Joplin Missouri Tornado Devastation

As a native Missourian, it’s been heart-breaking watching the almost total devastation of Sunday’s tornadoes in Joplin, Missouri. The stories of pain and loss are gut-wrenching, and if you’re far away from the Midwest, especially in these shaky economic times, it would be easy to feel helpless. But the American Red Cross makes it easy to play a small part in helping the people that are suffering re-build, and it couldn’t be easier.

To donate $10 through the American Red Cross to help recovery in Joplin, MO, text JOPLIN to 90999 from your cell phone.

The additional information that follows came directly from Missouri’s Department of Public Safety on the best way to make a difference in helping Joplin—volunteer, donations, ways to contact family in the area, and the United Way 2-1-1:

-Missourians interested in volunteering to assist should first call (800) 427-4626 or 2-1-1, instead of reporting directly to a command post or the disaster area. Those with medical skills interested in volunteering should go to:https://www.showmeresponse.org/.

-Missourians who need disaster information, shelter information or referrals are urged to call:
The United Way’s 2-1-1 service number is now available for most areas in Missouri. In areas where the 211 number is not operational, citizens can call 800-427-4626.

-Missourians wishing to make donations to help with the relief effort can go to http://www.sema.dps.mo.gov/recover/donations.asp or call (800) 427-4626 or 2-1-1.

-Residents affected by the tornado who wish to notify their friends and family that they are safe should go to:https://safeandwell.communityos.org/cms/index.php. Friends and family who would like to check on their loved ones in the affected area can use the same site.

Please do what you can to help – $10 from millions of Americans will make all the difference once the media has gone home, and the next newsworthy event takes hold to our collective attentions. The people in this ravaged area will still need help then, so do your part now.

New York's 26th House District Race

Deeply Republican district – the 26th in New York, going down in flames for Repulicans because of Paul Ryan’s “Kill Medicare” bill. Yikes.

As of this writing, with 5% of precincts reporting, Democrat Kathy Hocul is in the lead with 48% of the vote, Jane Corwin is trailing with 43% of the vote, and dark horse Jack Davis is bringing up the rear as expected with 8% of the vote.

A little background. This is the congressional district vacated earlier this year by Republican and very married Representative Christopher Lee, who gave up his seat right after he gave up his shirt on Craig’s List trying to pick up…somebody. The thing is, unlike almost all of the rest of New York, this little district has voted consistently Republican in every race in recent history. Apparently, until tonight.

Tonight, voters in that district are voicing their deep dissapointment over the Republican candidates endorsement of the Ryan Medicare blaster bill. Hochul, the Democratic candidate held firm to her opposition of the bill, and made it a centerpiece of her campaign. Corwin, the Republican, hitched her wagon to the Ryan bill, that is until the polls started to mock her, and she tried to back off of her position. Too late, though, it looks like.

Alas and alack – I have to call it a night before we get the final results, but even if Ms. Corwin somehow manages to pull this one off (which looks truly doubtful at this point), Republicans all over the country HAVE to be re-thinking this whole “Medicare as sacrificial deficit lamb” stuff. If indeed Ms. Hochul takes this district tonight, it’s going to be endlessly entertaining tomorrow watching how the Conservative spin machine squirms out of this. Stay tuned.

Beloved BWFO Readers,

On Friday, May 20th, I received a response to a Craig’s List ad soliciting contributors for this blog.  The response came from a woman named Jan B. who is an apparent supporter of Herman Cain’s. I thought her email to me was fascinating, and my response to her even more fascinating (I kid), and both are included below. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter.

=================================================================

Jan’s Email:

My Response:

Dear Jan,

I absolutely love it when total strangers email me making a bunch of assumptions about what I do or don’t know. I think one of my biggest problems with Conservatives (of all varieties) is the tendency some of you have to spout rhetorical nonsense about “Czars”, and the Government threatening to arrest people for not maintaining their health care for no other reason than to scare people. But you want to talk about health care? Let’s.

