Are Dems Wimps?

I could not believe it when I heard Senator Harry Reid during his press conference telling journalists, that as the recently elected senate majority, they had to give Bush the money to go to war, or else Bush would have attacked Democrats saying that they have been elected but are not taking action. It is true the Dems were given somewhat of a weak mandate - they are a majority by one, and yes, its true they are not acting! But it isn't Bush's attacks they need to worry about but rather the wrath of the American public whom most polls show are fed up of the war. It seems the Dems haven't caught onto that most basic of lessons of politics - It's a dirty game! The Republicans and the current White House are your opposition, of course they are going to attack you any time you do anything they dislike or disagree with, which is every time - that is the whole premise of a multiparty democracy - well O.K. dual party monopoly that we live in, but, that’s mere details... Have the Dems never caught on that Republicans never ever ever bow to any Democratic Party demands, and they counter-attack blow-for-blow, as any self respecting opposing political party should! The Dems are running scared because they do not want to face attacks from the 28% approval ratings president?! In so doing, they are abdicating their responsibility to the American people and all affected to end the war by any means available to them. The Dems as they stand right now do not stand a chance in hell of taking the white house. They have failed to act at a most crucial time, and they have shown that they have no back bone. I am not sure the American people will forget, nor can I see the public putting their trust in the Dems when they show no decisiveness at such a crucial moment!

The Parisian Jail Saga Continues

I said to watch this space, and indeed, there was yet more to report. I had wondered what creative ways they would come up with to treat Ms Hilton differently, i.e preferentially and guess what?! They did. A reduction by almost half of her sentence to a mere 23 days?! For good behavior?! Doesn’t one need to be already in jail in order to be judged on their behavior? Or does carrying a bible in clear view for the cameras count as good behavior? Miss Naomi Campbell take note!! A copy of the Bible and a Spiritual self-discovery type book and all will be hunky dory. If only someone had sent Mike Tyson that memo, damn, Mike, you would never have had to spend years in jail. What of O.J Simpson, maybe America would have even accepted your Not Guilty verdict…

Parisian jail!!

Yes, I have lowered myself to this level, how could I not blog a little about Paris Hilton going to jail. I know I know, this political blog of mine, dealing with issues of global import, and yes indeed, Paris Hilton – Hey Hilton is an International name is it not?

Paris + Tinkerbell sculpture by controversial artist Daniel Edwards

Btw, I am also just learning as I write this that blog is still not in the Word dictionary? Is this 2007 or what, Oh wait, it’s probably my laptop that’s prehistoric… Anyhow, I mean come on, this girl, not only did she drive drunk without a license, but she thought it funny to mock Police by wearing a police uniform while doing so. Then she gets caught, and “OH!, gosh golly by gosh!” How dare they?! She wrote a petition to the governator to grant her a gubernatorial pardon, asking her fans on her official myspace page to “SIHN” the petition! I mean, this was the last crime in my opinion. The girl cannot even spell sign?! Surely, if she has never had to write another thing in her life, she must have to sign on the dotted line of all her various contracts does she not? And she never noticed that the word is “SIGN”?! For this last crime, I think she needs to be given a 90-day sentence, of which most would be spent in compulsory reading and writing class!
I couldn't get over it when the MSNBC pop analyst on Tucker Carlson's show referred to Paris Hilton's fans as Parisians, who were joining forces in demanding her freedom for her noble acts of entertaining that she affords them! Anyhow, who I'm I not to weigh in, CNN, MSNBC, the Governator, who hasn't? The funniest coverage I've seen so far however, is the tabloid magazines' stories about lesbian gangs and such like... I do have to agree, she does provide some entertainment for us all, albeit of the truly sad variety! You know, the most unsurprising thing though would be if she actually did get away without serving a day of her sentence, despite the fact that apparently this is a sentence that is not up for appeal! The Hilton family is a powerful US family and it would not entirely surprise me if thanks to a generous campaign donation to some politician, or maybe even some politician’s favorite charity, a gubernatorial pardon were not forthcoming. What reasons could possibly be conjured up for this pardon – the safety of the other prisoners perhaps due to the unwanted attention and possible riots that a Paris lockup might cause? Stay tuned…

