Sherrod vs. Vilsack

RDLN Graduate and Board Vice Chair Shirley Sherrod was appointed Georgia Director for Rural Development by Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack on July 25. Only days earlier, she learned that New Communities, a group she founded with her husband and other families (see below) has won a thirteen million dollar settlement in the minority farmers law suit Pigford vs Vilsack.

Minority Farm Settlement Justice Achieved - Congratulations to Shirley and Charles Sherrod!

We have wonderful news regarding the case of New Communities, Inc., the land trust that Shirley and Charles Sherrod established, with other black farm families in the 1960's. At the time, with holdings of almost 6,000 acres, this was the largest tract of black-owned land in the country. Now with a cash award of historic proportions, the group will be able to begin again.

In 1969, New Communities received a planning grant from OEO and was encouraged to expect substantial funding for implementation, but Governor Maddox would not permit further funds for the group to come into the state.

Nevertheless, New Communities built up farming operations to help retain the land. They had highway frontage where they had a farmers market to sell their crops. They raised hogs and sold the processed meat in a smokehouse they built on the highway. Their sugar cane mill on the highway also attracted customers. New Communities was ahead of the times in raising eight acres of Muscatine grapes, which are now widely grown in the area. They also farmed 1,500 acres of row crops, including corn, peanuts and soybeans.

Over the years, USDA refused to provide loans for farming or irrigation and would not allow New Communities to restructure its loans. Gradually, the group had to fight just to hold on to the land and finally had to wind down operations.

In 1985, as the land was being lost, Shirley entered the RDLN program. Previously, she had worked behind the scenes, but as she participated in RDLN, she began to realize her capacity as an up-front leader. She invited the Federation of Southern Cooperatives to sponsor her in the RDLN program, earned her master's degree with a thesis that continues to provide a blueprint for her ongoing work with black farmers and others, helped orient all succeeding groups of RDLN Leaders, and became vice chair of RDLN's Board of Directors. As you all know, Shirley is Georgia Lead for both the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund and the Southern Rural Black Women's Initiative. She has also chaired the board of the Farmers Legal Action Group, which has been active in the minority farmers law suit, along with the Federation and other groups. FSC and SRBWI hosted RDLN's National Network Assembly in 2006, during which Network members had a chance to immerse themselves in Civil Rights history, with the guidance of Shirley and Charles (the first field director of SNCC), Albany singers and others, and to visit the economic development projects that have grown out of that Civil Rights history.

The cash award acknowledges racial discrimination on the part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the years 1981-85. (President Reagan abolished the USDA Office of Civil Rights when he became President in 1981.) New Communities is due to receive approximately $13 million ($8,247,560 for loss of land and $4,241,602 for loss of income; plus $150,000 each to Shirley and Charles for pain and suffering). There may also be an unspecified amount in forgiveness of debt. This is the largest award so far in the minority farmers law suit (Pigford vs Vilsack).

---- New Communities, Inc., founded by Shirley and Reverend Charles Sherrod in 1970, went bankrupt in 1985. It was a 6000 acre communal type farm of family and friends. During Clinton's administration New Communities filed a lawsuit against the USDA. In 2009, days before her USDA appointment, Sherrod learned New Communities had won a $13 million lawsuit. The Pigford lawsuit to date has cost taxpayers over $1 billion.

Ca-ching ca-ching.

Shirley is considering a lawsuit against Breitbart. Shirley is considering the new job offer from Vilsack, and is holding out for a call from Obama. I think my first impression of the lady may be correct after all. She knows how to game.

More About Shirley

Getting the apology she deserves, I think.

Both sides of the aisle are using the issue to make the other look bad. Sherrod and others have blamed Fox and Glenn Beck, which actually didn't air the story until after her resignation. And Glenn Beck did not rail against her at all, in fact sided with her based on known information. Although I had the impression Beck relished using her situation to make ObamaCo look bad, not so much in defending her.

NAACP now claims it was "snookered." No, they reacted with a knee-jerk because they know that this sort of black racism is common. So did the White House, and have now sent Vilsack to pull Shirley from under the bus.

Here is a transcript of the speech in question. Quite a speech. In one part she says:

"I want to just share something with you and...I think it helps to -- it -- you know, when I learned this, I'm like, "Oh, my goodness." You know, back in the late 17th and 18th century, black -- there were black indentured servants and white indentured servants, and they all would work for the seven years and -- and get their freedom. And they didn't see any difference in each other -- nobody worried about skin color. They married each other. You know, these were poor whites and poor blacks in the same boat, except they were slaves, but they were both slaves and both had their opportunity to work out on the slavery."

I learned the same thing during my genealogy research. I saw in the 1700s and 1800s black and white married. Indian men and white women married. I was shocked as my cowboy history was under the impression that Indians kidnapped white women and made squaws of them. I found that Irish men married black women most often (true in my family). Many of the records I've read through portrayed a different idea than what public schools taught me. I saw slave families married and baptized on the plantations and attending church with their owners - I thought all slave marriage outlawed. I found black lawyers, doctors, business owners, politicians.

And I began to suspect that extreme racism was created after the Civil War by a political party that had no platform. Democrats. They pandered to the poor southern whites in the 1870s/1880s, and the party of victimhood was born. The defenders of poor Johnny Anywhere and poor Southern Johnny. Democrats birthed the Jim Crow era in the 1890s. They gave poor whites one thing to feel good about - they might be poor but at least they weren't Negro. Until then I found blacks and whites living side by side in the census in the north, the south, big cities, small towns, in whatever neighborhood they could afford. It was in the 1889-1890s that laws appeared banning interracial marriage and enforcing segregation. The Democrat party strengthened along with racist laws.

What's missing from the Democrats history:

* There is no reference to the number of Democratic Party platforms supporting slavery. There were six from 1840 through 1860.
* There is no reference to the number of Democratic presidents who owned slaves. There were seven from 1800 through 1861
* There is no reference to the number of Democratic Party platforms that either supported segregation outright or were silent on the subject. There were 20, from 1868 through 1948.
* There is no reference to "Jim Crow" as in "Jim Crow laws," nor is there reference to the role Democrats played in creating them. These were the post-Civil War laws passed enthusiastically by Democrats in that pesky 52-year part of the DNC's missing years. These laws segregated public schools, public transportation, restaurants, rest rooms and public places in general (everything from water coolers to beaches). The reason Rosa Parks became famous is that she sat in the "whites only" front section of a bus, the "whites only" designation the direct result of Democrats.
* There is no reference to the formation of the Ku Klux Klan, which, according to Columbia University historian Eric Foner, became "a military force serving the interests of the Democratic Party." Nor is there reference to University of North Carolina historian Allen Trelease's description of the Klan as the "terrorist arm of the Democratic Party."
* There is no reference to the fact Democrats opposed the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution. The 13th banned slavery. The 14th effectively overturned the infamous 1857 Dred Scott decision (made by Democratic pro-slavery Supreme Court justices) by guaranteeing due process and equal protection to former slaves. The 15th gave black Americans the right to vote.
* There is no reference to the fact that Democrats opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1866. It was passed by the Republican Congress over the veto of President Andrew Johnson, who had been a Democrat before joining Lincoln's ticket in 1864. The law was designed to provide blacks with the right to own private property, sign contracts, sue and serve as witnesses in a legal proceeding.
* There is no reference to the Democrats' opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1875. It was passed by a Republican Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses Grant. The law prohibited racial discrimination in public places and public accommodations.
* There is no reference to the Democrats' 1904 platform, which devotes a section to "Sectional and Racial Agitation," claiming the GOP's protests against segregation and the denial of voting rights to blacks sought to "revive the dead and hateful race and sectional animosities in any part of our common country," which in turn "means confusion, distraction of business, and the reopening of wounds now happily healed."
* There is no reference to four Democratic platforms, 1908-20, that are silent on blacks, segregation, lynching and voting rights as racial problems in the country mount. By contrast the GOP platforms of those years specifically address "Rights of the Negro" (1908), oppose lynching (in 1912, 1920, 1924, 1928) and, as the New Deal kicks in, speak out about the dangers of making blacks "wards of the state."
* There is no reference to the Democratic Convention of 1924, known to history as the "Klanbake." The 103-ballot convention was held in Madison Square Garden. Hundreds of delegates were members of the Ku Klux Klan, the Klan so powerful that a plank condemning Klan violence was defeated outright. To celebrate, the Klan staged a rally with 10,000 hooded Klansmen in a field in New Jersey directly across the Hudson from the site of the convention. Attended by hundreds of cheering convention delegates, the rally featured burning crosses and calls for violence against African-Americans and Catholics.
* There is no reference to the fact that it was Democrats who segregated the federal government, at the direction of President Woodrow Wilson upon taking office in 1913. There \is a reference to the fact that President Harry Truman integrated the military after World War II.
* There is reference to the fact that Democrats created the Federal Reserve Board, passed labor and child welfare laws, and created Social Security with Wilson's New Freedom and FDR's New Deal. There is no mention that these programs were created as the result of an agreement to ignore segregation and the lynching of blacks. Neither is there a reference to the thousands of local officials, state legislators, state governors, U.S. congressmen and U.S. senators who were elected as supporters of slavery and then segregation between 1800 and 1965. Nor is there reference to the deal with the devil that left segregation and lynching as a way of life in return for election support for three post-Civil War Democratic presidents, Grover Cleveland, Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt.
* There is no reference that three-fourths of the opposition to the 1964 Civil Rights Bill in the U.S. House came from Democrats, or that 80% of the "nay" vote in the Senate came from Democrats. Certainly there is no reference to the fact that the opposition included future Democratic Senate leader Robert Byrd of West Virginia (a former Klan member) and Tennessee Senator Albert Gore Sr., father of Vice President Al Gore.
* Last but certainly not least, there is no reference to the fact that Birmingham, Ala., Public Safety Commissioner Bull Connor, who infamously unleashed dogs and fire hoses on civil rights protestors, was in fact--yes indeed--a member of both the Democratic National Committee and the Ku Klux Klan.

