Joe Wilson is a jerk (I know)

You know who Joe Wilson is by now. He’s the Representative from SC (R) who, in a most bizarre and disrespectful outburst, shouted “You lie” during President Barack Obama’s address to Congress yesterday. Joe Wilson must be crazy. Joe Wilson must have underestimated the power of the internet. Joe Wilson is having a bad day. Joe Wilson is a jerk. Joe Wilson peed in your soup.

Ok, I can’t verify that last one (unless you’ve recently had soup with a republican legislator from South Carolina). That’s from the Joe Wilson Is Your Preexisting Condition meme. Check the site reminiscent of the always fun Barack Obama Is Your Bicycle site. As if you needed more reasons to dislike Joe Wilson. Ha! I think the homies Snoop and Dr. Dre said it best, “You tryna check my homie, you best check yaself cuz when you dis [the Prez] you dis yaself. (muhfucka!)”

Is Barack Obama Muslim?

If you blog, do everyone a favor and take Matthew Yglesias‘ suggestion. Link to a site that is asking and answering the question: Is Barack Obama Muslim?

If you don’t blog, just visit the site and hopefully the Google ranking will skyrocket (and we can educate the 2,928 West Virginians with internet access). Pass it on.

When harassing Black folk goes wrong

Once again, the New York Police Department has gotten itself involved in some racial bullshit of the typical kind: messing over innocent Black folk. What the NYPD didn’t account for, however, was that on May 2, the negro they were messing with was the highest ranking (uniformed) Black officer in the city. AKA… the HNIC.

The details of the story have not yet been flushed out but the gist of things is that Cheif Douglas Ziegler was sitting in his department issued SUV when two white officers approached the car and confronted him. The remainder of the story comes from Newsday.com.

New York doesn’t care about Black People

No, I do not mean New York of Flavor of Love fame. I mean New York City, and more specifically, the New York Police Department. 

While it’s not very shocking or surprising (we tend to have severely low expectations of the NYPD), it is disgusting and saddening to hear stories like that of Ramona Moore. What’s also unsurprising is the lack of media coverage surrounding this issue. Had it not been for my regular blog-trolling, I certainly wouldn’t have gotten this information from my local (big city) news or even CNN. Check out the story below of this young Black woman who went missing and the NYPD ignored her mother’s plea for help. Ramona Moore was tortured and killed in a Brooklyn basement, spurring her mother into action. Elle Carmichael, her mother, is bringing a federal civil rights claim against the NYPD, alleging that the Department has a “practice of not making a prompt investigation of missing-persons claims of African-Americans, while making a prompt investigation for white individuals.” The story comes by way of the Village Voice:

Alice Walker Speaks My Mind

When I wrote the post trying (incoherently at times) to describe how I felt about Obama, Clinton, Black people and (white) women, I couldn’t really put the words together in an eloquent way. Tell the truth, I didn’t really try. I just wanted to vent. 

Thank goodness there are people out there who have the energy to put these issues into well-crafted sentences. Alice Walker did just that in a piece posted on The Root entitled Lest We Forget: An open letter to my sisters who are brave. I include selected portions after the jump…

About Hillary, Barack and this election business

It’s only May and I’m weary of this Campaign ’08 business. I couldn’t even come up with a good title for this entry. I was trying to avoid having to really write anything about this whole President of the United States debacle because, well, we’re being bombarded by opinions and commentary from every angle. So I don’t want to engage in any in-depth political analysis. I don’t want to quote Hillary or Barack. I don’t want to link to other sites and blogs who are discussing this in a much more analytical fashion. I just want to write what’s on my mind. I warn you, there is rambling ahead. 

To begin with, I am offended by this Democratic primary bullshit. I am offended that people want to tell me who I ought to vote for because I am Black or because I am a woman. To even suggest that my decision making capability rests solely on which identity I choose to put first (Black Woman, Woman who is Black) is ludicrous. I hate that. I hate women who try to shame me into voting for Hillary. I hate Black people who look down upon those who aren’t sporting the latest Obama pin. Honestly, why must it be that simple? We ought to be much more complex than that. Neither women as a class nor Black folks are homogenous.

On: The Sean Bell Verdict

I’m not going to say much on this subject because it is playing out in the media and in blogs all over the place. I am sure you have already made up your mind about it, one way or another.

From the gut, the verdict is appalling and shockingly unfair. Just based on common sense alone, it is baffling to me how one could justify shooting an unarmed man 50 times. Even if one was in fear of their own life, it is beyond excessive to shoot that much and reload you weapon to continue shooting. Logically, it just does not add up.

However, after feeling what I feel at the core, I also must think. Recently, my thinking has changed and is colored by the legal training I have received thus far. When I first heard the verdict I had two thoughts: (1) Damn, that’s fucked up yo. (2) Damn, those defense attorneys had a banging ass case. I wonder what their theory was.

There are a couple things that probably contributed to the acquittals.