Memorial Day Photos

A few I took on my trip on Monday.

Also visited an uncles grave as well (not shown). This was only my second time visiting the national cemetery (because I don't like cemeteries, anything reminding me of death, etc). My father passed almost exactly 19 years ago. I have started to wonder more and more (to question and doubt really) what he would think of me today. He wasn't an academically brilliant man...but he was full of wisdom. When my well runs dry (and it has) I pay a visit, hoping to get some of that wisdom. But things are so screwed up today that I am not convinced that he would even be able to navigate through the World's garbage.

A Heartfelt Moment From A Black Father

hat tip-Miranda

from Daddy Dialectic:

This is a heartfelt discussion from a Black father. It touched me deeply.

Saturday, May 14, 2011
A Day at the Park
Posted by Shawn Taylor
1. I’m unsure why, but I get asked—quite often—about the hardest part of being a father. The people who ask me this are almost all younger cats who are about to become fathers or are there already. That question is a Pandora’s Box. Being a father is hard in a million different ways: Balancing fatherhood with partnership; being able to do the things that I love to do on a consistent basis (for example, writing—I’m writing this at 3am, while everyone is asleep and I have a moment to myself); the loss of money; having to send your child to childcare because both parents have to work to afford all the additional costs. Working all day, coming home at night and only seeing your child for forty-five minutes before their bedtime—in these ways and more, daddyhood is hard as hell. But none of this (yes, even the money problems) even comes close to the raging difficulty of being a father of color.

2. Being tattooed, visually Black (I’m half Jamaican and half Puerto Rican), over six feet tall and muscular, holding a little ethnically-ambiguous toddler makes many people double, triple, quadruple take—and also, for some odd reason, loosens tongues, mostly of white folks, and creates an environment of familiarity. And yet they still manage to see me wrong: In my daughter’s twenty-two months of living, I have been labeled ‘uncle,’ ‘babysitter,’ ‘guardian,’ ‘cousin,’ but never father. I can’t tell you just how crushing a blow this is. I LOVE being a father and I think that I am becoming a better one by the day, but to have one of my greatest joys discounted is painful.

3. Do we really live in a society that is still stuck in the lie that Black men cannot be fathers? Well…I must admit that I was on that same shit for a while. When my partner told me she was pregnant, I had fears that, at the moment of birth, a Greyhound ticket would appear in my hands and I’d leave my partner and new child to fend for themselves. I thought I’d become an absent father sleeper agent—the baby’s first cry would activate me and my mission would be to get as far away from mother and baby as possible. Because, throughout my whole childhood, I never once had a friend or met anyone (of color) whose father lived with them, or in some cases, even knew who their fathers were. There is a generation of brothers and sisters born after Viet Nam and before the release of Ghostbusters that are a tribe of fatherless children. My own father, I saw the bastard five times in my life.

4. People mistaking me for everything but being a father almost invariably happens at the playground. While the mothers (rarely do I see fathers at the playgrounds—but it could be where I choose to let my daughter play) are sitting in groups, either texter-bating or focusing intently on some new piece of thousand dollar baby gadget—I’m in the sand, on the structure, kicking the ball. I’m playing with my kid. Over at this park in El Cerrito, California, I was teaching my daughter how to hang from one of the monkey bars. She is a ridiculously daring kid and will try anything, as long as it is dangerous. This kindly older woman (dressed up like a fashion model to go the park) smiled at me and said, “My uncle used to do the same thing for me. He always let me do the things that my father would never let me do.” She drew out the “never” as if I was tossing my daughter over an open lion’s mouth. I told this woman that I was an only child, that my kid didn’t have any uncles, and that I was her father. She glanced between my daughter and me several times, and finally said, “Noooooo.” Wow.

Read the rest of this beautiful piece at the link above.

10 Myths About Medicaid

I have been posting as much as I could about how the GOP wants to kill Medicare and Medicaid. While the Medicare intent has been obvious, and there has been focus on the reaction to the attempt to kill Medicare, MEDICAID has not gotten the attention that it should.

I believe this is because, in so much of the simple-minded MSM, they still believe the GOP utter LIE that the typical Medicaid user is an illegal immigrant with her 3 Anchor Babies, or a poor Black woman with her 3 children by 3 different Baby Daddies.

I have been trying to point out that although, percentage wise of patients on Medicaid, ARE poor mothers and children..

In terms PERCENTAGE of MEDICAID DOLLARS, there is not one, but TWO groups that outstrips poor mothers and children:

Group 1 - Senior Citizens in Nursing Homes.

