The Day the Music Died

Who put the pause on a Revolution,
even if for a moment?
Who brought enemies together,
even if for a day?
Who stopped the earth on its axis
and the Packets in their tracks
And who brought grown men to tears,
even if never having met you?
It was you
impossible they say,
but in life you marvelled us with the impossible
When we lost you, we felt we lost our childhood.
You are and will always be the soundtrack of our lives.

Peace and Love

African American History Month Day 4

"....and before i'll be a slave i'll be buried in my grave..."
- Oh, Freedom.


"...The thing worse than rebellion is the thing that causes rebellion..."
- Fredrick Douglas

Nat Turner (Nathaniel Turner, October 2, 1800 – November 11, 1831) was an American slave who led the slave rebellion that resulted in the most fatalities in the antebellum southern United States. He gathered supporters in Southampton County, Virginia. His methodical slaughter of white civilians during the uprising makes his legacy controversial.

At birth his white master recorded only his given name Nat, although he may have had a surname within the enslaved community. In accordance with common practice, the white community referred to him by the surname of his owner, Samuel Turner. This practice was used by later historians as well.

African American History Month Day 3

Anyone who has heard the term Black Power, should be familiar with this brother. Although he did not invent the phrase, he popularized it in his famous speech of the same title, first given upon his release from jail.

“

It is a call for black people in this country to unite, to recognize their heritage, to build a sense of community. It is a call for black people to define their own goals, to lead their own organizations.

”

Stokely Standiford Churchill Carmichael (June 29, 1941 – November 15, 1998), also known as Kwame Ture, was a Trinidadian-American black activist active in the 1960s American Civil Rights Movement. He rose to prominence first as a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, pronounced "Snick") and later as the "Honorary Prime Minister" of the Black Panther Party. Initially an integrationist, Carmichael later became affiliated with black nationalist and Pan-Africanist movements.^[1]

Obama's the man - Extraordinary Rendition story a hoax

Earlier I reported that Obama had not dismantled the illegal Extraordinary rendition program that Bush 43 started. This was a hoax and LA Times got punk'd, the original source of the bogus story. The truth is he proceeded to end this practice immediately upon assuming higher office.

Read for yourself.

Renditions Buffoonery

By Scott Horton

In a breathless piece of reporting in the Sunday Los Angeles Times, we are told that Barack Obama “left intact” a “controversial counter-terrorism tool” called renditions. Moreover, the Times states, quoting unnamed “current and former U.S. intelligence figures,” Obama may actually be planning to expand the program. The report notes the existence of a European Parliament report condemning the practice, but states “the Obama Administration appears to have determined that the rendition program was one component of the Bush Administration’s war on terrorism that it could not afford to discard.”

The Los Angeles Times just got punked. Its description of the European Parliament’s report is not accurate. (Point of disclosure: I served as an expert witness in hearings leading to the report.) But that’s the least of its problems. It misses the difference between the renditions program, which has been around since the Bush 41 Administration at least (and arguably in some form even in the Reagan Administration) and the extraordinary renditions program which was introduced by Bush 43 and clearly shut down under an executive order issued by President Obama in his first week.

continue reading....

African American History Month Day 2

Wow, what a rare opportunity to be a part of living history, particularly black living history. On November 4th, 2008 we witnessed an earth shaking event whose after shocks were felt around the world and whose epicenter originated right here in the USA. African American history for so many of us is a passive endeavor, whether it's witnessing the first African American to fly into space, or hold the heavy weight title, or to earn a PhD from Harvard University. We celebrated the accomplishments but yet we were observers. Well this time it was different. To borrow a contemporary term, it was interactive. Who didn't in some way do their part, whether it be through donations, caucusing, or advocacy, in order to make this moment in African American History a reality. But of course no one did more to make this reality a possibility than all the countless and nameless ancestors, many of whom , sacrificed their lives, worked three times as hard (black tax), suffered humiliation (Jim Crow), not because they wanted a monument erected of them, but so that their offsprings and humanity as a whole can live free. To them we say thank you.

Barack Obama - First African American President of the United States and first non-white leader of a western nation.

