Walking On Marbles

President Barack Obama was born in Hawaii, one of the United States, in 1961. His mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, was a United States citizen. Both of these facts confer upon Barack Obama natural born citizenship in these United States, as per the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. He is therefore eligible to be President. To quote one of my favorite movies, “these are the facts of the case, and they are undisputed.”

A number of people, though, continue to assert that they “just want to see his birth certificate” to “make sure [Obama]‘s eligible to be President.” These same people conveniently failed to ask for John McCain’s birth certificate, though we know he was born in a foreign country, on land leased by the United States, in the Panama Canal Zone. The immediately racist foundation of this dichotomy, needing to see the brown man’s papers, is fodder for another discussion.

The calculated and coordinated effort by Republican legislators and conservative citizens to write state laws regarding the President’s birth certificate have one purpose only: to keep his reelection campaign legally, politically, and economically distracted as the campaign season begins. They want him walking on marbles. President Bill Clinton, the last Democratic president, spent half of his second term in court, fighting spurious lawsuits and challenges related to his personal conduct. The coordinated attack based in the special prosecutor’s office took it’s toll on both President Clinton and his effectiveness to affect policy.

Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona vetoed the “birther” bill passed by Arizona’s legislature requiring candidates for the presidency of the United States to submit their birth certificate in order to be listed on the state’s ballot. The key here isn’t that she objected to the merits of the bill itself. She simply decried the proof of a lack of foreskin being codified into law. Either way, that ridiculous farce of a bill failed.

Similar bills are being considered in thirteen other states, and Louisiana’s governor, the former “Republican Barack Obama” (politician of non-anglo ethnicity with ties to an immigrant community) Bobby Jindal, has indicated that when the “birther bill” passes the legislature in his state, he’ll sign it.

From Donald Trump’s whorish attempts to wave the birther flag to revive ratings for his television career to Russell Pearce‘s attempt to treat the President of the United States like the Republicans treated the last Democratic President of the United States (they focused on Clinton’s genitals, too) this coordinated strategy is the GOP’s attempt to secure victory in an election they are unable to win on the merits.

And Democrats, whose faith in the process of democracy and belief that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice” need to prepare for the mud slinging, and quick. I’m not arguing that we need to get down and dirty with them. I’m saying that assuming good will of the political opposition in the face of evidence to the contrary is putting a blindfold on while they’re throwing down marbles.

We can’t … the United States can’t afford to be that imbalanced.

Spread the Word.

Related Articles

• “Trump, HI Gov. Spar Over Birth Certificate Issue” and related posts (theyeshivaworld.com)
• Romney: ‘I Believe The President Was Born In The United States’ (VIDEO) (alternet.org)
• Bachmann: Obama’s certification of live birth ‘should settle’ birther issue (politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com)

OBAMA 2012

The President of the United States is only running against one person next year – himself.  And while his leadership has been questioned, by Democrats, Republicans, people in between and people on the extremes, it is ultimately his own record which will determine whether or not he gets reelected in 2012.

Of late, there have been a good number of progressives disappointed in him for not being as progressive as they are: Lt. Dan Choi was irritated with the lack of movement on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell; Representative Kucinich is raising the question of impeachment over the United States’ bombardment of Libya; in these very pages, I myself have been disappointed at some of his administration’s actions over the past two years.

And of course, the birthers, the Teahadists, political opponents and haters-at-large who have been calling for his brown head, or his “most liberal” head, or his “fascist communist” head, have been calling for his removal, impeachment, assassination, etc. since before his election.  Unfortunately for them, their most likely candidate is a serial philanderer whose most recent political experience is resigning from Congress to yell from the sidelines instead of doing the work of the nation.

President Barack Obama hasn’t done all the things I wanted him to do when he was elected.  But he has done a lot of them. And he is guiding the country on the best path back from the brink President Bush abandoned us on.  That’s why the campaign begins now.

OBAMA 2012!

