Homelessness in the seat of power, during and after the Age of Obama

I remember a mere three months after the Changeling's "selection" and their move into the Big House, my favorite homeless, homeless advocate, Eric Sheptock called me excitedly saying that Michelle Obama had come to Miriam's Kitchen in DC to feed the homeless.

It was his hope the "selection," coupled with her show of some interest in homelessness (vis-à-vis her one-day visit to the soup-kitchen) -- that the DC government apparatchiks (former mayor, Adrian Fenty in particular) would "turn to" (Navy slang for "Get to work!") regarding the homeless.  I didn't share his enthusiasm and said so.

Then, two months later, a funny thing happened from deus ex machina to actual Trojan Horse-dom regarding the Changeling.  According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness:

Today, May 7, President Obama released his budget proposal for fiscal year (FY) 2010. The budget included funding proposals for housing and homeless programs....Highlights of the funding for homeless programs include:
• $1.8 billion for McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grants, an increase of $117 million over FY 2009;
•$46.3 billion for HUD programs, an 11 percent increase;
•$1 billion for a National Affordable Housing Trust Fund;
•$68 million for the Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness (PATH) program, an $8 million increase over the FY 2009 level;
•$19 million for a new DC Housing First Initiative to provide supportive housing to homeless individuals and families;
•$26 million for a pilot program to prevent homelessness for veterans.

That's a lot of damn money, no??!!

Yet, when I read this piece at OpEdNews on Election Day -- 90-year-old man, two pastors cited for feeding homeless in Florida, I immediately thought about two things:  this visual from Truthdig's, 'Somebody Called the Cops on Jesus' (Audio) story earlier this year...

The Rev. David Buck sits next to the Jesus the Homeless statue that was installed in front of his church, St. Alban's Episcopal, in Davidson, N.C.

...and this more recent post in early October from Eric, which he graciously allowed me to repost:

Job Discrimination Against the Homeless: Shirley Contracting and DC's First-Source Law

It's been said by social justice advocates and activists that, “There are 20 years that don't make a day; and then, there's that day that makes 20 years”. I think I just had my day that makes 20 years on October 3rd, 2014. I attended a hearing at Washington, DC's City Hall (The John A. Wilson Building). It was about the 41% cut to TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) that went into effect on October 1st, 2014. I didn't plan to testify, only to observe. However, as I heard various homeless or poor mothers and one single woman from the non-profit community testify, the gears began turning and I gave into tempation.

A woman on the previous four-person panel set things off when she shifted from talking about the increased hardships that she and her child will endure as a result of the near-half reduction in public benefits to talking about how she doesn't believe that city officials really want to end homelessness or poverty. She even talked about how the system that creates or deepens people's poverty then blames those people for their poverty and was one of at least two mothers who talked about how more poor people will commit crimes of survival as their public benefits are cut. They went on to mention the prison-industrial complex and how that, as people commit crimes of survival, prisons are being built and expanded and police are at the ready to arrest the poor and throw them in jail where money can be made off of them.

I shared the testimony table with three mothers. Naila (nah – EE – lah) is still relatively new to advocacy. Other long-term advocates and I have been offering our support to get her started. She sat to my right. Naila was the first person on our panel to speak. She told of homeless parents being intimidated by staff for speaking out about shelter conditions and of how the homeless families at the Quality Inn, courtesy of DC Government, had received notices of eviction with nowhere to go and no one to talk to. I fleshed out what the woman on the previous panel said by giving some very specific examples of systemic failures that add up to poor people being gentrified out of the city or that make their lives harder. After all, I've dealt with DC Government for eight years and some change. I know about their major SNAFU's since June 2006 first-hand and have heard about others that occurred prior to my becoming a homeless advocate. A woman who shares my mother's name and put herself through professional schooling while homeless sat to my left. A woman who suffers from Dyslexia but has three gifted children sat to the right of Naila who broke into tears as she heard the mother of three speak. I held and comforted her.

Councilman Jim Graham was so impressed with the testimonies of our panel that he strongly advised us to organize for power. Immediately after our panel was finished, the four of us stood, exchanged hugs (which is uncommon at a hearing) and walked into the hall to exchange contact info and plan when we would meet to organize. (That will happen on Monday, October 6th at 1 PM at the MLK, Jr. Library in Room A-9.) I was impressed by the fluidity of our collective testimonies even though we hadn't collaborated on them. I was also impressed by the critique of the capitalist system that took place during the hearing. It was reminiscent of the hearing a day earlier before the same councilman concerning the future of the CCNV Shelter. During that hearing a man who is new to advocacy talked mainly about the hurtful effects of the capitalist system and the fact that much of what city officials claim to do out of concern for homeless people is just a facade. While myself and other advocates have known these things for years, it is unusual for a person who is testifying to exit the topic of the hearing and give a general critique of the system; and, it is almost unheard of to have several people's testimonies so unintentionally and coincidentally build the case for an indictment against the same.

During my testimony I mentioned the fact that there weren't many homeless families present at a hearing that directly affects them; because, they don't have enough money to ride the transit system – that the problem we were there to discuss was self-compounding insomuch as the decreased funds decrease the ability of the poor to attend events where they should be speaking out about their plight. I also said that,though it's rather pie-in-the-sky, maybe we should approach the transit authority about assisting homeless families by giving them free rides or reduced fares, especially when attending such a meeting. Councilman Graham would later say that he can help with transportation. I also mentioned the fact that,with homeless families at the Quality Inn having been told to leave with nowhere to go and no one to talk to about their plight, we were returning to the atrocities of the winter of 2010-11.

During that winter, homeless mothers were turned away from an over-crowded shelter with their infants and toddlers in tow and given tokens to ride the bus all night. (The buses stop between 2 and 5 AM.) One particular boy who was born on February 10th spent his first month of life homeless as his mother slept with him in her storage unit, the Greyhound station and the stairwell of an unsecured apartment building. I too mentioned the insufficient political will to end homelessness, as I had the day before. At both hearings I mentioned Shirley Contracting which has begun a large 10-year building project right across the road from the shelter and only made a token effort to hire homeless people. I'm left to wonder if they've made any more of an effort to hire other Washingtonians.

I left the hearing at about 1:20 PM to go to an interview with an American University student who wanted to know about the phenomenon whereby homeless people are made to feelinvisible. Along with one other man, I told her about how the general public often tries not to notice a homeless person. I told her of how homeless parents often sleep in the bushes of various parks for fear that if they apply for shelter, the shelter is full and they are honest about not having anywhere to sleep indoors, then theirchildren will be taken away. This causes homeless parents to want to become “invisible”. I also told her about FEMA camps that are being erected in various cities, ostensibly in preparation for a disaster, and are being used as homeless shelters where a homeless person must go and is not allowed to leave without an escort in a van.

Then it was on to the radio station where I was one of three people on an hour-long show that centered around the book by my good friend, former Cleveland resident and current American University professor Dan Kerr called “DerelictParadise”. His book addresses poverty pimping from an academic standpoint. It shows the connection between the cheap labor afforded by day labor halls, the race to the bottom in terms of wages and the increase in homelessness since 1945. Dan, a Caucasian, beat me to the punch by being the first to mention that “urban renewal” is actually”negro removal”. (I really WAS getting ready to say that in my next comment when he said it. Great minds think alike.) It was here at WPFW 89.3 FM during the show with Garland Nixon from 6 to 7PM on October 3rd, 2014 that I mentioned the indictment of Shirley Contracting for the third time in two days (all three times having been taped and made available in the public domain.) The indictment is as follows:

In late August or early September 2014 Shirley Contracting which is a subsidiary of Clark Construction began work on a 10-year project near the 200 block of E Street NW in Washington, DC. There is a shelter building which holds up to 1,350 of the city's 8,000+ homeless people which is located diagonally across the road on the southeast corner of the same intersection. It contains three separate shelters, a clinic, a drug program and a kitchen that feeds 5,000 poor people per day and is collectively known as the Federal City Shelter. The CCNV (Community for Creative Non-Violence) is one of those shelters in the building with 950 of the beds. There are probably 300 people in that building who are fully capable of doing construction labor. There may be upwards of 100 who have skills in the construction trades.

