A shaky bill, the creep factor, and shedding some weight.

I Just got back from Washington. I was Hanging with some smart folks at the Google offices and debating this bill that has already gotten out of committee. I am all for protecting intellectual property against Internet piracy, but the bill, as it's written, seems a bit over broad to the kid. I am not trying to be blue screened because ICE caught some cats running an illegal gambling shop out of China and blocked their DNS number."Honey I tried to get on the Field Negro's blog and it says that it's shut down for improper use by the government. I always knew that FN was into some shaky s&^%." Just sayin people.

But that's enough "inside baseball", let's talk about a serious issue: Wayne Newton getting all creepy with Michele Bachmann.

"Everyone who's seen Vegas Vacation knows what a charmer Wayne Newton can be, and last night he channeled his charisma toward Michele Bachmann, the Republican presidential candidate and representative from Minnesota.
In a post-debate interview on Fox News' On The Record with Greta Van Susteren, Newton and Bachmann hit it off.

"I will support this beautiful lady as long as she wants to go," Newton said, as he repeatedly caressed Bachmann's arm." [Story]

Yuck!!!Honestly Wayne, you might want to save all the embalming fluid until after you are dead.

Alright I was kidding. That's not the serious issue that I wanted to talk about. I actually wanted to talk about an article I read in Politic365 by a sister named Jeneba Ghatt. It dealt with the baggage that black politicians allegedly carry as opposed to their white counterparts, and I found it quite interesting.

"Wellesley University professor Peggy McIntosh wrote an essay in the Winter 1990 edition of a school journal discussing an “invisible knapsack” of unearned skin privilege that Whites benefit from but many do not recognize and may not acknowledge. Recent criticisms of Rep. Tim Scott (R-SC), President Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain over their handling of race issues reflects a different type of baggage that Black political leaders must carry.

In McIntosh’s essay, she called the invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools , and blank checks which assist certain people of the lighter hue – unfettered by the same stresses that people of color endure. Many are blissfully aloof to and unaware of these perks in life they enjoy by simply being born in the skin they are in. These “taken for granted” advantages provide license to “ … disparage, fear, neglect, or be oblivious to anything outside of the dominant cultural forms.”
But for persons of color who climb to positions of extreme influence and esteem, they must carry around an invisible, weighted backpack full of bills, past due notices, obligations, IOUs, and contingency letters.

IOU to ancestors

There are encumbrances in the form of pressure from members of their race. Black politicians must be mindful of who paved “the way” for them. Because of that ancestral sacrifice, Black leaders must be more than just a senator or a Supreme Court justice for the constituency they are supposed to represent or support.

So when Tim Scott decided against joining the Congressional Black Caucus, many said he did not want to acknowledge CBC efforts on behalf of Black people. The prevailing thought is that as a Black man, he owed “his people” at least some deference and consideration while sitting in Congress. His voting record and speeches would be watched with extra attentiveness from those who share his heritage, an attempt to ensure he “ … does right by them.” While a South Carolina legislator, Scott may have opposed the confederate flag flying atop his state’s assembly house or supported a measure against police profiling of Black drivers, he was quickly called out by fellow Black legislatures for not backing those measures all the way. After all, he owed it to his race to look out for their issues.

Black politicians don’t have the luxury to just exist, but must take extra consideration to give back, mentor, and take into account the needs of “their people.” This obligation is the heaviest item in that backpack. Harvard professor Randall Kennedy has written about that obligation in his book The Persistence of the Color Line: Racial Politics and the Obama Presidency. According to Kennedy, it’s the reason why President Obama faced much flak when he decided not to address Black people directly in early speeches.

As we’ve seen in recent months several members of the Congressional Black Caucus have not been shy about questioning the president’s hesitance to address double digit unemployment in the black community.

Thus, the Black politicians’ backpack is full of loan payment remittances that will never get paid. So long as you are on top with few of your people there, you will always have to pay towards those who made the down payment and cleared a path for your success.

That asterisk by your accomplishments and the legacy of Affirmative Action

Black politicians must also live with the permanent asterisks by their accomplishments. At some point, folks may assume that their matriculation to an Ivy League school or rapid rise in a company was on account of “Affirmative Action” policies. Your “wins” are not always unclouded by that doubt.
The story is that you must have gotten some assistance or help along that way or that you were able to attend college because a more qualified White or Asian student was denied a seat – or that you weren’t necessarily the best person occupying your role. Of course, that’s not really the case. Yet, the doubt is always there.