My mother lived with me for 5 years, after she lost her kidney function and was later diagnosed with breast cancer. After 60+ years of paying into the Medicare and Social Security systems as a contributing member of society, her medical bills were so high that she and I were both forced into bankruptcy. She was too sick to walk, but she had to suffer the humiliation of going to court to speak on her own behalf regarding her astronomical medical bills. It was horrible – we were defenseless against the high costs of her care, and powerless to do anything about the skyrocketing costs as they mounted.

The truly sad thing is, my mother’s is not the worst story I’ve heard regarding the state of health care in America. People are literally dying because they don’t have access to health care, in the RICHEST NATION IN THE WORLD! If you can’t see why that’s a problem, then you’re soul-less, and it’s a waste of time to debate you. I’m not saying that the Health Care bill is perfect – far from it. But beleaguering the fact that one might potentially be fined for not maintaining health coverage in a society where you can literally be jailed for not maintaining liability insurance on your CAR is a little silly.

You dilute your point by saying things like “His [Obama's] policies and the corrupted individuals who co-side with  him are here to destroy the America you live in.” It makes you sound like a zealot intent on turning everyone you meet against Obama just because. And as for Herman Cain – I’m very familiar with Mr. Cain. I listened to his show here locally in Atlanta when he was still on the air. I respect him as a business man, and a fellow technologist, but he supports most of the same policies that nearly drove this country into a ditch over the last decade, so I can’t support him. I don’t care what his race is. And I think that’s the most offensive thing of all about your email.

You assume I support President Obama because of his race. That demeans me, and him. If you’d wandered across my blog back in 2007, you’d have found that in the beginning, I was quite torn between Obama and Clinton, and in fact, only made my decision to support Obama after researching his policies, reading his book, and a whole lot of soul searching, since even I back then didn’t hold out a lot of hope that he could win in this country. So, again – you minimize the effectiveness of your argument by making blanket assumptions – let’s debate the issues, not hurl baseless accusations. It doesn’t help the collective dialog.

Thanks for responding to my Craig’s List ad, though it certainly was not the kind of response I was after. It’s even more important now than ever that we have these conversations, but we also all must do what we can to make sure our conversations are productive and responsible. I hope you’ll join me in that. I await your response.

Patricia Wilson-Smith
Executive Director, Black Women for Obama

Donald Trump

Unlike my friend at MSNBC, Lawrence O’Donnell, I believe that what’s really going on is that the 24 hour news cycle has become no different than the endless sea of hokey reality shows that fill the airwaves. It seems to me that rather than just report the good old boring news, they’d rather hand over all the air time to lunatics with salacious things to say in the name of garnering ratings for their television shows, or to empty-headed politicians with pretty faces and big mouths with nothing real coming out of them (read Palin/Bachmann). The media is in the business of making us believe that non-reality is reality. Just like all the stupid reality shows that pour into our living rooms from every channel in an endless sea of staged lunacy.
Read the rest of this entry →

Black Women for Obama

It seems like only yesterday that an enthusiastic group of women gathered in Atlanta for the first time to form Black Women for Obama back in 2007. It started with this blog and a passion for getting then Senator Obama elected, and resulted in hundreds of volunteers, tens of thousands of dollars raised, and the organization being able to claim that it played a small part in electing the President of the United States! Well it’s time to do it again!

Black Women for Obama is looking for African American women who are Obama supporters and who would like to lead volunteer efforts in their state on behalf of BWFO! If you are interested in learning more about what it takes to be a State Chapter Director, email us at StateChapters@BlackWomenforObama.org, or call us at 302.746.2262!

An Un-Common Attack

So when Fox News lost it’s collective mind way back in 2002 over Pepsi hiring Ludicris, we all giggled and shook our heads in disbelief, especially over the idea that Ludacris would be portrayed by anyone as a gangster rapper; even a right-winged wing-nut like Bill O’Reilly, but I still think most of us just thought it was funny. But this time around Fox News and the rest of their Conservative on-air and on radio minions have it so wrong, it’s pretty – well, ludicrous.

I’m talking of course about this week’s flap from the right over the White House inviting rapper Common to their American celebration of poetry and prose, which also will reportedly feature the likes of Jill Scott, and Alison Knowles. Apparently anxious to do anything to turn the tide of popularity away from Obama after his stunning surprise killing of the world’s number one terrorist, the right-wingers couldn’t do any better than rabidly attacking one of the most popular, prolific, socially conscious rappers in the game. Too funny.

