Bubble

© 3 December 2009, The Griot Poet

It is called a “deluxe water ball assistant,” ninety-nine cents; “Made in China.”

It is a holiday scene suspended in liquid medium under an inverted aquarium. Solid figurines attached vertically to a horizontal faux base floor.

The only thing animated in clear, pristine silence are white faux snowflakes animated by shaking the bubble and letting each flake fall gently on the mannequins and the floor within.

So are our worshiped “American Idols”:

“Oh! If I could just touch a hem of his garment”; a lock of his hair/DNA sample/YOUTUBE unauthorized video performing God-knows-what (in the nude).

So are our worshiped “American Idols”:

Pop stars like:

- Lindsey Lohan;
- Britney Spears;
- Todd Bridges;
- Michael Jackson…

Politicians like:

- Mark Sanford;
- John Edwards;
- John Ensign;
- Bill Clinton…

Sports figures like:

- Dennis Rodman;
- Michael Jordon;
- Kobe Bryant;
- Tiger Woods…

We insist they behave in our preconceived parameters of their caricatures in our minds.

We participate like paparazzi vultures with the 4th estate in yellow journalism, hypocritically scripting their lives (and not our own).

We do not appreciate the blessing and gift of walking into a mart, a mall; a grocery store without thought of where our security detail is because we might get MAULED (or our lives threatened/our reputations blackmailed).

We assail them as we shake their bubbles.

Eventually we shake…
And shake…
And shake…

Until lateral forces starts a quake in the very structure of the mannequins’ unsteady base. Micro cracks and fissures appear at the microscopic level and manifest macroscopically in listing one side or the other, then eventually: both – sometimes all at once.

The cracks get larger until…

The figurine teeters and falls, like the flake, acceleration due to gravity cushioned by the viscous fluid as it falls gently to the faux floor.

And,
Since we can’t reach into their watery other world,

Where other rules of physics and reality apply to affect repairs:

We shrug!

And
We
Throw
IT

Away.

Beware of Pleasant-Sounding Bumper Stickers...

See: Beware of Psalms 109:8 Bumper Sticker

You'll see tea bag crowds touting these bumper stickers and the catch phrase: "Pray for the President" or "Pray for Obama."

Here's what Psalms 109:8 (and 9) says:

"Let his days be few, [And] let another take his office.
"Let his children be fatherless, And his wife a widow."

Who could have the nerve to use these verses out of context and call themselves CHRISTIAN?

I'm tired. Tired of the way the Bible is twisted to beat over the heads of the people and manipulate the weak-minded among us.

How is this any different than Al Qaeda or the Taliban twisting the Koran to justify murder?

In verse 3: "They have also surrounded me with words of hatred, And fought against me without a cause."

This is the mental state of the tea bag fringe that feel they've "lost their country," or their vaulted place in the pecking social order (don't give me money or a job: just make me feel superior).

Sarah-"Going-Rogue"-Palin manipulates this to great effect at her rallies after she repeated the lies:

"Obama doesn't live in our kind of America." (paraphrased)
"He palls around with terrorist." (at EIGHT?)

...and never once challenged anyone that said "terrorist"; "kill him."

This is a recipe for assassination, JUSTIFIED by the Bible out-of-context.

Please note:

Protect President Obama from Right-Wing Menace

"30 death threats a day..."
"400% increase in threats from President Bush..."
"We have half the number of agents we need, but requests for more agents have fallen on deaf ears at headquarters,"

This is a long haul campaign. It didn't end on November 4, 2008. It won't end until the country is repaired from the damage of the last 8 years; Obama winning a 2nd Nobel Peace Prize and he, Michelle, Malia and Sasha SAFELY back home in Chicago in 2016.

Speaking of the Bible, when they throw you Psalms 109:8 - 9, hit them with this:

"Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence."

1 Timothy 2: 1 - 2

Grace, Peace and ACTIVISM!

Facebook Collab with Drake Jibril Eszes: "Tonight"

“Love should never expire faster than a Walmart return policy.” –D.J.E.

