HIATUS WINDING DOWN

• Long time, Searchers. I've been off for a while dealing with things I won't go into detail about here. Greetings to a Searcher, Jason of Illinois.
  
  Very quickly, as I'm taking care of other things at the moment, I wanted to touch base about two books I picked up from the Library the other day. One is by Deena Guzer, Divine Rebels American Christian Activists for Social Justice. The other is Conscience of a Liberal by Paul Krugman. Both are phenomenal.
  
  In Krugman's book, granted I am only a few pages in, he writes about the similarities between what he calls The Long Gilded Age, the period between 1870 and the 1920's. There is a table he inserts that appears on page 16 of the book, I will attempt to recreate it here:
  
  
  



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  Table 1. Share of High-income Groups in Total Income, Excluding Capital Gains



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  Highest-income 10% Highest -income 1%



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  Average for 1920's 43.6% 17.3%



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  2005 44.3% 17.4%

In the table and the writing explaining the table, he discusses the inequality of income and the resemblance between the Nation in the 1870's and today, albeit a few years ago. Since 2005, it has not gotten better, it has gotten worse. As a direct result of the abysmal economic policies of the Republican party, including Ronald Reagan, and his political offspring, George W. Bush.

The Republicans are tearing down our Nation, make no mistake. Another quote from his book that appears on page 11 of Conscience of a Liberal:

Ronald Reagan, more than anyone else, showed the way. His 1964 speech "A time for Choosing," which launched his political career, and the speeches he gave during his successful 1966 campaign for governor of California foreshadowed political strategies that would work for him and other movement conservatives for the next forty years. Latter-day hagiographers have portrayed Reagan as a paragon of high-minded conservative principles, but he was nothing of the sort. His early political successes were based on appeals to cultural and sexual anxieties playing on the fear of communism, and, above all, tacit exploitation of white backlash against the civil rights movement and its consequences. (Bold mine.)

One key message of this book, which many readers may find uncomfortable, is that race is at the heart of what has happened to the country I grew up in. The legacy of slavery, America's original sin, is the reason we're the only advanced economy that doesn't guarantee health care to our citizens. (bold mine) White backlash against the civil rights movement is the reason America is the only advanced country where a major political party (the Republicans, this is inserted by me) wants to roll back the welfare state. Ronald Reagan began his 1980 campaign with a states' rights speech outside Philadelphia, Mississippi, the town where three civil rights workers were murdered; Newt Gingrich, (who by the way is running for President for the 2012 election, against President Obama, parenthetical commentary mine) was able to take over Congress entirely because of the great Southern flip, the switch of Southern whites from overwhelming support for Democrats to overwhelming support for Republicans.

Without a doubt, the Republican party is against American families, and against America herself.

Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan's dangerous plan to turn Medicare into a coupon or voucher program is but one of the many examples of the Republican nightmarish plans for our country. For those of you who don't know about his plan to destroy medicare, study up. Same for the plans by the now infamous Scott Walker, the current Governor of Wisconsin. He will be up for a recall vote one year after his term began. There are currently several Republican State Senators facing recall next month in Wisconsin.

The Republican party is not for America's families. They are attempting to haul us back to the time before the Great Depression, and they are trying to destroy the New Deal designed by FDR, as well as the middle class and the elderly, students, young families, American industry, the list goes on and on.

Listen, Searchers, get off your asses and get involved. It is time to take our country from the Right Wing of America that seeks to destroy it.

Peace-

By the way, I will write about a couple of comments I received a while back that come directly from the useless Flanagin rabble in the state of Arkansas. And, there is a circuit judge I will post about before long, also in Arkansas.


The table is kinda jacked up, I know, but figure it it. Better yet, go to your library or local bookstore and pick up a copy of Paul Krugman's book. I don't have the time to perfect the table right now, in the future I will work on it.

Till next time...
Where's my sitemeter?????? Must get that back on....

WRITE UP IN "THE NATION" BY MELISSA HARRIS-LACEWELL

Black by Choice

Sister Citizen
By Melissa Harris-Lacewell
This article appeared in the May 3, 2010 edition of The Nation.

April 15, 2010

President Obama created a bit of a stir in early April when he completed his Census form. In response to the question about racial identity the president indicated he was "Black, African American or Negro." Despite having been born of a white mother and raised in part by white grandparents, Obama chose to identify himself solely as black even though the Census allows people to check multiple answers for racial identity.

This choice disappointed some who have fought to ensure that multiracial people have the right to indicate their complex racial heritage. It confused some who were surprised by his choice not to officially recognize his white heritage. It led to an odd flurry of obvious political stories confirming that Obama was, indeed, the first African-American president.

When Obama marked his Census form, he offered another lesson in what has been an intensive if unintentional seminar on the social construction of race. In just a few years, decades of multiple racial formations have been projected onto him at hyperspeed; it's a bit like watching those nature films that show the growth of an apple tree from a seed in just thirty seconds. When Hillary Clinton held a significant lead among black voters, media outlets regularly questioned if Obama was "black enough" to earn African-American electoral support. When the Rev. Jeremiah Wright dominated the news cycle, the question shifted to whether Obama was "too black" to garner white votes. By the final months of the campaign, Obama's opponents charged that he was a noncitizen, a Muslim and a terrorist. In less than two years a single body had been subjected to definitions ranging from insufficiently black, to far too black, to somehow foreign and frightening.

