Seriously, Research, Read History

Our main priority is to make sure President Obama does not get a second term. -- Mitch M


My dad used to say, "There'll only be two class- rich and poor." (He should know since his Southern town never had factories and unemployment for black men was unimaginable. He never had a full-time job after relocating to the south from Newark, N.J.)

He died poor and left children most of whom never left poverty. Pockets of poverty in urban areas across this country didn't have jobs before the economic crisis. Romney can blame it on Obama, but he needs a history lesson. Milwaukee's factories have been closing

African-American men are unemployed and long before this political staging of blaming President Obama for unemployment in his four-year tenure. Long before Obama was born these men struggled without jobs to care for their children.

Mister Rogers to Romney: Oh No, You Don't

What's Mitt Romney smoking? Nothing? Then why the low five to Big Bird?

His comment about Big Bird and PBS is not only cavalier, it's as thoughtless as that unbelievable middle class flip flop. He put them in the 47% now he's apologized and started courting them for votes. During the debates, he pitched a proud doom day for PBS:

"I'm sorry Jim. I'm going to stop the subsidy to PBS. I'm going to stop other things. I like PBS. I love Big Bird. ...I'm not going to keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for it."

What's he going to do -- outsource Big Bird to China or the highest bidding country, or to businesses creating12 million jobs he promised? He just doesn't get it.

(Instead of targeting PBS and Big Bird, here are more expensive chopping block subsidies -- corporate welfare, Big Oil, tax cuts for the rich, and.. . Oh, I forgot, it's okay because entitlements are for the wealthy. I must add that some wealthy citizens want their beloved country to survive) 

Big Bird isn't just a subsidized PBS phenomenon; he's an educational staple for children and adults without Internet, cable, or other paid networks providing political and special programs.

He owns Sesame Street, but he isn't eating up all those government cookies without carrying his weight. Children need Big Bird to bring them along with their peers in kindergarten and first grade. Fortunate children have day care linked to early childhood education, which single mothers and jobless parents cannot afford.

I'm a Big Bird learner's mother, and I thank him for all that reading, writing, and math in North Carolina though she attended four-year-old kingergarten. 

Mr. Rogers is livid. Twitter fans and the Big Bird family from years ago are twisting with anger. So Romney wants to drown PBS that provides programming for that 47% he said, "I don't have to worry about them."
He doesn't have to worry about freedom, convenience, and anything else he needs or desires. ...maybe a trip to heaven with a U-haul hitched to his bank.

Consider this: You apologized for the 47% but where I grew up and live now, your comments are unforgettable and unforgiveable. For those who believe your apology, hear this:

I have some white, sandy beachfront property "smack dab" in Florida's Port Everglades, and I'll sell it for whatever a buyer is willing to pay.




 

Moving Forward Festival

Willie T Atkinson invites you to Greenville, NC   "Hello Joyce, It's good to know that u support President Obama for 4 more years. Please let it be known that the African-American Caucus of Pitt County Democratic Party is hosting a Moving Forward Festival, Oct. 6, 2012 at Tom Foreman Park, 400 Nash Street from 12 PM - 5PM. Free food & live music by Back Together Again plus a step show performance by Caution Steps. CU there !"

Danger, Danger, Danger

Whether you think it's OK to suppress 1.7 million voters in this election, consider this: It's not just about this election or the candidates though we want our own choice.

Have you read this? The New York Times reported this on Thursday that GOP supporters are working to suppress votes of seniors and African-Americans in swing states where President Obama won the last election.

Suppose in the next election Democrats decided to launch a similar campaign to nail down shoes of mostly white Republican voters. Suppose you're denied the right to vote because you're unable to cite the U.S. Constitution or the Gettysburg Address.

If GOP supporters succeed in suppressing votes in 16 states, we've already breached the laws of Voting Rights -- a civil rights fight in which U.S. Rep. John  Lewis nearly lost his life. Too many foot soldiers fought and died.

If successful this scathing political scalpel would return 50 years of dirty-shameful history, tantamount to political Olympics awarding gold medals to banned players. Romney and the GOP believe they're "entitled" to trample on rights of people who've won rights through emotional and physical trauma, blood, & ugliness.

I hope our goodness, as God ordained, revives our consciousness, to take a step back and recognize the danger in taking away rights of anyone, for any rationale. 

These are dangerous possibilities where supporters dupe intelligent, possibly snoozing judges to see it GOP's way, but it's up to voters to register properly and choose not to fall back. Or it'll be "Romney Care" creating his brand of victimization -- squashing self-esteem, livelihood, culture, total humanity.

Back to the Future

The fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin struck fear and pain across the country. Aside for the tremendous for their parents, community, friends, and relatives, the crime conjures an eerie feeling associated with the deep, dark past of a time we never wanted to witness again.

