I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
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.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."
And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!
Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!
But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. August 28th, 1963...March on Washington
8.28.2008
A Dream Deferred, No Longer...
We are on the verge of something this country and the world has never before experienced. What Dr. King gave voice to 45 years ago, is nearing fruition. Before we go forward with Obama, tonight, we need to look back, one more time and remember....
8.27.2008
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.
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.
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.
8.26.2008
Fannie’s Dancin’ in Heaven
Last night, I listened to the next First Lady of the United States of America and man, that woman is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo fine. The words to describe her are just too mediocre. She was elegant, classy, confident, emotional, mesmerizing, engaging....totally, totally together. I’m in love!
Wow!
Listening to Michelle made me recall all of the conventions that I’ve watched or attended. Thinking about the women who had taken the podium, some of them going on to become first lady. Some of them there simply to speak and support the candidate of the hour.
Last night, prior to Michelle, Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi spoke and other than wearing a wonderful white suit, she failed to hold my interest.
Michelle’s sister in law, Barack’s younger sister also spoke. Gorgeous woman. Poised. Wonderful voice. Oratory ability obviously runs in that family.
But it was truly Michelle’s night. She followed Ted Kennedy and for a moment I wondered if she was up to following him. She was. A couple of sentences in and I forgot Teddy..no offense intended.
I was at Madison Square Garden in 1980 when Ted conceded to Jimmy Carter. I consider his speech that night to be one of the greatest political speeches I’ve ever heard. So he is no pushover to follow.
Michelle made me think of Fannie Lou Hamer, a voting rights worker who would not be denied. She was from Mississippi, the youngest of 20 children and the granddaughter of slaves. She was the first to penetrate my immature psyche and awaken my unquenchable thirst for politics. I watched her at the Democratic Convention in 1964. I was fourteen at the time and the convention was the only thing on TV, I was watching. Ms. Hamer was the leader of the Freedom Democrats, a group that challenged the seating at the convention of Mississippi’s all white delegation.
Ms Hamer faced down the likes of LBJ, Hubert Humphrey, Walter Mondale, J Edgar Hoover on a compromise seating arrangement that was even endorsed by Martin Luther King Jr. The compromise would’ve given the Freedom Democrats just two seats in the delegation. Hamer lost the argument. But the confrontation ultimately led to a change in rules on seating.
My fourteen year old brain didn’t recall much of what she said. I do remember this round brown woman talking tough to all those white men and not being afraid when she did it. She wasn’t havin’ any of their B.S. and she told em so. It was 1964. I remember the emotion that welled up in me. The pride of seeing that “illiterate woman” as President Lyndon Johnson called her, stand up for blacks in Mississippi and blacks in general;
Michelle touched on that same pride last night. Made me think of Shirley Chisolm, the first black woman elected to congress, a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus and the first black woman to have her name placed in nomination for the democratic candidate for president. This was back in 1972. I was 21 at the time. The first year I was eligible to vote for president. It was symbolic. Ms Chisolm was supported by a diverse group of people including the National Organization for Women. George McGovern went on to take the nomination. I voted for George, but I’ll never forget Ms. Chisolm.
Recent first ladies with the exception of Hillary, have been stepford wives....frozen smiles...no substance...non-engaging....cold.....Michelle is definitely not in that mold.
She is real. The kind of woman you can be friends with. Did I say I’m in love? Yeah...well, I’ll say it again...I’m in love with Michelle...I hope she makes it to the White House!
Wow!
Listening to Michelle made me recall all of the conventions that I’ve watched or attended. Thinking about the women who had taken the podium, some of them going on to become first lady. Some of them there simply to speak and support the candidate of the hour.
Last night, prior to Michelle, Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi spoke and other than wearing a wonderful white suit, she failed to hold my interest.
Michelle’s sister in law, Barack’s younger sister also spoke. Gorgeous woman. Poised. Wonderful voice. Oratory ability obviously runs in that family.
But it was truly Michelle’s night. She followed Ted Kennedy and for a moment I wondered if she was up to following him. She was. A couple of sentences in and I forgot Teddy..no offense intended.
I was at Madison Square Garden in 1980 when Ted conceded to Jimmy Carter. I consider his speech that night to be one of the greatest political speeches I’ve ever heard. So he is no pushover to follow.
Michelle made me think of Fannie Lou Hamer, a voting rights worker who would not be denied. She was from Mississippi, the youngest of 20 children and the granddaughter of slaves. She was the first to penetrate my immature psyche and awaken my unquenchable thirst for politics. I watched her at the Democratic Convention in 1964. I was fourteen at the time and the convention was the only thing on TV, I was watching. Ms. Hamer was the leader of the Freedom Democrats, a group that challenged the seating at the convention of Mississippi’s all white delegation.
Ms Hamer faced down the likes of LBJ, Hubert Humphrey, Walter Mondale, J Edgar Hoover on a compromise seating arrangement that was even endorsed by Martin Luther King Jr. The compromise would’ve given the Freedom Democrats just two seats in the delegation. Hamer lost the argument. But the confrontation ultimately led to a change in rules on seating.
My fourteen year old brain didn’t recall much of what she said. I do remember this round brown woman talking tough to all those white men and not being afraid when she did it. She wasn’t havin’ any of their B.S. and she told em so. It was 1964. I remember the emotion that welled up in me. The pride of seeing that “illiterate woman” as President Lyndon Johnson called her, stand up for blacks in Mississippi and blacks in general;
"We didn't come all the way up here to compromise for no more than we’d gotten here. We didn't come all this way for no two seats, 'cause all of us is tired."
"I am sick and tired of being sick and tired."-Fannie Lou Hamer’s epitaph
Michelle touched on that same pride last night. Made me think of Shirley Chisolm, the first black woman elected to congress, a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus and the first black woman to have her name placed in nomination for the democratic candidate for president. This was back in 1972. I was 21 at the time. The first year I was eligible to vote for president. It was symbolic. Ms Chisolm was supported by a diverse group of people including the National Organization for Women. George McGovern went on to take the nomination. I voted for George, but I’ll never forget Ms. Chisolm.
Recent first ladies with the exception of Hillary, have been stepford wives....frozen smiles...no substance...non-engaging....cold.....Michelle is definitely not in that mold.
She is real. The kind of woman you can be friends with. Did I say I’m in love? Yeah...well, I’ll say it again...I’m in love with Michelle...I hope she makes it to the White House!
8.25.2008
Debra Bartoshevich’s McCain Ad
A symbolic blowjob...that’s all this advertisement amounts to.... McCain benefits...Debra ends up with.....”stuff” all over her face.
The woman always gets dumped and disavowed after the act. She even gets stuck with the cleaning bill. Just ask the intern...or in McCain’s case...the lobbyist.
I’ve said it before...his policies and practices are totally and completely anti woman and family..his so called pro life stance, not withstanding. Voting for McCain is like cutting off your nose to spite your face...remember that old cliche?
Karma is a bitch...you fight dirty...you get dirty...
Your 15 minutes are up, Debra...now go home!
The woman always gets dumped and disavowed after the act. She even gets stuck with the cleaning bill. Just ask the intern...or in McCain’s case...the lobbyist.
I’ve said it before...his policies and practices are totally and completely anti woman and family..his so called pro life stance, not withstanding. Voting for McCain is like cutting off your nose to spite your face...remember that old cliche?
Karma is a bitch...you fight dirty...you get dirty...
Your 15 minutes are up, Debra...now go home!
An Open Letter to Barack
Dear Senator Obama,
In the beginning, I was not a supporter. I was not a believer, preferring to find comfort in my love for the Clintons, mainly Bill. Hillary, despite being a Senator, was not really on my radar. After all, I live in Ohio, and she was not my senator. She was just the wife of the last president I liked.
I heard your speech four years ago, when you burst onto the scene at the Democratic convention. I got chills when you talked. Didn’t know you from Adam, but you touched me then, for the first time.
When you declared for president, I was skeptical. I liked you, but not enough to support you. I was a Hillary girl. I thought she knew the questions and had the answers that I wanted to hear from my representatives. I also didn’t think a black man had a snowball’s chance in hell of being taken seriously enough, by black people, let alone whites.
I felt and still feel that whites, or I should say, many whites who take issue with you, do so because of color and inborn prejudices that “we” are somehow never up to the task of leading. The racists are the ones who are honest about these feelings. I’m not mad at them. They are, what they are. They can change. Judging by your poll numbers, a lot of them have changed.
Alleged liberals and the enlightened who are horrified by the racist label, are the ones who need to get real. We all have prejudices against others. We make change when we admit this and go on toward the common goal. We still haven’t done this, yet, as a country. The apology from Congress was a beginning. Your candidacy is a start. Your winning will not be the end, only another step on a very long journey.
I remember listening to your speech on race in my car on the radio. I sat in the parking lot of Circuit City in a rain storm with tears in my eyes, the emotion so strong that it’s welling up in me now as I write this. I called my sister in South Carolina after you finished...still in the car in the parking lot. She’d listened too and told me that she goes to church with the young woman you talked about in your speech. They are friends.
Inadvertently, you drew closer to me and you don’t even know me. That day, I wholeheartedly changed my allegiance. I was already leaning when Caroline Kennedy became a supporter. I lived Camelot and like all good memories, I want them back. I wanted to feel good about this country again. I haven’t felt good about this country since the days of the Kennedys. Clinton came close, and I think that is what led me to Hillary in the beginning.
Now you have the nomination (or will, officially, later this week). You have it because we, the people want change. We hear you and believe that you are the beginning of change. We can’t take another four years, yea even another year of the stuff running off capital hill in Washington.
What I need now is to know how you intend to affect the change that you have begun. Your selection of Joe Biden is a good thing. Let him do the attack dog thing on McCain. Let McCain hang himself, as he has done, over and over with his Rovian attacks on you. If McCain were really listening to the stuff coming out of his mouth, albeit written by others, he might not be saying it. I think his campaign speaks volumes about the kind of president he would be and therefore not worth my support. I’m glad you haven’t stooped all the way down to his level. But I do think you need to fight back. The Bulls couldn’t get past Detroit in the playoffs until they learned to play Piston basketball. You know that. You can play with a dog without getting dirty. It can be done. But let Joe do it. You need to sharpen your message.
Is there something you can do on January 20th....I don’t know....an executive order, maybe..repealing the Patriot Act..to show us you mean business about change....How about abolishing the Department of Homeland Security...
How about closing Guantanamo and restoring Habeas Corpus and Posse Comitatus.
How about sending the message that leadership in the House and Senate needs to be changed, Walking wastes of oxygen like Pelosi and Reid need not apply.
How about giving us a Justice Department for all the people, not just politically appointed hacks.
How about bringing back General Colin Powell or the likes of Madeleine Albright to help you out of this mess.
Your campaign keeps getting compared to Camelot...how about a New Deal to jumpstart things like work and jobs for people who don’t have them. How about programs like some type of peace corp to work nationally and internationally to bolster our reputation with our neighbors.
I would really like to see a revamp of the Veterans Administration. I don’t for the life of me understand why Vets have to go through what they do, after coming home from protecting us. In my mind, if you’re a Vet, all you need to do is to present your ID at any hospital, to any doctor, any dentist, whoever...and get treatment. Paperwork not necessary. It should be our way of thanking them for what they do for us.
The GI Bill built the middle class in this country...how about rolling out a new version to help the guys and girls mired in Iraq and Afghanistan..
I can go on and on and on, but I won’t. There are thousands of things that need to be done now and in the near future. I understand you have to be elected first. I think that is going to happen.
As a people, we need honest effort...from you and from those you choose to help you. The lies and prevarications of the past eight years must be relegated to the past. Open communication between the president and the people is what is needed.
We believe.....Now make it so...
Jo Anne Moore
In the beginning, I was not a supporter. I was not a believer, preferring to find comfort in my love for the Clintons, mainly Bill. Hillary, despite being a Senator, was not really on my radar. After all, I live in Ohio, and she was not my senator. She was just the wife of the last president I liked.
I heard your speech four years ago, when you burst onto the scene at the Democratic convention. I got chills when you talked. Didn’t know you from Adam, but you touched me then, for the first time.
When you declared for president, I was skeptical. I liked you, but not enough to support you. I was a Hillary girl. I thought she knew the questions and had the answers that I wanted to hear from my representatives. I also didn’t think a black man had a snowball’s chance in hell of being taken seriously enough, by black people, let alone whites.
I felt and still feel that whites, or I should say, many whites who take issue with you, do so because of color and inborn prejudices that “we” are somehow never up to the task of leading. The racists are the ones who are honest about these feelings. I’m not mad at them. They are, what they are. They can change. Judging by your poll numbers, a lot of them have changed.
Alleged liberals and the enlightened who are horrified by the racist label, are the ones who need to get real. We all have prejudices against others. We make change when we admit this and go on toward the common goal. We still haven’t done this, yet, as a country. The apology from Congress was a beginning. Your candidacy is a start. Your winning will not be the end, only another step on a very long journey.
I remember listening to your speech on race in my car on the radio. I sat in the parking lot of Circuit City in a rain storm with tears in my eyes, the emotion so strong that it’s welling up in me now as I write this. I called my sister in South Carolina after you finished...still in the car in the parking lot. She’d listened too and told me that she goes to church with the young woman you talked about in your speech. They are friends.
Inadvertently, you drew closer to me and you don’t even know me. That day, I wholeheartedly changed my allegiance. I was already leaning when Caroline Kennedy became a supporter. I lived Camelot and like all good memories, I want them back. I wanted to feel good about this country again. I haven’t felt good about this country since the days of the Kennedys. Clinton came close, and I think that is what led me to Hillary in the beginning.
Now you have the nomination (or will, officially, later this week). You have it because we, the people want change. We hear you and believe that you are the beginning of change. We can’t take another four years, yea even another year of the stuff running off capital hill in Washington.
What I need now is to know how you intend to affect the change that you have begun. Your selection of Joe Biden is a good thing. Let him do the attack dog thing on McCain. Let McCain hang himself, as he has done, over and over with his Rovian attacks on you. If McCain were really listening to the stuff coming out of his mouth, albeit written by others, he might not be saying it. I think his campaign speaks volumes about the kind of president he would be and therefore not worth my support. I’m glad you haven’t stooped all the way down to his level. But I do think you need to fight back. The Bulls couldn’t get past Detroit in the playoffs until they learned to play Piston basketball. You know that. You can play with a dog without getting dirty. It can be done. But let Joe do it. You need to sharpen your message.
Is there something you can do on January 20th....I don’t know....an executive order, maybe..repealing the Patriot Act..to show us you mean business about change....How about abolishing the Department of Homeland Security...
How about closing Guantanamo and restoring Habeas Corpus and Posse Comitatus.
How about sending the message that leadership in the House and Senate needs to be changed, Walking wastes of oxygen like Pelosi and Reid need not apply.
How about giving us a Justice Department for all the people, not just politically appointed hacks.
How about bringing back General Colin Powell or the likes of Madeleine Albright to help you out of this mess.
Your campaign keeps getting compared to Camelot...how about a New Deal to jumpstart things like work and jobs for people who don’t have them. How about programs like some type of peace corp to work nationally and internationally to bolster our reputation with our neighbors.
I would really like to see a revamp of the Veterans Administration. I don’t for the life of me understand why Vets have to go through what they do, after coming home from protecting us. In my mind, if you’re a Vet, all you need to do is to present your ID at any hospital, to any doctor, any dentist, whoever...and get treatment. Paperwork not necessary. It should be our way of thanking them for what they do for us.
The GI Bill built the middle class in this country...how about rolling out a new version to help the guys and girls mired in Iraq and Afghanistan..
I can go on and on and on, but I won’t. There are thousands of things that need to be done now and in the near future. I understand you have to be elected first. I think that is going to happen.
As a people, we need honest effort...from you and from those you choose to help you. The lies and prevarications of the past eight years must be relegated to the past. Open communication between the president and the people is what is needed.
We believe.....Now make it so...
Jo Anne Moore
8.24.2008
Ya'll Done Lost ya'll Minds
First Mississippi wanted to pass a law banning fat people from restaurants. Now Alabama is going to charge state workers 25-dollars per month for being obese.
The money is a charge for health insurance, which is free if you’re skinny. Workers have been told they have a year to shape up or they will have to shell out the cash for the insurance.
Smokers are already paying because they smoke. The ones who are also overweight will have to ante up an additional 25-dollars per month.
Smacks of too much control by corporations over workers, in my book. The smoking argument has already seen some corporations demanding smokers quit all together...not even smoking at home. Two women were fired from their jobs for refusing to adhere to the policy.
And what about the big boned people? People overweight because of the meds they take? It's not always about eating...is it?
I believe we should be healthy, but I think it is also our right not to be, if we don’t want to or can't. Isn’t that what America is all about?
The money is a charge for health insurance, which is free if you’re skinny. Workers have been told they have a year to shape up or they will have to shell out the cash for the insurance.
Smokers are already paying because they smoke. The ones who are also overweight will have to ante up an additional 25-dollars per month.
Smacks of too much control by corporations over workers, in my book. The smoking argument has already seen some corporations demanding smokers quit all together...not even smoking at home. Two women were fired from their jobs for refusing to adhere to the policy.
