'Caprica' Begins

The night me and other Battlestar fans have been waiting for ever since the reimagined BSG ended and we got a taste of it in a miniseries is finally taking place.

We finally get to see the season premiere on SyFy of the Battlestar Galactica prequel series Caprica next week, but this weekend they reran the episode kicking off the show. The new episodes start next week.

There's even a website on SyFy that has a mock Caprican newspaper that you can leave comments on.

Every now and then you'll see one on the various posts from TauronMoni on it. ;)

While this one is set in the BSG universe, it's taking place 58 years before the events depicted in Battlestar Galactica.

I'm anxious to see how it will play out and looking forward to killing an hour in front of the TV watching it.

Shut Up Fool! Awards- Bad Week For Liberals Edition

It's mercifully Friday, and it's been a long painful week for our side of the political force.

Between watching Martha Coakley blow a double digit lead in Massachusetts and seeing an anti choice, anti civil rights Republican take the Senate seat the Kennedy Brothers had occupied since 1956, the GOP minions gleeful celebrations of Stripper Scott occupying it, Air America going into Chapter 7 and closing its doors, and a negro Repugnican saying his first priority as Michigan Secretary of State should he elected is would be to deny ID gender changes for transpeople, it hasn't been a pleasant week for us liberal-progressives.

Time to take a break from all the GOP negativity and discover which fool or fools won our coveted award this week.

As usual, there were so many abundant fools including our usual triumvirate of Beck, Limbaugh and O'Reilly. Don 'Moose' Lewis, the Grand Wizard of the AABA made a run at our award as well.

But this week, I have to give it to Caribou Barbie, Bible Spice, the failed governor of Alaska, the Miss Alaska 1984 runner up, or whatever other sarcastic nickname you can come up with for Tina Fey's look a like and Faux News latest political contributor.



Yeah, right. The only people that lie more than you do is the network you just joined. You'll fit right in with the rest of the GOP Propaganda Network.

Sarah Palin, shut up fool!

Condoleezza For The New Millenium Is Running For Congress

My first Saturday Sellout piece was about Angela McGlowan, the Faux News conservanegroid spokesmodel who is called on when they need cover to attack Black people in general or the First Lady.

I was wondering why I hadn't seen much of her lately on the GOP Propaganda Network and now I know why.

To top off a bad week for liberal-progressive folks, I read over at Jack and Jill Politics that Miss Right Wing Thang had some meetings up on Capitol Hill with the NRCC and various Repugnican congressmemebers.

That's right, Angela is coming to a congressional district near you. To be precise, she's going back home to the Magnolia State to run for Congress in Mississippi's 1st Congressional district.

The 1st Congressional District stretches across the northern-northeastern corner of the state. It was formerly held by now Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) from 1995-2007 until he was appointed by Gov. Haley Barbour (R) to fill the remainder of Trent Lott's senate term after he resigned on December 18, 2007.

Democrat Travis Childers now holds that seat, and the Repugs are going after him.

There are already two people running in the Republican primary, so Angela's going to see if she can parlay her Fox face time, Ole Miss education, her time working in Sen. Jon Ensign's (R-NV) office (yes, that John Ensign) and beauty pageant good looks into a Congressional seat.

Michael Steele and his GOP minders would probably love for McGlowan to win the primary and be the one challenging Childers in the fall so they can trumpet how 'diverse' they are.

If you're parroting the same bull white male Republicans have been spouting for decades, putting it in a pretty package won't change the fact I and other African Americans ain't voting for your Oreo cookie chomping behind.

We're a lot more politically savvy than you give us credit for, but it'll probably work on the folks she helped bamboozle every day on Faux News.

As for Angela, ugh. What a waste. Another one working for the Dark Side of the Political force.

Since I have relatives in Mississippi, I'll definitely be paying attention to how this plays out.

And oh yeah Angela, the Field Negro is still awaiting a response to the invitation to debate him you keep ducking.

Y'all Already Have WET And The NAAWP, So Stop Trippin'

Whenever you have a situation in which a white person acting in a racist manner gets called on it by African American or other people of color, the first thing that comes out of their mouths besides a weak 'I'm not racist' comment is a tired overused meme.

