"It's gotta be da shoes", Marco.

"Is it the shoes? ... ITS GOTTA BE DA SHOES"

 I can hear my man Mars Blackmon hollering at Marco Rubio now: It's gotta be da shoes, Marco! 

What a crazy political season. Poor Marco Rubio could find his campaign going down the tubes because of a pair of shoes.

Marco must have thought that no one would notice his boots with the high heels. Shame on him. He should know by now that running for president would put him under a serious microscope.

Everything he does and says is scrutinized to the tenth degree.

The guy just wanted to seem a couple of inches taller. He knows that Americans prefer their presidents tall.   Marco is 5' 10" which isn't bad if you want to be the leader of say, Japan, but it isn't cutting it if you want to be the leader of the free world.

"Let me get this right,” ..... ISIS is cutting people’s heads off, setting people on fire in cages, Saudi Arabia and Iran are on the verge of a war, the Chinese are landing airplanes on islands that they built and say belong to them in what are international waters and somewhat territorial waters. Our economy is flat-lined, the stock market is falling apart, but boy are we getting a lot of coverage about a pair of boots. This is craziness, people.”

No it's not Marco, it's America. We tend to be superficial like that. And we prefer to see our presidents wearing wingtips than some Maison  Margiela knockoffs.  
 
But Marco shouldn't be mad at the public, he should be mad at his presidential rivals. They are the ones making all kinds of jokes and mocking him about his footwear. Rand Paul (who himself looks more like a jockey than presidential candidate) couldn't contain himself and made all kinds of jokes about Marco before going on The View 

Personally, I thought that they looked alright. The snug fitting Polo fleece he was rocking, on the other hand, not so much.

Finally, if you don't think it can be hard being black in America, after watching and reading about the following two incidents you just might change your mind. 

One man was jogging while black,  and the other one was simply shopping at Wal Mart while black.

I swear, to get that kind of unwanted scrutiny as a white man, you would have to be a presidential candidate with a fancy pair of shoes.

*Pic from vanityfair.com






 

Stars and scars.

Man these right-wingnuts needed this confederate flag flap like they needed a hole in their heads.

It's been interesting to see all the twisting and "pretzel-logic" going on as they try to avoid calling that despicable symbol of hatred for fear of turning off their base. I mean Mitt, bless his Wonder Bread heart, came out against the flag. But then he is no longer running for president. The others...well, not so much. Although Nikki Haley played the good party soldier by finally coming out against the flag and giving the republican candidates for president some cover.

And before we start treating what Haley did as if it was some profile in courage, let's not forget where she stood on this subject not too long ago. I guess there is nothing like a little pressure from the business community to make some of these governors all of a sudden find moral clarity.

"Today we are here in a moment of unity in our state without ill will to say it is time to remove the flag from our capitol grounds," Haley, the state's first non-white governor, said. "This flag, while an integral part of our past, does not represent the future of our great state."'

 

Why just a little over a year ago the governor said this:

 

"What I can tell you is over the last three and a half years, I spent a lot of my days on the phones with CEOs and recruiting jobs to this state,” Haley said. “I can honestly say I have not had one conversation with a single CEO about the Confederate flag.”

 

Maybe it took a conversation with a CEO or two to help her see the light.   

 

 

This is all very interesting. It's not only governor Haley. Republican politicians have been all trying to prove to the rest of us that many their supporters are not racist. (Good luck with that.)

 

We learned today that Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, and Rick Santorum gave back money that was given to them by the same racist organization that inspired Roof to kill those nine innocent people last Wednesday night.  

 

"The campaigns of Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Rick Santorum said they would donate the money received from Holt to a fund set up by Charleston's mayor to assist the victims' families.

"I abhor the sentiments Mr. Holt has expressed," Santorum said in a statement. "These statements and sentiments are unacceptable. Period. End of sentence"

 

Let me translate that for you: Now that the rest of America knows what I  have suspected all along, that this man and his organization are racists, I cannot take this money from him without being exposed as a possible racist myself.

 

It's been funny to see George Will and the folks over at FOX VIEWS throw themselves into a tizzy over the president saying Nigger (whoops, sorry, I meant n-word) in a candid moment while doing a popular podcast.

 

You have to wonder why some folks get  upset when folks who have a license to use that word do just that. It's almost as if they are angry that they can't say it  themselves.

"George Will was troubled by Obama’s comment about how the legacy of slavery and racism is “still part of our DNA that’s passed on; we’re not cured of it.”  

