Mamie~Louise Anderson's Special Editorial

My Morning After Response to the Debate

Just when we think our champion is the underdog, watching powerlessly as his opponent preens with over-confidence, puffs up his (or her, in the case of Hillary) chest, juts out his jaw and scrambles ideology like the shape shifter he's known to be, the Commander in Chief delivers the unexpected knocked out by a deft, dignified, unassuming and lethal stroke of genius! Alas, that didn't happen. In last night's high stakes verbal sword fight, hope and change was not the case. I was waiting for the element of surprise - some wry and pointed remark to cut through Romney's barrage of conservative talking points and well-rehearsed mythology that Gov. Christie warned us on "Meet the Press" was coming.

Romney showcased his CEO command at President Obama's expense and the moderator was as ineffectual as a lowly employee serving tea in the board room. For the president to allow Romney this runaway performance so late in the game showed the miscalculation of a cagey enemy by his handlers who neutered him with his own brand: Mr. Nice Guy. I doubt President Obama has allowed himself to think of Romney as "the enemy," but that psychological adjustment would have made his fighting skills effective.

And make no mistake, that skinny guy can fight! But you don't bring a butter knife to a gunfight; this is war! The camera angles made it worse. Practiced Romney faced the nation and the President, confidently. President Obama looked down, like a student taking notes. The optics were awful. Like most of you, I was screaming at the TV, trying to coach our distant leader out of that sleep walk.

And yet... Here we are, the morning after, weighing the lopsided victory of the desperately animated, amped and dominating Governor that has the pundits and fact-checkers doing President Obama's work for him, in effect, proving Romney aggressively wrong on points and even more distasteful as he flipped into attack mode in a manner absent of diplomacy. In the President's defense, everybody now talking about what (contender) Obama coulda or shoulda said is effectively building the case against Romney, siding with the Prez in a whispering campaign that highlights the lies and distortions that have characterized his feckless, Etch-a- Sketch campaign.

If letting the media do the work for him is the Obama campaign's calculated risk, and I don't believe it is, Chicago is slicker than slick and more street smart than we've ever given them credit for. They have mastered the politics of shaping public sentiment by default, allowing rude Romney to display his latent bully as Obama's cool and likeable persona remains presidentially intact. I think, to be honest, Romney kicked Obama's ass at a time when mastery of debate was all it would have taken to put Romney away for good.
This is a choice election and mano a mano, it was ideology vs ideology. Conservative vs liberal, a dichotomy antithetical to President Obama's "there are no red states; there are no blue states" core values, pragmatism and political philosophy. He needed to take it to the bridge, but he didn't. 

The President's table was set and Romney was his guest, but he let him take over the house, not just the dinner party. I'm watching this and thinking, confrontation is a skill the President would be wise to master. When the enemy is face to face; in point of fact, in your face and looking down his patrician nose at the nation, pretending to have compassion, it's time to ball up your verbal fist and land one, Pow! Right in the kisser! The President lacked this killer instinct and without it, he lost round after unstructured round when facts and figures, a few pithy anecdotes and a flash of humor would have won by a knockout punch upside Romney's big head! I waited all night for that. It didn't come.

This is all spin. We will see in the days ahead how it all shakes out. Romney's lies landing on our punch-drunk champion. The President's unvoiced deflections. Michelle's brow creased with concern. Miss Ann's smug condescension. The nation's compassion for the leader who has run himself raggedy on our behalf, crisis after crisis. The Black Man who dares to climb to the lonely heights yet a second time to save us from oligarchy. Time will tell...

 Initially, the polls will shift in Romney's favor, if only because America loves a comeback and a fighter. After all, as Joan Allen pointed out, he was boning up on debate skills while the President was running the world. In the end, that doesn't matter. This is WAR! If debate is the arena that can determine this close race, our fearless gladiator, President Obama, must master it and come out swinging next time, preferably without the gloves. (but that's just me talking smack, a girl from Harlem 's tenements and el barrio's projects who learned to fight to survive.)

And this thing about suppressing Black rage and appearing to be unflappable. Here's my thinking: To be human is to display the full range of human emotion, no matter how it is broadly misinterpreted. Surely a second term president has earned the right to fully express fighting instincts. The non-angry Black Man is a reverse stereotype we simply can't afford. Yet, Obama doesn't have to be mad to defeat Romney. It ain't personal; it's business. He doesn't have to stoop to conquer or fight dirty, but he really does have to fight like the devil to win.

What you bet he brings his “A game” next time and the final debate will be brilliant, no matter what else is happening in the world? What you bet? 10,000 Monopoly dollars? Let this be a lesson in gauging the enemy and ferreting out Romney's long-hidden agenda. Seeing how far he's willing to pivot from his base to take the Oval Office. I am confident President Obama will rise to the occasion. There is too much at stake for him not to and with The First Lady in his corner, he cannot simply lose. 

KEEP THE FAITH, BABY!

Mamie~Louise Anderson

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The Heartless Tin Man

There was a football commercial that aired a few years ago where a coach was asked did you know your opponent. The coach’s response was “they were who we thought they were”. The Plutocrat known as the Tin Man has now told us that he is who we thought he was! He could not have been more honest when he said:

"There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what…. These are people who pay no income tax.... [M]y job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."

Some of Mitt’s supporters say these remarks were stupid and arrogant. I call this a disgrace for a man who could become the leader of the free world. It's worth noting that a good portion of the 47 percent who don't pay income taxes are Romney supporters. These people are seniors, many are lower-income Americans, soldiers, college students, and of course the Tin Man’s friends. So Mitt seems to have contempt not just for the Democrats who oppose him but also half of the American citizens according to him.

This is a guy that can only claim the best part of the Good Ol Boy’s convention was a senile old man talking to a chair. The Tin Man has now shown himself to be a bumbling fool and its time that he and the Boy Wonder be sent back to the Land of Oz because we have now seen the Wizard! It is hard to justify this “not so eloquent statement” as anything other than distain.

