fighting for your political life

I know I write about Michael Steele a lot but he’s just so damn funny I can’t help it. It could also be that my black encrusted heart is thumping with glee over his monumental struggle to lead the RNC. If there was any example I could pull out of my hat to illustrate the unwavering cluelessness of the Republican Party, electing a self serving boob like Steele would always be my first choice.

This morning, Steele participated in a debate along with other wannabe candidates for the RNC chairmanship. His tenure is up and he’s holding on with tether hooks to his position. It was his time to lay it all on the line. It was his chance to defend the decisions he’s made and make nice with the upper echelon of the party so that he can keep his job. How did he do?

Well, after a lot of sucking up to the base, (reaffirming homophobia, anti-choice, and the right to stockpile a lot of guns without paying too much in taxes), he seemed to do fine. He reiterated the need for the Republican party to reach out and improve communications with the rank and file. He also pointed out the importance of expanding the tent by actively recruiting more minorities. He sounded far more reasonable than the members of the Hard Right Brigade sitting with him. That was until he decided to quote from one of his favorite books, “War and Peace”. Except, the quote was actually from Charles Dickens. Lawd Jesus.

It’s not just once gaffe that draws giggles and exasperation, it’s the entire collection of gaffes, miscues, off color comments, and general buffoonery that Steele has engaged in for the past two years. There’s no way he’s going to be re-elected because despite the fact that he has foot in the mouth disease, his real crime was financial mismanagement. In other words, he messed with other people’s money and that ain’t gonna fly. I guess I’m still wondering if the RNC expected Steele to be their own little right leaning version of Obama. Steele obviously thought he was in the same league as PBO, but those with sense knew he wasn’t.

Looks like the other side has seen it too.

the passion of the poverty pimp

The story hit the media like a sonic boom. Four young men filed suit against Bishop Eddie Long, pastor of the twenty-five thousand member New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Georgia. The men claimed that Long coerced them into sexual relationships after showering them with clothing, free trips, and electronics. Most people were shocked, others not so much. I mean, we’ve heard the story before. An influential pastor in charge of a huge fundamentalist congregation gets caught playing hide the sausage with one his parishioners. The only difference this time was that Eddie Long is African-American and New Birth is one of the biggest black churches in the nation.

But once you get over that difference, what’s being reported to have allegedly happened isn’t new at all. Black folks have known for a very long time that something wrong has been brewing within the sanctuaries of black mega-churches. The community at large has been exposed to rampant homophobia, sexism, and financial impropriety and it’s shameful. Even more shameful that these churches are more popular than ever. The Exclusionary Gospel Of Prosperity has taken a frightening hold over modern theology. It’s disgraceful.

And Bishop Eddie Long is one of the biggest perpetrators. Now when this story first hit, there were only two suits filed. I was still a bit iffy, but when numbers three and four were filed, I was like, “Something in the communion wine definitely ain’t clean”. I was even more disgusted by the sanctimonious responses from other Christians. “We need to pray for Bishop Long and his family” and, “Some of you all have fallen short of the glory, it’s just that your dirt isn’t on front street.” Yeah, whatever with all that. Even the Bishop himself during his petulant and smarmy speech this morning admonished those who were “lost” to come to the altar for prayer. Excuse me Bishop Lacefront, I’m not the one being accused of passing out iPADS for ass, okay? Maybe you need to try a little less projection and a little more humility. I guess I’m asking for too much though.

I mean you have a whole lot more to lose than me. I can see how you wouldn’t want to let go of the reins of your empire. I saw the pictures of your palatial estate. I’ve seen you wearing those shiny suits and sporting that sparkly jewelry. I’ve also heard you preach intolerance of gays ,the subjugation of women, and the love of money. The poor nose-led followers of your flock have responded to your perversion of the gospel by throwing themselves and their cash at your feet. But now some of the chickens are coming home to roost at the feet of the poverty pimp.

I really don’t care if this makes me sound mean or judgmental. To heck with all the guilty until proven innocent crap. Even if Bishop Muscle Shirt manages to worm his way out of this situation, he still has a whole lot to answer for.

