.

For those of you who want to still support Obama after this, I say to you, "Thank God, we still live in a Democracy. That is your right." But, please, do not come to blogs with your whining and bellyaching when you feel as though you got screwed by your vote for Obama, because we've been like voices in the wilderness, giving you plenty of warning not to be taken in by Obama's bling.

Four years ago, when I first heard about Barack Obama, I had the Audacity to Hope that this brotha was on the real, and would be able to demonstrate to established sellouts like Harold Ford and Artur Davis that you could obtain National Office without engaging in the fine art of selling out.

How wrong I was. I won't go as far as calling him a "Harvard Law Grad Snake Oil Pimp" though I must admit, I'm sorely tempted.

Barack Obama is just another opportunistic politician who will once again take the African-American vote as his due, and for granted.

IF FOX HOSTS XENOPHOBES, WHY WOULD THE CBC CONSIDER THEM FOR HOSTING A PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE?

2007-03-06T07:48:00.000-08:00

CBC MEMBERS MEETING WITH FOX NEWS REPS

Uh, to possibly upstart Tavis Smiley, perhaps?

Consider what Americablog had to say on the subject:

Aravosis is on CNN. Coulter isn't -- she's hiding out at FOX News, a network that should not host a Democratic debate
by Joe Sudbay (DC) · 3/05/2007 07:58:00 PM ET
Discuss this post here: Comments (309) · digg it · reddit · FARK · · Link

John is on Paula Zahn tonight. He'll be appearing throughout the hour. However, as John predicted, Coulter chickened out. Instead, she's appearing on the refuge of the right wing: Fox News. And, to top it off, she's going on Sean Hannity's show. Coulter will get some real tough questions over there, huh?

That Fox News where Ann Coulter feels so safe is also the Fox News that is hosting a Democratic candidates debate this summer in Nevada. Fox is a mouthpiece of the GOP and the right wing. And, if anyone had any doubt (not that anyone should), Ann Coulter's appearance there tonight confirms it. The network that gives comfort and cover to Ann Coulter doesn't deserve a Democratic debate. Matt Stoller explains more here. "Fox Attacks" and MoveOn have a petition here.

Or, consider what Matt Stoller at MyDD.com has to say on this issue:

I'm hearing speculation from all sorts of quarters that Fox News is going to try and co-host a Presidential debate with the Congressional Black Caucus. If this comes to pass, it's a big deal, and a mistake by the CBC. But here's the thing we ought to realize. If it happens, it's partially our fault.

First off, I want to know a couple of things:

(a) What jackass in the CBC did FOX approach in making the offer? He/she should be asked to resign their membership in the CBC, and there should be a recall effort on Chairwoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick for even considering going to Fox Network for any damned thing. Given their media history regarding CBC members (Maxine Waters and Cynthia McKinney come to mind here), why would the chicken go to the fox and ask for protection from Col. Sanders? Either way, that chicken is toast, because either the Colonel gets him, or the protector shows their true nature and eats him. So why would you think Fox is going to be "fair and balanced" in their coverage of CBC Members and the presidential debates?

(b) See question (a). I'm fresh out of reasons as to why the CBC thinks getting in bed with the Devil is a good idea. Consider this, if you will. Your erstwhile member, former Rep. Harold Ford, Jr. (D-TN) was a Fox News Media Darling. Then, during his Senate race, here comes some ads with some bimbo saying she met Harold at the Playboy Mansion and says, "Harold, call me!" Though you can't see where Fox may have had a hand in Harold's demise in the Senate race, I would bet dollars to donuts, that Rupert Murdoch funneled money to Ford's opponent, the junior Senator from Tennessee, Bob Corker. Ford thought Fox would be "fair and balanced" since they gave him all that media coverage, right?

I'm willing to bet that while they built him up as poster boy for "New Black Leader" they were also acting like the fox in the henhouse, ready to eat him alive. Ask if they ran that ad on their network. Yeah, it was probably to demonstrate their "faux outrage" at what was being done to Harold and his campaign, but if they loved him, they wouldn't have shown those ads; considering how Fox has this great tendency to report only what they consider "Fair And Balanced".

The fact that they constantly give Satan's wife, Ann Coulter, a free pass (especially when she called John Edwards a "faggot") says volumes about how they regard any and everybody who is of color, female, and most of all, LIBERAL.

So, why are the CBC considering going to Fox News for anything? Have they become xenophobes as well?

THE VALUE OF THE BLACK VOTE

2007-03-06T07:25:00.000-08:00

APPARENTLY, THE ROAD TO THE WHITE HOUSE MADE A DETOUR THROUGH SELMA

The Value of the Black Vote is such that Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama went to Selma, Alabama this past Sunday to have a good, old-fashioned showdown. From Taegan Goddard's Political Wire:

Road to the White House Goes Through Selma

Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Barack Obama (D-IL) "came to an emotionally evocative touchstone of the civil rights movement Sunday seeking to strengthen their bonds with African American voters and tie their campaigns to the cause's unfinished work," the Chicago Tribune reports.

Sunday also "marked the first entrance into the presidential campaign by former President Bill Clinton, a popular figure with African-Americans whom writer Toni Morrison once called 'our first black president.' He avoided upstaging his wife at her speech by staying away from the church. But people cheered and rushed to be near him when he joined his wife and Obama for a re-enactment of the 1965 march."

The visit -- which we called the Showdown in Selma -- "became a proxy battle for black support between Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama, whose candidacy represents a threat to Mrs. Clinton's traditional base," according to New York Times.

Verdict from the New York Daily News: "Barack Wins Battle of the Bridge"

The Montgomery Advertiser has video of the event and the Huntsville Times features a photo gallery.

African-Americans have a unique opportunity to make our vote work for us. Barack and Hillary are already demonstrating that our vote counts. But we should not leave it there.

We should also let them know that if we support them and they screw us over, that we have long memories of being screwed over by people we trusted (400+ years, to be exact). We should let them know that if they screw us over, we won't be as forgiving as usual - that schmoozing and a few kind words will put things right. That used to work for Rastus and Rufus, not Raheem, Charles, Jack and Jill or Skeptical Brotha.

They need to know that if they get the White House, we will be on them like a fly on stink. One wrong move, and we call in our chits (and we will have chits to call in, boys and girls). They need to know it will not be Business as Usual.

Especially Barack. Now that your "blackness" quotient has been settled, while we know you won't be the "President of Black America, but all of America", we are also demanding that you go in the House and do your job, because the POTUS is not a Carnegie Institute training class for you to "win friends and influence people". In short, don't be another "snake oil pimp"with a Harvard Law Degree, cause we're watching.

Shakespeare Would Have Said It

2007-02-28T11:32:00.000-08:00

From my friend, Lower Manhattanite, who wins the Oscar Nod for Blogger Who Needs to Get His Own Damned Blog:
"Political Masturbation Theatre Presents: William Shakespeare's 'Obamo'"

Quite the couple

THANKS to LowerManhattanite for this great piece - THANKS LM!

(Curtain rises on a smoke-filled, oak-lined study. In it stands OBAMO, a noble Moorish/Amfrerican, newly chosen to the Senate and HILLAMONA, a proud, steely blonde of noble lineage, also to the Senate selected. They are at opposite ends of the room—brooding in smoldering silence. The tension between them could be cut with a plastic spoon/fork hybrid {“spork”}. Hillamona wheels on Obamo suddenly with fire dancing in her eyes)

HILLAMONA: (Flushed and holding her throat as if just choked) Varlet! You sought to steal the air from my lungs—my campaign’s very lungs!

OBAMO; You drape your anger ‘pon a hook in the wrong man’s castle. T’was not I, Hillamona—your quarrel lay with King David of the Western Hills. Yet you assail me.

HILLAMONA: He mouths words as thy proxy, Obamo—deny it not, for you know it to be true.

OBAMO: He is his own man. I do not control him.

HLLAMONA: Thy denial fairly rings with implausibility, Moor.

OBAMO: (with venom) Hah! Irony abounds woman. You who would cast doubt ‘pon my words! Look thee to the linens—and find there a bib to sop the mendacity that drips from thy mouth. I pray one will do.

HILLAMONA: (enraged) Stripling!

OBAMO: Virago!

HILLAMONA: (hissed) A Virago favored by your own Moors!

OBAMO: (stepping back for a moment) Your words…ring of an anger contrived. Thou art are a snake, snapping fangs at the air madly, as blood leaks from thy own body.

HILLAMONA: I do not hear thee!

OBAMO: The wolves smell your blood. (He sniffs)’Tis sweet in the air. Your war vote wound betrays you.

HILLAMONA: I do not regret it, Moor. You say it wounds me, but is it not a graver wound to retreat? To renege? Yea, bleed I do, but die I will not. While you…

OBAMO: I?
HILLAMONA: Risk not, lose not, hatch-ling. When the vote was cast, thy were but an egg. Barely a’ borning.

OBAMO: And from the moment beak sundered shell, this bird’s song was ‘nay’ to the war you championed. Thou…and the traitorous Joseph of Nutmeg, and other craven practicalists.

HILLAMONA: Misled were we!

OBAMO: Nay, Lead you did not. And now you stand o’er the ashes of defeat and claim to have lit no flame.

(Hillamona brandishes a dagger and points it at Obamo)

HILLAMONA: Thou shalt not quicken the vessel (*1). with me! The first strike shall be mine—

OBAMO: (Standing his ground and deepening his voice) You would raise a hand to me? Thy comrade? We stand on the same side, you and I. Your fight be not with me. ‘Tis with our enemy. Giuliano. MacCain and the Mormom Mitt.

(Hillamona hesitates, blinking, unsure)

OBAMO: (Moving to her) They on whom the nut hath sprouted wings that fly. (grasping her now) Let you,,,and I…and Edwardio—

HILLAMONA: The maned?

OBAMO: And feckless. Let us loose the arrows in our quivers at the real enemy…not each other. Leave us forget the mundaneness of despair…

HILLAMONA: (Grasping him back) And embrace…?

