Brown Man Thinking Hard

Obama Conspiracy Theory Mashup

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Man) — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 10:03:00 PDT

In case you've ever wondered how your Republican friends really believe that President Obama is a lazy, dumb, teleprompter dependent empty suit who lounges about on the golf course all day when he's not planning Michelle's next 800 million dollar exotic vacation, here they are, all together in one place, the leading Obama conspiracy theories courtesy of Mother Jones.

Republican Rape Advisory Kit

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Man) — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 23:34:00 PDT

Sean Yoes And Kris Broughton Talk Politics Tonight At 8:00 pm on WEAA

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Man) — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 16:24:00 PDT

I will be on the radio tonight at 8:00 pm EST with Sean Yoes, senior reporter at The Afro American, sharing my opinions on the unofficial kickoff of the presidential election season. Yoes is the host of "The WEAA/AFRO First Edition", an hour-long political talk show on Baltimore's NPR affiliate WEAA-FM (88.9 FM), which airs Sunday nights at 8 p.m.

Tonight we talk about Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney's new vice presidential running mate, and explore just what the Ryan pick means for Romney's presidential hopes. We also examine the role Medicare will play in shaping the electoral future of this year's Republican nominees.

It will be an entertaining half an hour.

You can click this link to launch the live stream of this prerecorded program.

Enjoy!

Lax American Press Responsible For European Mittstake

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Man) — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 06:46:00 PDT

Maybe we ought to give our U.S. political journalists and TV pundits the next hundred days off and let the British press report on our 2012 presidential elections instead. The most embarrassing thing about Mitt Romney’s offensive comments on the British preparations for the Olympics games and his infantile obsession with the bust of Winston Churchill is that he was spouting the same kind of condescending nonsense he usually does back here in the U.S without penalty. The Fourth Estate’s job is to be the American people’s proxy, not its patsy.

But all our Sunday morning talk shows and smiling TV pundits have done is enable Mr. Romney to the point that he actually believes some of the gobbledygook that emanates from his mouth. All I can tell my stateside journalists is this: the roar from your counterparts in the British press over Romney’s refusal to release his precious tax returns would be deafening and relentless.

Mitt Romney got off to such a bad start last week in England at the beginning of his pre-nomination barnstorm tour of Europe it almost doesn’t matter what he does in Israel or Poland. After getting pimped by Netanyahu, who was happy to use Romney to triangulate President Obama into making additional assurances to the Israelis, you would think the Mittster would be won out by now. Ordinarily, I would suggest that he pack it in and head back home, except for the fact that Team Obama is sure to have some fresh scuttlebutt from his Bain Capital days waiting to greet him when he lands back on American soil. If I were Romney, I would retroactively fire my entire senior staff of advisors back to their original hiring dates.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT BIG THINK

Lax American Press Responsible For European Mittstake | Resurgence | Big Think

FORTUNE Magazine Questions GOP Fast and Furious Narrative

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Man) — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 00:27:00 PDT

I was going to flip a coin to decide whether or not to write about the Supreme Court RATS – an acronym a progressive blogger from Daily Kos invented for the veritable barbershop quartet Roberts, Alito, Thomas and Scalia have become since the four of them almost always singing in harmony – until I read this account of Fast and Furious by FORTUNE magazine writer Katherine Eban, who reviewed over 200 documents and interviewed 39 people involved in the botched ATF operation.

Ordinarily, I would see this as another one of those tit-for-tat efforts that was meant to take the sting out of the assertions of Justice Department malfeasance. Since the House Oversight Committee and Congressional Republicans have all but convicted Holder and the Obama Administration of wrongdoing, even though they, by their own admission, have not seen all of the evidence, many on the left have been trying desperately to bring some sense of proportion to the charges being leveled against the attorney general and the president.

Quite simply, there's a fundamental misconception at the heart of the Fast and Furious scandal. Nobody disputes that suspected straw purchasers under surveillance by the ATF repeatedly bought guns that eventually fell into criminal hands. Issa and others charge that the ATF intentionally allowed guns to walk as an operational tactic. But five law-enforcement agents directly involved in Fast and Furious tell Fortune that the ATF had no such tactic. They insist they never purposefully allowed guns to be illegally trafficked. Just the opposite: They say they seized weapons whenever they could but were hamstrung by prosecutors and weak laws, which stymied them at every turn.

