::No Commendations for Marissa

On today's episode of Tyra there was a young Latina by the name of Marissa who felt that all Black people fit the negative stereotype of a socially unacceptable personality (rude, untrustworthy, violent, criminal, etc.). Her reasoning was based on being a victim of a robbery and carjacking by Black men.

To disabuse her of this notion, Tyra found some 'successful' Black women to host a tea in one of their homes and have a hearts-to-heart chat with Ms. Marissa. After it was over they were invited back to the show to share their thoughts (that's the point at which I began watching).

For some odd reason, each of the Black women prefaced her comments by commending Marissa for her willingness to talk to them. Not only did I find it unwarranted, but it made me angry as well.

And, here's why.

Black people have to deal with people like Marissa each and every day, yet no one would think to commend us for doing so. I've personally worked with white people who thought that an enticement for me to attend a Halloween party was to excitedly inform me that they were serving fried chicken and then innocently suggest that my costume choices could be a California raisin or a basketball player (hint: I am only 5'6"). I've also worked with white people who felt compelled to tell me that "Black people can make it in this country if only they tried". Just as importantly, I've been ripped off by white people more times than I can count via white collar criminal activity like unethical and downright illegal business practices. Finally, the pièce de résistance, I was verbally and physically assaulted by a white woman in the workplace.

Do I need commendations for waking up each morning and going through another day with a smile on my face while surrounded by white people? Where are the commendations for other Black people who do the same thing after having even worse encounters with non-black people? It's just ridiculous.

Figuratively speaking, all Black people need to learn to leave trash where it lays. Step over it, walk around it, take a stick and move it out of your path, but for goodness sake leave it alone! Don't sully your hands and pick it up--try to convince people that you are a worthy human being, unlike the stereotypes that they cling to like a security blanket. It's not worth the effort because it does nothing for our collective.

In fact, the Black man's propensity to reach out to others and ignore our own (build horizontally) is a deconstructive, self-perpetuating cycle. Instead of reaching out to each other and consequently learning that stereotypes are not truisms, we fall into the trap of believing in those stereotypes and trying to distance ourselves from the group to show the world that we're a different kind of Black. That reinforces the fissures in our population and induces more individuals to look outside the group for acceptance and validation.

If we reach out to one another (build vertically) however, we would not be debased by courting favor with people who are merely masquerading as intelligent human beings, like the Marissas and the Kenneth Engs of the world.

I'm watching PBS, and being that it is once again Black History Month, they are airing a special about an inventor named Percy Lavon Julian.

The guests being interviewed all say that he never allowed anyone to stop him from doing what he wanted to do. It goes without saying that intestinal fortitude is admirable. However, when that particular sentiment is repeated often enough, the unspoken message becomes clear: racism cannot stop you from succeeding.

My response is that they are wrong.

People of African descent need to recognize that even when individuals fail to hurdle the obstacles placed in their path by bigoted people, that in no way negates the fact that racism in America was and continues to be an abominable and, too often, lethal practice--it does not nullify the deleterious effects those obstacles have on a human being.

If individuals that share my skin color and African ancestry do not transform into super-humans who traverse the perilous gauntlet of racism unscathed, we should not turn around and blame them for not somehow succeeding (financially or otherwise). At the same time, we should look critically at those who are considered a success after entering into unholy alliances with those who would do our ethnicity harm (read: Condoleeza "tha' Skeeza" Rice).

I celebrate Percy Julian, and all my brethren and sistren who came before me to make my path in this country of high ideals a little smoother. Yet, I empathize and identify with other brethren and sistren who found that they were too human to psychologically survive being bludgeoned by the cudgel of racism.

I do not blame those who succumb, I honor their fight.

Why is this group so appealing? Have look Michelle Wohlers!

It’s just ....numbers.

Since the start of the illegal invasion of the sovereign nation of Iraq:

• 3 US soldiers are now missing
  
• 72 journalists have been killed
  
• 226 Coalition troops have been killed
  
• 337 contractors have been killed (of which 215 were American)
  
• 1,780 Coalition troops have been wounded
  
• 2,502 American soldiers are dead
  
• 18,490 American soldiers have been wounded or maimed for life
  
• 250,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed

.:: The Timeline ::.
A New Milestone in Iraq: Five Hundred US Soldiers Dead
by Medea Benjamin on CommonDreams.org
Monday, January 19, 2004

A new milestone was reached in Iraq this week: the death toll for US soldiers reached the 500 mark. Most of these deaths have occurred since President Bush declared an end to the major hostilities on May 1. … fear that the American people been lulled into accepting these daily casualties, processing them as lightly as they do the day’s weather report or the sports figures. The fact that the media is banned from covering the flag-draped coffins at Dover Air Force Base or that President Bush has not attended one funeral helps shelter the public from the true horror of this daily carnage. And just recently, the press stopped covering the soldiers’ deaths as front-page news.

