..How Little We've Changed...

..A brilliant commentary on the legacy of American racism....

"Make no mistake about it. This will serve to remind us of how little we've changed. Southerners are particularly to blame. They are so proud of their heritage that they cling to the behaviors, beliefs, and the language of slavery. The consequences are direct and unambiguous. Every Confederate flag displayed, every tourist backdrop celebrating the "plantation", every last name of almost every Afro-American citizen serve as a reminder of the ugly past still celebrated by the white culture in the south.

Let's put the dots closer together and see what picture is made clear. The history of the southern states is not merely one of the ownership of human beings. It is also a history that drags a sordid reminder along the years. The southern "charm" is tainted with the ugly stain of rape. Millions of cases of rape. Tens of thousands of children born as a result of rape. The rapists of the slavery era are the great-grandparents of today's southern elite. Yet the children born of those rapes did not benefit from the fact that their owner was also their father.

Count the years. From the early 1600's until well past the Civil War, over 250 years of a culture that secretly endorsed rape as a weapon to secure obedience from women at their disposal; controlling too the male slaves that were allowed to live if they did not revolt against the rape of their women.

The bitterness of the southerner who proudly protects this history lives with the guilt of the era and the knowledge, ultimately, that the people they discriminate against are their own relatives. They are the living DNA connecting today's culture to an unmistakable history of rape.

Even more current examples exist. Strom Thurmond eventually admitted fathering a child with his families maid in the 1930s. In the mean-time, he kept the sordid history secret with bribery. Make no mistake about it. It was rape.

The history of rape in the South continues to be the stain they cannot wash out"

Steven Kale - Eugene, Oregon

"..Thanks For Giving Me a Chance..."

...these were the prescient words of Cam Newton, black QB of the Auburn Tigers football team, in his post game interview. His team had just soundly beaten So. Carolina U. for the SEC championship by 56-17, where he passed for 4 td, ran for 2 td and scrambled almost 100 yds - a remarkable feat considering that just 38 years ago, there had never been a black quarterback allowed to play in the SEC.

For this season, Cam is the first player in SEC history to pass for over 2000 yds. and rush for over 1000 yds. He also owns the Auburn single-season scoring record of over 114 points.  He now also holds the best record in college football history of 28 td passing, and 20 td rushing in a single season.

On his way to this historic achievement, Cam has been the victim of a series of vicious, racist attacks by those in his conference and beyond, who never wanted to see a black playing for a previously all-white southern university, much less a black player leading it at quarterback. At issue are allegations that his father solicited payoff money from Mississippi State U. before his son would consider playing there. Clearly his son did not play there, but instead went to Auburn. So it must be asked, if these allegations are true, then what did Auburn agree to give him to play there???   Significantly Auburn is denying this ever happened - for good reason. If they did admit to paying him, they would be ineligible for conference play, and the conference championship they just won would be invalidated. As well, they would be ineligible for the year-end prestigious BCS championship bowl, worth about $40 million in income to the school. There are some that are hoping that just these allegations will be enough to deny him the Heisman Trophy award for the best player in college football. If he doesn't get it, it will prove that this award is worth very little, and not even worth the metal alloy it is made of.

Being given this chance that Newton spoke of, is the heart of the black experience in America since slavery - the denial of an equal chance for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for blacks in all aspects of American life. Some would argue that it has gotten much better, and it has, but there is still has a significant way to go, as the racist signs of the ignorant teabaggers prove.

What Cam did today, is the worst nightmare of red-necked supremacists, who correctly feared that giving blacks a chance, would result in historic performances like this. And would far surpass those of whites, thus exposing and denying the false premise of white superiority and black inferiority.

In Cam's final interview after winning the game's MVP award, he was asked what would he say to all the fans as well as the TV audience, he said, "a wise man told me, if God be for me, who can be against me?"

That wise man was probably his father who is also a minister.  But, even if it wasn't, it was still the wisest thing anyone could have said to him and I'm glad he shared it with his fans and the nation.

The Bible and 'Free Markets'

http://www.terryreport.com/

"One of the great American myths is that we live in a “free market system” and, as a result, the Republicans, Sarah Palin and the Tea Party fringe need to protect it, while the Dems want to choke it to death. We are up to our eyeballs in talking about free markets, so much so that even President Obama last week said that the big bonuses of Wall Street Bankers are part of the free market, just like baseball players getting multi-million dollar contacts.

The idea that free markets needed protection started way back in the 1920s and ‘30s. At that time, a campaign was produced by some of the first public relations companies, supported by big business, to sell the idea to the American public. The big PR firms, law firms and the US Chamber of Commerce have been carrying the torch ever since. Problem is, the idea is actually more false than real.

We have markets that are freer, less constrained, than some places in the world, such a Europe, but we don’t have wide open, free markets. We have regulated markets, we will always have regulated markets no matter if the Republicans take Congress and the White House for the next hundred years. Those regulations would be lessened, but they would not go away. Even the Republicans, after the banking disaster, would be talking more regulation today if they had won the White House in 2008. The need for some degree of regulation has been made apparent again and again, from the stock market crash of 1929, through the tech/dot com bubble in 2000 and the housing bubble that began to end in 2005 and crashed in ‘08.

The degree to which we have “free” markets is a discussion for another day. It is too involved to lay out in detail right now and, no matter, someone will always come up with an argument on the finer points and then say the larger point is wrong, too. So be it.

HERE IS MY QUESTION OF THE DAY: Where is the “free market system” in the Bible? Where do we find God or Jesus endorsing free markets? Yeah, I know, Jesus chased the money lenders out of the Temple. What else is there in the Bible? Now instead of driving banks out, we give money lenders tax breaks, bonuses and bailouts, because they took us so deep into trouble we would have to dig out with dynamite if they had gone under. The belief that the Bible somehow or another supports free enterprise is spreading, but there is no clear evidence behind that belief.

Despite this, support of free markets has been made into a test of fundamentalist conservatism. Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia requires its students to exhibit loyalty to free markets as part of its basic principles listed as “aims” of the school. Officials at Liberty have stated in public many times that students who don’t believe in those aims don’t belong at Liberty. Period. They used that argument in support of excluding certain student led groups. If you want to believe in highly regulated markets and try to organize a student group, they will shut it down.

The idea of the holiness of free markets is also creeping from religion into text books, too. Recently, the NY Times quoted a member of the Texas State Board of Education as saying that the roots of free market ideals can be found in the Bible. Yeah, where? If so, does that represent an endorsement? This same school board member , a dentist by trade, works with other Christian fundamentalists to bend text books in the direction of his narrow views of religion, government and history, to the exclusion of counter views.

