"Burn notice."

While America is busy patting herself on the back for recognizing that the flag of the traitors who fought for the confederacy is an abomination to people of conscience, I would like to remind everyone that at least six African American churches have been burned since that horrific tragedy in Charleston, South Carolina.

Maybe our enemies are putting us on some kind of notice: This war is just beginning.

'“What's the church doing on fire?'

Jeanette Dudley, the associate pastor of God's Power Church of Christ in Macon, Georgia, got a call a little after 5 a.m. on Wednesday, she told a local TV news station. Her tiny church of about a dozen members had been burned, probably beyond repair. The Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, and Tobacco got called in, which has been the standard procedure for church fires since the late 1960s. Investigators say they’ve ruled out possible causes like an electrical malfunction; most likely, this was arson.

The very same night, many miles away in North Carolina, another church burned: Briar Creek Road Baptist Church, which was set on fire some time around 1 a.m. Investigators have ruled it an act of arson, the AP reports; according to The Charlotte Observer, they haven’t yet determined whether it might be a hate crime.

Two other predominantly black churches have been the target of possible arson this week:  Glover Grove Missionary Baptist Church in Warrenville, South Carolina, which caught fire on Friday, and College Hill Seventh Day Adventist, which burned on Monday in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Investigators in Knoxville told a local news station they believed it was an act of vandalism, although they aren’t investigating the incident as a hate crime. (There have also been at least three other cases of fires at churches this week. At Fruitland Presbyterian Church in Gibson County, Tennessee, and the Greater Miracle Temple Apostolic Holiness Church in Tallahassee, Florida. Officials suspect the blazes were caused by lightning and electrical wires, respectively, but investigations are still ongoing. A church that is not predominantly black—College Heights Baptist Church in Elyria, Ohio—was burned on Saturday morning. The fire appears to have been started in the sanctuary, and WKYC reports that the cause is still under investigation. The town’s fire and police departments did not immediately return calls for confirmation on Sunday.*)

These fires join the murder of nine people at Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church as major acts of violence perpetrated against predominantly black churches in the last fortnight. Churches are burning again in the United States, and the symbolism of that is powerful. Even though many instances of arson have happened at white churches, the crime is often association with racial violence: a highly visible attack on a core institution of the black community, often done at night, and often motivated by hate.'' [Source]

OK, so maybe these churches are all burning by accident and this is all purely coincidental.
Just one of those freaky things that go down in bunches.

Sure, and Lauren London keeps blowing up my phone to sneak off with her to Paris, but I have to pass on her invitation  because I am happily married.  Riiight.

Anyway, racists in America will not go down without a fight. All this talk about the confederate flag coming down but as I write this; there it flies, bolder and brighter than ever on the capitol grounds of South Carolina. And, depending on what the state's lawmakers do, it might never come down. In fact, had it not been for the actions of one brave soul and her accomplice, that racist symbol of tyranny would continue to fly uninterrupted in spite of all the hue and cry from different voices in the country.

"The hate filled murderer who massacred our brothers and sisters in Charleston has a sick and twisted view of the flag. In no way does he reflect the people in our state who respect and, in many ways, revere it. Those South Carolinians view the flag as a symbol of respect, integrity, and duty. They also see it as a memorial, a way to honor ancestors who came to the service of their state during time of conflict. That is not hate, nor is it racism.

At the same time, for many others in South Carolina, the flag is a deeply offensive symbol of a brutally oppressive past. As a state we can survive, as we have done, while still being home to both of those viewpoints. We do not need to declare a winner and a loser here. We respect freedom of expression, and that for those who wish to show their respect for the flag on their private property, no one will stand in your way.

But the statehouse is different and the events of this past week call upon us to look at this in a different way. Fifteen years ago, after much contentious debate, South Carolina came together in a bipartisan way to move the flag from atop the Capitol dome. Today, we are here in a moment of unity in our state without ill will, to say it’s time to move the flag from the Capitol grounds."

We will believe it when we see it.

*Pic courtesy of 3chicspolitico.com
 



 

 

Strange fruit in Georgia.

