Southside with You: Obamas' love story opens this month

I was so deep in the academic hole for the first six months of the year that I completely missed news about the movie Southside with You, the story of Michelle and Barack Obama's romance. The film pays homage to the president and First Lady's initial courtship and opens in limited release August 26. I.must.see.this.movie. So, I'll be scouting websites, Twitter, creating a Google alert, whatever I can do so I can't miss the film when it comes to New Orleans.

Produced by singer/songwriter John Legend and written and directed by Richard Tanne, the movie premiered with good reviews at the Sundance Festival in January. Based on the trailer, I'll say it's a winner already.

I remember one of the first times I heard a story about the first couple's courtship and said, "Sounds like a romance novel or a romantic comedy." I believe at least one of those times I was watching the Oprah Winfrey Show. Their love story made me happy because we don't hear enough, read enough, or see enough stories about healthy, black, romantic relationships.

Tika Sumpter, a young actress who became much more visible after appearing in Tyler Perry's soap opera on OWN, makes a wonderful Michelle Obama based on what I see in the trailer. I don't know much about Parker Sawyers' work (He plays Barack.), but I do recall him in The Assets TV show. He also is believable in the trailer.

The first couple was not consulted about the making of the film, but according to Tanne, they're aware of it, are excited about the movie, but "baffled by its existence." In a Vanity Fair interview, the writer/director says he gathered all his information from public domain sources, probably the Oprah show and other interviews with the Michelle and/or Barack. He thinks his script is mostly accurate. From what I 've seen, he's caught the warmth and humor of the stories as I recall them.

I've already subscribed to Fandango news to make sure I get a ticket. I mean, Southside with You better show here.

The last post on "Black people are apes and monkeys," I hope

This post has been syndicated at BlogHer.com.

I hope this will be the last thing I ever write about the history of White people portraying Black people as monkeys, but unfortunately, at some point I'll probably have to write something on this topic again. This racist insult repeats, repeats, repeats.

Did you hear about the Just Add A Kid T-Shirt debacle? The clothing company is in hot water over this picture that someone took and shared on Twitter. The picture of the black child placed above a monkey's body with a banana is not on the T-shirt itself, but on the hanger cover used to display the monkey T-shirt. The covers make it possible for any retail worker to match the any one of the company's T-shirts with any child on a cover.

The T-shirt manufacturer is claiming "it's all a misunderstanding," but some concerned consumers are saying that the T-Shirt manufacturer should have foreseen that eventually a black child would be matched with one of the monkey shirts in a sales display, and the fall-out would not be good for the company. So, either they should not have made the monkey T-shirt, or they should have found another way to promote the shirts.

I must say this as clearly as I can: White people who consider themselves “educated” in America and yet claim to not recognize the false, tired, and cruel doctrine that portrays people of African descent to be “more ape than human” either have not been paying attention or are being disingenuous in the fruitless effort to distance themselves from their privilege. The racist equation that monkey or ape=African or of African descent is a centuries-old and well-known Euro-American (and white supremacist) teaching that has been exported to other parts of the world.

This propaganda began to be promoted more aggressively during the so-called "Age of Enlightenment" when African identity began to be used as a foil to European identity. Europe was positioned as the continent of light; Africa was positioned as one of darkness. (This image of Africa was later re-enforced in popular culture via the highly-touted novel Heart of Darkness.)

Linnaues' System Naturae published in the 1700s and long upheld as “scientific” information encoded the message that black=closer-to-ape and did so with images. Even the "great" thinkers of Europe, such as Voltaire, Rousseau, Hume, and Kant, accepted and perpetuated the doctrine that Black people were subhuman, near ape status (see Elliot P. Skinner’s essay on Black identity as well as other sources).

Later in the 1800s, Charles White of the Royal Infirmary under so-called “scientific race theory” perpetuated this racist message with his classification of races. He designated black people as inferior and more related to apes.

It’s been documented that during World War II, White American soldiers circulated rumors that Black men had tails in their pants in an effort to stem miscegenation. When Black soldiers arrived in Hawaii, the local people ran from them, thinking they were animals.

During attempts to integrate schools, more than one White parent exclaimed, “I don’t want to send my children to school with monkeys and apes.” A little research of the era bears this out.

Since President Obama’s been in office even the national news has covered racist pictures of him portrayed as a monkey. And a quick search in Google images using the key words “Obama and monkey” will support that statement.

So, given that this trope has been perpetuated by science, has bled into popular culture, has been exported to countries around the globe—China included---and has remained active for more than 300 years (it was even used to justify slavery), I doubt that a store clerk matching hanger heads to T-shirts was unaware of it and its implications. Consequently, I agree with any commenters who have said that the manufacturer should have foreseen this.