Will said race relations can’t possibly be getting better if that’s the case, calling it a “most unfortunate rhetorical reach” by Obama.

And if his point is, Will concluded, that America is “by nature racist,” “'it’s an unfortunate indictment of the nation and he should take it back.'”

What the president really said:

"I always tell young people, in particular, do not say that nothing has changed when it comes to race in America, unless you've lived through being a black man in the 1950s or '60s or '70s. It is incontrovertible that race relations have improved significantly during my lifetime and yours," Obama said."

You know what's worse than being a racist? Being a liar and a racist.

*Pic from theatlantic.com








 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rand vs. the hawks.

And now a few words from Rand Paul:

"I would say it's exactly the opposite.... "ISIS exists and grew stronger because of the hawks in our party who gave arms indiscriminately, and most of those arms were snatched up by ISIS. These hawks also wanted to bomb [Syrian dictator Bashar] Assad, which would have made ISIS's job even easier."

Thank you Mr. Paul. It's nice to see that there is at least one GOP candidate who understands the nuanced and complicated reality that is the Middle East.

We just can't bomb and fight our way out of this problem. At some point we have to find a political solution. Clearly the military option has not been working.

Memo to our current president: You drone program is not the answer, either. 

"The thing is that people need to understand the Middle East is complicated and there are no easy answers. We need to do what we do to protect American interests..... The ultimate victory is going to come when civilized Islam steps up and civilized Islam says that this aberration that is ISIS is intolerable."

I am not sure how Rand Paul will do in the republican primary. But if I  had a vote he would get some serious consideration.

Friday funnies.

"In the days following the riots in Baltimore, presidential candidate Rand Paul decided to reveal what he thought was the reason behind the city’s looting and arson — absent fathers.

 

Paul made his statements during an interview on Tuesday with conservative radio host Laura Ingram. Labeling the tense moments seen throughout the nation as “thuggery and thievery,” Paul listed a few reasons for the outrage, blaming low-income woes and absent fathers.

“There are so many things we can talk about: the breakdown of the family structure, the lack of fathers, the lack of a moral code in our society,” he said. “This isn’t just a racial thing.”

The riots followed the funeral of Freddie Gray on Monday. The 25-year-old died at the hands of six police officers who arrested him on April 12. A week after falling into a coma, Gray passed away from a severed spinal cord. Further autopsy results revealed his vertebrae was crushed in three places. Just last Friday, Baltimore Police admitted fault for not getting Gray medical help in a timely manner.

Critics slammed Paul for his comments and pointed out that his own son has had multiple run-ins with the law. Just last week, the 22-year-old was arrested for a DUI in Kentucky." [Source]

Now that was funny.

I think you need to stock up on some Windex®   there senator. You have a lot of  glass in that house of yours that might just need some cleaning.

And here is another funny guy:

"Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz said on Wednesday that President Barack Obama had inflamed racial tensions" during his time in office.

"Speaking to members of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the media, Cruz pointedly attacked the president for repeated missed opportunities to lead on race issues since he came into office.

 

"He's made decisions that I think have inflamed racial tensions -- that have divided us rather than bring us together," the Texas senator said. "We need leadership that brings us together rather than trying to divide us."

 

Cruz, who became visibly emotional talking about Baltimore during the hour and a half discussion of an array of issues facing the country, called for prayers for the victims of the violence and a fair investigation to find out what happened to Freddie Gray. Gray, a 25-year-old black man, died while in police custody and thrust Baltimore into turmoil.

 

He cited Vice President Joe Biden's warning to an African-American audience that Republicans would "put you back in chains" during the 2012 campaign as proof of the kind of "incendiary and hateful rhetoric" that splits people apart.

 

Cruz could offer no specific examples on what he could do as President to address the tensions among minority communities when he was pressed." [Source]

 

Of course he couldn't. But at least he got a few laughs.  

America dodged a bullet, and Rand reaches out.

Now that we have confirmed that there was a Palin family brawl in Alaska back in early September, and that the Palins acted like a bunch of drunken rednecks, maybe the Palin supporters can apologize to the blogger who broke the story.
 
"The report corroborates the stories told by eyewitnesses — that the Palins appeared at a birthday party in Wasilla, that they all seemed moderately-to-heavily intoxicated, and that some of the family members ended up punching people — but added a new detail: there were apparently two separate fights, one in which daughter Bristol Palin repeatedly punched the party’s host in the face.