Washington, DC has what are called “First Source Laws” which mandate that employers make a good-faith effort to ensure that at least 51% of their employees are DC residents. After they make a good-faith effort to hire DC residents, they are allowed to hire people from outside of DC. The following amounts to what I suspect was a token effort to hire DC residents and one which uses homeless people in ways that the homeless might not be aware.

I was told by a man who, along with his co-workers, comes from the Academy of Sciences during his lunch break to help homeless people write resumes and apply on-line for jobs that Shirley Contracting had indeed contacted the shelter administration to inform them that the company was hiring. This friend had been led to believe that the company wanted to hire a large number of people from the shelter. The shelter administration did not make it their business to convey this information to all residents, though I have no complaint about the man who told me.

I went to the company's website, sent them a message expressing my desire to discuss them hiring homeless people, made a flier with their contact info along with what I'd been told and posted those fliers at the shelter. On or around September 10th I called Shirley Contracting. I was put through to a certain Carrie Carr-Maina (703-550-1127) and explained my understanding of the matter. She seemed rather friendly, for what that's worth to you. (She works in HR.) She said that, while she doesn't know who from her company contacted the shelter, she thinks that they might have simply told the shelter that Shirley is hiring but doubts that they stated a desire to hire any homeless people. She emphasized that anyone may apply. She explained that the application can be done on-line or in person at the office in Lorton Virginia which is beyond where the transit system goes and considerably difficult to get to – especially if you are a homeless person of limited means. (It stands to reason that the interview would be in Lorton even if one were to apply on-line.) Ms. Carr-Maina suggested getting a van and bringing 10 people out to apply in Lorton. She also told me that Shirley Contracting would be participating in a job fair at the Washington Convention Center on September 24th.

On September 23rd I called Carrie Carr-Maina to confirm that she would be at the job fair the next day. She said she would but then asked me if I'd seen her e-mail. I hadn't. She then proceeded to tell me that I was publishing bad information about Shirley Contracting that included the idea that the companywould transport homeless people to Lorton for the interview. I asked her when she sent it and she said the 15th. I thought that a mentally ill homeless advocate whom I know may have made his own version of my flier and sent it out in the name of SHARC, the advocate group that I chaired beginning at the group's inception in April 2011. When I went back and read the e-mail, it had a faxed copy of my flier and a company flier along with a message from Carrie about the large amount of human resources that were wasted dealing with people who were calling in based on bad information. My flier said nothing about the company having offered to ride homeless people to the office in Lorton.

During this conversation I asked her about the claim by a certain homeless man that Shirley Conracting was hiring through the Local 657 labor union for construction and general labor. She said, “No”. She also told me that many other Shirley jobs were coming to a close and that those workers would be transferred to the site near the shelter, leaving very few jobs for the homeless to obtain.

I received a text from a different number (702-358-0411) on September 23rd which said that the job fair was at the Doubletree Hotel in Crystal City. The number belongs to what appears to be an identity protection firm in Las Vegas named “Level 3 VoIP”. I'm left to wonder why anybody from Las Vegas is contacting me, with me having no connections there. I didn't actually see the text until the morning of the 24th. I'd hung fliers directing people to the Washington Convention days earlier. I now had to write what I thought was the proper address on the fliers by hand. But it was too late. Some people had already made their way to the Convention Center.

I wrote this entire experience off as water under the bridge and decided that I would still do all that I could to connect homeless people to the jobs across the street from the shelter. I printed the company flier that Carrie had sent me, which had very scant information about the company's job offerings. Then I went to the hearing about the shelter's future on October 2nd. During my testimony, I mentioned the irony of it being so hard for homeless people to get the job across the street. I highlighted that there was an affordable housing issue on one side of the road and a living-wage issue on the other side of the road. What I would hear another man testify about moments later would cause the plot to thicken.

The last man to testify was new to advocacy. He made an indictment of the system as a whole and talked about how DC is being given to the wealthy and the well-to-do. Then he mentioned his experience dealing with Shirley Contracting. He'd initially been told that the job fair was in Crystal City. He claims that it actually took place in Pentagon City. At that moment I realized that I wasn't the only one to be given the run-around by Shirley Contracting and that it wasn't a matter of my own carelessness. I made sure to mention my updated assessment at the October 3rd hearing and during my October 3rd broadcast.

I've brought this matter up during several of my in-person conversations (as opposed to radio broadcasts). My friends and associates agree with me that, if Shirley has a project which I've been told will net them $2.8 billion and which will last for 10 years, they should have to establish a DC office or a mere office trailer on the job site where Washingtonians can apply and interview. We also agree that Shirley just used the homeless. Irrespective of their homeless status, the 1,350 people at the Federal City Shelter are DC residents. Shirley could, in theory, call the shelter director to say that they are hiring and then put that down as having reached out to over 1,000 DC residents about prospective employment with the company. Not only would it bring them closer to reaching the bare minimum of DC residents so as to justify them looking outside of the city for employees, in accordance with the First Source Laws. It might also bring them closer to satisfying some federal law that mandates that they reach out to depressed communities and other disadvantaged groups – such as “Equality Opportunity Laws”.

We can't let this token effort pass as a satisfaction of either law. Let's strengthen either law so as to require Shirley Contracting to establish a DC-based employment office and to visit the shelter and talk directly to groups of prospective employees at the shelter across the road. Let's take it a step further by strictly defining the real employment opportunities that they must offer and the reasonable accommodations that they must make to enable homeless people to obtain employment at the site across the road. They should also have to help them make it through until their first check – namely with cash advances against their hours worked. They should have to do this last thing for at least two weeks and, at most, five or six weeks. I've picked a fight with Shirley. Who will join that fight?????

Unfortunately Eric, I doubt there are many (if any) residents in the now, nearly completely gentrified (read "bleached," thanks to Jefe at an Abagond post some time ago), decidedly unaffordable District of Columbia -- including the newly "selected" mayor, Muriel Bowser who will likely join that fight. {smdh}

Now, if the afore-mentioned instances are not excellent enough reminders of how so totally un-Christlike, these self-professed Christians, living in and running this so-called Christian nation really are, I don't know what else you need.  Not only is homelessness criminalized (pretty much everywhere the gentrifiers slide in), they're also involved in all sorts of schemes to totally crush people's spirit -- and keep them homeless!!!  I just gotta ask all you God-fearin', Scripture-spoutin',  saved hypocrites two things:  Is this what Jesus would do and -- what the hell happened to all that money??!!

Wake the hell up Family!  After the current  mid-terms, where Republicans have gained total control of an already, do-nothing' Congress, it's not going to get any better for humanity in this country!  Corporations as people and how much your "brand" is worth, is unfortunately, the order of the day -- unless of course, we all "join that fight."

Please check out Eric's blog on homelessness in the seat of power in these alleged United States of America at: Tick Tock Sheptock.

