FBI can listen to you when phone is turned off-can do same with digital TV

America: A Nation of Peter Griffin's and Homer Simpson's

Sometimes I wonder what has happened to America. On the one hand you have folk who occupy themselves with celebrity culture and reality television and on the other, extreme zealots that use presupposed intellect to propound lunacy and outright hatred. In either instance, both sides of the above coin redefine idiocy and make it seem like stupidity has replaced suma cum laude.

Now as far as the first side goes, they are just as dangerous as the race baiting, islamaphobic nativist that are on the other end of the continuum and equally as dangerous. They tend to know when Lil Wayne is getting out of prison and how many times Lindsey Lohan has been arrested that who is their representative in the state senate or how to solve a polynomial.

It is this segment of the population mainly responsible for America ranking 26 in the world in math, science and reading comprehension. There book is the music video and they read TMZ and other entertainment blogs as if the information they contained was just as valuable as the Wall Street Journal. They are more apt to spend time in clubs, bars, lenox mall and the local car wash than the PTA, library, or helping their kids do homework.

Unfortunately these folk are not our nations only problem, for on the other end of the spectrum is a cavalcade of ignorance just as appalling. Although rather knowledgeable, this group lacks the ability to lucidly employ reason, problem solve or think critically. They unlike the previous who are oblivious to all outside the entertainment industry and have a penchant to allow fear and the disability of retrograde amnesia with respect to history, to direct their understanding of the world.


It seems these folk hate all that is not reflective of traditional White Anglo Saxon Protestant culture. The hate the current president for several reasons – that he is Black, has a name unlike theirs and that he lives in the Whitehouse. They even compare him to both Hitler and Stalin, while forgetting these two fought against each other in World War 2 and that on the down low, they believe in the racial superiority that Hitler preached. They have a disdain for other ethnic groups and religions for example, like Muslims and immigrants in particularly from Mexico; while confidently forgetting they come from similar origins.

Using the example of Islam, they forget theirs a history of Popes Innocent the III and Gregory IX, who massacred and murdered people, conducted the inquisition against heretics in the name of their one true God and religion – Christianity. Doing the work of a God in their views supported the beheading of non-believers and burning them at the stake. No different than the horrid beliefs of Islamic Sharia Law in my purview regarding infidels.

Or the case of Mexican immigrants, forgetting how they came to these lands without papers, illegally, cutting off heads of the Native Americans who were here before them, murdering women and children in order to steal their land – this too in the name of their white god.

This America I live in is backwards. They pray for TI not to go to prison but let Mumia Abu Jamal rot in prison with no interest. They applaud Thomas Jefferson as a founding father but ignore his documented goal to take without trade, the land of Native Americans and his wish for their extermination. I even just read a piece by John Avlon of the Daily Beast noting that 46 books have been published demonizing President Obama in his first two years of office compared to 6 and 11 for George Bush and Bill Clinton at the same period of their presidencies.

So why? Why is this bivalve of my America in 2010? Took me a while to come to a reasonable conclusion but all I could come up with was that this nation has been reduced to these types of people. One the one side, there are the Homer Simpsons and on the other, the Peter Griffins. The rest of us are in the middle shaking our heads, moving them from left to right as if we are watching a tennis match.

US Air Force: 50 US nuclear missiles went offline over the weekend

Church by Definition - a place for slaves

Some may perceive that the church, as a bastion of religious humility, would speak out against the violence of perpetuating human bondage and degradation that has historically been inflicted upon the descendants of slaves in America. Throughout the history of Africans in America, from slavery to the present day, one constant has been the impact of religion, especially Christianity, on the physical and mental enslavement of African Americans.

Europe’s advancement into the New World brought colonialism, slavery and imperialism under the guise of Christianity, which according to Sipe Mzimela, is nothing more than variations of European cultures, specifically German (Lutheranism), English (Anglicanism & Methodism), Scottish (Presbyterianism) and the French, Belgian and Portuguese (Catholicism).

Christian missionaries preached all men were equal under the eyes of God, but yet they ridiculed Africans while forcing them to accept their inferior societal status under the “Christian” concept of suffering. History has described this concept as the white man’s burden, for if the Africans did not accept Christianity they were killed.

This is one reason European religions — on behalf of missionaries and religious leaders — facilitated Europe’s occupation of Africa. This is a factual occurrence whether it was the Dutch Reform Church of South Africa, which overtly sanctioned apartheid or the Catholic enterprises at Goree, and continued such on the shores of North America and the new world. Missionaries taught Africans that it was the will and desire of God for them to suffer oppression, discrimination and exploitation.

Up until this day, albeit their are many churches and even African specific denominations such as in the Methodist Church, the same belief orientation exist in mind, practices and teachings of ministers ordained in the christian faith. The simple truth is that there is a historical fact that what is employed to provide salvation has mentally been used to make us slaves. Not to mention that the current state of the church seems to serve the pockets and privilege of the minister more than the flock that they attend to.

As a people it is difficult to refute that the Christianity that many of us practice now was forced upon us by the Dutch, Portuguese, French and English, and that the terms Christian, European, free, and white were synonymous. We can see this linage clearly both in the Scripture and the laws of this great nation as well as the increased visibility of white supremacists and Aryan nationalists cloaked under the guise of Christian identity.

The black church seems to have lost its way over the centuries since many of its teachings, although espoused from biblical origins, often were in contradiction to the state and church it represented. Today, as in past, it is not a bastion of religious humility, but rather a expansive commercial, industrial and financial entity that is devoted to wealth accumulation over the benefit of self-determination, free thinking and personal empowerment of the people it claims to represent.

Is America Trying to Kill Haiti?

In January of this year, a 7.0-magnitude earthquake killed more than 250,000 people in Haiti. Since then the country has been struggling to rebuild and restore infrastructure. The response from the United States was immediate with USAID being charged by President Obama with leading the U.S. government's response to the crisis.

