Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Habari Gani!

As we celebrate the season, let's try real hard to not give a strange, fat, dressed in red white guy credit for all the fabulous gifts we worked hard to buy our children. Let them understand that it takes mom and dad's commitment to their jobs, love and understanding to get those gifts under that tree. Then ask yourself why you would even want some strange person to come in your home in the middle of the night for any reason while your children were nestled in their beds.


Official Kwanzaa Website

Tiger Revisited

Before I let this go, I have one more thought on the Tiger's wood debacle. I kept running into articles mentioning how Black women were upset because Tiger was with only white women. I of course wondered why any Black woman would think this. Tiger stated many times that he was not Black and distanced himself from the Black community. Well thank God he did!! Why would anyone want to claim this mess?

I was happy to see that his 'women' were all white 'semi-professionals'...if you get my drift. I would have been embarrassed if a Black woman was caught up in this mess. His is a world of high-pay-expecting 'dates' and who wants to be seen as that kind of classless whore all over the world? You never see Black women caught up in such a thing thank heavens because these clueless men run to cheap whore-ish white women with fake boobs, buns and silicone lips instead. We lose out on the dinners, limo rides, clothes and cash here and there (very little as I have read) but we keep our dignity. Thanks Tiger for being very discriminating on your taste in women. I appreciate you keeping Black women on a much higher pedestal than the white bimbos with which you surround yourself.

Good looking out, player!!

...I am wondering though...how long will it be after all the white people have dropped him before he starts claiming he is Black, accepting gigs in Black venues and being seen with Black people. I tell ya, we Black folks have to start discriminating a bit...if he tries...maybe we should run the other way...because next time the headlines will read 'Top Black Golfer Caught with His Pants Down'!!

Child Star Lessons

Tiger is going through later in life what all child stars do...act out and get in trouble. His life was dictated to him and he gained wealth and notoriety from it. But ultimately, he missed a lot of maturing and growing up time practicing on the golf course. Now he feels like he needs to go through his teen years and go buck wild. The only problem is that he is an adult and married with children and a huge public figure. Most child stars do this at some point in their lives. The list is very long...most children who were stars at a young age, spent most of their time practicing a sport the parents thought they 'showed talent in' endure some sort of crisis in their adult years. They often have drug problems, alcohol addiction, or get arrested for some crazy reason. It amazes me that people actually thought this man was perfection personified and he could do no wrong. They forgot he was human and male!

His parents have insisted that he had a normal childhood with plenty of video game playing and eating junk food. The problem is that I never hear about the teen years, dating, hanging with friends, doing what a 'normal' teen does. They say he liked playing golf and was happy to practice. Unfortunately kids don't always let a parent know how they really feel. They know the parents are happy seeing the practicing, the TV appearances, so the child continues without complaining. The child may not even know that being driven at such an early age is a problem. But in our society it is. This may not be an issue in another country with different values and commitments to discipline, but in the US, children need time to act out and do silly things.

Someone said Tiger perpetrated a fraud through the image we see of him in the media. I don't think so...fans created the image of Tiger...Don't ever remember him saying he is perfect without any faults...He was just making money from whomever offered and by winning his game. Being faithful to the wife was never part of the package. So he has made millions and that may end but he is still rich beyond most of our imaginations. He may be hurting because he looks bad in the media but his wallet is still stuffed. Wrong as it may have been, the image they all talk about was a media image created for the money machine called Tiger Woods.

This is another lesson to all parents who live through their kids. Tiger and his parents reaped the financial benefits but the emotional issues remain unresolved. I am not saying that I condone what he has done or even feel sorry for him, but there is an explanation worth thinking about.

Life Lessons

As the years go by I am increasingly thankful for that little thing called life. It doesn't have to be the best life. It doesn't have to be the richest life. My life does not have to be 'better' than the Jones' down the street. It just has to be the life I am living. So many of us use our entire lives to worry about what we don't have and what we should have been doing. I have spent many years of my adult life thinking of these things, but as the years go by I have begun to think that my life is just fine and I really am happy just the way things are and have been.