U.S. death toll in Iraq passes 1,000
Wednesday, September 8, 2004

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld acknowledged the death toll earlier Tuesday, but told reporters at the Pentagon that going on the offensive against terrorism “has its cost.”

“It should be noted that the civilized world passed the thousandth casualty mark a long time ago,” he said. “Hundreds were killed in Russia last week. And this week, of course, on September 11, 2004, we remember the 3,000 citizens of dozens of countries who were killed on September 11 in 2001.”

US death toll in Iraq reaches 1,500
By Philippe Naughton,
Times Online March 03, 2005

A grim milestone was passed in Iraq today when a US Marine was killed in action south of Baghdad - the 1,500th American soldier to lose his life since the invasion.

It would not give any more details, saying in a statement: “Force protection measures preclude the release of any information that could aid enemy personnel in assessing the effectiveness, or lack thereof, with regard to their tactics, techniques and procedures. The release of more details about the incident could place our personnel at greater risk.”

Worryingly, the number of military deaths has shown no sign of falling since President Bush landed on USS Abraham Lincoln on May 1, 2003 with a banner saying “Mission Accomplished” and declared an end to major combat operations.

Military’s Advice to Reporters: 2,000 Dead in Iraq ‘Not a Milestone’
By E&P Staff
Published: October 25, 2005

U.S. Army Lt. Col. Steve Boylan, director of the force’s combined press center, wrote in an e-mail to reporters, “I ask that when you report on the events, take a moment to think about the effects on the families and those serving in Iraq. The 2,000 service members killed in Iraq supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom is not a milestone. It is an artificial mark on the wall set by individuals or groups with specific agendas and ulterior motives.”

Tony Snow on U.S. Death #2500 in Iraq: “It’s a Number”
By E&P Staff
Published: June 15, 2006

Q Tony, American deaths in Iraq have reached 2,500. Is there any response or reaction from the President on that?
A. MR. SNOW: It’s a number…

.::A Little Bit o'News::.

A white supremacist was convicted of ::conspiracy to acquire:: sarin nerve gas and other chemical weapons of mass destruction.

"Demetrius Van Crocker said that he dreamed of setting off a dirty bomb at the U.S. Capitol and that he wanted a helicopter license so he could bomb black neighborhoods or spray them with poison gas."

For some odd reason, the mainstream media hasn't publicized this important conviction of a US citizen with terroristic aspirations. In the meantime the majority of Americans continue to conjure the image of a brown, black or swarthy face when the subject of terrorism is at hand.

Apropos to that fallacious link of exclusivity of non-whites and terrorism, the NYPD has used federal funding, provided by Homeland Security for the war on terror, to pay for ::surveillance cameras:: overlooking Knickerbocker Street-- an overwhelmingly Brown and Black community in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn.

.::Savetheinternet.com::.

The nation’s largest telephone and cable companies — including AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and Time Warner — want to be Internet gatekeepers, deciding which Web sites go fast or slow and which won’t load at all.

They want to tax content providers to guarantee speedy delivery of their data. They want to discriminate in favor of their own search engines, Internet phone services, and streaming video — while slowing down or blocking their competitors.

These companies have a new vision for the Internet. Instead of an even playing field, they want to reserve express lanes for their own content and services — or those from big corporations that can afford the steep tolls — and a leave the rest of us on a winding dirt road.

Click the ::link:: and sign the petition!!

I think this needs to be disseminated far and wide!

.::The Beloved Cynthia McKinney::.

A White Ex Cop Speaks Out About a Georgia Congresswoman
by Michael C. Ruppert

© ^{Copyright 2006, From The Wilderness Publications, From The Wilderness.}

April 11, 2006 1000 PST (FTW) - ASHLAND -Cynthia McKinney is a friend of mine. Until the day I die she will be a friend of mine. More than that, she will be a role model and an inspiration that I don’t ever expect to be equaled, let alone surpassed. Full disclosure.