Plain and simple: When a crime is committed, the police investigates. Period. In murder cases where there is a known assailant, somebody gets arrested. Locking in "Stand Your Ground" law doesn't -- or shouldn't -- preclude that police dismisses the shooter whose killed the teenager lying dead and now in a cold, dark grave. If this law is that much mistrued that police don't investigates, then it's a bad law. George Zimmerman's hiding out, the crime scene never got marked off, the spot of crime investigation has grown cold, and people across the country have loudly, clearly, and stubbornly painted racism on the face of the wrong-doing.

He's not a racist, says his friends. First of all, nobody is stupid enough to let a friend know he's a racist. In this day that's the last attribute you'd boldly bolster. When listening to the 911 recording, I who've had experienced racism and not just suspecting when its ugly head sneaks from underground, know how it smells, tastes, how its rough tactile, how it sounds, and its auditory function. 

In this persumed "post racial era", the reality forces everyone to look at the change we all hoped had occurred.

Oh, No, Not Again

We have enough codes dangling in dungeons or microscopic specks of injustice for those who aren't in denial about them to speak out. We talk about it among ourselves, but there's no Martin Luther King Jr. to uncover wrongs and lead the fight against injustice.People are dying out there while our jails are over-populated with a rising rate of recidivism promoted by unfair barometers, but these laws remain. (No space to spell out the problem except to say prison's in dire need of reform since they're filled with people who had minor drug infractions, and taxpayers are paying more to lock 'em up than it costs to educate one prisoner)

Voters' Rights Under Siege

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
 -- Martin Luther King Jr.



I don't care what anybody says, those broad swipes at radically changing the voting rights by forcing people to provide state identification is a chilling effect on our basic rights. Supporters of this movement claim they're doing it because of potential voter fraud. Oh, they could never keep apathetic voters and others who already distrust the system from voting.

On this issue I'm sickened by the watchdogs -- gatekeepers -- who're seemingly sleeping on the job. They are the ones who keep eyes on government and hold the powerful accountable. We have all of this media, the Internet, and God knows there are enough bloggers and other gatekeepers to chime loudly about this injustice. Oh, if it's just to avert voter fraud, why now? We've never worried about that before and where's the crisis. For once public officials are proactive and not reactive about the urgent crisis. Really?

Voter identification is being rightly challenged, but that probably won't be resolved by election 2012. There's pollution floating, but, oh, where's the Tea Party, Occupied America and Republicans/Democrats who supposedly support freedom? Silence. Oh, that's exactly what I thought. They're not worried because they understand the clandestine agenda in these well-defined, oops, laws to take back the people's White House from those whose ancestors built it and from a president who won in a legitimate, fair election.

I feel dirty from all that floating pollution that assault my sensibilities when I hear these disruptions to overcome our national issues. Why aren't all of these people who claim to love their country rallying around the issue of freedom lost? Why don't we all work together rather than bicker and handicap voters? Of course, looks like it's their right to thwart  efforts to destroy voting rights by any means necessary  If you can't change the law, get around it.

Oh, how dare I suggest that supporters should be worried about basic rights or freedom for those left behind the privileged. Does anybody not understand this chilling effect of basic rights? If nobody rights this wrong, it doesn't mean it's right to move toward infringement of these rights, hiding behind presumed voter fraud when there's no wide chasms of illegality at work.

If this so-called election fraud movement stands without valid proof of its need, what next? Will we start asking people to touch their toes, write an essay about why they love America, write their name in beautiful cursive on unlined paper, name all of the presidents, or even recite the capital of all the states? We used to have rules that barred voting for fictitious reasons to bar black citizens from voting. What if we're trying to turn back the hands of time?

I've listened and watched this insidious plot without sufficient proof of necessity -- again -- rampant voter fraud? I've said this before, but it bears repeating because we have no rampant rage of pillaging of our most precious right. We have people sitting at home thinking they are once again being shuffled to the back of the bus. If that's the point, our levees are cracked and water is rushing toward break-down level.

Every time we chip away at a right, we lose more freedoms. Hint: The War on Drugs and The War on Terrorism (the airport fiasco, no-knock warrants, public body cavity searches with Milwaukee police officers under investigation, search and seizure without warrants, the no-knock police department laws. None of these laws have made us more secure, but rights have been lost every time a police officer ransack the home of innocent people or put under suspicious by driving while black or Latino profiling. Do-good citizens are targeted while the prison population for people of color has escalated to historic and disproportionate beyond white populations.

(Don't believe me? Call or check The Sentencing Project on the Internet)

If we value our freedom, it's important to fight for every slice of  equality under siege. If not, America won't be America as we know it -- the country where immigrants arrive, expecting the American Dream and the promise of full-fledged freedom.

Where's all this fraud in voting rights? We didn't rush to change the voting methods when President Bush's election cried loudly, clearly about voting problems -- no crisis though -- but eleven years later we're manufacturing an outrageous lie. Supporters know why, and so do I, know the urgency of this covert mission, but it won't  happen again. People aren't that dumb, and I hope their voices are loud publicly not just softly among themselves.