Black Woman in America

Kicking into February.... Black History Month

2012-02-06T14:46:00.001-08:00

Natural Hair and Professionalism. An oxymoron? - Black Enterprise

2012-01-30T10:16:00.000-08:00

Natural Hair and Professionalism. An oxymoron? - Black Enterprise\\

http://www.longhairdontcare.net/long_hair_dont_care-deleted-20090628-muftz/2011/02/black-hair-article-natural-hair-professionalism-an-oxymoron.html

Above is a link to a fellow blogger on Black Hair....

Here is my take after reading parts of her article..........I know that during the 19th century... and early 20th Century.... it was a given perception that kinky, curly, nappy, short hair was thought to be ugly, unkept and therefore inferior in comparison to America's standard of beauty...that is long, flowing, silky, bouncy hair (now...swing your neck around!)

I collect black ephemera that show the supposedly ugly side of black, nappy-headed children! This demeaning caricature of black is rampant in books, laundry soap, watermellon and pancake advertising. Blacks were being taught to dislike and loathe their hair... their looks consisted of a wide nose, large lips and teeth. Our looks were said to validate our insides as being 3/5th's of a man... and as being dirty, unruly and lazy!

Michael Jackson did change his nose and skin color, but back in the 1950's when I was born (hmnnn light-skin and gray eyes... but good lord this hair is nappy!).... the majority of blacks could not change their lips, hips and nose.... so we quickly decided to be like white... and change our hair!

Why a silky mane of hair... men and women... made us more likeable, employable and more accepable like Sammy Davis and Sam Cooke. Why Aunt Jemima just wore a headwrap to cover her kinks!

A Culturally Aggresive Action towards the President.....

2012-01-30T09:44:00.000-08:00

I picked this up from a FB friend/post!

NEVER HAS IT BEEN SAID MORE CLEARLY.......for today's white folk who play like they don't understand... Even I knew something was wrong with this picture and the white media ploy on... the govenor felt threatened. Obama leans in toward her... and again said let walk off... Much like Jesus... I let folk walk on me when I have the power! Yep... he's the man! I's Prez...u is govenor.

.the finger point in the face was both an aggressive act and one attempting to establish superiority?

Click here to link to the author.....

A Teachable Racial Moment: On Fingers Pointed in Black Faces

JANUARY 27, 2012

I don’t know when the finger point in the face became such a grave insult to Black folks, but it has been for at least fifty years. And what does the gesture mean anyway? It means derision. It means disrespect. And above all, it means power to the pointer.

Sidebar: Have you ever seen a mother (of any cultural background) in the mall with her disobedient toddler? She finally gets exasperated and leans down and begins to scold the child—by pointing her finger in his or her face. And what happens? The toddler starts crying, and then gets it together and starts behaving better. Thus, the finger point in the face is not a gesture between equals. She who does the pointing is establishing herself as a superior to the person being pointed at.

........................................Okay, and now, I’m about to reveal a Racial Secret. Are you ready? I’m going to put this in italics so you really get it.

Because the finger point gesture establishes superiority, the gesture is even worse if a White person does it to a Black person, due to the history in this country of White supremacist violence and cultural demeaning of Black folks.

Nice Non-Racist White folks, this may seem silly to y’all. And I get that. Right now, you may be saying, “Dang, Black folks got too many rules! It’s so hard to keep up with y’all!” That’s true. I won’t deny it. So many rules, even I have a hard time keeping up.

Just because President Obama doesn’t talk about that racial script doesn’t mean he isn’t well aware of our nation’s troubled history concerning White women and Black men, which is why he walked away from Governor Brewer. I’m pretty sure that, as a Black man, he was angered by her culturally transgressive act, but he had the presence of mind to get himself together before he broke all the way fool on the tarmac with that lady and not only ended up in jail, but went down in history as 1) the first Black president and 2) the first president who physically assaulted a woman in public.

.................................But he saved himself, because President Obama is an Old School Brother. And it is never acceptable for an Old School Brother to hit a woman, whether or not she has committed an act of aggression. And let me tell you that you don’t really want to know what would have happened if Governor Brewer had pointed her finger in the face of another Black man—not an Old School Brother but one of these Young Knuckleheads With No Sense.

Eh, Lord, it would have been so ugly. And that’s all I’m going to say.

Polite, kind, respectful, self-controlled, and full of common sense: that’s how Old School Brothers get down. And by the way, that’s why I really adore them. And that’s why, despite the fact thatPresident Obama hasn’t been a perfect leader (at least in my opinion), as a Sister, I feel extremely proud of him. And I bet Mrs. Obama does, too.

Thus, he has my vote....eternally!

Lie, Lie Pants on Fire

2012-01-27T10:03:00.000-08:00

First Read.... MSNBC

.........But while Adelson and Gingrich have bonded on the issue of a hawkish Mideast policy, especially over the threat of a nuclear Iran, some of the casino mogul’s comments could prove embarrassing.

In a talk to an Israeli group in July, 2010, Adelson said he wished he had served in the Israeli Army rather than the U.S. military—and that he hoped his young son would come back to Israel and “be a sniper for the IDF,” a reference to the Israel Defense Forces. (YouTube video of speech)

“I am not Israeli. The uniform that I wore in the military, unfortunately, was not an Israeli uniform. It was an American uniform, although my wife was in the IDF and one of my daughters was in the IDF ... our two little boys, one of whom will be bar mitzvahed tomorrow, hopefully he’ll come back-- his hobby is shooting -- and he’ll come back and be a sniper for the IDF,” Adelson said at the event.

“All we care about is being good Zionists, being good citizens of Israel, because even though I am not Israeli born, Israel is in my heart,” he said toward the end of his talk.

Lie, Lie Pants on Fire!

Adelson’s company, the Las Vegas Sands, disclosed last year that it was being investigated by the U.S. Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission over allegations by a former top company executive that Adelson directed him to put a local government official on its payroll in Macau — a potential violation of a U.S. anti-bribery law. The firm has denied the allegations, saying they come from a lawsuit filed by a disgruntled former employee.

Adelson also earned a reputation in Las Vegas as a fierce foe of labor unions after he bought the legendary Sands Hotel, home base of Frank Sinatra’s Rat Pack, and then blew it up in 1996.

About 1,500 casino workers lost their jobs. Adelson built a spectacular new hotel in its place, the Venetian, but locked out the state’s powerful Culinary Workers Union, which resulted in street protests and lawsuits.

Union official D. Taylor (sic) said that Adelson’s security officials at the Las Vegas Sands Hotel tried to have the protestors outside his hotel arrested, but Las Vegas police refused.

“He claimed that he owned the sidewalks,” Taylor said. Georgia Democratic “congressman John Lewis led us on the sidewalks to say that nobody’s going to own the people on the sidewalks,” he added. “Sheldon then appealed the decision of the police not to arrest us all the way to the Supreme Court.”

Taylor said Adelson lost that battle — the courts upheld a finding of anti-labor practices against his company — but now the casino mogul thinks he can purchase a presidency.

“I think it’s very scary that any one candidate would be so beholden to one persona, a billionaire, who obviously has a very specific agenda that he wants to achieve,” said Taylor

Can I get a Billionaire friend ? ? ?

2012-01-27T10:01:00.000-08:00

Billionaire Sheldon Adelson and his wife have given GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich's super-PAC $10 million, the biggest cash infusion in the race for the White House. NBC's Michael Isikoff reports on the couple behind the contribution.

“I don’t think it’s buying a presidency any more than it was when Joe Kennedy helped his son,” Sig Rogich, a veteran Republican operative who serves as Adelson’s government affairs consultant, said in an interview about the massive donations that the casino mogul has made to Gingrich’s super PAC.

Adelson, 78, who has a personal fortune estimated at $21 billion, “plays to win” and “puts his money where his mouth is,” Rogich added.

In the last three weeks,Adelson and his Israeli-born wife Miriam have pumped $10 million into the Winning Our Future Super PAC. Those donations provided a critical cash infusion that helped revive Gingrich’s candidacy, bankrolling attack ads againstMitt Romney in South Carolina and now Florida. They’ve also made the Adelsons the largest known donors so far in a presidential race awash with money under new rules allowing unlimited donations to so-called super PACs

But the contributions have also raised new questions about Adelson’s outside role in influencing the campaign. Those questions could intensify as a result of potentially provocative comments he has made about Israel uncovered by NBC News.

Slave Ship Republican Ad..... 2012

2012-01-27T09:46:00.000-08:00

Help turn this ship around! Go to http://MarkOxnerForCongress.com to stopObama and his pet progressive parrot, ALAN GRAYSON......

Tuskegee Men and Women

2012-01-27T09:40:00.000-08:00

The Root:

In 1941 Eleanor Roosevelt, at Bethune's urging, convinced theRosenwald Fund (which had a long history of supporting various kinds of projects aimed at ameliorating American race relations, and on whose board she served) to help expand the pilot-training program at Tuskegee.

And then in March of that year, Roosevelt not only visited the Tuskegee Institute's Moton Airfield but, incredibly, also asked the chief flight instructor, Charles A. "Chief" Anderson, to take her on a flight, against the adamant objections of the Secret Service.

This is quite likely the first time a black man flew a plane with a white woman as his passenger. Roosevelt spent over an hour in the skies above Tuskegee. She returned to Washington and lobbied her husband to integrate America's aviation forces.

According to the FDR Presidential Library and Museum, she declared that all the statements she had heard that blacks couldn't fly planes were bunkum.

2012-01-27T09:33:00.001-08:00

Flying Through the Open Doors: Willa Beatrice Brown

The Tuskegee Airmen also owed a debt to Willa Beatrice Brown, one of two women in the all-black Challenger Air Pilots Association, founded in 1935. Brown was one of about 100 licensed black pilots in the entire country. She also became the first African-American woman to receive a commission as a lieutenant in the U.S. Civil Air Patrol.

An expert in business administration and public relations and a dedicated aviator, Brown played a critical role in promoting the image of black aviators to help fight racial prejudice and expand opportunities for all blacks. She became chair of the association's education committee and appeared in the offices of the Chicago Defender, the famed black paper of the era, to convince the paper to cover the association's air shows.

Enoch Waters, one of the paper's editors, visited an air show and became so impressed with the talent he saw that the Defender became a sponsor of the association. The paper, because of Brown's appeal, also began covering all aspects of black aviation, and soon other black papers followed suit, especially the influential Pittsburgh Courier.

Because several American black aviators had gone to fight the Italian fascists in Ethiopia in 1935, national interest in black pilots had increased. Brown exploited the growing fame of black pilots and helped organize Chicago's National Airmen's Association of America in 1937, which chartered branches across the country (except in the Deep South).

Without Brown's work, African-American interest in aviation could have languished.

When black activists urged Truman to desegregate the military in 1948, they could point to the heroism of the "Red Tails" pilots to prove that black servicemen had earned the equal treatment that they deserved as loyal Americans. But without the bold imagination of Mary McLeod Bethune, the persistent advocacy of Willa Beatrice Brown and the sheer stubbornness of her friend Eleanor Roosevelt, it is doubtful that Tuskegee Airmen

would have come into being.

And while I found the depiction of the relationship between one of the airmen and his Italian fiancée quite touching (in a nod to a similar romance depicted in Spike Lee's Miracle at Santa Ana), it is a pity that the contributions of these three women -- two black, one white -- couldn't have been called up to frame the action of this very important film.

