Wednesday, September 30, 2009

No "Amber Alerts" but at least we have Lakeesha.




If the story I am about to blog about is old news, please forgive me. Sometimes it takes a bit longer for things to get to me. Honestly, if it wasn't for the folks who read this blog I wouldn't know about half of the shit that I do. Lord knows I can't rely on the main stream press to learn anything.

This story came to me thanks to an e-mail from Brenda Kay. (Brenda, are you sure that this story is not a hoax?) And since you will never hear about it from Nancy Grace and those of her ilk, I thought I would share it with you. I will give it to you exactly how it was written by a blogger named Claudette Rothman:


"A 12-year-old pregnant girl and her 11-year-old sister are missing, and authorities believe they are with their stepfather, Matthew Hess.

The girls’ biological mother, Janette Hess, told reporters her husband took her girls on Thursday September 24, and she has not seen them since.

“It’s been a nightmare, I’ve been living in a nightmare,” Hess told reporters.
Authorities said Keara Hess, who hasn’t told anyone who the father of her unborn child is, was scheduled for a medical procedure the day she disappeared. Officials did not say what kind of procedure it was, but they indicated it is one that she needs right away.
Officials said Keara became pregnant when she and her younger sister, Sierra lived with their stepfather in Lincoln County while her parents were separated.
Matthew has been married to the girls’ mother for 11 years.

Authorities said an AMBER alert was not issued because the children are with a legal guardian and this case does not meet the criteria of a missing child.
Matthew Hess was last seen driving a forest green 1993 Ford Explorer with North Carolina tag YTE-8014. Authorities said the back passenger window is broken and covered with Plexiglass and duct-taped in place."

Hmmm, no "Amber Alert"? Well fuck em! I am going to go ahead and put a "Lakeesha Alert" out for these little girls as well. They can join Mitrice Richardson on my sidebar. (BTW, has anyone out in Cali heard anything else about her case?)


I see from that pic that step-dad loves NASCAR. That alone earns him strike one in my book.


But hey, that's just me.


H/T To the blog "Greenwich Diva" for the post. and the pics.



Tuesday, September 29, 2009

If a child falls in the hood and no one cares to hear about it....

..should we make a sound? Of course we should. We owe our children that much.

As my man Reggie Warrington [Dave Chappelle] told Buddy Love [Eddie Murphy] in the Nutty Professor; "it's time to attack black."

So here we go again. It seems like every now and then I have to go on one of these rants. My Killadelphia murder count on the sidebar of this blog is not enough. Black folks, unfortunately, have become numb to the senseless killing of our children by our children. So what if three more young men were murdered this past week in Philly? Or if well over thirty school aged children have been murdered in Chicago this year? (How come Oprah doesn't have a show about that? I guess Dr. Phil doesn't do grief counseling) We have come to expect it.

But every now and then there is a murder that shocks our collective conscience and plays itself into the national psyche. Instead of a line or two in the metro page of the local paper, it makes national news. Bryan Williams is talking about it, and middle A-merry-cas is watching it with their hands over their mouths. In the hood people are wondering what's the big deal. How come this one made the national news and all the others didn't? Link

Well maybe it's because this one played itself out on video like a twisted reality television show for all of us to see. -And in the president's hometown no less- Urban terrorist beating a young honor student to death. No remorse, no heart, and no hesitation. Like a pack of animals who have strayed far away from their human DNA. You have all seen the video by now. If you haven't maybe you should. And when you do, take a long hard look at those those urban terrorist and try to find something. Maybe a clue as to why they act the way that they do. Something. Anything. I looked. In fact, I am always looking.

Here is what I see whenever I look: Children-wait, I take that back; boys without fathers. Young men with no men in their lives. Young men being raised by the streets and all sorts of negative influences. Most of them are here compliments of some sperm donor who just kept getting up. Absent fathers who thought that mom had a fat ass and was a "hell a nice shot".

I never see those sperm donors in criminal court when the cases are being called and the defendant's are being led into the courtroom. Only girlfriends, grandmothers, and mothers. The only black males I see in the court rooms are the sheriffs. When I go into the home of a potential client, the only people I negotiate with are mothers and grandmothers. Again, there is never a sperm donor in sight. That is my reality, and it's better than any scientific study you can cook up from some fancy Ivy League school. Oh field, stop it, what do you expect these men to do? What about the women who hook up with them? What about them? I can't speak for the women. All I know is that more often or not she is the one left to raise the child by herself. The sperm donor is always long gone and nowhere around. Regardless of who zoomed who.

I am so sick of seeing the vigils, the teddy bears, and the prayer groups in front of crime scenes. Because the sad reality is that tomorrow, just like clockwork, some poor child will be snatched from us by an urban terrorist all over again.

Today, Al Sharpton,Newt Gingrich, and Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, toured the schools here in Philly. (Talk about strange bedfellows)They were here to praise the charter school system in our fine city and push for longer hours in school. That's all fine. But our schools could stay open twenty four hours a day and it wouldn't make a damn difference to the urban terrorist out here. The kids who want to learn will be there, and the others will keep doing what they are doing now: be disruptive, make it harder for the other kids, and create a poor overall learning environment.

But let's keep it real with each other. The schools can only do so much. Everything starts at home.

I know that I am preaching to the choir here, because most of you who read this blog with children don't need to here this. I am sure that your children are fine. But what about the rest of them? All of our children. A-merry-ca's children. (Well, black A-merry-ca's children, because I am quite sure that the rest of A-merry-ca would never claim them. They would much rather adopt a nice little Asian or Russian girl...let me stop.) How do we get to them? How do we stop the sperm donors? It's, for the most part, a question that is orotund in nature. Because as much as I have tried to figure it out, I swear that I don't know the answer.

Monday, September 28, 2009

She is taken.


It looks like the Italian Premier, Silvio Berlusconi, got himself into a little hot water by dissing his O ness to a bunch of Italian conservatives. Yep, he called his O ness "some tanned guy"while joking about meeting him. But relax folks, this is not the field chasing racism tonight. Taken in its proper context I didn't find the Premier's words to be particularly offensive. Just a former cruise ship entertainer trying to be funny. And, I might add, not doing a very good job of it.


But I do want to blog about something related to the entire episode: It's the sleaze factor.

Guys, this is a woman thing, so we might have to sit this one out. Women have this sleazedar (yes, I made that word up) when it comes to men. No matter how he tries to cover it up, a woman can always spot a sleaze. Apparently Michelle Obama's sleazedar went off with Berlusconi:

" European media have played up photos showing Michelle Obama greeting many leaders at the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh summit last week with a kiss but stiffly holding out her arm for a handshake when it came time to greet Berlusconi.

The photos show Berlusconi's gazing at Mrs. Obama's gown, instead of her face, and holding his arms out as if in delight at what he sees, while the U.S. President looks on, apparently not amused."

So she gave him the old stiff arm instead of a kiss. Nice. Sorry Mr. Premier, your "jungle fever" is a bit strong. (Someone get that man some old Jet magazines.)

Ahhh here it is. I knew it!

"The 72-year-old Berlusconi has made no secret for his admiration of attractive women. He has been on the defensive in a sex scandal that erupted last spring after his wife complained he was infatuated with young women and announced she is divorcing him.

Prosecutors in the southern city of Bari are investigating a local businessman, as a suspect in a cocaine investigation, who has said he sent some 30 young women to dinners and parties at Berlusconi's Rome palazzo residence and Sardinian villa. The businessman told investigators he paid the women's expenses and in some cases extra money in case they had sex with the premier."

Wait; "30 young women"? And he is what, 72? Dayam! O man, I would have stared his old ass down,too.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

"Back To The Future"?

*
I have been doing a lot of reading lately. Primarily because I find the political and racial atmosphere in A-merry-ca to be so fascinating.

