Palin, please go away...

Governor Sarah Palin. I am sick and tired of hearing your voice every morning on the news. I don't want to see your house, I don't want to hear about your plans for 2012, I don't want to know about your conference in Miami, and I don't want to see Greta van Idiot fawn over your less than impressive body of work. Why don't I want to hear these things? Because you should have opened your doors (or McCain should have allowed you to) MONTHS AGO!!! The campaign is over. The election results are in. You lost. Go home. If you would like to speak, then give us something more than rhetoric. Tell us how you intend to fix the problems that divide our nation, the energy crisis, the economy, or the healthcare system. Can you stop saying 'get mavericky' and give us real talk? Why are we still talking about you? Its sad. Its the same reason I wrote this post, people cannot turn away from a car accident. We are a nation of looky-lous and rubberneckers.

Governor Palin, you are now speaking out against the same 'extreme partisanship' you exhibited on your campaign (see earlier videos posted on this blog). Get real. Be honest. If this is the true Palin, why did she not allow herself to be seen earlier (before the election ended)? And don't blame the mainstream media. Several people wanted to speak with her, but she was kept sheltered. I ask my fellow Americans to ignore Palin until at least 2010. Bask in the Obama glory and move forward as a nation. Even Dennis Miller is getting behind Obama. Support your new President and get over the loss (coming from an OSU fan who has seen two back-to-back national championship losses to the SEC).


This rant was brought to you by Fox & Friends, the worst show on television.

I Hate the CNN Electoral Map!

CNN for the most part does a pretty good job of covering politics (Nothing can touch NPR). Although I feel that they are just a little biased towards the democratic party, I think they have very thorough programming. Plus, I am voting democrat this election. So it doesn't bother me. Anyway, I am not writing today about the ills of media bias. I am writing because I hate that stupid electoral map that they show on CNN. I feel like some baby boomer decided that the CNN election coverage needed to have a more techy feel to grab the attention of generation next, X, and Y. For those of you who do not watch CNN regularly, let me explain.

The CNN electoral Map is a giant flat panel touch screen. It kind of has the iphone thing going on. On the screen is a map of the United States in which each state is either dark blue-for a democratic state, light blue-for a likely democratic state, dark red-for a highly republican state, light red- for a slightly republican state, or yellow for a swing state. A CNN correspondant stands in front of this screen and taps it and drags stuff changing dark blue to light blue, or yellow states to red, red states to blue, dark blue to light blue, yada, yada, yada! While he is doing this, the possible number of electoral votes for both candidates changes each time. The news anchor looks on in awe like, "wow thank you so much for showing America that you can use a giant iphone".

No one can follow that stupid map! The information changes too fast and they have offer no valuable information! That's really all I have to say about that.

WAKE UP!!!!!

Turn on the news. Go ahead, turn on your local or 24hr cable news. More than likely there is a black male on the run from the law and a white female in trouble. We always hear about 15 year old Elizabeth Smart and how "brave" she was. She was kidnapped and taken to a house less than 6 miles from her own. The kidnappers left her alone for several hours and she never even tried to escape. Conversely, a 5 year old (yes, I said 5) black girl was kidnapped after school by some crackheads. She chewed through her ropes and was home by 6pm. No national coverage about her bravery.

What about Susan Smith? Killed her babies and blamed a nondescript black male. Everyone believed her. Can we catch a break? Watch "Bowling for Columbine", read "The Culture of Fear." Our nation cares not for those of darker complexions than lily white. Our media isn't fair towards our concerns or our issues. Even our own TV network (BET) is fucked up.

Let me put my general anger aside for this blog and focus on the most appalling issue of late. No, ITS NOT OJ!!! Travel with me to West Virginia. No wait, we better travel in packs if we are going there. Check out the news on this issue. And the six accused of the crime will NOT be charged with a hate crime (they have been charged with 108 crimes since 1991, how are they still out of jail). Megan Williams, a 20 year old black woman, was sexually assaulted and kidnapped for a week by six white people (including a mother and daughter AND a mother and son combo). She was repeatedly called a nigger (every time she was stabbed) and forced to do many despicable and demeaning things. Yet they are not charging the six with a hate crime!! The police are saying that she previously met one of the accused (Bobby Brewster, 24), but I believe that the crime was still racially motivated due to the fact she was called nigger while she was stabbed. This is why I must write this blog! It saddens me that this story is receiving minimal coverage while OJ is our media's top priority. Why is this? Do we not bleed the same blood if we are beaten and raped as our white counterparts? Has segregation and bigotry remained, while only changing its methods?
I would say YES!!

I am not saying that all whites are bad and all blacks are good (or vice versa), but there seems to be an inherent disconnect with victims from other racial groups than the majority. This disconnect is not in all whites, but if I were to judge the nation on the media's coverage of certain issues, then I would see that our media and the general population do not care about victims who are minorities. What can we do about this?

Its great to rant and feel anger towards "the MAN", but what will that accomplish? We need to be honest about our feelings towards these discrepancies in news coverage. Tell your fellow man how you feel. We also need to be honest with ourselves.
This nation needs a change. We can't always hide behind the banner of faux equality in our great nation. We need to expose these injustices! Wearing black or green may be a slight start, but I think we would be better served writing articles, organizing our community, utilizing our "BET" for social change, voicing our opinions on the national stage, choosing a true Black leader (not Al or Jesse), and being honest with ourselves.