It is fairly astounding to me that free markets are being turned into religious orthodoxy, a vital part of fundamentalist religious ideas. Who started this? Where is it going to stop? Why should anyone who doesn’t believe that free market capitalism is not the most wonderful thing on earth want to be part of such a religion? What if you are living out of your car, sleeping in a store parking lot because you’ve lost your home and job to free markets, do you want to worship capitalism and Jesus on Sundays? Come on down.

All of this can be seen as the antipode to what communism did in Russia: first there was communism, then there could be nothing else, no free thought, no religious practices, very little family, no enterprise. The religious zealots in America now want us to believe it is their way or the highway, that everything they believe is backed up by the ultimate authority, the Bible. They would leave us, in the end, as stripped of the ability to think for ourselves as communism once did around the world. If you question their business practices, you are also questioning their religion. What a deal.

I say to them, where is the free market system in the Bible? Prove it, Charlie. Show me how the Bible endorses the brutalities of take no prisoners capitalism. Where does the Bible say that no matter how an employer treats the employees, if there is profit, that is good? Where does the Bible say that, as cable and satellite companies do, they have a responsibility to their share holders to show pornography if that results in maximizing profits? Where does the Bible say that cheating and charging every last fee you can imagine from the poorest banking customers is, overall, a wonderful thing? Does the Bible endorse running your competition out of business in the most direct, efficient way possible so you can make more money, faster? Does the Bible praise operating commercial aircraft that are unsafe, just so long as the stock holders get their money?

The people who are pushing the belief that free markets are part of the Bible and, thus, “god’s plan” for the world are in the process of turning their religious beliefs into a joke. They are working backward from their political views and trying to turn them into canons of religious duty. This is not just nonsense, it is dangerous nonsense. In reaction to changes brought about by the modern world, they want to take us back a hundred or two hundred years.

It is a way of stunting the brains of their followers into believing that what can often be evil (rampant, unchecked power of corporations) is somehow good for them. In effect, they are endorsing everything that capitalism does and calling on their believers not to oppose any of those actions, but rather to lie down, willingly and happily, and submit in the name of the greater good. Otherwise, they would be interfering, interfering I tell you!, with the holy free market system.

Free markets are nowhere to be found in the Christian Bible. Nor is it any way factual to suggest the principles of free markets were inspired by the Bible. That is little more than fantasy enlarged to fit the evident need for belief. The closest analog to the teachings of Christ, to many who have studied the New Testament closely, can be found in the ideals (not the practices) under which communism raised its ugly flag: from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs. In a sense, it would be grand if we could look to one book written a thousand and more years ago and know the answer to the complex questions of our times, but we can’t."

What President Obama Needs To Do - Now!

http://www.terryreport.com/

"Obama and his troops came into Washington, DC, drunk with their own success and his "magical" abilities. It was as if they commanded a massive battleship when any opposition would likely be floating around in row boats. All they had to do, it seemed, was move forward; the waves alone would knock them away.

But, let's not go overboard, mates. The single decision to turn the development of the health care legislation over to Congress was the most self destructive act of the first two years. It was just one mistake. Wrapped securely in their White House cocoon, they had little idea of the disaster they had set in motion. Even I was repulsed by the resulting partisan carnage, and I am a former Capitol Hill reporter able to sit through seven or eight congressional hearings in a week without my head exploding. For the public, it was too much. The sausage making had invaded their living rooms and was stinkin' up the whole house.

We must remember this...a kiss is still as kiss...(sorry, wrong comment). Most of the public, as revealed in a recent poll, have turned against this president and the Democrats based on FALSE information about what he has done. Most think he raised taxes, instead of lowing them by 240 billion on the middle class. Most think the money loaned the banks and car companies will never be recovered (profits are ahead). And, most people think the stimulus didn't work when, in fact, the economy has grown slightly for the last four quarters. While these impressions have soaked in, Obama has been Mr. Cool, willing to push back on almost nothing and appearing on every television program besides Sesame Street (they are trying to book him there next week).

Almost any Democrat would have won in 2008, with the economy headed far south and two inclusive wars simmering in billions of American dollars and hundreds of lives. When the housing market fell to pieces, the fate of the Republicans was sealed, but the Obama tribe took everything that happened to heart, as if they, and they alone, possessed a special formula. Sadly, they, and we, have learned they did not.

To be fair (is that called for these days?), Obama came into office with some of the biggest problems in American history hanging over his head. Perhaps he shouldn't have bothered adding to those problems by pushing health care? He has done rather well, except in convincing the public to go along for the ride.

These were, and are, extraordinary times. They called for something more than business as usual, something more than mere government/Washington solutions. There was a deep need to engage the public in the effort to pull us through and out of recession and everything that was proposed were drawn from the official government playbook.

For example, there has been very little presidential "jaw boning" of business and corporations to get them to start hiring and spend the massive cash reserves on which their over paid backsides rest so comfortably. Business has left the building (backdoor exit). They do not care and are no longer engaged with the fate of this nation. They have slipped the surly bonds of earth and are touching faces in India, China and Ireland. Being president means you occasionally are required to spit in the face of those who sent you (just not always, ala Jimmy Carter).

Where is the threat, where is the power of this presidency? Like Clinton in the '90s (those grand years of ol), Obama has yet to demonstrate that he is strong enough, by virtue of a willingness to show and use the power of his office. We know where that got Clinton: impeachment by a bunch of political mice on Capitol Hill who believed he would roll over a play dead as soon as the House voted.

What can be done? Obama needs to widen his circle of advisers. He needs to spend less time on television and more time figuring out what to do. He needs to look for that hidden, enticing "presidential moment" when he can leave American citizens, and official Washington, thunderstruck with his daring and determination. He needs to prove that he deserves the office that the nation gratefully gave him.

He needs to try some new things. Obama needs to look to the extra-official aspects of the presidency, of leadership that does not involve getting legislation passed. Until now, bills in Congress have been his focus. It hasn’t worked, at least not in bringing support to him and his presidency.

He needs to find ways to make the nation feel and believe, in substance and by impression, that he and we can tackle our problems and get moving again. He needs to use the bully pulpit as none have ever before. He needs to pick some good fights and show the public he is not afraid to get dirt on his collar. He needs to give people new reasons to believe in him."


(excerpted from the Terry report)

Karma is a B***h

The middle classes (liberals and conservatives) are now being savaged by the wealthy corporate class, because they (middle classes) either cheered or ignored the subjugation and degradation of the lower classes by wealthy corporatist and landowners, starting with slavery, jim crow-ism, sharecropping, through present-day entrenched toxic discriminations.

In modern times, even liberal Californians voted to overturn the Rumford Act of 1963, which prohibited discrimination in the sale, lease and rental of real property on the basis of race, religion, sex, marital status, physical handicap or familial status. An overwhelming 65% voted against extending basic human rights to blacks who were the chief beneficiaries of the Rumford Act.

