field negro

Again!

2012-02-28T18:25:00.000-05:00

"We have an active shooter at the high school. Repeat: an active shooter at the high school".

T.J. Lane sounds like the name of a Country and Western singer. But it is not. It is the name of the seventeen year old who took a gun to school and killed three high school students in suburban Cleveland, Ohio. Just the latest troubled A-merry-can youth to act out his Columbine style fantasies for the entire world to see.

Of course, over the next few days, you will be hearing about what a good kid he is. There will be lavish superlatives thrown his way from the usual suspects, and everyone will be shocked that such a nice quiet child could commit such an unspeakable act.

Wait... I think it has started already:

"He was more of a quiet type of kid,” Erasmus said. “He was more of a quiet type of kid. He was really nice, though, if you did talk to him. He came from a broken home. My family knew his a little bit from high school. And he just came from a really broken down home and he was living with his grandparents. I was really shocked when I found out that it was him. Because he was, I mean, he was quiet, but he was one of the nicest kids there. You could talk to him really easily. I mean, he was funny. It was really shocking that it was him" [Source]

Well, as one of my twitter buddies said earlier, "so was Ted Bundy."

It's always shocking to A-merry-cans when things don't go according to the script. T.J. Lane is not drug dealer Jerome Johnson from North Philadelphia, who blasted another drug dealer on the corner for stealing his money. T.J. Lane is a kid from a wonderful bucolic suburban town in Northeast Ohio. A town where they have maple festivals and violent crime is just something they read about when it's committed by those savages in Cleveland.

Unfortunately, behind this Rockwellian facade, there are problems. And whenever these problems explode into something sinister they lead the evening news.

Those of us who live and breathe the problems of urban A-merry-ca are wondering, once again, what's all the fuss about? This is what troubled kids do. They shoot and kill people with no remorse. T.J. Lane was shooting in a suburban high school in Northeast, Ohio. But the shots were flying through living rooms all over A-merry-ca. Of course we will all take cover and pretend it didn't happen. That is until the next troubled suburban kid decides that he or she wants to lead the evening news.

Obama the "snob"?

2012-02-27T22:59:00.000-05:00

I don't even think my father attended my high school graduation. I think he was off the island attending business somewhere. In my family, going to college was just something we knew that we had to do, a high school diploma was just a means to an end.

I wish more families were like my own when it comes to this issue. Unless you are fortunate enough to be born with a silver spoon in your mouth, getting a college education is the most proven path to success in this country.

Sadly, you can't tell that to conservative politicians when they are out trolling for the anti intellectual -right- wingnut vote.

Unfortunately, republican politicians do not believe that a college education is a good thing. And they hint that the president of the United States is an uppity Negro for even suggesting that young people in this country should aspire to get a college degree.

“President Obama once said he wants everybody in America to go to college,” Santorum sniped. “What a snob!”

A "snob" for going to college? If that's the case I sure wish that there were more "snobs" in this country.

“Not all folks are gifted in the same way. Some people have incredible gifts with their hands!” Santorum added. “There are good decent men and women who go out and work hard every day and put their skills to test that aren’t taught by some liberal college professor trying to indoctrinate them. Oh, I understand why he wants you to go to college. He wants to remake you in his image. I want to create jobs so people can remake their children into their image, not his.”

Yes Rick, and do you know why those "decent man and women" go out and work every day? So that they can send their children to college!
I wonder if Rick and his wife are going to give back their law degrees?

But Ray Charles, may his soul rest in peace, could have seen what Ricky is trying to do. He is trying to paint Obama as uppity and out of touch. To some folks being uppity and out of touch is alright if your name is Mitt Romney. (Some of his best friends are NASCAR team owners? WTF?) But being uppity and out of touch is not cool if you are....well, you know....one of them.

President Obama, as is to be expected, is pushing back.

"President Obama on Monday defended his stance that higher education is critical to preparing Americans to compete in the global workforce, offering a tacit rebuke to Republican rival Rick Santorum who called Obama a “snob” for wanting everyone to go to college.....

'...When I speak about higher education we’re not just talking about a four-year degree,” Obama said. “We’re talking about somebody going to a community college and getting trained for that manufacturing job that now is requiring somebody walking through the door, handling a million-dollar piece of" equipment. And they can’t go in there unless they’ve got some basic training beyond what they received in high school.”'

O, I am disappointed in you. Why are you lowering the bar? Stick to your guns. When you speak about higher education you should be speaking about a four year degree. A-merry-cans need their leaders to inspire them to do greater things; not tell them that it's cool to be dumb and that the uppity ~~Nigger~~ President trying to get them to educate themselves is out of line because he is....you know, one of them.

Finally, if you are a woman in A-merry-ca and you want to have sex for the pleasure it brings you, I strongly suggest that you do not move to Kansas.

"Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R) has a simple solution for women who work for religious institutions that refuse to cover birth control: Find a new job.
During a call-in show on C-SPAN Monday morning, a woman named Doris from Osawatomie, Kansas told Brownback that she was worried that he wanted to turn back the clock on women’s rights.

“No, goodness,” Brownback replied. “That’s not true.”

“I am concerned that — along with lots of other red states — Gov. Brownback feels that we should be the reddest state in the country,” Doris explained. “Women’s rights are being trampled. He was talking about what President Obama is requiring insurance companies to do, to cover birth control. You know you are taking away the individual woman’s right to decide if they need birth control.”

“Ninety-eight percent of women have used birth control in their lives,” she added. “Now, we can pay for vasectomies, we can pay for Viagra, but we cannot pay for birth control for women? I think it’s a shame.”

Brownback immediately disagreed.

“What the president basically said is if you are church that does not believe in this — and the Catholic Church has problems with, the official Catholic Church, amongst other institutions, have problems with paying for contraceptives,” the Kansas governor explained. “You have a number of religious groups who saying, ‘We don’t want to pay for so-called abortifacients, these have morning after pill-type effects. And this is against our religious beliefs.’ And the president was saying, ‘You got to pay for it.’ And they were saying, ‘This is against our view life is sacred.’”

“That’s not denying women’s rights,” he insisted. “If a woman then wants birth control, go work somewhere else.” [Source]

Oh my! Women of A-merry-ca, this means war.

Disparaging religions and killing senators.

2012-02-26T20:33:00.000-05:00

This is torture. I am trying to watch the NBA All-Star game and the Mrs. is in another room watching the Oscars. I already learned that Ryan Seacrest got "ashes bombed" by Sacha Baron Cohen, and Viola Davis was letting her natural side come out on the Red Carpet. Help! There is absolutely nothing worse than a bunch of celebrities posing for the cameras and some giddy star struck entertainment reporter asking them who they are wearing. Seriously? "Who are you wearing"?

Anyway, I wonder if the New York Post has a Kabul bureau. For their sake I sure hope not. They are just not feeling the folks over at the Post in the Muslim world right now.

I understand the whole First Amendment thing, but at some point you would think that a major news organization such as the Post should take responsibility for their actions. First the Obama chimpanzee cartoon and now this. I swear wingnuts have no sense of decency.

Which brings me to congressman John Sullivan (R-Ok).Mr. Sullivan believes that the way to get bills passed in Washington is to kill a few democratic Senators.

"After expressing his support for the GOP budget that shreds Medicare, Sullivan told his constituents in Bixby, Oklahoma on Wednesday that killing Democratic Senators may be the only guarantee of it’s passage unless Democrats take heavy Election Day losses this November.

“Like I said, after this last election, the first order of business is pass a budget,” Sullivan declared. “Now, I believe that. I supported the Paul Ryan budget and sent it over to the Senate. Now I live with some Senators, I yell at them all the time, I grabbed one of them the other day and shook him and I’d love to get them to vote for it — boy I’d love that. You know but other than me going over there with a gun and holding it to their head and maybe killing a couple of them, I don’t think they’re going to listen unless they get beat.” [Source]

Holding a gun to their heads and "killing a couple of them"? I am so glad that we live in America and not Afghanistan. At least not yet.

Finally, I am supposed to be on Jesse Lee Peterson's radio program tomorrow. I will try to be respectful to the brotha. But, as you all know, he is not one of my favorite people, so we will see what happens.

Cadillac man.

2012-02-25T21:11:00.001-05:00

There is this joke in some racist circles: "Give a N****r a Cadillac and a white woman and he is set for life." If Flipper was a N****r he would be definitely set for life. He has a white woman and a Cadillac; he told us so.

"I like the fact that most of the cars I see are Detroit-made automobiles," Romney said during an economic policy address at Ford Field in Detroit on Friday. "I drive a Mustang and a Chevy pickup truck. Ann drives a couple of Cadillacs actually. I used to have a Dodge pickup truck, so I used to have all three covered."

Wow! Flipper's wife drives two Cadillacs! Man talk about set for life. Now if he could just get another wife. (That was not meant to be a Mormon joke.)

Anyway, as it turns out, the people who are responsible for Cadillacs didn't always like us Negroes too much. Who knew? Maybe that's why some of
you Negroes like to drive them. I wonder how many republicans are aware of this little tidbit? If they did the sales of Cadillacs would fly through the roof.

"Nicolas Dreystadt singlehandedly saved Cadillac from its own ignorance. He was a German immigrant who came to the U.S. with his parents when he was a small boy. He worked as a mechanic apprentice for Mercedes-Benz before becoming the national head of Cadillac’s services department. He was responsible for the department that serviced Cadillac cars throughout the U.S. and was considered middle-management.

As he travelled across the country to monitor Cadillac’s service departments, Dreystadt noticed something strange. He noticed great numbers of Blacks bringing their cars in to be serviced. “But how could this be,” he thought, knowing that Cadillac had a strict “no sale to Blacks” policy. Then it dawned on him that these Blacks had paid Whites to buy the cars for them – they actually paid a fee for the transaction.

“But, the wealthy Negro,” business critic Peter F. Drucker recalled, “wanted a Cadillac so badly that he paid a substantial premium to a White man to front for him in buying one. Dreystadt had investigated this unexpected phenomenon and found that a Cadillac was the only success symbol the affluent Black could buy; he had no access to good housing, to luxury resorts, or to any other of the outward signs of worldly success (Cadillacs cost more than $ 5,000 back then–over $ 60,000 in today’s money).”

Now why would Negroes want to drive an automobile from a company that had a no sale to Negroes, policy? And why would you Negroes spend so much money to show off your status? I swear some things just never change. *shaking head*

"A Romney aide told reporters after the event that two Cadillacs driven by the candidate's wife are SRXs.

The luxury crossover retails new from from $35,485 to $54,525, according to the manufacturer's website -- mid-priced cars by industry standards."

I like nice cars as much as the next guy, but I have never liked Cadillacs. Something about them says Pimps and Elvis to me. Just a little too ostentatious for the kid. And besides, I never found their body style that appealing.

"See, I'm a Detroit guy, so, you know, I only have domestics. I have a couple of Cadillacs, at two different houses. You know, small crossovers,"

Mitt, would it kill your wife to drive a couple of nice Buicks?

The truth post.

2012-02-24T22:57:00.000-05:00

If the truth usually hurts you might want to skip this post or grab some Tylenol.

Let me start with the Oscars, because Sunday is Oscar Night here in A-merry-ca. And, sadly, to many of you A-merry-cans, this is bigger than the State Of The Union Address.

One of documentaries that was nominated for an award is called Undefeated. It chronicles the successful football season of a poor inner city high school in Memphis, Tennessee, and how they overcame problems on and off the field. "So field, what's so movie worthy about that?" Funny you should ask. The coach of the troubled football team in the film is white, and, like The Blind Side before it, an all too familiar theme emerges.

I have nothing against Bill Courtney, the latest white saviour to catch Hollywood's fancy. God bless him for volunteering his time to help those young men in Memphis. He deserves credit for it. But ABC's Person Of The Week? ESPN? Hollywood? Oscar? Countless talk shows? And...well, I think you get the picture. Like that wealthy white woman before him played by Sandra Bullock, Mr. Courtney is the white saviour of the hour. A-merry-ca loves these types of feel good stories; all the better when poor inner cities kids are lifted out of their condition by that one wealthy white person.

You will never see such a story about William Ellerbee, or Ted Ginn, Sr, or Todd Walker, because it would never sell. Black men are supposed to look out for their own children. I guess when there is a white savior it's like one of those man bites dog kind of deals.

I wish Mr. Courtney good luck on Oscar Night. I bet the makers of Undefeated walk away with the statute. Mr. Courtney might bring some of those boys from the team with him, and the camera will pan to them as he hugs his wife, the filmmakers, and whoever is in reach of his arms. The music will just keep playing, and there won't be a dry eye in the house.

Finally, it's time to get on some of you young Negroes.

This is always hard, because the people that I want to talk to do not read this blog. I know because I meet them from time to time in my professional life.

I don't know who is going to get to these killers living among us, but somebody better do something and fast. (h/t Greg Fuller)We know that they are not getting proper training at home. We can't blame the schools because most of them are not in school. We can't blame the church, because Pastor Jones can't go and drag Jerome out of bed on Sunday morning. And we can't blame city and state officials because it's not their job to police your damn kids.

We could blame the various negative influences in the neighborhoods for creating these little monsters, but where did these negative influences come from in the first place? Television? Movies? Rap Videos? I suppose we can say all of the above. But we all watch television and movies, and we don't go around splitting people's wigs in the middle of the day with automatic weapons. That is just some depraved s&^t that sociopaths do.

Thing is, when you meet some of these monsters they are nothing like you would expect. It's as if they reserve their anger and depravity for kids who are in similar situations as they are: Other kids in "the game" as they like to call it. They actually refer to people who aren't in "the game" as civilians. As if they are waging some kind of sick inner city war against each other that the rest of us will never understand. Unfortunately, the only time I get to really get their ear is when their war infringes on the rest of society and society takes action. Then it's my job to see if society acted properly and if justice is being served. It's enough to keep even the hardest field Negro up at night.

But I have some ideas, and hopefully someday the right people will listen to what I am saying. Right now poli-tricksters are too busy trying to get paid and maintaining the status quo to really care. (And no, I am not talking about white folks. I am talking about you Negroes who happen to be local poli-tricksters who care more about getting reelected than making the tough decisions that's best for your community.)

Oh yeah, those ideas:

Start kicking out the bad seeds from our public schools at an earlier age, and make more alternative schools available for problem children.

If kids in class want to learn they should not be distracted by thugs who want to act the fool instead of hitting their books.
We need more schools like Glen Mills with committed teachers and counselors who will step in your ass if you get out of line. We have to start identifying violent kids at an early age and get them off the street and into some type of environment where they can be counseled and monitored.