"Southern trees
Bear strange fruit
Blood on the leaves
And blood at the roots
Black bodies
Swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hangin'
From the poplar trees.."

~Strange Fruit, Nina Simone~

I don't know about the rest of you, but when I hear stories like the recent one about Roosevelt Champion, I get a little nervous.   

"A black man who'd recently been questioned in connection with the death of a white woman was found dead hanging from a tree Monday morning in rural Greensboro, Georgia, police said. Local and state investigators said there was nothing to immediately suggest foul play.

Greensboro Police Chief Ossie Mapp told NBC News that a neighbor called 911 about 9 a.m. ET to report finding a body behind a house on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. Police discovered the body of Roosevelt Champion III, 43, who Champion didn't live at the address in Greensboro, in east-central Georgia between Athens and Augusta, Mapp said.

       

Champion's body was suspended by tie-down strap similar to those used to secure cargo on the roofs of vehicles, Mapp said.

       

There were no visible wounds on Champion's body, his feet were scraping the ground and his knees were slightly buckled, suggesting that he hadn't been lifted into the tree, said Georgia Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Joe Wooten, who is in charge of the investigation. Wooten and Mapp said it's too early to determine the formal cause of death, which is pending an autopsy.

But Wooten said Champion was questioned at least twice last week in a homicide case involving the death of a white woman. In the end, no charges were filed, he said. Details of that investigation weren't immediately available.

       

"I understand that there is a lot of concern" in the community because the victim was a black man who was hanged in the Deep South, Wooten said. "Because of that, we're going to be as transparent as we can be."

       

Wooten said he was working closely with Mapp, the local chief, and that several people had already been interviewed in connection with Champion's death." [Source] 

 

Now it could be that Roosevelt had some issues, but as "Special Agent Wooten" said, this is the South we are talking about, and, well, there is a history.

 

Stay tuned.   

 

 

Lawrence needs a clue, and another American tragedy.

I have to get with Lawrence O'Donnell and give him a little newsflash real quick: Pssst, Lawrence, just because you are knocking boots with a sister, that doesn't give you the right to speak on black issues that you have no clue about.

Some of these "liberals " kill me with their bullshit. They act like they get an honorary "black  pass"' because their political leanings is more in sync with most black people.  I have written about this before, and this is a good time to remind liberals that they get as much scrutiny from the kid as conservative republicans when it comes to matter of race.

For the record, comparing the actions of the kkk to ISIS is quite appropriate. The kkk lynched, burned, and raped to terrorize a race of people. And ISIS is committing unspeakable acts for their own sick religious reasons as well.

In case Lawrence and others like him forgot their history, it's important to note that the kkk, like ISIS, also used their religion to justify their actions.

I think  that it might be time for Tamron to have a serious PT session with her man.

Finally, I don't like to write about what I do every day for obvious reasons. But I work in an environment where I see domestic violence and its effects quite often, and I am hear to tell you that domestic violence is a serious problem in this country.

I am reminded of that sad fact after reading about yet another horrific story triggered by an ex- husband's jealousy and rage. 

"Douglasville, Ga. (Reuters) - A father went on a shooting rampage this weekend, killing his ex-wife, her boyfriend, and two children before taking his own life in a suburban Atlanta neighborhood, authorities said.

The massacre at the former wife's home near Douglasville, about 20 miles (32 km) west of Atlanta, left two other children on life support, authorities said on Sunday.

The shooter chased his daughter into the street and shot her in Saturday's incident, said Randy Daniel, coroner for Douglas County, Georgia. She died at the scene.

"It was his own little girl," Daniel said in a telephone interview. "It's terrible."

He also fired at his ex-wife and her boyfriend, as well as the other children, Daniel said, adding that all were shot in the head.

The four children's ages ranged from seven to 15 years, authorities said.

The shooter was found dead with the other victims inside the house, Daniel said, in a quiet neighborhood of two-car garages and well-kept lawns near Douglasville.

Teresa Carter, who lives right across the street in the quiet Amber Forest neighborhood, was home at the time.

