yes, i voted. did you?

i knew that i would be out of town on election day, so i sent off the paperwork to vote in absentia several weeks ago. and then surprise -- i never recieved anything. no ballot, nothing. and i wasn't the only one. there have been some strange snags that have found american citizens flying back home to vote.  new york's system is especially antequated.  i couldn't afford to be amongst their ranks. i called the new york board of elections and i kept calling until i got an actual person on the line.  she was effusive, upbeat and way too happy to help me. as it turned out, they were located on houston and varick, they would be open until 9pm, and they would stay open every day all weekend and on monday, the last day that they could accept any in absentia ballots.

my friend and i braved the freakshows on the streets and made our way from west harlem to houston and varick, then waited for less than 30 minutes in a dingy room filled with those hard plastic school chairs you have to squeeze into to sit in, with way too much flourescent lighting and trash everywhere.  it was over in no time.  i celebrated by going to a costume party and staying up all night, packing.

knowing how white men in this country have historically worked so hard to disenfranchise anyone not like them from the voting process. knowing that such people are still working hard to keep certain people from the polls -- like ex-felons, for example. (almost 5 million of them won't be able to vote this year. if you pay taxes, you should be able to vote, period. but i digress.)  knowing what my 92 year old daddy's parents and their families went through, in south georgia and south carolina -- how they were systematically excluded and shut out of the political process. knowing that he and my mother voted as soon as they opened the polls in georgia -- them and every other black anybody that i can think of. knowing that the system is so corrupt, its a wonder that anything gets done. knowing that the electoral college elects the president, not individual voters. knowing that more than 40% of eligible voters didn't vote in the last election. knowing that some people won't vote because they think that not voting is voting. knowing the bradley effect. knowing how racist so many good americans really are.  knowing that no matter how many black people are breaking out the champagne glasses and celebrating in the streets and in our haphazard chats with each other, he's not elected yet.  

so now here i sit, watching sarah palin on cnn as she casts her vote and yammers away, spewing these pro-american jingoistic talking points like a trained parrot, and i wonder. 

it'll all be overwith by 9pm tonight. 

let us pray.

the REAL john mccain

happy halloween! wanna see something really scary? it's senator mccain, turning himself into a walking, talking contradiction over the years about some fairly major issues. like those weapons of mass destruction. and the war in iraq. and the conditions there.

oy.




talk about edutainment -- this is an interesting fact check that barely scratches the surface about the things senator mccain said and done. he flip flops so much about such basic things that it makes him look really old and jaundiced and out of it, in this vague, spacey somebody-tell-me-what's-going-on kind of way.

ew.

there's going to be a lot of voter fraud on november 4th. by any means necessary, vote -- and if your state allows it, vote early.

McHate

finally, someone in the media has openly denounced mccain's fear mongering and the hate that it has nurtured for the past few months. in this video clip, keith olberman sets them straight. neither senator mccain nor gov. palin have ever reprimanded these hostile crowds. in fact, they defend them vigorously and are flat-out unapologetic. what decent republican wouldn't want to distance themselves from this?

i find it interesting that these flare ups aren't necessarily happening in the south, a place that somehow contains all of the racism in the country as well as our collective racist history, as far as most americans are concerned. that would be convenient if it were true but of course, it's not. no one is absolved. every state carries its fair share of bile on this topic -- especially in the north -- and none of them are dealing with any of it. the incidents that keith olberman refers to in the video above aren't happening deep in the heart of dixie -- they're happening in pennsylvania and ohio. the last time i checked, both of those states were above the mason-dixon line. but not really.

will everyone return to their politically correct behavior after the election, so everything can get back to normal? or will anything ever really be normal again, now that we all know that so much venom is festering just beneath the surface in the american serfdom against people of color? truth be told, there has never been any such thing as "back to normal" for so many of us. we have always known that the hate was there. we see it and we live through it in the most ordinary mundane moments of our everyday lives.

do you really think that this recession is affecting anyone in the ghetto? the poor, the underclass? do you think their lives have changed because the economy is tanking?

my favorite quote from this clip: senator mccain! your supporters at your events are calling obama a terrorist and traitor and are calling for him to be killed. and yet you keep bringing back these same rabid right wing nuts to deliberately stir these crowds into frenzies and then you take offense when somebody who remembers the violence of our political past calls you on it. you, sir, are responsible for a phalanx of individuals who are shouting fire in a crowded theater. there are some things to respect and honor about you senator mccain but on this, you are not only a fraud, sir, but you are tacitly inciting lunatics to violence.

