Columnist Molly Ivins passes

At the request of Rikyrah, I have written the following recollection of a great woman.

Columnist Molly Ivans was gifted writer and storyteller that could make a Vulcan laugh.  She possessed a singular gift to needle the powers that be with her lacerating wit.  She revealed their manifold sins and unfathomable ignorance.   She once mocked GOP House Majority leader Dick Armey by saying, “If ignorance ever goes to $40 a barrel, I want drillin’ rights on that man’s head.”   

She had special contempt for the ignorant patrician in the White House that she dubbed “Shrub.”  She has said of him, “Let me say for the umpteenth time, George W. is not a stupid man. The IQ of his gut, however, is open to debate. In Texas, his gut led him to believe the death penalty has a deterrent effect, even though he acknowledged there was no evidence to support his gut’s feeling.  When his gut, or something, causes him to announce that he does not believe in global warming — as though it were a theological proposition — we once again find his gut ruling that evidence is irrelevant. In my opinion, Bush’s gut should not be entrusted with making peace in the Middle East.” She was right on target and I think thirty years from now, when I am the same age as she was, historians will bear out her harsh judgment of this President’s basic ineptitude. 

I have been regaled by her stories for years.  I enjoyed her so much that I bought two of her books on tape when I traveled.  She could caress you with a story and teach you something profound in between the side splitting laughter.  I read with dismay several months ago that she was again ill with Cancer.  I sent her an e-mail and prayed for her recovery.   

My saddest realization upon her passing is that she died during the Bush Administration that she so effectively lampooned, that to me is quite disheartening.  Every time I post I try to channel a bit of her irreverence and sometimes I succeed. May God Bless her and keep her in his arms forever and may he give comfort to those who loved her and deeply miss her wit and wisdom.

 

Pregnant sistah sues police after loosing baby

The video is sickening, have you ever heard of this happening to a white woman?

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A woman whose premature baby died the day after she was arrested has sued the Kansas City Police Department and two officers who repeatedly ignored her pleas for medical help while they were arresting her.

A police videotape released Tuesday shows Sofia Salva telling police officers numerous times on Feb. 5, 2006, that she was pregnant, bleeding and needed to go to a hospital. After the ninth request, a female officer asked: “How is that my problem?”

Salva, a Sudanese native, was held overnight on traffic violations and outstanding city warrants. After being released the next morning, she delivered a premature baby boy who died after one minute, according to a lawsuit Salva filed Friday in Jackson County Circuit Court.

Salva sued officers Melody Spencer and Kevin Schnell and the Police Department for wrongful death, personal injuries and failure to provide medical assistance. Salva is seeking actual damages exceeding $25,000 and punitive damages to punish and deter such conduct in the future. “The officers went into this with a preconceived idea of who and what they were dealing with, and they were wrong,” said Salva’s attorney, Andrew Protzman.

“It’s tragic.” The videotape was released to the media after The Kansas City Star requested it under Missouri’s open records law. Police have opened an internal investigation to determine exactly what happened, department spokesman Capt. Rich Lockhart said. “It’s a matter of trust. … We want to make sure the community trusts us to get to the bottom of this regardless of the way it reflects on the police department,” Lockhart said.

The officers stopped Salva after they saw her affixing a fake temporary tag on the back windshield of her car. After the officers tell her why she was arrested, Salva is seen telling the officers she is having a miscarriage and is bleeding. “Do you want to check me?” Salva asks on the tape. “I’m bleeding. I have a 3-month baby inside.”

Schnell, who has worked for the department for less than two years, walks away from the car and tells his partner: “She just gave me a line of excuses. She said she’s bleeding. She said you can check her.” Salva said: “I’m three months pregnant and I’m bleeding.” Spencer, a four-year veteran, replied: “OK. Why are you driving to the store and then putting a fake temporary tag in your car?” “I took it because I want to go to the hospital,” Salva said.

The officers made Salva sit on the curb as they searched her car, purse and grocery sacks. Salva again tells the officers that she is bleeding and asks them to check her underwear and says she wants to go to the hospital. “Well,” Spencer said, “that will be something you can take care of when we get done with you.” After a drawn-out process to get Salva’s identifying information, Salva is clearly upset. “I have a baby in my stomach and I’m bleeding and I open my underwear for you to see.” “Stay seated!” Schnell yelled. “If I die here, will you take care of me?” Salva said. “If I die here?” “Fair enough,” Schnell said.

