American women are offered 12 weeks of unpaid leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act, which exempts companies with fewer than 50 paid employees, but in 2011, only 11 percent of private sector workers and 17 percent of public workers reported that they had access to paid maternity leave through their employer. And for first-time mothers, only about half can take paid leave when they give birth.

At the same time that working women in the U.S. lack a benefit widely available across the globe, almost 50 percent of families had two working parents in 2010, and 26 percent of households were headed by single parents. Without guaranteed paid maternity leave, many of these working women face significant financial hardship by having to choose between their paycheck and their families.

Women are forced to put their careers and financial future at risk simply because they want to have children. During their pregnancy, they face being fired unfairly or not being able to properly care for themselves. They should not have to worry about making ends meet without paid maternity leave on top of that.

[...] Morris and Leeneeka Bell, who says she was fired by the Emergency Communications Center after her pregnancy left her on bed rest, announced their plans to file a lawsuit after the EEOC finding. Their attorney, Lisa Millican, says this is a clear-cut case of discrimination.

OK, so about that “being fired unfairly,” thingy:

(Reuters) – More than three decades after Congress passed a law trying to protect pregnant women in the workplace, discrimination is still widespread and needs to be combated with publicity and clearer guidelines, according to testimony Wednesday at a federal hearing.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s legal counsel, Peggy Mastroianni, said the agency had resolved 52,000 pregnancy cases since 2001, with $150.5 million paid out in damages.

Discrimination against pregnant women includes firing, forced leave without pay, being denied a place to pump breast milk and being barred from some work, witnesses told the five-member EEOC panel at a hearing on the issue.

Decades after the passage of the 1978 Pregnancy Discrimination Act, discrimination ranges from the shop floor to the executive suite, with sexual stereotyping a major factor. It is found in every state, but is more likely to hit women in low-income jobs, they said.

[...]The Pregnancy Discrimination Act forbids discrimination by employers based on pregnancy, including hiring, firing, pay, job assignments and promotions. Under the law, pregnancy is considered a temporarily disabling condition.

Yep, and you thought the so-called “war on women,” was just about birth control?

Two former Fulton County 911 operator trainees plan to sue the Georgia county, claiming they were fired for being pregnant.

One of the women secretly recorded a conversation she said she had with the director of the Emergency Communications Center, during which she asked for her job back after being fired.

Que'ana Morris & Leeneeka Bell said they are going to sue Fulton Co. after they say they were terminated for being pregnant.

In the recording obtained by ABC News, a person identified as department director Angela Barrett repeatedly refers to Que’ana Morris’ “situation” as the reason for her firing.

[...] Morris says in the two months before she was fired, she missed 16 days of work on doctor’s orders over complications with her pregnancy. She says she had permission to miss those days for medical reasons, and that it only became a problem after she was already fired.

I don’t know, but this seems like all types of wrong to me. What’s next, people getting fired for being a certain race? I know, I know, I know: something like that will never happen here in this country; but, this firing pregnant women thing is just ridiculous. But hey, maybe it’s a Georgia thing. According to another recent story, it’s okay for a cop to kick a pregnant women in the stomach.

I thought back to this incredible hullabaloo, as I often do, when I spend time with some of my white comrades. While I tend to think of myself as a “one (wo)man wolf pack“, I often find myself spending time as a growing-older twenty-something with young, white professionals that I may have worked with at a certain point. I’ve oft found that since I have experience in such progressive fields, my white friends and I have much in common. For that reason, it baffles me when I hear them say things about people of color that makes me aware of their lack of ownership of their privilege. Of course, this is often the cause for the divide in feminism between white women and women of color.

I think that a rift began in mine and my good friend’s relationship when I was expressing my previous partner’s Haitian-Namibian lineage and she chuckled and mentioned the words ‘voodoo’ and ‘Africans’ in the same sentence, as if she were completely unaware of my brown skin. And there were similar comments, not on the same level or time, but here and there: “I can totally say this next comment, because my relative is (insert ethnicity here)” and “ZOMG I let my boyfriend listen to this song ‘The Motto’ by Drake and showed him a hip-hop dance, but he told me that I wasn’t ghetto enough” and “I listen to hip-hop all the time; everyone tells me I’m Black on the inside.” It exhausts me, and even more exhausting is that I’ve become less of the privilege-and-racism-attacking-machine hotshot that I once was. I used to be quite adept at breaking down these thought patterns, whatever the cost, and I’ve become challenged at it — especially when the subject delivering these microaggressions are current colleagues.