Related Articles

• Dennis Kucinich: Obama’s Libya Attack An Impeachable Offense
• A Phone Call from the President
• Trump again questions Obama’s birthplace
• Newt Gingrich Contradicts Self on Libya, Tries to Explain
• Top Dem rejects calls for Obama impeachment over Libya

Exports and Imports

While the economy is still struggling, the United States is successfully exporting democratic ideals, and motivating citizens in oppressed countries to stand up to their oppressive governments and secure a measure of liberty and stability they have not yet known.  Unfortunately, via our capitalist and conservative political spheres, the United States is also importing authoritarian oppression at a fast pace, too.

In Tunisia, a republican movement of citizens and disenfranchised people voted with their feet and their hearts, toppling a dictator.  In Egypt, kindergarteners, children, adolescents, young adults, older adults and mature citizens gathered in peaceful protest, filling Tahrir Square in Cairo and in other cities, and pushed “President” Hosni Mubarak off their necks.  In Libya, Iran, Bahrain and Yemen, government of the people is becoming a popular refrain, where citizens fatigued with oppressive and corrupt regimes choose to lay down their lives by standing up for their rights to receive their due.  Democracy, it seems, is being exported.

Here in the United States, however, Republicans with a capital R seem to believe that the rights and responsibilities that citizens across the globe are exercising are “UnAmerican”.  In Wisconsin, public employees are being denied by the elected Republican governor and legislature their right to assemble (collective bargaining) and their right to petition for the redress of grievances.  Governor Walker has exaggerated a budget deficit in order to nullify their contract, and at the same time attempted to quell the voices of the workers by stripping them of the right to bargain collectively.

Much like the thugs hired by the Egyptian president, who stole US State Department vehicles in order to attack the peaceful revolutionaries in Tahrir Square, Governor Walker’s associates have bussed in thousands of actors, disguised as concerned citizens of the Tea Party Movement, to berate, confuse and antagonize the protestors (read: teachers, nurses, etc.) in Wisconsin.

The parallels – large numbers of economically challenged lower and middle class workers struggling peacefully to receive their just due from economically advantaged politicians and political actors – between the exported democratic ideals and the imported authoritarian oppression are clear and striking.

It’s important to realize, then, that in order to continue espousing our democratic ideals and speaking about the rights of the people, we must fight here in the United States to insure that they are not usurped by people whose priorities are money before people.

“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.” – Thomas Paine, 1777

Related Articles

• Paul Ryan: “It’s like Cairo has come to Wisconsin” (salon.com)
• Letters: Arab revolution creeps nearer to the oilfields (independent.co.uk)

Here, Death is Not the Issue

Rep. Gabrielle Gifford

This is why Sarah Palin is dangerous.  Her idiocy masked as “country first” rhetoric is code for poor, white people who are suffering and giving them someone to blame.  Today, that blame was placed on Representative Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona’s 8th district.  Representative Giffords has been doing her job, representing her constituents to the best of her abilities by voting for the Affordable Health Care for America Act because she believed it necessary to improve their lives.

Today, she was targeted for assassination and shot in the head, along with members of her staff and constituency.  But today wasn’t the first time she was placed in the crosshairs, both literally and figuratively.  Governor Palin’s “target map” had a gun scope placed over Representative Giffords’ district.  Giffords’ Tea Party-backed opponent placed an ad along which wanted to “remove Gabrielle Giffords shoot an M16”.

Sarah Palin, Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, author and professional idiot Glenn Beck and others have constantly over the last two years (note: Barack Obama was elected President of the United States a little over two years ago) been using imagery and language inciting violence against the political ideas which have proven more popular (by the only measure that matters – elections and legislation passed).  The unfortunate reality here is that the chickens are coming home to roost in the henhouses of their opponents.

The language of hate speech, of white disenfranchisement, of poverty as a condition caused by the government, that these particular individuals are getting rich spouting has born fruit.