If someone says that they saw this T-shirt display or picture and did not immediately see the racial implications, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt for the sake of civil discussion, but I will not accept an argument that extends that doubt to a corporation. Marketing professionals should know these cultural angles, and if they don’t, they’re in the wrong business.

Song of Fatigued Blacksplaining Folk

Song of the Fatigued Blacksplaining Folk
by Nordette N. Adams

Oh, that we had a time machine to launch some people
back as black men born to slavery in 1853
and have them stay alive through the Civil War, survive
the Jim Crow South and see 1964 when LBJ
signed The Act assuring liberty for Black folk in
America, land of the White called "free."

Then see their sons and daughters locked up
for suspect cause and be told they're deluded, always
playing bogus race cards, whenever they perceive
this nation less than godly pure, not sainted love
community, not post-racial, not yet cured.    Better,
let some privileged citizens go back as black and

woman born in shackles, her body for experiment,
a breeder, merely chattel, who even after
Emancipation Proclamation, and Civil Rights,
and Women's Rights, she's scowled at in this nation.
Let the Scarboroughs and O'Reillys, the Limbaughs
and DeMints live our ancestors' lives and ours.
But would that make a difference?

Once returned to present time, again in their white
skins, would they have the fortitude to teach
their brethren,      or      what if they returned but retained
the darker body, would their former friends
suppress credulity? Could it be in privileged eyes,
see Black, see invalidity?

(c) 2014

I avoid writing on race these days, as I've said before, because it's so draining. Yes, I do feel guilty sometimes about not dissecting "the struggle" weekly, but I'm only human. Also, I know I'm not alone in this burned-out space. Nonetheless, a few race-related issues have caught my eye over the last few months, and I've seen my brothers and sisters lamenting on Facebook and Twitter some of the racialized issues in the news.

Perhaps, I've been absorbing so much subconsciously that I have not written about a poem had to appear. Today when I saw a friend post on his page a recent comment by Joe Scarborough saying President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder play the race card too much, this poem emerged. I would say also that the Melissa Harris-Perry apology to conservatives, the MSNBC apology and staffer firing over an honest tweet, everything certain myopia-afflicted white people have said about black people and Stand Your Ground laws, as well as the recent uproar over Hank Aaron speaking his mind, have all (with myriad other stories) played a role in this poem's emergence.

No, this poem is not the kind that would fly well in a poetry writing workshop. Someone would say, "It's too on the nose," or "It's too rhetorical," but I'm feeling it and this is my blog,  so here it is. And thank God it's National Poetry Month, too. Maybe someone read it.

The YouToons Get Ready for Obamacare (Video)

The Kaiser Family Foundation's produced this video that clearly explains the Affordable Care Act also dubbed Obamacare.

President Obama Didn't Play the Race Card on Trayvon Martin--He Played the History Card

President Obama spoke at the White House today about the Trayvon Martin case saying that 35 years ago, he could have been Trayvon. He said what he had to say diplomatically, making this salient point:

. . . [W]hen you think about why, in the African- American community at least, there's a lot of pain around what happened here, I think it's important to recognize that the African- American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that -- that doesn't go away," he said.

That last part, "that [it] doesn't go away" seems to be lost on many people enjoying the fruits of white privilege and sometimes even on black people enjoying economic privilege.  History does not go away and wounds with associated memories do not fade unless a healing takes place. America is far from healing from the wounds of racism because too many Americans who have benefited from the oppression of black people would prefer to think the wound will heal by ignoring it. They forget that ignoring a deep wound generally leads to infection and infection spreads.

Already, political conservatives are fighting mad over the president's comments, but as I tried to express on Twitter today, their objections prove racism against black people clearly still exists. The evidence of white privilege becomes more apparent when the POTUS is attacked for sharing his own experiences as a black man in America. Even his voice is discounted, and the objections make it more obvious that the default for human citizen, especially powerful leader, is still considered to be white in many circles of power. There the experiences of those who are not white are considered unimportant, deserving of censure.  Could it be any clearer that conservatives are still smarting over America voting in an African-American president? The criticism swells most when he acknowledges his blackness.

But, God! I'm bone tired of blacksplaining.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Conservatives are again calling the president the "Racist in Chief," according to reports. How ignorant is that?

I've addressed this kind of ignorance before as well as the verbal shenanigans of more clever racists in a 2010 post, "Define Your Racist: 12 Examples." I should go back to that post and add a Number 13: "The person who calls the president a racist because he acknowledges his own black experience while addressing the killing of a black boy is a "blackflip contortionist racist." But again, I'm tired of blacksplaining. Who has the time? I'll leave it to the people who get paid to do it such as Melissa Harris-Perry. I'll defer to a paraphrase of something she said here, President Obama doesn't have to play the race card here. He can play the history card.

