Cranley Wins-Shortsighted Cincinnati Has Spoken Again

When the Hamilton County Chairman of the Republican Party goes on television and says he is very pleased with the results of last night's mayoral election...and both candidates running were Democrats, there's a big, big problem in Cincinnati and Black people, this is your doing.

Once again, the Black community followed the religiously based Pied Pipers and professional black politician/hustlers down the Yellow Brick Road. It remains to be seen what will be lost this time, although after so many years, there is not much else left to lose.

In Cincinnati the best man for the job of Mayor was a woman, but the male in the race won. He won handily, I might add. Some are even calling it a landslide.

Only 23% of the electorate bothered to exercise their privilege, telling the rest of us that they don't really give a damn about what happens here.

A “landlside” of 23% of all possible voters is an embarrassment. You can read the sorry details here,

So don't walk up to me, message me on FB, text me about any problems you may be having with current events, because I'm going to tell you what to do with your bogus concern.

Ya didn't vote...I'm telling you what you told me by your lack of action...”fuck you. Fuck you very much!”

But back to John Cranley. Cranley campaigned on two issues, stopping the streetcar and leasing the parking meters. He promised that his first action would be to stop the street car project. However, in his victory speech last night, he said he would see what he could do about stopping the project. That is different from stopping something. It shows that Cranley really has no idea what he is going to do, if anything, about the streetcar.

It is being built with federal money. Federal money allocated for the project in question. You can't just take that money and spend it somewhere else. Cranley should know this. Yet he promised exactly that and shortsighted Cincinnati, the ones who can't see across their own street much less the big, down the road picture, bit on the lie hook, line and sinker.

This AM he has asked City Council to suspend all spending on the streetcar until he takes office next month. The streetcar is already under construction, by the way. People are already working.  That is different from when Governor Kasich derailed light rail a few years ago. When Kasich pulled the plug stateside the project was still on paper and in the planning stages. Here it has already begun.

It will be interesting to see what happens when the Feds ask for their money back-money already spent and in the ground, that is. Maybe the City can begin giving paid tours of the Cincinnati Subway and Cincinnati streetcar projects-the people mover projects that never were, sort of thing, in order to raise revenue.

As for City Council-voted sorta clueless. Sittenfeld led all voters. That is a good thing. Seelbach won too. We've still got the openly gay man on council. That is good. Young and Simpson return. That is good. David Mann, former mayor, Councilman and Congressman returns. That is great. Winburn and Smitherman, Cincinnati's version of Herman Cain and Alan Keyes are back for yet another encore. The newbies are Republican Amy Murray, who is also a returning Councilmember and Kevin Flynn, an attorney who had been running unsuccessfully for a few years now.

So now what? Everybody gets sworn in next month and then let the games begin.

Roxanne Qualls for Mayor

This is a no brainer really. If you interested in keeping Cincinnati the vibrant hub of activity that it has become these past few years, you should vote for Qualls.

Let me be clear here upfront...I am in favor of putting people in office who are gonna work for the city and the Black Community, regardless of party label or affiliation. I don't give a damn what some bought and paid for Black minister endorses for anything. They've been getting paid for a very long time and none of it has trickled down to street level. So listen to them if you want to. I don't. Their interest is not your interest. They are paid to keep you quiet and they are damn good at it too.

What I am saying is to open your eyes and vote for the person who works for us...Qualls has long worked for this city and you can look at both sides of the river as proof. Qualls brought both the Haufbrau House and and the Aquarium to the area. Those were her ideas and work...Cincinnati bureaucracy at city hall screwed the deals and couldn't get it together so both moved to Newport. Should have been in Ohio.

Name one project from the past that has Cranley's name on it...Anyone?

If you want a replay of 2010 when progress died in Ohio, when voters allowed the election of John Kasich, either by voting for him, or simply by not turning up to vote in the first place, then your vote will go one way or the other to John Cranley.

State side-John Kasich got in and literally canceled the street car/light rail as his first move. What that means is that when light rail is built nationally, it will bypass Ohio. Kasich also tried to cancel the Casino. However in this he was not successful.

Jon Cranley is Cincinnati's John Kasich.

Cranley is attempting to do the same kind of things here in Cincinnati, telling the same kind of lies in order to gain power.

Many people that I've talked to want Cranley because they are not in favor of building a streetcar, saying it will not help poor people or Black people.

Word to the wise.....neither will John Cranley or Amy Murray, who is also a vocal opponent.

Murray is a shill for corporate Cincinnati. In Cincinnati, Corporate has always gotten paid, regardless of who is in office. So will Murray.

Cranley is well...think Kenneth Blackwell, remember him. Cranley and Blackwell are brothers from another mother, think about it. Cranley/Blackwell/Kasich are three of a kind...about the power not the people.

Cranley and Amy Murray are saying outright they will Stop the Street Car if elected. That is an out and out lie. They can't stop it and they know it. The money used for the project cannot be directed toward any other project or situation needing money in Cincinnati, ie pensions or to keep police and fire from being laid off.

It is simply not gonna happen. Believing this lie, means you've bought the bullshit and the City loses. The street car is on, end of discussion.

Let me put it another way a vote for John Cranley puts the Tea Party in control of City Hall, period.

