AngryBlackBitch

Targets…

2012-01-26T09:40:00.000-06:00

Shall we?

Last night I caught the news that several Democrats in the Missouri Senate have been targeted…literally…in a cowardly attempt at intimidation.

Stickers with crosshairs on them were left on the Capitol office doors of the state senators.

It is worth noting that crosshairs were the intimidation tactic du jour during the lead up to the 2010 elections…with some who were fond of saying “don’t get mad, reload” even creating online maps with targets placed over targeted districted.

Now, this public display of violent intentions has broken out under the dome.

Pause…sip coffee…continue.

Of course, this pissed me off.

First of all, threats of violence in a place where the people’s representatives assemble are unacceptable.

Missouri State Senators are talking bodyguards, for the love of all that indicates something is rotten under the dome.

The asshole that did this didn’t even indicate what the fuck they are targeting the senators for. Oh, I get it – Missouri is debating some sort of something about the Obama administration’s health care law, but Jesus to God that’s not the only thing they are working on. For all we know, this fool is one of those folks who has gotten all worked up over Missouri protecting our state border with Kansas from illegal immigration.

Is it too much to ask for a little clarity from these domestic terrorists?

***cue crickets***

Lawd.

Finally, the Missouri State Capitol is the people’s house…my house…and some wretched ass just indulged in a public display of no home training while treading all over we the people.

Seems that the same fringe mob ranting about communist health care laws has no problem at all channeling their inner Stalin under the dome.

Blink.

Blog for Choice – woman + vote = power…

2012-01-22T14:21:00.000-06:00

Let’s jump right on in, shall we?

In case you missed it, this is an election year in America (wink).

So, what am I going to do to elect pro-choice candidates in 2012?

Well…

I’m going to work as if my rights are on the line.

That means I knock on one more door, I make that extra phone call, I nag my friends and family members to make sure their asses are registered and know where their polling place is…I volunteer, even though I’m tired…I stuff envelopes, even though I’d rather be [insert any of the many things I set aside during an election year].

I’m going to teach…

…and educate my community about reproductive justice and that there are people who appropriate the language and tactics of the Civil Rights movement so that they can erect anti-choice versions of the White Citizens Council and bar black women from the full range of reproductive health care.

I’ll be educating my sisters and brothers on the vote, why they should vote, and how many people who claim to care about the souls of black folk are in reality allied with forces that would deny the black vote by any means necessary…people who gleefully disparage black women even as they claim ownership, like the plantation masters of old, over our wombs, our bodies…and, should we fail to be vigilant, eventually our selves.

I’ll be resisting…

…any and all attempts to define, examine, objectify, indict, blame, shame, mock, exploit, and control me.

And I will be voting.

Because elections matter.

Because the most dangerous place for my rights is in the hands of my oppressor.

And because woman + vote = power.

Klan escalation in Missouri…

2012-01-20T07:38:00.000-06:00

Sigh.

Shall we?

It seems that the Klan in Missouri had a New Years resolution – to indulge in more public displays of hate.

When news broke that the Klan had papered Sedalia, Missouri I was more interested in the response of residents than the fact that the infamous hate organization was out and about putting leaflets on cars.

Thankfully many residents were appalled.

Far too many people think the Klan went away after the ‘60s…as if LBJ invented a vaccination for absolute racist bullshit along with his Civil Rights legislation. And way too many people think Klan activities were and are isolated to the South – trust me, most of Missouri still struggles with Civil War themes as if trapped in April 1865.

But now comes news that some asshole has vandalized the sign for the Rosa Parks Highway with…wait for it…the letters “KKK” spray-painted in black.

Pause…sip coffee…continue.

I don’t believe in coincidences...nor am I one to dismiss these public acts as child-based pranks the way some folks do.

No, I see this as textbook Klan behavior.

First the distribution of fliers…which is perfectly legal and protected and if I want the right to do the same shit I need to defend their right too.

Followed by the destruction of [insert something people of color care about or use or recently built or purchased] in an attempt to intimidate, insult, and bully – which makes me wonder if they’re stocking up on wood in preparation for a month of cross burning in February.

***cuts eyes***

Post-racial, my black ass.

Cutting bone – my thoughts on the State of the State…

2012-01-18T07:34:00.000-06:00

Shall we?

Last night Missouri Governor Jay Nixon gave his State of the State address. Nixon bragged on the fact that the state workforce is the smallest it has been in 15 years, pledged to not raise taxes (pander much?), and then called for budget cuts across the board.

Pause…sip coffee…continue.

If ever there was a case study for why states need to think twice, take a nap, and then think again before passing a balanced budget amendment…Lawd, give me strength…Missouri is that case.

Oh, catch that knee before you hurt someone.

I adore balanced budgets.

But I also understand that states aren’t households and there was far better ways to ensure fiscal discipline than passing a piece of legislation that gives government an easy out and mandates that the people suffer while true waste lingers unaddressed.

Pause…let that thought marinate…continue.

That’s right, I said that a balanced budget amendment is a government easy button.

Nixon and the gaggle of freaks that make up the majority in the Assembly get to cut…and cut…and then cut again.

Every year I watch this wretched circus and it never fails to remind me of a surgeon using Civil War battlefield medical techniques in a modern surgical theatre.

Oh, government will balance the budget…but they will do so without being challenged in to actual govern in a way that would make Missouri thrive rather than amputate and/or starve programs to death year after year.

Mmmhmm, we have a state government that is skilled in wielding the axe but lacks the intellectual capacity to diagnose what ails us.

And allow me to keep it real – the most vulnerable suffer from these cuts, our young people seeking education suffer…

…and ultimately Missouri suffers. Because while budget balancing legislators prepare to cut bone now that they’ve hacked away all the meat, we the people are looking at another year where our largest export is Missourians.

Blink.

Pondering service this King Holiday…

2012-01-16T09:04:00.000-06:00

Happy Martin Luther King Day!

Longtime readers know that I adore volunteering and I fully support the call for a national day of service in honor of King’s legacy.

But...and you just knew there was a “but” coming…I wish the call for a day of service was accompanied by the recommendation for a life of service.

Hold up...catch that knee!

You know and I know that you know that I know that average everyday folk tend to believe that they don’t have enough time to check the time much less add another to-do to their list of things that need doing.

A national day of service is a fantabulous opportunity to explore the diverse options for service available to people of all ages, skills, and backgrounds…

…and through that exploration people can realize that service and volunteering does not have to happen in multi-hour, overwhelming, and thus unsustainable blocks of time.

Pause...consider...continue.

Today I'm reflecting on King’s legacy and on the sacrifice and courage of thousands of nameless activist warriors who made up a movement that was the very definition of serving the cause of social justice.

And I imagine what the world could be...would be...will become if we all endeavored to do the same.

Have a wonderful King holiday.

Firewall…

2012-01-11T07:27:00.000-06:00

Let’s jump right on in.

The New Hampshire primary is over.

Romney won big.

Ron Paul came in second.

John Huntsman came in third.

And y’all can be your ass this race is about to get old school nasty…I mean nasty like when George Bush #1 was running against Reagan in 1980…mmhmm, NASTY!

Pundits have latched onto the word “firewall” and the theory that South Carolina is the last chance for anyone to derail Team Romney.

Pause…sip coffee…continue.

When I hear talk of a political firewall I get an image of a gaggle of conservative candidates hunkered behind a barricade at the South Carolina state border as a massive flip-flopping and moderate only when compared to the hardliners he’s running against Romney grassfire whips all ‘round them.

Blink.

Pre New Hampshire Expectitude!

2012-01-09T07:43:00.000-06:00

Happy Monday before the New Hampshire primary, y’all!

I’m on my second cup of coffee (2 cubes sugar and a dash of milk...yum!) and fixin’ to get this week started.

Shall we?

New Hampshire will get their primary on tomorrow and political pundits are gleefully…and I mean gleeful like I haven’t seen them gleeful since a certain social conservative darling took a hike on the Appalachian trail gleeful…cough…yeah, um…gleefully anticipating which of the GOP wanna-bes will come in second.

Santorum, leader Spanish Inquisition Faction of the GOP, enjoyed a nice surge from his performance in Iowa…but that performance also rustled up some vicious opposition ads highlighting Santorum’s adoration of pork and fringe value system. Ricky is feeling the heat and this bitch will be watching to see if he can hold onto the #2 spot in New Hampshire and then take his unelectable in a General ass on to South Carolina where he hopes Evangelicals await him like the second coming of…um, well you get the picture.

Blink.

Onward!

John Huntsman.

Pause…allow time for the flock of bitchitude to Google John Huntsman…continue.

Huntsman has emerged as a contender for the #2 spot in New Hampshire…which is not half as surprising as pundits would have us believe when we consider the fact that he’s been shaking hands there for months while his opponents were deep in Iowa country. Anyhoo, Huntsman’s rise is an interesting development but I’ve yet to determine whom he takes votes from in New Hampshire.

Next!

Mitt Romney is in the lead and pundits have determined that he must win BIG or he’s done for when he heads for South Carolina where his flip-floppery, Mormonism, and New England ways are expected to hurt him with likely GOP voters.

Pause…sip coffee…continue.

Yeah, that about sums things up.

Oh wait…Newt!

Newt, Newt, Newt, Newt, NEWT!

***claps hands in joy***

Angry red-faced pompous mean-as-hell 1980’s Newt is back, y’all!

He’s been feasting on Mitt Romney like a hungry dawg on a bone…tossing accusations with an intense hyper focused hate I haven’t seen out of him in decades.

Sigh.

May the gods of blog post content continue to shine upon us…

Neapolitan…

2012-01-04T07:38:00.000-06:00

Iowans got their Caucus on yesterday and this morning all the political pundits are feasting on the first sorta-results of 2012.

Let’s jump in, shall we?

I watched my beloved Blues beat the Coyotes last night (happy dance) so I missed the endless live Caucus coverage. Not that it mattered, since Iowa decided to be all dramatic and take all night to bring forth the tightest finish in the history of the Iowa Caucuses.

Daaaamn!

Romney, Paul, and Rick Santorum (yes, that would be the same man-on-dawg Santorum who gorged on Congressional pork while attempting to legislate a prohibition on sex for pleasure)…cough…yeah, those three dudes finished in a three-way tie.

What?

Oh puhlease…an 8-vote difference don’t mean shit.

This race is about delegates and all three walked away from Iowa with 7.

If this Caucus finish were an ice cream flavor it would be Neapolitan.

Shit.

Anyhoo, Newt came in fourth after the threesome…and um, Rick Perry came in fifth…oh, and Michele Bachmann came in last.

Getting his ass handed to him made New Newt turn into Old School Angry Flushed Cheeked Nasty Newt...yeah, that small dawg kicking mean ass fucker I remember from the 80’s…only this time his rancidity is targeted at Mitt Romney.

Rick Perry is going home to assess whether there is a path forward to victory (translation – he’s going to drop out but needs guidance in how to do so and walk away with some leverage so he can salvage what’s left of his reputation and wield power at the convention thus continuing his minion-based service to the conservative masters who convinced his dumb ass to run in the first place).

Michele Bachmann is…um…well according to the Washington Post she’s hunting the political forest trying to find out where her Mama Grizzlies went.

Blink.

Anyhoo…

***rubs hands together with absolute glee***

As expected, Iowa is trimming the fat off.

What was not expected was that the GOP would be so fragmented and undecided with just eleven months to go until Election Day.

New Hampshire is up next…and with Newt hurling hate and Santorum pandering to those who are more concerned with making all Americans live like cloistered nuns than the economy or job creation or our aging infrastructure or foreign policy or saving Medicare and Social Security…goodness - the Granite State’s primary may turn into an ultimate fighting match.

Pause...consider...continue.

Fantabulous!

I’ll bring the ~~ice cream~~ popcorn...

Iowa!

2012-01-03T07:34:00.001-06:00

Atonement based confessional prior to first post of 2012 - I must confess that I taunted the gods of illness with my post on the plague…so that shit came back ‘round to remind me that it earned that reputation for misery, pain, and anguish. My voice is still not quite human sounding…but I now have a proper respect for the plague and the gods of illness.

Wince.

Moving forward!

Happy freakin’ New Year, y’all!!

I hope everyone is fired up and ready to take on the world in 2012…

…because I sure as shit am.

Shall we?

On Iowa...otherwise known as that darling state above Missouri (wink)...

I visited Iowa several years ago…a long drive through to the northern part of the state that took me through several cities and lots and lots…and lots and lots…and lots and lots of farm-based territory. I was with a native Iowan and we stopped to visit her friends along the way to her hometown.

Let me tell y’all, the Iowans I met take their politics seriously.

I was impressed with the political conversations I had, be it with a city dweller or a farmer or an angry misunderstood skateboarding suburban youth – these folks paid attention and understood the unique roll they play in American politics.

Pause…consider…continue.

Plus the good people of Iowa introduced me to fried Twinkies and for that alone they will always own a place in my heart.

Cough.

The caucuses are about turnout and, no matter what the pundits say today, that shit matters.

And the choir asked… “Why, Shark-Fu? Why does it matter?!?”

And a bitch replied… “I’m glad y’all asked!”

Turnout is a reflection of how organized a campaign is. Contrary to popular belief, Facebook and Twitter are not the tools through which voters are driven to the polls…or activists to an events…or volunteers to a phonebank.

Catch that knee!

I’m an online organizer and it would serve me well to perpetuate that myth, but tis bullshit and I’m bound by the rules of bitchitude to call it such.

Online tools enhance and extend the turnout portion of a campaign…but they aren’t the be all end all nor are they the most effective tool.

People turn out people…and, in a state with an older population like Iowa, people on the phones and at the doors turn out people.

When someone wins a caucus in Iowa it demonstrates a somewhat mature organization at the earliest stage of the campaign season.

That’s it.

Yep…that’s all.

It doesn’t mean they have earned the nomination.

It just means that a bunch of other folks who failed to perform have earned a lot of scrutiny and analysis that will likely show them lacking a proper campaign and thus unworthy of donations.

Mmmhmm, donations...those adorable political dollars that are also why Iowa really matters.

I like to think of Iowa as being the political version of when a single person logs on to an internet dating site and sets up preferences…with Iowa being the first narrowing of the field…

…and New Hampshire and South Carolina being a set of disappointing coffee dates at Starbucks.

Toodles till post-Caucus, y’all!

I fought the plague...

2011-12-27T07:29:00.000-06:00

Cough.

Daaaaaamn, y’all – a bitch takes an extended trip away from the internets and y’all immediately jump to the conspiracy theories!

No, I'm not done with blogging....and no, I haven't been renditioned.

Shit.

I’ve been beyond ill with an ebola-esque plague from hell, y'all!

It started a little over a week ago…with a light cough and sniffles…and went to shit faster than a GOP frontrunner campaigning in Iowa.

Sneezing and then coughing…and then I lost my voice.

For real!

Hell, it still isn’t all the way back yet…and I’m more than a little pissed off that it doesn’t have that Kathleen Turner and/or Demi Moore raspyfied sexiness that can sometimes result from losing one’s voice.

No…no, no, no, no, NO…I get to sound like Momma from “Throw Momma from the Train” (for those unfamiliar with that film, think Harvey Fierstein first thing in the morning after an evening of cigars and loud talking).

Humph.

All the humans in the house took ill…the dawgs are fine, but tired of our shit.

At some point last week I was certain that we’d end up like those villages they show in CDC outbreak movies where a plane flies in and either drops provisions, a cure, or a giant bomb to halt the plague at the source.

By Friday this damn wretchedness has evolved to the point where I checked the front door to see if someone chalked a fucking X on it.

Pause…cough pathetically…continue.

But this morning I woke up feeling sorta-human…still coughing but way better than before!

Just in time for me to feel healthy enough to get my debauch on New Years Eve…

…and start 2012 with a nice plague-based relapse.

Ah, fate.

Cough...sneeze...sigh.

Enabling oppression…

2011-12-15T07:53:00.000-06:00

Hi y’all!

I found out about a Rutgers student’s invitation to an evening of Disney-based racism through the magic of Twitter.

***rubs palms together***

Let’s jump right on in, shall we?

Tis alleged that a white PhD student sent an invitation via email to some of her "Race, Ethnicity and Inequality in Education" classmates (the white ones)…

Wait…hold up!

Am I the only one who finds it confusing that a student interested in that class would send such an invitation?

Maybe she thought the class would be more of a celebration of racism or a gathering of folk who enjoy inequality in education or…oh, fuck it.

Anyhoo…

The student sent the email invitation to her “fellow non-racist racists” for a screening of one of my favorite racist Disney movies to loathe, Song of the South.

Shark-Fu’s thoughts on this shit…

Thought #1 - Could this be an experiment gone wrong?

I know, I know…the fact that the student calls the invited students her “fellow non-racist racists” is damning…and it doesn’t look good that she only sent it to white students.

I was kind of hoping this was a failed attempt at a social experiment…kind of like the blue eye test that Oprah did that show on where folks with blue eyes were treated better than everyone else.

Yeah…um…right.

If that was the case then why the hell hasn’t anyone come out to say that this was an experiment set up to test how the students that received the invitation would respond?

Thought #2 – How the fuck did the students who received the invitation respond?

This is something that fascinates me – when confronted with a oppression-based happening, most people do not respond the way they thought they would, assumed they would, or even hoped they would. In this case, the students who received the invitation didn’t confront the sender and the department has yet to take action.

Soooo…who stepped up?

***cue crickets***

Well, someone had to in order for this to leak…unless the students of color had to overhear that shit in the loo.

Oooooooh, that’s just wrong!

Alrighty then, we’ll move on.

Final Thought – When the class becomes a case study for what the class is about...

