Punked by Putin -- and rightfully so

(Updated below)
Russian president Vladimir Putin not only called the Obama Administration's bluff  by offering to intervene in Syria, he made the Changeling look like the warmongering, Murderer-in-Chief that he is -- to the entire world.  Большое спасибо, президент Путин!

(Photo courtesy of Leon Kuhn)

In his September 11 op-ed, Putin said to America -- what I'm sure -- plenty other countries are feeling.  He took the Changeling to the wood shed (with a few licks to Shrub for good measure), by using his own "rule of law" rhetoric to slap him in the face.  Who woulda thunk it?  The ex(?)-KGB guy comes out smellin' like a rose as he artfully lays bare all the crimes against humanity the U.S. government has committed over the last 12 years.  Priceless!

I'm sure the Zionist AIPACers, as well as the New World Order PNACers (now the FDDers) are mad as hell right now that their little chicken hawk (emphasis on chicken for so-o-o-o many reasons) mucked up their plans to steamroll the Middle East.  Good!  I'm sick of all of them any-damned-way.

John Pilger speaks to how their "absolute power corrupts absolutely" here:

Under the "weak" Obama, militarism has risen perhaps as never before. With not a single tank on the White House lawn, a military coup has taken place in Washington. In 2008, while his liberal devotees dried their eyes, Obama accepted the entire Pentagon of his predecessor, George Bush: its wars and war crimes. As the constitution is replaced by an emerging police state, those who destroyed Iraq with shock and awe, and piled up the rubble in Afghanistan and reduced Libya to a Hobbesian nightmare, are ascendant across the US administration. Behind their beribboned façade, more former US soldiers are killing themselves than are dying on battlefields. Last year, 6,500 veterans took their own lives. Put out more flags.

The historian Norman Pollack calls this "liberal fascism". "For goose-steppers," he wrote, "substitute the seemingly more innocuous militarisation of the total culture. And for the bombastic leader, we have the reformer manqué, blithely at work, planning and executing assassination, smiling all the while." Every Tuesday, the "humanitarian" Obama personally oversees a worldwide terror network of drones that "bugsplat" people, their rescuers and mourners. In the west's comfort zones, the first black leader of the land of slavery still feels good, as if his very existence represents a social advance, regardless of his trail of blood. This obeisance to a symbol has all but destroyed the US anti-war movement: Obama's singular achievement. (all emphasis mine)

Read that last line again -- especially all you Black, "symbolism" folk (Soror Norton, are you listening?).  Quite frankly, I could give two shits about a little boy touching the Changeling's hair in the Oval Office -- we're talking about the MURDER of non-white peoples in which he's voluntarily complicit on a huge scale!  How's that for "symbolism?"  Wake the hell up, people (trust me, critical thinking is your friend)!   This is not about Republicans versus Democrats, Family.  That's some manufactured shit, specifically designed to delude.  They're all really the same -- none of whom is "us."

And wonder of wonders, Putin's gambit worked:

The just announced U.S.-Russia agreement in Geneva on a "joint determination to ensure the destruction of the Syrian chemical weapons (CW) program in the soonest and safest manner" sounds the death knell to an attempt by Israel, Turkey and Saudi Arabia to get the U.S. into the war in Syria.

For now, the Changeling's marching orders have changed (cuz he ain't runnin' Jack!).  But don't hold your breath.  As history dictates -- he'll get new ones :



***UPDATE:  Well, it didn't take long for the Changeling to get those new "marching orders"--  Obama to host Benjamin Netanyahu at White House:

Netanyahu said earlier Tuesday that Iran would be at the top of his agenda.

“I intend to focus on the question of stopping Iran's nuclear program, an actual halt to the nuclear program," the Israeli leader said. "And until this is achieved, the pressure on Iran should be intensified and not eased."

Netanyahu also pressed for the United States to strike Syria after an August chemical weapons attack attributed to strongman Bashar Assad’s regime. (emphasis mine)

Um, Bibi?  Stop lying, mkay?  The IAEA has confirmed, time and again, that Iran's "nuclear" program is currently only being used for civilian energy and medicine.  It has no weapons-grade nuclear program unlike Israel's stockpile (thanks to Dr. Vanunu, we all know unequivocally -- you do have a stockpile!).  That said, I see no reason why this sovereign nation shouldn't develop a weapons-grade nuclear program to defend themselves against the likes of those Hitler, Jr. Zionists who are already oppressing their brethren in Palestine.

And of course, Israel's little puppet fell right in line with this little veiled threat, revealing how little he really cares about those children allegedly gassed by Assad and how much he really cares about Israel:

However, Obama recently warned that Iran should not be emboldened by his decision to call off a strike on Syria.

