Saturday, December 31, 2005
Monday, December 26, 2005
Beyond the Imperial Presidency
President Bush is a bundle of paradoxes. He thinks the scope of the federal government should be limited but the powers of the president should not. He wants judges to interpret the Constitution as the framers did, but doesn't think he should be constrained by their intentions.
He attacked Al Gore for trusting government instead of the people, but he insists anyone who wants to defeat terrorism must put absolute faith in the man at the helm of government.
...
But the theory boils down to a consistent and self-serving formula: What's good for George W. Bush is good for America, and anything that weakens his power weakens the nation. To call this an imperial presidency is unfair to emperors.
...
The government easily could have gotten search warrants to conduct electronic surveillance of anyone with the slightest possible connection to terrorists. The court that handles such requests hardly ever refuses. But Bush bridles at the notion that the president should ever have to ask permission of anyone.
He claims he can ignore the law because Congress granted permission when it authorized him to use force against Al Qaeda. But we know that can't be true. Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales says the administration didn't ask for a revision of the law to give the president explicit power to order such wiretaps because Congress--a Republican Congress, mind you--wouldn't have agreed. So the administration decided: Who needs Congress?
What we have now is not a robust executive but a reckless one. At times like this, it's apparent that Cheney and Bush want more power not because they need it to protect the nation, but because they want more power. Another paradox: In their conduct of the war on terror, they expect our trust, but they can't be bothered to earn it.
-Atrios
Saturday, December 24, 2005
Christmas with the Silvas
Living with Family is an intresting experieance to say the least but for holidays is nice to be around a family. I wonder how this is going to fit under the Christmas tree.
Friday, December 23, 2005
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Chappelle theory?
http://www.chappelletheory.com/
this is good too.... http://users.panola.com/AAGHS/ARTICLES/SURNAMES.html
Birthday posts
Pictures of Pilli on her weekend long birthday celebrate... which now she wakes up everyday and says I wanna party for me. Candy really spoils her.
Yes it matters... Liberal Oasis
December 20, 2005 PERMALINK
Why Checks and Balances Help Fight Terror
(posted Dec. 20 2 AM ET)
If ABC’s The Note weren’t on holiday break, they’d probably say something like: “When will stupid Democrats learn that smart Republicans love it when they focus on terrorism, because it reinforces the Strong GOP/Weak Dem narrative.”
And they would have half a point.
The Strong GOP/Weak Dem narrative, regarding national security, most certainly exists.
It’s not a new problem, and there is no quick fix for it.
But the solution is not to mimic Republican foreign policy principles, if for no other reason that Republican foreign policy is bad policy.
Nor is it to duck the issues and keep quiet when Republicans break the law when conducting foreign policy.
The solution, and it’s a long-term one, is to clearly and consistently articulate what Democratic foreign policy principles are, painting a positive vision of where the party would take the country and the world, and contrasting it with the GOP vision.
(LiberalOasis discussed this in terms of Iraq policy earlier this month.)
If you don’t do that, and you only raise your voice when civil liberties are violated, then you risk looking like you don’t have the stomach to do what it takes to protect the nation.
And you give the GOP the opening to say, Dems won’t go to the mat to stop terror.
It’s not enough to note that the laws were broken, or the Constitution was subverted. It can be shrugged off as mere technicality.
It’s not enough to raise the prospect of people’s rights being violated. It’s too easy to think that will only happen to the “bad guys” and not to yourself.
Both of those criticisms should be made, vigorously so.
But they should be put into the context of a larger, consistently articulated, anti-terror strategy.
And that is, if America is going to be a force for credible democracy, and if it's going to rally the world to isolate and suffocate Al Qaeda, we cannot allow America to lose its moral standing.
The torture, the secret prisons, the warrantless invasions of privacy, that gives our enemies ammunition.
That helps them make a case that we are not on the side of average Arabs and Muslims.
Terror suspects must be investigated, interrogated and imprisoned.
But we don’t wantonly invade privacy and secretly imprison people, because you can get it wrong and you can destroy the lives of innocents.
Not only does that hurt individuals, it hurts the larger cause.
We have checks and balances to prevent such errors and allow for mistakes to be fixed.
So sensitive decisions are not made recklessly and politically. So the fight against terror is as effective as possible.
And we are savvy enough to have created systems that allow for checks and balances without sacrificing speed and efficiency.