I spent 11 years home with the children being a mother and wife and manager of the household. When the children started school I decided it was time for me to get out there and start making a 'real contribution' to family so I got a job. I first started part-time then got greedy liking the money I could take to the mall and waste on meaningless items I did not need. I was always a very competitive and ambitious person, so when the thought of my useless B.S. degree in HR Management came to mind it made me think that I had to go out there and get some return on my education investment. A second thought was my mother who always wanted her children to do great things in life. She did not even finish high school although you would never know because she is one of the most insightful and intelligent women I know. So you can very well understand her aspirations for me as the daughter of an immigrant who struggled as a single parent, sending a few dollars home to her children left behind while she created a better life for us all. I have trudged along now for 10 years employed. Each day I wake up and drive up the road to work I am thinking 'why am I doing this?'. My husband makes a good living and certainly makes enough for us to have a comfortable home and lifestyle. He has always indicated that my need to work is unnecessary and may even be silly because my job will not make us rich; it just makes us spend more. True enough although my jobs have also allowed me to build up our savings quite well.

This brings me to the recent economic downturn and all the research on the economy that my dear spouse has been engulfed in for quite some time. He was able to tell me what was going to happen and when enabling me to move things around to minimize loss. I could go on but that's a subject best left for him. I watched all these jobs disappear. I watched all these people become unemployed. I saw so many homes fall under foreclosure and poor families living in tents. It made me think again about my job dilemma. All these people thought their extra income gave them that little step into a new income bracket so therefore they needed the car, house and clothes to go with it. Here go the Jones' again. And I had fallen into the same trap although I thought I was above all that nonsense. That extra income seems to have done more harm than good for many families as they tried to attain a certain stature, a certain place in the economic ladder. That silly little word called greed. So I began to wonder...am I working to fulfill my mother's dreams? Am I working to fulfill my dream of having an important position I can flaunt? Am I working to better my family's finances? But more importantly...does my working add anything to my overall happiness or the satisfaction of my family? This much I now know--being a mother and a wife was the best job I ever had and I truly loved it. So why did I so willingly push it to second place?

I flip back to my daily trek down the road to work. I dread it. I almost hate it. It does not make me happy, satisfied or content. I cannot stop thinking that there is something else...that there is more to life and it is passing me by. What am I missing? What am I giving up? I am home right now recuperating from a hospital stay and it is really hard for me to think about going back to work. Can I walk away and choose the happier route? Time will tell as I continue to ponder my future.

Obama....AAAHHGGGGHHHH!!!

I am just about tired of hearing about all the horrible Communist and Nazi programs our president is trying to push on us helpless citizens. I am tired of the media giving so much voice and credence to cries of Nazism and the like. I am tired of hearing the ignorant religious bigoted prejudiced displays of hatred. They went too far with the education speech. When are we going to stand up and vocally support the president? The only people who are being heard right now are those against him and it makes me worry. It makes me worry because it seems like a scene from True Blood when Mary Ann vibrates wildly and all the townspeople break into a crazed frenzy. That's what's going on now.

This is what the main problem is:

They are afraid the face of intelligence is no longer White Anglo Saxon. They don't want their kids learning anything from a Black man even if he is president. They worry we peoples of color are taking over. That's what it's all about. They also want to make sure they pounce on everything Obama so he has no chance of winning in 4 years. I also believe some are thinking that if 'Maryann' vibrates enough with all that negative crap and all the misinformation and lies, someone will be so entranced that they will try to hurt the president. This was evident in the fall during the campaign and it is even more evident now. They don't care what happens to our country, just how they can keep their foot on Obama's neck pressed to the floor.

Let's work hard to make sure they don't get their wish. Let's work on getting our voices out there.

Way to Go George Stephanopoulos! (errr...well...sort of...this time...)

I watched George Stephanopoulos this morning and wanted to jump through the TV and give George a high five!! I loved how he called Newt Gingrich out on the fear mongering lies being touted by so-called media experts such as himself, Sarah Palin (gag) and the far right orchestrated demonstrators !! I wish the media would do this more often rather than let those spewing lies speak as if their point of view is expertise, wanted or even relevant. Thank you, George, for standing up for truth at least once in your life!! I also watched a similar conversation with David Gregory on NBC and he made no attempts at pointing out the lies and twists of facts. (I miss Tim Russert. He was so much more objective.)