Anyway, my man Matef from Socal shot me an e-mail today, which led me to the following article from Naomi Klein. It's a long article and it's creating a lot of buzz in certain circles. If you are a thinking person, or in anyway intellectually curious, you should read it. Here is a sampling:


"Americans began the summer still celebrating the dawn of a "post-racial" era. They are ending it under no such illusion. The summer of 2009 was all about race, beginning with Republican claims that Sonia Sotomayor, Barack Obama's nominee to the US Supreme Court, was "racist" against whites. Then, just as that scandal was dying down, up popped "the Gates controversy", the furore over the president's response to the arrest of African American academic Henry Louis Gates Jr in his own home. Obama's remark that the police had acted "stupidly" was evidence, according to massively popular Fox News host Glenn Beck, that the president "has a deep-seated hatred for white people".

Obama's supposed racism gave a jolt of energy to the fringe movement that claims he has been carrying out a lifelong conspiracy to cover up his (fictional) African birth. Then Fox News gleefully discovered Van Jones, White House special adviser on green jobs. After weeks of being denounced as "a black nationalist who is also an avowed communist", Jones resigned last Sunday.

The undercurrent of all these attacks was that Obama, far from being the colour-blind moderate he posed as during the presidential campaign, is actually obsessed with race, in particular with redistributing white wealth into the hands of African Americans and undocumented Mexican workers. At town hall meetings across the US in August, these bizarre claims coalesced into something resembling an uprising to "take our country back". Henry D Rose, chair of Blacks For Social Justice, recently compared the overwhelmingly white, often armed, anti-Obama crowds to the campaign of "massive resistance" launched in the late 50s – a last-ditch attempt by white southerners to block the racial integration of their schools and protect other Jim Crow laws. Today's "new era of 'massive resistance'," writes Rose, "is also a white racial project."

There is at least one significant difference, however. In the late 50s and early 60s, angry white mobs were reacting to life-changing victories won by the civil rights movement. Today's mobs, on the other hand, are reacting to the symbolic victory of an African American winning the presidency. Yet they are rising up at a time when non-elite blacks and Latinos are losing significant ground, with their homes and jobs slipping away from them at a much higher rate than from whites. So far, Obama has been unwilling to adopt policies specifically geared towards closing this ever-widening divide. The result may well leave minorities with the worst of all worlds: the pain of a full-scale racist backlash without the benefits of policies that alleviate daily hardships. Meanwhile, with Obama constantly painted by the radical right as a cross between Malcolm X and Karl Marx, most progressives feel it is their job to defend him – not to point out that, when it comes to tackling the economic crisis ravaging minority communities, the president is not doing nearly enough.

For many antiracist campaigners, the realisation that Obama might not be the leader they had hoped for came when he announced his administration would be boycotting the UN Durban Review Conference on racism, widely known as "Durban II". Almost all of the public debate about the conference focused on its supposed anti-Israel bias. When it actually took place in April in Geneva, virtually all we heard about was Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's inflammatory speech, which was met with rowdy disruptions, from the EU delegates who walked out, to the French Jewish students who put on clown wigs and red noses, and tried to shout him down.

Lost in the circus atmosphere was the enormous importance of the conference to people of African descent, and nowhere more so than among Obama's most loyal base. The US civil rights movement had embraced the first Durban conference, held in summer 2001, with great enthusiasm, viewing it as the start of the final stage of Martin Luther King's dream for full equality. Though most black leaders offered only timid public criticism of the president's Durban II boycott, the decision was discussed privately as his most explicit betrayal of the civil rights struggle since taking office.

The original 2001 gathering was not all about Israelis v Palestinians, or antisemitism, as so many have claimed (though all certainly played a role). The conference was overwhelmingly about Africa, the ongoing legacy of slavery and the huge unpaid debts that the rich owe the poor.

Holding the 2001 World Conference against Racism in what was still being called "the New South Africa" had seemed a terrific idea. World leaders would gather to congratulate themselves on having slain the scourge of apartheid, then pledge to defeat the world's few remaining vestiges of discrimination – things such as police violence, unequal access to certain jobs, lack of adequate healthcare for minorities and intolerance towards immigrants. Appropriate disapproval would be expressed for such failures of equality, and a well-meaning document pledging change would be signed to much fanfare. That, at least, is what western governments expected to happen.


They were mistaken. When the conference arrived in Durban, many delegates were shocked by the angry mood in the streets: tens of thousands of South Africans joined protests outside the conference centre, holding signs that said "Landlessness = racism" and "New apartheid: rich and poor". Many denounced the conference as a sham, and demanded concrete reparations for the crimes of apartheid. South Africa's disillusionment, though particularly striking given its recent democratic victory, was part of a much broader global trend, one that would define the conference, in both the streets and the assembly halls. Around the world, developing countries were increasingly identifying the so-called Washington Consensus economic policies as little more than a clever rebranding effort, a way for former northern colonial powers to continue to drain the southern countries of their wealth without being inconvenienced by the heavy lifting of colonialism. Roughly two years before Durban, a coalition of developing countries had refused further to liberalise their economies, leading to the collapse of World Trade Organisation talks in Seattle. A few months later, a newly militant movement calling for a debt jubilee disrupted the annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Durban was a continuation of this mounting southern rebellion, but it added something else to the mix: an invoice for past thefts.

Although it was true that southern countries owed debts to foreign banks and lending institutions, it was also true that in the colonial period – the first wave of globalisation – the wealth of the north was built, in large part, on stolen indigenous land and free labour provided by the slave trade. Many in Durban argued that when these two debts were included in the calculus, it was actually the poorest regions of the world – especially Africa and the Caribbean – that turned out to be the creditors and the rich world that owed a debt. All big UN conferences tend to coalesce around a theme, and in Durban 2001 the clear theme was the call for reparations. The overriding message was that even though the most visible signs of racism had largely disappeared – colonial rule, apartheid, Jim Crow-style segregation – profound racial divides will persist and even widen until the states and corporations that profited from centuries of state-sanctioned racism pay back some of what they owe..."

Sometimes we just "can't see the forest for the trees". Especially when we live in the forest.


More here, and in September's Harper's Magazine.


*Pic courtesy of Michael Reynolds and the Guardian.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Does Hip Hop Mike Really Care?


Hip Hop Mike is a trip. Divide and conquer, that's his thing these days. Since when did Michael Steele care about the welfare of black governors, or black anything for that matter? I think I will answer that one: never!

Yet there is the report from The Hill that according to the NY Times, Hip Hop Mike is surprised and "stunned" that his O ness didn't want David Paterson to run again to be the governor of the great state of New York.

“I found that to be stunning, that the White House would send word to one of only two black governors in the country not to run for reelection,”

Yeah right, like you care. Since when did you become concerned about the fate of black folks? Oh, wait, I know; since it become politically expedient to do so. I think this is just Hip Hop Mike trying to manipulate the political dialogue in a negative way for the dems. Anything to score cheap political points huh Mike? This is taking it a step further than just the usual disputatious back and forth between political foes.

“It raises a curious point for me. I think Gov. Paterson’s numbers are about the same as Gov. Corzine’s. The president is with Gov. Corzine,” Steele said. The RNC chairman was referring to Gov. Jon Corzine, the Democratic New Jersey governor who is facing a tough reelection bid this year.

Hmmm, he might have a point there...but let me leave that one alone. Because honestly, I think I could make the case that Paterson is much worse at being governor that Corzine. Bad numbers or not.

If you can't make that case, well then O man we might have a problem.

I just wish that someone other than Hip Hop Mike had said it.





Friday, September 25, 2009

Funny, she doesn't look that "strange" to me.

*

I swear sisters get no love here in A-merry-ca. By now I am sure that everyone has heard the story of Mitrice Richardson. (Wait, she isn't blond haired or blue eyed, so maybe not.) Ms. Richardson was arrested by LA County's finest after allegedly not paying a restaurant their money for a nice meal in upscale Malibu. (Whatever happened to just washing dishes and working off your debt?)


So now, of course, all you black folks are focused on the police aspect of this case, and rightfully so. But what bothers me about this story is the behavior of the folks in the restaurant that night:

"The missing woman, who worked as an executive assistant and lived with her grandmother in Los Angeles, holds a degree from Cal State Fullerton and planned to go to graduate school to pursue a doctorate in psychology. On Wednesday, Sept. 17, she drove to an upscale restaurant in Malibu, 40 miles from her home, where staff said she was behaving oddly, at one point sitting down with a table of six and engaging them in conversation.

