Whitney's "Home Going..."

Like millions of others, last weekend I was stunned when Whitney Houston passed away. I was on my sofa browsing Google News and I saw about halfway down the page "Whitney Houston, 48 pronouced dead."

I had to read it several times because it didn't make sense. "What do they mean pronounced dead?" "What do they mean dead?" Then after a few seconds, my brain told me, dead meant dead.

I was sad.

The 17 year old me was supposed to marry Whitney Houston back in '85 when I first heard her debut album and saw this pretty woman with her shoulder out starring back at me and me alone.

I guess this post is really less about my feelings for whitney and more for my feelings toward the media. Maybe the 'white' media, but the media none-the-less.

I saw a crawl yesterday on CNN that said, "Whitney Houston's funeral to be called "A Home Going Service". Then I saw something similar on another channel and I read it on certain websites.

I just want to scream to the media world... BLACK PEOPLE HAVE BEEN CALLING OUR FUNERALS "HOME GOING SERVICES" SINCE WE FIRST STARTED DYING!

I think the media is under this insane assumption that "Home Going Services" are something we reserve for famous Blacks. Sorry media - you look stupid! We all get "home going services" - it is NOT some ceremony that we've been holding secret from you people and we only break it out for our famous folks.

Just thought you should know.

TTBM

Republicans... again.

A lot of times I find myself saying, "America will never truly be great again." This upsets some people and they write me off by thinking that I'm just being grumpy.

Well, I AM grumpy a lot, but I'm not wrong.

As long as we have the current Democratic mindset at odds with the current Republican mindset, America will never be great again. I think Dems are too damn timid and too damn giving at the negotiations table and I think the Republicans are simply too worried about protecting the richest two percent of the country's citizens; too worried about keeping the fat cats on Wall Street happy; too worried about keeping their foot on the neck of everyday Americans; and too worried about spreading fear and ignorance in the furtherance of the previous three issues.

Today, the Republicans pushed hard to force Democrats into signing off of over $60,000,000,000.00 in Government spending cuts. Yet, most Republicans are war mongerers that desperately crave us to contract-out the majority of war operations at greater cost than paying our soldiers for the job. Republicans also want to keep massive tax breaks in place for the wealthiest corporations in our country, which keeps billions of dollars out of our Government's hands and they also crush any chance for economic growth by cutting down and cutting out thousands of programs designed to HELP Americans and HELP create jobs.

I think Republicans are evil. AHHHHHH, there I said it.

God that feels good.

Re-pub-lic-ans-are-eeeeeeeeeeee-vil.

AHHHHHHHHHHH, sounds like music to my ears. Feels like honey on my tongue.

I just don't respect Republicans. I can't, for the life of me, understand how a decent, compassionate, intelligent person would ever want to align themselves with a party that wants to oppress poor people and minorites, women and children, foreigners and Americans. A party that agressively seeks profits for the wealthiest companies in the world while ASSURING that these companies don't pay a dollar in taxes to AMERICA. I political party that demonizes gays and anyone that may be different what they think should be the norm. A party that uses spending cuts as a tool to make sure the hungry stay hungry, the poor stay lacking and the children get a less than stellar education. All the while they wave the American flag and scream, "We are Patriots."

They are liars.

Republicans are everything that America should never be. America will always be shy of greatness because of the petty, greedy, blood thirsty, evil, Republicans.

They need to be waving an upside-down flag.

America is in distress.

TTBM

TSUNAMI WARNING!!! Sort of...

At 5:20 today, I found myself sitting in my living-room flipping from CNN, to HLN, to FOX NEWS. I was trying to see who was putting the scariest spin on the possible tsunami headed toward Hawaii.

I think CNN actually made a very docile event sound threatening and dangerous. They showed the waves coming in, but they laid down some serious "The worst may be yet to come..." dialogue over their split screen images. HLN didn't do bad, they had some good interviews and they made the potential three foot waves sound like a 50 feet wall of watery death. FOX though... well, they really disappointed me. They mentioned the potential tsunami, covered some other news, brushed past the tsunami again, covered the earthquake, did the weather and briefly mentioned the tsunami one more time.