But Obama did more than disrupt standard definitions of blackness; he created a definitional crisis for whiteness. Imagine for a moment that a young American falls into a Rip Van Winkle sleep in 1960. He awakens suddenly in 2008 and learns that we are in the midst of a historic presidential election between a white and a black candidate. He learns that one candidate is a Democrat, a Harvard Law School graduate, a lecturer at the conservative University of Chicago Law School. He also discovers that this candidate is married to his first wife, and they have two children who attend an exclusive private school. His running mate is an Irish Catholic. The other candidate is a Republican. He was an average student who made his mark in the military. This candidate has been married twice, and his running mate is a woman whose teenage daughter is pregnant out of wedlock.

Now ask our recently awakened American to guess which candidate is white and which is black. Remember, his understanding of race and politics was frozen in 1960, when a significant number of blacks still identified themselves as Republican, an Ivy League education was a marker of whiteness and military service a common career path for young black men. Remember that he would expect marriage stability among whites and sexual immorality to mark black life. It's entirely possible that our Rip would guess that Obama was the white candidate and McCain the black one.

By displaying all these tropes of traditional whiteness, Obama's candidacy disrupted the very idea of whiteness. Suddenly whiteness was no longer about educational achievement, family stability or the command of spoken English. One might argue that the folksy interventions of Sarah Palin were a desperate attempt to reclaim and redefine whiteness as a gun-toting ordinariness that eschews traditional and elite markers of achievement.

Obama's whiteness in this sense is frightening and strange for those invested in believing that racial categories are stable, meaningful and essential. Those who yearn for a postracial America hoped Obama had transcended blackness, but the real threat he poses to the American racial order is that he disrupts whiteness, because whiteness has been the identity that defines citizenship, access to privilege and the power to define national history.

In 1998 Toni Morrison wrote that Bill Clinton was the first "black president" because he "displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald's-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas." Ten years later the man who truly became America's first black president displayed few of these tropes. Instead he was a scholarly, worldly, health food-eating man from Hawaii. In this sense, Obama was the white candidate in 2008, and a substantial portion of white voters preferred Obama's version of whiteness to that of McCain and Palin.

Which brings us back to Obama's Census choice. Despite his legitimate claims on whiteness, he chose to call himself black. As historian Nell Painter documents in her new book The History of White People, white identity was a heavily policed and protected border for most of American history. A person born to an African parent and a white parent could be legally enslaved in America until 1865. From 1877 until 1965 that person would have been subject to segregation in public accommodations, schools, housing and employment. In 1896 the Supreme Court established the doctrine of separate but equal in the case of Homer Plessy, a New Orleans Creole of color whose ancestry was only a small fraction African. President Obama's Census self-identification was a moment of solidarity with these black people and a recognition that the legal and historical realities of race are definitive, that he would have been subject to all the same legal restrictions had he been born at another time. So in April, Obama did as he has done repeatedly in his adult life: he embraced blackness, with all its disprivilege, tumultuous history and disquieting symbolism. He did not deny his white parentage, but he acknowledged that in America, for those who also have African heritage, having a white parent has never meant becoming white.


About Melissa Harris-Lacewell
Melissa Harris-Lacewell, an associate professor of politics and African-American studies at Princeton University, is completing her latest book, Sister Citizen: A Text for Colored Girls Who've Considered Politics When Being Strong Isn't Enough.

You can catch Dr. Harris-Lacewell's analysis often on MSNBC...

Peace-

The Nation Online

ANOTHER HURDLE JUMPED FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA

It seems the American Medical Association is getting on board and calling for a reclassification of marijuana. It remains on the list as a Schedule I drug, the same as heroin. So, courtesy of the LA Times, here is a tidbit, you can catch the whole article here.

Medical marijuana gets a boost from major doctors group

The American Medical Assn. changes its policy to promote clinical research and development of cannabis-based medicines and alternative delivery methods.

By John Hoeffel

November 11, 2009

The American Medical Assn. on Tuesday urged the federal government to reconsider its classification of marijuana as a dangerous drug with no accepted medical use, a significant shift that puts the prestigious group behind calls for more research.

The nation's largest physicians organization, with about 250,000 member doctors, the AMA has maintained since 1997 that marijuana should remain a Schedule I controlled substance, the most restrictive category, which also includes heroin and LSD.

In changing its policy, the group said its goal was to clear the way to conduct clinical research, develop cannabis-based medicines and devise alternative ways to deliver the drug.

The decision by the organization's delegates at a meeting in Houston marks another step in the evolving view of marijuana, which an AMA report notes was once linked by the federal government to homicidal mania. Since California voters approved the use of medical marijuana in 1996, marijuana has moved steadily into the cultural mainstream spurred by the growing awareness that it can have beneficial effects for some chronically ill people.

This year, the Obama administration sped up that drift when it ordered federal narcotics agents not to arrest medical-marijuana users and providers who follow state laws. Polls show broadening support for marijuana legalization.

Thirteen states allow the use of medical marijuana, and about a dozen more have considered it this year.

It's nice to be on the West Coast...Total legalization, now.

