The World According to Me

The most recent NBC/WSJ Polling shows President Obama’s overall approval rating dropping 5 points since April.  Pundits will no doubt spend the next week pouring over the numbers while righties will have a brief moment of orgasmic joy.  Not surprisingly, much of the loss comes from among independents.  However, another sector that he should be concerned with is the LGBT community, especially after this weeks brief defending the Defense of Marriage Act and his lack of action in overturning “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”.

Mr. President, among other things, you campaigned on a promise of equality for all Americans, regardless of race, religion, nationality, or sexual orientation.  Yet your DOJ brief defending DOMA, and your inaction regarding DADT, represents thus far the same slap in the face logic that the community received from your Democratic predecessor, Bill Clinton, when he enacted both policies into law.  And while your recent granting of benefits to federal employees is indeed a step in the right direction, it is little more than a token gesture to those who’ve lived through 8 years of the most homophobic administration imaginable.

The LGBT community and its supporters understand that there are issues that are seemingly far more pressing to
America as a whole.  You’ve inherited an economy in shambles, two wars, international strife which threatens our national security, and the unenviable task of re-establishing our credibility abroad.  But as an African-American, who supports this nation’s first African-American president, I can think of no more pressing issue than human rights.  At the heart of the matter, this is what it all boils down to – the right of same-sex couples to enjoy the same rights and privileges as heterosexual couples - including the designation of “marriage”, the right of Gays and Lesbians to serve their country openly and honestly without being subject to disciplinary action merely because of their sexual orientation, the right of the LGBT community not to be relegated to second-class status by the country they love as much as all other Americans.  There are some who feel that the LGBT community should be patient, that change of this magnitude should come slowly if at all.  However, your very presidency belies that line of reasoning.  After all, if Blacks in this country were to simply remain patient in the struggle for Civil Rights, you sir would probably not now be president.  Indeed, you would probably not have had the right to vote, nor would your parents not have the right to be married.  To expect that the LGBT community should “wait their turn” smacks of Civil Rights hypocrisy, and this should not be allowed in this administration.  It is within your power, Mr. President, to rectify the situation facing sexual minorities in this country with very minimal effort.  A moratorium can easily be placed on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell to prevent further discharges of Gays and Lesbians from the military, and you have the votes and the desire in Congress to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act with minimum effort, or need for GOP input.

Know this, Mr. President.  The LGBT community is hardly monolithic, nor are they like the sheep-like dittoheads that listen to Rush Limbaugh and do whatever he says.  It is very much an independent community that votes its interests.  And if it feels that the current administration is working against its interests, they will vote against it.  The LGBT community does support you for now, but it will not for long if it feels as though you are throwing it under the bus.  As a basketball fan, I’m sure you recognize when the ball is in your court.  Mr. President, the ball is now in your court.

NBC/WSJ Poll

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/sections/news/090617_NBC-WSJ_poll_Full.pdf

Justice Defends DOMA

http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid89851.asp

DOJ Brief Defending DOMA

http://www.advocate.com/images/motion_memo.pdf

So now after two weeks of sanctimonious ranting from Sarah Palin, David Letterman issues a second apology for an admittedly tasteless joke told at her daughters’ expense.  In his apology he offers that the intent of the joke, which was supposedly about baby-mama
Bristol and not the 14 year old Willow, was irrelevant.  What was relevant was the perception that he was speaking about Willow when he made the joke about A-Rod knocking her up while attending a Yankees game. 

Ok.  Fine.  Cool.  Perception, not intent.  I’m good with that.  So let’s look at perception, and how people perceive words regardless of what their intent.  On an appearance on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, President Obama made an offhand comment about his bowling game, comparing his bowling score to that of the Special Olympics.  Fortunately, his people got out in front of this issue before the episode aired and apologized to the organization.  Of course this wasn’t enough to keep sanctimonious right-wingers from picking over it for two weeks.  So we have perceptions of insults from a sitting president and a late night comic, followed by subsequent mea culpas.  If we are really talking about perception being the rule as to whether or not one should be insulted, offended, or outraged, then I submit that there are a lot of apologies owed to a lot of people.  Let’s just look at a few.