I cannot recall a presidential race in modern times that has had so little substance; yet so many untruths that have produced truth. So it seems this statement is devastating only because it shows he is “who we thought he was”! And that’s my Thought Provoking Perspective…

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Let Us Never Forget

On this day, August 28, 1955, Emmett Till, a fourteen-year-old black boy from Chicago supposedly whistled at a white woman in a grocery store. The murder of a 14-year old black boy Emmett Till in Money, Mississippi in August 1955 sparked the Civil Rights movement, but the crime won’t sound clarion calls for a nation to wake up to if not for the above photo. Till’s mutilated corpse circulated around the country mainly because of John Johnson who published the gruesome photographs in Jet magazine, a predominately African American publication. The photo drew intense public reaction.

Till didn't understand or knew that he had broken an unwritten law of the Jim Crow South until three days later, when two white men dragged him from his bed in the dead of night, beat him brutally and then shot him in the head. That night the door to his grandfather’s house was thrown open, and Emmett was taken by the mob of at least six white men, forced into a truck and driven away, never again to be seen alive. Till’s body was found swollen and disfigured in the Tallahatchie river three days after his abduction and only identified by his ring.

Till’s body was sent back to Chicago, where his mother insisted on leaving the casket open for the funeral and on having people take photographs because she wanted people to see how badly Till’s body had been disfigured—she has famously been quoted as saying, “I wanted the world to see what they did to my baby.” Up to 50,000 people viewed the body. On the day he was buried, two men — the husband of the woman who had been whistled at and his half brother — were indicted of his murder, but the all white male jury from Money (some of whom actually participated in Till’s torture and execution) took only an hour to return ‘not guilty’ verdict. The verdict would have been quicker, remarked the grinning foreman, if the jury hadn’t taken a break for a soft drink on the way to the deliberation room.

To add insult to injury, knowing that they would not be retrial, the two accused men sold their stories to LOOK magazine and happily admitted to everything. Elsewhere in Mississippi at the time things weren’t going terribly well for blacks either. Just before Till was murdered, two activists Rev. George Lee and Lamar Smith were shot dead for trying to exercise their rights to vote, and in a shocking testimony to lack of law and order, no one came forward to testify although both murders were committed in broad daylight.

The next year, Clyde Kennard, a former army sergeant, tried to enroll at Mississippi South College in Hatiesburg in 1956. He was sent away, but came back to ask again. For this ‘audacity’, university officials — not students, or mere citizens, but university officials — planted stolen liquor and a bag of stolen chicken feed in his car and had him arrested. Kennard died halfway into his seven year sentence. But times were slowly a-changing: Brown vs. Board of Education was decided in 1954, and three months after the Till murder Rosa Parks would refuse to move to the back of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Sit-ins and marches would follow, and soon the civil rights movement itself would be in full-swing.

It’s been almost sixty-years since the events of that fateful night and I simply cannot find the words to describe this heinous crime that has yet to receive justice. So I’ll end by sharing these words by Maya Angelou: “history, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.” And that’s my Thought Provoking Perspective!

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A love Fest In Tampa

The root of American civilization is grounded in citizenship. I guess it would be wise to say that the root word is “civil” and often times, as history shows, this is not always apparent. I say that in terms of the elephant always in the room – race. Yes, I meant to use that expression because there are those who recognize the elephant (GOP) as the icon of their thinking, which in my opinion is rooted in the old ways, meaning that which is rooted in the master-slave ideal of “supremacy”.

We see voter suppression, i.e., “Poll Tax” that has reappeared with a vengeance. There is talk of a Civil War! Then there was the recent Emmitt Till like murder of Trayvon Martin and the most recent incident where the police claim that a black youth shot himself in the head while handcuffed in the backseat of a police car. Not long ago, we witnessed the brutal beating of Rodney King and the police said we did not see what we saw!

I could give plenty example of injustice including the system of unaddressed poverty and the pitiful education system that have created despair in many African American communities. Now, I don’t want to just bring up the least of thee with regard to injustice. Henry Louis Gates the Harvard Professor was arrested trying to enter his own home and the fraud of the Shirley Sherrod character assassination.

This brings me to the Republican “love fest” taking place in Tampa this week. It will have all the hallmarks of an old time revival full of Klan like coded or maybe not so code language and surely reminders of states rights. This event will be scary because it surely will be an assault on minorities, women, and the poor charging that it is the American way. To some degree that is true – remember slavery and Jim Crow.

The irony of is this is very clear as they have repeatedly said, “We want to take back our country”. Racism is not merely a simplistic hatred. It is, more often, broad sympathy toward some and broader skepticism toward others. Black America consistently lives under that skeptical eye. The election of an African American to our highest political office was alleged to demonstrate a triumph of integration and even then, full acceptance is still withheld.

I lived and witness this country they want to revisit and I will tell you “it was not a nice place”. I wonder will we see a cross burned? And that’s my Thought Provoking Perspective…

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Just Saying!

Well the stage is set! Mittman and Robber the conservatives dynamic dual, different from Batman and Robin, will destroy America as appose to saving it. We thought the last republican candidates for president was scary – these two appear to be the nightmare on our street. Maybe I’ll put it this way – these two will make the last republican president look like a girl scout. If they win the election in November – we should be very afraid!!!

This pair of impractical ideologues with excessive confidence in their own moral righteousness could do what the George Wallace and Bull Connor types could only imagine. I am not one to get into the business of giving Godly advice but I think it’s time to pray to your higher power. Since the Boy Wonder is now on the scene, let me just touch on this guy who could be a heartbeat from the throne. I have a feeling a lot more material is coming.

First, Ryan is not a “fiscal conservative.” A fiscal conservative pays for the government he wants. Ryan never has. His early “Roadmap for America’s Future” didn’t balance the budget until the 2060s and added $60 trillion to the national debt. Ryan’s revised plan, passed by the House in 2011, wouldn’t reach balance until the 2030s while adding $14 trillion in debt. It adds $6 trillion in debt over the next decade alone — yet Republicans had the chutzpah to say they wouldn’t raise the debt limit! I remain mystified why President Obama never hammered home this reckless contradiction by insisting that the GOP “raise the debt ceiling just by the amount it would take to accommodate the debt in Paul Ryan’s budget.”