Spinning out of Control

The biggest hurdle in my opinion, that the Democrats face in the upcoming election, other than Democrats themselves, is Spin Doctors whom I have a healthy distrust for. I feel they spend too much time talking to and watching Chris Mathews and Tucker Carlson and other such types, and probably not enough of Keith Olberman, rather than listening to the real pulse of Main Street. The political pundits get it wrong time and again, as they did in their assessment of the MSNBC primary debates, whereby they touted Hillary as the winner, while the most favorable ratings in fact went to Obama.
I think that the Spin Doctors were in overdrive again, earlier this spring when Obama was rebuked by the White House and the Right in general for issuing a statement saying that “Soldiers Lives were being wasted in Iraq”. I believe they were responsible for making Obama revoke and apologize for the statement, which I felt marked Obama’s first cardinal sin of this campaign. In fact, high level Republicans, including , I believe Chuck Hagel went on to reiterate exactly what Obama had said soon after.
Obama, your instincts are and were correct on this occasion. There was never a need to lend credence to the Right’s views and opinions, and thus giving them free publicity by rescinding your commenets. In fact the real news was the apology rather than the comments or what the right wing media were saying. The real gaffe in my opinion, is the revoking and rescinding of comments, not the actual statement. I'm forced to hark back time and again to one particularly unlikely source, President Bush, whose administration has successfully deflected the now famous millions of gaffes issued by the beloved clown president. I had not heard of the so-called gaffe until Obama made headlines by apologizing or re-clarifying what he had meant to say

I hate to be taken back to that most unpleasant phase for the DNC that was the last election, which was a painful, constant and enduring cringe evoking series of gaffe after gaffe on the part of the Kerry campaign, constantly revoking statements that needed no clarifying, nor revocation. The right is the opposition, may I remind you all dear spin-doctors and they will pick and tear apart every single word that a democrat utters. If left-wing spin doctors have not come to the realization that playing defense is not the way to score goals, then I am afraid to say that the GOP will continue to set the agenda and we will continue to debate on their platform, denying the country the opportunity to hear, and sift through and understand the DNC agenda. I guess I have to remind you yet again, that the GOP will always win on their home turf. Democrats cannot respond to every GOP attack, and in particular Obama should never lend any credence to any GOP attack by going on the defensive about everything they say. The apology makes headlines and takes away from the opportunity to disseminate our candidate’s own message. Obama has a message that resonates and people are responding. He needs no additives, and other than getting that message out, his is one that needs a minimum of spin. The whole pack of Dem candidates goes all out of their way for example to distance themselves form the label of liberal! If we are not liberals, then surely what are we? Just because the GOP labels liberal as a negative term, does not make it so, either in fact nor in the minds of the American public. However, denying one’s liberalism and distancing themselves from the word only makes the word seem suspect, and leaves the party looking weak and undecided. May I remind you the words of John F. Kennedy on this very subject.

“What do our opponents mean when they apply to us the label "Liberal?" If by "Liberal" they mean, as they want people to believe, someone who is soft in his policies abroad, who is against local government, and who is unconcerned with the taxpayer's dollar, then the record of this party and its members demonstrate that we are not that kind of "Liberal." But if by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal."
I remember working on a similarly feverish campaign of one, Gov Howard Dean. To this day I am convinced that the Spin Doctors cost Dean the Dem primary and consequently the DNC the presidency. I knew Kerry could never cut it – he had never shown any real stand on any issue nor had his public speaking been particularly impressive. While Dean lacked the oratory skills of our candidate, however, I still think that his ideas and values - had democrats not lost faith - would have won him not only the primary, but they would have won over independents and even republicans as well and delivered the south and ousted the president and would have saved us another painful four years of this awful regime. Spin Doctors went into overdrive sending him on a frenzied PR crusade to salvage his image, an image that in my opinion needed no saving.

Did President Bush just say "It is what it is"!!!!!!!