And what about the big boned people? People overweight because of the meds they take? It's not always about eating...is it?
I believe we should be healthy, but I think it is also our right not to be, if we don’t want to or can't. Isn’t that what America is all about?
8.21.2008
From Halfakin American to Little Black Man- child....
The latest racial slur from that viagra addicted, hillbilly heroin popping, walking waste of oxygen named Rush Limbaugh. Limbaugh was discussing Obama and the news media’s refusal to criticize him. Check out the text:
I try not write about or even mention this fool, primarily because I have standards in my life and in my writing...Name calling is not what I like or want to do. So I try to keep it civil. And I really believe that whatever you put forth in the universe, comes back at you. But hell, I’m human and some MF’s need to be called out. Rush Limbaugh is a disgrace....an embarrassment to journalists, media anybody who professionally picks up pen and paper or uses a keyboard to express themselves.
I will give him effort for creativity..."little black man-child"......a new way to call somebody "boy."
Limbaugh is not funny...he is not original...he is not civil.....he is not truthful...nor honest....
His arrogance is overwhelming...he doesn’t even try to veil his racist, misogynistic, and chauvinistic tendencies.
But I guess, as long as you can get someone to pay you 20-million dollars a year to voice this crap then you must be doing something right...right?
God bless the capitalistic state of America!
I try not write about or even mention this fool, primarily because I have standards in my life and in my writing...Name calling is not what I like or want to do. So I try to keep it civil. And I really believe that whatever you put forth in the universe, comes back at you. But hell, I’m human and some MF’s need to be called out. Rush Limbaugh is a disgrace....an embarrassment to journalists, media anybody who professionally picks up pen and paper or uses a keyboard to express themselves.
I will give him effort for creativity..."little black man-child"......a new way to call somebody "boy."
Limbaugh is not funny...he is not original...he is not civil.....he is not truthful...nor honest....
His arrogance is overwhelming...he doesn’t even try to veil his racist, misogynistic, and chauvinistic tendencies.
But I guess, as long as you can get someone to pay you 20-million dollars a year to voice this crap then you must be doing something right...right?
God bless the capitalistic state of America!
8.20.2008
The Congresswoman and the Shogun
Ohio lost a piece of its history, today with the passing of Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones. She was the first black woman elected to the House of Representatives from this state. Reports said she suffered a brain aneurysm while driving yesterday.
The five term Congresswoman was also a Super Delegate who originally supported Hillary Clinton. She endorsed Obama when Hillary suspended her campaign.
My heart goes out to her family.
-0-
One of my most favorite bad guys in the movies has to be Sho Nuff...the Shogun of Harlem from the little movie called The Last Dragon. It was a chop saki movie about a guy who wanted to be Bruce Lee who had to face off against the Shogun and his gang karate experts in order to save his girlfriend played by Vanity and his father’s pizza shop.
Julius Carey III played the Shogun and stole every scene...Heck, he stole the whole movie.
Carey died of pancreatic cancer today. He will be missed.
The five term Congresswoman was also a Super Delegate who originally supported Hillary Clinton. She endorsed Obama when Hillary suspended her campaign.
My heart goes out to her family.
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One of my most favorite bad guys in the movies has to be Sho Nuff...the Shogun of Harlem from the little movie called The Last Dragon. It was a chop saki movie about a guy who wanted to be Bruce Lee who had to face off against the Shogun and his gang karate experts in order to save his girlfriend played by Vanity and his father’s pizza shop.
Julius Carey III played the Shogun and stole every scene...Heck, he stole the whole movie.
Carey died of pancreatic cancer today. He will be missed.
Puma Petulance
I do have something in common with the PUMA PAC. In case you don’t know, these are the old bats who are still trying to get Hillary Clinton nominated for president, (PUMA is an acronym for Party Unity My Ass- thanks Jack Cafferty) Don't know if he made it up or not..but it works for my purposes.
What I have in common, besides gender and age, with these overwhelmingly white middle aged women is anger, extreme anger. I am absolutely livid at them and their unrelenting determination to hand this election to the republicans. I’m not rich like them. I’m not protected by a brow beaten master of the universe or a captain of industry who shields me from the harshness of the real world so that I can dabble at life. I can’t afford another four years of GOP mismanagement.
It’s not like Hillary is the first woman to run for president or would even be the first woman to have her name placed in nomination for president. The late congresswoman Shirley Chisolm was the second, back in 1972. Hillary would be the third. Chisolm, for all of you historically challenged individuals was a black woman who demonstrated a decided knack for working across the aisle, usually in a color blind fashion. She was also the first black woman elected to Congress and she served seven terms. Hillary’s not quite that experienced, yet.
Placing Clinton's name in nomination is not like we’re making new history, here. And, it’s not as if placing her name in nomination is going to get her nominated in 2012, either. The one lesson that seems to be coming out of this election season is that Hillary is not electable, now or ever.
Her vote to go to war in Iraq...her assumption that she would be the nominee, in the first place and Bill’s arrogance in trying to force it down the throats of the rest of us has pretty much killed Hill’s chances. Maybe Chelsea will have a chance in about 20 years. But Hillary’s quest is pretty much DOA.
What really knotted my drawers is that these babes are planning a candlelight march and vigil on August 25th in Denver, during the democratic convention, to dampen Obama’s party and to show their slavish support for Hillary. They’ve co opted Maya Angelou’s poem RISE as their theme. I guess because Maya is a Hillary supporter.
The announcement on their website is expecting millions of people to support them in Denver as well as around the country with simultaneous, mirror commemorations/celebrations. Well, I don’t know if that’s going to happen, because it seems to me that if there were really that many people supporting Hillary then her campaign debt would be retired by now. Especially since she’s been sending emails for weeks now, asking for a dollar to five dollar donations...Some of them...the last one I got, in fact...was from Bill asking me to send in five dollars.
Face it....Hillary blew it. She mismanaged her campaign....her money...and her husband...He was definitely not an asset. I enjoyed the Clintons’ time in the White House, and for a time I wanted them back. But not after the racially tainted campaign they’ve just run...their refusal to fully support the nominee...or their half assed attempts to aid in the unification of the democratic party. If they really cared about this country...there would be no roll call on Hillary.
That would send a clear message to the puma-ites to get real and over it...or to go ahead and renew their memberships in the republican party....where these selfishly self centered women are obviously more comfortable.
What I have in common, besides gender and age, with these overwhelmingly white middle aged women is anger, extreme anger. I am absolutely livid at them and their unrelenting determination to hand this election to the republicans. I’m not rich like them. I’m not protected by a brow beaten master of the universe or a captain of industry who shields me from the harshness of the real world so that I can dabble at life. I can’t afford another four years of GOP mismanagement.
It’s not like Hillary is the first woman to run for president or would even be the first woman to have her name placed in nomination for president. The late congresswoman Shirley Chisolm was the second, back in 1972. Hillary would be the third. Chisolm, for all of you historically challenged individuals was a black woman who demonstrated a decided knack for working across the aisle, usually in a color blind fashion. She was also the first black woman elected to Congress and she served seven terms. Hillary’s not quite that experienced, yet.
Placing Clinton's name in nomination is not like we’re making new history, here. And, it’s not as if placing her name in nomination is going to get her nominated in 2012, either. The one lesson that seems to be coming out of this election season is that Hillary is not electable, now or ever.
Her vote to go to war in Iraq...her assumption that she would be the nominee, in the first place and Bill’s arrogance in trying to force it down the throats of the rest of us has pretty much killed Hill’s chances. Maybe Chelsea will have a chance in about 20 years. But Hillary’s quest is pretty much DOA.
What really knotted my drawers is that these babes are planning a candlelight march and vigil on August 25th in Denver, during the democratic convention, to dampen Obama’s party and to show their slavish support for Hillary. They’ve co opted Maya Angelou’s poem RISE as their theme. I guess because Maya is a Hillary supporter.
The announcement on their website is expecting millions of people to support them in Denver as well as around the country with simultaneous, mirror commemorations/celebrations. Well, I don’t know if that’s going to happen, because it seems to me that if there were really that many people supporting Hillary then her campaign debt would be retired by now. Especially since she’s been sending emails for weeks now, asking for a dollar to five dollar donations...Some of them...the last one I got, in fact...was from Bill asking me to send in five dollars.
Face it....Hillary blew it. She mismanaged her campaign....her money...and her husband...He was definitely not an asset. I enjoyed the Clintons’ time in the White House, and for a time I wanted them back. But not after the racially tainted campaign they’ve just run...their refusal to fully support the nominee...or their half assed attempts to aid in the unification of the democratic party. If they really cared about this country...there would be no roll call on Hillary.
That would send a clear message to the puma-ites to get real and over it...or to go ahead and renew their memberships in the republican party....where these selfishly self centered women are obviously more comfortable.
8.19.2008
McCain in Dayton
I keep hearing that John McCain is going to hold a massive rally on August 29th, which happens to be his birthday, in Dayton, Ohio. The speculation continues that he will announce his VP during this huge rally of at least 10,000 strong.
I have some problems with this rumor....er, story....
1-the guy who announced this rally via his blog and is allegedly being asked to organize the Dayton event...one Alex Triantafilou...is the same guy who couldn’t get more than a handful of GOP faithful to show up on Fountain Square in Cincinnati to support McCain when he spoke at the NAACP convention. When I say handful, I mean just that. There were barely 20 McCain people on the square when McCain spoke July 16th...I was there....I counted them and wrote about it previously....
http://skeptikone.blogspot.com/2008/07/straight-talk-missed.html
2-Dayton is not in Hamilton County, Ohio. Triantafilou is chairman of the Hamilton County GOP. He couldn’t pull the numbers in his own backyard in Cincinnati, which is in Hamilton County and McCain or someone in his campaign is going to ask him to organize 50 miles away in another city? Makes no sense.
Why not ask the GOP bigwigs like Portman, Boehner, or Chabot for some help...there are hundreds of GOP ‘ers who could probably do a better job of organizing then what I have seen from this guy Triantafilou..
3- After Triantafilou wrote about the alleged event, it disappeared from his blog. Yet other bloggers and members of the MSM are reporting the story as fact...even though they haven’t been able to confirm any of it according to their own stories. I can find no one who has spoken with Triantafilou or anyone who matters.
One guy attributed to one blog...which attributed it to another blog...which attributed it to another blog.....That’s not confirmation.
I've got a call in to this guy, too...but I don't think he's going to call me back.
4- I visited the various GOP websites for my state...none listing any kind of event in Dayton on August 29th....well maybe they are keeping it close to the vest, for now.
5-The Nutter Center is open on the 29th according to its calendar of events....so maybe it might happen....But the numbers...10,000 folks on a Friday...day or night.....I doubt it......It’s kind of like the 18% African American vote supporting McCain that a polling group says exists in Ohio....Don’t think so...
But then, I’m not a prophet...just an observer..
I have some problems with this rumor....er, story....
1-the guy who announced this rally via his blog and is allegedly being asked to organize the Dayton event...one Alex Triantafilou...is the same guy who couldn’t get more than a handful of GOP faithful to show up on Fountain Square in Cincinnati to support McCain when he spoke at the NAACP convention. When I say handful, I mean just that. There were barely 20 McCain people on the square when McCain spoke July 16th...I was there....I counted them and wrote about it previously....
http://skeptikone.blogspot.com/2008/07/straight-talk-missed.html
2-Dayton is not in Hamilton County, Ohio. Triantafilou is chairman of the Hamilton County GOP. He couldn’t pull the numbers in his own backyard in Cincinnati, which is in Hamilton County and McCain or someone in his campaign is going to ask him to organize 50 miles away in another city? Makes no sense.
Why not ask the GOP bigwigs like Portman, Boehner, or Chabot for some help...there are hundreds of GOP ‘ers who could probably do a better job of organizing then what I have seen from this guy Triantafilou..
3- After Triantafilou wrote about the alleged event, it disappeared from his blog. Yet other bloggers and members of the MSM are reporting the story as fact...even though they haven’t been able to confirm any of it according to their own stories. I can find no one who has spoken with Triantafilou or anyone who matters.
One guy attributed to one blog...which attributed it to another blog...which attributed it to another blog.....That’s not confirmation.
I've got a call in to this guy, too...but I don't think he's going to call me back.
4- I visited the various GOP websites for my state...none listing any kind of event in Dayton on August 29th....well maybe they are keeping it close to the vest, for now.
5-The Nutter Center is open on the 29th according to its calendar of events....so maybe it might happen....But the numbers...10,000 folks on a Friday...day or night.....I doubt it......It’s kind of like the 18% African American vote supporting McCain that a polling group says exists in Ohio....Don’t think so...
But then, I’m not a prophet...just an observer..
8.18.2008
Who’s Being Polled?
Public Policy Polling, based in Raleigh, North Carolina, released a poll today saying that John McCain and Barack Obama are tied in Ohio. PPP says Obama is having trouble with middle aged white women who backed Hillary in the primaries. PPP rightly surmises that the old girls are still sulking.
According to PPP, Obama’s numbers among Democrats stands at 75%-17% backing him for president, while McCain has 89%-7% support of Republicans.
The polling group goes on to state in its release that Obama would be better off campaigning with Hillary when he comes to the Buckeye state. Maybe...maybe not. In my own personal polling, which amounts to me talking to friends and neighbors and acquaintances...Hillary’s name being put into nomination at the upcoming convention is the height stupidity. Folks are really ticked off at the Clintons and the arrogance of their supporters. But back to the poll....
I was willing to let this poll pass unnoticed until I looked at the numbers. One of the hidden figures inside this poll says that Obama is ahead of McCain in women and voters under 45...but is only 80%-18% supported by Blacks in Ohio. McCain leads Obama among whites 49%-38%.
Honestly, that does not look like a tie to me...even if the black vote is correct...which I don’t for a minute believe that it is....
Here in Ohio, which is Disneyland for the GOP, McCain can’t carry 18% of the black vote in a galvanized bucket with a padded handle. Ain’t gonna happen. . Things have changed since the days of Ken Blackwell...he lost the last election, remember? McCain may take Ohio...he has to, to win...but he’s not gonna take the black vote...not in anyone’s universe.
So, who did PPP interview to come up with these numbers.....950 folks who chose to pick up their telephones.....
I’m sorry.....I don’t like polls and don’t trust them because they never represent a true cross section of people. No poll has been right this year because of these small sectors. Yet the MSM continues to quote them...to swear by them....and then try to dissect them when they turn out wrong...
Until pollsters make a real effort to reach out to all people, they’ll just keep getting wronger and wronger ( I know it’s not a word...but it fits.)
According to PPP, Obama’s numbers among Democrats stands at 75%-17% backing him for president, while McCain has 89%-7% support of Republicans.
The polling group goes on to state in its release that Obama would be better off campaigning with Hillary when he comes to the Buckeye state. Maybe...maybe not. In my own personal polling, which amounts to me talking to friends and neighbors and acquaintances...Hillary’s name being put into nomination at the upcoming convention is the height stupidity. Folks are really ticked off at the Clintons and the arrogance of their supporters. But back to the poll....
I was willing to let this poll pass unnoticed until I looked at the numbers. One of the hidden figures inside this poll says that Obama is ahead of McCain in women and voters under 45...but is only 80%-18% supported by Blacks in Ohio. McCain leads Obama among whites 49%-38%.
Honestly, that does not look like a tie to me...even if the black vote is correct...which I don’t for a minute believe that it is....
Here in Ohio, which is Disneyland for the GOP, McCain can’t carry 18% of the black vote in a galvanized bucket with a padded handle. Ain’t gonna happen. . Things have changed since the days of Ken Blackwell...he lost the last election, remember? McCain may take Ohio...he has to, to win...but he’s not gonna take the black vote...not in anyone’s universe.
So, who did PPP interview to come up with these numbers.....950 folks who chose to pick up their telephones.....
I’m sorry.....I don’t like polls and don’t trust them because they never represent a true cross section of people. No poll has been right this year because of these small sectors. Yet the MSM continues to quote them...to swear by them....and then try to dissect them when they turn out wrong...
Until pollsters make a real effort to reach out to all people, they’ll just keep getting wronger and wronger ( I know it’s not a word...but it fits.)
8.15.2008
Obama Nation
You may have heard that the wingnut who successfully swift boated John Kerry a couple of years ago, is attempting to do the same thing to Barack Obama.
Jerome Corsi, a bigot of monumental proportions, judging from what he calls journalism, has penned a book called “The Obama Nation,” that currently rides atop the New York Times bestseller list.
The book is number one with an asterisk instead of a bullet because real sales figures have yet to show up. The figures do show that a bunch of right wing conservative organizations are buying the book in bulk to either pass out for free or just to prop up sales.
Rather than sit back and let it happen like Kerry did, Obama has launched a rebuttal to set the record straight.
You can find it here; http://obama.3cdn.net/a74586f9067028c40a_5km6vrqwa.pdf
Meantime, Corsi is doing what he does best...show up on white power radio shows and websites talking trash about blacks, jews, Catholics, women and everyone else who is not white, male and old...