Bush in particular has shown how power can be abused, and why checks and balances are so important, by claiming legal authority he simply does not have.
It was that same attitude about unbalanced executive power that led to the blown cover of a CIA agent and the rendition of suspects to countries that torture.
Bush and the GOP are fighting terror and conducting foreign policy the wrong way, which is why the Al Qaeda ideology has dramatically spread since 9/11.
Once it’s clear that our way is the best way to fight terror, then not only will the GOP lose its ability to claim that Dems aren’t willing to do what it takes to protect the nation, it will become clear that the opposite is true.
Monday, December 12, 2005
Dia de la Virgen
Some people say that Mexicans are more devoted to the Virgen de Guadalupe then to the actual savior. I would probably count myself as on of those they call the Guadalupanas. But today is her day and thus we honor her.
The War on Christmas
SEDER: Listen, as far as the war on Christmas goes, I feel like we should be waging a war on Christmas. I mean, I believe that Christmas, it's almost proven that Christmas has nuclear weapons, can be an imminent threat to this country, that they have operative ties with terrorists and I believe that we should sacrifice thousands of American lives in pursuit of this war on Christmas. And hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money.
PHILLIPS: Is it a war on Christmas, a war Christians, a war on over-political correctness or just a lot of people with way too much time on their hands?
SEDER: I would say probably, if I was to be serious about it, too much time on their hands, but I'd like to get back to the operational ties between Santa Claus and al Qaeda.
PHILLIPS: I don't think that exists. Bob? Help me out here.
SEDER: We have intelligence, we have intelligence.
PHILLIPS: You have intel. Where exactly does your intel come from?
SEDER: Well, we have tortured an elf and it's actually how we got the same information from Al Libbi. It's exactly the same way the Bush administration got this info about the operational ties between al Qaeda and Saddam.
...
Yes, well, Kyra, I mean, listen, I would like Bob to tell me who is the person who has been offended by someone saying Merry Christmas to them? I've never met that person.
I don't celebrate Christmas. But if someone says "Merry Christmas" to me, I either think, well, it's a little bit odd, it's like me saying happy birthday to you on my birthday, but no one cares.
But I will tell you this, as we wage the war on the war on the war on the war on Christmas on our radio show. News Corp., Fox News, those people who have started this entire war on Christmas mean, fake war, they're having a holiday party.
President Bush saying "Happy Holidays." Tokyo Rose, Laura Bush, saying "Happy Holidays" to her dogs in the video, I'm sure you've seen it. I mean, these are the things that we should be talking about when we are waging this war in Iraq, we should be equating it to the war on Christmas.
What else would Bob Knight have an opportunity to do, how else would he get on television if he wasn't pretending to be attacked.
KINGHT: This would be funny except it is serious to a lot of people who have seen their faith cleansed from the public square systemically.
SEDER: Are you suggesting, Bob, that someone can't celebrate Christmas in America? Tell me about the person who can escape the celebration.
...
SEDER: I do agree with Bob. I think what should happen is companies should calculate how much money they're getting from people who are celebrating Christmas and provide exactly that much amount of Merry Christmas, because that is exactly how I would want any type of religious holiday to be celebrated.
...
SEDER: Hannukah is not a high holiday. Our high holidays are Rosh Hashanna and Yom Kippur, which I'm sure Bob has been protesting why there are not more Yom Kippur sales or Rosh Hashanah sales during those holidays. Why shouldn't there be, right Bob?
...
SEDER: Bob, have you ever protested Martin Luther King Day not being celebrated. Do you resent when people don't say "Happy Martin Luther King Day" a month out in advance?
...
PHILLIPS: Bob, I'm going to let you have the final thought.
KNIGHT: OK. You know, when the Nazis moved into Austria in 1936...
SEDER: Oh, that's offensive, Bob, to raise Nazis. KNIGHT: They immediately removed from the schools. You can read about it in...
PHILLIPS: Hold on, Sam. Let Bob make his point. Let Bob make his point. Go ahead, Bob.
KNIGHT: You can't even let me speak. Can you? You're so...
Maria Trapp wrote the story of the Trapp singers that's in "The Sound of Music," and she said she sent her kids to school after the Nazis took over. And they came home and said mama, we can't say the word Christmas anymore. It's now winter holiday.
I think that ought to disturb people...
SEDER: Kyra, that's offensive.
