Just Because...

100% marriage material for me.... but I could never come close to affording Leona Lewis.

Would love to be White or Latino, and well-off. At least for a few days just to see what it's like. Just being honest, lol. Haven't started cursing God yet though. There are a few things to be thankful for even when you're at the bottom.

Hear Interview with Tom Friedman

I don't always agree with Tom Friedman (more like Tomfoolery at times - example #1 would be his position on the invasion of Iraq). But here he is talking about the decline of the U.S., the current political malaise, and how this Country will get its but kicked economically if it doesn't take steps to become more competitive. Once in a while he actually says something that makes sense. Listen Here.

An Interview with Robert Reich

Dr. Cornel West interviews Economist & former Labor Secretary Robert Reich. He discusses his latest work "Aftershock", and explains the current economic and political situation. Listen Here.

Merry Christmas!

From all of us here at MOA, MERRY CHRISTMAS to everyone.

Have a wonderful day, enjoying friends and family.

In case you're wondering what today is about, Linus can explain:

The New York Sun, 1897.


This should be republished every year, right?

Dear Editor,

I am 8 years old.

Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, "If you see it in The Sun, it's so." Please tell me the truth: Is there a Santa Claus?

Virginia O'Hanlon
115 W. 95th St.

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except (what) they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

There's the South....and then there's Mississippi (re-Haley Barbour)

There was the South....and then, there's Mississippi.

And, Haley Barbour can't run away from that.

We can't talk ENOUGH about this.

Gov. Haley "Boss Hogg" Barbour Praises the White Citizens Council (aka the Klan in Suits).

Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS), a potential Republican presidential candidate, has an interesting perspective on the tumults of the civil rights era that swept through his Deep South state.

As Barbour recalls it in a new profile in The Weekly Standard, things weren't so bad in his hometown of Yazoo City, which took until 1970 to integrate its schools (though the final event itself is said to have gone on peacefully). For example, Barbour says that there was no problem of Ku Klux Klan activity in the town -- thanks to the Citizens Council movement, an organization that was founded on the basis of resistance to integration and the promotion of white supremacy.

"You heard of the Citizens Councils? Up north they think it was like the KKK," said Barbour. "Where I come from it was an organization of town leaders. In Yazoo City they passed a resolution that said anybody who started a chapter of the Klan would get their ass run out of town. If you had a job, you'd lose it. If you had a store, they'd see nobody shopped there. We didn't have a problem with the Klan in Yazoo City."

You know, this should just be under the heading..

THEY ARE WHO WE THOUGHT THEY WERE.

I know a whole lot about the state of Mississippi. From the time I was born until I was 18, I went to Mississippi 4 times a year. After that, twice a year until Mama died. I've been to the Delta. I've been to the Gulfcoast. I've been to the East. Been to the West. Been to Jackson, Vicksburg, Hattiesburg, Yazoo City, Oxford.

And, I'm here to tell you, IMO, when folks talk about the ' New South', they sure in hell aren't talking about Mississippi.

I posted a few months ago about how Boss Hogg Barbour was attempting to whitewash his past, first with some unbelievable remembrances of his time at Ole Miss. Of course, folks tracked down one of the lone Black students during that time period, and she told THE TRUTH OF THE HELL THAT SHE WENT THROUGH.

Let's not mince words here:

Haley Barbour is a RACIST. Plain and simple. No holds barred.

Oh, you can put him in a suit, but, I've been Black in America longer than 3 days.

He's had no ' come to Jesus' moment about growing up during American Apartheid and the evil that it was for the Black citizens of the South. Not one frigging moment of self-awareness.

None.

Instead, we have these repeated attempts by him to whitewash - LITERALLY - the hell that was the South during that time, and Mississippi in particular.



THIS is the Mississippi of Emmett Till.


THIS is the Mississippi of Fannie Lou Hamer.


THIS is the Mississippi of James Meredith integrating Ole Miss.


THIS is the Mississippi of Medgar Evers.

Myrlie Evers Comforting Son Darryl Kenyatta During Funeral of Husband Medgar Evers

THIS is the Mississippi of bombing the freedom riders.


THIS is the Mississippi of Schwerner, Cheney and Goodman.



There were a whole lot of White folks who resisted the Civil Rights Movement. A whole lot of folks who saw nothing, absolutely nothing wrong with Black folks being 3rd class citizens in THEIR OWN DAMN COUNTRY.

