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.

Same Sex Marriage

Will Clarence Thomas, speak, clear his throat or sit like a lump of coal waiting patiently for Scalia to whisper in his ear....

60% of people recently polled by ABC news say same sex marriage is okay in America. That same poll found that 80% of those under 30 support the idea. Those numbers should make it a done deal, right? Majority rules, right?

Well, not exactly. In the Land of the free, home of the brave, very few decisions are made by majority rule.

Proposition 8 and DOMA are before the United States Supreme Court today and despite the garbage rhetoric coming from FOX News, the Supreme Court is not a liberal court by any stretch of the imagination. If it was we wouldn't be stuck with last year's Citizens United ruling making corporations people.

For those of you who don't know, Prop 8 is the measure in California that revoked same sex marriage. DOMA stands for defense of marriage act. It was passed on the federal level back in 1996 and signed into law by a now repentant Bill Clinton. It says that marriage is only for men and women who marry each other. No boy-boy, or girl on girl unless its pornography for lesbian-loving straight men.

DOMA is like all those old sodomy laws that used to be on the books, outlawing oral or anal sex, but only gays and lesbians were charged and prosecuted. Straight couples doing exactly the same doggie style were never criminalized and cited, ever.

So today, the Supreme Court will hear arguments to overturn both laws. Actually one will be argued today and the other tomorrow. Regardless, it will make for an exciting week at the nation's highest court. Tickets to get inside were at a premium.

However, one ticket was scarfed up by a cousin of Chief Justice Roberts. Seems cuz is a lesbian and wants her big cousin to act like Ohio Senator Rob Portman and support his family. She says she wants to get married legally in the near future.

U.S. Supreme Court

Of course, no one has any idea what Chief Roberts is thinking, nor any of the other Associate Justices for that matter. Insiders will start guessing when they start asking questions during arguments.

Have to admit, I'm curious about how Justice Thomas will vote, especially since his own marriage to a white woman used to be illegal. Wonder if he will throw off his chains of servitude and vote like a proud Black man for a change.

The intellectual machinations of all the possible rulings in these two cases is mind boggling, so I'm just gonna pop some corn and wait for the outcome. I will say this, I don't see how the Court can frame this so narrowly that it won't take into account just how mobile our society is. In other words how can you make law that applies to one state but not another. I mean, if a couple is legally married in Omaha, they should also be legally married in Ohio, right?

It was like that in the interracial marriage ban, Loving vs Virginia. Once that law was struck down, it was made to apply to the whole country, not just Virginia. The same thing

should logically happen with Prop 8 and DOMA.

I honestly see it falling this way, Alito, Scalia and possibly Thomas will do what they always do. So will Ginsburg, Breyer, Kagan and Sotomayer. I see Kennedy and Roberts as swing votes.

Are We There Yet? Romney-Obama Election 2012

Well, it's another election night eve for me, and lord knows I've been through a lot of them. 41 consecutive years of casting votes for somebody since I turned 21, back in 1971.

The year after I turned 21, I worked on the campaign that successfully gave 18 year olds the vote, when I was already legal, as we used to say. Seems it's my life karma to be early or late, never in perfect step. In other words I have always had to bring my own music and make up my own dance as I went along, while time and circumstance did it's own thing. But that's another story. I digress.

Thinking about what we are about to do again, which is to give the reins of government back to Barack Hussein Obama for another four years, makes me happy, sad and nostalgic all at the same time. On this night, this election eve, the climax of a never ending campaign that started on inauguration day 2009, I'm feeling like what Fannie Lou Hamer said, “I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired.” This time around, it was too much. Too much information. Too much lying. Too much pontificating and equivocating. My head hurts.

I've been watching elections since before they were televised in color. I've been voting since before somebody dreamed up HDTV.

General Eisenhower is the first president in my memory. I was born during Truman, but not until just before his election. John Kennedy was the first president I loved. It wounded me deeply when he died. Never met Lynchin Bains Johnson. That's what we called him. He signed the Civil Rights Bills into Law, but that didn't endear him to me. Not then.

Rumor had it that he was nuts. We had a crazy man in the White House, who may have had our beloved JFK killed. However, nobody really knows or will ever know who hired the gunmen on the grassy knoll down in Dallas that day.

