Republicans come clean, and the return of the ladies man.

I have to give it to the republicans here in my home state of pistolvania, at least they are honest.

"This weekend, Pennsylvania Republican House Leader Mike Turzai (R-PA) finally admitted what so many have speculated: Voter identification efforts are meant to suppress Democratic votes in this year’s election.

At the Republican State Committee meeting, Turzai took the stage and let slip the truth about why Republicans are so insistent on voter identification efforts — it will win Romney the election, he said:

“We are focused on making sure that we meet our obligations that we’ve talked about for years,” said Turzai in a speech to committee members Saturday. He mentioned the law among a laundry list of accomplishments made by the GOP-run legislature.

“Pro-Second Amendment? The Castle Doctrine, it’s done. First pro-life legislation – abortion facility regulations – in 22 years, done. Voter ID, which is gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania, done.”

Voter identification efforts disproportionately affect low-income voters of color, a typically Democratic demographic. Despite insistence by Republicans that the efforts are needed to prevent misconduct on election day, voter fraud is less likely than being hit by lighting." [Source]

This gives new meaning to the phrase, "By any means necessary."

Finally, like a  bad dream, Mr. 999 is back. This time the "Ladies Man" is riding the "Cain train" and he has some advice for Mitt and the gang:

"The way Governor Romney could blow it is number one: if Republicans get over confident. Number two: don't slow down in terms of the amount of effort that you have to exert in order to make sure that we win."

As for Romney's search for a vice presidential nominee, Cain says he should pick someone he believes in. "If the nominee were Herman Cain," he says, "my shortlist would include people like Rep. Allen West out of Florida, Rep. Paul Ryan out of Wisconsin and Sen. Marco Rubio and a senator out of Oklahoma, Coburn, Sen. DeMint… They are not afraid to challenge the establishment." [Source]

I hear ya Herman. Let's hope that that they aren't all serial philanderers like a certain fast talking pizza salesman.

The white folks are coming and the illegals better leave.

*

Let me start this post by saying that I love D.C., it's one of my favorite cities in the world.

Even though gentrification is making what was once "chocolate city" more like butter pecan, I still love the place.

Of course, I didn’t grow up there, so my sensibilities are different. To me it's just a nice place to visit, do business, and hang out with friends who have made their homes in the area.

For the folks who grew up there, the writing of Natalie Hopkinson hits home, and it’s something that I hear in a lot of other cities where gentrification (or reverse white flight) is pricing working class minority groups out of their old neighborhoods.

So why isn’t this a good thing? Property values will go up, and conventional wisdom says that the overall quality of life in the city will improve. But some things can't be measured in dollars and cents.

"My own initiation in the ways of Chocolate City came nearly 20 years ago when, after growing up black in nearly all-white environments, I arrived in Washington as a freshman at historically black Howard University. The Washington I encountered then was a strange, alternate universe: I saw black schools taught by black teachers and run by black principals reporting to black superintendents. Black restaurants. Black hospitals run by black doctors and staff members. Black suburbs. Black judges ordering black police officers to deliver black suspects to black jail wardens. And of course a black-owned music industry, go-go.

      

In Washington, we were not “minorities,” with the whiff of inferiority that label carries; we were “normal.” For the first time in my life, I felt at home."

You shouldn't feel inferior. When that "whiff" tries to take hold of you just hold your nose. And remember, home is where the heart is.

Finally, the supremes made a ruling today which , in essence, told the clowns in Arizona that they can't make laws which supersede federal statutes. They shot down three key provisions of SB1070 ,but unfortunately said it was cool for the po po to profile with their "papers please" clause.   

The white house was not exactly doing cart wheels but they managed to do a half of a victory lap. (Still waiting on Flipper to take an actual position on immigration, and the gutless media to call him out for not doing it.)  I guess that with this court you take whatever victory you can get.    

The supremes still have some more hits to come this week, and I suspect that those of us on the left will not be liking the tunes.

Folks, if you don't think it's important to put the right person in the White House, just remember that the president of these divided states is the person who ultimately selects the members of the supremes.  

*Pic from the New York Times.  

No Mitt for the NABJ.

There is a large segment of folks in the majority population who do not believe that there should be separate organizations for black folks. I hear it all the time:Why do blacks have black entertainment television, a black coaches association,and a Ms. Black America pageant? There is always an association for black_______[fill in the blank]

Well there happens to be a National Association of Black Journalist and Mitt and his crew probably fall into that segment of the majority population that I mentioned above.

