I have refused to watch the political pundits try to convince
the American public that President Barack Obama has to retreat from
his campaign promises, because of the victory of a Republican bimbo who won the election in a New England State, that was never as liberal as its purported. Remember the violent retribution against busing in Boston in the seventies?
Then I saw Senate Leader Harry Reid, who is fighting for his political life, insinuate that Health Care was now on the back burner because of Tuesday's election.
It was the statement of a gutless leader of a gutless Democratic Senate.
So, let me get this right: Now that the Democrats are down to 59 seats in the Senate, suddenly Health Care Reform is doomed?
I admit that I am a country lawyer who does not understand a lot of
this complicated national politics, but if you can't push through your agenda
by controlling 59 votes, then you don't deserve the power that the voters gave you a year ago.
Mr. President, you have said that you did not come to Washington to do
little things. And, to your credit, you have taken on major issues. I cannot
believe that you did not know there were going to be losses along the
way. As an African-American who is keenly aware of, and is proud of your
history, you understand that struggle has never been easy.
So, don't follow Rahm Emmanuel's advice to move to the
center. Bill Clinton did and he had a successful presidency that
achieved a lot of little things.
America needs more from you.
In your upcoming State Of The Union Speech, take the opportunity to
remind America why you ran and why it is important we keep pushing to
do BIG things.
Mr. President, I can certainly understand your noble desire to reach across the aisle, but brother these folks have drug you into an alley fight.
Now, as a country lawyer, I completely understand alley fights. If someone steps on your toe, you cut him. If he cuts you, you shoot him. And if he shoots you, you send one of his in the morgue. Funny, I thought that was the "Chicago way," too.
Showing posts with label barack hussein obama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label barack hussein obama. Show all posts
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Do As I Say And Not As I Do
The nomination of Judge Sonya Sotomayor has sent conservative white men into a tizzy. You would think that their domination of the United States Supreme Court for the past 200 hundred years would make the first appointment of a Latina go down a little more smoothly.
When President Obama announced Sotomayor's nomination, Rush Limbaugh called her a racist. Then Pat Buchannan of MSNBC followed Limbaugh's ignorance by calling Sotomayor a "quota queen," an "affirmative action baby" and whatever other incendiary language from the cultural wars of the 1980's his warped mind could muster.
This morning I listened to Jeff Sessions, the ranking Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, question Sotomayor. His lips dripping with the bitterness of fake disenfranchisement, that seems to be the ideology of new Republican Party, he nevertheless failed to ask one literate question of the soon-to-be-appointed Supreme Court Justice. Instead, he attempted to repeatedly paint Sotomayor as a racist who would favor brown people over true Americans –translation white males.
Sessions consistently opined about "our great history of blind justice in America" and, he surmised that Judges do not bring their personal views to the interpretation of the law. That was about as disingenuous a statement as Dick Cheney saying we did not torture.
Judges, beginning with the United States Supreme Court, filtering down to the State Level, interpret the law based on their personal life experiences and political ideology. As a trial lawyer who has litigated hundreds of cases, I learned to shape my legal strategy based on the Judge's ideology and personal biases. Every trial lawyer does so, regardless of the Judge’s ethnicity.
Moreover, no President has ever appointed a Supreme Court Justice who did not, initially, share his view of the world, blind justice be dammed. To suggest otherwise, is to deny history and insult the intelligence of the American public.
Sessions' assertion of our great history of blind justice is the last grasp of conservatives who are slowly losing power, attempting to rewrite the history before they exit the national stage.
A review of court decisions over the first 200-year history of America demonstrates how blind justice was applied to minority citizens. Plessey v. Ferguson was not a blind application of the law. It was the white majority of Justices blindly applying their moral view that separate but equal was constitutional. That decision stood for over 60 years.
In 1911, the City of Richmond Virginia prosecuted and convicted a black woman, Mary S. Hopkins, for violating the city’s segregation ordinance after she moved into a predominantly white neighborhood. The Supreme Court of Virginia held that the ordinance of Richmond did not violate the United States Constitution.
In 1938, Charles Hamilton Houston, the brilliant black lawyer who laid the foundation for Brown v. Board of Education, argued a landmark desegregation case before the Supreme Court. During Houston's oral argument, Supreme Court Justice James McReynolds turned his back on Houston and stared at the wall of the courtroom. Houston would subsequently train Thurgood Marshall at Howard University, a school McReynolds referred to as that "nigger university in Washington D.C. "
In a 1990 Law Review Article, Judge Leon Higginbotham noted that in the not too distant past, appellate courts have upheld convictions, despite prosecutors' references to black defendants and witnesses in such racist terms as "black rascal," "burr-headed nigger," "mean negro," "big nigger," "pickaninny," "mean nigger," "three nigger men," "niggers," and "nothing but just a common Negro", and a "black whore."
In 1943 the Supreme Court held that it was constitutional to continue to hold innocent Japanese American citizens in internment camps on the West Coast, siding with the Government that Japanese citizens imposed a security risk. Forget the morality of the ruling, it came long after Japan posed a risk to the West Coast of America. Later Justice Hugo Black, who had written the majority opinion, stated in an interview: "People were rightly fearful of the Japanese, they all look alike to a person not a Jap."
As recently as 1986 in Bowers v. Hardwick, the Supreme Court held that the state of Georgia could punish its gay citizens for sexual acts that heterosexual couples could perform without fear of arrest. Justice Byron White, writing for the majority, stated that the court was deferring "to the belief of a majority of the electorate in Georgia that homosexual sodomy is immoral and unacceptable." White based his opinion on the "ancient roots" of criminal penalties for sodomy.
Justice Henry Blackman writing for the four dissenters, who included Thurgood Marshall, accused the majority of hiding their homophobia behind the cloak of history. In his dissent, Blackman quoted former Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes: "It is revolting to have no better reason for a rule of law than that so it was laid down in the time of Henry IV. "
When the parents of the current President of the United States got married in the state of Virginia, the interracial couple would have been prosecuted for violation of the Racial Integrity Act of 1924. The Virginia Supreme Court, as late as 1966, said the law was consistent with the federal constitution because of the overriding state’s interest in the institution of marriage.
On today's Supreme Court sits seven white men; an Afro-Saxon and a woman. None of the white male justices ever felt the heavy weight of being treated different because of their race, gender or sexual preference.
