Professional Left? Hell yes!

“. . . if anyone needs to be "drug tested," it would be those denying that many of Bush's most controversial policies and actions have been embraced in full by Barack Obama.” – Glenn Greenwald

So, presidential press secretary Robert Gibbs wants me, and you, to STFU. Most importantly, his words represented perfectly the feelings of  his boss, who wants us to be quiet and let him do what he likes without so much as uttering a peep.

In an interview with The Hill, Gibbs whined about the “professional left” who have the nerve to want “Canadian health care” but who still wouldn’t be happy even if “Dennis Kucinich was president.” Anyone who dares point out that Obama is carrying out Bush policies “Ought to be drug tested.” On the one hand, I’m angry with Gibbs for openly expressing his obvious contempt, on the other hand, he did get some things right.

Yes I would like Canadian health care. It saves more lives and more money that our system. If Kucinich were president I wouldn’t be happy because that would mean he had morphed into the monsters who climb atop the greased pole of American politics. Only a corporatist who fully backs the empire and all of its authority will be allowed anywhere near 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Obama and his successors will be Bushites too. Some will be smart, some will be dumb. Some will appeal to the blue and some to the red but in the end they will all work to achieve the same ends.

I have never heard Gibbs or his boss complain about the professional right. The week before his inauguration Barack Obama ran off to have dinner at the home of George Will where he was joined by the likes of Bill Kristol, Peggy Noonan and Charles Krauthamer, leaders of the professional right. 

There really isn’t anything new here. Obama kept Bush’s defense secretary, his security apparatus, and his wars. He pursued the same policy of bailing out the banksters. Health care reform is more of a bailout of private health insurers than anything else.

The professional left had better wise up and abandon this guy before it is too late.  As far as I can tell, we couldn’t be any worse off if Obama is a one termer. We might actually get a better democrat if we dump him. As one of my favorite sites, Stop Me Before I Vote Again points out, the left won’t be anything until they dump the democrats.

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings "Tell Me"

Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings

Enjoy and don't pass up a chance to see them live.

Missionaries Killed in Afghanistan

“Human beings will do anything, anything. I am convinced. That's why when all those beheadings started in Iraq it didn't bother me. A lot of people here were horrified, "Whaaaa, beheadings!" What, are you fucking surprised? Just one more form of extreme human behaviour. Besides, who cares about some mercenary civilian contractor from Oklahoma who gets his head cut off? Fuck 'em. Hey Jack, you don't want to get your head cut off? Stay the fuck in Oklahoma. They ain’t cuttin' of heads in Oklahoma, far as I know. But I do know this: you strap on a gun and go struttin' around some other man’s country you better be ready for some action Jack. People are touchy about that sort of thing. And let me ask you this... this is a morale question, not rhetorical, I am looking for the answer: what is the moral difference between cuttin' off one guys head, or two, or three, of five or ten - and dropping a big bomb on a hospital and killing a whole bunch of sick kids? Has anybody in authority given you an explanation of the difference?” - George Carlin

Medical missionaries were killed in Afghanistan yesterday. “Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told The Associated Press in Pakistan that they killed the foreigners because they were ‘spying for the Americans’ and ‘preaching Christianity.’”

I couldn’t help but think of the late George Carlin’s words. I don’t know if the individuals killed were spying or prosletizing, but I do know that their deaths were no worse than the deaths of thousands of Afghans killed by our government.

They were innocent you say? So were the people killed by Uncle Sam. Don’t mourn for one if you don’t mourn for all

Obama’s Lies About Iraq

Seventeen months after President Barack Obama pledged to withdraw all combat brigades from Iraq by Sep. 1, 2010, he quietly abandoned that pledge Monday, admitting implicitly that such combat brigades would remain until the end of 2011. – Gareth Porter

Here we go again. Barack Obama gets anti-war credibility when he deserves none.

Lest we forget, it was Bush who signed the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) back in 2008.  SOFA requires the U.S. to be out of Iraq by 2011, Obama’s double talk is irrelevant because Bush set the stage for a U.S. withdrawal.

Not only that, but the Obama plan, like Bush’s, permits up to 50,000 troops to remain in Iraq. They will not be called combat troops, they are advisers or supporters or whatever.

So let’s recap. Bush signed the agreement for a reduction of some forces but not all, Obama must abide by the same agreement and he keeps pushing back the date for the phony withdrawal.

Nothing to see here. Keep it moving.

“We are sort of a mongrel people.”

Oh no he didn’t! Yes, the president did. When he appeared on The View last week he said that black people were “sort of a mongrel people.”

I am no mongrel. Like all black Americans I have some white ancestry. My grandmother was part Creek Indian. That does not make me a dog, the species for which the term is usually reserved. Humans should not be called mongrels, ever. Calling a human being a mongrel is an insult and cannot be seen any other way.

Obama once again showed his contempt for black people. I guess he likes Michelle and his own family, but the rest of us are just domesticated animals as far as he is concerned.

I thought it interesting when the president referred to himself as a “mutt.” Of course he was referring to himself. One could argue that he had the right to compare himself to a dog, but he certainly doesn’t have the right to use such language in regard to anyone else.

Shirley Sherrod’s Righteous Anger

Read my take on the story here in Black Agenda Report. Sherrod’s story has already been diminished. She had every right to be angry and I explain why.

“These leaks won’t stop until someone’s in an orange jumpsuit.”

Those are the words of Kit Bond, republican senator from Missouri. I just saw him on the Today Show, commenting on the Wikileaks release of 92,000 classified documents revealing the war crimes created by the occupation of Afghanistan.

Bond has already gotten his wish. PFC Bradley Manning sits in detention in Kuwait for allegedly releasing the video which showed U.S. troops killing Iraqi reporters and injuring little children in a helicopter attack. Thank goodness for Julian Assange, Wikileaks founder. Too bad the Today show didn’t have the courage to interview him.

Manning is going to pay a huge price for doing the right thing. What about the left? Will we ever do the right thing, or will we defend the status quo which currently lives in the person of one  Barack Obama?

Even Van Jones, one of the first victims of the Obama greyhound bus express, defends the person who kicked him to the curb. Obama is like the drunk father in a dysfunctional family, beating up the wife and kids but still getting lots of love.

But I have already digressed, jumping from Wikileaks to Van Jones, but perhaps I am on the right track. You see it is all about the way our system works. No one is allowed to get to the top unless they promise to uphold empire and corporate power. Our only salvation is to oppose them. When we don’t we are complicit or like Jones we are just chumps.

Say no to war and yes to the Mannings of the world. Say no to Van Jones and say yes to opposition. Please watch the video I posted yesterday of Glen Ford’s speech. We need a “culture of resistance” not a seat at the table if all we get are crumbs.

Glen Ford: Breaking the Obama Spell, at the United National Peace Confer...

Glen Ford at Albany NY Peace Conference

I haven't posted in soooo long. I will take the easy way out and let Glen Ford speak for me. I took a vacation break but my column will return to Black Agenda Report this week.

As always, listen to Glen if you want to know what time it is.

McChrystal Done in by Liquor and Volcanic Ash

Gen. Stanley McChrystal may resign or be fired this week because of critical comments he and his staff made about their commander in chief and his team. McChrystal was hand picked by president Obama to oversee the occupation of Afghanistan. Tomorrow he must show up at the white house and explain himself to his boss.

Michael Hastings is a freelancer assigned to cover McChrystal for Rolling Stone magazine. He was scheduled to spend two days with the general in Paris, but as luck would have it, the eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano kept Hastings from leaving Europe. He asked to accompany McChrystal on a bus trip to Berlin and ended up spending ten days with him. On the bus McChrystal and his staff drank “the whole way” and “let loose.” In vino veritas. Perhaps volcanoes bring a little veritas too.

One staffer claimed that Obama was “intimidated” by military brass, others snickered at vice president Biden dubbing him “Bite Me” (can’t blame them).  Most importantly, they openly expressed doubt that the war, the longest in American history, is at all winnable.

