The OWL

Thursday, January 31, 2013

"DELIVERANCE"

From "Movie" to "Reality"??

We all remember the movie. We also remember the region of our country, the severe deprivations of the people living there and their extremely limited world view.

Those "debilitations" are spreading rapidly across our country as the rot of paranoid "conservatism" continues to prove that the "Peter Principle" works also for politicians! Are these the kind of people we want to lead this nation into our future? Too many of our MONEY CLASS seem to think so.

When their leader, "Ol'-Triple-Six" took the helm of this country in 1980, there were enough people around with "common sense", personal integrity, and courage, to save us from immediate harm.

We can do better than this! We DESERVE better than this! There should be no place in this country , no matter how small, where this kind of rot can remain safe from correction. I know the Constitution permits better. The voting public has to insist on better; EVERYWHERE! The Congressional elections of 2014 denote the time and place for our "deliverance"!.. Be sure to SHOW UP; AND VOTE to get rid of the office holders who are spreading the filth currently crippling our nation.

We are asked to believe that there are still decent people who are also voting Republicans in this country. I'll believe that if the current rot is tossed out of office in 2014. Money should not succeed in protecting this rot -- any more than it succeeded in obtaining the Presidency in 2012!

Stay Vigilant! Stay Involved!

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

UN - "SECURE" - ABLE BORDERS??

Poison Pill??

Has the Republican half of the bi-partisan Senate group putting together an Immigrant Bill slipped in a "poison pill"? Have they slipped in a requirement for sealing a border than cannot be sealed, let alone "secured". Have they also muddied the waters by seeking, in the name of immigration, to keep alive their stealth civil war, used in the 2012 Election?

You can't lose much betting against the level of knowledge or awareness of the citizens of this country. Especially if that knowledge is of their own history. The run-up to our Civil War was fueled by shenanigans of President Polk in his land grab for territory belonging to Mexico. The "Texicans",(Houston, Austin) and their buddy President Andy Jackson, had little or no respect for Mexico or for Mexicans. Read: RACE and Manifest Destiny, Reginald Horsman, (1981), and The Year of Decision 1846, Bernard DeVoto (1942). The trumped-up invasion of Mexico, like that of Iraq, is cited as a cause for our Civil War. That's because their aim was to take Mexican territory and use it to extend slavery to the West Coast; thereby, guaranteeing chattel slavery forever in this country. (Mexico had outlawed slavery in its Constitution of 1824). That failed and we got the Fugitive Slave Act and the 1850 Compromise.

For more than 100 years, people travelled across our Southern Border without concern on either side. The four current states who comprise our current border with Mexico are unable or unwilling to "secure" their portions of that border in a way that will satisfy all four states. They are also unwilling to approve of the efforts of our Federal Government to "secure" that "border". Ergo, the POISON in the negotiations??

The 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hildalgo, ending the war with Mexico, left the residents in the lands ceded; many of whom had been in place since arriving with the Conquistador, Onate in 1598. The "border" crossed the inhabitants -- not the other way around. The states we have on that land today(Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California) provide, with their southern borders, what constitutes our present day Southern Border. Our Northern Border, derives from our squabbles with Great Britain; is longer and much more porous; and is of no concern in our present immigration politics. (you can guess why??)

Of the reported "12 Million Illegals", only 60% cross our Southern Border on foot, the rest fly across all of our borders; as do the millions of non-Mexicans who are here illegally. The "Latin-leads" (Rubio, and others) are mostly CUBAN. They are protected wards of the Republican Party who do not share the predominant Hispanic history, have special benefits, and suffer not at all from current immigrant policies. Does something smell not quite right here?

Stay Vigilant! Stay Involved!

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

"OH, NO!", MR. BOEHNER

Annihilate Repoobs??

You, of all people, should WANT Repoobs annihalated! Those are the rascist, white supremacist, crypto-fascist, nativist creatures on full display during Election 2012 and the run-up Republican Primary clown show. That fiasco, unabashedly, put the entire world on notice as to what really motivates your party! And you want to blame the President (again)?? I'm thinking on "pots and kettles", but then I have a hard time imagining a Republican or a Repoop embracing the term "black" -- for any reason! The lie you tell about being fiscally responsible never uses terms like "return our national finances -- to the black".