“What the Iranians understand is that the nuclear issue is a far larger issue for us than the chemical weapons issue,” Obama said during an interview this week with ABC. “The threat against Iran — against Israel — that a nuclear Iran poses, is much closer to our core interests. A nuclear arms race in the region is something that would be profoundly destabilizing.” (emphasis mine)

Was that a Freudian slip exposing Israel in his second sentence?  Nah, he doesn't have the guts to do anything like that.  He'd rather be led around by the nose into a war for which he will be eternally blamed -- way to literally "go down" in history, Mr. First Black President.  {smdh}

Related:
- The Honey Obadger: He Don’t Give a Shit
- Taking Exception to Exceptionalism
- Continuity of Military Agenda: Syria Catastrophe Engineered Under Bush, Executed Verbatim Under Obama
- Empire, Hypocrisy and Deflection
- Assad tells Obama to stop arming rebels, or no deal
- US Grandstands on Chemical Weapons Treaty While Violating It
- Syria Distraction Gone, What Will Obama Use to Cover Passage of TPP or a Comparable Sneak Attack on the Middle Class?
- Background and Articles relating to Project for a New American Century

No guilt this time: the Zionist, ethnic cleansing template, rubber-stamped by the West

I stumbled upon this documentary today and found the history lesson so clear and compelling, that I needed to repost it.  "The Zionist Story -- through the eyes of an Ex-Israeli Soldier," tells the powerful story of how a "European problem," led to land theft and the near erasure of the Palestinian people in Western Asia (fondly called the Middle East by those who prefer to geographically locate it in relation to Western Europe, rather than its actual position within Asia.)



And as BeelzObama the Changeling prepares for his second stroll to the throne in January, let us not forget that the road was paved with plenty of -- Palestinian blood, Israeli money and Americans, blinded by the "Audacity of Hope."

Related:
- Israel’'s Doomsday E-1 Settlement. Diabolical Encroachment to Prospective Palestinian State

A Colin Powell, WMD lecture redux?

Well, it seems it's not enough for the Changeling to back Israel's bloody hands -- seems he's gearing up to get the hands of your sons, daughters, husbands and wives a little bloody as well -- (h/t Pan-African News Wire):

Pentagon Has Plans to Intervene In Syria Under Guise of Seizing "WMD"

Pentagon Says 75,000 Troops Might Be Needed to Seize Syria Chemical Arms

By DAVID E. SANGER and ERIC SCHMITT
New York Times

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has told the Obama administration that any military effort to seize Syria’s stockpiles of chemical weapons would require upward of 75,000 troops, amid increasing concern that the militant group Hezbollah has set up small training camps close to some of the chemical weapons depots, according to senior American officials...

...Mr. Obama has been clear for more than a year that he would resist direct American intervention, but in August he said one circumstance would cause him to revisit that position. “A red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized,” he said at a news conference. “That would change my calculus.”

Mr. Obama brought those concerns up again in a news conference on Wednesday, saying that the United States was in close contact with Turkey and Jordan “and obviously Israel, which is having already grave concerns as we do about, for example, movements of chemical weapons that might occur in such a chaotic atmosphere and that could have an impact not just within Syria but on the region as a whole.”...

“There is credible information that the Assad regime has been upgrading and expanding its chemical weapons arsenal, which needs to be maintained,” said Emile Hokayem, a Middle East analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. “A credible delivery capability is also needed, hence the North Korean angle.”

The estimation that it would take 75,000 troops to neutralize the chemical weapons grew out of what Mr. Obama, in his August news conference, referred to as extensive contingency planning for how the United States would respond if the chemical weapons were on the move or appeared vulnerable. (all emphasis mine)

"Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me!"

Okay, y'all really got to be shittin' me!!  You mean to tell me that all of you, so washed in Obama-love, will fall for this bullshit -- again! -- just because it's coming from Chocolate Jesus!  If you are -- I tell you,  he's the BEST, damned, deus ex machina (a person or thing that appears or is introduced suddenly and unexpectedly and provides a contrived solution to an apparently insoluble difficulty) money could buy -- and they've paid billions!

Come on people!  You watched Colin Powell, lie his integrity into the toilet for Shrub & Co. with all those, made-for-TV, show-and-tell diagrams about Iraq's WMDs at the U.N.  Don't fall for this let-us-murder-more-folk trick again!  Unless of course, you don't mind sending your loved ones into harm's way while his are snug as a bug in a rug.  Based on my personal experience, it truly is not worth it -- but you decide.

"Jews," the Changeling and nuclear weaponry

I've really been trying not to write about this circus we call "politics" in this country.  But given the Changeling's recent, begging "...when the chips are down, I have Israel’s back" speech to AIPAC, I thought I'd jump back in for a minute, turning back to the Master Teacher, Dr. John Henrik Clarke to share some history about the "Jews" and their less-than-reciprocal behavior toward Black folk first (as you listen to the following, you'll see the reason for the quotation marks):









"Nothin' beats a lie like the truth" is what my grandmother always said.  And given all that went before (and continues to this day), the Changeling's unwavering fealty to the state of Israel should be, at the very least, questionable to discerning Black folk, and at most - a gross miscarriage of justice to anyone with eyes to see (though, if you heard the speech, or read the transcript linked above - you'll have to admit, he's a helluva strategic beggar!).