Jerome Corsi, a bigot of monumental proportions, judging from what he calls journalism, has penned a book called “The Obama Nation,” that currently rides atop the New York Times bestseller list.
The book is number one with an asterisk instead of a bullet because real sales figures have yet to show up. The figures do show that a bunch of right wing conservative organizations are buying the book in bulk to either pass out for free or just to prop up sales.
Rather than sit back and let it happen like Kerry did, Obama has launched a rebuttal to set the record straight.
You can find it here; http://obama.3cdn.net/a74586f9067028c40a_5km6vrqwa.pdf
Meantime, Corsi is doing what he does best...show up on white power radio shows and websites talking trash about blacks, jews, Catholics, women and everyone else who is not white, male and old...
8.14.2008
McCain, One Uppity MoFo...er...Maverick
Presumptuous.....Uppity....Disrespectful....Narcissistic....I’m talking about McCain. He’s sending his boys, Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham to Georgia to show....what?...that he is large and in charge?...that he is the one who will make the decision about pulling Georgian ass out of its self inflicted bonfire.
Yes, they are both senators and both sit on the Armed Services Committee. But both also have their respective noses planted firmly up McCain’s butt.
I guess McCain is making hay while Obama is on vacation and I hope the MSM realizes this and calls this grandstanding for what it is....a blatant attempt to hijack the party away from Dubya. Or maybe it’s a subversive attempt by the back room neocons who control McCain’s campaign, to keep control of the flagging GOP.
No matter what you think of Shrub....and I mean I have absolutely no love for the guy...he is still the president...still the one in control and still the one who has to make the real decisions. McCain’s decision to call a news conference, no less, smacks of hubris.
McCain is playing politics, period. He is doing what the neocons want him to do.....using war and its background to scare and control people. Karl Rove may be gone, but his mini me’s are running rampant at the head of McCain’s bid for the White House. McCain is apparently to dim to realize he is being used, again.
This Georgia thing is more B.S. instigated by our current White House. Dubya’s made promises he can’t possibly keep.... and the Georgian President was not bright enough to recognize the Shrub talk for what it was, namely some misguided cowboy bravado.
As a result, we’ve got a minor ally facing off against one of the really bad guys in the world, demanding that we jump in, when we can’t, even if we wanted to. Which I hope we don’t. I like living between world wars, not during.
Let’s see if Condi really is the Soviet expert and up to the task. Let’s see if she can put a lid on this explosion, before vigilante John McQ fogs up things more.
Message to McCain......... Hey John....this is for real...not a campaign ad or a rehearsal....put your feet back into your 500 dollar ferragamo loafers and go sit down!
Yes, they are both senators and both sit on the Armed Services Committee. But both also have their respective noses planted firmly up McCain’s butt.
I guess McCain is making hay while Obama is on vacation and I hope the MSM realizes this and calls this grandstanding for what it is....a blatant attempt to hijack the party away from Dubya. Or maybe it’s a subversive attempt by the back room neocons who control McCain’s campaign, to keep control of the flagging GOP.
No matter what you think of Shrub....and I mean I have absolutely no love for the guy...he is still the president...still the one in control and still the one who has to make the real decisions. McCain’s decision to call a news conference, no less, smacks of hubris.
McCain is playing politics, period. He is doing what the neocons want him to do.....using war and its background to scare and control people. Karl Rove may be gone, but his mini me’s are running rampant at the head of McCain’s bid for the White House. McCain is apparently to dim to realize he is being used, again.
This Georgia thing is more B.S. instigated by our current White House. Dubya’s made promises he can’t possibly keep.... and the Georgian President was not bright enough to recognize the Shrub talk for what it was, namely some misguided cowboy bravado.
As a result, we’ve got a minor ally facing off against one of the really bad guys in the world, demanding that we jump in, when we can’t, even if we wanted to. Which I hope we don’t. I like living between world wars, not during.
Let’s see if Condi really is the Soviet expert and up to the task. Let’s see if she can put a lid on this explosion, before vigilante John McQ fogs up things more.
Message to McCain......... Hey John....this is for real...not a campaign ad or a rehearsal....put your feet back into your 500 dollar ferragamo loafers and go sit down!
8.13.2008
Did I Just Miss the Election?
Or is John McCain attempting to act presidential with his hawkish vibrato on the Georgia-Russia situation.
If this is his idea of showing us how well prepared he is to lead this country, then I have a few problems with his style. The John Wayne style of shooting from the hip and asking questions later doesn’t work in the real world anymore, if it ever did. And if he is attempting to live up to his misnamed nickname, then he is screwing that up, too. Maverick’s are loners who follow their own way. Madonna’s a maverick, Jane Fonda’s a maverick, Cool Hand Luke’s a maverick, Jack Nicholson’s a maverick, Dennis Kucinich is a maverick, Ron Paul is a maverick, Ralph Nader is a maverick....John McCain?.......nah!
Telling a group of reporters that countries don’t invade other countries in the 21st century was just plain dumb. Think about it, John....how did we get into Iraq, again? Did Saddam invite us for tea and a sleep over? No matter what Dubya’s reasons were, it was an invasion, plain and simple, and it happened in the 21st century.
And that other thing you said.....there is an old saying; don’t let your mouth make promises that your ass can’t keep. If you don’t occupy the White House, you can’t declare all of us Americans, Georgians and then tell those people “we’ve” got your back. I mean, where you git that “we” shit kemo sabe?
That’s a punch line from an old joke that McCain is old enough to know..Hell, he was probably there when it was written.
The joke goes like this; The Lone Ranger and his faithful Indian companion Tonto are riding along when suddenly they find themselves surrounded by Indians. The Lone Ranger looks at Tonto and says, “well old friend, I guess this is it, we’re outnumbered.” To which Tonto leans back on his horse and replies, “where you git that “we” shit kemo sabe..”
I’m with Tonto. I ain’t in this mess and I don’t like being put in the middle of a situation created by some useless promises and platitudes issued by that other fool, who still does occupy the White House.
McCain’s obviously missed the fact that we’re kind of short on troops these days what with those situations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Going guns blazing into Georgia would probably get us into a shooting match with Russia and drag the rest of the world down the non returnable rabbit hole of World War III.
The last time I looked, Shrub was still president, Dick Cheney was still VP. I don’t recall seeing John McCain listed anywhere in the current chain of command. And I do seem to recall him lambasting Obama in commercial after frickin commercial, about attempting to be presidential when he hasn’t yet won the election. At least Bush is sending his Russian expert, Condi Rice. Finally, she gets to do something other than play piano and demonstrate her predawn exercise routine.
Diplomacy is the way adults handle situations. The red phone is not some button in the cockpit of a practice mini bomber. Press the button and we lose the pilot and plane. Pick up the red phone and we lose the world.
Think about it, genius.
At the rate McCain is going, we can just hold Obama’s coronation tomorrow, or whenever he returns from vacation.
If this is his idea of showing us how well prepared he is to lead this country, then I have a few problems with his style. The John Wayne style of shooting from the hip and asking questions later doesn’t work in the real world anymore, if it ever did. And if he is attempting to live up to his misnamed nickname, then he is screwing that up, too. Maverick’s are loners who follow their own way. Madonna’s a maverick, Jane Fonda’s a maverick, Cool Hand Luke’s a maverick, Jack Nicholson’s a maverick, Dennis Kucinich is a maverick, Ron Paul is a maverick, Ralph Nader is a maverick....John McCain?.......nah!
Telling a group of reporters that countries don’t invade other countries in the 21st century was just plain dumb. Think about it, John....how did we get into Iraq, again? Did Saddam invite us for tea and a sleep over? No matter what Dubya’s reasons were, it was an invasion, plain and simple, and it happened in the 21st century.
And that other thing you said.....there is an old saying; don’t let your mouth make promises that your ass can’t keep. If you don’t occupy the White House, you can’t declare all of us Americans, Georgians and then tell those people “we’ve” got your back. I mean, where you git that “we” shit kemo sabe?
That’s a punch line from an old joke that McCain is old enough to know..Hell, he was probably there when it was written.
The joke goes like this; The Lone Ranger and his faithful Indian companion Tonto are riding along when suddenly they find themselves surrounded by Indians. The Lone Ranger looks at Tonto and says, “well old friend, I guess this is it, we’re outnumbered.” To which Tonto leans back on his horse and replies, “where you git that “we” shit kemo sabe..”
I’m with Tonto. I ain’t in this mess and I don’t like being put in the middle of a situation created by some useless promises and platitudes issued by that other fool, who still does occupy the White House.
McCain’s obviously missed the fact that we’re kind of short on troops these days what with those situations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Going guns blazing into Georgia would probably get us into a shooting match with Russia and drag the rest of the world down the non returnable rabbit hole of World War III.
The last time I looked, Shrub was still president, Dick Cheney was still VP. I don’t recall seeing John McCain listed anywhere in the current chain of command. And I do seem to recall him lambasting Obama in commercial after frickin commercial, about attempting to be presidential when he hasn’t yet won the election. At least Bush is sending his Russian expert, Condi Rice. Finally, she gets to do something other than play piano and demonstrate her predawn exercise routine.
Diplomacy is the way adults handle situations. The red phone is not some button in the cockpit of a practice mini bomber. Press the button and we lose the pilot and plane. Pick up the red phone and we lose the world.
Think about it, genius.
At the rate McCain is going, we can just hold Obama’s coronation tomorrow, or whenever he returns from vacation.
8.11.2008
Isaac, Bernie, John and Cullen
I’ve been busy vacationing, which means I haven’t looked at a computer screen, paid attention to my cell phone, or written a word in a few days. I believe in totally unplugging when I take time off. This time I was hanging out with my sisters and family. My parents celebrated their 58th wedding anniversary. I’m the first product of a two parent, albeit dysfunctional American family. Still together and still crazy after all these years.
As I’ve written in the past this is the time of the world’s longest yard sale that stretches from Defiance Ohio to Gadsden Alabama along Route 127. My sister and I have set a goal of seeing every inch of it before we die and we’re making progress...slow, easy, happy progress, in coming days I will write about it, but not yet.
Life has a way of intruding when you least expect it. Bernie Mac, and Isaac Hayes died this weekend. Bernie was one of those guys who could make me pay to go see a movie these days. I’m a movie fanatic who stood in line to see Christopher Reeve as Superman at 8:30 in the morning in Los Angeles with my sister and brother in law. I was in the first audience to see Alien, the movie that made it okay to be a strong woman and kick some alien butt in the process. I saw Star Wars and Raiders when they first came out. I even saw Too Wong Foo from the first row surrounded by some of my more flamboyant friends, to the consternation of the other staid Cincinnati movie goers...
But I stopped going to theaters weekly as the price went up and the quality of movies went down. I go now only when I want to see someone whom I admire. Bernie Mac was one of those people. He made me laugh and laugh and laugh. I can’t remember half the movies I saw him in, but I can remember each and every line he uttered. I knew he suffered from a chronic illness. I just didn’t expect it to take him so soon. I’m one of those “beige MF’s” (his words) who’s going to miss him.
Isaac Hayes was the conductor of the orchestra that plays the soundtrack to my life. Hot Buttered Soul....Black Moses.....Shaft.....By the Time I Get to Phoenix....
He was the grandfather of grown up rap...What he said between the music was as important as the music itself. I still play the vinyl rather than the CD, because I can, and because I like looking at his very creative album covers..the original ones...not the re issues...Hayes was unique as an entertainer.
I don’t know what killed him, but he, too, went too soon.
-0-
I went back through my commentaries to see what I’d written about John Edwards and the first thing I found was that I compared him to Dan Quayle, late last year, except I said he was much, much smarter. I take that back. Edwards is the dumbest rock in the box if he thinks that I and the rest of this world believes his version of his baby mama drama. Mr. Perfect’s been caught with his pants unzipped. He really is a politician and is as arrogant as the current resident of the White House. Hear what I say, pay no attention to what I do. Another defender of the sanctity of heterosexual marriage busted...Please!
-0-
Cullen....Cullen....Cullen...Cullen Jones...Gold medalist...Yeah! Like your smile, bro and the way you stroke. May you find success in getting the little ones into the pool...
As I’ve written in the past this is the time of the world’s longest yard sale that stretches from Defiance Ohio to Gadsden Alabama along Route 127. My sister and I have set a goal of seeing every inch of it before we die and we’re making progress...slow, easy, happy progress, in coming days I will write about it, but not yet.
Life has a way of intruding when you least expect it. Bernie Mac, and Isaac Hayes died this weekend. Bernie was one of those guys who could make me pay to go see a movie these days. I’m a movie fanatic who stood in line to see Christopher Reeve as Superman at 8:30 in the morning in Los Angeles with my sister and brother in law. I was in the first audience to see Alien, the movie that made it okay to be a strong woman and kick some alien butt in the process. I saw Star Wars and Raiders when they first came out. I even saw Too Wong Foo from the first row surrounded by some of my more flamboyant friends, to the consternation of the other staid Cincinnati movie goers...
But I stopped going to theaters weekly as the price went up and the quality of movies went down. I go now only when I want to see someone whom I admire. Bernie Mac was one of those people. He made me laugh and laugh and laugh. I can’t remember half the movies I saw him in, but I can remember each and every line he uttered. I knew he suffered from a chronic illness. I just didn’t expect it to take him so soon. I’m one of those “beige MF’s” (his words) who’s going to miss him.
Isaac Hayes was the conductor of the orchestra that plays the soundtrack to my life. Hot Buttered Soul....Black Moses.....Shaft.....By the Time I Get to Phoenix....
He was the grandfather of grown up rap...What he said between the music was as important as the music itself. I still play the vinyl rather than the CD, because I can, and because I like looking at his very creative album covers..the original ones...not the re issues...Hayes was unique as an entertainer.
I don’t know what killed him, but he, too, went too soon.
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I went back through my commentaries to see what I’d written about John Edwards and the first thing I found was that I compared him to Dan Quayle, late last year, except I said he was much, much smarter. I take that back. Edwards is the dumbest rock in the box if he thinks that I and the rest of this world believes his version of his baby mama drama. Mr. Perfect’s been caught with his pants unzipped. He really is a politician and is as arrogant as the current resident of the White House. Hear what I say, pay no attention to what I do. Another defender of the sanctity of heterosexual marriage busted...Please!
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Cullen....Cullen....Cullen...Cullen Jones...Gold medalist...Yeah! Like your smile, bro and the way you stroke. May you find success in getting the little ones into the pool...
8.04.2008
Like a Big Lead Balloon....
Buried under all the presidential campaign B.S. last week was a truly historic event. The United State House of Representatives passed a resolution apologizing to black Americans for slavery. The full text is as follows from the Library of Congress:
*
*
HRES 194 EH
H. Res. 194
In the House of Representatives, U. S.,
July 29, 2008.
Whereas millions of Africans and their descendants were enslaved in the United States and the 13 American colonies from 1619 through 1865;
Whereas slavery in America resembled no other form of involuntary servitude known in history, as Africans were captured and sold at auction like inanimate objects or animals;
Whereas Africans forced into slavery were brutalized, humiliated, dehumanized, and subjected to the indignity of being stripped of their names and heritage;
Whereas enslaved families were torn apart after having been sold separately from one another;
Whereas the system of slavery and the visceral racism against persons of African descent upon which it depended became entrenched in the Nation's social fabric;
Whereas slavery was not officially abolished until the passage of the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1865 after the end of the Civil War;
Whereas after emancipation from 246 years of slavery, African-Americans soon saw the fleeting political, social, and economic gains they made during Reconstruction eviscerated by virulent racism, lynchings, disenfranchisement, Black Codes, and racial segregation laws that imposed a rigid system of officially sanctioned racial segregation in virtually all areas of life;
Whereas the system of de jure racial segregation known as `Jim Crow,' which arose in certain parts of the Nation following the Civil War to create separate and unequal societies for whites and African-Americans, was a direct result of the racism against persons of African descent engendered by slavery;
Whereas a century after the official end of slavery in America, Federal action was required during the 1960s to eliminate the dejure and defacto system of Jim Crow throughout parts of the Nation, though its vestiges still linger to this day;
Whereas African-Americans continue to suffer from the complex interplay between slavery and Jim Crow--long after both systems were formally abolished--through enormous damage and loss, both tangible and intangible, including the loss of human dignity, the frustration of careers and professional lives, and the long-term loss of income and opportunity;
Whereas the story of the enslavement and de jure segregation of African-Americans and the dehumanizing atrocities committed against them should not be purged from or minimized in the telling of American history;
Whereas on July 8, 2003, during a trip to Goree Island, Senegal, a former slave port, President George W. Bush acknowledged slavery's continuing legacy in American life and the need to confront that legacy when he stated that slavery `was . . . one of the greatest crimes of history . . . The racial bigotry fed by slavery did not end with slavery or with segregation. And many of the issues that still trouble America have roots in the bitter experience of other times. But however long the journey, our destiny is set: liberty and justice for all.';
Whereas President Bill Clinton also acknowledged the deep-seated problems caused by the continuing legacy of racism against African-Americans that began with slavery when he initiated a national dialogue about race;
Whereas a genuine apology is an important and necessary first step in the process of racial reconciliation;
Whereas an apology for centuries of brutal dehumanization and injustices cannot erase the past, but confession of the wrongs committed can speed racial healing and reconciliation and help Americans confront the ghosts of their past;
Whereas the legislature of the Commonwealth of Virginia has recently taken the lead in adopting a resolution officially expressing appropriate remorse for slavery and other State legislatures have adopted or are considering similar resolutions; and
Whereas it is important for this country, which legally recognized slavery through its Constitution and its laws, to make a formal apology for slavery and for its successor, Jim Crow, so that it can move forward and seek reconciliation, justice, and harmony for all of its citizens: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) acknowledges that slavery is incompatible with the basic founding principles recognized in the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal;
(2) acknowledges the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery and Jim Crow;
(3) apologizes to African Americans on behalf of the people of the United States, for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors who suffered under slavery and Jim Crow; and
(4) expresses its commitment to rectify the lingering consequences of the misdeeds committed against African Americans under slavery and Jim Crow and to stop the occurrence of human rights violations in the future.