"The Republican National Committee and the putative GOP standard-bearer, Mitt Romney, have ceded the National Association of Black Journalists convention to the Democrats, rejecting invitations to send speakers or panelists that the Democrats eagerly accepted.

Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. addressed the convention Wednesday on its opening night, delivering his campaign's talking points. A Friday afternoon session, "A Working Journalist's Guide: Obama Administration Insiders You Need to Know," featured four press contacts in the Obama administration.
Additionally, at least three representatives from the Obama reelection campaign were available to discuss the state of the campaign, also on Friday afternoon.
"We reached out consistently and vigorously to the Romney campaign asking that he appear," Sonya Ross, a Washington editor at the Associated Press who chairs the NABJ's Political Journalism Task Force, told Journal-isms.

"We also made overtures to the Republican National Committee. We wanted to make sure we reached both political parties to ask them to participate. The DNC," she said, referring to the Democratic National Committee, "came to us and asked us, 'Can we be there?' . . . We got no such overtures from the Republican National Committee.

"If the Republican National Committee wants to come tonight or Saturday or Sunday, we would love to see them."

The absence of Republican representatives, even as audience members, was evident in a Friday morning session, "Covering Race in the 2012 Elections," moderated by Jesse Washington, Associated Press writer on race and ethnicity. Panelists were Kevin Merida, national editor at the Washington Post, and Michelle Jaconi, executive producer of CNN's Cross Platform Programming Unit." [More]

I keep warning you Negroes about segregating yourselves. Certain people believe that it's un-American, and they will not pander to you. There will be no Sister Souljah moment from Mitt when it comes to this type of stuff. The base does not want him visiting you self segregating Negroes and he will always honor their wishes. You Negroes are not going to vote fo him anyway, so why piss off the folks who will?

I wonder what Mitt will do if he becomes president? Maybe his wife will take up one of those Negro causes like urban poverty.

Still, all is not lost. From the looks of things old reliable, the NAACP, might still get a visit from Mitt.

"Republicans have captured the white vote in every presidential election since 1972, and during the recent primary season, GOP candidates were criticized for their failure to reach out to African Americans.

Still, some GOP hopefuls have courted African Americans if only to appeal to white independents who believe that a president should be accessible to all segments of society.

And while the campaign turned down NABJ, it announced that the candidate would address the NAACP convention in Houston, which runs July 7-12."

Mitt, wear cotton. It will be hot in Houston come July.

 

  

Don't say it quite so, Joe.

Did you hear the one about the brotha who works for "the man" and got suspended from his job for stating the obvious about "the man"?

"Politico has suspended White House correspondent Joe Williams over comments suggesting that Mitt Romney is more "comfortable" around white people.

Williams, who is African-American, made the comments during a Thursday appearance on Martin Bashir's MSNBC program. During the appearance, Williams discussed how he believes Romney appears more "comfortable" appearing on Fox News Channel, as opposed to other outlets, and implied that race is a factor:

"Romney is very, very comfortable, it seems, with people who are like him. That's one of the reasons why he seems so stiff and awkward in town hall settings, why he can't relate to people other than that," Williams said during the appearance. "But when he comes on 'Fox and Friends,' they're like him. They're white folks who are very much relaxed in their own company."

In the announcement on Williams' suspension, Politico writes:

"Regrettably, an unacceptable number of Joe Williams's public statements on cable and Twitter have called into question his commitment to this responsibility," POLITICO's founding editors John Harris and Jim VandeHei wrote in a memo to the staff. "His comment about Governor Romney earlier today on MSNBC fell short of our standards for fairness and judgment in an especially unfortunate way." [Source]

Sorry Joe, we all know that what you said is true, but you work for "the man", and you just can't go stating uncomfortable truths on national television. 

Just curious, did Glenn Beck get suspended for saying that Obama doesn't like white people and has a "deep seated hatred" for them? I know that he took some heat, but did his employer suspend him? "Field, Beck is not a journalist, Joe Williams works for a real news organization."  Oh yea, that's right Beck worked for FOX at the time.

Beck's statement was way more outrageous because Obama is half white. And, trust me; he is very comfortable around white people. You don't get to be president of these divided states of America if you are not. The flip side is, of course, that you can become president if you are not comfortable around Negroes. And if Romney wins he won't be the first; "color arousal" is something that has plagued American presidents throughout history.   

Joe, hopefully you will get your job back real soon. There is a recession going on and no one can afford to be without work. Just be careful next time. Remember who you work for.

Real evil.

They are not Happy in Happy Valley tonight, because one of the most influential citizens of that bucolic area, who just happened to be a sociopathic monster, was found guilty by a jury of his peers of defiling and stealing the innocence of young boys for years.

