Like many blacks of my generation, as well as those who are older, I fear for the safety of Barack Obama. It has been our history that whenever one of us rises up and speaks, we get shot down, sometimes literally losing our life. I think of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and a host of others who were brutalized because they stood up to challenge the powers that be in our time.
Obama was justifiably given secret service agents long before anyone else because of the racial situation in this country. A racial situation that has not really changed since his election and scheduled ascension to the White House.
The secret service reported that the death threats have increased rather than decreased. You can read it here. Threats were even documented in my own back yard, in the Cincinnati, Ohio suburb of Mt. Washington, at the hardware store on Salem (tried to include the link, but it keeps disappearing, sorry.)
I haven’t written previously in depth about the threats or my feelings because, frankly I’m tired of talking about race and racism. I’m tired, after nearly 60 years on this earth of having to justify my very existence through that prism. I look forward to the day when it is no longer necessary for people like me to have to work twice as hard to prove that we are merely equal.
I’d hoped that Obama’s election would, and ultimately, will change the racial climate in America. But, I’m still not yet convinced that it will. Especially when I see stories like the ones I’ve just mentioned.
I was particularly upset by reports of the 9 year olds on the school bus chanting “kill” Obama, “assassinate” Obama. Public response to this story prompted the mayor to speak out. He wrote a letter to local parents, you can read it here.
I was not surprised by the kids and their chants, because I know that racists are bred not born. Little kids like this are strictly nurtured, not natured. They don’t come out of the womb hating. Kids are like little tape recorders. Families and parents know that you have to be careful about what you say around them.
I remember an incident from my own past, when I was maybe eleven or twelve. I was downtown in Pogues, a high end department store, in a dress, a very pretty dress, dress shoes, hair done, very clean, church going clean, because that was the only way I could go to downtown Cincinnati with my parents or as in this case, with my grandmother. There was a white family standing next to us as a clerk waited on my grandmother. They had a small child who kept staring at me. I had long ago been taught not to stare back. But the kid kept looking and finally turned to her mother, I assume, and asked out loud...
”mommy, is she a nigger?”
I looked up at her mother. She turned crimson in the face and snatched the kid away from our proximity, as if we were the threatening ones. She never apologized, nor answered her daughter’s question, at least within my hearing. The clerk behind the counter turned red, too. But she didn’t say anything either. Nor did my grandmother, but then she had been hearing it longer than I had, and we never talked about it until she got drunk one night at a family party, later that year. Up until that party, I assumed that my grandmother really liked white people. But it was actually liberating for me to find out that she didn’t. She survived by going along and she’d taught me to go along, too, in order to survive. Looking back, I realize that the little girl was trying to figure out her world. She needed to be taught and she was, just not the get along way that we seek today.
Obama’s election is a start on the path to a post racial world. He represents the beginning. He was elected by a coalition of all people, who are making a strong statement that the incidents that I’ve just been talking about, are a thing of the past. I like this path that we are on now. It won’t be without adventure. Race and racism will always be with us in some form or other.
But this election has taught us that what we need to do when it does crop up, is to speak up and to educate our young. They do hear us and they do learn if taught.
And just maybe, like the fear of a black man in the white house, racism will fade away, too, taken to its grave when those of us who lived through it, pass on to our next plane of existence.
11.20.2008
11.19.2008
Bailout Deja Vu
A couple of days ago, I reluctantly spoke out in favor of bailing out the auto industry, primarily because of the number of workers, both inside and outside of the industry, who will be affected should the big three fail. Yesterday, the CEOs showed up on capital hill asking for the money.
Well, today I have a problem. You want my money, yet you show up by way of a private jet which is part of a fleet of 8 jets for corporate use, that costs approximately 20-thousand dollars per round trip, and you’re crying broke? That’s like my sister asking me for money to buy groceries just after she’s come from the beauty shop spending 100-dollars on her hair and 50-bucks on some fake finger nails. Negro, please. ABC reporter, Brian Ross, busted the CEOs. According to the Ross report, flying coach from Detroit to DC cost 288-dollars. Flying first class cost approximately 800-dollars round trip. Click here.
Okay guys, sell the jet, park the chauffeur driven car, fire your driver, hop a cab to the airport, check your own damn bag, and welcome to the real world, please.
There is obviously some kind of disconnect going on here. Keeping the corporate fleet while laying off workers just does not compute for me. Sounds a lot like the so called Chrysler bailout back in 1978-79.
As part of that bailout, Lee Iacocca and his executives allegedly took pay cuts, forgoing bonuses etc, with Iacocca supposedly reducing his own compensation down to 1-dollar a year. Well, all those salaries and bonuses and perks were deferred and retroactively paid. They didn’t lose a dime or suffer, while some 60-thousand workers were furloughed. You can read more about the Chrysler bailout here.
This current crop of CEOs blame the weakened economy rather than their own short sightedness and ineptness for the problems plaguing them. But the problems started back in the 70's when Toyota began making inroads into the American market. Back then, management refused to adapt to changing times. Click here for more.
These guys need to get a grip. These CEOs need to understand that if you do something stupid like ruin your company, then you lose. The American taxpayer should not have to pay for your silliness. There is a cost to doing business in an unregulated system. The American people told Detroit 40 years ago, what kind of cars it wanted, but Detroit refused to listen, feeding the myth while totally ignoring the reality of the road.
Maybe it is time for the Big Three to deal with the fact that it’s time to pay the piper.
Well, today I have a problem. You want my money, yet you show up by way of a private jet which is part of a fleet of 8 jets for corporate use, that costs approximately 20-thousand dollars per round trip, and you’re crying broke? That’s like my sister asking me for money to buy groceries just after she’s come from the beauty shop spending 100-dollars on her hair and 50-bucks on some fake finger nails. Negro, please. ABC reporter, Brian Ross, busted the CEOs. According to the Ross report, flying coach from Detroit to DC cost 288-dollars. Flying first class cost approximately 800-dollars round trip. Click here.
Okay guys, sell the jet, park the chauffeur driven car, fire your driver, hop a cab to the airport, check your own damn bag, and welcome to the real world, please.
There is obviously some kind of disconnect going on here. Keeping the corporate fleet while laying off workers just does not compute for me. Sounds a lot like the so called Chrysler bailout back in 1978-79.
As part of that bailout, Lee Iacocca and his executives allegedly took pay cuts, forgoing bonuses etc, with Iacocca supposedly reducing his own compensation down to 1-dollar a year. Well, all those salaries and bonuses and perks were deferred and retroactively paid. They didn’t lose a dime or suffer, while some 60-thousand workers were furloughed. You can read more about the Chrysler bailout here.
This current crop of CEOs blame the weakened economy rather than their own short sightedness and ineptness for the problems plaguing them. But the problems started back in the 70's when Toyota began making inroads into the American market. Back then, management refused to adapt to changing times. Click here for more.
These guys need to get a grip. These CEOs need to understand that if you do something stupid like ruin your company, then you lose. The American taxpayer should not have to pay for your silliness. There is a cost to doing business in an unregulated system. The American people told Detroit 40 years ago, what kind of cars it wanted, but Detroit refused to listen, feeding the myth while totally ignoring the reality of the road.
Maybe it is time for the Big Three to deal with the fact that it’s time to pay the piper.
11.18.2008
An Ode to Going
November 19th is World Toilet Day. Founded by one Jack Sim, creator of the World Toilet Organization, the national, or I should say, world wide day of advocacy, is to call attention to the fact that billions of people don’t have access to toilets.
In fact, an estimated 2.6 billion people defecate in public. They don’t even have a bucket to use, let alone a heated public or private water closet, something that we, here in America, consider one of our god given rights. But apparently going in private, or sitting on the throne, as some of us call it, with our favorite reading material is a privilege that fully half the world does not have.
Environmental advocates tell us that public defecation contaminates food and drinking water causing a major health hazard. Diarrhea, which is for us an uncomfortable but usually minor inconvenience, kills between 2 and 3 million people per year. That’s more than AIDS, TB or malaria.
For want of a toilet, our health system is compromised.
Clean drinking water is on everyone’s radar, but nobody thinks about the need for improving sanitation, or the correlations between the two.
Jack Sim terms the lack of discussion about sanitation “the quiet embarrassment.” He likens it to the silence that initially surrounded the AIDS epidemic. We just don’t talk about the need for public toilets or improved sanitation. But innovations in the toilet industry are happening.
In Japan, toilet maker TOTO markets a toilet that does everything including checking blood pressure. The World Toilet Summit and Expo will showcase an 'uber-toilet,' featuring an in-seat warmer/cooler, male and female water jets, an in-bowl light and a USB port so you can connect your mp3 player for your soothing tune of choice ($1,200).
You read more about the WTO and World Toilet Day in this week’s TIME Magazine.
In fact, an estimated 2.6 billion people defecate in public. They don’t even have a bucket to use, let alone a heated public or private water closet, something that we, here in America, consider one of our god given rights. But apparently going in private, or sitting on the throne, as some of us call it, with our favorite reading material is a privilege that fully half the world does not have.
Environmental advocates tell us that public defecation contaminates food and drinking water causing a major health hazard. Diarrhea, which is for us an uncomfortable but usually minor inconvenience, kills between 2 and 3 million people per year. That’s more than AIDS, TB or malaria.
For want of a toilet, our health system is compromised.
Clean drinking water is on everyone’s radar, but nobody thinks about the need for improving sanitation, or the correlations between the two.
Jack Sim terms the lack of discussion about sanitation “the quiet embarrassment.” He likens it to the silence that initially surrounded the AIDS epidemic. We just don’t talk about the need for public toilets or improved sanitation. But innovations in the toilet industry are happening.
In Japan, toilet maker TOTO markets a toilet that does everything including checking blood pressure. The World Toilet Summit and Expo will showcase an 'uber-toilet,' featuring an in-seat warmer/cooler, male and female water jets, an in-bowl light and a USB port so you can connect your mp3 player for your soothing tune of choice ($1,200).
You read more about the WTO and World Toilet Day in this week’s TIME Magazine.
11.17.2008
Doin’ Massa’s Work
Supreme house knee-gro, Alan Keyes has filed suit in California to block the ascension of Barack Obama to the White House. Keyes has asked the Superior Court in Sacramento to order the State to withhold California’s electoral votes, because Obama is not an American citizen. Click here for the story.
Keyes is alleging that Obama was actually born in Kenya instead of in Hawaii. This rumor has been floating for the past several years, despite the fact that the State of Hawaii has verified that Obama is a natural born citizen.
Keyes unsuccessfully ran against Obama in Illinois for that state’s senate seat back in 2004. He got into the race when the other candidate, Jack Ryan, dropped out because of allegations made by Ryan’s then wife, during an ugly divorce. Ryan was married to actor Jeri Ryan. You can read about that here.
Keyes has also run for president and a host of other offices. The GOP tends to trot him out when they want to bolster their contention that they do in fact have the interests of us urban dwellers at heart. You know how it is....any black face will do in a pinch...according to the GOP.
Question: If John McCain had won the presidency, would this knucklehead be going after him on citizenship? I ask this because McCain was not born in the United States. He is a citizen only through an act of law passed by Congress, I believe in 1923. McCain was born in Panama.
But I guess that is a moot point, since he didn’t win. Sorry, didn’t mean to knit pick.
Keyes is alleging that Obama was actually born in Kenya instead of in Hawaii. This rumor has been floating for the past several years, despite the fact that the State of Hawaii has verified that Obama is a natural born citizen.
Keyes unsuccessfully ran against Obama in Illinois for that state’s senate seat back in 2004. He got into the race when the other candidate, Jack Ryan, dropped out because of allegations made by Ryan’s then wife, during an ugly divorce. Ryan was married to actor Jeri Ryan. You can read about that here.
Keyes has also run for president and a host of other offices. The GOP tends to trot him out when they want to bolster their contention that they do in fact have the interests of us urban dwellers at heart. You know how it is....any black face will do in a pinch...according to the GOP.
Question: If John McCain had won the presidency, would this knucklehead be going after him on citizenship? I ask this because McCain was not born in the United States. He is a citizen only through an act of law passed by Congress, I believe in 1923. McCain was born in Panama.
But I guess that is a moot point, since he didn’t win. Sorry, didn’t mean to knit pick.
Bang for My Buck
I am losing my patience with our government. I keep telling myself to put down the newspaper, take a step back and breathe, because it’s not as bad as it seems. What’s got me hyperventilating? Our current financial situation for one. It seems we've given out 2-trillion dollars and nobody in government knows who got the money or how they are spending it.
I’m not happy with the bailouts presently going on. Not because I fear we’re sliding into a socialistic kind of government. We’ve had some sort of socialistic tendencies going on for years, like our progressive tax system, for instance. What bothers me is all this money is being given out in taxpayers’ name, and still, nobody is being held accountable. I mean, who is getting this money...what are their plans for this money...do the CEOs and other honchos still get their bonuses and golden parachutes....are other companies, like AIG still funding getaways for their execs on taxpayer money...was any criteria set before they got the money, or did they just say, we’re broke..give it to us...
That doesn’t work for me or anyone I know for that matter. When those of us in the real world go broke for whatever reason, unless we have a benevolent rich relative to bail us out, we have to sign over everything as collateral including our first born, in blood, on parchment made from the skins of our ancestors.
More and more companies are asking for a handout. Whatever happened to the unregulated market place. What happened to survival of the fittest? I’m being forced to live by those rules. Why not big business and Wall Street? Why do they get to change the rules when they don’t work. Seems to me that if you allow your company to fall into financial ruin, and the workers lose their jobs, then you need to lose your job, your parachute and whatever bonus was promised when you signed on. It’s not fair for CEOs and others to walk away with the money while the workers get furloughed and thrown into bankruptcy. Especially if their back up plan is to ask for taxpayer money to get them out of their self constructed ditch.
Now the auto industry is crying for a handout. I’m in favor of giving it to them, because so much of our economy runs through Detroit. The big three are the major employers. They fund other industries, including our defense industry. Losing any one of the big three would be a catastrophe.
But, they need to give us something, too. If the big three want my money, then they need to build the kind of car that I need. I need a fuel efficient, safe car, that is environmentally friendly like the ones that are manufactured for the overseas markets. The big three also need to return some jobs to America. Let’s manufacture these cars over here, for a change and ship them out, rather than ship them in to the country.
Some of that is actually going on. Half the cars on the road, no matter what the name, are made here. I drive a “foreign” car with a Japanese name that actually rolled off the assembly line in Moraine Ohio between GMC Envoys and Chevy trailblazers. The only difference between my “foreign” car and the Envoy, is the name on the side panel and ten thousand dollars in price. My foreign car had the cheaper price, yet was loaded just like the Envoys and the trailblazers. My car is even roomier than the Trailblazer. Why not cut the price to the American market, too. That Moraine, Ohio plant shut down earlier this year in a cutback move, by the way.
I hope that if and when the government decides to bailout the auto makers, it will get some bang for our buck. Better cars, more jobs with a living wage. Then I would feel better about signing off on these bailouts.
I’m not happy with the bailouts presently going on. Not because I fear we’re sliding into a socialistic kind of government. We’ve had some sort of socialistic tendencies going on for years, like our progressive tax system, for instance. What bothers me is all this money is being given out in taxpayers’ name, and still, nobody is being held accountable. I mean, who is getting this money...what are their plans for this money...do the CEOs and other honchos still get their bonuses and golden parachutes....are other companies, like AIG still funding getaways for their execs on taxpayer money...was any criteria set before they got the money, or did they just say, we’re broke..give it to us...
That doesn’t work for me or anyone I know for that matter. When those of us in the real world go broke for whatever reason, unless we have a benevolent rich relative to bail us out, we have to sign over everything as collateral including our first born, in blood, on parchment made from the skins of our ancestors.
More and more companies are asking for a handout. Whatever happened to the unregulated market place. What happened to survival of the fittest? I’m being forced to live by those rules. Why not big business and Wall Street? Why do they get to change the rules when they don’t work. Seems to me that if you allow your company to fall into financial ruin, and the workers lose their jobs, then you need to lose your job, your parachute and whatever bonus was promised when you signed on. It’s not fair for CEOs and others to walk away with the money while the workers get furloughed and thrown into bankruptcy. Especially if their back up plan is to ask for taxpayer money to get them out of their self constructed ditch.
Now the auto industry is crying for a handout. I’m in favor of giving it to them, because so much of our economy runs through Detroit. The big three are the major employers. They fund other industries, including our defense industry. Losing any one of the big three would be a catastrophe.
But, they need to give us something, too. If the big three want my money, then they need to build the kind of car that I need. I need a fuel efficient, safe car, that is environmentally friendly like the ones that are manufactured for the overseas markets. The big three also need to return some jobs to America. Let’s manufacture these cars over here, for a change and ship them out, rather than ship them in to the country.
