Monday, August 27, 2012
My President Obama
Obama is not simply America’s first black president—he is the first president who could credibly teach a black-studies class. He is fully versed in the works of Richard Wright and James Baldwin, Frederick Douglass and Malcolm X. Obama’s two autobiographies are deeply concerned with race, and in front of black audiences he is apt to cite important but obscure political figures such as George Henry White, who served from 1897 to 1901 and was the last African American congressman to be elected from the South until 1970. But with just a few notable exceptions, the president had, for the first three years of his presidency, strenuously avoided talk of race.
But despite Obama’s post-election reluctance to talk about race, he has always displayed both an obvious affinity for black culture and a distinct ability to defy black America’s worst self-conceptions.
The perfect statement of the Obama era, a time marked by a revolution that must never announce itself, by a democracy that must never acknowledge the weight of race, even while being shaped by it. Barack Obama governs a nation enlightened enough to send an African American to the White House, but not enlightened enough to accept a black man as its president.
By virtue of his background—the son of a black man and a white woman, someone who grew up in multiethnic communities around the world—Obama has enjoyed a distinctive vantage point on race relations in America. Beyond that, he has displayed enviable dexterity at navigating between black and white America, and at finding a language that speaks to a critical mass in both communities. He emerged into national view at the Democratic National Convention in 2004, with a speech heralding a nation uncolored by old prejudices and shameful history. There was no talk of the effects of racism. Instead Obama stressed the power of parenting, and condemned those who would say that a black child carrying a book was “acting white.” He cast himself as the child of a father from Kenya and a mother from Kansas and asserted, “In no other country on Earth is my story even possible.” When, as a senator, he was asked if the response to Hurricane Katrina evidenced racism,Obama responded by calling the “ineptitude” of the response “color-blind.”
Before Barack Obama, the “black president” lived in the African American imagination as a kind of cosmic joke, a phantom of all that could never be. White folks, whatever their talk of freedom and liberty, would not allow a black president. They could not tolerate Emmett’s boyish gaze. Dr. King turned the other cheek, and they blew it off. White folks shot Lincoln over “nigger equality,” ran Ida Wells out of Memphis, beat Freedom Riders over bus seats, slaughtered Medgar in his driveway like a dog. The comedian Dave Chappelle joked that the first black president would need a “Vice President Santiago”—because the only thing that would ensure his life in the White House was a Hispanic president-in-waiting. A black president signing a bill into law might as well sign his own death certificate. When Chappelle tried to imagine how a black George W. Bush would have justified the war against Saddam Hussein, his character (“Black Bush”) simply yelled, “The nigger tried to kill my father!”
But despite Obama’s post-election reluctance to talk about race, he has always displayed both an obvious affinity for black culture and a distinct ability to defy black America’s worst self-conceptions.
The perfect statement of the Obama era, a time marked by a revolution that must never announce itself, by a democracy that must never acknowledge the weight of race, even while being shaped by it. Barack Obama governs a nation enlightened enough to send an African American to the White House, but not enlightened enough to accept a black man as its president.
By virtue of his background—the son of a black man and a white woman, someone who grew up in multiethnic communities around the world—Obama has enjoyed a distinctive vantage point on race relations in America. Beyond that, he has displayed enviable dexterity at navigating between black and white America, and at finding a language that speaks to a critical mass in both communities. He emerged into national view at the Democratic National Convention in 2004, with a speech heralding a nation uncolored by old prejudices and shameful history. There was no talk of the effects of racism. Instead Obama stressed the power of parenting, and condemned those who would say that a black child carrying a book was “acting white.” He cast himself as the child of a father from Kenya and a mother from Kansas and asserted, “In no other country on Earth is my story even possible.” When, as a senator, he was asked if the response to Hurricane Katrina evidenced racism,Obama responded by calling the “ineptitude” of the response “color-blind.”
Before Barack Obama, the “black president” lived in the African American imagination as a kind of cosmic joke, a phantom of all that could never be. White folks, whatever their talk of freedom and liberty, would not allow a black president. They could not tolerate Emmett’s boyish gaze. Dr. King turned the other cheek, and they blew it off. White folks shot Lincoln over “nigger equality,” ran Ida Wells out of Memphis, beat Freedom Riders over bus seats, slaughtered Medgar in his driveway like a dog. The comedian Dave Chappelle joked that the first black president would need a “Vice President Santiago”—because the only thing that would ensure his life in the White House was a Hispanic president-in-waiting. A black president signing a bill into law might as well sign his own death certificate. When Chappelle tried to imagine how a black George W. Bush would have justified the war against Saddam Hussein, his character (“Black Bush”) simply yelled, “The nigger tried to kill my father!”