Start fining parents who don't attend parent teacher's meetings, and whose kids are always late or absent from school.
Give parents more choices (I know I sound like a wingnut, but this is one area where I part company with my progressive friends) where they can send their kids to school.
Make some overall changes to the the child support process by making the guidelines a little more payor friendly. (This is a little inside baseball, but believe me, it's something that needs to be done.) For instance, give a downward deviation in the support guidelines for overnight stays between the non- custodial parent and their child. Right now in Pennsylvania you have to spend at least 40% of overnights throughout the year to get a downward deviation of your child support order. Maybe if we can give some of these sperm donors some more incentives they will spend more time with their children. Maybe.
More sex education. More sex education. More sex education. You all need to stop having all these damn kids you can't take care of.
Decriminalize some of these drugs to lower the street value. I could do an entire treatise on this one, but I just don't have time. Let's just say that drug dealers carry a lot of money, and they don't go to the police for protection.
Make more athletic and extra- curricular activities available to these kids at a younger age. (See the first part of this post to see what can happen when kids become involved with athletics and other activities.)
More sensible gun laws. No one is trying to take your gun away from you 2nd Amendment wingnuts, we just want to keep certain automatic weapons off the streets of some of our urban areas. I promise you, I have never seen a deer running around Center City, Philadelphia.

I could go on, but you will just have to wait for the book.

A new low.

2012-02-23T20:01:00.000-05:00

What Newt did today was low even by his lousy standards.

He hastily called a news conference to politicize the deaths of two American soldiers who lost their lives in Afghanistan. Newt used the killing of those poor soldiers to score cheap political brownie points with his base.

Of course, for him, it was a twofer. Bash those evil Mooslims and the Commander in Chief with the evil Mooslim name in one fat swoop. (Pun intended)

" GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said Thursday a U.S. apology to Afghan authorities for burned Qurans on a military base was “astonishing” and undeserved.Gingrich lashed out at President Barack Obama for the formal apology after copies of the Muslim holy book were found burned in a garbage pit on a U.S. air field earlier in the week"

Newt couldn't wait to jump on Obama for apologizing to the Afghans for that inadvertent book burning. There will be more to follow. Mr. Obama, the programmers over at FOX NEWS would like to thank you for giving them some red meat for their voracious viewers.

"The president apologized for the burning, but I haven't seen the president demand that the government of Afghanistan apologize for the killing of two young Americans."

In his rush to be first, Newt forgot that those soldiers were killed after Obama apologized to the President of Afghanistan. I suppose that if Newt or one of his cohorts were running things no apology would be forthcoming. Anger the Afghans even more and put more American lives at risk.

"There seems to be nothing that radical Islamists can do to get Barack Obama's attention in a negative way, and he is consistently apologizing to people who do not deserve the apology of the president of the United States, period," Gingrich said." [Source]

Newt should be apologizing to the families of those two dead soldiers. They will get a phone call from Obama. (If they haven't already) If Newt called, however, I am sure they would just hang up the phone.

Finally, the tape never lies.

If you dumbocrats want to learn how to cheat in politics you might want to start taking notes from your republican friends:

"Yesterday in Wisconsin, a hidden camera caught a certain Republican voter ID law advocate violating the assembly rules to cheat and vote for colleagues who were not present. This is also referred to as vote fraud."

Oh my! You mean to tell me that a republican voter ID law advocate was actually caught cheating, himself? Nooooo! [Source and video tape]

The cheating poli-trickster caught on tape actually looks like he uses Newt's personal trainer. Hey, maybe the guy was just reaching for a donut.

CNN Laughfest.

2012-02-22T21:51:00.000-05:00

I should have followed O's example and skipped this republican debate, but I just couldn't pass up the laughs.

Mitt is talking religion, Ricky is talking earmarks, and Newt is going after the moderator. (What else is new?) There is Ron. Ron is talking....well I actually don't know what Ron is talking about.

This might b the worst debate yet. I have no idea what any of these guys are talking about, and I am guessing that John King is having a hard time understanding them as well. This might explain why he is doing such a horrible job tonight. Maybe he is still scared of Newt. I am still scared of Rick. He thinks Satan has his "sights set on America". And he likes to talk about Nazis. The whole Satan Nazi thing is not a good combination. At least he doesn't have on a sweater vest tonight.

Now they are talking about foreign policy. Sadly, they are as clueless in this area as all the others. Newt says that he would bomb Iran; they all have reservations about women serving in combat, and Mitt says that he would be expanding all areas of the military, not shrinking it. I guess his friends from Bain Capital will pay for it.

Rick is saying that Obama is helping the Muslims in the Middle East, and the implication is that he is one of them. Rick and Mitt agree on an Iran policy. Now I know there is no hope for the GOP. I actually thought that Mitt was the sensible one in the group. Now I am not so sure we can trust him with the red button.

"Hamas is going to smuggle dirty bombs over the border into the US, says Mitt Romney. He repeats his line about if he is president, Iran will not get a nuclear weapon, but it will if Barack Obama is president."

On and on they go. Now Newt is talking about opening up America's energy sources.

I really should have followed Obama's example. John, please put us out of our misery.

And a Christian shall lead them.

2012-02-21T19:58:00.000-05:00

"Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness."~ Matthew 7: 21-23~

Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, and Franklin Graham are all "workers of lawlessness."

They have all been in rare form lately with their I am more religious than you schtick. Obama said that he offered a prayer for Franklin's daddy; he should have sent one up for the son as well. That boy needs Jesus.

"..Graham also said he couldn't "categorically" say Obama wasn't a Muslim, in part, because Islam has gotten a "free pass" under Obama. Graham also said the Muslim world sees Obama as a "son of Islam," because the president's father and grandfather were Muslim." [Source]

Not wanting to be left off that "chariot of fire" as it rides into heaven; Mitt Romney also joined the bash Obama's faith crowd.

"Unfortunately, possibly because of the people the president hangs around with, and their agenda, their secular agenda — they have fought against religion," Romney said". [Source]

Move over Elijah!

And then, of course, there was Rick.

" [Santorum] told an Ohio audience on Saturday that Obama’s agenda is based on "some phony theology. Not a theology based on the Bible. A different theology."

Rick, I feel like doing a little  preaching myself.

“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye." ~Matthew 7:1-5~

My brothers and sisters, let us stay with the book of Matthew. Turn with me to verse fifteen.

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves."

And the church said amen.

One flew over the GOP nest.

2012-02-20T18:51:00.000-05:00

"Freedom isn't to do whatever you want to do, it's to do what you ought to do" ..."

Huh? I told you all that Ricky [I should be in a] Sanitarium is crazy, but you wouldn't listen.

Folks, make no mistake, A Rick [I should be in a] Sanitarium presidency would be scary for A-merry-ca.

I know all about Rick [I should be in a] Sanitarium, I am from Pistolvania. He was one of our Senators here before we decided to throw his ass out by 16 percentage points. Now that he has a national stage the rest of A-merry-ca is finding out about the guy as well.

Comparing O to Hitler. Wanting to do away with federal AND state involvement with education. (Yes, Ricky would prefer if all the children in A-merry-ca were home schooled like his own. Shhhh, let's not mention the fact that he stole money from the people of Pistolvania while doing it.)Wanting to do away with pre-natal care for pregnant women, and calling the religion of the president of these divided states "phony." Wow! This all makes him declaring contraception harmful to women seem like the norm. I will give Ricky credit; he is doubling down on crazy.

"The idea that the federal government should be running schools, frankly much less that the state government should be running schools, is anachronistic. It goes back to the time of industrialization of America when people came off the farms where they did home-school or have the little neighborhood school, and into these big factories, so we built equal factories called public schools. And while those factories as we all know in Ohio and Pennsylvania have fundamentally changed, the factory school has not."

"Anachronistic" Rick? Oh the irony. Folks, believe me, if there is anything that belongs in another time it's Rick [I should be in a] Sanitarium.

"There's nothing - there's no gift, no Christmas gift, that could be given better than Rick Santorum to the Democrats,"

I know that they don't believe me, but I want to say this to my republican friends in all sincerity: If Donald Trump believes that the guy heading for the nomination of your party is unelectable, just what do you think a normal person in A-merry-ca is thinking about him? Think about it.

A "teachable moment", but who should teach it?

2012-02-19T20:20:00.000-05:00

If you know anything about me you know that I love open dialogue and honest debate. It's why, for the most part, I never censor people on this blog. I always want to know how folks feel, no matter how ignorant, detestable, and abhorrent their opinions appear to be.

So when I saw the story about the white teacher who has filed a federal lawsuit against the Chicago School District because they fired him for using the n-word to teach his students, I was immediately drawn to the story. I thought that we could be looking at another one of those "teachable moments" when it comes to race relations here in A-merry-ca.

"The incident occurred last October when Brown said he used the n-word after two of his students were passing notes with rap lyrics that included it, according to the Sun-Times. The lawsuit alleges Brown used the word during a "teachable moment" in the context of the book Huckleberry Finn in order to show how such language can hurt. But as the words left Brown's lips, the school's principal walked in to the Murray Language Academy classroom.

Murray Principal George Mason charged Brown with "using verbally abusive language to or in front of students" as well as "cruel, immoral, negligent, or criminal conduct or communication to a student, that causes psychological or physical harm."

Brown has just served the first of his five days of suspension, but told WLS-TV he's worried that this has ruined his reputation as a teacher."

Oh my! What to do? Principal Mason, a black man, knows the pain that the word can cause, and he has probably experienced it personally. Teacher Brown, on the other hand, probably wants to do the right thing, and he wants, in his own way, to teach his class about that horrible word.

Problem is, of course, that teacher Brown is white. And we live in a very race conscious and "color aroused" world. Teacher Brown doesn't have a black card which allows him to use the word even if he is using it to teach his students not to use it.

I am quite sure that if teacher Brown was a black man there would have been no suspension. To white people, this is unfair. To black folks, on the other hand, that is the reality. The word coming from you is different than when it is coming from us.

This is a white person's take which I suspect represents the popular view:

"COMMENTARY | The n-word is an ugly, hateful word. Any negative descriptor of race, creed, characteristic, religion, ideology or lifestyle choice is. Lincoln Brown, a white teacher in Chicago Public Schools, tried to teach his students why the n-word is wrong and got suspended. Brown had found a student note with the word quoted from a rap song. The principal walked in and heard Brown say the word as part of a sixth grade language arts anti-racism lesson, says ABC.

The principal, Gregory Mason, who is black, called Mason's lesson "cruel, immoral, negligent and verbally abusive." Brown is suing CPS, according to Fox Chicago News, saying this is damaging to his reputation, which it is. Teaching jobs are hard enough to come by with all the axing of educational programs. If you're 48 like Brown and you get a smudge on your record, fairly earned or not, you might as well kiss your career goodbye.

It's not even Brown's career that is the crux of the issue. Nor is it the fact Mason suspended him in such a back-door way. The principal didn't just walk in, hear the word, assume it was used as a slur and confront Brown. Mason listened in on the lesson (which dove-tailed negative historical, literary, film and music references to blacks to show why the word is so problematic). Brown thought Mason approved. Apparently not. Two weeks later, Brown got suspended.

The core of the matter is, as Brown put it, "We can't solve these issues if we can't discuss them," according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Clearly, the word and all shaming comments are "cruel and immoral." It's not a "sticks and stones" thing; words hurt more than physical injuries because they don't heal. Brown wasn't fanning the flames, though. He was trying to teach kids not to fan it. In order to do so, he had to use the word.

History can't be sanitized in retrospect and silencing issues negates them. Hiding from problems makes them loom larger. The Minotaur gained power skulking in his labyrinth. It was only when Perseus ferreted him out that he was able to vanquish the beast.

Brown should be congratulated for turning swords into plowshares and giving us all a positive learning experience." [Source]

I don't know if it has been positive. But at least we are learning.

A rousing sendoff and republican skeletons are once again on the loose.

2012-02-18T19:29:00.000-05:00

Shout out to CNN for allowing the rest of A-merry-ca to see how you Negroes send your dead home today. You all were sure having church up in Newark, New Jersey. Those Winans are no joke. They might be the best export from Detroit since the automobile. The tributes by Kevin Costner and Tyler Perry were on point, and every song was terrific and from the heart. Bobby, you should have been there.

Oh, and while I am at it, let's go ahead and praise governor Krispy Kreme for doing the right thing for once. I know I am always hard on him, but this is one of those times when I am going to give him credit. The governor took a lot of heat from the general public and wingnuts for having the flags in Jersey flown at half staff after Houston's death, and he stood his ground.

"Why can't we focus on the true Heroes that fight for our country? This is getting ridiculous with the whole flag lowering thing for celebs!" Ray Leichner wrote.

"I get the concept of she was a famous NJ Native but really, I think the idea of flying the flag half-staff for her is going a bit over-board," wrote Karen Preston. "I think it is a shame that the Governor would give this honor to Whitney Houston when there are true heroes that are Native New Jerseyans who have died for our country that do not get the same respect."

Riiiight. Man I love these people in A-merry-ca. I wonder where all this outrage is coming from? Hmmmm. -"Don't say it field, don't you dare say it."- The governor has done this over 42 times before. He did it for Jersey soldiers, entertainers, and a BASKETBALL COACH for crying out loud! Nothing like a little "color arousal" to bring out the outrage in folks.

Finally, the problem with being a preachy [right] wingnut ideologue, is that you can't always practice what you preach. Take, for instance, the case of Paul Babeu. Mr. Babeu belongs to that camp in A-merry-can politics who loathes both immigrants and Gays. And yet.....

"FLORENCE, Ariz. (AP) — A sheriff seeking the GOP nomination for an Arizona Congressional seat was forced Saturday to confirm he is gay amid allegations of misconduct made by a man with whom he previously had a relationship.

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu on Saturday denied claims he tried to threaten the man, a Mexican immigrant and a former campaign volunteer, with

deportation if their past relationship was made public. The man's allegations were first published Friday in The New Times, a Phoenix alternative weekly magazine.
Babeu, a first-term sheriff who has risen to national prominence with his strong opposition to illegal immigration and smuggling, said the accusations were an attempt to hurt his political career.

He vowed to continue his campaign in Arizona's rural western 4th Congressional District seat, but said he had called presidential candidate Mitt Romney's staff to say he would step down from his post as state campaign co-chair.
"This whole rumor, this whole of idea of who I am in my private life has been shopped around," Babeu told reporters during an hour-long press conference Saturday in front of his sheriff's office. "This was a way, the hook, of how this could be brought out, and to malign and attack a sheriff who does stand for conservative principals, who does enforce the law."

The lawyer for the man, Melissa Weiss-Riner, did not returns calls or emails from The Associated Press on Saturday, but told The New Times that Babeu's attorney and campaign consultant falsely told her client that his visa had expired. Babeu told reporters he believed the man, identified only by his first name Jose, was living in the country legally.

The New Times posted a photo provided by the man of the two embracing. It also posted a cell phone self-portrait of a smiling Babeu in his underwear and another of what appears to be the shirtless sheriff in a bathroom, posted on a gay dating website. The man provided the magazine with photos of himself and Babeu and text messages between the two.

