Mayor McDumbass v. Mayor Pink Panther

Last month I wrote a piece on the whining and ranting that Hammond, Indiana, Mayor McDermott (hitherto referred to as McDumbass) did against neighboring chocolate city, Gary, for Gary's efforts in getting its students out to vote for the then upcoming Indiana primary.



As you'll recall the suspense was thick with who might actually win the doggone contest. Mrs Clinton or Mr Obama, Mrs Clinton or Mr Obama...? It was just too close to call and by 10p CST all analysts were looking to one square on the state map: Lake County. By 11:30p all talk between Brit Hume and his panelist (FOX) and Wolf Blitzer intermixed with Anderson Cooper's panelists (CNN) and those on MSNBC and local networks was focused on---ta-daa!---Lake County. As midnight came and went the numbers finally started coming in from the county...slowly.

Mrs Clinton had long since given her victory speech in Indianapolis although body language betrayed the fact that her slim victory wasn't yet known let alone confirmed.

If the prize hinged on the voters of Lake County, it was thought, then conventional assumption tipped the state in favor of Mr Obama.

And, boy, did the thought of such a reality not gel with Mayor McDumbass.
He went on CNN and laid plain his complaint against the handling of tally numbers which was handled by Gary mayor, Rudy Clay who is also the county Democratic chairman (hitherto referred to as the black Pink Panther).



It was comical to watch Mayor McDumbass' exasperated scowl as CNN's efforts to get a straight answer from Mayor Pink Panther's goobidy-gob explanation of the late tabulation yielded nothing beyond a repetition of power words like overwhelmed and disenfranchisement and phrases such as "never before", "thousands of absentee ballots", "first time voters", et cetera. (view clip)

At one point Mayor Pink Panther took three seconds to emphasize "thousands" as if the number was just too astronomical for Hoosiers' comprehensions.

However, by the fourth or fifth---I was giggling too hard to recall---reiteration of the same simple question of why didn't Lake County release the numbers from the various machine totals as they were reported by districts and polling stations, it was all too clear the chairman mismanaged or miscalculated and bungled the process.

Mayor McDumbass suggested corruption was afoot.

Others saw it as Mayor Pink Panther's ego in play.

What is clear is that Lake County, Indiana---little 'ole Indiana---had the national spotlight in this tightly fought presidential race and came out sounding more like loser phenomenon William Hung than Battle Hymn of the Republic.

Porn prejudice - Zion in the house? (Part V)

The adult entertainment industry is more years behind than its procurers will ever admit. Its industry thrives on and perpetuates sexism and racism. Click here for Part 1.
But could it be yet another trapping of those haggling huckster Jews? One GOP candidate thinks so.

You may now kiss the mustachioed bride

"Unconstitutional," ruled California's Supreme Court, and with that rendering there were men dancing with each other in the streets of San Francisco. More so than usual. Homosexuals took boisterous delight and joy in the Court's ill judgment against the ban on same-sex marriage. The majority opinion read in cadence with the gay agenda.

"Limiting the designation of marriage to a union 'between a man and a woman' is unconstitutional and must be stricken from the statute," wrote Chief Justice Ron George.

Oh? Playing house just got bigger.

That the Bay Area and its Supreme Court dissed democratic rule and the mandate of the California voters is something that won't go unchallenged or unfelt across the nation. Like Californians, the rest of America does not accept marriage as anything other than the legal matrimony (or long standing co-habitation) betwixt man and wife. This is our society and it is a societal norm that oughtn't be manipulated to appease a sexually alternative (sub)culture.

As goes San Francisco does not go the rest of the country.

My foresight on the controversial ruling is that it will do squat to engender tolerance for the homosexual lot, which is largely what it boils down to---being accepted as normal, equal, all right---because the ruling threw contempt to the voice of the people and forced a grotesque distortion of marriage into reality. From a lot that claims inherent openness (my book) and prattles on against imposing one's mores onto a people I find it near unbelievable the jubilant homosexuals do not see the gross irony in all of this. Then again, a hedonistic, narcissistic lifestyle is principally concerned with instant gratification.

Now, since the 'one man, one woman' rule is "unconstitutional" and undignified in its rigidity does this mean polygamy is fair game again...and without me having to live with God freaks out in the middle of nowhere? Hmmm, maybe there is something to this after all....

More to come!

Civil unions ain't enough for Bay Area queers

Living are we in a day and age where marriage between men and women is considered "controversial" or so enough San Francisco folk think to impress the nonsense on California's Supreme Court which will rule on it this morning.

At question is the constitutionality of amendment Proposition 22 which unambiguously explains

"Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."

Relativists pretended stupidity and asked for a clear definition and, to their chagrin, got one. With this common sense made redundant every non-idiot understood what premised a marriage, namely one male and one female. NOT one man and three to a few women, nor one man and a female minor, nor one female and a male minor, nor a man with another man, nor two dykes.

But the latter group, considered by some to be God's mistakes, feel left out or, to use the more litigious term, discriminated against.

While still shocking, it is by now common awareness that same-sex couples do openly exist; and that said couples are granted many rights associated with opposite-sex couples including hospital visitations, company benefits for family and spouse, and, horrifically enough, even child adoption (since Nature prevents men from impregnating other men no matter how much they profess love and devotion).

