Dear John Boehner

Mr. Speaker,

It has certainly been a rowdy couple of days, what with all the rulings being handed down by the United States Supreme Court. Today the Supremes struck down the Defense of Marriage Act, signed into law by Bill Clinton several years ago, and vigorously defended by your own Congress to the tune of 2.3 million dollars of taxpayer's money, when the White House ordered the Department of Justice to stand down.

But you knew this was gonna happen because most of the country, your constituents were against you before you committed the money. But it's no biggie. The duckets didn't come out of your pocket. It's not like you are sequester-bound or in a budget crunch like the rest of us. And you still have DOMA solidly in place in Ohio for the foreseeable future.

I'm happy that DOMA went down but I'm not here to gloat. That's not the purpose for this letter. I want to talk about the decision that came down on Tuesday. You know the one that eviscerated the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The law that was signed by Lyndon Baines Johnson and effectively changed the United States for the better, according to some of us, anyway.

Judging from the response by the Grand Old Party of which you are considered to be one of the guiding lights in your capacity as Speaker of the House, you guys are being very quiet. I mean you got what you wanted. Your posse on the high court just about knocked the Black off us, shoving us toward the back of the bus once again, reminding us of our place in your country. You have real cause for celebration, after all you all have been working for years to remove this particular thorn in your side and change the course of history. Yesterday must have felt almost as good as rewriting the ending to the War between the States. Symbolically at least, you slapped my people back into chains.

But let me put a bug in your ear, if I may. The GOP took quite a beating in the last national election. I mean that Kenyan has laid two beat downs in a row on ya, now. The good news is he can't run again. But it looks like you're headed for oblivion electorally because you and your boys in Congress spend more time in the bars and on the golf course than you do legislating. Other than making laws to disenfranchise women, you're not legislating at all.

Doing nothing is hurting the President, yes. But it's also kicking your ass, too. In order to take back control permanently your party really and truly does need to attract Blacks, Browns and everybody else who is not white and male, in order to win the next election and survive. Your GOP chairman and all other speaking members of your party say you must be more inclusive. So why not take this nugget from the Supreme Court and repackage the Voting Rights Act. What have you got to lose. Everybody expects you to let it lay. Let it die. Not act on it. I mean that's been your modus operandi for five years now.

Flip the script. Do something to remind Black people that you once were the party of Lincoln. Call a meeting with the NAACP. Invite the Revs Al, Jesse and TD. Talk about millions of brownie points. Man, just think of all the Clarence Thomas wannabes or little Herman Cains or Mia Loves who will come popping out of the woodwork to join the Grand Old Party and become bonified Republicans instead of closeted ones. Give us a reason to like you and to wanna be you. You need to come out of your shell, John, and teach poor people how to make money like republicans. But you can't teach unless you can get them to listen to you. And that is not gonna happen as long as you guys continue to play bigot monopoly in America.

Let's just talk plain English here. You guys are dying out. Your party of old white people is about to go extinct. Soon it will be too late, especially given the kind of laws you're attempting to push through against women. Women already outnumber you. Women are the sleeping giant, the 600 pound gorilla in the room taking a nap. What happens when women wake up. I mean really wake up and realize they don't have to vote like their husbands or daddies do anymore. What happened overnight in Texas should have scared you to death.  Smart guys like you think you all are, would dump the stupid anti-woman language and laws asap. Smart guys would announce that you're going to rewrite the VRA law and make it current, just like the Court said to do.

The announcement alone would make a lot of folks happy. Following through might win you the next election or at least make you more competitive than you appear now. Why not try it?

What have you really got to lose?

John since you're from the Nati, too, you're very familiar with the phrase “when pigs fly.” Well, I figure you'll read this and act on my suggestions when Porkie takes off from Lunken.

Have a great day Mr. Speaker because I think  your days are numbered whether you act or not.

Respectfully yours.

Paula Deen's Wade in the Watermelon Ice Cream and Other Famous Recipes

I'm 2 years older than Paula Deen and am having a hard time getting worked up about her use of the word nigger. Considering how and when I've heard it during my six decades on this planet, I used to believe that it was one of the first words that white people taught their kids to say after "ma ma" and "da da."

My first reaction to Paula Deen in fact was "damn..an honest white person."

When a white person tells me that they never use the word now, nor have they used it in the past, I don't believe them for a second. You see I've heard it coming from all sorts of so called friends, allies, acquaintances and lovers. Nigger rolled off their tongues as easily as it did some of the skin headed white supremacists that I've had the displeasure of meeting during my days as a television news reporter. Of course, those who considered themselves my friend, apologized profusely claiming not to know where “that” came from.

