I’ll Always Love my Momma

The Intruders

For my mom, Dee.

Thank you.

I love you.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms reading.

Tomorrow, the National Association of Letter Carriers will do their part to Stamp Out hunger in the richest country on the planet. All you have to do is place non-perishable food in a bag by your mailbox and the letter carriers will take it away. Make sure your post office is participating first. You can do that by going to the Stamp Out Hunger website, locating your local post office and giving them a call to ask about the food drive.

It’s timely that I would learn about this food drive today because just last night, as I made my way through the check out line of my local grocery store, two people had to ask the cashier to un-ring several items once they saw the total bill. Each time, the customer said, “But I just bought this two weeks ago, I thought it was…” Standing behind these customers, I kept my eyes down trying to give them as much privacy as possible in our crowded line.

If you can, I urge you to make a donation to your local food bank. Stamp Out Hunger is a great way to help but even if your post office won’t pick up the food, consider delivering it yourself or carpooling with friends if the cost of gas has got you down.

Hat Tip to the great Eddie Griffin

…We believe just as strongly that Mrs. Clinton will be making a terrible mistake — for herself, her party and for the nation — if she continues to press her candidacy through negative campaigning with disturbing racial undertones. We believe it would also be a terrible mistake if she launches a fight over the disqualified delegations from Florida and Michigan.

The United States needs a clean break from eight catastrophic years of George W. Bush. And so far, Senator John McCain is shaping up as Bush the Sequel — never ending war in Iraq, tax cuts for the rich while the middle class struggles, courts packed with right-wing activists intent on undoing decades of progress in civil rights, civil liberties and other vital areas.

The Democratic Party must field the most effective and vibrant candidate it possibly can. More attack ads and squabbling will not help achieve that goal. If Mr. Obama wins, he will be that much more battered and the party will be harder to unite. Win or lose, Mrs. Clinton’s reputation will suffer more harm than it already has. - Sen. Clinton and the Campaign, New York Times

Yesterday, I hesitated to write about the discomforting current I heard running through every appearance made by those Clinton representatives defending why Clinton stays in this race when there is no honorable way she can win it. I hesitated because Clinton’s racial blunders have been so big and so frequent I felt I would be kicking a dead horse. But this morning, I just have to go there. Now, despite the numbers, she is determined to poison Barack Obama’s presidential efforts with the whining distortion that white people like her not him - and will never vote for him.

“I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on,” she said in an interview with USA TODAY. As evidence, Clinton cited an Associated Press article “that found how Sen. Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me.”

“There’s a pattern emerging here,” she said. SOURCE

The Obama campaign pushed back with…the numbers:

Obama spokesman Bill Burton said that in Indiana, Obama split working-class voters with Clinton and won a higher percentage of white voters than in Ohio in March. He said Obama will be the strongest nominee because he appeals “to Americans from every background and all walks of life. These statements from Sen. Clinton are not true and frankly disappointing.” SOURCE

Disappointing but not surprising.

Look, I have no illusions that Barack Obama will sweep in droves of white working class men in November. But remember, John McCain is now running on a uncompromising Pro-Life platform and he is determined to appoint Supreme Court judges who will overturn Roe vs. Wade. Make no mistake, many, many white female Hillary Clinton Supporters will “hold their noses” and vote for Obama on that issue alone. McCain is getting a pass right now. He will not have it much longer.

UPDATE - READ MORE - Hardworking Americans = White Americans, Jack and Jill Politics

***UPDATE - Mr. Begala, a Clinton supporter, said the party could not win in November with just “eggheads and African-Americans,” that the party could not ignore white middle-class voters. Ms. Brazile, who said she was not “undecided but undeclared” when it came to her choice for a candidate, shot back that Mr. Begala’s notions were dividing the party. (And that she’d chugged down many a beer with Joe and Jane “six-pack” in an effort to woo white voters.)

With a decisive win in North Carolina and losing by a squeaker in Indiana, a white Mid-Western state, Barack Obama has solidified his position as the presumptive presidential nominee of the Democratic party. As has been repeated on every cable show I watched, there is simply no honorable way for Hillary Clinton to wrest the nomination from Obama. The math will not work. Given that, why would she stay in except for selfish and short-sighted reasons?

A new day is upon us. People of all colors looked past the misdirection of the past few weeks and pulled the lever for whom they believe will best lead our country through the turbulent course ahead. That is deeply moving to me. And I thought Obama’s speech was gracious and stirring. I wanted to hear the speech of a party leader and Obama delivered. Obama’s speech last night brought back memories of how I felt as I watched the returns from the Iowa caucus in January. Seems like so long ago, doesn’t it? We are all a little battle weary at the moment. But fatigue passes. Now is the time for adrenaline.

From the Associated Press:

Computers go on sale to general public in Cuba for 1st time

4 days ago

HAVANA — Cubans are getting wired. Computers went on sale to the general public on the communist island on Friday and potential consumers were lining up outside store windows to gawk and consider buying.