Votes for Amy Murray, Chris Smitherman, Charlie Winburn will give the tea party, the group that has tried to destroy America, a voice on City Council.

Smitherman is simply a walking disaster. I've said it before. He is a puppet for COAST. There is nothing past, present or future that COAST has done or will do to help Black Cincinnati. Smitherman in all his blazing stupidity is the closest this organization has come to having any credibility whatsoever.

Getting him off City Council and out of the NAACP is the best thing Blacks can do for Cincinnati and us in general.

Charlie Winburn, can be summed up in one word...CLUELESS!

Having said all that, I will cast my votes for:

Roxanne Qualls for mayor

Wendell Young

David Mann

Laure Qunlivan

Yvette Simpson

Chris Seelbach

PG Sittenfeld

Vanessa White

Pam Thomas

Vote responsibly on November 5^th..

Shutdown Over, Government Open, Now What?

Let's put this in perspective, shall we....one faction of one party in one house, almost managed to destroy the greatest nation on this planet over one piece of legislation that had been voted upon, passed by both houses of Congress, signed into law by the President and then vetted by the United States Supreme Court.

It is law and as such, cannot and never could be repealed via the method used for the past two weeks by the Teabaggers and their enablers.

All the players knew this, so why proceed by playing a game you can't win....unless the real purpose was not to win concesssions on healthcare, but to try and put the Black man in the White House back in his place?

Didn't matter that the Black man has won two elections by landslide and has the country moving economically in the correct (not right) direction. Doesn't matter that the deficit is going down or that the stock market is breaking new records and some people at least, are making bucket loads of money.

This 26 million dollar a day fight to end Obamacare, lay off thousands of workers and close parks and divisions and governmental departments, was solely to prove that the masters of the universe were still large and in charge, holding all the reins of power.

But it didn't work. President Obama laughed and refused to budge. Reports say a woman, was behind him finding his big brass balls (Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser, not Michelle, first wife, this time.)

And if you take a closer look at this “fight,” you will see that the bigoted culture warriors had to be bailed out by the women. The deal was forged by the women of Congress, who stepped in and took over in order to save the country.

Women, by nature, understand that the needs of the many outweigh the needs and wants of the few. In other words, if the boys get their way...women, children and other men die...they kill everything including the planet..something the masters of the universe have yet to come to grips with or understand, since they keep doing it over and over and over.

So to sum it up, the old masters of the universe lost to the Black man and then had their collective asses saved by women, their second biggest enemy in their battle for power and control.

Having 20 women in the Senate is a good thing. Replacing the obstructing masters of the universe is also a good thing.

We can start with my own Representative, Steve “Comb-over” Chabot who hasn't had an original idea since he was born. In fact I now understand why public schools are so screwed up..with teachers like Chabot, our kids are fucked from jump.

District two would be wise to dump Dr. Brad as well. Wenstrup, otherwise known as Jean Schmidt in pants is another obstructionist who needs a quick and early retirement as well, before he has a chance to do any more damage.

Boehner, Boehner, Boehner...voted in favor of the deal after abdicating his duties as Speaker of the House and enabling these nutcases to control the Republican echo chamber during this failed power grab.

Vote him out of office, please, 8^th District. He survived the Newt Gingrich purge. He should not live through the coming one.

Wish I could say that I'm happy, but I'm not. All this deal does is delay any decision making until February, making a replay of events, a distinct possibility.

The President says that won't happen, but I don't know, these fools voted 44 times to repeal a law that is a law, and part of the Constitution.

The pessimist in me says number 45 will happen in February, unless Americans put down their cell phones and other toys and begin voting these guys out of office.

One last thought if you believe things will be different in February...think about how long it took them to gut the Voting Rights Act of 1965....it can happen, if the system is not changed soon..

Remember in November and Vote...

Cruz and Palin Hijack Vet's Rally

Sarah Palin, half gov of Alaska

Sarah Palin sighting at the White House this past weekend. No, she wasn't a guest. She was out front with a bunch of her cockroachy- teabagging friends, including the group's latest crackpot du jour, Ted Cruz.

The Teabag party went to DC and hijacked the Veteran's rally, which had been organized to honor our nation's soldiers and military, the real patriots who put their lives on the line for the rest of us. The Million Veteran March was far less by the thousands, in fact, of a mililon people, but Teabaggers take what they can get, considering nobody shows up, if it's just them doing the rallying.

You can read about the rally here.

Unable to generate any real support for their cause to destroy the United States, the wingnuts tore down fences and waved confederate flags, all the while blaming President Obama for the government shutdown, orchestrated by the House Republicans led by Tiny Ted C and his buddy Mike Lee, who was also in attendance at the rally.

Thinks the Confederacy won the Civil War

Sarah, Ted and Mike made no bones or attempts to hide their bigotry and racist viewpoints. It was a far cry from when she ran for Vice President and tried to obscure the fact that she and her husband Todd were members of the Alaskan Independence Party, a white separatist/secessionist group.

Sunday's rallying cry was to impeach President Obama No surprise here. Palin was up to her old tricks of stirring up shit in order to get noticed. Ted and Mikey, well they just looked confused, not really understanding the workings of the Frankenstein monster that they brought to life and were trying to control.

Nobody got arrested. Nobody got tasered, pepper sprayed, handcuffed or thrown into the back of a paddy wagon and jailed. These were white republican people after all. Stuff like arrests and head bashing only happens to protestors of color or young white liberal/hippie types with a bone to pick.