If you peruse the comment threads for the defenders of racist white people behaving badly, the first thing they'll say is, 'Well, Black people have BET and the NAACP, why can't we have a WET, a Congressional White Caucus or a NAAWP?' or some variation of the above weak line.

Some of you swimming in vanilla flavored privilege fail to realize that you already have White Entertainment Television. It's called NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX, MTV and every other cable network besides Telemundo, BET and TVOne.

And of the three, guess which one is owned by a Black person.

If you said BET, wrong. While Telemundo was founded by Angel Ramos in 1954 it's an NBC network. Black Entertainment Television is owned by Viacom, not Bob Johnson.

TVOne is the Black owned cable network, and thank you Cathy Hughes for not only ensuring Black radio's survival into the 21st century by founding and being the chairperson of RadioOne, but saving us from Buffoonery Everyday Television.

As a matter of fact, the bitterly sarcastic joke in the African American community concerning NBC is that its letters stand for 'Nothing But Caucasians' in reference to its less than diverse programming. The last time NBC had any shows on with predominately Black casts was 'Cosby' and 'A Different World'.



As for the NAAWP, the National Association For The Advancement of White Privilege and the Congressional White Caucus, it exists too.

The Congressional White Caucus is called the Republican Party. The NAAWP is the Republican Party, the Conservative movement and the interlinked spiderweb of organizations connected to it.

Everything in this culture and our society revolves around whiteness. Because of the Jim Crow segregation you started and maintained for 100 years and the near genocidal level of violence directed at us, for our own edification, safety, survival and cultural uplift we've had to form all Black organizations in which our culture and our people are celebrated, not denigrated.

That's why the NAACP exists. Black newspapers. Black magazines. Black Greek letter fraternities and sororities. Black social clubs such as The Links and 100 Black Men. Historically Black colleges and universities. Black music. Black radio. The Miss Black America Pageant. Black authors and poets writing books and poetry steeped in our culture. Black History Month. The Blackosphere.

Shall I continue?

Y'all already have WET and the NAAWP, so stop trippin'.

2010 FIBA World Championship For Women Draw

Now y'all know I wasn't going to talk about the USA 'Menz' basketball team and the upcoming FIBA World Championships in Turkey without talking about the women's tournament since it's taking place this year as well.

Hey if we don't care about women's sports, especially at the international level, who will?

But I'm digressing here.

The FIBA World Championships for Women will be contested in the Czech Republic from September 23 to October 3. Unlike the men's championship, only 16 nations are competing.

The various national organizations have expessed a desire to expand the number of teams to 24, given that women's basketball is becoming more popular internationally and give more teams a chance to compete for the title.

For now FIBA is keeping the women's tourney at 16 teams. One automatic qualifying slot slot went to the 2008 Olympic Champion USA, the other to the host Czechs. The other 14 teams qualified through their various FIBA regional zone tournaments.

The draw for the women's tournament was held in Karlovy Vary on November 24, the city hosting the final rounds of this year's tournament. The Group play and second rounds will be contested in Brno and Ostrava.

Here are the Groups for the 2010 FIBA World Championship for Women.

Group A (Ostrava) Canada, Belarus, China, Australia
Group B (Ostrava) Senegal, Greece, USA, France
Group C (Brno) Mali, South Korea, Brazil, Spain
Group D (Brno) Japan, Czech Republic, Argentina, Russia

After round robin play is completed, only the top three teams in each group will advance to the second round. They will form two new groups, Groups E and F

Group E based in Ostrava will be comprised of the six survivors from Groups A and B, while Group F based in Brno will be comprised of the six Group C and D survivors. They will play another round of games to determine the top four teams in those reconstituted groups.

The top four teams in Groups E and F will advance to the knockout eliminations in Karlovy Vary to determine the 2010 FIBA Women's world basketball champion.

Our northern neighbors qualified on the FIBA women's side, and will be playing in Group A. Canada has a tough opening game September 23 against the 2006 defending FIBA women's champion Australians.

Meanwhile, the 2008 Women's Olympic Champions are in Group B and on September 23 will take on Greece in their quest to reclaim the FIBA crown for a record eighth time.

Team USA was unbeaten and cruising to another basketball confrontation with the Aussies until the Russians upset Team USA 75-68 in the semifinals and ended their chance at a FIBA World Championship threepeat.

