Why Should African-Americans Vote for John McCain?

Sen. John McCain says he will consider a second economic stimulus package if he is elected president.

I have been trying to figure this out.  Its one thing to be a black republican.  We need representation in all areas of the political arena.   I’ve always believed that.  Certainly the Republican party has not been a friend to blacks in the recent past.  Sure they like to talk about Lincoln but that was way back in the day when the parties stood opposite their current positions.  They merely switched from Dixiecrat’s to Republicans and vice verse. 

Anyway, during the Reagan era the Republicans really embraced their anti-ethnic reputation.   They were able to ride that momentum to get Bush Sr. in office with the help of some pretty racist Willie Horton political ads.   

After Clinton ran the White House for 8 years, the Elephants reached out to minorities including the Latin community in some forms.  Personally I knew it wasn’t legit.  Karl Rove was no dummy though and he devised a strategies and target the black prominent preachers with talk of morality and faith ba$ed initiatives.  They knew that many of these pimps would get their congregations in line and get them to vote for folks who voted against a MLK Holiday.  (Speaking of John McCain)  Some of those chicken grinning preachers have wised up now since Katrina, the war, the economy etc.  But it’s too late now as we’ve had 8 years of incompetency and the nation was ran in the country.  Guess what preachers… if people don’t have jobs they can’t pay tithes or fund new building projects.  Hmmm… and to think I didn’t hear of any homosexuals taking jobs oversees.  Go figure.. but I digress.

What I am trying to figure out is why any self respecting black man or woman would support The Mav.  I mean when has this dude reached out to any of us for anything?  When he and Palin speak of Joe Six Pack or Joe the Plumber, or real Americans they sure as hell ain’t talkin about me?  

Furthermore when they’ve had chances to speak to black audiences they have delinced. 

Tavis Smiley held the first presidential forums for both Democrats and Republicans and John McCain was invited.  Did he show up?  No!  And it’s not like Tavis doesn’t have juice!  Repubs like Mike Huckabee, Ron Paul, and Sam Brownback among others showed up to speak toward issues that would affect Black America.

Then there is black radio.  Of the four nationally syndicated shows my area, The Tom Joyner Morning Show, The Steve Harvey Morning Show, The Michael Baisden Show and the Ricky Smiley Show, McCain has not visited with either show.  I know for a fact that Joyner, Harvey and Baisden made several request to speak with the McCain campaign and they have yet to get a return phone call. 

What does this say to Black Americans? It tells me he doesn’t give a f*@! about me or the things I care about.  It tells me he is either scared or indifferent when it comes to my people.  It tells me that if he were to dwell in the White House… the policies and procedures will be as white as ever.  Areas such as civil rights, equal rights, equal opportunities for jobs and affordable college will not see the light of day. 

So if I were to take the usual house negros i.e. Alan Keyes, Armstrong Williams, Larry Elder, Ward Connerly, Clarence Thomas, that fool on the radio in Milwaukee etc. out of the equation, why would any self respecting person of African descent even consider voting for someone who detest him so much?

From CNN – Republican Tells of How He Rigged an Election

I am posting this to again show folks that we need to persevere on November 4th.  Obviously if you can vote early do so.  If you are like me and have to wait till election day, just be ready for any and everything.  This is only ONE of the things that is shown publicly have happened.  Be ready to “stay the course” and finish the job of electing Senator Obama.

And somebody tell these fake ass republicans to back up off of ACORN in the meantime!

MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (CNN) Allen Raymond is living proof that political dirty tricksters do exist.

The former Republican political operative went to federal prison after he pleaded guilty to charges of phone harassment. He jammed the phone lines of New Hampshire’s Democratic Party on Election Day six years ago.

“The concept was to disrupt lines of communication. That’s a fancy way of saying, ‘make it so the phones didn’t work,’ ” Raymond told CNN recently. “No calls going out. No calls going in.”

We’re not going to give away exactly how Raymond did it. According to federal prosecutors, two top Republican Party officials tapped Raymond’s Virginia-based telemarketing firm for the operation. Raymond then contracted out the job to a private phone bank in Idaho.

Former New Hampshire Democratic Party chairwoman Kathy Sullivan remembers the ensuing flood of hang-up calls that created havoc in her office.

