The REAL Hot 100

Who are the REAL hot 100?

http://therealhot100.org/

The REAL hot 100 is a list featuring young women from around the country
who are breaking barriers, fighting stereotypes, and making a difference
in their communities or the nation.

This project will not only combat the popular notion that all young
women have to offer is their ability to appeal to men, but it will also
highlight the important -- but often overlooked -- work young women are
doing.

http://girlsingovernment.org/mambo/

What does it take for a woman to succeed in politics? Despite the
progress made in the last century, there are still few women leaders.
Together we can change that. To become the leaders of tomorrow, we must
learn from the leaders of today.

The Divine Feminine Reasserts Herself

I've been reading quite a lot about Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" and its cultural ramifications including the conservative church protests. Most are concentrating on the notion of Jesus Christ marrying Mary Magdalene and little else. Very few in the media are using terms like "divine feminine","sacred feminine" or "goddess worship". Why? What's this all about?

For too long these terms have been wrapped in mystery and fear - much like the notion of feminine sexual power has. Yet the divine feminine continues to swim in the air we breathe and it affects our cultural identity assumptions, as well. Whether we are conscious of it or not. It matters not whether it is apparent to us in our thoughts or is on the outside of our consciousness influencing as the abstract "other".

Just think of how the Religious Right and Corporate America has formed a powerful coalition that now resides in the White House. They garnered much of their power by putting their collective feet on the faces of women and gays. The GOP's Southern Strategy traffics in seeking to control the bodies of women, gays and people of color. How much more "other" can you get?

What I find fascinating is that "The Da Vinci Code" has been published during a time of spiritual warfare between modernity (progressivism/liberalism) and a kind of traditionalism (conservatism) that is based in puritanical prejudices. For the past 6 years it seemed like these puritanical beliefs had won out. But not so fast. The battle is not yet done.

The Divine Feminine reaaserts herself daily in word, deed, thought and in Mother Earth. America and Latin America are leaning left now. The progressive tilt will continue to grow in America because things are definitely going to continue to get worse. There's no way around it. America is reaping the rotten public policy that it sowed for the last 6 years and thought it could wallpaper over with the constant lies and bullying of the right wing media machine.

But the truth continues to come out....

Howard Zinn: How to Fix What's Wrong

I love to hear legendary progressive hell-raising historian Howard Zinn weigh in on our current debacle in America. He has some insightful things to say in his latest interview Howard Zinn on Fixing What's Wrong.

For those of you not familiar with Zinn, here is a video clip of his 2005 appearance on The Daily Show. Enjoy!

Prosperity Gospel vs. Peace & Justice Gospel

I'm glad to see progressive black preachers with integrity beginning to speak out against these mega-church preachers like Bishop Eddie Long, T.D. Jakes and Creflo Dollar who are on Bush's Faith-based Initiative payroll.

Righteous preachers like Cornel West have said they are bothered by Prosperity Gospel Mega-churches in which you encounter two ATMs before you see a cross when you enter. Columnist Tonyaa Weathersbee weighs in as well.

I was truly bothered back in January when Coretta Scott King died, there emerged a number of articles on the future of the black church in the Atlanta Journal Constitution that claimed that mega-church preachers like Eddie Long were the future of the black church. Long, himself, came out and proclaimed himself the torch-bearer for the future of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s teachings. He said it in several publications several times.

My skin crawled when I heard it. I first began to question the integrity of Bishop Long when he led a march along with Bernice King in downtown Atlanta - only days after Bush stole another election and the Republican party took over Georgia. To this day, many Georgians have little confidence in our current electronic voting machines with no paper trail.

But, Georgians, rest easy - Bishop Long leads a march against gay marriage - not the Iraq War, not the lack of universal health care, not the poor public schools, not the systematic fazing out of women's reproductive choices and affirmative action.

Long, T.D. Jakes (who covered for Bush during Katrina), Creflo Dollar and the like will NEVER take a stand against the corrupt power structure. You can depend upon it.

All of these bought out preachers on Bush's payroll are a disgrace.

Turns out he's eavesdropping on ALL of US!

Well, I'm not surprised. But I am HOPPING MAD! Bush is recording tens of millions of Americans' phone records who are not suspected of terrorist activity. Tens of millions! And BellSouth, Verizon and AT&T willingly turned over their phone records in capitulation to the government.

I already wrote my phone company and read them the riot act. Now to find a new phone company...

