28 December 2008
07 December 2008
A Word From Top Gunn Bartending
The Answer Lies Within My Friends
The Secret To Being Black and Succeeding in America
A Resolved Question:
Why do some successful black people get so much negative attention from the black and white community?
Sometimes when a black person gets a good education, finds a good job and success, the black community accuses them of acting white. Why is that? Take Michelle Obama for example, she's a smart, well-educated strong black woman. I've heard some black people say she acts white. Which is weird because Michelle Obama seems like she LOVES to be black, although there's nothing wrong with that. But the fact that she has so much pride in her race and doesn't forget where she comes from makes white people accuse her of being racist.
by ericktra...
Member since:
October 14, 2006
Total points:
10512 (Level 6)
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker
This is a misconception that you seem to have and that some racists want you to believe. The Obamas are very respected in the black community and very few people would call them sell outs. To understand this issue you have to go back to the root of the problem.
From the very beginning black culture was looked down upon as inferior and it was ridiculed...
This was necessary in order to justify the racism and oppression that was going on at the time!!! By dehumanizing blacks slavery became justified and racism was seen as acceptable. What did this do to black people? It created a sense of self loathing and a need to break away from one's black identity. A lot of black people felt the need to do anything possible to avoid been identified as black this meant...change speech patterns, changing clothing patterns, changing religion and sometimes even changing physical attributes.
They did everything they could to appear more acceptable to the whites even at the cost of denying their own identity as black people. This is why even today blacks are suspicious.
Been successful has nothing to do with race but in America being successful was always seen as an exclusive attribute of whites. Blacks were seldom expected to be successful and those that made it were viewed as unique exceptions.
What we as a race need to do is find pride in our identity and break away from white expectation! They are not the ones that determine our futures and we should strive to be successful while mantaning a strong cultural identity instead of trying to satisfy white expectations. Until we do that we will never really be free.
This was all discussed 3 months ago - relevant then, relevant now, relevant always.
And the answer the asker was looking for:
Asker's Comment: You're absolutely right.
Is this what you are searching for? Find your answer here, now.
09 November 2008
Vacation In African Lands - today's feature place: Asilah, Morocco
Shedding What’s Shabby at a Moroccan Port
Asilah had become rundown, but an annual arts festival has helped revive and clean up the town.
IT was a crisp Sunday afternoon, and the narrow terrace of Casa Garcia, a small seafood restaurant in the Moroccan port town of Asilah, exuded a rarefied air. Fashionable Moroccans in big designer sunglasses feasted on grilled fish, while a party of British women exchanged air kisses. All around, waiters in white jackets and skinny black bow ties weaved between the white-tableclothed tables, serving bottles of chilled white wine and luscious bowls of fresh cla
While such scenes of glamour have burnished Asilah’s reputation as a stylish playground for North Africa’s elite, it wasn’t long ago that this ancient fortified port, about 30 miles south of Tangier along the balmy Atlantic Ocean, suffered from obscurity.
Moroccan guidebooks written before the late 1970s only mentioned Asilah in passing, usually as a curiosity. But in the last few years, Asilah’s medina has become a clandestine getaway for Moroccan and European jet-setters who hide behind the thick carved doors of their exotic holiday homes, lounging on electric-blue roof terraces with a book in one hand and a cocktail in the other.
Much of the turnaround can be traced to 1978, when two local friends — Mohammed Benaissa, a photographer and diplomat, and Mohammed Melehi, an artist and curator — came up with the idea of inviting artists to paint murals on the town’s peeling walls. That grew into a summer-long arts festival, with flamenco concerts, design exhibitions and poetry readings, that attracts artists and fans from throughout the Middle East and the West.
The festival, the International Cultural Moussem of Asilah, is today among North Africa’s biggest cultural gatherings, drawing more than 100,000 people as diverse as Berber artists, Saudi Arabian royalty and Japanese collectors. For two months starting in July, Asilah is like Park City during the Sundance Film Festival: a small town suddenly swarming with a sophisticated mix of artists and world travelers looking to mingle and celebrate. Hotels as far as Tangier are booked solid months in advance, as are the Islamic and Andalusian courtyard homes in the medina. They came this year to hear the Syrian vocalist Waed Bouhassoun and a rare performance by female Sufi chanters from the mountainous region near Chefchaouen and to meet artists like the Moroccan painter Farid Belkahia and the Japanese painter Mizue Sawano.
Not bad for a shared dream of two childhood friends from Asilah. Before the festival, the town’s walls were crumbling and the medina was plagued by garbage and indifference. Now, Asilah is considered among the cleanest cities in Morocco.
The brilliant white medina was even honored with the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 1989. Restored gems include the Palace of Culture, a fortlike building with green windows, a dazzling performance hall and opulent suites where visiting artists are put up during the festival. And adding to the town’s new look are the colorful murals, splattered on nearly every corner and replenished each year by a new wave of festival artists.
But Asilah’s charms aren’t confined to the festival. When I arrived last May, the town felt like a sailboat calmly adrift. Battered blue-and-white fishing boats bobbed off a pier. A donkey cart clattered along a freshly swept alleys, followed by groups of Spanish tourists and Moroccan teenagers in head scarves singing a playful Arabic chant.
In the mornings, the sounds of waves drifted over the restored 15th-century ramparts, mixing with the rhythmic tones of streets being swept and the scent of freshly baked bread. By late morning, the action moved toward the wide golden beaches. On a warm Friday, a small group of boys played soccer on the packed sand. Nearby a clutch of young girls squealed as they played and threw one another into the cold water. Otherwise, the beaches were empty and seemed to stretch all the way to Tangier.
Those looking for even more solitude can travel a half-mile down the shoreline. One afternoon I asked a local guide to drive me to Paradise Beach, a cliff-lined cove about 30 minutes away along a bumpy dirt track. We arrived at sundown, just as the light became the color of honey and the sun’s fading colors bled into the horizon. My guide pointed out that during the festival, the beach is covered with tents and food shacks. Now, there were only three people.
But while Asilah is a place to ponder and read a good book in the off-season, it’s also not a bad place to shop. Unlike the souks of Marrakesh and Fez, where one goes dizzy from the sheer volume of things for sale, Asilah only has a dozen handicraft shops, but each is smartly edited and somewhat unusual.
One could spend hours alone in Alkamra, a veritable Ali Baba cave filled with treasures that its owner, Mohammed Aziz Acharoui, gathers from throughout North Africa. Recent items included fierce wooden facemasks, primitive still-life paintings on glass and a necklace with golf ball-size chunks of fire-orange coral and turquoise.
Mr. Acharoui also has two huge storerooms just outside the medina, where he keeps large objects like bronze fountains for a coterie of international designers and collectors.
Back in the medina, Bazar Atlas has an excellent selection of old Berber carpets and Tamegroute ceramics from the Atlas Mountains. One regular clients is Françoise Dorget, a designer who owns Caravane in Paris, which carries Moroccan-inspired furnishings. Ms. Dorget first came to Asilah 20 years ago and was struck by what she called the “Paul Klee-like jumble of geometric forms.”