“At first, people had various impressions about what was going on,” Sullivan recalled. “For example, at the Manchester field office, the young man who opened the office thought, ‘The phones are all ringing off the hook. Nobody’s here. I’ve broken the phone system. What did I do wrong?’ And he was on the verge of tears.”

The operation also jammed the lines inside a firefighter’s union hall in Manchester, New Hampshire, where Jeff Duval and other local firefighters were lining up car rides to help senior citizens get to the polls.

“It almost felt to me like an electionmight have been stolen,” Duval said. “I know for a fact that we received calls a few days later from people saying ‘we tried to call you.’ And I say ‘did you get out and vote?’ And they said ‘no.’ ” iReport.com: Are you voting early? Share your story

Looking back, Raymond said he thinks the scheme was ingenious in an “evil genius sort of way.”

In his book, “How to Rig an Election: Confessions of a Republican Operative,” Raymond details how he got caught. An hour and a half into the jamming operation he received an e-mail from a Republican official, frantically telling him to shut down the calls. The e-mail read: “Chairman wishes not to proceed with this project … insists it violates federal law.”

Federal agents eventually paid a visit to Raymond’s office.

Raymond decided to come clean about his role in the operation and cooperate with investigators.

“I felt like I had an obligation and not obligation to my country or obligation to the people in New Hampshire, nothing like that,” Raymond said. “I had a responsibility to my family.”

One of Raymond’s alleged co-conspirators, James Tobin, was a top official with the National Republican Senatorial Committee that year. He went on to serve as George W. Bush’s Northeastern regional re-election chairman in 2004. Tobin was initially convicted. But he succeeded in having that decision overturned by an appellate court. Just last week, Tobin was again indicted in the case on two counts of making false statements to a federal agent. His lawyer had no comment.

Another co-conspirator and former chairman of New Hampshire’s Republican Party, Charles McGee, pleaded guilty to phone harassment in the case and served seven months in prison.

Democrats insist the phone jamming operation in New Hampshire had national implications. The balance of power in the U.S. Senate was on the line that year and the Senate race between Democrat Jeanne Shaheen and Republican John Sununu was decided by just 19,000. Sununu won.

Some state Democrats remain convinced the phone jamming operation resulted in some votes lost.

“I think they were willing to do whatever it took to win, even if that meant breaking the law,” Sullivan said.

“Even if that meant suppressing the votes. So if that means they were trying to steal the election, yes, then they were trying to steal the election.”

Conservative author and Wall Street Journal columnist John Fund points out there are dirty tricksters in both parties.

“No party has a monopoly on virtue,” said Fund.

Fund has also written a book about the problem, “Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens our Democracy.” His book focuses on the allegations facing more liberal groups like ACORN.

Officials at the polls are unprepared for what could be a record turnout on Election Day, according to Fund.

“We need a lot more poll workers this time to handle the enormous crush of new voters,” said Fund. “We need more poll watchers and monitors, on both sides, to make sure each side is watching the other.”

Allen Raymond learned that winning elections at all costs can come at a heavy price.

“I’m a felon,” Raymond said. “I think about it everyday. Everyday, everything that I do every day, I try to do in such a way that makes up for that mistake.”

Raymond doesn’t plan to stop talking about his trip to the political dark side. He told CNN a major Hollywood studio plans to begin production on a film version of his cautionary tale.

Poems by Resonate’: Loneliness

People need other people.  And I believe a great deal of us experience feeling alone at times.  Some more than others whether we admit it or not.  This is my attempt to speak to it’s often complex way of battling our psyche.

 

Loneliness

 

Torturing my soul – incapacitating me

Torch songs and sad melodies

I hate you

A friend your not but you hang around like you love me

Taking my will and drowning me in sorrows

Assassinating my hope and faith in tomorrow

 

Alone in my heart – emptiness and grief

Piercing look in my eyes gritting my teeth

In anger I rebel and say fuck you to the world

I don’t need you or the love you pretend to give

Hell Is For Children blast through my ears

This sickness has plagued my soul for years

 

Imagination – get me away from here

Take me to a dream world where I won’t have to fear

Give me temporary relief so that I can go on

Fooling myself so I can go on

Wake up in the morning so I can go on

Breathe again so I can go on

 

This mean wicked of a being

Shows me the way and keeps me from seeing

Love right before my eyes

Is it the truth or a repeated surprise

Deja vu damn I have been here before

Walking upright esteem touches the floor

Leave me alone I don’t want you no more

 

Loneliness sits down and begins to speak

Tell me all about my situation so bleak.