Sarah Palin

Speaking of perception, she is hardly an innocent victim.  Her rallies during the McCain campaign included some of the most vitriolic and hateful language ever hurled against a presidential candidate.  Her comment, “this is a man who doesn’t see America as you and I see America” was called out by the Associated Press as a backdoor way of slipping racism into the campaign (a neat way of saying, “Hey, White People.  Barack Obama’s BLACK”).  And the resulting jeers of “kill him”, not to mention the assault of an African-American soundman working a rally in Clearwater, FL, are absolutely her responsibility.  Even if she did not intend her statements to be blatantly racist, the perception among her supporters and detractors is clear.  She owes an apology not only to the McCain campaign and the Obama family, but to every African-American in the country for fueling racial animosity at her rallies.

Rush Limbaugh

OMFG!  Where do I begin?  I could do an entire blog on just him alone.  Rather than go through the laundry list of offenses, let me offer a link to his greatest hits (http://newsone.blackplanet.com/elections/top-10-racist-limbaugh-quotes/).  This is just the stuff he’s said before Obama was elected.  Since then his spewings have become more and more vile and bigoted.  And every time the explanation has been something akin to “I’m not racist, some of my best friends are Black.”  Whether you’re trying to explain away “Barack the Magic Negro” or the “I want him to fail” statement as something innocent in its intent (yeah, right), the perception is clear.   Rush Limbaugh is a RACIST.  He, and the corporate shills who give him his platform to spew his bigoted bile (Clear Channel) owe this country an apology not only for his remarks, but for every racist act that has been influenced by his words.  Most recently, the shooting of a Black security guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial and Museum by White Supremacist James Von Brunn.

Operation Rescue

This radical anti-abortion group has a reputation for harassing abortion doctors and patients at clinics where the procedure is performed.  Their belief that abortion is murder and those who have and perform them should be punished was THE influence behind the murder of Dr. George Tiller by Scott Roder.  Mr. Roder has also implied that there are more acts of murder yet to come by people who believe as he does.  While they’ve tried to step away from this heinous act, they’ve simultaneously cheered its result, the closing of one of only three clinics that perform rare late term abortions.  Again, if we are to hold up perception as the litmus test here, then this group not only owes women an apology, they should be charged as an accessory to murder.

Sean “punk-azz” Hannity

In April, Hannity offered to have himself waterboarded to prove that it wasn’t torture.  He said that he’d do it to raise money for the families of soldiers, and invited waterboarding opponent Charles Grodin to do the honors.  Keith Olbermann of MSNBC’s Countdown offered $1000 to the families for every second Hannity lasted.  To date, two months later, no waterboarding of Hannity has taken place.  Chicago radio host Erich “Mancow” Muller had himself waterboarded in an effort to prove the same thing.  The result, Mancow now admits that waterboarding is torture.  Mancow has since received tons of hate mail, along with accusations from right wing blogs that the incident was fake.  Nonetheless, Olberman donated the $1000 to the charity Valor for Veterans based on Mancow’s waterboarding time (6 seconds).  As for Hannity, he owes those soldiers’ families an apology for being a punk-azz beeyotch.

FOX News

Between Hannity, Bill O’Riley, Glenn Beck, and the rest of the models there, this organization should be ashamed to have the word “news” in its title.  Despite its slogan, “Fair and Balanced”, it’s perception is anything but.  This is nothing more than a right-wing propaganda organization run solely to provide talking points to the radical fringes that listen to them.  While leftist MSNBC at least makes an attempt at objectivity, FOX has long since given up any pretense and had gone full right-wing.  This organization owes an apology to all other legitimate news organizations.  FOX News is anything but “fair”, and caters to the totally unbalanced.

I could go on and on, but I think my point is made.  If we want to talk intent vs. perception, if we want to talk about what people think and believe vs. reality, then let’s hold everyone accountable to what they say, not just the people with whom you disagree.  As for me and this blog, judging by the comments here, many of you readers perceive me to be biased, leftist, and perhaps more than a bit mean spirited.  Some of you may feel that I shoud apologize for it.  Well, for those of you who happen to feel this way, those who feel that I’ve been too harsh on neo-conservatism…SUCK IT, RIGHTIES.  IT’S MY BLOG AND I’LL WRITE WHAT I WANT, SO THERE!

