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30 September 2011
Funny how time flies...
29 September 2011
28 September 2011
27 September 2011
Those who heard his reply were startled. Other learned men in history had been asked this same question and had picked verses like, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" or "Have we not all one Father?" Why did you choose such a simple statement like, "And it came to pass"? asked one of his friends.
"I chose it," answered the learned man, "because whenever sadness enters my life, I think of this phrase, and it helps me. It encourages me to believe that my trouble came only to pass; it didn't come to stay. And this gives me hope to carry on. It helps me take the bad in life with the good. It helps me pick out the good parts of life and enjoy them even when I'm surrounded by sorrow. I know that the sorrow came, but I also know that it will pass, and that I will still be here then, and must continue to live." ~ Author unknown
26 September 2011
25 September 2011
24 September 2011
23 September 2011
RIP VESTA WILLIAMS
The cause of death is still unknown. Although Williams never had any albums certified gold and never had any Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, she scored seven Top 20 R&B hits from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s.
In the 1990s, Williams made headlines for her dramatic weight loss. She told Ebony that she began gaining weight rapidly after her singing career started to falter. Vesta, who was 5-foot-3, eventually reached a size 26. She said her size was the reason she lost her recording contract.
"When I lost my record deal and my phone wasn’t ringing, I realized that I had to reassess who Vesta was and figure out what was going wrong,” she said. “I knew it wasn’t my singing ability. So it had to be that I was expendable because I didn’t have the right look.”
The singer went on to lose 100 lbs, and got down down to a size 6, while finding something of a second career as a songwriter and session singer. In recent years, Vesta had become an advocate for the prevention of childhood obesity and juvenile diabetes. Let’s keep her family in our prayers.
---couresty blackmediascoop.com
22 September 2011
-- Mother Teresa
What good is love if you don’t give it away! God tells us to stop talking about love and show it by our actions. I think I do a good job of this. Do you?
Did you know...
that 10 of the poorest states in the US are Red states, yet poverty is an invisible issue in the GOP race?
When the U.S. Census Bureau reported last week that a record number of people were living in poverty, Republicans were quick to attach the figures to President Barack Obama, desperately trying to lay them at his feet.
But anyone with common sense knows that someone doesn't just fall into poverty overnight. The deplorable economic conditions that led to today's poverty numbers began in 2007. Republicans often ignore such facts.
Yet when you start digging deeper into the Census Bureau report, what stands out is that of the 10 poorest states in the country, most are the reddest in the nation -- solidly GOP states.
The most impoverished state is Mississippi, and it's followed by Arkansas, Tennessee, West Virginia, Louisiana, Montana, South Carolina, Kentucky, Alabama and North Carolina.
Obama won North Carolina by 14,000 votes in 2008, and although West Virginia is considered a Democratic state, in presidential elections it usually goes for the Republican candidate. There is no doubt that in 2012, the GOP expects to lock up all 10 states in the presidential campaign.
Thus it would make sense that the GOP candidates would at least spend some time in the presidential debates debating the issue of poverty in these red states, and explaining what they plan to do about it.
Yeah, right.
At the June 13 CNN debate at St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, the word "poor" was never uttered, and the only time poverty came up was when former Sen. Rick Santorum discussed his work for welfare reform.
At the September 17 debate at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California, Rep. Ron Paul brought up the poor, and that was in the discussion about getting rid of the minimum wage (he thinks it will lead to more jobs) and how he opposes welfare.
During the CNN/Tea Party debate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney managed to speak the word "poor," but that was only when it came to America being an "energy-poor" country.
Republicans will quickly say that their economic agenda is the best way to get people back to work and a job is the best way to get people out of poverty. But it's also true that the poverty issue extends beyond employment -- to education and health care.
Voters in these traditional red states should be demanding that the GOP candidates banking on their votes say and do more than they are doing. Scarcely mentioning the poor or poverty is insufficient.
Maybe part of the problem is the poor don't have lobbyists. There aren't any Super Pacs being formed to raise millions of dollars to demand accountability on the issue. Even right-wing Christian leaders such as Ralph Reed and his Faith and Freedom Coalition are quick to condemn Obama's plan to tax the rich but say nothing about the poorest states in the country, or even demand a poverty plan from the GOP candidates.
If I were a poor person in a red state, my primary issue would be which candidate, including Obama, speaks to my needs. If a candidate spends more time defending tax cuts for the wealthy and saying nothing about the poor, including the growing number of children on the poverty rolls, that candidate would be hard pressed to get my vote.
When the U.S. Census Bureau reported last week that a record number of people were living in poverty, Republicans were quick to attach the figures to President Barack Obama, desperately trying to lay them at his feet.
But anyone with common sense knows that someone doesn't just fall into poverty overnight. The deplorable economic conditions that led to today's poverty numbers began in 2007. Republicans often ignore such facts.
