Please give a warm welcome to TripLBee, Skeptical Brotha’s newest contributor.
By TripLBee, Contributor
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Remember 1993? A charismatic young President rode into the White House in shining armor, liberating our tired and weary masses from 12 years of right-wing tyranny. We were giddy. We were hopeful. We were naive.
Within days of taking office, Bill Clinton gave us a clue as to the kind of President we could expect. Having campaigned on a promise to integrate the military, he promptly compromised his GLBT constituency with the ludicrous and triangulating “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy. For GLBTs the abrupt about face may have been more aptly described as the “Don’t Trust This Mutha@#$%^& As Far As You Can Throw Him” policy.
Fast-forward 16 years. Another charismatic young President extricates Americans from the grip of a crazed GOP. He is handsome. He is “articulate and clean.” He sports a brilliant and beautiful wife, and two of the cutest kids on the planet. He quotes Jay Z and Jesus in the same speech. He is perfect. He seems too good to be true. Perhaps because he is.
Among the many promises he makes is one to overturn a Jim Crow redux, euphemistically titled the “Defense of Marriage Act.” This act essentially demotes GLBT couples to legally sanctioned second-class citizenship. Cut it and slice it any way you will, this is the essence of the legislation. Those of us concerned about basic civil and human rights are heartened that our new President is set to undo such palpable wrongs. Only he isn’t.
It took our perfect Prez only a few weeks to cause us some concern.
He’s extending the pull out date in Iraq by a year? Ummmm….okay, I guess.
What? He’s tripling the number of troops in Afghanistan, the graveyard of Empires? Oh dear.
He’s pumping money into the biggest banks in the country, but he’s not requiring them to fire their bosses, cap their pay or change the way they conduct their business? Now I am really confused!
Of course we’ve made excuses for our new Prez. Who did we think we were getting after all? Che Guevarra? Look, he’s gotta compromise a little bit. I mean, he has to govern 300 million people, many of them former Republicans. He’s gotta throw em a bone every once in a while. Right?
At some point however, compromise becomes a stale rationalization for “politics as usual.” By filing a friend of the court brief in support of the Defense of Marriage Act, President Barack Obama has officially become a typical Democrat.
This is a sad day indeed for those of us contributed to his campaign, knocked on doors until our knuckles bled and worked the phone banks until we were hoarse. Many of us, myself included, expected this brother to be different. So far he has proven himself to be smarter, more charming, and slightly more daring than the average bear. But in some fundamental ways, he’s no different.
Born to a white mother and black father in 1961, Obama was literally illegal in 17 states. His parents’ marriage would not have been recognized in many parts of the country. I wonder what they would think if they could see their baby defending state sanctioned bigotry?
And here’s the rub. He didn’t have to do it. He could have told his lawyers to take the day off and play golf. He could have told them to call in sick. Whatever pathetic excuse he has concocted, he didn’t have to go out of his way to spit in the faces of his GLBT supporters. He claims that he had to file the brief because the Defense of Marriage Act is federal law. Well, abortion is a constitutionally protected right. Did you see Bush filing friend of the court briefs when protections for abortion were being challenged in the courts? Nope. Bush knew where his bread was buttered. Apparently Obama does not.
I am heartsick because I’ve always felt that Richardson’s presence in the cabinet essential to Obama’s success. Nevertheless, as my grandma is fond of saying, “one monkey don’t stop no show.”The vacancy represents an opportunity to do something no president has done and after the Warren fiasco a few weeks back, I’ve come to feel pretty strongly that Barack Obama needs to appoint a “gay American,” as former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevy put it, to the cabinet of the United States.
When you stop and think about it this is a barrier that Bill Clinton should have shattered years ago, and one Al Gore probably would have if the ignorant tumbleweed that is George W. Bush hadn’t tripped him up. Clinton, after the broken promise of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” attempted to buy off the LGBT community with the appointments of James Hormel as ambassador to Luxemburg and Roberta Achtenberg as Deputy Secretary of HUD. The public break with activist David Mixner, a leading LGBT fundraiser and convention delegate for Clinton, damaged Clinton’s relationship with the LGBT community in a big way.
Anyway, y’all, after little investigation, I’ve come up with two outstanding people that I think can send an inclusive message to the country and tamp down some of the fires of faux outrage burning in the blogosphere.
In the legislature he made Health Care access and delivery his signature issue and authored legislation requiring Massachusetts hospitals to provide interpreters to non-English speakers. In addition, he authored legislation protecting consumers from unscrupulous predatory lenders and required that lenders abide by Massachusetts laws requiring community reinvestment and he pushed for tax credits to subsidize the construction of more affordable housing.
A practicing attorney, Barrios has worked for the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and for the law firms DLA Piper and Hill & Barlow.
Lastly, as you may have already surmised, Jarrett Barrios is a gay man who led the fight in the Massachusetts Senate to preserve marriage rights for same-sex couples. He is married to Doug Hattaway, a democratic strategist and former Hillary Clinton spokesman.