I have not read many specifics about the proposed health care reforms so I don't have a lot of facts to throw at you but I do have an opinion. I do know crap when I see and hear it and I see and hear a lot of it being shoveled into the mouths of, I am sorry to say, so-called conservative white people who are still mad that a Black man is president. It seems to me that ideas are pushed aside and jumped on just because it's Obama. Why was it so easy for Americans to go along with everything Bush did and proposed to do? All the while, people were touting him as the worst president, a total idiot, a fool and a liar. But when it was time to vote, make important decisions, this 'idiot of a president' always came out on top. I am sorry to say that it was because he was white and the fear mongers had no worries, because all was white, after all. Now the leader of the free world is a half Black man and suddenly it's OK to call the president a Nazi, a racist, a Communist, and any other ugly word they can find as a supposed way to protest something with which they don't agree.

According to The Commonwealth Fund, "With the exception of federal–state partnerships, all of the proposals (including G. W. Bush's) would transform the traditional role of employers by eventually scaling back or eliminating the extent to which they contract directly with health plans for coverage. The president's and Senator Wyden's proposals would achieve this in part by eliminating the tax exemption for employer-provided benefits and replacing it with an income tax deduction." So in essence, everyone is proposing some sort of eventual state run plan that could cover everyone. The problem is how certain people are presenting their proposals. Some hide this fact, others attempt to be more translucent.

A couple things that are missing in all of these debates was touched on slightly this morning by Howard Dean. He indicated that as a medical practitioner her received no refusal of treatments from the Medicare system but always received them from private insurers. As a military spouse, I can say that the healthcare provided is not the health care that Bill Gates would get, but it is adequate, and best of all, I don't have to pay directly out of pocket because taxes take care of the expenses. Doctors who are private practitioners can opt into the military health care system either agreeing to accept what the government deems is appropriate payment for a procedure or have the military member pay an additional amount. The nice thing is that we can choose the free care or we have a choice to pay a little extra for the nice frilly offices. I do have to admit that I seem to be paying more out of pocket these days, but I am still satisfied with the care I get.

The second important fact mentioned this morning was that some countries with government run health care programs have higher life expectancies. This point can be contested. However, our life expectancy is affected directly by a lifestyle of overeating and over driving. Just think of the reductions in total cost we would have if we would just eat less and eat healthier. My individual costs alone from my sickle cell issues have severely decreased from repeated hospital stays per year to none simply because I eat healthier. I haven't even mentioned smoking, drinking and the lack of exercise yet. I would just like to hear everyone talking about all the changes we could make in our own personal lives making parts of this whole health care mess irrelevant. I suspect that this will never happen because insurance companies need us to be dependent upon them so that they can continue to rake in the cash. And perhaps, even more importantly, politicians need us to be dependent upon insurers because they need the contributions to support their political ambitions. The problem is that the average American is once again always on the losing end.

Breaking and Entering While Black

My 18 year old daughter gets stopped all the time by the police. She's used to it by now as is her boyfriend who really feels as though he is harassed. As a result he has many tickets (some warranted, some not). This happens all the time to African Americans (and other people of color). Many years ago I was told about an incident that resulted in the murder of a college acquaintance who was subsequently stopped because he was driving a car the police thought he stole. The car was expensive--owned by his NFL cousin--so therefore, that meant that it had to be stolen since the driver was a young black male. What occurred during that stop is anyone's guess but the result was the death of the young man at the hands of the officers that stopped him. My own brother also has many tales of being stopped for no reason except for the fact that he is black. For many years he felt that buying certain vehicles would cause random stops and searches. While house hunting, my husband was driving around the neighborhood trying to see if parking on the street was an issue. He was stopped by an officer because he looked 'lost'. Gee, what a nice guy worrying that a motorist is 'lost'. The ultimate problem for these individuals is simply put: Driving While Black. A DWB.

This brings me to the recent incident where Dr. Gates, a Harvard Professor, was arrested for disorderly conduct, when someone thought he was breaking into his house. In that respect, President Obama is correct in his analysis when asked about the Gates arrest in his own home. The president indicated that the police acted stupidly in arresting this man after proper ID was provided and proof given that the man had a reason to be in his own home. The police officer should have left after Mr. Gates presented his ID and an apology given for the intrusion. The man was tired from a long trip, he's educated and older...that means no patience for that kind of nonsense. Furthermore, when proof of identity was presented, there should be no reason this older gentleman would have been required to subsequently step out of his own home!! After all, we have all been taught that words cannot physically hurt anyone. Therefore, it didn't matter what Gates said to express his displeasure at the treatment he was getting by the officer. The really scary thing is that had this been in a worse part of the city, Mr. Gates may be dead after a beating or shooting by the police because they 'mistook the cane for a gun'. One question though...do his neighbors not know who he is and did they not notice the cane???

