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And I'm already mad that Adrien Brody is cast as "Captain Save-A-Negro" - like brothas couldn't cut their own record deals, when Ray Charles and James Brown pretty much led the way on how it got done.
Why is it, do you think that they still don't know us? I have a understanding of a lot of different groups in this country. It really isn't that hard to learn about another's culture. What is it about blacks that some relegate as insignificant?
I think it's important to understand ourselves and our culture first and foremost. Whites for the most part, don't feel a need or desire to learn about us unless it's suits their whim or purpose, and frankly I don't hold my breath waitng for them to do so. Why should they seek to know another's culture when they think theirs is one of privilege and entitlement? And as we've learned from Sarah Palin, some of these folk don't have a natural curiosity to learn anythnig outside of their neck of the woods!
We as a people had to assimilate to varying degrees in order to survive. When I was younger, we didn't get African /Black history in our schools. All we got was, "This is the continent Africa , and slaves came from Africa." Honestly, This is all that we had in our history books; with pictures of animals and half naked natives!
We learned from our parents and grand parents, uncles & aunties; through oral history, college, travel, the arts, and through our curiosity about life.
We're living in the information age now so there's no excuse for any of us not to know where we came from and who we are as a people. So we learn to embrace who we are, our culture, to nuture and honor it. Love each other, take care of our families, friends, our communities. Because if we don't do it, no one else is.
And don't think for one moment that some white folk don't understand us at all. Some know us better than we do ourselves. They study us, mimic us, and dilute our brilliance and talent; from art to music, to dance, to dress, our looks,....neeed I go on? and claim it as their own. So, we claim need to claim it in all it's splendor and glory.
THERE'S NOTHING INSIGNIFICANT ABOUT BLACKS. They wouldn't have tried to beat us down by raping our women, lynching our men and simultaneously pillaging our culture if we were insignificant!
"You heard me. You ain't blind."
And speaking of blindness... Re: yesterday's conversation about Obama's blackness - please make sure that you check out this article Clarence Page wrote over a year ago with Obama's own thoughts on the subject: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/...
(both whiterosebuddy and spirit_55z deserve the credit for mentioning this article and finding the source - I just want to make sure everyone takes another look at it...)
My favorite from There Eyes Were Watching God:
Janie to Teacake on love: ".love ain't somethin' lak uh grindstone dat's de same thing everywhere and do de same thing tuh everything it touch. Love is lak de sea. It's uh movin' thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it's different with every shore."
Beautiful!
http://atlanta.bizjournals.com/atlanta/prnewswi...
I'm hoping that Pres. Obama and the Congress will reinvest in commuter rail. Many high-growth and high-density areas like Atlanta and Houston are choked by unrelenting traffic. Large cities like NY, Chicago and L.A. also have their traffic woes, but they also have alternative forms of people-moving.
But here in the South, most white Southerners have been historically resistant to alternative modes of mass travel. The unspoken rationale being that mass transit makes it too easy for non-Whites to travel in and out of White communities without supervision.
So since ince VP Biden was a daily Amtrak rider, I'm hoping that he will lend a voice to this very important issue. I'd much rather invest $25 billion in a national railway system than on a bandaid solution for automakers.
Get tested. Get treated. Get educated. Fight AIDS. Not people with AIDS.
Zora Neale Hurston
Essence is doing 2 covers for January, one featuring Barack, the other Michelle. They both look great!
http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/130...
Great word in this context.
I think it's plain common sense, a la Old South Grandparentism 101 : "That Obama fella, he know jes whur he stand wit hurh, and he keepin' hurh close."
LOL
Where are her foreign policy creds: "she knows many foreign leaders" what what what???
BUT, I have ta believe that HE IS in CONTROL!! HER SPEECH---HE WROTE IT!! MOST of the WORDS spoke of HOW SHE will SERVE HIM!!
SHE KNOWS!!!
You got that right, Obama is in for it, and Hillary is already showing how much of a team player she is (not).
I just have an issue with some of the names you call some of the black republicans. But we are past that. : ) I have my opinions but I respect yours.
