I am not a big conspiracy person. I think, for instance, that man really did land on the moon, that Lee Harvey Oswald shot JFK all by his lonesome, and that all the Jews who worked in the Twin Towers were not given a secret phone call not to report to work that day.
Having said that; I have been reading some shit lately that have been really unnerving me. And it has to do with our military and the people fighting the war for us in Iraq. One of the stories I picked up thanks to some other bloggers in the AfroSphere, had to do with how the government is lowering the standards to recruit people into the armed forces; and how more and more white supremacist gang members for instance are signing up. Then, as it turns out, recruiting for African Americans in the Army is dropping big time. Memo to all brothers in Iraq, watch your back! You ain't Pat Tillman, and you see where he ended up.
And speaking of Pat Tillman; I read about how he might have been really killed in Afghanistan, and how the Army might have covered it up. Frankly, that scares the shit out of me. I mean if Pat Tillman, a genuine American hero by all accounts, can be a victim of fratricide, all because he allegedly was against the war in Iraq; then who isn't in danger? I mean all bets are off in this bitch and that scares me.
And let's not forget about our friends at Blackwater-the name alone sends chills up my spine-You know Blackwater don't you? Dick Cheney's private little freaking Army down in Virginia. Which I swear if Congress gets out of line he is going to turn them loose on Washington. They call themselves a "professional, military,law enforcement security company", but that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. They have been known to do all kinds of shady shit in Iraq, and they are growing. Right now they are the most powerful mercenary army in the world, and if I was the leader of a country like say, Cuba; I would be very worried right about now. Why? Because the folks at Blackwater could overthrow your Third World ass quicker that you can say, cigar. Jeremy Scahill, in a brilliant You Tube piece (don't ask me to link it, just google Jeremy Scahill) calls Blackwater a shadow army, and he is right.
So what if these guys-Blackwater -decided, for instance, that a certain segment of the population (Yes woozie here it comes) were to get out of line? What if all of a sudden, they decided there were too many Michael Vicks, too many out of control inner city gangs, and Barry Bonds just can't be allowed to break that record? Couldn't they just declare Martial Law on all black folks? They could call all the Blackwater boys home from Iraq to control all the blacks here. Hey, have you seen the racial makeup of Blackwater? So don't go laughing just yet. The shit could happen I promise you.
This is why I get so worried when I see my peeps acting up, cause I know that there is always that other army ready and waiting to put our asses in check. I can hear Dick Cheney now to the Blackwater CEO: "Hey there buddy this is Dick. Yeah, it's time to put operation "Colored Control" in place. Yeah, we just can't let this go on any longer. We are losing our country to these people. Besides, we don't even need them for sports anymore. The Japanese are getting really good at Baseball, and the Eastern European players are getting better than they are at basketball." OK that may be a bit far fetched, especially for a guy who doesn't believe in conspiracies that much, but hey, you never know. As a matter of fact,I think they have already kidnapped poor Colin Powell. And has anyone seen Condi lately?
Speaking of Republican fascists, did you know that Markos Moulitsas (DailyKos) wrote an editorial against gay service in the military?
ReplyDeleteMarkos said,
"the demands and pressures of military life are incompatible with allowing integration with homosexuals."
And Markos was successful. Bill Clinton was forced to rescind his program to allow gays to serve in the military.
If you don't think a bigot like Markos Moulitsas should be running the Democratic Party, then please forward this information to people who support gay rights and who oppose homophobic and other kinds of bigotry.
Francis L. Holland
See the whole story at The Truth About Kos
Man, this is crazier than when I said the U.S. government is directly responsible for the Holocaust.
ReplyDeleteHave you seen how many guns and how many short tempers black people have? So don't go worrying just yet. They'd never be able to pull that off quietly and quickly enough to not draw attention from outside nations. You've been watching V for Vendetta too much :)
Oh yeah, and what makes Pat Tillman an American hero? He's a football player who joined the military.
ReplyDeleteFN:
ReplyDeleteI recall reading that North Carolina based Blackwater was dispatched to New Orleans to "restore order" in the wake of Katrina. Moreover, the company is said to be expanding its operations to the West Coast.
Scary stuff, indeed.
The New Yorker magazine did a story a few years back about the power and reach of the Aryan Nation gang beyond the our federal prison system. While there was no mention of Blackwater in the piece, the notion of supremacist ex-cons hired for urban mercenary work is not far-fetched
Finally, I take no comfort in the fact that a lot of our folk have access to firearms. As the daughter of a RESPONSIBLE gun enthusiast, I know that a gun is a lot more than a fashion accessory. One has to know how to use it - which, for starters, means not aiming it sideways when shooting at something as is often depicted in Hip Hop video and film - as well as how to clean and store it.
That ain't happening in the 'hood. We're too busy "swole-up" and killing each other over $6 loans.
OK woozie, don't say I didn't warn you :)
ReplyDeleteIf we truly held true to the 2nd amendment the only people with guns would be groups like Blackwater and gangs. Does anyone want to tell me they aren't a well organized militia? Depending on whose block it all went down on Blackwater might be in for a bit of a surprise. Plus, a common enemy might be the only way to unite the people on the street.