OBAMO: The audacity…of hope.

(He holds her tightly cradling her head back—until, she gasps and gurgles from choking on her own saliva. She wrenches herself away, eyes again ablaze with mistrust and anger.)

HILLAMONA: (Gasping) Again you seek to take the breath from me!

OBAMO: Twas you! Thy choked thyself Hillamona!

HILLAMONA: The injury is from without, cur—as always! And I shall smite he who hath swung at me. I shall smite all!

(She swings wildly with the dagger, missing Obamo who dodges. Hillamona chases him about, catching air instead of flesh, running him off the stage and following close behind. Enter MEDIAGO from the wing, rubbing his hand together gleefully.)

MEDIAGO: (laughing conspiratorially) Yes…yes! Let slip the dogs of war! Mistrust, my mistress! Deceit, my liege! Confusion and rancor ! (Sniffs hard at the air) Like the spoor of fresh roses in the air, that smell so sweet, Obamo thinks me his friend, and Hillamona sees me her coronator, yet neither the two knows me for what I am truly—that which serves neither their interests, but craves only nearness to power. It, the flame…to my nature-drawn moth. Power! Quo of status! I crave theeeeeeeeeeeeee!

(Mediago runs madly from the stage, exiting—pursued by an elephant)

(*1.) quicken the vessel = to swift boat

- posted by LowerManhattanite

Labels: 2008 race, Hillary, obama

OBAMA BIN LADEN?

2007-02-14T19:58:00.000-08:00

The knives for Senator Obama are already out. And he doesn't deserve this. It's coming from the media that's trying so hard to package him to African-Americans as the "New Black Leader".

Ugh. From the Smoking Gun:

FEBRUARY 13--Government officials have rejected a Florida man's bid to trademark the term "Obama bin Laden," ruling that the conflation of the names of a U.S. Senator and the world's leading terrorist was "scandalous" and wrongly suggested a connection between the politician and the mass murderer. In a February 6 decision, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office attorney Karen K. Bush informed applicant Alexandre Batlle of her decision not to register the trademark. A copy of Bush's notice can be found below. Last month, Batlle, a 28-year-old Miami Beach resident, filed an application to trademark the term for use on hats, shirts, pins, and bumper stickers.

'Nuff Said.

BLACK LEADERS? OR LEADING BLACKS?

2007-02-14T19:41:00.000-08:00

I DON'T THINK SO. HOMEY DON'T PLAY THAT...

From Black Agenda Report:

We are grateful to Dr. Julia Hare, a founder of The Black Think Tank located in San Francisco, for the title of this article. She forced us to think about the distinction between authentic Black leadership and those Blacks who purport to lead us, but have been chosen by others. Dr. Hare asked the question - "Do we have Black Leaders? Or do we have those who are Leading Blacks?"

Mistake no #1 made by the Barack Obama for Prez campaign: BEING ABSENT from the SOBU, and making his announcement of his candidacy on THE SAME DAY.

African-Americans don't like it when we don't have a say in who will be our leaders, and I can say that Obama's announcement got a lukewarm reception in Hampton Roads on Saturday. A wise campaign organizer would have had him there promoting himself. As a result, his candidacy is being viewed with skepticism by the African-American community and the corporate media can't understand why he's trailing Capitol Hillary in the polls.

They should come to the African-American community (fat chance) and find out... However, the main issue here is that by not attending the State of the Black Union, Senator Obama has already fired the first missile in this campaign and has probably ensured that Hillary Clinton will get the share of African-American votes he needs to win.

What is the missile he fired?

He's distancing himself from African-Americans. Didn't he learn anything from Harold Ford's Senate campaign, or Ken Blackwell's Gubernatorial campaign, or Michael Steele's gubernatorial campaign (though Steele came back singing his "Homey the Clown" song later in the game)?

African-Americans don't like it when you distance yourself from us because you want to be President. And while he still has time to correct this political faux pas, the clock is ticking...

NOW, SPECTOR'S WEIGHING IN....

2007-01-30T12:22:00.000-08:00

And it's not pretty.

After all this time of waiting for him to grow a spine, he finally appears to do it.

'Course, this is the same guy who wrote that "magic bullet" theory on JFK's assassination as a young U. S. Attorney trying to score brownie points, so I'm not holding my breath.

CHENEY UNRAVELING...

2007-01-30T08:07:00.000-08:00

THE PERSONIFICATION OF EVIL

So sez the rag we in DC read (unless we're drunk and then we're reading the "Moonie" ah, Washington Times). From WaPo (that's Washington Post for outside DC):

"Whether swearing at a Democrat on the Senate floor or calling Donald Rumsfeld the best defense secretary in U.S. history, his conduct makes even some Republicans nervous."

Or this:

But as his astonishing interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer laid bare last week, Cheney is increasingly out of touch with reality. He seems to think that by asserting things that are simply untrue, he can make others believe they are so.
Maybe that works within the White House. But for the rest of us, it's becoming a better bet to assume that everything -- or almost everything -- Cheney says is flat wrong.

Maybe, because Cheney shot a Texas lawyer in the face last summer, and literally got away with it (when you or I would be facing at the very least, an Assault with a Deadly Weapon Charge, even if the shooting was accidental), no one's willing to take him on because they might catch a face or belly full of buckshot.

Maybe because Cheney's still touchy about those five deferments from Vietnam he received when he sees Chuck Hagel or Jim Webb strolling the halls of the Senate buildings, because they are living reminders to him that they honored their country by doing their duty and going to Vietnam to serve, and he didn't.

Maybe, because Cheney can tell anyone, be they a U. S. Senator (Patrick Leahy, D-VT) or a member of the media who's been the lapdog for the entire six years of the debacle we call a Presidency (Wolf Blitzer) to F* Off at will, and they do it, he can tell the entire United States of America to go F* themselves and he expects full and total acquiescence.

I've said this before: Cheney is evil personified. He is the physical manifestation of Satan; or as close to it as a human being can get. So we should not be surprised that Americans found their voices as well as their spines and are "pushing back" on the rhetoric coming from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for the last six years, that Cheney's growling, and growling very LOUDLY.

My friend, Pesky, defended me, his blog sister, from a person posting a comment about me that was undignified and had the stench of straight up playa hating. His post was that of "never touch a dying dog in the street, for the dog will still tear your hand off. And the breath I'm smelling is all dog..."

In the case of Dick Cheney, Pesky's comment is perfectly fitting for the Vice President who lied, cheated, stole, and yes, shot a person in the face, to keep the power that he obtained illegally, and is now sensing it's slipping away. He's reacting like a dying dog, or any wounded animal that's been cornered and has nowhere to go, and nothing to do but fight till it's dying breath. But, while he's in the throes of dying, a cornered animal is going to bite, claw and scratch until he takes that last breath, or some human being comes along and puts a bullet in it to put it out of it's misery.

My father used to hunt wild game. Once, he took my brother when he was old enough to shoot a gun. (Save your outrage for the Gun Guys over at BuzzFlash, okay?) The night before they went off hunting, I was eavesdropping on their conversation as my father gave instructions and advice to my brother. I remember my father telling my brother to make sure that if he shot game, to completely kill it - not to rely on killing it with one shot, because the animal is suffering and may injure others in his wounded state.

He said that about killing bears and mountain lions, too. Wounded, they are more dangerous, because they are in pain, and can inflict more damage because as a result of pain, they are lashing out. As a seven year old, I never forgot this piece of advice, though my father never took me hunting. I guess I remember it now, because Cheney reminds me of a wounded animal, lashing out at everyone telling him he's acting like he's off his meds.

He's a wounded animal. And Congress needs to strike that final blow and put him out of his misery. Can you spell I-M-P-E-A-C-M-E-N-T?

CHUCK HAGEL IS MORE ANTI-WAR THAN THE DLC

2007-01-29T11:44:00.000-08:00

THIS GUY IS MORE ANTI-WAR THAN MOST DEMOCRATS...

And that's saying a whole lot. Read the interview he did at Truthout:

If we can't win and the public wants out, isn't it the responsibility of Congress to check the power of the president?
Sure.

But it seems Congress has been ineffective at that.

Well, we have. We've abdicated our responsibilities. That has to do with the fact that the Republican Party controlled the White House, the House, and the Senate. When that happens, you get no probing, no questioning, no oversight. If Bill Clinton had invaded Iraq and after two years he was having the same problems, do you think the Republican Congress would have put up with that? I don't think so.

You know the end is getting near when a Republican sounds more anti-war than the Democrats, especially DLC members. In fact, the DLC is inherently pro-war. Which should disqualify any of them that voted to authorize this hellhole of a war. Thank God John Kerry got the memo this time, realizing that his "I was for it before I was against it" stand isn't going to play no better this time than it did back in 2004. Hagel's starting to distinguish himself from a lot of ReThug "front-runners", many who rubber-stamped everything Bush has done since stealing the White House back in 2000.

And Joe Lieberman is revealing day by day that he isn't and probably never was a true Democrat. Which is why I will say that Harry Reid's stuck with him, after the golden opportunity of neutralizing this DLC whore was presented to him last summer and when Lieberman decided to disregard the wishes of Democratic voters in Connecticut and run Indy, Reid should have stripped Lieberman of his Committee assignments. Now this human waste is demonstrating he's going to stick it to Democrats, especially those who supported Ned Lamont, at every opportunity. I guess Colin Powell's "Pottery Barn Rule" really applies here.

But the accountability; well, folks, Sen. Chuck Hagel just handed us the weapons to beat Democrats over the head with. Since the DLC is arguing for Democrats to be more like Republicans (not ReThugs - there's a difference), ask them are they willing to become more like Chuck Hagel?

TOM TANCREDO IS A BIGOTED PLAYA HATER

2007-01-26T12:18:00.000-08:00

From fellow blogger Jill Tubman, over at JackandJillPolitics :

This is a novel approach notable for its daring. You had to figure that the new power and unity of the Congressional Black Caucus with one member as a presidential candidate and a few others as committee chairs has to be scary. This is a direct, racist attack that I am willing to bet that more wingnuts will be pushing as the CBC begins to assert their growing power.