Justice Thomas was appointed because he long ago abandoned any "empathy" for people born in his lot in life. Thomas' views mirrors his fellow white conservatives, both socially and politically.
President Barack Obama’s recently delivered a hour-long speech in Cairo that reflected his Afro-Centric view of the world. That does not mean the president is pro-black or for that matter, pro anything.
It simply means that he stands on the world stage, shaped by living his life as a person of color. He rightfully expects that Justice Sotomayor will bring balance to the court through her life experience as a Latina who has smelled the stench of poverty in a Bronx Housing Project, dealt with language barriers and lived 54 years as a person of color in America.
I suspect Judge Sotomayor will apply the law equally and without bias as much as humanly possible. But when those justices sit around that big round table, discussing the great issues of the day, I hope Justice Sotomayor will remind those six white men and the Afro-Saxon of a non-deniable fact: That Lady Justice may have a blindfold over her eyes, but she has peeked from under it over the decades when Native Americans, African-Americans, Asians, Gays and other minorities petitioned her for justice.
For all of America’s history, justice has been filtered through the lens of privileged white men, who, with few exceptions, shaped the law to benefit white men of privilege. The 21st Century requires that justice now be inspected through the lens of the beautiful tapestry of America’s diversity. We not only need Lady Justice to be blind, but we want her to be fair.
When President Obama announced Sotomayor's nomination, Rush Limbaugh called her a racist. Then Pat Buchannan of MSNBC followed Limbaugh's ignorance by calling Sotomayor a "quota queen," an "affirmative action baby" and whatever other incendiary language from the cultural wars of the 1980's his warped mind could muster.
This morning I listened to Jeff Sessions, the ranking Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, question Sotomayor. His lips dripping with the bitterness of fake disenfranchisement, that seems to be the ideology of new Republican Party, he nevertheless failed to ask one literate question of the soon-to-be-appointed Supreme Court Justice. Instead, he attempted to repeatedly paint Sotomayor as a racist who would favor brown people over true Americans –translation white males.
Sessions consistently opined about "our great history of blind justice in America" and, he surmised that Judges do not bring their personal views to the interpretation of the law. That was about as disingenuous a statement as Dick Cheney saying we did not torture.
Judges, beginning with the United States Supreme Court, filtering down to the State Level, interpret the law based on their personal life experiences and political ideology. As a trial lawyer who has litigated hundreds of cases, I learned to shape my legal strategy based on the Judge's ideology and personal biases. Every trial lawyer does so, regardless of the Judge’s ethnicity.
Moreover, no President has ever appointed a Supreme Court Justice who did not, initially, share his view of the world, blind justice be dammed. To suggest otherwise, is to deny history and insult the intelligence of the American public.
Sessions' assertion of our great history of blind justice is the last grasp of conservatives who are slowly losing power, attempting to rewrite the history before they exit the national stage.
A review of court decisions over the first 200-year history of America demonstrates how blind justice was applied to minority citizens. Plessey v. Ferguson was not a blind application of the law. It was the white majority of Justices blindly applying their moral view that separate but equal was constitutional. That decision stood for over 60 years.
In 1911, the City of Richmond Virginia prosecuted and convicted a black woman, Mary S. Hopkins, for violating the city’s segregation ordinance after she moved into a predominantly white neighborhood. The Supreme Court of Virginia held that the ordinance of Richmond did not violate the United States Constitution.
In 1938, Charles Hamilton Houston, the brilliant black lawyer who laid the foundation for Brown v. Board of Education, argued a landmark desegregation case before the Supreme Court. During Houston's oral argument, Supreme Court Justice James McReynolds turned his back on Houston and stared at the wall of the courtroom. Houston would subsequently train Thurgood Marshall at Howard University, a school McReynolds referred to as that "nigger university in Washington D.C. "
In a 1990 Law Review Article, Judge Leon Higginbotham noted that in the not too distant past, appellate courts have upheld convictions, despite prosecutors' references to black defendants and witnesses in such racist terms as "black rascal," "burr-headed nigger," "mean negro," "big nigger," "pickaninny," "mean nigger," "three nigger men," "niggers," and "nothing but just a common Negro", and a "black whore."
In 1943 the Supreme Court held that it was constitutional to continue to hold innocent Japanese American citizens in internment camps on the West Coast, siding with the Government that Japanese citizens imposed a security risk. Forget the morality of the ruling, it came long after Japan posed a risk to the West Coast of America. Later Justice Hugo Black, who had written the majority opinion, stated in an interview: "People were rightly fearful of the Japanese, they all look alike to a person not a Jap."
As recently as 1986 in Bowers v. Hardwick, the Supreme Court held that the state of Georgia could punish its gay citizens for sexual acts that heterosexual couples could perform without fear of arrest. Justice Byron White, writing for the majority, stated that the court was deferring "to the belief of a majority of the electorate in Georgia that homosexual sodomy is immoral and unacceptable." White based his opinion on the "ancient roots" of criminal penalties for sodomy.
Justice Henry Blackman writing for the four dissenters, who included Thurgood Marshall, accused the majority of hiding their homophobia behind the cloak of history. In his dissent, Blackman quoted former Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes: "It is revolting to have no better reason for a rule of law than that so it was laid down in the time of Henry IV. "
When the parents of the current President of the United States got married in the state of Virginia, the interracial couple would have been prosecuted for violation of the Racial Integrity Act of 1924. The Virginia Supreme Court, as late as 1966, said the law was consistent with the federal constitution because of the overriding state’s interest in the institution of marriage.
On today's Supreme Court sits seven white men; an Afro-Saxon and a woman. None of the white male justices ever felt the heavy weight of being treated different because of their race, gender or sexual preference.
Justice Thomas was appointed because he long ago abandoned any "empathy" for people born in his lot in life. Thomas' views mirrors his fellow white conservatives, both socially and politically.
President Barack Obama’s recently delivered a hour-long speech in Cairo that reflected his Afro-Centric view of the world. That does not mean the president is pro-black or for that matter, pro anything.
It simply means that he stands on the world stage, shaped by living his life as a person of color. He rightfully expects that Justice Sotomayor will bring balance to the court through her life experience as a Latina who has smelled the stench of poverty in a Bronx Housing Project, dealt with language barriers and lived 54 years as a person of color in America.
