"Civility costs nothing", except a good blog post.

I was going to post a little earlier, but I wanted to make sure I heard Michele Bachmann and the Tea Party response to the State of the Union address, first. (Let the battle of the heart and soul of the republi-clown party begin.) It was so bad that FOX didn't carry it. Those folks over at FOX are really smart, they must have known that she would make their side look bad. Thankfully CNN had no such issues.

Anyway, on to his O ness: The speech, for the most part, was good. I wish he had the courage to talk about gun control, but I have come to expect less not more from O. All the kumbaya stuff was a bit much as well. (Where is Joe Wilson when you need him?) Folks sitting together like that sucked the life out of the room. I don't know about the rest of you; but I want my politics to be like my bedroom activities:lively. Tonight was more like a Sunday morning service. And I am talking Catholic service not Southern Baptist.

But I get it. One of their colleagues is still fighting to get her life -as she once knew it- back, and the nation is still mourning over Arizona. The spirit and the tone of the speech reflected that reality. To his credit, O seemed to be trying to stick to that theme of civility and corporation, and the republi-clowns, for the most part, were playing along.

I am glad he can do it, because I sure as hell can't. But hey, great leaders have to rise above partisanship. In order to accomplish anything politically in A-merry-ca you have to work with those who oppose you ideologically. This is one of the true paradoxes of the A-merry-can political system, and it holds true time and time again.

"We are part of the American family. We believe that in a country where every race and faith and point of view can be found, we are still bound together as one people; that we share common hopes and a common creed; that the dreams of a little girl in Tucson are not so different than those of our own children, and that they all deserve the chance to be fulfilled.
That, too, is what sets us apart as a nation.

Now, by itself, this simple recognition won't usher in a new era of cooperation. What comes of this moment is up to us. What comes of this moment will be determined not by whether we can sit together tonight, but whether we can work together tomorrow.

I believe we can. I believe we must. That's what the people who sent us here expect of us. With their votes, they've determined that governing will now be a shared responsibility between parties. New laws will only pass with support from Democrats and Republicans. We will move forward together, or not at all - for the challenges we face are bigger than party, and bigger than politics. "

Whenever I listen to O I think of that quote by Friedrich Schiller: "Every true genius is bound to be naive".

The State Of The Union and Paul Shirley.

I see O is still delivering his latest introduction to the A-merry-ca people. I would wait until he is over to post, but why should I? We all know what's going to happen: The dems will love it. The rethugs will hate it, and the fight will continue in Washington. Over at Radio Rwanda there will be pundits saying that his speech did nothing to change their minds about A-merry-ca heading down the wrong path, and over on other so called main stream news outlets they will be breaking down every little thing he said and "Monday Morning Quarterbacking" his speech writers.

For what it's worth, the speech has been decent so far. (I loved when he gave a shout out to the First Lady. Is it me or does it look like Michelle Obama has seriously stepped up her fashion game?) He told the A-merry-can people that we are in trying times and they call for extraordinary measures, such as domestic spending freezes. (Hmmm, no cut on military spending?) And he scolded himself for not doing a better job of getting his message out to the A-merry-can people. “I take my share of the blame for not explaining it more clearly to the American people,” Obama said. “... This problem is not going away.” But we have come to expect nice speeches from O. As they say over at Jello: The proof will be in the pudding. That is what will determine if we will hear nice speeches for three more years or seven.

Another story that got my attention today is the one about this has-been b-ball player slamming the relief effort in Haiti, and chastising A-merry-cans for giving to the cause. Most of you have never heard of Paul Shirley, and if it wasn't for his stance on the Haitian relief effort you would never have heard of him at all. He had a cup of tea in the NBA but that's about it. Still, my man is getting headlines today becaause of his rant. Here is some of what he said:

"I haven’t donated to the Haitian relief effort for the same reason that I don't give money to homeless men on the street," he wrote. "Based on past experiences, I don't think the guy with the sign that reads 'Need You're Help' is going to do anything constructive with the dollar I might give him. If I use history as my guide, I don't think the people of Haiti will do much with my money either..."

".. And he didn't stop there, even writing a letter to the people of Haiti. "Dear Haitians," he wrote, "First of all, kudos on developing the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Your commitment to human rights, infrastructure, and birth control should be applauded. "As we prepare to assist you in this difficult time, a polite request: If it’s possible, could you not re-build your island home in the image of its predecessor? Could you not resort to the creation of flimsy shanty- and shack-towns? And could some of you maybe use a condom once in a while?" He also asked what's being done to prevent this tragedy from happening again, using New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina as an example. "We did the same after Hurricane Katrina," he said. "We were quick to vilify humans who were too slow to respond to the needs of victims, forgetting that the victims had built and maintained a major city below sea level in a known target zone for hurricanes. Our response: Make the same mistake again. Rebuild a doomed city, putting aside logic as we did."

