"Where the (white) Boys Are..."

Baby please!

The only thing I'm saying about Giblet's little patriarchal performance up there is - "When people show themselves to you - you better pay a-damn-ttention!"

(P.S.  "I've not heard any of that criticism.  I've not read any of that criticism..."  Here, you go Giblet - "Knives come out for Obama's 'preening' social secretary."  It ain't just being bandied about around Washington!)

Congressional Black Caucus got juice??? - Ah, No...

Lawd have mercy!  NOW the Congressional Black Caucus is tryin' to flex?

"But Waters says the CBC’s point was a larger one — a statement that the group would “use our strength and our influence to better represent our communities.” (emphasis mine).

What the hell??  Strength and influence??  Please.

I read Frustrated Congressional Black Caucus plays hardball with White House and  I'm sorry, it's just so chock full of what my play-sister-blogger-friend, Cinie has so entertainingly described in -"What, You Thought He Was Kidding?" - that I need to apologize right now for how much I'm getting ready to quote this Politico piece.

"The long-simmering family feud between the Congressional Black Caucus and the first African-American president...The 43-member caucus — which included Illinois Sen. Barack Obama from 2004 to 2008 — has chafed against President Obama and his top aides since the Inauguration, complaining that the White House takes it for granted and plays favorites with conservative Blue Dog Democrats." (emphasis mine)

What "family feud? "The Black family feud? Some white folk tickle me.

Anywa-y-y-y.  The CBC, in full, mask-wearing-mode, apparently thought their Undercover Brotha was going to reward them like he did all those high-dollar donors in exchange for them selling out Hillary throwing all their "strength and influence" behind him.  First of all, God don't like ugly.  Second of all, weren't they studying him while he was obviously studying them for four damn years?  I can see why he's taking them for granted - they made it too easy.

"The bill passed easily..." (emphasis mine)

Guess that shoots that "strength and influence" thing to hell.

"...but Waters suggested the CBC’s 43 members could vote with the GOP to scuttle a variety of Democratic bills if Obama and Emanuel don’t address what she thinks is a lack of understanding of the CBC’s wide-ranging goals of reducing urban unemployment, home foreclosures and bank failures." (emphasis mine)

Now, how much sense does this make?  What if some of those Democratic bills are worth voting for?  They're threatening to vote with the GOP to do what?  Prove a point?  Get revenge?  What about their constituents who might  possibly benefit (you never know!) from the passage of some of those bills?

Wide-ranging goals?  Maxine Waters has been in Congress for what - 18, 19 years?  Can any of you Compton people tell me how many of those "wide-ranging goals"  have been met?  The state's supposedly broke, the 'hood is still the hood, police officers are still, in 2009, shooting young, unarmed, belly-down Black men on train platforms. 

How about some of you Brooklyn or Bronx people, or Chicago people, or DC people, or some non-PG County Maryland people?  How 'bout some of you Philly people, or Overtown, FL people, or Dillon, SC people?  Anybody?  Anything?  Guess"wide-ranging" also means very long-ranging too.

And if I were Rep. Waters, I'd  try to tip-toe around mentioning anything to do with bank failures - at least until that pesky little investigation is completed anyway.

“I think that it is important for us to educate those people around [Obama],” Waters told reporters. “We’ve got to get his people educated and moving. We have not brought these issues to him personally — it is important first to educate those people around him so they understand.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.), who recently accused Obama of bowing down to the GOP on health care reform, was more pointed, shouting “Yes!” when asked if he was disappointed with Obama’s level of attentiveness to African-Americans’ needs.

He added that he had an extensive list of issues with the president — a list he said was too long to disgorge in a hallway conversation with a reporter." (emphasis mine)

What the hell - again?!  We'll talk about our issues and our problems with him - TO SOMEBODY ELSE - NOT DIRECTLY TO HIM?  Jeezus H. Christ!  What is this kindergarten?  Yeah I know, that's not "how it's done" in Washington.  Main reason I'd never be a politician.

“There are those who choose not to speak about African-Americans or the working class,” Waters said. (emphasis mine)

Guess that one was meant for HIM.

"And many felt Obama waited too long — nearly two months into his term — to invite them to their first White House meeting." (emphasis mine)

This is too funny!  Their feelings are hurt?  Why should he buy the cow, when he got the milk for free??

