Friends Close...

Sometimes, you just can't shake off that damn cold. No matter how much hand sanitizer you use, sometimes disease will follow you and infect that ass.

Info On The McCain/Palin Victory Party

I get these emails at the rate of 7 to 10 times a day. I thought you'd like this one. I'm still trying to find out how I got on this list. Glad I am though. How does that go? Friends close, enemies closer or somethingoranother?

Below is all the info you need for the McCain-Palin 2008 Victory Election Night event in Phoenix, AZ. If you have questions, please let me know.

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*FOR PLANNING PURPOSES ONLY*

VICTORY ELECTION NIGHT 2008 -- PHOENIX, ARIZONA

For Immediate Release	Contact: Press Office
Thursday October 23, 2008	703-650-5550

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

PHOENIX, ARIZONA

Event: Victory Election Night 2008

Location: The Arizona Biltmore
2400 East Missouri Ave.
Phoenix, AZ 85016

Date: Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Coverage: Results Watching Party -- Open Press
John McCain Delivers Remarks -- Pooled Press

*PLEASE NOTE: There will be a closed circuit feed of John McCain's remarks into the press filing center and into the Phoenix results watching party.

Credentialing and Cost Information: Please visit www.regonline.com/mccain-palin. Credentials will be required to cover Victory Election Night 2008 in Phoenix, AZ.

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Forward

Oppression Is Worse Than Death: You Should Have Killed Me

We as a people choose to live in an oppressed state.

It is what pays our mortgages, it with proper payment of a deductible keeps our kids healthy and strong. It allows us to cruise around in comfort and also displays itself in stunning 1080p resolution. It satiates us after eating, keeps our teeth white and goes well with an ice cold Coke.

It is also responsible for the pacification and the complacent feeling that prevents us for fighting to be free and equal in this, the land we built and died for and shames me to high heaven when it comes to professing love for some of us.

The matrix has you.

I feel and believe that we all are equal in faith and intelligence, how we individually use our blessed tools are indeed at the discretion of each and every one of us. I cannot believe as I live and walk in this plane of my own existence that so many of us due to fear, lack of overstanding and knowledge of self choose to be oppressed than to actually want to know what it is to be free.

As Joe Madison would say:

In America today, our cultural conditioning leads us to believe that everything that is white is superior and everything black is inferior and we as black people as a direct result of this are marginalized, undervalued and underestimated.

Based on how the majority of us are handling ourselves in today's society, internationally/abroad and within this current presidential election I would agree that us choosing the safe path of inferiority because of what material things (credit, status and acceptance) we think we'll lose is damning and outright embarrassing. Of course, that's just my opinion.

Here in a historic moment in time we have a chance to gather ourselves and take advantage of capitulation, a declining real estate market, cultural openings and business opportunities with our cousins from the motherland as well as an emerging technological boon and a reshaping of the legislative, judicial and executive branch of government we lay dormant at the foot of the first step, unable and incapable of going through the door and for that I hold back a tear.

The amount of disposable income and investment monies we have as a people here in America is as much or even more than the amount of the congress approved bailout which means if we would be willing to direct a percentage of our financial power the impact on the world would be tremendous.

Blogging to black folks is the modern day equivalent to the negro spiritual during slavery, yet for the most part, we keep up with the jonses and find new ways to impress and offend and information to both help us succeed and for our own edification is minimal.

I guess a scared negro will really get you killed, so most of us play it safe and accept the double standard of living just to hold on to the table scraps master throws to us. There are and have been many opportunities to have banks, investment houses, co-ops in many business models, music distribution and ownership and media outlets owned and operated by brown-skinned people that all of America could have supported, but even at HBCUs like Moorehouse where the business program is sponsored by Coca-Cola, no one is being taught entrepreneurialship. They're only being taught to serve the master by working for business and never teaching the fundamentals on which this great country was built.

And speaking of those fundamentals, this country was built on industry, slavery, independence from foreign products and an intricate barter system that never put us in debt to another nation. What makes you think folks at certain presidential election rallies would believe anything else? The disbelief in a certain candidate's qualifications is solely based on marginalization, underestimation and serious undervalue of that person's ability to walk and chew gum, so leading the free, white world seems like a daunting task for anyone that looks remotely close to the current democratic nominee because after all this time in their minds, we are still chattel. Some of us have been upgraded to three-fifths of a human being, sorry I forgot about that.

And for the most part some of us act like prime property just to get a crumb off the damn table.

So I say just kill me. I should be dead by the hand of our chosen oppressor because I have always broken free of that train of thought and have always tried to tell others which is dangerous in nature to most of the folks that choose to stay in the matrix. I don't expect a lot of folk to understand where I'm coming from because most have not made the decision in their minds that freedom can be had because they sold themselves to an idea not dreamt up for folks that look like them but they still try by hook or crook to get there.

So I ask the complacent negro, the sell out, the chaser of the dream not meant for them, the next time you see me make sure to say hello when you see me on the street. The constant reminder of the walking dead will motivate me to stay as far away from the elixirs and spells that convinced you to shuck and jive your way back into slavery without even participating in the prison industrial complex.

Wait, there is no magic potion, you choose to live this way.

Prisoners indeed. Seeing my people in this voluntary state makes me wish for death if I have to live like that more than you'll ever know. Oppression is worse than a thousand deaths because you have to live with the fact that you'll never be able to truly live free. Voluntary oppression is freedom suicide probably coated in chocolate so at least it'll taste good going down before you meet your maker by accepting a living hell.

Freedom is a road seldom traveled by the multitude. I get that statement now more than ever.

As long as I have life in these bones I will choose to do things that I feel will make my family and I free. It's not going to come across as stuff other brown-skinned folk would do. Many times in the past you had an opportunity to pacify me but I saw through the lies and I've seen a lot of black and white folk you've pacified and I cannot live on my knees. My life stands for something now. I will not live in the house of the oppressed with nothing to fight for. You should have killed me when you had the chance.

Monday Afternoons

Are reserved for me to do absolutely nothing.

