Thursday, May 01, 2008
A Call to Obama Supporters
Everyone who would like to see Barack Obama as the next President of the United States should donate $20 to his campaign today. www.barackobama.com
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Sean Bell Case
That judge should never have been able to suspend the jury. He should loose his penis.
Monday, April 28, 2008
God Bless Jimmy Carter!
He is a magnificent man and I hope that more Americans open lines of dialogue with Hamas. Tell the idiot George Bush and his administration to go to hell.
Pamela Anderson Endorses Obama!
Pamela Anderson is such a fabulous creature! She was quite impressive tonight on Larry King.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Tomorrow Night
Barbra Streisand
(Yentl finds herself in an impossible
situation-and yet nothing's impossible!)
Look at me-I must be absolutely crazy!
How did 1 ever let it get this far?
Look at me! I'm getting deeper into trouble.
Am I woman or a man?
Am I a devil or a demon?
Papa was right!
I ask too many questions.
He said a soul can get perplexed-
I can't believe what happens next!
Papa was right!
It seems this little game I play
Becomes more risky every day!
Tomorrow night, tomorrow night...
Under the canopy
I'll stand with her tomorrow night!
And place a ring upon her hand
With her all dressed in white
Tomorrow night
I don't know how this came about
But I'll be wed without a doubt.
Oh, my God, I've got to get out!
Look at this-The way one lie begets another
Somebody wake me up and say
It's all a dream!
(Look at this!)
Look how easily I fool them
They may have eyes but they don't see
They never really look at me
People are blind!
How else would everyone believe me?
It might be interesting to know
Just how much further I can go
Tomorrow night, tomorrow night...
I can't believe what I'll presume to be
Tomorrow night,
I'm not the bride but I'm the groom to be
Tomorrow night,
And that's a monumental trick
I'd better think of something quick
(Oh, my God, I'm feeling sick!
I could run away
I could leave without a trace,
Go anywhere or any place
Where no one knows my face.
As a woman or a man?
I don't know just so I can
Run away-run away!
I'd be free-I'd be rid of all of this
But there's someone I would miss
And being near him is what this is all about!
So running away is out!
Papa dear, you dreamed of dancing
At my wedding;
But something tells me that I'm right
You wouldn't want to dance tonight!
Isn't this a strangely logical solution?
Things may not be as they appear
But the advantages are clear:
He loves her-she loves him
He likes me-I like her
And I've reasons to think she likes me.
She keeps him-he keeps her
I keep things as they were
It's a perfect arrangement for three!
Who'd have ever predicted
The moment would come
When I'd find myself grateful
They've kept women dumb!
She's an innocent maiden
But then so am I!
That's why it's possible I could get by.
Look, I've seen the impossible happen before,
So maybe, God willing, it'll happen once more.
For I feel like a train on a perilous track.
With no way to stop and no way to go back.
Like a snowball that's gathering speed down a hill,
Going faster and faster and faster until...
Tomorrow night, tomorrow night...
Even if someone would pray for me
Tomorrow night,
There's not a prayer
That they could say for me
Tomorrow night,
Tomorrow night, tomorrow night...
Tomorrow night...is now tonight!
(Yentl finds herself in an impossible
situation-and yet nothing's impossible!)
Look at me-I must be absolutely crazy!
How did 1 ever let it get this far?
Look at me! I'm getting deeper into trouble.
Am I woman or a man?
Am I a devil or a demon?
Papa was right!
I ask too many questions.
He said a soul can get perplexed-
I can't believe what happens next!
Papa was right!
It seems this little game I play
Becomes more risky every day!
Tomorrow night, tomorrow night...
Under the canopy
I'll stand with her tomorrow night!
And place a ring upon her hand
With her all dressed in white
Tomorrow night
I don't know how this came about
But I'll be wed without a doubt.
Oh, my God, I've got to get out!
Look at this-The way one lie begets another
Somebody wake me up and say
It's all a dream!
(Look at this!)
Look how easily I fool them
They may have eyes but they don't see
They never really look at me
People are blind!
How else would everyone believe me?
It might be interesting to know
Just how much further I can go
Tomorrow night, tomorrow night...
I can't believe what I'll presume to be
Tomorrow night,
I'm not the bride but I'm the groom to be
Tomorrow night,
And that's a monumental trick
I'd better think of something quick
(Oh, my God, I'm feeling sick!
I could run away
I could leave without a trace,
Go anywhere or any place
Where no one knows my face.
As a woman or a man?
I don't know just so I can
Run away-run away!
I'd be free-I'd be rid of all of this
But there's someone I would miss
And being near him is what this is all about!
So running away is out!
Papa dear, you dreamed of dancing
At my wedding;
But something tells me that I'm right
You wouldn't want to dance tonight!
Isn't this a strangely logical solution?
Things may not be as they appear
But the advantages are clear:
He loves her-she loves him
He likes me-I like her
And I've reasons to think she likes me.
She keeps him-he keeps her
I keep things as they were
It's a perfect arrangement for three!
Who'd have ever predicted
The moment would come
When I'd find myself grateful
They've kept women dumb!
She's an innocent maiden
But then so am I!
That's why it's possible I could get by.
Look, I've seen the impossible happen before,
So maybe, God willing, it'll happen once more.
For I feel like a train on a perilous track.
With no way to stop and no way to go back.
Like a snowball that's gathering speed down a hill,
Going faster and faster and faster until...
Tomorrow night, tomorrow night...
Even if someone would pray for me
Tomorrow night,
There's not a prayer
That they could say for me
Tomorrow night,
Tomorrow night, tomorrow night...
Tomorrow night...is now tonight!
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Monday, April 21, 2008
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Kanye West is Free *Sniffle, Sniffle* *Smirk, Smile*
According to Hollywood Jawn, Kanye West and his longtime fiancee have called it quits. Wow, Kanye is free and back on the market...hmm lol
Oprah's Big Give
God Bless Oprah! It was an amazing season on The Big Give and I think the show was an incredible success! I will definitely try to live true to the values espoused on the show. Give Big!
Friday, April 18, 2008
Only Thing To Do Is Jump Over the Moon
Maureen
Last night, I had a dream
I found myself in a desert called Cyberland
It was hot
My canteen had sprung a leak and I was thirsty
Out of the obice walked a cow, Elsey
I asked if she had anything to drink she said
”I am forbidden to produce milk,
In Cyberland we only drink Diet Coke (coke…coke…coke)
She said
“Only thing to do is just over the moon”
They've closed everything real down
Like barns and troths and...
Performance Spaces
And replaced it all with lies and rules and
Virtual Life... But there is a way out
Back Ups
Leap of faith, leap of faith, leap of faith, leap of faith
[continues in background]
Maureen
OOOOOOO
Only thing to do is jump over the moon
[back ups stop]
I gotta get outta here
It's like i'm being tied to the hood of
a yellow rental truck being packed in with fertilizer and fuel oil pushed over a cliff by a suicidal mickey mouse
I gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta find a way...
to jump over the moon
Only thing to do is jump over the moon
Then a little bulldog entered
His name we have learned was Benny
And although he once had principles he abounded them to live as a lapdog to a wealthy daughter of the
revolution
1..2..3
That's bull he said
Ever since the cat took off with the fiddle that cows been jumpy
And the dish and the spoon were evicted from the table and eloped
She had trouble with the milk and the mood ever since maybe it was a female thing
But who'd wanna leave cyberland anyways!
Walls ain't so bad
The dish and the spoon for instance their down on their luck they come knockin' on my doghouse door
and i said "Not in my backward utensils, go back to china!" (bideebong)
The only way out is up, Elsey whispered to me
A leap of faith
Still Thirsty?? Parched
Have some milk
As I lowered myself beneath her her swollen utters and sucked the sweetest milk
I have ever tasted!