Indeed, a six-month Fortune investigation reveals that the public case alleging that Voth and his colleagues walked guns is replete with distortions, errors, partial truths, and even some outright lies. Fortune reviewed more than 2,000 pages of confidential ATF documents and interviewed 39 people, including seven law-enforcement agents with direct knowledge of the case. Several, including Voth, are speaking out for the first time.

The truth about the Fast and Furious scandal

FORTUNE Magazine Questions GOP Fast and Furious Narrative | Resurgence | Big Think

Senator Cornyn, Eric Holder Is Not Your Nigger

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Man) — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 17:50:00 PDT

I have had enough of all these holier than thou cracker-ass cracker Republicans who think the Attorney General of the motherfucking United States of America has nothing better to do than come to Congress every week like he has been summoned to the motherfucking principal’s office for another round of in-school suspension.

Eric Holder is not your nigger.

Three years of this professional level of assholery from you and the rest of the right wing crackheads who call themselves Senator and Congresscritter has damned the future of your grandchildren, Senator Cornyn, but you and the rest of the “send the nigger lawyer packing by any means necessary” peanut gallery you pal around with can’t see that.

Eric Holder is not your nigger.

He is not going to play the role of the servile coon you and your ilk fantasize about, not going to bow or scrape or say “yassa Boss”, and he damn sure isn’t going to smile in your face and tell you what you want to hear. This man has testified NINE MOTHERFUCKING TIMES ON THE SAME MOTHERFUCKING TOPIC and you chump change, "wish this were Whitewater" motherfuckers want to act like Holder is holding out on you?

Eric Holder is not your nigger.

He is a grown ass man who has probably forgotten more shit than you and the top five members of your staff combined can remember, but you wouldn’t know that, because you can’t believe that even now black people who rise to the top in America have to know their shit backwards and forwards. Unfortunately for you, the shit he knows backwards and forwards is the law of the land, the same one you have to obey like everybody else. So what is this about, really? Because from where I sit, and white folks with good sense sit, and every Latino in the country who is not motherfucking Cuban sits, this looks like you can't make the president do what you want, so you will abuse your subpoena authority with the next ranking black man in the Obama administration.

Eric Holder is not your nigger.

If a bomb were to drop on the headquarters of the RNC and the bubonic plague devoured you and all your wrong wing GOP Know Nothings in the Senate and the House tomorrow it would be too late, because you and your ilk have fucked your grandchildren and your great grandchildren’s futures as surely as if you and your co conspirators were all named Jerry Sandusky.

How dare you and your compatriots paralyze our nation in the name of political retribution and then proclaim that you are the only ones who are equipped to save the republic? The entire country is going to pay for these last three years of Republican obstructionism OF EVEN NORMAL EVERYDAY GOVERNMENT FUNCTIONS for decades to come. Eric Holder is the nation’s top cop. He has more important things to do than come down to Congress every month to indulge your white supremacy fetish.

If you don’t get anything else from this missive, Senator Cornyn, or whichever member of your lily-livered staff reads this, all you need to remember is one motherfucking fact - Eric Holder is not your nigger.

Sean Yoes And Kris Broughton Talk Politics Tonight At 8 On WEAA

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Man) — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 16:18:00 PDT

I will be on the radio tonight at 8:00 pm EST with Sean Yoes, senior reporter at The Afro American, sharing my opinions on the unofficial kickoff of the presidential election season. Yoes is the host of "The WEAA/AFRO First Edition", an hour-long political talk show on Baltimore's NPR affiliate WEAA-FM (88.9 FM), which airs Sunday nights at 8 p.m.

Normally, I can give a preview of the conversation when I post these announcements, but today is going to be potluck - Sean and I talked so fast about so many things it is hard to remember where one topic began and another ended. We started out talking about the recall election in Wisconsin and how much impact the victory by Scott Walker and his Republican allies might have on the presidential election and the conversation developed from there.