I keep on saying this over and over, but the Democrats need to hire folks to hang out on the weekends in front of nursing homes, and inform ' family' members, that if, the GOP has their way, THEY will have to come up with the cost of the nursing home. Ask them the simple question - DO YOU HAVE THE MONEY TO PAY FOR THIS?

If not, then you have no business voting GOP.

Group 2 - The Disabled

I think it's a good thing that we, as a country, decided that the disabled in our society deserve healthcare and other services that Medicaid provide.

I tell the story of a family friend who had a disabled family member. She just died a couple of years ago, in her 80's. She lived with family her entire life, and Medicaid helped with certain services for her. I think that's the way it should be, and that just because people are disabled does not mean that they aren't deserving of medical care and services. I think the disabled community is more on top of it, and understand what the GOP is threatening, and are mobilizing.

If you know someone who has a family member in a nursing home, or is disabled, more than likely, they use MEDICAID.

We need to PROTECT MEDICAID, from the Lord of the Flies mentality that permeates the GOP.

...................................

The Kaiser Family Foundation has just published - The 10 Myths About Medicaid.


Myth 1—Medicaid is an antiquated program and needs to be modernized.

❏ FACT: Medicaid has demonstrated throughout its history that it is an innovative program and evolves with the changing American health care system.

Ever since the original passage of Medicaid, the waiver process has allowed states to experiment with new concepts of benefit design, eligibility, and delivery systems.

After evaluating these demonstrations, innovations can be adopted as standard options that don’t require a waiver from the federal government.

Managed care is an example of an innovation that became a standard option-about 60 percent of beneficiaries are in managed care. A current innovation that several states are experimenting with is moving long-term care services towards a home and community based setting.

Additionally, Medicaid’s structure has allowed it to expand and readily adapt to emerging issues in the American health system like the HIV/AIDS crisis.

Read more »

GOP Liars on Medicare- Their Latest FRAUD

from The Plum Line:

John Boehner: Only Dems have voted to cut Medicare
By Greg Sargent


John Boehner made some comments to reporters today about the results in New York’s 26th Congressional district, and the quote that’s getting most of the attention is his claim that Medicare played only a “small part” of the Dem victory on Tuesday night.

But I think this Boehner quote, buried in Dave Weigel’s report on today’s presser, is the more interesting one:

The only people in Washington, DC who have voted to cut Medicare have been the Democrats,” said Boehner, “when they voted to cut $500 billion in Medicare during Obamacare.”

Only Dems “voted to cut Medicare”? Of course, House Republicans did vote to pass the Ryan budget back in April; only four House Republicans voted against it. The only way for Boehner’s claim to be true is if the Ryan plan doesn’t cut Medicare. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the Ryan plan cuts the amount of Medicare spending on seniors in relation to overall health care costs. It also reduces the amount of annual Medicare spending as a share of GDP. For it to be true that only Dems have voted to cut Medicare, neither of those would have to count as cuts.

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Goodbye England (and FLOTUS), and Hello G-8 Summit

The President said goodbye to the First Lady and then went onto the G-8 Summit.


U.S. President Barack Obama says goodbye to First Lady Michelle Obama before he boards Air Force One at London's Stansted Airport, Thursday, May 26, 2011. President Barack Obama, having made his case for the historic and vital role of shared U.S. and European intervention around the world, will press allies for further commitments in the Middle East and North Africa during two days of meetings in France.
----AP Photo/Charles Dharapak

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The Linguistic Problem With Cornell West's Attack on The President

FROM JJP POSTER COOP:

coop10

It took me a minute to put my finger on exactly why Cornell West’s comments about President Obama disturbed me so much; but I think I’ve figured it out. It’s not so much what West said or even that he said it. It’s HOW he said it-- carelessly and cavalierly flouts black speech codes.

We know the history of and the necessity for encoded black speech. Early one we knew that to survive we had to “wear the mask,” Early on we knew that to survive we had to possess a “double consciousness. “ And early on we knew that to survive we had to construct, perfect, and deploy coded speech to communicate within, over, under, around, and through an ever-pervasive and destructive whiteness.

Black coded speech, signifying speech, served a double purpose: direct discourse to deceive whiteness, and indirect discourse – a black linguistic dog whistle, if you will, to convey the actual intent. Black speech codes covered the gamut from Negro Spirituals to acts of Uncle Tom-ing; yet, however seemingly disparate the tactic, the goal was the same, to prevent whiteness from invading black linguistic space, a space necessary for self-preservation and racial advancement.

