Considering Coons and the GOP's Future

Following the election for a new Young Republican leader gave me flashbacks.

Fresh out of college and a tad naive on my first reporting job, a small-town politician invited me to go “coon hunting.”

I had NO idea what he was talking about.

Though I attended majority white schools in the South, my parents kept me pretty protected from a lot of that stuff, and I mainly traveled in a circle of academic achievers, friends from orchestra and band class, and those who attended church with me. My upbringing didn’t prepare me to talk about hunting of any kind with the Milledgeville, Ga., city attorney.

The official's invitation struck me as a little off — he was chuckling as we talked — but I was eager to develop sources so I agreed to join him on his next outing. Back at the office, I asked my white, male editor about killing raccoons, something I wasn’t keen on witnessing. Exactly what would it involve?

The editor, Don Schanche, turned red.

He banged his fist on the desk.

He let loose with ungentlemanly expletives, cursing loud enough to startle everyone in the newsroom. Then he stalked out.

Later, still angry but in a much-lowered voice, he explained that “coon hunting” had nothing to do with raccoons. He apologized, asked whether I was comfortable enough to continue working my city government beat, and cautioned me to keep my distance from City Attorney J.W. Morgan. (Of course I still remember the guy’s name,)

Morgan died three years ago, according to an obituary I found online. But he was vividly brought back to mind by the election of Audra Shays to head the Young Republican National Federation — an election in which the word “coon” played a part.

This being 2009, Shays has a Facebook page. On it, one of her online friends labeled President Obama a “terrorist” and expressed a need to take back the country from “all these mad coons.” To see her reply, zoom in on this screen shot. “You tell ‘em,” she wrote. Where she typed “lol,” that’s shorthand for “laugh out loud.”

Laugh out loud? She found that entertaining?

And now she is one of the elected faces of the party of Lincoln, the party with a national chairman, Michael Steele, who is black.

To continue reading, click here.

The Truth About Abortion and Black America

I sat trying to figure out how I would cover law school costs this fall when my phone rang. It was a campaign worker with a reminder that Virginia voters had a Democratic primary election this week and I had yet to decide who would get my vote.

It was the typical campaign call, nothing really remarkable about it. The worker wanted to know if I planned to support a conservative — not Republican — candidate at the polls. “Are you African American?” she asked. I replied in the affirmative. “I know that many African American voters are conservative when it comes to social issues like abortion. Would you describe the candidate you plan to support as conservative on the issue of abortion?”

In recent years conservative political strategists have painted African Americans as being more opposed to abortion than the white population. They have cited numbers as high as 59 percent.

But a recent Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life poll found that 49 percent of black Americans — considered more religious than the U.S. population as a whole — favor keeping abortion legal in most or all cases; just 44 percent of black Americans want abortion to be illegal in most or all cases.

Experts say there is declining black support for conservative social policies like abortion. The reasons vary.

Christopher J. Metzler, an associate dean at Georgetown University who writes regularly on issues of race and politics, attributes the drop-off in support to pressing economic conditions that black Americans face.

The unemployment rate for African American workers is now at 14.9 percent, almost double the national average. “It’s just not one of our top issues,” said Metzler.

Please click here to read the rest, and please leave your thoughts. ~One

Dialing Down the Sound of Fury

High-pitched conservative rhetoric seems to be even more shrill than usual lately; some even blame it for the recent slaying of Dr. George Tiller, the Kansas physician who performed late-term abortions and was gunned down at his church May 31.

Some Republicans are having second thoughts about the level of negative political rhetoric they have been spouting as of late. Former Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga. (1979-99), retrenched on what he recently said about Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor being a racist.

Sotomayor will be the first Latina on the high court if confirmed.

It’s about time foes dialed down their fury. Maybe Gingrich realizes that he is the one who came off looking like a racist when he attacked her; then again, maybe not. Regardless, Gingrich’s half-apology comes too late and the damage might already be done.

“No party has a monopoly on saying things that are offensive at times,” said Audrey A. Haynes, an associate professor of political science at The University of Georgia. “But there is general consensus that the Republican Party, thanks to its use of wordsmith practioners and marketing gurus, has done a much better job, at least in the past, of controlling the discourse, framing the political conflicts, and being much more aggressive than the Democrats have been.”

When President Obama campaigned for the Oval Office, he vowed to help change the climate of political dialogue in Washington and beyond. In light of recent events this past week, it seems that this is a promise he won’t be able to keep.