--- The party did so well for so long with pandering to southern whites and poor whites that, as the winds of change blew, they made appeals and promises to other oppressed groups, blacks and women - more "have not" votes. I began to think about this a couple of years ago. My oldest daughter asked me recently, "Where is my mother and what have you done with her?" I pointed out that if she looks close she will see that my ideas on justice, fairness, liberty, sex, drugs, and rock and roll, have not really changed. I simply started to question what didn't make sense when facts began to collide with what I thought I knew.

It explained why my dad, having been born in 1890, was a republican - he knew this. Some folks believe the Democrat and Republican parties have flipped platforms. I don't think so. The Democrats simply capitalized on ignorance and keep it always about "us" versus "them", a term I'm thoroughly sick of. Of course current politicians seem to meld into one party - the party of Reelection.

It used to be "us" was southern, "them" were yankees. It used to be "us" was colored, "them" was white. Now "us" is poor, "them" is rich. And usually when one of us is supposedly working for "us (poor)" we become one of "them (rich)".

Unfortunately Sherrod used us/them ideology in her speech. There's really no "we" in America.

Shirley Sherrod

A U.S. Agriculture Department official from Georgia said Tuesday that she was forced to resign by the Obama administration after she was caught on tape describing how, 24 years ago, she did not help a white farmer as much as she could have because of his race.

Sherrod said the calls came from Cheryl Cook, USDA deputy undersecretary for rural development. "The administration was not interested in hearing the truth. They didn't want to hear the truth," she said. Sherrod said she and the white farmer she referred to in the video, Roger Spooner, became friends. Spooner's wife, Eloise, confirmed to CNN that she and her husband considered Sherrod friends. "She helped us save our farm by getting in there and doing everything she could do," Eloise Spooner said. "They haven't treated her right." Sherrod said she told the story to make the point that at the time she thought that white farmers had the advantages because of their race but she learned that was not the case.

-------------- Did Obama administration and others overreact to the Sherrod/USDA incident? Sherrod says the Tea Party scares the Obama administration so that's not likely to help her on the next job. She said her civil rights record is better than some of those on the NAACP board.

I watched the CNN interview with Sherrod this morning, in which Eloise Spooner phoned in. She's the white farmer's wife.

Here's my take on the situation. I didn't feel good about Sherrod's body language. I trust my reading of "tells" and body language for information about a person's inner workings. Sherrod's body language felt deceptive, or at least insincere.

And there's the question, if Sherrod knew her heart was innocent of the accusations, why she did not stand up for herself harder and longer to the Obama administration. She's been in bureaucracy long enough to know how to do that. Self-defense is the first thing a bureaucrat learns.

Now, barely a day later she is hitting the airwaves to say it's all a misunderstanding - so I guess she's recalling the how-to of self-defense. Likely too much too late. She is scheduled to appear on Fox any moment. More minutes of the tape make her look less bigoted and racist, and make Breitbart mean and nasty for their editing.

On more of the tape, Sherrod does mention the "haves" and "have nots" which is the usual progressive rhetoric - but that was her audience. More tape does not make her more appealing. She admits she had no interest in agriculture but others encouraged her to get into it because there were not enough blacks in government agricultural jobs, and you know how sweet a government job is... in essence admitting what 99% of our government is: Folks going into the work for money and perks - not because they care and are good at it.

In Mrs. Spooner's call to CNN and from what I could sort out, Sherrod and the Spooners have not talked to one another in many years, and had very little contact, other than Mr. Spooner's (now age 87) original meeting with Sherrod, a few phone calls, and Eloise dropping by Sherrod's Georgia office to give her some tomatoes - that's the extent of the "good friends" relationship. Appears Sherrod sent Spooner to a lawyer twice with the second lawyer helping them save their farm, end of story. Sherrod was unaware that Mr. Spooner was still living. Maybe the definition of "friends" has changed.

But, having been born and raised in the south - let me tell you something about southern folk, black and white.

We tell tales. Big tales and little tales. We embellish mundane events. We exaggerate the commonplace and everyday ordinary events in our lives. Quite frankly, we b.s. A lot. As I'm looked upon as a "worldwide traveler" and "educated" my tales carry a lot of weight and importance, but I try not to capitalize on that.

We southerners do this because we like story telling, we like an audience, we like feeling important and we are almost always the main character in our own stories. We like to entertain any ears that will listen. We will tell these tales our entire life, editing old tales as we go along, and adding news tales at every chance we get. Tales can be half-truths, quarter-truth, or sometimes truth be damned.

Our children will tell our tales, sometimes our grandchildren, prefaced with "my mom told me one time ..." or "my grandpa told me one time ..." Our tales are a form of oral family history. Jumbled memories - as sometimes I hear my brother telling a tale that was mine. Some tale tellers adopt other people's tales as their own and the polite thing is not to call them on it.

In our tale telling we always come out the winner, the good guy, the one-up, the important one. We want our listeners to feel ... "geewhiz I wish that had happened to me..." or "wow, you really had a special moment" or "glad that wasn't me 'cause I couldn't have been as brave, as big, as bad ..." etc. etc. We especially like tales where we appear to have epiphanies, an awakening, enlightenment, our shining moment, and nothing is better than the tale of having been next to, touched, looked at, spoken to, or met anyone deemed an important person or famous person (even if just the local small town VIPs).

I think Shirley and Eloise are both using personal tales, embellishments of an ordinary event, that became a story to tell around the Sunday dinner table or use in a public speech.

But, for this to be a cautionary tale, I would say - white folks probably shouldn't bet the family farm on Shirley.

Their Own Kind

Washington (CNN) -- A black Agriculture Department employee resigned Monday after conservative media outlets aired a video of her telling an audience she had not given a white farmer "the full force of what I could do" to help him save the family farm.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said he had accepted the resignation of Shirley Sherrod, the department's state director of rural development for Georgia.

The poor quality video shows Sherrod telling her audience that the farmer she was working with "took a long time ... trying to show me he was superior to me." As a result, she said, she "didn't give him the full force of what I could do. I did enough."

To prove she had done her job, she said, she took him to a white lawyer.

"I figured that if I take him to one of them, that his own kind would take care of him," she said.

Sherrod mentioned that the lawyer would help the farmer with a bankruptcy filing but did not say whether his farm was saved.

------ Supposedly "Sherrod's remarks were delivered March 27 to an NAACP Freedom Fund banquet." The video comes from Breitbart.

Sherrod, Obama appointee, resigned already. Wonder who ordered that... she has only held the position since last August. Can you believe some folks are trying to justify this by saying her comments were taken out of context? It's clear the lady was laughing, along with the audience, about basically stickin' it to the white man.

I wonder how much money she has pocketed during her career in "rural development" at the local and state level.

After reading/hearing this story today I thought of Tim Wise, prolific race writer, poster boy for white guilt and "anti-racist" writer/lecturer. I remembered a piece a few years ago where Wise explains that reverse racism is not possible/blacks cannot be racist - because " ... when a group of people has little or no power over you institutionally, they don't get to define the terms of your existence, they can't limit your opportunities..." I guess Sherrod has accomplished something - institutionalized reverse racism - change you can believe in.

The rise of Wise to expert/authority on race and privilege made me uncomfortable. There are hundreds of black Americans who have written and lectured on the subject long before the subject was trendy or lucrative or even safe, yet Wise, as pseudo-intellectual, has been elevated to exalted white person, making a good capitalist living pimping diversity and anti-racism seminars, hustling books, and folks follow him right along as the white prophet of enlightenment.

Amazing huh how many folks I can insult in one short post.

Public Service Denouncement

On CBS' Face the Nation, NAACP President Ben Jealous faced off against David Webb of the National Tea Party Federation. Webb said Mark Williams, the former chairman and spokesman of Tea Party Express who came under fire last week for writing a satirical letter in which he called slavery a "great gig," and his group had been expelled from the National Tea Party Federation. Webb blasted the NAACP's "selective condemnation of racism," which he attributed to "fringe elements" within the tea party, and called on Jealous to denounce members of the New Black Panther Party for saying they want to "kill cracker babies."