I suspect Judge Sotomayor will apply the law equally and without bias as much as humanly possible. But when those justices sit around that big round table, discussing the great issues of the day, I hope Justice Sotomayor will remind those six white men and the Afro-Saxon of a non-deniable fact: That Lady Justice may have a blindfold over her eyes, but she has peeked from under it over the decades when Native Americans, African-Americans, Asians, Gays and other minorities petitioned her for justice.
For all of America’s history, justice has been filtered through the lens of privileged white men, who, with few exceptions, shaped the law to benefit white men of privilege. The 21st Century requires that justice now be inspected through the lens of the beautiful tapestry of America’s diversity. We not only need Lady Justice to be blind, but we want her to be fair.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Iran, Iraq and Cairo
First America shocked the world and itself by electing an African as President. Now millions of Iranian citizens, in a 48 hour period, obliterated the stereotype of a Middle-Eastern country filled with jihadists.
This simplistic image of a country that has historically incorporated western ideals was propagated by neo-cons to justify their unilateral pursuit of the war in Iraq. And it is apparent, from the unfolding events in Iraq, that a majority of Iranians did not despise America; they just hate the Bush administration.
Over the last several days, the world has witnesses a digital mosaic of peaceful people marching silently, but demanding that their voices be heard. Iranian citizens are tweeting and texting, risking life and limb to keep the ember of Democracy lit in Iran.
The Iranians have reminded the world that most people want self-determination in some form of a Democratic system. It is amazing how often in the face of repression, these fires burn, and even more astounding, is how often the world appears caught off guard when it happens.
In Iran, a bearded, unsophisticated, political troglodyte, military and radical clerics, are trying desperately to hold onto the 1979 revolution. They are facing a determined citizenry, driven by young Iranians fighting, not with weapons but with online social networks. This revolution is not being televised, it is being tweeted.
In many ways what’s happening in Iran is an affirmation of George Bush’s belief that Democracy can flourish in the Middle-East, if given a chance. It would be naive not to acknowledge that Iranians watching millions of Iraqis lining up to vote did not have an impact on how they view the transfer of political power. It does not matter whether the elections were flawed and rife with corruption; there is something about the birth of Democracy –even in a primitive form- that is compelling.
Unfortunately for Iraq and the United States, Bush did not understand that Democracy cannot be imposed from the outside by a superpower. Freedom does not start with shock and awe. It starts with one man or woman looking in a mirror and saying: "Today I am going to be free." When a critical mass of these individuals coalesce around an event or personality, you have revolution. Freedom is born inside the individual and not in a war room in the basement of the White House.
It is also naïve to not believe that Barack Obama's speech in Cairo altered the political debate in the Middle East. When Obama spoke in Cairo, he was not seen as the leader of the United States or even the West. He was, and is the most influential political figure in the Muslim world.
Barack Obama is an African. He walks like an African, talk likes an African and, most important for the rest of the world, he thinks like an African. To Muslims, he is one of them. I am not talking about the conspiratorial right-wing fantasy that he is a Muslim parading as a Christian. Nor am I saying Obama is pro-Palestinian or, for that matter, pro anything. Obama has this mythical quality of being a human slate that different groups can project their stories.
Consequently, Muslims see Obama as an honest broker, because he has lived his life as an African who has immersed himself in its history and culture. When he speaks of Palestinian pain, it is authentic because he carries that same hurt inside. We Africans, whether we are oppressed in the suburbs of Paris, the slums of Brazil, the white beaches of the Caribbean or the ghettos of California, all carry within us the damage of displacement. For all of us living in the Diaspora, history has carved a hole in our hearts that can never be filled. Meshell Ndegocello described it as "crying like a baby that has been snatched away."
Many Muslims see Obama's rise, from humble beginnings, to leader of the greatest power in the world, as a vision of hope. I am not talking about a corny political slogan. True hope is often born out of suffering. It is optimism in the face of overwhelming despair.
David Brooks and others criticized Obama because, in directing the Palestinians away from violence, he invoked the struggle of black Americans. Brooks implied that the Palestinian problem did not have the moral equivalency of the civil rights struggle. First of all, how the hell does he know, having never walked in either shoes? But what Obama was saying is that the world will stand with you in a peaceful non-violent struggle. The opposition leaders in Iran have been Ghandi-like in ensuring that the mass marches across the country be peaceful and silent.
In Iran, it does not matter whether the ruling clerics and military snuff out the demonstrations and force Democracy underground; their downfall has already been sealed. What America restated to the world in 2008 is that Democracy, at its darkest hour, has the ability to transform itself. It just may be that Democracy is the first great pandemic of the 21st century. You see Democracy, like twitter is viral.
This simplistic image of a country that has historically incorporated western ideals was propagated by neo-cons to justify their unilateral pursuit of the war in Iraq. And it is apparent, from the unfolding events in Iraq, that a majority of Iranians did not despise America; they just hate the Bush administration.
Over the last several days, the world has witnesses a digital mosaic of peaceful people marching silently, but demanding that their voices be heard. Iranian citizens are tweeting and texting, risking life and limb to keep the ember of Democracy lit in Iran.
The Iranians have reminded the world that most people want self-determination in some form of a Democratic system. It is amazing how often in the face of repression, these fires burn, and even more astounding, is how often the world appears caught off guard when it happens.
In Iran, a bearded, unsophisticated, political troglodyte, military and radical clerics, are trying desperately to hold onto the 1979 revolution. They are facing a determined citizenry, driven by young Iranians fighting, not with weapons but with online social networks. This revolution is not being televised, it is being tweeted.
In many ways what’s happening in Iran is an affirmation of George Bush’s belief that Democracy can flourish in the Middle-East, if given a chance. It would be naive not to acknowledge that Iranians watching millions of Iraqis lining up to vote did not have an impact on how they view the transfer of political power. It does not matter whether the elections were flawed and rife with corruption; there is something about the birth of Democracy –even in a primitive form- that is compelling.
Unfortunately for Iraq and the United States, Bush did not understand that Democracy cannot be imposed from the outside by a superpower. Freedom does not start with shock and awe. It starts with one man or woman looking in a mirror and saying: "Today I am going to be free." When a critical mass of these individuals coalesce around an event or personality, you have revolution. Freedom is born inside the individual and not in a war room in the basement of the White House.