I have known Hillary Clinton as a friend, a colleague, a source of counsel, and as a campaign opponent. She possesses an extraordinary intelligence and toughness, and a remarkable work ethic. I am proud that she will be our next Secretary of State. She is an American of tremendous stature who will have my complete confidence; who knows many of the world's leaders; who will command respect in every capitol; and who will clearly have the ability to advance our interests around the world.
Hillary's appointment is a sign to friend and foe of the seriousness of my commitment to renew American diplomacy and restore our alliances. There is much to do - from preventing the spread of nuclear weapons to Iran and North Korea, to seeking a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians, to strengthening international institutions. I have no doubt that Hillary Clinton is the right person to lead our State Department, and to work with me in tackling this ambitious foreign policy agenda.
Annnnnd I noted that SHE will report DIRECTLY to the P-E, and NOT THROUGH anybody [as in billary.] Some commentator stated that her position is considered to be HIGHER that that of billary. And that billary does NOT quite/necessarily have the DIRECT access. :>) :>)
Where is Al Giordano! I need someone to talk me down. Come back from vacation.
hahahah!
That's foul...LOL!
I caught that too....
Did he call on Fox News yet? I missed the very beginning.
"I can do whatever I want!" :>) :>) :>)
I would NOT have asked them to be on the team UNLESS they agreed to work together!!
I assembled this team because I'm a strong believer in STRONG Personalities and a vigorous debate.
BUT, I WILL BE SETTING POLICY!! THEY KNOW THIS!!
QUESTION: Ain't NONE!! :>) :>)
"I assembled this team because I'm a strong believer in STRONG Personalities and a vigorous debate.
BUT, I WILL BE SETTING POLICY!!
I firmly believe that cronyism, groupthink, and too much "YES-manship" got out country into this mess.
Then he gives HIS ANSWER!!! Boo-Yah!!!
IFFFFF SHE didn't believe that I could lead, SHE would not have accepted!!
DANG!! HE'S TOO TUFF!! :>) :>)
I'm sorry, I don't like the SoS nomination, and I don't like the answer he gave about why he chose her. I suppose it was too much to hope that such a crucial position would illustrate 'change we can believe in' as opposed to the same old, same old in politics. The more things change, the more they stay the same. She has no business in that position; she doesn't have the foreign policy credentials other than the lies she told about dodging bullets.
Unfortunately, this just confirms my belief since he announced that there is no difference in Obama, Billy Jeff, and the hawkish HRClinton's policies. Being against the Iraq invasion was a political tool only used to distinguish himself from Clinton. Otherwise, they believe in and seek the same policies, something I commented on last year when I laid out the reasons that I supported Edwards as opposed to Clinton or Obama.
Just as Obama has failed to mention anything about the poor and the homeless thorughout his campaign and the election, his choice for SoS illustrates to me that it is the same old politics with only a change in appearance. The Clinton deal was done that night at Feinstein's house, thus demonstrating that back room deals are still the norm; they're just done before the convention in luxury homes somewhere in DC. The fact that they were at Feinstein's was a red flag that I may have mentioned here too.
Nothing's changed, y'all. He's just as hawkish (his stand on Afghanistan has never set well with me), he's more conservative (I posted this here during the summer), and he's as much a part of the establishment as Billy Jeff or Shrub or any of the others; his votes on FISA, and the bailout only magnify this..
Ugh.
I called him out on this - that blog post was one of the examples Jack gave in his interview with the Washington Post on the unwillingness to hear criticism about Obama.
I honestly thought he had an Ace up his sleeve on this pick. This is probably the major screw-up besides refusing to drum Joe Lieberman out of the caucus that will come back to haunt Obama for the next four years, not to mention biting him in the ass.
But, as someone wiser than me pointed out on this board (Admiral Komack), Hillary now works for Obama. He's her BOSS. And if she puts a foot wrong, he has the authority to fire her ass, and maybe that's more appealing to Obama (having Hillary under his thumb and having to say "Yassir, Boss!") than allowing her ass in the Senate.
We will need popcorn and the alcoholic beverages of your choice. Pull up a ringside seat at C-Span for those confirmation hearings, because the GOP will be salivating to get into the ass of a Clinton. Doesn't matter that it's Hillary's ass they will be firing at, either.
