Mutiny in the house?

Negro republicans are upset with Mitt Romney for not including them on his website. Apparently he has every other group but the Negro. And here you all thought being in the house with Mitt would get you certain privileges. You all must think your name is Artur Davis or something.

"Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign website includes a category for “Communities,” under which you’ll find nearly every kind of demographic group: “Catholics for Romney,” “Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders for Romney,” farmers and ranchers, lawyers, Jewish and Polish Americans, veterans and military families, young Americans, even Hispanics, under the banner “Juntos for Romney” — which may or may not be ironic given Romney’s stance on “self-deportation.” But one thing you won’t find on the site: African-Americans for Romney.

And some black Republicans are not happy about it.

It’s shameful,” said one prominent black, “west coast” Republican, who contacted theGrio about the admission, but preferred not to use their name. The source said they have been involved in Republican politics “throughout the modern era,” and said they couldn’t recall a single GOP campaign that didn’t include some formal attempt at black outreach, particularly online.
When reached for comment, Tara Wall, senior communications and coalitions adviser to the Romney campaign told theGrio: ”We have a working advisory group, but it has not been formally announced yet. We have the site ready to go.” [Source]

"Shameful"? What's "shameful" is that some of you Negroes expect better. You must have forgotten that before 1978 Mitt probably didn't even see your black asses as equals.

Besides, why should Mitt reach out to you Negroes? The poor man is getting less than 0% of support from black folks in the polls. (ZERO! How do you even get zero percent when there are millions of eligible Negro voters in America?)  Tara Wall and Artur Davis might be the only Negroes in America voting for Mitt. I bet Condi isn't voting for him, and she is supposed to speak at his convention.

"Still, another prominent member of the GOP told theGrio they don’t plan to attend next week’s RNC convention, as they had for nearly every presidential year since they’ve been active in politics, as a delegate. The number of black delegates at Republican conventions peaked in 2004, at 6.7 percent of the total delegates, only to plummet by 78.4 percent, from 167 delegates to 36 in 2008, when John McCain was nominated for president in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The 2008 convention represented a 40-year low in the number of black RNC delegates, who represented just 1.5 percent of all delegates attending the convention, according to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, which in 2008 released a report tracking the number of black delegates at both party conventions over the past 50 years.

This year, some prominent black Republicans say the party will be lucky to match 2008′s numbers.

According to the former delegate, who says he’s a conservative first, and a Republican second, friends still active in the party claim the party has gone beyond giving up on growing its share of the black vote.

“Giving up is not the point,” the former delegate said his friends tell him. “They’ve thrown them overboard; don’t need ‘em, don’t want ‘em.”

Oh ohh, I think that the house just got smaller.

Finally, I hope that the case of Gabrielle Swainson is finally getting some publicity. I tweeted about it earlier and I had folks e-mailing me and asking me who she was.

You won't hear much about her case on Nancy Grace, FOX NEWS or CNN; so you might as well read about it here.

"The FBI has joined the search for a South Carolina cheerleader who vanished without a trace from her bedroom.

Gabrielle Swainson, 15, disappeared between 3:30 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. last Saturday, during the time her mother was at work, police said.
When mother Elvia Swainson returned home Saturday morning, Gabrielle's bed was empty.

"I grabbed my phone and started calling her number. The number rang a couple of times then it stopped," Swainson said.
Several more attempts to reach her daughter went straight to voicemail, she said. Although there were no signs of foul play, investigators believe the teen's disappearance was not voluntary.

"Her purse was still there with her charger for her phone in it and all the ingredients of her purse like her wallet and her credit card, everything is still there," said Chandra Cleveland-Jennings, a private investigator hired by Swainson."

These type of stories never end well, but let's hope that this case is the exception to that rule.





 

Maybe Tara Wall can find Obama's birth certificate.