President Raul Castro’s government had authorized the sale of personal computers to average Cubans more than a month ago, but they were not made available until Friday.

Computer sales are the latest of a series of measures Castro has taken to make life easier for ordinary Cubans.

The new government also has erased bans on cell phones and luxury hotel room rentals, and has made it easier for state workers to own homes they once rented as part of their jobs. It also is letting more private farmers and cooperatives take a crack at putting fallow government land to better use.

I shouldn’t really complain about how the MSM (mainstream media) is now sending Hillary Clinton off into every primary with a wink, smile and collective pat on the head. B.W., before Wright, the talking heads seemed to be in lock step support of Obama’s candidacy. They championed his underdog campaign even ahead of the black community at large. Pundits are pack animals for the most part and the pack is conjuring up the scent of blood from the likes of Barack Obama’s turbulent presidential campaign. Today what bothers me most is just how far the frame of “fighter” is being stretched.

Is Clinton a fighter when she threatens to obliterate Iran?

Is Clinton a fighter when she promises to bust OPEC?

Is Clinton a fighter when, finding herself losing in popular votes and elected delegates to Barack Obama, she becomes champion of voting rights for Michigan and Florida.

This morning I actually heard an MSNBC reporter say, “Well, if you count the votes in Michigan and Florida, Clinton is ahead in the popular vote.” I’m sure you recall that Barack Obama was not on the ballot in Michigan.

I had to stop myself from exploding into ‘Scanners’ mode.

Funkytown

Lipps Inc. Continue Reading »

I don’t believe that Rev. Jeremiah Wright intentionally kicked off the Jeremiah Wright Show Tour to deliberately “hurt” Barack Obama. Now, I don’t think Wright cared if his spectacle had that effect, but I don’t believe that was Wright’s primary reason for exploding out of silence now. What I see is that Rev.Wright saw his legacy of decades of service boiled down into nasty, seconds long sound clips which were then dismissed as the “understandable” rants of an angry old black man. Wright, obstinately defensive, decided to take action to restore his reputation. He’s failed so far. And in the effort to re-establish his own standing, Wright could not resist a few jabs at his former spiritual advisee. Continue Reading »

NPR Audio Link

NPR Audio Link
Continue Reading »

While I was a producer for ABC News, I had the great fortune to travel around the country and sit in countless living rooms in small towns and in big ones. I’ve had people use the word n—er to my face in conversation just as their biracial, clearly adored grandchild ran into the house. Running right into Pop-pop or Gramma’s lap. Problematic, for sure. But worthy of much more than a simple, singular reaction or knee jerk situational analysis.

That’s why I like this clip. You really cannot judge a book by its cover. Pay attention to their explication of Obama’s “bitter” comment.

hat tip Nezua

Well it’s proved true again. Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it. I’ve never backed away from any opportunity to inspire or engage in dynamic often uncomfortable discussions about race in America. Obviously, that’s why I started this blog more than a year ago. Rev. Jeremiah Wright is now catapulted to the forefront of a discussion that is long overdue. But the timing could not be more complicated and perhaps unfortunate for presidential hopeful Barack Obama. Continue Reading »

Did you miss it?

Click Here to see the entire interview.

Keep On

D Train

“The sky is the limit and you know that you can have what you want
Be what you want.” Continue Reading »

In his interview with Bill Moyers, Jeremiah Wright delivers an uppercut to Barack Obama’s character and in turn his presidential candidacy. I was so wrong about this one. I’d figured that the Obama campaign would benefit from Wright emerging from his self-imposed quiet period and re-framing his big blast sermons in more easily digestible terms. Not so.

BILL MOYERS:
Here is a man who came to see you 20 years ago. Wanted to know about
the neighborhood. Barack Obama was a skeptic when it came to religion.
He sought you out because he knew you knew about the community. You led
him to the faith.

You performed his wedding ceremony. You baptized his two children. You
were, for 20 years, his spiritual counsel. He has said that. And, yet,
he, in that speech at Philadelphia, had to say some hard things about
you. How did those words…how did it go down with you when you heard
Barack Obama say those things?

REVEREND WRIGHT:
It went down very simply. He’s a politician, I’m a pastor. We speak to
two different audiences. And he says what he has to say as a
politician. I say what I have to say as a pastor. But they’re two
different worlds.

I do what I do. He does what politicians do. So that what happened in
Philadelphia where he had to respond to the sound bytes, he responded as
a politician.

Excerpt 4

BILL MOYERS:
In the 20 years that you’ve been his pastor, have you ever heard him
repeat any of your controversial statements as his opinion?

REVEREND WRIGHT:
No. No. No. Absolutely not.

I don’t talk to him about politics. And so he had a political event, he
goes out as a politician and says what he has to say as a politician. I
continue to be a pastor who speaks to the people of God about the things
of God. SOURCE

And with that exchange, Jeremiah Wright tarnishes Obama’s luster more effectively than Clinton has. It is sad that Wright is obviously so angry and so determined to defend his statements that he feels justified in throwing Barack Obama’s character “under the bus.”