Admit it… Everyone in America had the same thought…

When we heard the news that a plane hit a building in New York City, we were all waiting for the second plane or the explosion, or something else to happen because we were afraid that Manhattan was under attack again.

CNN covered the incident as if this was a new terror strike because frankly none of us knew that it wasn’t. Anderson Cooper reported from the scene and Wolf Blitzer stood in front of the blue screen speaking in that ominous tone of voice.

The fifth anniversary of 911 received a lot of fanfare, but the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan came and went a couple of weeks ago with barely a whisper. George Bush has made the world hate the United States even more than we were hated before September 2001, and the government and media FEAR FACTORY has US citizens on pins and needles.

Two Questions: From the security gauntlet at airports to our wars in the Middle East, from North Korean nuclear tests to our worries over a small plane crash on 10/11 -

Is America safer than it was five years ago?

Do you feel safer?

Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission began work October 10, taking statements from perpetrators, eyewitnesses, and victims of the 14-year civil war that left the country shattered and its population decimated. The commission has a two-year mandate to investigate crimes but cannot put alleged perpetrators on trial.

Offices are opening throughout the West African country and in the diaspora (including Minnesota) in an effort to document evidence on crimes committed between 1979 and 2003.

BBC and Minnesota Public Radio

From The Washington Post:

Nearly five years after President Bush introduced the concept of an “axis of evil” comprising Iraq, Iran and North Korea, the administration has reached a crisis point with each nation: North Korea has claimed it conducted its first nuclear test, Iran refuses to halt its uranium-enrichment program, and Iraq appears to be tipping into a civil war 3 1/2 years after the U.S.-led invasion.

Bush’s “I’m your daddy; don’t make me get my belt” stance is backfiring. For all of Dubya’s tough talk and tough action, these countries are standing up to the bullying rhetoric and then some. After seeing what happened to Iraq, fellow axis targets Iran and North Korea have decided not only to preempt Bush’s preemptive measures, but they’re upping the ante with some nuclear sabre-rattling of their own.

Who’s the daddy now?

Washington Post

Pop star Madonna, who recently made an unfortunate debut as a freestylin’ hip hop star, has temporarily put aside pilates and double soy lattes to adopt a son. According to news reports, Madonna adopted a 1-year-old whose mom died after childbirth. The father said he was happy his son would escape poverty.

“I am the father of David, who has been adopted,” Banda, 32, told The Associated Press Tuesday. “I am very very happy because as you can see there is poverty in this village and I know he will be very well looked after in America.”

Madonna was in the country for her Raising Malawi project. The project provides food and shelter for up to 4,000 children. The father also said the child would make frequent return visits to Malawi.

Newsday

Kanye West put some of his fans on African “blood” diamonds in his 2005 single “Diamonds from Sierra Leone.”

Though it’s thousands of miles away
Sierra Leone connect to what we go through today
Over here, its a drug trade, we die from drugs
Over there, they die from what we buy from drugs
The diamonds, the chains, the bracelets, the charmses
I thought my Jesus Piece was so harmless
’til I seen a picture of a shorty armless

Well recently the 15th largest rough diamond was found in Lesotho. A British owned company bought the 603 carat diamond for $12.4 million and plan to sell it for more than $20 million.

The 1.8 million people of Lesotho, a tiny mountain kingdom completely encircled by South Africa, are among the world’s poorest.

Although this may not be a certified “blood diamond” it still speaks to the unjust way Africans are treated on their own land.

Yahoo! News

NEWSFLASH! Detroit, a Black city, has some problems– no jobs, no money, stupid leaders. But these problems can be solved if the community sticks together. DUH!

Bill Cosby was back in Detroit “empowering” Blacks and co-hosting workshops and rallies.

There has long been community meetings and organizations trying to get the city “right” but the main media ’s perspective seems to say that we don’t care and if we do we only care to listen to famous people who just reguritate old info.
Dr. Huxtable said:

“You’re about to listen, absorb and to challenge yourself to move in a positive direction,” the comedian told the audience. “Strength, that’s what we’re after.”

USA TODAY

Good old North Korea, you know the country known to some as “high repressive” or “strongly resistant to reform,” and the country that technically, the U.S. is still at war with, decided to test out an atomic bomb underground this past weekend.

North Korea has proudly and readily admitted to having “weapons of mass destruction” in the past. And so far the U.S. has answered with “strong criticism” and name calling — Bush labeled NK as part of the “axis of evil.”

So you invade one country for rumors of a missile and criticize the other? Interesting.

Whether you believe they are following illegal, immoral and unjust orders or not, the men and women of our military are willing to make the supreme sacrifice. They put their lives on the line every day. Why? Because their job is to protect and defend their country. They aren’t allowed to debate whether the cause is right or wrong. They do their jobs.

The Washington Post reports that Iraq casualties have soared to their highest level in two years with over 1000 soldiers wounded in the last five weeks.

Yet the war rages on with little or no support from the American people and little or no protest from the Congress of the United States.

