The one year anniversary of the Afghanistan Shi’ite Personal Status Law passed without even a whisper from the U.S. media. Apparently, daily stories of oiled-soiled pelicans are vastly more important and newsworthy to CNN and FOX, as well for the alphabet soup of “news” of organizations vying for the attention of the coveted U.S. population. (more…)
In yet another setback for President Obama and the majority Democrats in Congress, the 20 term congressman from Harlem New York says he will step down as chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. (more…)
Over 11,000 U.S. and Afghan troops encircled an area in southern Afghanistan called Marjah to defeat a just few hundred Taliban fighters. (more…)
With all the chatter in the media about Congress spending $500 Billion for this and $500 billion for that, we thought it worthwhile to put all that cash in perspective. I have held a few $20 bills in my hand, so I can imagine what a few hundred dollars would look like, or perhaps even one thousand dollars. But a million dollars? A billion dollars?
This is $10,000 in $100 bills.
(more…)
Can you choose your color today, or must others still do that for you? Can anyone of us with mixed heritage be predominantly called by just one name? What does that say about the heritage you choose (or is chosen for you), and the heritage not chosen? It appears to me that regardless of your standing in society, regardless of your accomplishments or natural talents, you must choose a color – or one will be chosen for you.
I wonder at that. In some ways, our nation has come a long way since Patricia ‘Pinky’ Johnson, in its day a very controversial film about a young black woman who passes for white.
“Pinky” was a slang term for light-skinned black Americans. We trust the term as used here is not offensive to anyone today as we are using same only as historical reference. (more…)
Senator Edward Kennedy (1932-2009)
[Photo Credit: AP]
In regards to civil rights, health, and the economic well-being of the average American, few elected officials anywhere have accomplished as much. (more…)
“Throw in a few billion here and a few billion there, and before you know it, you are talking about real money…” . I don’t recall who first coined that phrase, (I think it was in the late ’80s), but when I first heard it, it was Millions not Billions! (more…)
Without much of a fuss made by the media, if even reported at all, last month Afghanistan’s new Shiite Personal Status Law was put into effect. The law grants Shiite men the legal right to starve their wives if their sexual demands are not met. These sexual demands are not defined or limited by the law. The law also requires Shiite women to obtain permission from their husbands to even leave their home. Parental custody is solely the father’s or, in his absence, the paternal grandfather. Incredibly, the law also allows a rapist to avoid prosecution by paying “blood money” to a girl who was injured when he raped her. That payment, of course, is offered to the father, paternal grandfather or the brothers of the raped girl. (more…)
Henry Louis Gates, James Crowley and Barack Obama (“the boys”) hoisted some cold suds on the South Lawn of the White House today in a carefully orchestrated event for the whole world to experience. This was, as the White House called it, a “teachable moment” on race in America.
We couldn’t be happier for them, you know, the boys – for they have suffered so much. (more…)
Was it the case of all humanity being asleep when President Obama asked us: ….the red or the blue pill…?
Read more:
Some other site we never saw before worth reading
*btw: don’t even get us going on those of you out there that call President Obama, “Mr. Obama”, he achieves the highest office of the land and we can’t consistently give him the accolade of PRESIDENT? Please, we are asking all of you, stop calling him Mr. and stop calling the beautiful Michelle Mrs., it is time, call them what they achived: PRESIDENT AND FIRST LADY.
NAMASTE.
Sex continues to unravel many political careers, so much so that I submit we are painfully bored by the news unless it details news ‘off the beaten trail’. For example, I submit for your consideration Larry Craig, the Idaho senator whose “wide stance” whilst using the public toilet led to what he characterizes as a “miss understanding” of his intentions to an undercover Idaho State Trooper. The latest tryst exposed for our entertainment is the republican governor from South Carolina, Mr Mark (don’t cry for me Argentina) Sanford. (more…)
Fox News reports: CNN video cuts?
Listen, I have always found it ludicrous that we are the only beings in the vast space of whatever we want to call it, the universe, the galactic collection of galaxies, etc.
Really, if we are the only race here, and ha, we don’t even recognize ourselves as a whole race, but fighting, disparate, screeching wolves in the night, then, isn’t that a sad state of affairs for the rest of the dark matter hanging out there?
I’m no scientist, in case you didn’t catch on yet, but what I know, or SUSPECT, is that it cannot be true.
Here are some facts hard to dispute about humans:
1. we have enslaved our brothers and sisters
2. we continue to enslave our brothers and sisters
3. we believe one life is greater than another and excuse ourselves in the name of religion, security, politics, medical protocol, to sacrifice others
4. I’m sorry, I can’t continue, I suspect I’m on a rant.
Just tell me, in lots or little words, why is it that the idea of other life forms is something we don’t accept as probably more true than not?
Today is a blessed day.
It is a historic day.
It is a day, when as those in my family say,
we cry happy tears.