She continues to visit often — and not just to shop. Working with local artisans, Ms. Dorget has transformed several old buildings in the medina into chic holiday homes. But despite Asilah’s rising cache, there are surprisingly no hotels within the medina. Mr. Benaissa, the mayor since 1983, has restricted development inside the ancient walls. But that is changing.
The town recently gave Tomás Alía, a Madrid designer, permission to open the first hotel inside the medina. Scheduled for December, the Dar el Amal will have seven luxury suites, a rooftop terrace with ocean views and groovy modern Moroccan interiors.
Mr. Alía said he’ll give a glamorous party to celebrate the opening, complete with an international guest list, Andalusian music and djellabas. But after that he’ll keep the vibe low-key. Like Asilah itself, he’d prefer that the Dar el Amal be kept a well-guarded secret.
GETTING OFF THE MARRAKESH EXPRESS
GETTING THERE
From the United States, fly into Tangier and then drive the 30 miles to Asilah. Royal Air Maroc flies from Kennedy Airport in New York to Tangier, with a plane change in Casablanca, for $1,700 round trip travel in mid-August, according to a recent online search.
WHERE TO STAY
Until the Dar el Amal hotel opens in December, staying inside the medina means renting a house. There are more than 30 vacation houses listed on Homelidays (http://www.homelidays.com/), an online rental agency based in Paris. Recent offerings included Dar Malak (No. 45628), a three-bedroom house that faces the sea, with housekeeper and chef, for 600 to 900 euros a week, or about $920 to $1,380 at $1.53 to the euro. A four-bedroom house (No. 74511) with sea views and large terraces was 800 to 1,600 euros a week, depending on the season.
For an affordable hotel outside the medina, try the seven-room Hotel Patio de la Luna (Plaza Zelaka 12; 212-39-416-074; http://www.patiodelaluna.com/). The backpacker-friendly spot has a tiny courtyard and simple tiled rooms starting at 450 dirhams, about $55 at 7.96 dirhams to the dollar.
WHERE TO EAT
Two of the best restaurants in Asilah are outside the medina and specialize in seafood: Casa Garcia (Rue Moulay Hassan Ben el Mehdi 51; 212-39-417-465) and Casa Pepe (Plaza Zelaka 8; 212- 39-417-395).
WHERE TO SHOP
Bazar Atlas (Rue Tijara 25; 212-39-417-864) sells old Berber carpets, textiles and ceramics from the village of Tamegroute.
Sparkly and colorful modern Moroccan slippers line the walls at Tienda de Velas Bellas (Calle Sid M Barek).
Alkamra (Rue de Commerce 10-12; 212-39-416-288) sells one-of-a-kind antiques, including coral necklaces and still-life paintings.
The Aplanos Art Gallery (Rue Tijara 89; 212-39-417-486; http://www.aplanosart.blogspot.com/) carries a mix of old maps and artwork on paper.
The Hakim gallery (Sidi Benaissa 14; 212-61-799-535) features drawings by local artists.
10 October 2008
Decision 2008 Rocks!
For that matter, talk 'bout Hillary!!
07 October 2008
As We Go Into The Final Stretch, A Question Remains
“Can America reject the crucible of race that has dictated and pervaded all of our history to embrace an African-American man who has the right policies?” he said. “We will find out.”
It has become the litmus test that now must be taken, or at least in 28 days.
06 October 2008
Reheated in the Microwave: Op-ed Piece Worth Reading
Aaron Sorkin Conjures a Meeting of Obama and Bartlet
Now that he’s finally fired up on the soup-line economy, Barack Obama knows he can’t fade out again. He was eager to talk privately to a Democratic ex-president who could offer more fatherly wisdom — not to mention a surreptitious smoke — and less fraternal rivalry. I called the “West Wing” creator Aaron Sorkin (yes, truly) to get a read-out of the meeting. This is what he wrote:
BARACK OBAMA knocks on the front door of a 300-year-old New Hampshire farmhouse while his Secret Service detail waits in the driveway. The door opens and OBAMA is standing face to face with former President JED BARTLET.
BARTLET Senator.
OBAMA Mr. President.
BARTLET You seem startled.
OBAMA I didn’t expect you to answer the door yourself.
BARTLET I didn’t expect you to be getting beat by John McCain and a Lancôme rep who thinks “The Flintstones” was based on a true story, so let’s call it even.
OBAMA Yes, sir.
BARTLET Come on in.
BARTLET leads OBAMA into his study.
BARTLET That was a hell of a convention.
OBAMA Thank you, I was proud of it.
BARTLET I meant the Republicans. The Us versus Them-a-thon. As a Democrat I was surprised to learn that I don’t like small towns, God, people with jobs or America. I’ve been a little out of touch but is there a mandate that the vice president be skilled at field dressing a moose —
OBAMA Look —
BARTLET — and selling Air Force Two on eBay?
OBAMA Joke all you want, Mr. President, but it worked.
BARTLET Imagine my surprise. What can I do for you, kid?
OBAMA I’m interested in your advice.
BARTLET I can’t give it to you.
OBAMA Why not?
BARTLET I’m supporting McCain.
OBAMA Why?
BARTLET He’s promised to eradicate evil and that was always on my “to do” list.
OBAMA O.K. —
BARTLET And he’s surrounded himself, I think, with the best possible team to get us out of an economic crisis. Why, Sarah Palin just said Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had “gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers.” Can you spot the error in that statement?
OBAMA Yes, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac aren’t funded by taxpayers.
BARTLET Well, at least they are now. Kind of reminds you of the time Bush said that Social Security wasn’t a government program. He was only off by a little — Social Security is the largest government program.
OBAMA I appreciate your sense of humor, sir, but I really could use your advice.
BARTLET Well, it seems to me your problem is a lot like the problem I had twice.
OBAMA Which was?
BARTLET A huge number of Americans thought I thought I was superior to them.
OBAMA And?
BARTLET I was.
OBAMA I mean, how did you overcome that?
BARTLET I won’t lie to you, being fictional was a big advantage.
OBAMA What do you mean?
BARTLET I’m a fictional president. You’re dreaming right now, Senator.
OBAMA I’m asleep?
BARTLET Yes, and you’re losing a ton of white women.
OBAMA Yes, sir.
BARTLET I mean tons.
OBAMA I understand.
BARTLET I didn’t even think there were that many white women.
OBAMA I see the numbers, sir. What do they want from me?
BARTLET I’ve been married to a white woman for 40 years and I still don’t know what she wants from me.
OBAMA How did you do it?
BARTLET Well, I say I’m sorry a lot.
OBAMA I don’t mean your marriage, sir. I mean how did you get America on your side?
BARTLET There again, I didn’t have to be president of America, I just had to be president of the people who watched “The West Wing.”