I’m betting that this isn’t a social experiment in the classic sense of a professor staging an incident and then calling all parties together for a post-mortem analysis. The loud as hell silence from all parties sans the students who didn’t get invited kind of backs me up on that shit, because an easy way to avoid all this drama would be to announce that the drama inducing ig’nance has a purpose.

No, this looks to be more of an accidental social experiment…the kind that happens every single day in America…the sort that forces us to take our professed values out for a test run and see how they perform. And that casts the lack of outrage, condemnation, and censure from the students who received an email sent to “fellow non-racist racists” in an entirely different light.

Did they laugh?

Did they giggle?

Pause…consider…continue.

Or did they show up with popcorn and beer?

Blink.

I'll betcha a trillion fabillion dollars...

2011-12-12T07:48:00.000-06:00

Confession – I missed the most recent GOP debate between would-be nominees because I was at a hockey game (go Blues!). But thanks to the magic of Twitter...I caught up on the who, what, when, and where.

Shall we?

Two major happenings came out of the Great Most Recent Debate of Would-be GOP Nominees Seeking Power – Newt says the Palestinian people are “invented”…and Newt Romney makes $10,000 bets.

On Newt.

Oh, Newt…Newt, Newt, Newt, Newt, NEWT!

Didn’t I mention in a previous post how much I look forward to his verbal malfunctions?

Even the herd of conservative pundits, not known to chastise anyone for saying ignorant culturally inaccurate shit, thought Newt’s latest pander was off the mark.

But Newtonian form demanded that Newt double down on that “invented people” mess…which he did…and it is beyond telling that he’s still the candidate du jour after making a statement that, if he were President, would effectively toss massive amounts of gasoline on an already volatile situation.

Choosy moms choose Jiff…

….and likely Republican voters prefer zealots, homophobes, and hypocritical lying sacks of shit.

Mercy.

Anyhoo, then we have Romney’s $10,000 bet in response to some challenge about his stand on health care reform.

Where to start?

How ‘bout with the problem?

Every single candidate on that stage can make $10,000 bets…and none of them live on the average American salary. As much as the pundits want to talk about how out of touch Romney is, the real story is that all of these candidates are out of touch.

I'll betcha a trillion fabillion dollars that they don’t know…have never experienced…cannot empathize with floating a bill.

They don’t know…have never experienced…cannot empathize with having to decide between meds or food, heat or rent, transportation or lunch.

These people are so far removed from the masses that they didn’t even realize Romney stuck his foot in it until their aides told them.

And they are the ones charged with fixing the problems that keep so many people trapped in a reality they can’t truly grasp.

Pause…sip coffee…continue.

It all reminds me of the times I’ve tried to describe paying off college loans to folks who had parents pay full tuition.

They’d nod and then grunt…and then talk about how super excited they are that Starbucks holiday coffees are back.

Blink.

Pondering the Newtonian Revival…

2011-12-06T07:31:00.000-06:00

I woke up this morning to news that a certain Newt Gingrich has taken a commanding lead among GOP candidates in Iowa.

Every time I read something about Newt it feels all deja vu-ish because I remember him from back in the day…back when I think he was cheating on his second wife with his current wife but blasting Clinton for cheating and...

...damn, damn, daaaaamn there’s a lot of sex going on in DC.

Makes a bitch wonder why DC politicians legislate like puritans when they clearly get it on like folks booking trips to Vegas wish they could get in on.

Anyhoo…where was I?

Oh yes…Gingrich.

I remember Gingrich when he was opposing then President Clinton’s administration on [insert whatever and anything here] and was being such a braying ass about it that he can’t even claim credit for all that economic surplusedness folks now look back on with regret that they didn’t opt for the lockbox behind door number 2.

Sigh.

Ah, Newt.

Newt, Newt, Newt, Newt...Newt.

He speaks so well…with such authority, such confidence and pompous certainty that he almost pulls off making folk forget that he spoke with that same authority, confidence, and pompous certaintude back in the 90s and he was as off the mark then as he is now.

But I'll confess that I’m more interested in what the surge of this new candidate du jour says about conservative voters.

After two years of watching the media fawn all over those who adore tea, I’m fucking fascinated that the candidate currently taking off like a rocket has spent his career drinking from the Potomac River.

Newt, for the love of old school politicians who were in power when Boyz II Men ruled the charts…someone who has left so much evidence of his fuckeduptitude in DC that CSI could do a spin-off on that shit.

Wow.

I was excepting another case of those who adore tea being played for fools…like when their Missouri nest got hustled into voting then Congressman Roy Blunt into the Senate during the last election.

But that’s not what I’m seeing here.

Tea Party darlings surged and then fizzled fast once the GOP faithful got a good look at them.

And now we have Newt.

Newt freakin' Gingrich.

Pause...consider…continue.

We’ll see if Newt lasts…he certainly has a track record of lasting in conservative politics, big time…but right now it looks like the GOP faithful are telling those who adore tea that they really like them and had a nice time but they want to see other people now.

Blink.

The Great Cain Train Derailment of 2011…

2011-12-05T07:11:00.000-06:00

Happy Monday, y’all!

I was sick as hell all damned day yesterday. I started feeling plague-ish Saturday and it went downhill from there. Ugh. I’m just grateful to feel human again...just in time for Monday.

Yay.

Shit.

Shall we?

Herman Cain has left the building. Over the weekend Cain officially announced that his non-campaign campaign was suspended.

Anyone surprised?

***cue crickets***

Yep.

Now that Cain is semi-gone the remaining candidates for the GOP nomination (Romney, Newt, and a gaggle of anyone but Romney or Newt) are busy trying to gather up Cainiacs and preparing to debate and debate and then debate some more.

I can hardly wait to see who will break free from the herd and indulge in a public display of ‘oh shit, did she or he just do/say that?’ this ~~month~~ week!

Good times.

Pause…sip coffee…continue.

So far the race for the GOP nomination has unfolded like an ice skating competition.

What?

Tis true!

I always end up watching ice skating when it is on television and there is always this huge build-up from analysts about some superstar skater who totally nailed [insert jump here] in practice…followed by lift off…and then a wipe out…and then a reshuffling of the leader board.

Just like the race for the GOP nomination…

...only without the snazzy outfits

Maybe CNN should get Scott Hamilton on staff?

Blink.

Keep talking...

2011-12-02T08:07:00.000-06:00

Shall we?

Full disclosure – I want Newt Gingrich to be the GOP nominee like a Cubs fan wants her team to beat the White Sox.

He’s a walking and talking content creating machine, y’all!

Example… Newt thinks child labor laws are stupid…and that poor people raise children incapable of working because they’ve never seen anyone work ‘cause the only reason anyone isn’t working right now is because they are too damned ignorant and lazy to figure out how to get one of the fabillion trillion jobs out there.

The thing is that Newt holds misconceptions that too many folks do – that poverty is an inner-city problem, that poor people are lazy, and that the current unemployment crisis is some special kind of thing ‘cause it hit regular people, so folks who have been unemployed or under-employed for decades must have something wrong with them while folks who are newly unemployed are totally different.

Back on earth, poverty is an equal opportunity situation. The newly unemployed provide a damn good example of how the long-term unemployment happens…unemployment + bills + no new jobs = economic drama.

But Newt ain’t trying to hear that shit.

He wants “inner-city” poor kids to learn how to work by providing janitorial services. In his defense, Newt doesn’t cotillion with the masses much. He’s also not half as clever as he thinks he is…which is why he proposed that janitorial solution without pondering the fact that if there isn’t a janitor then that’s a grown-person job that ain’t being staffed not an unpaid learning opportunity for a 10 year old.

Blink.

Keep talking, Newt…please…

On World AIDS Day…

2011-12-01T08:04:00.000-06:00

Today is World AIDS Day.

May we remember as we focus on getting to zero.

Remember the names…that those names belong to people…that those people are mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, lovers, co-workers, beloved partners, and friends.

Remember the fear…that the fear so quickly became hate…that the hate was demonstrated in action…and that discrimination, misinformation, and bias didn’t go away when celebrities started wearing red ribbons or when political leaders finally said the word AIDS.

Remember the goals that have been missed and those that were met…the stereotypes that have been deconstructed and those that remain…the life expectancy that has been expanded and those who have died…

…and the number zero on the horizon.

Remember that every day that AIDS is in the world is World AIDS Day…

…and that AIDS isn’t some other person's worry or problem or risk or concern.

AIDS is until we get to zero and even then AIDS will be…for all of us who remember and for all of us who will never forget…

For the names that belong to people who are and were and forever will be.

(Oh don't you know) that's the sound of the men working on the Cain Train…

2011-11-29T07:42:00.000-06:00

What?

I can’t help it if my mind went there with that song.

Blink.

Jumping right on in…

A woman has come forward alleging…

Pause…consider…continue.

Damn if that phrase… “a woman has come forward alleging” … isn’t as tied to politics as honey is to biscuits.

Um…anyhoo…so a woman has come forward alleging that she and Herman Cain have been involved in an affair for 13 years.

The Cain campaign (say that ten times fast) is sorta kinda denying the accusation.

I’ve got to give it to Cain, he is a living case study of whether or not people caught up in a shit-storm should engage and confront or dodge and redirect.

Mercy.

Cain's attorney, Lin Wood, provided WAGA (the station that broke the allegations…um, most recent allegations) with a statement saying blah blah… "appears to be an accusation of private, alleged consensual conduct between adults -- a subject matter which is not a proper subject of inquiry by the media or the public."

Pause…sip coffee…continue.

Wood added...

"No individual, whether a private citizen, a candidate for public office or a public official, should be questioned about his or her private sexual life."

Cough.

Um, Lin...jumping up into private citizen’s bedroom-based business is a plank in the GOP platform.

Hell, the reason we’re witnessing a shit storm about who fucks who or how many times someone has been married or whether or not [insert candidate here] is [insert lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender]…the fucking source is the so-called social conservative values that long ago turned campaigns for public office into half-assed character tests that your average hard working American would fail and could give a shit about.

Don’t get me wrong…I’m the kind of voter who wants to know if a candidate for public office is a lying sack of shit or a sexual predator who prowls their workplace, but you know and I know that you know and I know that American sexual Puritanism has gone too far.

And so…Lin…here we are and there you have it.

I agree.

I too am sick and tired of the constant questioning and government interventions into people’s private sexual lives.

I’m tired of regulations and laws and ballot initiatives that question a woman’s ability to make a motherfucking decision about her healthcare.

I’m tired of our society acting as if marriage is the norm and those of us who are not married are in crisis or pretending that same-sex marriage is a threat but sport fucking while married is benign.

I’m tired of total strangers screaming at women walking into healthcare centers because those strange ass strangers assume they know what women are going to do and they feel entitled to jump all up into that shit.

But most of all I’m tired of hypocritical bullshit spewing politicians preaching the gospel of jumping all up into private citizens’ sexual bitness and then whining and keening when the masses and/or the press jump all up in their sexual bitness.

So I’m going to borrow from some Cain logic. Mr. Cain made some statement that folks who are out of work and involved in the occupy movement shouldn’t blame Wall Street…rather, they should blame themselves.

Well, methinks the Cain Train should look at the hypocritical hot mess circus of one in the mirror and make that change.

Damn it to hell and back, this shit makes me long for the days of Demon Sheep and 3 am phone calls.

***logs off humming Sam Cooke’s Chain Gang ‘cause it is now stuck in my Afro***

Tis the season...

2011-11-28T07:55:00.000-06:00

This bitch spent a fantabulous week at Brother Rob Thurman’s farm in Kentucky!

Lawd, I haven’t been this relaxed since…um…wince…clearly my ass needed a rest.

Anyhoo, it was beautiful and spending the holiday with friends on the farm was just what I needed.

I’m just now catching up with the news. Just as I suspected, the world is still taking a shit in the middle of the room.

Shall we?

The morning news shows are telling me that today is Cyber Monday and folks are supposed to get their online shopping on because…well, because because damnit!

I’ll confess that I do not understand folks diving in to a shopping experience like folks dive into the day after Thanksgiving or the Monday after the holiday weekend or [insert day near a holiday that advertising agencies have successfully created a legend around to convince folks to spend, baby spend lest the heavens fall and dinosaurs rise to roam the land again]. It just doesn’t look like fun to me…particularly when it comes complete with the very real threat of physical violence.

But it is what it is…and many an American will come to work today sporting bruises like a hockey player in the middle of the NHL playoffs.

Now is the time of year when morning television offers up a rather freakish menu of warm fuzzy Humans Are Nice And Giving stories with a selection of Holy Shit, Humans Are Greedy Violent Shopping Zombies side dishes…and a luscious desert of You’re Fat or You’re Going to Get Fat Off Of One Huge Meal And Then The Zombie Shoppers Will Eat You.

I love how everyone gets sorta-decent this time of year…’tis much like the save-the-date post-turkey shopping shit.

It’s as if folks glance at their calendar and note that they have an appointment with consumerism on Friday and they need to stop being a wretched shit for a month.

Pause…sip coffee…continue.

Maybe this year Cyber Monday will get into the swing of things with a full on digital brawl over 50% discounted blue-ray blah blah blah.

Blink.

Thanksgiving feastitude preparedness…

2011-11-22T05:45:00.000-06:00

Hi all!

I’m on vacation from all things this week including the internets (mostly)…but I wanted to take a moment for my annual Thanksgiving Feastitutde Preparedness post.

Last year…on this very day…I was having surgery. Trust that I am very thankful for a fantabulous recovery and the help and love of family and friends.

This year I’m heading to Kentucky to visit my Blog Father, Brother Rob Thurman, at his farm (hooray)!

I’m not cooking the feast solo this time…just my Corn Casserole Yumminess…but I’ll also need my copy of Ordinary People (a Thanksgiving tradition and yes, I know that’s kind of creepy but fuck it I never claimed that my ass isn’t bent) and lots and lots of vodka followed by cran.

Happy, happy to all y’all!

Be safe…be outrageous…be well…

Pondering over-the-top exemptions and going-too-far denials of coverage...

2011-11-17T07:56:00.000-06:00

I just read this editorial in the New York Times and I’m disgusted.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is roaming the halls of power in Washington, DC…and, unlike the rest of us average folk, it seems they can easily get whatever they want.

A few years ago, they were drafting amendments to attack access to reproductive healthcare and I’m betting they never left the Hill…just camped out and kept working their relationships until an opportunity to impose their ridged interpretation of healthcare on us all presented itself.

That opportunity came in the form of the new Head Party In Charge in the House. Yep, House Republicans and the Bishops are BFFs…and they are now pressuring the Obama administration to radically expand the refusal clause in the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

The expansion proposed by the Bishops and their Congressional minions would mean that millions of women would then be denied access to affordable birth control.

And no, the Bishops and those minions do not have a point when it comes to religious protections in ACA. It already contains a substantial refusal clause that exempts certain religious employers that have religious values as the purpose of the organization, primarily employ persons who share the religious tenets of the organization, serve primarily persons who share the religious tents of the organization, and are nonprofit organizations.

And the choir asked… “So what the hell else do these Bishops and minions want?!?”

And a bitch replied… “Glad you asked, choir! They want to be able to deny access to affordable birth control to folks who work at a religious affiliated hospital, school, charity or university. We’re talking about nurses, secretaries, teachers, and other workers.”

My people call that "wrong".

A few weeks ago I wrote about the impact of expanded exemptions just like the one being pushed hard in DC right now. A family in Missouri had insurance through the Catholic school they work at…they have a child diagnosed with Down Syndrome and autism…Missouri passed autism insurance reform…the family sought coverage for needed and necessary therapies…and they got flat out denied.

Yes, denied…REFUSED coverage…and the reason cited by the Catholic affiliated insurance company for refusing to adhere to our state’s new autism insurance reform mandate…

…wait for it!

They are exempt ‘cause they are a church.

Disgusted?

Good.

That’s what exemption feels like.

Disturbed.

Good.

That’s what over-the-top exemptions and going-too-far denials of coverage unfold like in the real world and in the lives of average folk.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' control over policy development in America must stop and it must stop now.

TAKE ACTION - tell President Obama to reject this outrageous demand to eliminate birth control coverage for millions of women.

You contact the police…

2011-11-15T08:01:00.000-06:00

Ugh.

Last night I watched Bob Costas interview former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky. Sandusky did his interview over the phone with his lawyer present in the NBC studio.

It seems as if decades of not asking the hard questions during interviews with steroid enhanced cheaters in sport has toughened Costas up…he asked the hard questions, follow-up questions, and even confronted Sandusky once the man answered questions. Sad to say, but journalism has deteriorated to the point that those basic tasks are more the exception to the rule.

Sigh.

Sandusky denied all of the allegations made against him.

That’s not surprising. What is surprising is that he would do so, after such an extended silence, on national television…knowing that anything and everything he said would be chewed within an inch of its life and possibly even used in the case against him.

Some may interpret that as the act of an innocent person…

…but I was reminded of a television show I watched years ago that featured a young woman, whose abuse was horrifically well documented by medical and eye witness testimony, as she confronted the man who abused her as a child on hidden tape. The man denied everything…told her she imagined or was brainwashed or misinterpreted his actions. It was stunning to see…much like a rapist claiming that his victim asked for it or an abusive partner demanding an apology for being “forced” into beating another human being.

Either way, Sandusky will have his day in court. His interview sheds light on what his defense will be…and it is that which should turn the stomach of everyone involved in not taking this case to the police immediately.

Sandusky will likely argue that the victims are mistaken…maybe even that they have been brainwashed…but most definitely that they misinterpreted his actions. His lawyer or lawyers will likely make the case that the adult witnesses were uncomfortable with what he calls “horseplay” but that doesn’t make it a crime. Team Sandusky will take the court-based field and say that Jerry is guilty of making bad decisions and showering with young boys…nothing else.