Officers are then told Salva has outstanding city warrants for mistreatment of children, trespassing and several traffic violations, with bonds totaling $4,600. After Salva is handcuffed, she again tells Schnell she is bleeding. “I don’t doubt that you’re possibly bleeding, but you got a lot more problems with us,” Schnell said.

Brandy sued for $50 mill

LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) — Singer-actress Brandy was sued for $50 million Tuesday by the family of a woman killed in a four-car freeway crash which police have blamed on the 27-year-old performer.

The wrongful death lawsuit by the parents of Awatef Aboudihaj, 38, was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court a day after police recommended that prosecutors charge Brandy with a misdemeanor count of vehicular manslaughter.

The California Highway Patrol found that the entertainer, whose full name is Brandy Norwood, was at fault in the December 30 accident for failing to prevent her Land Rover from hitting the car in front of her when traffic suddenly slowed, CHP spokesman Leland Tang said this week.

Aboudihaj was killed when her vehicle slammed into a third car, careened into the freeway’s center divider and was hit broad-side by a fourth automobile, police said.

The lawsuit, filed as a three-page form complaint, says her death was caused by “reckless driving” by Brandy. It seeks $50 million in compensatory and punitive damages.

Investigators have ruled out alcohol and drugs as factors in the crash and say there was no evidence that Brandy was using a cell phone or was otherwise distracted. She was in her car alone, Tang said.

Brandy’s spokeswoman, Kelly Mullens of the 42West agency, said in a statement “the accident was a terrible tragedy and Brandy’s heart goes out to Awatef Aboudihaj’s family. But for legal reasons we cannot comment on this lawsuit.”

The Highway Patrol referred the case to the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office for further review with the recommendation that the former star of the TV comedy “Moesha” be cited with a misdemeanor charge of vehicular manslaughter.

A misdemeanor offense carries a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Obama rips U.S. effort after Katrina

By Mike Dorning
Chicago Tribune national correspondent

January 30, 2007

NEW ORLEANS — Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama blasted the Bush administration Monday for the slow pace of Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts, saying reconstruction no longer seems to be a White House priority.

“There is not a sense of urgency in this administration to get this done,” said the senator from Illinois. “You get a sense that will has been lacking in the last several months.”

Obama, the Senate’s only African-American member, was in New Orleans for a field hearing on Gulf Coast rebuilding conducted by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

In the days after Katrina hit, the devastation of New Orleans and the botched federal response turned into a dramatic international emblem for charges of incompetence in the administration and of indifference to the plight of poor people, particularly blacks and other minorities. The flooding and tardy rescue efforts had the greatest impact on low-income black residents, many of whom did not have personal transportation or financial resources to evacuate easily on their own.

The broken homes and vacant streets of the city’s flood-damaged neighborhoods remain a potent political symbol. Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards kicked off his campaign in December outside a damaged home in one hard-hit neighborhood.

After Monday’s field hearing, the Senate committee took a bus tour of the city’s Lower 9th Ward, a low-income black neighborhood where many ruined homes sit empty and bear the painted X-marks used in the chaotic weeks after the hurricane to show they had been searched for survivors.

Mayor compares city, Iraq

Testifying to the committee, New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin said he still doesn’t see “the will to really fix” his city and suggested that race was a factor.

“I think it’s more class than anything, but there’s racial issues associated with it also,” said Nagin, who is black.

Nagin complained that disputes with federal officials over the value of damaged buildings and cumbersome paperwork have slowed the money flow.

“And then I look at what we’re doing in Iraq and how we spend money at an unprecedented level there, how we can set up temporary hospitals and designate money to rebuild their economy, and we have this dance going on in New Orleans,” he said.

The hearing is one of the first that the Homeland Security Committee has scheduled since the Senate passed to Democratic control. No Republican members attended.

The session follows criticism of Bush for not including any mention of the New Orleans recovery effort in last week’s State of the Union address. Obama echoed that criticism, noting that Bush had traveled to the city shortly after the disaster and promised to do “what it takes . . . as long as it takes” to rebuild New Orleans.

But “17 months later, we heard not a single word, not one word in President Bush’s State of the Union address,” Obama said. “Those of us who are concerned all across the country wonder if we’re in danger of forgetting about New Orleans, and that’s shameful.”

Federal officials involved with rebuilding efforts defended their work in testimony before the committee. Donald Powell, federal coordinator for Gulf Coast reconstruction for the Department of Homeland Security, said that when the history of the recovery effort is written “it will also be a story of modern renaissance.”

“President Bush is committed to rebuilding the Gulf Coast and rebuilding it better and stronger,” Powell said.