The Obama Administration has focused on excellence in its cabinet appointments. I believe that Jarrett Barrios’ academic and professional credentials will stand the test and that he would be an outstanding Secretary of Commerce.
Ms. Leal, 59, is a native of San Francisco and a veteran civic leader.She is a first generation daughter of Mexican immigrants and the first Latina to serve on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. While on the board, Ms. Leal co-authored San Francisco’s landmark domestic partners ordinance.
An honors graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, Leal has degrees in Economics and Law and has an extensive background as a staffer in both the California General Assembly and the U.S. Congress. While in Washington Ms. Leal served as a staff attorney for the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Investigations.Back in California, she served as general counsel to the Assembly Committee on Ways & Means.
Elected San Francisco’s Treasurer in 1998, she oversaw a $3 billion dollar portfolio of investments and she was the first treasurer to screen the city’s investments to ensure the city invested with socially responsible companies that respected workers, consumers and the environment.
A shrewd and successful businesswoman, Ms. Leal and a few friends created a health care startup that they subsequently took public and later sold at a profit.
Finally, Ms. Leal last served the public as a utilities regulator and she tangled with PG&E, the powerful utility made infamous in the movie Erin Brockovich.
Ms. Leal would make an excellent Secretary of Commerce, Chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or as a Deputy Secretary of Energy or Interior. Both of these individuals are qualified, well-educated, Latino and Gay. It’s past time that all God’s children are represented in the halls of power.
The reaction to the death of Ohio Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones has been swift.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi:
“On behalf of all Members of Congress, I express my deepest condolences on the sudden death of our friend and colleague, Chairwoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, to all who loved her, particularly her son, Mervyn Leroy Jones, II, and her sister, Barbara Walker.
Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones was a tremendously vibrant presence in the halls of Congress. She believed in all the best things about our nation, and was a tireless force for justice, equality, and opportunity. As a leader in election reform, she fought on behalf of voting rights to ensure that every American voter can vote. She loved her hometown of Cleveland, and she believed that serving her constituents was the best job in the world.
…Stephanie Tubbs Jones was always full of enthusiasm for the work of the Congress and for life in general. In our sadness at her sudden passing, we remember that she seized every opportunity and enjoyed every moment that she was given. I hope it is a comfort to Chairwoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones’s family and friends that so many people mourn their loss and are praying for them at this sad time.”
President and Senator Clinton:
“There are few words to express the shock we feel at this time. Our deepest condolences are with Stephanie’s son, Mervyn, her family, and her many loved ones, friends, and supporters.
Stephanie’s friendship meant the world to us, a friendship that deepened through every trial and challenge. We could always count on her to be a shoulder on which to lean, an ear to bend, a voice to reassure. Over the course of many years, with many ups and many downs, Stephanie was right by our side—unwavering, indefatigable.
It was that fighting spirit—safely stowed behind her disarming smile, backed by so much integrity and fiery intelligence—that allowed Stephanie to rise from modest beginnings, to succeed in public service, to become a one-woman force for progress in our country.
All of us who were lucky to know her and love her can only hope now to live like her—to be as passionate, loyal, hard charging, and joyful in life’s pursuits. Stephanie was one of a kind. We will miss our friend always.”
Senator and Mrs. Obama:
“Michelle and I are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones. Stephanie was an extraordinary American and an outstanding public servant. It wasn’t enough for her just to break barriers in her own life. She was also determined to bring opportunity to all those who had been overlooked and left behind – and in Stephanie, they had a fearless friend and unyielding advocate. It was an honor to serve with Stephanie in Congress, and I know her legacy will live on in all those who walk the trails she blazed and walk through the doors she opened. Our hearts and prayers are with all those who knew and loved her.”
Iconic, intelligent, and irreplaceable, Ohio Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones is being remembered today for her zest for life, law and politics.A trailblazer in law and politics, she was the first African American woman to sit on both Cleveland’s Municipal Court and Cuyahoga County’s Court of Common Pleas.After losing a 1990 race for the Ohio Supreme Court, she entered the race to become Cuyahoga County Prosecutor and served until her election to Congress to replace a legendary member of the Congressional Black Caucus, Louis Stokes.
As a member of congress, she became the first African American woman to sit on the House Ways and Means Committee and chair the House Ethics Committee.A fighter of legendary prowess, she challenged the counting of Ohio’s electoral votes in the aftermath of deliberate subterfuge perpetrated by Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, a black wingnut who subsequently ran for Governor and lost, and his Republican minions who deliberately understaffed polling places with machines and personnel in Democratic areas to create long lines that frustrated voters and compromised their right to vote.
With the congresswoman’s passing, she leaves a void to be filled.According to MyFox Cleveland:
With just four months remaining in Tubbs Jones’ current term of office, Governor Ted Strickland is required to issue a writ of election setting the dates for both a special primary and a special general election. The winner of these contests would be elected to serve until the current session of Congress ends in January.”
“… The Cuyahoga County Democratic Party Central Committee must also decide who will replace Tubbs Jones as the party’s nominee on the November general election ballot. Party chairman Jimmy Dimora has until October 27 to hold a meeting to select a replacement.”