well said.

fashion or style?

here's the obamas on access hollywood discussing how they do it on a budget. the girls are adorable, aren't they. my favorite quote? michelle obama: this dress i'm wearing cost $30.

here's the question of the day: what's the difference between fashion and style?

while the GOP has blown over $150,000 of taxpayer's donations on clothing for gov. palin and her family to make them appear fashionable (they're millionaires! why couldn't they buy their own clothes?), senator obama and his wife michelle are international style icons -- on a budget. it has been roundly documented that whatever mrs. obama wears on camera is tracked down to its retail location and simply blows off the racks nationwide. and how cool that donatella versace has dedicated an entire line to "the type of man that senator obama represents -- a relaxed man who doesn't need to flex muscles to show he has power."

i'm wondering: where's the fashion designer that's inspired by anything related to gov. palin or senator mccain -- or cindy mccain and her six-figure glitzy gilded get ups?

why can't working class blue collar republicans see how inconsistent their party's message is? they're throwing other people's money up in the air like it's green confetti. whee!

another must-read article on senator mccain

as if that article about senator mccain in rolling stone weren't enough, slate comes up with this is not a test written by fred kaplan, a blistering analysis of exactly what he was doing on that aircraft carrier in 1962. he keeps going on and on about how being a carrier pilot means that he'd know what to do in a moment of crisis in the folksy speeches he makes. i thought military personnel of his rank did what they were told to do. it's high time somebody checked the facts on this.

here's my favorite quote that deconstructs the issue quite nicely:

I mean no disrespect for carrier pilots, especially those poised for combat. The job requires a special sort of skill, nerve, and bravery that few of us have ever faced. (Certainly I never have.) But it is not at all clear how this experience tested McCain—or any of the other pilots on the four aircraft carriers off the coast of Cuba—for the job of making strategic decisions in a crisis, any more than working an assembly line tests someone to be president of a major manufacturing corporation.

As a 26-year-old Navy lieutenant in October 1962, John McCain was prepared to follow orders, fly his plane along a predetermined path to a preselected target, drop his preloaded bombs, and fly back. Again, this is not to be minimized. But neither does it constitute being "tested" to be—either then or 46 years later—the president of the United States.

i think that kind of sums it up.

joe the plumber redux -- what they probably won't tell you

yes -- in the video above, olberman began to deconstruct the "joe the plumber" myth so thoroughly, i cringed when i watched it. nice work -- but he really didn't go far enough.

here's my top ten factoids that are flying around all over the place about joe the plumber in no particular order.

1. joe the plumber is not a plumber. he's a contractor -- and he's working as a plumber illegally. this guy doesn't even have a plumber's license! he says he works for a. w. newell corporation, a small company that does residential work and he doesn't need one because he works for someone else that's licensed. but the fact of the matter is that under ohio building regulations, he must maintain his own license to do plumbing work. according to tom joseph, business manager for the local 50 of the united association of plumbers, steamfitters and service mechanics, joe the plumber has obtained absolutely no training or apprenticeship of any kind anywhere in the usa. he's an insult to real plumbers everywhere. and yes, that plumber's union has already endorsed senator obama for president. why? because according to them, he's worked hard to help workers for his entire political career.
   
2. joe the plumber's real name isn't joe. it's sam -- samuel joseph wurtzelbacher, to be exact. not exactly john jacob jingleheimer schmidt. but close.
3. it's not true: joe the plumber is NOT related to robert wurtzelbacher of milford, ohio -- son-in-law of charles keating jr and former vice president of american continental, the parent company of the infamous lincoln savings and loan. you remember the savings and loan scandal of the 80s and 90s, don't you? the one that almost derailed senator mccain's political career? you should -- because you, the taxpayer, picked up the tab for a whopping $124 billion. for his part in the scandal, robert wurtzelbacher spent 40 months in prison. name association is an ugly thing. senator obama could have zinged him last night by discussing this and bringing up the keating five -- but he was too focused on the issues. now that senator mccain and consequently the press made joe the plumber such a focal point, he doesn't have to. what a massively huge mistake on mccain's part. it's almost as big as his black gaffe. as it turns out, wurtzelbacher is a common name in ohio. (go figure.) the press will have a field day with this, by name association alone. or will they?
   