As Mitt Romney continues to formalize the Negro inclusion portion of his Etch A Sketch plan, he has settled on a Negro to be the face of the strategy. Her name is Tara Wall, and Tara believes that once Negroes realize that Flipper is an "economic genius", they will line up and vote for him over Obama

 "From a messaging standpoint, we need to be able to communicate and relate to these communities about how they are being impacted by Obama's policies. It's the right thing to do, and it's an important part of the process. It's not a ploy, it's not a tactic, it's part of who we are. We have to show up."

Tara, you have to do more than just "show up". In case you missed it, the republicans pretty much gave black folks their (rather narrow) butts to kiss during the republican primaries. You are assuming that black folks have short memories. They do not. This is why black folks haven't voted with the republican party for years. They remember stuff.

Finally, I see that Donald won't let this birther thing rest. He started up again last week, and this time he has even right wing mouthpiece, George Will, begging him to STFU. "Bloviating ignoramus"? Oh my! The man with the ugly haircut and huge ego will not like that one. Mr. Will even told Flipper to dump the Donald for fear of alienating normal sane people who might vote come November. I doubt that he will take his advice, though. Donald has a fundraiser in the works for Flipper, and Flipper has to restock his war chest.

"I do not understand the cost benefit here," Will said on the "This Week" roundtable. "The costs are clear. The benefit - what voter is gonna vote for him (Romney) because he is seen with Donald Trump? The cost of appearing with this bloviating ignoramus is obvious it seems to me."

"Donald Trump is redundant evidence that if your net worth is high enough, your IQ can be very low and you can still intrude into American politics," Will dded. "Again, I don't understand the benefit. What is Romney seeking?"

George, I know that you are a conservative, and you folks are not very bright, but how can you wonder what Mitt Romney "is seeking?" Here, let me help you: It's called M.O.N.E.Y.

 

A partisan view of a killing.

Fred Clark over at the slacktivist wonders why conservatives have made the killing of Trayvon Martin political.

"I don’t understand the partisan response to the killing of Trayvon Martin.
Yes, many liberals are upset that a child was gunned down with impunity. (It’s been more than a month now.) But they are not upset for partisan reasons or for “liberal” reasons or for Democratic Party reasons.

They are upset because a child was gunned down with impunity. That ought to upset conservatives too. I appreciate that the Republican Party ca. 2012 has a knee-jerk opposition to anything that President Barack Obama says, but just because Obama is saddened by the senseless killing of a child shouldn’t have to mean that Republicans should reflexively take the other side.

This shouldn’t be partisan. Those saddened and angered by the killing of Trayvon Martin are not fighting a partisan battle. This child’s death does not advance some liberal or Democratic agenda. Those of us upset by this are not saying, “A child has been shot and therefore we must restore parity between taxes on labor and taxes on capital gains.” We are saying that it is horrifying and wrong that a child can be gunned down with impunity.

There is no reason that conservatives shouldn’t completely agree with that.
Well, there’s one reason, but there’s no decent, moral, legitimate reason." (Source)

I wonder what Fred is thinking of. I bet he and I are thinking of the same thing.

Finally, have you ever heard those wingnuts complain about the liberals and leftist teaching their kids in America's colleges and universities? It has gotten so bad that they have actually started creating their own personal wingnut institutions of higher learning complete with their own wacky curriculum.

Anyway, I am here to tell you that America's colleges and universities are full of right wingnuts and racist. Just because you are smart enough to get into college, doesn't mean that you can't carry around a certain amount og ignorance with you.

I give you exhibit A, the editorial board of the University of Texas student newspaper.

"The University of Texas‘ student newspaper, The Daily Texan, was accused of being racially insensitive when it printed a bias cartoon on Tuesday that belittled the

The cartoon depicts a Mother reading a book to her child and referring to Martin as a “colored boy,” with an underline and three arrows pointing to it for added emphasis. The title of the book also labels the coverage of the Martin case as “yellow journalism,” which is journalism that is sensational or crudely exaggerated. 

