Sour Grapes Post Election 2012

Monday, December 28, 2009

What is TIDE ?? 


The existing system was established by the Intelligence Reform Act of 2004. It was designed to close gaps in intelligence-sharing that allowed a number of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers to enter the United States, although the CIA had identified them overseas as terrorism suspects.


The reforms set up the National Counterterrorism Center, which administers a huge database of terrorism information called the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, or TIDE.
My new word for the day....“Reasonable suspicion requires ‘articulable’ facts which, taken together with rational inferences, reasonably warrant a determination that an individual is known or suspected to be or has been engaged in conduct constituting, in preparation for, in aid of or related to terrorism and terrorist activities, and is based on the totality of the circumstances. Mere guesses or inarticulate "hunches" are not enough to constitute reasonable suspicion.”


In the case of Umar Abdulmutallab, national security officials said, the information from the Embassy about his father’s concerns, while considered important enough to enter in TIDE, the raw intelligence database maintained by NCTC, was regarded as insufficient to cause the Terrorist Screening Center to enter Abdulmutallab in its master data base, known as the "Consolidated Terrorist Watch List, a national security official said.

Nigerian Umar.... Scary & Tragic.....

alleged failed transatlantic underpants bomber


A Justice Department official said Umar Abdulmutallab was released Sunday from a Michigan hospital where he was treated for burns suffered in the failed bombing. He was in a federal prison in Milan, Mich., according to the Associated Press. He is scheduled to appear in federal court in Michigan on Jan. 8.


The youngest of 16 children of a prominent Nigerian bank executive, and the son of the second of his father's two wives, Abdulmutallab was raised at the family home in Kaduna, a city in Nigeria's Muslim-dominated north, relatives there said. He graduated with an engineering degree from City University in London. Later, his father sent him to Dubai to study for an advanced business degree.


In July, relatives said, his father agreed to his request to study Arabic in Yemen. The family became concerned in August when Abdulmutallab called to say he had dropped the course but would remain in Yemen for an undisclosed purpose. Several days later, they said, he sent a text message saying he was severing all ties with his family.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

I'm going to make a quilt reflecting this beautiful thought of MLK!!!


 I'm feeling the musics notes on fabric......

democracy....

to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.
With this faith..............

MLK defined the African-American struggle for equal civil rights s "America's third revolution,".... one that was necessary to bring its disenfranchised black citizenry into the democratic fold.


     "Yes, we are in the midst of revolution.... but our struggle must be tempered by love....

We shall overcome because the arc of a moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.  With this faith... (he promised)   we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 2009 19:08:02 -0500

To: bquiltin@hotmail.com
From: info@barackobama.com

Subject: Where we stand  


Beverly --

Early this morning, the Senate made history and health reform cleared its most important hurdle yet -- garnering the 60 votes needed to move toward a final vote in that chamber later this week.

This marks the first time in our nation's history that comprehensive health reform has come to this point. And it appears that the American people will soon realize the genuine reform that offers security to those who have health insurance and affordable options to those who do not.

I'm grateful to Senator Harry Reid and every senator who's been working around the clock to make this happen. And I'm grateful to you, and every member of the Organizing for America community, for all the work you have done to make this progress possible.

After a nearly century-long struggle, we are now on the cusp of making health insurance reform a reality in the United States of America.

As with any legislation, compromise is part of the process. But I'm pleased that recently added provisions have made this landmark bill even stronger. Between the time when the bill passes and the time when the insurance exchanges get up and running, insurance companies that try to jack up their rates do so at their own peril. Those who hike their prices may be barred from selling plans on the exchanges.

And while insurance companies will be prevented from denying coverage on the basis of pre-existing conditions once the exchanges are open, in the meantime there will be a high-risk pool where people with pre-existing conditions can purchase affordable coverage.


A recent amendment has made these protections even stronger. Insurance companies will now be prohibited from denying coverage to children immediately after this bill passes. There's also explicit language in this bill that will protect a patient's choice of doctor. And small businesses will get additional assistance as well.

These protections are in addition to the ones we've been talking about for some time. No longer will insurance companies be able to drop your coverage if you become sick and no longer will you have to pay unlimited amounts out of your own pocket for treatments that you need.

Under this bill families will save on their premiums; businesses that would see their costs rise if we don't act will save money now and in the future. This bill will strengthen Medicare and extend the life of the program. Because it's paid for and gets rid of waste and inefficiency in our health care system, this will be the largest deficit reduction plan in over a decade.

Finally, this reform will extend coverage to more than 30 million Americans who don't have it.

These are not small changes. These are big changes. They're fundamental reforms. They will save money. They will save lives.

And your passion, your work, your organizing helped make all of this possible. Now it's time to finish the job.

Thank you,
President Barack Obama

Thursday, December 17, 2009

D L Hugley spoke this morning on radio...

Rightly, that whenever America (predominantly White) behaves or reacts... please deconstruct the situation.  It is thru the lens of  RACE, Money, Fame, Power, Dominance

Which is why I also reflected on OJ Simpson, Jack Johnson..... The Tiger syndrome... is one that white sportscasters and news media are havin a field day on his head.... They could not beat him on the golf course... so thus his morals and life is to be foot-noted with scandal.

And again,,, white america... how dare you -- with all of your atrocities against mankind... Have you forgotten the Timothy McVeighs, the Don Edwards -- slick lawyer running for the highest office in the land, --- and simutaenously cheating on a wife who is battling cancer/mother of 4-5 kids--- same time he has an out of wedlock child, pays off to keep it silence.....   OOPSssss  that's over and forgotton... and not the biggest story of the year????


But my son Tiger.... yep I still claim that young kid!  Being saved by God's grace... I know he needs salvation for direction in his life!

The Lord bless thee, and keep thee:   The Lord make his face shine upon thee,  And be gracious unto thee:Numbers 6: 24-25-26


The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee,  And give thee peace….

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Paul Lawrence Dunbar.. said


We wear the mask that grins and lies

It hides our eyes and shades our eyes

This debt we pay to human guile

With torn and bleeding hearts we smile

And mouth with myriad subtleties

From my notes July 2009 . . . .


For Sojourner Truth, both racism and sexism mediated against the democracy with which Americans has become comfortable


I tink dat ‘twixt de niggers of de Souf and de women at de Norf all a talkin’ ‘bout rights, de white men will be in a fix pretty soon

Her life stood in stark contrast to that of most 19th Century white American women. She, like most black women of that time, plowed, planted and hoed, did as much work as a man, endured the brutal punishment meted out by slaveholders, their wives and overseers, and fulfilled her ordained role of motherhood.

For antebellum black women – sexism was one out of three constraints.
1. Black in a white society
2. slave in a free society
3. woman in a society ruled by men

Most were slaves, and as such, denied the privilege enjoyed by white feminists—of say, theorizing about bondage—for they were indeed owned by someone else.

They were slaves because they were African and Black in skin color – color being the absolute determinant of class in antebellum America.

Absolute power for the master meant absolute dependency for the slave—“the dependency not of a developing child – but of the perpetual child.”

WHITES WROTE MOST OF ANTEBELLUM AMERICA’S RECORDS AND BLACK MEN WROTE JUST ABOUT ALL OF THE ANTEBELLUM RECORDS LEFT BY BLACKS



Friday, December 11, 2009

HONESTY

Honesty: If you lead a clean and honest life, you don't put skeletons in the closet. If you put skeletons in the closet, they definitely will come back just when you don't want to see them and ruin your life.


