One less wingnut in 2012.

"I will smash them one against the other, even parents against children, says the LORD. I will not let my pity or mercy or compassion keep me from destroying them." ~Jeremiah 13:12-14~

Did someone take the book of Jeremiah out of Mike Huckabee's bible? Poor Governor Huckabee. All those pardons guided by his faith might have finally caught up with him. Maurice Clemmons , -A-merry-ca's black bogeyman of the moment- was not the first person that Huckabee pardoned who went on to do some seriously f*&#%d up things, it's just that he has now become the most notorious.

I bet you never heard of Wayne Dumond or Glen Green. If you haven't don't feel bad. Most people outside of Arkansas haven't heard of them either. Like Clemmons, they were the beneficiaries of Huckabee's mercy. With a little prodding from his brothers in Christ, the good gov. made sure that these animals got back on the street because they were able to hustle the gov. and his friends into believing that they could change their spots.

I don't mean to pile on Mike Huckabee. Honesty, of all the GOP candidates who ran against his O ness, he seemed to be the most fundamentally decent. But I can't ignore the hypocrisy on the right. If you saw him [Huckabee] on Bill O'Reilly's show you saw how O'Reilly told him that he was not at fault for releasing these monsters to society, and that he was a stand up guy for even being on his show and talking about it. Huh? Are you kidding me? Imagine, for a minute, that Huckabee is a dumbocrat; do you think the reaction would be the same from our [right] wingnut friends? Of course it wouldn't; but such is the hypocrisy and spin that goes on when it comes to politics here in A-merry-ca.

Joe Conason writing for Salon.com doesn't like Mike Huckabee. This is what he wrote:

"During the 2008 campaign, Huckabee's arrogance and stupidity mostly escaped the full scrutiny of the national press corps, in part because his stint as a contender was so brief. But next time, if there is a next time, he should get no such free pass -- and his claims to divine guidance ought to be thoroughly debunked. "

Yes it should. And of course the problem with "divine guidance" is that we never know what the man upstairs is really planning. Sometimes it might not be in the best interest of us mortals. For example, right about now it's looking like he never wanted his humble servant, Mike Huckabee, to be president in the first place.

"Preaching To The Choir."

I heard the speech by his O ness tonight, but rather than a long post about it I am going to just leave it alone. I have already added my two cents to this debate. Besides, my mama always told me...well, let's just say that I am taking a wait and see attitude when it comes to Afghanistan. Get used to that word boys and girls, we will be hearing it a lot over the next three years. I won't be as tough on his O ness as some folks have been, but I am not going to pretend to like this new strategy, either. I wonder how we are going to pay for this new "surge"? I am willing to pay an added war tax, I wonder if my [right]wingnut friends who have been advocating for more troops will be willing to do the same? I doubt it. Lawmakers are supposedly jittery about this new war effort, and they should be. Thirty thousand troops at a million per man is a lot of dead presidents. Sorry, poor choice of words. It's a lot of money.

Still, West Point was a nice touch O man. All those men and women in uniform giving the commander in chief their undivided attention. I just hope you know what you are getting into . I know you said the comparisons to Vietnam aren't fair, but sorry, when it comes to war the American people tend to view all of them the same. When Bryan Williams starts leading "The Nightly News" with those coffins coming into Dover those comparisons will be made, fair or not.

So O man, for the record, I am not feeling this latest move, even though it beats being in Iraq;a place we had no business being in the first place. At least OBL might still be hiding out in the mountains of that region somewhere, (Thanks for blowing the chance to get him frat boy. Air strikes and Afghani intelligence? ) and we know that he is the mastermind behind the attacks that killed over three thousand Americans.

And speaking of Iraq: The evil one was at it again today. This guy just can't help himself. He won't shut up until AG Holder puts his ass in handcuffs.

“I begin to get nervous when I see the commander in chief making decisions apparently for what I would describe as small ‘p’ political reasons, where he’s trying to balance off different competing groups in society,” Cheney said.

“Every time he delays, defers, debates, changes his position, it begins to raise questions: Is the commander in chief really behind what they’ve been asked to do?”

Blah blah blah. Where is Elin Woods with those golf clubs when you need her?

The vultures are circling.

Let me start tonight's post by wiping a little egg from my face. I said that the vultures in the media would leave Tiger alone; I was wrong. This story, as they say in the business, has legs.

I also want to say for the record that I really did not want to blog about the salacious nature of this incident tonight. I believe that Tiger, in spite of all his fame and wealth, is entitled to his privacy. At least when it comes to his family. So there.

But....having said, that there are some places with this story that I have to go. First, let's acknowledge that big old elephant sitting in the middle of the room: The racial component of this story. I have been hearing it from some of you sisters at the water cooler, today: Field I sure hope you blog about Tiger and his white woman. If he had stayed with Tyra (I didn't even know he dated Tyra) this wouldn't have happened. He is going to end up like O.J. Just watch.