"I was sitting in my living room and heard the pow," she said. "Then I heard the little girl screaming, and then four more shots. It was the worse thing I ever heard in my life."

She ran outside and saw the girl had been shot in the mouth.

Carter said her neighbors had seemed to be a perfect family, playing ball in the street, with the children coming up to her to pet her dog.

A small pile of carefully placed teddy bears and dolls sat in front of the home where the shooting occurred." [Source]

There will be more stories like this, and we will be just as saddened and outraged at the next one.

Saddened and outraged; but certainly not surprised.




 

Bringing back the Black Codes.

I have written about a sort of new post Reconstruction fever sweeping over the United States since the election of Barack Obama in the past. It is now republicans and not democrats, and it is 2014 and not 1877; but the similarities are clear.




I still tend to think of Southern elected republican politicians as Scalawags. The grand deal to elect Rutherford B. Hayes as president meant that Southern whites could go back to treating blacks the way that they did prior to the ending of the Civil War.




Here we are in 2014, but make no mistake; there are quite a few elected officials who would love nothing more than to bring back the Black Codes.




They do a great job of covering it up, but every now and then one of them slips and we are reminded of what we are dealing with.




"The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on Tuesday that Georgia state Senator Fran Millar (R) penned an angry response to DeKalb County’s announcement that early voting will be available on Sunday, October 26, and that an early-voting location will be opened at The Gallery at South DeKalb Mall. Millar represents part of the county and is Senior Deputy Whip for the Georgia Senate Republicans.

Millar wrote:

Now we are to have Sunday voting at South DeKalb Mall just prior to the election. Per Jim Galloway of the AJC, this location is dominated by African American shoppers and it is near several large African American mega churches such as New Birth Missionary Baptist. Galloway also points out the Democratic Party thinks this is a wonderful idea – what a surprise. I’m sure Michelle Nunn and Jason Carter are delighted with this blatantly partisan move in DeKalb.Is it possible church buses will be used to transport people directly to the mall since the poll will open when the mall opens? If this happens, so much for the accepted principle of separation of church and state. 

Many predominantly Black churches around the country organize “Souls to the Polls” events that encourage churchgoers to vote after attending Sunday church services. This often relies on carpooling and is perfectly legal, according to the Freedom From Religion Foundation (which advocates for a strict separation of church and state). While Republicans in places like North Carolina and Ohio have pushed to eliminate Sunday voting hours, it is unusual for a legislator to so candidly admit that this strategy is about reducing African American turnout. 

Millar notes that he is “investigating if there is any way to stop this action” and that he and State Representative Mike Jacobs (R) “we will try to eliminate this election law loophole in January,” as it might boost Democratic voter turnout.

 On his Facebook page Tuesday, Millar stood by his comments, writing: “I would prefer more educated voters than a greater increase in the number of voters. If you don’t believe this is an efort [SIC] to maximize Democratic votes pure and simple, then you are not a realist. This is a partisan stunt and I hope it can be stopped.” [Source]



Mr. Millar, I don't mean to be picky, but I am guessing that "more educated" voters would know how to spell e-f-f-o-r-t.


But hey, that's just me.




Anyway, I hope that we don't have to bring back the Underground Railroad for you Negroes down in Georgia. 




Finally, the NFL is saying that they tried to get that Ray Rice video of him punching out his wife in an Atlantic City elevator, but they were not "granted that opportunity".




“We had not seen any video tape of what occurred in the elevator. We assumed that there was a video, we asked for the video, we asked for anything that was pertinent, but we were never granted that opportunity.”




Yeah right.




If you think, for a minute, that one of the most powerful organizations in America could not have gotten an elevator surveillance video from the casino that involved one of their players, I have a wonderful antique bell with a slight crack on the side from my hometown that I would just love to sell you.




Sorry Roger, I am siding with Harvey Levin on this one.













 

911 was no joke in his town, and the truckers are coming to Washington.

Another day and another black man used for target practice by law enforcement in America.