4. joe's voter registration was (and may still be) in question because he's registered under a misspelled name. that alone is enough to disqualify him from voting in florida, ohio or wisconsin. all of those misspelled names will get purged. that's right -- it's disenfranchisement by typo. if enough voters get booted out of the system, it could throw the election. sound familiar?
   
5. they're saying that joe is a republican plant. (he's definitely a republican tool.) if that's true, it would explain why senator mccain chose to make him the focal point of the debate, instead of discussing the issues. smart move, really -- mccain doesn't do well off script. if this isn't true, then answer me this: how did every and any media outlet know how to reach him so quickly after his initial impromptu chat on the street with senator obama? if he had no idea that he would be mentioned during the debate, then why was a newspaper with him while it was happening? why was he already scheduled for the morning talk show press junket before the debate ended? why was right wing radio talking about him before the debate?
   
6. joe the plumber is not an undecided voter, as was previously reported. he told katie couric that he "wasn't swayed" by the debate and pretty much knew who would get his vote.
7. he probably said that because (insert gomer pyle here) surprise, surprise, surprise! he's a registered republican. he even voted in the primaries!
8. que that gomer pyle send-up again, please: none of us enjoy playing taxes but joe goes one step further and doesn't pay his, period. he's had a tax lien placed against his house since january 2007 -- $1,182.96 to be exact, according to the lucas county (OH) court of common pleas. how ironic that he's so concerned about obama's tax plan, and yet he hasn't paid his own income taxes. ew.
   
9. what's up with the sammy davis, jr tap dancing reference about senator obama? joe asked him a question and was given a straight answer. too bad joe wasn't listening.
   
10. the mccain/palin camp says that they didn't give joe a heads-up before his morning press junket because they never contacted him. the quote is: "We tried to call him during the debate, but his phone was busy," said matt mcdonald. "We're not going to put him through media training." it may be true that they didn't contact him beforehand -- but if that's true, then what were they doing with his phone number? and why did they attempt to call him during the debate?
11. here's an extra one, and it's a goodie. joe the plumber has only lived in two other places: arizona (he left a trail of court records in mesa, believe it or not) and alaska (for 4 years -- his ex-wife is alaskan). makes you wonder, doesn't it.
    

i have a question: does anyone in senator mccain's camp know how to use google?

they could have done a simple internet background search on joe the plumber before they thrust him into the glare of the national and international spotlight and sidestepped what could easily become a "keating five scandal" blitzkrieg on every media outlet in short order. google him! that's what everyone else did -- from the associated press to small-town librarians everywhere -- to find out whatever they wanted on this guy. heck. that's what i did.

this was a calculated move to appeal to white working class folk. and it is backfiring.

if they really wanted to find someone who was "one of the people" to illustrate the flaws in senator obama's tax plan, all they had to do was reach out and touch someone, anyone. instead, they stitched together a bunch of blue collar white man stereotypes, stuffed him full of republican talking points and shoved him down our collective throats.

here's the kicker: joe says he's infuriated by obama's tax plan. as it turns out, he only made $40K in 2006 -- and that plumbing business he wants to buy only made $100K. what's unfortunate is that he is so brainwashed by soundbites and rhetoric that he can't see that obama's tax plan would benefit him more than mccain's plan.

talk about out of touch. i think the mccain/palin ticket just joined twitter a few weeks ago...

joe the plumber

meet joe wurtzelbacher, or "joe the plumber" as he was referred to ad nauseum in last night's debate. this video clip is the actual conversation that occured with senator obama and joe earlier this week, when the senator's campaign went into the streets of toledo, ohio and had a chat about taxes and the plumbing business he'd like to buy.

after being mentioned 23 times (!!!) in last night's debate, mr. wurtzelbacher is all over the morning news today. my question is: why is this man easier to find and interview than gov. sarah palin?

let's look at mr. wurtzelbacher on the black hand side and talk about a few things that i'm fairly convinced no morning interviewer will mention.

first of all, he already owns four companies in cincinnati, ohio -- including construction, painting, and one for septic tank cleaning/repair. one of them employs less than 5 people and makes something in the neighborhood of $500K. that doesn't sound very middle class to me.