Barack Hussein Obama II (pronounced /bəˈrɑːk hʊˈseɪn oʊˈbɑːmə/; born August 4, 1961) is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. He is also the first non-white head of state and head of government in a Western nation. Obama was the junior United States Senator from Illinois from 2005 until he resigned following his 2008 election to the presidency. He was inaugurated as President on January 20, 2009.

Yes we can

African American History Month

At the start of African American History Month, please take a moment to learn something about a segment of our society and their contributions that America has largely ignored. To start here is a list of "100 Greatest African Americans". You just need to study up on one of your choosing.

Shirley Chisholm - First African American Woman elected into Congress

Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm (November 30, 1924 – January 1, 2005) was a West Indian-American politician, educator and author.^[1] She was a Congresswoman, representing New York's 12th Congressional District for seven terms from 1969 to 1983. In 1968, she became the first black woman elected to Congress.^[2] On January 25, 1972, she became the first major-party black candidate for President of the United States and the first woman to run for the Democratic presidential nomination (Margaret Chase Smith had previously run for the Republican presidential nomination).^[2] She received 152 first-ballot votes at the 1972 Democratic National Convention.^[2][3]

The List in no particular order

Hank Aaron Ira Aldridge Muhammad Ali Richard Allen Marian Anderson Maya Angelou Arthur Ashe Crispus Attucks James Baldwin Benjamin Banneker Amiri Baraka Romare Bearden Mary McLeod Bethune Guion Bluford Arna Bontemps Edward W. Brooke Gwendolyn Brooks Blanche K. Bruce Ralph Bunche George Washington Carver Shirley Chisholm Kenneth B. Clark John Henrik Clarke John Coltrane Bill Cosby Alexander Crummell Countee Cullen Benjamin O. Davis Jr. Martin R. Delany Frederick Douglass Charles Drew W. E. B. Du Bois Paul Laurence Dunbar Katherine Dunham

Duke Ellington James Forten John Hope Franklin Henry Highland Garnet Marcus Garvey Prince Hall Fannie Lou Hamer Lorraine Hansberry Dorothy Height Matthew Henson Charles Houston Langston Hughes Zora Neale Hurston Jesse Jackson Mae Jemison Jack Johnson James Weldon Johnson John H. Johnson Percy Julian Ernest Just Maulana Karenga Martin Luther King, Jr. Edmonia Lewis Alain Locke Joe Louis Thurgood Marshall Benjamin E. Mays Elijah McCoy Claude McKay Oscar Micheaux Dorie Miller Garrett Morgan Toni Morrison Elijah Muhammad

Jesse Owens Rosa Parks Adam Clayton Powell Colin Powell A. Philip Randolph Hiram Revels Paul Robeson Jackie Robinson John Russwurm Arturo Schomburg Benjamin "Pap" Singleton Mary Church Terrell William Monroe Trotter Sojourner Truth Harriet Tubman Kwame Ture Henry McNeal Turner Nat Turner David Walker Madame C. J. Walker Booker T. Washington Ida B. Wells-Barnett Phillis Wheatley Walter F. White Roy Wilkins Daniel Hale Williams August Wilson Oprah Winfrey Tiger Woods Carter G. Woodson Richard R. Wright Malcolm X

WTF: Obama !!!

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Please read my most recent post, which states that this story is bogus, a lie, and definetly untrue, and when LA Times when chose to report this story they got punk'd.

Obama preserves rendition two days after taking office

I guess this is what he means when he says that he is going to be president to both Red and Blue America. The tortures are just blushing with admiration for this guy right about now.

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Obama_preserves_rendition_in__0201.html

Excerpts from wiki article follows.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraordinary_rendition

While legal rendition has been used by the United States increasingly since the 1980s as a method for dealing with foreign defendants[citation needed], extraordinary rendition is a wholly extra-legal process that differs in its nature and usage as a tool in the US-led "war on terror". Modern methods of rendition include a form where suspects are taken into US custody but delivered to a third-party state, often without ever being on American soil, and without involving the rendering country's judiciary; they have been termed "extraordinary rendition".[citation needed] The CIA was granted permission to use rendition in a presidential directive signed by President Bill Clinton in 1995, and the practice has grown sharply since the September 11 terrorist attacks.[citation needed]

Critics have accused the CIA of rendering suspects to other countries in order to avoid US laws proscribing due process and prohibiting torture, even though many of those countries have, like the US, signed or ratified the United Nations Convention Against Torture. Critics have also called this practice "torture flights". Defenders of the practice argue that culturally-informed and native-language interrogations are more successful in gaining information from suspects.