It took the jury a little over 20 hours to make official what the rest of us suspected all along: that Jerry Sandusky was a predator who preyed on innocent children thanks to a powerful institution and iconic coach who turned a blind eye to it all.

The folks of Happy Valley will go back to cheering on their beloved Nittany Lions, and they will hope that the memory of Jerry Sandusky will go away. It won't. Because, in a way, they were all found guilty tonight.

Another institution was on trial here in Philadelphia this past week, and,like Penn State, the jury found that those who represent that institution was also guilty of despicable acts.

Here in America we like to demonize and paint only certain segments of our population as evil and malevolent, and yet we worship and idolize people and institutions that are just as evil. It's only when the facade comes off that the rest of us get to see what was there all along.





      

The sequel.

I am not a big fan of movie sequels, give me the original every time. With a few exceptions, (the Bourne franchise comes to mind) the sequel never quite lives up to the original. Big Momma’s House 2? Beverly Hills Cop 11?The Hangover Part 11? Please!

So anyway, now we have “Fast and Furious” playing out in Washington, and if you haven’t been paying attention, you might not realize that this too is a sequel. Yes, let’s call this one 2 Fast 2 furious.

The original came under our friend W, and, as is the case with most originals, I am guessing that it was better than the sequel as well.

"One after the other, Republicans on the panel waved the bloody shirt. “Here’s the proof!” hollered Rep. Trey Gowdy (S.C.), claiming he had evidence that President Obama knew about a botched federal program that contributed to Terry’s death. Gowdy’s proof: that Obama cited executive privilege in denying the committee all the documents it sought. “If he’s not part of it, then he’s got no business asserting executive privilege,” Gowdy concluded.

Terry’s death is indeed a scandal, part of the “Fast and Furious” operation in which the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives lost track of 2,000 guns it was planning to trace on their way to Mexican drug cartels; two of those firearms were found near Terry’s body. After that, the Justice Department shut down the program (which followed similar “gun-walking” operations during the George W. Bush administration), fired or reassigned several people who ran the program out of ATF’s Phoenix office, requested an inspector-general investigation and handed over about 7,600 pages of records to Issa’s committee." [Source]

Wait, what was that Mr.Milbank? We have actually seen this movie before? Yes, I thought it looked familiar.

I wonder why this one is such a hit with republicans and the original was such a dud? Hmmmm, I am guessing that they didn't like the first director.

"Republicans didn’t have much on Holder — it’s one of those perennial disputes about how much the executive branch needs to divulge to the legislature — so they did what sensible people usually do when they have an honest disagreement: They accused the attorney general of being an accessory to murder."

Or, maybe they just like a more dramatic script.

Where is Vin Diesel when you need him?

Whenever I hear the words fast and furious I think of Vin Diesel and really fast cars. Now when I hear it I will think of really stupid republican politicians who like to overreach. (Oversight and overreach are two different things.)

The wingnuts in charge of the house oversight committee voted to hold the AG in contempt today. They think that there is a fire when most of us don't even see any smoke.   

But politircksters will be politricksters. It is, after all, political season. They have a presidential race to win, and anything to make the HNIC look bad will help their cause.

They want documents from the "Fast and Furious" gun walking "scandal", and they think that Holder and his peeps are hiding something. Of course O invoking executive privilege in the matter didn't help. A move that I personally didn't like and that I have to rip O for as well. I know that you have to protect your boy, (and possibly the office you hold, since W and his peeps were also mixed up in this mess)  but you have to remain consistent. That was not the case here.

I am no big fan of Lady Nancy, but she is right about this latest charade out of Washington. It's a joke.

"On Wednesday, House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) slammed the House Oversight committee’s hearings relating to the Fast and Furious gun walking scandal and the imminent committee vote to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt. “I could have arrested Karl Rove on any given day,” said Pelosi." [Source]

One of the reasons that I am no fan of Mrs. Pelosi is that she didn't arrest the little bastard. Or at least make his life more uncomfortable while he was using Washington as his own personal playground.

Oh well, this too will pass. But it should be fun to see what happens as the summer heats up.

Finally, do you want to know why the GOP will never get more than 10% of the African American vote in this country?

Read the following:

 "You might recall that, yesterday, we reported that Arizona radio host Barbara Espinosa is defending comments she made about referring to President Barack Obama as a “monkey” and telling a caller to her show that she does not “believe in calling him the first black President. I voted for the white guy myself.”

As it turns out, there was a guest with her that day: Arizona Republican Party Chair Tom Morrissey.