For the past week the media has been focused on the electronic exploits of a would-be child molestor in the halls of Congress. They have ignored the men and women who are fighting for their lives in an unwinnable war that they should not be in in the first place.

Blues Talkin’

So I guess I’m the last person in the free world who’d never seen ‘Scarface’. And now, I’m sorry I did.

Filled with violence and drugs, I’m not sure why its so revered, especially by Black males.
Al Pacino who, of course, played Tony Montana is being copied. His mannerisms, slang (yayo) and ‘I don’t give a f*ck’ mentality can be viewed everyday by young wannabees in urban communities like Detroit and on BET.

Young Black males live lives of grandeur by wearing oversized signature Tony Montana tees and saying the line ’say hello to my little friend.’

It’s weird that Black males relate more to drug smuggling, killer Cubans than to those who’ve survived or died in African genocides (Rwanda, Darfur).
I never saw anyone wearing Don Cheadle paraphenilia when he played hotel worker Paul Rusesabagina in the film “Hotel Rwanda.”

With Republican leadership stumbling, bumbling and ducking for cover on issue after issue, it is difficult to conceive how the Democrats could blow the election on November 7.

Difficult, but unfortunately, not impossible.

In his “The Buck Stops Here” speech at Batavia, Illinois, GOP House Speaker Dennis Hastert joined the chorus that has implied the Dems may have had a hand in the escalation of the Foley fiasco from Capitol Hill gossip to major congressional sex scandal. It is an election year, Mr. Speaker, and the political chess match is approaching the final gambit. We’re sure Karl Rove has a few tricks up his sleeve as well.

This Foley foolishness obviously won’t play well with the GOP’s homophobic, sex-inhibited, radically religious right-wing base. Republican candidates in close races were already trying to distance themselves from the failures of George Bush. Now they have to find a way to look independent, isolated and insulated from the sins of party leadership.

Still it is most striking that while the Dems stand to gain much from the exposure of Republican wrongdoing, they have failed to highlight the real differences between them and their opponents across the aisle. Their strategy seems to be to let the Republicans hang themselves, and so far the Republicans are cooperating. (more…)

Disgraced electronic pedophile Republican Congressman Mark Foley’s lawyer is telling us Foley is gay. How is that so? The party of the Moral Majority and Christian Coalition has gays in top leadership positions? Wow!!!!

But more seriously, Foley’s actions against innocent congressional pages speaks of the deep seated hypocrisy within the national GOP establishment. In fact, the gay and lesbian movement should be up in arms for Foley’s attempt to scapegoat them. They should not allow insults from indecent hetrosexuals.

I’m wondering what our Grand Moral Master, Pat Robertson is thinking? Surely Foley’s actions must be the work of Lucifer.  What consequence should the GOP face about this despicable act? I wish Robertson would say all GOP deserve hell.

But I know what the consequence needs to be. Get the GOP out of Congress in November. During the Clinton sex scandals, Republicans reminded us over and over again about how the sanctity of the White House had been violated. Now the halls of Congress are no longer safe for our children because of potential GOP pedophilia. Not only do we have to think about lack of health insurance and prescription drugs for senior citizens, insufficient funding for public education, but also the safety of our kids in the hands of the Republican Party.

Next time you visit Washington DC, make sure you stay away from Congress.

How come the Republicans let Dick DeVos escape them Oct 2 to appear for a debate?

This guy had no clue what is going on in Michigan, no understanding about public policy and how it impacts our lives. Sitting home and watching Dick debating Gov. Jennifer Granholm was like looking at a robot in a room filled with computer gadgets. 

Was Dick’s brain computerized while he was on stage speaking? To me it sounds like, the GOP fixed a computer chip in his head….no wonder he was skipping questions and swinging his head around for answers, giving out what the GOP were feeding through the chip.

The next time Dick appears to debate I’ll sure be in bed unless he has something outrageous to say.  

Let’s see… The federal deficit is at a record high (or low depending on which way you’re looking at it). Our military is waging an illegal war, congress just legalized torture, FEMA made New Orleans more of a disaster than Hurricane Katrina did, the president spies on US citizens without securing warrants…

But it takes the exposure of a GOP representative’s naughty instant messages to a high school boy (and the Republican cover-up) for conservative pundits like Joseph Farah at WorldNetDaily to face the facts that have been in plain sight for at least the last five years.

“Following the revelations about Florida Rep. Mark Foley’s sexually suggestive e-mails to a 16-year-old congressional page, I have concluded Republicans are unworthy of retaining control of the federal government.”

Farah has also decided that the two-party system is “just flat broken” because the pitiful Democrats “are not only unworthy, but also unacceptable”.

Hello?? Where have these people been all these years? Forget war, torture, the obliteration of civil liberties and the demise of habeas corpus. It takes a good old-fashioned gay sex scandal (an email sex scandal actually) to get the right-wing in a tizzy.

Death and destruction are perfectly fine, but let an old man talk dirty to a teenage boy, and it’s time for them all to be drawn and quartered. This is the party of “family values”?

WorldNetDaily