Related:
- Give 'er HADES: Innundate Muriel Bowser with the Demands of the Poor
- Shining Like a Diamond
- 2 Friends Turned A Van Into A Laundromat So Homeless People Can Wash Their Clothes
- It is now illegal to distribute food to homeless people in 21 cities
- Can a ‘Homeless Bill of Rights’ End the Criminalization of LA’s Most Vulnerable Residents?
- From Super Bowl Champion to Homeless Retiree

The intended consequence of white supremacist-manufactured "symbolism?" -- our continued blissful ignorance

I can understand how "symbols" inspire many of us to aspire -- not only when what seems to be their deeply held truths appear to mirror our own, but particularly when they look like us!  But, once we see, by their deeds, that we've been staring "through a glass darkly," shouldn't blissful ignorance be kicked to the curb in search of some real truth?  Doesn't our successful survival as human beings depend upon it?

With most of the present sources of power controlled by the white race it behooves my race as well as the other subject races to learn the wisdom of the weak and to develop to the fullest that organ whereby weakness has been able to overcome strength; namely, the intellect.  It is not with our teeth that we will tear the white man out of our ancestral land.  It isn't with our jaws that we can wring from his hands consideration and respect.  It must be done by the upper and not by the lower parts of our heads.  Therefore, I have insisted ever since my entry into the arena of racial discussion that we Negroes must take to reading, study and the development of intelligence as we have never done before.  In this respect we must pattern ourselves after the Japanese who have gone to school to Europe but had never used Europe's education to make them the apes of Europe's culture.  They have absorbed, adopted transformed and utilized, and we Negroes must do the same.  The three editorials in this chapter and the articles which follows them were written to indicate from time to time the duty of the transplanted African in this respect. (emphasis mine)

Hubert Henry Harrison,  Chapter VIII. -- "When Africa Awakes"

Please read this book, Family.  Its mere 146 pages are chock-full of the kind of clarity we need to hear and heed.  And please, know that his reference to "Africa" in the title is not restricted to the Continent itself, but to the diaspora worldwide.  It was through Pan-Africanism that he saw us defeating white supremacy and benefitting from that struggle.   First published in 1920, Mr. Harrison's book was not only prescient, it is still very relevant today (though I'm certain he'd be sorely disappointed with many of us -- "New Negroes," for whom he held out such promise).

For the past month or so, I've been ruminating about Madiba's death, memorial service, interment and dedication of his statue in South Africa the day after.  Combined, they all totally reinforced for me, how white supremacist-manufactured "symbolism" continues to cripple many of us, Black folk across the diaspora.

If the ANC's 1955 Freedom Charter (demanding the nationalizing of banks, mining and other major industries, as well as the redistribution of land, among other things) had not been abandoned and, had they told the IMF, "Thanks, but no thanks, we don't need your loan money.  We've got gold, diamonds as well as plenty of those pesky rare earth minerals that YOU seem to need so much right here under our feet!  So, how 'bout let's talk some contract renegotiations m'kay?" -- I think we can all agree, the marginalized in South Africa would've been able to "pull themselves up by their own bootstraps" a long time ago!

John Pilger's, "Apartheid Did Not Die" deals with that inconvenient truth most effectively.  Take a listen:



After reading Ezili Dantò's most comprehensive, Madiba Is Dead: Condolences To Heroic Mother Winnie, I was more than good with my ruminations (Family, please take the time to read the entire piece, as well as the links).  She begins:

Now that Madiba is dead: Remember to remember that icons created by oppressors will never liberate the people. Madiba is dead: Condolences to heroic mother Winnie. (emphasis mine)

This is a sentiment with which I totally agree.  And it, consequently, represents an excellent example of that "white supremacist-manufactured symbolism" that's still confusing us.  According to them:  pre-prison, resistance warrior, Nelson Mandela, bad; post-27 years imprisoned, compliant Nelson Mandela -- good; pre- and post-prison, resistance warrior, Winnie Mandela?  All bad.

Ms. Dantò continues:

Since Mandela’s death, the same international powers that keep the structural conditions alive for Black suffering worldwide, are universally heralding the man and his great achievements. The same corporatocracy who helped keep South Africa and the global South in economic chains and political instability to increase their money-making profits, are lining up to have their pictures taken at the funeral. (emphasis mine)

Really, Family -- you just can't make this shit up!  

And rather than Black bloggers reaching back to the "temple of their familiar," knowing that in our culture, a funeral service is a solemn showing of respect for a life lived (after the wake, of course!),  there was a plethora of these kinds of pieces, mimicking the narrative of the oppressors.  Apparently, cultural amnesia has replaced what we know to be true -- for us.

I've not written much about Michelle Obama because early on, it was quite clear to me that she'd been reigned in and allowed herself to be made into the kind of "symbol" with which white supremacy is most comfortable.  But, the photo above speaks volumes -- not only about "from whence she came," but about her damned husband as a White Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchal lemming as well.  Given his "selfie," it's obvious he never had a clue what our Blackness is, and has been, about.   He's just another one of those pieces of white supremacist-manufactured "symbolism" we really could have  done without. If we're honest (with ourselves and others), the answer to the question Ms. Dantò asks here...

Is putting a Black face in command of the same racist, profit-over-people economic system – as with President Barack Obama in the US – a great change? (emphasis mine)

...is an unequivocal, "absolutely not!"

“Life was neither something you defended by hiding nor surrendered calmly on other people’s terms, but something you lived bravely, out in the open, and that if you had to lose it, you should lose it on your own terms.”

Edwidge Danticat, The Dew Breaker

To my mind, having "lived bravely," must always involve telling the whole truth (to one's self as well as others), owning one's fears and muddling through to clarity -- despite them.  As I ponder young Sister Danticat's words, I wonder if Madiba did, in fact, lose his life on his own terms.  Thanks to the non-stop white-washing, I guess we'll never really know.

As I write this today --  on Martin Luther King Day -- I would be remiss in not mentioning white supremacy's machinations of Dr. King's "symbolism."  I've been pensive about it all day.  It seems to me that Dr. King was Black America's own, pre-prison Mandela (though he was not technically imprisoned in America for 27 years).  Instead of breaking him with jail, forcing him to finally disavow all for which he'd fought -- they killed him.  Perhaps they concluded that, no matter what they put him through (unlike the Changeling), they could not turn him against the interests of his people.

White supremacy has done everything they can -- to manufacture a Dr. King with whom they can feel comfortable -- and in some ways, we have been and continue to be, complicit in their success. If I hear one more, "content of their character" quote manipulation and misappropriation, I think my damned head will just explode!

While he was alive, they maligned, demeaned and castigated him for standing up for his people, his culture and what he believed was right -- and human.  After he died, they felt it their right and privilege to do whatever they wished with his memory, like they could, and can, still "own" people.

And just so other folk of color didn't get it twisted, they made certain to spread the bigotry around for those, thirsty to indulge in the "American Nightmare Dream."  Last week, my youngest called me as he was getting ready for work to say (trust me, I was not happy when he called because  I rarely "rise and shine" at that hour!), "Mom, I was watching the news and the weather guy came on and said, "for Martin Luther Coon Day, we expect it to warm up..."  I asked, "You sure he said that?" (the weather guy is a community-accepted, white supremacy-stamped -- descendant of Mexican immigrants!)

He said, "Yeah Mom, he said it.  My friend, Charlotte Redd recorded it on her phone from the TV and sent it to me."  Without a thought, I blurted out, "See, that's why I don't f*ck with Mexicans who think they're white -- send me that video so I can post it!"  He did, but my non-computer wonk self couldn't figure out how to convert it to a Youtube video so I could post it, so here's the article where the station insufficiently addressed it:  San Antonio weatherman says MLK slur was mistake.