Jeff Peterson, the restaurant’s owner, said her erratic behavior was noticed by customers and employees. “There was something a little strange about her,” he told CNN. “She wasn’t
mentally ill, not ranting or raving. You couldn’t put your finger on it.”


When Richardson was presented with an $89 check, Peterson told police, she said she had no money and couldn’t pay. According to Sutton, her daughter called her great-grandmother, who offered to pay the bill over the phone, but the restaurant said they couldn’t do that. Instead, Peterson called the sheriff’s deputy out of concern for Richardson’s safety, he said."

"There was something a little strange about her"? Really? How about she might just have had a few drinks too many? And Mr. Peterson, you didn't call the po po out of concern for Ms. Richardson's safety, you called the po po because you wanted your damn $89!


Why couldn't you have waited for her great-grandmother to show up? If that was "missy", you would have made a nice comfortable bed for her in the back, called her great-grandmother, and made her some hot tea or "co co" while you and your staff waited for great-grandma to show up. Oh field, there you go with the racial angle. Well....

As for the cops leaving her out in the middle of nowhere; hey that's par for the course here in A-merry-ca, so that doesn't really surprise me. That kind of shit is not even worth blogging about anymore:

"Richardson’s parents say she should never have been released at that hour with no
transportation or money. Michael Richardson said deputies told him they were not running a baby-sitting service. He told Lauer he was also told that there was no room to keep her at the jail, but the father said he checked police records and discovered that there was only one other prisoner at the jail that day between 1:30 a.m. and that afternoon.


“It’s all inconsistencies,” Michael Richardson told Lauer. “I’ve talked to them several times.” He said he was first told that deputies told his daughter she could sleep in the lobby. Then, he said, he was told she was offered a bed in a cell. Then he says he was told about the alleged overcrowding."

"Overcrowding" in a Malibu jail? Yeah right, and Lark Voorhies is up in the Poconos this weekend preparing for a rendezvous with the field. Give me a break!

Anyway, to be continued. Let's see how this story plays itself out. In the meantime a family is missing a loved one, and unfortunately, it seems like it could have all been prevented.

Let's just hope that this story has a happy ending. In spite of all the efforts by the players involved to make it a sad one.


Story here:

Pic courtesy of The Daily Voice.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

"I'm Not a Racist....I'm a Democrat"?

*
With all due respect to Keli Goff who wrote an excellent article for The Loop about racism and our right wingnut friends, I don't want folks to ever get the impression that it (racism) is only limited to the right side of the ideological spectrum. The fact of the matter is that some of our ideological soul-mates can at times be guilty of racism as well.

A liberal democrat is just as capable of being a racist as a conservative wingnut. I suppose the difference is that the liberal doesn't really think he is a racist and doesn't want to be painted as such. The wingnut, on the other hand, embraces his racism, and indeed wears it like a badge of honor.

My man Greg Fuller sent me an interesting article from Melissa Harris-Lacewell, who wrote it for The Nation which I want to share with you. After you read it tell me what you think.
"For weeks the media have been covering "racism in health care reform opposition." For the most part I've found this political moment to be an interesting opportunity to discuss the meanings of race, the history of racial exclusion and violence, and the ongoing realities of racial inequality in America.

But I have also been a little baffled as to why so many liberal white Americans are shocked about the sometimes explicit, but far more often, simply implied racial bias that has infected some of the opposition to the Obama administration. My scholarship and teaching center on issues of race, blackness, and African American politics, and while I believe "racism" is interesting and important; it is not exactly breaking news. Clarence Page of the Chicago Tribune laughingly suggested that he was telling his white liberal friends who were aghast at the vitriol aimed at President Obama, "welcome to my world."

My surprise that "racism" has dominated the news cycle for so long turned to tangible anxiety when President Clinton appeared on Larry King Live. Former President Clinton made a compelling case for health care reform and when asked about the racial motivations of the opposition he said:

"I don't believe that all the people who oppose him [Obama] on health care -- and all the conservatives -- are racists. And I believe if he were white, every single person who opposes him now would be opposing him then."

I agree with Clinton that the opposition to President Obama's plan is about health care reform, not about race. Any Democratic president who introduced health care reform was going to be met with vicious, organized opposition. No one knows this better than the Clintons whose own health care reform efforts were effectively shut down by organized efforts on the Right.....

But the part of the interview that worries me comes next, when President Clinton said,
"While I have devoted my life to getting rid of racism, I think this [health care] is a fight that my president and our party -- this is one we need to win on the merits."
This statement required a double take. President Clinton said that he has devoted his life to getting rid of racism? And no one challenged this assertion?

President Clinton has a very checkered past involving racial innuendo, stereotypes, and racialized political strategies. When he first ran for President in 1992 Bill Clinton attacked hip-hop artist Sister Souljah during his speech to Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition. He likened her to former Klansman David Duke. After the 1984 and 1988 defeats of Democratic candidates, Clinton knew he needed to signal his independence from Jesse Jackson and the racially progressive wing of the Democratic Party. His unprovoked attack on Souljah was part of that active distancing. But, Clinton's strategy was complex. During that same election, he also appeared on the Arsenio Hall show where he played the Saxophone. Clinton has always been masterful at both embracing and pushing away from black communities, black voters, and black interests based on his own political needs at the moment. Some have accused President Obama of using similar tactics.

Clinton used welfare reform and crime legislation to cement his position as a moderate "new" Democrat. Clinton's policies made life substantially more difficult for poor black mothers and led to the incarceration of tens of thousands more black men. Repeatedly during his presidency Clinton found his way to the center by ignoring the material needs of black communities. He refused to fight for his nominee and law school friend Lani Guinier who was viciously and inaccurately labeled a "quota queen." And when his wife was battling Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination last year, President Clinton's own voice sounded shrill in precisely the same ways as some of Obama's current opponents.

Despite his office in Harlem and his efforts in Africa, I am unconvinced by President Clinton's assertion of a lifetime commitment to battling racism. "

Now what this author is asserting could be viewed as blasphemy in some left wing circles. I mean that is the "first black president" she is talking about. But is she wrong? And do you want to give her a "you go girl" for writing the following?

"The point is that some members of the GOP, the health care industry, and some people in the crowds are using strategies, language, and images that are meant to stoke racial fear and anxiety. Many have principled opposition to the reforms being proposed by the administration, but that opposition is swimming in a sea of racial ugliness.

But when I heard President Clinton's revision of his own political racial history it struck me that the biggest issue may not be uncovering racism on the Right, it may be that we are providing cover for racism on the Left. If opposing Obama means you are a racist, then supporting Obama must mean you are not a racist. No need to worry with substantive efforts to compensate historic injustices or address contemporary inequalities, just keep wearing your Obama '08 shirt and you can have a free pass on racial politics.

Racism is not the the sole domain of Republicans, Conservatives or Southerners. Not all racists pepper their conversation with the N-word or secretly desire the extermination of black and brown people. Racism is complex, multi-layered, and deeply rooted in the American story. Name calling is not helpful in uprooting racism, but neither is a false sense of moral superiority. "


I know that I do.




*Pic courtesy of The Nation.


Wednesday, September 23, 2009

A hanging and a fake pimp.

*

Oh lawd dem black helicopter folks done lost their natural minds.Please tell me that they didn't hang a man in Kentucky and write "fed"on his chest. And, to top it off, the man is a census worker. Oh lawd!

Oh field, calm down. All the details are not even out yet, the man may have hung himself for all we know. The FBI is investigating so I am sure that they will get to the bottom of it. You can't blame right wing talk radio or wingnuts for this one.



Maybe so, but the man was a census worker, and the word 'fed" was marked on his chest. What if it's some angry hillbillies and they just don't like the fact that in the not too distant future, according to the very same census folks, they are going to be a minority in this country? What in just the sight of a census worker set them off?