Anyway, I think the supposed conservative leaders who are calling President Obama a racist for discussing historical racism know better. They just don't care because they want this nation to implode. Remember some of them have said of this POTUS, "I hope he fails." They hope, perhaps, that such an implosion, such failure, will give a rebirth to white supremacy as law. At least, that's how it looks from the black seats.

Ellen Sturtz, Why Did You Think It Was Okay to Heckle the FLOTUS While She Talked About Black Youth in Crisis?

FLOTUS visits Harper High, April 2013
(Nancy Stone-Pool/Getty) 

So, what was Michelle Obama talking about when that GetEqual heckler interrupted her? When I first read about First Lady Michelle Obama's confrontation with Ellen Sturtz of the gay rights group GetEqual, I laughed. The first lady was keeping it real. Sturtz clearly did not know who she was messing with, I thought.

It's no secret that the FLOTUS does not handle as well as her husband the disrespectful ways in which her family's been treated while her husband's been in office. She admitted as much at least three times when she and the POTUS appeared on Oprah last year. Is it possible Sturtz then knew exactly who she was messing with and heckled the first lady hoping to get a rise?

Over at Policymic, feminist activist Laura Rankin has a provocative, well-reasoned post about the first lady's confrontation with Sturtz. Rankin's post is entitled "White Lady Heckles Michelle Obama — What Happens Next is Something Black Women Know All Too Well." And at The Root, Tracy Clayton's collected tweets from some black folks on Twitter about the incident under the headline "Why heckling Michelle Obama doesn't pay." These two writers have pretty much covered all the angles, including how quickly black women, even the FLOTUS, gets slapped with the angry, black woman label, and they've linked to others. So, I won't do a rhetorical analysis here.

Instead, I'll discuss what occurred to me as I listened to the audio of the exchange between the FLOTUS and Sturtz.


To me, it sounded as though Mrs. Obama was talking about the plight of children of color in urban communities. It's a shame Sturtz drowned that out, but I wasn't sure, so I searched the Internet for the speech. None of the articles I found discussed what Mrs. Obama was trying to say when Sturtz chose to interrupt her. They merely said that she was speaking at a Democratic Party fundraiser.

When I found the transcript of her at Whitehouse.gov, I discovered Mrs. Obama had been talking about the plight of black youth at Harper High School on Chicago's South Side, where she grew up.  Sturtz's decision to interrupt the speech at that point is worthy of contemplation. Why did she think it was okay to heckle the FLOTUS while the FLOTUS talked about black youth in crisis? Why did Sturtz deem that discrimination against gay people deserved more attention than black children under threat daily, living in communities overridden with drugs, gangs, guns, and murder?

Perhaps Sturtz placed her cause above black children and youth in crisis in American cities because she knows that in this nation she's destined to assume a higher place. I won't go so far as to say that she doesn't give a damn about black youth because I don't know her, but I do think that if she cared at all about black children--if she didn't think gay rights in the workplace were more important at that moment than the rights of black children and young people on the streets--then she would not have chosen to heckle the FLOTUS during that particular speech.

I say this as someone who's helped plan political strategy before and as someone living in New Orleans where we face the same kind of crisis Chicago is facing. Just last month I observed how quickly our problems fade from the headlines. We had a  mass shooting on Mother's Day. By Monday night, the story had vanished from national news. Such fleeting interest in even a bleeding lead makes me think that not enough powerful, privileged people care what happens to black children and youth in urban communities. But drawing attention to this crisis is personal for me and apparently it is personal for Michelle Obama as well.

I also speak here as someone who thinks there's nothing wrong with citizens protesting and sometimes heckling officials and as someone who disapproves when one minority is pitted against the other in the battle for Civil Rights and social justice. So, then, you may ask why bring up the words Sturtz chose to interrupt if those words force us to look at race? Why don't I just applaud Sturtz's right to heckle and shut up?

Well, I won't because I can't. I must recognize the moment Sturtz chose to heckle the FLOTUS because Sturtz failed to recognize the moment herself. She failed to recognize that the moment did not belong her but to those children, and she took their moment because on some level she must know that white privilege, even shielding the body of a gay rights activist, still trumps blackness in America.

Here is what Sturtz cut off:

MRS. OBAMA: Now, Harper is located in one of the toughest neighborhoods in the city, Englewood. You all know Englewood, right? A community that has been torn apart by poverty and hopelessness; by gangs, drugs, and guns.