It is also naïve to not believe that Barack Obama's speech in Cairo altered the political debate in the Middle East. When Obama spoke in Cairo, he was not seen as the leader of the United States or even the West. He was, and is the most influential political figure in the Muslim world.
Barack Obama is an African. He walks like an African, talk likes an African and, most important for the rest of the world, he thinks like an African. To Muslims, he is one of them. I am not talking about the conspiratorial right-wing fantasy that he is a Muslim parading as a Christian. Nor am I saying Obama is pro-Palestinian or, for that matter, pro anything. Obama has this mythical quality of being a human slate that different groups can project their stories.
Consequently, Muslims see Obama as an honest broker, because he has lived his life as an African who has immersed himself in its history and culture. When he speaks of Palestinian pain, it is authentic because he carries that same hurt inside. We Africans, whether we are oppressed in the suburbs of Paris, the slums of Brazil, the white beaches of the Caribbean or the ghettos of California, all carry within us the damage of displacement. For all of us living in the Diaspora, history has carved a hole in our hearts that can never be filled. Meshell Ndegocello described it as "crying like a baby that has been snatched away."
Many Muslims see Obama's rise, from humble beginnings, to leader of the greatest power in the world, as a vision of hope. I am not talking about a corny political slogan. True hope is often born out of suffering. It is optimism in the face of overwhelming despair.
David Brooks and others criticized Obama because, in directing the Palestinians away from violence, he invoked the struggle of black Americans. Brooks implied that the Palestinian problem did not have the moral equivalency of the civil rights struggle. First of all, how the hell does he know, having never walked in either shoes? But what Obama was saying is that the world will stand with you in a peaceful non-violent struggle. The opposition leaders in Iran have been Ghandi-like in ensuring that the mass marches across the country be peaceful and silent.
In Iran, it does not matter whether the ruling clerics and military snuff out the demonstrations and force Democracy underground; their downfall has already been sealed. What America restated to the world in 2008 is that Democracy, at its darkest hour, has the ability to transform itself. It just may be that Democracy is the first great pandemic of the 21st century. You see Democracy, like twitter is viral.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Wanda Land At The White House
Keith Olberman and others believe Wanda Sykes crossed the line with several of her jokes at the White House Correspondence Dinner. Now ain't that the pot calling the kettle black? Olberman cited Sykes' jokes about Rush Limbaugh and 9/11 and even Sykes' reference to the president as a mulatto as being in poor taste.
First of all, Wanda absolutely killed and I have no doubt her routine will be viewed in the future as classic political satire. Second, Sykes did not joke about 9/11, she made fun of Rush Limbaugh. The American public has shown, again and again, that it really is populated by a lot of grown-ups and it can tell the difference. There is not a person I talked with Monday morning who was not still cracking up as they recanted the best lines of the night.
The problem is: white elites are the ones who still have the power to tell us what is acceptable or not. If they don’t get the punch line, then it is not "proper."
Black comedy, by nature, is edgy. It replaced Jewish comedy in that department about 35 years ago, when a young comic savant named Richard Pryor burst onto the scene.
Even President Obama's performance Saturday night brought some of that edge from the street. His ragging on Michael Steele was a classic example. When America elected a black president, it also brought a new cultural sensibility front and center. The one thing that is quite evident about the Obamas is that culturally, they are unabashedly and unapologetically black.
Olberman should have been more outraged that Ms Sykes appearance marked the first time a black female gay comedian had headlined the event. Do you think her appearance had anything to do with new guy in the White House?
The point that Olberman and others missed is that Wanda Sykes was damn funny and that is the true test of a joke. You could hear the tension in the room as the guests tried their best not to laugh. As Wanda said “you laughing inside.”
First of all, Wanda absolutely killed and I have no doubt her routine will be viewed in the future as classic political satire. Second, Sykes did not joke about 9/11, she made fun of Rush Limbaugh. The American public has shown, again and again, that it really is populated by a lot of grown-ups and it can tell the difference. There is not a person I talked with Monday morning who was not still cracking up as they recanted the best lines of the night.
The problem is: white elites are the ones who still have the power to tell us what is acceptable or not. If they don’t get the punch line, then it is not "proper."
Black comedy, by nature, is edgy. It replaced Jewish comedy in that department about 35 years ago, when a young comic savant named Richard Pryor burst onto the scene.
Even President Obama's performance Saturday night brought some of that edge from the street. His ragging on Michael Steele was a classic example. When America elected a black president, it also brought a new cultural sensibility front and center. The one thing that is quite evident about the Obamas is that culturally, they are unabashedly and unapologetically black.
Olberman should have been more outraged that Ms Sykes appearance marked the first time a black female gay comedian had headlined the event. Do you think her appearance had anything to do with new guy in the White House?
The point that Olberman and others missed is that Wanda Sykes was damn funny and that is the true test of a joke. You could hear the tension in the room as the guests tried their best not to laugh. As Wanda said “you laughing inside.”
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
What Is Good For The Goose, Is Good For The Gander
District Attorney: Your Honor, I would like to call the matter of State vs. Pookie Johnson that is on for a Motion To Reconsider his sentence. He is present with his Counsel Larry English.
The Court: Good Morning Mr. English, according to the record I sentenced Mr. Johnson to fifteen years for distributing Schedule II, Cocaine. Please tell me why I should reconsider his sentence:
Mr. English: Well your honor it appears that our beloved President has passed a new law that we are not looking back and that for the good of the country. We don’t prosecute crimes anymore.
The Court: Mr. English that is ridiculous and I am thinking about holding you in contempt for wasting the court time.
Mr. English: With all due respect your Honor, all my client did was sell a little cocaine:
District Attorney: Excuse me your Honor, Pookie Johnson was a major drug dealer in the city, and he distributed hundreds of kilos of cocaine.
Mr. English: None of that was ever proven, and before I was so rudely interrupted, the President has said that even if you violate International law and the Constitution by torturing people, that it is best for the country if we just move on. Your Honor, Mr. Johnson may have done some bad thing, but he has been taking bible classes and leading his fellow inmates in prayer service. And we believe the court should reduce his sentence. It is time to move on your honor.