"We absolutely denounce the New Black Panther Party," Jealous said, adding that the NBPP is a very small organization. "But they aren't in our group. These folks are in your groups."

Webb and Jealous agreed to make joint appearances to discuss race relations and other issues.

Vice President Joe Biden said on ABC's "This Week" that the tea party "is not a racist organization," but added that "the truth is that at least elements that were involved in some of the Tea Party folks expressed racist views."

------- Let the denunciations begin.

Williams "satirical letter" from NAACP president to Abe Lincoln:
Dear Mr. Lincoln:
We Coloreds have taken a vote and decided that we don’t cotton to that whole emancipation thing. Freedom means having to work for real, think for ourselves, and take consequences along with the rewards. That is just far too much to ask of us Colored People and we demand that it stop!

In fact we held a big meeting and took a vote in Kansas City this week. We voted to condemn a political revival of that old abolitionist spirit called the ‘tea party movement’.

The tea party position to “end the bailouts” for example is just silly. Bailouts are just big money welfare and isn’t that what we want all Coloreds to strive for? What kind of racist would want to end big money welfare? What they need to do is start handing the bail outs directly to us coloreds! Of course, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is the only responsible party that should be granted the right to disperse the funds.

And the ridiculous idea of “reduce[ing] the size and intrusiveness of government.” What kind of massa would ever not want to control my life? As Coloreds we must have somebody care for us otherwise we would be on our own, have to think for ourselves and make decisions!

The racist tea parties also demand that the government “stop the out of control spending.” Again, they directly target coloreds. That means we Coloreds would have to compete for jobs like everybody else and that is just not right.

Perhaps the most racist point of all in the tea parties is their demand that government “stop raising our taxes.” That is outrageous! How will we coloreds ever get a wide screen TV in every room if non-coloreds get to keep what they earn? Totally racist! The tea party expects coloreds to be productive members of society?

Mr. Lincoln, you were the greatest racist ever. We had a great gig. Three squares, room and board, all our decisions made by the massa in the house. Please repeal the 13th and 14th Amendments and let us get back to where we belong.

Sincerely
Precious Ben Jealous, Tom’s Nephew NAACP Head Colored Person

--- Among many offenses, Williams "satirical letter" stereotypes blacks as a group using government assistance money to put "a wide screen TV in every room". That taxation and spending is of benefit only to black folks. Obviously, Williams has not noticed all the white folks on welfare with widescreens, new Dodge Ram trucks, doublewides, and deer rifles.

Williams has been booted from the Tea Party party for his clearly offensive parody letter, which he has removed from his blog. It's a shame he didn't have one black friend to run this letter by before posting for all the world to read.

What a dufus, I'd say he's dumber than Dubya. He doesn't know social decay and political corruption is colorblind. I don't know anymore whether to pity people this ignorant or just say piss on 'em. Give him his 15 minutes.

Caught On Tape

Huffington Post: Netanyahu In 2001: 'America Is A Thing You Can Move Very Easily'

A newly released video of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could add some additional strain to the sometimes tense relationship between him and President Obama.

In the video, which is from 2001, Netanyahu -- who reportedly did not know his speech was being recorded -- speaks frankly in Hebrew about relations with the Clinton White House and the peace process.

As noted in Haaretz, Netanyahu seems to boast of his knowledge of the US by saying, "I know what America is. America is a thing you can move very easily, move it in the right direction. They won't get in their way."

The video was broadcast on a TV program called "This Week With Miki Rosenthal" titled "The Real (And Deceitful) Face of Benjamin Netanyahu." In Israel's Haaretz newspaper, columnist Gideon Levy said of the video:

"These remarks are profoundly depressing. They bear out all of our fears and suspicions: that the government of Israel is led by a man who doesn't believe the Palestinians and doesn't believe in the chance of an agreement with them, who thinks that Washington is in his pocket and that he can pull the wool over its eyes. There's no point in talking about Netanyahu's impossible rightist coalition as an obstacle to progress. From now on, just say that Netanyahu doesn't want it."

-------- Good lord, so much in this Huffington blogger slop I don't know where to begin. First of all it's from HuPo - a site where progressives have blurb orgies and know-it-all comments from folks who believe they found the truth and have the ability to solve world problems, sort of like Jesus Freaks but without Jesus.

By the way, have you noticed that this sort of nonreporting rumor milling, biased hit-and-run "reporting" is now sometimes in the NYT or WaPo? Not as a legitimate article, although by some of the paper's bylined journalists, but on a blog with a grand name such as WaPo's blog Checkpoint Washington. Is that a strategy for presenting b.s. as serious journalism? Checkpoint Charlie, me love you long time.

Second, I do not speak Hebrew so have no idea what Netanyahu is saying in this supposedly "leaked" home video. I do not know who interpreted it, or if they are honest, or if the interpretation even comes close to what he says. And what the hay does "They won't get in their way" mean? Who is "they" and who is "their way" referring to? Did he boast about manipulating the US, the accords? Whaaa ... a pol who manipulates and admits it? Bibi Netanyahu's comment is not as noxious as one attributed to Ariel Sharon.

Coincidentally (wink wink), in October 2001 something very similar was all over the internet, attributed to Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon to Shimon Peres, as reported on Kol Yisrael radio, and interpreted as "Every time we do something you tell me America will do this and will do that . . . I want to tell you something very clear: Don’t worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it."

Hmmm. So devious Israeli leaders are caught on tape bashing the hand that feeds them billion$?

Third, who is the quoted Gideon Levy? Born in 1953 in Tel Aviv he's been with Haaretz since 1982 as an editor, columnist, an author, etc., who, when he discovered the truth, became an opponent of Israeli policies regarding Palestinian territory. Some call him a propagandist for Hamas, others hail him as a heroic journalist. I do not know him, but do know the Westerners who believe in him are also part of the "speaking truth to power" mimicry crowd. Levy has not, however, taken fellow journalist Helen Thomas' advice to leave Israel and go back to where he came from. His supporters claim he's "putting his life on the line" writing in Israel - I suppose if Mossad hasn't ended his long career by now they're not too worried about his politics.

(In fairness, Haaretz did report on Reuters altering of the Gaza flotilla photos. Not the first time Reuters creatively cropped photos.)

Personally, I have no problem with the US withdrawing military and economic support from Israel - how about the same time we pull out of Afghanistan and Iraq (dream on). Would heroes like Gideon Levy then be able to further the cause of peace? Would Russia or China become Israel's new BFF and Israel/Palestine continue as is?

Along with most of the world, I do not and cannot know the objective truth regarding the situation in Israel, Palestine, or Hamas (Islamic Resistence Movement), etc. I do know, at home and abroad, presstitutes are servicing both sides of the aisle. And, from experience with the wars in Central America, I do know that underdogs are not nearly as romantic as portrayed by their supporters.

Playing Cards

What's behind yet another summer of racial discontent in America?

On one side are largely-white "tea party" members depicting President Obama as an African witch doctor, sparking a condemnation from the NAACP last week. On the other is the charge that the Obama Justice Department is "openly hostile" to enforcing civil rights laws against black racists, including members of the New Black Panther Party.

Who this summer of racial discontent will ultimately benefit is the open question. For both sides, playing the race card could backfire.

While many middle-class Americans may share the "small government" ideals of the tea party movement, its racialized aspects could scare many voters, including many conservative blacks, away from the conservative tent and ticket. Others may be turned off by liberals trying to squelch legitimate debate about the direction of the nation by playing the race card.

---- It seems to me a small faction of both right and left "leaders" want a race problem and actively contribute to racial division and hostile rhetoric, for without the "politics of division" they are out of a job (and funding).

What I find disturbing is the NAACP climbing in bed with the NBPP (New Black Panther Party). NBPP has been around about 20 years but only recently has the group managed to get widespread publicity. Original Panthers and Bobby Seale consider the new panthers illegitimate. If you put any faith in the Southern Poverty Law Center the SPLC has categorized NBPP as a "black racist" hate group. And judging from their writings and activities, I agree.

I'm not saying there are no racially motivated crimes, of course there are, but we're trending toward calling too many white on black crimes as racially motivated.

NBPP involve themselves in cases they claim are racially motivated hate crimes when the cases may be crimes of passion or plain wickedness. Such as the Anthony Hill case. Hill, age 30, was drinking with 19-year-old coworker, Gregory Collins, in Collins home, when during an argument Collins shot Hill in the back of the head. Collins then tied Hill to his truck bumper and dragged him, a motorist found Collins body on the highway and the blood trail led back to Collins trailer.

Collins has been charged with murder. It has not been officially classified as a hate crime and some locals believe it was because both men were sleeping with the same woman. I find next to nothing on the background of Collins. There's no mention if Collins used drugs, although his photo has the classic look of a meth head. But NBPP automatically labels this a racist crime b/c of the dragging. I label that evil and perverse but there is no evidence the motive was racism. Or a case may be plain incompetent accidental (Oscar Grant case) which served a handful of Oakland thugs with an excuse to burn and loot.