I will admit , this story does have some *eerie similarities to a certain Brentwood case. The star athlete of color; the blond wife; rumors of affairs; possible domestic violence; and it goes on. There is even -what one Orlando reporter described as- the "Johnny Cochran of Orlando" representing Tiger. So I guess, as A-merry-cans, we have to ask ourselves collectively; would we even care as much if Tiger was in fact married to Tyra and not Elin?

The fellows have been talking to me as well: Yo field, what was your boy thinking? Tiger knows that he is too famous to creep. Or, field, why would your boy risk everything for some outside tail? Home boy better zip it up next time.

All this, of course, while Tiger is still chilling by a river in Egypt. TMZ says otherwise, and they even have the other woman's name and her picture to back up their story. And the real culprit in all of this where Tiger is concerned, just might be The National Inquirer. (These guys have been on a roll lately.) They have been reporting this story all along. Tiger, I have a little advise for you: You have lots of loot. Get a nanny to do your grocery shopping. You don't need Elin to be standing at the check- out counter and reading about you getting your driver on with some other woman.

Oh well, let's hope that this is the end of the drama with Tiger. I still love to see the man swing a golf club, and I sure don't need to see a slow police chase in South Florida anytime soon.

Killing season.

I am too depressed to do a lot of writing tonight. And you can thank the animals living among us masquerading as human beings for my mood. You can also blame the holiday season and the NRA lobby for A-murder-ca becoming a literal killing field over the past few days. For example:

In Florida, a man goes on a killing spree allegedly murdering four family members after a Thanksgiving meal.

In Washington state a man ambushed and allegedly killed four police officers while they were getting ready to start their day in a coffee shop.

In Paterson, New Jersey, a man chased down and shot his wife and their two young sons. Fortunately -if there is such a thing as a silver lining in this tragedy- he allegedly only killed one of his intended targets before being shot and killed himself.

In Madison, Wisconsin, four people were shot in a domestic dispute.

And finally, in Kansas, the former director of a utility service allegedly shot and killed his estranged wife and two teenage daughters to death.

Are you starting to see a pattern here?

Oh well, back to my local killings here in Killadelphia. I am sure my local murder count needs updating. It is, after all, the holiday season. There is nothing like a little holiday cheer to bring out the killer in some of us.

The cover up.

I am going to surprise and upset some of you with this post. (Gee field, what else is new?)

I don't agree with Google removing that image of the first lady. It's one of the first images that appeared because of the amount of hits that the blogger blog that posted it was getting, and Google, after a tremendous amount of pressure, removed it from their image search. I still think you can still see the image on Google (See the pic with this post) but they have chosen to run a disclaimer with it.

Now here is the thing: As reprehensible and repugnant as that picture is, it still should not be removed. Why? Because where an image appears on google depends on the demand for the image on the Internet. The more hits and requests for the image via the blog the further up the Google chain it goes.

Obviously this vile image of the first lady was in great demand. To pretend that it wasn't and to try and censor it now would be the equivalent of putting a band-aid on an open festering sore. I say let's see the sore and how bad it is and deal with it. A-merry-ca is too good at covering up stuff.

If we did, maybe we would get more thoughtful posts like this one, -which was inspired by the episode- and people would actually start talking to each other. (Not that I would want to do much talking with the type of person who takes the time to do these types of photo shop jobs.) Hey at least we would know they are out there and where to look for them. I hate it when this type of ignorance is close to me and I don't even know that it's there.

Oh field, stop whining, they had chimp pics of Bush and no one made this big of a deal over it. I didn't see the folks at Google scrambling to put disclaimers on those pics. That, of course, is your standard [right] wingnut response. And if you are like me you don't even try to educate and teach by explaining the difference. You just kind of let it go and chalk it up to the law of averages playing itself out on the human intelligence scale.

But you see the problems that this type of censoring can cause, so why do it? Hey, when we see it we will blog about it and point it out, and I am sure that the [right] wingnuts will defend it. But at least it will be out there in all its ugliness for us to see. A fitting simulacrum of what lurks in their vacuous minds.

Couples and another "Magic Negro".

A friend of mine went and saw The Blind Side, and he was going on and on about what a tear jerker it was. Sorry, I will pass. I am not ready for yet another Magic Negro story. I know it's the Christmas season and some of us want to feel good about ourselves, but this is one feel good story I can do without. Been there done that. Remember The Green Mile ?

Tonight I am thinking about couples. One in Washington D.C. and the other one in Orlando, Florida..