Yet when you start digging deeper into the Census Bureau report, what stands out is that of the 10 poorest states in the country, most are the reddest in the nation -- solidly GOP states.
The most impoverished state is Mississippi, and it's followed by Arkansas, Tennessee, West Virginia, Louisiana, Montana, South Carolina, Kentucky, Alabama and North Carolina.
Obama won North Carolina by 14,000 votes in 2008, and although West Virginia is considered a Democratic state, in presidential elections it usually goes for the Republican candidate. There is no doubt that in 2012, the GOP expects to lock up all 10 states in the presidential campaign.
Thus it would make sense that the GOP candidates would at least spend some time in the presidential debates debating the issue of poverty in these red states, and explaining what they plan to do about it.
Yeah, right.
At the June 13 CNN debate at St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, the word "poor" was never uttered, and the only time poverty came up was when former Sen. Rick Santorum discussed his work for welfare reform.
At the September 17 debate at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California, Rep. Ron Paul brought up the poor, and that was in the discussion about getting rid of the minimum wage (he thinks it will lead to more jobs) and how he opposes welfare.
During the CNN/Tea Party debate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney managed to speak the word "poor," but that was only when it came to America being an "energy-poor" country.
Republicans will quickly say that their economic agenda is the best way to get people back to work and a job is the best way to get people out of poverty. But it's also true that the poverty issue extends beyond employment -- to education and health care.
Voters in these traditional red states should be demanding that the GOP candidates banking on their votes say and do more than they are doing. Scarcely mentioning the poor or poverty is insufficient.
Maybe part of the problem is the poor don't have lobbyists. There aren't any Super Pacs being formed to raise millions of dollars to demand accountability on the issue. Even right-wing Christian leaders such as Ralph Reed and his Faith and Freedom Coalition are quick to condemn Obama's plan to tax the rich but say nothing about the poorest states in the country, or even demand a poverty plan from the GOP candidates.
If I were a poor person in a red state, my primary issue would be which candidate, including Obama, speaks to my needs. If a candidate spends more time defending tax cuts for the wealthy and saying nothing about the poor, including the growing number of children on the poverty rolls, that candidate would be hard pressed to get my vote.
--courtesy, Roland S. Martin, cnn.com
I know I'm preaching to the choir. I just wish I could reach the people that need to hear this. Let me repeat--Did you know that 10 of the poorest states in the US are Red states, yet poverty is an invisible issue in the GOP race?
21 September 2011
WTF moment
Super Snub: TV Guide Cuts Star Taraji P. Henson Out of Cover Photo
Taraji P. Henson is outraged because the magazine will feature the cast of her new CBS series, “Person of Interest” on its over, without … Taraji P Henson, it’s leading lady!
She took to her Facebook to share her anger about the issue.
“WOW!!!! TV Guide is NOT including me on the cover with my cast memebers [sic]……..I am the female lead of a 3 member cast and I’m not included on the cover!!!!!! Do you see the shit I have to deal with in this business…..I cram to understand!!!!”
She posted on Twitter saying she couldn’t believe the boldness of TV Guide.
“WOW @ TVGuide!!!!! Being a member of 2 academys I honestly have no words!!!!!”
Henson stars as Detective Carter alongside Michael Emerson, Jim Caviezel, and Kevin Chapman in the crime drama.
And what does TV Guide have to say about the glaring, beyond obvious omission? As of this posting, nothing.
--courtesy eurweb.com
We can't get a break.
Taraji P. Henson is outraged because the magazine will feature the cast of her new CBS series, “Person of Interest” on its over, without … Taraji P Henson, it’s leading lady!
She took to her Facebook to share her anger about the issue.
“WOW!!!! TV Guide is NOT including me on the cover with my cast memebers [sic]……..I am the female lead of a 3 member cast and I’m not included on the cover!!!!!! Do you see the shit I have to deal with in this business…..I cram to understand!!!!”
She posted on Twitter saying she couldn’t believe the boldness of TV Guide.
“WOW @ TVGuide!!!!! Being a member of 2 academys I honestly have no words!!!!!”
Henson stars as Detective Carter alongside Michael Emerson, Jim Caviezel, and Kevin Chapman in the crime drama.
And what does TV Guide have to say about the glaring, beyond obvious omission? As of this posting, nothing.
--courtesy eurweb.com
We can't get a break.
The Supreme Court of The United States Denied Troy Davis' bid
And now he's dead. And I feel numb.
After 10 p.m. ET, the Supreme Court, in a brief order, rejected Davis' request. His supporters had sought to prevent the execution, saying seven of the nine witnesses against him have recanted or contradicted their testimony.
Georgia inmate Troy Davis was executed Wednesday night for the 1989 murder of Mark MacPhail, an off-duty Savannah police officer.
