Congressman Steve Chabot the Lemming on Capital Hill

“I take very seriously my charge to protect the unborn and have worked diligently during my time in Congress to be an advocate for these babies so their voices are heard. I am committed to working on legislation that protects these sacred lives and offers important legal protections for doctors and other health care providers who refuse to perform abortion procedures to which they are morally opposed.”-Steve Chabot

Let's see now...
Congressman Steve Chabot, my representative in the House believes in the sanctity of life. I'm taking him at his word since I pulled the above quote directly from his website. Despite all evidence to the contrary, every vote he takes points to the exact opposite of what comes out of his mouth. Every vote Chabot takes has been an attempt to choke the life out of all those sacred little lives preventing their voices from ever being heard.

Yesterday he voted along with 216 other members of Congress to cut $40 billion from the Federal food stamp program, otherwise known as SNAP. 
 
Says he is saving we the taxpayers money and being oh so fiscally responsible. Guess I'm supposed to pat him on his back and yell “well done, Steve-O.” Well guess what, Stevie, I'm not happy about the vote. 
 
It wasn't right. It wasn't just. It wasn't fair, it wasn't necessary and it certainly wasn't Christian, which Congressman Chabot claims to be to anyone within hearing distance. During the myriad of times that I've seen him in public and shaken his hand, he always is quick to let you know two things...he's Christian and he used to be a teacher. 
 
Scary thought people like Congressman Steve teaching kids. No wonder the school system is screwed up.
Cutting this money from the program means that 30 million poor people are gonna have to scrounge around for food and health care or starve and die. Millions of kids can now look forward to going to school hungry, great way to jumpstart learning-on an empty stomach.

(Wonder if Congressman Steve knows that pregnancy and giving birth remains the number one killer of women in America.) We certainly know that he doesn't care.

Women, pregnant women, since men can't get knocked up, will now have to find other places, if they exist, for prenatal or neonatal health care for all those unborn babies. Or maybe they have to figure out a way not to get pregnant since Congressman Steve is also against giving birth control to poor people as well. (He hates those nasty little foil-wrapped condoms, apparently.)

Not a stretch in logic since yesterday's vote was also a vote to defund the Affordable Care Act.
And don't laugh.

Congressman Steve is not only picking on poor people, by the way. He's after what's left of the middle class and sorta rich people, too. His vote yesterday was also designed to trash the country by not funding the government and causing it to default on our debt.

A move tried unsuccessfully several times in the recent past for the sole purpose of destroying the Black Man in the White House.

Because that is what this is all about. It's not about sanctity of life. It's about fear of the Black man. If the Black man is for it and it works for the people...all people...then it's no good and Congressman Steve and his cronies try to trash it. Nevermind that the GOP may have originally created the program in the first place. It was theirs until the Black man said he liked it and let's put it into law. 
 
How many times has Steve and company voted to defund Obamacare...40 times? Damn! 
 
Persistent little buggers aren't they. But somebody needs to tell em that doing the same thing over and over is tantamount to running a 10K on a hamster wheel. 
 
But it is September, and here we are again, doing the same old dance. Listening to the same old arguments, from the same old people.

Still waiting to hear something about jobs, guys....

Guess I shouldn't pick on my Congressman Steve. He's not one of the vocal ones in the House. He's not that other Ohio Congressman from up the road...Boner..er...Boehner...yeah..the dude from West Chester, originally from Reading Oh High O...Grew up in a bar ( Some things never change).

Congressman Steve just basically does what he's told to do. That keeps him employed and on the good side of Boehner, and Cantor and the corporate puppetmasters who really run Capitol Hill.. 
 
A do-nothing Congressman from a do nothing State who is trying to destroy the country.
Sounds like another day in the USA.

And by the way...

Hey Christian er Conressman Steve...saw this on your website too;

“I also believe marriage is between one man and one woman, and I will continue to defend its sanctity.”-Steve Chabot

Does this mean you're going after heterosexual adulterers sometime soon? Just askin'

9/11 Hindsight

20-20 hindsight kicking in when it comes to the events of September 11, 2001, the day the Trade Towers in New York were destroyed by Saudi Arabian men taking orders from the now dead Osama Bin Laden.

Most of us had never heard Bin Laden's name prior to that time. He was apparently a major player in the world of USA haters, but we Americans didn't know it. US citizens were and to a great extent, remain cloaked in naivete when it comes to the rest of the world. The “them vs us” mentality still dominates American group think.

To be sure there are new cracks in that group think. It was very apparent last night with President Obama attempting to convince we the people that it is again necessary to deploy the military option against some other country, this time named Syria, for the purpose of....what? Still don't have an answer to that question...Why and for what?

