BiddiesInMyBrain

Read It. Never Forget It. Teach the Children.

From Keith Olbermann, via Daily Kos:

George Walker Bush.
43rd president of the United States.
first ever with a criminal record.
our third story tonight,
his presidency: eight years in eight minutes.

early in 2001 the U.S. fingered Al Qaeda
for the bombing of the USS Cole
Bush counterterrorism adviser Richard Clarke
had a plan to take down Al Qaeda.
instead by February the NSC
had already discussed invading Iraq,
and had a plan for post-Saddam Iraq.

by March 5 Bush had a map ready for Iraqi oil exploration
and a list of companies.
Al Qaeda?
Rice told Clarke not to give Bush a lot of long memos.
not a big reader.

August 6, 2001
a CIA analyst briefs Bush on vacation:
"Bin Laden determined to strike in U.S."
Bush takes no action tells the briefer—quote
all right, you've covered your ass now.

next month Clarke requests
using new predator drones to kill Bin Laden
the Pentagon and CIA
say no.

September 11th
Bush remains seated for several minutes
to avoid scaring school children
by getting up and leaving.
he then flies around the country
and promises quote a full scale investigation to find
those folks who did it

Rumsfeld says Afghanistan does not have enough targets
we've got to do Iraq.
when the CIA traps Bin Laden at Tora Bora
it asks for 800 rangers to cut off his escape
Bush outsources the job to Pakistanis
sympathetic to the Taliban
Bin Laden
gets away

in February General Tommy Franks tells a visiting Senator
Bush is moving equipment out of Afghanistan
so he can invade Iraq.
one of the men who prepped Rice for her testimony
that Bush did not ignore pre 9-11 warnings
later explains quote we cherry picked things
to make it look like the president
had been actually concerned about Al Qaeda
they didn't give a bleep about Al Qaeda

July and Britain's intel chief says Bush is
fixing intelligence and facts around the policy to take out Saddam
January 03
Bush and Blair agree to invade in March
Mr. Bush still telling us he has not decided
telling Blair they should paint an airplane in UN colors
fly it over Iraq and provoke a response
a pretext for invasion

the man who said it would take several hundred thousand troops
fired
the man who said it would cost more than a hundred billion
fired
the man who revealed Bush's yellowcake lie
smeared
his wife's covert status
exposed
the White House liars who did it
and covered it up
not fired
one convicted
Bush commutes his sentence

then in Iraq, stuff happens:
Iraq's army, disbanded
the government de-Baathified
200,000 weapons, billions of dollars just
lost
foreign mercenaries immunized from justice
political hacks run the Green Zone
religious cleansing forcing one out of six Iraqis from their homes
Abu Ghraib
the insurgency
Al Qaeda in Iraq

other stuff does not happen:
WMD
post-war planning
body armor
vehicular armor

the payoff?
oil
and billions for Halliburton, Blackwater and other companies
while Mr. Bush denies VA healthcare to 450,000 veterans
tries to raise their healthcare fees
blocks the new G.I. Bill
and increases his own power with the USA PATRIOT Act
with the Military Commissions Act
public orders exempting himself from a thousand laws
and secretly from the Presidential Records Act
The Geneva Conventions
FISA
sparking a mass rebellion at the Justice Department

secret star chambers for terrorism suspects,
overturned by Hamdan v Rumsfeld.
denying habeas corpus,
overturned by Boumediene v Bush.
200 renditionings
sleep deprivation
abuse

Rumsfeld warned in 2002 that he was torturing
that it would jeopardize convictions
out of 550 at Gitmo
hundreds ultimately go free with no charges
dozens are tortured
eight fatally
three are convicted

on U.S. soil twelve hundred immigrants rounded up
without due process
without bail
without court dates
without a single charge of terrorism

it wasn't just Mr. Bush no longer subject to the rule of law
he slashed regulations on everyone from banks to mining companies
appointed 98 lobbyists to oversee their own industries
weakening emission standards for mercury
and 650 different toxic chemicals
regulators shared drugs
and their beds
with industry reps
the Crandall Canyon mine owner told inspectors to back up
because his buddy, Republican Mitch McConnell
was sleeping with their boss
McConnell's wife is Bush Labor Secretary Elaine Chao
her agency overruled engineer concerns about Crandall Canyon
and was found negligent
after nine miners died in the collapse there