The Opals then demolished the Russians 91-74 to take their first FIBA title while a stunned Team USA regrouped and blew out the host Brazilians 99-59 for the bronze medal.

Head coach Geno Auriemma and his staffs mission will be threefold. He has to return Team USA's women to FIBA golden glory, retool with the next generation of outstanding women players and prep for the 2012 London Games.

Unlike the men, the Number One FIBA ranked Team USA women have been kicking butt and taking names at the international level since 1996, have won this event seven times, and taken four out of the last six.

The final USA women's team lineup hasn't been set yet, but we already know it will be a team in transition with longtime center Lisa Leslie retiring from international competition after the Beijing Games.

Team USA is in excellent shape with a core roster that includes Olympians Sue Bird, Tamika Catchings, Diana Taurasi, Seimone Augustus, Sylvia Fowles, Kara Lawson, Candace Parker and Cappie Pondexter. There are other talented players that could possibly make the squad such as WNBA Rookie of the Year Angel McCoughtry, Jia Perkins, Crystal Langhorne, Rebekkah Brunson, Maya Moore, Tina Charles and Candice Dupree.

While it would be a longshot, I'd be thrilled if my Houston homegirl and Baylor freshman phenom center Brittney Griner ended up making the trip to the Czech Republic. Frankly, with all the talent at center I see her either on the Youth Olympic Games Team, a Pan Am Games team or maybe the 2016 Olympic team in Rio.

Whoever ends up on the final roster, it will be fun to watch. The winner also gets the automatic bid for the 2012 London Games.

2010 FIBA World Basketball Championships for Men Draw

While most of the planet's sports fans were waiting with breathless anticipation for the 2010 World Cup soccer draw in Cape Town, or in Canada were tracking the progress of the Olympic torch relay across their country, back on December 15 the draw setting up the groups for the 2010 FIBA World Championship for Men took place in Istanbul.

The draw determines the composition of the groups for the 24 teams participating in the August 28-September 12 tournament.

The 2008 Olympic champion USA will be in Group B, and will open group play in Istanbul August 28 against Croatia. The 2006 defending FIBA champions Spain will play in Group D and open defense of their title in Izmir versus France.

Our northern neighbors Canada also qualified for the 2010 field. They are in Group D and will playing their opening round match versus Lebanon.

Here are the groups for the 2010 FIBA World Championship For Men:

Group A (Kayseri): Serbia, Argentina, Australia, Jordan, Germany, Angola
Group B (Istanbul): Croatia, Brazil, Tunisia, Slovenia, Iran, USA
Group C (Ankara): China, Turkey, Russia, Puerto Rico, Ivory Coast, Greece
Group D (Izmir): Lithuania, Lebanon, France, Spain, Canada, New Zealand

Group of Death so far looks like a toss up between Group A and Group C.

After the Group play round robin, the top four teams in each group advance to the knockout Eights round until the new FIBA champion is crowned.

The final composition of Team USA FIBA World Championships lineup hasn't been determined yet, but we already know who will coach them.

It's the same group of coaches that led Team USA to a 36-1 record in the last two year cycle.

Mike Krzyzewski will be back as Team USA's head coach along with his staff of Jim Boeheim, Mike D’Antoni and Nate McMillan.

Can't wait to find out not only which NBA ballers will be representing the USA as we reestablish our international basketball prominence, but for the action to start in Turkey as well.

The FIBA Championship winner is also playing for another prize. Winner gets the automatic qualifying spot for the 2012 London Olympics b-ball tournament.

Negro Michigan Republican Secretary of State Candidate Won't Allow ID Gender Changes For Transpeeps If Elected

I've always loved my Lone Star homegirl Kat's writing, and check out ENDABlog on a regular basis to see what she and the other great peeps writing there have to say on many pertinent issues of the day.

Well, this particular post which mentions a negro secretary of state candidate in Michigan caught my attention.

Check out one of the things Repugnican Paul Scott wants to do if he's elected to the job that's being vacated by current Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land (R).

I will make it a priority to ensure transgender individuals will not be allowed to change the sex on their driver’s license in any circumstance.

As if transpeople didn't have it hard enough in Michigan, this 'brother' and half term state rep is now demonizing transpeople and using us as a wedge issue in order to move up the electoral food chain and prove he's more 'conservative than thou'.