In any case, it will be an entertaining half an hour.

You can click this link and push the "Listen Live" button at the top of the page to hear the show.

Enjoy!

Sean Yoes And Kris Broughton Talk Politics Tonight At 8 On WEAA | Resurgence | Big Think

Will President Obama Go Hard In The Paint Until November?

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Man) — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 16:53:00 PDT

Mr. President, yesterday I told WEAA radio host Sean Yoes that I would write you an open letter challenging you to cut a re-election promo where you look directly into the camera say “I go hard in the paint.”

I know this may sound like an unseemingly request, Mr. President, but you do special promotional ads for Latino voters, don’t you? If you’re still skeptical, maybe you should consider the viral effect of such a statement. Think about it – the reality is, more people watch ESPN than CNN.

Mr. President, many of your loyal supporters out here in the public are feeling neglected. We read the papers. We know you have a lot on your plate. But for a lot of us, we need to hear it from your lips that you are ready to “go hard in the paint” for the next five months.

Because the guys and girls at your campaign headquarters in Chicago, despite their stellar ability to come up with niche market campaign ideas for your rainbow coalition of supporters, aren’t adequately conveying this picture. Getting ten emails a day from your wife Michelle and Joe Biden and your various campaign managers may be informative, but it is not inspiring.

Intellectually, I can understand the argument your brain trust is trying to make – that there are really only eight states (North Carolina will revert to red) that will be in play this fall, so why waste your manpower on needless rallies and flag waving exercises – but what your campaign advisors are missing is the need for your umpteen millions of volunteers to have a visceral level of involvement in some kind of campaign activity.

READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE AT BIG THINK

Will President Obama Go Hard In The Paint Until November? | Resurgence | Big Think

Sean Yoes And Kris Broughton Talk Politics Tonite At 8:20 On WEAA

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Man) — Sun, 06 May 2012 14:24:00 PDT

I will be on the radio tonight at 8:20 pm EST with Sean Yoes, senior reporter at The Afro American, giving my own two cents on the unofficial kickoff of the presidential election season. Yoes is the host of "The WEAA/AFRO First Edition", an hour-long political talk show on Baltimore's NPR affiliate WEAA-FM (88.9 FM), which airs Sunday nights at 8 p.m.

Tonight, we will talk about the recent controversy over the "I Like Julia" ad from the Obama campaign, the criticism from the political right about President Obama's remarks on the one year anniversary of the death of Osama Bin Laden, and the book "The Obama Question: A Progressive Perspective".

You can click this link and push the "Listen Live" button at the top of the page to hear the show.

Enjoy!

Can Mitt Romney Lie His Way To The White House?

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Man) — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 11:46:00 PDT

I’ve spent the last two weeks getting licensed to work in a new field. Mitt Romney has spent the last two weeks since Rick Santorum dropped out of the race trying to convince the American public that he should replace Barack Obama as president of the United States in November.

It has not been pretty.

The topic for the radio segment I taped yesterday with WEAA’s Sean Yoes was “why does Mitt Romney lie so much?” I’d like to say I was surprised by the number of web articles and blogs I found about Romney’s penchant for telling whoppers while prepping for the show because I have not been paying as much attention as usual to politics this month. But the reality is, I had already accepted this trait as one of his shortcomings back when I repeatedly said on this very blog that he would be the Republican nominee. Micheal Tomasky over at the Daily Beast accurately describes why, despite my unabashed support for President Obama’s reelection, I really wanted Romney to win the GOP nomination:

READ THE REST OF THE STORY AT BIG THINK
Can Mitt Romney Lie His Way To The White House? | Resurgence | Big Think

Sean Yoes And Kris Broughton Talk About Trayvon Martin Tonite At 8:20 On WEAA

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Man) — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 15:01:00 PDT

I will be on the radio tonight at 8:20 pm EST with Sean Yoes, senior reporter at The Afro American, giving my own two cents on the Trayvon Martin killing. Yoes is the host of "The WEAA/AFRO First Edition", an hour-long political talk show on Baltimore's NPR affiliate WEAA-FM (88.9 FM), which airs Sunday nights at 8 p.m.