I know where it came from. We live in the United States of Amerikkka, a country stolen from the indigenous, built by blacks kidnapped from Africa, now lived in and ruled over by white euro-centric people who claim ignorance or amnesia. They just want all us brown and black people to get over it and stop reminding them of their thievery and on-going bigotry, now cloaked within their so called post racial first amendment rights to say and to do what they please, whenever they please.

Paula Deen didn't slip up. She fessed up. Said “hell yeah, I said it! What?” White privilege in full view for those who still need a clue.

We'd be a lot further along in this country if more people would admit they have no problem calling me a nigger when I'm looking at them, rather than waiting for me to step out of earshot.

I've always felt that it is better to know your enemy than to be blindsided by someone claiming to be friend or ally. Been there, had it happen. Ain't gonna let it happen again.

The word is not nearly as dangerous as it was back in the day. Times were when you heard it out loud, you were probably in a very precarious place, hopefully with a visible escape route. Most of the people yelling and screaming and cussing today about Paula Deen have never been in that kind of daily danger. They just heard us old people talk about it and feel they should be outraged too.

Today, it's a part of the general lexicon used by the young to talk amongst themselves. It's not that they don't see color or are more post racial then we the elderly, it's just that they grew up with it in a different context. The white kids learned it from black kids and black music. They even know the difference when the word is used by their peers or by their bigoted old grandfather. Ask your kids if you don't believe me.

It doesn't matter to them. It's just another word. If you ask them, they would tell us that it is time to get over it, because it is probably not going away anytime soon.

My point is....Nigger is a word. I use when I write. I use it when I talk. And it didn't break me or kill me back when it was a dangerous word and mattered.

The fact that some southern Kentucky fried white woman admits to using nigger as a regular part of her vocabulary is not gonna anger me nor make me sweat.

What pisses me off is that she built a cooking empire on the backs of all those bow tied, mammy kerchief wearing slaves who probably created the recipes upon which she makes millions.

Just another day in the United States of America from my point of view.

Make her pay for what she stole and I might get excited.

Yeah right...

Michelle Obama Bitch Slaps Lesbian

Don't you wish Barack could be as free as Michelle when talking to people in public? Yesterday, she took down a lesbian protestor from the group GetEqual while speaking at a private democratic fundraiser that cost $500-$10,000 to attend.  You can read it here. The self identified lesbian protestor started yelling about the need for the President to sign an executive order so she can have her” federal equality” before she dies.

Well, whoopee fuckin' deal. Bitch I been wanting all my life to be equal in my country of birth, get in line. Yelling at the President or his wife would have gotten my black lesbian ass locked up in jail. You just got escorted out which was nothing more than another example of white privilege in America.

And yes, white gays and lesbians are gifted from birth with white privilege which drives this country and protects them from THEIR OTHERNESS until they publicly declare it. My blackness is on full display from jump (that's from the beginning in black-talk), which is why I get arrested and you get sent home to mommy and daddy.

The biggest problem that I have had in this post racial era of Barack Obama, our first black president, is the incredible level of disrespect hurled daily at the President and his family.

It's not just the bigots, the avowed racists who hate everything black or brown. It's the alleged supporters of the Obamas. So called democrats and phoney liberals who feel that they can talk to and treat the first family as any nigga down the block that they happened to run across in the street.

It's not racism, it's white privilege, the same demeanor that makes white people think they can feel my hair or imitate me to my face because they think it's funny and doesn't fit the normal in which they surround themselves.

The Obamas are approachable like no other First family in the history of this nation. But that's only because white people have this idea about how they think “we” are, apparently learned at the knee of their parents, or various blaxploitation movies and TV non-reality shows. Many white people figure all they have to do is learn how to neck roll and talk Ebonics and we will join them in a chorus or two of Kumbaya. Well, the Obamas ain't your regular next door neighborhood niggas. This is America's first family and like it or not, that exalted position demands respect from the rest of us.

It got worse during the confrontation when said heckler, offering up her own explanation of what happened, said FLOTUS “surprised her by getting in her face.” Nigga behavior. Mess with a big black woman and she will git in yo face and stomp yo ass, if you not careful. Never mind that this woman, Michelle Obama is a wife, mother, teacher lawyer and representative of the people of the United States of America. She can write the book on how to influence and deal with people in public. Reducing her to nigga level is flat out white privileged driven bigotry.

A private fundraiser was not the time or place to bring up signing executive orders. Michelle Obama doesn't do that. Her husband does and he wasn't there.

The other thing is that Executive Orders can be allowed to expire, so what difference for Obama to put into place a law that will expire as soon as he leaves office. Given the way things move on Capital Hill, it would probably expire before taking effect.

So basically what was GetEqual doing there in the first place? It certainly wasn't to accomplish anything concrete. Seems like it was merely another chance to take a privilege laden pot shot at somebody named Obama.