We are civilized Xenophobes.

I think my twenty four hour ban from blogging is up. If it's not, it will just have to be a sofa night for the kid.

So anyway I was thinking; what does Waterloo, Iowa, and Johannesburg, South Africa, have in common? I will tell you what. In both places anti- immigration hysteria has raised its ugly xenophobic head. In both these places anti- immigrant sentiments that is counterproductive, uncivilized, and unwise has taken the place of reason, common sense, and just plain human decency.

In South Africa, native South Africans have been searching out and savagely beating and killing immigrants (mostly Mzambicans looking for work) who they believe are taking jobs and houses away from them. If you are a foreigner South Africa would not be a good place for you to be right about now. Poor President Mbeki, he had to call on his countries' army for the first time since the end of apartheid in 1994. That's some troubling shit, and it really makes me wonder about my people sometimes.

Here in A-merry-ca, spurred on by anti- immigration sentiments, and an administration that is concerned with scoring political points with the A-merry-ca first crowd, had three hundred hard working immigrants (mostly South Americans from Guatemala, and no Arabs the last time I checked) arrested in a meat packing plant. The U.S. attorney for Northern Iowa called the operation an "Astonishing success". I bet it was. Nothing like arresting a bunch of illegals and rounding them up and sending them back to their own country. Yeah those meat packing jobs are going to be taken really soon. And this is no ordinary immigration prosecution. usually these cases fall under civil statutes, but not this time. No, these criminals were dragged into federal court with both their hands and feet shackled (hey at least they weren't being beaten my mobs on the street. Here in A-merry-ca we are more civilized than that), and most entered guilty please admitting to using fake social security numbers. You would have to be a lawyer, or have some knowledge of the law to understand how outrageous this prosecution was, but take my word for it on this one. Due process? We don't need no "stinkin" due process. Prosecutors drove a hard bargain, and through their Spanish interpreters, most of the defendants pleaded guilty. Of course hardly any of them had criminal records, and I am pretty sure that none of them had been to an al Queda training camp anywhere.

Of course none of the Managers, or the company which they worked for, Agriprocessors, were charged with any crimes. This is the same plant that had workers working fourteen hours a day and overnight shifts without any pay a few years ago. But we always have to protect our corporate interests here in A-merry-ca now don't we.

Now I know some of my African A-merry-can brothers and sisters will disagree with me on this one. Like their brothers in South Africa, some of them have some real issues with these immigrants coming and taking our jobs. (Yeah I feel you, and I see all those brothers running to Northern Iowa to work in those meat plants.....)

Back in South Africa, Cape Town police spokesman, Andre Traut, said that about 200 people have been arrested, and about 1,200 people mostly foreigners have been displaced. We also know that there has been over fifty deaths as well. Over sixteen thousand Mozambicans have already fled the anti- foreigner violence in South Africa, and neighboring African countries are making plans to get their citizens out of there.

Of course here in A-merry-ca we are way too civilized for the type of stuff that we have been seeing in Africa. We have our government to do such things for us. By the people and for the people right?

Mrs. Field posts!!!

Okay, for all of you who have been asking for a post from Mrs. Field, today you get your wish.


She read my posts about Joseph, and after reading your various comments and kind words she was moved to tears. So without further adieu. I give you your girl, Mrs. Field:



On behalf of my sister and my entire family, I'd let to say thanks to all of you for your kind words. I've always wondered why Field spends so much time blogging. Well now I know...he's in good company.



By the way, Field's little stunt with my picture didn't go unnoticed and certainly will have its consequences....he won't be online for 24 hours. Sorry everyone~



Mrs. Field

Hillary, it might be time for that Q word.

Hillary this was not a good time for your little Bobby Kennedy reference. I mean honestly, WTF were you thinking? Even if we take your word that you were merely making a historical reference, for you to do that almost 40 years to the day after Bobby Kennedy was assassinated was incredibly stupid. And I know I said I would vote for you over McCain if you got the dumbocratic nomination, but now......I don't know. You are either incredibly naive and stupid, or you are incredibly insensitive. Believe me, none of the above choices are any good.