And that afternoon, I sat down with these 25 students -- and these kids were the best and the brightest at that school. The valedictorian, the football star, kids in ROTC. But let me tell you something about the kids at Harper. Every day, they face impossible odds -- jobless parents addicted to drugs; friends and loved ones shot before their very eyes.

In fact, when the school counselor asked these young men and women whether they had ever known any who had been shot, every single one of those students raised their hand. So she then asked them, “What do you think when the weather forecast says '85 and sunny?'” Now, you would assume that nice weather like that, a beautiful day like today, would be a good thing. Not for these kids. They replied that a weather report like that puts fear in their hearts, because in their neighborhood, when the weather is nice, that’s when gangs come out and the shootings start.

So, see, for these wonderful kids, instead of reveling in the joys of their youth -- college applications and getting ready for prom and getting that driver’s license -- these young people are consumed with staying alive. And there are so many kids in this country just like them -– kids with so much promise, but so few opportunities; good kids who are doing everything they can to break the cycle and beat the odds. And they are the reason we are here tonight. We cannot forget that. I don’t care what we -- they, those kids, they are the reason we’re here.

And today, we need to be better for them. Not for us -- for them. We need to be better for all of our children, our kids in this country. Because they are counting on us to give them the chances they need for the futures they deserve. (Applause.)

So here’s the thing -- we cannot wait for the next presidential election to get fired up and ready to go. We cannot wait. Right now, today, we have an obligation to stand up for those kids. And I don’t care what you believe in, we don’t --

AUDIENCE MEMBER: (Inaudible.)

MRS. OBAMA: Wait, wait, wait. One of the things --

AUDIENCE MEMBER: (Inaudible.)

MRS. OBAMA: One of the things that I don’t do well is this. (Applause.) Do you understand? (Applause.) One of the things -- now --

(Inaudible audience interruption.)

The FLOTUS finished her speech, calling for more gun safety laws and reminding listeners that voters should be active in every election not just the presidential election.

Sturtz must know that she possesses a level of privilege that escapes Mrs. Obama even as First Lady of the United States. If nothing else, Sturtz's outburst and the way she discusses its aftermath show that white privilege blinds and deafens its beneficiaries. She couldn't see or hear the emotion pouring through Michelle Obama in that moment of her speech. Consequently, Sturtz failed to identify with the very people the gay community repeatedly challenge to identify with them, African-Americans.

African-Americans have been asked to see gay rights through the same lens that blacks have seen their own struggle for Civil Rights. This plea became most strident during the Proposition 8 campaign when African-Americans were erroneously blamed for the gay community's loss.

I don't know whether race played a role in the FLOTUS's reaction to the heckling or not, but I do know that after nearly six years in office, Michelle Obama is still black and must suspect that there are some things people will do to her that they would not have done to other first ladies, especially supposed allies. Wow. I bet she never thought she would get heckled at a Democratic Party fundraiser.

It's possible, too, that the FLOTUS had simply had a difficult day; Sturtz's heckling may have felt like a boulder landing on her last nerve. Nevertheless, whatever the reason she chose to confront Sturtz rather than ignore her, it's become clear through the way the media and the blogosphere have reacted to Mrs. Obama facing off Sturtz that many people in this country still don't understand black women in the context of power dynamics.

I support legislation to stop discrimination based on gender identity and orientation, but I cannot support Sturtz heckling Michelle Obama as the first lady addressed the needs of black youth in crisis. As the FLOTUS said, "Today we need to be better for them. Not for us -- for them." If Sturtz had been listening rather than planning her own moment of protest, then perhaps she wouldn't have been "taken aback" as she said she was when Mrs. Obama walked over and looked her in the eye. If Sturtz had been listening, maybe she would have said instead, "Please, Mrs. Obama, forgive my bad timing."

The Keystone XL Pipeline: Is Van Jones Playing Prophet Nathan to President Obama's King David? (Video)

Through his Rebuild the Dream organization, environmental activist Van Jones seems to be playing the prophet Nathan to President Obama's David on matters of climate change. Jones says in the video above that if President Obama continues to support the Keystone XL Pipeline, then the president should rename it "The Obama Tar Sands Pipeline." Clearly Jones is disappointed in President Obama who he has staunchly supported in the past, even falling on his sword and resigning from his post as Green Czar when the Right attacked during the president's first term.

Reminding viewers of President Obama's promise to finds solutions to climate change made in his inaugural speech and warning that the pipeline has the potential to destroy water and farmland, Jones attacks three myths surrounding the project. Jones says the following:

• The pipeline is not moving oil, but tar; therefore it is not simply another oil pipeline. If the pipeline leaks, we will not be able to clean up the land. He cites the tar sands spill in the Kalamazoo River as evidence.
• The pipeline will not make America oil-independent because a Chinese company is involved, and it has not said it plans to give any of the oil produced to the United States. He ask the question, "Why won't the Canadians let the pipeline go through Canada?" He answers that the Canadians have seen the damage of spills and don't want it.
• Although supporters of the pipeline says the pipeline will create jobs, Jones points out that it will only create 35 permanent jobs and about 35 hundred temporary jobs. Is it worth potentially ruining vast sections of American countryside?