So to see them now on the receiving end of the same malevolent mind-set, including being hit with high unemployment, outsourced jobs, foreclosed homes, obscene profits on Wall Street, and voting against their best interests through racist fears etc., is a reminder that karma often comes slowly, but it always arrives. 

They have been so savaged that many of them are now embracing the Tea-bagging/Tea-Party fraudsters, and just elected a significant number of genocidal tea-thugs to further oppress them and take what little is left of their middle class.

I should be charitable and welcome them to the lower classes of which I am a part, and which they always despised. In this class are poor, middle income, and highly educated wealthy blacks, including President Obama, all deemed by the US Constitution and many whites, to be less-than, by virtue of being black. 

But I won't, because they probably don't appreciate being lumped in with this class after multiple decades of being on top. I think I'll just let them stew and steadily decline under the onslaught of their masters of predatory capitalism, that are oppressing them while claiming to 'feel their pain'.

And to complete the 'Karma' circle, the ex-President whom they elected twice and who did so much to turn their dreams to ashes with his war-mongering, reckless deficit spending, crony capitalism with his bankster pals, and sociopathic sanctioning of torturous water-boarding and other outrages, began hawking his revisionist memoirs today, while desperately hoping none will remember his 8-year reign of lying, error and terror.

Sorry Prez, I am remembering, even if they won't...

The Free-Market Hoax

When you hear Tea-Bagging racists and ignoramuses, and their Rethug cousins extolling the 'free-market' as the cure-all for government programs they hate, just remember that they are pulling a giant-sized con on themselves and their gullible followers.

There is no such thing as the Free-Market! - every American business is assisted by and wallowing in, some form of 'corporate welfare' - ranging from Tax Credits, Tax Subsidies, Tax Loopholes and Tax Rebates, to Farm Subsidies, Federal Earmarks and Depletion Allowances,  - all paid for by we, the American taxpayers. And even with all that welfare, they still operate less efficiently than governmental entities like the Police Dept., Fire Dept., Post Office, Veterans Administration, Medicare and Social Security - just to name a few.

The Teabaggers and their enablers, either don't know this or are willfully ignorant so they can continue to nurture their stupidity.  They hate personal welfare, which requires means-testing that the needy poor has to qualify for, but they love corporate welfare, most of which is a taxpayer giveaway to businesses who don't need it.

The government that they want to shrink or eliminate, is the same one they quietly have their hands out to for corporate welfare assistance. So if the government is eliminated, who will pay their corporate welfare????? And they want their country back - but from whom? Who took it and when did they lose it?  

Oh I know, they lost it when half-black Obama became President and their simpleton minds infected with fissures of racism, couldn't handle it. 

But they weren't concerned about losing their country when Bush was robbing them blind with 2 unfunded wars, 2 unfunded tax cuts which mainly benefited the top 2%, and other crimes and misdemeanors.  Neither were they concerned when he squandered the $200 billion budget surplus Clinton left him, and saddled Obama with a $1.4 trillion deficit when he left.

Now that they have the House back, we'll see how well they do with their 'free-market' idiocy and other inane sloganeering.

God is Paying All Reparations Due Me

As I travel, I'm reminded that each of us has visited and walked on lands where our ancestors were enslaved, whether in this country or in Caribbean lands like Barbados or Jamaica.

I've often wondered, what happened to the unpaid wages (with compound interest) that is due our ancestors for their slave labor? On a basic level, we know that this unearned wealth enabled countries like America and Great Britain to become wealthy beyond their wildest dreams and expectations.

Note: the most conservative estimates places the present value of these compounded unpaid wages at $5 - $10 trillion (not incl. the costs of Jim Crow evils nor the costs of present day discrimination.)

http://cas.umkc.edu/econ/economics/faculty/Forstater/688/Reading/Black%20Political%20Economy/EconomicsReparations.pdf

We also know that the God we serve Who is all-knowing, all-seeing and absolutely just, laid down His laws about sowing and reaping, and they apply to all countries and people on earth.
So every cent of unpaid wages (with interest) due our ancestors, has been, is being, and will continue to flow to us and our descendants forever, or until paid. Our paychecks. retirement checks, self-employed earnings etc., are actually coming from these unpaid wages. (without our ancestors, we wouldn't be here to be educated, earn a paycheck and be able to retire)

On a macro level, these wages are deposited by our Creator God in virtual (karma) escrow accounts on behalf of each of our enslaved ancestors....every cent of their unpaid wages will be deposited and paid to their descendants, and each drop of blood shed by them and every indignity endured by them, will be avenged.

This is the bigger picture that we seldom think about, but we need to be comforted by....

".and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just." Prov. 13:22.

"...for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord" Rom. 12:19

One Year + 2 Months - For Murder

"Johannes Mehserle, the former Bart police officer who killed Oscar Grant on the platform of the Fruitvale station on New Year's day 2009, was sentenced Friday to two years in prison. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert Perry gave Mehserle credit for 292 days already served, which reduced the amount of time Meherle will serve to 'just over a year and 2 months'."

It's an old, old story of miscarriages of justice when it comes to the lives of blacks at the hands of the criminal justice system - this outrage happened in Oakland, Ca., and was tried in Los Angeles, Ca.

This case is no exception and there were no surprises in this one. It should be noted that NFL Quarterback, Michael Vick, got more prison time for killing dogs he bred for fighting, than Mehserle got for murdering a human being, Oscar Grant.

If America ever wakes up to what she is building up in the sky-high wall of karma and "reaping" for her crimes against blacks from the day the first one was imported here to be a slave, it will be way too late to avoid the certain judgement that is in store for her.

IMHO the judgement has already begun, but America is too racist and ignorant to realize it.

The Judge did just what his societal peers wanted and expected him to do - always be on the side of the police no matter how egregious their actions, especially when it comes to the loss of life or the freedom of a black victim.

Well done Judge Perry! - you will be able to continue happily on with your country club golf membership and with your Synagogue or Church membership, and with your judgeship in the Superior Court . The people who count in your world are applauding your decision right now - you've done right by them.

But most importantly, have you done right by God - the Creator of Oscar Grant? And will He hold you and your applauders responsible for his blood? - when and where and how????

It's a certainty that you and they, will answer to God in due time...and if not, then there is no God (but don't count on it)...

How Stupid is Stupid?

Well the question certainly has been answered, the mostly white electorate voted in the Rethugs again, along with some new anarchist Teabaggers. These are the same Rethugs that offshored the jobs and plundered the treasury that supported the middle class the past 40 years, and sent the economy headed straight to the bottom.

