11.30.2009

Choice with Change, Like Gin with Juice

If the leaks are true, then Obama is going to send more troops into Afghanistan. He's reportedly not going to send as many troops as the generals want. He has instead reportedly opted for some middle ground.

I'm sorry but I didn't vote for middle ground compromise. I voted for change. Change from the policies of the past several years, that have decimated the middle class, allowed big business to pillage this country's resources and to run rough shod over the American people, unchecked by an uncaring government.

In the first year of Obama, Wall Street is back to handing out multimillion dollar bonuses, Black people are still the last hired, first fired with the most unemployment, LGBT people are still second class citizens, and as a country, we're still engaged in two useless wars where our people are dying for no reason, and we're propping up corrupt foreign governments that willingly taking our money and laugh all the way to the bank ...


Obama is slated to speak at West Point tomorrow to tell us what he intends to do and how he intends to pay for it as well as how he intends to end it.....And all I can picture in my head is Dubya landing on that battleship, with that Mission Accomplished banner behind him...different place, different time, different president...same old story.

I can't shake the feeling that we are living through a third term for Dubya, only in absentia. It's not just the wars, it's everything except the style....Obama style is slammin'.....but so far, it is very short on real substance....

I know he can't correct everything in his first term. That is an absolute impossibility. What is bothering me is that he seems to not want to change things, really. I'm seeing more politician than leader...and what I want is more leader....someone willing to make tough choices that lead to real change...

Right now, I'm apprehensive. I don't need a propaganda speech with a pretty backdrop....I need some action...

I'm in the same frame of mind that I get when all those lottery emails land in my mail box and keep telling me I've won big money....you don't have to send me an email telling me I won...just send me the damn check....

Just issue the order...bring the troops home...and end this fiasco...

11.22.2009

Year 1 BHO

I am still thankful that Barack Obama was elected president of the United States last November. I believe that the country turned and started going in the right direction after being off kilter for so many years.

I still think that one year later, he was and remains the best choice for this country.

Am I 100% happy with the way things have gone this past year? No.

When Obama put together his “change” team, he didn't really change things. He added a few women, a couple of women of color. He added a few openly gay and lesbian people. However, from the beginning he stuck with the same white guys, maybe a little younger, but those who espoused the same kind of stuff and policies that got us into this mess in the first place. I was not happy with the likes of Geithner, Summers, or the Generals put in charge of those misguided fiascoes Iraq and Afghanistan. One year in, I am less happy with his choices.

Having been raised on politics from the cradle, I know that things can't and won't turn around quickly and this has been a problem for Obama. He won by convincing a lot of people to vote for him who don't know politics and furthermore, never took an interest in politics prior to his coming. These new voters didn't hear him tell them, it was going to take some time. As with all things these days, new voters are fanatics with miniscule attention spans and little or no patience for the actual work that needs to be done to make everything seem miraculous. To put it another way, the new voters are working in dual processing capability while Obama and the government are operating in ms dos.

Everybody bought the “Barack the Magic Negro” scenario. In other words, we made this guy president now all he has to do is walk into the Oval office and wave a wand and vanquish all of our problems..the budget magically balances...the deficit goes back to a surplus like when Clinton left... everyone gets their dream job.....Black people are seen as worthy.....Wall Street and big corporations grow a conscience... so called Christian evangelicals link arms and sing Cum by ya with the LGBT community....don't ask, don't tell goes away and gay people are allowed to get married..... and the treasury draining quagmires called the war on terrorism, ends...

Easy...Ala Kazam, one, two, three and poof....America fixed....American dream still in tact, duct tape no longer needed...

Except this is not what happened...Barack, the touchy feelie basketball playing candidate morphed back into Barack the cool, Barack the logical, Barack the pragmatic, Barack the aloof college professor who seems more willing to compromise and work the status quo, than to shake things up and move forward. The community organizer has gone into hiding at a time when the country really, really needs a rabble rousing organizer.

In Barack Obama, we were voting for more FDR. What we got, apparently, is a little unexpected and quite a bit maddening.

The newly baptized are defecting in droves...fearful of the change they say they want and unwilling to wait for it. While Obama works behind the scenes, talking quietly with his colleagues, demanding they find solutions, he leaves the people adrift, in limbo, unable to see the workings of his mind.