Tancredo:
"It is utterly hypocritical for Congress to extol the virtues of a colorblind society while officially sanctioning caucuses that are based solely on race," said the Colorado Republican, who is most widely known as a vocal critic of illegal immigration.

Now, if a white congressman is representing a district that is 70% African-Americans, you would think he could ask the Congressional Black Caucus for some help in providing accurate representation. And, because it is the Congressional Black Caucus, who would be in a better position and have a better opportunity to educate their white peers about the issues faced by African-Americans in the community than the CBC? While they denied Cohen's entry into the CBC, per se, they also didn't bother to discuss how they would be willing to work with him.

And it can't be because they are angry, sad, whatever, at the fact they don't count Harold Ford, Jr. among their ranks anymore. He's the Derelict of the bunch among their ranks that they couldn't reign in, or count on for unanimity, and he was always going contrary to the CBC's agenda, while former Chair Mel Watt (D-NC) always provided him, Albert Wynn (D-MD), Artur Davis (D-Alabama), David Scott and Sanford Bishop (D-Georgia) cover for their treachery.

But handing a racist like Tom Tancredo (R-ReThug/CO), ammunition to begin destroying the ethnic caucuses like Newt Gingrich did back in 1994 (cutting off their Congressional Budget) goes beyond the pale, cause he's not going to stop at the CBC. They can't even claim the status of being Congress' conscience, when they show how much their own consciences have been seared by a quest for power they didn't really have, and allowing their marginalization by the likes of the first Woman Speaker of the House, and in concert with the DLC.

It will be, ahem, interesting, at least, to see how girlfriend from Detroit is going to battle this new development, preventing Tancredo's concept from gathering steam and escalating into full blown war. It will also be interesting to see how Pelosi and the rest of the Democratic Caucus responds to the threat. If the CBC is left to fend for themselves, the Latino and Asian Caucus better take note - ethnicity when it's convenient, and disgarded when it becomes trouble.

My concern is whether or not the CBC will read the memo...THIS TIME.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA; TRIANGULATING TWIT?

2007-01-25T08:48:00.000-08:00

AMERICA'S NEXT FIRST FAMILY? NOT SO FAST...

...So sez Rep. Maxine Waters (D-California) of the Out of Iraq Caucus. And she's right. NOW is the time for either of them to stop being clones of one another and take a clear stand on the Iraq War. From all accounts, these two are not only going to be battling for the African-American vote, but they will also be engaging in Battles Royale to distinguish themselves from each other.

In my opinion, it would serve Obama right, because I'm tired of the triangulating twit he's become. He came to DC and learned how to play the Beltway Insider game a little too well for this African-American. I wish the media would quit serving him up to African-Americans as the next MLK or Malcolm, because those brothers put their lives on the line when it mattered. Already, he's concerned he might catch a bullet on the campaign trail. Well, Senator Obama, if you had not believed your own press clippings, maybe you wouldn't be worrying like you are now. I like how sister Maxine is ignoring her own skeletons and calling you out to stand up for something, instead of pussy-footing around and trying not to be defined by the media or your now-adoring public.

The way I see it, Obama threatens to desecrate all those brothers stood for. I also don't like when he claims ethnicity when it's convenient, and runs away from it as fast as the former Rep. Harold Ford, when it's necessary. Also on my crap list regarding Mr. Obama are the following:

His having to be dragged by Senate leadership to vote with the Caucus against cloture in the Supreme Court Confirmation "Sudden Sam" Alito;

His vote to confirm Condoleeza Rice for Secretary of State and make the argument that sounded suspiciously like he voted for her because of the "Jim-Crowism" of some African-Americans who are all to happy to see a Black Face in a Perceived High Place. I say "perceived" because for all she has done as Secretary of State (demonstrating massive levels of incompetence) we can almost be inclined to forgive her predecessor, Colin Powell, for selling the world what he knew then, and what we know now, was outright lies to start a global war.

His vote to pass the Net Neutrality Bill and his sorry, triangulating attempt to defend himself over on DKos. Voting for the above should be enough to get you disqualified from running for President.

Other things that I may not have included from my DKos posts are voting for the Iraq War (glad John Kerry got the memo, finally), voting for the BK bill, voting against Net Neutrality, and voting to continue sending money into the Black Hole known as the Iraq War. Hillary has yet to apologize for her vote; although she's doing her best to distance herself from it. Obama ran on an anti-war platform; Illinois voters must be pissed to learn he's no longer anti-war, and, in fact, favors part of Bush's plan to send more troops to Iraq.

We want someone who is as different from the current Looney Tunes in the White House from Al Sharpton. We want someone who makes Bryant Gumbel look like Malcolm X. We want a Russ Feingold-Jim Webb type, with some Harry Belafonte thrown in for flavor. And neither Obama or Hillary has it; they're blander than vanilla, but well-trained in the art of circular firing squads, triangulation and fence-straddling. They, like Bush, surround themselves with people who say what they want to hear, but can't give them the real deal advice for fear of losing their jobs.

Hillary is referred to on some of the blogs as this. And here's my reasons why I can't vote for her in 2008:

And I've now coined the phrase for Obama - Triangulating Twit. Until he proves himself and take a firm stance on the Iraq War, neither of them are qualified to run for President, because I don't want anymore DLC, Beltway Insiders in the Oval Office, period.

NOT EVERYONE LOVES OBAMA...

2007-01-17T19:30:00.000-08:00

So sez the Skeptical Brotha. And I'm in agreement with him. I do apologize for the lengthy time between posts, though. And a belated Happy New Year.

I don't know what's annoying me more: Harold Ford, Jr. becoming the next Whore for the DLC, or the manufactured ascendency of Barack Obama to the White House, and he hasn't even done anything of significance yet.

I stole this from Skeptical Brotha. Read it and then head over to his site and show him some love, okay?

“And so we shall have to do more than register and more than vote; we shall have to create leaders who embody virtues we can respect, who have moral and ethical principles we can applaud with an enthusiasm that enables us to rally support for them based on confidence and trust. We will have to demand high standards and give consistent, loyal support to those who merit it. We will have to be a reliable constituency for those who prove themselves to be committed political warriors in our behalf. When our movement has partisan political personalities whose unity with their people is unshakable and whose independence is genuine, they will be treated in white political councils with the respect those who embody such power deserve. ” -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

As we profess to honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr this week, we should be mindful of his words. As the leader of a movement tasked with dealing with politicians large and small, he came to become intimately familiar with human nature and the psyche of the black politician. He came to understand what made each tick and was able to separate the wheat from the chaff. Barack Obama has taken a step this week on a journey that no other African American has ever been on. It is a step leading to the precipice of ultimate power: the Presidency. We, along with the entire world, will get a chance to see what this brotha is really made of. Unlike the dashing enigma that some in the corporate media have portrayed him to be, in reality, he is nothing of the sort.

His path to power has been eased by his gracious personality and his craven political accommodations to those of greater power. His unique positioning in the field of 2008 contenders is both calculated and largely deceptive. While Senator Obama is one of us, his candidacy is not from us.

This boom-let of uncritical and fawning praise and publicity culminating in his announcement for President is not a creation of the black community. We actually chose Jesse Jackson. He spoke for an undiluted consensus of black political thought. He did so eloquently and forthrightly despite the enormity of his vanity and ego. In contrast, Al Sharpton’s political persona is substantially weaker and his vanity, ego, and manifold character flaws are even greater. However, the substance of his critique of the Democratic Party as an institution which takes African Americans for granted is valid. Obama, on the other hand, speaks for those to whom he is indebted.

Dr. King was insightful when he wrote, “The majority of Negro political leaders do not ascend to prominence on the shoulders of mass support. Although genuinely popular leaders are now emerging, most are selected by white leadership, elevated to position, supplied with resources, and inevitably subjected to white control. The mass of Negroes nurtures a healthy suspicion toward these manufactured leaders.”

Obama is a manufactured leader who has allowed himself to be advanced by a cabal of media elites and “DLC centrist” political actors determined to choose an alternative to Hillary Rodham Clinton. Those of us in the progressive black blogosphere have ample reasons to be suspicious of brotha Barack. While it is important to examine what a politician stands for, it is just as important to examine who stands behind them pulling the strings.

Standing foursquare behind Senator Obama is the Chicago Daley machine. The Daley machine of old led by their father, and the Daley machine of today, have always stood for the maximization of white ethnic political power and the subjugation of minority communities to their corporate backed rule. As I’ve said before, Mayor Daley has endorsed Obama for President in a self-serving power move designed to eliminate the looming black threat against his re-election in a metropolis that long ceased to be majority white. His brotha Bill Daley, the former Gore Campaign Chairman and Secretary of Commerce in the Clinton Administration, has also come aboard ship Obama, signing on as a senior advisor.

In the Daley Machine of old, the contenders had to make a great show of coming to Chicago and kissing daddy’s ring. During that time, he controlled the Illinois delegation of convention delegates to the Democratic National Convention. His active support was usually critical and his active efforts in 1960 led to JFK’s narrow win over Nixon. Today, the Daley brothers exercise that power as a team.

Mayor Daley heads a Chicago political fiefdom in which he is virtually unchallenged. He has maintained that control by buying off black elected officials with patronage and pork barrel projects and by shamelessly catering to rapacious corporate interests. He issued his first Veto in 17 years as Mayor to prevent the City of Chicago from mandating that Wal-Mart and other big box retailers pay living wages of at least $10.00 an hour. He did this despite an accumulation of over $78.9 billion in assets for Wal-Mart’s founding family.

Mayor Daley’s brotha Bill Daley negotiated NAFTA on behalf of the Clinton Administration and PNTR with China. These, and other regressive free trade packages advanced by the corporate friendly Clinton Administration facilitated the ongoing destruction of America’s manufacturing base by shipping jobs to Mexico and other developing nations better suited to paying workers poverty wages and leaving Americans unemployed. He is now the Chicago front-man for the investment banking firm of JPMorgan.