Secondly, I'd like to share the following, just to give some context for America's and Israel's absolute hypocrisy regarding Iran and their right, as a sovereign nation, to develop nuclear weapons either as a deterrent to, or to protect themselves from, Israel in particular, if they so choose (let me just note though, after the U.S. devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I am in no way a proponent of nuclear weapons):  "An Illegal Interview with Mordechai Vanunu," a former Israeli nuclear technician who, in 1986, blew the whistle on Israel's nuclear weapons development program in Dimona, garnering him 18 years in Ashkelon Prison (more than 11 1/2 of which he spent in solitary confinement.  Bradley Manning has nothing on Dr. Vanunu - yet!):







And the Changeling was the one who got a Nobel "Peace" Prize??!! (:serious eyeroll:)

Check out why the above interview was illegal at this site, which thoroughly covers Dr. Vanunu's whistle-blowing experience - and the consequences:  The U.S. Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu.

While I've never had anything for the Changeling, I've always thought he was pretty intelligent.  But, given Dr. Clarke's excellent historical rendering of the "Jews" and Israel, Dr. Vanunu's view of Shimon Peres, and Prime Minister Netanyahu's banging of the war drums, I find this portion of the Changeling's "Can I have more, Sir?" speech quite indicative that either, he isn't as intelligent as I thought (particularly regarding who he is, as a society-identified Black man), or he's as disingenuous as they come:

Shimon was born a world away from here, in a shtetl in what was then Poland, a few years after the end of the first world war. But his heart was always in Israel, the historic homeland of the Jewish people. And when he was just a boy he made his journey across land and sea - toward home.

In his life, he has fought for Israel’s independence, and he has fought for peace and security. As a member of the Haganah and a member of the Knesset, as a minister of defense and foreign affairs, as a prime minister and as president - Shimon helped build the nation that thrives today: the Jewish state of Israel. But beyond these extraordinary achievements, he has also been a powerful moral voice that reminds us that right makes might - not the other way around.

Shimon once described the story of the Jewish people by saying it proved that, “slings, arrows and gas chambers can annihilate man, but cannot destroy human values, dignity, and freedom.” And he has lived those values. He has taught us to ask more of ourselves and to empathize more with our fellow human beings. I am grateful for his life’s work and his moral example. And I’m proud to announce that later this spring, I will invite Shimon Peres to the White House to present him with America’s highest civilian honor - the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

In many ways, this award is a symbol of the broader ties that bind our nations. The United States and Israel share interests, but we also share those human values that Shimon spoke about: a commitment to human dignity. A belief that freedom is a right that is given to all of God’s children. An experience that shows us that democracy is the one and only form of government that can truly respond to the aspirations of citizens.

America’s Founding Fathers understood this truth, just as Israel’s founding generation did. President Truman put it well, describing his decision to formally recognize Israel only minutes after it declared independence. He said, “I had faith in Israel before it was established. I believe it has a glorious future before it - as not just another sovereign nation, but as an embodiment of the great ideals of our civilization.”

For over six decades, the American people have kept that faith. Yes, we are bound to Israel because of the interests that we share - in security for our communities, prosperity for our people, the new frontiers of science that can light the world. But ultimately it is our common ideals that provide the true foundation for our relationship. That is why America’s commitment to Israel has endured under Democratic and Republican presidents, and congressional leaders of both parties. In the United States, our support for Israel is bipartisan, and that is how it should stay. (emphasis mine)

We've got so much work to do family - in alliance with, or without, any-damned-body else!

Interesting update: Is Bibi the Bully wagging the American dog? - Pepe Escobar

A couple ruminations and an update...

I.  State-sponsored murder is still murder - particularly so, if there's "Too Much Doubt."

I've read many an article on the Troy Davis case but, this Dispatch from Death Row:  Saving Troy Davis With a Family's Love brings a definite ray of sunshine amid all this sadness - his nephew.

(Photo Courtesy Amnesty International)

I can't say whether he's innocent or guilty.  But what I can say is - this case should not only be giving the state of Georgia serious pause, but every, single person in this country (Don't fool yourself, it can surely happen to anyone).

This isn't a civil case, where the standard of proof is satisfied by either,  "a preponderance of the evidence" or, "clear and convincing evidence."  This, is a criminal case, and the standard of proof -seeing as people's freedom and/or their very lives hang in the balance - is "beyond a reasonable doubt."  Given the numerous recantations and the, at least one, alternative suspect, I'd say the "beyond..." part, absent an evidentiary hearing on the new evidence, comes up a little short.

And no, I'm not discounting the fact, that the family of the slain officer is also in pain here.  I just keep asking myself - "They've waited all this time, what difference would the additional time it'd take for an evidentiary hearing make now?"  Certainly, that's preferable to having the state murder an innocent man in their name - right?

Angela Davis said, in this 2003 video - "Capital punishment is a legacy of slavery.  It's a sediment of  slavery."  Others, too, have made that connection:

Troy Davis, victim of judicial lynching, and on a lighter, but still on-point note - U.S. Prison/Industrial Complex - The New Slavery & The Sickness In The American System.