Thus, to ensure that such a goal would come about, black speech never let its guard down in the presence of Whiteness, because it knew that not only would its linguistic space be violated, but that its codes would be broken and appropriated , morphed into
something unrecognizable and unable to be reclaimed.

Which is why I find West’s comments so puzzling. West’s proffers a presidential critique, which is all well and good. But, it’s a critique that has as its subject a black speaker and as its object, a black man, so one would think that black speaker would employ black speech codes because black speaker understands how his words regarding black object might be misappropriated. But black speaker does no such thing. Instead black speaker puts forth commentary unaided by no protective black speech codes and a dog whistle that Whiteness hears, amplifies, and utilizes for its own agenda.

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The President and First Lady Host The Queen

hat tips-The Obama Diary, The Only Adult in the Room

The President and First Lady hosted a dinner for Queen Elizabeth II.

LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 25: U.S. President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama arrive at Winfield House, the residence of the Ambassador of the United States of America, in Regent's Park, on May 25, 2011 in London, England. The 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama, and First Lady Michelle are in the UK for a two day State Visit at the invitation of HM Queen Elizabeth II. Last night they attended a state banquet at Buckingham Palace and today's events include talks at Downing Street and the President will address both houses of Parliament at Westminster Hall.
-----Yui Mok - WPA Pool/Getty Images

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President Obama Addresses the British Parliament

hat tip-The Only Adult In The Room

President Obama Addresses the British Parliament


Transcript of the President's Speech at Westminster Hall

My Lord Chancellor, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Prime Minister, my lords, and members of the House of Commons:

I have known few greater honors than the opportunity to address the Mother of Parliaments at Westminster Hall. I am told that the last three speakers here have been the Pope, Her Majesty the Queen, and Nelson Mandela — which is either a very high bar or the beginning of a very funny joke. (Laughter.)

I come here today to reaffirm one of the oldest, one of the strongest alliances the world has ever known. It’s long been said that the United States and the United Kingdom share a special relationship. And since we also share an especially active press corps, that relationship is often analyzed and overanalyzed for the slightest hint of stress or strain.

Of course, all relationships have their ups and downs. Admittedly, ours got off on the wrong foot with a small scrape about tea and taxes. (Laughter.) There may also have been some hurt feelings when the White House was set on fire during the War of 1812. (Laughter.) But fortunately, it’s been smooth sailing ever since.

The reason for this close friendship doesn’t just have to do with our shared history, our shared heritage; our ties of language and culture; or even the strong partnership between our governments. Our relationship is special because of the values and beliefs that have united our people through the ages.

Centuries ago, when kings, emperors, and warlords reigned over much of the world, it was the English who first spelled out the rights and liberties of man in the Magna Carta. It was here, in this very hall, where the rule of law first developed, courts were established, disputes were settled, and citizens came to petition their leaders.

Over time, the people of this nation waged a long and sometimes bloody struggle to expand and secure their freedom from the crown. Propelled by the ideals of the Enlightenment, they would ultimately forge an English Bill of Rights, and invest the power to govern in an elected parliament that’s gathered here today.

What began on this island would inspire millions throughout the continent of Europe and across the world. But perhaps no one drew greater inspiration from these notions of freedom than your rabble-rousing colonists on the other side of the Atlantic. As Winston Churchill said, the “…Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights, Habeas Corpus, trial by jury, and English common law find their most famous expression in the American Declaration of Independence.”

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The Senate GOP Joins Its House Brethren In Voting to KILL MEDICARE

From TPM.com:

Senate Republicans Vote Overwhelmingly To End Medicare

The GOP continued its bloody walk into the Medicare buzzsaw Wednesday, when 40 out of 47 Senate Republicans voted in support of the House GOP budget, and its plan to phase out and privatize the popular entitlement program.

The test vote failed by a vote of 57-40. But the roll call illustrates that Medicare privatization -- along with deep cuts to Medicaid and other social services -- remains the consensus position of the GOP despite the growing political backlash against them.

Voting with all of the Democrats against debating the plan were Sens. Scott Brown (R-MA), Olympia Snowe (R-ME) -- both 2012 incumbents -- along with Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK). Rand Paul (R-KY) voted against it because it wasn't radical enough.

So, let's make it plain for those that are confused.

The Senate Republicans just went along with their House counterparts in voting to END MEDICARE.

As I said before, spread the word. This vote was to END MEDICARE. Ask every Senior Citizen that you know, do they have an extra $500/month lying around....and that's just for starters.