Obama’s vote for the Oman free trade agreement is probably the source of Bill Daley’s enthusiasm and should be a basis for progressive skepticism. Oman prohibits union organizing and is nothing more than a top down dictatorship with a record of human rights abuses. Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis as he supported a strike by black sanitation workers for living wages and collective bargaining rights. It is an affront to King’s legacy and contrary to his dream to support right-wing trade agreements that fail to uphold people’s basic human right to a living wage.

Political Scientist Michael Parenti has postulated that “American capitalism represents more than just an economic system; it is an entire cultural and social order, a plutocracy — that is, a system of rule by and for the rich — for the most part.” Now that Obama’s moderate, mealy-mouthed political manifesto has met with critical acclaim and made him a millionaire, he is acceptable to the ruling class as a colored proxy and Trojan horse for their malevolent interests.

During the contentious debate over the nomination of dangerous black reactionary Janice Rogers Brown to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, the nations second highest and most important appellate court besides the Supreme Court itself, Obama said, “I am not somebody who subscribes to the view that because somebody is a member of a minority group they somehow have to subscribe to a particular ideology or a particular political party. I think it is wonderful that Asian Americans, Latinos, African Americans, and others are represented in all parties and across the political spectrum. When such representation exists, then those groups are less likely to be taken for granted by any political party.” Part of that statement contains a kernel of truth but also reveals a stunning lack of insight about liberation movements and progressive social change. Nobody tasted freedom by becoming an Uncle Tom reactionary.

None of the groups he has mentioned has been unscathed by a bald-faced economic, social, and politically directed racism meant to subjugate them under a paternalistic white hand. His lack of fortitude in filibustering the nominations of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court and Appellate Judges like Clarence Thomas Clone Janice Rogers Brown, reveal a political moderation that goes against the progressive grain of the black political consensus and a capitulation to the contemporary forces of reaction.

This betrayal and lack of fortitude make him palatable to the teeming masses of white political activists yearning for the chance to wave their support of Obama in our faces as proof of their liberalism while the racist underpinnings of our imperialistic domestic and foreign policy remain intact. I believe in the old adage “show and prove.” Both Obama and the liberal white blogosphere must do copious amounts of both before they are “absolved of all sin” by me. His run for the White House was paved by the efforts of Jesse Jackson and the black community 20 years ago. Obama has yet to show himself worthy.

While Jesse Jackson was at heart a black politician and part-time preacher in search of political legitimacy. Al Sharpton is a street hustler with a clerical collar in search of a better hustle. If that means partially representing the black political consensus by running for President while simultaneously living the high life on campaign funds solicited by GOP operatives trying to embarrass and weaken the democratic party, he seems to be O.K. with that. That, in a nutshell, describes Reverend Al’s 2004 Presidential bid.

Al is always getting in bed with disreputable people he has no business dealing with in an unscrupulous effort to make a damn dollar. Rhetorically however, he comes closer to being on point than most of his so-called mainstream brethren. He sounds the right notes at the right times from an undiluted, and politically honest sheet of authentically black music.

“This is not about a party. This is about living up to the promise of America. The promise of America says we will guarantee quality education for all children and not spend more money on metal detectors than computers in our schools.”

“The promise of America guarantees health care for all of its citizens and doesn’t force seniors to travel to Canada to buy prescription drugs they can’t afford here at home.”

“The promise of America provides that those who work in our health care system can afford to be hospitalized in the very beds they clean up every day.”

“The promise of America is that government does not seek to regulate your behavior in the bedroom, but to guarantee your right to provide food in the kitchen.”

“The issue of government is not to determine who may sleep together in the bedroom, it’s to help those that might not be eating in the kitchen.”

“The promise of America [is] that we stand for human rights, whether it’s fighting against slavery in the Sudan, …AIDS in Lesotho; (or)… police misconduct in this country.”

For the aforementioned reasons, I feel it necessary to sanction another run by Al Sharpton. America, especially black America, could use a sober dose of candor regarding race and its relationship to the Democratic Party. While this falls far, far, short of an endorsement, I feel his presence necessary to articulate what Obama always fails to say. If for no other reason, I relish the chance to see Sharpton “spank the donkey” one more time. If he has to slap some damn rhetorical and policy sense into Barack Obama in the process, so be it. If nothin’ else, it might keep Barack honest enough for black folks to eventually support and honor the legacy and dream of a King.

HILLARY & BILL'S WORST NIGHTMARE

2006-11-30T05:52:00.000-08:00

The gentleman in the picture is Hillary and Bill Clinton's worst nightmare.

But only if he chooses to run for President of the United States. Senator Barack Obama is the new rising star of the Democratic Party, and virtually the coming of the leader we civil rights and progressives have been waiting for since MLK caught that bullet in Memphis, Tennessee in April 1968.

From Taegan Goddard's Political Wire, via Insight Magazine:

“On paper, this man [Obama] should not be any threat,” a political strategist regarded as close to Ms. Clinton's team said. "He is too young and inexperienced. Yet, he exposes Hillary's weaknesses in a way that has people worried.”

The strategist said Mr. Obama could exploit several of Ms. Clinton’s weaknesses—Iraq and her profligate campaign spending. The strategist pointed to Mr. Obama's early opposition to the Iraq war while Ms. Clinton supported the U.S. invasion.

Political Wire also states that Obama's worrying Hillary because he can snatch a godly amount of votes from the Democrats' base (progressives, liberals and ethnic groups). Personally, I agree with the assessment that Obama's inexperienced. His age shouldn't matter; wasn't John F. Kennedy a "youth" at 43 years of age, when he got the Oval Office?

Obama hasn't been in the Senate long enough to establish himself or any meaningful legislation. And though he has rock star status, he needs to spend less time with Jay Leno, or going on book tours, and more time attending to his duties as a United States Senator. Yeah, he's charismatic and whatnot, but I'm like his wife, Michelle, who, when observing the public response to her husband, her comment is usually, "I'll be glad when he does something to really earn the accolades he's getting."

Smart woman. And, I think she will be the one who helps him to determine whether or not he actually runs for office, not some gasbags filling his head with delusions and yet, ready to sling him under the bus if he puts a foot wrong.

At the CBC Legislative Weekend back in 2005, I remember Hillary and Obama showing up together at the Town Hall meeting, and as usual, Hillary tried to pull her usual schtick about the importance of passing the renewal of provisions in the Voting Rights Act, and other nonsense that would appeal to people of color (Dennis Kucinich got a warmer reception than Hillary). But when Harry Belafonte got to the mike, he basically told Hillary to drink a can of STHU, as well as "Talk to the Hand". He also sent a subtle warning to Obama indicating "We're not going to support you on the basis of your skin color. Do some work in the office we elected you to before you even think of advancement to another political office, because they gravy train for Black politicians has left the station, and is not coming back."

I swear, Obama didn't want to speak after Belafonte clocked Hillary and by fiat, pimp-slapped him to let him know what is really at stake here. "No room for showboating" is basically what Belafonte was telling Obama.

One year ago, Hillary and Obama were virtually joined at the hip. Now that he's become a reason for concern about her own Presidential ambitions, look for Carville to crawl out from under that rock that he hides under with that hag of a wife of his, and spew the same crap about Obama that he did about getting rid of Howard Dean as DNC chair after Dean proved his 50-state strategy was largely responsible for the Democratic sweep of both houses of Congress.

Hillary should be worrying. She's demonstrating that she will say and do anything to accomplish her own ambitions and advance a non-existant agenda for the DLC.

And we all know what time it is for the DLC. They need to be eviscerated, and that's why this blog is so named.

BLACK REPUBLICANS IN RECOVERY

2006-11-20T11:10:00.000-08:00

My friend, Steve Gilliard, nails it. 'Nuff Said.

Recover from being a black Republican`

Go from this....................

To this

I know, I know, all your sacrifice for the GOP came to naught. You thought this was your year, that you would finally get the respect you deserve.

The problem is that IS what you got.

Let's be frank. It isn't that being Democratic is being black, it isn't, but being a Republican means you're a grovling Uncle Ruckus, always seeking to diminish black people for the sake of whites.

Doubt it?

Who aired radio ads claiming that the Dems founded the Klan and the GOP was the party of Lincoln. When the NRO's house negro Deroy Murdock tried that, he looked every inch the fool he was. When you tried to convince black Marylanders of that, they were offended. You try to talk down to black people and it pisses them off.

Then you have the grovelling of Michael Steele, too stupid to conceed when it was clear black people would no more vote for him than Frank Rizzo. He had based his entire campaign on blaming black people and acting the fool.

He won't ever admit he slandered the students of HBCU Morgan State and created the flying oreo incident to gain sympathy from whites. He won't ever admit his cowardice in refusing to confront Bob Erlich about anything. He was a coward and a shame to the race from the minute he entered public life. Tomming and shucking for the white folks and a lot of them forgot to vote
for him anyway.

He thought black people were so stupid that he thought they would think he was a Democrat.

But he's not the worse. That's Ken "I ain't no negro" Blackwell. He did his master's bidding by denying blacks the right to vote in 2004, thinking his white masters would be so pleased. Sitting up in his big willie chair, with a cigar in one hand, talking like the white folks would let him run the show. They could trust him, he'd done what they'd asked, he'd kept them coloreds away from the polls, now he'd be on the way to the White House. First, a stop in Columbus, then in a few years, he'd be running to be the first black president.

Yeah, right. They used your silly, football playing ass to keep your people down and then let you think you could run for something. Sure, you were on the team. Until they had to do something for you.

You even got that mega church lunatic Rod Parsley to back your play. Too bad most of his parishoners would no more vote for your black ass than root for Michigan. They didn't care if you were a Godly man, you were a nigger, and that mean you wouldn't get their vote. No matter how much they smiled in your face.

What? You think black people would forget your junior grade Bull Connor antics? No, fuck no.
You lost in a landslide and took Mike Dewine with you. Now, Ohio has a Senator it can be proud of again. Thanks to you.