I cry for help but there is none to be found

I listen for clues but no not a sound

If I could sleep I would

Should I give up, maybe I should

Save me save me I cry once again

Touch my inner child, heal me again

But loneliness embraces me tight and won’t let go

Her voice I hear, her touch I know

In an intoxicating way she kisses me goodnight

While I smile and wave pretending everything’s alright. 

 

 

© Resonate’

Beloved Childhood Memories~or Tupperware Cereal Bowls and Superfriends!

My BIGWeeL

Watching TV shows with my sister and parents in the living room.  There was only one television in the house.   It was the first house I remember us living in.  1462 Gaty Ave.  East St. Louis Il.  We gathered to watch all the shows with black people on them like The Flip Wilson Show, Sanford & Son, and Good Times.  We didn’t sleep on Carol Burnett though!

flip.jpg 207d1152480561-favorite-comedian-sanford-son-photo-autographed-photo-.jpg 

 goodtimes.jpg  Cap0027.gif

Riding rough and jumping over sh*# on my huffy dirt bike!

That red living room in the house we lived at in South Bend, Indiana.  It had red carpet and red furniture like the couch and chairs.  This was the “nice” furniture with the plastic on it so we couldn’t sit on it.  We couldn’t even go in that living room except to clean it – or on Christmas morning since that is where the presents were.  If important company came over, the living room was all access then.

When my moms and aunts got together on a Saturday night – I would be running around with my cousins, and they would be listening to Al Green – talking, laughing, drinking, and saying “Awwww that is my SONG” while reminiscing about the funny things they did when they were much younger.  When I listen to certain music now – it take me right back there.

Cover-AlGreen-LetsStay.jpg

Catch a girl/kiss a girl! ~ Freeze Tag ~ Red Light/Green Light~ Simon Says ~ Hop Scotch ~ Jacks

Sneaking into the Redd Foxx, Richard Pryor, and Dolemite albums when my parents weren’t home.

richard_pryor_promo.JPG           152c0sh.jpg 

The TV set we had to use pliers to turn the channel with.

The original Starsky & Hutch and Baretta, Fantasy Island and The Love Boat – SOAP!

10038698A~Starsky-Hutch-Posters.jpg baretta.jpg 

 fantasy_island.jpg  love_boat.jpg  soap-show.jpg

Saturday morning cartoons with a big ole tupperware bowl of cereal like Count Chocula or Coco Puffs!  Don’t sleep on that Cap’n Crunch with them damn Crunchberries!

superfriends.jpg Count Chocula box, 1996. 

Going to baseball games with my father… to see the Cardinals back in the day when they had Lou Brock, Reggie Smith, Bake McBride, Kenny Reitz, Keith Hernandez, Ted Simmons, Garry Templeton, etc.   He loved the Dodgers the most so we always went to see them.  I think a lot of black men loved the Dodgers from when they were in Brooklyn and had players like Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella.  Anyway, we sat in the bleachers $2.50 per seat sold 90 min before each game) and sat next to all the old men who would talk much noise.  This is where I got my affinity for older people. We ate peanuts and listened to KMOX as Jack Buck and Bob Costas did the radio play by play.  Those were some awesome times!

 SmithReggie.jpg LouBrock.jpg 13884c60.jpg 

 0b184c60.jpg  McBride-8x10.jpg  14984c60.jpg

 I fogot all about them other cartoons.. Loony Toons, Fat Albert, Land of The Lost, Tom N’ Jerry, Snagglepuss, (“I hate thosem mieces to pieces… Exit – Stage left!”) Pixie and Dixie… need I go on??   I’m not going to even talk about Underdog, Commander McBragg, and them Go Go Gophers.  But my favorite/most endearing cartoon is “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”   Me and Chuck understand one another!  And I still cry when they fix Charlie’s sick ass tree up and make the best of it.  Yea I watched a lot of television.  But I also learned a lot of valuable lessons from some of those shows too.

mcbragg.JPG go_gophers.jpg  fat-albert.jpg

  underdog.jpg sleestack site 1.jpg   2693977.jpg

CB_Christmas_Singing.jpg

BB&G Sending Out Love~

Sen. Barack Obama will take a break from campaigning so he can visit his ailing grandmother.