KNIGHT: ...that we're moving toward that kind of attitude in this country.
SEDER: The Puritans also outlawed Christmas. The founding fathers of this country would fine you in Massachusetts if you celebrated Christmas in the beginning. So don't talk about Nazis, Bob. I think that's really inappropriate.
Why do you have to bring hate to this Christmas and holiday season? That's so sad, Bob.
KNIGHT: Well, let's go to the Soviet Union then too. They had grandfather frost.
Well, it's the truth. You ought to read the book yourself, and maybe you'll change your mind.
SEDER: It's just sad that you have to raise Nazis when you're talking about Christmas and the holiday season. And we all know that Christmas actually, Tannenbaum, it's a German holiday. Bob, I'm really, really disappointed in you.
KNIGHT: I'm sorry to disappoint you, but if you can't understand the force of history...
SEDER: To bring up Nazis, Bob.
KNIGHT: I'm not calling you a Nazi.
SEDER: Oh, who you calling Nazi? Who are you calling a Nazi, sir?
KNIGHT: I'm not.
Sunday, December 11, 2005
Domingo
McDERMOTT: But you are absolutely right and, you see, I mean, by the way if there's anything that's lost, that we've lost in the last for awhile, it's being the sense of the common good. You are honest enough to tell me that that's exactly how you thought. You are thinking about yourself. I've got a job, I've got health care, I've got, you know, I'm doing OK, so it's not a problem. Well Reagan started us down the road, not that he was the first, but he was the one that articulated best when he said: "are you better off this year than you were last year or four years ago?" The question should be are we better off than we were four years ago and the fact is that as a country and as a people and as a middle-class, we are not. Our salaries aren't going up, are ability to buy a house, you realize if we have any kind of financial problem in this country and we suddenly have to deal with rising interest rates, all those young people out there who have a house with an adjustable mortgage on it, you could have this thing jump 3%. . . . I think the biggest thing that's missing in the Democratic Party is that we have lost the idea of the common good. That's what Franklin Delano Roosevelt was going with social security, he's saying look, this is the worst that's ever been in this country but we would get together and we will find the way to help our old people in this country get back on their feet and we've driven down the poverty among senior from 50% to 10% and it's not all gone, is not perfect, is not the best system in the world, but it's going in the right direction and herein comes the President who says "we have to get rid off that, we want to put you on in the ownership society." What he means is that we want to put you out on your own and that's splitting again the idea of the common good. . . .
Saturday, December 10, 2005
Bi-polar Day
Had my parents come thru Phoenix and forgot my damn camera.... Not happy about going to dinner today especially since it was forced on me. Along with a good gym workout, things are pretty 50-50 today... but I'm pesimistic for the end of the evening. Oh then there's christmas gifts. Blah.
Friday, December 09, 2005
Thursday, December 08, 2005
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
40% of College Graduates Have "Unmanageable Debt Level"
The average student borrower now graduates with $27,600 of debt, almost three and a half times what it was a decade ago. 84 percent of black students and 66 percent of Latino students graduate with debt. And 39 percent of all student borrowers graduate with unmanageable levels of debt, according to the Department of Education.
Add to that young people's average credit card debt of over $4,000. Set aside your stereotypes of irresponsible youth: Over 70 percent of undergraduates use credit cards to buy school supplies, food and textbooks. 24 percent use their credit cards for tuition. Credit card companies are becoming the high-interest student loan industry of last resort. When it's all totaled up, young people spend 25 percent of every dollar earned on paying off debts and loans.Federal policy isn't keeping pace with reality. Soaring education costs and inflation have not been met with aid increases. Caps on federal student loans have forced students to seek private loans, which were up from $1.1 billion in 1995-96 to $10.6 billion in 2003-04.These loans have much higher, often predatory, interest rates.
Today, the average Pell Grant covers only 40 percent of college tuition, compared to 77 percent 25 years ago. And under President Bush, the Department of Education revised Pell Grant eligibility guidelines, effectively excluding almost 100,000 young people from the program and reducing grant money for another 1.2 million.
The war on the middle class continues. College it is a ticket to indentured servitude.
Students are graduating with huge debt bills because state legislators have decided supplementing higher education is no longer important.
Let’s look at this from a timeline perspective. Student X graduates college with $27,600 — the average amount of graduate debt. Now student X decides he wants to become a doctor. There’s another 7 years of debt. Law school? – another three years of debt. Several people who I went to law school with were near $100,000 at graduation. How can these people even think about saving any money?