Climb on board she said and as a harvest moon rose over Cyberland we reared back we sprang into a
gallop leaping out of orbit i awoke singing
OOOOOO
Only thing to do
Only think to do is jump
Only thing to do is jump Over the moon
Only thing to do is jump Over the moon
Over the moon
Over the ...
Moon!
Last night, I had a dream
I found myself in a desert called Cyberland
It was hot
My canteen had sprung a leak and I was thirsty
Out of the obice walked a cow, Elsey
I asked if she had anything to drink she said
”I am forbidden to produce milk,
In Cyberland we only drink Diet Coke (coke…coke…coke)
She said
“Only thing to do is just over the moon”
They've closed everything real down
Like barns and troths and...
Performance Spaces
And replaced it all with lies and rules and
Virtual Life... But there is a way out
Back Ups
Leap of faith, leap of faith, leap of faith, leap of faith
[continues in background]
Maureen
OOOOOOO
Only thing to do is jump over the moon
[back ups stop]
I gotta get outta here
It's like i'm being tied to the hood of
a yellow rental truck being packed in with fertilizer and fuel oil pushed over a cliff by a suicidal mickey mouse
I gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta find a way...
to jump over the moon
Only thing to do is jump over the moon
Then a little bulldog entered
His name we have learned was Benny
And although he once had principles he abounded them to live as a lapdog to a wealthy daughter of the
revolution
1..2..3
That's bull he said
Ever since the cat took off with the fiddle that cows been jumpy
And the dish and the spoon were evicted from the table and eloped
She had trouble with the milk and the mood ever since maybe it was a female thing
But who'd wanna leave cyberland anyways!
Walls ain't so bad
The dish and the spoon for instance their down on their luck they come knockin' on my doghouse door
and i said "Not in my backward utensils, go back to china!" (bideebong)
The only way out is up, Elsey whispered to me
A leap of faith
Still Thirsty?? Parched
Have some milk
As I lowered myself beneath her her swollen utters and sucked the sweetest milk
I have ever tasted!
Climb on board she said and as a harvest moon rose over Cyberland we reared back we sprang into a
gallop leaping out of orbit i awoke singing
OOOOOO
Only thing to do
Only think to do is jump
Only thing to do is jump Over the moon
Only thing to do is jump Over the moon
Over the moon
Over the ...
Moon!
What I Have Learned and Am Now Dislosing on this Blog
There is absolutely something much more than power. There is Energy!
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
My Name Is Barbra......
I'd like to swim
In a clear blue stream
Where the water is icy cold
Then go to town
In a golden gown
And have my fortune told
Just once, just once
Just once before I am old
I'd like to be not evil
But a little wordly wise
To be the kind of girl designed
To be kissed upon the eyes
I'd like to dance till two o'clock
Or sometimes dance till dawn
Or if the band could stand it
Just go on and on and on
Just once, just once
Before the chance is gone
I'd like to waste a week or two
And never do a chore
To wear my hair unfastened
So it billows to the floor
To do the things
I'd dreamed about
But never done before
Perhaps I'm bad or wild or mad
With lots of grief in store
But I want much more
Than keepin' house
Much more, much more, much more!
I'd like to swim
In a clear blue stream
Where the water is icy cold
Then go to town
In a golden gown
And have my fortune told
Just once, just once
Just once before I am old
I'd like to be not evil
But a little wordly wise
To be the kind of girl designed
To be kissed upon the eyes
I'd like to dance till two o'clock
Or sometimes dance till dawn
Or if the band could stand it
Just go on and on and on
Just once, just once
Before the chance is gone
I'd like to waste a week or two
And never do a chore
To wear my hair unfastened
So it billows to the floor
To do the things
I'd dreamed about
But never done before
Perhaps I'm bad or wild or mad
With lots of grief in store
But I want much more
Than keepin' house
Much more, much more, much more!
The Pope's Penis
by Sharon Olds
It hangs deep in his robes, a delicate
clapper at the center of a bell.
It moves when he moves, a ghostly fish in a
halo of silver sweaweed, the hair
swaying in the dark and the heat -- and at night
while his eyes sleep, it stands up
in praise of God.
It hangs deep in his robes, a delicate
clapper at the center of a bell.
It moves when he moves, a ghostly fish in a
halo of silver sweaweed, the hair
swaying in the dark and the heat -- and at night
while his eyes sleep, it stands up
in praise of God.
Sometimes I Feel That People in the Progressive Community are Masochists...and Other Thoughts
As I think of all of the abuses of people around the globe..in the United States...Iraq...elswhere...and on many levels, brutality and the violation of humanity and rights..I think of what Abbey Lincoln said. She said in her mother's house there would be no abusing because she would just as soon pick up a frying pan and hit you in your head and that would be the end of it.... As these thoughts are running through my head, I am listening to Amy Goodman and her guest discuss torture tactics that don't leave marks or bruising in use by the U.S. government and other brutes around the globe...it makes me think of the beating Elaine Brown recieved that she described in A Taste of Power....
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
The Payback James Brown
Hey! Gotta gotta pay back!! (The big payback)
Revenge!! I'm mad (the big payback)
Got to get back! Need some get back!! Pay Back! (the big payback)
That's it!! Payback!!! Revenge!!!
I'm mad!!
Get down with my girlfriend, That ain't right!!
Hollarin' cussin', you wanna fight
Payback is a thing you gotta see
Brother do any damn thing to me
Sold me out, for chump change (yes you did!!)
Told me that they, they had it all arranged
You handed me down, and thats a fact
Now you're pumped, You gotta get ready For the big payback!! (the big
payback!!)
That's where I am, the big payback (the big payback!!)
I can do wheelin', I can do dealin' (yes you can!!) But I don't do no damn
squealin'
I can dig rappin', I'm ready!! I can dig scrappin'
But I can't dig that backstabbin' (Oh No!!)
The brother get ready!! Thats a fact!!
Get ready you Mother, for the big payback (The big Payback!!)
Let me hit 'em hit'em!! Hey Hey!! WOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Took my money, you got my honey
Don't want me to see what you doing to me
I got to get back I gotta deal with you!! (4xs) Hey let me tell ya!!
Get down with my woman, that ain't right! You hollarin' and cussin', you wanna
fight!!
Don't do me no darn favor,
I don't know karate, but I know KA-RAZY!!!! (yes we do!!)
Get ready thats a fact, Get ready you Mother for the big payback (the big
payback!)
Hey!! I'm a man! I'm a man! I'm a son of a man, but don't they tell ya then
hop again
Get ready for the big payback (the big payback!!) Hit 'em again!!
Get ready I need it, I need a hit again!! Say it once (3xs) Hit 'em
again!!
(the big payback!!) Sold me out for chump change
Said my woman had it all arranged
Tryin' to make a deal, she wants to squeal But I had my boys on her heals
Saw me comin', told a lie Went down like you wanted to cry
I don't care what she does, she'll be doin' just like she was
Take your kids and raise them up, Somebody think I have a right to be tough
Take her, take that woman, it's one place she found
Just run that mother out of town!!
Got to get up!! Got to get up, get out!! (2xs)
I'm mad!! I want revenge, I want revenge (the big payback!!) I want revenge
(3xs)
(the big payback!!) Give me those hits!! I want some hits!! I need those
hits, hit me!!
Tavis Smiley on Tom Joyner
Tavis was lying lying lying this morning on the TJMS. Everyone knows, including Tom, including Tavis that his projects are not the reason he is leaving the show. Tavis is mad with Tom and the rest of Black America because of their unequivocated support of Barack Obama, despite Tavist having a bitchfit about him not showing up to the annual Black State of the Union forum, hosted by Tavist and his foundation.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Sunday, April 13, 2008
A Return to the Middle Ages
The Pope is coming to America.... The head of the religious dogmatic state, in all of his pomp and ceremony will be greated by the dumbass who occupies the most powerful throne on earth. Oh what shall we say....