Here, how we everyday Americans witness and welcome this most blessed day:
PRESIDENT OBAMA, we salute you and send blessings to you and yours.
THE EXTORTION OF US TAX PAYERS (a.k.a., the Detroit Bailout)
Let’s do the math and perhaps put it out to a poll. I’ll focus on GM, you can do the same for Ford and Chrysler. GM employs about 252,000 people globally. The company website totals its US work force at 97,624 across some 87 US zip codes.
The pitch made by the Big Three last week puts the GM term loan “request” at least $12 billion they said was needed to bridge a funding gap in their global operations through just 2009. Unless you think that by the end of 2009 mobs of Americans will be buying enough GM cars to make a difference, by this time next year these same three will be asking for more tax payer money. They will site then, as they do now, a vast US unemployment amongst a plethora of other dire consequences should they be “allowed” to fail.
Now here is the math: if we consider only the US based employees of GM, that “term loan” works out to over $122,920 per current employee – including the over two dozen lucky top earners at the company that make well over $1 million per year. If we were to poll those same US employees of GM, asking simply, should GM management be handed $12 Billion IN CASH or instead should each US based employee given a severance package that includes nearly $123,000 IN CASH and then seek employment at the several other US based (but foreign) car manufacturers who for some reason are NOT asking for a bailout. By the way, these other car companies will most assuredly be delighted to increase their own US car production output to make up for the void should the “big three” go under. Now back to the math, what would those tax paying US based employees choose? Would they trust $12 Billion in the hands of a few pigeon headed multi-millionaires that drove their company, an icon of American manufacturing competence and power the world over, into total obsolescence or would they take a chance on themselves with that $122,920?
Now that $122,920 may seem like a paltry amount for some, and certainly that is so for the GM CEO who earns over $10 MILLION IN ADDITION TO his annual salary of $1.5 million (source WSJ) that he is now willing to “sacrifice”, for one year, for the sake of getting this bailout…presumingly because its good for the nation. What a patriot. Take note however, he is offering to giving up just over one tenth of his total compensation and this “sacrifice” does not include his use of the company’s air force (yes, we talking about a car company), fleet of chauffeured cars, personnel/family allowances and that all important multi-million dollar corporate expense account amongst the plethora of other perks.
Do we really need to debate this?
See also:
I write with mixed emotions.
I personally am ecstatic with America and the world’s choice for Obama.
Yes, we have woken up from this deep sleep.
Yet, in many states in this country, we have been awake and still asleep, voting to ban “gay” marriage. What is “gay” marriage?
Marriage is a willing union of hearts. It must not be defined by gender or sexual orientation.
I am sorry, I cannot write more as I am deeply saddened by this, this seemingly ignorant action on the behalf of human beings in 2008.
“Hope” is a universal word. It is not intended and not defined for the few. How dare we, how dare we, crush good people’s dreams? Is it easier to do so when it is not black and white? Is it easier to do so when it is approved unions vs. those that are not?
By whose laws do we take such actions to deprive our brothers and sisters of what we so willingly take as ours?
Raise Up! Vote to ban hetersexual marriage, let’s see what kind of reaction that gets.
Again, I’m sorry, but this is a sad, sad state of affairs that we would, as enlightened human beings, vote down love.
It is not without a certain amount of humility that I write this post.
I am not schooled in politics.
There is something within me that blocks the flow of politics, voices in the media screeching and making me recoil, like mad ravens at a window.
I don’t have much use for “politics”. But I am not so naive as to believe I have the alternative, right, best answer for the world.
Yes, Obama doesn’t have the “past”. Isn’t that why some of us like him, want him, even, as our next President?
In many ways, a Presidential hopeful, and a President, are no different than you or I. It embodies one voice, that position, one; yes, one meant to be held and heard with more fervor and weight, but that is only if we continue to play the sliding scale of humanity we somehow unwittingly inherited and continue to propogate.
What do I hear when the call sounds: “O-Bam-A”?
I hear hope for a new tomorrow. I feel something resonate that has to do with the heart of humanity.
I hear a universal voice.
I can doubt him, why not, it’s what we are taught to do, but I feel, I would rather cast my stones in the basket of hope, we are what we believe and what we manifest. So much more so, if we dare to believe.
Peace.
Greetings fellow citizens.
My name is Surface Earth.
I welcome you this evening to improve my life and my future income.
See, if you vote for me,
My ego will inflate,
My social circle will inflate,
And down the road,
I can make lots and lots of money from that,
And,
Have friends in power to give me tax cuts,
So even though shopping for food, gas, homes may be difficult for you,
I will be in good stead.
And oh yeah?
“God bless America!”
Signing off, free mason sign discreetly at left side of video.
Yes.
I was and am horrified that police, the custodians of our morality, would place a young girl in a cell with men and leave her there to be abused and tortured.
