Keeping It Right

Keeping It Right is for thought provoking conversationist. It's for those who love to talk about today's issues, yesterday's history and tomorrow's future.

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Location: Texas, United States

Friday, March 31, 2006

Stop Snitchin'

Stop Snitchin'

I recently started watching the A&E series, "The First 48". It is a show about police detectives throughout the country trying to solve homicides within the first forty-eight hours of a murder.

So last night, I hit the play button on the tivo and on came the show which was taped in the Cities of Phoenix and Detroit. One case involved two young kids who were shot from behind in their car and the other, which was in Detroit, involved a 52 year old dope, well not dope, but marijuana seller errr! dealer. I guess for this posting's sake I would have to give the races of the victims, since everything in our world involves around two colors, black and white. The two kids were white and the 52 year old, was black.

Lets talk about the black male who was capped in Detroit. His body was found in the back of his own Cadillac Escalade in what appears to be a Detroit suburb. As protocol calls for the detectives, which in this case, was a black female detective who had been on the force for some 17 - 20 years, had to canvass the area to see if anyone seen something, anything that could help them get the individual or individuals who killed this person. They went up and down the street asking everyone who was standing there if they saw something..they asked young people, "naw, I ain't seen nuthin." They asked old people...nothing. And then it was discovered that the murder may have happened somewhere else..so they went right back up and down the street to see if anyone notice the truck there and how long had it been there...No one saw nuthin' or heard nuthin'.

Which brought me to this in regard to the black community in its handling of crimes in their neighborhood..simply put...they don't handle it. They don't cooperate with investigations or give tips (which is no surprise, some don't tip correctly in restaurants). But it seems like a lack of compassion for the victim and the victim's family. And apparently it doesn't matter how old the victim, it could be a 10 year old kid playing in the street or an elderly person. Black folk in some communities won't say jack (I started to use another word).

So the question is why? Why won't a group of supposed to be God fearing peoples stand up for what is right or not have any compassion for the deceased and its family?

Fear of retaliation.

Or.

Just don't want to cooperate with law enforcement, because of the acts of few knuckle head police officers. Mistrust of the police, caused a guilty OJ Simpson to walk out of a Los Angeles Courtroom, after allegedly killing his ex-wife and Ronald Goldman.

And not only mistrust of the police, racism. Most black folk inheritedly believe that all policemen are racists, including black law enforcement officers.

So saying all that, another question. Are you telling me that the black community would rather have gang bangers, who peddle in drugs to sell within the black community, have its street battles in the streets of said communtiy, firing aimlessly killing or injuring innocent bystanders, such as the three honor roll students in the South Side of Chicago this past two weeks. You're telling me that those gangbanger are the lessor of two evils? Strange, I answered my own question. The answer is yes...Has to be, because how do you explain the "I dunno" answers or looks upon the faces of someone who definitely knows. And then mix in the fact that the gangsters know they have the community fully intimidated and celebrate it with their own rap, videos and clothing reminding the neighborhood to

Stop Snitchin'.

Last night at the end of the program, the case of the two teenagers in Phoenix was solved. But the murder of the 52 year old black male, is not...mix in the shoddy police work and the fact that everyone on Detroit PD was practicing their best textbook police lingo and Lets not forget that the community

Didn't snitch. Get the Cookies, I guess they feel they deserve one.

Thursday, March 30, 2006

Whitney Gon' Yall

You know at some point, we all gotta stop blaming Bobby for what has happened to Whitney. As a matter of fact, why are we blaming Bobby at all...Whitney had some options, She knew what she was getting in Brown, She knew this guy had some issues. Yet, despite his issues, she chose to get with him, she chose to marry him and she made the choice of using and abusing drugs..Has anyone caught in of the "Being Bobby Brown" shows on A & E. Yeah, I know the show is train wreck, but if you really look at it..Its Brown that still has his voice, Its Brown that still show some responsibility with his kids, Its Brown that does the disciplining or lack thereof, cause the Bobbi Christina azz is spoiled...But its Bobby still in the studio and by the way, Its Bobby that is going back on tour and eventually making an album with his childhood friends New Edition. Yeah, Bobby has his demons, yeah, he was locked up for drinking and driving...But honestly he fell hardest. Bobby or Whitney? The attached story almost confirming that Whitney is a crackhead from a source inside the family suggests that Whitney has crashed. And you know it's bad if it's true, that BOBBY IS SEEKING A DIVORCE!! and not Whitney.....

Story:
Thursday , March 30, 2006
By Roger Friedman

Whitney: She’s Broke, and On the Run
Troubled pop superstar Whitney Houston — once a bigger seller than Madonna — is running out of cash. Insiders tell me she is literally broke, with no current income and huge expenses.
Not only that: Whitney’s life is such a dismal mess that, according to sources, her daughter, Bobbi Kristina, is living with Whitney’s brother Gary and sister-in-law, Pat, close to Houston’s home in Atlanta.
And it just keeps getting worse: A local Atlanta lawyer told me yesterday that he recently had housemates Whitney and ‘80s pop star Cherelle (real name Cheryl Week Norton) evicted from the luxury townhouse he’d rented to the latter last fall. Houston’s name was not on the lease, but the landlord says she was living there and has witnesses to back him up.
Now the landlord says he’s about to sue both women for about $17,000 in back rent and about $8,000 in damages for the mess they left behind. That includes carpets and furniture ruined by burn marks and broken windows. The papers will be filed shortly, he tells me.
When the landlord went to speak to Houston about the noise and filth emanating from the townhouse, he told me the singer appeared “disheveled” and her voice was gravelly. On the plus side: “She was very pleasant.”
Houston still owns a beautiful home in suburban Atlanta, but moved in with Cherelle at least temporarily last fall.
Houston and Norton, according to my sources, abandoned the befouled townhouse and moved to the Atlanta neighborhood of Buckhead. She has since returned to her Alpharetta home, where husband Bobby Brown has also alighted after having been last seen partying in Los Angeles.
There, Brown told friends alternately that Houston was pregnant and that they were divorcing.
Sometimes -- let’s face it -- we have fun tweaking the stars. But that’s not the case with Whitney Houston.
I’ve known her well since 1989. She was once a beautiful girl with the greatest voice in the world and an unlimited future. What’s happened to her in the last few years is the worst kind of show business tragedy. Friends of hers tell me they fear for her life. This is a monumental disaster for which no one wants to take responsibility.
It doesn’t help that this week, Whitney was sold out by her sister-in-law, Tina Brown (not to be confused with the journalist Tina Brown). Tina’s brother is Houston’s often-arrested and imprisoned former pop star husband Bobby.
Tina sold the most salacious stories she could muster to "The National Enquirer" and the "UK Sun" tabloid, along with pictures that suggest a horrifying saga of Whitney’s drug abuse. Her take could be as high as $200,000. There has been some suggestion that Brown, needing cash, put her up to it.
Ironies abound: First, Whitney entered rehab one year ago. Obviously, it didn’t work. And second, sources say that Whitney took care of Tina Brown’s children, said to be six in total, while she was in rehab herself.
Even at her worst, Houston, friends say, has tried to keep her husband’s relatives happy.
“There are 30 members of the Brown family,” says an insider, “and they’ve all sponged off of Whitney.”
That’s the problem. Generous to a fault, Houston has now managed to spend most of her earnings taking care of her own family and Brown’s. She has two main assets: a five-acre estate in posh Mendham, N.J., assessed in 2005, according to public records, at $5.6 million.
In 2003, she also purchased a large home in Alpharetta for $1.8 million, almost all of which was borrowed.
“There’s no money,” says an insider. “She’s really broke.”
The Mendham property has become to Houston what Neverland is to Michael Jackson: a bank account against which she can draw loans. Unlike Jackson, however, Houston does not have investments like the Beatles catalog to fall back on now that she’s in trouble.
Public records show Whitney has borrowed millions of dollars and taken out many staggering mortgages in her time — enough to give Michael Jackson a run for his money.
The original Mendham home, records show, was bought in 1987 for $2.2 million; Houston borrowed $1.4 million to pay for it.
In 1998, as part of a refinancing plan, she took a $6.45 million mortgage that involved buying a second home in Mendham around the corner from the first.
It also appears that she bought a condominium in North Bergen, N.J., simultaneously with a $3.4 million mortgage.
In May 2003, Houston obtained a $2 million, 15-year mortgage against the Mendham house. At the same time, records show she also took out a second equity loan against the same property for $500,000. Three months later, there’s a new $700,000 mortgage for a different property.
Houston’s financial problems are simple, and they were easy to predict. She is a singer, not a songwriter. Unlike Celine Dion, Mariah Carey and Madonna, Houston does not write her own material. Or, to be more exact, she never attached her name to her hits and took a cut of the publishing. She has only five song credits on ASCAP’s Web site.
This is rare among modern singers: Almost all of them including Barbra Streisand, were smart enough to write some hits of their own. And if they didn’t, like Bette Midler and Cher, they made their stage show a central source of income. One reason Mariah Carey has not had to tour extensively is that she has her name on dozens of hits.
It’s kind of surprising that Houston fell into this trap. She’s watched both her mother, Cissy Houston, and cousin, Dionne Warwick, neither of whom wrote their own hits, tour endlessly every year and work to keep up with their expenses. You’d think she would have learned something from their experiences.
What’s evident is that through the years, Houston has had inadequate advice and counsel. Depending on just record sales to get her through bad times was a mistake.
While Houston had many bestsellers, they are well in the past. Simply singing a hit record is not enough if you’re not going to save your money.
The real profit in the music business comes from touring and publishing. Houston has toured very little in her career. And with no songs on her resume, she has no perennial moneymakers on which to rely, like Carey’s “Vision of Love” and Madonna’s “Like A Virgin.”
So Whitney, with dozens of dependents and no income, is indeed broke. News reports claimed she got a $100 million recording contract from Arista Records in 2001. In reality, she received a $20 million advance. Take half off from taxes, it’s $10 million. Another $2 million might come off in fees. Then deduct the costs of her 2002 flop album, “Just Whitney” — which sold just 540,000 copies — and her 2004 Christmas album, now ranked on Amazon.com at 68,000. Suddenly, it’s not so much.
And that doesn’t take into account her notorious lifestyle. And I’m not talking about the first-class airfare, the nice cars, clothes or jewelry. Houston has frittered away millions of dollars living on the edge and being irresponsible.
Had she not entered into a spiraling down world of drug addiction, and kept recording and touring, she would be —at age 42 — a very wealthy woman with a reputation as the best singer of her generation. That none of that has come to pass is shameful.
Houston’s next big problem is going to be with Child Protective Services in Alpharetta. Even though Bobbi Kristina lives away from home, there will no doubt be a new investigation based on the "Enquirer" story.
If 50 percent of the report is deemed true, Houston and Brown could easily lose their daughter for good. One wonders if that will be enough of a wake-up call for the singer who once represented the best of America’s youth.