And yes, I know, black men use other black men for target practice damn near every day. But if we can't trust the po po to do the right thing where are we as a society? Thugs are going to be thugs. We need to lock them all up and throw away the keys. But who is going to uphold the law if those we train to protect us do the opposite?

"Jack Lamar Roberson, 43, was gunned down by Waycross, Georgia police on October 4 after his family called 911 for an ambulance due to issues with his diabetes,  First Coast News reports.

Waycross police officers claim they responded to a report of attempted suicide and were told that Roberson was combative.

Upon arrival, Roberson allegedly “lunged” at the officers with two “weapons” and refused to drop them. That’s when they fired, claims Police Chief Tony Tanner.

Roberson’s family tells a different story.

Read more from First Coast News:

“He didn’t have nothing in his hands at any time or period at all before they came, any time while they were here, anything. They just came in and shot him. He didn’t say nothing, the police didn’t say nothing, anything, it was like a silent movie. You couldn’t hear anything, all you could hear were the gun shots go off and I seen them going into his body and he just fell down,” cried Alcia Herron, Roberson’s fiancé. 

Herron said she called 911 to call an ambulance for Roberson. She said she was worried about medication he took for his diabetes, but instead of paramedics, officers arrived at the home on Reed Street." [Source]

Of course the po po had a different story.

"The officers were en route about 4:30 p.m. to 1013 Reed St. to a suicide threat when they were updated that the man had become combative and had damaged items in the home, Tanner said.

When the officers entered the residence, Jack Lamar Roberson started toward them “aggressively armed with two items used as weapons,’’ Tanner said.
The officers retreated and yelled repeatedly for Roberson to stop and drop the weapons, Tanner said.

The officers retreated as Roberson gained ground on them and raised one of the “weapons in a threatening manner,’’ whereupon the officers fired to prevent their being assaulted, Tanner said."

You Negroes better be careful when you call 911. The family said that they "couldn't hear anything", but I bet those police officers could see.

Finally, a bunch of truckers are planning a rally around D.C. and they plan to slow down the D.C. beltway and arrest congressmen. Nice.

Nothing says red blooded American good ole boy like a trucker. The irony is, of course, that they got this brilliant idea from those "wimpy" French dudes.

One of the things that they are enraged about is President Obama. Go figure. The guys and gals  who drive on roads and bridges for a living are mad at the guy who has been pushing for reinvesting in America's infrastructure; not the people in Washington who have been holding up the funding for such things.

"Enraged by low wages, fuel prices, regulations, the government shutdown, the debt ceiling, President Obama and "the corruption that is destroying America," the "Truckers Ride for the Constitution" aims to tie up three lanes of Interstate 495 circling the nation's capital, with big rigs traveling 55 mph, an organizer told U.S. News & World Report.

Last week, one of the promoters said 3,000 truckers had said they planned to participate in the holiday-weekend rally. Two convoys reportedly will leave from the Doswell Truck Stop in Doswell, Va.

The "general strike" seeks to enlist sympathetic motorists — and will let them pass if they display the group's calling card: T2SDA, which stands for "Truckers to Shut Down America," the original name.

The group behind the rally, "Ride for the Constitution," said in a news release that the "stage is now set for what we now consider the last peaceful defensive stand in a war that has been declared by Wall Street, Washington, and the Whitehouse upon the American people."

I smell the Koch Brothers.

Anyway, I feel for you hard working law abiding citizens around D.C. who will be trying to go about your business when this trucker revolution rolls into town.
It can't be cool to live in the nation's capital these days. You are living with mass shootings, a government shutdown, and a football team with an offensive name that stinks. Now you have one big Smokey and the Bandit movie.

"What We're dealing with here is a complete lack of respect for the law."

Where is Sheriff Buford T. Justice when you need him?

 

 



  

Dog days.

Now that A-merry-can politics have officially gone to the dogs (yes, literally) I would like to weigh in on this debate.

First, for the record, I have never tasted Fido. Although I do understand that dog meat is quite popular in certain parts of the world.