I am also appalled that the men within the jail or prison would be no better than the police that placed her there.
This is what I mean, it never begins and ends in one place, in one moment. We sow the seeds.
I can only pray.
We are all a part of this shifting paradigm that causes this to occur, the jailers, the jailed, the young girl who we as society are charged to protect….we all do this together.
How do we then figure out a way out of this together? That is the question I am asking you today.
CNN has some great articles today about Stephen Colbert and the bid for whichever party will take him for Presidential nominee. Personally, I’m in favor of the Colbert, Colbert and Only Colbert Party, then again, there is already the ColbertNation.
If you jump below you can find the CNN links & one of the CNN articles.
When searching for some more “news”, we came across some more fun sites about Colbert running in 2008:
“A Nation Cries Out” : the site is “Colbertocrat”
Editor & Publisher online chimes in
and last but not least….
Read the article copied below…………………hmmmmmmmmmmm……….Colbert for President? See also, additional article at CNN Entertainment.
October 17, 2007
Colbert announces bid for the White House
Colbert said Tuesday he will run for president in South Carolina.
WASHINGTON (CNN) — He hinted at a possible run for the White House on CNN’s Larry King last week, but Comedy Central host Stephen Colbert made it official Tuesday night: he’s jumping into the presidential race in his home state of South Carolina.
“After nearly 15 minutes of soul-searching, I have heard the call….I am hereby declaring that I will enter the presidential primary in my native South Carolina, running as a favorite son,” Colbert said on his show Tuesday night. “I defy any other candidate to pander more to the people of South Carolina — those beautiful, beautiful people.”
South Carolina is one of four lead-off primary states that will likely play a crucial role in determining the eventual nominee of both parties.
On Larry King last Thursday, Colbert laid out his potential electoral strategy, saying he’d see how he did in South Carolina before deciding to move on to other states.
“I think maybe there’s something I could offer the campaign on a state-by-state basis,” he said. “I would target a state individually…a test run.”
Colbert, author of the recently released “I Am America (And So Can You!),” also told King he’d seek to run as both a Democrat and Republican.
“I’d let the people decide what party I belong in,” he said. “I don’t dictate the people’s actions.”
In the interview with King, Colbert also brushed aside suggestions that it was a “cop out” to run in both parties, calling it instead courageous, because, “I could lose twice.”
In the slim chance that he wins a party’s nomination, Colbert said Tuesday he’d consider either Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, Russian President Vladimir Putin, or himself for a running mate.
“Colbert-Colbert — that’s a strong ticket,” he argued.
– CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney
The day will come, when we no longer write and read about the “first female” president.
The day will come when women treated equally will have such a long history, that there will be no viable frame of reference for remarking at women becoming the first, it will be as if there was never a time of distinction.
The day will come, when women treat each other equally.
In the meantime, BBC News reports:
“India elects a female president”
Mrs Patil’s backers say her election will be a boost to women |
“Election authorities in India say Pratibha Patil has been voted in as the country’s first woman president.
Officials said Mrs Patil won nearly two-thirds of votes, although a formal announcement has not yet been made.
Mrs Patil, 72, was the governor of the northern Indian state of Rajasthan before being nominated for president by India’s ruling coalition.
Mrs Patil’s supporters say her election to the largely ceremonial role will be a boost to millions of Indian women.
But correspondents say some of her critics have described her as a political lightweight.
Mrs Patil, whose main rival was current Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, will succeed A P J Abdul Kalam, a missile scientist.”
See also: CNN reporting on India’s first female president
Congratulations “President Patil”.
Why are we even considering electing anyone that is less than diplomatic?
Is it really funny that people we would choose to lead our country, affect not only our country’s, but other countries’ children and families…stoop to barbs?
See, I’m simply confused.
If you have something meritorious to say, can’t it stand on its own without sarcasm?
I want to elect a leader that does not resort to such games. Let him or her then serve as a leader, an example, to all the lower levels of government, and to our children, the future leaders.
Is that too simple?
The big joke now is the young lady who launched a song about Obama, or the two or three girls, of course, profit being the bottom line, to sell t-shirts. Suggestive songs. Now, how does that affect Obama as a presidential candidate? Good, bad? Worse or better than Mrs. Clinton’s insurmountable==wait, seemingly surmountable odds on overcoming the base suggestiveness or alleged infidelity.
Again, media coverage comes back to what can we get you on? embarrass you about? judge you about? what can we get off on while dissing you?
yes, we do this as a society, but do I want my LEADER doing this?
No. It’s that simple.
Curious and more curious.
Gingrich was not a hypocrite. Yes, he now states he had an extramarital affair but really, he drew the line when pursuing Clinton…he went after him due to an alleged felony, perjury and obstruction of justice, not because of the sensationalist news regarding Ms. Lewinsky.
Check out some interesting articles on this fascinating non-hypocritical line drawing:
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