And all of that…every smidge of it…will have been enabled by the amount of time that has passed between grown people witnessing and grown people being forced to finally report allegations of child sex abuse to the police.

Because of that, Penn State will be dragged through this dung over and over again so that the prosecution can try to explain the delays, the lack of follow-up, the lack of outraged disgust and swift action that should come from adults having witnessed what folks said they witnessed.

That is nothing compared to the harsh reality that not taking swift action probably led to further abuse. Just look at the multiple cases of child abuse across decades within the Catholic Church. Or look toward the alarmingly similar scandal unfolding over at The Citadel…where officials knew about a predator and did not take action, where that predator then went on to abuse more children…

…and where those school officials are now left offering apologies.

One simple statement is running on a loop through my mind - you contact the police…you contact the police…you contact the police…you contact the damned police.

Ah, graft…

2011-11-14T07:31:00.000-06:00

Happy Monday, y’all!

Shall we?

Last night I caught the new edition of 60 Minutes…after an annoying as hell 30-minute delay to allow a football game with 5 minutes on the clock to wrap its ass up. Fuck it - it was worth the wait! 60 Minutes Steve Kroft went old school with an investigative report on graft in Congress. Specifically, Kroft’s report delved into the fact that members of Congress are buying and trading stocks based on inside information they have unique access to because they are members of Congress charged with drafting policy and so forth.

Graft!

Lawd, I haven’t heard that word in a month of Sundays.

The report is worth a god watch. My opinion of Congress is so poor that I wasn’t shocked, but we the people should take note when specific examples of shady behavior come to light.

I was particularly intrigued by the news that several members of Congress snatched up healthcare insurance company stock during the healthcare reform debate. It seems that the very people who were supposed to roll up their sleeves and get that shit done were more than a little preoccupied with their own ability to get paid off of whatever policy came about.

***pause…sip coffee…continue***

Money talks and bullshit walks.

So, what to do with this information….what to do, what to do, what to do?

Eureka!

This shit would be an ideal action for the occupy folks.

I’m serious. The problem with this specific case of graft is that the same people who should craft legislation to prohibit it are the people who benefit from the lack of reform and thus are not motivated to do a damn thing beyond weather harsh questions from Steve Kroft during a press conference.

This mess needs a grassroots movement demanding real reform…BIG TIME. And the occupy folks have singled out the 1 percent for critique and protest – twould be a logical progression for occupy to expand beyond the public square and take it to Congress.

Plus, its cold as hell outside…people could warm up in Speaker Boehner’s office.

Just saying.

Blink.

p.s. A fluff of the Afro to Steve Kroft and 60 Minutes for a solid report.

Happy Veterans Day…

2011-11-11T08:00:00.000-06:00

On the eleventh day of the eleventh month we remember and honor our veterans.

To those in my family who serve and have served…to my friends who are veterans…to my readers who are online friends and are veterans…to all of their families…

…Thank You and Happy Veterans Day!

On the Penn State child sex abuse case...

2011-11-11T07:54:00.000-06:00

Let’s jump right on in.

I’ve been out of the loop while working on the campaign to defeat “personhood” in Mississippi, but even I caught the news of the child sex abuse scandal at Penn State. Yesterday I spent the day in my couch-based area recovering…and watching news report after news report of the allegations against a Jerry Sandusky and those who either witness the abuse and/or failed to properly report the abuse to authorities and/or engaged in a cover up of the abuse.

Full disclosure - I am a fan…not of Penn State football, but of my beloved St. Louis Blues. My friends and family will tell you that I bleed blue 24/7…and I’m writing this post as someone who understands fan loyalty.

Nothing…not one thing, organization, team, or institution…NOTHING is more important than the safety of a fellow human being.

There is no sport victory that comes at the expense of that…

…and there can be no pride in rallying for a sports program, however revered it may be for its winning record, that failed to demand justice for the victims of systematic sexual abuse.

And you can be damned sure that fan loyalty doesn’t ask that we disregard a culture of enabling child sex abuse and keep on cheering.

When a child alleges sex abuse our reaction should be to encourage and support that child in whatever manner we can. Getting pissed off at the child because their sex abuse is going to get in the way of a body's college fucking football fan experience is downright macabre.

This case is still developing, but the sworn statements of many Penn State athletic program employees are disgusting, alarming, and should have people taking to the streets to protest them.

We have actually arrived at a point where people are telling their friends, family, and/or children that if they witness a child being abused they should call 911.

And, although it sickens me to think that anyone would have to be told that, the scene of students rioting in support of a coach and/or sports program rather than the children and their families...well, clearly people need to be told that if they witness a child being assaulted they should try to save the child and they should definitely contact the police.

Not the administration.

Not the diocese.

Not the boss, BFF, or fellow co-worker or student.

Fuck it if that gets your ass fired. That would be a firing worth it's weight in gold.

Lord, have mercy.

We the people need to look hard at Penn State’s reaction to this horrific case…both the disgusting display during the riot and the emerging effort by current students and alumni to return the focus to and stand in support of the children.

Sadly, the shock of many in the press is shocking in itself. We don’t have to "wonder how this abuse was able to go on for so long"…we don’t need to question what kind of culture opts to cover up abuse rather than protect victims.

Penn State football just proved that enabling abuse is not a condition exclusive to the Catholic Church…

…and that the most dangerous place for a child is in an environment that values [insert any fucking thing here] over the welfare of that child.

Please join Penn State alumni who have begun an online campaign through RAINN to raise awareness and funds to continue the fight against child sex abuse and assist survivors.

Getting my activism on…

2011-11-07T07:47:00.000-06:00

Hi y’all!

I’m in the field getting my reproductive justice activism on, so posting will be sporadic for the next day or two.

Buckle up, people…

...this ride is going to be bumpy as hell!

Digital strange fruit hanging from cyber trees?

2011-11-04T06:58:00.000-05:00

Let’s jump right on in.

Now that it appears the Herman Cain sexual harassment scandal may have legs, supporters of his campaign are gathering up strength and taking to the internets to blast the press and Cain’s accusers.

No surprise there.

But one group of Cain supporters have created a new ad that accuses those investigating Cain, reporting on the investigation of Cain, and discussing the reporting of the investigation of Cain of participating in…wait for it…a high tech lynching.

Sound familiar?

It should!

That phrase, “high tech lynching”, was made infamous by a certain Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas when he was accused of sexual harassment during his confirmation hearing.

Thomas was eventually confirmed and has gone pretty much mute while on the bench.

And ‘tis his eventual confirmation that always made my Afro hurt when pondering his use of the phrase “high tech lynching”.

Nothing screams that a person or organization lacks a proper knowledge of a thing like an inaccurate analogy.

If you are able to protest your treatment during a confirmation hearing…and later in a book…then you were not the victim of a lynching, high tech or real world.

If you are fundraising up a storm in the midst of accusations that you sexually harassed more than one woman…then you are not in the midst of a high tech lynching.

If your website is still “living”…if your campaign has not been wiped clean from and effectively killed off online…then you have not been subject to a high tech lynching.

Unless…unless these Cain supporters feel that the Cain campaign is in the final throes of political death and that it’s demise if certain…only then would the phrase “high tech lynching” apply.

Lynchings are murders…endings, for the love of history...they brought about and indeed still bring about the end of life.

I don’t care how much a body adores Herman Cain and I don’t give a shit how upset they are about his treatment in the press, this inaccurate analogy corrupts a history that has never truly been acknowledged.

Herman Cain clearly weathered the storm of more than one accusation of sexual harassment several years ago…his employer settled rather than fire him…he then went on to run for the GOP nomination for President, where he faces questions about those accusations. For the most part, the firestorm has resulted from his campaigns fucked up from the floor up handling of those questions. Either way, Herman Cain will be here once the dust settles. Odds are he’ll even be online in some form or another. He may even be the GOP nominee.

This shit is in no way, shape, or form the equivalent of a lynching.

A witch-hunt perhaps…depends on how you view the situation.

But I sure as shit don’t see any digital strange fruit hanging from cyber trees…

…anymore than I see that shit when I ponder the fact that the original “victim” of a high tech lynching is still enjoying life as a Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

Blink.

On confidentiality agreements and a front-runner who didn’t learn a damn thing from history – Follow the Smell of Bullshit…

2011-11-03T07:54:00.000-05:00

Shall we?

The media is in frenzy over Herman Cain’s public display of not having learned a damn thing from history.

No…they aren’t being harsh or overzealous.

Journalists are sharks…and Herman Cain poured a bucket of blood in the water when he was first confronted about this shit.

When first confronted, Cain didn’t answer questions about whether he’d ever been accused of sexual harassment.

And that was the last thing the man did right.

Catch thy knee – I’m gonna wait until the facts about the harassment claims come out before I add that all of this shit could be avoided if people cease sexually harassing co-workers in the first damn place.

Cough.

Clearly there are confidentiality agreements. After the initial confrontation, Cain had a solid 24 hours to come up with a crisis management plan...and the top bullet point to that shit should have been Hide Your Black Ass Behind the Motherfucking Confidentiality Agreement.

But no…Herman Cain had to be Herman Cain. So we the people who are such political junkies that we follow this shit months before the first GOP primary have been treated to a master class in mismanagement and fucked up from the floor up messaging.

Not because Herman Cain is black…this shit is happening because Herman Cain is was the front-runner and failed to plan for being the front-runner because he’s a pompous ass who thinks he can talk himself out of anything – a belief which was probably bolstered by his ability to spin himself more than one settlement complete with confidentiality agreements when claims of sexual harassment were made against him.

Pause…sip coffee…continue.

The Ann Coulters and Rush Limbaughs of the world have rushed to play with this fresh clay…eagerly seeking attention with claims like “our blacks are better than their blacks” or rants about how all of this is happening because Herman Cain is black and conservative.

But GOP voters need to take a big sniff and note the unusually large quantity of flies.

Back in the day this kind of fumbling confusion in response to a scandal would be understandable.

But this is the post-Clinton, post-Edwards era…and the press has learned from watching two high profile men who were or could have been President of the United States attempt to bob and weave their way through sex-based accusations that were later proven to be beyond true.

Not uncovering this shit would be damn near criminal.

Which begs the question…is Politico just that good or is the herd just that fearful of doing their damn job?

Either way, the water is still pink.

Trust a bitch…this frenzy won’t end until shark teeth sink into flesh.

Pause…sip more coffee…continue.

As for Cain’s claims that the Perry campaign is behind this shit, I have to suspend my initial dismissal of that.

The Perry campaign is like any other political campaign and thus capable of digging up dirt.

Just because they couldn’t find their ass with both hands when Perry’s hunting lodge came back to bite him doesn’t mean they can’t drop a morsel of scandal-based kibble into a famished reporter’s mouth.

Add to that the fact that Chris Wilson, a GOP pollster and Perry supporter, seems to know an awful lot about sexual harassment claims against Herman Cain and…well, let’s just say the right side of the political waiting room is ripe with the smell of shit from a bull.

Did the entire GOP class flunk Campaigning 101?

Perry now claims that no one in his campaign knew anything about this and they all found out when the rest of the world that actually gives a shit did.

If that’s true…and they have a pollster in their midst who seems to have intimate details about Herman Cain and sexual harassment…then Team Perry is even more fucked up than I initially thought.

***rubs hands together***

This political theater better last until Downton Abbey comes back on the television.

Blink.

When what is covered demonstrates flawed values…

2011-11-01T08:02:00.001-05:00

I just read this piece in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and it has me all fired up on a Tuesday, y’all!

Let’s jump right on in, shall we?

Longtime readers know that my sister and I are co-guardians of our older brother. Our brother is autistic and aphasic. He does not speak in sentences…has a vocabulary of less than 100 words…but can communicate better through sign language.

I grew up in a house with too much going on for our parents to bother shielding us from reality.

I knew that my brother’s behavior and speech therapy cost a lot of money. My brother is 41 now and when he was a child the options were far more limited than they are now, but my parents worked tirelessly to provide him access to whatever was available.

And I knew it…felt it…saw in on my father’s face when he sat down to do the bills or went to work at a job that he found little fulfillment in just because it paid him a high salary.

Our entire family worked as a team when it came to speech therapy and behavior therapy. And we shared in my brother’s triumphs and setbacks.

My brother worked his ass off. He went to school year ‘round and then came home to a never-ending series of exercises. Every event, every meal, every interaction was laced with training or skill building or corrections. Trust that I doubt I could have been as strong as he was or half as successful.

We all enjoy the benefits of my brother’s efforts. He is a fantabulous man who is eager to communicate and share his opinions. We’ve found a system and honor his use of sign language rather than push for more verbal communication.

Pause…sip coffee…continue.

When autism insurance reform gained momentum in Missouri, I supported the hell out of it even though it would not apply to my brother.

I know, better than most, just how expensive education and therapy can be…and just how amazing the outcomes can be when families have access.

Autism insurance reform was needed because insurance companies refused to cover needed treatments and families who had paid premiums for years were getting hustled on the back end when they needed services.

When autism insurance reform passed I cheered…for the families and children it will benefit and in honor of my parents who would have been all over that fight.

Now it looks like some institutions that like to talk the talk of caring for children with developmental disabilities and/or communication challenges are being outed for not walking the walk when it comes to providing coverage for the services that actually demonstrate caring for children with developmental disabilities and/or communication disorders.

Insurance by Christian Brothers Employee Benefit Trust, which comes from Christian Brothers Services (a nonprofit Catholic organization), does not offer coverage for autism treatment services.

And they don’t have to.

Because they are…wait for it…a church plan.

Yep…they are a church-based whatever that is a non-profit and thus exempt.

As detailed in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch piece, when a local St. Louis family tried to get autism treatment services covered they were denied. The child in question has Downs Syndrome and is autistic. The mother was directed to read her insurance certificate, which read…

"The Christian Brothers Employee Benefit Trust is a 'church plan' as designated by the Internal Revenue Service and Department of Labor. It is not a group insurance contract within the meaning of state group insurance laws. Therefore, the Christian Brothers Employee Benefit Trust is not subject to the mandated benefit requirements imposed by state group insurance laws."

Pause…allow that bullshit to marinate…continue.

Now you know and I know that you know that I know that clause is one hell of a get out of providing all manner of services shit.

Usually, Catholic services make the news for not providing reproductive health care like emergency contraception to rape survivors or tubal ligation or abortion care to save a woman’s life or…well, you get the picture.

With this latest public display of callous disregard, they are showing their cards a bit.

And the smell of hypocrisy is ripe as hell.

Despite the rhetoric from the right that claims otherwise, one of the reasons many families fear having a child with developmental disabilities is because they don’t think they will be able to afford the care that child would need. Nothing can be more gut wrenching than knowing a child needs something…and, damn it, we are talking about “need” here not want…knowing there is a need that you simply cannot meet.

I’ve seen that look…felt that fear…known that something was going to have to give so something needed could get done. And my family was blessed to be in a position to even consider most of the services my brother had.

But far be it for Missourians to expect a religious institution that benefits from non-profit status under the guise of providing care to the community to actually provide care to the community.

That’d be too much like right.

Sigh.

In this as in so many things, the wrong is never limited to reproductive healthcare…it may start there or get media attention there, but the theme of public rhetoric and private rancidity never ends there.

Mayhap the family featured in the article will find relief in the federal healthcare insurance reform they probably opposed for fear that it would provide coverage for abortion services that it can’t because of Hyde?

Blink.

Welcome, New York Magazine readers!

2011-10-31T12:34:00.000-05:00

Apparently I got a shout-out in New York magazine - fantabulous!

Welcome to all new readers.

I'm in an all day meeting planning reproductive justice activism for 2012...

...so bitchitude is on hold until later today!

And many thanks to Emily Nussbaum for the shout-out.

I can't wait to read the article...

Congrats to the Cardinals!

2011-10-31T05:29:00.000-05:00

Congrats to my hometown St. Louis Cardinals for winning the 2011 World Series!

May the rally gods continue to bless the sports clubs of St. Louis for months to come...

A bitch is back, damnit!

2011-10-31T05:11:00.000-05:00

Okay, y’all…I take a week off, disappear, and don’t even post about what’s what and daaaaaaaamn if some of y’all don’t get your conspiracy theory on!

Nice.

No, the man didn’t kidnap me.

Pause…check out room…continue.

I’ve just been so busy practicing the fine art of bitchitude offline that I haven’t had the energy to blog about that shit online.

But I’ve caught my breath.

Thank the gods….

On coverage…

2011-10-24T07:42:00.000-05:00

I was going to post about something else.

But I read In a tiny town just outside Joplin, a landmark adoption case tests the limits of inalienable human rights in the Riverfront Times and…well, I’m going to focus on something else today.

I’m a news junkie. I cruise through masses of stories each day. And I’ll confess that I often take the news for granted…just assume it is going to be there…and tend to forget the work that goes into researching and writing a story.

But my friends at the Riverfront Times have a habit of covering the stories other outlets take a pass on…

…and reminding this news junkie that the "news" can still stun me.

I highly recommend that y’all read this story…share it.

By the time I finished reading it I was shaking.

I just wanted to share it…didn’t want y’all to miss it the way I feel I missed it even though this case happened and is happening in my home state of Missouri.

But for coverage…but for the news…but for questions and focus and editorial decisions, so many things would happen without us even knowing about them.

Pause…consider…continue.

And immigration policy debates would remain political theatre even as the application of immigration policy rips families apart...

...in the dark, behind closed doors, harsh and ugly and efficient and painful and oh so fucking often that it takes your breath away...leaves you shaking, quaking, and rocked to the core.

Blink.

***a fluff of the Afro to the RFT and writer John H. Tucker***

A not so “special” special legislative session…

2011-10-19T07:40:00.000-05:00

This year Governor Nixon called for a special legislative session after the regular session ended in May so that state lawmakers could tackle some important business that could not wait until next year. Many Missourians are getting a good look at what political junkies like me see session after session…the inability for the Missouri House and Senate to legislate things that don’t involve jamming government in between women seeking healthcare and their doctors.