I don't bother with television or other things on this day, I just stretch, ponder things and write. I'm currently writing my first 'Blogging While Black' essay and I'm sure I'll post that piece sometime either tonight or tomorrow morning.

And um... For those that fear the safety of others in my presence understand that the real revolution is in one's mind and the fight can come many other ways than just in the physical sense.

That still doesn't mean that I haven't targeted certain folks, things and causes... I just have a method to my madness.

And just because I let go of the standard american diet, mainstream TV and look at the media (some blogs included) as a gotdamn joke doesn't mean I am not in the know. Being connected to the niggernet is better than a having fiber optic connection piped straight from Time/Warner.

Yep, and to think just a year ago there were folk that came here to see if they could decipher who I was screwing as I drove around the lower 48. To let certain folks tell it, wither I was a serious manwhore fucking a plethora of unsuspecting ladies on the same lie or I was some heartless chump with low libido hellbent on bankrupting big boned sistas trying to 'save' him from himself.

And you wonder why I disconnected from the world, concocting formulas to diffuse my hatred in a safe and effective manner.

Just hope I never relapse and run into those that pray for my downfall in my travels. I know the pen is indeed mightier than the sword but that does nothing to rid the urge to slap the shit out of certain folk in a effort to regain balance in my universe.

I'll keep writing. Fasting really helps diminish the urge to destroy. I was once told that I can use my powers for good and not evil, and I'll keep at it until I get this shit under control.

'Pray' for my follow through.

Peace be still in this mutha fucker... Please. Just be still dammit.

What I Know Now

Somebody actually emailed me yesterday and asked me if I was losing it.

No, not at all. I just applied some of the things I know from what I've learned in life.

See, I haven't always been the sharpest knife in the drawer but there are things that I've picked up along the way to me being where I am in life that tested me, made me open my eyes and see things and people for what they really are.

I went to school like the 'American Dream Handbook' instructed me to do right after I gave up on athletic scholarships and joined the military where I scared the shit out of my family and participated in 2 conflicts.

I've been a charter member of various fraternal organizations both overt and secret.

I grew up in fucked up neighborhoods and befriended 'domestic terrorists'.

I tried gang banging while in high school and ended up joining my best friend's church as a result of the hood shit not being as lucrative for me as it was for my older brother. The church things turned out to be lucrative for me sexually, but other than that I wasted my time.

I played organized sports outside of school as well because it gave me a link to my father. A lot of cats back then barely knew their dads and the ones that did only hung out with them on weekends because of work and school attendance respectively. I got my dad to come to some of my games and that felt good because he would call me out and coach would usually put me in because of that.

I went to Catholic school and thought after attending an Easter Sunday service at a Baptist church one year that maybe I was being called to the pulpit, so I jump into theology classes. Big mistake once I heard Dr. Kahlid Muhammad. I knew religion was basically a fear tactic based around myths and fables needing financial support early in the game. I left that shit alone just like I left gang banging alone: I couldn't sell cocaine and/or crack because that was some next level shit that I didn't want to get caught and go to jail for. Pops took me to see this movie "Bad Boys' starring Sean Penn and I never wanted to have to beat someones ass with a pillowcase of soda pops although I did kind of fall into a violent streak as a kid and honed the fuck out of it after joining the Army and learning to detach emotion and use it effectively.

I also would have taken being a minister to another level mastering pyramid and ponzi schemes on my unsuspecting flock, and jail time in my eyes would be eventual because I know well of the emotional attachment black folk have with church. People just want to believe, and I can exploit that.

I'm trying to teach my wife that shit, she understands but ain't game to learn further about emotional detachment because she's a nurturer.

I've worked in corporate America, held a couple of good paying blue collar career minded jobs with 2 telecommunications giants and the post office and walked away from all of them because I felt I could do more than just be complacent and take being treated like a sucker every damn day.

A couple of them joints made me hold a security clearance, Army included. I witnessed and read a lot. I learned more than I cared to know about a lot of shit.

I used to drink and smoke cigars with a minister who had a sex addiction. He told me some foul shit about how the matrix is structured that I posed to both an Imam and a Rabbi on different occasions, at different periods in life and got the same damn answers.

I got a chance to live overseas and as much as I like being an American, I should have never come back here, or at least that's how I feel sometimes.

I've aligned myself with folks most of my life that had no clue about themselves, their potential and never knew how to love and appreciate themselves nevertheless love me. And sometimes I gave them benefit of the doubt, even though I knew I would get burned because I want and need love and affection too. A couple of times I even allowed myself to be walked upon so that person whether friend, girlfriend or family member could feel some semblance of validation just to spit in my face because they could never find where they needed to be. That shit clogged my love arteries and made me dig deeper into that hatred I keep referring to in my blogposts.

There are times that I feel like I am incapable of giving love or reciprocating it based on another mother fucker's home training and how they apply their flawed shit to mine. I learned that most people are sheep, incapable of fending for themselves thus lacking the inner ass-kicker that they reach out for me to be, forcing them to believe utter bullshit because sometimes bullshit will give you purpose.

If you found out that there was nothing of a higher source to believe in, would the urge to achieve cease to exist?

Most folk that claim to be independent in thought have found a way to shake off the childhood indoctrination just to run to another person's theory... And then get their heart broken when they accidentally wander into the back room and find the man behind the curtain. For those that cannot escape the bullshit pumped into their heads during their youth, they become the blind leaders, chosen by blind followers to assist them in successfully wandering off the proverbial cliff...

Thus making their lives and the lives surrounding them as well as the lives they influence useless.

Well, I've seen enough and I'm tired of that shit.

From religion, political and fraternal affiliation to different fundamental beliefs in one's unalienable rights, what you think you know you really don't. A lot of companies, organizations and even friends and family have some sort of ulterior motive and they're waiting on you to fall for the okey doke because without you, their shit has no validation. It manifests itself in all of the isms out there and because a lot of us don't wanna' put in the work called self fulfilment most of us suffer.