Here’s something else to think about: this level of debt discourages people from pursuing careers in lower income professions such as teaching. What’s the point in being a teacher if your salary won’t pay for the education you got to become a teacher?
How about this: by starting people into the world of debt at an early age, we are now encouraging people to take on ungodly levels of debt throughout their life. Debt is now OK – regardless of the level. College is now a debt trap.Permalink by Hale Stewart
Anyone notice the minorities have the highes ratio? And then wonder why we don't continue our higher education in profesional schools and stuff. It's easier said than done especially when we're expected to be working or studying poor for 6-10 years min just while in school not counting the post school period. I think this also explains the expanding gap between rich and poor. Those that make it even with the debt and those that choose to live within there means or need to tend to more immediate matters such as family or other things. This really needs to be changed but how?
Monday, November 28, 2005
B-anal? or Banal?
lazy so copy and pasting
MISCELLANEOUS EZRA BLOGGING....I've always pronounced "banal" so that it rhymes with "anal." Thus I'm crushed to find out from Ezra that I'm in the minority: among the experts on the American Heritage Usage Panel, only 38% prefer that pronunciation, compared to 46% who prefer the pronunciation that rhymes with "canal." I've always considered that hopelessly pretentious. I wonder if it's an East coast/West coast thing?
But I still have a question for Ezra: how could you and a friend have gotten into even a "meaningless dispute" over this? It only takes a few seconds to look it up.
On a related Ezra note, sign me up as a Christmas carol lover. Actually, that's an unrelated note, isn't it? Either way, I love Christmas carols, especially classic tunes — anything written after 1900 is suspect in my book. For the perfect rendition of a classic carol, check out Amy Grant's version of "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing." Great stuff.
—Kevin Drum 1:53 PM Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Comments (111)IMMIGRATION....In a few days I'll go to the polls to vote in a special election for the congressional seat vacated by Chris Cox, who was confirmed as head of the SEC last July. We've got the usual Republican and Democratic candidates on the ballot, of course, but we've also got an American Independent candidate: Jim Gilchrist, founder of The Minutemen, a group that became briefly famous earlier this year by heading down to the Arizona border with lawn chairs in tow to prevent the United States from being "devoured and plundered by the menace of tens of millions of invading illegal aliens."
Did it work? As a PR exercise it worked great, and although the Minutemen themselves didn't accomplish much, the pressure they've put on the Border Patrol for the past year seems to have paid off: vegetable growers say they're likely to get only 22,000 workers for their fields this year, compared to the 54,000 they need. Tom Nassif, president of the Western Growers Association, explains why:
"There are just some jobs people don't want to do," Nassif said. "It's the most developed nation in the world using a foreign workforce, and people need to recognize that. We need to make them legal."
Jack Vessey [who runs a vegetable farm near El Centro] said he listed openings for 300 laborers at the state office of employment last week to prepare the lettuce fields for harvest. "We got one person," he said. "He showed up and said, 'I'm not going to do that.' "
Now that's an odd thing, isn't it? Immigration foes like Gilchrist insist that if we only cut down on the supply of Mexican farm workers, wages and benefits would go up and plenty of Americans would be available for harvesting our leafy greens. And yet, despite this year's severe shortage of Mexican labor, Vessey is apparently offering the same backbreaking work, brutal conditions, low pay, and nonexistent benefits that he always has. Likewise, Ed Curry, a chili farmer who has given up on employing legal workers because the H2A program has "too many snafus," says only that he would be willing to pay legal workers "a bit more" than he does now.
Is this reluctance to increase wages caused by a fear that higher labor costs would make their produce too expensive to sell? On its face, that seems unlikely. Even a whopping 40% increase in farm wages would increase the wholesale cost of produce by only about 10%. But a shortage caused by letting crops go unharvested would surely have the same effect — and supermarkets would continue to buy.
That's not to say that foreign competition isn't a real issue for California farmers. It is. Still, the lesson from this natural experiment along the Arizona border seems pretty clear: farmers are flatly unwilling to pay their workers more. Whether that's because it would price their produce out of the market or because even a big wage increase wouldn't attract enough legal workers hardly matters. The evidence indicates that farmers would rather let their crops rot in the field than pay ten bucks an hour.