Henry Louis Gates Jr. is director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University, and editor-in-chief of The Root.

Great statements from a fellow blogger!!!

2012-01-23T13:35:00.001-08:00

Another debate. Gee, South Carolinians have been looking for anyone but Willard. They have made up their minds (it's hard to use the word mind in association with South Carolina Trogs). They seem to have selected the intellectual Visigoth from Georgia as Perry went back to being a full time asshole from El Paso.

The crowd loved Groingich's attack on the press. They did not care that the basis of the question was his basic amoral hypocritical nature. One of his former wives claims that Newt wanted to be a swinger, didn't get his way, and dumped her for #3 after six years of adultery. Newt is a real piece of work. I have trouble with the words devout and Catholic being used in association with either of the current Groingichs. Do you?

Willard proved, once again, to be tone deaf to the 99%. We still don't know when we'll see his 1040. If he had opened the "debate" with a statement along the lines of "I have decided to do as my Dad did in 1967. As we speak 12 years of my tax records are being released..." he might have kept his lead. To most folks he's just one more rich prick who'd look real good with a pitchfork stuck in his ass. Bain may be his bane, after all a proper capitalist is not a vulture.

All in all, the "debate" confirmed that South Carolina's Trogs don't want a Mormon, a libertarian, or an holier than thou prig from Pennsylvania. It has to frustrate folks in SC, all they are left to vote for is a Catholic (at least he once was a Baptist ). The edge goes to Newt. Willard's lead after New Hampshire didn't make sense, I forgot how slow folks are in the Palmetto state

South Carolina Primary

2012-01-18T07:22:00.000-08:00

The conservative vote in South Carolina remains split between Gingrich, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and Texas Gov. Rick Perry going into the closing days before the Jan. 21 primary in the state.

Each has been rallying voters behind their candidacy as the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who would see as the heavy favorite to win the nomination if he were to score a victory in South Carolina.

2012-01-11T08:51:00.001-08:00

"It is now long ago that I resolved that I would permit no man, no matter what his colour might be, to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him."

- Booker T. Washington
1856-1915, Educator and Author

And the beat goes on . . . . . . Primary Elections 2012

2012-01-09T11:17:00.000-08:00

In the past 25 years, the state has thrown 11th hour curve balls to many well-funded front-runners who were expected to win its primary. Among them: Walter Mondale in 1984, Bill Clinton in 1992,George W. Bush in 2000, Howard Dean in 2004, and Obama.

This year, it’s Romney who’s looking over his shoulder, as he approaches Tuesday’s first-in-the nation primary.

Santorum and Huntsman need a strong showing to springboard into South Carolina for its Jan. 21 primary—and both say a strong second finish is possible. Pollster Smith says Huntsman may have the best chance of surging into second, although he cautions that the former Utah governor doesn’t seem to be attracting the Republican base, but Independents and “undeclared” voters who may not be as committed to turn out Tuesday.

Voters here detest coronations, and they have a very long history of taking contrarian positions in elections.

......Just ask Barack Obama, who was leading Hillary Clinton in 2008 by 13 points the day before the primary. He was gliding into rallies like a rock star as thousands of people waited in freezing weather to see him. She was tearing up in a diner, looking like loser. Pundits were writing her obituary.

Just when it seemed Clinton was finished, New Hampshire gave her a stunning upset victory, throwing the Obama campaign into chaos.

These folks do not want to feel the fix is in. And they don’t pay attention to the horse race.

“I don’t want to be told to vote for a candidate because he’s ahead in the polls—I want to get up close and personal and decide for myself,”

WSJ.... really anti-Obama news point of view....

2011-12-28T10:15:00.000-08:00

Mr Obama's signature accomplishments.....(I know they hate to have to call a black man...Mr... instead of boy!"...... His stimulus plan didn't produce the results he promised.... His health-care plan, signed into law on March 23, 2010 (yippee from me!) is the only major piece of modern social legislation to become less popular after passed. According to Huffington Posts Pollster......is this their sister newspaper with same opinion/slant on the news?

The President seems to relish being an attack dog! He'll label Republicans want to harm the nation...he'll label any dissent as unpatriotic....(I thought that was Sarah Palin's role)..... this article was written by Karl Rove!

2011-12-23T09:21:00.000-08:00

Current Position: 44th President of the United States (since January 2009)

Career History: Member of the U.S. Senate (Jan. 2005 to Nov. 2008); Member of the Illinois State Senate(1996 to 2004); Attorney for Miner, Barnhill & Galland (1993 to 1996)

Birthday: Aug. 4, 1961

Hometown:

Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, grew up in Jakarta, Indonesia and lived in Chicago, Illinois

Alma Mater: Occidental College, attended, 1981 to 1983; Columbia University, B.A., 1985;

Harvard Law School, J.D., 1991

Spouse: Michelle

Religion: Trinity United Church of Christ

DC Office: The White House

So how many black friends does Ron Paul have???? hmnnnn

2011-12-23T09:17:00.001-08:00

"It is ridiculous to imply that Ron Paul is a bigot, racist, or unethical,"

2011-12-23T09:16:00.000-08:00

'He's not as conservative as people would hope for'

Romney faces doubts in South Carolina over issues that have plagued him elsewhere, including his support for a health care mandate in Massachusetts that is similar to President Obama's health care law, and the perception that because he has changed his mind, he cannot be trusted on key social issues, including abortion.

Paul Thurmond, a Charleston attorney whose father was Strom Thurmond, chaired Romney's grassroots coalition efforts in South Carolina four years ago. This time around, he has told the campaign he won't support Romney because he can't get past his "inconsistencies."

"He's got this background on health care, which has been problematic for him, and his message is really not that new. He's not as conservative as people would hope for," Thurmond, who is neutral in the race, told Yahoo News. "I know he has a history of success with business, but show us some unique ideas, something that can get people back to work. His message, so far, just really isn't resonating."

A lingering concern among Romney aides and supporters is how the candidate's Mormon faith will play in South Carolina, where the evangelical-Christian voting bloc is influential, even if it isn't quite as large as it is Iowa. But Haley said she doesn't believe Romney's religion will be an issue.

"South Carolina just elected a 38-year-old Indian female for governor of South Carolina," Haley told reporters, referring to herself. "What the people of South Carolina care about are values, and family and faith and what you do and results. And I think you can look at the Romneys and you can see this is a family of faith, this is a family of values, and a source of pride for anything they've ever done. I have faith in the people of South Carolina."

Yet Bob Taylor, a dean at Bob Jones University—who gave Romney one of his biggest endorsements in the state four years ago but, like many '08 supporters, is neutral today—said Romney's faith will be a concern for some evangelicals. Still, Taylor said, that doesn't mean they won't vote for him.

"If people are undecided when they head into that voting booth, I think they will cast their vote on who has the best chance of winning," Taylor told Yahoo News. "On that basis, they might well vote for Romney."

2011-12-23T09:09:00.000-08:00

our years ago, Romney invested millions of dollars in organization and advertising in the state, only to finish in fourth place in the Palmetto State's traditionally decisive primary. South Carolina has chosen the eventual winner of the Republican nomination in every election since 1980, when Ronald Reagan took the state's delegates.

Yet this time around, Romney has virtually ignored the state, in favor of concentrating on New Hampshire and Florida—the two early states his campaign considers crucial to his quest to become the Republican Party's nominee for president in 2012.

That strategy may be changing, however, as Romney seeks new ways to block the rise of Newt Gingrich, who is now his chief competitor in the race for the nomination. The Romney campaign does not expect to win in Iowa, and his advisers are growing concerned that the winner of the first-in-the-nation caucuses could surge in the polls in New Hampshire, which holds its primary only one week later.

Romney is still expected to win New Hampshire, but the consensus among political observers is that he must win by a large margin, given that he's maintained a 20-point lead or more in the polls there for months. A disappointing finish in New Hampshire would make South Carolina's first-in-the-South primary pivotal for Romney, as it comes before the contests in Florida and Nevada, the two states the Romney campaign considers his best opportunity to crush the momentum of the insurgent candidate—Gingrich or whomever—who emerges from Iowa.

The most telling sign of the uphill battle Romney faces in South Carolina is the skepticism he faces among many leading Republicans who backed his bid four years ago. At this point in the 2008 campaign, Romney had announced more than 100 endorsements among key public officials, political operatives and fundraisers in the state. By comparison, he has announced fewer than 10 endorsements in the state, including Haley's, this year. And many of his key staffers from 2008 remain neutral.

Racial injustices..... will they never end....????

2011-12-23T09:04:00.000-08:00

Congressman apologizes for criticizing Michelle Obama’s ‘large posterior’

Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner was overheard loudly complaining on the phone in the Delta Lounge at Reagan National Airport outside Washington about Obama's healthy food initiative.

Election GOP in a nutshell 2011

2011-12-12T06:55:00.001-08:00

For Romney, the stakes are equally high, as he is now in virtually the same position he was four years ago, when he was an early frontrunner for the Republican nomination but lost ground in the polls as the Iowa caucuses approached. In trying to contain Gingrich's surge, the Romney team is using the same playbook they used in 2008 when they tried to take down Mike Huckabee's insurgent candidacy, by carpet-bombing TV and radio with negative ads.

That approach backfired for Romney four years ago—and could do so again. Many Republican voters remain skeptical about Romney, polls show. For months, the race has been about voters looking for an alternative to the former Massachusetts governor, with Gingrich being the latest candidate to rise into that role.

If Gingrich falters, there are others who could step into his shoes. Rick Perry, who raised a lot of money before his campaign faltered this fall, is spending millions of dollars on TV ads in Iowa and seems to have finally found his footing in the debates—though it may be too late. Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum are trying to fight not only for the divided support of social conservatives in Iowa, but also for Herman Cain's supporters, who are now looking for a new candidate in the race.

The biggest question mark in Iowa could be Ron Paul, who has steadily risen in the polls in the state in recent weeks and has been drawing the biggest crowds of the 2012 contenders there. Paul's candidacy has been dismissed by many mainstream Republicans, but he is second only to Romney in his ability to raise campaign cash, which makes him a very real player in the race.

Adding to the chaos and uncertainty of the primaries are factors that weren't in place four years ago, including super PACs that have already spent millions on TV ads to boost specific candidates and attack others. In New Hampshire, Jon Huntsman, a moderate Republican who is aiming for a surprise showing in the state, is being aided by a super PAC funded by his father.

The way the race looks today could be completely changed by the time voters head to the polls. Iowa and New Hampshire are home to voters who are known for being late deciders and for changing their minds at the last minute. In January, those voters could break for anyone.

Politics, politics...... and more politics.... I'm living America's history!

2011-12-12T06:47:00.000-08:00

DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz underscored the new line of messaging in a statement following the debate, calling the former Speaker "a Tea Party politician even before there was a Tea Party."

"He supported gutting funding for education and Medicare to fund a tax cut for millionaires and shut down the government over it and those are the same policies he supports today," she said.

Earlier this week, Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod launched the first direct Democratic attacks on Gingrich, labeling him the "godfather of gridlock" for his role in the federal government shutdown of 1995 and the partisan battle to impeach President Bill Clinton.

R.C. Hammond, a spokesman for the Gingrich campaign said it's "always a nice gesture of the DNC to recognize Newt's efforts to advance the conservative agenda."