I suspect that those who jump on anything stated by our president with which they do not agree are going to be having a lot of fun claiming that the president is calling the police stupid and being soft on crime. I am sure some people will point out something (if not now, during the next presidential race) stated by Dr. Gates as being controversial as they did the minister. I suspect that much of his comments surrounding the 'stupidly' word will be taken out of context as I have already seen. Already the media is stating simply that Obama said the police acted stupidly without adding the rest of the sentence. Once again, an important issue will turn into a political game...I am sure the 'clarification' has already been prepared by the White House and will soon be out...let's wait and see.

Rest In Peace Michael

Shock, dismay, regret, disbelief and sadness are amongst the emotions I am experiencing right now. Micheal Jackson was one of my favorite singers and as a teenager, he was my all time favorite person!! I loved his singing, his dancing...he made me proud to be Black for the very first time. There is so much to say, but mostly I just kept wishing he could get one more chance to shine.

Rest in Peace, Michael. We all loved you so very much. You will be missed.

Happy Father's Day

I just read an article about the Obama outing to a custard shop in Alexandria, VA. I then was curious, of course, about the comments posted after the article. Most of them went on their rants about politics, policy, etc. One person indicated that this is another example of the media love fest, another didn't want to read about anything but policies, politics and the like. One comment stated that Obama was exploiting the children with yet another photo op. How is going out for custard exploiting his children? Photo op? Do most dads not take their kids out for ice cream once in a while? I know my husband does and they are adults!! Thank heavens there were a few that saw this as they should: Dad spending time with the kids doing something normal and natural. Let's leave this at what it is, daddy and kids celebrating father's day. He's the president so nothing is 'normal' and they cannot go anywhere w/o being in the news. I really enjoyed the little story because it shows a normal family enjoying time together...something that is rare in America these days. Even more rare in the African American community. This should be celebrated!!

To the father of my children, I remember all those trips to get ice cream, the drives in the country, the camping , the fishing...thank goodness we didn't need a team on the roof or armed men surrounding us. I love you not only because you are my husband, but because every day you strive to be the best father you can!

44 Years of Sickle Beta Thalassemia! Happy Birthday to Me!!

I am about to celebrate my 44th birthday this Friday. I'm excited as usual because each birthday celebrated means another year I have survived. I have a combination of Sickle Cell and Beta Thalassemia. They are blood disorders that, when combined in my case, act like Sickle Cell Disease (SCD). Over the years I have suffered through a lot of pain, hospitalizations, and other health issues that developed because of my blood disorder. There's no need to go into all of that here. I once read that people with SCD die before they turned 40. I anxiously awaited my 40th hoping that I would still be alive and not a statistic in a biology book. There have been a lot of bumps in the road along the way, but here I am, fairly healthy and have not endured a hospital stay in almost two years!

My family has been by my side through all of it. I have watched my mother worry about me all my life. As I am now older, I can look back and really 'see' all the worry and pain she carried. She would not let me ride a bike for fear of getting hurt. She spent so many days waiting with me at the emergency room, so many hours sitting by my bedside when I was admitted worried that this time I would not be coming home. She prayed a lot and I am sure, like many concerned mothers, she cried a lot. I wish she had not spent so much of her time worrying. But she is a mother and that's what mothers do. I am now a mother and I can relate. I am 44 and she still worries. I learned over the years not to hide my crises and pain because she always wanted to be able to say a special prayer. She never wanted to be in the dark about my problems and I learned that it was OK to share with her because she wanted to be able to worry because that meant at least I was still alive.

My husband picked up where my mother couldn't...when I became an adult, moved away from home, became a college graduate and a loving mother. He sat by my hospital bed when needed, looking on with all the love in the world in his eyes and all the concern in the world. He worried as I had our first child. He worried as I died and came back to life while trying to have our second child. He is here now, growing older with me, hoping that we will be able to spend the rest of an appropriately long lives together.

My children have unfortunately had to live with a parent dealing with a bothersome illness. They all worry when I am in pain. My eldest daughter lived without me for six weeks while I was in a coma during her third year of life, bouncing from friend to friend as my husband traveled out of state to see me (I was airlifted to another military facility). She has seen me in the hospital with tubes and needles stuck in my throat, my nose, my arms. I imagine there have been many times in her short life when she has worried that mommy would not come home. I think she has internalized those fears. Now that she is an adult, she visits all the time telling me she misses me if she doesn't see me every few days. She got physically ill when I was out of town for a couple weeks helping my mother back to good health. Ultimately she worries that her mom will be taken too early because she has had to think this way since she was a toddler. For that I am sorry.