I pray for Gabrielle Giffords as she battles for life.  I pray for those who lost their lives and are battling, and their families.  And I pray for our nation, which is lost and wandering in the darkness.

Related Articles

• Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords reported shot in Arizona, was on Palin’s infamous “target” map (boingboing.net)
• US Rep. Gabrielle Giffords Killed During Shooting At Event In Arizona (businessinsider.com)
• Gabrielle Giffords Shot: Congresswoman Reportedly Shot In Arizona (huffingtonpost.com)
• WorldofHiglet Team Frank: BBC News – US congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords shot in Arizona (bbc.co.uk)
• Rep. Gabrielle Giffords shot in Arizona (dailykos.com)

No One But the Enemy…

I’m a UCLA football fan.  I’m a registered Democrat.  Both at the moment are painful.

Watching USC and the Gallant Old Party strut around the field, lying, cheating and winning, pisses me off.  It makes me sad.  But both have one similar quality that I do admire, that I think both my alma mater and my political party leadership need to emulate (and which President Obama does well to his immediate political detriment, but hopefully to the long-term benefit of the nation) is this: long-term strategic planning.

USC has a stock of skill-position players (quarterbacks, runningbacks, receivers, etc.) who are in the wings, waiting for their opportunity. learning their positions and responsibilities in order to jump on the field running and achieve their immediate goals of winning games and their long term goals of creating a successful program.  The GOP has been planning since Nixon opened China their uber-capitalist, non-regulated, (apparent) socially conservative, racially segregated Contract On America.  Whether it is called the Moral Majority, the Contract for America, the Bush Presidencies, the Tea Party or Speaker of the House John Boehner, the step by step dismantling of civil rights under a cloak of traditional values and dismemberment of the social safety net for the poor and underemployed while screaming about budget deficits (money before people), the GOP is implementing their soul-crushing, cash-hoarding razing of America with precision.

Meanwhile, my Bruins are scrambling and struggling without a quarterback (haven’t really had one since Cade McNown left), hiring and firing coaches (watch out Coach Neuheisel – there’s a target on your back), changing offenses, defenses and not getting new players enough learning and training time before throwing them out on the field with older, stronger, smarter men to be pummeled into submission.  And my Democrats are cutting each other into ribbons, pointing fingers, eating their young, whining about what they haven’t accomplished, throwing out babies with bathwater (sorry, Governor Dean, your 50-state strategy was awesome but there’s the door), and trying to hang our collective failure to plan and implement on the most successful Democrat in the last fifteen years, Barack Obama.

Do you see the difference?

They’re planning and implementing thirty year plans (how else do you explain the line of qbs, rbs,and receivers in the National Football League?  or the John Roberts, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas Supreme Court which handed George Bush the presidency in 2000 based on “irreparable harm”?!) to implement their vision of what semi-pro football and the United States should be.

We’re going from year to year, from campaign to campaign, short-sightedly focused on immediate gains for people and failing to implement anything that lasts through the day after the election.  We’re recruiting one or two good players per year, playing them as freshmen, and then wondering why they don’t perform.  It’s painful to watch.  It’s death by a thousand cuts.

While I hate, hate, hate the Crimson and Gold, I grudgingly admire what they have been able to accomplish.  And while I abhor the stated values and goals of the Republican Party for this country, I have to admit that they have been out-strategizing us for at least a generation (really… they had in 2009 the minority in Congress, and they’ve been beating our asses with NO since then!) because they weren’t playing small ball.  They’ve trotted our John McCain as a presidential candidate, and he unleashed She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named – sideshow distractions while they pursued their political and economic agenda that we are dealing with now.

“I am your enemy, the first one you’ve ever had who was smarter than you.  There is no teacher but the enemy.  No one but the enemy will tell you what the enemy is going to do.  No one but the enemy will ever teach you how to destroy and conquer.  Only the enemy shows you where you are weak.  Only the enemy tells you where he is strong.  And the rules of the game are what you can do to him and what you can stop him from doing to you.  I am your enemy from now on.  From now on I am your teacher.”