Well Spoken Article of the ROOT.com

2011-12-05T07:44:00.000-08:00

For quite a long spell in African-American history, each of us has had to bear the burden of the race on our shoulders. Custom and tradition -- and intense desire for equality -- dictated that we mind our manners and avoid personal acts and activity that would make the entire race look bad. Thus, we were skittish about eating chitterlings and watermelon, especially in public. Washington activist Petey Green eased some of that with a riotous routine on how to eat watermelon (not properly with a knife and fork). Amos 'n' Andy was booted from both radio and television, a banishment spearheaded by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People that persists to this day.

We were also saddled with guilt about poor grammar and incorrect English, "bad" hair that we tried to ameliorate with conks (remember Malcolm X?), processes and other straighteners, skin whiteners and certain cuss words (in particular, the dreaded 12-letter, four-syllable insult that begins with "m"), and we were to avoid or chastise those who violated the unwritten rules of deportment.

We even tolerated and laughed along with a white comedian, Lenny Bruce, who evoked laughter with his shtick mocking Joe Louis' inarticulate interviews after dispatching the white hope of the week.
"Well, Joe, what do you think about the fight?" went Bruce in his nightclub performance.
"Ahhhh, arrrrrah, ughhh, I glad I win ... blah, blah, blah, Deetroit."
Indeed, we were embarrassed.

But no more. That was then. In the interim, we progressed to the point where not even the buffoonery of a Herman Cain can make us shudder and shrink into the shadows to hide our faces. There was a time when such antics would have been comparable to Amos 'n' Andy. But declaring ultraconservative billionaires the Koch brothers his "brothers from another mother" and describing himself as "black-walnut ice cream" only drew snide snickers and disdain from many nonsupportive African Americans.
His ignorance of the war in Libya and President Obama's foreign policy fell only on his shoulders, not the rest of us. His long pauses and poor answers to questions about policy issues that presidents confront daily reflected solely on him. http://www.theroot.com

I've found no one who pays much serious attention to his comments and behavior, certainly no one who has felt embarrassed by them. Cain is on his own to say what he wants and act as he pleases. He does not burden an entire race. He may be straight out of central casting for black exploitation, but that does not bother most of us.

"He's just stupid," a black, politically savvy grandfather in Chattanooga, Tenn., told me. "He knew he had all that baggage in his background before he ran. He is not qualified to be president."

No embarrassment there.

I attribute the change to a general maturing of the African-American community. We all settle down and take life in stride as we grow older. But probably, more significant was the advent of hip-hop and rap, the music and culture beaten into the rest of us by youngsters of the inner cities. Their steady, loud, pounding sounds and harsh words, along with a huge popularity, literally forced the rest of us to take notice and to accept the inescapable barrage of profanity and racist, sexist ranting and raving -- in fact, to look beyond the trappings and see the serious side.

In an op-ed in the New York Times titled, "Amos 'n' Andy in Nikes," with a subhead, "Gangster rappers vs. the rest of us," I noted that E. Franklin Frazier's observation that the black bourgeoisie represented the "manners and morals" of the black community had been undermined by rappers.

Nevertheless, the hard-core softening blows of rap inured us for the coming antics of the Herman Cains of the world. When late-night television hosts and other comedians lampoon him, we know they're after Cain, not us. Most of us knew he was never a viable candidate for the Republican nomination; it seemed everybody but right-wingers was aware of that.

And what did Herman Cain get out of it? A lot of attention to grease his outsize ego, a lot of money from speaking engagements and book sales, and bragging rights to say that not only did he run for president, but for a brief moment, he was actually the leader in his race. But now he'll have to assess, with his family, whether the ride was worth it.
The rest of us are not embarrassed one way or the other. Free at last?

Man oh man.... this saga is really over!!!

2011-12-05T07:39:00.000-08:00

How Herman Cain Killed Black Republicanism

One day the GOP will get a legitimate black conservative voice. That day hasn't come.

By: David Swerdlick | Posted: December 4, 2011 at 10:41 PM

This past Saturday afternoon in Atlanta, the once jocular and front-running, now defiant and rapidly crumbling GOP presidential contender Herman Cain announced that he's indefinitely "suspending" his bid for the White House -- and in the process he killed black Republicanism.
That probably wasn't his plan, but after running a race filled with gaffes and gimmicks and lacking any humility or substance, Cain left the conservative movement unharmed and the mainstream GOP alive and well, but he may have finally laid to rest the peculiar strain of political thought that's been driving black Republicans ever since the kinder, gentler Rockefeller Republicanism of former Sen. Edward Brooke and the late NAACP President Benjamin Hooks was replaced by the talking-point parroting brand that found its ultimate distillation in Cain.

After Cain's woeful run, American politics may have finally seen the last of the "I'm-not-like-those-other-blacks" candidate -- and good riddance.

Cain called himself conservative, but he mostly encouraged supporters to see him as the ultimate anti-Obama -- claiming to be the "real black man" in the presidential race and saying America needed "a leader, not a reader." Yet when the time came, Cain couldn't back those claims up.

He tried to be the "likable" candidate in the Republican field but went about it by indulging in a faux-folksiness unbecoming of a serious contender -- kicking off stump speeches by exclaiming "Aw, shucky-ducky!" and wishing aloud that he'd get the Secret Service codename "Cornbread."

He quickly tried to revamp his 9-9-9 plan as a 9-0-9 plan after learning that a 9 percent income tax would raise taxes on 84 percent of Americans.

He backed Donald Trump's suspicions about President Barack Obama's birth certificate until Obama went ahead and produced his birth certificate.

He said he'd refuse to appoint any Muslim Americans in a Cain administration because they might try to "force their Shari'a law on the rest of us."

He was considered staunchly anti-choice until he told CNN's Piers Morgan that on abortion, it comes down to "a choice that that family or that mother has to make. Not me as president."

When he was asked to offer his thoughts on American involvement in Libya, he gave an answer so convoluted that it really has to be seen to be believed.

Having never been elected to public office, Cain's selling point was that he's first and foremost a businessman, and not a politician. But to sum up his demise in corporate-speak that the candidate himself would be all too familiar with, Cain -- the fast-food exec and talk-radio host -- ultimately succumbed to the Peter Principle: He was finally promoted to the level of his own incompetence.

Cain decided to go to the voters with "the fundamentally un-conservative case that experience and preparation don't count." The result was that for every die-hard Tea Party voter enamored with Cain's "bootstrap" success story, there was a swing voter turned off by his absurd stances on issues. And rather than trying to persuade some of the 95 percent of black voters who went for Obama in 2008 to try the Republican alternative, Cain pushed aside black voters by calling them "brainwashed" and becoming the one thing they wouldn't tolerate: an embarrassment.

But Cain wound up unintentionally providing an important public service. His campaign was so awful that he's made it pretty unlikely that the next black Republican who emerges on the national scene will try to do it by saying, in essence, "Vote for me -- I'm not like that other guy." Thanks to Cain, that strategy, hopefully, is done for good. And as Comcast's Robert Traynham consolingly tells black Republicans, "there will be another serious candidate from their ranks."

But the emphasis has to be on the "serious" part.

After Cain, in order for the next black Republican or black conservative to make an impact, she can't just settle for being another Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice -- George W. Bush's elegant rubber stamp – and he also can't settle for being another Michael Steele -- the perpetually cheerful but ideologically inconsequential former Republican National Committee chair who once joked that he'd try to diversify Republican ranks by telling blacks and others: "Y'all come."

No, the next time around, voters -- black or otherwise -- will demand more than they did from Cain. Next time, whoever that black Republican is, she'll have to win votes with real ideas about war, foreign trade, promoting entrepreneurship, taxation, immigration and school reform. Thanks to Cain, the next time around, if a black conservative wants to win, it won't be good enough just to be the black conservative in the field. He'll have to be the best conservative in the field.

Next time around, he'll have to win votes the old-fashioned way -- he'll actually have to earn them. And what could be more conservative than that?

Herman Cain..... Bye Guy

2011-12-02T12:59:00.001-08:00

2011-12-02T12:53:00.000-08:00

Herman Cain was NEVER a REAL contender for President, He KNEW it and EVERYONE else KNEW it! Cain was running to represent a party that elected 2 Black members to Congress, no Black Senators, 1/2% Black party membership with less than 2% Black delegates at their convention. So seriously, what chance did Cain have to be the GOP nominee for President?

Besides, ANY serious candidate KNOWS about opposition research and Cain KNEW all this sexual harassment/long-term affair crap was going to come to light. Heck, Cain told a senior staffer about one of the harassment charges against him when he ran for the Senate.

And if you go by what Cain himself said, "being Black doesn't make ANY difference"

But the REAL truth is Cain wanted to sell books, get lucrative speaking engagements and a possible show on Fox Noise PERIOD!!!

2011-11-29T13:58:00.001-08:00

Revisiting the Kennedy Assassination: Frank Rich and the Paranoid Style

2011-11-22T13:49:00.000-08:00

REF: James Piereson
This guy is quite the conservative..... kinda anti = me!! the liberal!!!

There is an old saying in politics that "They don't scream unless you hurt them." When your adversaries scream, it is a good sign that your measures have been effective. Judged by this standard, the Koch Brothers (David and Charles) have been very effective in recent years in advancing their causes of limited government and classical liberalism, much to the discomfort of liberal foes promoting business regulation, higher taxes, and ObamaCare.

The Koch brothers have been on the receiving end of non-stop attacks from liberal journalists and academics ever since Jane Mayer published a hit piece on them last year in The New Yorker purporting to show that their contributions were behind the rise of the “Tea Party” movement. This wildly exaggerated claim was meant to cast the Koch brothers as great villains, but villains possessed of a satanic combination of power and tactical brilliance. In a predictable course, Mayer’s fairy tale was circulated by the columnists and editorial writers of the New York Times and from there through a network of second-level columnists and political magazines until at length it came to the attention of the credulous foot soldiers of the liberal-left who have kept the pot boiling in recent months with ever more inventive and exaggerated versions of the original lie

Revisiting the Kennedy Assassination: Frank Rich and the Paranoid Style

By James Piereson

It has now been 48 years since President John F. Kennedy was cut down on the streets of Dallas by rifle shots fired by Lee Harvey Oswald, a self-described Marxist, recent defector to the Soviet Union, and ardent admirer of Fidel Castro. The evidence condemning Oswald was overwhelming: the bullets that killed President Kennedy were fired from his rifle, the rifle was found on the sixth floor of the warehouse where he worked and were he was seen moments before the shooting, and witnesses on the street described a man firing shots from that location. When a policeman stopped Oswald on foot to question him about the assassination, Oswald pulled out a pistol and shot him before fleeing to a nearby movie theater where he was arrested, still carrying the pistol with which he had killed the policeman. Two days later Oswald was himself assassinated while in police custody by a night club owner distraught over Kennedy's death. For understandable reasons, these events had a disorienting effect on the public mind.

For many who came of age during that era and were taken with Kennedy's style and idealistic rhetoric, his very public murder, recorded in amateur films and news photos, was a shock that they could never quite get over. Returning to it again and again as the years passed, they could not help but feel that the disasters that followed -- the war in Vietnam, the urban riots, the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Nixon's election -- were somehow connected to that irrational act of violence that claimed President Kennedy's life. If somehow the act could be undone or understood, or blame for it fairly apportioned and punishment meted out, then the world might again be set right, or at least partly so. But it could not be undone, and it proved nearly as difficult to understand or explain, at least in terms satisfactory to the assumptions of the age. And so before long the JFK assassination came to be encrusted in layers of myth, illusion, and disinformation strong enough to deflect every attempt to understand it from a rational point of view.