The David Letterman Apology Show

http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/feature/2009/06/16/david_letterman/

Unleashed, Palin Makes a Pitbull Look Tame

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/06/AR2008100602935.html

Man charged with murder in Holocaust Museum Shooting

http://www.herald-mail.com/?cmd=displaystory&story_id=224814&format=html

Waterboarding Sean Hannity

http://www.theweek.com/article/index/95799/Waterboarding_Sean_Hannity

I was checking out Real Time with Bill Maher this weekend.  Among his guests were former UN Ambassador John Bolton and former House Rep. Heather Wilson, both Republicans.  Bill had asked about the rift within the Republican party between moderates such as Colin Powell and the hard-core right led by Rush Limbaugh.  Their response was typical Republican denial.  To wit, there is no rift and the public should stop focusing on personalities and identities and focus on issues.  A sentiment with which I wholeheartedly agree, and my proposal to the Republican party is simply this…you first.

Face it.  Your side started this game of personality/identity politics when you decided to prop up Joe the Plumber as representative of blue collar working class
America (a ploy which backfired on you miserably).  You use President Obama’s nebulous association with William Ayers to paint him as a terrorist.  You use his membership in Rev. Jerimiah Wright’s church to paint him as racist.  You still claim he’s a Muslim, not born in this country, a socialist, a communist, a fascist, a Marxist, and a Black separatist.  All code for, “Hey y’all, HE’S BLACK!”  You claim his pick of Sonia Sotomayor for SCOTUS was an “Affirmative Action” pick, even though the only two reasons that your side picked Sarah Palin as your VP candidate were the ones sitting on her chest.  You take a couple of statements she (Sotomayor) made in a speech she gave 8 years ago out of context to paint her as a racist, even though judge Samuel Alito made similar statements during his confirmation.  You compare the organization she once belonged to, La Raza, to the KKK, which is like comparing the NAACP to the Aryan Nation.  The buffoon you have running the RNC (talk about an Affirmative Action pick) wants to retool your party’s message to “urban-suburban hip-hop”, and says you can oppose same-sex marriage on economic grounds, even though same-sex marriage has the potential of bringing in 16.8 billion dollars to the economy.  Your party tries to re-brand the Democratic party as “The Democrat-Socialists Party,” and the Republican governor of Texas, and several other Republicans, are now using the word “secession” as your paty’s rallying cry.

And now that this game of personality-identity politics has come back to bite you in the ass in the form of Rush Limbaugh, Dick Cheney, Newt Gingrich, etc., you suddenly want to have a “civil” discussion on the issues.  I’m all for it.  You want to talk about politics instead of personalities?  Take the personalities out of the politics.  You want to talk issues without the innuendo?  Stop introducing innuendo into every issue.  You want us on the left to stop characterizing Rush, Newt, and Dick as the de-facto leaders of your party?  We’ll be happy to do so, once the REAL leaders of your party tell these clowns to STFU.  If you want to have an adult conversation about policy, then GROW UP and start acting like adults instead of a bunch of spoiled brats holding their breath until they get their way (i.e. waiting for Obama to fail).  Nothing would please me more that to have a civil discourse and real discussion on the issues pro and con, as I believe that both sides have much to offer.  I’m ready when you are.

For those of you who claim that I don’t criticize Democrats on this blog, here’s something for you.  Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) has introduced legislation called the Performance Rights Act (HR-848).  This legislation, if passed, would require radio stations to pay a performance fee to everyone who performs on a song played on the radio.  EVERYONE!  That means everyone from the singers to background vocalist to the drummer to the guy who plays the little triangle would be entitled to payment from radio stations.  Proponents of the bill claim they simply want to level the playing field in which digital services (internet, satellite) already pay the fee while broadcast radio does not.  Opponents say that this could at best force radio stations to avoid introducing new music as they will not want to pay for unproven artists, and at worst force smaller radio stations that don’t make a huge profit (namely R&B and Gospel formats) out of business completely.  Further, they argue that 50% of these “performance royalties” would go to the record labels, not the artists.  See where this is going?

This isn’t about the artists at all, but the mega record corporations.  Labels which have been losing money hand over fist for years to downloading and other digital media.  Essentially, this is their way of punishing radio listeners, and Conyers is playing the hatchet man (and probably getting paid for it).  It’s also part of the labels’ continuing effort to stifle music creativity to only a few established genres and artist so they can keep producing the same cookie-cutter crap that passes for music today.  Strangely enough, I see the record industry moving along the same path as the auto industry.  Keep making crap that the public isn’t buying anymore, and get the government to bail you out when you get into trouble.  I can imagine that a music industry bailout won’t be far behind.  We can probably look for Conyers’ hand in that as well.

Proposed Performance Tax Could Be Black Radio’s Death Knell

http://www.blackamericaweb.com/?q=articles/news/the_state_of_black_america_news/9299/1