The congressional district where Babeu is seeking election runs from western Arizona through Prescott and south to take in parts of Pinal County south of Phoenix. Its voters are heavily Republican and generally very conservative." [Source]

Fortunately for Flipper, Mr. Babeu will step down from his campaign. I am quite sure that the last thing Flipper needed was the added distraction of a Gay campaign manager who is dating an -alleged- illegal immigrant. Lord knows he has his hands full with Ricky.

Flying pot, the firing of a racist, and crack hoes and crack pipes.

2012-02-17T22:48:00.000-05:00

To my man who was flying that plane that went a little too far into O's restricted airspace, I have some good news and some bad news for you: The good news is that the Secret Service did not find that you were a threat to the President. The bad news is that you are going to have to explain all the good collie weed that you were carrying to the po po.

"Field, how do you know he wasn't carrying it for the President? I wouldn't put it past that Obama fellow. He probably wanted to share it with those fat cat donors up in San Francisco."

Don't laugh, you might actually here that theory floated out on FOX NEWS any day now.

Speaking of FOX, I am pretty sure that any day now they will be making an announcement that Pat Buchanan has a home over there. Pat is in need of a pay check because he was recently fired by MSNBC for his keep A-merry-ca white manifesto.

"Without a hearing, they smear and stigmatize as racist, homophobic or anti-Semitic any who contradict what George Orwell once called their 'smelly little orthodoxies.' They then demand that the heretic recant, grovel, apologize, and pledge to go forth and sin no more.

"Defy them, and they will go after the network where you work, the newspapers that carry your column, the conventions that invite you to speak. If all else fails, they go after the advertisers."
"The book 'Suicide of a Superpower' contained chapters titled 'The End of White America' and 'The Death of Christian America," David Bauder wrote Thursday for the Associated Press. "Critics called the book racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic, charges Buchanan denied.

"MSNBC President Phil Griffin said last month that he didn't think Buchanan's book 'should be part of the national dialogue, much less part of the dialogue on MSNBC.'

"The network said on Thursday that 'after 10 years, we have decided to part ways with Pat Buchanan. We wish him well.'
"Buchanan, in a column posted on Thursday, called the decision 'an undeniable victory for the blacklisters.'

Pat, I actually agree with you. If it was up to me you would still have a job at MSNBC. I want you right where I can see you. And I want the rest of these Negroes and so called progressives in A-merry-ca to see that folks like you want your country back, and you are not going away.

Finally, the occupy woman's vagina movement continues in A-merry-ca. This time the state of Vaginaia has gotten into the act.

"This week, the Virginia state Legislature passed a bill that would require women to have an ultrasound before they may have an abortion. Because the great majority of abortions occur during the first 12 weeks, that means most women will be forced to have a transvaginal procedure, in which a probe is inserted into the vagina, and then moved around until an ultrasound image is produced. Since a proposed amendment to the bill—a provision that would have had the patient consent to this bodily intrusion or allowed the physician to opt not to do the vaginal ultrasound—failed on 64-34 vote, the law provides that women seeking an abortion in Virginia will be forcibly penetrated for no medical reason. I am not the first person to note that under any other set of facts, that would constitute rape under state law"   [Source]

Man it has to be tough to be a woman in A-merry-ca these days. Female music icons are called "crack hoes", sitting congresswomen are told to stay away from the "crack pipe", and women are being told to pop some aspirins and keep their legs closed for birth control.

Take an aspirin, stick it between your legs, and call me in the morning.

2012-02-16T19:17:00.000-05:00

Look at that picture. Do any of those people sitting at that table look like they might have a vagina? (Well the guy on the left, maybe) I am going to take a wild guess and say that none of them have to sit on the urinal before they tinkle.

So anywhoo, those are the individuals who the republicans down in Washington decided to trot out to explain to us why A-merry-can women do not need birth control.

“What I want to know is: Where are the women?” Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) asked the committee chairman, Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) before walking out. “I look at this panel and I don’t see one single individual representing the tens of millions of women across the country who want and need insurance coverage for basic preventative health care services, including family planning. Where are the women?”
Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton and Rep. Mike Quigley also walked out of the hearing."

Come on now ladies. Why would we need a women to tell us about a woman's body and how it works? Those men in that picture have years of experience when it comes to these issues. They are family planning experts. Just look at them.

"Imagine they're having a panel on women's health, and they don't have any women on the panel – duh!" Pelosi said during a press conference. "What is it that men don't understand about women's health and how central the issue of family planning is to that?"

Democrats said they tried to invite Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown University law student, to the hearing as a minority witness, but were blocked by Issa, who said she was not qualified." [Source]

Yes, her vagina does not qualify. It's a democratic vagina; apparently they are different.

One guy who would have made a great guest today in Washington would have been Rick [I should be in a] Sanitarium. Rick, like his fellow wingnut male travelers, do not believe that there should be any form of contraception in our society. He believes that all sex should be to procreate. No contraceptive sex for you! All you poor slobs who had a vasectomy will never have sex again. Ha!

“One of the things I will talk about, that no president has talked about before, is I think the dangers of contraception in this country.” And also, “Many of the Christian faith have said, well, that’s okay, contraception is okay. It’s not okay. It’s a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be.”

Rick, how exactly are things "supposed to be"? Maybe his biggest benefactor will give us a little insight.

"Appearing of MSNBC with Andrea Mitchell today, Foster Friess, the main donor to the Super PAC backing Rick Santorum’s presidential bid, dismissed the controversy surrounding President Obama’s new birth control rule by suggesting that women should just keep their legs shut. Asked if he worried that Santorum’s Puritanical views on sex and social issues could hurt the candidate in the general election, Friess offered a more home-spun family planning scheme:

FRIESS: On this contraceptive thing, my gosh, it’s so inexpensive. 'You know, back in my days, they used Baer Aspirin for contraceptives. The gals put it between their knees and it wasn’t that costly."' [Source]

Hmmm, the old "Baer Aspirin" contraceptive. "Gals", please take note.

"The Year Of The Bible", and when in Rome.....

2012-02-15T22:22:00.000-05:00

In case you folks in the rest of A-merry-ca were wondering, this is "the year of the Bible" here in Pistolvania. Let me repeat that: "The year of the Bible".

Apparently our politricksters in Pistolvania have way too much time on their hands. And here is the scary thing, the proclamation passed unanimously. Not a single vote against this official resolution by people we elected to go to Harrisburg to solve our state's problems.

I don't like John Bear very much, but his article on the subject was on point:

"BE IT RESOLVED: Whereas, members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, a bloated, overperked crowd indeed, apparently do not read or even seem to be aware of items they unanimously adopt, there shall henceforth be an outright ban on silly, meaningless resolutions.
And, whereas, such a ban would obviate the need for nonreaders and nonthinkers in the House, let this be the first step in slicing House membership in half, at least.

If you missed the inspiration for the afore-offered resolution, it's born of the unanimous (193-0) adoption of a real House Resolution, H.R. 535, on Jan. 24.
That resolution declares 2012 "The Year of the Bible" in Pennsylvania.
Its sponsor is Rep. Rick Saccone, R-Allegheny County. It has 36 co-sponsors: 33 Republicans and three Democrats, including Philly Rep. Tony Payton, though he says he's unaware of his co-sponsorship (more on that later).

The resolution says we recognize the Bible because of its "formative influence" on state and nation and because of "our national need to study and apply the teachings of the holy scriptures."

If this strikes you as bumping up pretty close to at least symbolically violating separation of church and state or inviting similar resolutions proclaiming "The Year of the Torah," "The Year of the Quran," "The Year of Beelzebub" etc., you're not alone.

This is why - and I am not making this up - Philly Democratic Rep. Mark Cohen this week held a Capitol news conference asking that the House reconsider the resolution that he and all his colleagues supported. In other words a redo.
You may remember Cohen from past hits such as charging taxpayers $28,000 in one year for personal books, including The Little Book of Stress, or for collecting more than $100,000 in expenses in one legislative session, including per diems for Christmas Day, New Year's Day, Easter Sunday, Labor Day and Yom Kippur.
The Harrisburg Patriot-News reports that Cohen apologized for essentially having no idea what the resolution was about that he and everybody else in the House voted to adopt.

Philly Democratic Rep. Babette Josephs, long a forceful advocate of individual rights, joined him in that apology and later told me she intends to actually read future resolutions before voting on them.

The Bible resolution is non-binding and therefore falls into the what-the-heck-are-you-doing- with-taxpayers'-time-and-resources category.

But it raises questions and points to some public-service realities.
The questions include what the heck are you doing with taxpayers' time and resources? Do you have even a basic understanding that those who pay your salary and perks are of various religions, beliefs and nonbeliefs? And do any of you recall that Pennsylvania was founded on religious tolerance, especially for unpopular, persecuted religions such as the Society of Friends, or Quakers?
The public-service realities are (a) our elected officials aren't paying attention, and (b) there now looms the prospect of more time-wasting by putting up votes for or against the Bible.

Nice. Why not just pass out armor, swords and lances and re-enact the Crusades on the House floor?

All this helps explain why our Legislature consistently waits until the last possible moment to act on required duties such as passing annual budgets or adopting once-a-decade redistricting plans before screwing them up. They obviously don't read anything so don't know what to do.

Payton, for example, didn't even know he co-sponsored "The Year of the Bible."
"Are you sure I'm a co-sponsor?" he asked." [Source]

Now I like Tony Payton, he is a good guy. But Tony, you have to pay attention up there in Harrisburg.

The Bible is a wonderful book, but I am pretty sure that we don't need a bunch of politricksters declaring that 2012 is "the year of the Bible". I think we can all agree that the Bible has done pretty well for a very long time without it's own damn year.

Finally, I bet if Rick [I should be in a] sanitarium gets elected we will have a national year of the Bible. That would be good for you Christians out there. But for everyone else, not so much.

Rick took a trip to Rome a few years ago, and he refused to tell us who paid for it. Now I am not a conspiracy guy, but can you imagine if O took a trip to Mecca a few years back and wouldn't tell us who paid for it? Wingnuts would lose whatever is left of their minds.

But this is not hurting Rick. He is actually surging in the polls and leading Flipper in some of them. Good for him. Say what you want about the guy, he takes his extreme positions and sticks to them. Flipper has no soul, and I don't think his conservative peeps like that very much.

Good luck Rick, if you win the republican nomination the battle lines will be that much deeper, and maybe we will finally have a clear debate about the future of this country.

Breaking stereotypes. But are we still color aroused?

2012-02-14T21:45:00.000-05:00

When you hear about an Asian American Harvard graduate, the last thing you think about is some dude breaking legs and raining jumpers in the NBA. But that's exactly what Jeremy Lin is doing these days, and he is doing it in style. Dude has made the Knicks relevant again. Something Mello and Amare couldn't quite do. And now, Spike Lee, all five feet three inches of him, is jumping out of his court side seat once again.

They are calling it "Linsanity" in New York, and even for the hype capital of the world this is major.

I say this is a good thing. Anytime you get something out of the box and busting up stereotypes it's all good as far as I am concerned. Of course Asian dudes from Harvard don't usually go off in the NBA. So yes, dude is an anomaly, but he is an anomaly in a good way.

Floyd Mayweather is catching heat for these comments he made via a tweet:

"Jeremy Lin is a good player but all the hype is because he's Asian. Black players do what he does every night and don't get the same praise," Mayweather wrote on his Twitter account on Monday afternoon. [Source]

Yes Floyd, all the hype is because he is Asian. And not just any Asian riding the pines on an NBA bench in Charlotte. He is starting for the Knicks! That makes what he is doing special.

Sorry Floyd, you don't always have to call out the elephant in the room.

Personally, I want more whites, Asians, and people of all of other races getting their shine on the NBA. And I want more African American neurosurgeons like Ben Carson getting their shine on in hospitals all over the country. That's progress.

Finally, more from the color arousal department: (Thanks Francis)

" A white grandfather says he wound up in cuffs after being accosted by police, all for walking home with his black granddaughter.

Scott Henson, a former journalist who now researches for and blogs about the criminal justice system, wrote about the experience on his popular blog, "Grits for Breakfast."

Henson, who describes himself as "an almost stereotypical looking white Texas redneck," said he was walking home from a roller skating rink with his 5-year-old granddaughter Ty, who is African-American, on Friday night.
On the blog, Henson explains the relationship. Ty's mother is his goddaughter, and Henson and his wife often find themselves "tasked with unplanned impromptu babysitting duties, like hundreds of other parents and grandparents around Austin."

That night, Henson opted to walk home from the rink instead of having his wife come pick up him and Ty.

"This was a terrible mistake on Grandpa's part," he said.
According to the blog post, which was published Saturday, Henson was stopped by a deputy constable, who told him that there were reports of a white man kidnapping a black girl. He was ordered to step away from Ty, and the officer began to question the girl.

"He's my Grandpa!" Ty said, according to the blog post.
Satisfied, the officer released Henson and Ty, who continued to walk home until they were stopped again -- this time, by five flashing police cars and a crowd of police.

"The officers got out with tasers drawn demanding I raise my hands and step away from the child," Henson said. "I complied, and they roughly cuffed me, jerking my arms up behind me needlessly."

"Meanwhile, Ty edged up the hill away from the officers, crying."
Henson said he provided officers with phone numbers they needed to verify that Ty was his granddaughter, "but for quite a while nobody seemed too interested in verifying my 'story.'"

Police again questioned Ty, and Henson was eventually released.
Corporal Anthony Hipolito of the Austin Police Department verified that Henson was stopped on Feb. 10, as police were searching for a kidnapper who'd allegedly snatched a young black girl nearby.

"Officers verified that the man was her grandfather through a phone call to her mother, and they were released," Hipolito said to the Daily News.
Still, Henson, who has written about a similar experience on his blog before, isn't satisfied.

"How hard would it have been to perform a safety check without running up on me like I'm John Dillinger and scaring the crap out of a five-year-old?"
He also noted that he was released without an apology.

"I hated for a five-year-old to be subjected to such an experience,” Henson said. “I'd like her to view police as people she can trust instead of threats to her and her family, but it's possible I live in the wrong neighborhood for that." [Source]

Hmmm, this story is deep on a lot of levels. The po po could have done a better job of handling this situation. But were they wrong? This is, after all, A-merry-ca, and we are all color aroused in this post- racial world that we live in.

Let me know what you think.

OBL, Whitney, and the rise of American Theocracy.

2012-02-13T22:15:00.000-05:00

Oh my! It seems my girl Whitney had quite a few admirers all over the world.

"Terror mastermind Osama bin Laden is so obsessed with singer Whitney Houston he thought about killing her husband, Bobby Brown, it was claimed last night.

"The suggestion is made by Sudanese poet and novelist Kola Boof, who claims she was bin Laden's sex slave for four months 10 years ago.

In her autobiography, Diary of a Lost Girl, she writes: "He told me Whitney Houston was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen."

Boof, 37, who claims bin Laden raped her and held her prisoner in a Moroccan hotel, says he could not stop talking about the songbird, even though he disapproved of music.