OBAMA That would make it easier.
BARTLET You’d do very well on NBC. Thursday nights in the old “ER” time slot with “30 Rock” as your lead-in, you’d get seven, seven-five in the demo with a 20, 22 share — you’d be selling $450,000 minutes.
OBAMA What the hell does that mean?
BARTLET TV talk. I thought you’d be interested.
OBAMA I’m not. They pivoted off the argument that I was inexperienced to the criticism that I’m — wait for it — the Messiah, who, by the way, was a community organizer. When I speak I try to lead with inspiration and aptitude. How is that a liability?
BARTLET Because the idea of American exceptionalism doesn’t extend to Americans being exceptional. If you excelled academically and are able to casually use 690 SAT words then you might as well have the press shoot video of you giving the finger to the Statue of Liberty while the Dixie Chicks sing the University of the Taliban fight song. The people who want English to be the official language of the United States are uncomfortable with their leaders being fluent in it.
OBAMA You’re saying race doesn’t have anything to do with it?
BARTLET I wouldn’t go that far. Brains made me look arrogant but they make you look uppity. Plus, if you had a black daughter —
OBAMA I have two.
BARTLET — who was 17 and pregnant and unmarried and the father was a teenager hoping to launch a rap career with “Thug Life” inked across his chest, you’d come in fifth behind Bob Barr, Ralph Nader and a ficus.
OBAMA You’re not cheering me up.
BARTLET Is that what you came here for?
OBAMA No, but it wouldn’t kill you.
BARTLET Have you tried doing a two-hour special or a really good Christmas show?
OBAMA Sir —
BARTLET Hang on. Home run. Right here. Is there any chance you could get Michelle pregnant before the fall sweeps?
OBAMA The problem is we can’t appear angry. Bush called us the angry left. Did you see anyone in Denver who was angry?
BARTLET Well ... let me think. ...We went to war against the wrong country, Osama bin Laden just celebrated his seventh anniversary of not being caught either dead or alive, my family’s less safe than it was eight years ago, we’ve lost trillions of dollars, millions of jobs, thousands of lives and we lost an entire city due to bad weather. So, you know ... I’m a little angry.
OBAMA What would you do?
BARTLET GET ANGRIER! Call them liars, because that’s what they are. Sarah Palin didn’t say “thanks but no thanks” to the Bridge to Nowhere. She just said “Thanks.” You were raised by a single mother on food stamps — where does a guy with eight houses who was legacied into Annapolis get off calling you an elitist? And by the way, if you do nothing else, take that word back. Elite is a good word, it means well above average. I’d ask them what their problem is with excellence. While you’re at it, I want the word “patriot” back. McCain can say that the transcendent issue of our time is the spread of Islamic fanaticism or he can choose a running mate who doesn’t know the Bush doctrine from the Monroe Doctrine, but he can’t do both at the same time and call it patriotic. They have to lie — the truth isn’t their friend right now. Get angry. Mock them mercilessly; they’ve earned it. McCain decried agents of intolerance, then chose a running mate who had to ask if she was allowed to ban books from a public library. It’s not bad enough she thinks the planet Earth was created in six days 6,000 years ago complete with a man, a woman and a talking snake, she wants schools to teach the rest of our kids to deny geology, anthropology, archaeology and common sense too? It’s not bad enough she’s forcing her own daughter into a loveless marriage to a teenage hood, she wants the rest of us to guide our daughters in that direction too? It’s not enough that a woman shouldn’t have the right to choose, it should be the law of the land that she has to carry and deliver her rapist’s baby too? I don’t know whether or not Governor Palin has the tenacity of a pit bull, but I know for sure she’s got the qualifications of one. And you’re worried about seeming angry? You could eat their lunch, make them cry and tell their mamas about it and God himself would call it restrained. There are times when you are simply required to be impolite. There are times when condescension is called for!
OBAMA Good to get that off your chest?
BARTLET Am I keeping you from something?
OBAMA Well, it’s not as if I didn’t know all of that and it took you like 20 minutes to say.
BARTLET I know, I have a problem, but admitting it is the first step.
OBAMA What’s the second step?
BARTLET I don’t care.
OBAMA So what about hope? Chuck it for outrage and put-downs?
BARTLET No. You’re elite, you can do both. Four weeks ago you had the best week of your campaign, followed — granted, inexplicably — by the worst week of your campaign. And you’re still in a statistical dead heat. You’re a 47-year-old black man with a foreign-sounding name who went to Harvard and thinks devotion to your country and lapel pins aren’t the same thing and you’re in a statistical tie with a war hero and a Cinemax heroine. To these aged eyes, Senator, that’s what progress looks like. You guys got four debates. Get out of my house and go back to work.
OBAMA Wait, what is it you always used to say? When you hit a bump on the show and your people were down and frustrated? You’d give them a pep talk and then you’d always end it with something. What was it ...?
BARTLET “Break’s over.”
05 August 2008
This Story So Proves The Deviant Nature, Doesn't it?
Police: Pa. man kidnaps, rapes teen; shots fired
ALLENTOWN, Pa. - A man who once described his interests as serial murder and rape took a 14-year-old girl from her home at gunpoint early Tuesday, raped her at a motel in the Poconos, then opened fire on police as they tried to arrest him, authorities said.
Derek Bengtsson, 27, of East Stroudsburg, was charged with attempted homicide, rape, kidnapping and other counts after surrendering to authorities at the Budget Host Inn shortly after 9 a.m.
Bengtsson kidnapped the girl around 1:20 a.m. and drove her to the 54-room motel in Stroudsburg, where he shackled and raped her, police said. Bengtsson eventually fell asleep and the victim managed to escape and call police.
State police said the tall, burly, bearded suspect fired at least four shots at officers from Stroud Area Regional Police Department as they broke down the door to his motel room, and that one officer became pinned down in a bathroom. No one was hit.
"The fact that he fired, it was pretty unbelievable that no one was hurt," said state police Trooper Robert Sebastianelli.
Police said the victim knew her attacker but declined to provide more detail about their relationship.
A MySpace page evidently belonging to Bengtsson lists his interests as "Poker, serial murder, rape, torture, etc." Among his heroes, according to the site: "child molesters" and serial killer Ted Bundy. Sebastianelli said police were examining the page.
After his arraignment, Bengtsson was sent to the Monroe County Correctional Facility on $500,000 bail. It wasn't clear if he had an attorney.
The girl told police that Bengtsson had gone into her bedroom, showed her a handgun and said, "If you don't come with me, bad things are going to happen." She said he threatened to kill everyone in the house if she didn't follow his instructions, according to a police affidavit.
Bengtsson drove her in her mother's car about 10 miles to the motel, where he took her into a room, locked the door behind them and barricaded it with chairs, police said. Then he gave her two options: She could kill him or have sex with him, police said. She refused and he raped her, documents said.
Bengtsson also showed her a note that she later took with her and gave to police.