The Court: That’s it Mr. English I am fining you $100.00
Mr. English: Your Honor, please hear me out. Mr. Johnson was just following orders. He started selling drugs when he was 14 years old. Ray-Ray, who he worked for told him that selling cocaine was legal. And he is only 18 years old and he never knew that selling drugs was illegal, he was just following orders. The President of the United States has taken the position that ever though CIA operatives were grown men, and they had to know that water boarding was torture. They just followed orders and they should not be prosecuted. I agree with the President and Pookie Johnson does also.
The Court: That is the most ridiculous argument I have ever heard a lawyer make in my court room.
Mr. English: But your Honor you would agree with me that no one should be above the law. And if the law is willing to look away, when the CIA breaks the law, should it not afford Pookie Johnson the same treatment and look away when he sells a little cocaine.
The Court: Mr. English not only am I not going to look away, I am going to send you away with a $500.00 fine for contempt of court. Motion To Reconsider denied. And Mr. English.
Mr. English: Yes your honor
The Court: Take it up with the President. Next Case.
The Court: Good Morning Mr. English, according to the record I sentenced Mr. Johnson to fifteen years for distributing Schedule II, Cocaine. Please tell me why I should reconsider his sentence:
Mr. English: Well your honor it appears that our beloved President has passed a new law that we are not looking back and that for the good of the country. We don’t prosecute crimes anymore.
The Court: Mr. English that is ridiculous and I am thinking about holding you in contempt for wasting the court time.
Mr. English: With all due respect your Honor, all my client did was sell a little cocaine:
District Attorney: Excuse me your Honor, Pookie Johnson was a major drug dealer in the city, and he distributed hundreds of kilos of cocaine.
Mr. English: None of that was ever proven, and before I was so rudely interrupted, the President has said that even if you violate International law and the Constitution by torturing people, that it is best for the country if we just move on. Your Honor, Mr. Johnson may have done some bad thing, but he has been taking bible classes and leading his fellow inmates in prayer service. And we believe the court should reduce his sentence. It is time to move on your honor.
The Court: That’s it Mr. English I am fining you $100.00
Mr. English: Your Honor, please hear me out. Mr. Johnson was just following orders. He started selling drugs when he was 14 years old. Ray-Ray, who he worked for told him that selling cocaine was legal. And he is only 18 years old and he never knew that selling drugs was illegal, he was just following orders. The President of the United States has taken the position that ever though CIA operatives were grown men, and they had to know that water boarding was torture. They just followed orders and they should not be prosecuted. I agree with the President and Pookie Johnson does also.
The Court: That is the most ridiculous argument I have ever heard a lawyer make in my court room.
Mr. English: But your Honor you would agree with me that no one should be above the law. And if the law is willing to look away, when the CIA breaks the law, should it not afford Pookie Johnson the same treatment and look away when he sells a little cocaine.
The Court: Mr. English not only am I not going to look away, I am going to send you away with a $500.00 fine for contempt of court. Motion To Reconsider denied. And Mr. English.
Mr. English: Yes your honor
The Court: Take it up with the President. Next Case.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Just Don't Embarass Us
The Rev. Henry J. Lyons, former president of National Black Baptist Convention USA was forced to resign after his wife burned down Lyons' and his girlfriend's million dollar condo. I asked my cousin, who was a prominent pastor, what he thought about it. His response: "We gave our president of the convention unlimited power to steal and fornicate, all we asked was that he did not embarrass us."
As Congress feigns its outrage – Congress lately leads the world in outrage - over the AIG bailouts, I can't help but be reminded of my cousin's comments. For decades Congress has been the equivalent of street whores – no offense to the street whores- for Wall Street's excess. Every attempt to regulate the financial markets was seen as an assault on capitalism and the American way. They bullied regulators on behalf of their wealthy Wall Street Pimps and when that did not work, they simply gutted the regulations. Details are now coming out that regulations that would have banned bonuses were mysteriously stripped out of the TARP legislation in Committee.
I have been watching these hypocrites in congressional hearings today shift the blame over AIG bonuses to the Obama Administration and present AIG CEO Edward M. Liddy. Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner, along with Liddy, have the most thankless jobs in America. They have been asked to clean up a sewer that Congress has been dumping feces in for decades. Liddy, who is being paid $1 a year, should have stood up and told Congress to kiss his ass.
As outrageous as it is to pay AIG Executives bonuses – it like being raped and then having to take the rapist on a shopping trip- the real outrage are the trillions of dollars that were looted from the financial system over the last decade, with the help of Congress. These elected hypocrites are not mad over the bonuses and the Wall Street bailouts. They are mad because the thugs they are in bed with embarrassed them.
The President said today that he does not want to quell the anger of the American public. Nor should we let him. I hope that we stay angry. I hope that we insist that when we get this mess cleaned up, some people on Wall Street go to jail. I hope that some members of Congress are sharing that cell with them.
As Congress feigns its outrage – Congress lately leads the world in outrage - over the AIG bailouts, I can't help but be reminded of my cousin's comments. For decades Congress has been the equivalent of street whores – no offense to the street whores- for Wall Street's excess. Every attempt to regulate the financial markets was seen as an assault on capitalism and the American way. They bullied regulators on behalf of their wealthy Wall Street Pimps and when that did not work, they simply gutted the regulations. Details are now coming out that regulations that would have banned bonuses were mysteriously stripped out of the TARP legislation in Committee.
I have been watching these hypocrites in congressional hearings today shift the blame over AIG bonuses to the Obama Administration and present AIG CEO Edward M. Liddy. Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner, along with Liddy, have the most thankless jobs in America. They have been asked to clean up a sewer that Congress has been dumping feces in for decades. Liddy, who is being paid $1 a year, should have stood up and told Congress to kiss his ass.
As outrageous as it is to pay AIG Executives bonuses – it like being raped and then having to take the rapist on a shopping trip- the real outrage are the trillions of dollars that were looted from the financial system over the last decade, with the help of Congress. These elected hypocrites are not mad over the bonuses and the Wall Street bailouts. They are mad because the thugs they are in bed with embarrassed them.
The President said today that he does not want to quell the anger of the American public. Nor should we let him. I hope that we stay angry. I hope that we insist that when we get this mess cleaned up, some people on Wall Street go to jail. I hope that some members of Congress are sharing that cell with them.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Time For A New Cuba Policy
President Obama should repeal the economic boycott of Cuba. In the midst of a Cold War, one could argue that boycotting Cuba's economy was strategic. After all, they were aligned with the Soviet Union, our mortal enemy. However, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, we learned that the Soviets were just a shell of an empire, with its only true power being its nuclear technology. Once America realigned with the Soviets as business partners, it should have immediately lifted the boycott of Cuba.
