Still Out

I'm still out....

Thank-You

Thanks to everyone that has sent some love over the last week regarding passing the BAR. No doubt, that is a relief.

More importantly, I appreciate all of the calls and text messages concerning my family in San Diego. That meant alot as well. Thank God, they have been spared from any harm. Some of my close friends though have been evacuated from their homes, so my prayers remain with them.

I plan to get back to some steady blogging over the weekend. Just been an eventful week.

We Did It!!!

I passed the TN State BAR exam!!!

By (the Token of) Time (through the ages), Verily Man is in loss, Except such as have Faith, and do righteous deeds, and (join together) in the mutual teaching of Truth, and of Patience and Constancy. Amen!

I give thanks to God for his blessings. For giving me strength.

I got a lot of people to thank for getting me to this point of my life and over this BAR exam hump.

Let me go give thanks!!!!

Ernest Withers

I'm still around...yea...BAR.

I was sad to learn that Mr. Ernest Withers passed this week at the age of 85. I have always admired him. He was a man who saw a lot of things behind the lens of his camera. Talking to him was like talking to a historian. I was lucky to be in his presence several times when he shared his moments with Dr. King, and about his own life growing up in Memphis. In actuality he was a historian, he was present during that era and spent time with several civil rights legends of that.

Here are just a few of his timeless shots Jackie Robinson Sanitation workers strike in Memphis. My favorite. James Brown Our Memphis Zoo Dr. King when stopped while headed to Medgar Evans funeral.

Department of Just-Us

I've been a critic of the Justice Department, in particular the Civil Right Division. This current administration has shifted the division's focus from protecting the interests of minorities, to filing lawsuits alleging things like white voter disenfranchisement. As if....

Considering how in my eyes, they have dropped the ball in protecting the civil rights of minorities, I now can see how such focus was shifted. Follow me...

John Tanner is the Chief of the Civil Rights Divisions' Voting Rights section. This is what he said while discussing the proposed Georgia Voter Id Law. A law which is still subject to litigation, but a law that some argue would disproportionately discriminate against African-Americans. A Federal Appeals Judge even compared it to a Jim Crow-era poll tax. But not ole John Tanner, no sir! This fool says the voter ID requirements actually disproportionately affect whites. Now I know you are probably saying, Spike, that may be true. Hear the man out. Well, I want you to follow his logic, this is how he explained it. You ready?

He argues,"primarily elderly (white)persons" are the ones affected by such laws, but "minorities don't become elderly the way white people do: They die first." So anything that "disproportionately impacts the elderly, has the opposite impact on minorities," he added. "Just the math is such as that."

Read it again please.

You digest that yet?

This is from the guy who is in charge of the Civil Rights Division. This is the kind of logic he is working with? WTF? There are some that may want to cite life expectancy charts for black folk, but that would not justify such logic. One former employee of the Justice Department Toby Moore, a redistricting expert said, "This is the kind of analysis that the voting section has been doing: seat of the pants generalizations and suppositions instead of hard numbers and analysis. "It's false." Tanner's conclusions, he added, were "always in support of what his Republican appointee bosses wanted him to say, which is why he got to where he is."

Since you may not believe dude said it, I searched high and low for the audio, and guess what??? Yep, herrre you go. Notice the straight face when he said it.

Tapping On

Herenton was re-elected by a majority of Memphians. Mission Accomplished! I learned a great deal about the ins and outs of running a major campaign over the past two months. Overall, it was an experience. Now that it is over, back to the grind.

Memphis politics is a trip though I must admit. Unless you have clicked up with the right inner circles or are prepared to spend a lot of cash, you will not be elected. Unfortunately for Memphis, it misses out on individuals with a desire to make a difference because they are never given an opportunity to serve by the electorate.

While I'm on the subject of politics, Ol'Uncle Thomas, my bad....Clarence Thomas has dropped a new book. Mind you paid almost 1.5 million by Fox's News Murdoch, yea....the book is entitled "My Grandfather's Son". I think he is about the bitterest black man in America and he has a job. Thomas replaced Thurgood Marshall on the court, and I dare say he is a thorough disappointment. His written opinions are some of the most outrageous. On him being the only black on the court and his failure to rule in the interests of his people he asks, How much does Scalia care about (the interest of) Italians? I still take issue with him and his view of Affirmative Action, as he gorged himself of the fruit the tree produced, but he quickly joined in on the chopping of it down, claiming there was no longer a need for the tree. Dare I say ....... Ohh I wanna type something else.....but........... Anyway, here he is on 60 Minutes last week.

If you wanna watch the rest of the interview, which I must say was softball part two http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67Wb481eXhY and part three http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh14rLZkkWE. Watch his C-Span interview, http://www.q-and-a.org/Video/?ProgramID=1150. Here is also an interesting article by Eugene Robinson, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/01/AR2007100101332.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

I am perplexed by those Republicans who are so concerned about a woman's right to choose and how the forming/growing fetus has a right to live, but those same folk are anti-health care for actual living children. Odd aint it? It's like we gonna make you have this baby but don't you dare ask for anything that will aid you in raising the child. I am referencing SCHIP. Bush vetoed the bill that covered 6.6 million low-income children whose families are not eligible for Medicaid insurance but who cannot afford private health insurance. Now here is the disgusting part, Bush doesn't want to spend $35 billion more over the next five years on coverage for children, as he is "philosophically opposed" to the government subsidizing what he terms the middle class. Get this though, The proposed $35 billion SCHIP expansion was to be paid for by a 61-cent increase in federal taxes on tobacco products. Nonetheless, a veto. This is the same President that has spent (I should say flushed) almost 700 billion on the Occupation in Iraq. Disgusting aint it? Perhaps there will be enough votes to over-ride the veto. Won't we see? Additional reading http://www.thenation.com/blogs/actnow?pid=240672

There is no excuse for this officer doing this 15 year old girl the way he did. Dare I say that if the officer were black and the young girl white, he might be looking for a new job. This is unacceptable, especially when you are arresting the young girl for a curfew violation. He nearly broke the girl's arm, and in fact punched her in the face and pepper sprayed her. He is a punk, no doubt. Don't even argue resisting arrest. A curfew charge....and cuffs....Please...

So have you figured out who or what Blackwater is?

Oh yea, Keke.......you got me, I was wrong. Dang!