Ten months later many problems remain. More than a million Haitians are still living on the streets between piles of trash and rubble from destroyed buildings. Even more unfortunate is that none of the $1.15 billion the U.S. promised for rebuilding has arrived. Although 50 other nations pledged more than $8 billion for reconstruction, less than $700 million of that had reached Haiti as of the end of September. The money was pledged by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and was to be used mostly for reconstruction.

One reason for the delay is that in the U.S., although both the House and the Senate passed a bill that would make $917 million available for aid to Haiti, the U.S. Senate has yet to pass an authorization bill that directs exactly how the money will be spent. This is because one senator, Tom Coburn, R-Okla., is holding up the bill because he is opposed to the creation of a senior Haiti coordinator because the United States currently has an ambassador to the country.
Meanwhile, deaths in Port-au-Prince are increasing due to a lack of food and shelter. Data shows a mere 2 percent of the debris and rubble from the earthquake have been removed and 13,000 temporary shelters have been built. A new report released by the international charity Oxfam indicates that the food aid pouring into Haiti is harming the country's economy, especially its agricultural sector. The majority of Haitians depend on agriculture for their livelihood but instead of AID we let disease fester - and we knew this would happen.

The only good think is that state side resident Wyclef did not run for president or it would havce been worse. remember a song by UGK back in the day that said "movies got these boy's f****d up in the minds." It specifically reminds me of celebrities and how some with fame think that's all they need to do anything, along with money and popularity that is.

Unless you have been under a rock, you should have heard by now that Wyclef Jean, the producer, singer and songwriter of the infamous Fugee's has indicated he plans to run for president of Haiti. Also, that the almost son-in-law of former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, is also throwing his hat into the political ring and is running for mayor of his hometown, Wasilla, Alaska. Johnston's manager, Tank Jo
nes, confirmed that Johnston's campaign is part of a reality TV show.


I do not know Palin, Johnston or Wyclef but I will make a broad statement that non of the aforementioned are qualified to be Mayor or President. Why might you ask?

Unfortunately, money and fame may get you the attention and the votes to win an office, but it does not qualify one with the proficiencies in economics, health management or a knowledge in parliamentary procedures required to make a substantial contribution to a major governmental body. In addition, it requires a substantial knowledge base to discern, understand and solve the problems one is confronted with and discuss them with advisers and experts in their selected fields.

I think Wyclef Jean is not qualified to be president of Haiti for the same reasons I thought Palin was not qualified to be vice president of the U.S. His candidacy is a cover up for U.S. military occupation of the country. The truth is that Jean has extremely cozy relationships with Bill Clinton and others who desire via neo-colonialism to make Haiti a tourist location for the rich and a mass pool of cheap labor for U.S. commercial interest and factories.

Jean was the former Ambassador to the U.S. and his uncle currently serves in that post. While Ambassador, he never met with the United Nations, World bank, the IMF nor any other major international political body. If he wanted to make a difference he should run for a seat in New York or New Jersey, supporting the interest of the millions of urban Americans who made him rich, but he won't. Cause the way I see it he is either the black Sarah Palin or Levi Johnston - all letting the people of Haiti die regardless.

Keynesian Economics is on Life Support and I wish it would die

In less than two weeks on November 3rd, the Federal Reserve next policy committee will end. It is suspected, if Chairman Ben Bernanke is true to his word, the central bank will attempt to drive down interest rates even lower. This if true, since traditionally the Federal Reserve bank usually cuts short term interest rates to spur economic activity, will show their traditional advocacy of Keynesian approach to economic growth. Unfortunately this is also problematic if trying to avoid inflation is of any importance.

John Maynard Keynes is the father if what many refer to as Keynesian Economic Theory. Keynesian economics is a theory that promotes the view that total spending or aggregate demand is essential to dealing with improving economic outputs and inflation. Its premise is based on the assumption that economic activity is influenced mainly by public sector decisions – mainly monetary and tax policy. The main output from this perspective is employment and not prices. This since monetary and tax policy cannot impact employment if prices or cost are not rigid entities. One reason why KET is obsolete, for if wages, if measured in terms of dollars, will not be able to define real or actual purchasing power at the individual consumer level.

Another unfortunate aspect of KET is that all economic solutions are designed and targeted directly to deal with the business cycle versus the individual worker or wage owner. Mostly due to the observation that there will always be a delay between when economic policy takes effect and when the individuals in charge, like the government actually recognize that an economic problem exists and the time it will really takes to impact the economy.

These methods are opposite to the prior approaches to economics that pushed for more of a Laissez-fair capitalism, which in its simple nature excludes the public sector in the market unlike Keynes. In fact, Keynes advocated for a central bank to be used to expand money supply, which assumes that putting more loot in folks hands would result in an increase of consumer confidence, which would result in people spending more since Keynes believed that putting money into the hands of the people would eventually go to the wage earnings of another.
But history has proven this wrong, although Bernanke, Obama and all the presidents and Fed Chairmen before both of the aforementioned act otherwise. First history is not equal to theory, which it is obvious Keynes could not comprehend. Second, the belief that massive deficit spending will flood the economy with money is equal to accepting that the Easter Bunny is a real creature that lays colored chicken eggs. The truth is that the economy is not starved for money. Thanks to the bailout, Tarp and prior bank rescues, their reserves have actually increased via the structurally built-in deficit spending under the guise of Keynes. Subsequently, allowing the Federal Reserve to release as much loot as they want for them to use to buy up unlimited amounts of bonds, commodities and securities unlike we the common person. That is now since the government can’t print money but rather have to borrow it from the Central bank.

This all with the applause of the Rothschild’s, Rockefellers and Warburg’s and the forced yet illegal Federal Reserve Act of 1913 – but that’s another story.