In name only

Well it happened. Michael Steele, the beleaguered Chairman of the Republican National Committee managed to REALLY piss off the bigwigs of the party. Calls are now pouring in for him to resign and they are expressing their displeasure in every media outlet possible. Looks like Chairman Steele really said the wrong thing when he opined over America’s war with Afghanistan. He laid our involvement at the feet of President Obama (totally wrong), and said that we had no business being there (totally right).

Once again, Steele forgot what party he represented and who’s writing the checks. Modern Republicanism LOVES war. It really loves war in foreign countries with our soldiers battling enemies against the American Way of Life. WAR means big contracts, WAR means looking tough in the face of our critics and foes. WAR means money for congressmen, lobbyists, private contractors. Steele spoke against the WAR. That was the wrong thing to do, even though it was the right sentiment.

We have no business in Afghanistan, just like we had no business invading Iraq. Both wars have dragged the economy and our collective morale into the gutter. Thousands of lives have been lost. Those that have survived are dealing with life altering injuries and mental problems. But that’s not what you are supposed to say and think when you are trying to pry money from the chickenhawks. Poor, blundering, Mike.

So now the word is he’s an island unto himself. The RNC runs itself without his direct knowledge or consent. He’s become a figurehead-dare I say, a token. Steele won’t be fired because the Republicans know that it will make them look bad. He probably won’t resign because he’s too stubborn and short-sighted to see that it would benefit him in the long run to walk away. From what Steele has taught us though, it’s better to be the HNIC in name only than to be nothing at all.

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.

mad nutters

Rachel Maddow is angry, and you know what? So am I. Operation “Destroy Acorn” is in full flight and the level of hysteria has reached a fever pitch. During the Presidential campaign last year, The Right tried to make ACORN an issue by trying to link Barack Obama the organization because waaaay back in day Obama worked with the precursor of ACORN to register voters in Chicago. He also represented ACORN in a lawsuit in 1995 along WITH the Justice Department in order to compel the state of Chicago to grant more access to polls for the disabled. He said some nice things about ACORN during his run for the Presidency and lo and behold, The Right tried to make him out to be the Creator and Supreme head of whole she-bang. You know since he was a “Community Organizer” and everything. Because according to them, ACORN is this evil and corrupt cabal of liberals that want to take away the rights of hardworking Americans.

Please. ACORN is an organization that helps the poor and disenfranchised vote, get adequate housing, and employment. All the things that the Powers That Be don’t want them to have. They’ve challenged banks, finance companies, and state governments who have tried to cheat and deny the less fortunate of those unalienable rights guaranteed by the Constitution. You know that document that those on The Right say they revere? Voter Fraud? Hardly. Voter Registration irregularity that would not have been known unless ACORN itself reported it. When the Bush Administration tried to go after ACORN for voter fraud, the DOJ attorney assigned to case couldn’t find any. He was fired and you know what happened when the Bush Administration strated firing attorneys. Hmmm.

Oh and that Prostitute/Pimp “scandal”. You mean the entrapment scheme set up by right wing operatives? Have there been arrests? A trial? Any convictions? Did anyone in from the mainstream media bothered to do some actual reporting to find out that these boobs went from city to city, getting kicked out of ACORN offices far and wide because they were so transparent until they found two morons out of an organiztion of 400,000 to illegally videotape? But hey, it was FOX News so it HAD to be true!

Now the IRS is cutting ties with ACORN after congressional pressure from the very people who would benefit the most from ACORN being destroyed. It smells to high hell and they aren’t being called out on it. So yes, Rachel Maddow is mad because the press aren’t doing their job. I’m mad because the crazies from The Right ARE doing their job: dismantling a group that stands for social justice.

got your back

We all have fallen short of the glory. Unfortunately for some of us, the fall can be big and in front of a whole lot of people. Thank goodness there are those who have screwed up just as bad or even worse to come to the defense. For example, the embattled governor of South Carolina, Mark Sanford spoke op for his fellow South Carolinian Joe “You Lie” Wilson. Sanford bemoaned the fact that Wilson already apologized once and he didn’t understand what else did they want from the loud congressman. In the world of Mark Sanford it seems, saying your sorry should be enough.