But there should have been arrests. 

Ted Cruz, upstaged by last year's crank

Ted and Mike, the twin congressional dip-shits have been committing treason since October 1^st. They are in direct violation of the United States Constitution, the very document of law that they are sworn to uphold.

Everyday that the shutdown continues is a direct slap in the face of every single taxpaying American. Yet, Ted Cruz and Mike Lee and company continue to walk the streets and get paid for spitting in the face of America.

Wish we could vote today, so that we could spit back...

Remember in November and vote responsibly, America...

Government Shutdown Day 3

"We're not going to be disrespected..... "We have to get something out of this. And I don't know what that even is."- Teabag Congressman Marlin Stutzman

DISRESPECTED!?

YOU GOT TO GET SOMETHING OUT OF THIS?

How about my size 10 foot all the way up your ass for even daring to utter that stupidism in public...

Teabag simpleton, you can't even spell disrespect let alone cry victim. Who is victimizing you? Your paycheck slow hitting the bank? Your doctor decide not to honor YOUR healthcare benefits? Little Johnny dumb butt get kicked out of another private school? Your illegal au pair quit, telling you she'd rather go home and fight the drug cartels than to continue dealing with your little phillistines anymore?Trophy wife's latest botox botched?

Poor baby...Nobody loves you teabaggers, do we..Always dumping on you with your big Christian hearts looking out for us, asking teabag jesus to forgive us for committing the sin of being born poor or at the very least, not as rich as you.

We the ungrateful, standing around, no jobs, no schooling, no money, getting sick on your ticket while sucking up all your precious oxygen..

You know what disrespect is...

Disrespect is telling women and children they don't deserve healthcare..

Disrespect is telling people who fight your sorry ass illegal wars they don't deserve pay or benefits or rehabilitation if they do make it back alive...

Disrespect is labeling what me and mine worked for/saved for all our lives, only to be told what we did is an entitlement and we're not entitled to it.

Disrespect is saying you're going to create jobs then waste 300-million dollars a day shutting down the government laying off everybody while you engage in fake ass photo ops to try to convince us that you are the good guys

Give me a fuckin break...

Disrespect is voting 43 times to kill a law that was passed, signed and vetted, legally and is helping the people as you stand and pretend that it is not working...

Disrespect is demanding negotiations on something that has been settled and is non negotiable...

Disrepect is the delusion that nobody is smart enough to see the game you're playing..

Open your fucking eyes, why don't cha because I guarantee you mine are...

Yeah, I got your disrespect right here....stupid mufuka..

Treason!

The last time America reached an impasse such as this was the Civil War. Today, it's not just keeping black people enslaved. Today it is everyone middle class and below that are considered poor and useless by the powers that be.

For not being members of the elite, our rights have been labeled entitlements. We pay taxes and work. Yet our taxes and our work, don't matter. Our families are not worth supporting. Our schools are not worth attending. We don't need healthcare. We are a drain on the air that they breathe.

Useless. Solely because they say so.

The president that we the people elected in a lopsided vote is not deemed legitimate because he was born black, labeled as such by their rules even though his mother is one of them..

The Affordable Healthcare Act is law. It is a part of the Constitution of the United States, passed legally by Congress, signed by the President and vetted by a right leaning United States Supreme Court.

But that is not good enough for the teabaggers.

43 times they have voted to repeal this law. 43 times they have failed.

The 44^th attempt at repeal has shut down the federal government, and is on its way to crippling our fragile economy that is still recovering from other foolishness promoted by this same House of Representatives.

The teabaggers have committed treason by refusing to abide by the Constitution and uphold their oath of office. John Boehner and Eric Cantor have also violated their oath of office by allowing this travesty to happen.

In case you've never seen the Congressional oath of office, here it is:

“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.”

It was written following the Civil War, replacing the original Congressional oath of office used until the Civil War:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the Constitution of the United States."

There is nothing in either of these oaths allowing for the exception “because you don't like it or disagree with it politically.”

Treason!

And in addition, since they all, or most of them, consider themselves Christians, have condemned themselves to hell, because they also swore to their god. Although I'm sure if called on the god-thing they will say it doesn't count because the Constitution says so;

Article VI, clause 3:

“The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”

They interpret the Constitution in the same way they interpret their bible...some of it for them...some of it for us and never the twain shall meet.

Treason!

We can't impeach. Only the House of Representatives can impeach. The Senate does the trial. The President sits and watches, as does The Supreme Court. They are allowed no input at all.

To sum it up bluntly...we the people are fucked.

We are a captive audience for idiots...One faction of one party of one part of government chooses to hold the American people, our country, our duly elected representatives and workers, hostage because of narrow ideology that has nothing to do with balancing the budget, reducing the deficit, generating jobs or fixing the economy.

Abraham Lincoln fought a war, a lengthy and costly one. He waited until the South made the first move by seceding and then firing the shots at Fort Sumter.

I wonder what President Obama is waiting for....

This is where I say remember in November...but that's a very, very long way off. If we make it to the next election...vote responsibly..

Weez' All Niggas Now, Boss!