Let me start with the Orlando couple, first: It's been a slow news day so I am sure that you have all heard about Tiger Woods doing like the crash test dummy with his Cadillac SUV. (Why doesn't he drive a Buick?) His publicist has been in full spin mode ever since the mishap. It's a minor accident, Mr. Woods has been released from the Hospital; and he is fine. The spin- master had better be in full spin mode because the rumors are flying really fast. I am not a real journalist guided by the punctilious nature of that profession, so I can repeat one of them here: Tiger and Mrs. Tiger were in a heated fight and he tried to roll in the middle of the night. Not so fast. Seems Mrs. Woods is pretty good with the clubs as well and took an iron to the back of the SUV causing Tiger to- using a golf analogy- hit a sand trap.

Now what is not in dispute is that Tiger was leaving his spot at two thirty in the morning; he was involved with a one vehicle accident; and Mrs. Woods did take the irons to the back of the SUV. It will be really interesting to see how the press treats this story. Tiger is an icon and he is loved. Will the vultures start to circle to get to the bottom of this, or will they leave him alone?

The other couple that intrigues me are the two reality show wanna be clowns in D.C. Crashing a state dinner is no easy thing to do, and yet they did it. How? What the hell is up with the Secret Service? Field, they did not pose a threat to the president. Maybe not this time. Although isn't that one of the crashers I see shaking hands with his O ness in the pic? Is it me or does it seem like it's so much easier to get next to this president? Ahhh stop it field, what about the Iraqi who threw the shoe at George Bush? Yes, but that happened on Iraqi soil. This happened in the White House for crying out loud!

Another fascinating aspect of this story is the lengths A-merry-cans will go through for their 15 minutes. (Think "Balloon Boy's" parents). Are we that obsessed with face time as a culture that we would risk fines and imprisonment to get in front of the camera? Of course we would. That was a rhetorical question.

The irony of these two couple stories is that one couple is trying to stay out of the news while the other one is desperately trying to get in it. In the end, they will probably both get their wish.

Only in A-merry-ca.

Junk in your trunk? If so, you just might not graduate.

*

I am sure that we have all gotten our turkey and mac and cheese on by now. If you live anywhere in the continental United States you had a very big meal today and you are probably just sitting around letting the calories soak in.

So this is a perfect time to blog about this story.

It seems that Lincoln University, an HBCU here in Pennsylvania, has decided that if you are not healthy and watching your weight you could jeopardize your chances of graduating. The folks at Lincoln are tired of obese students not taking care of themselves and they have decided to take the knife and forks into their own hands.

"We know we're in the midst of an obesity epidemic," said James L. DeBoy, chairman of Lincoln's department of health, physical education and recreation. "We have an obligation to address this head on, knowing full well there's going to be some fallout."

Well hell yes Mr. DeBoy, you best believe that there is going to be "some fallout". You can't stop black folks from getting their grub on. And college students at that. Ain't gonna happen.

And I agree with honor student Tiana Lawson-who happens to be a senior- who says (and I am para-paraphrasing here) that she didn't go to Lincoln to be told about her weight; she went for an education. Let's just be glad that kids like Ms. Lawson are in college holding it down and hitting their books, instead of burdening them with the added pressure of having to watch their weight. If Ms. Lawson chooses she can worry about her weight later. Besides, how do we know that she isn't just as healthy as a size six freshman with a coke bottle shape?

"In an interview Friday, Lawson said she has no problem with getting healthy or losing weight. But she does have a problem with larger students being singled out.

"If Lincoln truly is concerned about everyone being healthy, then everyone should have to take this gym class, not just people who happen to be bigger," she said.
The mandate, which took effect for freshmen entering in fall 2006, requires students to get tested for their body mass index, a measure of weight to height.

A normal BMI is between 18.5 and 24.9. Students with one that's 30 or above -- considered obese -- are required to take a class called "Fitness for Life," which meets three hours a week."

Great. I wonder if they teach the kids to skip Thanksgiving in "Fitness for Life" classes?

Props to Mrs. Field and her sister who threw down in a way that is sure to make my BMI inch towards that 30 mark.

*Pic courtesy of The Grio.

Just being thankful.

*

Field, I know you are Jamaican, and you people aren't really into the whole Thanksgiving thing. But are there some things that you are thankful for?

Hell yes, I can think of a bunch of things:

I am thankful that A-merry-cans did not select the McCain/Palin ticket.

I am thankful that the Eagles didn't draft Ricky Williams.

I am thankful for "Saved By The Bell" reruns.

I am thankful for Mrs. Field's Uncle David and his Louisiana deep fried turkey.

I am thankful that I live in one of the greatest-if not most underrated-cities in the world.

I am thankful for black women.

I am thankful for my elders who give me knowledge.

I am thankful for Jamaican food.

I am thankful for other bloggers and people who comment on this blog.

I am thankful that I recognize injustice.

I am thankful that I lived to see a black president get elected.

I am thankful that I lived to see Tiger Woods play golf and Roger Federer play tennis.

I am thankful for Usain Bolt.