If you r-e-a-l-l-y are interested in restoring a smidgeon of respect for the Republican Party, you must first repudiate in public ALL of your party members who engage, in any part of the media, in utterances that diminish, be-little, or de-humanize any person of non-white identity.

For those few party members remaining, you all must wear an 18-wheeler lapel pin at all public appearances to signify the Billions of Dollars your party sent, by the plane-loads, to Iraq that promptly "disappeared". http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jun/13/world/la-fg-missing-billions-20110613.

That $12B, off-loaded into all those semi's, was taxpayer money, and, to date, the Party has shown no interest in retrieving that money!

Then, the Party must own up to all of its failed riverboat-gambles in Iraq. We were told all sorts of lies to cover your failures in leadership. Coming clean, admitting it was a failed oil grab, among many other things, could help to restore the Party's image. Oh, yes, what was that "W"-with- Sharon" drama on our television really about? Was there some strategy never revealed to the the public?

Your party sits a-top a reeking pile of garbage in the public's eyes. Playing the victim and blaming the President who "overcame" your crap, (with the backing of a lot of voters, of all colors), does not give us confidence in your ability to survive.

Stay Vigilant! Stay Involved! Get Clean!

Monday, January 28, 2013

A CHILD OF "LONGING"

A Widespread "Legacy"?

Long-term readers of this blog know that I am a "motherless child", since the age of 6. In her book entitled Children of Longing, (1970), Rosa Guy edited a collection of essays written by children who were in many ways similarly impacted. In the Introduction to the book, Julius Lester wrote:

"We are not taught the history of America or the history of Western Civilization in school.

...It is a concept of history that makes it all but impossible for us to look at ourselves and

like what we see. Each day the newspapers continue the dehumanization process. Television

intensifies it and we fill our lives with fantasies. Our children grow up wanting to be an

image, a fantasy, instead of a person. ... We never have the opportunity to learn and to know

what we are." Julius Lester, Gayhead, Massachusettes, March 26, 1970

Fast-forward more than 40 years, and we find his observation to have been rock-solid! We have also witnessed the tragic life of Michael Jackson, who was born in 1958. All of our children are deeply in trouble on this score today. In addition, they face far greater physical danger on a day-to-day basis. As the skin color of the child darkens, so does the extent of the dangers they face. We can't kid ourselves and believe we've made any real "progress"!

Driven by an impending "minority-majority" demographic for the United States; Red States are proliferating, along with poverty in those states. So, too, is the frenzy for gun purchases by poor whites.

The sense of longing increases and deepens. We long for sanity, civility, common sense, honor, truth, justice, and honesty. Is it too much to long for??

Stay Vigilant! Stay Involved! Stay Informed!

Sunday, January 27, 2013

THE "NEW TALIBAN" ...

" ... May Be In Syria"

This morning's "news" brought us an interview from Davos of King Abdullah II of Jordan. Fareed Zakaria was the interviewer. He is important as an interviewer in that he does not exhibit the "white think" tendencies of other right, left, and center media talking heads. Much of the information we need, to understand what is going on in the world today, is contaminated by "white think" -- or is simply ignored.

The title and sub-title of this blog is a quote from Fareed"s interview. The King, like Assad in Syria, took power following the death of a father (Assad in 2000 -- Abdullah II in 1999). Unlike Assad, Abdullah just completed, successfully, an election wherein he is making progress toward "democratizing" his kingdom.

Whether here in the United States or abroad, three powerful forces have intersected since the end of the Cold War in such a way as to dominate our concerns. They are economics, religion, and race/tribe. These combined forces have shifted both faces and places to keep world stability under serious threat. Now, the Middle East and Northwest Africa are places of fighting as Afghanistan and Pakistan decline in intensity.

These elements do not stand alone; there are racial/tribal aspects of religions and economics, and so on, throughout all permutations and combinations of these forces. Here at home we see it in the spread of the Red States. Following our election of 2012 and the gun violence of Newtown, the frenzy to buy guns has increased as governments at both the state and federal levels are moving to quell the contagion.

