Washington is regretting its selection of Gray...

This is one of those situations where I have to tell folk, "I told you so..." about DC's mayor, Vincent Gray.  Back in 2010, there were so much chatter amongst the black blogosphere about how "bad Adrian Fenty was as DC's mayor", "how he sold DC to white people", and "how Michelle Rhee and Adrian Fenty were ruining DC".  So those across the black blogosphere cosigned the poor judgment of those voting in DC to elected Gray over Fenty.

It's so ironic those are more silent than a whore in church on the huge controversy that has bestowed upon DC for the umpteenth time.  As much as I don't care for any pawn of the business establishment, it seems that Fenty wasn't as idiotic and corrupt as his successor, Gray.  I am actually more annoyed at the fact that folk doesn't seems to want perfection from many that will talk that talk, but never walk the walk.  Gray is a text book example of this mentality and its plethora of failings.

Meanwhile, a number of members in his 2010 mayoral campaign staff, 2 DC Councilmen, and a former mayoral primary opponent were all later implicated to be involved in the shell game of using funds and authority he offered upon getting elected to mayor's helm.  (FYI, for others who want to say "but they do it too", no duh, I know whites do this but they have sense enough to know better to do this do obviously.)  


However, after going from 2 mayors, Anthony Williams and Fenty, whom helped the city regain prominence and allowed significant public works projects and strategies to progress that helped Washington become the planning and community development hub of the East Coast.  Also reformed the DC school district from the average US city school district with low rates of overall scholastic achievement to one where accountability for school progress was enforced from the instructors to school administrators and increase in achievement and test scores during Fenty's tenure.  These are the things that are just as important as allowing adequate access of the citizenry whom are qualified for city jobs and pacifying those whom were in your corner.  It seems that so many in the establishment camp miss this lesson, you have to improve the entire city from across the board.  

I guess living in a city like Birmingham, where this is the reason why there is such a huge leadership void because nobody with pragmatic, progressive, and transparency tied into their political existence that it will continue to be more idiots than leaders at the city's helm.  To sum it up, most Birminghamians lack the nuance of their choices for mayor rather they allow the "establishment" to manipulate their perspectives, and wins every time.  In reality, the same thing happens in Alabama in general, but this applies with white citizens more often than black citizens...

*sigh* This is so depressing and shows that sometimes you have to give it up to the predominately white urban business establishment in a number of US cities.  They can get a progressive that has some sense elected that is smart enough not be caught up in blatant corruption.   I was shock when New Orleans chose Mitch Landrieu, because one he wasn't a puppeteer of the black establishment nor was he was one of the urban white business establishment.  New Orleans wasn't alone considering Charlotte elected Anthony Foxx, whom like Landrieu, wasn't apart of neither camp, rather loosely affiliated with both sides in the way to get elected.

Folk has to get it together because there seems to be a leadership problem in Birmingham, Atlanta, Memphis, and now Washington...

2 fails and a success (sort of...)

OK, North Carolina and its ability to negate the fact that it is a Southern state with fools at the wheel leading it future, FAIL!  FYI, same-sex unionships were already banned at a state-level in North Carolina prior to this referendum.  It is interesting that the majority of people would be willing to vote for an amendment that would essentially strip even common law heterosexual couples of recognition, domestic partnership benefits, and domestic violence protections.  North Carolina is a state of dichotomy with very socially progressive urban areas, but staunch socially conservative (and very regressive) rural areas.  It is very dubious mentality for a place that wants to the most competitive state of the New South (against Georgia, Virginia, Florida, and Maryland).  It seems at the moment, Maryland has the last laugh on this front, but theirs is up for the ballot as well.

Oh yeah, let me not forget President Obama affirming support for "marriage equality" for all including same-sex couples, which is a win, sort of...  The catch is he still believes it should be up to the individual states to decide for themselves whether or not they will be marriage equality for both heterosexual and homosexual relationships.  Interestingly, the perspective of likely the most prudent compromise of supporting same-sex unionships, i.e., "same-sex marriages", but remaining pragmatic which allows those whom use the guise of states' rights as a reason to non the measures.

To be more interesting, former Congressman, Artur Davis decided to blog about the President's announcement.  He attempted legitimized the opposition that exists amongst so many black Americans.  He has the tried and true argument that has been used by so many older black Americans about the disarray of stable coupling of younger generations of adults.  Yeah, I would agree that there needs to be more stability of relationships of black adults in general, but the scapegoating of same-sex couples as an additional threat is ludicrous.  This all goes back to the notion there aren't good male role models for black male youths to display to these impressible minds that responsibility of be a good father (and stop fucking every thing that walks without a condom).  It is quite faulty for Davis to use this as a justification of banning the extension of basic rights afforded to most in other Westernized nations to all their monogamous and committed couples of all combinations (male-female, male-male, female-female).  This is one situation where I don't agree with Davis attempt to be pragmatic when you are simply giving validity to myopia, FAIL!