Attest:
Clerk.
END
It was a nonbinding resolution passed by voice vote. No reparations attached. I can and will forgive but it's still too early to forget.
*
*
HRES 194 EH
H. Res. 194
In the House of Representatives, U. S.,
July 29, 2008.
Whereas millions of Africans and their descendants were enslaved in the United States and the 13 American colonies from 1619 through 1865;
Whereas slavery in America resembled no other form of involuntary servitude known in history, as Africans were captured and sold at auction like inanimate objects or animals;
Whereas Africans forced into slavery were brutalized, humiliated, dehumanized, and subjected to the indignity of being stripped of their names and heritage;
Whereas enslaved families were torn apart after having been sold separately from one another;
Whereas the system of slavery and the visceral racism against persons of African descent upon which it depended became entrenched in the Nation's social fabric;
Whereas slavery was not officially abolished until the passage of the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1865 after the end of the Civil War;
Whereas after emancipation from 246 years of slavery, African-Americans soon saw the fleeting political, social, and economic gains they made during Reconstruction eviscerated by virulent racism, lynchings, disenfranchisement, Black Codes, and racial segregation laws that imposed a rigid system of officially sanctioned racial segregation in virtually all areas of life;
Whereas the system of de jure racial segregation known as `Jim Crow,' which arose in certain parts of the Nation following the Civil War to create separate and unequal societies for whites and African-Americans, was a direct result of the racism against persons of African descent engendered by slavery;
Whereas a century after the official end of slavery in America, Federal action was required during the 1960s to eliminate the dejure and defacto system of Jim Crow throughout parts of the Nation, though its vestiges still linger to this day;
Whereas African-Americans continue to suffer from the complex interplay between slavery and Jim Crow--long after both systems were formally abolished--through enormous damage and loss, both tangible and intangible, including the loss of human dignity, the frustration of careers and professional lives, and the long-term loss of income and opportunity;
Whereas the story of the enslavement and de jure segregation of African-Americans and the dehumanizing atrocities committed against them should not be purged from or minimized in the telling of American history;
Whereas on July 8, 2003, during a trip to Goree Island, Senegal, a former slave port, President George W. Bush acknowledged slavery's continuing legacy in American life and the need to confront that legacy when he stated that slavery `was . . . one of the greatest crimes of history . . . The racial bigotry fed by slavery did not end with slavery or with segregation. And many of the issues that still trouble America have roots in the bitter experience of other times. But however long the journey, our destiny is set: liberty and justice for all.';
Whereas President Bill Clinton also acknowledged the deep-seated problems caused by the continuing legacy of racism against African-Americans that began with slavery when he initiated a national dialogue about race;
Whereas a genuine apology is an important and necessary first step in the process of racial reconciliation;
Whereas an apology for centuries of brutal dehumanization and injustices cannot erase the past, but confession of the wrongs committed can speed racial healing and reconciliation and help Americans confront the ghosts of their past;
Whereas the legislature of the Commonwealth of Virginia has recently taken the lead in adopting a resolution officially expressing appropriate remorse for slavery and other State legislatures have adopted or are considering similar resolutions; and
Whereas it is important for this country, which legally recognized slavery through its Constitution and its laws, to make a formal apology for slavery and for its successor, Jim Crow, so that it can move forward and seek reconciliation, justice, and harmony for all of its citizens: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) acknowledges that slavery is incompatible with the basic founding principles recognized in the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal;
(2) acknowledges the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery and Jim Crow;
(3) apologizes to African Americans on behalf of the people of the United States, for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors who suffered under slavery and Jim Crow; and
(4) expresses its commitment to rectify the lingering consequences of the misdeeds committed against African Americans under slavery and Jim Crow and to stop the occurrence of human rights violations in the future.
Attest:
Clerk.
END
It was a nonbinding resolution passed by voice vote. No reparations attached. I can and will forgive but it's still too early to forget.
7.31.2008
Why I Won’t Vote for John Sidney McCain
I have said in other posts that I, once upon a time, considered John McCain a viable candidate for President. That was back in 2000, before I took a deeper look into his politics and before he started to show his true colors. I was taking him at his word....believing the words that were coming out of his mouth, at the time.
8 years later, after more words and research on my part, I can only say “man, what was I thinking.” I’ll admit it, I’m smart, but even I have stupid moments sometimes. My consideration of McCain as a possibility to lead this country was just plain dumb.
I have already written about his stance against any program that benefits women. His votes in Congress are 100% anti-woman. That in itself is enough to scare me away from him.
Since he has become the GOP standard bearer in 2008, he’s sunk even lower, adopting the totally clueless and classless posturing of the fratboy currently occupying the White House. All of this for the sake of power. He’s not the first to give into his thirst for power. George the first was overwhelmed by the dark side when he became Ronald Reagan’s Vice President. Prior to drinking the cool aide, George the first made sense, too. Others have crossed over. Maybe that is the true definition of a politician, I don’t know. Seems to be that way, today.
So, what else don’t I like about John McCain;
1...His patronizing attitudes toward black people. His thinking that we will jump on his bandwagon simply because he makes one speech at the NAACP convention. Don’t see anybody of color in his campaign.
He does have African American stuff at his campaign store...a dollar will buy you a bumper sticker that says “African Americans for McCain.” We don’t get hats or T shirts..just bumper stickers and key chains at 5-dollars a pop.
2...After stating that he wouldn’t stoop to attack politics, he hires and puts in charge three acolytes of Karl Rove, the wizard himself, to handle day to day operations in his campaign. Since he did that the McCain campaign has gone totally negative...nothing positive...just wall to wall attack ads meant to knock Obama off message.
If McCain were truly trying to be something other than Bush lite, he would not be running this type of campaign. These are the same guys who floated that story about McCain having a black illegitimate baby, back in 2000. Now he’s in bed with them. Talk about laying down in the gutter with dogs.
3...Speaking of attacks, McCain goaded Obama to go overseas to Iraq and Europe and when Obama responded, McCain attacked him for ignoring the American people, for ignoring the troops, for playing basketball instead of talking about the issues, for trying to look presidential, and for pandering to foreigners.
McCain was quick to say he’d already made many trips to Iraq and to show how safe it was, he took a walk through an Iraqi market place. However, he made his walk in flack jacket, surrounded by a platoon of soldiers, under cover from gun ships. I’d be safe too, if I was strolling around a war zone like that.
4...McCain blames Obama for rising gas prices. He released this ad when gasoline prices actually started to drop, but never mind that. I want to know how a junior Senator, who’s only been in Congress for a few years, can be blamed for a mess 30 years in the making?
And hasn’t McCain been in Congress more than 26 years? Tell me again, who’s to blame?
5...Now comes this attack likening Obama to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. The only Paris Hilton look alike I see on the campaign trail is Cindy McCain, John’s wife. Or hasn’t he noticed? Rail thin, blond, ice princess with a hundred million dollar inheritance, standing ten paces behind him? Maybe his war injuries prevent him from turning his head enough to see her in his shadow.
And, besides, is this ad anything other than a racist attempt to link a black man to some skinny ass white woman? Doesn't this ad play to the lowest of the low subliminal racial stereotypes?
6...McCain has also flipped on affirmative action. He is now against it.
7..He has flipped on tax cuts for the rich. He is now in favor.
8...He draws social security, yet he is in favor of gutting the program..medicare, too.
9....He has no love for public schools favoring instead funding vouchers and that silly “no child left behind” program.
10...He wants to stay in Iraq, prolong the war, even though al Maliki and the Iraqi people have said they want us gone, agreeing with Obama’s timetable.
11...McCain insists the surge worked.....not if you look at it....After all, how many generals did Bush have to fire to get one to agree with him on neocon war strategy...think about it.
12...McCain has adopted the GOP wingnut stance that anyone who disagrees with him is a traitor or unpatriotic. This is the reincarnation of Joe McCarthy, a truly insidious individual who was aided by a closeted gay man named Roy Cohn. That is in keeping with the current GOP standard.
13...After calling the pseudo pastors of the religious right, “agents of intolerance,” McCain has actually gone back to church, embraced the planet Neptune resident, John Hagee among others and is now attempting to appear more pious.
14....McCain’s past would seem to indicate that he has some serious character flaws...womanizing flaws like the ones that tarnished Bill Clinton’s tenure in the White House. Was he divorced or merely separated when he took up with a juvenile, now second wife.
15...And I will say it again...flying a jet, being a POW, albeit for five years, does not necessarily qualify you to be President of the United States.
Everyone I know personally, and I mean, everyone, who came back from Vietnam was messed up in the head...even if they weren’t held prisoner. We’re still paying the price for Vietnam with the cost of Iraq just beginning to show itself in the killings and rapes of female soldiers, in the suicides of returning troops, and the refusals of some to serve or of those to re-enlist and return, no matter how much money is thrown at them. The cost to torn apart families of the national guard is astronomical, with no end in sight.
John McCain was held for five years....can you say Manchurian Candidate?
I don’t want this man anywhere near the red phone at three o’clock in the morning with my life at stake.
I don’t trust him...plain and simple....I truly believe that World War III will happen if this man gets into the oval office as commander in chief....
8 years later, after more words and research on my part, I can only say “man, what was I thinking.” I’ll admit it, I’m smart, but even I have stupid moments sometimes. My consideration of McCain as a possibility to lead this country was just plain dumb.
I have already written about his stance against any program that benefits women. His votes in Congress are 100% anti-woman. That in itself is enough to scare me away from him.
Since he has become the GOP standard bearer in 2008, he’s sunk even lower, adopting the totally clueless and classless posturing of the fratboy currently occupying the White House. All of this for the sake of power. He’s not the first to give into his thirst for power. George the first was overwhelmed by the dark side when he became Ronald Reagan’s Vice President. Prior to drinking the cool aide, George the first made sense, too. Others have crossed over. Maybe that is the true definition of a politician, I don’t know. Seems to be that way, today.
So, what else don’t I like about John McCain;
1...His patronizing attitudes toward black people. His thinking that we will jump on his bandwagon simply because he makes one speech at the NAACP convention. Don’t see anybody of color in his campaign.
He does have African American stuff at his campaign store...a dollar will buy you a bumper sticker that says “African Americans for McCain.” We don’t get hats or T shirts..just bumper stickers and key chains at 5-dollars a pop.
2...After stating that he wouldn’t stoop to attack politics, he hires and puts in charge three acolytes of Karl Rove, the wizard himself, to handle day to day operations in his campaign. Since he did that the McCain campaign has gone totally negative...nothing positive...just wall to wall attack ads meant to knock Obama off message.
If McCain were truly trying to be something other than Bush lite, he would not be running this type of campaign. These are the same guys who floated that story about McCain having a black illegitimate baby, back in 2000. Now he’s in bed with them. Talk about laying down in the gutter with dogs.
3...Speaking of attacks, McCain goaded Obama to go overseas to Iraq and Europe and when Obama responded, McCain attacked him for ignoring the American people, for ignoring the troops, for playing basketball instead of talking about the issues, for trying to look presidential, and for pandering to foreigners.
McCain was quick to say he’d already made many trips to Iraq and to show how safe it was, he took a walk through an Iraqi market place. However, he made his walk in flack jacket, surrounded by a platoon of soldiers, under cover from gun ships. I’d be safe too, if I was strolling around a war zone like that.
4...McCain blames Obama for rising gas prices. He released this ad when gasoline prices actually started to drop, but never mind that. I want to know how a junior Senator, who’s only been in Congress for a few years, can be blamed for a mess 30 years in the making?
And hasn’t McCain been in Congress more than 26 years? Tell me again, who’s to blame?
5...Now comes this attack likening Obama to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. The only Paris Hilton look alike I see on the campaign trail is Cindy McCain, John’s wife. Or hasn’t he noticed? Rail thin, blond, ice princess with a hundred million dollar inheritance, standing ten paces behind him? Maybe his war injuries prevent him from turning his head enough to see her in his shadow.
And, besides, is this ad anything other than a racist attempt to link a black man to some skinny ass white woman? Doesn't this ad play to the lowest of the low subliminal racial stereotypes?
6...McCain has also flipped on affirmative action. He is now against it.
7..He has flipped on tax cuts for the rich. He is now in favor.
8...He draws social security, yet he is in favor of gutting the program..medicare, too.
9....He has no love for public schools favoring instead funding vouchers and that silly “no child left behind” program.
10...He wants to stay in Iraq, prolong the war, even though al Maliki and the Iraqi people have said they want us gone, agreeing with Obama’s timetable.
11...McCain insists the surge worked.....not if you look at it....After all, how many generals did Bush have to fire to get one to agree with him on neocon war strategy...think about it.
12...McCain has adopted the GOP wingnut stance that anyone who disagrees with him is a traitor or unpatriotic. This is the reincarnation of Joe McCarthy, a truly insidious individual who was aided by a closeted gay man named Roy Cohn. That is in keeping with the current GOP standard.
13...After calling the pseudo pastors of the religious right, “agents of intolerance,” McCain has actually gone back to church, embraced the planet Neptune resident, John Hagee among others and is now attempting to appear more pious.
14....McCain’s past would seem to indicate that he has some serious character flaws...womanizing flaws like the ones that tarnished Bill Clinton’s tenure in the White House. Was he divorced or merely separated when he took up with a juvenile, now second wife.
15...And I will say it again...flying a jet, being a POW, albeit for five years, does not necessarily qualify you to be President of the United States.
Everyone I know personally, and I mean, everyone, who came back from Vietnam was messed up in the head...even if they weren’t held prisoner. We’re still paying the price for Vietnam with the cost of Iraq just beginning to show itself in the killings and rapes of female soldiers, in the suicides of returning troops, and the refusals of some to serve or of those to re-enlist and return, no matter how much money is thrown at them. The cost to torn apart families of the national guard is astronomical, with no end in sight.
John McCain was held for five years....can you say Manchurian Candidate?
I don’t want this man anywhere near the red phone at three o’clock in the morning with my life at stake.
I don’t trust him...plain and simple....I truly believe that World War III will happen if this man gets into the oval office as commander in chief....
7.24.2008
A Head Full of Stuff.....
Playing politics with oil again...congress failed to approve the release of 70 million barrels of oil from our federal reserve. 70 million barrels is about a three day supply for this country. Democrats in the House failed to garner the needed two thirds majority in order to get the bill passed. The GOP refused to vote for the measure, reportedly because they want to force a vote on repealing the ban against off shore drilling.
It’s all politics....The two parties are maneuvering against each other while not giving two shits in a tin can about us, the people.
So Congress heads into a five week vacation without any action at all being taken to help us out, again.
-0-
An estimated 200-thousand people turn out in Berlin to hear Barack Obama speak While McCain takes a campaign photo op in front of a German restaurant in Columbus, Ohio. Well, at least he knows the connection between Berlin and German...must be a good memory day for the old guy.
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We just can’t get this fool out of the White House quick enough...Now the Department of Health and Human Services wants to codify contraceptive devices as abortion...Officials have already gutted women’s health programs...now they want to take it a step further by blatantly circumventing Roe v. Wade.....
It’s bad enough that insurance will pay for viagra but not for birth control pills...it’s apparently legal for pharmacies to refuse to distribute birth control while giving away cialis to dysfunctioning middle aged men...
Next they will probably try to legalize rape....Oh...Phyllis Schafly has already advocated that by saying husbands cannot rape their wives...Ha!
-0-
I thought McCain said he wasn’t going to stoop to “attack” politics...that he was going to run an above board campaign...that he was going to be a gentleman and not sling any mud....
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....so I guess the ad blaming Obama for the high gasoline prices...the ad linking Obama to Fidel Castro or the ad linking Obama to the Iranian president...were what? Accidents?
Or maybe, like my neighbor says, McCain is just too damn old to be president...Maybe these ads are a concrete sign of his encroaching dementia....ya think?
I do know one thing....McCain’s got to be pissed off, royally that a million people may show up to hear Obama speak in Germany today...A million people who can’t even vote....wow!
-0-
Did you hear about the story about one of our astronauts? Says we have had alien contact..says he had alien contact when he was on the moon...says NASA has been covering it up for years...says the alien he saw looks like the ones from Close Encounters of the Third Kind?
We know they are out there...I want to see the pics....Give em up NASA.....You know you have a scrapbook!
