tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27006478427664185492024-03-05T22:46:46.666-08:00The Democratic Afrosphere<strong>"Black Voices United by Democratic Principles and Common Sense"</strong><p><b>"Race" is the most ubiquitous scientific concept that has no basis whatsoever in science. -- Atty. Francis L. Holland.</b></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger206125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700647842766418549.post-69638327875236042402012-06-03T11:34:00.002-07:002012-06-03T11:43:09.313-07:00Obama Must Make Emergency Speech on Impending Economic Doom and Demand a Bipartisan National Economic Defense Strategy<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3em;">At present, President Obama's argument for his reelection is that he is doing what is necessary and possible to prevent a new recession and return the nation to prosperity. The problem with that argument is that forces well outside of the President's control are likely to cause a deeper recession between now and the election, which will disprove the President's contention that he has the situation under control.</span></h3><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-2570061624752335341" itemprop="articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; text-align: left;"><br />
Obama might need to change his strategy completely; make an internationally televised prime time speech on the scale of the speech he made to address the Rev. Wright issue; declare that a depression is looming; and demand that the Republican Congress respond aggressively and immediately now, and not after the General Election. If Obama does make this speech and lay out a bold, credible and comprehensive defense of the nation's economy, then Obama can say, "I told you so," if the Congress fails to act. The President's leadership skills are most tested when the Congress rejects his leadership, as the House does now.<br />
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At least, by sounding the alarm, he won't be in the position that GWB and McCain were in, when they tried to soft-pedal the danger to the economy and of 9-11 occurring, and they were subsequently shown to be absolutely wrong and way off base.<br />
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Republicans are presently determined to sit on their hands and hope things get worse, both in the US and Europe, so that Obama will be blamed for the consequences of their inaction. That was the plan, but Obama must make the case that circumstances have changed, that an emergency more dire than any other is at hand, and that emergency action is needed to head off an even more cataclysmic financial precipice.<br />
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If Obama gets blamed for what happens when the US fails to respond to impending doom, then Obama will be punished for that. He will be punished for trying to present a bright picture when the skies above were clearly becoming darker and storm clouds were near. If he can't find a way to shift or share the blame for what is almost inevitably coming, then he's gonna have a hard row to hoe.<br />
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It's time for President Obama to give a big, well thought-out speech on the economy, of the importance of the speech that he gave on Rev. Wright, and tell America that the country is heading down the drain unless there is Congressional action for more unemployment benefits, more support for retaining teachers', cops' and firefighters' jobs, and for putting more money into the economy through relief for working people.<br />
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If the President succeeds in winning more help for those who are struggling, then he will be rewarded for that in November, at least marginally. But, if he pretends nothing is seriously wrong and is subsequently proved to have been in error, then he will go the way of John McCain.<br />
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Obama made the historic Rev. Wright speech to save his hopes for the presidency and to reunite the nation behind common goals. Now, he needs to make an equally historic speech to unite the nation behind a plan to save the US economy, which is the only way he can save his hopes for reelection. He might not convince the Republicans to come to the table of national reconciliation in a time of economic peril, but he needs to show that he invited them there in the most high-profile and earnest way possible, while laying out the dangers we face, while demanding national and Congressional action sufficient to meet the peril head on.<br />
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Half of Obama's political problem is that the economy is souring. The other half is that he doesn't seem to know what to do about it, while his opponent claims to have a viable prescription. President Obama must claim the urgent high ground based on a clearly presented vision. He must present an emergency plan to Congress and the nation which can give Americans hope again, in spite of the challenges and perils we face in the days and weeks to come. Everyone who stands in his way and opposes urgent action will share the blame for the consequences.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700647842766418549.post-16733351604150309172011-09-18T06:26:00.000-07:002011-09-18T06:31:43.725-07:00Obama and Axelrod Living in a Dream World of Political PlentyDavid Axelrod, President Obama's chief political adviser, has achieve the seemingly impossible, by navegating to elect the US's first Black president and by ending the 43-term white male monopoly of the United States presidency. However, he seems to be living in a fantasy world as President Obama's first term plays out and his re-election campaign gets going, like a car that has been up on cinder blocks for three years.<br />
<br />
The Washington Post reported:<br />
<blockquote><b>Obama campaign officials have rejected descriptions of wholesale disenchantment on the left, but they are following a two-pronged strategy: Play down the disappointment in the media, and pay added attention to the groups that are complaining. In a memo Friday, senior strategist David Axelrod said Obama’s support among key groups remains solid.</b></blockquote>Here is a quote from Axelrod, followed by my bullet points of disagreement. Axelrod told the Washington Post:<br />
<blockquote><b>“Despite what you hear in elite commentary, the president’s support among base voters and in key demographic groups has stayed strong,” he said. “The base is mobilized behind the president.”</b></blockquote>Axelrod is smart, perhaps to say this, but a fool if he believes it.<br />
<ul><li> Blacks' unemployment rate and the poverty rate, led by Blacks, has increased to a fifty-year high under Obama's presidency, which leads to the conclusion that, whether with a Democratic Congress or a Republican one, President Obama simply isn't up to the job for which this base constituency sent him to Washington. The President says that he will not direct programs toward Blacks, but rather toward everyone who is "hurting." Everyone who is unemployed and living in poverty is hurting and President Obama has done nothing prevent the chasm he found when he came to office from turning into an abyss.</li>
<li> President Obama's base has not been mobilized since Election Day 2008. On issue after issue when he could have called his supporters into the streets to bang on pots and pans, he instead "negotiated" with Republicans and the right-wing of the Democratic Party, and then capitulated on issues of central importance to the American Left and Blacks. He capitulated to the insurance companies by not insisting on a Government Option insurance plan that all in America could participate. In doing so, he effectively left the cash register, credit card swiper and insurance bureaucrat entrenched in the interface between the public and health care providers. That's not change you can believe in. That's buggery that only insurance executives and their hand maidens in the US Congress can believe in.</li>
<li>President Obama was elected with a strong mandate for change. Although there have been some technical changes, like rights for gays in the military and for women to sue employers when they have been short-changed based on their sex, most of Obama's changes have been . . . forgetable.</li>
<li>By announcing that he is mobilizing his base, Obama is tacitly conceding that he ignored and sidelined his base for three years. He still has a Rolodex, but it has been gathering dust, while many of the names in it represent people who are disillusioned and not motivated, much less mobilized. President Obama won the Office with massive campaign rallies, but he seems not to have organized any behind the Public Option or behind any of this other initiatives. For example, Obama may find that many of the students who voted for him from their college dorms are now back living with their parents and not even registered to vote. With the high unemployment among the young and particularly Blacks, and with Obama unable to offer a credible solution, these voters may not have the energy to vote in 2012.</li>
<li>The Left is disenchanted. We are tired of the endless wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Somalia, and with the list seemingly growing by the day. We are concerned that if the President can send drones and fighter jets to Libya without consultations, then maybe he will secretly do the same thing in Venezuela. If not, then why does he need seven new military bases in neighboring Columbia?</li>
<li>The first bank bail-out organized under George W. Bush, was arguably not Obama's fault, although he could easily have opposed it. But the hundreds of billions of dollars that flowed afterward are squarely on Obama's shoulders as he meets the voters who lost their houses while the banks were being bailed out.</li>
<li>Inexcusably, Obama has billions of dollars already allocated by Congress to bail out those whose houses have been in foreclosure since Obama took office. Instead of helping those people, Obama listened to the most punitive of right-wing moralists who argued that people who took bad risks shouldn't get help from people who took good risks. Apply the same principle to auto insurance and no one gets their damages repaired by their own insurance company or anyone else's if they were arguably (but not demonstrably) at fault when their bad luck befell them.</li>
</ul>Frankly, I'm sick and tired of President Obama and his banking and finance economic guru-zillas. I wish Hillary would challenge him, arguing that she could do what he failed to do. But, Blacks would probably still support Obama, perhaps with even greater energy and Hillary might fail, after spending hundreds of millions of dollars that the Democrats need for the General Election.<br />
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So, those of us who intend to vote at all will be forced to support Obama as the alternative to his even worse Republican opponent. But, one has to ask himself the following:<br />
<ul><li>Would a Republican president have or continued as many wars as Obama? It's hard to imagine how any of them could.</li>
<li>Would a Republican president have effectively pardoned the war crimes of George W. Bush, his vice president and those in the Defense Department and CIA who participated in war crimes committed by a Democratic Administration? </li>
<li>Would any other administration see such rampant fraud in the mortgage industry and trading, without massive investigations, a federal grand jury and some indictments?</li>
<li>The Left wanted at least some truth and justice commissions and what we got instead were blanket defenses of unpardonable sub-prime mortgage fraud and torture, here and there, under color of law. </li>
<li>Would a Republican Administration have fired someone with the creativity, energy and acuity of Van Jones, just because Democrats were grumbling about a chief Republican strategist? Karl Rove stayed on even though he was reviled by Democrats and feared by Republicans, and hadn't graduated from college?</li>
</ul>In 2012, I will vote against Obama's opponent, but I'm not sure that others will bother to do so and I'm not sure it makes any difference. Could the poverty rate have been higher under a Republican administration? It never has been since the Great Depression.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700647842766418549.post-71384850130815611432011-08-29T18:12:00.000-07:002011-08-29T18:12:53.694-07:00Mr. President, Get Your Veto PenToday, I received a frank e-mail from Democrats Abroad/Guatemala, saying:<br />
<blockquote><b><b><span style="font-size: medium;">The Tea Party capture of the Republican majority in the House has led to an endless series of efforts to emasculate the Federal Government. And, this warfare against constructive Federal Government is certain to resume as soon as the Congress returns to Washington at the end of the month.</span></b></b></blockquote>Remind me if I'm wrong, but the Tea Party and the Republican Party have not passed a bill that the President didn't subsequently sign. It seems that there is no bill too ridiculous for the President to put his name on it. Likewise, there is no bill so obscene that the President would consider vetoing it.<br />
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The President should ignore what the Congress does, except to say that he will veto anything obscene (e.g. cuts in Social Security benefits, medical safety net programs and pensions for those who have served in the military. The President must announce that, by virtue of the US Constitution, it is HIS obligation to make sure that harmful, dangerous or obscene bill turn into law, by virtue of his veto pen. If there is nothing that President Obama cannot accept, then President Obama stands for nothing at all. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700647842766418549.post-32730353185073778052011-08-29T16:53:00.001-07:002011-08-29T16:56:42.317-07:00Is the American Diabetes Association Research Foundation Excluding HBCU’s From Research?<div class="byline"><b>August 29, 2011 06:13 AM</b></div><div id="share"><div class="shareone"><a class="printfriendly" href="http://www.printfriendly.com/" title="Print an optimized version of this web page"><img alt="Print" src="http://atlantapost.com/wp-content/themes/mogatlantapost/images/print.gif" style="border: medium none;" /></a><span class="meebo-inlineShare meebo-inlineShare-smallMulti"> </span></div></div><a href="http://atlantapost.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/african-american-research.jpg"><img alt="" class="alignleft size-large wp-image-70388" height="250" src="http://atlantapost.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/african-american-research-358x278.jpg" title="african american research" width="322" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://africanamericanpundit.blogspot.com/2011/08/is-american-diabetes-association.html"><b>by L.N. Rock</b></a><br />
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According to the American Diabetes Association, African Americans are disproportionately affected by diabetes as 3.7 million or 14.7 percent of all African Americans aged 20 years or older have diabetes. In addition:<br />
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-African Americans are 1.8 times more likely to have diabetes as non Hispanic whites<br />
-25 percent of African Americans between the ages of 65 and 74 have diabetes.<br />
-1 in 4 African American women over 55 years of age has diabetes.<br />
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The American Diabetes Association (the Association) is a not-for-profit voluntary health agency that works to prevent and cure diabetes and to improve the lives of all people affected by diabetes. In October 1994, the Association’s Board of Directors established the American Diabetes Association Research Foundation, Inc. (the Foundation), as a subsidiary of the Association. The objective of the Foundation is to fund diabetes-related research leading to the prevention and cure of diabetes, the prevention and cure of the complications of diabetes, and new and improved therapies for individuals affected by diabetes.<br />
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Get this, the Foundation is exempt from income taxes under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code (the Code) and charitable contributions to the Foundation qualify for charitable tax deductions as described in the code. The Foundation has been classified as an organization that is not a private foundation under Section 509(a) of the code. Even though they appear to have a bias against HBCU’s and black researchers. More on this later…<br />
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Research grants awarded by the Foundation generally extend over a period of one to three years, subject to renewal on an annual basis.<br />
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Upon investigation and review of the financial reports and records, this writer has found that Historically Black Colleges and Universities have been totally left out of the American Diabetes Association Research Foundation, Inc ward process as selected grantees.<br />
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Compared to the general population, African American researchers and HBCU’s are not receiving grant research dollars from the American Diabetes Association Research Foundation.<br />
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As an example, the Foundation provided over $33 million in research grants in 2010 without one gong to a HBCU. If one looks at their annual reports for ADA 2009 Research Foundation Financials and 2009 IRS Form 990 you will see the same challenge in the 2008 IRS Form 990, (check out the grantee database for information on ADA-funded research grant awardees), 2007 IRS Form 990 and 2006 IRS Form 990, no black awardees, no HBCU’s researchers<br />
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In other words the American Diabetes Association Research Foundation, Inc has not awarded not one research grant to HBCUs, even with the high incidence of black Americans with diabetes.<br />
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It is clear to this writer that the American Diabetes Association Research Foundation is saying that it has no interest in developing a strong research relationship with HBCU’s in relationship to issues of research related to the prevention and cure of diabetes, the prevention and cure of the complications of diabetes, and the development of new and improved therapies for individuals affected by diabetes.”<br />
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Although the ADA Research Foundation asks Americans to make a donation to the American Diabetes Association to help fund leading-edge research that affects the health and well-being of millions of people living with diabetes. It’s clear that funds are being awarded to friends and pals of the Board of ADA, and HBCU’s are being left out of the grant awards.<br />
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This should be no surprise. Rob Stein over at The Washington Post just reported on how Black scientists are significantly less likely than white researchers to win grants from the National Institutes of Health, according to an audit released Thursday that confirmed disturbing suspicions inside the agency about a lingering bias against African Americans.<br />
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Who said education is the great equalizer? When it comes to color aroused bigotry, it makes no difference if it’s NIH or the American Diabetes Association Foundation; color continues to play a factor in the way we address research of diseases in this country, particularly as it relates to African Americans.<br />
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It’s too bad for America, too bad for those with diabetes, and too bad for HBCU’s and black researchers.<br />
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<b><i>L. N. Rock is a management consultant, Democratic strategist, and 2008 credentialed blogger at the Democratic National Convention. He blogs at African American Pundit.</i></b>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700647842766418549.post-73044002505140445382011-08-21T22:54:00.000-07:002011-08-21T22:54:44.014-07:00Obama's CIA Efforts Wildly Successful in Middle East and Africa, but He Still Can't Be Re-Elected<a href="http://s131.photobucket.com/albums/p316/francislholland/?action=view&current=Francisw-BlogsSpecified200px.png" target="_blank"><img alt="Photobucket" border="0" src="http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p316/francislholland/Francisw-BlogsSpecified200px.png" /></a><br />
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<br />
With rebels <b><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/22/world/africa/22libya.html?hp">entering and apparently capturing Tripoli, the capital of Libya,</a></b> (on the south side of the Mediterranean Sea, and <a href="http://maps.google.com.br/maps?hl=pt-BR&tab=wl"><b>on th</b></a><a href="http://maps.google.com.br/maps?hl=pt-BR&tab=wl"><b>e north coast of Africa</b></a>, President Obama will have one more notch on his belt when he debates Republicans over foreign policy. President Obama can (probably quite truthfully) assert that his Central Intelligence Agency's efforts were essential to regime change in Libya, but it was not possible to publicize these efforts at the time, lest Quaddafi use US interference to undermine Libyan public support for the <a href="http://www.americanforeignrelations.com/A-D/Cold-War-Termination-The-reagan-doctrine-freedom-fighters-and-central-america.html"><b>"freedom fighters</b></a>" (oops, "rebels").<br />