Davis died at 11:08 p.m. ET, according to a prison official. The execution was about four hours later than initially scheduled, because prison officials waited for a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Davis' request for a stay.After 10 p.m. ET, the Supreme Court, in a brief order, rejected Davis' request. His supporters had sought to prevent the execution, saying seven of the nine witnesses against him have recanted or contradicted their testimony.
"Southern trees bear strange fruit
Blood on the leaves
Blood at the root
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees
Pastoral scene of the gallant south
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth
The scent of magnolia sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh
Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck
for the rain to gather
for the wind to suck
for the sun to rot
for the tree to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop."
Blood on the leaves
Blood at the root
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees
Pastoral scene of the gallant south
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth
The scent of magnolia sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh
Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck
for the rain to gather
for the wind to suck
for the sun to rot
for the tree to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop."
--Strange Fruit, by Billie Holiday
19 September 2011
Another promise he kept
Today marks the end of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.” The law is repealed. From this day forward, gay and lesbian Soldiers may serve in our Army with the dignity and respect they deserve. Our rules, regulations and politics reflect the repeal guidance issued by the Department of Defense and will apply uniformly without regard to sexual orientation, which is a personal and private matter.
For over 236 years, the U.S. Army has been an extraordinary force for good in the world. Our Soldiers are the most agile, adaptable and capable warriors in history — and we are ready for this change...
Accordingly, we expect all personnel to follow our Values by implementing the repeal fully, fairly and in accordance with policy guidance. It is the duty of all personnel to treat each other with dignity and respect, while maintaining good order and discipline throughout our ranks. Doing so, will help the U.S. Army remain the Strength of the Nation.Separately, the military has begun accepting applications from openly gay recruits. Though there wasn’t any serious doubt about the policy being officially repealed, some gay activists had remained guarded until the end. “Seems this is for real,” John Aravosis noted with relief today.
It’s easy to forget this — after all, repeal passed Congress and was signed by the president a full nine months ago — but even when repeal seemed within reach, success was anything but assured. It only came after a nearly pitch-perfect effort by Obama and the military leadership to create the political conditions necessary to bring about repeal, as well as well as some very shrewd public and private gamesmanship by Senate leaders that left GOP moderates with little choice but to do the right thing. It will be endlessly debated whether Obama and Dems did this in response to outside pressure, but the fact is, they did it.
The understated language in the Army’s announcement, its simple restatement of what seems so right, just, and true, serves as a reminder that this should have been a no-brainer all along. Indeed, the quietness of the announcement makes it sound like repeal was a no-brainer. The magnitude of our current challenges — and the volume of ongoing political rancor — risk making the successful securing of repeal seem in retrospect like a sideshow. But make no mistake. It was an extremely hard-fought win — a massive victory for common sense and decency over bigotry and legalized discrimination. At a difficult moment, it stands as a sorely needed reminder that progress remains possible. Let’s not forget it.
--courtesy The Washington Post
--Kimberly Crenshaw
18 September 2011
17 September 2011
16 September 2011
15 September 2011
Only your blood is enough
No bleeding bird, no bleeding beast
No hyssop branch, no priest;
No running brook, no flood, no sea
Can wash away this stain from me.
For only your blood is enough to cover my sin;
For only your blood is enough to cover me.
No hyssop branch, no priest;
No running brook, no flood, no sea
Can wash away this stain from me.
For only your blood is enough to cover my sin;
For only your blood is enough to cover me.
This bears repeating
For Every Mountain
by Amber Bullock, this year's Sunday Best winner. I've been listening to this song all day
by Amber Bullock, this year's Sunday Best winner. I've been listening to this song all day
14 September 2011
ANOTHER CRIME THAT NOT ONLY SOMEONE OF COLOR DID NOT COMMIT AGAINST A WHITE WOMAN, BUT NO ONE DID IT BECAUSE IT NEVER EVEN OCCURRED !
New York — Here’s Heidi’s forecast: Cloudy with a chance of deception.
WABC/Channel 7 weather babe Heidi Jones was arrested for perpetrating the ultimate snow job — falsely claiming to cops that a man had tried to rape her while she was jogging in Central Park, sources said yesterday.
Jones, who anchors the station’s weekend evening weather coverage and fills in on “Good Morning America,” was charged Monday with filing a false report, a Class A misdemeanor. If convicted, she could face up to a year in jail or a $1,000 fine.
WABC will announce on its noon newscast today that it is suspending her indefinitely, a spokesman said. Sources indicated that the move is the first step toward firing her.
Jones spun a story that proved to be as unreliable as a five-day forecast, telling police last month that she was assaulted in September while pounding the pavement in the city's back yard, the sources said.
Jones, 37, told cops she was jogging in the park on the afternoon of Sept. 24 when a Hispanic man in his 30s or 40s grabbed her from behind, dragged her into a wooded area and attempted to rape her.
She told police that the would-be rapist was scared off by two passers-by who came to her aid.