The editorial board of the paper — who first stood behind the cartoon’s artist — has now apologized for printing the controversial cartoon. The artist has also been given the boot, reports the Los Angeles Times.
When word began to spread about the racially insensitive cartoon, tempers began flaring. How could The Daily Texan sanction such blatant racism and make light of an unarmed teen being brutally shot to death by a trigger man who felt threatened by a youth who was minding his own business?
Working on a school paper should offer lasting teachable moments, but a few people made some very poor judgements, and the editorial staff are now being called on the carpet. Seemingly backing up their cartoonist, the paper initially printed the following statement late Tuesday evening:

The views expressed in the cartoon are not those of the editorial board. They are those of the artist. It is the policy of the editorial board to publish the views of our columnists and cartoonists, even if we disagree with them.

Not good enough.

The media soon got wind of the blatantly racist cartoon. Its artist, Stephanie Eisner, who also spelled Trayvon’s name incorrectly, got lambasted as a racist about her tongue-in-cheek depiction of the Martin case. Eisner put forth the following apology on the day after the cartoon was published:

I apologize for what was in hindsight an ambiguous cartoon related to the Trayvon Martin shooting. I intended to contribute thoughtful commentary on the media coverage of the incident, however this goal fell flat. I would like to make it explicitly clear that I am not a racist, and that I am personally appalled by the killing of Trayvon Martin. I regret any pain the wording or message of my cartoon may have caused." [Source]

"Ambiguous cartoon"? OK, we get it. The Trayvon Martin killing has not made A-merry-cans collectively look and see injustice. It has caused folks who view certain people in society as less than human to double down and defend their position and a child's killer. 

The final word on Herman.

I was going to prepare an epitaph for Herman Cain's political tombstone tonight, but the more I tried to think of something to write, the more I came up with blanks. I never considered Herman Cain a serious candidate from the start, so it was difficult to formulate a serious argument about him.

Herman Cain never had a snowball's chance in Satan's home of winning the presidency of these divided states of A-merry-ca, and I suspect that he had to know that. If that's the case; the joke may be be on all of us. Like Sarah from Alaska, this was all a money making scheme for Herman from the start. Book deals, higher speaking engagement fees, and a television show on the news network for dummies is sure to come. And Herman will be smiling all the way to the bank. Hopefully he will be visit Jared and take care of the Mrs. after all the crap she put up with for him over these past few months.

There are some folks who saw Herman's run as some sort of republican conspiracy, and, who knows, they might be right. I wouldn't put anything past those people. This is NewsOne.com's West Coast Editor's take on the Herman Cain affair:

"Regardless of how you might have felt about Sharon Bialek or Karen Kraushaar, by the time Ginger White emerged, it was a wrap. Rather than face the firing squad alone, he walked out dragging his wife before the cameras. It was so sad. It was painful to watch.

The meteoric and mysterious rise of this largely unknown Black Republican was over. Herman Cain’s campaign went down harder than a groupie at a Lil Wayne concert. That the Republican Party would have any Black answer to the charismatic Barack Obama seemed so unlikely. But there he was. He was funny, relaxed in front of the cameras and clearly passionate. He was no dummy, did not come from a lot of money but made a lot of money selling pizza. He was everything your average Republican wanted to see in a Black candidate — almost. We all know when it comes to the Oval Office, almost is never good enough. It was a character assassination, no doubt.

But who was the triggerman? Meet Mark Block, Herman Cain’s campaign manager. This man is impressive. Mr. Block was the first 18-year-old ever elected to office in Wisconsin in 1974. In 1997 he was banned from politics in Wisconsin for three years and paid a $15,000 fine after being accused of violating election laws when he served as campaign manager for state Supreme Court Justice Jon P. Wilcox. Mark Block is powerful indeed. Yet he’s not powerful enough to get Cain on the national stage by himself.