-Mazer Rakam to Andrew Wiggin, Ender’s Game

The Bushlit of “New” Challenges

The midterm elections signaled to everyone that the party in power lost a chunk of it to the other party.  This has been happening in the United States since World War II.  And to shift the responsibility of bipartisan application of energy to the President of the United States who is in hot water with his own base for being TOO BIPARTISAN over the last two years instead of leaving it where it belongs with the Republicans elected to Congress who are working for his demise instead of the betterment of the United States and its citizens (“My number one goal is to make Obama a one-term president” – Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell) is ridiculous in the extreme.

It’s instances like this where Tim Russert is missed.

Today’s reporting on politics sounds much like Lakers and Celtics fans sitting together during last year’s NBA finals.  Everyone is talking about what might happen on the next shot, without any objective analysis of what is actually happening.

This President and this Congress under Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Reid have accomplished more than any Congress in history.  Taxes have been lowered for the majority of citizens, more citizens are insured and have health care, the economy has been SAVED and is headed in a good direction, yet the constant line on Fox, CNN and MSNBC (not to mention in print) is that the midterm elections were a referendum on President Obama’s agenda, and that now he’s responsible for working with the Republicans.

Many of the men consolidating their personal power in the Republican Party have been in Congress for over ten years.  Their participation in the step-by-step dissection of the economic foundation and political landscape, though, is being portrayed as “value driven”.  Their opposition to the President and the Democratic agenda over the last two years, full of crocodile tears and Pontius Pilate-hand washing, has been punctuated with apologies and promises to do better.

It’s their turn to be bipartisan.

The picture of President Obama on the phone with Representative Boehner, and the allegations that the latter thinks he can “work with the President” pissed me off to the extreme because THIS WHITE ORANGE MAN has been lying and obstructing every opportunity to be bipartisan in the last two years, when before that he was handing out lobbyists checks on the floor of the House of Representatives.

The pundit class has grown more in love with its own voice, and with spinning a new narrative every day based on conflict and gridlock rather than reporting the news.  The Republican Party has demonstrated, between unqualified candidates for office in California running under its banner and the vapid disdain its current leaders demonstrate with their lack of integrity, values, policy ideas or political interests other than the continuation of their own power, that it is not interested in the welfare of the United States, nor its citizens.

And that is not a new challenge for anyone.

I’m a Simple Guy

That being said, I’m struggling to understand a couple of political realities…

1. Why do the Democrats, who control both houses of Congress, need sixty votes to pass anything in the Senate?
2. How does a woman who gives speeches insulting the President’s use of a teleprompter do softball interviews with crib notes on her hand?
3. Why are politicians allowed to say things that are factually untrue without any consequence, either from the electorate or “the fourth estate” which is charged with brining us news?
4. How come being the adults in the room means Democrats have to bargain from the middle while Republicans can just whine and say NO?
5. Who the f&$ is Tom Tancredo, and why doesn’t he have to take a literacy test? or a citizenship test? or a history test?
6. When is Don’t Ask Don’t Tell going to be repealed?
7. Who’s the next minority group of citizens that will be legislatively discriminated against?
8. How long after reading Three Cups of Tea and Stones Into Schools will the Commander in Chief apply some of the basic ideas to our wars and struggles in Pakistan and Afghanistan?

Having moved to Twitter over the last several months, my political thoughts have become quick and fluid, and easily expressed in under 140 characters each.  But I’ve been watching Sen. Olympia Snowe, Rep. John Boehner, ex-Gov. Sarah Palin and others running around lying this week, while President Obama and Greg Mortenson and Richard Clarke are running around trying to accomplish, trying to help, trying to get things done.

That “hopey changey thing” that I voted for is working out for me just fine.  Maybe it’s just because I’m such a simple guy.