Colin Powell became the first African-American Secretary of State in U.S. history when he took office in 2001.

Powell was a career soldier who fought in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. He rose through the ranks to become a general, then became national security adviser to President Ronald Reagan. Powell became chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under George Bush the elder, directing U.S. forces during the first Gulf War. Powell retired in 1993 and published his autobiography, My American Journey, in 1995.

in 1963 when I came home from Vietnam, having served my nation, having sworn an oath to the Constitution to serve my nation, I came home and was denied access to restaurants and refused service in hotels and motels. If my skin was white, or if I could shine it up a little more than it is and put a hat on my head so my hair wasn't showing, as long as I could prove I wasn't black, then I was free to enjoy these benefits. The fact that I was a soldier of the nation was irrelevant. And this all rested on the Constitution, according to the courts. And according to some 30-odd presidents, and according to some 180 Congresses. This isn't ancient history to me, this is my lifetime, my generation. I choose not to forget that we have this history. No one loves the Declaration or the Constitution more than me, but you have to see it in its correct perspective. And because it was so misused over those years, and it took us 200 years to get into the spirit that was intended by the Founding Fathers, even though they knew they couldn't do it in practice at that time, even though it took us 200 years, we can't ignore the legacy of that history that is still contaminating the present. I think tools such as affirmative action are useful to help us rub out, sand down this inequity that continues to haunt the present, that came from the past. Some say, "We don't wallow around in old history." Why not? We wallow around in the beauty of the Constitution and the Declaration, that's old history. So let's wallow around in all of it, as did the black people for all those years. Therefore, I think it is appropriate to use tools such as affirmative action and other similar tools.



What do you think are the most important documents of this century?


Colin Powell:
The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the First and Second Inaugural Addresses of Thomas Jefferson are my four favorite documents. The Emancipation Proclamation, and following that, the Gettysburg Address, which was essentially a restatement of the Declaration. But coming into this century and broadening it, I would just give you one that you're going to find surprising, and that was the Helsinki Final Act of 1975, which was the Declaration of the Rights of Man. It was as a result of one of these international negotiations. President Ford, in one of the more historic but under-appreciated acts of this century, going against domestic political opposition, signed the Helsinki Final Act, which essentially said there are universal rights of men and women.
Benjamin Solomon Carson was born in Detroit, Michigan. His mother, Sonya Carson, had dropped out of school in the third grade and married Robert Solomon Carson, a much older Baptist minister from Tennessee, when she was only thirteen. When Carson was only eight, his parents divorced, and Mrs. Carson was left to raise Benjamin and his older brother, Curtis, on her own. She worked at two, sometimes three, jobs at a time to provide for her boys


In 1987, Carson made medical history with an operation to separate a pair of Siamese twins. The Binder twins were born joined at the back of the head. Operations to separate twins joined in this way had always failed, resulting in the death of one or both of the infants. Carson agreed to undertake the operation. A 70-member surgical team, led by Dr. Carson, worked for 22 hours. At the end, the twins were successfully separated and can now survive independently.


Carson's other surgical innovations have included the first intra-uterine procedure to relieve pressure on the brain of a hydrocephalic fetal twin, and a hemispherectomy, in which an infant suffering from uncontrollable seizures has half of its brain removed. This stops the seizures, and the remaining half of the brain actually compensates for the missing hemisphere.


Early on Carson experienced difficulty in school, eventually falling to the bottom of his class. He became the object of name calling and subsequently developed a violent, uncontrollable temper. Determined to turn her son’s life around, Carson’s mother limited his television watching and refused to let him go outside to play until he had finished his homework each day.

She required him to read two library books a week and to give her written reports on his reading, even though, with her own poor education, she could barely read what he had written. Soon Carson was amazing his instructors and classmates with his improvement. "It was at that moment that I realized I wasn't stupid," he recalled later. Carson continued to amaze his classmates with his new found knowledge and within a year he was at the top of his class

In 2008, the White House announced that Benjamin Carson would receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.



What would you say is the most important book you have ever read and how has it influenced your perspective on life?

Dr. Carson: That’s an easy one to answer. That would be the Bible, specifically the book of Proverbs. That’s what I start each day with and end each day with. There is so incredibly much wisdom in there and it was the thing that profoundly changed me as a teenager – when I began to read in the book of Proverbs the description of a fool. It sounded just like me, and I decided that I didn’t want to be a fool. I’m going to stop living the life of a fool. One of the things the book of Proverbs talked about was how fools think they know everything and they don’t listen. And I remember saying to myself at a young age, “You know what? I’m going to listen. I’m really going to listen to my mother. I’m going to listen to what she says.” Reading the Bible has made a huge difference in the way I have lived my life, and it continues to impact me on a daily basis




Dr. Carson: My family life is much easier to balance now because the kids are grown up. (laughter) Before they were grown up I used to take them with me because I was on the road so often. I would take my mother, my kids, my wife; we all traveled as a group and that was my requirement. If I was going someplace my whole family traveled with me. So they had frequent flyer cards for every airline and have been all over the place and that’s great. Last year I did twelve commencements, and my wife went with me to every single one of them. So we still get to have plenty of quality time together. It just has to be a priority for you. My family is a priority for me. I always say where there is a will there is a way. If you want to be with somebody, you will find a way to do it. (laughter) Young people can relate to this when they first fall in love. They’re always trying to figure out how they can be together. “How can we arrange our schedules so that we can be with each other?” In a good family situation that should be a continuing desire.




EDM: You grew up in the projects in a single family home and you were surrounded by all the ingredients for failure, yet you were able to succeed. Talk about the “victim mentality.” Did you ever feel like a victim, and, if so, how did you work your way through that?

Dr. Carson: My mother, who perhaps had the worst life imaginable, had been one of twenty four children, getting married at age thirteen, then finding out her husband was a bigamist, and being left with two small children to raise on her own. But, she never felt sorry for herself. She never developed a victim’s mentality. She always said, “I can deal with this…I can do something about it.” Therefore she never let us develop it either. If we ever came up with an excuse she always had the same response, “Do you have a brain? And if the answer to that is yes, then you could have thought your way out of it!” (laughter)

It doesn’t really matter what anybody else says. It doesn’t really matter what anybody else is doing. When you grow up with a mother like that, it is pretty hard to become a victim and I think that is perhaps one on the greatest things she did for us because if you think you are a victim then you are.

He was Livin Large.....

The gospel truth is that you can't take any of it with you.... that your name is your real legacy...... I think of Ben Carson....

Dr. Benjamin S. Carson, Sr, M.D.. (born 18 September, 1951) is an American neurosurgeon and the Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2008.Here goes.....






Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight champion, whose reign lasted from 1908 to 1915, was also the first African American pop culture icon. He was photographed more than any other black man of his day and, indeed, more than most white men. He was written about more as well. Black people during the early 20th century were hardly the subject of news in the white press unless they were the perpetrators of crime or had been lynched (usually for a crime, real or imaginary). Johnson was different—not only was he written about in black newspapers but he was, during his heyday, not infrequently the subject of front pages of white papers. As his career developed, he was subject of scrutiny from the white press, in part because he was accused and convicted of a crime, but also because he was champion athlete in a sport with a strong national following. Not even the most famous race leaders of the day, Booker T. Washington, president of Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, and W. E. B. Du Bois, founding member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and editor of that organization's magazine, The Crisis, could claim anywhere near the attention Johnson received. Not even the most famous black entertainers and artists of the day—musical stage comics George Walker and Bert Walker, or bandleader James Reese Europe, or ragtime composer Scott Joplin, or fiction writer Charles W. Chesnutt, or painter Henry O. Tanner—received Johnson's attention. In fact, it would be safe to say that while Johnson was heavyweight champion, he was covered more in the press than all other notable black men combined.



