OK. I love old R&B music just as much as president Obama does. I sing along with Aretha Franklin, Al Green, and Dionne Warwick all the time — at home, in the car, etc. I get it. I do.
But will somebody on Obama’s campaign staff please tell him to stop singing in public? Mrs. Obama, can you speak to your husband about this? [Via TMP.] (more…)
It if seemed as though Newt Gingrich — veteran of pitched partisan battles, and no-holds-barred ideological cage matches — had been off his game of late, he came roaring back during the GOP debate in South Carolina. After flip-flopping on his attacks on Mitt Romney’s record as a vulture capitalist, Newt went a long way towards making both Republicans elites and the conservative base forget that he made them spend a week struggling with a problem for which they not only have no solutions, but they haven’t even decided is a problem. He may even have convinced some that he’s got what it takes to face off against President Obama in November. He confirmed, yet again, the worst of many Americans’ suspicions about conservatives and about the GOP.
And all he had to do was play the proverbial race card. With that, Newt knew he just might have a winning hand.
It’s almost enough to make you feel sorry for the Republican party in the run-up to 2012. First, the party had a literal embarrassment of riches, in the form of a field chock-full of candidates with something for just about every major faction and minor fringe the GOP has cobbled into a conservative coalition. Then, dragged through a series of debates in which the only thing more embarrassing than the candidates was the audience, the candidates who were bona fide right-wing stars, wilted under hot lights of ever intensifying media and public scrutiny.
Inevitably, the field narrowed. Herman Cain went home to (finally) spend more time with his family. Michelle Bachmann has been asked to drop out — again. Rick Perry is still around, but merely provides comic relief at this point. Yet that hasn’t improved the field. Even Newt Gingrich’s ironic return to relevance as the Republicans’ savior seems to be winding down. Meanwhile, the all important Iowa Caucuses loom. And all eyes turn to Ron Paul — the GOP’s own Mad Doctor.
It’s rare that two very public implosions occur almost simultaneously or resonate so well with one another as the the crashing and burning of Herman Cain’s presidential campaign and Eddie Long’s marriage and ministry. It’s even rarer that two high profile “players” like Cain and Long (or Long and Cain, or even Long/Cain, if you prefer) have the bluffs called so spectacularly and fold so publicly.
For a blogger, it’s difficult to resist either story, considering “how snide and vicious” one could get “and still write nothing but the truth.” For one such as myself, who’s written about both men, it’s impossible to resist.
Some of the parallels between the two are innocuous: both are black ministers, both are from Georgia, both have amassed significant amounts of personal wealth. Other parallels are innocuous: both, if the allegations against them are true, rose to fame pretending to be something they were not, and both were publicly revealed as frauds.
Ironically, in the long run, neither may suffer much for it.
From John Boehner’s “So be it” response to concerns that GOP budget cuts would kill 200,000 federal jobs, to George Will’s “That’s good” response to the loss of 24,000 public sector jobs, it’s no secret that the Republicans seem to think that the solution to the economic crisis and the jobs deficit is for hundreds of thousands of Americans to join the ranks of the unemployed. One half of every conservative plan on job consists of cuts that reflect the party’s core belief that America’s road to recovery begins with more Americans being out of work. So it’s no surprise that the latest proposal from the GOP is to pay for job creation by cutting jobs.
Back in the 1990s, I read a book called After the Ball: How America Will Conquer Its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the 90′s. It was a pretty controversial book when it came out. Many in the gay community criticized the authors’ assertion that the segments of the LGBT community least palatable to middle America should be relegated to the “back of the bus” in the movement, for the sake of better PR. The right latched on to it as the “PR manual for the homosexual agenda.” (They still call it that.)
Looking back on it, the authors’ suggestion that LGBT equality needed a massive PR campaign has come to pass. Marriage equality has its own TV spots now.
Not bad, not bad. I agree with E.J. Graff — whose fantastic book What Is Marriage For?: The Strange Social History of Our Most Intimate Institution, which I’ve read and referenced more times than I can count, I highly recommend — that it needs another where the principle character is a woman.
I’d probably also suggest another version or two where the principle characters are non-white, because marriage equality is not just for white folks. It shouldn’t just have a white face, when the face of marriage equality is also black, brown, yellow, red, etc.
A new documentary looks at the black-gay civil rights divide by centering on Massachusetts Rep. Byron Rushing (D) during the commonwealth’s push to legalize same-sex marriage. The African American legislator eloquently weaves the two movements together in the 15-minute film. Following a screening of the movie last month, I moderated a panel discussion at Aaron Davis Hall in New York City that looked at the marriage equality push in New York state from a black perspective. The panel was filled with luminaries, including media and fashion mogul Russell Simmons. But the star of the event was a soft-spoken man named David Wilson.