In a number of cases, suspects to whom the procedure is believed to have been applied later were found to be innocent. In the cases of Khalid El-Masri and Maher Arar the practice of extraordinary rendition appears to have been applied to innocent civilians, and the CIA has reportedly launched an investigation into such cases (which it refers to as "erroneous rendition").

The first well-known rendition case involved the Achille Lauro hijackers in 1985: while in international air space they were forced by United States Navy fighter planes to land at the Naval Air Station Sigonella, an Italian military base in Sicily used by the U.S. Navy and NATO, in an attempt to place them within judicial reach of United States Government representatives for transport to and trial in the United States.

Simply the best !!!

What a whirlwind the last 2 days have been. He has been president for only 2 full days now and already he has done more to bring respect to the White House, then the former president in the last 8 years. President Obama has been nothing short of amazing. He is out of the blocks and producing. In case you missed it.

1. Signed order to shutdown Guantanamo Bay.
2. Suspended Military trials.
3. Executive order removing provision that band aid to international organization that taught family planning and advocated for contraceptives.
4. On the verge of building consensus for the badly needed stimulus plan. This time a plan that will help me and you, as opposed to the crooks !
5. Signs order banning torture of Enemy combatants
6. Closes rendition sites

Guys, I'm simply speechless and giddy right now. What a difference competence makes. I'll end by quoting a very forceful statement the President, the president I like the sound of that, made today.

Roe v. Wade "not only protects women's health and reproductive freedom, but stands for a broader principle: that government should not intrude on our most private family matters,"

I am who I am because of you

Merci Nzinga, Marcus, Harriett, Malcolm, Martin, and Bob.

Mon Pays

She still got it !!!

Going out of business sale on torture

SNL hasn't been funny in years, so I hesitate in posting this. I thought this clip was hilarious in a satirical sense. I'll let you be the judge though.

Did Speculation Fuel Oil Price Swings?

I knew it !!!!

Instruction Manual for Life

I haven't posted in quite a while and thought what better time to post then at the start of the New Year. I hope 2009 started off pleasantly for many and for those where it did not, I hope for you the strength to recover and preserver through the difficulties.

I just finished watching a very captivating, simple, yet powerful video. See if it was as moving to you as it was for me. Can you identify with anyone in this story?

Promises, promises

My last post spoke about Obama's broken promise #1. That is, no lobbyist will work in his White House. Well, it looks like I am not the only one to have noticed this, the mainstream media is slowly starting to write more and more about this broken promise. I've collected a sampling of commentary from the likes of CNN to New York Times. And just to show that I'm not at a loss when it comes to humour, I've included a song for those who are interested in serenading Barack.

In Transition, Ties to Lobbying

WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama has imposed stricter conflict-of-interest restrictions on his White House transition team than any president before him. But a list of transition team members that his office made public on Friday includes a complicated tangle of ties to private influence-seekers......................

Now The Hard Part
Can Obama Keep His Promises On Ethics And Transparency?

Having pledged that lobbyists and moneyed interests would take a back seat in his administration, President-elect Barack Obama is already discovering how tough such promises are to keep.

At least a half-dozen of Obama's new transition team leaders were among the top fundraisers who "bundled" cash for him on the campaign trail. Four of them pulled in $500,000 or more as Obama bundlers -- Don Beyer, a former Virginia lieutenant governor who owns five automobile dealerships; Julius Genachowski, co-founder and managing director of Rock Creek Ventures; Donald Gips, vice president at the technology firm Level 3 Communications; and Thomas J. Perrelli, managing partner of Jenner & Block's Washington office...........................