"They use it so why can't we?"

           It never ceases to amaze me how indignant folks in the majority population can get over the fact that they aren't allowed to use the n-word. If I hear this familiar refrain again:  "They use it to each other so why can't we"? one more time, I swear I will find religion.

My views on the subject of the n word is well documented, I personally don't use the word, but I am not as offended as others when the younger generation of African Americans use it. And I certainly can appreciate it  when it is used in the context of art. "Sucka Nigga" is still one of the greatest hip hop songs of all times (RIP Phife Dawg), and I can appreciate its use in film and other forms of artistic expression as well. 

Having said all of that, given how the word was used by whites historically (and how they still, in some quarters, continue to use it today) it is never ever cool for whites to use the word in general conversation. 

This notion that they can use the word because we do is preposterous. I have Italian friends who refer to other Italians as the d word, that does not give me the right to use that word to an Italian American, and I would certainly never make an issue of the fact that I am not supposed to use the word because it is repugnant to them when it is said by someone who doesn't happen to be Italian American. 

It's really that simple, folks.  

This all leads me to Larry Wilmore's use of the word (or something like it) to close the White House Correspondence Dinner last night.

I played tennis with an older African American gentleman today who was furious that Wilmore even went there to his Oness. To him, it was disrespectful, given the historical nature of O's presidency and the fact that this was his official send off from the Washington elites. And judging from what was said on twitter and in other quarters, he was not alone. Heck even Rev Al weighed in, and he, like others, gave it a thumbs down.  

I personally was not so much offended by the word as I was the fact that the line was not particularly funny. Wilmore is a fine comedy writer, but let's face it, he is not a very good stand up comedian, so that joke, like a few others, fell flat.

Leonard Greene, writing for the New York Daily News, had a good take on it.

"That’s not to say Wilmore bombed the whole set. He managed to get off quite a few good lines, like the one about Obama’s graying hair.

“Mr. President, your hair is so white, it tried to punch me at a Trump rally,” Wilmore said. “The President’s hair is so white it keeps saying ‘All lives matter.’”

Wilmore should have quit while he was ahead.

Besides unfairly putting Obama on the spot about the most loaded word in the English language, Wilmore just gave white people, many of whom have for nearly eight years been beside themselves over a black man in the White House, license to use the N-word against the leader of the free world."

Yep. "They use it, so why can't we?"









  

Birther II.

I could never be elected president of these divided states of America. Not because I wouldn't love to lead this great nation, but because I was born in Jamaica to Jamaican parents. Being married to an American (bless my wife's American born and bred heart) does not make me anymore qualified.  Article Two of the Constitution clearly states that the person must be a natural-born citizen of the United States and must have been a permanent resident of the United States of America for at least 14 years, and that each candidate must be at least 35 years of age. 

Which brings me to our friend, Ted Cruz. Ted is the closest presidential contender on the republican side to Donald trump, and now it seems that Ted, like president Obama before him, has come under some birther fire from the orange colored one. Let's call this Birther II.

“Republicans are going to have to ask themselves the question: ‘Do we want a candidate who could be tied up in court for two years?’ That’d be a big problem,” Trump said when asked about the topic. “It’d be a very precarious one for Republicans because he’d be running and the courts may take a long time to make a decision. You don’t want to be running and have that kind of thing over your head.”

This is a hell of a time for Donald to go birther. Just when Cruz is gaining some ground on him in the polls. Although I must say that I was wondering when this would happen. Trump made no bones about believing that our current president is not legitimate. But if you objectively compare Obama to Cruz you will have to say that the president checks off way more boxes when it comes to qualifications to be president than Cruz. Born on American soil? Check. Parents are citizens? Check. (At least one of them.) 35 Years old? Check. Resident of the United States for 14 years. Check. Lived  Let's examine Mr. Cruz. Born to American citizens. Check. (At least one of them.) 35 years old? Check. Resident of the Unites States for 14 years? Check. Born on American soil? Nope. Can't check this one. In fact, Ted Cruz just renounced his Canadian citizenship a couple of years ago. Canada is a nice country, and we share a lot of things, but it isn't America.