Peace-
Mike

EXCELLENT COMMERCIAL FROM MEDIA MATTERS REGARDING THE FOX NEWS PROPAGANDA MACHINE

Most of you know I watched Fox News for years before I became enlightened. I was watching the Ed Show and he aired a clip from the vid below. It's five minutes or so, and well worth the time. It is a very concise rundown of propaganda promoted on Fox since we elected President Obama:

Peace-

CONGRATULATIONS PRESIDENT OBAMA

Today Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. Let Rio have the Olympics; we have the President with the Peace Prize.

Peace-

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WRITE UP REGARDING RIGHT WING GOD LOVING LUNATICS AND HEALTH CARE

The writer makes some good points regarding the right wing nutbags, and gets a good dig in on Sarah Palin. His wrting is dead on, so listen up you god fearing righties that hate people of color and don't want health care for everyone: Would Jesus deprive us of healthcare for all? Of course not you schmucks, furthermore, the right wing has devolved into nothing more than a Facsist movement. For those of you with Provincial thinking (I'm talking about you midsouth) who do not understand the difference between Fascsim and Socialism, look it up.

From the New York Daily News Mike Lupica, writer:

President Obama is the real target of health care protesters, not policy

The woman went to an airplane hangar in Belgrade, Mont., the other day, prepared to actually listen to President Obama talk about health care reform in America.
She has watched, the way the rest of us have watched, as the debate about health care has turned into a sideshow and in some cases even more of a freak show than Glenn Beck's. Now she wanted to see for herself, along with more than 1,000 others, if it would happen this way in Montana.

This is what she said about the event when it was over:
"Yes, there were a few protesters en route. But the Montanans who were excited to hear the President far outnumbered the fringe groups."
Then she said this about Obama: "He was smart, fair, funny."

So this wasn't an occasion when people with legitimate concerns and legitimate points to make were overwhelmed by the wing nuts and screamers who take their marching orders from right-wing radio and television and the Internet.

Those idiots come to these town hall meetings more to be seen than heard, and think creating chaos makes them great Americans.

Those people have been convinced by the current culture that we are dying to hear from them, and the louder the better. People who think that all they need to star in their own reality series is a couple of TV crews. But then this is Twitter America now, where no thought is supposed to go unspoken.

We hear that all of this is democracy in action. It's not. It's boom-box democracy, people thinking that if they somehow make enough noise on this subject, they can make Obama into a one-term President.

The most violent opposition isn't directed at his ideas about health care reform. It is directed at him. It is about him. They couldn't make enough of a majority to beat the Harvard-educated black guy out of the White House, so they will beat him on an issue where they see him as being most vulnerable.

In the process, they'll come after him on health care the way Kenneth Starr went after Bill Clinton on oral sex in the Oval Office.

With that kind of zealotry, screaming about government programs as if Medicare isn't one. It is why so many of them, all these wild-eyed red faces in the crowd, look completely certifiable, screaming about how Obama wants to kill Grandma, as if he's suddenly turned into Jack Kevorkian.

And by the way, if Sarah Palin is involved - Palin as uninformed as ever about these so-called "death panels" - the debate just got dumber, if that's possible. No kidding. If foreign policy was a brain-buster for Palin, something as truly complex as health care will make her feel as dizzy as if she just rolled down a hill.

So much of this comes from people who get all their information from right-wing media, or their cheerleading from political has-beens like Betsy McCaughey, people who don't see this as a fight for better and more inclusive health care, but who now see it as something grander and more noble, a fight to reclaim America from Obama.

They couldn't win the fight last November, when he laid out John McCain and Palin and a whole party with one election, so they try to do it now, with lies and rather amazing distortions. They want everybody to believe that if Obama gets his way, he'll eventually be in charge of insurance and doctors and whether you use CVS or Duane Reade. He's a Socialist selling socialized medicine. He'll kill Grandma. Come on. The notion that this is all honest dissent is just one more lie.

Even in Montana, the Swift Boaters who would line up against any health care plan endorsed by Barack Obama ran one television ad 115 times over a day and a half before the President arrived.

"Every time we are in sight of health insurance reform, the special interests fight back with everything they've got," the President said outside Bozeman. "They use their influence and run their ads. They use their political allies to scare the American people."

He is right about that. But the special interests aren't fighting the reform, in a system that cries out for reform, as much as they are fighting him. They see their first real good opening and they go for it.

They don't just want to hijack this debate, they want to hijack his presidency. The rest of it, about your coverage and everything else, is just the cover story.

Peace-

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST

Another "Family Values" Republican nosedived into a shit hurricane when he admitted to an extra marital affair with a campaign staffer.

Nevada Senator John Ensign can hang up his hope for the Presidency in '12.

Senator Ensign has in the past been involved with Promise Keepers, the Evangelical Christian organization that focuses on Husbands not treating their Wives like crap. Well, I guess this one didn't take.

It is hypocrisy from the evangelical right. (Think Ted Haggard, Mark Foley.) I do not have a problem with politicians, even right-wing politicians committing adultery. I am far more realistic, I know it is going to happen.

Shoot, Mrs. Searchers dad was sleeping around on his wife while he was in elected office in Little Rock, while his wife and kids were alone in Forrest City. The problems lie with the attempt by the right wing and the conservadems to legislate their view of Biblical morality, and when they advance their agenda to govern what happens in my bedroom when they are clearly having trouble staying in their own bedrooms having sex with their respective spouses.