The note said, in part: "Yes, I took her. And as long as you play by my rules, She will come back unharmed and breathing. However, Failure to abide by the rules will result in a bullet put in her head. My Rules: Do NOTHING! Sit there in silence and SUFFER."
It wasn't clear to whom the note was addressed.
19 July 2008
David Paterson Speaks Out On Today's Racism
Paterson, at N.A.A.C.P., Warns of Racism’s Power
By JEREMY W. PETERS
Published: July 18, 2008
CINCINNATI — David A. Paterson, in his first major speech to a national
audience since becoming governor of New York, said on Thursday that even as
black Americans rejoice about the possibility that Senator Barack Obama
could become president, they cannot lose sight of the serious social and
economic ills that plague their community and should remain mindful of the
racism that still exists.
“The gap between the haves and have-nots right in our own community is
wider than it has ever been before,” Mr. Paterson told a crowd of thousands
at the N.A.A.C.P.’s annual convention here.
“No matter how prosperous we are, no matter how well heeled we may be, no
matter how ambitious and successful we have been, we still can be cast
under the same net regardless of our circumstances.”
Mr. Paterson, who is New York’s first black governor and only the third
black man since Reconstruction to lead a state, addressed the convention as
the intersection between race and politics in the United States appears
especially fraught. Recent polls have shown that whites and blacks hold
very different views of Mr. Obama, and that despite the senator’s
candidacy, blacks do not believe that race relations have significantly
improved.
Addressing those fissures in his speech, the governor said that he was not
sure whether Americans would be able to put their differences aside in this
election and support Mr. Obama.
“Can America reject the crucible of race that has dictated and pervaded all
of our history to embrace an African-American man who has the right
policies?” he said. “We will find out.”
The speech demonstrated how Mr. Paterson, a 54-year-old Harlem Democrat who
never experienced the days of segregated lunch counters but still felt the
sting of discrimination during his Long Island boyhood, has taken lessons
from the civil rights struggle of his parents’ generation and melded them
with the experiences of his and younger generations of blacks, who he said
too often play down racism’s lingering taint.
“This is why the Jewish community has the motto, ‘Never again,’ ” Mr.
Paterson said in an interview after his speech, as he rode in a car through
downtown Cincinnati. “There are those who, if they had their way, would
return us to an era of separate but equal.”
Mr. Paterson’s speech was interrupted repeatedly by applause and
enthusiastic cries of “Yes we can!” the common refrain of Mr. Obama’s
supporters. His trip to Cincinnati was part of an effort by his advisers to
raise his profile, and after he spoke at the convention he gave interviews
to National Public Radio and MSNBC, among other media.
Mr. Paterson said he often felt pulled between two generations of black
Americans: those who grew up fighting for civil rights and those who grew
up benefiting from their parents’ victories. He said that he understood
where the complacency that some younger blacks feel about civil rights
comes from, but that he thinks it borders on ignorance.
“The struggle was clear in that generation,” he said. “If you sit in the
back of the bus, you know you’re in the back of the bus. If there’s a
‘whites only’ sign, you know you can’t go in.” But coming of age in the
1970s, as he did, when racism was less pervasive than in the first half of
the 20th century, some of his peers lost perspective, Mr. Paterson said.
“What you had were a number of people who thought this struggle didn’t
affect them,” he said. “They were the beneficiaries of it. And the fact
that they could be comfortable saying such ignorant things is a testament
to how far we’ve actually come.”
As easy as he had it compared with his parents, Mr. Paterson said he still
encountered some painful instances of discrimination as a boy, which serve
as a reminder to him that bias will never truly fade away. He attended
grade school on Long Island because the New York City schools did not teach
blind students outside of special education. He was one of the first black
students to enroll at his elementary school in Hempstead.
One afternoon when a white friend invited him over to play, a neighbor
unaccustomed to seeing black children in the neighborhood accused him of
destroying her flower pots, he said. Mr. Paterson said his friend’s mother
rose to his defense, saying that he had been in the house the entire time.
The neighbor responded, according to Mr. Paterson, “You bring them in this
neighborhood, and then you don’t want to take responsibility for them.”
Mr. Paterson’s views on discrimination have been shaped by the fact that he
is both black and legally blind. He said one of the most painful
experiences he had with discrimination came from a black businessman who
refused to hire him because of his blindness.
“That’s when I realized this is kind of a universal problem that exists,
this fear of the unknown, fear of others displaying difference,” he said.
That experience persuaded him to start imploring fellow blacks to examine
their own attitudes about prejudice, he said. “What I could try to be was a
symbol of the resistance,” he said, “but also one who would point this out
internally in our own community.”
And on Thursday, he seemed to draw on that lesson as he asked black
Americans to remember the gulf between prosperous and poor: “How are some
of us, who have many times been luckier than we have been good, going to
help those who unfortunately haven’t been able to receive prosperity as we
have?”
14 July 2008
Ungawa, Black Powah - Now On Newsstands Near You!
As he flies around the country, Senator Barack Obama has a fondness for magazines. The New Yorker is often among the titles at the front of his campaign plane.
The July 21 issue of The New Yorker, though, is not likely to make it on board.
The cover of the magazine depicts Mr. Obama wearing a turban, while he offers a fist bump to his gun-toting wife. An American flag singes behind them in the fireplace, Osama bin Laden sits prominently on the mantle wall.
Asked about the drawing at a news conference here Sunday, Mr. Obama held his tongue, saying: “I have no response to that.” A campaign spokesman, though, was not so measured at a sketch that the magazine calls satirical: “The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Senator Obama’s right-wing critics have tried to create,” the spokesman, Bill Burton, said in a statement. “But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive –- and we agree.”
The issue is common sense - we don't dispute the historical use of satire on the cover of the New Yorker, and in fact as satire I know, understand and appreciate what they were trying to say and what and how they were trying to say it. I don't think people think the New Yorker was being racist. It's just common sense to expect these intellectuals to use common sense and not run tasteless satire, no less than a comedian should be telling tasteless jokes, especially in the wrong forum. This was just such a forum. Too sensitive an issue, although sometimes it's better to get up in your face and speak the truth. I just don't think this was the place.
In closing, however, I like the picture. The thought of Black Powah finally redecorating the White House is scintillating!
Vertical Farms - An Urban Answer to the Food Crisis
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| Gordon Graff COWS AND PLOWS? Prototype designs for vertical farms, a concept created in 1999 by Dickson Despommier of Columbia and his graduate students. |
08 July 2008
Smackdown - Camelot 2008 v. Camelot 1960
In 1960, America was coming through a new era, with new challenges as the Cold War accelerated past the old threats of fascism and the Nazis, and eventual Nuclear War with the Soviet Union or China seemed imminent. But it was also all about the new age, a new look for America, and a beautiful First Family that spawned a new American empire. As that era of our history comes to a close, a new post-9/11 era ushers in a new look again for America, with newer threats like the War on Terror which now eclispes the old Cold War threats. And it too is also about the new age, a new look for America, and a beautiful First Family that hopefully will spawn a new American global community of peace. Above is the look of that family.
