God I'm sick of this guy

"Monica's breats were this big!"
- Bill "Bubba" Clinton

Someone stop this man please? From an interview given to CNN:

"What happened there is a total myth and a mugging," Clinton told CNN's Sean Callebs in New Orleans, Louisiana, over the weekend.

"It's been pretty well established. Charlie Rangel ... the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said in unequivocal terms in South Carolina that no one in our campaign played any race card, that we had some played against us, but we didn't play any."

...Bill Clinton adamantly denied he was playing racial politics. Hillary Clinton later offered regrets for her husband's remarks, saying, "If anyone was offended by anything that was said, whether it was meant or not, whether it was misinterpreted or not, then obviously I regret that."

Obama ended up winning South Carolina with a large majority of African-American voters, while most whites voted for Clinton or former Sen. John Edwards. South Carolina's Democratic primary was January 26.

Bill Clinton insisted his role his his wife's campaign has not changed since South Carolina. When asked if he was concerned that the contest was becoming more polarized, the ex-president said he expected it to happen...

...Clinton brushed aside notions African-Americans were casting an anti-Clinton vote in the primaries by voting for Obama.

"Once African-Americans understood that they had a candidate with a serious chance to win the nomination and perhaps the presidency, then it was going to be a question of somewhere between 80 percent and 90 percent were going to support him except in areas where she had particularly strong profile," he said.

"The fundamental fact is, most of the Democrats like both these candidates and they're trying to figure out who would be the best president, who's likely to do things or be what I need most in a president, and who's most likely to win," he added...

There are a couple of things going on here. This plus his wife's recent half-assed non-apology is the Clinton's said attempt at turning the national conversation away from their race-baiting (which hurts them with the kind of moderate white voters they have up to now not won) and regaining black support.

The fact that they have waited this long to really address this is a sign of that campaign's great incompetence. It was too late for this kind of reconciliation a month ago.

The other thing of course is to still denigrate Obama's efforts while playing the victim.

Obama is not winning the black vote because he's black. If that were the case then Jesse Jackson who the Clinton campaign can't stop incorrectly comparing Obama too would have done alot better than he did when he ran. If it were the case we would be talking about Governors Michael Steele, Lynn Swann and Ken Blackwell.

I don't deny that Bill is an asset but could Hillary stop the nonsense of having her man make stupid comments like this.

It hasn't worked before to sway voters and it won't work now.

Spare us. PLEASE!

Good men speak the truth

Wright is right

It's been a few days since the whole controversy surrounding Obama's pastor Dr. Jeremiah Wright blew up.

So far I've been treated to outraged condemnations of the man from the usual suspects but what I want to focus on is not the controversy but what the controversy tells us about this country.

At some point, certainly not very soon, we will have some dialogue about the Iraq War's beginnings.

There will be inevitable recounting of the lies told by Cheney, Powell, Rumsfeld, Bush and Rice in the lead up but that still won't touch on why we've ended up spending so much blood and treasure in a failing effort in that country.

We are in Iraq because the majority of the people in this country have the mentality of children with regard to the consequences of our actions.

To many people seem to think that we can say what we want and do what we want, even if that means trampling on others freedom and killing people and we shouldn't face any penalty for those actions.

We are in Iraq because of our own hubris. The same way we ended up in Vietnam.

Normally we don't get to see the seething rage that is the product of such callousness.

We are thousands of miles away from the people that we abuse and what we do see is carefully sanitized by our idiotic media so that populace doesn't get upset.

At home, whites have forced the silence of African-Americans through intimidation.

Jeremiah Wright blasted through that wall of fear and ignorance and is now paying for it by having his name and his works smeared.

African-Americans have been the victims of domestic terrorism through enslavement and discrimination for more than 400 years.

Of course there is anger within us at this country and at the people who have benefitted and continue to benefit from the racism in our society.

But we are not supposed to talk about it let alone shout and rage about our continued abuse.

We can't express the ambivalent feelings that we all have towards being black in America.

But Jeremiah Wright spoke up and that is a crime.

Well Dr. Wright I salute you. For continuing the great black tradition of daring to speak the truth in a time when no one wanted to hear it.