Ryan is an extreme “small government conservative.” Ronald Reagan ran government at 22 percent of gross domestic product when our population was much younger. Ryan and Romney want to run government at 20 percent of GDP even as the number of Americans on Social Security and Medicare doubles.Even if we slow these programs’ growth, it’s impossible to shrink the federal role in an aging society this sharply without eliminating vast swaths of what Americans have come to expect from government — not to mention shortchanging already lagging investments in research and development and infrastructure. Over time, Ryan’s “vision” would decimate most federal activities beyond Social Security, Medicare and defense.

As an African American who knows what America was like not too long ago. It was the liberals agenda that created the enduring achievements of civil rights to environmental laws to Medicare out of boldness and compassion. Ask yourself a few questions and carefully consider the consequences.  How can Ryan justify his Medicaid cuts when, as the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation found, they would likely leave 14 million to 19 million poor people without health coverage? 

How can he justify tax proposals that, as The New Republic’s Alec MacGillis pointed out, would reduce the rate on Mitt Romney’s rather substantial income to less than 1 percent? How can he claim his budgets are anti-deficit measures when, as The Post’s Matt Miller has noted, his tax cuts would add trillions to the debt and we wouldn’t be in balance until somewhere around 2030?

Finally, the Boy Wonder wants to cut Social Security, yet he was raised on it. Ironic isn’t it that you have paid your money into it and he wants to take it away or hope you die before you can use it. There’s a belief in some quarters that the world will end, as the Mayan’s predict, on December 21, 2012. I predict that if these two win in November – the world might just as well have ended for millions of middle class Americans. And that’s my Thought Provoking Perspective…

THE INTERVIEW

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We're getting ready!

Willard And The Culture Remark

For those who read and follow my writings, you know that my passion is to bring into remembrance the “Greatest Story Ever Told”, which is that of the African American Diaspora. However, in this extreme, and dare I say bazaar, political season where those on the right are desperately trying to turn back the hands of time in ways such as the 21^st Century Poll Tax and voter disenfranchisement. I find myself expressing the reality that I see. Meaning I've seen this before!

In my lifetime I can recall the Jim Crow America, the Whites Only facilities existed, and the reality of segregation; once people like today’s Republicans were the Dixiecrats and the Tea Party folks where the terrorists who wore hooded robes, and coward under the cover of night. Now they wear suits!

I believe it was Solomon who said, “There is nothing new under the sun”. I will agree and add that it is just repackaged to fit the times, and these are dangerous times. Today, we are in a virtual police state. We have the system practicing “Retro-active Abortion” via the prison system and the Robber Barons of Wall Street are doing to the America people things unmatched by the thugs and drug dealers in the streets. Yet, these and other atrocities go unchecked by the system of justice and in some cases rewarded.

All of this brings me to the man who wants to be king. I believe “Willard” will make George W, the last Republican president, look like a cub scout. The reason I fear this guy is not because he flip-flops and lies as some say. Rather, because of his faith! Let me be clear, one can believe in or chose whatever faith they wish but Willard’s faith has a documented history of being anti-black. It was not until somewhere around 1968 that African American’s were allowed to join his church.

This speaks to the teaching and the mind of a man that might become the leader of the free world and would he bring this to the office. This dawned on me after Mitt’s recent trip abroad where he professed this notion of “culture” which in my opinion spoke volumes. What he said about the Palestinians during that trip could be interrupted in a way that would apply to black and white culture in America.     

In Romney’s world the Darwinian influence of American culture fueled suburban manifest destiny for whites, enabling them safe passage and escape from urban ghettoes. People of color who were able to assimilate to Anglo American values took advantage of equal opportunity and prospered; those that weren’t were simply mired in backward ancestral traditions.

 “White U.S. southerners also insisted, during slavery and Jim Crow, that “their” Negroes were the best off in the world because of their exposure to white folks’ religion and way of life. Left to their own devices, however, Black folks’ innate cultural inferiority – i.e., depravity – would do them in…White liberals also believed in the Culture Demon. In the 1950s and early 60s, it was considered politically correct to describe African Americans as “culturally deprived” – meaning, Blacks are disadvantaged by lack of exposure to white culture. Power has nothing to do with it.” 

Comparing African American wealth to that of the Palestinians one could argue: “The 20 to 1 disparity between Israeli and Palestinian per capita income matches the wealth gap between American Blacks and whites (app. $5,000 vs. $100,000 for median Black and white households). The fact that such numbers do not provoke general shock and calls for reparations is proof enough that most whites view the disparity as more a natural phenomenon than evidence of cumulative injustice.

After hearing the culture remark I wondered could this be view as Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the liberal Senator from Massachusetts, who  spoke for white folks of the past, present and future when he posited, in 1965, that a Black ‘culture of poverty’ is what keeps Black people poor – not pervasive white racism.” And that is my Thought Provoking Perspective…

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NAACP in HOUSTON

This week in Houston there was a big celebration called the NAACP Annual Convention. I framed the statement this way because there was an AG, VP, and a NUT who spoke at the gathering. There were cheers, jeers, and boo’s.

By all accounts the Vice President stole the show as he rallied support for the President before the nation's largest civil rights organization. Well the guy the Good Ol’ Boys are trying to get behind proclaimed he was the only one to do for African Americans what the president has failed to do for working families in the black community.

On the other hand, the VP a stand in for the Prez drew cheers as he credited Obama for championing a landmark health care law, launching the mission that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and stepping in to rescue the financial system and U.S. automakers General Motors and Chrysler. This was quite a contrast to the man with two faces who gave the impression he was in a friendly environment – talking about Willard!