We will talk about the Zimmerman family response, the George Zimmerman media proxy Joe Oliver, and the outrage among African Americans online and offline about a terrible case of injustice "that is interpreted as a metaphor for how white America feels about black America. This is one show you will not want to miss!!

You can click this link and push the "Listen Live" button at the top of the page to hear the show.

Enjoy!

Do You See Politics On My Chest?

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Man) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:12:00 PST

I have been wondering all week what to write about the Susan G. Komen Foundation’s move against Planned Parenthood, but Linda Burger, a 56-year-old breast cancer survivor who resides in Las Vegas, NV, says it on Youtube better than I or any man can. Standing in her bathrobe in front of her digital camera, her expressive eyes flashing with anger as she described what her cancer is like and what it is not like, Mrs. Burger personified the tidal wave of feminine disgust against the Susan G. Komen Foundation that has swept the internet since last week.

The Susan G.Komen people have opened a can of internet whoop ass they cannot escape. Most of the angry women who are blowing up their social media networks over this do not believe Komen CEO Nancy Brinker’s apology can be trusted. And why should they? Nothing she has said so far to explain the foundation’s actions holds water.

If you have trouble viewing the video, I have taken the time to transcribe Mrs. Burger’s words because they are just that damn important.

Do You See Politics On My Chest? | Resurgence | Big Think

Red Tails Most Expensive After School Special Ever Made

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Man) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 16:31:00 PST

Red Tails is without a doubt the most expensive ABC after school special ever made. I went home after seeing it and immediately downloaded A Soldier’s Story from Amazon to flush Red Tail’s god awful dialogue out of my head. I guess I’m supposed to be pleased that George Lucas poured over $100 million dollars of his own money into this project when Hollywood studios kept vetoing his fictional depiction of the exploits of a squadron from the all black 332^nd Fighter Group. I am certainly happy that the actors found paying jobs in an industry that has very few roles for black men. If the Oscars had a category for “historical feature film about the military with the least amount of profanity”, this movie would win hands down.

READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE AT BIG THINK

Red Tails Most Expensive After School Special Ever Made | Resurgence | Big Think

Will Angry White Man Performance Win Gingrich GOP Nomination?

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Man) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:31:00 PST

S. rarely says much about current events when we get up in the morning. But today she was visibly agitated over the visual of the group, comprised largely of white men, who stood up and clapped when Newt Gingrich angrily put the CNN debate moderator in his place last night. If Gingrich’s goal was to be the only topic of conversation going into the South Carolina GOP primary on Saturday, then he performed beyond expectations. His televised histrionics, which will be played and replayed endlessly over the next two days, might even help him win the South Carolina primary.

But is being the angry white man in the race enough of an asset for Gingrich to win the nomination?

Will white Republican women identify with Callista Gingrich, who carried on a six year affair with her now husband when he was married to someone else, as their idea of a future First Lady? Will conservative women who have been replaced by trophy wives after helping their husbands stay afloat during their lean years be able to push the button for a man who made over $3,000,000 last year but only paid $19,800 in alimony to his ex-wife? As a woman on Twitter succinctly puts it, “the average person cannot relate to ‘a devout catholic mistress’.”

READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE AT BIG THINK

Will Angry White Man Performance Win Gingrich GOP Nomination? | Resurgence | Big Think

Media Gives GOP Race Baiting A Free Pass

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Man) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 22:56:00 PST

Rick Santorum gives me the impression that if he was on Mars, campaigning for the Martian vote, he would still find a way to blame black Americans for taking the tax dollars of white Americans. I don’t know what kind of constituencies Santorum is used to representing, but out here in real America, nobody is buying his “I must have said ‘blah’” bullshit. If you’re going to race bait, Mr. Santorum, be a man about it like your opponent Newt Gingrich. After all the racial fear mongering of Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, and the 70’s version of Ron Paul last week, it took a couple of doses of the James Brown classic “Say It Loud (I’m Black and I’m Proud)” for me to get my equilibrium back.