-0-
Speaking of aliens....what parent names their kid...”Talula does the hula in Hawaii” first name!? Trust me...I’m not making this up...this poor kid goes by the initial “K” because she gets so much grief because of this stupid name. The Courts in New Zealand have made her a ward of the state to get her away from her dumb parents.....please...if you hate kids...just don’t have any....sheeeesh!
-0-
So big deal....Batman yelled at his mom and sister....goes on everyday in families worldwide...reports today said his sister asked him for 200-thousand dollars to raise her three kids...he reportedly said “no”........that’s not assault....But I heard one alleged pundit surmise that this kind of publicity is going hurt THE DARK KNIGHT movie financially...Oh I’m so sure....people are going to run the other way...not see the movie because Batman argued with his mom! Please!
BTW.......The movie rules!.......Heath Ledger as the Joker...WOW!...And I wasn’t a Ledger fan...hated Brokeback Mountain...was bored to tears, never finished watching it....
Batman turns into the Terminator in his next movie....I think he actually plays a grown up John Connor...saw the preview....coming soon..
-0-
Estelle Getty died this week.....May she find peace....The Golden Girls are responsible for the only speeding ticket that I have had to pay...I’ve been caught three times, warned twice, ticketed once....Down in the Natchez Trace in Mississippi....I was racing to get back to where I was staying in Kosciousko Mississippi...better known as Oprah’s hometown....I left the interstate and got onto the Trace to make my way back...well....The Natchez Trace is federal land...and at that time...the federal speed limit was 50 miles per hour....I was doing considerably more than that because I wanted to see the Golden Girls and TIVO didn’t exist at that time....I was caught by a federal cop who did a U-turn on my butt and told me if I wanted to fight it, I had to go to Texas...as I said I was in Mississippi and I was visiting from Illinois....needless to say....I eventually paid the ticket....But I missed that episode of the Golden Girls....I still love em all....
It’s all politics....The two parties are maneuvering against each other while not giving two shits in a tin can about us, the people.
So Congress heads into a five week vacation without any action at all being taken to help us out, again.
-0-
An estimated 200-thousand people turn out in Berlin to hear Barack Obama speak While McCain takes a campaign photo op in front of a German restaurant in Columbus, Ohio. Well, at least he knows the connection between Berlin and German...must be a good memory day for the old guy.
-0-
We just can’t get this fool out of the White House quick enough...Now the Department of Health and Human Services wants to codify contraceptive devices as abortion...Officials have already gutted women’s health programs...now they want to take it a step further by blatantly circumventing Roe v. Wade.....
It’s bad enough that insurance will pay for viagra but not for birth control pills...it’s apparently legal for pharmacies to refuse to distribute birth control while giving away cialis to dysfunctioning middle aged men...
Next they will probably try to legalize rape....Oh...Phyllis Schafly has already advocated that by saying husbands cannot rape their wives...Ha!
-0-
I thought McCain said he wasn’t going to stoop to “attack” politics...that he was going to run an above board campaign...that he was going to be a gentleman and not sling any mud....
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....so I guess the ad blaming Obama for the high gasoline prices...the ad linking Obama to Fidel Castro or the ad linking Obama to the Iranian president...were what? Accidents?
Or maybe, like my neighbor says, McCain is just too damn old to be president...Maybe these ads are a concrete sign of his encroaching dementia....ya think?
I do know one thing....McCain’s got to be pissed off, royally that a million people may show up to hear Obama speak in Germany today...A million people who can’t even vote....wow!
-0-
Did you hear about the story about one of our astronauts? Says we have had alien contact..says he had alien contact when he was on the moon...says NASA has been covering it up for years...says the alien he saw looks like the ones from Close Encounters of the Third Kind?
We know they are out there...I want to see the pics....Give em up NASA.....You know you have a scrapbook!
-0-
Speaking of aliens....what parent names their kid...”Talula does the hula in Hawaii” first name!? Trust me...I’m not making this up...this poor kid goes by the initial “K” because she gets so much grief because of this stupid name. The Courts in New Zealand have made her a ward of the state to get her away from her dumb parents.....please...if you hate kids...just don’t have any....sheeeesh!
-0-
So big deal....Batman yelled at his mom and sister....goes on everyday in families worldwide...reports today said his sister asked him for 200-thousand dollars to raise her three kids...he reportedly said “no”........that’s not assault....But I heard one alleged pundit surmise that this kind of publicity is going hurt THE DARK KNIGHT movie financially...Oh I’m so sure....people are going to run the other way...not see the movie because Batman argued with his mom! Please!
BTW.......The movie rules!.......Heath Ledger as the Joker...WOW!...And I wasn’t a Ledger fan...hated Brokeback Mountain...was bored to tears, never finished watching it....
Batman turns into the Terminator in his next movie....I think he actually plays a grown up John Connor...saw the preview....coming soon..
-0-
Estelle Getty died this week.....May she find peace....The Golden Girls are responsible for the only speeding ticket that I have had to pay...I’ve been caught three times, warned twice, ticketed once....Down in the Natchez Trace in Mississippi....I was racing to get back to where I was staying in Kosciousko Mississippi...better known as Oprah’s hometown....I left the interstate and got onto the Trace to make my way back...well....The Natchez Trace is federal land...and at that time...the federal speed limit was 50 miles per hour....I was doing considerably more than that because I wanted to see the Golden Girls and TIVO didn’t exist at that time....I was caught by a federal cop who did a U-turn on my butt and told me if I wanted to fight it, I had to go to Texas...as I said I was in Mississippi and I was visiting from Illinois....needless to say....I eventually paid the ticket....But I missed that episode of the Golden Girls....I still love em all....
7.21.2008
9/16th of a Second of a Nipple
Is not indecent and does not warrant a 500-thousand dollar fine, so says the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, today. Take that, FCC!
9/16th of ONE SECOND, was how long the infamous “wardrobe malfunction” of Janet Jackson’s lasted at her 2004 superbowl performance with Justin Timberlake. Without a TIVO, you missed it. I was watching without benefit of TIVO. I wasn’t sure what I saw, considering it was a wide shot and not a close up. But of course, every news organization in the country put the incident on loop for myriad replays.
9/16ths of ONE SECOND and the FCC flipped out, rushing to protect the innocents watching the superbowl from the debauchery of Ms Jackson and Mr Timberlake. The feds slapped CBS with a half million dollar fine. Pseudo Christians and others who are hell bent on protecting everybody else’s morality, TIVO’ed their little hearts out, watching over and over and over, loudly decrying the outrage of the barely visible view of Ms. Jackson’s pasty covered nipple.
The FCC said the nudity and “malfunction” were graphic and explicit and CBS should have warned its audience that it was coming.
But the federal court said;
The policy that the FCC went against was its own, having been in existence for 30 years. The policy states roughly, fleeting glimpses, inadvertent words, are accidents, not finable offenses. They can’t arbitrarily change the rule overnight, said the high court.
I can understand if Jackson had really been nude, say maybe a bikini or skin colored body suit. But the girl was fully clothed for all but 9/16th of ONE SECOND. And the nipple had a pasty on it. Actresses walking the red carpet, routinely show off as much body as possible...hello JLO, wearing a green Versace...Anybody check out girlfriend from Dreamgirls and American Idol on Good Morning America, today? That was way more cleavage then I needed with my cornflakes this AM. But obscene or indecent....nah!
The FCC has yet to comment on the reversal. In a written statement that I’m paraphrasing, CBS says it hopes the FCC has returned to its senses, so that the world can move on to a real crisis.
My take...want to eliminate government waste...ditch the FCC right after doing away with the Department of Homeland Security.
9/16th of ONE SECOND, was how long the infamous “wardrobe malfunction” of Janet Jackson’s lasted at her 2004 superbowl performance with Justin Timberlake. Without a TIVO, you missed it. I was watching without benefit of TIVO. I wasn’t sure what I saw, considering it was a wide shot and not a close up. But of course, every news organization in the country put the incident on loop for myriad replays.
9/16ths of ONE SECOND and the FCC flipped out, rushing to protect the innocents watching the superbowl from the debauchery of Ms Jackson and Mr Timberlake. The feds slapped CBS with a half million dollar fine. Pseudo Christians and others who are hell bent on protecting everybody else’s morality, TIVO’ed their little hearts out, watching over and over and over, loudly decrying the outrage of the barely visible view of Ms. Jackson’s pasty covered nipple.
The FCC said the nudity and “malfunction” were graphic and explicit and CBS should have warned its audience that it was coming.
But the federal court said;
“The Commission's determination that CBS's broadcast of a nine-sixteenths of one second glimpse of a bare female breast was actionably indecent evidenced the agency's departure from its prior policy," the court found. "Its orders constituted the announcement of a policy change—that fleeting images would no longer be excluded from the scope of actionable indecency.”
The policy that the FCC went against was its own, having been in existence for 30 years. The policy states roughly, fleeting glimpses, inadvertent words, are accidents, not finable offenses. They can’t arbitrarily change the rule overnight, said the high court.
I can understand if Jackson had really been nude, say maybe a bikini or skin colored body suit. But the girl was fully clothed for all but 9/16th of ONE SECOND. And the nipple had a pasty on it. Actresses walking the red carpet, routinely show off as much body as possible...hello JLO, wearing a green Versace...Anybody check out girlfriend from Dreamgirls and American Idol on Good Morning America, today? That was way more cleavage then I needed with my cornflakes this AM. But obscene or indecent....nah!
The FCC has yet to comment on the reversal. In a written statement that I’m paraphrasing, CBS says it hopes the FCC has returned to its senses, so that the world can move on to a real crisis.
My take...want to eliminate government waste...ditch the FCC right after doing away with the Department of Homeland Security.
7.17.2008
Straight Talk Missed
The news banner on the TV screen under John McCain said; McCain speaks to thousands, but that was simply not the case. The room at the Duke Energy Center was not filled, according to my friends who were inside, and the number of McCain backers who showed up on Fountain Square could be counted on both hands and both feet, but there were less than a 100, with Obama supporters, vote canvassers and the curious outnumbering them 2 to 1.
At no time did Channel Five pan the square during the 30 minute talk. It would have proved to be an embarrassment considering the turnout for Obama, Monday night. Those of us on the Square had to strain in order to hear McCain, unlike Monday when you could’ve heard an ant walking on cotton when Obama spoke. No one seemed to care that McCain was talking. I did listen or tried to over the noise of other conversations, cell phones and general disinterest from the crowd.
The speech was a formality...a bit too condescending for my tastes. You can find it elsewhere. I won’t rehash here.
I went downtown early for McCain’s speech. The sun just barely kissing the east side of the square, the lady of the waters still shrouded in morning shade. It was early. The vendors hadn’t yet set up shop. I assumed they would hawk wares supporting McCain. I later found out that was not the case. When the vendors showed, it was still Obamaville. No McCain hats, shirts, banners or bumper stickers in evidence for sale.
The feeling was subdued, tight, nothing like the festive atmosphere of two days prior. Very few kids, hardly any young people at all.
A gathering of strangers...no village...no comraderie...no feelings of anticipation or optimism. Everyone that I spoke with said they were there to give McCain a chance. They were trying to be fair before making a choice.
I wanted McCain to challenge me. Instead, he lived down to my expectation. When his supporters did show up, they stood in a group, did not mingle, speaking only to each other, visitors to the real world of the Square, uncomfortable.
I realize it was a brunch situation as opposed to Obama’s prime time appearance. I realize that there are many, many more McCain supporters living, working and breathing in GOP dominated Cincinnati Ohio.
I guess what surprised me most of all was the haphazard organization and lack of concern for the McCain appearance.
Don’t they care or are they really that arrogant to think that all the newly registered, all the young and the rest of us really won’t show up in November?
At no time did Channel Five pan the square during the 30 minute talk. It would have proved to be an embarrassment considering the turnout for Obama, Monday night. Those of us on the Square had to strain in order to hear McCain, unlike Monday when you could’ve heard an ant walking on cotton when Obama spoke. No one seemed to care that McCain was talking. I did listen or tried to over the noise of other conversations, cell phones and general disinterest from the crowd.
The speech was a formality...a bit too condescending for my tastes. You can find it elsewhere. I won’t rehash here.
I went downtown early for McCain’s speech. The sun just barely kissing the east side of the square, the lady of the waters still shrouded in morning shade. It was early. The vendors hadn’t yet set up shop. I assumed they would hawk wares supporting McCain. I later found out that was not the case. When the vendors showed, it was still Obamaville. No McCain hats, shirts, banners or bumper stickers in evidence for sale.
The feeling was subdued, tight, nothing like the festive atmosphere of two days prior. Very few kids, hardly any young people at all.
A gathering of strangers...no village...no comraderie...no feelings of anticipation or optimism. Everyone that I spoke with said they were there to give McCain a chance. They were trying to be fair before making a choice.
I wanted McCain to challenge me. Instead, he lived down to my expectation. When his supporters did show up, they stood in a group, did not mingle, speaking only to each other, visitors to the real world of the Square, uncomfortable.
I realize it was a brunch situation as opposed to Obama’s prime time appearance. I realize that there are many, many more McCain supporters living, working and breathing in GOP dominated Cincinnati Ohio.
I guess what surprised me most of all was the haphazard organization and lack of concern for the McCain appearance.
Don’t they care or are they really that arrogant to think that all the newly registered, all the young and the rest of us really won’t show up in November?
7.16.2008
What’s Up Girl? Not Gettin’ Any?
Ricki Lieberman is a bitter, bitter woman. She is a wealthy upper West Side New Yorker and democratic fundraiser, who is pissed off that Hillary is not going to get the Democratic Nomination. That’s okay. She has a right to be mad. She has a right to prefer Hillary over everyone else.
The 61 year old is actively trying to convince superdelegates or S.Ds, as she calls them in her avalanche of daily emails, to change their minds and give Hillary the nomination at the convention in Denver. While I applaud her initiative, I am appalled by her tactics and the contents of some of these emails.
They are vile, filled with all the lies and innuendos currently floating around the internet and main stream media about Barack and Michelle. Among other things she compares BO as she calls him to Hitler. She attempts to link him to Farakhan. She even quotes stuff dreamed up by the master prevaricator and peripheral bullshit artist, Karl Rove. All lies. I can't fathom the level of viciousness that I’ve read, but I have seen it the gay community from women who won’t take “no” for an answer. So what...does she have a crush on Hillary? Is it unrequited misdirected love? Don’t know. Hillary has already officially disavowed this woman.
Lieberman, no relation to Joe, claims she is merely trying to get the best candidate nominated and into the White House. However, she is recommending that campaign donors withhold funds from Obama and either vote for McCain or stay home, if Hillary is not given the nomination. She claims that Hillary would be up by 20 points over McCain if she’d been victorious in the primaries.
Now, I knew some women were ticked off. I’ve even written about these women in earlier posts.. They were holding Obama responsible for sexist comments by some MSM reporters, anchors and commentators. Obama can’t control these people any more than I can. I thought that these women would come to their senses after they examined McCain’s long and lengthy voting record excoriating women and women’s rights. His votes are 100 percent against anything female. That includes reproductive rights, health, welfare, child care, schools, you name it. If it doesn’t benefit rich white men he is against it, period. His condescending visit to the NAACP today not withstanding. I will get to that in another post shortly.
I have tried to keep race out of this. But from the emails it is obvious that this may be her other problem. Some of the most virulent racists that I have crossed in my five decades have been so called liberals. People who say they don’t see color, but their actions speak volumes, especially when they think people of color are not listening. The New York Daily News called this woman a fanatic preferring to steer away from the “R” word.
But I’m not. I’m going to call it what it feels like...what it is......The bitch is a racist. She is apparently so blinded by her hatred that she doesn’t see what she is doing, which is handing America another four years of Bush via John McCain.
Cutting off ones’ nose to spite one’s face is just plain stupid.
Other blogs that have already written on this character assassination campaign are asking readers to email this woman directly. I agree. Check her out on her website: clintondems.com and then if what you’ve read, bothers you, email her and tell her how stupid she is. Maybe if enough of us inundate her with mail like she’s done to some of us, then maybe, just maybe she will come to her senses...Probably not...but we can only try...
icount@clintondems.com, or rrlieberma@gmail.com, or rrl3333@gmail.com
The Huffington Post and Rootswire.org got into more detail. Check those out too.
The 61 year old is actively trying to convince superdelegates or S.Ds, as she calls them in her avalanche of daily emails, to change their minds and give Hillary the nomination at the convention in Denver. While I applaud her initiative, I am appalled by her tactics and the contents of some of these emails.
They are vile, filled with all the lies and innuendos currently floating around the internet and main stream media about Barack and Michelle. Among other things she compares BO as she calls him to Hitler. She attempts to link him to Farakhan. She even quotes stuff dreamed up by the master prevaricator and peripheral bullshit artist, Karl Rove. All lies. I can't fathom the level of viciousness that I’ve read, but I have seen it the gay community from women who won’t take “no” for an answer. So what...does she have a crush on Hillary? Is it unrequited misdirected love? Don’t know. Hillary has already officially disavowed this woman.