But for cops, the story was all wet.
The first clue was that she waited until Nov. 24, two months later, to report the alleged attack, the sources said.
At the time, the sources said, she told police that three days earlier, on Nov. 21, the same man somehow found her again and harassed her, saying, "I know you went to the police."
After cops took her report, detectives conducted a lengthy investigation, canvassing the area for video and witnesses.
Coming up empty-handed, they went to talk to Jones again -- and noticed inconsistencies in her story, the sources said.
After being confronted with the discrepancies, Jones admitted that she had pulled the story out of thin air, the sources said.
Jones said she concocted the tale in a plea for sympathy to counter some unknown setback that she was experiencing in her personal life, the sources said.
But whatever that ordeal was, Jones has apparently hidden it well. Most of her public posts, on both Facebook and Twitter, have been bright and sunny for weeks.
In one upbeat tweet posted Nov. 21 -- the day she said she was harassed by her make-believe attacker -- she wrote: "Here is ur turkey day forecast! Gobble gobble!!"
She even remained upbeat as the cops closed in on her.
"You guys ready for the arctic chill?" she posted on her Facebook page Monday, the day she was arrested.
"Ready or not . . . it's going to be bitterly cold tomorrow and Wednesday, with highs sub freezing and a wind chill to make your toes shake! Be careful!"
Jones came to Channel 7 in 2005 from Houston.
--courtesy NY Post
WABC/Channel 7 weather babe Heidi Jones was arrested for perpetrating the ultimate snow job — falsely claiming to cops that a man had tried to rape her while she was jogging in Central Park, sources said yesterday.
Jones, who anchors the station’s weekend evening weather coverage and fills in on “Good Morning America,” was charged Monday with filing a false report, a Class A misdemeanor. If convicted, she could face up to a year in jail or a $1,000 fine.
WABC will announce on its noon newscast today that it is suspending her indefinitely, a spokesman said. Sources indicated that the move is the first step toward firing her.
Jones spun a story that proved to be as unreliable as a five-day forecast, telling police last month that she was assaulted in September while pounding the pavement in the city's back yard, the sources said.
Jones, 37, told cops she was jogging in the park on the afternoon of Sept. 24 when a Hispanic man in his 30s or 40s grabbed her from behind, dragged her into a wooded area and attempted to rape her.
She told police that the would-be rapist was scared off by two passers-by who came to her aid.
But for cops, the story was all wet.
The first clue was that she waited until Nov. 24, two months later, to report the alleged attack, the sources said.
At the time, the sources said, she told police that three days earlier, on Nov. 21, the same man somehow found her again and harassed her, saying, "I know you went to the police."
After cops took her report, detectives conducted a lengthy investigation, canvassing the area for video and witnesses.
Coming up empty-handed, they went to talk to Jones again -- and noticed inconsistencies in her story, the sources said.
After being confronted with the discrepancies, Jones admitted that she had pulled the story out of thin air, the sources said.
Jones said she concocted the tale in a plea for sympathy to counter some unknown setback that she was experiencing in her personal life, the sources said.
But whatever that ordeal was, Jones has apparently hidden it well. Most of her public posts, on both Facebook and Twitter, have been bright and sunny for weeks.
In one upbeat tweet posted Nov. 21 -- the day she said she was harassed by her make-believe attacker -- she wrote: "Here is ur turkey day forecast! Gobble gobble!!"
She even remained upbeat as the cops closed in on her.
"You guys ready for the arctic chill?" she posted on her Facebook page Monday, the day she was arrested.
"Ready or not . . . it's going to be bitterly cold tomorrow and Wednesday, with highs sub freezing and a wind chill to make your toes shake! Be careful!"
Jones came to Channel 7 in 2005 from Houston.
--courtesy NY Post
13 September 2011
12 September 2011
A sister won!!!
Congratulations: African Beauty Leila Lopes Of Angola Crowned Miss Universe 2011
A few minutes ago
Leila Lopes, 25, from Angola was crowned Miss Universe, beating out 88 competitors. In a brunette-dominated field of flat-stomached, leggy contestants, Lopes’ sweet smile and hairstyle (up in topknot, not long cascading curls) set her apart from the start. She’s also one of few black women ever to snag the crown, reports AP, and she’s Angola’s first winner.
Speaking in a timid voice after the pageant last night in Sao Paolo, Brazil, Lopes said her smile was her biggest weapon. She also told reporters that she has never had cosmetic surgery and that her three tips for beauty were to get a lot of sleep, use sun block even when it’s not sunny and to drink lots of water.
When asked about racism, Lopes said that “any racist needs to seek help. It’s not normal in the 21st century to think in that way.”
Lopes also said that “as Miss Angola I’ve already done a lot to help my people. “I’ve worked with various social causes. I work with poor kids, I work in the fight against HIV. I work to protect the elderly and I have to do everything that my country needs,” she said. “I think now as Miss Universe I will be able to do much more.”