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

More Immigration Woes....

On Saturday, this country missed an historical opportunity. Something that we all could tell our grandchildren about. Something so grand and huge, that we would have to dig up Ramasses to tell us of the event he and the Egyptians witnessed. Even Cecil B. Demille could not have hired enough extras to top this event. And yet we missed the opportunity of this magnitude in the fear of being called a bigot. What magnitude? Across the country, thousands if not millions of illegal, and yes they were illegal, immigrants protested this weeks immigration bill. In Los Angeles, an estimated 500,000 illegal immigrants were in the streets protesting their right to be, to be illegal, demanded that since they braved the hot deserts, hopped over fences and made it to this country, they deserve to have amnesty..They don't want citizenship, they want to keep their country background and remain loyal to their country on American taxpayers dime. And yet, we missed the opportunity to round up all these people and at least find a pied piper to lead them out of the country. And oh! I for one am willing to give them Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahoney. For him to claim to be a righteous man, he sure has found a way to show his wickedness. On two occasions, this alleged man of God, is on the wrong side of what is right and morally right. First, he fights to withhold documents that show that he had priests, who molested kids..Mahoney fought and still fighting to keep those documents out of the hands of the courts. And now, he is on the record of supporting crimes..not just child molesting priests, but illegal border crossers. So let me get this straight, if its not in the ten commandments, everything else is cool. Thou shall toucheth every boy with either thine hand or mouth and Thou shall commiteth crimes against a country.

Its not only this priest, we got two cities that are providing sanctuary to these law breakers. Now let me get this straight, their statue of liberty says, don't give us your homeless, but we'll protect the illegals. It kinda makes me wonder if an event like what transpired on the movie "Alien Nation", would these cities have open arms for them. And to add salt to the wound, Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa is giving support to the thousands of kids who walked out of their classes to protest. The same Los Angeles Unified School District kids that are graduating only 50% of its high school seniors, and wanted to bring in kids from New Orleans failing school districts. "Your parents did the right thing on Saturday" said the Mayor. Well, damn I guess your right, since our government did nothing, but give people who should have no rights to assemble, a forum to burn the same flag, they claim they want to be part of and yet fly the flags of a country that has failed them for generations.

Friday, March 24, 2006

For Christ...

There is a huge buzz going on in Afghanistan, that some news medias are not covering. It involves a Afghani man who was arrested for committing a crime...well...ah, a religious crime. A crime where probably millions upon millions of people have at some time in their lives have done..what was it? He came to Christ..he converted from Islam to become a Christian. In this country, throughout every church at or around the time the preacher is done, with his sermon. He would call on usually the people who were identified as "visitors" to come down and accept the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior, along with a few back sliders. Usually, based on the size of the church, a handful of people would come down, some in tears, some joyfully and definitely some nervous. If you know what I'm talking about, you get the description. Now how many of you, left the church, started reading your bible more, attended every church program and class the church ever had and told everybody you know, you done found the Lord and you gonna start living your life like Jesus? What was the reaction? I'm pretty sure some of your friends, were like, "Yeah, whatever, I remember you used to drink everybody under the table and the sex, you slept with anything that walked - theres no way, you are gonna give up all that sex and drinkin." And being the friends they are, some will test you to see if you are really living on the up and up for Christ. However, how many of your friends have tried to have you killed for converting from a sinner to a Christian? Short of being in a gang, where they might be killed for leaving the gang. I trust it wasn't for becoming a christian, remember they have that code thing.

Now back to the story about the Afghani man, who was originally trying to gain custody of his children, but ended up in prison and eligible for the death penalty, according to Islamic law it is unlawful to convert from Islam to any other religion, to do so means death. And these people want this man dead...by any means necessary!

This kind of stuff make you proud to be a freakin' American, where you can practice within law any type of religion and not have your head threatened to be removed from the rest of your body. Death? just because you converted and now believe in the Lord Jesus Christ! Well if its God's will for this man to die for Christ, so be it. He will see his detractors in the end, knees shakin' and tongue tied before hittin' that Lake of Fire.

Source Story: http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20060322-090715-8777r.htm

NIMBY

Ahhhh NIMBY, the ultimate excuse for not wanting something so disgraceful and unbecoming. Not in my backyard or NIMBY is a persons way for trying to pass the buck on someone else. And according to the attached L.A. Times story. NIMBY is going to rear its head in full force from every city in Los Angeles County. Why? According to the Times, Los Angeles County Supervisors are going to place five homeless centers in cities within the county. Now lets get this straight, if a large manufacturing company, with the exception of Walmart, were looking to set up shop in L.A. County cities, you couldn't buy enough space in the newspapers or ticker tape for parades. Everyone wants jobs and the local government always want the tax revenues, but no one wants a homeless person in their neighborhood. And we're all guilty of it, although some of us feel sorry and some sort of compassion for those less fortunate, especially the individuals who are suffering from some sort of mental illness. The one thing I think our federal, state and even local governments should be responsible for is the correct housing of our mentally ill patients who are in the streets. I think it is repulsive that a man, who carried a M16 and ruck sack through the jungle and deserts of foreign places to defend this country and carried out its order to support our allies, are homeless. Its a shame and its downright embarrasing! let alone inexcusable.

And to make matters worse, we have a mayor from Burbank, CA, basically telling the truth on behalf of his constituents, the City of Burbank, does not want a homeless center in its city borders, but does the fact that Burbank, is the home of television studios and news stations or is it because of the demographics of the homeless individuals or the demographics of Burbank.

For that matter, what about the people who live in Watts, Compton and other poor neighborhoods already riddled with low high school graduation rates, low employment but plenty of crime. Do they deserve the burden of this placement of homeless people, despite that there are hard working families living in those areas. Do they deserve better? I guess the question should be, what elected official is going to voice their cry of NIMBY?

Story: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-homeless24mar24,1,7384971.story?coll=la-headlines-california

Thursday, March 23, 2006

What Part of No, Do You Not Understand...

Is there anything the democrats won't filibuster? I think they should take the "fili" out and replace it with "demo." I'm tired of seeing the word filibuster. I mean if they [democrats] aren't out there filibusting civil rights acts, social security reform bills, judicial and Presidential cabinent nominees. They are threatening to do so on something else they don't like. And the bad thing about the whole darn thing is that the republicans let them get away with that hogwash. Did you hear of the latest demobuster? Senators Clinton and Reid now want to filibuster anything that makes illegal immigration illegal. That sounded funny, let me write that again...now want to filibuster (doooh! that word again) anything that makes illegal immigration illegal. Meaning they want some type of provision to make the ten or so million of illegal immigrants or aliens, if you will, citizens...They want amnesty. And they're not alone, in a way so does this President masking as a republican. So lets get this straight and some clarity, for whom does the amnesty go to? Is it for the illegals from Mexico and other latin countries or is it for everyone, who sucessfully crosses our borders. I mean, can a Haitian seeking a better life for himself, build a rickety raft and sucessfully float cross into American waters, become a American citizen? If folks can cross the desert in extreme heat can potentially become citizens, surely this amnesty must branch to folks from other countries. The Haitian is also looking for work no other American will do, and especially if your a Black American according vicente fox (small caps on purpose).

Have the democrats lost their collective minds? Is this the best example of grasping for straws you have ever seen? I have said this time and time again, if the left were drowning, would you throw out a life preserver? Which reminds of a joke I once heard, about the three boys (White boy, Indian boy and Black boy) who saved Governor George Wallace from drowning. The punch line is that after saving Wallace from almost dying. The governor asked each boy what he wanted for appreciation. Obviously the White and Indian boys asked for material things such as a bike or something for the family, but the black boy asked for a new backside, cause he knew his dad was going to wear his out, for saving a bigot like Wallace. And thats whats the parties have come to, they get saved no matter how much they ignore what the people want. And in the end the voters are seeking a new backside cause the first one has been worn out. In my state of California, we overwhelmingly voted for a proposition that will deny illegals benefits. We basically said, come here illegally, not on our dime and it got then Govenor Pete Wilson re-elected over a California favorite Kathleen Brown. Americans, at least the ones I talk to, feel it ain't right to give benefits to illegals. And some are befuddled if they changed the meaning of the word illegal.