"Osama kept coming back to Whitney Houston," she says in the book, excerpted in the magazine Harpers' Bazaar. "He asked if I knew her personally when I lived in America. I told him I didn't.

"He said that he had a paramount desire for Whitney Houston, and although he claimed music was evil he spoke of someday spending vast amounts of money to go to America and try to arrange a meeting with the superstar.

"It didn't seem impossible to me. He said he wanted to give Whitney Houston a mansion that he owned in a suburb of Khartoum.

"He explained to me that to possess Whitney he would be willing to break his colour rule and make her one of his wives.

"Whitney Houston's name was the one that would be mention constantly.

"How beautiful she was, what a nice smile she has, how truly Islamic she is but is just brainwashed by American culture and by her husband Bobby Brown, whom Osama talked about having killed, as if it were normal to have women's husbands killed." [Source] (h/t to Susan)

Damn, OBL had more love for Whitney that some of the racist mofos in this country. (And people wonder why I despise FOX and everything they represent so much.)

Anyway, tonight I want to blog about the "occupy woman's vagina" folks who have hijacked this contraception debate. Because we all know that blocking a woman's right to reproductive services is the republican thing to do.

President Obama, much to my displeasure, compromised with the Catholic Church in this debate. I hate to break it to him, but if he thought that the folks who are trying to score cheap political brownie points from this would back off, he would be wrong. And the Catholic Church certainly isn't giving any ground. (Why should they? It's not like we are talking about pedophile priests or anything.)

"It's still clear that President Obama does not understand this isn't about cost--it's about who controls the religious views of faith-based institutions," Blunt said in a released statement. "President Obama believes that he should have that control. Our constitution states otherwise."

And who should have the control over a woman's body? If a------ fill in your religion other than Catholic--- woman chooses to work for a Catholic hospital or university and wants to buy birth control pills for whatever, are you telling me that she shouldn't be allowed because she works for a Catholic institution? (One that most likely gets some kind of public funding.) What about individual freedoms in this country? If a non Seventh Day Adventist man works for Andrews University and wants to buy a bucket of chicken in Berrien Springs, Michigan on a Saturday night, are you telling me that he shouldn't be allowed to because Adventist don't believe in eating meat? And if the poor guy gets a heart attack because of his love for the Colonel's cooking, are you saying that the Seventh Day Adventist health plan shouldn't have to pay for his hospital visit to clear out his arteries? Should an employer who is Jehovah's Witness be allowed to deny blod transfusions to one of his or her employees? Of course not. We all know a stretch when we see one.

The hierarchy of the Catholic Church and their political soul-mates are trying to pull a fast one on the American people. This is not about religious freedom, it's about religious tyranny. Do you honestly believe that if men had to give birth to children we would even be having this debate?

I love what Wendy Kaminer wrote in The Atlantic:

"What accounts for the rhetorical excesses of the Catholic Church and its advocates on the campaign trail and in the media? They reflect some genuine outrage, no doubt. But, in part, the rhetoric is an organizing tool (which may succeed in wresting new concessions from the administration). And in part, it reflects larger rhetorical trends: We inhabit a culture of hyperbole, especially during election years. Every argument is a gunfight (to which someone mistakenly brings a knife), every gunfight is a war, and every war a potential apocalypse.

Still, while the fate of American civilization doesn't depend on this debate about the obligations of church-affiliated institutions to abide by secular law, the stakes are relatively high. As government workers are laid off and government programs shrink, the public role of private, tax-exempt non-profits expands. The stronger their right to dispense public funds and deliver public services according to sectarian religious dictates, the weaker our rights to a non-sectarian public sphere. It's a zero-sum game." [Source]

I disagree with her about one thing: the outrage expressed by church officials might be genuine, but the outrage expressed by the poli-tricksters rallying around this issue are as phony as a W's cowboy persona.

"Coming Apart"

2012-02-12T16:45:00.000-05:00

I still can't get over my girl Whitney going out like that. I tried writing about it this morning and posted it with another publication. I didn't feel like hearing it from my resident racist trolls who like to hang in the fields, so if you want to read it you will have to go over there. (From the bad to worse department; her daughter was just rushed to the hospital.)

So anyway, this is Black History Month, and we are indeed living in an interesting time in our nation's history. In a lot of ways, we are even more segregated now than we were during the darkest days of Jim Crow. (h/t to Daniel for that article)
The rights of women are being trampled on by a few powerful people in Washington, and white scholars are openly wondering how the white working class and white bourgeoisie can unite as they were back in the days when they were clearly the the ruling class.

I guess, for Charles Murray (yes, the "Bell Curve" guy) and others like him, white power is slipping away at an alarming rate.

But all is not lost. I wonderful woman from the majority population sent me an e-mail after reading the story I posted about that basketball team from Pistolvania. It's a letter she penned to that school official who sat by and laughed while this incident was taking place. She has given me permission to share it:

"Dear Sir,

I read with interest of your failure to intervene in the recent "banana suit" incident at the basketball game.

I'm sure you meant well, and thought this was an innocuous form of trash talk from high spirited young people.

Allow me to tell you something about myself.
I am a 60 year old white woman who was born and raised in the deep South, where I still live.

During the civil rights era of the 1960s, my parents never marched or shouted, but they supported equal rights with their own quiet dignity.
Our church in Georgia split because some in the congregation voted to bar the doors to the church if black people attempted to worship with them.
My parents voted against this, and spoke up in church about what a profound ignorance of Christ was being evinced there.

After that, the KKK weekly newspaper published by J.B. Stoner (who killed the 4 little girls in Birmingham)

appeared regularly in our driveway. It was thrown there at night by someone who wanted to convince my parents of the error of their ways.
A regular feature of this paper was caricatures of ape-like black people holding bananas. It had photos of Africans with terrible diseases,
and claimed this was their normal appearance. It had pseudo-science claiming that Africans were not wholly human, but were descended from
matings between humans and monkeys. My parents didn't just throw these papers away---they burned them, but I still remember the images,
the ignorance and the hatred displayed there.

When I read of the taunting at the Brentwood ball game, I was reminded of the KKK newspaper and I was disgusted and angry at you,
the teenagers, and the entire Brentwood administration. I have since calmed down, and reminded myself that you people didn't grow up where and how I did,
so you don't know any better. However, it is now time for you to correct your embarrassing ignorance and your breach of good manners.
You and the student body need to apologize, sincerely, to the opposing team, and take measures that such a disgusting display never happens again.
Brentwood is a school? Educate yourselves!!!

Sincerely,

Dena..... "

Thank you Dena. Unfortunately, I am afraid that your wonderful letter will not do much good. But we can hope.

That small CPAC tent.

2012-02-11T21:13:00.000-05:00

So I am thinking about "Who Would Imagine A King", that song from the Preacher's Wife soundtrack. And I am thinking, just wow! I love that f*&^%$g song! And the voice that delivered it was one of a kind. I say was because she isn't with us anymore.

If you won't miss Whitney Houston (demons and all) you sure as hell will miss her voice. I know I will.

So anyway, I have to say a few words about the CPAC folks down in D.C. before I call it a night.

I want to say this in all seriousness to my conservative/republican friends, because I really care about you, and I really want a vibrant two party system here in A-merry-ca: Do you really think that you can win over most A-merry-cans by inviting white nationalist and separatist to your conference? If you do, you are making a big mistake. No matter how many times you shout the N word to the delight of the faithful, it will never change the fact that, to the rest of us, you all just look like an angry group of racist.

Diversity is not "weakening the American identity", it is making it stronger. Knuckle draggers like you will never see that because of the "extreme color arousal" you all suffer from. (Thanks for that phrase, Francis)

I kind of agree with this poster from Kos:

"So I went and searched the names of these guys and found dozens of hits on civil rights websites. I believe in free speech and would never seek to silence anyone... no matter how abhorrent their ideas are to me.

But the idea of having these guys on the same stage as Presidential candidates... and no one objected... not one of them or the attending members of congress so much as batted an eye over sharing the stage with these bigots.

White Supremacists Showcased At CPAC Conservative Conference
Excerpt:

Two white supremacists are set to speak at panels at CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference that will also feature speeches by Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum.
The first white supremacist is Peter Brimelow the owner of the website VDare, which is labeled by the SPLC as an anti-immigration hate website. VDare has featured the works of noted white supremacists, Jared Taylor, Sam Francis, Virginia Abernethy, Kevin MacDonald as well as conservative pundits, Michelle
Snip!

The other white supremacist is Robert “Bob” Vandervoort who spoke on a panel called “High Fences, Wide Gates: States vs. the Feds, the Rule of Law & American Identity.” Vandervoort works for the site ProEnglish.com and also was the organizer for Chicagoland Friends of American Renaissance which met regularly with the Chicago Chapter of Council Of Conservative Citizens.

American Renaissance is white supremacist organization run by notorious racist Jared Taylor that organizes a conference of racists including neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan including David Duke and Stormfront owner, Don Black. The Council Of Conservative Citizens is another white supremacist organization." [Source]

But not a word from the "lamestream media". (I wonder why?)

Still, I am sure that one of my black conservative friends will come out with a statement condemning the CPAC folks any day now. Right guys?

Now if you don't mind, I am off to download some of Whitney's songs on my iPod.

Pic courtesy of Sodahead

A new kind of work- study at Temple University.

2012-02-10T21:10:00.001-05:00

I sure hope that his Oness comes up with a plan really fast to try to bring down rising tuition costs. Because, here in A-merry-ca, college kids are getting desperate.

"Hundreds of female college students are looking for more than a college degree to secure their future. Why have bills and student loans when you can get some old rich guy to pay them?

Temple University is No. 5 on the list of colleges and universities that have young women looking for “sugar daddies” on SeekingArrangement.com, reports the Inquirer.

The online dating service connects older wealthy men, who are willing to pay for the affections of young women, with “sugar babies.” And the sugar babies get to name their price.

Whie Temple’s assistant vice president, Ray Betzner, told the Inquirer that he questions the validity of Temple’s high ranking for students who use SeekingArrangement.com, the website’s founder told the Inquirer that the stats are correct.

"With the economy doing so badly, people are taking matters into their own hands, trying to figure out the best way to pay for college without creating a huge amount of debt," founder Brandon Wade told the Inquirer.
And what do these older men get for the $50 monthly fee to the site and the girls price ranges of $1,000 to $20,000? Whatever the women are willing to give them, we presume.

Wade says that when the site first started in 2005, most of the women seeking sugar daddies were simply looking to be pampered with luxuries. Now the site is attracting college girls who are more pragmatic, wanting money for bills and connections for jobs.

But some say this is not a healthy arrangement.

"A website like this creates a fantasy where the man is dominant and powerful and the woman is submissive and dependent," Brendan Greer, CEO of the Philly-based Council for Relationships, told the Inquirer. "Relationships like this aren't healthy, for obvious reasons, and can prevent the girl from finding more emotionally stable and satisfying relationships." [Source]

Oh Lawd! And Temple is number five? Those Owls might have to step up their game. Tulane University, that fine institution in uptown New Orleans, from what I hear, is number one. BTW, just in case you were wondering, Penn State is number 13.

Still, some of these men are willing to pay as much as $20,000.00 for the pleasure of learning college calculus from these smart college students. I guess they are just trying to keep their minds sharp.

The whole thing strikes me as a bit creepy, but hey, this is A-merry-ca, and everyone is an adult in the relationship. I am pretty sure that both sides know exactly what they are getting into. I just hope that this is not the start of a new trend. It might drive banks out of business.

I know one guy who wont be playing "sugar daddy" to any college student: Rick [I should be in a ] Sanitarium. Ricky has his hands full these days with all this running for president thing going on. Not that Ricky thinks much of women.

"Rick Santorum reiterated his opposition Friday to women serving in combat roles in the U.S. military, saying female troops have reduced physical capacities and would distract men from their assigned duties.

"If you're out there, for example, in a group, or just two people, and some people, because of women, have, as you know with respect to physical capabilities, they don't have the same requirements that men do in the military, and may be in a position if someone is injured, has to be brought back," Santorum said on CNN's "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer." The full interview will air Friday at 4 p.m. ET.

"The other example is the emotions of men, dealing with women in combat, and having men not focusing potentially on the mission but on the natural instinct to protect someone that's a female," Santorum added.

The Pentagon announced Thursday it would begin placing female troops closer to the front lines of combat. Under a 1994 policy, women are restricted from formally serving in small ground units directly involved in combat; however, many military positions-such as military police or medics-place women in harm's way.

On Thursday, Santorum responded to a question from CNN Chief National Correspondent John King on the role of women in the military, saying, "I think that could be a very compromising situation, where people naturally may do things that may not be in the interest of the mission because of other types of emotions that are involved." [Source]

?????? Ricky, you are on your own with this one.

Finally, I am sorry to see his Oness cave on this contraception debate with Catholic church leaders. But then, maybe he was afraid he would end up like poor Cardinal Bevilacqua .

"Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Ferman says she suggested Coroner Walter Hofman examine the body of Cardinal Bevilacqua last week.

Ferman explained that, since the death of the former Archbishop of Philadelphia happened in her jurisdiction, she thought someone should make sure there was no foul play - given the timing of his death.

"It struck many of us as odd, as peculiar, that the Cardinal passed away so suddenly after the court ruling," Ferman said. "He was a key witness in the case, although in another jurisdiction."

Ferman said there is no criminal investigation, but suggested the coroner examine Bevilacqua's body to put any speculation to rest."

Yes, just so that we all can have some peace of mind.

Will the Catholic Church support his religious freedom?

2012-02-09T22:00:00.001-05:00

"Two clauses in the First Amendment guarantee freedom of religion. The establishment clause prohibits the government from passing legislation to establish an official religion or preferring one religion over another. It enforces the "separation of church and state." Some governmental activity related to religion has been declared constitutional by the Supreme Court. For example, providing bus transportation for parochial school students and the enforcement of "blue laws" is not prohibited. The free exercise clause prohibits the government, in most instances, from interfering with a person's practice of their religion."

I thought that I would start tonight's post with a little Constitution Law, because issues associated with this amendment have been all over the news lately. My [right]wingnut friends are outraged for my Catholic friends because they say that his Oness and his folks are infringing on their religious freedoms. (Quick point: I am married to a good South Louisiana Catholic.) Apparently Catholics don't believe in contraception. Strictly au natural when you get your freak on.

Still, I suspect that this is about restricting the rights of women when it comes to their own bodies . It is not about being outraged that Catholics are not being allowed to practice their religion without the "evil" government telling them what to do. (BTW, most Catholic schools already provide contraception coverage in their health plans for their employees, and 28 states already have a similar law in place.) I just wish that all these outraged wingnuts were around when Catholic priests were practicing their own form of birth control by getting their freak on with young boys.

Anyway, all this talk of religious freedom got me thinking about my favorite religious group here in A-merry-ca. Where are all the A-merry-can people and conservatives rallying around religious freedom for them?

