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..

SECEDE? Nigga Please, “Git Yo Shit Outta My House!”

Boy... my inner Bernadette jumped outta my chest when I read this story. Did you know that in the wake of Obama's re election last Tuesday, more than 100,000 people politely petitioned the White House for permission to take their State and secede from the Union.

You can read the entire piece of bullshit right here.

“Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these, ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it and institute new government.”

That's from the United States Constitution, which these “makers” cite as their justification for leaving and forming their own country. They don't mention President Obama by name, but rest assured these are the same assholes who have been jumping up and down claiming they are going to take back their country from the “pimps, whores and welfare brats” who voted for the “Kenyan.”

Let me buy you a clue, geniuses....Secession is treason, period. There is nothing polite about it. You either shoot and take it, if you can, or you shut the fuck up, die or go to jail. Remember that thing called the Civil War?

If you actually read anything besides the classic comics version of United States Government rules, regulations and contracts, you would know that there is only one state that could possibly and legally secede. That would be the great State of Texas, and I emphasize the word “possibly.”

As citizens, you are always free to go. Make like a pilgrim. Pretend you're Christopher Columbus and strike out in a boat. Re enact the Middle Passage in reverse. But you can't take the country with you. The land does not belong to you. It belongs to the people of the United States of America.

And, no we don't want you camping out in our backyard, either. When you leave, take your shit, strap it on your back, your wife's back or on top of the car along side the dog and drive north or south til you get to the border.

At the crossing, give back your American passport, if you have one, renounce your citizenship and then hit the accelerator, and drive to where ever the fuck you can find happiness.

A couple things.....driving north will take you to Canada, a primarily white country that has a reasonably good relationship with it's browner, indigenous predecessors. Bear in mind that the country is a bit more socialist than your old home country and just about everybody speaks French.

Or you can drive south into Central America. But then you immediately run into a bunch of short brown people...everywhere. And it gets worse, since history tells us that more slaves were sold to Central and South America, then ended up here in the good ole USA.

You'd know that if you ever cracked a non Texas made history book.

Whatever. No ill will intended... Via con dios....means be safe and kiss every part of my butter scotch American ass.

150 Years Later-Still Fightin'

"This is a white man's government; that white men are able to defend and protect it, and that to enlist a negro soldier would be to drive every white man out of the service,"-Ohio Governor David Tod responding to a request to allow Black men to join the Union Army to fight against the Confederacy.

"The employment of negro soldiers is...a disgrace to the Government that employs them--a reproach to our cause--calculated to bring upon us the shame of the whole world, and to cause the South to fight as one man against us."-A Cincinnati politician's statement printed in the Cincinnati Enquirer, 1862.

Today marks the anniversary of the shots fired at Fort Sumter South Carolina, to start the Civil War. Southern states have been celebrating since the first of the year, presenting and spinning a squeaky clean image of the turmoil that tore apart the new nation of America. The south argues to this day that states rights were the reason behind the Civil War, while refusing to admit that the only states right in question was the right to own another human being as property.

Meanwhile, northern states such as Ohio, where slavery was outlawed from the beginning, have been content to stand behind an equally squeaky clean presentation of what took place back then...a “south, bad-north, good!” scenario, when the truth is out there and a bit more complicated.

In 1803 Ohio's capital was in Chillicothe, not Columbus. In 1803 state lawmakers decided to outlaw slavery in the newly formed state. However the decision was a majority decision that rested on just one vote. That one vote may have outlawed slavery, but it didn't make Blacks free, especially in Cincinnati which sits on the banks of the Ohio River directly across from the slave holding state of Kentucky.

Blacks who made it across the Ohio river were constantly looking over their shoulder for the Kentucky slave catchers who operated in Cincinnati just like they operated in the Bluegrass state. Blacks had to post a bond just to stay in Cincinnati and another bond to work, if they could find a job in the first place.

It was a common occurrence to see free Blacks literally snatched off the downtown streets by slave catchers and returned to points south, never mind if they were runaways or not. Despite popular notions, many Blacks did not come to this country in chains. Many came as free men, at least or until they crossed paths with a slave tracker.

The Cincinnati Enquirer is still in existence operating today with the same sort of blind eye bigotry that it did back in the early days of Cincinnati, presenting white washed stories of heroic people who took part in the Civil War starting with the Black Brigade and Powhatan Beaty.

“Beaty was born a slave in Virginia in 1837 and came to Cincinnati in 1849, although it is not clear if he was freed before or after he arrived here. In Cincinnati, he studied acting and was a free man when the war broke out. In 1862, Beaty joined the “Black Brigade,” a unit of African-Americans who built many of the defenses around Cincinnati when it was threatened by Confederate forces.”- Cincinnati Enquirer, 4/2011.

