black…MYstory

Oh, I guess those on the right have found religion on “fiscal responsibility” and are now taking their anger to the streets.

Yesterday, I watched (and shook my head) as I see swarms of disaffected (mostly conservative) folks fill downtown Cincinnati to protest the stimulus.

Dubbing themselves the “Cincinnati Tea Party”, the “movement” is calling on the U.S. government to stop bailing out banks and corporations.

Question: Where have you been?

When George Bush was in office, spending money like a drunken sailor, where where you?  When he doubled our foreign debt and borrowed to finance unnecessary war (causing us to double our national debt, as well), where was your concern for fiscal responsibility.  You were making noise but, at the time, it was cheerleading because your guy was in charge and you shouted down anyone who questioned the wisdom of borrowing money we didn’t have to fund a war that we didn’t need to fight.

Furthermore, you complained when people talked of regulation, saying that the “free market” should rule the day, not realizing that, when you take out the rules, it stops being a free market and becomes a free-for-all, where anything goes.

So, you fed this beast, helped it grow and now, when it comes back to bite you in the a$$, you want someone else to put it down for you?

There’s a old saying, “pay me now or pay me later”.  Well, it’s now “later” and the price is going to be high as a mutha.

Popularity: 58% [?]

Okay, I am not a big Saturday Night Live fan but this was funny!

Popularity: 57% [?]

On Real Time last night, Bill Maher handily shoots down the Republican assertions that there is no role for government in the lives of Americans.

Video below:

Popularity: 63% [?]

Wow, the brother has had the job for a month and there is already a call from a high-ranking Republican official that Michael Steele step down as chair of the Republican National Committee.

Granted, it’s been a rough month for Steele.  I don’t think his “hip hop makeover” strategy for the Republican party has been well-received by the establishment of the party.  To be fair, I clowned it too but, for different reasons, I suspect.

And, we saw how he got punked after crticizing Rush Limbaugh and felt compelled, for some reason, to apologize for not worshipping at the altar of Rush.

However, like I said, it’s only been a month, people.  Can the man get some time to find his footing?

Apparently not.

The Hill is reporting that North Carolina’s Republican national committeewoman, Dr. Ada Fisher, has sent out an email to fellow RNC members claiming that he is “eroding confidence”  in the GOP and asks that his transistion team encourage him to step down.  Fisher goes on to say:

“I don’t want to hear anymore [sic] language trying to be cool about the bling in the stimulus package or appealing to D.L. Hughley and blacks in a way that isn’t going to win us any votes and makes us frankly appear to many blacks as quite foolish.”

Even worse, the email includes Michael Steele’s personal email address.  I presume that this would allow those that co-sign to email him to directly to express their dissatisfaction.

The Republicans continue to eat their own.  I’ll guess I grab my bucket of popcorn and continue to watch this horror movie play out.

Popularity: 34% [?]

Rush Limbaugh is the GOP’s version of Suge Knight (before he started getting knocked out).  Most Republican politicians or leaders are scared to death to say anything negative about him.  Those that do soon regret it because he quickly ends up taking their manhood from them.

It’s kind of like the saying I used to hear from older cats talking tough, “if you even dream about kickin’ my a$$, you’d better wake up and apologize.”

Well, the latest GOP leader to be turned out and put on the stroll is Michael Steele.  Steele had the audacity to believe that being elected the chair of the Republican National Committee put him in a position where he could actually say that Rush Limbaugh does not speak for the Republican Party and that he (Michael Steel) is actually the party’s head.

Well, that was Saturday.

By Monday, he was kissing the ring, handing over his manhood, putting on the high heels and hitting the “track”.

Yes, Michael Steele joined the growing list of GOP leaders who have to bow down to their real leader, Rush Limbaugh.

Of course, he’s getting clowned for it.

I share with you two videos.  One is from the show, The Young Turks. This show leans more to the liberal side.  So, of course he’s clowned there, right?  However, the second is more telling.  It’s from Morning Joe, an MSNBC show that leans more to the right side of the political aisle.  This morning, they clowned Steele mercilessly.

Videos below:

Popularity: 32% [?]

The mayor of Los Alamitos, CA, Dean Grose, got a big kick out of a picture of a watermelon patch growing in front of the White House, with a caption reading “No Easter egg hunt this year”.  In fact, he was so amused by it that he sent it to, as he termed it, “a small group of friends.”

One of those “friends”, Keyanus Price, who is a local businesswoman and volunteers for the city, was not amused.  In fact, she publicly chided the mayor for it.  At first, Grose, a man in his 60’s, attempted to say he was unaware of the stereotype about black people and watermelons, which leaves one to ask then, what amused him so about the picture.