and another thing: if joe is going to buy a business in this economic climate, he'd better have excellent credit and quite a bit of capital on hand. he says that plumbing business has a net revenue of over $250K. doesn't that mean that he's supposed to come up with six times that much to make that point of purchase? yikes! that's $1.5 million bucks! that doesn't sound very middle class to me, either.

secondly, there is strong evidence that joe the plumber is a republican plant with ties to -- believe it or not! -- the keating five, another scandal linked to senator mccain that republicans don't want to mention.

how bizarre: could it be that mr. robert wurtzelbacher of cincinnati, ohio -- senior vice president of the lincoln savings and loan corporation's parent company and married to elizabeth keating, daughter of charles h. keating jr -- is indeed his father? stranger things have happened.

who knows? maybe wurtzelbacher is a really common name in ohio. (heh.)

thirdly -- this is the strange thing: when you really look at the details of each senator's tax plan, what senator obama is proposing -- tax the rich a lot, with less taxes for the middle class and the poor to pay -- would benefit joe the plumber more so than anything that mccain is putting on the table -- tax the poor a little, tax the rich a little, and watch the deficit blow up. unless, of course, joe the plumber is loaded. and judging by the numbers he'll need to crunch to buy that plumbing business, he probably is.

what's screwy is that mr. wurtzelbacher -- whose involvement may have swayed this election most securely in one direction or the other -- may not be registered to vote. that would have been okay before october 6 because for a week, ohio allowed voters to register and absentee vote on the same day. shockingly, republicans tried to block this. it didn't work.

the irony in all this is that the united association of journeymen and apprentices of the plumbing and pipe industry of the united states and canada endorsed senator obama in january, 2008. they are the first international union to endorse senator obama as its candidate. plumbers! who knew?

here's my favorite moment from the debate: senator obama looks straight into the camera and tells joe that he would have a ZERO fine because he intends to exempt small businesses. note senator mccain's reaction. this shouldn't have been the first time he or joe have heard this information, especially when it was discussed in the second debate.

here she is...

yes, that's right. this is gayle quinnell in the video below -- the 75 year old grandma from shakopee, minnesota that got the chance to ask senator mccain a question a few days ago during a rally  in lakeville, mn. she thinks obama is an arab and a muslim and that he "pals around with terrorists" -- in spite of the fact that mccain told her that this isn't true and the journalists that interviewed her afterwards specifically said that obama is a christian.

here's my favorite passage:

dana bash of CNN: "his dad was muslim. barack obama has never been a muslim."

gayle quinnell: "yeah...but he's still got muslim in him. so that's still part of it."

the fact is that both of his parents were athiests and his father didn't take part in raising him. actually, obama only saw him a few times in his life.  none of that is conjecture on my part. those are facts that have already been verified many times over. but what does gayle care?

if that kind of idiocy doesn't blow your hair back, maybe this will: grandma quinnell spends her spare time at kinkos, xeroxing letters chok full of Information That Obama Doesn't Want You To Know and passing them out.  do people read these letters and believe what they say?  she says they do.  

why would any intelligent person believe any information that's unsubstantiated?  

i've said it before and i'll say it again: a lot of this country's problems would be fixed if everyone had a basic liberal arts education and if they would stop eating deep fried garbage.  a decent education and proper nutrition, folks. seriously.  who in their right mind is going to watch this video and not think that we really need to raise the bar?

i know everyone is giving senator mccain a special pat on the back and a modicum of nonpartisan respect because he told this lady that she was wrong about what she believes  -- and in so doing, his supporters believe that he has effectively silenced everyone who believes the things that she does.  the problem is that all of the hate and fear and racism that he and palin have been spewing ad nauseum has caused a LOT of damage.  who's to say that some "good american" redneck won't pop up at some rally and commit a violent senseless act because he believed what he was told at a mccain/palin rally, just as grandma quinnell does?

think about it: this woman is only 3 years older than senator mccain. now, that's scary.

no, that's not scary.  this is scary: at gov. palin's rally in johnstown ohio the next day, a "good american" brandishing a curious george monkey with a big obama sticker on it gets up close and personal with the camera. 

could someone please identify this man, so the world can call him out for his racist behavior? someone out there knows exactly who he is.

here's what happened when he got inside the rally -- and all of a sudden, he realized that the cameras were on him and he was on national television. (heh.)