This has been a not so “special” special session. Lawmakers were tasked with passing legislation to facilitate St. Louis leaders' plans to turn the Lambert airport into a China trading hub, gain local control of the Police Department, and seduce the NCAA Final Four basketball games to come to town. Unfortunately, extending the session meant extending the juvenile infighting within the controlling GOP and the public displays of private feuds that seem to plague the assembly.

It looks like the not so “special” session is coming to a close this week.

The Senate has taken their ball back and left the playground.

The House is still hanging around the kickball field fussing about how the Senate took the ball and left the playground.

Governor Nixon is fixin’ to head to China.

Important legislation that could bring jobs and money to the region gathers dust while gazing anxiously at the paper shredder.

And it’s all just another case of history repeating.

Behold, the dysfunction of the Missouri General Assembly when tasked with legislating something other than denying access to reproductive health care or denying Missourians our voting rights or protecting animal abusers ability to operate puppy mills.

Pause…sip coffee…continue.

I suppose this is what happens when folks elect too many people to government who don’t believe in government.

And I wonder if this not so “special” special legislative session cost taxpayers money.

I’d ask for a refund but that’d probably require a special legislative session and…well, did I mention that the Missouri General Assembly is legislatively challenged?

Ugh.

Solving the problem of free-range black women…

2011-10-18T08:05:00.000-05:00

Let’s jump right on in, shall we?

The Economist has an article up on the problem of unmarried black women.

Yes, I know…we sistahs are nothing if we aren’t a dangerous, hypersexual, unhealthy, emotional, and enraged mass of unmarried drama.

But worry not!

The Economist article has a solution to that unmarried part. And, since everyone knows that nothing settles a woman down like the guidance and leadership of a man through the sanctified institution of man-on-woman marriage, marrying black women off will likely address all of our other “problems” too!

Fuck the audacity of hope…let’s shoot for the audacity of being saved by a man!

Before you let those feathers get ruffled, please note that the editors at the Economist made a point of stating that they didn’t come up with the latest and greatest solution to the problem of free-range black women – wait for it…a “black male professor” wrote a something or other about it and HE is the one who “kicked up a storm”, so just chill that ass out and don’t blame the Economist for making sure that storm doesn’t die down.

Pause…sip coffee…continue.

Professor Ralph Richard Banks has a book out titled “Is Marriage for White People? How the African-American Marriage Decline Affects Everyone”.

In the book, Banks makes a point that others have made that black women are less likely to be married. Black women are less likely to marry someone who isn’t black and apparently our unmarried free-range status has a negative impact on society, so everyone and their lap dawg should encourage unmarried black women to seek out men regardless of race and get our stubborn difficult and in need of marriage asses married.

Pause...consider the issue several times…continue.

Allow me to retort.

The term “unmarried” assumes that the natural state of adult human beings is “married”.

The economic argument is that the lives of women are more stable and secure when married…my argument is that the only fix to economic instability for black women is equality - in education, hiring practices, and wages.

The theory that “unmarried” black women are a drag on society assumes that marriage is a solution, but I’m here to tell ya that marriage is it’s own worst marketer.

With a 50% failure rate…and assuming that Banks is right in asking whether marriage is for white people…why the hell isn’t anyone asking why white people can’t get the marriage thing right?

Divorce costs money…it takes a toll on families and has a huge negative impact on the lives of women…and yet Banks and those who enjoy chewing on the bone du jour of black women’s integrity aren’t turned on by exploring the impact that has on whether women consider marriage or on society at large.

I get it, though.

If a body starts an intellectual exploration with the assumption that marriage is the natural state of things and assumes that women who are not married should be married then that body’s intellectual exploration is narrowed to a conclusion that seeks to solve the problem of unmarriedness.

But Banks apparently has a heart. He doesn’t want sistahs seeking to solve our unmarriedness to marry down or have to share a man. His solution is for our own good…so we can have our own man to lead us out of the darkness of trying to live life on our own.

And never you mind that this shit would deny black women romance...that it reduces the union of marriage to a transaction…that is leverages black women’s agency to a hunt for a provider…that in assuming marriage is a solution it absolves society of the multitude of inequalities facing women…or that this exploration on top of the relentless study of black women as mothers, as reproductive vessels, as troubled and at risk and a drag on society and unhealthy and violent and irrational and difficult thus in need of taming…

…that this shit situates black women as the subject, our lives naked and on display, studied like the Hottentot Venus, and presented with the false choice of leveraging our womb and sexuality for the promise stability and safety.

Whew!

Well, shit…if that doesn’t get sistahs off our lazy asses and out there in the dating scene looking for a cure…um, err…a man, I don’t know what will.

Blink.

On the failure to report…

2011-10-15T14:57:00.000-05:00

Shall we?

The Kansas City Star has a story up about misdemeanorindictments handed down over a failure to report child abuse perpetrated by aCatholic priest. The Star reports that on October 6th a Grand Jury secretly indicted both Bishop Robert Finn and the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph on misdemeanor charges of failure to report child abuse in a case involving a priest facing child pornography charges.

Rev. Shawn Ratigan faces state and federal child pornography charges.

The indictment alleges that Bishop Finn waited five months before he contacted authorities about the Ratigan’s child pornography collection.

But this story is far more complicated and disturbing than that.

According to reports...

In 2010 a technician who was working on problems with Ratigan’s laptop found the child pornography.

The tech contacted to Diocese…

…but failed to contact authorities.

The Diocese then waited five months after that to contact authorities.

In those five months - Ratigan tried to kill himself and was hospitalized. The church turned the computer over to their tech who copied the pictures and then gave the computer back to Ratigan’s family…who then destroyed the laptop. The church eventually described the photos to a police officer and showed them to an attorney. Church officials claim that they were told the pictures were disturbing but not child pornography.

But it is important to note that the police officer serves on a church committee.

Eventually a disc containing the pictures was given to authorities and they determined that the photos were taken by cell phone and digital cameras. They determined that the photos are evidence of crimes.

Ratigan was arrested…and authorities began to untangle the wretched web of who knew what when.

But wait…it gets worse.

The Star reported that the diocese had been warned about Ratigan a year before the computer tech discovered the images on Ratigan's laptop. A school principal warned the diocese by letter about teachers' and parents' concerns about Ratigan's "inappropriate behavior with children." A lawsuit alleges Ratigan engaged in sexually explicit conduct with a female toddler from 2006 to 2010. The lawsuit also alleges that Bishop Finn and the diocese hid a 2006 report of suspicious behavior by Ratigan with a 4-year-old girl in order to avoid scandal.

Pause…consider…continue.

As I read through the articles about this story I can’t help but wonder when, if ever...during those five long months...Church authorities reached out to parents to express concern over the welfare of the children in these photos.

For all the claims that these new indictments are historic and send a message...

…I’m left wondering if Bishop Finn and the Church are being investigated for obstructing justice.

In a way, this entire story is a about failing the victims...

By the Church that was warned of inappropriate and likely criminal behavior by Ratigan years before child pornography was found on his computer.

By the tech who first found the pictures by ran to the church instead of toward justice.

By the police officer and attorneys who the Church brought in to review the material.

By Ratigan’s family, who likely knew something about the material on the computer because they destroyed it.

By Finn and his minions, who opted to take five months before contacting authorities.

Ugh.

Bishop Finn, in the diocese statement about the indictments, said, “We will meet these announcements with a steady resolve and a vigorous defense.”

It seems that the Grand Jury felt Finn and the church should have applied “steady resolve” to mandatory reporting of child abuse and “vigorous defense” to protecting children under their care.

Blink.

The wrong priorities take their toll…

2011-10-10T07:57:00.000-05:00

Longtime readers know that I follow Missouri state politics. As a reproductive justice activist, I know which committees in the Missouri House are likely to excrete legislation designed to deny women access to reproductive healthcare under the guise of “protection” and which legislators are keen to pander to special interest groups who pump up their campaign coffers even as they lead their devout herd of single issue anti-choice voters to the polls.

One such committee is the Committee on Children and Families, where former State Representative Cynthia Davis once ruled and once said that the committee would super focus on abortion hinting that all other issues could take a hike.

That disturbing focus on abortion came to mind when I read this piece this morning on StlToday.com…about the lack of regulations for home day care centers, the lack of enforcement for the few rules that exist, and the toll taken in children’s lives.

Abortion is the most regulated medical practice in Missouri. Every session there are new medically inaccurate bills introduced, each heavily laced with insults challenging women’s ability to think and make decisions. And I’ve often wondered about all the other things that need additional regulation but go unaddressed…about the regular things every person could or would participate in that are never discussed under a dome determined to not trust women and eager to pass legislation proclaiming that lack of trust.

My heart sunk when I read the article about home day care centers and children who have died in care at sites that should have been shut down years ago, but for the lack of regulations and enforcement.

And my mind immediately went to that committee with the deceptive title…the one that many Missourians probably think focuses on things like home day care providers and stuff like that…the one that spent an entire legislative session focused on generating legislation to pass more regulations for the most regulated medical practice in the state and gave a pass to hearing legislation that would have helped children and tightened day care regulations.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch piece on home day care abuses did not reference an earlier piece on Cynthia Davis and her abortion focus…a piece published May 2, 2010…a piece that begins with the following…

“Not long ago it was common to find lines of people waiting to testify before the Missouri House Standing Committee on Children and Families.

"Speakers addressed subjects as diverse as child immunizations, day care quality, child abuse, foster care, safety hazards, adoption and abortion.”

And then went on to add…

“But advocates for children's issues and day care safety have quietly grumbled that under Davis' rule, a once vital committee charged with child and family issues has been so focused on abortion that it has avoided other important work.”

That May, Davis refused to hear "Sam Pratt's Law," a childcare safety bill named in honor of an infant who died at an unlicensed home day care provider. The Post then sparked a discussion about legislation that would help protect children if only conservative legislators care for the born as much as they fear women.

Fast-forward to now, and the Post has published this article about home day care neglect…covering the death of Tyler Brody as a result of neglect at a day care.

Tyler died in July of 2010...some 2 months after the 2010 legislative session ended.

Pause...consider...continue.

The most dangerous place for legislation protecting children and families is in a legislative body that believes women are dangerous and our bodies in need of regulations, let everything else be damned.

The wrong priorities take their toll.

Not "if"...but "when".

A sistah is weary…

2011-10-07T07:39:00.000-05:00

…of the assumption that people of color possess unlimited quantities of understanding and forgiveness.

I’m weary of the never ending circle of over the top insult followed by defensiveness followed by frustration with folk for being offended by offensive shit followed by apologies for “if anyone was insulted” that contain dismissive language about “intent” followed by calls for dialogue that assume people of color possess unlimited quantities of understanding and forgiveness.

Pause...sip coffee...continue.

I’m not eager to explain or teach or rant or school or listen to explanations about what people were trying to do when what they actually did landed them on the list of bigoted assaults on my soul.

I’m not excited about the prospect of engaging in dialogues that so often end up with folk expecting people of color to grant absolution and then "let it go".

I’m not inspired by public displays of prejudice, be they signs at rallies or inappropriate analogies or racist bake sales on college campuses or billboards calling upon black men to step up and dictate to sistahs ‘cause we obviously need to be led.

I’m tired of calls for inclusion from non-inclusive spaces populated by people who define inclusion as assimilation.

I’m weary…

…and I wish I had the talent to express just how much fucking work it takes to engage, over and over again, when my spirit screams in resistance and my soul calls out for self-protection.

Sigh.

Lawd, give me strength because I believe in social justice though I doubt, though I resent...

...even as I am weary.

***logs off and prepares to do the work it takes to engage again***

On Shuttlesworth…

2011-10-06T07:17:00.000-05:00

Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth died Wednesday at the age of 89.

Shuttlesworth was a Civil Rights legend…one of the founders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957.

He wasn’t perfect.

He didn’t always get it right.

Shuttlesworth wasn’t patient or easy…he shaped with rough pressure rather than smooth grace.

Shuttlesworth was an activist’s activist…an organizer for social change who witnessed much of the change he organized for.

Not all of it.

The Prize is still on the horizon.

But Shuttlesworth’s fingerprints are all over many of the rights we take for granted today.

I’ve often thought that a person is lucky if they can touch one life; inspire one person to work against injustice in this world.

The work of Shuttlesworth inspired thousands if not millions…

…and the world is better because he once dwelled in it.

Let us march on.

Thoughts on the exoneration of Amanda Knox…

2011-10-04T07:17:00.000-05:00

My first thought upon hearing of the exoneration of Amanda Knox was of what Meredith Kercher’s family and friends must be going through.

For all the recent American news stories proclaiming a miscarriage of justice for Amanda Knox, it was a young woman named Meredith Kercher who fell victim to a murderer’s knife.

There can be little doubt that the trial of Amanda Knox for the murder of Meredith Kercher was a mess.

There can be little doubt that no one, sans the murderer(s), will ever know definitively what happened the night Meredith Kercher was killed.

I’ve followed the trial, conviction, and now exoneration on appeal of Amanda Knox mostly because the coverage has been such an over the top example of sexism and sexual repression. Knox isn’t the only woman to face that shit, but if I had a dollar for every time some report on the case mentioned “she-devil” I’d be able to afford living abroad for a year to study Italian. The coverage and the behavior of the prosecution were disgusting.

Not that I think justice has now been done.

I’m uncomfortable with the fact that Knox initially tried to cast blame on her employer, a black man named Patrick Lumumba. Knox claims that police physically assaulted her and that she did not make those statements willingly. As with most of this case, the truth is elusive, but I'm not one to give the same police who messed up every angle of this case the benefit of the doubt. What I do know is that if I had a dollar for every time a black man was blamed for a crime and then later found to not have a damn thing to do with it I’d be able to afford to study abroad for a year in Italy.

Sigh.

With so much of this case left tainted and tangled in rumor, stereotype, and stigma what can we learn from this?

We can learn that convictions by juries, no matter where they take place, are not always accurate.

We can learn that the death penalty requires a certainty that legal cases rarely, if ever, provide. Knox did not face the death penalty in Italy and, now that she is heading home free, we would do well to note that there are Americans on death row with the same kind of flawed convictions…those folks have the misfortune of facing a legal system that errs on the side to the verdict, justice be damned.

We need to acknowledge that, had Knox been convicted in America, the appeal would not have been the same...she would not have been able to retry the case here, only appeal on legal errors. So, if you cheer Amanda Knox being set free you should also mourn our own system where the things that led to her exoneration would have been barred from appeal.

We can learn that sensational bullshit, police brutality, and sexism benefit no one.

Meredith Kercher is dead.

The police have a case with more questions than answers.

Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito are free after years of incarceration.

Rudy Guede, who was convicted of sexual assault and murder in the case and incriminated Knox and Sollecito in exchange for a reduced sentence, will go free in 16 years.

And justice?

***cue crickets***

Pondering public displays of ignorance by debate audiences…

2011-10-03T07:37:00.000-05:00

Shall we?

I just read this piece on Talking Points Memo about the latest public display of ignorance at a Republican debate and it got me thinking about the benefit of live debates and the public behavior they often capture.

Used to be that debates captured shit like President Nixon sweating out his nerves or President Bush the 1st looking bored as hell and checking his watch.

But in recent years debates have become televised shows where a bunch of people wait for their chance to toss in a quotable zinger that they hope will give them an edge…and trust a bitch when I say that these people practice the zingers like a tennis player practices her serve.

The result is boring as hell if watched live and only sorta-interesting if consumed in sound bite form.

With one notable exception – the natural reactions from the audience.

Back in the day, GOP minions worked their asses off to make sure audiences were packed with loyalty oath screened folks who presented a positive frame for the party to showcase their candidates and eventual nominee.

Now…well, um…hmmm.

As Evan McMorris-Santoro points out in his TPM post, the GOP debates have turned into Home Training Fail case studies. GOP debate audiences have enthusiastically cheered the fact that Texas has executed 234 people while Rick Perry has been Governor and screamed their support of allowing a hypothetical uninsured cancer victim to rot and die.

And now we have GOP audience members booing a soldier currently serving in Iraq because he is gay and asked a question about Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.

My people call that disgraceful.

Pause…sip coffee…continue.

My first thought was that the GOP minions have lost their touch and that clearly they have not been screening audience members they way they used to.

But then I gave this outbreak of boorish GOP audience behavior some additional thought…and I cruised through some websites and blogs favored by those who adore tea, where I noted that contributor and comment-makers were thrilled by these outbursts…and it occurred to me that the GOP may be letting the audience send a message to the base that they don’t want their nominee sending lest she or he disgust the rest of the electorate.

Kind of like leaving a massive rock proclaiming “Niggerhead”out in front of your hunting lodge sends one message while appointing Texas' first black Chief Justice of the Supreme Court sends another.

Blink.

Aretha Franklin is amazing…and the Peabody Opera House is too!

2011-10-03T06:45:00.000-05:00

Happy Monday, y’all!

This past weekend I was thrilled to be able to attend the re-opening of the Peabody Opera House featuring the fantabulous Aretha Franklinin concert. The re-opening gala concert extravaganza was also a fundraiser for the John L. Trotter Multiple Sclerosis Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine.

St. Louisan Ellie Kemper of "The Office" guided guests through the presentations, speeches, and presentations about speeches.

Pause…sip coffee…continue.

Oh…um, yeah…Jay Leno was there too.

Confession – I’m not a Jay Leno fan and he touched a few nerves Saturday trying to be edgy, but for the most part he managed to be sorta-funny.