But not because he hasn’t tried.

It was Obama who chose to deliver the commencement address at the University of Notre Dame over historically black Morehouse College. He could have taken the easier path by going to Morehouse, where the first black president would likely have been lovingly welcomed with open arms; instead he went to Notre Dame where he was heckled during a speech that called for greater understanding and fair-mindedness on all sides of the abortion issue.

Click here to read the rest of the piece, and please leave a comment.

Voter ID: How Far Is Too Far?

With his signature May 5 on Georgia’s new voter identification law, Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue has set up a sure-fire showdown with the federal Department of Justice.

The Bush administration — which favored voter ID laws — was in charge the last time Georgia pushed through such controversial legislation.

This time around, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. is calling the shots, and Georgia has to win his approval for an even stricter law that it now wants.

If permitted, Georgia would become the second state (Arizona is the other) to require prospective voters to prove their U.S. citizenship; currently voters in Georgia need only check a box on a registration application affirming U.S. citizenship.

In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a controversial voter ID law in Indiana, but that only led to more legal uncertainty for states.

Perdue and his supporters say stricter voter ID laws are necessary to combat voter fraud. Those who oppose it say the law has “xenophobic overtones” and maintain that it is a solution to a problem that does not exist. They add that the law would keep the poor, elderly and minorities away from the ballot box.

Perdue’s actions are part of the GOP’s efforts to put in place an array of new voting laws across the South.

For example:

• South Carolina legislators, for example, are arguing over a bill that requires voters to show valid government-issued identification at the polls. That recently prompted a walkout by several Democratic members led by the legislative black caucus.

Click to read the rest, and remember, comment and comment often. Thx

A Foreclosure 'Fix' That Should Be In

I read with interest New York Times economics reporter Edmund L. Andrews’ book excerpt about how he fell behind in his mortgage payments.

“I know a lot about the curveballs that the economy can throw at us,” he writes. “But in 2004, I joined millions of otherwise-sane Americans in what we now know was a catastrophic binge on overpriced real estate and reckless mortgages. Nobody duped or hypnotized me. Like so many others — borrowers, lenders and the Wall Street dealmakers behind them — I just thought I could beat the odds.”

By 2007, he writes of his third mortgage servicer, JPMorgan Chase, “I was actually beginning to feel sorry for Chase. It seemed to be so flooded with defaulting borrowers that it didn’t have time to foreclose on my house. Eight months after my last payment to the bank, I am still waiting for the ax to fall.”

Not everyone facing mortgage foreclosure has had it this easy.

Lawrence Mouton, a Dallas truck driver for 12 years, purchased a $95,000 home two years ago and was paying a mortgage of $900 a month — the kind of terms Washington, D.C.-area residents like Andrews would kill for. In short order, however, Mouton’s wife lost her nursing home job and the mortgage payments jumped to over $1,200 a month.

Mouton struggled to keep the lights and gas on. He took out payday loans just to keep a roof over his family’s heads.

Home Eq, the company servicing his home loan, constantly called pushing him to pay more money, even urging him to send them his mother-in-law’s Social Security check.

“They wanted anything they could get,” said Mouton, whose bedridden mother-in-law lives with the family. “I told them we used her Social Security to buy all of her medicines. After we do that, all that little money is gone.”

Mouton was able to modify the terms of his loan when the servicer agreed last fall to lower his monthly payment by a whopping $17.86.

Mouton, 51, continued to make payments, even partial ones, but fell behind on the mortgage and his home soon went into foreclosure.

It is unclear how two homeowners with the same problem got different treatment.

Maybe it’s because they have different lenders. Or maybe it’s because one is a reporter for The New York Times and the other isn’t, said Kathleen Day, a spokeswoman for the Washington-based Center for Responsible Lending.

In the current foreclosure crisis, Hispanics and black borrowers who often took on subprime loans — even when they qualified for conventional ones — are disproportionately impacted.

“It’s a maddening system,” Day said. “There are disparities and no streamlined process to make it more efficient. That’s why we think the bankruptcy fix is key to solving the current foreclosure crisis. Without it, people have no leverage.”

On April 30, the Senate rejected an amendment to a broader housing bill (S 896) that would have allowed bankruptcy judges to modify the terms of a primary residential mortgage — much the same way they are already allowed to do for people who own vacation homes and yachts. (Total transparency: I worked to win legislative support for a similar bill last year as a congressional fellow.)

