When political friends become foes.

"You don't know me but I'm your brother
I was raised here in this living Hell
You don't know my kind in your world
Fairly soon, the time will tell
You, telling me the things you're gonna do for me
I ain't blind and I don't like what I think I see...." ~Taken It To The Streets by the The Doobie Brothers~

The Black Lives Matter folks crashed yet another Bernie Sanders gathering this weekend, and it has white liberals quite upset with some of you Negroes. "Why are they protesting poor Bernie Sanders? The man marched with Dr. King for crying out loud." (So did Charlton Heston, but we get the point.) And you are  hearing a lot of this as well: "They should be out protesting republican and conservative gatherings, not the people who are actually supporting black causes".

 I can't say that I disagree with that sentiment, but I also understand the anger and frustration with professional politicians like Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton.  Like the great Doobie Brothers say in their song, they are always telling us what they are going to do for us, but they can never quite  deliver.

I have heard that this particular group is fronted by George Soros, and that he (Soros) is with Hillary all the way, so he is the person behind all those protests against Sanders. I am not sure if that's true or not, but if it turns out to be the case, the protesters might want to do some soul searching.  It's cool to make Bernie Sanders accountable, but Hillary Clinton needs to be accountable as well. These people are supposed to be our political soul- mates. They are the ones who are supposed to look out for us when those other people are taking away our voting rights, locking up our sons and daughters, supporting an out of control law enforcement establishment, gutting public education, and sending our jobs to who knows where.

But if we are going to be honest with ourselves, we have to admit that most of the time we can't tell one politician from the other. Once they get our votes, it's off to Washington and business as usual: More money from lobbyist to pass laws to help rich people who bought and paid for said lobbyist in the first place.

What a racket.

And speaking of those other people, it looks like their front runner, Donald Trump, has finally done the unthinkable in their eyes: attack a FOX VIEWS host.

Nothing Donald Trump did leading up to his ignorant and misogynistic rant about Megyn (White Santa) Kelly seemed to affect his lead on the GOP field. He said racist, xenophobic,  and misogynist things before , but all that just seemed to make him even more popular among the faithful. "Oh that's Donald just speaking his mind and saying what they rest of us are thinking but are too afraid to say. We are sick of political correctness."  So now that he has been politically incorrect with one of their own, will their views suddenly change?

I think we are already starting to see the answer to that question.

"But [Ben]Carson thinks there’s a line you can cross when you’re being politically incorrect, and talked to CBS’ John Dickerson about it on Face the Nation this morning.

“I think there may be a difference,” Carson said, “between political correctness and, you know, courteous speech.”

He made it clear that political correctness makes it difficult for people to honestly speak to one another, but “in no way to I advocate saying mean things about people.”

So Dr. Ben, which is it? I think a brain surgeon should show more clarity of thought on this one.

And then there was Rand Paul.

"[Rand]Paul was the first of Donald Trump‘s rivals to go on the attack against him at last week’s Republican debate, right after Trump got booed for refusing to commit to the GOP. Paul said, “This is what’s wrong. He buys and sells politicians of all stripes.”

On Fox News Sunday today, Paul elaborated to Chris Wallace, saying, “I don’t think we should reward vulgarity. And I don’t think vulgarity equates with insight.”'

Now that's a case of the pot and the kettle if I have ever seen one. Mr. Paul must have forgotten what network he was on. The folks at FOX VIEWS have spent  the last seven years being vulgar to the man who makes his home at 1600 Pennsylvania, Avenue.  

What Donald Trump is now finding out (and I think that the polls will soon reflect it), is that it's not only those nasty  Democrats who have strict political correctness standards; the party he is running to represent in the presidential race has them as well. They just happen to be standards of convenience.

*Pic from yahoo.com  

Tracking the "tracker".

Hang with me tonight people, I am still a little down because my homie, Usain Bolt, finally lost a race. Hey, all good things must come to an end. Here is hoping that Usain starts training again and stops living the good life off of the track.