And, like the true pop culture figure, the way Johnson lived his life and, particularly, the way he conducted his sex life mattered a great deal to the public. He was scandal, he was gossip, he was a public menace for many, a public hero for some, admired and demonized, feared, misunderstood, and ridiculed. Johnson emerged as a major figure in the world of sports at the turn of the century when sports themselves, both collegiate and professional, were becoming a significant force in American cultural life and as the role of black people in sports was changing. Johnson arrived at a time when the machinery of American popular culture, as we know it today, was being put into place. Recorded music, which was to change entirely how music was made, sold, and distributed in the United States, came into being at this time. Movies were well established as a popular medium of entertainment at the time when Johnson became a big enough name in boxing to fight for a world title. Indeed, films were an important way for promoters and fighters to make money in boxing by showing the films of bouts in movie theaters. Boxing was, by far, the most filmed sport of its day.


The automobile, which became Johnson's great passion and the most celebrated piece of technology connected with popular culture, was part of the brave new world of the early 1900s, replacing the bicycle. And, along with this came the rise of spectator sports, which changed how Americans spent their leisure time: baseball was a long-standing craze, college football was growing in popularity, basketball had been invented. There was also track and field, the modern return of the Olympic Games, golf, tennis, bicycle racing, race walking, horse racing, and probably the most popular of all sports at the time, professional boxing or, as it was commonly called, prizefighting.

Muhammad Ali has been married four times and has seven daughters and two sons. Ali met his first wife, cocktail waitress Sonji Roi, approximately one month before they married on August 14, 1964. Roi's objections to certain Muslim customs in regard to dress for women contributed to the breakup of their marriage. They divorced on January 10, 1966.


On August 17, 1967, Ali (aged 25) married 17-year old Belinda Boyd. After the wedding, she converted to Islam and changed her name to Khalilah Ali, though she was still called Belinda by old friends and family. They had four children: Maryum (b. 1968), Jamillah and Liban (b. 1970), and Muhammad Ali Jr. (b. 1972

In 1975, Ali began an affair with Veronica Porsche, an actress and model. By the summer of 1977, Ali's second marriage was over and he had married Veronica.[48] At the time of their marriage, they had a baby girl, Hana, and Veronica was pregnant with their second child. Their second daughter, Laila, was born in December 1977. By 1986, Ali and Veronica were divorced.

On November 19, 1986, Ali married Yolanda Ali. They had been friends since 1964 in Louisville. They have one adopted son at 5 year old, Asaad Amin

Ali has two other daughters, Miya and Khaliah, from extramarital relationships

Jack Johnson

"Johnson in many ways is an embodiment of the African-American struggle to be truly free in this country — economically, socially and politically," said Burns. "He absolutely refused to play by the rules set by the white establishment, or even those of the black community. In that sense, he fought for freedom not just as a black man, but as an individual."


  • What most bothered whites about Johnson was that he openly had affairs with white women—and even married them—at a time when miscegenation of this sort was not only illegal but was positively dangerous.
  • Johnson did not seem to care what whites thought of him, and this bothered most whites a great deal. He was not humble or diffident with whites. He gloated about his victories and often taunted his opponents in the ring. (This behavior was not unique to him as a champion boxer. Many boxers, notably John L. Sullivan, acted this way. It was unique for a black public figure.)
  • He also did not care what blacks thought of him, as some were critical of his sex life. His preference for white women seemed an embarrassment and something that would bring the wrath of whites down on the heads of every black person.
  • Jeffries was coaxed out of retirement to fight Johnson, some arguing that since Jeffries never lost his title in the ring, he was, in essence, the real champion. That fight took place in Reno, Nevada on July 4, 1910. It was the most talked-about, most publicized sporting event in American history. It was seen by nearly the whole country as a symbolic race war.
  • It was also richest sporting event in American history: the two fighters split unevenly—the winner getting 60 percent—a sum of $101,000, a staggering prize for the time. Johnson once again won easily. Jeffries could not overcome a five-year layoff. Moreover, he probably lacked the skills, as he himself admitted after the fight, to have ever beaten Johnson.
  • Since Johnson could not be defeated in the ring, the battle moved to defeating Johnson in the area where he most offended and where he was most vulnerable—his sex life

Johnson, who was born in 1878 in Galveston, Texas, began boxing as a young teenager in the Jim Crow-era South. Boxing was a relatively new sport in America, and was banned in many states. African-Americans were permitted to compete for most titles, but not for the title that whites considered their exclusive domain: Heavyweight Champion of the World. African-Americans were considered unworthy to compete for the title — not for lack of talent, but simply by virtue of not being white.




"Johnson's story is more than the story of a tremendous athlete, or even one who broke a color line," said Ken Burns. "It is the story of a man who forced America to confront its definition of freedom, and that is an issue with which we continue to struggle."

The Mann Act - Progressive Era in America



If Johnson was born at the end of one major era of social reform—Reconstruction, he lived his years as a competitive boxer under the thrall of another—the Progressive Era. Between 1912 and 1920,

the Constitution was amended four times, more than any other eight-year stretch in American history:
  1. the imposition of the federal income tax,
  2. the direct election of senators,
  3. the right for women to vote, and
  4. Prohibition were all added as amendments in what was one of the most intense periods of legislative social reform ever.
The Mann Act was part of this social reforming zeal, an attempt to stem the tide of prostitution among working class and immigrant women that was plaguing the country, by prohibiting the transport of women across state lines for immoral purposes. Prostitution was a real problem in the United States at the time but the public was given lurid pictures in the taboo press of innocent white women who were lured into opium dens by sex-crazed "Chinamen" who turned these women into prostitutes. (The average white woman who was to enter this trade was not so terribly innocent and was likely to have been introduced to it by a white man.)

So, somehow immorality was tied, in the public's mind, to race mixing. Johnson, the rebel who advocated no cause but his own right to be himself, found himself squeezed between temperance and a national sex purity impulse.
  • He was a boxer, so this made him something of an underground figure to begin with. Boxing was coming under attack by reformers at this time as a barbaric sport.
  • He was black, which made him an outcast in his society.
  • Finally, he consorted with white women, which made him a public menace.





Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson, a 2 part film by Ken Burns and PBS 2005.

http://www.whentheshipcomesin.com/unforgivable-blackness-the-rise-and-fall-of-jack-johnson-2004

http://www.pbs.org/unforgivableblackness/index.html


Heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali, who openly identified with Johnson in interviews and in his autobiography, The Greatest: My Own Story (1975). Ali also got into trouble with the government—over the draft. Ali refused conscription on religious grounds, that he was a Muslim minister as a member of the Nation of Islam. Ali was convicted, like Johnson, but instead of leaving the country (he couldn't because the government had confiscated his passport), Ali endured an exile from his profession, being denied a boxing license for three and a half years.