I started this post by mentioning Nathan and David of the Bible because I see some parallels here, mainly due to Jones's relationship with President Obama: Jones is not an Obama critic. In the Bible story, King David of Israel was greatly beloved by the nation and by God. However, he takes that love for granted and abuses his power when he commits adultery with Bathsheba, a woman he sees bathing. When Bathsheba becomes pregnant by David while her husband Uriah is away at war, David, seeking to cover up his sin, sends Uriah to the front lines where he is likely to be killed and Uriah dies.

Later the prophet Nathan confronts King David and tells him a story about a rich and unjust man who steals from a poor man. David is appalled and says such a man should die. Nathan tells David that he is the man in the story, and then he tells him that because of what David's deeds, his entire household will suffer.

I'm not saying that this is what will happen in our real-life situation with President Obama (the error here not being unfaithfulness to a wife but unfaithfulness to the people), but I hear an echo nonetheless. In King David's story, however, the prophet Nathan handed down a judgment after the fact. In our current situation, the activist Jones is looking ahead at a potential disaster he wants the president to avoid. He is warning a president to not break his word to the people regarding the environment or there will be bad consequences.

I don't think David's story would have come to my mind if Jones was not usually such a strong supporter of President Obama as Nathan was said to be of David. Jones warning Obama is another case of a friend trying to tell a more powerful friend the truth. Will the president listen?

McCain, President Obama, and the Republican Base: Impeachment and Voter Fraud Again? (video)

The video above shows Senator and former presidential candidate John McCain in a pickle again, having to defend President Obama to the fringier folks of the Republican base. The first clip is from a 2008 neeting when a McCain supporter says then-candidate Obama is an Arab. The second clip comes from footage of a McCain Town Hall meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, held this year, 2013.

First a Cuban-American woman named Angelica asks, Why hasn't President Obama been impeached yet? Right after her, another woman stands and says President Obama won election due to voter fraud. McCain dismisses the first question and attempts to refute the second comment.

His moves are correct for the current political climate: Republicans are trying to avoid a seeming alignment with the peoples of Crazyville. But he walks a tightrope. While the GOP calls such people (like the women speaking) their fringe, they must be careful not to antagonize them the same way some Democratic candidates in the South try not to antagonize constituents they know to be racists (Yes, there are racists in both parties). Politicians are always mindful of who butters their bread.

Blanco's Inaugural Poem "One Day" is as Rich as He Intended (full text of poem in post and video)

Richard Blanco, inaugural poet, delivered a beautiful poem for President Barack Obama's inauguration on January 21, 2013. The poem is entitled "One Day. " On Twitter I described the poem as "beautiful, lyrical, expansive, inclusive." I saw others tweet about its strong imagery.

The poet discussed earlier with the BBC capturing the U.S.A. in verse. He told the interviewer that writing a poem about America naturally touches a topic that "obsesses" him, which is "Who am I?" In writng about the U.S.A., that question becomes "Who are we?"

Blanco said he decided to write with his "same sort of lusciousness and description and imagistic [aesthetic] and accessibility that I would use to write about the more familiar subject." He added that even before he received the inauguration assignment that he believed that it takes Americans all working together "to be the people we are in this country." He thinks of America's story as his story and vice versa, he says on the video.

Here is the full text of his poem, "One Today."

One Today
One sun rose on us today, kindled over our shores,
peeking over the Smokies, greeting the faces
of the Great Lakes, spreading a simple truth
across the Great Plains, then charging across the Rockies.
One light, waking up rooftops, under each one, a story
told by our silent gestures moving behind windows.

My face, your face, millions of faces in morning’s mirrors,
each one yawning to life, crescendoing into our day:
pencil-yellow school buses, the rhythm of traffic lights,
fruit stands: apples, limes, and oranges arrayed like rainbows
begging our praise. Silver trucks heavy with oil or paper—
bricks or milk, teeming over highways alongside us,
on our way to clean tables, read ledgers, or save lives—
to teach geometry, or ring-up groceries as my mother did
for twenty years, so I could write this poem.

All of us as vital as the one light we move through,
the same light on blackboards with lessons for the day:
equations to solve, history to question, or atoms imagined,
the “I have a dream” we keep dreaming,
or the impossible vocabulary of sorrow that won’t explain
the empty desks of twenty children marked absent
today, and forever. Many prayers, but one light
breathing color into stained glass windows,
life into the faces of bronze statues, warmth
onto the steps of our museums and park benches 2
as mothers watch children slide into the day.