Know that there aren't central banks (plural)
Know that politics are supposed to be divisive
Know that fear plays into everything from your mortgage rate to your tithe amount
Know that as long as you work for someone else...
Know where your origins begin or at least where they come from (religion, heritage etc)
Know that common sense ain't that damn common
Know that there is a class system, and it ain't always about wealth
Know that rich people aren't wealthy and the wealthy ain't fucking with the rich
Know that you can do all things by your damn self:

Emotional investment in another person, theory or movement ain't necessary if you're looking to please you.

Know that there are a few people that can read the matrix code
Know that you might just be a pawn in a much bigger game than you'll ever know
Know that when you're able to see it, interpret it and understand, you'll be able to avoid it

Most important:

Know that you can live externally from all of the bullshit, the fear mongering and lies

You don't have to go off the grid, but once you realize that everything around you from what you eat (how, where and what is used to manufacture it), what you see and hear (corporate owned, agenda based), to where and how you live (strategy and predetermination) could take away from you being healthy, wealthy, knowledgeable and successful. It could also take away from you being who you're really supposed to be.

Remember the old line about what we're supposed to do when we graduate high school?

How do you determine what you're going to do for the rest of your life and then take a contractual binding series of loans, leave the flock naked and know that that is what you'll actually do with the rest of your life?

You don't really know.

That's the real reason Sara Palin (and a lot of us collectively) attended multiple universities.

The one thing that got you down this path was and is when you put in the work, followed your heart and did your own thing. Those were the happiest days, weren't they? I was at my happiest when I was doing my own thing. I was detached from the all the theory. My health was optimum because I wasn't plugged into what the mainstream was doing eating, drinking and ingesting all of that stress inducing bullshit from TV, radio and such. I answered all my own questions with the help of what I learned and used my resources properly. I was my own man and then... I earned and lost money, followed politics and crafted some of my own isms based on other people's beliefs blah, blah blah.

Self realization, me seeing that me feeding into external stuff like materialism and validation through people, places and things made me a slave to the system. I live a simple life, make a good living for myself and my family and feed myself what is necessary, not what is mandated by the Jonses. I got back on my own path and I am a better husband, father, son, brother and uncle for that. I see the world for what it is and I am not here to preach to you about external things that need you to feed into it for you to get fed. There are too many priests, pimps politicians and the organizations they belong to that will hook you and turn you out causing you to never find the you that you want to be.


I left all that shit alone and I'm willing to fight to stay free from it. All of the organizations, secret societies, corporate owned media, drug induced food products, religious groups that needed me to propagate their unbelievable nonsense as well as bullshit people with bullshit agendas that needed me to validate their bullshit lives took a toll on who I am and what I am to become in my older age to my children, extended kinfolk and people that I can call friend. It took a lot to wane myself from the lattes, deep fried batter, the broadcasts and the toxic rhetoric. And that ain't crazy.


It's liberating.

All I Ask...

Is if you are indeed reading my blog (and that would be a very small few) that you read the posts previous to the last one.

Out of respect to candidates and certain folk that work with campaigns I choose not to speak against certain operations. No one tried to leave cliff hangers about what happened, I'm just not fucking with them anymore.

Nuff said.

I understand politics and what folk need to do to get elected. I also know that there has never been a presidential candidate in the history of this country that has had my interests in mind.

All I know is that I gotta arm myself, dig in and fight those that come against me and mine, and there seems to a whole lot of folk that have folk like me (and in some instances me and mine specifically) in their sights.

I'm ready for you.
I'm ready for y'all as well.

From grass roots legal action to guerrilla style freedom fighters literal, electoral and physical my boots are on the ground and blood is ready to be shed in any instance and at all costs for us to claim our birthright in this country as free men and women.

Barack and John have no fucking clue.

Well, a lot of us don't understand what I'm talking about either. It's okay. Stand for nothing, fall for everything.

Untitled

I know what it is about me.

I know what I want.


As you've noticed, I've taken the Obama banner off of my blog. I thought it to be counterproductive to where I am right now. I guess it's obvious that I no longer support Barack Obama and my friends, I plan to vote according to my best interests this November and that vote might not be for whom you think.

I am beyond angry or livid. Don't ask why.

For the past couple of months, no... Couple of weeks, nah... All of my life, I've lived with some sort of anger and possible hatred embedded in my heart and I never knew why it was there. I've had the privilege to have lived down from where Muhammad Ali stayed when he stayed in Chicago. My mother knows him and I can recall 2 times when I stood in his presence.

Nowadays I currently live literally down the street and around the corner from the Obama family. That's cool and I feel like that it's sort of a privilege seeing as my wife I and can afford to live in this area. It is the neighborhood I grew up in and gentrification has changed a lot. I never knew someone like Barack would ever choose to come to these neck of the woods, but Minister Farrakhan as well as a few CEOs and the University of Chicago is here, so... Change and progression in the real estate market is good.

I've learned a lot from these two men. One as a young man, the other as an adult.

This area was once the hotbed of Black Nationalism with the Panthers, the Nation and Rainbow/Push all being right within arms reach when I was a kid. When we drive through, I point out and recollect to my wife about the places where street corner soapbox preachers, buildings with loudspeakers outside of them blasted speeches and sound bytes of Cleaver and Newton or the new weekly addresses from Jesse or Elijah. I remember journalists like Lu Palmer and radio rebels on WVON with promos reminding us that VON stood for 'Voice Of the Negro' and to support the Chicago Defender (the oldest black owned newspaper in the US). I miss the young brothers dressed in military garb calling me 'Brother Comrade', the double feature black film palaces and the health food stores that stayed packed because longevity was essential for our children who needed caring elders to run the village.

All of my uncles on both sides, my grandfather and my dad all held real street cred. From helping the church mothers with groceries to doo wopping on the corner to attending revolutionary meetings in the back of the candy store and hustling beef tamales and kosher hot dogs in the park on the north side to make money to fund the revolution... Damn, folk in the hood were close, shared a lot, minded other family's elders and the only enemy at that time was some sell-out on TV or a politician pandering outside of churches on Sunday afternoons.

