I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it, President Jimmy Carter is a personal hero, a man of character and honor, a man who has caused those of lesser stuff to gnaw on skulls because he continues to stride above them while they wallow in filth.

I again made the case for President Carter in a comment and in three links in a post on Race, but I wanted to make sure no reader misses these three essays by Kai Wright, Sherrilyn A. Ifill and Terence Samuel.

I was particularly taken by Ifill’s words when she wrote:

One of the prerogatives of advanced age is the right to say things that others can”t or won”t. For many people of advanced age, the decision to speak truth becomes non-negotiable, and elision is replaced by a determined and consistent effort to tell it like it is. This can explain the inappropriate uncle at Thanksgiving – the one who asks whether a certain member of the family has gotten off the drugs or announces that the turkey was better last year.

In the best cases, our elders become thoughtful and careful narrators, who bring the wealth of their life experience and observation to our understanding of the world. They provide us with a sense of the arc of history, reminding us of the cyclical nature of life”s events, and the ever-present possibilities of change. And so it was that former President Jimmy Carter courageously put a name to the elephant in the room of political discourse this year. In an NBC interview President Carter cited racial “animosity” and a feeling among some whites that “African Americans are not qualified to lead this . . . country” as lying beneath the surface of some of the extreme opposition responses to President Obama.

Go read all three pieces. They speak the truth far better than I can.

Roldo Bartimole writes:

If you don”t have enough reasons to vote against gambling casinos, Brian Rothenberg, director of ProgressOHIO, has some gems. As the fact that in the first three years of legalized casino gambling in Atlantic City it went from 50th in crime to NO. 1.

Oh, just what Cleveland needs, right?

He also notes that casino licenses in the U. S. typically go for from $300 million to $500 million. Why not, it”s a license to take someone”s money. In Ohio the price tag for a casino monopoly: $50 million.

Cleveland does everything on the cheap, why not this?

And for additional reminders about the lying scumbags who want licenses to bleed Ohioans dry and then piss in our faces as they hoover cash out of the state see:

Lie And Equivocate and
57 Reasons To Vote No On Gambling

I’m about as White as White can be. The only time in my life that I ever had a tan was when I spent a few months in the Gulf of Oman playing with the Iranians in 1979 and even that was a very poor example.

More importantly, I’m damn White inside as well, not by any choice, but because a number of the circumstances of my childhood –growing up in a Southeastern Ohio where Italians are looked upon with suspicion — and my education in a school system that was 99.9 percent White.

The only exposure I had to Blacks growing up was on television and that consisted of Bill Cosby, Flip Wilson and Diane Carrol. And oh yeah, Sammy Davis Jr. I was so ignorant that when I went to church camp in the 6th grade and had a Black counselor who asked us if we wanted to rap, I looked around for the presents.

It wasn’t until I was in the Navy and had both Black supervisors and shipmates that I began to maneuver the dangerous mine fields of Race. (That it was the ’70s and Disco was king didn’t help.) I did my best but got it wrong a number of times (like the occasion when I said yo mama to a Black 1st Class petty officer, not a smart move) but I survived without getting cut wide, deep and long. Continue Reading »

I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.

It takes a special kind of humor to enjoy this. And I believe you are in possession of that.

Got a jerk sitting next to you on the plane? Try this.

1. Take out your laptop.

2. Slowly open your laptop.

3. Turn it on.

4. Make certain your neighbor is watching.

5. Open your Internet browser.

6. Close your eyes for a few moments, open them and then look up to the sky, or the heavens if you will. Continue Reading »

Roldo Bartimole writes:

For some of us the recession is nasty but for minorities it”s a devastating Depression.

That”s the real conclusion of a study by the Center for American Progress.

The report notes that the “severity of the recession has erased most of the modest gains that families experienced in a few areas during the past business cycle from 2002 to 2007, such as homeownership.”

“The decline in economic security during the recession is much sharper for minorities than whites,” the report said.

The report notes poverty at 9.1 percent for whites, 31.2 percent for African-Americans and 28.4 Hispanics.

Those latter figures for minorities show a Depression, not a recession.

Special efforts need to be made on a national level to address these disparities.

One obvious one: health care for those in poverty via a government sponsored program equal to Medicare.

Found in my electronic chapbook.

“… if one is possessed by them, if one gives up one”s whole being to something else, allowing oneself to be ruled by something external, one”s freedom and personal integrity are lost. In this kind of giving up or delivering oneself over, one loses one”s soul.” From Witness to the Fire: Creativity and the Veil of Addiction by Linda Schierse Leonard. p. 70

From Living The Writer’s Life: by Eric Maisel.

Roldo Bartimole writes:

When the Pee Dee editorial board gets Dan Gilbert, Mayor Frank Jackson, Council President Marty Sweeney, Greater Cleveland Partnership boss Joe Roman and Squire-Sanders managing partner Fred Nance in one room you know the bullshit is knee high or higher.