Just days after Mike Huckabee's bad joke at an NRA gathering, and when pictures like the one I am showing with this post are popping up on the front page of Southern Newspapers; do you really think it was wise to even talk about someone who was assassinated while running for President of these divided states? Quite a few people believe you were making a reference to the "O" man Hillary, and that you were really saying that you should stay in the race, because like Kennedy, or King, he [Obama] could be shot. That's what folks are thinking, and quite frankly, how can you blame them for thinking that way? Quite a few black folks do not believe that A-merry-ca will allow the "O" man to go all the way. We are hoping for the better, but we are expecting the worse. We remember 1968 just like you do. You didn't have to remind us.

I caught your apology while you were standing in that grocery store in the middle of nowhere, and I like the fact that you were wearing black. I think it was appropriate. I think most people believe that we were looking at your political funeral, so the black outfit really set the tone. All that was missing was the coffin and the flowers. You are hoping for the "O" man to slip up in a major way to open the door for you. But you are the one slipping up, and your political career is going down the tubes with every stump speech and interview that you and your husband give.

Hillary, I watched your little slip of the tongue over and over, and I still can't tell what you really meant by your comments. But that, in a nutshell, is your problem. I can't believe you, and I don't even dislike you that much.

Please don't question me.

I know you all heard about this story: The U.N. is sending a race investigator to see if we have a racism problem here in A-merry-ca............Okay, there is so much I could say here but I will leave it alone.

Now to be honest, my first thoughts were, why? Why do we need a race investigator here in A-merry-ca? And if Doudou Diene (I love that name) does find racism just what the hell is he going to do about it?(I mean I guess he could write a scathing report, and embarrass A-merry-ca to the rest of the world, but we have no shame so what good would that do?) Honestly, do we need an investigator from the U.N. to tell us that there is racism in A-merry-ca? I don't think so. And couldn't the U.N. be doing more pressing shit like addressing world hunger, attending to the crises in Darfur, and the draconian measures that the IMF uses when they lend poor countries money? That's the kind of shit the U.N. needs to be focusing on, not racism in A-merry-ca. Yes we know it's here, but the shit is more individualized than institutional. There is no more Jim Crow, but there are still people who will pull up and move if they see a black family moving into their neighborhood. There are no more separate but equal schools by law, but people still self segregate themselves, and the result is a serious form of academic apartheid going on in our public schools across the country. All the U.N. investigators in the world looking for racism won't change that.

And Mr. Diene will be going to cities like New York, Washington D.C.,Chicago, Los Angeles, and.....San Juan? Okay, I guess the light skinned Puerto Ricans don't like the dark skinned Puerto Ricans and visa versa. So we really need an investigator to investigate that for us? And another thing, if Doudou really wants to see racism why isn't he going to places like Charleston West Virginia,Guntersville Alabama, or anywhere in Kentucky? Seriously, what the hell is he going to do in New York , or D.C.? just ask the man on the streets if he doesn't like people who are different? Hi my name is Doudou, and I would....what the fuck did you say your name was? Yo this is some kind of joke right? No I am really investigating racism for the U.N. Yeah well there is no racism to see here in America. Why do you think they call it the UNITED states. of America. And you better change your name fast pal if you plan to live here we don't like those funny names. I don't care if you do look like Seal. And I am sorry, but shouldn't the U.N. send a white man to investigate since we know that a real racist would never tell a black man like Mr. Diene how he really feels? The white man, on the other hand, will get all the information from the racist out there who thinks he is one of them. Brilliant huh?

I think the "racism tour" starts Monday. Good luck Mr. Diene, although you won't need it, you are going to find that A-merry-cans are some of the most polite people that you will ever meet.

Now what?

At least he has a flag lapel pin on.

And now the latest manufactured scandal from the Reich wing attack dogs to chew on.

Ready for this? Seems that one of the "O" man's delegates from Washington state is none other than Former Army Chaplain James Yee. You remember him don't you? He is the guy that our government accused of being a spy at Gitmo because he was a Muslim, and he had the nerve to tell us about the treatment some of the Muslim prisoners were receiving at the hands of their captors. For being a human being, he was branded a traitor. Apparently Muslims from poor countries don't rank quite as high on the human scale as us god fearing A-merry-cans.

So Mr. Yee will be a delegate at the DNC (no colored blogs allowed) convention in Denver. And the Reich wing folks are calling on the "O" man to denounce this traitor. On the FAKE NEWS Network tonight they were damn near foaming at the mouth.

