And today my friends.. I am proud to say I am from Alabama.
The Birmingham News is reporting that State Rep. Alvin Holmes (D-Montgomery). Told the Christian Coalition to go straight to Hell.
Below is an excerpt from the article.
MONTGOMERY - The Christian Coalition of Alabama claims allegiance with heaven, but a Montgomery lawmaker on Monday told the group's leader to go some place warm and fiery.
Rep. Alvin Holmes, D-Montgomery, responding to the group's annual political questionnaire, asked the Coalition President John Giles to first answer questions about casino-interest money the group received and other matters.
"Until you answer these three questions, Go straight to hell," Holmes wrote
Click here for the entire article.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Monday, August 14, 2006
John Edwards Calls for immediate Iraq withdrawal.
Ok I know this post is late but I couln't go by without posting this. The Associated Press is reporting that Sen. John Edwards was in New Hampshire last week and called for an Immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq. The former senator from North Carolina told reporters America should "make it clear (to Iraqis) we are leaving, and the best way is to start leaving. We should take 40,000 combat troops out now."
I believe that the best thing we can do is to start gradually withdrawing to A. Ensure more cooperation for coalition forces and B. Ensure that the Iraqi Government begins to take more control of the situation.
Black America Must Confront AIDS
This is a must read Washington Post Op-ED by Julian Bond.
By Julian Bond
Monday, August 14, 2006; Page A13
It's been 25 years since we first learned of a disease that was killing a handful of white, gay men in a few of our nation's largest cities -- a disease that later became known as AIDS. But lulled by media images that portrayed AIDS mainly as a white, gay disease, we looked the other way: Those people weren't our people. AIDS was not our problem. It had not entered our house.
We had our own problems to deal with, so we let those people deal with their problem. But that was a quarter-century ago, and a lot has changed. Now, in 2006, almost 40 million people worldwide have HIV, and 25 million are dead. And most of those who have died and are dying are black. That's not just because of the devastation the pandemic has wreaked upon Africa.
The face of AIDS in the United States is primarily black as well. The majority of new HIV infections here are black, the majority of people who die from AIDS here are black and the people most at risk of contracting this virus in the United States are black. AIDS is now in our house. It's now our problem, and we must come up with solutions.
This week, a historic contingent of black leaders will attend the 16th International AIDS Conference in Toronto to put AIDS in our community at the top of the national agenda. All of black America must do the same. Every African American must stand with us, take ownership of AIDS and fight this epidemic with every resource we have.
I realize that what we are proposing may seem an overwhelming task. But we know it can be done. When AIDS hit the gay community, its members couldn't afford to wait for the government to save them; instead they worked to save themselves -- in part by using tactics and strategies out of our civil rights playbook. AIDS is a major civil rights issue of our time.
We cannot wait for the government to come and rescue us either -- that help may never come. Part of our response must be to eliminate the rabid homophobia that lives in our schools, our homes and especially our churches. Our inability to talk about sex, and more specifically homosexuality, is the single greatest barrier to the prevention of HIV transmission in our community. Intolerance has driven our gay friends and neighbors into the shadows. Men leading double lives -- on the "down low" -- put our women at extreme risk.
We must also overcome our resistance to safer sex practices that can help prevent the spread of AIDS, and we must ensure that our young people know exactly what AIDS is and how to protect themselves against it.
For black America, the time to deliver is now. We're calling on leaders to lead. The AIDS story in the United States is partly one of a failure to lead. Prominent blacks -- from traditional ministers and civil rights leaders to hip-hop artists and Hollywood celebrities -- must immediately join this national call to action to end the AIDS epidemic in black America.
We're calling on black America to engage in a coordinated campaign with concrete, measurable goals and objectives and real deadlines. Each of us must identify strategies and activities that match our unique niches and capabilities.
We must build a new sense of urgency in black America, so that no one accepts the idea that the presence of HIV and AIDS is inevitable.
We're calling on black America to get informed about the science and facts about AIDS. Knowledge is a powerful weapon in this war.
We're calling on black Americans to get screened and find out their HIV status. I have -- it took 20 minutes and was bloodless and painless. Knowing your HIV status and the status of your partner can save your life.
We're calling for a massive effort to address the disproportionate impact this epidemic is having on black youth, women, injecting drug users and men who have sex with men.