Barack the Communicator is not communicating, nor showing any understanding that sometimes silence communicates louder than the spoken word. The new converts need a constant fix or suffer painful withdrawal, which sends them scampering to find a new supplier. This is what's happening to Obamaville.

The wing nuts have found their leaders on the radio and on television. The Glen-Greta-Sean-Bill-Rush-Laura-Sarah hit parade is in full swing having stolen the bully pulpit. They don't have any solutions, but they throw a helluva good party, where the crazies can safely give voice to their fear of change and racist assumptions that minorities are destroying "their " country.

From the beginning of his campaign, Obama has been painted in pink...too soft for the job....He's not by any stretch of the imagination. But he does need to flex his muscles in public, from time to time.

How can he flex?

He can bring our troops home. No surge in Afghanistan. We had it won, until Iraq jumped off ...Time to cut our loses and come home.

He can put people back to work. He can rebuild schools and infrastructure to the same 56-billion dollar tune that this country has spent in Iraq to build schools and infrastructure. Health care reform is important...but if you ain't working and there is no public option, you have no house or car and no way to feed your family..you can't afford it..so...jobs are the key here. So is another stimulus. The first one wasn't big enough to stimulate a consumer driven economy which we are.

This second stimulus, if it comes about, should put the money directly into the pockets of the consumers, namely us...And I'm not talking 600-dollars....I'm talking 30-thou per person. You want people to spend money then give them some..They will pay their bills, save some and spend some creating the very cycle this country needs right now.

He can go ahead and suspend DADT in the military by executive order. He can close Guantanamo, bring the alleged terrorists into this country to fill the empty jails that populate the small towns and put people back to work as guards or in support of the prison system (I am truly baffled by Neocons and good ole boys who fight tooth and nail so that we all can have as many guns as we want, yet when Barack says bring them to this country...they cower in fear of a few terrorists).

The biggest fallacy has been Barack's clinging to trickle down economics....In other words, prime the pump that is Wall Street...and eventually the people will be taken care of...It has never worked...and it never will.

It is still Voodoo Economics, period.

The banks are sitting on the money, refusing to hire, yet rewarding themselves with billions of dollars in job well done bonuses. Big corporations are still figuring out ways to ship their profit and our jobs overseas. They are still looking out for themselves.

We need some good old fashioned community organizer type blackmail to get these guys to either create jobs or bring some jobs and manufacturing back home. I thinking that Obama should ask Jesse or Rev Al on the QT, just how you blackmail corporate America. They been doing it for years, so put their expertise to work for all of us.

As I've said before, President Obama cannot do it alone, change must come from all of us.

However we chose him to lead and that is what I expect him to do....Lead...I think he is smart enough to figure that out...I just hope it's sooner rather than later.

11.20.2009

Friday Rap

Palin in Cincinnati today....

1000 spots online and I'm not one of em. Palin is basically a tribal conversation anyway, only this time, the tribe is the Caucasian tribe..Black people, brown people never figure in anything she does or says..nor does the mainstream media or pollsters ever ask us..they always assume they know how we think..

Palin dismisses us with every condescending word that passes her lips....Play to white people and the wooly headed Blacks will quietly tag along.. Check out Roland Martin's Facebook page if you want to know what “others of us” think of Sarah Palin, her book and her bigoted form of politicking to some of the people...the normal America, as she calls them..

How long do I and those like me, have to live here before our birth certificates are authenticated, huh?

-0-

To quote one of my favorite authors....Much Ado About Nothing..

Talking about the Mammogram recommendations...What Grown ass woman allows a nameless panel of doctors to tell her what to do with her body?

It's called a recommendation for a reason...If you want a mammogram...get it...If you don't....don't get it...The choice is yours....end of discussion

And only a fool would stop doing self breast examinations....check yourself and feel good in the process...simple

-0-

All the way crazy..

As I write, there is this fool on television telling us not to wash the turkey before we cook it..because to do so contaminates the rest of the kitchen....HUH?

Again...Grown ass women are going to do whatever the hell they want to do...I wash my bird and will continue to do...and...surprise... I always clean my kitchen on a daily basis...as well as during my cooking...cleaning as I go along leaves less mess at the end to deal with.

-0-

Oprah's moving her talk show to her OPN network in 2011 and the MSM is hyperventilating already...asking what are folks going to do when Oprah leaves syndication..? OMG!