The central myth of the JFK assassination was that a climate of hate inspired by the far right created the conditions for President Kennedy's murder. A single assassin may have pulled the trigger, but he was put up to it by an undercurrent of hatred and bigotry that President Kennedy tried but failed to subdue. On this view President Kennedy was a martyr, somewhat like Abraham Lincoln, to the causes of civil rights, racial justice, and an elevated liberalism. JFK's assassination was a tragic but richly symbolic event for many Americans who saw it as a vivid expression of an ongoing battle in American life between the forces of light and darkness.
This explanation for the assassination did not drop out of thin air but was circulated immediately after the event by influential leaders, journalists, and journalistic outlets, including Mrs. Kennedy, President Johnson, Chief Justice Earl Warren, Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield, James Reston, Russell Baker, and the editorial page of the New York Times, columnist Drew Pearson, and any number of other liberal spokesmen. Mrs. Kennedy took the lead in insisting that her husband was martyred by agents of hatred and bigotry. Within days of the assassination, she elaborated the symbolism of Camelot and King Arthur's court to frame the Kennedy presidency as a special and near-magical enterprise guided by the highest ideals. The eternal flame she placed on his grave site invokes King Arthur's candle in the wind as imagined by T. H. White in his Arthurian novel, The Once and Future King, later the basis of a Broadway musical that was popular during the Kennedy years.

These were the myths, illusions, and outright fabrications in which the Kennedy assassination came to be encrusted. Despite all evidence to the contrary, they are still widely believed. In fact, the Kennedy legend, incorporating the myths about his assassination, is closely intertwined with the history of modern liberalism: JFK has come to represent a liberal ideal and his assassination the threat posed to it by the forces of the far right.

It is hard to fathom, in this age of secular rationality, that so many people can believe a tale so obviously contradicted by the facts. President Kennedy, to the extent he was a martyr at all, was a martyr in the Cold War struggle against communism. Oswald was not in any way, shape, or form a product of a "climate of hate" as found in Dallas or anywhere else in the United States. Nor was Oswald a bigot; he supported the civil rights movement and attended meetings in Dallas of the American Civil Liberties Union. Seven months before he shot President Kennedy, in April, 1963, he took a shot (and missed) at retired Gen. Edwin Walker, the head of the Dallas chapter of the John Birch Society. He married a Russian woman, and longed to return to the Soviet Union. In the months leading up to the assassination, he was active in a front group supporting Fidel Castro's regime in Cuba. Two months before the assassination, he travelled to Mexico City to visit the Soviet and Cuban embassies in pursuit of a visa that would allow him to travel to Cuba. In one of those visits he threatened the life of President Kennedy. His motives in shooting President Kennedy were undoubtedly linked to a wish to protect Castro against efforts by the Kennedy administration to overturn his government. It was not publicly known in 1963 that the Kennedy administration (in an expression of hard-headed real politik) was trying to assassinate Castro. But it is possible that Oswald was aware of these clandestine plans.
In the latest effort to recycle the Camelot myths, Frank Rich has published a delusional article in New York Magazine under the title, "What Killed JFK: The Hate That Ended His Presidency is Eerily Familiar" in which he draws a straight line from Kennedy's assassination to imagined threats against President Obama arising from conservatives and the tea party movement.

The occasion for Mr. Rich's ruminations is a review of several recently published books about President Kennedy and the assassination, including one by Stephen King in which the novelest dispatches a time traveller on a mission to intercept Oswald before he can commit his deed so that history might be redirected on a more hopeful path. Mr. King, however is a writer of fiction and thus entitled to invent his facts. Mr. Rich, as a journalist, does not have the same license.

Mr. Rich's depiction of "the right" as a menace and a public danger is not that far removed from the portrayal of communism as a threat to the republic among the followers of Sen. Joseph McCarthy. In keeping to this script, Mr. Rich invents a series of "facts" about the Kennedy assassination and then lists them in an indicment of conservatives as parties to the crime. It is a near textbook application of the paranoid style.

The Day Lives on..... Infamous

2011-11-22T13:17:00.001-08:00

I'm of the generation that never forgets the meaning of 11-22 in Dallas Texas that JFK was killed.

Shortly after noon on November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated as he rode in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, Texas.

JFK stressed the importance of winning Florida and Texas and talked about his plans to visit both states in the next two we

eks. Mrs. Kennedy would accompany him on the swing through Texas, which would be her first extended public appearance since the loss of their baby, Patrick, in August. On November 21, the president and first lady departed on Air Force One for the two-day, five-city tour of Texas.

President Kennedy was aware that a feud among party leaders in Texas could jeopardize his chances of carrying the state in 1964, and one of his aims for the trip was to bring Democrats together. He also knew that a relatively small but vocal group of extremists was contributing to the political tensions in Texas and would likely make its presence felt—particularly in Dallas, where U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Adlai Stevenson had been physically attacked a month earlier after making a speech there. Nonetheless, JFK seemed to relish the prospect of leaving Washington, getting out among the people and into the political fray.

The first stop was San Antonio. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, Governor John B. Connally, and Senator Ralph W. Yarborough led the welcoming party. They accompanied the president to Brooks Air Force Base for the dedication of the Aerospace Medical Health Center. Continuing on to Houston, he addressed a Latin American citizens' organization and spoke at a testimonial dinner for Congressman Albert Thomas before ending the day in Fort Worth.

On to Dallas

The presidential party left the hotel and went by motorcade to Carswell Air Force Base for the thirteen-minute flight to Dallas. Arriving at Love Field, President and Mrs. Kennedy disembarked and immediately walked toward a fence where a crowd of well-wishers had gathered, and they spent several minutes shaking hands.

The first lady received a bouquet of red roses, which she brought with her to the waiting limousine. Governor John Connally and his wife, Nellie, were already seated in the open convertible as the Kennedys entered and sat behind them. Since it was no longer raining, the plastic bubble top had been left off. Vice President and Mrs. Johnson occupied another car in the motorcade.

The Assassination

Crowds of excited people lined the streets and waved to the Kennedys. The car turned off Main Street at Dealey Plaza around 12:30 p.m. As it was passing the Texas School Book Depository, gunfire suddenly reverberated in the plaza.
Bullets struck the president's neck and head and he slumped over toward Mrs. Kennedy. The governor was also hit in the chest.

The car sped off to Parkland Memorial Hospital just a few minutes away. But little could be done for the President. A Catholic priest was summoned to administer the last rites, and at 1:00 p.m. John F. Kennedy was pronounced dead. Though seriously wounded, Governor Connally would recover.
The president's body was brought to Love Field and placed on Air Force One. Before the plane took off, a grim-faced Lyndon B. Johnson stood in the tight, crowded compartment and took the oath of office, administered by U.S. District Court Judge Sarah Hughes. The brief ceremony took place at 2:38 p.m.
Less than an hour earlier, police had arrested Lee Harvey Oswald, a recently hired employee at the Texas School Book Depository. He was being held for the assassination of President Kennedy and the fatal shooting, shortly afterward, of Patrolman J. D. Tippit on a Dallas street.
On Sunday morning, November 24, Oswald was scheduled to be transferred from police headquarters to the county jail. Viewers across America watching the live television coverage suddenly saw a man aim a pistol and fire at point blank range. The assailant was identified as Jack Ruby, a local nightclub owner. Oswald died two hours later at Parkland Hospital.

On Monday, November 25, 1963 President Kennedy was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery. The funeral was attended by heads of state and representatives from more than 100 countries, with untold millions more watching on television. Afterward, at the grave site, Mrs. Kennedy and her husband's brothers, Robert and Edward, lit an eternal flame.

Perhaps the most indelible images of the day were the salute to his father given by little John F. Kennedy, Jr. (whose third birthday it was), daughter Caroline kneeling next to her mother at the president's bier, and the extraordinary grace and dignity shown by Jacqueline Kennedy.

2011-11-22T13:12:00.001-08:00

Stevie Wonder singing at the White House on 02/25/2009.

2011-11-16T08:16:00.001-08:00

OBAMA 2012

2011-11-16T08:13:00.000-08:00

Penn State assistant coach: 'I did the right thing'

2011-11-15T06:38:00.000-08:00

Penn State assistant coach: 'I did the right thing'

New University of Okla. College of Law

2011-10-25T12:47:00.000-07:00

New U. of Okla. College of Law hall of fame's first 4 inductees include first black graduate

Four chosen to OU law college hall of fame

By Associated Press
Published: 10/5/2011 10:30 AM
NORMAN — The first black to attend and to graduate from the University of Oklahoma College of Law is among the first four lawyers chosen for induction into OU's newly created hall of fame.

The late Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher will be inducted into the Order of the Owl with former American Bar Association President William Paul and OU College of Law Board of Visitors co-chairmen W. DeVier Pierson and William Ross.

The university said Wednesday that the induction ceremony will be Nov. 8. 2011

Fisher was denied admission at OU in 1946 because of a state law prohibiting blacks and whites from attending classes together. She was eventually admitted after a legal challenge that reached the U.S. Supreme Court and graduated in 1951. She died in 1995.

Steve Jobs died two weeks ago...

2011-10-24T13:04:00.000-07:00

'Steve Jobs' Review: Walter Isaacson's Biography Delves Deep Into Complex Apple Co-Founder's Life

-- "Steve Jobs" (Simon & Schuster), by Walter Isaacson: "Steve Jobs" takes off the rose-colored glasses that often follow an icon's untimely death and instead offers something far more valuable: The chronicle of a complex, brash genius who was crazy enough to think he could change the world – and did.

He was...just a man.....

2011-10-24T13:02:00.000-07:00

Libya's revolt erupted in February as part of anti-government protests spreading across the Middle East. Islamist groups stand to gain ground in neighboring Tunisia and Egypt, which shook off their dictators several months ago. Tunisia has taken the biggest steps so far on the path to democracy, voting Sunday for a new assembly, while Egypt's parliamentary election is set for next month.

Libya's struggle has been the bloodiest so far in the region. Mass protests quickly turned into a civil war that killed thousands and paralyzed the country. Gadhafi loyalists held out for two more months after the fall of the capital of Tripoli in late August. Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte fell last week, but Gadhafi's son and one-time heir apparent, Seif al-Islam, apparently escaped with some of his supporters.

The anti-Gadhafi forces enjoyed strong Western political and military support during their revolt, especially from the U.S., Britain and France, and NATO airstrikes were key to their victory.

Abdul-Jalil paid tribute to the Gulf Cooperation Council, a six-nation alliance led by Saudi Arabia, the Arab League and the European Union. NATO performed its task with "efficiency and professionalism," he said.

President Barack Obama congratulated Libyans on the declaration.

"After four decades of brutal dictatorship and eight months of deadly conflict, the Libyan people can now celebrate their freedom and the beginning of a new era of promise," he said

Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi dies

2011-10-24T12:49:00.000-07:00

TRIPOLI, Libya — An autopsy confirmed that Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi died from a gunshot to the head, the country's chief pathologist said Sunday, just hours before Libya's new leaders were to declare liberation and a formal end to an eight-month civil war to topple the longtime ruler's regime.