If you're a young black Republican, see these examples and be warned. Down the path of the GOP lies on contempt and scorn. You don't want to wind up defending a gambleholic like Bill Bennett, and have people laugh at you. You don't want to be accused of placing your career ahead of your people.

Just because they smile in your face and talk about Jesus, you will pay a fearsome price for going down that road, the scorn and contempt of your fellow men and women. Nothing is worth that.

So, you've been experimenting with being a Republican, and you find some of their ideas appealing.

Keep this picture in your mind. That really is former Sen. George Allen in a confederate uniform and he really, really hates black people. No, really. The rest is photoshopped, but that is him.

And they thought he would run for president. He always seemed like an idiot to me, but he was popular.

Until he called someone macaca, which translates to nigger. A word Allen likes.

And that's pretty much what they think about you.

Republicans like to use you, but they will not sacrifice one thing a white person needs to help you along. Not one.

So what to do?

You need to regain your pride.

First, you can stand on your own. You don't need white patrons to pay your way, then tell you how to think. A proud black man or woman can do on their own. When they offer you a lot, they expect a lot. And if you get in trouble, they won't know who you are,(see, Williams, Armstrong, Allen, Claude)

Second, don't let their appeal to religion fool you. They say God, but they mean votes. As long as you vote for them, they will tell you what you want to hear.

Third, don't let them use your bitterness against you. Just because you have an issue with this leader or that, don't let them encourage you to run them down. They are just using you to gain credibility

Fourth, don't be ashamed of being black. I know many of you secretly hold that in your heart, that life would be easier if you were white. That black people never do anything right. That isn't true. Throw away the Alice Walker and embrace reality. Every day, strong black men and women contribute to America. They work, they raise families, they love their country. And they don't have to grovel or embarass themselves to do so.

Never forget that black people built this country, as slaves and as free men. Even when we were treated as less than people, even when they hung us from trees. Take pride in your heritage. Do we have poor, ignorant people? Sure, but so does everyone else. Don't let those few make you renounce your birthright and history.

Once you have done that, you can place yourself on the road to recovery.

Listen to the music which made this country, Robert Johnson, Charlie Mingus, James Brown. Throw the junk you've been listening to away. See what we can create. Say it loud isn't a song, but a way to live.

Read about our heroes, flawed and imperfect, and the odds they overcame. From the heroes who fought at New Market to the freedom riders, the brave black men and women who challenged their degredation and disrespect.

Then finally, embrace you, and all around you. Don't think you have to be someone else to be a better you.

You don't have to wear a beret and sunglasses to be proud of your heritage. All you have to do is hold that pride in your heart.

AS A BLACK WOMAN, I DO KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT

2006-11-09T15:26:00.000-08:00

My Rant with my "family" over at the Pesky Fly. Just in case it disappears from that site.

The following is my response to your expressed skepticism from the Booker Rising post. Read it, dissect it, and be ready for constructive discussion, please.

This is the one subject that few African-Americans will speak up on; interracial dating.

I have girlfriends whose sons married white women, and their worry was about how their sons would be treated by society (read lynching or beatings).

One of my best girlfriends, a staunch Christian, in the "Love Thy Neighbor" mold, actually confessed to me that she didn't like the idea of her son marrying a white woman. Only prayer got her to the point of acceptance, as well as unconditional love of her son to the point she would rather welcome the white woman, than risk alienating him.

The reality is, when Black women (especially mothers) see their sons grow up and marrying white women, they start questioning themselves, because it's considered a reflection as to whether or not Black women (and by succession, themselves as mothers) are good enough for their sons. But if their sons are happy, they soon progress to acceptance, because I've seen it in my own family. I have two first cousins married to white women, both of them for more than 30 years.

Their mothers disowned their ass. One actually died, never talking to her son, or seeing her beautiful grandchildren, ever.

My mother, the surrogate mom to both cousins, did something way ahead of her time.

She asked the question point blank: "Why couldn't you find a good Black woman to marry?"

My cousins response - one had tried marriage twice to Black women and they were nut cases (especially the second one. She was so jealous that he remarried; she managed to alienate him from their daughter - and told us horrible lies about him molesting their daughter. Only a court appearance where he sued for slander, was she forced to publicly apologize and said she was lying.) The other one had numerous relationships with Black women, one financially ripped him off, and with such heartache, he was looking to spend the rest of his life alone, when his wife's parents actually introduced him to their daughter, because they got tired of her bringing home loser white men who abused her.

After hearing their explanations, she embraced these women into the family, and set the example for my brothers and me to do likewise.

It is not about not wanting people to find love wherever and with whomever they find it. It's about the message a Black man sends to Black women when he achieves success, celebrity and material wealth, that a Black woman is not worthy enough to share that success with - and a white woman is.

Tiger Woods dated Tyra Banks when they both attended Stanford University. Tyra was not a stupid woman - she had to seriously hit the books to get in to that University. She's also proven herself to be a very savvy business woman and is very wealthy.

Tiger goes and marries the blond nanny to other golfers' kids. So was he is saying that an undereducated nanny is more worthy to share in his success than Tyra Banks was? Or any Black Woman?

This underscores part of the theory as to why Harold Ford lost the election for the U. S. Senate. It's not like he couldn't find a quality, educated sista; in fact, five years ago, he was engaged to one; a corporate attorney for AOL here in DC. My speculation is that he probably expected girlfriend to give up her $350,000 a year job and follow him around as a dutiful politician's wife.

Jennifer Baltimore said she'd take a pass on marrying with that type of expectation.

I may hate Harold's politics, but as a woman, I say he should be able to date who he wants, if he's going to become a private citizen. But since he's an ambitious politician, my advice to him, as was Shay's, was not to hand Bob Corker and the ReThugs ammunition to shoot him with.

Barney Frank got elected, and keeps getting re-elected, as an openly gay man. I'm not saying it couldn't work in Tennessee, it's just that more work has to be done in the area of tolerance and acceptance.

Barack Obama stated in his autobiography that he had his heart broken by white women as well as sistas. Yet, to do the mission he was to do, he knew that only a woman who knows what he faces and what he fears as a Black Man, was going to be the mate he needed. Michelle Robinson Obama is an accomplished sista; she is an attorney and a Director of a Community Development Center in Chicago. Obama didn't ask her to give all that up; in fact, he encourages it, so that Michelle is not just known as "Obama's wife." That takes complete acceptance of yourself as a man, and confidence in your woman to the point you don't need to control her.

When the theories shake out, maybe dating white women isn't what cost Harold Ford the election. But it sure had a hell of an influence on the outcome.

You gents advertise yourselves as being progressive in your thinking. So why are you so quick to dismiss this theory out of hand, saying you need poll numbers before you will accept that a sista knows what she's talking about? Right now, I'm thinking that because I'm speaking pretty bluntly on this issue, you'd rather dismiss it because it's in keeping with your concept of color-blindness, rather than engage in a discussion which actually takes into account the perspective of an African-American female. Tell the truth, and don't sugar-coat it, please, because I'm a big girl and I know how to disect an argument before I scream race.

I was born during the Civil Rights Movement at it's peak (so I just gave you a hint about my age, LOL)with parents who were more activist than Condoleeza Rice's parents never were. I have various family members who were dog-bit, water-hosed by Bull Connor's thugs, jailed and yes, lynched, just because they got called "Nigger" one too many times before they snapped under the weight of their dignity being trashed, and swung a right hook knocking out some teeth of the white guy who spewed it. So don't you dare try to tell me or any other Black woman that their theory is in left field, because you're not a Black woman.

I will accept your apologies or clarifications with gift certificates to Starbucks, thank you.

BOOKER RISING NAILS IT

2006-11-09T09:35:00.000-08:00

I'm keeping this short and dirty today. Read an interesting and accurate analysis of why Harold Ford lost his Senate Race here:

http://bookerrising.blogspot.com/2006/11/how-harold-fords-impulsive-love-for.html

She and TBogg seem to be kindred souls.

THE MORNING AFTER...

2006-11-08T10:02:00.000-08:00

There's always a morning after a main event, like yesterday's election. As we bask in the afterglow of the Democrats actually bringing a gun to a gunfight instead of the usual knife, the result of their willingness to stand their ground and bark back at the ReThug bullies, is a 27 seat majority in the House of Representatives.

DING DONG THE WICKED WITCH IS DEAD! AND IT'S NAMES WERE SANTORUM, CHAFFEE, KERRY HEALEY, MARK FOLEY, DON SHERWOOD, CONRAD BURNS, KATHERINE HARRIS, NANCY JOHNSON...SHOOT THEY'RE TOO NUMEROUS FOR ME TO NAME!

What sent them to their defeat was hitching their wagons to this guy:

I'm not banking on the Senate yet. While Fighting Jim Webb is ahead by 8000 votes, the provisionals haven't been counted yet, but it's looking good for him, since those votes are coming out of Fairfax, Loudon and Prince William Counties.

In other words, NORTHERN VIRGINIA, which is ecstatically BLUE.

As far as Tennessee goes, I thought Harold Ford Jr., had a good chance of pulling it off. But Corker got the nod, and the people of Tennessee have spoken.

They don't want a Bible-Thumping, Ten Commandments quotin' Playa representing them in the U. S. Senate. God don't like it when you try to pimp Him for personal gain. As the Christian Progressive Liberal, if anything cost Harold that Senate seat, it was shooting a campaign ad in a church, and on the same breath, defending partying at the Playboy SuperBowl Party in Jacksonville last year.

That "Fancy Ford" website was the first shot fired over the bow. Harold was put on notice, given his "You're still a Negro" memo which he didn't bother to read, and basically tried to out redneck Bob Corker. Those issues, not some white woman telling Harold to "Call me", cost him the election. Running away from his party and relevant issues is what cost him this Senate race. Ignoring the demographics of Tennessee on a racial, cultural and economic level, cost him this race. I'm not saying that the ad didn't do some damage, but it put Harold on the defensive, where he ran from that point on.