The rationale presented by the President,...we need to strike Assad and Syria to protect “us” from “them.” It's the same rationale used by Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagan, Carter, et al going back a couple of hundred years, leading up to the events of 9/11. When you look at our war history, we've been damn lucky. Most other nations on the face of this earth would be happy to be able to point to just one incident on their land, as its lone brush with terrorism.

We the people don't have a clue about navigating through a regular day of living, wondering where the bad guys/good guys, hid the IED.

Killing people...we the people are very good at killing people...we've got a magnificent army, the best weapons, 12 WMDs for every person the face of this earth, airplanes, boats, and now President Obama has given us drones, unmanned death from the sky, fired by guys in a bunker somewhere in America at a target thousands of miles away. No need to look them in the eye when you kill them now. Clean, bloodless killing. However, we're not so good at being killed...dying on our own soil or while asleep in our own house or walking to the grocery store around the corner.

9/11 woke us up to that fact. It ain't fun being hit back once you've started something. And make no mistake about it, we did start this fire and have been stoking it for years and years. It was only a matter of time before somebody decided to hit back. 9/11 was a sucker punch answer to our preemptive strike mindset. Now we've got to finish it, bring it to conclusion before somebody decides to use the really bad weapons in their arsenals, probably purchased from us, The United States of America or one of our many government sanctioned military corporations.

Our government calls Saudi Arabia an ally, yet the virulent form of Islam practiced by most so named terrorists comes out o Saudi Madrasas. The men who flew the planes on 9/11 were mainly Saudi nationals. Osama Bin Laden was Saudi. The Saudis have said they will take up the monetary slack if America pulls its aid from Syria. In fact the US just sold the Saudis 60 billion dollars in weaponry. Weapons that more than likely will end up being used against us sometime in the future in some unforeseen way.

We've got to stop this merry go round. If nothing else, 9/11 has proven that our attempts to play all ends against the middle and get rich while others suffer and die, are coming back to haunt us. It is only a matter of time before the world gets sophisticated enough to once again use our own weapons against us.

We the people seem to be waking up to this lesson, displaying overwhelming disapproval of using a military option to seek peace in Syria floated by the White House last week. Seeking peace at the end off a rifle, does not work. It's never worked and never will.

There are other options in the 21^st century. It's time we used them.

No more 9/11....no more war...

What I said:

5 years after 9/11: http://skeptikone.blogspot.com/2006/09/911-looking-back.html

10 years after 9/11: http://skeptikone.blogspot.com/2011/09/911-10-family-conversation.html

Syria-NO NO and NO!

Good morning Mr. President.

To be perfectly honest, there is nothing that you can say that will change my mind about planned limited strike intervention in the Syrian civil war.

There are not enough pictures of the dead bodies of children to affect my thinking on this subject, because as a country, we do not and never have had the moral ground on this issue. Our national war policies have always been dictated by money, not humanitarian concern for our brothers, and certainly not for our brothers' wives, women and children.

Past history has shown repeatedly that if the American masters of the universe can't turn a quick buck, then the American corporate puppets who claim to represent the people, turn a blind eye pretending that the problem belongs to someone else. And I am surprised that you, Mr. President, have joined the warmongering neocons that citizens voted out of office in 2008, resulting in your ascendency to the Oval Office. You said you would end these senseless global police actions, and I believed you. Instead, what I am seeing is a half assed attempt at promoting American Exceptionalism, as it is called these days, without naming it officially.

Your WWII analogy is an apples to oranges comparison that falls flat. We didn't enter WWII to save the countless Jews, Roma, and gay men and women swept up in that genocidal holocaust. History shows that America knew about the holocaust long before officially admitting it. We didn't end Jim Crow segregation because we cared about the rights of Black Americans, some of whom were in the process of dying for this country. The dead were collateral damage, in the very same way that the US now turns a blind eye toward modern day Israeli atrocities and apartheid routinely and regularly committed against the Palestinians by the descendants of that very holocaust.

The US totally ignored the genocide of Rwanda which still rages today, just as other than platitudes, the US chooses to ignore the genocide of black men and boys raging right here in America. A genocide camouflaged by talk of second amendment constitutional rights, that not even the killings of little white children in white suburbia USA, have been able to move the conversation forward.

Your tears for the 400 Syrian babies are not enough, Mr. President. In order to command the moral ground, you must cry for all of the children nationwide and worldwide, not just the ones who die where it is financially feasible to take a stand.

If news reports are correct, the US recently sold Saudi Arabia 60 billion dollars in bombs, guns and planes. Why not let them deal with the problems in their neighborhood. The Saudis are on record anyway as saying they will take care of Syria if America won't. Let's take them up on that offer. Our days of supplying all the weapons as well as rebuilding once the war is over, should end now. There is always the move toward peace and like the journey of a thousand miles, it begins with only one step. Why not take that one step now, Mr. President?