The declaration starts the clock on a transition to democracy that is fraught with uncertainty and could take up to two years.

However, international concern about the circumstances of Gadhafi's death and indecision over what to do with his remains overshadowed what was to be a joyful day. Gadhafi's body has been on public display in a commercial freezer in a shopping center in the port city of Misrata, which suffered from a bloody siege by regime forces during the spring.
The 69-year-old was captured wounded, but alive Thursday in his hometown of Sirte as it became the last city to fall to revolutionary forces. Bloody images of Gadhafi being taunted and beaten by his captors have raised questions about whether he was killed in crossfire as suggested by government officials or deliberately executed.

2011-10-24T12:47:00.001-07:00

After Gadhafi's demise, biggest killers of Americans now are dead

A man reacts while viewing the bodies of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, background, his ex-defense minister Abu Bakr Younis and his son, Muatassim Gadhafi, foreground, in a commercial freezer at a shopping center in Misrata, Libya, Saturday, Oct. 22, 2011.

The joyful ceremony formally marking the end of Moammar Gadhafi's 42-year tyranny was also clouded by mounting pressure from the leaders of the NATO campaign that helped secure victory to investigate whether Gadhafi, dragged wounded but alive out of a drainage ditch last week, was then executed by his captors.

The circumstances of Gadhafi's death remain unclear. In any case, critics said the gruesome spectacle of his blood-streaked body laid out as a trophy for a third day of public viewing in a commercial freezer tests the new leadership's commitment to the rule of law.

By Robert Windrem, NBC News' senior investigative producer
Since May 1, U.S. intelligence and special operations forces, or foreign forces working with U.S. intelligence and special operations forces, have killed the leading terrorists who targeted and killed more Americans than any others in the past 25 years.
Not only did the U.S. kill Osama Bin Laden on May 1, but also took out — "removed from the battlefield" — three of the jihadists they had identified as potential successors to bin Laden in the hours after the attack. Also, Somali forces loyal to the U.S. killed the mastermind of al-Qaida's East Africa embassy bombings. With 224 killed, 12 of them Americans, the attacks in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam were the group's deadliest attack before 9-11.
As for Moammar Gadhafi, it was his intelligence service that has been strongly linked to the attack on PanAm 103 in December 1988, which until September 11 was the single worst terrorist attack directed against the U.S., killing 269 people. (Gadhafi was also believed responsible for the deaths of 171 people on UTA 772 over the Congo.)
Here is the chronology:
May 1: Osama Bin Laden was killed by U.S. Special Forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
June 3: Ilyas Kashmiri, senior al-Qaida member and one of the five potential successors to al-Qaida leadership, is killed by a drone attack in Ghwakhwa area of South Waziristan, Pakistan.
June 8: Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, al-Qaida leader in East Africa and the mastermind of the East Africa embassy bombings was shot dead by Somali forces at a checkpoint in the capital. He was identified by a wanted poster provided by the U.S. military.
August 22: Attiyah Abd al-Rahman, newly minted No. 2 in al-Qaida, is killed by drone attack in North Waziristan. Attiyah was also seen by the CIA as potential successor to bin Laden and had served as bin Laden's "chief of staff" prior to the May 1 attack.
September 30: Anwar al-Awlaki, operational leader in al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, is killed by drone attack in Yemen's al-Jawf province. He, too, had been identified as a potential successor to bin Laden.
October 20: Moammar Gadhafi, Libya’s leader for 42 years, was killed in a gun fight by Libyan rebels near Sirte.
U.S. officials remain confident that they are going to find and kill bin Laden’s successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Zawahiri himself admits he’s been targeted at least five times.
(Historical footnote: The Marine Barracks bombing in 1983 killed 241 U.S. servicemen and the East Africa embassy bombing and was until the Pan Am 103 bombing the single worst terrorist attack on the United States. It was the handiwork of Imad Mugniyah, who was killed in February 2008 in Damascus, Syria, by a bomb hidden in the headrest of a car. As he walked past the car, the bomb was detonated. It was believed to be the handiwork of a joint U.S.-Israeli operation.)

No Shame in His Game.....

2011-10-05T14:15:00.000-07:00

EDITORIAL

Gov. Perry’s Rock

Published: October 4, 2011

here is a good editorial in the NY Times about the name of Gov. Perry's hunting ranch. It points out how racism can be so casually perpetrated around the country.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/05/opinion/gov-perrys-rock.html?emc=eta1

Jeanne
Http://jeannemarklin.blogspot.com
http://www.unspoken-truth-and-hope.blogspot.com/
http://SAQA.com

42000 Acres for Rick Perry to Hunt....Niggerheads!!!

2011-10-05T14:14:00.000-07:00

Untold decades ago, someone decided to name a hunting camp in West Texas “Niggerhead,” using a phrase so commonplace around the South that it was used as a brand name for oysters, soap, tobacco and even golf tees. When Gov. Rick Perry’s family took over the lease for the camp in 1983, it could have demanded that the name be changed. It could have destroyed the rock on which the name was painted. It could have broken with an era when vicious racism was so casual that officials put such a word on maps around the country.Texas...A welcome sign at the entrance of Throckmorton, the county seat. The Perry family's longtime hunting camp is situated on a vast, 42,000-acre ranch that reaches into Throckmorton and two other counties

Instead, Mr. Perry’s father simply painted over the name, although not very thoroughly. The Washington Post found several people who said the word was clearly visible just in the last few years. Now that the hunting camp has become part of the presidential campaign, the governor says the name “has no place in the modern world.” In that, he is certainly right.

The more common attitude expressed by some of his neighbors is that the name is a mere historical artifact, nothing to see here. “It’s just a name,” David Davis, a county judge in the area, told The Post. “There was no significance other than as a hunting deal.” It is that supposed lack of significance to the Perry family — and far too much of the nation — that is so disturbing.

Virtually all states, particularly in the South, have had creeks, hills and hamlets bearing this offensive epithet. Someone may have decided a rock outcropping resembled an African jaw. Nigger Skull Mountain, as one spot in North Carolina was known until just a decade ago, was apparently named for the remains of two blacks who froze to death on it sometime around the Civil War. The place names were given with the same nonchalance as blacks were openly referred to as niggers.

In 1962, the federal government changed all such place names under its jurisdiction to “Negro.” Three or four decades later, states like Texas, Florida and North Carolina got the hint and did the same with state lands, though the results were often not much better. Negro Skull Mountain is hardly an improvement, and neither are Colored Mountain orDead Negro Draw, both in Texas.

On private land, and in common parlance, these offensive names often continue, surviving a century of social change, lasting through Reconstruction, world wars, the civil rights movement, right up until the current moment, when the word has added new doubts to Mr. Perry’s staggering political campaign. However much paint was actually applied to Mr. Perry’s rock, it was not enough to wipe away the memory of a national shame.

Chronicling Black Lives in Colonial New England / The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com

2011-09-21T13:32:00.000-07:00

Chronicling Black Lives in Colonial New England / The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com

BOSTON

Young, talented, and bursting with entrepreneurial spirit, Samuel Gipson started his own business. By his early 30s, he was doing well enough to take in a young clerk to whom he bequeathed his estate.

This American success story would be unremarkable but for three salient facts: The year was 1795, Gipson spent much of his life enslaved in New England, and his heir was the son of the man who had owned him.

Stories like Gipson's, recounted in William Piersen's book, "Black Yankees: The Development of an Afro-American Sub-culture in Eighteenth-century New England" (University of Massachusetts Press, 1988), are coming to light as historians, archaeologists, and dedicated individuals piece together an increasingly complete picture of life in the Colonial Northeastern states. They chronicle the contributions of enslaved and free Africans to the development of such cities as New York and to the culture of Colonial New England.

In the process, they are shattering the myth that New England was always and solely a hotbed of abolitionist sentiment and activism. "People are still surprised to learn that there was slavery in New England," says archaeologist Constance Crosby, a preservation planner with the Massachusetts Historical Commission.

What's up!

2011-09-19T07:14:00.001-07:00

And u thought I was asleep ... heeehawhawhaw

2011-08-23T09:04:00.001-07:00

This coming Sunday is the dedication of the new Martin Luther King, Jr., National Memorial on the National Mall.
It’s also the 48th anniversary of the March on Washington, when King gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech to the assembled thousands.

Praying for my President....

2011-08-17T14:22:00.001-07:00

The Grio speaks well

2011-08-04T07:32:00.000-07:00

Why conservatives ♥ celebrating the Confederacy

By Earl Ofari Hutchinson

8:52 AM on 08/01/2011

States rights and big government bias were all code words and phrases that pandered to the latent racial bigotry that is the solid underpinning of the enshrinement of Confederates by conservative southern whites.

The GOP has served ample notice that it intends to do whatever it takes to fulfill its oft repeated vow to make President Obama a one term president. The shock troops of the Tea Party are not enough to make that happen. Though it was telling that a year ago officials from the Sons of Confederate Veterans in Virginia and Mississippi argued that the Confederate Army fought for the same things that the Tea Party is fighting for. Still the GOP will need the electoral votes of a unified, conservative white South now more than ever to oust Obama.

Governor Scott and probably one or two or more Southern GOP governors will figure out a way to pull the Confederate card out of the deck again and drop it on the political table before the national presidential election dust settles.

The Confederate card will serve the same function that it always has and that's to send the strong message that the white South doesn't just love its dead Confederate heroes. It loathes a moderate Democratic president and will do its bit to get him out of the White House. In other words, the South won't rise again. It never fell. Scott's and Florida's tout of six Confederate military vets is eternal proof of that.

A Way with Words....

2011-07-25T07:50:00.000-07:00

A sharply divided Congress pursued rival budget plans on Monday that appeared unlikely to win broad support, pushing the United States closer to a ratings downgrade and debt default that would send shockwaves through global markets.

With an August 2 deadline little more than a week away, lawmakers have steadfastly refused to compromise and talks once again collapsed in acrimony at the weekend. Democrats and Republicans split into two camps to work on their own proposals.
Financial markets were uneasy in Asia and Europe on Monday about the prospect of a first-ever U.S. debt default, which Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has said would be a "calamitous outcome" for the U.S. and the global economy

2011-07-25T07:48:00.001-07:00

They're still messin w/my President.....

Gone With the Wind nostalgia

2011-07-18T07:40:00.000-07:00

-- the idea that slaves lived worry-free and were benighted, childlike people who needed looking after -- may be fading. But the resilience of the whitewash is evident in costumed celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War and its Lost Cause. When I embarked on a journey of Confederate-heritage groups a few years ago, the descendants of slave owners all insisted, of course, that "their" ancestors treated slave property like "members of the family."

.........it wasn't outrage I felt but profound sadness as I realized that the history of this house, constructed in 1817, mirrors America's own -- with its lovingly preserved mansion alongside a crumbling slave house. It's a history of privilege and neglect.

The inhabitants of one building lived free lives in Lincoln County, N.C., in a home "known far and wide for its hospitality," the essay says. "A golden stream of prosperity flowed into the coffers of the fortunate owners of all this." They passed their good fortune down, something that was not possible for those who worked there, not for pay but for survival.

I am glad that the real estate ad mentions them, if only as a footnote. (To see the words "slave quarters" is jarring, but you can't exactly describe it as a guesthouse for the guests who couldn't leave.)