We must also pressure our government and elected officials -- at local, state and national levels -- to be far more responsible partners than they have been. We must lift the federal ban on funding for needle exchange programs, which have been proven to slow the spread of AIDS. We must also work with elected officials to promote comprehensive, age-appropriate, culturally competent AIDS prevention efforts that give young people the tools they need to protect themselves.
We must heed Martin Luther King Jr.'s warning, originally meant for others but right for us now: "Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."
The writer is a professor at American University and the University of Virginia and chairman of the board of the NAACP.
By Julian Bond
Monday, August 14, 2006; Page A13
It's been 25 years since we first learned of a disease that was killing a handful of white, gay men in a few of our nation's largest cities -- a disease that later became known as AIDS. But lulled by media images that portrayed AIDS mainly as a white, gay disease, we looked the other way: Those people weren't our people. AIDS was not our problem. It had not entered our house.
We had our own problems to deal with, so we let those people deal with their problem. But that was a quarter-century ago, and a lot has changed. Now, in 2006, almost 40 million people worldwide have HIV, and 25 million are dead. And most of those who have died and are dying are black. That's not just because of the devastation the pandemic has wreaked upon Africa.
The face of AIDS in the United States is primarily black as well. The majority of new HIV infections here are black, the majority of people who die from AIDS here are black and the people most at risk of contracting this virus in the United States are black. AIDS is now in our house. It's now our problem, and we must come up with solutions.
This week, a historic contingent of black leaders will attend the 16th International AIDS Conference in Toronto to put AIDS in our community at the top of the national agenda. All of black America must do the same. Every African American must stand with us, take ownership of AIDS and fight this epidemic with every resource we have.
I realize that what we are proposing may seem an overwhelming task. But we know it can be done. When AIDS hit the gay community, its members couldn't afford to wait for the government to save them; instead they worked to save themselves -- in part by using tactics and strategies out of our civil rights playbook. AIDS is a major civil rights issue of our time.
We cannot wait for the government to come and rescue us either -- that help may never come. Part of our response must be to eliminate the rabid homophobia that lives in our schools, our homes and especially our churches. Our inability to talk about sex, and more specifically homosexuality, is the single greatest barrier to the prevention of HIV transmission in our community. Intolerance has driven our gay friends and neighbors into the shadows. Men leading double lives -- on the "down low" -- put our women at extreme risk.
We must also overcome our resistance to safer sex practices that can help prevent the spread of AIDS, and we must ensure that our young people know exactly what AIDS is and how to protect themselves against it.
For black America, the time to deliver is now. We're calling on leaders to lead. The AIDS story in the United States is partly one of a failure to lead. Prominent blacks -- from traditional ministers and civil rights leaders to hip-hop artists and Hollywood celebrities -- must immediately join this national call to action to end the AIDS epidemic in black America.
We're calling on black America to engage in a coordinated campaign with concrete, measurable goals and objectives and real deadlines. Each of us must identify strategies and activities that match our unique niches and capabilities.
We must build a new sense of urgency in black America, so that no one accepts the idea that the presence of HIV and AIDS is inevitable.
We're calling on black America to get informed about the science and facts about AIDS. Knowledge is a powerful weapon in this war.
We're calling on black Americans to get screened and find out their HIV status. I have -- it took 20 minutes and was bloodless and painless. Knowing your HIV status and the status of your partner can save your life.
We're calling for a massive effort to address the disproportionate impact this epidemic is having on black youth, women, injecting drug users and men who have sex with men.
We must also pressure our government and elected officials -- at local, state and national levels -- to be far more responsible partners than they have been. We must lift the federal ban on funding for needle exchange programs, which have been proven to slow the spread of AIDS. We must also work with elected officials to promote comprehensive, age-appropriate, culturally competent AIDS prevention efforts that give young people the tools they need to protect themselves.
We must heed Martin Luther King Jr.'s warning, originally meant for others but right for us now: "Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."
The writer is a professor at American University and the University of Virginia and chairman of the board of the NAACP.
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
The Primary is over.. My questions for the Georgia Democratic Candidates
Everyone is using today to talk about Run-off Results. Instead, I am choosing to use today to ask our nominees a series of questions to prepare for November.
1. Who is the Field Director for the campaign.
2. If you don't have a field staff or director, do you plan on hiring one?
3. Will the actual campaign be developing and executing their own comprehensive field plan independent of the state party and outside organizations?