Is the President really bi?

On the left, they are moaning about the President’s extending a hand to the Republicans.  Letting them vent, putting in more tax cuts, cutting out “non-stimulative” portions of the Recovery package, are all signals that he values listening to his political adversaries than his allies.

On the right, they are crying about how the President said he was going to listen, but then he didn’t follow their directions, so he didn’t really mean it when he said he wanted their input.  Lindsey Graham’s bushlit argument that “the president has been awol” and has shown “zero leadership” is absurd in the extreme given the walks President Obama has taken over to both Republican caucuses.

In the media, the pundits and the journalists (and there is a difference) want to hold up the three Republican votes in both houses as “gotcha journalism” (did I really just quote Sarah Palin . . . I am slipping in the extreme) that proves the bipartisan effort is failing.

It was refreshing to see the President last night silence all of these noisemakers in one fell swoop.  At his first press conference, the President said the following: 

You know, when I made a series of overtures to the Republicans — going over to meet with both Republican caucuses; you know, putting three Republicans in my Cabinet, something that is unprecedented; making sure that they were invited here to the White House to talk about the economic recovery plan — all those were not designed simply to get some short-term votes. They were designed to try to build up some trust over time. And I think that as I continue to make these overtures, over time hopefully that will be reciprocated.

But understand the bottom line that I’ve got right now, which is what’s happening to the people of Elkhart and what’s happening across the country. I can’t afford to see Congress play the usual political games. What we have to do right now is deliver for the American people.”

That should put everyone on notice.  This isn’t a short-term game.  Much like his campaign for the office he now holds, Barack Obama is looking at this CHANGE in Washington with a long view.

He’s not abdicating to either his supporters or his opponents.  He’s not playing the one-second, one-minute, one-hour, one-day, twenty-four hour newscycle sudden death vote count with the fourth estate.
He’s building relationships, listening to all comers, and then making decisions which in his mind will reap the most rewards for those most directly affected.  It’s a new type of presidency.  It’s a new way to steward the country.

That’s what being bipartisan really means.

Bipartisanship Fetishism v. What’s Best For America

Obama plans regular press conferences

Robocalls pressure GOP senators to vote against stimulus

GOP group gets tough on Republicans who support stimulus

Stimulus plan is theft some lawmakers say

For House and Senate, it’s time to compromise

Filing Bankruptcy

The title is a double-entendre.

What with mounting credit card debt, missed lease payments on the cars, more expensive groceries, private school tuitions (with financial aid, mind you), rent – not mortgage, gas for the lease collateral, clothes for the children, and fewer deductions on our w-2s so we don’t end up with a “surprise note” and balloon payment from the IRS when we file in April, I feel like my wife and I should file for bankruptcy.  This economy sucks.  And we keep trying to pay stuff off without making more debt, but there’s simply too much month at the end of the money.  And my kids are spoiled – they like to eat at least three times a day, have a warm and dry place to sleep, shirts AND jackets AND underwear AND socks AND shoes when they go out of the house – I don’t know how they got that out of control.

Then there is the Republican Party.  Bereft of an economic theory that holds water, a chairman without ethical issues, a majority to ram through their “stimulative” tax cuts, a minority that likes or listens to each other, any credibility on foreign policy, infrastructure, small government, big government, any familiarity with the actual text of the Constitution, respect for the Bill of Rights, or any articulation besides the man who stole the presidency, Justice Scalia, I feel like they should file for bankruptcy, too.

From Ron Paul, who claims to be a Republican even though he can’t win anything even within the party; to John McCain, who managed to win only the right to be gobsmacked by the American populace for saying, “the fundamentals of the economy are strong,” (John, see above) and making the rest of us deal with that sad woman from the upper one; to Michael Steele, who’s proved that even black Republicans are ethically challenged; to John Boehner and Richard Shelby, who don’t have good ideas, but oppose everything like your foot kicks out when the doctor hits your knee with a hammer – by reflex; this sad crew is now turning on those members who actually want to help those of us in the first paragraph by passing the stimulus package sometime this year.