In other words, Gilchrist and his nativist ilk are barking up the wrong tree. What we need isn't a bunch of yahoos dotting the border with their lawn chairs and cell phones. Instead, we need to recognize that — like it or not — Americans very clearly want and rely on immigrant labor. The key, then, is not to eliminate it, but to figure out a rational way of limiting illegal immigration without simultaneously demonizing immigrants themselves. This might include programs that make it harder to cross the border illegally, but only if we also provide legal status to many more immigrants than we do now.
This combination — easier legal immigration paired with tougher illegal immigration — would provide immigrants with a greater incentive to try the legal route instead of the all-too-deadly "season of death" route. It would also provide us with the pool of immigrant labor we obviously want, increase immigrant wages, and cut down on the abuse they suffer from employers who know how easily they can be blackmailed.
Seems like it would be worth a try.
—Kevin DrumSunday, November 27, 2005
Thursday, November 24, 2005
Soul Food
panchitoatyale: or at least having to deal with them
Emar4: yes
Emar4: i love the family and SOUL FOOD!!!
Emar4: food cooked with love
Emar4: speaking of, next time you stop through CA, please stop by my place so i can cook for you
Emar4: tell me your favorite dishes and i'll make them
Monday, November 21, 2005
Reading time
http://amyhkonig.blogspot.com/2005/09/ensemble-film_29.html
Sunday, November 20, 2005
Friday, November 18, 2005
Pilli Blogging
with a dress from her abuelos Estela y Pancho Lopez
Midnight thoughts
In more personal news, really thinking about moving to Mexico. Pilli is exepctional in her Pre-schooling and I'm so proud of her. But damn its expensive. No wonder rich kids have it easier. I'm in the worst rut of my life and don't know what to do about it. Yale and Havard play for like the millionth time this Saturday and wish I could be there to get drunk with my friends. I feel the rut is also tied with being so far away from the people I like to see, family friend namely. WEll got to get to be and sleep till 4 am. Drop some comments and get ready for some Pilli blogging later today.
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Sapo Verde
Why Latinos won't be Republicans
"Why am I not a Republican"
A man of character
A month or so ago Robert George posted up why he's still a Republican. Here's why I'm not.
There are many reasons, social justice, a belief in a measured, sane defense policy not cooked up in a think tank of chickenhawk lunatics, and equality under the law.
Besides, there's no future in it.
What do I mean? The Black Commentator explains:The fact remains that the GOP still avoids real dialogue with the best African-American Republicans. This list includes Paul Harris, Dylan Glenn and Nic Lott. All have participated in White House and GOP national events. For example, Lott and Harris both spoke at the 2000 Republican National Convention.
Paul Harris unmistakably has many of Obama’s qualities. A father of three, Harris is happily married. He is a conservative, Catholic and attends church regularly. In Virginia, Harris won landslide victories in 1997 and 2000, becoming the first black Republican elected to the House in more than a century. Harris then served for two years at the Department of Justice under John Ashcroft. Since returning to the private sector, the GOP has failed to utilize Harris’ polished political skills and experience for some greater cause.
Dylan Glenn is another black conservative that has been waiting in the wings. Despite support from Newt Gingrich and Colin Powell, Glenn has failed on three attempts to win a congressional seat in Georgia. Glenn served as a policy analyst in the White House Office of Domestic Policy during the presidency of George H.W. Bush. Glenn was also Special Assistant to President George W. Bush in the White House, during which time he was on the National Economic Council advising the President on economic and domestic policy concerns.
In addition to his strong White House experience, Glenn is founder of The Earth Conservation Corps, a White House initiative under President George H.W. Bush that provides opportunity to at-risk youth through environmental conservation work. The Earth Conservation is one of the rare programs that have successfully addressed the challenges of inner city youth, providing them a positive outlet to channel their energies.
Glenn was pulled from the White House to run the Georgia campaign of Sonny Purdue. After Purdue’s victory, Glenn was not given another major role in the party. Instead he was named Purdue’s Deputy Chief of Staff. From the president’s adviser to deputy chief of staff for a governor, the decline in Glenn’s position could not have been more dramatic. In effect, Glenn’s success was rewarded with a demotion, under the watchful eye of Ed Gillespie.