Take it from me folks, over the next few days you will be hearing a lot about Mr. Yee. FAKE NEWS wll be running 24 hour loops of everything that he ever said and did. He will be branded a member of the hate A-merry-ca crowd, and his Muslim background will be played to the A-merry-can people until damn near every A-merry-can (including his wife, Michelle) will be thinking that Barack Obama is a Muslim.

So let's see how this latest gotcha works out for my loony friends from the Reich wing.

I am sure that they are hoping for a real scandal this time. It's getting harder and harder to find some real dirt on the guy, and time is running out.

"Groundhog Day"

Haven't we done this before? The Ice Queen wins yet another Bubba state by huge margins and yet she gets no closer to winning the dumbocratic nomination. In fact, this time the "O" man actually won a state to officially clinch the pledged delegate count of the dumbocratic party.

Historic times indeed. Imagine, a black man will be representing one of the major parties to become President of these divided states. So why am I not enjoying it? I guess the fact that the Ice Queen is still in the race and racking up huge victories among a certain ahem, ahem, demographic, just takes some of the shine from the "O" man. At a time when the party should be rallying around their potential candidate, the Ice Queen is saying on to Puerto Rico and yet another ass kicking for the chosen one.

This doesn't seem right, someone, anyone, should tell her to stop. Last night I saw her begging those poor folks for money so that her campaign could go on. Talk about chutzpah. Those poor people should have been begging her for money. One hundred million in five years, and she is begging for money? If she wants to stay in the race she should be loaning the campaign money out of her own pocket. She should see folks like Michael Bloomberg, and Mitt Romney to learn how this is done.

In a way it's sad. I kind of feel sorry watching the Ice Queen go through this exercise in futility. Watching her reminds of of that Barry Manilow song, "Copacabbana." "She was a show girl with yellow feathers in her hair and a dress way down to here...but that was thirty years ago when they use to have a show. Now it's a disco but not for Lola, still in the dress she used to wear faded feathers in her hair...." Hillary just won't get off the fucking stage.

Oh well, the coronation will take place in Denver, and it will be historic. (Even though the DNC is fucking that up as well by excluding bloggers of color from the floor. Sorry colored folks, we only allow certain white liberal blogs to participate in this process....don't even get me started about these mofos. Digression alert!) And I just wonder what Hillary will be doing (and thinking) when all that confetti comes streaming down on that tall lanky black man from Illinois. I take that back, I don't want to even imagine it.

**On a serious and more personal note. I want to thank everyone for their kind words of encouragement after my previous post. That shit was some serious ass field Negro behavior. Thanks again. And Mrs. Field thanks you too.

Goodbye.

Every now and then the sad realities of real life gets in the way of the joy we get from blogging.

A couple of years ago I posted this piece about the war in Iraq and the men (including my brother in law by marriage) who were putting their butts on the line for all of us.

Joseph Barnaba came home from that war, but he was never the same. The physical injuries he suffered was nothing compared to the emotional ones he had to live with.

Joseph Barnaba was found dead in his home last week. A deadly combination of pills in his system was blamed for his demise. But I think Joseph died long before last week. Joseph, like so many young men before him, came home from a war that he had no right being involved with in the first place. And sadly, it took its toll on him, his family, and all the people he touched.

Joseph Barnaba was buried on Saturday, far from the battle field where he was first injured. He was a good man, which is more that I can say for the son of a bitch who sent him there in the first place.

This 911 is no joke.

I was going to blog about the "O" man today and try to create a positive read about A-merry-ca. 50,000 folks in Portland showing the "O" man some Northwest love. Talk about rock star.

The "O" man couldn't get 50,000 people who look like that to show up for him in West Virginia if they were giving away life time NASCAR tickets....well, maybe if they were for life.

Unfortunately, a recent incident in "Music City" AKA Nashville Tennessee, has me seeing red (or should I say black) this morning.

Poor Sheila Jones, all she wanted was some help. All she wanted was an agency that is supposed to be looking out for the welfare of its citizens to come to her aid, but they didn't. Not the way they were supposed to. Thankfully, Sheila Jones is still alive today, but that was not a result of the 911 operators who are supposed to be looking out for her. Sheila Jones is alive in spite of their actions.