Crashing Bob Corker's press conference and towering over the older man like a bully didn't help him, either. It made him look as thug-life as his brother Jake, who also was shown the door last night.

I'm not going to rub Ford's face in it - he probably is looking for someone to take out his frustration in losing by breaking out a can of whip-ass on them at this moment. But, like my friend Derek said over on the Pesky Fly, I hope Harold uses the next two years to take inventory of himself, learn what life is for those like you and me so he can really emphatize with them and not pay lip-service, and not be so ready to blame his loss on the "Call Me, Harold" ad, or any other dirty trick pulled by the ReThugs. That "Fancy Ford" website that appeared shortly after he announced he was running should have been his clue that the race was going to get dirty. This was not a good year for ReThugs to be running for re-election, anyway,with Dear Leader's approval rating being in the toilet. Charlie Crist managed to win the chance to be Florida's next loony governor because he eschewed Bush campaigning for him.

When suffering major defeats in our lives, instead of assigning blame, it's time to take stock and learn from your defeat; in fact, it could be the best lesson you will ever learn about life, love, who your friends are, and most of all, facing yourself - the good parts and the bad parts. The good parts you keep; the bad parts you try to change for the better.

Ford says he'll be back in 2008 to take on Lamar Alexander. Well, I would have preferred to see if he would have become a true Democrat in the House, with membership in a Majority party for a change, but hey, whatever floats your boat.

Don't count out Harold Ford. He may be the next Phoenix to rise from the ashes, and maybe, he'll finally learn how to be his own man, truly independent of his father and his wanne-be thug brothers.

PAUL WALDMAN CONFIRMS WHY THE GOP GETS NO LOVE FROM BLACK PEOPLE

2006-11-03T07:20:00.000-08:00

Over at Alternet, writer Paul Waldman confirms in articulate detail why the GOP gets no love from Blacks, Jews, or Gay People. Here's an excerpt:

We can look on the bright side and say that what's bad for Ford may in general be good for Democrats. Ford, currently locked in a dead heat, is depending on the willingness of the good people of Tennessee to rise above their past and elect the first African-American senator from the South since Reconstruction. Elsewhere, black Republicans are finding that they have a lot of trouble convincing African Americans that the GOP has mended its ways, and the attention the Ford race has gotten isn't helping. Kenneth Blackwell in Ohio, Lynn Swann in Pennsylvania and Michael Steele in Maryland have all been unable to bring significant numbers of African Americans to their side, and look headed for defeat.

In my opinion, as an African-American woman, this article confirms what Steve Gilliard and I have been saying for the past two years: Black People don't drink the "Candidate is Black" Kool-Aid as often as the racist elements of both the Democratic and Republican party leaders tend to think. We are very able to discern a Black candidate's motives for seeking higher office, espeically when the candidate has conducted himself/herself as a modern-day Stepin' Fetchit or Mammy. My parents' generation didn't need a political pundit to tell them how they should think or feel about political candidates - they had the gift of discernment to determine if a candidate was on the real, or faking his butt off. Black Pastors I sat under in church began saying to political candidates "Yes, you can come here to speak, but it means staying for the entire worship service."

In other words, gracing the church, town hall, school or waterfront with your mere Black/Jew/Gay presence no longer cuts it. Those very voters that Harold Ford, Michael Steele, Lynn Swann and Ken Blackwell are working so hard to court - well, gentlemen, they have already made up their minds about you. Yes, I know your ethnicity and skin color should not matter, but even in the 21st Century, it does. No matter how much evidence is placed out in the public to educate people about African-Americans, there are some that have that element of hate so deeply rooted, it is damned near hopeless to think that those individuals can change their mindset, short of having a personal epiphany, or near death experience where one's life is saved by teh Black person, or teh Gay, or teh Jewish person.

Harold Ford just got the memo reminding him he's still African-American, and he's considered an uppity Negro, to boot. The fact that Swannie and Blackwell are trailing their Democratic opponents by double-digits in the polls are basically communicating that they got that same memo, but refuse to read it, and therefore, are left wondering why after all the butt-kissing of white GOP voters they have done, why those same GOP voters are going to cross party lines and vote for the white guy.

Mike Steele has two things going for him: he loves puppies and the endorsement of a graft artist and his thug, rapist ex-brother-in-law:

Is Massachusetts the only Commonwealth that is progressive enough to see past a person's race, sexual orientation or religious belief to give the job to the best person for it? They are saying so by their willingness to vote for an African-American, Deval Patrick, over the white Female candidate, Kerry Healey, whose campaign tried to run similar ads to the ones the ReThugs ran on Ford.

She was already trailing double digits behind Patrick - after those "Willie Horton" type ads ran, her trailing behind Patrick increased, to where he's all but handed the state House in Boston.

As Cornel West says "Race Matters". So does ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and religious belief. How does a candidate over come such odds?

One person at a time. And the time is NOW.

J. C. WATTS: STOP DRINKING THE KOOL-AID!

2006-10-04T06:31:00.000-07:00

Memo to former Rep. J. C. Watts (R-OK):

STOP DRINKING THE GOP KOOL-AID, BRUH!

I mean, it's not like you work on the Hill anymore, unless you're a lobbyist trying to stay in good with the boys in the House. With the scandal swirling around Rep. Mark Foley (R-Pervert), you think those boys are going to be good clientele for you to be boasting about?

You made your point as a 2% Negro for Rent in the GOP; hell, you had the fourth highest position in all of the House, until the Bugman, Tom DeLay (R-Thug)came on board as House Leader and pretty much telegraphed your horses' ass that you would be no more than glofied water boy totin' water for the GOP Massas on his watch.

What did you do? You got the hell out of Dodge, dude, and by the looks of things, it was a smart move, too.

So why do you feel the need to say this crap?

Former Republican congressman JC Watts just said on CNN that it was okay for Denny Hastert and congressional republicans to do nothing in the face of evidence that ex-congressman Mark Foley was preying on kids. Why? Because they were "respecting the rights of the parents." Supposedly the one kids' parents didn't want to make a public stink.

Would you feel that way if Foley had preyed upon and molested one of your kids? Hell, no, and be honest, you'd settle the matter in street fashion, too. You'd get some of your boys named Ray-Ray, or Earl and Scooter, a couple of tire irons and take Foley out in a cornfield, ala Joe Pesci-style in "Casino" and beat the snot out of him, as well as bust both his kneecaps, so don't front off that you would have meekly gone along with the deal as that kid's parents did, and also say that it's OK for Hastert, Shimkus and Boehner to be derelict in their duty as lawmakers in the House.

Why do you feel the need to defend the GOP leadership that virtually enabled Mark Foley to prey upon kids on the Hill? Kids entrusted by their parents to your collegues to gain an educational experience of working in the highest halls of Government, not be procurers of pulcritude for salacious elected officials who can't keep it in their pants, or because they're drunk on power and use sex as a means to exercise that power.

You make me sick. In fact, all GOP House Negroes like you are a disgrace to the human race, and don't get me started on being ethnic because you were never there, boyfriend. What does the Grand Old Perverts have on you or your family, that CNN knew they could call you for defensive commentary on the air?

I guess I'll know how low we've sunk if Clarence Thomas weighs in on this, because his pubic hair on a Coke can is almost tame compared to Foley's emails in which he was obviously engaging in his own form of virtual sex with teen-aged boys.

I don't want you trotting out Bill Clinton or Monica Lewinsky as justification for Hastert's dereliction, either. While being stupid, they were consenting adults who could give consent to be stupid. But providing cover for a known pedophile? Get real.

If your own father is quoted as saying, "A vote for a Republican is like a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders" then why, oh why, are you stepping in to provide cover for the ReThugs and their enabling of a pervert? You must be drunk on the GOP kool-aid, and can't stop drinking it.

You need to get to a rehab as fast as Foley did, if you ever wish to retain what little credibility you have left.

HE CALLED JESSE JACKSON A "RACE-HUSTLING POVERTY PIMP". BUT, WHAT DOES THAT MAKE WATTS, WHEN HE PROVIDES COVER FOR A KNOWN PEDOPHILE?

GOP = GRAND OLD...PERVERTS?

2006-10-02T08:16:00.001-07:00

Well, since I mentioned Mark Foley, let's just say that those ReThugs of the Bible Belt variety, (holla, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and "Mulla" James Dobson) are so quiet on this issue of Rep. Mark Foley (R-Florida) getting caught sending emails to Congressional pages, you can hear mice pissing on cotton.

IOKIYAR. God, I hope not. I hope some in the ReThug party sobers up off the GOP kool-aid to be willing to take out some of their own on this issue. While we have graft, corruption, those willing to be bribed, whoremongers (even those who put a chokehold on their mistresses), somewhere in this perverted world, there seems to still be a line that says children are off limits.

The Democrats took down "Dollar" Bill Jefferson (D-Louisiana)for having $90K in his freezer. So if they had a pedophile among them, they would be toast. Why can't the GOP do the same thing? I mean, what hubris and arrogance to have this guy actually chairing a committee that wrote legislation that facilitated better alert systems when a child is snatched off the street, and yet, because he wrote those laws, he probably knew how to break them and not get caught.

More than predatory acts, we're also talking about sexual harassment as well, because when a person uses their authority to solicit sex acts in exchange for favorable treatment, sex has become a condition of their employment, and that is illegal. Foley was a lawyer by profession - you would think he'd remember this from second or third-year law school.

Law schools...they churn out perverts like Foley, Clarence Thomas, Roberts and Alito, haven't they? So, I'm no longer impressed if you tell me you're a Harvard or Yale Law Grad - they put something in the water to make CBC members like Artur Davis, Mel Watt and others think they can play nice with the GOP and not get burned, anyway.

Mark Foley is a predatory pedophile. Repeat, rinse and spit, please. And this is not the time for Grandmothers in Congress, like Nancy Pelosi or Jane Harman to keep their yaps shut in playing nice; they should be encouraging their peers to hang this around the GOP's neck like an anvil for the next five weeks.

Ads should be reading like this:

"Do you support a Congressional member who knowingly exposed his pedophile colleague to congressional pages? If you do, go ahead and vote Pedophile...!"