They're going to change the channel and find her..that's what they've going to do...Or maybe...just maybe they will find something else to do at 4pm (time she's on here)

-0-

Barack in China

First Obama bowed to the Japanese Emperor... didn't hold hands with him like GW and his Saudi Sheik....then he went to China and found out the Chinese don't like Black people either..

Why are we surprised when the biggest export out of America and Europe has always been so called white superiority and privilege..

Dark people all over the world have spent lifetimes emulating the white rich and famous....Sammy Sosa is not an anomaly... he is the reality in much of the world...

We considered Michael a freak...but all he did was show the rest of the world how to do it...

Big cosmetic firms market all kinds of fade creams world wide because being light is being right...In Africa...In India...All over Asia....everywhere....Brown and Black people are told they are worthless unless they lighten their skin....and it's been going on forever..

They market their creams on television with dark skinned women singing the praises of being light and landing the man of their dreams or their job of choice..becoming a big time movie star..

From American slavery and the genocide committed against Native Americans.....to Brit, Spanish and Portuguese colonialism worldwide (underlying cause of the current problems in Rwanda)..

Around the world....light, bright and damn near white is the rule of thumb..

And what's that community secret......Nadinola?....Ambi?.....you know where of I speak...

-0-

Note to the Black Community so called civil rights organizations....Obesity kills more Blacks than that other problem I've been ranting about...you know the one you keep ignoring....HIV/AIDS?

I will say it again...isn't it time for the Black community to come to grips with what is killing us...

Black on Black crime.....

Black men refusing to go to school or take responsibility for the kids they help make....

Refusal to recognize the Black LGBT community...

HIV/AIDS killing straight Black women....

now add Obesity to the list.

We are dying...Isn't it time to stop tilting at windmills and tackle some real problems?

11.15.2009

The Mayan Calendar and the Next to Last Pope

By now, everyone has heard about the Mayan calendar and how it predicts the end of the world coming on December 21, 2012. By that reckoning we have about 1132 days left on this planet before it comes apart.

Honestly, I can't wrap my head around the world ending suddenly...just like I can't imagine committing suicide, simply because there is no reason that I would deprive this world of me... Ya'll don't deserve that..

I can' t really conceive that one morning I'm gonna wake up and by noon the earth is going to be torn apart, taking all of humanity with it....

Until I'm dodging asteroids or fissures in the earth, I'm not going to believe it.

It's one of those things that will happen, when it happens...but not yet...I don't plan on worrying about it until it happens..

Besides, the Mayan calendar doesn't say the world is going to end...It just ends...possibly on December 21st or maybe December 23rd...The so called experts of interpretation are hedging on the real date, because really.....no one can speak Mayan these days...

Man, that would be the ultimate Punk'd...everyone prepares for the world to end on December 21st....doesn't happen...everybody relaxes...BAM!...December 23rd rolls around and all hell breaks loose....They don't know..

They just know that the calendar ends...so maybe the next part of the calendar broke off, since it's on a stone tablet anyway..maybe the world ends because some clutzy houseboy dropped it and broke it, earning himself one last trip to the arena where the Mayans entertained themselves by killing their slaves and enemies in games of death.

Maybe it ends in December, 2012, because the Shaman calendar-maker died without training an apprentice to carry on.

We will never know because the Mayans disappeared....wiped out completely one day...never to be seen or heard from again....Oh, we don't know if it was a gradual wipeout or a sudden one..

They're gone.. And they've been gone for a long time....That's the real mystery. So what happened to them?

There are so many end of times signs and predictions...Ya'll better hope the Pope lives an extra long time and he's already really old, now.

What am I talking about...well...

St. Malachy's prophecy is winding down, too. The Last Popes prophecy is attributed to St. Malachy back in 1590...however some think it was actually Nostradamous behind this..”No” reportedly passed this one off on Malachy because he didn't want to be blamed for bringing down the Catholic Church..

Whatever...

This one says there will be 112 Popes and then The Holy See (Catholic Church) will end. It reads like it's talking about Rome and the Catholic Church and not the rest of us, primarily because the rest of us didn't exist. In 1590 there wasn't much to the world at that time.

It was still flat according to most, despite Chris Columbus and the other explorers.
My point is that according to St Malachy, the world is presently seeing it's 111th Pope, Benedict who will reign through the ultimate persecution of the Holy Church.