Yeah field, and what if the man was just having marital problems, and couldn't take it any more? The man could have written "fed" on his own chest and then hung himself. Ever thought of that field Negro?

Yeah I thought of it. But I keep thinking of a lot of other things,too. Which says as much about the state of our country as it does my warped twisted mind.


Story here:

Speaking of the black helicopter crowd. I see fatso (AKA Andrew Brietbart) is promoting the guy being touted as the conservatives version of Michael Moore, James O'Keefe on his site.

Mr. O'Keefe and his film crew has garnered notoriety for exposing some dumb ass workers in the ACORN offices in different parts of the country.

What you are not hearing from the right, is that this clown and his side- kick were kicked out of ACORN offices here in Philly and some other places as well. See, it's like this, here in Philly we know a fake ass pimp when we see one.

Pic courtesy of HuffPost.



Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Passing on the Taliban.


When the frat boy was in power I was so much angrier. I was always fighting with my ideological enemies because with the war raging in Iraq and American deaths mounting every day, the stakes were so much higher.

Now here we are in the age of Obama and I have mellowed. But that could change. What will change it is if his O ness makes the same mistake the president before him did and try to nation build again in the name of fighting the "war on terror".



First, I agree that right after 911 if we were going to go anywhere it should have been to Afghanistan and not Iraq. It is where Osama bin Laden (OBL) launched his terror network and where he found a safe haven while the Taliban was in control. But in my humble opinion, OBL is probably now on his sixth or seventh virgin and will never be heard from again. The frat boy missed his chance to display his head on the evening news and the guy probably died in his sleep.

Now what we have in Afghanistan is a mess of a problem. And unfortunately his O ness won't get around to it until health care passes.- Or doesn't pass depending on the politricksters in Washington and how they are reading the polls- Instead of committing our troops there when the man we wanted was still alive, the frat boy was giving billions of dollars to the Pakistani,dictator, Musharraf. (Who should be right up there with Valerio Viccei as one of the greatest thieves of all time.) All those billions to fight terror and helps us catch OBL and he was building his military to fight my cricket loving friends in India the whole time. Nice.


Can't say I really blame him, though. Who wants to fight the Afghans? Here in A-merry-ca baseball is our national past time. In Afghanistan it's fighting wars. Just ask the Russians how that little campaign over there worked out for them. Those cats over there have been fighting wars for centuries, it's all they know, so why we would try to nation build in a country like that is beyond me. Talk about getting medieval, they are medieval.


Let's throw in the fact that we are supporting a guy that was probably not even fairly elected and we have a real hypocrisy problem on our hands. But field, if we don't support Hamid Karzai who else are we going to support ? the Taliban? How about none of the above?

The death toll is starting to mount in Afghanistan, and American generals are asking for either more troops or a total withdrawal. The wingnuts and chicken hawks are still saying that we can't "cut and run", that we will look like cowards to the rest of the world. I disagree. American could nuke that entire region with just just a head nod from the chosen one. No one questions our military might. And only a fool would. But the Afghan fighters and Taliban are digging in, and they have been down this road before. Of course, we have too, and it took us years and thousands of lives to get out of places like Vietnam and Iraq. In the case of Iraq, we are still there. Nation building and fighting a war are two entirely different things. We should be nation building our own damn country and fighting the urban terrorist there before we go half way around the world to a bunch of religious fanatics. (Hell we have enough fanatics here that we should be worried about. One of them is on the radio every damn day screaming about the government plot to take over our lives.)

Let's just hope that his O ness sticks to his original script, or even better, scrap the script and get his troops the hell out of there. What we can't have happen is him following the wingnuts and the crowd calling for more troops. We have seen that script before, too, and unfortunately we all know what the final chapter will look like.




Monday, September 21, 2009

"Fashion police."


I don't ever want to hear that the field Negro doesn't advocate for white folks from time to time. Because it's just not true. Unlike some other folks, I will always speak out against injustice no matter where I see it, or who it happens to hurt.

Take, for instance, the case of Thomas Strain. Poor Thomas is a police officer in the-predominantly black- 35th District here in Philly. He is a five year veteran and from all indication is a fine police officer.
Unfortunately for Thomas, he was recently ordered off the street and assigned to desk duty. Why? Did Thomas have a questionable shoot? No. Did Thomas violate some perp's civil rights? No. Is Thomas an unreliable partner? No. Thomas wore cornrows to work. Oh, did I mention that Thomas is white? Yes, that's not some light skinned brother in the pic, that's a white man.


"They pulled him out of roll call and took him right up to the inspector's office," said an officer who asked to remain anonymous." That's a shame, Philly's finest can't even do their job without having to worry about the fashion police -literally speaking-.

"Oh field, stop it, rules are rules. What is Thomas doing wearing cornrows? What rules? There are no rules against wearing corn rows, Thomas just has to have a neat hear cut that can fit comfortably under his hat. Wait, let me give you another quote from Dana DiFilippo's article:
"Police policy requires officers to have "clean, properly trimmed and combed hair" that doesn't prevent them from wearing their uniform hat "in a military-manner," Vanore said.
The policy prohibits "unnatural" hair colors such as blue, purple or green but doesn't ban specific styles, such as cornrows, mohawks, dreadlocks or bouffants."

So what's the problem Lt. Vanore? I am looking at that pic of old Thomas and his hair looks pretty neat to me. And now look what you caused, dissension in the ranks. Now, of course, Strain's white colleagues are crying reverse discrimination. "It's absolutely discriminatory," said one officer. Strain's cornrows 'do "was neat. It was above his collar. It's not like he shaved a Nazi sign or something anti-black or anti-Hispanic on his head. It's just cornrows. I don't know what the problem is." I hear you officer. It's a disgrace! A white man can't even get his Allen Iverson on? Come on, how soon do we forget? Does the name Bo Derek mean anything to anyone?

Poor officer Strain, I sure hope they put him back on the street where he belongs. It certainly seems like he is a good cop.

".. friends describe him as a hardworking cop who hails from a family of police officers and who adores police work. The former Marine served in Iraq, where he twice survived explosions when his Hummer hit roadside bombs in 2006, co-workers said. 'He's a guy that, when things go bad, you want him there,' one officer said."

Yep, especially if they go bad in one of the neighborhood braid shops.






Sunday, September 20, 2009

Some not so pretty words from the "pretty boy".

*
Now that "pretty boy Floyd has disposed of yet another opponent , ( I can't wait to see the Mayweather Pacquiao fight. The two of them should wear masks when they go into the ring, because they will be making a killing.) and is still considered pound for pound the best boxer on the planet, I think it's a good time to revisit something he said before the fight:


"If you're rich, you're a rich n-----," he told ESPN. "If you're poor, you're a poor n----. If you're smart, you're a smart n-----. At the end of the day, they still look at me as a n-----.""This country needs to be more positive," Mayweather continued about the United States.

"We're in a recession, we're at war and we continue to be negative. The fans in the UK showed me more love than in my own country. That's crazy. ... Sometimes I'll sit back, I'll be in my theater sometimes, and I'll think, 'Imagine if I was the same fighter that I am, and I was the same person that I am, and I was from another country. Can you just imagine how big I'd be?' "But I wouldn't change my life for nothing in the world. There's nothing like being young, black and rich. But there are certain things you think about. If Floyd Mayweather was white, I'd be the biggest athlete in America. The biggest, the biggest. I know that for a fact."Mayweather continued, saying that the media never says anything negative about Oscar de la Hoya, and if there is something negative, it gets swept under the rug. Plus, he called out HBO boxing analysts Larry Merchant, saying he knows nothing about boxing, and Emanuel Steward, calling him an Uncle Tom. ''


Now now Floyd, it's not nice calling other black folks names....

I swear you Negroes are so ungrateful. A-merry-ca gives you riches you could never dream of in any other country, and still you bitch and moan. Of course if you were white you would get more love. Duh! This is a white country. White folks can't relate to you. You are young; black; rich; and arrogant. Why should they?