California recalled Gov. Gray Davis because of his willingness to allow illegals drivers licenses, mixed in the fact that the guy was a total disaster when it came to the states budget. Davis would have been fired from "The Apprentice" in the first week. And now you got a presidential nominee siding with illegals, for now, she may flip flop on the issue, if it becomes one. Trust me if Kerry decides to run again, the griddle will be on and spatula near for the many flips that guy will do. The sad thing about the whole thing is that we have some republicans who won't take up the cause like Wilson did. Wilson wasn't a bigot, he only cared about the American citizens who legally resided within his state. It seems to me that states like California and New York won't get the message until everyone who is fed up with paying big tax hikes, actually takes a hike because they don't want the burden of having to pay the astronomical costs to run a state, that is not collecting enough taxes for a workforce they can obviously see, but can't obviously see the workforce being paid under the table.

Both parties need to get a check up and the doctors need to specifically check the ears. Cause I swear no one in all the houses on Capital Hill and Pennsylvania Avenue is hearing the people, they are supposed to be representing, say........

NO!

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Fact Checking The Bill Maher Show

During the 2004 Presidential elections, an independent research website named "factcheck.org" was often used by most folks, who really wanted the true statistics our politicians were spewing out. This site was used so often that the Vice President mentioned it in his debate against Sen. John Edwards.

Of course, after the elections, the site slowed down and even stopped posting the true facts of statements or statistics made by politicians. But maybe it should have stayed open to fact check claims made on the news or political programs. A political program that comes to my mind is "Real Time with Bill Maher" on HBO. Fact Check could have made a killing based on the missed facts and statements made on that show, especially by Guest, Richard Belzer (Homicide, Law & Order: SVU). Belzer, apparently made it point to insult every military person who either served or is serving in the United States Military, by claiming that all military people are in the military because they had to because they were to poor or had no choice because of they could not find jobs. And by the way, most of the folks serving have only high school diplomas.

If fact check stayed up to see the show, I'm pretty sure they would have corrected Belzer's statements, so in their absence with help from some articles. I will set Belzer straight.

First, I joined the US. Army in July 1987. At the time of my graduation from Long Beach Jordan High School, I had a 3.2 GPA, I participated and played high school sports and other after school activities such as drama. I was college material..I come from two loving parents, my dad served in the United States Navy for 21 years, he was strict on education and discipline. Hell today, my brothers and sisters still don't curse around our parents. But the point I want to make is I did not come from poverty. When my dad retired from the military and entered the civilian workforce he made good money, like all skilled workers did. My mom worked in the VA Hospital and made good money.

Belzer's assertion that all military personal are so poor is not true, as evident on the attached article. For this matter Representative Rangel's assertion that all the people in the military are poor minorities is false too. Which brings me to this, just who are serving in the military. A few months ago, John Kerry said that the Bush Administration is failing education due to the fact that half of all graduates have diplomas. I know this is false, 78% of all adult between the age of 18-24 have high school diplomas. Well, when it comes to the military, 98% of all military personnel have diplomas. The military does not accept everyone that walks through a recruiter's door. As a matter of fact, all potential recruits have to pass a written test in order to gain entry in the service. If a recruit does not pass the test known as the ASVAB, he or she will not gain entry. And its not over there, if a recruit passes the test, he or she has to pass the school they are being trained in..If a recruit does not make it, they are sent home. So it seems that military have the most of qualified and educated men and women in their ranks.

Source Article: http://www.heritage.org/Research/NationalSecurity/em987.cfm

You Asked...(repfanz)

Liberal White House Reporter Helen Thomas, who has been around since George Washington's first inaugeration, finally was called on by what would be her 43rd president, Mr. Bush. It seems that every since our boys were lined up on the Southern Iraqi border, giving Saddam (madd-as) fourteen months to move his stockpile or piles of WMDs. Thomas has been on a path to ask the president why in the hell did he lie and did he plan on going to war when he stepped into what was the dirtiest, unkept house on Pennsylvania Avenue in 2000.

If there is one thing, about this president, advising him must be easy, because to me he comes off as someone, who will not back down from anyone at anytime. More reasons to believe that if he and John Kerry got into a fight, ooooh baby watch out now! Down goes Kerry! down goes Kerry! President Bush is no wimp, and neither is Cheney, I believe if Cheney didn't have a bad heart, he would be missing not one, but both feet in Kennedy's backside. Instead, he's left with telling any liberal democrat to "eff off" or for Bill Clinton's sake "eff - himself." I think you have to be strong willed and have a mean streak, but yet, be cooler than the other side of the pillow when it comes to dealing with ignorant media and hollywood types...You just have too...

Anyway Helen Thomas got to finally ask her Cindy Sheehan questions to the President about War for Oil and sending our young men and women off to die. Maybe she should have said it instead of asking a question. Heres the question and answer:

Thomas : I'd like to ask you, Mr. President -- your decision to invade Iraq has caused the deaths of thousands of Americans and Iraqis, wounds of Americans and Iraqis for a lifetime.
Every reason given, publicly at least, has turned out not to be true. My question is: Why did you really want to go to war? From the moment you stepped into the White House, your Cabinet officers, former Cabinet officers, intelligence people and so forth -- but what's your real reason? You have said it wasn't oil, the quest for oil. It hasn't been Israel or anything else. What was it?

President Bush: I think your premise, in all due respect to your question and to you as a lifelong journalist -- that I didn't want war. To assume I wanted war is just flat wrong, Helen, in all due respect.

Question: And...

President Bush: Hold on for a second, please. Excuse me. Excuse me.
No president wants war. Everything you may have heard is that, but it's just simply not true.
My attitude about the defense of this country changed in September the 11th. When we got attacked, I vowed then and there to use every asset at my disposal to protect the American people.
Our foreign policy changed on that day. You know, we used to think we were secure because of oceans and previous diplomacy. But we realized on September the 11th, 2001, that killers could destroy innocent life.
And I'm never going to forget it. And I'm never going to forget the vow I made to the American people, that we will do everything in our power to protect our people.
Part of that meant to make sure that we didn't allow people to provide safe haven to an enemy, and that's why I went into Iraq.
(Crosstalk)
President Bush: Hold on for a second. Excuse me for a second, please. Excuse me for a second. They did. The Taliban provided safe haven for Al Qaida.
That's where Al Qaida trained and that's where...
Question: (Off-mike)
President Bush: Helen, excuse me.
That's where -- Afghanistan provided safe haven for Al Qaida. That's where they trained, that's where they plotted, that's where they planned the attacks that killed thousands of innocent Americans.
I also saw a threat in Iraq. I was hoping to solve this problem diplomatically. That's why I went to the Security Council. That's why it was important to pass 1441, which was unanimously passed.
And the world said, "Disarm, disclose or face serious consequences." And therefore, we worked with the world. We worked to make sure that Saddam Hussein heard the message of the world.
And when he chose to deny the inspectors, when he chose not to disclose, then I had the difficult decision to make to remove him. And we did. And the world is safer for it - End.


Now if I were president, I would have been a little bit more stern than he was, I would have insulted that old woman, since it was her intent to insult me and call me a liar and war-mongerer. This is what I would have said:

Thomas: I'd like to ask you, Mr. President -- your decision to invade Iraq has caused the deaths of thousands of Americans and Iraqis, wounds of Americans and Iraqis for a lifetime. Every reason given, publicly at least, has turned out not to be true. My question is: Why did you really want to go to war? From the moment you stepped into the White House, your Cabinet officers, former Cabinet officers, intelligence people and so forth -- but what's your real reason? You have said it wasn't oil, the quest for oil. It hasn't been Israel or anything else. What was it?

Me: What? You mean I gotta explain this again. What part didn't you understand, Helen? I mean what did you ask President Lincoln, when the Civil War started? Mr. President, your decision to take this country into war caused the lives of thousands of Americans on both sides. Every reason you given at least turned out to be not true. The war wasn't really about slavery and keeping the Union together. You wanted to be king. I mean damn Helen. I don't know what else to tell you. I laid out our reasons, and in case you've forgotten, go to Manhattan and see if you can find the World Trade Center. Is it me, or did I not see two planes go into those buildings. What about the Pentagon, are they not rebuillding part of it? and the Americans who lost their lives in Pennsylvania? You got some nerve - Hold up, old lady! excuse me! excuse me! witch! shut the hell up!! I said excuse me...I take exception with people like you and that Gregory fella, who called my press secretary an idiot. I told the American people why we went into Iraq, my only mistake was that I didn't attack earlier. Instead I gave that raving lunatic time to remove his weapons..and let me tell you this, Helen, being that I'm a veteran, I would have climbed on M1-Abrams and led my boys, the 1st Calvary Division right to Saddam's house and knocked on the damn door. Yeah! that's how much juice I got..What your excuse, Helen? you missed eight wars. Yeah, you think your boy Clinton, would have done that? So for the last time, and don't make me repeat it we went to war because September 11th changed everything, Helen. We thought we were chillin like a villain surrounded by two oceans and relatively weak opposition to our North and South. President Reagan made sure before he left office, that we played "big bank take little bank" against Russia and we punked them and ended the Cold War. China needs us more than we need them, all we have to do is stop importing their transistor radios into this jink and they are done. And oh, by the way, we punked the country of Iraq twice...yeah, we may have not accounted for the thugs in the area, and we'll catch them and treat them to a nice cool vacation in Cuba. We punked the Taliban, and...wheres the camera, (looking into the camera) Ay Osama! I haven't forgotten about you, Capt. Caveman...we gonna deal yo! and when I catch you, it won't be no ice cream and cake..i'm gonna shatter your pipe dreams..clown!