It was different with Clinton. It's different with Obama. We understand where they stand on families; they believe in them as an important structure of our society. They also recognize families look different than the right wing white nuclear family of the 1950's, something the Right Wing, including George Bush the frat boy, and Dick Cheney cling to.

Obama understands (and Clinton knew as well) that not everyone wants to live their life by the Christian Bible, hell the posts I've been writing about the lunatics in Arkansas are all bible bangin' bible quotin' church attendin' god fearin' gun totin' Good, Proud, White Christians, proud members of the "Great White Right."

Things happen in marriages. But the Family Values ticket the right wing keeps trying to ram down our throats for the past thirty years rings more and more hollow as the days go by. Try something else, boys, 'cause that dog don't hunt.

Peace

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WATCH WHITE MALE APOPLEXY IN REAL TIME!! MORE STUPIDITY FROM THE GREAT WHITE RIGHT

I've been paying attention to the continuing circus that is our Supreme Court judicial nominee process. It has been four days since President Obama nominated Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, and the right has come out against her nomination, which is no surprise, as any President that nominates an individual to the high court is going to face opposition to their pick regardless of party affiliation. Dems will oppose Repub picks and vice-versa.

What I am watching is the way the right is opposing her nomination. For the past four days, and right now it is 6:09 am Pacific, all I have heard about is race issues (not judicial decision issues) from the Great White Right.

Before I begin indulge me as I interject a thought:
I considered ignoring this subject altogether unless something really outrageous (actually the behavior from the right IS outrageous, but it's so commonplace that it just seems normal) transpired, then of course I'd be all over it. The subject of race in the United States has become so predictable that it is just tiresome, especially when it comes from pampered, privilged white folk, or white folk that are broke as hell, and not interested in expanding their horizons by picking up a book, newspaper, or watching a t.v. show other than American Idol or some such drivel... *sigh* So here we go...

Sonia Sotomayor is an extraordinarily accomplished individual that happens to be a woman of Latin decent. She sees the world through her eyes, eyes that I'm confident have seen some shit while growing up in a South Bronx project by a single mother. Her dad died when she was nine. She has experiences that no white person could ever understand, and I daresay she has had experiences no one could relate to, unless they were walking in her shoes.

I believe this is a good thing. We now have, on the right, characters such as Newt Gingrich, Karl Rove, Glen Beck, showing their extraordinary fear and trepidation, (okay let's call it what it is: they are fucking tripping) because their vision of the Supreme Court DOES NOT include a Puerto Rican woman.

I laughed as I wrote that last sentence because it's just so damn funny!
So the aforementioned clowns are screaming about a statement Sotomayor made a few years ago. Here it is, courtesy of Media Matters:

"I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life,"

You decide. The right is screaming "Racism," that she is a "reverse racist!" I guess that means she is being a racist while driving in reverse or some shit like that. A sidebar Great White Right: There is no such thing as "reverse racism" you idiots. Either you are a racist or you're not. "Reverse racism" is a completely idiotic term that makes virtually no sense, much like the very life most of the Great White Right lead.

Okay, so Judge Sotomayor believe she has had experiences as a Latina that could help understand discrimination cases better than a white male. Big surprise. Of course she does! Growing up as a poor kid in the projects, you know damn good and well she has experienced racism against her on all sorts of levels. Racism that a white male has never experienced. There is such a thing as white privilege, white people en masse don't see it cause, well, it is white privilege, after all. So let's forge ahead and see what some of these privileged white folk have to say about this accomplished, articulate woman:

Glen Beck, from his radio show, thanks Media Matters:

Glen Beck cannot conceal his racism at all, when he condescendingly calls her a "Hispanic chick-lady."

Next-Newt Gingrich former speaker of the House, racist, Georgia:

"White man racist nominee would be forced to withdraw. Latina woman racist should also withdraw." The biggest problem Gingrich has is the fact that she is not white, or a Michael Steele type of Black man...

And the Big Boss Limbaugh: Racist Supreme and leader of the Republican Party, Olbermann breaks it down-

Thanks to Media Matters, MSNBC and Olbermann. If you didn't watch the clip, Limbaugh compared her to David Duke, from the Ku Klux Klan. (As a man from Arkansas that walked by smoldering crosses on black people's lawns in the town of Pocahontas on my way to work at Ramon's Grocery store, I can say this woman is no David Duke.)
The right wing has attacked Sotomayor for her heritage, for the food she eats, and some have even demanded she change the way her name is pronounced, make it more "anglicized." Batshit crazy, racist as hell, and it has to stop.

I'm not going to bother to post what Rove had to say, Search it out.
I realize that Obama has seriously offended the sensibilities of these pampered, privileged white folk, but they had better get used to it, 'cause these times they are a changin' and there aint no stopping it. And why would I want to live in a monochromatic world that's ruled by nut jobs with bad hair (or no hair) anyway? The biggest threat these people face, is a sea change in the status quo, and that terrifies their cowardly asses. Let's have Bob Dylan take us out, cause the times they really are changing...
Peace-

REPUBLICANS SHOW THEIR RACISM YET AGAIN

So Searchers, I'm sure you now know about the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court of the United States.