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President Obama can tick off a list of countries in which regime change has occurred or is the process of occurring. I, frankly, cannot remember them all, so long is the list. If President Obama is smart, and I believe that he is, he will neutralize and even win over some Independent and Republican foreign policy hawks by pointing to the success at Middle East and Africa regime change that Obama has presided over during his presidency. Arguably, these changes are second only in importance to fall of the Soviet Union during Ronald Reagan's watch, and Obama will surely point that out.<br />
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President W. Bush (and candidate <a href="http://truth-about-mccain.blogspot.com/2008/04/60-years-in-iraq-mccain-says-thats-fine.html"><b>John McCain and his advisers</b></a>) made no secret of their desire for regime change in various in the Middle East and Africa. Neo-conservative foreign policy visionaries (once believed to be hallucinatory) can only be ecstatic with the "Freedom Spring" in the Middle East and North Africa, or whatever the US-supported and trained <a href="http://klarbooks.com/academic/nicarga3.html"><b>"freedom fighters"</b></a> (excuse me, "rebels") are calling it.<br />
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So, even as Republican Presidential and Congressional candidates criticize Obama on domestic economic policy, they will be compelled to acknowledge the dramatic and (to them) highly desirable change in regimes in various countries in the Middle East and Africa.<br />
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For example, if the President of Syria leaves office, Obama can claim a major behind-the-scenes role. If he doesn't leave office President Obama can insist that it's only a matter of time, and recently history makes this claim credible.<br />
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In spite of the likelihood of a number of failed states as a result, considerable violence and some civil wars in which "regime derailment" has occurred but "regime-change" (to another solid regime) has faltered, (e.g. Iraq, Afghanistan, and what was the other recent one?), Obama can claim that democracy (otherwise known as the US's unfettered access to oil, supply routes and markets) has been achieved in an astounding array of countries under Obama's watchful manipulation of CIA assets in the various countries.<br />
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(In fact, a lot of <a href="http://www.sitemeter.com/?a=stats&s=s36hypocrite&r=11"><b>people are checking</b></a> with the <b><a href="http://truth-about-kos.blogspot.com/2011/08/warren-weinstein-us-contractor-in.html">Truth About Kos blog</a></b> to see if Warren Weinstein, who worked with US-AID, and was a US contractor in Pakistan when kidnapped recently, might also be a CIA agent or asset.) <br />
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It is well-known that the US Government and USA "democracy-oriented" non-government organizations have been training citizens in countries across the Middle East and Africa to take part in just the sort of non-violent civil resistance (followed by violent challenges to governments) that has been occurring. As US Election Day 2012 draws near, Obama's CIA spokespersons will speak out proudly about some of the CIA/USAID dots that only conspiracy observers such as myself have seen as highly probable or obvious all along.<br />
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And hasn't Obama attacked Libya with drones and then direct air strikes, under the cover of NATO? Obama may have presided over a lousy and worsening economy that will be at its lowest point on Election Day 2012, with the largest transfer of wealth from the population and the people's Government to the banks and brokerage houses of the rich in the history of America, but no one can doubt his willingness to use force in ways that minimize US soldiers' exposure and also minimize the overt appearance of meddling in foreign countries' internal politics, in order to achieve neoconservative foreign policy goals, but without being seen within these countries as the rebels' puppet master, even when the US <i>is</i> the rebellion puppet master.<br />
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Give Obama a "ten" on regime change and expert use of US forces in the Middle East and Africa. I am unalterably opposed to all that he has done, and I do not agree that he and other unseen US forces and organizations have the right to do as they have. But, they have succeeded at the neoconservatives' expressed foreign policy goals, and that is what counts in American foreign policy debates.<br />
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However, let's recall that George H. W. Bush (the first Bush) won the first Gulf War and then lost the 1992 Election (in far less seriously economically disastrous times), because people just didn't believe G.H.W.B. had the awareness and determination to deal with America's economic malaise that Bill Clinton did.<br />
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Don't compare Obama with Jimmy Carter, because Obama has been far more successful in foreign policy. Instead, compare Obama to George H.W. Bush, who lost his 2002 re-election campaign because Americans just didn't feel confident about G.H.W.B's awareness of the need to improve the economy and his ability to do it, as compared to the proposals and energy of Bill Clinton.<br />
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If President Obama is fortunate and tends to his international interventions carefully, he will still be a "war president" on Election Day 2012. With an abominably lousy opponent who embarrasses the Republican Party (as McCain and Palin did in 2008), Obama could win.<br />
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Personally, I would prefer that he bow out and bring Vice President Hillary Clinton to the fore as the Democratic Party's candidate. Victories in the Middle East do not pay our mortgages, save our homes or put hot dogs and beans on the table. We need victories in the unemployment rate and in mortgage re-negotiations with the banks that only exist today because of the largess they received in multiple Bush/Obama bail-outs. We need to stabilize and "grow the economy" in ways that the Republican Congress will absolutely not permit while Obama would receive the credit. We need a new and different president, without turning the White House over to the Republicans.<br />
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I personally no longer believe in Obama's commitment to basic Democratic Party policies, such as the maintenance of Social Security and safety-net programs. I suspect that he has allowed or even suggested debacles like the debate over the debt ceiling so that he could accede to Republican demands that no Democratic voter can accept otherwise.<br />
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I simply do not trust President Obama anymore. I have no confidence in his ability and determination to defend programs that the middle class and working poor depend upon and hold dear. With each day, my concern increases over the aspects of the New Deal contract with America that President Obama may reluctantly throw overboard while blaming the Republicans for having made him do it. I am afraid that Obama may be a Republican in Democratic bunting.<br />
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So, I would welcome a situation in which the vice president steps down, Obama nominates Hillary Clinton, and then Obama exits the national stage, leaving Hillary Clinton as the incumbent on Election Day, with her promise not to do what Obama has done in domestic economic policy. It would not be constructive for a Democrat to challenge Obama, as Ted Kennedy challenged President Jimmy Carter in 1980. But arguably it didn't make any difference then and it won't make any difference now.<br />
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I prefer that Obama acknowledge defeat in terms of domestic economic policy, and then clear his desk for Vice President Hillary Clinton to hold onto through and beyond Election Day 2012. In a close race, we chose Obama over Clinton in 2008. He has turned out to be a bitter disappointment, even to many Black bloggers <a href="http://francislholland.blogspot.com/2011/08/mr-obama-i-must-inform-you-that-we-have.html"><b>such as me</b></a>, the <a href="http://africanamericanpundit.blogspot.com/2011/08/president-obama-black-voters-and-2012.html"><b>African American Pundit</b></a> and <a href="http://blackagendareport.com/too-late-to-save-Obama-lets-save-ourselves"><b>Black Agenda Report</b></a>.<br />
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As Rebecca Traister points out <b><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/magazine/what-would-hillary-clinton-have-done.html?pagewanted=2&ref=general&src=me">in today's New York Times, </a></b> we cannot know that a Clinton presidency would have been different or better. What we DO know is that voters will be looking for change in the 2012 presidential race. We should give them a way to opt for change without opting for the Republican presidential candidate.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700647842766418549.post-90676325305759578672011-08-18T22:43:00.001-07:002011-08-18T22:44:47.514-07:00Brazil is Half Brown, But Has No Brown-Skinned Women Among 27 Miss Brazil 2011 Candidates<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="345" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/UiZkwhrqn9g" width="560"></iframe><br />
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Look at this year's candidates for <a href="http://missbrasiloficial.uol.com.br/"><b>Ms. Brasil.</b></a> Of approximately 27 from each state and the Federal District in the country, not a single one has brown skin, even though the population of Brazil includes <a href="http://www.suapesquisa.com/geografia/populacao_brasileira.htm"><b>50% of Brazilians with brown or tan Afro-descendent skin (see statistics below).</b></a><br />
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<blockquote><span style="background-color: yellow;"> Fonte: IBGE * 2005 , ** Censo 2010</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: yellow;"> Etnias (Ethnicities) no Brasil </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: yellow;"> Pardos: 42,6%</span> (means brown skin, like e.g. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/francis-l-holland"><b>Francis L. Holland</b></a>)<br />
<span style="background-color: yellow;"> Brancos: 49,7%</span><br />
<span style="background-color: yellow;"> Negros: 6,9% <span style="background-color: white;">(means brown or black skin)</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: yellow;"> Indígenas: 0,3%</span><br />
<span style="background-color: yellow;"> Amarelos: 0,5%</span></blockquote><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="345" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/NTpByyyzCEY" width="420"></iframe><br />
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The population of the state of Bahia, where I live, has a ratio of <a href="http://www.ibge.gov.br/estadosat/temas.php?sigla=ba&tema=resultpreluniver_censo2010"><b>ten brown-skinned people for every three white-skinned people</b></a>, and yet the state's representative at the Miss Brazil contest will be white-skinned, whatever her heritage may be. And for at least the last two years, Ms. Bahia has been white.<br />
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In all fairness and reality, if you carefully study the faces of each of the women in the above video, specialist in who has recent African ancestry may be able to identify three or four women whose noses and lips are of a shape often associated with brown skin, even though their skin is not brown. And some of these women may proudly state that they are Black. However, the skin color test is quite evident here, as it is in many other parts of Brazilian society.<br />
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Miss. Amapá, Miss Ceará, Miss Espiritu Santo, Miss Maranhão, Miss Mato Grosso, Miss Paraíba, Miss Paraná, Miss Sergipe and Miss Tocantins' skin colors represent the outer limits of brownness for those seeking employment as dancers, guests and actors on many television soap operas and variety shows. Any darker and they become invisible.<br />
<br />
Just look at the <a href="http://tititi.globo.com/personagens/"><b>all-white cast </b></a>of a recent miniseries, called "Tí, Tí, Tí, to confirm that only three out of seventy-six characters have unambiguously brown skin, and one of the two Black women plays a maid. In a country that is half brown, a television series has whites out-numbering Blacks by a ratio of 25 to 1. Color-determined roles are worse on Brazilian television than politics South Africa's historical apartheid regimes.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKPtSM4i9XbzNarMxxs2oCyNert8pHe_BH6vT4zE_sKz6sQrS-8gi9FSGDbJK10kkayCCifJpUfSY5ny-baRd3K8uFKL-WHQ076rC8anIxNqrFC7HYQhloYZHMkLKRMcIyOobTqDJBADY/s1600/Two+White+Miss+Bahias.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="368" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKPtSM4i9XbzNarMxxs2oCyNert8pHe_BH6vT4zE_sKz6sQrS-8gi9FSGDbJK10kkayCCifJpUfSY5ny-baRd3K8uFKL-WHQ076rC8anIxNqrFC7HYQhloYZHMkLKRMcIyOobTqDJBADY/s400/Two+White+Miss+Bahias.PNG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<br />
The Ms. Brazil website foresees the controversy over an all-white competition and so it points out, in a special section entitled "Black Beauty," that one of the candidates for Ms. Brasil in 2010, <b><a href="http://missbrasiloficial.uol.com.br/?secao=materia&materia=41&revista=14&pagina=5">Ms. Ceará, had copper-toned skin</a>.</b> So, if you wait until next year, you may discover that a 50% brown and black-skinned country has at least one brown or black skinned contestant for Miss Brazil. This year, the contest might as well be for Miss Switzerland.<br />
<br />
I do not refer to "race" above, because it is entirely possible in Brazil that one or more of the women in the video has a brown-skinned parent or grandparent. So, it would be arbitrary and speculative to say that all of these women with white skin are from the "white race."<br />
<br />
Instead, it is entirely possible that one or more of the women shown here considers herself to be Black. But NONE of them, out of approximately 27, has brown skin. (<a href="http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/35640.htm"><b>There are 26 states and the Federal District in Brazil</b></a>, each with a contestant for Miss Brazil.)<br />
<br />
<br />
I would mention something like this to my beige-skin step-daughters, but they wouldn't understand how it was relevant that they had virtually zero percent chance of becoming Ms. Brazil, simply because their skin is too dark.<br />
<br />
My obsession with realities such as these is one of the reasons I could not get along with my wife's daughters (e.g. I felt disgusted at the smell and the reality of their hot irons burning their hair straight, and their inability to understand why all-white institutions bothered me so), and so we split up. You might well say that my family was a victim of color-aroused ideation, emotion and behavior, at the individual, familial and societal levels.<br />
<br />
Their mother would understand. She has Rasta Locks, unlike the entire herd of Ms. Brazil candidates, all with straight and/or straightened hair.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700647842766418549.post-16366933883093320472011-08-09T18:02:00.000-07:002011-08-09T18:03:30.087-07:00<h3 class="post-title entry-title">Suspected Police Assassination of Black Father of Three Catalyzes Riots in British Cities and Towns </h3><div class="post-header"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi01BcBsrPfMqTOc9S5m-tl1htOg7nZ7G8-XXax86ipsIvdfKWMGauISm-737YIAavJuAS0yo7wnfnzlzeFrBYpsiW7314mUaxisp_HtXFl5wjFXAvF3UrDhX74qWR__ur8WKg0L60ZCxxe/s1600/Mark+Duggan+Shot+Died+London.PNG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="254" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi01BcBsrPfMqTOc9S5m-tl1htOg7nZ7G8-XXax86ipsIvdfKWMGauISm-737YIAavJuAS0yo7wnfnzlzeFrBYpsiW7314mUaxisp_HtXFl5wjFXAvF3UrDhX74qWR__ur8WKg0L60ZCxxe/s400/Mark+Duggan+Shot+Died+London.PNG" width="331" /></a></div><br />
The Great Britain website, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/09/mark-duggan-police-ipcc"><b>The Guardian</b></a>, reports that the, Mark Duggan, a "29-year-old father-of-four was shot by police during an attempted arrest in Tottenham, north London, on Thursday," but there is suspicion that the police had decided to execute Duggan before the stopped him, or made that decision at the scene. <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/09/mark-duggan-police-ipcc"><b>The Guardian</b></a> also ran a story today whose title and subtitle say: <br />
<blockquote><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Mark Duggan did not shoot at police, says IPCC. [Independent Police Complaints Commission]. </span>IPCC releases initial findings of ballistics tests in police shooting of Mark Duggan, whose death sparked London riots."</b><b><br />
</b></blockquote>Explaining the <b><a href="http://www.ipcc.gov.uk/en/Pages/about_ipcc.aspx">initials and role of the IPCC, the agency's website says: </a></b><br />
<blockquote><b>The IPCC was established by the Police Reform Act and became operational in April 2004. Its primary statutory purpose is to increase public confidence in the police complaints system in England and Wales.</b> </blockquote><blockquote><b>The IPCC also investigates the most serious complaints and allegations of misconduct against the police in England and Wales, as well as handling appeals from people who are not satisfied with the way police have dealt with their complaint. </b><br />
<br />
<b>Just as some of the rioters must have believed during the riots before the IPCC report was released today, Mr. Duggan may not have been shot in the chest by police for any justifiable reason.</b></blockquote><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14443311"><b>The BBC says:</b></a><br />
<blockquote><b>Mr. Duggan was killed in Ferry Lane, Tottenham Hale, by Metropolitan Police officers working for Operation Trident, which investigates gun crime in the black community.</b></blockquote>The <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14443311"><b>same BBC article</b></a> says: <br />
<blockquote><b>Speculation that Mr Duggan was "assassinated" in an execution style involving a number of shots to the head was "categorically untrue", the commission added.</b><br />
<br />
<b>Mr Duggan's brother Shaun Hall told Sky News that the family was "devastated" by his death and dismissed as "utter rubbish" claims he had shot at police.</b></blockquote>Certainly, the suspicion that Mark Duggan was assassinated by police might be fueling riots, just as shooting such as this one triggered riots in the United States in the 1960's and early 1970's. One white female British blogger, whose blog is called "Penny Red," describes the riots that seem to have taken over Great Britain in recent days:<br />
<blockquote><br />
<b>I’m huddled in the front room with some shell-shocked friends, watching my city burn. The BBC is interchanging footage of blazing cars and running street battles in Hackney, of police horses lining up in Lewisham, of roiling infernos that were once shops and houses in Croydon and in Peckham. Last night, Enfield, Walthamstow, Brixton and Wood Green were looted; there have been hundreds of arrests and dozens of serious injuries, and it will be a miracle if nobody dies tonight. This is the third consecutive night of rioting in London, and the disorder has now spread to Leeds, Liverpool, Bristol and Birmingham. Politicians and police officers who only hours ago were making stony-faced statements about criminality are now simply begging the young people of Britain’s inner cities to go home. Britain is a tinderbox, and on Friday, somebody lit a match. How the hell did this happen? And what are we going to do now?</b></blockquote>The Guardian provides additional details showing that the police vigilance and killing of Mark Duggan was not an ordinary traffic stop, but a well-planned confrontation:<br />
<blockquote><br />
<b>A father of three died instantly after an apparent exchange of fire when <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/police" title="More from guardian.co.uk on Police">police</a> attempted to arrest him in north <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/london" title="More from guardian.co.uk on London">London</a>, it emerged on Friday.</b><br />
<br />
<b>A police marksman escaped with his life when a bullet lodged in his radio during the confrontation that ended in the death of <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/mark-duggan" title="More from guardian.co.uk on Mark Duggan">Mark Duggan</a>, 29. The Scotland Yard firearms officer was taken to hospital and later released.</b> </blockquote><blockquote><b>The <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/ipcc" title="More from guardian.co.uk on Independent Police Complaints Commission">Independent Police Complaints Commission</a>, which is investigating the fatal shooting, said the bullet and a non-police-issue handgun found at the scene had been sent for forensic tests.</b><br />
