This morning on the Tom Joyner Morning Show Tavis Smiley discussed Clarence Thomas' new ook and his appearance Sunday on 60 Minutes which I did not see. Apparently, Clarence Thomas has a grudge against light-skinned Blacks-who rejected him because he was dark as he was growing up. Some real insights into this man and the construction of a Black Conservative. His disavowal of Blacks leads to his stand against affirmative action(which he used to get where he is). Interesting the psychology.

I am now reading Middlesex. All I have to say so far is that in my mind I see Shelly Winters as Desdemona.

Just One Lifetime

Barbra

At last my heart is ready.
This time I can believe
That love has truly found me.
How sweetly love surrounds me.
You're like a glimpse of heaven,
A blessing I've received.
I'll give you my tomorrows.
But even now I can see...
Just one lifetime
Won't be enough time for us.
We need more
For all this love.
Just one lifetime
Can't be enough time for us.
We need more
For all this love.

What you have given to me
Is better but a dream.
There's no need for pretending
You're my happy ending.
So I will hold you closer
With all the love in me
And wish we had forever
For even now I can see...

Just one lifetime
Won't be enough time for us.
We need more
For all this love.
Just one lifetime
Can never be enough time.
We need more
For all this love.

I prayed my heart would lead me
To find a love somewhere.
It's taken me a lifetime
To find you waiting for me there.

Just one lifetime
Won't be enough time for us.
We need more
For all this love.
Just one lifetime
And all that's waiting for us
We want more
For all...
For all this love.

I was listening to Master P and Michelle Martin on Michelle Martin's program on NPR this morning discussing the problems of mysogyny and other horrid things in the world of hip hop. They at one point began discussing the gangster image. Something that should be pointed out and made crystal clear is that the image of the thug and the image of the gangster is nothing but an inverted cowboy, nothing but black males trying to emulate their great white fathers. The gangster is literally Ronald Reagan on his horse.....

A Rise in Violence in the United States

It has been all over the news lately that violent crimes have increased dramatically. Every pundit on tv has been pondering why. It amuses me and phases me at the same time that people can't see the connections between war and violence in all forms....They are killing millions of people around the globe and especially in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Beware of Voter ID Bills. They are designed and introduced for the sole purpose of keeping people away from the poles. The more people they can disqualify, the better chances republicans have of winning.

Better Days

Diane Reeves

Silver gray hair
Neatly combed in place
There were four generations
Of love on her face
She was so wise
No surprise passed her eyes
She's seen it all

I was a child, oh
About three or four
All day I'd ask questions
At night I'd ask more
But whenever, she never
Would ever turn me away
No, no oh woah
I'd say how can I be sure
What is right or wrong
And why does
What I want
Always take so long
Please tell me
Where does God live
And why won't
He talk to me
I'd say Grandma
What is love
Will I ever find out
Why are we so poor
What is life about
I wanna know the answers
Before I fall off to sleep
Woah ho woah ho

She saw the smile
As she tucked me in
Then she pulled up that
Old rockin' chair once again
But tonight she was
Slightly, remarkably
Different somehow
Slowly she rocked
Lookin' half asleep
Grandma yawned
As she stretched
Then she started to speak
What she told me
Would mould me and hold me
Together inside
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

She said all the things you ask
You will know someday
But you have got to live
In a patient way
God put us here by fate
And by fate that means
Better days

She said, child we are all
Moons in the dark of night
Ain't no mornings gonna come
Till the time is right
Can't get no better days lest
You make it through the night
You gotta make it
Through the night
Yes you do
You can't get to no
Better days
Unless you make it
Through the night (baby)
Oh ho, you will see
Those better days
But you gotta be patient
Be patient, oh baby
Be patient

Later that year at
The turn of spring
Heaven sent angels down
And gave Grandma her wings
Now, she's flyin'
And slidin', and glidin'
In better days
And although
I'm all grown up
I still get confused
I stumble through the dark
Getting bumped and bruised
When night gets in my way
I could still hear
My Grandma say
I can hear her say
I can hear her sayin'

You can't get to no
Better days
Unless you make it
Through the night (baby)
Oh ho, you will see
Those better days
But you gotta be patient
Child, do you hear me, yeah
Well, well, well, well
You can't get to no, no
Better days
Unless you make it
You got to make it
You got to make it
Through the night
Oh Grandma, oh Grandma
Do you see me now, lady
Oh oh oh oh oh
Tender replies

God Bless Chris Dodd. He is a good man.

Why is the Bush administration selling weapons to the Iraqi military?

The GOP and the Afro-American Community

Everyone should have heard Tavis Smiley on the Tom Joyner Morning Show this morning. The big question is, why are the major contenders in the GOP race for the GOP presidential nomination snubbing Blacks? None of the major contenders showed up at Tavis Smiley's political event this evening and as Tavis pointed out this morning, Guiliani, Thompson, Romney,and McCain have repeatedly declined invitations from Blacks, Latinos, Gays, and other minority groups to make appearances to speak before their organizations and discuss issues pertinent to their communities. As Tavis said this morning, we need to remember this come election time and we need to call them on it. It's worse than the 2000 elections where they had white people holding signs at the GOP convention that read "Viva Bush."

I absolutely condemn the government of Myanmar. God Bless all people engaged in revolutionary struggle.

Evo Morales on Democracy Now

Amy Goodman had a wonderful hour-long interview with Bolivian President, Evo Morales last night on Democracy Now. I will soon write about all of the progressive Latin American presidents on my blog.

Michael Moore On Oprah Discussing Universal Healthcare

God Bless Oprah and Michael Moore! Hooray for Universal healthcare!

Revelation

As I was watching Ken Burn's The War , I began to think about U.S.-Soviet relations and the entire grind that the U.S. had against the Soviet Union. It dawned on me that the same prejudices the U.S. held against the Soviet Union were the same ones that the British held against the French Revolution. Exactly the same reason......

Beware of the Republicans

They may try to steal another election.

Iran and Homosexuality

Ahmadinejad is quite an attractive man. I'm sure his mind could be changed on the subject of homosexuality. On the other hand, I wouldn't touch James Dobson from Focus on the Family.

Capital Police Arrest Iraqi Veterans Marching Against the War-From Indymedia

Fresh,new veterans returning from Iraq who have chosen to speak out against the war were arrested at the Capital in Washington D.C. There is a link to the story above with photos.

God Bless Ahmadinejad.

What I Will Firstly Say About Ahmadinejad at Columbia

He was introduced by a white man--and it was that very same white man--and other white men who have tried to castigate and condemn him. Cut their penises off -lets have no more bullshit from white men, whether it be Lee Bollinger at Columbia or George Bush in the white house!

Ahmadinejad's Speech at Columbia University-Full Text From the Washington Post

AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): In the name of God, the compassionate, the merciful...


TRANSLATOR: The president is reciting verses from the holy Koran in Arabic.


AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Oh, God, hasten the arrival of Imam al-Mahdi and grant him good health and victory and make us his followers and those to attest to his rightfulness.


Distinguished Dean, dear professors and students, ladies and gentlemen, at the outset I would like to extend my greetings to all of you. I am grateful to the almighty God for providing me with the opportunity to be in an academic environment, those seeking truth and striving for the promotion of science and knowledge.


At the outset I want to complain a bit from the person who read this political statement against me. In Iran tradition requires that when we demand a person to invite to be a speaker we actually respect our students and the professors by allowing them to make their own judgment and we don't think it's necessary before this speech is even given to come in with a series of claims...


(APPLAUSE)


... and to attempt in a so-called manner to provide vaccination of some sort to our students and our faculty.


I think the text read by the dear gentleman here, more than addressing me, was an insult to information and the knowledge of the audience here, present here. In a university environment we must allow people to speak their mind, to allow everyone to talk so that the truth is eventually revealed by all.


Certainly he took more than all the time I was allocated to speak, and that's fine with me. We'll just leave that to add up with the claims of respect for freedom and the freedom of speech that's given to us in this country.


Many parts of his speech, there were many insults and claims that were incorrect, regretfully.


AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Of course, I think that he was affected by the press, the media, and the political, sort of, mainstream line that you read here that goes against the very grain of the need for peace and stability in the world around us.


Nonetheless, I should not begin by being affected by this unfriendly treatment. I will tell you what I have to say, and then the questions he can raise and I'll be happy to provide answers. But as for one of the issues that he did raise, I most certainly would need to elaborate further so that we, for ourselves, can see how things fundamentally work.


It was my decision in this valuable forum and meeting to speak with you about the importance of knowledge, of information, of education. Academics and religious scholars are shining torches who shed light in order to remove darkness. And the ambiguities around us in guiding humanity out of ignorance and perplexity.


The key to the understanding of the realities around us rests in the hands of the researchers, those who seek to discover areas that are hidden, the unknown sciences, the windows of realities that they can open is done only through efforts of the scholars and the learned people in this world.


AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): With every effort there is a window that is opened, and one reality is discovered. Whenever the high stature of science and wisdom is preserved and the dignity of scholars and researchers are respected, humans have taken great strides toward their material and spiritual promotion.