Look, we gave Hussein every opportunity to comply, he chose not to, we went along with the resolutions for him to disarm, and he spit on the resolution...what the hell did he expect was going to happen, Our country was pissed and treaded on by terrorist. He thought we were to goint to tickle his country and warehouses with missiles from our jets and leave. No, he was like my opponent in the 2004 elections...Unfit to command. And thats why his azz is looking like Grizzly Adams on crack in an Iraqi cell...

I'm out this mutha@#!er oh yeah.. God Bless America

Monday, March 20, 2006

The Plight of the Blackman (NY Times)

The attached story is about the plight of the black man, or better yet excuses and more excuses of why the black man can't do nothing, except take sell drugs, pimp women or lay under a hard working woman and when she gets fed up with they're trifling azz, the system will then field goal kick them in the state pen.

Yesterday, I was talking to my girls dad and he was telling me about NASA using Tuskegee Institute for an alternative fuel systems study. He commented that he has yet to read anything in the main steam media or press about this ground breaking study, the historically black college did. I, on the other hand wasn't surprised, I basically told him, it was something positive..The media won't show a black college with such a breakthrough and the simple fact that NASA picked Tuskegee to do the study and research is news in itself. But no, instead we get nausating and bullbleep research stories from Yale and Harvard about the poor plight of the black man.

The attached story is supposed to make the reader and the potential democratic politician make note of the this plight and say, "Well, I'll make changes here, I'll add more government run programs to turn this tide." Albeit this may be a good ideal and well intentioned, but theres one problem. WHAT ABOUT THE CHOICES MADE BY THESE MEN. One of the men in the story, has four children from 3 different women, he's a high-school dropout and a ex-convict. He's complaining that the system is unfair to him, because he has a record..and he may have a point, but while in the hole, what did he do to improve himself? did he get a GED while in the hole? No. And what about the kids, four from three different women, whose fault is that? Hell, I have 4 children myself, but heres the thing, they all traveled through the same canal, while momma and daddy were married. Now grant it, we are no longer together, but let there be no misunderstanding of our discipline and teamwork when it comes to these teenaged kids of mine. And so with my two step daughters, teamwork, between the my wife and the father of her girls and myself..I guess what I'm saying is, that if they had made better choices..there would be no plight...and then again, I should ask why and how come, a small percentage of us black men, got it, although we made mistakes in our lives, but we got it..We got that working hard and improving ourselves, was beneficial not only to us, but our families and most importantly, it shows our children, what an education and continued hard work will do for their futures.

Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/20/national/20blackmen.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2

Props - Air Parker

Hey look, I'm not the biggest WNBA or Women's College basketball fan, but when something happens big, I must acknowledge it. On Saturday, Candance Parker dunked not once but twice in a game. Legitimate dunks where there was a defender in the area. One dunk was from the baseline, after she got past her defender and the next one was on a break away, with a defender there. Props to Air Parker, but I still have my reservations on the women's basketball. I'm going to need more than 4 women on record to have a dunked in a game or in warm ups. I'm going to need a lot more females throwing down. As a matter of fact, I'm going to need more jaw dropping dunks, than layups. I'm talking about someone getting dunked on, like Dr. J did Michael Cooper or like Kevin Johnson did Akeem Olajawon or Pippen did Ewing. I don't want spectacular like MJ's or when Vin-Charmity jumped over some frenchy and jammed.

I need all that before I waste forty minutes of my time, and if I get more dunks like in more than one game, I might watch. Besides since Venus and Serena don't participate in tennis that much, I have an opening.

Friday, March 17, 2006

You Said It

"I am, you know, adamantly against illegal immigrants. Clearly we have to make some tough decisions as a country, and one of them ought to be coming up with a much better entry-and-exit system so that if we are going to let people in for the work that otherwise would not be done, let's have a system that keeps track of them... People have to stop employing illegal immigrants." - Sen. Hilary Clinton, 2003


Apparently that has changed.

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Should We Be Appalled?

I remember my first can of beer I ever had, outside my parents house. It was that nasty azz Busch beer..You know the beer that actually gave you that bad beer face.. I remember my first glass of hard liquor, it was Jim Beam followed by coca cola (I would have put coke down, but with Yeager around). I remember the first time I actually got crap faced and I damn sure remember my first hang over. My age, 18. I was 18 years old when all of those thing happened to me, already had sex as young as 14. Although I didn't know what the hell I was doing, I had the time part done pact, being a youngster at all. But at 18 years of age, my life experiences and failure were beginning to start. Emancipated and feeling like I can do any darn thing I wanted once I left my parents house at 3 a.m. in the morning, and knowing I was out on my own, flipping my own dime and paying for my own entertainment is what most young people want. There wasn't anything you can tell me, outside of being some drill instructor for 8 weeks and an additional 40 weeks for my skill training. In fact, that is where I got my first can of nasty azz busch beer and my first shot of Jim Beam. And boy did they continue to flow and flow until there was one man left at the bar. Usually this person, was trying to be faithful to Molly Sue back at Bumcrap, Nevada, while the rest of us was trying to make a name for ourselves with the local females in Anniston, Alabama.

In a nutshell, I did what millions of kids do when they leave home for college or go to the military. I drank, and I thank the Lord (sorry Yeager, I know your side of aisle don't appreciate a higher deity) for only having hang overs than being a fatality on the road or being the cause of someone else losing their life. I'm also thankful, that I did not drink myself to such a stupor that I was not able to wake up ever again.

Unfortunately, there are parents who send their kids off to college to seek higher education and the hopes of a better life for their kids end in tragedy that did not have to happen. You see some of us in this country are appalled at the twenty two -hundred or so deaths from our three year tour in Iraq. But no-one has uttered a word, worn pink or picketted outside a VA hospital for the 1400 deaths per year of college students..young students, who were our countries future are gone because they chose to exercise their independence of being 18 - 22 or 23 adults. 1400 deaths of kids who did not volunteer to serve their country, nevered fired a shot and never had to do a push up for discipline reasons are gone. The War on Terrorism in the Iraqi Theater started three years ago, and in the three years we lost more than 2272 or 4 young people, either through accidents or in battle, but in three years since 2001, 3200 young deaths are alcohol related, especially to binging.

No outcry, no Bush lied, people died cries. I don't expect to hear anyone say that Bush hates young people or in this matter one word from Kennedy in regard to drunk driving.

But we're appalled at kids dying overseas....

but not here.

Source Opinion Story: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Health/story?id=1085909&page=1&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Hollywood is still blind and behind...

Source: Los Angeles Daily News

Hollywood blind to truth
Julia Gorin, Guest Columnist


ANSWERING from the stage of last Sunday's Oscars to criticisms that Hollywood is "out of touch with the rest of the country," George Clooney said that if being at the forefront of racial equality, civil rights and AIDS awareness is being "out of touch," then he was "proud to be part of this academy, proud to be part of this community, proud to be out of touch." Others have echoed such praise for Hollywood's "activism" reflected heavily in this year's Oscars with what some commentators have called "socially conscious" or "progressive" works. But how is treating Americans to yet another anti-McCarthy movie ("Good Night, and Good Luck") 50 years later and after countless other films, TV shows, documentaries and TV movies have been devoted to the subject "socially conscious"? George Clooney took no risks in beating Joseph McCarthy's dead horse.

More socially conscious would be a movie about the way dissenters during Hollywood's capital-C Communist era were bullied by the party when they strayed from "the code" of behavior that was acceptable. Elia Kazan fought back against this bullying, while John Steinbeck tore up his party card, and Ronald Reagan had to sleep with a gun. Most often, "socially conscious" means agenda-driven. Because if Hollywood were actually socially conscious, we'd have gotten a film or two by now about the persecution of conservative students on college campuses. We'd also have gotten a film showing the desecration of Hillel offices on campuses and the physical intimidation visited upon students affiliated with this Jewish organization. Similarly, we'd have gotten at least one foreign film depicting the continued ethnic cleansing of European Jewry.

Instead, Hollywood "takes a stand" by vilifying another always-popular target, pharmaceutical companies ("The Constant Gardener") first for not providing drugs to Africa free of charge, and then for supposedly "experimenting" on Africans by supplying those free drugs. This isn't socially conscious; it's psychotic.

Americans have been subjected to nothing but films "exploring" themes about gays ("Brokeback Mountain"), McCarthyism, race ("Crash") and Hitler (Germany's "Sophie Scholl The Final Days"). Harping on the same themes isn't socially conscious; it's socially clueless. And socially irrelevant. In fact, to not address subjects that are screaming for attention for the past 20 years, one would have to be socially unconscious. Another much-touted "socially conscious" film, Steven Spielberg's "Munich," also seems to fall well short of that description. Perhaps "Munich" would be socially conscious if the Palestinian plight weren't already the emphasized side of the


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story by the nonfilm media. It would be socially conscious if there were by now at least a half-dozen movies presenting the Israeli perspective. But where are those movies? Tell us of a film presenting the Israeli side of the story, much less of an Oscar-nominated film. It doesn't exist. Twelve years into suicide bombings against Israelis, and there hasn't been one movie or documentary showing the world its dismembered Jews. Hollywood likes to see itself as boldly questioning authority, and picking up where the other media leave off, but in truth, only some authorities are questioned, while others are blindly followed. Clooney's "Syriana" earns plaudits for whacking away at the Bush administration's foreign policy, but where was Hollywood when the previous administration invaded a sovereign European nation over charges of genocide and ethnic cleansing that proved false in Yugoslavia? Why didn't we hear from Hollywood when the media made little of President Bill Clinton's sharing classified nuclear technology with China for campaign money? Where was Hollywood when the media didn't question why the country wasn't responding to the succession of terrorist attacks against the U.S. on Bill Clinton's watch? And where was Hollywood when the media didn't question why that administration was acting as though the much-ballyhooed nonproliferation treaty with North Korea was still in effect even after we discovered that North Korea was going ahead with its nuclear program? Interesting how in the eight years before the election of George W. Bush, poor reporting effectively made truth disappear. Because the film folks were on the same page as the reporters. And that's where they remain.