Out of several dozen Op-Eds, news reports and commentaries on the now-infamous so-called “cop-slapping” event of March 29th, I haven’t seen a single one that, from my perspective, got it right. So right up front, let me say that if I am forced to look at this one snapshot incident, divorced from context and history, then yes, my very good friend messed up. It shouldn’t have become as big a deal as it has and she bears some responsibility for that. But if I look at the event as part of a continuum of the life of congress, or the life of this nation, and (no less importantly) of the life of this woman, things look and feel a whole lot different.

The virulent, spit-dripping, white, racist commentators from Boortz to DeLay and the oh-so-PC and dainty black Democratic pundits, columnists and pols who pick Cynthia McKinney apart—pretending to defend her while putting her black butt on the E-Bay auction block for November—are actually allies. They both want her to go away. They both want the issues that have come too close to public recognition in this case to go away. Leaders from left and right, black or white, cannot bear the thought of actually looking deeper at what happened with Cynthia McKinney and what it means.

Let me give you an historical hint. As a rule, wars are generally started over big events, (e.g. the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand, Pearl Harbor, North Korea’s Army Crossing the 38th parallel). Revolutions are generally started over less memorable things (e.g. “Let them eat cake,” a tea tax, some government troops opening fire on unarmed demonstrators). People of all colors and political persuasions understand that underlying both wars and revolutions are monstrous icebergs of unresolved inequity. So it is with Cynthia McKinney. And it is her hairdo (new or old, take your pick) that now sits atop an iceberg that both right-wing whites and bought-off blacks would like to go away.

I have walked the halls of Congress with Cynthia McKinney maybe eight to ten times. I have walked into and out of the Cannon and Longworth house office buildings with her. I have walked to hearings in the Rayburn house office building with her. I have walked the underground tunnels from one of those office buildings directly to the edge of the House floor and its anteroom with her. I can tell you one thing for certain because I have seen it and I have felt it. Cynthia McKinney and her staff get treated differently from just about anyone else on the Hill. It’s subtle, but so is the taste of dirt when it’s in your mouth.

ICEBERGS

Between 1974 and 1977, as I prowled the streets of “The Jungle” in South Central L.A. (in uniform and later as a detective and undercover narc) I knew little about being human. The Jungle is the place where “Boyz in the Hood” and Denzel Washington’s “Training Day” were filmed. I was a good cop, a very good cop. I didn’t have any sustained personnel complaints. My rating reports were always “outstanding.” The law-abiding citizens by and large trusted me when they saw me. My liberal education at UCLA had at least partially sensitized me to a world that seemed impossible to understand—a world that scared me just as much as it enticed me with its opportunities for heroism, peer recognition, and self-acceptance. My father had been a war hero and I wanted to know if I was cut from the same cloth.

I was known for being aggressive; eager to embrace danger; a budding, brilliant investigator; and an unmatched report writer. I was a “hard-charger” as they called it in those days. Perhaps the best role model I had as a cop was a black LAPD Captain by the name of Jesse A. Brewer who also taught me about leadership, friendship and loyalty.

I didn’t need to beat up innocent people because the streets where I worked were full of guilty people: robbers, burglars, heroin dealers, wife beaters, rapists, and car thieves. I was on the streets (and not far away) the night the Symbionese Liberation Army were roasted like marshmallows after making the mistake of trying to shoot it out with my brothers in blue. We were all men in those days, no women. I was on the streets for months before and after the time when every LA cop had a fear of making a routine traffic stop and facing an automatic weapon, a rocket launcher, a bomb, or a Molotov cocktail. Tense times.

For several years I averaged between 20 and 30 felony arrests per month—good arrests. Who had time to go after innocent people just because they were black? Also in those days, I also used the word “nigger” about 15 times a day. It was the culture. It was my ignorance. In the 1970s, LAPD reports used the official word Negro to describe African-Americans and before I joined LAPD in 1973 I had seen or talked to only around 20 black people in my whole life: maids, taxi drivers, bellmen—you know “colored people.” I talked like those around me talked. I thought it was cool.

As front-page stories in the Herald Examiner described me in 1981, I was “… a white kid from Orange County in a blue uniform sent to a black ghetto.”

The one thing I could not understand for about fifteen years after that was the maybe half-dozen different black men who had approached me in futility and rage, tearing open their shirts and looking at me with absolute sincerity as they said, “Shoot me. Go ahead, shoot me. I got nothing to lose.” They meant it, and it mattered not at all what the last incident was that had taken place before they snapped with that sublime mix of rage and complete despair. A lifetime of inequalities, social and economic; injustices, past and present; and frustrations, ever present; had pushed those men beyond their breaking point. It took me a while to get to that point, but I got there too, and now I understood something about being black.