And the only reason you have the nerve to say that the white man plays down De La Hoya's troubles is because you are jealous of him. When did the golden boy ever get in any trouble? OK there was that one time. But De La Hoya isn't even white. At least I don't think he is. I think he is Mexican. Although I hear the Mexicans don't like him too much. I think it's because they think he thinks he is white. Floyd, instead of ripping De La Hoya, maybe you should be taking a page out of his book. I bet you would get more love here in A-merry-ca.

"Sometimes I sit back, I'll be in my theater sometimes..." See, that's what the white man is talking about; you have a theater in your house, and the rest of us are still watching the wall mounted plasma. So instead of wondering why they look at you as "just another nigger", kick back in your home theater, break out some popcorn, and slip in that last Ricky Hatton fight. It looks like you took out some of your frustrations on him. I guess it's just too bad for you that he wasn't an American.
*Pic courtesy of Laura Rauch of the AP.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

The NPA.


A couple of comments which followed my last post are actually the inspiration for my post tonight. The first one was from Monie, and she said the following:

"On the Black Republicans; I wonder why they haven't broken away from the GOP along with other minorities and formed their own Party?Such a Party might not win anything on a National level but they could do well locally in certain parts of the country."

I actually thought about that for a minute and what would be the real consequences of such actions. (A black political party.)

First, assuming you could get black folks to pull it off, (because we all know that black folks can't come together for shit) we would need a name. So for the rest of this post I will refer to it as the Negro Party Of America. (NPA) Sorry, we have to use Negro instead of black, because black is still too...well, threatening.

The NPA,as Monie said, could not win anything on a national level. Even if we had a very good candidate like Barack. The numbers just aren't in our favor. But let's be honest, black folks don't have a voice in Washington, now. None of the major political parties are speaking to issues that affect us, so what difference would it make? None.

We would probably still have the same amount of representation because the blacks who are going to Washington- with a few exceptions- are going from predominantly black districts. And as for local governments, I am pretty sure that wouldn't change much, either. With all due respect to my man Deval Patrick and little Stevie up in New York, you can count the number of black elected officials to statewide offices on one hand. Black Senators? Forget about it, Barack was a fluke, and if it wasn't for Blago playing political cat and mouse, we wouldn't have old Roland.

Our biggest obstacle, of course, would be raising money. You black folks don't like to spend your money on shit you can't wear or drive. But maybe we could shake down some corporations like Rev. Inc. and raise money that way. "Hi is this Mr. CEO from KFC?" Yes hi, this is field Negro from the NPA. I was wondering; our convention is in Cleveland this year and we were looking for some sponsors, do you think you could kick in say a million five? Thanks I knew I could count on you." Once we have the money we could mobilize folks like these to get out the vote and keep certain people away from the polls.

A party platform might be a problem as well. Think of all those republican Negroes who are now in the NPA. How would we accommodate them? Honestly, I am thinking that they are such a small group that their input probably wouldn't even matter. Still, for the sake of unity, I would throw them a bone. (See field, if a white man had said "throw them a bone" you would have said it was racist) Poor choice of words. I would consider their suggestions.

And then there were these comments from an anonymous poster:

"While we talk and fight endlessly about race, people have seemingly forgotten that America doesn't have nay jobs anymore. The manufacturing centers of this country are dead or dying and I don't hear any black liberals talking about that-even though manufacturing s death has hit blacks in a major way. Nor do I hear anything about class issues or issues of sexism being addressed either. Even though both of those issues are tearing the community apart from the inside out, few have the courage to address them."

Well let's address that right now: One of the reasons that the manufacturing centers of this country are "dead" is because of race and racism. In case you haven't noticed, major corporations and businesses have left places like Detroit, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Cleveland, and one of the major reasons is a lack of a proper educational base in these areas due to failing school systems. Why are school systems failing? No money. No tax base. Why is there no tax base? White and middle class flight. Why are the middle class fleeing the cities? Crime and poverty. Why is there crime and poverty? No jobs. If this entire argument seems circular to you it's because it is. But you have to ask yourself, why are these people in these areas being marginalized? Why isn't legislation being passed in the halls of power to address issues such as gun violence, crime, and education? You see anonymous poster, it's all kind of connected when you think about it.

If we get the NPA we will address all of these issues in our party platform: Sexism, racism, and classism. The dumbocratic party will suffer but what have they done for us lately? They are too busy playing along with the rethugs to care anymore, and I think on that note all black folks can agree.





Friday, September 18, 2009

Eating with the enemy.


So I am having dinner with this so called black conservative this evening and he is doing his best to convince me that the republican party and the right is best for black folks in A-merry-ca. Of course, I was not having it. What followed was a lively discussion about politics,race, and the problems of urban A-merry-ca. Like certain people who frequent this blog he thinks that the dems have tried and failed the inner cities. And while I agree with that to an extent (ultimately, it won't be dems or repubs who save us, we will have to save ourselves) there is nothing that he told me that made me believe that right wing or republican rule would be better for black folks in A-merry-ca.

Besides, I just don't want to be under the same tent with those people. Sorry, there is just too much bad blood between us at this point. I will take republicans on a one on one basis like I did with my man tonight, but there is no way in hell that I will co-sign with them as a group.

One thing about us black folks; our gut feelings are always true to us, and I bet every one of you -black folks-reading this get that gut feeling when you are around folks on the right. You know the one. The one that says that this person is not comfortable in this space. It's why I wonder how black conservatives survive in that environment. Don't they get the gut check? Or do they get it and ignore it? I was going to ask my man but he was getting the check, so I wanted to be nice.

He ended his pitch by telling me that he was going to make a conservative out of me yet. And I politely told him that if they were the last group of people on earth I would be living like Will Smith in "I Am Legend" until I go to join that big Saved By the Bell rerun in the sky. Still, I thought about what my man said; but then, unfortunately for him, I came home and read something from the Southern Poverty Law Center site:

These are just a sampling of quotes from some of our right wing friends.

"[T]he Talmud is full of moral filth. … [Evangelical leaders are] carefully concealing the Jewish identity of those who corrupt Christian culture."— Rev. TED PIKE, director of the National Prayer Network, in a June 21 essay that attacks Jews, the Jewish holy book, and alleged Jewish dominance of pornography, Hollywood and the media


"[L]et them fast until they starve to death… . Go make a bomb where you came from."— Host MICHAEL SAVAGE, on the July 5 edition of his Talk Radio Network show, on "illegal alien" students on hunger strike to back a bill allowing some immigrants to become citizens


"This is a dry run against free speech in America by the Islamists and the illegal aliens. … Lady Liberty … is being raped by the illegal aliens."—Host MICHAEL SAVAGE, on the Aug. 14 edition of his show, attacking a resolution by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, which finally passed unanimously on Oct. 2, that condemned his July 5 comments as "hate speech" that is "defamatory … against immigrants"

"Muslims don't eat during the day during Ramadan. They fast during the day and eat at night. Sort of like cockroaches."— Host NEAL BOORTZ, on the Aug. 14 edition of Cox Radio Syndication's "The Neal Boortz Show," discussing dietary restrictions during Islamic holy days.

"[T]he NAACP …. [i]s a sad joke that should be shut down."— MSNBC host TUCKER CARLSON, on the Aug. 24 edition of "Tucker," attacking the anti-racist organization as "a faithful arm" of the Democratic Party


"Barney Frank … had a fellow running basically a full-service whorehouse in his basement."— MSNBC commentator PAT BUCHANAN, on the Aug. 29 edition of "MSNBC Live With Dan Abrams," repeating allegations about the openly gay Democratic congressman from Massachusetts that were specifically disproved in a 1989 House Ethics Committee investigation.


"Would I exclude foreign Muslims from settlement in the U.S.A.? Yes, I would."— National Review Online columnist JOHN DERBYSHIRE in a Sept. 20 column.


"They wanna fight the white devil. … Black devils stalking their streets every night … can't go fight that. That would be snitching."— Fox News Radio host JOHN GIBSON, on the Sept. 21 edition of his show, criticizing black anti-racism protesters in Jena, La.