Well, there is some truth to this, but a lot more misconceptions to this

I just read the article by Josh Kraushaar in the National Journal discussing the diversity problem associated with the Democratic Party.  While there is some truth to this notion because I've been saying this for a while now that there is a humongous problem within the DNC that involving viable black politicos whom are electable to pluralistic, statewide offices such as the U.S. Senate and governorships.  I've said time, time, and time again that there needs to be more pluralistic candidates promoted to candidacy for statewide offices across the South, but there is those whom are vehemently against this.  Yet, some blacks do wonder why the lack of viable black candidates continues persist in the South. 

On the other hand, there is way more young and non-white voters willing to vote for Democrats over Republicans.  The reasoning is quite obvious T.E.A. twits, Dixiecrats, anti-progressive stance will likely be the Republicans undoing. 

Now, the elections of Bobby Jindal, Nikki Haley (ironically both Indian Americans) to the governorships of Louisiana and South Carolina respectively is impressive.  However, notice they aren't electing any blacks or Meso-American Hispanics to the statewide offices because they know it won't fly in the South.  The few blacks elected in the South are always in majority white districts and extremely socially conservative, i.e. Allen West of Florida and Tim Scott of South Carolina.  This individuals aren't reflective of a "pluralistic" candidate rather an anti-thesis of pluralism because they have subjectively refuted an inclusive platform that is very reflective of their congressional districts.  This alone shows anyone with a strong critical analysis skill will notice about this situation of "diversity" in the Republican party.  It also will come back to haunt the GOP because most non-whites see through the overt non-inclusive nature of the current Republican party. 

Georgia happenings of the past week...

Aside from my previous post that occurred in GA (involving Shirley Sherrod), there were other major events in the past week.  On Tuesday, there were gubernatorial primaries for the Republican and Democratic parties along with U.S. Senatorial primaries for Democratic nominee challenging socially conservative incumbent Johnny Isakson.  The Democratic gubernatorial race hands down was going to go to Roy Barnes since it was obvious to me along with anyone that knows politics that Barnes got the black establishment in Georgia along by 'essentially rubbing their bellies' with potent talk about "being a key ally".  I don't have a dog in this fight, but Barnes isn't a progressive at all; on the other hand, it is obvious in most Southern states that most of the black establishment will throw that under the bus to keep themselves in good graces with whomever is going to lead their state Democratic party.

Also there for some of the congressional primaries in both parties for the practically all the seats except for the 1st, 3rd, 6th, 10th, and 11th districts.  Incumbents in the 2nd, 5th, 8th, 10th, and 11th districts went uncontested within their parties.  The open seats like the rapidly shifting 7th district, where there will be a battle royale in the fall since the district's population center, Gwinnett County, has recently become a non-white majority (courtesy of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution).  Meanwhile, Congressman Hank Johnson, of the 4th district was fighting long and hard against former DeKalb County CEO and beacon of racial controversy, Vernon Jones.  However, the more prudent amongst the majority black district voters kept Jones out of the seat (thank God!).

Now on to the other stuff...

On Thursday, Atlanta mayor, Kasim Reed, along with newly appoint APD chief, George Turner, and the Atlanta City Council openly LGBT member, Alex Wan, APD assistant chief, P.N. Andresen, and newly appointed APD LGBT liaison, Patricia Powell, attempted to pacify the city's large LGBT community.  According to the AJC, This meeting stems from the allegedly stake down that occurred in September 2009 at the Atlanta Eagle LGBT bar in midtown.  Meanwhile, I think it is obvious that there are some forces at work within the APD that will continue to harass some of the LGBT fold in the ATL, but event just doesn't seem like much without any actions proving there will a change of regime.  This is STILL the South, you guys should know and that Atlanta might be a major city, but there will always be those whom will show they don't approve of LGBTs within their ranks of the police force and in the city itself...

DC is now the first city in the South allowing same-sex unions and David Catania

The DC Council passed the ordinance into law allowing the legalization and recognition of same-sex unions within the District of Columbia. 

This ordinance was pushed by Council member at-large David Catania, a former Republican, now Independent on the District Council.  Catania is only 41 and outingly gay, and according to most who follows the District and its city level politics, says that he is an intelligent yet intimidating individual who pushes his way through the political fray.  Sounds like to me, he is going to be the next person that may be on his way of becoming DC's first gay and white mayor in a long time not before becoming the DC Council President after the next election cycle.  Well, I'm not surprised since I've noticed that all the "black mecca metropolises" are starting to turn very white and in some cases led by white LGBT politicos.  Hmmm, all I have to say is they better do right by everybody including those of color and LGBTs of color...