Through two decades of 12-Step work, intense spiritual effort and personal therapy I have seen my errors, felt genuine remorse, and made my amends. One of those amends came in 1996 when—in a face-to-face confrontation with a CIA director—I challenged the same government I had once protected for smuggling hundreds of tons of cocaine into the United States, where much of it was intentionally routed to the inner cities.

Since then, and on more than one occasion, Black America, and black individuals in America have saved my life. No one rushed to take a bullet for me. No, what was done for me was to give me acceptance, support, friendship, a meal and some soul. You can do a lot with a little bit of soul.

Among all of the African Americans I know—and there are many—Cynthia McKinney stands head and shoulders above the rest. Screw her hairdo; It’s the woman’s mind and heart that need to be considered here.

Flash forward a couple of decades from the late 1970s.

It’s now 2000 and my little newsletter From The Wilderness is steadily growing as we look at issues like US Government covert operations in Colombia, death squads, the global drug trade, the prison-industrial complex, drug money flowing into Al Gore’s presidential campaign, PROMIS software and a then little-known company named Halliburton. My friend Al Giordano of the Narco News Bulletin brought Cynthia McKinney to my attention. I emailed her and she responded almost immediately.

There was an immediate friendship. Cynthia McKinney was the first member of congress I had met (about 15 at the time) who actually seemed to be a human being who actually gave a hoot and who actually comprehended all the government criminality people were talking about. She responded to emails. She took phone calls. She actually cut checks from the Treasury to subscribe to FTW. She bought our videos and reports and…she read them. She handed them out.

She asked questions and didn’t pretend to know everything. She read. She listened. She understood.

And then came 9/11.

There are millions of Americans who still have major unanswered questions about the attacks of September 11th. Some are wives, husbands, and children of the victims. Some, like me, are investigative journalists. Many are just average people who could never swallow the galactic inconsistencies of the government account and who have refused to succumb to pressure for conformity. Cynthia McKinney was the one to ask “What did the Bush administration know and when did it know it?” about the scores of detailed warnings received by the administration in the months before the attacks. Contrary to one account from a black commentator recently, she has never retracted that question.

For that question, she was tarred and feathered in the press. From her long-standing support of Palestinian rights and objections to Israeli strong-arm tactics in the occupied territories emerged a new double-edged motive to remove her from congress at all costs. Cynthia McKinney was an un-American, anti-Semitic supporter of terrorists!

An Oreo black candidate named Denise Majette emerged as lots of money poured from the coffers of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) funded not only a hate campaign against McKinney, but in support of her opponent as well. Illegally, thousands of Republican voters crossed over to vote for the Oreo in the primary while the seat stayed safely Democratic, and all were quietly relieved when Cynthia didn’t even make it to the general election.

Cynthia McKinney will tell you that I and the entire 9/11 movement stayed with her loyally throughout her two-year imposed vacation. And I believe she will tell you that it was in part because we organized fundraisers for her and kept her name out there that she made it back—to everyone’s surprise except ours—in 2004.

Cynthia McKinney had been the only member of congress to ask real questions about 9/11. And she didn’t stop or forget when she got back either. More than that, she continued to do—no matter what—the things that her conscience bade her to do as an African-American woman who is anything but a racist (unless you want to refer to the human race). In hearings she questioned Donald Rumsfeld about the multitude of wargame exercises I had identified in my book Crossing the Rubicon. She asked repeated questions about 9/11 in repeated hearings and no one on the Democratic side backed her up when her questions were brushed aside, ignored and forgotten. She also kept up her support for the rights of the oppressed everywhere and she didn’t change one single note of her sheet music or its cadence.

She held the only hearing on Capitol Hill where investigators, authors, and families questioning the official version of 9/11 had a voice. She invited me, Wayne Madsen and Ray McGovern to act as questioners at that hearing, and she was the only member of congress to sit through that hearing.

She was there for the victims of Katrina and Rita who fled as refugees to Atlanta last fall. She was there to protect black culture and black history through her Tupac bill. She was there for her constituents and for all of the disenfranchised, battered, demoralized, and desperate Americans of all colors who had come to see her as “the politician of last resort.”

PLATE TECTONICS

Almost every armchair pundit (left or right) who has criticized Cynthia McKinney has told only part of her story.