I have to say, Willard showed guts by walking into the lion’s den, so to speak,  but he should have known that we don’t believe he will do more for African-Americans than Obama, the nation's first black president, and that’s when he was booed started! I would the few cheers that Willard got were from people who he either brought with him or they were bused in.

He made the statement that he'd repeal Obama's sweeping health care reform law and more boo's came. In the first place, he disrespected the audience when he called the most sweeping initiative of the president’s career – "Obamacare". Did he not know this was, to us, a code word that the bigots use to further take away things that benefits our community?

The AG was there the day before speaking about the travesty of voter suppression that is coming from Willard’s gang – you know the Tea Baggers and Good Ol’ Boy’s that fund and support him, whose agenda would hurt black families as it always has. Maybe I should put it this way – there are fundamental different visions of reality when you look at the two camps, which I believe this election will come down to character, conviction and vision and that would be Obama/Biden.

Obama did not speak to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People this year, appearing instead in a taped video message. In the brief remarks, Obama said: "I stand on your shoulders and at the NAACP you have always believed in the American promise." He reiterated many of the themes of his re-election campaign, saying the nation needs to "build an economy where everyone can have the confidence that the hard work will also pay off." The president said he was sorry he couldn't be there in person.

Black voters are a key part of Obama's re-election strategy, with about 95 percent supporting him in 2008. Polls have shown black voters supporting Obama at comparable levels this year but Romney could undercut the president in states such as North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio and Florida, all of which have large black communities, if he can persuade some black voters to support him or if they stay home on Election Day. Dream on!

In Obama's absence, Biden offered a fiery defense of administration policies while warning of what a Romney presidency would bring to civil rights. He asked attendees to "imagine" what the Justice Department would be like under a Romney administration and "imagine when his senior adviser on the Constitution is Robert Bork," the Republican Supreme Court nominee who was defeated by Democrats in 1987. Biden was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee at the time.

Biden received sustained applause throughout his address. When he spoke about civil rights and administration efforts to expand voting rights and not diminish them, the crowd stood up and loudly cheered. When Biden said, "Did you think we'd be fighting these battles again?" People in the crowd answered in unison, "No."

I am not going to preach to the choir but I will say Willard’s speech was long on “BS” and as is his character short on substance. Mitt don’t you and the Klan know that people of color have seen what the republicans represent. They, the GOP, remind me of that gang of terrorists who carry burning crosses, wear white robes in the middle of the night, and call themselves the “real Americans”. Hmmm and that’s my Thought provoking Perspectives…

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The Obama Effect - Theatrical Trailer

Romney’s Bain

I am an uncompromising history fanatic and some call me an expert, but I prefer to say I am one who seeks the truth. While we live in an era when so much history is being made we should be excited for the time in which we live. Last week, for example, we witnessed the Supreme Court’s affirmation of the president’s signature legislation the health-care law the Good Ol’ Boys call Obamacare. This was the most profound piece of legislation since the “New Deal”.

So let's talk about Romney and his past. He started and built the venture capital and asset-management firm which was nothing more than a money-making machine. So what’s wrong with that? Well Bain Capital is a company that doesn’t and has never made anything; it invests. It spots trends, looks at promising companies tapping into those trends and then stakes its capital on improving a company, using Bain's sector and financial experts to, as they say, help company’s get over a capital shortage or help it expand.

The companies that Bain identified and invested in, and not in a small way, while Romney was at the helm, were Microsoft, Stream Global Services, ModusLink, and StatsChipPac. These companies are now among the biggest outsourcing companies in the world, with call centers, factories and facilities, mostly in Asia, but also across the globe, that support U.S. high-tech companies. The mission of these companies was to help big U.S. companies outsource and offshore. And let me add that this strategy was and is designed to support a low wage business model.

Even his own Republican cohorts like Newt Gingrich said: “The Bain model is to go in at a very low price, borrow an immense amount of money, pay Bain an immense amount of money and leave. I’ll let you decide if that’s really good capitalism. I think that’s exploitation.” Then slick Rick of Texas said: “There is something inherently wrong when getting rich off failure and sticking it to someone else is how you do your business. I happen to think that that is indefensible.”

So if he can be eaten by his own, who by the way does not appear to think much of his thinking, raise the issue - then why can’t President Obama raise the issue? Frankly, the president should have done so during the debate on financial regulatory reform. I should say there’s nothing inherently wrong with private equity, which plays an important role in the economy. Let me add that there’s nothing wrong with wealth and those who risk their capital in private-equity ventures should be rewarded when those deals pay off.

Romney himself acknowledges that the free markets need rules and regulations in order to function and we know certain dealings are prohibited and should be criminal like insider trading. So it is reasonable to ask whether some highly leveraged buyout deals, of the kind that Bain and other private-equity firms often conduct, should fall into the same thumb-on-the-scale category as insider trading.

Suppose a company is failing and appears beyond rescue. Suppose a private-equity firm buys the company with borrowed money, burdens it with more debt, and then spends the next few years firing workers, selling assets, eliminating pension plans — all while collecting handsome “management fees.” If you can recall losses at the nation’s largest and supposedly best-run bank, JPMorgan Chase — at least $2 billion and perhaps much more.

This is what Rick Santorum said in March: “I heard Governor Romney here called me an economic lightweight because I wasn’t a Wall Street financier like he was. Do you really believe this country wants to elect a Wall Street financier as the president of the United States? Do you think that’s the kind of experience we need? Someone who’s going to take and look after, as he did, his friends on Wall Street and bail them out at the expense of Main Street America?”

If you read my thoughts and words you know I don’t think much of the GOP or their henchmen but I agree with Santorum in this instance where I have to ask the question is this the guy we want to be president. I will go further and say Romney’s personality traits remind me of the “Robber Barons” of old. I would suggest that this so-called “Job Creator” needs to go offshore where he and his buddy’s send jobs.