And what about Plan B, Mr. President? What do we do after the limited strikes are over? Do we arm the rebels, like we did in Afghanistan? Do we do another Iran-Contra trade thing? Do we work to overthrow another government, like in Iran and countless other Central and South American countries, again? Do we send in the troops, the boots on the ground, like in Vietnam or Iraq? Do we initiate another shaky cease fire like between the Koreas and then wait for it to blow up in our faces, again?

What do we do, Mr. President? What do we do while you pour our money down another sand hole by bombing to oblivion another Middle Eastern country, so that after strafing it into submission we can swoop in and build it up again, while our own cities go bankrupt, our schools disintegrate and our utilities and infrastructure fall into ruin.

Why do Americans have to die again, Mr. President because the rich want to make more money? Why are you so happy to appease them instead of showing concern for those who elected you? I say that because you have already implied that you will go against citizens' wishes and bomb anyway, should you lose the vote in Congress. You do have that power, thanks to George W Bush and the Patriot Act.

But even though your predecessor gave you the power, we the people put you in position to use that power, and we are asking you to work for us, for a change. We the people, don't want another senseless military action.

We want peace, Mr. President, a lasting end to the needless violence that goes on and on and on.

Be the change, that you promised us you are. The polls show that we've changed. Now it's your turn.

Respectfully,

Syria-Intervention or No

An open letter to Steve Chabot,

My Dear Representative,

I am totally and completely against intervening in the Syrian Civil War, either for regime change or as our President says, to teach President Assad a lesson. The man was wrong to gas his own people. I am not disputing that. However, the Syrian conflagration is not the only one burning across the globe. It is not the only place where women and children are dying because of the whims and power grabs of money hungry dictators and despots.

The poor, women and children, suffer right here in the United States, thanks in great part to the very laws and regulations put into place by this Congress, which is now debating who has the moral ground. They suffer and die daily in Africa because Hutus and Tutsis continue to fight the colonial wars begun a hundred years ago by white conquerors bent on raping the continent of its vast natural resources. Past illegal wars have nearly bankrupted our country, while making a few men rich from the spoils of oil. We don't have the moral ground when it comes to humanitarian principles, Representative, despite what our President would like us to believe.

My first concern is the President's call for “limited engagement.” He says the hit will be a surgical strike designed to punish. All recent past actions have been described as limited, yet here we are struggling to disengage from both Iraq and Afghanistan years later and at a monumental cost to taxpayers, as we watch our own cities fall down into decay. Limited engagement by Bill Clinton resulted in the attack on the Trade Towers on 9/11. Limited strikes in Somalia resulted in yet another deadly fiasco. The so called punishment strikes only seem to punish us. Considering that nearly all of the Republicans who voted to support President Bush's calls for war are still in place, I don't believe that anything will be kept at “limited.” The president aligning with John McCain, the very man calling for regime change dating back to the past election bothers me greatly. If I wanted John McCain to represent me, I would have voted for him.

And let me be perfectly honest, I am very disappointed in President Obama. I voted for men and women whom I thought would keep us out of war, not jump to get into another one. I voted for men and women whom I thought would use those billions of dollars dedicated to war, to healing unemployment, low wages and other major problems affecting our country.

I also think the time has come  for the United States to listen to its people as well as the international community. I think acting without UN sanction or NATO is a big mistake. I mean what happens if sometime in the future Russia or China decides to jump in behind one of their allied countries?

I hold no illusions about Congress' love for the people it purports to represent. A congress ready willing and more than able to attempt to derail healthcare, medicare, social security and education while our cities decay, doesn't give a damn about its people and I'm probably wasting time writing this letter. But I've got to try to make you understand what kinds of hell you continue to inflict upon the people while attempting to stand on moral ground.

Congressman Chabot, bigger men and women would stand up for a peace process. Bigger men and women would take into consideration the sacrifices already made by the people before asking them to make more.  We don't need bullets or missiles. We need talk and communication. We need time to heal. 

I hope that when the time comes you will not be stampeded into voting for another war action that benefits the few rather than the many.

Respectfully,

Missiles into Syria on Dr. King's Day! President Obama, You Cannot be Serious!

Dear Mr. President.

I know you're a busy man, busier than usual, because you are preparing on this auspicious day, to step onto the foot path of the Drum Major for peace, Dr. Martin Luther King Junior, on this the 50th anniversary of perhaps his greatest day. I understand that you will be joined by a host of celebrities and important people including two past presidents, Clinton and Carter, and I'm also hearing today that Oprah Winfrey will also take part in today's celebration among others.