Supporters of gay rights applauded the creation and recognition of civil unions. Now those same people complain that civil unions amount to nothing. They demand to be married. Give 'em an inch, they'll take a mile.

San Francisco chief deputy city attorney Therese Stewart told reporters, "If the state says that this is a marriage, it may be that some other states would not recognize it, but it would be sending the message that California considers its lesbian and gay couples equal."

From here the slippery, sloppy, sodomitic slope continues. No sooner than California gives homosexuals the green light to claim normalcy, they'll zip over to Utah, Indiana, Nevada, Washington, etc. to open up an organic tea shop or pet boutique or gay retail store or gay hardware store---as a married couple. Why leave California? For the sole purpose of agitating change in non-gay communities. Liberals like to classify this heterophobia as furthering "diversity" and "dialogue".

The several hundreds of homosexual couples who co-habitate and do everything else together will be no less in love or happy with themselves if the Supreme Court upholds common sense and tradition---or will they? I've long believed against casually applying 'gay' to this group of people on the argument that it is a misnomer and that these so-called gay people aren't as happy with life and themselves as they are festive, flamboyant, dramatic ad nauseam.

Residents of San Francisco are really arguing---whining---for acceptance from the very God-fearing mainstream they lambast as "closeted", "Kansas", "vanilla". If marriage is what is desired, then find a willing mate of the opposite sex...just like every heterosexual does. It's not a complicated formula.

But then again, simple is just oh too Kansas.

Lucky to be Obama -Pt.4 (the coming of John)

Just in: John Edwards has finally spoken and he speaks Obama.

For the past few days---ever since the Indiana primary, to be honest---I have been imaging John and Elizabeth Edwards gnawing over the pros and cons of Mrs Clinton and Mr Obama. Like a dream the dialogue and details remain vague but I always saw them leaning towards Mr Obama (although Mrs Edwards is not part of the official endorsement, which makes little difference since she was only a candidate's spouse. Since when did we start putting great emphasis on 'the-other-half', anyway??) Now, if only I could pick winning lottery numbers!

I am thrilled by the endorsement. Obamanites are super thrilled. Mr Obama even more so than all of us put together. Mr Edwards, for his grand part, made a historic move that was unimaginable a year ago to say nothing of twenty years ago: a prominent white southern politician endorsing a Negro for president of the United States of America. (And, boy, I can't wait for the Monkey to get out of office. I much prefer to write president with a capital 'P' but felt it was more than agreeable to go along with contemporary grammarians in light of the current president's arrogance and incompetence.)

San Drugego State U.

With the huge drug bust on San Diego State University campus the nation was confronted with a couple of thought-provoking facts: One, smart students, who no doubt went through the national D.A.R.E. program, do drugs; two, white children do drugs...and deal them, too! Alright, so that's three facts instead of two. Still that is better than the one fat lie the media and penal system perpetuates about drugs being an inner city (translation: black) problem.


For years, statistics disagreed with popular prejudice that black youth funneled, dealt, and did drugs while their white counterparts hit skateboard parks, held study groups, and just said "No!" Oh sure, there are the isolated incidents of white children who foolishly turn to drugs because of that heavy metal or gangsta rap music or because of the stress of a family divorce, failing an exam, et cetera BUT the reality, the naysayers remind us, of drug related incarcerations proves that black men commit the crime more.

It is true that de facto discrimination has more of us behind bars since the Courts penalize white offenders less often even though squeaky clean Chip and Britney break drug laws in significant numbers, which brings me back to San Diego State.

This month over 80 people---only twenty percent were not affiliated with the school---were arrested in the drug bust dubbed Operation Sudden Fall. Seized were some 300 Ecstasy pills, illicit prescriptions (easy Rush Limbaugh!), mushrooms for psychedelic gourmands, hippy cigarettes aka 'it's-not-a-drug' marijuana, two kilograms of cocaine, and even firearms.

Authorities also confiscated $60,000 cold hard cash. Hey, text books ain't cheap, momma!

The majority of those drug dealers belonged to the Greek system. Oh those frat boys! Who knew they snorted and smoked (video)?! My hunch is that the students are largely white. Why?

For one, they are fraternity lads and fraternities are basically a robust microcosm of the stereotypically stale country club. For another---and this is more telling---the perpetrators' faces have not been plastered all over the newscasts. As any black person can tell you, a black face will not go un-publicized if it's related to the crime in any way. If this is news to YOU, then do pay attention the next time you watch the morning news...five o'clock news...ten o'clock news. Hello.

With the exception of those still under 18, I fail to see the protocol behind leaving this sting virtually faceless; save, of course, to save face from being pegged "black". Of the dozens of drug dealers arrested in the DEA bust the closest viewers got to a "face" was the lone Theta Chi Fraternity and all because a house brother was considerate enough to send out a text message promoting their upcoming cocaine sale.

"Faithful customers" could get high at a low price! Booyah!

Theta Chi was not the only fraternity caught red handed and, more, it was evident to investigators that the racket was, well, organized. "Undercover agents purchased cocaine from fraternity members and confirmed that a hierarchy existed for the purpose of selling drugs for money," the DEA said. Among the good boys gone bad were four Phi Kappa Psi members, plus at least two who were studying criminal justice and law enforcement. Hello!