Anyway, now comes word that Obama ate dog meat provided to him by a relative named Lolo. "

"With Lolo, I learned how to eat small green chill peppers raw with dinner (plenty of rice), and, away from the dinner table, I was introduced to dog meat (tough), snake meat (tougher), and roasted grasshopper (crunchy). Like many Indonesians, Lolo followed a brand of Islam that could make room for the remnants of more ancient animist and Hindu faiths. He explained that a man took on the powers of whatever he ate: One day soon, he promised, he would bring home a piece of tiger meat for us to share."  [Source]

OK, so our future president ate dog meat when he was between the ages of six and ten. No harm no foul as far as I am concerned. Now if Lolo was a family pet, on the other hand...."Daddy where is Bo? Ahhhm I don't know honey, he was here just a minute ago". Let me stop.

Anyway, what Flipper did was still worse. Torturing the family dog is far worse than eating a strange one.

Hey, as someone who will eat a goat before a chicken I can relate. I just wouldn't eat a pet goat. See it's all about the relationship, not the particular type of meat.

Wingnuts are having fun with this one, and I am glad that they found something to go tit for tat within the doggie wars.

But I would like to add a little dog story of my own.

How many of you remember Fred Malek? He is the wingnut who counted Jews for Nixon. He is also the guy who hosted a birthday party for Ann Romney.

Anywhoo, it seems that Fred has an interesting dog story:

"Every year or so, poor old Fred Malek, the GOP fundraiser, has to suffer through a callback to his youthful indiscretions, like that one crazy time in his twenties that he and his friends were caught drunkenly barbecuing a dog on a spit..." [Source]

Yes, but at least he and his friends didn't eat the poor thing. Maybe they didn't have any barbecue sauce handy.

Finally, there is a story out of Georgia (surprise surprise) where a six year old was handcuffed and dragged off to jail by the po po.

Yes, the little rugrat is one of my cousins, and yes, I think that there was some racial insensitivity going down in Milledgeville, Georgia. (This is why I have a GPS in my car, so that I can avoid towns like Milledgeville. But I have to also call out mommy as well. Her response to this incident is all wrong. She shouldn't be calling for Rev. Inc. ;she should be calling for a therapist to look at what are obviously some serious issues with her child. No Ms. Ruff, your daughter was not just having a "bad day" with "mood swings"; she is having a bad life.

Sorry, I don't believe, like some folks, that the child is just a "bad ass". I think that the poor child has some issues, and I blame mommy for not addressing them.

 "She has mood swings some days, which all of us had mood swings some days. I guess that was just one of her bad days that day," said Constance Ruff.
"She might have misbehaved, but I don't think she misbehaved to the point where she should have been handcuffed and taken downtown to the police department,"

I agree with you there, mommy; she should not have been taken to the police station. (And folks, if you think that this would have happened with little "Hannah" in Milledgeville, Georgia, I have a wonderful antique bell here in Philly with a slight crack on the side that I would just love to sell you.) But you should be doing more as a parent to make sure that your daughter is never put in such a situation again.

A-murder-ca!

With all due respect to my girl Gladys Knight, I think I am going to stay off that "Midnight Train To Georgia. I'm sorry, Georgia just isn't a place I want to be right now. You all have a serious killer on the loose and until you have him in custody I think will pass on those peaches.

Thing is, this is the kind of tragedy I would expect to happen in Atlanta, but not in a rural trailer park for crying out loud. The poor people of Brunswick must be on some serious edge right now. I guess that's how the people in a lot of inner cities feel 24/7 with the urban terrorist running loose.

"Mary Strickland, who owns The Georgia Pig, a popular local barbecue place said people have been buzzing about the killings and mainly want to know what happened.
"I think a lot of people who live in that area would feel a lot better if they had a little more information," Strickland said. "If it is a murder-suicide then let people know so they don't think there's some lunatic out there. We got a lot of people who panic and the more information you put out there, the better you make them feel."

I agree Mary.

"Lisa Vizcaino, who has lived at New Hope for three years, said the management works hard to keep troublemakers out of the mobile home park and that it tends to be quiet.
"New Hope isn't run down or trashy at all," Vizcaino said Saturday. "It's the kind of place where you can actually leave your keys in the car and not worry about anything."'