When they talk about ' taking their country back', they want it back to a time where, quite frankly,

' NIGGERS KNEW THEIR PLACE.'

Hell, Barbour's own BROTHER Bemoaned Blacks 'Not Listenin' To White People Like They Used To'

"Maybe five years ago," he said, "you could've appointed a colored man yourself. Now you simply can't get away with it. They're goin' to have to pick their own leaders. You could've gotten on radio five years ago using these very words, 'George Collins is this ni**er we've appointed,' and could've gotten away with it. I guess they're just goin' through a state of being rebellious and hard-nosed and not listenin' to white people like they used to."

The town has seventeen policeman in all, which struck me as a substantial force for a town of 14,000, and Mace is standard equipment; the policemen carry it on their belts. "You get a drunk," Jeppie says; "you either get him to come with you or you have to manhandle him. You give him Mace and he'll want to go anywhere with you. It keeps that ni**er's head in good shape."

Discipline has likewise been a problem with "the little ni**ers around town. One seven-year-old stole a pistol, but the chief has his own homemade juvenile delinquency kit. He has a belt that's bigger than a Sam Browne belt, and he calls the parents and gets them to come down and take the kid into the basement and use the belt."

Martin Luther King was the most hated man because he showed them for what they were to the ENTIRE WORLD, and when that mirror was put up to them, it showed them in all their ugliness. How dare this Negro say that American Apartheid was wrong and should end. White folks like Haley Barbour and his ilk didn't think anything was wrong with life in Mississippi during that time.

The reason why Barbour and his media apologists must be pushed back against, and not allowed

UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES

to do his whitewash of American Apartheid.

Is because our ancestors who suffered under it, must NOT be forgotten.

The pain.
The degredation.
The humiliation.
The threat of physical violence that they lived under 24/7/365.
Not for one year. or two. or three.
But nearly 100 years post-the ending of Official Slavery in the United States.

The GENERATIONS that were made to live in literal hell.
See, there's a problem when you try to whitewash Mississippi during Jim Crow...

WAYYYYYY too many of us "Negroes" or is it "Coloreds" are still alive....oh, some of us weren't around during that time, but we have parents, grandparents, aunt, uncles, church elders who told us enough stories....and here's the bottom line...

And, no, we're not going to go along with you trying to make it sound better than the hell it was.

The Citizens Council was just the Klan in business suits.

Don't believe me?

Take a read at some of their literature.

The White Citizens Council at the forefront of integration according to Barbour.

REALLY?

The truth is The Citizens Councils were founded in Mississippi in 1954, in protest of the Brown v. Board of Education decision that declared public school segregation to be unconstitutional. The councils were dedicated to political activities opposing civil rights, notably boycotts of pro-civil rights individuals -- including a famous instance by the group in Barbour's town. It was distinguished from the Klan by the public self-identification of its members, and its image of suits and ties as opposed to white robes and nooses.

Like I said...the KLAN IN A SUIT.

Coates has written a couple of good posts on this.
From Coates

In part, I think, that's because with a mere click of the mouse you can discover what actual Confederates were saying:
The declaration of secession from Mississippi

Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery-- the greatest material interest of the world. Its labor supplies the product which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth. These products are peculiar to the climate verging on the tropical regions, and by an imperious law of nature, none but the black race can bear exposure to the tropical sun. These products have become necessities of the world, and a blow at slavery is a blow at commerce and civilization. That blow has been long aimed at the institution, and was at the point of reaching its consummation. There was no choice left us but submission to the mandates of abolition, or a dissolution of the Union, whose principles had been subverted to work out our ruin.

That's the declaration of secession from Haley Barbour's home state. He still proudly displays the flag of that cause, the same flag that authored the death of more American soldiers than Vietnam, World War I and World War II combined, the death of Lincoln, and the deaths of countless freedmen and descendants of freedman. In short, Barbour embraces the flag of America's most prodigious white supremacists, and foremost home-grown terrorists. Of all the United States, Mississippi has the highest percentage of African-Americans. Haley Barbour, evidently, knows very little of their history. Indeed, there may not be a governor more ignorant of his constituents in all this great land.