Obama introduces Iraq troop redeployment bill

“Our troops have performed brilliantly in Iraq, but no amount of American soldiers can solve the political differences at the heart of somebody else’s civil war,” Obama said. “That’s why I have introduced a plan to not only stop the escalation of this war, but begin a phased redeployment that can pressure the Iraqis to finally reach a political settlement and reduce the violence.”

Hollywood says only white people can save us

I saw this article by this talented brotha and had to share a portion of it with y’all

By Kai Beasley
Black College Wire

It seems one of the most powerful notions in Hollywood is that black people can’t do anything for themselves. I’m sorry; I just have trouble understanding why nearly every movie about African Americans portrays us as having a weakness only white people can help us overcome. It’s starting to be a bit annoying, not to mention redundant. I’m sure we have all seen the preview that sounds something like this:

Kai Beasley

Announcer: “In a world where people of color from the inner city act like blatant stereotypes, one woman understood how to touch them better than they understood how to touch themselves. When no one else cared, there was one white woman who was willing to give them a chance. Michelle Pfeiffer in . . . “Dangerous Minds.”

Two-time Academy Award winner Hilary Swank is starring in a similar film. Maybe you’ve seen the preview. It sounds something like this:

Announcer: “From the producers of all those other movies where white people are the only people who can save poor ethnic kids comes the same freakin’ story that you’ve seen over and over. When a bunch of unruly ethnic kids don’t want to listen to anyone, a random white woman is able to reach them. This time, it’s for real. This time, it’s for the future. This time . . . It’s not Michelle Pfeiffer. Hillary Swank in . . . “Freedom Writers .”

I mean, COME ON! African Americans don’t need white actors to help them do stuff. So what if Tom Hanks, Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise helped me write this article; that’s the exception, not the rule. So what if John Travolta helps me dress myself every morning, it can just as easily be Samuel L. Jackson. The fact that I can’t eat breakfast in the morning without being spoon-fed by Bruce Willis means nothing; Jamie Foxx can spoon-feed me anytime.

But seriously, are we as helpless and naive as our characterizations in film portray us? No! Do white people really care about our problems as much as they do in films? No! That’s the reason things are they way they are. If people cared as much as they do in the movies, there wouldn’t be any more movies like that, because society would have changed. But what really grinds my gears is that few movies give black people credit for the things we do for ourselves. In fact, the only thing they do give us credit for being good at is drug dealin’, rappin’ or pimpin’. Now I don’t know about you all, but I stopped pimpin’ a long time ago, and I would like to think that I have moved on to better things.

 

RUSH ENDORSES OBAMA

January 27, 2007

BY SCOTT FORNEK Political Reporter CHICAGO SUN TIMES

Calling it “one of the most difficult decisions that I’ve had to make in politics,” Rep. Bobby Rush said Friday he is backing Barack Obama for president – despite Rush’s long friendship with rival White House hopeful Hillary Clinton and her husband.

“Barack is a favorite son, and I’m going to be with Barack,” Rush said of his fellow South Side Democrat. “I intend to work very hard with him and for him. And this challenge is going to be enormous, but I’m going to be with him. … We come from the same neighborhood and represent the same constituency, and I’m going to be with my constituency and Sen. Obama.”

In 1991, Rush was the first elected official in Illinois to back Bill Clinton’s first presidential run. He went on to serve as national director of voter registration for the Clinton-Gore ticket in 1992.

Rush said it was Clinton who called him on the night of the Illinois primary that year with the news that Rush had won the Democratic nomination for the South Side’s 1st Congressional District.

“I was trying to … get the results and everything, and he called me and congratulated me and informed me that I had won,” Rush said. “It’s one of the most difficult decisions that I’ve had to make in politics. Bill Clinton and the Clinton family are very close.”

‘We buried the hatchet’

Rush’s relationship with Obama has been more rocky. It soured when Obama waged a failed bid to oust Rush from his congressional seat in 2000. Clinton helped Rush in that race, giving a rare primary endorsement and cutting 30-second radio spots singing Rush’s praises.

The incumbent congressman won with 61 percent to Obama’s 30 percent in a four-candidate field — an outcome a chastened Obama later laughingly called “a big spanking.”

California Highway Patrol wants to charge Brandy with Manslaughter

 

By JEREMIAH MARQUEZ, Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES – The California Highway Patrol recommended Monday that actress-singer Brandy be charged with misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter in a freeway crash that killed a woman motorist last month, a city attorney’s spokesman told The Associated Press.