<br />
<b>IPCC investigators believe two shots were fired by an armed officer. A spokesman for the IPCC said that at around 6.15pm on Thursday officers from Operation Trident, the Metropolitan police unit that deals with gun <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/ukcrime" title="More from guardian.co.uk on Crime">crime</a> in London's black communities, with officers from the Specialist Firearms Command (CO19), <span style="color: red;">stopped a minicab to carry out a pre-planned arrest. (Emphasis added.)</span></b></blockquote>How did a pre-planned arrest of a man believed to be armed nonetheless result in a "shoot-out"? The perception, and the belief among rioters that police should not execute members of the public, might be the simple explanation of why Blacks and others are rioting in Great Britain. Now that an official agency reports that the victim didn't fire at police, the riots could continue and even spread.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://pennyred.blogspot.com/2011/08/panic-on-streets-of-london.html"><b>Penny Red</b></a> says:<br />
<blockquote><b>As I write, the looting and arson attacks have spread to at least fifty different areas across the UK, including dozens in London, and communities are now turning on each other, with the Guardian reporting on rival gangs forming battle lines. It has become clear to the disenfranchised young people of Britain, who feel that they have no stake in society and nothing to lose, that they can do what they like tonight, and the police are utterly unable to stop them. That is what riots are all about.</b></blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700647842766418549.post-15843367535488038822011-07-27T17:25:00.000-07:002011-07-27T17:25:32.576-07:00Two Black US Senators May Be Elected from VermontThere is not a single Black representative in the US Senate, and this is unlikely to change significantly because US Senators are elected state-wide and Blacks are not the voting majority in any US state.<br />
<br />
If slightly in excess of four hundred and twenty thousand voting age Blacks moved across the border from New York into Vermont, from the relatively close cities of Albany, Syracuse, Buffalo, Rochester and Poughkipsee, with reinforcements from the boroughs of New York, then these Blacks could become the voting majority of the state of Vermont. The successful organizers of this effort would be in line for campaigns to represent Vermont in the US Senate and House, as well as assuming the roles of Governor and the many other elected and appointed governmental roles in Vermont.<br />
<br />
Is is worth it for 425,000 Blacks to move to Vermont in order to regularly elect two Black US Senators for the first time since Reconstruction. Given the tens of millions of dollars that whites and Blacks spend to win (and lose) US Senate seats, whites clearly believe that winning even one is very important. Is it less important for Blacks to win TWO seat?<br />
<br />
In election campaigns, it is typical of candidates to ask supporters for many kind of support, from donating money to talking to their friends, to holding events. In the Black Vermont effort, the only thing that would asked of Blacks is that they move to Vermont and vote for the candidate who most represents our needs and aspirations as a group. <br />
<br />
Naturally, I have heard a lot of reasons why the above might not work, but those reasons are unconvincing. It is true that the weather is cold in Vermont and Vermont receives a lot of snow, but so do cities like Chicago, Boston, and Detroit. How could cold weather dissuade a person living in Chicago or Albany from moving to Brattleboro? <br />
<br />
Although many Blacks would prefer warmer weather, we left the South in the 1940's, in spite of the cold weather in the North, with political, economic and social mootives. If all of the Black in the US moved to Vermont from cities that are as cold or colder than Vermont, the Black would elect two Black US Senators without the need for raising millions of dollars and convincing whites to go along.<br />
<br />
My brain was not created to travel the ruts that others travel unquestioningly. Working, as we have a few times, to elect Black US Senators from white majority states, works sometimes (about five times in the last hundred years), but Blacks must take over a state if we are to determine who will represent that state in the US Congress.<br />
<br />
Whites already have this advantage because white candidates are virtually always elected from white majority states. The simple difference between their success and ours may be that Senate seats must be won at-large, by the entire voting majority of each states' (white) majorities. If US senators were elected in two districts of each state instead of electing both of them at-large, Blacks would have a better change of winning US Senate elections in a number of states. <br />
<br />
However, that would require whites to willingly give up US Senate seats to Blacks. That is only slightly less likely than restitution to Black's wages and interest from the days of American slavery. If a revolutionary solution that takes power from whites also depends upon the support of whites, as would two-district US Senate elections in the several states, then Blacks will wait and until every one of our dead Black skeletons are black with the dirt of the ages. <br />
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Whites need not change states to be from among the voting majority. That's why they have not made any effort to be the white majority of a state, although they make very intense efforts to create districts in which whites will win city council, school committe and Congressional seats. We cannot copy whites' path into the US Senate because we do not have the demographic advantage with which whites start in every US Senate election.<br />
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The only solution is to band together and CREATE the demographic advantage that whites have always taken for granted.<br />
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When I told Blacks and whites that 2008 must mark the end of the white male monopoly of the US Senate, many Blacks seemed disinterested, while others thought it could not come to pass. Some Blacks were willing to their hopes in laughable and risible John Edwards rather than bet on the end of the white male monopoly of the presidency.<br />
<br />
Just as Blacks realized that a Black man could be president, Blacks will eventually realize that Vermont can send two Black US Senators to Washington. Our imaginations and conceptualizations may not yet have realized the opportunity, but Blacks aren't stupid and whites cannot hide the Easter Eggs from us through Election Day.<br />
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<br />
Of course many whites would snort angrily and inveigh against the new version of Black nationalism, but Vermont is not a nation. It is a state in a federal system of government whose Constitution gives Blacks the right to travel, including to Vermont. Let the white snorters stand at the borders of Vermont, trying to intimidate Blacks who are moving to create political power just as white parents move from town to town in order to put their kids is the best school districts. <br />
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<br />
There is nothing illegal about moving to Vermont in order to vote there, and the plan does not require any approvals from a majority-white US Congress or from the majority white and ultra-conservative US Supreme Court. No, this is a plan that we Black can implement on our own. That causes whites who voted for John McCain shiver in their boots. The more white talking heads and politicians inveigh against Blacks move to take over New Hampshire, the more they will publicize the concept and convince Blacks that it must be good for us if Fox News is so unalterably against the idea.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700647842766418549.post-15078124432741935592011-06-19T15:07:00.000-07:002011-06-19T15:07:11.875-07:00Field Negro Targets "Color-Arousal" and "Color-Aroused" Behavior<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/EZ3B8WvVjL4" width="560"></iframe><br />
Field Negro (AKA Wayne Bennett), recently cited by the Washington Post's "The Root" Black blog as among <b><a href="http://afrospear-news.blogspot.com/2011/04/root-jack-jill-politics-field-negro.html">"Thirty Black Bloggers You Should Know,"</a></b> is informing the Black public about "color-arousal" and "color-aroused" ideation, emotion and behavior. <br />
<br />
On June 15, he wrote, for example:<br />
<blockquote><b>For all of you wondering how much the wingnuts and the folks in the GOP will play on white folks "<i>color arousal"</i> issues this upcoming election season, please note that it has <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/14/dccc-demands-gop-candidat_n_877146.html">already started.</a></b></blockquote>He was referring to the above <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=EZ3B8WvVjL4"><b>YouTube video,</b></a> using blatant color arousing imagery, whose voice over says,<br />
<blockquote><b>To reduce gang violence, <a href="http://janicehahn.com/">Janice Hahn</a> [California candidate for the US House] hired hard-core gang members with tax-payer money to be "gang intervention specialists." She even helped them get out of jail, so they could rape and kill again. Congress has enough gangsters. Janice Hahn. Bad for LA. Bad for America.</b></blockquote>Then Black men in ghetto garb sing,<br />
<blockquote><b>Give me your cash! Bit so we can shoot up the street! Give me your cash, girl so we can <a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=wheat">buy some more wheat</a>. </b></blockquote>The Urban Dictionary confirms my immediate suspicion that "wheat" is <a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=wheat"><b>slang for "marijuana.</b></a>"<br />
<br />
The Republican candidate says, in essence the ad <a href="http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/06/in-ca-36-democrat-calls-for-blanket-condemnation-of-stunning-new-web-ad-video.php"><b>is not "racist" but <i>is</i> admittedly color-aroused</b></a>. <br />
<br />
Meanwhile, the advertisement shows vulgar images of a white woman candidate consorting with what it presents as the prison and pre-prison population, with a white woman's barely covered ass shaking in front of a stripper's polc, while Black men put money in her skimpy tights. <br />
<br />
Janice Hahn seems to have the support of <b><a href="http://janicehahn.com/about/endorsements-2/">virtually everyone who is anyone among Democrats</a></b>, so the video appears to be an act of desperation. However, Congressional District 36 is only 7% Black, 14% Asian, 29% Hispanic, 49% White, so the promoters of the YouTube video are not concerned about offending Black voters.<br />
<br />
However, the District <a href="http://www.swingstateproject.com/diary/8409/california-redistricting-the-democrats-proposal"><b>gave 60% of its vote to Obama in 2008</b></a>, so it seems just as likely that this video will offend white voters as attract them. The Republicans hope for a heavier color-aroused antagonist white turnout as a result of this dog-whistle anti-Black hatred YouTube video. <br />
<br />
As for the video, here are the color-aroused and antagonistic stereotypes, in order of appearance: <br />
<ul><li>That Black men desperately want sex with white women and see them strictly as sex objects (the black booty tights and the stripper's pole and the money in the tights in exchange for sexual behavior;</li>
<li>That white men are at risk of losing white women to Black men and therefore Black men present a profound threat, even when we are doing nothing illegal, and have no intention of doing anything illegal;</li>
<li>That donations to the white woman candidate are effectively supporting the lurid and emotionally color-arousing behavior seen in the video;</li>
<li>That white people's precious tax dollars are being paid to reprehensible Black men gang-bangers;</li>
<li>That Black men are all gang-bangers who do not deserve any representation in Congress;</li>
<li>That Black men and machine guns are synonymous and so Black men present a threat to our very lives.</li>
<li>That addressing the issue of the color-aroused antagonistic prison-industrial complex is not a worthy goal for a Congressperson;</li>
<li>That Black men are inherently criminal and incorrigible. </li>
</ul>Klan Master David Duke could have made a more color-arousing presentation, but the question is whether such ugly and vile characterizations both of the white woman candidate and of Black men will rally white voters or nauseate and alienate them. <br />
<ul></ul>In another article, <a href="http://field-negro.blogspot.com/2011/06/hoolum-in-hizzouse.html"><b>Field Negro says</b></a>:<br />
<blockquote><b>There are no bigger race baiters in the news business than the folks over at FOX. There is good money in scaring those red state folks about the black "boogeyman" around every corner. That </b><b><i>color arousal</i> (thanks for the word Francis) will stir their passions every time.</b></blockquote>As <a href="http://field-negro.blogspot.com/2011/06/hoolum-in-hizzouse.html"><b>Field Negro says</b></a>, "color arousal" is about using skin color to "stir passions". We all know that white people (and Black people) have come to experience intense emotions (fear, anger, rage, resentment, envy, jealousy) when we are presented (or confronted) with skin color-associated verbal or physical presentations and advertisements (speech), ideation (thoughts) and behavior (verbal or physical acts).<br />
<br />
Since politicians know just how powerful these skin-color-cues (calls to thoughts, emotions and action) can be, precisely because they are so ancient and well-worn into our society, starting during slavery and continuing in the mainstream media through the present, therefore white politicians often try to use antagonistic color-arousal "cues" to their political benefit. These messages send a potent message against Black people just by reminding white people of what they already fear and believe.<br />
<br />
These messages also endeavor to demoralize and dehumanize Black people and hurt our self-esteem and identities, trying with force of their will and societal power to turn us into the very kind of people they say they so despise. <br />
<br />
However, some white people are tired of being manipulated in this way and so they vote for candidates like President Obama and AGAINST the white candidate precisely because the white candidate is trying to "arouse" and manipulate people using skin color-cues and stereotypes.<br />
<br />
Is the above YouTube video "racist." Please forget about that paleolithic "racism" nonsense. Ask yourself, "Does the ad intend to arouse ideation, emotion and voting behavior based on skin color?" Obviously it does. Case closed, as my friend <a href="http://africanamericanpundit.blogspot.com/"><b>African American Pundit</b></a> as well as <a href="http://www.sojournersplace.com/2009/07/exclusive-proof-that-obama-was-born-in.html"><b>Sojourners Place</b></a> would say.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, too many Black people use the jargon of "racism" and "racists" that let's color-aroused white antagonists off the hook. These Blacks will jump into the public forum to claim that the producers of the above video are "racists." However, to prove what someone "is," you have to demonstrate that they have engaged in the same type of behavior over a period of months or years.<br />
<br />
No one is sure how many acts of color-aroused antagonism are required in order to declare that someone is a "racist." Likewise, no one is sure how much anti-Black stereotyping and negative images are necessary to declare and prove that a video is "racist." And, once having determined, based on more evidence that should ever be gathered in any case, that a person "is a racist," then it remains unclear what to do about it, if anything. It is obviously far easier to change people's behavior than to change what they "are." When you say someone "is a racist," you are effectively saying that they should be punished for what they are instead of for what they did.<br />
<br />
It is far easier to ask whether this advertisement shows color-aroused ideation (Black men are the primary characters in this video) and the the voice over specifically presents assertions about gang-bangers, rape and murder while showing Black men's faces. Using skin-color to send a message is color-arousing, even if it only happens once. <br />
<br />
As lawyers, Field and I know that when you increase the burden of proof, you reduce the likelihood of a conviction. When we have to prove that a person "is a racist" before we confront a specific act of color-aroused antagonism, we set our burden of proof far too high, and much higher than white people set the burden of proof for criminal and civil convictions in general.<br />
<br />
For example, imagine rape statutes required proof that a man had raped several women over a period of time and therefore he is a "rapist." If he "only" demonstrably raped one woman, then we could not punish him for being "a rapist" and he would go free. By analogy, insisting that multiple and repeated acts of "racism" are necessary to prove that someone is a "racist" and deserves punishment is an absurdly high burden.<br />
<br />
In our society, we don't decide what someone "is." We decide what someone did. If they are convicted for what they did, then they have earned the name associated with the crime they committed. For example, when a man is convicted of ONE act of rape, then he is a "convicted rapist." He is a rapist.<br />
<br />
When we assert that someone is a "racist," we put the car before the horse. The question is, 'Did this person commit one act of color-aroused antagonism?' If they did, then they have shown that, in that instance, they were a color-aroused antagonist.<br />
<br />
Here's another critical question about the burden of proof. If instead of proving that a person committed a rape, you had to prove that he "is a rapist," then how many rapes would he have to commit before he could be punished or at least receive state intervention? Would we have to prove that he committed six or eight rapes, before concluding that he is a rapist and should go to jail?<br />
Well, how many instances of rape individual instances of rape must be proved to prove that an individual "is a rapist?"<br />
<br />
White people resolve this issue by charging people with having committed, in ONE instance, an action that is illegal. If the person is convicted of ONE act of murder, then he is a murderer by definition, and for all time. <br />
<br />
So, why should we Blacks have to prove several or hundreds of acts of color-aroused antagonistic behavior? It's because we assert that a person "is a racist" instead of asserting that they committed an ONE act of color-aroused antagonism. <br />
<br />
Instead, we should be focusing on the question, "Did this person commit ONE physical act or speech act that was color-aroused and antagonistic? If the act of speech or behavior was color-aroused and antagonistic, then the person has engaged in one act of color-aroused antagonism, which is unacceptable.<br />
<br />
Here's an analogy: Imagine a rape statute that says that rape is "involuntary penetration with pregnancy resulting." Most rapes could not be prosecuted under that statute. The burden of proof is too high, because it includes "with pregnancy resulting." So, why would we increase the burden of proof by inserting "with pregnancy resulting" in the criminal statute? The answer is that we never would include such a clause that heightened the burden of proof to the point where virtually no one could be convicted of rape. Rapists could wear condoms and rape women all day long.<br />
<br />
When we try to prove that a person "is a racist," we have to prove <span style="font-size: medium;"><i><b>a series</b></i></span> of color-aroused antagonistic acts over an undefinite period of time. That burden of a series of acts is like is like the "with pregnancy resulting" burden of proof for rape. When Geraldine Ferraro says that Obama got where he is because he is Black, who has the time to look for a series of such acts in her past before confronting her about what she has said today? The burden of proof is too high.<br />
<br />
The question should always be, has the individual committed ONE (or more) act(s) of color-aroused antagonism in this particular instance? <br />
<br />
How many rapes do you have to commit to be a rapist? Isn't a conviction on one rape count enough? In our system it is. If you are convicted of ONE rape then you are a "convicted rapist."<br />
<br />
This is how our system of justice works in the United States. The question in criminal courts, except in complex cases, is "did the person commit each the crime on <b>ONE</b> occasion? If so, the person is convicted.<br />