Her interview question wasn’t particularly tough. She was asked what physical trait she would change if she could. “Thank God I’m very satisfied with the way God created me and I wouldn’t change a thing,” Lopes said. “I consider myself a woman endowed with inner beauty. I have acquired many wonderful principles from my family and I intend to follow these for the rest of my life.”
The first runner-up was Olesia Stefanko of Ukraine and the second runner-up was Priscila Machado of Brazil. Miss Philippines took the third spot and Miss China took the fourth.
A DARK SKINNED BLACK WOMAN! :)
for better or WORSE?
The Tyler Perry Checklist
Buffoonery- Check
Hen-pecked, cheating black man - Check
Gold-digging 'play the victim' argumentative black woman - Check
The possibility (and obviously Tyler Perry's hope) of black women to watch again the destruction of all things black and male- Check
Did I miss anything?
On TBS, along with his other buffoonery.
Obama Will Triumph -- So Will America
Keep it moving - and vote the right way this time!!
Before he'd served even one year President Obama lost the support of the easily distracted left and engendered the white hot rage of the hate-filled right. But some of us, from all walks of life and ideological backgrounds -- including this white, straight, 57-year- old, former religious right wing agitator, now progressive writer and (given my background as the son of a famous evangelical leader) this unlikely Obama supporter -- are sticking with our President.
Why?-- because he is succeeding.
We faithful Obama supporters still trust our initial impression of him as a great, good and uniquely qualified man to lead us.
Obama's steady supporters will be proved right. Obama's critics will be remembered as easily panicked and prematurely discouraged at best and shriveled hate mongers at worst.
The Context of the Obama Presidency
Not since the days of the rise of fascism in Europe , the Second World War and the Depression has any president faced more adversity. Not since the Civil War has any president led a more bitterly divided country. Not since the introduction of racial integration has any president faced a more consistently short-sighted and willfully ignorant opposition - from both the right and left.
As the President's poll numbers have fallen so has his support from some on the left that were hailing him as a Messiah not long ago; all those lefty website's and commentators that were falling all over themselves on behalf of our first black president during the 2008 election.
The left's lack of faith has become a self-fulfilling "prophecy"-- snipe at the President and then watch the poll numbers fall and then pretend you didn't have anything to do with it!
Here is what Obama faced when he took office-- none of which was his fault:
# An ideologically divided country to the point that America was really two countries
# Two wars; one that was mishandled from the start, the other that was unnecessary and immoral
# The worst economic crisis since the depression
# America 's standing in the world at the lowest point in history
# A country that had been misled into accepting the use of torture of prisoners of war
# A health care system in free fall
# An educational system in free fall
# A global environmental crisis of history-altering proportions (about which the Bush administration and the Republicans has done nothing)
# An impasse between culture warriors from the right and left
# A huge financial deficit inherited from the terminally irresponsible Bush administration.
And those were only some of the problems sitting on the President's desk!
"Help" from the Right?
What did the Republicans and the religious right, libertarians and half-baked conspiracy theorists -- that is what the Republicans were reduced to by the time Obama took office -- do to "help" our new president (and our country) succeed?
They claimed that he wasn't a real American, didn't have an American birth certificate, wasn't born here, was secretly a Muslim, was white-hating "racist", was secretly a communist, was actually the Anti-Christ, (!) and was a reincarnation of Hitler and wanted "death panels" to kill the elderly!
They not-so-subtly called for his assassination through the not-so-subtle use of vile signs held at their rallies and even a bumper sticker quoting Psalm 109:8.
They organized "tea parties" to sound off against imagined insults and all government in general and gathered to howl at the moon.
They were led by insurance industry lobbyists and deranged (but well financed) "commentators" from Glenn Beck to Rush Limbaugh.
The utterly discredited Roman Catholic bishops teamed up with the utterly discredited evangelical leaders to denounce a president who was trying to actually do something about the poor, the environment, to diminish the number of abortions through compassionate programs to help women and to care for the sick! And in Congress the Republican leadership only knew one word: "No!"
In other words the reactionary white, rube, uneducated, crazy American far right, combined with the educated but obtuse neoconservative war mongers, religious right shills for big business, libertarian Fed Reserve-hating gold bug, gun-loving crazies, child-molesting acquiescent "bishops", frontier loons and evangelical gay-hating flakes found one thing to briefly unite them: their desire to stop an uppity black man from succeeding at all costs!
"Help" from the Left?
What did the left do to help their newly elected president? Some of them excoriated the President because they disagreed with the bad choices he was being forced to make regarding a war in Afghanistan that he'd inherited from the worst president in modern history!
Others stood up and bravely proclaimed that the President's economic policies had "failed" before the President even instituted them! Others said that since all gay rights battles had not been fully won within virtually minutes of the President taking office, they'd been "betrayed"! (Never mind that Obama's vocal support to the gay community is stronger than any other president's has been. Never mind that he signed a new hate crimes law!)