that's right. he gave the monkey to the kid.

oh, boy. this election is really bringing out the best of middle america, isn't it.  God bless us, everyone.

home-grown terrorists

okay. i'm going to say it.

i don't understand how anyone in this country can go on about the threat of domestic terrorism and how wrong it is and not make any mention whatsoever of the klu klux klan -- defined by any real dictionary as a domestic terrorist organization -- and the way that they tortured, lynched, raped, murdered, bombed, assassinated and massacred african-americans and native americans and asian americans and many others for hundreds of years with scant interference from the state or federal government. as a matter of fact, the KKK is still very much alive and well, and they're still at it. so many in their ranks are guilty as sin itself, and they're completely and utterly free -- and in some communities, they are celebrated heroes. evidently, the federal government doesn't care about justice for the crimes committed against african americans.

that's right, mrs. carolyn bryant -- the accuser that got emmett till killed -- i'm talking to you. everybody knows where you live and that your children are protecting you at gunpoint. why do you suppose the federal/state/local officials won't come and get you and put you in prison where you belong? you make me sick. but i digress...

what about congressmen who are members of the klu klux klan or who are klan sympathizers? if it's true that "once a terrorist, always a terrorist" rule applies to ayers, does it also apply to membership with the KKK?  because if it does, there are millions of americans out there who are palling around with terrorists and who probably don't even know it.

here's a bright shining example of what i mean: robert byrd, a senior congressman from west virginia and a democrat, joined the KKK at the age of 24 and was unanimously elected exalted cyclops and kleagle (recruiter). he remained active in the klan for years and was proud to be counted amongst its ranks.  (see? i didn't even have to mention racist/segregationist/bigoted ol' strom, or the lovely daughter that came along after he raped the family's black maid.)

of course senator byrd is very sorry about his involvement with the KKK now. he's all set to apologize for it for the rest of his life -- because according to him, he'll never be able to apologize enough. here's what he had to say then about african-americans in the military in a 1945 letter to mississippi senator theodore bilbo:

"I shall never fight in the armed forces with a Negro by my side... Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds."

charming.

if obama is guilty of crossing paths with ayers -- because a crossing of paths is all their relationship has amounted to, really -- is it so farfetched to accuse politicians of associating with terrorists by mingling and socializing with the klan members in their midst?

and hey -- what about the secessionists? we all know about the racist militia groups and how they've grown exponentially in recent months. what about the fact that todd "the first dude" palin was a member of the alaskan independence party until as recently as 2002? yes, they're the ones that were seriously thinking about breaking away from the US and joining canada a few years ago. how patriotic is that?

but the fact that gov. palin refuses to see the national "home grown" terrorists in her midst -- even when she's probably married to one of them (and is one, actually) -- isn't the the kicker.

the kicker is that she would "read" an article in the new york times about obama and ayers (you and i both know one of her minions signed off on that one -- she wouldn't touch the times with someone else's hand), cherry pick her way through the facts, twist all of it into a hot steaming pile of jingoistic rhetoric and feed those half-truths to a seething crowd of republicans who are so full of fear that they are foaming-at-the-mouth ready to accept any reason to take a stand against obama. even if it's an outright lie.

the truth is, obama doesn't pal around with ayers -- or any other terrorist. they haven't spoken to each other since 2003. and what about the other politicians -- both democrat and republican, by the way -- that have worked with ayers over the years? why isn't anyone mentioning any of them?

so many in the republican party seem convinced that he's an arab, a terrorist, and that he's muslim -- when in fact, nothing could be further from the truth. with every gathering, they are becoming increasingly agitated and violent. and racist. senator john lewis was right when he compared senator mccain to george wallace and the birmingham church bombers. he and palin are inciting a riot. God only knows which "good american" will take it upon themselves to show their patriotism with an act of violence towards obama, their percieved enemy.

here's the CNN report on the "terrorist" scare that gov. palin created.



...and here she is, taking the new york times article in question totally out of context.



and finally, CNN's truth squad debunks everything that gov. palin has said. we now know that obama doesn't pal around with terrorists.



now, how many "good americans" saw this report and ignored it because gov. palin said otherwise?

perhaps the real question that should be asked is, will the federal government step in and put an end to the mccain/palin race baiting and hate mongering? or are they going to keep this up until something bad happens?

what if jesus ran for president?

what if Jesus Christ ran for president against senator mccain? i think that this "commercial" is probably the way the senator would turn his republican constituency against Him. and judging by how rabid and ignorant and soft-headed mccain's followers seem to be (did you see the videos i posted yesterday? yikes!), they would probably believe it.

how scary is this?

this is scary.

this is scarier.

