It is the day of reckoning ...

... and I hope Mrs. Clinton has her crying towels. I expect the folks in my home state of North Carolina to stand up in a BIG way. Since there wasn't much traffic at the actual polling sites, I hope that means everyone took advantage of early voting and absentee ballots. Anyway, I have been meaning to do a post on all the celebrity response the campaigns have been getting. Not that I'm hung up on celebrities and what they do outside their professions (tehehe), I've noticed that a lot of them are jumping up to stump for their favorite campaigns. A while back, I wrote a sample blog post for a new site, News One and it basically says that real voters don't care about celebrity endorsements. I still feel that way, but I think it is interesting that some celebrities are using their notoriety to get their favorite candidates elected. The presumptive GOP nominee, John McCain, has garnered the lowest celebrity turn out. Of those that I've heard of, he's got Wilford Brimley, Tom Selleck and Rip Torn. Keep in mind that the Republican party is united and all of the celebrity nods his counterparts received will likely filter over to him. Those are some pretty heavyweight celebs too: Adam Sandler, Bo Derek, Pat Robertson, Pat Boone, Donnie & Marie Osmond, Ric Flair, Chuck Norris and I think Joseph C. Phillips. OK, so they aren't all heavyweights, but they carry some influence or else they wouldn't be celebrities. Sen. Hillary Clinton has racked up an impressive list of celeb endorsements. At last tally, she had: Tony Bennett, Barbara Streisand, Magic Johnson, Maya Angelou, Steven Spielberg, Rob Reiner, John Grisham, Carly Simon, Ted Danson, Billie Jean King, Victoria Rowell, Quincy Jones, Carole Simpson and America Ferrera. When Clinton has to go home because she can't secure the votes, I wonder how many of them are going to stump for Barack Obama. I hope they all will. Right now, a lot of folks in the media predict that Clinton supporters won't back Obama and vice versa. That's jacked up, the Republicans aren't doing that. Not saying the Dems should emulate the GOP in any way, but something can be learned from them. Even a broken clock is right twice a day. If this were a competition to see who could get the best roster of celebrity endorsements, the winner hands down is Barack Obama. OK, so I might be a little partial since this is the candidate I voted for today. His roster includes folks like Oprah (no last name needed), George Clooney, Scarlett Johanson, Will Smith, Halle Berry, Zach Braff, Jessica Biel, Will.i.am from the Black Eyed Peas, John P. Kee, Tyrese, Kareem Abdul Jabar, George Lopez and the list goes on and on. I think the thing that trips me out is this man has had videos and songs and folks out there stumping for him. Shoot, in the last few weeks, Tatyana M. Ali, from "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" fame has even traveled all over the Tar Heel State at her own expense to speak about Obama. I'm sure that almost everyone has seen the "Yes We Can" video on YouTube or heard the song, Obama by John P. Kee. I got an e-mail today of a newer video with another slew of celebrities that features the vocal stylings of one Zöe Kravitz, the 19-year-old daughter of Lisa Bonet and Lenny Kravitz. The girl can sing a little bit too. I found that out the second time I watched it. The first time, I couldn't get over how much she favors both her parents. Look at her real hard, she looks like her mom but she smiles like her dad. Freaky huh? Think that's bad, watch her performance in "The Brave One." Anyway, take a look at the Obama video: Anyway, like the post of the News One post, the main idea of this one is, I, along with so many of my counterparts, don't care about your celebrity endorsements. Sure they bring out the crowd but I don't really give a crap about their opinions. I care more about the candidate and what they plan to do and whether or not they'll execute. Let's watch, shall we?

Well, well, well ...