“Tonight” (A “Quickie” Poem)

Sudden winds of change
Envelop me
Like a hibernating bear’s arms
Snuggling her cubs

Love’s discovery
Cut strangely
By scissors
Held by Umbilical cords’ revenge

Unprecedented silence
Speaks louder
Than love
Ever confessed

Now I sit here
Pastime scars
Testifying uplifting lessons
Band aids on this open wound

How could something so real end so fast?

This chapter I’ve already read
365 days ago
Thought I put it in my
Epilogue of discontent

…

But, tonight
My scars of love
Will speak mental voo-doo tones
Commencing last laughs chant

As they lock eyes
With their penis role-model
My vulnerable words
Forgotten

As they position nakedness
Above his
Fulfilling his dreams

Blindness will be your karma
For this moment you fulfill
Things will not be
What it seems

Drake Jibril Eszes

**********

TGP's Quickie response:

Above the storms of life
after I've Spoken Words:
"peace, be still"

to the crashing waves above
my common sense

when you ended it
your eyes cut through
my masculinity like
Ginsu knives
on my male genitalia.

My source of testosterone
dropping to the floor
like Samson's locks

and Delila mocks me
paid by Philistines
and I was blinded
to her treachery
by her sheer beauty
and gorgeous pouting
that melted me like butter...

I shudder
first against millstones
grinding wheat,
gathering my strength
my hair reappearing
(but not my sight)
then against columns to Dagon
mocked openly by three thousand souls...

"Fulfilling MY dreams

"Blindness will be YOUR karma
For this moment *I* fulfill
Things will not be
What they seem..."

Dr. Cornel West: "Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud" (interview)

A Choice of Totalitarianism

The first president depicted as the fictional super-villain “The Joker” was George W. Bush: Bush as Joker, the outrage happened when the tables were turned on the first African American president: Obama as Joker. The outrage was that Obama is just beginning his administration, while Bush was… a lame duck.

Bush was compared to Hitler: Bush as Hitler. Now, Obama is compared to Hitler: Obama as Hitler.

Perot was initially blamed for costing George Herbert Walker Bush votes in the ’92 election; Nader blamed for Gore’s loss in 2000.

When Karl Rove wanted to foster a “permanent Republican majority,” for those with that philosophy, it was heaven on earth. However, the rants from the right stem from the thought of being in the political wilderness and PREDICTIONS they’ll be in the political wilderness: 40 More Years: How the Democrats Will Rule the Next Generation.

What is this?

I call it: “A Choice of Totalitarianism.”

Totalitarianism: 1: centralized control by an autocratic authority; 2: the political concept that the citizen should be totally subject to an absolute state authority

Autocrat: 1: a person (as a monarch) ruling with unlimited authority; 2: one who has undisputed influence or power

A “two-party system” is synonymous to describing the universe in more than three spatial dimensions (the fourth being time, possibly eleven or MORE theoretically in String or now M Theory): we conceive the political universe as ONLY two parties and allow corporate interests to influence both to their wishes. Corporations, if “persons” have been personified as psychopaths. Thus, we can’t have a reasonable debate about health care; we can’t pull out of wars that drive up the national debt; we can’t possibly foster the education and jobs for people in this country; we can’t discuss how to get the Third World out of debt (and thereby take away a trump card for terrorist recruiting); we can’t balance the budget and give our children a debt-free future.

Alas, Steven Covey: there is no “win-win” scenario. We are in a “winner-take-all” system that the other side will always be the “sore loser” and claw, scratch, defame, heckle, humiliate, denounce, disrespect the leader of the other side until they return to power. Then the cycle of absurdity repeats itself as the rich 1 – 2% gets richer and pulls the strings of “AstroTurf free speech exercises in futility.”

I will be a good Malthusian slave… as long as my side “wins.”

Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama, Back to School Event

As I format this, I am preparing to read this address to my seventeen year old son: his district, www.leanderisd.org has opted NOT to show the broadcast in his government class. I am woefully disappointed in that decision as a parent and taxpayer. The precedent for this address has been set by President Reagan, President George H.W. Bush and President George W. Bush on 9/11. I believe the Office of the President must be respected by citizen, veteran or soldier alike, no matter who or what party occupies it.

Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama, Back to School Event

Arlington, Virginia
September 8, 2009

The President: Hello everyone hows everybody doing today? I'm here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we've got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through twelfth grade. I'm glad you all could join us today.

I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, its your first day in a new school, so its understandable if you're a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you're in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer and you could've stayed in bed just a little longer this morning.

I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn't have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday at 4:30 in the morning.

Now I wasn't too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, Id fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever Id complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and say, "This is no picnic for me either, buster."

So I know some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But I'm here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I'm here because I want to talk with you about your education and whats expected of all of you in this new school year.

Now Ive given a lot of speeches about education. And I've talked a lot about responsibility.

I've talked about your teachers responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn.

I've talked about your parents responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and get your homework done, and don't spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that Xbox.

I've talked a lot about your governments responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren't working where students aren't getting the opportunities they deserve.

But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed. And that's what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.

Every single one of you has something you're good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That's the opportunity an education can provide.

Maybe you could be a good writer maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine but you might not know it until you do a project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a Senator or a Supreme Court Justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.

And no matter what you want to do with your life I guarantee that you'll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You're going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You cant drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You've got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.

And this isn't just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you're learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.

You'll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You'll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You'll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.

We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don't do that if you quit on school you're not just quitting on yourself, you're quitting on your country.

Now I know its not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork.

I get it. I know what that's like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn't always able to give us things the other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and felt like I didn't fit in.

So I wasn't always as focused as I should have been. I did some things I'm not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.

But I was fortunate. I got a lot of second chances and had the opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams. My wife, our First Lady Michelle Obama, has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn't have much. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.

Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don't have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job, and there's not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don't feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren't right.

But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you've got going on at home that's no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That's no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That's no excuse for not trying.

Where you are right now doesn't have to determine where you'll end up. No ones written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.

That's what young people like you are doing every day, all across America. Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn't speak English when she first started school. Hardly anyone in her hometown went to college, and neither of her parents had gone either. But she worked hard, earned good grades, got a scholarship to Brown University, and is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to being Dr. Jazmin Perez.

I'm thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who's fought brain cancer since he was three. He's endured all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took him much longer hundreds of extra hours to do his schoolwork. But he never fell behind, and hes headed to college this fall.

And then there's Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods, she managed to get a job at a local health center; start a program to keep young people out of gangs; and shes on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college.

Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell aren't any different from any of you. They faced challenges in their lives just like you do. But they refused to give up. They chose to take responsibility for their education and set goals for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same.

That's why today, I'm calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education and to do everything you can to meet them. Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending time each day reading a book. Maybe you'll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your community. Maybe you'll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you believe, like I do, that all kids deserve a safe environment to study and learn. Maybe you'll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn. And along those lines, I hope you'll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don't feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.

Whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to really work at it.

I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work -- that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you're not going to be any of those things.

But the truth is, being successful is hard. You wont love every subject you study. You wont click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you wont necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.

That's OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who've had the most failures. JK Rowlings first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, "I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

These people succeeded because they understand that you cant let your failures define you you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn't mean you're a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn't mean you're stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.

No ones born being good at things; you become good at things through hard work. You're not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don't hit every note the first time you sing a song. You've got to practice. Its the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before its good enough to hand in.

Don't be afraid to ask questions. Don't be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn't a sign of weakness; its a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don't know something, and to learn something new. So find an adult you trust a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.

And even when you're struggling, even when you're discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you don't ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.

The story of America isn't about people who quit when things got tough. Its about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.

Its the story of students, who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.

So today, I want to ask you, whats your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?

Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I'm working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you've got to do your part too. So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don't let us down, don't let your family, or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

Obama’s not the first president to address nation’s schoolchildren on live television

The article points out (click on link in title above) that there is precedent set for presidents addressing school children: FDR brought it to the modern era with Marconi's radio and "fireside chats." President Obama is the first to use all forms of media: cable, radio, Internet and social networks to effectively communicate, and that method will likely be imitated by political operatives of majority and third parties in the near and distant future of this country.