-Thank you for the compliment.
There are wiser persons on this board than I.
Interestingly, she said "If I'm confirmed." I'm not reading too much into that statement, but I found it interesting that she said that. True, he'll be her boss, but we all know that the Clintons have a mind of their own. Larry King just asked during his opening 'Whose foreign policy will she be promoting? Hers, Obama's or theirs?" That's what I'm talking about. It's all well and good for her to be under the authority of Obama but . . .
Thanks again all of you, including your post, Micheline. I'm still not sold on the nomination but it ain't my call obviously. I just think she would have been much better - and more palatable - as Secretary of Defense. But, as I said, it ain't my call and I ain't got no say in who he chooses.
It appears that Miranda and I will have company in that boat, cause I'm on record saying while I voted for the brotha, I will be the first blogger that puts a foot in his ass when he goes wrong. The point here is that I'm willing to give him a chance to "get right" as the grandparents would say.
And, at this rate for Hillary, I suspect our rowboat will have to become a cruise liner. LOL
Co-Sign!! This way, she will have LESS of a chance to garner a "power base!" IMHO :>)
I do not trust Hillary or Bill Clinton.
If Hillary does well as SofS, she'll rehabilitate her image and Obama wins kudos for picking her.
But, if Hillary fucks up and tries to use the position of SofS to thwart the Obama Administration, Obama will sadly ask for Hillary's resignation...and get it.
Anywho, we are watching him.
My mother was the only aunt that accepted her, cause she married my cousin when they both had neither pot to piss in or window to throw it out.
They have been married as long as Loving v. Virginia, so I figured she loved his ass real early in the game and drew fire one holiday when I busted my aunts for continuing to talk about homegirl after she's been with my cousin for over 40 years.
They never forced themselves to be cordial, and now they're bitter old hags who give me indigestion and it costs too much to fly to Louisiana and get indigestion because of family undercurrents.
And that's what Hillary's going to be - a familial undercurrent that Obama now has to live with, but I'm hoping just like Bush booted out a competent Treasury Secretary in Paul O'Neill within two years, I'm expecting Hillary to be gone in the same amount of time, cause, unlike O'Neill, she's not competent, and her incompetency is going to land this nation in some shyt where Obama will be FORCED to fire her ass because she will forget HE is HER BOSS.
For the record, we are technically the same "hue" and I know more about African American history than he does... lol
I hope I make the cut.
They grew up during Jim Crow and Segregation - how my own mother wasn't warped by that, I'll never know, but I'm truly grateful. Imagine my surprise when I graduated college and a white guy who had a crush on me during the four years we had classes together, confessed the crush when he introduced himself to my mother and she asked me why hadn't I brought him home to meet her, clearly indicating she was okay with me dating within and OUTSIDE the race if the guy treated me well.
1. WORD(s) for the DAY: TRANSITION TRAIL--NATIONAL SECURITY TEAM!!
2. HEADLINE(s)
a) Obama's National Security Team
The New York Times, in previewing President-elect Obama's national security team, reports that several key members have more "hawkish" records than he does but that he selected them because they agreed with Obama about the need for a "rebalancing of America's national security portfolio":
When President-elect Barack Obama introduces his national security team on Monday, it will include two veteran cold warriors and a political rival whose records are all more hawkish than that of the new president who will face them in the White House Situation Room.
Yet all three of his choices -- Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton as the rival turned secretary of state; Gen. James L. Jones, the former NATO commander, as national security adviser, and Robert M. Gates, the current and future defense secretary -- were selected in large part because they have embraced a sweeping shift of resources in the national security arena.
SKIP
The Associated Press reported that Obama planned to name six "experienced hands" to fill top posts in the administration at a news conference in Chicago on Monday morning: [IT'S DONE!! :>)]
b) Key members of Obama-Biden national security team announced
Chicago -- President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden officially announced key members of their national security team today: nominating Senator Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, selecting Defense Secretary Robert Gates to remain as Secretary of Defense, nominating Eric Holder as Attorney General, nominating Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, nominating Susan Rice as Ambassador to the United Nations and selecting General Jim Jones, USMC (Ret) as National Security Adviser.