Some of that is actually going on. Half the cars on the road, no matter what the name, are made here. I drive a “foreign” car with a Japanese name that actually rolled off the assembly line in Moraine Ohio between GMC Envoys and Chevy trailblazers. The only difference between my “foreign” car and the Envoy, is the name on the side panel and ten thousand dollars in price. My foreign car had the cheaper price, yet was loaded just like the Envoys and the trailblazers. My car is even roomier than the Trailblazer. Why not cut the price to the American market, too. That Moraine, Ohio plant shut down earlier this year in a cutback move, by the way.
I hope that if and when the government decides to bailout the auto makers, it will get some bang for our buck. Better cars, more jobs with a living wage. Then I would feel better about signing off on these bailouts.
11.15.2008
Cincinnati Rally Against Prop 8
Today is an absolutely miserable day in the Queen City. It’s an upside down day with the morning being warmer than the evening will be. Temperatures started falling amidst a chill rain almost as soon as daylight broke over the eastern horizon today.
Never the less I went down to City Hall, at the prescribed hour, to see if anyone was going to turn up for the planned prop 8 solidarity rally. I am happy to report that almost 1000 rainbow clad people braved the icey wind driven rain to take part in nationwide protests against the California vote that banned gay marriage in the sunshine state. The temperature at 1:30pm was 39-degrees and dropping.
The demonstration was orderly and pleasant as protests go. Mounted police were on hand to keep the peace, but the trio of 5-0 Mounties hung around for about 10 minutes before resuming their patrols. Nothing for them to police at the rally. There were several speeches and a moment of silence at 2pm in solidarity with protestors across the country. It was a good day. The numbers in attendance would seem to indicate that more people might have shown up if the weather had only cooperated.
I was troubled by the number of blacks who turned out....besides me...I saw just one other person of color. There may have been more, but everyone was covered, protected from the rain, so it was hard to see just who was who.
I also want to know where all these folks were when Ohio passed its ban on gay marriage back in 2004. You can read about it here. Ohio was the 38th state to enact such legislation and it passed here, almost unnoticed. I wrote about it back then because some of Ohio’s courts were interpreting the law to circumvent domestic violence and common law governance to the detriment of women. The Ohio Supreme Court, however, has since answered those questions.
But to date, no one has taken the State of Ohio to task for writing discrimination into the State Constitution. You will recall that Cincinnati tried it several years ago, too. That amendment passed, then was repealed, due in part to the city losing business and money because of its stated discrimination against the LGBT community.
Maybe the group that gathered today can turn its attention to Ohio and the laws making some of us second class citizens, right here in the Buckeye state. Or maybe, even better, we can all turn our attention on the coming administration in Washington....
Nothing like an executive order or congressional law to make all laws uniform on the issue, rather than the current cross pattern of state laws that exist now.
Obama called everyone to action...so be it...let’s get busy!
Never the less I went down to City Hall, at the prescribed hour, to see if anyone was going to turn up for the planned prop 8 solidarity rally. I am happy to report that almost 1000 rainbow clad people braved the icey wind driven rain to take part in nationwide protests against the California vote that banned gay marriage in the sunshine state. The temperature at 1:30pm was 39-degrees and dropping.
The demonstration was orderly and pleasant as protests go. Mounted police were on hand to keep the peace, but the trio of 5-0 Mounties hung around for about 10 minutes before resuming their patrols. Nothing for them to police at the rally. There were several speeches and a moment of silence at 2pm in solidarity with protestors across the country. It was a good day. The numbers in attendance would seem to indicate that more people might have shown up if the weather had only cooperated.
I was troubled by the number of blacks who turned out....besides me...I saw just one other person of color. There may have been more, but everyone was covered, protected from the rain, so it was hard to see just who was who.
I also want to know where all these folks were when Ohio passed its ban on gay marriage back in 2004. You can read about it here. Ohio was the 38th state to enact such legislation and it passed here, almost unnoticed. I wrote about it back then because some of Ohio’s courts were interpreting the law to circumvent domestic violence and common law governance to the detriment of women. The Ohio Supreme Court, however, has since answered those questions.
But to date, no one has taken the State of Ohio to task for writing discrimination into the State Constitution. You will recall that Cincinnati tried it several years ago, too. That amendment passed, then was repealed, due in part to the city losing business and money because of its stated discrimination against the LGBT community.
Maybe the group that gathered today can turn its attention to Ohio and the laws making some of us second class citizens, right here in the Buckeye state. Or maybe, even better, we can all turn our attention on the coming administration in Washington....
Nothing like an executive order or congressional law to make all laws uniform on the issue, rather than the current cross pattern of state laws that exist now.
Obama called everyone to action...so be it...let’s get busy!
Par-Tay! Ya Feelin’ Me?
All right all you Hip Hop Republicans.....Hey all you Black GOP members....Yo, to all you minority folks who don’t like our new president...Now is the time for you to step up into the breach!
The Republican party is in danger of extinction. It’s paler members have broken out the AK-47's and are currently involved in a circular firing squad. They’re cannibalizing their savior, Sarah Palin. They really, really don’t like her. Or maybe they’re just jealous about all the attention she is getting. Anyway, now is the time. This is your hour. Go ahead, jump in, take over. America has voted. We like our politics dipped in chocolate. And the GOP does need some spice in the soup its trying to serve to the public.
The real republicans have jumped ship. They support Obama, or at least are willing to support him for awhile. True non bigoted conservatives are also bolting. A bipartisan government is the utopia we have all been waiting for. But that leaves the party to the delusional right wing fringe who want to continue the marriage of church and state, creating a new talibanic regime on the most western of western soils. These people think they lost the election because their ticket didn’t push their so called moral agenda strong enough. In their collective mind, all the GOP has to do is to get more rigid in its views...fight the culture wars like they did back in the 90's when the moral majority was in its hey day. They want Saint Sarah to be their patron saint, their Joan of Arc, to lead them back to the white house and control.
I have a suggestion for you. Maybe while these folks are home cleaning their guns, depressed and sulking about current events, now is the time for all you young hip hop repubs to take over. Join the party. Stir yourself into that vanilla milkshake. Make it more flavorful and appealing to real America. Let's get rid of the virtual, Beaver Cleaver reality that many republicans can’t seem to delete from their minds.
The Republican party has to survive. America is no good if there is just one party. Americans are addicted to good cop-bad cop. The parties need to bounce off each other, rub against each other like a good bonfire. Oh sure there are lesser parties, like the green party, the communist party, the socialist party, the libertarians. We do have all kinds of political parties in America. We just don’t take them seriously unless there is a big “D” or “R” in front of them. “Ism parties” scare us to death and the only places that Americans like to see the color green is on frogs, in beer on St Patrick’s day and on our money, which is currently looking like more of a rainbow these days.
Someone has got to save the GOP. We can’t let it pass the way of the Whigs, can we? I will be honest, I can’t lead this revolution because I can’t stomach myself being a republican. I’ll admit that I have some conservative tendencies as some of my readers like to point out. And I’m a lesbian, too, so I can fit into the gay ole party. But I think the GOP needs some new minority blood. It needs some brown immigrant blood. It needs a shot of sangria, sweet, marvelous sangria.
So how about it, all you Q-dogs..Ya’ll like a good party. Some of you are even upstanding citizens. You know you know how to make money. Spend it too. Take on this new project. Rebuild the Republican party. I’m sure the Alphas and Kappas would be willing to help out. C’mon, make it more like America. Make America more Barackish. I like vanilla, but it’s the 21st century, time for another flavor. Time for some rap with the Ravel. Let’s chase that glenfiddich with a 40. How about some Miles with that Lawrence Welk.
Now is the time to stir this new chili. Variety is the spice of life, isn’t it?
The Republican party is in danger of extinction. It’s paler members have broken out the AK-47's and are currently involved in a circular firing squad. They’re cannibalizing their savior, Sarah Palin. They really, really don’t like her. Or maybe they’re just jealous about all the attention she is getting. Anyway, now is the time. This is your hour. Go ahead, jump in, take over. America has voted. We like our politics dipped in chocolate. And the GOP does need some spice in the soup its trying to serve to the public.
The real republicans have jumped ship. They support Obama, or at least are willing to support him for awhile. True non bigoted conservatives are also bolting. A bipartisan government is the utopia we have all been waiting for. But that leaves the party to the delusional right wing fringe who want to continue the marriage of church and state, creating a new talibanic regime on the most western of western soils. These people think they lost the election because their ticket didn’t push their so called moral agenda strong enough. In their collective mind, all the GOP has to do is to get more rigid in its views...fight the culture wars like they did back in the 90's when the moral majority was in its hey day. They want Saint Sarah to be their patron saint, their Joan of Arc, to lead them back to the white house and control.
I have a suggestion for you. Maybe while these folks are home cleaning their guns, depressed and sulking about current events, now is the time for all you young hip hop repubs to take over. Join the party. Stir yourself into that vanilla milkshake. Make it more flavorful and appealing to real America. Let's get rid of the virtual, Beaver Cleaver reality that many republicans can’t seem to delete from their minds.
The Republican party has to survive. America is no good if there is just one party. Americans are addicted to good cop-bad cop. The parties need to bounce off each other, rub against each other like a good bonfire. Oh sure there are lesser parties, like the green party, the communist party, the socialist party, the libertarians. We do have all kinds of political parties in America. We just don’t take them seriously unless there is a big “D” or “R” in front of them. “Ism parties” scare us to death and the only places that Americans like to see the color green is on frogs, in beer on St Patrick’s day and on our money, which is currently looking like more of a rainbow these days.
Someone has got to save the GOP. We can’t let it pass the way of the Whigs, can we? I will be honest, I can’t lead this revolution because I can’t stomach myself being a republican. I’ll admit that I have some conservative tendencies as some of my readers like to point out. And I’m a lesbian, too, so I can fit into the gay ole party. But I think the GOP needs some new minority blood. It needs some brown immigrant blood. It needs a shot of sangria, sweet, marvelous sangria.
So how about it, all you Q-dogs..Ya’ll like a good party. Some of you are even upstanding citizens. You know you know how to make money. Spend it too. Take on this new project. Rebuild the Republican party. I’m sure the Alphas and Kappas would be willing to help out. C’mon, make it more like America. Make America more Barackish. I like vanilla, but it’s the 21st century, time for another flavor. Time for some rap with the Ravel. Let’s chase that glenfiddich with a 40. How about some Miles with that Lawrence Welk.
Now is the time to stir this new chili. Variety is the spice of life, isn’t it?
11.14.2008
Cincinnati Freestore Food Drive
My friends at Cincinnati Blog reminded me about the annual food drive that goes on at this time of year. Actually the food drive goes on every day, but if you're like me then you know that other things tend to push that knowledge out of your head until you read something or see something that reminds you. The food bank is never far from my mind because I pass it weekly on my drive down Liberty Street to Findlay Market. Often the line of people needing food snakes around the building and that's not just on holidays.
The Foodbank has been in dire straits, keeping up with increased demand amid this deepening financial whirlpool in which we're all caught. So with Thanksgiving just around the corner, maybe we can all help out by donating to the Free Store.
And if you're reading this, then you're online and donating is just a click away. Welcome to the virtual food drive for the Cincinnati Free Store Foodbank.
So, please, click on the link and help someone out. Donate at least the amount of money it would cost you to buy gas, in order to go to the grocery store to pick up a can good, in order to drive to the food bank, to donate.
Thanks in advance. It helps us all on our Karma debt
The Foodbank has been in dire straits, keeping up with increased demand amid this deepening financial whirlpool in which we're all caught. So with Thanksgiving just around the corner, maybe we can all help out by donating to the Free Store.
And if you're reading this, then you're online and donating is just a click away. Welcome to the virtual food drive for the Cincinnati Free Store Foodbank.
So, please, click on the link and help someone out. Donate at least the amount of money it would cost you to buy gas, in order to go to the grocery store to pick up a can good, in order to drive to the food bank, to donate.
Thanks in advance. It helps us all on our Karma debt
11.13.2008
Palin! Please Go Home!
You know, I thought that when Obama won the election, that Sarah Palin would go home and quietly resume her gubernatorial duties up in that great white wasteland called Alaska. I gleefully thought,
“Hey....we won’t have Sarah Palin to kick around anymore...”
Silly me. She went home all right, but quietly? Nah...I should have known...quiet is just not her style.
I guess the national spotlight is addicting. Once you get a taste of it, positive or negative, you crave more and more and more.
Maybe McCain should have let her do more press while she was campaigning in order to get it out of her system. I mean, girlfriend has been on a 24/7 jaunt through the media, granting interviews to anyone who asks, attempting to debunk all the stuff that’s been coming out of her mouth for the past couple of months.
She’s not a diva, according to her, while she invites Greta Van Susteren into her kitchen to watch her cook ala Martha Stewart. She’s sorting through the clothes to determine which ones are hers and which ones belong to the GOP....First off, all she has to do is to look for the Walmart tickets...those are hers...The ones with the fancy names on the tickets...those belong to the GOP. The silk boxers have to go back, too...too cold for snow machine races through the wilderness.
And of course she knows that Africa is a continent, not a country, and she reads the same stuff in Alaska that we read in the lower 48. But banning Harry Potter? C’mon! She loves Harry Potter. She apparently doesn’t like bloggers, though.
Damn! When I write about Sarah, I get out of bed, take off my pajamas and go into my office, and sit at my desk, out of respect. After all, writing is my job. It’s what I do. It’s hard to work in bed, unless you’re a hooker. Okay, maybe some days I sit down at my desk in my pajamas, especially when it’s cold outside, that is what I like about working at home. But there were many days during the campaign that I stood in the crowd to witness Palin power, first hand, way out in the suburbs. Then I jumped into my gas guzzling SUV and drove all the way back to the city and wrote about what I saw and heard with my own ears. I had to make those trips because Sarah and John never came to my neighborhood to talk to me and my neighbors. And from what I saw on the telly, Palin never visited any places like my neighborhood, anywhere in the country. I just figured we were not “real” enough for her.
Oh, and she’s going to let GOD tell her whether or not she should run for office in 2012. I thought the witch doctor and GOD were going to handle it for her this time around in 2008. She and that charlatan James Dobson said God would speak on election day. Well, God did speak and so did the American people. But I guess Sarah wasn’t listening too closely, She got the message about going home, she just doesn’t understand that we and maybe God, want her to stay there, permanently.
“Hey....we won’t have Sarah Palin to kick around anymore...”
Silly me. She went home all right, but quietly? Nah...I should have known...quiet is just not her style.
I guess the national spotlight is addicting. Once you get a taste of it, positive or negative, you crave more and more and more.
Maybe McCain should have let her do more press while she was campaigning in order to get it out of her system. I mean, girlfriend has been on a 24/7 jaunt through the media, granting interviews to anyone who asks, attempting to debunk all the stuff that’s been coming out of her mouth for the past couple of months.
She’s not a diva, according to her, while she invites Greta Van Susteren into her kitchen to watch her cook ala Martha Stewart. She’s sorting through the clothes to determine which ones are hers and which ones belong to the GOP....First off, all she has to do is to look for the Walmart tickets...those are hers...The ones with the fancy names on the tickets...those belong to the GOP. The silk boxers have to go back, too...too cold for snow machine races through the wilderness.
And of course she knows that Africa is a continent, not a country, and she reads the same stuff in Alaska that we read in the lower 48. But banning Harry Potter? C’mon! She loves Harry Potter. She apparently doesn’t like bloggers, though.
Damn! When I write about Sarah, I get out of bed, take off my pajamas and go into my office, and sit at my desk, out of respect. After all, writing is my job. It’s what I do. It’s hard to work in bed, unless you’re a hooker. Okay, maybe some days I sit down at my desk in my pajamas, especially when it’s cold outside, that is what I like about working at home. But there were many days during the campaign that I stood in the crowd to witness Palin power, first hand, way out in the suburbs. Then I jumped into my gas guzzling SUV and drove all the way back to the city and wrote about what I saw and heard with my own ears. I had to make those trips because Sarah and John never came to my neighborhood to talk to me and my neighbors. And from what I saw on the telly, Palin never visited any places like my neighborhood, anywhere in the country. I just figured we were not “real” enough for her.
Oh, and she’s going to let GOD tell her whether or not she should run for office in 2012. I thought the witch doctor and GOD were going to handle it for her this time around in 2008. She and that charlatan James Dobson said God would speak on election day. Well, God did speak and so did the American people. But I guess Sarah wasn’t listening too closely, She got the message about going home, she just doesn’t understand that we and maybe God, want her to stay there, permanently.