"Media Matters is a gay, fascist website. … They're utter vermin."— Host MICHAEL SAVAGE, on the Sept. 26 edition of Talk Radio Network's "Savage Nation," discussing a website that publishes transcripts of his controversial remarks quotes on this page were compiled from media accounts, web pages, e-mail groups and media matters for america, a website that monitors the far right." (Link here)

Yep, I think I will be sticking this progressive thing out.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Who is W. Cleon Skousen?


I am really pissed tonight so I am going to probably do a cut and paste job. If I do one of my regular posts I am going to curse too much. I am really trying to cut back on my cursing. Not because of the main stream folks who told me that they would publish and link more of my work if I didn't curse so much. (Fuck them) But because as my blog gets more popular, some of Mrs. Field's acquaintances and co-workers are starting to read it, and she says it embarrasses her when I curse. So there you have it.

Anyway, thanks to Danmell Ndonye, a young woman who cried rape where there was none; (I wonder if all the folks who were defending the Duke boys came to these boys defense up in New York? *crickets*) Rush Limp-boy who wants segregated school buses; (As if we don't have that shit now.) and Joe Wilson's dumb ass son, who doesn't think his daddy is a racist because he doesn't laugh at all those racial["distasteful"] jokes. (Maybe he just doesn't think those racial jokes are funny. Maybe he knows much better racial jokes. I mean who gives a f..-see, there I go again- who cares if he doesn't laugh at some jokes? Since when is how you laugh at a joke a measuring stick for racism? Give me a break! ) I find myself wanting to count to ten every time I start writing.

See why I can't blog tonight? Just one paragraph and my head is already about to explode with all the dumb shit going on in A-merry-ca.

Since I can't write anymore without going all Fred Sanford and getting the "big one", here is an excellent article from Salon.com about one of the people who started silly season here in A-merry-ca:

"By Alexander Zaitchik
Sep. 16, 2009

On Saturday, I spent the afternoon with America's new breed of angry conservative. Up to 75,000 protesters had gathered in Washington on Sept. 12, the day after the eighth anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks, sporting the now familiar tea-bagger accoutrements of "Don't Tread on Me" T-shirts, Revolutionary War outfits and Obama-the-Joker placards. The male-skewing, nearly all-white throng had come to denounce the president and what they believe is his communist-fascist agenda.

Even if the turnout wasn't the 2 million that some conservatives tried, briefly, to claim, it was still enough to fill the streets near the Capitol. It was also ample testament to the strength of a certain strain of right-wing populist rage and the talking head who has harnessed it. The masses were summoned by Glenn Beck, Fox News host and organizer of the 912 Project, the civic initiative he pulled together six months ago to restore America to the sense of purpose and unity it had felt the day after the towers fell.

In reality, however, the so-called 912ers were summoned to D.C. by the man who changed Beck's life, and that helps explain why the movement is not the nonpartisan lovefest that Beck first sold on air with his trademark tears. Beck has created a massive meet-up for the disaffected, paranoid Palin-ite "death panel" wing of the GOP, those ideologues most susceptible to conspiracy theories and prone to latch on to eccentric distortions of fact in the name of opposing "socialism." In that, they are true disciples of the late W. Cleon Skousen, Beck's favorite writer and the author of the bible of the 9/12 movement, "The 5,000 Year Leap." A once-famous anti-communist "historian," Skousen was too extreme even for the conservative activists of the Goldwater era, but Glenn Beck has now rescued him from the remainder pile of history, and introduced him to a receptive new audience.

Anyone who has followed Beck will recognize the book's title. Beck has been furiously promoting "The 5,000 Year Leap" for the past year, a push that peaked in March when he launched the 912 Project. That month, a new edition of "The 5,000 Year Leap," complete with a laudatory new foreword by none other than Glenn Beck, came out of nowhere to hit No. 1 on Amazon. It remained in the top 15 all summer, holding the No. 1 spot in the government category for months. The book tops Beck's 912 Project "required reading" list, and is routinely sold at 912 Project meetings where guest speakers often use it as their primary source material. At one 912 meet-up I attended in Florida, copies were stacked high on a table against the back wall, available for the 912 nice price of $15. "Don't bother trying to get it at the library," one 912er told me. "The wait list is 40 deep."
What has Beck been pushing on his legions? "Leap," first published in 1981, is a heavily illustrated and factually challenged attempt to explain American history through an unspoken lens of Mormon theology. As such, it is an early entry in the ongoing attempt by the religious right to rewrite history. Fundamentalists want to define the United States as a Christian nation rather than a secular republic, and recasting the Founding Fathers as devout Christians guided by the Bible rather than deists inspired by the French and English philosophers. "Leap" argues that the U.S. Constitution is a godly document above all else, based on natural law, and owes more to the Old and New Testaments than to the secular and radical spirit of the Enlightenment. It lists 28 fundamental beliefs -- based on the sayings and writings of Moses, Jesus, Cicero, John Locke, Montesquieu and Adam Smith -- that Skousen says have resulted in more God-directed progress than was achieved in the previous 5,000 years of every other civilization combined.."



Big H/T to Greg Fuller for turning me on to this article.


Wednesday, September 16, 2009

One Southern white man and the R word.


An avid reader of this blog who happens to be white, sent me that pic of the chosen one via e-mail. (I won't say her name because she asked me not to.) Her husband saw it in the window of a gun shop in rural Wisconsin and took a picture of it. Now I know that it's going around in conservative and wingnut circles, but for the most part they have just tried to make it their own little secret. Which is why I was surprised to learn that it was actually in a window of a business establishment.

Still, I am not going to make a big deal about it. If his O ness doesn't think that the actions of any of his political enemies is motivated by race, who is some race chasing field Negro to jump into the fray? His O ness is on his own with this one. It's his "post racial A-merry-ca". After they are done talking about his daddy and posting vile images of his wife, he can hold hands with them and sing kumbaya until his heart's content.
So what we have is a current president running away from the issue of race (too uncomfortable, and not smart politically) and a former one staring it down. If there is a more hated white man in A-merry-ca today than Jimmy Carter I would like to meet him.

The thing about my man racism is that he doesn't like to be spotted by white folks. (Especially former presidents.) Oh it's cool to mess with the field Negroes of the world and dare us to chase him, because folks don't really take us seriously. (Oh that's just field being field, he is always chasing the big R.) Jimmy Carter crying racism really upset the order of things. Here in A-merry-ca we like our racism to be kept hidden away. The crazy uncle in the attic who we only let out when our guests are gone. Thing is, Carter, at 85 years old, doesn't really care anymore. He is more than willing to open the attic door and let uncle R out.

Carter has been involved with Southern politics since the sixties, so I think he has heard the N word a time or two. If Bo knows football, Jimmy knows racism. The poor guy probably just got tired of playing the game. Peel the scab off and let the chips fall where they may. Yeah but field, did he have to label everyone who disagrees with Obama a racist? He didn't. Let's look at what he said again:"I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he's African American,.." "An overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity.." A portion of a group is not everyone. I think my republican friends are being a bit sensitive.

But enough about Jimmy Carter. We always knew he had a little field in him, so I am not surprised at what he said. I am not surprised about what the White House said ,either. When it comes to some people, his O ness can be pretty consistent. When it comes to other people, on the other hand, not so much.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

I am shaking in my boots.


"If you go there with the race card we will destroy you"

That was Andrew Brietbart, Matt Drudge's right hand man, drawing a line in the sand in A-merry-ca's ideology war.

Andrew, I have a news flash for you: The only thing that you should be trying to destroy is that gut of yours. You are a little piece of shit with zero credibility. So enjoy your 15 minutes with these Acorn stories. (BTW,I hope the authorities in Maryland prosecute your minions to the fullest extent of the law. Taping an individual in that state without their permission is a crime)

But let me stop, I am starting to succumb to all the incivility and racial tension in the age of Obama. Let's see now; black mother -and a soldier no less- beaten in front of her daughter by racist white man. ( Black people, stay away from Cracker Barrel Restaurants. It's called C-R-A-C-K-E-R Barrel!) White student beaten on a bus by black kids while some of them cheered. (Rosa is turning in her grave. She didn't refuse to give up her seat on the bus for this. ) Of course Drudge led with that story today. Matt and his boy Andrew, who say that no one should be playing the "race card", sure don't seem to be practicing what they preach.