Nixon was the first president with whom I shook hands, both he and his wife. Didn't vote for him. Wasn't quite old enough to vote against him. Do know I didn't like his bigotry. Smacked of the same ole shit being dished out by the likes of George Wallace and Bull Connor, except this man occupied the White House.

I was still naive enough back in the day to believe that if a man could rise to the level of President, he certainly couldn't also be a bigot or a racist, not really. Silly me.

Gerald Ford, the man who took over for Tricky Dick Nixon was a decent man. I was a working reporter by the time he came into office and I was humbled by the fact that he knew me on sight and called me “jo.” President Carter was another decent man who has been totally disrespected and wrongfully forgotten.

I interviewed Ronald Reagan four times, starting in 1976 at the Republican convention and could never get past the fact that I was talking to an actor, somebody who was playing a part in a B movie. The conversations were great, but I never bought the good guy act. His voodoo economics initiated the downfall of the American Middle Class and the decline of Unions as well as worker's rights.

Daddy Bush, Bill Clinton and Junior Bush were merely days at work...more fun with Clinton, less so with George the elder and George the younger. The younger Bush especially was like hitching a ride across the ocean on a boat named Titanic with no Leonardo DiCaprio to save my ass.

And then comes Barack Obama.

I was not a supporter in the beginning. I didn't believe a Black man could be elected in America. I dreamed of the possibility, but expected to be dead by the time it actually happened. I believed the racists were too strong to let it happen. I still believe they will turn out tomorrow in an attempt to keep him from a second term.

And I still fear for his life. Because in this country, it's a truth that what white men can't control, they kill. They kill when their status quo is threatened, and Barack Obama is the walking, talking example of threat to the complacency of the masters of the universe.

Obama is one of the few people who can move me to tears. I cried when he won in 2008. I cried at his Inauguration. I cried when I heard him speak last night.

But Last night at the UC arena, I also heard within his speech echoes of the last speech of Dr. Martin Luther King, and it bothered me.

“I have been to the mountaintop....”

Those uncomfortable echoes are resting heavily on me tonight, as I write this now.

In the meantime....I will happily vote tomorrow to move this country forward, and wait for what I hope will be a joyous night. History to be made, and a happy ending to be written. A celebration of the 44^th President of the United States of America, Barack Hussein Obama.

To be continued......................................

Mitt Romney for President of Half the People Some of the Time

Well it's official, Willard only likes half the population. From his own mouth, he says he likes those taxpaying hardworking individuals who make more than 250,000 dollars a year. Now bear in mind these folks are middle class folks, not rich like Mitt, and they, he says, also understand his policies and plans for America when he takes back the White House.

I have to admit that I don't understand that taxpaying thing. Mitt doesn't pay taxes, or he pays fewer taxes than most poor people. I just don't get that criterion. It's do as I say, not as I do. Oh well.

Full disclosure, I've always been part of the other half, you know, the ones that Mitt won't bother himself with, ever. I'm a woman-strike one. I'm Black-strike two. I'm lesbian-strike three. I do pay taxes. I'm a homeowner. Never been on welfare. Existed peocefully in corporate America when I worked there. I'm stable, sorta. Do gotta pre existing condition, but I am officially a senior citizen, complete with medicare. Those last two make it strike four and five by Mitt's tally, I would guess.  Don't qualify. 

It's pretty easy when you're born that way. You kind of know from jump that you're never going to get invited into the Oval Office, so there are usually never any misunderstandings, as long as you stay in your lane or ghetto, as it were.

Back in the day, bigots like Mitt wore their sheets outside, making them easy to spot when they come in the night. Today it is a bit more difficult to recognize them unless they get caught on tape being themselves amongst others of similar outlook and temperament.

But inquiring minds want to know...how does Romney tell which Americans are his constituents? I mean we all know Mitt loves him some white men and white women. They make up the GOP base, pretty much with one or two chocolate swirls thrown in for good measure, think Artur, Herman, and Mia.

But statistics show that most white men and women also don't pay taxes, also get some kind of government stipend, ie social security, food stamps, medicare, medicaid, veterans benefits, survivor benefits, etc.

