I know Etta James is not happy with Ms. Beyonce.

From Barbra

The Kennedy Center Honors

Last weekend, I was in Washington DC to accept the Kennedy Center Honors, and I noticed that the kiss between me and the “soon to be former” President Bush created quite a stir. The Today Show even proclaimed that it was a sign of the apocalypse. The timing is ironic. After eight years of President Clinton and on the cusp of at least four years of President Obama, I get selected to receive this prestigious award…during the Bush Administration. I have never met George W. Bush, but for the past eight years I have been blogging about him and his administration on my web site. I have relayed my frustration at the direction he has taken our country in no uncertain terms. So it was just as surprising to me as it apparently was to the press that upon meeting President Bush and extending my hand to him, he said to me, “Aw c’mon, gimme a hug and a kiss,” and then he proceeded to embrace me. I must say, I found him very warm and completely disarming…even though I think he was kissing me hello as I was kissing him goodbye…

During the White House ceremony, the President described each honorees attributes. After he listed mine, he added, “She’s also been known to speak her mind,” to which the audience first laughed and then applauded. I genuinely thought he was very funny and very gracious.

During the Kennedy Center Honors, President Bush gave me his signature wink (which he must have passed on to Sarah Palin) and mouthed, “We showed ‘em.” I guess in some small way, he and I proved that we could agree to disagree, and, for that weekend, art transcended politics.

Barbra--Somewhere From West Side Story

Someday, somewhere
We'll find a new way of living
Will find a way of forgiving
Somewhere...
There's a place for us
Somewhere a place for us
Peace and quiet and open air
Wait for us
Somewhere
There's a time for us
Someday there'll time for us
Time together and time to spare
Time to learn, time to care
Someday, somewhere
We'll find a new way of living
Will find there's a way of forgiving
Somewhere...
There's a place for us
A time and place for us
Hold my hand and we're half way there
Hold my hand and I'll take you there
Somehow...
Someday, somewhere...

The Venus Hottentot by Elizabeth Alexander

I wish peace and light for the entire world.

Diane Reeves and Wynton Marsalis

Wow

Creep-TLC

Yes it's me again
And I'm back
Oh I oh I oh I yeah
Oh I oh I oh I baby
Oh I oh I oh I yeah
The 22nd of loneliness and we've
Been through so many thangs
I love my man with all honesty
But I know he's cheatin' on me
I look him in his eyes but all he
Tells me is lies to keep me near
I'll never leave him down though
I might mess around it's only
'Cause I need some affection oh

[Chorus]
So I creep yeah
Just keep it on the down low
Said nobody is supposed 2 know
So I creep yeah
'Cause he doesn't know
What I do and no attention
Goes to show oh so I creep

The 23rd of loneliness
And we don't talk
Like we used 2 do
Now it seems pretty
Strange but I'm not
Buggin' 'cause I still feel
The same yeah yeah
I'll keep giving loving
Till the day he pushes me away
Never go astray
If he knew the
Things I did he couldn't
Handle it
And I choose 2 keep him
Protected oh

[Chorus]

I think about us baby all the time
But you know that I'm gonna need some attention
Yeah, yeah can you dig it
Love you forever baby soul & mind
And you gotta know if
You don't give it I'ma
Get mine

Oh I oh I oh I yeah
Oh I oh I oh I baby
Oh I oh I oh I yeah
Yeah yeah yeah

[Chorus]

I creep around because I need attention
Don't mess around with my affection
Oh I oh I oh I yeah

[Chorus]

I don't see what the big deal is about Bill Clinton's ties to the Saudis. I wish I knew some of them.

I Think Adrian Brody is Absolutely Hot

It is quite a shock to the system. Ms. Lavonia Kennedy was a sweet dear person. She was one of those gentle souls that we are blessed to know who walk the earth. Sweet endurance...she battled both cancer and then an aneurism with dignity and grace. What a loss....