Just want to send some love out to our President to be Barack Obama and his family as he takes time away from the campaign to visit his beloved grandmother in Hawaii. 

I was struck that when I heard that she was ill, it touched me as if it were my grandmother or something.  It made me realize that I have never been this emotionally connected with a political candidate of any sort.  It makes me think of what people must have felt when they were supporting the candidacy of Bobby Kennedy.  When I saw the movie, I saw all the hope of the people as they wanted change so badly for the nation.

I tell you what, I notice how some people on the right are tremendously jealous of the way many Americans love Senator Obama.  That’s just too bad if they don’t have what he has.  We don’t think he is perfect or unflawed, but we believe in his heart in wanting to SERVE this country to help bring us to where we need to be, and his qualifications to get that very job completed.  There will only be one like him that comes around in my lifetime.   And I am thankful to have the opportunity to help him get elected.

Senator Obama is real.  And though I have never met him I feel it not the least bit inappropriate to say, “Senator Obama, my brother, my friend, my president, God bless you and your family.  Take care of your business and we’ll hold it down for you.

We Love You

Powell Sent Back To The Fields

Colin Powell

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Where “House” Field Negro’s Dare Venture

Fellow blogger C-Haze 77 broke it down when she spoke about the way GOP hardliners have thrown esteemed military general, former National Security Advisor, former General of the Joints Chief of Staff, former Secretary of State, clean under the bus for his endorsement of Senator Barack Obama.   I saw this coming when I heard rumblings of this possible choice the last few weeks.  One one hand, if he were to choose McCain, they would have said, “This great American, Statesman, Soldier of Soldiers, men of men who worked for the beloved Ronald Wilson Reagan, Bush Sr. and W, supports another soldier in Senator McCain.”  They would have used his juice to further their agenda.  But if he went with Obama, then they would say in effect its just a nigga voting for another nigga. 

This is the epitome of certain republicans and right wing hardliners to use race when it’s convenient for them, but always accuse people like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton of using race anytime they point out racial injustices.  Mind you now none of them have said a word about people calling for Senator Obama’s head, these Obama bucks that came out recently, or all the other race baiting Obama/Osama bullshit correlations.  But they are calling Powell a racist?   Certainly he cannot have a set of well thought out reasons for supporting Obama right?  Hmm, lets see… read the transcript here. 

Personally I have admired and critiqued Gen. Powell, and questioned his judgment in some critical areas.  I think he made some mistakes along the way with the topper being that false report he gave to the UN concerning Iraq.   Clearly he had enough of carrying the water for the war hawks and thus he stepped down after not being welcome any longer.  They used his credibility initially to sell the war, then promptly gave him the boot to the join the rest of the Field Negros.

Obviously Powell still has juice.  If he didn’t Tom Brokaw would not have had him on Meet The Press with less than three weeks before the election.  And believe me the GOP wanted that endorsement. 

I wonder what Secretary of State Rice thinks of all this? I wonder if she will speak out against the way her friend and longtime colleague is being treated by the people she has worked so hard for.  I wonder if she understands that if she were to “step out of line” they would make her out to be some dumb black Aunt Jemimah… that these people have no love for her either.  I’m not saying an African-American cannot be a republican.   Lord knows that the Democrats are seldom our friends unless they need our votes.  Most black folks are personally conservative and socially liberal anyway.   We need representation in every influential political party.  I am saying that if people Rice, Lynn Swann, Michael Steele as well as people likerepublican strategist Tara Wall don’t privately and publically call them out on this… they are just as guilty as those promoting the racism against their own people. 

Condoleezza Rice

Economics 2008

Mike Smith Cartoon

Lets hope after this whole “Joe the non licensened ain’t about to buy no damn company plummer crap” don’t get Americans twisted.  If Joe’s broke ass did buy a company making 250 Large I’m thinking with a decent accountant, hell the local H&R Block guywould show him that by the time he paid employees and deducted expenditures he would still come out ahead on Obama’s tax plan.  Dumbass Joe!  His fifteen minutes of fame is only revealing that he is as incompetent to run a plumbing business as McCain/Palin are at being president.  It amazes me that after 8 years of the C student how America has turned its back on excellence.  The Harvard grad all of a sudden can’t relate to Joe Sixpack’s ass?  And what is with this relating to a hockey mom and all that stuff good for anyway?  Sure you want a person who can be in touch with most the differing status of Americans, but if all they can do is relate then I can be president or VP.   I need someone smarter than me who can help fix the problems of the nation.  Relating won’t do it.  But think about it… some Americans are so diluted that they would rather have mediocre leadership that they can relate to all the while wondering why their jobs are going oversees.