It's not just Black and brown people...It's ya'll, too.

So, basically none of us are gonna be governed by President Romney unless we can manage to make it into his personal tax bracket which he doesn't honor. Are there enough rich white guys to make up half of the American electorate, to get him into the White House in the first place? Do they have that much money to buy it for him? Or are we watching a small bunch of bigots bankrupt themselves trying? Just askin'

I'm no math whiz, but it looks like what Big Bill Clinton said..it's all about arithmetic. Judging from what he said, Mitt's half is a lot smaller than our half. If we vote, Willard loses by the numbers.

Remember that old dog food commercial....well just insert the word “half” for “dog” and sing.....”my half's bigger than your half..my half's bigger than yours...my half's bigger cause our math's better...my half's bigger than yours!”

Vote responsibly in November.

Michelle Obama

I need to sing; “Mi-chelle, ma belle, son les mots qui vont tres bien ensemble...”

What do you do when the wife of the man you're intent on destroying, beats your ass in public and doesn't even break a sweat?

The President hasn't set foot in the ring, hasn't even taken a swing yet and already Mitt's bloodied, and stumblin' around tryin' to pick himself up off the concrete where Michelle Obama knocked him. And she did it without even once mentioning Mitt Romney by name, or Ann Romney, for that matter (study out says Michelle's speech graded out at 12th grade level of reading compared to Ann Romney's 5th grade level).

Last night was just the first round. These were the warm ups, the practice punches. They handed Mitt his ass... laying off elves and outsourcing reindeer? Got to say, I love my ex Governor Ted Stickland.

To paraphrase current Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, “Mitt fixed a lot of things, but one of them was not Massachusetts.” Whoa, shaaaaaaaaaaaaaade!

Mayor Julian Castro and his equally fine twin brother, Lily Ledbetter, and that governor whose name I can't recall took turns pummeling the wannabe king of the world. They presented quite a contrast to that vanilla mess presented by the GOP last week, which falsely purports to represent the real America. Puh-lease!

Mittens says he wants to take back America, well judging from last night, he's gonna have to fight for it, if he can. He does have the money, but he has no heart, no passion, no understanding and no brain powering his cybernetic push forward to the White House.

And that is the difference. We ain't got no money, but we have heart and understanding of what will happen if we don't fight. It's as clear as the difference between tuna fish and pasta,  and potato chip sandwiches for dinner.

Can't wait for Bill Clinton tonight.

Vote responsibly in November.

Buying the White House

That is the only option left to Republicans. Put down cold, hard cash and buy the bitch. And they are on track to do just that, what with Willard Mitt Romney out fund raising Barack Hussein Obama for the past two months.

The latest stats show that Romney raised more than 100-million dollars last month compared to the President's 70-million or so.

The republicans can't win it on their record of no jobs, no jobs, no ,jobs, no abortions-lock up vaginas, so they are simply going to buy the real estate to keep the rabble from living in proximity to them.

It's their last trick, so to speak, short of all out gun blazing revolution which they do threaten on a regular basis these days. We the people have begun to see through their lies.

I mean look at record; the last Republican to balance the budget was Richard Nixon.

The last Republican to preside over a surplus was Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Ronald Reagan promised to balance the budget and eliminate the deficit in his first two years in office...then it was four years...then it was eight years..promises, promises.

Reagan also raised taxes 17 times during his administration, not that the GOP will acknowledge that info given their deluded attempts to run a country on no money.

Trickle down Economics has been the law of the land since Reagan lived at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and except for when Bill Clinton called a halt to the bullshit and really did balance the budget and eliminate the deficit, the country has been in the red-with the exception of rich people. Everybody else has been screwed.

Then comes 2000. Gore wins, but the Supreme Court gives the election to Dubya, the result of all those hanging chads down in Broward County Florida.

Bush promptly ate up the surplus, started two illegal wars, and gave his frat buddies massive tax cuts, and senior citizens a massive drug plan that wasn't paid for either. All of it still unfunded to this day. Voila! America is in deep doo-doo, leaving Barack Obama ass deep in alligators.

The middle class is being strangled to where it is almost small enough to be drowned in the bathtub.

Romney has been trying to beat Obama or any Democrat for that matter for the past 10 years.