As they usually do to blacks, they gave Obama the worst job - to clean up the wreckage left behind by the Bush criminals. They admit he averted the crash, (and he also reduced Bush's $1.4 trillion deficit by $200 billion), but their inner racist redneck DNA couldn't stand the fact that he is black and occupying their white house (the color symbolism is inescapable). So in less than 2 years, they gave the House back to the criminals who savaged the economy in the first place, and in so doing they got rid of 2 of the most progressive middle class advocates in Congress - Russ Feingold and Allan Grayson.

How stupid is that? - Stupid is as Stupid does!


Note to Dems and the President: you deserved to lose.....

You were not progressive at all - you preferred to try and compromise with the Rethugs and water down everything to appease them. What did it get you? - not one of their votes!- and a loss of control of the House..

You stupidly did not include a Public Option when you had a chance to - instead you passed a watered-down Healthcare bill without one Repug vote! So it's clear you could have included it, but didn't.

You had a chance to investigate and ban the privately owned Diebold voting machines, but you didn't, so now you will never know how many votes were stolen from you and if your loses were real or faked.

You did not investigate the crimes of the Bush regime when you had the House, so now the Rethugs will investigate you and maybe impeach you.

You allowed that spineless, gutless, Harry Reid to be the Senate leader and he kowtowed to every filibuster the Rethugs threw at him. He didn't have the balls for the job and you knew it, but you let him have it anyway.

And to rub salt in the wound - Tim Scott, the first black Representative since Reconstruction was elected in So. Carolina as a Teabagging Repug, and he vows to repeal your Healthcare Legislation.

Good luck the next two years - you did not take enough progressive stances that would have energized the Progressive Independents to come out and vote - so you lost. You're now stuck with the Moderates, the DNC, the Blue-Dog Dems, and the Teabaggers who hate you - you deserve them all.

And today you said you would compromise with the Rethugnants who now rule the House. Less than 1 hour later, the winning Teabagging anarchist, Marco Rubio said, "hell no! - no compromise, we're sticking to our principles", and sambo Michael Steele parroted the same rebuff, "we're sticking to our principles!"

So Obama you've been kicked again because you still haven't learned that it's not just politics with your enemies, it's ideology and principle, and they (unlike you), don't compromise on those....

Tea-Partyers, Sports and Politics

Professional Sports and Politics are two minefields that blacks have always had to tread very softly and carefully in. Those blacks that have risen to the top in these areas, have always had to live with the possibility of being targeted, scorned, slandered, rebuffed or undermined, because whites cannot accept blacks that have gotten too big or too rich, particularly if they are bigger and richer than they.

What does Randy Moss, Donovan McNabb, Allen Iverson, Tiger Woods, President Obama, Terrell Owens, Michael Vick, Tarvaris Jackson, Martin Luther King, Albert Hanesworth, LeBron James, Maxine Waters, Ron Washington, Adam Clayton Powell, Plaxico Burress, have in common? - they were or are, prominent black sports or political figures who had gotten too big, too rich, or both, and have been censured and slandered by the populist mindset that says, "when it comes to these blacks, we're taking back our sports and country back, by bringing them down!"

And what were they trying to bring them down for? - mostly for being too outspoken, unfairly scapegoated, minor infractions made into major outrages, slanderous and untrue characterizations, being in the wrong place at the wrong time, bad choices, etc., - things whites routinely got a pass on, or if criticized, it was done very minimally and reluctantly.

Ever since President Obama announced his intent to run for President in 2007, you could feel the palpable resentment towards blacks in general gradually begin to build. And when it was clear that he had a better than even chance to win, it really intensified for blacks across the board.

Now, just 20 months into his presidency, you can easily see the white Tea-Party backlash of hate, fear, resentment and ignorance, that has spread to black sports figures as well as to other black politicians. The Tea party racist mindset has always been there, but since the Civil Rights Era, it had largely lay dormant until Reagan opened the door for it to emerge again with some respectability in the 1980s.

Now in spite of President Obama's reduction of Bush's $1.416 trillion deficit to $1.291 trillion, his Stimulus program creating $1.4 million jobs, and his tax cuts going to 90% of the citizens, he is being pilloried for losing the House, barely holding on to the Senate, and a high unemployment rate.

And worse, the Rethugs who almost sank the ship of state under Bush, have been empowered again by the racist Teapartyers and their enablers, who lost the most before, and have the most to lose now.

Most of them had their 'wealth' in their homes, other real estate, and their pension funds. From 2006-2009 that wealth declined a staggering $14 trillion under Bush!!

Karma is truly a bitch and history WILL repeat itself....

Whom Do You Trust...In?

Next Tuesday is being billed as the real referendum on President Obama's 21 months in office. During this time he has been slandered as a communist, socialist, anarchist, anti-colonialist, fascist, racist, Kenyan, anti-American, anti-freedom loving, Anti-Christ, interloper and usurper of the office of the President. The other names he has been called, can easily fill this page if they were to be all listed.

If the MSM pundits are to believed, he has earned a dismal C- on his report card, his poll numbers are at an all-time low, and he will be rebuked by his party's loss of control in both the House and the Senate. This is their view in spite of the fact that he has accomplished more legislatively, and in the shortest amount of time, than any previous president in our history.

Yet amid all the Repugnant obstructionism to his policies, their treachery in opposing life saving programs like National Health Care for all citizens, their opposition to extending unemployment benefits to suffering families, etc., it appears that the majority of white Americans will stupidly and ignorantly choose to return control again to the party that savaged and disbanded their middle class status, especially during the 20 yr. reign of the Reagan, Bush I and Bush II regimes. How stupid is that???

And as much as blacks are constantly maligned and marginalized as worthless simpletons, at least they have had the intelligence and smarts to vote consistently and overwhelmingly for those leaders who had their best middle-class interests at heart. In my lifetime that would be Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, LBJ, Carter, Clinton, and Obama.

Next week blacks will again vote overwhelmingly for President Obama and the Dems as the best bet to fix the wreckage left behind by Bush and his band of war criminals. We'll see how many so-called superior whites and their Asian and Latino allies, will be smart enough to also vote in their best interests, or will they hasten their own destruction by voting for and installing a host of ignorant Tea-bagging anarchists and racists to govern them instead.

60 million of them choose the pathetic, moronic duo of Palin and McCain in 2008, how many will vote next week for imbeciles similar to or worst than these two?

I guess in a few days we'll find out how smart they really are....

And in spite of them, I can't forget that Jesus prayed, "Thy will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven..."

This is who and what I trust in, no matter what they do at the polls next week...

The Tangled Web of Sexual Offenders

I just wrote about the porn-based sexual harassment of Anita Hill by Clarence Thomas, and his wife's recent attempt to extort an admission from Hill that she lied on her husband.