Mr. Bush's hands off
as Enron blacks out California
doubling electric bills
after months of rejecting price caps Mr. Bush bows to pressure

the blackouts end

Mr. Bush further deregulates commodity futures
midwifing the birth of unregulated oil markets
which just like Enron jack up prices to an all time high
until Congress and both presidential candidates call for regulations

and the prices fall

deregulating financial services and lax enforcement of remaining rules
created a housing bubble
creating the mortgage crisis
creating then a credit crisis
devastating industries that rely on credit
from student loans to car dealers

firms that had survived the Great Depression could not survive Bush
those that did got
seven hundred billion dollars
no strings, no transparency
no idea whether it worked

unlike the auto bailout
which cut workers' salaries.
a GOP memo called it
a chance to punish unions

but Bush failed even when his party and his patrons
did not stand to profit
investigators blamed management cost cutting communication
for missed warnings about Columbia
Bush administration convicts include
sex offenders at Homeland Security
convicted liars
every kind of thief in the calendar
and if you count things that were not prosecuted
the vice president of the United States actually
shot a man in the face

the man apologized.

Mr. Bush faked the truth
with paid propaganda in Iraq
on his education policy

tried to silence the truth about global warming
rocket fuel in our water
industry influence on energy policy

politicized the truth of science at NASA, the EPA,
the National Cancer Institute, Fish and Wildlife
and the FDA

his lies
exposed by whistleblowers from the cabinet down
"complete BS" the treasury secretary said
of Mr. Bush on his tax cuts.

Rice's mushroom cloud
Powell's mobile labs
Iraq and 9-11
Jack Abramoff
Jessica Lynch

Pat Tillman
Pat Tillman again
Pat Tillman, again.

the air at Ground Zero
most responders still suffering respiratory problems.

global warming
carbon emissions
a Clear Skies initiative lowering air quality standards
the Healthy Forests initiative increasing logging
faith based initiatives
the cost of medicare reform
fired US attorneys
politically synchronized terror alerts

the surge causing insurgents to switch sides
that abortion causes breast cancer
that his first recession began under Clinton
that he did not wiretap without warrants
that we do not torture.

that American citizen John Walker Lindh's rights
were not violated
that he refused the right to counsel

heckuva job Brownie
some survivors still in trailers
New Orleans still at just two-thirds its usual population

the lie that no one could have predicted the economic crisis
except
the economists who did
no one could have predicted 9-11 except
one ass-covering CIA analyst
or thirty
no one could have predicted the levee breach
except literally
Mr. Bill
in a PSA that aired on TV a year before Katrina

Bush actually admitted that he lied about not firing Rumsfeld
because he did not want to tell the truth.
look it up.

all of it
all of it and more leaving us with
ten trillion in debt
to pay for 31% more in discretionary spending
the Iraq War
a 1.3 trillion dollar tax cut

median income down two thousand dollars
three-quarters of all income gains under Bush
going to the richest one percent
unemployment up from 4.2 to 7.2 percent

the Dow, down from ten thousand five hundred eighty seven
to eighty two hundred seventy seven
six million now more in poverty
seven million more now without health care

buying toxic goods from China
deadly cribs
outsourcing security to Dubai
still unsecure in our ports
and at our nuclear plants
more dependent on foreign oil
out of the international criminal court
off the anti ballistic missle treaty
military readiness and standards down

with two unfinished wars
a nuclear North Korea
disengaged from the Palestinian problem
destabilizing eastern european diplomacy with
anti missile plans
and unable to keep Russia out of Georgia

2000 miles of Appalachian streams
destroyed by rubble from mountaintop mining
at his last G-8 summit,
he actually bid farewell to other world leaders
saying quote—goodbye from the world's greatest polluter

consistently undermining historic American reverence
for the institutions that empower us
education, now "academic elites"
and the law, "activist judges"
capping jury awards

and Bin Laden?
living today unmolested in a Pakistani safe haven
created by a truce endorsed and defended by George W. Bush

and among all the gifts he gave to Bin Laden
the most awful, the most damaging not just to America
but to the American ideal
was to further Bin Laden's goal
by making us act out of fear rather than fortitude

leaving us with precious little to cling to tonight
save the one thing that might yet suffice:

hope.