The first incident also involved Bristol: according to the report, Track, his father Todd, and his friend Steven Lebida had decided to leave the party after “some guys were talking rudely to his sisters, making them cry,” when someone sucker-punched Lebida in the back of the head. As Todd helped Lebida up, four men allegedly descended upon Todd, causing Track to throw himself in the brawl to defend his dad. (Other witnesses said that Track was the one who attempted to start a fight.)


People alerted the host, Corey Klingenmeyer, that there was a fight going on outside his garage, and he attempted to break up the fight, when an incredibly drunk Bristol Palin approached him, furious that an unnamed woman had hit her little sister Willow. According to one witness, Bristol asked him “Who the fuck are you?” and when Klingenmeyer told her that he was the homeowner and didn’t want any trouble at his son’s birthday party, the following exchange happened:

She then told him he doesn’t own this place and that she will kick his ass. He says then that she hits him in the face.  

He says he then tells her to hit him again if it makes her feel better and she does. He says he lets her hit him 5-6 times in the face and that she was hitting pretty hard. After about the sixth punch he grabbed her fist as she punched again and he pushed back and she falls down. He says she gets up and tries to punch him again and he grabs her fist again and pushes her away and she falls down again." [Source]

And to think, they almost became the second family of the United States.  


Finally, I swear this Rand Paul guy is making a very confused person out of me. I honestly don't know what to think of the guy.


On one hand he is the only high profile member of the republican party who seems to be making a concerted effort to reach out to people of color, and on the other hand he is been known to put confirmed racists in positions of power within his inner circle.


He also criticized the 1964 Civil Rights Act, while suggesting that property rights trumps civil rights. Not good.


But now the man is going to Ferguson, Missouri for crying out loud. And recently he has criticized his fellow GOP pals for doing a terrible job of reaching out to minorities. This is something that he seems to be taking it upon himself to do.


"..Paul said. “I think in the Republican Party, the biggest mistake we’ve made in the last several decades is we haven’t gone into the African American community, into the NAACP and say you know what, we are concerned about what’s going on in your cities and we have plans. They may be different than the Democrats, but we do have plans and we do want to help.”


Well I will be.... A republican politician actually sat down with black people to see if there can be a meeting of the minds, and to see if republican policies can help the black community.  


I know that there was a "blood" moon, recently. Maybe there is a blue one tonight. 

     

When the narrative blows up in your face.

It's amazing to watch the talking heads over at FOX News try to distance themselves from Cliven Bundy. They are running away faster than Usain Bolt at the London Olympics.


(The poor man's daughter is really upset that FOX News jumped ship on her dad.)


Still, they can't seriously believe that we didn't know that they were all on board with lionizing the tax cheat and bigot all along.


I agree with media critic, Bill Weir, who declared that the decision to "canonize" Bundy and make him a "John Waynesque" figure came from the top of the FOX News chain.


As the official republican news network, they have to do better. You can't just go around "lionizing" bigots and expect us Negroes (or N-I-G-R-O-E-S according to Mr. Bundy)not to notice.


Rand Paul certainly notices, that's why he is calling for republicans to expand their tent. Rand believes that the white-out under the republican tent is too strong.
 
"Paul, according to CNN, also talked about making the Republican party “bigger” and much more inclusive, saying that unless Republicans “broaden their message” to reach more people, winning future elections is going to be a bit of a problem.

“You go to a Republican event and it’s all white people—not because we’re excluding anybody, but because we just haven’t done a good enough job encouraging people to come into our party.”  

Well, it's not "all white people", I bet this Negro and others like him would be there. (Jason, you are a modern day slave catcher. You would take a bullet for Bundy, but he would just as soon see your black ass hanging from a tree.)


Anyway, I have to give Bundy credit; at least he is consistent with his ignorance.


He has now invoked the name of Martin Luther King to justify his twisted view of history and his unique form of social engineering.

"Chris Cuomo: 'Are you a racist?'


Cliven Bundy: 'No, I'm not a racist. But I did wonder that. Let me tell you something. I thought about this this morning quite a bit.'


CC: 'Please.'


CB: 'I thought about what Reverend Martin Luther King said. I thought about Rosa Park taking her seat at the front of the bus. Reverend Martin Luther King did not want her to take her seat in the front of the bus. That wasn't what he was talking about. He did not say go to the front of the bus and that's where your seat was. What Reverend King wanted was that she could sit anywhere in the bus and nobody would say anything about it. You and I can sit anywhere in the bus. That's what he wanted. That's what I want. I want her to be able to sit anywhere in the bus and I want to be able to sit by her any where in that bus. That's what he wanted.