I mean tell me if I am wrong, but all the US Central bank does is lend loot interest free to banks that gamble, I mean invest it on Wall Street without any risk – cab you say savings and loan? Because all the banks they lend to is not for them to lend to others or extend and free up the flow of credit, but used to buy up all the assets and infrastructure in America. They got money they just don’t lend it or provide credit – they instead use it to make themselves rich – an assumption that Keynes never considered in his public sector government central bank spending to help the economy models. After all TARP, with the approval of congress gave banks the unfettered authority to seize all the property they desire, while at the same time decreasing the value of the dollar, making all that us regular folk buy more expensive.

All I am saying is that KET as has been practiced historically and currently promulgated by Obama and Bernanke has a troubling impact on mostly us main street folk who lived on fixed incomes. The stimulus to be honest about it was too little too late, not to mention the folks it was designed to help were the banks that CAUSED this recession. The fact still remains that the Federal Reserve Bank is a private corporation and no more apart of the US Government than Waffle House.

Thomas Jefferson spoke of such and said it best when he wrote: "If the America people ever allow private banks to control the issuance of their currencies, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all their prosperity until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."

Mr. President, Keynesian economics doesn’t work and is on life support due the idiot Wall Street bankers you take economic advice from. Please do not necessitate it.

Georgia Republican Wants National Guard to Shoot To Kill Border Crossers

Slavery By Another name: Some States Bring Back "Debtors' Prisons"

There have been two recent publications that have noted a resuscitation of history in America. The first called Criminal Justice Debt: A Barrier to Reentry, published by the NYU's Brennan Center for Justice documents that states have begun to mandate “user fees” on individuals with criminal convic¬tions. These fees have a negative impact on communities traditionally burdened with high incarceration rates by the criminal justice system by making new routes to prison for people unable to pay their debts.This report looked at practices in fifteen states with the highest prison populations and examined mostly the proliferation of “user fees.” These are financial obligations imposed not for any traditional criminal justice purpose but rather to fund tight state budgets. Eight of the fif¬teen states suspend driving privileges for missed debt payments and seven require individuals to pay off criminal justice debt be¬fore they can regain their eligibility to vote. In all fifteen states, criminal justice debt and associated collection practices can damage an individuals credit.

Fourteen also utilize “poverty penalties” – piling on additional late fees and interest when individuals are unable to pay their debts. The state of Alabama charges a 30 percent collection fee and Florida allows for private debt collectors to tack on a 40 percent surcharge to collect underlying debt.

The second report, released by the American Civil Liberties Union is called In For a Penny: The Rise of America's New Debtors' Prisons. It presents the findings of a year long investigation into modern-day debtors' prisons. In essence the practice of incarcerating people because they cannot afford to pay their legal debts.

Although such practices are unconstitutional, the practice of debtors' prisons is growing across the country although the Supreme Court prohibited imprisoning those who are too poor to pay their legal debts more than twenty years ago.

In some states, people, mainly men and women whom are poor, being unable to pay their legal fees such as charges for use of public defenders, which is a guaranteed right in the United States - becomes a criminal act. Meaning that their only crime is being poor or living in poverty. Debtor prisons are most popular in the states with the largest prison populations like California, Michigan and Alabama.

The ACLU report cites several startling examples. Gregory White, a homeless man in Louisiana, was arrested for stealing $39 worth of food from a grocery store. He was billed $339 in legal fees. When he could not pay, he was arrested and spent 198 days in jail, which cost the city $35,000.

Percy Dear, of New Orleans suffers from epilepsy and schizophrenia. He was arrested for begging in 2007 and was sentenced with either paying an immediate fine of $200 or spending 20 days in jail. In Georgia, Ora Lee Hurley owed $705 in fines from a 1990 drug possession conviction. She stayed in jail for eight months for failing to pay.

These are examples of how the economy and justice systems are seeking ways to criminalize being poor. Although in Bearden v. Georgia, the Supreme Court ruled that such practices violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, states all across the country use debtor prisons to impart unequal justice on the poor, in particular African Americans, under the guise of making money.

Black councilman told he should work in a cotton field

New Internet Censorship Law Introduced in U.S. Senate

Senator Patrick Leahy has introduced S.3804 or the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA). Although this bill is in the first step in the legislative process, if signed into law, it would allow the attorney general and the Department of Justice to require domain registrars and registries, ISPs, DNS providers, and others to block Internet users from reaching certain websites.

In addition, it would also create a set of Internet blacklists. One would be a list of all of the government-selected Web sites served with a “censorship court order” from the attorney general’s office. The second would be a list of domain names that the Department of Justice determines singularly and subjectively without judicial review that are described as or determined to be "dedicated to infringing activities" — whatever the heck that is. The bill will block domains on both lists, with the latter requesting that service providers do so with legal immunity when they block the sites listed.

This is a censorship bill that could have an extremely dangerous impact on freedom of speech and the Internet. Moreover, it is in contradiction to the tenets of democracy espoused in the Bill of Rights. Last I read, no law shall be made that restricts limits or suppresses speech, meaning that blocking an entire domain over a portion of a single Web site is just dumb.

The Senate needs to seriously reconsider this bill. I would like to believe that the public will make the effort to oppose such idiocy, but the reality is that many do not know and would not know because reading is a lost art and most spend too much time on the Internet following gossip and celebrity than the laws of our great nation and the practices of our politicians.

Are you at all bothered by the government's quiet attempts to infringe upon or do away with our rights? Could you live without Facebook, Twitter or some of the other sites that occupy your time if they happened to make the list?

helmet to helmet - humbug

America has been increasingly falling down the global ladder of intellectual sophistication and astuteness. From our schools to our politics, this is a self evident truth. No more real is this observation than the aforementioned is what is observed in the world of Professional sports.
Now don’t get me wrong, I love sports, but I must admit, it is more than apparent that from the new proposed rule changes in professional basketball to the attempt to change the contact ethos in football, that these organizations are run by imbeciles who do not have any knowledge or understanding of science math, physics or physiology, or worse, that they themselves ma have skipped a few too many classes while in school or had the old noggin cracked one too many times.