Please!  I could give two shits about their, or his, bullshit apology.  Seems he thinks his white benefactors at Fox don't think something equally derogative about him (and his other Brown brethren crossing over the Rio Grande into the belly of the beast).  Let me just say, he's still at work.  Without a doubt, his thought processes benefit white supremacy immensely.

I'm ending this saying that, despite my disagreements with Dr. King's "respectability politics" -- I will always love him.  Why?  Because I've never doubted that he always stood -- and died -- for us.  And the struggle continues, Family...

Related:
- Cameron explains selfie at Mandela memorial
- South Africa: Mandela Is Dead - Why Hide the Truth About Apartheid?
- When Martin Luther King Jr. gave up his guns
- How we get Dr. King wrong: “We’ve deliberately dismembered him,” Michael Eric Dyson tells Salon
- The Martin Luther King Jr. They Don’t Want You to Remember

The "Transcendent" Mrs. O

“For Barack,” said Michelle Obama in her wildly acclaimed speech tonight, “these issues aren’t political – they’re personal.”

That reprise of the shopworn feminist slogan — “the personal is political” — was the essential premise of her entire speech. In a cloyingly theatrical modern tradition, first ladies attend the national conventions to testify about biography, not policy; they talk about the man as only they know him. But Michelle Obama managed to effortlessly marshal both to tell a story about change in America — with the promise of more to come — and to deliver her speech transcendantly. (emphasis mine)

I watched Michelle Obama's speech last Tuesday and my take-away was nowhere near Salon's take on said speech, Michelle Obama: Beyond mom-in-chief.  My first thought was, "There goes that word again!   Why are Black "achievements" always described as transcendent by our alabaster brethren (they certainly used it enough in the run-up to, and selection of, the Changeling)?"  Answering my own question I said, "Because they only consider one of Webster's definitions of the word when it comes to some, former 'savages' -- exceeding usual limits : surpassing.

Discarding the white racial frame, Webster's second definition seemed a more apt description of the Mom-in-Chief's speech to me as I talked back to the TV like one of my great aunts used to do -- beyond comprehension.  This wonderful piece by Saswat Pattanayak, posted over at voxunion last weekend, captured most of my reasons why most eloquently in, Michelle Obama and American Status Quo Action Plan:

Michelle Obama’s convention speech has been both applauded and criticized for being too emotional. Those amazed at her love towards her husband have shed a tear or two, while the detractors are disappointed at her personal narrative lacking statistical substance.

A critical inquiry would reveal that her speech was anything but emotive. It was a carefully orchestrated rehash of an old American fixation with individual merits, family values and competitive prosperity. Her speech was a blueprint for humanizing capitalism. It was a justification for the status quo politics that has uniformly strengthened a populist cry for American hegemony; decade after decade, regime after regime. Michelle Obama’s speech has merely colored the template acceptable.

Then this week, Black Agenda Report Editor and senior columnist, Margaret Kimberley succinctly and skillfully laid waste to the white-framed idea of "transcendent" in her, Black America Stands Down for the Obamas:

The best example of foolishness masquerading as substance was the overwrought reaction to first lady Michelle Obama’s speech. She gave what has become a traditional address asking voters to support the candidate because his wife tells funny stories about him which will make voters determined to vote for the good husband/dad/one time poor student who loves his country. The only difference between Michelle Obama and Ann Romney’s speeches was in the quality of delivery and fashion sense. Apparently there is still nothing like a beautiful woman in the right dress to make otherwise intelligent people lose their common sense.

I, for one, certainly appreciate these "canaries in the coal mines," who (with facts), exposed the white-framed description of Mrs. O's "transcendent" speech for what it was, politricks as usual -- "with the promise of more to come."

That in mind, Ms. Hill's searing, "When the, Son of Perdition is Commander-in-Chief..." shouldn't be ignored:



Yet the beat goes on...

Catching up on some "Ruminations"...

Sheridf's, "The Wait of the Nation II:  Parent Companies, the "Bain" of our Existence!" over at The Crunk Feminist Collective, is the best piece I've read about Romney and Bain Capital since all this hullaballoo first broke in the MSM. Here's my comment to her explaining why I think so:

"sheridf…What a wonderful piece of “follow-the-money,” investigative writing! I have to admit, when I saw the title on my emailed subscription, I said, “Argh!, more Romney-Bain sh*it! Does it really matter when he left (besides the fact he may have lied; I mean, Hell, all politicians lie about their money and what they do to get it, if they can get away with it — ALL of them!)?

But this sh*t right here?? This, is the kind of information the MSM and the Changeling’s campaign folk (full disclosure: I’m no fan of his, or them, either!) should be putting out there! Particularly given it’s horribly, negative contributions to the “framing” of our children’s, parents’ and families’ lives (which, as I think about it, speaks to yet another way the current residents of the “Big House,” continue to ignore, “big picture” issues affecting the Black community — I mean, Obesity is/has been his wife’s “signature” issue! Brava my young sister! Thank you for this work…"

Please do take a moment to tune out the MSM's dog-whistles and read this important and very relevant-to-the-Black-community piece of investigative journalism (cuz Lord knows you won't get it from either campaign's talking heads!).

~#~

Glenn Greenwald's got some interesting links in #2 of his "Various Matters" post.  It appears there's at least ONE MSM journalist willing to confront this administration on their undying fealty to Israel.  Glenn has the transcript, but if a picture's worth a 1000 words, then a video is -- priceless! Check it out:

~#~

Now after all this, the Changeling adds insult to injury by, sending "Biden to NAACP convention":

The NAACP had hoped that President Obama would speak during its six-day confab, as he did when campaigning in 2008 and again in 2009. In 2010 Michelle Obama addressed the convention...On Tuesday an NAACP spokesman said the group was reserving a Thursday speaking spot for the president. (emphasis mine)

Well, seems they've certainly got the "hope" part of his "Hope and Change" message down pat!  I guess since Biden thought the Changeling was, "the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy...” -- THAT guy thought it was okay to send him to a room full of similarly situated Black folk in his stead. (smdh)  Talk about needing to "take off your bedroom slippers and put on your marching shoes" -- so you can march the hell away from this joker!

I think I can safely say that his tenure in the Big House, has effectively put Blacks in an untenable position.  We've not demanded, nor gotten anything from him!  Who's really going to take us seriously after we've sat back and let him get away with ignoring us for four (maybe eight years) with hardly a collective peep?  Come on family, ain't y'all tired of asking:

**UPDATE:** Obama Administration Creating African American Education Office.  Well, family, he finally threw out one of his "executive order" crumbs.  Oh,  go ahead --  I can just imagine all the, "See!  I told you he cared!" happy-dancin' going on right now!

But wait a minute!  Is it just me? Or did it take over three and a half years AND three months before the election to even spit in this direction? Seems to me, if it looks like a shut-the-hell-up duck, and quacks like a shut-the-hell-up duck -- it's a damned shut-the-hell-up duck!  Just sayin'...

~#~

The Julian Assange Show on RT News continues to offer up some interesting conversation that again, we need not look to the MSM to provide:



Occupy movements notwithstanding -- there appears to be little, if any, danger of popular forces creating practical, functioning, new and significant "models" here, Noam!

~#~

Israeli-Arab community upset over new military draft law (article that accompanies the video):

Arab Israelis make up about 20 per cent of Israel’s population. While they have not traditionally been conscripted by the government, many of them choose to serve willingly, either in the army or community service, thereby becoming eligible for the same social benefits that Jewish Israelis enjoy after serving.

However, the new law would make the above service mandatory for the Arab population, raising questions among a community torn between their loyalty to the Jewish state and their heritage as Palestinians. (emphasis mine)

Man! All I can say is -- that is some re-e-ally sad, split-mind shit right there.