I compare the microaggressions based on social and cultural misguidance and, well..privilege, to objectification in that, while the person delivering the underhanded remarks may not find them to be so, these comments are often an attempt to singularly define an individual or group by some attribute, negative or otherwise. I was once told by a very brilliant friend of mine that he believes objectification to be an irritation; however, while objectification (and these microaggressions that are comprised mainly of words that may not be injurious) is small in comparison to the many other battles we are faced with in our separate and intersecting marginalized communities, we have to find a balance in battling privilege, objectification, and the like because they are detrimental to identity and progress. I’m tired of white girls telling me they’re going to tanning beds because they’re ‘trynabe’ like me. Cut that shit out.

I’m tired of white people throwing ethnic-themed parties with 40s, fried chicken and watermelon. I’m tired of children having to go to school to homework with racially inappropriate questions. And white parents who allow their kid to dress in blackface when he’s in character as Dr. Martin Luther (the) King, Jr.

But as fate and convenience would have it, much to the disappointment of Sean Hannity and company at Fox News, Ricketts has since denounced any plans of resurfacing Rev. Jeremiah Wright. However, in speaking about negative campaign ads, Newark, NJ Mayor and self-avowed Obama campaign surrogate Cory Booker, has become the pariah of the week. Reminiscent of Rev. Jeremiah Wright and his infamous, “God damned America,” 20 second soundbite of old, Booker expressed his disdain for the negative perception of Bain Capital cast by last week’s Obama campaign ad targeted at the GOP’s presumptive nominee, Mitt Romney, who touts his record as a businessman who was once the head of Boston-based private equity firm, Bain Capital.

So what did Booker actually say? Aside from baseless negative ads being “nauseating,” he pointed out just how beneficial private equity firms like Bain, have been to the city of Newark. Of course such a characterization of Bain is antithetical to the perception everyone has bought into, that Bain was an evil monster who frequently came down from the hills to eat working peasants. You know, the perception one develops after taking a look at Newt Gingrich’s, “When Mitt Romney Came To Town,” Republican primary campaign, thirty minute attack ad mini-movie thing-a-ma-jig?

My guess is that the Obama campaign had already made a conscious decision to hit Romney below the belt by continuing the “Bain is evil,” narrative, that has long existed in the anti-Romney playbook that goes back to Ted Kennedy. Yep, no harm no foul by bringing Bain into the mix and using them as Mitt Romney’s audition tape for the big leagues. However, like Cory Booker, former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, and now, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick: I find the egregious characterization of Bain to be problematic, especially for the Obama campaign’s re-election efforts. And why do I say that? Listen to the entire discussion as opposed to the silly media spin:

So why is Cory Booker and all Liberals who agree with him are saying he’s right? First of all, all politics are local; and, Cory Booker happens to be the mayor of a major U.S. city that’s seen it’s share of economic decline. If you don’t understand what it is to be a mayor, think back to New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin crying out for help from the federal government before and directly after his city was hit by Hurricane Katrina. Yep, most U.S. urban centers were hit by the wave of economic downturn much in the same way the 9th Ward in New Orleans were flooded after the levee broke. Though the overall economy has shown slow signs of improvement, mayors like Booker are daunted with the arduous task of making sacrifices to keep their respective cities afloat.

However, beyond the criticisms of Booker and his defense of Bain, what I found to be quite iroic, was the way Pres. Obama pulled Booker from under the bus; and, he carefully prefaced his answer on the subject of Bain when asked by uttering the following response in Chicago on Monday:

My view of private equity is that it is, it is set up to maximize profits and that is a healthy part of the free market, of course. That’s part of the role of a lot of business people. That is not unique to private equity. My representatives have said repeatedly and I will say today, I think there are folks who do good work in that area and there are times where they identify the capacity for the economy to create new jobs or new industries. But understand their priority is to maximize profits, and that is not always going to be good for communities or businesses or workers. — Pres. Obama

I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t sound like an endorsement of the idea of Bain being a “vampire,” to me; and actually, as The Economist notes, it’s pretty clever. But then again, maybe Obama’s remark was carefully calculated for two reasons: 1) so as to not alienate potential independent voters who are actively engaged in the financial industry  as employees or investors, or 2) Obama is no stranger to accepting campaign contributions from private equity firms and entities with ties to Wall Street – heck, just about a week ago Obama attended a fundraiser at the home of Tony James, the CEO of the Blackstone Group, yet another private equity firm, that saw total contributions somewhere close to the $2.1 million mark. Which is funny, because I don’t hear any of my fellow Liberals chastising Obama for being a “sellout,” like they have Booker.