How will your taxes change if McCain or Obama is elected in November?

amazing what you find out when you do a little homework.

the tax policy center, an independent non-partisan group, dissects tax policy issues. because both senators' tax plans have been made public, the center has compiled these stats for both candidates in an interesting, accessible and informative way.

here's the question of the day: would you like to know how your taxes will change if either candidate is elected? click here to find out.

By The Time I Get To Arizona

in light of yesterday's post, i think we should all take a moment to watch Public Enemy's video By The Time I Get To Arizona -- a protest song if there ever was one -- about the controversy that arose when arizona gov. evan mecham insisted that martin luther king jr. day would never be celebrated in his state while he was in office. interestingly, he was impeached after serving only a little more than a year, for obstruction of justice and misuse of government funds.

i happen to love Public Enemy very, very much. in a hip-hop world filled with ignorance, sexism, the denigration of women, and the glorification of "bling-bling" materialism and stuff, they are so necessary and they are sorely missed. God knows we need some protest music right about now -- and who's creating it? this video may not have had anything to do with the governor's ousting per se, but it definitely gave arizona a foul rep worldwide that they have yet to shake.

by the way -- the speech that is given in the opening montage are gov. mecham's very own words, taken directly from an announcement he gave to the press.

for your convenience, i've included the lyrics. enjoy!

I'm countin' down to the day deservin'
Fittin' for a king
I'm waitin' for the time when I can
Get to Arizona
'Cause my money's spent on
The goddamn rent
Neither party is mine not the
Jackass or the elephant
20.000 nig niggy nigas in the corner
Of the cell block but they come
From California
Population none in the desert and sun
Wit' a gun cracker
Runnin' things under his thumb
Starin' hard at the postcards
Isn't it odd and unique?
Seein' people smile wild in the heat
120 degree
'Cause I wanna be free
What's a smilin' fact
When the whole state's racist
Why want a holiday F--k it 'cause I wanna
So what if I celebrate it standin' on a corner
I ain't drinkin' no 40
I B thinkin' time wit' a nine
Until we get some land
Call me the trigger man
Looki lookin' for the governor
Huh he ain't lovin' ya
But here to trouble ya
He's rubbin' ya wrong
Get the point come along

An he can get to the joint
I urinated on the state
While I was kickin' this song
Yeah, he appear to be fair
The cracker over there
He try to keep it yesteryear
The good ol' days
The same ol' ways
That kept us dyin'
Yes, you me myself and I'ndeed
What he need is a nosebleed
Read between the lines
Then you see the lie
Politically planned
But understand that's all she wrote
When we see the real side
That hide behind the vote
They can't understand why he the man
I'm singin' 'bout a king
They don't like it
When I decide to mike it
Wait I'm waitin' for the date
For the man who demands respect
'Cause he was great c'mon
I'm on the one mission
To get a politician
To honor or he's a gonner
By the time I get to Arizona

I got 25 days to do it
If a wall in the sky
Just watch me go thru it
'Cause I gotta do what I gotta do
PE number one
Gets the job done
When it's done and over
Was because I drove'er
Thru all the static
Not stick but automatic
That's the way it is
He gotta get his
Talin' MLK
Gonna find a way
Make the state pay
Lookin' for the day
Hard as it seems
This ain't no damn dream
Gotta know what I mean
It's team against team
Catch the light beam
So I pray
I pray everyday
I do and praise jah the maker
Lookin' for culture
I got but not here
From jah maker
Pushin' and shakin' the structure
Bringin' down the babylon
Hearin' the sucker
That make it hard for the brown
The hard Boulova
I need now
More than ever now
Who's sittin' on my freedah'
Opressor people beater
Piece of the pick
We picked a piece
Of land that we deservin' now
Reparation a piece of the nation
And damn he got the nerve
Another niga they say and classify
We want too much
My peep plus the whole nine is mine
Don't think I even double dutch
Here's a brother my attitude hit 'em
Hang 'em high
Blowin' up the 90s started tickin' 86
When the blind get a mind
Better start and earn while we sing it
Now
There will be the day we know those down and who will go