"Rastafarianism - The Rastafarian faith is similar to Semitic religions. They believe in the same god and in the same prophets. However, the Rastafarian people also believe that the Ethiopian emperor Haille Selassie was the next messiah. The Rastafarians are usually associated with a "back to Africa" mindset however this is only a minor role in the religion. Rastafarians are against any type of tyranny. They are against any type of oppression. Originating in Jamaica. The frontman of the religion is Bob Marley, by and large he was the person who most led to the spread and proliferation of the Rastafarian religion. They typically use their sacrament, Marijuana, during religious services to become closer to god. Rastafarianism is one of the less then 2,000 official religions recognized by the United States Government.

Marijuana - A naturally occurring herb. It's active ingredient, Tetrahydracannibinol, is best known for the "high" it gives it's users. This high is most commonly defined as a body euphoria, with increased sensory appreciation and awareness. Marijuana is the most widely used illegal psychoactive in the world. It has been used for over a millenia, accounts are seen in manuscripts spread throughout the history of the world. It use to be sold in American pharmacy's until it became a controlled substance in 1937 due to the Marijuana Tax Act. Which is interesting because both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, two of our founding fathers, grew marijuana on their farms. (Marijuana)

Precedents Supporting Religious Use of illegal Sacraments
A. Volstead Act - The act in 1919 that banned the creation, consumption and sale of alcoholic beverages exceeding .5% alcohol by volume. The government made an exception for the Christian churches to continue using wine as a sacrament during their religious gatherings (at the time, a controlled substance).
B. Religious Freedom Restoration Act - Bill Clinton signed this act in 1993. It strengthened the rights citizens and religions have in the united states. It reads "that there now must be a compelling state interest to infringe on alleged religious liberties"(Justices). The argument now becomes, does controlling illegal substances count as a compelling state interest and thus give them the right to infringe on religious liberties.

C. UDV and their "Tea" - The Uniao de Vegetal is a Brazilian church which has roughly 130 members and is located in New Mexico. The sacrament of their official religion is a hallucinogenic tea made with DMT a scheduled substance just like marijuana. They became allowed to use hallucinogenic tea as of a March 31st 2006 court decision by the supreme court. According to the Christian Century, a religious journal, Chief Justice Roberts is quoted as saying "If such use is permitted... for hundreds of thousands of Native Americans practicing their faith, it is difficult to justify denying consideration of a similar exception for the 130 or so American members of the UDV who want to practice theirs,"(Court). The question now becomes why is this Brazilian religion with their equally illegal tea given preference over Rastafarians and marijuana? If the substances in question are of equal value in the eyes of the government, then why are Rastafarian not granted this very same right to sacrament of choice. Are these Brazilians with their official religion somehow more entitled to their constitutionally guaranteed rights then Rastafarians?

The United States of America is a great place, however it's historical treatment of the Rastafarian people and their constitutionally guaranteed right to use their religious sacrament, marijuana, have been unequal which violates the separation of church and state which can overtime bias our society. What needs to be done is clear. It is our duty as citizens and as people with a vested interest in the outcome of this government/society to campaign for the legalization of marijuana for the religious use of the Rastafarian people to keep our government unbiased. The government has made exceptions for the Christian people during the Volstead Act in 1919, and for the Brazilian church UDV during the RFRA Act in 2006. Why not for the Rastafarians? We can make a difference. Go out and vote for the NORML political organization. The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

Bibliography
"Justices OK use of hallucinogenic tea." Christian Century Vol. 123 Issue 621 May 2006 14. 18 Oct 2006 .
"Court protects `religious' marijuana use.." Human Events Vol. 52 Issue 723 Feb 1996 pg. 5. 18 Oct 2006 .
"Marijuana." As a Drug. Taima. 18 Oct 2006 ." [Source]

Hell even the Santeria folks get more love than my 12 Tribe of Israel and Nyabinghi friends. But I see a little light at the end of the tunnel, so maybe all is not lost.

Anyway, here is hoping that all these passionate defenders of religious freedom will stand up and defend religious freedom for all A-merry-cans. (Oh, and Jamaicans....)

*Pic courtesy of Harmonist

Hateland.

2012-02-08T19:43:00.001-05:00

I want to start my racism chase tonight by heading to the western end of Pistolvania, my home state. But, before I go there, I am going to take a detour to Atlanta, Georgia. Where, recently, ignorance was on display and in full effect. (No, not the CNN studios.)

"ATLANTA - A 20-year-old victim who was brutally beaten by a gang of men has spoken out about his ordeal. Brandon White, who is openly gay, says he just wants the men who attacked him to be held accountable for their actions.

Footage of the homophobic assault, which was uploaded to WorldStarHipHop.com by his attackers, shows White being beaten to the ground as the gang shout out anti-gay slurs. After its initial posting, the video went viral, surfacing on YouTube, The Smoking Gun and The Drudge Report.

White, who described his attackers as "monsters" at a news conference Wednesday in Atlanta, says at first he did not want to watch the video because he was "embarrassed." White says he wants "justice to be done because he deserves it."

If a straight person can walk into a store and not have a problem then I should be able to do the same thing," says White. "I could have died that day."
The video depicts the attack as White left the JVC Grocery and Deli on the corner of Delevan and McDaniel streets last Saturday.

The men punch and kick the victim. One person tosses a tire onto the victim. As he is beaten, an onlooker yells "no more fa**ots in Jack City," repeatedly, which, according to multiple sources including The Smoking Gun, is an apparent reference to a local gang.

"I feel I was violated," says White. "The scars run deeper than anyone will know. The physical pain, I can get over that. My thing is: Who's to say they won't come after me again? Who's to say they won't kill me?"

White has spoken with Atlanta police and Federal Investigators are looking into the attack.

U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said her office is looking into potential civil rights violations based on sexual orientation. Georgia does not have a state hate crimes statute." [Source]

Clearly hate crimes laws are needed in Georgia, and some of you Negroes need to go to a library and start reading your history books. Putting a beat down on someone because of his or her sexual orientation is just flat out wrong.

And now to hate of a different kind. This one was brought on by skin color.

I would like to point you to an area of Pistolvania that time forgot.

"Vile racism raised its ugly head during a boys basketball game near Pittsburgh on Friday when fans of a nearly all-white suburban school ran on the court in banana suits and made monkey noises to taunt the players for their rivals, who play for a school which is predominantly African-American.

As reported by a variety of Pittsburgh media outlets, the Monessen Valley Independent and WPXI prominent among them, the annual basketball rivalry game between Pittsburgh (Pa.) Brentwood High and Monessen (Pa.) High turned extremely ugly when the two teams tried to head to their respective locker rooms for halftime. Before the players could leave the floor, three fans from the visiting Brentwood student section ran onto the court in full-body banana suits.
The fans surrounded the Monessen players and allegedly began making monkey noises and hurling racial epithets at the Monessen players, with no one entering the fray to stop the horribly inappropriate catcalls.

"I was appalled and shocked," Monessen parent Terri Payne told WPXI. "I was like, 'I can't believe they're doing that, and they didn't do anything about it.'"
Disturbingly, other Monessen parents claim that the Brentwood players hurled similar racist epithets themselves, calling the Greyhounds "monkeys and cotton pickers," as one Monessen fan told WPXI.

Meanwhile, Valley Independent staff writer Jeremy Sellew claimed that Brentwood Director of Security Joseph Kozarian, who was on duty at the game, refused to intervene, instead sitting back and at one point smiling and laughing with the Brentwood fans in the stands.

As more media attention has swirled around the disgusting incident, Brentwood officials have scrambled to try and alleviate pressure on the school and district as a whole. As of Tuesday the three students involved had been identified and disciplined, though their punishment was not disclosed to the media. Similarly, officials claimed they were "reviewing school policy to make sure a similar incident doesn't happen again."

Clearly, that's not strong enough. If the banana suit incident and subsequent racist abuse from Brentwood players occurred as numerous witnesses claim it did, the entire Brentwood season should be put under much deeper inspection before moving forward.

This is legitimate hate speech, after all, and the teenagers who were responsible need to realize just how damaging that is, both to their victims, themselves and society as a whole. At the very least, any players who made racist comments during the game itself should be punished significantly." [Source]

Good for the young men on that basketball team who showed restraint before beating their opponents from the town that time forgot on the hardwood floor.

Here in A-merry-ca we might not make great products anymore, but we sure are producing some great kids. *sarcasm off*

Finally, why can't you black "intellectuals" just get along? Now it seems that Melissa Harris-Perry and Cornel West have a Biggie Tupac style feud going on.

Stop it already! Dr. West, calling out Ms. Perry and calling her a "liar" a "fake and a fraud" is not cool; you should be above that. There should be ways to discuss your differences and to discuss ideas and policy in a thoughtful and intellectual manner without reverting to petty name calling.

In the future, please leave that other stuff to bloggers like me.

The "Southern Strategy" never gets old.

2012-02-07T22:49:00.002-05:00

Man I can't believe that Rick [I should be in a] Sanitarium is beating up on Flipper tonight. I thought that Flipper had this thing wrapped up. These conservatives sure are making it hard for Mr. Stiff. Missouri is just a beauty contest, so it means nothing in terms of delegates. These candidates didn't really spend money in the states in play tonight, and where there is no need for money Flipper falters. He has a lot of money, but that's about it. Talk about underwhelming. He swamped all those media markets in Florida with negative ads. about Newt, and, as a result, he kicked his ass. But money can buy you votes, but it sure can't buy you love. And right about now these wingnuts have no love for Flipper.

Rick, you better watch out, those incoming negative scuds will be falling on your head soon. And you might want to put a bullet proof armor under those sweater vests.

Finally, while the political chattering class continues to obsess about this latest dust up between HHS and the Catholic Church... (A false controversy if I have ever seen one. To me, religious bigotry was being forced to join a f*&^%$g club to buy a bottle of wine in a restaurant in Salt Lake City, Utah.) The real "okeydoke", of course, is taking place in state capitals all across the South.

"North Carolina State Senator Eric Mansfield was born in 1964, a year before the passage of the Voting Rights Act, which guaranteed the right to vote for African-Americans. He grew up in Columbus, Georgia, and moved to North Carolina when he was stationed at Fort Bragg. He became an Army doctor, opening a practice in Fayetteville after leaving the service. Mansfield says he was always “very cynical about politics” but decided to run for office in 2010 after being inspired by Barack Obama’s presidential run.

He ran a grassroots campaign in the Obama mold, easily winning the election with 67 percent of the vote. He represented a compact section of northwest Fayetteville that included Fort Bragg and the most populous areas of the city. It was a socioeconomically diverse district, comprising white and black and rich and poor sections of the city. Though his district had a black voting age population (BVAP) of 45 percent, Mansfield, who is African-American, lives in an old, affluent part of town that he estimates is 90 percent white. Many of his neighbors are also his patients.

But after the 2010 census and North Carolina’s once-per-decade redistricting process—which Republicans control by virtue of winning the state’s General Assembly for the first time since the McKinley administration—Mansfield’s district looks radically different. It resembles a fat squid, its large head in an adjoining rural county with little in common with Mansfield’s previously urban district, and its long tentacles reaching exclusively into the black neighborhoods of Fayetteville. The BVAP has increased from 45 to 51 percent, as white voters were surgically removed from the district and placed in a neighboring Senate district represented by a white Republican whom GOP leaders want to protect in 2012. Mansfield’s own street was divided in half, and he no longer represents most of the people in his neighborhood. His new district spans 350 square miles, roughly the distance from Fayetteville to Atlanta. Thirty-three voting precincts in his district have been divided to accommodate the influx of new black voters. “My district has never elected a nonminority state senator, even though minorities were never more than 45 percent of the vote,” Mansfield says. “I didn’t need the help. I was doing OK.”

Mansfield’s district is emblematic of how the redistricting process has changed the political complexion of North Carolina, as Republicans attempt to turn this racially integrated swing state into a GOP bastion, with white Republicans in the majority and black Democrats in the minority for the next decade. “We’re having the same conversations we had forty years ago in the South, that black people can only represent black people and white people can only represent white people,” says Mansfield. “I’d hope that in 2012 we’d have grown better than that.” Before this year, for example, there were no Senate districts with a BVAP of 50 percent or higher. Now there are nine. A lawsuit filed by the NAACP and other advocacy groups calls the redistricting maps “an intentional and cynical use of race that exceeds what is required to ensure fairness to previously disenfranchised racial minority voters.”

And it’s not just happening in North Carolina. In virtually every state in the South, at the Congressional and state level, Republicans—to protect and expand their gains in 2010—have increased the number of minority voters in majority-minority districts represented overwhelmingly by black Democrats while diluting the minority vote in swing or crossover districts held by white Democrats. “What’s uniform across the South is that Republicans are using race as a central basis in drawing districts for partisan advantage,” says Anita Earls, a prominent civil rights lawyer and executive director of the Durham-based Southern Coalition for Social Justice. “The bigger picture is to ultimately make the Democratic Party in the South be represented only by people of color.” The GOP’s long-term goal is to enshrine a system of racially polarized voting that will make it harder for Democrats to win races on local, state, federal and presidential levels. Four years after the election of Barack Obama, which offered the promise of a new day of postracial politics in states like North Carolina, Republicans are once again employing a Southern Strategy that would make Richard Nixon and Lee Atwater proud.

The consequences of redistricting in North Carolina—one of the most important swing states in the country—could determine who controls Congress and the presidency in 2012. Democrats hold seven of the state’s thirteen Congressional seats, but after redistricting they could control only three—the largest shift for Republicans at the Congressional level in any state this year. Though Obama won eight of the thirteen districts, under the new maps his vote would be contained in only three heavily Democratic districts—all of which would have voted 68 percent or higher for the president in 2008—while the rest of the districts would have favored John McCain by 55 percent or more. “GOP candidates could win just over half of the statewide vote for Congress and end up with 62 percent to 77 percent of the seats,” found John Hood, president of the conservative John Locke Foundation." [Rest of story here] (h/t to my man Dan for this story)

I have to give it to republicans; they sure know how to hold on to power: polarize and shore up your base. It's brilliant!

I guess we will just have to put that "post-racial" thingy on hold for awhile.

Super Bowl commercials and birthday boys.

2012-02-06T22:58:00.001-05:00

It's the day after the Super Bowl, and wingnuts are still up in arms over that Clint Eastwood commercial. The one where he touts the A-merry-can auto industry and the city of Detroit for making a comeback.

The wingnuts, of course, believe that it's all some kind of subliminal Obama plot. And that Eastwood is some kind of Obama operative.(Eastwood voted for McCain in the last election). Honestly, you need a PhD in craziness to figure out what goes on in the mind of a wingnut. You would think that they would be condemning their own guy for making a racist Super Bowl ad.

Clint himself had to finally make a statement to calm the wingnut waters:

"Eastwood told "O’Reilly Factor" producer Ron Mitchell on Monday: “l am certainly not politically affiliated with Mr. Obama. ...It was meant to be a message ... just about job growth and the spirit of America. I think all politicians will agree with it.”

