The evening had finally arrived when Barack Obama and John McCain would faceoff and articulate to the people of America who will best serve the interests of the country and the people who live here. John McCain attempted to suspend his campaign and reschedule the debate because of the Economic Crisis that the United States is going through much to the dismay of the Debate organizers at the University of Mississippi.

With all of this political hoopla a historic moment is being missed with the University of Mississippi being the backdrop for tonight’s debate where an African American man is running for the Presidency of the United States on a major ticket of one of country’s two largest parties platform.

The University of Mississippi affectionatley known as Ole Miss has other historic moments that have been neglected this week in our quest for a President. In 1962 The University of Mississippi was also the site of blatant racism and Sounther whites taking horrific measures to combat integration into Ole Miss.

The University of Mississippi was also the site of rioting during desegregation, when James Meredith of Kosciusko, Mississippi, attempted to enroll in the school to become the university’s first black student. Thousands of students and citizens from the surrounding area, a number of whom were armed, swarmed the campus on September 30, 1962 in a riotous effort to prevent Meredith’s enrollment. Meredith, thanks to the protection afforded by federal marshals, was able to enroll and attend his first class on October 2. Two people died during the race riots on campus. Following the riot, elements of an Army National Guard division were stationed in Oxford to subdue future riots. While most Ole Miss students did not riot prior to his official enrollment in the university, many harassed Meredith during his first two semesters on campus.

Without the struggle of James Meridith, Barack Obama would not be able to have stood on that stage one week ago this past Friday. It’s important that we pay our respects to the men and women who trailblazed through this country with hopes that one day Barack Obama could be in the position that he is.

In an effort to shake up this year’s election a little more John McCain has formally suspended his Presidential Campaign. I read these words on CNN and thought, wow have we won the election without an election. Of course we have not, instead this is more Political games that the Republican Party would like to engage the American public in in an attempt to look patriotic.

McCain has also asked that Barack Obama do the same, he claims he is taking these measures so that both of them can go to Washington D.C. and fight the good fight for this $700 billion dollar bail out. McCain has also cancelled this Friday’s upcoming debate, but what does either of them suspending their campaigns really do for the problem at hand.

Was the economy not in a disarray when many people in this country began seeing their homes go into foreclosure? Was the economy not is a state of disbelief last week as we saw the stocks plunge and the collapse of some of the largest Banking Institutions? So why now?

I’ll tell you why, McCain has become the game changer in this election unfortunately, however his failed gimmicks don’t last long. He brought out the pit bull in a skirt, she had no experience, everyone pounced on her and their polls sky rocketed. It worked, it really did, for about 11 days. Then we started to see him slip again in the polls. Now we are watching the economy take a nose dive, something we know is not McCain’s strong suit. The polls start to favor Senator Obama some more so John McCain pulls this move, I mean hes at the bottom and has no where to go but up anyway.

But while some Americans will see this as patriotic, a valiant fight for the little guy. I see this as worse than Karl Rove tactics, this is a man blatantly playing with the lives and minds of American people. This is a party that would rather invoke fear than deal systematically with real issues. The fear is this, our present situation is so dire that I will suspend my campaign, (well just a few stops) and create the illusion that I am about to get something done for the American people. Oh look how selfless I am, but the truth is I’m a desperate old man who has lost his marbles and is really showing people that I have no leadership skills.

When the tough gets going you come to the rescue yes but does a leader abandon everything else he has been working on. NO, a leader delegates responsibilities, stays up late nights and gets the job done by any means necessary never compromising his role as a leader. I’m not a fan of George Bush but did he suspend his presidency as 9/11 took place and we were faced with grave danger. Some would say that he should have but I remember the night of 9/11. I remember watching George Bush make his speech about us finding justice and although that justice has been very tainted I thank him for atleast attempting to find what he thought was justice rather than suspending his campaign in the middle of one of the most crucial elections in hopes to gain votes form the little people. Those little people you could care less about as you eat dinner at one of 7 different kitchen tables, as you drive down the street in 1 of 13 cars. John McCain is more than out of touch he is unfit to lead!