"CBC members have long said they would rather deal with Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, who is black, but have been forced to negotiate with Emanuel, Obama’s point man in the House." (emphasis mine)

Jesus please take the wheel! Forced?  Do they really believe Valerie Jarrett wants to deal with them??  She's the Changeling's second (first?) brain!  And I'm not even going to go into the whole Blue Vein Society thing that is still very much alive in this country today.

According to Obama spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki, “We have not been informed of the reasoning behind their decision not to vote on the bill, but we continue to think it is important to move financial reform forward to prevent future crises from damaging our economy and disrupting the lives of millions of Americans, including African-Americans.” (emphasis mine)

More of that "rising tide lifts all boats" bullshit.

Back in April, I read this on dcexaminer.com - "Useful Idiots Of The Congressional Black Caucus" - about six members of the CBC visiting Cuba.  My immediate response to the headline was visceral (and maybe a tad schizophrenic given the content of the piece), but all I could say was:

"Damn, that's crass!"

I saved the link among my many drafts though, mentally filing it away under, "Get back to this shit when that "Mississippi Burning" feeling's under better control."  I'm a link hoarder, what can I say.

The link no longer exists at the site (maybe all those announced cutbacks this week has something to do with it) however, the Examiner's piece originally  linked to Mona Charen's, April 9th National Review piece entitled,  "Useful Idiots Caucus - Genuinely Castrophilic.  More a "Mississippi Simmering" title.

But since most of what I know about Cuba, I first learned under the auspices of the military - AND, because I get so tired of white folk always being one minority or other's mouthpieces, I went digging for a Cuban perspective.  I found this interesting post by Anatasio Blanco at Babalú Blog:  The Bigotry of the Congressional Black Caucus.

And this is where the schizophrenia comes in for me.

On the one hand, I've always felt that - after having gone through all the horrors of Jim Crow, culminating in a real change movement which finally made it possible to get more of our "kinfolk" (not "skinfolk" like the Changeling) elected to Congress - said elected Congress persons deserved the same public respect as their white counterparts.  So the "idiots" thing offended me.

That being said however, a lot of us, upon becoming "successful," (as defined by the White Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy), are so busy doing what the WSCP says is required to keep on being successful, any semblance of critical thinking just flies straight out the window.  I can't lie, in my formerly, totally colonialized state of mind - that was me too.  But after awhile, I began to feel more stupid than successful,  because that "rising tide wasn't lifting all boats" - even with more of our "kinfolk" in office. 

And over the more than 20 years of working on de-colonializing this mind, I've realized it was never designed to lift everybody's boat - we have make it.  Now, I've still got plenty of work to do, but at least I'm working on it.  Maybe the CBC should consider at least embarking on such a journey if they want to be taken seriously - by anyone.

I'm sure Reps. Rush and Cleaver - having been a part of that "real movement" in their early days - saw praising Castro on that visit as some kind of show of  "brotherhood in resistance" or something.  Apparently they didn't realize that was then, and this is now - for the three of them.  And then-n-n, after they went and made all those school-girl crush sounding proclamations, they come back home and now say something altogether different, bringing the wrath of the Cuban government down on their heads just this week - Cuba blasts US black leaders for charges of racism.  Seems the CBC is "useful" to everybody but Black folk.

Last year around this time, brotherkomrade, a former commenter here, suggested I do some reading on Assata Shakur.  I did, and soon after, started another draft that I didn't finish.  So, I thought I'd just move a little of here since we're talking about Cuba. 

In this open letter written in 2005 - “My name is Assata Shakur, and I am a 20th-century escaped slave" - she tells her side of what happened that landed her in Cuba as a political exile.  If you've not read it, please do.  If you don't feel like it, watch the two videos below.  And once you have, tell me if you think she met with any of those CBC members when they met with Fidel.  Like I said, I'm still "working on it" - but I have to believe she did not.

In her own words...

He was, who I thought he was...

I only have three things to say about the Changeling's, long-awaited and absolutely expected (by me) - "MORE WAR SIR!" speech:

h/t to Cinie (I think) for this photo

And - seriously and reverently:

'Nite now!

Remembering family and friends on World AIDS Day

Two of my aunts died from AIDS.  One, a long-time IV drug user and mother to a daughter whose father had promised marriage.  The other, a hard-working, single mother of a son in a long-term, monogamous relationship with an IV drug user who shot up between his toes - so she wouldn't know (Southern, country girls "didn't know nuttin' 'bout dem needles" - back then). 