But I am not gone, I am still here and plan to be here for many years to come. I plan to be here to see the marriages of my daughters and the births of my grandchildren. I am not going anywhere any time soon. I am happy with my life, my friends, my family. I will see many many more birthdays come and go.

Happy Birthday to Me and Cheers to you!!

Tea Party

I was on another blog today that was criticizing the 'tea party' demonstrations against taxes. He posted a picture of a protester holding a sign. What really made me laugh was that a protester was holding a sign that says 'cut taxes, not defense'. Is she serious??!! If we cut taxes, how do we NOT cut defense? Don't these ignorant people realize that taxes are directly related to every government office, employee, military and defense dollar spent? How do you cut taxes and have the same level of services, roads, medical care, etc.? Instead of a tea party they need to be waking up to smell the coffee!

Happy Anniversary to Me and Mine

Today is my 21st wedding anniversary!! I'm quite proud that we have made it this far and look forward to 21 more years! Whoo hooo!!

Free Gifts

Enough of the gift already!! I was reading a blog that was criticizing a gift given to a foreign head of state. It was just such a stupid topic to be still beating that poor poor dead horse, I had to post something here.

Who the hell cares what was given to a political leader of another country--and what makes him or them more important than anyone else on this planet? And isn't that a form of socialism...taking taxpayer money and getting something to give to another person? All the criticisms have been coming from the 'right' and they don't believe in giving someone something for free supposedly. LOL In fact, the nicer gifts should be given to the average person the Obamas meet who could use a lift of spirits. I think the idea of those on top economically always getting the great freebies has always been a horrible practice. Mr. Head of State doesn't need a gift at all!! Mr. Head of State makes tons of money, will make tons of money and can buy whatever he likes. Gosh...Americans are sooooooo incredibly stupid Hellooooooo...it's the economy stupid!! Let's move on to something that is actually important to most people in the world.

Rush 2009

I was fairly amused the last two weeks at Michael Steele and Rush Limbaugh jockeying for position in the Republican party. I was equally amused and the Obama administration making Rush seem like the ad hoc leader with Steele in place simply in a dumb attempt to attract non-white male voters. It seems they are still up to their mind games thinking an intelligent individual will jump on board simply because someone looks like them.

That's not what happened with Obama. People of color didn't make him president. White people did. Now Rush is trying to make sure the second term does not happen by trying to reduce Obama's effectiveness making sure all eyes are on him. He is an entertainer and likes to entertain. But ultimately, he is not in the government so therefore cannot make any policies. But the RNC holds him higher than their own leader. This is evident because Steele was required to publicly apologize to someone that did not need an apology. I would not be surprised if Steele leaves his post early. If he stays it's because he is greedy and foolish. It is obvious that he is simply being used as a figurehead but others are making the real decisions. His apology had to send his mind reeling. I can't imagine it was easy for him to degrade himself that much.

It's interesting how some people love certain ideas when it's coming out of Limbaugh's mouth. They like to put blinders on. As I recall there are tax cuts in the bill even though Rush is claiming his idea for the economy is the only one that contains tax cuts. As I recall, cutting corporate taxes and 'promoting' job creation by allowing the wealthy to keep more of their money was the name of the game since the '80's with Reagan at the helm. Ultimately it and Bush's two wars brought us to where we are now. Ideas such as supply side will only work if the wealthy do not get greedy. That is the problem. Greed caused the creation of sub-prime lending. Greed caused these banks to package their debts and sell them as investments. Greed caused the big CEO's to sign off on irresponsible investments and policies. Greed caused many Americans to spend more than they had and buy homes they could not afford. Until we fix the basic desire for 'more' that is inherent in many human beings, society will continue to have it's ups and downs. No one program will work because supply side economics has already been tried and failed. If it worked we would not be here now. Big spending will not work either.