RELATED: Radio Host Barbara Espinosa Stands By Calling Barack Obama ‘A Monkey’

And, as Think Progress is reporting today, Morrissey said not a word on the air regarding Espinosa’s “nickname” for the President. Instead, he shared that, as he sees it, Americans who do not support Obama are nothing short of patriots.."
[Source]

"Patriots"? So that's what they are calling bigots these days?







    

Negroes get booted from a club and it's all about the shoe.

Honestly, I don't even trip with the racism chase anymore. This stuff is so commonplace in America that it doesn't even pay to feature the all too frequent incidents of the ignorant and moronic.

Besides, you Negroes need to start doing for yourselves and stop trying to get into white folks business.

"Last Saturday, June 16th, Wall and two other friends arrived at Downtown Sports Bar and Grill around 12:30 AM. “You need a membership to come in tonight,” the bouncer told them. “I’ve never seen you here before.” The friends were confused, since the bar is better known for its all-you-can-eat wings and massive TVs than fancy private parties — and because the people in line before them walked right in after showing their ID.

The only difference between those people and my friends and I was our race. Still, we stood at the door in bewilderment asking “What?” as he further tried to explain that we weren’t going to be able to come in because of our “non-member” status. However, as he was explaining this, a police officer walked up to where he was standing to tell him something unrelated. As soon as he caught sight of the officer beside him, he said “Never mind, y’all go ahead.” This was the first interesting ordeal of the night, but not the last.

Once inside, Wall was accosted by an employee [who he later learned was the bar's manager] after standing near the bar by himself for a few moments. “Either buy a drink or leave right now,” the man told him. Wall said he was waiting for his friend to come back from the bathroom, but man insisted he had to buy a drink right away. When Wall continued to look for his friend, the employee physically attacked him:" [Source]

Don't let them have to tell you that you aren't wanted. It's simple; just don't go in the first place. Still, I hope these hillbillies realize that there are certain rules that they have to follow if they want to engage in such a public business in these divided states of America.

Finally, I was going to slam Adidas for their " slave shackle shoe" but they decided to come to their senses and pull the line.

Honestly, had they gone and released the shoe, I am quite sure that lots of my little cousins would have been lining up to buy it. And that is just one of many the tragedies surrounding this entire sad launch. Another is the lack of  understanding on the part of a business that has made millions pushing their products to the very demographic they offended.

Some folks are already wondering how this could even have happened, but if you understand anything about the American psyche when it comes to dealing with race you wouldn't be surprised.

"The advertising for the shoe premiered on the Adidas Original Facebook page on June 14 with the caption:

“Got a sneaker game so hot you lock your kicks to your ankles?”
“Wow obviously there was no one of color in the room when the marketing/product team ok’d this,” said a commenter identifying herself as MsRodwell on nicekicks.com.

Adidas defended the shoe’s designer Jeremy Scott by saying that he was just being “quirky” and “lighthearted,” but Rev. Jesse Jackson is but one of the leaders in the Black community who disagrees:

“The attempt to commercialize and make popular more than 200 years of human degradation, where blacks were considered three-fifths human by our Constitution is offensive, appalling and insensitive,” Jackson said in a statement Monday."

Calm down Reverend. Jeremy was just being "quirky and lighthearted". I guess that slavery was so long ago that we can now view it as something "quirky" at this stage in our country's history.

Amazing Wallenda and "Wawa's".

I saw that white dude walking across Niagara Falls Friday night on a wire, and all I could do was shake my head. White folks will do anything for thrills. For most black folks, just trying to make it every day in America is an adventure. If you are white you have to go looking for that adrenalin rush. Not so with us. Every time we see the po po or get shaded at some high end store our hearts start racing.

Anyway, dude made it to the other side in one piece. The Canadians asked him for his passport and it was pretty much a wrap. Let's see what he does for his next trick. I bet he wouldn't walk through Southwest Philly alone on a Saturday night. Personally, I would pay to watch that. Yes Mr. Wallenda, if you really want to impress me try that trick just once. TV One or BET might even carry it live.

Finally, if you live anywhere in Southeastern Pennsylvania or the Mid-Atlantic portion of the United States, you pretty much know all about our  Wawa stores. (Or, as Flipper calls it, "Wawa's.) You can get everything from  sandwiches, to coffee, to gas for your car at the local Wawa.

Anyway, thanks to his run for president of these divided states, Mitt Romney is also learning about Wawa.  

Apparently Mitt has never actually visited a supermarket before. If he had he would have noticed those little things called scanners that they tend to use.