WTH?

FOX news stunned me! I figured that if any network could scare me - here on the east coast - about a tsunami 3000 miles away, it would be FOX! But alas, I was wrong. I guess FOX can only scare folks with political nonsense. I guess they can only play to their strengths. They've got real heavyweights when it comes to spinning the most innocent political issue into the next Holocaust, but they just don't have the journalistic depth to exploit anything else. I feel like I should be happy, but I simply find myself confused.

CNN on the other hand was really pulling out the stops. I felt a little sad for them though - they wanted so badly to catch a person getting dragged to their death in a rip-tide, or smashed against a wall in a massive surge of water. When the scientists began to tell them that the worst was over and the water level had only raised a little, the newscaster was practically begging him to give him a glimmer of deadly hope. "But technically the threat could still go on for hours couldn't it? Technically?" The scientist gave him a slight bit of hope. I could almost hear the reporter going, "YEEEEESSSSSSSSSS!"

Don't worry cable news networks - you'll have plenty of other chances to try to scare us to death this year - it's only February.

TTBM

GIVE METRO A MINUTE!!!

Let's give the DC Metro Transit Authority a few minutes!

It is Tuesday afternoon and just a few minutes past the 24 hour mark for the worst accident in Metro's 30+ year history. And the media is in a frenzy!

Reporters for the local news stations, especially FOX5, are just chomping at the bit and asking anyone with a camera in front of them to explain why "Metro" [the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority] hasn't issued a formal statement explaining why two Red Line trains collided yesterday killing over 7 people and injuring dozens more.

I've heard a few intelligent people, telling the local media, through clenched teeth, that investigations are on going and neither Metro or the NTSB have any idea of what happened just 1 day ago. I don't even think emergency workers are 100% sure that they've gotten all of the bodies off the trains. A big section of of one train is just a compressed heap of tangled metal! Anything could still be in there at this point!

I'm pretty steamed about how the media outlets in this area are acting like bloodthristy sharks over this tragedy. Yesterday afternoon in the first hour after the crash, a few of the local newscasters were trying their damn'dest to be the first to use the phrase "confirmed casualty" in a complete sentence. I think FOX5 might have been the winner, but it was close!

Now, in the aftermath, everyone in the media is looking for the next sexy lead-in... "Who can we BLAME?" I've already heard that it appears to be a toss up between an automated mechancial system that failed and a possible operator error. One radio station reported that the driver of the train was ranked 18th from the bottom [in experience] in a system with over 500 operators. The news guy was actually drooling when he said that. I bet he was giddy that he could find such a stat.

The driver and at least 6 others died.

I truly wish that the media would just calm down a little bit. Report what they have and not make a circus of speculation out of what they don't have and out of what they don't know.

And, let's be real, law suits are going to start raining down from the sky on Metro, so that too is a legitimate matter that must be considered by WMATA. No matter how you slice it, there is no reason for Metro to rush out with an inaccurate statement only to have to issue a corrective statement days later... which of course, The Media would beat them to death over!

Let NTSB do their job, let Metro cooperate fully and keep their other lines servicing their hundreds of thousands of riders and let the information come out as it becomes clear. Nobody is going to forget about this DC Media, I promise - let's bury the dead, heal the injured, make sure this doesn't happen again and move forward.

Mama's House - ENOUGH ALREADY!!!

Damn, I missed My Blog!!!

I've been wanting to write, and wanting to write and wanting to write and finally, tonight - I stumbled into the perfect storm of free time, access to my laptop, being awake, and something bugging the hell out of me.

No, not the TEA Baggers - I'll get to them tomorrow...

I was just told that this 31 year old guy I know just went out and bought a brand new Mercedes. That by itself is not a bad thing, the bad part is that he still lives at home with MAMA.

I have been hearing so many stories of grown-ass men, mainly Black Men, but I believe that is largely because of the circles I travel in, being well into their 30's and still living at home WITH MAMA. Some even live with MAMA and DADDY, so they can't even say "I'm just looking out for my mom."