Many Republicans leaders and candidates, and most outrageously Donald Trump, questioned how the president got into Harvard, pointing to Affirmative Action to undermine the accomplishment.

Donald Trump infamously demanded that the president show his academic records, telling Politico, “I have friends who have smart sons with great marks, great boards, great everything and they can’t get into Harvard.”

Perhaps sentiments like these are why Scott and Justice Clarence Thomas have avoided openly embracing the notion that their respective careers were advanced by an Affirmative Action policy. They are not alone as several blacks and other minorities in high position lament on having their positions and decisions in the workplace questioned and undermined by colleagues and co-workers who don’t necessarily believe they are the most qualified.
It makes the backpack that much heavier.

Burden of Stereotypes

By the time a black politician has risen to the pinnacle, he or she will have to overcome certain presumptions about his or her correct grammar, parentage, upbringing and capabilities. Without a doubt, there is a stereotype, partially substantiated by statistics of humble beginnings and Ebonic vernacular.
These presumptions are the symbolic probation notices and warnings in that backpack which could be considered the opposite of skin privilege. Rather than being presumed credit worthy and to have gone through life on one’s own merit, you are considered an anomaly for being articulate.

Those who opt to surmount race, shedding the backpack, are quickly labeled “Uncle Toms” or “sellouts.” They must always carry the weight as their brother, mother, father and race’s keeper." [Source]

Trust me Ms. Ghatt, Clarence Thomas and folks like him shed that backpack a looong time ago. 

Please stay in Vegas!

This is a serious question for my republican friends: Where do you get these candidates? I am watching the CNN republican debate in Vegas, and I hope that what happened in Vegas tonight stays in Vegas. These folks are brutal.---- BTW, will someone please tell Michele Bachmann that it's October 18th? I could have sworn that she wore white.

Anyway, it looks like a home crowd for Mitt, Herman keeps jigging, Rick is talking about doing away with the UN, and I still have no idea WTF Ron Paul Newt and Rick Santorum are talking about. I almost hope that one of these clowns become president so that I can quit my job, close my business, and blog full-time for the four years of their term.

I know who will be voting for one of these candidates come November 2012; Police officer Michael Daragjati of New York.

"A New York police officer faces civil rights charges after he allegedly falsely arrested a Black Staten Island man and then used racial slurs to brag about it.
“I fried another nigger, ” NYPD officer Michael Daragjati, 32, can be heard saying in a phone conversation intercepted by federal authorities.

“The power to arrest…must be used fairly, responsibly and without bias,” said Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch. “Motivated by racial aniumus, the defendant allegedly abused this power and responsibility.”

You Negroes up in the big apple better be careful. I am not so sure that "protect and serve" means protecting your black asses.  [Story]

Finally, I have to get on my fam in Memphis a little bit. (Shout out to Rippa)
Now we have some crazy s&*^ going on here in Philly, but you folks in Memphis done lost your minds.









  

Money Mitt in the house!

"Slammin Bentley doors,hoppin out of Porches Poppin up on Forbes list."

Sorry "Jigga man", I know that you like to flaunt, but the real baller is my man Money Mitt.

Just check him out in that pic; my man is seriously flossing. Nice.

And here I thought that only cats in the hood posed up with money.

Oh well, I guess there are all kinds of hoods.

This baller might be president some day.... Or maybe not. I don't think that everyone is pleased with Money Mitt.

"I have no doubt that the Bain boys thought they were enacting a hilarious parody of what others saw in them. At least in part. The other part was giddiness and pride at being rich.

But this picture speaks more than a thousand words in the campaign that will be coming if Mitt is the nominee. Mitt Romney is a heartless rich guy, who closed down factories and offices, throwing people out of work, solely to enrich himself and his cronies. Courtesy of this visual aid, the sales will be closed with a substantial segment of the voting public, who resent the big-money, well-connected Wall Street types who are financial manipulators.

For the moment, the picture is not being touted much by the left, though Gawker ran with it late last week. Obviously, this ammunition is being saved for the moment when it is too late for the GOP to change horses.

Is Mitt Romney really the most electable member of the GOP field?
This campaign is not going to be fought mostly on the basis of ideas. A plan to rehabilitate the economy consisting of dozens of points will simply be too complicated to explain, especially when a picture summarizes the Obama critique: Romney is a rich guy who doesn't care about you -- only about getting rich and flaunting it, when he thinks most Americans are not looking.