From Keith Olbermann, via Daily Kos:

George Walker Bush.
43rd president of the United States.
first ever with a criminal record.
our third story tonight,
his presidency: eight years in eight minutes.

early in 2001 the U.S. fingered Al Qaeda
for the bombing of the USS Cole
Bush counterterrorism adviser Richard Clarke
had a plan to take down Al Qaeda.
instead by February the NSC
had already discussed invading Iraq,
and had a plan for post-Saddam Iraq.

by March 5 Bush had a map ready for Iraqi oil exploration
and a list of companies.
Al Qaeda?
Rice told Clarke not to give Bush a lot of long memos.
not a big reader.

August 6, 2001
a CIA analyst briefs Bush on vacation:
"Bin Laden determined to strike in U.S."
Bush takes no action tells the briefer—quote
all right, you've covered your ass now.

next month Clarke requests
using new predator drones to kill Bin Laden
the Pentagon and CIA
say no.

September 11th
Bush remains seated for several minutes
to avoid scaring school children
by getting up and leaving.
he then flies around the country
and promises quote a full scale investigation to find
those folks who did it

Rumsfeld says Afghanistan does not have enough targets
we've got to do Iraq.
when the CIA traps Bin Laden at Tora Bora
it asks for 800 rangers to cut off his escape
Bush outsources the job to Pakistanis
sympathetic to the Taliban
Bin Laden
gets away

in February General Tommy Franks tells a visiting Senator
Bush is moving equipment out of Afghanistan
so he can invade Iraq.
one of the men who prepped Rice for her testimony
that Bush did not ignore pre 9-11 warnings
later explains quote we cherry picked things
to make it look like the president
had been actually concerned about Al Qaeda
they didn't give a bleep about Al Qaeda

July and Britain's intel chief says Bush is
fixing intelligence and facts around the policy to take out Saddam
January 03
Bush and Blair agree to invade in March
Mr. Bush still telling us he has not decided
telling Blair they should paint an airplane in UN colors
fly it over Iraq and provoke a response
a pretext for invasion

the man who said it would take several hundred thousand troops
fired
the man who said it would cost more than a hundred billion
fired
the man who revealed Bush's yellowcake lie
smeared
his wife's covert status
exposed
the White House liars who did it
and covered it up
not fired
one convicted
Bush commutes his sentence

then in Iraq, stuff happens:
Iraq's army, disbanded
the government de-Baathified
200,000 weapons, billions of dollars just
lost
foreign mercenaries immunized from justice
political hacks run the Green Zone
religious cleansing forcing one out of six Iraqis from their homes
Abu Ghraib
the insurgency
Al Qaeda in Iraq

other stuff does not happen:
WMD
post-war planning
body armor
vehicular armor

the payoff?
oil
and billions for Halliburton, Blackwater and other companies
while Mr. Bush denies VA healthcare to 450,000 veterans
tries to raise their healthcare fees
blocks the new G.I. Bill
and increases his own power with the USA PATRIOT Act
with the Military Commissions Act
public orders exempting himself from a thousand laws
and secretly from the Presidential Records Act
The Geneva Conventions
FISA
sparking a mass rebellion at the Justice Department

secret star chambers for terrorism suspects,
overturned by Hamdan v Rumsfeld.
denying habeas corpus,
overturned by Boumediene v Bush.
200 renditionings
sleep deprivation
abuse

Rumsfeld warned in 2002 that he was torturing
that it would jeopardize convictions
out of 550 at Gitmo
hundreds ultimately go free with no charges
dozens are tortured
eight fatally
three are convicted

on U.S. soil twelve hundred immigrants rounded up
without due process
without bail
without court dates
without a single charge of terrorism

it wasn't just Mr. Bush no longer subject to the rule of law
he slashed regulations on everyone from banks to mining companies
appointed 98 lobbyists to oversee their own industries
weakening emission standards for mercury
and 650 different toxic chemicals
regulators shared drugs
and their beds
with industry reps
the Crandall Canyon mine owner told inspectors to back up
because his buddy, Republican Mitch McConnell
was sleeping with their boss
McConnell's wife is Bush Labor Secretary Elaine Chao
her agency overruled engineer concerns about Crandall Canyon
and was found negligent
after nine miners died in the collapse there