11.10.2008
Mama Africa
Miriam Makeba has passed. She collapsed, apparently from a heart attack, while on stage last night in Italy. I found her a long time ago, when she married and performed with the legendary Hugh Masekela. She taught me the "Click Song." The real name was Pata pata, but it was called the click song because she sang it in Xhosa, a language that uses not only words but clicking sounds made in the throat. I spent a lot of time as a kid trying to master those sounds.
May she rest in peace
May she rest in peace
11.09.2008
Picketing Obama’s Grandmother’s Funeral
Some call him the crypt keeper.....I just call him a low life son of a bitch. Fred Phelps ( he’s no reverend- a reverend is a man of God), has reared his ugly head again. He and his followers are gathering to picket Obama’s grandmother’s funeral in Hawaii. You can read the flyer here.
Phelps has long been a thorn in the side of the LGBT community. I wrote about him a couple of years ago when he started picketing military funerals.
It’s time that the right wing conservative pseudo-Christians, both white and black, start to understand that this stuff is not acceptable.
Similarly, the Mormon Church and it’s support for Proposition 8 in California is also not acceptable. Marriage is a civil union, not a religious one. Marriage can be blessed or sanctioned in the church, but its binding is governed by law and the courts. Separation of church and state is a constitutional right. And as such, we are all equal under the constitution.
Any church that doesn’t pay taxes yet continues to politic, should be stripped of it’s 501C status, period. And that includes ANY church whose pastor stood in the pulpit and preached against Prop 8 and rallied his/her followers to oppose any type of legislation or socio-legal measure.
I’m not saying to censure churches or pastors...I am saying that if a church chooses to politic, or its pastor chooses to use his pulpit in an attempt to effect social change, then it should be made to relinquish it’s “special rights.”
We’re all equal here...pay taxes...first amendment.....don’t pay taxes...obey the law and shut up.
I would really feel better if someone or two would just take Phelps and his followers behind a tree and beat the holy crap out of them. But imposing the law would work better and get their attention. The best way to hurt a bigot....all bigots, religious or otherwise, is in the pocket book.
Phelps has long been a thorn in the side of the LGBT community. I wrote about him a couple of years ago when he started picketing military funerals.
It’s time that the right wing conservative pseudo-Christians, both white and black, start to understand that this stuff is not acceptable.
Similarly, the Mormon Church and it’s support for Proposition 8 in California is also not acceptable. Marriage is a civil union, not a religious one. Marriage can be blessed or sanctioned in the church, but its binding is governed by law and the courts. Separation of church and state is a constitutional right. And as such, we are all equal under the constitution.
Any church that doesn’t pay taxes yet continues to politic, should be stripped of it’s 501C status, period. And that includes ANY church whose pastor stood in the pulpit and preached against Prop 8 and rallied his/her followers to oppose any type of legislation or socio-legal measure.
I’m not saying to censure churches or pastors...I am saying that if a church chooses to politic, or its pastor chooses to use his pulpit in an attempt to effect social change, then it should be made to relinquish it’s “special rights.”
We’re all equal here...pay taxes...first amendment.....don’t pay taxes...obey the law and shut up.
I would really feel better if someone or two would just take Phelps and his followers behind a tree and beat the holy crap out of them. But imposing the law would work better and get their attention. The best way to hurt a bigot....all bigots, religious or otherwise, is in the pocket book.
Blue Cincinnati
364 people living in my neighborhood, voted for John McCain for president over Barack Obama. That number surprised me when I first saw it, but then again, I do live near two major universities. So maybe some of their out of town students cast votes to make their dads happy, and/or to show solidarity for those black republicans who still stand shoulder to shoulder with Ken Blackwell.
5427 people, including me, cast votes for Barack. 55% of Avondale turned out to vote this past Tuesday. And that was only a 2.3% increase of voters over 2006. That’s not a huge difference in turnout, when you think about it.
The percentage difference is the big number. That 5427 represents 93% of the votes cast going for Obama, while John McCain garnered just 6% of the count. I guess the lost 1% represent the confused.
Evanston went 90% for Obama, while McCain did get 347 votes. McCain got 229 votes in Walnut Hills, which is one of the more diverse neighborhoods in Cincinnati, both ethnically and financially.
95% of Bond Hill went for Obama. 18 people went for McCain in the West End. That was his lowest total inside Cincinnati. It was off set by the 4167 vote that McCain got in Mt. Washington. But he still lost the precinct by 1 percentage point to Obama.
In fact, of the Cincinnati’s 26 wards, only one went for McCain, that was Sedamsville/Saylor Park. And they went big for McCain, 57.8% to 39.5%. The turnout was also down from 2006.
Now outside city limits the vote was reversed, with most suburban areas going for McCain. There were major exceptions, Springfield Township, Lincoln Heights, Forest Park, Woodlawn and Golf Manor.
McCain got 9 votes in Lincoln Heights which is an all black city in Hamilton County. Maybe those votes were die hard black republicans taking a stand. Don’t know.
The total vote for the City of Cincinnati was, 98,864 for Obama, 33,289 for McCain. Percentage wise, that’s 73.5% to 24.9% for Obama. That tally represents a 3.8% increase in voters to the polls.
The burbs went 154,573 for McCain, to 109,938 for Obama. 57.5% to 40.8%...and that represents a 5.5% increase in voters to the polls over 2006.
One thing is for sure, there is still a lot of work to do when it comes to voter turnout. If voters won't turn out for this election, then what will they turn out for?
5427 people, including me, cast votes for Barack. 55% of Avondale turned out to vote this past Tuesday. And that was only a 2.3% increase of voters over 2006. That’s not a huge difference in turnout, when you think about it.
The percentage difference is the big number. That 5427 represents 93% of the votes cast going for Obama, while John McCain garnered just 6% of the count. I guess the lost 1% represent the confused.
Evanston went 90% for Obama, while McCain did get 347 votes. McCain got 229 votes in Walnut Hills, which is one of the more diverse neighborhoods in Cincinnati, both ethnically and financially.
95% of Bond Hill went for Obama. 18 people went for McCain in the West End. That was his lowest total inside Cincinnati. It was off set by the 4167 vote that McCain got in Mt. Washington. But he still lost the precinct by 1 percentage point to Obama.
In fact, of the Cincinnati’s 26 wards, only one went for McCain, that was Sedamsville/Saylor Park. And they went big for McCain, 57.8% to 39.5%. The turnout was also down from 2006.
Now outside city limits the vote was reversed, with most suburban areas going for McCain. There were major exceptions, Springfield Township, Lincoln Heights, Forest Park, Woodlawn and Golf Manor.
McCain got 9 votes in Lincoln Heights which is an all black city in Hamilton County. Maybe those votes were die hard black republicans taking a stand. Don’t know.
The total vote for the City of Cincinnati was, 98,864 for Obama, 33,289 for McCain. Percentage wise, that’s 73.5% to 24.9% for Obama. That tally represents a 3.8% increase in voters to the polls.
The burbs went 154,573 for McCain, to 109,938 for Obama. 57.5% to 40.8%...and that represents a 5.5% increase in voters to the polls over 2006.
One thing is for sure, there is still a lot of work to do when it comes to voter turnout. If voters won't turn out for this election, then what will they turn out for?
11.08.2008
Still Holding My Breath
I knew it was serious when I saw all the young men and women dressed as if they’d only just gotten out of bed and needed to run out for some milk for the baby or smokes to jump start their day. The hood rats were up and out, but not on the corner. Not on this day, election day. The young men who sometimes make me cringe when I look at them, or hear them curse for no reason were up early. Usually cursing is the norm. It’s just the way they talk to everyone. But not today. The way they choose to dress, allowing their jeans to dangle to their knees in order to show off their designer boxers, makes me uncomfortable.
Pricey baseball caps seated sideways on their heads covering their doo rag, which covers their hair. Walking billboards from head to toe screaming out their favored clothing line. The hood rats were not restless this day. This day they were in line ahead of me at the poll, waiting quietly, talking respectfully to their elders, patiently allowing themselves to be directed by the poll officials, because like everyone else they were there to cast a vote for Barack Obama. They got it. They are not lost souls. They understood the importance of what was happening. America was aligning itself with the universe. Karma at work.
As I looked around, Sly Stone was ringing in my ears...”it’s a family affair..” Mothers showed up with their grown kids. They young ones followed, playing musical chairs and chowing down on chocolate chip cookies while the old ones took care of business. The wait was roughly 40 minutes..no one complained or got ugly, or walked out.
I like election days at my polling place.. it’s the one day of the year that you spend a little time hanging out with your neighbors. The conversations were friendly, meandering, passing time until the voting booth became available.
My precinct is like a village, young and old participate and they bring their kids. The poll workers are the same folks. I know them on sight and they know me. Pleasantries fly up and down the table, catching up since the primaries, which was the last time I’d been there or seen them. I flash ID only because it’s the law, pick up my two page ballot and step into the booth.
Voting was easy. The wait until the polls closed was excruciating. Just couldn’t keep myself busy or my mind off the subject at hand. Barack Obama.
I’ve already written about what I was feeling after his victory was announced. I’ve spent the past couple of days crying, thinking and tearing up. It’s been a very long catharsis. One that I don’t think is over even now.
Too many times, we’ve been to the mountain top, or looked out over the river and not been allowed to cross over. I was too young to vote for Kennedy. I was only 13 when he was killed. I remember the assassination of Malcolm X and the killing of Martin Luther King as if it was yesterday. I remember going to bed thinking Bobby Kennedy had won the California primary and would soon be our president, only to wake up and learn that he, too had been killed. I recall the run of Congresswoman Shirley Chisolm. It made me proud, but no one, not even I, took her seriously. The runs of the Reverend Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton were little more than punch lines for late night TV.
Always, one step forward, two steps back. Never in my lifetime did I think a black man or woman could cross over the summit. Right up until the time the vote was called for him, I had trouble believing. Voter suppression, racism, ballot errors..something was going to screw it up.
And you know what.....I’m still holding my breath until January 20th, 2009. So many things can go wrong in the next 75 days.
But even at this point, I’m grateful....thank you white people for putting away fears of the boogie man. Thank you for turning out and finally, finally, allowing us to feel, for the first time, that we are simply Americans, real Americans.
It’s okay.....you don’t have to like us, but by voting for Barack you have finally conceded that all humanity does not necessarily look, act, or talk like you.
Pricey baseball caps seated sideways on their heads covering their doo rag, which covers their hair. Walking billboards from head to toe screaming out their favored clothing line. The hood rats were not restless this day. This day they were in line ahead of me at the poll, waiting quietly, talking respectfully to their elders, patiently allowing themselves to be directed by the poll officials, because like everyone else they were there to cast a vote for Barack Obama. They got it. They are not lost souls. They understood the importance of what was happening. America was aligning itself with the universe. Karma at work.
As I looked around, Sly Stone was ringing in my ears...”it’s a family affair..” Mothers showed up with their grown kids. They young ones followed, playing musical chairs and chowing down on chocolate chip cookies while the old ones took care of business. The wait was roughly 40 minutes..no one complained or got ugly, or walked out.
I like election days at my polling place.. it’s the one day of the year that you spend a little time hanging out with your neighbors. The conversations were friendly, meandering, passing time until the voting booth became available.
My precinct is like a village, young and old participate and they bring their kids. The poll workers are the same folks. I know them on sight and they know me. Pleasantries fly up and down the table, catching up since the primaries, which was the last time I’d been there or seen them. I flash ID only because it’s the law, pick up my two page ballot and step into the booth.
Voting was easy. The wait until the polls closed was excruciating. Just couldn’t keep myself busy or my mind off the subject at hand. Barack Obama.
I’ve already written about what I was feeling after his victory was announced. I’ve spent the past couple of days crying, thinking and tearing up. It’s been a very long catharsis. One that I don’t think is over even now.
Too many times, we’ve been to the mountain top, or looked out over the river and not been allowed to cross over. I was too young to vote for Kennedy. I was only 13 when he was killed. I remember the assassination of Malcolm X and the killing of Martin Luther King as if it was yesterday. I remember going to bed thinking Bobby Kennedy had won the California primary and would soon be our president, only to wake up and learn that he, too had been killed. I recall the run of Congresswoman Shirley Chisolm. It made me proud, but no one, not even I, took her seriously. The runs of the Reverend Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton were little more than punch lines for late night TV.
Always, one step forward, two steps back. Never in my lifetime did I think a black man or woman could cross over the summit. Right up until the time the vote was called for him, I had trouble believing. Voter suppression, racism, ballot errors..something was going to screw it up.
And you know what.....I’m still holding my breath until January 20th, 2009. So many things can go wrong in the next 75 days.
But even at this point, I’m grateful....thank you white people for putting away fears of the boogie man. Thank you for turning out and finally, finally, allowing us to feel, for the first time, that we are simply Americans, real Americans.
It’s okay.....you don’t have to like us, but by voting for Barack you have finally conceded that all humanity does not necessarily look, act, or talk like you.
11.06.2008
McCain’s Fault
I don’t care how much Sarah Palin actually spent during her trips to Neiman Marcus. I don’t care how many “g’s” she dropped, how many words she mispronounced, or how many sentences she mangled. I don’t even give a righteous damn about whether or not she knows that Africa is a continent instead of a country.
John McCain is solely and completely responsible for the debacle that was Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin, vice president select.
He put her in that position, placed her untested and unvetted before the eyes of the world. If he had merely checked her out with his smarts instead of allowing himself to be controlled by the head that dangles on that useless appendage between his legs, before he turned her loose to fall flat on her face, he would have known what kind of personality she had. If he’d spent more than a day with her, McCain might have been privy to the alleged “diva” tendencies that members of his staff are now talking and complaining about.
If he had paid more attention to the goings on of his campaign, instead of turning his running mate over to “handlers,” he might have been able to side step some of the embarrassments to his campaign that are now being laid at her feet.
Instead, he chose to treat her like he treats all women. He has been 100% nonsupportive of anything female during his time in Congress. He dumped his first wife for a younger richer woman. He is still with that younger richer woman, but then again, she has all the money. His body language says he doesn’t like her very much, but he’s become accustomed to a certain kind of easy lifestyle that he can’t afford on his own.
Palin was just another woman to use for his purpose of garnering more power and prestige. In his limited reasoning McCain figured that he could simply swap one female for another...Sarah for Hillary. He used her, hid behind her while she weathered the body punches meant for him. And when he lost, he turned his staff loose to savage her, tossing her out of a moving car on his way back to Arizona, like a used up whore after a 20-dollar blow job in the front seat of a 59 chevy.
John McCain is solely and completely responsible for the debacle that was Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin, vice president select.
He put her in that position, placed her untested and unvetted before the eyes of the world. If he had merely checked her out with his smarts instead of allowing himself to be controlled by the head that dangles on that useless appendage between his legs, before he turned her loose to fall flat on her face, he would have known what kind of personality she had. If he’d spent more than a day with her, McCain might have been privy to the alleged “diva” tendencies that members of his staff are now talking and complaining about.
If he had paid more attention to the goings on of his campaign, instead of turning his running mate over to “handlers,” he might have been able to side step some of the embarrassments to his campaign that are now being laid at her feet.
Instead, he chose to treat her like he treats all women. He has been 100% nonsupportive of anything female during his time in Congress. He dumped his first wife for a younger richer woman. He is still with that younger richer woman, but then again, she has all the money. His body language says he doesn’t like her very much, but he’s become accustomed to a certain kind of easy lifestyle that he can’t afford on his own.
Palin was just another woman to use for his purpose of garnering more power and prestige. In his limited reasoning McCain figured that he could simply swap one female for another...Sarah for Hillary. He used her, hid behind her while she weathered the body punches meant for him. And when he lost, he turned his staff loose to savage her, tossing her out of a moving car on his way back to Arizona, like a used up whore after a 20-dollar blow job in the front seat of a 59 chevy.
11.05.2008
President Barack Hussein Obama
SING!
Lift every voice and sing
Till earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty ;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the listening skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that t he present has brought us,
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun
Let us march on till victory is won.
Now that it’s here.....I’m all cried out. I’ve worn my emotions on my sleeve, crying at the drop of a hat at almost every word that has sprung from the mouth of Obama, since his speech on race, back on march 18th....
Tonight...I’m numb. Happy...smiling on the inside....but no tears...not tonight....I’m supposed to be going to a party...but I can’t move...I’ve lost my words....I’ve lost control of my god given abilities to paint word pictures of my surroundings.....
No tears..I look at the pictures coming out of my television...it looks like New Years...People have filled the streets....rejoicing....
WE’VE GOT A BLACK MAN IN THE WHITE HOUSE...I want to shout....I want to hear gunfire as if it is New Years.....I want Rossi fireworks shooting off the bridges over the Ohio river....
