Rushed and Rammed

It seems that Big Rush Limbaugh isn’t satisfied with spreading his bile over the airwaves on a daily basis. Now he wants to become a NFL owner. It’s been reported that Limbaugh is interested in purchasing the woeful St. Louis Rams franchise and my goodness has the poo been flying. There are some that say he should be able to buy a team. I mean, it’s capitalism as it is at work; those that have money should buy what they want. There are others who say that Limbaugh has no business getting involved with professional sports, specifically a sport were 70% of the athletes are black based on his past statements.

I am on the side of those who are like, ” No way, no how”.  There’s something about Limbaugh being in a position to buy and trade black flesh that makes me sick to my stomach. He may see it as a purely money making venture, but I can’t help but think he could use his position to create some sick social experiment. Besides, I don’t know any African American player with even a smidgen of pride who would play for him, regardless of what Stephen A. Smith says.

And let’s talk about Mr. Smith for a minute. Oh, this dude is so making  HBCUs look bad right now. Mr. Smith is convinced that those black athletes who are vowing not to play under a Limbaugh regime are on some bullshit because he feels anyone with a lot of melanin and who plays pro football can be bought. Great, just what people need: A fresh dose of cynicism to muddle the debate over what’s truly right and what’s truly wrong. Hacks like Smith are the reason why I can barely tolerate sports journalism now. It’s nothing more than an exercise in projection. These so called commentators foolishly wax poetic about the glory days of the sport all the while barely disgusting their contempt for the athletes who play it. Their smugness and the obsession for getting the “controversy behind the story”, makes for interesting by lines and not much else.  So, Smith hoeing himself out to anyone who will listen because he’s guaranteed to say something controversial provides little insight into this issue.

This issue simply is this: Limbaugh is an asshole. There are NFL owners who are assholes. However, Limbaugh’s assholery isn’t limited to the world of sports. He’s has managed to offend nearly every living person representing nearly every group on this planet. The question is does the dominant sports franchise in the United States need Limbaugh in the mix? With all the problems within the NFL? Do they DESERVE Limbaugh? My answer is no. Didn’t we learn anything from Marge Schott?

crimes of the black elite

As the reports come in of the murder of Derrion Albert, an honors student from Chicago who was beaten to death in the street, discussions of gang violence are once again cropping up among the media and the black intelligista. It’s always the same: poverty and lack of educational opportunities in blighted communities breeds violence. Lack of parental guidance compounds the problem, along with disparate sentencing, racial profiling, and a dearth of rehabilitation services available. Yada. Yada. Yada. They talk amongst themselves. They debate on CNN and then the discussion dies down and people move on the next incident. However, little seems to change in the lives of these young people living day-to-day in these communities. Rarely do you hear about one of these talking heads actually making a trip down to one of these neighborhoods and engaging these children face to face. If they do, they make sure there are a lot of cameras around. They’ll make a fiery speech about personal responsibility, blame some random white menace, shake a few hands, then hop right back on the plane.

The few who choose to stay and try to help are faced with apathy, lack of funds for programs, and endless red tape coupled with empty promises from local and state governments. Then what happens, more kids fall through the cracks and the violence continues. My point is this, black youth violence is a home grown problem and we are going to have to be the ones to try to solve it. Not with fancy words and PSAs, but with real action and real money. How sick am I of hearing about a black academic traveling somewhere on a book tour, bemoaning the fact that they don’t often see other people of color come out in support. How tired am I of seeing another rapper or sports figure launch a clothing and handbag line, making a grand appearance at Fashion Week or some shi shi boutique in Los Angeles.

The very people they claim to write these books and make this clothing for are the very people who can’t afford it. These kids are killing each other over status items they can’t pay for and for blocks of concrete they don’t own. They are repping housing projects that contain asbestos that give them asthma and lead that gives them cancer. They are willing to die for the right to brag that they live on trash strewn streets, littered with liquor and payday loan stores. The so called leaders of the African American community rage at the fact that things need to change and they are demanding that our black President do something.

But what are they doing? Hosting fight night on the WWF, selling everything but their souls to Wells Fargo, making hip hop albums, and planning speaking tours based on the fact that some white cop got rowdy in their house. That’s what they are doing. They’ll pontificate and theorize. They’ll do specials for Cable News, but they won’t go into the trenches because well you know, it’s not really their job. I’ll give them that. They can’t save everyone. They can’t make people listen who don’t want to listen, but their inaction aint helping either. And sorry, if they want to be to the “go to” people for blackness, a little bit more is expected of them.