The ink was barely dry when NPR analyst, Juan Williams, tried to pander to Fox's right-wing nuts via the O'Reilly show, and say that he has this fear of anyone dressed as a Muslim when he travels. Besides it being a punkish, idiotic and stupid thing to say in trying to gin-up anti-Muslim fervor, it also reminded me that not only has Juan been a right-wing ideologue masquerading as a liberal for many years, but he too has a checkered past that intersects with Clarence Thomas around the same time of his confirmation hearings in the early 90s.

Just after the hearings started, Juan wrote an Op-Ed in the Washington Post accusing Anita Hill of lying about being sexually harassed by his buddy, Clarence Thomas. What he and the Post failed to disclose, was that he had just been accused of the same kind of sexual harassment by 50 of his female colleagues at the Washington Post newspaper where they worked. To keep his job he was forced to write an apology which was printed in the paper. So his attack on Hill on Clarence Thomas' behalf was bogus, disingenuous and self-serving. He like Thomas were two peas in a pod when it came to the unwanted acts of sexually harassing females.

So his firing from NPR for violating his contract terms prohibiting him from appearing on Fox programs while being identified as an NPR analyst, was justified and long over due. Not only was he justly fired from NPR, but he should never have been hired by them in the first place, considering his sordid background. He also should have been fired from the Washington Post 20 years ago, for a far more serious lack of good judgment. Is it a coincidence that his present and past misbehavior have come to light again, around the same time that his buddy's sordid past has been uncovered and exposed to the light again? - I think not!

...Let's just call it well-deserved Karma for both of them, that was way past and long over-due! They both should be listed as registered sex offenders in the National Database which tracks those things.

A Cheating Thomas? - No Doubt!

Apparently old uncle Thomas did! - not only did Anita Hill testify to the kinky fetishes and sexual harassment by the married head of the EEOC, but now 19 years later, a former girlfriend who admits she was intimate with him, believes every word of Anita's testimony and corroborates it. She also remembers his obsession with porn and his fixation on the bra sizes of his female employees. He even had her come to the EEOC offices to check out Anita Hill, perhaps as a prelude to a future 3-way group orgy that he was fantasizing about.

This is the black slime ball that Papa Bush nominated and installed to replace the venerable and scholarly Thurgood Marshall, on the Supreme Court. A black face, with a lust to be white, married to a white woman, and sexually harassing black women - this was the wreckage that blacks were insulted with and affronted with as a replacement for Marshall. This was the right-wing's middle-finger to blacks and the progress won by the Civil Rights movement that Thurgood was so much a part of, and responsible for the legal side of.

It would not be a stretch to believe that his wife Ginny, either made that call to Anita because of her Tea-bagging hatred of blacks in general and Anita in particular, or to embarrass her cheater husband, or because she was in an alcoholic stupor early in the morning of last Saturday. How else can you explain such an unseemly and ill-conceived phone call threat, by the wife of one of the justices of the Supreme Court?

Yea, uncle Thomas, you thought you got away with denying what happened, and you thought that your depraved history of porn-fueled sexual harassment would never catch up with you, but your wife opened the door for all the world to see and remember. Perhaps she tired of your kinky fixations and can no longer measure up to them nor tolerate them anymore. Or perhaps her Tea bagging activities requires her to 'out' the nearest negro as part of their racist mind-set and agenda. So tag, you're it! - Yes, maybe that's it!...

With these latest revelations, the Senate body which confirmed him, should now consider charging him with perjury and lying under oath. Then they should impeach him and remove him from the bench. But alas, Harry Reid doesn't have the cojones to buck the right-wingers in the Senate, so they won't do anything. It also would be nice if Thomas had the inner decency and integrity to resign since he's been exposed as a liar and a pervert, but that won't happen either.

So we're stuck with him for the short term, unless or until the Higher Power decides to remove him permanently - let's hope and pray for that....

Palin for Pres.???? - lol !

From her reckless but admitted insistence on traveling by air from Texas to Alaska AFTER her water broke; to the down-syndrome child that was born and that she claims is hers, but others believe it secretly belongs to her abstinent daughter; to her ranting about abstinence-only for others, while this same 16 yr. old daughter was getting f****d and pregnant, AGAIN; to her astonishing revelation that she doesn't read newspapers; to her incoherent speech patterns that highlights how ignorant she really is; to her insistence on being interviewed only by fawning, sympathetic enablers like Fox faux-News; to her appalling ignorance of the fact that Africa is a Continent composed of over 40 countries, rather than being just one country; to her quitting her job as Governor of Alaska, midway through her term of office; to the large deficit she ran up and left to her city of Wasila while she was Mayor - this is the laughable, lip-sticked face of the TeaParty Express and would-be candidate for President, in 2012.

America is rightfully the laughing-stock of the world after this nut-job garnered 60 million votes as VP on one of the worst presidential pairings in over 100 years of political campaigns. Now to think that to millions and millions, she is still considered a credible, viable presidential candidate, is beyond comprehension, but illustrates that being a racist, being pathetically and pitifully ignorant, and being a sociopath and pathological liar as well, are notable christian virtues to her many supporters - ask Limbaugh, Hannity, O'Reilly, and Beck, how well it has worked for them.

LeBron, the President, and Us

Yesterday, a baseball fan of the Cleveland Indians, went to the game with his sister while wearing a Miami Heat basketball jersey with Lebron's #6 on it.

The so-called fans near them, became enraged upon seeing LeBron's jersey, and started directing derision, curses and spittle at the young couple. Finally security had to come and rescue them by escorting them out amid cat-calls, curses, objects being thrown etc. Fortunately they were white, but had they been black, who knows, there may have even been an attempted lynching.

Welcome to America, LeBron fans, and a further wake-up call to you, LeBron. You have been demonized for exercising your rights to free agency and making the decision to play elsewhere next season. For that lawful decision, you have reverted to being the big-black n***** that the Cleveland trash always felt you were, but kept quiet about because you were so useful to them. Now that you have gone, they feel free to vent their racial angst on you and anyone else that identifies with you.

But don't get it twisted, you are just experiencing a part of the larger picture of racist hate being directed at the President of the U.S. Racist America is now in full bloom with their slanderous, racist depictions of Obama as a communist, socialist, maoist, hitlarian fascist - all because he has the temerity to be BLACK and occupying their WHITE house. Even many who voted for him have now reverted to their basic racist instincts, and are now in full-scale revolt now that the pitifully ignorant and inept Bush, followed by the cartoonish and pathetically stupid, Palin and McCain, are no longer a threat to their survival. So it's clear that many of the white voters for Obama were merely the lesser-of-two-evil voters, with dumbbells Palin and McCain being the greater of the evils then.