The agenda-driven projects that dominated this year's Oscars but drew mediocre numbers at the box office are "compelling"? They're "politically aware"? Actually, it's all very politically sleepy. Hollywood won't be "socially conscious" or "progressive" again until it gets a healthy infusion of fresh, intellectually honest minds most likely from conservatives who aren't worried that they risk their careers when they come out of hiding.

Julia Gorin is a writer and comedian who blogs at www.JuliaGorin.com.

Friday, March 10, 2006

Another Huge F-Word Interview

CNN's McCafferty had an opinion about VP Cheney's interview with Foxnews' Brit Hume after the veeps accidental shooting of his friend while hunting. McCafferty referred to the Fox News Channel as the "F-word" channel, after the vice president chose to sit down with Hume and tell the American public what happened and his feelings about accidently shooting his best friend. In my opinion, he was right to do so, besides, according to the ratings, the f-word channel is beating the bejesus out of CNN and the low down dirty 3 (CBS, NBC and ABC) news medias. It was General Patton who said, "I don't want to hear, that I went against some second stringer," when he was told that Germany's Gen. Rommel was not present in his initial battle against Patton. Meaning that Patton only wanted the best and demanded the best for his life.

Today the main stream media is not the best, it's not the best for responsible media reporting and the bias from its members are quite frankly, disqusting.

So, if McCafferty had a problem with Vice President Cheney going on the "f-word" news network to discuss his embarrasing accidental shooting and not speaking with Wolf Blitzer or dot, dot, dot Larry King. He must've hit the roof when he heard that Howard Stern was on the "f-word" network speaking to half of the host of Hannity and Colmes, Sean Hannity (Stern didn't give the exclusive interview with Hannity's liberal partner, Colmes). And if you didn't know, Hannity & Colmes are number 2, after Bill O'Reilly. Both of those shows are on the Fox News Network. As a matter of fact, this is Stern's second one on one interview on the Fox News Channel. The first one, was with Bill O'Reilly! McCafferty has got to feel a little ill. Stern as of today has not appeared on any of CNN's primetime shows. Somethings wrong here, Howard Stern during his last few months on free radio, has been the biggest critic of the religious right and not so fond of the republican party. But yet, he appears twice on the same cable news station that is perceived by the far left as for the republicans or GOP.

Is it possible that like Cheney, Stern has taken the position that if he's going to be heard and given equal time, that his side of the story should be heard coming from the first string and not the bench sitters.

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Special Assistance Needed For Bonds

Brotha in distress, A brotha in distress!! quick black man! hit the Jesse Jackson light! Sound the sirens to get the attention of Al Sharpton! Bring me your posters and your chants of racism. Brotha in distress!!

Who is the brotha in distress, its Barry Bonds. I feel it's time to lob a call to Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton to run to the aid of a man, who is being castigated by the media. Bonds who is closing in on Baseball's most revered player and all time favorite on the all time home run list. Is continously being accused of using something he has not tested positive for. Bonds, who happens to be black, is baseballs all time can't stand player. The media hates him. Fans despise him. And yet all he does is mash homers over Giant Stadium, thirty or forty times a year. As a matter of fact, before he mashed for over seventy homers, Bonds was a consistent thirty and forty homer a year player. And still the media hated him.

So now with Ruth in sight, Bonds was ambushed with a book by two beat writers, who may have an axe to grind, who claim that Bonds did in fact use steroids. They write about one woman, who was his mistress and to add insult to injury, was a jilted mistress. Who corrobates their allegations, which is accepted as fact to the media. Bonds is in need of some help here, he needs some protection and he needs it now. He needs the kind of protection that is so effective, that when the protection does its job. All allegations, half truths and innuedoes will be diminished in the form of fear. The kind of fear that a white person has when someone labels them a racist. No white person in todays mainstream media, besides the kooks on KFI 640 am in Los Angeles, wants the label of being called a racists in their own world. Barry needs that. Barry needs to fight a different fight than Aaron had to. When Aaron chased down Ruth, everybody knew he had to deal with racist people and some of the media racists writers. Bonds has to deal with what almost every person of different race in this country deals with..."hidden racism". This type of racism is the one that hurts most, because the person or persons is smiling in your face, acting like your buds or best co-workers, but yet when the day is over, your whatever the derogatory word for each race is. In Bond's case, its hidden in the form of steroid use. I don't believe it. This media wants us to burn this man at that stake because they actually care about the geniunality of the game. They want to believe that a home run is a pure home run. They want to believe that this game, anyone of us can play at any given park is a pure as the driven snow..oh! wait a minute before Robinson came around, it was. Baseball purist who hold laptops are hypocritical, when they prod into someone's personal life, but yet moan and bitch about their own personal freedoms allegedly being taken away in form of the Patriot Act. And they're hypocritical that once again a Black American man is going to stand either one or two on a record they cherished the most. And they won't stop lurking and prodding into this man's personal life and choice to inject, ingest or whatever point of entry of whatever drug he so chooses, until he throws his hands up and say I fluckin' quit.

Barry needs some help.

In Memorian: Gordon Parks 1912-2006

Gordon Parks: 1912-2006
Gordon Parks, who became the first black staff photographer at Life magazine in the late 1940s and broke more ground in Hollywood two decades later as the first black person to direct a major studio film, "The Learning Tree" - which was followed by the landmark black private-eye crime thriller "Shaft" - died yesterday at age 93. Although his films widened his fame, it was as a photographer and social documentarian that Mr. Parks first made his mark as an artist and achieved his greatest acclaim. As a staff photographer at Life for more than two decades, Mr. Parks shot acclaimed photo essays on segregation in the Deep South, the slums of Rio de Janeiro and Black Muslims. He also shot intimate portraits of celebrities, ranging from Muhammad Ali to Barbra Streisand. Mr. Parks had a second successful career as an author, beginning in the late 1940s with two instructional photography manuals. The Learning Tree, a semi-autobiographical novel about a smart and sensitive 15-year-old boy who experiences racism, love and loss in a Kansas town in the 1920s, became a 1963 bestseller. With support from actor-filmmaker John Cassavetes, Mr. Parks was hired by Warner Bros.' Seven Arts Studio to write, direct, score and executive-produce the 1969 screen version of The Learning Tree. In 1989, the film was among the first 25 films honored by the U.S. Library of Congress to be preserved in the National Film Registry. Mr. Parks produced and directed his second film, "Shaft," the 1971 action thriller that gave America its first black private eye hero, who became a role model for many young men. Starring Richard Roundtree as John Shaft and featuring Isaac Hayes' Oscar-winning theme song, "Shaft" was a box-office hit that crossed racial lines. Mr. Parks received numerous honors over the years, including the National Medal of Arts from President Ronald Reagan.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

My Memories....

How many of you played high school football? How many of you attended school with guys who made it to the professional ranks, whether it be baseball, basketball or football? How many of you remember dunking on, laying the smacketh down in football or just fanning out a top big league hitter whether it be little leagues or high school. How many was the man in high school in your respective sport, but somehow college coaches overlooked you? Oh I can see the hands going up, including mine. My sport was football, I played middle linebacker in high school after playing defensive end in pop warner. When I played, I was fearless. I hit hard. To put it short, I was one bad mutha-you fill in the blank. I had an attitude. I hated pretty mutha-" "ers who pranced either around my side of the field or through middle and I expressed my disdain for those jheri curl wearing pretty muthas with hits so hard, my grandmother would whip my behind for being rude. I smelled the fear of quarterbacks, when I hollered and screamed. I hated referees and their punk ass yellow hankies. I played like Jack Tatum. Hell, Mark Carrier didn't have nothing on me. Yeah, you got it I punked him. And it wasn't only football, basketball..man, I have game! I haven't lost it. My game was inside and out and I played it aggresively..yeah, I had rivals like that little ass punk named Leon Porter, who sounded like Mickey Mouse. He used to talk smack on what can do on the court and feared to God that I didn't try out for the Hamilton Jr. High School basketball team in the 9th grade. For his sake his prayer was answered only part time, I got a late tryout while the wolverines was two games in the season and made the squad. Punk ass was the starter, and he knew he had to bring it every saturday or else. Well one day, we played against my childhood friend, Duane Cooper's (USC-Los Angeles Lakers) team..and Duane was using Leon's punk ass, he went left, he went right and used either hand on Porter. Leon had no answers, so the coach took him out and put me in. Right off the back Cooper knew his luck was about to run out..I knew him and he knew me..hell we lived a few houses down from each other and to top it off..we were best friends..I check in, and Coop yells out, watch out for Jimmy! right off the back, down the court to my left, see my big man, Rick, cutting in towards the basketball, I loft the ball towards the rim, Rick grabs it and lays it in..one assist..next play Coop gets a help by a screen, he pulls up..swish! two points..we're still down..I take the ball from inbounds, my boy Rollin is in the right corner..Coop knows I'm going to him, he's screamin for coverage on my boy Rollin, I cross over and go to my right..the defense is collasping on me, again Rick is cutting towards the basket, I see him and so does the opposition..Coop is on my left hip. I flip the ball to the next open man..lay up..two points..next trip down...Coop's team is a zone defense...no problem...I told you I had game...next two trips down...back to back jayters...I wish I could tell you we won, but the damage Leon left behind, hell even MJ couldn't fix....One of these days I will tell the story of me and coop.