Anyhoo, the Peabody Opera House is a beautiful building that had fallen on bad times like far too many buildings and homes in St. Louis city. After being abandoned for 20 years, investors pumped millions of dollars into an exhaustive rehab and the results are stunning – restored to its original 1934 glory, the Peabody Opera House was truly the star of the show Saturday.

Twas fitting that Aretha Franklin headlined the event. The fantabulous Ree Ree has had a tough year or two…plagued by health problems and a fiendish press eager to report about her health problems.

I don’t need to know Aretha Franklin’s personal business regarding her health to wish her well or to be thrilled to see her on stage looking gloriously happy and putting on a Queen of Soul clinic.

Amazing.

A hockey fan based pondering of ignorant bigotry…

2011-09-28T07:50:00.000-05:00

Shall we?

Longtime readers know that this bitch adores hockey. I’m a proud Blues fan and I’m beyond excited that the NHL season is about to begin.

Pause…do the dance of hockey joy…continue.

I follow hockey on and off the ice. For the most part, hockey players are a lot like regular everyday folks…some of them are assholes, some of them are people you can imagine being friends with, others live superstar lifestyles that are impossible to identify with.

Professional athletes are people who play a sport professionally…

…and that’s an important point to hold on to when exploring the complex issue of bigotry and taunting while on the ice.

Full disclosure – I think that the NHL or the NHLPA or better yet a partnership between the two needs to develop rules that support a respectful workplace. That’s the way to look at the issue of diversity and anti-bigotry in hockey…the ice and rink are places where people work and I think that the players deserve the same respectful and inclusive workplace that folks in the front office likely have. I also think all NHL employees could use some diversity training…y’all can’t go around talking about how hockey is for everyone when certain folks are off message like a motherfucker.

Pause…sip coffee…continue.

In one month we have seen a banana thrown at a player while he went to take a shot on goal and then that player, Wayne Simmonds, turned around and used a homophobic slur to taunt Sean Avery who managed to make news for participating in a pro-marriage equality video in between making news for getting arrested for tangling with police officers at his home in LA and making news for accusing and then being accused of using racial slurs to taunt players of color last year.

Sean Avery has a reputation.

He’s an agitator…he’s been accused of using racial slurs in the past by players of color who said Avery really likes to call folks monkeys…and he is infamous for a public display of sexual harassment and disrespect that featured him chastising opponents for dating women he once dated by pondering why players are interesting in his “sloppy seconds”.

Now Wayne Simmonds has a reputation too.

I don’t care if Sean Avery called him a monkey…he probably did. Using homophobic slurs isn’t an acceptable response to Avery’s taunts and agitation. It isn’t…won’t be…and should never be.

I support LGBT groups who are now lobbying the NHL to push for the inclusion of homophobic slurs among the shit that players and employees can’t do.

Racial slurs are already included…and note that the inclusion of racial slurs has not ended the use of racial slurs, because hockey players tend to settle that shit on the ice rather than take a complaint to human resources.

I love hockey and I love my Blues…I want the sport and my team to be things I’m proud to cheer for. I want game night to truly reflect the statement that hockey is for everyone.

But I sincerely hope that those championing Avery in this latest dust up pause and consider the opportunity here.

The opportunity is to discuss how to make hockey and the NHL more inclusive…how to improve the climate for all players on the ice…and how to develop policies that empower individuals to meet those goals.

I’m behind that…because that will help the Wayne Simmonds of the sport understand that they need to keep their homophobia out of the workplace and help the Sean Averys of the world understand that they need to keep the racism and sexual harassment off the ice too.

For the rest of us, this dust up is a great example of how bigotry is intersectional…a white LGBT person can be a bigot, a black person can be a homophobe, a man with disabilities can hold anti-Muslim views, and so on and so forth.

As I said earlier, hockey players are people…

…and people are capable of ignorance and greatness, love and hate, a great shot or no hockey skills at all.

This hockey fan is hoping these incidents help us move forward, on and off the ice.

A note about self-care…

2011-09-25T09:11:00.000-05:00

Shall we?

An activist friend recently asked me how folks continue on in the social justice movement during times like this…when it feels like the forces of evil are winning…when those around us are pushing apathy like it’s the new “it” drug…when chaos rules, greed thrives, hate grows, and the prize seems too far away to keep our eyes on it.

The answer to that question keeps changing and is a little bit different for everyone.

I know some people who focus on work/life balance.

Other folks shut down to recharge on a regular basis.

Still others indulge in debauch and get their party on...hard.

Me?

I tend to do a little bit of everything or anything...whatever it takes to get back to well.

I take time for family…not as much as I probably should, but I never claimed to be perfect.

I allow myself to not be perfect…(see sentence above).

I always take Saturdays offline…well, not always.

Didn’t I say something about not being perfect (wink)?

And when I need to crash…when the weight of it all is just too much…when I feel like I’m going to lash out at the next motherfucker who tries to spin hate as love, murder as justice, oppression as empowerment…

…when I need to crash I crash.

As a matter of fact, today I’m emerging from a good old fashioned couch-based no shower taking take-out food munching trash novel reading two day crash!

And I feel better.

I opened up this computer and didn’t resent doing it.

I read my email without dread.

And when I read the first message about [insert outrageous injustice here] I wasn’t filled with apathy…my soul ached but that’s human and okay…

…and my mind responded with thoughts of how the hell we can beat back the bad to make room for the good.

My Grandmother used to say that they call this a struggle for a reason.

I’m going to add that those of us who take up the cause of justice need to remember that this is a marathon, not a sprint.

So, take care…take time for you…crash if you need to…watch a shitty movie or read something non-movement/politics/activism/reality related…garden…have great sex…whatever.

Take care.

The movement…the struggle will be there when you come back…and it needs you strong, solid, and ready to get set and go.

Thanks for the question, Z!

Untitled…

2011-09-22T07:56:00.000-05:00

Longtime readers know that I’m a crime buff. I’ve been fascinated with human behavior and how it is displayed through both crime and reaction to crime.

The Troy Davis case sits heavy on my heart…and it reminds me of another Georgia murder case from way back that ended in death even as it failed to distribute justice.

When I was a wee one I watched a television movie about the murder of Mary Phagan. Phagan was a 14 year-old girl who was murdered in 1913…she had gone to her place of employment…a factory…to claim her pay and disappeared. Her body was later found at the factory.

Evidence found at the scene pointed toward a black man who worked at the factory…

…but suspicion turned on the factory owner, Leo Frank.

Anti-Semitism factored into the police investigation…Frank was Jewish.

Anger at industrialists also played a role...Frank was wealthy.

Leo Frank was arrested, tried, and found guilty…

…he appealed and was eventually granted clemency because the trial was a controversial mess showcasing racism, anti-Semitism, and questionable eyewitness testimony.

Shortly after gaining clemency Leo Frank was kidnapped from prison by a mob and lynched.

A mob that had decided Frank’s guilt…a mob that dismissed the evidence cited in the statement of clemency…a mob that was so secure in their certainty and the support of the masses that they didn’t even bother to hide their faces as they stood for a picture with Frank's hanging body.

70 years later a man who had been a child working at the factory came forward…he explained that he had seen a black man carrying Mary Phagan’s body in the factory but his family made him promise not to tell for fear of reprisals from the same people who were set on punishing Frank.

This new witness said he wanted to die in peace.

He passed a lie detector test and, after re-examining the evidence, historians have determined that a black man who worked at the factory was likely the man who murdered Mary Phagan.

Death as a punishment for murder requires certainty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Certainty can be a very dangerous thing.

The mob wasn’t focused on finding the murderer of a young girl.

The mob was out for vengeance and fueled by rage.

It has been nearly 100 years since the murder of Mary Phagan…100 years of death as a punishment for murder, be it by lynching or vigilante or the justice system.

100 years of the mob.

Applauding Governors for high incarceration and execution rates.

Dismissing the recanting of faulty eyewitness testimony.

Ignoring a lack of physical evidence.

The mob is still out for vengeance and fueled by rage.

And today, as it was then, murderers walk among us while the mob sits back satisfied.

Well, appeasement hasn’t worked…

2011-09-19T07:44:00.000-05:00

Over the weekend I heard that President Obama would reveal his plan to reduce long-term deficits. It includes a repeal of the Bush era tax breaks for folks making over $250,000 per year…and it also includes some tax-based changes to increase the likelihood that the rich will pay the same percent in taxes as the masses.

Twas telling that a gang of conservative minions is already out there fussing about Class War.

The Obama administration is spinning against that label hard…

…but, after a year spent watching conservatives and their tea adoring allies attack the elements of society that serve the rest of us in order to protect the overflowing pocketbooks of the few, I welcome a discussion of Class War.

Pause…sip coffee…continue.

Shall we?

Wealthy folks have used their considerable influence within government to manipulate tax code in their favor for decades.

We the people have been told all manner of bullshit lies about how that get-out-of-paying-your-fair-share manipulation is good for us, as if we’re serfs and the wealthy are old school nobility that exist to save us from own ignorant selves.

I’m old enough to remember trickle down economics in practice…and how that anemic trickle never seemed to make it down to the majority.

So yes...what the heck...let’s talk about Class War.

Let’s talk about using the weapons of government to attack organized labor.

Let’s talk about holding our economy hostage through Debt Ceiling political theater so that effective social programs get slashed while the wealthy feast.

Let’s talk about taking a hostile posture toward Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security…all programs that benefit the majority of Americans…because working to preserve these programs would require actually sharing sacrifice rather than just talking about sharing sacrifice.

Let’s talk about the percent of tax most Americans pay as compared to the percent of tax all the folks who live in [insert wealthy gated-for-fear-of-the-unwashed-masses suburb near you here] pay.

Pause…sip more coffee…continue.

President Obama’s proposal isn’t the launch of a new Class War.

We the people have been fighting this war since this nation was founded and citizen rights were determined by land ownership, gender, and race.

Millions of Americans are unemployed and a huge percent of Americans are under-employed.

14.5% of American households are food insecure.

Over 16% of children in America are living in poverty.

I could go on and on.

The minions’ response?

Brutal budget cuts, bizarre reckless proposed revisions to Social Security and Medicare…and, wait for it...calls for a balanced budget amendment that would mandate brutal budget cuts and bizarre reckless proposed revisions to Social Security and Medicare until those programs are programs in name only.

The Lindsey Grahams and Paul Ryans and Mitch McConnells of the world aren’t raising their voices in protest over the administration launching a Class War.

They are on their feet, fists clenched, in response to TALK of ending a SMIDGE of the multitude of appeasement government has been laying at their feet.

We keep giving them inches…

…they keep taking miles, building trenches, and erecting policy-based mine fields.

Pondering a very special session…

2011-09-15T07:52:00.000-05:00

Let’s jump on in!

I'm a political junkie and I’ve watched as liberals attack each other over loyalty versus criticism…conservatives attach each other over what the definition of conservative is…and so-called Main Street Americans express disgust over the state of all things plus the price of milk.

And the only thing everyone can agree on is jobs…jobs, jobs, jobs, JOBS!

This is where bitchitude demands that we pause and then consider.

Politics is local.

In my home state of Missouri we have a hell of a lot of state-based politics to wade through before we can turn our gaze toward Washington DC and get our fuss on about how FUBAR things are there.

Now catch that knee…CATCH IT!

That does not mean that people should not be critical of Congress or the Obama administration.

It just means that people need to brush up on basic School House Rock civics, remember that the federal government isn’t the only place making policy…and take a good long hard look at their state government to see if they aren’t fucking shit up their damn selves.

Example – the Missouri Assembly is current knee deep in a Special Session.

State legislators…and folks would do well to remember that each state has a bunch of those legislating all manner of things…are gathered to address some stuff Governor Nixon wants to get done that they didn’t get done during session because…well, let’s just say the 2011 session was held hostage by an outbreak of political posturing and pandering that got in the way of things like um, legislating.

So, Missouri state lawmakers are getting their Special Session on. They have been tasked with deciding things like whether to return local control of the police department back to St. Louis city.

This dates back to the Civil War.

Yes, I’m serious.

Way.

State legislators also need to pass a package of tax breaks intended to make Lambert Airport a hub for freight flown between China and the Midwest.

That project, known as Aerotropolis, is a big fucking deal and holds the potential of long-term economic growth, construction, and…maybe even jobs.

Gasp.

Suffice it to say that this shit got mired in the muck fast.

And the choir asked… “Is it the same Democrat versus Republican power struggle mess that usually derails legislation?”

And a bitch replied… “Um, no.”

The GOP controls both the Missouri House and Senate…but that hasn’t stopped power struggles or political drama and it certainly hasn’t created an environment where legislation flows easily like shit from a well regulation intestinal tract.

The struggle to get anything done under the dome in Missouri is a good example of what many states face and why a lot of important stimulating things stall.

It’s like our state Assembly has a bowel obstruction…and, as the pressure grows and cramps kick in, legislators begin to make revisions and deals in desperate attempts to get shit moving again.

Year after year we see the same obstruction…um, issue.

And year after year folks look around wide-eyed and confused about why they can’t ~~take a shit~~ pass important legislation.

You know and I know that you know that I know that all eyes are on DC right now.

But I’m here to tell ya, what 's got the Missouri Assembly illish isn’t sourced in DC or the result of traditional donkey vs. elephant partisan politics.

Pause…consider…continue.

I’d hold out hope for a Fiber Therapy bill, but odds are the Republican leadership in Jefferson City would reject is as socialist junk and demand that everyone eat more cheese...

...and then they'd start arguing over what cheese is the best cheese and which cheese Reagan would have eaten and how they've been eating the Reagan cheese since they were kids but [insert rival's name here] is actually lactose intolerant so she/he is a lying about liking Reagan cheese and shouldn't there be an Anti-Fiber fetal heartbeat pledge because we need to protect the pre-born from bran and wasn't there a rumor that fiber has the HPV vaccine in it so anyone supporting fiber clearly hates America and anyone not eating cheese wants to destroy our freedom and Beck said the Founders rarely took a shit but look what they accomplished...

Blink.

The “yeah!” heard ‘round the Twitterverse!

2011-09-13T07:06:00.000-05:00

Let’s jump right on in, y’all!

Last night CNN held the first ever GOP Tea Party debate.

Aside – that title was confusing because if it is a GOP debate then why not call it a GOP debate but if it is a Tea Party debate then they should call it a Tea Party debate, but by calling it a GOP Tea Party debate they basically framed the Tea Party as a brand of GOP…or should that be a flavor of GOP…when they don’t really seem to like the GOP, but I digress.

Anyhoo…the candidates for the GOP nomination debated for the Tea Party faithful and for that we should all be grateful.

Catch that knee…catch it!!

I’m not approving of CNN’s addiction to all things Tea Party. I disagree with a network shit disturbing to fuel an opposition that they see as an election season ratings generator.

But this debate forced the candidates seeking the Tea Party’s favor to go on record with where they stand on Tea Party politics…and that’s a good thing. Looking back at then candidate Bush in 1999, I don’t recall him going on record for anything more than what his favorite sandwich was.

Fast-forward to the now and we’ve got candidates seeking the GOP nomination publicly saying shit they may not even believe just to get some love at a john Birch Society revival!

Case in point – the “yeah” heard ‘round the Twitterverse.

Y’all remember when Rep. Grayson said that Republicans wantthe sick to “die quickly” during a health care debate in the House?

Yeah, the faux outrage over that shit came to mind during last night’s debate.

Wolfie B. of CNN asked Ron Paul a series of questions about health care coverage and ended up with a question about whether an uninsured 30 year old man with cancer should be allowed to die because he can not afford the treatment.

The audience cheered.

More than one person yelled “yeah!!”

Twas sickening…disturbing…macabre…and just the kind of unscripted realness that we’ve been missing from a “movement” that has been given one too many passes from a media eager for that ratings generator I mentioned earlier.

They want to kill social security.

They either struggle to grasp the fact that there are jobs and then there are jobs that pay a living wage or they just don’t give a shit.

And they think the sick in America should die if they lack health care coverage.

America has a lot more to decide than whether they want tea or lemon with that tea…

For the good of the children...

2011-09-12T07:56:00.000-05:00

I was going to write about all manner of things but I just read this opinion piece up on Stltoday.com and…well, I’ve got an opinion about the opinion expressed.

Shall we?

Illinois has passed a law recognizing civil unions between same-sex couples.

Catholic Charities responded by saying they do not recognize unions between same-sex couples…so they plan to not place foster children in homes where folks aren’t man-on-woman sanctified married.

This battle has been trudging through the courts.

A certain Bill McClellan of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch thinks that, because Catholic Charities takes care of lots of foster kids, the church based organization should be allowed to discriminate against same-sex couples…

…for the good of the children.

This bitch disagrees on a point of dangerous logic that, if applied equally instead of just toward same-sex couples, would justify forms of discrimination foolish people like Mr. McClellan are likely convinced would have gone out of fashion if [insert activist led movement here] had just been a wee bit patient and tolerated being treated like a lesser than human.

Follow me here…

Buses in Montgomery served residents and even managed to carry black folk around town. All the owners wanted to do was be able to impose one standard of customer care to one group and a totally different standard to another.

Well, since they serve lots of folks…

Companies employ lots of people and all they want to do is be able to hire people who look just like them and not hire disabled people because they don’t want to have to change their office bathrooms or work stations.

Well, since they hire lots of folks…

Real estate agents show lots of houses and they match customers to properties for sale. All they want is to be able to show one neighborhood to one race and another neighborhood to another race.

Well, since they provide a service to most people…

States recognize the marriages of lots of people and facilitate those couples being able to get access to thousands of rights. All they want to do is be able to deny black people the right to marry white people…and heck, they even have quotes from the Bible to back that shit up!

Well, since they have those Bible quotes and they marry lots of people and blah followed by blah followed by blah…

Pause…sip coffee…continue.