It is easy to focus on the gossipy parts of this story only to lose sight of the most important fact. The United States has occupied Afghanistan since 2001 and killed thousands of its people, all in an effort to keep us “safer” from terrorist attacks. The occupation must end, and it makes no difference if McChrystal or someone else is in charge of this great wrong doing.

The U.S. presence in Afghanistan is just one more straw that will eventually break the back of the empire. No one knows when or how that fall will take place, but fall it will and not without taking a big chunk of humanity with it.

Resistance is not only non futile but it is necessary. It would be terrible if the U.S. faced no resistance from a subjugated population. Long live the resistance, and down with McChrystal or whoever else gets to sit in that corner office.

Amy Bishop Killed Her Brother

Better late than never I guess. As I pointed out in my Black Agenda Report column back in February, professor Amy Bishop should have been charged with murdering her own brother back in 1986. Despite holding hostages and pointing a gun at police, she was never charged with a crime. In 2010 she walked into a staff meeting at the University of Alabama and murdered three of her colleagues.

Bishop has now been indicted for her brother’s murder. Thank God for small favors. I certainly hope that the victims’ families sue the authorities in Massachusetts who allowed this travesty to take place.

Jun 14, 2010 11:09 AM

Rangel Sucks

I have reached my limit. Last week one of my senators, Charles Schumer, proudly said that Gaza should be "strangled." Now my congressman is trying to out do him with pro-Israeli rhetoric. I know the drill. You can't raise money in New York unless you march in lock step with the zionists. I don't want to hear any more excuses. I don't care if Rangel and Schumer are pro choice or anti the things I don't like. I won't cast my vote for either of them again. I guess it is official. I have dumped the democrats for good.

Seven Year Old Hung?

There are unconfirmed news reports of a seven year old child being hung by the Taliban in Helmand province Afghanistan. According to these reports, the child was accused of being a spy.

If true, it is simply awful, an atrocity. But I’m not convinced that the story has any validity at all. The story is completely unsourced, which isn’t necessarily proof of a lie, but we shouldn’t cast aside skepticism either.

Strategically placed tales of atrocities have always been used to keep the public in a war loving mood. I find it odd that there hasn’t been any press interviewing family or other towns people. President Karzai called the killing a crime against humanity, “if confirmed.” Doesn’t the president have confirmation? I would think he would. Such confirmation would constitute a huge propaganda victory.

Even if true, this report should give rise to some self criticism on the part of Americans.

A Taliban source in Helmand told CBS News' Sami Yousafzai on Thursday he was aware of the boy being killed, but that it was a case of a militant settling a personal vendetta against the boy's family, then using the spying charges as an excuse. The source said he believed the boy's executor had fled across the border to Pakistan.

The hanging comes as a Taliban commander in neighboring Kandahar province -- the Taliban's traditional home territory -- tells CBS News that a suicide attack on a wedding party that left 40 people dead was "collective punishment" for villagers standing up to the Islamic militants' control in the region.

If Israel massacres Gazans to exact collective punishment, why is it worse for the Taliban to do the same thing? When Israel was dropping bombs that killed little children, the United States Congress passed a resolution supporting that atrocity. Only five House members had the courage to vote nay. If the Taliban did commit this act they have now made themselves the equal of the Israeli and American governments.

Abortions via Webcam

Finally we have some good news for reproductive rights. We certainly need some. Politicians who live in fear and loathing of female sexuality have lately piled on in their efforts to prevent women from exercising their right to abortion.

But Planned Parenthood of Iowa has found a way to provide services to women who don’t live near abortion clinics. Doctors use video conferencing to prescribe RU486, mifepristone, a drug which induces abortion without the need of a surgical procedure.

The right to lifers are beside themselves with anger, suddenly concerned about the violation of the doctor/patient relationship. Too bad for them. RU486 is legal and it gives options to women who consider abortion. It is a very good thing that Iowans don’t have to run a gauntlet of abortion haters and have the ability to make their choice in the privacy of their own homes. 

“I Hate Israel”

“Okay, I admit it. In fact, I proclaim it from the housetops: I hate Israel. I hate it worse than Kosovo or Croatia or any other nasty little actually-existing racial-chauvinist country I can think of -- though in my defense I will say I hated apartheid South Africa as much, while it was around. But now that the Boers aren't running the show there any more, Israel has had to take up the slack; and it has done so, admirably, more than adequately, and con amore.

I encourage others to join me here. Free your minds of cant, abandon false piety and useless prudence, and repeat after me: I hate Israel.” - Michael Smith

What is wrong with hating Israel? It is a nation which takes a huge amount of our public funds and uses it to build nukes, kill Palestinians and make people around the world hate us all. We Americans are all accomplices to Israel’s many crimes.

The zionists control a media now devoid of standards and they use money to control both major political parties. Any politician who dares speak up against Israel immediately faces a well funded opponent.  So we are all powerless in the face of this onslaught, even those of us who would change the equation. That excuse doesn’t cut any ice in the Arab and Muslim world, so we are hated no matter what we believe.

I’m truly sick and tired of having a bulls eye on my head because of the Israelis. I live under the constant threat of terror attack because the Israelis are a bunch of sick fascists, a nation akin to “a mad dog” as Moshe Dayan said.

I love Michael Smith at Stop Me Before I Vote Again, but I take issue with one thing he said. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad never said he wanted to wipe Israel off the map. Aside from that correction, I will free my mind of cant, false piety and useless prudence and gladly say that I hate any government which deliberately kills humanitarian aid workers and uses my tax dollars to do it.

Norman Finkelstein

“During Israel’s massacre in Gaza … afterwards Israeli officials were saying that they wanted to show the Arab world that they were capable of acting like a lunatic state and like mad dogs. That they wanted to restore the Arab world’s fear of Israel.

We really have to ask the question, is Israel acting like a lunatic state or has it become a lunatic state?

Israel is now a lunatic state. It’s a lunatic state with between two and three hundred nuclear devices. It is threatening war daily against Iran and against the Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Things are getting out of control. We have to ask ourselves a simple basic simple fundamental question. Can a lunatic state like Israel be trusted with two to three hundred nuclear devices when it is threatening its neighbors Iran and Lebanon with an attack?”

'Israel is a Lunatic State' - Finkelstein on Gaza Flotilla Attack

Israel Murders (Again)

Israel is no longer content to just ram ships and injure human beings attempting to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza. Now that nation increases its criminality by killing 9 people who had every right to sail in international waters and to bring help to a suffering people.

Why do they hate us? I guess it is because our client state continues its criminality with impunity.

More “Illegals” Please

I hope my Black Agenda Report colleague Bruce Dixon will forgive this title. He rightly points out “… There are no such people as ‘illegals’ and there are no such things as ‘illegal aliens.’ The terms ‘illegals’ and ‘illegal’ aliens are nothing but good old fashioned hundred percent white American hate speech. . .”

Yet I couldn’t help but give a shout out to a blogger who is new to me. Angry Drunk Bureaucrat hits the nail on the head in describing the nonsensical outrage over “illegals.”

“Let's really focus on the fact that, if there are 140,000 illegal immigrants in the Commonwealth (Pennsylvania) that's 140,000 people that *are being counted* towards things like, oh I don't know, the Census, which keeps us from hemorrhaging population.
So fuck Metcalfe and Readshaw: bring as many goddamn illegal immigrants to PA as soon as possible. Build towns, boroughs, cities. Drive up the population. Drive up demand for services. Increase the tax base. Increase the number of seats Pennsylvania has in the House.”

I always remember the old expression “Be careful what you ask for.” If undocumented workers did leave en masse then this country would be in very deep trouble. There are thousands of undocumented who pay into the social security system but who will never see one dime of that money.

They also rent and sometimes purchase homes. They pay sales tax at the store the way everyone else does. If it weren’t for immigration, legal or illegal, states like New York would lose congressional representation.

So bring it on world! Send us your tired your poor and your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. We need their cash, their taxes and their bodies for census workers to count.  Approximately forty percent of New York City residents were born outside of the United States. The city would be poorer literally and figuratively without them and so would the rest of the country too. I for one am glad they are here. Their presence helps us all.