The political "what ifs" that wind up happening

The political and societal 'what ifs' are some of the most interesting things that occur in modern times.  What I'm talking about are the things in conventional wisdom or in scholarly thought are the things assumed not likely to occur.  However, some of these things have been defeated due to circumstance or sheer luck, but it happened.  Case and point, the Commonwealth of Virginia elected it first black governor with L. Douglas Wilder back in 1989 although just 7 years prior California failed doing the same with the candidacy of Tom Bradley thus we have the political theory known as the Bradley effect.  Nevertheless, a Southern state was the first to actually elect self-identified black governor to its office. 

Another case of this is with Houston just yesterday where the city elected its first openly gay mayor, yet it recently declined to pass a referendum to allow domestic partnership benefits including same-gender-loving (SGL) employees and their partners.  Other cases including the passage of Proposition 8 in a assumed politically and socially progressive state as California at the same time as more conservative yet urbane states like Florida with its Amendment 2 and Arizona with Proposition 102, all of which were banned the recognition or allowance of same-sex unions, domestic partnerships, or civil unions with their state boundaries.  Also the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger, famous action movie actor and a moderate Republican, to the helm of governor in California in 2003 after the electoral recall of Gray Davis, a Democrat.  Finally, the election of the first self-identified black president of the US with candidacy of Barack Obama.

It shows that anything is entirely possible in these day and age politically speaking in our society, so when I hear naysayers like Joe Reed, Jesse Jackson, and others say that it's not likely for Alabama to elect a black governor with the candidacy of Artur Davis or that Birmingham can't possibly make a turnout in the midst of huge recession then I say never say never.

Houston is now the largest U.S. with an openly-gay mayor

As of late Saturday night, after the unofficial ballot tally from 99% of the precincts reporiting in for the run-off election for Houston's mayor between former city attorney Gene Locke and city controller Annise Parker with Parker as the winner.  Now the pettiful thing about this election yesterday is percentage of turnout being only 16%.  However, the campaigning leading up to this run-off was quite contentious with accusations about Parker using spot as mayor to push a "gay agenda" from individuals and groups who either were associated or endorsed Locke.  Some of those individuals on his Locke's financial committee donated $20,000 to a political action committee lead by Steven Hotze, who donated funds to anti-gay causes. On the other hand, there were some subtle racial remarks from conservative pastors and preachers at Houston area black churches, but luckily this wasn't the front-and-center issue for the mayoral run-off.  Parker did bad-mouth Locke as a 'crony' of the current regime of the city although he touted a reduction in crime as political platform; whereas, Parker touted her time as the city controller as her platform.  Oh yeah, along with the statement that she is "nobody's role model". 

Interestingly, just last year the majority of voters rejected a ballot issues that would have allowed city employees given the domestic partnership benefits extended to all couples including those of the same sex.  

Now many across the LGBT blogosphere are enthusiast about the win for Ms. Parker, but Parker specifically said that she wouldn't be using the mayoral office to advance any specific LGBT causes.  This in my opinion shows that Ms. Parker is more or less in it for the political expediency and title not representing anybody but herself.  In other words, the LBGT blogosphere's excitement is one of "collective mindset" which I'm not a part of because this gets most nowhere to be honest.  I'm glad to see that Houstonians are objective enough to elected a mayor based on their qualifications and platform, but this isn't exactly a "win" for LGBTs.  Honestly speaking, Houston is still in Texas, a very socially-conservative state in the South, and it still has a majority socially conservative mindset when it comes to LGBT-oriented issues although they lean more Democrat on the political spectrum.  I don't equate Democrat to socially progressive.  

Also Houston is a city with 25% black population, so even though Locke won the black vote easily it didn't equate to a win.  Another thing was that this election came down to the who could energize their base the most and ironically (time and time again), whites have proven to be more reliable voters than blacks along with the fact that Parker pulled others into her electoral fold

Congratulations, Houston!  You deserve it, but to my fellow LGBT/SGL bloggers, I don't get too excited over this win because it's more showing that candidate that brought out their supporters to win.

South Carolinian Republicans circles the wagons to save Governor Mark Sanford from being ousted

Attempts to impeach embattled South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford essentially failed on Wednesday.  However, the South Carolina State Assembly have passed motions to censure Sanford for his acts including infidelity, abuse of power, leaving without notification, and waste of taxpayers money.  BIG WHOOP!

On the other hand, his wife Jenny is filing for divorce. 