But no, instead there’s all this talk about money donated to Booker’s 2002 campaign by Bain Capital, and his Manhattan ties. However, the important thing to note, is that Booker broke no laws in taking campaign funds from Bain. More importantly and to the point he made on Meet The Press: the negative perception of Bain cast by the campaign ad can be problematic for Obama and Democrats in general. Again, this can potentially alienate undecided voters — Democrats, Republicans, and Independents alike — who represent the investment class, especially as Mitt continues to tout the “class warfare” meme, and the idea that Obama is down with punishing success by casting Bain in a negative light with his talk of fairness. Not a tough sell when you think about the fact that 78 percent of the companies Bain invested in became successful. Sure factories were closed, and yes people lost jobs; but, is it beyond reason given the companies total record that said factories and plants were doomed from the beginning?

Listen, in my humble and unprofessional opinion, a more effective strategy for the Obama campaign, would be to hit Romney where he’s most uncomfortable: his record as a “job creator” as Governor of Massachusetts. Sure Romney wants to tout his Bain record; but, fortunately for Obama his dismal record as Governor builds political capital in hopes of a reelection in this slowly recovering economy. Heck, let Romney lie talk about his Bain record. If he thinks that’s what it takes to be president, then so be it. The message war will be won if he is countered with the question: if Romney was such an effective “job creator” as seen at Bain, why then did Massachusetts go from 36th to 47th in the nation as far as job creation under Romney? A question you can bet he’d be as uncomfortable answering as he would about “Romneycare” being the template for “Obamacare”.

But hey, “nauseating” political campaign strategy aside. I’d like to congratulate the people on our side who have managed to revive Rev. Jeremiah Wright in the form of Cory Booker. Watching this all play out in the media this week, I can’t help but to be reminded of how much of what Wright said was taken out of context and twisted to advance a particular agenda. And what’s funny about it, is that back then, many of Obama’s supporters then like now, told Wright to shut the fuck up out of fear of Obama losing the election. Even funnier, was that those very same people, in no uncertain terms, all agreed that Rev. Wright was correct about much of what he said in his sermons.

But somehow someway, the “God damn America,” soundbite, that was originally delivered by a white reverend and repeated by Wright, made him a racist and self-serving idiot as he was thrown under the bus by loyal, but cowardly Obama supporters willing to attack Booker’s honest and principled position on private equity firms. However, it’s a damn shame when a Democrat catches hell for being honest about the influence of  money in politics, all because the media loves to see two black men duke it out on television. Yep, good job making Cory Booker the new Rev. Wright.

No, it’s not necessarilly about yelling and screaming about our current president being a Kenyan Marxist, or sleeping in tents in public parks in the dead of winter to protest the excesses of wealthy Wall Street corporatists. Nope, none of that; instead, it’s about what one Wisconsin resident had the courage, and intestinal fortitude to do last Friday when he visited his favorite local restaurant:

THIENSVILLE, Wis. – A jumbo-sized restaurant customer is protesting after he was cut off from an all-you-can-eat fish fry near Milwaukee.

At 6 feet 6 inches and 350 pounds, Bill Wisth acknowledges he can pack away more fish than the average guy. But, Wisth wants Chuck’s Place in Thiensville to live up to its all-you-can-eat advertising.

After Wisth ate a dozen pieces of fish last Friday, a waitress refused to bring more. The restaurant says it was running out of fish and patience. They sent Wisth on his way with eight more pieces. Wisth called the village police. And he came back two days later with a picket sign.

Waitress Elizabeth Roeming says the restaurant has tried to work with Wisth over the years, even letting him run a tab that he hasn’t paid off. (source)

Watch the video:

According the New York Times, the real Jerry Thomas was shot to death in July 1992 in front of the Y on Parsons Boulevard in Jamaica, Queens. No one was arrested for the murder, the Times reports, citing the Queen’s district attorney’s office. The AP reports that New York Police have not indicated whether or not Oyewole is a suspect in Thomas’ death. Acting on an anonymous tip, authorities arrested Oyewole, 54, at his home in Elizabeth, N.J., on Monday on charges that he stole Thomas’ identity. On Monday afternoon, he was being held at the Essex County Jail, awaiting his arraignment. The Times reports that Oyewole allegedly used Thomas’ birth certificate, Social Security card and other documents, and that it was unclear how he managed to obtain them.

Its really unfortunate that the Transit Security Agency has all that money and information available to them yet has NO IDEA of how Bimbo obtained a dead man’s identification. If they needed help, they could have easily called me in on the case. I spent a few months working at Newark Airport in the pre-911 days so I’m privy to the type of hurdles it took for Bimbo to pull a fast one.

Obtaining a job within an airport is a pain in the ass, in what is a theoretical  deep cavity search, each person seeking a job is provided with a phone book sized set of applications to maneuver. Faced with pages upon pages of applications, often which has to be done in triplicate in order to provide all of the governing agencies with a copy of the ‘verification’ documents, many people never make it past that point.