Whatever negatives black celebrities, athletes, and just plain black folks are experiencing now, is the run-off from what is being directed at the black President by the racist minions who call themselves 'true' Americans. Their mask is off now - it took a Harvard educated Lawyer, Professor and Senator, to expose how they really feel about educated, intelligent blacks who have pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps and achieved the pinnacle of the American dream and political power. They feel no better about the President and his Harvard educated wife, than they feel about the despised and demonized lower classes of blacks who they have permanently consigned to the social underclasses.

And worse, these racists are predominantly people who call themselves good 'christians', but can't even dredge up a smidgen of Christianity when it comes to black folks - whether weak or strong, rich or poor, educated or uneducated.

So you see, LeBron, we and you, have much more in common with the President, than we ever could have imagined.

Myths and Realities

Senator James Webb of Virginia, just wrote an article for the WSJ declaring that 'white privilege is a myth' and diversity instituted to counteract it, has put whites at a disadvantage and has marginalized many of them.

If white privilege is a myth, try asking white Q.B. Ben Roethlisberger who has been accused of criminal sexual assault, twice, in the past year by different women, and is still walking around un-indicted and has suffered only a mere slap on the wrist and a brief suspension by the NFL - contrast that with black Q.B. Michael Vick, who was accused of criminally assaulting dogs, and wound up convicted and serving time in a Federal Pen and forfeiting over $100 million in future salary.

Or ask the white women who benefitted most from the affirmative action laws of the 60s, which were originally intended for blacks but extended to include women, 99% of whom were white. In my company they were promoted from clerical and secretarial positions to managerial positions without an undergraduate degree, and leapfrogged over many qualified blacks who had degrees. And some were even promoted to V.P. positions depending on how avidly and enthusiastically they took care of their bosses personal needs.

Or the then 23-yr. old segregationist, Strom Thurmond, who raped the 16 yr old daughter of his family's black maid, and was able to cover up the rape and impregnation, and subsequent birth of his daughter throughout his entire political career spanning 70+years. Only after his death did we find out about her when she wrote a book on her life and her father's, and toured to promote the book.

Or ask the 4 white officers who savagely beat Rodney King (on tape) in the 90s, and were acquitted by an all-white jury...

Or ask OJ Simpson, who was acquitted criminally, but was hurriedly convicted civilly by an all-white jury, and subsequently jailed 13 years later on charges of stealing his own memorabilia....

Or ask black wide-receiver Plexico Burris, jailed (at the insistence of a white, Jewish mayor intent on burnishing his tough-on-crime creds) in state prison for shooting himself in a night club with his own gun....

Or ask Charlie Sheen, Mel Gibson, Lindsey Lohan, Paris Hilton - all whites who have been arrested repeatedly for drunken DUIs, spousal assaults, no driver's licenses etc. and released to repeat it over and over again (without even running afoul of California's 3-strikes law)...

Or ask the white transit cop in Oakland, who recently murdered a black suspect in cold blood as he lay face-down on the ground defenselessly, but given only an involuntary manslaughter conviction by a mostly white jury instead of the 1st degree murder verdict that was deserved. He got away with it because he claimed he was reaching for his stun gun but grabbed his pistol instead, and accidentally used it on the suspect...

Or ask Dan Gilbert, the spurned owner of the Cleveland Cavs, who wasn't even decent enough, grateful enough, nor gracious enough to thank his best Buck, LeBron, for the 7 long years he labored on the Cavs plantation, and for the multiple millions he brought onto the coffers of his Master. Instead he excoriated and 'dissed him publicly as a slaveholder might, upon learning his best slave had opted to gain his freedom and was running away to greener pastures.

Or ask the Tea Partyers who know if they were black, they would never be allowed to carry guns to rallies, hoist racist anti-white signs, spit on white congresspersons, nor engage in all the other outrages that are routine for whites but would never be allowed for blacks.

Yes, white privilege is indeed alive and well, and works wonderfully for whites when they desire to access and exercise their privileges....

Just A Garden Variety Racist? - of Course!

By now everyone who has a pulse has heard the profane diatribes uttered by actor, Mel Gibson, directed towards his live-in girlfriend with whom he fathered a child.

What is notable and instructive to me, is not what the talk shows are primarily focusing on and commenting on - his abusive, controlling, sexist profanity leveled at his girlfriend. What they missed or ignored, is the fact that Gibson is an All-American racist pig...a garden variety racist that has no problem spewing his racist feelings towards blacks and hispanics, and uses them to invoke criminal imagery that he hopes will intimidate and scare his girlfriend into doing what he wants her to do.

His racist mindset is the All-American kind that so many whites in this country are afflicted with. Of course, all who have this affliction are suffering from a severe mental disorder that is mostly undiagnosed and under reported - the racist Teapartyers are a prime examples of those who have this affliction. But Gibson also claims to be a devout adherent of Christianity that promotes love of each other rather than hate. So his racist feelings towards non-whites is the height of hypocrisy and duplicity.

The talk-show hosts have barely commented on this aspect of his racist, sexist ranting, preferring instead to focus on the abusive aspects of his relationship with his girlfriend. This is the typical avoidance of discussing racism that many whites employ, maybe because it hits too close to them and their own personal circles. But his profane references to n*****s and wet****s, signaled to me that he has a profound mental disorder, which is the underpining for his sexism and probably his hatred of women. That's the real story - one that TBN and others missed when they were lauding and lapping up his movie "The Passion of The Christ" which he produced several years ago.

Even his ex-wife just came out and defended him by saying, that he never showed any of these signs during the 28 years of their marriage. Of course she's lying, but I understand why she said it - a woman who is depending on a wealthy man for alimony and child support for 7 children, wants to ensure that he keeps paying, and that he does not get prosecuted and perhaps even jailed, for assaulting his current girlfriend or anyone else.

So she becomes an enabler, along with his fawning fans like Whoopi Goldberg, who are willing to overlook his racist core, because he is one of them and many probably also feels the same way he does.

Whether rich or poor, he's just another GVR....

The Promised Land??

I'm not really shocked nor surprised at Cleveland's owner, Dan Gilbert, and his intemperate comments and on-line letter posted to the Cavalier's web-site following LeBron's announcement.

It reminds me of the reaction most slaveholders had when their slaves were freed from their involuntary servitude at the end of the Civil War - "How dare they leave the wonderful life we provided for them? - If it wasn't for us, they would still be savages in Africa swinging from the trees in the jungle - they are totally ungrateful! - we even noticed that in the last couple of years they quit on us, probably figuring they would be freed soon - they will regret leaving because they will carry our curse on them wherever they go - where is their love for us and appreciation for the free clothing, food and shelter we provided all their lives? - We should have been more firmer with them, something like tough-love, so they would not want to leave us even if they were legally freed...."