Benedict will then be followed by the last Pope, referred to as Peter the Roman, who will nourish the sheep through many tribulations, and when he's done, the City of Seven Hills will be destroyed and the fearsome Judge will Judge his people. The End.

So who are you going to believe....The Mayans or St Malachy/Nostradamous?

Me.....it's Sunday....I'm going to ease into CBS Sunday Morning....Do a little more writing...and wait for the Bengals-Steelers Game today..

Because in my mind....If the Bengals go into Pittsburgh and beat the Steelers today..

It will be the end of the world...

UPDATE-Bengals go into Pittsburgh and beat Steelers...15-12...didn't give up a touchdown! think I will leave prognostication to other people...I need to go buy a helmet in case the sky starts falling....

11.09.2009

Obama's Rope-a-Dope

A closer look at the Stupak Amendment

What the first part of the legal mandate that the Stupak Amendment would impose is not new. It echoes the law laid down back in 1976 by the Hyde Amendment, which already forbids the use of federal funds to pay for most abortions. The exceptions are for rape and incest or when the woman's life is threatened if the pregnancy proceeds.

It's the second part of the amendment that really ticks me off. The second graf of this travesty severely limits the availability of private insurance that does cover the procedure. In other words, the Stupak Amendment doesn't just apply to the public option, which is the low cost government plan. It affects the proposed health care exchange plans as well, by forcing insurers to drop abortion coverage that they already offer, right now, to any new customers who may want to sign up with them through the proposed exchanges.

This means that if you have a health plan and want to switch to another plan under the proposed health exchange... that may provide better coverage at a lower price, and your old policy has abortion coverage and you're okay with that...then you will lose that option under the law...when you switch.

The reach of the Stupak Amendment goes well beyond the law in violating the rights of choice for women.

A little known fact is that nearly 90% of all insurance plans offered in America, cover abortion. The problem is that employers and corporations opt out of that part of the policy for their female employees. In case you didn't know, your employer chooses what coverage you get on plans as they are written now.

The way it is structured, thanks to Stupak is that even if a woman wants to take her own money and purchase a plan with an option for abortion, in the private sector, she will not be able to do so.

If the goal is to put everyone in a lower priced exchange of more affordable coverage..this is a back assward way to do it. It won't happen...The insurance companies win again..

According to Stupak, women will always be free to buy an optional rider out of their own pocket if they want the coverage. But once again there is that catch 22..

Most people don't think about medical procedures until they need to undergo them...Who plans for an unplanned pregnancy?

But I guess if you're used to thinking of all pregnancies as pre-existing conditions...then the Stupak Amendment makes perfect sense.

Those who favored the Stupak Amendment like my ex Congressman Driehaus say they are merely upholding the noxious Hyde Amendment...when actually they are expanding exponentially to the detriment of women.

Let's be real about the situation. Laws of this type hurt poor women...those living in poverty...

The women who live, love and screw Congressman...will never have to worry about the Hyde Amendment or Stupak Amendment.... since their powerful men are paid their salaries with taxpayer money...to protect them and to give them the best coverage that taxpayer money can buy..

Well, that sounds like a government subsidized abortion to me...using government money to end a pregnancy....But blocked for those who can't fight back..

Rich white women have never had to worry about ending a pregnancy or anything else....racist? maybe....but did I lie?

64 Democrats voted in support of the Stupak Amendment....23 of them voted against the health care bill.

The good news is that this bill now goes to the Senate for more work and compromise amid my hopes that the Stupak Amendment will not make it into the bill that lands on Obama's desk..

I am not at ease with this, because while I know that Obama says he supports a woman's right to choose..... he elected to fund the Hyde Amendment in the budget...when he could have effectively killed it like Clinton did, and maybe circumvented this Stupak Amendment stupidity.

Obama's handling of the health care debate puts me in mind of Muhammed Ali's famous rope a dope technique.

Everyone including me, thought Ali was crazy to lay on the ropes and let big George Foreman rain punches on him for round after round after round...Ali just duckin' and weavin'...resting on the ropes...

Along comes the 9th round, I think..and George's arms are tired...His muscles are at fail...he can't throw a punch...and Ali comes off the ropes and whups his ass....Knock Out!

Ali wins again...

