Take THAT, Newt!

Sometimes, someone else captures your thoughts...this post is copied directly from the blog of Travon Free, a comedian who grew up in one of those "poor neighborhoods" that Newt is so fond of denigrating. Follow the links to visit this brother's blog and to follow him on Twitter.

An Open Letter To Newt Gingrich From A Black Kid Who Grew Up In A Poor Neighborhood

Posted on December 5, 2011

Dear Newt Gingrich,

I recently saw you stand up in front of a group of people and allow some of the most
idiotic, unfounded, racist, and ignorant words pass your lips that I’ve ever heard
from a member of a group of the most unqualified presidential candidates America
has ever seen.

To have the audacity to say that poor kids, and let’s be clear that’s republican speak
for black and brown kids, “have no habits of working and nobody around them who
works” is not only an insult to me as black man who grew up in one of those “really
poor” neighborhoods you spoke of but it’s an insult to my mother. And it’s an insult to
many other black and brown children, adults, and hard working parents(often single
parents) who get up every single day to try to provide a better life for their children in
poor neighborhoods.

As a child grew up in Compton in the early 90′s, one of the most dangerous
neighborhoods in America, I watched my mother work tirelessly, sometimes juggling
multiple jobs to provide for myself and my sister. Day in and day out just like many other
parents in poor neighborhoods she did what she had to do in order to provide for us.
You know what that turned into Mr. Gingrich?

A son who received academic and athletic scholarship offers from three Ivy League schools
and countless other universities, a son with a college degree in Criminal Justice who
graduated with honors from every school he attended, and a daughter who not only
attended a Gifted and Talented Education high school but is one year away from
completing a degree at UCLA.

This is not just the case for my family. I know I speak for many other hard working
black, brown, and even poor white families who have the same experiences in the poor
neighborhoods to look down upon from your elitist 1% out of touch pedestal. To say that
an entire community “literally has no habit of showing up on Monday” or “they have no
habit of staying all day” I say that is a load of shit.

Millions of poor children watch their parents show up Monday and many of them
sometimes have to suffer from the fact that their parents have to stay at work ALL DAY.

And lastly, you suggest that to remedy this “problem” as you so blindly see it is to make
poor kids assistant janitors and pay them to clean the restrooms? Your solution is child
labor. Degrading young children by suggesting they clean toilets while painting all union workers as lazy leeches. It’s a shame they don’t have the work ethic of hard working Americans like Kim Kardashian who worked so hard in her sex tape before we crowned her a role model for young girls and showered her with money and adoration or Paris Hilton who was forced to clean so many toilets as a teen to learn “work ethic” before her parents handed over the millions.

This not only echoes the depth of your ignorance but just how truly unqualified
you are to ever be president of this country. Your assumption that poor people have no
ingrained work ethic and “have no habit of ‘I do this and you give me cash’ unless it’s
illegal” is not only dangerously ignorant but it proves you have no connection with the
true heart of this country.

I believe I speak for most if not all of “poor” America when I say Mr. Gingrich you have
no habit of performing, thinking or speaking in a manner that warrants becoming the
leader of the free world and the 45th president of these United States of America. You
represent a party of greedy, selfish, out of touch, wealth protecting, non tax paying,
destroyers of the middle class. You know nothing about us. But your words in your
speech in Des Moines told us everything about you.

Which is why I hope you win your party’s nomination so that poor and impoverished
families can at least experience four more years of a man working diligently to help
them and the communities they call home that you have proven to know nothing about.
president number 44.

PS. You look like someone poured mashed potatoes into a suit

Laughing so hard it hurts...

Our POTUS gets hit with complaints, arguments, and downright lies from both sides, but like the old watch commercial says, he takes a lickin' but keeps on tickin'! Classy all the way and every day!

I LOVE this man, and my husband knows it! (He loves him too...and you know how I mean when I say "love"!)

Posted by Pamela Hilliard Owens

Another great spoof of the infamous Rick Perry Anti-Gay Video

Ever since Rick Perry published his very distasteful and anti-gay video (falsely) claiming again that there is "war" against Christianity and Christians in America, there have been several excellent "spoof" videos published that push back on Perry.

Here's a wonderful one by a Rabbi in Michigan:

'Helpful' Gov. Rick Snyder eyeing Detroit for holiday meal

Whenever a rich, white, Republican governor of a state like Michigan says that he only wants to help a predominantly black, predominantly poor city like Detroit by setting the wheels in motion for a state takeover, I'm reminded of a certain Penn State football coach who only wanted to 'help' poor, underprivileged kids by raping them in the shower.

Power is as power does.

And what Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder is doing is going for the trifecta; he already removed all community control from the largely black and poor Michigan cities of Benton Harbor and Pontiac, so now he's gunning for The Prize. Detroit, the largest city in Michigan which also contains the largest African American population in the state (not to mention being the largest predominantly black metropolitan area in the country), is bleeding dollars like someone with their throat slit laying sprawled on the sidewalk. To be sure, Detroit's elected leadership going back decades is hardly blameless for the financial dilemma the city currently finds itself in, but the crash and burn now being experienced by Detroit was hardly a suicide. We had a lotta help getting here, but now it seems like the only ones who remember the whole story are us Detroiters. Everybody else gettin amnesia.