Sean Hannity has the loudest bull-horn, and has used it most vehemently over the last couple of days to sling words around like ‘disgusting’, and ‘vile’ in relation to Common. He’s played clips from past poetry performances, using select passages to drive home the point that Common is hell bent on killing policeman and wants former President George W. Bush killed in cold blood over leading us into the Iraq war. Heavy sigh.

It never ceases to amaze me how otherwise intelligent people can dumb themselves down so completely in order to score whatever media-driven, political, or social point they seek to make. I mean, come on – a simple Google search by any of the lunatics at Fox News, or even one of their interns would tell the true story about Common, who was born Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr. He has always, always been socially responsible, spiritual in his message, and most importantly, a strong opponent of what Wikipedia called ‘gangsterism’ in rap music. Period.

So what of Sean Hannity, Sarah Palin, and the likes? Why go so far overboard trying to paint a picture of Common that is just plain inaccurate? Political desperation, sprinkled with liberal amounts of racism, that’s why. I HATE throwing down the race card like this, but someone has to do it. And it’s not the kind of racism you might think – it’s not overt, and in your face, and it’s not just about Common being black. It’s much more insidious than that. It’s the kind of racism that seeks to de-legitimize the importance of the African American experience, and not just who we are as African Americans.

The fact of the matter is, Common is a poet, the same kind of artisan as Stevie Wonder, and Marvin Gaye were in their day. These men both made music that told the stories of their time, recounted the struggles of their generations, sometimes using what were considered strong themes that made some uncomfortable. Common is no different – his music and his poetry is thought provoking, timely, and meaningful; no matter how you slice it, the man simply cannot be considered a gangster rapper, not in any shape or form. And yet, Sean Hannity, and the rest of the right have spent the last 24 hours or so since it was announced that Common would be performing at the White House trying their damndest to characterize him as just that. A big, scary, black man, who stays up until all hours of the night, writing endless lyrics about the extermination of the white race, or who would, given the chance carry the blonde-haired blue eyed little daughters of their listeners off into the night – they’re purposely trying to create a Boogey-man where none exists. And it’s racist. Really, really, racist.

It’s okay to not like Common’s music – it’s okay to question the kind of event the White House is sponsoring, you know – claim that the President should have better things to do. But it’s not alright to take the lifelong body of work of an artist who by all accounts has done nothing but good in his career and try to turn it into the second coming of Charles Manson. Especially in an age where their are crazies out there who see any criticisms Fox News levels against anyone they disagree with as a call to violence. Screaming at the top of your lungs on your nightly television show that someone, anyone, wants to kill cops and maybe the President of the United States is foolish, and dangerous, and wrong.

Luckily, this too shall pass; Sarah Palin will get back to pretending she’s relevant, Sean Hannity will move on to the next thing he can drum up to try and make President Obama look bad, and hopefully Common (with his fine self) will continue making incredible music, and cool action flicks. I guess I took this one personally – I love Common, always have, and I love what he’s matured into. Never one to turn down an opportunity to catch a glimpse of him, I guess I should thank Sean and his crazed network for shoving him into the national spotlight. I just hope all of their gun-totin’, race-baiting, trigger-happy listeners were tuned into something else while Sean was ranting and raving. I don’t want a hair that might be somewhere on that gorgeous bald head touched.

I don’t care what you today. Watch this video. But go the bathroom first.

Osama bin Laden Photos - You Can Keep 'Em

It should be a surprise to know one that even as we bask in the glow of President Obama’s stunning surprise announcement regarding the elimination of Osama bin Laden, the 24 hour news networks are already a-buzz with the burning question of whether or not to release photos of him, post double-bullet wound to the dome.

The question is nowhere near burning for me. I guess I don’t see this one as fodder for conspiracy theorists.