Cuyahoga County Commission President Peter Lawson Jones, Cleveland City Councilwomen Nina Turner and Sabra Pierce Scott and State Representative Michael DeBose are some of the obvious names that should be looking into a race to succeed the late Congresswoman.
June 3, 2008
The Honorable James Clyburn
U. S. House of Representatives
H-329, The Capitol
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Jim:
Now that you have endorsed Senator Obama as the Presidential Nominee of the Democratic Party; I, as a long-time supporter of Senator Clinton and of the Democratic Party, urge you to do everything possible to unify this party to win the Presidential election in November. For me and millions of other Democrats, I believe that the most important step that you can take now is to encourage the Congressional Black Caucus to urge Senator Obama to select Senator Hillary Clinton as his Vice Presidential running mate.
As a businessman I understand the vitally important role that a Democratic President can play in establishing programs and policies throughout the government that stimulate and support economic opportunities for African Americans. As African Americans we agree that the stakes in this election are far too high to take any chances that this party will not be unified from the top to the bottom in our effort to gain control of The White House.
You know as well as I the deep affection that millions of African Americans hold for both Senator Clinton and President Clinton. You also know that Hillary Clinton has been a long-term advocate for racial and gender equality, from her early days as a lawyer with the Children Defense Fund to her prominent leadership roles on these issues as First Lady and as Senator from New York. But most important, we need to have the certainty of winning; and, I believe, without question, that Barack Obama as President and Hillary Clinton as Vice President bring that certainty to the ticket.
Jim, as the highest ranking African American in Congress, I encourage you to follow your commitment to build a unified party by helping to make this a historic election of Senators Obama and Clinton who both have demonstrated that they have the courage and the ability to inspire and lead this nation to greatness today and for years in the future.
I have a confession to make. I am exhausted. Sadly, I’m too spent to muster any enthusiasm or energy to witness any of the history happening around me first hand. Nevertheless, it is happening and it has meaning that many too dependent on the misbegotten impressions of the establishment press corps fail to discern.
Hillary Clinton’s trail of crocodile tears into the bosom of blue collar, redneck America has been an interesting fall from the imperial heights from which this campaign began. Getting down and dirty with America’s great unwashed hoards was only supposed to be an indignity reserved for Iowa and New Hampshire before the coronation. Conventional wisdom told us that anything more would be unnecessary because it was obviously Hillary’s turn. Her claim to the throne as America’s Queen, ironclad.
Supposedly, the worldly celebrity sophisticates from Chappaqua now revel in having to come down from their $109 million dollar mountaintop to rub shoulders with ordinary farmers and shift workers, and enjoy being forced to engage in a morally bankrupt blood sport to deny Barack Obama the White House in order to preserve Hillary Clinton’s post 2008 Presidential viability. I don’t believe a word, baby.
As Hillary’s designated “Ambassador to rural America,” Bill Clinton has put on a good show of feigned sympathy and cornpone compassion for the plight of rural North Carolina’s put upon Jessecrats. “Who and what are Jessecrats,” you ask. To put it simply, they are rural white Democrats who rationalized Jesse Helms fealty to Segregation and White Supremacy as character.
During a stint as a security guard in a grocery store, a Jessecrat I’ll call Mr. Earl told me to my face that he respected and voted for Jesse Helms because he didn’t change what he believed. Mr. Earl shook my hand firmly and was a courtly, portly, older gentleman and native of the small town I live in now. Mr. Earl and Senator Helms personify the rural, closed social network and reactionary Bible belt values that I regard as commonplace and intuitively understand. In many ways, I am his younger black equivalent.
Anyhoo, Bill’s Hillbilly’s for Hillary road show shtick is damn interesting in what it reveals about the campaign and our politics. Race, as I’ve discussed umpteen times in the past, is undeniably a factor in this campaign. Moreover, it is the real reason for Bill’s bogus tour of rural seduction.
According to an account in the Dunn Daily Record about an appearance in Lillington, NC, a Harnett county town just a stonestrow from my home, “The political rhetoric got started before the former president even took the stage in Lillington, with former Sen. Robert Morgan introducing President Clinton, praising him and criticizing the current occupant of the White House, President George W. Bush. “He presided over the country when we had one of the largest budget surpluses in our history,” Sen. Morgan said of President Clinton. “The best I can tell he is the only president that has ever been in Harnett County, and I am proud to introduce him.”
The president said he was glad to have the opportunity to see Sen. Morgan again. “Bob Morgan has been a friend of mine for a lot of years and I am proud to be here with him today,” President Clinton said. I am sure that it would please you to know that Senator Morgan was the campaign manager for the last candidate for Governor of North Carolina to run on an avowedly segregationist platform.
Yes, children, the candidate’s name was I. Beverly Lake Sr. A law professor, lawyer and state supreme court justice. He participated in oral argument against Brown v. Board of Education as North Carolina’s Assistant Attorney General. By 1960, he was the unquestioned leader of the state’s segregationists and he became a candidate for Governor.