Let me be blunt, Mr. President, I have a problem with today's commemoration. My problem being that everything scheduled to take place today could have and should have taken place this past Saturday (August 24^th) when the people could have attended and taken part. The first march was for the people. 50 years later what we have is a gathering for us, talking about jobs and economic freedom, which we still don't have, despite your promises, followed by a gathering of the glitterati, 4 days later on the exact date of the first march. Why two, celebrations separate and definitely not equal in place of the inclusive demonstrations orchestrated back in the day? Leaders bent over backward in order to show a united front, at least for that day and they pulled it off magnificently.

The excuse that I was given was that today August 28^th is the exact date of the MLK march, so it was important to be historically and completely correct. To which I say bull. We live in a country that has changed the dates on every single holiday and national commemoration with the exception of the 4^th of July and Christmas, for the sole purpose of giving people 3 day holiday weekends. It wasn't always like that. When I was in school, we celebrated Lincoln on his birthday. The same with Washington and even Dr. King. Now there is President's day, two for the price of one, and never on February 12^th (Lincoln)or the 22^nd (Washington).

I suspect politics is the main reason behind the scripted segregation. Politics and egos and for those reasons, we the people are once again left twisting in the wind. Some of us have long been tired of the symbolism of equality rather than the real deal. We refuse to sing another verse of “we shall overcome.” The passions kindled 50 years ago on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial are now nothing more than cinders and ash.

Having a Black man in the White House, Mr. President, has never been enough. It was a start, we thought, to fulfillment of Dr. King's dream as spelled out all those years ago. However I guess nobody was really listening were they.

As you prepare to stand in for Dr. King and to talk about peace, equality, freedom and justice for we the people, the media is reporting that you are contemplating “limited retaliatory intervention” in Syria because their president reportedly gassed his innocent citizens while they slept.

You have said that a gas attack is where America draws the line in the sand. The NeoCons immediately started sabre rattling, beating on their shields, strapping on their boots ready to go to jump into another unending and senseless conflagration.

Mr. President you were elected President because we the people wanted change. We wanted an end to unending warfare where anonymous death rains down on faceless innocents. Based on your words and promises, the world awarded you the Nobel Peace Prize,  in hindsight very premature to say the least. In an effort to get out of Afghanistan, we have a drone war of your making. Now your regime is talking “ Limited Retaliatory Intervention' which is just another name for Revenge, and for what. The gas didn't kill over here. It killed in the midst of a civil war and we don't have a dog in this fight. The American people are tired, Mr. President.

We chose you to break the cycle. Someone, and I fear it is you, must stand up to the NeoCons both within and outside your administration. If our allies want to go, then let them go, they are not strangers to imperialism having created the imperialistic prototype a long long time ago. That's exactly why our country exists today. We can't nor are we obligated to continue to make the same mistakes over and over and over.

Today, as you stand in the place of Dr. Martin Luther King, a man who died violently while counseling others in nonviolence, there is no rationalization that you can dream up, that will convince me that the right thing to do is to send cruise missiles into the heart of yet another Middle Eastern country. Dr. King was vocally against the war in Vietnam ( another fruitless exercise in limited retaliatory intervention), and he would have been equally vocal against supporting any administration, including yours, so ready and willing to strike out when we're not even sure as a country, who the enemy really is.

The enemy is us, Mr. President. We need to heal ourselves before we attempt to heal others. Striking Syria is wrong and no way to remember Dr. King on his day.

Respectfully yours,

50th Anniversary March is History-Now What?

Been working all day trying to come up with a word to describe how I feel, now that The People's March honoring Dr. King and his “I have a dream” speech is done. I've come up with several actually. However the one that sticks out is “empty.” 

It's done, we marched, we shouted, we sang, we cried, we vented, some of us shared our memories of the first march, many of whom, like me, were alive, but too young to take part. Others who took part, wanted and desperately needed to recapture the moment. We needed to feel the energy. For whatever reason, we were compelled to be there. We needed to believe we were making a difference, again, and that people were listening to us, and that great things such as the 1964 Civil Rights Act were just around the corner, maybe this time signed by a Black President. That would truly be history and fulfillment of the dream as well as a direct answer to those determined to resurrect Jim Crow and nullify the rights of all minorities once again.

Instead we were met with massive yet lackadaisical security, good in some areas (snipers on the roof), not so good in others. None of it was people friendly. For instance, can someone tell me the purpose of shutting down the Martin Luther King Memorial before the march. Why? Don't the people have the right to gaze at the people's pastor? The people were made to stay far away, from the MLK statue and the Lincoln Memorial for that matter, reduced to watching massive TV screens erected to make the small figures of lesser men and women addressing the crowd look bigger. Everything the people faced in the park was the antithesis of what Dr. King stood for during his lifetime. The iron gated crowd barriers enforcing a metaphorical segregation, erected to control a population desperately hungry for change, but not allowed by law to participate. The march itself a hollow shadow, filled with empty symbolism. No passion, no feeling. Some wanted to sing “We shall overcome” others, and there were many, myself included who never want to hear that song sung again. Many feel that “Fight the Power” is a more appropriate 21^st Century anthem. But regardless of what we sing, we ain't there yet and it was painfully obvious on Saturday.