Here's to you Dr. Wright.

Don't let the fools bring you down.

The State of Black Women

The National Urban League published it's annual State of Black America report which this year focused on issues affecting black women.

I have only read the abstract of the report, which can be found here, but I was impressed by depth and breadth of what I read.

I was really encouraged to see writings on home ownership and the racist predatory lending that has helped fuel the mortgage crisis.

The Urban League has, I think, been overlooked in terms of it's work to empower black Americans. Maybe it's because there is a whiff of conservative thought in their drive for financial literacy and entrepreneurship but either way they deserve more credit for focusing on issues that affect black America without the grandstanding we've seen from other people.

The whole report, as well as older reports like their phenomenal 2007 report which looked at the state of black men in America, can be ordered here.

I'm tired

A few of Hillary's supporters wait for her at a rally

I'm officially spent at this point with the Democratic campaign.

I haven't been posting because I've been desperately trying to hang onto my sanity while this whole sordid campaign plays out.

I've already devoted too much time and space to the subject of the Clinton campaign's racism and I've allowed myself to be distracted from other issues I want to write about.

There are other blogs like Jack and Jill Politics that do a great job at voicing the rage I feel and so I'll leave them to that.

I'm going to right my ship here but before I do I will just say this about the whole mess with Geraldine Ferraro.

Ferraro is a racist and she needs to go. Period. The fact that she has lasted this long is a testiment to the racism of this country. No one but a black person could have their accomplishments and character questioned in such a way an not have the person making the criticism laid out for being so ignorant.

And Hillary Clinton and the people in her campaign are racists too. You can't condone this sort of thing, even if it is a election tactic without lacking the scrupples to understand what is absolutely off limits.

We are still weeks away from the Pennsylvania primary. At the rate the Clintons are ramping up the racist rhetoric I fully expect Hillary to be hosting Klan rallies to drum up political support.

What the Democratic party owes blacks

We've been there for you. You need to be there for us.

The Democratic party is at a crossroads in terms of it's black support.

We have voted reliably for the Democratic party since FDR first moved the party away from it's racist roots. Our support was cemented when LBJ pushed through sweeping civil rights legislation.

In return we gave the Democratic party our loyalty even while others in the party drifted to the GOP.

We've looked past the party's failures to prevent the decimation of programs to help the poor
and the party's capitulation to the GOP in terms of programs like welfare reform and the wrongful imprisonment of our people.

We've stuck with the party through thick and thin so what have we reaped in return?

This campaign season we've been rewarded with the silence of the party as some try to push us aside and label us useless in their zeal to win Latino support and even pit blacks and Latinos against each other.

We've had the Clinton campaign use racist and xenophobic appeals to win votes with not even a peep of objection from the elders of the party that those tactics go against what the party stands for.

Our concerns have been dismissed as whining if they were listen to at all. Our support looks wasted and many of us feel foolish and scammed for even believing in the so called ideals of this party.

No one should be treated this way let alone a group of people who have been the bedrock of the Democratic party for decades.

The party absolutely owes us. Not special treatment but simple fairness. The kind of fairness that is readily given to others in the party without having to beg for it.

We deserve to have our voices heard and our concerns given the same respect that others receive. That isn't too much to ask is it?

We have given the Democrats everything and received little in return.

It's time for that to change.

Speaking truth to power

It's not name calling if it's true

From the Scotsman:

Earlier, clearly rattled by the Ohio defeat, Ms Power told The Scotsman
Mrs Clinton was stopping at nothing to try to seize the lead from her
candidate.

"We f***** up in Ohio," she admitted.

"In Ohio, they are obsessed and Hillary is going to town on it,
because she knows Ohio's the only place they can win."She is a monster, too
– that is off the record – she is stooping to anything," Ms Power said,
hastily trying to withdraw her remark.

Ms. Power said of the Clinton campaign: "Here, it looks like desperation. I
hope it looks like desperation there, too."You just look at her and think,
'Ergh'. But if you are poor and she is telling you some story about how Obama is
going to take your job away, maybe it will be more effective. The amount of
deceit she has put forward is really unattractive.