Yet, the Republican National Committee website insists they are “Grooming Black Candidates.” RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman suggests that Lynn Swann will run for Governor of Pennsylvania. Swann has not announced he will run yet, but has begun an unofficial campaign against Governor Ed Rendell. A New York Times article suggests that Republicans see Swann “as an underdog against Mr. Rendell.” It would seem like a replay of the Illinois senate race where Obama won a landslide victory against black Republican Alan Keyes. Black candidates like Swann and even Glenn cannot win without overwhelming Republican support. But former RNC Chairmen Marc Racicot and Ed Gillespie and now Mehlman are unwilling to support these candidates, especially when they need it most on the campaign trail.
...........................
Meanwhile, Mehlman has not reached out to Glenn, Lott or Harris. In a Washington Post online discussion, White House insider Michael Fletcher said, “The fact remains that black voters largely reject the political overtures of conservatives like Bush. And that is going to affect the number of people who get into these jobs, which often require a well connected sponsor.” Nic Lott lists J.C. Watts, Senator Trent Lott and Governor Haley Barbour as his references. Yet after helping Barbour win his campaign in Mississippi, Lott was awarded with a Public Affairs position in the state penitentiary. For Lott moving from a successful campaign to serving time in a prison PR job is a sad irony. He was the first African-American student body president at the University of Mississippi. An internet google search for Nic Lott’s name nets 304 hits. Lott was interviewed by CNN when Trent Lott, no relation, got into trouble for glorifying Strom Thurmond. CNN can chat with Nic Lott on national television, but his own party eludes him.
Lott, Glenn and Harris should be in high level senior positions with the Bush Administration and/or the Republican National Committee.
Now, Glenn's career is dead because of overturned Voter ID bill. He can't run in Georgia again. Period. Lott got a job far below his abilities. Harris sits at home. Is this how a black Republican is treated. In all the furor, people forgot the main contention of the Steele article: Erlich's people were undercutting him the day of his announcement. People want to talk about how gifted he was, but his boss's own money people were setting him up to fail.
When Randy Daniels, former New York Secretary of State, with good ties in the Harlem community, wanted to run for governor, the NYGOP did everything in it's power to cut him off. Despite Eliot Spitzer being nearly a made member of Harlem political mafia, Daniels is being treated like a redheaded step child.
Why? Because Republicans do not support black candidates. Despite Daniel's ability to be heard by African Americans, a shallow pool of statewide candidates, and a near certain Spitzer victory, Daniels faces roadblock after roadblock in running for governor, for no clear reason.
Now, I don't mean to sound cynical, but the reality is that until the Republican party evicts all its racists, there is nothing they can offer me. And considering many came out of the woodwork like roaches after Katrina, well, it's obvious they don't want me.
When you talk to black Republicans, the thing is you run into some odd traits.
First, they assume you're an idiot. Well, not Robert George, but damn near everyone else. They keep asking me if I enjoy being on the "liberal plantation", or the "Democratic plantation" or being a "slave of the Democrats" Now people who whine about racially charged images now suggest I'm too fucking stupid to think about politics in a rational, logical way.
Now, if someone said that shit to me in person, one of us would be sore as fuck afterwards. But as long as they can insult me from a distance, and it is an insult, it's cool.
The need to denigrate my intelligence seems to be a major part of how the Republicans want to deal with black people. They suggest we endorse rappers, they think we don't watch the news, much less have the ability to make cogent arguments about history and politics. So my mail was filled with history lectures on how blacks were once Republicans and how I needed to do research.
As if knowing this was beyond my capacity. As if they didn't teach this in social studies, as if I don't read books every fucking day.
It seems that there's not much respect for the intellect of blacks among Republicans.
The now-infamous Project 21, formed by Robert Woodson, but who's director is a white man, David Almasi, has lashed out at statements of the obvious, that Clarence Thomas doesn't represent black people and horrified about poor Michael Steele, yet can't even hire a black director.
You have one member of the group, Mychal Massie, who said slavery was good for black people.On the October 18 edition of the syndicated radio show Janet Parshall's America, Project 21 national advisory council member and columnist for conservative website WorldNetDaily.com Mychal Massie declared to host Janet Parshall that African-American churches today "have succumbed to hatred" and "disobedience to God." Massie went on to proclaim that "the black people today that curse America are cursing God because if God had not permitted the Ashanti and Dahomey tribes of ancient Africa to trap other Africans and sell them to Muslims, who sold them to Europeans, we would not have what we have today." Parshall praised Massie for his "straight talk" -- the name of a program Massie hosts on the conservative website Rightalk.com -- and called him "brother.