Thank god that there are such good people in the world. It is heartwrenching when they are taken out of the world though. My mother's coworker, Ms. Lavonia died today. She was so sweet to me. Such a wonderful lady. God bless Patra.....

Brilliant and Beautiful

My maternal grandmother did, however, teach under her uncle and her brother in law until the early sixties when she went to Chicago.

Revelation

I just realized something. My father's mother had to quit teaching. I never realized that....it never registered in my consciousness. Only after listening to Cornel West speak about MLK and then reading that MLK's mother stopped teaching after she married and had children did it come to me. My grandmother married and proceeded to have thirteen children. School systems didn't allow married teachers to teach. Interesting. My other grandmother divorced..so I guess that was ok. LOL. Who knows. What messed up rules....

Bush said the economic system became inebriated. He does know about being inebriated, doesn't he?

You shall not practice evil and prosper.

Whoever beat that Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at Bush should be castrated.

God Bless the man with the shoes!! I love people who make big statements in simple ways....a lovely Iraqi man with his shoes....nuns with hammers....housewives with kitchen knives and frying pans...

On Holy Ground-Barbra

When I walked through the doors I sensed his presence
And I knew this was a place where love abounds
For this is a temple the God we love abides here
And we are standing in his presence
On holy ground

We are standing on holy ground
And I know there are angels all around
Let us praise, praise God now, praise him anyhow
For we are standing in his sweet presence
On holy ground

In his presence I know there is joy beyond all measure
And at his feet sweet peace of mind can still be found
For when we have a need he is still the answer
Reach out and claim it for we are standing
On holy ground

We are standing on holy ground
And I know there are angels all around
Let us praise, praise God now, praise him anyhow
For we are standing in his sweet presence
On holy ground

Tell Him

Barbra and Celine

I'm scared
So afraid to show I care
Will he think me weak
If I tremble when I speak
Oooh - what if
There's another one he's thinking of
Maybe he's in love
I'd feel like a fool
Life can be so cruel
I don't know what to do

I've been there
With my heart out in my hand
But what you must understand
You can't let the chance
To love him pass you by

Should I

Tell him
Tell him that the sun and moon
Rise in his eyes
Reach out to him
And whisper
Tender words so soft and sweet
Hold him close to feel his heart beat
Love will be the gift you give yourself

Touch him
With the gentleness you feel inside
Your love can't be denied
The truth will set you free
You'll have what's meant to be
All in time you'll see

I love him
Of that much I can be sure
I don't think I could endure
If I let him walk away
When I have so much to say

I'll

Love is light that surely glows
In the hearts of those who know
It's a steady flame that grows
Feed the fire with all the passion you can show
Tonight love will assume its place
This memory time cannot erase
Your faith will lead love where it has to go

Never let him go

I say YES to Caroline Kennedy!

Elizabeth Warren on Economics

The Fugitive: Why has the FBI placed a million-dollar bounty on Assata Shakur? By Kathleen Cleaver

Twenty-eight years ago, in a highly disputed trial, an all-White jury convicted former Black Panther Assata Shakur of the murder of a New Jersey state trooper. In 1979, while serving a life sentence, she escaped
from prison and eventually resurfaced in Cuba, where she was granted asylum and has lived ever since. But the U.S. government has continued to pursue Shakur, regularly increasing the bounty on her head and
classifying her as a “domestic terrorist.” Last May the Justice Department issued an unprecedented $1,000,000 bounty for the return of Assata Shakur, 58, who continues to maintain her innocence. Kathleen Cleaver, a law professor and former communications secretary for the Black Panther Party, talks about why we all need to know about Assata, and why she must live free: I was startled when I heard about the $1,000,000 bounty for the capture of Assata Shakur. What triggered this renewed interest in Assata? Why spend so much time and money to hunt her down when Osama bin Laden, head of an international terrorist enterprise, remains at large?