And here's a look at that new family that ushered in the previous modern era:
Note the similarities, almost as if they were reincarnated. Also note little Carolyn in this picture. She's now a kingmaker for Barack. Hey, who knew?
What irony. What destiny. Carolyn truly gets it. I think it's safe to say this is what mom and dad would have wanted.
Cultural comparisons of the two Camelots:
1960 - Chubby Checker, Elvis (let's do the twist)
2008 - Radiohead, Lil Wayne (lollipop girl)
1960 - meatloaf, cabbage, Uncle Ben's rice, green beans - courtesy A&P
2008 - free range chicken, arugula salad, hummus w/garlic - courtesy Whole Foods
1960 - Ford, Oldsmobile, Cadillac, Studebaker
2008 - Toyota, Mercedes, BMW, Lexus
1960 - Waldorf Astoria
2008 - The W
1960 - 25" Color console TV in a prominent corner of the living room
2008 - 42" HDTV flatscreen on the wall
1960 - Hi-test premium 98 octane for the V8
2008 - Ethanol biofuels for the hybrid
1960 - reefers
2008 - estacy
1960 - Greyhound
2008 - JetBlue
1960 - Marilyn Monroe (now dead)
2008 - Scarlett Johanssen (now off the market)
1960 - Canadian Club, Manechewitz Cream White Concord
2008 - Grey Goose, Frances Ford Coppola Malbec
Y'know what they say - some things change. What they forgot to say is, some things will never stay the same. But what we now know is, some things just get reincarnated. Or as we say in 2008, recycled, and go green.
All The President's Kids
wonder how they'll like living and playing there? will it be interesting to see a house where almost all the pictures are of old white folks who were in the positions of their mom and dad now? are there any pictures of Martin or Malcolm or Harriet or Mary McCloud Bethune there? or Angela Davis or Shirley Chisholm? aren't these the building blocks of people to which mom and dad owe their rise to supremacy? perhaps a picture of former Illinois Senator Carolyn Mosley Braun, dad's predecessor, would be an appropriate decorative upgrade to the house. hopefully Condi and Colin have portraits there already.
in any event, they'll be the pinnacle of 400 years of progress for a people kidnapped from their homes, enslaved for centuries, denied their freedom both before and after emancipation, and still struggling to get there. they'll be the pinnacle of all that black people have overcome.
07 July 2008
Virginia-Class Submarine is the New Y2K Threat
This sub can start its own war, whether it be a cold one or a terror one. It can hear, see and touch its opponent in so many ways: multiple high-range sonar arrays, plastic-celluouse-metal sensor skin, pivot-coil nuclear turbines with sound deflector sonar, a mini-sub, a pressure hatch designed for special forces missions, and the HD masts that replace periscopes.
Michelle loves the new sub. She says it's OK to use it to "blow all them crazy mutha-fuckas away if necessary", but "does not endorse this message". [this is a satirical quote by Michelle Obama, not an actual quote] She definitively supports the use of the sub to increase national security, and also endorses its use as a great concert platform for the world's first underwater concert in a sub since Yellow Submarine, with the concert featuring tastefully classic acts like Amy Winehouse, Pete Simmons, Jay-Z, Li'l Wayne (that Lollipop buzz sound should drive the sonars crazy), Rihanna, John Mayer, Snoop Dogg, Coldplay and Radiohead, with worldwide simulcasts using the new high-tech masts in HD. As she eloquently notes, "This concert'll be on! It'll be F--ing mod, baby"!
Michelle's sooo cool, sorta like Jackie Kennedy resurrected, but with a black woman's ass. I like that - the real deal. I wonder if that's an Oleg Cassini or Oscar de la Renta she's wearing. Ahh but this is 2008, not 1960. More likely a Versace or Anne Klein. Or maybe Baby Phat. Definitely she would be the most elegant First Lady we've had since Jackie (sorry Hillary & Laura, you dress OK but not this good). And probably the most saucy, too.
A nubian Jackie O - an American Nefertiti - imagine that. An excellent close to the old millenium of colonialism and the dawn of the new millenium of equality.
29 June 2008
Obama the New Harold Ford Jr - Fear of a Revolutionary Interracial Planet
TPM Reader HW peels back the layers on Rove's comment about Obama being "the guy at the country club with the beautiful date":
I was watching Olbermann's coverage of the Karl Rove comments the other night, and I've read other accounts, and I have this sense that too many in the media and the blogging left have missed Rove's point. You touched on it "Uppity Watch," but I'm not sure you unpacked it the way it needs to be.The key to Rove's exposition about Obama at the country club isn't the silliness of placing an African-American at a country club because of the fact that so many country clubs largely or completely or just historically exclude African-Americans. That's the way its been picked up by most bloggers and the media, and its obvious, but its not the importance of the comment, and I don't believe Rove's juxtaposition of the African-American Obama at a country club was just a clumsy attempt to paint Obama as a type of elitist contrary to his background.
The key to the statement is that in the image he is with "a beautiful date." Not Michelle Obama or, in the abstract, his wife, i.e. a wife like Michelle Obama. When you think of a "beautiful date" specifically at a country club, do you picture an African-American woman? Would Rove's target audience? Or do you picture him there, a black man, smoking a cigarette indoors at a country club, with a white woman on his arm?
When I thought of this, I got a chill. When you think of Obama's vulnerability, I think the primaries showed that race remains a real and very serious obstacle, particularly with white Americans over 50. When you think of where we are with racism in this country, I think its a pretty safe bet that the final freak-out factor to overcome may be black men dating white women, in particular, one's daughter. If I were a completely amoral Republican operative, I'd try to find some white women that Obama dated before Michelle and get them into the public's stream of consciousness anyway I could. Its a tactic so vile I don't even like speculating about it, but if you want to be ready for the worst, I think Rove just tipped his hand at where they plan to go.
Power To The People!!!
17 May 2008
Not Guilty - For No Reason At All
In Philadelphia yesterday, a judge praised 2 robbery suspects for NOT using a gun while attempting to rob a convenience store. In a city where the last 3 police officers killed in cold blood were all during robberies, this supposed jurist praises robbers because they didn't use guns? Whoa!
I'm not always in agreement with the Gestapo-like big-city police forces of our great country, but in this case the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police, as well as the Department, were right-on in their repudiation of such actions by this judge. Philadelphia's crime rate, the danger of its streets these days, is not just because of the knuckleheads running amok with guns. It's to an equal degree the fault of judges who fail to administer punishment for crimes (albeit at a staggering penal system cost nationwide) that should be prosecuted. Too many of these criminals are being let back on the street waaaay too easy by lenient judges. Not that hard-nose judges help either - they are heavily responsible for the repeat offenders out there too - but just giving a pass to robbers is not the way to go just because they didn't use a piece.