In contrast, whenever learned people and knowledge have been neglected, humans have become stranded in the darkness of ignorance and negligence.


If it were not for human instinct, which tends toward continual discovery of truth, humans would have always remained stranded in ignorance and no way would not have discovered how to improve the life that we are given.


The nature of man is, in fact, a gift granted by the Almighty to all. The Almighty led mankind into this world and granted him wisdom and knowledge as his prime gift enabling him to know his God.


In the story of Adam, a conversation occurs between the Almighty and his angels. The angels call human beings an ambitious and merciless creature and protested against his creation.


But the Almighty responded, quote, "I have knowledge of what you are ignorant of," unquote. Then the Almighty told Adam the truth. And on the order of the Almighty, Adam revealed it to the angels.


The angels could not understand the truth as revealed by the human being.


AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): The Almighty said to them, quote, "Did not I say that I am aware of what is hidden in heaven and in the universe?" unquote.


In this way the angels prostrated themselves before Adam.


In the mission of all divine prophets, the first sermons were of the words of God, and those words -- piety, faith and wisdom -- have been spread to all mankind.


Regarding the holy prophet Moses, may peace be upon him, God says, quote, "And he was taught wisdom, the divine book, the Old Testament and the New Testament. He is the prophet appointed for the sake of the children of Israel, and I rightfully brought a sign from the Almighty, holy Koran (SPEAKING IN PERSIAN)," unquote.


The first words, which were revealed to the holy prophet of Islam, call the prophet to read, quote, "Read, read in the name of your God, who supersedes everything," unquote, the Almighty, quote again, "who taught the human being with the pen," unquote. Quote, "The Almighty taught human beings what they were ignorant of," unquote.


You see, in the first verses revealed to the holy prophet of Islam, words of reading, teaching and the pen are mentioned. These verses in fact introduced the Almighty as the teacher of human beings, the teacher who taught humans what they were ignorant of.


In another part of the Koran, on the mission of the holy prophet of Islam, it is mentioned that the Almighty appointed someone from amongst the common people as their prophet in order to, quote, "read for them the divine verses," unquote, and quote again, "and purify them from ideological and ethical contamination" unquote, and quote again, "to teach them the divine book and wisdom," unquote.


AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): My dear friends, all the words and messages of the divine prophets from Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, to David and Solomon and Moses, to Jesus and Mohammad delivered humans from ignorance, negligence, superstitions, unethical behavior, and corrupted ways of thinking, with respect to knowledge, on the path to knowledge, light and rightful ethics.


In our culture, the word science has been defined as illumination. In fact, the science means brightness and the real science is a science which rescues the human being from ignorance, to his own benefit. In one of the widely accepted definitions of science, it is stated that it is the light which sheds to the hearts of those who have been selected by the almighty.


Therefore, according to this definition, science is a divine gift and the heart is where it resides. If we accept that science means illumination, then its scope supersedes the experimental sciences and it includes every hidden and disclosed reality.


One of the main harms inflicted against science is to limit it to experimental and physical sciences. This harm occurs even though it extends far beyond this scope. Realities of the world are not limited to physical realities and the materials, just a shadow of supreme reality. And physical creation is just one of the stories of the creation of the world.


Human being is just an example of the creation that is a combination of a material and the spirit. And another important point is the relationship of science and purity of spirit, life, behavior and ethics of the human being. In the teachings of the divine prophets, one reality shall always be attached to science; the reality of purity of spirit and good behavior. Knowledge and wisdom is pure and clear reality.


It is -- science is a light. It is a discovery of reality. And only a pure scholar and researcher, free from wrong ideologies, superstitions, selfishness and material trappings can discover -- discover the reality.


AHMADINEJAD: My dear friends and scholars, distinguished participants, science and wisdom can also be misused, a misuse caused by selfishness, corruption, material desires and material interests, as well as individual and group interests.


Material desires place humans against the realities of the world. Corrupted and dependent human beings resist acceptance of reality. And even if they do accept it, they do not obey it.


There are many scholars who are aware of the realities but do not accept them. Their selfishness does not allow them to accept those realities.


Do those who, in the course of human history, wage wars, not understand the reality that lives, properties, dignity, territories, and the rights of all human beings should be respected, or did they understand it but neither have faith in nor abide by it?


My dear friends, as long as the human heart is not free from hatred, envy, and selfishness, it does not abide by the truth, by the illumination of science and science itself.


Science is the light, and scientists must be pure and pious. If humanity achieves the highest level of physical and spiritual knowledge but its scholars and scientists are not pure, then this knowledge cannot serve the interests of humanity, and several events can ensue.


First, the wrongdoers reveal only a part of the reality, which is to their own benefit, and conceal the rest. As we have witnessed with respect to the scholars of the divine religions in the past, too, unfortunately, today, we see that certain researchers and scientists are still hiding the truth from the people.


Second, science, scientists, and scholars are misused for personal, group, or party interests. So, in today's world, bullying powers are misusing many scholars and scientists in different fields with the purpose of stripping nations of their wealth.


AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): And they use all opportunities only for their own benefit.


For example, they deceive people by using scientific methods and tools. They, in fact, wish to justify their own wrongdoings, though. By creating nonexistent enemies, for example, and an insecure atmosphere, they try to control all in the name of combating insecurity and terrorism.


They even violate individual and social freedoms in their own nations under that pretext. They do not respect the privacy of their own people. They tap telephone calls and try to control their people. They create an insecure psychological atmosphere in order to justify their warmongering acts in different parts of the world.


As another example, by using precise scientific methods and planning, they begin their onslaught on the domestic cultures of nations, the cultures which are the result of thousands of years of interaction, creativity and artistic activities.


They try to eliminate these cultures in order to separate the people from their identity and cut their bonds with their own history and values. They prepare the ground for stripping people from their spiritual and material wealth by instilling in them feelings of intimidation, desire for imitation and (inaudible) submission to oppressive powers and disability.


Making nuclear, chemical and biological bombs and weapons of mass destruction is yet another result of the misuse of science and research by the big powers.


AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Without cooperation of certain scientists and scholars, we would not have witnessed production of different nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.


Are these weapons to protect global security?


What can a perpetual nuclear umbrella threat achieve for the sake of humanity?


If nuclear war wages between nuclear powers, what human catastrophe will take place?


Today we can see the nuclear effects in even new generations of Nagasaki and Hiroshima residents, which might be witnessed in even the next generations to come.


Presently, the effects of the depleted uranium used in weapons since the beginning of the war in Iraq can be examined and investigated accordingly.


These catastrophes take place only when scientists and scholars are misused by oppressors.


Another point of sorrow: Some big powers create a monopoly over science and prevent other nations in achieving scientific development as well.


This, too, is one of the surprises of our time. Some big powers do not want to see the progress of other societies and nations. They turn to thousands of reasons, make allegations, place economic sanctions to prevent other nations from developing and advancing, all resulting from their distance from human values and the teachings of the divine prophets.


Regretfully, they have not been trained to serve mankind.


AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Dear academics, dear faculty and scholars, students, I believe that the biggest God-given gift to man is science and knowledge. Man's search for knowledge and the truth through science is what it guarantees to do in getting close to God. But science has to combine with the purity of the spirit and of the purity of man's spirit so that scholars can unveil the truth and then use that truth for advancing humanity's cause.


These scholars would be not only people who would guide humanity, but also guide humanity towards a better future.


And it is necessary that big powers should not allow mankind to engage in monopolistic activities and to prevent other nations from achieving that science. Science is a divine gift by God to everyone, and therefore, it must remain pure.


God is aware of all reality. All researchers and scholars are loved by God. So I hope there will be a day where these scholars and scientists will rule the world and God himself will arrive with Moses and Christ and Mohammed to rule the world and to take us toward justice.


I'd like to thank you now but refer to two points made in the introduction given about me, and then I will be open for any questions.


Last year -- I would say two years ago -- I raised two questions. You know that my main job is a university instructor.


AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Right now, as president of Iran, I still continue teaching graduate and Ph.D.-level courses on a weekly basis. My students are working with me in scientific fields. I believe that I am an academic, myself. So I speak with you from an academic point of view, and I raised two questions.


But, instead of a response, I got a wave of insults and allegations against me. And regretfully, they came mostly from groups who claimed most to believe in the freedom of speech and the freedom of information. You know quite well that Palestine is an old wound, as old as 60 years. For 60 years, these people are displaced.


For 60 years, these people are being killed. For 60 years, on a daily basis, there's conflict and terror. For 60 years, innocent women and children are destroyed and killed by helicopters and airplanes that break the house over their heads. For 60 years, children and kindergartens, in schools, in high schools, are in prison being tortured. For 60 years, security in the Middle East has been endangered. For 60 years, the slogan of expansionism from the Nile to the Euphrates is being chanted by certain groups in that part of the world.


And as an academic, I asked two questions; the same two questions that I will ask here again. And you judge, for yourselves, whether the response to these questions should be the insults, the allegations, and all the words and the negative propaganda or should we really try and face these two questions and respond to them?


AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Like you, like any academic, I, too, will keep -- not yet become silent until I get the answer. So I'm awaiting logical answers instead of insults.


My first question was if -- given that the Holocaust is a present reality of our time, a history that occurred, why is there not sufficient research that can approach the topic from different perspectives?


Our friend referred to 1930 as the point of departure for this development. However, I believe the Holocaust from what we've read happened during World War II, after 1930, in the 1940s. So, you know, we have to really be able to trace the event.


My question was simple: There are researchers who want to approach the topic from a different perspective. Why are they put into prison? Right now, there are a number of European academics who have been sent to prison because they attempted to write about the Holocaust or research it from a different perspective, questioning certain aspects of it.


My question is: Why isn't it open to all forms of research?


I have been told that there's been enough research on the topic. And I ask, well, when it comes to topics such as freedom, topics such as democracy, concepts and norms such as God, religion, physics even, or chemistry, there's been a lot of research, but we still continue more research on those topics. We encourage it.


But, then, why don't we encourage more research on a historical event that has become the root, the cause of many heavy catastrophes in the region in this time and age?


AHMADINEJAD: Why shouldn't there be more research about the root causes? That was my first question.


And my second question, well, given this historical event, if it is a reality, we need to still question whether the Palestinian people should be paying for it or not. After all, it happened in Europe. The Palestinian people had no role to play in it. So why is it that the Palestinian people are paying the price of an event they had nothing to do with?


The Palestinian people didn't commit any crime. They had no role to play in World War II. They were living with the Jewish communities and the Christian communities in peace at the time. They didn't have any problems.


And today, too, Jews, Christians and Muslims live in brotherhood all over the world in many parts of the world. They don't have any serious problems.


But why is it that the Palestinians should pay a price, innocent Palestinians, for 5 million people to remain displaced or refugees abroad for 60 years. Is this not a crime? Is asking about these crimes a crime by itself?


Why should an academic myself face insults when asking questions like this? Is this what you call freedom and upholding the freedom of thought?


And as for the second topic, Iran's nuclear issue, I know there is time limits, but I need time. I mean, a lot of time was taken from me.


We are a country, we are a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency. For over 33 years we are a member state of the agency. The bylaw of the agency explicitly states that all member states have the right to the peaceful nuclear fuel technology. This is an explicit statement made in the bylaw, and the bylaw says that there is no pretext or excuse, even the inspections carried by the IAEA itself that can prevent member states' right to have that right.


Of course, the IAEA is responsible to carry out inspections. We are one of the countries that's carried out the most amount of level of cooperation with the IAEA. They have had hours and weeks and days of inspections in our country, and over and over again the agency's reports indicate that Iran's activities are peaceful, that they have not detected a deviation, and that Iran -- they have received positive cooperation from Iran.


But regretfully, two or three monopolistic powers, selfish powers want to force their word on the Iranian people and deny them their right.


AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): They keep saying...


(CROSSTALK)


AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): They tell us you don't let them -- they won't let them inspect. Why not? Of course we do. How come is it, anyway, that you have that right and we can't have it? We want to have the right to peaceful nuclear energy. They tell us, don't make it yourself, we'll give it to you.


Well, in the past, I tell you, we had contracts with the U.S. government, with the British government, the French government, the German government, and the Canadian government on nuclear development for peaceful purposes. But unilaterally, each and every one of them canceled their contracts with us, as a result of which the Iranian people had to pay a heavy cost in billions of dollars.


Why do we need the fuel from you? You've not even given us spare aircraft parts that we need for civilian aircraft for 28 years under the name of embargo and sanctions because we're against, for example, human rights or freedom? Under that pretext, you are deny us that technology? We want to have the right to self-determination toward our future. We want to be independent. Don't interfere in us.


If you don't give us spare parts for civilian aircraft, what is the expectation that you'd give us fuel for nuclear development for peaceful purposes?


For 30 years, we've faced these problems for over $5 billion to the Germans and then to the Russians, but we haven't gotten anything. And the words have not been completed.


It is our right. We want our right. And we don't want anything beyond the law, nothing less than international law.


We are a peaceful, loving nation. We love all nations.


(APPLAUSE)


MODERATOR: Mr. President, your statements here today and in the past have provoked many questions which I would like to pose to you on behalf of the students and faculty who have submitted them to me.


Let me begin with the question to which you just alluded...


AHMADINEJAD: Just one by one, one by one -- could you just...


MODERATOR: Yes.


(APPLAUSE)


MODERATOR: The first question is: Do you or your government seek the destruction of the state of Israel as a Jewish state?


AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): We love all nations. We are friends with the Jewish people. There are many Jews in Iran, leaving peacefully, with security.


You must understand that in our constitution and our laws and in the parliamentary elections for every 150,000 people, we get one representative in the parliament. For the Jewish community, for one- fifth of this number, they still get one independent representative in the parliament.


So our proposal to the Palestinian plight is a humanitarian and democratic proposal. What we say is that to solve this 60-year problem, we must allow the Palestinian people to decide about its future for itself.


This is compatible with the spirit of the Charter of the United Nations and the fundamental principles enshrined in it. We must allow Jewish Palestinians, Muslim Palestinians and Christian Palestinians to determine their own fate themselves through a free referendum.


AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Whatever they choose as a nation, everybody should accept and respect. Nobody should interfere in the affairs of the Palestinian nation. Nobody should sow the seeds of discord. Nobody should spend tens of billions of dollars equipping and arming one group there.


We say allow the Palestinian nation to decide its own future, to have the right to self-determination for itself. This is what we are saying as the Iranian nation.


(APPLAUSE)


QUESTION: Mr. President, I think many members of our audience would like to hear a clearer answer to that question. That is...


(APPLAUSE)


The question is: Do you or your government seek the destruction of the state of Israel as a Jewish state? And I think you could answer that question with a single word, either yes or no.


(APPLAUSE)


AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): You asked the question, and then you want the answer the way you want to hear it. Well, this isn't really a free flow of information.


(APPLAUSE)


I'm just telling you what my position is. I'm asking you: Is the Palestinian issue not an international issue of prominence or not? Please tell me, yes or no?


(APPLAUSE)


There's the plight of a people.


QUESTION: The answer to your question is yes.


AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Well, thank you for your cooperation. We recognize there's a problem there that's been going on for 60 years. Everybody provides a solution. And our solution is a free referendum.


Let this referendum happen, and then you'll see what the results are.


AHMADINEJAD: Let the people of Palestine freely choose what they want for their future. And then what you want in your mind to happen there will happen and will be realized.


QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) second question, which was posed by President Bollinger earlier and comes from a number of other students: Why is your government providing aid to terrorists?


Will you stop doing so and permit international monitoring to certify that you have stopped?


AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Well, I want to pose a question here to you. If someone comes and explodes bombs around you, threatens your president, members of the administration, kills the members of the Senate or Congress, how would you treat them?


Would you reward them, or would you name them a terrorist group?


Well, it's clear. You would call them a terrorist.


My dear friends, the Iranian nation is a victim of terrorism. For --26 years ago, where I worked, close to where I worked, in a terrorist operation, the elected president of the Iranian nation and the elected prime minister of Iran lost their lives in a bomb explosion. They turned into ashes.


A month later, in another terrorist operation, 72 members of our parliament and highest-ranking officials, including four ministers and eight deputy ministers' bodies were shattered into pieces as a result of terrorist attacks.


AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Within six months, over 4,000 Iranians lost their lives, assassinated by terrorist groups. All this carried out by the hand of one single terrorist group. Regretfully, that same terrorist group now, today, in your country, is being -- operating under the support of the U.S. administration, working freely, distributing declarations freely, and their camps in Iraq are supported by the U.S. government.


They're secured by the U.S. government. Our nation has been harmed by terrorist activities. We were the first nation that objected to terrorism and the first to uphold the need to fight terrorism.


(APPLAUSE)


QUESTION: Mr. President, a number of questioners -- sorry -- a number of people have asked...


AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): We need to address the root causes of terrorism and eradicate those root causes. We live in the Middle East. For us, it's quite clear which powers, sort of, incite terrorists, support them, fund them. We know that. Our nation, the Iranian nation, through history has always extended a hand of friendship to other nations. We're a cultured nation.


We don't need to resort to terrorism. We've been victims of terrorism, ourselves. And it's regrettable that people who argue they're fighting terrorism, instead of supporting the Iranian people and nation, instead of fighting the terrorists that are attacking them, they're supporting the terrorists and then turn the fingers to us.


AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): This is most regrettable.


QUESTION: Mr. President, a further set of questions challenged your view of the Holocaust. Since the evidence that this occurred in Europe in the 1940s, as a result of the actions of the German Nazi government, since that -- those facts -- are well documented, why are you calling for additional research? There seems to be no purpose in doing so, other than to question whether the Holocaust actually occurred as a historical fact.


Can you explain why you believe more research is needed into the facts of what are -- what is -- what are incontrovertible?


AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Thank you very much for your question. I am an academic, and you are as well.


