10 Things To Do AFTER Bush Leaves the White House

1. Start watching presidential press conferences again.

2. Hold your head up high and declare yourself an AMERICAN.

3. Travel abroad, we've regained the respect from the world. The dollar sucks, but no one will give you the stink eye anymore because Bush is POTUS.

4. You can have hope once more.

5. Throw away your suicide pills.

6. Visit those relatives in the South without having to blame them (too much) for the state of the country.

7. Go ahead and plan for the future. Dare to dream.

8. You don't have to move to Canada after all. Start unpacking.

9. Believe in science again, proudly, publicly.

10. Do the Snoopy Dance.

Obama is officially the next POTUS

The Chronicle has reported that it is official: Barack Obama is the next president of the United States. Anyone else find this electoral process redundant for these times or is it just me?

Wow! What sore losers.

The nuts just keep coming. There are some folk out there who just can't handle the reality that Barack Obama will be the next U.S. President. I've got just one little piece of advice: Get over it and get over yourselves.

Read the idiocy in the NYTimes article on the challenges to Obama's eligibility.

Yahoo running slanderous ad against Obama

I was shocked to see while perusing yahoo that they are running a slanderous ad by some shady operation called sodahead.com where some idiot proposes the question about whether Obama bought the election. I don't want to read this kind of scummy political crap in my mailbox. Thanks alot Yahoo. Yahoo needs to get rid of this type of ad spam.

I'll be working on moving my mailbox from yahoo mail to gmail for sure.

You can also block yahoo ads in Firefox by using the AdBlocker add-on and including the following: "http://*.ard.yahoo.com/*". Mine will stay in place until I know Yahoo has pulled this political smear ad.

History has been made: The First Black President

Holy cow! Barack Obama is now President-elect of the United States of America.

I never ever thought that American voters could ever coalesce together enough to break through one of the pinnacles of racism and elect a Black man as leader of one of the most powerful countries in the world. I never thought I would see history being made during my lifetime. I thought it would be possible only after some other barriers had been broken, like a first (White) woman president or Latino man. I just did not have faith that Americans could get beyond the continuing racism against Blacks and see that we are capable of being political leaders who look out for the greater good and not just for the Black community. I admit that I had no such confidence and I am glad to have been proven wrong by my fellow American citizens.

I witnessed this historic moment at a local pub with a coworker, surrounded by Whites who were just as enthusiastic as I was about Barack Obama being elected as the next President of _these_ United States. Maybe more so. I had lots of reservation about this happening because of the rounds of humiliation that he was subjected to during this election campaign. He kept his composure, but I wasn't confident that that could be seen by anyone other than myself. So I am so very glad to have been mistaken.

I voted!

Vote. All the cool kids are doing it!

Brought to you by Americans for the 2008 Election.

For The Love Of Country... VOTE!

Even if you've got to crawl to the polls, for goodness sake: GET OUT AND VOTE.

And here's a voting tip pulled from Wired.com about how to workaround voter intimidation tactics.

Voter Beware: Election scams are ramping up

It's that time of the election season where the election dirty tricks are being pulled out of the bag. Wired magazine reports on an old one being resurrected in Florida. This old trick is a phone call by an alleged election official telling Democrats that they can vote by phone. While, in Virginia country a scam is being run that tells Democratic voters to come to the polls the day after the election. The status quo is coming out swinging with voter suppression, intimidation, tampering and other forms of fraud. I personally have never been asked for identification when voting, but I am going to be sure to cover all bases and at the least take a form of identification with me.

Barack gets his 30 minutes

Tonight is Barack Obama's 30-minute campaign spot. Yep, that's right 30 minutes of campaigning. Pre-empting the World Series even. Am I mad? Nope. I think the future of the United States of America is far more important than the baseball championship. I want to know more details about the candidates. I want transparency into their proposed policies and plans and I want to hear some specifics now. I know, I know. The American motto is as American as Mom, apple pie and baseball. But with the way the economy and the Iraq war are going, soon all we'll be left with is Mom --- if she can get the health care that she needs.

