Would it Have Been Okay if it Was a Comedian?

I don’t think I’ve ever before heard so much garbage spewed in a campaign, especially Presidential. This is the worst mud-slinging I’ve seen or heard in my 40 years of adult life. Suddenly everything is being used to cast aspersions on the first black who’s ever seriously had a chance at becoming the nominee, from his clothing on an overseas diplomatic trip (Obama wearing Somali clothing) to his middle name (Obama's middle name is Hussein) to his ex-Pastor (Jeremiah Wright was retired) to whether or not he salutes the flag (Does Obama salute the flag?) to how he got elected to his first public office. (He knows how to play hardball if he has to.) No one made such a huge deal about Bill Clinton falling asleep in the pulpit of a church, (During an MLK ceremony no less!) or Pat Buchanan saying what he said, (A Brief for Whitey) This pastor that they’re now saying is talking about white people crying (So Pfleger told a joke, so what?); why is that being used to sling more mud on Obama? He didn’t say it! The man is not on Obama’s staff, so what on earth does he have to do with it? So they know each other, SO WHAT?

I’m getting so fed up with this; all the young people who’ve never voted before, never even been interested in the political process, now they are and what do they get as their first example of ‘democracy in action’? They get two Democratic candidates acting like toddlers on the playground fighting over a tricycle; one who shouldn’t have it for a lot of reasons but determined to get it anyway, whatever the cost, and the other too small (not ready) for it but still determined to get it. This race is to determine who’s going to govern this country, not who’s going to get the high score on a video game. It’s not for a gold medal; it’s for leadership of 304,216,307 people. (As of 2:30 PM EST on May 31)

The person who wins the Democratic nomination doesn’t ‘beat’ the other person; whoever gets the nomination is the person that the citizens of this country felt was the one they trusted to lead them for the next four years. Who do you trust? The bully that’s slinging mud trying to blacken (no pun intended) the name of the new person on the playground because they’re afraid that person is better than them? Or do you trust the person who realizes that this is not some kind of schoolyard contest, and understands that they are dealing with people’s lives here? The person who isn’t out to win a personality contest, the person who isn’t trying to win because they feel like something is owed to them, but is trying to win because they feel they’re better for the job? This is what you have to decide, who do you trust?

Sunny Jamaica!!

To all those who have been reading my blog, (I'm sure there's got to be someone out there!) I'm in Jamaica for a week. That's one reason I hadn't blogged in a few days, getting ready for my trip. This is my first time out of the country, going on a trip like this, and it's AWESOME. I'm going to try to blog while I'm here, but don't count on it. The wi-fi reception isn't the greatest except at night, and if the rest of the days are anything like the last two have been, I'll be too tired....

Thanks to those who have been reading my blog, and thanks to Lori for your comment.

No worries mon! Jah Rastafari!!

Okay, now they've gone WAAAY too far!! Not Sponge Bob!!!

How can anyone call Sponge Bob Square Pants GAY???
(see story So SpongeBob Pants is gay. Who cares?) This is utterly ridiculous; it's even worse than the whole thing with Tinky Winky was! How far are the Right-Wingers and the Fundies willing to go? They pull this stuff out of their butts and try to make a big issue of it. My grandson has been watching Sponge Bob since it first came on the air, (he's 7 now) and there's no issue of him being in any way 'funny'. Matter of fact, his favorite cartoon character is now Spiderman! Wonder if they'll find an issue with him since he wears tights? Probably not, since he's been around as long as he is and is like Superman, an American icon....

The older I get, the harder I find it to accept (to even believe) that this country I've spent my life in has this undercurrent of bigotry, vengefulness, and downright stupidity running underneath the veneer of generosity and Friend To All-ness. It's no wonder Michelle Obama said what she said. Look at the things America has been doing to the citizens of its own country and continues to do! Look at the poor American families in the Appalachian mountains who have been starving for years, while we pump millions of dollars in food supplies to Third World countries. Look at the discrimination that is practiced here on a daily basis, while we're over in countries of the Middle East telling them how to run their daily lives. Look at all the soldiers that are dying over there in that senseless war going on while we're telling other countries they should make peace with their enemies. This country took all those women's children away from them, (in West Texas) and placed them in foster homes, yet they are always making pleas for people to adopt or be foster parents to the thousands of children who already do not have homes. Why are they making these people submit to DNA tests and go to court to get their children back? So what if they household they lived in was different from "the norm"; these are children with mothers who love them, and they have been just ripped away and told that the way they live is wrong, that their whole life is a lie. Those people were practicing their faith the way that worked for them, the way they always had; who is the government to just make the blanket judgment that all these children need to be removed?