For those that are concerned: the text of the presentation will be released Monday, yet schools in various states (sadly, Texas being one) are either not going to allow the broadcast, or parents in those states are going to keep their children from school.

It reminds me of the lessons our kids are supposed to learn from playing organized sports: "you can't win them all"; "be a good sport." Sadly, the only persons not following that advice are the parents that voted McCain/Palin.

If this were John McCain, I doubt you'd see parents that voted for Obama complaining or holding their children absent from school. That by the way is an unexcused absence that counts against the student and proves/solves nothing. The homework assigned that day will still be due, so to miss a day when the leader of the free world wishes to address "education" is a bit oxymoron.

"We are a country of laws, and not men," is paraphrased from "Thoughts on Government, Applicable to the Present State of the American Colonies," written by John Adams during the spring of 1776, where he fully states: "there is no good government but what is republican. That the only valuable part of the British constitution is so; because the very definition of a republic is 'an empire of laws, and not of men.'"

The presidency is an office we as citizens SHOULD respect, regardless of the occupant in the office. Who, if you're keeping statistics, he represents 1/44 or 2.27% of the total population of presidents, 97.72% of the time; it's been white males from Washington to Bush. It is highly likely to revert back to that established paradigm in 2012 or 2016.

I will admit, the president is an effective politician and persuasive speaker, but I have no evidence of his expertise at hypnotism. To paraphrase Charles Barkley "you ARE your child's role models," and the most important persons in shaping their maturity and character.

Strength in the Broken Places: Ted Kennedy, 1932 - 2009

© 26 August 2009, The Griot Poet

“The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.” Ernest Hemingway

Ted M. Kennedy died in the comfort of his home in Massachusetts with family and friends surrounding him. He died to the date of his speech at the Democratic National Convention nominating (now) President Barack Obama as history’s first African American candidate endorsed by a major political party. He’d supported (then) Senator Obama in January of 2008 before succumbing to a seizure and the diagnosis later of a malignant brain tumor.

Strength in the broken places: despite getting expelled from Harvard in 1951 for cheating on an exam, he managed to get elected Senator in 1962.

Senator Kennedy championed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He authored more than 3,500 bills, the Family and Medical Leave Act; the Americans with Disabilities Act being among them.

Strength in the broken places: Ted Kennedy lost older brother Joe in battle in WWII. John he lost to Lee Harvey Oswald. Robert was assassinated while running for president by Sirhan Bishara Sirhan (mainly) for his support of Israel in the six-day war one year prior to pulling the trigger.

Chappaquiddick was one of his many “broken places.”

At 37, the young Senator drove off a bridge while in the company of Mary Jo Kopechne. Ms. Kopechne drowned. The Senator was convicted of leaving the scene of an accident with a two-year suspended sentence. Had the Internet been active and fully tabloid, his career and usefulness would be over.

In 1980, he ran a failed, bitter campaign against President Jimmy Carter, ultimately losing to him and then supporting him.

Republicans that are ardently against health care reform, bitterly opposed his support of Roe vs. Wade, counted him as a dear friend.

A “Lion of the Senate” builds a life from repeated failures. He finds strength in the broken places and gives the remainder of his life to service for others. A tombstone listing his accomplishments would be as large as the Vietnam Vets Memorial.

If America is truly a “Christian nation” as is oft quoted in our sound bite, 24-hour news cycle: then the lesson of Senator Kennedy’s life would be that there is redemption after failure and great sin; that the sun ascends and sets on all and as Hemingway also stated: “Every man's life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died [that] distinguish one man from another.” His service and his boisterous, back-slapping laughter were his roar and his strength.

Hierodule, ("sacred servant")

© 10 August 2009, The Griot Poet

You were the reason
Zeus came down from Olympus
Making Hera, his older sister/wife jealous
Yet, that god/human communion birthed: Hercules
One of mythologies greatest heroes

You are Alcmene
"the tallest,
"most beautiful woman with wisdom surpassed
"by no person born of mortal parents;
"her face and dark eyes as charming as Aphrodite's."