The blogger Cynic's conclusion in one of them:

If Barbour wants to praise the good people of Yazoo City for their extraordinary restraint in not employing violence as they hounded from their community those black parents brave enough to demand a decent education for their children; to laud their public disavowal of the local Klan even as they turned a blind eye to its activities; or to extol their grudging cession of the inevitability of court-ordered integration after fifteen years of stalling, for its absence of lynchings or riots, that's his prerogative. For the rest of us, though, Yazoo City should serve as a poignant reminder that the civil rights struggle really was "that bad."

Yes, it was THAT BAD..

And Barbour and his media apologists don't get to run away from that.

EVER.

Rachel Maddow points out Boss Hogg and his attempted whitewash of the Citizens Council.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Rev. Al wasn't having it.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Barbour and his ilk want to be seen better than who they were AND ARE.

The answer to that is not only NO, but HELL NO.

Town has the answer for Barbour:

Somebody needs to have a voiceover of Barbour saying "It wasn't that bad" over images of hoses and dogs on people, COLOREDS ONLY signs, the John Lewis beatdown, Rosa Parks, National Guard at people's universities, etc.

Amen.

The Medicaid Hustle

hat tip -Prometheus6

from The New York Times.com

Full Wallets, but Using Health Program for Poor
By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS
Published: December 10, 2010

AFTER immigrating to New York City from China in the 1970s, Z. Y. Tung and his wife worked hard — he as a bank manager, she as a public school secretary — lived frugally and saved every penny they could for the next generation.

Until five years ago, when his wife, Wen Mei Hu, racked by bone-marrow cancer, had to be put in a nursing home, where the bills ran past $100,000 a year, threatening to quickly drain the couple’s life savings of $500,000. The nursing home told him not to worry: If he signed a document essentially refusing to support his wife of several decades, Medicaid, the federal insurance program for the indigent, would pick up the bill.

“What about me, because I am responsible?” Mr. Tung inquired. He was told that only millionaires had to pay such high costs, and reluctantly, seeing no other choice, he agreed.

Last year, more than 1,200 people in New York City officially turned their backs on their husbands and wives to qualify for Medicaid, triple the number of people five years ago. The practice, known as “spousal refusal,” is becoming more common as the population ages and the cost of nursing care rises — and it is coming under increasing attack by government officials looking to curb ballooning Medicaid expenses.

In a recent report, Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch warned that spousal refusal could be abused as “an entitlement for the less needy” and urged state officials to rethink it, noting that long-term care accounts for nearly half the state’s Medicaid spending.

I've been saying this for awhile now. Everytime you hear a Republican open their mouths about Medicaid, think about this.

They use Poor Black and Brown children to bash Medicaid, because, of course, poor people don't deserve healthcare, and of course Black and Brown people don't deserve healthcare paid for by those 'hardworking real Americans - WHITE Americans'. The soulless parasites known as the Republicans have used the raw meat of the 'undeserving' getting healthcare for many a year.


You even had Governor ' Good Hair' Perry in Texas talk about 'opting out' of Medicaid about a couple of weeks ago. Yet, he dropped it like a hot potato - why?

The revelation of how many middle class folks were pimping the system to pay for Mom and Dad's nursing home bill. When they can't decouple it - i.e., throw the poor children to the wolves, but keep the middle class White pimpage of Medicaid, they drop it.

But, when they can clearly attack the poor, like Arizona's DEATH PANELS denying Medicaid patients transplants, they have no problem in doing so, calling life saving transplants ' Cadillac Medicine'.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

And what was Brewer's response? She, of ' the evil overreach of the Federal Government', tells people to GET MONEY FROM THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. She got money from the FEDS - it was called STIMULUS MONEY. She had 50 MILLION for Prisons -with whom she has been doing side deals, and is part of the underbelly of her 'WHAT ABOUT IF YOU AIN'T WHITE' profiling law is all about - filling jail with Brown people. But, she can't find the money to help save people's lives.

THIS is who they are. This is their Lord of the Flies Mentality on full display.

Then, in Florida, Jeb Bush turned over Medicaid to PRIVATE INSURERS, who, in turn, did their OWN DEATH PANELS. If Jeb ever runs for President, the DEATHS at the hands of the insurance companies need to be placed right at his feet, in political ad after ad.

The main way that the GOP can attack Healthcare Reform at the state level IS through Medicaid. But, the problems are....there are a whole lotta middle-class White folks that wrapped up in Medicaid and are pimping the system.