This policy has stayed in place to placate a couple hundred thousand Cubans living in exile, many of whom, have never forgiven Fidel Castro for running them and the corrupt Batista regime out of the country. The economic boycott has also served our conservative politicians needs to keep a cold war boogie man, long after the Cold War died. Castro too has benefited from the boycott. He has used it to help hold sway on his own people, by peddling paranoia that the United States was plotting another Bay of Pigs invasion.
Castro was never the legendary proletariat that rose to overthrow the corrupt Oligarchy that he proclaimed when the tanks rolled into Havana. Nor was he the devil that Republicans and Democrats have painted him to be the last 40 years. Castro has done some good and he has done some bad.
Now, as he lays dying, he is clearly just a petty dictator waiting to swept away by the tides of the 21st century global economy. If America would have unleashed its corporate thugs on Cuba 20 years ago, its citizens would probably now be free, Democratic and reminiscing about the good ole days - when the Island was not dominated by mega hotels, - a McDonalds on every corner, and everyone had healthcare.
Obama, in his first 50 days, relieved travel restrictions. He should go further and announce at the upcoming G-20 summit that he is repealing the boycott. By doing so he would help Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva help repair US Latin America relations. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has let it be known that Brazilian President speaks for him when he says, "Latin America is ready to have the US as a full partner."
Finally, by repealing this 20th century Cold War policy, Obama will align himself with an emerging group of pragmatic Latin America leaders, many who were educated in the United States. It would also go a long way toward repairing America’s image in Latin America, after eight years of Bush's cowboy diplomacy. Most of all, it’s the right diplomatic move for the first "child of the world" who rose to be President of the United States.
This policy has stayed in place to placate a couple hundred thousand Cubans living in exile, many of whom, have never forgiven Fidel Castro for running them and the corrupt Batista regime out of the country. The economic boycott has also served our conservative politicians needs to keep a cold war boogie man, long after the Cold War died. Castro too has benefited from the boycott. He has used it to help hold sway on his own people, by peddling paranoia that the United States was plotting another Bay of Pigs invasion.
Castro was never the legendary proletariat that rose to overthrow the corrupt Oligarchy that he proclaimed when the tanks rolled into Havana. Nor was he the devil that Republicans and Democrats have painted him to be the last 40 years. Castro has done some good and he has done some bad.
Now, as he lays dying, he is clearly just a petty dictator waiting to swept away by the tides of the 21st century global economy. If America would have unleashed its corporate thugs on Cuba 20 years ago, its citizens would probably now be free, Democratic and reminiscing about the good ole days - when the Island was not dominated by mega hotels, - a McDonalds on every corner, and everyone had healthcare.
Obama, in his first 50 days, relieved travel restrictions. He should go further and announce at the upcoming G-20 summit that he is repealing the boycott. By doing so he would help Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva help repair US Latin America relations. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has let it be known that Brazilian President speaks for him when he says, "Latin America is ready to have the US as a full partner."
Finally, by repealing this 20th century Cold War policy, Obama will align himself with an emerging group of pragmatic Latin America leaders, many who were educated in the United States. It would also go a long way toward repairing America’s image in Latin America, after eight years of Bush's cowboy diplomacy. Most of all, it’s the right diplomatic move for the first "child of the world" who rose to be President of the United States.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
What's Wrong With Class Warfare?
What is wrong with class-warfare? If just ten years ago, the working class would have declared war on Executives who were taking multi-million dollar bonuses that had no basis in reality, other than to loot the financial systems, we would not be in this mess today. John Stewart in a -brilliant- Howard Beal rant on CNBC ‘s hypocrisy of criticizing the stimulus plan, when they served as street barkers, guiding passive investors into gambling casinos masquerading as financial institutions. It is absolutely amazing to me that a million people have not showed up on Wall Street in a day of protest, to demand that these motherfuckers go to jail.
I don’t understand a mentality that people who have been abused don’t have the moral standing to demand their abusers be punished. I walked around Midtown Manhattan 18 months ago, unbalanced by the displays of wealth. We are talking about Masareti Limousines 10 deep waiting to carry an executive 10 blocks; fifty million dollar apartments in the Time Warner Building along with a fifty million dollar summer home in the Hamptons. The American public was pimped, whored, bamboozled and ponzi-schemed by these thugs with a MBA, with Congress –democrats and republicans- holding their hands.
Newt Gingrich –Back To The Future- is on Meet The Press today criticizing Vice-President Joe Biden for rightfully calling that some of these CEO's be put "in the brig." This is the same Gingrich that as Speaker led a Republican dominated Congress to deregulate the markets. The Wall Street Journal recently wrote an editorial blaming the sinking markets on Obama's policies, which are two weeks old. This is the same Wall Street Journal that defended executive excess the last eight years, as "innovation". So now a young President who inherited a global meltdown is having to call up the New York Times to defend himself from a socialist label, because he is attempting to bring some kind of coherence to this madness.
Frank Rich –The Edward R. Murrow of the 21st Century- writes in the New York Times with unmatched eloquence at how these Upper East-Side thugs were paying $80,000.00 for teddy bears. Unless the working class, middle class, and working poor declares war on this foolishness, the next generation will have to deal with this same mess.
And how do you declare war. Just get mad, get mad as hell and say i am not going to take it anymore.
I don’t understand a mentality that people who have been abused don’t have the moral standing to demand their abusers be punished. I walked around Midtown Manhattan 18 months ago, unbalanced by the displays of wealth. We are talking about Masareti Limousines 10 deep waiting to carry an executive 10 blocks; fifty million dollar apartments in the Time Warner Building along with a fifty million dollar summer home in the Hamptons. The American public was pimped, whored, bamboozled and ponzi-schemed by these thugs with a MBA, with Congress –democrats and republicans- holding their hands.