"Where do you get your hoagies here?" Romney asked supporters gathered at the Cornwall Iron Furnace. "Do you get them at Wawa's? Is that where you get them?"

When audience members audibly disapproved of Romney namedropping the Pennsylvania-based chain, he revised his question, asking if they instead bought their sandwiches at rival store Sheetz. The new suggestion caused even greater negative feedback.

"I'm sorry," Romney said. "I know it's a very big state divide."
Romney went on to applaud "Wawa's" -- the actual name of the chain is Wawa (no "s") -- for its electronic ordering system, which he discovered at a Quakertown store earlier in the weekend. He reportedly ordered a meatball hoagie with sweet peppers and pickles while mulling options for his running mate.

"You press a little touch-tone keypad," Romney said, referring to the chain's touch-screen system. "You touch this, touch this, go pay the cashier, and there's your sandwich. It's amazing!" [Source]

Yes Mitt, it is. There are a lot of "amazing" things going on in America these days.







  

 

Rodney King will never see if we can get along.

Rodney King passed away today. Most of us who saw that horrific video believe that he got a 21 year rain check from the Grim Reaper. He should have died that night. In a way it is only fitting that the man who begged for us to get along has died. Because, in America, any hope of us getting along has pretty much died as well.

Black and white Americans are actually getting along less now. It’s as if the beating caught on tape, and the riots that subsequently followed, divided the country even more. (Of course O.J. didn't help)

Before his ass whopping, thanks to Los Angeles’s most notorious street gang at the time, most Americans didn’t know that this was how big city police departments handled their crime problems. (Thank you George Holliday) This was before camera phones and You Tube exploded on the scene. Even now, with so many eyes watching, the po po will still administer their own brand of justice before a Judge or jury has a chance to.

Still, some Americans saw the tape and thought that he (King) got what he deserved. -The folks who sat on the first jury clearly did. - Those same Americans are angrier now than they ever were before. They see America as going to the lawless, and, to them, more not less Rodney King style ass whippings are needed. "Let them burn their cities, they are already going to hell in a hand basket. They can't be any worse than they are now" .

It's a shame to see King die so young. He seemed to have been getting his life together and had recently written a book which I promised myself that I would read one day. It's funny, but when folks in the hood struggle from addiction it is totally different from folks in suburbia. There are no fancy treatment centers or 24/7 hot- lines for them. Police officers won't call your parents and tell them to come and get you because you are acting funny. In the hood they will shoot you first and ask questions later. Or, if you are driving a Hyundai at a high rate of speed, they will track you down and beat you like a dog.

It's ironic that Rodney King died in his own swimming pool some 21 years after getting a violent beat down that should have killed him before our eyes. It's still too early to tell what caused King's death, but I think that we all know what caused the death of the peace and harmony that he hoped for.

Floyd does his time and time is up for the vagina.

I have a great deal of respect for Floyd Mayweather's pugilistic skills, but I am really getting sick of dude crying a river about his incarceration. First he tried to get his lawyers to beg for house arrest because he claimed that he would lose his boxing skills, and now he is crying about the food.

Floyd, it's a jail, it's not one of those fancy Vegas hotels that you are used to.

The conditions in a jail are going to be tough. Especially for a guy like you who is used to living large.

It can't be any worse than the jails here in Philly, and young bucks here sit in jail like it's a walk in the park.

Floyd is going to sit for 90 days. That isn't exactly hard time. He pleaded guilty to a serious charge and was allowed to earn a big pay day before going to lock down. It's time to stop with the whining and get on with doing the time.

My advice to Floyd is to make the best use of his time while he is being held by the state. Read some books and do some soul searching. At the end of the day it isn't always about how you take care of your body; it's about how you take care of your mind as well.

Finally, republicans in Michigan have decided that the word Vagina is a bad word. This could have something to do with the fact it (the vagina) is attached to women. I bet they would never ban the word penis. That is too close for comfort.

This fits a pattern with republicans of late, anything having to do with a woman or her body has caused them to come out blazing. Some of these republicans are married and have daughters, (heck some of them are women themselves) so you have to wonder where all of this dislike for women is coming from.

 “It was so offensive, I don’t even want to say it in front of women,” one state representative said. “I would not say that in mixed company.”

Really? Vagina is "offensive"? What if she had said my pussy? What other word should she have used to describe this particular part of her body?

“If I can’t say the word vagina, why are we legislating vaginas?”

They are "legislating vaginas" because vaginas are dangerous weapons. Look how many self righteous republicans it brought down. If the vagina goes unchecked there is no telling how much damage it will do.