Those that had stood in transfixed legions weeping with beatific emotion on election night turned into an angry mob saying how "disappointed" they were that they'd not all immediately been translated to heaven the moment Obama stepped into the White House! Where was the "change"? Contrary to their expectations they were still mere mortals!
And the legion of young new supporters was too busy texting to pay attention for longer than a nanosecond. "Governing"?! What the hell does that word, uh, like mean?"
The President's critics left and right all had one thing in common: impatience laced with little-to-no sense of history (let alone reality) thrown in for good measure. Then of course there were the white, snide know-it- all commentators/talking heads who just couldn't imagine that maybe, just maybe they weren't as smart as
they thought they were and certainly not as smart as their president. He hadn't consulted them, had he? So he must be wrong!
The Obama critics' ideological ideas defined their idea of reality rather than reality defining their ideas-say, about what is possible in one year in office after the hand that the President had been dealt by fate, or to be exact by the American idiot nation that voted Bush into office. Twice!
Meanwhile back in the reality-based community - in just 12 short months -- President Obama:
#Continued to draw down the misbegotten war in Iraq
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)
#Thoughtfully and decisively picked the best of several bad choices regarding the war in Afghanistan
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)
#Gave a major precedent-setting speech supporting gay rights
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)
#Restored America 's image around the globe
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)
#Banned torture of American prisoners
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)
#Stopped the free fall of the American economy
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)
#Put the USA squarely back in the bilateral international community
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)
#Put the USA squarely into the middle of the international effort to halt global warming
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)
#Stood up for educational reform
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)
#Won a Nobel peace prize
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)
#Moved the trial of terrorists back into the American judicial system of checks and balances
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)
#Did what had to be done to start the slow, torturous and almost impossible process of health care reform that 7 presidents had failed to even begin
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)
#Responded to hatred from the right and left with measured good humor and patience
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)
#Stopped the free fall of job losses
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)
#Showed immense personal courage in the face of an armed and dangerous far right opposition that included the sort of disgusting people that show up at public meetings carrying loaded weapons and carrying Timothy McVeigh-inspired signs about the "blood of tyrants" needing to "water the tree of liberty".
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)
#Showed that he could not only make the tough military choices but explain and defend them brilliantly
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)
Other than those "disappointing" accomplishments -- IN ONE YEAR -- President Obama "failed"! Other than that he didn't "live up to expectations"!
Who actually has failed... ...are the Americans that can't see the beginning of a miracle of national rebirth right under their jaded noses. Who failed are the smart ass ideologues of the left and right who began rooting for
this President to fail so that they could be proved right in their dire and morbid predictions. Who failed are the movers and shakers behind our obscenely dumb news cycles that have turned "news" into just more stupid entertainment for an entertainment-besotted infantile country.
Here's the good news: President Obama is succeeding without the help of his lefty "supporters" or hate-filled Republican detractors!
The Future Looks Good!
After Obama has served two full terms, (and he will), after his wisdom in moving deliberately and cautiously with great subtlety on all fronts -- with a canny and calculating eye to the possible succeeds, (it will), after the economy is booming and new industries are burgeoning, (they will be), after the doomsayers are all proved not just wrong but silly: let the record show that not all Americans were panicked into thinking the sky was/is falling!!!!!
Just because we didn't get everything we wanted in the first short and fraught year Obama was in office not all of us gave up. Some of us stayed the course. And we will be proved right.
PS. If you agree that Obama is shaping up to be a great President, please pass this on and hang in there! Pass it on anyway to ensure that his "report card" gets the attention it deserves.
By Frank Schaeffer
Frank Schaeffer is a New York Times best selling author.
Before he'd served even one year President Obama lost the support of the easily distracted left and engendered the white hot rage of the hate-filled right. But some of us, from all walks of life and ideological backgrounds -- including this white, straight, 57-year- old, former religious right wing agitator, now progressive writer and (given my background as the son of a famous evangelical leader) this unlikely Obama supporter -- are sticking with our President.
Why?-- because he is succeeding.
We faithful Obama supporters still trust our initial impression of him as a great, good and uniquely qualified man to lead us.
Obama's steady supporters will be proved right. Obama's critics will be remembered as easily panicked and prematurely discouraged at best and shriveled hate mongers at worst.
The Context of the Obama Presidency
Not since the days of the rise of fascism in Europe , the Second World War and the Depression has any president faced more adversity. Not since the Civil War has any president led a more bitterly divided country. Not since the introduction of racial integration has any president faced a more consistently short-sighted and willfully ignorant opposition - from both the right and left.
As the President's poll numbers have fallen so has his support from some on the left that were hailing him as a Messiah not long ago; all those lefty website's and commentators that were falling all over themselves on behalf of our first black president during the 2008 election.