There is a 47 year old guy at my job who PROUDLY still lives at his mother's house. I know a 44 year old guy who still lives with his dad and his dad's new wife. I know a 27 year old guy that trots around his parents house carefree like he's 16 and trying to borrow the car keys. I know a 35 year old guy that makes over $90K a year and isn't thinking about leaving home. He's quick to declare that he gives his parents $430 a month. Uh, last time I checked - there were no apartments in the city for $430 a month, so that, combined with the fact that he makes over $90K a year makes him one cheap bastard, one VERY cheap bastard.

What the hell is this about?

I'm going to go ahead and put a little of my family business out there. I have two brothers that are well into their 30's and they are well set to stay at MOM and DAD's house until somebody dies. Honestly, it is that fact that makes me visit my parents less and less. They sit back and accept the fact, almost welcome the fact that these two are just never going to leave home and I just can't grasp that logic.

My mother often says that she knows that my brother X is going to meet a good woman and get married. I've tried to tell her that most Sister's in their 30's that are about anything - have their own places and their own money and they want to go places and do things and enjoy life with a man that is doing his thing, being his own man, LIVING IN HIS OWN PLACE, and not collecting video games and DVD's in his mom's basement. I told her that no self respecting woman is going to want anything serious with a man that has to take her to a motel or a hotel everytime he wants to be close to her. Most women are not going to want to sit in the basement of their 35 year old boyfriend's parent's house on Friday and watch movies. I tried to reason with her to push my brother's into grown-manhood. She declined, said nothing was wrong with them living 'at home' and said that they would leave when they were ready. Then she got a little mad at me so I cut my losses.

I've tried talking to my brothers, well sort of, brother Y and me aren't that close, so we just stay cordial with each other, and brother X always seems to breeze past my suggestions that maybe he needs to get an apartment or something. I think to him, there is nothing to be gained by having your own place, and I guess he expects my parents to live another 50 years and just take care of the house they live in. I try to school him sometimes but he ignores me, he always seems to have some story about how this 'girl' he met at the mall... I'm sorry, he calls women 'fee-males' now... so he'll tell me about how some 'fee-male' he met at the mall is trippin' and won't return his calls.

Sure, maybe I'm being a d*ck, or maybe I'm getting into other folks' business, but to me, I care about my brothers and I care about my parents and I think it's time for my 30+ year old brothers to become independent men and learn to live on their own. Especially my brother X, he is such a nice guy and has such a great heart - I just wish he would mature some and get his own place and try to see the world beyond that little 20 square miles he almost refuses to leave.

But, enough about my brothers - I have been coming across more and more men that live with Mom'an'em. It's funny to me, because I've often wondered how these men present their living situations to women they meet. There is no way I could imagine being 34 again and telling some gorgeous woman, "Yeah, I live on the westside at my mom and dad's house. It's cool, my mom does my laundry on weekends." As fate would have it, I was talking to a guy who was telling me about a buddy of his that makes almost six figures a year and still lives with mommy and daddy. I said, "He still lives with his Mom?" He told me this - exactly, "Yeah, yeah, he lives out there with his people." I said, "His mom and dad?" Again he replied, "Yeah, with his people." So I concluded that maybe that is the cool term to describe living at home with mom and 'em - 'I live with my people." I guess that works.

I think I find myself bothered by the whole 'grown man living with his mom' phenomenon because it seems to be growing and spreading. I believe too many of these 'men' are missing the crucial maturing aspect that comes with being self sufficient. Many of these men are making children of their own who are living with their mama's while daddy refuses to make strides to either marry mama or at least make a Daddy's home for their children. We are in enough of a predicament now with well over half of all Black children being born to single mothers - allowing grown, healthy men to just live at home and sleep in the same bedroom they had when they were 4 years old is insane to me. Insane and crippling in the long run.

Absolutely nuts-

TTBM

President Barack Obama

I'm actually in tears.

CNN has just called Barack Obama - PRESIDENT ELECT BARACK OBAMA! California has just checked in and his electoral count is 299. I just can't believe that we are here. After two years of campaining. After fighting the powerhouse Clinton's, after fighting the dirty lies of John McCain and his GOP croanies, Barack Obama has come out on top. AMERICA's FUTURE has come out on top.