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Let's stop trying to figure who who "is a racist" and focus on the question, "Has Sam committed an act of color-aroused antagonism today?"Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700647842766418549.post-50144626527087094702011-06-19T03:24:00.000-07:002011-06-19T03:24:39.092-07:00Latinos and Blacks Could Stay Home in 2012 Presidential Election<h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Cross-filched from <a href="http://africanamericanpundit.blogspot.com/2011/06/latinos-and-blacks-could-stay-home-in.html"><b>African American Pundit<i>, </i></b></a></span><span style="font-weight: normal;">comments and all.</span><br />
</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">Are Latinos and Blacks Being Taken for Granted<br />
in Terms of Our Substantive Issues?</span></i></h3><div class="post-header"></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-5416793183647748721"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Just finished reading an article in </span><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/44/post/obama-to-make-rare-presidential-visit-to-puerto-rico/2011/06/13/AGTUjjTH_blog.html?wpisrc=nl_fix"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">WaPo</span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> about Latinos' voters and how Hispanics loom as key bloc for Obama. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The article notes how Hispanics were in love with Obama when he was elected — even more than other demographics — but they moved towards Republicans a little in 2010. They’ve also shown a willingness to </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">vote for the right kind of Republican, as George W. Bush was able to take 45 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2004.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><img class="rg_i" height="121" name="TEZHdYpmDyuPfM:" 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Yvwy4NjweiOI1MAFdUs8lxrDGf+zufYdUCL7Og0koqy7wRw1Fw3gzKGMtfM4+JUygfO+1tOwGgXlH404z+YcUjDonkwYbH4ZF7gyu1f7gZW+y95xuspsBwSsxKf/jpYXSkX+YgaD3Nh7r5Oq55auqmqal+aaZ7pJHdXONz9yUcWK2t10pxsFG8m9hudlCxrRd5efZOXSA0WC6BdQg1JOskoUXXtHRQPaOiSSckYRHlCc1oSSWERkwAskRokktmSNxIOi62R17XSSWJGkde49SonJJITCWQStF1EQkkskFzTmG5SSWiiRxsy4RvgSpkpuL8IlhNnisibfs42P2JHukkhsh9I4nwng1Zi1PiEtI0Ttka52TRshG2Yc1pMoGySSxE3LxHmX481U0PClPTxutHU1jWSDqGtc4D6tH0XgTtHFJJbRgYdTZNh82p5pJKFnCdSpgPKkkrRCMpJJKMo/9k=" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px -11px;" width="181" /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">They will be very important to Obama for two reasons.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">One: They don’t view him nearly as favorably as they used to.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">And two: They are entirely willing to stay home.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><img class="rg_hi" data-height="194" data-width="259" height="194" id="rg_hi" src="http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRAWymnuBb9HrX0WdUaPurSda5gAIzp7f4sv8E20Pc9PXMA4hzfsQ" style="height: 194px; width: 259px;" width="259" /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">AAP says: "The President should also be concerned about black voters for two reasons as well. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">One: The folks are hurting, African Americans have double the jobless rate of whites and the Obama administration has failed to support National Urban league plans to address the urban unemployment crisis.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Take for example, the recent Clarence Lusane article in the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/clarence-lusane/black-infighting-over-the_b_869930.html">Huffington Post</a> highlighting how joblessness continues to rise -- above 16.5% among blacks, as opposed to 8% amongst whites -- housing foreclosures devastate black families, and criminal justice practices continue to disintegrate black family structures and prosperity, black America is openly struggling against a potentially historic social and economic collapse during the very time that the first black president is in office. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">As Clarence notes, "There seems to be little doubt, at least as Obama's first term comes to an end, that African Americans will have fared worse than when he came into office. For Obama's opponents, black and otherwise, that data will be the central theme for judging his administration." </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Two: Black folks like Latinos are entirely willing to stay home," <a href="http://www.eurweb.com/?p=112542">if they have a home</a>.</span><br />
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</div></div><div class="post-footer"><div class="post-footer-line post-footer-line-1"><div class="post-share-buttons goog-inline-block"><a class="goog-inline-block share-button sb-email" href="http://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=6895167876838288587&postID=5416793183647748721&target=email" target="_blank" title="Email This"> <span class="share-button-link-text">Email This</span> </a><a class="goog-inline-block share-button sb-blog" href="http://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=6895167876838288587&postID=5416793183647748721&target=blog" target="_blank" title="BlogThis!"> <span class="share-button-link-text">BlogThis!</span> </a><a class="goog-inline-block share-button sb-twitter" href="http://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=6895167876838288587&postID=5416793183647748721&target=twitter" target="_blank" title="Share to Twitter"> <span class="share-button-link-text">Share to Twitter</span> </a><a class="goog-inline-block share-button sb-facebook" href="http://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=6895167876838288587&postID=5416793183647748721&target=facebook" target="_blank" title="Share to Facebook"> <span class="share-button-link-text">Share to Facebook</span> </a><a class="goog-inline-block share-button sb-buzz" href="http://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=6895167876838288587&postID=5416793183647748721&target=buzz" target="_blank" title="Share to Google Buzz"> <span class="share-button-link-text">Share to Google Buzz</span> </a> </div><span class="reaction-buttons"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody>
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</tbody></table></span> <span class="post-timestamp"> at <a class="timestamp-link" href="http://africanamericanpundit.blogspot.com/2011/06/latinos-and-blacks-could-stay-home-in.html" rel="bookmark" title="permanent link"><abbr class="published" title="2011-06-15T14:12:00-04:00">2:12 PM</abbr></a> </span> <span class="post-comment-link"> </span> <span class="post-icons"> <span class="item-control blog-admin pid-1232436335"> <a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=6895167876838288587&postID=5416793183647748721&from=pencil" title="Edit Post"> <img alt="" class="icon-action" height="18" src="http://img2.blogblog.com/img/icon18_edit_allbkg.gif" width="18" /> </a> </span> </span> <span class="post-author vcard"> Posted by <span class="fn">AfricanAmericanPundit</span> </span> </div></div><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=2700647842766418549" name="comments"></a> <br />
<h4> 2 comments: </h4><dl class="avatar-comment-indent" id="comments-block"><dt class="comment-author " id="c775721280647534174"> <a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=2700647842766418549" name="c775721280647534174"></a> <div class="avatar-image-container vcard"><span dir="ltr"><a class="avatar-hovercard" href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/11862777385923656061" id="av-0-11862777385923656061" rel="nofollow"><img alt="" class="delayLoad" height="35" longdesc="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgILu3sspi1uumwpeWH9GtYZyIQ1rRNMVTBsLUh9Trrs5RUwy2gcdrvVsm3RKGyRuMLiD6hczk1KST2mSiruT0KCuP6I5blwRRs7s_C0INhM_-BmfGZk2g-ztaC1G_-f8Fotck_d6PXA5LF/s45/FrankinVitria.png" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgILu3sspi1uumwpeWH9GtYZyIQ1rRNMVTBsLUh9Trrs5RUwy2gcdrvVsm3RKGyRuMLiD6hczk1KST2mSiruT0KCuP6I5blwRRs7s_C0INhM_-BmfGZk2g-ztaC1G_-f8Fotck_d6PXA5LF/s45/FrankinVitria.png" title="Francis L. Holland" width="35" /> <noscript>&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgILu3sspi1uumwpeWH9GtYZyIQ1rRNMVTBsLUh9Trrs5RUwy2gcdrvVsm3RKGyRuMLiD6hczk1KST2mSiruT0KCuP6I5blwRRs7s_C0INhM_-BmfGZk2g-ztaC1G_-f8Fotck_d6PXA5LF/s45/FrankinVitria.png" width="35" height="35" class="photo" alt=""&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;</noscript></a></span></div><a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/11862777385923656061" rel="nofollow">Francis L. Holland</a> said... </dt>
<dd class="comment-body" id="Blog1_cmt-775721280647534174">I would expect lower turn-out for Obama, except for one factor that we haven't seen mature yet: ugly color-aroused campaigning by the Republican Party and their surrogates. Just as Hillary Clinton's color-arousing campaigning and that of her surrogates pushed Blacks into supporting Obama, the same will happen in 2012. White candidates will have their "macaca moments," embarrassing those voters who had intended to support the white Republican candidate. A vote against the alternative is never as enthusiastic or positive as a vote for the candidate of our choice. That's where Obama risks losing. His ability to win in states like Florida will depend on voter turnout. If he can get Blacks and Latinos to the polls, then he can win. If we're busted and disgusted, then he loses. Obama still has great popularity among Blacks, and may support him because he fought his way into a job that no Black person had held before. That counts for something, in the same way that ten cents counts toward the price of a hamburger at Burger King. I think we'd better just hope the Republicans nominate Sarah Palin. She's not in the race yet, but I'm sure she will be. I feel sure. </dd><dd class="comment-footer"><span class="comment-timestamp"> <a href="http://africanamericanpundit.blogspot.com/2011/06/latinos-and-blacks-could-stay-home-in.html?showComment=1308183064659#c775721280647534174" title="comment permalink"> June 15, 2011 8:11 PM </a> <span class="item-control blog-admin pid-2042088879"> <a class="comment-delete" href="http://www.blogger.com/delete-comment.g?blogID=6895167876838288587&postID=775721280647534174" title="Delete Comment"> <img src="img/icon_delete13.gif" /> </a> </span> </span> </dd>
<dt class="comment-author " id="c1298972761509477465"> <a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=2700647842766418549" name="c1298972761509477465"></a> <div class="avatar-image-container vcard"><span dir="ltr"><a class="avatar-hovercard" href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/13417405356099504421" id="av-1-13417405356099504421" rel="nofollow"><img alt="" class="delayLoad" height="35" longdesc="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggiXi57RJdOxjIbZ3Tu5z5tg9OLIldS-jzVg6XYo-MAoEKAAKQYhQ_AXdExlL7EqQsc7NXGYT3Vo8olifaBt7ZS5bmOjge6XxKnQz9Gitpdy8FouRwgIjeLMep3mMBeZ4NHvrpjLLHyWk/s45/blackman.png" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggiXi57RJdOxjIbZ3Tu5z5tg9OLIldS-jzVg6XYo-MAoEKAAKQYhQ_AXdExlL7EqQsc7NXGYT3Vo8olifaBt7ZS5bmOjge6XxKnQz9Gitpdy8FouRwgIjeLMep3mMBeZ4NHvrpjLLHyWk/s45/blackman.png" title="Constructive Feedback" width="35" /> <noscript>&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggiXi57RJdOxjIbZ3Tu5z5tg9OLIldS-jzVg6XYo-MAoEKAAKQYhQ_AXdExlL7EqQsc7NXGYT3Vo8olifaBt7ZS5bmOjge6XxKnQz9Gitpdy8FouRwgIjeLMep3mMBeZ4NHvrpjLLHyWk/s45/blackman.png" width="35" height="35" class="photo" alt=""&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;</noscript></a></span></div><a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/13417405356099504421" rel="nofollow">Constructive Feedback</a> said... </dt>
<dd class="comment-body" id="Blog1_cmt-1298972761509477465">[quote]ugly color-aroused campaigning by the Republican Party and their surrogates.[/quote] Mr Hollland: Is an "Ugly Color-Aroused Campaign by WHITE REPUBLICANS" functionally any better than a coordinated campaign between White Liberal Snarling Foxes who keep an eye on what their White Brothers are doing and keep pumping it into the CONSCIOUS AWARENESS of Black people (Media Matters) with the goal of promoting RACIAL DEFENSIVENESS upon Black people - so that we VOTE OUR "PERMANENT INTERESTS" but those interests are THE SURVIVAL INSTINCT rather than: * Quality Education * Safe Streets * Thriving Local Economies DON"T YOU SEE - the challenge IS NOT "Black People Staying Home" and not voting for OBAMA. The real threat is that yet another election cycle will be conducted in America and Black folks will be ensnared into the 'AMERICAN POLITICAL DOMAIN', investing our EQUAL BLACK BALLOTS into the process - while failing to develop our INTERNAL ORGANIC INSTITUTIONS FOR COMMUNITY UPLIFT. Our Community Consciousness is FUSED TO the "American Political Domain". Our biorhythm is linked to the Democratic Party's success. Unfortunately Mr Holland - even in the places where DEMOCRATS RUN EVERYTHING (Chicago and Philly - where your buddy Field lives) our FATE AS A PEOPLE is just as BAD. WHO should be held accountable for the HIJACKING OF OUR CONSCIOUSNESS in ways that MALCOLM X WARNED US ABOUT? How Do You Get Black People To Do What You Want Them To? http://withintheblackcommunity.blogspot.com/2011/06/question-how-do-you-manipulate-black.html </dd><dd class="comment-footer"><span class="comment-timestamp"> <a href="http://africanamericanpundit.blogspot.com/2011/06/latinos-and-blacks-could-stay-home-in.html?showComment=1308208234875#c1298972761509477465" title="comment permalink"> June 16, 2011 3:10 AM </a></span></dd></dl>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700647842766418549.post-65476739477681080382011-06-19T03:11:00.000-07:002011-06-19T03:12:31.475-07:00There's Black Political Power in Iowa<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Cross-filched from <a href="http://africanamericanpundit.blogspot.com/2011/06/black-political-power-in-iowa.html">African American Pundit.</a></div><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Black Political Power in Iowa </h3><div class="post-header" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-448903115813503127" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;">I'm not sure how many black folks are in Iowa or for that matter the state of <a href="http://francislholland.blogspot.com/2011/06/can-blacks-elect-two-us-senators-from.html">Vermont</a> but one thing is for sure unlike <a href="http://francislholland.blogspot.com/2011/06/can-blacks-elect-two-us-senators-from.html">Vermont</a> there is real black political power in Iowa. Oh, and Yes, Black people do live in Iowa. Infact a black woman is running for Mayor (again) in an Iowa city. You see, Lameta Wynn was first elected mayor in 1995 and was the first black woman elected mayor of an Iowa city. She served three terms until deciding not to seek re-election in 2007.<br />
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<div id="blox-story-media"><div id="blox-story-photo-container"><div id="blox-large-photo-page"><a href="http://africanamericanpundit.blogspot.com/2011/06/black-political-power-in-iowa.html" name="photos"></a><img alt=" " height="186" id="img-holder" src="http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/qctimes.com/content/tncms/assets/editorial/b/9c/aea/b9caea8b-eb2d-504a-a188-957b36c792a5-revisions/4df65c0f12d4a.preview-300.jpg" width="200" /><span style="color: #547c9d;"> </span><br />
<div class="photo-cutline"><span id="gallery-cutline">LaMetta Wynn</span> </div></div></div></div><div class="entry-content" id="blox-story-text"><br />
Wynn told a small group of supporters and family she had been asked by several residents, business leaders and city officials to seek a return to the mayor's office and said she was "humbled" by their support and encouragement. Congratulations to Lametta Wynn, and good luck on the election. </div></div></div><div class="post-footer" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><div class="post-footer-line post-footer-line-1"><div class="post-share-buttons goog-inline-block"><a class="goog-inline-block share-button sb-email" href="http://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=6895167876838288587&postID=448903115813503127&target=email" target="_blank" title="Email This"> <span class="share-button-link-text">Email This</span> </a><a class="goog-inline-block share-button sb-blog" href="http://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=6895167876838288587&postID=448903115813503127&target=blog" target="_blank" title="BlogThis!"> <span class="share-button-link-text">BlogThis!</span> </a><a class="goog-inline-block share-button sb-twitter" href="http://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=6895167876838288587&postID=448903115813503127&target=twitter" target="_blank" title="Share to Twitter"> <span class="share-button-link-text">Share to Twitter</span> </a><a class="goog-inline-block share-button sb-facebook" href="http://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=6895167876838288587&postID=448903115813503127&target=facebook" target="_blank" title="Share to Facebook"> <span class="share-button-link-text">Share to Facebook</span> </a><a class="goog-inline-block share-button sb-buzz" href="http://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=6895167876838288587&postID=448903115813503127&target=buzz" target="_blank" title="Share to Google Buzz"> <span class="share-button-link-text">Share to Google Buzz</span> </a> </div><span class="reaction-buttons"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody>
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</span> </span> </div></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=2700647842766418549" name="comments"></a>1 comments:</div><dl class="avatar-comment-indent" id="comments-block" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><dt class="comment-author " id="c9109044511408362175"> <a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=2700647842766418549" name="c9109044511408362175"></a> <div class="avatar-image-container vcard"><span dir="ltr"><a class="avatar-hovercard" href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/11862777385923656061" id="av-0-11862777385923656061" rel="nofollow"><img alt="" class="delayLoad" height="35" longdesc="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgILu3sspi1uumwpeWH9GtYZyIQ1rRNMVTBsLUh9Trrs5RUwy2gcdrvVsm3RKGyRuMLiD6hczk1KST2mSiruT0KCuP6I5blwRRs7s_C0INhM_-BmfGZk2g-ztaC1G_-f8Fotck_d6PXA5LF/s45/FrankinVitria.png" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgILu3sspi1uumwpeWH9GtYZyIQ1rRNMVTBsLUh9Trrs5RUwy2gcdrvVsm3RKGyRuMLiD6hczk1KST2mSiruT0KCuP6I5blwRRs7s_C0INhM_-BmfGZk2g-ztaC1G_-f8Fotck_d6PXA5LF/s45/FrankinVitria.png" title="Francis L. Holland" width="35" /> <noscript>&amp;amp;amp;lt;img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgILu3sspi1uumwpeWH9GtYZyIQ1rRNMVTBsLUh9Trrs5RUwy2gcdrvVsm3RKGyRuMLiD6hczk1KST2mSiruT0KCuP6I5blwRRs7s_C0INhM_-BmfGZk2g-ztaC1G_-f8Fotck_d6PXA5LF/s45/FrankinVitria.png" width="35" height="35" class="photo" alt=""&amp;amp;amp;gt;</noscript></a></span></div><a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/11862777385923656061" rel="nofollow">Francis L. Holland</a> said... </dt>
<dd class="comment-body" id="Blog1_cmt-9109044511408362175">Good for her! According to <b><a href="http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/19/1938595.html" rel="nofollow">US Census Quick Facts, there are only 3.7% Black people in Iowa City,</a></b> so LaMetta Wynn has surely shown white people that she is the best woman for the job. I wish her well. </dd></dl>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700647842766418549.post-72805181041220511522011-06-19T03:07:00.000-07:002011-06-19T03:07:37.049-07:00Mitt Romney Jokes about the Unemployed<h3 class="post-title entry-title"> <span style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">Cross-filched from <b><a href="http://africanamericanpundit.blogspot.com/2011/06/mitt-romney-got-jokes-unemployed.html">African American Pundit</a>. </b></span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title"><a href="http://africanamericanpundit.blogspot.com/2011/06/mitt-romney-got-jokes-unemployed.html">Mitt Romney got jokes: The Unemployed</a> </h3><div class="post-header"> </div>Multi-millionaire, Former Massachusetts governor <b>Mitt Romney</b> got jokes: The Unemployed<br />
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After listening to a group of out-of-work Floridians tell their stories, Romney <a href="http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/X109GB/5C590X/FSSXKC/TXB33S/IVE1J/QR/h" target="_blank">started this way</a>: “I should tell my story. I’m also unemployed.”<br />
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AAP says: Yes, <strong>Mitt Romney</strong> got jokes: The unemployed are a big joke to him. <a href="http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/16/romney-im-also-unemployed/?wpisrc=nl_pmfix">Read more HERE</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700647842766418549.post-18667150827826539382011-06-19T03:04:00.000-07:002011-06-19T03:04:04.022-07:00With All His Wars, It Must be Hell Being President Obama<div class="center;""><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKuNGOO1nXp5qt4eHfhgXVzyLEuMAkEF4yIrCjpX8zot0dsXw3Xc7obr1r_Lg0l-4agTCBLEDVhKhPl_7VmMSaEyOi3itKT3lo__PqMAx1cUIsqds-_YPARx1DYMwsAnxvF0LUvFfg5Ew/s1600/Being+President+Obama+is+Hell.PNG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhifkg4obKsdLAUO2Ri2u3gcgNS-Nd6JrYKPv9YYOvfLuG4PO8aEzguQJE5aLegkRzUyguxPdaWtLwEuC7W2Kpbs1HGL48ApZBZVkmt0nDZQCKuEUwq_TpDsASq5rWeexF4NZ8RIvwYAhQ/s1600/Being+President+Obama+is+Hell.PNG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="363" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhifkg4obKsdLAUO2Ri2u3gcgNS-Nd6JrYKPv9YYOvfLuG4PO8aEzguQJE5aLegkRzUyguxPdaWtLwEuC7W2Kpbs1HGL48ApZBZVkmt0nDZQCKuEUwq_TpDsASq5rWeexF4NZ8RIvwYAhQ/s400/Being+President+Obama+is+Hell.PNG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