Again… those who are on the McCain/Palin bandwagon who happen to be poor or middle class especially… shake yourselves!

Will John McCain go John McWayne in Debate Tonight?

 

What a twist of irony.  The McCain/Palin campaign can’t make up their mind.  On one hand they want to play to their racist base, and in the next McCain backs away to call Obama a “decent” person.  The next moment he talks of, “kicking Obama’s you know what,” in the next debate.  Who is the real John McCain?  Actually… all of them.  The Bradley effect aside, McCain is twisting like a fish in caught in a hook trying to survive and his erratic flailings show a man falling apart.  Its not as if he or Palin has tried to reach out to black people anyway.  Not in the least bit. 

If “that one” was any indication of whats to come in tonights debate, I’ll brace myself and make ready for what The Maverick is going to let fly out of his pie-hole.

Also for those who live in states where there is early voting, take advantage of that and start voting for Barack Obama now.  Why wait till November for all of the controversy and shenanigans that are sure to come into play?  This way you beat the lines and ensure that your vote counts early.

Money, Greed, & The Desecration of the King Legacy

 

Where do I start?  Sigh!

Since the death of Coretta Scott King, the widow of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, many in the African-American community have stood by silently while King’s children have fought in public and in court over various money issues.  Most of us just shook our heads and hoped that they could get their stuff together.  I’m not saying it’s easy being a King’s kid all the time, but come on! 

Chief of the drama however seems to be Dexter King, the second son of the couple who for everything I have noticed, seems to love the high life as a Malibu “big baller” who spends all of the money from his father’s estate to finance his lavish lifestyle.  Initially, sister Bernice King and brother Martin III sued Dexter on behalf of Coretta’s estate alleging he improperly took funds from the estates of their parents.  I won’t spend time elaborating on that or placing blame.  But it’s obvious that there are some problems with the First Family of black folk. 

Now it seems that Coretta had some love letters “(and other “intimate correspondence”) from Martin that she kept in a suitcase under her bed till the day she died.   According to Lynn Cothren, Mrs. Kings special assistant for over two decades they were her most cherished possessions.  Bernice would like to keep those letters private in the hands of family.  Dexter, ever the opportunist would like to whore them out for a book deal he inked recently.

Dude, you are actually going to take your sister to court to get at your dead parent’s love letters so you can market them in a book? 

To quote a famous poet, “Dumb nigga, what you thinkin bout?”  

Here you have the descendants of the most well known African-American family in the history of the world.  The children of a Nobel Peace Prize winner.  A man who has arguably done more to help the entire race socially, legally, educationally, and financially, certainly in the 20th Century.   A man who helped to set the table for this historic moment and opportunity to elect a true child of the dream.   

 

I know there are two sides to every story, and perhaps if I knew the whole story (which I am not interested in) I would have cause to go after Bernice and Martin III.  But in this case, it’s all on Dexter.  What will this guy NOT do to bleed his given name for every dollar possible?  I am reminded of a line in the movie, “Crash,” where Terrance Howard’s character chided Ludacris’ car jacking character by telling him, “Look at me!  You embarrass me.  You embarrass yourself!”

Since these bickerings started, most African Americans with public forums have cautiously taken a pass at getting into their business.  There is so much respect for the King name and legacy.  We have inwardly wished that the family would put the public bickering to rest and not bring shame to themselves or our people.  I think the silence should cease.  And we should call for Dexter to call off this ridiculous pursuit of his parents intimate communications.  Here is my official notice:

Memo to Dex: Your father is arguably the greatest American the country has ever produced!  Have some dignity!  If there was something J. Edgar Hoover didn’t get his grubby and filthy hands on, then leave it be!  I am sure if Mrs. King wanted to post her husband’s personal sentiments to her she would have done so during the almost 40 years she survived him.  You have enough at your disposal already to allow you to gravy train your father’s legacy for the rest of your pitiful life.  If your mother and father were alive, they would both be ashamed of you.  Now back the hell up!

See… it’s that simple!