UPDATE - Tomorrow, Georgia Murders Troy Davis

II.  Some more of that - "Change" y'all wanna believe in.

For some time now, I've just been trying to make sense of this world in which we now live.  Believe me when I tell you - it's becoming increasingly difficult.  And just when I thought I'd reached my peak of disgust with the smoke-and-mirrors, "tenth dimensional" chess playing and unquenchable thirst for money and power - I read this last week:  U.S. Appeals to Palestinians to Stall U.N. Vote on Statehood - and just shook my head, yet again.

This, is why people rode and died?  So that - our own lived experience here notwithstanding - people who look like us can impose the same thing on e'erybody else??  Strange, I never thought supremacy was the goal.  Seems I was mistaken:

The Obama administration has initiated a last-ditch diplomatic campaign to avert a confrontation this month over a plan by Palestinians to seek recognition as a state at the United Nations...The administration has circulated a proposal for renewed peace talks with the Israelis in the hopes of persuading the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, to abandon the bid for recognition at the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly beginning Sept. 20.

The administration has made it clear to Mr. Abbas that it will veto any request presented to the United Nations Security Council to make a Palestinian state a new member outright. (emphasis mine)

This man (that y'all keep conflating with MLK) seems a lit-tle, too, willing, to shed what King believed about freedom and self-determination, in exchange for a fast-track to complicity with that Israeli foot, grinding on the necks of these brown folk, who've for decades now, been cordoned off and treated like interlopers in their own land - no?

Senior officials said the administration wanted to avoid not only a veto but also the more symbolic and potent General Assembly vote that would leave the United States and only a handful of other nations in the opposition. The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss diplomatic maneuverings, said they feared that in either case a wave of anger could sweep the Palestinian territories and the wider Arab world at a time when the region is already in tumult. President Obama would be put in the position of threatening to veto recognition of the aspirations of most Palestinians or risk alienating Israel and its political supporters in the United States.

Let those emphasized portions sink in for a minute...

Damn that "All in the Game" foolishness!  That is some real WTFery right there.  After his, hat-in-hand to AIPAC on the campaign trail performance, here he is again - actin' like the, "Can I have more, Sir?" puppet-of-an-overseer that he is.  And what's worse (for America)?  Most people know it (except for some, who can't see anything but Israel):

• Obama should support Palestinian statehood
• Israel does not want a Palestinian state. Period.
• Turkey takes over the Arab Spring
• Jack Straw urges MPs to back Palestinian statehood bid
• Saudi prince calls on U.S. to back Palestinian U.N. status (more than that!) 
• Palestine Goes to the UN
• Israel's diplomatic drive to block Palestinian UN bid
• The crime of apartheid 

UPDATE:  I spoke to my friend, Eric after that electioneering visit to CCNV.  As his latest post reveals, the Changeling continues to be, exactly who I thought he was.

American terrorism - "you can dress it up" tomorrow, "but you can't take it out" - of reality

"In the church I come from - which is not at all the same church to which white Americans belong - we were counselled, from time to time, to do our first works over. Though the church I come from and the church to which most white Americans belong are both Christian churches, their relationship - due to those pragmatic decisions concerning Property made by a Christian State sometime ago - cannot be said to involve, or suggest, the fellowship of Christians. We do not, therefore, share the same hope or speak the same language. (emphasis mine)

To do your first works over means to reexamine everything. Go back to where you started, or as far back as you can, examine all of it, travel your road and tell the truth about it. Shout or testify or keep it to yourself but know whence you came." (emphasis his)

James Baldwin

"The Price of the Ticket"

First of all, I apologize to those of you who've been periodically returning for the end of the "Homegoing" series.  I so appreciate your patience and I assure you, Part 5 is forthcoming.  But since Part 4 - as is its wont - life just kept happening, mightily challenging many of my remaining realities and making "All My Bones Shake."

In the interim, I sporadically posted and/or commented elsewhere, as I watched the HN(Over-seer)IC  - partner with the usual imperialist suspects in raining down all manner of death-delivering armaments on a sovereign, African country with the intent of assassinating its leader; authorize and actually oversee the orchestrated murder (true or not - that visual was disturbing) of another, non-alabaster-skinned brother; play a shell game with brown brothers and sisters at the border, even as he and Brother-Ass-Coverer played a botched game of Fast and Furious - all, while totally ignoring what his privileged, string-pullers are doing to Blacks - here and in Haiti.

(An interesting, electioneering aside - my friend, Eric Sheptock left a message on my phone this morning (What?  It's Saturday!  And - I'm an hour behind him!  Let me tell you, voicemail is all anyone will get from me before noon, especially on a Saturday!), advising that the Changeling, himself, will be visiting the CCNV Homeless Shelter this morning.  Since our meeting during my first - and last - year of grad school in DC, he keeps me up on all things activism.  Now, you mean to tell me, that in two-and-a-half years, he couldn't make it the 1.5 miles to 2nd St., NW (I know that's the distance, because I lived off of 3rd St, NE while in school)  - to see about the homeless living in the shadow of the Big House??  Puh-leeze!  I returned his call once I got up and movin' - and got his voicemail.  I left him a message saying, "I know you're in the throes of Obama-love right now, but call me when you're done.")