Lady of Cyprus,
Myrtle,
Dove,
Sparrow,
Swan,

All her;
all you;
all goddess;
all sacredly...

...sensual...

Past Prologue Strategies

The ghosts of Atwater past: birth(er)s, death(er)s; mendacity
© 8 August 2009, The Griot Poet

Lee Atwater, God rest his soul (a fatal tumor revealed he HAD one), developed and patented divisive identity politics – the mantle taken up by Karl Rove – to get George Wallace “segregation-now-segregation-forever” Dixiecrats to Republican polls.

“The Southern Strategy” opposed the Voting Rights Act abstractly:

Atwater: “You start out in 1954 saying ‘n----r, n----r; n----r’” (when Brown vs. Board of Education received a 9 – 0 Supreme Court pass with the vigor of Thurgood Marshall’s judicial rigor to implement at all deliberate speed), “by 1968 you can’t say ‘n----r’… that hurts you. So you say stuff like”:

- “Forced busing;
- “State’s rights;
- “Tax cuts;

You keep it abstract, but the result is “blacks get hurt worse than whites.”
Now: they say the fight is “health care,” while many of us are unemployed, laid off, on food stamps or welfare. Tabloid journalists insisting on reporting debunked after debunked after debunked FAKED birth certificates (because an exotic name found [Aramaic] 24 times in the King James Bible can’t be from Hawaii!). Governor “good hair” has the highest rate of uninsured of ANY state; he berates stimulus funds, punches his fist high and shouts at treason-speaking, secession-leaning tea bagger rallies: “State’s rights!”
But now: it’s not just color: it’s class! Follow-the-money to the K Street lobby and see [who] are the true masters of republicans and blue dog democrats!

Thomas Frank asks “What’s the Matter with Kansas?” We tax cut and war mongered our way into this huge deficit.

- “Forced busing;
- “State’s rights;
- “Tax cuts;

The only point changed is the first!
Lied ourselves into two wars in Iraq, killing Saddam Hussein and sons Uday and Qusay, bombing Ur of the Chaldean’s back into the Bill O’Reilly stone age (which had NOTHING to do with 9/11 per DUBYA),
Instead of stating: “we don’t want that n----r in the White House” (built by the way on the backs of slaves),
We have “birth(er)” knaves and republican sponsored-for-20-years “Living Wills” transformed to “Logan’s Run” euthanasia, “death(er)s” shout down and stifle Congressional Town Hall Meetings in industry-sponsored Astroturf rallies,

Because 40 plus years later (from 1968), you can’t say: n----r, n----r; n----r!

Atwater said: “you got to be abstract.”

Forced busing becomes:
- “Military-Industrial-Congressional-Complex” (what Ike meant to say),
- “State’s rights;
- “Tax cuts;

A quote from “The Price of Loyalty” by Ron Suskind: “Deficits don’t matter, this is our due,” from then Vice President Richard Bruce (Dick) Cheney!

On Anarchists and Socialists

Anarchist: 1: a person who rebels against any authority, established order, or ruling power2: a person who believes in, advocates, or promotes anarchism or anarchy ; especially : one who uses violent means to overthrow the established order

Anarchism: 1 : a political theory holding all forms of governmental authority to be unnecessary and undesirable and advocating a society based on voluntary cooperation and free association of individuals and groups

Socialist: 1: one who advocates or practices socialism 2: a member of a party or political group advocating socialism

Socialism: 1: any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods 2 a: a system of society or group living in which there is no private property b: a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state3: a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done

With those definitions out of the way, the poster depicting President Obama as "The Joker":
Obama Joker Poster

Is uninformed, dumb and ill-advised.

I don't quite understand what the endgame is regarding the GOP: if the goal is to expand the party base beyond Southern conservative whites and evangelicals, I'm not so sure these groups would be anymore comfortable with this caricature than the one of George W. Bush as Anarchist-in-Chief (same article above, see link to Vanity Fair at the end of the article).