Would he do this to the American Treasury and the American people if he were to become president? I say, yes! And that’s my Thought Provoking Perspective…

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Hear's Mitt

I am going to say from the onset that I am a huge supporter of President Obama, mainly because he is my president. Not to mention the fact that he’s brilliant and has done an amazing job in light of what the last president left for him to work with.

I won’t profess that I am apolitical because I am not. You see, everything is political and I have lived long enough to know that!

With that said politics, and often times, are those forces that usually have self motivating interests that’s represented by the evils that lurk amongst us. The basis of that interest is money, which has corrupted or is corrupting our system that has never been fair to the least of thee.

Moreover, it has become even more diabolical in this political season. Money is the most powerful instrument known to man; at least it is in a capitalistic society. Those who have it will do anything to keep it and to get more of it.

This brings me to my thought for today, which is to share with you in his own words that of a man who, in my opinion, wants to eliminate the least of thee. This man they, the republicans, his own, call “Him”. Known for being a serial “flip flopper” changes like a chameleon. If they don’t want “Him” - then why should we?

Watch the video and you decide for yourself if you want “Him” to be your president of these United States. I am going to agree with what the Former NBA Great Charles Barkley said, "Mitt Romney, hey, listen man, we're going to beat you like a drum in November".

And that’s my Thought Provoking Perspective…

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He Can't Handle The Truth

I like to write, which goes without saying that I am passionate about literacy and the written word. Having said that, I can recall reading somewhere that someone said, "I think therefore I am". Now, I don't say that to imply that what I think or write is "RIGHT"! But I hope my views though this vehicle will provoke conversation on a wide range of subjects and maybe some sane dialog that will lead to enhancing unity and intellectual civil discourse.

There are many-many concerns, as I see it, which is not in the best interest of furthering humanity. One, and maybe the most dangerous discourse, is the scary political environment today. For example, the challenger to president Obama and the vitriol of the right harkens, in my opinion, back to the days of Jim Crow. If you can't remember this era or don't know what this is; it was a time when overt racism was the law of the land. If you don't agree, let me suggest that you view footage of some of the conservative gathering and you will see the faces of one hue.

But on this Sunday morning, I want to not do what I am accused of doing by some, which is to play the "race card". Nonetheless, I’ll tell you that I have live long enough to know that there are two constants in the American Diaspora. One is money and the other is race. I have seen, and believe true, that conservatives will say or do anything to support their position on matters relating concerning either. For example, the presumed challenger, who many republicans call "Him", has a long documented history in this area. He will say anything – regardless of fact and more often than not fiction.

He gave a speech recently and started by saying - “Good morning”. The problem with that was it was in the afternoon. The accuracy of his statements went downhill from there. He blamed the president for the “weakest economic recovery since the Great Depression.” When in fact, it was the last president whose name they never mention who was responsible for that problem.

He went on to say that he would save “about $100 billion a year” eliminating Obamacare and accused the president of “taking a series of steps that end Medicare as we know it.” He made the claimed that the president had created an “unaccountable panel, with the power to prevent Medicare from providing certain treatments.” Incorrect, wrong, , not true, and fictitious. This is just an example taken from one speech delivered by Romney on a given day. Fortunately, there are fact-checkers.

Because he does not always, mostly not, tell the truth is hardly news. Voters and most knowledgeable people already know there are lies, damn lies, and politics. Certainly, Romney has abundant company in his mendacity. But the fact that fibs are routine doesn’t make them less insidious. Romney’s fast-and-loose play with the facts — deployed equally against his Republican rivals and Obama — is particularly disappointing because it is unnecessary.

PolitiFact has awarded Romney its “Pants on Fire” or “False” ratings for 32 claims. Among them are these: that Obama “didn’t even mention the deficit or debt” in his State of the Union address, that “our Navy is smaller than it’s been since 1917,” that Obama “never worked in the private sector,” that Obama “gave” the automakers “to the UAW,” and that “we’re only inches away from no longer being a free economy.”

The recent speech that I began with, where Mitt said "Good Morning", alone had more than a dozen distortions, including allegations that: Obama “has failed to even pass a budget” (Congress passes budget resolutions, which the president doesn’t sign); Obama created a panel empowered to deny treatments under Medicare (the board can only make recommendations, and only if Congress fails to find Medicare cuts), Obama “has added regulations at a staggering rate” (the Business Roundtable just said it “lauded” the administration’s attempt at regulatory reform).

In that same speech PolitiFact noted that no fewer than three Romney claims merited their covenanted “Pants on Fire” rating: that Obama led “a government takeover of health care,” has been “apologizing for America abroad” and is ending “Medicare as we know it.” Romney’s assertions that Obama “is the only president to ever cut $500 billion from Medicare” and that eliminating Obamacare saves “about $100 billion” were rated false.

For Romney to resort to such gratuitous falsehoods discredits him, in my opinion, as a man ethically challenged and someone with limited moral character, and not the kind of man I want to be president. All of this and these kinds of untruths leads me to concluded that when you have nothing to say, you will say anything! And that’s my Thought Provoking Perspective…

http://johntwills.com

As I see it

History is never old; it is just refashioned as His-Story. If you follow my words you have heard me say that the greatest crime the world has ever known occurred that day in August of 1619, when the first Africans were dragged onto the shores of this country. I have given that some thought and want to add a caveat to that claim.

I would argue that the foundation or the beginning of this ideology, slavery, happened in 1492 when this guy that history tells us, was lost, and landed in the Caribbean calling it the “New World”. It is interesting that they phrased it this way because where Columbus landed - this place was not new at all – there were people living there thriving. Now, don’t forget history tells us “he thought the world was flat”.

I say what happened that day Columbus put in motion what lead to all of the crimes that were to follow. It was the foundation of what came to be established in terms of racism, as “Manifest Destiny”. What this means is that people of European decent had domain over all that existed in the world – its people and their possessions. Sort of like what we see now with the tyrants and criminals on Wall Street who orchestrate what I call “White Collar Crooks”.