It brings me great pleasure to applaud Brother Jeff Johnson on his new show on BET. Starting this Friday night Jeff Johnson will be hosting a news program geared discussing the news of the week, in depth coverage of the Presidential Elections while also addressing issues that are specific to the black community.

BET is often dubbed “the worst thing for black people”, Bamboozled Entertainment Television” and a host of other unflattering names. However, when shows like this are brought on the air they receive hardly any attention and viewership. Television is in the business of making money and if people are not watching news programming geared towards people of color then you can expect to not see those types of television shows on air. Support Brother Jeff Johnson as you supported Soledad O’Brien with CNN’s Black In America.

I have listen to Brother Jeff Johnson speak on numerous occasions and this is one intelligent man who has a knack for understanding issues and presenting them in a way that others can grasp them quickly as well. I look forward to this show and I applaud BET for attempting something like this. PLEASE SUPPORT!

Link

Now the mainstream media is announcing what we have known over here at Notes of This Native Son for quite some time. Colin Powell is set to announce his full fledged support behind Barack Obama at the Convention in Denver. Team Obama YES WE CAN!

Hopefully what this endorsement will show is that Conservatives do not believe in John McCain and his supporters will convert over to Team Obama. While watching CNN I saw a statistic that claimed that McCain has a 9 point lead with Americans feeling he would be better quipped to handle international conflict.

What I just saw from this past Russia - Georgia conflict is that McCain is a real tough talker. So tough in fact, that someone will call his bluff. Why do we feel safer with a person who seems more trigger happy, that trigger happy feeling is what has so many Americans dead in Iraq now. I would take sound judgment over a trigger happy fellow any day.

here’s the link

John McCain thinks so!

John McCain has no moral ground to stand on after his despicable portrayal of Barack Obama in his current ad titled “The One”. To call John McCain and his Campaign cohorts pathetic is an understatement. This idea that McCain will slide into the White House by making his campaign a referendum on Obama instead of his own credentials is preposterous. The American people are not as dumb as McCain thinks or would like us to believe.

The ad attempted to make you feel like you were being bamboozled by some televised church service. To claim to be a Man of God yet use people’s affinity with God to attack an opponent is down right disgusting. McCain should hang it up, I hope that he keeps this nonsense up into the fall so people can see him for who he truly is. A defeatist LOSER!

Here is an interesting article in TIME magazine about this nonsense.

These allegations have been hovering around Senator John Edwards for quite some time. I’ll admit, he had me fooled. When I heard the rumors I thought to myself, no way would this man have an extra-marital affair on his wife while she is in such a fragile state. John Edward’s wife Elizabeth has been battling cancer for some time now. His reputation is ruined but that’s not the important issue, he lied to the American Public but that’s the norm for politicians so that’s not the important issue.

The problem here is his wife has to stand by his side, standing up for someone who has embarrassed her in front of the whole world. John Edwards issued a statement saying “You cannot beat me up more than I have already beaten up myself. I have been stripped bare and will now work with everything I have to help my family and others who need my help,”. I mean even after the man has been caught red handed, he tries to moralize on the public as if he is not the ione who lied, cheated and created this trouble.

Once again I just feel sorry for the wife, she is the victim here. And the story gets even weirder. The woman with whom he cheated has a child who is said to be fathered by another married man who was a former aide to Edwards as well. These women who have these affairs with these married men, who somehow decide to have a conscience like to be the victims as well. Their not, this woman was sleeping with two married men, and having unprotected sex with both of them at that. Once again my prayers are with Elizabeth because she is the one who loses in all this. John Edwards political career was never going anywhere anyway so he’s not losing much.

link

If you didn’t already know I am a student of Tupac Shakur. I don’t love words like fan because if I ever met one of these brothers I would be far from a  groupie. I would rather engage brothers in a conversation and learn from them and hopefully they would learn from me.