When she was returned to congress, her party, overlooking well-documented procedure with a number of historical precedents, refused to give her back the seniority to which she was entitled. In terms of committee assignments, instead of being a six-term senior member of her committees, she was a freshman. This placed her last on the list of questioners, last in terms of pecking order, last in terms of recognition, and last in terms of agenda setting. She was denied her old spot on the House Foreign Relations committee. She was moved further and further away from the coveted and influential title of “ranking member” that she should have been approaching. Should the House revert back to Democratic control this year she might have even chaired a committee. God forbid!

They did throw the Negro woman McKinney a bone in the form of a nicer office than before (the only place where her true seniority was recognized). “Here bitch, drive this Cadillac and shut up!”

While House Democratic leadership under Nancy Pelosi of California has been brutal to Cynthia McKinney, the treatment afforded her by the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) has been equally despicable. Not only did the CBC not fight for McKinney’s legitimate seniority, it also seems that they have taken pleasure in snubbing her. Solidarity my ass.

One anecdote paints the picture pretty clearly.

Last fall, after I had acted as a questioner for two panels sponsored by McKinney at the CBC’s annual convention, I was surprised as she handed me a ticket to the CBC formal banquet. This is a big annual event and I sat just a few tables away from John Kerry. Howard Dean was a few tables past Kerry. More than a thousand people, dressed to the nines, filled a crowded ballroom.

Cynthia was a no-show and it didn’t take long to figure out why. As every black member of Congress was introduced by seniority, starting with the Honorable John Conyers of Michigan, Cynthia McKinney’s name was saved for last. Even the Congressional Black Caucus could not recognize a sister’s seniority and service, not even when it wouldn’t have cost them a thing.

Where was Cynthia during that dinner? She wasn’t there. She was off violating a direct order from Nancy Pelosi not to attend a massive anti-war rally on the Mall. She was standing with Cindy Sheehan. She was giving a speech denouncing the war in Iraq and the Bush administration. She was doing her job. I sat at McKinney’s table next to my ad hoc dinner partner Kathleen Cleaver, weeping over the insult on McKinney. Not once since have I seen Cynthia McKinney even flinch over it.

I have watched Cynthia McKinney quietly and gracefully endure monstrous insults, sleights and provocations that I could never keep silent over. I have watched the world wait for a misplaced burp or worse from her and I have watched her refuse to take the bait on at least fifty occasions.

Are revolutions started because those in revolt rise to offered bait? I think not.

In the case of Cynthia McKinney and the Capitol Hill Police officer, I, like the rest of those reading this story, have not seen what happened. There may be a tape that will surface at some point as we wait to see whether a grand jury will indict her on idiotic charges of assault. I don’t know whether the Capitol Hill Cop was white or black, young or old, a rookie or a veteran. I wish it all hadn’t happened and I’d bet Cynthia feels the same way.

But then again…

THE GREATEST COMPLIMENT OF MY LIFE

In the spring of 2004 as I was arranging a speech and fundraiser for Cynthia McKinney in Los Angeles wherein we visited a small local museum of the civil rights movement. It was only about two miles from where I had once worked. Pictures of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy triggered painful memories for me. As I stood transfixed looking at a picture taken circa 1965 of an LAPD black and white with two helmeted officers wielding batons high above their heads in a street fight with blacks, Cynthia McKinney walked up and stood beside me. Quietly, so that only I could hear she said, “That’s what you used to do when you used to be white.”

Human being.

John Kennedy and even Dwight Eisenhower were forgiven for having affairs. Bill Clinton was forgiven for a dozen crimes. Ronald Reagan was forgiven for everything. Who will dare call it justice when and if Cynthia McKinney is not forgiven and approved of for being real? There is an easy way for most people to avoid reaching their limits and the risk of being embarrassed. The first rule is: don’t do anything risky. Don’t stretch the envelope.

With 2,400 American KIA in Iraq, with the US economy ever-shrinking for the poor and middle classes, with US government corruption reeking like a rotting Elephant in the African sun, with voting rights being violated in a gentrifying and whitening New Orleans, with the crimes of 9/11 not only unsolved but covered up by both Democrats and Republicans, there would seem to be many reasons why the envelope needs to be ripped apart a bit.

I have little hope for it now. All the “just get along” folks seem to be winning the day and my friend Cynthia McKinney has some big choices ahead for her. I and many others will be doing all we can from around the country to get her re-elected again this year if that’s what she asks.

But let me say this clearly: If Cynthia McKinney wants to start a revolution over a cop who touched her, or anything else, I’ll welcome it and I know damn well which side I’ll be on.

.::Feeling Whimsical Today::.