But why do these guys do this and think they can get away with it? Because the news media is full of punks and pontificators who heartily embrace this notion of a public figure “walking back” a statement, a handy Media Mulligan that allows these candidates to make all sorts of reprehensible comments, confident that they will be able to deny their own words and get a do over later. The Fourth Estate has shirked its duty to hold the feet of those who govern or wish to govern to the fire, preferring instead to be considered as a an adjunct PR department for the candidate’s campaigns.

READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT:

Media Gives GOP Race Baiting A Free Pass | Resurgence | Big Think

Is Iowa Caucus Relevant Without Minority Participants? | Resurgence | Big Think

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Man) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 10:41:00 PST

The America I live in is not 90% white. The America I live in does not have more hogs than people. The American I live in does not have 60% of the electorate who describe themselves as evangelical Christians. While I can understand the media’s need for nostalgia, and our own American reverence for rituals, I have never quite been able to discern why the political preferences of Iowans should have any relevance for the rest of us.

“The prominence and first-in-nation position of Iowa and New Hampshire do elevate white primary voters over non-white ones, and in both parties,” says Thomas Schaller, a professor of political science at University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Why (Very White) Iowa and New Hampshire Mean So Much in Politics

READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE AT BIG THINK

Is Iowa Caucus Relevant Without Minority Participants? | Resurgence | Big Think

House GOP Too Stupid To Quit While They Were Ahead

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Man) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 01:33:00 PST

Unrestrained obstructionism as a political strategy practically guarantees that the epitaph on the GOP’s 2012 presidential aspirations will read “too stupid to quit while they were ahead.” Is John Boehner serious about not holding a vote on tax cut extensions for the middle class because he thinks it might pass? Can House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, the Republican who has completely and utterly failed at his primary function—keeping the party as united as possible when holding roll call votes—see that he stands a good chance of replacing Ebenezer Scrooge as the epitome of a cold-hearted miser on the eve of Christmas?

Every conservative in Congress these days claims they are either a Tea Party Republican or a Reagan Republican, but they are all really Reactionary Republicans, ready to demonize anything their political opponents support at the drop of a hat. There is a point, though, where the demonizer can become the demon. The general public doesn’t care about the political pickle John Boehner is in. What they see is a guy who won’t hold a vote on their tax cut extensions, tax cuts that will otherwise expire in 11 days because Boehner knows it might pass.

“The gop has become so reactionary it has no longer has any guiding principals. They define themselves by taking the opposite position to their political opponents and now they don't know what their talking points will be until they know what to be against. No wonder they are rudderless”
Anonymous comment on political blog

READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE AT:

House GOP Too Stupid To Quit While They Were Ahead | Resurgence | Big Think

Governor Brownback Needs To Fire His Communications Director

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Man) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 11:00:00 PST

Governor Brownback’s communications director, Sherriene Jones-Sontag, has taken a 100% certified molehill—an indecorous tweet from a bored school kid who happened to be in an audience in front of the governor at the time—and turned it into a textbook example of how to build a mountain of negative public opinion for your boss overnight. Could you imagine Governor Chris Christie’s staffers making a decision like this?

Ms. Sullivan didn’t actually make any critical comments in person, but the tweet, sent out to a following of about 60 people (though it’s over 800 now), somehow caught the eye of the Governor’s Director of Communication, Sherriene Jones-Sontag, during her daily monitoring of social media mentions of Governor Brownback. Shocked – shocked! – that a teenager’s tweet about a politician was “disrespectful,” she complained to the high school. “It’s also important for students to recognize the power of social media, how lasting it is. It is on the Internet,” she said.
High School Student Punished For Joking Tweet About Governor Brownback

It is on the internet, Ms. Jones-Sontag. The internet, the one the rest of us uses when people like you aren’t clogging it up with press releases you and your staff are bulk emailing by the thousands to people who aren’t reading them, actually thrives on these David versus Goliath narratives. And when I put a link to this article on twitter, Ms. Jones-Sontag, I will be sure to give you and your minions your own hashtag: #HisUnderlingsBlowALotToo.

