Jeez...

As achingly bad as I want a clean Obama victory, I am not counting McCain out just yet, but seriously, WTF? If it weren't so deliciously ironic for the self-righteous, completely delusional McCain camp and his supporters, the news that Sarah Palin's teenage daughter is knocked up would almost be sad and unfortunate. Just like I couldn't care less and didn't understand what the big deal was over Britney Spears' sister, besides the fact that Sarah Palin was a desperate choice to sway Hilary voters (kiss that plan goodbye), I really don't give a damn that Bristol Palin, a girl from a moderately/very wealthy family who has unlimited access to acceptable pre-natal care and has the chance to raise a healthy, well educated kid is with child.
Obama (full of grace) said that children and families are off limits but revisiting the fact that the disenfranchised poor in this country will stay in their circumstances because they are basically screwed from birth due in large part to greedy republican ideology might not be a bad idea...

This election has taken it's strangest turn yet and I am loving the frantic spinning/justifying/bullshitting that the republican party is doing, not to mention every right wing pro life Christan group who has access to a computer. Making a less than accurate prediction that tomorrow, I will wake up to CNN breaking the news that Sarah Palin is in fact, a man. I mean, at this point, it's not entirely implausible.

This from the guy who starred in Anaconda

(Throwing my hands up to the heavens) God Bless free speech:

" Sen. Barack Obama has grown up with the teaching of very angry, militant white and black people: the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Louis Farrakhan, William Ayers and Rev. Michael Pfleger. We cannot say we are not affected by teachers who are militant and angry. We know too well that we become like them, and Mr. Obama will run this country in their mindset . . .

If Mr. Obama had his way, he would have pulled our troops from Iraq years ago and initiated an unprecedented bloodbath, turning over that country to the barbarianism of our enemies. With what he has openly stated about his plans for our military, and his lack of understanding about the true nature of our enemies, there’s not a cell in my body that can accept the idea that Mr. Obama can keep us safe from the terrorists around the world, and from Iran, which is making great strides toward getting the atomic bomb. And while a misleading portrait of Mr. Obama is being perpetrated by a media controlled by the Democrats, the Obama camp has sent out people to attack the greatness of Sen. John McCain, whose suffering and courage in a Hanoi prison camp is an American legend."

- As told by Jon Voight. I like Midnight Cowboy just as much as anyone, but really, shut the hell up.

Thanks to Crunk & Disorderly

The More Things Change....

Here we go again....I honestly don't know what to say or do anymore without becoming the enraged Black person everyone wants me to be, thinks I am, wishes I was, blah blah blah...this incredibly confusing, "it's cool to be un-PC, but still PC at the same time" era we live in is getting out of control. Did it ever occur to the snarky, (clever in their own heads) people at the New Yorker that they are giving way too many IQ points to a vast majority of Americans and so-called media savvy New Yorkers for that matter? That all the nutbag extremists who still think that the Obamas are closet terrorists won't take this magazine cover and run with it? What makes this so-called liberal magazine any different from the crazy assholes at Fox News? (see, they got me cussin')Or maybe that was the plan from the beginning. Perhaps all the "liberals" who come up with these gems are really hard-core republicans who are so frightened at the prospect of a Black president that they will go these extremes. Whatever the rationale behind this disgraceful "artwork", (Sorry, I'm not buying the satire angle) I am exhausted trying to wrap my head around why people are so resistant to change. It makes me very sad for this country and ALL the people who live in it.

Wtf Jesse Jackson?

(Sigh) Haven't been feeling really bloggy lately nor do I have the energy to tackle this one.

Scattered thoughts, Morning angriness

For the last time...it's a POUND! A DAP if you will...if I hear or read "fist bump"one more time I will (attempt) to scream for 12 hrs straight while simultaneously smacking someone, anyone within handshot upside the head. Why must the media make everything so damn cheesy? I mourn the loss of all the cool and funny things I used to say but now, sadly cannot because it has been adapted by "mainstream" America.

Let's start with the obvious...the Dap. Because it will inevitably turn into this:














The term ghetto:
While many people, Black, white, what have you, find this word offensive, I myself actually enjoyed using it quite a bit back in the day to fondly describe growing up in the projects and making ends meet in the most creative of ways. It's personal nostalgia for me because if you weren't well off growing up and your parents knew what they were doing, you had absolutely no idea that you were in an undesirable situation. (Doesn't everybody use a washcloth and baking soda to brush their teeth when there is no toothpaste or brush around? Hmmm...) I had to put a stop to my affection for the word when ghetto became synonymous with ignorant and when I heard some blonde girl on campus with a sorority shirt on using it completely out of context. "Oh My God! Jello Shots are so freakin' ghetto!" (sigh)

Hot mess:
The beginning of the end started with that God-awful BET show, which I hope is off the air by now. (I only watch the reruns of Different World and Different Strokes) Then along with "fierce", the gays began to use it in full force, which is actually okay because unlike most, when they say it, they mean it. But the term has been used and overused so much, that it's simply time for me to retire it, even though, growing up around Black women all my life, the term is permanently etched into my brain. Maybe I'll just use it on the inside.

On a completely different note, can I just say that Gore Vidal makes me smile? He's old, bitter, sassy, completely and ridiculously intelligent and he doesn't seem to outwardly like anybody or anything. What's not to love? I even liked him when he was being a complete ass in With Honors (Sort of good, very watchable early nineties film). Turns out, he was just being himself. Genius!

link via Gawker

This is it

Not too long ago, I had the unique opportunity to teach. Some of my kids were absolute angels, others most likely have three numbers tattooed somewhere on their heads. Even though for the most part it was cool, the one thing that bugged me about teaching was that you learn sometimes people need to hear the truth, not what's polite. Like when a kid was out of control and I had to say to a parent: "He has an extremely high energy level and sometimes it's distracting to other students." Bullshit. "Your child has no attention span because all you do is get him hopped up on sugar and violent video games, and honestly, you're not that good of a parent." See the difference? That's the truth.