A segment of Lou Dobbs Report did feature a face. It belonged to an illegal Mexican immigrant who acted as the liaison between his San Diego street gang, which in turn got its supply from Tijuana, and the SDSU students. Thank goodness Homeland Security sucks near the Mexican border or else the Dobbs program wouldn't have had that brown face to broadcast. With the setting of San Diego, California, anyone with a quarter of a functioning brain already knows the illegal drugs are coming from Tijuana, Mexico and damn if a dealer can get drugs and guns wholesale sans a couple of bona fide Mexican connections. Duh.

If any of this had gone down on a historically black college, or involved a historically black fraternity or black students, then the nation would have immediately been shown mug shots of the malefactors. When it comes to a black criminal or suspect the news media does not censor. Also missing from this drama are the questioning of academic justice. Since the campus drug ring involves non-blacks we hear no cries about 'forced admissions' and 'unqualified students'.

Yet, had the wayward students been black, Affirmative Action would be Public Target #1 with that nasty undercurrent of 'I told you so'.

Will the Court penalize these cocaine/hash/gun entrepreneurs just as it does black offenders...or give 'em the routine stern warning with community service (and then welcome them into the fold upon graduation)? We'll see.

Lucky to be Obama -Pt 3 (Brother Bill)

Hyperboles are the stuff

of short sight and sports commentators. We speak big when the present appears permanent. After losses, Richard Nixon vowed never to return to the arena ("You won't have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore") only to become president years later; Margaret Thatcher declared that a woman would never serve as British Prime Minister and certainly "not during my lifetime"; Geo. Bush promised no new taxes; Toni Morrison anointed Bill Clinton as the first black president.

In each case retrospection stirs us to shrug the shoulders and coo, Who knew?

Who knew that along would come a slender Negro senator from the Middle West with the very black name of Obama. Barack Obama?

Not I. And not the Clintons.

Mr Obama was supposed to be a flash in the pan and already out of the running for Mrs Clinton's historical win; a noble, if not premature, gesture in the belief that anyone can grow up to be president of the United States of America. He was supposed to wait his turn like the ever cautious, cajone-less Senator Bayh. Mr Obama was not supposed to usurp Clinton's black clout. But then reality set in and set in hard with votes and money donations: Mr Obama is black. Mr Clinton is not.

That this fresh energetic black politician of Ivy league tumblings and street credentials is attracting loyal Clinton supporters (black voters) en masse is turning up the heat in the kitchen and that is one place with which the former Miss Rodham is unfamiliar! Bill Clinton is not pleased with the unhinging of this dependable bloc in their democratic platform because he wants his wife to win and because he likes to be liked. He even accused the Obama campaign of playing the race card...on him!

Black folks still like him but just not as much as the brother man. In fact if Bill Clinton were running for office we would be all for him over the junior senator from Illinois. But such is not so. It's a case of the figurative versus the literal first black president, and the literal one is looking a whole lot more attractive.

Meanwhile, the former president's reaction to this is looking a lot less political than personal. Unbelievably he, of all people, has forgotten a cardinal tenet of coolness and popularity, namely that being accepted as part of the gang is a privilege. And privileges are mighty revocable.

In the wake of Bill Clinton's stumpings, which are sounding more and more like sour grapes (and an ungracious return for our steadfast defense of him and the party), he is losing blackness and looking mighty white. A mighty white southerner, at that. I think the ebbing of the black vote steams him more so than pro-Obama colleagues and delegates like Senators Edward Kennedy and John Kerry, former DNC Chairman Joe Andrews, or Governor Bill Richardson.

Look for Mrs Clinton to revamp hardcore appeal to gays. Wouldn't be surprised if that's the next card they play.

Funny that Bill Clinton should lose sight of that most southern of sayings: You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.

Crude reality of crude oil

Only several weeks past the world stuttered when a prankster of sorts sold his lot of oil barrels for roughly ninety-nine dollars. He wanted to be the first. Well now the $100 tag is looking like the good 'ol days in lieu of the current $120 price tag for crude oil which pushed the national retail average to a record $3.50.

Welcome to the oil olympics! Get on your good running shoes because you'll probably not be able to afford to drive to the stadium.

As gas prices reach record highs our USD$ is crumbling to new lows against the euro, both of which keep me using public transportation and living abroad. Yeah!

American mainstream media touched on several possible reasons for rising gas prices but none of which concerned global warming or the Iraq War. That's hellaqueer. Surely waging war in an oil rich land plays some large role in the cost you see at the filling stations. Granted, I chose to study Intro to Constitutional Gov over Econ 101 but one needn't be an economist to deduce a legitimate case of cause and effect. In fact, one only need be a consumer---an informed consumer---to relate the escalating catastrophe of the war (still no capture of WMDs or Bin Laden...) with the dwindling economy and rising cost of living. Our interest rates are continually cut yet few voices besides Al Gore and Ralph Nader are stressing citizens to consume less and conserve more; consequently, those cut rates are only giving pause to the inevitable.