Thank you Clint. Now maybe the wingnuts can sleep tonight.

The other commercials were nothing special. As I noted last night, this was the year of the dog in commercial land. It was also the year of washed up actors, comedians, and black guys with Afros. Remember when A-merry-ca was afraid of black guys with Afros? Not anymore. The black man with an Afro has become somewhat of the new magic Negro. That friend that everyone must have. The black friend with an Afro product placement was mandatory for all major commercials during the Super Bowl last night.

Oh, and speaking of the Super Bowl, someone needs to tell Mrs. Brady that it's not a good look criticizing her husband's teammates after a tough loss.

I know that those small men fans can be jerks, but sometimes you just have to suck it up.

Finally, Happy birthday Bob. I wish you were still here writing songs and spreading love. But di good dem die young mi bredren.

"Field, aren't you going to wish Happy Birthday to another famous person who was born on this date? "

Nope, there is no need to. Every time I drive through a neighborhood that was ravished by drug dealing and crime I remember him.

Halftime Show.

2012-02-05T20:19:00.001-05:00

It's halftime at the Super Bowl. But rather than watch AARP rocker, Madonna, do her thing, I think I will do a little blogging.

I saw all the commercials so far, and this is my take: Animals- especially dogs- are really in. A-merry-ca is still in love with rap and music, and music they consider "hip" to sell things. Jar jar Binks will be back this summer in 3D .(Whhyyyy?!) And I saw Howard Stern doing his best Bull Connor imitation for another shameless NBC promotion of one of their shows.

That's pretty much it.

As for the game itself, I really have no rooting interest. The Iggles aren't there so I could care less who wins. I actually hate both of these teams.

Finally, let me end this post on a somewhat serious note. I say somewhat because the person I am going to write about is pretty much a joke.

Anyway, Newt says that his Oness and his government has launched an all out "assault" on religeon because of the HHS policy on birth control.

"Newt Gingrich upped his attacks against President Obama today over his administration's requirement that some religious hospitals offer co-pay-free birth control under the new health care law.

Gingrich's comments come after a week of outrage from the Catholic Church and his fellow GOP presidential candidates over the policy.

"This is a tremendous infringement of religious liberty," Newt Gingrich said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "Every time you turn around the secular government is shrinking the rights of religious institutions in America."

While the policy was proposed in August, the issue resurfaced last week after Catholic churches across America read letters from the church's leadership last Sunday condemning the administration's policy." [Source]

I won't get into why this is a false issue from a legal perspective, but trust me, it is.

Still, I have to wonder, where was all the outrage and righteous indignation when Catholic priests were molesting young boys?

That's right, there was none. Certainly not from the people we are hearing it from now.

Now back to the game.

Flipper takes Nevada, and white folks try to take back their country.

2012-02-04T21:09:00.000-05:00

The republicans are having a caucus in Nevada tonight. *Yawn*

I suspect that this will be Flipper by a mile. This is going to be battle for second place.

Poor republicans, they just can't put their arms around Flipper. Something about the guy just doesn't sit right with them. And they worry that if he beats his Oness they don't know what he will do once Mrs. Flipper takes her fine linen and Christofle silverware to Pennsylvania, Avenue.

But they better get used to him, because like it or not, Flipper will be the republican candidate to square off against O come November.

Finally, what would a Saturday night be without a little racism chasing?

Let's go to Arizona, the Mississippi of the West.

"Arizona’s unremitting campaign against its Hispanic communities has certainly reached an extreme, with the state GOP initiating a spate of radical anti-immigrant laws, banning Mexican-American and other ethnic studies, and ensuring that Spanish-speakers will never hold elected office. But one lawmaker is intent on turning the party’s xenophobic paranoia into a full-blown caricature.
Reacting to a Democratic colleagues apparently incendiary request to celebrate a Latino American day, State Rep. Cecil Ash (R) declared that he’d support the idea as long as there’s a holiday for white people too. “I’m supportive of this proposition. I just want them to assure me that when we do become in the minority you’ll have a day for us,” he said. Ash was “trying to lighten things up,” but when CBS 5 asked if he was serious about a Caucasian holiday, he offered an unequivocal “yes”:

ASH: Yes, I think it was appropriate. It was appropriate for the mood that was in the House and I think that if and when the Caucasian population becomes a minority, they may want to celebrate the accomplishments and the contributions of the Caucasian population the same way.

You can watch the report here. As CBS 5 notes, some Arizonans were supportive of the idea. “Good idea,” said one woman. “Like they have Cinco de Mayo for Mexicans. We need something for whites.” [Source]

Yes, I get it; it's getting tougher and tougher to be white in A-merry-ca these days. But why pick on the Native Americans?

"Parents of a child at Sacred Heart Catholic School are upset about the school's decision to bench the girl for "attitude issues" after she spoke a few words in the Menominee language at school.

The seventh-grader's mother, Tanaes Washinawatok, said her daughter, Miranda, was not allowed to play in the basketball game Jan. 19 after being reprimanded that day for using the Menominee language during a homeroom supervised by teacher Julie Gurta.

"A conversation was had between my daughter and two other Menominee children that go to school at Sacred Heart," Washinawatok said. "My daughter interpreted two words and then added one word; the words were hello, I love you, and thank you."

"The teacher came in and told my child, 'You are not to be speaking like that. How do I know you're not saying something bad and how would you like it if I spoke Polish and you didn't understand.'"

Miranda, 12, said she and her friends had spoken Menominee once before and had been told not to by Gurta.

"She didn't give a reason, she just said to not talk like that," Miranda said. "We would have translated what the words meant if she asked. I want to be able to talk in Menominee because it's part of my culture; I like to express that."

Washinawatok said assistant coach Billie Joe Duquaine, a preschool teacher at the school, told Miranda she was benched because of an "attitude issue." [Source]

Yes, you have to check those attitudes at an early age, because you never know if those Menominees will want to rise again.

* Pic courtesy of Think Progress.

He is furious.

2012-02-03T21:04:00.001-05:00

By now everyone has heard of the latest wingnut manufactured scandal against his Oness. It's the one with the movie title: "Fast and Furious" I think they are calling it. This is where we are supposed to believe that a bunch of right wingnuts really give a s*&^ about a bunch of brown people South of the border who lost their lives because of a dumb scheme by the ATF to stop the flow of weapons into Mexico.

So anyway, they had a ~~dog and pony show~~ congressional hearing in Washington and the AG was called in front of a bunch of wingnut poli-tricksters so that they could score political points and maybe get on the news network for dummies later on.

Fortunately, Eric Holder did not roll over and play dead, (no pun intended) and he had a little something of his own to give back to his accusers.

"During a hearing Thursday over the Fast and Furious scandal, Attorney General Eric Holder lit into GOP Congressman Raul Labrador, after he displayed slides depicting statements Holder made about President Bill Clinton’s pardon of Marc Rich.

“That was among the worst things I’ve ever seen in Congress” Holder scolded. “There’s a whole bunch of things that I could say about what you just did, maybe this is the way you do things in Idaho or wherever you’re from, but understand something — I‘m proud of the work that I’ve done as attorney general of the United States, and looked at fairly, I think that I’ve done a pretty good job.”

“Have I been perfect? No. Have I made mistakes? Yes,” Holder acknowledged. “Do I treat the members of this committee with respect? I always hope that I do. And what you have just done is if nothing else, disrespectful. And if you don‘t like me that’s one thing. You should respect the fact that I hold an office that is deserving of respect.”

“And you know, maybe you’re new to this committee, I don’t know, I don‘t know how long you’ve been here,” Holder continued. “But my hope would be that we can get beyond that kind of interaction, that kind of treatment of a witness whether it’s me or somebody else because I think what you just did was fundamentally unfair, just not right,” [Read & watch comments here]

That's right Mr. AG, we all know how they do things in Idaho. Besides, didn't this crap start under W? Why the outrage now?

Oh well this is how the [rignt]wingnut mind works. It is, after all, "politics season."

Finally, my man Rippa sent me a story from Memphis that I am still trying to figure out. I usually have no love for black republicans, not because they are black republicans, but because they usually become black republicans for all the wrong reasons. But there has to be some good ones out there, and if there are, I don't want them to be discouraged from getting into politics if they are going to do some good in our community.

So this story of the Memphis DJ who dissed a black congressional republican candidate has me a bit concerned. From the [right] wingnut accounts of things he seemed to be a bit rough on this lady.

Now she is all over [right] wingnut sites as this poor sympathetic figure who the evil black man picked on.

I need my fam in Memphis to give me more on this one.

Not so exceptional.

2012-02-02T19:28:00.001-05:00

With all due respect to Don McLean and my A-merry-can friends, tomorrow will not be the anniversary of the day the music died. That happens to be May 11, 1981.

I just thought I would throw that out there before I start this post.

Anyway, I want to talk about A-merry-can exceptionalism tonight. Flipper has been talking about that a lot lately. He has been saying that if elected he will return A-merry-ca to what she was before this Socialist took office. "The shining city on a hill" is what he likes to call it. "I love this land, I love its Constitution, I revere its founders, I will restore those principles, I will get America back to work, and I'll make sure that we remain the shining city on the hill."

Excuse me Flipper, but maybe you should try to get out a little more. Apparently your money is the only thing that likes to travel to foreign lands.

If you insist at staying in A-merry-ca without trying to learn what is going on in the rest of the world, you might want to pick up the Washington Post and read what one of the smartest people in this country is saying about your "shining city". Take it away Fareed:

"Dear Mitt Romney,

Congratulations on Florida. Now that you are again the front-runner, and your campaign focus is returning to President Obama, I’d like to call attention to a line you have used repeatedly: “This is a president who fundamentally believes that this next century is the post-American century.” I leave it to the president to describe what he believes, but as the author of the book “The Post-American World,” let me make sure you know what exactly you are attacking.

“This is a book not about the decline of America but rather about the rise of everyone else,” I note at the very outset. I am optimistic about America, convinced that it can prosper in this new world and remain the most powerful country on the planet. But I argue that the age of American unipolarity — which began with the collapse of the Soviet Union — has ended. For a quarter-century after the collapse of communism, the United States dominated the world with no real political or economic competitors. Its ideas and its model — the Washington consensus — became received wisdom everywhere.

Today we are in a different era. In 1990, China represented 2 percent of global gross domestic product. It has quadrupled, to 8 percent, and is rising. By most estimates, China’s economy will become the world’s largest between 2016 and 2018.

This is not simply an economic story. China’s military capacity and reach are expanding. Since 2008 Chinese naval fleets have escorted more than 4,300 ships through the Gulf of Aden. Beijing’s defense spending is likely to surpass America’s by 2025. For its foreign policy activism, look on any continent: A gleaming new African Union headquarters was unveiled in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, last week. The $200 million-plus complex was financed by China and inaugurated by a high-ranking Politburo member, who arrived with a check for $94 million.
It is not just China that is rising. Emerging powers on every continent have achieved political stability and economic growth and are becoming active on the global stage. Twenty years ago Turkey was a fragile democracy, dominated by its army, that had a weak economy constantly in need of Western bailouts. Today, Turkey has a trillion-dollar economy that grew 6.6 percent last year. Since April 2009, Turkey has created 3.4 million jobs — more than the European Union, Russia and South Africa put together. That might explain Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s confidence and his country’s energetic foreign policy.
Look in this hemisphere: In 1990, Brazil was emerging from decades of dictatorship and was wracked by inflation rates that reached 3,000 percent. Its president was impeached in 1992. Today, the country is a stable democracy, steadily growing with foreign-exchange reserves of $350 billion. Its foreign policy has become extremely active. President Dilma Rousseff is in Cuba this week, “marking Brazil’s highest-profile bid to transform its growing economic might into diplomatic leadership in Latin America,” the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. Brazil’s state development bank is financing a $680 million rehabilitation of Cuba’s port at Mariel.

For three decades, India was unable to get any Western country to accept its status as a nuclear power. But as its economy boomed and Asia became the new cockpit of global affairs, the mood shifted. Over the past five years the United States, France, Britain and others have made a massive exception for New Delhi’s nuclear program and have assiduously courted India as a new ally. I could go on.

This is a new world, very different from the America-centric one we got used to over the last generation. Obama has succeeded in preserving and even enhancing U.S. influence in this world precisely because he has recognized these new forces at work. He has traveled to the emerging nations and spoken admiringly of their rise. He replaced the old Western club and made the Group of 20 the central decision-making forum for global economic affairs. By emphasizing multilateral organizations, alliance structures and international legitimacy, he got results. It was Chinese and Russian cooperation that produced tougher sanctions against Iran. It was the Arab League’s formal request last year that made Western intervention in Libya uncontroversial.

By and large, you have ridiculed this approach to foreign policy, arguing that you would instead expand the military, act unilaterally and talk unapologetically. That might appeal to Republican primary voters, but chest-thumping triumphalism won’t help you secure America’s interests or ideals in a world populated by powerful new players.

You can call this new century whatever you like, but it won’t change reality. After all, just because we call it the World Series doesn’t make it one." [Source]

To stay with the World Series theme, that article was a home run.

Finally, congratulations on picking up the Trump endorsement there Flipper, you two looked great together. Just a day after making your I don't care about poor people comment; you make an appearance with the charlatan who represents the narcissistic and vainglorious among us. One of the folks who likes to flaunt his wealth as some kind of status symbol here in A-merry-ca. Nice.

You two deserve each other. We can see your mansions on that shining city from way over here.

Flipper's flop.

2012-02-01T20:56:00.001-05:00

Memo to all racists in A-merry-ca: Sometimes when you embrace the Big R it can land your ass in jail. Just remember that. (h/t to Robert Garrick for sending me this story.)

But I am not chasing the Big R tonight. Tonight I have a bigger fish to fry. Being poor in A-merry-ca is a b#*&^. I don't care if you are black, white, brown, or yellow. It's just not cool to be "very poor" here in the land of the [some are] free.

Everybody beats up on poor folks. I guess it's because they don't have any influence on K Street, and they don't have money to give to political campaigns.

If you are poor and you heard Flipper this morning on CNN you must have felt really bad, because you know now that if he becomes president of these divided states of A-merry-ca, he will not care about you.

"After less than 24 hours after a big win in Florida, Mitt Romney stated he isn't concerned "about the very poor" because “we have a safety net there.” Instead of focusing on the highest poverty levels, Romney intends on helping middle class Americans find jobs.

"If it needs repair, I'll fix it. I'm not concerned about the very rich. They're doing just fine. I'm concerned about the very heart of America, the 90-95 percent of Americans who right now are struggling."
"We have a very ample safety net and we can talk about whether it needs to be strengthened or whether there are holes in it. But we have food stamps, we have Medicaid, we have housing vouchers, we have programs to help the poor," Romney said. "But the middle-income Americans, they're the folks that are really struggling right now."