In the film, Wilson tells the heartbreaking story about the death of his then-partner. The trauma of finding him lying in the driveway. The terror of being arrested by the police on suspicion of breaking and entering or assault and battery before neighbors convinced police otherwise. The indignity of being denied information by the hospital because he was a legal stranger to his partner. Only after his partner’s 75-year-old mother told the hospital who Wilson was did they inform him that his partner of 13 years was dead on arrival.
Wilson swore he’d never go through that again. And he would find love again. In 2003, he and Rob Compton became one of the seven same-sex couples to sue for and win the right to marry in the 2003 landmarkGoodridge vs. the Department of Health case.
It wasn’t until the panel discussion that the power of Davis’s example was fully displayed. As he said in his moving opening statement, which I run in full below, this gracious, soft-spoken man wanted “to put a black face on the Marriage Equality movement.”
As I’ve written before, marriage matters to us, too.
Anti-gay marriage amendments and ballot initiatives like Proposition 8 only harm Black gay and lesbian famlies, many of whom are already economically disadvantaged. Cannick may think marriage equality is “secondary” to other issues, or can wait until others are addressed. But that also means that thousands of our families will continue to suffer injustice, economic and otherwise, indefinitely and without remedy.
For them, inequality is a daily burden added to the rest: making ends meet, putting food on the table, keeping a roof over their heads, and simply providing for their families.
For many of our families, equality is not a “luxury,” as Cannick calls it. It is justice.
Marriage isn’t the only solution to these problems, by any means, and it for many it may not be the right solution. It shouldn’t be our only focus or strategy, but neither should marriage be rejected out of hand for everyone.
There are many paths to justice. We each chose ours for different, often deeply personal reasons. Sometimes they weave together in places where we need help and can help one another to keep going. They part, but inevitably cross again. We will meet each other many times on our winding paths to justice. We will need each other again. Let’s not put roadblocks in front of one another.
I won’t ask Cannick to change her priorities. I wish she wouldn’t decide for my family, and other Black gay families, what our priorities are or should be.
But, it’s an effective TV spot.
He will not be the GOP nominee, but Herman Cain is on a roll. In Cain, the GOP appears to have finally found it's "Great Black-or-Brown Hope." Bobby Jindal looked like a promising candidate for a hot minute or two, before his abysmal State of the Union response. Then came Michael Steele, whose tenure as chair of the GOP was such a spectacular disaster that reasonable people wondered if he was really a Democratic double agent intent on sabotaging Republican party beyond repair. There have been others, of course. (Paul Rubio comes to mind.) But no dark star has shone as brightly in the GOP firmament as Herman Cain.
There are several reasons for Cain's rise — not least among them the sad state of GOP presidential field for 2012. But I'll focus on just two: (1) Herman Cain understands how white conservatives think, and (2) knows just what they want to hear from someone like him.
One breakout session at the Take Back the American Dream conference in Washington, DC, October 3-4, addresses an issue that has major implications for the progressive agenda in 2012 and beyond: "Voter Suppression and the 2012 Election: The Civil Rights Movement to Take Back the Right to Vote." In dozens of states, Republicans are aiming to restrict or take away the voting rights of core constituencies of the Democratic party.
When the tea party shouts their desire to take "their country" back, make no mistake the first thing they want to take back is the right to vote. They don’t just want to take it back. They want to transform it, again.
This story brings back some memories. [Via Daily Kos.]
Police temporarily detained and questioned three passengers at Detroit’s Metropolitan Airport on Sunday after the crew of the Frontier Airlines flight from Denver reported suspicious activity on board, and NORAD sent two F-16 jets to shadow the flight until it landed safely, airline and federal officials said.
The three passengers who were taken off the plane in handcuffs were released Sunday night, and no charges were filed against them, airport spokesman Scott Wintner said.
Frontier Flight 623, with 116 passengers on board, landed without incident in Detroit at 3:30 p.m. EDT after the crew reported that two people were spending "an extraordinarily long time" in a bathroom, Frontier spokesman Peter Kowalchuck said.
FBI Detroit spokeswoman Sandra Berchtold said ultimately authorities determined there was no real threat.
It’s not that my experiences have been as intense that what these people experience, but I’ve known for a long time how easily it could have been me, and still could be.