It must be hell to be President Obama, with a perceived responsibility to direct or at least manipulate and influence the so-called "democracy movements" in so many countries simultaneously. I admit that I haven't researched any of these countries enough to provide convincing back-stories to the chaos that is breaking out all over the Middle East and North Africa.<br />
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As African Americans, we certainly should be concerned that three countries--Tunisia, Libya and Egypt--are in some state of chaos as we speak, while the pink and purple revolutions driven by conservative US think tanks and facilitated by Facebook and Twitter are setting snowballs in motion, in the US' arrogant belief that chaos is better than the strong and stable leaders of the present.<br />
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As <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/06/01/arab.spring.violence/index.html"><b>CNN says</b></a>,<br />
<blockquote><b>Nearly four months ago, longtime Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak finally yielded to political reality and stepped down from power. Mubarak's fall -- coming on the heels of the ouster of neighboring Tunisia's Zine El Abidine Ben Ali -- was seen by many as part of a domino effect.</b> </blockquote><blockquote><b>The Arab world, it seemed, was finally on the brink of a peaceful democratic transition that had eluded the troubled region for generations. </b><br />
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<b>Today, however, the promise of a peaceful Arab Spring appears to be yielding to the reality of a long, violent summer as dictators across the Middle East and North Africa draw a line in the sand and fight to maintain control of their countries. </b></blockquote>In fact, <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/06/01/arab.spring.violence/index.html"><b>CNN has a round-up</b></a> of the many "powder kegs" where CIA and neo-conservative "democracy movements" that are really just destabilization movements are taking their tolls<br />
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What in the world could ever have made conservative American think tanks and the Government believe that strong and well-established leaders in these countries would go without a fight? Would President Obama leave office because NATO and the UN said he should? <br />
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The truth is that, with the experience in Iraq and Afghanistan ongoing, it should have been obvious to all that dictatorial regimes maintained peace and order, while destroying these regimes in the absence of a clear alternative just leads to chaos and mass deaths, refugee movements and . . . chaos.<br />
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And yet there are those neo-conservatives in Washington and Virginia who have been yearning for "regime change" in these countries for decades. They seem finally to have gotten close to their wishes in a number of countries, but the CIA and Defense Department cannot control what fills the voids when these regimes are changed. Before you ask your daughter to go change her clothes before she goes to a party, shouldn't you have some way to predict and influence what she changes into? What if she changes a skimpy dress for a bra and panties?<br />
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That's the problem the US is facing right now, from--let's look at the map--from Tunisia (in African) west to Pakistan and from Syria south to Yemen (in Africa). Will all of these countries adopt western-style democracies, or will they end up like Iraq and Afghanistan: failed states unable to control their borders and impossible to contain warring factions, some or all of which are supported financially and sometimes militarily by the US Government.<br />
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When you consider that the very existence of the European Union is in doubt because of the world banking crisis whose architects hailed from the USA, and add that to chaos potentially throughout northern Africa and the Middle East, Obama may be creating an election strategy that he hasn't yet perceived: turn the entire world into a war zone or an economic basket case, and then say: <br />
<blockquote><b>'I'm a "war president" and no one has faced (created) as many crises as I have, while successfully preventing them from reaching our borders. The potential for regime change in every country that annoys us has never been better, but the challenges are so complex that there is no time for a governor with no foreign policy experience to get up to speed on all of this mayhem.</b></blockquote><blockquote><b>There is a method to our map-changing madness, but I am the only candidate who knows what that method is.</b> <b>Not everyone can play sixteen dimensional chess the way I can."</b></blockquote>I'm sure that's true. People who have worked on far simpler political campaigns have felt more overwhelmed than the President does in the midst of all of this madness. Obama is steady at the wheel, even when the wheel spins out of control. <br />
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Meanwhile, the CIA and Defense Department know that the best result in all of these countries is for the competing factions to kill each other off entirely, so that the US can have unfettered access to all of the oil and other raw materials, with no local populations to get in the way.<br />
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Who ever imagined that the US would go to war again Libya this year. But it is!<br />
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Who imagined that the US would be firing missiles into Pakistan? But it is!<br />
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Who imagined that Obama, who said he would have voted agains the war in Iraq, would nevertheless create and amplify more wars than George W. Bush? But he has! <br />
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I think I can see a way to support Obama for President in 2012. Like it or not, President Obama has created, catalyzed and/or meddled in more intra-national and international wars than any other Black President in the history of the United States and even the history of the world. That has to stand and be counted for something, even if nothing good comes of it. At least it's one for the history books.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700647842766418549.post-78114474901056121822011-06-11T16:59:00.000-07:002011-06-11T17:34:46.359-07:00Can Blacks Elect Two US Senators from Vermont?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb8O44JJ9c1350KMGERGEGeivCJcXcl_Oi-E5q_GzW7NnQ_cqbkzKNVESLodbr0EmHuvTTXBsli7aGb95MwqFLEPWQMX3ovH-Ippp5MfkK7MW9FE5Dj2vFs4CnpYmGVNUmQtIKj8AOiUk/s1600/Vermont-Americas+One+Majority+Black+Voting+State.PNG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb8O44JJ9c1350KMGERGEGeivCJcXcl_Oi-E5q_GzW7NnQ_cqbkzKNVESLodbr0EmHuvTTXBsli7aGb95MwqFLEPWQMX3ovH-Ippp5MfkK7MW9FE5Dj2vFs4CnpYmGVNUmQtIKj8AOiUk/s1600/Vermont-Americas+One+Majority+Black+Voting+State.PNG" /></a></div><br />
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<a href="http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/01000.html">There's something missing from <b></b></a><b><a href="http://www.rippdemup.com/2011/06/after-passing-nations-toughest.html#disqus_thread" target="_blank">this article</a></b> entitled, <a href="http://www.rippdemup.com/2011/06/after-passing-nations-toughest.html" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: transparent; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0pt none; clear: none; color: #00e000; display: inline; float: none; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0pt; outline: medium none; padding: 0pt; text-decoration: inherit; text-indent: 0pt; text-transform: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: inherit; word-spacing: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0pt none; clear: none; color: #00e000; display: inline; float: none; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0pt; outline: medium none; padding: 0pt; text-decoration: inherit; text-indent: 0pt; text-transform: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: inherit; word-spacing: inherit;"><span style="color: blue;">". . .Alabama Set to be US Whitest State, </span></span></span>over at Rippa's blog.</a> What's missing is proof that Alabama is "about to become the nation's whitest state."<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/01000.html"><span lang="EN-US">US Census Quick Facts</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: small;"> says that </span><span style="font-size: small;"><b><a href="http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/01000.html"><span lang="EN-US">whites are 68.5 percent of Alabama</span></a></b></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: small;">, while <b>Blacks are 26.2% and Latinos are 3.9%</b>. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: small;">I know the article title, "Alabama Set to Be Whitest State" is intended as an exaggerated criticism of the State of Alabama, but the assertion risks misleading and misinforming people, like foreigners, children and people who don't use US Census Quick Facts.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: small;">The question of which state has more Black people is vitally important because it figures into the question of what state we should move to in order to become a majority and gain two Senators in the US Congress (instead of ZERO now), as well as gaining House seats, a governorship and many other elected officials in the one Black state in the United States of America.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: small;">For example, if six hundred thousand voting age Black people moved to Vermont, Blacks would become the voting majority in Vermont and we would politically take over a state and its political apparatus and representation in Washington, with two Black US Senators from Vermont.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: small;">Does this sound like a crazy idea? If anyone can come up with a more reliable way of having two Black US Senators instead of none, then I am all ears.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: small;">Quick Facts says there are approximately </span><span style="font-size: small;"><b><a href="http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/ACSSAFFFacts?_event=Search&_lang=en&_sse=on&geo_id=04000US36&_state=04000US36"><span lang="EN-US">three million Black people in the state of New York. </span></a></b></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: small;">On average 75% of the state of New York is of voting age, which would mean that there are about somewhere around 2,250,000 Blacks of voting age in the State of New York. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: small;">If about one third of the voting-age Blacks in the state of New York moved across the border to the contiguous state of Vermont, then Vermont would become a majority Blacks state and send two and send two Black US Senators and a couple (?) of House member to Washington, as well as elect a Black Governor.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: small;">If anyone asks you why there are no Blacks in the US Senate, tell them the real reason: Blacks in New York have not realized how important it is that one in four of their voting age population move across the border into Vermont.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: small;">Now, readers will demand to know how Blacks could find jobs and housing in Vermont. I Black seniors with Social Security Insurance (SSI) moved, then would have to work in Vermont at all to support themselves, just as they do not work in New York at all to support themselves today. Their income comes from an entirely mobile sources and changing their state of residence would have no effect on their income. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: small;">Likewise, Blacks who receive Social Security Disability Income (SSDI) and private pension could move to Vermont with no need to work and only positive effects on their cash flow. Real estate, bought or rented, is less expensive in Vermont, and so Blacks would see their incomes stretch further by moving to Vermont than by staying in New York.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: small;">Based on past patterns, it is reasonable to assume that some Vermonters, who have never seen Black people up close, would be spooked into selling their homes to escape neighborhoods that became increasingly Black. This would actually help Blacks because the increased available housing on the market for purchase would drive down housing prices and enable Blacks to purchase housing in Vermont for a fraction of what the same house would cost in New York State. By moving out, whites would make it less expensive for Blacks to move in.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: small;">So, be careful how you characterize demographic information. The only reason we won't have two Black US Senators is that Black in New York state have not studied the census numbers in New York and Vermont, and so they haven't realized the national impact they could have by moving across the border into Vermont.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: small;">White people don't seem to care that we have no representation in the US Senate. But, when we start moving to take over a state and turn its politics brown, they will take a strong new interest in our franchise behavior.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: small;">Our perfectly legal but revolutionary voting strategy would drive SOME white people completely out of their minds. That alone is a good reason for doing what the Census numbers recommend: Make Vermont the only majority Black state in the entire country and win the electoral benefits that come along with that demographic change.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700647842766418549.post-81629010130336857392011-06-10T01:45:00.000-07:002011-06-10T03:43:28.820-07:00"Enough of Weinergate," Says Field Negro, to a Metaphorical Round of Deafening Applause<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh42oETQV-zw685JIS5JLyTBYueWvrOlhcmo2sX0owus37kixYTRA1dMWSXKdOeo13k6qyjfowuuT0TRuTZCY5LYZpqneA4ExVlN5XHjo3yk1omvA9CTt3FdJyreix4qz0cVVcfUudeH6k/s1600/IMGP1547+Frank+in+Black+and+White+Sunga.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh42oETQV-zw685JIS5JLyTBYueWvrOlhcmo2sX0owus37kixYTRA1dMWSXKdOeo13k6qyjfowuuT0TRuTZCY5LYZpqneA4ExVlN5XHjo3yk1omvA9CTt3FdJyreix4qz0cVVcfUudeH6k/s320/IMGP1547+Frank+in+Black+and+White+Sunga.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>A photograph of Atty. Francis L. Holland's pubic area, in which his sexual organs would be entirely exposed, in a public fountain, no less, but for his use of his skimpy $20.00 swimming trunks.</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi42JqAS36HnVo0QTSx2EY0UGA3g4sF4bauXmU6mun1Dc7j_bKO1PjuD5RwuEk471HMLM92ir6RHTuYKioGwpO7KZfBiv3IOMk_F0DzAt6Qa-8OTvHmkW1Kd8MbdOGBrAKVoXBDDIzaTxA/s1600/IMGP1434.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi42JqAS36HnVo0QTSx2EY0UGA3g4sF4bauXmU6mun1Dc7j_bKO1PjuD5RwuEk471HMLM92ir6RHTuYKioGwpO7KZfBiv3IOMk_F0DzAt6Qa-8OTvHmkW1Kd8MbdOGBrAKVoXBDDIzaTxA/s400/IMGP1434.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Francis 90% naked in a Brazilian Fountain.</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>I have exposed one photograph of me ninety percent nude and another in which my sexual organs are covered only by a little black and white swim suit. Should I be stoned in public, or in the halls of the US Congress?<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWg4eF7aKjVhwGvFDct3KwogfuOaua3qQMVc5LuH6Ekzn2H4Kuo1Ch8YgdY6EYapine074ngdPL9sJrUjMmHCJBw2n3ucekZD-LNbJtqKp53OQ1_vQC2pKIJDdjzsh2D1sydUaSBWXeD4/s1600/IMGP1421.JPG" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWg4eF7aKjVhwGvFDct3KwogfuOaua3qQMVc5LuH6Ekzn2H4Kuo1Ch8YgdY6EYapine074ngdPL9sJrUjMmHCJBw2n3ucekZD-LNbJtqKp53OQ1_vQC2pKIJDdjzsh2D1sydUaSBWXeD4/s400/IMGP1421.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Gratuitous photograph of anonymous woman's</b><i><b> glutinous maximus </b></i><b>(buttocks), covered only by a shoe-string bathing suit</b><i><b>.</b></i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>I also confess that I have posted a photograph of an anonymous woman's remarkably full buttocks at my blog, for no other reason than to show that people sometimes engage in this behavior and it is not inherently evil, although entire blogs ought not be devoted to objectifying women's body parts.<br />
<br />
I have not hidden the series of twenty (20) photographs of this woman (all of her behind) from my wife, but I have explained that they were taken by a close friend using my camera and, although I find the photographs amusing, but I wouldn't have taken these pictures, (unless the woman also had brown skin and long natural Braids or Rasta locks). <br />
<br />
Times are changing and we are acknowledging the images that we entertain sometimes and even sharing illustrative photographs. Some of us are learning that women don't want to receive these photos by e-mail and that public revelation of them can be embarrassing.<br />
<br />
If Congressman Anthony Weiner used his elected official position to compel women to submit to sexual harassment, then he should be expelled from the Congress if he broke a law. The reality seems to be that he used a personal Twitter account for some playful sex-related foolishness, and now everyone wants to hang him as if none of us has done the same thing at some point.<br />
<br />
Weiner's adolescent children already understand perfectly well what he did, and it's up to Weiner to apologize to his wife and promise not to get caught doing it again, even as millions of other people continue to do what he did every single day.<b><br />
</b><br />
<b><a href="http://field-negro.blogspot.com/2011/06/enough-of-weinergate-lets-talk-about.html">Field Negro addressed</a></b> the Weiner weenie "issue" so I might as well do so as well, even though I could immerse myself in news about Brazil, where I am resident, and never hear about this petty and pathetic entirely personal <b><i>faux pax</i></b> at all. <br />
<br />
<a href="http://beta.news.yahoo.com/top-democratic-women-dodge-tough-call-weiner-204542152.html"><b>Yahoo News says:</b></a><br />
<blockquote><b>WASHINGTON (AP) — Pursed lips. Frosty glares. Polite demurrals. Icy silence. Women in politics are grappling with the distinctly unfunny choice of restraining themselves or letting rip what they really think about <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1307661857_1">Rep. Anthony Weiner</span>'s X-rated online conduct and whether he belongs in Congress.</b></blockquote><a href="http://field-negro.blogspot.com/2011/06/jumping-good-ship-newt.html"><b>Field Negro says</b></a>, and I agree whole-heartedly:<br />
<blockquote><div><b>. . . I wish these phony dumbocrats would stop calling for<a href="http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/06/08/6815477-six-democrats-call-for-weiner-to-resign"> Weiner's head</a>. Unless he broke a law he should stay right where he is. His constituents like him, and from the looks of the latest polls they want <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0611/56423.html">him back</a>. So Mr. Weiner, screw those phonies in Washington and focus on the people who sent you there.</b></div></blockquote><blockquote><div><b>They previously supported law breakers and Bubba when the chubby brunette was wetting<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewinsky_scandal"> his whistle</a>, they should support you. </b></div></blockquote>House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi says there should be a House Ethics Committee investigation to determine whether any laws or House rules were broken. <br />
<blockquote><b>Rep. Anthony Weiner should not look to fellow Democrats to be understanding about his widening Twitter scandal.</b><br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<b>Shortly after Weiner fessed up during an emotional New York City press conference that he lied about sending one lewd photo to a Seattle college student, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi called for the House Ethics Committee to immediately launch an investigation into Weiner's conduct. </b></blockquote><blockquote><b>"I am deeply disappointed and saddened about this situation; for Anthony's wife, Huma, his family, his staff and his constituents," Pelosi said in a written statement. "I am calling for an Ethics Committee investigation to determine whether any official resources were used or any other violation of House rules occurred."</b></blockquote>Congressman Weiner shouldn't have lied about this, but lies about things that are irrelevant to the case at hand don't usually constitute perjury, even in a court of law. The case at hand is whether sending photographs of his groin makes Weiner unfit for Congress. I think that's something his constituents should decide, since obscenity is a subjective matter to be decided according to a local community's standards. <br />