But it isn’t. Sanford is being pushed out of the Governorship and the rest of America (save the right wing haters) aren’t quite ready to forgive Joe Wilson. What he did crossed all kinds of lines. His outburst not only showed a disrespect for the President but for his fellow representatives, and his constituents. To hell with his emotions getting the best of him. That’s just a bullshit excuse for wanting a bit of shine based on a lie. His pithy apology waylaid by Rahm Emmanuel simply wasn’t enough. At least if he made a statement to the House that showed some modicum of contriteness it would help. I don’t see that happening though. It wouldn’t fit the whole patriotic-all american-fight-the liberals meme. It’s cool to disrespect the President and his family. If you have an offensive enough sign or if you repeat a crazy enough conspiracy theory, you get a whole lot of attention.

I wonder though will Joe appreciate the Governor’s show of support.  Could it possibly help his re-election chances if he has a lying, cheating, stealing fellow Republican in his corner. Maybe Joe doesn’t feel all that great with Mark having his back. I don’t think a rally featuring the both of them will be happening any time soon. How interesting that Mark Sanford would say that it’s time for all of us to move on. We all could do that once Sanford and Wilson are out of office that’s for sure.

tears and tears

*Sigh*

Being a Rafa Nadal fan I should be used to this by now. Some big tall power hitter has the best two weeks of his life and decides to blow Rafa off the court. The victor this time was Juan Martin Del Potro and he demolished Rafa 6-2, 6-2, 6-2. Nothing was working: The serve, the backhand, the forehand. Nothing. He was pushed back to nosebleed seats and failed to convert all 5 of his break point opportunities. But with usual good cheer, he smiled, waved to the crowd, and signed autographs for the kiddies. Not before being ambushed by Pam Shriver to give a post ass whupping interview on court. Really? Who’s bright idea was that? Yep. That’s the first thing a player wants to do after they lose, talk about the loss in front a full stadium!

But anyway, Rafa explained later that he had been playing with a muscle tear in his abdomen which restricted his movement. Amazing when you think about it. Getting to the semi finals of the U.S Open playing with that kind of pain. Rafa is a warrior, no doubt. The loss was painful for his fans, but I think I can speak for many: He made us proud. Plus, he’s back to #2. Yaaaasss!

The ladies final was pretty much a foregone conclusion. Nothing was stopping the Clijsters train, especially a novice finalist. To make a short story short. Kimmie won in straight sets and the tears flowed as Jada joined her Mommy on the court. More tears flowed as the hubby joined in the on victory celebration. Don’t get me wrong, Kim’s run was spectacular and made a wild women’s event even wilder, but I’m still stung by the events of the semi final. It’s not her fault, she just went out and played the best tennis of her life in a tournament wrought with ridiculous officiating and rotten decision making. No, the fault lies with the USTA. Their handling of everything was a complete disgrace.

out with a bang

I know I’ve skipped a day or two of my U.S. Open thoughts but because the rain caused so many matches to be postponed, I didn’t think it was necessary to express my boredom. No point in writing about tennis if there’s no tennis, right?

So, after a nearly 48 hour delay Rafa Nadal finished off Fernando Gonzalez to reach the semi finals for the second straight year. It only took him 34 minutes because he was the only player on the court that decided to actually play tennis. He won the tiebreaker without dropping a point and blitzed Fena 6-0 in the third. Talk about out with a whimper.

In the evening, the ladies semi finals got underway. Caroline Wozniacki made it to her first Major final by beating unhearalded (and by me, unseen Yanina Wickmayer). It was a straightforward affair, 6-3, 6-3. Congrats to Caroline. The other ladies semi final pitted Jada’s mom against defending champion Serena Williams. Kim started off strong and never let up. She pinned Serena to the baseline and attacked Serena’s second serve at every opportunity. Ree for her part sprayed errors, double faulted, and basically played like crap. She was outplayed pure and simple.

