black…MYstory

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% [?]

…can’t catch the rhythm of the stroke/
Why should I hold my breath/
Feelin’ that I might choke…/

-Aqua Boogie, Parliament

Are you underwater?  If you’re a homeowner paying a mortgage in America today, there’s a 20% chance that you are.

Yesterday, a report issued by First American CoreLogic is saying that some 20% of those of us still paying mortgages owe more than the home is worth.  Right now, this means that this is affecting some 8.3 million us mortgages. I knew the number was high but, I was unaware that it was this high.

We have not hit the bottom yet.  CoreLogic also reported that another 2.2 million have homes worth only about 5% more that their mortgage value.

I know Ohio, where I live, has challenges but, just look at some of the other places impacted:

Nevada has the highest proportion of mortgage-holding homeowners with negative equity, 55 percent, the report released today states. About 15 percent of District homeowners who owe money on their homes are “underwater,” compared to nearly 20 percent of Virginia homeowners and 13 percent of those in Maryland.

Fortunately (and finally), the Obama administration is moving its focus from just bailing out Wall Street to formulate a plan and target funds towards helping homeowners in trouble.

This move is expected to help some 9 million homeowners.

Nonetheless, I say grab a bucket and start bailing or learn to swim.  A lot more of us are going under.

Popularity: 17% [?]

I usually don’t go too heavily into the celeb stuff.  We get “news” like this all the time.  Typically, most of what they do has very little relevance in the lives of everyday people.

However, the whole Chris Brown/Rihanna fisaco did bother me. As someone whose seen women in his own family go through abusive relationships, I saw that such relationships are of absolutely no good.

I didn’t speak on this because, I thought, Rihanna seemed to have enough sense to break away from Chris Brown before it got worse.  Today, I believe I was wrong.

It seems that they are a couple again.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.  I saw the women in my own family let abusive men back in, too.  The men were so contrite, apologetic and loving after these beatings. The swore it wouldn’t happen again and admitted they needed help.  Then, in no time at all, there would be another argument and another beating, just as bad, if not worse, would happen.  I’ve seen the women in my family with cuts and bruises.  I’ve seen the sunglasses being worn to work to cover black eyes.  I’ve seen the so-called me calling or showing up at a place of work to publicly humiliate or intimidate the women. I’ve seen cases as severe as my own recently-deceased aunt who, over 20 years ago, was found after having being beaten and thrown through a glass table by her boyfriend.  She was in a coma and, after awakening, could barely walk so that, in her 40’s, should could do no more that shuffle along. However, even this was not enough to convince her and, out of “love” she refused to press charges.

I guess this situation bothers me not because Rihanna is a celebrity.  It bothers me for at least two other reasons:

1. because she is a young woman with her whole life ahead of her and doesn’t see what a volatile situation she may be a part of and
2. young women in similar situations may look to her example and not break with abusive mates, either.

Sadly, this isn’t a story of celebrity. This is something that is all too common and, I’m afraid, all too acceptable.

Popularity: 20% [?]

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% [?]

Last August, a 21-year-old Nigel Haskett, an employee at an Arkansas McDonald’s, came to the aid of a patron who was being assaulted by her boyfriend.  He succeeded in getting the man out of the door and stood in front of it to bar his entry.  The man then went to his car, got a gun and shot Haskett several times.

Nigel Haskett fought for his life and survived.  He is now fighting McDonald’s for $300,000 in worker’s comp claims to cover his medical expenses.   McDonald’s claims that it is right to deny Haskett coverage because, as a part of their 30-minute orientation, McDonald’s employees are supposedly informed that they are supposed to only call 911 in emergency situations.  However, in many instances, courts have sided with “good samaritans” in cases like this, especially when it would result in good will towards the employer.

Clearly, a case like this could have generated some rather positive press for McDonald’s, had they played their cards right.  Instead, they are now looking like an evil empire for denying claims to an employees hurt while trying to protect a McDonald’s customer.

I think McDonald’s will soon realize that what they will lose in good will and lost opportunity will soon exceed $300,000.

Update: Here’s a video of the incident in question.

Popularity: 13% [?]

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% [?]

They New York Post issued a sort of an apology over a recent cartoon showing police shooting a monkey who, in the cartoon, was supposed to be the author of the recent stimulus bill. Given that President Barack Obama was the key figure touting this bill, many interpreted it as the racial imagery that, too often, compared black people to primates.

In its “apology”, the Post stated the following:

“…to those who were offended by the image, we apologize.”

I, for one, felt an apology was due, if no more than the fact that the cartoon left itself open to this sort of interpretation.  I understand that the paper said it was tying this to a recent shooting of a crazed monkey but, really, is that sensible?  Also, if you really think about it, if you’re joking about shooting the author of a bill, aren’t you really joking about killing a public official?

Just food for thought.  Perhaps the post cartoonist is in need of it before he/she publishes subsequent caroons.

Popularity: 13% [?]