Compare the slaveholder's reaction to the quotes from the interview and letter to the fans by Gilbert -

"...our former hero, who grew up in the very region that he deserted this evening, is no longer a Cleveland Cavalier. This was announced with a several day, narcissistic, self-promotional build-up culminating with a national TV special of his "decision" unlike anything ever "witnessed" in the history of sports and probably the history of entertainment."

"You simply don't deserve this kind of cowardly betrayal. - You have given so much and deserve so much more." "I can tell you that this shameful display of selfishness and betrayal by one of our very own has shifted our "motivation" to previously unknown and previously never experienced levels."

"Some people think they should go to heaven but NOT have to die to get there. - Sorry, but that's simply not how it works. This shocking act of disloyalty from our home grown "chosen one" sends the exact opposite lesson of what we would want our children to learn. And "who" we would want them to grow-up to become."

"The self-declared former "King" will be taking the "curse" with him down south. And until he does "right" by Cleveland and Ohio, James (and the town where he plays) will unfortunately own this dreaded spell and bad karma."

"It's not about him leaving. It's the disrespect. It's time for people to hold these athletes accountable for their actions. Is this the way you raise your children? I've been holding this all in for a long time. "

"He has gotten a free pass," Gilbert said in a phone interview with The AP. "People have covered up for [James] for way too long. Tonight we saw who he really is."

"He quit," Gilbert said. "Not just in Game 5, but in Games 2, 4 and 6. Watch the tape. The Boston series was unlike anything in the history of sports for a superstar."

"LeBron James needs to go to another team with two superstars already so he can win a championship," Gilbert said. "We will win a championship before [the Heat] do."

"Gilbert said he now wishes he had done some things differently with James, who spent seven seasons with the Cavs..."

The comments by Gilbert are those of typical white supremecists, whose self-centered view of the world cannot conceive of blacks rejecting their crumbs, their supposed goodwill, their entreaties, etc. All of this is viewed by whites as disloyal, ungrateful, disrespectful, gross ingratitude, a betrayal, and to make it worse in their view, Lebron even dared to walk away from the $30 million more he would have been paid had he stayed.

Astonishingly, Gilbert even invoked religious imagery of Heaven and how you had to die to get there, as a metaphor for saying that LeBron didn't put in enough time, didn't work hard enough and struggle enough in Cleveland, before he could expect to reach the promised land of Heaven (an NBA championship).

Notice how he also mockingly called him "King" [James] and how he used the same racist, dismissive term, "chosen one", that was used against President Obama by his opponents, during and after his presidential run. And notice how Gilbert conveniently forgot to thank LeBron for the billions he made from the hundreds of sold-out games and millions from ancillary sales - solely due to the presence of LeBron on the Cavalier's roster.

LeBron James is very fortunate that he made the right decision to exercise his right of free agency, and leave the Cavaliers for Miami. Had he not done so, he might never have known how racist, patronizing, and unappreciative, the owner and many of the Cleveland 'fans' really are.

The Promise

Tuesday, June 29th,

Today would have been the 70th wedding anniversary of my parents, had they both lived.

I was born exactly one year and 2 days later, on July 1st, and I can only imagine the joy my parents (particularly my father) experienced at my arrival, since he was the only one of his 5 brothers and sisters who had not had any children by their mid-forties.

They both had immigrated from different lands to this country, for the promise of opportunities and a better life. I'm sure they had heard the stories of vicious, violent racial segregation which was the way of life, primarily in the South, but that did not deter them from coming because they believed that with God's providence and help, they would be able to overcome anything and everything. By coming to New York they avoided much of the vilest discrimination, but still had to deal with whatever version existed 'up North', in New York.

I'm sure they did not know all of the history of this country when they came, and I'm also sure had they known, it wouldn't have deterred them anyway, since the country offered so much promise compared to most other places. This 'promise' still exists as it did then, but it consistently fails to be realized because of this country's insane, racist, imperialist, 'manifest destiny' mindset.

As I'm writing this, I'm listening to the radio in the background, and hearing that we've just lost the life of another American soldier in Afghanistan - 51 in the month of June, so far. And then I hear that we are also celebrating the anniversary of our excursion in Korea, where we lost 49,000 soldiers. Later on today, doubtlessly I will hear about more losses of life in Iraq and wherever else we have chosen to invade preemptively.

The amazing thing is that so many whites, even well-meaning progressives, have delusionally accepted this insane foreign policy as just a benign attempt to “bring democracy to help 'them'...the Iraqis and the Afghans and...”

Happily, I know of few blacks who have deluded themselves that we are doing this to help 'them' while killing them in the process as Bush criminally did, first in Afghanistan then in Iraq, and which Obama continues to do in both places and justifies as “ a war of necessity” and being “essential to our national interests”.

Meanwhile our capital resources are being squandered in these war waste-holes, our economy is in shambles, our unemployment is in double-digits, our infrastructure continues to go unattended, the corporate assassins continue to befoul the earth and oceans as BP is doing in their oil gusher in the gulf of Mexico disaster. And through all this, the Repugnants who call themselves Republicans, treasonously resists and obstructs any and all measures that the President offers as a solution to these horrific problems.

Welcome to America with it's toxic stew of racist teapartyers, rednecks, idealists, apologists, congressional whores, pimping lobbyists, regressive activist judges, fundamentalist religious pharisees, warmongers, zionists, white supremacists – all standing in the way and trying to thwart 'the promise' that my parents envisioned and sought for themselves and for my sisters and me.

What keeps me hopeful, is the same promise that my parents sought and saw here in America. What gives me the most hope is the knowledge that God, my Creator, has the final say on what happens in America and in every other land on earth.

This is His promise – that His Will, will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven...Amen.

Dead or Alive?????

Today is June 25th, one year to the day since the alleged passing of Michael Jackson. I say 'alleged', because I don't particularly believe that he actually 'died', given his penchant for secrecy and otherworldly occurrences.

I have not been investigating it as I did the OJ case, but there are so many odd, unexplained events leading up to and since his 'death', and as yet I have not seen positive, convincing proof that he died as alleged, and I don't trust the media reports or the family's statements, which are basically all we have as proof.

There are also a number of books and videos that also suspect that his death was faked, but those are not what has led me to believe what I do. It's a general unease about all the events that transpired last year that bothers me, and I know if you have enough money and connections, you can fake virtually anything.

My guess is he will reappear from his great escape sometime in 2011, and if he does appear, we'll have a lot more to say about this.....

the 'Tiger' Is On The Prowl Again

Finally, after 144 days of Golfdom losing millions waiting for their cash cow to return from his self-imposed exile, Tiger teed-off to the applause of the large gallery. Most of them probably wished they could have lynched him sometime in the past 10 years, when his rampaging of defenseless white bimbo trash, began. So their applause now is the usual profit-before-principle hypocrisy, that whites usually routinely engage in.