The provision in the Senate bill would have helped 1.7 million homeowners facing foreclosure and helped neighborhoods preserve some $300 billion in property value, according to the Center for Responsible Lending. The legislation enjoyed support from voters and key advocates, including Republican former congressman and vice presidential nominee Jack Kemp who passed away May 2.

Twelve Democrats in the Senate joined Republicans in rejecting the amendment, not because of its expense (it doesn’t cost taxpayers a dime), but because mortgage banking lobbyists argued a more appealing case.

Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin , D-Ill., — who has spent much of the past two years promoting the benefits of allowing bankruptcy judges to lower interest rates, reduce principal or stretch payment periods for struggling homeowners — blamed the defeat on lobbying efforts of the banking industry — considered by most to be politically battered after six months of federal bailouts and economic disaster.

“The big banks, JPMorgan Chase, you see them all over the United States — they were at the [negotiating] table until last week and they decided, ‘No, we will walk away, we are not interested in this conversation,’” he said. “Wells Fargo, Bank of America, the list goes on and on. If any of the names sound familiar, it is that they are surviving today because of our taxpayer dollars.”

The foreclosure language — a process referred to as “cramdown” — is in a House-passed version of the legislation (HR 1106) and will come back up during conference, Durbin said. But its chances of survival are marginal.

President Obama’s $75 billion foreclosure prevention program has gone further than any other initiative Congress has come up with, but even it has limitations.

The plan only really got off the ground in March and many lenders still don’t have the personnel in place to handle an overwhelming number of loan modification requests. Plus, it is still voluntary, meaning lenders don’t have to participate if they don’t want to, which has largely been the case since the crisis began.

Meanwhile, Day predicted 9 million foreclosures over the next four years, which will cause 92 million neighboring families to see their own property values drop by an additional $1.9 trillion.

In 2009 alone, she said, 2.4 million families will lose their homes, leading to a $502 billion additional drop in value for 70 million neighboring homes.

“This is why we think that eventually they will have to come back and resurrect the bankruptcy fix,” she said. “It is the only thing that makes sense.”

Mouton eventually found help from the Dallas Urban League, one of the oldest civil rights groups that helps economically empower African Americans.

It took a housing counselor at the organization five months to track down Mouton’s lender and convince a resistant servicer to modify his loan. With lots of patience and persistence, the company finally agreed to modify the terms of his loan, one week before his house was to be sold.

The total price of the home grew to $102,000 — about $20,000 above its current appraisal, Mouton estimated. But the Dallas Urban League also got the company to drop Mouton’s interest rate to 2 percent and cut his mortgage payments in half, to $628 a month.

Terms, Mouton says, he can live with.

Fixing the Crack in U.S. Drug Policy

Eugenia Jennings’ mother left her at a neighbor’s house and never returned to get her.

The people who were supposed to take care of Eugenia, wound up beating and molesting her instead.

Eugenia was sexually abused by another neighbor and a prostitute at the age of seven. A year later she was raped by a step-brother and the man who called himself her step-father tried so when she was a teenager.

Eugenia ran away at 13, and shortly thereafter got hooked on crack-cocaine and alcohol.

“She stopped using when she learned she was pregnant but after she gave birth at age 16, desperate for money to support her and her daughter, she began selling drugs. Of course, she was eventually caught,” said her brother, Cedric Parker, who will testify before U.S. senators this week about federal mandatory drug sentences.

While in prison Eugenia got clean, earned a GED and gave birth to another child. But after getting released in 1999, she relapsed.

In June 2000 Eugenia Jennings was arrested for trading 13.9 grams of crack cocaine – differing quantities on two different occasions - for clothing.

She was charged in federal court with two counts of distributing crack cocaine. She pleaded guilty and, because she already had prior offenses for small amounts of drugs, Eugenia was sentenced in 2001 to nearly 22 years in prison; she was 23 years old.

The irony here is, had Eugenia Jennings been found with powder cocaine instead of crack, she would have gotten less than half that amount of time behind bars.

The system, the judge said when sentencing Jennings, had let her down.