United States Customs, NY/NJ Port Authority and the private contractor hiring the person initially will all be provided with copies of this application and the required identification, often a passport, a birth certificate, or some other form of letter from a government agency. The airport jobs are fancy titled manual labor gigs that pay a little better than fast food checks, working for a private contractor may mean an employee can obtain health insurance.

I was the first person hired to work for a private contractor. I wasn’t trained, nor was my background check or drug test done immediately. I spent the first few weeks enjoying the free paycheck while the manager who hired me complimented me often, treated me to lunch on his American Express card as he informed me how much I remind him of olive complexioned dark haired Greek wife. We got along quite well  until he resigned three weeks after hiring me, leaving me to figure out how to perform background checks and drug test all by myself .

One supervisor remained. He and I took notes as we worked through the piles of papers. We questioned other employees in other companies on how they had managed to get approval.  Some people were kind enough to provide me with hand written ‘you didn’t get this from me’ instructions that were vague and loopy, it took weeks for us to figure out what the two agencies requirements were to get approval for hologram id’s that were required of each person who set foot on airport property.

If you can’t get a hologram id, you can’t work. If you misplace it twice, you can never work at an airport again. Neither the Port Authority or United States Customs would answer our questions regarding their qualifications. They would reject our paperwork over and over again without any justification or instructions on how to correct and re-submit each application. I spent days on the phone before we even ran our first ad seeking to hire at least 100 people. I was warned to not push the customer service workers too hard when calling the Port Authority or Customs, it was rumored that pissing off a service worker at either agency would ensure that your company’s employee applications for identifications will go missing or routinely get rejected.

I received my hologram 8 weeks after being hired, employee number two, the supervisor received his a day after I was approved for my own. I wrote out a process and procedure that would allow us to move through these applicants efficiently. We finally had a plan. By the time we moved into the actual office space located on the airport grounds, I had already been into each and every high level security nook and cranny simply by standing next to my former boss’s high level security pass as he went where he wanted on the airport. We would speed around the tarmac, preferring to drive through the airport rather than around it using Newark/Elizabeth city streets. Everyone was on a first name basis, the airport is a whole world of its own behind the scenes, I took note that the highest level security clearance badges belonged to the those who cleaned the planes.

The labyrinth of corridors, doors contained in false walls, and hallways was very interesting to me. I noted the white key pad that sat affixed next to the places used to gain access, not only was the hologram an identification card to be kept visible around each person’s neck, it is a key card. We can the ad in the Star Ledger and waited, by day two I was so swamped with phone calls, questions, applicants, requests for pens and people walking in and out of the temporary office that I was ready to quit. Once a few more people got hired to assist me, I only focused on getting the people approved so that we could be set to work on our launch date.

I began to notice that American born citizen applicants were rejected with more frequency than were the non-American born applicants. There was to be no gaps in time longer than 30 days between each original document displaying where that person was at that point in time, ten years back. My application caused me to have to return to my high school to get an original copy of my ATTENDANCE RECORDS and a trip to welfare to prove I was collecting for a few months after giving birth to my daughter at 17 (I had her summer of my Junior to Senior year in high school…see what they did right there?)

The type of background information requested and the exclusion of certain gaps in time caused many American born applicants to give up trying. Being pregnant didn’t prove your identity, but an original letter from your doctor that personally identifies you as a patient during that point in time would suffice. Which is fine if you go to a private doctor and not to a clinic where the staff don’t give out letters of person knowledge to the clients they tend to. Your income tax records don’t suffice. Your diploma isn’t sufficient proof you attended school during that point in time. Nothing made much sense.

The one thing I found peculiar was that almost every foreign born applicant would return to me with their application meticulously done, every page signed and every box checked. I reviewed applications all day long, the process was tedious because it was a lot of paperwork and it was easy to neglect to fill in something or to not fill out something waiting to ask for more clarity.

I noticed that some of the men were illiterate, yet the question that asked if someone assisted them with filling out the documents were left blank. I turned a blind eye because I understood, the additional person would have to provide identity information as well as the job applicant.

The non-American born applicants also ALWAYS had all their required identification documents in perfect condition where the American applicants would pull tattered social security cards out of well worn wallets. Maybe the immigrant population is neater, I don’t know. I just know that nearly every person had a brand new, often dated days prior original document, a few times the applicants insisted what they offered me was sufficient even if the document was unfamiliar to me thus far, and it would be approved. To put it simply, the immigrant workers that sought jobs through me at Newark Airport always got approved by the mysterious Customs/Port Authority Gods.