As if to drive home the Democrat critique, for inexplicable reasons during an election campaign, Romney announced a plan to tear down a mere 12-million-dollar beach house in swanky La Jolla, to replace it with a dwelling four times as large. That is literally livin' large. Sure, it would make a great summer White House, but that's getting ahead of ourselves, isn't it?" [Article]

Yes, it is.

White friends.

Congrats to my birds for putting a beatdown on those fraud deadskins. BTW, how is this even a story? I swear haters will not leave #7 alone.

Anywhoo, I spent a lot of time this weekend with some of my white friends. (Yes, field has white friends.) And, as Kat Williams says; all of you Negroes should get you some white friends. You never know what they could be plotting against us and one of your white friends might just mess up and spill the beans to you. Then, hopefully, you can warn the rest of us.

So anyway, I am talking to this young lady who is a declared republican who wants to recruit me to the dark side like some other black folks here in Phily. (Shout out to Renee Amoore)After a few drinks (it always takes a few drinks) she is telling me that her grandfather hated black people. But, she said,  her father didn't dislike blacks quite as much. Still, she wanted to make a point that she broke the cycle. That after going to undergrad and law school with black folks and developing relationships with them, she truly felt that she could say that she did not have a problem with us Negroes like her father and grandfather did. (Thank you missy.) For the record, I don't think I was going to lose any sleep if she did.

Still, this all got me to thinking: I wonder how many people have the same story that this young lady had about her parents and grandparents? I am guessing quite a few. I have heard it more than a few times myself.

But on the day that we dedicate Dr. King's Memorial in D.C., you have to wonder why this was even the case. I mean it's not like black folks were wilding out back in the day, and we certainly weren't a threat to the white power structure. So why did they hate us so much? And why did they allow that hate to manifest itself in such a way that they either passed it on to their children or made their children aware of it? Those are rhetorical questions. I suspect that I know why, but it doesn't make it any less tragic.

In this young lady's case the cycle has been broken. (Or so she says)
Here is hoping that she is the norm and not the exception.

Pic from Slip N Slide online store.
  

The end of capitalism and "weave thieves" strike again.

These are not good times for capitalism. Protesters are taking to the streets here in A-merry-ca and all over the world to demand that the rich pay their fair share.(Where were all of these people when the IMF was putting a beat down on Third World countries?) And still, the politricksters who they have in their pockets keep fighting to protect their moneyed friends.

I just read where those communist in China have more people who are able to put food on their table than we do here in A-merry-ca.

"The number of Americans who lack access to basic necessities like food and health care is now higher than it was at the peak of the Great Recession, a survey released Thursday found. And in a finding that could worsen fears of U.S. decline, the share of Americans struggling to put food on the table is now three times as large as the share of the Chinese population in the same position.
The United States' Basic Index Score, a Gallup measure of access to necessities, fell to 81.4 in September--even lower than the 81.5 mark it reached in February and March, 2009. The recession officially ended in June of that year, but the halting recovery hasn't given a sustained boost to the number of Americans able to provide for themselves. The government reported last month that a record number of Americans is living in poverty."

And so they march. Six thousand of them in Times Square today.

“The world will rise up as one and say, ‘We have had enough,’” Patrick Bruner, an Occupy Wall Street spokesman, said in an e-mail. A news release from the organization said there were demonstrations in 1,500 cities worldwide, including 100 in the U.S. [Source]

Mr. Bruner, what took you so long?

Finally, on a lighter note. I have gotten to the point in my life where I cannot tell the difference between a weave [or wig] from a woman's real hair. (I think this is true of most men.) So obviously there is something to be said for a nice weave hook up. But is that reason enough to be stealing the precious strands of hair?

"Weave thieves have struck again, robbing an Atlanta beauty supply store for high-dollar hair extensions, Atlanta police said.

Thieves broke the window of Lexi’s Beauty Supply with a brick, but got away with just $60 dollars of merchandise, the store’s owner Travis Tipton said.
The break in is the latest in a recent trend of beauty store burglaries in which thieves have sought out expensive hair extensions.

In May, the New York Times reported human hair packages of the most expensive brands cost $200 and stolen hair is sold on the streets for as little as $25, with hair ending up on the Internet, including eBay." [Story]

Some of you need Jesus in your lives. Or at least a good hairdresser.

Still running from the struggle?