The sheep are encouraged to blame another race for their personal misery, whether warranted or not. But you can't blame another race if you lack basic education. You can't blame another race if you lack language skills. No one forces you to speak Ebonics or Spanglish or cracker vernacular. You can't blame another race because you won't relocate for a job, not wanting to leave mama's house or 'cause your baby's mama won't move with you. You can't blame another race for a rap sheet as long as your arm. You can't blame another race for your moral choices or angry mental state. Racism is not the biggest enemy, ignorance is.

It's a small but loud group who want to blame black on white or white on black crime as racially motivated when race is clearly not the motive. Well funded and bullhorned loudmouth agitators promote the issue as gospel and the worst among us will follow along.

Then again, like the article said, maybe the race card will backfire.

Is that why Biden today "defended" the Tea Party? Democrats concerned about backfire? When I looked at the poll accompanying this article at 11 a.m. today, the question "Do you believe racism is part of the Tea Party's attacks on President Obama?" the results were 37% yes, 60% no. Looking at it now, 3 p.m. says 76% yes, 23% no. NYDNews has been described as the "pulse of New York City" and "midway between liberal and conservative" and a "serious tabloid." It seems to depend on ownership and issue. Daily News endorsed Obama, owner billionaire Bilderberger and CFR member Mort Zuckerman has admitted to writing a speech for Obama. One thing that's correct - its a tabloid.

Seventy-six percent of NYD readers believe Tea Partyers attack Obama because of racism. Are folks really that stupid?

I know a black couple locally who wanted to attend a Tea Party event because they agree with its platform - but decided not to because of the negative publicity regarding racism, they were uncertain they would be safe. Is that the democrat's goal?

So really, what's behind "another summer of racial discontent"?

Is this a summer of racial discontent or just TPTB trying to sow discontent?

Here You Go

Toussaint McCall - Nothing Takes the Place of You


Hattie Littles - Here You Come


Exciters - Hard Way to Go


Subdudes - Tired of Being Alone

Bogus Living

For the first time in 25 years, medical experts are proposing a major change in the criteria for Alzheimer’s disease, part of a new movement to diagnose and, eventually, treat the disease earlier. The changes could also help drug companies that are, for the first time, developing new drugs to try to attack the disease earlier. So far, there are no drugs that alter the course of the disease.

---- Key words here "drug companies" and "treat" and "developing new drugs."

I grew up surrounded by older folks, my parents were older when I was born. My grandparents, aunts, uncles lived into their 80s, 90s, and a great grandmother to 102. None had Alzheimer disease.

Alzheimer, like many other "modern" diseases, is a cash cow, golden goose. Not to say there are not folks losing brain cells, it's obvious many folks have degenerating brain cells, but prevention is the answer - not more treatment and prescriptions after the fact. To date there are no drugs proven to stop or reverse Alzheimer. Not Namenda, not Aricept, not Exelon, not Razadyne. They "appear to" or "may" help slow the disease, according to BigPharma. Alzheimer drugs of any use are those that calm the "behavior issues" associated with the disease - combativeness, agitation, the grouch. Such drugs create a more tranquil nursing home.

Risk Factors for Alzheimer:
Smoking after age 65 up your chances of Alzheimer’s by 79%.
Obesity in midlife makes you 3-1/2 x as likely to have Alzheimer’s.
Diabetes makes you twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s.
Genetics account for only 25% of Alzheimer’s cases.
Chronic stress may quadruple your risk.

Of course smoking takes first place blame for all things these days, even though my ancestors smoked like chimneys, unfiltered cigarettes and pipes, and did not develop Alzheimer disease. None were obese. None had diabetes. And they handled stress in a healthier way - known as "deal with it." A few were more forgetful in later years, but not to the point they forgot how to eat , use the bathroom, or who they were and who you were. I think Alzheimer is the disease of "use it or lose it" and more folks are using less of their brain.

Much of today's "genetic" excuse is nothing more than the environment you were born in. Fat parents, drug using parents, sedentary parents, chronically stressed parents typically produce fat kids, hophead kids, lazy kids, stressed out unpleasant kids. Parents and children with unhealthy habits. Hence families usually develop the same diseases and conditions.

In the last 50 years or so, since socialized medicine was introduced (Medicaid/Medicare), there have been hundreds of diseases discovered and what were once rare conditions have become epidemic: Fibromyalgia, autism, diabetes, obesity, restless leg syndrome, epilepsy, migraines, chronic pain syndrome, chronic back pain, neuropathy, ADHD, adult onset this and that, depression, anxiety, bipolar, obsessive compulsive disorder, PMS, PEMS, eating disorders, PTSD, Asperger syndrome, anything "cyclical", body dysmorphic disorder, Tourette's, chronic fatigue syndrome, irritable bowel, on and on and on.

Tell me your disease and I will know your lifestyle, your upbringing, and your social status/philosophy. I will know what you are by the "disease" or syndrome you hide behind.

(A few trendy surgeries whether you really need it not: Cholecystectomy, hysterectomy, C-section, knee surgery, back surgery, tonsillectomy, carpal tunnel, sinus surgery, and the "exploratory" surgery because no physician can find anything wrong with your literal bellyaching.)

Yes, some of the above diseases are valid - epilepsy, PTSD, but all can and are also faked. Healthcare professionals will not tell you to go home and get a life - you're a dollar sign for the billing department. Stop using a body part, or abuse it, and you eventually have your disease. Fake it 'til you make it.

Sixty years ago folks with some of the above "diseases" would have been considered retarded - and they are, emotionally and psychologically retarded. Hypochondria was seldom seen until it was taxpayer funded. Malingering was for the occasional bored middle/upper class white housewife with a vodka bottle and Valium - now anyone can pretend to suffer.

Don't expect to see a lot of the above afflicted folks living to retirement. Obesity alone is shortening the lifespan and lowering age expectancy in the US. Society and government now encourage us to pick a pain - an excuse to be nasty, mean, lazy, hateful, encourage us to be failures, losers, selfish, unable to help ourselves or anyone else because we have a syndrome that debilitates us. Do or say whatever nasty vile thing you want and excuse it with having one of your "episodes" or one of your "spells" that is connected to your syndrome or disorder. Or do nothing because the excruciating pain of your "disease" won't let you lift anything heavier than a beer, a bong, or a bigmac.

Years ago we did not see t.v. shows of folks living in their own filth and say it was the disease of "hoarding." Drunks and addicts were a family shame, not an intervention episode for all the world to watch someone put a needle in their arm or pass out drunk on the curb. The unfocused, ill-mannered, rowdy kids would have been in special education, not going to the school nurse to get their noon fix. Back then folks had to make a life and living, now they only need a syndrome that insurance and SSI (or government) will cover.

I remember when there was no syndrome or disorder or disease to excuse a low life - society did not condone screwed up choices and government did not fund them. When and if Obamacare kicks in - expect to see a sicker nation.

Elements & Activities

A billboard advert in the US state of Iowa that linked President Obama to Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin was removed on Wednesday morning. The sign, which was funded by a group of local Tea Party activists, has been replaced with a community service announcement. Text on the sign had read: "Radical leaders prey on the fearful & naive." The billboard had angered many in the local community, including other Tea Party activists. A representative of the Iowa group called the billboard's owner and requested the sign be removed on Tuesday evening.

On Tuesday, America's largest civil rights group passed a resolution condemning the Tea Party for tolerating racism and bigotry. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has not released the language of the motion, but a spokesperson has said that it calls on Tea Party members to "repudiate the racist element and activities within the Tea Party".

--- As if the "left" did not compare Bush to Hitler - the strategy of fear, etc. I still have my Bush mugs and tee shirts with Bushitler wearing an Adolph mustache. I notice now that Obama is waging the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - we no longer here the term "war criminals."

Maybe the North Iowa Tea Party billboard doesn't bother me because I'm immune after 8 years of the same comparison to Bush. Could the billboard have warned against socialism without Obama's mug shot? I don't see the billboard as racist and bigoted - it's politically incorrect. Everyone knows only republicans can be compared to Hitler.

Ah, the NAACP. An organization that has become as useful as teats on a bull. Such a shame so many organizations have become self-serving institutions (as have our pols).

NAACP recently lost their suit against Kyle TX for discriminatory zoning. Seems City of Kyle set their minimum lot size and standards for single-family homes to such that it raised the price from $100k to $133K - supposedly pushing out blacks and Latinos and against the Fair Housing Act of 1968. The NAACP was first and foremost when pushing for easy lending a couple of decades ago but in 2007 they found their calling is to sue the same mortgage companies for "predatory lending." Oh, oh, no wait ... the NAACP dropped their case because "Wells Fargo pledged to follow the group's principles on fairness and lending."

It all depends on what pledge is pledged to the NAACP I guess.