Very nice people, often husbands and wives working two and three jobs at the airport while trying to raise families of children, if not parents, siblings and others. Original letters of identification that were accepted from international former employers were always presented to me dated and highlighting to show exactly 10 years of ‘outstanding, efficient and high character expectations of work performance’. Almost the same blurb, but who am I to question these things..?

I would make a point of speaking to each of them, asking where they were from, and about their lives aside from their tossing luggage or invisibly ushering clueless international passengers through corridors to taxi cabs. If I was late for work, I only had to cut through, under and behind false walls as other airport personnel waved hello to me , or covered for me by making sure the coast was clear as I dashed, or allowed me to gain access to places I didn’t know existed through use of their key cards and years of airport knowledge.

One day my new boss, the ignorant ass white man/boy who had a title, made a comment about one of the employees. The employee, a Nigerian man the shade of an old penny had intricate slices that created an embroidered design across each of his high boned cheeks. I would openly stare at him boldly going beneath his beautifully shaped round head and his thin wire glasses. Pointing to my own face, I patted my cheek and pointed to his face and tried to convey to him how much I found those markings to be intriguing.

He was kind enough to let me touch his face, as I traced my finger along the scars of his face, I murmured ‘beautiful’. His English wasn’t too good and my Nigerian even worse or maybe he was just quiet, or maybe I was overstepping common courtesy but he explained them to mean ‘something’ in his country, ‘something’ about tribe and family. I knew those scars held some significance but I also wanted to be respectful of him and his culture. I didn’t press him for further details. “He must have really pissed someone off. Who cut his face up like that?!” white man/boy said. The look I shot him let him know he said something stupid.

I did my best to explain the meaning of the tribal cuts, to which he laughed and said, “African’s can’t get it right for nothing. How stupid do you have to be to have everyone kick your country’s ass and not fight back? How can cutting your face make you important?” Days later I witnessed this white man stand in front of that black man and openly tease him about those cuts on his face. I was nausiated and angered and I wondered…if he was in Nigeria would he be able to show the white man what those scars are really all about? Indeed, how stupid do you have to be…..?

According to a report at Think Progress, at least one right-wing political activist group isn’t in a celebratory; yes, America’s changing demographic has long been a source of motivation for many political-minded activists who just so happen to identify themselves as Conservative.

Enter Phyllis Schlafly and her organization hell bent on saving Caucasians from extinction, known as the Eagle Forum. In the wake of this not-so-conservative-friendly news, Shlafly has managed to stoke the flames of fear, by warning of the dangers of the country they love, being overrun by uneducated, un-American “colored folks” who are slightly more ethnic than New Jersey’s “Tan Mom”.

It is not a good thing. The immigrants do not share American values, so it is a good bet that they will not be voting Republican when they start voting in large numbers.

[...]Instead, the USA is being transformed by immigrants who do not share those values, and who have high rates of illiteracy, illegitimacy, and gang crime, and they will vote Democrat when the Democrats promise them more food stamps.

I don’t know what it’s like to go to bed worried about the extinction of my race, and I doubt I ever will. However, I often wonder what it must be like to live in fear of people of another race — that is, in fear of people of another race for whom are willing to kill me because of the color of my skin. I imagine for racist people like Shlafly, news such as the New York Times has published, can induce an debilitating fit agoraphobia upon an already minority-adverse-thinking conservative mind.

And just in case you may think the Eagle Forum happens to be a far right-wing ragtag bunch. According to Think Progress, they are considerably influential within conservative circles. My guess is that they are yet another one of the shadow orgs behind the curtain responsible for funding the anti-immigration movement. Of course, as you know, many of these conservative groups subscribe to the whole “American values” shtick. Which is pretty stupid in because I find it hard to understand just how a child born in America becomes un-American devoid of American values.

Oh, that’s right; we’re talking about colored babies:

The Eagle Forum doesn’t dwell on the fringes of the conservative movement either. The group still wields considerable influence in conservative circles, and has achieved more than a few legislative victories, like derailing the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s and staunchly opposing bills aimed at protecting a women’s right to choose.

The post goes on to accuse immigrants — and, for reasons passing understanding, The New York Times for reporting on this — of seeking to “destroy the American family,” arguing that immigrants do not share American values. Of course, this is hardly the first time The Eagle Foundation has pushed xenophobia.

Eagle Forum Founder: Phyliss Shafley

No word on just exactly how this may have an effect on brown people willing to vote for the Republican presumptive nominee, Mitt Romney. But from what I’ve seen by attending two separate graduation ceremonies this week. There are a lot of children of immigrants graduating with honors and moving on to college. What I found admirable at one particular graduation, was that there were quite a few of those immigrant children who received special recognition for excellence in Chinese; and, the children in question, were all graduating from the fifth grade.