One ground. Our ground, rooting us to every stalk
of corn, every head of wheat sown by sweat
and hands, hands gleaning coal or planting windmills
in deserts and hilltops that keep us warm, hands
digging trenches, routing pipes and cables, hands
as worn as my father’s cutting sugarcane
so my brother and I could have books and shoes.

The dust of farms and deserts, cities and plains
mingled by one wind—our breath. Breathe. Hear it
through the day’s gorgeous din of honking cabs,
buses launching down avenues, the symphony
of footsteps, guitars, and screeching subways,
the unexpected song bird on your clothes line.

Hear: squeaky playground swings, trains whistling,
or whispers across café tables, Hear: the doors we open
for each other all day, saying: hello| shalom,
buon giorno |howdy |namaste |or buenos días
in the language my mother taught me—in every language
spoken into one wind carrying our lives
without prejudice, as these words break from my lips.

One sky: since the Appalachians and Sierras claimed
their majesty, and the Mississippi and Colorado worked
their way to the sea. Thank the work of our hands:
weaving steel into bridges, finishing one more report
for the boss on time, stitching another wound 3
or uniform, the first brush stroke on a portrait,
or the last floor on the Freedom Tower
jutting into a sky that yields to our resilience.

One sky, toward which we sometimes lift our eyes
tired from work: some days guessing at the weather
of our lives, some days giving thanks for a love
that loves you back, sometimes praising a mother
who knew how to give, or forgiving a father
who couldn’t give what you wanted.

We head home: through the gloss of rain or weight
of snow, or the plum blush of dusk, but always—home,
always under one sky, our sky. And always one moon
like a silent drum tapping on every rooftop
and every window, of one country—all of us—
facing the stars
hope—a new constellation
waiting for us to map it,
waiting for us to name it—together

(Source: action.2013pic.org as .pdf)

Blanco is the first person of Hispanic descent and the youngest to write and recite the inaugural poem, and the first openly gay poet to do so as well. For President Obama's first inauguration in 2008, African-American poet Elizabeth Alexander recited her poem written for the occasion, "Praise Song for the Day."

He shoots! He scores! Pres. Obama wins second term.

Despite a recent tragedy in my life, I am very grateful and overjoyed that President Barack Obama has won a second term. Forward! The picture above shows the president, the FLOTUS, Michelle Obama, and the two first daughters, Sasha and Malia, on the stage in Chicago before the president delivered his acceptance speech, November 6, 2012.

Super Flaw in Romney's Super PAC's New Normal Ad

Have you seen the pro-Romney ad that begins with voice over saying, "Welcome to the New Normal"? It proceeds to argue that although President Obama's campaign slogan is "Forward," America is falling behind under his policies. Romney's Super PAC called "Restore Our Future" sponsors the ad, which has been running a lot lately in the last few days of the campaign.

This ad has a big flaw. Tucked into the middle of its argument is visual evidence that does not support the ad's own rhetoric. As the ad's speaker drones on ominously, he says that President Obama's New Normal is one "where our children will grow up under the weight of crushing debt in a world where America is no longer the leader and we're told we're going farther even as we fall farther behind." On the screen a list flashes that shows viewers who is leading the world in economic competitiveness, and the United States is not number one but number seven, according to World Economic Forum Competitiveness Rankings for 2012.

I have no problem with the list itself, but what I see when I look at it is not that we are behind as much as who is ahead of us. As you can see in the picture above, the six countries ahead of the United States are Switzerland, Singapore, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Germany. But consider this fact: these six countries have something else in common other than coming in ahead of the United States. All six countries have what the Romney campaign wants to eliminate in America:  a public health care system:

1. Switzerland: It has a system that provides healthcare for all citizens but requires them to buy private health insurance as well.
2. Singapore: It has government-run, national healthcare with better outcomes than healthcare in the USA.
3. Finland: It has a publicly-funded healthcare system that offers its citizens universal healthcare.
4. Sweden: "Everyone in Sweden has equal access to health care services under a largely decentralized, taxpayer-funded system."
5. Netherlands: The country has an "innovative universal healthcare system."
6. Germany: According to Spiegel Online, Germans are baffled by American conservatives attack on Obamacare - "They also question the continued portrayal of US President Barack Obama and his health reform backers as socialists and communists, noting that healthcare was introduced in Germany in the 19th century by Otto von Bismarck, who was definitely not a leftist, and is supported by conservative and pro-business politicians today."

