Presidential Debate III

For the most part these joints have gone strongly in Obama’s favor, this was the first one where McCain started to show some force, and signs of semi-intelligence so it sparked me to express my thoughts on it.

In general, I like that Obama is cool and level-headed for the most part but sometimes that cat just needs to step up the level of passion behind his words so that hedoesn’t come across so flat as he does at times.  I know he is fighting the “Angry Black Man” label, but still.

The first half-hour had a very aggressive McCain on the offensive trying to press Obama. However, unflappable as ever, Barack weaved through the offensive line and hell he didn’t he even have to sack McCain, McCain sacked himself with that extended discourse on Bill Ayers, ACORN, and trying to get Obama to repudiate John Lewis’ statements.

I liked how Obama, just turned that shit on its ear given all of the negative stuff that has been coming out of the Palin and McCain rallies.  “Terrorist!” “Kill him!“  Where are the repudiations of that shit?  That’s real talk that could stoke the underlying hate and racism that exists beneath the surface.

Obama WENT IN on McCain’s Health care plan, breaking that shit down to the bone gristle.  Fuck is anyone over 26 gonna do with $5,000 insurance credit, you can’t get decent coverage with that.
Barack made an impassioned plea for sex education and deftly argued his point about the merits of Roe v. Wade, plus he made a point that many can agree with: no one is really pro-abortion. This is something I have always kind of felt made the Pro-Life/Choice abortion debate weird.  If you are Pro-Choice it doesn’t mean you are pro-abortion, it means that you are for a woman having the option to pursue abortion as a course of action if she feels it is necessary.  If you have a Pro-Choice stance, you are actually Pro-Life as well.

Obama still has miles to go before he is in office, though he currently possesses a very strong lead at present, the truth will be revealed in the booth. (THAT should be a new campaign shirt, I need to get some joints pressed up and slang ‘em – who’s with me?)  I hope that things proceed apace and Obama comes out on top and no fuckery occurs, but the Republican long-ago elevated tomfoolery to fuckery and they do it well, though to the benefit of Obama, it seems like McCain was a P.O.W. at the time and missed some of the lessons

And in Michelle Obama news – she was putting that AyAassss™ on display in that purple dress – and men around the country thank you Michelle!

Obama Support = No Parking

Here is the link if the video player is taking too long to load
Now ain’t this some bullshit! The haters are up to no good once again.

David Letterman skewers John McCain

Ignorance Kills

Stolen without permission from flickr. I think the end justifies the means in this case. Read. Listen. Learn.

My close friends know that I love Africa — the entire continent. In fact, I’m going to Uganda for three weeks in just a few days and when people ask me why I am going, I am just left speechless. There are so many atrocities, problems, and reasons, I want to look at them and ask them why they are not going.

 

In our society, we claim ignorance as a valid reason to ignoring things like genocide, rape, mass murders, poverty, malnutrition, kidnapping, etc. We hear about it on the nightly news while eating our dinners and feel sad for about 30 minutes until the next big sitcom airs.

Here is a list of problems that I am putting up so that you can no longer claim ignorance as an excuse: 
- 315,000,000 people in Africa survive on less than 1 US dollar per day. (Per capita income of the US is over $40,000. Average personal income is significantly less, but not so small that we can’t spare a dollar a day.)
- 184,000,000 Africans (that is 33% of the entire continent) suffer from malnutrition.
- As recently as 2000, over 300,000,000 did not have access to safe drinking water.
- Average African life expectancy is 41 years old. (That is less than 66% of the most pessimistic life expectancy numbers for the average American.)
- 1 out of 6 African kids never make it past the age of 5.
- 50% of civilian causalities in African wars (and there are always multiple African wars going on at any given moment) are children under the age of 13.
- Of 1,000 Africans, statistically, only 200 have any electricity at all, only 15 have access to a telephone, and only 7 can use the internet.
- 3,000 children under the age of 5 die from malaria EVERYDAY in Africa — that’s over a million CHILDREN a year. (Only 8 people — all together — in the US died from malaria last year.)
- 12,000,000 children have lost their parents to AIDS.
- At least 25,000,000 people in Africa are HIV-positive.
There are plenty more facts like this. Educate yourself.

Know the facts. Stop ignorance. Support Africa. Spread the love.

Here are some organizations you can support:
World Vision
DATA – Supported by U2, Switchfoot, etc.
The ONE Campaign
Invisible Children – Started by some students from San Diego.
Africa Hope Apparel – Started by a student at UC Davis.
African Renewal Ministries – One of the organizations I worked with last year and will work with this year. The organization through which I am sponsoring a child.

Michelle’s Makeover?

 

Michelle Obama’s Makeover for America  by Recshop

Who ever thought that Michelle Obama needed a makeover? Personally I thought she was looking pretty good. But according to sculptor Daniel Edwards Michelle has been given his version of a makeover that provides for her a ’signature look’ to take to Washington.

Uncounted The Movie

This is a clip from Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections by David Earnhardt. I’m not sure if this is the same documentary I saw on the subject but it looks like it’s worth checking out. For more go toUncountedTheMovie.com 

This and more political rants can be found PDS POLITICS

Tim Wise- White Privilege

I saw an article by him over at HipHop is Read and after reading it had to check it out. Interesting so far….

Here is his article on White Privilege copied from the HHIR folks.

 

This is Your Nation on White Privilege 

By Tim Wise

For those who still can’t grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.

White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because “every family has challenges,” even as black and Latino families with similar “challenges” are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay. 

REGISTERED?

 

Are you registered to vote? If not take a few minutes away from searching for Weezy’s newest freestyle and go here. The picture above does not mean that I’m voting for the guy…but if you catch me doing anything else shoot me.

  REGISTER TO VOTE HERE. DO IT. DO IT.

Big Boi’s We The People

Once again big shouts to Different Kitchen. This is Big Boi interviewing celebs about the state of the world today. Haven’t watched yet but it’s a nice segue into my next post…..

Ummm……

Well the first reports from my peeps down in H-Town say it may not be that bad but this CNN report is looking pretty dire for the G-Town heads. Our prayers go out to all of you. CNN report after this…

 

HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) – Residents along Galveston Bay in Texas “face certain death” if they don’t leave home before Hurricane Ike roars ashore, the National Weather Service warns.