But football was my game, and me and my boy Oliver, man, it was well oiled machine...man, I was so bad, that when our center got hurt, I volunteered to block for my boy. I remember it like it was yesterday, we were playing LB Wilson high school, my boy Oliver is playing quarterback and the played called for him to hit our flanker in the flat, Wilson blitzed and got through, but that was their mistake, because Oliver had unbelieveable speed and moves, need an illustration, Barry Sanders. Oliver started to scramble and the biggest mistake Wilson made was letting him scramble and having me roam the field, O rolled to his left and Wilson defenders covered that part of the field and then O rolled to the right and oh by the way, if you think my boy was going to pass to our flanker, it doesn't pay for you to think, besides we couldn't count on the muther " " er to catch it. Anyway O is heading towards me and behind him is nose guard looking to stop Oliver for a loss, O comes towards me..you can see him looking at me and I looked back, it was like a signal saying, "J- get this mutha off me" Hell he didn't have to say it, we both knew someone was going to get hurt and it wasn't O or me. Yeah, imagine the best blind side hit you ever saw, but add this, a blind side hit everyone saw including the doomed person. Shit, I didn't even say sorry and for punishment and the discomfort, my boy O took out their running back when we played defense..and we beat the tar out of Wilson.

You see, where I grew up, everyone knew each other or heard of the person. Hell, before So. Cal's gang problem in the streets..We used to play each other's street in whatever sport...football, basketball and baseball...and it carried on to whatever Jr. High or High School we went to. Hell, we even competed to who had the best grades. When I think about my Jr. High and High schools days, I often smile. Yeah, today I may not remember everyone I joked about, every single fight, girlfriends or who was my secret sister in high school. But the memories of the good times and pranks we played are lifelong. If you played sports like I did or participated in other extra curriculum, like drama..Yeah, I did that also..quit laughing, how many of you got to kiss one of the honeys at your school in a dramatic scene...and still get to keep your high school sweetheart?

The Jackson 5 came out with a song name "good times" and I remember those good times...I can't take back the jeering I did to the folks in the band. I can't take back the jeering my and other jocks did to other students...Hey, if you had a letterman's jacket...you were a Roma God....

ahhh to be young again...

Just Grin...

As all you may know by now, a book regarding steroid use by Barry Bonds written by two beatwriters from the San Francisco Chronicle hit the sports headlines today. The book basically says what every Babe Ruth supporter and baseball purist think. Bonds is on roids, period point blank. A book comes out and says that Bonds ejected everything in him from muscle improvement for cats to bull semen. Add to that Bonds admitted to the Grand Jury he used "unknowingly the cream" which contained a steroid. After all this and now including a book and the BALCO scandal, the public has branded Bonds, Jerk No. 1 and America's cheater. In regard to the jerk part, some may be true if you abide what is said on sports radio and read in your local sports page. But a cheater? I dunno. Where's the evidence? As of this posting, Bonds has not failed a drug test of any kind. Oh yeah, there's that thing about hard evidence, which no one has.

Lets look at it like this, Bonds testified to the Grand Jury and the only thing that was leaked was that he tesified and said he unknowingly used the cream and that's it. Cream! no mention of muscle improvement for cats or bull semen. You would think that someone would "leak" such juicy information to the Bonds hate media for some undisclosed amount of money. I don't think we are going to have another "deep throat" person to wait almost thirty years to blow the story on Bonds. Steroids and baseball is a "now" story. It can't wait until someone is about to die so the hate media can give itself high fives and pats on the ass for vindication. Nooo! this is the good stuff. Media minds want to know..They feel they need to know the truth, while ignoring other mind boggling issues as to why there are this huge abundance of black latinos playing baseball in comparison to black americans. Has baseball become the NBA's counterpart in the paucity of white american players in the NBA? I think when Gumbel made his statement in regard to the lack of black athletes in the winter games, maybe he should have used baseball and basketball in his analogy. But this media is shark driven, they want to feed on a man, who wants nothing to do with them. Bonds refuses to get in the media ocean to become beatwriter bait for the media sharks. He won't give them the privilege of feeding on him like they did Griffey Jr., Sosa and now the deceased Kirby Puckett. I often wonder if the shark media has made black athletes its main prey. It refuses to feed on a open locker and non statement of a white power hitter, when this person's name came up. It refuses to address the fact that one of baseballs most revered players and other white ball players accomplishments should be scrutinized or brought to debate. No, this media seems content on ruining the accomplishments of black ball players and other minorities.

Surprisingly, most black players of any sport are still abiding to the rules set on Jackie Robinson by Branch Rickey. "Don't fight back, Don't say nothing"

Just grin.

Monday, March 06, 2006

Books and Covers

You know I really need to stop judging books from its covers. I can count on my hand at least two times when I judged something I perceived as "bad" or the usual rhetoric of some leftist whiner. Hey, someone can look at this blog and see that it may be my usual rhetoric about the right and what is wrong with the left. I can admit openly that I when the republicans do something assinine like back the President on this open ports deal..I get a little irritated. But, I see the catch-22 they are in. If one hand they go with what I feel, they would be accused of ruining a relationship with one of our Arab allies. I mean the UAE is assisting us in the fight against terror. And, another point is that we would be guilty of practicing discrimination, practicing racial profiling. This administration and the RNC cannot afford to have that tag on them. But again with the judging. I saw the movie "Hustle and Flow" last night...and again, I pre-judged it. I thought it was one of them pimp and ho's, fiddy cent movies about some dude wanting to change his game and rap. Well, that what it was. But unlike other blaxploitation movies, it had a plot. Terrance Howard deserved his nomination. Lets take a look back at where we saw this actor. I first saw him in a comedy with Miguel Nunez and James Avery, playing a conservative lawyer. The show was on UPN and was Avery's first show as the star. Next, Howard played a hustler and gangsta in one of my favorites, "Dead Presidents." Unfortunately he got beat down by Larenz Tate's character after he told Tate's character that his boss, Puddy, was doing the do with his lady. Most of you will remember Howard playing a cold blooded killer in the comedy, "Big Momma's House I" or on Oprah's "Their Eyes Were Watching God" starring Halle Berry and another up and coming actor, Michael Ealy (Barbershop I and II and Sleeper Cell). And what about recently playing in "Crash" and starring in "Hustle and Flow." Both of those films showed an actor with helluva talent. We're talking about a man, who could have easily done Denzel's Oscar winning roles. But the movie, I thought was well written and you find yourself rooting for the pimp who wants to change his life. And not only his, but his family. His family would be considered, his only two ho's. Howard's portrayal of the G-rated pimp, was absolutely great. And although he didn't get the nod of winning best actor, he won last night by showing that one of his characters in "Crash" and his character in "Hustle and Flow" an actor who is going to win an Oscar..

Soon.

Saturday, March 04, 2006

World Geography Class?

Below is the transcript of Jay Bennish allegedly teaching "Geography"

Bennish: [tape begins with class already underway. Bennish completing an unintelligble statement about Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.] Why do we have troops in Colombia fighting in their civil war for over 30 years. Most Americans don't even know this. For over 30 years, America has had soldiers fighting in Colombia in a civil war. Why are we fumigating coca crops in Bolivia and Peru if we're not trying to control other parts of the world. Who buys cocaine? Not Bolivians. Not Peruvians. Americans! Ok. Why are we destroying the farmers' lives when we're the ones that consume that good.

Can you imagine? What is the world's number one single cause of death by a drug? What drug is responsible for the most deaths in the world? Cigarettes! Who is the world's largest producer of cigarettes and tobacco? The United States!

What part of our country grows all our tobacco? Anyone know what states in particular? Mostly what's called North Carolina. Alright. That's where all the cigarette capitals are. That's where a lot of them are located from. Now if we have the right to fly to Bolivia or Peru and drop chemical weapons on top of farmers' fields because we're afraid they might be growing coca and that could be turned into cocaine and sold to us, well then don't the Peruvians and the Iranians and the Chinese have the right to invade America and drop chemical weapons over North Carolina to destroy the tobacco plants that are killing millions and millions of people in their countries every year and causing them billions of dollars in health care costs?

Make sure you get these definitions down.

Capitalism: If you don't understand the economic system of capitalism, you don't understand the world in which we live. Ok. Economic system in which all or most of the means of production, etc., are owned privately and operated in a somewhat competitive environment for the purpose of producing PROFIT! Of course, you can shorten these definitions down. Make sure you get the gist of it. Do you see how when, you know, when you're looking at this definition, where does it say anything about capitalism is an economic system that will provide everyone in the world with the basic needs that they need? Is that a part of this system? Do you see how this economic system is at odds with humanity? At odds with caring and compassion? It's at odds with human rights.

Anytime you have a system that is designed to procure profit, when profit is the bottom motive -- money -- that means money is going to become more important potentially than what? Safety, human lives, etc.