The left's lack of faith has become a self-fulfilling "prophecy"-- snipe at the President and then watch the poll numbers fall and then pretend you didn't have anything to do with it!
Here is what Obama faced when he took office-- none of which was his fault:
# An ideologically divided country to the point that America was really two countries
# Two wars; one that was mishandled from the start, the other that was unnecessary and immoral
# The worst economic crisis since the depression
# America 's standing in the world at the lowest point in history
# A country that had been misled into accepting the use of torture of prisoners of war
# A health care system in free fall
# An educational system in free fall
# A global environmental crisis of history-altering proportions (about which the Bush administration and the Republicans has done nothing)
# An impasse between culture warriors from the right and left
# A huge financial deficit inherited from the terminally irresponsible Bush administration.
And those were only some of the problems sitting on the President's desk!
"Help" from the Right?
What did the Republicans and the religious right, libertarians and half-baked conspiracy theorists -- that is what the Republicans were reduced to by the time Obama took office -- do to "help" our new president (and our country) succeed?
They claimed that he wasn't a real American, didn't have an American birth certificate, wasn't born here, was secretly a Muslim, was white-hating "racist", was secretly a communist, was actually the Anti-Christ, (!) and was a reincarnation of Hitler and wanted "death panels" to kill the elderly!
They not-so-subtly called for his assassination through the not-so-subtle use of vile signs held at their rallies and even a bumper sticker quoting Psalm 109:8.
They organized "tea parties" to sound off against imagined insults and all government in general and gathered to howl at the moon.
They were led by insurance industry lobbyists and deranged (but well financed) "commentators" from Glenn Beck to Rush Limbaugh.
The utterly discredited Roman Catholic bishops teamed up with the utterly discredited evangelical leaders to denounce a president who was trying to actually do something about the poor, the environment, to diminish the number of abortions through compassionate programs to help women and to care for the sick! And in Congress the Republican leadership only knew one word: "No!"
In other words the reactionary white, rube, uneducated, crazy American far right, combined with the educated but obtuse neoconservative war mongers, religious right shills for big business, libertarian Fed Reserve-hating gold bug, gun-loving crazies, child-molesting acquiescent "bishops", frontier loons and evangelical gay-hating flakes found one thing to briefly unite them: their desire to stop an uppity black man from succeeding at all costs!
"Help" from the Left?
What did the left do to help their newly elected president? Some of them excoriated the President because they disagreed with the bad choices he was being forced to make regarding a war in Afghanistan that he'd inherited from the worst president in modern history!
Others stood up and bravely proclaimed that the President's economic policies had "failed" before the President even instituted them! Others said that since all gay rights battles had not been fully won within virtually minutes of the President taking office, they'd been "betrayed"! (Never mind that Obama's vocal support to the gay community is stronger than any other president's has been. Never mind that he signed a new hate crimes law!)
Those that had stood in transfixed legions weeping with beatific emotion on election night turned into an angry mob saying how "disappointed" they were that they'd not all immediately been translated to heaven the moment Obama stepped into the White House! Where was the "change"? Contrary to their expectations they were still mere mortals!
And the legion of young new supporters was too busy texting to pay attention for longer than a nanosecond. "Governing"?! What the hell does that word, uh, like mean?"
The President's critics left and right all had one thing in common: impatience laced with little-to-no sense of history (let alone reality) thrown in for good measure. Then of course there were the white, snide know-it- all commentators/talking heads who just couldn't imagine that maybe, just maybe they weren't as smart as
they thought they were and certainly not as smart as their president. He hadn't consulted them, had he? So he must be wrong!
The Obama critics' ideological ideas defined their idea of reality rather than reality defining their ideas-say, about what is possible in one year in office after the hand that the President had been dealt by fate, or to be exact by the American idiot nation that voted Bush into office. Twice!
Meanwhile back in the reality-based community - in just 12 short months -- President Obama:
#Continued to draw down the misbegotten war in Iraq
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)
#Thoughtfully and decisively picked the best of several bad choices regarding the war in Afghanistan
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)
#Gave a major precedent-setting speech supporting gay rights
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)
#Restored America 's image around the globe
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)
#Banned torture of American prisoners
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)
#Stopped the free fall of the American economy
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)
#Put the USA squarely back in the bilateral international community
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)
#Put the USA squarely into the middle of the international effort to halt global warming
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)
#Stood up for educational reform
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)
#Won a Nobel peace prize
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)
#Moved the trial of terrorists back into the American judicial system of checks and balances
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)
#Did what had to be done to start the slow, torturous and almost impossible process of health care reform that 7 presidents had failed to even begin
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)
#Responded to hatred from the right and left with measured good humor and patience
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)
#Stopped the free fall of job losses
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)
#Showed immense personal courage in the face of an armed and dangerous far right opposition that included the sort of disgusting people that show up at public meetings carrying loaded weapons and carrying Timothy McVeigh-inspired signs about the "blood of tyrants" needing to "water the tree of liberty".