And now we will see just how long the privileged illiterates in Congress can hold their breath to stop the Affordable Care Act, which having been passed by Capital Hill, signed by the President and vetted by the United States Supreme Court, was unstoppable to begin with.

It is rolling out as planned, right on schedule, while the Get Obama Party prays to their teabag jesus for glitches and problems in that roll-out, so they can jump up and down and scream that it's not working.

Meantime, they still get to take their paychecks home to the little lady, their kids won't miss a day at their private school, and their mistresses and undercover boyfriends will still get to see them at the designated, weekly tryst time, per usual.

All is right with their world....It's our world that is fucked up and soon to be completely penniless for all of us below the millionaire poverty line level of what...$250,000? If you're not making that amount of money, you're considered poor in America these days, it seems..

Most of us don't, by the way....not even close.

Still don't think it's not about the black man in the White House...well...note to the clueless....watch as the teabags make your 401K and pension disappear.....Will no money make you understand that these guys and gals are not looking out for your interests and frankly, don't give a good goddamn about you and yours...punishing white people for supporting Obama...got that?

Ya'll all niggas now...get it?

Instead of closing the deficit and cutting spending, thanks to the anal retentive, historically challenged ass holes, we are now each individually hemorrhaging money, personally, daily.

Die poor people, die. The middle class is dead, long live poverty.

Need another clue? Still not sure about your station in life? Check out Gawker.com today. You can find it right here.    

It links you to a game called the “Privilege Game” where white boys can play a game about who has the least amount of power and privilege in the United States....In other words, who is at the bottom of the social heap...

(Hint, Hint...it ain't white boys or white women...unless you're queer)

The game is set up like an NCAA bracket and all you gotta do is make your choices...a new March Madness with a twist....Pick a winna!

Except this game has been going on since the dawn of this country and it's name is Bigotry,

White boys don't get what they want...game doesn't go their way...they can't find a rope and lynch it or take an AK-47 off their back and obliterate it or tie it to the back of their F150 truck and drag it down a dirt road....they first rail at it and hold their breath....then ridicule it and then find some other way to deny it...all the while claiming that they are just joking...that they are really not the vile bigoted ass wipes that some of us know them to be...

It's easy to see what is real when you've been looking up from the bottom all your damn life solely because you're the wrong color, or gender as designated by the jokesters..

Except the joke is never on them...only on us...

All as a way of showing that they are still in charge of the universe..

The privilege game...playing since 1619,...where the motto is...

“if we can't have it...neither will you”

Yep...last darkie out, turn off the lights...

Congressman Steve Chabot the Lemming on Capital Hill

“I take very seriously my charge to protect the unborn and have worked diligently during my time in Congress to be an advocate for these babies so their voices are heard. I am committed to working on legislation that protects these sacred lives and offers important legal protections for doctors and other health care providers who refuse to perform abortion procedures to which they are morally opposed.”-Steve Chabot

Let's see now...
Congressman Steve Chabot, my representative in the House believes in the sanctity of life. I'm taking him at his word since I pulled the above quote directly from his website. Despite all evidence to the contrary, every vote he takes points to the exact opposite of what comes out of his mouth. Every vote Chabot takes has been an attempt to choke the life out of all those sacred little lives preventing their voices from ever being heard.

Yesterday he voted along with 216 other members of Congress to cut $40 billion from the Federal food stamp program, otherwise known as SNAP. 
 
Says he is saving we the taxpayers money and being oh so fiscally responsible. Guess I'm supposed to pat him on his back and yell “well done, Steve-O.” Well guess what, Stevie, I'm not happy about the vote. 
 
It wasn't right. It wasn't just. It wasn't fair, it wasn't necessary and it certainly wasn't Christian, which Congressman Chabot claims to be to anyone within hearing distance. During the myriad of times that I've seen him in public and shaken his hand, he always is quick to let you know two things...he's Christian and he used to be a teacher. 
 
Scary thought people like Congressman Steve teaching kids. No wonder the school system is screwed up.
Cutting this money from the program means that 30 million poor people are gonna have to scrounge around for food and health care or starve and die. Millions of kids can now look forward to going to school hungry, great way to jumpstart learning-on an empty stomach.

(Wonder if Congressman Steve knows that pregnancy and giving birth remains the number one killer of women in America.) We certainly know that he doesn't care.

Women, pregnant women, since men can't get knocked up, will now have to find other places, if they exist, for prenatal or neonatal health care for all those unborn babies. Or maybe they have to figure out a way not to get pregnant since Congressman Steve is also against giving birth control to poor people as well. (He hates those nasty little foil-wrapped condoms, apparently.)

Not a stretch in logic since yesterday's vote was also a vote to defund the Affordable Care Act.
And don't laugh.

Congressman Steve is not only picking on poor people, by the way. He's after what's left of the middle class and sorta rich people, too. His vote yesterday was also designed to trash the country by not funding the government and causing it to default on our debt.

A move tried unsuccessfully several times in the recent past for the sole purpose of destroying the Black Man in the White House.

Because that is what this is all about. It's not about sanctity of life. It's about fear of the Black man. If the Black man is for it and it works for the people...all people...then it's no good and Congressman Steve and his cronies try to trash it. Nevermind that the GOP may have originally created the program in the first place. It was theirs until the Black man said he liked it and let's put it into law. 
 
How many times has Steve and company voted to defund Obamacare...40 times? Damn! 
 