We the people are at a crossroads. The giants who led us are passing on, while those who would replace them can't measure up, being more content to nurture their “look” rather than actually get down and dirty into the trenches of real leadership. It's easy to talk up a commemorative march from the bully pulpit of a cable television network, but it's another thing altogether to walk in the shoes of Dr. King or Reverend Shuttlesworth, or Reverend Abernathy, or Fanny Lou Hamer or Ella Baker or Bayard Rustin or Harry Belafonte or Charleton Heston, James Baldwin or Marlon Brando. (Denzel Washington did Emcee part of the show.)

Toure

There were no Kings or Queens on stage this day. Maybe that will come with the scheduled commemoration on Wednesday with no less than four living American Presidents in attendance. Instead of a people's march, it will be the official commemoration. Church bells are set to ring at 3pm, the time Dr. King began to speak so long ago and when President is set to begin his remarks. Maybe the movie stars and other celebrities who couldn't make it on the people's weekend will make a charity appearance to stand with Barack Obama our first avowed Black President.

I just wonder if any of the people, Dr. King's people, the now grown up little boys and little girls will be there to hear him talk.

The 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington-Segregation Then, Segregation Now, Segregation Forever

                          "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation
                                where they will not be judged by the color of their skin,
                             but by the content of their character." - Martin Luther King

It's disconcerting to me to juxtapose the words of Martin Luther King with a paraphrase of the words uttered by segregationist George W. Wallace. But this is the way my mind works when thinking back over the 50 years since the first March on Washington led by Dr. King back in 1963 and the upcoming events to mark the occasion this weekend.

I was too young, being only 13 years old, to take part in the first march, but I watched the grainy black and white images of that massive crowd on the 6 o'clock news with the same intent that I watched the shows my parents allowed me to watch, back in the day, and time passed. Given the chance, I vowed to go and take part. Make my voice heard.

50 years. Just passed my 63^rd birthday and I'm packing for DC. Going to the Anniversary March. Going to stand in front of the Lincoln Memorial with other like-minded people and remember the words of Dr. King. I am geeked about this trip because it's been a long time coming, but instead of total elation, my heart is heavy thinking about it.

“I have a dream...”

I think many of us figured the dream would be halfway realized by now, 50 years after the fact. But all you gotta do is to look at the upcoming festivities to understand that Dr. King's ideas are still blowing in the wind.

There is the March on Saturday, August 24^th I will call it The people's march. It is expected to be the biggest event since it's on Saturday and most people have the time, and don't have to work. It's a good day to teach history to the kids. The Park police are planning for about 150,000 people, about half of what originally turned out back in the day.

Dr. King actually delivered his speech on August 28^th, so some other people and groups have organized a march on exactly the same day, complete with church bells ringing at 3pm and a speech from President Barack Obama, standing in for Dr. King. Obama's speech is supposed to be a grand thing, designed to move us forward as a nation toward the goals espoused by Dr. King back in the day. The main problem with the August 28^th event is that it falls on a Wednesday, in the middle of the work week, not exactly designed to be people friendly, is it. I was initially confused by the two different dates with both events calling themselves the Anniversary of the March on Washington. And I'm sure that confusion still exists for others, as well.

Back on Saturday, the 24^th, Black conservatives are going to hold their own thing, a breakfast, put together by RNC Chairman Reince Priebus. It is a sit down affair, very dignified, designed to do....well I'm not sure what it is designed to do, since only politicians and their supporters have been invited to participate. People, Dr. King's people, need not apply, it seems.

Here is my problem...

Why three separate events when Dr. King was all about inclusion and equality? Why is Al Sharpton and his National Action Network, joined by the NAACP and a host of other groups marching on Saturday, totally ignoring the group putting together the march on Wednesday that features the first Black President of the United States?

And what better way for the GOP to convince some of us that they really are about inclusion then by taking part in either one of the other affairs?

Segregation then, segregation now, segregation forever, it seems...

Seems like anyone really wanting to honor Dr. King would have had one big people friendly affair in the spirit of the original march.

“I have a dream....”

Congressman John Lewis who also addressed the crowd 50 years ago as president of SNCC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee said this about Dr. King;

"Dr. King had the power, the ability, and the capacity to transform those steps on the Lincoln Memorial into a monumental area that will forever be recognized. By speaking the way he did, he educated, he inspired, he informed not just the people there, but people throughout America and unborn generations."