With that said, Tupac is one of the most phenomenal men of our time. Not because he was a self proclaimed “thug”. Not because he is this huge hip-hop icon or his Hollywood appeal in movies. No Tupac represents the good and bad of the black male. He represents the struggle between street life and intellect, he couples the two together because they are not far from one another. He showed us love and respect for black women while also showing but also launched many contradictory attacks on black women. The complexities of this Revolutionary soldier go on and on but I found a great video with him discussing then in 1995 the woes that we are facing here in America in 2008. Check it out!

I can’t call it people. Everywhere we turn we are confronted with race issues. It’s really sad that racism plays such an integral role in our lives but I guess when you live in a country founded upon racist principles this was bound to happen. Walmart shows good judgment I think by removing this comic if they are receiving backlash from people of color who feel it is offensive. Have you ever been to Walmart; I know in Philadelphia if they lost the support of their black customers they would go broke! LOL!

To me there’s a deeper issue here; I am not familiar with this comic book and obviously not familiar with how Mexicans perceive it. However I am familiar with the controversy over black and brown relations. I’m appalled by it because I feel all people are created equal no matter what their race, religion or any other affiliation that may make them different may be. It hurts even more when you see two groups of people who are constantly oppressed and instead of binding together, building an alliance and attacking systematic ills of our society. I often hear things that contradict such a beautiful plan of action.

A few nights ago I was watching the Michael Baisden show on TVOne and George Wilborn was asking black people on the street if they would be mad if Latino people had more positions of power. Some of the answers were ignorant in my opinion and they sought to create a divide between these two ethnic groups. Do blacks and browns not know that they are both derivitives of the African Diaspora and are one in the same?

Please do not take that comment as disregarding the rich cultures that both of these particular groups have to offer but I am merely talking about their ancestry. The conditions for both groups here in America are very similar, both groups are losing their young men to gang violence, prisons and the drug trade. Both groups are losing their young women to sexually transmitted diseases. Women of color whether they are Black or Latino are disrespected in the media and often unfavorable images are shown of them. Mistreated in the workplace, a severe housing dilemma and the similarities go on and on. Where does the divide stop? When do we as a people living in this land together, praying to the same God begin to follow those words in our dear Holy books and bind together to create a better future for our children. When?

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc said on Wednesday it removed the comic book “Memin Pinguin” from its stores after receiving complaints the popular Mexican character was a racist depiction of blacks.

The series started 60 years ago in Mexico, and the main character, Memin Pinguin, is a black Cuban-Mexican boy with enlarged lips who often gets into mischief.

Wal-Mart recently started offering the Spanish-language comic in parts of California, Texas and Miami, where the giant retailer serves large populations of Hispanic customers.

“We understand that Memin is a popular figure in Mexico. However, given the sensitivities to the negative image Memin can convey to some we felt that it was best to no longer carry the item in our stores,” said Lorenzo Lopez, a spokesman for Wal-Mart.

“We apologize to those customers who may have been offended by the book’s images,” Lopez added.

A black woman in Houston told the Houston Chronicle this week she complained about the comic books after seeing them at a Wal-Mart.

“I said, wait a minute: Is this a monkey or a little black boy?” Shawnedria McGinty told the newspaper. “I was so upset. This is 2008.”

Many Mexicans argue Memin Pinguin is misunderstood in the United States and that he is a lovable character and not a racist depiction of blacks.

Memin Pinguin was at the center of a controversy in 2005, when the Mexican postal service issued a series of stamps featuring the character.

President George W. Bush called the stamps offensive, which put him at odds with Mexico’s then president, Vicente Fox.

Link

Very interesting read about Dictatorships in Africa and their relationship to the United States!

Wednesday, 09 July 2008
African Dictatorships and Double-Standards
Stephen Zunes

This article originally appeared in Foreign Policy In Focus

“U.S. credibility as a defender of human rights and free elections is seriously compromised.”