We all just have to learn to live differently. Be responsible. Be reasonable. Be informed. My husband told me about the economic crisis looming in the horizon over three years ago (I called him Chicken Little at the time) and all he did was do some reading online. I began paying attention to him, stopped calling him Chicken Little as the sky started to seem much closer, moved my investments and avoided a financial blood bath. We cut spending and drove less. Why did he know three years ago about the sub-prime mess, skyrocketing gas prices and economic collapse when you never heard about it here or anywhere else in the media? Because government and the media hide the truth to make things look better than they are while they are running away with your money. Wait until we hear about the bundling of credit card debt as an investment vehicle. Here comes the next wave so be prepared and get yourself educated. Just don't agree with someone because you see them all over the news.

BlagoyaBurris Pay for Play

The pay for play news that came out in good ol' IL for the most part is not news to anyone who pays attention to politics. The only difference here is that certain people wanted a chance at getting a Republican seat. Except for our dear president and a select few in government, pay for play happens all the time. I am sure even our president hinted at giving something further consideration because someone wholeheartedly, wholepocketedly gave their support. Presidential cabinets and other appointments are always prime examples of pay for play. For anyone to pretend this is unusual and/or new is at best disingenuous.

If we have not learned anything in this past year, we should at least have learned that money makes the world go around. Greed is and was in fashion and those in power will do anything to feed their greedy desires. They know that if they are successful and become one of the more popular politicians, they will move on to a television spot, best-selling books, high-paying jobs or on the guest speaker tour--all of which lead to higher financial gains. You support a candidate because you expect them to do 'something' for you when they are elected. You expect them to remember your 'support'. Us regular folks just hope they will remember who voted them in when getting funding for their locality, state, etc. We want them to remember our faces when they vote for new taxes. We want them to remember us when they throw our dollars away on stupid pet projects. We pay to put them in office so they will support our interests. Now, someone who has real power, i.e. lots of money, supports a candidate because they know they can count on this candidate to enact a specific law or at least introduce it. They know that the need for their dollars for the next election will weigh heavily on that candidate when they vote for or against things like clean air, health care and energy initiatives. They know that their company will be on the list for possible or probable government contracts. They know that they may have already become the object of a vetting process for a position high up on an administration, whether local or national. That's just how our governments work now. There is rarely true honesty. The very idea that we need to run a campaign for 2 years, wasting billions of dollars should tell you that fund raising is job one for our elected officials. And this is at least partly the fault of us every day folks who allow this to continue. We are complacent now because we have our decent jobs and our nice cars and homes.

That's why you have to be a different animal to want to be in politics. You have to be willing to give up (or at least temporarily alter) some of your mores. Many of our politicians want to effect positive changes for their constituents and may even start their political career working towards that goal. But ultimately they too realize the game of finance. I am sure we have many politicians who are disheartened and disappointed when they 'make it' because they will see no way around being somewhat unscrupulous, turning their promises to constituents into disingenuous banter. They then have to decide that they need to 'pay for play' in hopes that 'compromising' just a bit enables them to see a small victory down the road. When our president talks about the different dynamics in the community between the people who were active in his organizing efforts in his book, Dreams From My Father, he addresses this disparity between those who genuinely want to do good and those who know they can manipulate people into thinking they want to improve their community. He saw how officials from the church to the state houses used their influence to get some personal benefits for themselves or those close to them. He also seems to have successfully maneuvered around most of this to get where he is--much to the chagrin of those whom he passed. The only people initially around him that were pure in their desires were the moms and dads living in Altgeld who had children and family that were directly affected by the dearth of financial attention to their neighborhoods. Obama's sincerity, inability and unwillingness to be 'purchased' is evident because the only thing they were able to 'pin' on him was a connection to a minister who didn't mind speaking the truth from his pulpit.

I knew there was more to come when Mr. Burris accepted the appointment. I initially thought that any person who accepted an appointment by Blago was just plain stupid. But Burris knew what he was doing when he accepted (I'm trying to give him the benefit of the doubt here). He knew the dems wanted to avoid a special election and also knew that once appointed it would be difficult to remove him...thus the use of 'friends'. Mr. Burris needs to just let the focus on him stew and slowly dissipate. The media will find something else to focus on (you know, like turning to their penchant for revisionist history to start working on blaming our pres for the economic mess created by those before him) because, if nothing else, they suffer from ADHD!