I wish that the folks in charge could have understood this and planned their events with the people in mind rather than their own agenda at the fore front. It would have shown that the words spoken by Dr. King that day are honored in spirit, if not in daily practice.

“why can't we all just get along?”

What Rodney King said. What Dr. King meant. What will need to happen if we are all to survive.

“I have a dream...”

Me too...

Zimmerman Verdict: Even Honorary White Guys Get to Kill Blacks

It took a long time for me to fall asleep last night following the Zimmerman verdict. Sure, I was angry. However my thoughts weren't on Trayvon Martin. I fell asleep thinking of Sharon Louise Arter who died when she was 3 years old in Cleveland Ohio, the only city in which she'd ever lived.

Sharon was not famous or infamous. She was my cousin, daughter of my mother's sister, her middle name the same as my mom's middle name. Sharon's death wasn't unusual or sensational. She got hit by a car. She ran into the street not realizing how quickly danger can invade a 3 year old's world. She didn't stand a chance really. Happens all the time in car crazy America.

What sticks in my head about my forever little cousin is not that she died. I can barely remember her face, only have one picture of her in a Sunday dress, another light eyed blondie in the family.

No, not Sharon. The one image that I have from that time was of a man on the street, a total stranger, watching our funeral procession pass down Euclid. A pale, thinly built guy, about 5 and a half feet tall, wearing a gray plaid shirt and dark pants, white socks and dark shoes. He was a happy fellow, jumping up and down, doing a kind of jig on the sidewalk and clapping his hands, singing a made up song; “another nigger dead, whoo-eee! Another nigger dead, nigger dead, nigger dead!”

His song came flooding back into my memory with the “not guilty” verdict rendered for George Zimmerman. “Another nigger dead, another nigger dead, another nigger dead” cause for celebration in America past, present and apparently for the foreseeable future.

Another all white jury has reinforced the pecking order keeping white America safe once again. Young  black men and black people in general, are at the bottom, after pit bulls and other domestic animals. Black kid walking past your house, shoot him because it was obvious he was thinking about breaking in. “All that concrete, he was armed, don cha see”. Kid eyeballs you on the train, shoot him because he looked like the guy who was thinking of mugging you last week as you walked in your neighborhood. Go ahead shoot, great time to try out that new piece with your new concealed carry license.

And just like honorary white man and wanna be rent a cop Zimmerman profiled Martin, the media, police, all the self appointed race hustlers, as well as the rest of American society profiled the Black community by calling for calm in the wake of the verdict “don't ya'll riot now, ya hear? Be calm, ” as if violence is the only answer around which we as a community can ever coalesce.

“It's gon be alright” Pray about it. It's Sunday go to church and let gawd handle it for you.

Talk to your twitter friends. Vent your anger on Facebook. Sign any number of overnight petitions materializing from out of the blue, uselessly disappearing as quickly as they arrived.

But don't try to vote. No we don't want that. In fact, we fixed that for you too. You just need to be good color uh Afro Americans and mind ya place now ya hear.”

Yep...another nigger dead, another nigger dead, another nigger dead, another nigger dead...

SOSDD (same old shit, different day)

John Kasich Saves Spider Monkeys, Gives Ohio Women the Finger

 Kasich Proves Rick Perry to be only the second dumbest Governor in the United States of America.

Good ole John Kasich. Says he is doing good for Ohio. He thinks we've forgotten how he tried to trash the casino deal and then used it as a cash cow for some of his out of town cronies.

He thinks we've forgotten how he gave his boys and not his girls raises before they did a lick of work, while cutting salaries and budgets for all other workers, union workers, teachers, etc in the state. He thinks we've forgotten his attempts to enshrine right to work into our constitution.

He thinks we've forgotten how he tried to sell off the entire prison system to another of his personal friends for fun and profit, or that he also tried to sell off the Ohio turnpike to the Chinese.

Kasich had a chance to redeem himself somewhat this weekend. All he had to do was to use his line item veto to kick some really, really bad amendments out of the budget bill.

But no. Instead he signed into law some of the most vicious laws against women in the country, right along with Texas. You can read it here. 

Kasich had a chance to see what happened down in Texas with the women before he put pen to paper. He was given a preview of what is to come if he sanctioned this republican bigotry against women.

Well, John boy proved that he is the slow learner that we've always known him to be. Despite Texas, he left em in the bill. All of em.

So what does Ohio have today courtesy of John Kasich and the beyond clueless republicans of the state legislature;

Ohio now defines life as beginning at ejaculation...they say at conception...but before a fertilized egg implants in the wall of the uterus...that's ejaculation, folks...when sperm meets egg...as of today...have sex....you're a daddy....or a mommy...