Obama Stiffs Black Farmers

“So far, Mr. Obama has deferred to Congress. Some farmers have speculated that the president is shying away from the issue because it involves race. The White House said that was untrue.” – New York Times

No we can’t! That seems to be the president’s motto whenever black people need help. In the pre-Obama days, black people would at least go through the motions of making demands. “Democrats take our votes for granted,” was the common refrain.

Now we have a president who ignores us with absolute impunity. Black farmers in southern states were discriminated against by the United States Department of Agriculture for decades. They were denied loans on a regular basis and many lost their properties as a result.

They won a landmark lawsuit in 1999, Pigford v. Glickman, which compensated the farmers with $1 billion. An additional $1.25 billion is still owed but neither congress nor the administration has acted on the claim, missing a March 31st deadline.

The president could release money through a Treasure department Pigford fund, but has so far has declined to do so. I’ll say it for the 101st time, black Americans would be better off with a white democrat in the white house than with Obama. Obama idol worshippers want to have it both ways. On the one hand they endlessly talk about how brilliant he is and in the same breath proclaim that he can’t possibly figure out a way to do anything that benefits black people without making white people mad.

Racist white people don’t like him anyway and don’t really care what he does. So like a bunch of chumps, Obama’s black supporters give him carte blanche to stab us in the back time after time. 

It is insulting to say that expeditiously helping black farmers would somehow destroy the Obama presidency. He hasn’t acted on this issue because he just doesn’t care. There is nothing complicated going on here. The president has the power to get this money without asking congress but he refuses to do it because inaction and betrayal have worked so well for him in the past.

Drill Barack Drill

I just had to post this Mike Flugennock cartoon.

Obama Continues Oil Drilling Approvals

"Salazar is playing a cynical shell game, making the public think he stopped issuing the faulty approvals that allowed the disastrous BP drilling to occur, when in fact he has given MMS the green light to keep issuing those very same approvals. The only thing Salazar has stopped is the final, technical check-off which comes long after the environmental review."

Ever since the April 20th explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig, the Obama administration has given the green light to 27 different off shore drilling projects.

Drill baby drill!

Aiyana Jones

"There is no question about what happened because it's in the videotape. It's not an accident. It's not a mistake. There was no altercation. Aiyana Jones was shot from outside on the porch. The videotape shows clearly the officer throwing through the window a stun grenade-type explosive and then within milliseconds of throwing that, firing a shot from outside the home."  Geoffrey Feiger

Aiyana Jones was a seven year old girl living in Detroit, who was killed by the police while sleeping in her own home.  The police were searching for a murder suspect thought to be in the Jones home.

The story smelled to high heaven from the beginning. The cops used a flash grenade as they entered the home, a practice meant to disorient armed and dangerous suspects. Neighbors told cops that children were in the house, why use a flash grenade? There was a weird story about the gun “discharging” and a cop’s collision with a grand mother. It made no sense.

Today it all made terrible sense. The cops were filming an episode of The First 48, a reality show produced by the A&E network. I remember when A&E meant Arts and Entertainment. Now it is reruns and reality.

The First 48 follows a  police investigation in the two days following a murder. I have to admit that I was addicted, no pun intended, to another A&E program, Intervention, which shows an addict and family in the days leading up to an intervention and a stint in rehab. I realized it was not healthy to be entertained by other people’s pain and I pulled the plug on Intervention.

It was followed by Obsession which showed obsessive compulsives under treatment and now Hoarders, where you can watch people living with their own garbage. Bad television was bad enough, but now it has resulted in the death of a child. The cops were obviously trying to make an ordinary scene seem to be a lot more exciting, so they fired into a window and threw in a flash grenade. Aiyana is dead because of bad television.

Civil Rights a Non Issue for Leahy

Today the Huffington Post breathlessly reported what first appeared to be good news. Huffpo said that Senator Patrick Leahy, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, would “throw cold water” on the Bush, I mean Obama administration plan to gut fifth amendment rights against self-incrimination for terror suspects.

The truth turns out to be less than wonderful. "The question is not so much whether I'm concerned about the civil rights one way or another, it is what a court will agree to. After all, it was the Supreme Court that set down the rules of Miranda. Whatever changes might be made, have to made within the confines of what the United States Supreme Court has already said.”

It doesn’t matter if he cares or not? Well apparently he doesn’t. Civil rights, no biggie for the white house or for the senate either. I suppose we have to take some comfort in his tepid response, but sooner or later our rights will be watered down into nothingness, by Obama and the democrats.

The Supreme Court and the Ruling Class

Barack Obama’s nomination of Elena Kagan is an absolute disaster for the democratic party and for democracy itself. The nomination is just the latest proof of Obama’s obliteration of black politics and his victory over all progressives. Anyone praised by the likes of Joseph Lieberman for moving the court in a “less liberal” direction is a bad bet for the progressive cause.

Kagan could not find one black person worthy to hire as a tenure track law professor when she served as dean of Harvard law school. Indeed, this white woman could find only six white women to hire, out of a total of 32 tenure track positions filled in her tenure.

Yet it is the Harvard connection which is one of the more disturbing elements of the Kagan nomination. If Kagan is confirmed, all nine supreme court justices will have attended either Harvard or Yale universities (Ruth Bader Ginsburg attended Harvard for a time but ultimately graduated from Columbia).

Americans love to believe in their self-aggrandizing myth of a classless society, a meritocracy. In this well rehearsed lie, this country purported to be one in which any individual might rise as a result of hard work and determination.

The fact that only two out of 160 law schools in the country have been deemed worthy for consideration to the highest court is an indicator of a very disturbing change in our society. There is no longer any pretense that this country is a meritocracy. The ever intensifying class stratification is being more and more solidified and is expressed in new and awful ways on a daily basis.

The truly awful justice Antonin Scalia said so himself, out loud and in a public venue. When asked by a student at the American University law school how she could succeed without connections, Scalia at first told her to, “Just work hard and be very good.“ When the discussion moved to the likelihood that she might reach the holy grail of being a clerk for a Supreme Court justice, Scalia set her straight.  He quickly remembered himself and told her the honest truth, that she could pretty much forget about getting anywhere when she attended such a lowly institution.

“By and large I’m going to be picking from the law schools that basically are the hardest to get into. They admit the best and the brightest, and they may not teach very well, but you can’t make a sow’s ear out of a silk purse. If they come in the best and the brightest, they’re probably going to leave the best and the brightest, O.K.?”

It isn’t clear what the young woman thought about being referred to as a sow’s ear, but she certainly went home knowing that she shouldn’t even think about venturing out of her place on the class system totem pole.

Kagan’s defenders can’t defend the blank slate technocrat on the merits, they just talk about how wonderful and brilliant she is. Period. That is proof enough of Kagan’s lack of qualifications to serve as a justice on the nation’s highest court and of a more insidious form of corruption at work as Jonathan Turley points out.

“Nominations like Kagan’s are the result of a network of graduates who work consciously or unconsciously to see that their own are nominated. Notably, after Kagan’s nomination, powerful figures from her Harvard years came forward to vouch for her abilities. Their message was the same: Despite her lack of a record, she is known in our circle as a real winner. She is, in a phrase, one of us. Indeed, reporters breathlessly reported how Kagan and Scalia are good friends and how she knows many of the main players from Harvard, as if it is the judicial equivalent to having graduated from the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The favoritism shown Harvard and Yale should be viewed not just as incestuous but as scandalous. It undermines educational institutions across the country by maintaining a clearly arbitrary and capricious basis for selection. It also runs against the grain of a nation based on meritocracy and opportunity.”

Turley should have said allegedly based on meritocracy and opportunity. I will have more to say about the Kagan nomination and black America in my Black Agenda Report column on Wednesday.

Death Unmasked

Saw this Leon Kuhn cartoon. Had to post it.