I hated the rope a dope because I wanted Ali to just go in there blastin and kickin ass...I wanted him to float like a butterfly and sting like a bee and go home til the next fight..

I would like for my President to do the same thing...float in...get it done and float on to the next crisis...

However...he seems to like the rope a dope...I had to learn to trust Ali's instincts...

I am still learning to trust Obama's...

Hope he's resting readying the knockout punch when it's time...

Until it comes...I am not resting easy...

11.08.2009

Driehaus Still Won't Get My Vote!

My ex Congressman voted for the health care reform bill last night and today I get a letter from the Obama Administration telling me I should thank Driehaus for acting courageously...

Well pardon me, but I define courageous a bit differently. Courageous is a vote that would have passed without selling out half the population and half of his constiuency. Courageous is a vote that would have shown respect for all women and their rights to make decisions about their lives...Courageous is the vote cast by GOP Congressman Ahn Cao...for his constituency and against his party....that's how you spell courageous...

Driehaus didn't stand up for women.....He didn't want to stand up for women...He approved of an amendment that is the most restrictive anti abortion measure since the Hyde Amendment...

Women deserve good health care just like men....there is no gray area here....The right to choose is an integral part of that..

The unborn are potential voters.....Women....we're here....some of us are queer...some of us are straight.... and yes, we do vote......

All of us deserve the right to decide what we do with our bodies without interference from anyone else...

Men don't have that problem...ever.....and neither should we...

Looking at the big picture...We need health care reform....However, screwing over half the population is a no win situation for everybody...

11.07.2009

Ft. Hood Lament-Thinking Out Loud Through My Tears..

We sent them in not enough numbers....

We sent them under false pretenses...

We sent them without body armor, those who had it...bought it on their own...
We sent them without the right equipment and wrong training into a death zone again and again...

We discharge the ones who can speak the language solely because they love the wrong person...

We promise them they can go home...back to life...back to family and then change our mind....telling them...they have to stay....longer

Women are being raped, killed and brutalized by fellow soldiers....
Others are killing themselves because they can't cope with what they see and must do....

Friendly fire is taking out the best of the best, while the generals try to cover it up....lying to them....and to us...

Some are killing their brother troops, angered because they can't get to the ones who have mentally and physically abused them by prolonging an un-winnable situation...

Now they come home and attack their own...leaving us to wonder why...when we already know the answer...

Mission accomplished....right, Brownie...turdblossom...mr. vice president?

11.06.2009

Steve Driehaus, You Just Lost My Vote!

Ohio Congressman Steve Driehaus is one of several democrats threatening to torpedo health care reform, unless the measure blocks the rights of women to get an abortion. Specifically, he says he will vote against the house health care bill, which is set for a vote tomorrow, if there are no provisions barring the use of federal funds for a woman to exercise her rights to an abortion.

You can read more here...


Healthcare in this country is not equal when it comes to women. We cannot exercise our rights to choose what happens to our body. We get knocked up legitimately, illegitimately or raped and it is termed a pre-existing condition and not subject to coverage.

It is time to get real...blocking funds for abortions is not going to put an end to them....Jailing women for terminating a pregnancy is not going to stop abortions...killing doctors for doing their job is not going to stop abortions..

What is going to happen is the re emergence of the black market done by hacks and anyone pretending to be a doctor...which killed or maimed women thousands of women on a yearly basis before Roe v Wade became law.

Rich women will still get their pregnancies terminated when they choose. Rich men will still be able to buy their way out of an unwanted kid with their disposable income.

The only ones who will suffer and who suffer now are women in poverty...and the babies they are forced to bring into this world....unloved..unwanted...left to fend for themselves...

while falsely pious and pompous politicians play god with the lives of the helpless and disadvantaged.

Moreover, these same pseudo christian congressman, who make the rules that govern my body and the bodies of all other women...also refuse to support birth control programs, child care programs, contraceptive programs, neonatal programs, day care and flextime programs...denying federal funds to these programs as well

Can't have it both ways Congressman Driehaus....

If you want my support banning abortion...then I need something in return...full and comprehensive contraceptive programs..real sex education in all schools for young people...included in my health care package.

Funding these programs would go a long way in preventing unwanted pregnancies in the first place. Then maybe the right to choose would no longer be needed except in cases of rape or incest...

Women need health care as much as men need their Viagra....You hearing me Mr. Congressman?