I am out of town at a conference, but I am going to do a cut and paste job to encourage discussion about an interesting aspect of this Mr. 999 phenomenon.

"Cain continued on his trail of silly statements this week by saying that racism is not a factor in economic inequality in America. The candidate argues that educational and geographic differences account for disparities in wealth levels and unemployment. The statement is curious, because these words serve as further evidence that Cain never studied structural inequality in school. Also, to continue Cain’s argument, inequality exists because Black people are either naturally, culturally or strategically inferior to whites, which is the convenient explanation taught to us in White Supremacy 101.

While I won’t go into all the reasons that Cain is wrong in his statements on racism, the truth is that Cain seems to be building his campaign by making one eyebrow raising statement after another. In fact, he has become the shock jock of the Republican Party.

Being a shock jock is great for the radio and selling books, but it’s not the stuff that makes one into a serious Commander-in-Chief. Even within the Republican ranks, Cain’s candidacy merely deflects attention away from the flaws of more serious contenders, like Rick Perry’s love for the Confederate flag and all the other things that make Republicans just so darn interesting. But when the dust settles and the smoke clears, Republican leadership will ask Cain to walk off the track in the same way the pace setter is removed after the first two laps of a big Olympic race.

Cain has also made a career of hurling insults at Black people that no white man could ever get away with. His words have not been measured or diplomatic enough to garner broad-based support, and are about as sloppy and ignorant as a man killing a fly with a shotgun. Most of his comments are not the kinds of things he could say about other ethnic groups; if he were to say that all Jews were brainwashed (as he said about African Americans), he’d be off the stage before finishing his sentence.

Herman Cain has become, in many ways, the perfect racist. America lives under the interesting premise that a racist can’t be Black. That’s like believing that a man can’t hate his sibling, or that a woman can’t advocate for a man to beat his wife (as Whoopi did to Oprah in “The Color Purple”). The truth is that racism is typically most effective when you put a Black face on it, and Herman Cain has volunteered to become the cute little political puppet which allows white America to say the things that they are afraid to say.

It is their ability to put Cain out front to absorb the criticism for racist remarks that makes millions of right-wing Americans so happy about his racial politics. Cain validates and brings security to a set of ideas that are generally unacceptable to those who understand America’s ugly racial history. In this regard, Cain is a breath of fresh air because he is the only Republican who doesn’t change the subject when the issue of race is brought to the table.

As an older Black man, Herman Cain certainly understood the challenges of Jim Crow. But Cain was also able to evade Jim Crow by willfully standing to the side in the fight for Civil Rights (yes, he has admitted that he avoided the Civil Rights struggle). So, Cain cannot, in any way, connect his contributions to the Black community, nor his readily marketed ethnic legitimacy to that of his fellow Morehouse graduate, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. While he might have validity among those who gladly accept the rewards that come from the sacrifices of others, Cain cannot profess to have been willing to make necessary socio-political sacrifices himself. He stands on the backs of the brave, yet joins forces with the descendants of their historical oppressors.

Instead of marching for progress, Cain learned long ago that making whites feel comfortable was a powerful and simple key to success. He seems to think that Black folks who are unwilling to give in to structurally oppresive forces are somehow making things worse for themselves by not standing and applauding the grace of whites who’ve decided to no longer hang our relatives in the middle of the night. No different from the way he ducked and hid from those who marched with Dr. King in the 1960s, Herman Cain is ducking and hiding from doing the right thing today.

So, not only is Herman Cain a political gimmick, he is also a coward. That is just a couple of the many reasons that Herman Cain can never be President of the United States of America." [Source]
 
Interesting essay there Dr. Watkins.

Folks, let me know what you think.

Anita is "brutalized", and Negroes keep jigging.

I never had any respect for Governor Big Hair, but I really don't have any respect for him now. My man sent his wife out there to cry woe is me to anyone who would listen. And boy did she ever deliver.

"It's been a rough month. We have been brutalized and beaten up and chewed up in the press to where I need this today...We are being brutalized by our opponents, and our own party. So much of that is, I think they look at him, because of his faith. He is the only true conservative – well, there are some true conservatives. And they're there for good reasons. And they may feel like God called them too. But I truly feel like we are here for that purpose." [Source]

Wow! "Brutalized and beaten"? Now that's some hyperbole for your ass. Welcome to national politics, Rick.

So he was called to run by a higher force. I wonder if that higher force told him to paint over that Niggerhead rock on his leased hunting property? God sure works in mysterious ways.