However, now, the mayor admits that his actions were in such poor taste that they have affected his ability to lead.  As a result, he will resign effective March 2.

For a small city of 12,000 people, the Mayor has made Los Alamitos famous for all the wrong reasons.

Popularity: 18% [?]

President Obama:

When your predecessor left office, I knew that he was leaving a shameful legacy.  It was a presidency marked by clear violations of law that were overlooked.  I was afraid that he was creating precedents that, unless acted upon by his successor or Congress, would be accepted practice for future presidents.

Over the weekend, I read something very disappointing.  I read that your administration is trying to help kill a lawsuit regarding the millions of missing emails from the eight years of the Bush administration.  We know that this was a pervasive scandal, which included violations of the Presidential Records Act and saw official White House correspondence being routed through the Republican National Committee’s email servers.

All this is clearly wrong.  So, I have to ask, why?  You promised transparancy.  What’s more transparent than allowing people to know the truth about the last 8 years so that we can clear up this mess?

My concern is that this power might appeal to you and that, if you can scuttle this lawsuit, you can use this power to your advantage.  I am hoping that you can prove me wrong and back off trying to quash this lawsuit.  I guess we’ll know soon.

Popularity: 11% [?]

The mayor of Lansing, Michigan let a Fox News Host have it with both barrels.  Fox, like much of the corporate media, seems to have a problem with common working people making a decent wage.  For some reason, it seems that they would be okay if they were paid pennies while their bosses made millions.

Well, Mayor Virg Bernero took it right to the Fox host and didn’t back down one bit (see video below).  Just one thing, though.  Next time, mayor, would you debunk this garbage $70/hour myth for UAW employees.  If I go by why the Republican talking heads tell you, the average union auto worker is bringing in nearly $150,000 in wages and benefits.  In reality, this number is derived from a convoluted formula.  It looks at the benefits and pensions made to all active AND retired employees, which, I guess, would be averaged to$42/hour.  They add to this the average wage of an hourly employee, which is $28/hour.  This is how they arrive at a number of $70.  However, active employees are not getting $42/hour in benefits.  In actuality, according to the UAW, it is more like $10/hour for active employees.

Popularity: 22% [?]

When I heard Eric Holder speech, I knew that, in the age of the sound bite, people would gravitate to 4 or 5 words in it.  The passage I refer to is the following:

“Though the nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards.”

Well, I have to agree with him.

We live in a society that believes that issues go away and things fix themselves if you ignore them.  Race continues to be an issue because we don’t talk about it enough.  Sure, we have racial controversies that, when they happen, people go to their different corners and prepare to come out swinging but, is this healthy?  Why don’t we talk race at a time there not a riot or a police shooting of an unarmed black person?  Why don’t we talk about race when we’re not reading about a round-up of illegal immigrants?  Why don’t we talk about race when a white person is not suing over a job he/she felt they deserved?

No, after centuries of living amongst one another, we still can’t talk about it outside of the context of controversy.  So, yes, we are a nation of cowards when it comes to race.

Look, I of all people understand.  I discuss race almost every day.  However, as I get older, I realize that it’s us folks who are not in the top 2% of the wealthy in America are getting screwed, all of us.  I’ll defend black folks but, I’ll also speak up for the underdog, regardless of race.  I am still a coward but, I am trying to work out of my cowardice.

Too many people say we shouldn’t discuss race because it further divides us.  I disagree.  It’s not the airing out of  differences that’s killing us — it’s the silent assumptions we make about people.  It’s our discussing race in a vacuum, only among people who look like us and, hopefully, think like us that stops progress on this issue.  Granted, there are times where we need to get together as a group and talk things out but, we can’t just stay in that group and can’t just talk to that group, if we want things to change.  You have to put it out on the table and make it plain.  Will you bump heads?  Of course.   Will we have big blow ups? No doubt.  However, if you start having the tough conversations, now, they don’t stay difficult forever.  You develop a more open environment and, eventually, it’s not as hard to have these discussions and, with any luck, these discussions turn into resolutions.

I’m not talking magic or kumbaya here.  I’m talking about hard, bitter, tough work.  It’s not work for cowards so, who are you?

Popularity: 12% [?]

You might want to sit down for this.  I am about to praise a Republican.  I have to give it up to California State Senator Abel Maldonado.  Yesterday, he was the deciding vote that helped approve California’s budget.

Maldonado went against his party to vote for $13 billion in tax increases which, to Republicans, seems tantamount to treason.  (However, if I may make an editorial comment, how do you pay your debts and expenses if you are not bringing in funds?)

With his vote, Maldonado put his political career in jeopardy.  So, today, I give props to Abel Maldonado for making the tough call and putting the people of his state ahead of his Republican party affiliation.

Popularity: 8% [?]