To detail all of Detroit's woes would make for way too long a post, so let me just boil it down to this; Detroit is currently spending more money than it is taking in and that has to stop otherwise it is predicted we could be out of money by as soon as April 2012. No joke. Hundreds more city employees are about to get layed off, those still remaining are likely to have their salaries chopped even more, not to mention pension and benefits. There's a lot of talk of privatization of certain city services such as the lighting department.

And on and on and on it goes...

But what I want to know is why isn’t more being done to force Lansing to make good on the $220 million in revenue sharing that was promised to Detroit in 1998 by then Gov. John Engler when he struck a deal with former Mayor Dennis Archer? Nobody who opposes this rather obvious request to make good on that promise can offer even a remotely credible reason why this promise was not honored, and whenever anyone presses the point the only response seems to be that we might as well give that up because that was a promise made by another (Republican) governor at another time and why should the State of Michigan honor its commitment to Detroit if it wasn't made during this administration? Because if you really want a lesson on how good certain governments are in keeping their promises to minority groups, just ask the Native Americans.

But if this is so, then why is it so? I still say why should Detroit be expected to simply roll over and excuse a broken $220 million promise when the fulfillment of that promise would effectively wipe out the city’s massive $200 million accumulated debt? The deal was that if Detroit steadily lowered its income tax rate then we would receive the $220 million in revenue sharing. Detroit kept up its end of the bargain at the risk of collecting less income tax revenue for itself, and this was back when we still had a noticeable number of middle class residents living here whose income taxes actually amounted to something.

But now we're supposed to be OK with this and just suck it up and walk away?

Oh hell no.

Posted by Detroit Monster

The Top 5 Reasons I say: Good Riddance, Herman!

I, for one of tens of millions, am very glad that Mr. Herman Cain has "suspended" his presidential campaign.

(By suspending, not ending, his campaign, he is still free to raise and spend money. We, the American taxpayers--including the 99%, are paying for his Secret Service protection for at least another 9.99 weeks. Why is it that government is only supposed to work for YOU, Mr. Cain?)

There are a lot of Republicans and very right-wing people who continue to support Herman Cain and actually think he would've made a good President. Not.

The reasons I am glad Mr. Cain's gone are not totally because I am a proud liberal and progressive Democrat. It is deeper than that.

5) He may have been a successful businessman and motivational speaker and all that, but how can you truly "motivate" people by denigrating them and calling them lazy and worthless? ("If you aren't rich or don't have a job, it's YOUR fault!" said Mr. Cain.) I, for one of tens of millions of fellow liberals and progressives, believe in "Sankofa": reaching back and helping others up, not pulling up the ladder once you've personally reached the top.

4) I resent being called "brainwashed" and "living on a plantation" just because I don't think like Herman Cain does. Again, it seems like Mr. Cain and his campaign just ran on "applause lines". It is precisely BECAUSE I can think and analyze for myself that I made an INFORMED choice to be a liberal progressive and not a conservative.

3) I prefer my President to be readers AND leaders. Maybe if Mr. Cain "read" a little more, he'd know the name of the President of U-becky-becky-stan-stan and the successful Libya policy of President Obama, AND he would know and understand that it is NOT politically prudent to denigrate and make fun of another sovereign state.

2) I also prefer for my President NOT to play the "victim" at every turn. Every time Mr. Cain had a problem, it was always someone or something else's fault: the Democrats, the "liberal media", "unsubstantiated accusations", the middle class, the Black people who were "scared" of a "real Black Man"...yada, yada, yada. Mr. Cain may not have noticed, but there is already a "real Black Man" in the White House. I almost laughed when Mr. Cain said in his farewell speech that the "lies about him" were "hurting his family". More lies have been told about President Obama and his wife and family than Mr. Cain can shake a stick at--many of those lies told by Mr. Cain himself. But do you hear the President whining and complaining at every turn? No--Barack Hussein Obama is the role model that Mr. Cain should follow. Our current president just "brushes the dirt off his shoulder" and keeps on working for the good of ALL Americans.

1) I am equally incensed that Mr. Cain has set himself up as judge and jury of other Americans by stating that he would not "have any Muslims in his administration". On the one hand, Mr. Cain boldly states that there is no longer a "race problem" in America (of course, he then plays the "race card" when it is convenient for him), but he perpectuates other racial/religious/cultural stereotypes such as all Muslims are terrorists and Muslims cannot be "real Americans" nor can they be trusted. Well, it seems as if it is Mr. Cain who cannot be trusted.

Good riddance, Mr. Cain. You are now reduced to a trivia question on "Final Jeopardy". Don't forget to ask Ann Coulter if she still feels that "her blacks" are better than "our blacks". "Our Black" is the scandal-free President of the United States of America, and you, Mr. Cain, are a joke and an embarrassment to all Americans.

The Black Liberal Boomer Blog

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