They were less than five years apart in age.  My Grandmama had 15 children (a number disputed - 19 or 15 - mostly by those in the family who've bought into the White Supremacist Patriarchal belief that it looks bad for a woman to have had all those babies.  Never mind she was born in 1909 and died in 2002!  I'm workin' on the real numbers still.), most of them "girl chillun."  Both had been a part of the Second Great Black Migration, escaping the heavily prevalent racism of Jim Crow and James Crow, Esq., for the promise of a "better life up North." 

And as was our wont, back, "Once Upon a Time...When we were Colored," (remember that movie?  Yeah, I know the younguns don't want to hear about , nor even, think about that past, but it's from whence I came), all siblings heading North, passed through my Mama's house.  She was the oldest, and had moved to "the city," despite all odds - to own her own home.  She was the sub-matriarch (who could read and understand "all dem white folks tricks"), teaching the newbies how to save, and handle their money in preparation to go North to those family members who were part of the First Great Black Migration.  Ruthie and Sara Lee were among the first - of the second wave of Grandmama's children - to move to New York.

Sarah Lee - the older of the two - after stopping off in New York for a time, thought it better to move to New Jersey to raise her daughter, Angela.  She was already hooked on the needle by then.  Her long-time, country boyfriend, Fonza (short for Alphonso), didn't know what to do, how to handle her addiction (because - Southern, country boys didn't know nuttin' neither 'bout dem needles" back then). He left her and Angela - and came back home. 

But Ruthie, she got to Harlem and flourished (I visited her when I was in the sixth grade and my country ass couldn't, for the life of me, understand what the big deal was about The Apollo, this theater that looked like the Lincoln Theater back home - with more trash).  She got a good job with ConEd, met a guy from home (who just happened to be related - we later found out - to my mother's best friend in her grown-up life) - fell in love, and had a wickedly, smart baby boy (who's gone on to be a very successful sous chef in New York City].  I remember her telling me when I graduated from my HBCU in Alabama back in 1978, "Come and stay with me in New York!"  I wish I had. 

She was like me - always was.  While reading books and being good in school helped me escape the hooded demons of my existence, she depended on "what her Mama gave her" to succeed - a good head on her shoulders, the mastery of secretarial skills that would sustain her and her son, and the will - to return to "the country" on her own terms.  She died, November 21, 1993 - two years and eight months before the sister, my mother, who'd guided her along the Great Migration path.  Sarah Lee buried them both - along with my grandmother in 2002.

Back in October 2001, I wrote this column for my little South Florida daily paper.  I offer it in recognition and celebration of this 21st celebration of  World Aids Day.  It's crazy to see how much I've changed in eight years (the whole religion thing slays me, yet still defines me.  Weird right?) and how much the Keys, and the world have not.

##########

Our churches must be our foundation

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me;

thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Psalm 23: 1-4

The 23rd Psalm is probably one of the most well known and most depended upon for comfort and strength by those of us whose faith is deeply rooted in the traditional black church.

Once learned, it is never forgotten. I know that it has served me well all of my life, during good times as well as bad. As I sat thinking how best to express my thoughts on this topic, it occurred to me to call upon it yet again.

In mid-September, I met with Leevon Conner, education director at AIDS Help, Inc. and Darcell Deane-Lee, a beautiful, black sister with a smile that could light up a room. Her warmth and exuberance was absolutely magnetic and I just had to give her a big ole' hug. The first thing she told me, after we all sat down, was, "I'm HIV positive." I immediately thought of my Aunt Ruthie as my eyes searched her face for some sign of the disease. She reminded me of her with one small exception - she was willing to talk to me about it.
 
Lee wanted to brainstorm about more effective ways to reach out to the Bahama Village community. He informed me that only 22 clients of the 300-325 served by the organization were black.

It was as if I had been kicked in the stomach, though I was not surprised. After all, my own aunt had felt the intense stigma enough to not share her condition with anyone. That's just not how we roll. Most of us prefer to think and act like HIV and AIDS is only happening to other people. But the truth is, our rate of infection is growing faster than any other group in this country and we are dying in droves - because we choose to "wear the mask."

We decided to rely on the long-established, tried-and¬true method of our people; Approach the spiritual leaders in the community and ask them to be the forerunners. Accordingly, a "call" went out to the spiritual leaders in Bahama Village. The request was direct and to the point:

"We want to get the benefit of your experience on how we can best address this problem in our community."