The Bush administration has justifiably criticized the Zimbabwean regime of liberator-turned-dictator Robert Mugabe. It has joined a unanimous UN Security Council resolution condemning the campaign of violence unleashed upon pro-democracy activists and calling for increased diplomatic sanctions in the face of yet another sham election. In addition, both the House and the Senate have passed strongly worded resolutions of solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe in support of their struggle for freedom and democracy.

However, neither the Republican administration nor the Democratic-controlled Congress is sincerely concerned about human rights and democratic elections as a matter of principle. Rather, they are more likely acting out of political expediency. Despite claims of support for the advancement of democracy, the United States continues to support other African dictatorships that are as bad as or even worse than that of Zimbabwe.

Indeed, the United States currently provides economic aid and security assistance to such repressive African regimes as Swaziland, Congo, Cameroun, Togo, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Rwanda, Gabon, Egypt, and Tunisia. None of these countries holds free elections, and all have severely suppressed their political opposition.

The Worst Abuser

Among the worst of these African tyrannies has been the regime of Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea. Obiang has been in power even longer than the 28-year reign of Mugabe and, according to a recent article in the British newspaper The Independent, makes the Zimbabwean dictator “seem stable and benign” by comparison. Obiang originally seized power in a 1979 coup by murdering his uncle, who had ruled the country since its independence from Spain in 1968. Under his rule, Equatorial Guinea nominally allowed the existence of opposition parties as a condition of receiving foreign aid in the early 1990s. But the four leading candidates withdrew from the last presidential election in December 2002 in protest of irregularities in the voting process and violence against their supporters. In that election, Obiang officially received more than 97% of the vote (down from 99.5% in the previous election.)

Though the U.S. State Department acknowledged that the election was “marred by extensive fraud and intimidation,” the Congress and the administration devoted none of the vehement condemnation that was so evident after the recent, similarly marred election process in Zimbabwe.

One major reason for the difference in response is oil. The development of vast oil reserves over the past decade has made Equatorial Guinea one of the wealthiest countries in Africa in terms of per capita gross domestic product. Virtually all of the oil revenues, however, goes to Obiang and his cronies. The dictator himself is worth an estimated $1 billion, making him the wealthiest leader in Africa; his real estate holdings include two mansions in Maryland just outside of Washington, DC. Meanwhile, the vast majority of the country’s population lives on only a few dollars a day, and nearly half of all children under five are malnourished. The country’s major towns and cities lack basic sanitation and potable water while conditions in the countryside are even worse.

“The development of vast oil reserves over the past decade has made Equatorial Guinea one of the wealthiest countries in Africa in terms of per capita gross domestic product.”

During his most recent visit to Washington in 2006, Obiang was warmly received by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who praised the dictator as “a good friend” of the United States. Not once during their joint appearance did she mention the words “human rights” or “democracy.” At the same press conference, Obiang praised his regime’s “extremely good relations with the United States” and his expectation that “this relationship will continue to grow in friendship and cooperation.” None of the assembled reporters raised any questions about the regime’s notorious human rights record or its lack of democracy, instead using the opportunity to ask Secretary Rice questions about the alleged threat from Iran.

In 2002, the dictator met with President George W. Bush in New York to discuss military and energy security issues. He followed up in 2004 with meetings with then-Secretary of State Colin Powell and then-Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham.

Cozy Relations

Equatorial Guinea receives U.S. government funding and training through the International Military Education and Training Program (IMET). In addition, the private U.S. firm Military Professional Resources Incorporated - founded by former senior Pentagon officials who cite the regime’s friendliness to U.S. strategic and economic interests - plays a key role in the country’s internal security apparatus. Furthermore, as a result of Obiang’s understandable lack of trust in his own people, soldiers from Morocco - one of America’s closest African allies - have served for decades in a number of important security functions, including the role of presidential guards.