4. Will you try to run to the right on issues to avoid the debate on serious matters and principles of our party?
5. How many volunteers and interns do you have now and do you plan on recruiting any more any time soon.
6. Do you have any plans for Voter Education Registration and Mobilization on college campuses?
7. What are your plans for targeting and GOTV in the African American Communities.
8. Does your campaign hae a staff that is diverse in race, age, gender, and sexual orientation?
9. Do you plan on making any unified apperances in the near future with the entire slate of statewide Democratic nominees.
10. How seriously do you take the blogosphere and how actively do you plan to participate in it?
I think these are serious questions that each campaign needs to be asking in staff meetings right now.
1. Who is the Field Director for the campaign.
2. If you don't have a field staff or director, do you plan on hiring one?
3. Will the actual campaign be developing and executing their own comprehensive field plan independent of the state party and outside organizations?
4. Will you try to run to the right on issues to avoid the debate on serious matters and principles of our party?
5. How many volunteers and interns do you have now and do you plan on recruiting any more any time soon.
6. Do you have any plans for Voter Education Registration and Mobilization on college campuses?
7. What are your plans for targeting and GOTV in the African American Communities.
8. Does your campaign hae a staff that is diverse in race, age, gender, and sexual orientation?
9. Do you plan on making any unified apperances in the near future with the entire slate of statewide Democratic nominees.
10. How seriously do you take the blogosphere and how actively do you plan to participate in it?
I think these are serious questions that each campaign needs to be asking in staff meetings right now.
Monday, August 07, 2006
What would Jesus do?- He wouldn't pass anti-panhandling laws to punish the poor
John Sugg writes an impressive article in Creative loafing on Poverty and Homelessness in Atlanta. I think Everyone should read it. Tell me what you think.
As I was dashing to downtown's Commerce Club a few weeks ago to meet with people of power, I met a young woman with her own powerful, if sad, message.
"You got some fancy nice shoes," the woman said, pointing at my pretty standard penny loafers, admittedly shined to brilliance. She had a speech impediment, and I'd guess she was retarded. A stoop forced her to spend a lot of her life looking at other people's shoes. I asked her name, and she said something like "Tish," but it was hard to understand.
It was clear that Tish was a street person, and, while waiting for the "Walk" light, I anticipated the pitch for a handout. It didn't come. I bemusedly asked, "Are you going to ask for money?" She shyly replied, "Just lose it if you gave me some."
Click here for the rest of the Article.
As I was dashing to downtown's Commerce Club a few weeks ago to meet with people of power, I met a young woman with her own powerful, if sad, message.
"You got some fancy nice shoes," the woman said, pointing at my pretty standard penny loafers, admittedly shined to brilliance. She had a speech impediment, and I'd guess she was retarded. A stoop forced her to spend a lot of her life looking at other people's shoes. I asked her name, and she said something like "Tish," but it was hard to understand.
It was clear that Tish was a street person, and, while waiting for the "Walk" light, I anticipated the pitch for a handout. It didn't come. I bemusedly asked, "Are you going to ask for money?" She shyly replied, "Just lose it if you gave me some."
Click here for the rest of the Article.
Sunday, August 06, 2006
Mckinney was right about Congress.org
Everyone has been saying that Congresswoman Mckinney lied about her rating on Congress.org but the truth is, she didn't. If you read the Press Release by her campaign or listen to the debate, she talks about legislative effectiveness within the Georgia Democratic Delegation. She was the only one to have a bill passed this session out of the Democratic Delegation from Georgia giving her the highest ranking on legislative effectiveness. But you don't have to take my word for it, You can See for Yourself
Saturday, August 05, 2006
Hank Johnson- A racist and bigot?
Since we're talking about Middle East policy I will say that the abundant number of contributors to Ms. Mckinney's campaign have Palestinian and Arabic surnames now I could accuse her of being under the control of terrorists
This is what Hank Johnson said in a debate on Thursday night. Am I the only person who thinks that this is the most racist and bigoted statement I have heard from a candidate. Can we really count on him to represent Georgia well in DC? No matter what your take is on Middle East Policy, it is outrageous and despicable to imply that every person of Arabic or Palestinian Descent is a terrorist. I would expect this from a Republican but definitely not a Democrat. Here is a link to the video as well as the clip itself.
Thursday, August 03, 2006
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