OMG
Invisible Life: The Musical? I have often wondered about Valerie Simpson with her tenor and Nick Ashford with his soprano. But Invisible Life as a musical? Lord what a mess....
Friday, April 11, 2008
Tavis Smiley is Cracking Up
He has officially left the Tom Joyner Morning Show. I think it has to do with his treatment of Barack Obama and the black backlash against him. The only thing I had to say about that is, Tavis, Barack is Michelle's husband, not yours. Leave the man alone. He cannot devote his time to you. Anyway, what interesting tidings.
Columbian Free Trade Agreement
The very fact that the Democrats in congress are considering adopting this makes me sick. I have lost all respect for Nancy Pelosi.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Adrienne Rich on Lorraine Hansberry
I just recently read Adrienne Rich's essay on Lorraine Hansberry, "The Problem of Lorraine Hansberry." One of the things that struck me was Adrienne's pondering of whether a serious black, female, militant character, such as Beneatha was supposed to be vicariously through the characterization of Walter Lee, would be accepted by white, American audiences. That is an interesting question to ponder. I do see though how such figures have been caricatured in the public sphere, especially in the realm of Blaxploitation films. Very interesting stuff.
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
In My Wildest Dreams
I used to think how nice it would be to have a house that stretched from Maine to Florida. That way, you could go to Florida in the winter and Maine in the summertime and never have to leave your house.
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Sunday, April 06, 2008
Oprah's Big Give
I thought it was alright that Rachel honored the lady with a song. I think it was that food and that telephone conversation that sent her home.
Hmmm.....
Isn't the War in Iraq over? Don't I remember George Bush in some kind of jumpsuit and a rubber turkey? Hmmm....
Saturday, April 05, 2008
Friday, April 04, 2008
Fire District Attorney, Reed Walters, in Jena, Louisiana
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 or (318)992-8282
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.
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 or (318)992-8282
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.
Thursday, April 03, 2008
Walmart Vs. The Shank Family
Walmart, in its rugged capitalism, according to a report that I saw on Democracy Now, has decided to drop the lawsuit filed against a brain-damaged and permanently disabled former employee. The entire thing is an outrage.
The Case of Sean Bell
Justice must be served in the trial of the murderers of Sean Bell. I hope that the people of New York hold the entire judicial system--political system of New York's feet to the fire and if they do not see justice in the death of this poor young man-let all hell break loose.
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Nina Simone
Don't Smoke in Bed
I left a note on his dresser
my old wedding ring
With these few goodbye words
How can I sing
Goodbye old sleepy head
I'm packing you in like I said
Take care of everything
I'm leaving my wedding ring
Don't look for me
I'll get ahead
Remember darling
Don't smoke in bed
Don't look for me
I'll get ahead
Remember darling
Don't smoke in bed
I left a note on his dresser
my old wedding ring
With these few goodbye words
How can I sing
Goodbye old sleepy head
I'm packing you in like I said
Take care of everything
I'm leaving my wedding ring
Don't look for me
I'll get ahead
Remember darling
Don't smoke in bed
Don't look for me
I'll get ahead
Remember darling
Don't smoke in bed
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Thats All
Dorothy Dandridge
I can only give you love that lasts forever,
And a promise to be near each time you call.
And the only heart I own
For you and you alone
That's all,
That's all...
I can only give you country walks in springtime
And a hand to hold when leaves begin to fall;
And a love whose burning light
Will warm the winter's night
That's all,
That's all.
There are those I am sure who have told you,
They would give you the world for a toy.
All I have are these arms to enfold you,
And a love even time can't destroy.
If you're wondering what I'm asking in return, dear,
You'll be glad to know that my demands are small.
Say it's me that you'll adore,
For now and evermore
That's all,
That's all.
I can only give you love that lasts forever,
And a promise to be near each time you call.
And the only heart I own
For you and you alone
That's all,
That's all...
I can only give you country walks in springtime
And a hand to hold when leaves begin to fall;
And a love whose burning light
Will warm the winter's night
That's all,
That's all.
There are those I am sure who have told you,
They would give you the world for a toy.
All I have are these arms to enfold you,
And a love even time can't destroy.
If you're wondering what I'm asking in return, dear,
You'll be glad to know that my demands are small.
Say it's me that you'll adore,
For now and evermore
That's all,
That's all.
Friday, March 28, 2008
The Reverend Jeremiah Wright
Everything that wonderful man said was the truth. "Speak the Truth so you can be free."- Mahalia Jackson
Interview with Alex Van Schaick, Part I
Recently, I had the opportunity to correspond with the Fulbright student, Alex Van Schaick, who was in the news recently after he was approached by a representative of the U.S. embassy in Bolivia to spy on Venezuelans and Cubans there present in Bolivia on behalf of the United States government. Alex has appeared on Democracy Now and other news programs discussing his story. He agreed to conducting an interview via email with me. The following is what conspired.
1. What inspired you to become a Fulbright Scholar?
Alex: The Fulbright program represents an excellent opportunity for US students and scholars to live abroad and pursue their own research interests. As long as you have an undergraduate degree you can qualify for the program, whether or not you are in a Masters or PHD program. The program also isn’t too structured, so basically you get to follow your own research plan with little outside interference. In my case, I had done my undergraduate thesis on Bolivia, and I wanted to have an opportunity to get some on the ground research experience. Also, having the chance to live here for 10 months was a big draw.
2. Did you ever have an interest in the political movements in Latin America? What are your thoughts on Hugo Chavez and the Bolivarian movement he is leading in Latin America?
Alex: Well, I’ve followed the developments in Venezuela relatively closely over the last few years. I think its positive that the majority of poor and working Venezuelans have an elected politician who seems to be making some positive changes on their behalf. I think they have made some strides in encouraging popular participation, creating workers’ cooperatives, and funnelling more money into social programs, for instance. Of course there are valid concerns one can have with Chavez’s personalistic style as well as corruption in the state bureaucracy, from what I have heard. I hope the loss in the recent constitutional referendum will give their movement a chance to do some self-reflection and renewal.
As for the influence of Bolivarianism in Bolivia, I don’t think there is too much influence on an ideological level. One of the major errors I think many reporters and commentators make, both in Bolivia and abroad, is in equating Evo Morales as a pawn or ideologue of Chavez. The situation here in Bolivia is a lot different, where the Morales government is held a lot more accountable to their bases than Chavez in Venezuela.
3. Explain what you were asked to do by the official at the U.S. Embassy in Bolivia.
Alex: Immediately upon arriving in Bolivia in late October with my Fulbright, I set up a date for my orientation with the Fulbright program director in Bolivia, Diego Ballivian, who works from the Cultural Affairs section of the US Embassy. I also was to receive a security briefing.
On November 5, 2007, I went in to do my orientation. I chatted with Diego for a bit in his office about my research, my academic future, and some precautions on living in Bolivia. Then he introduced me to someone from the Cultural Affairs office, a woman who advised me that the US’s relations with the Bolivian government are “sensitive” at the moment; “the smallest things can cause problems that we don't anticipate.” She and Diego warned me to be careful and not to "mess around in politics."
Diego then took me to a security floor for briefing by Vincent Cooper, who I now know was an assistant Regional Security Officer. He told me that the embassy had started doing security briefings for Fulbright scholars, even though we aren’t government employees, to keep us “under their wing” and “look out for us.” He said he was giving me a scaled down version of the briefing routinely given to US government employees. He reviewed a list of predictable, if unrealistic tips, including take radio taxis, don't use public transportation, and live in “safe” (expensive) neighborhoods. He also described the US Embassy Police, which is actually a sector of the Bolivian national police paid by the U.S. Embassy. This special unit receives better equipment, better training than their Bolivian counterparts, and develops loyalty to the U.S. In La Paz, Santa Cruz and Cochabamba members of this special section are always on call to assist US citizens. He told me to trust them if I needed any kind of help.