Lieberman, no relation to Joe, claims she is merely trying to get the best candidate nominated and into the White House. However, she is recommending that campaign donors withhold funds from Obama and either vote for McCain or stay home, if Hillary is not given the nomination. She claims that Hillary would be up by 20 points over McCain if she’d been victorious in the primaries.
Now, I knew some women were ticked off. I’ve even written about these women in earlier posts.. They were holding Obama responsible for sexist comments by some MSM reporters, anchors and commentators. Obama can’t control these people any more than I can. I thought that these women would come to their senses after they examined McCain’s long and lengthy voting record excoriating women and women’s rights. His votes are 100 percent against anything female. That includes reproductive rights, health, welfare, child care, schools, you name it. If it doesn’t benefit rich white men he is against it, period. His condescending visit to the NAACP today not withstanding. I will get to that in another post shortly.
I have tried to keep race out of this. But from the emails it is obvious that this may be her other problem. Some of the most virulent racists that I have crossed in my five decades have been so called liberals. People who say they don’t see color, but their actions speak volumes, especially when they think people of color are not listening. The New York Daily News called this woman a fanatic preferring to steer away from the “R” word.
But I’m not. I’m going to call it what it feels like...what it is......The bitch is a racist. She is apparently so blinded by her hatred that she doesn’t see what she is doing, which is handing America another four years of Bush via John McCain.
Cutting off ones’ nose to spite one’s face is just plain stupid.
Other blogs that have already written on this character assassination campaign are asking readers to email this woman directly. I agree. Check her out on her website: clintondems.com and then if what you’ve read, bothers you, email her and tell her how stupid she is. Maybe if enough of us inundate her with mail like she’s done to some of us, then maybe, just maybe she will come to her senses...Probably not...but we can only try...
icount@clintondems.com, or rrlieberma@gmail.com, or rrl3333@gmail.com
The Huffington Post and Rootswire.org got into more detail. Check those out too.
7.15.2008
Kicking Back in Obamaville
Juggernaut is not a word that I would use to describe Barack Obama’s run for president. It is a ground swell. It is a 30 foot wave of emotion slamming into the shore. It is a movement that sometimes feels like a throwback to the sixties.
A juggernaut overtakes and then overwhelms its victims. Obama doesn’t feel like that, yet. He and his campaign still feel vulnerable and seemingly face derailment at any moment.
The movement barreled into Cincinnati yesterday. The Queen City is hosting the national convention for the NAACP, and Barack was the whip cream on the strawberries and shortcake of the Monday session.
While delegates to the convention worked through their sessions at the Duke Energy Center, Obamaville set up on Fountain Square, the heart of Cincinnati. Now, anyone who has seen the old television show WKRP in Cincinnati or at the very least, seen a picture of the city, recognizes the Tyler Davidson Fountain. It is the city symbol. The waters were flowing from the newly refurbished fountain and a nice breeze occasionally picked up the waters and sprayed it over the crowd to cool them on a warm but humidity free day. Young ones released from the prison of their strollers found the boy on the turtle and washed their feet in the tiny pools of water at his feet..
Obamaville looks like a village. More than that, it looks like the perfect picture of diversity. There were the very young enjoying playtime among the adults, independent and oblivious to the importance of the situation. Teenagers strolled, cool, hip, attempting to project a world knowledge that won’t hit them for many more years. College kids eager to take part in something, feeling the moment. Absolutely giddy in their new found cause. Using digital cameras to photograph images on the big screen and in the crowd. Their parents, sometimes at their side, skeptical...cynical about yet another possible savior in the offing. Older folks who’ve lived and worked and ridden out the disappointments of seeing one good man after another make big promises and fail. Older people made stoic from life, watching and waiting for the man of the hour. Five hours, six hours until he would show up on the big screen TV on top of Macy’s department store. Obamaville was every color, every creed, every gender, every sexuality, every nationality, no one dominant, freely conversing with anyone else willing to engage.
We talked with one another, names, introductions, not important. The talk wasn’t always about politics or econmics. It was about kids, the weather, the artwork on the cheap t shirts, happenings in faraway hometowns, and even shared health problems. I met two women who used their outside time to light up camel unfiltered cigarettes, the brand that killed my grandmother. The three of us, it turned out had all been diagnosed with bad hearts. We were all on the same medication. I looked better than them, they said. I appeared healthier and they wanted to know what I was doing to stay healthy, since we were all about the same age. I don’t smoke. Never have. But I didn’t insult them, by telling them they needed to quit. They already knew. It was just conversation.
I found my spot after wandering around a bit, greeting old friends in the crowd. Perched in the shade, I waited in front of a chess board table with no pieces. I would’ve played if I had pieces, but I guess you’ve got to bring your own. I was joined by a woman from Battle Creek, here for the convention. Battle Creek is a small town, home to Kellogg’s, as in cereal with a population of maybe 54,000 people, 7 percent black. We were joined by another woman, origin Huntsville, Alabama, there to work the square signing up new voters and volunteers for Obama. She worked a little. We talked a little. It was easy, comfortable. Anyone looking at us would have thought we’d arrived there together. Many other groups formed around us the same way. Strangers with a common cause, finding each other in Obamaville.
As the feel good moment drew closer, space in Obamaville dried up. People arrived from all directions, toting those multi colored chairs in a bag. Families made up of three or four generations arriving with coolers of food and drink, eating dinner picnic style, in front of the big screen HD-TV.
My group was then joined by a local man, from a prominent Cincinnati family. Two uncles have terminals named after them at the Greater Cincinnati Airport. There is a street in suburban Bond Hill that also bears the family name. He was high school teacher with a head full of history and pop culture knowledge.
Obama was late but it didn’t dampen spirits or anticipation. He talked for roughly 25 minutes. I won’t rehash his speech, you can parse it elsewhere. He spoke to the youth, the young, yet managed to include the older jaded crowd who’d heard it before, and made us believe that we’re hearing something new. We came to the square strangers with questions. We left a village, answers forthcoming.
A juggernaut overtakes and then overwhelms its victims. Obama doesn’t feel like that, yet. He and his campaign still feel vulnerable and seemingly face derailment at any moment.
The movement barreled into Cincinnati yesterday. The Queen City is hosting the national convention for the NAACP, and Barack was the whip cream on the strawberries and shortcake of the Monday session.
While delegates to the convention worked through their sessions at the Duke Energy Center, Obamaville set up on Fountain Square, the heart of Cincinnati. Now, anyone who has seen the old television show WKRP in Cincinnati or at the very least, seen a picture of the city, recognizes the Tyler Davidson Fountain. It is the city symbol. The waters were flowing from the newly refurbished fountain and a nice breeze occasionally picked up the waters and sprayed it over the crowd to cool them on a warm but humidity free day. Young ones released from the prison of their strollers found the boy on the turtle and washed their feet in the tiny pools of water at his feet..
Obamaville looks like a village. More than that, it looks like the perfect picture of diversity. There were the very young enjoying playtime among the adults, independent and oblivious to the importance of the situation. Teenagers strolled, cool, hip, attempting to project a world knowledge that won’t hit them for many more years. College kids eager to take part in something, feeling the moment. Absolutely giddy in their new found cause. Using digital cameras to photograph images on the big screen and in the crowd. Their parents, sometimes at their side, skeptical...cynical about yet another possible savior in the offing. Older folks who’ve lived and worked and ridden out the disappointments of seeing one good man after another make big promises and fail. Older people made stoic from life, watching and waiting for the man of the hour. Five hours, six hours until he would show up on the big screen TV on top of Macy’s department store. Obamaville was every color, every creed, every gender, every sexuality, every nationality, no one dominant, freely conversing with anyone else willing to engage.
We talked with one another, names, introductions, not important. The talk wasn’t always about politics or econmics. It was about kids, the weather, the artwork on the cheap t shirts, happenings in faraway hometowns, and even shared health problems. I met two women who used their outside time to light up camel unfiltered cigarettes, the brand that killed my grandmother. The three of us, it turned out had all been diagnosed with bad hearts. We were all on the same medication. I looked better than them, they said. I appeared healthier and they wanted to know what I was doing to stay healthy, since we were all about the same age. I don’t smoke. Never have. But I didn’t insult them, by telling them they needed to quit. They already knew. It was just conversation.
I found my spot after wandering around a bit, greeting old friends in the crowd. Perched in the shade, I waited in front of a chess board table with no pieces. I would’ve played if I had pieces, but I guess you’ve got to bring your own. I was joined by a woman from Battle Creek, here for the convention. Battle Creek is a small town, home to Kellogg’s, as in cereal with a population of maybe 54,000 people, 7 percent black. We were joined by another woman, origin Huntsville, Alabama, there to work the square signing up new voters and volunteers for Obama. She worked a little. We talked a little. It was easy, comfortable. Anyone looking at us would have thought we’d arrived there together. Many other groups formed around us the same way. Strangers with a common cause, finding each other in Obamaville.
As the feel good moment drew closer, space in Obamaville dried up. People arrived from all directions, toting those multi colored chairs in a bag. Families made up of three or four generations arriving with coolers of food and drink, eating dinner picnic style, in front of the big screen HD-TV.
My group was then joined by a local man, from a prominent Cincinnati family. Two uncles have terminals named after them at the Greater Cincinnati Airport. There is a street in suburban Bond Hill that also bears the family name. He was high school teacher with a head full of history and pop culture knowledge.
Obama was late but it didn’t dampen spirits or anticipation. He talked for roughly 25 minutes. I won’t rehash his speech, you can parse it elsewhere. He spoke to the youth, the young, yet managed to include the older jaded crowd who’d heard it before, and made us believe that we’re hearing something new. We came to the square strangers with questions. We left a village, answers forthcoming.
7.09.2008
Dubya Wins Again
I’ve got a question........What difference does it make if we throw the dummy out of the White House, when congress continues to rubber stamp his abusive policies and validates his blatant disregard for our constitution.
I’m talking about the passage of FISA, the foreign intelligence surveillance act. This act allows the government to spy on Americans without having to show proof and get a warrant first. This act also exempts the big telecom companies from lawsuits from citizens for the illegal spying that has been going on since 9/11. Makes me want to send Verizon my cell phone and tell them which orifice to stick it up. Pay as you go cell is looking better and better everyday.
Obama voted for this garbage. Hillary voted against it. I don’t think McCain knows what it is. He’s too busy making jokes about killing Iranian civilians.
The thing that ticks me off about Obama is that I heard him say he would vote for it, then look at it later for revision, I guess after he is in the White House. Hell, why put it into effect at all? Why not vote it down in the first place. He is still a Senator, after all. And there is no guarantee he is going to make it to the White House for a second look in the first place.
That’s procrastination, bro...a terminal illness among my brothers of a similar color. Obama still has my vote, but I’m not a happy camper today.
Anyway...I've said it before, and I will say it again....
After we change the White House, we need to clear out Capital Hill, starting with Nancy Pelosi and that absolutely worthless majority leader, Harry Reid.
Term Limits, term limits, term limits....
I’m talking about the passage of FISA, the foreign intelligence surveillance act. This act allows the government to spy on Americans without having to show proof and get a warrant first. This act also exempts the big telecom companies from lawsuits from citizens for the illegal spying that has been going on since 9/11. Makes me want to send Verizon my cell phone and tell them which orifice to stick it up. Pay as you go cell is looking better and better everyday.
Obama voted for this garbage. Hillary voted against it. I don’t think McCain knows what it is. He’s too busy making jokes about killing Iranian civilians.
The thing that ticks me off about Obama is that I heard him say he would vote for it, then look at it later for revision, I guess after he is in the White House. Hell, why put it into effect at all? Why not vote it down in the first place. He is still a Senator, after all. And there is no guarantee he is going to make it to the White House for a second look in the first place.
That’s procrastination, bro...a terminal illness among my brothers of a similar color. Obama still has my vote, but I’m not a happy camper today.
Anyway...I've said it before, and I will say it again....
After we change the White House, we need to clear out Capital Hill, starting with Nancy Pelosi and that absolutely worthless majority leader, Harry Reid.
Term Limits, term limits, term limits....
7.07.2008
McCain’s Got Jokes
John McCain says he’s going to balance the budget by the end of his first term in office as president. And after he does that he is going marry me and make me a straight woman. Ha!
Republicans have been rolling out this campaign lie since Ronald Reagan. Eight years ago, before the latest GOP clown took over, there was a government surplus. We, meaning the 95% of the population who are regular folks and not rich, were happy. We had jobs, we had money, we could feed our families and drive our cars. Reagan not only did not balance the budget, but he increased the deficit and should have been brought up on charges along with Ollie North.
Now, thanks to the policies of trickle down economics or voodoo economics, as George the first called it before he became Reagan’s vice president, implemented by George the second, we have a deficit approaching multi trillion dollars. We have a couple of wars, no jobs, no money, no health care, no food for our families, and we can’t afford gasoline.
GOP nominee, John McCain apparently wants to continue the policies that has put us 95 percenters deeper in the poor house.
McCain was originally against the Bush tax cuts....Now that he is running for president..he is in favor of them....AND...he says he will pay down the deficit by winning the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and taking all that money that we no longer have to spend over there, and pay off the bills over here....voila! Balanced budget! Hehehehehehehehehehe! “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!”
He also wants to cut spending on social security, medicare and medicaid, because that is where all the wasteful government spending is located, according to him.
McCain also shook up his advisory staff, too. He added a Bush acolyte to the payroll, a guy who is said to be a Karl Rove disciple. Hasn’t anyone told McCain that if you’re truly trying to distance yourself from someone....you run AWAY from them.....NOT toward them...And you certainly don’t hire their old staff to help you run what you say is a NEW campaign.
But then maybe I’m the one who’s the dummy....Maybe he isn’t running away from Bush. Doesn’t seem like it.
And, since I’m in a McCain smack down mood......General Wesley Clark didn’t lie.....flying planes does not necessarily qualify you to be president....it’s kind of like....just because we can all drive a car...that we are all qualified to drive in the Indy 500......No.....Not at all.....
This was just another example of all the fake scandals that have been floating around for the past several years to deflect our attention away from the real stuff.....
I call it peripheral Bullshit.....pay attention to the BS and you miss the real story hidden behind it..
-0-
WIMBLEDON !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Go Williams....the girls took home 2.5-million dollars by Venus winning singles for the fifth time and then teaming up with Serena to take the doubles crown from the number one ranked women’s team in the world.....
I didn’t think it could get any better...but then came Sunday...
Ra-fa! Ra-fa! Ra-fa!
Man....I just saw the greatest tennis match of my life.....I never thought I would see anything to top the Borg-McEnroe matches of 1980 and 1981. They were magnicificent, and I was content to go to my grave with those memories...
Now there is a new one.....Nadal and Federer....
May they play long and hard. Man! That was some weekend!
Republicans have been rolling out this campaign lie since Ronald Reagan. Eight years ago, before the latest GOP clown took over, there was a government surplus. We, meaning the 95% of the population who are regular folks and not rich, were happy. We had jobs, we had money, we could feed our families and drive our cars. Reagan not only did not balance the budget, but he increased the deficit and should have been brought up on charges along with Ollie North.
Now, thanks to the policies of trickle down economics or voodoo economics, as George the first called it before he became Reagan’s vice president, implemented by George the second, we have a deficit approaching multi trillion dollars. We have a couple of wars, no jobs, no money, no health care, no food for our families, and we can’t afford gasoline.
GOP nominee, John McCain apparently wants to continue the policies that has put us 95 percenters deeper in the poor house.
McCain was originally against the Bush tax cuts....Now that he is running for president..he is in favor of them....AND...he says he will pay down the deficit by winning the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and taking all that money that we no longer have to spend over there, and pay off the bills over here....voila! Balanced budget! Hehehehehehehehehehe! “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!”
He also wants to cut spending on social security, medicare and medicaid, because that is where all the wasteful government spending is located, according to him.
McCain also shook up his advisory staff, too. He added a Bush acolyte to the payroll, a guy who is said to be a Karl Rove disciple. Hasn’t anyone told McCain that if you’re truly trying to distance yourself from someone....you run AWAY from them.....NOT toward them...And you certainly don’t hire their old staff to help you run what you say is a NEW campaign.
But then maybe I’m the one who’s the dummy....Maybe he isn’t running away from Bush. Doesn’t seem like it.
And, since I’m in a McCain smack down mood......General Wesley Clark didn’t lie.....flying planes does not necessarily qualify you to be president....it’s kind of like....just because we can all drive a car...that we are all qualified to drive in the Indy 500......No.....Not at all.....
This was just another example of all the fake scandals that have been floating around for the past several years to deflect our attention away from the real stuff.....
I call it peripheral Bullshit.....pay attention to the BS and you miss the real story hidden behind it..
-0-
WIMBLEDON !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Go Williams....the girls took home 2.5-million dollars by Venus winning singles for the fifth time and then teaming up with Serena to take the doubles crown from the number one ranked women’s team in the world.....
I didn’t think it could get any better...but then came Sunday...
Ra-fa! Ra-fa! Ra-fa!
Man....I just saw the greatest tennis match of my life.....I never thought I would see anything to top the Borg-McEnroe matches of 1980 and 1981. They were magnicificent, and I was content to go to my grave with those memories...