Mr. Bush's hands off
as Enron blacks out California
doubling electric bills
after months of rejecting price caps Mr. Bush bows to pressure

the blackouts end

Mr. Bush further deregulates commodity futures
midwifing the birth of unregulated oil markets
which just like Enron jack up prices to an all time high
until Congress and both presidential candidates call for regulations

and the prices fall

deregulating financial services and lax enforcement of remaining rules
created a housing bubble
creating the mortgage crisis
creating then a credit crisis
devastating industries that rely on credit
from student loans to car dealers

firms that had survived the Great Depression could not survive Bush
those that did got
seven hundred billion dollars
no strings, no transparency
no idea whether it worked

unlike the auto bailout
which cut workers' salaries.
a GOP memo called it
a chance to punish unions

but Bush failed even when his party and his patrons
did not stand to profit
investigators blamed management cost cutting communication
for missed warnings about Columbia
Bush administration convicts include
sex offenders at Homeland Security
convicted liars
every kind of thief in the calendar
and if you count things that were not prosecuted
the vice president of the United States actually
shot a man in the face

the man apologized.

Mr. Bush faked the truth
with paid propaganda in Iraq
on his education policy

tried to silence the truth about global warming
rocket fuel in our water
industry influence on energy policy

politicized the truth of science at NASA, the EPA,
the National Cancer Institute, Fish and Wildlife
and the FDA

his lies
exposed by whistleblowers from the cabinet down
"complete BS" the treasury secretary said
of Mr. Bush on his tax cuts.

Rice's mushroom cloud
Powell's mobile labs
Iraq and 9-11
Jack Abramoff
Jessica Lynch

Pat Tillman
Pat Tillman again
Pat Tillman, again.

the air at Ground Zero
most responders still suffering respiratory problems.

global warming
carbon emissions
a Clear Skies initiative lowering air quality standards
the Healthy Forests initiative increasing logging
faith based initiatives
the cost of medicare reform
fired US attorneys
politically synchronized terror alerts

the surge causing insurgents to switch sides
that abortion causes breast cancer
that his first recession began under Clinton
that he did not wiretap without warrants
that we do not torture.

that American citizen John Walker Lindh's rights
were not violated
that he refused the right to counsel

heckuva job Brownie
some survivors still in trailers
New Orleans still at just two-thirds its usual population

the lie that no one could have predicted the economic crisis
except
the economists who did
no one could have predicted 9-11 except
one ass-covering CIA analyst
or thirty
no one could have predicted the levee breach
except literally
Mr. Bill
in a PSA that aired on TV a year before Katrina

Bush actually admitted that he lied about not firing Rumsfeld
because he did not want to tell the truth.
look it up.

all of it
all of it and more leaving us with
ten trillion in debt
to pay for 31% more in discretionary spending
the Iraq War
a 1.3 trillion dollar tax cut

median income down two thousand dollars
three-quarters of all income gains under Bush
going to the richest one percent
unemployment up from 4.2 to 7.2 percent

the Dow, down from ten thousand five hundred eighty seven
to eighty two hundred seventy seven
six million now more in poverty
seven million more now without health care

buying toxic goods from China
deadly cribs
outsourcing security to Dubai
still unsecure in our ports
and at our nuclear plants
more dependent on foreign oil
out of the international criminal court
off the anti ballistic missle treaty
military readiness and standards down

with two unfinished wars
a nuclear North Korea
disengaged from the Palestinian problem
destabilizing eastern european diplomacy with
anti missile plans
and unable to keep Russia out of Georgia

2000 miles of Appalachian streams
destroyed by rubble from mountaintop mining
at his last G-8 summit,
he actually bid farewell to other world leaders
saying quote—goodbye from the world's greatest polluter

consistently undermining historic American reverence
for the institutions that empower us
education, now "academic elites"
and the law, "activist judges"
capping jury awards

and Bin Laden?
living today unmolested in a Pakistani safe haven
created by a truce endorsed and defended by George W. Bush

and among all the gifts he gave to Bin Laden
the most awful, the most damaging not just to America
but to the American ideal
was to further Bin Laden's goal
by making us act out of fear rather than fortitude

leaving us with precious little to cling to tonight
save the one thing that might yet suffice:

hope.

Help Alaskans in Their Time of Greatest Need

We're all feeling the pinch... but these folks especially: Emmonak Man Seeks Food Airlift to Combat Economic Crisis See also : The Mudflats: Is Anyone Listening

Governor Sarah Palin can whine all she likes about bloggers and the internet...but she's not doing her job... and fuel costs and food costs have made it impossible for folks in SW Alaska to survive - that's SURVIVE - the winter. This isn't a matter of endure... this is survival, folks.

So, if you can, please donate... make a difference. Or at least make a phone call to that woman's office encouraging her to take care of her own.