The CHP referred the matter to the city attorney’s office for review, said spokesman Nick Velasquez.

“The office is currently reviewing the case and determining whether the evidence warrants the filing of a misdemeanor charge of vehicular manslaughter,” Velasquez said.

A message seeking comment from Brandy’s publicist, Courtney Barnes, was not immediately returned.

The charge carries a maximum sentence of one year in county jail and a $1,000 fine, Velasquez said.

Prosecutors couldn’t say when they would make a decision about whether to bring a case. If charged, Brandy wouldn’t necessarily have to appear in court and could have her lawyer enter a plea, Velasquez said.

Brandy, whose real name is Brandy Norwood, has publicly expressed condolences to the victim’s family, Barnes said last week. Barnes also has said Brandy wasn’t under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the crash.

Brandy, 27, was driving a Land Rover on Interstate 405 on Dec. 30 when traffic slowed and her vehicle struck the back of Honda driven by Awatef Aboudihaj, 38, according to a CHP report.

Aboudihaj’s car hit another vehicle, slid sideways into the center divider and was then hit by another car, the report said. Aboudihaj, a Los Angeles waitress, died at a hospital from blunt-force injuries, according to the coroner’s office.

Harold Ford, Jr’s Messianic Dream

Harold Ford, Jr took over the DLC yesterday, the Democratic Party’s corporate arm.  It is a nice resting place to be between Senate runs.  In  honor of the occasion, he gave the following MLK inspired peoration.

I HAVE A MESSIANIC DREAM

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.  Last fall, a great American, in whose megalomanic shadow you stand today, lost an election in Tennessee.  This momentous decree came down and destroyed a great beacon of light and hope to millions of Tennessee Negroes who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice.  It came and ended a joyous daybreak that could have ended their long night of captivity.

100 years after reconstruction, this Negro still is not free.  One Hundred years later, the life of this Negro is still sadly crippled by the loss of a Senate election and sadly crippled by the manacles of his lost seat in the House of Representatives and the chains of little power.  One hundered years later, this Negro lives on a lonely island of powerlessness in the midst of a vast ocean of white political power.  One hundred years later, this Negro still languises in the corners of American politics and finds himself in exile in Washington,DC. And so we’ve come today to dramatize my shameful condition as nothing more than a white man’s corporate whore.

In a sense we’ve come to the nation’s capitol to cash a check.  When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the constitution and the Declaration of Independence, the were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.  This note was a promise that all men-yes, black men as well as white men-would be guaranteed the unailenable rights to life, liberty, and the shameless, demagogic pursuit of a Tennessee Senate seat.

It is obvious today that Tennessee has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as my situation is concerned.  Instead of honoring this sacred obligation to elect me to the Senate, Tennessee has given this Negro a bad check, a check that has come back marked “Harold, Call Me.”

But we refuse to believe that the bank of white corporate America is bankrupt.  We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity to fund another of my shameless, demagogic Senate Campaigns.  And so we’ve come to the DLC to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and security of power.  We’ve also come to this hallowed spot of the DLC to remind America of the fierce urgency of now.  This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.  Now is the time to make real the promise of my overpowering ambition. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of defeat to the the sunlit path of Senatorial power.  Now is the time to lift my ambition from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.  Now is the time to lay the groundwork for another campaign for this sanctimonious and phony child of God.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. The sweltering summer of this Negro Congressman’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating of my campaign coffers.  Two thousand and six is not an end but a beginning.  Those who hoped that this Negro Congressman needed to blow off steam and be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual and doesn’t elect me to the Senate.  There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until this Negro is granted his rightful place in the Senate.   The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of my Inauguration emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the Halls of the Senate.  In the process of gaining my rightful place we must not be afraid to be guilty of wrongful deeds.  Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for power by drinking from the cup of timidity. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of homophobia, corporate appeasement, and confederate nostalgia.  We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into principled discourse.  Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting our gag reflex with more focus group, poll tested crap.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust all confederates, for many of our confederate white brothers, as evidenced by their presence in the DLC, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with my destiny.  And they have come to realize that their legitimacy is inextricably bound to my election.  I cannot walk alone.