Oh yeah, the system. Big enemy of the people back then.

Now a lot of folks old enough to know has either put the system out of their minds and the ones that have no clue that there even was one won't even believe that there ever was one. I lived in a system of the system when I was a kid. COINTELPRO planted folk to spy on folk and I witnessed a cat get beat within an inch of his life until a preacher saved him because the lookouts on the corner saw dude on the west side of the city talking to a white man wearing a long coat. We spoke in code because some of the black cops reported certain activity to the department. All of my aunts and uncles, my mother and my sibs all went to Catholic school. We got a volume discount because most of my aunts and uncles aren't that much older than my older brother and myself so we all went together. Seeing as the public school system didn't have updated textbooks and didn't pay teachers well, my grandmother made sure we all learned something, and the Franciscan Order made sure the school staff was on point. My entire family with the exception of my older brother (who has a industrial/union certification) all have at least a bachelor's degree with the rest of us having advanced degrees.

Grandma wanted us to get out. She even taught at the elementary school just to keep an eye on us.

When it was time to move, we didn't move far from the neighborhood, in reality there are still only a few places black people can go in Chicago to live well. The red line map still exists. I never gave thought to moving back to these parts until gentrification picked up all the vacant lots and abandoned buildings. Today, the projects are gone, the old apartment buildings have been rehabbed to beautiful condos and multi unit buildings are popping up all over what used to be a bad stretch of land red lined by the racist system a long ago. In fact, today white families are drawn to this area like flies to shit because of the low prices (if $300 to $700k is low to you) and proximity to downtown Chicago. Similar units in other parts of the city go for literally millions, well until this recent financial crisis.

One thing that never changed around here is the mentality of niggerdom. Our neighborhoods are collages of mixed income families and niggerdom is sprinkled throughout the three communities that make up the near south side that lays on Lake Michigan. There are plenty of young and older black men that seem to have absolutely nothing to do, displaced by the removal of low income housing, haunted by either drug sales or drug use or overwhelmed by alcohol consumption. There is no place for these once useful men to go. You would think with all of the single mothers walking their kids to school that some of the brothers would or could be fathers, right?

There are responsible brothers over here, in fact they're everywhere, but because of the close locale of the University of Chicago, the white kids that attend and hang off campus, the well to do families that moved over here to take advantage of lower real estate prices and working families that like to have nice shit, a police state looms. I'm in my late thirties and sometimes I have to think about wearing my baseball cap...

And just when you get used to outdoor cafes, progressive minded folk riding the bus and train to work, white folks jogging through the hood at 5am and multiracial happenings at the local nightly hot spots, up comes a presidential election with an Ivy League educated young black man versus a career military minded, older white politician.

And a recession occurs.
And the real estate market is upended.
And people start losing jobs.
And frustration sets in.
And I gotta close my curtains so no one will see my flat screen hanging on my living room wall.

And I start seeing redneck truck drivers with anti-Obama T-shirts on with the acronym C.H.A.N.G.E. on it. I'm sure you already know what they 'changed' it to, right?
C.ome H.elp A N.igger G.et E.lected - Nice, huh?


And lawn signs calling for the extinguishing of 'neggards'
and thanking George Bush for his service.

And 2 days ago, I was listening to a radio report where Cindy McCain stated that Obama voted against funding her son while in Iraq. I pulled into a truck stop to refuel and I guess some cat was blasting either the report I heard or the entire speech on his truck radio and he was crying.

Crying because that 'ignorant black fella' hates us real Americans and wants the troops to die'.

He was being consoled by a other truckers and it was myself and another brother walking back to the fuel line with his lunch I guess. They were speaking loudly, trying to bait us to either intervene or something. I looked at that brother and he put his head down and moved swiftly to his truck and took off, leaving his drink on the top step of the truck. Like it was 1959. I wasn't going to fight these guys, but I wasn't going to get intimidated either. So I asked myself: What would Jesus do?

Nothing. Because there is no Jesus. This wasn't even a Godforsaken situation because no god would put anyone in the various situations that I've been in during my lifetime. So I went into my mental rolodex to pull out some zen-like shit to help me overcome the moment. I needed to keep my job and stay out of jail and I remembered a few things I learned from the soapbox preachers and pseudo revolutionaries that talked of change. Religion is bullshit. Revolution will never happen without proper finance and God doesn't need your 20%. You're guilty until proved innocent and one day, when white folks with bad credit lose their land and black folk with good credit can't get a loan to get the white folk's land cheaply and nobody is at work because everybody got laid off...

The innocent will probably die. Bystanders usually are the ones that get hit during the shootout.

So this weekend I plan on arming myself. I'm taking the wife to a gun range to teach her how to properly take out a target with tactical precision. One shot - one kill.

See, I have something to live for and I will not let anyone take that away. I will not be a kool-aid drinker to any politician and I don't owe anyone anything, regardless what they believe. See, the fragile balance of the world is starting to tip and the one thing I do plan on doing is living through the bullshit. My neighborhood is falling apart and folks are beginning to challenge me and I will not put my head down and walk away. I will not be marginalized, undervalued and underestimated and you will not impede on my freedoms. I have just become as nationalist as the confederate flag waiving redneck and I am not afraid to defend what is mine.

See, my people were stolen from another land and I was born here, just as free with all of the rights and freedoms as anyone born here. I see the bullshit coming and I ain't having any of that shit. Your malt liquor, high fructose corn syrup and boring TV programs never lulled me, and I ain't falling for the chains and whips when my ancestors were shackled in chains and beaten with whips. I'm angry because all this time you were waiting for me to lay down. You may have cracked out my brother and made my educated brother ignorant with useless information but I see the zeitgeist and I already know how this process works.

Do your homework, y'all. Know what is about to happen.

I want to remain free. All that I've been through leads up to me using all that I've been taught and all that I have seen to survive this moment. That anger was buried there to help me in this moment. I ain't no prophet and I am not predicting a happening, just know that all that is happening today happened before in history. We better learn from the past so we are not doomed to repeat it.