This is all my opinion of course, but in my opinion this government does need a radical change, more of a change than going Democrat will make. I couldn't even begin to make suggestions as to how, but I know the whole mindset of this country needs to change. Not only is the government doing the things it's doing, but we are sitting back and allowing it to happen, and that needs to stop. The apathy has to be overcome, somehow, and we need to stand up for ourselves and for all those who have been run over by this government who can't stand up for themselves.

Starting with Sponge Bob.

So Now it's Michelle Obama They're Going After

Back in February, (almost exactly a month ago) Michelle Obama gave a speech, and made a statement about her pride in America. Personally, I don't understand what her speech writers were thinking when they wrote it, and what she was thinking when she read it; she might have meant it one way, but they should have known the the Republicans were going to make something totally different out of it, something that did not look good for Obama or the Democratic party. She chose to go ahead with it though, and sure enough, the Tennessee GOP now has her up on YouTube. I've seen the Republicans do some low things, but this has got to be right down there with the worst of the worst. (In my memory) Has this country gotten so bad, that this is considered acceptable behavior in the political arena now? Does this mean that family is fair game when it comes to attacking a candidate? What else is fair game? A candidate's children? Their senile old parents? We already know that his pastor and his wife are, so what else? And yet people still want to let a Republican into office!

I got an email forwarded to me form a so-called friend; it was a story listed verbatim from snopes.com. about immigrant refugees at retirement age being able to collect more money than Americans born and raised in this country! (The email story also had a Canadian version)

This is nothing but the game of politics at its lowest, and we need to recognize this. We need to stop jumping up in panic every time we hear something. Learn to check out these Internet stories that we find in our email everyday, and if you can't find it in there, just check it out in the news. You'll more than likely find it's not true, and who knows, while reading the news, you might actually learn something about current events!

KUDOS TO CALIFORNIA!!!

It's about time another state stepped up to the plate on this issue! It's always surprised me that California wasn't the first, considering how large the gay population there is, (census figures) but that's okay, they've finally done the right thing. Whatever happens now, this is a positive step, eventually everyone is going to wake up to the fact that just like blacks, and just like women, you can't shut up a whole class of people forever. Sooner or later you're going to have to give them the equal rights that the Constitution entitles them to. Sure, we're always going to have groups that don't agree, just like we still have white supremacist groups who don't believe that blacks are to be considered human, let alone citizens of this country, but society just ignores them and goes on about their business. Sooner or later it will be the same with anti-gay rights groups; we'll look at them and shake our heads, and keep right on with planning our marriages, or putting our spouse on our benefits at work, or deciding who's going to take whose last name.

Edwards' Endorsement of Obama; does it matter?

I know, this happened a few days ago, and is old news, but people are driving me crazy with talk about it, saying that if Edwards had done it earlier it would have been great, but now "it just doesn't matter". Are they crazy? Okay, so maybe it won't make the impact it could have made if he'd done it earlier, but with the race between Clinton and Obama still so close, any delegate that Obama picks up can only help him in his run for the Presidency. Thanks to Edwards, Obama is now five delegates closer than he was, along with the 4 superdelegates he picked up on his own since Wednesday. That makes the total now 1,896 for Obama compared to 1,718 for Hillary. It takes 2,026 to clinch the nomination. How can anyone say that Edwards' endorsement doesn't matter? I just don't get it, can't these great political pundits and armchair quarterbacks count? If there were a HUGE difference in the number of delegates (like 500 or so) each of the Democratic candidates has, then yes, John Edwards and his 19 delegates might not make a difference, but we're talking about a total that's so close, every delegate counts. Every delegate that swings over to Obama, no matter where the delegate was before or who he/she supported, is important to whether or not Obama is the one chosen to run against McCain come November. I grit my teeth every time I hear someone saying that Edwards and his endorsement and his 19 delegates don't count. People just don't seem to realize, "It ain't over till the lady in the pantsuit loses." She might be losing, but she hasn't lost yet.