I am thankful that I got a chance to meet two of my heroes. (Bob Marley & Michael Manley)

I am thankful for my parents who taught me the importance of an education.

I am thankful for my sister who taught me how to use it.

I am thankful for the men and women who volunteer to fight in the armed services.

I am thankful for Michael Kors.

I am thankful for the state of Louisiana.

I am thankful that I live in a country where I can vote for who I want to lead me.

I am thankful for the Internet.

I am thankful for Brazilian soccer and American football.

I am thankful for the freedom of staying home on Sunday mornings.

I am thankful for real journalist.

I know that I am fighting with them; but I am thankful for google.

I am thankful for my family and friends.

And finally, I am thankful that I am not a turkey.

HAVE A HAPPY TURKEY DAY EVERYBODY!

*Thanks for the pic Felix. That is too funny.

George's Wars....for now.

*

I would like to start tonight's post with a letter to the editor penned by a reader named Roy Lehman in my hometown paper.

"John Yoo continues to live in a fantasy world of the Bush administration that he had a large part in creating ('No clear benefit to holding 9/11 trial in New York', Sunday)

He continues to frame the actions of what would be more accurately described as a gang of civilian religious fanatics as an "act of war". Bush administration members labeled the terrorism an act of war in order to expand the powers of George Bush and cover their behinds for what they were about to do.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. seems to have decided that the actions of these religious fanatics were, in reality, crimes. I agree and will not live in fear , demanded by the right wing, of a band of disjointed religious fanatics, when the real threats to my family are job insecurity and a health catastrophe that may bankrupt me and my family. "

Citizen Lehman I loved that letter!

My friends, as we all get ready to get our turkey on, let's not forget our troops in harms way on two different fronts and who caused them to be there in the first place. George W. Bush and his neocon friends.

The war rages on, and A-merry-cans are stuck with paying for it with both precious lives and dollars. (BTW, I agree with David Obey, let's put an added tax on everybody to pay for the wars.) The phony patriots will give us all kinds of reasons why these wars are necessary, but don't believe any of it. They are not. A few religious fanatics hell bent on kicking it with some virgins in their other life is not a foreign threat. They have no country, just a sick twisted ideology. The biggest threat to A-merry-ca comes from within not in the deserts of Iraq or the mountains of Afghanistan.

The brilliance of the neocons and the right-wing in this country is that they have hoodwinked everyone into thinking that in order to protect our country we must attack someones else's, and if we don't wipe them from the face of the earth they will come again for us like they did on 9/11. The problem with that, of course, is that we don't know who they are, and we sure as hell don't know where they live or where they will be coming from. -The Ft. Hood shooter was in our military for crying out loud! Where will the next fanatic come from? Even if we bomb everyone of these countries into nothing it won't guarantee that some sympathizer living in Dearborn, Michigan won't strap on a bomb and decide to become the half time show at a Red Wings game.

Thank goodness a bunch of Rastafarians didn't decide to blow up the World Trade Center. Because if they did, and George Bush was in power, Jamaica would be nothing but a memory.

That's how twisted the neocon logic is, and that's what got us into this mess.

The problem now of course is how do we get out. Here is hoping that his O ness, unlike the guy before him, actually uses his brain and not his bible.

*Pic courtesy of Phtobucket

The Butler Did It.

You know what I hate about that SOB racism? I will tell you what I hate: Sometimes he will do sneaky shit to instigate me into chasing him and then when I catch his ass he tries to act like he wasn't the one messing with me in the first place.

Take this latest brouhaha over a Wall Street Journal article. Have you all heard of this? Seems the Journal is pissed off about one of the O man's appointments to the federal bench. They think that the guy is way too liberal and shouldn't be given a federal judicial appointment. So far so good, right?

Yes, but then in their article decrying the pick, the Journal let their inner "R" show by referring to the nominee as "the White House Butler." Nice. I love their play on words. The guy's name is Butler, and he does happen to be black. So was the Journal using their cute play on words because of the guy's race? Or was it just a play on his name? Wait....let me look at the actual article. It was the headline? And here I thought it was just a line buried deep in the op-ed piece. Oh yeah Mr. R, I have your ass now.

Oh field, there you go again, you must be really desperate to find racism if you are going to accuse a fine paper like The WSJ of being racist. So a bunch of tree hugging white liberals in Wisconsin see racism, it doesn't mean that it is there. Field, not everyone is a racist, some people don't even think of such things. News flash, field, this is a "post racial America." You know who is a racist, field? The tree hugging liberals in Wisconsin who just naturally associate a black man with a butler.

"The headline was a play off of his last name, and to suggest anything otherwise is absurd," said a statement from Wall Street Journal spokeswoman Ashley Huston."

OK field, that ought to settle it. Once again you are chasing racism when there is nothing there to chase.

I swear the next time he comes around I am going to tell racism to go and play with someone else. His ass is way too slick for me.