To get out of bed with the Saudi Emirates now would be to find ourselves kicked to the curb like a midnight cowboy as the Saudis' kindness in trading oil in dollars versus euros is largely keeping our oil dependent appetites from growling.

The hand that rocks the Spanish cradle

Used to be a time when pregnant women stayed at home. Now is no longer that time.

Of all the girl power stories this one out of Spain takes the bull by the tail. Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, in an obviously political move, appointed an obviously pregnant career woman Carme Chacón to, get this, the post of Defense Minister. What can be more antithetical to the image of Defense Minister---as in military, force, soldiers, war---than a pregnant woman?! You guessed it, a drag queen...or, worse, Pedro Almodóvar. (Maybe that will be the next leader's bold progressive step.)

Man, are these soft, silly times in which we live. Women in power used to be intimidating and larger than life. Golda Mier...Eva Peron...Barbara Jordan...Queen Victoria...Cleopatra. Now we have saps like Nancy Pelosi and Lady MacBeth herself, Hillary Clinton (both of which are largely more popular than powerful, a thing which unfortunately is taken as one and the same by celebrity obsessed Americans. But appearances are deceiving. W is supposed to be a lame duck president by now yet he's still causing havoc).

Not only does the royal house have a divorcée in line to be queen---Sophia, they just don't make 'em like you and Elizabeth anymore---but now the country's military answers to a young woman (with little military training) in keeping with Sr Zapatero's ambitious gender equity. Remember the last renown country to follow that drumbeat?


That said, I can see France, Libya (oh that Gadhafi!), the Netherlands or Venus having a female Minister of Defense; I can even more easily imagine female kings or cats in hats eating green eggs and ham but, no ma'am take no offense, I cannot see for the life of me a mother to be as Minister of Defense.

Avoid more than the water in Tijuana

Just in: A devastating shoot-out through the streets of Tijuana has claimed the lives of about seventeen. The good news is the dead men were all involved in the Arellano-Felix drug cartel that terrorize the weak and the poor and the prosperous, and keep the flow of drug trafficking flowing. Amazingly, with the gun battles speeding through populated boulevards crowded with businesses and people, no bystanders were killed.

One such survivor reported to the Associated Press that when he got up from taking cover he saw "bullet holes in the wall behind him, a dead man lying in a pool of blood and 11 abandoned, bullet-ridden SUVs on the street."

That brings the '08 sum to about 190 people that have been killed in the city alone, increasing the national count to more than 900 this year!

Just another day in Tijuana.

Hitman membership drive

Be all you can be---in the drug cartel?

Such was the audacious advertisement hung prominently across a thoroughfare earlier this month by Mexican drug traffickers belonging to The Zetas. The banner and similar signs in Nuevo Laredo, which borders with El Paso, Texas, declared: "Operative group 'The Zetas' wants you, soldier or ex-soldier. We offer good salary, food, and benefits for your family. Don't suffer anymore mistreatment and don't go hungry. We won't give you instant noodle soup."

Talk about ¡cajones! Not only is Mexico known the world over as a corrupt, taco-eating Third World country whose many citizens live in Los Angeles but it is so Third World the bad guys advertise for workers on par with Hewitt-Packard and McDonald's. Join our team! We offer great worker benefits! I especially like the above photograph, taken on April 13, 2008, showing the truckload of soldiers passing by the banner in broad daylight.

Left unsaid is their penchant of putting you on the cover of Alarma should you miss a shipment or refuse to sing a ranchero song or lose/win a cockfight.

Mexico is an unfunny joke on more fronts than eight. Its war on drug traffickers is as ludicrous as ours on "terror" and homeland security. Twelve million plus illegal immigrants living and working in the U.S. Hello! As regards Mexico, every Mexican knows that narcotraficantes (drug traffickers) operate in border cities Tijuana, Mexicali, Nuevo Laredo and live in big mansions and ranches throughout the country. Imagine sixteen year olds driving Bentleys around the 'hood and you get an idea of the farcical opposition to drug smuggling.

Mexico is not doing more to combat its problems because its problems soon become our problems and that suits them just fine. Apparently the logic is Why deal with it when someone else will? Hasn't failed them yet. President Calderon has addressed the drug problem more aggressively than any of his predecessors and with effect. One notion behind the recruitment banner is that, while authentic, it was hung as a grand flip-off to the government for meddling more so than to seriously attract new blood desperate to eat more than Manchuran noodles.

Whether or not many disillusioned soldiers or dead-end innocents gravitate to the Zetas it remains for certain that the drug cartel is behind the recruitment postings. If the bad guys are this bold in broad daylight---always a bad sign---when are the "good guys" going to step up and fight, not compromise, negotiate, or dialogue, but fight fire with fire?!

Lucky to be Obama -Pt.2 (Mayor McDumbass)

If Geraldine Ferraro was taken out of context, then Thomas McDermott, Jr's accusations against the Obama camp are plainly as racist as they are spurious. The mayor of Hammond (IN) and pro-Clinton supporter slammed its neighboring city Gary for busing and carpooling students to the polls in advance of the May 6 primary.

Rather than a commendable effort, Mayor McDermott sees it as underhanded politicking.