No, children, this is not an October surprise. But it comes close.

And the ReThugs can't say "Well, Democrats do it, too!" Drink your cans of STHU, and break out your cans of Whip Ass on all of the GOP leadership, starting with Hastert, for covering this crap up. He's a teacher, by profession. Even when I taught community college, the same law applies; if you find out that a student may be being subjected to molestation or harassment by a faculty member, you were duty-bound by law to make a report, or you were toast if it surfaced and it's discovered you knew about it, but did nothing. So, if that standard applied to me as a community college instructor, it also applied to Hastert, even as a former school teacher, despite the fact he's in Congress at this point.

Which is why I say that those who had any dealings with Mark Foley better come clean. To me, this is like the scandal with the Catholic Priests. You think the priests who are truly trying to do what they were called to do; that they're not cussing Bernard Law under their breath for placing them in a position of being an automatic suspect, especially if they dropped dime on their pedophile bretheren of the Cloth, and all he did was transfer them somewhere else?

The Catholic church is going bankrupt behind this scandal, paying out millions of dollars in damages to the victims and their families. Who's going to donate money to the Church if it's going to be used to cover up predatory pedophile priests?

Same standard applies here. Why should you donate to the GOP if they're going to provide cover for pedophiles? Ever watch the movie, "Bastard out of Carolina"? I watched it recently and what I remember most was when Bone's uncle Earl found out that her stepfather was beating, molesting and raping her, Earl and a few of his boys got the guy in a circle (during a funeral of Bone's grandmother or aunt) and kicked the living crap out of that guy. And this was in rural South Carolina during the 1950's. These guys would probably be part of the NASCAR crowd today that the GOP relies on during election time. If raping or molesting a child didn't play well back in the 1950's in Carolina, how did Denny Hastert, Roy Shimkus, probably even Tom DeLay, think it would play out in 2006?

Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Connecticut), one of the few GOPers I refer to as a Republican and not a ReThug, has already slung the entire GOP leadership under the bus for this one. Many more to follow. Pay attention to a comment from a blogger over at Steve Gilliard's:

astounding < disgusting.

I'm all for cronyism and circling the wagons... but this is sick, cult-like, sh--.

I feel tainted even having my views associated with these f'king sickos.

Gawd.

Turning a blind eye to f--king pedophiles.

Every single one who knew anything should be investigated and resign if they were involved or knew of anything. I don't even care if they thought they were just inappropriate emails... after the Clenis spectacle they have no business acting like it was his personal sexual whatever-the-f--k.

F'ing disturbing.

I hate our society.
ether | 10.02.06 - 3:30 am | #

Ether feels very strongly about this. I had to edit, because I didn't want to offend with the swear words, but his post says he's a Republican who's sickened by the degree of party loyalty being sworn here. Another poster suggested that the reason the DLC continues to try and play footsie with the ReThugs is because KKKarl Rove may be channeling J. Edwina Hoover and compiled files on them like Hoover did on Malcolm, Martin and Medgar. Hmmmm...

Memo Warning to Harold Ford - Still want to build bridges to a group of politicos that knowingly aide, abett and provide comfort to child predators? I hope your political ambition isn't to the extent that you feel the need to say "yes"...

GOP = GRAND OLD...PERVERTS?

2006-10-02T08:16:00.000-07:00

"Do you support a Congressional member who knowingly exposed his pedophile colleague to congressional pages? If you do, go ahead and vote Pedophile...!"

astounding < disgusting.

I'm all for cronyism and circling the wagons... but this is sick, cult-like, sh--.

I feel tainted even having my views associated with these f'king sickos.

Gawd.

Turning a blind eye to f--king pedophiles.

Every single one who knew anything should be investigated and resign if they were involved or knew of anything. I don't even care if they thought they were just inappropriate emails... after the Clenis spectacle they have no business acting like it was his personal sexual whatever-the-f--k.

F'ing disturbing.

I hate our society.
ether | 10.02.06 - 3:30 am | #

FROM THADDEUS MATTHEWS...

2006-10-02T08:03:00.000-07:00

A picture or poster can often say a thousand words. The following poster about Harold Ford, Jr.'s Senate Campaign says volumes about the type of Senator he may be if he gets that Senate seat:

It seems that Rep. Ford has what I call a "Michael Jackson" Problem; he can't tell if he's Black or White.

With all the pressures of campaigning, my only hope is that his campaign doesn't get tied to the current sex scandal going on with Rep. Mark Foley of Florida. I say that because Harold so aspires to be like his GOP bretheren rather than be a true Democrat.

And the irony of it all is, Corker's still running ads painting him as a liberal Democrat, and Harold can't challenge him on it because Corker would have to admit that Harold votes the ReThug ticket as well as Corker does...

Ah, what a tangled web we weave, when we first practice to deceive...those in East Tennessee that you're a ReThug in Democrats' clothing.

Hat tip to Thaddeus Matthews for the photoshop poster...

DEAR CHRIS JACKSON...

2006-09-29T10:13:00.000-07:00

Dear Chris Jackson:

For many months, you have been seen on most political blogs, and even started one of your own, extolling the virtues of the Representative of Memphis' 9th District, one Harold Eugene Ford, Jr.

You've even exhorted those of us in Blogsovania to put aside our differences and agree on common ground to make sure he wins Bill Frist's Senate seat in November.

However, since he's one of 40 Democrats that said with their vote yesterday that torture is a good idea, please tell us again, why, "a few of his votes" should not matter in the overall goal of getting him elected? Please tell us why we should overlook that he has voted like a card carrying ReThug for the last four years.

Please tell us what is so virtuous about Harold Ford that he can stand in a church and film a campaign ad, extolling his Christian faith, and then turn around and vote for a bill that Jesus wouldn't condone. Where's the consistency between talking about his faith, and actually living it?

You seem to really know the man - why don't you come on this board again, and tell us why we should get behind this modern-day eqiuvalant of Judas? If you read your Bible, you know Judas was an original disciple of Jesus, but when Jesus didn't bring an earthly kingdom into being like Judas wanted, he sold Jesus to the Jews to be executed for 30 pieces of silver. Afterwards, realizing that he had betrayed God's only begotten Son, Judas, at least, had the conscience to realize the magnitude of his actions, and because that magnitude was so great, he went to a field and killed himself, rather than live with the shame of what he'd done, even though I believe if he'd confessed, God would have forgiven him, even then.

Yes, I call myself the Christian Progressive Liberal. Because my ideology, my values, my beliefs and life lessons have moulded me in that way. Yes, I have slung a couple of words that may cause people to question my faith, but that's baby Christians who would question the swear words I drop every now and then. Doesn't mean my faith and belief isn't real, because to me, it IS. Real Christians, mature ones; there are things so frustrating, so beyond the pale, so mind-boggling - that either we sling an epithet or take action that would really contrast what we believe against what we actually do as Christians.

I'm raising these questions because your candidate says he's a Christian. He even taped a campaign commercial in a church to send this point home, and to score votes with those in the Bible Belt. The Bible actually puts it this way: "Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them." (Matthew 5).

We who are observant are beginning to recognize the fruits of Harold Ford Jr.'s labor. Actually, we've been recognizing it for some time, but as of yesterday's vote, he can't sink any lower than a snake's belly, can he?

Galatians 5:22-23 tells us that these are the fruits of the Spirit:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,gentleness and self-control.

Your belief in Harold's ability to be a United States Senator seems to know no bounds. Given that I've actually quoted some Bible passages for the two of you to chew on, can you answer me the following questions:

Where is the love for his district in his votes for economic legislation, like the BK bill, Estate Tax repeal, and consistent votes to keep pouring money into Bush's black hole, better known as the Iraq war?

Where is the peace and patience required in dealing in matters of foreign policy, rather than cavalierly voting to hand over authority to the President to bomb, maim and yes, now, TORTURE anyone this government chooses to detain because they can?

Where's his kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control when he deals with people like me, Pesky, Autoegocrat, Jeff, Kibbitzer, Thaddeus Matthews, or any other blogger who calls him out on his actions and his response is to lobby snark or snakey remarks because we're not singing his praises and overlooking his pecadilloes?

A mature politician knows the art of self-control. Harold's response to those of us actually challenging him to provide direct, concise, concrete and comprehensive explanations, responses, statements to anything he does that contradicts what he purports to represent, has shown us that not only has he not acquired this maturity, he's decidedly lacking.

Get past your hero worship of the man and look at his voting record. Examine what his votes actually mean. They mean to torture people; they mean to leave them physically, mentally and emotionally bankrupt. They promise to deliver a prehistoric time that the forefathers of this country ran away from England from, because they decided that they didn't want to live like that again, EVER.

They promise not to educate our kids. Tell me how a voucher is going to do that, when an economically strapped family still has to pay to send his kid to St. Albans, even if he gets a voucher; it only pays a portion of it, and the family still has to cough up the rest of the tuition.

They promise to limit whether or not you can send your child to college; or a person buy their own home, or start businesses, or keep sending 18-year olds off to fight in wars that they are ill-trained, ill-equipped and psychologically not mature enough to handle.

I'm not demanding you answer me, Chris. In light of how Harold has voted, I'm begging you to answer my questions, and don't be flippant about it, either. The vote on a bill that literally authorizes the President of the United States to engage in a campaign of fear and physically torture whomever the hell he wants, at his whim, without any proof of collusion or treason, is a threat to all Americans, and his vote essentally indicates a decided unwillingness to do his job as a United States Congressman to engage in oversight and the concept of Checks and Balances upon which the very fabric of this Government and this country were founded.

Please, please, please tell us why Harold Ford should become the next Senator in the United States Senate, when his votes have consistently demonstrated either a naked ambition that rivals Lucifer, or a lack of knowledge, skills and ability to interpret and actually apply the tenets of the Constitution he swore to uphold when he took office.

In case you're wondering who Lucifer is, according to Isaiah 14:12:

How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!