And then I glance at my TV and see reporter Steve Osunsami, another american with a funny name, start crying, as he tried to explain what he was feeling...he choked up on camera...and then I lost it....
Do I believe.....yes, yes, yes.....
America.... sometimes it is the worst of times....tonight...it is the best of times...
My home...
Lift every voice and sing
Till earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty ;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the listening skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that t he present has brought us,
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun
Let us march on till victory is won.
Now that it’s here.....I’m all cried out. I’ve worn my emotions on my sleeve, crying at the drop of a hat at almost every word that has sprung from the mouth of Obama, since his speech on race, back on march 18th....
Tonight...I’m numb. Happy...smiling on the inside....but no tears...not tonight....I’m supposed to be going to a party...but I can’t move...I’ve lost my words....I’ve lost control of my god given abilities to paint word pictures of my surroundings.....
No tears..I look at the pictures coming out of my television...it looks like New Years...People have filled the streets....rejoicing....
WE’VE GOT A BLACK MAN IN THE WHITE HOUSE...I want to shout....I want to hear gunfire as if it is New Years.....I want Rossi fireworks shooting off the bridges over the Ohio river....
And then I glance at my TV and see reporter Steve Osunsami, another american with a funny name, start crying, as he tried to explain what he was feeling...he choked up on camera...and then I lost it....
Do I believe.....yes, yes, yes.....
America.... sometimes it is the worst of times....tonight...it is the best of times...
My home...
11.04.2008
BELIEVE!
“A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history”. -gandhi
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams”. -eleanor roosevelt
“Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent”-martin luther king jr..
“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek”-barack obama
Nothing in my lifetime has prepared me for this day, none the less...I'm ready. So I ask you...
DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES?
My answer is an emphatic.... YES!
.
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams”. -eleanor roosevelt
“Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent”-martin luther king jr..
“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek”-barack obama
Nothing in my lifetime has prepared me for this day, none the less...I'm ready. So I ask you...
DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES?
My answer is an emphatic.... YES!
.
11.02.2008
Obama Hatin’
The very people who are holding out for a Johnny Mac victory on Tuesday, are the same ones who will tell you that Phil Mickleson is a better golfer than Tiger Woods.
They refuse to see what is right in front of them. Mickleson consistently loses to Woods because he is not talented enough in his entire game, he is not smart enough to out think Woods around the course, nor is his game plan any good on any given day. Mickleson trusts too much of his game to luck. Most importantly, he does not believe in himself. Woods is a showman, yes. But he is methodical, powered by a killer instinct and knowledge of what he has to do to win. Some days he just plays, other days he has to grind..whatever works, to win. And most importantly, Woods knows that no matter how he plays, that he will win, period.
Woods has singlehandedly transformed the sport of golf, right down to the way his competitors treat their own bodies. The day of the out of shape dough boy golfer is over.
Obama is the same. His inner calm shows that he, too, has an incredible belief in himself and his abilities. His speeches are merely the flourish, the icing on the cake, that covers a very solid plan and ground game. He has literally transformed the way campaigns will be run in the future. He has shown the experts just how to raise money to fund a campaign from the ground up. His game plan was brilliantly simple...put the organization of volunteers and paid workers in place during the primary season in every state, not just the blue ones. By the time Obama won the nomination, it was business as usual for his campaign. They just kicked it up a notch, quietly and effectively.
The allegation that Obama has no executive experience is just plain dumb. Look at his campaign organization. Thousands of people, both paid and volunteer, working smoothly and efficiently. Much better than a number of corporations that I could list. He literally steam rolled every other professional politician who was in the game this time around. And they never saw him coming.
The fact that he refused campaign financing was the only way to go. You can’t beat the man playing his game, by his rules, with his equipment, on his court. You have to change the game. The Chicago Bulls couldn't win a championship with Michael Jordan until they learned to play Detroit Piston Basketball. Then it was game over. Obama has learned to play the game by looking at the mistakes of his predecessors, and by improving upon their technique.
Last but not least, Obama is in front. The polls say he is going to win. I hope he is like that other front runner that I have been talking about. Woods never loses holding the lead going into Sunday. The other golfers make it easy by usually throwing in the towel or choking, game over, Woods wins.
The McCain campaign has gone way past dishonorable. Now it’s just bald face lying to the public, about anything and everything, throwing it at Obama in hopes that some of the mud will stick. McCain hasn't thrown in the towel, publicly. But I think he’s choked, badly. And it happened a couple of months ago....enter Lady Sarah.
Let’s hope that Obama’s hide is made of TEFLON and that he is comfortable with his front runner status. I suspect that he is. His calm, tells me that he is okay, and that this marathon is almost over.
Somebody cue the fat lady....
They refuse to see what is right in front of them. Mickleson consistently loses to Woods because he is not talented enough in his entire game, he is not smart enough to out think Woods around the course, nor is his game plan any good on any given day. Mickleson trusts too much of his game to luck. Most importantly, he does not believe in himself. Woods is a showman, yes. But he is methodical, powered by a killer instinct and knowledge of what he has to do to win. Some days he just plays, other days he has to grind..whatever works, to win. And most importantly, Woods knows that no matter how he plays, that he will win, period.
Woods has singlehandedly transformed the sport of golf, right down to the way his competitors treat their own bodies. The day of the out of shape dough boy golfer is over.
Obama is the same. His inner calm shows that he, too, has an incredible belief in himself and his abilities. His speeches are merely the flourish, the icing on the cake, that covers a very solid plan and ground game. He has literally transformed the way campaigns will be run in the future. He has shown the experts just how to raise money to fund a campaign from the ground up. His game plan was brilliantly simple...put the organization of volunteers and paid workers in place during the primary season in every state, not just the blue ones. By the time Obama won the nomination, it was business as usual for his campaign. They just kicked it up a notch, quietly and effectively.
The allegation that Obama has no executive experience is just plain dumb. Look at his campaign organization. Thousands of people, both paid and volunteer, working smoothly and efficiently. Much better than a number of corporations that I could list. He literally steam rolled every other professional politician who was in the game this time around. And they never saw him coming.
The fact that he refused campaign financing was the only way to go. You can’t beat the man playing his game, by his rules, with his equipment, on his court. You have to change the game. The Chicago Bulls couldn't win a championship with Michael Jordan until they learned to play Detroit Piston Basketball. Then it was game over. Obama has learned to play the game by looking at the mistakes of his predecessors, and by improving upon their technique.
Last but not least, Obama is in front. The polls say he is going to win. I hope he is like that other front runner that I have been talking about. Woods never loses holding the lead going into Sunday. The other golfers make it easy by usually throwing in the towel or choking, game over, Woods wins.
The McCain campaign has gone way past dishonorable. Now it’s just bald face lying to the public, about anything and everything, throwing it at Obama in hopes that some of the mud will stick. McCain hasn't thrown in the towel, publicly. But I think he’s choked, badly. And it happened a couple of months ago....enter Lady Sarah.
Let’s hope that Obama’s hide is made of TEFLON and that he is comfortable with his front runner status. I suspect that he is. His calm, tells me that he is okay, and that this marathon is almost over.
Somebody cue the fat lady....
10.31.2008
White House Calling Shots in Ohio Voter Suppression
The White House admitted on Monday that President Bush has asked the Justice Department to take a look at the registrations of more than 200,000 people, here in Ohio. Bush made the request last Friday, according to the Washington Post and UPI-news.
Ohio republicans want all new voters to reconfirm their registrations before next week’s election. The United States Supreme Court has already ruled that GOP requests for such actions are not necessary and dismissed the latest GOP lawsuit last week.
You will recall that GOP officials throughout Ohio, such as Hamilton County Prosecutor, Joe Deters, have continued attempts to suppress the vote, by calling for grand jury investigations, and quarantining ballots already cast in Ohio’s early voting, here in Cincinnati. A special prosecutor was appointed to oversee the investigation by Common Pleas Judge Norbert Nadel. The special prosecutor is a former assistant to Joe Deter's.
The sheriff of Greene County has taken similar actions and made similar requests and attempts to suppress the vote in his area. Greene County his home to historically black Wilberforce University, Central State College, Wright State College and Antioch. A record number of students have signed up to vote in this year’s election and officials speculate that they may overwhelmingly favor Barack Obama.
Other counties have taken the same kinds of actions, here in Southwest Ohio. There has been no word from the Justice Department about any actions that it plans to take.
The DOJ is currently involved in its own scandal, having to answer for the firings of 8 US Attornies who reportedly refused to follow White House orders to pursue or investigate similar voter suppression charges that surfaced back in 2006.
UPDATE: The Justice Department has announced that it is sending out 800 feds to monitor voting on Tuesday. No federal monitors will work in Ohio. However, federal staffers will watch polls in Cuyahoga County...that's Cleveland and the surrounding area. No official monitors or staffers here, in Hamilton County or anywhere in Southwest Ohio.
10.23.2008
Hey! God!
Talking with Focus on the Family’s James Dobson, yesterday, Sarah Palin said she is confident that God will do the right thing for America on November 4th.
Dobson chimed in that he and his wife are also praying for Devine intervention on election day.
While out campaigning earlier this week for Senator Obama, and my friend, Rep. Tyrone Yates, I ran across an aged little chocolate lady who was sitting on her porch, taking in the dying warmth of a fall afternoon. She fixed me with a serious stare over her sagging glasses and repeated a line that I’ve heard over and over throughout my life and this campaign in particular.
“God don’t like ugly,” she said.
She went on to tell me that there was big payback coming and she felt it was coming to Palin and her running mate John McCain. But she didn’t think they would be enjoying that payback in the White House.
She also expressed fears that folks wouldn’t turn out to vote. I had to agree with her, because standing there with us in this conversation was another younger woman of a different shade of brown, who said Obama had the election sewed up because he had the lead in the electoral college. I had to break it down to her, because she didn’t realize that the electoral college is dependent upon the popular vote. That the election was far from over and that it was very, very important to turn out on election day or before.
These women are my neighbors. We all live on the same street, in the same part of town. A part of town that Sarah Palin probably doesn’t consider American or patriotic enough because she’s never set foot in it to ask for my support or those of my neighbors. The two ladies that I was talking to probably wouldn’t fit Sarah’s or Dobson’s definition of Christian, either. But the little lady had King James open in her lap and I know if I’d pushed, she would’ve and could’ve quoted it without written notes or a teleprompter.
In between puffs on her unfiltered cigarette my little lady went to say that God answers all prayers, you just have to ask. But she said what many people don’t understand is, that the answer you get, may not be the answer you want. But it will always be the answer you need. And she said again,
“God don’t like ugly.”
I always say, what goes around comes around. Karma, God....all the same. You reap what you sow. I hope Palin’s ready for her answer come election day. I know that I am, regardless.
“God don’t like ugly.”
Bet.
Dobson chimed in that he and his wife are also praying for Devine intervention on election day.
While out campaigning earlier this week for Senator Obama, and my friend, Rep. Tyrone Yates, I ran across an aged little chocolate lady who was sitting on her porch, taking in the dying warmth of a fall afternoon. She fixed me with a serious stare over her sagging glasses and repeated a line that I’ve heard over and over throughout my life and this campaign in particular.
“God don’t like ugly,” she said.
She went on to tell me that there was big payback coming and she felt it was coming to Palin and her running mate John McCain. But she didn’t think they would be enjoying that payback in the White House.
She also expressed fears that folks wouldn’t turn out to vote. I had to agree with her, because standing there with us in this conversation was another younger woman of a different shade of brown, who said Obama had the election sewed up because he had the lead in the electoral college. I had to break it down to her, because she didn’t realize that the electoral college is dependent upon the popular vote. That the election was far from over and that it was very, very important to turn out on election day or before.
These women are my neighbors. We all live on the same street, in the same part of town. A part of town that Sarah Palin probably doesn’t consider American or patriotic enough because she’s never set foot in it to ask for my support or those of my neighbors. The two ladies that I was talking to probably wouldn’t fit Sarah’s or Dobson’s definition of Christian, either. But the little lady had King James open in her lap and I know if I’d pushed, she would’ve and could’ve quoted it without written notes or a teleprompter.
In between puffs on her unfiltered cigarette my little lady went to say that God answers all prayers, you just have to ask. But she said what many people don’t understand is, that the answer you get, may not be the answer you want. But it will always be the answer you need. And she said again,
“God don’t like ugly.”
I always say, what goes around comes around. Karma, God....all the same. You reap what you sow. I hope Palin’s ready for her answer come election day. I know that I am, regardless.
“God don’t like ugly.”
Bet.
10.22.2008
Palin/McCain Land at Lunken
The straight talk express flew into Cincinnati’s municipal airport this evening for a brief visit to the Queen City. Several thousand people crowded the hangar and adjoining tarmac, in order to hear from the candidates. The GOP loaded the back stage with office holders like Jean Schmidt, republican chair Alex Triantafilo, and Rob Portman to name a few. Portman also mc’ed the pep rally. Gretchen Wilson was the entertainment prior to the arrival of the candidates.
A coatless Cindy McCain, looking very cold in the 40-degree temperatures, warmed up the crowd and then introduced the Governor of Alaska, to thunderous applause and chanting. It was obvious from the response that the crowd was mainly there to see and hear their Sarah. She didn’t disappoint them, quickly jumping on the attack with her now familiar stump speech, crammed full of “gotcha” lines aimed squarely at Obama. She sprinkled the new and latest buzz words throughout her talk, switching socialist for terrorist, leaving out Bill Ayers, and accusing Obama of planning to raise taxes on everybody. She was sharp and to the point.
But I can’t say that about McCain.
He began okay, opening a notebook with a prepared script to keep him company along with the teleprompter. But he still managed to get lost within his words, constantly losing his place and repeating himself over and over, sometimes, obviously confusing his listeners. He retread the same attack territory previously trodden by his VP. He was very animated throughout. So animated, in fact, that I wondered if he was amped on something. He leaned heavily on his past history and reputation, as the man who acts and strikes quickly to solve problems. His delivery, along with being unusually hyper also smacked of desperation. Something I hadn’t seen earlier in the campaign.
He promised to cut taxes for everyone from the top, down, and told Cincinnatians that he could tell from the audience that he was in McCain country and that Ohio would make him president.
I was curious to see what fashionista Sarah was wearing today. It was dark and subtle, a suit that I’d seen her wear before. She’d peaked my curiosity because of all the talk the past couple of days about how much money the RNC had paid to buy her new clothes. She may talk and sound the way she thinks hockey moms talk, but she’s not dressing like one these days. As reported, yesterday, the republican national committee shelled out 150,000 dollars for a new wardrobe for her. That’s more than she makes as governor of Alaska. That’s not exactly a hockey mom’s budget. It’s not a Cindy McCain budget either, but close. Mrs. McCain routinely wears jackets that would pay for three or four of my house. But, then she can afford to dress like that, since daddy left her a 100-million dollars.
The republicans jumped all over John Edwards about his 400-dollar haircuts, but haven’t yet said a word about McCain’s 5000-dollar make up artist.
The thing that really got me though, was that the McCain campaign, in defending the cost of the wardrobe, said that it will be donated to charity after the election.....REALLY!? She just went to Nieman Marcus for the first time in her life, picked out some really, really nice, classy clothes, and they’re going to make her give it to charity? I don’t think so.
I mean, why lie about it? The pictures don’t lie...like many suddenly thrust into the spotlight people, Sarah has no taste...doesn’t know how to dress....she had to kick it up a notch....We Americans like our representatives and celebrities to look good, not tacky. Honestly, from what she was wearing as the mayor of Wasilla, she needs to find the negatives of those pictures and burn them.
In addition to a new wardrobe, she needs a speech and voice coach. Did you notice that she talked with no accent on Saturday Night Live last weekend? You betcha!
A coatless Cindy McCain, looking very cold in the 40-degree temperatures, warmed up the crowd and then introduced the Governor of Alaska, to thunderous applause and chanting. It was obvious from the response that the crowd was mainly there to see and hear their Sarah. She didn’t disappoint them, quickly jumping on the attack with her now familiar stump speech, crammed full of “gotcha” lines aimed squarely at Obama. She sprinkled the new and latest buzz words throughout her talk, switching socialist for terrorist, leaving out Bill Ayers, and accusing Obama of planning to raise taxes on everybody. She was sharp and to the point.
But I can’t say that about McCain.
He began okay, opening a notebook with a prepared script to keep him company along with the teleprompter. But he still managed to get lost within his words, constantly losing his place and repeating himself over and over, sometimes, obviously confusing his listeners. He retread the same attack territory previously trodden by his VP. He was very animated throughout. So animated, in fact, that I wondered if he was amped on something. He leaned heavily on his past history and reputation, as the man who acts and strikes quickly to solve problems. His delivery, along with being unusually hyper also smacked of desperation. Something I hadn’t seen earlier in the campaign.