"In this uncertain world, the time has come for a new beginning -- a new dawn of American leadership to overcome the challenges of the 21st century, and to seize the opportunities embedded in those challenges. To succeed, we must pursue a new strategy that skillfully uses, balances, and integrates all elements of American power: our military and diplomacy; our intelligence and law enforcement; our economy and the power of our moral example. The team that we have assembled here today is uniquely suited to do just that. They share my pragmatism about the use of power, and my sense of purpose about America's role as a leader in the world," said President-elect Obama.
THERE IS MORE!
3. HIS SCHEDULE:
Monday Dec. 1, 2008
All Times Eastern8:00 AM
9:00 AM
9:23 AM
Obama heads toward the press conference in downtown Chicago.
9:43 AM
Obama's motorcade arrives at the Chicago Hilton and Towers, for the upcoming press conference.
10:00 AM
10:40 AM
President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden officially announced key members of their national security team.
STATEMENT: Obama vows to 'renew American diplomacy'
THAT'S ALL FOR NOW!
President-Elect Obama! :>) LARGE and IN CHARGE!!! :>)
This makes me not like Susan Rice, but I'll have to do some more asking around.
Napolitano is capable, though her opponents say that she's not tough enough on immigration. Course, there's more to DHS than that (speaking of, I heard that FEMA might come out from under DHS a while back, which would be a good move).
GEN Jones is a good choice, as is keeping Gates on....IF Obama listens to him (I fully expect that both of them will recommend taking until 2011 to complete the Iraq withdrawal). Obama can put in his own person at DOD during his second term and we'll see how that goes...but continuity of leadership is important now.
This is not turning out to be the nightmare I expected.
Rice's comment reminds me p one that Albright reportedly made along the lines of, "what's the point in having this military if we can't use it?"
People who think along those lines would probably commit us to the same sort of nation-building that the military wasn't that fond of under Clinton. Combine that with an already stretched military, and there's cause for concern from me.
And could that be that traditionally in US politics, the enormous loss of African lives are not highly regarded as a humanitarian crisis....or maybe certain geographical areas in Africa may not have the resources we crave to control...
Wasn't it Paul "The Rat" Wolfowitz who claimed that Iraqi oil revenues could eventually pay for the "nation-building" of Iraq after the US invaded....oh, wait...How has THAT worked out?
yet, when Georgia is an antagonist against people who live in the breakaway province of South Ossetia....Americans are told "We are all Georgians" and Dick Cheney, on the spot, pledged $1 billion in US aid to reward the aggressors. What do you think that money will be used for...maybe building up Georgia's government...
The lives of those from African nations are just not valued.
I may not have military experience BUT you don't have to serve to have a valid opinion or point about it. There are enough books and plenty of research that'll let people know why we are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan and why we are posted up in other places.
But anyway, I am agreeing with you. :)
But an individual must understand cultures and the way people live, and how they arrive at their beliefs. To me, Bush never had a grasp of the world, political and cultural implications of how other nations live.
And that is why he carried out neo-con principles and agendas...since that is what he surrounded himself with. He never had a plan B because he didn't even understand plan A.
That is why he prematurely declared "Mission Accomplished" when in actuality the ramification for invading Iraq was starting to unfold in a way he did not plan for. And the incompetence showed.
I'll provide comment, but it probably won't go further than that.
But then again, they're just Africans so why should we care, right? </sarcasm>
She makes me feel murderous.
She's been the water-carrier- in- chief of Bush/McCain/Hillary Clinton.
She needs to leave televison and nurse the conscience of her husband because I know that Greenspan has to feel shitty for the economic situation he has helped create.
LOL!
Do you know if those pics are only for the calendar specifically or is this a compilation put together for the calendar? Either way its completely disgusting. I'm looking for contact information on Perilli right now.
The following is excerpts of an opinion piece that appeared in the Washington Post yesterday written by an interrogator.....and why he knows torture is wrong--PERIOD.