A little online research told me all I need to know about what happens when someone files bankruptcy:

The bankruptcy trustee will then begin the process of selling off your assets to pay your creditors.  You will likely be informed at this meeting that you are prohibited from selling, giving away or throwing away any of your property without the permission of the bankruptcy court.

This means that the Republicans won’t be able to stand there and distribute more bushlit about tax cuts and free markets righting themselves.  They don’t get to rename a stimulus bill a spending bill, when obviously the spending is what is supposed to stimulate the economy.  They don’t get to pretend they’re an inclusive party just because they’ve got one black friend, one female friend, one Indian friend and somebody in a log cabin.

There are a lot of people who are aching with the first paragraph, and unfortunately too many elephants bloated with the second.  The American people urged the Republicans to file for bankruptcy last year in November.

I hope they file before I have to.

Debate on stimulus to resume Monday

Payments to sister’s company were legitimate, Steele says

Stimulus will lead to ‘disaster’, Republican says

Indiana mayor says he’d put stimulus money to good use

Foreclosure fix: Obama’s options

SC Governor: We’re moving close to a ‘savior-based’ economy

Obama to stump for stimulus in Indiana

Florida Gov. to join Obama at stimulus town hall

Do We Still Need Black History Month?

When Carter G. Woodson created Negro History Week in 1926, the accomplishments of African Americans were often overlooked in the halls of academia, dismissed by Anglo and other Americans on the street, and stolen by history books written in white ink.  Take, for example, Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin.  There is ample evidence that his “invention” was actually devised by enslaved Africans, and he simply took credit.  But to many people, that statement is just black folks signifyin’.  When he was still funny, Eddie Murphy did a spoof about the creation of peanut butter by George Washington Carver, that was stolen by two white men who went on to reap untold fortunes.  Though lighthearted, it places the conversation into sharp relief:

Do we still need Black History Month?

I myself have battled back and forth, but I have the benefit of being on the front lines.  I teach American history, which means that I am assured that my students understand the history of the United States in red, white and blue, and in Red, White and Black.  So it is easy for me to argue that with the incorporation of black folk into mainstream American life, the animus which motivated Carter G. doesn’t necessarily motivate me in 2009.

But it’s also true that racism isn’t dead, that economic and political disparity between white and black Americans continue to exist, that black folk still don’t have their 40 acres and a mule, that ignorance, prejudice, discrimination and hate all have places in too many hearts, minds and souls in the twenty-first century.  And while I teach about Crispus Attucks, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois, Fannie Lou Hamer, Sally Hemmings, Phyllis Wheatley, Barack Obama, Colin Powell, Condoleeza Rice, Eric Holder, Jackie Robinson, Langston Hughes, Shirley Chisolm, Martin Luther King, Jr., Jesse Jackson, John Lewis, Joseph Lowery, Sojourner Truth, Cornell West, Michael Eric Dyson, Dick Gregory, Donna Brazille, Harriet Tubman, Louis Armstrong, Sidney Poitier, Andrew Young, and Michelle Obama, not everyone does or wants to.

Black history in America is the history of America.

That takes more than a month to celebrate, to learn, to understand, and to incorporate into perceptions, perspectives and daily lives.  But until we can be assured that students, young citizens, are learning to understand why the civil rights movement was as patriotic a demonstration of love of country as was the signing of the Declaration of Independence; why talking about black firsts continues an association with racial prejudice and social determination (because we don’t talk about white firsts, do we?); why putting a steele face on doesn’t equal inclusion, then we still need Black History Month.

Even while we are living that history.

Yes, We Still Need Black History Month

Top 5 MLK Speeches

Little Rock Nine set foundation for Obama

Grandson of Slaves: Obama is our Moses

Granddaughter of a Slave: I was afraid for Obama