But how alike were the two men, really? Not really very much at all, other than being black heavyweight champions who were convicted for violating a federal law. In some ways, the presence of Ali at the time obscured Johnson from view, as Johnson seemed to be important only inasmuch as he adumbrated Ali. Now, the late 1960s are over, as is Ali's era. We can look back at Johnson now and give him the examination he deserves, without someone else getting in the way.
The end of Jack Johnson's life...

In September, 2008, sixty-two years after Johnson's death, the United States Congress passed a resolution to recommend that the President grant a pardon for his 1913 conviction, in acknowledgment of its racist overtones, and in order to exonerate Johnson and recognize his contribution to boxing

.
Johnson died in a car crash in Franklinton, North Carolina, a small town near Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1946, after racing angrily from a diner that refused to serve him.[13] He was 68. He was buried next to Etta Duryea Johnson at Graceland Cemetery in Chicago. His grave was initially unmarked, but a stone that bears only the name "Johnson" now stands above the plots of Jack, Etta, and Irene Pineau.

Jack Johnson, Celebrity athlete..... & White Women/wives


Johnson was an early example of the celebrity athlete in the modern era, appearing regularly in the press and later on radio and in motion pictures. He earned considerable sums endorsing various products, including patent medicines, and indulged several expensive hobbies such as automobile racing and tailored clothing, as well as purchasing jewelry and furs for his wives



Johnson opened a night club in Harlem; he sold it three years later to a gangster, Owney Madden, who renamed it the Cotton Club.




Johnson constantly flouted conventions regarding the social and economic "place" of Blacks in American society. As a Black man, he broke a powerful taboo in consorting with White women, and would constantly and arrogantly verbally taunt men (both white and black) inside and outside the ring. Johnson was pompous about his affection for white women, and imperious about his physical prowess, both in and out of the ring. Asked the secret of his staying power by a reporter who had watched a succession of women parade into, and out of, the champion's hotel room, Johnson supposedly said "Eat jellied eels and think distant thoughts


Johnson was married three times. All of his wives were white, a fact that caused considerable controversy at the time.

Johnson married Etta Terry Duryea. A Brooklyn socialite, she met Johnson at a car race in 1909. Their romantic involvement was very turbulent. Beaten many times by Johnson and suffering from severe depression, she committed suicide in September 1912, shooting herself with a revolver


Less than three months later, on 4 December 1912, Johnson married Lucille Cameron. After Johnson married Cameron, two ministers in the South recommended that Johnson be lynched. Cameron divorced him in 1924 because of infidelity.

The next year, Johnson married Irene Pineau. When asked by a reporter at Johnson's funeral what she had loved about him, she replied, "I loved him because of his courage. He faced the world unafraid. There wasn't anybody or anything he feared."[8] Johnson had no children.
Prison sentence


On October 18, 1912, Johnson was arrested on the grounds that his relationship with Lucille Cameron violated the Mann Act against "transporting women across state lines for immoral purposes" due to her being a prostitute. Cameron, soon to become his second wife, refused to cooperate and the case fell apart. Less than a month later, Johnson was arrested again on similar charges. This time the woman, another prostitute named Belle Schreiber with whom he had been involved in 1909 and 1910, testified against him, and he was convicted by a jury in June 1913. The conviction was despite the fact that the incidents used to convict him took place prior to passage of the Mann Act[1]. He was sentenced to a year and a day in prison.

Johnson skipped bail, and left the country, joining Lucille in Montreal on June 25, before fleeing to France. For the next seven years, they lived in exile in Europe, South America and Mexico. Johnson returned to the U.S. on 20 July 1920. He surrendered to Federal agents at the Mexican border and was sent to the United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth to serve his sentence. He was released on July 9, 1921.[1]


There have been recurring proposals to grant Johnson a posthumous Presidential pardon. A bill requesting President George W. Bush to pardon Johnson in 2008, passed the House, but a companion bill, sponsored by John McCain, failed to pass in the Senate.[9] In April 2009, McCain, along with Representative Peter King, filmmaker Ken Burns and Johnson's great niece, Linda Haywood, requested a presidential pardon for Johnson from President Barack Obama.[10] On July 30, 2009 the Jack Johnson Resolution passed urging Barack Obama to give Johnson a Full Pardon

The Fight of the Century

In 1910, former undefeated heavyweight champion James J. Jeffries came out of retirement and said, "I am going into this fight for the sole purpose of proving that a white man is better than a Negro".[2] Jeffries had not fought in six years and had to lose weight to get back to his championship fighting weight.


The fight took place on July 4, 1910 in front of 22,000 people, at a ring built just for the occasion in downtown Reno, Nevada. Johnson proved stronger and more nimble than Jeffries. In the 15th round, after Jeffries had been knocked down twice for the first time in his career, his people called it quits to prevent Johnson from knocking him out.


The "Fight of the Century" earned Johnson $225,000 and silenced the critics.

The outcome of the fight triggered race riots that evening — the Fourth of July — all across the United States, from Texas and Colorado to New York and Washington, D.C. Johnson's victory over Jeffries had dashed white dreams of finding a "great white hope" to defeat him. Many whites felt humiliated by the defeat of Jeffries

Blacks, on the other hand, were jubilant, and celebrated Johnson's great victory as a victory for their entire race. Black poet William Waring Cuney later highlighted the Black reaction to the fight in his poem "My Lord, What a Morning". Around the country, Blacks held spontaneous parades, gathered in prayer meetings, and purchased goods with winnings from backing Johnson at the bookmakers. These celebrations often drew a violent response from white men.


Some "riots" were simply Blacks celebrating in the streets. In certain cities, like Chicago, the police did not disturb the celebrations. But in other cities, the police and angry white citizens tried to subdue the celebrations. Police interrupted several attempted lynchings. In all, "riots" occurred in more than twenty-five states and fifty cities. About 23 blacks and two whites died in the riots, and hundreds more were injured

On April 5, 1915, Johnson lost his title (age 37)

Am I the Only Person to Reflect upon

Jack Johnson.....and Ali in boxing....  they were such winners and superstars,,,, and the first of our the "NEGRO" America.....    White America stripped them of their succuss... Even the superstar OJ Simpson. Orenthal James Simpson. . .Heisman Trophy winner, 1968. . .No. 1 NFL draft pick, 1969. . .Career highlighted by 2,003 yards rushing, 1973. . . Unanimous All-Pro, topped 1,000 yards rushing, 1972-1976. . .Won four NFL rushing titles. . . Career record: 11,236 yards rushing, 203 receptions, 990 yards kickoff returns, 14,368 combined net yards. . .In 1969 AFL All-Star game, five Pro Bowls. . .1973 Pro Bowl Player of the Game. . . Born July 9, 1947, in San Francisco, California.









 I acknowledge the truth of SIN, wrong is wrong.... and there reaping and sowing and certain justice & judgment/consequences!!!   
NO BUTS.... that is the bottom line.   So men and women... just do right!   Or rather,,, ones HEART has to be right with God in order to be right with mankind!

The majority white media is having a field day at stripping TIGER of his glory...... loving to see and predice a demise.


Sooooooooo, back to the story I read 15-20 years ago of Jack Johnson,,, fame, popularity, money and white women......


 John Arthur Johnson (March 31, 1878 – June 10, 1946), better known as Jack Johnson and nicknamed the “Galveston Giant”, was an American boxer, the best heavyweight of his generation and the first black world heavyweight boxing champion (1908-1915). In a documentary about his life, Ken Burns notes, "For more than thirteen years, Jack Johnson was the most famous and the most notorious African-American on Earth."