Newt Gingrich –Back To The Future- is on Meet The Press today criticizing Vice-President Joe Biden for rightfully calling that some of these CEO's be put "in the brig." This is the same Gingrich that as Speaker led a Republican dominated Congress to deregulate the markets. The Wall Street Journal recently wrote an editorial blaming the sinking markets on Obama's policies, which are two weeks old. This is the same Wall Street Journal that defended executive excess the last eight years, as "innovation". So now a young President who inherited a global meltdown is having to call up the New York Times to defend himself from a socialist label, because he is attempting to bring some kind of coherence to this madness.
Frank Rich –The Edward R. Murrow of the 21st Century- writes in the New York Times with unmatched eloquence at how these Upper East-Side thugs were paying $80,000.00 for teddy bears. Unless the working class, middle class, and working poor declares war on this foolishness, the next generation will have to deal with this same mess.
And how do you declare war. Just get mad, get mad as hell and say i am not going to take it anymore.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
The New York Post Does Not Care
Yes, the cartoon is racist. And believe me the New York Post does not give a damn that Al Sharpton or anyone else is mad. They knew the cartoon was racist. And, they knew it would create a lot of publicity. And, other than that, for "The Post," it was a good day.
I am a New Yorker. To be a New Yorker you simply have to move there, rent or buy a closet for a lot of money, and learn how to ride the subway. Part of the trip of living in New York is reading the New York Post. Even the most sophisticated, cosmopolitan, intellectual New Yorker reads "The Post."
The only way to deal with the hassle of riding a train everyday is to read "The Post." "The Post" plays to its readers worst instincts. It is racist, voyeristic, sometimes funny, and devoid of any journalistic integrity. And most importantly, it is written at a fifth-grade level. New Yorkers read it to avoid making eye contact with the homeless panhandler who is dancing, singing, or reciting poetry on the train for his next high.
"The Post's" sole mission is to collect 50 cents from as many readers as possible, every day. And they will peddle any shit and call it news. So go on, have deep conversations about the historical linkage of people-of-color and their relation to monkeys, or is it chimpanzees?. Rupert Murdoch don't care. He just got a few hundred thousand more people to "read" "The Post." Mission accomplished.
I am a New Yorker. To be a New Yorker you simply have to move there, rent or buy a closet for a lot of money, and learn how to ride the subway. Part of the trip of living in New York is reading the New York Post. Even the most sophisticated, cosmopolitan, intellectual New Yorker reads "The Post."
The only way to deal with the hassle of riding a train everyday is to read "The Post." "The Post" plays to its readers worst instincts. It is racist, voyeristic, sometimes funny, and devoid of any journalistic integrity. And most importantly, it is written at a fifth-grade level. New Yorkers read it to avoid making eye contact with the homeless panhandler who is dancing, singing, or reciting poetry on the train for his next high.
"The Post's" sole mission is to collect 50 cents from as many readers as possible, every day. And they will peddle any shit and call it news. So go on, have deep conversations about the historical linkage of people-of-color and their relation to monkeys, or is it chimpanzees?. Rupert Murdoch don't care. He just got a few hundred thousand more people to "read" "The Post." Mission accomplished.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
State vs. Pookie Johnson AKA "Lil Stuff"
Judge: The Court now call the matter of State vs. Pookie Johnson
District Attorney: Your Honor this is Assistant District Attorney Jason Bourne representing the state and Attorney Larry English representing the defendant. Mr. Johnson is on for sentencing after having been found guilty of intent to distribute two kilos of cocaine.
Judge: Good Morning Mr. English
Mr. English: Good Morning Your Honor
Judge: Mr. English before I pass sentence is there anything you would like to say on behalf of your client
Mr. English: Yes, your Honor. Your Honor the United States Mayor, former Presidential candidate, and former United States Attorney, the Honorable Rudy Giuliani came out in defense of the 20 billion dollar in bonuses that Wall Street bankers paid themselves after taking 350 billion dollars of government money as good for economy of New York
Judge: Mr. English what the hell that got to do with Pookie Johnson’s case
Mr. English: Well your Honor, Mr. Johnson selling hundreds of kilos of cocaine in the depressed inner city has also been good for the economy. Mr. Giuliani rightfully pointed out that Wall Street bankers bonuses fuel the real-estate industry in New York. I mean who else can afford 30 million dollar apartments. Those bonuses are the bedrock of Bergdorf Goodman and other stores along 5th Avenue. The rest of America may be angry, but New Yorker understand, that so goes the bonuses, so goes New York.
And your Honor Mr. Johnson expresses that same entrepreneurial spirit as Citi and Bank Of America. Mr. Johnson proceeds may be illegal like Wall Street, but your honor, he gainfully employs young black males who have been left behind in this global economy, his taste in jewelry and fast cars have been a savior to those industries in these tough economic times. Mr. Johnson has purchased rent houses all over the city, so he is putting affordable houses on the market.
District Attorney: Your Honor, this is unbelievable Mr. Johnson purchased rent houses to hide money
Mr. English: Your Honor our good DA's criticism of Pookie, like our well meaning President criticism of Wall Street bonuses is misguided. As Mr. Giuliani so rightfully pointed out somebody got to help the real-estate market in these tough times. That is exactly what Pookie Johnson has been doing.
Judge: Mr. English have you lost your mind?
Mr. English: No your honor I just think that Mr. Johnson should be given the same consideration as the CEO’s that have raped the public and private coffers and As Mayor Giuliani said..
Court: Mr. English you are an idiot and so is Rudi Giuliani
Mr. English: Yes your honor
Court: Pookie Johnson, I hereby sentence you to 15 years and I suggest that when you get out, you apply your considerable business skills on Wall Street. There stealing is legal. Court dismissed.
District Attorney: Your Honor this is Assistant District Attorney Jason Bourne representing the state and Attorney Larry English representing the defendant. Mr. Johnson is on for sentencing after having been found guilty of intent to distribute two kilos of cocaine.
Judge: Good Morning Mr. English
Mr. English: Good Morning Your Honor
Judge: Mr. English before I pass sentence is there anything you would like to say on behalf of your client
Mr. English: Yes, your Honor. Your Honor the United States Mayor, former Presidential candidate, and former United States Attorney, the Honorable Rudy Giuliani came out in defense of the 20 billion dollar in bonuses that Wall Street bankers paid themselves after taking 350 billion dollars of government money as good for economy of New York
Judge: Mr. English what the hell that got to do with Pookie Johnson’s case
Mr. English: Well your Honor, Mr. Johnson selling hundreds of kilos of cocaine in the depressed inner city has also been good for the economy. Mr. Giuliani rightfully pointed out that Wall Street bankers bonuses fuel the real-estate industry in New York. I mean who else can afford 30 million dollar apartments. Those bonuses are the bedrock of Bergdorf Goodman and other stores along 5th Avenue. The rest of America may be angry, but New Yorker understand, that so goes the bonuses, so goes New York.