Some of you are claiming that Tavis Smiley and Cornel West did a good thing by going on FOX NEWS and sparring with Bill O'Reilly over poverty. Well I got news for you; they did not.

It's never good to go on FOX NEWS and give those clowns any sort of legitimacy. I know that those two will never hesitate to jump in front of a camera, but sometimes you just have to say no.

They thought that they were doing a good thing by getting into a shouting match with O'Reilly, but I can guarantee you that all they were doing was giving him material for his reprehensible show.

"He said that what Smiley and West seemed to want was for the government to "forcibly seize" money from the rich and give it to the poor. "That's socialism and that's not going to work here," he concluded.

"It wasn't socialism when we bailed out the banks in the first place?" Smiley said. He started to say that O'Reilly had been "right" in a recent attack on Stanley O'Neal, the former head of Merril Lynch. O'Reilly misheard him.
"Lied about it?!" he thundered. "What do you mean i lied about it?!"

"I said you were right!" Smiley said. "R-i-g-h-t!" O'Reilly apologized, and assured his guests he was "calm." Things got a lot less calm right afterwards, though. Smiley asked why O'Reilly was focusing on O'Neal, one of the few black CEOs of a major firm, causing O'Reilly to shout, "we treat everybody the same here!" Smiley disagreed, and wondered why, when Occupy Wall Street protesters were being arrested, no "bankster" had gone to jail "to pay for his crimes."

"They didn't violate any laws!" O'Reilly said, prompting Smiley and West to essentially lose it. "OOOOOHHHHHHHH!" they both said together. "How do you know?!" West yelled. "There's been no investigations! Why would you say something like that?!"

"All right, knock it off!" O'Reilly fired back." [Source]

I might have to agree with O'Reilly on that one: Fellows, please knock it off.

Bullets, perms, and curls.

The guy standing in the pic that goes with this post walked into a beauty salon today and killed eight people. Eight! Apparently his wife, an employee of the salon, did something to piss him off. (From the looks of him she might have hid his workout videos.)

Anywhoo, it's just another day for the "Falling Down" crowd here in A-merry-ca.

"A gunman opened fire Wednesday in a busy hair salon, killing eight people and critically wounding another while leaving bodies scattered throughout the business in a normally sedate California beach community.

The gunman got into a car and drove away from Salon Meritage after opening fire about 1:30 p.m. He was stopped by officers about a half-mile away and surrendered without incident, said police Sgt. Steve Bowles.

His name was not immediately released.

Police were struggling to determine the motive for the killings.

"There may be something to the motive as to a relationship with somebody in the salon, that is our assumption," Bowles said.

Seal Beach has seen just one other homicide in the past four years.

Police responding to a report of shots fired found six people dead and three wounded. Two of those three died at a hospital. The other person was listed in critical condition.

Bowles said bodies of the victims were scattered throughout the salon, along with two of the wounded. The other wounded person, a man, was found outside the building. It wasn't clear if he was trying to flee when he was shot or if he was the one survivor.

"We're unsure at this point if he shot from the entrance and people, as they were shot, ran in seeking cover or seeking shelter, but we have fatalities throughout the salon," Bowles told reporters at a news conference outside the business.

"From my observation, it did look like people were seeking shelter at the time," he said.

He said the salon was busy at the time, with every hair-dressing station in operation.

He didn't know what type of weapon was used or if the man used more than one.

Salon employee Lorainne Bruielle, who wasn't working Wednesday, told the Long Beach Press-Telegram the gunman was the husband of another employee.

Bruielle said she talked to the husband of one of the employees involved, who said one employee locked herself in the salon's facial room and was unharmed while another man locked himself in a bathroom but was wounded.

The suspect was cooperative when officers, following a description of the shooter, stopped him nearby. He told them he had multiple weapons in his car, Bowles said." [Article]

"Multiple weapons". Where have we heard that before?

Finally, congrats to Herman Cain. I see that he is the flavor of the month right now in the republican party. Wingnuts just love the plain spoken black man who isn't afraid to put down his own people.

Memo to Herman: Poll numbers can't buy you air time.

Yes, Herman is still popular with certain closeted bigots who need a mouth piece. But sorry Herman, they ain't giving you their money. Poor Herman's campaign is still woefully short of cash.

Maybe Herman should stop saying nine nine nine so much and start saying dollars dollars dollars.

Possible murder in Arkansas,a murder in Romania, and good things in West Philly.