John Brown

“Had he succeeded, the Civil War would have been started not by the secessionists but by the abolitionists, and the issue from the first shot would have been freedom, not union. The conflict might have been shorter and the outcome less bloody.”

I missed his birthday. Brown was born on May 9, 1800 and my blogging inactivity has caused me to miss that and other events. John is one of America’s greatest heroes.  If not for John Brown, slavery might not have ended until the twentieth century. The south controlled congress and the courts, and was adamant that the “peculiar institution” continue and spread to newly settled territories. Northerners were tired of being controlled by the slave powers, but most weren’t willing to fight back. Brown was, and he hastened the start of the war and the end of slavery.Terry Bisson and  Kevin Gray explain why Brown is so important.

Twin Disasters: Elena Kagan and Oil

No, I haven't posted in a long time, three months to be exact. Much has happened in that time, and I must have been suffering from outrage fatigue. I have of course been regularly writing my Black Agenda Report column, but alas I have neglected this blog and that means I have neglected myself as well. No mas!

Since February the president ended the moratorium on offshore drilling and told a bold faced lie in the process. "It turns out, by the way, that oil rigs today don't cause spills. Technologically they are very advanced. Even during Katrina the spills didn't come from the oil rigs, they came from the refineries onshore."

Well, that was before the Deepwater Horizon blew up in the Gulf of Mexico and put egg squarely on Obama's face. Oh and by the way, oil rigs did cause spills in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. Liar, liar pants on fire.

What does the oil disaster in the gulf have to do with Elena Kagan, Obama's supreme court nominee? Because the hits just keep on coming. My worst fears about Obama are being realized and in very short order. Every week brings a new outrage that I need to get over and be outraged about.

As I said in my BAR column, we are told to keep voting for democrats because of the importance of federal judicial nominations. But if a democratic president chooses a conservative democrat, what is the point of supporting him?

As dean of Harvard law school, Kagan did not appoint one black law professor during her tenure, not one. Out of 32 tenure or tenure track positions, she hired only seven women, one of whom was Asian. No African Americans, Latinos or Native Americans were hired. All 25 men hired were white.

Why did Obama choose her? Glenn Greenwald explained it all very well. "Nothing is a better fit for this white house than a blank slate, institution-loyal, seemingly principle free careerist, who spent the last 15 months as the Obama administration's lawyer vigorously defending every one of his assertions of extremely broad executive authority."

So here we are with a mediocre butt kisser on the court, a court devoid of anyone who didn't attend Yale or Harvard. The outrage is back!

Wish I'd Said That

“Black people gamble. Black people smoke. Black people drink. And so if these companies want to take some of the money they’ve earned off of our people and give it to us to support good causes, then we take it.” - Elsie Scott, Congressional Black Caucus Foundation

Not a pretty picture. Our colored representatives sell themselves cheaply for the sake of good parties. They get to stay in office and throw fabulous soirees while they do it. My people, my people.

Killer Professor

You can get away with a lot if you're both white and an Ivy Leaguer. Amy Bishop, the killer professor at the University of Alabama at Huntsville is an excellent example of this phenomenon.

Twenty-four years ago, Bishop shot and killed her brother and somehow managed not to be charged with a crime. I'm guessing that mom and dad are wealthy and or well connected. Stay tuned. It also turns out that the then District Attorney was William Delahunt, now a member of congress. Delahunt now says he remembers nothing about the case. Selective amnesia can be very useful.

Some years back two white men committed armed robberies in New York and shot people in the process. They were dubbed the "gentlemen bandits." Bishop kills three and is described as "Harvard educated." Being white never hurt anybody.

I'm sure there is a lot more to this sordid tale.

Non-Citizens Have Rights

Our constitutional rights benefit anyone in this country, citizen or not. You wouldn't know it because Newt Gingrich and other republicans claim that those rights apply only to U.S. citizens. That assertion is a lie.

Huffington Post makes a big deal about Gingrich falsely stating that "shoe bomber" Richard Reid is an American citizen and was therefore entitled to his rights against self-incrimination. Reid is a citizen of the U.K., but outrage shouldn't be directed at Gingrich only because he told a bald faced lie about Reid's nation of origin.

I have had my issues with Salon's Glenn Greenwald, but he is an attorney and he makes the best case I have heard so far against the GOP's most recent attempt to keep the nation stupid.

"The Boumediene Court held that it was unconstitutional for the Military Commissions Act to deny habeas corpus rights to Guantanamo detainees, none of whom was an American citizen (indeed, the detainees were all foreign nationals outside of the U.S.). If the Constitution applied only to U.S. citizens, that decision would obviously be impossible. What's more, although the decision was 5-4, none of the 9 Justices -- and, indeed, not even the Bush administration -- argued that the Constitution applies only to American citizens. "

"...to see how false this notion is that the Constitution only applies to U.S. citizens, one need do nothing more than read the Bill of Rights. It says nothing about 'citizens.' To the contrary, many of the provisions are simply restrictions on what the Government is permitted to do ('Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion . . . or abridging the freedom of speech'; 'No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner'). And where rights are expressly vested, they are pointedly not vested in 'citizens,' but rather in 'persons' or 'the accused' ('No person shall . . . . be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law'; 'In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed . . . . and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense').

So there you have it. The underwear bomber and the shoe bomber had the right to remain silent. Republican demagogery on the subject is just that.

Katrina Good for New Orleans Schools

"Obama Plots Against Children" or so a sensationalist writer claimed. That writer would be yours truly actually. My column written last September chronicled the horrors visited upon public education by the current Education Secretary, Arne Duncan. He brazenly brags about the corporate take over of public education he oversaw in Chicago.

"I am not a manager of 600 schools. I'm a portfolio manager of 600 schools and I'm trying to improve the portfolio.” I didn't know public schools were corporations, but what do I know?

Obama's basketball buddy let his true colors show in a recent interview. "I’ve spent a lot of time in New Orleans and this is a tough thing to say but I’m going to be really honest. The best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans was Hurricane Katrina. That education system was a disaster."

Now I don't know anything about NOLA public schools prior to Katrina, but I do know that a natural disaster which displaced thousands of people wasn't good for anything or anyone. On second thought, I have to take that back. The hurricane cleared much of the poor black population out of New Orleans and what better way to start a school system or any other system from scratch if there are no pesky colored people asking questions or horror of horrors, making demands.

Duncan is like Barbara Bush, who opined that "under privileged" black people were actually doing quite well living in shelters after they lost their homes. Duncan may not be as crass as Pat Robertson who asserted that the Haitians brought an earthquake upon themselves by practicing devil worship. He has a little more sophistication than that, but not much. He too thinks that black people are well served by disasters which allow white people to take over.

If Duncan's boss were a white republican, black people would demand an apology. But his boss is Obama and we know what that means. He gets away with things that a white guy couldn't. So we will have to look at the shameful Duncan for as long as Obama wants him to stay in his job.

Duncan is a human disaster and the best thing that could happen to children all over this country would be to have an Education Secretary who truly cares for them. Lots of luck kids. You are stuck with Obama and Duncan too.

Wish I'd Said That

"But Obama is not 'failing'; he is doing exactly what he set out to do: be the president. That's it. That's all he wanted to do. And he's doing it. The panic now emanating from the White House is not that of a man watching a chance to realize his deeply held ideals for a better world slipping away from him; it's just the flopsweat of a guy trying to stay perched on top of the greasy pole for another term."

Chris Floyd

Rest In Peace Howard Zinn

"No Donation Without Agitation"

Should you give to Haiti relief? To whom? How much? Don't text or write a check until you read my Black Agenda Report column.

Worthless Democrats

I have been dealing with a family health emergency, so I have not been able to post this week. I would have loved posting on the Scott Brown victory in Massachusetts, but I have not had time. I did comment briefly to Paul Street on Facebook, who quoted me on Znet, so I will just quote myself.

"Coakley loses. Ha ha ha ha ha. Don't be fooled by this 60 vote super majority crap. Dems did nothing with it. Loss of a seat is no loss to the citizens of this country whose interests are never represented no matter who is in charge. If 60 was so wonderful, why is the health care bill so worthless?"