Thank God for this day, and this opportunity, and this achievement.

THBM

E Minus 9 days "The Palin Factor"

If you love something, you want to see it thrive. You want to see it flourish. You want to see it being the very best that it can be. This applies to everything, your friends, your spouse, your kids, and even your country.

I love America.

I do.

I think America is the greatest nation in the world, and I wouldn't want to wake up anywhere else in the world except for AMERICA. Now, while I say this - I want it clear that I respect any citizen of any other country in the world to feel the exact same way about their country. It can be just as true to them as it is to me.

But is that statement as true to John McCain, as it is to me?

Case in point: Let's suppose that John McCain believed that he was going to be the next president of the United States, this is reasonable and quite true I assume. So, if he thought that he was going to be president and the Commander-In-Chief of our armed forces and the leader of our great nation, that I assume he truly loves, why would he not intrust our nation to a qualified partner in his vice-president?

We're all human, none of us are immortal. We are all sharing this moral plane on even footing. Within reason we all need to make plans, contingencies if you will, to assure that the things that we love are able to thrive and flourish in the unexpected event that we are no longer present or able to care for and support them the way we believe they should be cared for and provided for. That's why many of us that are fortunate enough to afford life insurance, purchase it - we want to help provide for our loved ones financial security if we can't do it any longer; that's why some people leave large endowments to schools, churches, colleges and organizations - so that that can thrive and continue for years and generations anew.

But John McCain has told America and told the world that if, 'I am elected the next president of the United States, a counrty with the most powerful military in the world, a country that is a central hub of global finance, a country with one of the largest nuclear arsenals in the world, a country that is a 232 year old democracy, and if I am unable to complete my four year term in that office, I shall willingly turn over control of that nation to Sarah Palin."

God, I wish I could insert the silence that should follow that last sentence.

He is telling not just America, but the whole world that he really doesn't give a damn about our country. Now I have no idea how bad a president John McCain will be. Maybe not as bad as Bush, but close I'm sure. But I certain of one thing - SARAH PALIN would be worse than George W. Bush. In fact, I'd rather have 4 more years of Bush than two years of Palin. Now think about that. Four more of Bush v. Two of Palin.

Now, I don't dislike Sarah Palin, the woman, the mother, the Governor, the big game hunter - I don't know the woman. But what I have seen from her scares me. She's worse than Bush in an interview - My God, did anyone see her with Couric? Sure, she was thrust upon the national stage - but she has shown day-by-day that she is not smart enough or politically saavy enough to play on the main stage. As I've heard older folks say, "She plays well in the 'sticks'." The Sticks being the small venue of Alaska. I've got no beef with Alaska, but being the mayor of a small town where she wanted to ban books she didn't like, and where she wanted to allow guns in schools, and where she let meth overrun the streets and then the Governor of a state for a year or two where she voted for a 9-figure bridge to-nowhere, and tried like hell to get her ex-brother-in-law fired from his job in law enforcement, it doesn't qualify you to have a shot at possibly being the next president of the United States. When you hear her trying desperately to explain how living across the Bering Strait from Russia gives her National security experience I feel terrified knowing that she might end up as our President.

I find it strange that no one in the big media talks about the fact that her and her husband are staunch supporters of the "Alaskan Independence Party" a group that has publically called the Government of the United States their sworn enemy, and pushed for legislation that would allow them the ability to secede from America. How is it that no one is crying foul on this one? If someone caught a picture of Barack Obama lighting up a Newport, the three major networks would interrupt broadcasting with a "Special News Report."

John McCain is telling all of us that he really doesn't have our nation and its best inteests in his heart and in his mind. He picked Sarah Palin because the shock value she brought the the table - she was a woman, and moreso, a woman that almost nobody had heard of. She is probably one of the most unqualified individuals in this country to be the next vice-president of the United States and the Republicans know it - unfortuantely for the rest of us - the die-hard Republicans care more about their party than they do about about our nation and its future.