.::What type of Fae are you?::.

.::A Retort to Remember::.

William M. Arkin, a journalist with the Washington Post, gave a speech in Denmark earlier this month, in which he criticized the lethal decisions of a notorious American citizen in a high level government position. A Marine Corps Brigadier General took exception to the criticism because it was done in a foreign country, and proceeded to ask one of those loaded questions that unthinking, rabid wingers are famous for. The exchange went like this:

General: 'Mr. Arkin, do you consider yourself a journalist or an American.'

I took a drink of water as my blood boiled.

Me: 'Well General, because I am an American, I cherish the fact that I can call you a f***ing idiot for asking the question.'

There's more to the story on Mr. Arkin's blog, which you can find here.

.::What's Been Happening Lately::.

Recently, the Washington Post showed it's true Right Wing leanings when it created a winger (right wing) website and named it Red America. Media Matters, as usual, does a great job of explaining the obviously partisan manuever by the Post.

Journalism's left wing Don Quixote, Greg Palast, has again been ignored by corporate-owned media, despite another tight piece in The Guardian called Bush Didn't Bungle Iraq, You Fools: THE MISSION WAS INDEED ACCCOMPLISHED. He makes the case that the war (on terrah in Iraq) was actually begun to keep oil out of the international market so the oil companies could profit.

Meanwhile down under, Scoop News in New Zealand disseminated an article from the Atlanta Progressive News organization telling anyone interested in knowing that 30 members of Congress support an impeachment hearing for Chimpy McCokespoon. Corporate-owned media, on the other hand, decided that the Senate Democrats unwillingness to support Senator's Feingold call to censor was the end all and be all of the whole story.

And, finally we come to voting suppression, intimidation and outright fraud. It seems voting scandals are breaking out across the country like acne on a teenager's face! There were important stories ignored by the MSM (mainstream media a/k/a corporate-owned media) from Alaska, California, Texas, Maryland, Florida and Utah. But that's an incomplete list. Brad Blog is the best source of information for this that I've found.

Undoubtedly the average citizen can tell you all about the last American Idol episode, but they are blissfully unaware that this democratic republic is being decidedly changed into a Banana Republic.

.::Ho Hum - Another Lie by the Bush Administration::.

Despite Press Secretary Scott McClellan's protests to the contrary, the supposedly off-the-cuff conversation Smirky had with some troops stationed in Tikrit were very well scripted. The live satellite feed betrayed the administration and may have finally put to rest the hopes of any Bush apologists that he is truthful.

Click Here to Read All About It

.::Know Your Voting Rights::.

www.myvotemyright.com

I hope to GOD that my people do not allow themselves to be intimidated at the polls by rethuglicans sent out to suppress the BLACK vote this coming Tuesday.

Everyone should know this number: 1-800-946-3504. It is there for you to call if some whitebread asshole challenges you on election day and cowardly pollworkers refuse to allow you to exercise your right.

Still in New York... and loving it!

Lately I have been noticing the small and frequent kindnesses that are overlooked, in favor of intense focus on the rare, yet egregious, indignities that city dwellers are more likely to encounter than suburbanites or small townies.

.::Scene On the Subway::.

On the Franklin Avenue shuttle one evening, it is crowded, as usual. Conspicuous among the people is a young, thin, man-child with a luggage cart. Strapped to his cart is a large and unwieldy computer monitor.

The shuttle stops and everyone begins their rushed exit, including the young brother with the cart. It is instantly clear that the cart’s wheels will fall into the wide gap between the train and the platform. He looks at his heavy cart and then quickly looks up into the crowd behind him. Watching his eyes shift rapidly back and forth, I suspect he is even wondering if the mood will turn ugly if he doesn’t hurry and get the cart out of the way.

During that small blip in time, an older brother, looking a bit rough around the edges, steps forward. He reaches down and picks up the bottom end of the cart, lifts it over the gap and gently sets it down on the platform. The man-child looks up and says, "thank you." In the process, he shows off the gorgeous smile of the truly grateful. His older counterpart responds with his own crooked, charming smile and a booming "you’re welcome."

Living in New York ...Brooklyn to be exact!!

I've been here since the 1st of July and discovered that the South does NOT have a monopoly on stupid or unthinking people. Of course, I knew that before I got here, but for some reason was still surprised to encounter so many of them.

With a dense population comes more of every kind of people, obviously. I just envisioned a more enlightened populace, a more politically aware citizenry, a more thoughtful constituency. What I have found instead is a mass of ignoramuses who are smart enough to know how to cut down their commute time by catching two different subway lines and then a bus, or who know how to feed themselves well for $5 a day, but believe the machinations of the political system are unrelated to the hardships in their lives.