Maintaining close ties with such a notorious ruler has led even conservative Republicans like Frank Ruddy, who served as President Ronald Reagan’s ambassador to Equatorial Guinea in the mid-1980s, to denounce the Bush administration for being “big cheerleaders for the government - and it’s an awful government.”

“U.S. oil companies paid hundreds of millions of dollars destined to state treasuries directly into the dictator’s private bank accounts.”

Though the Chinese have also recently begun investing in the country’s oil sector, U.S. companies ExxonMobil, Amerada Hess, Chevron/Texaco, and Marathon Oil have played the most significant role. A report by the International Monetary Fund notes that U.S. oil companies receive “by far the most generous tax and profit-sharing provisions in the region.” Congressional hearings recently revealed how U.S. oil companies paid hundreds of millions of dollars destined to state treasuries directly into the dictator’s private bank accounts. A Senate report faulted U.S. oil companies for making “substantial payments to, or entering into business ventures with,” government officials and their family members.

The irony of the relative silence of Congress and the Bush administration regarding the human rights abuses and the undemocratic nature of Obiang’s regime is that, due to the critical role of U.S. economic investment and security assistance, the United States has far more leverage on the government of Equatorial Guinea than it does on the government of Zimbabwe. As a result, Americans can feel self-righteous in their condemnation of a regime in Zimbabwe with which the United States has little leverage while continuing to support an even more repressive regime over which the United States could successfully exert pressure if it chose to do so.

This does not mean the United States should have waited until it first ends its support of Obiang and other African dictatorships before joining the rest of the international community in condemning the repression in Zimbabwe. However, as long as the United States maintains such blatant double-standards, U.S. credibility as a defender of human rights and free elections is seriously compromised and thereby plays right into the hands of autocrats and demagogues like Robert Mugabe.

Stephen Zunes is a senior analyst for Foreign Policy In Focus and a professor of politics at the University of San Francisco.

The following piece was given to us by Ma’at. When I first read this piece I was so in tune with it that all of the other noises in the background of my mind needed to be silenced. I truly hope that this piece engages us in a discourse about not only our current reality but the change which we wish to see within our reality. Peace and Grace be unto you!

THE AMERICAN NIGHTMARE

Rags to riches
Foreigner
Outsider to Inside
American Society
American Money
American Riches
The American Dream
Business Man
Drug Dealer
Hustler
Lawyer
Me…
See I
I too started off
Young
Hungry
Driven
Hustling
Toward the dream
My American Dream…… Esq.
So I did what anyone…everyone chasing the American Dream does
I hustled
Made those connects
Studied the greats…
The great hustlers….

Walked softly…. watched, listened, emulated
Worked my way through the system
The American system
Day in and Day out
Climbing the ladder
Shaking hands
Negotiating
Until
Until the party life…..got me
Addicted
Addicted to status
This little brown girl from Church Ave.. now regarded by society as a
member of an elite….
Better than you
Better than most
Damn that shit feels good
The high
The power..
It’s addictive
I’m penetrating you
Deeply, hard, long….
Now all you can do is say my name and hope you feel me tomorrow
How could I not fall in lust?
How could I not keep coming back?
Knowing it was starting to kill me…..

Yeah…the American Dream
My American Nightmare
Time moves….
PAUSE
I look around….I
Is this what success is all about
A bunch of bitches acting like bitches with big mouths
I’M LIVING THE AMERICAN DREAM
AND YOU KNOW WHAT,……. ITS FUCKED UP
I live a life where I am a part of a machine that rapes my people
Rapes my mind
Bleaches my spirit
Makes “America” Rich
How fitting?
How fitting that the dream in this country
A COUNTRY BUILT ON THE PRINCIPLES OF DESTROYING WHAT MUST BE DESTROYED
FOR PERSONAL GAIN
Would idealize a life that destroys those who live it for the gain of
those in power
The essence of a Hustler’s Spirit….

WAKE UP!!!!