Why did we invade Iraq?! How do we know that the invasion of Iraq for weapons of mass destruction-- even if weapons had been found, how would you have known, how could you prove--that that was not a real reason for us to go there.

There are dozens upon dozens of countries that have weapons of mass destruction. Iraq is one of dozens. There are plenty of countries that are controlled by dictators, where people have no freedom, where they have weapons of mass destruction and they could be potentially threatening to America. We're not invading any of those countries!

0345.

[Pause.]

I'll give you guys another minute or two to get some of these [definitions] down. I agree with Joey. Try to condense these a little bit. I took these straight out of the dictionary.

Anyone in here watch any of Mr. Bush's [State of the Union] speech last night? I'm gonna talk a little about some of things he had to say.

0452

...One of things that I'll bring up now, since some of you are still writing, is, you know, Condoleezza Rice said this the other day and George Bush reiterated it last night. And the implication was that the solution to the violence in the Middle East is democratization. And the implication through his language was that democracies don't go to war. Democracies aren't violent. Democracies won't want weapons of mass destruction. This is called blind, naive faith in democracy!

0530.

Who is probably the single most violent nation on planet Earth?!

Unidentified brainwashed student interjects: We are.

The United States of America! And we're a democracy. Quote-unquote.

Who has the most weapons of mass destruction in the world? The United States.

Who's continuing to develop new weapons of mass destruction as we speak?!
The United States.

So, why does Mr. Bush think that other countries that are democracies won't wanna be like us? Why does he think they'll just wanna be at peace with each other?! What makes him think that when the Palestinians get their own state that they won't wanna preemptively invade Israel to eliminate a potential threat to their security just like we supposedly did in Iraq?! Do you see the dangerous precedent that we have set by illegally invading another country and violating their sovereignty in the name of protecting us against a potential future--sorry--attack? [Unintelligible.]

0625.

Why doesn't Mexico invade Guatemala? Maybe they're scared of being attacked. Ok. Why doesn't North Korea invade South Korea?! They might be afraid of being attacked. Or maybe Iran and North Korea and Saudi Arabia and what else did he add to the list last night - and Zimbabwe - maybe they're all gonna team up and try and invade us because they're afraid we might invade them. I mean, where does this cycle of violence end? You know?

This whole "do as I say, not as I do" thing. That doesn't work. What was so important about President Bush's speech last night--and it doesn't matter if it was President Clinton still it would just as important) is that it's not just a speech to America. But who? The whole world! It's very obvious that if you listen to his language, if you listen to his body language, and if you paid attention to what he was saying, he wasn't always just talking to us. He was talking to the whole planet. Addressing the whole planet!

He started off his speech talking about how America should be the country that dominates the world. That we have been blessed essentially by God to have the most civilized, most advanced, best system and that it is our duty as Americans to use the military to go out into the world and make the whole world like us.

0759.

Sounds a lot like the things that Adolf Hitler use to say.

We're the only ones who are right. Everyone else is backwards. And it's our job to conquer the world and make sure they live just like we want them to.

Now, I'm not saying that Bush and Hitler are exactly the same. Obviously, they are not. Ok. But there are some eerie similarities to the tones that they use. Very, very "ethnocentric." We're right. You're all wrong.

I just keep waiting. You know, at some point I think America and Mexico might go to war again. You know. Anytime Mexico plays the USA in a soccer match. What can be heard chanting all game long?

0841

Do all Mexicans dislike the United States? No. Do all Americans dislike Mexico? No. But there's a lot of resentment--not just in Mexico, but across the whole world--towards America right now.

We told--Condoleezza Rice said--that now that Hamas got elected to lead the Palestianians that they have to renounce their desire to eliminate Israel. And then Condoleezza Rice also went on to say that you can't be for peace and support armed struggle at the same time. You can't do that. Either you're for peace or war. But you can't be for both.

What is the problem with her saying this? That's the same thing we say. That is exactly the same thing this current administration says. We're gonna make the world safe by invading and killing and making war. So, if we can be for peace and for war, well, why can't the Palestinians be for peace and for war?!

0950.

*Student Sean Allen, who is taping Bennish's rant, speaks up:*

Allen: Isn't there a difference of, of, having Hamas being like, we wanna attack Israelis because they're Israelis, and having us say we want to attack people who are known terrorists? Isn't there a difference between saying we're going to attack innocents and we're going to attack people who are not innocent?

1007

Bennish: I think that's a good point. But you have to remember who's doing the defining of a terrorist. And what is a terrorist?

Allen: Well, when people attack us on our own soil and are actually attempting to take American lives and want to take American lives, whereas, Israelies in this situation, aren't saying we want to blow up Palestine...

Bennish: How did Israel and the modern Israeli state even come into existence in the first place?

Allen: We gave it to them.

Bennish: Sort of. Why? After the Israel-Zionist movement conducted what? Terrorist acts. They assassinated the British prime minster in Palestine. They blew up buildings. They stole military equipment. Assassinated hundreds of people. Car bombings, you name it. That's how the modern state of Israel was made. Was through violence and terrorism. Eventually we did allow them to have the land. Why? Not because we really care, but because we wanted a strategic ally. We saw a way to us to get a hook into the Middle East.

If we create a modern nation of Israel, then, and we make them dependent on us for military aid and financial aid, then we can control a part of the Middle East. We will have a country in the Middle East that will be indebted to us.

Allen: But is it ok to say it's just to attack Israel? If it's ok to attack known terrorists, it's ok to attack Israel?

Bennish: If you were Palestinians, who are the real terrorists? The Israelis, who fire missiles that they purchased from the United States government into Palestinian neighborhoods and refugees and maybe kill a terrorist, but also kill innocent women and children. And when you shoot a missile into Pakistan to quote-unquote kill a known terrorist, and we just killed 75 people that have nothing to do with al Qaeda, as far as they're concerned, we're the terrorists. We've attacked them on their soil with the intention of killing their innocent people.

1215

Allen: But we did not have the intention of killing innocent people. We had the intention of killing an al Qaeda terrorist.

Bennish: Do you know that?

Allen: So, you're saying the United States has intentions to kill innocent people?

Bennish: I don't know the answer to that question.

Allen: But what gain do we get from killing innocent people in the Middle East? What gain does that pose to us?

Bennish: Let me ask you this. During the 1980s, Iran and Iraq were involved in an 8-year-long war. The United States sold missiles, tanks, guns, planes, to which side?

Unidentified student: Iraq?

Bennish: Both. The answer is both. Why would we send armaments to two sides that are fighting each other. That seems to be self-defeating. Don't we want one side to win? Not always! Sometimes you just want there to be conflict!

The British -- this is one of the grand strategies of the British imperial system--was to play local animosities off each other. To prevent them is to divide and conquer.

Do we really want the Middle East to unite as one cohesive political and cultural body?

No! Because then they could what? Threaten our supremacy.

We want to keep the world divided. Do we really want to kill innocent people? I don't know. I don't know the answer to that.

I know there are some Americans who do. People who work in the CIA. People who have to think like that. Those kind of dirty minds, dirty tricks. That's how the intelligence world works. Sometimes you do want to kill people just for the sake of killing them. Right?

Listen, between the years 1960 and 1962, the United States through the CIA conducted over 7,000 terrorist sabotage attacks against the small island nation of Cuba. Over 7,000 terrorist attacks were waged against just one little country called Cuba in a two year period, intentionally, let me rephrase that, intentionally blowing up medical supplies, intentionally burning down crops that feed their country, thereby creating starvation, right? Intentionally trying to make that system collapse. And we're willing to expend however many thousands of people died because we just want to get rid of Castro. And the sad reality is that there are some policy planners who are willing to let people die in order to achieve their objectives.

1506

Now, do I think President Bush says 'I'd like to go kill some innocent Palestianians?' I don't think he thinks like that. But I also know that he's not the only one making decisions. I also know that after September 11, President Bush got on TV and he said, 'You will feel our wrath. You will feel the full force of the United States military. There will be paybacks.' He said it again last night. He said, 'We've killed a lot of top-ranking al Qaeda members. And for those who aren't killed yet, you're day will come!' Right? That kind of language to me is very obvious.

1547

And when you go trying to kill one particular type of person, you know that you're gonna kill other people, too. And let me ask you this...

Allen: Later in that, he stated that he's [Osama bin Laden] trying to kill innocents...

Bennish: I understand that, but hold on, you have to understand something, that when al Qaeda attacked America on September 11, in their view, they're not attacking innocent people. Ok. The CIA has an office at the World Trade Center. The Pentagon is a military target. The White House was a military target. Congress is a military target. The World Trade Center is the economic center of our entire economy.

1625

The FBI, who tracks down terrorists and so on and so forth around the world, has offices in the World Trade Center. Some of the companies that work in the World Trade Center are these huge multinational corporations that are directly involved in the military-industrial complex in supporting corrupt dictatorships in the Middle East.

And so in the minds of al Qaeda, they're not attacking innocent people. They're attacking legitimate targets. People who have blood on their hands as far as they're concerned!

We portray them as innocent because they're our friends and neighbors, family, loved ones. One of my best friends from high school, elementary school, and birth, lives in lower Manhattan. You know, he was right there, he was four blocks away from it. So, anytime it comes close to home, you begin to see things differently.