This is why I think for the sake of this country's sanity someone from the DNC needs to step it up, pull Hilary into a small enclosed space (Where she can't escape) and talk some sense into her. Real Talk, not "Uh, maybe it's time to hang it up" talk. Yes, Obama is the nominee and deservedly so, but imagine how much more of an impact this news would have had if she did the right thing and conceded, maybe convincing some of her less informed voters from states that shall remain nameless that he is the only logical choice for the presidency. Any teacher can tell you, human behavior doesn't change form, just shape. Right now, Hilary is throwing a big fat tantrum.

I'm sorry but it's funny, leave me alone.

I will be hitting (forgive me as my hands shake while I type) the big 3-0 next month. Mentally, it's like yay! I'm older and wiser and smarter and sexier and funnier, I hope. Chronologically it's more like f**k, this concept of time is actually sort of real and I'm caught up in it and there's not a damn thing I can do about it. This is why I am so glad I have the power to amuse myself and lower my good taste and decorum from time to time. I mean, if I can't laugh at the fact that my dog farted so bad in Petland the other day that it kind of made me gag and I had to convince the sales girl for three minutes that it wasn't me, than what good is living?

So I say please forgive me for picking on poor Robert Creamer...I'll give you a moment. He's a very good writer for the Huff Po. His articles about politics and the current election are dead on and insightful. Despite all that, I can never get past the byline without losing it, as I mentioned in my last myspace blog, which is considerably less refined than this one. But Seriously, WTF is up with that Simpson/South Parkesque surname? I am soooo googling the origins of it, assuming it's not NSFW. I kind of hate myself for inserting two web abbreviations phrase thingies. Oh well.

links via Huffington Post, Myspace, South Park Studios

Tell it, Barack.

In a recent session of a Media Theory class I'm taking for grad school, the inevitable subject of race and gender popped up. My class has (surprisingly...I'm used to being the only one) more than a few Black students but that day, I was the only one to show up. The question of whether things were getting better in this country was asked. The white students were tight- lipped. I got anxious, trying to form the right words in my head so as not to offend anybody.

Do I say what I really feel and become the angry black woman to a bunch of kids who up until know only knew me as the amiable girl who watched way too many eighties movies? Do I play it safe and give an optimistic, idealistic answer but then kick myself hours later on the train as I replay the answer in my head over and over again but still maintain my status as "safe" with the white students in my class?

Everyone was poised, looking at me to deliver the answer. I ultimately spoke my mind, I got funny looks, uncomfortable silence. And I felt strange afterwards. Not only did I out myself as someone who is very angry about the world I live in, but I also made my classmates think that all Black people think this way. Of course, all of this is in my head, I might never know what they really think of me, but the constant frustration and yes, (shock of all shocks) anger and stunted hope that comes with being a person of color in this country is very real. I am not too sensitive and no, I do not need to get over it. I am not living in the past, nor do I want to ever forget it. I would be lying if I said that much of what Jeremiah Wright didn't strike a chord in me, made me proud someone was speaking up. Just like I would be lying if I said that I didn't sometimes stereotype some white people without truly knowing them first. This speech honestly brought a few tears to my eyes. Empty, naive rhetoric? I think it's time to put that accusation to rest.

Yay

Congratulations to David Paterson on being sworn in as my state's new, first ever Black governor. Everyone seems to like him so that's encouraging.

2008 is going by too slow....

Both of my best friends/ roommates in college were economics majors. They used to talk about "the market" and business trends and patterns and when I was listening, it was always like: heh? I am chronically right-brained and have never really thought about this elusive thing called the economy mostly because it involves numbers and those things make my head hurt. Anyway, all of a sudden, the economy is everywhere, you can't turn on the TV or open a paper or turn to NY1 without it being the top story when they do NY minute. (Love that!)

So I suspected something was fishy when some guy who apparently controls ALL the money started changing interest rates and the banks were just starting to feel the sub-prime mortgage disaster (for the record, I was aware of that because most of the people losing their houses on the East Coast were Black & Latino) and now, Bear Stearns is going extinct and we are on the verge or are already in a recession. If things get any worse, I might have to dust off my K1000 and shoot for the WPA. OK my bad, that wasn't funny.

Anyway, last week, after waiting for a bus that never came and then stuck in traffic in a cab on the West Side Highway for thirty minutes I realized that Bush was in town and then realizing that I hardly ever think about him anymore gave me a bit of hope until 1010 Wins gave the details of his speech. Apparently, nothing is wrong with the economy and people need to lighten up. Thanks for that, George W. Between the war that's going so well, and American tax dollars having to help fix a trillion-dollar deficit, everything is roses and I needed him to come all the way to NYC, screw up traffic all afternoon to tell me that. The worst part is I can't help but feeling his giddy optimism isn't a Nero fiddling while Rome burns type of thing but more of a: whew, whoever has to clean up this mess is really up shit's creek type of thing. This guy needs a smack, seriously. Eliot Spitzer could use some of what he's smoking right about now.

links via: NY Times, Huffington Post, AP

It's not over yet...

Hillary won three states, Obama is still in the lead. My least favorite subject in school could be the big decider...not settling for a dream ticket just yet.