I state this for two reasons albeit the latter will be my main focus. In summary, you cannot legislate obviate natural occurrences via technical fouls (as in the case of emotions and fouls in the NBA) or the mechanics of physics or physiology (as in the case of the NFL with respect to helmet to helmet contact).

It appears unbeknownst to those in professional football any knowledge of the Potassium Argon Theory of Bilateral symmetry. This defines why the human body of Homo sapiens sapiens is the way it is, or in other words why what we have on one side is on the other as well as why we walk up right, lead with our head and walk on our feet. Yes, Homo sapiens sapiens, which translated means “man wise wise”. But you cannot tell these from idiots who think they can make rules that are contra to human anatomy, physiology or the natural laws of physics.

As a creature with bilateral symmetry, the fact is that man, when using his complete body as a projectile, will always leads from his head, for force originates from acceleration from our feet in relation to the ground and gravity. This is proven factual from the entire known math in the world as postulated from Euclid, to Pythagoras to Einstein. Since perpendicularity originates with the understanding of right triangles, when mass and force are added, we end up with corresponding positions with motion – these are called vectors. Vectors are mathematical objects best explained by physics; however I will attempt to simplify it for the commoner.

A vector is characterized by a direction in space like a Safety on a football field hey are They begin at an Origin “O” which is a starting point like the feet of a Safety on the field. It leads from that initial origin “O” to another point “P” in space. “P” is the end point. This is why vectors are symbolized by an arrow, because al force from an origin is targeted to the end point f the head just as an arrow from the string of a bow. All vectors eventually intersect the target plane (Ball Carrier) and are called projections. Projections end up translating all of the force obtained by the mass of the particles push from the ground to an end point (Ball carrier).

This is why we have the concepts of momentum, energy and elasticity – since the velocity of a particle in motion has direction and magnitude. Plainly stated, the momentum of a particle with velocity and mass is a vector. The elasticity of these resulting forces acting between colliding particles (ball players) is reinforced in Newton’s laws of mechanics. Otherwise we would have inelastic impact, or where the two particles hit each other and stick together.

The point is if men play football in our gravity and they start on the ground, and project with mass and acceleration, it is both physically and mathematically impossible for the human body not to lead with the opposite end where the energy transfer started (the head). No matter what we do, humans by anatomy and symmetry will always lead from the head whether it is walking forward or standing up. The only way to change this I football is if you allow folks to drop kick each other because all the rules in the world they come up will never refute the laws of mechanics.

Islamic Fundamentalism: Puritanism and Evangelicalism Revisited

They say that America was founded upon many tenants, of which the escape from religious persecution in Europe was one. As a result, where we live today has become the most religious diverse nation in the world. But insofar that this is historic truth, the query remains, is such our strength or weakness?

I make this assertion as a form of observation rooted both in historic accuracy and human action. The latter in many respects being feculent and absurd, in particular if what people display reflects what they actually think and feel. Especially as it regards the practice of Islam in modern America.

Personally, modern day Islam, or really I should state Islamic fundamentalism is equal too or the same as the Christianity that was presented that found and established this nation. This is why I am confused by protesting against an Islamic community center in NYC near or around ground zero, or anywhere in America to the proposed burning of books by zealots. This to me reaffirms the selfish edict, that we alone, are the chosen people of God – a lesson refuted via the practice of slavery and cemented via the blood of many before, and during the civil war.

The simple summary is that Islam is no more or less violent than Christianity. Just like some in Islam believe all outside of their belief are infidels, so was the view of the Spanish, who came to the new world, and forced with the Bible and threat of death the native Americans to accept Christianity (Catholicism) without question. But this lead to war and they eventually left New Mexico in 1680. This is one reason Pope Alexander VI in 1493, decreed that it was alright for Europeans to use non-whites in the name of God. Which was good for Bartolome de Las Casas, a Christian who came to the conclusion that African slaves were needed in Hispaniola after he had killed many of the indigenous people.

The lesson learned was that we cannot use political machinery to force our beliefs on others. A lesson the puritans would learn, albeit in theory it is purported that they left Europe to save Christianity from the politics of the European Church. Another reason for them as now. I can not discern any difference between Christianity during the founding of America for a group of people who saw themselves as the chosen people of God, or the fervor that arose out of the protestant reformation or evangelicals, or fundamentalist Islam and its predilection for Shari law.
Yep, the actions of John Winthrop are just like those of Osama Bin Laden. They both say the same thing: that if we are good by our God, that God will bless us. Just Like Billy Graham, for it was the Reverend Billy Graham and other white ministers who told Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights bus boycott that his actions were “not Christian and ungodly.”

The aforementioned examples tell me that all, regardless of religious affiliation are off base – for intolerance and absolute conformity is never good or godly. Unfortunately, this is what defines both Islam and Christianity historically globally. Yes the intolerance of Islam by American Christians and fundamentalist Muslims hatred of the West are the same. Just as slavery showed that whites perceived themselves selfishly as the chosen people of God, I see the same today. How the perspicacity of scripture is used to suggest how some selected few, if different is less than others. Unfortunately regardless of what men say, no God would assert such a premise. The bottom line is that truth fears no light and no man can love God yet orate hate for his brother at the same time, for it is written that he that lives by the sword, shall die by the sword, and both Christianity and Islam should take note.

Congress Wants to Make Private Farming Illegal

There is some new legslation on Capitol Hill that is worthy of serious attention. Senate Bill S 510, the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2010, may be the most dangerous and over reaching bill ever proposed in the history of the United States of America. If passed, the Food Safety Modernization Act would be a serious and far reaching extension of the federal government's regulation of the food industry.

The Bill which was proposed by U.S. Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois would preclude any person’s right to grow, own, trade, transport, share, feed and eat each and every food that is not grown by a government approved agency or organization. This means it would be illegal to grow, share, trade or sell homegrown food. It will also come with an expected price tag of $825 billion for this year alone, if passed .