Let's be clear, legal experts have pretty much said that there should be no problem with Ted Cruz becoming president, but the courts have not ruled on the case of ted Cruz, and while we can assume that the courts will say that he is a "natural born citizen; we just can't say for sure. 

The case of President Obama is different. The facts are beyond dispute: He is a "natural born citizen".

Anyway, Ted Cruz, like president Obama before him, will probably have to deal with some birhter questions from trump for the foreseeable future. This of course will be a harder sell to trump's rabid base. Because, let's face it, to them president Obama just looks a lot more foreign than Ted Cruz.  

*Pic from salon.com









    

When being the "Magic Negro" is not enough.

"..Obama expressed sympathy for the "passions and anger" sparked by the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, but said giving in to that anger through looting and attacks on police only stirs tensions and leads to further chaos. He said overcoming the mistrust endemic between many communities and their local police would require Americans to "listen and not just shout."


Sorry Mr. President, but with all due respect, when they do "listen" all they hear is just more of the same kind of things you have been saying.




And I get it, you are the president of all Americans, you can't seem to be favoring those Negroes over all others. It's how you got elected in the first place: The "Magic Negro", the "uniter", who speaks well and seems so non-threatening. The Negro who views himself as an American first and who only sees "one America."




If you had been any other kind of Negro you would not have been elected.



But I also understand the angst and criticism that you are getting from folks like my homeboy, Marc Lamont Hill.




 "In an official White House statement on Wednesday and a brief speech from Martha's Vineyard on Thursday, the President played his usual role of "the uniter," preaching calm and healing to the American public.

I wish he'd just said nothing.

To be clear, I didn't have any unrealistic expectations for Obama. I didn't expect him to pump a black fist in solidarity or scream "fight the power" from the makeshift press room. I didn't even need him to take a clear side on the issue. I did, however, expect him to tell the truth. Instead, the President delivered a polite but ultimately dangerous message to the American public.

Noticeably absent from President Obama's remarks was the issue of race. Despite Ferguson being 68% black, Ferguson's police force is nearly all white. Blacks in the town comprise 86% of all vehicle stops and 85% of all arrests. Over the past week, black residents of the town have complained of racial harassment from law enforcement. That, combined with the trend of unarmed black men being the victims of extrajudicial killings, makes the racial implications of Brown's death quite strong.

Even if one were to believe that Michael Brown's killing had nothing to do with race -- a naïve position at best -- the wave of protests and debates that emerged after it happened have been undeniably racial. By not mentioning this racial dimension, the President reinforced the immature notion that racism can be defeated simply by pretending it doesn't exist." [Source]

The thing is, Marc, in the minds of most Americans it doesn't exist. And that black person speaking from the podium with the Presidential seal on it, in their minds, proves it.

One of the bitter ironies of all of this is that in spite of Barack Obama going out of his way to be the president of all Americans and not show favoritism to his father's ancestors, he is still viewed by those on the right to be the most divisive president ever.

They are decrying the fact that racial tensions have increased and not decreased  during his presidency. Failing to realize, of course, that the anger and hate have come primarily from their ideological soul-mates in the majority population, who resent the fact that a black man such as Obama could have been elected to lead them. (Twice!)

So yes, racial tensions have increased, but it's not because of the way that the very non-racial Barack Obama acted in office; it's because he is in that office in the first place.

"There are young black men that commit crime. We can argue about why that happened — because the poverty they were born into or the school systems that failed them or what have you— but if they commit a crime, then they need to be prosecuted," Obama said. "Because every community has an interest in public safety."

Yes they do "need to be prosecuted," and so do the police officers who are charged with keeping the public safe and not breaking the very law that they are charged to uphold. 

*Pic from Scott Olsen-Getty Images.

 

 

Is Waka Flocka Flame his brother's keeper?

 "I can't forget da southside
Can't forget riverdale
I can't forget the hit squad
1017 brick squad

Lebron flocka james
I go hard in da muhfuckin paint nigga...

What the fuck you thinkin nigga
I wont die for this shit or what the fuck i say (Brick Squad)
Front yard broad day wit da SK (ba ba ba ba ba ba bow)
See Gucci, thats my mothafuckin nigga
I hang in the Dale wit dem hit squad killers
Waka Flocka Flame one hood ass nigga
Ridin real slow bendin corners my nigga...
 