No word on whether masturbation will get you locked up since masturbation results in spilling of the royal sperm. Also no word on whether your period can get you charged with manslaughter since that is the dumping of a viable egg, a possible fetus.

If a woman does get pregnant unintentionally or via rape or incest...she must be vaginally probed by a doctor prior to receiving an abortion. The doctor is required to look for a fetal heartbeat and to tell the woman if he finds one.

The measure defunds planned parenthood to the tune of $1.4 million, so that if you do get pregnant or need simple preventive health care, such as birth control, you can't get it. Kasich did allow the funding of the fake ass clinics that lie to women about their healthcare and preventive possibilities staffed by right winged zealots more interested in collecting zygotes than saving or helping women.

Good ole John is not totally heartless. He saved the spider monkeys, exempting them from the tough new wildlife laws that soon take effect. Said John, penalizing spider monkeys is a step backward in time..

Obviously monkeys occupy a higher branch on the evolution tree than do women. At least according to our governor.

Welcome to the dark ages. Women not wanted unless you're of child bearing years, married to a man and up under him whenever he orders her to assume the position.

And by the way...he gave rich people a tax cut while raising taxes on the poor and middle class...you know..where the women and children are...

Way to go, John...

Dear John Boehner

Mr. Speaker,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What have you really got to lose?

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

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

Respectfully yours.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yeah right...

Michelle Obama Bitch Slaps Lesbian

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Rape of Trayvon Martin

One month away from the three ring circus that will be George Zimmerman's trial for the murder of 17 year old Trayvon Martin, the public assassination and rape of the young victim has jumped into full gear.

Zimmerman's defense attorneys have released stuff found on Martin's cell phone, pictures and texts depicting the now snuffed out life of a kid doing kid stuff, who didn't know he was gonna die. He wasn't walking around a ghetto. He was walking around his father's probably predominately white neighborhood, going to the store and back. There were no gangs, no gang-bangers. No reason for a reasonably street savvy kid to worry about his own safety. He wasn't doing anything except talking to a girl on his phone. How dangerous can that be?

The defense calls the pictures released, evidence in the pending case that shows their client Zimmerman is the victim here. The pictures show Trayvon with gold grill. They show a marijuana plant. They show Trayvon with his friends. One pic even shows a gun. Since Martin wasn't in the pic with the gun, or holding the gun, it is questionable whether the picture even came from Trayvon's phone. Even if it did, he's a kid and kids download the damned things from the internet to keep and show to their friends. Funny how stuff like this never seems to affect white kids, even after they kill 20 or 30 people. 

Zimmerman's defense team is still relying on that ages old American defense of “little white guy defending himself against attacking big black hoodie wearing ghetto kid.” This, despite telling the courts that it would not seek immunity under the “stand your ground” defense following public outcry against those bogus laws, put on the books for one reason and one reason only, and that is to allow white men with guns to shoot people because they want to, when they want to. Nobody else, not black men, not black women, not even white women have successfully been able to use the stand your ground defense and thereby evade prison. Zimmerman ran into trouble as soon as he invoked it. He lives like a white man, but was swiftly reminded of his recent immigrant roots, so can't really claim master of the universe immunity/privilege like a “real” white guy. He's a bit too brown toned for that.

Zimmerman's defense can't stand on the facts of the case because Zimmerman precipitated the incident where he killed an unarmed kid after police told him via dispatch to leave Martin alone. Zimmerman brought the gun, got into a fight and killed the youth in cold blood just feet from his father's house.

So now the only option seems to be a public rape, just like what happens to women who report sexual assaults and black men/women/youth in the USA. It's never the assailant who is tried in court. It is always the victim put on trial, raped repeatedly with questions about past acts having no bearing on the incident in question, and Trayvon Martin is no exception. A recent case in point, Charles Ramsey of Cleveland. All he did was rescue three kidnapped women held for 10 years and w-Within 24 hours every news organization was reporting on his past bad acts, as if to say he's not a good guy. He's not the hero that everybody thinks he is.  Retried in the court of public opinion until folks got mad about it.

The pictures and what they depict, don't matter. They are not evidence about the incident in question. They are being held up and waved around only to say “look, George Zimmerman killed a bad guy, would you want him in your neighborhood, talking on the phone to your daughter?” Classic fall back defense of the bigoted in America when they know they were in the wrong.

What troubles me is that more often than not, it still works in Amerikkka. It remains to be seen if the judge will actually allow them into evidence given the notoriety of the case.

Martin was a black kid walking home, doing what he was supposed to do, he was accosted by Zimmerman, an arrogant prick with a gun who got his jollies driving around his neighborhood harassing people who “didn't fit” in with his perception of who should be there.