Indeed, Obama's reaction to this setback is typical of him. He is now vowing to balance the budget and he prevented democrats from passing his health care bill when he had the chance to do so before Scott Brown was seated.

Brown in 2012? Don't bet against him, he is the hottest political commodity in the country. If the democrats react to defeat the way Clinton did in 1994, we are in for more right wingery and more democrats slavishly devoted to doing just that.

Michael Eric Dyson Please Shut Up

Two years ago Dyson debated Black Agenda Report's Glen Ford on Democracy Now. Their debate took place after Obama won the Iowa caucuses and finished a close second in New Hampshire. Dyson's comments were useless and just plain dumb.

"To limit the scope of African American intelligence, interest or political concern to the fact that a president is being put forth who happens to be a black man versus the interests of African American people, I would not be so naive as to assume that the presidency of a Barack Obama would in any way mitigate against or militate against the vast region of problems that black people face. "

So said Dyson in 2008. What is he saying in 2010?

"I think that we should push the president. This president runs from race like a black man runs from a cop. What we have to do is ask Mr. Obama to stand up and use his bully pulpit to help us. He is loathe to speak about race."

Of course he is Dyson. You and the rest of the Love Barack or Die crowd eplicitly gave him permission to do just that. Unlike the foolish Dyson, Glen Ford made the right point two years ago. ". . . he has accomplished the central mission of his entire campaign, which is to prove that a black man can be embraced by masses of white people. The problem is, he has done that at the expense of black people, by constantly, relentlessly sending out signals to white people that a vote for Barack Obama, an Obama presidency, would signal the beginning of the end of black-specific agitation, that it would take race discourse off of the table. And he’s gone to extraordinary lengths to accomplish that."

So Dyson, just STFU already. It is too late for you and your friends to act as though you didn't say what we remember you saying. Sadly for you, we don't have amnesia.

Earthquake in New York

Am I the only one who remembers an earthquake taking place near New York City in the early morning hours of Saturday, October 19, 1985? The quake epicenter was located in Ardsley, about 20 miles north of New York City in Westchester County. It sticks in my mind because it literally shook me out of bed. There have been other earthquakes in the New York City area in recent years.

At any rate, I thought about it while watching the coverage of Haiti's post earthquake tragedy. I also thought about the government reaction or rather non-reaction to hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast. We would probably be no better off than the Haitians if we were to suffer the same fate of natural disaster.

Dr. MLK Jr.: Struggling Not To Lose Him

As Glen says, King made a very public break from Lyndon Johnson, the most powerful man on earth. Remember that when you honor King.

US set Haiti up for disaster

Glen keeps it real. Thanks Glen.

Uganda, Fundamentalists and Money

"While it is largely U.S. evangelical money displacing mainline funds supporting African churches, renewal movements within mainline U.S. churches reap the rewards by securing the alliance of Africans in fighting their battles over gay ordination and other issues at home and in international venues." - Rev. Kapya Kaomo

The New York Times finally caught up with everyone else in the world. Yesterday the Times got around to reporting what Freedom Rider, Black Agenda Report, Rev. Kapya Kaoma and many others had written about one month ago.

White, right wing American Christians are behind the proposed Ugandan legislation which calls for the execution of gay people. When I first sat down to right about this issue, I was going to expound on neocolonialism, racism, fundamentalist conservative politics and so on. But the more I thought about it, I realized that money had to be behind this story.

The Times reported that a group of anti-gay activists visited Uganda and railed against the evils of gay people. That is true, but it is only a small part of the story. As Kaoma points out, there is a much larger effort to buy African support on a variety of issues that helps fundamentalists make their case around the world.

"U.S. evangelical money is attractive because it does not come with the demands for strict accountability made by mainline churches.[19] Bishops can spend it as they like. Ironically, U.S. conservatives have always campaigned against "unrestricted" giving in U.S. mainline churches. But in Africa, they prefer unrestricted giving as another way of undermining progressives."

The only reason this story has "legs" so to speak, is that the legislation was so awful, it could not escape world wide attention. That is a good thing, but the efforts of the right wing to buy support, and the willingness of corrupt Africans to accept should not be forgotten either.

Thanks to Znet and to The World Can't Wait

I always appreciate a shout out from a good publication. Znet and World Can't Wait both printed my Black Agenda Report column Guantanamo, Illinois. Thanks to both.

'Obama is new words, but old tricks as US acts like empire'

Yours truly on Russia Today. Big thanks to host Marina Portnaya.

Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab Boarded Plane Without a Passport

Nigerian "Terrorist" a Patsy?

Only Black Agenda Report would give you the scoop.

KPFK's Hutchinson Report

I was interviewed by Sikivu Hutchinson yesterday. You can listen to yours truly here.

Guantanamo Illinois

"To all those who repeatedly claimed that, no matter what 'mistakes' he might make and regardless of the scope of the devastating effects of those errors, Obama had to represent a markedly better choice than McCain, take note: in certain respects, Obama is far more dangerous than McCain could have been. For the same reasons, Obama is also more dangerous than Bush was. " - Arthur Silber

Once again, Barack Obama has accomplished what George W. Bush never could. There was a method to the madness of establishing this secret police apparatus off shore. The Bush administration were opening up a whole new legal territory, and believed they needed to keep "enemy combatants" off of American soil in order to justify their actions.

But along comes Obama. He claimed he would close Guantanamo, which never impressed me, because he didn't address the legality of holding prisoners with this new and special designation. It didn't address the issue of whether or not a president could declare anyone an enemy and have them held indefinitely without charge or trial or perhaps worse yet, set up military tribunals instead of courts of law if they were ever tried. The state of Illinois will the first victim, with Guantanamo prisoners scheduled to be transferred there.

I argued with my friend Arthur Silber when he first stated that Obama would be more dangerous than McCain. "In large part, the danger represented by Obama arises from the fact that Obama's election gutted whatever effective opposition might have existed." Of course he hit the nail on the head. Obamaites will support whatever he says or does. He can accept a Nobel peace prize and do so in the name of continuing endless warfare and no one says a word. Yes, Arthur, you told me so.

I will have more to say about the Nobel disgrace in the latest issue of Black Agenda Report which will be posted later today.

"What I can't figure out," Tiger Woods asks Vincent, the limo driver, "is why so may good-looking women hang around baseball and basketball. Is it because, you know, people always say that, like, black guys have big dicks?" - Tiger Woods

Woods made this and other remarks in a GQ interview back in 1997. The then up and coming phenom may have known how to play golf, but he didn't know that if you don't want to see something in print, you shouldn't say it in front of a reporter. Tiger was on a roll that day.

"The Little Rascals are at school. The teacher wants them to use various words in sentences. The first word is love. Spanky answers, "I love dogs." The second word is respect. Alfalfa answers, "I respect how much Spanky loves dogs." The third word is dictate. There is a pause in the room. Finally, Buckwheat puts up his hand. "Hey, Darla," says Buckwheat. "How my dick ta'te?"

But wait, there was even more. "He puts the tips of his expensive shoes together, and he rubs them up and down against each other. 'What's this?' he asks the women, who do not know the answer. 'It's a black guy taking off his condom,' Tiger explains."

It is clear from these exchanges that Tiger doesn't see himself as a black man. He made it official when he told Oprah that he was "Cablinasian." OK, fine, up to him, but his self-proclaimed non-black identity gave him even less right to make jokes at the expense of the group he claimed no allegiance to.

Now Tiger is the butt of jokes and fodder for media over kill. The over kill part does bother me, if only because I'm not very interested in his life. But I don't feel sorry for Tiger the man. He is a self-hating asshole and assholes eventually do themselves in.

I doubt that the public relations problems will last. The sponsors will stick with him and he will be wealthy for the rest of his life. I should have such problems.

It's OK to Kill the Homos

So says Obama's spiritual soul mate, Rev. Rick Warren. Uganda is considering passage of a law that would execute HIV positive men who commit acts of "aggravated homosexuality." Under current Ugandan law, homosexuality is already punishable with a sentence of life imprisonment. The new law is even worse.