Persistent little buggers aren't they. But somebody needs to tell em that doing the same thing over and over is tantamount to running a 10K on a hamster wheel. 
 
But it is September, and here we are again, doing the same old dance. Listening to the same old arguments, from the same old people.

Still waiting to hear something about jobs, guys....

Guess I shouldn't pick on my Congressman Steve. He's not one of the vocal ones in the House. He's not that other Ohio Congressman from up the road...Boner..er...Boehner...yeah..the dude from West Chester, originally from Reading Oh High O...Grew up in a bar ( Some things never change).

Congressman Steve just basically does what he's told to do. That keeps him employed and on the good side of Boehner, and Cantor and the corporate puppetmasters who really run Capitol Hill.. 
 
A do-nothing Congressman from a do nothing State who is trying to destroy the country.
Sounds like another day in the USA.

And by the way...

Hey Christian er Conressman Steve...saw this on your website too;

“I also believe marriage is between one man and one woman, and I will continue to defend its sanctity.”-Steve Chabot

Does this mean you're going after heterosexual adulterers sometime soon? Just askin'

9/11 Hindsight

20-20 hindsight kicking in when it comes to the events of September 11, 2001, the day the Trade Towers in New York were destroyed by Saudi Arabian men taking orders from the now dead Osama Bin Laden.

Most of us had never heard Bin Laden's name prior to that time. He was apparently a major player in the world of USA haters, but we Americans didn't know it. US citizens were and to a great extent, remain cloaked in naivete when it comes to the rest of the world. The “them vs us” mentality still dominates American group think.

To be sure there are new cracks in that group think. It was very apparent last night with President Obama attempting to convince we the people that it is again necessary to deploy the military option against some other country, this time named Syria, for the purpose of....what? Still don't have an answer to that question...Why and for what?

The rationale presented by the President,...we need to strike Assad and Syria to protect “us” from “them.” It's the same rationale used by Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagan, Carter, et al going back a couple of hundred years, leading up to the events of 9/11. When you look at our war history, we've been damn lucky. Most other nations on the face of this earth would be happy to be able to point to just one incident on their land, as its lone brush with terrorism.

We the people don't have a clue about navigating through a regular day of living, wondering where the bad guys/good guys, hid the IED.

Killing people...we the people are very good at killing people...we've got a magnificent army, the best weapons, 12 WMDs for every person the face of this earth, airplanes, boats, and now President Obama has given us drones, unmanned death from the sky, fired by guys in a bunker somewhere in America at a target thousands of miles away. No need to look them in the eye when you kill them now. Clean, bloodless killing. However, we're not so good at being killed...dying on our own soil or while asleep in our own house or walking to the grocery store around the corner.

9/11 woke us up to that fact. It ain't fun being hit back once you've started something. And make no mistake about it, we did start this fire and have been stoking it for years and years. It was only a matter of time before somebody decided to hit back. 9/11 was a sucker punch answer to our preemptive strike mindset. Now we've got to finish it, bring it to conclusion before somebody decides to use the really bad weapons in their arsenals, probably purchased from us, The United States of America or one of our many government sanctioned military corporations.

Our government calls Saudi Arabia an ally, yet the virulent form of Islam practiced by most so named terrorists comes out o Saudi Madrasas. The men who flew the planes on 9/11 were mainly Saudi nationals. Osama Bin Laden was Saudi. The Saudis have said they will take up the monetary slack if America pulls its aid from Syria. In fact the US just sold the Saudis 60 billion dollars in weaponry. Weapons that more than likely will end up being used against us sometime in the future in some unforeseen way.

We've got to stop this merry go round. If nothing else, 9/11 has proven that our attempts to play all ends against the middle and get rich while others suffer and die, are coming back to haunt us. It is only a matter of time before the world gets sophisticated enough to once again use our own weapons against us.

We the people seem to be waking up to this lesson, displaying overwhelming disapproval of using a military option to seek peace in Syria floated by the White House last week. Seeking peace at the end off a rifle, does not work. It's never worked and never will.

There are other options in the 21^st century. It's time we used them.

No more 9/11....no more war...

What I said:

5 years after 9/11: http://skeptikone.blogspot.com/2006/09/911-looking-back.html

10 years after 9/11: http://skeptikone.blogspot.com/2011/09/911-10-family-conversation.html

Syria-NO NO and NO!

Good morning Mr. President.

To be perfectly honest, there is nothing that you can say that will change my mind about planned limited strike intervention in the Syrian civil war.

There are not enough pictures of the dead bodies of children to affect my thinking on this subject, because as a country, we do not and never have had the moral ground on this issue. Our national war policies have always been dictated by money, not humanitarian concern for our brothers, and certainly not for our brothers' wives, women and children.

Past history has shown repeatedly that if the American masters of the universe can't turn a quick buck, then the American corporate puppets who claim to represent the people, turn a blind eye pretending that the problem belongs to someone else. And I am surprised that you, Mr. President, have joined the warmongering neocons that citizens voted out of office in 2008, resulting in your ascendency to the Oval Office. You said you would end these senseless global police actions, and I believed you. Instead, what I am seeing is a half assed attempt at promoting American Exceptionalism, as it is called these days, without naming it officially.