1711

In no way am I implying, I don't know, you got to figure this stuff out for yourself, but I want you to think about these things--you know, think about this right here. [Apparently pointing to American flag.] Here's the real homeland security. Fighting terrorism since 1492! Ok. I mean, to many Native Americans, that flag is no different than the Nazi flag or the Confederate flag. It represents the people that came and stole their land, lied, brought disease, rape, pillage, destruction, etc. So it all depends upon varying people's perspectives
varying. And of course, we're going to see ourselves as being in the right , at least the majority of us, because that's us.

Allen: But we were the ones that were attacked first. On September 11, 2001,
we were the ones that were attacked. We were not attacking anybody until that point. Then we said ok, we're going into Afghanistan. Then we said ok, the Iraqi government has ties with al Qaeda. We're going to go into Iraq. We were the ones that were attacked.

Bennish: In actuality, if you remember back to my first day, the Sept. 11 attacks were, according to bin Laden, a direct response to our 1) support of the nation of Israel, which they consider to be a terrorist regime that does not have the right to control the land that the Palestinians lived on for over 1,500 years, and they also did it because of what George Clinton did--Bill Clinton, not George Clinton, they had a little documentary on him on PBS last night I was watching--Bill Clinton, when he launched the missile attacks into Afghanistan and Sudan and killed thousands of innocent Africans and Afghanistan people - Afghanis - that had nothing to do with al Qaeda or anything. In fact, in sudan, he blew up the country's largest pharmaceutical plant, which was producing medicines, alright, um, you know, that's as far as, in their eyes, that was retaliation for those attacks.

And so this whole idea of who attacked who first, how far back in time do you wanna go!? This is the whole thing with the Arab-Israeli conflict. Well, who was there first? Well, if you believe the Bible, you say, well, God gave the land of Canaan to the Israelites. But who was in that land when they got there? The Canaanites, who some archeologists would argue are the ancient descendants of the Palestinians. You know.

Other archeologists say the Hebrews didn't really come from Egypt. They were actually a group of Canaanites who decided they didn't like the other Canaanites and developed this story afterward to justify how they killed all their neighbors
and took over the land.

2002

Alright, and so this becomes very, very muddled. And I'm not in any way implying that you should agree with me. I don't even know if I'm necessarily taking a position. But what I'm trying to get you to do is to think, right, about these issues more in-depth, you know, and not just take things from the surface. And I'm glad you asked all your questions, because they're very good, legitimate questions. And hopefully that allows other people to begin to think about some of those things, too.

END

Friday, March 03, 2006

Quote From Bob Parks

"Those who wish to elevate themselves must make a choice. Personal responsibility is not a catch-phrase. It is a way of life that gives someone real control over their lives. Going to work isn't selling out. Not impregnating or being impregnated before age 14 isn't selling out. Teaching your kids that school and not the streets is the path to success isn't selling out. Selling out is taking a dump on the very opportunities this country has to offer and making something out of your dream. Sitting on your ass and blaming whites for your failings and demanding a monetary payoff is a waste of time because it will never happen. There are too many successful blacks in this nation to disprove the widely held notion that racism is keeping us all down." — Bob Parks, conservative Republican, arguing that only victimologists are Democrats

Racists!! They are racists!!

"The sky is falling, The sky is falling!", "Wolf!, I spot a Wolf!" remember those stories? Henny Penny kept calling out that the sky was falling and the boy that kept calling wolf. They sounded the alarm so many times that noone paid attention to it, when it actually happened. So now with that, I'm going to add this: "Racist!, Racist!, they are racists!"
That was the sound coming from Daunte Culpepper and three other Minnesota Vikings, who were named in the Lake Minnetoka sex cruise scandal. According to the players, who happened to be black, is that the authorities and the prosecuting attorneys in the sex cruise case, are only going after the black players and not the two allegedly white players who were supposed to be involved. Simply, "the man is going after the negras to lock more of us away because we be black."
So sound the alarm and move to the right of road for the "emergency race card." You know it, it comes out everytime a black person, usually a big time athlete or entertainer is in trouble. And when it's played, it trumps every hand at the table..It doesn't matter if you were caught on video tape with clear and concise sound. The race card is one bad mutha-I'll watch my mouth, card.
The race card is for the common folk too. In 2000 and 2004 the race card made its appearance on not one, but two presidential elections. In the summer games, NBA players cited that the reason why most of the country didn't support them is because they were black. And who can forget OJ Simpson and Michael Jackson, these two individuals may have started from the hood, but by the closing of their careers, they were so far removed from the black community that one of them decided to turn as white as the driven snow. It wasn't until they had issues with the law..you remember, one of them turned his ex-wife and her friend into pez dispensers and the other decided he rather touch err!! play with 12-14 year old boys. It was those issues that all of sudden the race card was thrown on the table like a player playing bid whist running a boston. It gets attention and a bunch of "Oh hell yeah! They always trying to knock a brotha down" or the classical, "No matter how big you get, you're still a n-word to them." And its backed up by some whites, remember what Chris Rock said, "A white person could be poor as hell, and he still wouldn't trade places with me..AND I'M RICH!!"
The thing is that although the race card is played and sometimes its legitimate. There is someone who is going through actual hell. Where? I don't know but they can't do anything because people like these players won't take the responsibility in their own culpability in this matter. Regardless if the prosecuting attorneys choose to charge the additional men with crimes. It still doesn't exonerate you from your actions.
Sounds to me, like those players are looking to become snitches..and if that is the case...I'm sorry Vikings fans, but I have a funny feeling you will make NFL history.

0-16.

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

It Was The Racism...

You know what guys and girls? I was wrong. I hate to say it, but maybe Lashawn Barber wasn't playing and really did admit to being on the wrong side of the fence. Because like Lashawn, I, too have realized that I am on the wrong side of the fence and since I live in Upper Mexico, the wrong damn side of the border.

Recently I read a post from someone I respect in regard to black conservatives not participating in or pulling out of forums from black liberals to discuss the State of Black America or what the hell is wrong with us peoples. He said that black conservatives are punks for canceling out of invites or avoiding these type of discussions and the keyword here is: discussion. An event like Saturday's Annual State of Black America was supposed to be a discussion about the progress or non-progress of Black America.

I agree that a discussion in regard to Black America should have different opinions and ideals, but I also think that there should be a solution. Something to say like: "Okay here is the problem and this I what I think and I either agree or disagree with So and So on this issue, but he is my brother or Sister and I'm going to work with him or her so we can collectively figure this damn thing out." You know something like that, at least both sides can collectively agree that there are issues out there and want to come to some solution to address it. But that didn't happen over the weekend, oh! there were some issues out there, but no one addressed it. There could have been some ideas out there, but no one mentioned it. There could have been some solutions, but none were made. Which lends to the question of exactly what was the meaning of having a State of Black America, where everyone on the panel is lock and step on one issue.

Racism.

Racism is the reason why black america is failing. Racism is the reason of why over 50% of a 12% population of black folk in this country is in prison. Racism is the reason of why everything negative that effects blacks from AIDs to Voting. Racism..Racism.

Racism was even the cause of why the levies broke in New Orleans. Again, I was wrong, I thought for sure the reason why the levies broke was because of the intensed pounding and high waves from the lake caused by high category 9 winds from a hurricane. Silly me. I had no idea that it was institutionalized racism that broke the levies. I guess I should be afraid, because I live in Upper Mexico (California), the next earthquake or the big one that hits us won't be because the faults shifted. It would be because of centuries and generations of institutionalized racism. Who would have thought that racism was this powerful to cause natural disasters. And I may be trying to be funny, but if according to some of the participants of Saturday's discussion, if natural disasters represent the white man's racism, can we assume that Superman stood up for racism? Just a thought. I won't be foolish to believe that even an alien like Superman, who was white, will stand up for the black man, I mean that would mean that I have to believe that all abolitionist were all white and that couldn't be true. I mean how else can you explain all the black colleges and most importantly the NAACP. But as I digress, the person who claimed that black conservatives are punks because they refuse to attend these type of meetings. He's right. But what he won't say, is why.

Why go to an event where noone in the crowd is willing to accept a different point of view? Why go to an event, where even the panel will call you a sell out and out of your name. What's the point? Go to an event, and be called a hate monger? I don't get it, so therefore I will concede that it was the institution of racism that broke the levies in New Orleans, I will concede that it was terrorists that killed Malcom X, although its pretty tough to call four black men, who themselves were Nation of Islam members. Members who were incited by the man who would become their leader to kill Malcom X, who had issues about Black America, wanted to address the issues and wanted to find a solution to the issues.

And speaking of terrorist and institutionalized racism, Is it racism that causes the lives of over 2000 young black men to end every year. These young men were'nt sleeping in their beds, only to be rudely awaken by white men on horseback, wearning white bed sheets with matching pillow covers, demanding they get up from that there bed and get their black azz outside. These young men were'nt hit with whips, butted with a rifle or pistol whipped. These young men were'nt strung up by the neck and left hanging so everyone could pose with the now brutally beaten corpse. No, these young men were gunned down because someone with the same skin color demanded to know what "set" they were from and shot them. These young men were mowed down because someone wanted a piece of city property to sell crack cocaine, so therefore in order to absolutely, positively clear everyone off the city corner...They used an AK-47 to end the lives of 3 or 4 young men and innocent bystanders. But I stand corrected and will concede that it was institutionalized racism that caused all that and not our home grown thugs who terrorized them. I guess I can find solace in knowing that my childhood friend, Termel was brutally murdered because of institutionalized racism. That my wife's nephew, Ontarrio was brutally murdered because of institutionalized racism. And not by the black men who did it.