Hidden Gay Life of Macho HIp Hop Stars

Well, this is one book that will bring a lot of attention... if it doesn't, it should. There are so many black women getting HIV and AIDS now that it's ridiculous! And where is a lot of it coming from? Sex with men; high-risk heterosexual sex. A long time ago, society called it a 'gay men's disease'; even now there are groups (usually fundy Christians) who claim that AIDS is God's way of punishing gays. If that's true, what about all the innocent babies being born with AIDS, whose mothers got it from men? Are those babies being punished for what their father did? Are their mothers being punished for that? Gradually most of society came to see that it was not a gay men's disease, but a 'junkie disease'; it came from all these nasty junkies out here shooting drugs. What about all the people who never shot an illegal drug in their life, but had surgery and got a transfusion, and died of AIDS? What were they being punished for?

Just like with any other of the topics that are responsible for the death of our children, the death of our culture, and the death of our race, this is one that could be a lot less deadly through education, honest and open communication, and a little common sense. Black women need to understand that the man they've loved for 20 years who has been in jail for the last 10 may very well have, voluntarily or involuntarily, been exposed to HIV through homosexual sex. They also need to be aware that the man they've stuck by for 20 years, the father of her children who's been shooting heroin for the last 5, could have been exposed through sharing needles. No matter what they say, no matter how many times they swear it didn't happen, make them get tested, and not just once. This is what I mean by education. He comes out of jail, or out of rehab, and a week after he gets out he gets tested. The test is negative, he says "See baby, I'm clean, I told you I didn't do nothing, don't make me wear no rubber." A year later, she goes for a routine physical, and she's positive. He goes ballistic, swears she's been cheating, etc. etc. (we all know the rest of the story.) All along though, it WAS him; when you get tested the first time, it's not enough to let it go at that. The virus may just not be showing up yet; it's just like when you first get pregnant, it takes a couple of weeks to show up on a pregnancy test. Unfortunately it takes longer with HIV/AIDS; to be safe, get tested every 6 months for 18 months, that's 3 tests. If all those tests are negative, and you're SURE he's not indulged in any high-risk behaviors, then if you allow him to ride bareback you're probably safe. Until that 18 months is over, don't let him do anything without slapping that cap on little jimmy. If you do, you have no one to blame for a positive test but yourself. It's common sense that if there's a possibility he might have something that you need to protect yourself, but somehow it seems like when it comes to sex, all our common sense goes out the window. We've got to close that window girlfriend! We've got to stop letting ourselves be swayed by good looks, smooth talk, and our g-spot. When you're lying in a hospital bed weighing about 90 lbs and wondering who's going to take care of your children, those good looks don't mean diddly. Honesty and open communication....be nice if we could have that, but it just doesn't seem to happen. A man's pride will not let him admit to anyone t hat he got raped, or even worse, (to him) he willingly had homosexual sex when he was locked up. Fear of being laughed at and downgraded will not let him admit that he shared needles when he was sick and him and his partner only had one set of works; that makes him seem weak and desperate, and God forbid any one should see him that way. He's an addict though, what other way is there to see him? Besides, if he can't tell t he truth to the mother of his children, especially when it means her life, something is desperately wrong with this relationship and needs to be fixed, or left alone. There has to be open, honest communication, there has to be education, and there has to be common sense; if we don't get on the ball soon, it's going to be too late. Talk to each other, and talk to your children about sex, HIV/AIDS, and Hepatitis C; talk to them about condoms and birth control. None of us want to see our children having sex when they're still children, but we don't want to see them pregnant or dying of AIDS either.

Why Should Hillary quit?

Although I don't like the dirty pool the Clinton team has been playing, and I don't really relish the idea of another Clinton in the White House, I agree that Hillary should keep playing until the game is over. If she quits, there are always going to be those that say we'll never know if Obama would have won if she hadn't quit, and I for one want there to be no doubt in anyone's mind about who the winner of this contest is.

The writer of this article "Quitters Never Win" and I may not agree on who the President should be, but we do agree on one thing: Hillary Clinton should not quit. She has a responsibility to herself and to the young women of this country to run the race until it's over. Whether she wins or not, she will have taught a valuable lesson to young women everywhere, one that they need to learn. You do not quit just because it looks like maybe you won't win; you stay in the race and you give it all you've got until it's over. You run just as hard and just as long as you did in the beginning of the race; let no one say that you gave up, that you were a quitter.