It is long, but a great piece
AN INTERROGATOR SPEAKS
I'm Still Tortured by What I Saw in Iraq
By Matthew Alexander
Sunday, November 30, 2008
I should have felt triumphant when I returned from Iraq in August 2006. Instead, I was worried and exhausted. My team of interrogators had successfully hunted down one of the most notorious mass murderers of our generation, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq and the mastermind of the campaign of suicide bombings that had helped plunge Iraq into civil war. But instead of celebrating our success, my mind was consumed with the unfinished business of our mission: fixing the deeply flawed, ineffective and un-American way the U.S. military conducts interrogations in Iraq. I'm still alarmed about that today.
I'm not some ivory-tower type; I served for 14 years in the U.S. Air Force, began my career as a Special Operations pilot flying helicopters, saw combat in Bosnia and Kosovo, became an Air Force counterintelligence agent, then volunteered to go to Iraq to work as a senior interrogator. What I saw in Iraq still rattles me -- both because it betrays our traditions and because it just doesn't work.......
Amid the chaos, four other Air Force criminal investigators and I joined an elite team of interrogators attempting to locate Zarqawi. What I soon discovered about our methods astonished me. The Army was still conducting interrogations according to the Guantanamo Bay model: Interrogators were nominally using the methods outlined in the U.S. Army Field Manual, the interrogators' bible, but they were pushing in every way possible to bend the rules -- and often break them. I don't have to belabor the point; dozens of newspaper articles and books have been written about the misconduct that resulted. These interrogations were based on fear and control; they often resulted in torture and abuse.
I refused to participate in such practices, and a month later, I extended that prohibition to the team of interrogators I was assigned to lead. I taught the members of my unit a new methodology -- one based on building rapport with suspects, showing cultural understanding and using good old-fashioned brainpower to tease out information. I personally conducted more than 300 interrogations, and I supervised more than 1,000. The methods my team used are not classified (they're listed in the unclassified Field Manual), but the way we used them was, I like to think, unique. We got to know our enemies, we learned to negotiate with them, and we adapted criminal investigative techniques to our work (something that the Field Manual permits, under the concept of "ruses and trickery"). It worked. Our efforts started a chain of successes that ultimately led to Zarqawi.
Over the course of this renaissance in interrogation tactics, our attitudes changed. We no longer saw our prisoners as the stereotypical al-Qaeda evildoers we had been repeatedly briefed to expect; we saw them as Sunni Iraqis, often family men protecting themselves from Shiite militias and trying to ensure that their fellow Sunnis would still have some access to wealth and power in the new Iraq. Most surprisingly, they turned out to despise al-Qaeda in Iraq as much as they despised us, but Zarqawi and his thugs were willing to provide them with arms and money. I pointed this out to Gen. George Casey, the former top U.S. commander in Iraq, when he visited my prison in the summer of 2006. He did not respond.
Perhaps he should have. It turns out that my team was right to think that many disgruntled Sunnis could be peeled away from Zarqawi. A year later, Gen. David Petraeus helped boost the so-called Anbar Awakening, in which tens of thousands of Sunnis turned against al-Qaeda in Iraq and signed up with U.S. forces, cutting violence in the country dramatically.
Our new interrogation methods led to one of the war's biggest breakthroughs: We convinced one of Zarqawi's associates to give up the al-Qaeda in Iraq leader's location. On June 8, 2006, U.S. warplanes dropped two 500-pound bombs on a house where Zarqawi was meeting with other insurgent leaders.
But Zarqawi's death wasn't enough to convince the joint Special Operations task force for which I worked to change its attitude toward interrogations. The old methods continued. I came home from Iraq feeling as if my mission was far from accomplished. Soon after my return, the public learned that another part of our government, the CIA, had repeatedly used waterboarding to try to get information out of detainees.
I know the counter-argument well -- that we need the rough stuff for the truly hard cases, such as battle-hardened core leaders of al-Qaeda, not just run-of-the-mill Iraqi insurgents. But that's not always true: We turned several hard cases, including some foreign fighters, by using our new techniques. A few of them never abandoned the jihadist cause but still gave up critical information. One actually told me, "I thought you would torture me, and when you didn't, I decided that everything I was told about Americans was wrong. That's why I decided to cooperate."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
These following passages speak such truth.