Your WWII analogy is an apples to oranges comparison that falls flat. We didn't enter WWII to save the countless Jews, Roma, and gay men and women swept up in that genocidal holocaust. History shows that America knew about the holocaust long before officially admitting it. We didn't end Jim Crow segregation because we cared about the rights of Black Americans, some of whom were in the process of dying for this country. The dead were collateral damage, in the very same way that the US now turns a blind eye toward modern day Israeli atrocities and apartheid routinely and regularly committed against the Palestinians by the descendants of that very holocaust.

The US totally ignored the genocide of Rwanda which still rages today, just as other than platitudes, the US chooses to ignore the genocide of black men and boys raging right here in America. A genocide camouflaged by talk of second amendment constitutional rights, that not even the killings of little white children in white suburbia USA, have been able to move the conversation forward.

Your tears for the 400 Syrian babies are not enough, Mr. President. In order to command the moral ground, you must cry for all of the children nationwide and worldwide, not just the ones who die where it is financially feasible to take a stand.

If news reports are correct, the US recently sold Saudi Arabia 60 billion dollars in bombs, guns and planes. Why not let them deal with the problems in their neighborhood. The Saudis are on record anyway as saying they will take care of Syria if America won't. Let's take them up on that offer. Our days of supplying all the weapons as well as rebuilding once the war is over, should end now. There is always the move toward peace and like the journey of a thousand miles, it begins with only one step. Why not take that one step now, Mr. President?

And what about Plan B, Mr. President? What do we do after the limited strikes are over? Do we arm the rebels, like we did in Afghanistan? Do we do another Iran-Contra trade thing? Do we work to overthrow another government, like in Iran and countless other Central and South American countries, again? Do we send in the troops, the boots on the ground, like in Vietnam or Iraq? Do we initiate another shaky cease fire like between the Koreas and then wait for it to blow up in our faces, again?

What do we do, Mr. President? What do we do while you pour our money down another sand hole by bombing to oblivion another Middle Eastern country, so that after strafing it into submission we can swoop in and build it up again, while our own cities go bankrupt, our schools disintegrate and our utilities and infrastructure fall into ruin.

Why do Americans have to die again, Mr. President because the rich want to make more money? Why are you so happy to appease them instead of showing concern for those who elected you? I say that because you have already implied that you will go against citizens' wishes and bomb anyway, should you lose the vote in Congress. You do have that power, thanks to George W Bush and the Patriot Act.

But even though your predecessor gave you the power, we the people put you in position to use that power, and we are asking you to work for us, for a change. We the people, don't want another senseless military action.

We want peace, Mr. President, a lasting end to the needless violence that goes on and on and on.

Be the change, that you promised us you are. The polls show that we've changed. Now it's your turn.

Respectfully,

Syria-Intervention or No

An open letter to Steve Chabot,

My Dear Representative,

I am totally and completely against intervening in the Syrian Civil War, either for regime change or as our President says, to teach President Assad a lesson. The man was wrong to gas his own people. I am not disputing that. However, the Syrian conflagration is not the only one burning across the globe. It is not the only place where women and children are dying because of the whims and power grabs of money hungry dictators and despots.

The poor, women and children, suffer right here in the United States, thanks in great part to the very laws and regulations put into place by this Congress, which is now debating who has the moral ground. They suffer and die daily in Africa because Hutus and Tutsis continue to fight the colonial wars begun a hundred years ago by white conquerors bent on raping the continent of its vast natural resources. Past illegal wars have nearly bankrupted our country, while making a few men rich from the spoils of oil. We don't have the moral ground when it comes to humanitarian principles, Representative, despite what our President would like us to believe.

My first concern is the President's call for “limited engagement.” He says the hit will be a surgical strike designed to punish. All recent past actions have been described as limited, yet here we are struggling to disengage from both Iraq and Afghanistan years later and at a monumental cost to taxpayers, as we watch our own cities fall down into decay. Limited engagement by Bill Clinton resulted in the attack on the Trade Towers on 9/11. Limited strikes in Somalia resulted in yet another deadly fiasco. The so called punishment strikes only seem to punish us. Considering that nearly all of the Republicans who voted to support President Bush's calls for war are still in place, I don't believe that anything will be kept at “limited.” The president aligning with John McCain, the very man calling for regime change dating back to the past election bothers me greatly. If I wanted John McCain to represent me, I would have voted for him.

And let me be perfectly honest, I am very disappointed in President Obama. I voted for men and women whom I thought would keep us out of war, not jump to get into another one. I voted for men and women whom I thought would use those billions of dollars dedicated to war, to healing unemployment, low wages and other major problems affecting our country.

I also think the time has come  for the United States to listen to its people as well as the international community. I think acting without UN sanction or NATO is a big mistake. I mean what happens if sometime in the future Russia or China decides to jump in behind one of their allied countries?

I hold no illusions about Congress' love for the people it purports to represent. A congress ready willing and more than able to attempt to derail healthcare, medicare, social security and education while our cities decay, doesn't give a damn about its people and I'm probably wasting time writing this letter. But I've got to try to make you understand what kinds of hell you continue to inflict upon the people while attempting to stand on moral ground.

Congressman Chabot, bigger men and women would stand up for a peace process. Bigger men and women would take into consideration the sacrifices already made by the people before asking them to make more.  We don't need bullets or missiles. We need talk and communication. We need time to heal. 