In October of this year, an Associated Press story on Herman Cain explained some of the power behind the power “Cain’s campaign manager and a number of aides have worked for Americans for Prosperity, or AFP, the advocacy group founded with support from billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, which lobbies for lower taxes and less government regulation and spending.”
If you don’t know the Koch brothers, that’s OK. For those that don’t know, they run a company called Koch Industries. Wikipedia says Koch Industries is a conglomerate that is the second-largest privately held company in the U.S. David Koch is recognized as a philanthropist. His personal worth was recently clocked around $22.5 billion. Cain was backed by hardcore conservative one percenters. Why would they want a Black man to run the free world?

With the backing of the Koch family, it looked like the game was locked for Cain. But someone, somewhere knew Cain had a weakness for women. They had to. How was it before his campaign got underway nobody said “Hey look, if we’re gonna do this we need to know if you have any side chicks, spring break video tapes, baby mommas- anything?” Somebody had to have done some homework.
When the story first broke, Cain blamed Perry:

“Mr. Cain, in an article published by Forbes on Wednesday afternoon, accused Curt Anderson — an aide with Mr. Cain’s 2004 Senate campaign in Georgia and now an adviser to Mr. Perry — of being the source. Mr. Cain recalled telling Mr. Anderson about the harassment charges in 2003.

“It was a typical campaign conversation,” Mr. Cain told Forbes. “I told him that there was only one case, one set of charges, one woman while I was at the National Restaurant Association. Those charges were baseless, but I thought he needed to know about them. I don’t recall anyone else being in the room when I told him.”

Perry denied the charges and promoted the idea that it was possibly Romney who pulled the trigger. But it really doesn’t matter now.

The question is why? The answer is simple. The Republican Party never wanted a Black man to lead, but they wanted to look like they did. After the RNC Chariman Michael Steele (a right wing token if we ever saw one) was bullied by Rush Limbaugh and cast aside like a rusty spittoon, there was no Black Republican leader to represent the right. Most of the candidates Black America knew from the right were either seen as Toms (like Steele) or just had no juice on the block. They needed a new guy. A charismatic guy. A Black guy who looked like he could win, but couldn’t. Herman Cain was that Black guy.

Ultimately, Herman Cain assassinated himself. Shot himself in the heart and took his wife with him. His infidelity is his to own and his to work out between his God and wife. He knew what was in his past. Only his ego, or the false support of those in on the hit, would make him believe he could get past the vetting of so many in such crucial times. As of now, there is no fingerprints, no weapon, no get away vehicle. Suspects? There are many. We have Mark Block, the Koch Brothers to Perry, Anderson, its a long list." [Source]

I will leave the conspiracy theories to other folks. Me, I am just glad that I don't have to watch another day of this Herman Cain soap opera: All My White Women.







 

"Republicans block unemployment extensions and middle class tax breaks"!

Republicans block unemployment extensions and middle class tax breaks!
Republicans block unemployment extensions and middle class tax breaks!
Republicans block unemployment extensions and middle class tax breaks!
Republicans block unemployment extensions and middle class tax breaks!
Republicans block unemployment extensions and middle class tax breaks!

Republicans block unemployment extensions and middle class tax breaks!
Republicans block unemployment extensions and middle class tax breaks!
Republicans block unemployment extensions and middle class tax breaks!
Republicans block unemployment extensions and middle class tax breaks!
Republicans block unemployment extensions and middle class tax breaks!

Republicans block unemployment extensions and middle class tax breaks!
Republicans block unemployment extensions and middle class tax breaks!
Republicans block unemployment extensions and middle class tax breaks!
Republicans block unemployment extensions and middle class tax breaks!
Republicans block unemployment extensions and middle class tax breaks!

Republicans block unemployment extensions and middle class tax breaks!
Republicans block unemployment extensions and middle class tax breaks!
Republicans block unemployment extensions and middle class tax breaks!
Republicans block unemployment extensions and middle class tax breaks!
Republicans block unemployment extensions and middle class tax breaks!