Of course I don’t know what life is like in other parts of thew country, but at least here in Memphis, TN., the American-born children of immigrants are doing quite well. In fact, at one high school graduation, at least two of them did well enough to be salutatorian, and the other the recipient of a full-ride academic scholarship to Columbia University. But, don’t listen to me; clearly, by being a fire-breathing Progressive and the son of immigrants, I’m obviously biased, yes?

The Rev. Thomas Williams, a moral theologian and prominent American author, lecturer and television personality, said in a statement he was “deeply sorry for this grave transgression” against his vows of celibacy.

Williams, the author of such books as 2008’s “Knowing Right From Wrong: A Christian Guide to Conscience,” was the superior of the Legion’s general directorate in Rome in the late 1990s and early 2000s. More recently, he taught theology, promoted his books and lectured widely.

I don’t know why its so complicated for these men! If they simply described the pregnancy using ownership words like ‘I fathered a child’ then we could stop pretending like we don’t know what the hell their saying.

I’m not surprised by this and I think its safe to say the public stopped being shocked and awed years ago but for a few very gullible people that prefer to deny this pattern or those with an interest in keeping their secrets in tact.

The Legion has been beset by scandal following revelations that its late founder, the Rev. Marciel Maciel, fathered three children with two women and sexually abused his seminarians. Maciel died in 2008, and in 2009 the Legion admitted to his crimes.

The Maciel scandal has been particularly sensational given that the Mexican-born priest was held up by Pope John Paul II as a model for the faithful, with his priests admired for their orthodoxy and ability to bring in money and attract new seminarians.

Just last week, the Legion admitted that seven of its priests were under investigation by the Vatican for allegedly sexually abusing minors — suggesting that the same culture of secrecy and silence that Maciel used to cover his crimes enabled other priests to abuse children.

THE LEGION OF CHRIST *blank stare* are the latest culprit in this week’s headlines. As usual, there is no direct admission of guilt by the hypocritical upper echelon gaggle of man sandals and the organization as a whole shows evidence that it is willing to cover up discrepancies for the sake of revenue and power.  How typical.

Honestly, if this is the type of behavior religious followers prescribe to then I say its high time to disassemble these bastards sect by sect for the betterment of civilized society. If a group of guys want to live together in harmony then they should support gay marriage rights. If a group of men want to live in the hills and have wild outlandish sex with their apprentices then they should present themselves as such, because I know of plenty of people that are into that sort of thing, they’re called ‘subs’ in the kink circle.

And while others would spin their wheels discussing nuances of faith and salvation, I would rather get to the heart of the matter, which seems to be that religious organizations do women and children more harm than good for the sake of money and power.

Secret sex, lies, bastard children, unwed mothers, questions of financial support, abuse of power, and money.

Women, babies, church resources, questions of financial obligations, and YOU ARE THE FATHER..exactly the reason why the Vatican restricted marriage among members, who is going to take care of all these dam babies!?

The church is very rich, and its resources should be protected, like any other tool of exploitation. This isn’t rocket science.

Either way, all the drama sounds like the makings of a Good Book to me, though I’m eager to find out how this ends, I worry about what the masses will do once their ‘moral’ yardstick is taken away. What would Jesus Do…? My guess is…he’d run screaming away from these ‘religious leaders’ but I”m an atheist so what do I know?

Uh uh, never mind the economy, or the fact that gay people are unemployed and unable to afford stuff like glitter or whatever else “the gays,” happen to purchase; no, never mind that. Instead, what’s important and on everybody’s mind is that Obama wants to make it legal for gays to marry. Keep in mind that this was just his personal opinion and no legislation has been advanced to suggest this becoming a reality. Nope, all that matters is that gays are gonna be married with the full blessings of Obama; and, straight people (whether married or single) will now have to deal with the hassle of not being able to get out of their driveways because they’re being blocked in by the gay married couple giving each other head in a parked car. Yep, forget the whole equal protection under the law thingy in the U.S. Constitution; shit, that’s an old-ass piece of paper anyway.

I mean, who wants to have gay people tossing salads within 500 feet of a school, right? So yeah, as absurd as it sounds, that’s what marriage equality means in the minds of many. That plus the idea that straight people will now have to contend with the obvious embarassment of being placed in a ompromising position, by a gay person getting down on one knee and offering them a marriage proposal in public. Yeah, straight people often get married for the wrong reasons, who wants to add a straight person being hitched to a gay person and having to act gay to  the list.