Johnson was born in Galveston, Texas, the third child and first son of Henry and Tina "Tiny" Johnson, former slaves who worked at blue-collar jobs to raise six children and taught them how to read and write. Jack Johnson had just five years of formal education

Johnson won his first title on February 3, 1903, beating "Denver" Ed Martin over 20 rounds for the World Colored Heavyweight Championship. His efforts to win the full title were thwarted, as world heavyweight champion James J. Jeffries refused to face him then. Black and white boxers could meet in other competitions, but the world heavyweight championship was off limits to them. However, Johnson did fight former champion Bob Fitzsimmons in July 1907, and knocked him out in two rounds.

Johnson finally won the world heavyweight title on December 26, 1908, when he fought the Canadian world champion Tommy Burns in Sydney, Australia, after stalking Burns around the world for two years and taunting him in the press for a match. The fight lasted fourteen rounds before being stopped by the police in front of over 20,000 spectators. The title was awarded to Johnson on a referee's decision as a T.K.O, but he had clearly beaten the champion. Johnson constantly mocked both Burns and his ringside crew, while receiving every kind of racial and other slur from them and members of the crowd.

After Johnson's victory over Burns, racial animosity among whites ran so deep that even a socialist like Jack London called out for a "Great White Hope" to take the title away from Johnson. As title holder, Johnson thus had to face a series of fighters billed by boxing promoters as "great white hopes", often in exhibition matches.
Now..... Back to the Tiger Woods thing!!!!

Eldrick Tont Woods  ...... Nickname Tiger .......Born December 30, 1975 (1975-12-30) (age 33)

Cypress, California   .....Height 6 ft 1 in  ....Weight 185 lb 





Golf Bracing for Aftereffects of Tiger Woods Scandal


DECEMBER 09, 2009 23:15

In sports, a saying goes that one superstar feeds all of the rest.

A prime example is former NBA superstar Michael Jordan. While playing for the Chicago Bulls, Jordan was worth an estimated 10 billion U.S. dollars. The league enjoyed one of its most successful times when he was on the court.

When he retired for the second time in 1999, however, the NBA was on the decline. The league did everything it could to nurture new players to fill his shoes but with little success.

Tiger Woods has the same grand role in golf. His influence on the PGA Tour and the golfing industry is so enormous that the fear is growing that his alleged extramarital affairs will negatively affect the sport. His long-time sponsors are also perplexed by his unfortunate situation.

PepsiCo, which produces the sports drink Gatorade, said yesterday that it will scrap the drink Gatorade Tiger Focus. The company claimed the decision had been discussed several months earlier and had nothing to do with the Woods scandal, but the timing of the announcement is fueling suspicion.

Prime-time TV commercials featuring Woods have been replaced with new ones without him since the scandal broke out. This could threaten his lucrative endorsements, which earn him more than 100 million U.S. dollars a year.

When Woods was in a slump or absent for a long time, the tour suffered sharp drops in sponsorship, audience and TV ratings.

The average rating of a tournament in which Woods played is more than six percent, more than double that of events without him.

“Woods is the tour,” said Kenny Perry, a professional PGA golfer, warning that it will be a big loss to lose such a star player.

Heavyweight boxer Muhammad Ali, cycling star Lance Armstrong, and Formula One driver Michael Schumacher were also superstars who held major sway over their sports.

What is Dong-A Ilbo>>>>???? ????

DECEMBER 10, 2009 09:12


http://english.donga.com/srv/service.php3?bicode=050000&biid=2009121085318

The Dong-A Ilbo

Global media say U.S. President Barack Obama is in agony ahead of the day of the award ceremony for the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway.

After Obama was surprisingly named this year’s winner in October, dispute erupted over exactly what he contributed to world peace.

He is reportedly under pressure in writing his acceptance speech. The New York Times said the burden seems even greater than it did two months ago, when the Nobel Prize committee startled the world by naming him the winner.

Since Obama has announced the dispatch of 30,000 more American troops to Afghanistan, he must explain this decision amid his acceptance of the award. How he handles this after winning the Nobel Peace Prize despite announcing an escalation in the war in Afghanistan is attracting global attention.

Shortly after deciding on the deployment, Obama summoned his aides in charge of writing presidential speeches and began formulating his acceptance speech. He read the speeches of Theodore Roosevelt (1906) and Woodrow Wilson (1919), who won also the same award while president.

Obama also read the speech of George Marshall, who was awarded the prize in 1953 for proposing the economic aid plan bearing his name. Other Nobel speeches read by Obama included those of former South African President Nelson Mandela (1993) and U.S. civil rights leader Martin Luther King (1964).

The lessons of history will not provide much help for Obama, however. His circumstances are totally different from those of Roosevelt, who helped end the 1904-05 Russo-Japanese War, and Wilson, who contributed to halting World War I.

On the president’s speech, a source close to Obama said, “Obama will explain why war is necessary to bring peace and emphasize humanitarianism.”

David Axelrod, a senior adviser to Obama, said, “How do you reconcile your role as a commander in chief with your aspirations to promote a more peaceful world at a time of war? That’s a question that he’s going to explore in some detail.”

David Frum, who was the speechwriter of Obama’s predecessor George W. Bush, said, “The fate of the speech depends on whether Obama will be more eloquent when he talks about global peace than calling young Americans into battle.”

The Wall Street Journal said the acceptance speech will test Obama’s ability to articulate a foreign policy vision based on moral leadership while pursuing two wars, and his skills at persuading the world that he will uphold U.S. leadership on human rights amid missed opportunities to press China, Darfur and Iran.


As Dr. King said at this occasion so many years ago: "I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the 'isness' of mans present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal 'oughtness' that forever confronts him."



So let us reach for the world that ought to be — that spark of the divine that still stirs within each of our souls. Somewhere today, in the here and now, a soldier sees hes outgunned but stands firm to keep the peace. Somewhere today, in this world, a young protestor awaits the brutality of her government, but has the courage to march on. Somewhere today, a mother facing punishing poverty still takes the time to teach her child, who believes that a cruel world still has a place for his dreams.


Let us live by their example. We can acknowledge that oppression will always be with us, and still strive for justice. We can admit the intractability of deprivation, and still strive for dignity. We can understand that there will be war, and still strive for peace. We can do that — for that is the story of human progress; that is the hope of all the world; and at this moment of challenge, that must be our work here on Earth.



The text of President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, delivered Thursday in Oslo, Norway, as provided by the White House:



http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iRWjTDaT4JuS0nFj9APZAues8vjAD9CGEQTO4
Normally the prize has been presented, even controversially, for accomplishment. This prize, to a 48-year-old freshman president, for “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,” seemed a kind of prayer and encouragement by the Nobel committee for future endeavor and more consensual American leadership.



PARIS — The choice of Barack Obama on Friday as the recipient of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, less than nine months into his eventful presidency, was an unexpected honor that elicited praise and puzzlement around the globe.

Praying for our PRESIDENT

The world would like to see this impeccable... black man also fall prey to the sins of Bill Clinton & Tiger Woo!

Monday, December 7, 2009

Tiger Wood....... lies lies, and more lies....

Nothing new under the sun!

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

May God Bless our Troups and our President & Leaders!

Afganistan and here at home....