I initially watched CNN, ABC & CBS Evening Newscasts to see how they'd spin this debacle and, predictably, they claimed the program was legal, praised Bush for coming out this morning to explain without taking reporters' questions and generally downplayed this matter.

Later, I watched Keith Olbermann's MSNBC "Countdown" show and he had Constitutional Law professor Johnathan Turley on who was appalled by this program and proclaimed that we're in the midst of a CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS! You won't hear that on ABC or CBS. To CNN's credit, they had Jack Cafferty weigh in and he was a breadth of fresh air. He told the unvarnished truth:

Cafferty: We all hope nothing happens to Arlen Specter, the Republican head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, cause he might be all that stands between us and a full blown dictatorship in this country. He's vowed to question these phone company executives about volunteering to provide the government with my telephone records, and yours, and tens of millions of other Americans.

Shortly after 9/11, AT7T, Verizon, and BellSouth began providing the super-secret NSA with information on phone calls of millions of our citizens, all part of the War on Terror, President Bush says. Why don't you go find Osama bin Laden, and seal the country's borders, and start inspecting the containers that come into our ports?

The President rushed out this morning in the wake of this front page story in USA Today and declared the government is doing nothing wrong, and all this is just fine. Is it? Is it legal? Then why did the Justice Department suddenly drop its investigation of the warrantless spying on citizens because the NSA said Justice Department lawyers didn't have the necessary security clearance to do the investigation. Read that sentence again. A secret government agency has told our Justice Department that it's not allowed to investigate it. And the Justice Department just says ok and drops the whole thing. We're in some serious trouble, boys and girls"

To see actual Jack Cafferty video, see crooksandliars.com

Russ Feingold gets it!

It is truly pathetic when one of your own has to continuously go public to shame you into acquiring a set of balls. Yet, this is what Democratic Senator Russ Feingold is forced to do. And I admire him for it. He is miles ahead of the rest of the "leading Democrats".

I do not understand why Hillary, Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry, Barack Obama, Biden and the rest of those nimrods continue to let Bush and Rove intimidate them. And, yes, I understand that our guys have to face a huge GOP political machine and a bought out corporate media, but Bush's approval ratings prove that the public is way ahead of Beltway Conventional Wisdom regarding Bush and the GOP.

What the heck are the Dems so afraid of? Fire the losing, quivering consultants and lead from the heart. Before it's too late.

America is hungry for a leader with real solutions and the more I see Russ Feingold the more attractive he becomes. He's willing to stand alone - on principle and brings IT everytime.

I think I'm in love.

Warrior for Peace & Environmental Justice Damu Smith, 1952-2006

We honor the powerful life and contributions of yet another elder who has joined the Ancestors - Damu Smith. There is no question that the progressive movement has taken a mighty blow with this warrior's early demise:

Activist, Radio Show Host Damu Smith Dies

By Darryl Fears
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 7, 2006; C07

Damu Smith, an internationally known D.C. peace activist who advocated for a Martin Luther King Jr. holiday in the 1980s, fought chemical pollution on the Louisiana Gulf Coast in the 1990s and campaigned against the war in Iraq in the new century, died May 5 at George Washington University Hospital after a year-long battle with colon cancer. He was 54.

Mr. Smith was one of the city's preeminent civil rights activists, the voice of a thriving local movement. He co-hosted the show "Spirit in Action" on WPFW (89.3 FM), where his advocacy continued "right up to the bitter end," said his partner on the show, Milagros A. Phillips.

"He was a freedom fighter. I mean tireless," said another friend, Dera Tompkins. "You could not know Damu and not be politically active. He demanded it."
Mr. Smith had many other friends, including Jesse L. Jackson Sr., with whom he traveled, poet Sonia Sanchez and actor Harry Belafonte, who presented him with a plaque last month for his community service.

LeRoy Wesley Smith was a native of St. Louis who came to the District in 1973 to study at Antioch College. His older sister, Sylnice Williams, said he was a curious child, drawn to science, and a natural organizer who became active in school politics.

When Mr. Smith was 17, he took a field trip to Cairo, Ill., and attended a black solidarity rally that showed him the power of community service. Jackson, writer Amiri Baraka, singer Nina Simone and the Rev. Ralph Abernathy, King's top lieutenant, spoke that day.