As he describes in an oral history interview, “Those men whom I taught, not only in that class but in all the others before it, those men became the nucleus of my political campaign when I ran for Governor in 1960 and again in 1964.” Robert Morgan was one of those men.
Judge Lake’s boys became the most powerful men in North Carolina. CEOs of corporations, state supreme court judges, federal judges, and members of congress, they were a closed fraternity and were undeniably influential members of the white power structure. This is the network, which the Clintons turn to put them over. It is also the network that controls Democratic politics in North Carolina and it’s the reason for Democratic dominance over the Governor’s mansion for 24 of the last 32 years.
Bill and Hillary are intimately acquainted with closed Good Ole Boy and Girl networks of power, having benefited from the one that controls Arkansas. When she first arrived in Arkansas, Bill arranged for Hillary to be given a teaching position in the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville School of Law, where he also taught. After his election as Arkansas Attorney General, Clinton biographer Roger Morris, author of Partners in Power, recalls how Bill called up Herbert Rule III, a partner in the Rose law firm and Clinton fundraiser.
Morris quoted Rule “I got the word from Bill Clinton that she was coming and I tracked her down,”Rule said later. At the time the firm had few women or even Ivy League law credentials, and Rose rarely recruited from law school faculties or legal aid clinics. “Hillary was just a law professor, that’s all,”remarked one partner. But the firm saw her obvious value, offering the twenty-nine-year-old attorney a salary just under $25,000—far higher than the pay in Arkansas for teaching or public interest law and well more than Clinton himself would make as attorney general.”
“…The decision had been made when she decided to marry, to go with his career as the engine for her own ambition and power,” said someone who had known them since Yale. “By the time Rose came across with the offer, she was going to do whatever was best for Bill, whatever would get them to the top—and I mean all the way to the top—as fast as possible.”
“…Both sides recognized the mutual compact in Rose’s employing the wife of an attorney general and politician on the rise…For the firm she was a natural hireling. Formed before statehood and named for a founder of the American Bar Association, Rose had numbered among its partners judges and state supreme court justices, mayors, legislators, a US Senator, and , above all, the intimates of those in power, figures who exerted their force more discreetly, without potentially awkward public visibility, without accountability. It was a matter of appearance and reality in an Arkansas when the two were frequently not the same.”
“For a century and a half Rose represented and wielded the influence of the most powerful forces in the state—in land, timber, retailing, insurance, investment banking, agriculture, financial services—and, with governments at all levels, virtually the entire enveloping grid of political privilege and consequent private profit from the Ozarks to the Delta.
“What Arkansas was the Rose Law Firm had been well paid to make it—and to protect and maintain the result. The discreet firm’s own fortunes were inseparable from the economic and social system it served. Beyond any considerations of gender, resume, or name, Hillary Rodham’s presence on the letterhead was in a long tradition.”
Operating as a preserve of racial exclusivity is apparently a long tradition as well because not even one of the current crop of 30 plus attorneys practicing law as associates or partners with Rose Law, a firm Hillary Rodham Clinton served as a partner and had a say in running, is African American.
For Billary to attempt masquerading as champions of the working class is funnier than Larry Craig explaining his wide stance. For the record, Bill and Hillary Clinton got to where they are by servicing the needs of white corporate power. Period. Anybody who says anything different is crazier than Brittney Spears.
It’s funny how the questionable associations of the Clintons are not being placed under the same microscope as Barack Obama’s. Associations like these could be ferreted out, discussed and disseminated widely by the media and Obama’s post-racial campaign. But, then, it wouldn’t be post-racial if he obsessed over the corporate and segregationist allies of Bill and Hillary. And it would reveal that the deliberate lies about race and power told in the supposedly post-racial 21st century are essentially the same as the ones told in the twentieth.
I ran across a beautifully written article in the Saturday Evening Post detailing the campaign, “A huge WALLACE FOR GOVERNOR sign hung behind speakers stand. It did not make a point of the fact that it was Mrs. Wallace who was the candidate. Along the sidewalls faded banners bore George Wallace’s old cry of defiance—STAND UP FOR ALABAMA. At the doors Wallace aides held out baskets into which the faithful dropped dollar bills. An elderly minister offered a long and fervent prayer. At the end of it he paused and said,“Ladies and gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to present to you the First Lady of the State of Alabama.”
“Mrs. Wallace stood up and calmly began to read her little speech, “As you know,” she said, “I am a candidate for governor of Alabama. I am happy to offer to you a continuance of the honesty andefficiency so much in evidence during the administration of my husband,” In the back of the hall a man leaning against the wall muttered to a companion, “That’s enough of her—let’s get on to George,” Wallace could not possibly have heard this remark, but his political antenna were responding to the mood of the audience.
“He sensed its impatience. He rose and moved to his wife’s side,“My election,”she was saying,“will enable my husband to carry on his program for Alabama—we want to continue to serve you together.” This is the central argument of Hillary’s campaign and nothing symbolized it more than when they jointly eulogized Coretta Scott King from the pulpit.