Or William M. Dickson:

"A Cincinnati lawyer, Dickson organized and commanded the “Black Brigade,’one of the early all-African-American units. Dickson’s Black Brigade didn’t fight, but it built all the breastworks and defenses around Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. Dickson’s wife was a cousin of Mary Todd Lincoln”.- Cincinnati Enquirer, 4/2011.

The truth of the matter is that the Black Brigade, like everything else about Black life back then was not voluntary for Black men. In September of 1862, days after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, Powhatan Beaty and other Black men were rounded up and jailed until they were set free to labor for the Union Army. This was how the Black Brigade was formed, no organization needed from Mr. William M. Dickson.

These men were taken away from their families and were never compensated for their work, barely remembered in historical reference. Other Black men left the state to join legitimate regiments such as the 54^th out of Massachusetts. Beaty distinguished himself when he was finally allowed to fight and a was awarded the Medal of Honor for bravery. He is buried at Union Baptist Cemetery in Price Hill.

Ohio, in fact had a law on the books banning Blacks from joining the Ohio Militia in any form, a law repeatedly upheld by the aforementioned Governor Tod until he was forced into action by the federal government.

This white washing of history does no one any good. All people suffer when the truth is not told. The sanitized version of the Civil War as presented by nearly everyone north or south perpetuates deeply buried racism and bigotry that underlies every institution in the United States of America. When Blacks talk about institutional or ingrained racism, this is what we mean. Institutional and ingrained racism is denied by whites today as a figment of a Black mindset that simply won't die.

Ingrained racism is mirrored in insidious, bigoted and cowardly attacks of a bad makeup wearing, on paper, billionaire real estate developer looking for publicity for his television show.

Ingrained racism and bigotry keeps alive the birther movement long after the truth is known.

Ingrained racism against Blacks gives birth to the tea party movement today while harkening backward in history to a movement called the copperhead movement. Today's tea party regularly uses slogans coined by copperheads back in the day.

Institutional and ingrained racism allows deniers of all colors to rewrite history into a fairytale of happy Negroes singing, dancing and smiling on the plantation, safely snatched from the horrors of their African origins and families.....”America, white people, good-Africa, black people, bad!”

Institutional racism allows the news media to give air time to any bigot stupid enough to utter or write out the word “nigger” in an email addressed to people of similar mind set, while ignoring the lack of diversity within their own ranks.

Blacks suffer, victimized outright by white denial and flight, but also from refusing to recognize our own complicity in our degradation.

Blacks must first seek the truth behind the history presented. Blacks must also learn the difference between “integration” and “assimilation.” We are being assimilated and erased...not a good thing.

Salvation lies not in the Black church...another product foisted upon Blacks by whites during slavery...but in education and the taking of responsibility for our own communities and behavior. 72% out of wedlock birth rate is not responsible, nor are the daily killings of young Black men by other young Black men..it is slow and painful community wide suicide.

In 2011, on the 150^th anniversary of the Battle of Fort Sumter, Black people rather than celebrating the beginnings of our official fight for freedom are embroiled in a fight for existence.

And the fight for civil rights, well it is basically passe...destined to become a footnote in the history of a now, admittedly mixed race America.

Got Change for a Reagan?

Somehow “got change for a Reagan” just doesn't flow. It doesn't feel right coming off the tongue. No rhyme, no rhythm, no lyricism. Not like “all about the Benjamins.” Say that and everybody knows you're talking about a $100 bill. Ask for change for a Reagan and you get that WTF you talkin' about look coming back.

Staunch conservatives in the Republican party have all but canonized Ronald Reagan since he left office. The furor has increased dramatically since he died. They've named highways after him. They've changed the names of airports to remember him. We've got all kinds of Ronald Reagan parks, recreational facilities and government buildings.

These conservatives say Reagan was one of the greatest presidents ever. Well, not exactly. I will give him a good grade as head cheerleader, during a time when America needed a cheerleader. However, his policies are directly responsible for what is plaguing the country now. Great presidents make change for the better, not bring change that almost destroys the nation, initiating the debt that is going to kill us as a country.

Reagan did not end the Cold War, nor did he bring about the downfall of Communism in the old USSR. Those events happened while he was president, but he didn't have anything to do with it. He tried to mount an economic blockade of Russia and succeeded in launching the biggest arms race in history.

One night during the State of the Union Speech, he dreamed up the Star Wars Defense System. It didn't exist and right after the speech, the generals were laughing about it. I was there, a working reporter. However, by the next day, they were on board with what Reagan had said. They've been trying to create it ever since. The most expensive weapons system ever, totally and completely useless.

Reagan said a lot of nasty things about social services and programs. He cut some of them. He cut some taxes. However, during his tenure social spending actually increased and taxes only decreased by about a percent or so. In other words, government grew under the man from California. He promised to balance the budget and to eliminate the deficit. He campaigned on that in 1980. But four years later the deficit doubled under his watch and wasn't eliminated until Clinton took care of it.