All he's proving is how transphobic he is. And the thing that's pissing me off is this person shares my ethnic heritage. But as Zora Neale Hurston once said. All my skinfolk ain't my kinfolk.

One major recurring problem we transpeople face is ID that doesn't match our presentation. Non matching ID can and has opened the door to anti-trans discrimination, and this conservafool has just openly stated that he would if elected make it policy to not allow ID changes for transpeople under ANY circumstances.

We need the ability to change our ID to match our gender presentation, not permanent prohibitions against doing so.

This is a concrete example of not only why many African-Americans can't stand Black conservatives and negro Republicans, we see you for the butt kissing Michael Steelesque sellouts you are.

Okay transpeeps and fair minded peeps in Michigan, y'all know what to do and it's breathtakingly simple.

Make sure Scott never sees the secretary of state's chair.

If you can't knock his transphobic butt out in the primary, work your butts off to ensure he doesn't get elected this November by supporting his Democratic opponent. Let that Dem know upfront, be it Jocelyn Benson or whoever comes out of the Dem primary one of the reasons why you are supporting them so they don't forger why they're in that chair later.

After you deny Scott the Secretary of State's office, you then work to knock his transphobic behind out of the Michigan legislature.


H/T ENDABlog

2010 Australian Open-Williams Sisters In Third Round

The professional tennis tour kicks off with the first Grand Slam of the season, the Australian Open. The 2010 edition began play in Melbourne on January 18, and my favorite tennis playing sisters are still in it to win it.

The Williams sisters are on the same side of the Women's singles draw and would meet in the semifinals if they keep kicking butt and taking names.

While the rest of the tennis world is buzzing over the return of Belgians Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin, with some peeps hoping they start slowing down the Williams sisters Grand Slam tournaments juggernaut, defending Australian Open singles champ Serena and big sis Venus served notice that they are still women to be reckoned with.

Serena won her opening match of the tournament over Poland's Urszula Radwanska 6-2, 6-1 and only took an hour and 13 minutes to do it.

In her second round match versus Czech Petra Kvitova she took an hour and seven minutes to advance to the third round in a 6-2, 6-1 straight set victory.

Little Sis faces the woman who eliminated Big Sis from last year's Australian open tournament, Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro.

Speaking of Big Sis, Venus began her singles tournament play by quickly overpowering Czech Lucie Safarova in a straight set 6-2, 6-2 win.

Her second round match against Austrian Sybille Bammer was more of a struggle, but she prevailed 6-2,7-5 to advance to the third round against Aussie homegirl Casey Dellacqua.

The sisters are playing doubles in this 2010 Australian Open and are the defending Women's doubles champs. They won three of the four Grand Slam doubles titles during the 2009 season with only the French Open eluding them.

They opened defense of their Women's doubles title with a 6-1, 6-1 straight set victory over Australia's Sophie Ferguson and Jessica Moore. They face Ioana Olaru of Romania and Ukraine's Olga Savchuk in their second round doubles match.

The tournament concludes on January 31, and here's hoping my fave tennis playing sisters add a few more Grand Slam titles to their trophy cases this season.

Do Klan Hoods Come With The Uniforms, Too?

There's a new basketball league gearing up to start play this summer.

If you're a ball player of color, don't bother trying out for any of its teams.

The All America Basketball Alliance wants to start play in twelve cities later this June with teams comprised of all-white, American-born men.

The Grand Wizard, oops, commissioner of the league Don 'Moose' Lewis released this statement on Martin Luther King Day.

"It has come to the attention of the principals of the (All-American Basketball Alliance) that [W]hite basketball players are essentially 'shut out' of conventional professional basketball due to the proliferation of non-organized play on the court." "With players on other professional teams carrying guns, attacking fans in the stands, and going through the motions of playing the game, fundamentally sound [W]hite players are a vanishing species."

"Fans have spoken to the AABA asking to restore on court sanity to the game of basketball. Their pleas are our mission. Only players that are natural born United States citizens with both parents of Caucasian race are eligible to play in the league."

The Atlanta-based league will operate as a single-entity owning all of its teams, and is looking for local contacts to pay $10,000 to become a "licensee" in one of 12 cities throughout the Southeast.