....Where you at? Where your trap? You aint hood, nigga
Keep this shit 300, put that shit on my hood
Crips fuckin wit me, G's and the Vice Lords (Brrrrrrrret)
Eses in the Meeko freestyle off da dome
Brick Sqaud Waka Flocka Flame its fuckin on!"


Too many young black men out here listen to rappers like Waka Flocka Flame and take his lyrics literally. It would be nice if they had parents at home who would take the time to teach them how to put things in its proper perspective and understand that in the real world, repping the "Southside" and hanging  in a trap house with paid killers and drug dealers is not how you make a life for yourself or your family.


A sad example of what I am referring to is this young child out of Memphis. His story is heartbreaking but all too familiar:


"A baby-faced Memphis teen posted shocking snaps of his wannabe thug lifestyle online just hours before being shot dead by his best pal as they played with a gun, police said.


 Cartrail Robertson, 13, uploaded the gangster-style gallery - where he's seen holding a revolver he describes as a .357 Magnum, smoking pot and fanning wads of $100 bills - to Facebook on Monday.


But, in the early hours of Tuesday morning, he was allegedly gunned down by his 15-year-old friend Darrin Wilson.

Cops think the duo were playing with the weapon, at around 3 a.m. in another as yet unnamed friend's house, when it accidentally went off.

Officers are also analysing [sic] other images, uploaded by the duo and their other friends, where they throw out apparent gang signs and wave semi-automatic weapons." {Source}


Folks, if you don't raise your kids the streets will raise them for you. And, sadly, it looks like the streets got a hold of Cartrail Robertson in just 13 quick years.


This story also had me thinking about the President's latest initiative to try and save young black men, or at least make the rest of us realize that some of them are out here and need saving.
 

This little thug wannabe was living the thug life complete with loaded pistols, drugs, liquor and money. (Look at the images with the link.)

Tragically, his own friend split his dome and his young life has sadly come to an end.

Yes, I am my "brother's keeper", but I also want the people who brought him here to get down with me and try to save him as well.

 

President Obama should not have to launch any kind of initiative to save young men like Cartrail Robertson. Where are his parents?

They are the ones we should be blaming for this tragedy. Not the streets. Not the president. And not Wacka Floka Flame.    

The GOP believes that America has a weed problem, and O faces a backlash.

Before I start this post I would like to give a special shout out to my realtor and my banker over at FMFCU. The last few months have been crazy. I sold one home and just went to settlement on another. Both of them did a great job for a brotha.

 I have more land now, and my wife, a country girl, is happy. I won’t say where it is, because I don’t want the po po spying on my marijuana crop...... That was a joke.

Speaking of marijuana, I swear these wingnuts are getting crazier by the minute. Even the ones with the supposed brains have gone "coo coo for Cocoa puffs." (Pun intended). No wonder folks like Jon Stewart keep making fun of them.

"On his show Thursday night, CNBC host Larry Kudlow wondered if the left was “trying to weaken America” by legalizing marijuana.

“So Colorado and Washington state made history on Tuesday, becoming the first states to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. I just want to ask if liberals trounced on American values and by the way productivity also,” Kudlow said at the beginning of the segment, which was entitled “Liberals’ Pipe Dream: A Nation of Stoners?”

Kudlow’s guest, actress Janine Turner, said marijuana legalization stole “the promise of America.” She warned that it would now be easier for high school students in Colorado and Washington state to obtain the drug." [Source]

As if it's hard for kids in the other 48 states to get pot. Puleeeaaazze.

Then there is the CIA Director failing to keep his jump-off a secret. As one of my twitter fam said, "If the CIA Director can't keep his side piece a secret, where does that leave you other guys"? 

Anyway, to the folks at FASCIST NEWS, this too is tied to the Obama administration's attempt to cover-up the incident at Benghazi. Yes, it's a cover-up alright, but the covers weren't covering up a security breakdown, they were covering up something else. I see you saluting, General.    

Finally, the fallout from the Obama beat down of flipper continues.