And as we walk,  we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.  We cannot turn back. There are those of you asking the devotees of my cult of personality, “When will you be satisfied?”  We can never be satisfied as long as this Negro is not in the White House.  Barack Obama will never make it. We can never be satisfied as long as my body, heavy with the fatigue of political travel, cannot rest in the Lincoln Bedroom. We cannot be satisfied as long as this Negro’s basic mobility is from ghetto Memphis to the House of Representatives.  We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating “Lamar Alexander for Senate.”  We cannot be satisfied as long as any Negro in Tennessee doesn’t vote for me.  No, no we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and campaign cash like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come from areas where your quest to elect me left you battered by storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of my hypocrisy. You have been the veterans of creative suffering.  Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Knoxville, go back to Carthage, go back to Kingsport, go back to Gallatin, go back to Chattanooga, go back to the slums and ghettos of Nashville and Memphis, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.  I say to you today my friends-so even though we face the difficulties of another Senate Campaign, I still have a messianic dream. It is a messianic dream deeply rooted in demagogery.

I have a messianic dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that I, Harold Ford, Jr am the way, the truth, and the light.”

I have a messianic dream, that one day on the red hills of Tennessee the sons of former slaves and the sons of the owners of the Little Rebel Bar and Grill will be able to sit down together at the table of confederate nostalgia.

I have a messianic dream, that one day even the state of Tennessee, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice , sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis for democrats.

I have a messianic dream, that my future children will one day live in  a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the fact that their daddy was President of the United States.

I have  a messianic dream today. I have a dream that one day down in Tennessee, with its vicious  Republicans, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of TennCare deception- one day in Tennessee little black boys and little black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and little white girls and vote for me as their Senator.

I have a messianic dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and that crooked, closeted GOP Congressman will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed when I am elected to the Senate.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with.  With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.  With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our state into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.  With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to scapegoat gays together, knowing that I will be President one day.

This will be the day, this will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning “My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.  Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let Pay Pal ring!’

And if America is to be a great nation, I must be elected.  And so let Pay Pal ring with campaign cash from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.  Let Pay Pal ring with campaign cash form the mighty mountains of New York. Let Pay Pal ring from the hightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.  Let Pay Pal ring  from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.  Let Pay Pal ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. But not only that; let Pay Pal ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let Pay Pal ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. Let Pay Pal ring from  every hill and molehill of Mississippi-from every mountainside, let Pay Pal ring.

And when this happens, when we allow Pay Pal ring-when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all God’s children-black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, and Protestant Confederates-will be able to join hands and sing in the words of a new Negro spiritual:  Elected at last! Elected at last! Thank God Almighty, Harold Ford,Jr. is Elected at last!”

Sharpton Sizes Up 2008 Contenders

By NEDRA PICKLER
Associated Press Writer

1/25/07

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrat Al Sharpton said Thursday he’s waiting to see how the 2008 presidential field shapes up before deciding whether to declare himself a candidate.

The civil rights activist spent the day on Capitol Hill, meeting with the four Democratic senators who are pursuing the presidency – Chris Dodd of Connecticut, Joe Biden of Delaware, Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois. Each met privately with Sharpton in their office.

“I’m not making any endorsements today,” Sharpton, who ran in 2004, told reporters at the end of his meeting with Obama.

Obama said the two talked about their shared agenda of fighting for the dispossessed. “I assured him that I not only want to hear his views and thoughts and policy recommendations, but publicly any of us who step into this fight for the nomination have to be held accountable and speak to these issues,” he said.

Sharpton said they talked about economics, health care and education issues. “We are going to keep talking and he knows I’m talking to everybody,” he said.

The normally loquacious Sharpton was unusually curt and cut off further questioning by saying he was behind schedule. But he told reporters who followed him that he would decide about his own candidacy “once I see what these guys do or don’t do.”

Hillary leads Obama among black voters

Parsing the Polls: Inside the ’08 numbers

By Chris Cillizza

THE FIX Washington Post’s Politics Blog 1/24/07

The latest Washington Post-ABC News poll pegged New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D) and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) as the leaders in the coming presidential nomination fights.

While polls this far out — especially of a national sample rather than a pool of Iowa or New Hampshire voters — function more a test of name identification than a predictor of the eventual nominee, a look beyond the topline numbers gives us a glimpse of voter perceptions about the best known candidates.

Thanks to Post polling director — and all-around good guy — Jon Cohen, we have access to the some of the internal numbers from the Post survey.

Let’s Parse the Polls!

Clinton appears to start the race in the pole position as she led Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) 41 percent to 17 percent. Former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.) placed third with 11 percent.