I think what turns my stomach most of all was something that Sarah Palin herself said. When asked what she said when McCain offered her the VP spot, she replied, "He asked me if I wanted to be his vice-presidential running mate and I didn't blink an eye. I immediately told him yes!" To me, this is the most troubling thing of all. It's either an arrogant lie, or it shows that she has no regard for our country. I think that a decent, humble and intelligent person would have acknowledged the scope of the request and would have needed a little bit of time to think about the question, to look at their personal capabilities, to maybe even pray about it - but they would have taken a pause to make sure they were the best for the job or at least mostly READY for the job. Not her, not Sarah Palin - she jumped in head first without hesitation and without giving our nation any real thought. She saw her name in lights and she saw hubby Todd making snow angels in the rose garden. Sadly, she is a vice presidential joke.

This is a serious time for serious people, and Sarah Palin is just not ready for the job.

TTBM

E MINUS 10 days: "A Time to be Smart..."

"This is the most important election in our lifetime."

I think this is the second time that I've heard this phrase, and its the second time I have believed it.

The first time was in 2004 when Bush stole yet another election from our country by using dirty, underhanded politics and singing the same old song to the same old people.

Now we find ourselves as a nation, under the gun again. Another narrow-focused, conservative-minded, protect-the-rich and piss-on-the-poor Republican threatening to further our doomed effort in Iraq, to keep his foot on the neck of the non-wealthy in America and to insure the continued prosperity of his mega-rich base.

I find myself very very scared lately. Our country has put George W. Bush in the White House TWO times. George W. Bush is probably the last American that should find himself in charge of our great nation. And now we find ourselves being told the same old distorted lies and twisted pipe-dreams again - by the same old party - on a somewhat different day.

I'm worried.

Sure, the polls show that Barrack Obama is ahead in almost every way possible, but the Republicans are scared and they are backed into a corner. We should expect them to come out fighting... fighting AND cheating. It's funny how you ONLY hear about cheating and questionable ballots, and harassment of voters where Democrats are threatening to take Republican seats and so called "Red" states. Republicans... excuse me... some Republicans are the most devious and underhanded people in the world and their party means SO MUCH more to them, than OUR country does. Some of these Republicans are so scared of change and so fearful that they may have to pay an extra bit of tax on their "upper class" incomes that they are willing to bend. break and sometimes burn the Constitution to get their way.

These are dangerous times for Americans. Not because George Bush has allowed bin Laden to stay alive and be the multi-billion dollar face of fear to us, and not because George Bush has allowed big banks and corporations to run rough-shod with no regulation and bring the world to the edge of complete financial collapse... NO - These times are dangerous for us because John McCain and his inept number two, Sarah Palin, are supported by fear mongering cheaters and criminals that will stop at nothing to put them in The White House. We cannot allow this election to be stolen, we cannot allow 4 more years of Bushesque politics to run and ruin our once great nation. We can't allow the lies and hype to take center stage.

It is time for us all to be smart, to vote, to not be deterred, to watch these people closely on November 4th, and to encourage everyone we know to get out to the polls and vote. We honestly may never have another chance at the pace we're going now. And heaven help us if Sarah Palin ends up as president... but I'll talk about that at E Minus 9 days.

TTBM.

Thanks

Thanks to everyone that has stopped by my blog in the last few months to try and catch some random thoughts from this Brother.

I wish I had some glamorous, Earth-moving reason for not blogging, but sadly I don't. I think life just stepped in, along with some changes in the computer use policy at my job, and I figured I wasn't quite ready to give up my salary to blog during my lunch hour.

Anway, I'm going to see if I can find my voice again and I'm going to get busy checking out my old friends in the blogosphere - I can't wait to see what you all have been up to.

-TTBM!!!

What on Earth are they doing?

Why do I know that this will NOT be the last time the American media makes this current election a racist, ignorant, fear driven, sick-minded, debacle? I guess because, I have a brain.

It appears that the ignorant, talking-heads that we have so graciously planted on cable-TV and given their own news shows, loud microphones and bright lights - want to be heard. They want to be heard and they want to say THEE stupidest things so that someone will pay them some attention.