“Mrs. Jennings, I’m not mad at you. . . . The fact of the matter is, nobody has ever been there for you when you needed it. Never. You never had anyone who stood up for you. All the government’s ever done is just kick your behind. When you were a child and you had been abused, the government wasn’t there. When your stepfather abused you, the government wasn’t there. When your stepbrother abused you, the government wasn’t there. But, when you get a little bit of crack, the government’s there.

“Now is that fair? No. It’s not. And have you been punished? You bet,” according to a transcript of the court proceedings. “Your whole life has been a life of deprivation, misery, whippings, and there is no way to unwind that. But the truth of the matter is it’s not in my hands. As I told you, Congress has determined that the best way to handle people who are troublesome is we just lock them up. Congress passed the laws.

“And it is an awful thing, an awful thing, to separate a mother from her children,” the judge continued. “And the only person who had the opportunity to avoid that was you . . . . .At every turn in the road we failed you. And we didn’t come to you until it was time to kick your butt. That’s what the government has done for Eugenia Jennings.”

Click to find out what happened to Eugenia, and please leave a comment here or here. Thanks, ~Sunshine

Politics of Color for Obama in Cuba

Miriela Mir Fonseca left her mother as well as four brothers and sisters behind in Cuba. Her relatives often don’t have enough to eat, she says.

So when President Obama recently lifted travel and remittance restrictions for the tiny island nation, Mir Fonseca considered it a blessing.

“With Obama, I can go home anytime I want,” said the 33-year-old, who works as a baker for a popular pastry chain in Buffalo, NY. “Can I tell you my dream? My dream is for my mother to come visit me, and for my brother to come here to help me start my business.”

Mir Fonesca is the face of a little-understood side of U.S.-Cuba relations. She is Afro-Cuban.
Fidel Castro’s relationship with blacks in the U.S. goes all the way back to when he stayed in Harlem after getting rejected by Western and European leaders attending a UN General Assembly meeting in 1961; he was welcomed by El Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (also known as Malcolm X). Castro has chosen to visit and deliver speeches in Harlem ever since.

The tiny island nation has long offered to provide free medical school to African Americans, and took a harsh stance against South African apartheid, even as the American government would not.

Over the years, Fidel Castro has encouraged his country – about 60 percent of which is of African descent — to not only identify themselves with African Americans, but to have an affinity for them. And he used America’s racism to discredit U.S. policy on the island, according to Mark Sawyer, associate professor of political science at UCLA and author of Racial Politics in Post-Revolutionary Cuba.

Obama’s election means the Cuban regime might not be able to demonize the U.S. as it once did.
But despite his reversal of Bush Administration policy toward Cuba travel, it more than likely will prove difficult to follow that with a quick end to the 47-year-old trade embargo.
For one thing, Cuban leaders aren’t sure the country is ready for the embargo to be lifted. That’s why we see mixed messagescoming from the Castro brothers about opening a dialogue with the U.S.

And Castro isn’t stupid. He saw what happened to the Soviet Union in the 1980s after it opened itself up to the West — its economy collapsed.

“Cuba is an island of 10 million people and it has a very small economy,” Sawyer said during a recent telephone conversation. “Opening up with the U.S. could potentially overwhelm their economy; and it could dramatically undermine Cuba’s power, control and its domestic policy.”
Like Mir Fonseca, Afro-Cubans tend to want the embargo put to rest; but they also want their families to maintain the gains of the revolution, such as universal health care and a guaranteed quality education. (Cuba has one of the highest life-expectancies in the world, and Castro is credited with basically eliminating illiteracy in the country.)

A report released earlier this year by Sen. Richard G. Lugar , R-Ind., recommended establishing a bipartisan commission to forge a new, multilateral strategy on Cuba with Latin America and the European Union. It also urged Havana’s reintegration into western-dominated international institutions, such as the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, among other steps.

Borrowing money from the International Monetary Fund could impact Cuba’s domestic policy, by forcing the country to put caps on how much money it spends on education, health and poverty reduction. And it could affect how much Cuba can tax remittances. Currently taxed at 20 percent, that money allows Cuba to provide social services to its citizens.

Possible negotiations with the U.S. are further complicated by an issue that has a decidedly racial component.

When 25,000 elite, mostly white Cubans, fled the island between 1959 and 1993, Castro allowed their homes to be taken over by the maids and other servants – mostly black – who, in many cases, worked for the families that moved to Miami. “These wealthy families want to be paid back for their homes,” said Sawyer. “Under the radar, this is being talked about in terms of possible negotiations with the U.S.”