Clinton’s lead overall extends to most subgroups in the survey. A few are particularly interesting:

* Among non-white voters Clinton led Obama 56 percent to 16 percent. Cohen notes that “non white” encompasses African American, Hispanic, Asian and “other” voters, but the subgroup is dominated by black voters. In fact, if you combine black voters in the Post’s December and January surveys, Clinton leads Obama among black voters 60 percent to 20 percent. Given that Obama is black and would be the first African-American elected president, it’s somewhat surprising that the historic nature of his candidacy has not galvanized the black community. Of course there are two mitigating factors: First, former President Bill Clinton remains an iconic figure in the black community and some of his popularity appears to be wearing off on his wife. Second, Hillary Clinton remains a far better known commodity nationwide than Obama. As hard as it is to believe, there are still plenty of potential voters who know little or nothing about Obama; few people can say the same of Clinton.

Democratic Response to the State of Confusion Address

This is the way that you stick the ignorant patrician in the eye.

Blogging the State of the Union

“I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of  the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values.  We must rapidly begin the shift from a “thing-oriented” society to a “person-oriented” society.  When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”

“..A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war: “This way of settling differences  is not just.”  This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation’s  homes with orphans and widows, of injecting  poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane,  of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love.  A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. “

“America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values.  There is nothing, except a tragic death wish, to prevent us from reordering our priorities, so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war.  There is nothing to keep us from molding a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands until we have fashioned it into a brotherhood.”  - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Medical savings accounts, so-called “Tort Reform,” more “No Child Left Behind,”  No Tax increases on the rich, and tough talk on balancing the budget will not improve the state of our Union.  It will deepen the chasm between the wealthy and the impoverished.  He has offered no solutions of import on the most pressing domestic issues of today and is simply out of gas.

His snake oil regarding our energy dependance on foreign oil is also nonsense.  I thought that is what we went to Iraq for.  It apparently ain’t working out.   His troop surge will fail and leave the situation worse off and our national security and that of the Iraqis imperiled.  

In summation, the State of the Union is Poor and getting poorer.  Talking up the economy is not going to make my ends meet any better. 9/11 bromides ain’t gonna pursuade me either.  Wages are not growing and state budgets and that of the Federal government have been squeezed by bad policy and rank ignorance.

America can do better than George W. Bush.  Following his lead only advances the spiritual death of our nation and ignores the values upon which our liberty depends.

On a personal note, his recognition of Dikembe Mutumbo is as fraudulent as his foreign policy toward the continent of Africa.  I fail to understand why our people allow themselves to be used as black props in Dubya’s racist stage play.

NM Gov. Bill Richardson announces 2008 bid

Bill Richardson, Governor of New Mexico announced his Presidential Exploratory Committee on Sunday.  A man who loves life and politics, Richardson is a larger than life personality and a truly talented politician.  His depth of experience at the United Nations as Ambassador, as Governor, Congressman and Energy Secretary will stand him in good stead in this race.  He will make Hispanic Americans of all stripes proud because he is qualified and serious.  However, that won’t amount to a damn hill of beans this year as Hillary ruthless Campaign Collective sweeps over the landscape destroying everything and anybody in its path.  Resistance is Futile.  Everyone will be assimilated by Hillary’s juggernaut.

Hillary to forego all campaign matching funds

The New York Times is reporting that Hillary Clinton is foregoing all Federal campaign matching funds for the primary and general elections.  To put it in perspective, that means she is forsaking a $150 million.  She intends to raise mo’. This is big Y’all.  BIG.  It essentially means that if the rest of them don’t do the same, she will outraise and spend them into the ground.  Like I said: Resistance is Futile.  This will truly be a platinum campaign like none other we’ve seen.

Jennifer Hudson, a real American Idol

I’d like to take some time out of the political thing to show some luv to a truly beautiful and dynamic sistah:  Jennifer Hudson.  I am not really an American Idol fan.  However, everything has its purpose and part of Idol’s purpose was to highlight this sistah’s tremendous talent and appeal.  What a blessing she is.  Not only is she mega talented and beautiful, she is real.  Beside “Keepin’ it Real” in the dictionary of black vernacular, should be a picture of this sistah. 

She wouldn’t make the cut on Tyra’s top model show, but she is beautiful and she loves herself, is comfortable with who and what she is, and is grateful to God for his many blessings.  As a brotha who sometimes feels ugly and unloved, I can appreciate the way sistahs must feel when they are shunted aside for somebody lighter and whiter.

Little girls all over America can look to her as a role model for how to properly carry themselves when others say they are ugly, unworthy, and lacking in talent.  Her unexpected success is a testament to her fortitude and her God given talent.  I couldn’t be happier even if she were my personal friend.  Jennifer Hudson, although she didn’t win the title, is to me a real American Idol.