I know of a half-dozen cases locally in the last few years where the NAACP has come to stand up for social justice and fight discrimination. One particularly comes to mind. Let's call the main participate Sandra. Sandra, a 20-year-old black college student had a scuffle and words at a local Wal-mart. Other customers thought she was cutting in line, she thought they were picking on her, and the clerk asked her to leave, she refused and took a swipe at the clerk, the police were called, and it escalated from there. Sandra eventually was charged with assaulting a cop, resisting arrest, disturbing the peace, etc. etc. (Wal-mart footage, inside and out, shows Sandra made quite an ass of herself.)

Here comes the NAACP lawyer to fight racism in a small southern town. That is until Sandra's daddy told him he was going to kick his ass because he gave the defense witness list to the prosecutor (required by law). The lawyer packed his bag, checked out of Holiday Inn and went back to St. Louis. Sandra and the DA settled on a misdemeanor charge and probation, along with anger management classes - but not before the regional chapter of NAACP organized a march to the courthouse, which drew about 20 people. No KKK, no skinheads, just a couple of dozen friends and family members of Sandra's and the regional NAACP leader, locking arms to march and demand that Sandra get justice.

The remaining cases around here are just as pointless but more humorous. The head of our local NAACP is a lewd, old ex-con recently turned Reverend who still schemes and scams, so I guess there's no vetting. Surely somewhere though there are good members doing the right thing? I dunno. Too many folks seem to think "social justice" equals acting a fool and getting away with it, and praised, and sometimes paid.

More White Man Bias

New Study Shows Racial Bias in SATs. Or so say the progressive experts from this or that source.

"The latest study was conducted for the University of California system, and replicates most of the results of the 2003 study. Researchers concluded that Black students did worse than whites on easier questions with more common words because some of those words have different connotations in Black and white cultural settings. For example, simple words like “bad,” “tight” and “slick” carry different meanings in colloquial Black speech than in white usage. The SATs test the “white” meanings, putting Blacks at a disadvantage for the easy questions."

------ Are they serious? Yep, guess so, slap mah 'fro, black Americans are apparently unaware that simple words used as slang have a totally different meaning in the real white world.

From a year ago, USA Today article, SAT scores show disparities by race, gender, family income.

Average SAT scores by group:
1707: AP students (advanced/college prep high school courses).
1702: Students reporting family incomes of $200,000+ a year.
1623: Asian students.
1581: White students.
1506: Students reporting family incomes of $60-$80,000 a year.
1448: American Indian or Alaskan native students.
1364: Latino students.
1345: Puerto Rican students.
1276: Black students.

Males scored better than females, on average, at 1523 and 1496 respectively. Obviously, uncolloquialized Puerto Ricans, Latinos, American Indians, Eskimos, and Asians, like white folks, have a better understanding of simple words. (Particularly the average Asian.)

Black folk should be ashamed of that list, it's "bad" (white folks simple word usage). Stop using the worn-out, progressive-provided excuse of disadvantaged "race bias," you see where that's gotten you? Try reading more, and befo' yu knowed it, yu be done aced dem tesses."

In the News 2

Labor report another indication that economic recovery losing steam. "Government spending prevented the U.S. economy from tipping into a depression," ... "But beyond that, the government cannot, short of war, get private companies to increase hiring if they don't want to."

Government jobs produce little to nothing. Government jobs are of 2 sort - temporary, short-term, such as the census workers, or government contracts for everything from highways and bridges to nowhere. The second sort of job is more permanent, pointless, and usually overpaid, desk jockeys who administer and/or distribute information and/or funds, and pretend their existence is to benefit the rest of us. Again, however, producing nothing tangible other than their own paychecks and padded expense accounts. Example: I know a woman recently retired from a government job who for most of career earned a yearly $200,000 plus benefits to die for, but she was basically nothing more than a glorified secretary/file clerk with a title for the IRS. The "green" jobs will be such as this. Departments and contractors given billions in tax dollars to retrofit a few homes and buildings, build a few windmills, fund a few organic farmers. Any construction/farm jobs created will be temp but the government handlers of the department will be permanently ensconced, busily creating documents to justify the need for their existence. It's the nature of the beast.

Buffett donates $1.93bn in shares to charities. There's a big reason that wealthy people set up their own private foundations, often donating appreciated stock in their companies. They avoid paying capital-gains taxes on the value of the gift and get an immediate -- but potentially limited -- tax deduction. They also benefit because the invested assets of the foundation will continue to grow tax-free. That enhances their ability to give generously in the future." For as little as $10k you too can become your own charitable foundation. And appoint/employ your family, friends, and cronies as overseers of those $500 college scholarships, $100 dollar micro loans to third world women, and purchase vaccines from other buddies to eradicate polio, malaria, and diarrhea although such eradication endeavors will take eons. But god bless those few thousands peasants who benefit in anyway from charitable tax break foundation havens.

$400M boost for Colorado solar firm. President Barack Obama planned to announce the loan to Abound Solar during his weekly radio address Saturday. Abound is in the photovoltaic industry, planning to manufacture PV technology for solarizing commercial and industrial developers - shopping malls, factories, large office complexes, etc. Nearly 1/2 billion to a privately owned company that manufactured their first solar panel a few months ago. Abound says it plans to keep everything in-house while their competitors are outsourcing. China of course has its PV industries, as do former leaders in the PV field (Europe, Germany). Competitors, having stumbled and lost revenue and market shares in the past few years, claim future success is "commoditization and outsourcing of manufacturing ... believed to be a key development in the solar market." Companies also note it may be 2 decades until average folk are using made in China solar panels (unless you've more money than you know what to do with or $50,000 to retrofit your average crib), as the cost is still somewhat prohibitive for other than the mogul developers with unlimited investors and/or government contracts.

Some of the bigger PV companies plan on going into the "developing and financing end of it." You know, becoming real estate developers to raise a building, having their own finance company to make the loan to their own PV company who will then build the project using the products purchased with funds from their own lending institute. I see more ghost malls and empty office space in our future, and government housing projects with broken solar panels. Commoditization ... hmm you mean public, commodity, trading, stock market, Wall Street, shareholders ? Government handout disguised as warm fuzzy green saving the environment jobs? Reminds me of the Crédit Mobilier of America scandal.

Robert Byrd funeral. Hundreds of West Virginians, two presidents and dozens of family members and friends gathered. Hundreds? "His heart belonged to you," President Obama told the crowd of West Virginians. "Making life better here was his only agenda. Giving you hope, he said, was his greatest achievement." Well, if that didn't make Obama gag I don't know what would. Byrd was a proven bigot/racist well into his 60s - he didn't have a change of heart, he had to change political strategy. His constituency, one word, Appalachia.

Serena wins Wimbledon. And she didn't go ghetto on anyone. ("If I could, I swear to God I would take this f... ball and shove it down your f... throat and f... kill you ... ")

Albert Gore's Oregon massage. I told you years ago the only thing Al was good for was doorman. In a spiffy uniform and gloves.

Have a good July 4.

In The News

California welfare cards used in casino ATMs will be stopped according to state officials. Darn. Now folks will have to stop at the corner store ATM before heading to the casino.

Robert Byrd (D-WV), the Apologizer, finally succumbs to nature's term limits. Former KKK member (1942-52) , in 1997 Byrd explained the office he held in the KKK was a youthful indiscretion. He dropped out of the KKK after 10 years because he saw a similar, more lucrative group, suited to his talent and ambitions - Congress. In 2005 he continued to apologize for his KKK activity, because he no longer used terms like "race mongrels." He later claimed he regretted filibustering for 14 hours the Civil Rights Act in 1964. The King of Pork - a life spent having political epiphanies. A classic liberal progressive man of the people (white people).

The Obama administration's bungling incompetence in handling the Gulf of Mexico/BP oil disaster makes hurricane Katrina/Bush look like a job well done. Coastal southern states - is this collective karma or what?

Elena Kagan - Supreme Court vapid and hollow charade nominee. Kagan has never served as a judge, never married, never had children, never came out of the closet. As with many of "the chosen" the past decade or so, SCOTUS members are no longer chosen on ability - but on quotas. We are missing a dwarf/midget though. In 1995 Kagan said Senate confirmation hearings had become a "vapid and hollow charade." How true, especially hers.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal relieved of command to be replaced by Gen. David Petraeus (or if you're a liberal progressive democrat - Gen. Betrayus). The Runaway General and his staff's disparaging comments to Rollingstone, however true they may be, should not have been spoken to a reporter. One cannot publicly call the boss and/or his minions, terms like Joe Bite-Me, clowns, etc. Does this mean Rollingstone mag is now in charge of foreign policy?

Obama says he is serious about tackling the deficit. At the Group of 20 summit in Canada Barry endorsed a goal of cutting government deficits in half by 2013 and stabilizing the ratio of public debt to gross domestic product by 2016. Not expected to meet these targets but ouch ouch ouch when they try. Sources close to somebody said "Most of the savings will come from winding down the war in Iraq, increased (tax) revenue from those making more than $250,000 a year, and savings from making government work more efficiently and eliminating programs that do not work." The newly formed Ministry of Smoke and Mirrors will implement this policy.

