Francis & The Kossacks

I wasn't going to post today, because I had some more important stuff going on. But then, like the addict that I am, I got on the Internet and caught this post from my man Francis Holland about the Kossacks again.


I swear I had to post this link. (He compared the Kossacks to the Klan!) My man Francis will not leave Markos and the folks at Kos alone. Now he is posting from Political Fleshfeast, a spin off of Myleftwing, which is wild as shit. Seems they gave Francis the green light to post as much as he wants, and boy is he going to town.



I have said publicly and privately to my man Francis, that I really don't co-sign with his need to post constantly and stir the pot on these large white blogs. I think he should use his immense talent to devote his writing and research to black causes and on black blogs. (Like the ones in the Afrospear for instance) But....he won't listen, and he just keeps trying to kick the door in to the white folks house.


Still, I love how he is trying to expose Markos, because let's face it, Markos has become an important political figure in this country. If he is doing or has done some shady shit in the past, well then he should be called on it.

So "write" on Francis. I tried to rope you in, but I guess there is no stopping you. You're the white folks problem now :)

Hillary lays down a "bitch" slap.

I have never been a big fan of Hillary Clinton. But honestly, if she is the Democratic nominee for President she will have my vote. Why? Because there is no way in hell that I would give my vote to one of those snow white looking seven dwarfs on the republican side. None!

But back to my point. It seems that Hillary laid a royal smack down on a conservative brother at the National Association of Black Journalist convention in Las Vegas. Apparently my man was trying to be cute, and approached one of the smartest people in American politics without his guns loaded.

According to Philadelphia Daily News columnist, Elmer Smith, a conservative black blogger by the name of Kiara Ashanti had "lined Hillary Rodham Clinton up in his gun sights" from the get go. "I can't wait" he told Smith in a Q&A session at the convention last week. He wanted to expose Clinton's "liberal proposals on health reform as a step toward what she believes is an all too socialistic agenda." According to Smith, this conservative blogger" wanted to raise his own visibility as much as he wanted to bring Clinton down a peg."

So let's see how it played out shall we:

After this genius asked Lady Hillary if she advocated socialist medicine, this was her response: "I've never advocated socialized medicine and I hope all journalist hear that" She said in a sharpened tone. "Do you consider Medicare socialized medicine?" she shot back at the genius. "In a way", said the little wimp. According to Smith's account, his answer was "lame." Then lady Hillary told the little republican wanna be house Negro to see her aides about the substance of her health-care proposals "if he was interested in being educated instead of being rhetorical."

Ouch!

Smith said it was a rare moment of being unscripted for Clinton and Smith suspected that it might have turned a thousand black journalist against her, and in fact, some of the older black journalist felt Clinton was arrogant. (Get over that shit)Apparently, according to Smith, some of the young journalist present flocked to Ashanti, to get his contact information. Mission accomplished for the conservative sellout. Your ass should have been in Iowa ambushing the candidate whose religion didn't want your black ass in their flock only a few years ago. Instead, you try to make a name off of Hillary by asking about her health care plan? I have to wonder about some black folks sometimes. Hey, but Hillary showed more restraint than I would have. I might have slapped your stupid ass, and told those other journalist in the house to go and report that shit.

But alas, Hillary has a sense of humor. According to Smith she was asked in a closed door session later on if "she had pandered to a black audience by reciting lyrics of a spiritual in what some considered an attempt to 'sound black'" Her answer was classic: "Well as you know, I'm in this interracial marriage."

And you might have a field Negro's vote there Hillary, you just might.

The above post was dedicated to my friend and Hillary supporter, Francis Holland.

Francis,I am begging you to let this "whitosphere" battle go. Please come to the dark side and expend your considerable energy and talents with us. I promise you, we will appreciate you more than they will. I know you have this beef with Markos and the Kos folks, but just remember; success is always the sweetest revenge.