Catch that knee. I’m not seeking to compare oppression or trigger another round of the oppression Olympics.

I want what’s best for children in foster care. I want kids to be placed in safe and nurturing environments. But, on top of failing to pass the logic test of shit we should give a pass to McClellan’s opinion fails to recognize the other undeniable fact on the table – some of those kids Catholic Charities doesn’t want to place with LGBT people are themselves LGBT people.

McClellan is right about one thing…in the final analysis, we should err on the side of what is best for the children.

In this case, Illinois is doing that…

…would that Catholic Charities had the decency to do the same.

The Great Toilet Exorcism of 2011…

2011-09-06T07:25:00.000-05:00

Warning – the following post involves a toilet, a backed up sewer, plumbers, and an exorcism. If you have problems with shit, toilets, or exorcisms…well, this is not the post for you!

Shall we?

Those of you who follow me on Twitter are already aware of the story I’m about to share and how this bitch and a certain C-Money went to war with our downstairs toilet, which had become possessed by a demon…or, as the plumbers prefer to call it, a backed up sewer line.

Pause…shudder…continue.

I took Friday off with the hope of having a fantabulous and rare four-day weekend. After running errands, I returned home for a relaxing evening with the dawgs. Around 7pm Friday evening, I went to the loo to do what folks do when they go to the loo…only to have the toilet try to reach out and touch a bitch midway through the doing of the thing I went into the loo to do!

The toilet…we’ll call her Sister Girl Downstairs Toilet…was pissed off and not afraid to show it. She let forth a fierce gurgle…it got louder and louder…I shot to my feet, bare assed and scared, and turned around just in time to see Sister Girl Downstairs Toilet erupt with a flood of stanky water the likes of which I’ve never seen before and have already informed the gods I never ever EVAH want to see again!

I pulled up my drawers and leapt from the bathroom at the same time, calling out to C-Money to come forth fast. She rounded the corner with a look of horror…and, after a shocked pause, we waded in to stop the flood.

So beganeth The Great Toilet Exorcism of 2011.

Gulp.

Sister Girl Downstairs Toilet erupted several more times Friday night…each eruption-based gushing flood nastier than the next. We quickly determined that running the water elsewhere in the house was connected to the gushes. I took to Twitter and got lots of advice, eventually narrowing the possibilities down to a backed up sewer line, demonic possession, or a combination of those two options.

We called a plumber and miraculously were able to schedule the exorcism…um, err “appointment” for the next morning.

I had a horrible nightmare that night that involved a gator jumping up through the toilet while I was trying to pee and biting my ass cheek…so, suffice it to say I got less than 2 hours of sleep before Plumber Exorcist #1 (PE#1) arrived and examined the scene.

PE#1… “So, it looks like you’ve got a backed up sewer line. I can snake it and see if that takes care of the blockage.”

Sister Girl Downstairs Toilet … “Gurgle, belch…gurgle, belch…STANK!”

Fu, eyes round with horror… “Yeah, sure, um…whatever, dude…just take care of it, okay?”

PE#1, eager to explain why he needed to snake the line “…because the water is backing up and not getting through which is why…”

Sister Girl Downstairs Toilet… “BELCH, GUGGLE, BELCH…GURGLE…STAAAAAANK!”

Fu, now wild eyed and desperate… “I don’t give a flying shit what you have to do but you do what you need to do to make the shit stop flying out of that motherfucking toilet!!!”

PE#1 had obviously seen this kind of reaction before. He nodded, calmly filled out his paperwork, and went out front to snake our line.

Meanwhile, C-Money was busy looking up exploding toilets on the Internets. Every half-hour or so she’d pipe up with examples of how this eruption drama could be worse.

C-Money… “Some dude in Texas had a toilet explode on him and pin him to a wall!”

Fu… “Fuck you.”

Sister Girl Downstairs Toilet… “Gurgle, belch!”

Plumber Exorcist #1 came back in. He’d snaked the line twice but the demon wasn’t letting go.

It was time to send for another exorcist with a power hose to flush the line.

Sister Girl Downstairs Toilet, apparently aware that she’d bested the first plumber, proudly gushed some more sewer water and then fell silent.

Two hours passed…and then Plumber Exorcist #2 came to the house.

***cue the music***

He entered like a veteran toilet exorcist.

We began to tell him what was what about the multiple things the toilet was doing and that there were likely several demons within…but he cut us off.

“SILENCE! There is only one demon. Let me see the toilet now.”

We backed away as Plumber Exorcist #2 approached the beast.

Sister Girl Toilet belched and groaned.

The Plumber Exorcist nodded and turned away.

“Show me the basement.”

You bet your happy ass I did!

He was down there for a while…an ungodly stank rose from the vents...the house shook and I heard what sounded like an ocean flowing in the basement.

I’m pretty sure I heard Plumber Exorcist #2 chanting.

“The power of a flushed out main sewer line compels you! The power of water clearing a path for more water through the pipe compels you!”

The toilet gasped…gurgled and belched…and then fell silent.

A hush fell over the house.

After confirming that we could once again run water in the upstairs bath without inviting the sewer in to our downstairs bathroom, Plumber Exorcist #2 took his leave.

C-Money and I turned to look at each other and then leveled out shock-glazed eyes at the downstairs toilet…from a safe distance, because we no longer trust that bitch.

“No way in hell am I EVER using that toilet again.” C-Money said in a flat exhausted voice.

I nodded.

“No way in fucking hell.”

So endeth the toilet exorcism.

Blink.

A Labor Day Remembrance…

2011-09-05T10:41:00.000-05:00

Some of my fondest memories are of Saturdays spent with my father…rest his soul.

I’ve always been a morning person and my father was too. On Saturdays we’d be up before everyone else in the house…and I’d watch him make a list of the things he needed to do or purchase that day. Then we’d be off…just the two of us, going through our Saturday father/daughter routine.

My father was a marketing director for a major soda pop company. He traveled a lot…worked long hours…and it often felt like he wasn’t present during the week. He made sure my sister and I understood why…that he had to work to be able to provide for our family and that we should not take our home or three meals a day for granted. My father often shared stories from his childhood…he grew up in poverty and his childhood was one filled with hunger and want.

I have a vivid memory of one Saturday in particular. It had been a tough week for our family…my older brother had experienced some real challenges with his behavior therapy at school and my mother had put in 16 hour days trying to help him get himself back on track. Dad had put in the same kind of hours at his job, so by the time Saturday rolled in neither one of them had been able to get to the market.

The fridge was empty save for a container of hot sauce and some pickles.

I was around 7 or 8 years old and I remember walking into the kitchen to wish my father a good morning…and seeing him standing in front of that empty fridge with a look on his face.

A look on his face and shoulders slumped as if the weight of the world rested on them.

He looked stricken…

Desperate?

Haunted and…

Was that fear?

He turned to me and smiled a lost little smile.

Yes, haunted…stricken…with a touch of desperate fear.

And my father said…softly, so softly I would have missed it if the house weren’t hushed in sleep.

“I guess we need to go to the grocery store, huh?”

I remember nodding but wanted more than anything to give him a hug and tell him that it would be okay because we would fill that fridge to bursting.

But I knew with a certainty that is rare in life that hunger was still my father’s demon even though his belly was no longer empty…that he wouldn’t shake that haunted feeling until he packed up that fridge.

For him, providing through his labor wasn’t defined by flashy new cars or trendy clothes – providing was as basic as food and shelter and the absence of that triggered something deep within his soul.

We got dressed and hit the grocery store with a vengeance…he insisted that we go through every aisle and I remember giggling in embarrassment as he ate a bunch of grapes he’d snagged early on.

Our groceries were bagged…we returned to our house and unloaded them…and I watched as the tension left my father degree by degree as each shelf in the fridge filled with food.

When we finished he returned to his pose in front of the open fridge door, a satisfied smile on his face.

Twas so basic and raw and human…it took my breath away.

Sigh.

I remember the lesson learned that Saturday morning of why we labor…

…and that far too many labor for a wage that will never truly provide.

Happy Labor Day.

Are you there, America? It’s me, the $60 billion in U.S. tax dollars lost to waste and fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan…

2011-08-31T07:27:00.000-05:00

Happy Wednesday, y’all!

Let’s jump right on in, damnit.

I fell asleep with the telly on…and I woke up this morning to hear a news bit announcing a commission has found the United States has lost as much as $60 billion in U.S. tax dollars to waste and fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade.

After my first cup of coffee, I gathered up Ms. Sistah Girl MacBook Pro and searched for news of this outrageous waste. Suffice it to say a bitch is more than a little annoyed that news of actual waste and fraud struggles to get attention after a year spent listening to assholes go on and on about alleged fraud and waste.

Shit.

The cause du jour is spending cuts. I’ve heard political hopefuls and pundits argue over spending cuts and tax breaks and cutting the national debt. I’ve watched segments on major news outlets cover our debt and basically accept the argument that the United States can’t afford to go on running things the way we are.

Now you know and I know that you know that I know that "spending cuts" and “reform of entitlement programs" are code for telling workers, seniors, the poor, and the disabled that they are going to have to sacrifice more to cut spending because the rich will leave the country if we ask them to pay their fair share in taxes.

For the most part the debate has stalled there…

…but news that the United States spent the past decade burning through billions in Iraq and Afghanistan should reset that shit.

It should…but if the lack of coverage or news-based urgency is any indication, this public display of an area where the nation can save billions of dollars without asking those who have sacrificed to sacrifice more isn’t likely to get a date to prom.

A commission has asked for what many of us on the left have been asking for since the war in Iraq began…a complete overhaul of war spending practices and some motherfucking accountability.

Pause…sip coffee…continue.

So, when’s the rally to protest this outrageous waste and misuse of taxpayer’s money?

Fuck a duck, this shit makes my Afro hurt...

Pondering the latest Wrath of God prophecy…

2011-08-30T07:49:00.000-05:00

Shall we?

I believe in a higher power and I respect those who do or don’t. As a founding member of The United Church of Bitchitude and Latter Day Drunks (wink), I often ponder the state of the world and why people seem so hell bent on seeing other people suffer. Longtime readers know that I take issue with legislating faith and mixing organized religion with government…but I also find fault in mocking the beliefs of others while demanding respect for one’s own. Tis intellectually lazy and juvenile too...and a key commandment of The United Church of Bitchitude and Latter Day Drunks is “Thou shalt not practice intellectual lazitude.”

In that spirit, I’m about to take issue with Michele Bachmann for her announcement during a campaign stop in Florida.

“Washington, D.C., you’d think by now they’d get the message. An earthquake, a hurricane, are you listening? The American people have done everything they possibly can. Now it’s time for an act of God and we’re getting it.”

Pause…sip coffee…continue.

That shit fails to pass the Spock Test of Logical Logic, damn it!

Bachmann isn’t the only public figure who likes to interpret natural disasters as messages from God...and, like the others, she’s thinking in the now and ignoring the multitude of nature-based drama and trauma that happens during conservative administrations or in conservative states or to conservative man-on-woman sanctified with oily ointment families and so forth and so on.

Beyond that, the Earthquakes Mean God is Pissed faithful are missing the message that rancidity sends to those who have lost everything – God was pissed and you are collateral damage so suck it up or take a long look at your life ‘cause you may have lost your house/wife/dog/son/daughter/business/mementos as punishment for your adoration of porn/feasting on food/using naughty language/getting frustrated with your kids/talking back to your parents/[insert other thing that some have determined is evil while others interpret it as not so bad but disaster prophesies are more that willing to interpret as the reason why the earth shook last week and then Hurricane Irene hit the East Coast hard as a motherfucker].

Oh, who am I kidding…the Bachmanns of the world don’t give a shit about logic.

The Bachmanns of the world hear of a natural disaster and immediately start thinking through the potential political points they can score with their base who get off on that shit and honestly believe that bad things are punishment and good things are a reward and thus…wait for it, ‘cause this is the thought process they apply to everyone struggling with poverty, want, and need…

Cough.

…thus, those who struggle do so because they aren’t godly enough and those who prosper do so because it is the will of God.

Dust off those hands and cease all that volunteer work, donating, and/or activism, folks!

‘Cause the Bachmanns of the world have come up with a guaranteed hustle to absolve themselves of ever having to give a shit or give back or care or mourn or do as humans do when natural disasters hit.

Shit, Michele probably watched the hurricane news with smug ass confidence, tisking and tasking those heathens on the East Coast for whatever they did to earn the wrath of God.

Blink.

The power of one…

2011-08-29T07:12:00.000-05:00

Happy Monday, y’all!

I’m still recovering from the New Organizing Institute’s Advanced Data Training in DC.

My brain is packed full of some serious data knowledge…and my body is exhausted…but I have to say that NOI’s data training was one of the best training sessions I have had the privilege of participating in!

Yawn…sip coffee…continue.

Anyhoo…

Last night I watched 60 Minutes. Specifically, I watched the segment on the Gospel for Teens program created and run by a certain Vy Higginsen. Ms. Higginsen is a New York radio personality and theater producer and she created Gospel for Teens five years ago.

The 60 Minutes segment was fantabulous, emotional, and inspiring. I watched as teens from New York City auditioned for a program created to preserve and pass on the unique art of gospel music to our youth. The segment introduced us to several young people who face real world challenges…and it also gave us an update of sorts on what’s what in the life of Vy Higginsen.

Oh yes…I thought you knew… we’ve heard from Ms. Higginsen before!

Back in 2007 I watched a feature on people researching their family tree that featured Higginsen. I watched as she explained her motivation, anxiety, and hopes for discovering more about her past. The story was beyond engaging as New Yorker Higginsen discovered that she has a living relative in my home state of Missouri…Poplar Bluff to be specific…oh, and her new cousin is white.

Yep, Ms. Higginsen got one hell of a phone call.

“Hello. My name is Marion West. And I'm a cattle rancher from Poplar Bluff, Missouri. And I understand we're cousins."

You’ve gotta love it!

Back then I was struck by Vy Higginsen’s joyful smile…her humor…and her honest emotions.

When I saw Higginsen’s beautiful face again last night, I instantly recognized her…she made that much of an impression.

I wasn’t surprised to learn that she is doing amazing things.

I have personal experience in the power of programs like Gospel for Teens. When I was a wee bitch growing up in a troubled home (translation – fucked up from the floor up for multiple reasons), I found solace and empowerment in my advanced writing classes, tennis team, and choir. For a few hours a week I was able to prove to myself that I wasn’t worthless or stupid or doomed to a life of nothingness. I like to think of those moments as regular vaccinations against oppression and verbal abuse.

I’m not exaggerating when I say that those few hours each week got me through one of the most challenging times of my life.

So, yes…I cried as I watched young people step outside their protective shell and start expressing their inner self through music.

I couldn’t help smiling as Higginsen looked on with that beautiful smile on her face, enjoying the young people as much as the music they made.

I know the power of one.

I’ve been the recipient of someone’s simple act of giving a shit and I have been a mentor.

So, here’s a fluff of the Afro to Vy Higginsen and the youth of Gospel for Teens - go on with your bad selves!

I don't know about y'all, but I needed a reminder that empowering others is empowering too…

On Women’s Equality Day…

2011-08-26T05:35:00.000-05:00

In 1971 Congress designated August 26th “Women’s Equality Day” at the behest of the late Rep. Bella Abzug (D-NY). Women’s Equality Day commemorates the passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution in 1920 that granted women the right to vote.

I’m pondering how much has changed and how much has remains the same.

Winning the vote was a victory for women…but the victory celebration was delayed for many women of color who lived in states where voter suppression was in full effect. My Grandmother, who was born in Mississippi a few years before 1920, didn’t have the protected vote...and a right in name only is not a right.

Today, many women face a world where access is barred to all manner of things…fair housing, decent education, safe and healthy living conditions, safe and affordable healthcare, healthcare providers, and so on and so forth.

The movement for equality and justice is my inheritance…earned through the blood, sweat, and tears of millions who risked it all and suffered mightily.

This Women’s Equality Day I’m thinking of how I honor that sacrifice.

It really is like tending to an inheritance.

Through activism and outreach…so that women know what threats those opposed to justice have cooked up and how to combat them.

Through education and mentoring…so that lessons learned do not have to be re-learned, younger generations are empowered, and to gain inspiration through the amazing work of others.

And through the vote…oh, yes – the power of the vote, which women fought for and earned in 1920 and the women in my family were able to take advantage of in 1965.

Happy Women’s Equality Day…

…celebrate it but don’t forget to honor it.

Past the halfway point of a 7 day training…

2011-08-25T08:44:00.000-05:00

I’m on Day 5 of the New Organizing Institute’s Advanced Data Training in DC…

…and my brain is fixing to explode with newly learned shit!

Lawd.

We’ve had back-to-back 13 (or maybe they’ve been 14) hour days spent going over all kinds of data-based programs, techniques, strategies, and tricks.

I’m in data geek heaven…but I’m also tired as hell.

Exhaustion + lots of social contact + the pressure of learning new things usually = this bitch going off on someone for something I’d usually ignore and chock up to the lack of home training in America.

‘Tis a testament to my fellow data trainees, and the coaches and staff of NOI, that no such situation has come about…big props.

Anyhoo, three more days to go and I’m rather proud of myself for managing this much constant socialization without snapping at anyone!

Seriously, I deserve a cookie.

Pause…consider…continue.

Shit, if I make it to Saturday I’ll deserve an entire pie…

Data training, an earthquake, and a potential hurricane…

2011-08-24T07:41:00.000-05:00

Lawd.

I’ve been in Washington, DC for the New Organizing Institute’s Advanced Data Training…you know, so I can get my hard-core social change on…and it’s been a challenging and enriching experience.

I’ve been to DC several times and I know that it can be muggy this time of year, but the most excitement I was expecting out of DC during a Congressional recess and with President Obama on vacation was a random political scandal or race-baiting statement by [insert politician, staffer, or news outlet here].