<br />
While Pelosi's call is a call for public embarrassment, which is inevitable and is already occurring, these House investigations almost never proceed to a decision by the House to unseat the miscreant. Only convictions for violating laws lead to that result, and it seems like a stretch at this point to say that Tweeting a picture of a clothed groin is a criminal act.<br />
<br />
I think President Bill Clinton realized after his Lewinsky ordeal that he had made a big mistake by appointing a special prosecutor to examine the semen stains under his desk. When Democrats call for investigations, the whole Party sometimes gets wound up in nonsense while the business of law-making is put off, or proceeds with a Republican public image advantage.<br />
<br />
No one American should get a letter or e-mail from a <i><b>Congressional</b></i> e-mail account that is filthy or illegal. Anyone who does receive such a letter can out the Congressperson involved and let the process of evaluating the behavior and our attitudes toward the behavior take its embarrassing but sometimes elucidating course.<br />
<br />
For example, we learned through Newt Gingrich's Lewinsky prosecution that nobody really gave a damn, but America was angry that valuable time and money had been wasted on the non-issue.<br />
<br />
People can call for Weiner to step down if they want to, but I think he should ignore them, unless he sees an overwhelming outrage erupt against him in his own district. And even then, he can wait until a recall movement starts or he is thrown out in next year's Congressional election.<br />
<br />
<center></center>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700647842766418549.post-4965629425132692192011-06-05T17:47:00.001-07:002011-06-05T17:47:51.005-07:00Sylvia Harris: "My Bipolar Life, and the Horses Who Saved Me"<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB8Ij5QSq_J1WfgoFqw267GTPd-EAzS2PU753x9ZJexJu5qxjnVhICkSRw8aOGcQf_zBO0Tcn0YWbImgsgD2-wAjy5XQWV6TR_Bdgw2kKs7Nbqs030ejByXhyphenhyphenOPQU2mI_xX4IAViiyeck/s1600/Sylvia+Harris+Book+Cover.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB8Ij5QSq_J1WfgoFqw267GTPd-EAzS2PU753x9ZJexJu5qxjnVhICkSRw8aOGcQf_zBO0Tcn0YWbImgsgD2-wAjy5XQWV6TR_Bdgw2kKs7Nbqs030ejByXhyphenhyphenOPQU2mI_xX4IAViiyeck/s400/Sylvia+Harris+Book+Cover.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Can Blacks have mental illnesses?</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>I am certain that my older brother, Danny, died of bipolar/manic-depressive illness and the psychosis that so often accompanies the illness. I, too, have been diagnosed as manic-depressive or "hypo-manic" (kind of manic but not all the way out there).<br />
<br />
"Danny" was last seen alive in 1989. When I think of him, I wish I had learned earlier what I see mirrored in the book I review today.<br />
<br />
Sylvia Harris, with an amazing autobiography just out, is a Black woman who achieved her dream of riding a winning horse in a nationally famous derby, in spite of (and perhaps partially because of) her bipolar/manic depression. She outlines her struggle in the two preface pages below, but her entire autobiography holds details and experiences that can help all Americans better understand bipolar/manic-depressive illness.<br />
<br />
I've been diagnosed with bipolar illness, but I've learned (as Sylvia Harris did) to be suspicious of my flights of fancy, my whims and grandiosity, and to be sure that I do not outrageously exaggerate my abilities to myself and others.<br />
<br />
Like Harris, I've also learned to have a healthy doubt of the voices in my head that tell me that I'm worse than not worth anything at all, and that I would be less unhappy if I were dead. <br />
<br />
The author and I have both learned that the appropriate medication can be as crucial as the steering wheel in your car: It's no guarantee against accidents, but your a lot safer having it than not.<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://s131.photobucket.com/albums/p316/francislholland/?action=view&current=Longshot-MyBipolarLifePreface01.png" target="_blank"><img alt="bipolar,bi-polar,manic-depressive,mental illness,psychotic,mania,depression,Black,African-American,jockey,horse,downs,Chicago,race,racing,Irish,Spanish,Pedro Almodovar" border="0" src="http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p316/francislholland/Longshot-MyBipolarLifePreface01.png" /></a><br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://s131.photobucket.com/albums/p316/francislholland/?action=view&current=Longshot-MyBipolarLifePreface02.png" target="_blank"><img alt="bipolar,bi-polar,manic-depressive,mental illness,psychotic,mania,depression,Black,African-American,jockey,horse,downs,Chicago,race,racing,Irish,Spanish,Pedro Almodovar,Sylvia,Harris" border="0" src="http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p316/francislholland/Longshot-MyBipolarLifePreface02.png" /></a><br />
<br />
Sylvia Harris autobiography is a road map of bipolar illness, but it signals the way clearly so that other bipolars, their families and friends need not spend Sylvia's forty years learning what they could learn by reading her autobiography in a couple of afternoons.<br />
<br />
Some people are so fortunate as to learn by reading of others' experiences, and thereby avoid some of the hurt and pain that they would otherwise cause to themselves and others. If you are one of those who can learn from others, then this book is for you and for the bipolar people you love.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700647842766418549.post-89241233953677689832011-06-05T15:31:00.000-07:002011-06-05T15:34:26.077-07:00Palin's Big Lies Strike Big Targets While Her Assurances are Reminiscent of (Election-Winning) "Compassionate Conservatism"<a href="http://www.theroot.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/large-image/sarah-palin-biker-400.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Palin's Nonsense About Debt-Ceiling Warnings" border="0" class="imagecache imagecache-large-image imagecache-default imagecache-large-image_default" height="200" src="http://www.theroot.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/large-image/sarah-palin-biker-400.jpg" title="Palin's Nonsense About Debt-Ceiling Warnings" width="320" /></a>Sarah Palin is the kind of Republican candidate who drives the press insane, because she keeps making statements that are barely true or completely false, but her supporters eat it up and there's nothing the press can do about it. They try to juxtapose her with assertions with their realities, but she has become smart enough not to lie and exaggerate about things that are easily fact checked.<br />
<br />
She goes for the high-profile issues about which neither the public nor the politicians are sure and honest, and she makes signature statements that defame the opposition while crystalizing her in the minds of her supporters as someone who tells the truths that the politicians refuse to hear.<br />
<br />
For example, <a href="http://www.theroot.com/views/palin-spouts-nonsense-about-debt-ceiling-warnings"><b>The Root says that:</b></a><br />
<blockquote><div class="field field-type-text field-field-blurb"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item"><b>The Republican mischief maker is at it again, and this time her target is the Treasury secretary.</b></div></div></div><div class="field field-type-text field-field-sfblurb"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item"><b> </b></div></div></div><div class="field field-type-date field-field-postdate"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item"><b><span class="date-display-single"></span></b> </div></div></div><b>Earlier this week, Sarah Palin demonstrated <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/post/palin-v-bachmann-why-certain-stars-should-never-dabble-in-politics/2011/03/04/AGUEeaFH_blog.html" target="_blank">why certain stars should never dabble in politics</a> when she said the Republican Party platform is "best for America" because "[i]t's all about respecting equality." Never mind the document calls for etching discrimination into the Constitution with an amendment banning same-sex marriage. Well, yesterday, Palin was at it again. </b></blockquote>This is precisely how Ronald Reagan won the presidency: by conjuring Black welfare queens who were at the heart of all of America's problems, while promising that America (not the Republican Party) was a land of liberty and freedom. Likewise, Sarah Palin knows how to tell the big lies with a straight and even enthusiastic face, insisting that the Republican platform is about "respecting equality" even though it specifically singles out gays for unequal treatment.<br />
<br />
Likewise, presidential candidate Ronald Reagan said America had equality for all, while winking to his color-aroused antagonist supporters that, if necessary, he would send US troops to South Africa to maintain the "normalcy" (of apartheid). When Reagan refused to acknowledge the contradictions inherent in his pro-American but anti-Black nonsense, there was nothing the press or Black politicians could do to turn the truth against him. Americans wanted to believe his nonsense, and they weren't going to let mere human beings from the media spoil their party.<br />
<br />
More substantively and truthfully, Sarah Palin (let's start calling her Governor Palin, lest we underestimate her) points out that Treasury Secretary Geithner has issued deadline after deadline on the debt ceiling, without any obvious proof that missing his deadlines had any clear effect on anything in the nation. She has a point when she asks why we should be hurried into something like the bank bailouts that were far more expensive than necessary and haven't proved to fix the mortgage crisis or high unemployment.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.theroot.com/views/palin-spouts-nonsense-about-debt-ceiling-warnings"><b>The Root continues:</b></a><br />
<blockquote><b>This time sputtering nonsense about Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's warnings about the danger of not raising the national debt limit.</b><br />
<br />
<b>Palin took time out from stomping all over Mitt Romney's announcement in New Hampshire that he is running for president to cast aspersions on Geithner while she was at a clambake in New Hampshire.</b><br />
<br />
<b>"If the debt ceiling were to be increased based on what I believe to be Timothy Geithner's false statements to the American public -- that a catastrophe would befall us all if the debt ceiling isn't raised -- a failure of leadership in the House would be if we were to cave and believe that." </b></blockquote><blockquote><b>And what did Palin mean by <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0611/56147.html#ixzz1OCxdhBZF" target="_blank">"false statements"</a>? The half-term governor of Alaska and 2008 Republican vice-presidential nominee explained that Geithner has "given us now four different due dates where catastrophe would befall us if the debt ceiling is not raised. ... <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/palin-visits-new-hampshire--just-after-romney-announcement/2011/06/02/AGu6vWHH_story.html" target="_blank">Well, once bitten, twice shy.</a> How many more times are we going to have to hear this date change?" </b></blockquote>I've always been against Obama's white guy economists and bankers; they showed no concern for Blacks and homeowners or the lower and middle class when they were raking in the dough as bankers, so why should we believe that they have our best interests at heart now. Nothing they have done has benefited much of anyone but themselves and their collegial banking cronies.<br />
<br />
This is a serious weakness for the Obama Administration and Palin can't be faulted for pointing it out. There are billions of dollars left in program coffers to help the people losing their homes, and Geithner can't be bothered to work out a populist program to spend the money that has already been approved by Congress.<br />
<br />
Obama's upper-crust banking friends are a liability for him today and in the future, just as they were when they came on board. The tone was set publicly when Obama chose Lawrence H. Summers as his chief economic adviser, even though as President of Harvard University Summers had very publicly, in a speech to a women's forum, doubted the relative intelligence of women and Blacks.<br />
<br />
I'd hate to see the Republicans win in 2012, but the Summers/Geithner axis is as good a reason for change as any. I wish I could argue that Palin's advisers would be even worse, but with extensions for tax cuts for the richest and a full-on Government refusal to help those whose mortgages are under water, it's harder to imagine (at the moment) how the Republicans will be considerably worse.<br />
<br />
Palin might be the Republican nominee. <b>I</b><a href="http://truth-about-mccain.blogspot.com/2009/07/dont-count-sarah-palin-out-in-2012.html"><b>'m saying so again today, and </b><b>I said it on July 30, 2009, as Palin resigned the Alaska Governor's Office</b></a>: <br />
<blockquote><a href="http://dasnotesfromunderground.blogspot.com/"><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Some blogs are saying</span></b></a><b> her resignation speech <span style="font-weight: bold;">was <a href="http://www.themudflats.net/2009/07/27/palins-farewell-address-full-transcript/">terrible</a></span> and will exclude her from contention for the Republican nomination in 2012, but I think they're probably wrong.</b><br />
<br />
<b>In spite of the fact that I don't like Sarah Palin anymore than I would have wanted McCain for president </b><b><a href="http://truth-about-mccain.blogspot.com/">(see my Truth About McCain Blog)</a>, I think Sarah Palin's speech was actually pretty good.</b><br />
<br />
<b>She mentioned the troops and the military several times. She described the state of Alaska in glowing and engaging terms that would make people less resistant to having a president from Alaska.</b><br />
<br />
<b>Palin talked about her commitment to all of the issues are seen as most important by the extreme right voters who decide the Republican presidential nominee: small government, low taxes, helping and respecting small businesses, opposition to abortion, commitment to family (she said that was part of the reason she was resigning).</b><br />
<br />
<b>I actually think that, for what she was trying to accomplish, which was to announce her candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, the speech was very effective. Remember: She's not trying to convince liberals, leftists or the media. She's trying to create a coalition of right-wing hate groups who will support her candidacy in 2012, and I think she's doing that. At least, I think her speech was a successful run at it.</b><br />
<br />
<b>Don't count Palin out. The very fact that she is known all over the Internet for disparaging Blacks and Native Americans will HELP HER with the Republicans who vote in Republican primaries.</b><br />
<br />
<b>She's got an entire dead bear in her office in Alaska, which gives her the 100% support of the NRA going in.</b></blockquote>The press ridiculed Ronald Reagan because he got his facts wrong. The Republican right-wing extremists adored Reagan because he was willing to tell such big lies in the defense of right-wing interests. In Massachusetts, Palin invented gunfire and ringing bells to go along with her comments about the Ride of Paul Revere.<br />
<br />
Listen closely to the last phrase of her comments, to the effect that, "the Revolution was fought with guns and we're not giving up our guns". In other words, 'Revolt against the present Government (led by President Obama) and Sarah Palin supports your right to keep and bear arms.' If that wrong-facts sound-bite gets her the support of the gun rights lobbies, then it was worth it no matter how badly she garbled the facts of Paul Revere.<br />
<br />
Pay attention! Paul Revere is more "American" with guns blaring and bells ringing than without them, even if these details are more Star Wars than reality.<br />
<br />
Palin has never taken an official action that was manifestly liberal or non-conservative. She showed the appropriate Republican disrespect for Native Americans as Governor of Alaska and she was as ruthless as Karl Rove when dealing with those who crossed her, even accidentally.<br />
<br />
The only reason for Republicans <b><i>not</i></b> to nominate Palin is that she's a woman, but then they nominated her once in spite of that, and the sitting President is a Black man. If Republicans come to feel that Palin is the heir to Reagan's legacy of telling big lies and making the media and liberals apoplectic, then Republicans will nominate Sarah Palin.<br />
<br />
The only question is whether she can stick to Republican generalities (support for guns; robust imperialism; anti-abortion; love for the middle class combined with opposition to policies that would help the middle and lower-class), then Sarah Palin could be a formidable candidate for the presidency. "Morning in American" platitudes will get you everywhere with 51% of America, in the middle of a recession.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700647842766418549.post-51214350941236278132011-05-28T07:53:00.000-07:002011-05-28T07:54:58.026-07:00What is the Future of Black Journalism and Blacks in Journalism in the Electronic Media Internet Age?<h2 class="date-header"></h2><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=2700647842766418549&postID=5121435094123627813" name="5314673309588828499"></a> <br />
<div class="post-header"></div><a href="http://africanamericanpundit.blogspot.com/2011/05/is-corporate-black-blogs-destroying.html"><b>African American Political Pundit</b></a> is concerned about the effect that large corporate-owned Black sections of white newspapers (like The Root) and also Black-owned big-box blogs could have on<br />
<blockquote>(a) Black readership migrating to white-owned outlets and leaving Black independent blogs behind, and<br />
<br />
(b) Blacks leaving the white-news news rooms that they fought so hard to get into and migrating to Black blogs where they can finally write in their own voices about issues of unique interest to Black people.</blockquote>He asks,<br />
<blockquote><h3 class="post-title entry-title"><a href="http://africanamericanpundit.blogspot.com/2011/05/is-corporate-black-blogs-destroying.html">Are Corporate Black Blogs Destroying Black Employment In Mainstream Media? </a></h3><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Earlier this month I wondered <span class="tl"><a class="l" href="http://ancestralenergies.blogspot.com/2011/05/uh-oh-now-hes-said-it.html"><span style="color: #2200c1;">out loud</span></a></span> about <b>Corporate black blogs</b> like <span class="tl"><a class="l noline" href="http://thyblackman.com/2011/05/01/the-root-wapo-and-the-grio-nbc-working-to-control-black-american-politics/"><span style="color: #2200c1;">The Root (WAPO) and The Grio (NBC) Working To Control Black political and social opinion<b>.</b></span></a></span></span> </blockquote><blockquote><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Ok, Now I'm wondering: Are Corporate Black Blogs Destroying Black Employment In Mainstream Media? Danielle Wright over at <a href="http://www.bet.com/news/national/2011/05/26/black-reporters-leaving-mainstream-media-for-black-news-outlets.html"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">BET.com</span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> is making me wonder out loud based on the article "<b>Black Reporters are Leaving Mainstream Media for Black News Outlets</b>."</span></span></blockquote>The article cited, <a href="http://www.bet.com/news/national/2011/05/26/black-reporters-leaving-mainstream-media-for-black-news-outlets.html"><b>"Black Reporters are Leaving . . ."</b></a>, says<br />
<blockquote><b>Between 2001 and 2011, the number of African-Americans in the newsrooms of mainstream newspapers dropped 34 percent, <a href="http://asne.org/key_initiatives/diversity/newsroom_census/table_o.aspx" target="_blank">according</a> to a 2010 survey by the American Society of News Editors. In 2010, 4.68 percent of US mainstream print-newsroom-jobs were held by African-Americans, a drop from 5.5 percent in 2006.</b></blockquote><blockquote><b>( . . . )</b> <b><br />
</b></blockquote><blockquote><b>Kathy Times, president of the National Association of Black Journalists, calls the drop in minorities at major outlets “devastating.” During a visit to the <i>Houston Chronicle</i>, which caters to a city proper that is almost 63 percent African-American, she saw zero Blacks among the sixteen editors in a news meeting she attended.</b><br />
<br />
<b>Though the increase in Black news outlets is great, let’s hope that it’s not at the cost of sharing diverse issues with the general public through a mainstream platform.</b></blockquote>While I think this is horrible for Black America and Black journalists, I don't think it's entirely due to Black journalists' preferences. Some white newspapers have shut down and others have drastically reduced their staffs in recent years, and Blacks are typically "last-hired and first-fired." That, alone, explains some of the dramatic loss of Blacks at white-news papers.<br />
<br />