He knows that if he admits that his economic plan is just Bush-lite warmed over left overs, nobody will vote him. So he stumbled across his course of action during the primaries.

He will simply do what the rich do-buy whatever it is they want, and they want the White House.

Remember the GOP electorate really doesn't like Mittens either. They really, really, really want someone else to be their nominee and when the flavor of the month popped up to challenge him in the primaries, Romney would bury them in cash and negative advertising.

This is his plan to handle Obama, too.

Romney is the alpha dog when it comes to making money. We all know that. How else do you put 100-million dollars in an IRA bank account that was never designed to hold that much money in the first place.

You really got to know what you're doing. Given Romney's reported worth. He damn sure does know what he is doing money-wise.

But just because he makes money, does not mean that he will make a good president regardless of what his Mormon god has prophesied.

Since we can't outspend them...we are gonna have to out vote them. We already out number them. However it remains to be seen if enough people have been freed from the matrix in order to make a difference.

So what cha gonna do....swallow the blue pill and go back to sleep or take the red pill and wake up in the real world?

Well?

Still Picking on Hillary

Birther rejects working obscure rule to unseat Clinton as Secretary of State

There's apparently a new movement out there folks, and it's called the Eligibility Movement. This Eligibility Movement is an off shoot of the looney tunes Birther Movement led by the crazy Russian Expat by way of Israel, Orly Taitz.

Birthers, as you know spend their time trying to get President Obama thrown out of the White House because they say he is not a citizen of the United States and should never have been elected in the first place.

Despite heavy backing from the GOP Obama boycotters in Congress, they are considered little more than a joke among most “real Americans.”

So, I'm guessing all that pent up energy has to go somewhere, so some long time foreign service officer has decided to focus on another target, and that happens to be Hillary Clinton.

You can read the full article here.

David C Rodearmel, has brought suit in federal court claiming that Hillary's appointment is unconstitutional, because she was a Senator in Congress first. And nutty as this may sound, he is standing on a kernel of truth. Granted, his kernel of truth is about as solid as a one legged man playing a fiddle while walking on a tightrope, but it is there, none the less.

In fact, Presidents going back to Richard Nixon have had to quietly guard themselves against the “Emoluments Clause,” which basically prevents members of Congress from taking a federal job, if Congress increased the salary for that job while they held congressional office. It came about as a way to combat corruption in government. Okay.

The salary for Secretary of State went up in 2008 and Hillary was still in the Senate at that time. But Obama did what all Presidents since Richard Nixon have done....he invoked the “Saxbe fix.” This maneuver is named after Ohio Republican Bill Saxbe, who Nixon appointed Attorney General during the Watergate scandal.

The way it's done is the President who wants to appoint a congressman asks Congress to repeal the pay raises for the position in question, so that the salary is the same as it was BEFORE, the nominee was elected to office. As I said, Nixon thought it up and every President since that time has used it to solve the problem.

Well, as we've seen in the past couple of years, what's good for GOP presidents is not good for Obama. Some how when he does it, its illegal and unconstitutional.

Hell, just getting born was illegal for Obama, if you pay attention to these clowns.

Rodearmel says he is just doing his duty and protecting the Constitution, the fact that he gave money to the Swift Boaters has absolutely nothing to do with his present intentions. Judicial Watch, a NeoCon group that regularly brings suits against both Clintons is also board with this action.

It should also be noted that Hillary is his boss, he's still employed at the State Department. A federal court has already tossed his suit telling him he lacked standing to bring it in the first place. When a judge tells you, you lack standing, it's like saying “no harm, no foul, play ball.”

In other words, Dork, can't be too bad, you're still working for the lady.

The bad news for Hillary is that when these frivolous cases are tossed they now go directly to the United States Supreme Court, thanks to yet another GOP “fix” buried in the federal court system.

I have long said that the real damage done these past 30 years by the GOP has been at the federal level. The courts have been quietly gerrymandered away from objectivity in favor of subjectivity for business and the rich and powerful.

Witness, the recent SupCo ruling which will allow business to buy elections. Think the 2000 hijacking of the presidential election was bad.....well, just wait...things are about to get much worse...

