Blue Dog Dems in the Bush Era

I have but one question: where were these Blue Dog Democrats during the Bush/Cheney era?

What Exactly, is Fascism

In 1995, Toni Morrison published an extremely, extremely insightful article titled, "Racism and Facism" in The Journal of Negro Education. For those of you who are tech savvy and who have access to a college library, please use J-Stor, EbscoHost, or Academic Search Premiere to check this article out. Published more than 10 years ago, this article is scary in its accuracy.

Earliear this week, the NAACP challenged the TEA Party on its overt and covert racism and racist attitudes toward the President. Also, during this same week, I went into Wal-Greens for some oh so delicious salsa chips that they sale, and I heard the song, "Cult of Personality" playing on the loudspeaker. I was horrified by that song. Never, never in my life, even after surviving Reaganomics, have I heard so much disrespect toward the leader of the free world internally.

In response to the charge by Jealous and the NAACP, most TEA Party members claim that they are not racist at all. They simply don't like the socialist policies of Obama and the rest of the Democrats. These people use the rhetoric of fear, throwing around big words like fascism and racism, but absolutely do not know what they are talking about. The beauty of Toni Morrison is that she marries the calling of someone a fascist or a racist with covert racism...

Also, the beauty of Morrison is that she defines fascims for us, something that neither Glenn Beck nor Sarah Palin can do. Here's how Morrison defines it:
"Conservative, moderate, liberal; right, left, hard left, far right;religious, secular, socialist -we must not be blindsided by these Pepsi-Cola, Coca-Cola labels because the genius of fascism is that any political structure can become a suitable home. Facism talks ideology, but it is really just marketing -marketing for power."

Morrison goes on to link Fascism with unconstrained greed and rampant, global capitalism. She defines Fascism as dominance and control of entire populations by deregulation and abusive financial practices. As I reread her article today, the hair on the back of my neck stood on end. As I read, I heard a newscaster say BP lobbied the British government to release a convicted Libyan terrorist with 200+ murders on his hands just so the company could drill oil off the coast of Libya. Another Senator came on immediately after, claiming that continuing to pay unemployed people unemployment benefits makes people lazy.

On Both Sides of the Aisle

I must admit, when I go to vote, I vote based on my bank account. Since I'm not a six-figure wage earner, I vote Democratically for most elections. However, that does not mean that I don't listen to and understand Republican view points. Hell, I even like the way they get things done. They have an agenda and they stick to it, regardless.

Republicans are the REAL gannsters. They stick together much closer than any mafia, and are much more organized than the Bloods, Vice Lords, or Crips. They set an agenda and they go after it. Everyone else is either for them or against them. They pull their friends along and reward them handsomely for their loyalty. They run the country like drug empires, with policies benefitting a select few while destroying a whole populace. On top of that, they wrap it up in scripture, I tell you. Now what separates Republicans from vastly organized drug lords?

But seriously, Black people need Republicans as well. We shouldn't be one-party voters. We need people on both side of the aisle to effectively agitate for African American interests. For instance, many struggling African Americans want something done about welfare. It is too easy to fraud the system from state to state, and the laws are not written to favor those who really need the assistance: the elderly. I can already tell you that welfare reform is not something Democrats will touch, not now not ever! Republicans, on the other hand, may just try to reform welfare as an entitlement issue, if they ever get back around to making policy instead of running the country like they are drug lords.

However, Republicans, since Barry Goldwater, have done a horrific job at branding itself as a party for the people. It has been a party of exclusivity. Though African American leaders such as Frederick Douglass and even Dr. King were Republicans at the time of their deaths, we can all agree that their Republican Party is not the same as this new pack of gangsters we see today. These gangsters do not even take their own African American members seriously. How many times have they turned their backs on Chairman Steele, while allowing Rush Limbaugh to say anything he wants? Rush Limbaugh, an entertainer and college dropout, is indeed the de facto leader of the Republican Party.

In the meantime, I will continue to listen to and take into account Republican points of view. I like some of them, and would be willing to support POLICY issues, not the hate-filled rhetoric of exclusivity that I am hearing. African Americans, though we are statistically behind white voters financially, cannot afford to be one-party voters.