It seems as though Barack and Michelle Obama gave each other a little "dap" onstage last week in St. Paul and the media appears to have gone ape-sh*t over the gesture. Media people on all of the big networks were asking what was "meant by that gesture," and "Why did they do that?" and "What do you call that hand thing?". WHAAAAAAAAAT???

These people claim to be able to present NEWS to the masses. They are supposed to be intelligent enough to present world events, history making events, once in a lifetime events and they are unnerved and baffedly beyond words by a little "fist dap." Give me a freakin' break.

I started to define "fist dap" right here... but then I thought about it. If anyone is kind enough to read this, and living in the United States, and has NOT, repeat - NOT been living under a rock, then they should already know what a "fist dap" or "a pound" or "some dap" is. Therefore I won't waste your valuable blog-reading time.

Back to the talking heads - one Fox News reporter, E.D. Hill went as far as to call the gesture "A terrorist Fist Jab." Hill was promptly repremanded by Fox in public; behind closed doors I'm sure she's a water-cooler hero at Fox, and she probably got a neat little bonus check for the dig against the Obama's.

But, this kind of foolishness, what I call "racial foolishness" is certain to spread in the coming months. I think Barack is going to come under fire for his party of choice, that's a no-brainer, but what we are going to see and read is an amazing amount of racial foolishness from the mainstream media. We are going to see the big media windbags from Fox, CNN, ABC, MSNBC, NBC, CBS, etc. saying things and making accusations that are going to sound nothing short of insane. The media is going to attack the Obama's because they are not White. Note that I didn't say Black, I said, "Not White."

For the simple fact that the media picked up the gesture and noted it, shows that even the tiniest of things that may not be done by "mainstream" Whites are going to be presented as alien, foreign, void of logic, you-name-it. Every little thing that Barack and Michelle will do overthe rest of this election is going to be hyper-scrutinized. John McCain can drag his wife out onto Pennsylvania Avenue and cover her in whipped cream and chopped nuts from head-to-toe and the media will glance over it with a chuckle and a grin and move into a detailed, three-part, round-table discussion over "Why the Obama's picked NOW to paint their Volvo station-wagon beige?"

We are going to be flooded with some of the dumbest, saddest, most ignorant news reporting in our country's history over the next five months, and I'm sorry to say The Obama's are going to be at the heart of most of it. We are at the most crucial time in our country's existence, employment is down, the economy is down, thousands of Americans are losing their homes each day, crime is up, education is WAY down, we are deep in a recession, gas is approaching $5 a gallon, healthcare is a joke, and our media is acting like the Black guy running for president is sharing a mysterious pact of some sort with his wife.

Until we demand our media to take us seriously as Americans. they never will!!!!

Michelle Obama

Last night as I sat glued to my TV watching Barack Obama acknowledging his history making ascension to the Democratic Party's nomination for President, I was overwhelmed.

Here we are in 2008 and there is a very good chance that the next President of the United States could be an African American man. I am nothing less than astonished. I'm astonished and tremendously proud to be an American on this day. The majority of Democratic voters were able to look [for the most part] past race and they were able to vote for a Black man. WOW! Way to go America!

I was on the edge of my seat for the whole speech. My wife and I were exchanging high-fives and clapping and giving our love to Barack Obama and the future of hope and optimism that we pray he brings. Then he finished with a couple of "God Bless America's" and then suddenly my whole perspective on the night's events changed. Michelle Obama took the stage with her husband.

I have become quite a Michelle Obama fan over the last year or so. I think that she is a very dynamic, intelligent and downright likeable person. For Barack Obama to have captured the heart of a woman like her, it says a lot about his character, and I admire the relationship the two of them appear to have. That is why my perspective changed. Michelle did not appear to be her usual happy and cheerful "potential future-first-lady" self, she looked worried.

She tried to hide it, that stunned, worried look that people get when their spouses step into harms way. It was the look of spouses that kiss their loved ones goodbye before they head off to war. It was the same look that I imagine police officers and fire-fighters spouses give their loved ones when they leave for work. It was the look I assume Coretta Scott King and Betty Shabazz gave their husbands when they went out to change the world.