[Link]

The NPA.

A couple of comments which followed my last post are actually the inspiration for my post tonight. The first one was from Monie, and she said the following:

"On the Black Republicans; I wonder why they haven't broken away from the GOP along with other minorities and formed their own Party?Such a Party might not win anything on a National level but they could do well locally in certain parts of the country."

I actually thought about that for a minute and what would be the real consequences of such actions. (A black political party.)

First, assuming you could get black folks to pull it off, (because we all know that black folks can't come together for shit) we would need a name. So for the rest of this post I will refer to it as the Negro Party Of America. (NPA) Sorry, we have to use Negro instead of black, because black is still too...well, threatening.

The NPA,as Monie said, could not win anything on a national level. Even if we had a very good candidate like Barack. The numbers just aren't in our favor. But let's be honest, black folks don't have a voice in Washington, now. None of the major political parties are speaking to issues that affect us, so what difference would it make? None.

We would probably still have the same amount of representation because the blacks who are going to Washington- with a few exceptions- are going from predominantly black districts. And as for local governments, I am pretty sure that wouldn't change much, either. With all due respect to my man Deval Patrick and little Stevie up in New York, you can count the number of black elected officials to statewide offices on one hand. Black Senators? Forget about it, Barack was a fluke, and if it wasn't for Blago playing political cat and mouse, we wouldn't have old Roland.

Our biggest obstacle, of course, would be raising money. You black folks don't like to spend your money on shit you can't wear or drive. But maybe we could shake down some corporations like Rev. Inc. and raise money that way. "Hi is this Mr. CEO from KFC?" Yes hi, this is field Negro from the NPA. I was wondering; our convention is in Cleveland this year and we were looking for some sponsors, do you think you could kick in say a million five? Thanks I knew I could count on you." Once we have the money we could mobilize folks like these to get out the vote and keep certain people away from the polls.

A party platform might be a problem as well. Think of all those republican Negroes who are now in the NPA. How would we accommodate them? Honestly, I am thinking that they are such a small group that their input probably wouldn't even matter. Still, for the sake of unity, I would throw them a bone. (See field, if a white man had said "throw them a bone" you would have said it was racist) Poor choice of words. I would consider their suggestions.

And then there were these comments from an anonymous poster:

"While we talk and fight endlessly about race, people have seemingly forgotten that America doesn't have nay jobs anymore. The manufacturing centers of this country are dead or dying and I don't hear any black liberals talking about that-even though manufacturing s death has hit blacks in a major way. Nor do I hear anything about class issues or issues of sexism being addressed either. Even though both of those issues are tearing the community apart from the inside out, few have the courage to address them."

Well let's address that right now: One of the reasons that the manufacturing centers of this country are "dead" is because of race and racism. In case you haven't noticed, major corporations and businesses have left places like Detroit, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Cleveland, and one of the major reasons is a lack of a proper educational base in these areas due to failing school systems. Why are school systems failing? No money. No tax base. Why is there no tax base? White and middle class flight. Why are the middle class fleeing the cities? Crime and poverty. Why is there crime and poverty? No jobs. If this entire argument seems circular to you it's because it is. But you have to ask yourself, why are these people in these areas being marginalized? Why isn't legislation being passed in the halls of power to address issues such as gun violence, crime, and education? You see anonymous poster, it's all kind of connected when you think about it.

If we get the NPA we will address all of these issues in our party platform: Sexism, racism, and classism. The dumbocratic party will suffer but what have they done for us lately? They are too busy playing along with the rethugs to care anymore, and I think on that note all black folks can agree.

Eating with the enemy.