I suspect that, knowing that they could lose their jobs at any moment anyway, as the corporate media amalgamates and downsizes, Blacks might even feel more professionally and financially secure at Black media outlets. In any case, Black reporters, writers and journalists background and identity as Black people is more likely to be a key asset at a Black blog. I am never surprised that Blacks are lacking in any field of US corporate or public sector endeavor. Aggrieved, yes. Surprised, no.<br />
<br />
On the one hand, it seems like Blacks are just as likely to be lawyers and doctors as they are to write for white-news papers. This is a fact that has angered me since childhood, particularly when I read white-skinned reporters' reviews of Black movies and these reports were almost always negative. I remember reading in a white paper that "The Color Purple" was 'preachy, too long and not very funny.'<br />
<br />
"Preachy" means that white journalists are challenged to look at their role as whites and they hadn't expected or wanted to have that experience at the theatre. "Long" means it focuses too much and too profoundly on Black characters' lives; and "not funny" means there were jokes that only Black people would understand and find ironic and funny. Even if white journalists understand the joke they are angry rather than amused, because the joke is at their whiteist expense.<br />
<br />
So, it makes perfect sense to me that Black journalists who aren't forced out of the white-news media by downsizing are choosing to move to Black-focused outlets where they don't feel like the only Black person at a Klan meeting. They can write pieces to people like themselves, based on their sense of what is interesting to Blacks and what Blacks need to know. That's never been the forte or purpose of white-news outlets, so it's encouraging to me that new Internet ventures have created an opportunity for Blacks to write to and about Blacks.<br />
<br />
I sense African American Pundits concern about where all of this will leave Black America and Black journalists, but we have to remember where we came from. In the 1980's Blacks were rare in newsrooms and being progressively down-sized out of their professions, with no ready alternatives. The acknowledgment that Blacks are a big audience with significant buying power and we want content written and for us, at the big white-news papers and by entrepreneurial Black outlets, has only helped Black America, in my opinion.<br />
<br />
Each day I get an e-mail of the Black-related stories from the Washington Post, which are now collected together at a separate entity called, "The Root," but with the backing of the Washington Post. I honestly could never have imagined in 1970 that that could happen using white capital at a white-news paper.<br />
<br />
And now with the entrepreneurial talents of Blacks creating organs for Black thought and community, I've never felt better as a Black consumer of Black news and opinion. Where this will go is anyone's bet, but for the moment I see Blacks earning salaries or equity in the media and I see Black audiences better served.<br />
<br />
Let us also not forget that there are issues involving Black people that can never be adequately addressed in the white-news corporate media, and perhaps not even in Black online outlets with a profit motive. Each day brings more Black bloggers who refuse to accept advertisements at their blogs, so that they can write the whole truth unencumbered by white money and white sensibilities or the fear of losing advertisers and access to capital.<br />
<br />
This last category of bloggers--the independent self-financed bloggers with day-jobs--are serving the purpose that the Black Panther Paper once served in the Black community: telling us the raw news as it is, and making us doubt our role in America while redoubling our efforts to keep one step ahead of white America's (in)justice system. Until whites change their attitudes radically toward Blacks, there will always be a place for independent Black bloggers because the police will never stop profiling, targeting, harassing, arresting, prosecuting and imprisoning Blacks at rates "inexplicably" higher that those of whites.<br />
<br />
These are the bloggers who are developing and engaging in action plans to confront white-news, white-politics, and white-justice. Whatever the range of white print on the Web, we should expect that and more of Black Internet communication, which means that we will all have a role as time progresses.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700647842766418549.post-73026736470824972262011-05-26T08:40:00.000-07:002011-05-26T09:05:39.702-07:00Are White Women with Naturally Straight Hair as Attractive as Black Women With Natural Braids and Rasta Locks?<h1 class="title"></h1><a href="http://photobucket.com/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket" border="0" height="292" src="http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p316/francislholland/Braids-Teresa1.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
<b></b><br />
<b>My Wife, Teresa Francisco Holland, </b><br />
<b>Does Not Straighten, Iron or Otherwise Mutilate Her African Hair, </b><br />
<b>Letting Her Dreads Swing Naturally.</b><br />
<br />
<b>Cross-posted at the <a href="http://francislholland.blogspot.com/2007/04/bronzetrinity-highlights-hair-style.html">Francis L. Holland Blog</a>.</b><br />
<br />
We need to study our own culture, including traditional African hairstyles throughout the Diaspora, and prefer our <a href="http://4images.aliciakeysfan.com/details.php?image_id=644">own hair culture</a> to that of whites. This is about esteeming ourselves, but it also has some very practical advantages.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5FclbUYo1-XHVpMHB_3EyXb3goSHMZ5maRaplhCuDbv9jkXAh9cH0c0-A2ql4UGjUT-NgcRyGMo-y4LGSHSyxw3m28nl282902F9965B6XwnwU7WZ2keJ2CiSDOwEiyD3cIhwlUapdbc_/s1600/bad-hair-day.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5FclbUYo1-XHVpMHB_3EyXb3goSHMZ5maRaplhCuDbv9jkXAh9cH0c0-A2ql4UGjUT-NgcRyGMo-y4LGSHSyxw3m28nl282902F9965B6XwnwU7WZ2keJ2CiSDOwEiyD3cIhwlUapdbc_/s320/bad-hair-day.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Failing at Whiteness</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<br />
I told my Afro-Brazilian wife about the hairstyle/culture/self-esteem concerns expressed by Bronze Trinity and in the video: that although whites constantly wave their hair about like horses wave their manes, natural Black hair does not wave about in the wind like white hair can. An afro stays put. In response to this, my wife tossed her head to and fro and her beautiful long dreadlocks flew in the wind around her, just like white hair does, but better for us, because my wife's hair is not the product of harmful chemicals, hot irons or money spent at white-people stores, making white people wealthy and us poorer. <br />
<blockquote><b>Braids are ideal hair styling options for all-year round action like swimming, camping, or sports. Opting to braid your hair is a perfect choice when transitioning from chemically straightened tresses to au natural tresses. They give your hair a rest from styling aids like chemicals and hot irons while protecting your natural tresses. <a href="http://www.bivi.net/fashion/index.html">Bivi.Net</a> </b></blockquote>There are so many <a href="http://www.braidsmostwanted.com/Braid_Pictures.html">stunningly beautiful ways</a> for us to wear our hair in Braids. Long, flowing, beautifully organized and maintained <a href="http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/braids/">braids</a> and dreadlocks, on the other hand, are an ancient African cultural art form that highlights our beauty, history and culture all at once, without making an new industry for "the man". One Black man said, "If God had wanted us to have straight hair, we would have been born that way. <a href="http://www.braidsmostwanted.com/In_The_News.html">I accept me as I am.</a>"<br />
<br />
When we <a href="http://www.margaretsbraidsandweaves.com/braids.html">braid</a> our hair, all of the money generated stays within the Black community because whites don't care to learn to braid and because no fancy chemicals, machines or treatments are needed for beautiful braids. Just as African women braided their hair before the invention of electricity, during the time of the construction of the Pyramids we can do so today, with <a href="http://www.seemeonline.com/service/beauty/dcsalon.html">great beauty</a> and tremendous longevity.<br />
<br />
A Black person with straightened hair is like Cinderella, who is out of her element and waiting for her horse and carriage to turn into a pumpkin at midnight. If our hair has been straightened and then gets wet, there is no fairy prince who is going to save us from the embarrassment that comes when the forces of nature denounce us as cheap immitations of traditional whiteness. Unless our hair is Braided, it returns to its natural curls when wet, like nature telling us to "just be ourselves" and refusing to play along with our attempts at white identity appropriation. <br />
<a href="http://photobucket.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket" border="0" src="http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p316/francislholland/Braidswithhat.jpg" /></a><br />
<br />
Although they complement our straightened hair to our faces, whites secretly laugh at us for spending so much of our time and money trying to look like them.<br />
When I was single, I couldn't let a woman with Braids walk by without at least learning her name and complimenting her hairstyle. Braids are THAT compelling. <br />
<a href="http://photobucket.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket" border="0" src="http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p316/francislholland/Braids-DamnThatsSexy.jpg" /></a> . . . <a href="http://photobucket.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket" border="0" src="http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p316/francislholland/Braids-12-1.jpg" /></a> . . . <a href="http://photobucket.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket" border="0" src="http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p316/francislholland/Braids14.jpg" /></a> . . . <a href="http://photobucket.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket" border="0" src="http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p316/francislholland/Braids13.jpg" /></a> . . . <a href="http://photobucket.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket" border="0" src="http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p316/francislholland/Braids6.jpg" /></a><br />
<b>Girl, those Braids are sexy!</b><br />
<br />
I once went out with a woman who had long, beautiful braids when I met her. I found her irresistable and I told her so, because she had the uniquely beautiful curves of an African woman and long flowing braids that reminded me of our culture and our ancestors.<br />
<br />
But, then she straightened her hair. She became afraid to come with me to the beach or get near ocean-spray, because the forces of nature would make her chemically-treated hair would revert to its natural curls. She no longer wanted to learn to swim or take long walks on rainy days. We broke up, because she was no longer the woman I had met.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700647842766418549.post-30330479268695291822011-05-21T21:53:00.000-07:002011-05-21T21:53:27.050-07:00Book Review: Sylvia Harris' Autobiography of Bipolar Disorser and Salvation at the Horse TracksThe new book, "Long Shot: My Bipolar Life and the Horses Who Saved Me," is a must-read for those like me who struggle with bipolar illness, as well as for professionals caregivers and family members who want to understand Bipolar patients and have a sincere desire to help. As someone who has seen this process from the inside, I can and do vouch for the anguish it causes in the patient, family and career. <br />
<br />
The author, Sylvia Harris, describes exactly what it was like to be somewhat manic, floridly manic, psychotically manic and depressed. She recalls a time when she cycled through these stages with no idea of what has happening to her, clueless as to the exit from the perpetual emotional roller coaster. <br />
<br />
Through her painfully honest autobiography, she gives readers an inside view of her manic-depressive problem and how she overcame its worst aspects by striving for meaning and healthy excitement. Desiring to become a horse trainer and eventually a jockey, she demonstrates that we need not achieve all that we want in order to benefit from the pursuit of our dreams. <br />
<br />
Without specifically saying so, she demonstrates the similarities between Bipolar illness, alcoholism and drug addiction, in which many sufferers, their families, circle of friends and employers must often acknowledge the illness and their personal powerlessness over it, before they can find relief and redemption. <br />
<br />
Harris courageously describes learning to realize when an attack of mania was beginning and what--for her--triggered those attacks. <br />
<br />
Not all readers (including myself) will identify with Harris' love for horses and the essential role they came to have in Harris' rehabilitation. But, everyone perceives that having a personally meaningful goal toward which we strive helps us to find meaning in life when our lives would otherwise seem to us to be meaningless. <br />
<br />
Essentially, Bipolars often have a necessity for a goal and aspiration larger than life, lest we be overcome by depression and the conviction that our lives are meaningless. <br />
<br />
As in any worthwhile autobiography, Sylvia Harris brings the reader along on the trail to overcoming the worst her difficulties, while acknowledging that some "wreckage of the past" is inevitable but not utterly insoluble. <br />
<br />
I personally do not read prefaces or introductions to autobiographies, because of their tendency to remove the mystery and discovery process from the narrative itself. Sylvia Harris's "Long Shot: My Bipolar Life and the Horses Who Saved Me" ends realistically, in a manner with which we may all be able to identify. <br />
<br />
If you enjoy the thrill of discovering what happens at the end of Sylvia Harris' autobiography, then don't read the introduction and preface at the beginning. <br />
<br />
Read the whole autobiography and learn what happens just as Sylvia Harris did: one day and one experience at a time. <br />
<br />
You can't be of help to a Bipolar person or patient unless you understand their world from their perspective, as well as from your own (probably) vastly different perspective on the patient and the illness. This is maddeningly frustrating, but true nonetheless. <br />
<br />
This book provides a heartfelt, and searingly honest account of life for those like me who struggle with bipolar illness, as well as for professionals, caregivers and family members who want to understand <br />
Bipolar patients and who have a sincere desire to help.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700647842766418549.post-43833268388226029182011-05-16T17:39:00.000-07:002011-05-16T18:12:01.993-07:00"Race" and Blood Types, Superstition and ScienceWould you rather have a blood transfusion from someone who shares your skin color or from someone who shares your blood type? It is my belief that transfusing blood from one person to another based on skin color would be a extraordinarily dangerous practice. The <a href="http://www.redcrossblood.org/learn-about-blood/blood-types"><b>American Red Cross</b></a>, <a href="http://www.redcrossblood.org/donating-blood"><b>which maintains blood banks</b></a>, says:<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-left: 40px;"><b>Although all blood is made of the same basic elements, not all blood is alike. In fact, there are eight different common blood types, which are determined by the presence or absence of certain antigens – substances that can trigger an immune response if they are foreign to the body. Since some antigens can trigger a patient's immune system to attack the transfused blood, safe blood transfusions depend on careful blood typing and cross-matching.</b></div><br />
The blood table below, broken out by "race," shows that blood types do not obey superstitious sociological and cultural notions of "race". The following chart from the <a href="http://www.redcrossblood.org/learn-about-blood/blood-types"><b>American Red Cross</b></a> shows that if all Caucasians received O+ blood transfusions on the logic that O+ is most common among Caucasians, then sixty-three percent of white people would receive the WRONG blood type during transfusions.<br />
<br />
Most white people would have a higher chance of receiving the proper blood type from an Hispanic person (53%O+) than they would from another white person, since the most common blood type among whites is (O+ 37%) and is also most common among Hispanics (O+53%) of Hispanics have that blood type. <br />
<br />
If a white person with type O+ blood needs a battle-field transfusion and medics don't know the blood types of another white person available and an Hispanic person available, the best bet (53% O+) would be to give the white person a transfusion from a Hispanic person--NOT another white person. <br />
<br />
All white people have a lesser chance of having O+ blood than do Hispanics (O+53). <span style="background-color: #ffff33;"></span><br />
<br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background-color: #ffff33; width: 480px;"><tbody>
<tr class="dates-bg-dkgray"> <td align="center" valign="top" width="40"><div></div></td> <td align="center" valign="top" width="110"><div><b>Caucasians</b></div></td> <td align="center" valign="top" width="110"><div><b>African American</b></div></td> <td align="center" valign="top" width="110"><div><b>Hispanic</b></div></td> <td align="center" valign="top" width="110"><div><b>Asian</b></div></td> </tr>
<tr class="dates-bg-gray"> <td align="center" valign="top"><div><b>O +</b></div></td> <td align="center" valign="top"><div align="center">37%</div></td> <td align="center" valign="top"><div align="center">47%</div></td> <td align="center" valign="top"><div align="center">53%</div></td> <td align="center" valign="top"><div align="center">39%</div></td> </tr>
<tr class="dates-bg-white"> <td align="center" valign="top"><div><b>O -</b></div></td> <td align="center" valign="top"><div align="center">8%</div></td> <td align="center" valign="top"><div align="center">4%</div></td> <td align="center" valign="top"><div align="center">4%</div></td> <td align="center" valign="top"><div align="center">1%</div></td> </tr>
<tr class="dates-bg-gray"> <td align="center" valign="top"><div><b>A +</b></div></td> <td align="center" valign="top"><div align="center">33%</div></td> <td align="center" valign="top"><div align="center">24%</div></td> <td align="center" valign="top"><div align="center">29%</div></td> <td align="center" valign="top"><div align="center">27%</div></td> </tr>
<tr class="dates-bg-white"> <td align="center" valign="top"><div><b>A -</b></div></td> <td align="center" valign="top"><div align="center">7%</div></td> <td align="center" valign="top"><div align="center">2%</div></td> <td align="center" valign="top"><div align="center">2%</div></td> <td align="center" valign="top"><div align="center">0.5%</div></td> </tr>
<tr class="dates-bg-gray"> <td align="center" valign="top"><div><b>B +</b></div></td> <td align="center" valign="top"><div align="center">9%</div></td> <td align="center" valign="top"><div align="center">18%</div></td> <td align="center" valign="top"><div align="center">9%</div></td> <td align="center" valign="top"><div align="center">25%</div></td> </tr>
<tr class="dates-bg-white"> <td align="center" valign="top"><div><b>B -</b></div></td> <td align="center" valign="top"><div align="center">2%</div></td> <td align="center" valign="top"><div align="center">1%</div></td> <td align="center" valign="top"><div align="center">1%</div></td> <td align="center" valign="top"><div align="center">0.4%</div></td> </tr>
<tr class="dates-bg-gray"> <td align="center" valign="top"><div><b>AB +</b></div></td> <td align="center" valign="top"><div align="center">3%</div></td> <td align="center" valign="top"><div align="center">4%</div></td> <td align="center" valign="top"><div align="center">2%</div></td> <td align="center" valign="top"><div align="center">7%</div></td> </tr>
<tr class="dates-bg-white"> <td align="center" valign="top"><div><b>AB -</b></div></td> <td align="center" valign="top"><div align="center">1%</div></td> <td align="center" valign="top"><div align="center">0.3%</div></td> <td align="center" valign="top"><div align="center">0.2%</div></td> <td align="center" valign="top"><div align="center">0.1%</div></td> </tr>
</tbody> </table><div><br />
</div><span style="font-size: small;"><b style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://mail.google.com/mail/goog_901943088"><b>Dr. Dennis O'Neil</b></a></span></b><a href="http://anthro.palomar.edu/vary/vary_3.htm"> <b>Behavioral Sciences Department, Palomar College, San Marcos, California writes: </b></a></span> <br />