Yes, at times I've thought that maybe she should just give up, but for one thing the race is too close for her to throw in the towel. I am realistic enough to admit that at any moment things could swing in her favor, and she'd be the one pushing for Obama to quit. (Because we know that's the way the Clinton camp is, that would be the first thing to come from their collective Clinton mouth!) It would be unfortunate in my opinion if it did go to her; I'm beginning to see that the underhanded way she plays is not good for this country. We already know she's two-faced, and subject to change her mind every time she changes her underwear, but do we really want someone who is so negative towards her opponent, who has campaign workers right and left making negative personal comments about him? Do we want someone in office who will use whatever underhanded tricks they have to use to get what they want? I don't think so.... I know politics is considered "a game", but I'm sorry, I just don't like the way she plays. She cheats, lies, and tries to downgrade her opponent so that she can win, and that's NOT the way this particular game should be played. It should be the better person who wins, not the nicer person who loses.

Let Hillary stay in the race. Let her keep trudging the campaign trail, and making her appearances, and giving her own money to her campaign; let her stay in the race right up until they get to the finish line. I want to see Obama break the ribbon ahead of both her and McCain; I think it will make for a much more interesting race, but it will also prove who the better candidate is.

First Caller-ID spoofers spanked

"Caller-ID spoofers" prosecuted.

It's about time they started doing something about these people; in my opinion, it should have been started a long time ago, and it should be a lot harsher. The Do Not Call Registry was a joke in my opinion, because there are too many loopholes in it, and too many conditions.

I didn't even know about the law saying that telemarketing businesses had to display their telephone number on Caller-ID; I have a company that calls my house daily; the caller ID always says "800 Service 800-000-000" How am I supposed to call that company back? I learned my lesson a long time ago about calling these unidentified numbers back anyway. On several occasions I called a number to find out who it was, (and in some cases what they wanted, because the name was not familiar) and ended up being harassed by some rude person working for a collection agency that had bought an old account. I once got a letter from a company with a name I'd never heard of, telling me that I owed over $1000 for a bill; I called the number and asked who they were and what the bill was. They told me; I said okay thank you and hung up. They immediately called back and wanted to know what I intended to do about the bill. I was at work, and I told them that I could not talk right then because I was in my office, and to please not call that number again, and I hung up. They called back!! I picked up the phone and repeated myself, very nicely I thought; the man asked me what did I call for if I didn't intend to pay the bill! I said "I never said I do not intend to pay it, I called to find out who this company is and what the bill was that you claimed I owe in this letter. I found that out, and that is all I wanted. When I am ready to continue the conversation, I have your number and I will call you back. Thank you very much, have a nice day." Well, that began a long and annoying episode of repeated conversations with various employees of the collection agency. I told them over and over not to call my work number, (I thought if you told them not to call your job they couldn't?) to no avail. Finally one day a female called, and she just went over the top. She informed me that I was listed in their database as "rude, had called and hung up, a deadbeat who had no intention of ever paying." Initially I went ballistic; hung up? When did I hang up on anyone? She proceeded to recount to me the first time I had called and found out what I wanted to know and ended the conversation; the person I spoke with wrote it as I hung up on him! I told her they needed to retrain their telephone people, because as far as I knew, when a telephone conversation is over, the usual method of ending it is to hang up. She said something snide about waiting until the person finished talking, so I said "I was finished talking, and he wasn't saying anything when I hung up because I was talking." That didn't make an impression on her, she continued to tell me how wrong I was, how I needed to pay this bill, how it was terrible of me to create a bill and then when they tried to collect to tell them that I was not going to pay. I asked why did she think that I wasn't; she said it was right in the records that I'd said I wasn't going to. I almost laughed when she said that, because an idea suddenly occurred to me. I asked her "You have said several times that if I do not pay, your company will take it to the next level; if it says right in your notes that I told you I would not pay, (which I never said) why are you still calling? Why have you not moved on to the next level? Why are you still arguing with me about something that doesn't mean anything because I'm not going to pay?" She got totally quiet, and this time, SHE HUNG UP ON ME!!! LOL I know there's a difference between bill collectors and telemarketers, but seems to me that someone needs to apply stricter rules, and then actually monitor these collection agencies to make sure they're following them.

