Cop hysteria before Obama takes the White House?

I have just one question: What the hell is going on? We're not even half way through the month of January and cops seem to just be extra trigger-happy. Is it the economy? The war in Iraq? A Black man taking over the White House? What is it? There have been several stories of racially-motivated conflicts against Blacks by in the past couple of weeks.

Here is the one that is getting the most press:

Dumbass cop shoots unarmed and subdued Black man lying on ground.

In this case, in the early morning hours following the opening of the new year, a fist-fight between two groups of people had broken out on a line of the BART subway system in a San Francisco east-bay community (NOTE: this was a "fist" fight --- no weapons were drawn). According to accounts, the cops were called and just one group of the participants were pulled off and subdued. The shooting victim was drawn on and shot after several cops already had pushed him to the ground and put him under control. There are videos of the event floating around the internet (which I'm not including due to a big distaste for publicizing actual murder footage). But it shows that he is not struggling or fighting the cops. His hands are not reaching for anything, there's at least one cop still kneeling on him. Then one idiot (cop) decides that he needs to escalate the control they have over him. He draws a weapon and fires. Half a second later, he has a stunned expression and is looking at the closest cop partner for a reaction or who knows. It's speculated that he meant to only shoot the guy with a taser and not a pistol, but pulled his gun by mistake. Even if this is the case, many want him to answer for what they see as a crime. And I would have to agree with them in this case. There are two reasons for this. The first is, the guy was already under control and not fighting the cops, so why do more harm to him? What was the point of using the taser? Was it just a show of force? Maybe teach him a good lesson for ruining someone's New Year's Eve? Why? He took it to the next level for absolutely no reason. There was no cause for it. No good valid excuse can be given for this that should be accepted.

The second reason the cop should answer for this and go to jail is that you have to be a real idiot to not be able to tell the difference between a taser and a real gun. When you plan on shooting someone with something and you've got two weapons on you, one of which is supposed to be used only for deadly purposes, you would think the person would look down and make sure the correct weapon is in hand. It doesn't appear this guy even thought about it. He's supposed to be a professionally trained law enforcement officer. It doesn't appear that is the case either. Hell maybe his partner should be included as well in this case, he got up and stepped away from the victim so that the other officer could make the shot. He would've seen what was drawn and been in a very good position to warn his partner. But as is the case when it comes to White cops and Black people, the cops shoot first and sort things out second. Black people never get any consideration before a situation gets out of hand, the cops just assume that Blacks are automatically guilty and deserve deadly force immediately.

Hopefully this case will make this point clear to the American public, but most of all to the judicial system which will finally make cops pay for their excessive and brutal treatment of blacks.

Happy New Year

It's never too late to wish Happy New Year. Happy 2009! We've got quite a few things to get through in the next 12 months: a recession, high unemployment, a shrinking pool of employers due to many going out of business, conflicts overseas costing us billions and billions of dollars, the same for bailout payments to a bunch of overpaid CEO con men who have yet to really pay for their expensive shell game with the stock market. The list goes on.

And all of our hopes and dreams are resting on the shoulders of one guy: Barack Obama. I'm glad that an intelligent thinker like him has made it to the White House to replace the current buffoon and real evildoer who are currently there. He'll bring optimism that we do not have which is well-reflected by the state of our economy. No one is certain about the future leaving one afraid to do anything. We're all holding our collective breath. But Obama alone will not solve our problems.

It's time to stop thinking that the government and big business has got our best interest at heart. Neither one does. Luckily times like these are when special things happen, innovation, invention, self-reliance, independence. And I plan to try to make my mark and do what I can to keep myself and anyone else I can from continuing to be affected by the current market conditions. I'm not the only one to come to this conclusion, which is heartening; I'd hate to think that I'm the only logical thinker in this world. Here's an article about some similar-thinking and creative folk dealing with the same issues.

So what do you plan to do?

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.