I hope that when the time comes you will not be stampeded into voting for another war action that benefits the few rather than the many.

Respectfully,

Missiles into Syria on Dr. King's Day! President Obama, You Cannot be Serious!

Dear Mr. President.

I know you're a busy man, busier than usual, because you are preparing on this auspicious day, to step onto the foot path of the Drum Major for peace, Dr. Martin Luther King Junior, on this the 50th anniversary of perhaps his greatest day. I understand that you will be joined by a host of celebrities and important people including two past presidents, Clinton and Carter, and I'm also hearing today that Oprah Winfrey will also take part in today's celebration among others.

Let me be blunt, Mr. President, I have a problem with today's commemoration. My problem being that everything scheduled to take place today could have and should have taken place this past Saturday (August 24^th) when the people could have attended and taken part. The first march was for the people. 50 years later what we have is a gathering for us, talking about jobs and economic freedom, which we still don't have, despite your promises, followed by a gathering of the glitterati, 4 days later on the exact date of the first march. Why two, celebrations separate and definitely not equal in place of the inclusive demonstrations orchestrated back in the day? Leaders bent over backward in order to show a united front, at least for that day and they pulled it off magnificently.

The excuse that I was given was that today August 28^th is the exact date of the MLK march, so it was important to be historically and completely correct. To which I say bull. We live in a country that has changed the dates on every single holiday and national commemoration with the exception of the 4^th of July and Christmas, for the sole purpose of giving people 3 day holiday weekends. It wasn't always like that. When I was in school, we celebrated Lincoln on his birthday. The same with Washington and even Dr. King. Now there is President's day, two for the price of one, and never on February 12^th (Lincoln)or the 22^nd (Washington).

I suspect politics is the main reason behind the scripted segregation. Politics and egos and for those reasons, we the people are once again left twisting in the wind. Some of us have long been tired of the symbolism of equality rather than the real deal. We refuse to sing another verse of “we shall overcome.” The passions kindled 50 years ago on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial are now nothing more than cinders and ash.

Having a Black man in the White House, Mr. President, has never been enough. It was a start, we thought, to fulfillment of Dr. King's dream as spelled out all those years ago. However I guess nobody was really listening were they.

As you prepare to stand in for Dr. King and to talk about peace, equality, freedom and justice for we the people, the media is reporting that you are contemplating “limited retaliatory intervention” in Syria because their president reportedly gassed his innocent citizens while they slept.

You have said that a gas attack is where America draws the line in the sand. The NeoCons immediately started sabre rattling, beating on their shields, strapping on their boots ready to go to jump into another unending and senseless conflagration.

Mr. President you were elected President because we the people wanted change. We wanted an end to unending warfare where anonymous death rains down on faceless innocents. Based on your words and promises, the world awarded you the Nobel Peace Prize,  in hindsight very premature to say the least. In an effort to get out of Afghanistan, we have a drone war of your making. Now your regime is talking “ Limited Retaliatory Intervention' which is just another name for Revenge, and for what. The gas didn't kill over here. It killed in the midst of a civil war and we don't have a dog in this fight. The American people are tired, Mr. President.

We chose you to break the cycle. Someone, and I fear it is you, must stand up to the NeoCons both within and outside your administration. If our allies want to go, then let them go, they are not strangers to imperialism having created the imperialistic prototype a long long time ago. That's exactly why our country exists today. We can't nor are we obligated to continue to make the same mistakes over and over and over.

Today, as you stand in the place of Dr. Martin Luther King, a man who died violently while counseling others in nonviolence, there is no rationalization that you can dream up, that will convince me that the right thing to do is to send cruise missiles into the heart of yet another Middle Eastern country. Dr. King was vocally against the war in Vietnam ( another fruitless exercise in limited retaliatory intervention), and he would have been equally vocal against supporting any administration, including yours, so ready and willing to strike out when we're not even sure as a country, who the enemy really is.

The enemy is us, Mr. President. We need to heal ourselves before we attempt to heal others. Striking Syria is wrong and no way to remember Dr. King on his day.

Respectfully yours,

50th Anniversary March is History-Now What?

Been working all day trying to come up with a word to describe how I feel, now that The People's March honoring Dr. King and his “I have a dream” speech is done. I've come up with several actually. However the one that sticks out is “empty.” 

It's done, we marched, we shouted, we sang, we cried, we vented, some of us shared our memories of the first march, many of whom, like me, were alive, but too young to take part. Others who took part, wanted and desperately needed to recapture the moment. We needed to feel the energy. For whatever reason, we were compelled to be there. We needed to believe we were making a difference, again, and that people were listening to us, and that great things such as the 1964 Civil Rights Act were just around the corner, maybe this time signed by a Black President. That would truly be history and fulfillment of the dream as well as a direct answer to those determined to resurrect Jim Crow and nullify the rights of all minorities once again.