Although there is no such authority in the Constitution with respect to the control of food, it notes that products not grown according to designated standards of the the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will be considered adulterated. As such, individuals found guilty would be subject to warrantless searches by inspectors from the government. There is a complimentary bill to S 510 in the House (H.R. 2749) that even provides the National Guard and other Federal authorities the right to impose martial law in order to “prohibit or restrict the movement of food." The exact language of the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 can be found in Section 133b of the House Bill which is sponsored by Congressman John Dingell of Michigan.

This bill reflects both what is wrong with Washigton and how big and expansive government has become. In summary the bill will manage and control each person's individual right to produce, distribute, and consume the foods they desire. It is scary that something like this would even be proposed. But it is not suprising, since money speaks louder than the citizens of this country. So be careful, the apples or tomatoes you grow in your back yard may be a federal offense soon .

In fact they have alread started raiding farms under the guise of law. In in June, agents of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, armed with search warrants, raided and shut down Traditional Foods Warehouse, a food club in Minneapolis specializing in locally-produced foods. Rawesome Foods, a Venice, California, the the FBI and the FDA agents seized several thousand dollars worth of raw honey and raw dairy products. In Nashville, federal agents seized food valued at more than $1 million from the Won Feng Trading Co, claiming the products had been contaminated by rodents, insects and other filth although State health officials refuted such a claim. And just this past week, the FDA - armed with guns, raided a Missouri Dariy (Moringland dairy) farm and destroyed 50,000 pounds of cheese.

The Obama administration is placing its full support and advocacy for this bill, especially since the Egg recall of the summer. It is just a mater of time I figure before people realize that government is no longer for the People and by the people.

Slavery By Another name: Some States Bring Back "Debtors' Prisons"

There have been two recent publications that have noted a resuscitation of history in America. The first called Criminal Justice Debt: A Barrier to Reentry, published by the NYU's Brennan Center for Justice documents that states have begun to mandate “user fees” on individuals with criminal convic­tions. These fees have a negative impact on communities traditionally burdened with high incarceration rates by the criminal justice system by making new routes to prison for people unable to pay their debts.This report looked at practices in fifteen states with the highest prison populations and examined mostly the proliferation of “user fees.” These are financial obligations imposed not for any traditional criminal justice purpose but rather to fund tight state budgets. Eight of the fif­teen states suspend driving privileges for missed debt payments and seven require individuals to pay off criminal justice debt be­fore they can regain their eligibility to vote. In all fifteen states, criminal justice debt and associated collection practices can damage an individuals credit.

Fourteen also utilize “poverty penalties” – piling on additional late fees and interest when individuals are unable to pay their debts. The state of Alabama charges a 30 percent collection fee and Florida allows for private debt collectors to tack on a 40 percent surcharge to collect underlying debt.

The second report, released by the American Civil Liberties Union is called In For a Penny: The Rise of America's New Debtors' Prisons. It presents the findings of a year long investigation into modern-day debtors' prisons. In essence the practice of incarcerating people because they cannot afford to pay their legal debts.

Although such practices are unconstitutional, the practice of debtors' prisons is growing across the country although the Supreme Court prohibited imprisoning those who are too poor to pay their legal debts more than twenty years ago.

In some states, people, mainly men and women whom are poor, being unable to pay their legal fees such as charges for use of public defenders, which is a guaranteed right in the United States - becomes a criminal act. Meaning that their only crime is being poor or living in poverty. Debtor prisons are most popular in the states with the largest prison populations like California, Michigan and Alabama.

The ACLU report cites several startling examples. Gregory White, a homeless man in Louisiana, was arrested for stealing $39 worth of food from a grocery store. He was billed $339 in legal fees. When he could not pay, he was arrested and spent 198 days in jail, which cost the city $35,000.

Percy Dear, of New Orleans suffers from epilepsy and schizophrenia. He was arrested for begging in 2007 and was sentenced with either paying an immediate fine of $200 or spending 20 days in jail. In Georgia, Ora Lee Hurley owed $705 in fines from a 1990 drug possession conviction. She stayed in jail for eight months for failing to pay.

These are examples of how the economy and justice systems are seeking ways to criminalize being poor. Although in Bearden v. Georgia, the Supreme Court ruled that such practices violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, states all across the country use debtor prisons to impart unequal justice on the poor, in particular African Americans, under the guise of making money.

United States of Idiots

Work, Bread and Honor: America Wants A Hitler

If I am not mistaken, it seems as if the past, that horrible past that once draped America as a Nation based on race has returned. Maybe it has never left; maybe it has just been cloaked behind the smiles and eyes of its citizenry.

So much attention is directed toward anti-immigration, ant-Muslim and even anti-black that it is just ridiculous. I just wish folk were able to man up and say how they feel. The fact is that fear is a function of not understanding what is different. And as long as we have had people from Europe living in this great nation we have seen fear. Fear against the Native Americans which they infected with disease and stole their land to the fear against African slaves, who they felt inherently would seek revenge for their cruel and unusual treatment of humans they selected to perceived to be less than such.

There was even the fear of their own kind, when the first anti-immigrant fervor hit the nation in the 1840s. Then under the guise of nativism, vehement protest was rampant as immigration from Europe increased. The simple fact is that the Tea Party is no different than the Order of United Americans and the Order of the Star-Spangled Banner organizations that arose more than 160 years ago due to the unfounded fear that the country was being overwhelmed by German and Irish Catholic immigrants, who were perceived to be contrary to Anglo-Saxon values.

Now just as then, felt resentment at the new arrivals and became known as nativists. Through violent protest and clashes were the result occurring cities across the nation. Their rhetoric, as is the rhetoric of the Tea Party was used to inflame and for the abutment of division. For the assertion that the Tea Party is diverse or seeks diversity is just PR and like saying the Council of Conservative Citizens wants to have some black folk under their sheets.

