Where in the world is Condi Rice? Isn’t she the main United States diplomat in charge of making things better in the world politically between our enemies and us? Why isn’t she over in Iraq attempting to bring calm from chaos?
It was reported that she has been seeking an interview with the Pope and got turned down. He reportedly didn’t want to interrupt his vacation just to see her. We aren’t at war with the Vatican, so why visit him when there are plenty of other people in need of our attention? Who needs a new photo op? Just asking.
*****
Did anyone besides me think that the Petraeus report was just more smoke and mirrors from the White House? Did anyone think the prez’ handpicked boy was going to knock the surge and say it’s not working?
And all that happy horsesh*t about drawing down troops....please....my nephew got shipped out to Iraq last Friday. He is a marine and I’m pissed and getting madder everyday that this quagmire continues unabated.
*****
Alan Greenspan says the war is about oil...why the hell didn’t he say that when he was still working? Now it just looks like he is trying to sell books.
*****
The lynching of Orenthal James Simpson is in full swing....don’t get me wrong...the man killed his ex-wife and her friend...he is a self centered, violent sociopathic egotist of the first order...so arrogant that he continues to surround himself with walking Nicole look alikes and expects everyone to bow down in his wake.....But this whole Las Vegas thing is feeling like a set up....A tape is made in the process and ends up on the internet the next day....c’mon...
I have no sympathy for this man. Justice was not served the last time he was on trial....He literally got away with two murders...white people, it seems, are divided into two camps..there are those who want their pound of flesh...and those who continue to support this walking train wreck called Juice. Black people continue to support him because he is black...that is not enough...he is a bad man...who continues to thumb his nose at the black community until he “needs” us.
If he goes to jail...I prefer to think of this as a Karma smack down...He does deserve to be locked up...but it still won’t bring Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman back...
*****
Donovan McNabb says white quarterbacks are treated differently than black quarterbacks...did he lie? NO! He did not. Carson Palmer keeps hanging his receivers out to dry...what’s it gonna take for someone to notice....TJ or Ocho Cinco in the hospital or paralyzed from a mid air hit by a defender? If Donovan did that..he would be highly criticized and maybe even yanked from the game. Up until a few years ago black quarterbacks were routinely switched to wide receiver because it was commonly thought that we weren’t smart enough to direct things...hmmmmm!
Which reminds me of an old saying....”the only sport or position that we (blacks) can’t play is the one we haven’t tried, yet.”
****
Got a new Attorney General and Minister of Disinformation at the White House...more rats deserting the sinking ship! Is there a question here...no...just a comment...
9.20.2007
9.07.2007
Cincinnati Justice
Examining recent court rulings in Cincinnati might lead one to believe that letting a dog die in your back yard is infinitely worse than leaving your kid to die strapped in the back seat of your car. I have already talked about the Clermont County vice principal whose daughter was found in the back seat of her Mercedes in the school parking lot. The prosecutor refused to bring charges alleging the death was an accident. He claimed he followed the letter of the law in not seeking a grand jury indictment.
Now comes word about the woman who left the dog in her backyard. It was a pit bull. She didn’t own the dog. It belonged to her brother, and he admitted putting the dog back there. She was jailed because it was her house and was sentenced to two weeks in jail for cruelty to animals. She actually was let go for time already served. The judge claimed she followed the letter of the law in making her decision.
Follow up on both stories shows that Ms Clermont County had been warned about leaving her daughter in the car on at least two other occasions prior to the child’s death, the last happening just a couple of days before the fatal incident. Yet, there was no crime committed.
The pit bull lady apparently got charged more than ten years ago with child endangering..she apparently left her kid alone while she went out drinking. Nothing recent had happened in the pit bull lady’s life...she was a hardworking homeowner these days and her kids are okay. Crime committed.
Similarities....both female, both working women, both with children, both apparently expert multi-taskers at juggling life
Differences....one white, one black....., one upper middle class, school teacher, one, urban, fast food worker......, one with husband who fixes Mercedes, one, no husband talked about..one kid dead, the other, brother’s dog dead.....one jailed and convicted....one not even charged...hmmmmm!
Cincinnati keeps saying it is working hard to erase it’s racist image, but snapshots like these make it damn near impossible. In Cincinnati and Ohio in general, it really is Justice for them and Just us for us.
If both court officers followed the letter of the law, then the laws of Ohio need to be changed. Not only that but enforcement needs to be changed.