During a press conference at Camp David on April 27 2007, where President Bush was hosting the Japanese PM, Shinzo Abe, the president while talking about the spending bill that he planned to veto because of the attached clause requiring a timetable for troop withdrawals, used the term, "It is what it is" Now is it just me, or is this Hip Hop, or black-speak?! It is the case, that black youth are generally accepted as the trendsetters when it comes to cultural as well as other aspects, but dayum, I think that for it to reach the White House, and so quick - I mean I don't think this is a phrase that's been popular in youth-speak that long. In the past, words/phrases made popular by black youth always make it to the mainstream, but these days it seems like it just happens that much quicker - maybe due to the prominence of hip hop in mainstream culture? Why is this significant? I think that it says something about the acceptability of "black culture", "black language" in the mainstream, which I hope would also coincide with greater acceptance and consequently - of the idea of greater participation of black people in the mainstream, in the work place, in higher education, in politics and generally in American life on an equal basis. It is also useful to remind black youth of their influence and to remind those of us cultural critics who are so quick to dismiss certain idiosyncrasies of black youth culture to realise that conformity may not be an answer at all, or at least may not be a requirement. Of course if I'm completely wrong that "it is what it is" is black/hip-hop speak, then of course this whole blog is null and void, but it was still something to hear the president use what I am pretty sure is at least some sort of youth-speak...

Remembering Black Wallstreet

"The date was June 1, 1921 when "BLACK WALLSTREET", the name fittingly given to one of the most affluent all-BLACK communities in America, was bombed from the air and burned to the ground by mobs of envious whites. In a period spanning fewer than 12 hours, a once thriving Black business district in northern Tulsa lay smoldering--a model community destroyed and a major African-American economic movement resoundingly defused.


The night's carnage left some 3,000 African Americans dead and over 600 successful businesses lost. Among these were 21 churches, 21 restaurants, 30 grocery stores and two movie theaters, plus a hospital, a bank, a post office, libraries, schools, law offices, a half dozen private airplanes and even a bus system. As could have been expected, the impetus behind it all was the infamous Ku Klux Klan, working in consort with ranking city officials and many other sympathizers.

In their self-published book, BLACK WALLSTREET: A Lost Dream and its companion video documentary, BLACK WALLSTREET: A BLACK Holocaust in America! the authors have chronicled for the very first time in the words of area historians and elderly survivors what really happened there on that fateful summer day in 1921 and why it happened. Wallace similarly explained why this bloody event from the turn of the century seems to have had a recurring affect that is being felt in predominately BLACK neighborhoods even to this day."
http://www.globalblacknews.com/BlackWallstreet.html
Why is it important to bring this negative past up, I hear you say? Well, because this sort of shameful American history is part of what ails Black America today, and needs to be acknowledged and dealt with by apologies and any other fitting means. Ignoring the shameful past of America will never succeed to keep it hidden, as it will continue to rear its ugly head time and again. The other use of acknowledging America's ugly past is the fact that it serves to demonstrate to African Americans and indeed to Africans all over some of the reasons that hold African progress back in the USA. "And what is the purpose of this?" again I hear you say. Well, as long as there are clear reasons for what ails Africans in America, we are able to understand that there are very real, very solid outside factors that have served and continue to serve to contribute to this, and it is necessary to understand that there is nothing so inherently wrong with our community to stop us succeeding. It is a reminder that we have to somehow find a way to circumvent and mitigate these external factors, and reach into our inner selves for inner strength, and if indeed there could exist a black wall street during Jim Crow, imagine what we can re-create with the resources and the advances made in legislation to outlaw practices that have existed in the past to legally hinder black progress – (I point out specifically the legal advances made not to be confused with a suggestion that there doesn't still exist the many various racist hindrances of access to education, opportunity, economic advantage and so forth). Remembering Black Wall Street, furthermore, not only serves to recall the morbidity of this tragedy, but rather, it serves to remind and make aware to those that weren't already, that we as a people come from greatness, and if we can recreate greatness in the most unfavorable of circumstances such as Jim Crow, then we certainly can recreate greatness given today's slightly improved circumstances. I truly believe that there is a strong element of belief in the inherent inferiority of blacks among not just whites but among some blacks as well, and it is of utmost importance to counter this, because if blacks do not believe that we are more than equal in ability and resilience and resourcefulness etc, then what hope is there for that kid who's lagging behind in sch, with all these negative stereotypes around, backed by statistics to boot. However, knowing and believing in ourselves will serve to provide hope and a true belief that those bad grades can be turned around, that single family household you come from is not a sentence to a life of poverty, because you, me and we are all capable of turning all of these around. Because we have done it before in the worst of circumstances, and continue to do so... It is to understand that if the extremely legalized racist environments of yesteryear going as far back as the 1800s and beyond could bring forth the likes of Fredrick Douglas, Marcus Garvey, Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King, Josephine Baker, Berry Gordy, Oprah, Russell Simmons and on and on the list goes... Then surely a child in the extremely challenging environment that is the hood can, should and will overcome and can be all they should be. I am not interested in the negative history, purely for the sake of its negativity, but more so as a reminder of our undying and superior resilience, and ability in the face of adversity, and to remind us as well as the most important among us - our young men and women, and boys and girls, that the challenges we face today while heavy, are nothing compared to the challenges faced by our great of yesteryear, and therefore should not and cannot hinder our progress

The Race Gap - Why Do Achievement Levels Vary?