So imagine my surprise when the earth freaking shook yesterday in the middle of a session about matching lists through Access!

Like a true Missourian, I did everything wrong and headed outside...swiftly.

Well, shit…I’m your go-to person during a tornado, but a sistah doesn’t experience earthquakes often!

Eventually the earth stopped shaking and everyone settled down to returned to training…but daaaamn, that was some freaky shit because I don’t expect earthquakes on the East Coast.

Pause…look around anxiously…continue.

And I’m beginning to think I may have pissed off the Goddess…

…because it looks like a hurricane is heading our way later this week.

Blink.

Science!

2011-08-23T07:47:00.000-05:00

Hi y’all!

I’m on Day 3 of a 7-day data training…we’ve been going from 9am until 9:30pm each day…so trust that a bitch is tired as hell and cranky with it.

Anyhoo…shall we?

I’m catching up on the news and noticed this bit about a certain John Huntsman of the I’m Running for the GOP nomination and one day people may realize that shit Huntsmans and…well, wow.

I can only conclude that a man declaring that he believes in evolution and trusts scientists in 2011 making news is the very definition of a motherfucking shame.

Huntsman’s tweet has been quite the newsmaker.

He sent out the following…

“To be clear. I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy.”

And you would have thought it was 1633 and this was the trial of Galileo Galilei.

The press erupted.

Huntsman’s GOP competitors seemed bewitched, bothered, and bewildered.

And this bitch can’t help but wonder what the fuck the rest of the world thinks of a nation that has a major political party struggling to wrap their anti-knowledge minds around the fact that someone can identify as a Republican and believe in evolution and be religious and trust science.

Really.

I’m mean…really.

Pause…sip coffee…continue.

At this rate, someone running for President of the United States will acknowledge Newton's theory of gravitation…

…by 2016.

The tax increase we all need to be talking about…

2011-08-22T06:00:00.000-05:00

Shall we?

The GOP went to war…trenched in…got all wild eyed and shit over the thought of ending Bush era tax breaks for the wealthy.

They went on and on about how making the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes would ruin the world and trigger a huge calamity the likes of which we’ve never seen before.

We watched as they demonstrated just how serious they were about NOT ending tax breaks for the wealthy…over and over again.

Now, as the dust continues to settle from their over-the-top debt ceiling fubarity, that same GOP is preparing to increase our taxes.

Mmmhmm...the GOP wants to block an extension of a tax break of payroll taxes.

Pause…sip water ‘cause I need to hydrate…continue.

Yes.

For real.

Way!

The same GOP that showed their natural ass over ending tax breaks for the rich by making a not so convincing case that ending those breaks would stall job creation…cough…is now prepared to end a tax break that is sure to hit workers where it hurts.

This isn’t complex.

The tax break in question impacts workers.

The GOP says that all tax relief isn’t created equal (clever...not).

Millions of Americans pay more in payroll taxes than federal income taxes.

And the GOP ain’t even trying to be subtle about this shit.

Behold Congress as it prepares to tread all over our asses…

…and there ain’t a tea adoring protest rally in sight.

My people call this bullshit.

Blink.

Data training August 21 through August 27…

2011-08-21T08:02:00.002-05:00

Hi y’all!

I’ll be knee deep in advanced data training this week, so posting will be sporadic…unless all this brain usage inspires me and then posting will be frequent as hell.

Bring forth the spreadsheets...

...I ain’t scared!

Update from a Person Centered Plan meeting…

2011-08-18T07:43:00.000-05:00

Hi y’all!

Longtime readers know that my sister and I are co-guardians of our older brother. Bill is enrolled in a residential program for adults with autism. Each year representatives from the various agencies involved in my brother’s life meet with us to review and revise Bill’s Person Centered Plan (PCP).

Over the years there have been some good meetings and several PCP meetings that should be in the Meetings From Hell Hall of Shame.

I’ve learned to prepare myself for drama…budget cuts bleed and they always seem to impact people like my older brother first.

And I’ve learned to celebrate the victories…last year we were finally able to move Bill to a house closer to where we live and it has been a fantabulous change.

Anyhoo, yesterday’s meeting was a mix of the good and the bad.

Bill is in an amazing day program through the agency that runs his residential program. He participates in morning classes that focus on expanding his ASL vocabulary and strengthening social skills in the community. In the afternoon he gets to go out into the community…something he loves to do…and volunteer at a local shelter or non-profit.

I was thrilled to hear that he is doing well in the program. Staff is getting to know him and he’s benefiting from new techniques to deal with over-excitement (reports are that he’s fired up and ready to go every day!) and that renewed focus on his ASL vocabulary (you’re never too old to learn new stuff).

The bad news is that a key staff member is leaving Bill’s residential team.

Staff turnover is a constant challenge. Low pay, long hours, and the stress of taking care of people take a toll on staff. And programs face pressure when staff leave. It takes time to train people, build relationships with guardians and residents, and get a communication plan in place.

Now, unless something changes, we’re starting over again.

Ugh.

Such is the way of PCP meetings…there is the good, the bad, and if we’re lucky we walk away without having to deal with anything ugly.

Blink.

Bits of note from an interview with Donald Trump...

2011-08-17T08:09:00.000-05:00

I woke up this morning and caught the beginning of Good Morning America.

I know, GMA is the sorta-news and watching them almost report on shit is probably bad for my blood pressure. But it isn’t enough to know what kind of junk food the masses consume…gotta take a taste every now and then to understand the appeal.

Anyhoo, George Stephanopoulos interviewed Donald Trump.

It was, according to George, an exclusive interview…and I doubt him not because I’m still trying to figure out why the hell George bothered to sit down with Trump’s has-been ass his damned self.

Trump was in Trumpish form – lots of declarative sentences, bravado, and that undercurrent of desperate machismo he uses to cover up all manner of insecurities.

George let Trump go on and on about blah, blah and blah regarding his take on the current field of GOP candidates and electability of a 3^rd party candidate.

At the end of the interview George asked Trump about his obsession over President Obama’s birth certificate. Trump, being insecure as hell and thus incapable of admitting even inarguable fuck ups and thus the last motherfucker you want to elect to any office much less President of the United States, doubled down on his inarguable fuck up by saying that he’s still not sure what the President produced when the President produced his long form birth certificate.

That shit is likely to be the headline of this bizarre interview…that Trump still doubts whether the President was born in the United States.

I, however, focused on two other bits of note.

Pause…sip coffee…continue.

Bit of note #1…

Trump was going on about how “impressive” Gov. Perry of Texas is and how he’s got a great head of hair.

Okay, he didn’t comment on Perry’s hair…but he wanted to.

George asked him about Perry’s job creation and questioned whether that’s something to boast about when the bulk of those jobs are low-paying as hell and thus not able to support the one man + one woman + two kids + chocolate lab fantasy of a traditional American family conservatives keep serving up as their base.

Trump, without pause, said…

“I think at this point America would accept anything.”

Pause…allow to marinate…continue.

Mmmhmm, now that shit needs to be a headline…put it on Perry’s bus…make it a billboard campaign, y’all!

Because you know and I know that you know and I know that Trump is spot on with that statement and “this point” is the precise point where many fools want us to remain.

Willing to accept anything.

Desperate for whatever crumbs they’ll leave on the table.

So far away from a living wage that we don’t even know what the hell that is anymore.

Cough.

Bit of note #2…

When George pushed Trump about whether the rich should pay their fair share in taxes instead of the teeny tiny percent they currently pay, Trump said he’s willing but most rich as hell people are not.

They then engaged in a “well, that’s not very patriotic” off…during which Trump admitted that not paying your fair share in taxes isn’t patriotic and followed with a declaration that most rich as hell people aren’t patriotic and would high tail it to Switzerland if they were required to pay their fair share in taxes.

That brings me back to what will likely be the headline from this interview…Trumps obsession with Obama’s birth certificate.

Tis fascinating that those who adore tea obsess over whether Obama is a natural born American citizen even though he’s proven more than I’ve ever had to prove that he is indeed a natural born American citizen.

Not fascinating because they continue to chew at a bone that they’ve chewed to death…

…but certainly fascinating cause tea adorers attack one man about his birth certificate while they protect and defend thousands of Americans who are so unpatriotic they gleefully screw we the people out of billions in tax revenue and would be on the first boat outta here if we dared to call them on that shit.

It’s one thing to be hoodwinked and bamboozled…

…but damn it to hell if these fools aren’t hoodwinking and bamboozling their own damned selves.

Blink.

Thoughts after attending my family reunion...

2011-08-16T07:40:00.000-05:00

C-Money and I just returned from our family reunion in Allentown, PA. My mother’s family, sans my mother, gathered at the home of one of my Aunts for barbeque, games, and some serious catching up.

Longtime readers know that I am estranged from my mother. We haven’t spoken for years. My mother is also estranged from her family and as I traveled to Pennsylvania I worried that her absence would loom over the reunion. My worries turned out to be all for naught. A couple of family members inquired about my mother. I explained that we have not been in contact and why. They understood, having encountered her rage when they tried to contact her themselves. For the most part everyone took the opportunity to be together rather than fret over those who weren’t in attendance.

But it’s impossible to be around my aunts without thinking of my mother. They all look alike…have the same mannerisms and expressions…and I see a lot of her reflected in them.

So, this reunion was somewhat bittersweet.

I saw what might have been…how my mother could be, but for her anger and verbal abuse of others.

And I was reminded that I can’t live her life…I can’t fix what’s wrong…I can only be me.

Sigh.

I listened to a thousand stories this weekend…had fantabulous chats and debates with my cousins, who are truly amazing people doing amazing things. I got up to speed on my aunts’ lives and quickly realized that they are living happy and challenging lives. I met my cousins’ children…again…they are growing up so fast!

On the flight back home I found myself reflecting on our family. My maternal Grandmother was our matriarch and a force of nature…glamorous, feisty, quirky, difficult, loving, and ambitious. Her life spanned a history of radical change in America…from the Great Depression to WWII to the Civil Rights Movement and beyond.

My Grandmother valued education, hard work, and family.

She passed away years ago but her legacy lives on.

Many thanks to everyone who worked so hard to pull this amazing reunion together!

A hustle is a hustle...

2011-08-12T07:32:00.000-05:00

Happy Friday, y’all!

I’m currently pondering a news report about a judge who has been sentenced to 28 years in jail for his role in a scheme to sentence youth to for-profit detention centers in exchange for kickbacks.

Mark Ciavarella, a former Pennsylvania juvenile court judge, shipped thousands of kids to juvenile detention centers…at least one of the victims committed suicide.

The seriousness of this case warrants investigations into all for-profit detention centers…because there are way too many flies for just one pile of shit.

As I pondered this case and the harm inflicted upon thousands of youth by a corrupt criminal justice system, I had a nagging feeling that this hustle sounds a lot like another hustle I recently read about.

South Dakota passed a law that, among other heinous things, mandates that women seeking abortions receive counseling from crisis pregnancy centers. Lots of folks have written about the deceptive practices and overt religious nature of crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs).

CPCs receive millions of taxpayer funding.

CPCs are largely unregulated…

…and they are one of the most brilliant hustles I’ve ever seen.

Tis a hustle sure to make the former juvenile court judge drool - little to no oversight…millions in taxpayer funding with no discussion of measurable outcomes…and now a legislative test that, should it survive court challenges, will likely spread the legislative hustle of mandatory counseling through CPC to other states.

Pause…sip coffee…continue.

The former juvenile court judge who served up kids to for-profit detention centers had to work his vile hustle in the shadows.

CPCs get legislators to do the hard work in the light of day.

But a hustle is a hustle is a hustle, my friends.

Oh and just look at all those flies!

Blink.

As elusive as a jackalope…

2011-08-11T11:36:00.000-05:00

The high temp in St. Louis is going to be 84 degrees today…

…and I’m so happy I would cry if I were the crying type (wink).

Anyhoo…

I’ve been reading a lot about the GOP’s fetish dujour – cutting entitlement programs. By entitlement programs they mean Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.

My experience with Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security is through deductions from my paychecks and being a co-guardian for my older autistic brother.

Contrary to conservative belief, people aren’t getting over through entitlement programs.

Older people, poor people, and the disabled (or any combination of those) having access to health care, housing, and food is the very definition of good policy…

…but these programs do not result in recipients living the high life.

In my family we pick up the slack of what isn’t covered as best we can, but it is a struggle.

That’s right…everything isn’t covered!

Gasp.

As a matter of fact, Missouri suffers from a balanced budget problem that typically impacts the Department of Mental Health and social programs first (surprise, surprise).

For every cut there is a scramble to stop the bleeding.

Missouri Medicaid recipients no long have dental coverage?

We have to find a way to pay for dental cleanings including behavioral modification.

Food assistance hasn’t seen an increase in over a decade…and, to keep it real, that assistance comes to a total of $160 per month for an adult man (steak & lobster…not on the menu).

And so on and so forth.

As things currently stand, we get by.

Millions of families are in the same boat.

Cut anything…and the delicate balance that is life will go to shit and I mean fast.

That’s the truth.

The lie about entitlement programs is that they aren’t necessary…that the people who receive benefits are lazy freeloaders getting over on the government…and that those people are single individuals who aren’t part of family units who will also be impacted by a decrease in or the elimination of benefits.

The truth is that my 41 year old autistic brother is a Medicaid recipient…a Medicare recipient…he gets food assistance…and he gets Social Security.

Our father served this nation in the Air Force and worked until the day he died – you bet your ass his son is entitled to receive the benefits our father never had the opportunity to apply for.

The truth is cuts bleed…multiple cuts bleed heavy as hell…and cuts will not get us out of the current financial debacle.

They will weaken us.

Cuts will make our family tighten up…spend less…take even fewer risks, lest our bother be forced to suffer or go hungry.

Cuts stimulate fear and panic, not the economy.

Trust me…I’ve been through more than one round of them already.

Pause…consider…continue.

That reminds me that I’ve also heard a lot about shared sacrifice...

…but proof of “shared sacrifice” is as elusive as a fucking jackalope.

Blink.

So, the S&P told America that our baby is ugly…

2011-08-08T07:48:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the sporadic posting, y’all!

I blame the heat.

Anyhoo…let’s jump in!

The S&P has downgraded the United States from an AAA rating to an AA+ rating. The S&P cited our fucked up from the floor up political budgeting process…the fact that we have to go to the brink of economic disaster to patch together a lame ass non-solution solution…and the clusterfuck issue of deep spending cuts without revenue increases.

In short, the S&P has informed the United States that we have an ugly baby.

No one wants to hear that they have an ugly baby. The United States is no exception. The Obama administration has responded by challenging the S&P’s math…pointing out that the other three whatevertheycallthemselves credit groups have not downgraded the nation…and added a dash of spicy political spin by calling this the Tea Party Downgrade.

Tea Party politicians took to the Sunday political chat shows to blast the Obama administration for being the Obama administration…deny that the same process of tying debt ceiling increases to spending cuts that they created, the S&P cited as a key unattractive feature, and those who adore tea bragged about creating was in any way responsible…and generally ignore the revenue concerns while doubling down on spending cuts as the only solution for anything and everything.

Everyone is going off on everyone…the baby is crying…markets are convulsing…tea is boiling…and the whole world is watching.

Pause…sip coffee…continue.

The thing is, spending cuts are not the cure to what ails us anymore than removing a tumor cures cancer.

The argument over whether the S&P is using faulty math is valid…hell, I wish economists questioned credit rating systems for the rest of us too.

The debate over the political process of tying debt ceiling increasing to spending cuts ain’t going away…that horse is out of the barn, for better or for worse.

But at some point soon someone needs to move to a very well lit room, polish their eyeglasses, lean down and take a good long look at the baby.

When that brave soul does look at the baby I’m betting they’ll find that the wee one isn’t actually ugly...poor little thing is just covered in gobs of political bullshit and in need a good bath.

Pause…consider…continue.

But you know and I know that you know that I know that, even if these fools could agree that the baby is covered in political bullshit and in need of a bath, they’d just launch into a debate over how the bullshit got on the infant and what brand of soap to use and who should wash the hair and whether the water is hot enough or too hot and…

Blink.

Fuck it – Happy Friday!

2011-08-05T07:30:00.000-05:00

This has been a hell of a week…

…but it is finally at an end.

Time to take some happy pills and enjoy the weekend, y’all!

Daaaaaaaaamn…

2011-08-05T07:26:00.000-05:00

Sorry I’ve been absent, y’all.

I’ve been running around like a crazy person getting ready for my sister’s 40^th birthday weekend.

Whew.

Anyhoo…shall we?

The markets just tanked.

And by tank, I mean – TANKED.

Now all eves have turned to the…wait for it…jobs report due out today.

Jobs…employment.

You know, the shit that wasn’t addressed during the fucked up from the floor up debt drama we just went through.

Wait…that’s not entirely accurate. The GOP manufactured FUBAR did address employment during the debt drama by instigating a partial shut down of the FAA that resulted in thousands of people being unemployed.

News came yesterday that Congress managed to strike a bipartisan deal to end the partial shut down of the FAA…

…but methinks that the world was unimpressed with the back-slapping celebration from some over linking the debt ceiling to spending cuts without any substantive policy to create jobs.

Lawd.

Part of me wants to shrug. Fuck the markets – when they soar no one wants to hire and when they tank everyone says that’s why they aren’t gonna hire.

The other part of me can’t get past the fact that Congress just shat the bed in losses to the tune of over $400 million through the FAA shut down alone. They’ll burn the house down to win an argument over the best way to put out a fire.

Pause…sip coffee…continue.

This shit is enough to make a bitch quizzical – if job creation is enough to curb market woes and calm investors down, why the fuck isn’t anyone doing a damn thing to encourage the creation of jobs?