Of course, the Republicans are using this as an excuse to accuse him of grand-standing and delaying the viewing of "the most important game of the most important American game" (as if this would be the last, unless they know something we don't). Now this is the same political party and group of people who bitched about being pressured to delay and cut short their political convention (only to officially name John McCain their candidate) due to the expectation of a New Orleans being once again turned into a complete disaster zone with the arrival of Hurricane Ike. This should sound like apples versus oranges, but in Republican-Land, logic doesn't exist. Instead of complaining, they should follow suit and tell us exactly what they plan to do. I'm tired of this "woulda, shoulda, coulda" crap everybody has been spewing. I don't want to hear about how bad a job the other guy did, that's just an evasion tactic that anyone can see a mile away. Shut up or put up.

Go ahead. Vote early.

Early voting is making some voters nervous. People are concerned that early votes won't count, specifically those of Black voters who vote for Barack Obama. The past two elections are too fresh in many minds where creative excuses (like ambiguously-punched ballot sheets) or curious incidents (like voting machines needlessly moved from heavily-populated Black constituencies to lesser-populated White suburban towns) were used to reject tens of thousands of ballots in predominately Black communities in states like Florida, Ohio and Georgia. And people are not feeling too hopeful that these past election deceptions will not be attempted again, so they're waiting for Election Day to post their ballots.

Assassination plot against Obama is busted

On Monday, an assassination plot by two knuckle-headed neo-nazi morons in Tennessee to kill Blacks and eventually Barack Obama was busted up by the local police and the Feds (See story at NYTimes). So I guess this is the signal to say let the real hating begin.

It has been a certainty that the attacks on him would get more personal, bigger, frequent and outrageous. And the closer he gets to the White House, the more scared the racists get.

This plot makes me think back to a story from the beginning of the presidential campaigning where older Black voters in the Carolinas indicated that they didn't want to vote for Obama out of fear for his safety. My single hope is that people, particular Black people, do not get scared off and try to "protect" Obama from harm by not voting for him. Running for president is his mission. Just like a soldier's choice to join the military, he is choosing to serve the American public.

Wassup 2008

I think this video from the old "Wassup" beer commercial has come up with an appropriate up-to-date version dealing with the current state of things in America and the election.

Can Detroit get past Kwame's legacy?

So Kwame Kilpatrick, the youngest elected mayor of a major city has finally found his sense --- or maybe he was given an offer he couldn't resist --- and has stepped down from his throne, ummm, post. Instead of serving a possibly really long sentence for a series of unfortunate choices, he is supposedly going to serve a short sentence of about 120 days in jail followed by a 5 year probation. Kwame got off _easy_. He'd better thank God, his mama and whoever else he can think of, because the sharks were circling him. He set himself up and shouldn't blame anyone else for it. Wow! He and the city had so much potential. Kilpatrick could have been good for the city and turning around such a troubled city would have been such a political coup for him.

Lord. I really pray for the city of Detroit. Detroiters cannot afford to continue to be losers. The acting mayor is going to be Kenneth Cockrel Jr. whose father was a city leader and whose (step)mother is on the city council too. Talk about nepotism. I'm getting really sick and tired of the different monarchies, lords and ladies, running the city as if it's their personal fiefdom. Let's hope this one's got more sense. I mean, there are reports that there is a federal investigation into possible corruption in the city government. Well if you're going to clean house, now is just as good a time as any.

Note to wannabe Sarah Palin

Hey Sarah! Take your own advice. Suck it up and shut up about (supposed) sexist media coverage of your nomination to be McCain's co-conspirator, I mean, vice-president. Just as you suggested that Hillary was whining about the same thing, why don't you stop bitching about it too? You're not the first woman to deal with the ole boys' club or a pregnant out-of-wedlock teenage girl. If you think that the media focus on those topics are a tragedy or an affront to you, then you definitely don't need to be anywhere near an office in the Executive branch. You and your fellow whispering campaigners had better grow that thick skin that you tell the rest of us that we should. Or your feelings are really gonna be hurt later on. Get over it and move on.