I don't agree, Lisa. "New Hope isn't run down or trashy at all"? Ahhm, is that a picture of New Hope? Because if it is, you might have to define "trashy" for me.

But let me stop, your community has been through enough. As someone who lives in a community where we have had our share of mass killings I know it can't be easy. And I should and do feel your pain. That's the thing, here in A-murder-ca, we are all just one community. Whether you live in a trailer park on an old plantation, or in a concrete jungle on the east coast.

Finally, speaking of communities with mass killings; seems there was a double slaying up at Virginia Tech last week and that killer is still on the loose. What the hell is going on in A-murder-ca? Has it always been this bad with the killings and mayhem? Or is this a new phenomenon like "Wii games"? I feel for the people of Virginia Tech, too. They have had some issues recently with mass killings. And, not to mention, someone was recently beheaded on campus. (Yes, beheaded!) By all accounts, these latest victims were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“They were both godly young people, the cream of the crop..."

Hell, maybe we all are in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Condi, we need to talk.

While we enjoy the guts and athleticism of our swimmers in the Olympics, and we obsess over where the Breck Boy is sticking his johnson; the world, as we know it, is going to hell in a freaking hand basket.

Many of you poo pooed my recent post about my Condi jones, and you said that I was being flip about my desire to...well, swing an episode with her. But imagine if Mrs. Field had given me permission, and I had been allowed to...well, get to know her better.

Can you imagine the opportunity your humble field Negro would have had to influence world affairs? While pillow talking with Condi , for instance, I would have had an opportunity to give her my humble opinion about her boss and what a colossal fuck up he has been.

For instance, now that the Russians have destroyed the A-merry-can trained Georgian army, and pretty much pimp slapped that entire country, has it ever occurred to your boss that none of this would have happened if the neocons in his administration had kept their damn ambitions in check? While they were busy planning their grand scheme to conquer the Middle East, they forgot that a former *KGB(thanks ac.nerd) agent was leading an increasingly more powerful and proud mother Russia into a new century.

So now our military is tied down in Iraq and Afghanistan, and all the frat boy can do is plead with Putin to pull back his troops. Too late, the red army is hell bent on putting an ass whopping on President Saakashvili's troops, and they will not stop until there is total humiliation, surrender, and regime change. You know Condi, kind of like what we did in Iraq. But field, this is different, this was a sovereign nation with a democratically elected leader. Really? But so was Iraq. And although their leader wasn't "democratically elected", quite a large segment of their population was fine with the job he was doing. Besides, I thought we went into Iraq to prevent them from attacking us with WMD's?

And didn't the Russians go into Georgia because the Georgians attacked one of their states (South Ossetia) which wanted to align themselves with Russia? Don't most of those people in that state consider themselves Russians? If that's the case, couldn't we argue, that Putin, in essence, was coming to the defense of his own people?

So what are we going to do now? The Russians have flexed their muscles, and all we can do is watch. Oh your boss, the frat boy, will make his usual pronouncements condemning what the Russians did; but so what? Putin will just continue doing what he has been doing for the past few days: shaking his dick at us, and giving us his ass to kiss. (Still think you can see into his soul now frat boy?) Putin might be a lot of things, but he isn't stupid.

And Condi, I hear that you yourself had a heated phone conversation with the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, after he told you that the Georgian President must go. Then the Russian Ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, said this to our Ambassador: "I'd like to say straightaway that regime change is an American expression....We do not use such expression". See what a mess the frat boy put you in Condi? See how he tied your hand? You can't even do your job anymore. And to think you have a doctorate in this shit.

"Russia has invaded a sovereign neighboring state and threatens a democratic government elected by its people. Such an action is unacceptable in the 21st century.. The Russian government must reverse the course it appears to be on and accept this peace agreement as a first step toward solving this conflict,..."

Yeah whatever frat boy. And somewhere down in a very hot place called hell, a man with a thick mustache and a funny beret is laughing his ass off.