Yes, all my bones have surely been shaking, signalling that it was way past time to do some of "my first works over."  And that's pretty much where my mind's been (and often still is).  And alas, I've been side-tracked yet again, with the convergence of these recent events, which prompted forced me to write this post on American terrorism before publishing Part 5:

• the planned, then postponed, MLK memorial dedication (about which I've written, here and here);
• the electioneering, "Zing, went the (AIPAC) strings of (the Changeling's) heart" on Palestine (which I'll address, yet again in an upcoming post);
• my blog-sister, Kitty, giving me the, available-this-month, heads-up on "The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975" (and the various and sundry, needin'-happy-darkies reviews of same, which also requires a separate post);
• the upcoming 10th anniversary of 9/11;
• and finally, this jolting piece of "do-our-first-works-over" proportions by HamdenRice entitled:  "Most of you have no idea what Martin Luther King actually did"

With the continued twisting of Dr. King's legacy, reducing him to a, "not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character" kinda brother, HamdenRice rightfully puts American terrorism on blast.  Having been born in the Jim Crow South two years after Brown v. Board, raised there until 1974 and subsequently getting my "higher learning" at an HBCU there until 1978 - this piece really hit home:

The reason I'm posting this is because there were dueling diaries over the weekend about Dr. King's legacy, and there is a diary up now (not on the rec list but on the recent list) entitled, "Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Dream Not Yet Realized." I'm sure the diarist means well as did the others. But what most people who reference Dr. King seem not to know is how Dr. King actually changed the subjective experience of life in the United States for African Americans. And yeah, I said for African Americans, not for Americans, because his main impact was his effect on the lives of African Americans, not on Americans in general. His main impact was not to make white people nicer or fairer. That's why some of us who are African Americans get a bit possessive about his legacy. Dr. Martin Luther King's legacy, despite what our civil religion tells us, is not color blind. (emphasis mine)

Thank you HamdenRice!  Dr. King's legacy was never - EVER - color blind.  And the continued co-option of it as such - is merely, more white folk, trying to make white folk, feel comfortable with, and unnaccountable for, their seemingly irrevocable,  often-depraved and most assuredly fearful and insecure, "Divine Right"-thinking,  power-mongering, imperialist - terrorism.

From the "no running water" to the "much more under slavery than under freedom, and all of it under some form of racial terrorism, which had inculcated many humiliating behavior patterns" - the writer's background in Virginia sounds very similar to my own South Carolina upbringing.  But I was never sarcastic about what Dr. King had accomplished, because like his father, I personally understood Dr. King's herculean, and ultimately fatal-for-him efforts to try and end (at least as we knew it) "...the terror of living as a black person, especially in the south."  And while he wasn't 100% successful in that regard (as the terror continues, even today) - what he accomplished was, in fact, a far cry from giving "this great speech" and marching.

It wasn't that black people had to use a separate drinking fountain or couldn't sit at lunch counters, or had to sit in the back of the bus...It was that white people, mostly white men, occasionally went berserk, and grabbed random black people, usually men, and lynched them. You all know about lynching. But you may forget or not know that white people also randomly beat black people, and the black people could not fight back, for fear of even worse punishment.

Though I get his meaning in the first sentence, I do have a small quibble with it - having lived it.  While the "main suffering in the south" indeed, "did not come from our inability to drink from the same fountain or ride in the front of the bus" - I think he misses the soul-murdering effects (especially on children) of those, absolutely intended and daily attacks on our dignity; of always seeing one's parents or one's self, being considered some unclean, inhuman animal after which no "civilized" person, in their right mind, would drink.  It does something to your psyche, believe me.

And that back-of-the-bus thing?  Ditto.  I remember riding home from my Black, Catholic school in the 60s, minding my own damned business in the back of the bus (despite the Supreme Court-ordered mandate to desegregate, many southern states ignored it until the Freedom Rides - and they started getting fined), when an older white boy from the white Catholic high school, running up and down the aisle with his friends - stopped, looked at them laughing and then - hawked up a big, green glob of snot, and spat on me.  I froze, first in roiling anger and disgust, but within seconds, as I watched it run down the right strap of my green, plaid jumper uniform - embarrassment and yes, fear, quickly took hold.  Even though we were s'posed to be free, I knew I couldn't retaliate because:  1) all eyes from the "white section" were on me, 2) he was white and way, bigger than me, and 3) I was afraid of what the repercussions would be at home, or at school if I hit his ass.  So I stayed put, fighting back the tears until my stop.
 