***cue the sound of silence***

Wince.

The cost of one Satan Meal Deal...

2011-08-02T07:15:00.000-05:00

It’s the day after the deal made it through the House.

The deal is now expected to easily clear the Senate and go to the President.

With much of the agreed upon rancidity falling in 2013, I’m not as freaked out as I would have been.

My older brother is autistic and he depends on Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security…so you can bet your ass I’m going to be on the Super Committee like white on rice.

I’m trying not to think about the fact that these wretched knaves are now fixing to hold entitlement programs hostage. My father served this nation in the Air Force and worked up until the day he died at 58 years old – his son, my brother, now receives the Social Security benefit his father didn’t live to collect.

He’s entitled as hell to every dime of it.

Breath…hold…exhale.

Yeah.

Um.

So.

Here’s what is making my Afro hurt at 6:30am Tuesday August 2, 2011.

They’re going on vacation…after pitching the most immature, unprofessional, ig’nant fit I’ve seen in decades up in the people’s House…after pontificating for weeks over government malfunction and how much it costs…

…the same motherfuckers who brought us to the brink of financial ruin are now heading home to “rest” without fixing the FAA SNAFU that they created.

A SNAFU that will end up costing we the people over $1 billion dollars and has now resulted in the loss of 4,000 jobs.

Pause…allow to marinate…continue.

$1 billion dollars.

Hard working Americans furloughed…in limbo while Satan’s minions rest up…cause tantrums are exhausting, yo.

$1 billion dollars in revenue lost…to the airlines that jumped on that shit like a beagle on scraps.

4,000 jobs lost to furlough at the FAA.

The economy now destined to tighten which will stifle job creation.

A gaggle of fools elected by a gaggle of fools sitting on beaches sipping Long Island Iced Tea, gloating.

And a downgrade of our nation's credit rating still on the table.

Behold, the price of one Satan sandwich, a side of Satan fries, and a large iced Kool-Aid!

This ain’t austerity.

My people call this sabotage.

One giant step for women's health care…

2011-08-01T09:31:00.000-05:00

Happy August, damn it!

Let’s do this.

I just heard that the Obama administration is fixing to announce that birth control will now be covered without a co-payment…

…and, like flies flocking to fresh shit, those opposed to reproductive justice are already gearing up to voice their opposition.

Unplanned pregnancies cost taxpayers $11 billion dollars a year.

Prevention saves money and would dramatically lower the rate of abortion.

One key hurdle between women and prevention is access and cost.

Birth control helps prevent unplanned pregnancies.

If we expand access to prevention by making birth control available without a co-pay…taxpayers save money the rate of abortion will be reduced.

Win!

But wait…those opposed to reproductive justice aren’t trying to hear that.

The opposition points to emergency contraception (EC)…and their never-ending intellectually lazy and totally inaccurate quest to brand it as an abortion pill.

I know and you know that I know that you know that emergency contraception does not cause abortion…but those are facts and the anti-choice movement is nothing if not fact resistant.

I think the time has come to call the opposition out on what they are really saying – that birth control is abortion…all birth control, sans abstinence.

So it should come as no surprise that the opposition can’t speak of no co-pay birth control without bringing up the prohibition against taxpayer funds going toward abortion.

Yep…flies flocking to fresh shit.

The Obama administration is poised to answer the $11 billion dollar question pointed out in a recent St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial…

…and the accuracy of that answer is a tremendous opportunity for us all.

There are winners and then there are the rest of us…

2011-07-31T14:24:00.000-05:00

Shall we?

Here’s what they may have if they do have a deal on the debt ceiling…but they might not have anything because, at this point, Lawd knows who has what or when it would be done.

Brace thyself.

Damn near $3 trillion dollars in cuts.

$1 trillion up front…the rest to be rammed down the throats of the masses by a newly created committee designed to ram cuts down the throats of working people, the disabled, elders, and the poor.

A vote on a balanced budget amendment…which is a total pander to those who adore tea and will likely turn them on anyway because they have no idea what it takes to get an amendment done.

The debt ceiling will be lifted.

Revenues?

***crickets take the stage and make music***

Cough.

So, here we are…and, as this deal moves through Congress like a violent bowel movement, political pundits are pondering who wins.

Fuck it - I’ll take a stab at that!

The Tea Party doesn’t win.

If anything they just got schooled by Senate Republicans on the art of stealth fucking. Anyway you cut this, the Tea Party come out assholes…for holding their line…for caving on that line under pressure…for not being able to accept their wretched victory…for empowering traditional GOPers in the Senate by establishing complete gridlock in the House.

McConnell and McCain are now feasting on the flesh of a movement that has worked their establishment nerve since day one…and they made that shit look easy.

Progressives weren’t even in the game.

Without the ability to bring about repercussions for anti-progressive behavior losing was already a foregone conclusion.

Catch that knee!

I’m not saying I like it…I’m just saying that it is what it is.

Pause…sip coffee…continue.

Democrats.

Well, that’s complex. When I hear "Democrat" I think defensive…and that’s truly what we’ve seen throughout this debate – a constant defense of what is without gaining any footing to push, demand, or dictate.

On one hand, the GOP just took a shit in the middle of the room and managed to convince mainstream Dems to clean it up, wipe the GOP’s ass, and then spray air freshener.

On the other hand, the President is likely to get this debt ceiling thing off the table until after the 2012 elections…serious changes to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid have been kicked down the road for this new committee to get after (Lawd, have mercy)…and our national obligations will be met, sort of.

The House GOP.

Big losers.

Speaker Boehner holds leadership in name only…every word spoken about this legislation is accompanied by questions about Boehner’s ability to get the votes. He’s Czar Nicholas returning from the front to find revolt and the fall of his thrown just a matter of timing.

And the choir asks… “So, who wins…what was it all for…why did this have to happen…EXPLAIN!”

Pause…tilt head and frown…continue.

Who wins?

The rich.

They always do.

Hell, they are probably going to make a shit load of money…transfer the bulk of it to a Swiss account to avoid paying what little taxes they are asked to pay…and then pile the rest of it into political campaigns designed to convince voters to that Soylent Green ain’t people.

What was this for?

This was for show…for posture…for the sake of showing that a gaggle of fools can bring the nation to our knees.

‘Twas a flex…a scare tactic…our own modern version of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

If you kick a dog every time she walks past you…eventually she’ll jerk when you move your feet…ultimately, the dog will avoid walking past you at all.

This was a series of kicks.

Why did this have to happen?

It didn’t.

***members of the choir join the cricket ragtime band and sing, “In the winter in the Summer…Don't we have fun!? Times are bum and getting bummer…Still we have fun! There's nothing surer…The rich get rich and the poor get children! In the meantime, in between time…Ain't we got fun?***

Blink.

Extremism in the defense of tax breaks for the rich meets get your ass in line meets congressional foolishness….and at some point diluted tea is served…

2011-07-28T07:50:00.000-05:00

Oh my!

If my autistic brother’s Medicaid, Social Security, and Medicare benefits weren’t at risk…and the economy wasn’t about to implode…and the whole world wasn’t watching Congress take a stinky shit in the middle of the room…this debt negotiation drama would be amusing.

***cuts eyes***

Let’s jump on in...Lawd, have mercy.

I’m trying to keep up with what’s what.

Ummm…let’s see…first someone started the timer on the clock.

Speaker Boehner pandered to the House caucus that adores tea by bringing the non-starter Cut, Cap, Balance bill to a vote and then a bunch of Congresspeople screened some clips from The Town and then Speaker Boehner told that tea adoring caucus to get their ass in line…but at some point he proposed his own plan…and also at some point Leader Reid (love these titles, y’all) also proposed a plan…

…gasp…

Okay, dueling plans were proposed...so the CBO scored both plans and neither plan produced what the proposers said they would…but Speaker Boehner’s plan was less deficit addressing than Leader Reid’s plan, big time…

…sip coffee, shake ‘fro, continue….

Soooooo, Speaker Boehner revised his plan and that’s the newish plan he told the caucus that adores tea to get in line and vote for today even though the Senate has said that Boehner’s revised plan is also a non-starter.

That brings us to today, a vote on a bill in the House that is a non-starter, and that tick followed by that tock coming from the We’re Going to be FUBAR!! debt drama clock.

Did I mention that the whole world is watching?

***cue blustering stern faced Congresspeople and make ready for another round of dueling press conferences***

Blink.

Breaking News – Olivette passes LGBT non-discrimination protections and a domestic partner registry…

2011-07-27T07:53:00.000-05:00

Congrats and way to go, Olivette!

Last night, the Olivette City Council passed legislationthat includes nondiscrimination protections for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.

These protections cover employment, housing and public accommodations.

The Olivette City Council also passed legislation that will result in the creation of a Domestic Partner Registry.

This historic legislation passed by a unanimous vote.

Olivette is a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri…and in Missouri LGBT individuals who do not live in cities with such protections can be fired, denied housing, and denied services.

Many thanks to PROMO for their tireless work advocating for the rights of LGBT Missourians.

May this serve as a reminder that an injustice to one is an injustice to us all...our struggle for equality and justice goes on.

Tis also true that a victory for LGBT Missourians in Olivette is a victory every Missourian can and should celebrate.

Fantabulous.

Olivette's nondiscrimination ordinance will go into effect immediately, however the domestic partner registry will be made available for couples starting on November 1st, 2011.

Where to start? How about at FUBAR…

2011-07-26T07:29:00.000-05:00

Lawd, y’all…just when I think Washington D.C. can’t be more dysfunctional they go and prove me wrong, don’t they?

Let’s jump right on in!

This gridlockian debt negotiation standoff has reached level4 out of 5 on the FUBAR scale.

After watching dueling press conferences between President Obama and Speaker Boehner, I am now convinced that the Speaker had no idea his job involved herding cats and the President had no idea that the Speaker had no idea that his job involved herding cats.

Oh, and some of the cats are feral.

Mercy.

Here’s the shit that has been keeping me up at night…the cuts, the fact that many within the Tea Party caucus question whether America is too big to fail, and those cuts again.

I challenge the President’s use of “shared sacrifice” in his speech.

We the people have been shouldering the bulk of this nation’s sacrifice and President Bush doubled down on that shit when he passed tax breaks for the rich back in the day.

The only thing that’s been on the table since that motherfucker passed those breaks has been how much sacrifice the masses are going to be saddled with to continue giving rich as hell Americans a pass.

Those tax breaks have become the third rail while Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare are now on the table…and that was before a gaggle of fools elected enough fools to form a caucus of fools who are now showing their natural ass through this current negotiation process.

Pause…sip coffee…continue.

I tell y’all what, let’s just drop the shared sacrifice line…methinks it absolves the wicked and bypasses a teachable moment.

Let’s keep it real…it is time for the freak show to end, for the richest people and corporations to take a dip in Lake Sacrifice where the rest of us are already treading water…and it is time for that gaggle of fools who voted for enough fools to form a caucus that is now fixin’ to redefine FUBAR on an international scale to acknowledge that electing people to government who don’t believe in government is like choosing an arsonist to house sit while you're on vacation.

Ugh.

I just want to shake them all…and then banish them outside where it is at least 150 degrees.

Maybe that’ll bake some sense into their asses…

Blink.

Does anyone want to follow this money?

2011-07-22T13:01:00.000-05:00

I woke up this morning and caught the tale end of a newsreport about Swiss bankers that have been charged with helping at least 35Americans hide billions…I’m talking $3 billion dollars here…from the IRS.

Pause…sip coffee…continue.

There are a lot of things that piss me off about this shit.

#1 Why the fuck isn’t this headline news?

America is in the midst of a serious debate about debt…and some conservatives would like to see the richest among us get even more tax breaks while the rest of us see critical social programs slashed to the bone…and all the while a gaggle of shady motherfuckers are hiding billions in Swiss bank accounts.

Am I the only one who thinks this news is worth more than a smidge on the television news crawl?

***cue crickets***

Lawd.

#2 Why the hell are news sources not naming the 35 Americans who committed this fraud?

I’ve seen news stories that provide the complete biography of individuals accused of stealing a fast food meal…but I’m having a Dickens of a time finding out who the 35 people are who hid $3 billions dollars in Swiss bank accounts.

I want to know who these assholes are…who they work for…if they work…who they make political donations to…and whether or not their asses are in jail.

***crickets are now joined by cicada***

#3 Where’s an angry sign carrying rally when we need one?

If ever there was a reason to break out the Don’t Tread on Me gear, this story of rampant tax fraud is one.

When rich as hell Americans...people who already get more than their fair share of tax breaks as compared to the rest of us…seek to evade their obligations through fraud and corruption we the people are being taken for a ride.

Hello?!?

***crickets and cicada break out into a flash mob dance***

Fuck it.

Post Murdoch phone hacking & bribery scandal quizzical conspiracy theorization…

2011-07-20T07:53:00.000-05:00

I set the DVR to capture the Murdoch & Son appearance before MPs yesterday and…well, that was a fascinating performance.

And yes…that was the very definition of a performance.

Rupert Murdoch and his son James appeared together before a committee…wearing matching suits and ties…with one goal in mind – calm the audience.

The audience being the News Corp. board, investors, and the media spin machine that both listen to.

Now, some may challenge my theory by pointing out that during the quizzing Rupert Murdoch was trying his best to appear like an out of touch, fragile, confused old man who leans heavily on his son for everything.

But it is a mistake to view Rupert’s appearance as a separate thing from that of the son who was sitting next to him. These two were a team and they know their lines as well as any actor.

Murdoch and son weren't selling what we who watched witnessed.

They are selling the idea that Rupert isn’t going to be held accountable because he’s skilled at dodging the ball and he’s prepared to fall back on his age + the vastness of his empire + the fact that many in charge have lost the benefit of the doubt + isn’t his son clever and earnest and polite but not a push over and willing to admit this little newspaper that makes up less that 1% of the total empire done did people wrong and blah followed by blah and more blah.

Pause…sip coffee…continue.

And just in case Murdoch and Son failed to pull all that shit off…there was a shaving cream pie thrower tossed in.

That bit of distractitude was as easy as waving a bone in front of a dawg.

I’m not buying the shit that Rupert is regretful…or was unaware of everything and prefers to leave everything to managers and lawyers.

And I’m not buying the shit that James is really in charge…or that he just happened to fail to ask questions every single time a situation begged for him to ask questions.

Nope, I'm not buying it, but a quick look at the media's reaction tells a sad tale of just how easy it is to enchant with a basic glamour spell.

'Cause the pie thrower is trending while News Corp. stock is soaring and Team Murdoch didn't even break a sweat.

Mission accomplished?

Next up – Prime Minister Cameron!

Methinks this play is still in need of a gotcha moment.

Blink.

A dream-based exploration - A fiend, his gargoyle companion, and testimony preparedness…

2011-07-19T07:52:00.000-05:00

Note to the uninitiated – a bitch’s dream based speculations are based on dreams and in no way reality unless dreams are reality and this is just a dream.

Also, I’m convinced that Rupert Murdoch has a gargoyle companion named Sebastian - here's my earlier exploration.

Blink.

Shall we?

On the eve of his quizzical before MPs regarding the phonehacking and bribery scandal, Rupert Murdoch searched his lair for his gargoyle companion Sebastian.

“Sebastian? Where the fuck are you, son? I need you to help me pick out a necktie, damn it!” Murdoch shuffled from room to room, mumbling under his breath. “Clearly, my necktie needs to be both soothing and inviting, non-threatening and upbeat…but, what the fuck do I know about that shit? SEBASTIAN!”

Murdoch opened the door to the gargoyle’s suite and paused in the doorway, mouth agape.

There stood Sebastian, calmly folding his gargoyle gear into his suitcase.

“What the fuck? What the fuck?” Murdoch gasped.

Sebastian continued to fold and sort, his eyes fixed on the task at hand.

“I’m leaving you.”

“WHAT?!? Why? How can you leave me now? I need you to help me pick out an outfit so I look like a nice guy instead of the soulless servant of the Dark Lord that I am!”

Sebastian stopped folding, turned toward Murdoch, and put a claw like paw on his hip.

“Gawd, you truly are an asshole. A selfish asshole. I was down for a life of greed. I supported you when you sought to control multiple societies through a media empire. I even stood by you when you renewed your contract with Satan and signed your name in his book. But…well, you’ve gone too far now.”

“I don’t understand!” Murdoch whined.

“Look, dude. There’s evil and then there is evil. You’ve crossed a line…selfishly dragging my gargoyle reputation down into the gutter with you. Do you have any idea what it’s like for me now? My gargoyle friends won’t accept my calls…I was asked not to attend gatherings of The International Society of Evil People Companions…hell, I’ve even been tossed out of the Scary As Hell Social Club! Seriously, the nastiest of the nasty think we’re too nasty!” Sebastian spat out and slammed his suitcase down to lock it.

He turned to face his Master.

“You want to know what the last straw was? Do you?” Sebastian's eyes welled with tears. “You had those people hack my phone! MY PHONE! You violated my privacy, man.”

Murdoch rolled his eyes. “Of course I did! I violate everyone’s privacy at some time or another. How was I to know what you are up to? And I had good reason to suspect you were cheating on me with that Facebook guy…”

As Sebastian moved past him out the door Murdoch made to grab for his arm-like appendage.

“Don’t, okay. Just don’t.”

He shuffled down the hall.

“It’s over, Master.”

“Can’t you give me one last chance? After all we’ve been through…all we accomplished together…don’t leave me, gargoyle friend!”

“Fuck you, Murdoch.”

Sebastian tossed his keys on the floor.

“Fuck you twice on Sunday.”

The gargoyle swept out the door into the mist…

…and then I woke up.

Blink.

***logs off to set DVR to record coverage of Murdoch’s quizzical by MPs***