He didn't want this prejudice thing like the media tried to put on me yesterday. I'm not going to put up with that because that's not what he wanted. that's not what I want. I want to set by her anywhere on that bus and I want anybody to be able to do the same thing. That's what he was after, it's not a prejudice thing, but make us equal.


understand that Martin Luther King's message was one of peace and freedom,' Cuomo said in reply, adding, 'when you suggest that you were wondering if blacks were better off as slaves, that's the opposite of freedom and very offensive to people. I think you probably know that.' He probably does not. Bundy continued (once again, emphasis ours): 

'I  took this boot off so I wouldn't put my foot in my mouth with the boot on. Let me see if I can say something. Maybe I sinned and maybe I need to ask forgiveness and maybe I don't know what I actually said. But you know when you talk about prejudice, we're talking about not being able to exercise what we think and our feelings. We're not freedom — we don't have freedom to say what we want.  

If I call — if I say 'negro' or 'black boy' or 'slave,' I'm — If those people cannot take those kind of words and not be offensive, then Martin Luther King hasn't got his job done yet. They should be able to — I should be able to say those things and they shouldn't offend anybody. I didn't mean to offend them.'"

Cliven, you are allowed to say those things, just not publicly. The folks over at FOX News can't support you when you do that. They agree with your views and your politics, but that has to be just between the two of you.


*Image courtesy of eurweb.com


 


 

What is the alternative?

“First of all, there is nothing for free. You're going to pay for it, and we're paying for it through higher premiums,” Paul said. “We're also going to find out in January that more people will lose their insurance under Obamacare, I think, than will actually gain it. The Republican plan is freedom of choice -- more choices, not less. ‘Obamacare’ narrows your choices.  We're for competition. We're for selling insurance across state lines. And above all, we’re for driving premiums down.” [Source]

That is Rand Paul explaining the republican's alternative to the Affordable Care Act. (Obamacare)

It is very vague, and a little sketchy in the details, so let me check with Google  for a republican plan that is the alternative to the Affordable Care Act......

Nope, nothing. Although I did find something from 1993 which is very similar to Obamacare.

Those republicans were so full of ideas back then.

"An individual mandate;

Creation of purchasing pools;

Standardized benefits;

Vouchers for the poor to buy insurance;

A ban on denying coverage based on a pre-existing condition"

Wow! This seems so much like the one we have now. But I bet there was no cry of Socialism and wealth redistribution back then. I guess it all just depends on the messenger.

Anyway, if there is a current  republican alternative to Obamacare and  someone reading this can give it to me in more detail; I would certainly appreciate you explaining it to me.

Thank you.

"Oh Field, that's a trick question and you know it. To be a replacement for Obamacare the other plan has to do the same thing it does in pretty much the same way."

OK, so maybe republicans have a different philosophy on health care and how it should be delivered. I would like to hear that as well.

People often accuse me of being close-minded --hey my Birds won today and I am in a good mood-- so tonight I am making an effort to open up.

Pic from Freedomworks.org

"Dumb & Dumber"

"

"Games people play
Night or day they're just not matchin"

I hear you Spinners, but these dudes sure are trying.

"Kentucky Senators Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell were caught on a hot mic in the Capitol Wednesday evening pitching a strategy to pivot to a more compromising tone in hopes of forcing Democratic lawmakers to negotiate an end the government shutdown.

“I just did CNN and I just go over and over again ‘We’re willing to compromise, we’re willing to negotiate,’” Paul said, having just concluded an interview with Erin Burnett. “I don’t think they [Democrats] poll tested, ‘We won’t negotiate.’ I think it’s awful for them to say that over and over again.”

“Yeah, I do too,” said McConnell, who himself had just been at a “candid” meeting with President Barack Obama and other congressional leaders, during which little progress on the stalemate was made. “I just came back from that two hour meeting with them and that was basically the same view privately as it was publicly.”

“I think if we keep saying, ‘We wanted to defund it, we fought for that, but now we’re willing to compromise on this,’ they can’t—I know we don’t want to be here, but we’re gonna win this, I think,” Paul said." [Source]

Yes, but if you win and the people suffer ,what kind of victory is that?

Finally, I am sad to report that Herman Wallace has passed away. He died "less than a week" after being released from a Louisiana prison which kept him locked up under conditions that would have violated most international human rights standards.

His freedom was short lived, but the struggle to treat human beings better than animals continues. Because I am quite sure that authorities in Louisiana's Angola Prison treat their pets better than the prisoners they are charged to watch.  