Flipper, if you think that "middle-income Americans" are "really struggling", just WTF do you think that poor people are going through? Do you really believe that people want to depend on a f*&^%$# safety net? Or do you think that they want to participate in the A-merry-can dream and try to get where you are someday by working their asses off? No one wants to depend on a safety net. No one, except of course, the fictional welfare Queen who exists in the minds of [right] wingnuts like you, and Ronald Reagan.

But then of course Flipper was in typical Flipper mode later in the day.

"Since his comments, Romney claimed his poor choice of words were taken out of context.

"No, no, no, no," Romney said. "You've got to take the whole sentence, all right, as opposed to saying, and then change it just a little bit, because then it sounds very different. I've said throughout the campaign my focus, my concern, my energy is gonna be devoted to helping middle income people, all right? We have a safety net for the poor in, and if there are holes in it, I will work to repair that. And if there are people that are falling through the cracks I want to fix that." [Source]

Way to correct that flop there Flipper. I think that you managed to flip back on your feet for now.

Flipper takes Florida.

2012-01-31T20:04:00.001-05:00

It looks like Flipper is laying a smack down on Newt as I write this post. He is up by over twenty points. Congrats Flipper, I guess practice makes perfect. This could get ugly. Whatever happened to all those Tea Party folks? Flipper and his people out spent Newt big time. I can't wait for Newt's concession speech to his troops.

Flipper went negative on Newt and has vowed to crush him. (92 percent of the ads have been negative!) It seemed like only yesterday that Newt was saying that the negative stuff in the republican primary was all the media's fault and he was running a positive campaign. Well Newt, that ain't the media slamming you with all those negative ads in Gator country. You might want to check your fellow republicans to see where the heat is coming from.

Still, the truth of the matter is this, none these candidates are very appealing to their base. (Sarah, where are you?)

“That’s the great mystery of 2012,” a senior Republican journalist told me while watching the brouhaha in Florida. “We have the weakest incumbent president in 32 years, running on the weakest record in 32 years… and who’s taking the stage in South Carolina and Florida? It has to be the weakest field I can remember. Each of these candidates has in his character, in his history, in his idea set—never mind disqualifying—a guarantee for self-destruction. If Newt is the candidate, he’ll lose badly. If Mitt is the candidate, he’ll lose slightly less badly … So what you have is an almost complete guarantee that if these are the candidates, Barack Obama will be reelected.” [Source]

Relax Mr. GOP; it's still going to be a very close election this November. No matter who represents the republican gang, the members of the gang will still vote for the person with the R by their name. You just have to hope that they come out. Besides, a little fighting among yourselves is good. It will get your guy battle tested for the war that's sure to come in November. Hillary and O beat up on each other pretty good, and O was a better candidate in the general because of it. Although this Flipper guy....I don't know.

"I think Romney will be the nominee,” a veteran Democratic campaign observer told me about the feud with Gingrich. “But he has unplumbed weaknesses. He’s such a terrible candidate. When’s he’s competent, he’s memorizing the talking points and delivering them with a mechanical energy. There’s no mind at work, no evidence that he understands how to do this. You don’t see a brain working, do you?”

Yes, but who needs a brain when you have money?

Rough words from Reince.

2012-01-30T21:26:00.000-05:00

All this GOP infighting is taking a toll on the party of Lincoln and Duke. O is looking at a 53% job approval rating as I write this post, despite 8.5% unemployment and a sluggish economy in these divided states of A-merry-ca.

No wonder the RNC chairman, Reince Priebus, felt like he had to say some nasty things about the beige one on "Face The Nation" this past Sunday. My man must have thought that he was on FOX. BTW, who names their son Reince?That dude must have some serious issues if he has to live with a name like Reince. But I digress.

So anyway, Reince compared his Oness to a man who allegedly committed manslaughter and left his ship causing people-at least 16 that we know of- to die. That's pretty harsh stuff coming from the leader of the RNC. I would suspect that they left that kind of down and dirty name calling to wingnut bloggers and talk show hosts.

I must give some credit to Michael Steele, who left the house long enough to condemn Reince.

"Former RNC Chairman Michael Steele told MSNBC the analogy was "unfortunate." [Source]

Good for you, Michael. Although I hope you are not saying this because my man took your job.You black republicans don't usually go after folks in your party for things like this. But I guess there is a first time for everything.

Finally, James O'Keefe has got to be the dumbest wingnut alive. Remember James? Yes, he was the clown who got busted breaking into a senator's office down in the Big Easy.

Anyway, check out his latest brilliant move:

"James O’Keefe’s latest video features surrogates appearing to commit voter fraud in yesterday’s New Hampshire primary election, all in an attempt to highlight voter fraud, a problem which is by-and-large nonexistent in the Granite State.

The undercover video shows unnamed individuals working at O’Keefe’s behest approaching polling stations throughout New Hampshire. After poll workers asked for the person’s name, O’Keefe’s agents gave the name of a voter who died within the past few weeks, before then receiving a ballot to vote. The individuals asked the poll workers if they needed ID to prove their identity, and when poll workers confirmed that they did not, O’Keefe’s men insisted on returning to their car to retrieve their ID and returned the ballot.

However, in highlighting the non-problem of voter fraud in New Hampshire and elsewhere, O’Keefe’s agents appear to have committed voter fraud themselves. Section 659:34 of the New Hampshire code defines voter fraud as when a person (highlights are ours):

(a) When registering to vote; when obtaining an official ballot; or when casting a vote by official ballot, makes a false material statement regarding his or her qualifications as a voter to an election officer or submits a voter registration form, and election day registration affidavit, a qualified voter affidavit, a domicile affidavit, or an absentee registration affidavit containing false material information regarding his or her qualifications as a voter;
(b) Votes more than once for any office or measure;
(c) Applies for a ballot in a name other than his or her own;
(d) Applies for a ballot in his or her own name after he or she has voted once;
(e) Votes for any office or measure at an election if such person is not qualified to vote as provided in RSA 654; or
(f) Gives a false name or answer if under examination as to his or her qualifications as a voter before the supervisors of the checklist or moderator.

In the raw footage released by O’Keefe (reproduced below), at 12:32, the poll worker asks the unnamed individual, “what’s your name again?” The man replies with the name of a dead New Hampshire voter, “Thomas McCarron.” She then asks if he lives at “179 Harrison Street?” The man affirms, “yes.”

In another instance, at 5:00, the poll worker checks off the individual’s fake name and says, “that’s you.” He does not correct her, but implicitly affirms the false identity by taking the ballot she hands him.

In addition, O’Keefe’s group may have run afoul of New Hampshire’s law against hidden recording devices. Granite State law requires both parties to consent when recording devices are used, a fact that even O’Keefe’s own website notes. However, the video gives no indication that poll workers were aware they were being filmed.

One section of footage not released by O’Keefe, however, was when a surrogate was caught at the polls trying to impersonate a dead voter. The Boston Herald notes that the man “disappeared before police could corral him.” [Source]

I hope that the authorities in New Hampshire throw the book at this clown and his minions. While somewhere in A-merry-ca a former ACORN worker is laughing his or her ass off.

Civil war.

2012-01-29T20:57:00.000-05:00

Man the republican establishment sure is beating up on Newt. McCain. Coulter. Drudge. Dole. They are all piling on. And now it looks like it's all finally getting to Newt and his peeps.

I can't say that I blame Newt's camp for being a little testy these days. Flipper has opened up a pretty big lead in Florida and the fat lady is warming up in the green room.

But all is not lost for the Newtster; apparently he has just picked up an endorsement from Mr. 9-9-9.

"Cain, a tea party favorite, endorsed his fellow Georgian at a GOP fundraiser Saturday calling him "a patriot."

"Speaker Gingrich is not afraid of bold ideas," Cain said.
The former pizza executive, who left the race before the first nominating contests after facing accusations of unwanted sexual advances, suggested the two have both undergone intense scrutiny.

"I know that Speaker Gingrich is running for president and going through this sausage grinder," Cain said. "I know what this sausage grinder is all about."

Herman, I am guessing that you should have used a couple other words to describe what Newt is going through. The "sausage grinder" Herman Cain association is not a good one. Just sayin.

And then there is Sarah. Remember her? Well, Sarah is supporting Newt as well. It's a Tea Party thing. Sarah believes that the republican elites and the Tea Party folks are in a battle for the soul of the republican party. To Sarah, Newt represents the populists in the party, the common man. Flipper, on the other hand, represents the wine and cheese crowd who looks down on their trailer parks as they drive by in their limousines.

Now the questions is this: Can they come together in time to defeat his Oness?
Clearly Mitt is lacking something. He just has not been able to pull the republican forces together. First Michele,then Herman, then Newt. The beat just goes on and on. Even with his big lead in Florida, folks are convinced that it's his money and not Flipper's charm and competence that's doing it.

"TAMPA, FLORIDA — According to some final spending numbers shared with TPM by a Democratic media observer, Mitt Romney’s lucky number in the final push to the Jan. 31 primary here is five.

As in five-to-one: that’s the ratio — just about — by which Romney and his allies have outspent Newt Gingrich and his allies on TV in the Sunshine State. The narrative that Team Romney is pushing is that of a new-and-improved candidate, battle-hardened after his South Carolina woes, and sharpened as a candidate by having had to outsmart Newt Gingrich.

The Dems think these figures suggest something else: that it’s not Romney who’s winning votes in Florida, but the size of his wallet."

Just remember Flipper, all that money can be a blessing and a curse.

Mitt's new spokesperson?

2012-01-28T21:21:00.000-05:00

Flipper used a devastating television spot against Newt to land a knockout punch in Florida. The commercial featured a clip of Tom Brokaw talking about Newt being censored and fined by the house for ethics violations.

It was obviously an effective spot, but NBC was not pleased.

"WASHINGTON (AP) — NBC asked GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Saturday to pull a campaign advertisement made up almost entirely of a 1997 "Nightly News" report on Newt Gingrich's ethics committee reprimand.

The "History Lesson" ad started running in Florida on the weekend, when it is harder for stations to switch ad traffic even if they want to. Broadcast days before Tuesday's primary, the ad shows former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw saying that some of Gingrich's House colleagues had raised questions about the then-speaker's "future effectiveness."

Under Brokaw's image is a line that reads — "Paid for by Romney for President, Approved by Mitt Romney."

The footage was used without permission and the extensive use of the broadcast "inaccurately suggests that NBC News and Mr. Brokaw have consented to the use of this material and agree with the political position espoused by the videos," NBC's vice president of media law, David N. Sternlicht, wrote Romney's campaign manager, Matt Rhoades.

"Aside from the obvious copyright issues, this use of the voice of Mr. Brokaw and the NBC News name exploits him and the journalistic credibility of NBC News," the letter said. The network asked for the campaign to stop running the ad immediately and revise any other videos or commercials to remove at NBC material.

"As a news organization, NBC News objects to any use of NBC News journalists and our copyrighted material that suggests to the public that we or our journalists are taking sides with any individual or organization involved in a political campaign or dispute, and we request that your organization respect that concern," the letter said.

Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom said the campaign isn't likely to stop running the ad."

Man that Flipper dude is no joke. It's going to be scary when the general election rolls around. All this Super PAC money flying around out here well make this very ugly.

"We just received the letter. We are reviewing it, but we believe it falls within fair use," he said. "We didn't take the entire broadcast; we just took the first 30 seconds....Brokaw said in a statement released by NBC that he was "extremely uncomfortable with the extended use of my personal image in this political ad. I do not want my role as a journalist compromised for political gain by any campaign."

I wonder why Flipper didn't use a FOX NEWS clip? I am quite sure that they would have had no problem with his campaign using it.

Finally, I have to rip Yahoo News for the following headline and story:

"Mom Allegedly Drags Son by Car for Missing School Bus"

Ok, so that's the headline. Now check out the actual story:

"ABC News' Katti Gray reports:

A Woods Cross, Utah, woman was arrested for allegedly forcing her 9-year-old son to walk alongside her car as she pulled him along by his belt and steered him toward school after he'd missed the school bus.

Police said the boy could have been hit by traffic driving in the opposite direction on the two-lane road and have turned the case over to the Davis County District Attorney's office, which will decide whether to charge the mother with child endangerment.

"She was going at a slow enough speed that the child was able to keep pace with the vehicle," Woods Cross Police Chief Greg Butler said. A neighbor phoned his department about what the mother was doing.

Her name is not being released because she has not been charged, and the child - who is not deemed to be in imminent danger - remains in his mother's care, Butler said." [Story]

"Walk alongside the car", not "drags." Big difference.

And please save your nasty e-mails. I know it's not cool to walk your kids outside of a moving car, but I had a totally different image in my head when I first read the headline.

Besides, I see you white folks with your children on leashes all the time, so what's the big deal?

No more fetuses in our food, but we still have dial up.

2012-01-27T22:10:00.000-05:00

When I first saw the headline I thought that it was a gag from The Onion. Honestly, these local republican elected officials are setting this country back hundreds of years with their myopic form of thinking.

"An Oklahoma bill that would ban the sale of food containing aborted human fetuses has some people wondering: What food currently contains aborted human fetuses?
The bill, introduced Jan. 18 by State Sen. Ralph Shortey, prohibits the manufacture or sale of “food or any other product intended for human consumption which contains aborted human fetuses in the ingredients or which used aborted human fetuses in the research or development of any of the ingredients.”

Shortey declined to give specific examples but said some food manufacturers used stem cells in the research and development process.
“There is a potential that there are companies that are using aborted human babies in their research and development of basically enhancing flavor for artificial flavors,” he told KRMG Radio. “I don’t know if it is happening in Oklahoma, it may be, it may not be. What I am saying is that if it does happen then we are not going to allow it to manufacture here.”

Shortey may be acting on claims that the San Diego-based company Semonyx used proteins derived from human embryonic kidney cells to test artificial sweeteners, NPR reported. The cell line, known as HEK 293, was created from a human embryo in 1970 and has become a staple in biochemistry labs around the world.

Some people are calling the bill a back-door attempt to ban embryonic stem cell research — a ban Shortey said he would support, KRMG reported." [Source]

Now, to be fair, most folks in this country believe that this wingnut has lost his mind. But we have to wonder how this fellow got elected in the first place. And who are the people voting people like this into public office?

Finally, I have been at this minority telecom conference in DC for the past couple of days, and the scariest thing I have learned is that we are running out of broadband spectrum. A "spectrum crunch" they call it. Some of you folks with these smart phones with all these fancy aps. are using up all the space.

There were a lot of big shots here from a lot of big companies: At&T, Verizon, Comcast. And they are all getting in line to buy up all the available broadband. The government is going to have some kind of auction, and if you have the loot you can get a seat at the table. If not....oh well.

Anywhoo, I also learned that you Negroes are not into media ownership. Eight full time television stations just isn't going to cut it. I met some dude who owns a a bunch of radio stations, but they are all low powered stations with limited reach, so he was there to cry a river to the powers that be from the government about the inequity in how this stuff is given out.