His self-titled Cablanasian ass managed to par the first hole, even after such a long layoff, so all must be well on the well-manicured racist greens of Augusta National Golf Club, which took a red-necked snail's pace to admit blacks, and still haven't found the courage to admit women. And the Chairman of Augusta, had the gall to chide and chastise Tiger for his poor conduct, while completely ignoring the poor conduct of discriminating against women, practiced by his own Golf Club.

Perhaps they applauded because they can reasonably expect that his prowling will now be limited to his wife, given the adverse publicity that his recent activities have garnered.

It should be noted that if he had not had his insane penchant for white bimbos, but instead opted for an attractive, worthy black woman, he would not be in this predicament - she would have drained any need for him to stray from her loins - look how well it worked for President Obama.

But his Cablanasian ass was too stupid to understand that it was not about what he considered himself to be, but how white folks viewed him and would treat him. Now, for the rest of his golfing life, he will be scorned, whispered about, reviled and mocked, particularly after he loses his skills and can't be pimped anymore.

..All this 'makes me wanna holler'!...

Change You Can Believe In? - This Is It!

In December, I graded President Obama's 1st year as a 'B,' and noted that it was one of the most, productive 1st years of any previous presidency.

Today, on his monumental, historical, unprecedented, accomplishment in pushing through the Healthcare Reform legislation and signing it, (without one Repugnant vote of support), he earned an A+++! Those who awarded him the Nobel Peace Prize, were far smarter and intuitive, than those who said he had not done anything yet.

The Constitution guarantees all citizens the right to, "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness..." Above all, the single best way to achieve this, is through good health and Healthcare availability. This is why Healthcare is a right, and not a privilege.

It's now the law of the land, and from here it can be improved on, and hopefully will be.

The biggest single improvement I hope for, is to make it into a universal, single- payer, not-for-profit plan, that will be available to all citizens from day-1 of their lives.

Real Persons vs. Faked Persons

The law of sowing and reaping has never been more evident than in the recent supreme court ruling - granting personhood to non-human corporations.

I believe that God has caused this abomination because His justice requires that those who denied the full personhood of His human creations who are black, have to now accept the personhood of corporations who are not even human. This denial of personhood was not only applied to blacks in this country, but in the countries victimized by our foreign policy as we sought cheap resources, labor and land, such as in Haiti. Haiti's current condition is a direct result of our interventionist foreign policies toward it, along with the foreign policies of other European imperialists, such as the French.

Some are calling it a major threat to democracy and rightly so, but it's the 'sowing' of the historical, horrendous, inhuman, denial of personhood to blacks, which now is about to be 'reaped' in having to recognize the humanness of non-human corporations.

With their unlimited financial resources and their increased ability to buy any or all of our democratic institutions and representatives as they see fit, these fake human corporations will demonstrate another precept of God - "The love of Money is the root of all evil"

I predict, we will soon see the awesome truths of these precepts as we have never seen them before!....

Is Democracy For Sale?

Ever since the Supreme Court decision yesterday, granting 1st amendment human rights of speech also to corporations, it became legal for them to buy a congressperson, a senator or a President directly from their treasuries, in other words, buy the country.

Those in the know, now realize that the tremendous wealth of these corporations enables them to 'speak' by purchasing those legislators they want to do their bidding. Also foreign corporations will apparently be granted this right as well, so foreigners will also have a say in whom is elected to Congress and who is not - the best 'democracy' any one's money can buy.

Well, the thought occurred to me that this abuse and attack on the democratic process is the logical 'sowing and reaping' that is long overdue for the centuries of denial of democracy and human rights to black slaves and others non-whites, which started before the founding of this country right up until the 1960s. It's perhaps poetic justice that democracy is now officially for sale just as slaves were also for sale - "...what you have sown, you shall surely also reap.."

The Power of Images - 2009

White folks control the image-making mediums such as the movies, television, videos, and print/newspapers and magazines, and utilizes a powerful ability to shape the perceptions about blacks for whites, and even for blacks...

2009 started with one of the most powerful, positive images, for and of black folks - the swearing-in and installation of Barack Obama, to the office of President of the U.S., and the first black President, ever.

The fact that blacks are only 11% of the population and less than 5% of the voters, meant that most of those who supported him were whites, followed by a high percentage of other ethnic groups.

Looking back at 2009, it is useful to ask, what did whites achieve and get out of his election, and what purpose did it serve for them? I would argue that they attained a long-sought image of being racially tolerant, progressive, and free from their racist history which has existed since the beginnings of this country. This of course also meant that internationally, they could point to Obama's election as proof of their progressiveness and good intentions toward others. This has been a bonanza for promoting and advancing our efforts in the arena of foreign diplomacy, worldwide.

But with every positive step forward, there are usually several steps backward, and I point to just 3 that were particularly offensive and onerous to me...

- The green-lighting, financing, and distribution of the movie "Precious", which offered some of the most negative stereotypes of blacks ever seen in a movie, ....another powerful image-destroyer of the black family...

- The over-the-top build-up and hype of the talented Tiger Woods, for the past 15 years, starting from when he was an amateur and then becoming the best pro golfer and the world's 1st billion dollar athlete. All this was followed by one of the most intense and vicious destruction of his image, when he was revealed to be a serial adulterer with a long list of white bimbos, to the embarrassment of his Swedish wife....another powerful image-destroyer of the black athlete...

- The recent February, 2010 issue of 'Vanity Fair', with it's cover photo of Tiger Woods, upper torso naked and darkened, and wearing the knit cap commonly worn by prison inmates. This 'darkening' also occurred on the cover of a prominent magazine, when OJ was on trial in 1996. Neither of these darkened images were unplanned, but were very deliberately placed for maximum effect.

- The terrorist 'attempt' by a black Nigerian to bring down a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas day - not only were the warnings about him strangely ignored by those in charge of our security, but he was suspiciously allowed to buy a ticket (paying cash and without any baggage) and board the plane in just a tee-shirt, headed to Detroit in the height of winter. In the many pictures of him that have been posted after his arrest, he looks just like an average young black man on the streets of any of our American cities - another powerful image destroyer of black males....

I am viewing these as the push-back by white supremacists against the hugely positive image created by Obama's election to the presidency. I suspected that there would be a reaction, but I was not prepared for the scope and the intensity of their fury. They were not going to let such a positive image stand, without highlighting and promoting multiple negative images to counteract the positive ones.

If you doubt that white supremacists have the power to create and build-up, then destroy and tear-down, as they choose, I offer these examples as proof....