So what if they fought. So what if Zimmerman got a bloody nose. So what...

Trayvon Martin lost his 17 year old life doing what he was supposed to do. Doing what his parents had taught him to do for a change. He was 17, not an angel. The kid was walking home when he was jumped and shot for no reason by a white man with a gun.

Playing the race card, am I? Damn right, because otherwise, we wouldn't be having this conversation. If anyone other than the little white guy police wannabe George Zimmerman had pulled the trigger on a black hoodie wearing kid named Trayvon Martin on that fateful night, they would still be in jail or already subjected to trial and convicted and awaiting sentence, at the very least.

An Open Letter to President Obama on the Matter of Assata Shakur

Dear Mr. President,

First of all, let me congratulate you on your massive re election win back in November. I voted for you and am proud to have done so. However, I am troubled by the recent act by your administration of placing Assata Shakur, the former Joanne Chesimard, on the most wanted domestic terrorist list. To be perfectly honest, one of my problems with you, Mr. President, is that I've never felt comfortable trusting you to handle the problems of Black America, and this move against Shakur illustrates my point.

Do you understand that this one act has the effect of retroactively criminalizing the very movement that made your ascent to the White House possible? Do you understand the historic stain that you have allowed your Justice Department to paint all over the Black community?

With one fell swoop you have labeled everyone, from Dr. Martin Luther King on down to me as a domestic terrorist, and proclaimed our demands for equality and freedom from Jim Crow back in the day as nothing more than acts of terrorism against the United States. We're not Terrorists, Mr. President. We are Americans. Americans who have routinely and systematically been excluded from the melting pot that America proclaims itself to be.

The announcement by the Police and Federal officials in New Jersey this week, called the continued hunt for Shakur an open wound dating back some 40 years. Well what about the open wounds inflicted by COINTELPRO on Black people, Mr. President. Shakur is a classic example of what this covert government agency inflicted on my people ( not sure if they're yours) during the 60's, 70's and 80's. There was no mention of governmental complicity during the news conference. Did you think that all of us who might remember had died off or maybe decided to stay quiet since we're older now?

We're older, Mr. President, but we haven't gone away, primarily because despite working our asses off to see you live in the White House, things haven't gotten any better for us in the past few years. Some of that is conservative bigoty, but much of it is you, Mr. President. We're still not living in full economic, non racist harmonic American equality. The American dream has yet to roll down my street. Not even with you in charge of the White House and your designate Eric Holder in control of the Just-us department. No I didn't misspell Justice, Mr. President. Real Black people know that it's always been Justice for them and Just-us for us.

I keep waiting for you to take a stand for Black people, Mr. President. I keep waiting for you to find some empathy for those who look like you look. You tell the world that you're minority. You make jokes about it. You get mad when someone says otherwise. And lord knows you take enough crap from even the minor masters of the universe for appearing to be Black.

Trouble is, Mr. President, you don't even feel Black to me. You've got the cool Black factor working. You do look good in your Ray Bans as you step out of your armored Escalade. But when it comes to deep down understanding, you are seriously lacking in knowledge, passion and feeling for what it is to be a Black man in America. Your election did not come close to making America post racial. How many times does some white guy have to question your intelligence before you get mad enough to realize that.

I just don't get how you and Eric Holder could miss the incredible symbolism attached to making Assata Shakur a domesticc terrorist. You may as well have gone to Angela Davis' house, kicked down her door, and slapped cuffs on her saying double jeopardy is no longer in force. Same difference.

Amid your fight for gays and lesbians and immigrants and Latinos, your administration just told all of Black America that we don't count, and that we never counted. Even if you really feel that way, I personally thought you were smarter than that. Hell, I've been waiting for five years for some sign that you were smarter than you appear. But then again, some of the dumbest people that I know personally are academic geniuses, sporting all the book learning in the world yet not a lick of common sense.

I personally thought that you were strong enough to resist the allure and overwhelming addiction of power that comes with the Oval Office. I was wrong, apparently. You're so into the power that you've chosen to make the power grab retroactive. Our civil liberties are being wiped out. Not by the man who created the law, but by the man, you, who succeeded him.

I keep waiting for you to shed tears for Black America, Mr. President, because it is disappearing before your eyes. I keep waiting for you to choke up over the very visible inequities still written into the social system that controls American lives.

But the act of making Assata Shakur a domestic terrorist most wanted means I'm going to be waiting a long time for real black understanding coming from the White House.

You already know the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Well it's a good thing you can't run for a third term, because I can't in all honesty support someone who continues to work against me and my community to its detriment. That is insanity and I'm promise you, I am not crazy. I know when to quit.

And I'm done....

Respectfully yours,