The problem with this going to the Supreme Court is Justice Steven Breyer. Breyer, who was appointed by Bill Clinton and usually sides with the liberal justices, has already written an opinion on the Emoluments Clause.

He did this while still a law professor many years ago. But it still reflects his thinking on this rule of law. In letters to Senator Robert Byrd, Breyer said the Saxbe fix was unconstitutional and therein lies the conservative hope.

Since Breyer is now on the Supreme Court, they hope he will favor their side, if and when it ever comes to a vote.

Out of the Mouth of Idiots

Comparing what Harry Reid allegedly said to what Trent Lott said about Strom Thurmond is mixing apples and oranges. Lott was praising a rapist, who got away with sexually assaulting a 16 year old Black domestic servant at his parents home and got away with it because his parents covered it up and bought off the victim... He reportedly supported the baby born...but never acknowledged her as long as it could possibly bring down his political career, of keeping Blacks in their place...except I guess when he needed sex...

Strom Thurmond is the old poster boy for GOP racial hypocrisy....He should have been in jail not in Congress..

Like it or not...Harry Reid spoke the truth....I don't care how intelligent or how eloquent a brother is....no matter the number of his post graduate degrees....if he is black as the ace of spades....and talks like Shaft or Biggie or Snoop....or Tupac and is viewed as threatening for some reason...he won't clear local vetting to run for city council..much less national office..

Hell....Tupac an elegant writer and master of the spoken word...is still dismissed by white America as being a thug because of the way he looked...he could never get elected in America...Yet I measure his brain next to Obama's..

If brothers had an equal chance like most of America seems to believe, there wouldn't be 25% unemployment among Black males....The dropout rate...lack of male teachers, etc, wouldn't still be going on...despite having a Black man in the White House..

Jesse Jackson would have been taken seriously when he ran for president......Bill Clinton wouldn't be asking Obama to bring him some coffee...and we wouldn't be having this conversation..

And don't get outraged Black people....have we as a community canceled the “paper bag test” yet?

Are the days of wanting “nothing Black but a Cadillac” and “nothing big but a bankroll” over yet?

What about looking for a job...making a call...talking to a pleasant white lady to get a job interview...putting on your Sunday best to go to the interview only to walk in...be looked up and down like you smell funny and be told by the same nice white lady from the phone that the position has been filled...regardless of how you sound...how you fill out that stylish suit and what is printed on your resume...happens once...okay....happens over and over and over and over and over...and suddenly you feel like kicking some ass....But it happens less to beige brothers then it does to dark chocolate ones..

Hip Hop Mike can go sit down...He's the joker in the deck...except nobody's laughing..

This same book pillories Hilary and Sarah, too...equal opportunity hearsay journalism at it's best...

Sarah allegedly said it was God's plan that she run for VP....We've known forever that God really does have a sense of humor...


Why else would he have given the world Rod Blagojevich....he jumped on Obama in an interview to be published in Esquire in February....

"I'm blacker than Barack Obama. I shined shoes. I grew up in a five-room apartment. My father had a little laundromat in a black community not far from where we lived," Blagojevich said. "I saw it all growing up." ….ex gov Rod B...

hehehehehe!

Oh man... Do I yearn for the days of half hour news at 6pm and 11pm....no CNN, no FOX, no MSNBC.. And real journalists who found two sources before rushing to  publish or report.....with at least one willing to go on record....

Oh for the good ole days!

Rock Star Bill

If Bill Clinton was a rock star, he would have ended up underneath a mountain of panties after his speech tonight. It’s easy to see why he gets any woman he wants. The sexy MF.

His power was on full display as he threw his support behind Barack Obama, tonight. Hillary’s speech last night, in sports parlance, may have been a home run in some people’s minds, but Bill hit a grand slam out of the park and over the wall.

Bill gave the speech that everyone has been waiting for. He systematically dismembered the GOP, George Bush and John McCain. He cut so deep, they probably don’t even realize that they are bleeding yet.

I’ve been mad at Clinton since South Carolina. I guess, hurt, because until that point he had my undivided attention and support. I wanted Hillary to win because I wanted more of Bill in the White House. But then he said what he said. I got mad. And even after, he didn’t make it any better. He continued to place his foot in his mouth and to seemingly denigrate Obama, unfairly.