I also met some poor lady from rural North Carolina, (shout out to Dr.Donna Sullivan for putting in the work to try and get her people into the 21st century)who spoke of the people in some communities still using dial- up to try and get on the information super highway. Apparently they were on their way when the big wigs from Time Warner stepped in and ~~paid off~~ lobbied the politricksters in their state to set up shop the way that they wanted it done.

But never fear, I heard from the FCC Commissioner today that the federal government is going to try and free up 500 megahertz worth of spectrum. Hopefully that will ease the "crunch", and the poor folks in places like rural North Carolina can join the rest of us while we speed on down the information superhighway.

*Pic courtesy of "Pulling to the Left".

The Negro threat.

2012-01-26T20:06:00.000-05:00

I swear you can't make this stuff up. Did Jan Brewer really say that she felt " a little threatened" by Obama?

“I was in the middle of a sentence and he walked away. I wasn’t angry at all. I felt a little bit threatened, if you will, in the attitude that he had.” [Source]

"Threatened"?!!! Let's see now, he is the President of these divided states. Those football player looking dudes with the earplugs in their ears are protecting him, not your drug addicted looking ass.

Republicans no longer have any respect for the presidency because they don't respect the person currently holding the office. It's that simple. That's sad, because I thought that republicans loved A-merry-ca and what the office of the president represents. *shaking head*

Then there is this new study out of Canada which confirms what I have suspected all along.

"There's no gentle way to put it: People who give in to racism and prejudice may simply be dumb, according to a new study that is bound to stir public controversy.

The research finds that children with low intelligence are more likely to hold prejudiced attitudes as adults. These findings point to a vicious cycle, according to lead researcher Gordon Hodson, a psychologist at Brock University in Ontario. Low-intelligence adults tend to gravitate toward socially conservative ideologies, the study found. Those ideologies, in turn, stress hierarchy and resistance to change, attitudes that can contribute to prejudice, Hodson wrote in an email to LiveScience.

"Prejudice is extremely complex and multifaceted, making it critical that any factors contributing to bias are uncovered and understood," he said.

Earlier studies have found links between low levels of education and higher levels of prejudice, Hodson said, so studying intelligence seemed a logical next step. The researchers turned to two studies of citizens in the United Kingdom, one that has followed babies since their births in March 1958, and another that did the same for babies born in April 1970. The children in the studies had their intelligence assessed at age 10 or 11; as adults ages 30 or 33, their levels of social conservatism and racism were measured. [Life's Extremes: Democrat vs. Republican]

In the first study, verbal and nonverbal intelligence was measured using tests that asked people to find similarities and differences between words, shapes and symbols. The second study measured cognitive abilities in four ways, including number recall, shape-drawing tasks, defining words and identifying patterns and similarities among words. Average IQ is set at 100."

Social conservatives were defined as people who agreed with a laundry list of statements such as "Family life suffers if mum is working full-time," and "Schools should teach children to obey authority." Attitudes toward other races were captured by measuring agreement with statements such as "I wouldn't mind working with people from other races." (These questions measured overt prejudiced attitudes, but most people, no matter how egalitarian, do hold unconscious racial biases; Hodson's work can't speak to this "underground" racism.)

As suspected, low intelligence in childhood corresponded with racism in adulthood. But the factor that explained the relationship between these two variables was political: When researchers included social conservatism in the analysis, those ideologies accounted for much of the link between brains and bias.

People with lower cognitive abilities also had less contact with people of other races.

"This finding is consistent with recent research demonstrating that intergroup contact is mentally challenging and cognitively draining, and consistent with findings that contact reduces prejudice," said Hodson, who along with his colleagues published these results online Jan. 5 in the journal Psychological Science." [Source] *h/t to Greg Fuller for the pic and story.*

I bet Jan Brewer doesn't have a very high IQ.

Still, the moral of this story is that racism is just a bad thing all around for everybody.

Finally, shout out to David Honig and the folks at MMTC who are once again hosting a wonderful summit here in D.C.

David, I promise that I will try to attend all of the sessions tomorrow.

Uppity Negroes and broke Negroes.

2012-01-25T22:55:00.000-05:00

Memo to Jan Brewer, that Obama fellow doesn't forget s*&^.

"Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer came to greet President Barack Obama upon his arrival outside Phoenix Wednesday. What she got was a critique. Of her book.

The two leaders could be seen engaged in an intense conversation at the base of Air Force One's steps. Both could be seen smiling, but speaking at the same time.

Asked moments later what the conversation was about, Brewer, a Republican, said: "He was a little disturbed about my book."

Brewer recently published a book, "Scorpions for Breakfast," something of a memoir of her years growing up and defends her signing of Arizona's controversial law cracking down on illegal immigrants, which Obama opposes.

Obama was objecting to Brewer's description of a meeting he and Brewer had at the White House, where she described Obama as lecturing her. In an interview in November Brewer described two tense meetings. The first took place before his commencement address at Arizona State University. "He did blow me off at ASU," she said in the television interview in November.

She also described meeting the president at the White House in 2010 to talk about immigration. "I felt a little bit like I was being lectured to, and I was a little kid in a classroom, if you will, and he was this wise professor and I was this little kid, and this little kid knows what the problem is and I felt minimized to say the least."

On the tarmac Wednesday, Brewer handed Obama an envelope with a handwritten invitation to return to Arizona to meet her for lunch and to join her for a visit to the border.

"I said to him, you know, I have always respected the office of the president and that the book is what the book is," she told reporters Wednesday. She said Obama complained that she described him as not treating her cordially.

"I said that I was sorry that he felt that way. Anyway, we're glad he's here, and we'll regroup."' [Source]

Yes Jan, some of these Negroes can get a little uppity. That Obama fellow seems to have forgotten his place. Being the president of these divided states of A-merry-ca will do that to you.

Finally, when are some of you Negroes going to learn how to manage your money?

You shouldn't be able to blow eighty millon dollars even if you try.

"I hate myself for letting this happen. I believed that they had my back when they said, ‘You take care of the football, and we’ll do the rest.’ And in the end, they just basically stole from me.” [Story]

Who is "they" TO? Like WTF?

The next time one of you Negroes out here balling have a few hundred thousand to throw away, please holla at your boy. I promise that I will put it to good use for you, and I will even have some saved away for you after your playing carreer is over. Promise.

The SOTU and Newt's racial stereotype problem.

2012-01-24T21:27:00.004-05:00

I am settling in to watch the SOTU address with O. It should be interesting. Republicans say that it will be nothing more than a political speech, and they are already ready to go with their talking points.

One republican who won't be there is Rep. Doug Lamborn of Colorado. I guess he is really afraid that some of that tar will fly off his Oness and get on his skin.

Anyway, O is coming in now. There are hugs and kisses all around. Oh ohhh, he is approaching the supremes. ("Smiling faces, sometimes pretend to be your friend...) And now he is hugging "Gabby" Giffords....ohhhh. Now that was a "Kodak Moment". O, you might have just bumped your approval ratings by about five points.

My friends over at Politc365 have a live feed. I think I will check it out.
[Feed]

O was in big time campaign mode. The [right]wingnuts will be foaming at the mouth tomorrow. This election should be fun. The battle lines have been drawn.

Finally, and believe me, I don't even want to bring this up, because I am honestly hoping that Newt comes out on top in the republican primary.

"GOP contender Newt Gingrich has built up quite a record of making derogatory, racially-charged remarks on the campaign trail. He frequently derides President Obama as a “food stamp president” and said he would go to the NAACP and tell African Americans they should “demand paychecks and not be satisfied with food stamps.” Last week he said work is a “strange, distant concept” to Fox anchor Juan Williams, who had the audacity to ask Gingrich at a recent debate if he understood why blacks might be offended by his remarks.

More than 40 Catholic leaders recently challenged Gingrich to “stop perpetuating ugly racial stereotypes” with his divisive rhetoric.

For Gingrich, perpetuating ugly racial stereotypes is nothing new. Today, the Huffington Post reports that at the height of Gingrich’s power in Congress, one of his major speeches had to be edited to remove a racist characterization of Asians, Latinos, and black Americans:

But before Gingrich could deliver his grand new theory of American civilization to the public in a 1993 speech, his deeply divisive racial stereotypes would need to be removed.

“For poor minorities, entrepreneurship in small business is the key to future wealth,” Gingrich wrote by hand in a first draft. “This is understood thoroughly by most of the Asians, partially by Latinos, and to a tragically small degree by much of the American black community.” [...]

By the time a member of Gingrich’s staff typed up the notes and prepared the speech for delivery at the National Review Institute, the racial stereotypes were gone." [Source]

I smell dirty politics here, but I still can't give Newt a pass. I know exactly where Newt stands on these issues, and it's scary that he could have gotten even this far.

"Doing the right thing?

2012-01-23T20:07:00.000-05:00

"Field, why don't you do something about the comments section on your blog? It's full of nut jobs and racist." Field, I used to read your blog, but your comments section got to be too much."

I get that a lot. And I always tell folks to just read the post and skip the comments. Although honestly, I don't know why they would want to. You can tell a lot about where A-merry-ca is heading by the comments section on blogs like mine.

For instance, tonight I want to blog about Spike Lee going off on Chris Rock, but instead of starting with the article, I will start with the comments section from the article:

"I'd like to know what was the the "controversial twist" that caused some people to walk out? Spike just showed what a big baby he is when Chris Rock cracked a joke at him, he throws a tantrum... I have a title for your next movie, Spike: "Act Like a Man".

Shawn • 37 minutes agoReport Abuse

Racism cuts both ways, my friend!

6 Replies

"Who cares what this racist idiot says anyway?

2 Replies

Garth • 38 minutes agoReport Abuse

"who cares"

2 Replies

2008champ • 38 minutes agoReport Abuse

"Spike Lee is racist."

11 Replies

MJ • 37 minutes agoReport Abuse

"spike "who"??????????"

11 Replies

Powmia • 34 minutes agoReport Abuse

"He is more racist than the people he calls racist"

5 Replies

duntov • 24 minutes agoReport Abuse

"Seems like an Angry african american that continues to prey on racism for his own gain and agenda. Go away until you can talk like an intelligent human. Stop the hate and move on."

etha • 11 minutes agoReport Abuse

"A very angry black midget."

1 Reply

Dawn • Sacramento, California • 23 minutes agoReport Abuse

"I am absolutely astounded by the level of class he displays."

Eric • 35 minutes agoReport Abuse

"Sorry Spike you have no class despite you thinking that you are the best director out there. Also LOL @ watching a picture of you googly eyed taking a picture of Obama with your 1st generation iPad explains alot."

2 Replies

4 Replies

Bob • Cleveland, Ohio • 15 minutes agoReport Abuse

"What a punk!"

13users liked this commentPlease sign in to rate!Please sign in to rate!0users disliked this comment

John • Los Angeles, California • 14 minutes agoReport Abuse

"Another lousy Knicks' team sent him over the edge. And by the way, dress like a normal person! Be a role model, not a race baiter!"

Cali-drew • San Diego, California • 35 minutes agoReport Abuse

"Spike Lee is a hundred pound little #$%$ Talks as if he's the only Black man on the planet."

And what is it that got folks so fired up over Spike? Well it seems that Spike went off at Sundance because he had to bankroll his own film. Chris Rock (who white folks just love) asked Spike a question, and was, in the writer's opinion, "joking around." Spike didn't think it was funny, and gave Rock the business.

"... Chris Rock asked a question following the Sundance screening for Lee's new film, "Red Hook Summer."

According to Entertainment Weekly, the film was screened for a large audience, some of whom left after the film took a controversial twist. That didn't seem to faze Lee. However, when Chris Rock asked Lee about financing the film, the director went off on a bit of a tirade.
2012 Sundance Film Festival Portraits

Rock, who appeared to be joking around, said, "You spent your own money ... What would you have done differently if you'd actually gotten studio money? What else would have happened? Would you have blown up some (bleep)?"
Lee, apparently unamused, responded, "We never went to the studios with this film. I bought a camera and said we're gonna do this mother(bleeping) film ourselves. I didn't need a mother(bleeping) studio telling me something about Red Hook! They know nothing about black people! Nothing!" Lee then added, "And they're gonna give me notes about what a 13-year-old black boy and girl do in Red Hook? (Bleep) no!" [Source]

Spike, another movie with Red in the title did alright at the Box Office this past weekend. It was about black folks, but Mr. Charlie is the one who made it. And he might not know anything about "black people", but he sure knows how to make money.

Anyway, I have to go now, I have to get ready for my favorite sitcom: the republican debates.

It could be worse.

2012-01-22T17:15:00.001-05:00

"She's tellin' me about the things that her girlfriend's got
What she ain't got, and she wants me to go out and get ‘em for her
But, but girl, I can't be in two places at one time

If you think you're lonely now,
Wait until tonight, girl
(If you think you're lonely now) I'll be long gone
(Wait until tonight, girl) And you'll find another man that'll treat you right" [Video]

O should have been singing that classic Bobby Womack song instead of "Let's Stay Together" the other night at the Apollo. I am hearing a lot of liberals and progressives express disappointment with O lately. Many of them actually say that they regretted giving him their vote.

I love Bruce Dixon over at Black Agenda; fam is a true field Negro in my book. Bruce has been relentless in his attacks of O because he believes that he has been a huge disappointment as president. A sampling:"Next week will mark the third anniversary of Barack Obama's inauguration, and the unveiling of his fourth budget. Already White House spokespeople admit that it will be bad news for black and poor Americans. In three years this president has investigated and prosecuted not a single Wall Street banker or institution, not held up the wave of foreclosures a single week, not addressed the issues of black unemployment or black mass incarceration. But black America has silenced itself to protect the career of the First Black President." [Source] I honestly don't know what folks like Bruce expected from Obama. Those of you who know me and read my writings know that I have said all along that there would be nothing spectacular in terms of progressive changes with an Obama presidency. I have said all along that he is a Democratic politician who is a product of the Chicago political machine, and that he is first and foremost a political moderate when it comes to governing.

His election was historic only for its imagery and the possibilities it represents; not because it was going to bring any fundamental changes in the American political landscape for poor people and people of color.

What Barack Obama has delivered is exactly what I expected. Nothing more, nothing less. In terms of foreign policy, he has kept the country relatively safe and he has improved our standing in the world with our allies. Domestically we have come back from the brink of an economic disaster, and growth has been slow but steady. His justice department has been going after civil rights violators more aggressively than the previous administration, and his single appointment to the Supreme Court so far will act as a voice of reason on a body that is precariously close to being hijacked by a group of right wingnut extremist. (Just imagine how the court would look if McCain and Palin was elected. )

But let me go back to what Bobby Womack was writing about to that woman of his: If you think that Obama is bad, wait until either Mitt or Newt gets into office. I suspect that a lot of you progressives will be crying for the good old days of O again. But O won't be around, he- like Bobby told his woman- will be "long gone". And sadly, it could be a long time before you find another leader that will treat you right.