So I am having dinner with this so called black conservative this evening and he is doing his best to convince me that the republican party and the right is best for black folks in A-merry-ca. Of course, I was not having it. What followed was a lively discussion about politics,race, and the problems of urban A-merry-ca. Like certain people who frequent this blog he thinks that the dems have tried and failed the inner cities. And while I agree with that to an extent (ultimately, it won't be dems or repubs who save us, we will have to save ourselves) there is nothing that he told me that made me believe that right wing or republican rule would be better for black folks in A-merry-ca.

Besides, I just don't want to be under the same tent with those people. Sorry, there is just too much bad blood between us at this point. I will take republicans on a one on one basis like I did with my man tonight, but there is no way in hell that I will co-sign with them as a group.

One thing about us black folks; our gut feelings are always true to us, and I bet every one of you -black folks-reading this get that gut feeling when you are around folks on the right. You know the one. The one that says that this person is not comfortable in this space. It's why I wonder how black conservatives survive in that environment. Don't they get the gut check? Or do they get it and ignore it? I was going to ask my man but he was getting the check, so I wanted to be nice.

He ended his pitch by telling me that he was going to make a conservative out of me yet. And I politely told him that if they were the last group of people on earth I would be living like Will Smith in "I Am Legend" until I go to join that big Saved By the Bell rerun in the sky. Still, I thought about what my man said; but then, unfortunately for him, I came home and read something from the Southern Poverty Law Center site:

These are just a sampling of quotes from some of our right wing friends.

"[T]he Talmud is full of moral filth. … [Evangelical leaders are] carefully concealing the Jewish identity of those who corrupt Christian culture."— Rev. TED PIKE, director of the National Prayer Network, in a June 21 essay that attacks Jews, the Jewish holy book, and alleged Jewish dominance of pornography, Hollywood and the media

"[L]et them fast until they starve to death… . Go make a bomb where you came from."— Host MICHAEL SAVAGE, on the July 5 edition of his Talk Radio Network show, on "illegal alien" students on hunger strike to back a bill allowing some immigrants to become citizens

"This is a dry run against free speech in America by the Islamists and the illegal aliens. … Lady Liberty … is being raped by the illegal aliens."—Host MICHAEL SAVAGE, on the Aug. 14 edition of his show, attacking a resolution by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, which finally passed unanimously on Oct. 2, that condemned his July 5 comments as "hate speech" that is "defamatory … against immigrants"

"Muslims don't eat during the day during Ramadan. They fast during the day and eat at night. Sort of like cockroaches."— Host NEAL BOORTZ, on the Aug. 14 edition of Cox Radio Syndication's "The Neal Boortz Show," discussing dietary restrictions during Islamic holy days.

"[T]he NAACP …. [i]s a sad joke that should be shut down."— MSNBC host TUCKER CARLSON, on the Aug. 24 edition of "Tucker," attacking the anti-racist organization as "a faithful arm" of the Democratic Party

"Barney Frank … had a fellow running basically a full-service whorehouse in his basement."— MSNBC commentator PAT BUCHANAN, on the Aug. 29 edition of "MSNBC Live With Dan Abrams," repeating allegations about the openly gay Democratic congressman from Massachusetts that were specifically disproved in a 1989 House Ethics Committee investigation.

"Would I exclude foreign Muslims from settlement in the U.S.A.? Yes, I would."— National Review Online columnist JOHN DERBYSHIRE in a Sept. 20 column.

"They wanna fight the white devil. … Black devils stalking their streets every night … can't go fight that. That would be snitching."— Fox News Radio host JOHN GIBSON, on the Sept. 21 edition of his show, criticizing black anti-racism protesters in Jena, La.

"Media Matters is a gay, fascist website. … They're utter vermin."— Host MICHAEL SAVAGE, on the Sept. 26 edition of Talk Radio Network's "Savage Nation," discussing a website that publishes transcripts of his controversial remarks quotes on this page were compiled from media accounts, web pages, e-mail groups and media matters for america, a website that monitors the far right." (Link here)

Yep, I think I will be sticking this progressive thing out.