So what is it that makes racism appealing to some on the extreme right and some in the Tea party? What is that would make the common person support a GOP congressional candidate like Rich Lott, who intentionally wears and poses in a Nazi uniform? Is this what the Tea Party endorses, for if it is, I can see no difference in Lott wearing this than a white robe and hood, regardless of the reason?

I mean why would a man want to dress up or be associated with participating in historical re-enactments that promulgate a racial crusade to rid the world of subhuman’s, which is both the historical truth that the Germans then and the Klan today purport.

As opposed to fighting bigotry and hatred it seems retro chic to support it. But then again what could one expect, since most do not know that Neo-Nazis started the Tea-Party movement. Yes they in concert with the Limbaugh’s and the Glenn Becks of the world have taken Hitler’s message well because the way I see it, the Republican Party is building its political future on the bigotry and divisiveness of the Tea Party movement. Just as in Hitler’s time, when the German economy was stalled and saddled with the debt of World War I and Bismarck, new American like Nazis are now taking advantage of Americans economic woes and high unemployment, so it is easier to by scape- goat African, immigrants, Muslims, gays and Jews, thus their appeal with white supremacists, the Christian identity movement and white nationalists.

The sad reality is that white supremacists sees Tea Parties as an entry into mainstream American politics and their best way to get what they really want, a Hitler-like nationalistic racist leader that places the good of white Anglo Saxon protestants first above all people. They desire an American for whites and people of European descent only and preferably only Christians with no integration and mixing of the race. The want what Hitler said he would promise the true and pure Nordic Germanic races – Work, Bread and Honor.

Big Brother: School Children Using Fingerprint Scanners For Identification

From a woman Born in 1930 - ungrateful coloreds

Why do the Democrats Want My DNA

The U.S. Congress decided this past May to expand the FBI's DNA database. Strange ain't it, folks cannot get a budget passed, deal with the econonmy or stop the massive rate of foreclosures but the House can vote 357 to 32 to support legislation that “will pay state governments to require DNA samples” collected via blood, from anyone arrested for major crimes. The bill, called the Katie Sepich Enhanced DNA Collection Act of 2010.

What was strange was that of all of the democrats in the house, not one voted in opposition of the bill, a bill that will dole out nearly $75 million for each state that agrees to make this practice mandatory. If states agree, the FBI's Convicted Offender DNA Index System (CODIS) database could grow massively, since annually it is estimated that state and local law enforcement entities arrest almost 14 million Americans, not including arrests for traffic violations.

The problem is that a number of Americans are arrested for crimes but never convicted. Th new legislation will mean that they risk having their DNA taken by force of law and added to a national data base, if the bill on the floor of the house is approved.

Marc Rotenberg, the executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center has expressed concern of this expansion of DNA data collection and would like the United States to follow the model practiced in the Europe. The British government is in the process of reforming its National data base that began in the early 1990’s. Originally designed to store data only from convicted felons, it grew to contain data on millions of citizens, many of whom had only been arrested on suspicion and were never convicted of a crime.

The Bill was passed under what is called "suspension of the rules” which does not allow for an open and full debate on the subject. The Act referenced as H.R. 4614, would amend a section of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968. The concern is that DNA samples should be limited only to individuals who have been convicted of a crime, meaning there is probable cause and DNA could be collected via warrant. Inevitably, individuals may presumed guilty prior to being convicted of a crime.

Strangely, there has been no discussion of the pending legislation on major news outlets, and more surprisingly how this was in essence “rammed” through the House of Representatives. The powers granted to the government or law enforcement agencies that exceed the constitution already impacts African Americans the hardest. The question is will we speak out vehemently as we did protesting the war on drugs, or will we just accept all that the power brokers — even democrats do on capital hill?

Economic News You Wont See on TV

1] JP Morgan and the Federal Reserve Are Selling Paper Gold and Buying Physical Gold.

2] The Uber Rich Are Buying Gold by the Ton.

3] The United States Mint announced it has run out of 1-ounce, 24-karat American Buffalo gold bullion coins and that it will not be selling any more in 2010.

4] How can anyone explain the unusually high option volume that we are witnessing currently?

5] Federal regulators announced a $30 billion bailout of the U.S. wholesale credit union system.

6] FED, ECB Throwing World into Economic Chaos according to Nobel Winner Joseph Stiglitz.

7. Some very large investors are making massive bets that the S&P 500 is going to take a serious tumble during the month of October.

Naked Man throws a book at Obama's head

Truth About Bush Tax Cuts: They Don't Work

It appears that with midterm elections quickly approaching in November, all any Washington, D.C., politician can talk about is tax cuts. Not just any tax cuts but the Bush tax cuts, which largely benefited the rich. Republicans believe that we should keep them in place — at least for another two years and Democrats say they should only be kept in place for the middle class. What is not talked about is whether the tax cuts have had any impact on the average American.

The two major tax-cutting bills from the Bush era were the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act (EGTRRA) of 2001, and the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003. These bills lowered tax rates across the board on income, dividends and capital gains; eventually eliminated the estate tax; further lowered burdens on married couples, parents and the working poor; and increased tax credits for education and retirement savings. The Obama Administration’s proposal would extend most of these reductions, allowing only those for individuals earning more than $200,000 and families earning more than $250,000 per year to expire.

Bush tax cut dollars benefit higher-income households, the group of people who save more and spend less than lower income earners. If this is how jobs are created then there should be some visible growth, given that they are still in place until December 31, 2010. Also, it is inaccurate to say that if removed they will hurt small businesses. Less than 2 percent of tax returns reporting small-business income are filed by taxpayers in the top two income brackets.