Anyway, click the link above and also check out more on this and Politico.com's advice to her and Mrs. McCain about how to be grownup politicians.

Happy "I Have a Dream" Speech Anniversary Day!

Today is the 45th anniversary of the delivery of the "I Have a Dream" speech by the late great Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. And whether it was planned or not (but probably so) Barack Obama delivered his presidential nomination acceptance speech in Denver. And Obama did not disappoint. At least _I_ wasn't disappointed. Here's his speech on NYTimes.com.

What I found satisfying with his speech was that he clarified with surprising details how he plans to run the country with regard to cutting taxes for the overtaxed and raising it for those who don't pay enough, cleaning up the environment, leveling the salary playing-field and reforming the health-care system. And I hope he is able to really do some serious forensics on our national budget and identify and kill those pet projects that do nothing but line the pockets of the elite rich with the money of us suckers. I know there's more to his plan, you'd be naive to believe otherwise, but it sounds more thought out and laser-focused on domestic issues than anything the Republicans have come up with. The best they can come up with is what's wrong with what Democrats propose. Stop telling me how much you disagree with the other guy and come to the table with solutions that have some real meat. Otherwise, shut it and let someone else do the job you seem so unwilling and incompetent to do.

Michelle Obama's my latest hero

I really enjoyed Michelle Obama's speech during the opening of the DNC's convention. She is intelligent, an intellectual, down-to-earth, family-oriented. Her speech was so personable. But what I regret about hers and Obama's speeches is that they are forced to try to convince people that they are "normal". I've never seen politicians try so darn hard to do this. It's ridiculous that people have been convinced that they are out of touch --- or how I really think their critics would really call them, "uppity negroes". She didn't say anything that no reasonable person could not understand, appreciate and relate with. See what I mean.

It's Official! Barack's our man!

Fortunately for us the Democrats have been able to finally form a united front and have officially nominated Barack Obama as the first Black presidential nominee of a major political party. Thank goodness. The very thing that makes the party open is what makes it difficult to form a solid coalition. But it looks as though the in-fighting has been put on hold in order to present a union. Let's hope it holds.

I'm Voting Republican

If you're still an undecided voter, see if this doesn't motivate you to make a decision...

Has Hillary Clinton Naderized this year's election?

I didn't like what I saw during the primaries with the negative attacks out of the Clinton camp and I'm not surprised by its outcome. So Hillary Clinton is out and Barack Obama is in as the Democratic Party's presidential candidate. I'd be overjoyed if it weren't for the impending doom that I feel coming on.

When it became all but 100% certain that Clinton could not keep up with Obama's delegate numbers, the grumbling from her camp started ramping up. She whined of sexism all the while launching a Karl Rove-worthy racist-tinged whisper-campaign against Obama. Her fanbase is so incensed by the media's supposed love-affair with Obama that they're ready to hand their vote over to the other party. Now I have to wonder how they can blame Obama for the media's behaviour. This I find mind-boggling. This is totally in line with their thinking that a white female should win over a black (male or female) candidate. Their sour grapes are nothing but racist and sexist bigotry.

Before this was apparent, I would have handed my vote to whomever as long as she or he appeared to be the most reliable, trust-worthy and competent to lead the country through the mess that Bush and cohorts are leaving.

Hillary has managed to poison the well to such the extent that her supporters don't care that she is now preaching the party unity message. They are outraged and blame Obama for the apparent media and political bashing of Clinton. From most news outlets, about half have announced their support of McCain, a.k.a. Bush version 2.0. McCain is wooing their vote. In past elections, Republicans wouldn't even consider trying to persuade staunch Democrats to come over to their side. With Hillary's help, they don't even have to try so hard this time.

Sex, lies and text messages Motown-style

Ok, so Detroit is back in the headlines (yet again) but not about its murder-rate but over a sex scandal. But this time it is about an extramarital affair between the city's 30-something mayor Kwame Kilpatrick who is married with children and Christine Beatty, his divorced chief of staff. Sexually-charged text messages between the two came to light a year ago in local newspapers and then came back with a vengeance just recently.