<div style="margin-left: 40px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-left: 40px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><b style="font-weight: 400;">. . . patterns of ABO<span lang="en-us">, Rh,</span> and Diego blood type distributions are not similar to those for skin color or other so-called "racial" traits. The implication is that the specific causes responsible for the distribution of human blood types have been different than those for other traits that have been commonly employed to categorize people into "races." Since it would be possible to divide up humanity into radically different groupings using blood typing instead of other genetically inherited traits such as skin color, we have more conclusive evidence that the commonly used <b><a href="http://anthro.palomar.edu/vary/glossary.htm#typological_model">typological model</a></b> for understanding human variation is scientifically unsound.</b></span></div><div style="margin-left: 40px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><b style="font-weight: 400;">As a matter of science, <b>Dr. </b></b></span><span style="font-size: small;"><b style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://mail.google.com/mail/goog_901943088"><b>Dennis O'Neil concludes that the belief in "race" has less basis in science than other more medically useful groupings. He concludes that:</b></a></span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><b style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><b><br />
</b></span></b></span><br />
<div style="margin-left: 40px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><b style="font-weight: 400;">The more we study the precise details of human variation, the more we understand how complex are the patterns. They cannot be easily summarized or understood. Yet, this hard-earned scientific knowledge is generally ignored in most countries because of more demanding social and political concerns. As a result, discrimination based on presumed "racial" groups still continues.<span lang="en-us"> It is important to keep in mind that this "racial" classification often has more to do with cultural and historical distinctions than it does with biology. In a very real sense, "race" is a distinction that is created by culture not biology.</span></b></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700647842766418549.post-56382878798208372002011-05-16T04:27:00.000-07:002011-05-16T04:27:32.401-07:00"Obama Working to Rebuild [Rusty and Dry-Rotted] Grassroots Army (AP)"<div class="post-header"> </div>Every time I read a headline like ,<a class="ult_news_track fontLinkM" href="http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylc=X3oDMTF0dXU2OGxhBF9TAzM5ODMwMTA0MQRnc3RhdGUDMQRwb3MDNwRzZWMDBHNsawN0aXRsZQR0YXIDbmV3cy55YWhvby5jb20-/SIG=14aebqj89/EXP=1306752212/**http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110516/ap_on_el_ge/us_obama_are_you_in" target="_blank"><b>"Obama working to rebuild grassroots army (AP)</b>,"</a> I feel angry at President Obama. Why did Obama let the grassroots army go fallow in the first place? Maybe it was because he was going to capitulate on the public option and didn't want his supporters to vocally tell the media that Obama had lost his mind?<br />
<br />
President Obama is an intelligent man, and so I can't understand why he hasn't run the "permanent campaign" of Bill Clinton instead of winning the race and then effectively, passively, telling all of his supporters that the war was over and they could go home?<br />
<br />
This idiotic strategy was Obama's "Mission Accomplished". He should have known that people supported him because he gave them something to do to make the country better, and those same people were waiting for marching orders that would keep them busy until the next presidential election. NOTHING had been accomplished with the election of President Obama, except his election. All of the work lay ahead of the Obama forces, yet Obama ignored his student cadres, his union supporters, and even his war room to beat back Republican attacks on Democratic priorities. There is a strong argument to be made that Obama lost the Congress in 2010 because he ignored his ground troops in 2008 after the Election, and in 2009 and 2010.<br />
<br />
There is a significant difference between working on your supporters' priorities and getting your supporters working and active to push their priorities through Congress. When Obama went silent for months on national health care in 2009, he failed to provide the leadership that his own supporters needed in order to push a common agenda. <br />
<br />
The radios went silent, the requests for help (even financial help) disappeared, and Obama seems to have believed he had to turn his attention (and his political machine's attention) toward making the sausage in Washington that nobody wanted to eat.<br />
<br />
OK, that's not fair. Obama has done a lot of important things in office, so would someone kindly remind me what they were? That's the first part of getting Obama's most ardent supporters to vote themselves in 2012, never mind organizing them to get their friends, families and communities to vote. Like the aftermath to the bombing of the Twin Towers, Obama's comportment since he was elected has been a missed opportunity to bring his forces to the fore, to fight together for a common agenda.<br />
<br />
<b><a class="ult_news_track fontLinkM" href="http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylc=X3oDMTF0dXU2OGxhBF9TAzM5ODMwMTA0MQRnc3RhdGUDMQRwb3MDNwRzZWMDBHNsawN0aXRsZQR0YXIDbmV3cy55YWhvby5jb20-/SIG=14aebqj89/EXP=1306752212/**http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110516/ap_on_el_ge/us_obama_are_you_in" target="_blank">"Obama working to rebuild grassroots army (AP)"</a></b> is a polite way of saying, "Obama built a grass roots army for 2008, forgot about it and neglected it for two years, and only now realizes that the same army that he ignored for two years will be now be necessary for his re-election in 2012. There's something weird going on in Obama-land.<br />
<br />
Why didn't Obama call out this army to fight for national health care? Why didn't Obama call out this army to avoid losing the US House in 2010? Why didn't Obama call out this army to insist on <i><b>immediately</b></i> building wind power and solar energy resources when the Democrats had the US Congress, so that Republicans would have to tear them down to get rid of them?<br />
<br />
Why did brilliant Obama act so arrogant and self-sufficient for two years when arrogance and self-sufficiency and autocracy were do bloody dumb? It's not too late for Obama to win in 2012, but it's too late to prevent two years of a Republican House and it's too late to prevent the demise of the public option.<br />
<br />
Look at the bright side: <b><a class="ult_news_track fontLinkM" href="http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylc=X3oDMTF0dXU2OGxhBF9TAzM5ODMwMTA0MQRnc3RhdGUDMQRwb3MDNwRzZWMDBHNsawN0aXRsZQR0YXIDbmV3cy55YWhvby5jb20-/SIG=14aebqj89/EXP=1306752212/**http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110516/ap_on_el_ge/us_obama_are_you_in" target="_blank">"Obama (is) working to rebuild [Rusty and Dry-Rotted] grassroots army (AP)"</a></b>. If he hadn't left his car in a ditch for the last two years, then he wouldn't need to rebuild it in or to get it running again.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700647842766418549.post-19081759363497397722011-05-10T19:02:00.000-07:002011-05-10T19:02:29.130-07:00Electrocution Victim's Family Routed in California Taser Death CaseHat Tip to <a href="http://eddiegriffinbasg.blogspot.com/"><b>Eddie G. Griffin (BASG).</b></a><br />
<br />
Unfortunately, it seems that the estate of Robert Heston, and his family, have been routed so far in the electrocution device suit they first filed and was <a href="http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/memoranda/view_subpage.php?pk_id=0000007550"><b>first heard</b></a> in <b><a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aYJitFRQLpZk">San Jose District Court</a></b> and then <a href="http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/memoranda/view_subpage.php?pk_id=0000007550"><b>appealed</b></a> to the <a href="http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/memoranda/view_subpage.php?pk_id=0000007550"><b>United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. </b></a><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms,geneva;">Perhaps the family and their lawyers will petition for <a href="http://dictionary.law.com/Default.aspx?selected=625"><b><i>en banc</i> (full court)</b></a> review of the three-judge panel opinion, although their is no inherent right to en banc review and it is mostly granted in cases considered to be of great importance.</span></span><br />
<br />
With so many District Court appointments to be made and affirmed by the US Senate still, this case was heard by a three judge panel, composed RYMER and N.R. SMITH, Circuit Judges, and <b><a href="http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/memoranda/view_subpage.php?pk_id=0000007550">"The Honorable Ronald B. Leighton, United States District Judge for the Western District of Washington, sitting by designation."</a></b><br />
<br />
<b><a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aYJitFRQLpZk">Bloomberg reported in June 2008</a></b> that:<br />
<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 6.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><b>A San Jose, California, jury yesterday said Taser had failed to warn police in Salinas, California, that prolonged exposure to electric shock from the device could cause a risk of cardiac arrest. The jury awarded $1 million in compensatory damages and $5.2 million in punitive damages to the estate of Robert Heston, 40, and his parents. The jury cleared the police officers of any liability. </b></blockquote><br />
However, the District Court judge immediately threw out the punitive damages, while affirming the jury's compensatory damages finding.<br />
<br />
Now, the <a href="http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/memoranda/2011/05/05/09-15327.pdf"><b>United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit </b></a>has affirmed the lower court's denial of punitive damages AND thrown out the compensatory damages as well. <br />
<br />
In overturning the compensatory damages,<b> <a href="http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/memoranda/2011/05/05/09-15327.pdf">the Ninth Circuit said:</a></b><b><br />
</b> <br />
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 6.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><b>4. However, the district court abused its discretion when it affirmed the jury’s compensatory damages award to the estate. While the estate presented evidence suggesting that Heston was treated by emergency medical technicians, transported to the hospital, and received continuing medical treatment, it presented</b> <b>no evidence at trial showing compensable “loss or damage that the decedentsustained or incurred before death, . . . not includ[ing] any damages for pain,</b> <b>suffering, or disfigurement.’” County of L.A. v. Superior Court, 981 P.2d 68, 70 (Cal. 1999) (quoting Cal. Civ. Proc. Code § 377.34; emphasis altered). Thus, although the trial judge had discretion to “weigh the evidence” when it considered TASER’s motion for a new trial, it abused that discretion by denying the motion where there was simply no evidence to weigh in support of the jury award. See Air-Sea Forwarders, Inc. v. Air Asia Co., 880 F.2d 176, 190 (9th Cir. 1989). We </b><b>accordingly reverse and vacate the compensatory damages award.</b></blockquote><br />
In affirming the denial of punitive damages, the Court of Appeals found that:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 6.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><b>Under California law, punitive damages may be awarded when a plaintiff proves by clear and convincing evidence that a defendant acted with “such a</b></blockquote><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 6.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><b>7</b></blockquote><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 6.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><b>conscious and deliberate disregard of the interests of others that his conduct may<br />
be called willful or wanton.” Taylor v. Superior Court, 598 P.2d 854, 856<br />
(Cal. 1979) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted); see Cal. Civ. Code<br />
§ 3294(a). Here, TASER made efforts, albeit insufficiently, to warn its customers<br />
about the risks posed by prolonged TASER deployment. While this may amount to negligence, it does not rise to the level “willful or wanton” conduct. Tomaselli v. Transamerica Ins. Co., 31 Cal. Rptr. 2d 433, 444 n.14 (Ct. App. 1994) (such conduct must be “inconsistent with the hypothesis that [it] . . . was the result of . . . mere negligence or other such noniniquitous human failing.”). Moreover, although the jury found that a “reasonable manufacturer” would have known that prolonged TASER deployment may cause cardiac arrest, it answered “No” to the question asking whether TASER actually “knew” of that risk. We accordingly affirm the district court’s order vacating the punitive damages award to the estate.</b></blockquote><br />
The only victory for the plaintiff's lawyers and the public is that the <b><a href="http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/memoranda/2011/05/05/09-15327.pdf"><b>United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit</b></a></b> rejected a requested by Taser International that the plaintiffs pay Taser's legal fees. <br />
<br />
The Ninth Circuit Appeals judges said, <b><br />
</b> <br />
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 6.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><a href="http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/memoranda/2011/05/05/09-15327.pdf"><b>"Each party will bear its own costs." </b></a></blockquote><br />
because<b> </b>there was sufficient merit to the case that plaintiffs should not be penalized for having brought the case in the first place. <br />
<br />
Had the plaintiffs been ordered to pay legal fees it would have dissuaded families across the country from filing complaints against Taser International. <br />
<br />
Overall, this is a particularly bad case result for Taser petitioners, even though the <a href="http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/memoranda/2011/05/05/09-15327.pdf"><b>presiding judges said</b></a>,<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 6.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><b>This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent except as provided by 9th Cir. R. 36-3.</b></blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700647842766418549.post-43397913965060861132011-05-07T08:45:00.001-07:002011-05-07T08:45:26.808-07:00Black Agenda Report Reveals Obama and Imperialism<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgusrEQMXJb98k_k5yj2pCufXWy19JjhXxvfygVHkHJICkY5-O0ED5gSlWJsjTK_CrJpb5xaDqLmZBTQ3Q8iDPXZErH7glJCLcjn9EZTrd64NHtbBaxqS-cql0czgl_5eQ5jEBbJwX3mq4/s1600/leon_kuhn_bush_off_obama_on.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgusrEQMXJb98k_k5yj2pCufXWy19JjhXxvfygVHkHJICkY5-O0ED5gSlWJsjTK_CrJpb5xaDqLmZBTQ3Q8iDPXZErH7glJCLcjn9EZTrd64NHtbBaxqS-cql0czgl_5eQ5jEBbJwX3mq4/s400/leon_kuhn_bush_off_obama_on.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>What has changed, other than the face?</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table><blockquote><b><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"The killing of Bin Laden, if that's what it was, and the celebrations around it only ratify and affirm the lies that war, torture and empire are good and necessary, especially when carried out by Democrats." </span> -- </span></span></b>Black Agenda Report's <a href="http://blackagendareport.com/content/osama-obama-and-bush-apt-comparisons-missed-opportunities"><b>"Osama, Obama and Bush: Apt Comparisons, Missed Opportunities"</b></a>, with<b> <a href="http://www.leonkuhn.org.uk/">illustration by Leon Kuhn.</a></b></blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700647842766418549.post-78504765437321816932011-05-04T15:19:00.000-07:002011-05-04T15:19:57.401-07:00Obama Was Prescient on Bin Laden, but In a Way that is Mostly Irrelevant to American BlacksFirst posted at the <a href="http://francislholland.blogspot.com/2011/05/obama-was-prescient-on-bin-laden-but-in.html"><b>Francis L. Holland Blog</b></a>.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="post-header"> </div>I had hoped that people in the US and elsewhere would quickly forget about Bin Laden and refocus on 15% unemployment among Black American adults, but it doesn't seem like that refocusing is going to happen. President Obama and the "intelligence" agencies now have an endless supply of Osama Bin Laden mementos and goodies with which to regale the media and the public, and the story will be dragged out like the equally inconsequential death of Princess Diana.<br />
<br />
<b><a href="http://francislholland.blogspot.com/2011/05/with-osama-bin-laden-blacks-rejoice.html">A comment by TheEvilOne</a></b> prompts me to address the Bin Laden case again, only with respect to its political lessons and implications in the United States. <span style="color: black;"></span> <br />
<br />
What strikes me is that, if indeed Bin Laden was killed, Obama had a pretty good idea of what country he was in. Readers may remember that when Senators Clinton and Obama were running for Democratic nomination, Obama successfully avoided being called "anti-war" by promising to attack targets in <b>PAKISTAN</b> to 'get the terrorists," with or without Pakistan's permission. Hillary Clinton said Obama's plan was immature and illegal, but Obama stuck to his drones and won the nomination.<br />
<br />
Today, if anything that the CIA operatives are telling us on the news is true, Osama Bin Laden was, in fact, in <b>PAKISTAN</b>. Had it been known during the Democratic nomination primaries that Bin Laden was in Pakistan and Pakistan was refusing to cooperate with Bin Laden's capture, then both Clinton and Obama would have been compelled to talk tough about going into Pakistan. Obama promised to do it and kept his promise, while Clinton promised NOT to do it and lost the nomination to Obama.<br />
<br />
How was Obama so fortunate as to promise to effectively invade the very country where Bin Laden was hiding? It makes Obama seem pretty smart in retrospect, but in an irrelevant sort of way, from the perspective of Black Americans and their homes in foreclosure, or already living out of their cars.<br />
<br />
Of course, Obama has been invading foreign oil-producing countries at the average rate of one per year (Pakistan and then Libya), so we can expect him to invade six more oil-producing countries by the end of his second term. None of it will help Black people in the United States one bit.<br />
<br />
Black people are far more afraid of their local police and the all-white juries than they are of anyone in the Middle East or Africa, and with good reason: <a href="http://francislholland.blogspot.com/2011/05/with-osama-bin-laden-blacks-rejoice.html"><b>"TheEvilOne" pointed</b></a> to the following article, entitled, <b><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_208304577">"</a><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/rights/150785/the_failed_drug_war_has_created_a_human_rights_nightmare_--_how_can_this_happen_in_our_country_and_go_virtually_undiscussed/">The Failed Drug War Has Created a Human Rights Nightmare,"</a> </span></b>with strikingly similar facts and metaphors, like the fact that Obama-Land is not the "Promised Land," which is still out of reach, in large measure because white America targeted Black America for imprisonment and the loss of many of the rights of citizenship:<br />
<blockquote><b>We declared a war known as the War on Drugs. The war has driven the quintupling of our prison population in a few short decades. The vast majority of the startling increase in incarceration in America is traceable to the arrest and imprisonment of poor people of color for non-violent, drug-related offenses. Families have been torn apart, young lives shattered, as parents grieve the loss of loved ones to the system, often hiding their grief under a cloak of shame. Politicians claim that the enemy in this war in is a thing -- "drugs" -- not a group of people, but the facts prove otherwise.</b><br />
<br />
<div id="paragraph7" name="paragraph7"><b>African Americans have been admitted to prison on drug charges at a rate up to 57 times higher than whites. In some states, 80 to 90 percent of all drug offenders sent to prison have been African American. The rate of Latino imprisonment has been staggering as well. Although the majority of illegal drug users and dealers are white, three-fourths of all people imprisoned for drug offenses have been black and Latino.</b></div></blockquote>In my opinion, one million Blacks in US jails and prisons is a far more important statistic than 3,000 killed at Ground Zero. "Ground Zero" for Black people is the state prisons in the fifty states, and the felony convictions:<br />
<blockquote><b>Millions of people in the United States, primarily poor people of color, are denied the very rights supposedly won in the Civil Rights Movement: the right to vote, the right to serve on juries, and the right to be free from discrimination in employment, housing, access to education, and public benefits. They have been branded "criminals" and "felons" and now find themselves relegated to a permanent, second-class status for the rest of their lives.</b></blockquote>We feel as if we are under siege, because we <b><i>are</i></b> under siege. Every Black kid knows it and every Black parent and adult has fought it, but we are a minority--marginalized, repressed and imprisoned.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0