To the mayor it seems "like an orchestrated effort on behalf of the Obama campaign to take kids who should be in school learning to read and write, instead giving them a day off and telling them to vote for Obama."

For one, to describe anything Gary officials do as "orchestrated" is complimentary. For another, he likened the organized effort to "corralling"---as in chattel---and is convinced Gary's youth population will vote overwhelmingly for the black candidate over his favored white candidate, and he hates the prospect.

"These kids come from the worst performing schools in the state of Indiana and we are giving them a day off to go vote for Obama," quote the mayor. "They can vote on election day like everybody else."

Huh? I know American high schoolers are not the sharpest knives in the drawer but they can read well enough to discern 'Clinton, Hillary' from 'Obama, Barack' and with only two names on the ballot the math won't pose a problem either.

Hammond, it might interest you, was founded in 1884 (it is the oldest city in Lake County) and has never elected a non-white (or woman) mayor. Any rationale behind Mayor McDermott's slam fall short of being anything but racist; and if not racist then highly unpatriotic, which in our history has always been the bigger of the two injustices anyway.

Lest we forget, if it were remotely possible, our country is at war and if those same students, be they honor society or special ed, can be dined and driven to the MEPS by military recruiters to sign up and die for this country, then they can certainly afford to miss a few periods of textbook education in lieu of real life civics education.

How could any elected official or public servant discourage voters from performing the civic responsibility of voting? American forces---elder statesmen, military might, even celebrities---venture to distant, often turbulent and violent lands to secure the people's participation in the democratic process which for many parts of the world turns out to be a new exercise. A new exercise in freedom.

Freedom? Hammond, it might interest you, used to famously host grand KKK rallies during the terrorist group's heyday. Oh how the Klan paraded through Hammond, Indiana's main streets with no fewer than a few city officials amongst the fold---and every adult in the region today knows it, including junior.

The mayor's attacks are baseless of facts---Obama's camp hasn't a thing to do with it. Gary officials are not pushing or grooming or "corralling" students to vote one way or the other and, besides, who knows, a few might even have Republican sentiments...like his father the republican and former mayor, Thomas McDermott, Sr (and vote for Clinton)---tactless---"I think Sen. Obama should distance himself from this type of behavior"---shameful, and desperate.

And that's a good sign for supporters of Mr Obama!

I think Mrs Clinton should distance herself from questionable and racist boosters like Mayor McDumbass. Her campaign has certainly had enough practice at it.

Lucky to be Obama

Bob Johnson's at it again and there is no mistaking it this time. He meant just what he said, namely that being black has paid off oodles for Barack Obama's presidential run. Hello.

"What I believe Geraldine Ferraro meant is that if you take a freshman senator from Illinois called `Jerry Smith' and he says I'm going to run for president, would he start off with 90 percent of the black vote?" Johnson said. "And the answer is, probably not."

As a man of media it should come as no surprise that he is comfortable broadcasting his opinions; As an über successful businessman he knows how to stand the heat in the kitchen. Mr Johnson is a billionaire---a self-made man---so, really, he is more than confident in speaking his mind come controversy or high water. In speaking his mind to the Charlotte Observer newspaper Mr Johnson plainly noted one other salient fact: He's black.

"Geraldine Ferraro said it right. The problem is, Geraldine Ferraro is white."

And he's right.

Miss Ferraro was neither condescending, offensive, nor incorrect in observing the novelties of the Democratic contenders---id est race and gender---but the old, white bitch forgot that said observation was coming from the mouth of, well, an old, white bitch. Thus, to juxtapose the demographics of Mr Obama and the famous Suffragist, the words "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept" easily and not wholly unfairly, translated into a pat on the head; a belittling gesture in the black community. A belittling gesture to any one's manhood, really.

Being of the same demographics as the black candidate Mr Johnson won't catch the same hell as Miss Ferraro, at least not from popular media like Diane Sawyer or CNN. The crucial point the former vice presidential nominee missed (and Johnson appreciates) is that it matters a great deal who is doing the pointing about whom. Yes, you better believe, race matters, sex matters, gender matters, along with physical appeal, popularity, money and those other attributes folks lie about not regarding.

Woody Allen gets away with hamming up Jewish mannerisms because he's a funny Jew; Francis Ford Coppola can get away with serializing the Italian mob archetype because he is Italian; Hugh Hefner can get away with sexually objectifying women because he is a playboy; and in like cadence Bob Johnson, black man and founder of BET (Black Entertainment Television), can get away with the brash remark that Mr Obama owes his candidacy to his race.

Now if Miss Ferraro wasn't biased and had gone further to highlight the former First Lady's overriding attributes of being female and the wife of popular former president Bill Clinton, then she would not have come off as sounding racist or anti-Obama. But she neglected to do so and got torched for it.

No one doubts the intangible qualities of Mr Obama. He is intelligent, articulate, compelling and inspiring, educated, professional, upstanding, organized and serious, capable. The content of his character is not scandalous and is certainly above that of our Monkey-and-chief. Neither, however, is the color of his skin invisible.

Education exodus

America won't stay on top for much longer. At least, not if we have to depend on natural born Americans and that haunting cliché, the future: High school graduates.