Can you argue that researching a phenomenon is finished, forever done? Can we close the books for good on a historical event?


There are different perspectives that come to light after every research is done. Why should we stop research at all? Why should we stop the progress of science and knowledge?


You shouldn't ask me why I'm asking questions. You should ask yourselves why you think that that's questionable? Why do you want to stop the progress of science and research?


Do you ever take what's known as absolute in physics? We had principles in mathematics that were granted to be absolute in mathematics for over 800 years. But new science has gotten rid of those absolutisms, come forward other different logics of looking at mathematics and sort of turned the way we look at it as a science altogether after 800 years.


So, we must allow researchers, scholars, they investigate into everything, every phenomenon -- God, universe, human beings, history and civilization. Why should we stop that?


I am not saying that it didn't happen at all. This is not that judgment that I am passing here.


I said, in my second question, granted this happened, what does it have to do with the Palestinian people?


AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): This is a serious question. There are two dimensions. In the first question...


QUESTION: Let me just -- let me pursue this a bit further.


It is difficult to have a scientific discussion if there isn't at least some basis, some empirical basis, some agreement about what the facts are. So calling for research into the facts when the facts are so well established represents for many a challenging of the facts themselves and a denial that something terrible occurred in Europe in those years.


(APPLAUSE)


Let me move on to...


AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Allow me. After all, you are free to interpret what you want from what I say. But what I am saying I'm saying with full clarity.


In the first question I'm trying to actually uphold the rights of European scholars. In the field of science and research I'm asking, there is nothing known as absolute. There is nothing sufficiently done. Not in physics for certain. There has been more research on physics than it has on the Holocaust, but we still continue to do research on physics. There is nothing wrong with doing it.


This is what man wants. They want to approach a topic from different points of view. Scientists want to do that. Especially an issue that has become the foundation of so many other political developments that have unfolded in the Middle East in the past 60 years.


Why do we stop it altogether? You have to have a justified reason for it. The fact that it was researched sufficiently in the past is not a sufficient justification in my mind.


QUESTION: Mr. President, another student asks -- Iranian women are now denied basic human rights and your government has imposed draconian punishments, including execution on Iranian citizens who are homosexuals. Why are you doing those things?


AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Freedoms in Iran are genuine, true freedoms. Iranian people are free. Women in Iran enjoy the highest levels of freedom.


We have two deputy -- two vice presidents that are female, at the highest levels of specialty, specialized fields. In our parliament and our government and our universities, they're present. In our biotechnological fields, our technological fields, there are hundreds of women scientists that are active -- in the political realm as well.


It's not -- it's wrong for some governments, when they disagree with another government, to, sort of, try to spread lies that distort the full truth.


Our nation is free. It has the highest level of participation in elections, in Iran. Eighty percent, ninety percent of the people turn out for votes during the elections, half of which, over half of which are women. So how can we say that women are not free? Is that the entire truth?


But as for the executions, I'd like to raise two questions. If someone comes and establishes a network for illicit drug trafficking that affects the youth in Iran, Turkey, Europe, the United States, by introducing these illicit drugs and destroys them, would you ever reward them?


People who lead the lives -- cause the deterioration of the lives of hundreds of millions of youth around the world, including in Iran, can we have any sympathy to them? Don't you have capital punishment in the United States? You do, too.


(APPLAUSE)


AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): In Iran, too, there's capital punishment for illicit drug traffickers, for people who violated the rights of people. If somebody takes up a gun, goes into a house, kills a group of people there, and then tries to take ransom, how would you confront them in Iran -- or in the United States? Would you reward them? Can a physician allow microbes symbolically speaking to spread across a nation?


We have laws. People who violate the public rights of the people by using guns, killing people, creating insecurity, sells drugs, distribute drugs at a high level are sentenced to execution in Iran.


And some of these punishments, very few, are carried in the public eye, before the public eye. It's a law, based on democratic principles. You use injections and microbes to kill these people, and they, they're executed or they're hung. But the end result is killing.


QUESTION: Mr. President, the question isn't about criminal and drug smugglers. The question was about sexual preference and women.


(APPLAUSE)


AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): In Iran, we don't have homosexuals, like in your country.


(LAUGHTER)


We don't have that in our country.


(AUDIENCE BOOING)


AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): In Iran, we do not have this phenomenon. I don't know who's told you that we have it.


(LAUGHTER)


But, as for women, maybe you think that being a woman is a crime. It's not a crime to be a woman.


AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Women are the best creatures created by God. They represent the kindness, the beauty that God instills in them. Women are respected in Iran. In Iran, every family who is given a girl -- is given -- in every Iranian family who has a girl, they are 10 times happier than having a son. Women are respected more than men are.


They are exempt from many responsibilities. Many of the legal responsibilities rest on the shoulders of men in our society because of the respect, culturally given, to women, to the future mothers. In Iranian culture, men and sons and girls constantly kiss the hands of their mothers as a sign of respect, respect for women. And we are proud of this culture.


QUESTION: Mr. President, I have two questions which I'll put together.


One is, what did you hope to accomplish by speaking at Columbia today? And the second is, what would you have said if you were permitted to visit the site of the September 11th tragedy?


AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Well, here, I'm your guest. I've been invited by Columbia, an official invitation given for me to come here. But I do want to say something here.


In Iran, when you invite a guest, you respect them. This is our tradition, required by our culture. And I know that American people have that culture, as well. Last year, I wanted to go to the site of the September 11th tragedy to show respect to the victims of the tragedy, to show my sympathy with their families.


But our plans got overextended. We were involved in negotiations and meetings until midnight. And they said it would be very difficult to go visit the site at that late hour of the night. So, I told my friends then that they need to plan this for the following year so that I can go and visit the site and to show my respects.


Regretfully, some groups had very strong reactions, very bad reactions. It's bad for someone to prevent someone to show sympathy to the families of the victims of the September 11 event -- tragic event. This is a respect from my side. Somebody told me this is an insult. I said, "What are you saying? This is my way of showing my respect. Why would you think that?"


Thinking like that, how do you expect to manage the world and world affairs?


AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Don't you think that a lot of problems in the world come from the way you look at issues because of this kind of way of thinking, because of this sort of pessimistic approach toward a lot of people, because of a certain level of selfishness, self-absorption that needs to be put aside so that we can show respect to everyone, to allow an environment for friendship to grow, to allow all nations to talk with one another and move toward peace?


What was the second question?


I wanted to speak with the press. The September 11th tragic event was a huge event. It led to a lot of many other events afterwards. After 9/11 Afghanistan was occupied, and then Iraq was occupied. And for six years in our region there is insecurity, terror and fear.


If the root causes of 9/11 are examined properly -- why it was happened, what caused it, what were the conditions that led to it, who truly was involved, who was really involved -- and put it all together to understand how to prevent the crisis in Iraq, fix the problem in Afghanistan and Iraq combined.


QUESTION: Mr. President, a number of questions have asked about your nuclear program. Why is your government seeking to acquire enriched uranium suitable for nuclear weapons? Will you stop doing so?


AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Our nuclear program, first and foremost, operates within the framework of law.


And, second, under the inspections of the IAEA.


And, thirdly, they are completely peaceful.


The technology we have is for enrichment below the level of 5 percent level.


AHMADINEJAD: And any level below 5 percent is solely for providing fuel to power plants. Repeated reports by the IAEA explicitly say that there is no indication that Iran has deviated from the peaceful path of its nuclear program.


We are all well aware that Iran's nuclear issue is a political issue. It's not a legal issue. The international atomic energy organization -- agency has verified that our activities are for peaceful purposes.


But there are two or three powers that think that they have the right to monopolize all science and knowledge. And they expect the Iranian people, the Iranian nation, to turn to others to get fuel, to get science, to get knowledge that's indigenous to itself, to humble itself. And then they would, of course, refrain from giving it to us, too.


So we're quite clear what we need.


If you have created the fifth generation of atomic bombs and are testing them already, what position are you in to question the peaceful purposes of other people who want nuclear power?


We do not believe in nuclear weapons, period. It goes against the whole grain of humanity.


(APPLAUSE)


So let me just joke -- try to tell a joke here. I think the politicians who are after atomic bombs or are testing them, making them, politically, they are backward, retarded.


(APPLAUSE)


QUESTION: Mr. President, a final question. I know your time is short and that you need to move on. Is Iran prepared to open broad discussions with the government of the United States?


What would Iran hope to achieve in such discussions?


How do you see, in the future, a resolution of the points of conflict between the government of the United States and the government of Iran?


AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): From the start, we announced that we are ready to negotiate with all countries.


AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Since 28 years ago, when our revolution succeeded and we established, we took freedom and democracy that was held at bay by a pro-Western dictatorship. We announced our readiness that besides two countries, we are ready to have friendly relations and talks with all countries of the world.


One of those two was the apartheid regime of South Africa, which has been eliminated. And the second was the Zionist regime. For everybody else around the world, we announced that we want to have friendly, brotherly ties. The Iranian nation is a cultured nation. It is a civilized nation. It seeks -- it wants talks and negotiations. It's for it.