Somebody Is Effing Up

I thought after the fiasco of a time I had with the Obama campaign would discourage me further when thinking about grass root politricks and the money involved, but after having the past few days to think about things I know that there will always be ulterior motives with most folk when it comes to money.

Story of my life.

I didn't want to articulate to y'all how a bunch of young, misguided folks with the power to hire and fire folks in the campaign just took over and put a bunch of friends, sorors and frat on just to position themselves for possible permanent roles in an Obama administration. I never though that it was a real serious thing at first until I realized why after all of the training my wife and I had and with thing like voter registration looming in so many states that being a campaign worker is no joke.

Especially in this election.

There is a cadre of personnel participating in this election cycle that just aren't taking this time and our status in the world (and at home personally and financially) seriously because one can get a gas card, a monthly stipend and health benefits from knocking on doors.

For people that look like me, this is a serious and historical time. My livelihood and freedom depends on what will happen in the next couple of weeks.

I wish you could see what I do right now.

Somebody is really fucking up.

Nope, Not Yet

I didn't want to write about this.

I'm not angry or vengeful.

I'm also not heartbroken either. But I should be.

A little.





So that you know what I'm talking about, I'll give you some off hand info that you probably already know:

Here in America black folk make up around 11% of its populous. The black electorate is less than half of that, which means when we vote, although our numbers count big time in our respective precincts, if you just plainly add up the black vote, and put it separate from other voting blocs well... Small potatoes.

What I mean is our votes do indeed count and they definitely affect the districts in which we live, and because we are a proud, braggadocious and loud bunch... We can affect change and make impact with influence.

Because they see us.

But...

Because we are not united or an actual voting block and don't lobby like we should, we are not taken seriously. Until someone gets shot by a white cop. Or wrongly convicted. Or our civil rights are affected, and we don't even unite over those things anymore.

Whereas there are chambers of commerce, lobbys and advocate groups... And there are organizations, nicknames and straight segregated living and business areas where monies are circulated within, the black community does not have that.

Our organization and sticktuitiveness is shaky at best. Oh, but when we had crosses burned in our front yards and one or our own was hanged from that big oak tree...

Or when there were different water fountains and separate and unequal...

We used to be taken seriously, and like the Jews, the Italian and German, the Japanese and the French, we had representation, a lobby and permanent interests that affected elections and molded candidates. We no longer have that and we (black folk) are not taken seriously.

Not even in the Obama campaign.

Now notice I said the campaign and not the candidate. This is not Barack's doing.

Understand that for the most part, black folk for whatever reason are probably going to cast a vote for Barack. It's the rural, remote and suburban white person that needs help making the decision to either vote for John or Barack. Joe six-pack and regular suburban white families make up the majority of the electorate, and that's the strategy the Obama campaign needs to work on, because people who look like me will not adversely affect the Democratic nominee's numbers.

So guess who represents the paid Obama staffer more than anyone else.

You got it.

I still don't want to tell of my experience with the campaign. Not yet. It ain't a bad thing either. Just know that I am back on the road, doing my job, no longer on leave and enjoying the fact that there is probably one stank ass hotel that I haven't stayed at yet.

After a tumultuous week with a very unorganized Ohio Vote Corps and dealing directly with the deployment officer for the Obama campaign, I figured that it would be better to go back and work for myself and just cast my vote which is just as important when Nov 4 comes.

I need you to understand the numbers and what needs to be done in order for Barack to win this fall. Let's concentrate on that first. I'm not trying to tease or get folks to read my shit. I'd rather we focus on the debate tonight and the issues in this campaign. There is always a method for someone's madness, okay?

I hope everyone is registered.

Who's That Knocking At My Window?

I thought because I am on the campaign trail I was off the hook with blogging for amy type of substance, but I guess not.

Terry got me.

I will do my due dilligance tomorrow and do what I was instructed to do, but first:


I am a campaign staffer for the Obama campaign. I have been dealing and working with Ohio Vote Corps, which recruited college students before coming to what I like to call the real world.

I wasn't going to touch this, but I listen to the Al Sharpton Show and he and Joe Madison covered this before I ever thought to touch this on my blog. I think it's important to cover, even though I am a paid staffer for Barack Obama.

Look carefully.

Look again.

Back in the day, the Urban League, Rainbow/Push And the NAACP would get private funds, donated money and cash infusions from the respected campaigns so they could get out the vote via early registration and would use the money to pay staffers (like myself) to get early balloting/provisional votes and like in Ohio registration - voting on the rolls.

My wife and I attended Camp Obama and got trained in the subtle nuances of the Barack train. We were fired up and ready to go. I took leave of absence from my job from October 1 to November 5th. I was committed for five weeks to get folks registered, get out the vote and get the right info out to folks that work all damn day and don't get a chance to watch TV.

The Obama campaign does not like certain black people.

I'll explain.

Later.

A Night Of Baseball...

I got a chance to see highlights from the game on TV when I got home and it was damn impressive and as overwhelming as is was in person. 99.99% of the good folk that came to the game wore all black. Johnny Cash and Bernie Mac would have been proud.

Great game, great times. Definitely a great first with my other half.

Oh, and the White Sox won. As if you didn't already know.

It's A Blackout Tonight At The Cell

Sheeeyit, man.

I'm trying.


Really, really hard.

See you at US Cellular tonight.






Okay, I should explain.

Tonight, the Chicago White Sox play a one game playoff against the Minnesota Twins for the rights to the American League Central title and a playoff berth.





All fans are expected to wear the team's dominant color which is black if they plan (tickets were damn near impossible to get) to attend tonight's game.

Thanks to my wife, we'll be at that game.

Dressed in black, participating in the fan blackout.

Willing the Sox to victory.


We're in section 108 down the first base line, right on the camera well, so you might see us clowning like the asses we are tonight on TBS, so the TiVo blackmail isn't necessary. Tonight is the night to just let go and root our South Siders on like the fanatics we are.

I still plan on reporting to Ohio to work the last month for the Obama campaign, hungover or not.