A Country of Contradiction

Perhaps, Americans find it difficult to call our politicians liars because of who we all are. This Independence Day reminds me that we live in one of the greatest democratic experiments in the history of mankind.
With that said, we should all take this week to reflect upon who we are as Americans. As Americans, we are a people riddled with complex contradictions and traditions. We are largely a conservative country politically. Yet, we believe in the freedoms of speech and religion, and the right to bear arms. We have the largest population of church members in the free, industrialized world. We have the largest amount of poverty, homicides, teen pregnancy, and drug addiction. To speak of sex is not polite conversation, and there are no federal policies demanding sex education in America's classrooms. Yet, sex sells. Period. Sex is ubiquitous. We teach abstinence only in some classrooms and pass out condoms at the end of the class.
Americans believe largely that we should be free to be who we are, and we should be able to serve our country and pick a partner of our choosing, unless that American happens to be gay. No marriage and no patriotic military service.
America, land of the brave, home of the free, unless of course, that American is Black. Though 40+ years after the end of Jim Crow, Black people remain at the top of all terrible statistics, like the incarcerated population is mainly Black. Is it because Black people are naturally predisposed to crime, or is it because they are monitored more closely and given harsher sentences than their white counterparts. Ask any Black person about DWB, and you get enough stories to fill a book.
Many of our Republican lawmakers claim to be ardent followers of the Word concerning abortion and gay rights. I guess they didn't read those parts in the Bible about a rich man and a camel. Or, they completely ignored the parts where Jesus talked about poverty and allowing our fellow Christians to suffer in poverty. On top of that, most Republicans blame the poor for being "lazy," not the industries who receive tax breaks to take their jobs out of the country...jobs the working poor would have been working.
Let's face it, I could go on and on and on. I hope those in power take some time to figure out who we are as Americans. Is our power structure a conglomerate of business? Are our soldiers simply the tools of free enterprise? Are we citizens simply a collection of workers and tax payers?

Throwing Red Meat or Plain Lying

What's the difference between throwing political red meat to the base and just plain lying? It doesn't seem to be much of a difference these days. I have first-hand experience.

Most residents of the South suffer through Republican governors, senators, and representatives. Yes, many of us vote progressive/liberal/Democratic, but Republicans always seem to outnumber us. Many of our Republican office-holders win office by taking tough stances against spending, entitlements, and the deficits. Some even claim to be against stimulus funding and increasing unemployment benefits. Yet, everywhere I ride around the South, I see projects funding by the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (the stimulus plan). Louisiana even has signs that show you how much money the state has received from the federal government. Does nobody see anything wrong with Republicans playing to the base when they talk about "runaway, big government spending," and taking more money from the Big government;thereby increasing spending and the deficit?

Where are the people who chanted, "Drill Baby Drill?" These people encouraged more drilling by private enterprise and then criticize the federal government for not acting quickly enough to clean up the spill. Why is the oil the property of private enterprise but the spill the responsibility of tax payers? Are we mere golden parachutes for corporations and megabanks?

Scott Brown, the Tea Party, won office based on tough stances against the banks who gambled their money, and used tax-payer funds to cover their behinds. Yet, he was key in watering down the financial reform bill. In other words, he threw red meat to the base, then voted for his own interests. But when do these political moves become blatant lies?

Proof Positive for Taylr Mayd, a Second Response

Normally, I bring you my long rants only twice per month, but I think the recent election results in South Carolina garner a rant from everyone. Let us stop, first and foremost, "figuring out" Alvin Greene, the Democratic Senate nomination. Hell yes! He was paid and paid for. No doubt about it. As I watched this man, who obviously has some sort of mental deficiency, struggle through an interview with Keith Olbermann last night, I thought about Taylr Mayd. Do you all remember the commentary he made about the chicken? Remember where he took us? He implied that there was an underlying reason for the giving away of chicken, and how the media portrayed the people who were lined up to get this free chicken.


Now, no one wants to be labeled as a cooky conspiracy theorist. Nobody. But Taylr Mayd had a valid point. There is something sinister going on in this country with our symbolism. Someone is talking to someone else about the "place" of Black people. Mr. Greene (let us all pray for him), is clearly not cognizant of how he is being used. The man did no campaigning, no house visits, no townhall meetings, and no political rallies. Did I mention that he also raised no funds? None of the other Democrats in the state knew of this man. Yet, he won with 60% of the vote. As a matter of fact, he got more votes than were cast at several precincts. Let us top being political rat and call a buyout what it is. He's somebody's puppet.

But could it be more than that? Why this unemployed military veteran with obvious mental deficiencies? Why this BLACK, unemployed military veteran with obvious mental deficiencies? I've heard more than one Black person say that Michael Steele is a Republican puppet. But whether we agree with this assessment or not, we can all agree that Mr. Steele is very well-educated despite his many, many on-camera gaffs.