We have a system that has strains at many ends. Not enough jails, but too many jails with people incarcerated within without rehabilitation for better citizenship when released. Not enough police, but too many Nazis on our police force using excessive force where it is not needed. A court system that is backlogged with cases, but judges who are assholes and too high on their own almighty sense of power, often as politically motivated as personally gratified, to do what is really right instead of what they feel like doing on any given day. That is, when they are not taking bribes and fixing cases. And of course in between their 3-hour lunches and their shopping sprees (I know - I used to clerk for one).
Sure the criminals are bad. But only as bad as the system lets them be.
30 April 2008
Don't Get Mad Masta Whitey - We's Good Niggas!
Like I said, I barfed. I like Mika and Joe, watch them all the time. Joe is probably one of the most likable Repubs I know, a once prodigy of the Newt Gingrich cultural revolution legislature of the late 1990s. And Mika, daugher of Zbrignev Brizinski, Jimmy Carter's National Security Advisor, is just sweet, cute and very open-minded about things. And the Reverend sounds like he's probably a hip dad from listening to him.
But, it all sounds soooo familiar, like in early 1960s familiar, when other respectable members of the black community, the black elite of that time, also were sought out by journalists and news media to denounce the rants and raves of another Reverend, as well as a couple of other religious figures of the time, saying they were madmen, abominations, and threatening the well-being in this country of good, God-fearing, love-America Negroes. They too were castigated, thrown under the bus, by these respectable men and women.
As we all know by now, with respect to those leaders, namely Dr. Martin Luther King, Malik el-Haaj Al Shabazz (you white boys, or in his case you devils, know him as Malcolm X), Adam Clayton Powell (whitey did their best to throw him under the bus of Congress by not seating him after winning re-election in 1967; it didn't work) and others, THEY WERE DEAD WRONG. Those leaders, and their then-controversial views, are the standard by which most if not all of Americans live by today. When Malcolm X noted that the violence that America perpetrates around the world would come back and hit us (i.e. "chickens coming home to roost") we found out in spades (no pun intended) on September 11, 2oo1. Americans of all races claim to revere the courage, strength and words of Dr. King in so many ways and examples. Adam Clayton Powell paved the way for the powerful Charlie Rangels, David Pattersons, and possibly the Barack Obamas.
To now hold that a Reverend Wright, as controversial as he may be and damaging to Barack's campaign, does not enunciate the frustrations Black America still feels, as they sit and watch today's news, about how 3 cops were aquitted for shooting 50 bullets at an unarmed Sean Bell in New York, about how black defendants in Texas, the most incarcerated state in America and most of the world, get the death penalty 30% more likely than whites, to hear that Katrina victims, most of whom are black, after getting the shaft on federal relief for 3 years, may owe money back because of some private contractor, to continue to earn 58 cents to a white man's dollar, is hypocritical BULLSHIT, ma'brotha. It smacks of a time when you were cowering to white power, instead of speaking truth to power. Martin understood that. Malcolm understood that. They had the courage so many of us all lack, to speak out. That's why they're dead.
Fearful blacks will live long, but will not prosper. A Profile in Courage to stand tall and face the truth may die in body, but never in spirit.
29 April 2008
Rove's Up To Mischeif - AGAIN!
He just can't help himself, it's his game. And obviously fascinated in the project like his own chess board, Rove is trying to steer his train through the wreck again by giving some free advice to Barack Obama. In his latest Newsweek column, he tells the Illinois senator that his once-strong candidacy has gotten weaker, commenting "you're making mistakes and making people worry."
Rove has previously used his column space in Newsweek and the Wall Street Journal to dole out advice to the candidates. He is now arguing the salient point for most whites, specifically that the uproar over his former pastor's remarks and Obama's comments about some small town Americans has "reinforced the growing sense you don't share Middle America's values. He also cites Obama's comments about flag pins and his relationship with 1960's radical Bill Ayers as evidence Obama is out of touch with ordinary Americans.
But the longtime Republican political strategist offers Obama six suggestions for how he can reignite his presidential campaign, starting with shaking up his stump speech, which he says sounds "old and out of touch."
Personally, on this I agree with Rove. The 'yes we can' speech needs more nourishment. I finished the appetizer and the table has been cleared. Where's the beef? I need it now.
Rove also suggests Obama sharpen his repudiation of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's controversial sermons, pledge to name specific Republicans to his administration, and spend more time back in the Senate to burnish his chops as legislator. Obama, Rove says, also needs to stop responding to Clinton's attacks and offer more concrete policy proposals.
On these points, Obama should follow suit in this order: (1) stop responding to Clinton's attacks (2) get into participation in some bipartisian legislation that will show his responsiveness to Republicans as soon as possible. He should ignore the Rev. Wright thing with a forceful "No comment", or "he does not speak for me or my campaign" and stick the middle finger at the press, and do this NOW.
"You have talent, intelligence and tapped into something powerful early in your campaign. But running for president is unlike anything you've ever done," Rove writes. "While you'll almost certainly win the nomination, Democrats are nervous about the fall. You've given them reasons to be.”
That depends on which 'Democrats' you're talking about, Rovie. Of course you know, the older white folks. This is another distraction. White people who are looking for any excuse not to vote for a black man (experience, his gaffs, etc.) WILL FIND ONE!! So it doesn't matter what you name the reason, it will be sufficient pretext to have an out when you are accused of being a racist. What we have learned from this primary is that Democrats are a diverse group of people who are not always on the same side, not unlike the Republicans this year.
But in the case of the Dems, their high-falluting song of liberalism, which suggests tolerance, is not so tolerant as it appears.
Many of these Dems are suburban and urban working and middle-class whites (that would be everyone from the poor white trash mechanic of Bridesburg or Dix Hills to the jewish 2nd or 3rd generation lawyer or accountant who lives in White Plains or Dresher) who do not vote with black Dems in local races, especially if the candidates are classic Breyer's Vanilla & Chocolate Ice Cream flavors.
The resistance to Obama is not just small town America. Some of these suburbanites live in diverse towns and know black people, but are nevertheless closet racists who purport to be 'liberal', as if they love black people, when in fact they can't see past the color from the trees when dealing with the concept of being led by a black person.
April 28th, 2008 6:10 pm ET
Why does Rove want Obama to win?
Because Obama's the only Democrat who can lose to Cain.
All the nonsense stops when the two final candidates debate side-by-side.
That's where people see Obama at his worst - as a kid with three weeks of U.S. Senate experience who doesn't understand the basics of foreign policy, education, economics, the environment, etc.
That's why he won't debate Hillary one-on-one . . . he'll look like an idiot.