READ MORE AT BIG THINK

Governor Brownback Needs To Fire His Communications Director | Resurgence | Big Think

History Is Everywhere On Big Island Of Hawaii

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Man) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 12:21:00 PST

Usually on Thanksgiving I put on a sweater, crank up the heat, eat some turkey and watch some football. This year, I am trying to decide between kayaking along the coast of Hawaii’s Big Island or simply slipping on one of the many Hawaiian shirts I’ve packed, cracking a beer and just enjoying the view. I started out with good intentions towards keeping up a steady stream of blog posts this week, but the temporary office I chose, a picnic table on a outcropping of volcanic rock thirty feet above the waves, probably wasn’t the best choice for getting my creative juices flowing. And my body still has no idea what time it really is.
One of the unique things about Hawaii is the prominence the islands give to the stories of those whose lives shaped the nation’s 50^th state. To have the equivalent kind of heritage displays in a continental U.S. state like say, my home state South Carolina, you would have to have a tableau of the Dred Scott decision, a replica of a slave auction block, and a depiction of juju in every rest stop in the state.
History is everywhere here. You can go to one of the numerous state parks and see Hawaiian tikis. You may be in the middle of a shopping mall and see a sign that says “0.3 miles to the petraglyphs”. Here in Keahou, at the Kona Surf and Racquet Club just south of the Kona commercial district, there are two or three heiaus, sacred places surrounded by large piles of black lava rock, scattered throughout the complex where we are staying.

History Is Everywhere On Big Island Of Hawaii | Resurgence | Big Think

Controversy Thy Name Is Cain

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Man) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 07:09:00 PST

The Republican Party has a big problem right now, and his name is Herman Cain. He can’t win the nomination, he won’t go home, yet he makes all the other presidential candidates look like also rans, mostly because he is very, very good at speaking through the TV cameras to right wing America.

The GOP brain trust has got to be wondering right about now how to graft Herman Cain’s effusive personality onto Mitt Romney, who is going to turn into a yellow stripe if he gets any more middle of the road. Aside from Jon Huntsman, who came off yesterday like he was an applying for a job as a teaching assistant in a college philosophy department, and Rick Perry, who needs a stunt double for any comment over two sentences, the rest of the field of Republican presidential hopefuls are a chorus of Negative Nancy’s whose palpable disgust at the idea of Barack Obama sitting in the White House has turned them all into grotesque caricatures of themselves. The pessimistic drumbeat of their gloomy rhetoric is so depressing it overshadows any constructive ideas any of them may have.

CLICK BELOW TO READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE

Controversy Thy Name Is Cain | Resurgence | Big Think

"Our Blacks Are So Much Better Than Their Blacks”

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Man) — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 09:08:00 PDT

"Our blacks are so much better than their blacks. To become a black Republican, you don't just roll into it. You're not going with the flow..."
Ann Coulter on the Sean Hannity Show, October 31^st, 2011

“Volcanic” is probably too gentle a word to describe the Mount Vesuvius that raged within me as I tried to process this sentence. I will leave it to someone like Melissa Harris-Lacewell to deconstruct the tone of ownership in Coulter's voice that jumped right off the screen and smacked me and countless other African Americans dead in the face. To Ann Coulter, and her surrogates, all I will say is this—there is no need to apologize, or walk this statement back, or tell me that I am “taking it out of context”, because I got the message loud and clear the first time. This is just the kind of thing that makes black people yank out their credit cards, pull up www.barackobama.com, and click the "Donate Now" button.

READ MORE AT BIG THINK

"Our Blacks Are So Much Better Than Their Blacks” | Kris Broughton | Big Think

Can Herman Cain Beat Sexual Harassment Rap?

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Man) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 09:53:00 PDT

Twitter exploded last night when news about payoffs to former employees of the National Restaurant Association who had accused Herman Cain of sexual harassment during his tenure hit POLITICO’s front page. Since the Sunday night game between the Eagles and the Cowboys was a bust, I started rooting around the nether parts of the internet to see what people were saying about these revelations.