We believe that in negotiations and talks, everything can be resolved very easily. We don't need threats. We don't need to point bombs or guns. We don't need to get into conflicts if we talk. We have a clear logic about that.


We question the way the world is being run and managed today. We believe that it will not lead to viable peace and security for the world, the way it's run today. We have solutions based on humane values and for relations among states. With the U.S. government, too, we will negotiate -- we don't have any issues about that -- under fair, just circumstances with mutual respect on both sides.


You saw that in order to help the security of Iraq, we had three rounds of talks with the United States, and last year, before coming to New York, I announced that I am ready in the United Nations to engage in a debate with Mr. Bush, the president of the United States, about critical international issues.


AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): So that shows that we want to talk. Having a debate before the all the audience, so the truth is revealed, so that misunderstandings and misperceptions are removed, so that we can find a clear path for brotherly and friendly relations.


I think that if the U.S. administration, if the U.S. government puts aside some of its old behaviors, it can actually be a good friend for the Iranian people, for the Iranian nation.


For 28 years, they've consistently threatened us, insulted us, prevented our scientific development, every day, under one pretext or another.


You all know Saddam, the dictator, was supported by the government of the United States and some European countries in attacking Iran. And he carried out an eight-year war, a criminal war. Over 200,000 Iranians lost their lives. Over 600,000 Iranians were hurt as a result of the war.


He used chemical weapons. Thousands of Iranians were victims of chemical weapons that he used against us.


Today, Mr. Noble Vinn (ph), who is a reporter, an official reporter, international reporter, who was covering U.N. reports in the U.N. for many years, he is one of the victims of the chemical weapons used by Iraq against us.


And since then, we've been under different propaganda, sort of embargoes, economic sanctions, political sanctions. Why? Because we got rid of a dictator? Because we wanted the freedom and democracy that we got for ourselves? That, we can't understand.


We think that if the U.S. government recognizes the rights of the Iranian people, respects all nations and extends a hand of friendship with all Iranians, they, too, will see that Iranians will be one of its best friends.


AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Would you allow me to thank the audience a moment?


Well, there are many things that I would have liked to cover, but I don't want to take your time any further. I was asked: Would I allow the faculty at Columbia and students here to come to Iran? From this platform, I invite Columbia faculty members and students to come and visit Iran, to speak with our university students. You're officially invited.


(APPLAUSE)


University faculty and students that the university decides, or the student associations choose and select are welcome to come. You're welcome to visit any university that you choose inside Iran. We'll provide you with the list of the universities. There are over 400 universities in our country. And you can choose whichever you want to go and visit. We'll give you the platform. We'll respect you 100 percent. We will have our students sit there and listen to you, speak with you, hear what you have to say.


Right now in our universities on a daily basis there are hundreds of meetings like this. They hear, they talk, they ask questions. They welcome it.


In the end I'd like to thank Columbia University. I had heard that many politicians in the United States are trained in Columbia University. And there are many people here who believe in the freedom of speech, in clear, frank conversations.


I do like to extend my gratitude to the managers here in the United States -- at Columbia University, I apologize -- the people who so well organized this meeting today.


AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): I'd like to extend my deepest gratitude to the faculty members and the students here. I ask Almighty God to assist all of us to move hand in hand to establish peace and future filled with friendship and justice and brotherhood.


Best of luck to all of you.


(APPLAUSE)


MODERATOR: I'm sorry that President Ahmadinejad's schedule makes it necessary for him to leave before he's been able to answer many of the questions that we have, or even answer some of the ones that we posed to him.


(LAUGHTER)


(APPLAUSE)


But I think we can all be pleased that his appearance here demonstrates Columbia's deep commitment to free expression and debate. I want to thank you all for coming to participate.


(APPLAUSE)


Thank you.


END


.ETX

A Sad Passing

Marcel Marceau, the magnificent mime artist, died today. What a loss.

More on Patti

For me, Patti is one of my foundational rocks. I have loved Patti and her music all of my life. She predates Barbra. I used to sing and oh so sing along with her "On my Own," when it came out...but by that time I had been listening to Patti a long time...since the big hair, the big earrings, and the early 80s.

Patti Labelle is one of my favorite singers-behind Barbra, but right behind her--in a tier shared only by Nina Simone. Everytime I am home I pick up her Patti's Pearls, which either my mother or sister bought. It is a great little book. I have read quite a few of her books. Loved, Don't Block the Blessing. Thank you, Patti for such beautiful stuff. This time when I pick up that book, I'm taking it with me.

When You've Been Blessed(Feel's Like Heaven)

Patti Labelle

In a world of superheros, in a world of weak and
strong;
In a sea of have and have nots, I've survived the
raging storm.

And I pray for a world where we all can be free,
It's a heavenly vision, It's a garden that I see.
It's a joy that graced the heart of lovin me.
When you've been blessed...feels like heaven
When you've been blessed...feels like heaven.

I have faith, I have hope. And I trust in the day
When the music from heaven will show us the way.
It's a garden of music, it's a garden of love,
And we are all HIS children sharing gifts from
above.
When you've been blessed....feels like heaven, feels
like heaven
When you've been blessed...pass it on, pass it on

Excerpts From Audre Lorde's Uses of Anger

And while we scrutinize the often painful face of each other's anger, please remember that it is not our anger which makes me caution you to lock your doors at night and not wander the streets of Hartford alone. It is the hatred which lurks in those streets that urge to destroy us all if we truly work for change rather than merely indulge in academic rhetoric...

This hatred and our anger are very different. Hatred is the fury of those who do not share our goals, and its object is death and destruction. Anger is a grief of distoritions between peers, and its object is change. We have been raised to view any difference other than sex as a reason for destruction and for Black women and white women to face each other's angers without denial and immobility or siklence or guilt is in itself a heretical and generative idea. It implies peers meeting upon a commonbasis to examine difference, and to alter those distortions which history has created around our difference. For it is those distortions which separate us. And we must ask ourselves: Who profits from all this?

Anger is an appropriate reaction to racist attitudes, as is fury when the actions arising from those attitudes do not change(my insert: Hurricane Katrina, the Jena 6). To those women here who fear the anger of women of Color more than their own unscrutinized racist attitudes, I ask: Is the anger of women of Color more threatening than the women-hatred that tinges all aspects of our lives?(My insert: the same can be said for racism and anger against racism-or anything else for that matter).

I cannot hide my anger to spare your guilt,nor hurt feelings, nor answering anger; for to do so insults and trivializes all our efforts. Guilt is not a response to anger; it is a response to one's own action or lack of action. If it leads to change then it can be useful, since it is then no longer guilt, but the beginning of knowledge. Yet all too often, guilt is just another name for impotence....

For women raised in fear, too often anger threatens annihilation. In the male construct of brute force, we were taught that our lives depended upon the goodwill of patriarchal power.The anger of others was to be avoided at all costs because there was nothing to be learned from it but pain, a judgement that we had been bad girls,come up lacking, not done what we were supposed to do. And if we accept our powerlessness, then of course any anger can destroy us.

Project Runway

I was mad that they let that boy win the last season of Project Runway--but now I am going through withdrawals! Bring it back!

UAW On Strike in Detroit

The UAW workers in GM plants have gone on strike today over contract negotiations. They deserve universal support.

God bless Joe Biden.

D.L. Hughley is absolutely hilarious! He said on his HBO special last night.

"White people want to build a wall around the border with Mexico. I want to know who's going to build it."

"The word nigger is older than hot dogs, the american flag, and apple pie-show me a white man that hasn't said or heard the word nigger and I'll show you a two year old!"

May God and the Universe be with Ahmadinejad on his trip through the US.

An Official Condemnation of Kathleen Blanco

"The Rev. Al Sharpton said in a statement Saturday that some of the families have received "almost around the clock calls of threats and harassment," and called on Gov. Kathleen Blanco to intervene.

A Blanco spokeswoman said the governor had asked law enforcement — primarily state police — to investigate"

This is an official condemnation of Kathleen Blanco,Governor of Louisiana for her inactivity and inadequate response to the case of the Jena 6 and further for her inadequate actions in regards to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. What a shameful display of inhumanity.

Ruben Navarette on the Jena 6

Ruben Navarette is an idiot. What a horrible waste of a human being.

Audre Lorde from Uses of Anger

Mainstream communication does not want women, particularly white women,responding to racism. It wants racism to be accepted as an immutable given in the fabric of your existence(my insert: such as a white tree, that you can't sit under.), much like eveningtime or the common cold. So we are working in a context of opposition and threat, the cause of which is certainly not the angers which lie between us, but rather that virulent hatred leveled against all women, people of Color,lesbians, gay men, poor people-against all of us who are seeking to examine the particulars of our lives as we resist our oppressions, moving toward coalition and effective action.

Post From Barbra Streisand's Blog About Republican Attempts to Steal Votes in California

09.18.07
G.O.P.’s Dirty Tricks Begin
The folks who gave us the Willie Horton ads, the Swift boat campaign, the purges of black voters in Florida and endless other dirty electoral tricks are at it again.