Keep your eyes on Medicaid in your state. See what tricks the GOP comes up with, because it's nothing good.

Is Barack Obama a ------g Idiot, Naive, or Am I Just Imagining Things?

Rhetorical question.... I already have my opinion on this.

Book smart, eloquent, charismatic, knowledgeable about public policy and government, Ivy League educated and a technocrat... but lacks wisdom.

He has lost me.

That is all.

Congress Votes to Repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell

The United States Senate votes 65-31 to end the policy of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. The House had already voted to repeal it. The President has said he will await it to come to his desk so that he can sign it.

It's done. It was done by an Act of Congress, and the President's path - to get it ended by an Act of Congress - has paid off.

If anyone can send me a link to an embeddable clip of John Lewis and his speech on this on the House floor, I would appreciate. Lewis was fabulous.

from The Daily Dish

Obama's Long Game: 65 - 31

18 Dec 2010 03:45 pm

Do gay activists, including myself, want to doubt it now? Of course, it's my job to push, to criticize, to explain, to shame, to encourage. But I did so precisely to advance what has happened today, and am glad that it was a small part of the climate that made it happen. I reiterate what I wrote barely a week ago:

It seems to me the events of the last month or so reveal that the Obama administration has finally delivered the goods for the military, which is hobbled by this dated, counter-productive policy, and for the gay community, by moving the issue deliberately through the Congress before the executive branch or the judicial branch.

Like 2009's removal of the HIV ban, which was as painstakingly slow but thereby much more entrenched, this process took time. Without the Pentagon study, it wouldn't have passed. Without Obama keeping Lieberman inside the tent, it wouldn't have passed. Without the critical relationship between Bob Gates and Obama, it wouldn't have passed. It worked our last nerve; we faced at one point a true nightmare of nothing ... for years. And then we pulled behind this president, making it his victory and the country's victory, as well as ours.

We also know now what a McCain administration would have done: nothing. The disgraceful bitterness and rancor and irrationality that the Senator has shown these past few months reveal just how important it was to defeat him and his deranged, delusional side-kick in 2008.

Here's the presidential statement:

Today, the Senate has taken an historic step toward ending a policy that undermines our national security while violating the very ideals that our brave men and women in uniform risk their lives to defend.

By ending Don't Ask, Don't Tell, no longer will our nation be denied the service of thousands of patriotic Americans forced to leave the military, despite years of exemplary performance, because they happen to be gay. And no longer will many thousands more be asked to live a lie in order to serve the country they love.

As Commander-in-Chief, I am also absolutely convinced that making this change will only underscore the professionalism of our troops as the best led and best trained fighting force the world has ever known. And I join the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as the overwhelming majority of service members asked by the Pentagon, in knowing that we can responsibly transition to a new policy while ensuring our military strength and readiness.

I want to thank Majority Leader Reid, Senators Lieberman and Collins and the countless others who have worked so hard to get this done. It is time to close this chapter in our history. It is time to recognize that sacrifice, valor and integrity are no more defined by sexual orientation than they are by race or gender, religion or creed. It is time to allow gay and lesbian Americans to serve their country openly. I urge the Senate to send this bill to my desk so that I can sign it into law.

President Obama Honors the late Dr. Dorothy I. Height

On Wednesday, December 15, 2010, the President signed into law:
H.R. 6118, which designates the facility of the United States Postal Service located in Washington, D.C., as the
“Dorothy I. Height Post Office;”



President Barack Obama signs H.R. 6118, the “Dorothy Height Bill” in the Oval Office, Dec. 15, 2010. The bill designates the facility of the United States Postal Service located in Washington, D.C., as the “Dorothy I. Height Post Office.”
-----Official White House Photo by Pete Souza

Background:

This bill designates the United States Postal Service located at 2 Massachusetts Avenue, NE, Washington, DC, as the Dorothy I. Height Post Office.

Dr. Dorothy Irene Height was a celebrated civil rights leader and Chair Emerita of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW). While at NCNW, Dr. Height devoted her energies to advancing quality of life issues for African American women and their families, impacting health, education and economic empowerment.

Dr. Height dedicated her life to service and leadership. She was a recipient of the Congressional Gold Medal in 2004 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994. She passed away on April 20, 2010, in Washington, DC, and The President and the First Lady attended her funeral, with the President delivering her eulogy.