April 28th, 2008 6:15 pm ET
That's it CNN, let's keep on building a false sense of momentum for Hillary Clinton while you continue to paint Obama with as much negative press as you can manage. How much is Hillary paying you guys to ignore her comment about 'obliterating' Iran's 65 million person population, or the fact that she used Bin Laden in a television ad to attack a member of her own party, or that she lied not once, but at least two times about coming under sniper fire in Bosnia, or that her story about the woman dying because she couldn't afford healthcare was not factual or all the way true, or that she tried to tie Obama with a former member of Weather Underground negatively but her husband pardoned two of them controversially upon exiting his presidency. You guys at CNN are despicable! Free press? What's that???
April 28th, 2008 6:14 pm ET
These pundits are idiots. HILLARY CAN"T WIN w/o the majority of black votes in the general election. Swing states are considered swing b/c whites are split and usually it's the black turnout that can make the difference. She sold herself to the devil so she is finished. She pissed off the most dedicated base of the party. She can't win the South and Penn and Ohio will swing to the moderate Republican McCain. Even blacks will vote for him. He kinda remind us blacks of an Eisenhower type. Eisenhower was a republican but received a substantial amount of black votes in 1956 b/c of his supportive stance of sending federal troops to protect the Little Rock 9. All the conspiracy theorists are saying she really wants it 2012. So her plan is to destroy Barack and let McCain get 1 term. Funny thing is the lady is awful when she plans. Hey whatever happen to the "Inevitable Candidate"? Remember that!!!!
Seven comments from a neighbour:
* 'the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing'.stay focused.
* do not fall into any of the traps that the bad guys are throwing along your trail.
* challenge any attacks coming your way. the clinton's are vulnerable.remember that in this country ,civility and kindness are also percieved as a sign of weakness.
* bring back some of the enthusiasm you showed us until not too long ago. positive vibes are contagious.
* exploit connections from the clinton's team with jeremiah wright and/or farrakhan (also ed rendell, rev marcia dyson, shiela jackson lee, didn't the clintons invited jeremiah right to the white house during the impeachment procedures?)
* you are the front runner,close this deal. do not try to keep everybody happy…if you do this, nobody will be happy.
*you have what it takes, lead us to the place where changes will take place.
April 28th, 2008 6:51 pm ET
I agree with one thing Rove suggests. An Obama Chuck Hagel ticket is unbeatable in Nov. An absolute indication of reaching across the isle.
...this one is wacked but brutal:
who asked you, you miserable, bloated criminal?
obama shoud be giving YOU advice on what it takes to get your soul back from beelzebub and become HUMAN again!!!
if we want advice from an immoral, win-at-no-costs-US-citizens-and-constitution-be-dammed creep, we'd ask rush or cheney or penn or hagge… see, there's this way of living your life where you do things with INTEGRITY and WITHOUT CHEATING, you repubs should look into it, it's really a much more fulfilling and happy existence!!!
stick a fork in you, YOU SOUL-LESS REPUBS ARE DONE, BABY!!!!!! BUH-BYE repubs, dont let the door hit ya, where beelzebub split ya!!!!!
...and this one is brutally true:
April 28th, 2008 5:28 pm ET
mmmm and we should listen to him why????
because he tells clinton how to run her dirty campaing? all one has to do is listen to Limbaugh and his followers for 10 minutes and one can tell who is clinton working with and for…………..
hillary grew up republican she is a republican, but none will say it………..
the hunger for power has no end no name and no limits………..
No more billarys.
13 April 2008
By Lawrence Korb and Ian Moss
April 3, 2008
In 1961, a young African-American man, after hearing President John F.
Kennedy's challenge to, 'Ask not what your country can do for you, but
what you can do for your country,' gave up his student deferment, left
college in Virginia and voluntarily joined the Marines.
In 1963, this man, having completed his two years of service in the
Marines, volunteered again to become a Navy corpsman. (They provide
medical assistance to the Marines as well as to Navy personnel.)
The man did so well in corpsman school that he was the valedictorian
and became a cardiopulmonary technician. Not surprisingly, he was
assigned to the Navy's premier medical facility, Bethesda Naval
Hospital, as a member of the commander in chief's medical team, and
helped care for President Lyndon B. Johnson after his 1966 surgery. For
his service on the team, which he left in 1967, the White House awarded
him three letters of commendation. What is even more remarkable is that
this man entered the Marines and Navy not many years after the two
branches began to become integrated.
While this young man was serving six years on active duty, Vice
President Dick Cheney, who was born the same year as the Marine/sailor,
received five deferments, four for being an undergraduate and graduate
student and one for being a prospective father.
Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, both five years younger
than the African-American youth, used their student deferments to stay
in college until 1968. Both then avoided going on active duty through
family connections.
Who is the real patriot? The young man who interrupted his studies to
serve his country for six years or our three political leaders who beat
the system? Are the patriots the people who actually sacrifice
something or those who merely talk about their love of the country?
After leaving the service of his country, the young African-American
finished his final year of college, entered the seminary, was ordained
as a minister, and eventually became pastor of a large church in one of
America's biggest cities.
This man is Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the retiring pastor of Trinity United
Church of Christ, who has been in the news for comments he made over
the last three decades. Since these comments became public we have
heard criticisms, condemnations, denouncements and rejections of his
comments and him. We've seen on television, in a seemingly endless
loop, sound bites of a select few of Rev. Wright's many sermons.
Some of the Wright's comments are inexcusable and inappropriate and
should be condemned, but in calling him 'unpatriotic,' let us not
forget that this is a man who gave up six of the most productive years
of his life to serve his country. How many of Wright's detractors, Rush
Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly to name but a few, volunteered for service,
and did so under the often tumultuous circumstances of a newly
integrated armed forces and a society in the midst of a civil rights
struggle? Not many.
While words do count, so do actions. Let us not forget that, for
whatever Rev. Wright may have said over the last 30 years, he has
demonstrated his patriotism.
Lawrence Korb and Ian Moss are, respectively, Navy and Marine Corps
veterans. They work at The Center For American Progress. Korb served as
assistant secretary of Defense in the Reagan administration.
12 April 2008
Senator Obama made as usual a phopah on his way to the eve of the Pennsylvania election, saying to a chic crowd in San Francisco, in explaining his still slightly lagging lead behind Senator Clinton, that Pennsylvania voters in small towns may be bitter, and resentful of those not like themselves in look or feel, turn to gun or religious rights for soul food. As has been the case this eventful but actually short primary season, Clinton stands a chance to live another day by tearing into these remarks and branding Obama unelectable because the GOP will barbeque him. Hey, he's already braised medium already on the grill. I think he's ready.