The fact is that extending the tax cuts adds to the deficit by creating an even larger deficit. In fact, even if everyone in America was employed, continuing the Bush tax cuts would lead to a national debt, meaning the yearly deficit would rise from 6 to 7 percent of GDP by 2020. The Bush tax cuts reduced revenue and by some estimates, account for 25 percent of our current deficit. As for creating jobs, there is no evidence of that for if they did, we would have more jobs being created now with the tax cuts still in place

Protesting Against 'Essence' Magazine Is the Real Fashion Faux Pas

It seems that some African American women are still upset still with Essence magazine, so much so that they recently protested on the streets of New York. Why? Because the magazine has a new fashion director, Ellianna Placas. They are really upset because she is white.

I do not understand why this situation would be worthy of a protest, it is not as if they won’t let you sit at any restaurant and order food, or like they make you sit in the back of a bus or an innocent man is sitting on death row. No it is not about anything important such as the aforementioned but rather the lack of diversity in the world of fashion. "Diversity" in this sense equals African American women.

On the first day of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week N.Y. Spring 2011, a small coterie of young black women dressed in black and wearing black sunglasses marched from Time Inc.'s headquarters to Lincoln Center. Completely silent, the women carried signs that read, "I am a fashion director," and "I am Susan Taylor" — along with the names of African Americans who have served in the fashion director role at Essence in the past.

It's cool, to protest but in most cases it should be about something important. What is wrong with having a white fashion editor? After all, most of the clothing these women wear isn’t even made by African Americans. From Polo, to Coach, to Vera Wang, To Gucci to Louis Vuitton, most African Americans wear attire that is made by folks of European descent. But they do not protest that. Who better to talk about clothes and accessories made by whites that black women wear than a white person?

This is the dumbest protest I have ever heard of. It basically shows that we choose issues without any serious thought, and even worse, that what we really value is materialism. Protesting against Essence magazine is a real fashion faux pas.

Mr. President: Recession hitting us folk hard

The recession is crushing African American communities in major urban centers like Detroit and Memphis. Since the collapse of the auto industry and housing market, Detroit’s population has dropped to under a million from 1.8 million.

Today it is possible to buy a three-bedroom home in Detroit for around $10,000, however there are no buyers. Given this predicament, Mayor Dave Bing, a former NBA star, has suggested reducing the size of the metropolitan area in hopes of reducing the city’s expenses.

Bing’s proposal would require the city to demolish nearly 40,000 homes over the next several years. Poverty rates in Detroit are far above the national average. Some have asserted that such draconian approaches border on being a form of "ethnic cleansing." The fact is that almost a third of the city's 139 square miles is uninhabited.

Foreclosure procedures have been initiated against 1.7 million of the nation’s households, with the average borrower in foreclosure being delinquent for more than 400 days before actually being evicted. More than 650,000 households had not made a mortgage payment in 18 months.

In cities such as Memphis, the recession is having a similar effect due to rising unemployment and growing foreclosures. The median income of black homeowners in Memphis has dropped to pre-1990 levels. The unemployment rates for African Americans in the city is approaching 20 percent when it was below 10 percent just two years ago.

The recession is creating an ever-widening economic gap between whites and African Americans across the nation. Several studies have documented this disheartening trend.

The Economic Policy Institute notes that as of December 2009, median white and African American wealth fell 34 percent and 77 percent, respectively. A study conducted by the Institute on Assets and Social Policy at Brandeis University concluded that for each dollar of wealth owned by a white family, a black family owns just 16 cents, based on Federal Reserve numbers.

The recession is real and it may take several years before any progress or improvement is noticed or felt at the community level. So for the time being, African American families will have to deal with rising unemployment and foreclosure rates and manage to survive the best way they can.

Increase Poverty not a good look for Obama

This week, Census figures will be released and it may be very bad news for President Barack Obama and his administration. The number of people in the U.S. who are in living in poverty is growing and approaching record levels not observed since the 1960s.

Reports from six demographers who track poverty trends expect increases in the range of between 14 and 15 percent.

If the estimates are accurate, this would mean that 1 out of 7 or more than 45 million people were poor last year in America. This would be the largest number since the government started tracking poverty figures in 1959. Prior to this, 1980 showed the biggest increase when the rate jumped 1.3 percentage points to 13 percent during the energy crisis.

Among the 18-64 working-age population, the demographers expect the rate to rise beyond 12.4 percent, up from 11.7 percent. That would make it the highest since at least 1965, when another Democratic president, Lyndon B. Johnson, launched the war on poverty that expanded the federal government's role in social welfare programs from education to health care.

This is particularly troubling for African Americans, since we disproportionately are represented with respect to poverty and unemployment. This is also so true for children since experts anticipate child poverty rates to increase to more than 20 percent.

If these projections are accurate, Republicans, although they have not stated any specific policies to deal with the economy, will have ammunition to continue their attacks against Democrats and President Obama citing a higher poverty rate as evidence of their failed economic policy, although these poverty increases started under President Bush.

Regardless of the political arguments, something needs to be done or else poverty rates will continue to rise and even worse, will start to creep up to middle-class working and unemployed families. Unfortunately, neither party is dealing with answering the question of what can be done to assist families in dire economic need. The all-time high was 22.4 percent in 1959, the first year the government began tracking poverty. As of 2008, the poverty level stood at $22,025 for a family of four.

God Loves Stupid People

I was once told that God loves stupid people because he mad so many. This is no more evident than what is said and seen on television news. For some reason it seems that many pundits don't have the capacity to think freely.

Take for example the coverage recently regarding the gay student Tyler Clementi whose roommate allegedly streamed video of him with another man making out. The experience was so troubling to him that it supposedly led him to drive an hour from Rutger's University to a bridge over the Hudson River and leap to his death, prior to which he left a update on his face book page.

No in all seriousness this is a tragedy. But I cannot see how many, especially CNN can make the leap to homophobia and bullying without any substantial evidence. It is very hard for me to see this as an example of bullying or homo phobia, but more so a behavioral function of the age of instant media and cellular telephony that we live in. From what I understand, there was no indication that Clementi's roommate, Dharun Ravi had anything against homosexuals.