But we all know Bill...He is that dude who can get any woman, be friends with any man......screw both and smile all the while he’s doing it. He is the kind of guy who ticks you off...but then comes back and does something that makes you smile, charms you and tells you he didn’t really mean it.

The teflon-coated S.O.B....nothing sticks to him....ever...or at least forever...You can’t stay mad at him..even when he deserves it.

After Clinton’s speech tonight, all Barack has to do is follow the arrows through the plan, give it an Obama spin and make us happy.

Hillary

I’ve just got to ask.....are Hill-Billy on John McCain’s payroll?

I was so underwhelmed at her speech last night that I decided to write this morning rather than go with my feelings immediately after. However, waking up, I’m still not feeling her. I truly believe she wants democrats to win in November...But I think she is still ticked off at Obama for crashing her assumed triumphal march back to the White House.

She hit all the right notes...fired the correct buzz words...slammed McCain with a good catchphrase...”No way, No how, No McCain.”

Hillary said she is supporting Obama and I think she will. But I guess what I’m missing is the passion...the emotion...the fervor that signifies intent.

The speech was lackluster. I kept waiting for the punch line that was never delivered. When she finished, all I could think was.....Is that all there is?

She came across to me as someone merely doing her duty....like a supportive wife, going along with the program for the sake of the kids.

Bill, sitting in the audience silently mouthing “I love you,” looked about as genuine as some of his recent remarks to reporters when they asked him to endorse Obama. He still won’t even say that Obama is qualified for the job.

Bottom line....the Clintons still appear to be sulking and in shell shock from having the rug pulled out from under their re-coronation.

I hope that the media will let them fade into the background. Obama will be better for it. His campaign to date, has shown that he doesn’t need Clinton approval.

Maybe the MSM will get that and stop asking for it.

Redux...More Peripheral B. S.

Been listening to all the stuff about Obama's preacher and how Barack should disavow his pastor for all of the so called racist/separatist things he allegedly has been saying.

Well, I think Barack should do that when Dubya and the rest of em disavow, Pat Robertson, and all the rest of the pseudo christians who keep appearing on FOX news.

It's all just more of the same, we have to be twice as good, twice as squeeky clean, twice as pius, twice as everything in order to be seen as good enough by white folks.

It seems as though they want us to forget that it was just yesterday that some of us had to step off the side walk to let a white man pass, or be lynched for being in the wrong neighborhood after dark.

I'm all for putting the past behind us. We will never move forward as a people until that racist stuff of the past is put in the past. But I take issue when it's not really a case of forgive me and let's all of us do better, but more a situation of don't upset the white folks cause they are feeling good about themselves and their support for the black guy.

White folks, like it or not, still need to apologize, no reparations needed...just say I'm sorry...I can forgive you, but the knowledge of the past will follow me to my grave.

Just because you support Obama doesn't make you any less of a racist, necessarily. It is the beginning of change, not the place where we will ultimately end up.

Obama is the man because he is willing to go against the status quo. We should follow him for that reason alone. Again, if you check out his record, you will see that he does indeed walk the walk.

His campaign shows that he is a major strategist, and is simply beating Hillary at her own game.

The more I see Hil-Billery on the campaign trail the more uncomfortable I get about her leading this country. I really don't think she can control her hubby.

I let it pass about Barack becoming her vice president...but actually...that was an insult...flat out...

Do You Believe in Miracles?!

Last night I sat through a history making debate for the democratic nomination for president of the United States. Today I wake up to a statement from, well..I’ll be nice and just use her name....Ann Coulter.

During a chat on FOX news, last night, the GOP’s Paris Hilton, said she would vote for Hillary for president if the choice came down to Hillary versus John McCain in the general election come November.

I will believe it when I see it. Coulter claimed to be serious, stating that Hillary is more conservative than McCain.

Hmmmmmmmmm...I thought maybe she was trying to close ranks with other females and convince us she really is one us...instead of an anorexic fembot....Time will tell.

Considering the stuff that comes out of her mouth it’s going to take more than a vote for a democrat to change my mind about her. She still comes up third on my list of those I consider “walking wastes of oxygen” behind Rush and Bill _______, insert your own preferred last name. I can think of several stupid people named Bill, these days....