In West Virginia (Do people still live there?) they are flying American flags upside down in protest,  racist tweets are flying in about Obama's reelection from the South, and CEOs, sympathetic to the wingnut cause, are laying off people left and right. From the looks of things, the revolution must be just around the corner.

Batten down the hatches, patriots.





 

    

No deal for you Negro!

Rrrrrriing. Rrrrrriing.Rrrrring. "Mr.Boehner, that's coming from the White House, are you going to answer it?" "No, f&^k that nig guy. Let it ring."

Poor O, he can't even get these clowns to answer his phone calls these days. Mr. Tan Man walked away from talks on the debt ceiling and it doesn't look like he is coming back anytime soon. He held a press conference tonight and put down a marker on behalf of his wingnut friends.

I guess O thought that he had my man figured out after a few rounds of golf but he was wrong. He will never be able to get into the mind of a wingnut.

"Obama’s rhetorical floundering is the sound of a bewildered politician trying to be heard over the long, withdrawing roar of ebbing faith in a failing model of governance. From Greece to California, with manifestations in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Illinois and elsewhere, this model is collapsing. Entangled economic and demographic forces are refuting the practice of ever-bigger government financed by an ever-smaller tax base and by imposing huge costs on voiceless future generations.

Richard Miniter, a Forbes columnist, is right: “Obama is not the new FDR, but the new Gorbachev.” Beneath the tattered, fading banner of reactionary liberalism, Obama struggles to sustain a doomed system. Democrats’ dependency agenda — swelling the ranks of government employees, multiplying government-subsidized industries, enveloping ever-more individuals in the entitlement culture — is buckling under an intractable contradiction: It is incompatible with economic growth sufficient to create enough wealth to feed the multiplying tax eaters. " [Source]

O, with all due respect; it's time to double down. Show George Will and others that if this is to be the end of big government we will not go down without a fight. Show them that what the progressive proposes is not "incompatible with economic growth", but by putting people first, it is essential for it to take place.

The people who make up the "entitlement culture" are the fat cats and corporations who have been sucking the life out of this country for their own selfish gains and giving nothing in return. Steve Wynn, for instance, has the nerve to cry a river over Obama's policies hurting his bottom line yet his company had a growth of over 300 million dollars from the same time last year, and his stock prices have more than tripled since 2009. Yeah, some Socialist.

Sorry Mr. Wynn, it seems that the government subsidies Mr. Will complains about has only helped folks like you.

"Obama displayed frustration with the Republicans, saying Boehner had failed to return his phone calls during the day, observing it wasn’t the first time during the debt-limit talks he had been “left at the altar,” and declaring the Republicans had walked away from “an extraordinarily fair deal.”

O, my question to you would be this: Why would you want to get married to those people in the first place? 










    

Torturing the faithful.

*

It's stories like this that's got my love meter for his O ness dipping:

"Jan. 7 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, then led by Timothy Geithner, told American International Group Inc. to withhold details from the public about the bailed-out insurer’s payments to banks during the depths of the financial crisis, e-mails between the company and its regulator show. AIG said in a draft of a regulatory filing that the insurer paid banks, which included Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Societe Generale SA, 100 cents on the dollar for credit-default swaps they bought from the firm. The New York Fed crossed out the reference, according to the e-mails, and AIG excluded the language when the filing was made public on Dec. 24, 2008. The e-mails were obtained by Representative Darrell Issa, ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee..." [More here]

Let's call it the "Chinese water torture" effect. Drip. Drip. Drip. My dome is starting to feel wet.

"President Obama wants the final negotiations on health care reform - a reconciliation of the House and Senate versions of the bill - put on a fast track, even if that means breaking an explicit campaign promise. "The House and Senate plan to put together the final health care reform bill behind closed doors according to an agreement by top Democrats," House Speaker Nanci Pelosi said today at the White House. The White House is on board with that, too, reports CBS News political correspondent Chip Reid. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs stressed today that "the president wants to get a bill to his desk as quickly as possible." Special Report: Health Care Reform During the campaign, though, candidate Obama regularly promised something different - to broadcast all such negotiations on C-SPAN, putting the entire process of pounding out health care reform out in the open. (That promise applied to the now-completed processing of forging House and Senate bills, too.) Back when Republicans controlled Congress and George W. Bush was in the White House, it was Democrats who angrily complained about secret backroom deals. Now the roles are reversed..." [Story here]

I know a lot of people don't watch C-SPAN, but just an hour on that network is not enough. His O ness promised me transparency and that's what I want.