He promised to cut taxes for everyone from the top, down, and told Cincinnatians that he could tell from the audience that he was in McCain country and that Ohio would make him president.
I was curious to see what fashionista Sarah was wearing today. It was dark and subtle, a suit that I’d seen her wear before. She’d peaked my curiosity because of all the talk the past couple of days about how much money the RNC had paid to buy her new clothes. She may talk and sound the way she thinks hockey moms talk, but she’s not dressing like one these days. As reported, yesterday, the republican national committee shelled out 150,000 dollars for a new wardrobe for her. That’s more than she makes as governor of Alaska. That’s not exactly a hockey mom’s budget. It’s not a Cindy McCain budget either, but close. Mrs. McCain routinely wears jackets that would pay for three or four of my house. But, then she can afford to dress like that, since daddy left her a 100-million dollars.
The republicans jumped all over John Edwards about his 400-dollar haircuts, but haven’t yet said a word about McCain’s 5000-dollar make up artist.
The thing that really got me though, was that the McCain campaign, in defending the cost of the wardrobe, said that it will be donated to charity after the election.....REALLY!? She just went to Nieman Marcus for the first time in her life, picked out some really, really nice, classy clothes, and they’re going to make her give it to charity? I don’t think so.
I mean, why lie about it? The pictures don’t lie...like many suddenly thrust into the spotlight people, Sarah has no taste...doesn’t know how to dress....she had to kick it up a notch....We Americans like our representatives and celebrities to look good, not tacky. Honestly, from what she was wearing as the mayor of Wasilla, she needs to find the negatives of those pictures and burn them.
In addition to a new wardrobe, she needs a speech and voice coach. Did you notice that she talked with no accent on Saturday Night Live last weekend? You betcha!
10.20.2008
Voter Suppression Shuffle in Cincinnati
Let’s dance!
Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters has jumped into the alleged voter registration fraud campaign being conducted nationwide against newly registered voters. Deters has convened a grand jury and has subpoenaed the records for about 40% of the new voters, in order to check them out. But he says it’s not political. He is just doing his job as the lawyer of record for the Hamilton County Board of Elections.
Deters has long had a habit of using the power of his office to intimidate anyone who disagrees with his version of what should be the status quo. What is his status quo? Republicans in charge, poor people invisible and black people in jail.
Republicans across the nation have been going after ACORN, a grassroots organization that has reportedly registered more than one million new voters, with most of them leaning toward Barack Obama.
Here in Ohio, the GOP first attacked early voting...then the window that allows folks to register and vote all on the same day. The Republicans filed suit in state, and federal courts. The sixth circuit court of appeals tried to force the State of Ohio to make up an entirely new system for checking voter registration. The new system duplicates one already in place and functioning. Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner filed a motion with the United States Supreme Court, the highest court in the land. SUPCO backed Brunner and the State of Ohio.
Yet the GOP and Joe Deters are not content to let the matter rest.
Elections officials have said throughout this farce that many of the questionable registrations were initially flagged by ACORN itself. Officials also say that many of the troubles on the new registrations are the result of erroneous entry by elections officials who key in the info to the computer. In other words, a faulty registration is not a concrete indication of fraud. It’s not even fraud until or unless “Mickey Mouse” shows up to vote. Casting the vote or attempting to cast the vote, is fraud. What we have now, is a scenario that means elections officials simply have to be left alone to do what they are paid to do.
Yet, Deters, and other Sheriffs and County prosecutors around Ohio are wasting taxpayer money chasing ghosts in an attempt to once again steal an election for their chosen candidate. And make no mistake about it, Deters colors are fully visible. He is chairman of the southwest Ohio campaign for McCain/Palin.
If he were really doing his job, he would have stepped aside and allowed the appointment of an independent counsel or prosecutor of some kind to handle the situation, if he deemed it so reprehensible that it needs immediate attention from law enforcement.
One note, national voting statistics do track voter fraud. Records show that from 2000-2005 there was exactly one case of voter fraud, nationally. Just one..Today there is another one, a guy hired by the republican party in California to register voters. He has been arrested for allegedly tricking people into changing their party affiliation by telling them that the papers they were signing was a petition to get tougher on child molesters.
The Hamilton County Board of Elections is holding a special meeting today. I hope common sense rules and someone is able to tell Joe Deters to go back to his office, close the door, sit down and shut up for a change.
Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters has jumped into the alleged voter registration fraud campaign being conducted nationwide against newly registered voters. Deters has convened a grand jury and has subpoenaed the records for about 40% of the new voters, in order to check them out. But he says it’s not political. He is just doing his job as the lawyer of record for the Hamilton County Board of Elections.
Deters has long had a habit of using the power of his office to intimidate anyone who disagrees with his version of what should be the status quo. What is his status quo? Republicans in charge, poor people invisible and black people in jail.
Republicans across the nation have been going after ACORN, a grassroots organization that has reportedly registered more than one million new voters, with most of them leaning toward Barack Obama.
Here in Ohio, the GOP first attacked early voting...then the window that allows folks to register and vote all on the same day. The Republicans filed suit in state, and federal courts. The sixth circuit court of appeals tried to force the State of Ohio to make up an entirely new system for checking voter registration. The new system duplicates one already in place and functioning. Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner filed a motion with the United States Supreme Court, the highest court in the land. SUPCO backed Brunner and the State of Ohio.
Yet the GOP and Joe Deters are not content to let the matter rest.
Elections officials have said throughout this farce that many of the questionable registrations were initially flagged by ACORN itself. Officials also say that many of the troubles on the new registrations are the result of erroneous entry by elections officials who key in the info to the computer. In other words, a faulty registration is not a concrete indication of fraud. It’s not even fraud until or unless “Mickey Mouse” shows up to vote. Casting the vote or attempting to cast the vote, is fraud. What we have now, is a scenario that means elections officials simply have to be left alone to do what they are paid to do.
Yet, Deters, and other Sheriffs and County prosecutors around Ohio are wasting taxpayer money chasing ghosts in an attempt to once again steal an election for their chosen candidate. And make no mistake about it, Deters colors are fully visible. He is chairman of the southwest Ohio campaign for McCain/Palin.
If he were really doing his job, he would have stepped aside and allowed the appointment of an independent counsel or prosecutor of some kind to handle the situation, if he deemed it so reprehensible that it needs immediate attention from law enforcement.
One note, national voting statistics do track voter fraud. Records show that from 2000-2005 there was exactly one case of voter fraud, nationally. Just one..Today there is another one, a guy hired by the republican party in California to register voters. He has been arrested for allegedly tricking people into changing their party affiliation by telling them that the papers they were signing was a petition to get tougher on child molesters.
The Hamilton County Board of Elections is holding a special meeting today. I hope common sense rules and someone is able to tell Joe Deters to go back to his office, close the door, sit down and shut up for a change.
10.19.2008
Damned if We do....Damned if We Don’t
General Colin Powell today endorsed Barack Obama. Now the GOP wingnuts, led by Rush Limbaugh are saying Powell did what he did in racial solidarity...In other words, like the rest of us stupid non thinking blacks, the General is voting for the black man because he is black.
HEY, YOU STUPID WALKING WASTE OF OXYGEN AND AIR TIME.....POWELL NOT ONLY ENDORSED GEORGE W. BUSH..HE VOTED FOR THE IDIOT AND SERVED IN HIS CABINET..
Can’t get any more inexperienced or dumber than Dubya, except maybe the current GOP pick for VP. Another inexperienced white man with black support was John Fitzgerald Kennedy. But he was a supremely intelligent man, a quick study with cool.
We’ve voted for the white guy all of our lives. We’ve had a couple of chances with some real intelligence...Shirley Chisolm, for instance...but she didn’t stand a chance because she was black and female. And blacks didn’t vote for her either. Is it racial self hatred when we vote for the white guy?
How come it’s only racial when we support one of our own against the chosen great white hope? Ours is the better man, this time around. His skin color is not relevant except to those who can’t see past it...
We are not monolithic. Many of us share conservative values with our white counterparts. But when candidates for public office refuse to come to our neighborhoods, refuse to support even minor programs that might make our lives easier, always lay the blame at our feet no matter what... Or refuse to accept our common humanity without first filtering it through that bogus concept of white superiority, then we have a problem.
Who wants to be part of a group that refuses to recognize your equality. Everything about the GOP is exclusive, rather than inclusive when it comes to blacks and minorities. There are always one or two who are willing to join up and hang out with the oppressor, most are not, which is why most of us overwhelmingly vote democrat. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not happily democratic either. But it’s the best we’ve got right now.
In recent days, we’ve taken the blame for.... the current financial crisis..blamed on loans to minorities.....McCain labeling tax cuts for the middle class as welfare...Palin campaigning only in "pro American" cities where she tells the people it’s okay to vote for her because she looks like them....Michelle Bachmann calling everyone who disagrees with her extreme views as unpatriotic and anti American. Congresswoman Bachmann is Chair of the House Subcommittee, BWNB, (bitches with no brains). The last three people that I've mentioned campaign and live as if there are no black people in America.
The plain truth of the matter is that McCain/Palin is not good for America. Happily, it appears that everyone except that small, extreme right fringe group of extremists, that has taken over the Republican party, agrees that Obama should be the next president, so that we can get past this stupidity.
So would somebody please, please, pull the plug on the junkie, before he further embarasses himself.
“Secretary Powell says his endorsement is not about race... OK, fine. I am now researching his past endorsements to see if I can find all the inexperienced, very liberal, white candidates he has endorsed. I'll let you know what I come up with."-Limbaugh
HEY, YOU STUPID WALKING WASTE OF OXYGEN AND AIR TIME.....POWELL NOT ONLY ENDORSED GEORGE W. BUSH..HE VOTED FOR THE IDIOT AND SERVED IN HIS CABINET..
Can’t get any more inexperienced or dumber than Dubya, except maybe the current GOP pick for VP. Another inexperienced white man with black support was John Fitzgerald Kennedy. But he was a supremely intelligent man, a quick study with cool.
We’ve voted for the white guy all of our lives. We’ve had a couple of chances with some real intelligence...Shirley Chisolm, for instance...but she didn’t stand a chance because she was black and female. And blacks didn’t vote for her either. Is it racial self hatred when we vote for the white guy?
How come it’s only racial when we support one of our own against the chosen great white hope? Ours is the better man, this time around. His skin color is not relevant except to those who can’t see past it...
We are not monolithic. Many of us share conservative values with our white counterparts. But when candidates for public office refuse to come to our neighborhoods, refuse to support even minor programs that might make our lives easier, always lay the blame at our feet no matter what... Or refuse to accept our common humanity without first filtering it through that bogus concept of white superiority, then we have a problem.
Who wants to be part of a group that refuses to recognize your equality. Everything about the GOP is exclusive, rather than inclusive when it comes to blacks and minorities. There are always one or two who are willing to join up and hang out with the oppressor, most are not, which is why most of us overwhelmingly vote democrat. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not happily democratic either. But it’s the best we’ve got right now.
In recent days, we’ve taken the blame for.... the current financial crisis..blamed on loans to minorities.....McCain labeling tax cuts for the middle class as welfare...Palin campaigning only in "pro American" cities where she tells the people it’s okay to vote for her because she looks like them....Michelle Bachmann calling everyone who disagrees with her extreme views as unpatriotic and anti American. Congresswoman Bachmann is Chair of the House Subcommittee, BWNB, (bitches with no brains). The last three people that I've mentioned campaign and live as if there are no black people in America.
The plain truth of the matter is that McCain/Palin is not good for America. Happily, it appears that everyone except that small, extreme right fringe group of extremists, that has taken over the Republican party, agrees that Obama should be the next president, so that we can get past this stupidity.
So would somebody please, please, pull the plug on the junkie, before he further embarasses himself.
Guilty by Association
Ted Kennedy
Caroline Kennedy
Madelyn Allbright
Christo Buckley
John Kerry
The Chicago Tribune
The LA Times
The New York Times
The Washington Post......
And now............General Colin Powell
I’ll take Obama’s associations any day of the week........
“BIG WHEEL KEEPS ON TURNIN’..............PROUD MARY KEEPS ON BURNIN’ AND WE ROLLIN’...ROLLIN’....ROLLIN’ ON THE RIVER.............”
Caroline Kennedy
Madelyn Allbright
Christo Buckley
John Kerry
The Chicago Tribune
The LA Times
The New York Times
The Washington Post......
And now............General Colin Powell
I’ll take Obama’s associations any day of the week........
“BIG WHEEL KEEPS ON TURNIN’..............PROUD MARY KEEPS ON BURNIN’ AND WE ROLLIN’...ROLLIN’....ROLLIN’ ON THE RIVER.............”
10.17.2008
Race Card
You’ve seen those old 20th century postcards depicting lynchings in America. There are museum exhibits of these cards that were sent through the mails , just like you, or I would send a card from our latest vacation spot, like Las Vegas or the Virgin Islands.
When I look at those, it’s not the mangled man or woman, hands tied behind their back, dangling at the end of the rope, slowly twisting in the wind that horrifies me. It’s the crowd surrounding the spectacle that terrifies me. The looks on the faces of the men and women who had witnessed the killing of another human being, for no other reason than they were black and had offended some white woman or crossed some invisible line drawn in the dirt, by some white man.
Washington Post columnist, Charles Krauthammer, opened his column today, which he titled; “Who’s Playing the Race Card?” with these words:
Mr. Krauthammer’s argument is comparing apples to oranges. The McCain/Palin role in their campaign rallies is more like the one or two guys who beat the black man, found the rope and tree and strung him up as the crowd watches in not so silent approval.
If this scenario was also happening at Obama rallies when Obama/Biden invoked the names of McCain/Palin, then Krauthammer might have an argument. But I’ve personably attended these rallies on both sides, since I do live in the swing state of Ohio. There are no similarities.
Until shamed into speaking, McCain/Palin stood silently smiling, while the rage spread through their crowds. Obama’s press releases tell you up front “don’t bring homemade signs, and he shushes the crowd as soon as anyone tries to take his opponent’s names in vain.
I don’t worry about who surrounds me when I’m at an Obama rally. I do worry when the rhetoric starts to heat up at a McCain/Palin rally If the violent rhetoric was happening on both sides within the same type of situation, then Krauthammer would have an argument. He doesn’t. His column is merely a thinly veiled attack from the right attempting to paint Obama as a shady man with a shady past. The extreme right can’t beat him on issues, so they slam him with mud balls.
Now if Obama were to suddenly flood the market with campaign advertisements that talked about, say, Palin’s husband’s affiliations with the secessionists of Alaska, or her affiliations with the African witch doctor, or McCain’s past affiliations with General John Singlelaub or current affiliation with Oliver North, or pastor John Hagee, or even McCain’s past affiliation with ACORN, then Krauthammer would have had justification for some of the things he stated in his column. There is even a white supremacist group hiding in McCain’s past. But none of this has been brought up by the Obama campaign, in ads or at campaign rallies.
The scenario that I opened with, is ugly. It doesn’t feel good to even talk about or to write about. It is an open wound on all of us over the age of 45. But as long as the Charles Krauthammer’s of the world refuse to take responsibility for their own racial blindness while at the same time justifying the racist subtexts that still permeate American politics, I will continue to bring it up.
Obama may be our next president...a black man in the White House...But he is only the beginning of true racial healing in America. Columns like those written by Charles Krauthammer show us that we still have a very long way to go.
.
When I look at those, it’s not the mangled man or woman, hands tied behind their back, dangling at the end of the rope, slowly twisting in the wind that horrifies me. It’s the crowd surrounding the spectacle that terrifies me. The looks on the faces of the men and women who had witnessed the killing of another human being, for no other reason than they were black and had offended some white woman or crossed some invisible line drawn in the dirt, by some white man.
Washington Post columnist, Charles Krauthammer, opened his column today, which he titled; “Who’s Playing the Race Card?” with these words:
“Let me get this straight. A couple of agitated yahoos in a rally of thousands yell something offensive and incendiary, and John McCain and Sarah Palin are not just guilty by association -- with total strangers, mind you -- but worse: guilty according to the New York Times of "race-baiting and xenophobia."Mr. Krauthammer goes on to argue that McCain and Palin are being vilified for injecting race into the campaign when actually it was Barack Obama who brought up the subject.. He maintains that McCain and Palin should be held guiltless when a couple of “yahoos” as he calls them, shout obscenities every time Palin or McCain say Obama. Continuing his reasoning, since McCain and Palin can be held accountable for these stranger actions, Obama should be held accountable for his past associations with William Ayers, Reverend Jeremiah Wright and the organization ACORN.