I don't personally have a problem with Judge Sotomayor, she was initially appointed to a seat by Bush 1, and elevated to another seat by Bill Clinton, so she clearly can appeal to both Repub and Dem. The snippets of her record that I have caught on the news channels, (MSNBC and CNN, Fixed News is nothing more than a Republican propaganda machine) as well as what I have read leads me to believe that she probably is not left-leaning enough to balance the ridiculous Antonin Scalia, or Ailito, or Roberts, or Thomas.

So Obama nominated a woman and a Latina at that. I say it is about time. (Not only do we need more women on the Court, we need more "Minorities" and those that understand what is like to not be a rich white "christian" man) The biggest problem bigots such as Newt Gingrich, Mitt (who the hell names their kid "Mitt" any damn way? and of course you know he named his kid "Tagg" wtf?) Romney, Rush Limbaugh, Karl Rove, is not her political record, although granted that may play a part, largely because she is "not conservative enough," (why must it be a pre-requisite to be a conservative to be on the court, especially with the abysmal track record of conservatives, both repub and dem in our country. Wake up! We are in the current crises because of the conservatives) but the real reasons are two-fold:

1. She is a woman, not a man. Specifically, not a rich white man.

2. She is Latina. Specifically, a Puerto Rican. However, the fact that she is Peurto Rican is only realized after being told that she isn't Mexican, which is where the majority of these clowns this all people of Latin decent hail from...*sigh* (I feel as though I need to apologize to the rest of the world for the lack of intellectual curiosity and percieved superiority of my fellow countrypeople)



Mike Huckabee, former governor of the failed state of Arkansas, summed up the Republican mindset with this snippet from his website:

"The appointment of Maria Sotomayor for the Supreme Court is the clearest indication yet that President Obama's campaign promises to be a centrist and think in a bipartisan way were mere rhetoric. "

Ah Mike Huckabee, the twice-elected governor of Arkansas, who evidently thinks all women of Latin decent must be named "Maria." I do not believe this screw-up of her name was a typo. It was a deliberate attempt to demean and marginalize Sonia Sotomayor. (See my post "Life in the Bible Belt: Would Jesus Abuse Immigrants?" )



His website has been updated, but that does not take away from the inherent racism this "christian" governor harbors. He is a fraud.

Newt Gingrich, and Rush Limbaugh, however, are not frauds. They are unabashed, obvious racists. See my October 24, 2008 post regarding racist Limbaugh quotes. Keep in mind this is the guy that runs the Republican Party from a radio studio in Florida.

So, congratulations, Ms. Sotomayor, on your historic nomination. I'm confident you will be confirmed, and when you are, use your position to balance this Reagan throwback, right wing court.

Peace-

Thanks to Huffington Post for turning me on to the latest stupid shit to come out of Huck-a-chuck's mouth...

Let me leave a post script here regarding Huckabee: This is an individual that was a Southern Baptist (think Jerry Falwell) minister in the state of Arkansas. Red Flag! When he took office, he launched a campaign of retaliation against his political opponents that included one Patrick Henry Flanagin of Forrest City, Arkansas. Pat Flanagin was a 22 year veteran of the state legislature, (and failed candidate for Forrest City, Ar mayor) serving as a state rep for 11 terms. That is, sponging off of the taxpayers and abusing his power for 22 years while elected, which has not stopped simply because he no longer holds an elected office.

Pat Flanagin and Mike Huckabee should have settled their differences in a field with dueling pistols, perhaps neither would have survived the duel. This would not have been a bad thing if the scenario would have played out in such a fashion.

Where I take exception to Huckabee (among other things) is when he attacks children regarding their school records because he dislikes the parents of particular children.

As mentioned above, Huckabee is a fraud. Pat Flanagin is a dipshit criminal that abandoned his oldest son and his daughter. He sent his namesake, "Junior" to exile. He attempted to bribe his son in law with money and a car after his puppet child, samuel "chris" flanagin (criminal, racist,) broke into his daughters' home and attempted to murder his son in law (the worthless shitheel was facing almost 20 years in prison.)



Both Huckabee and Pat Flana-fuckstick are the antithesis of what it means to be a Christian, (that is "christ-like") and they should both be locked in prison for what we know they did and let's add "for life" to that prison sentence for what they probably did, but we just don't know about yet.

PPS: Forrest City, Arkansas is named after the Confederate racist, Nathan Bedford Forrest, the "Arkansas Gem" that founded the Ku Klux Klan. It is an absolute shithole in the poverty stricken delta region of Arkansas. Interstate 40 runs through there, and if you're driving through, you better make sure you have insurance, tags, and a good lawyer, and ties to the ACLU cause if they start to fuck with you, it can be like fallng through a black hole. For example, just a few years ago, the sheriff of St. Francis county, of which Forrest City is the seat, cut the testicles off of an accused criminal, and displayed them on his desk in a jar. He was a close friend of Patrick Henry Flanagin, (D) Forrest City. Real classy folks.



Peace-



Thanks to the New York Times as well...

OBAMA GOING AFTER CORPORATE TAX DODGERS

"The steps I am announcing today will help us deal with some of the more egregious examples of what is wrong with our tax code" -Barack Obama, May 4, 2009


Watched a news conference today, Obama was outlining a plan that will close loopholes and force American Corporation that set up "shell companies" overseas or "offshore" such as the legendary Cayman Islands to pay the taxes that they are legally obligated to pay...check out excerpts from the L.A. Times:

President Obama said this morning that he plans to crack down on American companies that legally avoid U.S. tax obligations by investing money in countries with lower tax rates.