But field, it's not only Obama, congressional dumbocrats are the real reason that these deals are being done in secret, The president does not have any control over the process.

That may or may not be true. I am not as up on the inner workings of Washington like some folks, so I can't say for sure. But what I can say is that White House sure isn't pushing for wall to wall coverage on C-SPAN. I am sorry, I must be missing something, but what the hell do these lawmakers think will happen if folks see how the "sausage is being made"? This is A-merry-ca, damn it! I didn't like secrecy with the frat boy, and having my man in the beige house doesn't change how I feel about that.

Oh, and before I go, I want to thank Glen Beck for finally settling this little name issue for us black folks. Apparently he doesn't like the term African American, either.

"African-American is a bogus, PC, made-up term. I mean, that's not a race"

Obama, my love meter for you just went back up a few notches. Why? Because " The enemy of my enemy is my friend. "

*Pic taken from the Rosetta Sister blog.

The joke is on them.

Folks, I am taking a little longer to get to this post tonight. Mrs. Field is watching some group called Sugarland on television and she is begging me to come and watch them with her. Not going to happen. Never heard of them, and don't care to. They sound like they are country and western and that ain't my cup of tea. Mrs.. Field, on the other hand, is all over country and western music. Go figure. One day I packed her I-Pod into my gym bag quite by accident and I couldn't listen to two songs on the damn thing. How we lasted this long I will never know.

But anyway, enough of that. I wanted to post about some other things going down in La La Land. It seems that there are posters being plastered all over Los Angeles with a likeness of his O ness to look like Heath Ledger's Joker. The wingnuts think it's funny, (notice some of them already using it on this very site as their avatar) I do not.

Drudge, of course, is pushing it. And I am pretty sure that whoever created these little gems will be featured on FOX NEWS and various conservative talk radio programs and blogs, soon.

Nothing like a little mockery of the Kenyan born president to get a rise out of the troops. Oh field, stop it! What about when you people were making fun of George Bush day and night? What about the late night jokes and all the blogs devoted to ridiculing him? On this very blog you called him the frat boy. What about it field? Care to answer that one? Yes, that's true. After Katrina, and after he led us into an illegal war, people got pretty upset at the frat boy. But I don't remember 100 days into his presidency people plastering posters of him all over a major A-merry-can city and it becoming some kind of rallying point for democrats against him. No, in fact, if I recall correctly, the frat boy had a lot of good will right after 911 in this country. Obama inherited a depression like economy and gets no such good will from the wingnuts while he tries to work things out. It has been one loof (That's a backwards fool for those of you who were wondering about my spelling.) after another from day one. The birthers; the tea party people; the deathers; the he is going to take our guns crowd; the he is a Socialist crowd (we could only wish); the he is a secret black Nationalist crowd. ....get the idea? With George it was ridicule, but it was just that: Ridiculing his incompetence and his policies. Not drumming up silly conspiracies worthy of an Oliver Stone movie.

" Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable President Earl Ofari Hutchinson is calling the depiction, politically mean spirited and dangerous.Hutchinson is challenging the group or individual that put up the poster to have the courage and decency to publicly identify themselves.'Depicting the president as demonic and a socialist goes beyond political spoofery,' says Hutchinson, "it is mean-spirited and dangerous.''We have issued a public challenge to the person or group that put up the poster to come forth and publicly tell why they have used this offensive depiction to ridicule President Obama."'

Well Earl, I agree with you, it is mean spirited and potentially dangerous. But you know what? I am not going to call for them to be taken down. (Unless the person putting up the posters is breaking the law or putting them on private property.) I won't give the wingnuts the pleasure of screaming hypocrite. I strongly believe in the First Amendment, and although this is somewhat crass and ignorant (Heath Ledger happens to be dead), I don't think it's like crying fire in a crowded theater. It's more like crying I am a dumb ass wingnut who needs a life.