Friday, November 13, 2009


Monday, November 2, 2009

Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing

The video is a presentation of “Life Ev’ry Voice and Sing,” what many refer to as “The Black National Anthem.” The Rev. Joseph Lowery quoted from the third verse of the song during his benediction at the Inauguration on January 20, 2009 when he prayed,

“God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, thou who has brought us thus far along the way, thou who has by thy might led us into the light, keep us forever in the path, we pray, lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met thee, lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget thee. Shadowed beneath thy hand may we forever stand — true to thee, O God, and true to our native land.”


http://wisdomwalking.net/
Women Walking in Wisdom's Footsteps....... Blogsite

I googled Black Women in America... and found this blog...  I'm so blessed to share such things!  The owner/author states: .......The video is a presentation of “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing,” what many refer to as “The Black National Anthem.” The Rev. Joseph Lowery quoted from the third verse of the song during his benediction at the Inauguration on January 20, 2009 when he prayed," . . . . .As I (the author of wisdomwalking) watched the images, I couldn’t help but be propelled into a past that I only experienced on the surface (being born in 1964 living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin). I couldn’t help but to feel some pain knowing the injustices that were wrought on innocent people just because of the color of their skin. Yet, the video is full of images of power, in the midst of the injustices served, and in the midst of the hurt and pain I felt, I also felt proud for the progress we’ve made....."
Wouldn't You Know.... there are days that I don't feel black....   and that's a great people feeling.... 

in this U S of America ! 

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Barack Obama african print fabric with an oval shape picture of Barack Obama, with the following items delicately decorating a white background with brown and tan design: Yes We Can, 44th President of the United States and American Flag on it .

http://welcometoharlem.com/page/136027/


This fabric is 100% Cotton - Should be machine washed in cold water with like colors and mild detergent on a delicate setting. Do not bleach. Tumble dry on low and use a cool iron to remove wrinkles. (45 inches wide by 36 inches long). It is sold by the yard. This fabric cost $15.00 a yard. To order email us at info@welcometoharlem.com. we will send you a paypal invoice with shipping included.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

We black folks.... is some kinda happy NOW-a-DAYS!


Why I have this look (repeatedly....) on my face!   lol

Friday, October 9, 2009

My last comment.... Don't play.... I'm not gettin my hair wet!


This is the best Friday I've had since 11-4-2008 !

Please Notice..... My girl has taken off her shoes......  Good southern country roots!!!   yea.....! ! ! !

I've been totally absorbed in Finding my Grandfather and Grandma Cindy!

Michelle Obama's family journey from bondage to the White House

My life story and roots run along the same line as my First Lady.   No real surprise.... but gosh it's given me a few more places to check!   YEA>>>>>> YEAAAAAAA>>>>>


Now... u already knew that Michele was a home grown girl!




















WASHINGTON - In 1850, the elderly master of a South Carolina estate took pen in hand and painstakingly divided up his possessions. Among the spinning wheels, scythes, tablecloths and cattle that he bequeathed to his far-flung heirs was a 6-year-old slave girl valued soon afterward at $475.


In his will, she is described simply as the “negro girl Melvinia.” After his death, she was torn away from the people and places she knew and shipped to Georgia. While she was still a teenager, a white man would father her first-born son under circumstances lost in the passage of time.

In the annals of American slavery, this painful story would be utterly unremarkable, save for one reason: This union, consummated some two years before the Civil War, represents the origins of a family line that would extend from rural Georgia, to Birmingham, Ala., to Chicago and, finally, to the White House.

Melvinia Shields, the enslaved and illiterate young girl, and the unknown white man who impregnated her are the great-great-great-grandparents of Michelle Obama , the first lady.

Viewed by many as a powerful symbol of black advancement, Mrs. Obama grew up with only a vague sense of her ancestry, aides and relatives said. During the presidential campaign, the family learned about one paternal great-great-grandfather, a former slave from South Carolina, but the rest of Mrs. Obama’s roots were a mystery.

Now the more complete map of Mrs. Obama’s ancestors — including the slave mother, white father and their biracial son, Dolphus T. Shields — for the first time fully connects the first African-American first lady to the history of slavery, tracing their five-generation journey from bondage to a front-row seat to the presidency.

The findings — uncovered by Megan Smolenyak, a genealogist, and The New York Times — substantiate what Mrs. Obama has called longstanding family rumors about a white forebear.

While President Obama ’s biracial background has drawn considerable attention, his wife’s pedigree, which includes American Indian strands, highlights the complicated history of racial intermingling, sometimes born of violence or coercion, that lingers in the bloodlines of many African-Americans. Mrs. Obama and her family declined to comment for this article, aides said, in part because of the personal nature of the subject.

“She is representative of how we have evolved and who we are,” said Edward Ball, a historian who discovered that he had black relatives, the descendants of his white slave-owning ancestors, when he researched his memoir, “Slaves in the Family.”

“We are not separate tribes of Latinos and whites and blacks in America,” Mr. Ball said. “We’ve all mingled, and we have done so for generations.”

The outlines of Mrs. Obama’s family history unfolded from 19th century probate records , yellowing marriage licenses, fading photographs and the recollections of elderly women who remember the family. Ms. Smolenyak, who has traced the ancestry of many prominent figures, began studying the first lady’s roots in earnest after conducting some preliminary research into Mrs. Obama’s ancestry for an article published in The New York Times earlier this year.

Of the dozens of relatives she identified, Ms. Smolenyak said, it was the slave girl who seemed to call out most clearly.

“Out of all Michelle’s roots, it’s Melvinia who is screaming to be found,” she said.

Strange and unfamiliar world

When her owner, David Patterson, died in 1852, Melvinia soon found herself on a 200-acre farm with new masters, Mr. Patterson’s daughter and son-in law, Christianne and Henry Shields. It was a strange and unfamiliar world.

In South Carolina, she had lived on an estate with 21 slaves. In Georgia, she was one of only three slaves on property that is now part of a neat subdivision in Rex, near Atlanta.

Whether Melvinia labored in the house or in the fields, there was no shortage of work: wheat, corn, sweet potatoes and cotton to plant and harvest, and 3 horses, 5 cows, 17 pigs and 20 sheep to care for, according to an 1860 agricultural survey .

It is difficult to say who might have impregnated Melvinia, who gave birth to Dolphus around 1859, when she was perhaps as young as 15. At the time, Henry Shields was in his late 40s and had four sons ages 19 to 24, but other men may have spent time on the farm.

No one should be surprised anymore to hear about the number of rapes and the amount of sexual exploitation that took place under slavery; it was an everyday experience, “ said Jason A. Gillmer, a law professor at Texas Wesleyan University, who has researched liaisons between slave owners and slaves. “But we do find that some of these relationships can be very complex.”

In 1870, three of Melvinia’s four children, including Dolphus, were listed on the census as mulatto. One was born four years after emancipation, suggesting that the liaison that produced those children endured after slavery. She gave her children the Shields name, which may have hinted at their paternity or simply been the custom of former slaves taking their master’s surnames.

Even after she was freed, Melvinia stayed put, working as a farm laborer on land adjacent to that of Charles Shields, one of Henry’s sons.

But sometime in her 30s or 40s, census records show, Melvinia broke away and managed to reunite with former slaves from her childhood on the Patterson estate: Mariah and Bolus Easley, who settled with Melvinia in Bartow County, near the Alabama border. Dolphus married one of the Easleys’ daughters, Alice, who is Mrs. Obama’s great-great-grandmother.