Shortly after arriving in Washington, Mr. Smith was drawn into two causes: the fight for a national King holiday and the battle against South African apartheid. He took the name Damu, which means "blood, leadership and strength" in the Swahili language of Kenya.

In the 1990s, Mr. Smith joined Greenpeace USA, monitoring corporate pollution on the Gulf Coast. He coordinated the first National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit, in 1991, helping to link the civil rights movement to the environmental movement for the first time, colleagues said.

As founder of the National Black Environmental Justice Network, Mr. Smith arranged so-called "toxic tours" of an area in Louisiana known as Cancer Alley. In 2001, he took author Alice Walker, poet Haki Madhubuti and actor Mike Farrell on a tour of the region, where black people experience a high level of cancer deaths.

Greenpeace released a statement saying that Mr. Smith's work led to a confrontation with Shell Oil over its "chemical dumping practices and forced the Shintech PVC Plant out of Norco, Louisiana." John Passacantando, Greenpeace's executive director, said Mr. Smith's death "is a monumental loss" for many groups and movements.

Mr. Smith was sometimes controversial. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Mr. Smith cautioned Americans and the U.S. government against targeting Arabs. At a forum, he reminded the audience that the former South African president Nelson Mandela was once considered a terrorist and that federal officials stood by as southern politicians and the Ku Klux Klan terrorized black people during segregation.

"As I recall, there were no Arabs riding horses terrorizing black folks," he said.
Love him or not, said a friend, Kwesi Ron Harris, Mr. Smith "spoke with maximum clarity. Whether you agreed with him or not, you had to take notice. When he walked into a room, you knew something was coming behind him, a rush of energy."

Said Phillips, the radio co-host: "He just had this passion for fairness and justice and wanted all people to live in a world that was compassionate." On the air, he would criticize Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld "for something they had done, and he would end by saying, 'But you know I love you,' " Phillips said.

Activist Ayo Handi Kendi said Mr. Smith was such a tireless activist for others that he ignored his health.

Last year in March, after complaining of stomach problems off and on for years, he fell ill while leading a delegation for Palestinian rights in the Middle East. After his return to Washington, doctors told him that he was in the end stage of colon cancer. He was given three months to live.

In interviews before his death, Mr. Smith said he wanted to see his daughter, Asha Moore Smith, 13, grow to adulthood and that he wished to broaden his relationship with Adeleke Foster, who became his companion after his cancer diagnosis and assisted him until he died.

"He did fight," said Williams, his sister. "With God's help, he fought. He lasted longer than they thought he would."

In addition to his daughter, from an earlier relationship, and sister, of St. Louis, survivors include two brothers.

Stephen Colbert is doing the job that our media WON'T

As the corporate media and the right wing castigate Stephen Colbert for the balls he displayed during the White House Press Dinner last week, Editor & Publisher columnist Greg Mitchell weighs in and calls it as he and I (and I suspect many others on the left see it).

Mitchell decries the hypocrisy and blindness on the part of the corporate media to criticism directed at Bush's sinking credibility and the media's refusal to directly mount a consistent challenge of it.

YAYY Greg!

A Presidency Out of Control

This article written by Charlie Savage for the Boston Globe appeared a few days ago. It is about how Bush is using signing statements to argue that he can ignore long-standing American laws that he does not like.

It has gotten very little attention in the media. I saw a discussion of it on Keith Olbermann's MSNBC show, but not much more.

I've said it before, but it is shocking how thoroughly intimidated our corporate media is. Bush's use of signing statements should have triggered a "Firestorm" .

We're in trouble.

Thank you Stephen Colbert!

CNN and MSNBC yammered on about how hilarious Bush's speech was at the White House Correspondence dinner which included a Bush double. But the lesser-covered and REAL story was the bit Stephen Colbert, host of Comedy Central's "Colbert Report" gave. Colbert is a brilliant satirist! He scorchingly criticized the Bush Administration and the corporate media at the same time. He spoke truth to power and Bush wasn't too happy about it.

Yet, CNN, the New York Times and other outlets wrote up the White House Correspondence dinner and mysteriously "overlooked" ANY mention of Stephen Colbert's bit. How can it be???
Not surprisingly, bloggers are on fire about it.

Here is one particularly powerful blogger response that correctly analyzes the problem: The media has chosen to ignore Colbert and continue to decide what is and is not news.

See Colbert's courageous bit on this site called Thankyoustephencolbert.org

Colbert is brilliant.