"The proposed law would not just condemn HIV positive gay men and 'repeat offenders' to death, it would also jail for three years anyone who knows a gay man but refuses to report them to authorities. Further, anyone who defends in public the rights of gays and lesbians would be subjected to a seven year prison term."

Who is behind this atrocity? Why, right wing white Americans of course. The Family is a secretive christian conservative organization which gives financial and political support to Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni.

What does the preacher who gave the inaugural invocation have to say about all this? He says nothing. "As a pastor, my job is to encourage, to support. I never take sides." Puhleeze. Warren's church prohibits gay people from becoming members. He also opined that legalized abortion is a "holocaust." Warren has had no problem taking sides up until now. I can only infer that Warren thinks it is just fine to kill people because of their sexual orientation.

The End of The Road

SPOILER ALERT

What is it about the apocalypse that fascinates so many of us? I happen to think that what we really fear is our own personal apocalypse, death. We are all afraid to die, but it is somehow easier to wonder if Nostradamus or the Mayans or the book of Revelations can explain away the one thing we can't avoid but can't accept either.

This past weekend I saw two Hollywood stories about the end times, 2012 and The Road. 2012 was pretty bad. Yes, I anticipated seeing a not very serious big budget action movie, but I did not anticipate ten cliches in every scene or a plot that was fairly predictable despite the phony suspense. Even special effects laden films must have characters you care about and a sense that you don't really know how it will all end. The film was also a waste of talented actors like John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Danny Glover and Woody Harrelson. Roland Emmerich really should stop destroying the world unless he can figure out a more clever way of doing it than to have the White House destroyed by the USS John Kennedy.

The Road was another story altogether. It stars Viggo Mortensen as a man struggling to keep himself and his young son alive after an unnamed disaster. (Some say nuclear war but others say meteor strike.) The two not only must find food and shelter but they must avoid their fellow humans, who if they are lucky will steal their meager belongings. If they are unlucky they will kill them and eat them.

The terrors in The Road are unseen. You don't see anyone munching on their neighbors rib cage, but knowing that it happens and how it happens was shown in one of the most frightening sequences I have ever seen on film. The movie could have been completely grim but the family does experience one happy event and the ending is uplifting. I also have to declare my love for Viggo Mortensen. He endorsed Dennis Kucinich after all. What's not to like?

There is one weak link among the very small cast. Charlize Theron does a good acting job as the wife and mother, but her actions don't really make sense other than to find a way to explain her absence in most of the film. Male writers love to get the pesky mom out of the picture and have a man and his son together doing what they want without any feminine interference. Having said that, I still highly recommend The Road to fans of good movies. It is well worth your time and your money.

As for the world ending in 2012, I hope I am still here in January 2013 so that I can give the finger, rhetorically, to the gullible. Some want to be raptured but then fear the millennium or the Mayans or UFOs. Some people just want to be scared. They should see a good horror movie and stop annoying the rest of us with their goofy predictions. They should also see better quality movies. That will make them much happier.

Abraham Bolden

Have you ever heard of Abraham Bolden? I had not until today. Last night I watched "JFK: 3 Shots that Changed America," the latest History Channel documentary on the JFK assassination.
It is an excellent program, comprised entirely of television network news footage from the assassination and the following days. The program inspired me to restart my own amateur investigations about the assassination. In my college days I voraciously followed any and all information about what I had determined to be a conspiracy.

In my googling last night and today I came across two books which were previously unknown to me. The first is Legacy of Secrecy by Lamar Waldron and Thom Hartmann. Their book caught my attention because it reported that there were two attempts to kill Kennedy in November 2003. One took place in Chicago, and the other in Tampa.

The second book is The Echo from Dealey Plaza, Bolden's story of his knowledge of the mafia conspiracy that killed the president of the United States. Bolden was the first black secret service agent to be part of a presidential detail. He attempted to inform the Warren Commission about the Chicago attempt when he was falsely charged with selling government documents. He spent three years in a federal prison even after witnesses against him recanted their testimony.

I plan to read both books as soon as I can get my hands on copies of them. In the meantime I recommend finding out all you can about Abraham Bolden.

Shout Out to Counterpunch

They picked up my Black Agenda Report column, "Michelle's Family Tree." Thanks Counterpunch.

But Wait, It's Even Worse

The Nobel peace prize nominations are due on February 1st. Obama was nominated after only 10 days in office. I guess not being George W. Bush is a good enough reason to get the formerly prestigious prize.

This is the money quote from Afghanistan.

" 'I don't know how he can get this prize," said Najeeb, a 30-year-old shopkeeper attending a friend's wedding party. 'Maybe it's been awarded for all the houses they are bombing, or perhaps it's for all his soldiers that are dying in Afghanistan and Iraq.' "

Nobel Peace Prize for Endless War


When I first saw the news I thought it was an April Fools in October prank. I thought the Onion had hacked into the world wide web. I thought I was having a nightmare.


None of the above were true. Barack Obama is in fact a Nobel peace prize laureate. Yes, the man who sends "surgical" strikes to kill civilians in Afghanistan, who sends drones to kill civilians in Pakistan, who wants to pass laws to incarcerate without trial, has now been awarded a prize for peace.

Henry Kissinger received the same honor after killing millions of people, so I suppose it is not very surprising. They do have to be a little embarassed however. Just yesterday Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that there will be no peace agreement for years. Perhaps they had already sent in their ballots and couldn't take it back.

In any case, if you are as angry as I am, you should give the Nobel folks a piece of your mind. Here is the contact information. I hope I'm not the only one they hear from.

" I was actually black before the election."

Yeah, whatever Barack. I was truly honored to be invited to appear with Laura Flanders on GRITtv as part of the Media Roundtable. I opined on Obama's and others' inanity in the week's news reporting. See the video here.

GRITtv: Who Are the Censors in Mid-East Coverage in the US?

How did I do? Yours truly was on GRITtv. Was my make up OK? Allergies and nerves gave me a scratchy voice, but all in all I think my debut went OK. This is just a snippet. I'll post more later.

H1N1 Rap by Dr. Clarke

It is nice to post something fun for a change.

Why I Threw the Shoe

"As soon as I finished my professional duties in reporting the daily tragedies, while I washed away the remains of the debris of the ruined Iraqi houses, or the blood that stained my clothes, I would clench my teeth and make a pledge to our victims, a pledge of vengeance.
The opportunity came, and I took it.

I took it out of loyalty to every drop of innocent blood that has been shed through the occupation or because of it, every scream of a bereaved mother, every moan of an orphan, the sorrow of a rape victim, the teardrop of an orphan."

Muntazer al-Zaidi

God bless Muntazer al-Zaidi. He sent a shot heard round the world when he hurled a verbal insult and his shoes at George W. Bush's head. Of course he received a hero's welcome when he was released from prison today. Party on Iraq!

Under the Greyhound Again

What is the best way to get access to the Obama administration? Simple, oppose Obama. Glenn Beck decides who will work in the white house and anti-abortion republicans get meetings with advisers.

Don't believe me? Read all about it here. A former Mike Huckabee supporter wants an ironclad assurance that health care "reform" will not include federal funding for abortion. As you should recall, public option advocates were treated as if they had cooties and literally could not get arrested by the administration. Pro public option house members were threatened by Rahm Emanuel if they pushed too hard for the right thing.

So, just switch sides. Maybe then you can get a hearing from Obamaland.

Obama's Pants on Fire

He said he wanted single payer health care but that it all hinged on winning back the presidency and both houses of congress. Didn't that happen last November?

Let's face it, Obama never wanted single payer health care. He just said he did so that simple minded fauxgressives would support him. He was right. He can lie like a dirty rug and still get unconditional love.

Obama's Junk Insurance for All

Just listen to Dennis Kucinich. He tells us why so called health reform is nothing but a windfall for insurance companies.