But back to the debate....

Like many watching, I was seeing my dream ticket in action.

Obama/Hillary...Hillary/Obama...I don’t think it’s gonna happen... Way too much ego in play and it gives the GOP too much to unify against....A black man and white woman...I can see the head hunting party forming now...All those good ole boys and their women standing behind them urging them on...screaming for blood....

Who ever makes it to the nomination and White House is making history. So, too, should the cabinet selected by the new prez.

I’ve been pondering who I would like to see serve at the pleasure of the president......

Secretary of State........Madeleine Albright or someone she’s mentored
Secretary of Defense........Colin Powell
Secretary of EPA.........Al Gore
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development....John Edwards
Secretary of Education.......Johnnetta Cole
Secretary of Treasury..........Mitt Romney
Secretary of Commerce...........Roxanne Qualls
Secretary of Health & Human Services...Bill Richardson
Secretary of Labor..............Eleanor Holmes Norton
Secretary of Veteran Affairs.......John McCain or some other vet who’s been there..
Secretary of Energy....Dennis Kucinich
Secretary of Transportation.....an engineer with vision and imagination

Secretary of Homeland Security..........abolish this position revamp, strengthen and streamline the departments under this division

Attorney General.........Ruth Bader Ginsberg
National Security Advisor.....Dubya’s Dad.....George Herbert Walker Bush
Ambassador to the United Nations....Bill Clinton
Special Envoy to the World..........Jimmy Carter...Americans may not like him, but the world does...and if ever we needed a return to goodwill...it’s now....

National Organization for Women...Still Deluded

Given my political stands over the years,...anyone who knows me would justifiably think that I would be a member of NOW, the National Organization for Women. At the very least, my friends and acquaintances think I’m a feminist and have been forever. I accept that. I’m a feminist. I do believe in women’s rights in this still male dominated patriarchy in which we live. I supported the Equal Rights Amendment. I support equal pay for women. I basically support, just about everything that NOW fights for.

However, I am not now, nor have I ever been a member of NOW. And furthermore, I don’t know many women like me who are members of NOW.

I am a black and lesbian woman and while most people, or a lot of people assume that all women who fight for feminine equality are lesbian, it is simply not true. Like the general population, NOW members are overwhelmingly white, straight, middle class women.

From my standpoint, NOW has always suffered from the “mommy knows best” syndrome when it comes to women who don’t fit their general mold. m.k.b.s can be very condescending in it’s application toward minorities. The general thinking seems to be since we’re all female, we should all think and feel the same way, minority issues aside. Well, that isn’t always the case. Even, the late Flo Kennedy, who was a member, and black and lesbian, had her differences with the organization.

The New York chapter of NOW is railing against Ted Kennedy, calling him a traitor for endorsing Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton. The NY’ers said in their press release, that Ted sided with the men because he, like every other male in this country, can’t stand the fact that a woman is running for president.

They seem to be saying that Hillary should be supported simply because she is a woman. They apparently are willing to overlook the past week’s events in South Carolina where Bill Clinton, played the race card while campaigning for his wife. I guess they are willing to overlook the fact that she supported the war in Iraq.

Given Bill Clinton’s actions in South Carolina, does NOW think Hillary can control this man should she get the nomination? Does NOW think Hillary can win the White House with Bill at her side?

I don’t think so. I don’t think Hillary can control Bill anymore than NOW can attract minority women into the fold. Once again, the NY NOW is acting on assumptions rather than reality.

The more I see the Hill-Billy act, the more I’ve become convinced that Obama is the answer.

I wrote after New Hampshire that Hillary may have trouble getting support in the middle of this country. After South Carolina, I feel even more strongly that she will lose and lose big in the middle states. Like it or not, the Clintons are just flat out hated in the Midwest and south. Alienating minorities is really not going to help matters.

Up until last week, I was torn between Clinton and Obama. I personally will support whichever wins the nomination. But I am bothered by what is coming out of Bill Clinton’s mouth. I am bothered by NOW for presuming that all women should support Hillary, because she is a history-making woman.

Obama is also making history. He happens to be male, but he is also black.