Now, as to be expected, people of conscience everywhere are outraged, and ESPN has dropped my man as a freelance writer. But here is the thing; there are quite a few people who agree with Mr. Shirley. And I, for one, am of the opinion that he he has a right to express himself just like everyone else. So I don't think that ESPN should have dropped him, and I want people like Mr. Shirley to have a platform to speak. We need to hear all sides of these types of debates here in A-merry-ca. As ignorant and as repulsive as his views might seem to most of us, there are many folks who are saying, right on Mr. Shirley way to speak for me.

To those folks and Mr. Shirley, I give you the following article by the brilliant Hilary Beckles. I realise that Mr. Shirley has been too busy cultivating his basketball skills to actually read a book or an article about Haiti over the past few years, so I am always glad to educate where I can.

"..how best to deliver a major conference on the theme Rethinking And Rebuilding Haiti.
I am very keen to provide an input into this exercise because for too long there has been a popular perception that somehow the Haitian nation-building project, launched on January 1, 1804, has failed on account of mismanagement, ineptitude, corruption.

Buried beneath the rubble of imperial propaganda, out of both Western Europe and the United States, is the evidence which shows that Haiti's independence was defeated by an aggressive North-Atlantic alliance that could not imagine their world inhabited by a free regime of Africans as representatives of the newly emerging democracy.

The evidence is striking, especially in the context of France.
The Haitians fought for their freedom and won, as did the Americans fifty years earlier. The Americans declared their independence and crafted an extraordinary constitution that set out a clear message about the value of humanity and the right to freedom, justice, and liberty.
In the midst of this brilliant discourse, they chose to retain slavery as the basis of the new nation state. The founding fathers therefore could not see beyond race, as the free state was built on a slavery foundation.

The water was poisoned in the well; the Americans went back to the battlefield a century later to resolve the fact that slavery and freedom could not comfortably co-exist in the same place. "

[More here]

You see that Mr. Shirley? Rather than shout you down, the field chooses to educate you. You can thank me by writing a check to the Haitian relief effort.

"I wanna hold your hand"

"That nigger ain't shit"

This is what I hear some knucklehead saying about me (I am sure he wanted me to hear) while talking to a group of other knuckleheads in the lobby area of my 9-5 plantation today.

Of course I would have loved to have done a pirouette, step in his grill, and ask the mother fucker just who the fuck he was talking about? But I couldn't. I had to take the high road and pretend I didn't even hear the little motherfucker. It's one of the things I hate about my job. I have to be the bigger man all the time and take shit like this from folks, who for whatever reason, feeel that I, or the system, messed over them at some point in their miserable ass lives.

So that little incident today, and watching all the pundits tonight, had me thinking about the "O" man's diss of Hillary. Of course it wasn't really a dis. Girlfriend, bright red dress and all, tried to grandstand the "O' man and pretend she was his friend by offering her hand (or so she says) while the two were getting ready for the State Of The Union Address. And this is when some photographer caught what he must have thought was the shot of a life time. [see sidebar] The "O" man, seeming to turn his back on the Ice Queen, right at the moment she was reaching out to shake his hand.

Sadly, the "O" man lied and said he didn't see her. “I was surprised by the reports this morning. There was a photograph in the [New York] Times about me sort of turning away. I was turning away because Claire [Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri] asked me a question as Senator Kennedy was reaching for me.”......come on "O" man, you saw her. But so what? Now Hillary is making a big fucking deal over a small dis. Anything to score political points. "Well, I reached my hand out in friendship and unity and my hand is still reaching out,”... And I look forward to shaking his hand sometime soon.” That sound you hear is me throwing up. Are you kidding me? The truth of the matter is I think there is too much faux civility in politics. I would have respected Hillary more if she went over to the "O" man and Teddy Liberal and said: "So you two pieces of shits think that your little announcement today is going to slow me down? Well fuck both of you." I mean she could have just leaned over and whispered it, and no one would have been the wiser. But the phony ass I want to shake your hand move for all the world to see was just pure crap. And I would have respected the "O" man more if he admitted, as the New York Times reported, that he was dissed by the Ice Queen before, and wasn't trying to be dissed again. (Once bitten twice shy) I mean who would could blame him? But he is a politician, and they don't act like real people. Real people say stuff like...well, "that nigger aint shit". Not that Hillary would have said that, although I am sure she might have been thinking it :)

Sow now all the televison pundits have picked up on this little photo. It's getting more screen time than the Manning brothers for crying out loud. Some of these pundits are all over the "O" man for not being civil to the lady, and the National Organization of Women has made a cause celebre out of this shit: Men behaving badly. Funny how Hillary can be a poor damsel in distress when it suits her, and a tough as nails take no prisoner war-hawk when she has to take that route. Hey, that's why she is a politician I guess.

But this is the problem with politics, you can never be honest because you want to get elected. I am sure the "O" man's handlers are reviewing that little picture over and over again to see what the negative effects might have been. Now they are thinking; minimize the damage, get in nice guy mode to the quickness. Can't have all those women across A-merry-ca thinking the "O" man dissed a lady.

I bet they will be real nice and cordial to each other at tomorrow night's debate. The "O" man will be a perfect gentleman, and that hand Hillary claims she is holding out will finally be taken.