I am working (temporarily) for the popular clothing designer Liz Claiborne and the vapid conversations that go on are enough to drive me right back to the heat and humidity of Florida... if I wasn't so in love with the other stuff (and people) the city has to offer, including 24-hour access to just about everything!

Guatanamo - Home of the Harmless?
.::NY Times::.

In interviews, dozens of high-level military, intelligence and law-enforcement officials in the United States, Europe and the Middle East said that contrary to the repeated assertions of senior administration officials, none of the detainees at the United States Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay ranked as leaders or senior operatives of Al Qaeda. They said only a relative handful -- some put the number at about a dozen, others more than two dozen -- were sworn Qaeda members or other militants able to elucidate the organization's inner workings.

From .::Common Dreams::. A History Lesson

Far too frequently, unthinking neo-conservatives extoll the virtues of the free market, believing that they will somehow reach the financial heights of the duplicitous priests of privatization they consider their elected representatives. They seek privatization of everything from public schools to social security. What the neo-con congregation doesn't know, mainly because they're too stupid to think, is that the free market they yearn for is neither free, nor the ladder to financial success.

A totally "free" market where corporations reign supreme, just like the oppressive governments of old, Jefferson said could transform America "...until the bulk of the society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery, to have no sensibilities left but for sinning and suffering. Then begins, indeed, the bellum omnium in omnia, which some philosophers observing to be so general in this world, have mistaken it for the natural, instead of the abusive state of man."

As Jefferson realized, with no government "interference" by setting the rules of the game of business and fair taxation, there will be no middle class.

Although this may come as a sudden realization to many, we've really known it all our lives.

For example, every year, millions of Americans revisit Charles Dickens "A Christmas Carol" about Ebenezer Scrooge and Bob (and Tiny Tim) Cratchit. Yet somehow Americans fail to realize the subtext of the story (and so many of Dickens' other works). That subtext is that the middle class is not a normal thing: exploited workers are the norm. In fact, in the six-thousand-year history of the "civilized" world, a middle class emerging in any nation has been such a rarity as to be historically invisible.

Beginning with the Interstate Commerce Commission Act of 1887 —the first federal law regulating the abuse of monopoly power— the mythical free market, that created such desirable American institutions like sweatshops filled with minor children working from sun-up to sundown, has had to be regulated. Without the dreaded "interference" of the government, there would be no eight-hour workdays, nor would there be the concept of a "weekend" for that matter. The soldiers returning home from war would not have been able to attend college on the GI Bill (and thereby better their chances of climbing the corporate ladder) or buy a home with VA loans.

...to be continued

Wow! What an Economy!

May marked the nation's third straight month of job growth ...The strongest service-sector bets are in education, health care, and state and local government. The single best choice may be to join the ranks of registered nurses (623,000 new jobs).

But here's the depressing news: Of the top 10 occupations with the rosiest projections, seven are by and large poorly paid McJobs: retail (596,000 new jobs by 2012), customer service (460,000), food preparation (454,000), cashiers (454,000), janitors (414,000), waiters and waitresses (367,000), and nursing aides (343,000). And the .::BLS::. [Bureau of Labor Statistics] admits its numbers don't distinguish between full-time jobs with benefits and part-time or temp work. In other words, there will be plenty of jobs, but far fewer careers.

...the gist trickles down through the media and career counselors, and through the anecdotes of friends and relatives. The result? A rapid drop in enrollment at Web, tech-related, and manufacturing programs, and a stampede into programs for accounting, education, and especially nursing. Some of the cheaper nursing programs, at technical schools, already have one- to two-year waiting lists, and programs elsewhere can cost $60,000.

.::read the rest::.

But wait a minute, the GOP-ites all say that the economy is doing so swell under their free-market driven guidance, that the outsourcing they think so much of will leave the privileged citizens of this country with the highly technical, high paying jobs. With the dubious exception of nursing aides, there isn't a single job category that could be considered highly-skilled in any of those named by the BLS. What gives? Surely the repugnant... uh, rethuglicans aren't lying to their faithful free market minions? Surely the government's own agency is having a bit of fun at our expense...