And in the meantime, help tend to the needs of those in need. Those in our national community. They deserve a fair shake. And they're not getting one.

Mildred Loving

This will be both a loving post and an angry post. And it will likely incite some very angry responses in return. I am prepared for that.

Mildred Loving died in May at the age of 68. Most of my readers are too young to remember that miscegenation was a crime even into the late 1960s in many parts of the United States, and the Lovings' case - Richard was a white man, and Mildred was a black woman - was the case which overturned all miscegenation laws in the country in 1967. Yes. Even after all the voting rights laws and all the other laws for civil rights in this country, it was still illegal for a black person and a white person to express their love for one another, particularly in most of the South. Heaven forbid they wanted to get married.

Loving v the Commonwealth of Virginia was a landmark case, argued by a very young attorney (he was 28 at the time) before the Supreme Court. The Lovings weren't even there; they simply wanted to be left alone to live in the love they had found together.

Horribly, their romance was short-lived; in 1975, they were hit by a drunk driver while driving down a country road and Richard was killed. Mildred lost an eye, and extreme poverty soon followed.

This is where I get angry. 

Where were civil rights groups? Where were charities? Where were any groups willing to come forward and quietly help this woman who had made such a difference in so many people's lives?

I know she wanted to live a peaceful, gentle, quiet life. That much is certain.

But there could have been help.

When the movie Mr. and Mrs. Loving came out in 1996 (a terrific movie, by the way - see it if you can), the proceeds of the movie went to help Mildred side her home and get needed dental work. That's all the proceeds could pay for... nothing more. Nobody else came forward to help. I suspect everybody assumed she was doing well...

But when Mildred died in May, hers was not a peaceful death. She had terrible, debilitating arthritis without good relief... and she labored greatly as she passed. Bernard Cohen, the Lovings' attorney in the Supreme Court case, saw her the day she died and did not recognize her; she had lived a hard, hard life. She resided in the same cinder-block house Richard had built - perhaps out of sentimental reasons, perhaps because she had no other choice... the fact remains she lived in abject poverty.

Where were the civil rights groups? Where were the charities? Where were any groups willing to come forward and quietly help this woman who had made such a difference in so many people's lives?

Mildred died in May. I mourn her passing. But I am angry. Angry beyond kind words right now - the sort of kind words Mildred might have wanted - because she could have had a decent life... if only decent people had cared.

The Washington Post was the source for much of the material in this post.

Rant on History Textbooks

Why, oh why, must textbooks... especially college history textbooks... not only cost a fortune (for god's sake, it's HISTORY)... but also WEIGH a ton???

I just got a new history textbook for review... and it weighs... ELEVEN POUNDS. Either that, or my scale is off. *I* think it weighs 11 pounds.

Weird thing about it? The main body of the text, from the beginning of time to the present, is less than 1000 pages.

What the hell??

I can tell you right now that I will stay with the condensed textbook I am currently using ($45), teach from my lectures, and supplement from my website with the things I think they *really* need. They can print/view the supplemental materials and not spend an extra $50. Yeah. A basic history text which costs $95.

 

Many (most?) older profs do not take the textbook cost into account... but I have spent a lot of time recently shopping and asking; I am not about to ask non-majors to ever again buy a hugely expensive book for something they will never use again - or will keep only for occasional reference. It just makes NO SENSE. I've had students take my class in previous semesters and GO WITHOUT THE BOOK because they couldn't afford it. With history you can sometimes get away with that (though it's hard when you are supposed to be doing chapter summaries). I just can't can't can't break any more students' budgets. It breaks my heart... and there is something that also breaks my heart when I hear that a student has dropped all his other classes but mine because mine was the only book he could afford.

My criteria? Has to have the founding docs, has to be accurate. Everything else is gravy - because *every* book is going to cover basically the same material, no matter which publisher prints it. Different points of view, yes, but same basic story. Doesn't match my point of view? GREAT! I have a wonderful teaching experience ahead!

The way other profs justify it is that they want the best reference book possible for the students to keep. I want the best textbook for the money, and I will teach them what else I feel they need to know. That's what the classroom is for, asshats. Earn your keep.

It's HISTORY for god's sake. There are only so many ways to teach it from a book (I know, I know.. there really are.. but come on!). I appreciate that they are sexing it up - and I have been part of that movement - I've been in on the late writing/editing stages of two new textbooks so far in my career. But I can't justify this kind of cost for a course for non-majors. I mean... for Pete's sake. I have the ability to choose my text... and I assure you that this one won't be it, no matter how sexy it is.