Yes, this is what people fear; and, it’s the reason there’s so much talk . And you better believe, as far as the politics of fear goes, as much as most try to deny it, this will have an impact on this years general elections. How significant an impact? I’m not sure. However, I am sure that these fears will be exploited by the many ignoramuses  among us over the next several months. Hell, you see how they’re already trying to play divide and conquer by using the black vote, right? Yep, they’re using the black church to divide the black electorate by making same-sex marriage the latest wedge issue. Smart move especially when you think about how black preachers are bent on not pissing off white Jesus in hopes that he would allow blacks and whites to drink from the same fountain if Negroes are allowed in heaven. Yes, it’s that deep for some of the members of the black clergy and the Sunday Communion Kool Aid drinkers they lead. So much so that I’ve heard that some of them are definitely going to sit this election cycle out. I’ve heard from good source that in one particular Obama For America campaign office, people are talking about walking out on the campaign.

It’s good to know that common sense still lives in the church…

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A major NewsChannel 5 investigation has uncovered serious questions about Tennessee’s war on drugs. Among the questions: are some police agencies more concerned about making money off the drugs, than stopping them?

At the center of this months-long investigation are laws that let officers pull driver over looking for cash.  Those officers do not even have to file criminal charges against a person to take his/her money.

It turns out, those kind of stops are now happening almost every day in Middle Tennessee.

Speaking to then District Attorney General Kim Helper about these stops and seizures in her jurisdiction, when  asked if it was a way to make money, she responded, “Well, you know, when you say ‘make money,’ I guess it is a way for us to continue to fund our operations so that we can put an end to drug trafficking and the drug trade within this district.” So how are police officers able to trample one’s 4th Amendment right as it relates to search and seizures? Easy. Under the guise of the “war on drugs,” the state allows police to seize money simply based on the suspicion that it’s linked to drug trafficking. The troubling part about the application of said practice, is that even without an arrest, an individuals money can be seized.

I guess this gives credence to the notion that money has no owners, just spenders.

In 2010 report, Tennessee received a D-minus from the Washington-based Institute for Justice, on the state’s “civil forfeiture laws,” which makes the practice all legal. As pervasive as the practice, per the law, money can be seized just on reasonable and unreasonable suspicion of money “found” in traffic stops being linked to drug trafficking. As you can imagine, this has given police officers on patrol the incentive to become state sanctioned pirates as they target out-of-town tagged vehicles along the I-40 east-west corridor, in what’s iknown as “Policing For Profit“.

According to the the Tennessee Trial Lawyers Blog:

In Tennessee, the police can seize your car, take your money, take your personal property, take your home, sell these items and use the proceeds of that sale for their benefit without the person being found guilty of a crime. In fact, the police can seize and sell these items without even charging the owner with a crime. And worst of all, the laws in Tennessee promote this activity.

[...] So why do the police do this? Money, Money, Money. The State of Tennessee receives millions and millions of dollars each year from civil asset forfeiture. They are among the highest in the country on the percentage of proceeds that go to law enforcement. And while some states use this money for education and public works, Tennessee allows local law enforcement to spend this money on drug enforcement. If the local police did not need any more incentive, the local law enforcement agencies receive 100% of proceeds for their respective agency. They cannot spend it on their salaries, but they do spend it on their agency which continues to operate in large part due to the millions of dollars they bring in each year.

[...] Further proof that the police activity is based on the money, sources reveal that the police on Interstate 40 are pulling over vehicles on the westbound lane of the interstate at a much higher rate than on the eastbound lanes. This is because they believe that drugs go east and money goes west. So they are clearly following the money and not the drugs. Again, the police agency that seized the property keeps 100% of the proceeds!

It’s too bad that unsuspecting drivers from out-of-state like New Jersey’s George Reby, aren’t aware of this practice. As a matter of fact, up until I read Reby’s story, I myself as a state resident, was not aware of the practice; heck, and to think I’ve been living here for the past six years. However, I’d like to think that if Reby were in the know, he would not have been as trusting of Monteray PD Officer Larry Bates, with whom he had a chance meeting last January when stopped for speeding en route to Nashville on I-40, on a business trip.

Check out the following via, Nashville’s NewsChannel 5:

But then again, maybe that’s just my “Liberal bias” creeping out as always. As pervasive and egregious this practice may sound, it is perfectly legal. aside from that, the main thing that keeps the practice alive and successful, is the ignorance of everyday citizens to their legal rights as afforded by the constitution. Police officers like Larry Bates above, count on us being ignorant about our 4th Amendment & 5th Amendment protections per the U.S. Constitution. I suggest you become aware of the fact that you do have the right to refuse to talk to the police without an attorney present, as well as the right to refuse or consent to a search of your property and person by the police without a proper warrant. Too often, not knowing your rights can become a hassle, and quite costly; but, like the old saying: knowing is half the battle.

QUESTION: Should law enforcement be allowed to carry out this practice?

