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Check out a thorough collection of articles about 9/11 via NYMAG‘s Encyclopedia of 9/11.

What Dinh didn’t anticipate was a profound shift in liberalism and, therefore, in the politics of the country. Even with a Democrat now in the White House, the liberalism that protects the right of the individual against the majority—the politics of civil rights and abortion and gay marriage—has diminished, in favor of one that aims to improve the lot of the median man. Obama’s liberalism is for the majority, not against it. This spirit, and the unlikely endurance of the Patriot Act, owes something to the central psychological events of the decade: the vitality and threat of new economic competitors, the social violence initiated by the authors of obscure financial instruments, but first and most of all September 11—each of which evoked a particular feeling, that we were all together, under attack. .::Patriot Act

Colorism?

I found an article over at Good which says that many studies suggest that darker colored women get harsher prison sentences than light-skinned ones.  While this is not a surprise- if you’ve ever turned on a television, that is- it does underscore a little-talked-about aspect of the black experience in America, namely colorism, one that dictates that the darker you are, the more associated you become with the negative stereotypes about black people.

I’ve quoted the short article (which links to several studies) underneath this post but you can also read the original here.

 

People talk a lot about the racism that poisons the criminal justice system, sending African-Americans to jail more often than white criminals, and with longer and harsher sentences. But what about “colorism”? If you don’t know, colorism is the sub-prejudice that finds people treating people of color differently based on how light or dark their skin is. Though it’s rarely talked about, colorism is a major cause for concern in courtrooms around the United States, according to a new study.

Called “The Impact of Light Skin on Prison Time for Black Female Offenders,” the study found a group of Villanova professors assessing the sentences of more than 12,000 black female defendants in North Carolina. Their findings were horrifying: Even after controlling for things like prior convictions, crime severity, and thinness, women with light skin received sentences that were 12 percent shorter on average than dark-skinned women. Lighter women also had their actual time served reduced by about 11 percent.

Colorism doesn’t just impact criminals, either. Another study, this one from the University of Georgia in 2006, found that skin tone was even more important than education when it came to employer satisfaction with black job applicants. The message this sends is that the closer you are to white, the better you are—both morally and professionally, evidently.

Thanks to Sarah for the link!

O’Reilly’s Nice Side?

spotlight-bill-o-reilly

Now, I don’t really want to get too caught up being surprised that Bill O’Reilly might have a soul – but I might not have a choice. I mean, seeing him posed for a photo with some children with the flag in the background isn’t surprising – he’s not Ann Coulter, and I’m not concerned that his lower jaw un-hinged and he ate them whole. But the Parade article that the photo is from – “What President Obama Can Teach America’s Kids” – is nothing I would have expected from the pundit. It’s no spectacular piece of writing by any means, but it does manage to be somewhat thoughtful and non-partisan.

Lesson Five?perhaps the greatest lesson the President can teach children: In America, anything is possible

This is something of a clich?, but never has it been more vividly illustrated. Barack Obama, a youngster in Hawaii without his parents around, has toughed it out and become one of history?s great stories, no matter what happens going forward. What he has achieved in his 48 years is simply astounding.

Consider the odds. The United States is a nation of more than 300 million citizens. Only one person is currently the Commander in Chief. That man had no fatherly guidance, is of mixed race, and had no family connections to guide him into the world of national politics.

That adds up to one simple truth that every American child should be told: ?If Barack Obama can become the President of the United States, then whatever dream you may have can happen in your life.?

But, all that said – he’ll probably just use it as evidence that he’s ‘fair and balanced’ the next time he screams at a 9/11 survivor or something. Slightly interesting, nonetheless.

.: full article -> via Parade

Palin Gets Punk’d

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m38kNLSEras[/youtube]

This is pretty funny, and also really stupid. She just seems to have no ability to talk to this dude – probably because he’s saying so much ridiculous nonsense – and comes off as if she wasn’t even listening. I mean – all the random crap this guy says is a little overwhelming maybe, but to not recognize that he gives the wrong name of the Canadian Prime Minister? That’s part of her foreign policy experience [Canada]! Maybe she knew from the beginning that something was up? Who knows.

Palin Talks 2012?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMwv74rIGDU[/youtube]

Really, this is one of those things thats just oh so ridiculous for so many reasons. First off, we shouldn’t even be talking about this, because it shouldn’t matter. I mean, she really didn’t even say much – just basically that if they don’t win that we won’t be seeing the last of Sarah Palin.

That said, this is a little bit like your favorite team talking about the trades they’re going to make in the post season – while playing in the championship game. A week before the election, and she finds it necessary to explain what’ll happen if McCain isn’t successful in his White House bid? We here at MNP just think that shit’s cold – and we’re Obama supporters.