With the blessings and participation of Robert G. Walker, executive director, AIDS Help, Inc. and, in collaboration with the Monroe County Health Department, represented by Clayton Lopez, The Faith Community Leadership Initiative luncheon, sponsored by Agouron Pharmaceuticals, Inc., was held on Oct. 6 at VFW Post 6021.

The featured guest speakers were Donna Nelson, Regional Minority AIDS coordinator, Broward County Health Department, and, also from Broward County, Virginia Anderson, Special Projects coordinator, Mount Bethel Human Services Corp., Inc./Churches United to Stop HIV/AlDS (CUSH), two thoroughly-furnished, fully-equipped sisters on a mission to save black lives.

The "call" went out, but the silence of the "response" was deafening and disappointing - at first. The group assembled was very small in comparison to the number of people invited. Noticeably absent were Bahama Village community leaders, both spiritual and secular.

I kept saying to myself, "Apathy will kill this community a whole lot faster than AIDS ever will." And though I understand that the indifference is borne out of a feeling of helplessness and hopelessness, the gravity of this issue, as it pertains to us, begs a response. It has become a matter of life and death.

The little group assembled, however, forged ahead undaunted. Inspired by Donna and Virginia's stories of eventual success, we chose to name our committee CUSH as well. Our acronym, however, for obvious reasons, stands for "Community United to Stop IllV/AIDS." We decided that the continuity of the name, CUSH, was important because of its roots in African history and Christianity.

Everyone committed to undergo the four-hour, HIV/AIDS-Basic 104 training with Clayton, and once that is completed, the outreach work will begin. We believe that, in the tradition of "each one teach one," our ranks will swell to include many more concerned Bahama Village residents because we cannot continue to deceive ourselves. As Virginia said, "Everyone in the community is either infected or affected by HIV and AIDS." The sooner we accept that premise, the better off we will all be.

And I have faith that the spiritual leaders will come around. I know, in my heart, they believe as I do that, " ... He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake."

##########

Key West, Ruthie, Sara Lee, Darcell - thanks for your lessons and having shared my existence on this planet!

Obama's "War of Necessity"

As everyone waits to see what spews forth from the Changeling regarding Afghanistan later today, let's be clear people - THIS is the site of Obama's "Necessary War"...

When I got these pictures from the husband in April (I think you can click on them to enlarge), all I could do was shake my damn head. I couldn't even begin to write everything I was feeling, particularly since "Hearts and Minds" (like so many other issues, hotly debated and often not agreed-upon during this 29-years-last-Saturday union) had also become another one of those double-edged swords, slicing my emotions into two distinctly different, yet equally important parts between which I ultimately find my idea of "right."

I read Eric Margolis's, Chasing Mirages in Afghanistan, a little while before the U.S. presidential "selection" redux  Afghan elections.  It was an interesting take on the no-win, win for which Obama & Co. keep constantly aiming. He makes the very good point:

Ravaged Afghanistan needs genuine, honest elections, and patient national reconciliation, free of foreign manipulation. That's the only true road to peace and stability.

And I was right there with him, but then, he had to go and say this:

America has a great deal to teach Afghanistan about how to run clean elections and build the essential institutions of democracy.

and this...democracy and good government are what America should be exporting to the Muslim World, not dictators, B-1 bombers, and Predators.

and this...Running phony elections is unworthy of the United States and demeans its values and traditions.

Really now. You know, just as well as I do, that America's already taught/exported enough of "US" to Afghanistan to nearly choke the life out of an entire people - especially if we were to really unpack those good ole American "values and traditions."  But I do get where he was trying to go with the whole "makes a mockery of everything we preach around the globe" thing.  And so do they:

Starting at the 6:18 click, the men say, "We're hoping that Obama would be much better than Bush." Then they go on - wearily it seems - to the ending 7:08 click, explaining what should be painfully clear, even to the most empathetically-challenged of us.

I tell you, if watching just that little snippet (never mind the other parts - to include that brand, spanking new SuperMax-looking prison they just built on Afghan soil - among other things) does not convince you of the absolute wrongness of this thing that the Changeling, et al are doing in our names, I don't know what will.  And, either this is some serious Undercover Brother maneuvering, or these fellas need not hold out any hope of him being better:

And he had the nerve to say, "This will not be quick nor easy." Well, all I have to say to that is, what Queen Gorgo from the movie, "300" said to the crooked, rapist-politician Theron, after she rammed that sword deep into his belly in the council chamber:  Mr. President - "This will not go quickly, YOU will not enjoy it!" 