If, as the ubiquitous commencement address hearken, the graduates are our future, then the country is screwed whether the Monkey-and-chief goes quietly into private citizenship or not. Not everything can be blamed on W. Although...it is curious the national educational quotient is so perilous during the administration of one of our very least intelligent presidents. So much for those C student aspirants! According to a report on national graduation rates released this month by the America Promise Alliance and the EPE Research Center only 1 of 2 students in major city school districts---exempli gratia NYC, Cleveland, LA---graduate. That is practically a coin toss!

For some intriguing reason blacks and Native Americans share the same probability. Why the reservation and urban neighborhood have the same connection when it comes to earning a high school diploma beats me. Maybe, contrary to liberal ideology, there is more to be learned from nature over nurture. Whilst curriculum are being re-prioritized with multiculturalism, diversity seminars, gender studies, GLBT rubbish, wellness (versus physical education) and anger management over geography, American history, fine arts, home economics, graduation rates are plummeting like the American dollar.

So what are American students learning?
Whatever it is, of those learning it enough to pass are Asian descendants (80%) followed by whites (76%) and Hispanics (58%), and females who matriculate about 74% to boys' 66%.

Despite all of this I, a college graduate, could not land more than seasonal stockroom jobs in such major U.S. cities as NYC, Chicago, LA, San Francisco, Miami Beach. Education and resume, my foot.

Nearly every one of the interviewers for the past seven years has been either a female, Hispanic or a homosexual.

Only twice have I been interviewed by a (heterosexual) black male. (For some obnoxious angst a gay feels the need to make it clear he or she is a homosexual.) Interviewers hire people based on their personal attraction to them, more so than any professional regard for the company. So...if all the gatekeepers are just high school graduates or less, then, guess what, those people won't hire any persons more skilled than themselves; and lord knows how they got the post in the first place.

I can not grow a pair of breasts. I do not have a limp wrist. English is my family's native language.

Fine. I can't hack working under a moron who has to remind me of his "superiority" anyway.

Moral of the story? Learn an Asian language. And for the black community in particular, get over the hip-hop arrogance of "keeping it real" and listen to what Bill Cosby is trying to tell us!

So, baby,...your space or mine?

Did you hear the latest---well maybe not thee latest but one of them---in shameless irresponsibility? The case: Family sues social networking phenomenon MySpace for its child's hurt emotions. The facts: Said child misrepresented herself, id est lied, in creating an online profile and interacted with another older teenager. The claimed drama: The older teenager is of the opposite sex and purportedly sexually assaulted the latch-key liar.

Here we have a blatant example of American parents being too shameless (and litigious) to take responsibility for their daughter's actions. The girl, identified as Julie Doe because she is a minor, was 13 when she created a bogus MySpace profile representing herself as eighteen years old, in clear violation of the web site's requirement that users be at least fourteen. One of the many "friends" she attracted was 19 year old Pete Solis. The Internet generation collects friends like telemarketers gather databases.

After several weeks of cutesy, moronic online drivel the two met in person---like folks did before chat rooms and text messaging---in May 2006 and this is where the girl, by then 14, claimed to have been "sexually assaulted". What exactly that entails, I do not know. The news reports don't elaborate.

The family's $30 million suit was thankfully dismissed by a federal judge in Austin, Texas in February 2007. Then the U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks ruled in favor of MySpace, reasoning, "If anyone had a duty to protect Julie Doe it was her parents, not MySpace."

But the 'Does' won't take common sense for an answer. They are sure their daughter is a clean-minded little damsel and, more importantly, that they are great parents. Oh? Imagination need not come into play here---unless one is trying to side with the guilt-ridden progenitors.

Julie Doe lied and tried to hunt with the big dogs when she ought to have had her pup butt roped to the porch. Now her immature feelings (and, presumably, virtue) are violated and only redeemable by some thirty million dollars. Mr Solis, on the other hand, faces a felony punishable by twenty years!

Grow up.

That message goes to the parents.

To Julie Doe, read about the little boy who cried, "Wolf!"

Take five plus many more

Early this month jazz great Dave Brubeck was awarded the Ben Franklin Award by the the State Department for public diplomacy. Not a hallow trophy by any stretch, the award recognized two things: one, a living legend and two, the power jazz music strikes universally.

Mr Brubeck is an old man. Eighty-seven, to be exact. The above photograph was taken in 2007. Two years ago I had the 'once-in-a-lifetime' pleasure of hearing him play live at Carnegie Hall during his aptly titled tour, Take Five Plus Eighty. Bill Cosby opened the show and it was a pleasurable evening; especially watching Take Five, one of my favorite songs, being performed by the old man as lively as heard on the radio.

My reason for reiterating his senior citizenship is simple. Mr Brubeck is here among us and deserves the laurels whilst he can smell them. Am glad the State Department, which currently lacks the art of diplomacy, was wise enough to honour Mr Brubeck's contribution to democracy and music while he is still alive and kicking.

He said of former Soviet blocs, "If you got caught [listening to jazz] you lost your identification cards, you could never get a good job...never go to school...to the university, because you loved jazz. Why? Because freedom that they wanted to stop and jazz was that voice of freedom and it still is."