Now, I don't know what kind of pain this man has suffered, but clearly, he represents a view repugnant to most African Americans on its face. No sane party could think this man could relate to other African Americans in a rational way. In fact, Project 21 is run by the National Center for Public Policy Research. Which is another white run conservative think tank. How do they think such people can appeal to educated African Americans like my family? We know our history and cherish our culture. Such people are sad and deluded, at best, and offensive at worse.
Second, too many black Republicans simply demonstrate a clear lack of character.
People like Star Parker and Jesse Lee Peterson admit to less than sterling pasts, Armstrong Williams refuses to admit error in taking government money to promote No Child Left Behind. Many, from John McWhorter to Robert George leaped to defend William Bennett for his overtly racist remarks. Now to most African Americans, that kind of craven behavior is unacceptable. While they can raise high dudgeon when one of their own comes under sharp criticism, and talk about racism, when Trent Lott or Bennett insults black people, they have no voice.
One of the basic expectations of a politician, is that they will defend their community. Time and again, the prominent black conservatives refuse to do so. Which is why they have such little support. They also have a habit of depicting other African Americans in negative ways.
This is one of Massie's columns from Wing Nut Daily.
The lie that keeps on living
..................The well worn and errant dogma that conservative Southern (read Democrat) bigots fled their party in the wake of the civil-rights era, taking up residence in the Republican Party – which has been used by ill-informed race baiters for decades – was trod out yet again for public consumption. Let it be understood I in no way classify the author as such, quite the opposite; but it is important to note that continued usage of said misinformation supplies the haters with ammunition.
Common sense questions would be: If Southern bigots fled the Democrat Party to the Republican Party during 1964 and following, why was it the Republicans who fought for civil rights? Why was a Republican president (Richard Nixon) responsible for affirmative action? Why do Republicans have the stellar record of meritocratic inclusion in the highest echelons of their administrations? Why did Democrats led by Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., bitterly oppose the nomination of Thurgood Marshall, Clarence Thomas and Janice Rogers Brown? Why did the Democrats sit silent as Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell and Janice Rogers Brown suffered vicious ad hominem attacks based on their race? Why was it the Democrats who opposed every civil-rights bill introduced in Congress (by Republicans) from 1856 well into the 1970s? Why do Democrats today support measures that retard self-sufficiency pursuant to blacks and the so-called poor, while Republicans champion the exact opposite (President Bush's "We will rebuild New Orleans" speech notwithstanding)? But I digress.
.................
Granted, Strom Thurmond, Jesse Helms, Trent Lott and even George Wallace entered politics as products of their day and culture; but these men, by the grace of "Almighty God," had the scales removed from their eyes.
This kind of pathetic and insulting twisting of history is the kind of thing which enrages educated black people. Massie, like almost all Black Republicans, are afraid to debate these ideas before blacks. This nonsense is merely written for white consumption and acceptance. Who exactly attacked Powell, Rice and Brown on their race? Black people who felt they had isolated themselves from the community for personal gain. Massie needs to blame the Democrats of the past for the Republicans of the present.
To say the still racist Lott has had anything pulled from his eyes is an insult to the intelligence. Products of their day and culture? Thurmond ran with the Klan in 1948. He filibustered the Civil Rights Bill. He used race for the most cynical reasons possible, even more than Wallace, while he paid for his black daughter to attend college and enter the middle class.
As far as the Republicans supporting black self-sufficency, I don't see an end to redlining and support for insuring businesses in black neighborhoods or ending racial discrimination in housing. Basic, pro-captialist ideas which the GOP doesn't support when the people who need them aren't rich, white businessmen. The Republicans haven't fought for civil rights in a long, long time. The days of Edward Brooke and Jackie Robinson are long gone.
Also, after working on a campaign like Nic Lott, when they come to you with a job doing prison PR, in Mississippi, why do you take the job? Do you think some son of Barbour's white GOP buddies or their kids would be given a similar job with Lott's experience? ROTFLMAO. Hell no. They would have been an aide to the governor. Here's another guy who's future has been hurt because of the GOP's reactionary stands. After Barbour gutted Medicaid, who would work for Lott in the black community now?
