Which Palin Should Be President: Sarah Or Bristol?

In choosing between mother and daughter Palin, for president (I didn't mean to frighten) ... I honestly think Bristol might make a better president than Sarah.

Beck's "I Have A Scheme" Speech Excerpts

Glenn Beck could just as well have said to his supporters, "Me at last, me at last, thank God almighty ... it's me at last."

Glenn Beck, the far-right Fox News freak, held Beckstock this past weekend in Washington D.C. and delivered words that can best be characterized as "I Have A Scheme" for what it was worth when everything was said and done.

Here is how Beck might have closed his speech as he attempted to hijack the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. over the weekend for his own nefarious, self-promoting purposes:

When all of God's children...
White ones and gently tanned ones...
Filthy rich and very rich ...
Conservative and far-right extremist...
Will be able to join hands and sing unto me in the words of that old right-wing spiritual ...
Me at last...
Me at last...
Thank God Almighty ...
It's me at last!

Yes, I am being satirical ... slightly

In The Shadow Of Beckstock, The Rev. Jesse Jackson Leads Important March In Detroit

The Rev. Jesse Jackson speaks to a crowd in this photo.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson was in Detroit (where I was born and raised) over the weekend to march for awareness about issues of great importance.

Sadly, however, the march is not getting near enough attention as much of the nation focused on Beckstock, a production led by Fox News right-wing extremist and fearmonger specialist Glenn Beck. Beck's production, a scheme to grab attention, raise money (I'm sure Goldline is happy) and increase his fame, is a disgrace to everything Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood for and died for more than four decades ago. Beck's disgraceful attempts to capitalize on the works and deeds of Dr. King are perhaps overshadowed only by his stunning ignorance of what Dr. King really stood for as he rallied millions.

Beckstock, or "I Have A Scheme" as some people have called his rally in Washington D.C., grabbed all the headlines while the Rev. Jackson marched in Detroit on important issues.

Here is an excerpt from the Detroit News:

The chants of thousands of people demanding jobs filled the air downtown as UAW President Bob King and the Rev. Jesse Jackson led the crowd to Grand Circus Park.

The UAW and Jackson's Rainbow Push Coalition announced the Rebuild America: Jobs Justice Peace kickoff today at the downtown park.

Jackson said the focus of the initiative is to ensure policy makers put people first when making decisions. The initiative calls for a moratorium on home foreclosures, a push for job creation and for ending armed conflicts overseas.

"Detroit and Michigan are ground zero of the urban crisis," Jackson said. "It's time to enact real change for working families and all America."

About 30 percent of Detroit is unemployed, Jackson said. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., also said Detroit was chosen as the kickoff site for the campaign because it is at the heart of the nation's economic fight.

It's great to see the Rev. Jackson marching on such an important issue in Detroit, a place where the message will have a strong impact. It might come as a shock to some people, but Rev. Jackson is about more than race issues. But, that is something you would never know listening and watching the mainstream media and far-right propagandists who seek to demonize him.

Here are some photos from the rally led by the Rev. Jackson as posted by the Detroit Free Press.

The sensationalism of Glenn Beck, promoted by the Republican party communication's team, Fox News, sells better than a march in Detroit for jobs and other forms of economic empowerment.

So Won't The Real Glenn Beck Please Stand Up, Please Stand Up, Please Stand Up...

Here's how Eminem might say it:

So won't the real Glenn Beck please stand up, please stand up, please stand up ...



Once again, we see the two faces of Glenn Beck, as he stands in Washington D.C. in front of tens of thousands of morons who actually follow him.

More psycho talk from Glenn Beck.

Also, who are the "dark dudes coming our way" Mr. Beck?

Is It True: Black People With Guns = Thugs, White People With Guns = Patriots

Checking Facebook, something I do quite often on a daily basis, I stumbled across this comment posted by Tim Wise, one of my favorite activists. Wise, who can verbally mix it up with the best of them and is outspoken in issues regarding race (all the more intriguing because he is a white male), had this interesting little nugget of knowledge he dropped on Monday, April 19, in regard to a recent showing of so-called guns rights activists on the National Mall in Washington D.C.:

(Tim Wise) ... wonders how FOX News and conservative white folks in general would feel about thousands of black men descending on the DC area with guns as part of a political protest. Actually, I don't wonder. I know. They would no more consider them defenders of constitutional liberty than the NRA considered the Black Panthers as such 40 years ago. Black people with guns = thugs. White people with guns = patriots. Don't forget it.