Oh, and it's my wife's first baseball game.

Ever.

A great time for firsts, eh?

Seriously?

Oh, and after my other half and I attended Camp Obama this past weekend, I got offered a job with Ohio Vote Corps. McCain's move should really help us get out the vote, huh?

A Post Turtle?

While suturing a cut on the hand of a 75-year old Texas rancher whose hand was caught in a gate while working cattle, the doctor struck up a conversation with the old man. Eventually the topic got around to Sarah Palin and her bid to be a heartbeat away from being President . The old rancher said, "Well, ya know, Palin is a post turtle."

Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a post turtle was. The old rancher said, "When you're driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that's a post turtle."

The old rancher saw a puzzled look on the doctor's face, so he continued to explain. "You know she didn't get up there by herself, she doesn't belong up there, she doesn't know what to do while she is up there, and you just wonder what kind of dumb ass put her up there to begin with.

Well, that's a perfect analogy if you ask me. The wife and I are off to Camp Obama this weekend. Have a productive weekend

-Hassan

White Privilege... From A White Guy's Perspective

This is Your Nation on White Privilege

September 13, 2008, 2:01 pm

By Tim Wise

For those who still can’t grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.

White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because “every family has challenges,” even as black and Latino families with similar “challenges” are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.

White privilege is when you can call yourself a “fuckin’ redneck,” like Bristol Palin’s boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you'll “kick their fuckin' ass,” and talk about how you like to “shoot shit” for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.

White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.

White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don’t all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you’re “untested.”


White privilege is being able to say that you support the words “under God” in the pledge of allegiance because “if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it’s good enough for me,” and not be immediately disqualified from holding office--since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the “under God” part wasn’t added until the 1950s--while believing that reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.


White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you.


White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto was “Alaska first,” and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you're black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she’s being disrespectful.


White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the work they do--like, among other things, fight for the right of women to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child labor--and people think you’re being pithy and tough, but if you merely question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college--you’re somehow being mean, or even sexist.


White privilege is being able to convince white women who don’t even agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a “second look.”


White privilege is being able to fire people who didn’t support your political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you must be corrupt.


White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God’s punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you’re just a good church-going Christian, but if you’re black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you’re an extremist who probably hates America.


White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a “trick question,” while being black and merely refusing to give one-word answers to the queries of Bill O’Reilly means you’re dodging the question, or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.


White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it a “light” burden.


And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because white voters aren’t sure about that whole “change” thing. Ya know, it’s just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more years of the same, which is very concrete and certain…


White privilege is, in short, the problem.

Tim Wise is among the most prominent anti-racism writers and activists in the U.S., having given lectures from 1995 to the present in 48 different states, and on over 500 college campuses. He has trained a multitude of teachers, corporate employees, non-profit organizations and law enforcement officers in methods for dismantling racism in their institutions

As of 2008, Wise has written three books.

His scholarly book, Affirmative Action: Racial Preference in Black and White (Routledge: 2005) has received praise from academics and is also taught in dozens of educational institutions.

His memoir, White Like Me: Reflections on Race From a Privileged Son (Soft Skull Press) is taught at hundreds of colleges and high schools across the nation.

His most recent book is 2008's Speaking Fluently: Anti-Racist Reflections From an Angry White Male (Soft Skull Press).

Additionally, Wise's anti-racism essays are also widely published. An updated archive of the essays (from 1994 - 2008) can be found on his website: http://timwise.org

Sometimes, it's best to remain silent enough to listen to other folk speak on it.

What say you?

- Hassan

Blows To The Head... From The Inside

It's been a minute, I know.

I haven't been myself lately. I've received a few internal head shots lately.

Nah, it's not that I've trying to be someone else, it just took a minute for me to get my ish together, mentally. I've had fatigue of some sort, so I did what I normally do when I have mental farts and thangs, I ignore my blog.

I don't ignore my blog reading, though. I still stop by all of yall's spots and lurk for a quick minute. I feel a kinship with some and just need to know that others are doing alright just for alright's sake. I hope folks don't take offense to that.

I have been hanging out at home, hitting few sporting events, hosting get-togethers and even spending quality time with my other half. That shit right there... Harder than hard. The more we spend time together, the more we both realize that staying married will be hard as hell and if we really want to be happy, we'll have to put a whole lot of work in to make it happen. Being married is something that will not be figured out anytime soon.

Straight up.

Another shot to the head. But you bob and weave, right?

When two people from such diverse backgrounds as ours get together and make attempts to make it a permanent thing, sometimes it works, other times it just ain't a smooth transaction or transition. Being near 40, I was used to living alone and being somewhat of a free spirit and I didn't like folks doing things for me, whereas my wife just is the opposite. I have to stop her for doing things because sometimes she'll overdo ish just because. I do for others, but there is a limit. There are also expectations in thoughts and actions that we still stumble around. Notice that I mention thoughts:

The power of all things is in the intent to do them.

Rope A Dope if you have to.

We'll be married 9 months in a few days... Shit is supposed to be like this I think. I hope it gets easier in time. Until then, we still go out on dates, argue over money, cuddle ourselves to sleep only to wake up on the other side of the bed. Have bad phone conversations over shitty cell connections that turn out to be misunderstandings and 2 minute phone gems, debate over who will drive on errand day, and avoid washing the dishes (well, she does, I scrub them joints and put em in the dishwasher)... So, it's all where the Creator wants us to be right now.

Rumble young man, rumble!

One thing contributing to my brain farts is the fact that for the sake of compromise I have to put some of my ish on the back burner while wifey does her business thing. It's hard to know that there are probably things I'll never get to with the kind of creative flow that I have, but we both profit from her business ventures so I gotta hang back and support her joints.

Right?

Plus, it's been hard to hold my tongue in the past couple of weeks with the election and all. No matter what happens, I am still an educated black man that chose to get my blue collar on because corporate America marginalizes, undervalues and underestimates me, my brothers and my cousins. Sometimes I feel like a fool for even thinking that I was to go the educational route because all that money borrowed and time spent did nothing for me.