"There is no one more disappointed than I am in Barack Obama."
Congressman John Conyers

Black Agenda Report and After Downing Street are reporting on Rep. Conyers' extraordinary words. Conyers is an old progressive lion with more than 40 years of service in the House. Sadly, he has been shackled by the likes of Nancy Pelosi, who prevented him from following through on his promise to pursue impeachment against Bush and Cheney.

Hopefully, he will come out of the doldrums and more forcefully speak out against the Obama health care plan, which according to Conyers may undo the Obama administration altogether.

"Conyers suggested that it was very likely Congress would not pass any healthcare bill this year. The Blue Dogs and Republicans don't want anything, he said, and the Progressives are 'saying this is a piece of crap and we're not voting for it.' If you add up all the Blue Dogs and Republicans and Progressives, Conyers said, you get 'more than 218 to sink this bill!'

Or, Congressman Conyers continued, 'suppose we happen to pass it? Big deal. That's what Rahm Emanuel wants -- pass anything just to say we did.' A weak plan, Conyers said, would not help things: 'It's going to fail.'

In either case, Conyers concluded, whether we get no bill or a weak bill, 'they'll blame Barack Obama. Heads he loses, tails he loses.' So, Conyers said, 'we've got to tell Obama now, or he'll be a one term president.'

Unlike Conyers, I don't pretend to know if health care will undo the Obama administration, but I do know that the Obama proposal may actually make health care worse in this country. Check out my colleague Bruce Dixon here. Bruce points out that a limited public option will not be available until 2013 and will only cover 10 million people at most. We will not have universal coverage.

The possible instead of the perfect may be worse than nothing at all. Let's demand what we want and demand that Obama fight for it.

Diane Schuler, Drunk Driver

For more than a week, New Yorkers have been consumed by the story of the Long Island mother who drove in the wrong direction on the Taconic Parkway and killed eight people, including herself. All of her brother's three children, Schuler's own daughter, and three men in an oncoming car died in the accident.

The New York State police didn't help matters any by announcing that the autopsy did not indicate a physical cause for actions. Today they said that her blood alcohol level was twice the legal limit and that she also had used marijuana.

I have to say that I was very angry when I first heard the story. I assumed drinking was involved until the police gave their initial incomplete and inaccurate report. Perhaps she had undiagnosed diabetes, no other physical cause seemed to make sense. As late as yesterday police were combing the crash site and the exit ramp she mistakenly entered to find the accident cause.

I think I am also angry because I forsook my usual cynicism and believed what I was told. Now it turns out she was a garden variety drunk and her family had to have known. She did not start drinking heavily the day of the accident, that much is certain. Her husband and her brother had to have been aware of her alcohol problems before that day.

It now makes sense that her husband had no public comment. Her poor brother is now mourning is children and wondering what he could have done to save them before his oldest daughter called to say that she was afraid of the way her aunt was driving.

I'm certain that her family was in denial about the extent of her problem. I'm sure she claimed to be fine when she left the campsite, she may have been sober but started drinking when no other adults could see her. That probably explains why her cell phone was found at a rest stop. She had a sip or two while she was there.

There is a hard lesson here for people who love addicts. You don't help them when you enable and you may be killing other people too.

I was looking at comments from New York Times readers and this one stands out.

I guess what’s most interesting is how the national Cult of the Mother got the best of everyone… where the story of this crash was about the mystery of this wonderful mother driving the wrong way. Nothing about the three guys in the other car that she killed. Nobody would DARE suggest that a nice mother from a nice town on the Island had been drinking!

Frankly if the husband and/or brother knew she was drinking I think it would be quite likely they’d try to cover it up with a story about how she was “feeling ill” or whatever.
Sick of this country’s mommy cult. It clouds the judgement.

She could have added the word "white" to mommy and nice. That completes the explanation of the press coverage.

Right Wing Atheists

Alternet attempts to tell us why the most famous atheism evangelists are also war mongering right wingers. They make a good effort but miss the point entirely.

Christopher Hitchens and friends are white men before they are anything else. They should not be thought of as more enlightened because they don't believe there is a god. These particular nonbelievers are followers of the most pernicious belief system of all, white supremacy. That is why they think that the United States government should have the right to do what it wants in the world. And yes, it is still a white government despite the fact that it is now represented by a black man.

Atheists do not deserve more or less credit than anyone else who promulgates any other belief system. There are atheists I find more trust worthy than some self-proclaimed christians I know. But I don't find them to be inherently superior to anyone else, and that includes Hitchens, Dawkins and company.

Good Reporting on Iran

One month has passed since the disputed presidential election in Iran. Iran was front page news until South Carolina governor Mark Sandfordwas caught cheating on his wife. Then Michael Jackson died and well, so much for serious reporting. What do you expect? Isn't two weeks enough?

All the hours of broadcasting and pages of news print didn't really tell us very much of importance anyway. It has been little more than stale rehashes of the "Ahmadinejad is crazy" narrative and assumptions that charges of election fraud were valid. Neda Sultan's terrible death was chronicled, but alas, America's killing of thousands of innocent people goes unreported. Protests in Tehran were covered, but most of the anti-war protests that I attended in New York or Washington passed without any media attention.

Today I checked out Asia Times and found the only thing I have read that makes since of the Iran situation. Mahan Abedin does a great job of explaining the roles of all the players in this situation. Of course if we had real journalism, this caliber of reporting wouldn't be unusual. But we don't, so it is.

Do yourself a favor and read the Asia Times article.

Why Did Sarah Palin Resign?

Because the youngest baby is really her daughter's. No, I can't resist that story. It is just too delicious.

Video : Glen Ford speaks on Barack Obama's selection/election at African Liberation Day 2009

Video : Glen Ford speaks on Barack Obama's selection/election at African Liberation Day 2009

Shared via AddThis

Dangerous Progressives

Why do progressives say nothing about endless war? Why does Juan Cole advocate attacking Iran? It is all very simple. They too believe in Manifest Destiny and the right of white America to have its way. I explain it all in my Black Agenda Report column.

Michael Jackson Death Circus

I first saw Michael Jackson and his brothers at the Central Park Zoo. It was the same weekend they made their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan show.

I can recall vividly the hype and promotion. They were discovered by Diana Ross. Actually they weren't but what better way to sell them to the public. My siblings, friends and I bought every record and I still know the lyrics by heart.

Was he gay? Were he and Clifton Davis lovers? Why did he marry Elvis' daughter? Only one nose job? No way. Why are his kids' faces hidden? Did he molest children or was it innocent love as he claimed?

It will all be replayed ad nauseum. Celebrity worship is a sickness in our culture and it is about to be on full display for days, weeks, months and years on end. I recall joking with a friend and telling her that I hoped Jackson lived well into old age. If he died young, it would be like Elvis and Marilyn, but on steroids.

I don't want to watch the news tonight or tomorrow either for that matter. I can't think of anything else that will be the lede story. Iran is off the front pages. As my sister just pointed out to me, the philandering governor of South Carolina knocked Iran off the front pages.

We will see that insanity sells. Despite his legal problems, Jackson had millions of fans and had sold out more than 50 concerts scheduled to take place in London. Those fans are even now finding ways to make spectacles of themselves and weep on camera. Former employees and distant cousins will sell stories to the press.

It will be a hot mess. Too bad. Jackson had enormous talent and was an icon of popular culture. May he rest in peace and may we get back to thinking about what is important in our lives and in the world.

Selective Sympathy on Iran

"Tweet" for Neda but screw the Palestinians. Won't repeat myself, read my Black Agenda Report column here.

I wrote the column before the videos and photos were released. I hasten to add that no one should die because they engage in protest, but people shouldn't die because they live in Gaza or Afghanistan either.

More on Israeli Spying

Poor Larry Franklin. He had already taken the fall as the only person convicted in the AIPAC spying case, but he was asked to take an even bigger fall than that. Prior to entering a guilty plea in 2005, Franklin was approached by two individuals and asked to fake his death by suicide and disappear. This allegation was made in a Justice Department brief in the case.