Based on his consistent-from-the-beginning rhetoric and continued hawkish behavior on Afghanistan, coupled with his general's conveniently leaked report and "Karzai's tattered victory," nobody should have any questions about whether or not he's "better than Bush."  But of course, that's wishful thinking.   

Scott Ritter illustrates some historically inconvenient truths about Afghanistan in his, McChrystal Doesn’t Get It—Does Obama? - truths Obama & Co. don't seem to even care to get as they continue their feeble march toward imperialist nation-building.  I'm sure Hill wouldn't have been overseas a couple of weeks ago (looking for some reason to me - eerily Nixonesque), telling Der Spiegel - 'Our Goal Is to Defeat Al-Qaida and Its Extremist Allies' - if they did care.  Now, nearly deafened by his administration's increasingly louder drumbeats for more war, I felt that "quiet riot" beginning to rumble.  And with her Oscar-worthy performance in the "Patriarchy Category" - parroting the lies, and posturing, just like the man who'd brushed her off his lapel Jay-Z style during the campaign - the words that had eluded me since April finally came.  But not for the warmongers.  The words are for the Afghan brothers and sisters suffering the same foot-on-neck behavior upon which this country was founded:

"My enemy's enemy is my man remember?  I ain't tryin' to be endin' up in this Man's dilemma...'til we get there, I am on your side."

Why are the Brits still - Inquiring??

Let's be clear, the extent to which those in power will continue to go, in order to avoid accountability for their hawkish behavior regarding Iraq, is absolutely mind-boggling and disgusting.  How many more inquiries will it take for the UK to admit that they let Shrub & Co. suck them into a war that nobody wanted - except Shrub & Co.??

As a weekly columnist for a small, daily paper in South Florida, I wrote the following column in March 2003 (I'd link to it, but that's a whole 'nother post - and a huge lesson learned).  I've added a couple links and the emphasis to the original column:

######

An informed populace can change 'the best laid plans of mice and men'

I don't know about you, but for the early part of my "grown up" life, I'd just been trying to live. Actually; live it up is more like it. I went to college, learned a little, partied a lot and graduated with a dream that I took to Washington, D.C. - a dream for which I quickly discovered 1 had not very well prepared myself. Apparently others had partied less and, learned way more than I did.

So, the dream was deferred as I went about the business of supporting myself and exploring my new home, excited anyway that I was finally living in "the big city." After two jobs in two years, I decided the dream had waited long enough and with my newfound maturity, I enlisted in the Navy to get serious about that preparation.

As a result, a whole new world opened up as I found myself tremendously comfortable in a school environment again. The challenge to learn as much as they were willing to teach was easily met. I kind of had my priorities in order this time. I still partied (after all I WAS still in my early 20s), but I was "handlin' my business" like my mother always demanded we do.

I did, however, slip trip and fall quite rapidly, for a quiet, cute, little Navy guy who was back for an intermediate Spanish class. And my world took on yet another face. Partnering with my husband to provide a decent, safe living for our family, working hard to build something to fall back on in our "golden years" and doing the best we could to raise our sons to be honest, honorable men - hopefully sooner rather than later - became more important and I was, again, just trying to live.

The process of accomplishing these goals certainly involved a measure of social consciousness and civic duty tempered with good, old-fashioned "gold-en rule" beliefs. But I had not spent an inordinate amount of time saturating my brain with the global implications of political strategies or the effects of our culture on other cultures of the world and vice-versa. Those doors were merely ajar as I just tried to live.

But the more I worked among others who were on that particular track, I realized that I had to push those doors wide open and begin looking behind them to learn what was going on in the world. But once I peeked, I could never find a way to shut it out again. Today I find myself a voracious reader, news follower, commentary listener, documentary watcher - you name it, I try to get my nose into it.

With current world events in mind and the need to understand for myself how we got here and where we're headed, I decided to go back a bit. You see, I depend on my nosiness to help me make informed decisions about where and for whom to cast my very valuable vote. Here's a thumbnail of what I stumbled upon and if you're half as nosy as I am, you may want to do some of your own digging to help you decide what to do with your very valuable vote in 2004.