The Occupy Wall Street folks marched around Rupert Murdoch's penthouse today. But I want to know where the Koch brothers live? It seems to me that these Occupy Wall Street folks should be marching on their home compound as well.

Why? Because the Koch brothers could be literally getting away with murder down in Arkansas. (h/t to Robert Greenwald and the folks at Brave New Foundation for bringing this story to my attention.)

Speaking of murder. I feel bad for Chauncey Hardy [in pic] and his family.But what is it going to take for some of you Negroes to learn?

Look, just because you are a big man on campus here in A-merry-ca and you can go and get your pick of the litter at the local bar on a Saturday night, don't ever believe that you can try that crap in some other parts of the world. (Or A-merry-ca for that matter.) Romania?! Negro are you crazy? First of all, I wouldn't travel to Romania if someone told me that there was a million dollars in unmarked bills waiting for me at the airport in Bucharest.

Still, it's a sad story. And I hope that this will be a lesson to you young bucks out there. I know this is 2011, but color arousal can be a a mother *^*%$#.

Now for some good news. I am always focusing on the bad stuff that some of our kids do here in Philly, but believe me when I tell you that there are some kids out there handling their business as well.

"The West Philly Students Who Build Supercars

This is no mere science fair project: The students on West Philadelphia High School’s Hybrid X Team built two hybrid cars for the Automotive X-Prize, making it all the way to the semifinals. PM awarded the students with its Next Generation Breakthrough Award.

Of the 111 Teams that competed for the $10 million purse in last year's Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize, only one was from a high school—West Philadelphia, where85 percent of students are economically disadvantaged. West Philly entered two vehicles—a Factory Five GTM biodiesel hybrid kit car and a converted Ford Focus gasoline plug-in hybrid—and made it to the semifinals with both. "We were going up against teams that had dozens of engineers, and we had 15 students, a couple of teachers and a dream," says adviser Simon Hauger, a teacher in the school's Academy of Automotive and Mechanical Engineering. "One of the marvelous things about teenagers is they're not daunted by that."

After its impressive X Prize performance, West Philly won the Green Grand Prix in Watkins Glen, N.Y., last April, when its GTM achieved the equivalent of 160 mpg over 100 miles.

"I always liked fast, gas-guzzling race cars, so when I first heard the club was named the Hybrid X Team, I wasn't so sure, but I gave it a try," says captain Stefon Gonzalez. "It definitely broadened my horizons, not just with cars but with things like public speaking, fundraising and networking." The after-school program also helped the high school senior (and two other teammates) land a public-transit internship with the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority.

"I call it the light-switch effect," Hauger says. "This work truly enlarges the students' vision for what they're capable of doing. We don't put them in a row of desks and lecture about fuel efficiency, biofuels or aerodynamics. We say, 'Let's solve this problem together.'"
The students so impressed Edison2 founder and Automotive X Prize champion Oliver Kuttner that he asked them to build an electric version of his Very Light Car (VLC). The team hopes to operate a nonprofit after-school project that employs students to make and sell the EVLC kit car. "When they're done, they will have the world's most efficient electric car by a leap," Kuttner says".[Story]

Nice.

It's always good to see young Field Negroes getting their science on. (h/t to Brown Dartanyan for this story.)

Finally, a lot of you have been writing to me and asking me to comment on Herman Cain.

I promise that I will have more on Herman later. I want to watch the debate tonight and see where to take it from there.

I know one thing; Herman has become a hit with right wing white folks. It must be wonderful to be able to put down those lazy shiftless n*&&^%s without actually having to do it yourself.

Thank you Herman.  






   

Protectors of the Oligarchy.

"It remains to be seen whether the Occupy Wall Street protests will change America’s direction. Yet the protests have already elicited a remarkably hysterical reaction from Wall Street, the super-rich in general, and politicians and pundits who reliably serve the interests of the wealthiest hundredth of a percent.     

 And this reaction tells you something important — namely, that the extremists threatening American values are what F.D.R. called “economic royalists,” not the people camping in Zuccotti Park.

Consider first how Republican politicians have portrayed the modest-sized if growing demonstrations, which have involved some confrontations with the police — confrontations that seem to have involved a lot of police overreaction — but nothing one could call a riot. And there has in fact been nothing so far to match the behavior of Tea Party crowds in the summer of 2009.