Now there is a new one.....Nadal and Federer....
May they play long and hard. Man! That was some weekend!
7.04.2008
July 4th, 2008 Passings
Jesse Helms died today....quoting the late, great Jackie “Moms” Mabley.....” never say anything about the dead, unless you can say something good..............”he’s dead....good!”
The professional bigot will not be missed on this block. He opposed anything connected to civil rights....the Martin Luther King national holiday, the Civil Rights Act, integration, affirmative action, you name it. If it helped minorities reach equal ground with whites, he was against it.
-0-
Speaking of professional bigots, this time masquerading as Christians, the AFA is boycotting McDonald’s. Pseudo Reverend Donald Wildmon and company say Mickey D’s is pro homosexual. Gee, I thought all they did was sell hamburgers. Makes me want to run out and buy a big mac in support of the corporation.
-0-
Uncle Tom is alive and well and living in Sarasota Florida. Seems the National Black Republican Association has decided to resort to “swift boating” Barack Obama. The NHRA is buying ads and putting up billboards attacking the democratic nominee.
I want to know who’s paying for the ads? The RNC has disavowed the attacks. John McCain has distanced himself from the attacks. So who is footing the bill? What great white rich man is behind the curtain pulling the puppet strings this time?
These deluded chocolate covered fools should have read their history books in toto rather than pick out lines to remember, like “the party of Lincoln...or Martin Luther King was a Republican.
Once again slow people...the Republican Party of Lincoln is not the GOP of today. The only connection is the name, Republican.
Please, lemmings, take off the rose colored glasses and look out for the cliff, you’re about to go over.
-0-
Condi surfaces...she says she is proud we bombed Iraq and that the world is safer since Dubya took office.
Standing by her man to the end.
-0-
Meantime, Dubya has ramped up the hunt for Osama bin Laden. The white house cowboy wants him caught and strung up by sundown on January 19th, 2009. To that end he is keeping our out manned Marines in harms way in Afghanistan longer than he promised. They can’t come home until he says so...Not fair....
-0-
Finally...a shout out to Wimbledon.....GO WILLIAMS! TAKING ALL THE MONEY HOME! THAT'S THE AMERICAN WAY....Celebrating the 4th on the 5th with mimosas, eggs and bacon and a scarlett O'hara....Nothing like breakfast at Wimbledon!
The professional bigot will not be missed on this block. He opposed anything connected to civil rights....the Martin Luther King national holiday, the Civil Rights Act, integration, affirmative action, you name it. If it helped minorities reach equal ground with whites, he was against it.
-0-
Speaking of professional bigots, this time masquerading as Christians, the AFA is boycotting McDonald’s. Pseudo Reverend Donald Wildmon and company say Mickey D’s is pro homosexual. Gee, I thought all they did was sell hamburgers. Makes me want to run out and buy a big mac in support of the corporation.
-0-
Uncle Tom is alive and well and living in Sarasota Florida. Seems the National Black Republican Association has decided to resort to “swift boating” Barack Obama. The NHRA is buying ads and putting up billboards attacking the democratic nominee.
I want to know who’s paying for the ads? The RNC has disavowed the attacks. John McCain has distanced himself from the attacks. So who is footing the bill? What great white rich man is behind the curtain pulling the puppet strings this time?
These deluded chocolate covered fools should have read their history books in toto rather than pick out lines to remember, like “the party of Lincoln...or Martin Luther King was a Republican.
Once again slow people...the Republican Party of Lincoln is not the GOP of today. The only connection is the name, Republican.
Please, lemmings, take off the rose colored glasses and look out for the cliff, you’re about to go over.
-0-
Condi surfaces...she says she is proud we bombed Iraq and that the world is safer since Dubya took office.
Standing by her man to the end.
-0-
Meantime, Dubya has ramped up the hunt for Osama bin Laden. The white house cowboy wants him caught and strung up by sundown on January 19th, 2009. To that end he is keeping our out manned Marines in harms way in Afghanistan longer than he promised. They can’t come home until he says so...Not fair....
-0-
Finally...a shout out to Wimbledon.....GO WILLIAMS! TAKING ALL THE MONEY HOME! THAT'S THE AMERICAN WAY....Celebrating the 4th on the 5th with mimosas, eggs and bacon and a scarlett O'hara....Nothing like breakfast at Wimbledon!
6.30.2008
A Leap of Faith and a Baseball Cap
Lately, I’ve been getting a lot of compliments on my hair, or lack thereof. I wear my hair very, very short. In fact, I’m almost bald, by both male and female standards. There is nothing wrong. I don’t have cancer or suffer from pattern female baldness. The women tell me, they wish they could wear their hair like mine, if only their head was shaped right, as mine apparently is. I didn’t know this, when I decided to cut off my hair. The shape of my head never entered my mind. I just wanted some control and a stress free look. Besides, I figured I could cover with a baseball hat for a week or two until my hair grew back, if I didn’t like it.
I just like wearing fuzz instead of long silky locks. No weaves for this girl..uh, uh. The less I have to do to prepare my head for the public, the better I like it. Right now, I’m strictly wash, wear and go. It is neat, clean and avant garde fashionable.
I think most women wear their hair to please their men and other women, not themselves. It’s kind of like that old joke....question...what would the earth be like if there were no men?....answer...you’d have a world of fat happy women with no war....Women aim to please, everyone but not themselves...
Getting to this style has been a very long process. My parents never allowed me to cut my hair until I was sixteen, and then, it was just to trim the ends. My mother was pretty vocal about the fact that my father only liked long hair. She wore hers short, by the way. By the time I was sixteen, I could literally sit on my hair. Of course it had been straightened with the ends curled under. I hated beauty shops, primarily because the beauticians never listened to you and what you wanted to do with your hair. My beautician was also a family member, so I had absolutely no say in how I wanted to wear my hair. She always asked me, then she would call and ask my mother, if mom didn’t happen to also be at the shop.
And even, though he never set foot in the shop, my father’s wishes were always respected. My father’s favorite saying about women was...and I quote...”don’t want nothin’ black but a Cadillac and nothin’ big but a bankroll...”
We were all high yellow, except dad who was a rich mocha colored, big man. Made us all glad we weren’t black at the time. We were colored, however, if a little bit racist toward our own.
And as I said he didn’t like short hair on women. One of the songs that played in my house when I was kid, was one sung by Harry Belafonte, called Baldheaded Woman...
Some of the lyrics included, “I don’t want no bald headed woman, she too mean lawd, lawd, well she too mean..”
My hair rebellion started slowly. I left it long, but took it natural when I discovered my blackness and militancy around 1969. My fro rivaled Angela Davis’. He didn’t like that either. He tipped his hole card when he ripped down my Hughie Newton poster which I had prominently displayed in my room ,but in view of whomever walked up the steps to the second floor of our house. He didn’t say much about the hair because he was no longer paying for my trips to the beauty shop. I had a job and the rule was if you paid for it, it was yours. He made the rule and he respected it. I moved out the same year. But that’s another story.
Over the years, my hair got shorter and shorter. I found that it behaved better without the perms, and straightening. My natural hair is very soft, baby soft. I would never have known that had I continued straightening and perming. I can get my hair cut in a barbershop for $12.00, while a trip to a beauty salon is guaranteed to relieve me of at least $50.00. You do the math. Besides that, most beauticians are not trained to cut hair. It is not a part of the curriculum at beauty schools. If you want to learn to cut hair, then you have to go to barber school.
So, it really wasn’t so much of a leap to get where I am today. What sealed the deal for me was the day I stepped off the bus, at Randolph and Michigan Avenues in Chicago, and into a thunderstorm. Up to that point, I had never felt rain on my scalp....directly on my scalp...with no hair to dampen the effect.
The resulting orgasm was better than my first attempt at sex. I couldn’t believe how good it felt. I know the people around me must have thought I was nuts. Here I am, standing in the middle of a rainstorm eyes closed, stupid smile on my face, hat in hand instead of on my head, getting soaked and loving every minute of it. I almost forgot that I was expected at a nearby radio station where I was guesting to talk about blacks and the AIDS crisis.
Going to male barbershops back in the day was very difficult, because most men had the same ideas and attitudes about women as my dad. And they weren’t afraid to voice their opinion as they took my money. For a while, I got so pissed off that I started cutting my own hair in order to not have to deal with the mysogny that I was facing in the barbershop. I’m ambidextrous, so cutting my own hair is no big deal. I do the left side with my left hand and the right side with my right hand, easy. I spent $30.00 for a good pair of clippers and paid for them in three uses.
But there is really no substitute for a good barber and attitudes have changed dramatically. Younger men don’t have the hangups of the older farts who may still be working alongside them. Money is money. They keep their opinions to themselves.
I have a female barber. She is very good. She is the one who gets the credit for my cut. I happily direct everyone to her, because she can lay it out for you, however you want it. She listens, makes suggestions and is usually right.
We talk about everything except my hair when I’m in her chair, and that’s the way it should be.
I just like wearing fuzz instead of long silky locks. No weaves for this girl..uh, uh. The less I have to do to prepare my head for the public, the better I like it. Right now, I’m strictly wash, wear and go. It is neat, clean and avant garde fashionable.
I think most women wear their hair to please their men and other women, not themselves. It’s kind of like that old joke....question...what would the earth be like if there were no men?....answer...you’d have a world of fat happy women with no war....Women aim to please, everyone but not themselves...
Getting to this style has been a very long process. My parents never allowed me to cut my hair until I was sixteen, and then, it was just to trim the ends. My mother was pretty vocal about the fact that my father only liked long hair. She wore hers short, by the way. By the time I was sixteen, I could literally sit on my hair. Of course it had been straightened with the ends curled under. I hated beauty shops, primarily because the beauticians never listened to you and what you wanted to do with your hair. My beautician was also a family member, so I had absolutely no say in how I wanted to wear my hair. She always asked me, then she would call and ask my mother, if mom didn’t happen to also be at the shop.
And even, though he never set foot in the shop, my father’s wishes were always respected. My father’s favorite saying about women was...and I quote...”don’t want nothin’ black but a Cadillac and nothin’ big but a bankroll...”
We were all high yellow, except dad who was a rich mocha colored, big man. Made us all glad we weren’t black at the time. We were colored, however, if a little bit racist toward our own.
And as I said he didn’t like short hair on women. One of the songs that played in my house when I was kid, was one sung by Harry Belafonte, called Baldheaded Woman...
Some of the lyrics included, “I don’t want no bald headed woman, she too mean lawd, lawd, well she too mean..”
My hair rebellion started slowly. I left it long, but took it natural when I discovered my blackness and militancy around 1969. My fro rivaled Angela Davis’. He didn’t like that either. He tipped his hole card when he ripped down my Hughie Newton poster which I had prominently displayed in my room ,but in view of whomever walked up the steps to the second floor of our house. He didn’t say much about the hair because he was no longer paying for my trips to the beauty shop. I had a job and the rule was if you paid for it, it was yours. He made the rule and he respected it. I moved out the same year. But that’s another story.
Over the years, my hair got shorter and shorter. I found that it behaved better without the perms, and straightening. My natural hair is very soft, baby soft. I would never have known that had I continued straightening and perming. I can get my hair cut in a barbershop for $12.00, while a trip to a beauty salon is guaranteed to relieve me of at least $50.00. You do the math. Besides that, most beauticians are not trained to cut hair. It is not a part of the curriculum at beauty schools. If you want to learn to cut hair, then you have to go to barber school.
So, it really wasn’t so much of a leap to get where I am today. What sealed the deal for me was the day I stepped off the bus, at Randolph and Michigan Avenues in Chicago, and into a thunderstorm. Up to that point, I had never felt rain on my scalp....directly on my scalp...with no hair to dampen the effect.
The resulting orgasm was better than my first attempt at sex. I couldn’t believe how good it felt. I know the people around me must have thought I was nuts. Here I am, standing in the middle of a rainstorm eyes closed, stupid smile on my face, hat in hand instead of on my head, getting soaked and loving every minute of it. I almost forgot that I was expected at a nearby radio station where I was guesting to talk about blacks and the AIDS crisis.
Going to male barbershops back in the day was very difficult, because most men had the same ideas and attitudes about women as my dad. And they weren’t afraid to voice their opinion as they took my money. For a while, I got so pissed off that I started cutting my own hair in order to not have to deal with the mysogny that I was facing in the barbershop. I’m ambidextrous, so cutting my own hair is no big deal. I do the left side with my left hand and the right side with my right hand, easy. I spent $30.00 for a good pair of clippers and paid for them in three uses.
But there is really no substitute for a good barber and attitudes have changed dramatically. Younger men don’t have the hangups of the older farts who may still be working alongside them. Money is money. They keep their opinions to themselves.
I have a female barber. She is very good. She is the one who gets the credit for my cut. I happily direct everyone to her, because she can lay it out for you, however you want it. She listens, makes suggestions and is usually right.
We talk about everything except my hair when I’m in her chair, and that’s the way it should be.
6.24.2008
Passing Thoughts..........
Wonderful WINO!
Probably my favorite radio jingle in the whole world, for the fictitious radio station W.I.N.O. The station existed in the mind of George Carlin, who played all the parts, the anchor, the sports reporter and of course Al, the hippy dippy weatherman.
Heaven’s got one funny comedy club going on up there....Nipsy, Flip, Godfrey, Richard, and now George.
Rest in peace, Mr. Carlin.
-o-
Imus in the Morning...
I heard the tape of what he said about Pacman Jones. I don’t buy his explanation. But I also don’t understand why anyone is surprised by what he said. Imus is paid to stir up shit. That’s how the station makes money off of him. Let’s move on, shall we...
-o-
Pregnancy pact.
17 girls pregnant at the same time. Is it a plot? No it’s just another example of failed government policy. The Bush administration mandates that only abstinence be taught in schools or by any agency receiving federal funds. Earlier this year, the Gloucester School doctor and nurse quit because they couldn’t give birth control pills to kids who wanted them. Face it, the kids are going to have sex whether we like it or not. Give them choices, please, or shut up about the growing number of accidental babies being born. Teaching real health might also cut down on the STD problem, too.
-o-
Focus on the Family’s James Dobson attacking Barack Obama...First the Christian right tried to paint him as Muslim, now they’re saying he’s not Christian enough. Never mind Don Imus, the James Dobsons of the world are the real dangers in America.
-o-
Tit for Tat
The UK has banned Martha Stewart, so the US turns around and refuses to grant a visa to Boy George.... A Queen for a Diva....Sounds like a fair exchange.
Probably my favorite radio jingle in the whole world, for the fictitious radio station W.I.N.O. The station existed in the mind of George Carlin, who played all the parts, the anchor, the sports reporter and of course Al, the hippy dippy weatherman.
Heaven’s got one funny comedy club going on up there....Nipsy, Flip, Godfrey, Richard, and now George.
Rest in peace, Mr. Carlin.
-o-
Imus in the Morning...
I heard the tape of what he said about Pacman Jones. I don’t buy his explanation. But I also don’t understand why anyone is surprised by what he said. Imus is paid to stir up shit. That’s how the station makes money off of him. Let’s move on, shall we...
-o-
Pregnancy pact.
17 girls pregnant at the same time. Is it a plot? No it’s just another example of failed government policy. The Bush administration mandates that only abstinence be taught in schools or by any agency receiving federal funds. Earlier this year, the Gloucester School doctor and nurse quit because they couldn’t give birth control pills to kids who wanted them. Face it, the kids are going to have sex whether we like it or not. Give them choices, please, or shut up about the growing number of accidental babies being born. Teaching real health might also cut down on the STD problem, too.
-o-
Focus on the Family’s James Dobson attacking Barack Obama...First the Christian right tried to paint him as Muslim, now they’re saying he’s not Christian enough. Never mind Don Imus, the James Dobsons of the world are the real dangers in America.
-o-
Tit for Tat
The UK has banned Martha Stewart, so the US turns around and refuses to grant a visa to Boy George.... A Queen for a Diva....Sounds like a fair exchange.
6.17.2008
Put Down that Burger & Fries! Here Comes the Fat Patrol!
Welcome to the twilight zone. Seems the Japanese have passed a law mandating what they call “special checkups” for citizen 40 years old and up. These special checkups are done by doctors who measure the size of the patient’s waist. If a man is bigger than 33.5 inches or a woman bigger than 34.5 inches, then they are told to lose weight.
I kid you not, according to the story in the NY Times, the national law went into effect two months ago and requires corporations and city municipalities to measure the waistlines of it’s citizens. The governmental goal is to shrink the overweight population by 10 percent over the next four years, and by 25 percent over the next seven years.
According to the report, the government will impose financial and other penalties if the goals are not met.
Japan’s Minister of Health argues the new rules will cut back on cases of diabetes and stroke, as well as lower health care costs for it’s aging population.
Critics are arguing that the Japanese people are already some of the thinnest in the world and don't even come close to the problems in America. The only heavy Japanese that anyone sees are sumo wrestlers and I would be willing to bet they are exempt as long as they are working in the sport.