It seems that as early as 1991, a small group of Republicans felt that America "didn't finish the job" in the Middle East with the Gulf War, so they set out to plan a strategy to not only accomplish that task, if and when they were again in power, but began drawing up a blueprint for America's nation building and spreading of democracy - one country at a time. The result was the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), founded in 1997 during the Clinton presidency.

PNAC describes itself as, "A non-profit educational organization dedicated to a few fundamental propositions:  that American leadership is good both for America and for the world; that such leadership requires military strength, diplomatic energy and commitment to moral principle; and that too few political leaders today are making the case for global leadership."

In a letter to then President Clinton dated Jan. 26, 1998, eighteen PNAC members publicly pushed for unilateral U.S. action against Iraq because "we can no longer depend on our partners in the Gulf War coalition" to enforce the inspections regime.

Curiously, of the 18 people who signed the letter, 10 are now in very influential positions in the Bush administration. They include, Vice President Dick Cheney; Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his Deputy at the Pentagon, Paul Wolfowitz; Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage; John Bolton, who is Undersecretary of State for Disarmament; and Zalmay Khalilzad, the White House liaison to the Iraqi opposition and Richard Perle, chairman of the advisory Defense Science Board to name a few along with William Kristol, editor of the conservative Weekly Standard magazine.

ln that same 1998 letter, the group stated, "The only acceptable strategy is one that eliminates the possibillty that Iraq will be able to use or threaten to use weapons of mass destruction. In the near term, this means a willingness to undertake military action as diplomacy is clearly failing. In the long term, it means removing Saddam Hussein and his regime from power. That now needs to become the aim of American foreign policy."

Where we are now is a result of what happened in late 1997 while most of us were either just trying to live or were enjoying the fruits of a robust economy with it's billions of surplus dollars. I urge you to become your own type of political policy wonk. Read, listen, watch and dig. Go to PNAC's web site and read for yourself, in their own words, what plans lay ahead for our country. Be as informed a voter as possible as you head for the polls in 2004.

If you don't, just trying to live will be all you have.

######

I'm sure you'll recognize the rest of the "usual suspects" who put their John Hancock on that letter to Bill back then.  As I said in the piece I'm nosy, so it took me hardly any time at all to find that letter back in 2003 when I started digging.  If I could find it, you gotta know that the "powers-that-be" in England also knew or could ferret out The Plan.  Hell, in this recent Guardian piece - Iraq war inquiry: Britain heard US drumbeat for invasion before 9/11 - seems top Intel guy, Sir Peter Ricketts had at least an inkling (if no cojones):

According to previously leaked documents, Ricketts, political director at the Foreign Office at the time, described the US in 2002 as "scrambling to establish a link between Iraq and al-Qaida", a link that was "so far frankly unconvincing". He told Jack Straw, then foreign secretary: "We have to be convincing that the threat is so serious/imminent that it is worth sending our troops to die for. Regime change does not stack up. It sounds like a grudge match between Bush and Saddam."

Seems they should've ignored Shrub & Co.'s bullshit smarmy praise at that "cojones meeting" back in September 2002 and stuck to that grudge match theory - and stayed the hell out of Iraq.

Ruminations...on awards, a premature announcement and justice still denied

Just a few thoughts to purge...



- Okay, after watching the AMAs - I'm officially old.  But, indulge my old behind - I've been a fan of Whitney's music since she came on the scene and for me, this performance was just right.  Just enough clothes, just enough class, just enough emotion - just right.  Forget all the Diane-Opie-and-whoever else tell-all interviews meant to - according to the MSM - "engineer" a comeback.  In quintessential Whitney-style, she powerfully owned her shit - in song.  And what a song it was!  (And no, I do not know, nor do I care, who the "Carol" was that she acknowledged in her comments to her daughter).

- Since Oprah's been "off the air" for me a long time ago given her near 20-year "sell-out" performance for the King conglomerate, I could care less that she's closing down her show.  But can somebody please tell me why, she had to announce THIS YEAR, that she'd be gone in 2011??!!  Please Lawd get over yourself!!!  Maybe she's just putting her order in for one of those ambassadorships the Changeling's doling out in exchange for all the dollar bills that bought him the presidency. 