Mr. Krauthammer’s argument is comparing apples to oranges. The McCain/Palin role in their campaign rallies is more like the one or two guys who beat the black man, found the rope and tree and strung him up as the crowd watches in not so silent approval.
If this scenario was also happening at Obama rallies when Obama/Biden invoked the names of McCain/Palin, then Krauthammer might have an argument. But I’ve personably attended these rallies on both sides, since I do live in the swing state of Ohio. There are no similarities.
Until shamed into speaking, McCain/Palin stood silently smiling, while the rage spread through their crowds. Obama’s press releases tell you up front “don’t bring homemade signs, and he shushes the crowd as soon as anyone tries to take his opponent’s names in vain.
I don’t worry about who surrounds me when I’m at an Obama rally. I do worry when the rhetoric starts to heat up at a McCain/Palin rally If the violent rhetoric was happening on both sides within the same type of situation, then Krauthammer would have an argument. He doesn’t. His column is merely a thinly veiled attack from the right attempting to paint Obama as a shady man with a shady past. The extreme right can’t beat him on issues, so they slam him with mud balls.
Now if Obama were to suddenly flood the market with campaign advertisements that talked about, say, Palin’s husband’s affiliations with the secessionists of Alaska, or her affiliations with the African witch doctor, or McCain’s past affiliations with General John Singlelaub or current affiliation with Oliver North, or pastor John Hagee, or even McCain’s past affiliation with ACORN, then Krauthammer would have had justification for some of the things he stated in his column. There is even a white supremacist group hiding in McCain’s past. But none of this has been brought up by the Obama campaign, in ads or at campaign rallies.
The scenario that I opened with, is ugly. It doesn’t feel good to even talk about or to write about. It is an open wound on all of us over the age of 45. But as long as the Charles Krauthammer’s of the world refuse to take responsibility for their own racial blindness while at the same time justifying the racist subtexts that still permeate American politics, I will continue to bring it up.
Obama may be our next president...a black man in the White House...But he is only the beginning of true racial healing in America. Columns like those written by Charles Krauthammer show us that we still have a very long way to go.
.
10.15.2008
The Fat Lady is Tuning Up
She won’t be singing until November 4th, but she is beginning to clear her throat. The first word that comes to mind tonight was not presidential with regard to John McCain. It was condescending. But I’m gonna back off and exhale. We’re closer than we’ve ever been and like Obama tonight, we all need to keep our cool and get our collective butts to the polls and cast our votes, to make this man president of the United States.
McCain threw the kitchen sink at him tonight. He brought up Bill Ayers, which was a tactical mistake if you know anything debates. He started talking about his plans and possible programs but then fell back to his old attack lines. Lines so familiar by now that I could’ve parried them without breaking a sweat.
Tonight, it wasn’t Joe Sixpack. It was Joe the Plumber. And here, McCain made another mistake. He screwed up the guy’s last name, not good on TV. That’s always an indication that you haven’t fact checked yourself.
McCain had more passion tonight. Several times it looked as if he was gonna cry, especially when he talked about Congressman John Lewis’ statements last week. Lewis, you will recall, took McCain/Palin to task for demagoguery, harking back to the days of George Wallace, the segregationist who ran for president. I guess he was angry, taking Lewis' comments personally, since he said previously, that Lewis was one of his heroes. McCain wrote in his memoirs that when he was a little kid, if he got mad he would throw himself down on the ground and hold his breath until he passed out. That's what it looked like tonight, many times, except he didn't push himself to pass out. It's tough when your hero takes you to the woodshed for stuff you said.
McCain was also given a chance to defend his vice presidential choice. He said she was a great politician, a great reformer, but I never heard him answer the question, which was....Is his VP ready to step in and lead the country. McCain kind of talked around that, never actually endorsing his VP.
Another thing....is one of Palin’s kids autistic? McCain mentioned that a couple of times. You would think that he would know that, given all the thought he put into selecting Palin.
I thought he also blew it with the base when he said he would not use the litmus test of abortion in making his judicial appointments. Obama danced around that one too. Not around a woman's right to choose, but whether or not he would use the litmus test to select judges.
John McCain needed a knockout tonight. I’m a boxer’s brat and one thing I know about fights is that you can’t decision a champ. McCain did not get his knockout. In the end he just kind of faded, tired and out of shape.
I would have like to hear more about the current financial mess, but I guess we will have to wait until after the election.
I think Obama won this one, too. And I guess many Ohioans agree with me, the Channel 12 phone poll had it 55% thought Obama won. Up until last week, this poll was overwhelmingly favoring McCain. I guess Ohio is painting itself Blue these days.
These next three weeks will be like waiting for Christmas..
McCain threw the kitchen sink at him tonight. He brought up Bill Ayers, which was a tactical mistake if you know anything debates. He started talking about his plans and possible programs but then fell back to his old attack lines. Lines so familiar by now that I could’ve parried them without breaking a sweat.
Tonight, it wasn’t Joe Sixpack. It was Joe the Plumber. And here, McCain made another mistake. He screwed up the guy’s last name, not good on TV. That’s always an indication that you haven’t fact checked yourself.
McCain had more passion tonight. Several times it looked as if he was gonna cry, especially when he talked about Congressman John Lewis’ statements last week. Lewis, you will recall, took McCain/Palin to task for demagoguery, harking back to the days of George Wallace, the segregationist who ran for president. I guess he was angry, taking Lewis' comments personally, since he said previously, that Lewis was one of his heroes. McCain wrote in his memoirs that when he was a little kid, if he got mad he would throw himself down on the ground and hold his breath until he passed out. That's what it looked like tonight, many times, except he didn't push himself to pass out. It's tough when your hero takes you to the woodshed for stuff you said.
McCain was also given a chance to defend his vice presidential choice. He said she was a great politician, a great reformer, but I never heard him answer the question, which was....Is his VP ready to step in and lead the country. McCain kind of talked around that, never actually endorsing his VP.
Another thing....is one of Palin’s kids autistic? McCain mentioned that a couple of times. You would think that he would know that, given all the thought he put into selecting Palin.
I thought he also blew it with the base when he said he would not use the litmus test of abortion in making his judicial appointments. Obama danced around that one too. Not around a woman's right to choose, but whether or not he would use the litmus test to select judges.
John McCain needed a knockout tonight. I’m a boxer’s brat and one thing I know about fights is that you can’t decision a champ. McCain did not get his knockout. In the end he just kind of faded, tired and out of shape.
I would have like to hear more about the current financial mess, but I guess we will have to wait until after the election.
I think Obama won this one, too. And I guess many Ohioans agree with me, the Channel 12 phone poll had it 55% thought Obama won. Up until last week, this poll was overwhelmingly favoring McCain. I guess Ohio is painting itself Blue these days.
These next three weeks will be like waiting for Christmas..
Voter Fraud = Another GOP Smoke Screen
Every presidential election comes with charges and counter charges about voter fraud pushing the election one way or the other. This campaign is no exception. The sixth circuit court of appeals, here in Cincinnati has ordered Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to put into place, by this Friday, a program for checking the validity of all newly registered Ohio voters. Newly registered voters total some 666,000 people. The court ruling was in answer to a lawsuit filed against Brunner by the Republican Party, voicing concern about possible voter fraud committed by ACORN registrars. ACORN is a grassroots organization that works to help poor and minorities in dealing with issues from mortgages to registering to vote.
The GOP has been upset for quite a while now at the State because of a law that allows residents to register to vote and then to vote on the same day. The GOP says that’s unconstitutional and opens up the state to all kinds of voter fraud. Well, that window was put into place by Ohio’s GOP governor and GOP controlled government back in 2006. They didn’t seem to have any problem with the window at the time they created it.
Nor did they have a problem with then Secretary of State, Ken Blackwell’s tactics against black and minority voters in 2004 when he played a major part in hijacking the election for Bush. Bush won by 119,000 votes in Ohio. Change just ten votes per precinct and he would’ve lost the presidency.
The Sheriff of Greene County has asked to see all 302 cards of the newly registered in his county, to check for voter fraud. Yet he says he is not trying to intimidate anyone. This is a republican controlled county, as is most of Ohio. Similar harassment techniques are being used in other states that are still up for grabs in this election.
HERE’S A FACT FOR YOU- In the entire United States of America, from 2000 to 2005, there has been exactly one..did ya hear me.....one, proven case of voter fraud....just one.....
All this hyper ventilation by the republican party against ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is a smoke screen. ACORN is a grass roots advocacy group that works on behalf of poor people. Poor people of the minority kind in particular, don't generally vote republican.
The GOP is talking about faulty registrations, not votes. Faulty registrations are caught before the vote is cast. It may stress out elections officials, but fraud? No.
And usually the faulty registrations were flagged by ACORN, in the first place. They are required to do that, but instead of throwing away the shaky forms, they turn them in with the correctly filled out ones, because they are also required to do that.
Blackwell unveiled the GOP plan a couple of weeks ago in an article in the New York Post in which he compared the alleged ongoing voter fraud to the devastation of a hurricane.
Just like all the other smoke screens thrown up this year, by the GOP and the McCain/Palin campaign, this one is an attempt to divert attention away from the real issues and to confuse the population about the election and the state of the country.
The Republican party, has publicly admitted that campaigning on the issues is not the way to win an election. Confusion and diversion are the tactics that have worked in the past. The public campaign against ACORN is no exception.
The GOP has been upset for quite a while now at the State because of a law that allows residents to register to vote and then to vote on the same day. The GOP says that’s unconstitutional and opens up the state to all kinds of voter fraud. Well, that window was put into place by Ohio’s GOP governor and GOP controlled government back in 2006. They didn’t seem to have any problem with the window at the time they created it.
Nor did they have a problem with then Secretary of State, Ken Blackwell’s tactics against black and minority voters in 2004 when he played a major part in hijacking the election for Bush. Bush won by 119,000 votes in Ohio. Change just ten votes per precinct and he would’ve lost the presidency.
The Sheriff of Greene County has asked to see all 302 cards of the newly registered in his county, to check for voter fraud. Yet he says he is not trying to intimidate anyone. This is a republican controlled county, as is most of Ohio. Similar harassment techniques are being used in other states that are still up for grabs in this election.
HERE’S A FACT FOR YOU- In the entire United States of America, from 2000 to 2005, there has been exactly one..did ya hear me.....one, proven case of voter fraud....just one.....
All this hyper ventilation by the republican party against ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is a smoke screen. ACORN is a grass roots advocacy group that works on behalf of poor people. Poor people of the minority kind in particular, don't generally vote republican.
The GOP is talking about faulty registrations, not votes. Faulty registrations are caught before the vote is cast. It may stress out elections officials, but fraud? No.
And usually the faulty registrations were flagged by ACORN, in the first place. They are required to do that, but instead of throwing away the shaky forms, they turn them in with the correctly filled out ones, because they are also required to do that.
Blackwell unveiled the GOP plan a couple of weeks ago in an article in the New York Post in which he compared the alleged ongoing voter fraud to the devastation of a hurricane.
Just like all the other smoke screens thrown up this year, by the GOP and the McCain/Palin campaign, this one is an attempt to divert attention away from the real issues and to confuse the population about the election and the state of the country.
The Republican party, has publicly admitted that campaigning on the issues is not the way to win an election. Confusion and diversion are the tactics that have worked in the past. The public campaign against ACORN is no exception.
10.14.2008
What! Me Worry?!
Ran across a story in the Wall Street Journal talking about a survey of rich people, that is Obama rich people, those making more than 250-thousand dollars, measuring how they feel about this current financial crisis. According to the study done by American Express, 69% are worried that they may run out of money, or at the very least have to cut back on spending.
Now, in my world, when I think of cutting back spending, that means I’m worried about how I’m gonna pay my mortgage, car note or gas and electric bills. Fancy food and wine are the first things that go, as well as cutting back on driving. Restaurants and take out food are out of the question in these tough times.
But rich people, as we know, think differently. What do they say they need to cut back on? Buying SUVs, jewelry, leather goods, handbags, and private jet usage. They would also, according to the report, cut down on home decor and fine liquor.
Another difference, the rich look at the current mortgage crisis as an opportunity rather than a headache. Fully 30% said they are buyers this year.
It all comes down to your cash cushion....rich people have a cushion....poor people don’t. But we all worry the same way, apparently.
-0-
On another front, Congress is debating about whether to give out another round of stimulus checks in addition to food stamps and extending unemployment benefits. While I and my neighbors can use the extra money, I worry about whether we, as a nation can afford it, on top of all of these other promises being made to the corporate world and banking.
I mean, rather than printing or borrowing more money....how about some jobs....you know, work in exchange for cash? Can we take some of that 700-billion dollars and get some infrastructure work going on to employ some of these laid off skilled laborers who need to feed their families? And I’m talking jobs with a real wage. For years corporations have been cutting payroll or giving substandard raises if at all, while at the same time padding the pockets of their Directors, and CEOs.
I like Obama’s idea of tax breaks for those corporations who hire Americans right here in America rather than shipping it all overseas. Do you realize how many families could benefit if say the 24 million dollar golden parachute given to Carli Fiorina were given to them instead of her? She nearly bankrupted her company, yet walked away with all that money.
Off topic Question.......The American car company that builds the 60 miles per gallon Fiesta, soon to be on the market.....why is that car not being sold in America? Why can’t they sell it in America? Flex cars, which have just recently come to the American market, have been sold in South America for years, WHY? Why screw us? If corporations would take care of their own, maybe we wouldn’t be having this financial breakdown right now. The usual answer is that they need to use overseas workers in order to remain profitable. American workers cost too much. We won’t work for 50-cents an hour. Yeah we do cost, but we make a helluva product and why does your profitability need to be high enough to pay your CEO mega millions golden parachute?
-0-
You want to cut government.....how about getting rid of the Department of Homeland Security. The stuff it purports to do overlaps already existing departments...Let’s cancel all contracts with KBR and Haliburton and Blackwater...they were no bid sweetheart deals for Cheney’s friends....there’s got to be some kind of eminent domain type rule that allows the government to back out of these bad deals.....How about cancelling the contracts for all those useless and already out dated weapons?....
Question...Why do we pay farmers not to grow food? Is there still a rice shortage in the world that could be aided by us doing away with these types of subsidies? Just asking..
Other places to cut...The Internal Revenue Service....somebody please revise the damn tax code...it’s killing us! Just start by making it understandable, please!
Let’s go through the books and cancel any deal written by lobbyists....like our national energy policy...and then rewrite it to benefit the people, rather than the industry it purports to regulate...That would cut a lot of waste....in insurance, in medicare and it’s drug plans, etc...it goes on and on...
-0-
Since, I’m on a rant today....how about term limits for Congress....If the president can only serve two consecutive terms...why should congressmen be allowed more? I’m tired of entrenched public servants who have forgotten that they work for us, not themselves...
Lobbyists....I would like them banned, period. No perks or gifts exceeding 25-bucks..that’s the rule that all corporations live by, why not congress..
Line Item Veto....I think the President needs one.
And although I’m dreaming....how about mandating a balanced budget by the end of the president’s four year term or when he/she turns over the government to the new president....with consequences to be determined if he or she fails to deliver....
.
Now, in my world, when I think of cutting back spending, that means I’m worried about how I’m gonna pay my mortgage, car note or gas and electric bills. Fancy food and wine are the first things that go, as well as cutting back on driving. Restaurants and take out food are out of the question in these tough times.
But rich people, as we know, think differently. What do they say they need to cut back on? Buying SUVs, jewelry, leather goods, handbags, and private jet usage. They would also, according to the report, cut down on home decor and fine liquor.
Another difference, the rich look at the current mortgage crisis as an opportunity rather than a headache. Fully 30% said they are buyers this year.
It all comes down to your cash cushion....rich people have a cushion....poor people don’t. But we all worry the same way, apparently.
-0-
On another front, Congress is debating about whether to give out another round of stimulus checks in addition to food stamps and extending unemployment benefits. While I and my neighbors can use the extra money, I worry about whether we, as a nation can afford it, on top of all of these other promises being made to the corporate world and banking.
I mean, rather than printing or borrowing more money....how about some jobs....you know, work in exchange for cash? Can we take some of that 700-billion dollars and get some infrastructure work going on to employ some of these laid off skilled laborers who need to feed their families? And I’m talking jobs with a real wage. For years corporations have been cutting payroll or giving substandard raises if at all, while at the same time padding the pockets of their Directors, and CEOs.
I like Obama’s idea of tax breaks for those corporations who hire Americans right here in America rather than shipping it all overseas. Do you realize how many families could benefit if say the 24 million dollar golden parachute given to Carli Fiorina were given to them instead of her? She nearly bankrupted her company, yet walked away with all that money.