For those who live in or around Detroit, this is just another idiotic situation that Kilpatrick has caught himself in. It seems like from day one of his first term as the mayor of Detroit, he's been in trouble. There was the $56,0000 SUV that he bought for his wife, using city funds, as well as constant rumours of wild, raunchy parties at the mayor's city-owned mansion, at local strip or night clubs and escapades on taxpayer-funded supposedly political out-of-state trips that involved him and his entourage of bodyguards, friends and policemen. But you could only consider a lot of the stories as rumours, because no one could present any real evidence before this, except when he left a money-trail.

Kwame and Beatty got caught and in a Bill-Clintonesque-style denied it in front of a judge. Bad move. They've been indicted for perjury and are now on the hook to serve a few years for that and more. So reports have come out that Kilpatrick might have tried to cover up the whole thing before by paying off a $9 million dollar lawsuit by two fired police officers. He lost an empoverished major industrial city $9 million! City workers have been getting laid off since about 2002. 2003 maybe. I still hear about layoffs. City services have been cut left and right. There was no appeal of the judgment to lower the amount of money being asked for, just a "quick" payoff and sealing of records. Thank goodness for the Freedom of Information Act in this case. This mayor is living large on the backs of the poor or the barely-getting-by.

Of course, he's howling about how innocent he is. How the media is out to get him. How much (I'd say little) he's done for the city. And how the (sex) messages between him and his underling, over a taxpayer-paid cellphone, should be considered private not public.

I just really hope that Detroiters are not insane to believe the stuff he is spouting. He claims to have brought in $43 million dollars worth of business annually into the city. He hasn't done anything that no other politician, city official or business person hadn't thought of before. Most of the "progress" that has happened in Detroit, well mostly in the downtown/mid-town/New Center areas of Detroit, it was all well underway before his first term. He thinks that he is above the law and more important than the citizens of Detroit. He came into the office large and in-charge. Now, he needs to just suck it up, apologize, submit his resignation, tuck his tail between his legs and get out of Detroit's way.

Start reading about it here at The Free Press: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080327/NEWS01/803270390/1001/NEWS01

Not a word

Wow! Incredible! This whole month has practically gone by and not a post the entire time. I. I. I just don't know what to say. A lot has gone on, but I haven't written a word to recount any of it. Not a word. Oh well.

We Are The Ones Song by will.i.am

Here is the second Obama tribute video from will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas. The sentiment of this series of videos is so positive, it makes a person feel almost optimistic about the future of the upcoming presidential election and this country. One can only hope at least.

The Annual State of the Black Union

I'm sitting here watching the annual "State of the Black Union" on C-SPAN (God bless them folks for showing this every year). Based on what I am seeing and hearing from the second panel, I absolutely regret missing the live broadcast of the first panel, assuming they were just as fired up, passionate, eloquent as the second one was.

I must say, even though I believe I'm just being redundant, Dick Gregory, who is part of the second panel, is a genius. He just responded to Tavis Smiley's question about the current political landscape vis-à-vis the Black community, but Mr. Gregory decided to go off on a tangent for a minute or two. His initial response had me (and the live audience) rolling on the floor laughing. When he rounded back around to the original question, he spoke about how he had learned compassion from his wife. He brought tears to my eyes. I know him as a social and political activist, vegetarian proponent and comedian. But I did not know that he is also a feminist. He spoke at length of Black women as victims of racial and sexual discrimination. But not only as victims of the society from without the Black community, but also from within. About the lack of respect for Black women, he brought up how Dr. Condoleeza Rice is referred to as "Condi" where Madeleine Albright is "Madame Albright". This conference doesn't just speak to what has been and continues to be done to us from those outside of the community, but also what we do to ourselves. In a nutshell, be accountable to yourself and to others.

And thank you Rev. Al Sharpton for shining the light on Hillary Clinton's camp using loaded (i.e. bordering on racist) language when speaking of Barack Obama.