Like many minorities here, the Druze have been trying to be "patriotic" and serve "their country" (even though the Zionists, much like "real Americans" here, see it as their country).  And if they do, they get a shot at a somewhat equal and decidedly "better life" -- at least materially.  But when one considers that the Druze must fight and/or kill, other Palestinians, that whole "material" thing seems a bit hollow (the Civil War springs to mind).  But that's just me.

And then of course, there's this, Israeli Military Draft Panel Defies Netanyahu:

Shaul Mofaz, chairman of parliament's largest party, Kadima, told reporters Netanyahu "crassly" violated their coalition agreement on Monday when he disbanded the panel, which proposed ending sweeping exemptions for ultra-Orthodox men and penalizing them if they dodge the draft. Many Israelis deplore the privileges that the ultra-Orthodox receive, but Netanyahu is reluctant to alienate what are traditional supporters by adopting proposals they vehemently oppose...The draft privileges for the religious date back six decades, when Israel's founders granted exemptions to 400 exemplary seminary students to help rebuild great schools of Jewish learning destroyed in the Holocaust. The numbers of exemptions have steadily ballooned over the years, and today, an estimated 60,000 religious men of military age are exempted. The pattern of studying instead of serving continues long past draft age, with ultra-Orthodox men commonly spending their lives in religious study instead of working, while collecting welfare. (emphasis mine)

Sounds a lot like those "exemptions" enjoyed by many of the well-connected, college-bound in this country, no? -- like this, one of many:  Starting as a freshman at Stanford University in 1966, Romney received a series of deferments, including one for his role as a “minister of religion or divinity student,” that kept him out of Vietnam (read that here). 

So if I'm reading these pieces correctly, mandatory for most Arab-Israelis -- exemptions for all ultra-Orthodox Israelis/Zionists. Hell, I'd be more than a little ticked off my-damned-self!

I had one more, but it's way too long to insert as a mere rumination.  Hope to post it soon.

What! No "Beer Summit" scheduled for FLOTUS and her home-boy?

(Update I & II below)

H/T to RedDragon62 not only for this video, but for his outrage:

"What shocked me is the lack of outrage at what this animal had to say. Not one Liberal blogger, not one "Progressive site, Not ONE came to the defense of the poor! Not one called this asshole out on his RACIST... (yeah I said it) RACIST remarks!"

I'd read the story earlier and intended to link to it for this post.  But havin' Massa Bauer actually speak his White Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchal bullshit for his lil ole self, is so-o-o-o much better don't you think?  If you've not heard Good Ole Boy, Jr. at his best - take a listen:

And what made this extra-specially karmic, is that we're only one month shy -(almost to the day) - of the one-year anniversary of the Changeling's first, big address to Congress where he paraded young, Ty'Sheoma Bethea from Dillon, SC into the "Kingdom" for a night (and a photo op). You remember that don't you?  Here are a few snippets to help you if you don't:

In the end, there is no program or policy that can substitute for a parent, for a mother or father who will attend those parent-teacher conferences, or help with homework, or turn off the TV, put away the video games, read to their child...(snip)

These education policies will open the doors of opportunity for our children, but it is up to us to ensure they walk through them...(snip)

I think about Ty'Sheoma Bethea, the young girl from that school I visited in Dillon, South Carolina, a place where the ceilings leak, the paint peels off the walls, and they have to stop teaching six times a day because the train barrels by their classroom.

She had been told that her school is hopeless. But the other day after class, she went to the public library and typed up a letter to the people sitting in this chamber. She even asked her principal for the money to buy a stamp.

The letter asks us for help and says, "We are just students trying to become lawyers, doctors, congressmen like yourself, and one day president, so we can make a change to not just the state of South Carolina, but also the world. We are not quitters."

That's what she said: "We are not quitters." (snip)

Young Miss Bethea is one of those poor "animals" to which Jr. up there is referring.  Hailing from the homestate of FLOTUS, she lived in Dillon, where 85% of the students live below the poverty line and the drop-out rate is 60%!  Here's a RECENT profile of J.V. Martin Junior High School where she was enrolled last year:

The emphases in the figures are my own.  I'm not a computer wonk, so if it's too small, I apologize.  I just wanted you to see why Miss Bethea - probably confident, that on the first Black-identified president's watch, things would change - wrote her letter to Congress.

I also wanted you to see, why Jr.'s little spiel is about nothing BUT Race. Seems there's plenty enough "quitting" to go around given these numbers.  And word has it, since her day in the sun? Miss Bethea's mother lost her job and has relocated her family to the Atlanta area.  But I ain't mad at her and her family at all.  What do you do when you reach out for help and are ignored?  You fend for you and yours, the best way you know how, that's what.

Hailing from THIS particular "Original 13," I'm used to Jr. and his ilk.  As a matter of fact, I kinda prefer 'em.  At least there was never any doubt where my Black ass stood.  Dealing with whites from other parts of the country however, required an entire reeducation for me once I left home. All that patronizing,smiling in your face, while stabbing you in the back took a helluva lot of getting used to I tell you!

Is Jr. a racist? Hell yeah!!  But that's no surprise to me. For them in the South, Poor = People Who Look Like Me. I've heard it, lived it and felt it all my damn life. It's 2010, and not a damn thing's changed in South Carolina, I promise you.

Good Ole Boy, Jr. - is the reason why the "O & MO" Show (with the assistance of that other "O" who, back in the day, would have had plenty to say about this shit.  Anybody remember when she took her show to the sundown town of Vidor, TX in thelate 80s/early 90s - before she became theirs because they pay so much better?) was able to pull their damn "race card" to stir-up Black folk in South Carolina against the "Bill & Hill" Show (they're all politicians to me).

Good Ole Boy, Jr - is the reason the Changeling got nearly 100% of the Black vote in SC (and probably will again).  I can still remember my sister excitedly calling me from their "Hoodwink Road Show."  And when I started my list of reasons why they weren't shit, she quickly said, "I gotta go, they're about to start!"

My people were looking for a "Black Savior" - for a change (none of them will own that in "mixed company however").   And trust me, I totally understand that feeling (I don't care about "mixed company").  But he used the KNOWLEDGE OF THEM, gathered from his South Carolina born-and-raised wife and mother-in-law, to bamboozle them with false, "Black Saviorly" hope. But just like a bad, damn boyfriend - he got what the hell he wanted from them and never looked back (ask Miss Bethea and her mother).

And it was easy to do.  Because - despite Jim Clyburn (or because of him) - Jr. and his crew still have their feet firmly implanted on the necks of Blacks in the state. And seeing as the "O & MO" Show didn't waste any time calling out the Clintons for THEIR RACISM back then, I was just sure there'd be some kind of "Beer Summit" in the offing for Jr. But I guess - if you believe Jr. - it'd be awful difficult to get all of South Carolina's "animals" to stop breeding long enough to come and sit around a table and sip some, "Can we all just get along" beer with Massa Lt. Gubna and his homegirl.

UPDATE I:  H/T to Miska over at the bearded lady's radical feminist disco of rage for this little nugget -  Hungry Haitians like animals, says UN peacekeeper.  Jr.'s not the only one lovin' the term "animals" - out loud.
UPDATE II:  Obama keeps pledge to help J.V. Martin - Well, isn't this CONVE-E-E-E-NIENT!  Right before his 2nd big speech, he again "uses" Ms. Bethea to try to make himself look good.  Call me a cynic, I don't care.  But these two sentences in the piece tell me this little move is as contrived as it could be:

The funds will come from the $787 billion economic-stimulus bill Obama signed into law last February.