"Whitosphere vs. Blackosphere"

I want to post about something I saw over at My DD ,a progressive net roots web site whose primary focus seems to be the advancement of democratic party candidates.

 Now in the spirit of true disclosure, I have to say that I have posted on My DD from time to time, and I even link the site here on my own blog.

 But an African American blogger raised some very good points while posting over there about the lack of links to black bloggers on many of these so called progressive white sites, and the lack of black participation ( I think he said 2%) on the white web sites. So I thought that it was worth talking about. Now this brother-I think his name is Francis Holland- seems to have a (excuse this reference ladies) "hard on" for the people at Daily Kos (who apparently banned him from their site) and My DD. So I understand that there is an element of sour- grapes with his position. Still, he raised some interesting points, and this is a subject worth discussing among people of all colors on the Internet.

I understand that this is a touchy subject for many progressives, because 90% of the time blacks and liberal white progressives see eye to eye on many core issues and causes. But what about the huge elephant in the room? Yes, that one; race. I guess we have to ask ourselves: do we have to get along on the racial issues in order to come together and promote issues that we all care about? Can we practice a form of "blogger apartheid" -as Mr. Holland refers to it- on the net, yet come together around certain issues and politicians who we all support? Honestly, I am not sure I know the answer to that. I thought some of the responses the brother got to his post was really interesting. Some of the commentators were upset that he would inject race into such a "color blind" forum as the Internet. Yeah right, when was the Internet ever color blind? Give me a fu****g break! The Internet is no more color blind than any other aspect of society. (Like when I post as the field-negro folks don't know that I am black.) So that's a bogus argument, and it's the type of hypocritical argument on racial matters which absolutely drives me crazy. I saw where my man from My DD was defending Markos over at Daily Kos and declaring that "he is not a racist".  First, how the f**k does he know this? Because they are kindred spirits on matters of politics? I don't think so!

Now I thought  that Jill Tubman had the best answers and most thoughtful response to Mr. Holland's concerns, because she put the entire debate in its proper context: "White progressives address politics more directly whereas black bloggers are addressing it indirectly, as it affects us more as a community." I co-sign with her on that. If you read most black blogs we address political and social issues as they affect us as a community and not society as a whole. So maybe we can never really become truly as one with our white ideological soul-mates on the webs because our interests when it comes to day to day issues are so diverse.

Mr. Holland seems to be screaming for more black inclusion in the Whitosphere, and more black links to sites like Daily Kos and My DD, etc. This is where my man and I tend to part company. I personally could give a f**k whether My DD or Daily Kos-- or any of the other so called white progressive blogs-- link me or even include me in their discussion. Honestly, their issues aren't my issues. I know they have very strong political beliefs and are tied to the democratic party and its leaders; but not me, and this is going to surprise some people. But I would just as soon vote for a republican over a democrat if I thought that he/she had my people's best interest at heart. So I really don't give a f**k which party a particular politician belongs to. The reason I happen to despise most republicans is that they just happen to be the most f****d up when it comes to matters of race. But don't get it twisted;  a lot of democrats are just as f****d up when it comes to this issue. And I will never walk lock step with any one party. NEVER! This is what separates me from the Daily Kos and My DD crowd, and what I think ultimately might separate me from people who are crying for inclusion.

Call me a separatist, but I am more proud to be linked to sites like Skeptical Brotha, Freeslave, and Mirror On America than to the more popular progressive white sites like Kos, My DD, and their ilk. And, for the record, I have links to white sites on my blog as well. -My man konagod and the aforementioned My DD comes to mind- so maybe I am not such a separatist after all.

I am glad Mr. Holland raised this subject, as it needed to be addressed. But my position on this is pretty clear, although I understand the opposite school of thought: We should try to learn about each other and from a political standpoint, it benefits the democratic party to get  feed- back from its most reliable constituents.

But you can't force inclusion on people, I don't care how progressive they claim to be. We have given up on the republicans because we realize that they have given up on us. Maybe we should take that position with the democrats as well.