A community “that had been ripped apart was somehow pulling itself back together,” Ms. Smolenyak said of the group in Bartow County.

Still, Melvinia appears to have lived with the unresolved legacy of her childhood in slavery until the very end. Her 1938 death certificate , signed by a relative, says “don’t know” in the space for the names of her parents, suggesting that Melvinia, then in her 90s, may never have known herself.

But sometime in her 30s or 40s, census records show, Melvinia broke away and managed to reunite with former slaves from her childhood on the Patterson estate: Mariah and Bolus Easley, who settled with Melvinia in Bartow County, near the Alabama border. Dolphus married one of the Easleys’ daughters, Alice, who is Mrs. Obama’s great-great-grandmother.

A community “that had been ripped apart was somehow pulling itself back together,” Ms. Smolenyak said of the group in Bartow County.

Still, Melvinia appears to have lived with the unresolved legacy of her childhood in slavery until the very end. Her 1938 death certificate , signed by a relative, says “don’t know” in the space for the names of her parents, suggesting that Melvinia, then in her 90s, may never have known herself.

At a time when blacks despaired at the intransigence and violence of whites who barred them from voting, from most city jobs, from whites-only restaurants and from owning property in white neighborhoods, Dolphus Shields served as a rare link between the deeply divided communities.

His carpentry shop stood in the white section of town, and he mixed easily and often with whites. “They would come to his shop and sit and talk,” Mrs. Holt said.

Dolphus Shields firmly believed race relations would improve. “It’s going to come together one day,” he often said, Mrs. Holt recalled.

By the time he died in 1950 at age 91, change was on the way. On June 9, 1950, the day that his obituary appeared on the front page of The Birmingham World, the black newspaper also ran a banner headline that read, “U.S. Court Bans Segregation in Diners and Higher Education.” The Supreme Court had outlawed separate but equal accommodations on railway cars and in universities in Texas and Oklahoma.

Up North, his grandson, a painter named Purnell Shields , Mrs. Obama’s grandfather, was positioning his family to seize the widening opportunities in Chicago.

But as his descendants moved forward, they lost touch with the past. Today, Dolphus Shields lies in a neglected black cemetery, where patches of grass grow knee-high and many tombstones have toppled.

Mrs. Holt, a retired nursing assistant, said he came to her in a dream last month. She dug up his photograph, never guessing that she would soon learn that Dolphus Shields was a great-great-grandfather of the first lady.

“Oh, my God,” said Mrs. Holt, gasping at the news. “I always looked up to him, but I would never have imagined something like this. Praise God, we’ve come a long way.”

Jim Sherling contributed reporting from Rex, Ga. Kitty Bennett contributed research.

This article, "In First Lady’s Roots, a Complex Path From Slavery" originally appeared in The New York Times.

Now. . .let the critism flow.... But . . .Lord let him live on!


OSLO, Norway - President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in a stunning decision designed to encourage his initiatives to reduce nuclear arms, ease tensions with the Muslim world and stress diplomacy and cooperation rather than unilateralism.


Nobel observers were shocked by the unexpected choice so early in the Obama presidency, which began less than two weeks before the Feb. 1 nomination deadline.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Obama woke up to the news a little before 6 a.m. EDT. The White House had no immediate comment on the announcement, which took the administration by surprise.

The Nobel Committee lauded the change in global mood wrought by Obama's calls for peace and cooperation but recognized initiatives that have yet to bear fruit: reducing the world stock of nuclear arms, easing American conflicts with Muslim nations and strengthening the U.S. role in combating climate change.

'World's attention'

"Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future," Jagland said.

Obama's election and foreign policy moves caused a dramatic improvement in the image of the U.S. around the world. A 25-nation poll of 27,000 people released in July by the Pew Global Attitudes Project found double-digit boosts to the percentage of people viewing the U.S. favorably in countries around the world. That indicator had plunged across the world under President George W. Bush.

Still, the U.S. remains at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. Congress has yet to pass a law reducing carbon emissions and there has been little significant reduction in global nuclear stockpiles since Obama took office.

"So soon? Too early. He has no contribution so far. He is still at an early stage. He is only beginning to act," said former Polish President Lech Walesa, a 1983 Nobel Peace laureate.

"This is probably an encouragement for him to act. Let's see if he perseveres. Let's give him time to act," Walesa said.

Slap at Bush?

The award appeared to be a slap at Bush from a committee that harshly criticized Obama's predecessor for his largely unilateral military action in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks. The Nobel committee praised Obama's creation of "a new climate in international politics" and said he had returned multilateral diplomacy and institutions like the U.N. to the center of the world stage.

"You have to remember that the world has been in a pretty dangerous phase," Jagland said. "And anybody who can contribute to getting the world out of this situation deserves a Nobel Peace Prize."

Unlike the other Nobel Prizes, which are awarded by Swedish institutions, the peace prize is given out by a five-member committee elected by the Norwegian Parliament. Like the Parliament, the committee has a leftist slant, with three members elected by left-of-center parties. Jagland said the decision to honor Obama was unanimous.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, who won the prize in 1984, said Obama's award shows great things are expected from him in coming years.

"It is an award that speaks to the promise of President Obama's message of hope," Tutu said.

Meanwhile, Obama's chief strategist, David Axelrod, told NBC News that the president had not sought the award. "Presidents work hard to bring some issues to the fore internationally and point the world in the direction of solving some very big problems," he said. "I think this is a recognition of that."

Speculation elsewhere

Until seconds before the award, speculation had focused on a wide variety of candidates besides Obama: Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, a Colombian senator, a Chinese dissident and an Afghan woman's rights activist, among others. The Nobel committee received a record 205 nominations for this year's prize, though it was not immediately apparent who nominated Obama.

"The exciting and important thing about this prize is that it's given to someone ... who has the power to contribute to peace," Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said.

Obama is the third sitting U.S. president to win the award!


Obama is the third sitting U.S. president to win the award: President Theodore Roosevelt won in 1906 and President Woodrow Wilson was awarded the prize in 1919.


Wilson received the prize for his role in founding the League of Nations, the hopeful but ultimately failed precursor to the contemporary United Nations.

The Nobel committee chairman said after awarding the 2002 prize to former Democratic President Jimmy Carter, for his mediation in international conflicts, that it should be seen as a "kick in the leg" to the Bush administration's hard line in the buildup to the Iraq war.

Five years later, the committee honored Bush's adversary in the 2000 presidential election, Al Gore, for his campaign to raise awareness about global warming.

‘Humbled’ Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize ---- u Go BOY! 2009


Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Thursday, September 17, 2009

OK - Black Woman........ Here is what I've learned TODAY!

It is Constitution Day.... what the devil...???    OK, so it was on September 17, -- 1787 --  (doin the math. . .that 222 years ago!) 

Constitution Day represents the day that forty-two out of 55 (white men called delegates) persons meeting at the Constitutional Convention (in Philadelphia, PA) since May -- they gathered for a  final meeting -- to sign the Constitution of the United States of America!   This new document was designed to clearly define and separate the powers of the central government, the powers of the states, the rights of the people and how the representatives of the people should be elected.

Thus - - -by June 21, 1788, nine states had approved the Constitution, finally forming "a more perfect Union."

Friday, September 11, 2009

Fearing the future is not what the moment calls for


"Obama managed to hold the high ground on the country's desire to move past blind partisanship to common sense compromise, which was so central to his election last year, while also making it clear to the Republicans that he would not be a patsy for their attacks on his plan."