The crucial part was that Cooper also told me: "Alex, when you are out in the field, if you should encounter any Venezuelans or Cubans, field workers or doctors, we would like you to report their names and locations to the US Embassy." We "know that the they are out there," and we "want to keep tabs on them." I was stunned, and sat silently as he finished.
4. What went through your mind when you were asked to spy for the government?
Alex: Yeah, I don’t know if what they asked me would be considered in a strict sense spying, but certainly when he asked me to report political intelligence concerning foreign nationals working in Bolivia I felt like I was being asked to spy. Well at first I was shocked, because obviously I never expected as a Fulbright student to be asked something like that. I felt indignant at the arrogance that would allow someone to think that I would casually report political intelligence to the embassy. I also knew that it was clearly a violation of Bolivia’s sovereignty, the Fulbright program’s mission, as well as my personal code of ethics. So immediately after the incident I wrote down the relevant part of our conversation and began thinking about how I could make sure this never happened again. In the course of trying to find out more information about the situation, I learned that a similar thing had happened earlier with the Peace Corps.
So there are three reasons I eventually decided to go public. First and foremost, I believe national sovereignty should be respected. I think on a certain level it’s the right of the Bolivian people to know if the US embassy is asking people to spy on foreign nationals in their country.
Second, I thought that in order to really make a change I had to denounce this publicly – only with the scrutiny from the press and public would the Embassy be forced to act. I feel like the details of the situation that came out with the original exposé on ABCnews.com really justify my position. In June or July 2007, Vincent Cooper told a group of 30 new Peace Corps volunteers during a security briefing that they should report information they come across on Cubans working in Bolivia. In what seems to me to be a really positive act, the Peace Corps administrators apparently stopped the briefing and told the volunteers not to comply with Coopers request because it was inappropriate. They proceeded to use the “appropriate channels” to complain about the problem: they emailed the US Embassy to tell them that this was really not OK to ask Volunteers to report political intelligence. The embassy’s response was, and I’m paraphrasing here, “Oh, sorry. This is an error. It won’t happen again. We will discipline the officer involved.” Sound good, but four months later the same officer Vincent Cooper make virtually the same request of me, except this time including Venezuelans. For me, that means that the US Embassy was not taking this seriously.
Lastly, I feel like a strong statement needed to be made that you cannot improve mutual relations between the people of the USA and other countries, which is one of the missions of the Fulbright program, if you are being asked to spy. I felt like I needed to say publicly that that’s not what the Fulbright program is about or should be about.
5. Do you think the Bush administration has overstepped its bounds in its use of activities like wiretapping, torture, the abuses carried out at Guantanamo, and extraordinary rendition?
Alex: Short answer, yes.
6. What do you think the legacy of the Bush administration will be?
Alex: Besides what you just mentioned in the previous question, overwhelming arrogance. Now from a historical perspective one can make the argument that US foreign policy has been arrogant more often than not – I would tend to agree. But the Bush Administration really has pushed this to its logical extreme. The War in Iraq is the most obvious case and point, where the publicly stated “motive” for going to war has changed from saving the US from imminent nuclear attack, to “fighting the terrorists abroad so we wont have to fight them at home,” to “toppling a dictator” and implementing democracy. Of course we now know that Iraq had no nuclear weapons program, that there was no conspiracy between Saddam’s government and Al-Qaida, etc. We also know that the Bush Administration didn’t believe their own publicly stated reasons for going to war, but were just cynically manipulating public opinion. So in the Anti-war movement, which I was participating in a very modest way at the time, we staged the biggest day of protest in world history across dozens of countries. I feel like especially outside the United States, there was a pretty clear consensus that the US should not invade Iraq, both among people and among governments, that it was unjust, problematic, and being waged for unspoken political and economic reasons. Did this give Bush a moment of pause? Absolutely not. There are of course a million more examples of the current Administration’s arrogance that one could give both domestically and in terms of foreign policy.
7. What do you feel is an accurate assessment of where the U.S. is today -culturally, politically, economically?
Alex: I hope that the American people will take the initiative to change the future of our country, our environment, and our world. And that goes way beyond the ballot box. Beyond saying that, I’ll plead the fifth.
8. What do you think should be done to improve this country's position in the world and to improve the bleak economic outlook of the U.S.?
Alex: Well I think we need a humble foreign policy and changes that reorient our economy to benefit the people who make it run, not just the CEOs and shareholders. But I don’t feel like that’s going to come from above, like manna from heaven (or the White House). If there is one thing that my experience in Bolivia has reinforced for me, is that only after we have built powerful community, political, environmental, and economic grassroots organizations will we see serious positive changes in the USA. If we elect a democrat this year, running on the platform of reversing the harm the Bush Administration has done, who will keep them accountable once they are in office?
I’d definitively say that in my opinion neither Hillary Clinton nor Barak Obama are really going to make much of a change in Washington or in terms of economic policy. I don’t see either of them really taking on the corporate interests that dominate our political sphere. Regarding foreign policy, they might make nice with more countries than Bush did. But they still believe that protecting “American interests” abroad can justify anything. I reject that. I believe most foreign interventions justified in this fashion really only benefit the interests of small segments of US society. I would propose the same humble foreign policy that Senator William Fulbright, founder of the Fulbright program, proposed in his 1966 speech entitled “the Arrogance of Power.” Here is an excerpt:
“The attitude above all others which I feel sure is no longer valid is the arrogance of power, the tendency of great nations to equate power with virtue and major responsibilities with a universal mission. The dilemmas involved are preeminently American dilemmas, not because America has weaknesses that others do not have but because America is powerful as no nation has ever been before and the discrepancy between its power and the power of others appears to be increasing.
***
There are many respects in which America, if it can bring itself to act with the magnanimity and the empathy appropriate to its size and power, can be an intelligent example to the world. We have the opportunity to set an example of generous understanding in our relations with China, of practical cooperation for peace in our relations with Russia, of reliable and respectful partnership in our relations with Western Europe, of material helpfulness without moral presumption in our relations with the develop ing nations, of abstention from the temptations of hegemony in our relations with Latin America, and of the all- around advantages of minding one's own business in our relations with everybody. Most of all, we have the opportunity to serve as an example of democracy to the world by the way in which we run our own society; America, in the words of John Quincy Adams, should be "the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all" but "the champion and vindicator only of her own.”
9. Have you experienced any backlash for speaking out about the incident with the U.S. embassy official?
Alex: No. I’m sure the US embassy isn’t pleased that I went public with the information, they have said as much in public statements, but beyond that they haven’t said anything to me. No one else has bothered me either, except for the press the first week it all came out.
10. How has this experience affected you? Has this changed you in any way?
Alex: Luckily, it seems like this wont effect my research. In terms of the incident itself, I was certainly surprised to be asked something like that in my capacity as a Fulbright scholar although not surprised to learn that things like this are going on.
1. What inspired you to become a Fulbright Scholar?
Alex: The Fulbright program represents an excellent opportunity for US students and scholars to live abroad and pursue their own research interests. As long as you have an undergraduate degree you can qualify for the program, whether or not you are in a Masters or PHD program. The program also isn’t too structured, so basically you get to follow your own research plan with little outside interference. In my case, I had done my undergraduate thesis on Bolivia, and I wanted to have an opportunity to get some on the ground research experience. Also, having the chance to live here for 10 months was a big draw.
2. Did you ever have an interest in the political movements in Latin America? What are your thoughts on Hugo Chavez and the Bolivarian movement he is leading in Latin America?
Alex: Well, I’ve followed the developments in Venezuela relatively closely over the last few years. I think its positive that the majority of poor and working Venezuelans have an elected politician who seems to be making some positive changes on their behalf. I think they have made some strides in encouraging popular participation, creating workers’ cooperatives, and funnelling more money into social programs, for instance. Of course there are valid concerns one can have with Chavez’s personalistic style as well as corruption in the state bureaucracy, from what I have heard. I hope the loss in the recent constitutional referendum will give their movement a chance to do some self-reflection and renewal.