The announcement came on the day before Obama's first formal State of the Union address to be delivered this evening before a joint session of Congress.

Okay:
- He had his little photo op in January 2009
- Signed the behemoth bill into law in February 2009.
- Sanford refused the stimulus funds until two lawsuits were filed by students and school administrators (much respect to them for their invovlement in "saving themselves") and the "Supremes" ordered his silly self to request the funds in March 2009. 

And now, MAGICALLY, right before he has to get up before the people with some more bullshit NOT in our best interests (presumably - based on the leaks from the Big House), He plans to soften the blow with this announcement of a promise kept - just so Black folk will say, "See!  He did what he said!"  Yes he did.

And while they celebrate, I suspect he'll be picking already empty pockets in the Black community with tonight's speech.  But I'll be fair.  I'll wait until he spews forth on jobs, health care (if it passes, I still see no benefit for those who couldn't afford it before, especially that sweet "fine" thing if you don't get it from his cronies with whom he made a deal early on and the fact that nothing will happen until what, 2013??)), disparate sentencing policies and mass Black/Brown incarceration in the prison industrial complex along with the corporatization of the education system just to name a few.  And let's not forget those pesky little issues facing my LGBT brothers and sisters like, getting rid of DOMA, supporting same-sex marrriage and sounding the death-knell for Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

I think my sister Cin would definitely call this kept promise a "dog-whistle" - so would I. 

Let's be clear though, I AM glad the school will be rebuilt and that Miss Bethea can feel empowered by the part she played in making that happen.  Who knows?  Maybe she and her family will move back home.

Bad stretch for some Black folks (and one similarly identified) lately! - Pt. 2

How I'm feelin' today:  “The greatest tool in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.”

Steve Biko

I know this is "old news" but, I did say I'd finish this (for posterity, if nothing else).  So, here's a continuation of those "distractions" and my thoughts on them  - quick and dirty like, so's I can move on to more timely matters:

Wednesday, September 9: Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) shouts out "You Lie!" during The Changeling's Healthcare speech.   My thoughts?  Though Joe didn't (really) lie - is it me, or did he (along with all the tweetin'-during-the-speech, etc.) deliver a direct salvo of disrespect for this society-identified Black man.  Call me a birther if you want to, I don't care.  SOMETHING in that milk ain't clean!

Friday, September 11: Michael Jordan inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. Yahoo! Sports writer, Adrian Wojnarowski wrote this description of that night thusly:  Jordan’s night to remember turns petty.  Here are a few interesting excerpts:

• "Something unworthy of Jordan’s stature, something beneath him..."
• "Whatever, Michael. Everyone gets it. Truth be told, everyone got it years ago, but somehow he thinks this is a cleansing exercise. When basketball wanted to celebrate Jordan as the greatest player ever, wanted to honor him for changing basketball everywhere, he was petty and punitive..."
• "Yes, there was some wink-wink teasing with his beloved Dean Smith, but make no mistake: Jordan revealed himself to be strangely bitter..."

...as defined by the White Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy?  Ever thought being "honored" and "celebrated" by the WSCP isn't the end all and the be all to MJ?  And is that a "you should be grateful dammit!" attitude I hear seeping through the commentary?  Too funny!

Obviously he felt he had a few things to be bitter about and decided to let ya'll have it - after he earned all that coin you paid him.  That's right, EARNED!  Quit acting like ya'll gave him something (he was the greatest player ever - even you said so!).  It would've been nice though (and IMHO, a helluva lot more manly) if he'd have let ya'll have it while he was earning the coin.  But we all know how that mask-wearing-for-money goes.

Saturday, September 12: Serena Williams lost the U.S. Open semifinal against Kim Clijsters. Here's an interesting Open Salon article (with videos) by Kathy Riordan: What Was Serena Thinking?  regarding the cussin' out Venus gave the line judge.  Really???  John McEnroe anyone?  Oops!  Wrong color, wrong gender.  And the judge was in fear of her life?  Oh, I forgot.  Angry Black Woman cussin' you out = life-threatening situation.

(I'd be remiss if I didn't offer this update - Serena says she 'loves' ESPN nude cover shot.

I have to admit, my immediate response when I saw the cover was, "Da-a-a-mn, what a beautiful picture of my chocolate Sister!  And it is, but the damn  "voices" just had to have their say:

Me:  Much hell as they raised about her cussin' that judge out, here she is gracin' the cover of ESPN Magazine!  Damn hypocrites!

Voice #1:  Truly!  All that really says is - in general - not much has changed.  Naked - we're fine.  Vocal, not so much.

Voice#2:  You feel like that?

Me:  In general?  Or in particular?

Voice #1 & #2:  Both!!

Me:  Let me get back to you on that.

First thought that came to mind after that little tète-à-tète, was some of "Black" John Howard Griffin's account of his observations of white men regarding Black women in his, ought-to-be-mandatory-reading-in-all-schools, "Black Like Me."  Once, he recounts his experience working at  a New Orleans shoe-shine stand with his Black friend, Sterling to whom he'd told his "secret":

Well-dressed tourists mingled with the derelicts of the quarter.  When we shined their shoes we talked.  The whites, especially the tourists, had no reticence before us, and no shame since we were Negroes.  Some wanted to know where they could find girls, wanted us to get Negro girls for them.  We learned to spot these from the moment they sat down, for they were immediately friendly and treated us with the warmth and courtesy of equals.  I mentioned this to Sterling.

"Yeah, when they want to sin, they're very democratic," he said.

And again, hitchhiking between Mobile and Montgomery, he caught a ride with a white man who expressed this:

"I'll tell you how it is here.  We'll do business with you people.  We'll sure as hell screw your women.  Other than that, you're just completely off the record as far as we're concerned.  And the quicker you people get that through your heads, the better off you'll be."

There are many other passages regarding the whole Black-women-white-men thing (many with which I grew up, many about which I thought before, and post - "the husband"), but these illustrate best what I also think about the cover. Just sayin'.


Saturday, September 12: Alex Koppleman's Conservatives march on Washington is again, an interesting read, but HuffPos's 10 Most Offensive Tea Party Signs (PHOTOS) are even more interesting. The first set of ten are particularly illustrative of our post-racial nation heapin' all kinds of love on the Changeling.

Sunday, September 13: Kanye West bolts onstage, bogardin' 16 year-old Taylor Swift's moment in defense of Beyonce (I don't know why, everybody loves the "Put a ring on it" girl).  Rennie Dyball of Rolling Stone reported what happened here: Taylor Swift Wins Best Female Video – Upsetting Kanye West.  All I can say is this child really must miss his Mama!

Wednesday July 16:  Sorry, I know this wa-a-a-y old, but indulge me please.  After all, I never said a thing about "The Professor, The Policeman and The President."  I was on the road when this happened.  I heard about the whole Gates thing after the husband and I'd found an Alabama hotel room - very, very late at night (I'm 53 and the idea of travelling through the Deep South with my, society-identified white husband still makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck).

When I heard his, "Why, because I am a Black man in America?'' thing, please know that I was - ROFFLMBAO!!  The-e-en, when I watched the Changeling's news conference (definitely a set-up, make-me-look-good question by "I-used-to-be-a-real-journalist," Lynn Sweet, if I ever saw one), all I could do was shake my damn head and say, "Oscar Grant and Adolph Grimes III." 

“Gates then turned to me and told me that I had no idea who I was ‘messing’ with and that I had not heard the last of it’’...When the officer repeatedly told Gates he would speak with him outside, the normally mild-mannered professor shouted, “Ya, I’ll speak with your mama outside,’’ according to the report.