ReplyDeleteCurses, good post, I was going to write about that, oh well. Back to the news...
ReplyDeleteKos? He's a far-leftist! No! He's a far-rightist! Aw hell, he's two...two...two ideologues in one!!
ReplyDelete"Oh yeah, and what makes Pat Tillman an American hero? "
ReplyDeleteAhh woozie, the guy gave up millions, and volunteered to go to some God forsaken country to put his butt on line.
That makes him a hero in my book.
You say hero, I say crazy. Potato, potatoe.
ReplyDeleteField: Thanks for your response about Tillman. The comment slamming him is about more than I can stomach. I'm not impressed that he was some sports figure because I don't care about sports. Just that he was in a position to have it all and gave it all up for something he believed in (even if I don't believe in it). I respect that a lot in a person and it is a rare quality in American culture because most people won't lift a finger to help anyone for any reason.
ReplyDeleteHey woozie, maybe you could share with us the last brave thing you did? Maybe drink your latte without sugar? Take the bus to work? Lay in the sun without sunscreen? Think before you speak? Think?
Field, I'm not sure how I feel about a mercenary army fighting in "our" wars, because who are they accountable to? But, I don't think there's any chance in hell they (or any group like them) would ever be used to openly attack/"control" black people in the U.S. In certain situations they might be used as security forces in the U.S. (such as after Katrina) and I'm not really comfortable with that (because who are the accountable to?), and in those extreme situations there might be isolated incidents of overt force against minorities. Of course, that isn't right and should (if and or when it happens) cause an cry of outrage from all Americans. But, I don't believe it could happen quite like your nightmare scenario.
ReplyDeleteI will say one thing... The older I get the more hesitant I am to say something "couldn't happen." I hope I don't have to eat my words in this case.
West Coast Story - my sentiments exactly. How often do you see anyone nowadays do *anything* that costs them in order to help someone else. Very rarely, and Tillman knew he was risking his life, not just his material standing in this society.
ReplyDeleteAnd by the way. I read a story some months ago about gangbangers in the military (and in Iraq) who are sending home military style weapons. Maybe that's where some of the Pentagon's missing billions in equipment has gone. I bet a whole bunch of military weapons are stashed away all over this country. I've always said that the end of the US will be initiated by its own. Instead of doing drive-bys, the gangbangers can shoot a missile in the general vicinity of someone's hangout. We aleady know how much they care about precision when they do drive-bys.
ReplyDeleteFYI
ReplyDeletehttp://www.kccall.com/article.cfm?articleid=1449
Well, dragon, I sort of agree with her. Integration has completely scattered black people and there is no center to our community. We are divided by class, religion, education, etc., as much as anything. We integrated into larger society and yet segregated ourselves from each other based on where we live and how much money we earn. As long as the physical center of the black community is a place to buy drugs and murder other black people, I don't see how things can change much. Places like Oakand and LA are exceptions to some extent but even here it's a long way from the south Oakland hills to the flatlands, and I'm not talking miles.
ReplyDeleteWe don't own television stations, cable channels, or radio stations. When Robert Johnson owned BET, he prgrammed garbage and now it's even worse.
We don't own much of anything anymore. We think we can only serve black people. The black businesses, retail or service based, I know of that are thriving are serving a diverse customer base.
The best black magazine ever, Encore, was owned by Johnson and he unceremoniously dumped that too. He was probably losing money. Black people were probably not subscribing. It didn't feature much about Hollywood.
Thank goodness for the internet and occasionally CSPAN because they're about the only places you will see serious discussion about issues affecting black people. But it's not enough.
I don't support segregration as a policy but when black people integrated, we just wandered away from each other and never really came back. When TIME wrote about the permanent underclass, they were looking to the future to what we have now. Large communities of black people who are struggling, or just outright poor, with lousy schools, and overrun with crime. There are no longer a variety of role models in the 'hood. No doctors or lawyers or marketing execs or consultants. It's just sad.
For me, the real proof of how apathetic the black haves have become is how we have allowed the aftermath of Katrina to continue to be a nightmare for the survivors and a potentially huge loss to black culture. A place steeped in black history and we are just letting it slip away.
Damn west coast, when is the book coming out?
ReplyDeleteI co-sign with you 100%
drew, the older I get, the more cynical I get as well.
:-) Thanks, Field. I started a blog and intended to make it about how broken service delivery is in the public and private sector, in truly stupid and imaginative ways. But then I come here and get inspired by the topics and wonder if I should broaden my writing horizons.
ReplyDeleteCorrection of a senior moment. The Johnson magazine was Emerge, not Encore. Great 'zine. Nearly wept when it stopped publishing.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry west coast story and drew, I promise I'll never express my opinion again. Scout's honor.
ReplyDeletewoozie, what kind of blog do you think this is? Of course you can express your opinion. In fact, I encourage it.
ReplyDeleteYou are acting way too sensitive; that's not the woozie I know :)
Blackwater's got a "retreat center" on the eastern shore of Maryland in one of the posh Chesapeake manisons of Talbot County (ironically the birthplace of Frederick Douglass). Huge place near St. Michaels, and of course Cheney has a vacation spot there to for more duck hunting, chilling.