"In January 2006, Franklin conducted five consensually recorded telephone conversations with one of these individuals, in support of an obstruction of justice/witness tampering investigation; however, the FBI was unable to obtain the requisite incriminating evidence to support a criminal investigation," the Justice Department brief said.

How much more evidence would you need to prove obstruction? Sorry. I forgot we are talking about Israel. The regular rules just don't apply.

Last Word on Iran

"I am aware that there are good people among the demonstrators and that there are people who don't like Moussavi. But it is important to dissociate any struggle agianst the Iranian regime from the lousy Moussavi who--like the regime of Ahmadinajad--has blood on his hands--more blood indeed. I also notice that the Shah stooges are jumping in the frey among the Iranians in exile and the largest rally in support of the Iranian protest movement in Paris was sponsored by none other than the pro-Saddam Mujahdin Khalq which sent car bombs into Iran. I am looking for an independent leftist movement that does not chant Islamist slogans (like Moussavi) to support, while identifying with the innocent victims who have been killed. Somebody wrote to me complaining that I don't need to invoke Palestine. Let me explain: I will invoke Palestine at every corner, and every second. If I can, I would skip sleep to invoke Palestine. Not only for the obvious reasons, but also because it is symbolic of the hypocrisy and falsehoods of Western governments and media. If somebody has a problem with my Palestinian refrains, tough...potato. And notice that Western media which usually expresses horrror at any act of suicidal bombing, reacted with a measure of admiration at the act of suicidal bombing against Khomeini shrine. I would really be happy if demonstrations break out against every single regime in the Middle East, and all of them are overthrown. However, I understand that the US and Europe would really panic if the likes of Mubarak or House of Saud or Hashemite KingStation are threatened, let alone overthrown."

Angry Arab - June 22, 2009

It is Summer 2009, and John McCain is President

Oh my! What would that be like? I'll quote my own response to Salon's stupid article.

Dime's worth of difference

If McCain were president his justice department would defend the Defense of Marriage Act, he would argue that he didn't have to reveal who visited the white house, he would go to court to prevent torture photos from being released and he would expand war into Afghanistan and Pakistan and he would be willing to take away our right to file malpractice suits and he would propose indefinite detention without trial and um, um, oh, never mind.

Harlem Tenants Council 31 May 2009 Cynthia McKinney 1 of 2

I was honored to share the stage with Cynthia as a speaker at this event. It was wonderful to participate with my presidential candidate.

Spying for Israel (Again)

Former pentagon employee Larry Franklin had been sentenced to 12 years in jail for giving classified documents to AIPAC staffers Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman. Fortunately for Franklin, the Obama Justice Department declined to prosecute Rosen and Weissman. Now Franklin's sentence has been reduced to probation. Israel's influence would be just too obvious if Franklin ended up behind bars. Clearly, persons at the top wanted all of this to just go away.

So let me get this straight. AIPAC turns over classified documents to a foreign government, the U.S. government declines to prosecute, everyone involved gets away with the crime, but if I say Israel is powerful I'm labeled an anti-Semite. Another sweet deal for the Israel lobby, and the shaft yet again for the interests of the American people and the rest of the world.

Ahmadinejad Wins

It isn't surprising that an incumbent politician should win in any nation. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election victory in Iran should not be at all note worthy. Were it not for the usual lies and outright incompetence displayed by America's corporate media, the outcome would have been predicted.

Instead, foolish stories about an Iranian Michelle Obama and wishful thinking about an Ahmadinejad defeat were repeated endlessly. I for one don't know who should run Iran. I don't know who has the best education policy, or economic policy or health care policy. Unlike American liberals like Rachel Maddow, "And now, all of Mr. Ahmadinejad‘s electoral opponents appear to have come together around the idea that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is just too much of a kook to be re-elected president in Iran. . ." who follow the government line as much as conservatives do, I did not hope for an Ahmadinejad defeat.

It is none of my business who runs Iran. If the American president doesn't like Iranian foreign policy or doesn't want that nation to have a nuclear capability, that is his problem. I see no reason to be a lap dog for my government or for Israel or for any other government in forming my own opinions.

I have defended Ahmadinejad's right to defend his country and his right not to be threatened by violence from other nations. As for the wishes of Iranians on those issues, they should decide for themselves without any two cents worth of opining from Americans. The United States does not have the right to dictate its will on the rest of the world and that is the most important lesson to learn from the Iranian presidential election.

Slutty Flight Attendant

"You need to understand one very simple foundational point: Women are evil. More than that, women are the ultimate source of all evil in the world.

Almost no one will admit the belief in this form, but this is what most people in the West believe, to one degree or another. Western culture is saturated with this perspective; it directs and finds expression in our films and television, in books, in our relationships, in business -- and in our politics. Whatever one may think of their political convictions (and I myself would never vote for either of them), Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin both represent historic candidacies. It is the belief that women are evil that underlies the blindingly intense hatred directed at them."
Arthur Silber

Silber is one point as always and the recent brouhaha over David Letterman's jokes about Sarah Palin and her family prove it. On his nightly Top Ten List Letterman thought it would be funny to joke about her daughter being "knocked up by (New York Yankee) A-Rod." He also mused that Palin went to Bloomingdales to "update her slutty flight attendant look."

He apologized, sort of, for the joke about the daughter, but he bragged about the slight attendant joke that gave me the creeps. Letterman and his writers gave us all an unwanted front row seat to observe their sexual fantasies. What is up with the flight attendant fetish anyway?

Ever since women were employed by the airlines and first called stewardesses and now the gender neutral but apparently still loaded flight attendants, they have been the butt of jokes and the subject of cringe inducing males fantasizing. I can recall the old commercials advertising the now long defunct National Airlines. The commercial showed young stewardesses singing "I'm National. Fly me." Even female comedians like Joan Rivers told offensive jokes about stewardesses. It wasn't funny in the 1960s and it isn't funny now.

It is difficult to defend a neo-con of any gender, but Palin makes it especially difficult. When her daughter Bristol first publicly discussed her pregnancy she stated the obvious. Abstinence only sex education championed by her mother and the rest of the right wing just doesn't work. More recently she went on a strange contrition tour with her dad and her infant son and then declared that abstinence only is the way to go. Palin used her own child to score political points with the republican base, and looks like a lousy parent and lousy politician in the process.

No matter. Men should not be allowed to make derisive comments about women without being criticized. I don't care if the woman in question is someone I think is very dangerous.

I must also say that Palin and McCain were no more dangerous than Biden and Obama. Joe Biden, given the kinder label "gaffe prone" is no smarter than Palin. He is just a man who has been on the national political scene for decades. He gets a pass for his dumb remarks. I never thought Palin was any worse than he was and I said so in my Black Agenda Report column. They all believe in maintaining the American empire and protecting its right to kill with impunity. Some are smart and slick (Obama) about it and some are obvious and not so slick (McCain/Palin).

To Silber's point, Palin is demonized in large part because she is a woman. Her credentials were no more lacking than many men who actually became president. She is working class and horror of horrors she is attractive. Much of the criticism directed at her was class based and sexist. No she didn't help herself any with her bad interview performance and obvious lack of desire to do her homework, but that makes her no worse than Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush.

"I saw God before me because I saw this smile that a million people have seen around the world. I saw her (Michelle) radiant. ... It's idiotic, but it's like that."

The French are rude, and stupid too. Idiotic indeed.

"Who cares about what Obama will say or not say? I mean, why should people care about what the visiting White Man (yes, as soon as you run for the American presidency you assume the role of the White Man, regardless of the color of your skin) will preach to Egyptians and Muslims? I await that speech the way I await sequels to Rocky movies."

And yes, I do wish I'd said that, but I didn't. As'ad AbuKhalil did. He is a professor at California State University, Stanislaus and he is the Angry Arab. Angry Arab is on my blogroll but I have to confess that I haven't read it lately. The miseducation I have received from schools, colleges and the corporate media has made me very ignorant of the Middle Eastern world. I'm trying to catch up and learn all the things I should have been taught years ago. Reading AbuKhalil is a great way to do that.

Hat tip goes to Chris Floyd.