I needn't have worried about the home front though.  My, by-then-divorced Mama, struggling to ensure we got the "best education" possible - wasn't havin' it.  When I came in the door crying, she called me in the kitchen to ask what was wrong.  And between those choking sobs (during which you can barely catch your breath), I pointed to the glob, now crusty from being exposed to the air, and said, through a fresh flod of tears, "One of those white boys from Bishop England (he was wearing their uniform) spat on me!"   She asked me, her voice rising, "Then what did you do?!"   Hoping to, at least, keep my ass out of the sling, I responded, "Nothin' - cuz I know I'm not s'posed to be fightin'."  She got mad as hell, saying, "I'm gonna call that damned school, cuz nobody's spittin' on my child and gettin' away with it!"  She did - they did nothing.  I was in the 6th grade!  And while I felt so loved and protected by her efforts, I not only got, how little the emotional well-being of a little Black girl mattered to white folk - I saw, how my Mama's standing up for me meant even less to them.

So while the writer is dead-on with the second sentence about lynching, I think it extremely important we not forget how effective, long-standing, emotional terrorism is as well (Baldwin also wrote about that!).

So please don't tell me that Martin Luther King's dream has not been achieved, unless you knew what racial terrorism was like back then and can make a convincing case you still feel it today. If you did not go through that transition, you're not qualified to say that the dream was not accomplished.

Seeing as I "knew what racial terrorism was like back then" (to include the KKK purportedly meeting upstairs over the Edward's 5-and-dime around the corner from our rented house downtown; my Grandmama's house being mysteriously burned to the ground out on the Island; my Daddy having to engage in many of those "humiliating practices in order to prevent the random, terroristic, berserk behavior of white people" - at times, in the presence of his children and particularly his son), and - because I "can make a convincing case" that I definitely "still feel it today" here, in "the belly of the beast" - I think I'm qualified to say, unequivocally, that the dream was not accomplished.

And while the knowledge of racial terrorism remains a reality for plenty of us, these days it seems, making a "convincing case you still feel it today" is purely relative and matters not in the big picture (unless of course, you unwaveringly know, like the Freedom Riders of old, what you're "willing to ride (and die) for").

Once the beating was over, we were free.

A hundred times - Yes!   In our hearts, souls and minds, we were freer than we'd ever been before, from American terrorism, which propelled us even further toward our rightful place as citizens in this country we built, by the sweat of our brow.  But, if one takes the statement literally - Fannie Lou Hamer might have been the last Black woman, sterilized without her knowledge and consent (she was not), nor would she have had to deliver this speech (video) to the DNC in 1964; the descendants of Henrietta Lacks (video), some medically uninsured, wouldn't STILL be waiting for some kind of recompense for the universal use, and profitting from, of her HeLa Cells which have saved countless lives; Medgar, Malcolm, Martin, along with a host of others, would have lived well into their old age; there'd have been no need to fight for Affirmative Action; we would not currently have, the highest unemployment and imprisonment rates that we do; we would not today, have a toothless Congressional Black Caucus (some of whom are ex-Freedom Riders!), getting rich like the white fat cats (both legally and illegally), while their constituents still live in poverty and poor housing; etc., etc, etc.

It wasn't the Civil Rights Act, or the Voting Rights Act or the Fair Housing Act that freed us. It was taking the beating and thereafter not being afraid. So, sorry Mrs. Clinton, as much as I admire you, you were wrong on this one. Our people freed ourselves and those Acts, as important as they were, were only white people officially recognizing what we had done.

No, it wasn't any of those acts that freed our hearts, souls and minds, but we'll just have to agree to disagree with what Hillary Clinton (whom I used to admire) said.  As Joseph A. Califano Jr., Lyndon Johnson's special assistant for domestic affairs from 1965 to 1969, said in 2008 - "It Took a Partnership."

All that being said however (I know, I was kinda full) - I salute HamdenRice, for not allowing the white-wash to continue by putting his finger smack-dab on the pulse of Dr. King's achievements.

Look, I know this piece is link-heavy, but I thought it was necessary to illustrate how Black folk have endured a shit-load of American terrorism - and continue to.  Read them at your leisure but please - do, at least, watch the videos.

But, we are certainly not alone.  Even those immigrants who came here on the ship, instead of in the belly of it (and who insist, now, "On Being White and Other Lies,") - have also suffered at the hands of that pesky, American exceptionalism with which, I suspect, we will be inundated tomorrow on the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

I stumbled upon a six-part series on You Tube awhile ago entitled, "Violence:  An American Tradition."  I'm posting Part 1 - but as the disclaimer says on each part, "Caution:  Contains scenes that may be disturbing to young or sensitive viewers" - because it, and the other five parts - are not for the faint of heart!:



I've been trying not to watch much TV at all these days, and I'll certainly not be watching any between now and tomorrow.  Because, I know I won't be able to stomach all the government/Hollywood hypocrisy, mourning the almost 3,000 killed, while literally and figuratively laying waste - to many, many millions more, both here and abroad.