So where is the love here in A-merry-ca? I guess there is nothing like a little recession to bring out people's true colors. (Pun intended) Sometimes, of course, the shit is more subtle ,no recession or black president is usually needed when that's the case. It's just that having Obama kind of gets some people fired up. No racism? The leader of the Tea Bagger movement called the president an "Indonesian Muslim turned welfare thug" on national television. Sorry Andrew, I think I might have to drop a race card for that one. I mean if this is the leader of the tea bag movement, just what the hell do the people that are following him think?

Anyway, throw in Kanye, Joe, and Serena, and I am sure that we can all see where this is heading.


Andrew, you should be heading to the gym.






Monday, September 14, 2009

Liars!


See that picture to your left? That was supposed to be the rope and pitchfork crowd in Washington on Saturday. Pretty impressive, huh? Except there is one little problem: The picture is a fake. Yep, just like the phony ass tea bag movement that the perpetrators who descended on Washington claimed to represent. A bunch of frauds, just like the pictures they were circulating that's supposed to represent the crowds they had. I say were because the jig is up.

According to ABC News, the D.C. fire department (they should know) reported that there was between 60,000 to 70,000 people in Washington on Saturday, protesting Obama's health care plan. The organizers of the protest, on the other hand, claims that there were over a million people. In fact, to be more specific; they claim that ABC News said that there were over a million people. Not. It turns out that Matt Kibble, one of the protest organizers, is a liar. -Where is Joe Wilson when you need him?-People like this and my man Matt, should really lay off my country's national plant.

Look, I know how important numbers are to these movements. I was at the Million Man March, and the folks who organized that march made a big deal about the park services under reporting the numbers. This happens every time there is a planned protest in Washington. For obvious reasons organizers always want to inflate their numbers. But photoshop? Come on wingnuts, I know you all are desperate, but this latest ploy is a bit lame.

Finally, I can't finish blogging tonight without talking about my boy, Kanye.

What he did was crass boorish and discourteous, and most of you reading this would not have done what he did. (Myself included.) But isn't it nice to know that there is someone out there who will? Hey, I am just glad that we have at least one crazy Negro running around who will shake up the status quo. The fact that he has fuck you money makes it even sweeter.

Besides, who didn't know that MTV doesn't care about black people?



Sunday, September 13, 2009

Temper temper.


Field, why are you black people so angry? Even when you make millions of dollars and have a career other people would die for, you still can't control your anger.

I wasn't going to blog about Serena's outburst last night during her match with Kim Clijsters, because most people, unlike me, really don't care much about tennis.

But what happened last night was pretty unbelievable. Imagine playing a pivotal match in the semi finals of a grand slam, being the victim of a bogus call, and then losing the match due to your misconduct. (Misconduct, in this case, means telling they line judge that you are going to introduce her to your tennis racket. "Dropping the f-word liberally, Williams said, "I swear to God I'm [expletive] going to take this [expletive] ball and shove it down your [expletive] throat, you hear that? I swear to God.")

What you have to understand about tennis is that a foot fault at this level is rare, and when a line judge calls it they better have pretty damn good evidence that the players foot is touching the service line before the ball leaves their hand. That call last night was a bad one. William's foot did not touch the line. So I don't blame her for being pissed.

Still, as with my man, the football player from Oregon, she should have kept her cool. I know she was having flash backs of her youth in Compton and being shaded in the neighborhood grocery store (think about it) but going South Central on that line-judge only gave casual tennis fans reason to buy into stereotypes.

See, it's like this: John McEnroe can do that kind of stuff and it's considered cute. It's just his competitive nature taking over, just John being John. When someone who looks like Serena does that kind of thing, it takes on an entire different meaning. A-merry-ca is not cool with you Negroes getting angry. If Joe Wilson was a black man and George Bush was giving that speech the other night, he would have been taken out of there in handcuffs. (But I am a U.S. Congressman, take your hands off me. Put your hands behind your back, nigger....let me stop.)

But I saw this coming. I knew the Williams sisters were feeling a little disappointed leading up to Serena's match. I saw how Venus got no love against Clijsters in their match. This is A-merry-ca, right? And Venus was the A-merry-can and Clijsters is from Belgium, right? And they were playing in New York, right? Well how come no love for the A-merry-can? Clijsters was the crowd favorite in both matches. Interesting.

But I am not going to dwell on the dissing of the Williams girls. With all due respect to my man Common, I hear they are a bit housish. (My word.)

So go back to work Serena and try to get Clijsters the next time you hook up. The girl has some serious game, and she is going to be around for awhile. If you want to catch Billie Jean's 12 grand slam singles titles you are going to have to get past her, not to mention the A-merry-can crowd.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

"Without A Trace".


So the Million Middle Aged White People March went off today in D.C. without a hitch. (At least, as of this point in time, I haven't heard of any problems.) Blacks weren't storming out of their homes in the "chocolate city" to tell the "crackers" to go home, and the protesters didn't storm the White House lawn and demand to have the chosen one's head on a platter. I saw a few pictures of the protest and there was not a pitchfork in sight. Some of my Afrospear friends have blogged about it, but I am going to leave it alone. They got 50,000 people to march on Washington, big deal. His O ness packed 17,000 in the Target Center on much shorter notice.

But enough about politics for now. I want to blog about a story out of New Haven Connecticut that I have been keeping an eye on for the past couple of days. I am sure you have all heard about it by now: graduate student (And not any ordinary graduate student. A graduate student at Yale no less) goes missing just days before her wedding. She goes into a building on campus and never seems to come out. She is attractive, she is Asian, and her boyfriend is white. (Asian women are the flavor of the month for white guys.) Yale University has offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to her whereabouts.

Now I am wondering, is this another case of a "Runaway Bride"? Is she the unfortunate victim of a street crime?Or should we suspect her fiance of doing something nefarious? I mean this is like a script from a crime series on television.

I actually turned from college football today to watch the police press conference. And honestly, the way those folks were acting led me to believe that they know something that they aren't reporting. Field, aren't you doing what you always accuse the main stream media of doing? If this was some poor Africans American female student from an HBCU would you even be blogging about it. No, I would have a "Lakeesha Alert" up on my sidebar about it, but an entire blog post? Maybe not. So guilty as charged.

Still, I don't think this is your typical girl goes missing story. The girl was to be married tomorrow, and when you consider that a video camera caught her going into a building on campus and there is nothing of her coming out, it just makes it all the more intriguing.

I need you field hands to play detective with me. Any ideas or suggestions of where she might be? Come on, help me out here, there might be $10,000 in it for you.



Friday, September 11, 2009

Don't forget your ropes: Just in case the nig...president comes out.


I wanted to blog about 09-11-01 today and the horrors that we always associate with that day, but I can't. I just don't have the stomach for it. Besides, what else can be said that has not already been discussed dissected and pondered by all of us?

Tonight, instead, I want to blog about a few people in A-merry-ca who are carrying us down a road that will ultimately lead us to a place in this country where what happened on 9-11-01 will pale in comparison.


Tomorrow, those people are planning a march on Washington. They are a part of Glenn Beck's 09-12 movement (his name not mine) and an assortment of conservatives-including the"tea baggers"- and self described angry citizens who want to take back A-merry-ca. (I sure hope they storm the BET studios, they would be doing us all a favor.)"The Million Mob March" as some are calling it will be a loud call to the black man inside the people's house to give us our country back, and to take his black ass back to Chicago with his militant A-merry-ca hating wife. Joe Wilson calling him out days before the big march was right on time.