I have an optimistic streak deep within me, it is in this streak that I believe Barack Obama will change the world, I believe that he will beat John McCain and move into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and he'll do amazing things and he'll grow old and gray and write memoirs and give lectures and be an American icon for generations. But, my optimism aside, we live in a world of fanatics, lunatics, racists and hate mongers. We live in a world of danger.

I think this is why My Girl - Michelle looked a little worried last night. She's given us her husband. She's allowed... YES allowed... our country to have a chance for renewed greatness on the back and shoulders of her best friend, her husband, her man, [in her own words] her babies DADDY. She's a smart woman, she knows the dangers that powerful people face, she knows the dangers that powerful men face, she knows the dangers that powerful Black men face - and yet, she's allowed her husband to try and improve our lives.

In all the wonderful and deserved Barack Obama hype that we are now celebrating, let us not forget Michelle. Let us not forget that behind every good man there is an even better woman.

LUV U OBAMA'S!!!!!!!!!!!

TTBM

Auschwitz or Buchenwald... who cares?

Auschwitz or Buchenwald... who cares?

Barack Obama's Grandfather and/or Great Uncle helped to liberate tortured Jews from a Nazi death camp in World War II. That is a great thing and the Obama family should be proud beyond words at the role their family members played in such a significant event.

It seems as though the Democratic Heir apparent, Barack Obama, was speaking before a crowd yesterday in New Mexico and he mentioned that his Great Uncle had helped to liberate Auschwitz in World War II. It didn't take Republicans long to wikipedia Auschwitz and discover that Soviet troops in fact, liberated the death camp in January of 1945. "Oh, he's a liar! Tar and feather that Boy!" They were quick to yell!!! (okay, maybe they just whispered the tar and feathers part - but I'm sure someone said it!)

Barack has since corrected himself. I believe he got his death camps mixed up. Don't you just hate it when that happens?

You have Auschwitz, where between 1.1 and 2.5 million Jews were killed, and then you have Buchenwald were 56,000 Jews were killed. That is what drives me to ask - Who Cares?

No... NOT "Who Cares about murdered Jews?" I mean - "Who Cares about an error in which camp was liberated?!?!?" You had hundreds of thousands and millions of people that were imprisoned, tortured, murdered and you have crazy Republicans trying to hold a slip of the tongue against a man and his family's military history. Someone is REALLY trying to make that an issue! My God - people, we have to get serious here!!!!

Auschwitz or Buchenwald? Who cares? Why is it that people can't just embrace what Obama's family did? Why create such a furor over something like that? Especially when so few Republicans on The Hill have their own children in Service to our country. Why blow Barack's comments so far out of line. So he said one camp and not the other. Big woop. The Bottom line is this - His Great Uncle was out there in the snow and mud and blood of Germany's battlefield. He was probably getting shot at and watching his fellow soldiers [or Marines] getting killed, but he and many brave others pressed on until a Nazi death camp was put down and liberated. As a lot of people like to say, "He was doing The Damn Thing!" Something like that should not be chewed on and chewed up and used a political fodder by anyone.

This is a serious time America and we need serious people to get our mess straightened out. Play time is over.

TTBM

As bad as it could be...

I filled up yesterday and I paid $3.79 a gallon, for regular. When the pump stopped ticking my money away, the damage came to $72.02. "My God." I thought.

To say I wasn't happy is putting it mildly.

The whole time I stood at the pump and stared at my money disappearing, I found myself in my usual rage over the oil companies. This was so unfair. These rich bastards are making quarterly profits that are bigger than the Gross Domestic Product of hundreds of countries! Now they wanted my money too! It just wasn't fair! I was pretty pissed.

Then I oddly thought of a woman that I saw on the cover of the newspaper today. It was the woman in the picture accompanying this post. The picture was a little different but the woman is the same. In the picture I saw, she was alone, kneeling and crying and the caption said that her daughter had died.

Her DAUGHTER had died in the recent earthquake.

Her DAUGHTER had died.