Economic action and focus, post-election, has shifted to our states; as the pre-election squabbles between Executive and Congressional interests at the federal level diminish. Those tensions are now manifested within the parties inside Congress, led by religious and racial factions that are supported by the gun lobbies.

The states have to find ways to reflate their economies after drastic cuts spurred by pre-election attacks on our economy that were driven by extreme personalities within the Republican Party.

The average salary of a state governor, $130,000, is more than 8 times the income of minimum wage workers in their states.

Stay Vigilant! Stay Involved! Stay Informed!

Saturday, January 26, 2013

WHO AM I ??

Native . African . European . AMERICAN !!

As "Moms", a Vaudeville-linked comedienne, would ask: "Why does anybody in this country have to spend their life locked up in some "box" that other peoples are busy shoving them into? Ain't Nobody Got Time fo' Dat!!"

Exactly! Although I have not lived as long as she did, I have found that the most fundamental question that everyone in the United States must ask over their life span is this basic question of identity. In a heavy-handed "culture" that dictates racial and ethnic status with the power and backing of the federal government, we perpetually remain mired in race-based issues infecting every aspect of our daily lives.

A Blackfeet Encounter http://www.americanindiancenter.org/calendar2.php?view=event&id=2810 aired a few nights ago on PBS. Blackfeet is one of several Native tribes in my lineage, along with several European lines along with a "drop" of African heritage; the Blackfeet connection derives from Missouri, my place of birth. The mighty river washed down a lot from the far Northwest, it seems. That tribe is suffering mightily in this new 21st century from the phenomenon observed by De Tocqueville in the 1830's. It appears that the "extermination" goal of the United States government persists "on the Rez"!

Richard M. Brace, in his The Making of the Modern World (1955) shows how this system was imported to the Americas by the Catholic Church, arriving around the time of Cortes and Bishop de Las Casas (early 1500's). By 1800, there were an estimated 18 million persons under Spanish and Portuguese rule; more than half of whom were Natives and Negroes. The Creoles (whites born outside of Spain) and Gauchupines (whites born in Spain) comprised the remainder. The oppressive caste system was established and maintained by the Church. That poison showed up in the 2012 election, directed toward our first black president.

For me, I decided long ago to be me! All parts! I reject the immigrant-based notion that one can or should reject his heritage and "start over" in this country; "refreshed" with each new generation! Down that road lines insanity; for individuals, for families, for communities, and governments at all levels.

So, Be yourself! We now have DNA and the Mormons to help us find out who that is.

Stay Vigilant! Stay Involved!

Friday, January 25, 2013

THE "WHITE" PARTY ??

The "New" Republicans??

The fractious Republican Party, in its death throes caused by a Repoob invasion, is moving swiftly to "reform", not their party, but the nation's electoral system! They're throwing in the towel! After the dismal performance of "Mitt and Miss Anne", they've decided that they don't have enough whites to win elections any more.

So, what to do? The party still has a significant base in the state houses. The state legislatures are the seat of the electors who elect our President in national elections. It is the responsibility of the state governors, under our Constitution, to protect the electoral rights of their citizens. BUT THEY DON'T HAVE TO RESPECT THE CHOICES OF THEIR CITIZENS. Hence, the Republicans, in the "battleground" states, are moving to change the "winner-take-all" distribution of electoral votes in those states where the most voters are. The Republicans want to win without being the choice or the voice of the majority of voters.

Their rationale parallels their logic in the abortion battles they have waged over the past several decades. The party has no respect or regard for persons who are not white. They have demonstrated through their "lawn jockeys" their ability to "buy" non-whites to help them with their efforts to suppress the numbers, desires, and voices of non-white persons. There are many names that spring to mind, but Clarence Thomas is exhibit "A"; both, for enabling the rise of "W" and Cheney in 2000 and for Tea Party shenanigans to undermine President Obama and our Health Care Law. The interests of Republicans are the interests of "whites"; whether it's more white babies or white voters!

The Republican path arose from the death of the Whigs before our Civil War; proceeded to their "switch" to the segregationist Democrats under Nixon; and to their Tea Party incarnation today.

Keep peeping behind the curtain! These wackies are up nights plotting new ways to steal control of this country.

Stay Vigilant! Stay Involved!