“… He [Wallace] then went on to tell them that in his travels around the country he had not found any people anywhere who were “more intelligent or more cultured or more refined than the people of Alabama.” This is what I hear when I hear Bill and Hill tell folks that they matter more than the caucus states and when I hear tell of their shifting rationales for counting Michigan and Florida, contrary to the rules, and their proposed use of the so-called Nuclear Option to seat their people.
Bill seems to be consciously channeling Wallace as he panders his way through the country’s rural areas. Ecohoing Wallace’s infamous 1963 Inaugural, shortly before he stood in the schoolhouse door of the University of Alabama, can’t you just imagine Bill saying, “Today I have stood, where some segregationist once stood, and took an oath to my wife, the woman who single-handedly kept my presidency alive. It is very appropriate then, that from this Cradle of the Confederacy, this very Heart of the Great Anglo-Saxon Southland, that today we sound the drum for freedom in the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of Obama tyranny and I say Hillary today, Hillary tomorrow, Hillary forever.
NBC is reporting that this race is too close to call as the polls closed moments ago. I told y’all that I smelled death in the air, but didn’t realize that it was imminent, just inevitable. It’s over. Russert and Brokaw have pronounced her dead. The campaign is broke, the vendors ain’t been paid, and the fat lady is belting her lungs out. Obama’s massive media buys in North Carolina and Indiana and his massive cash advantage are kicking in. The numbers will be out soon and we will know for sure. She’ll probably still win, but not by the comfortable margin that she needs.
“If the votes of the superdelegates overturn what’s happened in the elections, it would be harmful to the Democratic party.” -Speaker Nancy Pelosi
I agree with the Speaker that it indeed would be harmful to the Democratic Party and harmful to the goal of replacing the brain dead, wingnut cabal atop our federal government.It is apparent, however, that a well-heeled group of white Hillarycrats, with a billionaire blackface minstrel and wealthy Indian couple thrown in to make it look kosher, think otherwise.
According to TPM, the group sent a threat letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi which reads in part, “Several states and millions of Democratic voters have not yet had the chance to cast their votes. We respect those voters and believe that they, like the voters in the states that have already participated, have a right to be heard. None of us (meaning your ass) should make declarative statements that diminish the importance of their voices (votes for Hillary) and their votes. We are writing to (threaten your ass if you don’t take it back) say that your remarks on ABC News This Week On March 16TH did just that. “
“…We have been strong supporters of the DCCC (the campaign arm of House Democrats). We therefore (are extorting you) urge you to clarify your position on super-delegates and reflect in your comments (exactly what we fu*#ing tell you) a more open view to the optional independent actions of each of the delegates at the national convention in August. We (don’t give a sh*t who the hell you think you are because you wouldn’t be there if not for our money) appreciate your activities in support of the Democratic Party and your leadership role in the party and hope you will be (compliant with our demands) responsive to your major enthusiastic supporters.
The brazen extortion evident in this arrogant missive really ticked a sistah off, which is probably why TPM got a hold of this letter. I love the Illusion of inclusion that asking the colored folks to sign implies so that the strong-arming of Nancy Pelosi would look less like the high tech lynching that it is. These Mofo’s ain’t slick.It’s just another example of the lengths the Clinton crime family will go to in order to win. I really don’t have more to add, I just thought y’all would benefit from a few edits to put it all in the proper context.
It never ceases to amaze me what wild speculation, fantastic scenarios, and ridiculous fantasy Joe Klein is paid to produce on a regular basis. His writing takes on the persona of an empty headed teenager looking to be swept off his feet by a handsome and virile presidential contender.
This week’s love interest is Al Gore because Klein has clearly fallen out of love with Barack Obama.It is a flabbergasting turn of events after his public falling out with Bill Clinton whose bathwater he happily drank for 16 years. Writing of the man he calls the Natural, he said, “Bill Clinton has redefined his wife’s campaign. He has made it a co-candidacy. He has cheapened it by using cheesy, misleading tactics against Obama.”
Now, just one week after singing Obama’s praises after the Speech in Philadelphia, he’s spinning some bulls*it Al Gore-as-compromise-nominee-scenario when every other pundit in the land predicts Barack winning this thing. Talk about kicking a brotha when he’s down.I genuinely thought that Klein was truly in love this time and I don’t mean with the sound of his own voice, but truly smitten with Barack in the same way he was with Bill Clinton.
In his 2006, 3,178 word piece, The Fresh Face, he made a great show of kicking Barack’s tires and probing his intellect, but it was subsequently clear that he was smitten and self-conscious of his growing puppy love and the betrayal of his soul mate, Bill Clinton. Words are like sperm to Klein and spilling that much seed must really mean true love, or at least lust. It is sad for it to end this way and a real tragedy for America.
All of us, myself included, wait with baited breath for Joe’s columns to come out so that we know how to think, act, and feel.His flights of fancy become ours and his loves become ours as well. The entire nation lives vicariously through him.His importance, at least in his own mind, cannot be overstated. If I were to run into his editor at Time I’d simply say, “After payin’ imperial narcissist Joe Klein’s exorbitant salary for umpteen years, I know y’all got room for a level headed Skeptical Brotha like me.”