I spent Thursday with my eight-year-old son, wandering through the Smithsonian American History and Air & Space museums. From the war for independence to the Apollo moon landing, it was a tour through some of the most audacious of American dreams, dared and realized. As we walked along the mall that morning, several times people stopped us and asked for directions to the new Martin Luther King Jr. memorial. I pointed them in the right direction. That afternoon, we headed toward the memorial ourselves.
The memorial was to be dedicated on the 48th anniversary of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Hurricane Irene forced a postponement. Yet, as I stood looking at the Memorial, I wondered what Dr. King would say and what he would do if he somehow materialized and looked upon his 30-foot tall granite likeness, and then turned and looked at how far we have gone towards that dream since he died — our how far we have strayed from it. Would his first concerned be violence and divisiveness of our political rhetoric? Would he be concerned about racism so common that we’re now asked not to call it racism at all anymore?
The latest Michele Bachmann gaffe once again has eyes rolling and heads shaking among the commentariat. The irony is, it’s not really a gaffe. In fact, it’s not even that far from today’s conservative mainstream. It might even be closer to conservative orthodoxy than right-wing fringe. And that raises a serious question: What — or, more appropriately, WTF — has happened to the party of Lincoln?
By now, everyone has heard about Michele Bachmann’s latest gaffe. This time, it wasn’t a statement she made, but a statement she signed. The Family Leader, an Iowa-based conservative Christian organization led by Bob Vander Platts, introduced a pledge last week — “The Marriage Vow: A Declaration of Dependence upon MARRIAGE and FAMILY” — that Republican presidential candidates campaigning in Iowa were encouraged to sign.
Bachmann was the first to sign the pledge, which included this unfortunate statement as the first bullet point in its supporting argument.
Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA’s first African-American President.
So, Newt Gingrich has refused to sign that anti-gay marriage pledge.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich refused to sign Iowa social conservative Bob Vander Plaats’s anti-gay-marriage pledge, saying through a spokesman that it had a long list of problems.
Mr. Vander Plaats already made one change, removing a sentence that suggested African American children fared better under slavery.
“We told him that we couldn’t sign it in its current form,” said Mr. Gingrich’s spokesman, R.C. Hammond. “We’re happy to work with him to get some more precise language.”
This? From America’s patriotic philanderer?
I’d love to make this a daily or weekly feature, but that depends largely upon how often I come across these things in my daily reading. That said, I’ll post ‘em when I find ‘em.
That said, this week turned out to be rich in WTF moments. And I don’t mean “Winning the Future”.
WTF
Example Sentences:
Boyfriend: I’ve decided to quit school and move to France.
Girlfriend: When?
Boyfriend: Tomorrow morning.
Girlfriend: WTF?When our teacher told us we had a test tomorrow worth 75%, I was like “WTF“?!
WTF is going on?
Note:
WTF is often used when one is confused and angry
Thankfully, they’re all available on YouTube. The only question is: Which order should I post them in? From worst to weirdest? Or weirdest to worst?
Who didn’t see this coming?
Last September, megachurch preacher Bishop Eddie Long stood before his congregation at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church a week after gay sex allegations surfaced between him and four teenage boys, and he told members he was going to fight the allegations.
But Long chose not to fight in court. Instead he reached a settlement and paid off the four young men who accused the mega-church preacher of using his power to influence them into sexual relationships with him.
“You can interpret that any way you want, but usually people do not settle cases unless there is some reason to do so,” said former DeKalb County Prosecutor J. Tom Morgan.
Morgan said he is familiar with cases like Long’s.
“They had to reach a settlement if they did not want any statement by the Bishop on record,” said Morgan.
Well.
When white America catches a cold, the saying goes, black America gets pneumonia. Or in this case, when white America has a recession, black America gets a depression. It was true in the Great Depression, and it’s no less true in the “Great Recession.” It seems counterintuitive that, with the first black president in office, African Americans would be worse off economically. But, as has been made clear over and over again, the election of Barack Obama was not a curative for the nation’s racial ills, or for the economic pre-existing conditions that have turned white America’s recession into black America’s depression.
Lost in the media tsunami after U.S. special forces killed Osama bin Laden is news that may prove as economically devastating the terrorism bin Laden masterminded. For a lot of Americans, “returning to the private sector” means practicing saying “You want fries with that?”, with a smile. And they’re the lucky ones.
For African Americans, in the midst of an underreported epidemic of unemployment, the prognosis is grim.
Almost a year ago, I wrote that African-Americans and Latinos are the “canaries in our economic coal mine.” In early mines, ventilation was poor at best, non-existent at worst. So, miners would take a caged canary into the mine with them. Canaries, being sensitive to methane and carbon monoxide gases, were the miners’ early warning system. Toxic gases would kill the birds before killing the miners. If the canary stopped singing and keeled over, it was time to get out of the mine.