Government Intervention

Commiedreams still dreaming. Right to Rent: "When the foreclosure hurricane first hit, subprime borrowers absorbed the brunt of it. Homeowners who had been fooled with teaser rates suddenly faced balloon payments they couldn't afford. Others couldn't refinance because of prepayment penalties they hadn't been aware of. And some people had made bad decisions and were now paying for it with their homes."

One would think as loud and long as "progressives" have been screaming about the evil greed of Big Business, particularly bankers, that folks would not be so easily "fooled" by big business and bankers.

"From the outset of this crisis, little relief has been in sight for foreclosure victims. In contrast, the big banks were on the receiving end of a $700 billion bailout and have been given the right to decide which homeowners sink or swim ever since."

Although I'm against the bank bailouts, are you prepared to experience what would happen to the economy if the big banks fail? Would those fooled folks, clueless about their own mortgage contracts, be prepared for mass worldwide bank failures? Can the FDIC just print the money they need to cover millions of depositors, and by the way it could take years to get your insured funds. Can you tread water that long?

The five most foreclosure troubled states, last I read, were California, Florida, Michigan, Illinois and Nevada. Hmmm. Now why would those states rank the top 5 ...

"Instead of foreclosures increasing blight, crime and homelessness, neighborhoods would keep people in their homes who care about them and their communities. Instead of decreasing property values and tax revenues, and consequent layoffs and cuts in services, communities would be far more stable and better able to contribute to the economic recovery. And Baker points out declining property values-especially in bubble markets-mean that people are sometimes paying twice as much on their mortgage payment as they would pay to rent the same home."

"... consequent layoffs ... if layoffs come after the foreclosure then why are folks not making their mortgage payments? Rent the same house for half the price of the mortgage? How often ya think that's happening. How many folks used the "foreclosure hurricane" as an excuse to get out of the responsibility of home ownership? There's a huge problem now with renters trashing rental property - think losing a home and having to rent it will make them better caretakers?

Fact is most home loss/foreclosures are due to: Job loss. Divorce. Too much debt. Filing bankruptcy and the home liquidated to pay debts. You could say this hurricane is often caused by personal behavior. How many helpless victims will draw every last dime of unemployment insurance and government foodstamps/medicaid before getting serious about job hunting?

Other facts: Foreclosures are heavily concentrated in Latino and black neighborhoods, particularly Latino immigrants. Oh my, is that politically incorrect or what.

Some try to make the case that this is the result of heartless greed and taking advantage of helpless minorities by evil corporations. The truth is a lot of mortgages were given to people who turned out not to be creditworthy. The granting of such mortgages was encouraged by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which promised to take them off lenders hands, and then injected $1 trillion of what turned out to be toxic paper into financial institutions all over the world.

"A right to rent sure beats listening to Obama administration officials continuing to promise to punish banks that aren't modifying mortgages and somehow never getting around to doing it. And it definitely beats continuing to watch our nation bleed generations of wealth, entire communities and human capital."

...bleed generations of wealth and human capital." Now doesn't that evoke strong emotions, sounds like progressive tabloid writing.

Another piece this week, from World Socialist website, a demand to nationalize public utilities, particularly Detroit's DTE:

"In an article that appeared on the Huffington Post web site Thursday, Mike Langford, the president of the Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA) and an executive board member of the AFL-CIO, called for private utility companies such as Detroit-based DTE Energy to be placed under “public ownership.”

The transformation of DTE into a genuinely public-owned utility, which serves the interests of working people, not the super-rich, requires a fundamental restructuring of the entire economy and breaking the stranglehold of the financial aristocracy. Not only would the utility companies have to be nationalized under workers’ control but also the banks and major industries.

Hahaha, "placed under" rather than confiscated, good one.

As in many cities and towns across the nation my local Board of Municipal Utilities is publicly owned and a member of APPA (American Public Power Association). I will grant that our area has one of the lowest rates in the state, but still comparable to Michigan's rates.

Supposedly a not-for-profit status – lowers costs and prevents any split allegiance between customers and stockholders, although you could be a bondholder. Still, our public owned utility cost goes up every year - as they have most everywhere.

Socialists fail to mention, as always, that regardless whether utilities are owned by for-profit corporations or publicly owned - your monthly utility bill has to be paid and profits have to be made to cover salaries, maintenance, improvements, repairs, upgrades, pay bondholders, and to fund attempts at keeping rates lower, etc. etc.

Publicly owned utilities shut power off for nonpayment too. Publicly owned utilities have the same problems as those in the private sector - corruption, cronyism, political agendas, lack of competition, subject to state and federal regulations, rising costs, becoming local monopolies, etc. etc.

In many developing/third world countries the public owned utilities more often than not provide service only to wealthier neighborhoods, to tourist spots, industrial parks, i.e. folks who pay for it. Barrios and shanty towns do not have utilities.

In China there are communes/co-ops where local government provides healthcare, education, heat, electricity, housing, basic foodstuffs, and even furniture. At the mere cost of 70% of your paycheck from the job the government has given you in a village-owned company. But, once a month the community bosses make inspections to determine that you are taking proper care of what has been provided, that you are still worthy of your cracker-box house, 1 child, couch and bed, the dim light bulb dangling in home sweet home. All part of your "benefits" package. These benefits are awarded on a point system - points for cleanliness, progress toward "behavioral goals", and obedience to the Party line.

Already in the US too many folks depend on the commune to provide housing, food, education, utilities, jobs, healthcare - once the majority is dependent, you can be sure of the necessity of implementing a point system. Nearly all the folks shut off today will be shut off under a "publicly owned" system. But we won't hear about it and such folks will be sent to some euphemistic "zone", so as not to mess the mood of those who are obediently earning their points.

Remember, "those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one."

Glorious Future

PIRAEUS, GREECE -- Nearly bankrupt and sullied in the eyes of foreign investors, Greece is moving to rebuild its economy by tapping the deep pockets of another ancient civilization: China.

Spurred on by government incentives and bargain-basement prices, the Chinese are planning to pump hundreds of millions -- perhaps billions -- of euros into Greece even as other investors run the other way. The cornerstone of those plans is the transformation of the Mediterranean port of Piraeus into the Rotterdam of the south, creating a modern gateway linking Chinese factories with consumers across Europe and North Africa.

The Chinese have plunked down billions from Angola to Peru to ensure the delivery of natural resources to feed China's red-hot economy as well as to guarantee unfettered and cost-effective shipment of its exports abroad. The investments here in Greece, analysts say, are part of China's plan to create a network of roads, pipelines, railroads and port facilities -- sort of a modern Silk Road -- to boost East-West trade.

--------- Latin America, Africa, Europe, US. Your made-in-china spending, trickling around the world. Chinese corporate leaders creating personal fortunes like all self-made billionaires - through government contracts.

Some on the "right" claim China's coming world dominance is galloping right along due to Obama policies but come on ... you could blame it on Nixon and Kissinger for opening the door to China in 1972 and lifting the US trade embargo.

Or blame Jimmah Carter, the crypt keeper of global human rights - he granted the Chinese communist regime formal diplomatic recognition on January 1, 1979, and has expressed his belief that the U.S.-China relationship is the most important bilateral relationship in the world. Never mind China's pesky human rights violations and that one party rules the whole show. The US puppet leader sends an emissary at least once every 4 years to scold the Chinese emissary on human rights violations, and cable news will show a 30 second soundbyte to prove it. Good job Mr. or Madame Bureaucrat.

You could blame it on Reagan who did nothing to keep US manufacturers at home and even held the door for them as US corporations sprinted for cheaper labor and tax packages in China. You could definitely blame Clinton-Gore who used a good amount of Chinese yin yang to further their campaigns, although they don't seem to have personally figured out the unity and harmony part - what with all the yang and hankyspanky in the oval office, and 40 years and a Tipper looking for oneness.

Or blame it on Theodore Roosevelt who favored the emergence of a strong and prosperous China, expecting China to favor the US. The early half of the 1900s, Americans spent a lot of time and money building schools, hospitals, finding Jesus, etc. in rural China, and of course leading the fight to liberate China from Japan's aggression in WWII. But along came Mao who would have none of that US friendliness. Mao had difficulty getting along with folks - other than buddy Stalin. After Stalin's death Mao didn't play as well with Khrushchev because Mao believed the USSR Marxists were "revisionists" and that he, Mao, had a superior understanding of Marxism.

The first time I heard the phrase "cult of personality" was decades ago in regard to Mao. And as stupid would have it, black Americans, in particular Black Panthers, studied Mao and his Little Red Book for guidance on establishing a peasant-led revolution that would expose decadent American society and take what is due. China is one of the most racist, class-ist, nationalistic cultures on the planet - what a role model. History has been kind to the BP though. Personally, in the '60s, every Panther I new was immoral, thuggish, thieving, and worse. I used to think maybe I was wrong, maybe I was just unlucky and met the felonious party members. But now ... I think maybe the panthers morphed into ACORN.