Cuba could be bankrupted if forced to repay wealthy exiles for their property, Sawyer said.
And that would further hurt poor black Cubans, like the realtives of Mir Fonesca.

As grateful as she is to be able to see her family more than once every three years, as the Bush Administration permitted, she wants more for them, and thinks ending the embargo would be the right start.

“Our families are starving,” she said. “We’re praying for a new start for the USA and Cuba.”

Liar, Liar

It doesn't even seem like candidates care that they get caught telling their tall tales. (Click graphic to enlarge.)

Read story here: http://www.mije.org/richardprince/boldly-telling-lies-media

Now, I'm sure Sen. Joe Biden, and the heads of each one of these political tickets have made some mis-statements - or told outright lies - as well. Afterall, politicians tend to fall into this trap.

Unfortunately, when I went to fact-check.org, I didn't find any for the other candidates. If you can think of lies some of the other candidates have told, please post them below so that we can all shake our dayum heads and step lightly through the BS.

Historic Pick!

Now that Barack Obama has officially made history, what does it mean if he wins or loses in November?

If Obama wins, does that mean America has truly transcended race and that racism is dead or dying in this country?

If Obama loses, will it be because of his race or because he didn't sufficiently make his case?

'Uncommon Grace'

Had it been based on a popular vote, Hillary Clinton would have had the Democratic nomination.

But, elections aren’t won according to popular vote counts, and Hillary Clinton lost. Based on tonight’s reception of the junior senator from NY at the Democratic National Convention, however, one would have thought she’d won.

Love her or hate her, Hillary Clinton can not be denied due respect.

In one of the most important speeches of the convention, Hillary had to take the first step in unifying the Democratic Party. Her husband, Bill Clinton who sat in tears listening to his wife’s speech, will take the next few steps tomorrow. It will be left to Sen. Barack Obama to do the rest on Thursday.

But tonight belongs to Hillary.

How many women, how many people period, could fight as hard as she fought for the Democratic nomination only to lose based on party rules, and then come out as strong as she did Tuesday night for the same party that issued the denial?

Hillary did it.

“The time is now to unite as a single party with a single purpose,” Hillary said. “…Were you involved in this campaign just for me? …Or were you in it for all the people in this country who feel invisible?”

She didn’t sound like a loser tonight. If you ask me, Hillary actually sounded pretty presidential.

“No way, no how, no McCain,” Hillary said. “Barack Obama is my candidate, and he must be our president.”

“A fighter of uncommon grace,” Clinton said f Ohio Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones who unexpectedly died last week. But when I looked at Hillary tonight, she just as easily could have been describing herself.

So did Hillary deliver for Barack Obama tonight?

You tell me.

On Cindy, Michelle, and what it means to be a first-rate lady

As I watched the Democratic National Convention I sat transfixed by Michelle Obama's speech.

She stood their beautifully black and real.

Gone were the pieces of paper she's stiltedly read from over recent weeks. Back came the Michelle Obama we first met when Barack Obama initially announced his candidacy.

I won't spend much time talking about what she said tonight. You can go to www.cnnpolitics.com to read a transcript of Michelle's speech.

I want to discuss Michelle Obama, Cindy McCain and what it means to be a lady.

Comparing Cindy and Michelle may not be fair, especially since Michelle had her night and Cindy hasn't. But what we know so far about the women offers a striking contrast between the two.

As Michelle so eloquently put it, she's a girl from the south side of Chicago. Born to parents who had to scrimp and save and poured all that they had into their children. Michelle lavished praise on her brother, Craig Robinson, who lovingly introduced his sister to the cameras. She called him the man she's always looked up to.

Most importantly Michelle reminded America of being of service to our communities, our children, and to our world.

This woman came off as poised, personable and purposeful. I don't mean purposeful in terms of slick marketing to sell her husband. Sure she had a job to do in terms of letting people know about Barack Obama the man, but she went beyond that.

Michelle even reached out to Hillary Clinton, something the Democratic base - read most African Americans - haven't done yet. Something the Democratic base - read most African Americans - will have to do if they want to win in November.

"You treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don't know them and even if you don't agree with them," Michelle Obama said during her speech before the Democratic National Convention Monday night in Colorado.

Cindy McCain came from a monied father who made his cash selling beer. He left one wife and child to marry Cindy's mom. Cindy has repeatedly said publicly that she is an only child. Only that isn't, technically, true.