Today, Hillary said that Jeremiah Wright wouldn’t have been her pastor. No sh*t, really?I’m stunned.You coulda fooled me, I thought she loved the black church and “don’t feel no ways tired” of being racially condescending to black folks.
Honestly though, I am stunned by her audacity and hypocrisy regarding the man who was called to the White House on September 11, 1998 to give “spiritual counseling” to a president engulfed by scandal and exposed as a liar and serial philanderer. Dr. Wright was apparently good enough to be a Black religious prop in a public relations fraud then and too damaged to be a Black minister of the gospel and Pastor to Barack Obama now.
After remaining mute for over a damn week, why say anything at all?Perhaps it was because she felt the need to deflect attention away from her bogus little Bosnia war story. What story, Skeptical Brotha?It’s the story you haven’t seen run in a continuous loop on every networks freakin’ programs for a week in a calculated effort to poison the electorate against her.
Last week, Senator Clinton told a tall tale of her legendary heroism and foreign policy cachet, “I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base.”
Somebody attempted to assassinate the First Lady of the United States in a damn foreign country and this is the first we’re hearing of it?Wow.Move over Zena, there is a new warrior princess in town. What a piece of work.As Barack Obama is being mauled by a racist, duplicitous and rabid press corps over something somedbody else said, the warrior princess is allowed to escape accountability for a week for lying to their faces about her so-called “foreign policy experience.” Now that’s a double standard worth discussing. Quick, somebody go find Geraldine Ferraro.
Listening to Rev. Markel Hutchins preach is like listening to Martin Luther King, Jr for the first time-it gives you chills.The thirty year-old preacher has an extensive record of activism and community organizing on behalf of the voiceless and powerless.
Working with the progressive labor movement against Wal-Mart and for health care and living wages, Hutchins cuts a charismatic figure fighting for people in stark contrast to Congressman John Lewis who seems to have lost his nerve.
Lewis, a distinguished warrior during the civil rights movement, was beaten countless times by the racist stormtroopers of the confederacy. He faced down dogs and hoses only to punk out as a member of congress and to remain silent in the face of Bill Clinton’s unconscionable attempts to racially polarize the electorate for the benefit of his wife.
Only after Hutchins announcement of his candidacy did John Lewis find a pair and leave Hillary’s plantation.
What impresses the most is the level of his game, he brings it with a freshness and a skill that belies his age. His principled advocacy on behalf of the family of Kathryn Johnston, 92, who was shot to death by Atlanta Police in a botched drug raid proves to me that he is ready to lead because he is already doing it.
The Congressional Black Caucus has failed on so many levels that I cannot bear to go into an explanation.I am enthusiastic and wholeheartedly in favor of a challenge to the ossified and complacent membership of the Congressional Black Caucus. In my humble opinion, Lewis is toast. Don’t believe me, see for yourself.
As soon as I am able, I am going to send this cat a contribution. He inspires and provides the right dose of substance and charisma. While Lewis is a down the line progressive, his light does not shine brightly enough to shame his CBC colleagues into following his example or be replaced, I have every confidence that this brotha can provide the right example.
Skeptical Brotha’s Mea Culpa: I am sorry y’all, I’ve been absent for several days and I just needed a mental health break. I am working on a piece that I hope y’all will enjoy and in the meantime, this commentary from former Democratic presidential candidate Gary Hart sums up my thoughts on the national security credentials of Billary Clinton.
Hat Tip: Huffington Post
“It will come as a surprise to many people that there are rules in politics. Most of those rules are unwritten and are based on common understandings, acceptable practices, and the best interest of the political party a candidate seeks to lead. One of those rules is this: Do not provide ammunition to the opposition party that can be used to destroy your party’s nominee. This is a hyper-truth where the presidential contest is concerned.
By saying that only she and John McCain are qualified to lead the country, particularly in times of crisis, Hillary Clinton has broken that rule, severely damaged the Democratic candidate who may well be the party’s nominee, and, perhaps most ominously, revealed the unlimited lengths to which she will go to achieve power. She has essentially said that the Democratic party deserves to lose unless it nominates her.”
…If Mrs. Clinton loses the nomination, her failure will be traced to the date she voted to empower George W. Bush to invade Iraq…For her now to claim that Senator Obama is not qualified to answer the crisis phone is the height of irony if not chutzpah, and calls into question whether her primary loyalty is to the Democratic party and the nation or to her own ambition.”
Today is my favorite Uncle Jim’s birthday.He would have been 59.The memories of him are always strongest at this time of the year because just as this time was his sunrise it was also his sunset. He died of pancreatic cancer just two days short of his 52ndbirthday. He fought valiantly until the end refusing to succumb to the reality of his terminal prognosis. A proud Vietnam veteran who fought nearly two decades for the Service-connected benefits he deserved, they were belatedly awarded a few months before his death.