He busted the Unions, fired the air traffic controllers, and got the deregulation ball rolling to the point that it has rolled over us today, nearly flattening America. Reagan also left us with this other war, the war on drugs, and we all know how well that one is going these days.

And then there is that little thing called Iran/Contra. I'm not going to rehash it. You can read about it here. But honestly, for his part in Iran/Contra, Reagan should have been removed from office and jailed right along with Ollie North, and John McCain's buddy, the general in Arizona whose name escapes me at this moment. Reagan flat out lied about the crimes as well as what he knew and when he knew it. His crimes were infinitely more serious than a blow job in the oval office. Yet he skated without a scratch.

They don't call him the Teflon President for nothing.

Honestly, I don't give a damn who's on my money as long as it still spends and buys me what I want. However, Reagan is not a role model nor was he principled in performing his duties as President. The guy who is now on the $50, Ulysses S. Grant gets short shrift by historians. But he wasn't as bad or as ineffective as they would have you believe.

Grant, beside winning the Civil War, also fought for Black people on a number of fronts. That's the main reason why white America never took him seriously. Don't get very far in America by standing up for Black folks. I like him right up there next to Lincoln. In fact, I am in favor of keeping him right where he is on the money.

Besides, if you want to change the face on money, then maybe old Ben Franklin should be retired, because he was a straight up sex perv. There were even dead bodies, ten of them, found in his house in England. He never spent a day in jail either. Good ole Ben, maybe historians should tell the real story about him, too.

Failure to Communicate

An Open Letter to the President

Dear Mr. President,

I listened intently to your speech last night, waiting patiently for clarity, and some indication that you finally understand what you’ve done by sending American troops into Iraq. I waited and waited for you to reveal the logic behind your actions. I waited to see you return to the realm of sound thinking about the way we, as a country, deal with the rest of the world.

Instead, with mind firmly planted in the old west, you handed us more platitudes, lies and denials fueled by the religious fervor of your arrogance. The smugness with which you have tried to sell this travesty to the American people is still very much in evidence.

You just don’t get it. You still refuse to face the reality of your actions. You are going ahead with sending more troops into danger, despite the recommendations of your generals, whom you’ve now replaced with puppets. You have turned your back on the Baker-Hamilton commission and their recommendations for getting us out of this trouble. You have steadfastly refused the counsel of the United States Congress, circumventing them and bypassing the Constitution at every given opportunity.

Sir, you were elected President, not Emperor of the United States. The last King George lost, and you will too. The difference is that he didn’t take us down with him, but you might accomplish the destruction of America, if you continue down this perverse path. History will not treat you well. Your legacy is in shambles.

You say that you are fighting the war on terror, keeping it away from American shores. I understand the move into Afghanistan. I understand going after Osama Bin Laden. It makes sense to go after the people who have tried to harm us. I even understand the recent retaliation bombings in Somalia, albeit late in coming.

But your move to Iraq and your wrong headed decision to stay there boggles the brain. What are you thinking?

There was no Al Quaida in Iraq before you invaded. Now the whole country has been turned into a terrorist practice ground ready for export to the rest of the world.

There were no weapons of mass destruction.

The man who tried to kill your Dad has been hanged.

Your policy of forcing democracy with the business end of a gun has not worked.

You haven’t tried diplomacy and you should. It served your father well. Maybe you should ask Dad for some help.

The new Iraqi government is a sham. Your puppet, Maliki, is a joke and unable or unwilling to confront the Shia death squads that are dominating the streets of Baghdad.

You asked for more money, a billion dollars more, to rebuild and restructure Iraq. This after you’ve already poured billions into the country and your cronies' coffers for the past four years to do this very thing.

Yet, the people still don’t have the necessary comforts of safety, electricity, and water.

You want to rebuild a country when you can’t even rebuild Louisiana and Mississippi after Katrina.

I guess what scares me most are your blatant threats against Iran and Syria. Threats such as the ones you issued should only be made from a position of power. We have none. Our dog in this fight is the little one in the corner, not the pit bull with the big teeth.

You have taken us from being the one true superpower to a shadow of our former competence.

We don’t have the troops to open another front in your war on the middle east. Some of your generals have recently asked for repeal of "don't ask, don't tell," thereby bolstering military numbers and enlistments, while providing more cannon fodder for your fatal dream of a democratic middle east.

Your mea culpa comes four years and 3000-plus lives too late. How many more are going to die for your ego and your perceived legacy?

You have ruined this country financially for years to come. We are a debtor nation in debt to China which is slowly buying us one highway at a time.

My fervent hope is that Congress will finally stand up to you by refusing to support this death march that you call a surge.

Saner heads are needed now. You, Mr. President, and your invisible vice president, need to step aside and let more rational people take over, before you take us from civil war in Iraq to global World War III. A war that I fear, given the current climate, we may not win.


With sadness and little respect,

Jo Anne Moore