"This historic treasure, built in 1817, is a phenomenal estate that has very rich history. The historic mansion was designed by Henry Latrobe, designer of the U.S. Capitol building and the finest antebellum architecture. This historical landmark, on 70 acres, is complete with four bedrooms, 4 1/2 baths, a pool, cabana, tennis courts, chicken barns, two ponds, old smokehouse, slave quarters, two barns, potting shed and additional caretaker's home."

And it's located just "25 minutes north of uptown," the ad continues. That's uptown Charlotte, N.C., where, in little more than a year, Democratic Party delegates will nominate Barack Obama for a second term as president.

The real estate company didn't really need to repeat some version of the word "historic" three times when describing Ingleside, the home first occupied by Daniel Forney, a major in the War of 1812 and a member of Congress, as was his father. The majestic mansion, built from bricks made by -- as the essay in the agency's packet calls them -- his "toiling slaves," is as much a part of the history of the United States as its first black president. What a coincidence that the large drawing room mimics the East Room of the White House.

As I walked through a fraction of those 70 acres, the weight of that history -- as well as the July North Carolina heat, humidity and insects -- made me take refuge in the cool basement kitchen. I wish those who continue to misuse some romanticized version of slavery to gain modern-day political gain would take in the view from "the big house," as the real estate agent called it, past the dog pen to the wooden slave quarters, now abandoned to red wasps, archaeologists and historians.

Would that somehow prevent some from disgracing the memories of the men, women and children who lived and died in the "peculiar institution" whose legacy our country still struggles to own up to?

"After careful deliberation and wise insight and input from valued colleagues we deeply respect," reads one of those nonapology apologies from the Family Leader, the socially conservative group headed by Bob Vander Plaats, "we agree that the statement referencing children born into slavery can be misconstrued."

The "statement" that caused such a ruckus is in the preamble to a "marriage vow" signed by GOP presidential hopefuls Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum; it condemns pornography and same-sex marriage but finds a silver lining in slavery. That odious institution may have "had a disastrous impact on African-American families," it reads, "yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA's first African-American President."

As many of those who have reacted in horror to the statement have said, America did not recognize the marriages of slaves, who were considered property. When, in defiance of that ban, men and women in the most brutal circumstances came together in love and started a family, it could be and was ripped apart on the auction block at their owners' whim and will.

This is what happened to my Great grandmother - Lucinda..... the very reason I can't trace my roots....

The notion that it was that very violation of every law of human decency that weakened African-American families was not acknowledged by the Family Leader. I will, however, give the group credit (the bad kind) for pointing out, to anyone who had not noticed, that President Barack Obama is African American as it floated the argument that -- in comparison -- he somehow makes slavery look good.

Mary C. Curtis, an award-winning Charlotte, N.C.-based journalist, is a contributor to The Root, Fox News Charlotte, NPR, Creative Loafing and the Nieman Watchdog blog. She was national correspondent for Politics Daily.

A Technical glitch.... a mistake.... he didn't mean it...

2011-07-06T08:18:00.000-07:00

OK-- Old white Jo....and Ms Blondie Meka

It lowers the level of discourse you are trying to transmit..... (uhm.... but I know your underneath feelings... good old white boys...) We said it in jest.... (yep u always jest us niggers... don't u?) Disrespect for the office.... (nope...its pure racist dislike for the man in the office....... white house should be for white folks ONLY huh?)

And My Uncle Tom-Tom Harold Ford on the set with a bunch of white men.... (he's looking and talking on their level.... and if the mike is off....they will say they nigger is a dick!) I don't blame Harold.... he's upright.... it's just par for the course in America!

I get angry... madder.... they all laughed.... white folk egged him on and laughed.... not an immediate apology at all......

Watching the video.... I did laugh.... because Halperin's body language shifted... he probably began to think of the money he'd loose....

A Straight Face....Pure White..... A... Dick....???

2011-07-06T08:04:00.000-07:00

Halperin prefaced his remark by asking, "Are we on the seven-second delay?" It was a reference to a brief delay in a TV show transmission that allows a producer to silence an offending remark. MSNBC said the show was on a delay, but a producer pushed a wrong button and the remark went over the air.

MSNBC said Halperin, who is an editor at Time magazine and an NBC News contributor, is suspended indefinitely. Both the network and Halperin apologized to the president, and Halperin said in a statement he believed the network's actions against him were appropriate.

6-30-2011

NEW YORK (AP) -- An off-color remark about President Barack Obama on "Morning Joe" has led to the suspension of politician analyst Mark Halperin.

"I thought he was a d**k yesterday," Halperin said Thursday during a discussion about Obama's news conference on Wednesday.

Fourth Memories

2011-07-04T14:09:00.001-07:00

Taking A Stand By Sitting-in With Clara Luper

2011-06-16T13:22:00.000-07:00

Taking A Stand By Sitting-in With Clara Luper

A Friend to Oklahoma

Great Video to watch.....

She Will Rest in Peace ~ Clara Luper

2011-06-16T12:46:00.000-07:00

And her works speak for her....

2011-06-13T07:05:00.000-07:00

Rhythm stirs the artistic soul and our souls remain a reflection of our past.

Rhythm makes you move while the lyrics make you sit down and think.

Rhythm can make you laugh out loud and it can make you cry.

Rhythm of the Artistic Soul
An Eclectic Visual Art Collection of African Diaspora Music
The UBS LEAD 2011 Black History Month Art Exhibition Rhythm of the Artistic Soul

Memorial Day ~ 2011

2011-05-31T08:45:00.001-07:00

Memorial Day was originally known as Decoration Day because it was a time set aside to honor the nation's Civil War dead by decorating their graves. It was first widely observed on May 30, 1868, to honor the sacrifices of Civil War soldiers, by proclamation of General John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of former sailors and soldiers. On May 5, 1868, Logan declared in General Order No. 11 that:
The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land. In this observance no form of ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.
During the first celebration of Decoration Day, General James Garfield made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery, after which 5,000 participants helped to decorate the graves of the more than 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers buried in the cemetery.

Africa West African American Culture Festival

2011-05-25T11:23:00.000-07:00

Africa West African American Culture Festival TravelOK.com - Oklahoma's Official Travel & Tourism Site

2011-05-25T10:31:00.001-07:00

"The Weary Blues:" by Langston Hughes

I got de weary blues
And I can't be satisfied.
Got de weary blues
And can't be satisfied.
I ain't happy no mo'
And I wish that I had died.

Today... I will post a thing of beauty....

2011-05-25T10:30:00.000-07:00

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.

I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.

I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.

I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went

down to New Orleans, and I've seen its muddy bosom

turn all golden in the sunset.

"The Negro Speaks of Rivers," by Langston Hughes

2011-05-23T13:39:00.001-07:00

Time until Tuesday, November 6, 2012 (Oklahoma City time)

532		days
12777		hours
766640		minutes
45998448		seconds

Alternative version

It is 532 days, 9 hours, 20 minutes, 48 seconds

until Tuesday, November 6, 2012 (Oklahoma City time)

Current time is

Monday, May 23, 2011 at 3:39:12 PM CDT (local time in Oklahoma City)

This is Who I am..... right now !!!

2011-05-17T11:18:00.001-07:00

Happy, sewing and at peace!

Dead and Gone...

2011-05-10T11:41:00.001-07:00

Bin Laden

But ... continue to Pray... WE MUST!

2011-05-02T14:11:00.000-07:00

And now, at the dawn of springtime, President Obama has secured the jewel in the crown of every American president since the defeat of Hitler in WWII: conquering the darkest evil this generation has ever experienced.

Obama has done more than demonstrate leadership, he has proven it

a mixed, domestic political climate.

2011-05-02T14:10:00.000-07:00

The loud voices of Tea Party sideshow stars and carnival barkers, have dominated headlines with anti-Obama rhetoric for far too long.
These days, strategically-laced racism and ambiguously xenophobic innuendo is fodder for the field in the forum of American politics. Even the outrageous antics of newly ascendant Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump, has become the de facto talking point in political punditry.

Since these sentiments began to take root in 2008, a vast majority of the conservative establishment sought to frame the duly-elected U.S. president with terrorist, radical Islamic connections, and anti-American, foreign ties. Obama was even forced to publicly release his long-form, U.S. birth certificate last week, in an effort to put to rest growing challenges -- mostly from far-right conservatives -- that his American citizenship was somehow questionable....

Unlike his predecessor, George W. Bush, who led the American economy into the depths of a vast recession, Obama has been misrepresented and attacked for making Americans "less safe". These attacks began with former Vice President Dick Cheney, and parroted by the likes of Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, former Bush adviser Karl Rove, republican Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, and countless Fox News correspondents.
The result: many voters believed the hype -- that somehow, the president was soft on terrorism -- if not a secret Muslim operative himself. The lie grew more dangerous for both Obama and the millions of patriotic Muslim-Americans, as it equated extremist terrorism, Islamic faith, and Afro-Arab Muslim identity in the same, falsely construed paradigm.
Now the tide has turned.
Early in his presidential campaign, Barack Obama noted his personal opposition to the war in Iraq. He expressed concern that there was no plausible evidence of any involvement by Saddam Hussein in the attacks against the United States in 2001, and questioned America's justification for a declaration of war.
In contrast, Obama stood by his belief that military operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan were credible, because of clear links to Al-Qaida's founder and leader, Osama bin Laden. To that end, President Obama fulfilled his campaign promise to bring an end to combat forces in Iraq, but expanded the war in Afghanistan with the express aim of bringing Osama bin Laden to justice, and dismantling Al-Qaida. That decision, however, did not come without its critics and risked alienating members of his most loyal, Democratic and liberal base.

Obama was accused by members of his own party of being too easily persuaded by conservatives, or changeable: following in the footsteps of his war-mongering predecessor.

The president stayed the course, justified by conviction. Following up on intelligence reports of Osama bin Laden's exact location, the president directed Leon Panetta, head of the CIA, to make capturing bin Laden the top priority. Last week the President unilaterally instructed covert military forces to capture and kill him.
Obama, widely accused of being incapable of leadership, weak on foreign policy and inconsistent in his diplomatic aims -- may have now written his own ticket to victory in the 2012 presidential campaign.

The field of Republican candidates remains weak and wanting: full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. But Obama presides over an improving economy and declining unemployment rates. He has already delivered notable victories in socially progressive legislation and a landmark health care reform bill.

2011-05-02T14:03:00.000-07:00

CHICAGO (AP) -- Barack Obama says he wants to be the president who restores people's belief in the American dream.

In an interview, Obama also expresses disappointment over sharp-edged Washington politics and his failure to soften it as he'd promised. He complains that life inside "the bubble" is depriving him of precious, memorable moments with his growing daughters.

Meanwhile, daughter Malia has to start doing laundry, her mother said. Obama and his wife, Michelle, revealed these tidbits on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" during an interview they granted to help a dear friend and major political supporter close out her top-rated, syndicated program on a high note after a quarter-century on the air. It was the first time a sitting president and first lady have appeared together on the show, which Winfrey has said will end May 25. Taped last week at Winfrey's Chicago studio, the interview was to be broadcast nationally on Monday.

Asked what he wants his legacy to be if he is re-elected next year, Obama said he wants people to feel that opportunity is there for them if they work hard and do the right things. He said there's a general sense that the American dream is "slipping away."