The damn textbook companies just aren't getting it.

 

And I am fed up. Right up to here.

Jena 6 Update

Hey you. Do you even remember the Jena 6?

Yeah. Like ongoing racism in the South. Young black kids who were denied their civil rights. Major demonstrations. Big issue in 2007.

What has happened? Where are they now? Does anyone even care?

Well, you should.

Here's an update from AOL's Black Voices feature area: Jena Six Anniversary: How Things Have Changed.

And this is a great site for keeping up with ongoing developments: The Jena 6 Blog

Don't let up. Fight the good fight. Do the right thing.

And damnit - don't let racism and any sort of privilege get in the way.

Still Pondering the Anger

Wow.

I've gotten a lot of e-mail tonight about my last post, and it's made me think a lot about what I said.

I'm not kidding about the racial issues - the white privilege issues - that exist in this city.

But I think I was a little harsh on the efforts that are being made on behalf of meeting halfway. There *are* some people who are working hard to make a difference. It's just that until that difference can be manifested in even a vocal minority, there isn't going to be change... and until more people in pulpits and congregations and board rooms and school rooms REALLY teach tolerance and love (not to say that they aren't there - there are some damn good efforts out there... but dang... there just aren't enough!!) - and disengage from this whole idea of privilege - there is no hope of that succeeding. NONE.

But nobody - at least *very* few whites in this town - seem to want to look inward to deal with those snap judgments ... the same ones that seal fates all over the South. Those that say separation is better, that private schools are better than public schools, that discomfort in mixed social and religious situations is ok. I want to see DELIBERATE action. Real, positive, assertive, gentle action - the same kind of direct action King and Gandhi talked about - to look inside and remake this city, this region and this nation.

I *do* see some of that happening - don't get me wrong - and I see it the best of it in higher education. Unfortunately, the people who graduate University.. black, white, Asian, African, Hispanic, European... are not as likely to stick around here - the atmosphere is just so toxic that people really want to leave once they have opportunity. The best and the brightest tend to be lured away... and those who stay get beaten down by the constant... well, the constant inability of good folks to stand up year after year, decade after decade, to the racism and the privilege.

I have lived here for 15 years ... and I am just... tired of it. The Gandhi/King conference is coming and I want so much to take part in it... but I am so discouraged. Maybe it's all the talk right now that Memphis is such a "progressive" or "liberal" city in such a conservative state. No, I am sorry. I have lived in progressive, liberal cities - and this one is not one of them.

I'll continue to try - don't get me wrong. But you can bet that I will seek other opportunities in other places if they come my way.

And the city wonders why the tax base is just... floating away.

Get real already.

Dealing with an Unexpected Burst of Anger

I've had this *wonderful* day today ... it's been rainy, yes, but I have been busy and accomplishing things all day long.

So, the burst of anger that erupted when a friend sent me an op-ed piece from the New York Times really surprised me.

Branson is not all that far from Memphis... and Memphis is definitely a little blue dot in a vast sea of red, so it would seem I should be happy to see this apparently like area in our geographic vicinity.

But, I'm not.

Memphis has a good history of being a liberal stronghold the past several decades - and even before desegregation was known as a relatively progressive city. However, don't let the facade fool you.

There are deep lines of demarcation here. And I'll bet they're in Branson, too - but the reporter was too white to see them.

You see, we are a town - and a region - of white privilege.

A man walks into a gun shop in Memphis... or Branson. If he's white... he's a gun enthusiast and a patriot. If he's black... he's someone to fear and has criminal intent.

A man drives a tricked-out SUV in Memphis... or Branson. If he's white, he's merely affluent and a representative of the American dream. If he's black, he's involved in the drug trade.

A white kid in a school uniform is walking down the street at 2:30 pm ... he's simply been dismissed from school. A black kid in a school uniform is walking down the street at 2:30 pm ... he's a truant and up to no good.

White men and women standing on a street corner holding up signs and shouting out their support for their chosen candidate in a presidential race are 'doing their part for democracy'. Black men and women standing on a street corner holding up signs and shouting out their support for their chosen candidate in a presidential race are misguided, uppity and inciting a riot.

Do you see where I am going with this?