Yes, I know that education is the main element for our progress but I'm talking about me here. I have so many other talents and I feel like now that I have to hang back when all that time spent in attaining the suit and the time spent in it was a waste.

Shit.

I been having the feeling that while things are going well for me now that something tragic is about to happen. I'm healthy, working and have a life partner that loves and puts up with my stankin' ass. My family is annoyingly well and everything seems to be lined up and perfect. It doesn't even matter if John McCain wins the election in November, me and mine are going to be alright.

That's the problem. The waters are a little too calm and I had some sort of PTSD episode last week that would have scared the average Joe or Jill. I experienced something like it during this same time period last year dealing with folks that chose to deal with me in a disrespectful manner. See, I joined the Army on September 13, twenty years ago. From the moment I arrived on my training post I was gently insulted and treated in such a manner that it became easy for me to do what I was asked to do by my government and then go on living with the consequences of dealing death, coping with it in my immediate circle and then coming home years later with no outlet in adjusting to the regular shit y'all experience all up and thru the lower 48, as Sara Palin likes to say.

I never had an outlet in which to get that shit off my chest back in the day and sometimes it fucks with me. I've been holding in the burden of those I affected and those that have affected me and it took the actions of a woman I wasn't romantically involved with but held in close regard to trigger some strange shit that was buried deep in the recesses. Isn't it funny how when folks do you favors it can turn into a huge humanitarian effort in their eyes, when when before you had to swallow your pride and go to them for said help you probably would have been okay if you would have bit down and just took the bad shit and just muddled thru?

Well, after them sacrificing and helping me, I was pretty much dared to venture out on my own and do for self like I should have done in the first place. I wasn't helpless but let them tell it, I damn near was. What had happened was... Basically, when the realization that romance wasn't a part of my immediate plans while I was being helped (appreciation goes out because that was cool), emasculation and disrespect started to happen as a form of payback, culminating with being dared to leave and me... Leaving. I originally had every intent of getting back to Texas and continuing that line of kinship based on friendship but a chain of events happened causing me to lose employment here in Chicago based on what investigators gathered from certain folk in the Lone Star State.

I was livid because I thought that even though my position changed geographically that I was still appreciated and respected in some respect even though I thought I was being treated like a Herb (remember that from the 80s?) but I guess when the bus fumes faded after leaving Texas the treatment intensified...

I wanted to hurt something. Someone.

When I was there, there were times where I felt isolated and unwelcome. I sucked that shit up and pushed forward. It felt like I was back in uniform, going through 'the shit'. It's psychological shit that only folk (um, Terry, Frank) that have been through it knows exactly how it feels.

Did they deserve to feel my wrath?

I realized that while she scratched at the surface of some deep seeded anger... The weight of long dead folk I didn't even really know, rumbling inside of me waiting for a reason to come out and probably manifesting itself in the form of unnecessary violence, it's not her that should be the target, so I repressed that shit got back to familiar ground back home, knowing that my family and friends in Chicago would treat me like a person and not like a commodity.

That was until last week, when over the phone my wife chose a totally random set of words that eerily sounded like something ol' girl said to me last year... Causing those feelings of anger and resentment to resurface.

This time this is my wife speaking and I love her. There is protocol, respect and new rules in dealing with my other half meaning I could not snap at her or just walk away and repress like I did before. I could do nothing but get to the root of my anger and find an outlet to rid myself of whatever this is. And find out why such a disrespectful tone triggers an almost uncontrollable amount of anger.

It doesn't help that we're finding out that most Americans are war mongerers hell-bent on destroying Iraq for no apparent reason. It ain't helping that every time I turn on the TV either some actor has a gun in his hand or the news is showing some gangster wanna-be that took shit too far... It ain't helping me to know that gun violence, war and self hatred is a part of our culture. Finding an outlet will be harder than I thought.

So I called a bare knuckles gym a friend took me to years ago when I worked for the post office and told him that I wanted to unleash a little of the unholy hell that still burns a fire in my belly.

I'm still internalizing things, trying to figure out how I could let some things go and totally lose track or forget other things and why some of the visuals from way back then still flash with lucidity and vividly from decades past. I agree that violence cannot cancel violence, but until I feel good enough to address my angry reactions with words and kind thoughts, crashing my hands into another man's flesh will just have to do. I get my first shot after a training session later this week.

Maybe I can let these feelings go via a little controlled violence. Maybe if I get my ass whooped I can learn to avoid the ass-whoopings of life and figure out how to place the things that matter in my life. Maybe I'll learn patience and resistance after landing or receiving my first crushing blow. Maybe bare knuckles brawling and MMA style fighting just ain't my thing. Maybe it'll humble me and help me find inner peace and a way to rid myself of thoughts twenty years of life should have washed away by now. Maybe it'll give me balance so that nothing anyone can either say or do can set me off to the point where I have to isolate myself again.

I have no friggin' idea, but I'm willing to do something other than lash out at the whole damn world.

The redundancy in that leaves me at a loss...

If I can't create, I have to find my usefulness somewhere. I had to find out what is fueling this anger and find an outlet so I can get back to normality. I have a life to live and a family to create. Maybe in my waiting and compromise I can experience a little self discovery (a hobby) and be supportive in my endeavors and not harmful to them or myself.

Monday Night Quarterback

Today's theme is football...

Somewhat.

This weekend, my wife and I attended the Chicago Football Classic. This year, West Virginia State University handled Central State University in a clash of two HBCUs.



We had a ball in the stands, met alumni of both the schools and my wife's alma matter Langston University. Even made a few business contacts and took some notes on about a few movrs and shakers...

The battle of the bands was OFF THE FRIGGIN' CHAIN!!!

All in all, we had a good weekend, capped off with me being left in front of the the set all day yesterday as I watched enough football to be a Fox post game analyst.

Oh, and a mechanic or detailer stole my GPS outta' my truck. Can you believe my wife offered me the one I gifted to her?

Awwwwww. She ain't getting it back when I buy a new one later this week.