Obama knows that only a handful of Republicans will support him in this effort. But he pointed out -- and adopted -- good GOP ideas, such as medical malpractice reform and Sen. John McCain's idea of setting up high-risk insurance pools for the uninsured. Was that for show? Partly, sure.
But this coup de grace wasn't: "My door is always open" to new ideas, the president said. "But know this: I will not waste time with those who have made the calculation that it's better politics to kill this plan than improve it. ... And I will not accept the status quo as a solution."
Mr. Change is back in town.

I gotta define mea culpa . . . .

U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson continued his slow march out of Congress by apologizing a second time to President Barack Obama with a mea culpa as lame as the first one.


A disruption by an out-of-order, childish, dumb taunt from GOP Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina, who shouted, "You lie," when Obama said that illegal immigrants would not be covered under his health care measure. The errant congressman later apologized, of course, but his infamous heckling would not be forgotten.

The angry outburst reminded us that this defining domestic debate has, at times, descended into a churlish display of acrimony. Hard to escape, it seems. But after Obama's speech, maybe a tad easier to ignore.

. . .the president remained committed -- at least for now -- to the public option for those who don't have insurance. Yet the wiggle room was there: "It is only one part of my plan," the president told us, "and should not be used as a handy excuse for the usual Washington ideological battles." In other words, there are ways to get around this. Take that, Democratic left.

Monday, August 31, 2009

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Freedom Seekin. . . .


Times is gettin’ harder,
Money’s gettin’ scarce.
Soon as I gather my cotton and corn,
I’m bound to leave this place.

White folks sittin’ in the parlor,
Eatin’ that cake and food,
Nigger’s way down to the kitchen,
Squabblin’ over turnip greens.

Times is gettin’ harder,
Money’s gettin’ scarce.
Soon as I gather my cotton and corn,
I’m bound to leave this place.

Me and my brother was out.
Thought we’d have some fun.
He stole three chickens.
We began to run.

Times is gettin’ harder,
Money’s gettin’ scarce.
Soon as I gather my cotton and corn
I’m bound to leave this place.

If we must die . . . .

If we must die, let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursed lot.


If we must die, O let us nobly die,
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!


O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe!
Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow!


What though before us lies the open grave?


Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!

--Claude McKay


http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/harlem/contents.html

Monday, August 17, 2009

Mauritania



Just learning more about the continent of Africa...

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

The Spirit of Creativity in My Quilting

In 1925, painter Aaron Douglas, known as the "father" of African Art, wrote to the poet Langston Hughes:

"Let’s bare our arms and plunge them deep through laughter, through pain, through sorrow, through hope, through disappointment, into the very depths of the souls of our people and drag forth material crude, rough, neglected.

Then let’s sing it, dance it, write it, paint it. Let’s do the impossible.

Let’s create something transcendentally material, mystically objective, earthy. Spiritually earthy. Dynamic."

A Poem By Langston Hughes

I, Too, Sing America

I, too, sing America
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.

Tomorrow - I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen" then.
Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed-
I too, am America.



'I, Too' written just before Hughes’ return to the States from Europe and after he'd been denied passage on a ship because of his color, has a contemporary feel in contrast to the mythical dimension of 'The Negro Speaks of Rivers'.

It is no less powerful however, in its expression of social injustice. The calm clear statements of the 'I' have an unstoppable force like the progress the poem envisages.

Hughes's dignified introductions to these poems and his beautiful speaking voice render them all the more moving.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Still in the South !!!

The University Press of Mississippi

http://upmississippi.blogspot.com/

The University Press of Mississippi is a not-for-profit publisher based in Jackson, Miss. Now in its 37th year of operation, the Press is supported by the eight state universities of Mississippi and releases 60 to 65 books a year.


African American Studies

http://www.upress.state.ms.us/category/african_american_studies

Mississippi and Georgia information.....

http://itawambahistory.blogspot.com/2007_09_01_archive.html

The Itawamba Historical Society is a Mississippi non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of Itawamba County, Mississippi's history and heritage. Be sure to visit the Itawamba Historical Society Online where you can discover your Itawamba County, Mississippi roots

Located on the Internet are some fascinating sites relating to history studies. One such site is the Internet Archive Movie Archive. This interesting site, a part of the massive Internet Archive, contains literally thousands of online movies. The visitor can find most anything in this collection including big bands of the 1940's, public service films from the 1940's and 1950's, old silent Hollywood movies, and television commericals from the 1950's to modern documentaries. Many of these movies are public domain movies and documentaries.
Leonid shower (lee-uh-nid) meteor storm of 1833 was of truly superlative strength. One estimate is over one hundred thousand meteors an hour (lee-uh-nids) are a prolific meteor shower associated with the comet Tempel-Tuttle. The Leonids get their name from the location of their radiant in the constellation Leo: the meteors appear to stream from that point in the sky.

The Alexandria Gazette reported on Thursday morning, Nov. 14, 1833: “A most unusual and interesting atmospherical phenomenon was observed here yesterday morning, from some time before day break till broad daylight, in a continuous display of brilliant Meteors or shooting stars as they are usually called. . . . At times, it is said that it almost seemed as if a shower of fire was descending from the heavens . . . the brilliant flashes would shoot . . . rendering every object around distinctly visible. The ‘shooting of the stars’ commenced about twelve o’clock. . . . Persons in the country and passengers in stages coming into town yesterday before day, speak of the appearance of the heavens with wonder and admiration.”

Slaves and their masters were also scared and worried. Family history tells of a plantation owner who gathered all his slaves during the height of the storm and told them to where he had sold their kin.

A slave, Harriet Powers, grew up hearing preachers and kinfolk relate stories about the meteor shower of 1833, which had happened four years before her birth. As a young woman, Harriet crafted a picture quilt depicting the meteor shower and other events. She wrote,” The people were frighten and thought the end of time has come. . . . The varmints rushed out of their beds.”Meteor showers are named for the constellation with which they are associated.

The 1833 meteor shower was named Leonid for the constellation Leo. After this meteor shower, both amateurs and scientists began to study meteor showers in earnest. People on the East Coast and as far west as the Rocky Mountains witnessed this shower. Yale astronomy professor Denison Olmsted wrote his impression of this phenomenon in the New Haven Daily Journal and asked others to submit their impressions. Soon, he found himself the collector of interpretations and information surrounding the Leonid meteor shower of 1833.

Scientists discovered that the Leonid meteor shower occurs every November. The greatest intensity of the shower occurs approximately every 33 years, when the orbit of the comet Tempel-Tuttle comes closest to the sun, whose gravitational pull causes a larger shower of meteors to reach Earth.

The greatest Leonid meteor shower of recent times occurred in Nov. 1966, with as many as 100,000 meteors an hour.

Even Abraham Lincoln was in awe of the 1833 meteor shower. Walt Whitman wrote of Lincoln’s experience. During the Civil War, concerned northern bankers asked President Lincoln about the stability of the Union. Lincoln told a story of how years earlier he had been awakened by a meteor shower. (Historians surmise that Lincoln was referring to the 1833 shower.) Lincoln related how others had screamed that the end of the world was at hand. Then he said, “But looking back of them (the falling stars) in the heavens, I saw all the grand old constellations with which I was so well acquainted, fixed and true in their places. Gentlemen, the world did not come to an end then, nor will the Union now.”