The result of the meeting: a free Page One ad for Gilbert”s desired casino and a lot of pap about he”s not going to build a hotel immediately and the Cleveland police therefore favor the casino issue.

Please!

The cops are in favor because they”ll have lucrative second security jobs, much preferable to the jobs they”re hired to do for the people of Cleveland. But who cares about them. Nice also to put cops and gamblers closer together. A civic favor, huh? Thank you Pee Dee for helping. Continue Reading »

Tim Russo writes:

How do you oppose policy when you have embedded into the electorate a very convincing image that you”re just a bunch of raving lunatics?

Not this.

Ira Stroll sees irony, and perhaps, by association, hypocrisy in the financing of Michael Moore’s latest movie: Capitalism.

The funniest moments of all in the movie, though, may just be in the opening and closing credits. We see that the movie is presented by “Paramount Vantage” in association with the Weinstein Company. Bob and Harvey Weinstein are listed as executive producers. If Mr. Moore appreciates any of the irony here he sure doesn’t share it with viewers, but for those members of the audience who are in on the secret it’s all kind of amusing. Paramount Vantage, after all, is controlled by Viacom, on whose board sit none other than Sumner Redstone and former Bear Stearns executive Ace Greenberg, who aren’t exactly socialists. The Weinstein Company announced it was funded with a $490 million private placement in which Goldman Sachs advised. The press release announcing the deal quoted a Goldman spokesman saying, “We are very pleased to be a part of this exciting new venture and look forward to an ongoing relationship with The Weinstein Company.”

Knowing that background puts the rest of the movie in a different context. Mr. Moore shows Rep. Dennis Kucinich asking rhetorically on the floor of the House of Representatives, “Is this the United States Congress or the board of directors of Goldman Sachs?” Later, Mr. Moore shows up at Goldman Sachs headquarters in Manhattan driving an armored Brinks trunk and announcing, “We’re here to get the money back for the American people.” Maybe Mr. Moore should look in his own pockets.

Where Ira sees irony, I see sweet juju. It is as if Moore had managed to get the National Rifle Association to finance Fahrenheit 9/11 or Big Pharma to put up the bucks for Sicko.

What the involvement of Goldman Sachs in the movie really illustrates is how truly clueless such boards are and in what dangerous hands the economic health of the world lie.

0708: thoughts, deep or otherwise

I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.

(I call bull shit below.)

The Little Red Hen called all of her Democrat neighbors together and said, ‘If we plant this wheat, we shall have bread to eat. Who will help me plant it?’

“Not I,” said the cow.

“Not I,” said the duck.

“Not I,” said the pig.

“Not I,” said the goose.

“Then I will do it by myself,” said the little red hen, and so she did. The wheat grew very tall and ripened into golden grain. Continue Reading »

Found in my electronic chapbook.

“What am I going to do with my freedom?” p. 69

From Living The Writer’s Life: by Eric Maisel.

Roldo Bartimole writes:

Every day in every way, Mayor Frank Jackson is a disappointment.

Jackson today endorsed casinos – Issue 3 – as an economic development gain for downtown Cleveland. It will take money out of Cleveland, that”s what it would do.

Vote NO on 3.

“Mayor Jackson”s vision of revitalizing Cleveland is having 25,000 people living downtown, thousands of people working downtown and 150,000 additional people visiting downtown. ‘Although not a panacea, I believe this casino will go a long way in helping to achieve that vision,” said Mayor Jackson,” a press release by e-mail said.

Not a panacea is the line the casino people are pushing.

The only thing a gambling casino will do for Cleveland is enrich a guy who lives in Detroit.

What”s ironic is that Gateway was supposed to be the spur that kicked Cleveland to riches.

One of the beneficiaries of Gateway, of course, is Dan Gilbert, who owns the Cavaliers.

Jackson has now become a very conventional Cleveland Mayor – Give the Big Boys What They Want. And do it fast.

What a disappointment.

Roldo Bartimole writes:

Bruce Ratner and Forest City Ratner made a deal with Russia”s richest man for the New Jersey Nets and a major Brooklyn project called Atlantic Yards.

The project was facing financial difficulties.

Develop Don”t Destroy Brooklyn, a Brooklyn community organization headed by Daniel Goldstein, which has been fighting the development, sent out an e-mail message denouncing the deal. The project includes a proposed arena for the Jets team, owned by Bruce Ratner.

Goldstein in a blistering analysis labeled the Atlantic Yards as Oligarch Field.

I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.

The next time gasoline goes over $4 per gallon…

Found in my electronic chapbook.

“The typical person feels unfriendly toward ideas and what the mind can do, while the writer – and every other creative person – can”t live unless she honors her inner reality.” p. 65

From Living The Writer’s Life: by Eric Maisel.