And your Honor Mr. Johnson expresses that same entrepreneurial spirit as Citi and Bank Of America. Mr. Johnson proceeds may be illegal like Wall Street, but your honor, he gainfully employs young black males who have been left behind in this global economy, his taste in jewelry and fast cars have been a savior to those industries in these tough economic times. Mr. Johnson has purchased rent houses all over the city, so he is putting affordable houses on the market.
District Attorney: Your Honor, this is unbelievable Mr. Johnson purchased rent houses to hide money
Mr. English: Your Honor our good DA's criticism of Pookie, like our well meaning President criticism of Wall Street bonuses is misguided. As Mr. Giuliani so rightfully pointed out somebody got to help the real-estate market in these tough times. That is exactly what Pookie Johnson has been doing.
Judge: Mr. English have you lost your mind?
Mr. English: No your honor I just think that Mr. Johnson should be given the same consideration as the CEO’s that have raped the public and private coffers and As Mayor Giuliani said..
Court: Mr. English you are an idiot and so is Rudi Giuliani
Mr. English: Yes your honor
Court: Pookie Johnson, I hereby sentence you to 15 years and I suggest that when you get out, you apply your considerable business skills on Wall Street. There stealing is legal. Court dismissed.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
The Republicans You Can Believe In
The election of Michael Steele to lead the Republican Party was another milestone for African-Americans. Steele has a tough line to walk to reach out to minorities and moderates and not tell Rush Limbuagh to fuck himself. However, it was a statement by the Republican Party that the world has changed. But it also represents a window for African-Americans and other people of color to consider the Republican Party.
The election of Barack Obama has not erased the bad taste of decades of pimping of black people by the Democratic Party. We need competition for our votes.
The election of Barack Obama has not erased the bad taste of decades of pimping of black people by the Democratic Party. We need competition for our votes.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
This Revolution Was Televised
This was a motherfucking revolution. Not a Che walking through the jungles of Bolivar revolution. No Huey Newton and Eldridge Cleaver standing in black leather jackets and a shotgun "fuck the pigs revolution". This was the revolution that CLR James wrote about in The Black Jacobians or Paulo Friere wrote about in Pedagogy Of The Opressed.
This was a revolution about seizing power. Power to reshape urban school systems; power to cool a planet; power to harness runaway markets; power to reassert an ideal founded in Philadelphia and recast at the reflecting pool by a southern preacher, and power nurtured in a small cell on Robben Island -that there can be no compromise for individual freedom.
Tuesday at noon, revolution beamed down on the face of an illiterate Kenyan woman sitting behind an ex-President. She could not understand the words that were being spoken, but witnessed their meaning on the faces of hundreds of thousands, who came to hear her grandson accept the leavers of power.
Last night I walked down U Street in the nation’s capital and, booming from speakers in a parked car were the speeches of Barack Obama, laid down over hip hop and jazz tracks. Like Bob Marley, Obama’s words of eloquence, poetry and intellect are now seeping into the global consciousness. These words of revolution carried on the digital waves of the Internet will be played in Bodegas in Harlem, at Youth night in Cotton Valley Louisiana, in back alleys in Lagos, on side-walks in Ho-Chi- Minh-City, and on IPods in Amsterdam.
Hope is the material out of which dreams are formed, and then transformed into imagination which fuels revolution. The revolution that began on January 20 is so powerful that a child in Zimbabwe watching a black and white television screen, powered by a generator, imagined himself differently after a black hand reached for a bible on the steps of the Capitol. A young college girl in China looked at the podium on the Capitol and imagined, "I can change my village, my town, my city, my country for the next generation." Revolution comes when regular people imagine themselves to be great.
This was a revolution that will affect every capital and village in the world. We may not see the results in our lifetime, but then we just might. We cannot know because none of us has ever been here before.
Yesterday, Moses did not just ask to "Let my people go," but was appointed to the motherfucking throne.
Gil Scott-Heron was wrong. The revolution was televised on a 42-inch flat screen in HDTV. I know because, like the rest of the world, I saw it with my own eyes.
This was a revolution about seizing power. Power to reshape urban school systems; power to cool a planet; power to harness runaway markets; power to reassert an ideal founded in Philadelphia and recast at the reflecting pool by a southern preacher, and power nurtured in a small cell on Robben Island -that there can be no compromise for individual freedom.
Tuesday at noon, revolution beamed down on the face of an illiterate Kenyan woman sitting behind an ex-President. She could not understand the words that were being spoken, but witnessed their meaning on the faces of hundreds of thousands, who came to hear her grandson accept the leavers of power.
Last night I walked down U Street in the nation’s capital and, booming from speakers in a parked car were the speeches of Barack Obama, laid down over hip hop and jazz tracks. Like Bob Marley, Obama’s words of eloquence, poetry and intellect are now seeping into the global consciousness. These words of revolution carried on the digital waves of the Internet will be played in Bodegas in Harlem, at Youth night in Cotton Valley Louisiana, in back alleys in Lagos, on side-walks in Ho-Chi- Minh-City, and on IPods in Amsterdam.
Hope is the material out of which dreams are formed, and then transformed into imagination which fuels revolution. The revolution that began on January 20 is so powerful that a child in Zimbabwe watching a black and white television screen, powered by a generator, imagined himself differently after a black hand reached for a bible on the steps of the Capitol. A young college girl in China looked at the podium on the Capitol and imagined, "I can change my village, my town, my city, my country for the next generation." Revolution comes when regular people imagine themselves to be great.
This was a revolution that will affect every capital and village in the world. We may not see the results in our lifetime, but then we just might. We cannot know because none of us has ever been here before.
Yesterday, Moses did not just ask to "Let my people go," but was appointed to the motherfucking throne.
Gil Scott-Heron was wrong. The revolution was televised on a 42-inch flat screen in HDTV. I know because, like the rest of the world, I saw it with my own eyes.
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