No truth to the rumor that Dixie will be played instead of the national anthem before every game and Confederate flags will be hung in AABA home arenas.

Lewis is already trying to throw up the 'I'm not racist' defense.

Lewis was interviewed by Scott Michaux of The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, and denied his new league has anything to do with racism. He asserted it’s more about restoring the game to the way it was before it was saturated with African Americans.

Yeah, right.

"It's because of the fact that natural athleticism of people of color is different," Lewis said. "They can make up for their shortfall in fundamentals with their natural athleticism. And coaches look for the quickest way to win, so they go for natural athleticism instead of the fundamentals from a White player. Is it a coaching problem? To a certain degree, but a lot of it is the culture.

"I know there's bad apples of every color, but like my wife says, let the numbers speak for themselves,” he continued. “Turn on the local TV news and who do you see on there? Facts are facts. Now, imagine the safety and quality of play at games where there's none of that. Anyone can be a star."

He pointed to White professional players – i.e., “guys like Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash, (Dirk is the last great White hope)" – who he said exemplify the characteristics he’s talking about.

"Look at Larry Bird," he continued. "He was a very good player. But if he was a Black player, he wouldn't be considered in the same league as Michael Jordan. But he was White and entertaining. That's why people liked him."

Um dude, Steve Nash is Canadian, and Nowitzki is German.

You're not racist? Please. You sounded like Jimmy 'The Greek' Snyder, Al Campanis and Adolph Rupp all rolled into one disgusting body. There are more than a few coaches, past and present who would vehemently disagree with everything you just said.

B-ball history lesson for your clueless behind as well. Basketball at the beginning of the 20th century was dominated by Jewish players. People who looked like you said the same foul crap about them that you're regurgitating now about African American players.

I wonder if the logo for the new league will include a Klan hood or a swastika?

Hatin' On Houston-Christofool Style

The rest of Texas, especially the conservative sections of it have always had their hate on for my beloved hometown as the largest city in the state.

But one of the questions I asked myself in the wake of Annise becoming mayor is how long would it take before the haters started tripping about her personal life?

About two weeks after her inauguration.

A 'christian' conservafool in Amarillo is taking his hatred of my hometown to another level in the wake of the historic election that elevated Annise Parker to our mayor's chair.

Reverend David Grisham has set up Boycott Houston.com which seeks to bring economic sanctions from other like minded christohaters to the Bayou City.

***

Do you want a Texas version of San Francisco? Neither do we!
Do you want Texas to be the abortion capital of America? Neither do we!
Houston has elected an openly homosexual mayor and built the largest abortion clinic in the United States and you can do something about it!

While you may or may not be a resident of Houston and eligible to vote for mayor, you can vote with your dollar.

This is why we are calling on Christians everywhere to boycott the city of Houston.
We want to impose “economic sanctions” on Houston, Texas!
Please make your voice heard and join our cause. By signing the online petition you send Houston a message; That you are tired of babies being murdered and the radical homosexual agenda being shoved down the throat of normal society.

Texas is a Christian state! Help keep it that way!
Don’t mess with Texas or Texas children.

Pastor,
David H. Grisham
Director, RepentAmarillo.com, RavenAmarillo.com

***

Now that I've had the opportunity to stop rolling on the floor laughing at this fool, time for the smackdown.

Methinks the good reverend needs to tend to his own flock in Amarillo and stop wasting time hatin' on Houston. I also find it amusing that the server that hosts his Hate On Houston website is based in San Francisco, a city he hates so much.

What's wrong Reverend, no 'Christian' high tech companies to host your website? That's what happens when you send your kids to private 'christian' schools and teach them Flintstones science.

When I crossed the Texas-Louisiana border on my long bus ride from Kentucky back home during the holidays, the sign posted at the state line welcoming tourists and highway travelers read 'Drive Friendly-The Texas Way'.

We're also known worldwide as The Lone Star State', not the 'Christian' State.

Your brand of 'Christianity', Reverend Grisham, runs counter to our state motto of 'Friendship' and is the reason our state and our country is so jacked up right now.

Frankly reverend, your wingers staying away from my hometown will actually improve the quality of life for those of us who love living there.