Nonetheless, Eric Cantor, the House majority leader, has denounced “mobs” and “the pitting of Americans against Americans.” The G.O.P. presidential candidates have weighed in, with Mitt Romney accusing the protesters of waging “class warfare,” while Herman Cain calls them “anti  American.” My favorite, however, is Senator Rand Paul, who for some reason worries that the protesters will start seizing iPads, because they believe rich people don’t deserve to have them.
Michael Bloomberg, New York’s mayor and a financial-industry titan in his own right, was a bit more moderate, but still accused the protesters of trying to “take the jobs away from people working in this city,” a statement that bears no resemblance to the movement’s actual goals.

And if you were listening to talking heads on CNBC, you learned that the protesters “let their freak flags fly,” and are “aligned with Lenin.”
The way to understand all of this is to realize that it’s part of a broader syndrome, in which wealthy Americans who benefit hugely from a system rigged in their favor react with hysteria to anyone who points out just how rigged the system is...."

..What’s going on here? The answer, surely, is that Wall Street’s Masters of the Universe realize, deep down, how morally indefensible their position is. They’re not John Galt; they’re not even Steve Jobs. They’re people who got rich by peddling complex financial schemes that, far from delivering clear benefits to the American people, helped push us into a crisis whose aftereffects continue to blight the lives of tens of millions of their fellow citizens.

Yet they have paid no price. Their institutions were bailed out by taxpayers, with few strings attached. They continue to benefit from explicit and implicit federal guarantees — basically, they’re still in a game of heads they win, tails taxpayers lose. And they benefit from tax loopholes that in many cases have people with multimillion-dollar incomes paying lower rates than middle-class families.
This special treatment can’t bear close scrutiny — and therefore, as they see it, there must be no close scrutiny. Anyone who points out the obvious, no matter how calmly and moderately, must be demonized and driven from the stage. In fact, the more reasonable and moderate a critic sounds, the more urgently he or she must be demonized, hence the frantic sliming of Elizabeth Warren.

So who’s really being un-American here? Not the protesters, who are simply trying to get their voices heard. No, the real extremists here are America’s oligarchs, who want to suppress any criticism of the sources of their wealth." [Article]

Paul Krugman is on point, and his well timed essay had me nodding my head in agreement. But I will go even farther and say something that Mr. Krugman was either afraid to say or does not believe:

It's not only oligarchs who are to blame for A-merry-ca's predicament. It's the poor, working class, and middle class  folks in this country who have been hoodwinked and beguiled into believing that the A-merry-can dream is not rigged. They have been made to believe that they too can become one of the oligarchs and look down on the rest of us someday from their penthouses in the sky.

A segment of the A-merry-can public is comfortable with protecting the status quo. (See the Tea Party movement) They don't want banking reform and consumer protections, because they see it all as being un-American. They contribute to the demonization of those questioning a rigged system because, they too, hope to benefit from that system some day.

Of course it will never happen. And their great- grandchildren will not be paying for their education from a trust fund; they will be paying for it from loans from the very government that their great- grandparents spent all of their lives putting down.

   

"Do a Good Turn Daily"?

Is it about time for those Girl Scouts to come to my local grocery store and start peddling their cookies, yet? Some people thing that they are cute. (Like Mrs. Field, for instance.)But not moi. I don't like a shake down; not even by a Girl Scout.

"Mister would you like to buy some cookies?" No little girl, I would not. Besides, other than the lemon chalet cremes, they all pretty much suck.

Anywhoo, I knew that there was a reason that I didn't like the little female youth group:

"ATLANTA (AP) -- An Atlanta-area mother has filed a lawsuit against a Girl Scouts organization alleging that her twin daughters were expelled from their troop after they gave a presentation on their family's involvement in the civil rights movement.

Angela Johnson filed the suit last week in Gwinnett County State Court, claiming intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligence. The suit says the troop leaders knew an expulsion would cause the girls harm and that the organization had a responsibility to repair the situation.

In a statement, the Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta says the girls weren't expelled and calls the incident a "disagreement between well-intentioned moms," referring to Johnson and the troop leaders.

The 8-year-old twins gave a presentation in March for their "family heritage project" that centered on their family's involvement in the civil rights movement in Mississippi, and they were distraught when they received a cool response from the audience and troop leaders, the lawsuit says.

"The only applause they received was from the other two African American girls and one Indian girl in attendance," the suit says." [Article]

I sure hope that they weren't expelled. And, if they were, it had better be because they didn't sell enough cookies.