Uncle Jim spent wildly in the months before his death having been denied for so long and in a vain effort to stave off death.Emaciated and wan, losing more than 150 pounds, Uncle Jim refused to allow me and Mama visit him.I was an emotional wreck and cried bitterly for weeks after he told me of his pancreatic cancer.He sent for grandma and she flew to California and stayed with family during his hospitalization.I dreaded the day when the call came because my mother was in denial. She persisted in the delusion that there would be enough time to plan a trip to see him. Every time I think of holding her as she wailed inconsolably, I am reduced to tears.
I suspect that Hillary Clinton is going through much the same thing emotionally because her denial has manifested itself in her every move and deed since losing all of the contests after Super Tuesday.Her behavior is characterized by wild spending, emotional outbursts and delusional talk of going all the way to the convention. One columnist wrote tellingly of observing her going through the five stages of grief and she clearly hasn’t accepted that the end is near, her appearance on Saturday Night Live notwithstanding.
As I write this, Bill Clinton is speaking at Texas A&M University.Looking pale, flaccid, and spent, he resembles a ghost.Bill, with his snow white mane has become a Dickensian apparition, a ghost of the nostalgic 20th century past.He’s haunting the voters of Texas and admonishing them not to emulate the stingy and parsimonious Ebenezer Scrooge and to set things right and restore his House to the imperial throne of power.Can’t you just see Hillary riding on the Big Dog’s soldiers like tiny Tim, politically crippled and pathetic?
The woman around whom the right-wing created an empire of hate now barely mentions her. On Tuesday, she will have no choice but to accept reality.CNN is reporting that Rhode Island, her stronghold state in the string of primaries to be held on March 4 has closed up nicely for Obama.Her once huge lead in the polls has evaporated.Both Texas and Ohio have seesawed and now we’re looking at a dead heat. The death rattles of her campaign are clearly being heard nationwide and this cruel political marathon of sadistic endurance draws to a close.
This is also a moment for me to eat a heaping helping of crow and to acknowledge how wrong I was to assert that Obama’s campaign was a black middle class fantasy and a delusion of epic proportions. The general election is still an open question but the white power structure sho’ ain’t scared of Barack Obama, the Safe Negro.They have their claws in him just as they would any white contender in a similar position. The handwriting is on the wall and they’ve done everything accept throw Hillary under the bus. A cautious brotha wouldn’t hazard a guess tonight with the conflicting polls out yesterday and today, but I smell death in the air, and fear in their eyes and it is not just because of the death anniversary of my Uncle Jim.
ADDENDUM
Originally entitled, “The End is Near,” this post had to be renamed. The Inevitable One has been resurrected from political death to suck the life out of hope once again. The Corporate Vampire that passed NAFTA and GATT sent forth his female proxy to smear the Hopeful One with a lie about a secret NAFTA deal with the right-wing Canadian government. It was what Michelle Obama calls, “a fear bomb” and it worked quite well on the gullible white working class of Ohio. The “kitchen sink”strategy is effective. They’ve certainly left no stone unthrown.
Playing the victim while contending for power from a position of privilege really suits her. Paulo Freire has written, “Conditioned by the experience of oppressing others, any situation other than their former [one] seems to them like oppression….Any restriction on this way of life, in the name of the rights of the community, appears to the former oppressors as a profound violation of their individual rights.”
Now that the press has been made a party to Hillary’s false oppression and been humiliated by her victories as a result of becoming her foil to pander to a gullible public, they will follow their assigned roles as gatekeepers of power and haze Obama with even more gusto. Obama musn’t be allowed to ascend to power without the proper chastening.
In Texas, the natural affinity of the Latino community for Hillary was not effectively challenged despite the massive advertising edge by Obama. He failed to make significant inroads into the Latino community and carried less than a third of Latino voters. Familiarity trumps newness in this context. While not completely deflated by this win, it is abundantly clear, as others have asserted, that this fight will go all the way to Denver.
Some Clermont polling places temporarily ran out of Democratic ballots, Sandusky sites are staying open until 9 p.m., and Barack Obama’s campaign has sued for time extensions in Franklin and Cuyahoga counties, claiming ballot shortages.
With her Evita Peron fantasy shattered and her imperial coronation ruined, Hillary Clinton will shoot her load in tonight’s debate because she has absolutely nothing to lose. What she has to gain, in short, is the tantalizing possibility of acquiring the ultimate aphrodisiac and the glue of her sham marriage: unlimited power.And for that, she will risk it all.
Power is the only thing that Bill and Hillary covet because they certainly don’t care about one another. People and issues are mere abstractions that they must deal with in order to rule.The Clintons galactic sense of white entitlement has been their stumbling block throughout this contest and they’ve acted as if this race was a fait accompli.In a sense, Barack Obama is the perfect Manchurian Negro because it is almost as if he was born and bred to be the one that planted a red, black, and green flag in the inner sanctum of white supremacist capitalist patriarchy.
Political expediency and a shrewd attention to every detail has led Obama to this moment, its my prayer that after his massive accommodations that he will be a transformative president.