Angered that her sister would rather pretend she doesn't exist than acknowledge her in the slightest way, Kathleen Hensley Portalski came forward last week to National Public Radio to say that she and her sister haven't been close in years.

Not being close is an understatement.

Cindy McCain doesn't speak to her sister. Further, Cindy (who is a billionaire) essentially gave Kathleen $10,000 and a kiss goodbye after their father died.

So much for service.

Kathleen's husband is a firefighter and a emergency medical technician who is looking for work.

He wasn't quoted, but I wonder what his response was to John McCain's claim that our economy is strong. Or what he thought about one of McCain's adviser's comments that America is full of whiners.

Anyhoo... back to what it means to be a lady.

Now I'm not saying Cindy McCain isn't a nice person or that she isn't compassionate. She very well may be. Perhaps we will get to see that side of her next week during the Republican National Convention.

I will say that the pressure is definitely on Cindy to show us a more lady-like side based on Michelle's performance tonight.

Police disrupt possible Obama assassination attempt in Colorado

The man hasn't even arrived in Colorado yet. Police to hold press conference Tuesday. More details to follow:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/25/obama-assassination-plot_n_121293.html

Obama-Biden '08

Joe "the blow-hard" Biden.

The same guy that caught flak for calling Sen. Barack Obama "articulate." The guy who said, repeatedly, that Barack Obama wasn't ready for the office. The same guy who lost his first run for the White House because it was learned he was guilty of plaigerism.

Really?

At the same time, as former chairman of the Senate Judiciary and Foreign Relations committees, Biden is more experienced; and he also has roots in the proverbial, long-heralded "working class white population."

Still, this is gonna take some getting used to.

Check out the links: 3 a.m. Announcement here, yeah, I'm up.

Biden Biography here

Analysis here, Biden pick shows lack of confidence, says the AP.

Veep Bowl: You choose!

Who do you think Barack Obama or John McCain should pick as a running mate?

I'm taking bets on Biden for Obama and Romney for McCain...

Remembering Stephanie

Ever meet one of those people who had a certain air about them. You know, the kind of person who is happy but not "fake-happy, the kind of happy like they are walking in the spirit?

That's what struck me about Stephanie Tubbs-Jones the first time I met her on Capitol Hill.

Rep. Tubbs-Jones died today after suffering an aneurysm. She was 58, the first African American woman elected to represent the state of Ohio in Congress and one of the highest ranking black political leaders in the country.

For those who have been following me, you know that I've spent the past year working in the U.S. Congress. I had often seen Tubbs-Jones on television, but I never met her personally until a few months ago outside a members-only elevator at the U.S. Capitol.

While other members of Congress often ride up on the members-only elevator alone or with their staff, while other members' staffers and constituents wait and wait and wait for the public elevator, Rep. Tubbs-Jones wasn't like that at all.

Instead she insisted that everyone get on the elevator with her, even if it meant she - and you - would be cramped inside.

Rep. Tubbs- Jones also differed from other representatives and senators in that she talked with everyone, not just talked, she embraced you. Rep. Tubbs-Jones was genuinely interested in people, even this congressional fellow who only planned to work in the nation's capitol temporarily.

I recall at the State of the Union Address earlier this year other members walked past one another, often only stopping to shake the hands of fellow Republicans or fellow Democrats. Not Stephanie Tubbs-Jones. A Democrat, she hugged both Republican and Democratic members.

And she laughed. She had a genuine smile that invited people into her sphere.

Stephanie Tubbs-Jones was someone you wanted to emulate. I'm not trying to deify her, but with Rep. Tubbs-Jones it wasn't simply talking about her faith like many politicans do, she actually walked in the light of Christ. And you could see that she did.

Russian Roulette

Russian roulette is a potentially lethal game of chance in which participants place a cartridge in a revolver, spin the cylinder, place the muzzle against themselves and pull the trigger.

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Isn't Condoleeza Rice's speciality supposed to be Russian studies?

Shouldn't she have seen this debacle with Soviet Georgia happening months, even years ago? Rice wasn't a great Secretary of National Security, she failed the job and should have been fired (remember 9-11 happened on her watch).

Now as Secretay of State she's failing again.