There will be many who find what Ms. Power said objectionable.

But let's examine her charge. Is Hillary Clinton a "monster"?

Is that word ever appropriate to describe anyone?

Let's see.

What word would you use to describe a person who agrees with the slander of a man as a drug dealer for no other reason than the man's race?

What would you call a woman who presides over a campaign that purposefully darkens the video of a black candidate?

What would call a woman who resorts to thinly vieled xenophobia to smear a candidate of Muslim heritage?

What would you call a woman who stupidly and repeatedly belittles her opponent who, rival or not, still is a member of her party, saying that she thinks less of him than a warmongerer?

Ms. Power was wrong. Hillary Clinton isn't a monster.

She's the kind of fearmongering race-baiting fool we would expect to see from the GOP and her continued lying will only hurt her and more importantly our party.

Ms. Power next time when you choose to speak about Hillary Clinton get it right.

Calling her a monster is being kind.

We need a new way

I've only been blogging for a few weeks now. And in that time I've tried to find my own voice for the things I wanted to think about.

If there is one thing that I want for my blog it's that I want this to be a place where black folks can let their emotions out and channel what we feel into action.

For too long we have had to play a game of grin and bear it while the powers that be have kicked us in the teeth. And unfortunately we still have to do this is we want to get anywhere.

We aren't afforded the luxury of anger. Instead we have to settle with keeping our emotions in, dealing with high blood pressure and heart disease from having to put up with other's bigotry and stupidity.

We have also not had the chance to learn how to really play the political and economic game the same way other ethnic groups have.

There has to be a way to change that.

We have to learn how to play rough. No more marches. No more quoting from the bible about peace.

I'm not talking about violence but the ability to use the intelligence and skills we possess to make things better for ourselves and the ability to respond swiftly to those who attack us.

The non-violence of the Civil Rights Movement was the only way we were going to gain rights for ourselves but I feel it also prevented us from learning how to fight in the trenches.

Thus people's anger over the treatment of Obama. If we had a real way of showing whites that smearing a black candidate would cost them besides possibly staying home in November and giving John McCain the presidency we would be doing it.

The fact is at the moment we don't have anything and that is a sad result of our own complancency as a people and of our so called leaders.

There has to be another way to fight for our rights in this country because what we have right now is bullshit.

Dumb move Hill. Real fucking dumb.

Hello? IRS? What tax returns?

The Obama campaign released this memo today. Here's part of it:

The Clinton campaign has said that they have released copious amounts of financial information but there are many questions about their private dealings that could be answered in their tax returns but not in the information that is currently available. For example, here are eight pieces of information that could be learned from her tax returns, the accompanying schedules, and attachments:

* Effective tax rate – including whether or not any tax shelters were used to reduce it
* Amount of income for spouses by source
* Amount of stock gains and losses
* Gross income for the couple
* Amount earned from stock dividends
* Amount of household employment taxes paid
* Personal exemptions taken
* Charitable contributions made

Senator Clinton has also claimed that she is too “busy” to release her tax returns. Given the fact she is able to loan her campaign $5 million, you would think the Clintons would be able to hire an accountant. The reality is that she wants to keep this information hidden from voters. The people of Wyoming, Mississippi, Pennsylvania and the rest of the country should wonder why.

Obama's going after her finances and her reluctance to release her tax returns after a weekend of being attacked by Hillary.

One could admire the Clinton's hutzpah on this issue if it wasn't so fucking dumb. They are two slimeballs who had such a strong stench of scandal surrounding them that it cost Al Gore the presidency and they honestly think they can get away with not releasing essential financial information.

The fact is that there has always been a well of anger towards the Clintons within the Democratic party. Bill's shenanigans cost us the public's trust and allowed the pack of rabid dogs that is the GOP to attack him and anyone close to him.

There's that and the fact that Hillary's campaign has chosen to go racist and xenophobic in their tactics, something that for most Democrats is unthinkable. The angry response of many from those attacks frees up Obama to attack her in ways he wouldn't have been able to before.