As for the influence of Bolivarianism in Bolivia, I don’t think there is too much influence on an ideological level. One of the major errors I think many reporters and commentators make, both in Bolivia and abroad, is in equating Evo Morales as a pawn or ideologue of Chavez. The situation here in Bolivia is a lot different, where the Morales government is held a lot more accountable to their bases than Chavez in Venezuela.
3. Explain what you were asked to do by the official at the U.S. Embassy in Bolivia.
Alex: Immediately upon arriving in Bolivia in late October with my Fulbright, I set up a date for my orientation with the Fulbright program director in Bolivia, Diego Ballivian, who works from the Cultural Affairs section of the US Embassy. I also was to receive a security briefing.
On November 5, 2007, I went in to do my orientation. I chatted with Diego for a bit in his office about my research, my academic future, and some precautions on living in Bolivia. Then he introduced me to someone from the Cultural Affairs office, a woman who advised me that the US’s relations with the Bolivian government are “sensitive” at the moment; “the smallest things can cause problems that we don't anticipate.” She and Diego warned me to be careful and not to "mess around in politics."
Diego then took me to a security floor for briefing by Vincent Cooper, who I now know was an assistant Regional Security Officer. He told me that the embassy had started doing security briefings for Fulbright scholars, even though we aren’t government employees, to keep us “under their wing” and “look out for us.” He said he was giving me a scaled down version of the briefing routinely given to US government employees. He reviewed a list of predictable, if unrealistic tips, including take radio taxis, don't use public transportation, and live in “safe” (expensive) neighborhoods. He also described the US Embassy Police, which is actually a sector of the Bolivian national police paid by the U.S. Embassy. This special unit receives better equipment, better training than their Bolivian counterparts, and develops loyalty to the U.S. In La Paz, Santa Cruz and Cochabamba members of this special section are always on call to assist US citizens. He told me to trust them if I needed any kind of help.
The crucial part was that Cooper also told me: "Alex, when you are out in the field, if you should encounter any Venezuelans or Cubans, field workers or doctors, we would like you to report their names and locations to the US Embassy." We "know that the they are out there," and we "want to keep tabs on them." I was stunned, and sat silently as he finished.
4. What went through your mind when you were asked to spy for the government?
Alex: Yeah, I don’t know if what they asked me would be considered in a strict sense spying, but certainly when he asked me to report political intelligence concerning foreign nationals working in Bolivia I felt like I was being asked to spy. Well at first I was shocked, because obviously I never expected as a Fulbright student to be asked something like that. I felt indignant at the arrogance that would allow someone to think that I would casually report political intelligence to the embassy. I also knew that it was clearly a violation of Bolivia’s sovereignty, the Fulbright program’s mission, as well as my personal code of ethics. So immediately after the incident I wrote down the relevant part of our conversation and began thinking about how I could make sure this never happened again. In the course of trying to find out more information about the situation, I learned that a similar thing had happened earlier with the Peace Corps.
So there are three reasons I eventually decided to go public. First and foremost, I believe national sovereignty should be respected. I think on a certain level it’s the right of the Bolivian people to know if the US embassy is asking people to spy on foreign nationals in their country.
Second, I thought that in order to really make a change I had to denounce this publicly – only with the scrutiny from the press and public would the Embassy be forced to act. I feel like the details of the situation that came out with the original exposé on ABCnews.com really justify my position. In June or July 2007, Vincent Cooper told a group of 30 new Peace Corps volunteers during a security briefing that they should report information they come across on Cubans working in Bolivia. In what seems to me to be a really positive act, the Peace Corps administrators apparently stopped the briefing and told the volunteers not to comply with Coopers request because it was inappropriate. They proceeded to use the “appropriate channels” to complain about the problem: they emailed the US Embassy to tell them that this was really not OK to ask Volunteers to report political intelligence. The embassy’s response was, and I’m paraphrasing here, “Oh, sorry. This is an error. It won’t happen again. We will discipline the officer involved.” Sound good, but four months later the same officer Vincent Cooper make virtually the same request of me, except this time including Venezuelans. For me, that means that the US Embassy was not taking this seriously.
Lastly, I feel like a strong statement needed to be made that you cannot improve mutual relations between the people of the USA and other countries, which is one of the missions of the Fulbright program, if you are being asked to spy. I felt like I needed to say publicly that that’s not what the Fulbright program is about or should be about.
5. Do you think the Bush administration has overstepped its bounds in its use of activities like wiretapping, torture, the abuses carried out at Guantanamo, and extraordinary rendition?
Alex: Short answer, yes.
6. What do you think the legacy of the Bush administration will be?
Alex: Besides what you just mentioned in the previous question, overwhelming arrogance. Now from a historical perspective one can make the argument that US foreign policy has been arrogant more often than not – I would tend to agree. But the Bush Administration really has pushed this to its logical extreme. The War in Iraq is the most obvious case and point, where the publicly stated “motive” for going to war has changed from saving the US from imminent nuclear attack, to “fighting the terrorists abroad so we wont have to fight them at home,” to “toppling a dictator” and implementing democracy. Of course we now know that Iraq had no nuclear weapons program, that there was no conspiracy between Saddam’s government and Al-Qaida, etc. We also know that the Bush Administration didn’t believe their own publicly stated reasons for going to war, but were just cynically manipulating public opinion. So in the Anti-war movement, which I was participating in a very modest way at the time, we staged the biggest day of protest in world history across dozens of countries. I feel like especially outside the United States, there was a pretty clear consensus that the US should not invade Iraq, both among people and among governments, that it was unjust, problematic, and being waged for unspoken political and economic reasons. Did this give Bush a moment of pause? Absolutely not. There are of course a million more examples of the current Administration’s arrogance that one could give both domestically and in terms of foreign policy.
7. What do you feel is an accurate assessment of where the U.S. is today -culturally, politically, economically?
Alex: I hope that the American people will take the initiative to change the future of our country, our environment, and our world. And that goes way beyond the ballot box. Beyond saying that, I’ll plead the fifth.
8. What do you think should be done to improve this country's position in the world and to improve the bleak economic outlook of the U.S.?
Alex: Well I think we need a humble foreign policy and changes that reorient our economy to benefit the people who make it run, not just the CEOs and shareholders. But I don’t feel like that’s going to come from above, like manna from heaven (or the White House). If there is one thing that my experience in Bolivia has reinforced for me, is that only after we have built powerful community, political, environmental, and economic grassroots organizations will we see serious positive changes in the USA. If we elect a democrat this year, running on the platform of reversing the harm the Bush Administration has done, who will keep them accountable once they are in office?
I’d definitively say that in my opinion neither Hillary Clinton nor Barak Obama are really going to make much of a change in Washington or in terms of economic policy. I don’t see either of them really taking on the corporate interests that dominate our political sphere. Regarding foreign policy, they might make nice with more countries than Bush did. But they still believe that protecting “American interests” abroad can justify anything. I reject that. I believe most foreign interventions justified in this fashion really only benefit the interests of small segments of US society. I would propose the same humble foreign policy that Senator William Fulbright, founder of the Fulbright program, proposed in his 1966 speech entitled “the Arrogance of Power.” Here is an excerpt:
“The attitude above all others which I feel sure is no longer valid is the arrogance of power, the tendency of great nations to equate power with virtue and major responsibilities with a universal mission. The dilemmas involved are preeminently American dilemmas, not because America has weaknesses that others do not have but because America is powerful as no nation has ever been before and the discrepancy between its power and the power of others appears to be increasing.