Instead we were met with massive yet lackadaisical security, good in some areas (snipers on the roof), not so good in others. None of it was people friendly. For instance, can someone tell me the purpose of shutting down the Martin Luther King Memorial before the march. Why? Don't the people have the right to gaze at the people's pastor? The people were made to stay far away, from the MLK statue and the Lincoln Memorial for that matter, reduced to watching massive TV screens erected to make the small figures of lesser men and women addressing the crowd look bigger. Everything the people faced in the park was the antithesis of what Dr. King stood for during his lifetime. The iron gated crowd barriers enforcing a metaphorical segregation, erected to control a population desperately hungry for change, but not allowed by law to participate. The march itself a hollow shadow, filled with empty symbolism. No passion, no feeling. Some wanted to sing “We shall overcome” others, and there were many, myself included who never want to hear that song sung again. Many feel that “Fight the Power” is a more appropriate 21^st Century anthem. But regardless of what we sing, we ain't there yet and it was painfully obvious on Saturday.

We the people are at a crossroads. The giants who led us are passing on, while those who would replace them can't measure up, being more content to nurture their “look” rather than actually get down and dirty into the trenches of real leadership. It's easy to talk up a commemorative march from the bully pulpit of a cable television network, but it's another thing altogether to walk in the shoes of Dr. King or Reverend Shuttlesworth, or Reverend Abernathy, or Fanny Lou Hamer or Ella Baker or Bayard Rustin or Harry Belafonte or Charleton Heston, James Baldwin or Marlon Brando. (Denzel Washington did Emcee part of the show.)

Toure

There were no Kings or Queens on stage this day. Maybe that will come with the scheduled commemoration on Wednesday with no less than four living American Presidents in attendance. Instead of a people's march, it will be the official commemoration. Church bells are set to ring at 3pm, the time Dr. King began to speak so long ago and when President is set to begin his remarks. Maybe the movie stars and other celebrities who couldn't make it on the people's weekend will make a charity appearance to stand with Barack Obama our first avowed Black President.

I just wonder if any of the people, Dr. King's people, the now grown up little boys and little girls will be there to hear him talk.

The 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington-Segregation Then, Segregation Now, Segregation Forever

                          "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation
                                where they will not be judged by the color of their skin,
                             but by the content of their character." - Martin Luther King

It's disconcerting to me to juxtapose the words of Martin Luther King with a paraphrase of the words uttered by segregationist George W. Wallace. But this is the way my mind works when thinking back over the 50 years since the first March on Washington led by Dr. King back in 1963 and the upcoming events to mark the occasion this weekend.

I was too young, being only 13 years old, to take part in the first march, but I watched the grainy black and white images of that massive crowd on the 6 o'clock news with the same intent that I watched the shows my parents allowed me to watch, back in the day, and time passed. Given the chance, I vowed to go and take part. Make my voice heard.

50 years. Just passed my 63^rd birthday and I'm packing for DC. Going to the Anniversary March. Going to stand in front of the Lincoln Memorial with other like-minded people and remember the words of Dr. King. I am geeked about this trip because it's been a long time coming, but instead of total elation, my heart is heavy thinking about it.

“I have a dream...”

I think many of us figured the dream would be halfway realized by now, 50 years after the fact. But all you gotta do is to look at the upcoming festivities to understand that Dr. King's ideas are still blowing in the wind.

There is the March on Saturday, August 24^th I will call it The people's march. It is expected to be the biggest event since it's on Saturday and most people have the time, and don't have to work. It's a good day to teach history to the kids. The Park police are planning for about 150,000 people, about half of what originally turned out back in the day.

Dr. King actually delivered his speech on August 28^th, so some other people and groups have organized a march on exactly the same day, complete with church bells ringing at 3pm and a speech from President Barack Obama, standing in for Dr. King. Obama's speech is supposed to be a grand thing, designed to move us forward as a nation toward the goals espoused by Dr. King back in the day. The main problem with the August 28^th event is that it falls on a Wednesday, in the middle of the work week, not exactly designed to be people friendly, is it. I was initially confused by the two different dates with both events calling themselves the Anniversary of the March on Washington. And I'm sure that confusion still exists for others, as well.

Back on Saturday, the 24^th, Black conservatives are going to hold their own thing, a breakfast, put together by RNC Chairman Reince Priebus. It is a sit down affair, very dignified, designed to do....well I'm not sure what it is designed to do, since only politicians and their supporters have been invited to participate. People, Dr. King's people, need not apply, it seems.

Here is my problem...

Why three separate events when Dr. King was all about inclusion and equality? Why is Al Sharpton and his National Action Network, joined by the NAACP and a host of other groups marching on Saturday, totally ignoring the group putting together the march on Wednesday that features the first Black President of the United States?

And what better way for the GOP to convince some of us that they really are about inclusion then by taking part in either one of the other affairs?

Segregation then, segregation now, segregation forever, it seems...

Seems like anyone really wanting to honor Dr. King would have had one big people friendly affair in the spirit of the original march.

“I have a dream....”

Congressman John Lewis who also addressed the crowd 50 years ago as president of SNCC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee said this about Dr. King;

"Dr. King had the power, the ability, and the capacity to transform those steps on the Lincoln Memorial into a monumental area that will forever be recognized. By speaking the way he did, he educated, he inspired, he informed not just the people there, but people throughout America and unborn generations."

I wish that the folks in charge could have understood this and planned their events with the people in mind rather than their own agenda at the fore front. It would have shown that the words spoken by Dr. King that day are honored in spirit, if not in daily practice.

“why can't we all just get along?”

What Rodney King said. What Dr. King meant. What will need to happen if we are all to survive.

“I have a dream...”

Me too...