I can agree with Taylr Mayd about the power of images -very real images being shown on of Black people both domestically and internationally. When Black people are making so many inroads politically on both sides of the aisle, someone had to put us back in our place. Someone found the perfect Black male puppet to portray Black political leaders as inept and mentally incapable of leadership. Whoever put up the $10000 fee for Mr. Greene to enter the election should be prosecuted with all deliberate speed for purposefully attempting to murder the image of Black political leadership.

Oh, before I forget, let us look at how someone is also accusing President Obama of being an exra in "Whoop There It Is." Could the symbolic racism be any more overt?

Uninformed in an Age of Information

What's going on in Israel? What about Brazil? What goes on in Brazil on a day-to-day basis? As far as the healthcare bill is concerned, is the one recently passed only a starting point for improvements? Will there be more amendments? What about the relatively weak financial reform bill? Will it be strengthened as the months pass? What is the President doing daily to stop the Gulf Spill? Have the families of the 11 TransOcean explosion been financially compensated?

I don't know. I haven't heard. I watch at least two hours of news and two hours of news commentary every day, and I don't know. Headlines from the Washington Post are inboxed to every day. My homepage is MSN.com, and CNN.com is bookmarked. With all of this, I still don't know. Could it be possible that even in the age of information, when people want to know everything about everything, the most informed of us are still uninformed? What does this say about the state of our media, and the types of information we crave most?

I'll give one example. For the past two weeks, straight news and liberal/conservative news commentators have criticized President Obama for now "showing enough emotion" concerning the Gulf Oil Spill. Hours have spent on this with talking heads analyzing the man's every facial expression and comment. However, we don't know how much money fishermen stand to receive. What kinds of cleaners have been used to clean the wildlife? What is actually in that dispersant? What happened to the less-harmful dispersant? Is it still in Texas? What are the plans to replenish the wetlands that are being choked off by the oil? What would the military do if they were involved? What could they do that BP is not doing if they don't have the equipment? We don't know any of these things because our media has been wasting time asking why the 6'0+ Black man who runs a country that many see as a white man's country hadn't blown his top or started crying. We already know the damn answer to that. If you are reading this post, and you don't know, see Jonathan Capehart's June 8 column at washingtonpost.com. I'm more into action, not posturing. Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, and Rush Limbaugh can show emotions. Would we want them in charge of this catastrophe?

Don't buy my implication that our national media is keeping us ignorant of important policy while focusing on mind-numbing fluff? Remember the year of Bennifer? That very public affair of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez? While our news and our minds were following the couple around as they made out in public and purchased a gun permit, our country was embroilled in two foreign wars. Servicemen and women were dying daily, and we couldn't get enough of what the powercouple -two individual adults with their own lives and damn it, their own prerogatives -garnered more of our attention and news space than two wars.

By now I know you want to ask, "Why should we even care about what goes on in those other countries?" I'm glad you asked. Our national deficit is reaching epic proportions, and Republicans are correct to be concerned -lest America become Greece. Spending has to stop at some point. Something needs to be cut. I find it strange, though, that none of these Republican (or Democratic) lawmakers ever speak of reducing American aid to Israel. And I'm not saying this because of any political standpoint I have concerning Israel and Palestine. As pointed out earlier, I don't know enough about the on-going conflict to make a judgment call one way or the other. I say this because Israel receives tens of billions of dollars of American aid, and America gets what in return? While Republicans focus on cutting social welfare funding and education here at home, what of Israel and our lack of return for the investments we have there? What social welfare programs are American citizens bankrolling in Israel? What benefit does giving tens of billions of dollars hold for the average American citizen? Why does America continue to give Israel aid when the country deliberately disrespects our leader?

Why should we care about Brazil? Well, it has one of the biggest and fastest-growing economies in the world, and it is almost independent of OPEC. What does that mean for us? Well, nothing right now. Brazil relies mainly on ethanol for fuel. Their government offered to import to the United States some of its very cheaply-made ethanol (the abundance of sugar cane in Brazil makes ethanol production there much cheaper than ethanol made here in the United States from corn). Unfortunately, our then President Bush, in all of his wisdom, placed a 100% tarrif on this fuel, according to the History International Channel, while his MMS office issued more and more drilling permits. You make the connections between Brazil, Bush, and our current crisis. I don't need to spell it out.

Even in this age, most younger citizens, who are part of the soundbyte generation, remain uninformed. With cuts to our education in favor of more foreign aid to our "allies" and millitary spending, the American populace will be even less informed that what we are now. And a population of uninformed taxpayers become....What? I'm too afraid to finish the thought.