Obama cleans up in the Potomac primaries

The counts aren't yet finished but it looks like Obama is taking all three of the Potomac primaries (Washington D.C., Maryland and Virginia). He's got a slim lead over Hillary Clinton, but it's a lead that he continues to maintain. But according to a lot of news agencies, that might not mean a whole lot with the super-delegate votes that are still to be counted. And those votes can go any which way. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to this part of the primary race.

Boycott Beijing Olympics

'Nuff said.

Do I really need to say more? I plan to skip out on any and all things related to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China. I can't in good conscience vouch for any event that will help bolster China's reputation in the world. They want to be partners with Sudan who has turned a blind eye to the genocide going on in its country; there is no way I am going to give attention to the Olympics. It's a complete joke that the Olympics are even taking place in this country.

The organization Reporters sans frontieres has more to say on other reasons to support a boycott.

Spielberg says no to China Olympics

Good for you Spielberg. I've not really had a reason to have immense respect for Steven Spielberg, until now. Up until recently, he was serving as artistic director or advisor to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Well that's over now. He resigned his position as a protest to the Chinese government's involvement in selling arms to the Sudanese government.

China is bound and determined to only use their superpowers for evil instead of good. They make money arming Sudan's government while investing in their oil industry which has been dragging ass on ending the violence against non-Arab Sudanese. The Chinese government wants their cake and to eat it too. They want respect as an industrial country while doing dealings like this. I think it is high time to call for a boycott of the Olympics. What the Olympics stand for, China sure doesn't fit the spirit of it.

Check out the story at the BBC.

Obama: Three wins In one

The word around this weekend is three more wins for Barack Obama in the primary race. He won the Nebraska, Washington caucusess and Louisiana primary. Also, he won the caucus in the Virgin Islands. Before this weekend, Hillary Clinton had a slight lead in the number of delegates that she has earned, but Obama is now nipping that in the bud.

It's still pretty early enough in the year, so this race can swing in any direction, especially with the dirty politics, and the downward trend of the economy and people's hopes for a better (immediate) future.

Naomi Campbell outs racist fashion industry

I feel like addressing a semi-lighter subject. Actually, it isn't a fluff subject.

My favorite supermodel, Naomi Campbell, is out in the press again. But this time, it's not about her throwing things. Well, it is about her lashing out, with great reason, about the racism in the fashion industry. Specifically, she points out the unwillingness of (the big) fashion houses to engage non-white models, mostly African-descendant models.

She and a couple of other well-known models of color like Iman and Alek Wek complain about the already well-known history of fashion magazines, such as Vogue, who continually ignore Black beauty. I think this is a big story, and it is happening during a big week, (it is Fashion Week in New York) and I have not seen a mention of any of this on Vogue's website (surprise, surprise). In all fairness, I have to point out that Cosmopolitan magazine does feature the singer, Rihanna, on its cover this month. However, this one concession does not forgive them (or any other fashion magazine) for past and future slights to non-white models. Cosmo has been accused of refusing to put Black models on their cover, because "they don't sell as many magazines".

Naomi has decided to take an even more activist role in reversing this discriminatory fashion trend (please forgive the play on words) by launching her own modeling agency. It will take on, I'm assuming, all models of color and not just African models, even though it will be in Kenya. She also has announced that certain design houses can forget her patronage in the future. The only thing I wish she'd done was to name those exact designers to help the rest of us who'd like to support the cause.

In the blogosphere, most commenters want to focus on her troubled past, rather than on the problem at hand. For those who don't have their heads up their butts, I hope they can see this for what it is, a clear example of (organized) bias against women of color. I mean, you would have to be blind to not see the white-washing of fashion.

Think Global

So I check my inbox and see an email from the Save Darfur coalition, snapping my mind back to a global focus. The organization is making it easy to send a letter to encourage their House representative to get on the petition for China to pressure the Darfur government to do the right thing. The Sudanese government is dragging its feet on stemming the violence against non-Arab Sudanese people by Arab militia. Since China is the country's biggest outside investor, the argument goes that they can apply some influence on the Sudanese to stop the genocide.