Off topic Question.......The American car company that builds the 60 miles per gallon Fiesta, soon to be on the market.....why is that car not being sold in America? Why can’t they sell it in America? Flex cars, which have just recently come to the American market, have been sold in South America for years, WHY? Why screw us? If corporations would take care of their own, maybe we wouldn’t be having this financial breakdown right now. The usual answer is that they need to use overseas workers in order to remain profitable. American workers cost too much. We won’t work for 50-cents an hour. Yeah we do cost, but we make a helluva product and why does your profitability need to be high enough to pay your CEO mega millions golden parachute?
-0-
You want to cut government.....how about getting rid of the Department of Homeland Security. The stuff it purports to do overlaps already existing departments...Let’s cancel all contracts with KBR and Haliburton and Blackwater...they were no bid sweetheart deals for Cheney’s friends....there’s got to be some kind of eminent domain type rule that allows the government to back out of these bad deals.....How about cancelling the contracts for all those useless and already out dated weapons?....
Question...Why do we pay farmers not to grow food? Is there still a rice shortage in the world that could be aided by us doing away with these types of subsidies? Just asking..
Other places to cut...The Internal Revenue Service....somebody please revise the damn tax code...it’s killing us! Just start by making it understandable, please!
Let’s go through the books and cancel any deal written by lobbyists....like our national energy policy...and then rewrite it to benefit the people, rather than the industry it purports to regulate...That would cut a lot of waste....in insurance, in medicare and it’s drug plans, etc...it goes on and on...
-0-
Since, I’m on a rant today....how about term limits for Congress....If the president can only serve two consecutive terms...why should congressmen be allowed more? I’m tired of entrenched public servants who have forgotten that they work for us, not themselves...
Lobbyists....I would like them banned, period. No perks or gifts exceeding 25-bucks..that’s the rule that all corporations live by, why not congress..
Line Item Veto....I think the President needs one.
And although I’m dreaming....how about mandating a balanced budget by the end of the president’s four year term or when he/she turns over the government to the new president....with consequences to be determined if he or she fails to deliver....
.
10.13.2008
A Big Can of Whup-Ass
John McCain is telling folks he plans to kick Obama’s ass in Wednesday’s debate. Really? Doesn’t look like he can lift his leg that high off the ground.
McCain also promised a big new economic plan today....well, ain’t gonna happen...He’s changed his mind, again. His campaign leaked it on Saturday, then retracted the Politico.com report on Sunday.
I guess Johnny Mac thinks most of us don’t speak or read Spanish or listen to Spanish television....He gave a sit down to Univision over the weekend and tried to once again connect the dots between 9/11 and Iraq;
Can we just vote now and get it over with?
One other thing that bugged me this weekend....McCain once again hiding behind his time as a POW, when defending himself against the statements of Congressman John Lewis. Lewis compared the feelings and attitudes generated at the McCain/Palin campaign rallies to those of George Wallace’s when Wallace was running for president. It was a very toxic time. I made another comparison earlier this week.
McCain said, or one of his flacks said, he was a POW when Wallace was doing his thing and shouldn’t be taken to task for the feelings that he stirred up in his campaign speeches, claiming he didn’t know about what was going on racially in America at the time.
Just more crap from McCain. He used that same line to defend his “no” vote against the MLK national holiday. But he wrote in his memoir that his captors used the civil rights movement to break his spirit...Now which is it? Did he know...or didn’t he know? Maybe he thinks some of us haven’t read his memoir.... Not surprising...McCain/Palin campaign like the browner complected citizens of this country don’t exist....
And for the record, Congressman Lewis spoke truth and should not apologize for anything he said. Critics should reread the statement.
-0-
Caribou Barbie and the First Dude
I spent the weekend reading the Troopergate report which was a total waste of time. I should have just let Sarah tell me what was in it.
I thought the 263 pages said that Palin had abused the power of her office as governor of Alaska. But Mrs. Sarah said the “partisan” report showed she didn’t do anything wrong...maybe she didn’t do anything really criminal, but she violated state ethics laws. And as for that partisan claim...the investigative panel was made up of 8 republicans and 4 democrats....totally stacked in her favor, by my reckoning.
One of my problems with a Hillary Clinton presidency was the specter of Bill having too much power over his wife....Well....the first dude, according to the report, camped out in his wife’s office at her conference table with his own phone, and even summoned various government officials in to talk to them about firing his ex bro-in-law. The report said he took more actions than she did.
Doesn’t he have a job to go to? Or does his job exist in the same non existent place where the Palin kids attend school?
-0-
First Baby Daddy
Levi Johnston spoke out today...says he and his baby mama Bristol are getting married in December and it was planned long, long, long before his soon to be mom in law was tapped for VP. No shotgun wedding this. I guess he wrote his myspace profile before he met and fell in love with his soon to be wife.
The report goes on to state that Johnston is a working man now in the oil fields. He’s dropped out of high school to prepare for taking care of his kid which is due on December 18th.
-0-
Hockey Mom
Did she really get booed at the hockey game this weekend? I thought joe six pack loved drinking her bath water. Guess not.
McCain also promised a big new economic plan today....well, ain’t gonna happen...He’s changed his mind, again. His campaign leaked it on Saturday, then retracted the Politico.com report on Sunday.
I guess Johnny Mac thinks most of us don’t speak or read Spanish or listen to Spanish television....He gave a sit down to Univision over the weekend and tried to once again connect the dots between 9/11 and Iraq;
"No. We invaded a country that every intelligence agency said was developing weapons of mass destruction. Think of Saddam Hussein in power with oil at 100 dollars a barrel, and all that entails with his commitment which when after he was captured, he stated categorically that he would acquire weapons of mass destruction, and he would use them wherever he could. Now, Iraq--"
"But he had nothing to do with 9/11," the hosted interjected.
"He had a lot to do with invading his neighbor Kuwait, and we had to go to war and fight there," McCain replied. "He had a lot to do with using weapons of mass destruction, he used them previously, so there's no doubt about his commitment to get them."
Can we just vote now and get it over with?
One other thing that bugged me this weekend....McCain once again hiding behind his time as a POW, when defending himself against the statements of Congressman John Lewis. Lewis compared the feelings and attitudes generated at the McCain/Palin campaign rallies to those of George Wallace’s when Wallace was running for president. It was a very toxic time. I made another comparison earlier this week.
McCain said, or one of his flacks said, he was a POW when Wallace was doing his thing and shouldn’t be taken to task for the feelings that he stirred up in his campaign speeches, claiming he didn’t know about what was going on racially in America at the time.
Just more crap from McCain. He used that same line to defend his “no” vote against the MLK national holiday. But he wrote in his memoir that his captors used the civil rights movement to break his spirit...Now which is it? Did he know...or didn’t he know? Maybe he thinks some of us haven’t read his memoir.... Not surprising...McCain/Palin campaign like the browner complected citizens of this country don’t exist....
And for the record, Congressman Lewis spoke truth and should not apologize for anything he said. Critics should reread the statement.
-0-
Caribou Barbie and the First Dude
I spent the weekend reading the Troopergate report which was a total waste of time. I should have just let Sarah tell me what was in it.
I thought the 263 pages said that Palin had abused the power of her office as governor of Alaska. But Mrs. Sarah said the “partisan” report showed she didn’t do anything wrong...maybe she didn’t do anything really criminal, but she violated state ethics laws. And as for that partisan claim...the investigative panel was made up of 8 republicans and 4 democrats....totally stacked in her favor, by my reckoning.
One of my problems with a Hillary Clinton presidency was the specter of Bill having too much power over his wife....Well....the first dude, according to the report, camped out in his wife’s office at her conference table with his own phone, and even summoned various government officials in to talk to them about firing his ex bro-in-law. The report said he took more actions than she did.
Doesn’t he have a job to go to? Or does his job exist in the same non existent place where the Palin kids attend school?
-0-
First Baby Daddy
Levi Johnston spoke out today...says he and his baby mama Bristol are getting married in December and it was planned long, long, long before his soon to be mom in law was tapped for VP. No shotgun wedding this. I guess he wrote his myspace profile before he met and fell in love with his soon to be wife.
The report goes on to state that Johnston is a working man now in the oil fields. He’s dropped out of high school to prepare for taking care of his kid which is due on December 18th.
-0-
Hockey Mom
Did she really get booed at the hockey game this weekend? I thought joe six pack loved drinking her bath water. Guess not.
10.10.2008
Karma Come Back-Troopergate et al
Things are getting curiouser and curiouser...
McCain actually tried to calm down his crowd today when they got rowdy and hateful toward Obama. The crowd then turned on him....
Then the troopergate report is released and guess what...the great reformer Sarah Palin is found to have abused her office...
Just another Karma Smackdown!
McCain actually tried to calm down his crowd today when they got rowdy and hateful toward Obama. The crowd then turned on him....
Then the troopergate report is released and guess what...the great reformer Sarah Palin is found to have abused her office...
Just another Karma Smackdown!
Brown Shirt Patriotism
Now I know what it must have been like to be a jew and to watch Hitler lash out from his podium in Nazi Germany while watching Sarah Palin and John McCain whip up their crowds into mouth frothing frenzy using code words and innuendo. I saw it first hand Wednesday, when Palin landed in Wilmington Ohio, home of the Sarah Palin corn maze.
After introducing her kids, she slammed into her brand of attack politics while her people shouted insults at each mention of Obama’s name. It was a very scary feeling to see and hear such vitriolic fervor in the name of patriotism. The xenophobic hatred was palpable inside the Roberts Center.
The Republican Party continues to ignore the fact that America is not a monolithic culture of European descended, fundamentalist practicing immigrants. This country really is a melting pot of many cultures, many beliefs, many backgrounds, many origins. If John McCain was really serious about country first, he would speak out against this anger. He would tell his people to cool it with the nastiness. Same with Palin. But it’s obvious that this campaign is about control and power and not people or country. McCain’s silence speaks volumes about where his head really is.
I’m old enough to have heard Martin Luther King called a troublemaker, seen him beaten, spit upon and thrown in jail because he chose to disagree with the vanilla majority. I can recall as if it were yesterday the names of the people lynched, shot, beaten and mutilated because they tried to vote or tried to register others to vote. I remember when sitting at a lunch counter or attempting to gain entrance to Coney Island’s swimming pool, right here in Cincinnati, would get you arrested for disorderly conduct.
Chills literally played up and down my spine as I listened to Palin nearly drowned out by the chants of her joe six pack crowd. The contrast with the Obama rally earlier in the day was startling. No one took McCain’s nor Palin’s name in vain. No one attempted to link them to dubious folks from their pasts and they do have them. Palin sleeps with a homegrown terrorist...her husband Todd. McCain’s POW story is not quite as heroic as he would have you believe.
And I’m not mad at young blacks who want to be members of the GOP. I applaud them for their fortitude, because I believe that the only way to change the republican party is from within. Neither party will change unless forced to. The Democratic Party is learning. The GOP and its followers are still struggling with diversity. I have always felt they fear that we minorities will do to them what they have historically done to us. But if they truly looked at the civil rights struggle they would know that we simply want a piece of the pie not a piece of their hide, although we would be well justified in taking it.
Gandhi, MLK, and now Barack are preaching to “turn the other cheek” and so we will again.
Buddha says be the change you want to be...and so I will.....
After introducing her kids, she slammed into her brand of attack politics while her people shouted insults at each mention of Obama’s name. It was a very scary feeling to see and hear such vitriolic fervor in the name of patriotism. The xenophobic hatred was palpable inside the Roberts Center.
The Republican Party continues to ignore the fact that America is not a monolithic culture of European descended, fundamentalist practicing immigrants. This country really is a melting pot of many cultures, many beliefs, many backgrounds, many origins. If John McCain was really serious about country first, he would speak out against this anger. He would tell his people to cool it with the nastiness. Same with Palin. But it’s obvious that this campaign is about control and power and not people or country. McCain’s silence speaks volumes about where his head really is.
I’m old enough to have heard Martin Luther King called a troublemaker, seen him beaten, spit upon and thrown in jail because he chose to disagree with the vanilla majority. I can recall as if it were yesterday the names of the people lynched, shot, beaten and mutilated because they tried to vote or tried to register others to vote. I remember when sitting at a lunch counter or attempting to gain entrance to Coney Island’s swimming pool, right here in Cincinnati, would get you arrested for disorderly conduct.
Chills literally played up and down my spine as I listened to Palin nearly drowned out by the chants of her joe six pack crowd. The contrast with the Obama rally earlier in the day was startling. No one took McCain’s nor Palin’s name in vain. No one attempted to link them to dubious folks from their pasts and they do have them. Palin sleeps with a homegrown terrorist...her husband Todd. McCain’s POW story is not quite as heroic as he would have you believe.
And I’m not mad at young blacks who want to be members of the GOP. I applaud them for their fortitude, because I believe that the only way to change the republican party is from within. Neither party will change unless forced to. The Democratic Party is learning. The GOP and its followers are still struggling with diversity. I have always felt they fear that we minorities will do to them what they have historically done to us. But if they truly looked at the civil rights struggle they would know that we simply want a piece of the pie not a piece of their hide, although we would be well justified in taking it.
Gandhi, MLK, and now Barack are preaching to “turn the other cheek” and so we will again.
Buddha says be the change you want to be...and so I will.....
© 2008 Jo Anne Moore, JAM Publications
Voter Intimidation in Ohio
The Sheriff of Greene County, a republican, has asked for the registration cards of all 302 newly registered voters in his area. Greene County is located in southwest Ohio and is home to several colleges, including historically black , Central State College and Wilberforce University. Wright State, Antioch and Cedarville are also located in this area. Most of the students are thought to lean toward the democrats. Antioch in particular is famously noted for its rebellious, left leaning attitudes.
Sheriff Gene Fischer says he is not politically motivated, he’s just reacting to complaints from his constituents who fear there may be some fraud going on. It should be noted that the Greene County prosecutor who is representing Fischer, is a former law partner of former GOP Senator Mike DeWine, who is chairman of John McCain’s Ohio organization.
The Ohio GOP has been upset, issuing legal challenge after legal challenge against the State’s window allowing voter registration and early voting on the same day. The early voting window was put into place during Republican Bob Taft’s regime in 2006. This is the same regime which installed Ken Blackwell a former Cincinnatian, as Secretary of State. Blackwell is believed to have led the charge in tampering with the 2004 presidential election. After being voted out of office, Blackwell went to work for a GOP conservative think tank. Ohio went to Bush by a mere 118,000 or so votes. The GOP had no problem with it until the new law began to benefit Democrats as well as Republicans.
Brunner says her office will turn over the requested records with the names, telephone numbers and social security numbers blacked out.
Fischer acted yesterday, after a federal judge in Columbus issued a ruling ordering Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to verify all new registrations against government data bases, specifically, Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles, or Social Security records.
The order was prompted by a lawsuit filed against Brunner by the Ohio Republican Party. Some 666,000 people have registered to vote in this election since the beginning of the year.
The GOP says its just trying to prevent fraud in the upcoming presidential election. The state already makes these checks, but Brunner is appealing the ruling because she says federal law has no recourse if a mismatch is found in the first place.
The GOP claims Brunner is being partisan and doesn’t want to make the checks because to do so would harm Barack Obama’s chances in Ohio.
Sheriff Gene Fischer says he is not politically motivated, he’s just reacting to complaints from his constituents who fear there may be some fraud going on. It should be noted that the Greene County prosecutor who is representing Fischer, is a former law partner of former GOP Senator Mike DeWine, who is chairman of John McCain’s Ohio organization.
The Ohio GOP has been upset, issuing legal challenge after legal challenge against the State’s window allowing voter registration and early voting on the same day. The early voting window was put into place during Republican Bob Taft’s regime in 2006. This is the same regime which installed Ken Blackwell a former Cincinnatian, as Secretary of State. Blackwell is believed to have led the charge in tampering with the 2004 presidential election. After being voted out of office, Blackwell went to work for a GOP conservative think tank. Ohio went to Bush by a mere 118,000 or so votes. The GOP had no problem with it until the new law began to benefit Democrats as well as Republicans.
Brunner says her office will turn over the requested records with the names, telephone numbers and social security numbers blacked out.
Fischer acted yesterday, after a federal judge in Columbus issued a ruling ordering Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to verify all new registrations against government data bases, specifically, Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles, or Social Security records.
The order was prompted by a lawsuit filed against Brunner by the Ohio Republican Party. Some 666,000 people have registered to vote in this election since the beginning of the year.
The GOP says its just trying to prevent fraud in the upcoming presidential election. The state already makes these checks, but Brunner is appealing the ruling because she says federal law has no recourse if a mismatch is found in the first place.
The GOP claims Brunner is being partisan and doesn’t want to make the checks because to do so would harm Barack Obama’s chances in Ohio.