The story goes on to say that the Japanese people are literally breaking their necks to comply with the new laws. In fact, the mayor of one town and six of his buddies reportedly dubbed themselves the seven anti metabo samurai and started working out rigorously until one of them dropped dead from a heart attack. The seven metabo, er samurai promptly disbanded.
Metabo is the prefered Japanese word for obese...so if you’re anti metabo, it means you’re anti fat.
Could you see our government trying something like that here? American corporations are already trying to back door employees with rules on health, like the recent attempts to control smoking behavior on the job and at home. So far, the courts have ruled that companies here, can fire you for smoking at home.
You can also be fired for anything that violates your company’s morals behavior clauses....conduct unbecoming...you know the drill...If I were you, I would find that clause and read it because I guarantee you it contains more than prohibitions about porn and misuse of email.
And with all of the Japanese companies setting up shop in America, can the fat patrol be far off, here on American shores?
Don’t laugh. They may be knocking on your door next.
I kid you not, according to the story in the NY Times, the national law went into effect two months ago and requires corporations and city municipalities to measure the waistlines of it’s citizens. The governmental goal is to shrink the overweight population by 10 percent over the next four years, and by 25 percent over the next seven years.
According to the report, the government will impose financial and other penalties if the goals are not met.
Japan’s Minister of Health argues the new rules will cut back on cases of diabetes and stroke, as well as lower health care costs for it’s aging population.
Critics are arguing that the Japanese people are already some of the thinnest in the world and don't even come close to the problems in America. The only heavy Japanese that anyone sees are sumo wrestlers and I would be willing to bet they are exempt as long as they are working in the sport.
The story goes on to say that the Japanese people are literally breaking their necks to comply with the new laws. In fact, the mayor of one town and six of his buddies reportedly dubbed themselves the seven anti metabo samurai and started working out rigorously until one of them dropped dead from a heart attack. The seven metabo, er samurai promptly disbanded.
Metabo is the prefered Japanese word for obese...so if you’re anti metabo, it means you’re anti fat.
Could you see our government trying something like that here? American corporations are already trying to back door employees with rules on health, like the recent attempts to control smoking behavior on the job and at home. So far, the courts have ruled that companies here, can fire you for smoking at home.
You can also be fired for anything that violates your company’s morals behavior clauses....conduct unbecoming...you know the drill...If I were you, I would find that clause and read it because I guarantee you it contains more than prohibitions about porn and misuse of email.
And with all of the Japanese companies setting up shop in America, can the fat patrol be far off, here on American shores?
Don’t laugh. They may be knocking on your door next.
6.16.2008
RIP Lakers
Rocco had him....he didn't back down...but made the mistake of giving Tiger yet another chance to win....and he did!
Now it's time for the Boston Celtics to bury Kobe. I love Phil Jackson from my days of rooting for the Bulls...But I can't stand the arrogant Michael Jordan wannabe who leads Phil's latest team.
Question....Did Kobe's ole man name him after a city or the steak?
Go KG!
Now it's time for the Boston Celtics to bury Kobe. I love Phil Jackson from my days of rooting for the Bulls...But I can't stand the arrogant Michael Jordan wannabe who leads Phil's latest team.
Question....Did Kobe's ole man name him after a city or the steak?
Go KG!
Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright.........
Even if Tiger does lose the playoff, this past weekend will stand as one of those incredible moments in sports.
Saturday, young Eldrick finished eagle, birdie, eagle to take the lead. Sunday, he gave it back on the first hole. And up until the 18th hole, he played like I could beat him, easily. He was that bad. But then, the 18th came around again. Tiger birdied the final hole to tie.
Being a golfer, I can’t believe he meant to hit his first two shots on that par five. They were lousy to say the least. I mean, I would have taken them, because I’m not a golfer with Tiger Woods ability. I just love the game, so advancing the ball by any means possible, is generally what I do on the golf course.
But not Tiger. He’s trained us to expect massive fades, towering hooks, stingers off the tee. His approach is perfect, placing the ball exactly where he wants it, in order to attack the hole. He reads the green the way I read the newest James Patterson novel. I look at the green and see grass, not a trench leading to the cup. If I had putted that last putt...the way it danced and wiggled and lipped into the cup...it would not have gone in, period. I would have finished second, end of story. But Tiger’s ball...jumps, bumps, takes two spins around the lip and then buries itself into the cup. Unbelievable!
He scrambles a lot more than it seems, because sometimes his shots don’t work. He is extremely versatile. When he does get lemons, he makes lemonade...a delicious blend of yellow fruit with a little rum mixed in.
I watch Tiger just to learn how you’re supposed to play, to give me a mental picture of what I’m supposed to do when I hit the greens.
You know you have to visualize the shot in order to pull it off. I have to watch Tiger’s perfect shots, as well as his not-so-perfect shots. attempt to practice them and then attempt to visualize them, then attempt to pull them off.
This has worked for me with my wedges. But I’m ready to get rid of my driver. I think drivers are for men. I use a fairway seven and get great distance. I need more focus on my irons. They’re not bad, just inconsistent. Guess I need to play more often. If only I could afford to play more often.
But back to Tiger. I don’t know if he’s gonna win today. He should. Rocco Mediate is ranked 158th in the world, but he is loose and has nothing to lose and that is the most dangerous kind of opponent.
Any given Sunday or playoff Monday....anything can happen. I think inwardly Rocco’s glad he’s only facing a one legged Tiger instead of the predator that we all know young Eldrick to be.
Saturday, young Eldrick finished eagle, birdie, eagle to take the lead. Sunday, he gave it back on the first hole. And up until the 18th hole, he played like I could beat him, easily. He was that bad. But then, the 18th came around again. Tiger birdied the final hole to tie.
Being a golfer, I can’t believe he meant to hit his first two shots on that par five. They were lousy to say the least. I mean, I would have taken them, because I’m not a golfer with Tiger Woods ability. I just love the game, so advancing the ball by any means possible, is generally what I do on the golf course.
But not Tiger. He’s trained us to expect massive fades, towering hooks, stingers off the tee. His approach is perfect, placing the ball exactly where he wants it, in order to attack the hole. He reads the green the way I read the newest James Patterson novel. I look at the green and see grass, not a trench leading to the cup. If I had putted that last putt...the way it danced and wiggled and lipped into the cup...it would not have gone in, period. I would have finished second, end of story. But Tiger’s ball...jumps, bumps, takes two spins around the lip and then buries itself into the cup. Unbelievable!
He scrambles a lot more than it seems, because sometimes his shots don’t work. He is extremely versatile. When he does get lemons, he makes lemonade...a delicious blend of yellow fruit with a little rum mixed in.
I watch Tiger just to learn how you’re supposed to play, to give me a mental picture of what I’m supposed to do when I hit the greens.
You know you have to visualize the shot in order to pull it off. I have to watch Tiger’s perfect shots, as well as his not-so-perfect shots. attempt to practice them and then attempt to visualize them, then attempt to pull them off.
This has worked for me with my wedges. But I’m ready to get rid of my driver. I think drivers are for men. I use a fairway seven and get great distance. I need more focus on my irons. They’re not bad, just inconsistent. Guess I need to play more often. If only I could afford to play more often.
But back to Tiger. I don’t know if he’s gonna win today. He should. Rocco Mediate is ranked 158th in the world, but he is loose and has nothing to lose and that is the most dangerous kind of opponent.
Any given Sunday or playoff Monday....anything can happen. I think inwardly Rocco’s glad he’s only facing a one legged Tiger instead of the predator that we all know young Eldrick to be.
6.10.2008
Tuesday Tumble
First is was, “is he black enough?”
Then it was, “is he too black?’
Now it’s, “well, you know, he is just as white as he is black!” That makes him biracial, according to an article on CNN.com.
I say who gives a damn. He is what defines himself to be. The one drop rule in America long ago passed into official history, but the plain fact of the matter is that it still exists as a measuring stick in America.
-0-
The New York Daily News has an article about John McCain’s first wife. The stuff in the story is not new. McCain divorced his first wife, after she became badly disfigured in a car accident. She was the one who waited for him to return from Vietnam. She says that when he came back from the war, he wanted to be 25 not 45 and ran around with a lot of other women. Yet, he divorced her. Part of the divorce settlement was that McCain take care of her medical needs for the rest of her life.
One month after he divorced his first wife, he married his second...that would be Cindy, the 100 million dollar heiress/trophy, on his arm today.
Other blondes, most notably a blonde lobbyist, reportedly sometimes has McCain’s attention these days.
Wonder if all those family values republicans are paying attention...do they want another womanizer in the white house, or is it okay because this womanizer happens to be republican..
-0-
Spike Lee and Clint Eastwood are apparently mad at each other. Lee blasted Eastwood for not putting black characters in his war movies. Eastwood claimed he was being historically accurate and that Lee should “shut his face.”
I love them both, but Spike knows that mainstream Hollywood has never been accurate when it comes to blacks. So why blast Eastwood when what he was doing is just more of S.O.S.D,D.
-0-
WHOA! Bulletin!
Recession, Depression...main stream media says today’s economy is making people sick, physically. High debt stress causes ulcers, migraines, cancer and heart disease. How about starvation and malnutrition. Okay I just added the last part. Although if you can’t pay your bills, you probably can’t buy food either.
But who is getting sick...poor people been living with stuff forever...or is it a story because rich and middle class people are feeling the crunch.
It’s long been known that poor people die quicker than rich people, maybe debt stress is the reason.
-0-
Congratulations to Ken Griffey Junior!
He hit home run number 600 and he did it without steroids. Amazing!
Class Act!
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Meanwhile, Roger Clemens was apparently using Viagra to get a boost in addition to the steroids he says he didn’t take. Seems Viagra helps blood flow in other places in the body besides the third leg.
Then it was, “is he too black?’
Now it’s, “well, you know, he is just as white as he is black!” That makes him biracial, according to an article on CNN.com.
I say who gives a damn. He is what defines himself to be. The one drop rule in America long ago passed into official history, but the plain fact of the matter is that it still exists as a measuring stick in America.
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The New York Daily News has an article about John McCain’s first wife. The stuff in the story is not new. McCain divorced his first wife, after she became badly disfigured in a car accident. She was the one who waited for him to return from Vietnam. She says that when he came back from the war, he wanted to be 25 not 45 and ran around with a lot of other women. Yet, he divorced her. Part of the divorce settlement was that McCain take care of her medical needs for the rest of her life.
One month after he divorced his first wife, he married his second...that would be Cindy, the 100 million dollar heiress/trophy, on his arm today.
Other blondes, most notably a blonde lobbyist, reportedly sometimes has McCain’s attention these days.
Wonder if all those family values republicans are paying attention...do they want another womanizer in the white house, or is it okay because this womanizer happens to be republican..
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Spike Lee and Clint Eastwood are apparently mad at each other. Lee blasted Eastwood for not putting black characters in his war movies. Eastwood claimed he was being historically accurate and that Lee should “shut his face.”
I love them both, but Spike knows that mainstream Hollywood has never been accurate when it comes to blacks. So why blast Eastwood when what he was doing is just more of S.O.S.D,D.
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WHOA! Bulletin!
Recession, Depression...main stream media says today’s economy is making people sick, physically. High debt stress causes ulcers, migraines, cancer and heart disease. How about starvation and malnutrition. Okay I just added the last part. Although if you can’t pay your bills, you probably can’t buy food either.
But who is getting sick...poor people been living with stuff forever...or is it a story because rich and middle class people are feeling the crunch.
It’s long been known that poor people die quicker than rich people, maybe debt stress is the reason.
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Congratulations to Ken Griffey Junior!
He hit home run number 600 and he did it without steroids. Amazing!
Class Act!
-0-
Meanwhile, Roger Clemens was apparently using Viagra to get a boost in addition to the steroids he says he didn’t take. Seems Viagra helps blood flow in other places in the body besides the third leg.
6.04.2008
Freeze Frame Moment, Pass the wine, Please!
WHOOOOOOOOOOIEEEEE!
Someone said it......”the only game we can’t win...is the one we don’t play!’
WE PLAYIN’ POLITICS BAY BEE!
Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, I will go back to masquerading as a responsible adult.....
Watching history unfold in real time has got to be the ultimate high. Whether or not it’s good or bad, it’s a gas. I always remember what I was doing when that moment happens. The time just freezes forever in my mind.
Last night was one of those nights. Barack Obama, a black man, clinched the democratic nomination for president of the United States. I will always remember last night, because I never believed it would happen in my lifetime.
It remains to be seen if he will become president. Feels like he will, but you never know until the final votes are counted, and we’ve still got 22 weeks to go before that happens.
Last night, as Obama was embracing his destiny, John McCain was seeking to find his relevance. It is ironic that he chose as his slogan, a phrase that does little to define himself but does point a beacon at his opponent.
“A Leader we can believe in..” I saw that phrase and at first thought I had tuned into the wrong speech.
It’s going to take more than just reciting the buzz words...economy, health care, security, Iraq. There has to be some substance behind the words. I have problems with a man seeking the presidency who has already said he doesn’t understand the economy. McCain says the “hundred years in Iraq” was a misquote...is that true of the “I don’t understand the economy,” statement, too. And what about women's issues?
Belief is what America is clamoring for. We need heroes again. Larger than life people who don’t seem to be only in the game for themselves. People who have the ability to see between the lines and are versatile enough to create or attempt to create something for all of us.
Which brings me to Hillary Clinton. Let me be honest. She ticked me off last night. Instead of being magnanimous in defeat, she chose to be petty. She chose to play the spurned woman...”not tonight, honey, I’ve got a headache..” Please! What the hell are emails from other pissed off white women going to do?
Yes, the media mistreated her. Any woman who plays games with the old boys, in any male dominated arena, gets manhandled...verbally and physically. All women who have dared to challenge men on what they consider their turf gets abused. Doesn’t make any difference what level, blue collar, white collar..any industry. Been there, done that.Get over it. Hillary knew going in that it was going to happen.
Clinton lost the nomination because of a badly run campaign, her inability to control her husband, and the arrogance in assuming that she had the undivided support of the black community.
Last night showed me again that she was out for herself, and for Bill, giving him an unofficial third term in office. I want the good times back, too, but not with Bill. Not after the stuff coming out of his mouth the past year and a half.
The current administration has spent the past eight years scaring us into submission. I’m ready for an administration that presents us with a different message and a look into the future.
One last thing...I’ve been saving a bottle of Bordeaux , a 1955 Chateau La Fleur Pomerol, for my 60th birthday in a couple of years. But if Obama wins the White House, I will drink it in November on election night.
If you’re in town, drop by....I will be happy to share. So let the celebration begin.
Someone said it......”the only game we can’t win...is the one we don’t play!’
WE PLAYIN’ POLITICS BAY BEE!
Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, I will go back to masquerading as a responsible adult.....
Watching history unfold in real time has got to be the ultimate high. Whether or not it’s good or bad, it’s a gas. I always remember what I was doing when that moment happens. The time just freezes forever in my mind.
Last night was one of those nights. Barack Obama, a black man, clinched the democratic nomination for president of the United States. I will always remember last night, because I never believed it would happen in my lifetime.
It remains to be seen if he will become president. Feels like he will, but you never know until the final votes are counted, and we’ve still got 22 weeks to go before that happens.
Last night, as Obama was embracing his destiny, John McCain was seeking to find his relevance. It is ironic that he chose as his slogan, a phrase that does little to define himself but does point a beacon at his opponent.
“A Leader we can believe in..” I saw that phrase and at first thought I had tuned into the wrong speech.
It’s going to take more than just reciting the buzz words...economy, health care, security, Iraq. There has to be some substance behind the words. I have problems with a man seeking the presidency who has already said he doesn’t understand the economy. McCain says the “hundred years in Iraq” was a misquote...is that true of the “I don’t understand the economy,” statement, too. And what about women's issues?
Belief is what America is clamoring for. We need heroes again. Larger than life people who don’t seem to be only in the game for themselves. People who have the ability to see between the lines and are versatile enough to create or attempt to create something for all of us.
Which brings me to Hillary Clinton. Let me be honest. She ticked me off last night. Instead of being magnanimous in defeat, she chose to be petty. She chose to play the spurned woman...”not tonight, honey, I’ve got a headache..” Please! What the hell are emails from other pissed off white women going to do?
Yes, the media mistreated her. Any woman who plays games with the old boys, in any male dominated arena, gets manhandled...verbally and physically. All women who have dared to challenge men on what they consider their turf gets abused. Doesn’t make any difference what level, blue collar, white collar..any industry. Been there, done that.Get over it. Hillary knew going in that it was going to happen.
Clinton lost the nomination because of a badly run campaign, her inability to control her husband, and the arrogance in assuming that she had the undivided support of the black community.
Last night showed me again that she was out for herself, and for Bill, giving him an unofficial third term in office. I want the good times back, too, but not with Bill. Not after the stuff coming out of his mouth the past year and a half.
The current administration has spent the past eight years scaring us into submission. I’m ready for an administration that presents us with a different message and a look into the future.
One last thing...I’ve been saving a bottle of Bordeaux , a 1955 Chateau La Fleur Pomerol, for my 60th birthday in a couple of years. But if Obama wins the White House, I will drink it in November on election night.
If you’re in town, drop by....I will be happy to share. So let the celebration begin.
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