You see, this principle means this think or principle makes them feel entitled or have the right to reduce all to servitude. We are being robbed by the robber barons and banks, which makes us slaves to the system. Just look at the conservative political movement. Their mission is to support the interest of the one percent of the wealthy not the 99 percent of Americans who are servants to their power.

Now, consider who their candidate is whose running for the president of the United States. A place that really does not seem very united today. Mitt, the rich man, is a man who built his wealth via this principle. Do you think he can relate to us and do you want him as president?

All I am saying is this principle of Manifest Destiny speaks directly to the conservative principles they are trying to sell us. And again, I say history is never old. Don’t forget we lived through the years of Bush and these republicans will make him look like a Cub Scout.

And that’s my Thought Provoking Perspective!

http://johntwills.com

Mitt Speaks About Slavery

In yet another seemingly faux pas moment for the former governor and presidential candidate, Mitt Romney tells a crowd of supporters in Alabama that he can relate to the plight of black individuals because his ancestors were slave owners in the 1800′s.

Mitt Romney was addressing a crowd in Prattville, Alabama this past Monday when he stated:

I understand how difficult it can be for an African-American in today’s society. In fact, I can relate to black people very well indeed. My ancestors once owned slaves, and it is in my lineage to work closely with the black community. However, just because they were freed over a century ago doesn’t mean they can now be freeloaders. They need to be told to work hard, and the incentives just aren’t there for them anymore. When I’m president I plan to work closely with the black community to bring a sense of pride and work ethic back into view for them.

Is this the man we want as PRESIDENT???

A Televised Republican Revolution

Brother Gil Scott Heron wrote a song back in the day titled ““The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”. Well, if he were around today, particularly with respect to the GOP candidates in this primary race, he would witness a political revolution taking place, and it is televised.

With that said, a revolution has to be brutal by its nature and we see the chaos being left in its wake. Frankly, it’s a little too late for the republicans to shut down their presidential nominating contest just because the party is in the midst of upheaval wrought by the growing dominance of its extreme right wing.

This is not to mention their unresolved attitudes toward the Bush’s presidency, and the terror that the GOP rank and file has stirred among the more moderately conservative politicians who once ran things. It started with nine, or more, resulting in four now with Romney, who they cal "Him", as the front-runner who keeps failing to bring this pitiful show to a close. Apparently, even republican supporters will never see him as one of their own. They will keep signaling their refusal to surrender to the Romney machine with its torrent of nasty advertisements and its continuing education courses in delegate math designed to prove that resistance is futile.

His rival Slick Rick Santorum is a superb vehicle for this cry of protest. This guy has pitifully few resources compared with the vast treasury at Romney’s disposal, but this only feeds the David narrative against the Goliath in this contest. Now, Slick Rick’s purity as a social and religious conservative is unrivaled, and his traditional family life — he’s always surrounded on primary nights by a passel of kids — contrasts nicely with Newt Gingrich’s rather messy personal history. So this is why he is viewed as the “Anti-Him”.

They both, and in fact all of them, shout to the heavens against class warfare when in fact it is about saving their wealth. The revolt of the right-wing masses means that Romney stands alone as the less than ideal representative of a relatively restrained brand of conservatism. The growing might of the conservative hard core, reflected in its primary victories in 2010, led other potential establishmentarians to sit out the race in the hope that the storm will eventually pass.

This group of clowns, I am sorry, candidates, who almost never speak Bush’s name because of the disaster created by his administration knows that we know it will happen again if they were elected. It is to Santorum’s discredit that he did not dare defend his perfectly defensible vote of Bush’s No Child Left Behind education program. Santorum, too, fears the Tea-Baggers who see any exertion of federal authority as leading down a road to serfdom.

So as we watch this ridiculous farce that is little more than a defunct reality show. Or let’s call it a rerun of an old sitcom that should have never been rerun. And that’s my Thought Provoking Perspective…

"Just a Season"

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THE CHAMPION OF IGNORANCE

In addition to Rick Santorum’s enthusiastic attack on women’s rights and individual liberties, he has recently been quoted referring to President Obama as a snob for wanting all Americans to be educated beyond the high school level. Mr. Santorum describes colleges as “indoctrination mills” citing a questionable study which suggests that a college education diminishes religious conviction.

Never mind that Mr. Santorum himself holds 3 university degrees yet, his religious convictions seem to be in tact. And, just ignore the fact that he intends to send his children to college. Could it be that only the Santorums and those like them have the fortitude to withstand the evils of secular indoctrination? Or, could it be something else?
Why would a candidate vying for the highest office in the land be such a vocal champion of ignorance?

From the time of Thomas Jefferson to this very day, suspicion and ridicule have been directed towards intellectualism in politics. Anti-intellectual sentiment is nothing new nor does it mean the absence of intellect. Richard Hofstadter wrote in his Pulitzer-prize winning book, Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, that anti-intellectuals are neither uneducated or unintelligent rather, they comprise the ranks of the “half-educated” who are “…often obsessively engaged with this or that outworn or rejected idea.”

This observation could account for Mr. Santorum’s astonishing comments about post-secondary education. It could also account for his willingness to re-litigate the issues of contraception, abortion and the separation of church and state, instead of providing voters with his grand vision to lead the country into a better future.

We must never forget that the most important ingredient for a democracy to work is an informed, active and enlightened electorate. Because, in the words of Thomas Jefferson; "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."

By Jackie Lambert

LTAI Word of the Week – Indoctrinate

To imbue with a usually partisan or sectarian opinion, point of view, or principle.

Links for additional reading:

http://www.truth-out.org/between-race-and-reason-anti-intellectualism-american-life/1314634662

http://www.earlyamerica.com/review/winter96/jefferson.html

"Just a Season"
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What’s So Super About Tuesday

For starters, it is a Tuesday and this Tuesday is one with the biggest payout of the Republican presidential primaries or for one of the contenders. This time Super Tuesday had been slimmed down to half its 2008 size but still doling out one-third of the delegates needed to win and frankly at the end of the day; it probably won't settle much.