***
There are many respects in which America, if it can bring itself to act with the magnanimity and the empathy appropriate to its size and power, can be an intelligent example to the world. We have the opportunity to set an example of generous understanding in our relations with China, of practical cooperation for peace in our relations with Russia, of reliable and respectful partnership in our relations with Western Europe, of material helpfulness without moral presumption in our relations with the develop ing nations, of abstention from the temptations of hegemony in our relations with Latin America, and of the all- around advantages of minding one's own business in our relations with everybody. Most of all, we have the opportunity to serve as an example of democracy to the world by the way in which we run our own society; America, in the words of John Quincy Adams, should be "the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all" but "the champion and vindicator only of her own.”
9. Have you experienced any backlash for speaking out about the incident with the U.S. embassy official?
Alex: No. I’m sure the US embassy isn’t pleased that I went public with the information, they have said as much in public statements, but beyond that they haven’t said anything to me. No one else has bothered me either, except for the press the first week it all came out.
10. How has this experience affected you? Has this changed you in any way?
Alex: Luckily, it seems like this wont effect my research. In terms of the incident itself, I was certainly surprised to be asked something like that in my capacity as a Fulbright scholar although not surprised to learn that things like this are going on.
My Gut Feeling
I believe that those powers that be that are backing John McCain are pushing him into the presidency so that he can wage war with Iran. They should be castrated so they can relearn their humanity.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
In Honor of the Economy
I present "Happy Days Are Here Again" in the spirit in which Barbra originally sang it, mournful, as a lament.
So long sad times
Go long bad times
We are rid of you at last
Howdy gay times
Cloudy gray times
You are now a thing of the past
Happy days are here again
The skies above are clear again
So lets sing a song of cheer again
Happy days are here again
Altogether shout it now
Theres no one
Who can doubt it now
So lets tell the world about it now
Happy days are here again
Your cares and troubles are gone
Therell be no more from now on
From now on...
Happy days are here again
The skies above are here again
So, lets sing a song of cheer again
Happy times
Happy nights
Happy days
Are here again!
So long sad times
Go long bad times
We are rid of you at last
Howdy gay times
Cloudy gray times
You are now a thing of the past
Happy days are here again
The skies above are clear again
So lets sing a song of cheer again
Happy days are here again
Altogether shout it now
Theres no one
Who can doubt it now
So lets tell the world about it now
Happy days are here again
Your cares and troubles are gone
Therell be no more from now on
From now on...
Happy days are here again
The skies above are here again
So, lets sing a song of cheer again
Happy times
Happy nights
Happy days
Are here again!
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Borrowing From Chella
The Weakness
by Toi Derricotte
That time my grandmother dragged me
through the perfume aisles at Saks, she held me up
by my arm, hissing, "Stand up,"
through clenched teeth, her eyes
bright as a dog's
cornered in the light.
She said it over and over,
as if she were Jesus,
and I were dead. She had been
solid as a tree,
a fur around her neck, a
light-skinned matron whose car was parked, who walked
on swirling
marble and passed through
brass openings--in 1945.
There was not even a black
elevator operator at Saks.
The saleswoman had brought velvet
leggings to lace me in, and cooed,
as if in service of all grandmothers.
My grandmother had smiled, but not
hungrily, not like my mother
who hated them, but wanted to please,
and they had smiled back, as if
they were wearing wooden collars.
When my legs gave out, my grandmother
dragged me up and held me like God
holds saints by the
roots of the hair. I begged her
to believe I couldn't help it. Stumbling,
her face white
with sweat, she pushed me through the crowd, rushing
away from those eyes
that saw through
her clothes, under
her skin, all the way down
to the transparent
genes confessing.
From Captivity by Toi Derricotte, published by the University of Pittsburgh Press. Copyright © 1989 Toi Derricotte. From the online Academy of American Poets.
by Toi Derricotte
That time my grandmother dragged me
through the perfume aisles at Saks, she held me up
by my arm, hissing, "Stand up,"
through clenched teeth, her eyes
bright as a dog's
cornered in the light.
She said it over and over,
as if she were Jesus,
and I were dead. She had been
solid as a tree,
a fur around her neck, a
light-skinned matron whose car was parked, who walked
on swirling
marble and passed through
brass openings--in 1945.
There was not even a black
elevator operator at Saks.
The saleswoman had brought velvet
leggings to lace me in, and cooed,
as if in service of all grandmothers.
My grandmother had smiled, but not
hungrily, not like my mother
who hated them, but wanted to please,
and they had smiled back, as if
they were wearing wooden collars.
When my legs gave out, my grandmother
dragged me up and held me like God
holds saints by the
roots of the hair. I begged her
to believe I couldn't help it. Stumbling,
her face white
with sweat, she pushed me through the crowd, rushing
away from those eyes
that saw through
her clothes, under
her skin, all the way down
to the transparent
genes confessing.
From Captivity by Toi Derricotte, published by the University of Pittsburgh Press. Copyright © 1989 Toi Derricotte. From the online Academy of American Poets.
This Must Stop!
According to A La Gauche, police in Charlotte, North Carolina have killed a 17 year old Black boy by using a taser as they tackled him in the grocery store where he worked. I hope someone has filed a lawsuit. People must demand community accountability for all police precincts and demand the creation of community review boards across this country.
Be Ok-Lyrics
Chrisette Michele
Imma take my lexus to the mall
Get a little black dress just because
Me and my boo just broke it off
Imma be fly although hes gone
And i dont really care bout who he's with
Imma get mine and he'll get his
Even though i was in love with him,
I really hope the best for them
Every sentimental and my crying sacrimental
Tell me what i cant get into
I cant lose my mind
Think its time for me to let go
Cause my heart cant take it no more
You were all i lived for but i'll leave you behind
Imma be ok
Imma be ok
I'll survive, i'll be fine, i wont cry no way
Imma be ok
Imma be ok
Dont you talk, i'll move on, baby walk away
Imma keep my head up, hold it high
Really did my best i know you tried
Even though it hurts i will survive
I'll wipe my eyes, i'll stay alive
Take a deep breath and count to 10
Today's a new day i'll start again,
Imma find myself so deep within
Imma survivor i will win
Every sentimental and my crying sacrimental
Tell me what i cant get into
I cant lose my mind
Think its time for me to let go
Cause my heart cant take it no more
You were all i lived for but i'll leave you behind
Imma be ok
Imma be ok
I'll survive, i'll be fine, i wont cry no way
Imma be ok
Imma be ok
Dont you talk, i'll move on, baby walk away
Imma take my lexus to the mall
Get a little black dress just because
Me and my boo just broke it off
Imma be fly although hes gone
And i dont really care bout who he's with
Imma get mine and he'll get his
Even though i was in love with him,
I really hope the best for them
Every sentimental and my crying sacrimental
Tell me what i cant get into
I cant lose my mind
Think its time for me to let go
Cause my heart cant take it no more
You were all i lived for but i'll leave you behind
Imma be ok
Imma be ok
I'll survive, i'll be fine, i wont cry no way
Imma be ok
Imma be ok
Dont you talk, i'll move on, baby walk away
Imma keep my head up, hold it high
Really did my best i know you tried
Even though it hurts i will survive
I'll wipe my eyes, i'll stay alive
Take a deep breath and count to 10
Today's a new day i'll start again,
Imma find myself so deep within
Imma survivor i will win
Every sentimental and my crying sacrimental
Tell me what i cant get into
I cant lose my mind
Think its time for me to let go
Cause my heart cant take it no more
You were all i lived for but i'll leave you behind
Imma be ok
Imma be ok
I'll survive, i'll be fine, i wont cry no way
Imma be ok
Imma be ok
Dont you talk, i'll move on, baby walk away
Troy Anthony Davis
Please call the Georgia governor's office and demand clemency for Troy Anthony Davis. End the death penalty.