Obama's camp has been pretty good at responding to Hillary's attacks up until now. This may be the start of Obama's own "kitchen sink" stategy where he destroys her campaign under an avalanche of questions about every single thing that the Clinton's have touched since Bill won elected office.

And between, Marc Rich, Vince Foster, Monica Lewinsky, Ricky Ray Rector, Lani Gunier among others Obama could have a field day reminding people just why the Clintons come off so poorly.

It's about seven weeks until the Pennsylvania primaries. God help Hillary if she thinks she's going to make it to PA in one piece.

They're called Representatives for a reason

Meet the next Ambassador to the Bahamas if Hillary wins
Photo: Washington Post

As any civics teacher can tell you we don't live in a direct democracy we live in a republic.

Living in a republic means that we hold elections to select people who will represent area they serve.

Members of the Congress, members of the House of Representatives and the Senate are representatives of the districts and states they serve.

They work for the people. We are their bosses.

So we can only greet with great amusement the hyperventilating commentary from Hillary Clinton supporters and idiots on the right over the threats being made by black constituents to black superdelegates who support Hillary Clinton to change their support to Barack Obama.

Many white people don't respect black political thought and black voting power.

We are a monolith. A brainless shuffling mass poisoned by the rantings of black religious zealots. Our inferiority proven because since we dare to disagree with them, there can be no other explanation than that we are too stupid to understand the world we live in.

If they actually listened to us they would find that the Clintons have destroyed their reputation within the black community with racist and xenophobic appeals. They have wrongly discounted us as a group thinking that our votes no longer mattered because Latinos were growing as a political force.

Worst of all they have used our own political representatives as a way to justify their racism.

Did they not think seeing people that we've sent to speak for us, speaking for the Clintons instead, using their black skin and their position as our representatives to lend the Clinton's racism legitimacy wouldn't provoke a reaction?

You're fucking right we are threatening to kick these motherfuckers out of office.

Every time black Clinton supporters like Sheila Jackson-Lee or Stephanie Tubbs-Jones goes on the TV to explain away the Clintons bullshit they make a mockery of the connection that they have with the black people in their district.

They show they not only are they willing to be pimped out for an ambassadorship or some other position but they are willing to sell out their own people.

These fools work for us and as their bosses we have the right to let them know, harshly if need be that they have well and truly fucked up.

We have the right to tell them that just because they are willing to betray themselves it doesn't mean that the rest of us are going to stand for it.

We have the right to fire them for their arrogance.

They are part of a generation of black leadership that have felt entitled to political power. They haven't been challenged on anything in decades.

What has the Congressional Black Caucus done for us? Not a goddamn thing and they know it.

So when you see some of these idiots turned out, don't take that as an act of revenge, it's just the bosses getting rid of the deadweight to make things work as they should.

Don't get distracted

This is not the point

There is some discussion of a possible "subliminal message" in Hillary Clinton's 3 AM ad.

If you freeze the video at 11 to 12 seconds in you see the letters "NIG" on the pajamas of one of the sleeping children.

Is this a racist subliminal message sent out by the Clinton campaign to get people to think "NIG" = nigger = Obama?

In my opinion no.

First, the people for whom the letters "NIG" would have enough meaning to keep them for voting for Obama are already so racist that he wouldn't get their votes anyway.

Second, the Clinton campaign has not shown the aptitude to make convincing appeals with obvious messages let alone a subliminal one.

Third, when the Clinton campaign has used racial messages they have always been bumbling and plain to see. They haven't shown the ability to learn from their mistakes either, so I'm not thinking that they would take a more subtle approach, especially now that they are much more desperate.

The fact that some are actually having this conversation shows how much the Clintons have damaged their legacy with racist and xenophobic attacks against Barack Obama. Three months ago this kind of attack on the Clintons would have been outrageous and dismissed. Now the only criticism is of the hyperbole of the people who think this is something racist not that the Clintons would never stoop that low.

It also shows how easily distracted people can get. There are many more important things to discuss than this.

If we are going to have a discussion (and we should) about the racist images coming from the left and the right against Obama, then there are many more worthy things to talk about than a couple of frames of something that you have to cock your head like an owl and squint to see.