It's ironic that this list flashes on the screen after the speaker says that President Obama has created a world where "our children will grow up under the weight of crushing debt" because it's President Obama's vision of publicly-funded healthcare that Romney claims will create this so-called "crushing debt" that is part of the New Normal. Let's remember that Romney vowed to eliminate Obama's health care law if elected. So, Romney is promising that he will take the country backward, away from the publicly-funded health care systems that the top six countries provide for their citizens.

A closer look at the evidence provided by Romney's Super PAC makes it clear to those who think critically that President Obama's vision for the nation is one that moves America forward to a better day. If we want to be at the top of the list again, why go back to the old health care system? Why go backward at all?

Romney's Double Standard for President Obama

Mitt Romney, who's been attacking President Obama on the debt, says in his budget plan that he will not be able to balance the budget until the end of his second term. So, how do his supporters defend the Romney argument that Pres. Obama has not balanced the budget in his first term and therefore should be voted out of office? Do people actually listen to the words or read what Romney says he will do or understand the consequences of his winning?

President Obama's Grandmother died in 2008 before he won

A young Barack Obama with his grandmother
Madelyn Dunham of Hawaii. She passed
away in 2008 at age 86 due to cancer.

I can only guess at the reason my blog suddenly has so many hits from people searching for information about President Obama's grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, who was his maternal grandmother, the mother of his mother, Ann Dunham.

The president spoke about Madelyn Dunham last night during the presidential debate, and to the left is the well-known picture of her hugging him when he was a younger man.

Some readers also may have heard that KitchenAid had to apologize for an offensive comment someone connected to the company tweeted last night when the president mentioned his grandmother. It came from the company's official account. Companies need to stop letting any idiot have access to their social media accounts.

Below this paragraph I've added links you may find useful if you're sincerely interested in his relationship with his grandmother Dunham, his white grandmother (I don't think the president knew his African grandmother. The Sarah Obama of Kenya that Yahoo image search shows as the president's grandmother is not his biological grandmother. ). However, it is through his grandmother Dunham that Ancestry.com research (pdf) tentatively traced the president's "white" roots back to an African slave. His white grandfather, Stanley Dunham, however, has not connection to slavery. He was English and Irish.

• Obama's Grandmother Blazed Trails (USA Today, written 2008, before her death)
• Obama's Grandmother, AKA Toot, Dies Peacefully (WSATA, November 3, 2008)
• Madelyn Dunham, 86; Guided a Young Obama (Washington Post, November 4, 2008)

Here is a video of then-candidate Obama speaking about his grandmother in 2008 after her death. He said that she was a humble and plainspoken person, a quiet hero.



To educate the people who are coming by looking for pictures of the president's grandmother and are being sent to my post on the First Grandmother,  I must inform you that Yahoo is sending you to the wrong picture. The First Grandmother post is about First Lady Michelle Obama's mother, Marian Robinson, who is alive and well.

Look! It's Samuel L. Jackson with 'Wake the F**k Up ' for Obama (NSFW)

On the heels of his narration of the parents' book, "Go the F*ck to Sleep," actor Samuel L. Jackson now narrates a nightmarish tale with a message for presidential election voters: Wake the F*ck Up!" Here is a link to the website that posted the video. The site is funded by the Jewish Council for Education & Research.

The story begins:

"In the silvery moonlight that bathes every town,
The people lye dreaming so safe and so sound.
They're warm in their beds, snuggled up in their sheets,
But four years before, they were out in the streets."

It's a cautionary tale that warns the apathetic of the trouble the nation will see if Mitt Romney is elected. Basically, it tells voters to wake up and work to get President Barack Obama re-elected.

The text on the website reads, "Sorry my friends but there's no time to snore / An out-of-touch millionaire has just declared war."

Humor score high.

Jenny Moos reports on Eva Longoria, Jessica Alba Petting (Video, Humor)

I have work to do, so I should not be taking the time to post anything so sill, but Jenny Moos's report on Eva Longoria and Jessica Alba petting at the Democratic National Convention was hilarious enough to make me pause and post.

Watch Former President Bill Clinton's Endorsement of President Barack Obama at DNC

I enjoyed First Lady Michelle Obama tremendously when I watched it on the DVR, and tonight I watched former President Bill Clinton's speech endorsing President Barack Obama for a second term. Clinton was fantastic. He's an excellent communicator and laid out facts against GOP misrepresentations of President Obama's record.

No, this is not the most hateful campaign ever (yet)

I have not been watching much news TV lately because I'm trying to maintain a calm state, but this morning, I watched anyway and was very annoyed listening to Rick Santorum on CNN. Santorum's Romney campaign talking points calling President Obama's campaign hateful, divisive, and class-war mongering assaulted rational thought on more levels than I care to count this morning.