- In the conclusion of his January 30, 2008 ruling regarding the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Judge Stanwood R. Duval Jr. advised how the law of the land had "tied his hands:"

"While the United States government is immune for legal liability for the defalcations alleged herein, it is not free, nor should it be, from posterity’s judgment concerning its failure to accomplish what was its task. The citizens of each and every city in this great nation have come to depend on their government and its agencies to perform certain tasks which have been assigned to federal agencies by laws passed by Congress and overseen by the Executive Branch.  It should not be unreasonable for those citizens to rely on their agents, whom they pay through their taxes, to perform the tasks assigned in a timely and competent way. However, because of §702c, there is neither incentive, nor punishment to insure that our own government performs these tasks correctly. There is no provision in the law which allows this Court to avoid the immunity provided by § 702c; gross incompetence receives the same treatment as simple mistake."

That February following the ruling, I wrote "No Way Out" for NOLA means No Way Out for Us to express the shame and disgust I felt for a government and a country whose hearts and minds were closed to their own. And later in April, shame and disgust turned to rage as I wrote, Paper rain, Paper rain...St. Bernard and 9th Ward STILL "Bastards of the Party"  because 1) it was discovered that USACE, adding insult to injury, had stuffed newspaper in some of the expansion joints as an "expedient repair" for water seepage the year after the levees broke and 2) no doubt believing they were litigation-proof, USACE openly admitted their negligence.

But apparently, Judge Duval has figured out a way to untie his hands by focusing his new ruling on the navigation channel upon which much of the rest of the country depends whether they know it or not - the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MR-GO).  He said:

"Clearly, when there is not a mandate, if the decisions at issue are based on policy, the discretionary function exception generally applies. It is the Court’s opinion that the negligence of the Corps, in this instance by failing to maintain the MRGO properly, was not policy, but insouciance, myopia and shortsightedness. For over forty years, the Corps was aware that the Reach II levee protecting Chalmette and the Lower Ninth Ward was going to be compromised by the continued deterioration of the MRGO, as has been exhaustively discussed in this opinion.  The Corps had an opportunity to take a myriad of actions to alleviate this deterioration or rehabilitate this deterioration and failed to do so. Clearly the expression “talk is cheap” applies here. In the event the gross negligence of the Corps in maintaining the MRGO would be regarded as policy, then the discretionary function exception would swallow the Federal Torts Claim Act leaving it an emasculated statute applying to automobile accidents where government employees are involved or medical malpractice where a government physician is involved. This was clearly not the intent of Congress... Safety concerns are not a talisman in deciding whether to apply the discretionary function exception, but certainly are a very significant consideration. Here, there was no balancing or weighing of countervailing considerations. The failure to maintain the MRGO properly compromised the Reach 2 Levee and created a substantial risk of catastrophic loss of human life and private property due to this malfeasance. Nothing the Corps has introduced into evidence tips the balance in its favor."

Props and much respect to Judge Duval for seeing the wrongness of the thing and staying the course.  But here's where the rubber should meet the road for supporters of the Changeling in general, and those in New Orleans in particular because according to this, Corps' operation of MR-GO doomed homes in St. Bernard, Lower 9th Ward, judge rules, Obama & Co. do not intend to cry uncle any time soon:

Indeed, the Justice Department is expected to appeal the decision to the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, and then to the U.S. Supreme Court, if necessary..."Until such time as the litigation is completed, including the appellate process up to and through the U.S. Supreme Court, no activity is expected to be taken on any of these claims," corps spokesman Ken Holder said.

Please re-read that quote from Ken Holder (no apparent relation to Atty. General Eric Holder, but we'd have to check with Skip Gates on that one).  I could be wrong, but it sounds like "when hell freezes over" to me.  And if that turns out to be the case, I wonder will the response, particularly from his skinfolk - continue to be, "Just give him some more time, you know those white folks don't want him to give us all that money!"  ::Big Sigh::

And finally, in what should be a no-brainer - but apparently isn't - Harry Shearer gives an interesting entrée into just how long doing the right thing for New Orleans will take.  In his, Why Obama Needs to Weigh In With the Corps of Engineers, he writes about the battle brewing between the State and USACE regarding replenishing the wetlands with sediment dredged from MR-GO.  He closes with his usually succint, no-brainer thinking I've come to love:

"Of course, the Corps' Commander in Chief, a gentleman by the name of Obama, could cut short this process, order the Corps to request the money from Congress (if, indeed, the Corps is correct that helping restore the wetlands would cost more than filling a hole at the bottom of the Gulf), and help preserve New Orleans' main buffer against more severe hurricanes (since hurricanes lose force over land). The question is: will he?"

We shall see.