After wading through comments at the conservative websites Redstate, FreeRepublic, and Townhall for awhile, the conspiracy theories started to run together, although there seemed to be three main threads. About a third of the comments went right for the jugular and blamed all of this on President Obama and the “liberal” media. Another third of the comments seemed to take the position that one of the other candidates for the GOP presidential nomination had been in possession of this information for awhile, waiting for the right time to leak it to the press. And the remaining third of the comments were all over the place, with a few people going so far as to suggest that Mr. Cain’s camp had planted this story themselves to in order to draw support as the victim of a smear campaign.

Can Herman Cain Beat Sexual Harassment Rap? | Resurgence | Big Think

Elizabeth And Hazel Story Humanizes Little Rock Nine Icon

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Man) — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 12:30:00 PDT

Elizabeth And Hazel Story Humanizes Little Rock Nine Icon | Resurgence | Big Think

“Two, four, six, eight, we don’t want to integrate!” The black and white picture from the fifties of a teenaged white girl yelling racial epithets at a young black coed who marches through an angry white mob to desegregate a Deep South high school in 1957 is world famous.

"I walked South on Park Street toward 14th Street until I got in front of the school. I walked across the street and started to go up on the sidewalk. About 12 members of the National Guard stood in front of the school along the sidewalk on the West side of Park Street. As I stepped from the street to go toward the sidewalk the National Guardsmen stood in front of me and would not let me pass them.

They held their rifles in front of them but did not point them at me. I tried once to walk around them and as I did they moved to the side in front of me and would not let me pass. They did not say anything to me and I did not say anything. I then walked back across Park Street to the East side and walked South again to the corner of 16th and Park Streets where I sat down on a bench.

I want to say there were white people all along the East side of Park Street as I walked along, and they moved along with me as I walked. Some of them followed me closely also.”

Statement by Elizabeth Eckford to FBI Special Agents Gilbert Strickland and Robert Hickam September 4, 1957

Not much was known about Elizabeth Eckford, a member of the Little Rock Nine, as the pioneering African American students who integrated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas came to be known. Even less was known about Hazel Bryan, the young white girl who personified to the rest of the world all that was wrong with the South. Elizabeth And Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock by David Margolick attempts to fill in the blanks and tell us what has happened to these two women through the years.

Herman Cain Is GOP Affirmative Action Baby

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Man) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 11:21:00 PDT

I've been having a high old time the last couple of weeks watching both Republican presidential candidates and TV political pundits squirm whenever the phrase “9-9-9” is uttered. Nevertheless, Herman Cain has shown no real ability to raise the tens of million dollars a serious candidate needs to compete nationally. Herman Cain has proffered no viable field strategy to build sustainable voter support for his candidacy across the country. Herman Cain didn’t have more than a handful of campaign staffers on his payroll until last week. Herman Cain is not willing to answer tough questions about the positions he has taken and the things he has said. No matter how you slice it, Mr. Cain looks like the GOP’s definition of an affirmative action baby, and there isn’t a thing the Republican Party powers that be can do about it.

Herman Cain Is GOP Affirmative Action Baby | Resurgence | Big Think

CLICK THE LINK ABOVE TO READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE AT BIG THINK

Candid Cain Is Suddenly Too Black For GOP Faithful | Resurgence | Big Think

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Man) — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 07:47:00 PDT

We've Got DISQUS now at Big Think! Come on over and give us a piece of your mind!

How does Herman Cain become the bad guy for telling the truth, something every true blue member of the GOP says they want to see more of in a candidate? If you are a Republican, you really need to stop for a second and ask yourself—what other answer could a successful African American who has never shied away from the color of his skin possibly give to such a loaded question about race that wouldn’t sound like he was the second coming of Stepin Fetchit?

If Mr. Cain, who has suffered recent loss of key campaign staffers and is averaging in the teens in presidential nomination polls, was really seen as a serious contender for the nomination, he might find that his recent comments to Christiane Amanpour on ABC’s This Week about Rick Perry's connection to the Niggerhead Ranch could put his candidacy in jeopardy with conservative Americans.

Read More at Big Think