It should be interesting. If only people on the left had such passion. I wonder if there will be counter protesters? I swear, there is nothing like a black man in the people's house to fire up the masses and get them organized. They are calling it an "uprising". A "conservative counter revolution". I wonder when our revolution against the conservative revolution is going to start? Or do we even need a revolution because our boy is in the White House? I think we need a revolution because our boy isn't even really our boy. He is still trying to be president for all A-merry-cans, including the people who are revolting against him. Man this revolution shit sure is confusing.

But I will give the conservative revolutionaries credit. Lately they have have stepped up their attacks. They scalped Van Jones, and went under- cover to expose the ACORN folks. The three pronged attack of Drudge, Beck, and Brietbart have been working overtime. (BTW, unlike Keith Olbermann, who made the call and then backed away from it. Let me say this right here and now for the record: If anyone has any dirt on any of these guys, please shoot the field an e-mail. I will be glad to blog about it. I am not a journalist, so please don't expect me to care of it's accurate or not.)


And finally, a little PSA from the field [taken from a wingnut web site] for those of you who will be marching to take back A-merry-ca tomorrow:


"The day is expected to be HOT (82), HUMID (66%) and BRIGHT (UV index 7) Bring SMALL plant spray bottles with water to cool off DO NOT BRING WATER PISTOLS OR ANYTHING LIKE IT (remember where you are) Bring extra water Wear loose clothes and a hat or have something to cover your head from the sun (I have [...] "

Yes you always have to be careful of the sun. You don't want to end up looking like the guy who is in your house.





Thursday, September 10, 2009

Niggers always lie.

*
I know that there are copy cats for everything these days. But there is no truth to the rumor that Joe Wilson would have thrown his *shoes at the O man if he didn't have holes in his socks.

No, but seriously, I have been trying to tell you Negroes in A-merry-ca and you progressive whites that there is a very large segment of the A-merry-can population that will not even acknowledge his O ness as their president. They just can't bring themselves to do it. Obama could give everyone of their households a brand new home, promise them that they wouldn't pay taxes for life, and give free college tuition to everyone of their kids, and they still wouldn't acknowledge his black behind.


Joe Wilson, like most in the republican party, is one of those people. And just like the shoe thrower in Iraq, last night he just couldn't take it anymore, he finally gave in to his passions. To many in A-merry-ca, Joe Wilson is a hero today, because he did what many of them wish they could have done. What he did last night will guarantee him celebrity and riches that he could not have imagined before. (See Sarah Palin) All because he gave a big fuck you to his O ness. Oh, he didn't quite say those words, but given the time and place that he said what he did, he might as well have. Joe Wilson also has a dirty little secret. (Well, maybe it's not so much of a secret, it's probably why he got elected in the first place.) At least it used to be a secret until last night.


"Looking into the background of Rep. Joe Wilson, R-South Carolina, after his heckling of President Obama last night, I came across this:Joe also has been a member of the Columbia World Affairs Council, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Sinclair Lodge 154, Jamil Temple, Woodmen of the World, Sons of Confederate Veterans, ....This is an organization that, as the SPLC has detailed assiduously, has been taken over in the past decade by radical neo-Confederates who favor secession and defend slavery as a benign institution. Leading the takeover is a radical racist named Kirk Lyons, who's been an important legal figure on the far right for some years.." [Thank you Crooks & Liars]


But it all makes sense: The "birthers", the vitriol, and the relentless unyielding attacks from the likes of glenn beck [No caps for his name] who will not stop until this president ends up under the wonderful manicured lawns of Arlington.


I will leave you with a little anecdote as told by Michael Smerconish: Michael Smerconish is a popular conservative talk show host who runs a nationally syndicated radio show out of Philadelphia. And rather than trying to give you all the details, I wil just let you go to this link and read it for yourself.

Folks, this is not an isolated incident, and if you think it is, well then I have some beautiful oceanfront property in Kansas to sell you. These are interesting times here in A-merry-ca. There is a war going on between those who think that they are losing their country and others who want to make the country better. Most people have already taken sides, and the ones who are trying to decide which side to go with are probably sizing up the different camps as I write this.


So in closing, I will leave you with this: For those of you who are still making up your minds, let me say right here and now that I don't bite. And neither do the rest of the people here in A-merry-ca who look like I do.
*Pic by ArtMaggot

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Tough talk?


Let me go ahead and give my thoughts about the O man's health insurance reform speech.

I caught most of it tonight in between watching the U.S.A T&T soccer match on the Spanish channel.

First, how ignorant and disrespectful are republicans? If anyone saw a democratic congressman texting during one of the frat boy's speeches or saw anyone in the opposition yelling "liar" in the middle of a previous presidential address, please provide a link. I don't think one will be forthcoming, but I could be wrong. I did see Eric Cantor texting someone during the O man's speech-must have been calling his hair dresser for more hair spray-, and yep, there was a republican yelling "liar" in the middle of the speech. What a classy bunch.

Oh, and I loved the good doctor from Louisiana giving the republican response. (He has been sued for malpractice twice, so I am not sure he should be throwing any stones from his glass house.) The idiot actually brought up tort reform when his O ness already promised in his speech that it would be a part of his plan. That's what you get for writing your response before hand. But hey, it sure beats the governor from Louisiana giving the response, because as bad as bayou doc was he was better than the gov.

But back to the speech: First, let me say that it was a mistake for his O ness to give this health reform package to congress to work on. He should have crafted it himself and then handed to them to work out the details. I know he didn't want to do a repeat of what the Clintons did back in 1994, but that is exactly what he should have done. Different time, different mandate, and it would have worked. Now, unfortunately, our boy is playing defense. Having said that, let me holla at his O ness for a minute: I loved the tough talk O man. You aren't the first president to take up health care but you will be the last? Bringing up the ghost of John Dingell, Sr. was also a nice touch. You were all over the profit over people insurance companies, and rightfully so. If A-merry-cans weren't moved by some of those stories you told about real people, they don't deserve health insurance reform.

I loved the fact that you hit back at the right wing/FOX News smear machine. ( I see they bumped your speech for some dancing show. Just what A-merry-ca needs, more silly reality shows.) Who needs to hear about one of the most important legislation from our government in decades? I am still not sure about the public option part, but I think you were being intentionally fuzzy. I felt like you were talking to us progressives and telling us to chill while you try to get something done with health care. I am not a political pragmatist, but I know you are, and if most A-merry-cans can have access to proper and affordable health care I guess I am all for it. It sure as hell beats the insurance lobby driven system we have now.

I also loved the fact that you placed the blame for this mess that we are in where it belongs: at the foot of the frat boy and his crew. And, I loved the idea of putting actual facts into the speech. Facts should always get in the way of partisan bullshit.

"We are the only advanced democracy on Earth — the only wealthy nation — that allows such hardships for millions of its people. There are now more than 30 million American citizens who cannot get coverage. In just a two year period, one in every three Americans goes without health care coverage at some point. And every day, 14,000 Americans lose their coverage. In other words, it can happen to anyone. "


Not "anyone" O man, republicans don't believe it can happen to them. Only poor people immigrants and minorities can't afford health care.


"Then there's the problem of rising costs. We spend one-and-a-half times more per person on health care than any other country, but we aren't any healthier for it. This is one of the reasons that insurance premiums have gone up three times faster than wages. It's why so many employers — especially small businesses — are forcing their employees to pay more for insurance, or are dropping their coverage entirely. It's why so many aspiring entrepreneurs cannot afford to open a business in the first place, and why American businesses that compete internationally — like our automakers — are at a huge disadvantage. And it's why those of us with health insurance are also paying a hidden and growing tax for those without it — about $1000 per year that pays for somebody else's emergency room and charitable care."


More facts. Come on O man, you are letting it get in the way of a great political debate.


"But that's not what the moment calls for. That's not what we came here to do. We did not come to fear the future. We came here to shape it. I still believe we can act even when it's hard. I still believe we can replace acrimony with civility, and gridlock with progress. I still believe we can do great things, and that here and now we will meet history's test.
Because that is who we are. That is our calling. That is our character. Thank you, God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America.'


That damn Obama, I wonder if Mrs. Field have any of her O-Aid left?