ReplyDeleteWanna hear the really scary thing? Their neighbor is Michael Jackson, new resident of the state of Maryland. Apparently Cheney's people welcomed him to the hood. What's the scheme?
"Wanna hear the really scary thing? Their neighbor is Michael Jackson, new resident of the state of Maryland. Apparently Cheney's people welcomed him to the hood. What's the scheme? "
ReplyDeleteMichael is going to teach them how to moon walk all over our ass!
Woozie: forgive my harshness but I have a hard time with disparaging people who risk their lives to serve their country. I've had relatives fight in wars from the Revolutionary war through Vietnam. I was opposed to Vietnam but almost every male my age was affected by that war and I could have never criticized one of them for serving.
ReplyDeleteI marched and demonstrated against Iraq before the war started. But Tillman gave up a comfortable life to join the military for what he believed to be a noble cause. You can't blame him for not understanding the depths of depravity that exist in the Bush adminstration. How could he have known how his death would be manipulated into mere war propaganda?
I certainly disagreed with him about the war, but I think it is beneath anyone to trash him for his decision to join the armed services because he thought it was the right thing to do. Duty, honor, all that stuff still means something to some of us even though it is almost completly absent in daily American life.
Our Armed Forces are in bad shape.
ReplyDeleteWithout
1. The Urban Terrorists (the gangbangers)
2. The Rural Terrorists (the White Supremacists)
3. Outright criminals
4. HUGE signing bonuses
5. The backdoor draft..
Do you REALIZE where our Armed Forces would be right now? How pitiful we would look? What kind of SERIOUS trouble we're in because of the huge numbers of soldiers that have been so injured that they can't go back into service? And what seeing those folks has done to others that will NOT sign up again?
We're in trouble.
They murdered Pat Tillman IN COLD BLOOD. They murdered that White Boy Hero...so, what do you think they'd do to our Black Behinds?
FN, I'm sorry to bring this. Have you seen this video game trailer posted at Black Looks?
ReplyDeleteHoly shit West Coast are you saying the Crips have Stinger missiles?
ReplyDeleteField,
Bush can declare Martial Law tomorrow, and he has the authority to cancel the 2008 election.
It won't just be the "Hood," it will be all our asses.
This may be the perfect time for all of us to hold hands and sing...
"Ebony, Ivory, a gun for you, and one for me..."
We may be in serious trouble.
autoprof, I will check out that link later.
ReplyDeletefairlane, I am heading to the target range now!!!
There is nothing done in this country by those here in the Beltway that surprises me anymore.
ReplyDeleteScares the hell out of me? Hell to the Yeah!
But, surprises me? No.... ((shakes head and fist))
If they can take out Pat Tillman because he did what he thought was patriotic, got over to Iraq and found that everything he gave up the NFL for to serve his country was a steaming pile of BS, and started to call his superiors out on that shyt, you know doggone well that it spelled "COVER-UP".
And this mess goes all the way to the White House, because if it didn't, Bush wouldn't be interested in a low level soldier being killed by "friendly fire".
Just like Jessica Lynch, the White House tried to paint Pat Tillman as a hero - until Tillman's brother and Lynch got in front of a Congressional Committee and said the military was a bunch of crooks and liars who tried to use them and Pat Tillman.
This may be the one thing that may bring down this administration.
Of course, I've said that about other incidents, like Sibel Edmonds and Richard Clarke blowing the whistle, too...and I'm still waiting.
Field: Right after Hurricane Katrina, the US government sent Blackwater to New Orleans to "keep order." A lot of Black people there felt as though martial law had been declared.
ReplyDeleteWell, I'm a conspiracy theorist and I believe that man landed on the moon, and that Jews did not receive a telephone call telling them to stay at home.
ReplyDeleteThe part about Lee Oswald, however....
Blackwater was also involved with Katrina recovery in the early stages, and there were reports that they were causing trouble. There was an episode of This American Life that dealt solely with military contractos, most of them from Blackwater. What they had to say would make the KKK look like the NAACP.
the sky is falling
ReplyDeletethe sky is falling
Why was Tillman a hero? He really was just another football player with conservative views who somehow bought repug crap and bit the dust for it. Now, I do believe that the evidence points to boyfriend being murdered due to the jealousy of his fellow soldiers, poor sucker, and I do believe that Skippy covered that shit up just so that he could use the image that he presented to white America, as that of a white American hero, being used to supposedly show what this country is made, sun bleached white crap, and to lure more white boys to join the services.
ReplyDeleteumm, didn't you hear that the services were dropping all those moral codes they have in order to meet their quotas? Remember that crazy brother who fragged everybody back when the war first started? He was one of those.
I hear tell that Kindasleezy was put in check by Satan Cheeney, preznit in vp's clothing, sending her scurrying but to her netherworld. If I was that sister I'd walk by his office everyday, whispering heart attack, heart attack!
As for the draft, people like Mittens and his kittens might have something to say about that, but I dunno, since they won't impeach Darth Cheeney, it's a possibility.