The irony of Barack Obama is this . .
: he has become the most successful black politician in American history by avoiding the radioactive racial issues of yesteryear, by being “clean” (as Joe Biden once labeled him)—and yet his indelible blackness irradiates everything he touches. This irony is rooted in the greater ironies of the country he leads. For most of American history, our political system was premised on two conflicting facts—one, an oft-stated love of democracy; the other, an undemocratic white supremacy inscribed at every level of government. In warring against that paradox, African Americans have historically been restricted to the realm of protest and agitation. But when President Barack Obama pledged to “get to the bottom of exactly what happened,” he was not protesting or agitating. He was not appealing to federal power—he was employing it. The power was black—and, in certain quarters, was received as such.
No amount of rhetorical moderation could change this. It did not matter that the president addressed himself to “every parent in America.” His insistence that “everybody [pull] together” was irrelevant. It meant nothing that he declined to cast aspersions on the investigating authorities, or to speculate on events. Even the fact that Obama expressed his own connection to Martin in the quietest way imaginable—“If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon”—would not mollify his opposition. It is, after all, one thing to hear “I am Trayvon Martin” from the usual placard-waving rabble-rousers. Hearing it from the commander of the greatest military machine in human history is another.
Racism is not merely a simplistic hatred. It is, more often, broad sympathy toward some and broader skepticism toward others. Black America ever lives under that skeptical eye. Hence the old admonishments to be “twice as good.” Hence the need for a special “talk” administered to black boys about how to be extra careful when relating to the police. And hence Barack Obama’s insisting that there was no racial component to Katrina’s effects; that name-calling among children somehow has the same import as one of the oldest guiding principles of American policy—white supremacy. The election of an African American to our highest political office was alleged to demonstrate a triumph of integration. But when President Obama addressed the tragedy of Trayvon Martin, he demonstrated integration’s great limitation—that acceptance depends not just on being twice as good but on being half as black. And even then, full acceptance is still withheld. T
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
77 days from Election 2012
Women still earn 77 cents for every dollar men earn. Today, 77 days away from Election Day, stand with the candidate who’s fighting for fair pay: http://OFA.BO/2tCDpc
We’re 77 days from the election. Women still earn only 77 cents for every dollar a man makes. Now’s the time to stand with the candidate who’s fighting for equal pay:http://ofa.bo/rUxHuC
We’re 77 days from the election. Women still earn only 77 cents for every dollar a man makes. Now’s the time to stand with the candidate who’s fighting for equal pay:http://ofa.bo/rUxHuC
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Rape and Lynching in America!
Missouri Rep. Todd Akin made the nation's collective jaw
drop on Sunday with the comment that "legitimate rape" victims
rarely get pregnant because they have "ways to try to shut that whole thing
down."
Paul Ryan and 225 of your fellow Republican co-sponsors played around with the word rape . . suggesting only "forcible" rape be treated seriously as if all rapes weren't forcible. For women, it brings back a flood of memories of the way the rapists played with us in the act of being raped -- intimidating us, threatening us,muting us. Your playing with words like "forcible" and "legitimate" is playing with our souls which have been shattered by unwanted penises shoving into us, ripping our flesh, our vaginas, our consciousness, our confidence, our pride, our futures.
Now Mr. Todd Akin - - - wants to say that he misspoke when he said that a legitimate rape couldn't get us pregnant. Did you honestly believe that rape sperm is different than love sperm, that some mysterious religious process occurs and rape sperm self-destructs due to its evilcontent?
Mr Aiken used the expression "legitimate" rape as if to imply there were such a thing as "illegitimate" rape. Let me try to explain to you- - - what that does to the minds, hearts and souls of the millions of women on this planet who experience rape. It is a form of re-rape. The underlying assumption of your statement is that women and their experiences are not to be trusted. That their understanding of rape must be qualified by some higher, wiser authority. It delegitimizes and undermines and belittles the horror, invasion, desecration they experienced. It makes them feel as alone and powerless as they did at the moment of rape.