He also plans to eliminate tax deductions for companies that achieve similar breaks by sending jobs overseas, while extending the deduction for those who create domestic jobs.

The practice of "offshoring" cheats other taxpayers, the president said, and those who circumvent the system are "aided and abetted by a broken tax system" that he pledged to fix.

The practice of "offshoring" doesn't cheat others just because the President says so, it cheats others because it cheats others, period.

I feel it is imperative that we work to end the reign of the multi-national wholesale robbery of the American People, as well as the robbery of whole nations and peoples across the planet.

Remember, Americans, even though we like to think we're the only country on the planet, we are not alone, and the actions of this nation reverberate throughout the world like no other nation in the history of the world. The article continues:

Speaking to reporters in the Grand Foyer of the White House, Obama said he doesn't think companies should be rewarded more for creating a job in Bangalore, India, than for creating one in Buffalo, N.Y.

"I want to see our companies remain the most competitive," the president said, while not rewarding them for moving jobs overseas.

The president's plans could yield an additional $210 billion in tax revenue over the next decade, according to the administration.

Obama's plan would:

* Eliminate some tax deductions for companies that earn profits in countries with low tax rates.

* Make permanent a research and experimentation tax credit, which is offered for creating domestic jobs.

* End a loophole that allows corporations to avoid taxes by reporting to the U.S. government that they're paying taxes in foreign countries and then telling the foreign countries that they're paying here.

This is important. It is time the corporations in this country that have dodged the IRS (while most of us sweat dealing with them at all,) to start paying and contributing to this country on a very visceral level. I want these motherfuckers give till it hurts.

Obama did bring this up more than once during the campaign , and after eight years of Bush, we handily voted Obama in over the Republicans and their policies, policies that have lead to the destruction of the middle, working class, and created more hardship for the poorest in the US, as well as around the world.

The Republican response? Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican from Kentucky:

"a significant tax increase on companies" Ever the defender of the corporation, never a defender of his or any constituents that don't earn 6 or more figures a year...

As soon as Rachel Maddow's clip from this evenings' newscast on MSNBC, I wil post it. As always Rachel breaks it down. Suffice it to say, the Republicans have virtually no ideas that will benefit anyone other than their cronies that line their pockets.

TRICKLE DOWN ECONOMICS DOES NOT WORK. The Republicans ideas are old and they have failed. (Thanks Mr. Prezz)

So, here is a link to tired ass McConnell senate website, here is his number:
202.224.2541

and a link for all 50 states

I will contact Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas as well as Mark Pryor, along with the Ladies of Washington State. I'll let you know what they said tomorrow, and I'll get that video from Maddow's posted along with it...peace Searchers, we are in a fight for our country, and it aint against Obama.


BTW, the Republicans are already screaming about Obama's Supreme pick, and the pick doesn't even exist, yet.

Rachel Maddow is currently reporting on Jefferson Sessions, Republican senator from Alabama, evidently a racist s.o.b., I will research him more, and track down the quotes Maddow threw up onscreen. He is a member of the Judiciary Committee that will handle the nomination of Obama's Supreme pick. I have contacted Session's office in the past regarding some ridiculous comments he made, so I will be watching Senator Session's behavior very closely during the nomination process. Peace-

ON RACE AND POLLS IN THE UNITED STATES-COURTESY OF THE FIELD NEGRO

Great post, Field-

I have a news flash for republicans: The 14th Amendment pretty much did away with Dred Scott v. Sandford. For those of you not familiar with the Dred Scott case, it is one of the many dark spots (no pun intended) in A-murder-can jurisprudence. That case basically said that us black folks were not humans but mere chattel. Property. No more important than the cotton we picked out of the ground or the animals we worked alongside.

Anyway, apparently conservatives didn't get the 14th Amendment memo. If they did, one of their most respected writers, Byron York, wouldn't be making the type of declarations that he did while writing for the Washington Examiner.

"On his 100th day in office, Barack Obama enjoys high job approval ratings, no matter what poll you consult. But if a new survey by the New York Times is accurate, the president and some of his policies are significantly less popular with white Americans than with black Americans, and his sky-high ratings among African-Americans make some of his positions appear a bit more popular overall than they actually are. [emphasis added]"

See, it's all so simple when you break it down: Obama's 62% job approval rating is primarily because of his high approval rating among black folks. But among white folks, whose opinion really matters, Obama's is "significantly less popular". See niggers, it's like this, when you are just three-fifths of a man or woman, your opinion only has three- fifths of the weight. So Obama being popular among you niggers means nothing. Wow! Byron York doing his best Chief Justice Taney imitation.

I love how Steve Benen writing in the Washington Monthly breaks down York's article:

"For crying out loud, what the hell does that mean, exactly? I read the rest of the piece, hoping to see York explain why the president's seemingly popular positions are exaggerated or inflated. Why, in other words, these positions "appear" more popular "than they actually are." But all the piece tells me is that African Americans tend to support Obama in greater numbers than white Americans.