So, that whole statement and particularly the last sentence got me to thinking about the issue a little more deeply. Is Wise correct? Are we that shallow that black people with guns could be considered thugs while white people with guns are considered patriots?

To a large extent, I find it difficult to argue with Wise's comment. Imagine the outrage if a group of blacks (they would probably be labeled a gang) descended upon the Washington D.C. area with guns lobbying for the right to get and keep guns.

Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/19/gun-rally-second-amendmen_n_542872.html

MSNBC/Washington Post:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36635695/ns/politics-washington_post/

June 12, Is Loving Day

Mildred and Richard Loving

We have so many things we take for granted every single day of our lives.

Seeing an interracial couple still today, now and again, can occasionally make a person turn and do a bit of a double take. These days, however, reactions to interracial marriage are not what they were 10 years ago and certainly not what they were 20 or 30 years ago. However, through the 1950s and 1960s, interracial marriage was not only frowned upon, but it was illegal and downright dangerous. This is where a married couple, Richard Perry Loving and Mildred Loving, enter this issue. You see, Richard Loving was a white man while Mildred was a woman with of both black and Native American heritage. Maybe you could be friends, but certainly nothing more than that. It’s amazing how far we’ve come in our society, even if we still have a ways to go as we learn to appreciate each other.

First, here is some background on the Lovings and their case from Wikipedia:

The plaintiffs, Mildred Loving (Mildred Delores Jeter, a woman of African and Rappahannock Native American descent, July 22, 1939 – May 2, 2008)^[2][3][4] and Richard Perry Loving (a white man, October 29, 1933 – June 1975),^[5] were residents of the Commonwealth of Virginia who had been married in June 1958 in the District of Columbia, having left Virginia to evade the Racial Integrity Act, a state law banning marriages between any white person and any non-white person. Upon their return to Caroline County, Virginia, they were charged with violation of the ban. They were caught sleeping in their bed by a group of police officers who had invaded their home in the hopes of finding them in the act of sex (another crime). In their defense, Ms. Loving had pointed to a marriage certificate on the wall in their bedroom. That, instead of defending them, became the evidence the police needed for a criminal charge since it showed they had been married in another state. Specifically, they were charged under Section 20-58 of the Virginia Code, which prohibited interracial couples from being married out of state and then returning to Virginia, and Section 20-59, which classified “miscegenation” as a felony punishable by a prison sentence of between one and five years. On January 6, 1959, the Lovings pleaded guilty and were sentenced to one year in prison, with the sentence suspended for 25 years on condition that the couple leave the state of Virginia.

It’s almost unthinkable people had to go through this brand of bigotry. But, do we celebrate what Richard and Mildred Loving went through and sacrificed to make things better for us today? We don’t celebrate to the degree we should.

I pulled this excerpt from the That Minority Thing:

The Lovings spent time in jail for the high crime of being married to each other, were forced to move from Virginia. Then, on June 12 of 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Lovings’ criminal convictions and struck down all laws against interracial marriage.

Now there’s something like 4.3 million mixed-marriage couples in the United States. And the son of one such union is our President.

It’s easy to get discouraged – if not downright fearful – when the race baiters dial their spew up to “11,” and their reactionary puppets respond with violence. But take a moment on this June 12th to look at where our nation once was and where we are now, and take solace in knowing that we are headed in a better direction.

For some people, that makes June 12 Richard and Mildred Loving Day. The pain and suffering Richard and Mildred Loving endured, the excruciatingly high price they paid for love and for those after them to be able to love, should not soon be forgotten. Hopefully people of all backgrounds can continue to come together and celebrate this historic and (sadly) largely ignored historic day in the United States. Not only is the day mostly ignored, but so too are Richard and Mildred Loving.

From Loving Day:

The Loving’s case not only won them their freedom to love, but it also granted the same freedom to every interracial couple in every state in America. At the time of the Loving decision, sixteen states from Delaware to Texas had laws banning interracial couples. Loving v. Virginia (1967) made it illegal for these states to enforce those laws. This ended a long era of laws that were enforced in forty-two states over the course of American history. These laws did not only apply to black people and white people; many states also restricted relationships with Asians, Native Americans, Indians, Hispanics, and other ethnic groups.

The freedom to love is something most of us take for granted. Like many other freedoms, the right for interracial couples to be together was fought for and won as a part of our civil rights. Many people see this as the longest-lasting part of the legal segregation that used to rule our nation. The Lovings, like Rosa Parks, played an important role in freeing us from laws that punished people for no other reason than the color of their skin.

That is a great description.

Have a happy Loving Day!

Loving Day:
http://lovingday.org/