But, politicians want to sit around and debate the issue. They want to request a whole bunch of statistical analysis to prove what every Black person over the age of 2 years old understands: police profile racially. Why do politicians play this game? To pretend they are actually attempting to address the scourge of law enforcement bigotry without actually doing a goddamn thing about the problem.

If all these folks are going to do is sit around in a little room and say, “profiling is bad…. we should do something about it…” and then move onto the next topic, they need to get the fuck out of office, because they do not care about what happens to real people in the real world.

Who are the people compiling the statistics and where are they coming from? Most of the time, they work FOR the people in power, who are invested in maintaining the status quo. So, not only can they manipulate the facts to make them fit the narrative of the white dominators, but they rely on information given to them by the oppressive law enforcement community. Somehow, the word of a cop is seen as more reliable than that of his victim, so he can lie about absolutely anything and be seen as the “good guy” in the story. What is to stop a white police officer from incorrectly listing the race of his victims in order to “prove” that he is not engaging in racially biased behavior on the job? (In fact, it was proven that in East Haven, Connecticut, police officers did exactly this for many years)

If a victim of police oppression reports the crimes that officers commit against him, it is usually written off as unfounded, or uncorroborated. Yet the word of a single pig is enough to land a man behind bars. Why are police given more credibility than an ordinary community member, especially if that community member is Black?

There is also nothing stopping police officers from harassing and endangering anyone who reports profiling or brutish behavior. Everyone knows about the “blue wall of silence”. If a Black person walks into a police station to report to an officer that one of his fellow “boys in blue” has committed criminal acts against him, he is putting his safety in the hands of people who are invested only in defending and protecting the man carrying the badge.

Combating racial profiling is not about crunching numbers, compiling reports and making recommendations that the police look at as optional. In order to fight racist police practices, there needs to be serious consequences for officers who are caught profiling. They should be kicked off the police force and charged with a felony. They need to be held accountable. As it stands today, police officers can commit even most egregious offenses, like the murder of unarmed people, with little to no chance of repercussions. ANYTIME a police officer shoots an unarmed person, they should be charged and convicted for murder (or attempted murder if the person is lucky enough to survive.) Police officers complain that they do not want to have to stop to think before they act, that it could put their lives in danger… well… tough shit. Shouldn’t you HAVE TO take a second to think before you take the life of another human being?

Police officers also should not be foreign invaders. If there is a need for law enforcement presence in a given community, the officers should be recruited from among local residents only. No more white “good ole boys” rolling into a Black community and running roughshod over the rights of the people who actually live there. Let the white boys stay in their little suburban communities and arrest the folks with the meth labs in their garage.

I understand the desire for activist groups to enforce racial profiling laws. There is this belief that compiling statistics to “prove” that racial profiling exists will somehow force police departments to change their ways. That the threat of removing funding sources to police departments who are non-compliant will help alleviate the insidiousness of racial profiling. However, I think that until a police officer has to worry about facing VERY REAL CONSEQUENCES, like PRISON TIME for engaging in such practices, there is really no incentive for an individual officer to change his behavior.

Recently, there was an amendment passed for Connecticut’s racial profiling law, the Penn Act. A huge production was made about the “much needed changes” to the Penn Act that were added. Basically, the legislators decided that the Penn Act provisions would be enforced more stringently if they added a “traffic stop receipt” concept to the legislation, so that motorists who have been pulled over can be sure that their race was listed correctly. They also included a provision that allowed people to anonymously launch complaints about profiling, and appointed a committee to investigate the claims, as well as to examine the statistics compiled for evidence of profiling. Honestly, I do not see the efficacy of this sort of approach. Why do people need “proof” that profiling happens? We all know it does! How do statistics protect motorists from police officers? Where is the incentive for officers to stop this behavior?

And what about pedestrians? How many anti-profiling laws include people on foot? We all know that “stop and frisk” policies are steeped in racial profiling. Why not include people who are walking through the community under the umbrella of these profiling laws? One proponent of the Penn Act Amendment here in Hartford actually became angry when another activists mentioned that the Act did not go far enough because it only “protected” motorists! He said that the Penn Act was not intended to protect people on foot, therefore the amendment did not include them. Well, if you are “amending” a piss poor law, why not make the logical choice to extend the legislation to cover ALL people who are profiled, not just those in cars?

Compiling statistics is not the solution. SERIOUS consequences for INDIVIDUAL officers as well as departments who violate the rights of community members MUST BE INCLUDED in order for an anti-profiling law to offer any serious protection for the public. It is one thing to “work within the system”, it is quite another to ignore what REALLY needs to be done to address police profiling and brutality simply to get a piece of legislation passed.