Although Jim Acosta, who was sitting in for Candy Crowley, challenged the talking points, he later seemed to go along with the viral hyperbole du jour that both campaigns are in the midst of the "nastiest" attacks in memory.

Oh, really? I think what I was witnessing then was a sample of that "both talk" from today's reporters that passes for so-called impartial and factual news reporting now.

As I said on Facebook, nothing's happened in this current campaign yet to top Sarah Palin's 2008 rhetoric that "Obama pals around with terrorists." And what about the Willie Horton attack of 1988?

I was glad to see the report from John Berman during the Situation Room, hosted today by John King. It followed State of the Union with Acosta. In Berman's report, he discussed the history of negative campaigns in this country, putting the current campaign rhetoric in perspective. The video is embedded above.

If I had more time as well a desire to slip into a negative mood, I'd analyze the rhetorical moves and political manipulation of Romney calling President Obama's campaign hateful, divisive, and anger-driven and the racial appeal into which Romney taps, but I'll leave that to others this year.

George W. Bush's head on a spike? Tsk, tsk, Game of Thrones. HBO yanks season one episode.

On one hand, this whole controversy about HBO's Game of Thrones using a fake severed head of former president George W. Bush in episode 10 of season one is silly. It's something that the GOP blew up to recast itself as oppressed for the sake of gaining more power. How Cersei Lannister of them.

On the other hand, I've got to wag my finger at the Game of Throne producers and directors. Really? Dudes, as the HBO executives have now told you, that was tacky and disrespectful. A profile of the former president's head appears in the scene in which devil spawn King Joffrey Baratheon (all Lannister by blood) forces the less-and-less naive Sansa Stark to look at her father's decapitated head on a stick atop a palace wall with other so-called traitors' heads.

I see this foolishness with GWB's head in light of the Golden Rule—Do unto others as you would have them do unto you—and so I consider how would I feel if that were a fake President Obama head decapitated on that stick. I'd have smoke coming from my ears.

The show's response has been that the use of GWB's head was not a political statement but the result of budget constraints: due to a lack of funds, they used whatever heads they could find. It is to laugh that's such a bogus answer. And the whole thing feels like a publicity stunt given that no one would have known that was 43's head if the show's creators hadn't revealed it during the DVD commentary. What's more likely, however, is that some guy on the art team saw the head and did want to make a statement and used it quietly, not spilling the beans until after the show was in the can.

CNET reports that HBO, reacting to the uproar, will not run that episode of Thrones on the HBO Go platform until the offensive scene's been edited; same goes for the television broadcasts. In addition, the network has stopped future shipments of season one DVDs.

Darn it! I knew I should have bought that season.

A Look at 'The Road We've Traveled'

Here is President Barack Obama's documentary-style campaign film, "The Road We've Traveled." It's an excellent film as campaign films go, and I think it will be effective in solidifying the resolve of those who have already planned to vote Obama/Biden this November and perhaps sway some undecideds who are leaning toward the incumbent already.

However, I doubt the film will sway people who are undecided but already leaning toward the GOP platform because they believe in smaller government but don't care for the current Republicans running or sway folks who think the president has a magic wand he didn't use to fix America or who blame the Oval Office for the economy or gas prices. I think those people will either make up their minds based on something that happens between August and November or will become so frustrated with the Republican nominee while remaining annoyed with the president that they won't vote at all.

Directly from the YouTube description:

Remember how far we've come. From Academy Award®-winning director Davis Guggenheim: "The Road We've Traveled".

This film gives an inside look at some of the tough calls President Obama made to get our country back on track. Featuring interviews from President Bill Clinton, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Elizabeth Warren, David Axelrod, Austan Goolsbee, and more. It's a film everyone should see.

And yes, that is Tom Hanks's voice you hear narrating the film.

MSNBC has an interview with Guggenheim about the making of the short film.

President Obama Sings, Grooves 'Sweet Home Chicago'

Reminding President Barack Obama that we all know he can sing now, given his crooning of Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" earlier this year, blues man Buddy Guy coaxed the president into singing a few bars of "Sweet Home Chicago" with an all-star band at the White House Tuesday night. Mick Jagger handed the president the mic while B.B. King and other blues greats provided accompaniment. You can see what went down in the video above.

The event, “In Performance in the White House: Red, White and Blues,” was presented as part of the President and First Lady Michelle Obama's White House celebration of Black History Month. You can read the president's remarks at the event at WhiteHouse.gov or watch his speech in the video below. He wished everyone a "Happy Mardi Gras," too.



Ahh, and he's also crooned a little of Aretha Franklin's "Chain of Fools" and Dionne Warwick's "Walk On By" before.