So go ahead and exercise your right to vote as you choose Mr. Driehaus, because I guarantee you that I will exercise mine at the next opportunity to reel you back in to Ohio...

11.04.2009

Cincinnati Election Postmortem

The election was mostly all good in last night's election. Voters on the whole voted for progress by re electing Mayor Mark Mallory for another 4 year term.

City Council saw the return of 7 incumbents including Roxanne Qualls, Cecil Thomas, Jeff Berding, Chris Monzel, Leslie Ghiz, Laketa Cole, and Chris Bortz.

Laure Quinlivan will join the incumbents along with Charlie Winburn returning.......Winburn's election goes to show that Cincinnati voters do have a sense of humor...But I'm not laughing...the guys a republican in the same sense that Michael Steele and Clarence Thomas are GOP...not conservative...but obstructionist....

The casino issue #3 passed....And it will be built on Broadway Commons...the city gets it right..

Issue #9 the light rail amendment was happily voted down, which was a good thing. It tanked badly all over the city except for on the Westside of town.

Considering the news yesterday about Warren Buffett buying a railroad in anticipation...I think rail transit in America is about to turn around...I don't mean tomorrow...But I do mean finally...

All other issues.....the water district amendment....the library funding....the livestock board...the city schools...MRDD...Museum Center....all passed handily..

Big Wheel keeps on rolling....at least for the next four years..

11.02.2009

Election Eve Questions other Flotsam and Jetsam

Am I the only one bothered by Jeff Berding's blatant hypocrisy in his campaign ads....Anyone not paying attention is being led to believe that Berding single handedly stopped the police and fire fighter layoffs...

And as a result of his heroic actions....was punished by the Mayor and stripped of his party endorsement....

I am already on record as not trusting the guy....I've made up my mind....Ain't votin' for him either...along with Charlie W....Chris M.....Leslie G... Kevin F.....and Laketa C....

I watched challenger Wenstrup's ad too......the man is so timid...he never faces or speaks on camera...no wonder he says he feels safer in Iraq than he does in Cincinnati....He's so shy....just what we don't need at City Hall.....

-0-

"Too light to be Black on TV".....I had to deal with that back in the 70's when I was a reporter....Back then...it wasn't enough to be Black...you had to look Black, too..and I was told this before I changed my makeup and went darker for a few months....until the idiot who told me that turned his attention to other things... he was the news director after all...then I went back to my true skin tone after I got the job I wanted...

Same old song...

Today...the University of Cincinnati welcomed a new President....He's a Black man....the first African American President in the history of the school....yet you'd never know that based on the reporting done by the media, here in town...

Not one of them mentioned the fact that he self identifies as African American....they do let him say it....because he does readily id himself as a brother...even though he doesn't look it...

But I guess since he looks like a white man at first glance...local media is apparently reticent to identify him as such...I guess they don't want to "offend" him or to handicap him by bringing him down from his exalted status of Master of the Universe to poseur...

If truth be told....UC's new prez is just one of millions who don't look like what they are...

Folks who are confused about what is called "passing" need to rent a couple of movies...PINKY and IMITATION OF LIFE...might learn something.....

-0-

A self identified lesbian is one of the new owners of the Chicago Cubs....Laura Ricketts family just bought the team for 845 million dollars..And she sits on the Board of Directors...

Bet Rush is really pissed off now....Wonder how the radio clown is going to spin this in his circus..

-0-

When is the MSM going to call Congress on it's hypocrisy about health care reform? If government run health care is so bad...why are they still hanging on to it for themselves and their families?

Any congressman who votes against health care and the public option should have their health benefits taken away effective immediately..

I'm honestly all out of adjectives to describe John Boehner....Orangeman is so many fries short of a happy meal...I can no longer go there...

-0-

Why is there such a big deal being made about the Marine general who reportedly opposes gays in the military....If he is truly a soldier.....he will do what his commander in chief tells him to do...

It's called following orders...that is what soldiers do...or be court martialed...

My question is....why won't the commander in chief act to lift the ban? He can do it with an executive order, if I understand correctly....So what is the hang up?

-0-

And no matter what happens in tomorrow's election...the MSM is going to spin it as a referendum on Obama...

Reality check....tomorrow is a battle....not a war....

If everyone turns out and votes....that is all that is necessary..the revolution will continue..