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)
#Showed that he could not only make the tough military choices but explain and defend them brilliantly
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)
Other than those "disappointing" accomplishments -- IN ONE YEAR -- President Obama "failed"! Other than that he didn't "live up to expectations"!
Who actually has failed... ...are the Americans that can't see the beginning of a miracle of national rebirth right under their jaded noses. Who failed are the smart ass ideologues of the left and right who began rooting for
this President to fail so that they could be proved right in their dire and morbid predictions. Who failed are the movers and shakers behind our obscenely dumb news cycles that have turned "news" into just more stupid entertainment for an entertainment-besotted infantile country.
Here's the good news: President Obama is succeeding without the help of his lefty "supporters" or hate-filled Republican detractors!
The Future Looks Good!
After Obama has served two full terms, (and he will), after his wisdom in moving deliberately and cautiously with great subtlety on all fronts -- with a canny and calculating eye to the possible succeeds, (it will), after the economy is booming and new industries are burgeoning, (they will be), after the doomsayers are all proved not just wrong but silly: let the record show that not all Americans were panicked into thinking the sky was/is falling!!!!!
Just because we didn't get everything we wanted in the first short and fraught year Obama was in office not all of us gave up. Some of us stayed the course. And we will be proved right.
PS. If you agree that Obama is shaping up to be a great President, please pass this on and hang in there! Pass it on anyway to ensure that his "report card" gets the attention it deserves.
By Frank Schaeffer
Frank Schaeffer is a New York Times best selling author.
11 September 2011
09 September 2011
08 September 2011
My most recent Facebook status update
@ Mio Sushi Hollywood for lunch with 2 friends (one white, one asian)- why did the waitress completely ignore me as if I wasn't there, and take my friend's food orders ( I had to get her attention when she tried to walk away) and I never got my drink order that I asked for twice ( my friends got theirs)? She put the bill in the space between my friends, but she didn't realize that lunch was my treat. Suddenly she noticed me and was nice. Guess what she got for a tip?
who was Dorothy Dandridge?
After several minor bit parts in films, Dandridge, landed her first noted film role in Tarzan's Peril, in 1951; starring Lex Barker. Dandridge won her first starring role in 1953; playing a teacher in the nearly all-black cast low-budgeted film, Bright Road, realesed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
In 1954, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress and a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for Carmen Jones, and, in 1959, was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for Porgy and Bess. In 1999, she was the subject of the HBO biopic Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, starring, Halle Berry as Dandridge. She has been recognized on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Dandridge was married and divorced twice, first to dancer and entertainer Harold Nicholas (the father of her daughter, Harolyn Suzanne) and then to Jack Denison. Dandridge died of an accidental drug overdose at age
42.
07 September 2011
This story is not unique, unfortunately.
Unemployed, Uninsured Man Dies from Tooth Infection
The New York Daily News is reporting that Kyle Willis, a 24-year-old Cincinnati man died from a tooth infection that spread to his brain. Willis, who was unemployed and uninsured, had a toothache and was told that he needed his wisdom teeth pulled. Willis could not afford the procedure, so he decided to wait it out. Willis ended up going to the emergency room when his face began to swell. He was informed that he had an infection which could spread to his brain, so doctors prescribed a pain reliever and antibiotic. Willis could not afford the antibiotic so he took the pain reliever instead.
While Willis' discomfort subsided, the infection continued to spread, causing lethal swelling in his brain resulting in his death. Experts say Willis' story is not unique.
Many Americans are having to make these kind of decisions that have very real consequences. Willis lost his life and his 6-year-old daughter lost her father. We know that those against universal healthcare will say that it is his responsibility to handle his care, but what happens when you've exhausted all possibilities? What about people who don't have anyone in their family to ask for help? If everyone in your family is unemployed or underemployed, where can you get help? This is clearly a case of when doing what you have to do goes horribly wrong. How many more stories like this will we have to read about before something is done about chronic unemployment and the uninsured?
--courtesy theroot.com
The New York Daily News is reporting that Kyle Willis, a 24-year-old Cincinnati man died from a tooth infection that spread to his brain. Willis, who was unemployed and uninsured, had a toothache and was told that he needed his wisdom teeth pulled. Willis could not afford the procedure, so he decided to wait it out. Willis ended up going to the emergency room when his face began to swell. He was informed that he had an infection which could spread to his brain, so doctors prescribed a pain reliever and antibiotic. Willis could not afford the antibiotic so he took the pain reliever instead.
While Willis' discomfort subsided, the infection continued to spread, causing lethal swelling in his brain resulting in his death. Experts say Willis' story is not unique.
--courtesy theroot.com
06 September 2011
about love
1 John 4 : 18 kjv
02 September 2011
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