The problem, of course, is that damn phrase "than they actually are." York argues that we can see polls gauging public opinion, but if we want to really understand the popularity of the president's positions, and not be fooled by "appearances," then we have to exclude black people. "

Steven, that is exactly the point Mr.York wants to make; "we do have to exclude black people". Because, let's face it, when did they ever matter.

Read Byron York's article here, and please note some of the comments that follow.

------------------------------------

Check out Field's blog here...

OBAMA IN EUROPE, EUROPEANS SWOON

I've been watching the news lately, big surprise, and I've been paying attention to the G20 summit it London. The G20 is the group of the 20 most powerful economies in the world coming together to yap at each other, form policy, etc.


And, the protesters are out in force, in London protesters have been smashing windows in banks, trying to set fire to banks, etc. In France, and I love this, pissed off workers are taking their supervisors and managers hostage in factories because they are sick of getting screwed as workers while management makes the big bucks. Enough is enough! Ya basta!

I watched video of some of the hostage takers, and they are average normal people. When one of the managers was released to freedom after 24 hours as a hostage, he was released to boos and catcalls.


Can you imagine the overreaction of the American police if workers did that here? They would kill people.


Another thing I noticed about the protesters in England. For all of the thousands and thousands of people that hit the streets, I did not see a single effigy of the United States President burned.

Not one. The anger was rightly directed at bankers, insurance execs, and the wretched idea of failed American capitalism.


Not one time was Obama hanged in effigy (that just happens here in the U.S.) or burned in effigy. As a child of the 70's and 80's this is almost unheard of. When Reagan went to Europe it was on. Same with the Bushes. (somebody really should have shaved that Bush a long time ago...)


So today the Obamas are in France and Germany. Obama's crazy ass even had a town hall meeting in Strasbourg, France. They absolutely love him over there.

From a personal standpoint, as a citizen of the United States, it is very refreshing to not see the rest of the world want to kill everyone in the US because of our hateful policies.

Face it, Americans, we have a shitty reputation in the rest of the world because of our arrogance and policies, period. Latin America and South America still have not gotten over the Reagan years, rightly so.

I'm glad we elected Obama, at least he has the good sense to keep his fucking hands off of the Chancellor of Germany:



Scary image, huh? The United States elected this doofus. Twice...CRINGE!


BTW, I am beginning to like Sarkozy of France, that's him in the top pic with Obama, largely because he favors tough regulations for the banking and insurance companies, to ensure this doesn't happen again. He is for an international body to oversee regulations in every country, even (especially) the United States. I am down with that.
I am no longer under the illusion of the "God-Given Greatness Of The United States."

A nation that rapes continents and performs forced hysterectomies on poor and Native Women is not deserving of my respect, and my children are being raised in the full knowledge of what their government has done in the past. Rectify and heal the past United States, then maybe you can be allowed a shred of respect...we'll see.
Onward!

THE DAILY SHOW'S CONTINUATION OF "CLUSTERF#@K TO THE POOR HOUSE

From Feb 9 show:

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=217704&title=clusterf#@k-to-the-poor-house

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Funny Political News
Joke of the Day

If you watched it, maybe you can tell me why the always creepy Lindsay Graham from South Carolina still has a job in the Senate? What about the ridiculous Jim DeMint?

I guess Lindsay is finished sucking up to John McCain.

Sam Brownback from Kansas makes an appearance, another right wing tool that I am surprised is on the floor, I figured he was still stuck in Rod Parsley's ass.

The Reagan Revolution is dead. We need trickle-up economics, we've had enough trickle-down which is just a euphemism for pissing on people. ( shout out to Bill Maher)

Onward!

A GREAT MOMENT IN AMERICAN HISTORY

Regarding the inauguration of Barack Obama:

I was sitting around yesterday and I thought I needed to post this video for posterity, if nothing else. My mind wanted to be nostalgic and look upon the moment as bittersweet, but better sensibilities took over and I was freshly renewed with outrage over the state of the nation. Anyway, enjoy!

Peace-
Mike

FIRST FULL DAY MR. PRESIDENT, BTW, CONGRATULATIONS

Of course you all know Barack Obama was inaugurated yesterday. I'm glad to be a part of, and to be on the right side of history. But if he fucks stuff up like Bush, you are going to see plenty of posts regarding that. However, Obama is a completely different person than George Bush.
Obama has seen poverty first hand, hell, he has seen the projects in Chicago, Cabrini Green and Robert Taylor homes, where a friend and I were were mugged. At the time, these two projects were some of the most violent in the nation. Michelle grew up poor, and they both have seen the devastating effects of conservatism on the United States, as well as the rest of the globe. More importantly, they have seen the damage done to individual people.

So that gives me hope. Fratboy Bush has NEVER been concerned about health care, and his family has always had money. I'll be Bush has never seen an EBT card, or had to sit for three hours or more waiting to find out if he's going to get help for rent or a utiity bill. Again, Obama is a different person all together. In fact, I just read the Obama White House has ordered all Federal Agencies to stop any pending regulations by Bush until they can be reviewed. Not uncommon, but it is a good sign that business as we have known it for the past eight years has come to a screeching halt. Good.

So it's President Obama's first full day. Let's watch and see...