When blacks are arrested they are first and foremost drug tested and locked up, until stuff is sorted out. The same goes for poor white people. When non poor whites are arrested they are asked down the station, interviewed and maybe arrested a couple of days, weeks or months later.
No justice....still
Now comes word about the woman who left the dog in her backyard. It was a pit bull. She didn’t own the dog. It belonged to her brother, and he admitted putting the dog back there. She was jailed because it was her house and was sentenced to two weeks in jail for cruelty to animals. She actually was let go for time already served. The judge claimed she followed the letter of the law in making her decision.
Follow up on both stories shows that Ms Clermont County had been warned about leaving her daughter in the car on at least two other occasions prior to the child’s death, the last happening just a couple of days before the fatal incident. Yet, there was no crime committed.
The pit bull lady apparently got charged more than ten years ago with child endangering..she apparently left her kid alone while she went out drinking. Nothing recent had happened in the pit bull lady’s life...she was a hardworking homeowner these days and her kids are okay. Crime committed.
Similarities....both female, both working women, both with children, both apparently expert multi-taskers at juggling life
Differences....one white, one black....., one upper middle class, school teacher, one, urban, fast food worker......, one with husband who fixes Mercedes, one, no husband talked about..one kid dead, the other, brother’s dog dead.....one jailed and convicted....one not even charged...hmmmmm!
Cincinnati keeps saying it is working hard to erase it’s racist image, but snapshots like these make it damn near impossible. In Cincinnati and Ohio in general, it really is Justice for them and Just us for us.
If both court officers followed the letter of the law, then the laws of Ohio need to be changed. Not only that but enforcement needs to be changed.
When blacks are arrested they are first and foremost drug tested and locked up, until stuff is sorted out. The same goes for poor white people. When non poor whites are arrested they are asked down the station, interviewed and maybe arrested a couple of days, weeks or months later.
No justice....still
9.05.2007
Baubles, Bangles and Designer Kids
I don’t have children, and that I don’t was both choice and luck. When I was experimenting with sex in my younger days, I was lucky enough not to have gotten pregnant. When I realized the ramifications of having children, I made the choice not to have them. Call me selfish, if you will. I wanted a career. I wanted to see the world, and being a black woman, I did not see how I could do that with a kid in tow, the way I wanted to do it. The same applies for marriage. I don’t believe in marriage, not for women, anyway. Besides, as I have said before in previous writings, that I am gay. I admitted that fact to myself and came to acceptance without having to deal with the consequences of children and marriage. My sexuality is not a choice. It simply is. Children and marriage are choices. Were I married and or pregnant or were raising children, I would still be a lesbian. It is my norm, just like being a woman, being black or being left handed.
I have never regretted that decision. I like kids, as long as I can send them home when I’m tired of them. The four years I spent living with my sister and her four children were the longest four years of my life. I love them all, but I was glad and relieved when they finally moved into a home of their own.
I have been watching with interest the story unfolding around the school teacher who forgot that her two year old was strapped in a car seat in her SUV as she drove to work on one of the hottest days of this year. The mother parked the car in the school parking lot, took doughnuts out of the trunk for a faculty meeting and left the baby in the car seat. She died after going unattended for 8 hours. The body was discovered by somebody else who was parked next to the mother’s SUV
Union Township police wanted the woman charged with child endangering. The Clermont County prosecutor said the whole situation was an accident. Since she didn’t intend to neglect her kid she did not commit a crime and therefore will not be punished.
The Cincinnati community is split with half wanting the woman jailed, while the other half agrees with the prosecutor.
It never occurred to me that the woman would be charged with a crime. Not because I don’t believe one was committed, but because of the surrounding circumstance.
If the woman had been poor, and lived in the inner city, married or not, working or not, she would have been jailed from day one. She would have been charged immediately convicted by the public, written off as an unfit mother and quickly forgotten. That is not a judgement, it is simply fact.
There is a woman in jail as I write this. A young girl, single, poor, who left her two kids in the closet at home while she went to work. This was a bad, bad decision. This was a dangerous decision. But was it criminal? Was there intent to harm? The children are okay, but as I said the mother is in jail, already labeled and in the court of public opinion, convicted. No one that I can see has jumped to her defense.