Like crack addicts confronting the irresistible vial, the evil geniuses of the G.O.P. can’t seem to help themselves. This time — with an eye toward seizing the White House again next year, even if they lose the popular vote — they’re trying to rewrite the rules for the distribution of electoral votes in California.

Under current law, all of California’s 55 electoral votes go to the presidential candidate who wins the popular vote statewide. This “winner take all” system is the norm in the U.S. It’s in place in all but two states, Maine and Nebraska, which have just four and five electoral votes, respectively.

Now comes a move, from lawyers with close ties to the Republican Party, to scrap the current system in California and replace it with one that would divide up the electoral votes in a way that would likely give 20 or more of them to the candidate who loses the popular vote in the state.

Democrats fear, correctly, that this maneuver could checkmate even their best efforts to win back the White House next year.

California is widely expected to go Democratic in the presidential election. Its 55 electoral votes are a hefty chunk of the 270 needed to win, and thus crucial to Democratic hopes.

Under this new proposal, the 20 or more electoral votes that would be denied the winner of the statewide vote in California, could well be enough to hand the White House to a Republican candidate who loses the popular vote nationally.

“Their idea is to have California be the only big state to do this,” said Chris Lehane, a Democratic strategist who is supporting Senator Hillary Clinton’s candidacy. “If the Republicans can poach 20 electoral votes from the Democrats in California, that’s the same as winning all the electoral votes in Ohio. You’re basically giving them the election.”

The effort to change the way Californians vote for president has been cloaked in the typically deceptive garb that the G.O.P. pulls out for its underhanded maneuvering. The proposal has been dubbed the “Presidential Election Reform Act.” It is being led by Thomas Hiltachk of Bell, McAndrews and Hiltachk, a law firm that has represented both the state Republican Party and G.O.P. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

According to The Associated Press, the firm was also linked to a political committee, largely funded by Bob Perry, that targeted Democratic candidates in 2006. Mr. Perry, a longtime supporter of George W. Bush, contributed millions of dollars to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, whose intense and deceptive campaign in 2004 was so damaging to the candidacy of John Kerry.

This crowd is no more interested in genuine electoral reform than Britney Spears is.

Mr. Hiltachk and his operatives are trying to gather enough signatures to get their proposal before the voters as a California ballot initiative next June. If they succeed, and the voters approve the initiative, the rules for apportioning the state’s electoral votes would be changed for the 2008 presidential election.

Instead of “winner take all,” 53 of the state’s 55 electoral votes would be apportioned according to the winner of the presidential popular vote in each of the state’s 53 Congressional districts. A single vote would be awarded to the winner in each district. (The other two votes would still go to the statewide winner.)

John Kerry defeated George W. Bush in California in 2004 and collected all of the state’s electoral votes. But Mr. Bush won the popular vote in 22 of the state’s Congressional districts. If this proposed system had been in effect, 22 electoral votes would have been withheld from Mr. Kerry and given to Mr. Bush.

“This clearly is a power grab by the Republican Party,” said John Travis, a longtime political science professor at Humboldt State University in California. Mr. Travis believes that while there may be problems with the Electoral College system, this is not the way to fix it.

“This is simply a way for the Republicans to manipulate California’s electoral votes to their advantage,” he said.

Democrats do not have perfectly clean hands when it comes to this sort of thing. A similar effort by Democrats in North Carolina was scrapped at the insistence of national party leaders, and not a moment too soon.

What the Democrats need to do now is make sure that California voters understand that they are the latest targeted pawns in the G.O.P.’s longstanding efforts to undermine not just the Democrats but democracy itself.

Friday's Oprah Show on Intersexed peoples.

Oprah is so fabulous! Such a powerful, progressive voice in the world.

The judge that just ruled against bail for Mychael Bell should be castrated.

All of these shootings absolutely trouble me. My prayers go out to the people of Delaware State University.

I am glad that Columbia University Ahmadinejad to speak and not bowing to pressures from the Bush administration and other white male bullshit,

I think the concept of nonviolence should be called anti-aggression. I will not ve an aggressor against you.

A Real, Serious Question

Why can't an american court pass a judgement that condemns U.S. foreign policy towards Israel? I think someone needs to pick that up and run with it. Run until they can't make any more excuses such as this.

Response to a Question As to Why Reed Walters, D.A. in Jena, Louisiana Should Resign or Be Fired

Reed Walters should resign because he is abusing his power, power afforded him by the people, against the people--and against children at that. Furthermore, he is operating within HIS racism(I will elaborate more on this concept in another post--calling on some things that Audre Lorde said about whites operating inside of their racist paradigms)in order to persecute Black youth. This will not be tolerated. There should NEVER have been a white tree-and whoever allowed it should have their penis cut off-and the protests of the Black students against this practice should have recieved the utmost attention and respect of the School Board-and as the former Black school administrator from Jena said--the DA should have had nothing to do with it. On top of all of that, with nooses hung in the tree-nearly everybody in the town who wanted to defend such bullshit should have been castrated--and the officials who failed to do anything about the nooses and to apprehend and reprimand the people responsible for the nooses and the white tree should have had their penises chopped off. On top of all of that, now that Mr. Man-Walters decides to put his shit into it his penis needs to go to. The END

One should note the similarities in the way the U.S. treats Ahmadenijad and its treatment of Castro in the 50s and 60s.

One thing I have noticed about the Purdue website. I haven't seen the new president's picture up on the website once. Retired President Jischke's face was on the website all of the time. Most of the faces they parade on the website are white and male.

Repost- Demand that Reed Walters, D.A. in Jena, Louisiana Be Fired or Resign

I think everyone across the country should call in to the office of the Governor of Louisiana and demand the job of Jena District attorney Reed Walters. You can contact the governor's office at


Office of the Governor
Attn: Constituent Services
P.O. Box 94004
Baton Rouge, LA 70804-9004 Facsimile: 225-342-7099 E-mail the Governor

Call
866-366-1121
225-342-0991
225-342-7015

To reach the courthouse in Jena, Louisiana call
1050 Courthouse St, Jena - (318) 992-2158

Demand that District Attorney Reed Walters loose his job over the case of the Jena 6. "With just a stroke of my pen, I can make your lives end."-D.A. Reed Walters to 6 Black Students in Jena, Louisiana.

I think it is absolutely necessary to look into the history of Jena, Louisiana. Why are Blacks only 8% of the population(with one Black on the school board)? What were the politics of the town that either kept blacks out or pushed blacks away?

I think that police precinct is going to have to pay for tasing Andrew Meyer. They absolutely shouldnt have done it. They overstepped any bounds and totally violated him.

Why has no one castrated the DA in Jena, Louisiana?

Wow how things fall into place.

The new lineup on The View is great. Except for that Elizabeth girl.

I think they need to get rid of Alabama's Attorney General,Troy King. He is an idiot.

I suppose it's time to castrate the foreign minister of France for calling for war with Iran. If this is what Sarkozy brings, get him too.

My great-grandmother's brother Jule was a school teacher and a preacher for a long time. When he got old, he could die whenever he wanted to. He would get into fits and go lie down in his bed and go into a comatose state in which people thought he was dead. They would then call for the undertaker to come and get his body. On one of these occassions they called for my great-grantmother,Sadie, or Big Mama as they called her. She, my mother, who was a little girl, and my aunt earnestine got in the car and made their way to his home. They had to park at the foot of the hill and climb up because he never thought to build a road. So, that particular time, Big Mama packed a sack full of teacakes and they made their way on to Uncle Jule's house, my mother in tow. My mother said they got to his house and the undertaker was already there. My great-grandmother stood over his bed and said, "Jule, you gone Brother Jule? I got some teacakes here if you want some." My mother said he sat right up and ate every one of those teacakes. The undertaker got mad and told them not to ever call him unless he was really dead. He died quite a few times after that,.

Blackwater Out of Iraq

Today, the Iraqi government revoked the liscence of contractor Blackwater Inc, who over the weekened were responsible for the death of 8 civilians. Hooray for humanity that they are ot of Iraq(if they dont leave, try them and the US before the World Court-or better yet castrate them). What I find more surprising, I heard on NPR about their connection to James Dobson and his Focus on the Family. Interesting ties between rightwingers. I think there should be a massive boycott of Focus on the Family. Shame on James Dobson. Also, just looking at the advertising on the front page of Blackwater's website, their slogan "Self-Defense, Survival, and training for citizens and law enforcement" sounds more like a militia to me....

Kudos to Sally Field for Speaking Out Against the War!

Ordinary Miracles

Barbra

Change can come on tiptoe
Love is where it starts
It resides, often hides
Deep within our hearts
And just as
Pebbles make a mountain,
Raindrops make a sea,
One day at a time
Change begins with you and me,
Ordinary miracles
Happen all around,
Just by giving and receiving
Comes belonging and believing,
Every sun that rises
Never rose before,
Each new day leads the way
Through a different door,
And we can all be quiet heroes
Living quiet days,
Walking through the world
Changing it in quiet ways,
Ordinary miracles
Like candles in the dark,
Each and every one of us
Lights a spark,

And the walls can tumble
And the mountains can move,
The winds and the tide can turn,

Yes, ordinary miracles
One for every star,
No lightning bolt or clap or thunder
Only joy and quiet wonder,
Endless possibilities
Right before our eyes,
Oh, see the way a miracle multiplies,

Now hope can spring eternally
Plant it and it grows,
Love is all that’s necessary
Lovin’, it’s extraordinary
Why,
Makes ordinary miracles every blessed day.