The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict:

I could write a book about my feelings regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the Gaza Strip. But Greg Mitchell's piece over at Editor & Publisher led me to this - from a December 30th column by Amira Hass in the Jerusalem daily, Haaretz - which says it so much better and so much more succinctly than I ever could:

"This is not the time to speak of proportional responses, not even of the polls that promise a greater share of Knesset seats to the mission's architects. This is, however, the time to speak of the voters' belief the operation will succeed, that the strikes are precise and the targets justified.
Take, for example, Imad Aqel Mosque in Jabalya refugee camp, bombed and strafed shortly before midnight on Sunday. These are the names of the glorious military victory we achieved there - Jawaher, age 4; Dina, age 8; Sahar, age 12; Ikram, age 14; and Tahrir, age 17, all sisters of the Ba'lousha family, all killed in a "precise" strike on the mosque. Another three sisters, a 2-year-old brother and their parents were injured. Twenty-four neighbors were wounded and five homes and three stores destroyed. This part of the military victory did not open our television or radio news broadcasts yesterday morning, nor did they appear on many Israeli news Web sites.

This is the time to speak about the detailed maps in the hands of IDF commanders, and about the Shin Bet advisers who know the exact distance between the mosque and nearby homes. This is the time to discuss the drone planes and the hot air balloons fitted with advanced cameras floating over the Strip day and night, filming everything. 

This is the time to rely on legal advisers studying the operation to find the right phrasing to justify "collateral damage." Time to praise Foreign Ministry spokespeople who in their polished language, with their elegant South African or charmant Parisien accents, say it is the fault of Hamas, which uses neighborhood mosques for its own purposes. 

Talk of double standards has always been moot. Maybe there was a huge weapons store in the mosque. Maybe Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades militants met there every night and from there planned to launch their upgraded fighter jets. 

Where does the IDF Chief of Staff sit when he draws up war plans? Not in the Sahara, or even in the Negev. What would happen if someone blew themselves up at the entrance to Tel Aviv's Cinematheque movie theater, and those who sent him said sorry, but he was headed for the Defense Ministry down the street? 

This is not the time to recall long-forgotten history lessons to say this is not the way to topple a government. Nor is it the time to make rational recommendations for balanced statesmanship. The time for such things has passed, along with the New Order we once arrogantly tried to establish in Lebanon, which only brought us Hezbollah. Along with the Orientalists' plans to reduce the popularity of the PLO, which only paved the way for the emergence of a militant Islamic nationalist movement. 

The time of such recommendations has passed, along with the grab of Palestinian lands and hyperactive construction of settlements in the Oslo era, which only laid the cornerstone for the second intifada and the fall of Fatah. 

The era of reason and judgment died long ago, even before the targeted assassinations of Fatah activists in the West Bank, which soon turned into shooting attacks on soldiers and the emergence of another few thousand young people taking up arms, not to mention the phenomenon of suicide bombers. 

It is never the right time to say "we told you so," because once it is possible to say those words, they are already invalid. We cannot revive the dead, nor repair the damage caused by arrogance and megalomania. 

This is the time to speak of our own satisfaction and enjoyment. Satisfaction from tanks once again raising and lowering their barrels in preparation for a ground attack, satisfaction from our leaders' threatening finger-waving at the enemy. That's how we like our leaders - calling up reservists, sending pilots to bomb our enemies and manifesting national unity, from Baruch Marzel to Tzipi Livni, Netanyahu to Barak to Lieberman."

According to Mitchell's column, Hass is:

... not only an Israeli but both of her parents are Holocaust camp survivors. Yet she has gone on to become the most prominent Israeli journalist to make it her mission to report as often as possible from Gaza and the West Bank – breaking bans and earning the wrath of both Israeli and Palestinian officials. She earned headlines in this regard just in the past month.
Hass was born in Jerusalem, and studied the history of Nazism at Hebrew University. She joined Haaretz in 1989 and began living nearly fulltime in Gaza or Ramallah starting in 1993. She earned the Press Freedom Hero award from the International Press Institute in 2000, among other international journalism prizes. She now lives in Ramallah. 

Earlier this year, now a regular Haaretz columnist, Hass traveled to Gaza by boat to demonstrate her opposition to the Israeli blockade. On December 1, she was ordered to leave by Hamas, and arrested by Israeli police on her return to Israel.

A woman after my own heart!!! She lived among the "other," coming out with the simple realization that, "Right is right," and "Wrong is just plain, wrong" despite the real, or perceived loyalities involved. Would that we all should take a such a stand.

Remember the President-select's promises to AIPAC in March of 2007 and again in the video below in May 2008?



He's in hock - up to his neck - to the American Jewish lobby on Gaza. His first 100 days will surely be interesting.