Repubican Wrap Up

I am thoroughly impressed with the Republican ticket.

I am considering voting for John McCain. Not based on last night, but based on Phil Graham's program. Look that up.

I think the Palin choice for Republican VP last week was friggin' genius.

I am still an Obama supporter but I'm not stupid.


Unfortunately, I don't know anyone in my immediate circle (or even outside it), not even my wife gave five minutes to the Republican convention, but all I heard last week about speeches, history and such... My people, this thing is becoming such a one sided love affair that no one will vote.

But we got love for Obama. Whatever people. Folks died so we can speak at the ballot. A hero ain't nothing but a sammitch and t-shirt ain't gonna set you free.

What I saw was a lot of anger and truth the first so-called day of the convention. The second and third day of the convention I saw the anger swell and culminate with Palin's speech. The Republicans have awakened a sleeping giant. Small town America, Bubba and Six-Sack Joe and em' now have someone in the presidential race to identify with.

Identity Politics

Palin delivered the speech with perfect pitch. She nailed it and hit it out of the park, but between Guliani and Palin, there was a lot of bark. It is now up to Six-Pack and em' to provide the bite, and there isn't a problem with voter registration or voting down on the farm, Mayberry or Mount Pilot.

Conservatives have been watching Palin for years, but most liberals acted like they didn't know. I've heard a lot about the vetting process and how McCain selected her at the last minute, but dammit she was on his short list all the way from last year and the pubs and media I read kept her in the spotlight ever since the 27 million pork barrel project was delivered to her home city years ago.

Forbes, US News and World Report, Time, WSJ and The Standard for those that need research fodder.

McCain mentioned to the Republicans last night that they have failed and got complacent. For all of those liberal minded progressives that call themselves in the know, let me remind you that you're supposed to keep your friends close and your enemies closer. The fact that most so-called progressives only complained about the cover of the New Yorker and never opened the pages, even admitting that the publication is 'something we don't even read' goes to show who is actually out of touch.

Conservatives and their spin doctors like Karl Rove have always been watching us. The selection of a young, talented, well-spoken conservative that they can give on the job training in the finer points of Cheney/Rove politics was damn near perfect to further the devaluation of the US dollar giving way to the Amero, strengthening the American Union and helping Republican side business like Haliburton profit from the Iraqi surplus that US soldiers died for. It also continues an unnecessary culture war (race and class divide) and continues to scare us using 9/11 so we will never find out who robbed the US Treasury under WTC buildings number 2 and 7. Bin Laden is the boogeyman that keeps us up at night and Ahmadinejad and/or Putin will be the reason for the 3am phone call that will cause the US to finally put an end to Islam (not radical Islam like they say) and European intellect like folks on the farm want us to do anyway because it will end global competition. and proliferate American dominance, giving way to the rest of the world once again becoming dependent on all things American.

Note that I said American and not the US, even though the Repubs were strong on nationalism this week.

Now cats like Putin and Ahmadinejad need to be dealt with in order to achieve world peace, but do you think McCain or Obama is the man for the job? Or if McCain wins and a person of Palin's caliber gets 4 years on the job training so she can run in the next general election or (God forbid) McCain dies in office and she takes over, she all of a sudden becomes the next best person to do that kind of dirty work?

Calculating.


Plus, I like McCain's Tax structure. Not enough to vote for him, but enough to consider and listen. I hope you're studying as well.

I love how teenage pregnancy is identified (just like welfare and crack use) with black folk. A journalist wrote a piece the week before last in a major paper about teen pregnancy and out of the thousands of responses, folks commented that young, black girls should stay out of the crackhouse, find their baby's daddy and get off welfare.

The journalist never mentioned race in his piece, but the commentors did.

Funny how the Alaskan governor's unwed teen daughter has a 'blessing' and not a problem like them young black girls...

Interesting...

You didn't even notice the misspelling in the blog title... Or the picture did ya?

Whatever Wenzdai

Nothing new to report from over in these parts...

I mean, me moving away from the blogosphere is getting easier because the waters are calm and warm in my part of the sea. I still read a lot of folks and I try my best not to comment, but...

Whatever.

I get no pleasure out of being redundant and repetitive so writing the same stuff over and over about my political and social beliefs becomes hard for the rest of the world to regurgitate. And since I got married... Well, you know. I think folks only lurked here to try to find out who I was screwing anydamnway and now that they know...


Anyway... On to my weekend:

My sister and her family drove up from Texas, so the whole weekend was just us hanging out. This was Sunday night at my cousin's football game. Yep, high school football on a Sunday, the cool factor was above 75 even though they lost.




I'm sure the folks down south can appreciate the manicured fields.


Other than being in the stands chilling, the remainder of the so-called holiday was spent around a bunch of cousins, my mom and both dads, 5 little ones a splashing, 2 dogs, one cat trapped in my mom's basement and no breaks from driving. My hands are burning something terrible and I think I have a bulging disc in my neck but other than that, laying around with my other half added a little relief.


And I picked up a cold from one of the shawties.

I hope you did something, like watch the Republicans.

I did.

Days Three And Four In Denver...

Was a blur...

I think I lost a couple of pounds due the the humidity of the hot air blown by a few speakers at the convention.

I did get a well needed 90 minute deep tissue massage yesterday morning that has already started to help with muscle relief thanks to my other half. Other than that, I think it's politics as usual. In order to get stuff accomplished things will be said and done in the next 66 days that you might not either like or want to hear, so get used to it.

The talking heads, politicians, elected officials, pundits and spin doctors have done all they can do. It'll continue next week in Minneapolis and I hope folks will attend and participate with the fervor Dems had in this past week. Understand that there is a great chance there could be a Republican elected to the white house so we should at least know what the hell folks are talking about.

Well at least I hope so.

I'm hoping to grow faith in my people to the point where I'm confident that we can deliver Senator Obama.

I'm headed back to work. I can't wait to see what folks out there have to say about the convention and speakers.

and...

MY SISTER IS COMING TO TOWN!!! AND SHE'S BRINGING THE CHILLUNS!!!