Why the chuckle you ask? So, so many reasons!  A whole post worth really.  But, since I slept it, I'll just say a few things.

First of all, let's take a look at the Professor. While I have enjoyed his work, and even on occasion, used them for - "teachable moments" - during a bi-weekly dialogue on race relations that I founded and moderated for almost three years in South Florida, I am just astounded at the speed with which he went from, "Do you know who you're messing with?" to, "Why, because I’m a Black man in America?" (à la Clarence Thomas and his "high-tech lynching" shenanigans)!  Just amazing to watch!

Did he really think because he was a Harvard-educated/employed house fella that he'd not be treated like he was   - Oh horrors! Black? - by a, you-don't-know-your-place-OR-how-to-act-in-front-of-a-crowd-of-white-folk, WHITE, blue collar cop??  Another big PUH-L-E-E-EZ!!

For all he purportedly knew, he obviously didn't really know (thought he was all manner of  "free" cuz they said he was a "renowned" Harvard professor).  And isn't it funny how some Black folk always "go home" when the adopted family spurns them?

Really, was the goal of the struggle to "be like Mike?"  Damn, I didn't think so, but it seems so for the new (old) Black "elite."  The classism to which he resorted (as did his sister, Oprah during her interview with then-Sen. Barack Obama, "I don't think it's about race anymore, I think it's about class."), spoke volumes.  Yeah, Crowley knew exactly with whom he was "messing" - a Black man who, despite all his achievements, was simply - in his neck of the woods (in our post-racial nation) -  just an uppity, nigger over whom he had the "legal" power - to put in his place (asinine, no real-power-havin', not speakin' out on real police "acting stupidly," current resident of the Big House, notwithstanding).

And all I can say about the much-ado-about-nothin' "Beer Summit," is - Lawd have mercy!!  Bless his heart, he doesn't have any shame at all now does he?  Got to manufacture "acceptance!"  No, not even that - just tolerance!

Black "Royalty" fools no one at the IOC

I know, I know.  I said there'd be a Part 2 to the last post - and there will be, right after I get this off my chest so I can sleep tonight!

Yes, I do lay awake some nights pondering why, in the hell, people can't or won't see, that when it comes to "competing loyalties" for the Changeling, there never seems to really be any competition.  At least not when it comes to a choice between what to do for money, prestige and perceived power, versus what is, and always should have been - right!

Two things happened that had "the voices" going in my head all night long (and spawned this brief diatribe, I might add).  First, as I sat at the kitchen table yesterday reading blogs, I could hear the 6 o'clock news, but I wasn't watching it.  I heard it go to the sportscaster and his piece on Denmark and the Olympics.  I looked up, because just the other day, I'd asked Pips over at Cinie's World, about Danish reaction to the Paul Revere-esque, "Obama is coming!  Obama is coming!"   I wanted to see what she'd described.

And at that very moment, he was running videos of Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey and David Robinson respectively, during various stages of arrival and introduction in Denmark, adding, "And the president will be there too!"  All of a sudden, I had the strangest damn feeling - in my heart!  It was a sadness combined with a deep disappointment that I just could not reconcile the Black pride that I should have been feeling - as the faces of my skinfolk (in Denmark!  Representing America!) flashed across the screen - with the nauseating feeling I had in response to the charade-parade being perpetrated before my eyes.

The local news guy was excited though. He could barely contain his glee, saying how, with all these "heavy-hitters," Chicago was lookin' good for capturing those "5 Rings" in 2016.  Putting that "glee" into perspective, however, let's just remember that even in the "belly of the beast" that is Texas - gettin' those "dollar bills ya'll," trumps e-e-e'rything else).

I looked across the table to my youngest, sitting at his laptop, and said, "Damn!  I really should be feelin' so proud, right now!"  He looked at me with that, "What you talkin' 'bout Willis??" wrinkle in his brow, and looked up too.  Then, he slowly shook his head, knowing what was coming next.

I was at once, angry and hurt.  Angry because, the charade-parade was truly a vision I'd long hoped to see in this country.  That of strong, smart, beautiful Black people, doin' the damn thing  - and doing it well!  Hell, doing it better than it had ever been done before, because we were doing it - right!  And hurt - because that so-o-o wasn't the case (Yeah that's my shit, I know.  Still workin' on it).

I couldn't hold it in though - that  "quiet riot" had already started  rumbling deep in the pit of my stomach. 

"I can just hear my people right now, chests all swole 'cause of this shit on TV!  I bet you, not many of  them see, or even connect this charade-parade to that other charade-parade of him sending Eric-damn-Holder and Arne-ain't-never-taught-a-single-kid-Duncan to Chicago to meet with school officials and kids about youth violence  - next week, after that 16 year-old boy got beaten to death - last week!  I tell you, he gets on my last nerve!"

After the rant, I realized both my son and husband were smiling and just shakin' their damn heads (they've come to expect my "sharing" on topics such as these).  I calmed down - for a minute.

The youngest left, and the oldest came home from work while the husband and I were in the bedroom having a conversation on Skype with my nieces and nephews in the hinterlands (I must admit, I'm so glad I'm still  alive to see the Jetson-esque way technology has made it possible for us to sit, see and talk to one another in our respective living spaces - in real time!).

After catching up since the wedding in July, and talking about  various and sundry things, somehow or another, the conversation turned to the Changeling and Yep, you guessed it!  The rant was rewound and I hit play all over again!  My nephew (I wrote about his email in the last post) started laughing, because he knew, I'm sure, just what I was going to say.  And I did  - no need to rehash the whole thing here, except to say, where was he then???  Finished, I said, "Okay, I'm going now," as I went to the kitchen to get a glass of wine.  There was none.  (That didn't help!)

I tossed and turned all night, struggling with the feelings I was having:

Voice #1:  "Can't you just accept that we've come this far???"

Me:      " No!  Because we haven't  - come this far!"  We just look like we did!  And everybody else, but, us, knows it!!!"

Voice #2:  "Just look at that cast of characters tonight!  You gotta admit now, that was something!

Me:  "More like somethin'-damn-else!!  First of all, we have the Queen of Daytime talk who opened a school for South-African girls, while Chicago girls are still dodging bullets and beat-downs!  And, just  stop!  Don't say one damn word!  I know it's her cash to do with what she chooses, but come on, now!  You're grinnin' in the face of the IOC Chair, a part of the beggin'-to-bring-the-games to that same city where you didn't give two shits about looking out for the safety, education and well-being of girls!  And don't start me on Michelle Obama and her husband!  Derrion Albert was but one, of the many children who've lost their lives to violent crime in Chicago since - and way before - they moved into the damn Big House!  Of those I saw, only "The Admiral," seems to be walkin' that talk with his Carver Academy!  Hell, it's in the decidedly Black, East side of San Antonio, AND, 98% of the student body is on scholarship!

Voice 1 & 2:  Well, you've got a point there.  A few, actually.

And so it went, off and on, until almost morning (haven't refilled my Lunesta since I got here).  Then, the Second thing happened - in two parts.

I subscribe to Earl Ofari Hutchinson at HuffPo (What?  I read everything!  Hell, before Obama won, I thought my boy was on to him!  Not!!) -  Chicago Beating Death Shocks White House -- But Now What?   It began like this:

“There's an outsized map of Chicago on the wall of the office of the Black Star Project. In the center of the map there's the letter "A". The letter is the Chicago home of the Obamas. The "A" is surrounded by yellow stickers that make the map look like the bullseye of a dart board. The analogy is deadly fitting because each one of the stickers represents a child under age 18 who was murdered. 