And, speaking of track. Tonight I want to talk about some folks they call "trackers".
Seems that these kinds of folks go around calling out other folks who are doing wrong by tracking them down. It's usually done with a camera or a microphone present to embarrass the trackee (Is there such a word?) Andrew Breitbart and his crew made this type of gorilla media tactic famous when they used it to bring down the folks over at Acorn. The folks over at Radio Rwanda frequently use this tactic as well, to bring down their ideological enemies and black people. The O'Reilly folks tracked down Dr. Boyce Watkin's boss at Syracuse University, and my man could not survive the public scrutiny that followed. Radio Rwanda went after William Ayers as well, sticking a camera in the man's face while he tried to go about his daily life.

So now, the latest tracking tactic comes at the expense of the Media Matters folks. But, unfortunately for the tracker, it looks like he picked on the wrong people to go after.

"Wednesday afternoon as our building held an ice cream social in the lobby, a young man showed up at Media Matters office armed with a camera. Positioning himself outside our office, he proceeded to ask people leaving the building what is was like to work for George Soros.

I decided to go have a conversation with him:

"I would like to note, no matter how many times Glenn Beck or Bill O'Reilly says it, George Soros has never made a contribution to Media Matters. However if he would like to make a contribution, he can do so at MediaMatters.org.

There is nothing wrong with tracking -- Media Matters regularly sends trackers to conservative events -- but if you are going to track, perhaps it would be a good idea to come prepared with more than a single question based on a false premise. And when you are confronted with your own questions, have a better answer than rubbing your nose and mumbling."

Let me also add to what the Media Matters folks say about tracking: it can be a dangerous thing. And you track people at your own risk. The very first time one of these clowns sticks a camera or a microphone in my face or in my space, I guarantee you that it will be on You Tube for all the wrong reasons. Trust me, it will have nothing to do with what I have to say.

If you want to score cheap political points by sticking a camera in someones face when he or she is unaware that you are coming, you might want to tell whoever it is that you are working for to give you a little extra something in your pocket for battle pay. Because the next person you go tracking might be your last.

*Pic from The Brad Blog.

The war on common sense

Three soldiers were killed in Baghdad by a roadside bomb today. That brings the total of A-merry-cans who gave the ultimate sacrifice for this phony ass war, to 3,996. Yes folks, we are almost at the 4,000 mark.

And for what? Oh that's right we are in a war against terror, and we have to fight them over there so that they ---the terrorist--- won't fight us in the middle of Yankee Stadium. Yes folks, the "surge" is working. So says Mr. Morton and a host of other rethuglicans who have staked their political careers on this chaotic and ill conceived fiasco in Iraq.

"The US is on track to victory." Yeah sure frat boy, and just which victory is that? How do you even determine when you have won a war against terrorist? A terrorist does not represent a particular country, he represents an ideology. I agree with George Soros; "to fight terrorist we must use political and not military solutions. Terrorism is an abstraction, it merely lumps together all political movements that use terrorist tactics". So this so called war on terror that the frat boy has duped A-merry-cans into thinking exists, is nothing more than a huge political shell game, designed to give power to those who are using it, and to make their friends rich.

The frat boy, after all, is good at this; his family built their wealth and their empire thanks to wars.

So here we are again, five years in, with no end in sight. If you hear Mr. Morton tell it, we could be in Iraq for another 100 years. Now that's some scary shit! Think about it? At an average of approximately four thousand lives every five years, we are looking at eighty thousand more A-merry-can lives if Mr. Morton has his way. And think about this: five years into this war on terror, and we still have not captured Osama bin Laden, nor have we captured al-Zawahiri. There is still no political solution in Iraq, and we are no closer to making the real culprits and masterminds behind 911, pay.

But amazingly, 35% of the people in this country still believe that this war was worth it. And most of the people in this country seem to have moved on. Hell if you read all the national polls it is not even the number one issue on the minds of A-merry-cans anymore. Nope, far more pressing thinks to be concerned with, like putting food on our tables.

I know one thing, there are at least 3,996 A-merry-cans in this country who do care, because their loved ones gave the ultimate sacrifice. And my heart goes out to everyone of them.