It might nudge the two long shots - Newt Gingrich out of the race or Ron Paul into a position of more credibility. Nor, in my opinion, will it give either Romney or Santorum a decisive advantage, because delegates are handed out by share. A close second in a state can pay off almost as well as first place. Romney might cement the front-runner status that keeps slipping through his fingers. Santorum could prove he's the real thing. To which I doubt either will be the case.
___

Delegates for grabs Tuesday: 419.
Delegates already won: 353; Romney, 203; Santorum, 92; Gingrich, 33; Paul, 25.
Delegates needed for the nomination: 1,144.
___

Let’s consider the expense involved. The heavy advertising in all 10 states would cost a candidate about $5 million. That's a lot even for Romney's well-financed campaign, prompting him to make a plea for donations amid his Michigan victory speech. Gingrich is getting another multimillion-dollar boost from Las Vegas billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who donated the money to a special type of political action committee, known as a super PAC that will run advertising in key states.

But my friends Ohio is the race to watch. Why I don’t know – maybe it’s like the Mississippi of the north. Nonetheless political junkies get all misty-eyed over this Rust Belt swing state, and not just because of the 63 delegates. No Republican nominee has ever become president without winning the state. That makes it a powerful proving ground for the men trying to show they can take on President Barack Obama.

It could well be Newt's last stand or Gingrich rises again. Either way – what a frightening thought! But for sure you can call the Sand Man with his hook Newt loses in Georgia, the state he represented in the U.S. House for two decades. Lest not forget, his is not on the ballad in Virginia! Newt hopes to win decisively here and pick up enough other delegates to relaunch his up-and-down campaign, which has been mostly down-and-out. There is a bright side or dark cloud - Herman Cain, a fellow Georgian, endorsed him. Oh, and he's got a new pitch, claiming he can bring the cost of gas down to $2.50 per gallon.

Then there’s grandpa, Ron Paul, the anti-war, libertarian-leaning, unorthodox Republican who hasn't won a single state. Super Tuesday could change that meaning he might win ONE! Let’s say – Alaska! Even if he doesn't score a win, he's likely to pick up delegates to help power him into this summer's Republican convention with enough clout to promote his ideas.

There's little drama in the Northeastern races. Romney's virtually unopposed in his power base of Massachusetts, where he was governor just over five years ago. Delegates: 38. He's expected to win neighboring Vermont handily, too, although Santorum seeks to peel away some of its 17 delegates.

Next up:

Caucuses and primaries in Kansas, Wyoming, Alabama, Hawaii, Mississippi, Missouri, Illinois and Louisiana fill out the busiest month of the nomination season. Three territories; American Samoa, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico also get their say in March.

Well folks, as exciting as that may sound it seem to me I’d rather be clipping my toenails or picking nose hairs because that will be much more fun. We’ve all been taught to say, God Bless America; with this cast of characters I think that’s an understatement and we should say God Help Us.

And that’s my Thought Provoking Perspective…

"Just a Season"
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Mitt and Faith

Mitt Romney, who the Republicans call "Him", has a past that speaks to a matter of his soul, which I believe is the foundation of his core beliefs. Mitt spent 32 years in a religious organization that indoctrinated the idea that blacks were fundamentally cursed -- by God -- and that by virtue of their birth were unworthy of the highest spiritual affirmation. Being an African America and someone who believes in God this ideology is a huge problem for me.

Let me give just a brief historical background of his faith. The word Mormon most often refers to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints because of their belief in the Book of Mormon, though members often refer to themselves as "Latter-day Saints" or sometimes just "Saints."

The term has been embraced by most adherents of Mormonism, most notably the fundamentalists, while other Saints denominations, such as the Community of Christ, have rejected it. The term Latter-day Saints (LDS) was given to its founder Joseph Smith during an 1838 revelation mentioned in Doctrine and Covenants. The term "saint" was used by Paul the Apostle to refer to early members of the Christian church with "later-day" being added to differentiate the modern church from the early church.

Most people associate the Mormon religion with polygamy or sex with young girl through marriage which was a distinguishing practice of many early Mormons. However, it was renounced by the LDS Church in 1890, and now they say is discontinued. Today, polygamy is practiced only by fundamentalist groups that have broken with the LDS Church.

From the start, Mormons have tried to establish what they call Zion, a utopian society of the righteous. Mormon history can be divided into three broad time periods: (1) the early history during the lifetime of Joseph Smith, (2) a "pioneer era" under the leadership of Brigham Young and his successors, and (3) a modern era beginning around the turn of the 20th century.

Now back to the cult’s racial views. Romney was confronted during a NBC's Meet the Press (12/07) appearance when the late Tim Russert brought up the ban on blacks and the fact that Romney was an adult before the ban was lifted. Russert pointedly asked if Romney had a problem with associating himself with an organization that was seen as racist. Romney answered, "I'm not going to distance myself in any way from my faith."

Russert asked if Romney was willing to disavow the Church's earlier teachings, and Romney refused -- choosing instead to cite examples of how his father supported civil rights. Mitt even claimed that his father, George Romney, marched with Martin Luther King, Jr.; a statement that was later proven false and that Romney recanted.

There is "no religious test" for holding political office, but there is a moral one. As a leader in his church, a young Romney would have been compelled to teach the racist Mormon ideology to others. His curious answer to Russert affirms the belief that the church was infallible in its teachings. Romney cannot be excused of his own affiliation with an explicitly discriminatory organization without, at the very least, providing an acceptable answer.

Barack Obama was forced to disavow controversial statements by his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, during the 2008 campaign culminating in his now famous race speech. Romney cannot be given a pass especially when, unlike Obama's situation, Romney remains in a church whose codified beliefs are sketched in proverbial stone. The priesthood ban may be gone, but the cursed text remains and is still taught as divinely inspired doctrine.