Obama sat for the interview last week hours after releasing a detailed version of his Hawaiian birth certificate in a bid to end distracting speculation, fueled by prospective Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, over whether Obama is U.S.-born.

Obama said the controversy is an example of the blurring between politics and entertainment, as "carnival barkers" seek attention by calling on him to show his birth certificate to prove he is a citizen and therefore constitutionally qualified to hold office.

"Reality TV is seeping into how we think about our politics," Obama said in the interview. While he has described the birth certificate as "silliness," he said stories he hears about people's fears of losing their homes or unsuccessful efforts to find a job are not funny.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.

Trump/Chump

2011-05-02T13:53:00.001-07:00

For Trump's decision to fire actor Busey instead of rock singer Meat Loaf from his TV show earlier this month, Obama quipped: "These are the types of decisions that would keep me up at night. Well handled, sir."

Trump chuckled at some of the earlier jokes, but was clearly less amused as comedian Seth Meyers picked up where Obama left off.

"Donald Trump often talks about running as a Republican, which is surprising," said the Saturday Night Live actor, entrusted with providing some of the comedy for the evening. "I just assumed he was running as a joke."

2011-05-02T13:34:00.000-07:00

Trump has spent the last several weeks hunting down President Obama's past with as much furor as the CIA had in chasing Bin Laden himself. Obama first struck down Trump's conspiracy theories by releasing his long-form birth certificate. As if that weren't enough, he then roasted him like a piece of chicken at the Correspondents Dinner this weekend, joking about the fact that Trump's next great mission will be to find the whereabouts of Biggie and Tupac.
But out-trumping Trump would have to go deeper than simply ridiculing him in public. Some would say that there is a direct incentive to hit him where it hurts. Whether it is coincidental or not, President Obama's decision to announce the Bin Laden finding right in the middle of a highly-rated episode of Celebrity Apprentice is nothing short of scandalously debilitating.

If you recall, Sunday night's episode was the one where Nene Leakes and Star Jones were set to go at it in one of those 'let's watch the angry black women fight' episodes that millions of viewers love to see. The show is one of Trump's prized financial assets, this was his big night and his advertisers are likely calling him to get multi-million dollar refunds. Even Nene vs. Star won't sell more tickets than Obama vs. Osama.

So, this has been a great week for President Obama.
Obama has proven that he was certainly smart enough to get into Harvard.

Sleep Well - Prez. May God keep you and family safe - always

2011-05-02T13:25:00.000-07:00

The president will also sleep well, knowing that he's put several major adversaries to bed. At this point, Trump will either come out swinging like never before, or he will walk away with his tail between his legs. Either way, Obama has proven that he was certainly smart enough to get into Harvard.
From taking on Trump to taking out Osama: Obama's click here... timing is impeccable....

Quit Killing.... VERBALLY ---- My MOCKINGBIRD Obama

2011-05-02T13:22:00.000-07:00

My grandson of 16 must have required reading.... and he left his paperback copy of To Kill A Mockingbird (released back in 1960.... in my jeep last week. I opened it to the middle and Scout's voice pulled me into reading it to the end. Because it is narrated by young Scout, we are able to grow up and come to an understanding about the world in the same way that she does, creating order from the chaos of her everyday life.

A weekend trip to Texas.... prior week....

they was 'killin my Obama with BIRTHER words over his live certificate..... hmmmp! So he produced it. My inner anger boild such that if I get on the elevator or step a curb.... my nature is excuse me... hello. And do you know half of the Oklahoma peck-a-woods won't say a word..... at all!!! Well excuse the hell out of me. Jesus keep me near the cross.

Ok cool it Bev... let that antidepressant work. So I keep going. And this book has helped me... so, so relevant for today. UNIVERSAL....tale of how understanding can triumph over old and evil mindsets.!!!

To Kill a Mockingbird is a modern-day morality tale of how prejudice must be met, fought and overcome--no matter where it is present or how difficult that task might seem.

WHO IS ATTICUS.....father, a lawyer and widower....He became the voice of moral conscious in the age that the book was written and represented the ideals and hopes of the liberal classes who hoped to see the end of segregation and racism.

The novel has a courageous and powerful political message about the downtrodden lives of African-Americans in 1930s America, and the prejudice and fear they faced every day, So SAD, but so TRUE is the plot involving a black man named Tom Robinson, who is accused of raping a white woman. Atticus takes on the case, despite the vitriol this arouses in the largely white, racist townsfolk, because he believes that there has been a serious miscarriage of justice. Given the cold-shoulder by their white neighbors, the Finches are welcomed into the black community, and Scout is amazed by the feeling of cohesion and happiness that this poor, oppressed people are able to muster. When the time of the trial comes round, Atticus proves that the girl that Tom Robinson is accused of raping actually seduced him, and that the injuries to her face were caused by her father, angry that she tried to sleep with a black man.

For a minute....due to a good read...there was suspense and evidence provided at the trial??? But the all white jury convicted Robinson; and he is later killed whilst trying to escape from jail.

Meanwhile, the girl's father, who held a grudge against Atticus because of some of the things he said in court, waylays Scout and Jem as they walk home one night. It is clear that he wants to them harm, but they are saved by the mysterious Boo, who disarms their attacker and kills him dead.

Scout finally comes face to face with the enigmatic figure of which she was so scared, and realizes that he is just a kindly man, who has been kept away from the world because of a mental retardation that makes him appear simple. The lesson that Scout learns from both Tom Robinson's fate and her new found friend, is the importance of seeing people how they are, and not being blinded by the fears and misunderstandings of prejudice.

2011-05-02T12:44:00.000-07:00

To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel by Harper Lee. The book depicts the experiences of a young girl, Scout, and her family in a Southern town. This controversial work deals with aspects of racism, and involves other aspects of violence and alienation,

"The one place where a man ought to get a square deal is in a courtroom, be he any color of the rainbow, but people have a way of carrying their resentments right into a jury box. As you grow older, you'll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don't you forget it - whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash."
- Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

"Why reasonable people go stark raving mad when anything involving a Negro comes up, is something I don't pretend to understand."
- Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

Why Obama shouldn't have had to 'show his papers'

2011-04-28T08:21:00.000-07:00

Why Obama shouldn't have had to 'show his papers'

My American President

2011-04-27T14:49:00.001-07:00

I'm Praying with Nikol Zachery Bailey & Prophet..... Wonderful!

2011-04-14T09:41:00.000-07:00

Trying Times for my daughter Heidi !!!

2011-04-14T09:38:00.001-07:00

And I hear THEY been messin with my new son!

2011-04-14T09:37:00.001-07:00

Lord, reverse the ruling... no way OUT of Flight School.... where is the Better Blessing? I know it's just around the corner...

I feel like RED Neck OK is always after my people....

2011-04-14T09:35:00.000-07:00

BUT MY BROTHER WILL SURVIVE !!!
An Oklahoma City criminal defense attorney was convicted Wednesday of intentionally letting a witness lie during a 2008 drug trafficking trial.

An Oklahoma County jury found Mark Anthony Clayborne, 48, guilty of perjury by subornation and preparing a false exhibit.

Jurors chose a punishment of four years in prison on one count and two years in prison and a $1,000 fine on the other. Formal sentencing was set for June.
Clayborne represented Jose Cruz Herrera at a jury trial in February 2008. Herrera was convicted at the trial of drug trafficking, conspiracy and cocaine possession. He is serving 102 years in prison.
Prosecutors alleged Clayborne had a witness lie in a failed effort to give Herrera an alibi for the day of a 2007 drug deal. The witness testified at the drug trial that she was with Herrera in Mexico on that day and had videotaped him there.
Prosecutors said Clayborne had her testify even though she told him “straight to his face” beforehand that she did not shoot the video and was afraid she would get into trouble if she testified she had done so.
The videotape actually was shot in 2005 but it had been altered to reflect a date in 2007.
Prosecutors alleged Clayborne put into evidence a shortened version of the altered videotape, knowing the date on it was false.
Clayborne's attorneys contended he did not know the videotape had been altered and did not know the witness was lying.

Read more: http://newsok.com/okc-attorney-convicted-of-suborning-perjury-during-08-drug-trial/article/3558220#ixzz1JW3GDnAn

Civil War in America

2011-04-13T14:31:00.001-07:00

Diggin and Searchin my History

2011-03-09T20:51:00.001-08:00

I love this Man..... Dred Scott

2011-02-08T07:55:00.000-08:00

Dred Scott

(1799 – September 17, 1858), was an African-American slave in the United States who sued unsuccessfully for his freedom in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case of 1857. His case was based on the fact that although he and his wife Harriet Scott were slaves, he had lived with his master Dr. John Emerson in states and territories where slavery was illegal according to both state laws and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, including Illinois and Minnesota (which was then part of the Wisconsin Territory). The United States Supreme Court ruled seven to two against Scott, finding that neither he, nor any person of African ancestry, could claim citizenship in the United States, and therefore Scott could not bring suit in federal court under diversity of citizenship rules. Moreover, Scott's temporary residence outside Missouri did not bring about his emancipation under the Missouri Compromise, since that would improperly deprive Scott's owner of his legal property.

The case raised the issue of a slave who had lived in a free state. Congress had not asserted whether slaves were free if they set foot upon free soil. The ruling overturned the Missouri Compromise since by the court's logic, any attempt at regulating slavery in the federal Territories deprived a slave owner of his property without due process. This enraged the abolitionist Republicans and further exacerbated sectional sentiments that led to the Civil War.
Scott had traveled with his master Dr. John Emerson, who was in the US Army and often transferred. Scott's extended stay with his master in Illinois, a free state, gave him the legal standing to make a claim for freedom, as did his extended stay at Fort Snelling in the Wisconsin Territory (now Minnesota), where slavery was also prohibited. But Scott did not file a petition for freedom while living in the free lands—perhaps because he was unaware of his rights at the time, or because he was fearful of possible repercussions. After two years, the army transferred Emerson to territory where slavery was legal: first to St. Louis, Missouri, then to Louisiana. In just over a year, the recently married Emerson summoned his slave couple. Instead of staying in the free territory of Wisconsin (now Minnesota), or going to the free state of Illinois, the two traveled nearly 1,250 miles (2000 km)^{[citation needed]}, apparently unaccompanied, down the Mississippi River to meet their master. Only after Emerson's death in 1843, when Emerson's widow hired out Scott to an army captain, did Scott seek freedom for himself and his wife. First he offered to buy his freedom from Emerson's widow, Irene Emerson—then living in St. Louis—for US $300, about $7,000 in current value. After she refused his request, Scott sought freedom in the St. Louis Circuit Court.

Dred Scott Case

2011-02-08T07:51:00.000-08:00

Decision of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott Case

The Ordinance of 1787 and the Missouri Compromise Declared Unconstitutional

Washington, Friday, March 6 - The opinion of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott Case was delivered by Chief Justice Taney. It was a full and elaborate statement of the views of the Court. They have decided the following important points:

First - Negroes, whether slaves or free, that is, men of the African race, are not citizens of the United States by the Constitution.
Second - The Ordinance of 1787 had no independent constitutional force or legal effect subsequently to the adoption of the Constitution, and could not operate of itself to confer freedom or citizenship within the Northwest Territory on negroes not citizens by the Constitution.
Third - The provisions of the Act of 1820, commonly called the Missouri Compromise, in so far as it undertook to exclude negro slavery from, and communicate freedom and citizenship to, negroes in the northern part of the Louisiana cession, was a Legislative act exceeding the powers of Congress, and void, and of no legal effect to that end.