The Republicans of course seized on this, and branded his remarks as elitist and not mindful of the lives of middle America, as they struggle with job loss and cultural encroachment. They did the same with John Kerry in 2004, and it worked on his Massachusetts narrow assz. It may work on Obama's, as his world traveler, Harvard-educated and sinceforth upper middle class African American urbane persona is the anthesesis of their lives. In tune, the Clinton campaign, expecting this GOP response, rolled up alongside and made a sweep with its surrogates like Evan Bayh, who in Indiana sent a message to the superdelegates that they should be careful who they choose to run in November against McCain. We even heard from our favorite east coast pot-belly, Fast Eddie Rendell, former mayor and DA of Philadelphia, former DNC chairman (who made a couple of verbal gaffs that embarrased the Dems in 2000) and current governor/Clinton supporter/hoping to get his judge wife a Supreme Court appointment-or-himself a job in the Clinton administration, who had his two cents to say:
“People in rural Pennsylvania don’t turn to guns and religion as an escape,” Mr. Rendell said. “Hunting and sportsmanship are long-established traditions here, and people of faith founded the commonwealth and continue to live here. What the senator has done is essentially misread what is actually happening in Pennsylvania.”
But in response, J. Richard Gray, the mayor of Lancaster PA and an Obama supporter, said that this is not what Mr. Obama meant. In his view, Mr. Obama was trying to say that Republicans take emotional matters like guns and religion and try to use them to divide people. “He’s saying the use of those issues as wedge issues plays on the bitterness that people have and diverts attention from the real economic issues, like the disparity between the wage earner and the rich.”
And that, my friends, is the bottom line issue: whether or not to allow the political extremists, who are more interested in holding onto power than they are about you and me, to control the electorate with fears of differences that has been the road to the White House for so long.
Mr. Gray also said Mr. Obama was right that voters are bitter. He pointed to a recent poll that found 81 percent of voters believe the country is on the wrong track, and said that Mrs. Clinton sounded like “a Pollyanna” in saying that workers were optimistic. “I don’t know who she’s been talking to,” Mr. Gray said.
Gray may have taken the lead in redirecting the energy of an Obama gaff, like he himself did with the Rev. Wright scandal, into another opportunity to talk real straight talk about what is going wrong in this country. The wrong track we're on is one of fear, not hatred, one of ever-significant economic disparity and fraud by our leaders both in business and government, not fear of the economic engine of China which our leaders are feeding everyday.It's time for Straight Talk, Folks; Straight Truth.
11 April 2008
BREAKING F@*&N NEWS!!!
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7007109937779036019
10 April 2008
Double Standard? Law designed to stop drug dealers applied diiferently here
5 Pot plants but they keep the house
Why the burglar alarm went off, Steve Haver still doesn't know. But while Haver and his wife, Karen, were away in the Poconos on the morning of July 8, 2006, Reading police searched the couple's semidetached three-story home and found five pot plants growing under lights.Because of that discovery, the Havers were soon caught in a swirl of legal decisions that overturned their lives, prompted questions about the enforcement of marijuana laws, and served as a lesson to homeowners with burglar alarms.
Steve Haver spent a weekend in jail on $1 million bail, wound up with a felony conviction for drug manufacturing, lost his driver's license for six months, and expects to lose his job as general manager of the performing arts center at Penn State's York campus. His wife Karen, who was also arrested lost her job as manager of the Sovereign Performing Arts Center in Reading. But, authorities won't seize their house - just the growing equipment.
Under Pennsylvania law, property can be seized by police in connection with a felony drug arrest, and police not only seized the growing apparatus but former Berks County District Attorney Mark Baldwin filed for forfeiture of the house. Steve Haver described it as an "1895 Romanesque revival semidetached rowhome," last appraised at $137,000. Oh joy, how Norman Rockwellesque; whitey puleeze!
Police routinely, especially where the amount of drugs is above the legal threshold or there is evidence of intent to distribute, go after the house and take it. There are also similar federal laws, although a conviction is warranted under federal law for a forfeiture sale of such house; unknown if PA law has the same requirements. Law enforcement in Philadelphia and Chester, like this approach as a way to take the homes, sell for cash to use in future drug stings, and send a strong deterrent. But they also evict innocent people from the home, like children and parents or disabled persons, who may not have been aware of be able to control such activities at their home, with little regard for their future welfare.
But this was the exception. As part of a settlement approved Monday by Berks County Judge Jeffrey K. Sprecher, prosecutors withdrew that request while the Havers, through their attorney, agreed to forfeit the seized equipment. Explanation for this discretionary ignorance of the law? "It was a rather sophisticated growing operation," Shchuka said. "... It wasn't like somebody went to Home Depot and bought some peat moss." Besides five three-foot-high plants, police found a high-powered lighting system, a self-contained water system, a fan with a dehumidifier, and devices for measuring temperature and testing soil, Shchuka said.
On Feb. 29, Haver, now 47, pleaded guilty "to put an end to this thing," he said yesterday. The same day, his wife, 38, began a 30-day probationary period in a program under which charges have already been dismissed. So in this case, unlike the urban experience in such cases, the homeowners gets to keep their house through a plea bargain, move back in, and the wife gets charges dropped and a month's probation. Sweeeet.
"I anticipate losing my employment, losing my health insurance, losing my educational benefits, nine credits away from getting an MBA," Steve Haver said. Awwww - such tears. Gimme a break. This drug-dealing bitch is currently on administrative leave from the the university, who is of course tight-lipped about the outcome or details. His contract likely won't be renewed at the end of June, Haver said.
But check out the community reaction:
Haver is rankled by Pennsylvania marijuana laws and how they are sometimes enforced, noting "I don't think your average citizen has any idea how destructive and draconion our justice system has become". How so? It worked for him; he gets his house back after a plea-bargained lawyer-brokered conviction for a felony drug offense, while others go homeless.
Another interesting reaction is the community, who has been sympathetic, sending emails and postcards from across the country, sticking kind notes in the door. A neighbor even donated to his legal defense. Can't get that kinda love in the ghetto.
"People in the community have generally been supportive and have been appalled at the direction this has taken," Haver said. As Chris Matthews would say: HA! I'm sure these same law-n-order folks would not have any sympathy for similar violators in North Philly.
Ironically, buying marijuana from a dealer can be a misdemeanor, while growing some at home leaves a person open to felony manufacturing charges. A judge ruled over a year ago that the search was valid, he added.
After their arrest, the couple spent three days in jail because a magistrate, stepping in on a Saturday, set enormous bail, $1 million for him, half as much for her, he said. The following Monday, Judge Sprecher, seeing no great threat, lifted the bail entirely and the couple were released, he said. Was there really at that time enough information available to warrant such discretion? No, but unfortunately bail is all too often loosely prescribed both in city and rural jurisdictions in Pennsylvania.
The former prosecutor didn't have to attempt to seize the house, defense attorneys for the Havers said. Laws were broken, but "there should be penalties and they should be appropriate, but they weren't". Shchuka disagreed. "I don't have a problem with that charge at all," he said. Filing for forfeiture of the house was also justified, in case investigators found evidence of drug dealing, he said. "The house was properly frozen while the criminal case was pending, but without more evidence of drug dealing forfeiture wasn't warranted," he said.
Steve Haver said he's uncertain what he'll be doing next. Maybe he'll write a book about his case, he said. The Caucasian end game is always the same: book deals and the Today show. For people of color, the game ends in jail and broke. Go figure...