The Power Structure is Rankling With Radical Leftists
In a most disturbing recent trend, the 1970s member of the radical group SLA, Sarah Olson, was at first released and then re-imprisoned, with rankling and the cry of an "error" from the so-called powers that be. This follows a disturbing trend in which former members of the Black Panther Party and other organizations have been harrassed by police agencies around the country. We should be ever vigilant to keep fascism at bay and make sure these people dont over-step their boundaries as public servants.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Torture and Democracy on Democracy Now
I adamantly beleive America's use of torture will hurt the U.S. more than it will hurt any so-called terrorists.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Martina Navritilova Defects From the U.S.
And She leaves saying that life under Communist rule would have been favourable to George Bush.
To Bush: No War With Iran
We must stand adamantly against any machinations on the part of George Bush the evil against Iran. Tell him to go to hell.
Geraldine Ferraro Should Be Ashamed
Geraldine Ferraro should be ashamed and should publicly apologize about the comments she made concerning Barak Obama and his candidacy. Also, when did Greeks and Italians get to be white? A more important question, however. How many of Clinton's supporters, including Geraldine Ferraro, supported Shirley Chisolm in her bid for the presidency? I think that is an issue that should be given a long and hard look.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
The U.S., Technology, and Dominance
I have been thinking recently about the idea that those who possess a technological advantage usually have dominance in the world. This is an interesting concept as the United States, which has long been at the helm of the world technologically and in other areas, now seems to be slipping. In relation to the current oil crisis, it seems one of the most blatant examples of the U.S.'s loss of dominance is in this arena. Many months ago, there was a lot of talk about Brazil's successful transfer to an energy system based on sugarcane instead of oil. The United States doesn't have this kind of technology. If Brazil is outdoing the U.S., there is a major slippage on the part of the U.S.
Kirk Franklin is a beautiful man.Nancy Wilson Endorses Barack Obama!
Nancy's statement in support of Barack Obama
"I have always chosen to sing only those songs that speak to me, that resonate with my life and feelings. I am proud to support Barack Obama because he stays true to his core, and stands up for what he knows is right. As a Spokesperson for the National Minority AIDS Council, I work hard to raise AIDS awareness in the African-American communities, and deeply appreciate that Barack talks honestly with our community on this and other issues. I believe Barack can bring our nation together and realize the true promise of America, and that vision, that hope, speaks powerfully to me." - Nancy Wilson
It's finally here!
"I have always chosen to sing only those songs that speak to me, that resonate with my life and feelings. I am proud to support Barack Obama because he stays true to his core, and stands up for what he knows is right. As a Spokesperson for the National Minority AIDS Council, I work hard to raise AIDS awareness in the African-American communities, and deeply appreciate that Barack talks honestly with our community on this and other issues. I believe Barack can bring our nation together and realize the true promise of America, and that vision, that hope, speaks powerfully to me." - Nancy Wilson
It's finally here!
Racism in the Clinton Camp
Hillary should be very careful not to let racism become the rallying cry of her campaign. I think its nice that she is now thinking about taking the VP position on an Obama ticket.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Cheryl Underwood on The View
You know, this morning on the TJMS, Cheryl asked Tom and Cybil to pray for her because she was going on The View and she didn't want to go off on anybody and keep from embarrasing herself or anyone else. When Elizabeth Hasselback broke into her diatribe about the Black church and the Black family agenda at first I was simply smug with a "white girl talking" kind of attitude. Then I remembered Cheryl Underwood was going to be on the show and then I got scared, especially after Elizabeth started talking about Obama and I started to pray, "Lord, please save Elizabeth Hassleback and don't let Cheryl Underwood snap her in half...."
Racism....CondescensionHillary/Bill's Newest Strategy
After Obama's Wyoming win, Hillary has adapted yet a new tactic for playing her skillful political hand. I think that she should be careful not to let racism seep into her campaign, especially in the form of paternalism and condescension.
Thursday, March 06, 2008
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
What I Have Learned
The Spirit lives in each of us. I used to think that everything was political--that there was little that wasn't outside of the realm of manipulation. I now see that everything is NOT political. Everything is spiritual. Everything has a spirit and now I must recognize the spirit in each and everything.
I'm Going to Say This in the Nicest Way I Can
I'm going to say this in the nicest way I can. Raven Simone is somewhere in the ballpark of 25 years old and overgrown. It is high time she left the Disney Channel.
From Hungry Blues
The Legacy of a Murder
Racial killings from the civil rights era still haunt families and the country.
By Benjamin Greenberg
Colorlines Magazine (March/April 2008)
“I heard a scream, and I said, ‘That’s Mother, that’s Mother.’ And we all started running to look.” It was August 14, 1959, near midnight, in Centreville, Mississippi. Laura O’Quinn Smith, then 33, and her brother Clarence, then 32, rushed from the house and found their father, Samuel O’Quinn, shot in the back outside of the front gate of Whitaker Plantation, the 235-acre family land.
Clarence got his mother and wounded father back into the car and drove to the Field Memorial Community Hospital. Samuel O’Quinn died en route, in the arms of his wife, Ida. He was 58 years old and the father of 11 children. No one has ever been charged with the crime.
Today, Laura and Clarence, now ages 81 and 80, are living in Springfield, Massachusetts, along with two other siblings, Phalba and Rance. They are one of numerous families who are still waiting for justice in racial murders from the civil rights era. “It would give closure for us,” said Phalba O’Quinn Plummer, who is now 71. “It would really help a lot for all of us to know what happened.”
The FBI is currently reviewing approximately 100 cases that it may reopen; 84 of the victims have been named, and of those, 34 are from Mississippi. The true number of unresolved cases, however, is unknown. A review of a relatively narrow set of FBI and state documents found references to at least seven murders in Mississippi that are not on the published FBI list.
The lack of justice for Samuel O’Quinn and other Blacks murdered during the civil rights struggles of the 1950s and ’60s is the haunting background for current events that every so often lay bare the broken promises of a supposedly post-civil rights society: the double standard of justice meted out to the Jena 6; the vast numbers of people, overwhelmingly Black, treated as disposable during and after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita; the Klan-like torture and rape of Megan Williams.
Last June, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act (known as the “Till Bill”), which would allocate $13.5 million annually for a special FBI office and Civil Rights Division unit to investigate civil rights-era crimes in coordination with local and state authorities. The Till Bill passed the House in June, but Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma placed a hold on the bill, keeping it stuck in the Senate through at least the winter recess.
• • •
The O’Quinns were a prosperous Black family in 1950’s Mississippi. A graduate of the Tuskegee Institute, Samuel O’Quinn was a certified plumber, electrician and carpenter. After working as the assistant town engineer and as the only plumber in Centreville, he opened O’Quinn’s Café with his wife, Ida, in 1937. He also owned and operated 33 jukeboxes throughout southwest Mississippi.
In the mid-1940s, O’Quinn obtained his mortician’s license and opened a funeral home. He sold the jukebox routes and invested in real estate. The O’Quinns owned most of the properties in the Quarters, which was lowincome housing for Blacks and essentially the ghetto of the small rural town of 1,200 people. They bought the Whitaker Plantation on Highway 33 in the late 1940s and farmed the land, raising and selling peppers, soy beans and cotton.
On Sundays, O’Quinn went from one church to another selling burial policies, which a person could pay into and eventually meet the cost of his or her own burial. During these visits, he also organized benevolent associations, community groups that together paid into a fund for community members when they were in need.
“It was kind of a self-help group,” explained Rance O’Quinn, one of Samuel O’Quinn’s sons, now 70, “but they later grew, and every time you organize people, others get suspicious.”
The O’Quinns were, in fact, as well-to-do as anyone in Centreville, Black or white. The 11 O’Quinn children never had to work for whites, which was most unusual and an affront to the white supremacist mentality of the time.