Mr Brubeck is correct about the freedom quality of jazz still resonating with young people. Even though the genre doesn't crack the Top 40 charts, as a jazz fan am continually surprised by the number of young foreigners who love the music. In fact, I've met more foreign peers than fellow Americans who enjoy jazz as much as they do hip-hop or rock-and-roll. Several of them come from former Communist countries or regimes with anti-American/Western sentiments.

Mr Brubeck's first State Department tour was in '58 at the request of President Eisenhower (Brubeck served in Patton's army in WWII) where he played freedom in such countries as Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, among others. He toured again in Eastern Europe on behalf of the Department in '71. In presenting the award, Condoleezza Rice said, "Thank you for your patriotism and leadership in representing America by introducing the language, the sounds, and the spirit of jazz to new generations around the world."

Now if only the bitch could heed those very words.

Chic hypocrisy

Chic hypocrisy. It's what comes to mind when I see "cool" youth bandying images of Che Guevara the Cuban revolutionary who chose violence over peace in freeing the masses. I suppose all revolutions and revolutionaries must employ violence---I mean, look at what's come of Flower Power, and we all know of what befell Robespierre---but the glaring irony about Ernesto Guevara, who came to be known as Che, is that he was already on the path to leading a life dedicated to helping those in need of help as a respected doctor.

bourgeoisie is to be just that: bourgeois. Hardly a thing that makes panties wet with admiration

Maybe that was the rub. The machismo in the Argentine was adventurous and hungered for revolution. He wanted fear, not respect. Power and fear. Che, like his famous surviving compatriot, no doubt read The Prince. To be a member of respectable bourgeoisie is to be just that: bourgeois. Hardly a thing that makes panties wet with admiration. Rather than cure ills Che grew a beard, dressed in fatigues and learned his way around firearms---and promptly took to administering the ultimate cure-all to dissidents: Death. After all, when was the last time anyone heard a dead patient complain? (Lidsey Lohan's gruesome flop I Know Who Killed Me doesn't count.)

I do not pretend to be dovish or oppose saber-rattling but Che was as much a despot---and a better-looking one than Fidel Castro---than the martyr into which Fidel made him. If ever there was a case of cura te ipsum, medicae, this was it.

Che was a self-righteous murderer who got struck down in his existential prime before having the chance to lead an authentic dictatorship of torture.

Undergrads and punks, alike, fail to see pass the rebellious posture and bibliophilia of the man. Yes, Che studied philosophy and medicine, spoke French, and smoked mary jane but so does Hannibal Lector. By that romantic rationale it makes more sense to tape up posters of Dr Jack Kevorkian. At least he administered death to patients who asked for it. But the cool aspect, like drugs, blurs right and wrong---ever notice all hip, open-minded liberals despise absolutes?---thus affording someone like Che wall space amongst posters of Martin L King, Jr, Mahatma Gandhi, Playboy pin-ups in dorm rooms all across the nation.

While waiting at the bus stop yesterday I noticed an absurd fashion statement (and, no, I was not in NYC). A teenage boy was sporting a T-shirt with mug shots of mad men of which included Hitler, Pol Pot, Mussolini, W., and a few other world leaders. The reverse of the shirt depicted images of their victims/dead enemies. Here's where it gets interesting: on his handwoven bag, the teenager had respectfully pinned a hand-beaded portrait of Che. Clearly, the point was that Che was unlike the tyrants on the front of the T-shirt. Not far from this 'hallowed' image was sewn on another patch. The picture? A marijuana leaf.

How chic.

Che has tons of cool cache to his legacy which explains his chic hypocrisy: Despite popular fantasy he was a bad guy but, man, he liked poetry and, anyway, he looked cool. I suppose this is where Adolf Hitler and our Monkey and Chief got it wrong: neither is known to have appreciated poetry. Come to think of it, W. doesn't even have fashion sense either so...he's just bad inside and out.

Clinton wrong in attacking Wright

With the declaration of what she would do if Rev. Wright were here pastor, Mrs Clinton has conceded what was once thought unthinkable: the loss of the black vote.

South Carolina seems such a far off memory now.

Back then even amidst rising party and voter support for Mr Obama, the Clintons still harnessed loyal and heartfelt support from black elders, including black women who reasoned Mrs Clinton was not a flash in the pan. Well!


Appealing to those whites of leather necks and driving gloves alike, Mrs Clinton ventured to criticize a hallowed aspect of black culture, namely the preacher. Wrong move, bitch. That swipe works against one Louis Farrakhan because he's supposedly the dapper, politically incorrect boogieman---and unfazed by white America's discontent for him; but Rev Wright is not Mr Farrakhan and he is also not Muslim, a point of interest for some voters' prejudice.

Well, Mr Clinton still has love but it's a open secret his missus is riding on his coattails. Otherwise why else would she be such a hot contender? Is not like, as Mr Obama rightly highlighted, she was "secretary of the treasury" during the Clinton Administration. She was First Lady; and when has or why does that count for "experience"?

Rest in Peace Mr Buckley

With the passing of Wm F. Buckley, Jr passed another gentleman of the school of eloquence, fine oratory, unapologetic intelligensia. I first learned of the Wm F. Buckley, Jr---he never failed to affix the suffix---through Walt Disney's "Aladdin" when Genie employed a spot-on impersonation of the man and his verbose vocabulary.