But oh, if that was it. Unfortunately, some cock-blocking blind ass lineswoman decided to inject herself into the match by calling a foot fault on Serena during the final game. Serena understandably went nuclear and let the lineswoman have it. After pleading her case to the umpire and the tournament referee, Serena was given a second code violation (she got her first after she smashed her racket after losing the first set), and was defaulted. CBS replayed the supposed fault and it didn’t look like a fault to me, nor to Johnny Mac, Mary Carillo, or Dick Emberg. It was bullshit plain and simple. Male players get away with pure murder and are rarely if ever called on it. I’ve actually heard Roger Federer yell, “SHIT” at the top of his lungs and the umpire just smiled at him. I’ve heard Andy Roddick call an umpire a “fat ass” and nothing happened to him. I’ve seen rackets thrown and cracked, balls swiped, and more foot faults overlooked than decency allows. But this particular time with THIS particular player: The defending champion gets a default because she said what a lot of us would like to say to someone who fucks up royally.

Like I said, none of it should never have happened. If blind owl line lady had shown some self control and judgement, Serena would have accepted the loss, Kimmie would have gotten her kudos, and everything would have been everything. Now, for the next few days, weeks, or even months we all are going to be subjected to this sorry display. Serena will be deluged with criticisms from hypocrites far and wide.

Talk about out with a bang.

red, white, and shoes

The Americans keep doing their thing on the 4th Day of the U.S. Open. Melanie Oudin and her customized shoes majorly upset 4th seeded Elena Dementieva, a player many tennis know-it-alls thought would go all the way. Well, now she going all the way back to Russia. Other  American victors were Andy Roddick, James Blake (yeah him!), Sam Querry, John Isner, and Jesse Whitten.

The second big seeded player to fall was Jelena Jankovic. How it must burn to lose to a player no one has ever heard of when you’re wearing such a snazzy dress. I’m not gonna rag on the Glitter Serb to much, word from the grapevine is that she suffered a death in the family. No matter how good a player you are, that kind of news has a way of affecting your play. What can I say about the match? Jankovic had her chances. She even had a match point in the final set tie-breaker, but Yaroslava Shvedova (that’s a mouthful) wanted it just a little bit more. Alona Bondarenko went down meekly to Gisela Dulko. Sabine Lisicki went lame and lost too.

Novak Djokovic whinged and flung his racket but still managed to win in straight sets. Tommy Hass stood up to the challenge provided by Robert Kendrick and made it through, Fernando Verdasco looked solid in victory and the Swede who shall not be named lucked out when his opponent retired. Boo Chicken! Boo!

Miss Sharapova got a prime spot in Ashe Stadium this evening and won in straight sets. You could say it was a convincing win except if you did a little research you would find out that her opponent was 17 years old and sported a big bandage on her leg. That’s looking to be the hot accessory during the Open- leg bandages. Where was I? Oh yes, Sharapova the winner with  her 7 double faults and 50 % first serve percentage. I can tell you this, no one is going to win the U.S Open with those kind of serving stats. No way, no how.

Should I even mention the other winner on the ladies side? I’ll let you guess on this one. She’s highly ranked, she struggled through another three set match, and her sibling spent a lot of time during his farewell press conference defending her. That’s all I’m giving you because that’s about all the effort she’s worth about now. I don’t want to hear how sympathetic a character she is. She’s the number 1 player in the world. She needs to play like it or go home.  Before you ask  isn’t sweating out two tough early round matches the stuff of champions let me break down to you like this: What she’s doing ain’t new. It’s just the excuses that are novel.

The best way to shut people up in the world of sports is to win. Wing big. Win convincingly. Win like your life depended on it. Win like all the hard work and sweat and tears were worth it. If she does manage to get herself together and win her first major, she’ll get her kudos from me. Until then, I’m not trying to hear it.