The offender in this case was a successful, career woman. She is married, living in the burbs, vice principal of a large suburban school. She is probably an expert multi tasker. She drove a Mercedes SUV, although it must be interjected that the car was purchased second hand after a wreck and her husband did the repairs himself. That has somehow been thrown out as a mitigating circumstance in this tragic affair.
In making his decision not to prosecute, the prosecutor said there was no intent to harm.
There was a young woman busted last week because her children were found walking down the street at daybreak while she slept in the house. She didn’t put them outside. She didn’t intend for them to get into a dangerous, life threatening situation. It just happened, an accident. She too, is jailed. The kids survived their ordeal.
Our suburbanite hasn’t spent one day in jail. She did talk with police and apparently cried during the interview, another apparent mitigating factor tossed out. She has an attorney instead of an overworked public defender.
Why is it that our compassion and justice system are apparently driven by economics and station in life? Why can’t poor people catch a break sometimes, like wealthier suburbanites?
A lot of us have too much on our minds. A lot of us spend too much time collecting stuff...cars, houses, jewelry and yes even children.
The decision to have children is a monumental one. It is not a decision that should simply be left to biology. Kids are life altering. They are the number one priority when you choose to have them, not the doughnuts, or the golf clubs, or the job or the house or the car. If they can’t be your number one priority, then you shouldn’t have them, period. Anyone who thinks otherwise, is deluding themselves.
It’s illegal in the state of California to leave a dog unattended in the car. The same should apply to kids regardless of your economic situation.
I have never regretted that decision. I like kids, as long as I can send them home when I’m tired of them. The four years I spent living with my sister and her four children were the longest four years of my life. I love them all, but I was glad and relieved when they finally moved into a home of their own.
I have been watching with interest the story unfolding around the school teacher who forgot that her two year old was strapped in a car seat in her SUV as she drove to work on one of the hottest days of this year. The mother parked the car in the school parking lot, took doughnuts out of the trunk for a faculty meeting and left the baby in the car seat. She died after going unattended for 8 hours. The body was discovered by somebody else who was parked next to the mother’s SUV
Union Township police wanted the woman charged with child endangering. The Clermont County prosecutor said the whole situation was an accident. Since she didn’t intend to neglect her kid she did not commit a crime and therefore will not be punished.
The Cincinnati community is split with half wanting the woman jailed, while the other half agrees with the prosecutor.
It never occurred to me that the woman would be charged with a crime. Not because I don’t believe one was committed, but because of the surrounding circumstance.
If the woman had been poor, and lived in the inner city, married or not, working or not, she would have been jailed from day one. She would have been charged immediately convicted by the public, written off as an unfit mother and quickly forgotten. That is not a judgement, it is simply fact.
There is a woman in jail as I write this. A young girl, single, poor, who left her two kids in the closet at home while she went to work. This was a bad, bad decision. This was a dangerous decision. But was it criminal? Was there intent to harm? The children are okay, but as I said the mother is in jail, already labeled and in the court of public opinion, convicted. No one that I can see has jumped to her defense.
The offender in this case was a successful, career woman. She is married, living in the burbs, vice principal of a large suburban school. She is probably an expert multi tasker. She drove a Mercedes SUV, although it must be interjected that the car was purchased second hand after a wreck and her husband did the repairs himself. That has somehow been thrown out as a mitigating circumstance in this tragic affair.
In making his decision not to prosecute, the prosecutor said there was no intent to harm.
There was a young woman busted last week because her children were found walking down the street at daybreak while she slept in the house. She didn’t put them outside. She didn’t intend for them to get into a dangerous, life threatening situation. It just happened, an accident. She too, is jailed. The kids survived their ordeal.
Our suburbanite hasn’t spent one day in jail. She did talk with police and apparently cried during the interview, another apparent mitigating factor tossed out. She has an attorney instead of an overworked public defender.
Why is it that our compassion and justice system are apparently driven by economics and station in life? Why can’t poor people catch a break sometimes, like wealthier suburbanites?
A lot of us have too much on our minds. A lot of us spend too much time collecting stuff...cars, houses, jewelry and yes even children.
The decision to have children is a monumental one. It is not a decision that should simply be left to biology. Kids are life altering. They are the number one priority when you choose to have them, not the doughnuts, or the golf clubs, or the job or the house or the car. If they can’t be your number one priority, then you shouldn’t have them, period. Anyone who thinks otherwise, is deluding themselves.
It’s illegal in the state of California to leave a dog unattended in the car. The same should apply to kids regardless of your economic situation.
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