Also, the irony here is just killing me. McCain picks Palin as his running mate, in order to stir up the base and hopefully lead to a Republican victory – essentially using her, as we all know this guy had no intention of picking her himself [Where's his buddy Lieberman at?]. So she rallies the base at the convention, gets the crowd chanting and pumping their fists…and we all fully expect her to fall back into the #2 position. But oh no, this shit has been all about her since then – so much so that it might as well be Palin/McCain, and supporters already have Palin 2012 signs. And now she’s making it known she’ll be around in 2012, essentially saying ‘thanks, but no thanks’ to McCain’s White House bid to nowhere. Wow. And I thought Romney was a snake for what he said about MA after being governor.

So Democrats, I hope you’re taking notes [and maybe TIVO-ing this mess] for the 2012 elections – because if Obama wins, she’s going to be jockeying for position in those Republican primaries. A point to exploit if she makes it to the top of the ticket? She couldn’t even be trusted by the McCain campaign – which pulled her from absolute obscurity and shoved her into the limelight. If she can’t even be trusted by the running mate that made her into a national figure, how can anyone trust her to be the President?

McCain Defends Robocalls

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-crONNOrjMs[/youtube]

Even Chris Wallace and Fox News think McCain’s ‘Robo-calls’ campaign is ridiculously hypocritical [that, or this was a pathetic attempt to let McCain explain his way out of this BS - which failed.].

WALLACE: But Senator back, if I may, back in 2000 when you were the target of robo calls, you called these hate calls and you said–

MCCAIN: They were.

WALLACE: And you said the following: “I promise you I have never and will never have anything to do with that kind of political tactic.” Now you’ve hired the same guy who did the robocalls against you to, reportedly, to do the robocalls against Obama and the Republican Senator Susan Collins, the co-chair of your campaign in Maine, has asked you to stop the robocalls. Will you do that?

MCCAIN: Of course not. These are legitimate and truthful and they are far different than the phone calls that were made about my family and about certain aspects that — things that this is — this is dramatically different and either you haven’t — didn’t see those things in 2000.

WALLACE: No, I saw them.

MCCAIN: Or you don’t know the difference between that and what is a legitimate issue, and that is Senator Obama being truthful with the American people.

Is this nonsense almost over? Damn.

.:McCain Defends Robocalls -> via The Huffington Post

Obama Meets the President?

239704.jpg
I have to admit – I don’t think I ever saw an episode of the ‘West Wing’ [there's this thing called the news...and a President called Bush...that's about all the white house entertainment I needed]. That said, this op-ed from Maureen Dowd’s column in the NY Times was killin me – here’s an excerpt:

[FYI: Bartlet was, apparently, the president in the show 'West Wing', played by Martin Sheen. The following quote is a meeting between Obama and the fictional president, as conjured by the show's creator]

BARTLET You’d do very well on NBC. Thursday nights in the old “ER” time slot with “30 Rock” as your lead-in, you’d get seven, seven-five in the demo with a 20, 22 share — you’d be selling $450,000 minutes.

OBAMA What the hell does that mean?

BARTLET TV talk. I thought you’d be interested.

OBAMA I’m not. They pivoted off the argument that I was inexperienced to the criticism that I’m — wait for it — the Messiah, who, by the way, was a community organizer. When I speak I try to lead with inspiration and aptitude. How is that a liability?

BARTLET Because the idea of American exceptionalism doesn’t extend to Americans being exceptional. If you excelled academically and are able to casually use 690 SAT words then you might as well have the press shoot video of you giving the finger to the Statue of Liberty while the Dixie Chicks sing the University of the Taliban fight song. The people who want English to be the official language of the United States are uncomfortable with their leaders being fluent in it.

OBAMA You’re saying race doesn’t have anything to do with it?

BARTLET I wouldn’t go that far. Brains made me look arrogant but they make you look uppity. Plus, if you had a black daughter —

BARTLET Hang on. Home run. Right here. Is there any chance you could get Michelle pregnant before the fall sweeps?

OBAMA The problem is we can’t appear angry. Bush called us the angry left. Did you see anyone in Denver who was angry?

BARTLET Well … let me think. …We went to war against the wrong country, Osama bin Laden just celebrated his seventh anniversary of not being caught either dead or alive, my family’s less safe than it was eight years ago, we’ve lost trillions of dollars, millions of jobs, thousands of lives and we lost an entire city due to bad weather. So, you know … I’m a little angry.

OBAMA What would you do?