A year ago, the black and brown “canaries in our too-long-deregulated economic mineshaft” were gasping for air. A year later, the canaries are still gasping for air, and too few seem to notice, or ask why.
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?Or fester like a sore–
And then run? …~ Langton Hughes, "Harlem"
Whose Dream?
Since Hughes wrote "Harlem" in 1951, literary critics have tried to identify the dream Hughes wrapped in his inscrutable verse. Some suggest Hughes makes a veiled reference to his alleged homosexuality; which Hughes would have concealed in order to keep the support of African American churches and organizations.
Others insist Hughes gave voice to the disillusionment and frustrations of African Americans. Ninety years after the civil war, African Americans had seen the dreams crushed by continuing prejudice and post-Civil War legislation designed to disenfranchise and marginalize them. In 1951, African Americans lived on the cusp of two civil rights movements. The first, from 1896 to 1954, was bookended by two Supreme Court rulings —Plessy v. Ferguson, which upheld "separate but equal" racial segregation, and the Brown v. Board of Education ruling, which overturned Plessy.
What we know as the modern civil rights movement spanned from 1955, after the Court’s Brown decision, to 1968 and the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Like the earlier movement, from which it grew, the new movement fought to expose and end the violence, discrimination and disenfranchisement many blacks lived under, especially in the south.
But, Martin Luther King, Jr, — through events like the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the Memphis Sanitation Workers’ Strike, and the Poor People’s Campaign — envisioned an even broader phase of the civil rights movement that put racial injustice in the context of economic injustice. Less than a week before his assassination in Memphis, King gave voice to that vision, in a speech at the National Cathedral, titled "Remaining Awake Through A Great Revolution."
Langston Hughes once asked, "What happens to a dream deferred?"; a rhetorical question answered with still more questions. The current economic crisis raises a similar question: What’s happened to the American Dream? According to— a recent survey, less than one-third of us are confident of reaching "the American Dream."
The survey is a depressing review of how people view their situation and the nation in general. Among the findings:
– Only 23 percent believe the country is headed in the right direction with 67 percent saying "things have gotten pretty seriously off on the wrong track."
– Just 27 percent say they are "extremely confident" of reaching the American Dream, down from 40 percent a year ago.
– 78 percent say they have less trust in government.
– 69 percent feel it will be harder to reach the American Dream than it was for their parents; 73 percent say it will be still harder for their children or grandchildren to reach the American Dream.
– 23 percent believe America is a country on the rise, down from 32 percent last year. Only 39 percent believe America represents the future, with 57 percent saying that the world looks to other nations now. And 52 percent say it’s China that represents the future.
Most of us feel it’s out of reach, and our kids have even less of a shot at it. Can you blame us? Financial gurus like Suze Orman declare the American Dream DOA and advise us to get used to it. The Republican budget that all but finishes it off. If the American Dream isn’t dead it’s at least in the ICU, and the priest has been paged.
An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.
~ Martin Luther King Jr.
I wrote earlier today that from his mountaintop Martin Luther King Jr. saw the "promised land" he envisioned. He saw the mountains we would have to cross together, and the mountains we would have to climb together in order to reach it. He saw a future in which all are judged by the content of their character. He saw a future in which "all labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance," and laborers are afforded their dignity. He saw a future in which "we rise above the narrow confines of our individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity."
Dr. King saw that future and told us we would get there, though it would have to be without him. He believed we have it in us to get there. With 1,000 We Are One events taking place worldwide, it looks like we are beginning to believe it ourselves.
OK. I plead guilty to this When I got my iPhone 4, I gave Parker my old iPhone 3G (with parental controls in place, phone service deactivated, everything restored to factory settings, history wiped clean, and internet access and the App Store on lockdown) to play games on, etc. But does that make me a “Scrooge”? Puh-leeze. An eight-year-old needs the latest iPhone?
It’s happening again. I’m getting that “I’ve got a book in me, if I can make time to write it,” feeling. Of course, that “if” is the big, and the deciding, factor.
I was never one of those who claim “there’s no such thing as bisexuality.” I’ve known too many bisexuals to buy that the “don’t exist.” So, I’m not surprised that a study now indicates there is too such a thing as bisexuality. In men, that is.
Apparently, it’s hard to build a successful television show around someone who’s (a) unlikeable and (b) had no discernible talent beyond reproducing.
It’s not that I don’t trust the guy, and maybe the whole Weinergate thing has me a little gun shy, but am I the only who thinks Obama tweeting for himself may not be the best idea?
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