My gas cost me $72 dollars... and her DAUGHTER died.

My children were home, safe and sound with their mother. I was with them just a few minutes later. We had spaghetti for dinner. It was pretty good... and her DAUGHTER died.

It is so very easy to overlook your blessings. For me, I suppose I get pissed off just a tad bit more than the average person. I'll be the first person to tell you that I can be a bit of a jerk sometimes. If you've read my blog before, I'm sure you'll agree with that. But, yesterday I really allowed myself to take in the good fortune that I have.

These gas prices will not be the end of my life. $4, $5 even $6 a gallon will not be the end of my life. I won't really feel any pain from it. All that may happen to me may be... I won't be buying an X-Box 360 or a flat screen HD television this year [or next]; I may have to get rid of my SUV and buy a neat lil'hybrid; I may have to give up $200 Hugo Boss shoes and buy $60 Kenneth Cole's instead; I may have to stop fussing over $7 cooking oil and $6 a gallon milk. But, God willing I'll still have my wife and kids. I'll have what is really important to me.

I have to remember to practice what I try to preach to my kids... I have to remember that I'm a citizen of the world and not just a citizen of my town, state and country. With 100,000 dead and dying in cyclone ravaged Myanmar and 50,000 feared dead in parts of earthquake shattered China, and dozens and dozens of families left homeless in the central plains of the United States after weeks of tornadoes - My Problems don't seem as bad as I sometimes think they are.

Now, I'm a little less worried about my next trip to Citgo.

TTBM

Blue Justice

You have got to be kidding me.

I am usually one of the first people to defend police officers. Sure, as a Black man raised in a big city I have enough reasons to dislike police in general. I've been stopped and sometimes harrassed by them growing up as a teen of the '80's and I know that all police share the one major flaw of being human. But, I will tell anyone that being a cop is a tough, dangerous and thankless job. I probably couldn't do it. I'm not sure if I'd want to.

One of the usual points I like to bring up when police debates flare up is the fact that I think cops first promise should be to come home at night safe and sound to their familes. The second promise should be close behind and should be to protect and serve. I never think I have those two mixed up because if I were a cop, or a fire fighter, or a plumber or a truck driver - my FIRST promise is to always come home to my wife and kids!

I think when police are in a dangerous and life threatening position, they should use as much force as needed to protect themselves, their fellow officers and the public in general. They should be brave and smart and shoot straight and true.

But then you have cops like New York's Mike Oliver, Gescard Isnora, and Marc Cooper. Murderers.

(In fact, I'm not even typing their names in blue, because they are not true cops)

These guys murdered Sean Bell in cold blood. And worse than that - New York Judge Arthur Cooperman decided that they were justified in shooting 50 times at a car containing three unarmed Black men. 50 TIMES!!!

Okay, granted. When this event was going down in the early hours of November 25, 2006 outside of a strip club in Queens. The shooters didn't know the car was empty, but they damn sure knew that NO ONE WAS SHOOTING BACK AT THEM! One of this men actually lowered his gun, popped a clip out, pulled a fresh one out, popped it back in, charged his gun and continued firing. 50 TIMES!!!

And this judge basically told them, "Nice job guys. No harm, no foul. One Black guy dead and two injured. Next time shoot straighter, see if you can get'em all."

That's what he told them. And, yes - I know that two of the cops where Black [looking].

This verdict is nothing short of a slap in the face of all minorities. This verdict is a sham and a travisty of justice. It shows that in New York, you can gun down Black men wholesale and as long as you are wearing a badge. You are teflon; you are safe, you are golden, you are held harmless to accountability.

This is sadly not the last time that New York cops are not going to murder a minority in cold blood. The NYPD... excuse me... not the [whole] NYPD, just the arrogant NYPD assholes that equate gun caliber with genitalia size, will consider Cooperman's verdict as a free pass to claim "fear" as justification to rain down hot lead on innocent civilians.

If there is a spirit of justice in this country, if she is blindfolded and truly issues her verdicts without bias towards race or stature, then today she must be sheding a tear, she must be sad, she must be blue.

TTBM