... it would appear that Hillary Clinton's tactics have come back to bite her in the posterior! (I couldn't resist going back to the 7th grade in Mr. Faulk's class) Anything about this picture look a lil' strange to you? I received an e-mail this morning that had a picture of former President Bill Clinton shaking the hand of none other than - Rev. Jeremiah Wright. That's right, you see it, that is Wright and Clinton in 1998 at a breakfast at the White House. I'm not sure how you get on the guest list for one of those shindigs but I'm pretty sure the president has to know you or has to be associated with you in some way. Also within this particular e-mail, a short letter addressed to Wright is signed by Clinton, allegedly. I say allegedly because I don't believe this letter was really written by the former president. But anyway, apparently Wright was there to help the president through the whole Monica Lewinsky scandal. I guess it is OK to link Obama with Wright because he's black and perhaps as angry as Wright, but it is not OK to link the Clintons with him because they're not, right? Wrong. If simply being linked to Wright is a campaign killer then it should yield the same response for the Clintons. It won't and I'm not surprised. I posted this picture and this response to show you that it shouldn't matter who you know or who you are "linked" with because you are two different. If I wanted to be a complete ass, I'd say that Wright condones the fact that former President Clinton cheated on his wife since this picture was taken on hours before Ken Starr's report about the president and his intern was leaked to the media. But I don't want to be one, so I won't say that - anymore. ;-)

We know, we know ...

... the melanin-challenged don't understand the "black church." They never have, don't expect them to start now. Rev. Jeremiah Wright threw Sen. Barack Obama under the bus yesterday. As much as he says he speaks only for himself and as much as Obama says Wright doesn't speak for him, it is quite clear that he does. Here's a newsflash for you, black folks have always been categorized and judged by the people who look like us. It's true, why do you think so many of us cringe when we hear our people use the word "nigga" and split verbs and butcher the English language? It's not because we're uppity, it's because no matter where we go, what we wear or who we associate ourselves with, we will always be looked at the same as the drug dealer, the high school drop out and just outright ignent! Am I saying that because we're educated we're better? Absolutely not. We're no better, we're no worse. What we are is fed up. We catch Hell from our lighter hued bretheren and our own people because "we think we're better." It's not that way at all. Since all of these snippets of Wright's sermons have surfaced and been taken out of context, all of Obama's naysayers, Clinton supporters and folks who just hate on him, he's been judged by what Wright says. My grandma told me a long time ago that people judge you by the company you keep and she was right. Eight years after her death, she's still right. Since these sermons have surfaced, black folks are being viewed as bitter, angry, belligerent and unpatriotic. While we certainly have a reason to be all that, the majority of us are not. If we're so damn unpatriotic why is it that the majority of the soldiers coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan are of color? I'll tell you why. All of these patriotic, red blooded Americans are quick to spill blood and have it spilled for their country as long as those bleeding don't look like them. This whole thing is really starting to piss me off because I was thinking earlier this morning about how white people are not judged by those who are less than intelligent who belong to their race. If we judged white folks the way they judged us, we would assume that all of them are prejudiced like Strom Thurmond and Jesse Helms. We would assume that all of them are stupid like George W. Bush. But we don't do that, because they're all different and so are we. Don't judge Obama by Wright, they are two different people. Don't assume that Obama has had the same experiences Wright has, because he has not. I don't see anyone mowing down those leaders who are Catholic because their spiritual leaders molested children. So stop saying Obama and Wright are one in the same. But, it would help is Wright would go somewhere and sit down.

Been a minute ...

... since then, Sen. Hillary Clinton won Pennsylvania. Congrats to her, but I have to ask whether or not the Democratic electorate in the Keystone State have televisions. I'm guessing that the folks who voted for Clinton don't have them, I mean, why else would they vote for her? Let's be honest, she's spent the last four or five months trying to discredit Sen. Barack Obama by name calling, mud slinging and just outright "hateration." I must say, green is definitely NOT her color. Now that she's won a couple of primaries, after losing 12 straight, she wants the Democratic National Convention to go back and count Florida and Michigan. That's convenient. Long before those two state had their primaries, Howard Dean, Mr. Excitement himself, told them that if they have early primaries, their votes would not be counted. To me that seems cut and dry, defiance yields consequences. Any parent or child can tell you that. Shoot, my 9-year-old niece can tell you that. But she wants special treatment. She wants the votes to be counted because now it's a close race and now she says that she's got more votes. She's right, she does have more votes, but that could be because her name was the only one on the Democratic ballots in Michigan and Florida and the candidates agreed prior to the primaries not to campaign in those states because they don't count! Sad thing about this is because she won't go away and just sit down somewhere, the party is going to suffer in November. I re-registered Democrat just so I could vote for Obama in next week's primary. Before I was registered as Independent because quite frankly, if you vote for someone based on their political party and not the facts and you don't research them and their policies, you're an idiot. Anyway, this thing is getting ugly and somebody needs to quit, for the sake of the party. I would hope that it will be her since she has absolutely NO reason to stay. She needs to go on somewhere and write a book or something. Oh and now she's calling for another debate. What for? What can they possibly debate that they haven't already? Not a damn thing, that's what. She needs to have the last word and she knows she can't do that if Obama is allowed to speak uninterrupted. She has to be able to interrupt and throw in her own lil' condiments to sauce up what Obama is saying. It's not necessary. We don't need Clinton ketchup. She is not the right person for the job, she is still out slinging mud and saying crap that doesn't matter because she can't win on the issues alone. I have said before and I'll say again, they don't differ that much in policy. They differ in their ability to inspire folks. When I hear Obama speak, I want to move to change the world around me. When I hear Clinton speak, I want to move to change the channel. Bottom line, someone needs to quit before too much damage is done to secure the election in November. If these two allow McCain to win the White House, I am going to look into becoming an expatriate. For real, I'll call to see if Oprah needs an English teacher in South Africa, this is ridiculous!