I saw this article on CBS, which had lots of stuff I know to be so obvious.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/14/national/main2179601.shtml Apparently,
The stuff is not so obvious and the comments I saw on there had me a little agitated. So I wrote my own, and now u have the pleasure of being able to read it all right here on my page, in full.

One person wanted to know why Asians do so well, and another pointed out that its no fault of any other race. While yet another pointed out that blacks are far better off in America than anywhere in Africa. May I point out that despite having the highest incomes, Asians, still have higher poverty levels - why is that? Racism, because when any non white group does poorly, they are not going to have the help extended to whites. Blacks do poorly in America because of racism - historical as well as present - you can scream from the top of any building, but that is the truth, and I can understand somehow some whites not wanting to not face up to the guilt of their actions, but racism is the evil that causes black people in the US to do as poorly as they do. The most amazing thing in the US is not that blacks lag behind, but rather, that Africans have done so well and come so far. As far as blacks in America doing better than blacks in Africa, I will have you know that all African countries are under African rule, and everywhere there are positive examples to look at. Keeping African Americans believing that they come from a much worse place is a great tool for keeping African Americans satisfied and feel that they are somehow being done a favor by getting the scraps off America's table. Of course America is the world's number one economy, not to mention at the forefront of media activity and so anyone doing well here, is going to be highlighted more. So of course everyone knows Oprah and Michael Jordan for example.

The reality is that while for Jews, the clear perpetrator of hate crimes is an easily identifiable group known as Nazis, the perpetrators of crimes against African humanity in many cases has just been normal white people and otherwise respectable. And no different than a child and an abusive parent for example having to somehow co-exist, Africans and the perpetrators of African genocide have to co-exist. Just like an abusive parent blaming an abused child who then grows up to have problems, so will the whole of the west continue to deny their responsibility in the damage caused by the racism, xenophobia and genocide they have subjected Africans to.

No one race has ever had to endure what Africans have at the hands of Caucasians and no other race has had to come from so far behind. So in many ways, the mere fact that Africans – both at home in Africa and in the Diaspora have had to learn new languages and new ways of doing everything from education to systems of government is actually testament to our resilience and ability.

The part I agree with Bill Cosby however, is not so much about blame – because, absolutely racism is at fault, and we should not ignore it, nor forget it – we have to acknowledge it, realize that there are reasons why blacks lag behind in America, and not what the other would have us believe, which is that we are somehow inferior. However, just like an abused child cannot rely on their abuser to fix them up, we have to take responsibility for our own recovery, because that is the only thing we can have control over.

Furthermore, how convenient it is to ignore the fact that white people have had advantage in this country proffered to them from the beginning, so that when measures to try and somehow give Africans some sort of a push to some kind of a level playing field, it is called handouts. The likes of George Bush went to Yale because of what? Intelligence, high SATs? No! White affirmative action by other names - privilege - the fact that daddy went there! And that is common practice. The fact that Africans in this country have never had any inheritance to talk of makes a huge difference. Whites inherited land, money, property, privilege and prestige as well as family values and child rearing skills. Blacks were reared like cattle in slave quarters, families separated, and then all of a sudden are expected to have family values and pass them on to their kids? What are we, super men and women? In many ways, we are because we do still have great values, which is why we have survived the constant assaults upon us, but many of us are only human and they lag behind, and it is up to those of us who have had better opportunities to help our fellows. It sure won't come from the same group that would have us in chains working on their plantations, with no right to vote or get educated! Only a few years ago, these were the laws of this great country, and now all of a sudden, education is the most important thing that will get blacks out of their hole, and why won't blacks get it?! Because it was denied many of our forebears, who would have passed it on to us! The fact that so many of us do still pursue it is the amazing part, not the reverse - not the fact that there are some who don't!