It turns out that FBI and New Jersey police officials revealed the million-dollar bounty on May 2 of this year, the thirty-second anniversary of the New Jersey Turnpike shootout in which State Trooper Werner Foerster and Black Panther Zayd Shakur were killed. Sundiata Acoli and Assata Shakur were arrested for the murders. Assata was severely wounded,
shot while her hands were up. She has always insisted—and expert defense testimony from the trial bears it out—that she did not kill anyone. But in separate trials, Sundiata and Assata were convicted of murdering Werner Foerster. In 1979, while incarcerated for life in the Clinton Correctional Facility for Women in New Jersey, Assata escaped. As the FBI circulated the wanted poster that called for her arrest, all over the New York–New Jersey area her supporters hung posters proclaiming “Assata Shakur is welcome here.” Cuba gave her political asylum several years later on the grounds that she had been subjected to political persecution and had never received a fair trial.

Apparently the million-dollar bounty has already been covertly offered by police to a relative of Assata’s for assistance in kidnapping her from Cuba. This bounty evokes the memory of those vicious slave catchers who were paid to capture and torment our runaway slave ancestors and return them dead or alive. This extraordinary bounty on the head of a Black woman inevitably brings to mind Harriet Tubman, that Underground
Railroad “conductor” whose ability to organize escapes earned a $12,000 price on her head from the state of Maryland. Outraged slave owners added $40,000.

Many freedom fighters I knew and loved, including Eldridge Cleaver, to whom I was married, were arrested and imprisoned because of our membership in the Black Panther Party. Our organization started in response to the gruesome war in Vietnam and the racism and injustice here that
drenched our lives in violence. Demonstrations, riots, rampant police brutality and political assassinations marked those years when I witnessed thousands upon thousands of people arrested and hundreds killed. Many turned into fugitives to save their own lives, including my husband, whom I joined in Algeria in May 1969. That was around the same time that Assata, then a bright New York City college student named Joanne Chesimard, joined the Black Panthers.

WE had a concrete ten-point program to end racial inequality. The Black Panther Party demanded the power to determine our own destiny. We insisted on decent housing, appropriate education, economic justice, an immediate end to police brutality, and other rights our people had been fighting for since slavery ended. We were not patient, we were not
passive, and we were willing to defend our principles with our lives. Since Panthers couldn’t be bought off or scared off, the government made the decision to kill us off.

Back in 1968 we became prime targets for law enforcement and intelligence agencies, particularly after J. Edgar Hoover, then FBI director, labeled us the “greatest threat to the internal security” of the United States. We were young and passionately determined to secure the freedom of our people in our lifetime. Joining the Black Panther Party at the height of this assault, Assata saw our leaders imprisoned and killed. Both Black Panther Party founders Huey Newton and Bobby Seale faced the death penalty, and Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, leaders of the Illinois chapter, were murdered in a predawn raid while they slept. Assata reported that she was beaten, tortured and denied medical attention after her arrest, then continually threatened by police and prison guards while in their custody. There was no question that she felt her life was in danger.

Under international law and Cuban law, Shakur is entitled to the protection and freedom of asylum. There are no legal grounds for her return to the United States because no treaty of extradition exists between the United States and Cuba, which has been subjected to a U.S. blockade and trade embargo for more than 40 years.

Despite this, the U.S. government and the state of New Jersey have repeatedly called for her capture. The meaning of this new million-dollar bounty is to encourage and finance what amounts to a kidnapping, one that could end with Assata’s death. Our memories are haunted by stories of fiercely independent Blacks whose dignity and pursuit of freedom won
the hatred of enraged White men who sometimes murdered them, riding publicly in lynch mobs that no law restrained.

The government has elevated this barbaric conduct to the diplomatic level as a way to reimprison one Black woman who dared fight for our freedom. The FBI and the state of New Jersey must be forced to obey the law. We cannot allow them to engage in lynch-mob diplomacy.

WHAT YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW

For more information about Assata Shakur’s case and what you can do to support her, please visit assatashakur.org or handsoffassata.net, or call the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement at (718) 254-8800