So, Barack now has street cred ...

Well, maybe not for real, but it certainly looks like it. Of course it's no secret that he has some haters, one could even conclude that the entire Clinton Camp could be considered "haters." In the true spirit of "shaking off the haters," Brother Obama gave a speech recently in Raleigh where his only response to Clinton's attacks and ABC's sham of a debate was to brush it off. I LOVE IT!!!

21 and counting ...

... not years, debates. Tonight was the 21st debate for the Democrats in the attempt to get a candidate to take on "Old Man" McCain. OK, I shouldn't call him an old man, how about Methuselah? Anyway, Clinton and Obama are still going at it and are showing no signs of slowing down. Under normal circumstances, I'd say a debate is a healthy thing - that's under normal circumstances. Obviously, these circumstances weren't normal, or they didn't seem so to me. It seems to me that the moderators, Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos, were drilling Obama harder than Clinton. Of course a lot more of his "dirty laundry" has been aired in mainstream media as of late, but that should have had no bearing whatsoever on the debate. Usually, debates for public office are designed to talk about the issues and how the candidates differ on those issues. Strangely, these two candidates don't differ that much. Their differences are purely logistical and I think if they were running mates (Hell would sooner freeze twice) they could find a medium. At this point, having debates is pointless. It is almost numerically impossible for Clinton to win the nomination. If the super delegates vote the way their constituents are voting, then Obama has it hands down. Having debates now is simply an opportunity for them to listen to each other speak and clean it up to what the audience wants to hear. In the Philadelphia debate, the audience was stifled by the moderators and the actually had to think about what they were saying. As far as I know, there is one more debate and that will be in my beloved North Carolina. I don't want to see the moderators bringing up Rev. Jeremiah Wright, calling Obama elitist or talking about Clinton's "misrembrance" of being under sniper fire. It's over! You hear me?! Over. The issue is graveyard dead and I don't want to hear about it anymore. I want to know what you are going to do to get North Carolinians working again. I want to know how you are going to replace the manufacturing jobs in Robeson, Guilford, Scotland and Bladen counties that have been shipped overseas. I want to know how you are going to improve education in the state's school districts. How you gonna do it?! ***By the way, anybody know where that dang debate's going to be?***

Kids say ...

... the darndest things. So, my 9-year-old niece, who is exceptionally precocious and extremely intelligent, has shown an interest in politics. She watches the news and finds ways to engage adults three and four times her age in deep conversation - well, as deep as her 9-year-old intellect can take us. Apparently, she and my mother, her grandmother, were talking and the conversation shifted to politics. Here's the way my mom explained it to me: "They should let Oklahoma be the president 'cause they know we need somebody young. He's in his 20s or 30s and Billary is in her 70s and McClain is in his hundreds." My first reaction was hysterical laughter because, well, she gave them all new names. Then I wanted to know how she had any idea what she was talking about. And then of course I was proud, because my niece has been watching the news and she's got somewhat of an understanding of what's going on and that's a helluva lot more I can say about some adults. I have talked to some grown people who tell me they know nothing about the candidates and they are not planning to learn before the primary on May 6 or before the November elections. Damn shame, I say. She can't vote for another nine years but she knows something about the candidates. What does the Bible say? "and a little child shall lead them," so true, so true.