Hillary’s quest tonight is similar to a defense attorney in a criminal trial-creating reasonable doubt.She’ll fail miserably.If nothing else, being raised by white females gives Obama the advantage in this pissing contest, he’ll never take the bait her jabs proffers, and he’ll flick her away and stay above the fray.All he needs to do is stay focused; she needs to stay alive and sadly for her, her imperial campaign is brain dead. One week from today, the voters will courageously pull the plug and euthanize the imperial nightmare that has terrorized our nation for the last eight years.
It should be abundantly clear to even the comatose that my imperial campaign is falling apart, my inevitability is a myth, and Darth Bubba is too self absorbed to cede the limelight to me. My maniacal dream of dynastic restoration is crumbling into a morass of arrogance, ineptitude and racist condescension.
Yield to the power of the Dark Side. Contribute now.
Don’t forget what we’re fighting for: the unlimited power to do the bidding of the same white capitalist patriarchy that has always run America. They’re the reason our campaign was flush with cash in the beginning, and why I will do whatever it takes to win. And winning means having the M.O.N.E.Y, and a ruthless game plan to even this race up so I can aggressively steal this nomination away from Barack Skytalker with more super delegates at the convention.
It’s MY TURN, dammit. I command you to make a contribution now.
When we embarked on this journey, I promised you crumbs from my imperial table and you bowed in submission. I command you to kneel at my feet again. That’s what you’ve got to do — right here, right now.
With sincere condescension,
Hillary Rodham Clinton, Empress of Triangulation
P.S. Remember, no matter how many Negroes bail on us, you and I will keep courting and brainwashing Hispanics to vote against their class interests in an effort to help drive our campaign to victory in the weeks ahead. I refuse to go down without a fight.
Hi, I’m Sally Struthers, the whiny white girl from All In The Family and those annoyingly manipulative Christian Children’s Fund Commercials with starving black babies.I know you haven’t heard from me in a minute but President Clinton and I, seeing the tepid response that his face saving lies to church Negroes about his unconscionable attempts to racially polarize the electorate and smear Obama as “The Black Candidate” has been getting as of late, we decided change course, join forces and buy as many Negroes for Hillary as we possibly can.To that end, we have created the Christian Negro Voter Fund.
While serving as the first Black President I’ve understood for many years how gullible the average church Negro is and the fact that they’ll follow any B.S. their pastor says because they really worship him instead of the God they profess to serve.How else can you explain Creflo “Gimme a damn” Dollar?We need you to help us buy as many of these jackleg preachers and their politician friends as possible so that Hillary can stop the menace of Barack Obama and his “false hopes.”
Will you help?
Sponsoring a Negro is easy and very necessary because so many of them and their crooked preachers and politicians have their damn hands out like hookers on a corner ready to prostitute themselves to support a bad habit. Being a bigger P.I.M.P. and playa than R.Kelly, I should know.
The following charity case is just another sad example of a Negro in need. Can y’all help a sistah out?
SPONSOR A NEGRO
Choose a Negro to sponsor
Say “yes” to Sheila, and you can transform her life. Sheila from Texas is one of the thousands of Negroes waiting for a sponsor. For just 5000 dollars a day, you can give her a chance to indulge her galactic ego by providing her with some of life’s basic needs – First Class Air Fare, lavish Four-star Hotels, and nutritious food-all on Hillary’s Dime.
Sponsor Sheila now »
Search for a Different Negro »
SUBMITTED BY THE CHRISTIAN NEGRO VOTER FUND
Name: SHEILA JACKSON LEE
URGENT
Case #: 1234567
Sheila hails from an abjectly poor and desperately needy family. Her husband is just a lowly University Vice President. Her meager income of about $165,200 per year does not suffice to support her family or provide them with even one extravagant four-star meal a day. As a mother she is resourceful at trying to make the most of what is at hand but lately all her efforts are in vain. Desperate and dejected living beyond her means but eager to give herself the chance of better perks from a Hillary Administration; she sought aid from this Project. Sheila has been a shameless flack for Hillary and if she is to continue debasing herself like a happy darkie and embarrassing the entire African Diaspora she will need your help. Your sponsorship is a great blessing to this needy House Negro.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a crackhead, homeless, an ex-con, or a sycophantic member of the Congressional Black Caucus (We’ll pay y’all extra). All are welcome because we are desperate as hell.
Please be aware of the proper dress code. Tattered clothes, handkerchiefs, and blackface makeup are welcome because they help to identify you as the shameless plantation minstrels that you are. You will be photographed repeatedly with the President for our undercover propaganda campaign to fool those stupid enough to believe that the campaign still has any black grassroots support. Should the media wish to interview you do be sure to split your verbs and coon for the cameras because it lends the right touch of authenticity to our little deception.
In addition, if you have any children, please bring them. Black children are the classic Negro props White politicians have been photographing themselves with for over a generation when they don’t have a damn program to assure them of a future. In the first Clinton Administration we threw millions of black children into poverty and off of welfare to appease white suburbanites-expect more of the same the next go round.
So please join us on our journey to political irrelevancy and oblivion and call 1-800-BLACK FOOL because Hillary Clinton will be ready on day one to do absolutely nothing for the black community.
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