Mr. Obama Comes to Florida

I just love Maxine!!!! She's probably who I'll be whenever I decide to grow the hell up! On second thought, we're already "more alike than we are different!" This speaks volumes, not only to that similarity, but to my feelings about the senator from Illinois coming here glad-handing, skinnin' and grinnin' and asking not only for more money - but for our support. I find this the worst of his "audacities." But I'm not surprised. Hubris is his second skin. Blocking our 1.7 million votes because the majority weren't cast for him may be a great political strategy in the eyes of those to whom strategy matters. But strategy doesn't matter to me -democracy does. I think primaries are the one, real chance for citizens to have their say about whom they want to represent them in the general election. As far as he's concerned, our say doesn't matter. This Herculean effort by him and his "crew" has been, and continues to be, nothing more than giving this Pied Piper time to hoodwink and bamboozle his way to a tainted nomination (I have got to find that blog I read the other day with the 48-star Old Glory and see if I can borrow it for my sidebar!) Magnanimously seating our delegates at the convention once the DNC gives him the nomination (yes I said it!) is no consolation for not counting our votes - as they stand. As a Black woman, there's surely nothing there of which to be proud. I expected better. Anyway. I'm sitting at the computer, listening to the news and they cut to a rally at which Sir Lie-A-Lot is scheduled to appear. I wasn't really paying attention at first, so I can't give you the exact location of this particular stop on his whirlwind, "Give Me More Money" tour of South Florida this weekend. I know the Cuban American National Foundation invited him to speak at the Independence Day celebration being held at the Intercontinental Hotel in Miami. I'm sure the "I stand with you against Castro and the Bush embargo" speech is fired up and ready to go. When I did look up, I saw the reporter, outside in the sweltering heat with a microphone in the face of one of the supporters who'd dutifully shown up - sign in hand. Confused that the senator was not there, she said, "I tried to call around to get more information about tickets to this and nobody knew much about it!" As it turns out, instead of his usual "present" or not at all votes, he'd flown back to D.C. to vote "Aye" on Senator Webb's bill (gotta keep the armed forces at least thinking he has their best interest at heart). He was late getting back so the town hall meeting at the B'nai Torah Congregation in Boca Raton, was rescheduled for a later time.

When the town hall meeting finally did happen, as much as I'm worn out listening to his bullshit - I did. Rather than rehash it point-by-point, here's a video I found sans the Q & A portion:

What do I say about this? PAN-DER-ER! Was that enough? No? Then, DAMN PAN-DER-ER!!

Now I know that's politics and all, so don't get your panties in a knot. They all have to play to the emotions of the crowd to whom they are speaking. Each of them has to make promises of both domestic and international policy changes - most of which they have no way of keeping without the legislative branch being fully on board. For the most part, every one of them must be adept at shining up shit and calling it gold. I get that. But really, this is something!

It was apparent the professor had reviewed his lesson plan before class. After all, he had a great reference in his AIPAC speech from March of 2007 (some of this is plucked right from it!). There is a slight, but very noticeable change in this one, however. He added how it pains him "to see the strains between the African-American community and the Jewish community." I guess back then, he needed to get that money with no distractions whatsoever. But he writes a good speech. Just don't ask him to debate because he's really not good on the fly - too ill-prepared, defensive and petulant when he doesn't get the material before class.

In any event, he said everything a Jewish person might want to hear. But in my humble opinion, his delivery was somewhat stiff and very tentative. Kind of like a young comic testing his material out on an unfamiliar audience hoping not to bomb. Actually, it was quite entertaining to watch him give his lecture on Jewish History to Jewish people who know their history far better than most of us. It just seemed like a, "See, I know all about y'all!" moment." And what was that, "I know how much Israelis crave freedom, uh, crave peace" about? A Freudian slip?

And somebody please explain again why Sen. Clinton's statement, "Dr King’s dream began to be realized when President Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It took a president to get it done," sent almost everybody into such a hissy fit? Why did so many take that truth, blow it way the hell out of proportion, splash it all across the mainstream media and twist it into the most racist thing ever? Because she's white? Does that negate the truth? Reread Joe Califano Jr.'s, "It Took a Partnership" - he was there.

Now comes the "Repairer of the Breach" (hey, he referenced the Prophet Isaiah not me) with, "...because I know, Dr. King could not have done everything that he did, were it not for the support of the Jewish community." Somebody please tell me why no one, not a single person Black or white, took umbrage to this truth? Is it because he's Black? Is it because his audience, no doubt had the cash to fill his coffers? This hypocrisy is not only daunting, it's laughable.

After dedicating 15 minutes of his speech to:

1. The Jewish History lesson
2. Assurances he'd be the one to recognize the Jewish state of Israel
3. Promising to "defend Israel from any attack whether it's from as close as Gaza or as far as Tehran (remember that tiny country he said posed a major threat during his AIPAC speech, then didn't pose a serious threat during his Portland speech last Sunday, but again poses a major threat during his B'nai Torah Congregation speech?),"

Almost as an afterthought, he devoted the last two minutes and 37 seconds to those pesky little domestic issues that are in "violation of the spirit of justice" he'd found in the Jewish faith and for which he expressed his deep affinity. You know those issues - substandard schools, underpaid teachers, college that's not affordable and Oh! Health care. Two minutes and 37 seconds! Somebody please give this man a damned napkin so he can wipe his mouth!

UPDATE: I read this very interesting post from Glenn Greenwald at Salon and since the senator from Illinois was waxing so philosophical about what "Israelis need" and sharing his "fundmental difference with former President Carter" about meeting with Hamas, I thought I'd share: "Majority of Israelis want to negotiate with Hamas"