Here's a link to letter to your Congress representative.

Act Local

So today is Super Tuesday and I am happy to say that despite being in a leg brace and on crutches, I was able to get the vote out and speak my mind. Happily, as a decline-to-state voter, I had no problems requesting to vote in the Democratic primary. Unfortunately, no matter how much we would like for this process to go smoothly, it doesn't. Despite their training, volunteers at some polling stations here in the San Francisco bay area and in southern California denied decline-to-state voters of their right to vote on the Democratic ticket.

It's Voting Time!

Well the day is upon us where we have a chance to choose our presidential candidates --- and to vote on some other issues that politicians have snuck in early in the year.

Anyway, I hope everyone has as great an employer as mine. My company has given us the green-light to come in as late as necessary so that we may get our vote in. But I really do think we need two new special national holidays, Super Tuesday and Election Day. I know some people will waste it to go on holiday and goof off, but I am so positive that it would boost voter participation. But I have a sneaking feeling that some factions don't look kindly on everyone being able to take part in the democratic process; just look at Florida's and Ohio's treatment of Blacks during the past two elections.

Happy voting!

Clinton has his tail between his legs

Looks like Bill Clinton has seen the light. Apparently, he is on a tour of Black churches (I wish they wouldn't let politicians use them for political gain during the election year). I'm guessing word got back to him that many folks took exception to his racial attacks on Barack Obama. In a last dash attempt to save face, he is visiting Black churches in Southern California, around Los Angeles. I just hope that people see it for what it is, hypocrisy, deceit and political spinning.

Here's a link to a story about it at CNN.

Note to Bill Clinton: Shut your trap

Would someone please tell Bill Clinton to shut his mouth. I understand the desire to stand by your spouse in his/her run for an office, but his interference is costing Hillary an audience. Truthfully, I haven't or hadn't made up my mind about which way I would vote with regards to a Democratic party candidate. Hillary sounds like a war hawk. Obama has less experience on the Capitol. Neither one sways me one way or the other. Well that was the case until Bill decided to get in the spotlight with his foot in his mouth and attempt to sling mud on Obama's name. He has crossed the line between supporting spouse and running candidate. Who's running for office? Is it him or Hillary? Oh and Bill, no you were never the first Black president. You bent over for the Republicans and didn't back up your people when it counted. Remember Surgeon General Joyce Elders and Attorney General nominee Lani Guinier?

Frankly watching their behaviour during the debates and the caucus stumping has put them on my bad side. The Clintons like to play the gender card, while accusing Obama of playing up his race, even though most of their speeches has them introducing the topic into conversations. I don't care to see either of the Clintons back in the White House. Here's a man who couldn't keep his pants zipped up (and don't give me that he's only human crap --- we have big brains for a reason) and a wife who didn't have enough sense to leave him or keep his ass in check (blacklights are good at spotting invisible stains on trouser openings and underwear; watch Forensic Files and learn a thing or two).

I'm ready for someone new and not yet jaded/corrupted, someone like Obama. He may be inexperienced, but with the right people behind him (just make sure you do background checks on your people to weed out the embezzlers and other con-artists), he cannot do worse than Bush -- well, unless there's a conspiracy to screw him over, as well as the public (which is totally possible).

If against all common sense, Hillary becomes the candidate, I cannot say for sure that I will even vote Democratic.

Open letters to Bill to keep silent

Read more about Bill's case of foot-in-mouth disease:
Newsweek: Democratic Party wants Bill to shut up
ABC Network Blogs: Sharpton tells Clinton to shut it

Back from hiatus

Let me just say to the women out there, protect your knees in sports at all costs. My knee dislocation, which apparently is becoming more and more common in women athletes, escalated into a torn ACL, a few months ago. I've just had it repaired/replaced along with some other work in the knee. Coming back from this injury is taking all the strength that I have in me. No, seriously. I feel so tapped out, I can't take it. I will be so happy to be walking unassisted once again.

Happy New Year!

Here's a prayer for a more peaceful, fruitful and healthy year.