Lucifer is now known to many of us as Satan. He was thrown out of Heaven when he aspired to be like God, the One who created him. Does Harold have similar aspirations? He may be cast out of the political mix just like Lucifer was cast out of Heaven, for trying to ingratiate himself with those who would just as soon ask him to fetch their cars at the local Country Club, rather than vote for him to be Tennessee's next Senator.

And yeah, Hugo Chavez told a truth many of us have longed to hear, and have been waiting on Congress to make the same charges (that our President is a devil), but remained mute, silent, and are astonished that we're Mad as Hell and we're not taking it anymore!

I'll be waiting on your answers, Chris, because Memphians, Tennesseans, and most of all, Americans, deserve one. May God bless you and give you the words to say when you answer these questions, if you choose to do so.

THE INTELLIGENCE SQUAD STRIKES AGAIN

2006-09-28T12:14:00.000-07:00

And it's a good smack down and run down of one George Felix "I ain't no Jew" Allen.

Here's the part that has me ROFL:

Even more exciting, he is officially the leading contender for 2006 Strommy Award, our award recognizing the elected official displaying the most distressingly backwards attitudes and behaviors on matters of race for the year. The award is named after Strom Thurmond, the late US Senator from South Carolina who set the American record for Senate filibusters of 24 hours, 18 minutes in an effort to block passage of a 1957 civil rights bill. Previous winners have included Trent Lott, John Ashcroft, and George W. Bush.

So head over to my friend Tom Grayman's blog and show him some love, please. The man is the African-American Keith Olbermann...

KERRY LAYETH THE SMACK DOWN ON LIEBERMAN

2006-09-27T07:03:00.000-07:00

And it's about friggin' time, too.

Listen, I still haven't forgiven Kerry for his 2004 cave-in on the stolen election; nor have I forgotten that when it came time to challenge those Ohio election results in January 2005, his behind was in Switzerland talking like he was big-ballin', and sayin' nothing, while Barbara Boxer obeyed her conscience and did the right thing.

But, over at DKos, Kerry laid the smackdown on Lieberman about his position on Iraq in the most direct (for Kerry, anyway) manner possible.

Here's a tidbit:

"Iraq has been a national security disaster and a terrible set-back in the war on terror. As Robert Kennedy said of Vietnam, there is enough blame to go around. We must all accept our responsibility to change course. We don't need misleading speeches. We don't need slogans. We need leaders who will tell it straight and stand up to this administration and say it's time to change course. Ned Lamont is providing that kind of leadership..."

Kerry even looks Presidential:

If only Kerry had stuck to his guns two years ago, he could have ended this nightmare. But, then again, his not getting elected was probably a blessing in disguise, because remember, Dear Leader has already gone on record saying that the Mess'o'potamia we now see will be for the next President to clean up...

SINCE WHEN???

2006-09-22T09:38:00.000-07:00

Since when did Reps. Charlie Rangel and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi become the Democratic apologists for George W. Bush?

I'm sorry, but if Venuzualan President Hugo Chavez stood up at the United Nations and called the President the "Devil", I'm not going to argue with the Truth.

Has KKKarl Rove and crew so intimidated the Democratic Party that Rangel and Pelosi are compelled to start the fine art of sucking up to Dear Leader? After all, Chavez is a man who overcame a rigged election (done by the United States) and survived an assassination attempt (also done by the United States). Even a good ol' Christian boy like Pat Robertson was on the 700 Club, talking about "taking out Chavez" and so horrifying his sidekick, Ben Kinchlow, to the point that the brother couldn't mask that horrified look of realization that maybe it was time to put Rev. Pat out to pasture.

Why are you going to say that no one can come here and diss Bush, but Bush can go into anyone's country and look like a friggin idiot:

We ought not to dish it out if we can't take it. Maybe that's been the problem...

And, I said, for my money, Merkel should have slugged Bush for invading her personal space that way. It was clearly more embarassing for the leader of the Free World to embarass the United States with his frat boy behavior and the obvious indication that he never learned the meaning and importance of boundaries. So, if I'm in agreement with Chavez's statement that "the smell of sulfur is still in the room", will I be arrested for agreeing with the truth than trying to prop up a President who's clearly in the wrong and got called out on it?

Next week, if Champagne Charlie takes the floor to denounce Bush, I'm going to tune out because that vision of his speech, and hearing his voice denouncing Chavez for telling the truth, is going to superceede anything worthwhile he or Pelosi have to say.

THE DEMOCRATS. The only political party in town who can hit a triple and the batters behind them hit into a triple play without the winning run scoring...

THIS IS FRIGGIN' SCARY

2006-09-22T09:10:00.000-07:00

Why have people buy health insurance if they're going to take your money and pull crap like this:

“When Steve and Leslie Shaeffer’s daughter, Selah, was diagnosed at age 4 with a potentially fatal tumor in her jaw, they figured their health insurance would cover the bulk of her treatment costs.” But “shortly after Selah’s medical bills hit $20,000, Blue Cross stopped covering them and eventually canceled her coverage retroactively.”

HAT TIP: Egalia and crew over at Tennessee Guerilla Woman. I recommend you head over to Egalia's place to read the rest of the Insurance Coverage Horror Stories - where the insurance company essentially takes your money and don't give you coverage if it's going to be costly.

Now, we should be putting on our thinking hats and wondering who the hell in Congress is taking payola from the HMOs to make sure there's no effective legislation on record to combat this crap? One person comes to mind...

For my money, I wish they would take the phrase "Honorable" away when addressing Mr. Wynn. He's as Honorable as...Jack Abramoff.

And, since he now appears to have to steal elections in order to continue sitting in the House and doing jack regarding his constituents except sell out their interests to the highest bidder, my fondest wish is that he spends the next two years with the FBI breathing down his back, and progressives watching his voting record like a fly on stink. Every vote against his district's interests is going to fall into Donna Edwards' arsenal in 2008 and I hope she clobbers him with it. Even if he's gotten his seat back, just how much influence do you think Wynn has for the next two years? He's going to look like a sick horse that needs to be put down. Donna Edwards is going to be back with a vengence, but for now, I hope she's readying her attorneys to fight the election results, because they appear to be tainted and maimed, and Wynn has the blood on his hands, especially after being fool enough to actually brag about it.

Here's a tidbit. Hat tip to Matt Stoller at MyDD

BARTON: Down in Texas, we had a Democratic primary about 50 years ago that Lyndon Johnson won by 54 votes. And he got the nickname "Landslide Lyndon." We have Mr. Wynn next. He had a little bit of a tussle last week, but he did win. And so, I want to recognize "Landslide Wynn" for any opening statement that he wishes...
WYNN: Well, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. In fact, they're still counting, but we're quite optimistic. And I did take a couple pages out of Lyndon's book, so if I win, it can be attributed to Texas know-how.
(LAUGHTER)
(UNKNOWN): Did you (inaudible)?
BARTON: I hope not. I hope you win fair and square.
(LAUGHTER)
WYNN: A win is a win.

I don't know about you, but anytime the oil-soaked Joe Barton is giving you props, you are a suspect DLCer and bipartisanship be damned. Even the hapless Harold Ford, Jr. is smarter than Wynn to gloat about what he's doing to win the Senate seat in Tennessee and I actually respect that. Albert Wynn is worse than Joe Lieberman, and his narcissism knows no bounds. But I hope that we in the progressive blogsphere can make his term a living hell.

THE BEGINNING OF THE END OF THIS WEBSITE

2006-09-19T07:52:00.000-07:00

Is starting with the DLC losing their tax-exempt status. They lose it because they don't want to reveal who is that masked man who's been spouting that schtick that the Democratic Party should become more like Corporatists.

From Steve Gilliard's blog:

Via correntewire from Forbes Magazine (where it's behind a membership firewall) comes this inspiring human interest story about our poor, beleagered friends over at the Democratic Leadership Council losing their tax-exempt status for being too, well...partisan.

Will wonders ever cease? Join me after the flip.

Now, in a previously unreported action, the Internal Revenue Service has revoked the DLC's tax exemption on the grounds that it primarily benefited a private group--Democrats, and particularly "New Democrats" running for or holding office--rather than the community at large. The DLC has sued in federal court to overturn the decision;

Of course, no true sob story would be complete without a tragic helping of irony. For little did we know, "benefit" is now a synonym of "contaminate." But perhaps the sordid details of this plot will reveal where we, as a society, with our labyrinthine tax laws, went so horribly wrong that we allowed ourselves to do a grave injustice to that little lamb of God, Al From:

The DLC isn't a 501(c)(3) charity like the United Way. It won exemption in 1986 under section 501(c)(4) of the code, covering civic and social welfare groups. Contributions to civic groups aren't deductible. But 501(c)(4)s are allowed to lobby more than charities and to even get involved in partisan politics. The National Rifle Association, MoveOn.org, Planned Parenthood and the National Right to Life Committee are all 501(c)(4)s.

What's the practical value of a (c)(4) designation if it doesn't generate writeoffs for its donors? A (c)(4) isn't taxed as a for-profit business would be and doesn't have to disclose its donors, as a political action committee does.

For their next trick, the DLC will demonstrate how they have been true Democrats all along...

OKAY, I HAD TO POST THIS

2006-09-18T09:29:00.000-07:00

Because if you've ever dealt with family dynasties, you'll also know they will go to any lengths to preserve said dynasty. This bunch is the mob equivalent of the Sopranos in how far and how long they will go to preserve Harold Ford, Sr's legacy.

Too bad his sons are screwing it up for everyone else. My blogging pals at the Freedonian and Left-Wing Cracker has their opinions on this issue...

THIS IS WHAT A CAN OF "WHUP A--" LOOKS LIKE...

2006-09-08T07:42:00.000-07:00

CAN OF WHUP A--. NOW, WE KNOW WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE

Progressives intend to clean house in the House of Reps as well as the Senate in November. And thanks to Memphis Blogger Thaddeus Matthews, every Vichy Democrat will now know what a can of whup a--s looks like, before, during and after it's been broken out on them.

Thaddeus, thanks for making my day with this.