In fact, I would argue the opposite, that it was all about entertainment in this age of Internet celebrity, seeking followers of face book and twitter, and a media culture that justifies the use of hidden camera's more than accuracy, fact and objectivity.

The truth is that this is a YouTube culture for most youth today. From celebrity sex video's to street fights, most are insensitive, or even worse, not concerned about the personal orientations of the people they use as vehicles for entertainment than their race or sexual orientation.

Shows like cheaters have lead the way, not to mention the assorted media and hidden camera stings that flood the airwaves from the sting of Acorn to main steam media outlets tracking any political figure.

This has nothing to do with bullying or homo phobia but rather is a reflection of a culture that has been desensitized to any rights of privacy or respect for common decorum. I bet if some one killed themselves after being on cheaters for being outed or caught, we would not call them a bully?

Like I said to start this essay, God must love stupid people, because he made so many and seems to have placed most of them on cable television news shows on CNN.

Only in Memphis: Man accused of shooting teen for not pulling up pants

Wikipedia Article Promotes Racial Inferiority of Non Whites

Just when you thought you could turn your head and look away from the stupidity, neo-Nazi and white supremacist attitudes and beliefs again rear their ugly heads — this time on Wikipedia. If you go to Wikipedia, do me a favor and search for race and Intelligence and you will see what I mean. The article you find there will be up at least until September 1, 2010.

The article attempts to apply a rational justification — albeit non-empirically or scientifically based — that blacks are genetically inferior to whites in general and especially with respect to intelligence. It incorporates the findings that recently manifested when The Journal of Psychology, Public Policy and Law, published an article by J.P. Rushton and A.R. Jensen called “Thirty Years of Research on Race Differences in Cognitive Ability and the recent book by Ricard Nisbett, Intelligence and How to Get It: Why Schools and Cultures Count.

These individuals, in concert with the classic premise of racial inferiority as postulated by Freud, Jung, Sir Francis Galton and others, postulate the heritability of intelligence as a perceived genetic disposition is greatest among white populations. Moreover, it asserts that as a function, test scores, specifically IQ differences are a function of genetic inheritability as well. The article, which claims to be sound research, even states that “Brain size is correlated to IQ and blacks have smaller brains than whites.” This has never been scientifically documented from an anatomical or physiological locution.

In the past I have informed many that Google and Wikipedia are not references and should not be used as such. In fact they actually may do more harm than good, seeing they allowed a single man to propose a feculent theory regarding the genetic impact of race on intelligence when science indicates that race is fictitious and completely man-made.

As a scientist in the field of behavior, I attempted to correct and argue the factual historical and scientific authenticity and negate the fallacious assertions presented in this article, but I cannot edit it since it is being disputed for its factual accuracy and incessant systemic bias presented. We should all read this, even if it just to show you what Africans in the world are up against, or how little you actually know.

Them

I was trying to stay as far away from this Muslim community center and Quran burning stuff as I could. I feel that talking and or writing about it gives it credence as a legitimate issue — although it is not.

First of all, the much-talked about Ground Zero mosque will not be located at ground zero, nor is it a mosque, which makes the venomous opposition so difficult to understand. I expect such attitudes from hatemongers, extremists and anyotherpeoplephobes. To date I have heard no valid argument against it, unless one accepts emotion as a logical construct for an argument. This perspective is so sophistical and wacky because it seems make it acceptable to block building an Islamic center in New York but gives tacit approval to the Quran burning proposed by Gainesville, Fla.'s self-proclaimed Guy Montag (the fireman who burned books in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451).

I remember as a child the day Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered in Memphis, Tenn. His death was the result of illogical emotionalism and racial extremism. How quickly we forget that from Memphis to the Alabama cities of Birmingham and Selma, King, too, was asked not to March, although many acknowledged his constitutional right to do so.

Then there is the attempt to make the irrational rational using statistics to infer that Americans are not radical, extremist or anti-Muslim just because 70 percent of them oppose the Islamic center in New York. It is obvious we do not follow history, because we have forgotten that more than 70 percent of Americans disagreed with the Supreme Court ruling (Brown vs. Board of Education) that abolished segregation in schools. Not to mention that the majority of Americans were also against equal rights for African Americans.

Historically, America seems to conveniently forget its history and gets defensive when the truth is impinged on their senses. The simple fact is that America is the land of racists and anyotherpeoplephobes. The newest target is Islam and Muslims. We refer to this group as THEM, just like we do and did Native Americans and African Americans. This is sad. Now I know why white folks are scared of all black people if one black person robs them. To whites, all Muslims are the same as the ones who flew planes into the Twin Towers; just as all black folks are the same. I call this racist, for anyone who isn't white in America is the pronoun THEM.

Montgomery Using Blight Ordinance to Destroy Homes of African Americans

When we think of the Civil Rights Movement, some cities stand out more than others, like Montgomery, Ala., for instance. Montgomery was where the historic bus boycott officially started on Dec. 1, 1955. On that day, African Americans decided that they would boycott the city buses until they could sit anywhere they wanted, as opposed to being relegated to the back of the bus.

Yes, Montgomery is a city steeped in the history of the Civil Rights Movement. However, the landscape of the past may be destroyed and lost to the practices of gentrification.

Montgomery officials have been declaring homes "blighted" and condemning them. Karen Jones' home was declared blighted and bulldozed with most of her belongings still inside. To add insult to injury, the city sent her a bill for $1,225 for the demolition, forcing her to pay or suffer a lien on her property. The sad thing is that this is happening to many African American homeowners in the city at an accelerated rate. Residents have accused the city of taking their property without just compensation, and many of the properties are ending end up in the hands of wealthy developers.

David Beito, a history professor at the University of Alabama, who as chair of the Alabama State Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights held hearings on the demolitions in April 2009, describes what is happening as “a civil rights crisis.” Ironically, many of the homes that have been demolished are located along a commemorative trail that runs through Rosa Parks' former neighborhood