FYI, Planned Parenthood does mammograms, pap smears and other general health related care. If you right wing conservafools would quit fighting universal health care, low income peeps wouldn't need to go to them for basic medical needs.

I'm proud to be from and have grown up in the largest city in Texas and the fourth largest in the United States. The population of my hometown in the 2K's grew 13.6% to 2,242,173 because it is a diverse, international city.

And the population of Amarillo is what, 175,000?

I'm proud to be from a city that produced outstanding congressmembers such as Barbara Jordan and Mickey Leland.

I'm proud to be from the city that is the hometown of Debbie Allen and Phylicia Rashad, Beyonce Knowles, Jobeth Williams, Jennifer Holliday and Yolanda Adams.

I'm proud to be from a city that recognizes the talents of all its citizens and values their contributions to its civic life and growth no matter what their race, gender, sexual orientation and hopefully soon gender identity.

I'm proud to be from a city that has world class museums, orchestras, ballet, theater, nightlife, professional sports, colleges and universities, and eclectic gayborhoods.

You know, culture.

I'm proud to have our homegirl Annise Parker as our mayor. She has served this city for over a decade, knows it inside out, wants to be in that chair, and hope she gets rewarded by the voters with two more two year terms.

Oh yeah, Revered Grisham one more thing: You need Jesus.

Stop Trying To Erase Tenika Watson-And Trans African Americans In General

In the wake of Teddy Pendergrass' death it was interesting to note that the eulogies of him written by MSM papers and elsewhere mentioned the 1982 traffic accident but didn't mention the other passenger involved.

Tenika Watson's name was ignored by many except the people who Googled it and ended up at this humble blog. As a matter of fact I had an all time record traffic day of 8561 page views thanks to that August post I put up telling Tenika's side of the story circa 1982 and I thank y'all for visiting the blog.

But with those 8500 plus view came the trans haters trying to erase Tenika's existence and transpeople in general

I received this comment from someone calling themselves Elizabeth. My comment filter thankfully caught it before it could contaminate my comment thread on the post.

'Elizabeth' commented on Tenika Watson's Story - TransGriot:

It's wonderful that they both lived throught the accident. Tenika Watson is a man, which is why society will not accept him as a woman. However, he should not be attacked for his lifestyle. He, like the rest of us, just needs to be prayed for and told the truth.

The e-mail address of Elizabeth was removed to protect the ignorant.

Did you pay any attention to that picture? Tenika Watson is most definitely NOT a man, SHE is a woman. You are the one however, who needs glasses, Jesus and prayer for the ugly transphobia you had the nerve to attempt to bring to my blog.

And what you did was attack her life by denying its existence. I'm sick of you Reichers rolling out the word 'lifestyle'. You chose your 'christian' lifestyle, transpeople have a life.

The truth is that you need to pick up a science textbook before you comment here, Elizabeth. Since you're so concerned with the truth, time to school you on gender issues.

First lesson is that genitalia does not equal gender identity. That's something we scientifically literate peeps have known for some time and is becoming more clear with each passing year and decade of research on gender issues.

It's also becoming clear to all except those of you wallowing in arrogant cis privilege that there's a fine line between walking on this planet in a masculine or feminine body.

This was a comment from the ATL that was a reaction to my recent Bryn Mawr speech.

You speak of this stuff as if it's normal. It isn't normal! If you have a problem with my statement I think you really need to seek, not a pastor or counselor, but the holy spirit. Ask him to give you understanding of the Bible. I'm sorry that homosexuals/transgender people are abused and that is definetly NOT God's will. We are to love EVERYONE. However, I'm so sick of people trying to pass this lifestyle off as "o.k.".

The waste of DNA calling themselves Disagreeing didn't have the cojones to own their hate speech. You cannot profess that you love someone and express these kinds of hateful sentiments. As a Christian I have a problem with you using the Bible as justification for your BS.


Contrary to your erroneous assessment of my spirituality, I attend church regularly and know beyond a shadow of a doubt God loves me and other trans people as well.

I also have a better grasp of scripture than you assume I do. Check out Matthew 19:12 before you come over here to get pimp slapped again.

These are blatant examples of what has been going on in the African American community, online at various sites and beyond.