If Alan Greenspan Says It's About Oil, It's About Oil

I saw Matt Lauer's interview with Alan Greenspan this morning on the Today Show. Here is a link to the Common Dream article concerning Greenspan's new memoir and his comments which should cause the Bush adminstration to shudder. Greenspan has admitted in his new book that the war in Iraq is about nothing but oil, confirming, with the greatest authority the west has, what many of us have been saying forever. does Greenspan have a heart? Interesting to see him speaking out.

Obituary of James E. Jackson, Jr. from the Atlanta Journal and Constitution

James E. Jackson Jr., 92, civil rights activist


Published on: 09/11/07

NEW YORK — James E. Jackson Jr., a civil rights activist, former official of the American Communist Party and defendant in a case that led the Supreme Court to rule that the Smith Act of 1940 did not prohibit the advocacy of violent revolution, died Sept. 1 in Manhattan. He was 92 and lived in Brooklyn.

The death was announced by his daughter Harriet Jackson.

Jackson was one of 21 Communist Party members who were indicted in 1951, at the height of the McCarthy era, for, among other things, teaching classes on violent revolution. The case was front-page news around the country.

He was one of six of those defendants whose conspiracy convictions under the Smith Act were unanimously reversed by a federal appeals court in 1958. The reversal was based on Yates v. United States, a 1957 Supreme Court ruling in the overall case that the mere teaching or advocacy of an overthrow of the government did not constitute a "call to action."

Most of the 21 defendants had been convicted and imprisoned. But Jackson and five others went into hiding — "roaming the country like during the underground railroad," his wife, Esther Cooper Jackson, said on Wednesday. Jackson did not see his family until 1956, when he surrendered and, with his colleagues, was convicted of conspiracy.

The next year, with the Red Scare subsiding somewhat, the Supreme Court issued its Yates v. United States decision, stating that the Smith Act "requires more than the teaching and advocacy of an abstract doctrine that the government should be overthrown by force and violence." The appeals court overturned the convictions, ruling that the government had failed to prove that the defendants had urged people to "do something" rather than "believe in something."

The Yates decision signaled a shift toward a legal principle that the advocacy of illegal conduct is usually constitutionally protected, said Eugene Volokh, a law professor and First Amendment scholar at the University of California, Los Angeles. "You can say, 'We think abortionists should be murdered,' and that is usually protected," Volokh said.

Jackson held important positions in the Communist Party. In the early 1960s, he was editor of The Worker, the successor to the party's newspaper, The Daily Worker. Later, he was international affairs secretary and national educational director. He joined the party in 1947, and in 1952 became its Southern secretary and a staunch advocate of civil rights.

"For 300 years as bondsmen and some 93 years as freemen, under slaver's whip and Jim Crow law," Jackson wrote in The Daily Worker in 1958, "Negro Americans have yielded up their labor and expended their lives for the upbuilding of this country in yet unfathomed measure."

James Edward Jackson Jr. was born in Richmond, Va., on Nov. 29, 1914, the son of James and Clara Kersey Jackson. His father was a pharmacist. The family lived in a part of Richmond called Jackson Ward, a section set aside for blacks. In 1931, when he was 16, Jackson entered Virginia Union University. He graduated three years later with a degree in chemistry. In 1937, he received a degree in pharmacy from Howard University. But in his last year at Howard, he helped start the Southern Negro Youth Congress, which organized strikes by tobacco workers, mostly black women, who were paid $5 a week. A union representing 5,000 tobacco workers soon gained recognition.

"Historians view the Southern Negro Youth Congress as the predecessor of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee," a major civil rights force in the 1960s, said Michael Nash, director of the Tamiment Library at New York University, where Jackson's papers are stored.

In the late 1930s, Jackson was part of a team contributing research to "An American Dilemma," the groundbreaking 1944 study by Gunnar Myrdal, which raised consciousness about race relations. Jackson's work took him to Fisk University in Nashville, where he met another researcher, Esther Cooper. They married in 1941.

Besides his wife and his daughter Harriet, Jackson is survived by another daughter, Kathryn Jackson; a grandson; and two great-grandsons.

In World War II, Jackson served in an engineer battalion, building the Burma Road. It was an all-black unit led by white officers.

Hillary Clinton's Universal HealthCare Plan

God Bless Hillary Clinton. Above is a link to her Universal Healthcare Plan. I am so wishing for an Obama/Clinton ticket.

US Attempts to Build a Base in Nigerian Territory

Nigeria Moves to Halt US Military

By Juliana Taiwo in Abuja

Gulf of Guinea

The Federal Government has begun moves to frustrate the
plan by the United States to establish a military base
in the Gulf of Guinea.

The oil-rich gulf is bordered by Nigeria, Angola, Chad,
Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Sao Tome and Principe

US has been desperately wooing some countries in the
West Africa sub-region to allow her establish a
military base to protect the strategic gulf for
sometime now.

The move, according to US, is to protect the area from
alleged external aggressions but with America now
looking in the direction of Africa for her energy needs
given the instability in the Middle-east, many analysts
say the move is to protect her oil interests. .

Defence sources, however, told THISDAY last night in
Abuja that the Federal Government was already
discussing with heads of government of the African
Union and leaders of the sub-regional body, the
Economic Community of West African State, on how to
block any move by US to establish a base in the gulf.

"Nigeria is not taking the issue lightly at all and the
government is not going to allow the US establish any
military base anywhere in the ECOWAS region. The
interest of the US government in the Gulf of Guinea has
reinforced the commitment of the government to
intensify its efforts at providing the needed security
in the sub-region," the source said.

It was learnt that the Federal Government was worried
by the terror alert raised by the US authorities last
week and saw it as a ploy to label Nigeria and
countries in the sub region as unsafe in order to get
the opportunity to create a military base in the
region.

As a first step to checkmate that plan, the FG has
vowed to frustrate the campaign by the US to establish
a base in the gulf.

"The government of this country is not ready for any
blackmail. What they cannot get through the back doors
they want to get through blackmail. We are not going to
succumb to that game," the source said.

THISDAY also learnt that the Defence Headquarters has
concluded plans to visit Pentagon, in Washington, to
further discuss the issue with the US government.

"In a few weeks from now, some top military personnel
will be in the US to present papers on the plans by the
African Union to establish an African Command, which
will be charged with the responsibility of providing
the needed security in the continent.

"We really want to let the US and other countries of
the world know that we are capable of protecting the
resources within our continent. Nigeria is one country
that will continue to move against any plans by the US
government to establish a military base in our sub-
region. We cannot afford to allow them do that,
otherwise we will be finished as military," he said.

Last month, a delegation of the Government of
Equatorial Guinea had visited Nigeria and signed a
memorandum of understanding with the Nigerian Navy in
the area of security, training and equipment.
Currently, US has some presence in the Gulf of Guinea
and its forces have been engaging in frequent patrol of
the gulf.

However, US interest in the gulf has been increasing
amid rising oil exploration in the region.

It was being alleged that West African Navy fleet lacks
the capacity to protect oil platforms in the gulf.

As far back as June last year, US explained that its
presence in the Gulf of Guinea was aimed at protecting
an area regarded as one of the richest sources of
hydrocarbons in the world from international criminals.

"We hear a series of stories for our presence in the
Gulf of Guinea, but I want to say that we are concerned
for Nigeria and we want to help her protect the region
from the hands of maritime criminals," said the
Commander of US Naval Forces in Europe and Commander of
the Allied Joint Force Command in Naples, Italy,
Admiral Henry Ulrich.

"In all parts of the world, the US and any good nation
want a safe coast for those countries who are supplying
energy, and that is why we are often there. So there is
nothing to fear for Nigeria," Ulrich said during a
Seapower Africa Symposium in Abuja in June last year.

Ulrich had also disclosed that the US planned to
increase its naval presence in the Gulf of Guinea in
order to ensure maritime safety in the region.

US Naval official said it was necessary to secure the
area from international criminals, including
terrorists, sea pirates and smugglers.

The gulf's oil and gas deposit is put in the region
of 10 billion barrels. Statistics show that as of 2004,
Africa as a whole produced nearly nine million barrels
of oil per day, with approximately 4.7 million barrels
per day coming from West Africa.

Also, African oil production accounted for
approximately 11 percent of the world's oil supply,
while the continent supplied approximately 18 per cent
of the US net oil imports.

Both Nigeria and Angola were among the top 10 suppliers
of oil to the US.

_____________________________________________

Portside aims to provide material of interest
to people on the left that will help them to
interpret the world and to change it.