I am asking you and the GOP to get out of my body, out of my vagina, my womb, to get out of all of our bodies. These are not your decisions to make. These are not your words to define.
Why don't you spend your time ending rape rather than redefining it? Spend your energy going after those perpetrators who so easily destroy women rather than parsing out manipulative language that minimizes their destruction.
And by the way you've just given millions of women a very good reason to make sure you never get elected again, and an insanely good reason to rise.
#ReasonToRise
Eve Ensler
Bukavu, Congo
Eve Ensler
Bukavu, Congo
Todd Akin’s comments
The President responds to Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin’s comments about victims of "legitimate rape." Say you stand with the candidate who trusts women to make our own health care decisions: http://ofa.bo/M2QN38
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Friday, July 13, 2012
Friday, June 29, 2012
OBAMA-CARES.... yes he does!
4 Reasons Why Republicans Won’t Be Able To Repeal Obamacare
ABOVE..CLICK ON >>>GOOD SITE
Responding to Thursday’s Supreme Court decision upholding the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, Congressional Republicans have scheduled a vote in the House to repeal the law and Mitt Romney pledged to undo the measure if he’s elected president in November. But unless the GOP wins a super majority in the Senate — a scenario no one thinks is plausible — it can do little more than weaken Obamacare’s regulations and defund some of its provisions. Here is why:
1) Romney has no authority to issue waivers.Romney has promised to expand a provision of the Affordable Care Act that allows states to opt out of certain sections of the law to permit states to ignore it entirely. But the executive branch and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) likely don’t have the authority to grant such broad waivers. According to the law, HHS (together with the IRS) have waiver authority, but only if the states meet very specific requirements. Neither have blanket waiver authority, which would have to come from Congress. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) — the author of the waiver provision — has challenged Romney’s claims, saying, “Anybody who tries to move outside the standards of the bill — which is the coverage and costs and the like — well I’ll certainly fight that. But I think lots of other people will too.”2) Congress can’t repeal the full law through reconciliation. Without the necessary 60 votes in the Senate for full repeal, Republicans are pledging to use a budget reconciliation bill to undo the ACA. But this process would only apply to the budget-related elements of the law and would thus leave many portions — including the mandate — intact. As health care expert Robert Laszewski put it, “Romney could end up creating a chaotic environment driven by enormous uncertainty over just which parts of the new health care law would be implemented–for consumers,health care providers , and insurers.”3) Republicans have nothing to replace it with. David Frum explains that since the expansion of coverage provisions go into effect in 2014, Romney would have just one year to both repeal and replace the law. Republicans haven’t even coalesced around a single plan — and many in the party believe that the federal government should leave health care alone and want to leave the entire reform process to the states. Thus, “if replacement does not happen in the first 100 days, it won’t happen at all—that is, it won’t happen as a single measure, but rather will take the form of dozens of small incremental changes adopted episodically over the next 20 years.”4) Americans support Obamacare’s provisions. While Americans may not like “Obamacare” — and the political process of passing it — they do support its major provisions and are likely to resist any effort by Republicans to take away their benefits. A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found that while 56 percent of Americans oppose the law as a whole, 61 percent of respondents favored allowing young adults to stay on their parents’insurance plans until age 26, 72 percent wish to maintain the requirement that companies with more than 50 workers providehealth insurance for their employees, and 82 percent of respondents favored banning insurance companies from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. As more benefits roll out in 2014, it will be increasingly difficult for Republicans to argue for their repeal.
What is SCOTUS?
ANSWER: SCOTUS means "Supreme Court Of The United States" -
On Yesterday..... The Supreme Court has upheld the individual mandate in Obamacare, paving the way for full implementation of the law in the states and ensuring that millions of uninsured Americans haves access to affordablecoverage . The court upheld the provision as a tax, but found that it does violate the Commerce Clause.
The Medicaid expansion is limited, but not invalidated, the court found. In short, it decided that if a state does not expand the Medicaid program, as required by the law, the federal government cannot withhold Medicaid funds.
In short, “the entire ACA is upheld, with the exception that the federal government’s power to terminate states’ Medicaid funds is narrowly read.”
Chief Justice John Roberts joined Justices Sonya Sotomayor, Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Elena Kagan in the 5 to 4 decision. Justice Anthony Kennedy — who was considered a swing vote on in the case — sided with the conservatives.