The victims were all African-American…”

My "quiet riot" was validated.  Please read the piece to see what I mean.  Needless to say, I forwarded the link to my nephew who replied:

CRAZY! Well said!  Awesome "hanging" out with you guys last night!!!!!!!!!!!! We all left happier, gotta love the power of the internet.Love you,
Lar

Then, I sauntered on over to Salon and came upon Joan Walsh and this, Reading "The Clinton Tapes," thinking about Obama.  Predictably, when I got to this line, I lost it - again:

"I have to start by saying Taylor Branch's trilogy, "America in the King Years," is my favorite work of history. He brought the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. alive for me. And to see my favorite civil rights historian -- so far, there are some up-and-comers that deserve a look, too! -- grappling with the president who, until Obama, thought and did more about civil rights than any president before him, well, it's a thrilling combination."

I just had to post this response:

Really, Joan...

"He brought the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. alive for me. And to see my favorite civil rights historian -- so far, there are some up-and-comers that deserve a look, too! -- grappling with the president who, until Obama, thought and did more about civil rights than any president before him, well, it's a thrilling combination."

Joan, if Taylor Branch brought the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. so alive for you, why is it that you cannot see Obama is NOTHING LIKE HIM - except of course, a little brown! Please.

And Joan? Could you please tell me exactly WHAT Obama has done for civil rights??? Except of course, be a little brown!

Joan, is that all it takes for you to feel this country is moving forward on the civil rights/human rights issue??

I am a Black woman who WAS alive when Dr. King fought and died for civil rights in this country. Please, do not sully his achievements with that of your "Paper Tiger."  Sorry my dear, Obama is no MLK - not even close!

The-e-e-en, I stumbled on this and it was confirmed, Karma is a definite bitch:



Not even in the damn running!  Knocked out in the first draft!  The whole charade-parade was for naught -as it should have been.

And don't get it twisted, I'm not all HAPPY that Chicago missed the opportunity for jobs, exposure, etc.  It's just that I know that if they DID get the games, the people who needed it the most would not  have benefitted, all while the Changeling would have been able to happily tell his numerous Chicago backers like, Penny Pritzker,  "I told you not to worry about investing your funds in me, I got this!"

The charade-parade fooled no one on the other side of the pond or anywhere else.  They know - when will we?

(Found the Port....better now)

DC Homeless living - and dying - at the feet of power

From: Eric Sheptock Sent: Monday, June 08, 2009 5:14 PM To: undisclosed recipients: Subject: Fw: SICK HOMELESS WOMAN DIES IN FRONT OF CCNV ON 6/7A homeless woman who was living with a certain illness died while sitting on a bench in front of the CCNV Shelter on June 7th. DC Government failed to house her, even though she was one of the "most vulnerable". This situation has raised the ire of the homeless community. A memorial service will be held for her this evening from 6 to 7 PM at the corner of 2nd and D streets, NW in front of the sidewalk bench where she died. That is the corner of the CCNV building that is nearest the 3rd Street tunnel. This matter will be brought up at the ICH meeting, which will be held where she often ate at Thrive DC. I hope there is high attendance this evening.

I got this email from my homeless-advocate friend, Eric Sheptock yesterday. During the many times I met with him to talk for the paper I was writing, I've either driven past, or sat in my car talking to Eric outside that bench at the Community for Creative Nonviolence (CCNV). So much so, that other residents at the shelter took to teasing him, calling me his "new girlfriend." That a woman died on that bench, right outside that shelter is not only appalling, but IMHO, very telling - considering the mayor's puported drive to provide Permanent Supportive Housing to DC's "most vulnerable" through the Housing First program.
When I graduated from my small, liberal arts HBCU in 1978, I moved to DC - the first "big city" I'd ever actualy lived in. I fell in love with it - still am. During that time, there was another advocate/activist who reminds me a lot of Eric for his outspokenness. His name was Mitch Snyder. His advocacy, like Eric's, was instrumental in getting help for the many people about whom I can only say, "There but for the grace..." Mr. Snyder has since died but I'm convinced, he is reincarnated in one, Eric Sheptock. NPR aired this piece on my friend today: "A Voice for the Homeless." Like a mother hen, I was there with him and Ms. Fessler during the first part of this interview but missed the follow-ups at The Church of the Epiphany and Thrive DC because I came home on summer break. Eric made sure to call me today though - he wanted to be sure I wouldn't miss it! I'm so very proud of him. While FLOTUS made a much-ballyhooed, one-day visit to Miriam's Kitchen to feed the homeless shortly after moving into the Big House, it'll be interesting to see what kind of sustained influence she can have on the daily lives of the homeless living in the shadows of her shiny, new home. Eric's hopeful - I'm not. As for the Changeling, well, never mind.

"You'll say what we tell you to say Sonia!"

The only alarm bells that went off for me about the Changeling's pick for SCOTUS was, well - that she was the Changeling's pick for SCOTUS. That she'd be Latina, I kind of expected. But, cautiously optimistic, I tried to find out more about her opinions and her two previous appointments by Daddy Bush and Bill Clinton, just to see what SHE was about. Now who woulda thunk it? After doing all that reading, it only took these three things to pretty much convince me she's probably just another woman - among the many it seems (Jarrett, Michelle, Hilary to name a few) - who's forfeited her voice, in exchange for a smooth ride to glory on his coattails - as long as she says and does whatever he says --

1) Giblet on May 29:

2) The Changling on May 29:

White House: Sotomayor's Latina Comment Was Poor Choice of Words. Sorry, you'll have to go to the link and then click on "an excerpt from the interview online" to see the actual video because he's already met his "number-of-times-I-want-to-see-his-face-on-my-own-blog-every-time-I-sign-in" quota!

3) Her Honor on June 2 (as told by Diane Feinstein):

Sotomayor to Feinstein: Latina remark 'poor choice of words':

She said, 'Obviously it was a poor choice of words if you read on and read the rest of my speech you wouldn’t be concerned with it but it was a poor choice of words,'" Feinstein told reporters.

According to The Post piece:

Neither Obama nor Gibbs said how they knew that she would say this, and Gibbs acknowledged, "I have not talked specifically with her about - this."

Rather, he said, he had had "discussions with people" that led him to believe that "if she had the speech to do all over again, I think she'd change that word."

Come on now Giblet!!! You know damn well both of you talked to her! As Cinie says, "Lying Liars Indeed Lie."

Now I know this seems a petty litmus test, but when something hits me, it just hits me. First, the (all-male?) "handlers" marginalized the importance of what she said. Then, it looked like it might not go away so they trotted the Changeling out to further marginalize it. And the-e-e-n, she goes a courtin' on Capitol Hill in a series of supposedly "private meetings" with Senators - and, using their words, takes back her words just like those "wise men" told her. And the-e-e-n, they used a female senator to put the marginalization out into the ether. Brilliant I tell you, just brilliant!

Unless, of course, she's playing the "Undercover Hermana" role like the Changeling's alleged "Undercover Brotha" role that so many Black people keep telling me he's playing because, I ought to know he can't go up in there talking 'bout what he's going to do for us because "they" won't let him (Damn, here I am in 2009 thinkin', "we is all free ya'll!" - stupid me).  If that's the case, I have no respect for her either. I might be a helluva lot poorer than them, but trust me - I am far freer (guess it depends on what's most important to you).

I tell you, POTUS, FLOTUS and SCOTUS are lookin' more like Wynken, Blynken and Nod each and every day I breathe.

Update:  Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor breaks her ankle at LaGuardia airport.  See, God really don't like ugly!  (Okay, that wasn't nice to say.)