BARTLET GET ANGRIER! Call them liars, because that’s what they are. Sarah Palin didn’t say “thanks but no thanks” to the Bridge to Nowhere. She just said “Thanks.” You were raised by a single mother on food stamps — where does a guy with eight houses who was legacied into Annapolis get off calling you an elitist? And by the way, if you do nothing else, take that word back. Elite is a good word, it means well above average. I’d ask them what their problem is with excellence. While you’re at it, I want the word “patriot” back. McCain can say that the transcendent issue of our time is the spread of Islamic fanaticism or he can choose a running mate who doesn’t know the Bush doctrine from the Monroe Doctrine, but he can’t do both at the same time and call it patriotic. They have to lie — the truth isn’t their friend right now. Get angry. Mock them mercilessly; they’ve earned it. McCain decried agents of intolerance, then chose a running mate who had to ask if she was allowed to ban books from a public library. It’s not bad enough she thinks the planet Earth was created in six days 6,000 years ago complete with a man, a woman and a talking snake, she wants schools to teach the rest of our kids to deny geology, anthropology, archaeology and common sense too? It’s not bad enough she’s forcing her own daughter into a loveless marriage to a teenage hood, she wants the rest of us to guide our daughters in that direction too? It’s not enough that a woman shouldn’t have the right to choose, it should be the law of the land that she has to carry and deliver her rapist’s baby too? I don’t know whether or not Governor Palin has the tenacity of a pit bull, but I know for sure she’s got the qualifications of one. And you’re worried about seeming angry? You could eat their lunch, make them cry and tell their mamas about it and God himself would call it restrained. There are times when you are simply required to be impolite. There are times when condescension is called for!

.:read the rest of the article -> Maureen Dowd, Op-Ed Columnist for The NY Times

Palin + Clinton = Hilarious

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBFk9XC3YLs[/youtube]
Saturday Night Live last night brought back Tina Fey to play Sarah Palin in the opening sketch – due to her kind-of frightening resemblance to the governor who’s unsure of what the Bush Doctrine is [does it depend on the definition of 'is' is or something Sarah? c'mon...].

Even if you’re not a fan of SNL [which I'm not, really], there are some pretty priceless quotes:

Clinton: I believe that diplomacy should be the cornerstone of any foreign policy…
Palin: And I can see Russia from my house!
Cliton: I believe global warming is caused by man…
Palin: And I believe it’s just God hugging us closer!

But the best one had to be :

Clinton: I’m sorry, I need to say something. I didn’t want a woman to be president – I wanted to be president, and I just happen to be a woman.

.:SNL Skit -> via NBC

McBush

So, while this entire Daily Show clip is pretty hilarious [obviously], around the 4 min 30 sec mark there’s a direct comparison between McCain’s acceptance speech and G Dubya’s – ridiculous. Maybe the Republicans should hire new speech writers? Just a thought.

Plus, that was a shitload of balloons, my people.

.:via The Daily Show ->

Framing the Issue

Once again Charles Krauthammer makes me want to vomit.

Today’s interpretation of Barack Obama’s superb address on race and his pastor, Jeremiah Wright, this past week is vial and no more than a clever attempt at framing the issue. Krauthammer seems to imply that all of Wright’s speeches are volatile and venomous. He seems to want to believe that week after week Barack and Michelle Obama would bring their children to hear someone speak ill of America and sow the seeds of racial hatred. He wants to believe that Wright wasn’t a man who could get caught up in the intensity of sermon and perhaps loose sight of what he was saying. He wants to believe, like so many others, that this pastor is not a man of the Christian faith at all, but a man full of hatred and contempt for whites and America. Well, ninjas ain’t that stupid.

Krauthammer asks:

Why did you give $22,500 just two years ago to a church run by a man of the past who infects the younger generation with precisely the racial attitudes and animus you say you have come unto us to transcend?

Do you, Krauthammer, truly believe that Jeremiah Wright is a one faceted, America hating machine? Or will you acknowledge that as a pastor he, week after week, speaks of the gospels, of peace, of love, of truth and of unity? That he, too, would like nothing more than a nation indivisible, but that his observations and understanding of the past and present has made him realize that there is much moral and social progress to be made.

His language, at times, may not have been chosen with the utmost attention to political correctness, as yours and mine surely is. But he is neither politician nor pundit, he is a pastor. And Barack Obama has made it clear throughout this entire campaign that he is a rational, intelligent, independent and thorough thinker. The bottom line is: this relationship is of no concern in political discourse. If it is, then let’s talk about McCain asking Hague to support him.
And that whole thing about crack, well, let’s be real. As my ninja, Orange Menace, said “You think some hood from the PJs invented crack?” Who’s to say. But take a look at the sentences given for those involved with crack versus the much more expensive cocaine and you got yourself a f*cked up situation.