Soldiers Who Critized the War in Iraq Killed

What senseless tragedy. Two very brave young men, Sgt. Yance Gray, 26, and Sgt. Omar Mora,28 who spoke out against what they saw in Iraq and against the U.S. war in Iraq were killed today when allegedly their truck overturned. These two young men wrote a powerful op-ed piece in the New York Times criticizing the war in Iraq. The third author of the article that was published on August 19th, Staff Sgt. Jeremy Murphy, was shot in the head (by whom is the question) while the article was being written. These deaths are troubling and I hope that there was no backlash from the military that cuased the deaths of these young men.

Mary Winkler

The case of Mary Winkler is a sad tale and makes for the perfect example of how patriarchy works and the misogyny and loppressive codes concerning women that exist within patriarchal society. Suffering years of abuse in a bad marriage, this woman snapped and killed her husband, freeing herself. Now, as she fights to regain custody of her children--a man on the Today Show this morning touted the line of the hard-core patriarchal stance very well "she was mentally ill-and it might have been a bad marriage--BUT SHE KILLED THERE FATHER!" as if having a penis made him special. I have the utmost sympathy for this woman and I hope she gets her children back. The rhetoric that I hear from stupid pundits and the news media is a direct shot back to the neuroasthenia bullshit of the 19th Century.

Matt Lauer in Iran...anti-Iran propaganda. The U.S. is readying itself to make conflict with Iran.

Astute Assessment from Anonymous Source

John McCain has been crazy ever since they let him out of the POW Camp.

Morning Connections

Tom Joyner's Little Known Black History Fact this morning was about A.G. Gaston...little known Black history fact: My aunt was his mistress. Interesting play on the today show-they got two prominent Blacks to speak on U.S. foreign policy-Condie-Bitch and Barack Obama. That same aunt used to keep Condie-Bitch when she was a little girl. God Bless Barack Obama. More on A.G. Gaston: he was friends with my great-grandfather when they both worked in the coal mines in Birmingham as adolescents.

Let's Hear It For Me

Barbra-Funny Lady

Blow the bugle
Sound the cymbal
All my troubles fill a thimble
I'm as happy as it's legal to be
Come on kids let's hear it for me
Get the tom tom
Start the drumming
Queue the colours
Keep them humming
Cause I'm climbing of the limb of that tree
Come on kids let's hear it for me
For this overwhelming sensation
I could stand a standing ovation
Give my entrance queue to the band
Give the little lady a great big hand
Slide the trombone
Let it swell out
This performance is a sell out
And the critics and the public agree
I'm the number one attraction to see
So applaud it and cheer it
Come on now let's hear it for me

Standing in the wings
All prepared to start
Usually I'm tense
A pounding in my heart
But now I'm not afraid
Cause butterfly's are gone
My act is looking great
I can't wait to go on, on
Grab a ticket
Find you row kid
I am strictly an SRO kid
Tell these ougly boubly feelings I'm free
They been banished by a royal decree
And your head feels so good when you finally clear it
If I saw a worry I wouldn't go near it
Come on now come on kid lets hear it
Let's hear it for me...

Other

Great Day

Barbra

When you're down and out
Lift up your head and shout
There's gonna be a great day
Angels in the sky
Promise that be by and by
There's gonna be a great day
Gabriel will warn you
Some early morn
You will hear his horn
It's not far away
Lift up your head and say
There's gonna be a great day
Great day

When you're down and out
Lift up your head en shout
There's gonna be a great day
Angels in the sky
Promise that by en by
We're gonna see a great day
Gabriel will warn you
Somebody born
You will hear his horn, his horn
It's not far away
Lift up your head and say
There's gonna be a great day
When the skies went darker, oh Lord!
Came Noah’s Ark, oh Lord!
Amen and Amen!
Amen and Amen!

He came in January, February, March, April, May, June
July, and August, September October, November,
De De December
It was a great day
It was a great day
One of those great days
And on Judgment Day
If you believe he will receive you and me
Gabriel will warn you
Some early morn
You will his horn, his horn
It's not far away
Lift up your head and say
There's gonna be a great
We're gonna see a great
There's gonna be,
Be a great day.

How Lucky Can You Get?

Barbra

Ain't she got fun,
She's the luckiest one

Satin on my shoulder and a smile on my lips
How lucky can you get
Money in my pocket right at my fingertips
How lucky can you get
Every night a party where the fun never ends
You can circle the globe with my circle of friends
Someone I am crazy for is crazy for me
I'm his personal pet
Wow how lucky can you get
See her diamonds are gleam her life is a dream
Wrap it up and charge it that's my is my favourite phrase
How lucky can you get
When I see the chauffeur think I'll give him a raise
How lucky can you get
Weekends in the country with the baron of course
And a wardrobe to shock mrs Asters pet horse
Making merry music with the one that I love
We're a perfect duet
Gee how lucky can you
Wee how lucky can you
Wow how lucky can you get

Ain't she got fun
She's the luck the luck the luck the luck the luck
The luck the luck the luck the luck the luck
The luck

Satin on my shoulder how lucky can you get
Money in my pocket how lucky can you get
Every night's a party where the fun never ends
You can circle the globe with my circle of friends
Someone I am crazy for is crazy for me
I'm his personal pat
Wow how lucky can you get
He there gorgeous!
Big success!
What's your secret gorgeous!
Just lucky I guess

You wanna know what it's really like
FANTASTIC!
Satin on my shoulder and a smile on my lips
Money in my pocket right at my fingertips
Wrap it up and charge it that's my favourite phrase
How lucky
When I see the chauffeur think I'll give him a raise
How lucky
Life's a bed of roses whirling perfume on me
You can spare me the blues I don't sing in that key
And if there's a man who'd leave me I am happy to say
I haven't run into him yet

Gee Wee Wow
How lucky, how lucky can you get!

September 11th

KI encourage everyone to listen to Tavis Smiley's commentary on the Tom Joyner Morning Show today. I have a link to TJMS on the right side of my blog.

Le Divorce

I LOVE the film Le Divorce. I saw it on tv ages ago and bought it on DVD and now I watch it often. I so would love to be someone's mistress.-) I want to be Jane Fonda to somebody's Roger Vadim, Elaine Brown to someone's Jay Kennedy.

Juanita Bynum

Tom Joyner has made sure this has hit the airwaves seems like every day for the past few weeks. I feel sorry for the sister and she leaves me puzzled why she doesnt drop that MF like a rotten potato(especially after he kicked her!). This is simply proof that even people of the cloth(like we didn't know) have their problems. Buck up Juanita and drop him!

Kenneth Foster Recieves Clemency!!!

Thank God! We have won!

O Magazine is my Bible!

Talk Show Hosts Come To Aid Of Jena 6

From H-Net Portside

Michael Baisden, Ruben Armstrong among those demanding justice
for Mychal Bell.

September 5, 2007, EurWeb

http://www.eurweb.com/story/eur36488.cfm

The gross miscarriage of justice in the Jena 6 Case has drawn
the immediate attention of key figures in television and
radio.

Nationally syndicated radio personality Michael Baisden will
join Rev. Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King, III on Sept. 20
at the court house in Jena, Louisiana for the 9 a.m. start of
a rally dubbed, 'National March For Justice.'

Gathered protesters will demand fair treatment for Mychal
Bell, one of the African-American teenagers awaiting sentence
in the Jena 6 Case. Sharpton was contacted by Bell's family to
help bring national attention to the case and to fight for
justice on behalf of the six black students involved.

As summarized in the Philadelphia Daily News by writer Fatimah
Ali: 'In short, a black student at Jena High School asked if
it was all right to sit under a shade tree normally used by
white students. Soon after, three nooses were found hanging
from the tree branches. Fights and tensions between white and
black students escalated over the next few weeks. One black
student was beaten at a party by white students. Then, a white
student was injured in a fight with black students. Following
that fight, the student was treated at the hospital and
released a few hours later, and six black teens were charged
with attempted murder. In July, one of them, Bell, a star
athlete, was convicted on reduced charges by an all-white jury
and faces up to 22 years in prison. Most of the accused are in
jail, unable to post bail, and Bell awaits sentencing after
being swiftly convicted. The "weapon" in question that
escalated a schoolyard brawl to attempted-murder charges ? A
sneaker.'

Sharpton, who has been to Jena twice, arrived last month with
Martin Luther King, III and met with local leaders, preachers
and families of the students. They visited with Bell in jail
and vowed to continue to fight for him and the others.

On Sept. 19, television talk show host Ruben Armstrong will
broadcast live from Jena and also march the following day,
when Bell is to be sentenced on charges of attempted murder.

Armstrong and his production team will be interviewing the
family and supporters. According to a spokesperson for Reuben
Armstrong, the show will broadcast live from Jena, Louisiana
in its entirety and rebroadcast on Sept. 22nd at 12 p.m. CST.
You can watch and listen to this broadcast at
http://www.reubenarmstrongshow.com/

Movement

Swift energy pulsating life
constant progression
changing perspectives shifting
stages cycles life
spreading wings expanse
the width of the ocean
momentum life