 


 

"Facial profiling" in New York, and Rand runs his mouth in Kentucky.

Let me start this post by saying that folks in New York should learn not to judge a book by its cover. Tonight I have to stand up for that Duck Dynasty dude who got tossed out of a fancy New York hotel because they thought that he was a homeless man.

They are calling it "facial profiling" because of his bearded look, but I am calling it something else: class discrimination. That, like racial discrimination, is a serious problem in this country.

"The first thing that happened to me at the hotel was I got escorted out," Robertson said of what he called a "facial-profiling deal," as the Louisiana clan is known for their long beards.

RELATED: WILLIE ROBERTSON OF 'DUCK DYNASTY' SAYS HE WON'T RUN FOR CONGRESS Robertson continued to explain that the employees simply had no idea who he was.

"I asked where the bathroom was and he said, 'Right this way, sir.' He was very nice, he walked me outside, pointed down the road and said, 'Good luck.'"

Jase, welcome to our world, and let me speak for black folks by saying that we feel your pain. But here is the good news: tomorrow you can shave your beard and you will never have to worry about "facial profiling" again.

Finally, I am pretty sure that Rand Paul is running for president in 2016 because he is doing his best to lock down the white vote.

Paul agrees with almost 70% of his fellow white Americans that black folks are not being disenfranchised at the voting booth. Of course blacks folks tend to disagree. Some black folks are even suing to be able to vote without barriers being placed in their way. One, in particular, is 92 years old. (Rand is hoping that she won't be around in 2016)

"And while census numbers back up the senator’s statement, with Blacks voting at 66 percent when compared to 64 percent for Whites, it also must be noted that one of the chief catalysts of African-American voter turnout in 2012 was voter suppression.

With Republican lawmakers pushing last-minute voter ID laws to seemingly stifle the Black vote, African Americans showed up at the polls in unprecedented numbers."

Rand, you might want to stop all the race talk. The last thing you want to do is fire up those Negroes again.

"Stephen" strikes again.

The Supremes punted to the lower court today in the University of Texas affirmative action case. No new groundbreaking law, just a note to the lower court to use a stricter level of scrutiny when considering things such as affirmative action. This is the toughest judicial evaluation allowed to consider whether government action is proper.

No problem. I am quite sure that universities have their ducks in a row and can justify how their admissions process works to create a better student body for learning. 

The Supremes were pretty much unanimous in their decision, except for our favorite Uncle, who, although he wrote a concurring opinion, had to go out of his way to point out why affirmative action is a bad thing. (This from a man who himself benefited from affirmative action.) Clarence actually compared affirmative action to Jim Crow segregation and slavery. Think about that for a minute. Slavery!
 
"Slaveholders argued that slavery was a 'positive good' that civilized blacks and elevated them in every dimension of life," Thomas wrote in his separate opinion on Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin. "A century later, segregationists similarly asserted that segregation was not only benign, but good for black students."

Thomas cited Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark 1954 Supreme Court case that led to the desegregation of public schools, in drawing a comparison between segregation and affirmative action.

"Following in these inauspicious footsteps, the University would have us believe that its discrimination is likewise benign. I think the lesson of history is clear enough: Racial discrimination is never benign," he wrote in the 20-page opinion. "The University’s professed good intentions cannot excuse its outright racial discrimination any more than such intentions justified the now-denounced arguments of slaveholders and segregationists." [Source]

But Uncle Clarence, race is but one of many considerations schools such as the University of Texas use to make up a diversified student body. They consider things such as your economic background, geography, family history, and whether you served in the military. Sadly, this Negro is so full of self hate that all he sees is the racial aspect of what schools are trying to do with their student body.

People like Clarence Thomas will never understand this, because he does not live in the real world. The poor man is still running as far away from Pin Point, Georgia as he can.

Anyway, while Clarence was comparing affirmative action to slavery, his fellow republican, Rand Paul, was comparing the NSA surveillance program to slaves being lynched back in the day. Something about the lack of due process.

Excuse me Rand, but there is no moral equivalence between the two. 

"One of them was when we judged the guilt of African Americans by lynching. People say, ‘Oh, that’s a dramatic comparison.’ Well that’s why we have steps and processes you go through to make sure you don’t have adjudication of guilt without a trial, without a lawyer, without a judge involved.”

Yes, but the last time I checked, Edward Snowden was not hanging from a tree with his eyeballs popping out and his skin turning gray.

*Pic from jobsjusticedreams