A few years later in college I met him when he delivered a speech on campus. Afterwards on the walk over from the chapel to the reception hall I sided to his right and introduced myself. When I told him about the Disney character he was first confused, then bemused deadpan, "Well, was it a good impersonation?"

Mr Buckley was an immense personality who wore his Ivy League stripes and privilleged upbringing as proudly as a gangsta rapper wears his former prison stripes and under privilleged upbringing. Glamour and buzz words took a backseat to his navy blazer and vocabulary; his posturing became trademarked by the way he often flashed his eyes in pronunciation of a polysyllabic word, bit on the tip of a pen, and unerringly parced sentences that some composition professors insist be broken up by at least four periods.

Mr Buckley made himself known at a time when conservatism was discouraged and unpopular. He championed conservatism into a rational, intellectual philosophy and mode of politics (embraced largely by republicans and libertarians) and he did it with posh and eloquence; and hardly diminished from the scene even as liberalism was bouncing back from being a bad word...or, for that matter, as conservatism was being bamboozled and bushwicked.

(view news interview)

He was William F. Buckley, Jr and damn if no one in the room knew it.

Those of us who appreciate erudite---and visible!---intelligence and preppy-ness, liked the man; even scholars cut from a different swatch respected him as a "worthy opponent". Conservatism certainly owes a great deal to Mr Buckley...as well as the prototypical Ivy Leaguer. And he must have struck a chord with many, many other less patrician, less esoteric folk to have hosted his long running show, Firing Line, through some more than twenty seasons---right up there with The Price is Right and As the World Turns.

Porn prejudice - AIM healthcare (Part IV)

The adult entertainment industry is more years behind than its procurers will ever admit. Its industry thrives on and perpetuates sexism and racism. Click here for Part 1.

AIM. What is it good for?
One of the bastions of the porn industry's campaign of normalcy or uprightness is its self policing of health standards via the AIM organization (Adult Industry Medical), a clinic to test performers on a battery of sexually transmitted diseases. Since its co-founding by former porn slut Sharon Mitchell (and Dr. Steven York) in 1998 it has become de riguer for studios and directors to hire only models who receive a clean bill of health from AIM. How commendable. But like a shiny mackerel this fish still smells.

Since the organization was the first or, at least, specifically directly aligned with the adult industry it has quickly become the sole arbitrator of health; in other words, a monopoly. Like all monopolies, AIM has the luxury of stipulating standards to its liking in so far as concerns cost, testing sites, cycles for succeeding check-ups.
It claims the service is complimentary for performers but that's a lie. As the presumptive "official" medical voice on health standards AIM exacts a hefty fee in excess of a hundred dollars for its test results...$100+ for the same results one can get for $0 from any nonprofit clinic or government funded health clinic.

There is absolutely nothing which makes AIM's testing any more dignified and technologically thorough in detecting STDs or HIV than ones local clinic or hospital

The physics of a porn actor's body are no different than any sexually active individual's so why the hoopla? Why does AIM demand such heavy fees? Simple: Because they can. Why still? Because they have no "competition".
Bullocks! Of course there exists other clinics (competition) that reliably test for STDs. In having "no competition" what AIM amounts to is a scam. As far as I understand, a scam is something billing itself grander than what it is in order to take in more money than its worth. So, yeah, paying $17.99 for a CD that took 12 cents to manufacture is a scam, too.

In requiring porn performers to pony up as little as $120 for an STD/HIV test through their clinic, AIM (and the porn industry) are running something of a grab cash operation; a scam. The low fee of $120 is only available in Los Angeles because that's where the clinic is based. To take AIM's test outside of L.A. costs substantially more since, according to studios who insist on out-0f-town talent submitting to AIM, they have to add in shipping and handling costs plus special document procedure. To translate that last part, AIM needs time to post its check list to a nearer-to-you medical office, meaning one cannot simply walk in and get tested but, rather, must make an appointment. Thus in addition to being more expensive it is also inconvenient to someone in, say, Denver, San Diego, Houston, Boston, Miami Beach, Chicago, New Jersey, etc.

UPDATE: AIM has since been debunked and shut down and nobody is capitalizing on it more than angry white dude Donny Long!

Again, these same porn star aspirants can, on any given day, walk in to a local clinic and request the Rapid HIV test and other screenings for various STDs free of charge or for a nominal fee. Also, most porn companies do not cover the medical cost either, leaving the talent, who is guaranteed no work (income), to pay out of his own pocket---to pay for something which he can get free of charge!
To compound matters, a new AIM validation is required every month. Conventional wisdom suggests sexually active persons get checked every three to five months but AIM, being so diligently compassionate, stipulates a check-up every thirty days. So...

$120 x X models x daily = KA-CHING!!

If this doesn't amount to a racket then Las Vegas ain't Sin City, O'Reily ain't a propagandist jerk, and California ain't on the west coast. Porn work pays well enough and, if nothing else, is definitely quick, easy money but it is not so lucrative to nonchalantly offset some $120...$150...$160 every thirty days where work is neither certain nor regular.
The porn industry has road to haul toward legitimacy if it keeps operating in these backroom methods.