Stimulate This

I was watching 'This Week' on ABC the other morning and as the panel discussed the economic stimulus plan pushed through the House of Representatives and now handed over to the Senate, Fred Smith, the CEO of FedEx stated that "the growth of global trade has been enormously beneficial to the United States." That line immediately made me get out of my warm, comfy bed, turn on the computer and write down the quote exactly. Of course I am not surprised that he said this because the company he runs greatly depends on the growth of global trade. In fact I think Mr. Smith wanted to say that 'the growth of Fedex has been enormously stimulated by the transferring of manufacturing from the United States to the global economies who have the lowest wages.' They went on to mention customer service centers and blah, blah blah.

Customer service centers are a relatively new creation. Although relevant to the argument, it is manufacturing that is at the crux of the problem. The destruction of the Unites States economy is directly related to the so-called 'globalization' of world economies that Mr. Smith is holding on to like 'his precious'. Unfortunately, he is not Golum, this is not the 'Lord of the Rings', and Bilbo is not about to ask the Elves for help! This is a ruse being sold by multinational corporations who prey on poor countries with their environmentally dirty manufacturing practices and grossly low wages. Today's multinationals are miscreants, to say the least, who prey on the weak countries that have less opportunities to offer their people.

WHOOOO HOOOOO!!! AT LAST!!

Mr. and Mrs. President:

It give's me such pleasure to see our president so outwardly showing love and affection for his wife. Hollywood needs to step up and give us some of this on the big screen and little screen. Can we say Cliff and Claire Huxtable II??






Yes, we Black folks do love each other too!!

We are Experiencing the Dream!

I'm so excited I can't decide what I should do with myself!! I took the day off so I could experience everything as our new president is inaugurated. I plan to go out to breakfast. I encouraged others to take a day off in celebration, in reflection...just to bask in the joy and take it all in. But do I celebrate with friends? Do I go to a big bash downtown dressed up in my best gown? Do I just stay home and enjoy it comfortably with my husband?

This much I do know...life as we know it as Black people in America means much more to us all now. If only we can keep the momentum going and change other things for the better. This truly is one of the first times I will feel truly proud of my fellow Americans--I knew what Michelle meant. Somehow so many people made this happen and I am grateful.

Fifteen Days and Counting Down!!

Are you excited? I know I am. Only 15 days until Barack Obama becomes president! I am so looking forward to having an intelligent Black man speak for our nation. I already submitted my vacation request...have you? I don't plan to miss a moment of that day!

I do, however, have one criticism. Stop with the old Clinton people already!! As you are young and new to the national political scene, perhaps it is time to give other young and new people a chance. Must every cabinet appointment be of a former Clinton aid or appointee. I read today that a 70 year old Panetta was chosen to be CIA director. I'm sorry, but that is too old!! The man should be retired, sitting on the lanais, fruity drink in hand, in sunny FL basking in the sun! There are plenty of people out there that are qualified for positions on the cabinet and other high appointments. I thought we were bringing in the new but it's turning out to be reinventing the Clinton White House. I hope this isn't the beginning of a long list of disappointments.

I will continue to give our new president the benefit of the doubt. I am hoping his brilliant mind has a plan!

Brick...er...Barack's House

Israel's note to Gazans: 'Leave the Area Immediately'

Where would millions of people go when told to leave because you are being invaded? Why is the world standing by watching the genocide of a people? The Palestinians only have an area that is approximately 15 x 3 miles long. To where are they fleeing? Why should they have to leave their homes? Why is it all right for Europeans to, once again, decide it's OK to displace indigenous peoples so more Europeans can settle somewhere? This land was given to the European Jews after World War II as a kind of consolation prize. Why didn't Europeans want Jews to remain in their borders? It smacks of the injustices against Native Americans in the United States when Europeans decided they had 'discovered' a new world. Why does the world not notice that this is a terrible injustice and that is why Hamas continues to fight and be defiant? Why has Barack Obama not stood up and defended the Palestinians who are losing their homes, their lives, their generations to come, their future? We support the Jews? Why? What has Israel done for the United States? Why do they continue to receive monetary support from the taxpayers? Why was it ok for Israel to have nuclear weapons but not ok for other Middle Eastern nations?

Removing all irrelevant religious banter, the reason is OIL! Oil's importance was determined over 60 years ago and Israel's existence lauds over the nations rich with oil. But how long will we sit idly by while people are killed and displaced so that we can maintain our oil watch dogs in the Middle East? It's not ok with me...it shouldn't be ok with any morally grounded person.

Links of interest:

Israel's land grab

A few more truths

What Really Happened