There are deep, clear lines of demarcation in this city - and throughout the South - a vile vestige of segregation and a mindset of white privilege.

It's not just seen in the places of worship - very few black men and women go to certain Presbyterian churches, just as very few white men and women attend COGIC services, for example - but it is seen in the snap decisions people make on the street and around the town about racial difference. The above examples I gave barely scratch the surface.

However, most people are terribly, horribly apathetic about doing anything. They are attached to the television and unwilling to get out in the heat or cold and actually motivate to do something about these issues.

The only people who are forced to get out and interact on a regular basis are our public schoolkids - and you see how well that works. Constant disruptions, guns in schools, racial slurs and epithets... and kids segregate themselves in the lunchroom and between classes.

There is no culture of oneness, no hope of understanding until the larger culture changes. And I see no hope of that happening right now. Until the larger racial divides are breached within the larger society, until the ideas of white privilege - and you can't tell me that a majority of this problem ISN'T that of white privilege - are eradicated there will never be any form of true progress.

Memphis and Branson may claim to be progressive, liberal cities... but just live here a while and really, truly look. Just as in the Op-Ed piece, there is an assumption of white privilege on which that progressive liberalism is based... and you need to ask yourself if that is really progress after all.

I Just Can't Let This Pass Unnoticed

Politics as usual for McCain... but Letterman calls him on it but good:

Keith Olbermann on John McCain's Flat Out Lies

All I can say is WOW. Just WOW.

McCain: Senator, Just Grow Up

Cyber Bullying by the Memphis Police Department

Check out this article about the Memphis Police Department's attempt to crack down on a website that is critical of the police director, MPD policies and staff. The City has actually joined in on this and filed suit to find out who the anonymous blogger is behind the site, which, while admittedly edgy, does not use data other than what is available through anything but the public record or the rumor mill in the MPD. (the blogger's site can be found here). Can anyone say First Amendment?? Just because Larry Godwin doesn't like what is being said about him and about his force does not mean that he can file suit to shut down a website which is saying things that are legal (though sometimes in bad taste... the Asshole of the Month thing is a little borderline, but I see where it's coming from).

Meanwhile, the main blogger, who posts under the amusing name Dirk Diggler, has retained an attorney, Paul Levy, who is part of a Washington DC-area group called Public Citizen Litigation Group, and he is seeking to quash the attempts by the MPD to obtain the name(s) of the bloggers - and to find the legal basis for the Director Godwin's witchhunt. (read more here and another good one here at the Memphis Flyer)

This is nothing more than another example of how the top administration in this city has collectively gone plumb out of its cotton-pickin' mind. Power plays by Hizzoner the Mayor Willie Herenton over the Superintendency of the School Board, the City Council's petulant move to cut funding for the City Schools, the ongoing fraud investigations (and convictions) within upper echelons, and now this... it really makes me wonder what on earth they think they are doing up there in their marble towers. They aren't living in the real world, and they see threats where there aren't any.

And now they are attempting to shut down a vital section of the internet simply because they can't take the heat from some anonymous blogger who believes a little honesty in public service is a good thing. Larry, you've really gone over the top... I believe our police force - the men and women who patrol our neighborhood - are decent, honest people; I have met many, many of them by stopping them on my street and chatting for a moment while they are on patrol. They are friendly, helpful and kind when needed... and they do their job well in an area where solid policing is a necessity. But I just don't know about the upper echelons. Some of the people I have worked with - Sgts, Lieuts... even a Captain or two - have been overwhelmingly responsive to the needs of the community. But there are clearly some bad eggs... and I am now wondering seriously if that bad policing doesn't start with the top. Certainly this boneheaded move does not speak well of the good judgement we expect from officers... and bespeaks of vendettas and personal feelings getting in the way of being bigger and better than the words on the screen.

This smells like a rat... and bloggers everywhere should be paying close attention to what is happening here in Memphis. Such an unlikely venue... yet the repercussions of the decisions that come out of this case could have a chilling effect on all of us.

I'll try to update as often as I can about it... but in the meantime, please make sure to be vigilant, too. This is nothing to sneeze at. Larry Godwin and the City of Memphis are dead serious in this threat - and we should be dead serious about opposing it.

What a chilling state of affairs for us all.

ADDENDUM: Thanks, Ms. Theologian, for pointing out this website: cyberSLAPP, which deals with frivolous suits of this type that threaten to chill the internet's basis in free speech and the right to anonymity.