African Americans and Hispanics are probably the most conservative, church-going group the GOP has decided in its best interest to alienate with the childish attacks against Eric Holder as Attorney General, President Obama as a fictional psychopath and Judge Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, arguably the most qualified to approach confirmation.

Tellingly (in some historical references), after slavery the first thing husbands did was go looking for wives and families; wives went to look for husbands and children, so our love of family runs pretty deep. After Lincoln's assassination, President Jackson pulled out troops from the South and the Klan and Jim Crow laws bloomed in its aftermath.

George W. Bush solidly carried Hispanics as Texas governor and pulled the group during his 2000 and 2004 campaigns, along with conservative African Americans nationwide.

http://blackmenformccain.com: is a blog by such a conservative African American. His URL says it all: he was solidly for McCain during much of the primaries in the 2008 election. His tragic last entry on October 18, 2008 discusses something we're debating, have been debating for 61 years now: Health Care:

"My father is not well. He readily admits his time is short, and the encroaching spectre of The End has made him a more reflective man than I have ever known him to be.

"Dad is a self-made man who came up from nothing. To him, personal responsibility is the foundation of our society. He didn’t believe that men, black or white, should rely on anyone, especially not the government. But as he watched his life savings drain away with his health, and the dreams of his children fade as we struggled to pay the bills to keep him alive, that ideology began to feel disconnected from reality. The Conservatism he taught me encouraged unrepentant faith in the Free Market–if you believe, you will prosper. But we believed. And we are not prospering. We are withering away."

The title of this last entry: "Barack Obama for President."

Anarchist: 1: a person who rebels against any authority, established order, or ruling power2: a person who believes in, advocates, or promotes anarchism or anarchy ; especially : one who uses violent means to overthrow the established order:

THAT sounds like the disrupted Democratic town hall meetings by "mob rule" sponsored by special interest groups and republican (and blue dog democratic) operatives beholden to the insurance industry:

Health Care Industry Sabotages American Town Halls
Reviewing the History of Fake Conservative Protests

And the ridiculous, oft-sited claim that President Obama was not born in Hawaii (now with an obvious FAKE birth certificate from a man in Australia):

Obama: the Australian?

So my question: how does THIS make me CONSIDER voting for the GOP?

If you have alternatives; propose them and debate them with FACTS, not mad mobs, dogma and childish pranks done in photo shop and posted anonymously (& cowardly); felonious forgeries of official documents of countries and municipalities.

The obvious embarrassing conclusion I foresee to the "birther" movement and this lunatic fringe the GOP feel beholden to coddle is the only "gag" that will shut them: a lawsuit brought by injured parties for copious amounts of money. (If it means anything, Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, Fox News and RNC Chairman Michael Steele are desperately trying to extricate their party from this thorny "birther" association.)

I'm told a few degrees at the beginning of any journey can decide whether you hit the mark of your destination or miss it be several miles. The "few degrees" that lost the republicans control of the White House and Congress were:

-NOT reacting to a CIA brief clearly stating "Osama Plans to attack America with Planes"
-NOT capturing/killing Osama Bin Laden for 9/11
-Stalling/Stymieing the 9/11 commission
-Outing CIA agent Valerie Plame
-NOT indicting Scooter Libby (what GROWN man calls himself "Scooter"?)
-The voluntary war in Iraq costing the country billions a month
-The atrocities at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo
-Giving credence to Intelligent Design and the lack of support for science and science education, thereby lessening our global competitiveness
-Denying global warming and its affect on climate and the global economy
-The Economic meltdown
-Being in control of the White House and Congress 6/8 of the Bush Administration years, taking us from a surplus to a deficit within months (and before 9/11); signing off on everything W ever wanted, the housing bubble that BURST...

I'll stop here. I COULD go on and on.

The GOP's main problem: you administrate without thinking, your dogma has become your religion to which you are more devoted to than common sense or democracy. I personally KNOW republicans that voted for Obama because like the gentlemen that wrote the blog: http://blackmenformccain.com, they were disillusioned by your administrative performance (or, lack thereof) and preferred to exercise a right afforded them in the constitution:

Democracy: 1 a: government by the people ; especially : rule of the majority b: a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections.