Best Interests

Just a quick thought on the constant debate among white Democrats about why poor white folks vote against their best interests:

It's nothing new! Don't they remember the Civil War? As many non-blacks love to point out, most white people in the South didn't own slaves, but those poor ass crackaz came out in droves to support the rights of slave owners to keep their darkies in shackles. Why? Well, for gawwd's sake, because what feels more satisfying than being BETTER THAN someone else and having them be the scapegoat for all your problems?!!

If they were thinking in their best interests, they would have seen that economically it would have been better to support abolition, like most in the North did, so that the plantation owners (and the companies that hired slaves from them) would have to pay someone a decent wage for work that needed to be done.

As my friend likes to say: white folks will be white folks! If there is someone to look down on, then by golly that IS in their best interest.

Diplomats and Military Commanders for Change

Still more experienced ex-officials feel compelled to weigh in on Chimpy's total incompetence.

26 former diplomats and military officials, including many who served in Republican administrations, have a signed a statement calling for the defeat of President Bush in November. Their names and some of the posts they have held are:

Avis T. Bohlen — assistant secretary of State for arms control, 1999-2002; deputy assistant secretary of State for European affairs 1989-1991.

Retired Adm. William J. Crowe Jr. — chairman, President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Committee, 1993-94; ambassador to Britain, 1993-97; chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1985-89.

Jeffrey S. Davidow — ambassador to Mexico, 1998-2002; assistant secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, 1996

William A. DePree — ambassador to Bangladesh, 1987-1990.

Donald B. Easum — ambassador to Nigeria, 1975-79.

Charles W. Freeman Jr. — assistant secretary of Defense, International Security Affairs, 1993-94; ambassador to Saudi Arabia, 1989-1992.

William C. Harrop — ambassador to Israel, 1991-93; ambassador to Zaire, 1987-1991.

Arthur A. Hartman — ambassador to the Soviet Union, 1981-87; ambassador to France, 1977-1981.

Retired Marine Gen. Joseph P. Hoar — commander in chief of U.S. Central Command, overseeing forces in the Middle East, 1991-94; deputy chief of staff, Marine Corps, 1990-94.

H. Allen Holmes — assistant secretary of Defense for special operations, 1993-99; assistant secretary of State for politico-military affairs, 1986-89.

Robert V. Keeley — ambassador to Greece, 1985-89; ambassador to Zimbabwe, 1980-84.

Samuel W. Lewis — director of State Department policy and planning, 1993-94; ambassador to Israel, 1977-1985.

Princeton N. Lyman — assistant secretary of State for International Organization Affairs, 1995-98; ambassador to South Africa, 1992-95.

Jack F. Matlock Jr. — ambassador to the Soviet Union, 1987-1991; director for European and Soviet Affairs, National Security Council, 1983-86; ambassador to Czechoslovakia, 1981-83.

Donald F. McHenry — ambassador to the United Nations, 1979-1981.

Retired Air Force Gen. Merrill A. McPeak — chief of staff, U.S. Air Force, 1990-94.

George E. Moose — assistant secretary of State for African affairs, 1993-97; ambassador to Senegal, 1988-91.

David D. Newsom — acting secretary of State, 1980; undersecretary of State for political affairs, 1978-1981; ambassador to Indonesia, 1973-77

Phyllis E. Oakley — assistant secretary of State for intelligence and research, 1997-99.

James Daniel Phillips — ambassador to the Republic of Congo, 1990-93; ambassador to Burundi, 1986-1990.

John E. Reinhardt — professor of political science, University of Vermont, 1987-91; ambassador to Nigeria, 1971-75.

Retired Air Force Gen. William Y. Smith — deputy commander in chief, U.S. European Command, 1981-83.

Ronald I. Spiers — undersecretary-general of the United Nations for Political Affairs, 1989-1992; ambassador to Pakistan, 1981-83.

Michael Sterner — deputy assistant secretary of State for Near East affairs, 1977-1981; ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, 1974-76.

Retired Adm. Stansfield Turner — director of the Central Intelligence Agency, 1977-1981.

Alexander F. Watson — assistant secretary of State for Inter-American affairs, 1993-96; deputy permanent representative to the U.N., 1989-1993.

.::LA Times Article::.
.::National Press Club::.
.::mlive.com::.

It becomes less deniable everyday, he is running this country into the ground and has made morons feel comfortable espousing their ignorance. Chimpy isn't stupid, even if he is only semi-literate, he's just evil, and he makes others of his kind (and the weak-minded) quite happy.

The predictable response from the knuckle-dragging neo-conservative contingency will be that the signatories are all a bunch of commie, pinko, leftist, marxist, fascist liberals who hate America. Awww...