Blessings and peace-
Onward!
Mike

INSPIRATION

I'm going to post some videos of people that have shaped, and are shaping my life and outlook. Here is Dr. Michael Eric Dyson with Tavis Smiley hosting the Black State of the Union, 2008. I caught it on C-Span, but here it is courtesy of YouTube:

Professor Dyson has a masterful grasp on the English language, and he is a gentleman that I would love to sit and discuss any damn thing.

GUNS SALES SOAR AFTER OBAMA WIN

Never let the stupidity of provincial rednecks surprise you. From the New York Times:

On Concerns Over Gun Control, Gun Sales Are Up

I'm a little tired of blogging right now, the few weeks before the election kinda burned me out. But I had to post this when I saw it via the HuffPo. People are nuts. I especially liked this quote from the owner of a gun shop in Houston, TX.:

He's a gun-snatcher," said Jim Pruett, owner of Jim Pruett's Guns and Ammo in northwest Houston, which
was packed with shoppers on Thursday.
"He wants to take our guns from us and
create a socialist society policed by his own police force," added Mr. Pruett, a former radio
personality, of President-elect Barack Obama.

Again, never underestimate the power of ignorance, fear, and racism...

An ironic twist to this story is the fact that I told Kell that if McPalin get in, we will have to stock up on ammo to stave off the theocracy police. So much for that! :) Peace-

Mike

image

SO MANY HEADLINES: I TOLD YA SO!!!!!!!!!!!!! Electoral votes: Obama - 349 McCain - 147

HERE'S A FEW! FROM AROUND THE WORLD

AUSTRALIA:

Radio AustraliaObama Is Elected President as Racial Barrier Falls

ENGLAND:
UK Edition
Switch to Global Edition
HEADLINES:
US Election: how the dramatic night unfolded
Latest: 'Change has come' - Obama wins in landslide

SOUTH AFRICA:

Mandela hails Obama after election victory

ISRAEL:

Barack Obama: Change has come to America
Livni: Israel expects strong U.S. friendship to continue under Obama

FRANCE:

World hails Obama's victory, urges change of tack
05/11/2008 15h05

RUSSIA:

Medvedev hopes for constructive dialogue with new US president

CUBA:

Obama a la Casa Blanca

VENEZUELA:

President Chávez congratulates Obama for his electoral victory

PORTLAND, OREGON

Obama turns from jubilation of victory to daunting challenge 5:24 AM

CONGRATS TO PRESIDENT ELECT OBAMA!!!!

ANOTHER REASON TO DIG OBAMA

From the Hartford Courant:

Obama's Letter Was Answer To A Little Boy's Request


A little more than a month earlier, teacher Joyce Ben-KiKi had Aron and his classmates each send letters to a famous person as part of a language arts lesson. Ben-KiKi wrapped the exercise around well-known children's book character "Flat Stanley," so along with the letters, the children each tucked a Flat Stanley figure they had made into each envelope.
"I told them not to expect a letter back," Ben-KiKi said. "I told them these people are very busy and most likely will not write back."
The list of recipients was impressive: Yankee third basemen Alex Rodriguez; Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Olympic gold medalist Mark Spitz; Republican presidential candidate and U.S. Sen. John McCain.
Obama was the only one to write back. Two other boys, Avshalom Drescher and Zachary Goldberg, both 8, also wrote to him, but Aron was the first to get a reply.
Obama's three-page letter to Aron described Flat Stanley's visit with him and his staff in Washington, D.C. It chronicled their busy day together, which included coffee with constituents, a Senate committee meeting and a trip to the gym. It also had historical facts about the U.S. Capitol, details of Obama's job and a confession from Obama.
"Sometimes I get a little nervous before talking in front of a crowd, but Flat Stanley helped me practice the speech," Obama wrote. "He made me recite it in front of him and then even gave me some advice so the speech would go smoothly. Flat Stanley is really a great coach."


Obama '08

ON REAGAN, THE POOR, AND HIJACKING

I wanted to post a comment I made on a website the other day:

I'm supporting Barack as a result of observing the
Church in the United States for 18 years. The Christan Right have completely
abandoned the teachings of Jesus. It says something about a Christian Sect and
political party that is against health care for children and million of others.
That rejects the basic tenant of caring for the poor. The Right has become
extraordinarily arrogant, callous, divisive, and hateful. None of these traits
Jesus displayed or advocated. In McCain and Palin we have proven liars and
frauds. Palin is a complete fraud in the traditional definition, but quite
genuine in the psycho definition. Having voted Republican for 21 years it is
safe to say I will never vote Repub again. The right couldn't care less about my
family and me.Peace! Obama '08http://www.mikesearches.blogspot.com/

Also, this comment make a beautiful statement courtesy of "J" a blogger that posted a comment on thefieldnegro:

"...This will be the true legacy of Reaganism:
hijacking the Republican party from the Goldwater standard of conservatism and
turning it over to the Christian Right (there's an oxymoron if I've ever heard
one). Somehow they've got socially-conservatives thinking that this election is
about women's rights, and marriage. This has and always will be a matter of
class warfare. To paraphrase GWB because he said it best: his base is the "haves
and the have-mores." Every American should open up their checkbooks and savings
account ledgers and ask themselves if you think he was talking about
you."

Just five days left. I hope we can get the trickle down theory finally put to rest. It does not work.

Peace-
Mike