Torture and abuse are against my moral fabric. The cliche still bears repeating: Such outrages are inconsistent with American principles. And then there's the pragmatic side: Torture and abuse cost American lives.
I learned in Iraq that the No. 1 reason foreign fighters flocked there to fight were the abuses carried out at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Our policy of torture was directly and swiftly recruiting fighters for al-Qaeda in Iraq. The large majority of suicide bombings in Iraq are still carried out by these foreigners. They are also involved in most of the attacks on U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq. It's no exaggeration to say that at least half of our losses and casualties in that country have come at the hands of foreigners who joined the fray because of our program of detainee abuse. The number of U.S. soldiers who have died because of our torture policy will never be definitively known, but it is fair to say that it is close to the number of lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001. How anyone can say that torture keeps Americans safe is beyond me -- unless you don't count American soldiers as Americans. ....
My experiences have landed me in the middle of another war -- one even more important than the Iraq conflict. The war after the war is a fight about who we are as Americans. Murderers like Zarqawi can kill us, but they can't force us to change who we are. We can only do that to ourselves. One day, when my grandkids sit on my knee and ask me about the war, I'll say to them, "Which one?"
Americans, including officers like myself, must fight to protect our values not only from al-Qaeda but also from those within our own country who would erode them. Other interrogators are also speaking out, including some former members of the military, the FBI and the CIA who met last summer to condemn torture and have spoken before Congress -- at considerable personal risk.
We're told that our only options are to persist in carrying out torture or to face another terrorist attack. But there truly is a better way to carry out interrogations -- and a way to get out of this false choice between torture and terror.
I'm actually quite optimistic these days, in no small measure because President-elect Barack Obama has promised to outlaw the practice of torture throughout our government. But until we renounce the sorts of abuses that have stained our national honor, al-Qaeda will be winning. Zarqawi is dead, but he has still forced us to show the world that we do not adhere to the principles we say we cherish. We're better than that. We're smarter, too.
howtobreakaterrorist@gmail.com
Matthew Alexander led an interrogations team assigned to a Special Operations task force in Iraq in 2006. He is the author of "How to Break a Terrorist: The U.S. Interrogators Who Used Brains, Not Brutality, to Take Down the Deadliest Man in Iraq." He is writing under a pseudonym for security reasons.
http://www.theroot.com/id/48984
The White, White House Press Corps
http://www.theroot.com/id/49022
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032608
He(Limbaugh) calls it "a brilliant stroke" by President-elect Barack Obama, who opposed Clinton for the Democratic nomination.
Limbaugh weighs in on the new administration as one of Barbara Walters' "10 Most Fascinating People of 2008," which airs Thursday on ABC.
Says Limbaugh: "You know the old phrase, 'You keep your friends close and your enemies closer?' How can she run for president in 2012? She'd have to run against the incumbent and be critical of him _ the one who made her secretary of state."
Barack is fine, of course
but Michelle is soooooooo gorgeous and simply stunning.
http://www.essence.com
For a larger snapshot of the cover photos, you can also check out http://theybf.com
Has anyone seen the Ebony covers yet? They are the ones who got the 1st print interview post-election by the Obamas. I wanna know when they will be out.
Get ready for the Afghanistan surge...
http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?opti...
Clinton's issuing of such a pardon virtually laid down the foundation for Dubya to pardon all his crooks and liars in his Administration.
Now I'm not even enough of an optimist to believe that this will be perfect, but I am also not that much of a pessimist to think that Hilary as SoS will crash and burn either or that this is the first major mistake of Obama's adminsration.
I totally understood the frustration to the idea that she was even being considered, but at this point, the choice is made, what can actually be done at this point tafter the appointment has been made, that didn't work before the official anouncement. What I'm saying is, other than her confirmation not going through, what can be done that hasn't already been tried?
Still, before I say this is it or Obama is crazy or Obama will be no different than Bush (as some have said, maybe not this blog, but other blogs, I frequent), I will have a "wait and see" attitude. Then is the shit hits the fan, then I'll say "I Told You So."
Just my two cents.