Sorry I got sidetracked, but the point I'm trying to make is, these telemarketers go totally beyond the boundaries supposedly laid down for them by the law. They have been doing it for a long time, and it really seems that the only thing that is going to stop them is to hit the companies where it hurts: their pockets. Give them huge fines for breaking the law, and don't just punish the company, prosecute the telemarketer who actually did it, especially if this is a person who has been telemarketing for awhile. Someone on their first job can probably claim they just did as they were trained to do, but anyone who's been out there on the phones for any length of time knows the rules.

Something else that bothers me; I understand that the only way for telemarketers to know if someone is on the list is to give them access to it; how many of these companies does the government think are actually going to look up every number on its call lists to make sure that one is not on the registry? And if they have access to the list, why am I still getting calls from telemarketers trying to get me to contribute to different charities and/or tell me I won a vacation somewhere?

I used to be a telemarketer, so I can look at this issue from both sides, and I gotta tell you, the public is totally right in their outlook on telemarketers, but it's mainly because of the training methods utilized by most of the smaller telemarketing companies, and the over zealousness instilled in some employees by those methods. If they were to receive a few of the phone calls that they're making to people's homes or offices, they might not be so aggressive when they talk to people!

Been A Little While, I Know, but Something to Think About...

I haven't posted in a few days, there's been a lot going on, both in my personal life and the current events happening. As soon as I choose something important to write about, something else happens, and I find it difficult not only to find the time, but to choose the topic. Right at this moment I'm at work, and I have a meeting to be in at 9, and what I wanted to talk about today simply can't be discussed thoroughly in 20 minutes. I want to give you something to think about though. I'm sure you've already been thinking about it, who hasn't? But perhaps you haven't thought about it from this viewpoint.

Today we stand on the threshold of a whole new world. Today is primary day in North Carolina and Indiana. Never before has the primary in these two states been as important as it is today; usually by now the Democratic candidate for the Presidency has been chosen, and none of the rest of the primaries really matter anymore, except to show the feeling of those states. Today, voters in North Carolina and Indiana are feeling that they are actually contributing something to the Presidential race, and that's a good feeling.

Not only are the voters there feeling good, blacks all over America are feeling good, and so are women. Both groups for the first time are being told "You matter; your sex/race is just as important as that of the white males in this country." Regardless of how far either candidate goes, regardless of who eventually wins the Presidential seat, there are no losers in this race. (Unless the Republicans win!) As long as a Democrat sits in that seat on January 20th, we all come out winners, because we all played a part in history. I am going to love telling my grandson when he's old enough to understand, "Your grandmother was here to vote for the first black President of the United States" or the first woman, whichever it happens to be.

Look at how much our country has changed! We've come from Blacks and women being considered a white man's property right up to where they both have a good chance of beating him in the Presidential race. What a difference from the days of women burning their bras, and black slaves uprising to be free. This is a whole new country, a whole new day, and regardless of how we feel about what's going on under Bush, we have to feel proud of a country that has managed to overcome so many prejudices to get to such a point. Yes, we still have prejudice; women still don't get paid on a level with men, and non-whites are still considered 2nd class citizens. But women ARE getting paid, and blacks ARE citizens, and that's a hell of a lot more than our ancestors could have said. Who knows if things will ever be equal, and if so when, but I'll tell you what, as a black woman, I'd damn sight rather be living here now than in the days of slavery!!

Haven't We Learned Yet?

Can you believe that anyone in this day and age anyone could think of
this symbol as something funny? How could anyone do something like this
to a fellow human being and think of it as a joke? I see nothing funny
about it...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24369334/

An airline employee decides to show a fellow worker a
noose during lunchtime. Then he decided that just showing it wasn’t enough; he also had to wave it around a bit, and then ask the person he was showing it to,
"Are you ready?” (Can you guess what race the two people were?) I swear, sometimes the stupidity of some white bigoted idiots makes me feel ashamed to be white. I just seriously hope that people of other races who are victims of this type of callous, idiotic “joking” can realize that there are more of us that totally DESPISE this type of person as well as their behavior than there are those who would find it funny. I truly hope that behaviors such as this will come to a halt very soon now!

Please help to put an END to all of this childishness.
Hating anyone because they are slightly different than we are is silly, and it’s got to stop.

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Contributed By Lifer

This article was sent to me by a very good friend of mine that I'm trying to convince to be a regular contributor. He has very strong feelings against racism of ANY kind, which just goes to show that racism is NOT something that is influenced by your environment. He was raised in an extremely racist family, and grew up to realize not only that it was not the way he wanted to be, he realized that it was wrong.