"We the people" grew tired of tripe, trysts (Vitter, Ensign, Sanford) and circumstance. You lost. Instead of inciting (false) grass roots riots, find out why. Stop pouting; stop manipulating; start thinking and above all: start listening!

Shadow Dancing

© 2 August 2009, The Griot Poet

“Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance.” Carl Sandburg

My shadow was Mr. Tedford: science teacher from my middle school past that on my lack of completely grasping the principle of linear expansion shouted his bearded disappointment:

“No, You big dummy...!”


I faked an obviously faked laugh as the dagger he stabbed me with sunk deep.

I never told my parents, I never demanded an apology for his pomposity and his mendacity,

I self-sedated; I ate [more] massive amounts of potato chips: comfort food to medicate internal wounds.

My shadow is JROTC Cadet Colonel Wall: Aryan, standing tall, blond-haired, blue-eyed, bedecked in ribbons, highest ranking Brigade Commander of Winston-Salem, Forsyth County schools that at a casual question shot back:

“YOUR kind will NEVER get to this rank!”
(“No, You big dummy…!”)

My heart sank and I expressed my stress and angst to my parents.

“I’m sorry you had to go through that,” my dad said with a knowing glance and genuine pain in tearing eyes that hoped I’d never have this experience.

“You go back and tell that booger-bootch you can do anything you set your mind to with GOD on your side,” mom said parodying Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

I did: “In three years,” I said, “I’ll be wearing your rank.”
“I doubt that,” he said in arrogant confidence.

3 years hence:

Veni; Vidi; Vici!

I stood tall, African son, black-haired, brown-eyed, bedecked in ribbons,
Making history in the Winston-Salem Sentinel (no longer in circulation),
My dead mothers’ scribbled note on the article to my Uncle James Dean:

“This is Reggie… your nephew… my son.”

And I, have lost both of them and the innocence of the mythology of my beginnings,
Insurance claims, death certificates, will probates crowds out my time for grieving, economy not allowing me to evening mourn over their sealed graves,

On anniversaries of his death and my corporate denouement: August 26, 1999 and 2003;
On her recent demise two days before Mother’s Day weekend 2009:

One dagger remains:

Tedford/Science/Certification

I did not tell them;

And now I’ve lost them,

I stagger as I attempt to remove (alone) the dagger!

William Shatner Recites Sarah Palin’s Tweets

Article: Shatner reciting Palin on Conan

On "the Birthers" and Lou Dobbs

See: Dobbs Joins ‘Birthers,’ But CNN Pushes Back

I'm curious: would this controversy have any legs where his name "President Barry O'Bama" and his father were from Ireland?

Barack means "blessing" in Arabic, in Aramaic it is spelled Baruch and occurs 24 times in the Bible (for all you Christian right-wingers)!

5/27/2009 Briefing by White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs

The White House Press Secretary, Mr. Gibbs states:

"MR. GIBBS: Lester, this question in many ways continues to astound me. The state of Hawaii provided a copy with the seal of the President's birth. I know there are apparently at least 400,000 people -- (laughter) -- that continue to doubt the existence of and the certification by the state of Hawaii of the President's birth there, but it's on the Internet because we put it on the Internet for each of those 400,000 to download. I certainly hope by the fourth year of our administration that we'll have dealt with this burgeoning birth controversy."

Snopes.com debunks it: Obama Birth Certificate

Here's a link with the seal of the 50th state of Hawaii:

Hawaii: Obama Birth Certificate with the state seal

Racism. A narcissism of self-centered, paranoia resulting from the notion that right or wrong, all things are "good" when someone like "me" is in charge.