© 2008 Jo Anne Moore, JAM Publications
10.09.2008
The Cheerleader and POTUS to be
Got to see and hear both parties today. Lady Sarah without Papa, and Barack Obama made stops in my neck of the woods today. Obama spoke issues to about fifteen thousand plus people in Ault Park. God must have been happy because it was an absolutely beautiful day in Cincinnati. No rain clouds in sight. Obama’s crowd looking like America, a rainbow of genders, ages, sizes and colors. Happy, laughing, upbeat.
Palin showed up a couple of hours later in Wilmington, home of the Sarah Palin corn maze, conducting an inside pep rally to the vanilla faithful who worship at her feet. She started off by introducing her kids, Bristol, Piper and Trig as her traveling companions.
Question....Don’t these kids have to go to school? And what about the baby. Why oh why does she drag that poor child out on stage at all hours of the day and night? We know she’s fertile. We know she has kids. She doesn’t have to prove it every time she takes the stage.
What she is proving is that the kid is more of a trophy kid. If I didn’t know better, I’d say she had the kid for the base not because she wanted it.
After the platitudes, she got to the reason why she was there....to attack Obama. Right on cue the no necks in the crowd began chanting “nobama” and yelling “terrorist” and “traitor”. These chants were interspersed with other chants of “go Sarah.” She stood mute as her syncophants abused Obama’s name. At no time did this happen to her or McCain during Obama’s rally.
Obama did call McCain erratic. He is. He is just plain batshit crazy. Check out the latest edition of Rolling Stone Magazine.
Palin defended her attack as being truthful. Once again she relied on the memory of Ronald Reagan invoking the picture of the shining city on the hill, rather than the plans her partner intends to implement if elected. The crowd was in a half hearted frenzy by now, chanting hysterically as if at a revival rather than a political pep rally.
Heavy on fake patriotism, and still not wearing a flag pin, she continued to beat the dead horses that are William Ayers and Iraq, amid calls for absolute victory that even General Patraeus is backing away from.
Listening to Palin one could forget that her party is the one that has brought this country to its knees with its wrong handed witch doctor policies that began with the man, Ronny Raygun, back in1980.
She spoke for roughly 29 , minutes, tossing out bucket loads of democratic red meat. Then she abruptly ended and left the stage after shaking hands with a few folks.
She is slated to attend a breakfast fund raiser tomorrow in Indian Hill, that’s a rich suburb here in Cincinnati. Word has it that bacon and eggs will cost twenty five hundred bucks a plate. That lets me out. Even if I had the money she goes down easier when she’s free..
Palin showed up a couple of hours later in Wilmington, home of the Sarah Palin corn maze, conducting an inside pep rally to the vanilla faithful who worship at her feet. She started off by introducing her kids, Bristol, Piper and Trig as her traveling companions.
Question....Don’t these kids have to go to school? And what about the baby. Why oh why does she drag that poor child out on stage at all hours of the day and night? We know she’s fertile. We know she has kids. She doesn’t have to prove it every time she takes the stage.
What she is proving is that the kid is more of a trophy kid. If I didn’t know better, I’d say she had the kid for the base not because she wanted it.
After the platitudes, she got to the reason why she was there....to attack Obama. Right on cue the no necks in the crowd began chanting “nobama” and yelling “terrorist” and “traitor”. These chants were interspersed with other chants of “go Sarah.” She stood mute as her syncophants abused Obama’s name. At no time did this happen to her or McCain during Obama’s rally.
Obama did call McCain erratic. He is. He is just plain batshit crazy. Check out the latest edition of Rolling Stone Magazine.
Palin defended her attack as being truthful. Once again she relied on the memory of Ronald Reagan invoking the picture of the shining city on the hill, rather than the plans her partner intends to implement if elected. The crowd was in a half hearted frenzy by now, chanting hysterically as if at a revival rather than a political pep rally.
Heavy on fake patriotism, and still not wearing a flag pin, she continued to beat the dead horses that are William Ayers and Iraq, amid calls for absolute victory that even General Patraeus is backing away from.
Listening to Palin one could forget that her party is the one that has brought this country to its knees with its wrong handed witch doctor policies that began with the man, Ronny Raygun, back in1980.
She spoke for roughly 29 , minutes, tossing out bucket loads of democratic red meat. Then she abruptly ended and left the stage after shaking hands with a few folks.
She is slated to attend a breakfast fund raiser tomorrow in Indian Hill, that’s a rich suburb here in Cincinnati. Word has it that bacon and eggs will cost twenty five hundred bucks a plate. That lets me out. Even if I had the money she goes down easier when she’s free..
© 2008 Jo Anne Moore, JAM Publications
10.08.2008
Congress Threatened with Martial Law
Last month I posted about Dubya’s intent to deploy American military on American soil for potential use against Citizens for the first time in the history of our country. You can read it here. I have also linked a post from October 2006 that you can read here. The second post is the first time that I talked about the changing laws stripping us of our civil liberties and constitutional rights.
Now comes word of a Youtube video that purports to show that some congress members were threatened with the use of troops in the streets if they didn’t vote for the financial bailout bill, last week.
Contained in the report, which is posted on Alternet is an interview which paints a pretty chilling scenario of what could happen if Dubya takes it upon himself to impose martial law. A move that is perfectly legal because of laws pushed through Congress in the past couple of years. These laws include; The Military Commissions Act, Public Law 109-364, and The Patriot Act.
Don't think it can happen. Well, who would've thought that Wall Street would collapse or that we are actually facing another depression.
Think about it. Especially before you cast your vote for the next president of the United States. Who do you want in control of that red phone or the US Military at any time of the day..
Now comes word of a Youtube video that purports to show that some congress members were threatened with the use of troops in the streets if they didn’t vote for the financial bailout bill, last week.
Contained in the report, which is posted on Alternet is an interview which paints a pretty chilling scenario of what could happen if Dubya takes it upon himself to impose martial law. A move that is perfectly legal because of laws pushed through Congress in the past couple of years. These laws include; The Military Commissions Act, Public Law 109-364, and The Patriot Act.
Don't think it can happen. Well, who would've thought that Wall Street would collapse or that we are actually facing another depression.
Think about it. Especially before you cast your vote for the next president of the United States. Who do you want in control of that red phone or the US Military at any time of the day..
10.07.2008
Town Hall Debate
Well, the senile mutant ninja turtle didn’t get it done tonight. He stayed true to form and couldn’t resist getting in a condescending slap or two, as well as a new slur. Got to give McCain an “A” for creativity, when he came up with a new phrase to go along with Elitist, Uppity and N*****.
THAT ONE?..... WTF is that in reference to a United States Senator.
Otherwise, McCain was a bit more subdued tonight. He’s apparently going to let his attack bitch, er dog do his dirty work. The only thing that Palin isn’t bringing to her lynching/campaign stops is a rope. But then I’d lay odds that someone in her crowd probably has one stashed nearby, based on reports from the field today.
Obama played safe and presidential tonight. I didn’t hear anything about the economy that made me comfortable. We’re screwed and both incoming candidates don’t really have a clue, or so it seems.
On to next week...
THAT ONE?..... WTF is that in reference to a United States Senator.
Otherwise, McCain was a bit more subdued tonight. He’s apparently going to let his attack bitch, er dog do his dirty work. The only thing that Palin isn’t bringing to her lynching/campaign stops is a rope. But then I’d lay odds that someone in her crowd probably has one stashed nearby, based on reports from the field today.
Obama played safe and presidential tonight. I didn’t hear anything about the economy that made me comfortable. We’re screwed and both incoming candidates don’t really have a clue, or so it seems.
On to next week...
10.06.2008
Naked Ambition
"Turns out, one of his earliest supporters is a man named Bill Ayers. And according to The New York Times, he was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, 'launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol,'" She will say according to excerpts released by the campaign. "Wow. And there’s even more to the story. Barack Obama said Ayers was just someone in the neighborhood. But that’s less than truthful. His own top advisor said they were, quote, 'certainly friendly.'That’s a quote from Sarah Palin addressing a gathering in Clearwater Florida this morning. She is attempting to portray Obama as dangerous through his associations. This particular slur is being replayed by the McCain campaign in new ads hitting the air waves today.
As was stated before, Obama was 8 years old when William Ayers was doing his thing with the Weather Underground. I was in college at the time. I remember them well. A bunch of rich white kids with way too much time on their hands and money at their disposal. They were mad at everybody and they bought bombs to blow things up...not battling for civil rights as the rest of us were doing. Ayers has apparently paid his debt to society and is now a college professor. He and Obama apparently served on some charity board together and he then threw a party for Obama’s campaign.
Question for you....Which is worse....sitting on a charity board with a former radical from the sixties...or sleeping with a real live active terrorist in the same bed?
Isn’t it time to talk to Governor Palin about the associations of her husband, Todd, with the Alaskan Independent Party? The AIP wants to secede from the USA. They have a slogan that says Alaska First, not Country First. . Read what Wikipedia says about the AIP and it’s associations with the Constitution Party.
When Palin gave her acceptance speech, she wore the flag of Alaska, not the stars and stripes of America. The AIP earlier said the governor was also a member, but I guess the McCain camp got to her to make her disavow her association. The AIP also apparently flip flopped under pressure.
Let me ask you this...with the exception of 9/11 hijackers, who had Saudi Arabian passports ....Who were the terrorists that have attacked this country?....were they homegrown...did they look like Obama...or do they bear a striking resemblance to the First Dude of Alaska?
Do the young dudes with unlimited access to money, to weaponry, shoot up their schools, kill their classmates and voice hate for this country, look like Obama....or do they resemble Todd Palin?
Do the men of Ruby Ridge, Waco, Oklahoma Bombing, Posse Comitatus, The Identity movement, That bunch pushing RAHOWA (racial holy war), look like the Obamas of the world...or do they look like Sarah Palin’s husband? Hell, does Bill Ayers look like Obama....or does he look and sound more like Todd Palin?
I’m not afraid of the men who look, act and talk like Barack Obama. Terrorists who look like Obama are held in check by racism. Everybody is always looking for the big bad black man or arab, while the white guy with the dynamite and AK-47 gets a pass..from the government, from cops, from their neighbors and yeah, even us black people. But, honestly, I’m very afraid of guys like Todd Palin and the women who back them up. There is a very big difference to sitting on a board or attending a party, then between joining and participating in an organization that wants to do away with the United States of America. We’re not talking history here...the weather underground doesn’t exist anymore. The AIP is active as we speak.
These guys are out in the open with their feelings and as it were...one heart beat away from the presidency of the country they want to do destroy.
I know Todd’s not running for office, but his wife is and no one is asking her the tough questions about her associations with the militants in her closet and her bed, or the crazy preacher at her church. She needs to talk about it if she is going to throw mud at people.
I have already said that I believe John McCain is a Manchurian candidate. If you know the story, the term refers to a brain washed prisoner of war soldier who comes back to America and runs for president, thereby implementing a bloodless coup of the United States.
I think we should not only look at the candidate himself, but the associates he intends to bring with him into the White House.
Let me put it another way, McCain is batshit crazy and we're in deep, deep trouble...
10.02.2008
The Cute Factor
With expectations sweeping the floor, Sarah Palin had no where to go but up. She was forceful, bless her heart. She had the “cute factor” working, batting those great big brown eyes, sporting those huge dimples and flashing that perfectly aligned extra white smile. But after about five minutes of “aw shucks, politics delivered in that grating sing-songy voice, I was ready to pull out what little hair I have on my head.
Palin was obviously well rehearsed in GOP attack lines, but was almost totally non responsive to most of the questions. Cliche after cliche was followed by campaign line after campaign line to the point of repetitive tedium.
Joe Biden, I thought gave the best debate performance of his life. I’ve seen him a few times now, and this time he kept me engaged without resorting to an overwhelming amount of Senate-speak. He showed himself to be the foreign relations expert that he is. He stated his positions as well as those of Obama’s, clearly and concisely.
He was a gentleman. There were many times that he could have climbed all over his lesser experienced opponent, but chose to just chuckle rather than to pounce. He didn’t need to, her sometimes nonsensical answers spoke volumes.
Palin will still probably get a bounce out of this. Not because she and McCain deserve it, but because folks probably think she is so damned cute behind that microphone.
Palin was obviously well rehearsed in GOP attack lines, but was almost totally non responsive to most of the questions. Cliche after cliche was followed by campaign line after campaign line to the point of repetitive tedium.
Joe Biden, I thought gave the best debate performance of his life. I’ve seen him a few times now, and this time he kept me engaged without resorting to an overwhelming amount of Senate-speak. He showed himself to be the foreign relations expert that he is. He stated his positions as well as those of Obama’s, clearly and concisely.
He was a gentleman. There were many times that he could have climbed all over his lesser experienced opponent, but chose to just chuckle rather than to pounce. He didn’t need to, her sometimes nonsensical answers spoke volumes.
Palin will still probably get a bounce out of this. Not because she and McCain deserve it, but because folks probably think she is so damned cute behind that microphone.
You Say Tomato..I Say ToMahto..
Who gives a damn what you call it....Bailout....Rescue....WE, the people are still getting screwed...still drowning in debt...still facing foreclosures...still have no credit...the newly minted measure passed last night by the senate...did not address any of these under lying problems...And, the now 451 page bill, was sweetened for republicans in order to get them to vote for it, by adding tax cuts....So much for Johnny Mac’s primal scream about earmarks and pork barrel spending... Obama voted for it, too, much to my disgust..
I don’t understand why we have to act so quickly....I’ll bet my next paycheck that 99 percent of our senators haven’t read the measure itself, yet, if ever...But they want us to swallow it unread...just trust them...they’ve taken care of us...so well, so far...yeah right..
This “rescue” is adding more debt rather than decreasing debt...I hope the House will just say “no” again..But I doubt it.....
Here' s novel idea....why don't we all go back to using cash...as in dollar bills ya'll...cut up the credit cards....Your life will suddenly destress...guaranteed...
-0-
Pre V.P. Smackdown
Is it just me, or does it seem like Johnny Mac is having woman trouble again
First the serial adulterer picks Sarah Palin as his running mate as a dig at Hillary...apparently spending more time choosing his 500-dollar ferragamo loafers than he did vetting Palin...Then after telling us that she really, really, really has a brain...He shields her from the media....no questions...
Finally, he allows her to answer some questions in sit downs, first with Charlie Gibson...and after that, Katie Couric...
McCain hasn’t said anything about Charlie..but he keeps accusing Katie of “gotcha questioning.”..all this after Palin shows she can’t think on her feet without a script in front of her..nerves, maybe?
There is also a rumor floating around that Palin doesn’t like talking to women, either, which is reportedly why she did okay with Charlie but not with Katie..
Now JM is upset that Gwen Ifil is handling tonight’s debate, because she is writing or has written a book about race and politics and has put Obama’s name in the title...Looks like he’s building up a routine of attack for after the debate, just in case his VP doesn’t perform up to his expectations..
Word has it that John has also thrown NY Times Op Ed columnist Maureen Dowd off his campaign plane...guess he doesn’t like her column either...
I don’t understand why we have to act so quickly....I’ll bet my next paycheck that 99 percent of our senators haven’t read the measure itself, yet, if ever...But they want us to swallow it unread...just trust them...they’ve taken care of us...so well, so far...yeah right..
This “rescue” is adding more debt rather than decreasing debt...I hope the House will just say “no” again..But I doubt it.....
Here' s novel idea....why don't we all go back to using cash...as in dollar bills ya'll...cut up the credit cards....Your life will suddenly destress...guaranteed...
-0-
Pre V.P. Smackdown
Is it just me, or does it seem like Johnny Mac is having woman trouble again
First the serial adulterer picks Sarah Palin as his running mate as a dig at Hillary...apparently spending more time choosing his 500-dollar ferragamo loafers than he did vetting Palin...Then after telling us that she really, really, really has a brain...He shields her from the media....no questions...
Finally, he allows her to answer some questions in sit downs, first with Charlie Gibson...and after that, Katie Couric...
McCain hasn’t said anything about Charlie..but he keeps accusing Katie of “gotcha questioning.”..all this after Palin shows she can’t think on her feet without a script in front of her..nerves, maybe?
There is also a rumor floating around that Palin doesn’t like talking to women, either, which is reportedly why she did okay with Charlie but not with Katie..
Now JM is upset that Gwen Ifil is handling tonight’s debate, because she is writing or has written a book about race and politics and has put Obama’s name in the title...Looks like he’s building up a routine of attack for after the debate, just in case his VP doesn’t perform up to his expectations..
Word has it that John has also thrown NY Times Op Ed columnist Maureen Dowd off his campaign plane...guess he doesn’t like her column either...
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