I'm countin' down to the day deservin'
Fittin' for a king
I'm waitin' for the time when I can
Get to Arizona
'Cause my money's spent on
The goddamn rent
Neither party is mine not the
Jackass or the elephant
20.000 nig niggy nigas in the corner
Of the cell block but they come
From California
Population none in the desert and sun
Wit' a gun cracker
Runnin' things under his thumb
Starin' hard at the postcards
Isn't it odd and unique?
Seein' people smile wild in the heat
120 degree
'Cause I wanna be free
What's a smilin' fact
When the whole state's racist
Why want a holiday F--k it 'cause I wanna
So what if I celebrate it sta a corner
drinkin' no 40

senator john mccain's black gaffe

when the GOP began to take senator john mccain seriously as a presidential candidate, i began to do my homework on the black hand side -- because God knows the media wouldn't. and besides, i love a good fact check. as it turns out, what i found was more than unsavory: the man is nothing short of a privileged, spoiled rich kid, a womanizer and a heel. he's old. he's sickly. he's reckless. sure, he's no ivy league elitist -- but thanks to his wife's $100 million dollar beer fortune, he's loaded, with 7 homes. or 8. or is it 11? no one seems to know for sure, least of all senator mccain. (how many homes does barack and michelle obama have? one.) he and his wife cindy have 13 cars. if you want to see them, click here. (how many cars does barack and michelle obama have? one. and yes, it's a ford.)

think of it: if senator mccain becomes president, he won't need air force one. he already has his own jet!

nevermind that carefully handcrafted homespun myth about him being a war hero or a rebel maverick in congress. or a faithful husband. his record -- with a special emphasis on the way he has become the presidential candidate that he rallied against so self-righteously in his initial bid for the white house -- speaks for itself. here's a case in point that i found especially bizarre: take a look at which side he stood on concerning a national holiday for the iconic, internationally recognized civil rights leader dr. martin luther king jr.

sure, we're all human, we all make mistakes. sure, i forgive him. but this one was kind of a whopper. and the gist of it all is, it reads volumes into his character -- the man he really is, not the one he or the media pretends that he is.

in the video clip below circa 1983, someone queries senator mccain as to what he intends to do to make dr. king's birthday a state and national holiday. in spite of his vow to rectify the situation, he spent the next 11 years opposing it.

that's right -- senator mccain opposed a national holiday for dr. king as recently as 1994. and arizona republican governor evan mecham deserves some special neoconservative award for simply being who he is. to their credit, the congresspeople of arizona did impeach him eventually -- but that was only after they realized his racist idiocy cost their state over $500 million dollars. once they felt the financial heat, a national holiday for a black man became a great idea.

how can he explain away this voting record? here's the real question: how can he think that thinking black folk will vote for him in spite of it?

don't get me wrong. senator mccain certainly wasn't the only congressperson that opposed the bill initially in 1983. a holiday honoring dr. king was ratified state by state throughout the 90s and was officially a national holiday in 2000. only 17 states participated initially. but supporting and aligning yourself with a republican state governor that openly used the word pickaninny amongst other racist remarks (and defending this), and that went on record as saying that although he thought dr. king did a lot for "the coloreds," he didn't think he did much for anyone else, didn't help then. and it definitely doesn't help now.

so why did mccain vote against a national holiday for martin luther king, jr?

in the following video clip, he attempts to explain himself by saying that he "wasn't familiar with the issue." a remark like that is usually vague enough to give any politician a free pass but this guy is running for president, so we deserve a real answer on this one. i mean, seriously -- doesn't everyone in the world know who dr. king is and what he did? what didn't senator mccain know about dr. king and the civil rights movement, exactly? in his rosier moments while waxing poetic about his time as a POW in vietnam, doesn't he go on about how his tormentors told all of the captives about the assassinations of both dr. king and robert kennedy, to somehow break their morale?

ew.

i especially enjoy the way senator mccain justifies his stance on this issue by referring to his career in the navy. the military isn't racist, so neither is he -- is that it? the truth is, the military is one of the most racist and sexist places there is. frankly, if he doesn't know something that basic, he's way more out of touch than i thought.

maybe he should ask a black man in the military about what it's like to be in the service. or a woman. or a black woman. does senator mccain even know any black women?