No Prayers

© 20 July 2009, 11:59 PM, The Griot Poet

I have no prayers to utter to God…
It is not that I don’t believe in Him,
I’m definitely beset by some demon
Assigned to my overt oppression and demise…
I pray for others healings and they do recover
I slack and their marriages suffer…
Like Moses, my arms get tired sometimes
Like Elijah, I suffer depression after dueling with the prophets of Baal and Ashtoreth in groves.
Like Paul, I have thorns in my side; I am left for dead many times
Like today: on the anniversary of seeing earth from God’s front porch
I am defeated by nineteen points
Separating me from bidding on a classroom this fall…
What sin can I not be forgiven?
What sin spews back from the sea of forgetfulness?
Back to shore to chagrin me again and again?
What blocks my prayers so that after ravens feed me?
I am seeking for God… to kill me?
GIVE ME AN ANSWER!
So I can declare to my disciples that there are “more with us than there are with them.”
So I can ride a chariot of fire, translate death and give a double portion of my mantle to my sons
As I ascend before Apollo 11 beyond the sun to God’s front porch.

Rachel Maddow Correcting the Record

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes...

...Who Watches the Watchmen?

(Last page of the comic novel, "The Watchmen," from Juvenal, Satires VI, 347, used during the Tower Commission Report in 1987)

See: Meltdown 101: Unemployment by the Numbers

The markets were pummeled by the news that unemployment was its highest in 26 years: 9.5 percent.

From the article:

"How bad is the current recession? Here's one measure: the United States now has fewer jobs than it did nine years ago, even though the work force - the number of people either working or looking for work - has grown by 12.5 million people since then.

"It's the first time since the Great Depression that a recession has wiped out all the jobs created during the previous business cycle, according to Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank."

I'll let you read the rest at the link above, but some thoughts as to how we're in this mess:

1. Fewer jobs: from a techie standpoint, a lot of that has to do with automation and the Internet. Remember "The Jetsons"? George's job at Spacely's Sprockets was to "push the button": he seemed the only employee needed. Jobs that had to be done in the US can now be done overseas in cheaper labor markets, results delivered in hypertext transfer protocol. (I don't support this, I'm just trying to wrap my mind around it and offer an explanation.)

2. Also, births. That is, those in 1983 - 1990 or so, those kids are now 18 - 25 and looking for something to do.

3. Lifers. I was one of them. And because the lifers are happy doing their part, their "cog" in the great wheel of industry, even though their talents and skill sets may have in many cases atrophied, they don't up and quit and start businesses: they pad their 401k and wait, hopefully for retirement (instead of layoffs = the elephant graveyard).

4. Nine years ago, we weren't as bad off as we are now. The election cycle for 2000 started with a surplus that got spent into a deficit rather quickly.

5. 9/11. Enough said.

6. War in Iraq. A "billion dollars a month" (an estimate I've heard on the news). Hm: March 2003 - July 2009 = 76 months X 1,000,000,000 = 76,000,000,000 of significant deficit reduction.

Our "Brave New World" is here, and we were not at all ready for the rapid changes that would mean. Automation may save "The Big Three" and put out green Hybrid vehicles, but a robot may be able to do what Uncle Billy used to do to put his family through school, making a upper middle class wage without a degree.

The old school sci fi flicks had us all with ENORMOUS heads and small bodies, that was obviously countered and documented in The Assault on Reason and Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free. We obviously are the diametric opposite: small brains and large, grossly out-of-shape bodies.

At this point: the only advice I can offer is to read, read, READ and be ready at a moment's notice to DO something else! I had to learn that lesson the hard way, as many of you are now experiencing the lament of jobs and security that will probably never come back, until we discover Warp Drive.

Niel Postman commented on where we are (from the "boob tube" perspective) in his insightful book: Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. When it takes the National Enquirer to bust John Edwards having an affair, we're at a place where only bloggers scoop the news on the street, because we're not driven by the market, ratings or stock valuations. We are the very expression of democracy, which is a contact sport, not a jingo, market-driven slogan-fest of litmus tests of how "right" or "left" one is. That doesn't come up on my monthly grocery budget, my bills, my mortgage. I've changed and rearranged things in anticipation of less for the time being, ready to evolve into something on the horizon that will be different than any economy we've ever known... for the better.

Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes...Who Watches the Watchmen? WE do!

After All: Al Jarreau

Jam-The MJ's