The former governor rarely discusses religion. But the recent controversy over the contraception clause of the new healthcare law and the Catholic Church's public disagreement with the Obama administration precipitated comments from Romney that Obama was attacking freedom of religion. Romney spoke while campaigning ahead of the Michigan and Arizona primaries that he "knows a lot about being persecuted" for one's faith.

There is a cognitive dissonance inherent in the idea that one can be a victim of religious persecution, while simultaneously adhering to a faith which does the same based on race.

It's a complicated subject, with an equally complicated history, and though Romney may not now, or ever have held racist feelings or beliefs on a personal level, it is a public office that he seeks. And, as such, he must be compelled to offer an open and honest explanation. Frankly, with his well documented history of flip-flopping (lying) – is this the guy any American would want to be the next president of the United States.

And that’s my Thought Provoking Perspective…

"Just a Season"

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Mitt the Myth Maker

After winning the New Hampshire primary, Mitt Romney gave us the “Myth of Meritocracy”. This week, Mr. Mitt has given us a new myth - President Obama is a failure. What does he site as evidence for this startling piece of news? The President’s rescue of the American auto industry. Mr. Romney stated emphatically that this decision by President Obama was ill-conceived and serves as a prime example of Barack Obama’s epic fail.

According to Mitt, every American should know that the government loan that helped to keep American car companies afloat will never be paid back. What a waste of money! This indictment would be pretty severe if it had any basis in fact. Of course we know that Mr. Mitt will never allow facts to get in the way of a good story.

The facts are these, Chrysler has already repaid their loan and General Motors (once again the number 1 car company in the world by the way) is paying back their loan on schedule.

So why would Mr. Mitt tell a falsehood in public – a falsehood that can be very easily disproved? He’s just myth making.

LTI Word of the Week - Myth

A person or thing having only an imaginary or unverifiable existence; an unfounded or false notion.

By Jackie Lambert

http://johntwills.com

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Form But, No Substance

As the Republican presidential primary drones on, it is worth noting that what we have seen so far is nothing more than a bloody intramural fight. While I would like to think that this process may have a little something to do with public policy, what has come out of these contests has nothing to do with us. Consider what we have learned so far from the Republican candidates: Ron Paul was born 150 years too late; Rick Santorum is a nut who believes birth control is a sin and that the government should be firmly installed in bedrooms all across the country; Mitt Romney doesn't believe anything he says and Newt Gingrich is a maniacal narcissist who only believes what he says when he says it.

As our nation faces some of the greatest challenges in our history, these candidates offer no solutions to meet those challenges. Instead, they spend their time and other people’s money tearing one another to pieces. And, while this spectacle is, at times, fun to watch; it isn’t that funny when you remember that these folks are vying for the highest office in the land. Can you really see any of these candidates as your president?

I always thought that elections served as a proving ground for ideas. That through a process of vigorous debate, the best ideas and boldest solutions to the nation’s challenges are born. Instead, what we have gotten from the Republican primary is vitriol and viciousness. The candidates, through their posing and posturing, offer only caricatures of what they think Republican primary voters want to see. There is absolutely no substance in their rhetoric and no compelling reason to elect any one of them to any public office, much less the presidency of the United States.

By Jackie Lambert

Purchase "Just a Season" today because Legacy - A New Season the sequel is coming!!!
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Word of the week:

Mercurial – characterized by rapid and unpredictable changeableness of mood (a mercurial temper)

Show us your Damned Return!

In 2009, former Senator Tom Daschle was nominated to head the Department of Health and Human Services. Mr. Daschle’s nomination was derailed, in part, because of issues with his tax returns. You cannot be considered for a position in the President’s cabinet or any other high-level government position without allowing your tax returns to be reviewed.

At last night’s Republican Presidential Debate, Mitt Romney was asked if he intended to release his tax return. After stuttering and rambling around an answer, Mitt implied that he would release his return sometime around April.

I suppose that he wants to give his accountants the opportunity to produce a return that will be more palatable to the American electorate. I mean really, didn’t you file a tax return last year, Mitt? Why won’t you show us that one?

What could Romney’s return possibly show that would turn off the American voter. Could it be that his effective tax rate is 15% or lower? And, how is it possible that us regular working stiffs could be taxed at a higher rate than the uber-rich Mr. Romney. Couldn’t that be considered a “transfer of wealth” from the poor to the rich? Did he pay any taxes at all? Without the release of his returns, these and other questions will never be answered.

It is amazing that a person cannot hold a high-level government position without showing their tax returns to the American people and yet, a man who wants to hold the highest office in the land is, shall we say, reluctant to disclose.

By Jackie (Morganfield) Lambert
Co-Host of "Let's Talk About It"

http://johntwills.com

http:thoughtprovokingperspectives.wordpress.com

The Myth of Meritocracy

On December 3rd, Willard Mitt Romney told a crowd of supporters that the United States of America is a “meritocracy”. Webster’s dictionary defines a meritocracy as a system in which the talented are chosen and moved ahead on the basis of their achievement. This word - meritocracy - implies that we all operate on a level playing field. It implies that the rules are the same for everyone and that excellence and hard work are rewarded without bias of any kind.

Mr. Romney also said that President Obama seeks to punish success by placing undue burdens on the most successful and productive members of our society, in other words, rich people. John F. Kennedy said, “If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.” Apparently, this sentiment is not shared by the Republican candidates because, in a meritocracy if you are poor, it’s due to your own shortcomings, therefore, you don’t deserve help.

John F. Kennedy also said, “The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie, deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.”

While I believe that our society does aspire to meritocracy, we aren’t there yet. The belief that a meritocracy already exists in our society is nothing more than myth. Perhaps that is why Mitt Romney and his Republican colleagues seem so out of touch with the experience of most Americans. And, that is why not one of them is qualified to be President of the United States because the American people need a leader capable of governance in the true America - not the mythical one.

By Jackie (Morganfield) Lambert
Co-Host of "Let's Talk About It"

http://johntwills.com

http:thoughtprovokingperspectives.wordpress.com