It’s too late for poor Derrion though.

you can hate me now

 

Sean, Sean Sean. Really? You can’t even hide your contempt for the O Man, you “journalist/commentator” can you? Are you so filled with jealousy that simple things like facts become as foreign to you as sanskrit is to the rest of us? Trying to push that line that Barack Obama isn’t intelligent because he uses a teleprompter is weak as all get out. But then again, being  the college drop out you are, critical thinking skills might be somewhat lacking. I mean, you couldn’t even hold your own against Jesse Ventura, the former governor of Minnesota and ex-professional wrestler. He laid the smackdown on you and you had nothing. Nothing.

True, you do this all the time and I usually ignore you. But this time. For you to even suggest that the past President of the HARVARD LAW REVIEW, a best selling author, and a general all around brainiac doesn’t pass your smell test just irritates the crap out of me. You would rather hold the banner of George Bush and all things wrong with conservatism just because the new President is black and is trying his damnedest to correct all of the past wrongs done by your boy? Is it because he refuses to be your new pet coon like Jesse L. Peterson? Or is it because Faux News is paying you too much money for you to smarten up?

Enlighten me. I have to know how an ignoramus such as yourself can even pretend to have the cajones to say some stuff like that. It wasn’t enough that you had to be shamed on your own program by a man who made a living wearing spandex, but you had to take it FURTHER by proving you are a fool by questioning the President’s intelligence. You?  Someone who offered to be waterboarded for charity? Someone who got checked by a member of the Fake Black Panthers due to your ties to white supremacist Hal Turner? Someone who got taken to the woodshed by Gibbering Robert Gibbs after you had an avowed Anti-Semite smear Obama on your show?

But like a case of fingernail fungus, you just keep hanging around. As long as great intellectuals like Elisabeth Hasselbeck quote you, you will indeed stay but you’ve got to know that regular folks are getting hip to your game now. Thanks to the innernets, your foolishness is being exposed to the world. Since you want to be the real voice of the opposition, prepare to be hated.

cutting through campbell’s bull

Everyone duck! CNN’s Campbell Brown is outraged again. This time, she took issue with Obama’s answer to a reporter’s question about his comments regarding Hillary Clinton’s international experience claims during the Democratic primary campaign. Obama was quoted as saying, “You guys are having fun.” In other words, he was asking, “Why ya’ll bringing up old shit?” Ms. Brown obviously took issue with this and in her “Cutting Through The Bull” segment she decided to call the President Elect on it.

Now my issue isn’t with Campbell taking issue with Obama’s answer. It was flippant. I also have questions about his pick for Secretary of State. No, my issue is with Campbell’s rather elevated view of herself and the media. She says that it is the media’s job to hold politicians accountable. And here I thought that the job of the media was to report the facts. But I guess when innuendo and hyperbole bring in better ratings, the media just don’t seem to have a choice and they are forced to go where the ratings will take them. She also feels that she is doing the American public a service by looking sternly into the camera and giving the President Elect a proverbial finger wagging. As if I and other viewers are completely incapable of making up our own minds. That would make sense if she bothered to mention that Obama did indeed answer the reporter’s question after his joke by praising Hillary and declaring that she will make a fine Secretary of State. It’s obvious that for the meantime, they have put the past behind them and that was his point.

But it just wasn’t good enough for Ms. Brown. The same talking head who railed and assailed against everyone on behalf of Sarah Palin and her taste for fine clothing and accessories on the RNC’s dime. According to Campbell, we were all sexist for taking exception to this fact. I just want to know, what category does Campbell fall into exactly? Is she a journalist who just happens to commentate on certain matters from time to time? Or is she a pundit who dabbles in a bit of real news when the situation calls for it? With her straddling the line between news and commentary it’s no wonder she seems a bit discombobulated.

If this is the new age of accountability, then the mainstream media needs to be held accountable as well. They should report the news as it is and leave personal bias out of it. If that’s too much to ask, then they should know that their opinions can be readily dismissed as easily as anyone on the street. Since Campbell decided to get all knee deep in the opinion pool, I’m choosing to cut through her bull this time.

Campbell’s segment:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/02/campbell-brown-obamas-thi_n_147698.html