It's about character. Black Democrats expect some support for their work. You see the second generation of black pols entering public life, Harold Ford, Kendrick Meek, Jesse Jackson Jr. Why? Because Democrats support their own. When they run for Congress the money is there. Republicans support their own, when they're white.
What this tells black voters is that these people will accept second class treatment for themselves. The question becomes if they don't stand up for themselves, will they stand up for their constituents? And people will not take that chance. Nor should they.
Third, why should I support a party which opposes much of what will actually benefit black people. GOP policy seems to be designed to hurt the working poor and working class. What do they offer people except a naked appeal to religion and fake patriotism?
When people make the flawed argument that one party takes us for granted and the other ignores us, they forget that the other party doesn't ignore us, they run against up. And people like Massie and Jesse Lee Peterson trade in the worst anti-black stereotypes for their white patrons, that blacks are violent and lazy, slandering the millions of hard working poor and working class blacks, do Republicans expect these people to get support? Do they think they can buy a few ministers and then render our critical faculties inert?
This is not a debate about policy, because Black Republicans don't offer policy alternatives. This is a debate about character, one that they fail constantly. They are insulted and degraded in black America because they cannot lead, are greedy and self-serving and expect people to act against their own interest. Sure, they can whine about negative depictions, but much of that is caused by their own lack of character and craven pandering. All they do is run on race, not ideas.
Martin Luther King said he wanted to see a day when a man is judged on the content of his character. Well for Michael Steele, John McWhorter and Jesse Lee Peterson, that day has come, and they have been found sorely wanting. A fact that their defenders want to pretend hasn't happened. But it has and they will be confronted with it time and again, no matter how many apologies they demand or how many of they white supporters cry racism.
posted by Steve
Saturday, November 12, 2005
Intresting day
Thursday, November 10, 2005
Poll Worker
So last Tuesday I was a poll worker in AZ. We had 152 people come and vote and the day started for me at 5:30 and ended at 7:30. Long boring day... but I did get to read some and talk to some very nice and intresting older people. Heard the discontent people had with Bush and the intergal part that programs like Medicare, Social Security and Vetrans benifets are to our older generation. They deserve it and I think the entire population does but to hear about it from people whom it impacts everyday was something quite refreshing. The one thing I think that is really needed in our democracy is for there to be more participating. I was thinking because as great as our older generations are sometime there not as able to do the poll working but the fact is that they are the most willing and avalible to work. See this http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nation/2004-08-08-voting-workers_x.htm So what I think should happen is we make it like jury duty and asign people to there local polls plus offer free coupons to people that vote. Which I think would get more people intrested and involved. Needless to say I'm excited for the victory from Democrats but its only the begininng.
One thing that does bug me is that we as a country are enjoying the riots in France which to me is actually the pissed off nature of people responding toward France for the Iraq crap which we all now know is CRAP. Remember be nice because KARMA is a B*tch.
Monday, November 07, 2005
Democracy?
Sunday, November 06, 2005
Friday, November 04, 2005
Ciuapilli's Halloween Costume
Isn't Ciuapilli Lopez adorable as a Unicorn? Lot of candy for this princess.
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Progress in Avenal
Job nearing completion
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| Joe Santino/The Progress As of Monday afternoon traffic was still being controlled by four-way stop signs at the intersection of Seventh Avenue and Skyline Boulevard. (November 2, 2005) |
Completion of this job has been anxiously awaited for several reasons to give some drivers a clue as to how to proceed through the intersection and get some light on the intersection.
To install the traffic control lights, street lights were removed - making for a very dark intersection - and with the stop light turned on there is once again light at the intersection.
Although a blinking red light was confusing to some drivers, many more got the idea that the intersection was now a 4-way stop. Some were not sure when it was their time to proceed, while others moved through with caution.
At council last Thursday, Community Development director Steve Sopp reported the green light was to be turned on Friday, but that did not happen. It did give local drivers the weekend to get used to having to stop in all four directions before proceeding through the intersection.
Delay of getting the roadway striped and the light turned on was not caused by Caltrans, it was a contractor and the delay is costing him money.
The traffic light was paid for through a Safe Routes to School grant. A second grant that was first discussed for a light at Skyline and San Joaquin Street, is being used to purchase a new street sweeper. The sweeper has been received and will soon be put into service.
Arlene Santino, Editor
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Weekend Wedding Pictures
Remember you can click the picture for a bigger size and if you want the orginal size email or leave me a comment.