Obama is also making sense. Obama is also looking to the future....not reliving the past. I like the fact that the young are making themselves heard in their preference for president.

The babies have spoken....Maybe NOW and the rest of us old folks should listen...

Rhythm, Race and Politics

I guess I should be happy that finally, America is talking openly about race. We’ve got new laws and resolutions to ban the “N” word. We’ve got re-enactments of bloody Sunday down in Selma, recalling the events that culminated in the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

We’ve got blogs and news programs and major magazines debating whether or not Obama is black enough and accepted by “real black” Americans. Others want to know if Hillary and her card carrying black man of a husband will steal the White House away from the “blood born” black man that is Barack.

We’ve even got the Cherokee Nation kicking out the descendants of their slaves because they are not Native American by blood. Yes, Native Americans owned black slaves, in case that lesson was omitted from your history book. And up until yesterday, the slave descendants were considered part of the Cherokee Nation. The vote to rescind tribal membership was 76 percent in favor. Some are calling the vote racist. Others say it is self determination.

This Obama thing is funny. For most of this country’s history, what defined people as black was “one drop” of black blood, never mind what the skin color was. Obama is fully 50 percent black, so what is the problem? He looks black. He married black. His kids are black. He goes to a black church. Black man!

If white supremacists ever kick off their racial holy war, Obama will be right there next to Tiger Woods getting his head blown off with the rest of us obviously real blacks. So why question his ethnicity now when he’s running for president? Unlike young Eldrick, he doesn’t appear conflicted about who he is, so why should we be?

Anyone remember the Rainbow coalition. Jesse Jackson used to tell us that there were 64 shades of blackness. Black people, Jackson used to say, come in all colors and shades.
African Americans are a living, breathing rainbow. Obama is one shade of that rainbow.

Again I ask, what is the problem? Maybe it’s because he doesn’t feel black. Bill Clinton feels like a black man even though he isn’t and that is hard to explain. There is a rhythm to blackness... a musical....lyrical way of reacting to and within the universe. I’ll be honest, I don’t feel that rhythm with Obama. But I do feel that rhythm with Bill Clinton. I don’t feel that rhythm with Hillary Clinton. Hillary is a white girl, brilliant, but rhythm-less. Clarence Thomas is very obviously a black man. But he is rhythm-less and clueless and I’m not feeling him at all.

But my feelings don’t make Obama any less black. I can still relate to the brother and I suspect that most of my fellow blacks can too.

Now can we get on with the real issues of this campaign?

The Accidental President

Until Bill Clinton came along, Gerald R. Ford was my favorite president. He is still in my top two.

He never intended to be president, just like I never intended to be a reporter. The stars lined up and we did what we did.

He was selected in 1973, to replace Spiro T. Agnew, as Richard Nixon’s vice president. He ascended to the White House when Nixon was forced to resign. Mr, Ford is the only man to serve as vice president and president without being elected to either office.

While all this was going on, I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I had no clear plan. I never thought a black woman could have a future in radio and television. But it happened and in 1976, I met Gerald Ford, president of the United States of America.

I met him when I was a rookie reporter and he was a rookie president. He always had an easygoing way about him. He always smiled, looked you in the eye and if you were close enough, shook your hand.

His handshake wasn’t that phony politician wet fish handshake. It was real. Solid. Firm. Friendly.

Mr. Ford always remembered your name. I wasn’t a national reporter at the time, but I covered him several times, at different times around the country, and after that first time, he always called me Jo.

Back in the day, before Hinckly shot Reagan, it was possible to get close to the president and sometimes Mr. Ford would hang around and chat. He talked sports, current events, and sometimes even asked about your life. Nothing special. Just chitchat before things turned official.

I liked him and looked forward to seeing him, even when there was no chitchat. His eyes always said “hello” even when he couldn’t.

Gerald Ford and others, like Barry Goldwater, Jimmy Carter, George McGovern, Ed Muskie, Tip O’Neill, are the last of a dying breed of bigger than life men, who never took themselves so seriously that they couldn’t connect with just plain folks.

Gerald Ford was a nice guy, period.

Rest in peace, Mr. President.


(originally published in CRAM Magazine, Volume 2, 6/2006)