Shock and awe, in 2006, the government in Shanghai issued a new set of high school history textbooks which omit Mao. Socialism is still said to have a "glorious future" in China, but not so much the old-style revolutionary peasant struggle or "people power" that left millions dead, but a new "industrial revolution" a new "information revolution." Market-based socialism - ka-ching ka-ching ... and you thought only rich white men could b.s. the world.

Hmmmm ... Stalin, Mao, the men of purge - purged from their pedestals. Karma I tell ya, karma.

I wonder ... as the new China replaces the old US ... will the US become more the old China? You know ... a nation of struggling peasants and workers ... a little thinning of the herd when the collectives become overcrowded or disagreeable ... knowing our place in the world, as we lemming onward to our glorious future.

Adriano Celentano

Pregherò 1963 (Celentano is the Elvis of Italy)


Il Ragazzo della via Gluck (live 2006)


Eros and Adriano

It's Karma

Helen Thomas - long time grand dame of liberalism, the doyenne of the WH press corps, supposedly asking for decades the "tough" questions of several presidents, Kennedy through Obama, has finally retired. Some say "forced to retire" because of recent comments she made.

The episode apparently stems from Thomas' comments suggesting that Israelis should go somewhere else, that Jewish folk in Israel should "get the hell out of Palestine" and "go back to where they belong," (Poland, Germany) or something along those lines.

Hmmm seems I remember agitated white folks in the '60s yelling "go back to Africa" where you belong.

I remember Thomas asking, not "tough" or even objective, but intelligent questions of Ronnie Reagan - regarding the US and USSR, peace/disarmament, etc. but recall no tough or intelligent questions posed to Slick Willy, in fact Thomas thought the Clintons were unfairly dogged over Whitewater, Paula Jones, Monica, etc...

Her supposedly tough posers to Bush II and Obama seem to be more "leftwing" heckle than "tough" questions.

Her "inaugural" question to Obama was "Do you know of any country in the Middle East that has nuclear weapons?" Duh, we know with 99.99% certainty that Israel does. That's not posing a tough question, that's baiting. We all know any presidential answer to that will be "I cannot speculate..." or similar yadayada. Is the Lebanese Helen trying to show us Obama is a Jew lover? That the US is one-sided when it comes to Israel? And that she supports the other side?

Thanksgiving after the election, she was "thankful for having a black president"? Yessssam Mz. Helen, you sound like one of those liberals who thought black folks didn't bathe before Obama was elected. Is he now not liberal enough, black enough, what? (You're not alone Helen, millions who thought Barry was a flame burning bright now see only a flicker.)

But thankful? Thankful? Why? What did the election of Obama signify for you? Imagine if McCain had won and a public figure had said he/she was "thankful for having a white president."

Will Helen's press chair in the WH be sent to the Smithsonian? She is the symbol after all of the first feminist movement token female in the White House Press Corp. Will she have sufficient years left to write a good and dirty tell-all? Will she go back to where she came from?

Days of Whine and Roses

I'm just really content this spring/summer to not watch news or politics - roses and honeysuckle bloomed, the purple Clematis. Azaleas grown a foot already. Have picked a few garden tomatoes for a salad - this early. The pepper plants look a bit puny but the season is young.

BP, latest anti-planet evil-doer, has not aggravated me. Mother Nature has seen worse spills and survived. The usual pundits claiming the usual cause for the Horizon Deepwater disaster - greed and capitalism. Although I fail to see how greediness is helping their bottom line now, stock falling 15% - as of today a 70+ billion dollar whuppin' . Not to mention future lawsuits and cleanup, and heads rolling. Valdez didn't ruin Exxon .... And never fear, top cop Eric Holder will launch tax payer paid loooong criminal investigations and for millions of dollars we get to see someone at BP smacked on the buns as they tap dance off stage to a well-paid job (probably government employment in a new department with an oily title). Only makes sense, as with each natural or manmade disaster we get another agency to create new legislation promising to protect us from the next dilemma - never does, but maybe that's where "hope" is supposed to come in. You know, hoping that doing the same old thing will produce different results. Or, sometimes as happens, a honcho or two will commit suicide and/or have a heart attack. Case closed. Open for business. Stop whining.

Let's see... what else has been in the news... oh yes, those awful Israeli (Jews) are at it again. IDF killing innocent foreign activists on a flotilla to Gaza in international waters, leaving 3 to 16 dead, depending on who you read, unarmed activists or armed, again depending on who you read. Both sides claim the other side's actions are deplorable. Aid ships have been allowed previously but for a couple of years now, since the blockade/offensive against Hamas rulers, IDF has said no flotillas. I wouldn't be surprised if you told me the activists planned and wanted this "bloody raid." After all, they knew they would not be granted passage as Israeli, told them: "The Israeli government had urged the flotilla not to try to breach the blockade before the ships set sail from waters off Cyprus on Sunday and offered to take some aid in for them." But who you gonna believe - Israel with its bad rep or Euro-activists who have no problems to whine about in their own countries?

Al and Tipper Gore separating after 40 years of marriage. Kinda late for a mid-life crisis don't you think? Maybe the inconvenient truth is it was too politically inconvenient to quit sooner. I'll never understand how you can put up with someone 40 years and then part company. Geeeeze. I'm still mentally scrubbing the image of the Gores liplock during the 2004 election. The only kiss worse was Michael Jackson and that Presley woman.

Obama Obama. Ho-hum. Read a rant somewhere this a.m. about Glenn "Goofus Grubworm" Beck picking on and making fun of the Obama children. I think it was HuffPost I read that on. Something about a radio show and Beck pretending to be Malia talking to Daddy about stopping the oil spill. I'm not sure what Beck's point was, unless illustrating that Obama's kids think their dad can work miracles, plug leaks and part the waters or something. But all little girls with good dads think that. I know for a fact the sun rose and set with my mom and dad. Beck will do an episode apologizing for it. I can't remember the last time I had to apologize for something I said - don't folks think before they speak? Guess not, too many seem to think if it comes from their brain and across their lips it must be great - no weighing of words - just throw it out there, until the junkyard pundit dogs jump on it. When was the last time you heard an apology from a public figure that sounded sincere? Expedient, practical, well-written, but sincere? They claim to misspeak, regrettably, while defenders shout and whine it was taken out of context.

What else, what else. The repeal of "don't ask, don't tell." The House of Representatives voted by a 234-194 margin last Thursday to repeal the controversial "don't ask, don't tell" policy toward gays in the military. A vote to repeal the ban on gays serving in the military is on the horizon. President Obama said in a statement that he was "pleased" by the House vote. Yeeehar. With 0.75% of military personnel being gay, maybe more will rush to enlist when this is repealed. Does this cover the transgendered, transvestites, cross-dressers, bisexuals? Are those redundant? What kind of sentences will be handed out to those jarheads who slug the gay guy? After all, the progressives tell us our troops rape and mistreat their fellow female soldiers, so when they beat the crap out of a gay soldier, will that be a hate crime? While the younger generation is more acceptable of homosexuality, will it stop large numbers of straight men from enlisting? Seems to me repealing the policy is begging for trouble. My granddaughter has a good friend who is gay and joined the Army 4 years ago after high school graduation. He's doing well and plans to re-up. For the life of me though he is so obviously gay you wouldn't have to ask to tell.

And, I'm not keeping up with the celebrity perverts and addicts and citizen baby killers, other than the occasional sound byte or two from Nancy "Ain't I The Most Caring Person On Earth" Grace and her former panelist Jane "Loudmouth Lesbian and Former Drunkard" Velez-Mitchell - both rolling in the dough of following other people's tragedies, and still, when opportune, dredging up their own lives to milk it for popularity. Can't we find anyone who has led a somewhat typical mundane life anymore to host anything? Do they all have to be former something-or-other, previous victim, past addict, snot-nose minority of some sort, blinking and glistening tears on cue?

Time to go out and smell the roses. I'm so laaaazy I don't even want to provide links...

This Week in Savagery

From World Socialist, "100 years ago: 36 black prison workers die in stockade fire.

Convict labor in the US South.

Thirty-six black prison laborers were killed after the coal mine stockade where they were forced to work caught fire. There were “few survivors” according to a press account, among them three white inmates. The men were leased to the Red Feather Coal Company by the state of Alabama’s penal system.

There was little media coverage of the disaster. The New York Times dutifully repeated company claims that the fire was started by an inmate attempting to escape. “Among those who burned is the Negro who started the blaze,” according to the Times. How this could have been established if the man had died, the Times did not bother to report.

The “rescue” effort was primarily concerned with seeing to it that no one escaped. Or, as the Times put it, the effort “to guard the prisoners who were hurried outside greatly hampered rescue work.” Indeed, one of the 36 killed “was fatally shot by guards while attempting to escape.” The Times concluded that “it was with much difficulty” that the few survivors “were prevented from eluding the guards.”