Perhaps I am being unfair, afterall, she was on vacation when Russia invaded Soviet Georgia. And her boss, George W. Bush, was chillin in China, a place so polluted that American athletes probably shouldn't be there. Bush could have stayed there if he wanted.

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Russia is supposedly the birthplace of the game. Roulette refers to the element of risk taking and the spinning of the revolver's cylinder being reminiscent of the spinning of the roulette wheel.

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No, really, maybe I shouldn't fault Condi's job performance. I mean, it was only a few short years ago that President Bush proclaimed he'd looked into then-Russian President Vladimir Putin's soul, and had seen how "good" the man was.

Bull-hockey.

Pardon my language, but Putin has been crushing press and other freedoms for about as long as Bush has been in the White House. Anybody with half a brain could have predicted the path Russia was taking. If only Bush had been looking at facts instead of trying to see inside somebody's soul, he might have seen what was really happening.

Putin is no longer President of Russia, but he's still very much in control. Bush called Russia a bully last week. Oh now Putin isn't a good guy. Can America make up its mind, please?

Forget for the moment that Bush ought to have learned his lesson years ago about name-calling, forget even that everybody knows Bush is selling wolf tickets. Our military is so bogged down in the Middle East that America can't do a damn thing in terms of coming to yet another country's rescue.

Sigh...

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The form of the game can be as varied as the participants or their motives (displays of bravado, suicide etc.), but typically a single round is placed in a six-shot revolver resulting in a small chance of the revolver discharging the round.

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The limits of America's power have never been so visible. Thanks to Mr. Bush. America is no longer the most powerful nation in the world, Russia and China are proof-positive of that. We are naked, and the world sees us for what we are, The Great Pretender.

Condi Rice went to Tiblisi, the capitol of Georgia nd forced the Georgian President to sign a cease fire with Russia. In return, Russia agreed to pull its soldiers out of Georgian territory, only they aren't.

Basically Putin is saying "Fugg You" to Georgia and the U.S.

Russia's goal is to topple the Georgian government, and test America's military prowess.

So, basically, Russia invaded the country of Georgia - a U.S. ally - to see what the U.S. would do. In fact, a Russian General said, "If America can invade and take Baghdad, we can take Tiblisi (the capitol of Georgia)."

Russia is calling our bluff.

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In the game, the revolver's cylinder can either be spun again to reset the game conditions, or the trigger can be pulled again. Using revolvers with fewer chambers (typically five) or increasing the number of rounds are other variations that increase the risk.

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The names and conditions may change, but once again America is playing a game of Russian Roulette.

Hopefully George W. Bush won't overplay America's hand any more than he already has.

If he does, we might all want to consider moving to, ehrrr, Russia.

PUMA

No, I am not referring to the sneaker or Erykah Badu's daughter.

PUMA stands for Party Unity My Ass, and is more loudly being uttered by Sen. Hillary Clinton supporters who believe the Democratic nomination was stolen from their candidate. Many are asking for a controversial roll-call vote to show their discontent at the end of this month in Denver, site of their party's national convention at which Sen. Barack Obama is expected to be coronated the new Democratic leader.

It appears the PUMA people now have added ammunition to help buttress their claims.

Clinton would be the Democratic presidential nominee if John Edwards had been caught in his lie about an extramarital affair and forced out of the race last year, insists a top Clinton campaign aide, making a charge that could exacerbate previously existing tensions between the camps of Clinton and Obama.

Clinton supporters say the "cover-up" cost their candidate the election. Some Obama supporters quietly, and reluctantly, may agree.

Clinton apparently knew about former senator/vice presidential/presidential candidate Edwards' extra-curricular activities, but kept mum about it. Clinton also rejected advice from her staff to trash Obama, painting him as unpatriotic as Republican operatives are now doing.

These latest revelations debunk claims that the Clintons will try to win at any cost, no matter what or who they have to step on. That's definitely been proven a false narrative by now.

More seriously, however, is the trouble Obama seems to be having among white middle and working class voters, many of whom are among the PUMA people. Realistically, Obama can not win the White House without them.

There is a lot at stake in the upcoming election, including two to three U.S. Supreme Court seats, universal health care, wages, war and more.

For those who want to see Obama win, it seems to me the questions that should be uppermost in black voters' minds - all progressive voters for that matter - is whether the Democratic Party can get its act together to win in November, and if so, how?

Party Unity My Ass... well if it isn't there, Democrats better find it somewhere!