hm. watching the following video clip might be helpful -- it's a CNN expose about the neo-nazi invasion in the military and how officials have turned a blind eye to their activities for years.

keating economics: john mccain and the making of a financial crisis

as a nation, we really need to be informed on a very basic level about senator mccain. we need less sloganeering and more facts, more information. more, well...straight talk.

from obama's campaign headquarters comes the brand-spanking new website keatingeconomics.com that dissects john mccain's involvement with "the keating five" -- apparently, he was one of five senators named in the savings and loan scandal from 1989 that unhinged his presidential bid at that time. i know, i know -- it's 13 minutes long. but at a time like this, it's must-see viewing. and if it contains the facts, if it's really straight talk, then why wouldn't senator mccain want everyone to see it?

the rolling stone must-read about john mccain

if you haven't read Make-Believe Maverick, the ten page article in rolling stone magazine by tim dickenson about the real john mccain, please please please find a moment somewhere in your day that will allow you to sit and truly absorb this information.  it is well worth the read.

irregardless of political affiliations, facts are facts. it's one thing to blame liberal media for attacking conservatives, but there is no denying the truth.  there's simply way too much at stake.

we already know that physically he's a very sick man and that his choice for vice president is attractive and clever but ignorant when it comes to the affairs of state or even the basic tenets of her own party -- i can't believe that any thinking person would rush to defend her at this point, but they do -- so make no mistake whatsoever: if john mccain is who this article says he is and if he gets elected, this country's economy will go straight to hell with gasoline drawers on.

chris rock tells it like it is

the sarah palin interview

"when fascism comes to america, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross."  -- sinclair lewis

if you haven't seen cbs news/katie couric's interview with vice presidential candidate sarah palin, you should take a moment to watch this. it is, without question, an absolute flaming bombshell of a trainwreck. 

okay, here's my top three complaints/gripes/observations: 

1. i'm really grateful that ms. palin was interviewed by a woman so that no one could accuse the interviewer of sexism -- although i 'm sure they will, simply because she is female.  ms. couric asked the questions politely and respectfully and ms. palin was her usual friendly, attractive, evasive, misinformed, jingoistic, entitled, priveleged nasaly self. 

2. repeating your half-baked answer (which was really only a memorized soundbite in the first place!) to a valid question doesn't give it more substance or embue it with meaning, even when you say it slower and with more feeling and authority -- like ms. couric (and the rest of us) didn't hear it the first time.  ms. palin has a really bad habit of doing this.  her handlers/media wranglers/speech coaches should tell her that it makes her sound like an idiot. either that or they should put some other authoritative-sounding misinformation in her matrix.  

3. an interview on a nationally syndicated news program is not a take-home test.  you are supposed to answer the question fully and completely, when it is asked of you -- especially when it's something that you should already know. 

what are they calling her now -- dan quayle with a ponytail? hitler in high heels? i can't keep up. what's obvious is that this woman is getting a lot of scrutiny because  if john mccain wins this election, it's quite likely that she would have to take over as president sooner rather than later. let's face it -- he is old and he is NOT healthy at all.  that's why i want every media outlet everywhere to grill her like a cheese sandwich.  if she were anywhere near as competent as her republican fan base wants to believe that she is, that wouldn't be a problem -- so why did she fall apart with these easy, simple questions from "america's sweetheart"? 

simply put -- sarah palin doesn't know how to think critically and she doesn't know what she's talking about.  don't you go to a decent liberal arts college to learn how to think critically?  where did she get her degree -- a gumball machine?

 no wonder the rest of the world thinks that americans are idiots.

a debate watch party!

what a great idea: have a get together to watch and discuss the first presidential debate. 

the apollo theater (in collaboration of CNN and the greater harlem chamber of commerce) will be hosting a debate watch party that's going to feature political analysis, voter registration and entertainment. and yes -- it's free and open to the public.

for information and tickets, call 212 531 5305 or visit their website.

now, this is encouraging...

this is a bright shining example of what happens when someone in p.r. drops the ball and doesn't surround mcccain with working-class republican cheerleaders (isn't that oxymoronic?) when he's running around stumping for votes. they practically speed walked their way out of there, with the people surrounding them yelling "obama '08" -- priceless.

makes you wonder how often this happens to him on the campaign trail, and what else we're not seeing.