The forced labor of prison convicts emerged in the South in the 1870s after the US Civil War (1861-1865) had abolished slavery. “Southern justice” routinely rounded up black men, as well as poor whites, who were then sold for a fee to mines, railroads, and other interests. The men were not paid, had no rights, and were subject to savage beatings."

---- Although prefaced with "convict labor in the US South" and a photo of black men on a chain gang, the gist of the blurp is saying look, look, see how racist the US South is - burning poor black prisoners who were forced to labor under god awful conditions. "They" abolished slavery and made us inmates, while the North paid pennies to lock white women and children in factories - leave it to the racist South to force the black convict into labor to benefit the companies who sold coal to fuel the factories in the progressive North.

WSWS insinuates that "the Negro who started the blaze" was framed because the NYT did not explain how his guilt was established since he died in the fire. Typical, just typical, blame the black man. Although I suspect the remaining prisoners and guards who survived pointed fingers as to who and how the blaze began.

Then there's the obligatory WSWS reminder of Hillbill Whitey and his "southern justice" for black men. Hinting times haven't really changed that much for the poor downtrodden black man - still a target for those evil white capitalists.

I'll further the convict labor history a bit. From 1866 to 1937, all across the US, states leased convict labor. The Brits did the same thing between 1607-1776 by sending convicts to US colonies - particularly Quakers, Scottish Covenanters, Monmouth Rebels, and other political and military trouble makers. After the Revolution they had to ship their criminal, mainly white folks, to Australia.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, U.S. miners were strongly against the convict-lease system, as it depressed wages, and the practice instigated several miner rebellions. In 1891 Tennessee miners initiated guerrilla attacks at Briceville in Anderson County. In the initial confrontation, three hundred miners surrounded the stockade, took charge of the forty prisoners, marched them and their guards five miles to Coal Creek, sealed them in boxcars, and shipped them to Knoxville. The miners requested the intervention of Governor John P. Buchanan to protect the rights of labor. The governor agreed to meet with the miners, but ordered three companies of state militia to restore order and return the convicts to Briceville.

Of course, nothing changed much until around 1930s, about the same time child labor was outlawed. Convict labor did help spur the growth of unions.

Even so, prison labor was not abolished, simply "restricted" and spruced up a bit and today, psychologists and social experts agree, work is considered a necessary part of the rehabilitation of criminals. (Is calling a convict a "criminal" P.C.?) The main work of prisoners now is maintenance activities, outdoor public works (farming, road building, reforestation), telemarketing... And of course the living conditions are much much much better. Mandatory labor today is termed "work-release" and "job training" or the "prison industries" sort of like cottage industries but without the home-based warm fuzzy ... well, I guess it is home to some men.

Today, compared to previous times, prisons are quite comfortable - cable tv, gym, clean clothes, regular meals, health care, counselors, religious or spiritual accommodations, college courses, libraries, sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Hmm ... taxpayer provided food, clothing, shelter, education, entertainment, medical care ... prison almost sounds like ... socialism? Maybe we are all in the process of being rehabilitated for USA Supermax.

Frederick Douglass, in 1893 wrote of the convict-lease system, giving 2 reasons why the majority of convicts were black. First: "The religious, moral and philanthropic forces of the country — all the agencies which tend to uplift and reclaim the degraded and ignorant, are in the hands of the Anglo-Saxon. Not only has very little effort been made by these forces to reclaim the Negro from the ignorance, immorality and shiftlessness with which he is charged, but he has always been and is now rigidly excluded from the enjoyment of those elevating influences toward which he felt voluntarily drawn. In communities where Negro population is largest and these counteracting influences most needed, the doors of churches, schools, concert halls, lecture rooms, Young Men's Christian Associations, and Women's Christian Temperance Unions, have always been and are now closed to the Negro who enters on his own responsibility. Only as a servant or inferior being placed in one corner is he admitted. The white Christian and moral influences have not only done little to prevent the Negro becoming a criminal, but they have deliberately shut him out of everything which tends to make for good citizenship."

Fred, that is rather disappointing. Douglass, born into slavery, sold, beaten, escaped, self-educated, world traveler, author, statesman - did not wait for the Anglo-Saxons or the YMCA to lift him from "ignorance, immorality, and shiftlessness."

Douglass' second reason is the same still heard today, although certainly more true in 1900 - that of the unfair sentences meted out to black men.

(Also irksome to me, Douglass was president of the Freedman's Savings Bank (1865-1874) which collapsed taking million$ from the black community - due to corruption, shady investments, speculation, etc., like today. Douglass stepped in at the last minute to "boost the morale of depositors and investors." An intelligent man, he had to know what was going on - what did he know and when did he know it.)

Anyway, I'm tired of the redundant stories of life's unfairness, particularly to black America.

Perhaps Douglass was the forerunner to Jessie or Al - you know, in one breath calling you an ignorant degraded shiftless nigger and in the next breath blaming it on whitey.

(That reminds me, anyone ever explain why Jessie wanted to cut off Obama's huevos? )

Mom Song

Worthy Politics

Gosh Bubba, wasn't it more interesting when we had Bush the Younger to bash and gnash our teeth on?

Now, again, we get to hear the "right" yammer about socialism coming to America - never mind that's it's been arriving in increments over the last 70 or so years.

The republicans would have you think Obama is ushering socialism in - even as he bails out the big business of banking, insurance, healthcare, housing, auto, etc. and creates more bureaucracy and bureaucrats - just as Bush the Boy did under the guise of "security." Obama does it under the cover of "economic recovery."

Surely, soon, we will all be safer and richer. And the woooooooorld will live as one ...

Arizona toughened up its immigration laws and "activists" are in an uproar. Obama says the bill is "misguided" and "his administration is examining whether it would violate civil rights."

Damn near anything can be condoned or undone now under "civil rights."

The sad fact is the majority of Latino hordes crossing the border are not coming to do the jobs Americans won't do - but come for the benefits, come as deadbeats to live with cousins who may or may not be legal but have settled in, and/or the trafficantes. So stop kidding yourself ... the illegals today drift back and forth across the border leaving a trail in the US of crime, debt, and illegitimate babies with fat white girls on the system (as if America needs help with that). So you say illegals put a lot of money back into the US economy? Yes, my daughters-in-law (Mexican nationals) say the money not sent south of the border is spent on diapers and beer. Have you ever lived in a US barrio? It's just the inner city 'hood speaking Spanish with brighter paint.

As I've said before, if you had millions of blacks illegally crossing the border, D.C. would solve the problem in a week. And while progressives would claim sympathy for those poor black folks only trying to feed their families, they would say illegal immigration depresses US wages, burdens our entitlement programs, and encourages criminal activity. Because you see, deep down in their hearts, progressives prefer their voting slave sheeple light-skinned. Hordes of illegal Africans crossing the border - no way. Hordes of lighter-skinicans - okay.

A couple of weeks ago Obama instructed his Health and Human Services secretary to draft rules requiring hospitals that receive Medicare and Medicaid payments to grant same-sex couples "visitation right." Hailed and cheered as some sort of advancement for gay rights. Every gay couple I've known over the last 40 years never had a problem in a hospital setting. Pure barrypandering.

Obama recently recognized iconic godmother of civil rights, Dorothy Height. She died at 98 after a long, long career in social activism. She stood with MLK during his "I Have a Dream Speech." Betcha never heard of her. Black History month has worked so well. I bet Obama never heard of her until shortly before her memorial, in fact he said "We came to know her in the early days of my campaign."

I suppose in the heyday of women's rights, Gloria Steinem was spokesperson enough for white women demanding equal pay and equal orgasm (and still failing at both), and Angela Davis for black women. Dorothy wasn't sufficiently militant for that time period or TPTB-guided social change. Height was a lady, but the poster-girl plan called for an in-your-face black woman on the FBI wanted list.

Obama panders as well as any president, in fact, democrats seem to be better at it than republicans. Dems make you believe, as you bend over, that they're doing something for you while they further the agenda of the powers that be. Republicans don't care if you believe they're doing something for you or not - bend over.

Have you scanned the headlines on "progressive blogs"? If they're not talking about themselves and how intelligent they are, or banning someone who doesn't agree - they're ranting about Arizona immigration apartheid, gentrification, reparations, black sell-outs i.e. black conservatives, and fundraising for a former 1960s thug now known as a political prisoner. And/or a mention of the latest skit on the Comedy Channel, as this is where the average progressive gets his ideology (versus the hilarious Sean Hannity on the right).

Never mind that polls show the majority of Americans support the Arizona immigration law, or support domestic oil drilling, or are against things like same-sex marriage - you're gonna get whatever it takes for TPTB to create the America they want - one where the majority is puerile, tingling and palpitating over elected personalities rather than real leaders.

When my teen high school granddaughter watched clips from something on t.v. showing presidents and other pols on late night talk shows, she commented "...hard to take them seriously when they do talk show t.v., it's seems undignified."

Yep, it's hard to take politicians seriously or see them as having any dignity, but maybe that's the goal, since dignity would imply they're worthy.