The thing that sticks out to me is the fact that the Republicans are circling the wagons and not impeaching him although he has done things that are most definitely on the grounds of impeachment.  I guess they don't want the Republicans, who are the majority of South Carolina State Assembly, doesn't want the outed, closet-case, South Carolina, Lieutenent Goveror Andre Bauer in the governors' chair.  Of course, Mr. Bauer vividly denies such things, but we already know the 'tea' since it's been spelt all over the blogospher.  SMH  They should have ousted him on principle, but partisanship matters only in these fools' minds.

The South and Southwest leads the nation in the number of insured

The U.S. Census Bureau released its annual report yesterday saying that 46.3 million Americans are without health insurance.  This is mainly contributed to the major recession the country has been facing since early last year where so many people have lost their jobs along with their health insurance.  Also the poverty rate has increased as well from 12.5% in 2007 to 13.6% in 2008 which translate to 39.8 million Americans living in on income below the poverty line (the highest since 1960).  It doesn't take a mathematician to figure out that it has a lot to do with the large number of jobs losses also...

Also the Institute of Southern Studies broke it down even further:

Divided by region, the uninsured were mostly likely to be found in the South (18.2 percent) and West (17.4 percent). Texas lead the nation with the highest percentage of residents who are uninsured, at just over over 25 percent. The other states rounding off the top five states with the highest average rate of uninsured people include: New Mexico (23 percent), Florida (20.5 percent), Louisiana (20 percent), and Arizona (19.6 percent).

So it basically says that the South and the Southwest are the main regions were the most impoverish and uninsured people live.  Ironically, they are also the regions where there are so many Blue Dog "Democrats" and socially conservative Republicans are cock blocking any kind of health care reform.  If one connects the dots even further I bet you can find a majority of them are sponsored by health insurance corporations or something related or affiliated with the health care industry.

It's a damn shame because you would think empathy would be more widespread in a time where so many people are suffering and struggling to make ends meet.  Instead we have clowns on the internet, town hall meetings and public forums like Congress acting out screaming lies and misinformation about undocumented immigrants getting health care or the bankrupting of the nation to block any type of health care reforms that would help the majority of these clowns neighbors (literally).

Some more things about Congressman Addison Graves "Joe" Wilson, Sr.

Well apparently, he has a financial issues.  According to the Congressional Quarterly Politics (CQ Politics), he has more debts than assets. 

In Wilson's case, he updated a form revealing what he owned in 2008. The new version, filed at the end of July, has different assets than he identified in May.
Wilson now reports that his assets at year's end (not counting his residence) fall somewhere between $952,000 and $2,030,000.
Much of that was tied up in property owned by the Moseley Wilson Partnership.
His debts, in the form of personal loans and mortgages, fall somewhere between $880,012 to $1,930,000.
The major differences between the two reports are the addition of Exxon-Mobil stock worth $15,000 or less and a property in Springdale, S.C., worth between $50,001 and $100,000.

Well, looks like his gamble, I mean outburst was an attempt to get the fundraising efforts off the ground.  However, according the DCCC his Democratic opponent, Rob Miller, has raised over $2,000,000 from 25,000 contributors in the last 48 hours.  Damn!  That some major dough in 2 days.

Also according to the Institute of Southern Studies, Addison was one of the many South Carolina State Senators that voted to keep the Confederate flag on the SC State Capitol grounds in 2000.  He's also a member of the Sons of Confederacy, which doesn't scream "non-bias" at all.  ***eye roll***

This is a quote from Addison discussing the vote and defending the Confederacy from a BBC News report:

"That's offensive to me that they would take my heritage and make it into a Holocaust era type description. I find that very offensive, and it's not true," Senator Wilson said. "The Southern heritage, the Confederate heritage is very honourable."

Oh, how precious!  He thinks the radical group of individuals fighting to maintain to right to enslave people to maintain their economic dominance was honorable.  You get a gold star for being an a-hole.  This guy is a gift that keeps on giving and his skeletons are just creeping out of the closet.

In 2003, Wilson called it "unseemly" for the mixed-race daughter of Sen. Strom Thurmond, Essie Mae Washington-Williams, to identify the longtime South Carolina senator as her father after his death.
"It's a smear on the image that (Thurmond) has as a person of high integrity who has been so loyal to the people of South Carolina," he told The State newspaper of Columbia. Wilson had worked as an intern in Thurmond's office. After a public outcry, he said he had the utmost respect for Washington-Williams.

Apparently, his last election wasn't a "clean sweep" in South Carolina's 2nd Congressional district.  He beat his opponent Rob Miller by only 8% in a district that is more right-of-center.  So its doesn't bode well for Addison Graves Wilson, Sr. come next year after all this stuff have come out of the closet, or does it?  You never known when it comes to the South and its bizarre congressional districts because all the odds could be stacked against the idiot candidate (in this case is a socially conservative and obviously not racially progressive Republic) and they can still win.  Just look at what happened here in Birmingham where the idiot candidate won even though his opponent was clearly the better choice.