I mean let’s face it. It’s not like the Administration didn’t conduct DNA tests that prove the dead man’s identity. It’s not like bin Laden’s wife is not around to tell the real story if need be, and it’s not like those brave soldiers who risked their lives to storm the heavily fortified compound to take Osama out can’t testify to the facts. And most importantly, I’m quite certain that the members of the Obama Administration who worked so hard for so many months to plan this operation all know that if by some horrible twist of circumstance, the man who is by now fish-bait at the bottom of the Indian Ocean really isn’t bin Laden, that the real Osama is sure to show up in the next day or so pointing to some camera from a cave bunker somewhere, laughing, and holding a newspaper with a headline that celebrates Cinqo de Mayo, gleefully mocking the U.S. and President Obama’s attempt to capture him. That goes without saying.

No doubt in my mind. Osama bin Laden is dead. As a door nail. And by all accounts, his death was quick and to the point, and resulted in a rather unpleasant separation of one part of his skull from the other. Is that particular visual really something we all need to see, something that needs to be released to every media outlet in the country in order to quell the fears and doubts of those who are afraid to believe the truth?

No, no, a million times no.

As a society, our voracious appetite for the sensational, the bizarre, and yes, the macabre has reached epidemic levels. We flock to our televisions to watch people like Orly Taitz frantically waving fake documents that claim to prove that the President’s guilty of social security number fraud, even though we know she’s a flake. We turn up the volume every time we see Donald Trump, hair flapping in the wind, spouting off about his doubts about the President’s birthplace, a sad commentary on this country that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that there are some here who simply will never accept or embrace anyone who is different from them. And we clamor to watch every idiotic, mind-numbing reality show – the more ridiculous and train wrecked the better. All while the really important issues, the really substantive discussion of those issues, never take place.

The sad truth of the matter is that someday, somehow, long after the furor has died down, those photos will probably find their way onto the Internet for all to see anyway. If that happens, so be it. But it belittles us a nation to make the conscious decision to display a photo of someone, no matter how evil they were in life, gruesomely mutilated in death. It should be enough to know that this man, who was personally, directly responsible for so much pain and suffering, for forever changing the lives of so many Americans, can no longer do any harm to anyone. That should be enough.

So what to do about those who refuse to believe without photographic proof, you ask? How about this – invite the bureau chiefs of every news outlet in the world to the White House for a viewing. Search them for cameras of any kind – take their cell phones, Flip video and all other digital or other photo devices, anything that could capture a photo at all. Lead them into a room with a big screen television. Open the proceedings with testimony from an expert who can attest to the validity of the photo they’re about to see. Then show them the photo.

Let them inspect it thoroughly. Let them look at every gory detail, let them compare the image to other photos of Osama bin Laden, and then – turn off the damned television, usher them out, and let them do what they’re paid to do. Report the truth of the situation. Bing, bam, boom. No gory photos floating around the Internet for my 14 year old to seek out, a few days of non-stop coverage of the reveal, and we all go on with our lives, secure in the knowledge that at long last, that mad man is out of the picture.

That is all we can afford to do to quiet the calls for a more public viewing, I’m afraid. That is all we should do. After all, in truth, there is nothing to celebrate in the destruction of a human life, only in the elimination of a blight on mankind. And it goes without saying that for the family and friends of the thousands of people killed on 9/11, gazing triumphantly on the picture of a dead man’s corpse won’t ease the pain of what they endured that day. That’s not healing, and it’s not closure. It’s morbid curiosity at best, and really truly demeans us as a country. With any luck, someone, somewhere will read this and take heed before we inflict additional harm on the country by releasing gruesome photos that will do little to convince the die hard conspiratorial types anyway. I hope so. I hope that even as we celebrate this important victory over terrorism, we can remember that WE are the civilized ones, the grown-ups, and just – do the right thing here.

Hey – a girl can dream.

Another White House Correspondent’s Dinner has come and gone, but this year’s was truly priceless! Watch the whole video below, if you think (like I do) that the constant non-stop coverage of Donald Trump and his lunatic ramblings has caused the IQ’s of the nation to drop by several percentage points!

President Obama (through his comedy writer’s no doubt) had a field day with “The Donald”  who was in attendance. The blank stares coming from fake-Presidential wanna be Trump were a treasure, just a treasure! Fox News caught it there in the beginning as well – check it out!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9mzJhvC-8E]