In deciding these main points, the Supreme Court determined the following incidental points:
First - The expression "territory and other property" of the Union, in the Constitution, applies "in terms" only to such territory as the Union possessed at the time of the adoption of the Constitution.
Second - The rights of citizens of the United States emigrating into any Federal territory, and the power of the Federal Government there depend on the general provisions of the Constitution, which defines in this, as in all other respects, the powers of Congress.
Third - As Congress does not possess power itself to make onsetments relative to the persons or property of citizens of the United States, in a Federal Territory, other than such as the Constitution confers, so it cannot constitutionally delegate any such powers to a Territorial Government, organized by it under the Constitution.
Fourth - The legal condition of a slave in the State of Missouri is not affected by the temporary sojourn of such slave in any other Sate, but on his return his condition still depends on the laws of Missouri.

As the plaintiff was not a citizen of Missouri, he, therefore, could not sue in the Courts of the United States. The suit must be dismissed for want of jurisdiction.

The delivery of this opinion occupied about three hours, and was listened to with profound attention by a crowded Court room. Among the auditors were gentlemen of eminent legal ability, and a due proportion of ladies.

Judge Nelson stated the merits of the case. The question was whether or not the removal of Scott from Missouri with his master to Illinois, with a view to temporary residence there, worked his emancipation. He maintained that the question depended wholly on the law of Missouri, and for that reason the judgment of the Court below should be affirmed.

Judge Catron believed the Supreme Court has jurisdiction to decide the merits of the case. He argued that Congress could not do directly what it could not do indirectly. If it could exclude one species of property, it could exclude another. With regard to the Territories ceded, Congress could govern them; and the Missouri act of 1820 violated the leading features of the Constitution, and was therefore void. He concurred with his brother Judges, that Scott is a slave, and was so when this suit was brought.
Several other Judges are to deliver their views tomorrow

We's Free... I declare We is Free!!

2011-02-08T07:47:00.000-08:00

1-1-1863
A Proclamation by the President of the United States

That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all person held as slaves within any State, or any designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever, free;

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this Twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-seventh.

Abraham Lincoln.
By the President.
William H. Seward, Secretary of State.The War Still to be Prosecuted for the Restoration of the Union

A Decree of Emancipation

All Slaves in States in Rebellion on the First of January Next to be Free

The Gradual Abolition and Colonization Schemes Adhered to

Loyal Citizens to be Remunerated for Losses, Including Slaves

Last Day of the Month

2011-01-31T12:01:00.001-08:00

Snnow's a comin

Nelson Mandella

2011-01-28T11:20:00.000-08:00

Date of birth: July 18, 1918. Profession: Peace activist, Law clerk, Security… Works written: Mandela, apartheid, Awards won: Order of the Nile, Nobel Peace Prize,…Political party: African National Congress

25 years ago: The Challenger Explosion

2011-01-28T11:15:00.000-08:00

Cape Canaveral, FL: I was 32 years old: I saw our first high-tech catastrophe to unfold on live TV. Schoolchildren everywhere tuned in that morning to watch the launch of the first schoolteacher and ordinary citizen bound for space, Christa McAuliffe. She never made it. McAuliffe and six others on board perished as the cameras rolled, victims of stiff O-ring seals and feeble bureaucratic decisions.

It was, as one grief and trauma expert recalls, "the beginning of the age when the whole world knew what happened as it happened."

I clipped the newspaper article.... so struck by tragedy: I don't know if the paper if cracked, folder away in a paper box.

22nd North Arkansas Ancestor Fair, June 3, 2011 - June 4, 2011

2011-01-26T10:11:00.001-08:00

22nd North Arkansas Ancestor Fair, June 3, 2011 - June 4, 2011
CONTACT:
Searcy County Historical Society
2333 N. East Oaks Drive
Fayetteville, AR 72703
Ph: (479) 442-3691
http://www.ancestorfair.us/
shirleysdream@windstream.net

22nd North Arkansas Ancestor Fair

Civil War Sesquicentennial

Marshall, Arkansas - June 3-4, 2011

Friday, June 3, 2011

SESSION I: Genealogical Help. VFW Museum, Marshall - $7.50

9:30 a.m. - 10:30 a. m.: Finding Confederate AncestorsRussell P. Baker, Arkansas History Commission, Retired

11:00 a.m - 12:00 noon: Finding Union Ancestors
Russell P. Baker, Arkansas History Commission, Retired
(DNA surprise for some Searcy/Newton County families)

12:00 - 1 p.m.: Lunch break

SESSION II: Background for Civil War North Arkansas. VFW Museum, Marshall - $7.50

1:00 - 2:00 p. m.: Searcy County & North Arkansas January to October 1861: Recruiting for Dixie
James Johnston

2:30 - 3:30 p.m.: North Arkansas Peace Society and the Chain Gang: November 1861 to April 1862
James Johnston

There will be no cost for the 3:30 to 5:00 p.m. session
Chain Gang Seminar: Telling Your Chain Gang Stories

MIXER DINNER: Cost and site to be announced

Saturday, June 4, 2011

ANCESTOR FAIR: Civic Center, Zack Road, Marshall

8:00 - 9:00 a.m.: Providers set up
9:00 a. m. - 3:00 p.m.: ANCESTOR FAIR (Free)
Doors open for Genealogy Swap Meet
No pre-registration required, sign in for your table when you set up

April 30, 2011 EVENT Civil War, 2011-2015.

2011-01-26T10:10:00.001-08:00

Old State House Museum
300 W. Markham
Little Rock, AR 72201
Ph: (501) 324-9685
http://www.oldstatehouse.com/
info@oldstatehouse.org

Join us at the Old State House Museum on Saturday, April 30, 2011 as Arkansas commemorates the kick-off celebration for the Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War.
Visitors to the museum will see a special screening of the new AETN documentary about the Civil War; special documents on exhibit from the Arkansas History Commission, such as the 1861 Arkansas Constitution and the original secession document; and the first of five exhibits put on by the Old State House Museum about the Civil War, titled An Enduring Union.
Living historians will be present throughout the day! Visitors to this special event will see a reenactment of the May 6, 1861 final vote on secession, flag presentations by two local companies, and state and militia troops camped out on the lawn. Hands-on activities will be available.
Activities will take place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free!

April 23, 2011 EVENT Civil War, 2011-2015.

2011-01-26T10:05:00.001-08:00

http://www.arkansascivilwar150.com/events/

The Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission will sanction suitable events and activities throughout Arkansas during the commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, 2011-2015.

Sesquicentennial at Fort Smith, April 23, 2011
CONTACT:
Fort Smith National Historic Site
301 Parker Avenue
Fort Smith, AR 72902
Ph: (479) 783-3961
http://www.nps.gov/fosm/index.htm

Kicking off the sesquicentennial at Fort Smith National Historic Site will be an event on April 23, 2011, dedicated to the day the fort fell under Arkansas state occupation. This event falls on the day that Company D and E of the First Cavalry under Union Captain Samuel Sturgis was led to safety by Delaware Indian scout Black Beaver after they abandoned Fort Smith in 1861. On the same day, Arkansas State Troops took control of an unoccupied fort.

150th Year Anniversary of 4-yr American Civil War

2011-01-20T09:14:00.000-08:00

The new word of the day: sesquicentennial anniversary! Celebrations are being planned around the nation to commemorate the anniversary .. a great time to learn more about that time period!

May I introduce myself and my audience to the book entitled “Everyday Life During the Civil War, A Guide for Writers, Students, and Historians” by Michael J. Varhola, ISBN #1582973377. Click her for book preview peek inside this book on a website.

2011-01-16T17:52:00.001-08:00

America by GOD's Design

2011-01-16T17:51:00.000-08:00

January 15, 2011 ~ Martin Luther King Jr. has now been dead longer than he lived. But what an extraordinary life it was.

At 33, he was pressing the case of civil rights with President John Kennedy. At 34, he galvanized the nation with his "I Have a Dream" speech. At 35, he won the Nobel Peace Prize. At 39, he was assassinated, but he left a legacy of hope and inspiration that continues today.

This Web site, first created by The Seattle Times in 1996, contains the story of a remarkable man, images of a tumultuous time, and perspectives of politicians, academics, students and the many, ordinary citizens whose lives he touched. We invite you to explore it. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/special/mlk/

My Granddaughter and President OBAMA

2011-01-14T08:32:00.001-08:00

CHOOSING WORDS THAT HEAL.... NOT WOUND!

Planning to Join

2011-01-11T19:48:00.000-08:00

an online art groups... to speak against the hate rhetoric and negative tones in American. Reminding me of the volatile 60's - 70's etc in my own "Black & Proud" time inmy life

Anticipating MLK Day 2011

2011-01-09T00:53:00.001-08:00

"If we are to go forward, we must first go back..."

M.L. King, Jr.

A Mixed Culture Confederate Woman....

2010-12-28T10:36:00.000-08:00

YEP... this is who I am. For the first time... I looked at the Confederate Flag... and glimpsed into the life of my Great-Grandfather John Anderson....

Actually, I was browsing a friendly quilter website... she shared a quilt project for her brotherly.. a loving gesture and she quickly added an apology in case the flag symbol OFFENDED anyone!!! And for the first time in my.. life I was not offended.... I actually identified with my past family history...

NOTE::: a few days ago, I mailed off a request for the PENSION info in AR database for James Anderson.... good news hoepfully...

Letting the Pictures express my thoughts

2010-12-22T13:16:00.000-08:00

Three or Two or TEA Political Parties.... !!!

2010-11-03T07:17:00.000-07:00

Like I'm thinkin....
I'm living history.... and luvin it ! ! !

Change.... forwards or backwards ???

2010-11-03T07:04:00.001-07:00

I am living in America..... historical times.....

REMEMBERING... this IS where it all started.....!

2010-11-01T07:56:00.001-07:00

My scary face.... is a bit like the Scary mid term election.... hmmmmm

2010-11-01T07:47:00.001-07:00

A Great Time of the Year!

2010-11-01T07:19:00.001-07:00

I am still a black woman in America ..

2010-10-25T14:16:00.000-07:00

I remember Fiddler.....
A child of the 60' thru 80's era. The lens thru which I see Black history is tinted - indelibly.

Take the controversey over Juan Williams, NPR, Fox News, MUSLIM Viewspoint, which sounded like how white folk see black dudes and think they are robbers and thieves and rapists.....

I've pondered the thing for days now. The high and might white news commentators are spinning it. What us - most often unheard of views are not being touted.

Something is wrong with the CNN/Fox view of Juan Williams....

and Williams is ultimately wrong. A bigger goal for Wms should have been to expose sometimes biased/racist attitudes felt by all... rather Fox is pawning him to right-wing conservatism... for which we just cannot vote for!

EYE COLLECT

2010-09-29T14:13:00.000-07:00

2010-08-18T16:24:00.000-07:00

This racist diatribe sounds like it comes from a tired lady, a lady on harmones to assist her in getting stable, and a lady who really does not care. She is obviously getting older, less patient, and less sensitive to the world we live in. @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ RACIAL EPITHET is nigger....... with feelings of endearment -- blacks use the COLLOQUIAL TERM nigga..... stated and signed off by Bkirk