Sheila:"Get out of my house"

911: "Is he a boyfriend?"

Sheila: "He's ex. Get out of my house. Help. Outside now. He just went outside. "

This, my friends, went on for two hours and no police officers came to help Ms. Jones.

Okay, bad enough, and the story would have ended there, except for the shocking--well not so shocking-- behavior of one of these operators. After having to deal with the poor woman's ordeal, he promptly hung up the phone and said he didn't "give a shit."

Well, I suspect I know why. Oh boy here comes the field with his race stuff. You damn right. I heard that call, and let's keep it 100% with each other. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the poor woman was black. And the more she screamed and the more desperate she became, the "blacker" she sounded. If only Sheila could have put on a very white sounding voice. Hello, ah hi, my name is Sheila, and I am in like sooo much trouble. My boyfriend is like right outside, and I swear he is like trying to get in. Mam, don't move, we will have someone there before you can hang up the phone. Oh gee thanks sir, wait, I hear the sirens now. Yes, the police officer is here, thanks again.

Sorry, Sheila, I heard the tape, you have to work on the way you speak, you sound way too ethnic.

"Get the police now, my life is threatened. Please God. Please God.Please God. (That's three please gods. Maybe they figured god would save the poor woman) Get me police over now. He's got a knife on me. My life threatened."

Yes Sheila, we are going to have to work on that. It could save your life one day.

The NAACP and their vision problem.

A couple of months ago I met a gentleman in D.C. by the name of Kevin Myles. Kevin is the President of the Wichita branch of the NAACP, and I found him to be down to earth, sharp, and conscious. Most of all, he got it. He understood that the only way that the NAACP was going to truly become relevant as an organization, was to embrace the future, adopt to the changing ways of the information super highway, and organize around it.

The fact that I met Kevin at a bloggers technololgy conference was proof positive that he had his head in the right place, and we talked about his organization (the NAACP) and the future of other traditional civil rights groups like it.

I remembered Kevin today when I read about the NAACP selecting a new national president, a brother by the name of Ben Jealous ( I love that name). Oxford educated, Ivy League degree, Rhodes Scholar, community organizing since he was 14. (Did I say Jealous or Obama?) He clearly has all the right credentials, and I love that fact that he is only 35 years old. At least the elders at that venerable organization are starting to look in the right direction. Nothing against some of our older traditional leaders, but I was tired of the recycled preachers and the old boys club from the traditional civil rights movement. Here in Philadelphia the President of the NAACP is a self promoting, egomaniacal loof ( that's a backwards fool for those of you not familiar with field speak). He is one of the reasons that I stopped paying dues to the organization years ago. They were out of touch with the younger generation, and they closed ranks and refused to listen to other voices or let anyone else take an active role in the organization's direction.

Now, of course, we don't need them anymore. We can organize ourselves. Thanks to the Internet we can raise money, organize around causes, and get important messages out to each other.

The NAACP has approximately 500,000 members around the country. But Color of Change, an Internet activist group based out of California, has about that many people signed up and ready to go as online activist. Groups like the Afrospear (sphere), a coalition of bloggers of color, have over 100 active blogs with the power to organize and reach readers with their message. So while the NAACP has the brand, they need to recognize that they must adopt to change and try to combine the power of their brand with the technology now available to them.

Mr. Jealous is an old newspaper man (former executive director of the National Newspaper Publishers Association), but I am hoping that he can divorce himself from the traditional thinking of the old old black media, and move into the 21st century. He should be able to, because he is obviously a smart man, and he is young enough to understand the nuances of the new phenomenon that is online activism.

Kevin Myles understands it. But he is just one man from one of many NAACP branches around the country . He has started a blog for that chapter, and he has a vision of synthesizing the traditional message of the NAACPP with online activism and organizing. I wish him luck, because old habits are hard to break.

When W.E.B. DuBois and Ida Wells-Barnett started this great organization in 1909, I am sure that they never dreamed that it would grow into the powerful organization that it eventually became. But sadly,today, the NAACP is in trouble-- They were forced to lay off a third of their staff because of budget shortfalls--, and if their leadership don't get their heads out of their asses and stop enjoying the smell of their own shit, this once great organization will be reduced to just a footnote in history.