On August 14, 1959, Samuel O’Quinn picked up his wife at their café, just off Main Street, as he did every night at 11:00 pm. That night, their 7-year-old son, Roy, was with Ida at the café. On the ride home, Roy stood between his parents on the front seat. As usual, O’Quinn stopped, got out of the car to open their front gate and then drove the car in. He was shot when he got back out of the car to shut the gate.
(Photo: Samuel O’Quinn, early 1950s. Courtesy of Rance O’Quinn.)
Racial killings from the civil rights era still haunt families and the country.
By Benjamin Greenberg
Colorlines Magazine (March/April 2008)
“I heard a scream, and I said, ‘That’s Mother, that’s Mother.’ And we all started running to look.” It was August 14, 1959, near midnight, in Centreville, Mississippi. Laura O’Quinn Smith, then 33, and her brother Clarence, then 32, rushed from the house and found their father, Samuel O’Quinn, shot in the back outside of the front gate of Whitaker Plantation, the 235-acre family land.
Clarence got his mother and wounded father back into the car and drove to the Field Memorial Community Hospital. Samuel O’Quinn died en route, in the arms of his wife, Ida. He was 58 years old and the father of 11 children. No one has ever been charged with the crime.
Today, Laura and Clarence, now ages 81 and 80, are living in Springfield, Massachusetts, along with two other siblings, Phalba and Rance. They are one of numerous families who are still waiting for justice in racial murders from the civil rights era. “It would give closure for us,” said Phalba O’Quinn Plummer, who is now 71. “It would really help a lot for all of us to know what happened.”
The FBI is currently reviewing approximately 100 cases that it may reopen; 84 of the victims have been named, and of those, 34 are from Mississippi. The true number of unresolved cases, however, is unknown. A review of a relatively narrow set of FBI and state documents found references to at least seven murders in Mississippi that are not on the published FBI list.
The lack of justice for Samuel O’Quinn and other Blacks murdered during the civil rights struggles of the 1950s and ’60s is the haunting background for current events that every so often lay bare the broken promises of a supposedly post-civil rights society: the double standard of justice meted out to the Jena 6; the vast numbers of people, overwhelmingly Black, treated as disposable during and after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita; the Klan-like torture and rape of Megan Williams.
Last June, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act (known as the “Till Bill”), which would allocate $13.5 million annually for a special FBI office and Civil Rights Division unit to investigate civil rights-era crimes in coordination with local and state authorities. The Till Bill passed the House in June, but Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma placed a hold on the bill, keeping it stuck in the Senate through at least the winter recess.
• • •
The O’Quinns were a prosperous Black family in 1950’s Mississippi. A graduate of the Tuskegee Institute, Samuel O’Quinn was a certified plumber, electrician and carpenter. After working as the assistant town engineer and as the only plumber in Centreville, he opened O’Quinn’s Café with his wife, Ida, in 1937. He also owned and operated 33 jukeboxes throughout southwest Mississippi.
In the mid-1940s, O’Quinn obtained his mortician’s license and opened a funeral home. He sold the jukebox routes and invested in real estate. The O’Quinns owned most of the properties in the Quarters, which was lowincome housing for Blacks and essentially the ghetto of the small rural town of 1,200 people. They bought the Whitaker Plantation on Highway 33 in the late 1940s and farmed the land, raising and selling peppers, soy beans and cotton.
On Sundays, O’Quinn went from one church to another selling burial policies, which a person could pay into and eventually meet the cost of his or her own burial. During these visits, he also organized benevolent associations, community groups that together paid into a fund for community members when they were in need.
“It was kind of a self-help group,” explained Rance O’Quinn, one of Samuel O’Quinn’s sons, now 70, “but they later grew, and every time you organize people, others get suspicious.”
The O’Quinns were, in fact, as well-to-do as anyone in Centreville, Black or white. The 11 O’Quinn children never had to work for whites, which was most unusual and an affront to the white supremacist mentality of the time.
On August 14, 1959, Samuel O’Quinn picked up his wife at their café, just off Main Street, as he did every night at 11:00 pm. That night, their 7-year-old son, Roy, was with Ida at the café. On the ride home, Roy stood between his parents on the front seat. As usual, O’Quinn stopped, got out of the car to open their front gate and then drove the car in. He was shot when he got back out of the car to shut the gate.
(Photo: Samuel O’Quinn, early 1950s. Courtesy of Rance O’Quinn.)
Two Important Posts From Hungry Blues
When Is McCain Going to Denounce Anti-Semites in His Campaign?
A lack of time and nothing more to add lead me to give you this one whole cloth, by dnA over at his excellent blog, Too Sense.
Anger over anti-Semitism on the American Right, when coming from the Goyim, has only to do with the fact that the vast majority of American Jews are white. It’s what causes folks on the Right to sputter over Farrakhan’s anti-Semitism while ignoring that of their most prominent Christianist leaders.
McCain for his part, has more than his share of avowed anti-Semites on his campaign, as opposed to critics of Israel, which is what the Right is usually referring to when they speak of “anti-Semites” on the Left.
This is not to say that there are no anti-Semites on the Left. On September 11th, a white girl told me that 9/11 was my fault because I had “killed innocent Palestinian children.” I’m saying that these people do not comprise a significant part of the establishment on the Left, while the theo-cons who have endorsed McCain are mainstream enough for him to trumpet their approval without fanfare. Via Matthew Yglesias, McCain supporter Pastor John Hagee:
It was the disobedience and rebellion of the Jews, God’s chosen people, to their covenantal responsibility to serve only the one true God, Jehovah, that gave rise to the opposition and persecution that they experienced beginning in Canaan and continuing to this very day.
Simply put, the death of six million Jews in the Shoah was our fault for not accepting Jesus.
Nothing Farrakhan has said or done is more vile than this. Yet McCain appears with Hagee on the campaign trail, while Barack Obama has to denounce Farrakhan repeatedly despite a complete lack of an association beyond race.
Gentiles on the Right don’t care about anti-Semitism. They just want to hate without being hated back.
Support for Israel based on a desire to facilitate Armageddon is not “support”. If Jewish “leaders” weren’t as out of touch with the views of the community they supposedly represent as today’s black leaders (leading blacks), they would not embrace this man
A lack of time and nothing more to add lead me to give you this one whole cloth, by dnA over at his excellent blog, Too Sense.
Anger over anti-Semitism on the American Right, when coming from the Goyim, has only to do with the fact that the vast majority of American Jews are white. It’s what causes folks on the Right to sputter over Farrakhan’s anti-Semitism while ignoring that of their most prominent Christianist leaders.
McCain for his part, has more than his share of avowed anti-Semites on his campaign, as opposed to critics of Israel, which is what the Right is usually referring to when they speak of “anti-Semites” on the Left.
This is not to say that there are no anti-Semites on the Left. On September 11th, a white girl told me that 9/11 was my fault because I had “killed innocent Palestinian children.” I’m saying that these people do not comprise a significant part of the establishment on the Left, while the theo-cons who have endorsed McCain are mainstream enough for him to trumpet their approval without fanfare. Via Matthew Yglesias, McCain supporter Pastor John Hagee:
It was the disobedience and rebellion of the Jews, God’s chosen people, to their covenantal responsibility to serve only the one true God, Jehovah, that gave rise to the opposition and persecution that they experienced beginning in Canaan and continuing to this very day.
Simply put, the death of six million Jews in the Shoah was our fault for not accepting Jesus.
Nothing Farrakhan has said or done is more vile than this. Yet McCain appears with Hagee on the campaign trail, while Barack Obama has to denounce Farrakhan repeatedly despite a complete lack of an association beyond race.
Gentiles on the Right don’t care about anti-Semitism. They just want to hate without being hated back.
Support for Israel based on a desire to facilitate Armageddon is not “support”. If Jewish “leaders” weren’t as out of touch with the views of the community they supposedly represent as today’s black leaders (leading blacks), they would not embrace this man
Sunday, March 02, 2008
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