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Supreme Court upheld the 2010 health care law
In a dramatic victory for President Barack Obama, the Supreme Court upheld the 2010 health care law Thursday, preserving Obama’s landmark legislative achievement.
The majority opinion was
written by Chief Justice John Roberts, who held that the law was a valid
exercise of Congress’s power to tax.
Roberts re-framed the
debate over health care as a debate over increasing taxes. Congress, he said,
is “increasing taxes” on those who choose to go uninsured.
The 2010 law, the Affordable Care Act, requires
non-exempted individuals to maintain a minimum level of health insurance or pay
a tax penalty.“the Affordable Care Act was saved by Chief Justice John Roberts.”
The four justices joining Roberts in upholding the law were Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.
The dissenting justices
were Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.
Goldstein said the Obama administration “got the one vote they really needed in
Chief Justice John Roberts.”
When he served in the
Senate in 2005, Obama voted against confirming Roberts as chief justice,
arguing that he lacked empathy for underdogs and “he has far more often used
his formidable skills on behalf of the strong in opposition to the weak.”
Roberts reasoned that “there’s no
real compulsion here” since those who do not pay the penalty for not having
insurance can’t be sent to jail.
He said the ruling had
made it clear “If we want to get rid of Obamacare, we're going to have replace
President Obama.”
But in a major victory
for the states who challenged the law, the court said that the Obama
administration cannot coerce states to go along with the Medicaid insurance
program for low-income people.
“A State that opts out of
the Affordable Care Act’s expansion in health care coverage thus stands to lose
not merely ‘a relatively small percentage’ of its existing Medicaid funding,
but all of it,” Roberts said.
The Toledo Blade in 1878...
...printed a transposition of Dr. Watts great hymnal written by a carpetbagger (a hymn I've heard my daddy sing)...
A CHARGE TO KEEP I HAVE,
A NEGRO TO MAINTAIN
AND EVERY DYING THRUST FOR POWER
TO BIND HIM WITH A CHAIN.
TO SERVE THE PRESENT AGE
OUR POCKETS WE MUST FILL
WE WILL MAKE HIM VOTE ON PROMISE STILL
AND NEVER PAY THE BILL.
ARM US WITH ZEALOUS CARE
TO MAKE HIM KNOW HIS PLACE (in politics)
AND OH, THY SERVANT LORD....PREPARE
TO RULE THE NEGRO RACE.
HELP US TO ROB AND CHEAT
THE NEGRO ON THE SLY...
AND SURE AS THEY DON'T VOTE FOR US
THEY SHALL FOREVER DYE.
O T WELLS
WELL, NOPE WE HAVEN'T DIED... I TELL YOU LIKE CELEE SAID IN THE COLOR PURPLE..... I MAY BE A WOMAN, I MAY BE BLACK, I MAY BE UGLY......... BUT I'M STILL HERE!
A CHARGE TO KEEP I HAVE,
A NEGRO TO MAINTAIN
AND EVERY DYING THRUST FOR POWER
TO BIND HIM WITH A CHAIN.
TO SERVE THE PRESENT AGE
OUR POCKETS WE MUST FILL
WE WILL MAKE HIM VOTE ON PROMISE STILL
AND NEVER PAY THE BILL.
ARM US WITH ZEALOUS CARE
TO MAKE HIM KNOW HIS PLACE (in politics)
AND OH, THY SERVANT LORD....PREPARE
TO RULE THE NEGRO RACE.
HELP US TO ROB AND CHEAT
THE NEGRO ON THE SLY...
AND SURE AS THEY DON'T VOTE FOR US
THEY SHALL FOREVER DYE.
O T WELLS
WELL, NOPE WE HAVEN'T DIED... I TELL YOU LIKE CELEE SAID IN THE COLOR PURPLE..... I MAY BE A WOMAN, I MAY BE BLACK, I MAY BE UGLY......... BUT I'M STILL HERE!
Friday, June 15, 2012
Anita Hill.... beautiful !!
a leader, visionary and author. In 1991, her courageous testimony during the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings sparked a national conversation on sexual harassment and women’s equality in politics and the workplace. Author ofReimagining Equality and Speaking Truth to Power
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Love baby, love.
That's the secret, yeah. If lots more of us loved each other, we'd solve lots more problems. And then this world would be better.
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