Too many of the insecure people who engage in erasing our identities such as Elizabeth and Disagreeing attend conservative prosperity gospel pimping churches. They hide their trans hatred, ignorance and transbigotry behind the Bible and parrot those sellout Christopimp preachers who spout this scientifically illiterate crap ad nauseum and it needs to stop.

What else needs to stop is ignoring the fact that transpeople have been a part of African American culture and living our lives for decades. There are an estimated 1.3 million proud chocolate flavored transpeeps.

And lets keep it real, there are some of you macho cis dudes out there who when you close your bedroom doors have trans sistahs in your beds.

No matter how much you try to erase us and our existence, the beauty of the Net is that we're finally getting the opportunity to tell our stories.

We chocolate flavored transpeeps also get the opportunity to swiftly smack down hateful transphobic comments, faith based disinformation and feeble attempts to erase our existence.

If you don't like the equalized playing field, tough. New decade, new rules.

And one of those new rules is we African descended transpeople aren't tolerating any attacks on our humanity.

Sitting Out An Election Is Not An Option

I read the post from Paula Brooks of Lez Get Real urging GLBT people in Massachusetts to sit out today's US Senate special election, between Martha Coakley and Scott Brown and I have a few things to say about that.

Are you fracking crazy? It is never a smart play for a minority group to sit out an election.

I don't care how mad or upset you get with the party hierarchy, or couch your displeasure with 'tough love' rhetoric, you're not 'punishing them' by sitting out the election, you're punishing yourselves.

I have to chuckle and shake my head in sadness at the fact that once again, white fauxgressive GLBT people wallowing in vanilla flavored privilege are falling for the okey-doke from Republifools like Brown and acting against their own economic and political interests because they're 'mad' at President Obama and the Democratic Party.

Yeah, right. You white gays are pissed off because the Prez hasn't done what you wanted him to do in one year on the job and supports civil unions but not marriage.

Hello..we were on the brink of a depression when he took office. Let's also not forget that Obama is still cleaning up the mess from Dubya's toxic waste of a presidency.

And let's get real, you're still hatin' on him because he beat Sen. Hillary Clinton, the HRC endorsed candidate in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary.

He's the president that SIGNED hate crimes legislation and made it the law of the land and will sign ENDA when it hits his desk.

It's also time to smell the legislative coffee and deal with the reality that permanently repealing DOMA requires CONGRESSIONAL action, not an executive order. If Congress doesn't pass that DOMA repeal legislation, it can't appear on his desk to sign it.

Frankly, while I'm in favor of marriage equality, I still believe that making it the lead GLBT issue was a colossal mistake. It has slowed the positive forward momentum the GLBT community built up with the previous strategy of passing comprehensive rights laws. It has wasted precious time, resources and treasure on a issue that isn't going to benefit the vast majority of GLBT people, and only serves as a intersectional organizing and fundraising mechanism for the Sacreligious Reich.

You peeps like Paula Brooks who are advocating sitting out today's election got it wrong. If you vote in today's election, you INCREASE your leverage. If your votes are the ones that allow Martha Coakley to finish out the late Ted Kennedy's senate term, it's a little difficult for Senator Coakley to ignore GLBT issues if its shown that GLBT voters were the ones that put her over the top.

My observation that it's never a smart play to sit out an election comes from bitter experience.

Back in 1994 we African descended Texans were pissed about minor disagreements we were having with Gov. Ann Richards administration and the same 'sit out the election to teach them a lesson' call went out.

The problem was that call went out in the same year of the 'Angry White Male midterms'. Our sitting out that 1994 election cycle in the face of an energized GOP leaning electorate paved the way for George W. Bush to be elected governor of Texas, and halted the progressive cleanup of the mess the previous Republican governor left behind.

The only reason we kept anti GLBT and anti civil rights legislation at bay in the 90's was Democratic control of the Texas House, where we killed bad legislation in committee. Us sitting out the 1994 cycle narrowed the Dem advantage in the Texas House to a scant six seats and put the GOP in a position to illegally buy their way into a majority in 2002.

We also lost the $2.5 billion budget surplus that Gov. Richards had painstakingly built up over her term after inheriting a $6 billion budget deficit. In my home county it cost us the seats of every sitting African-American judge as well.

How many times will white gay peeps continue to fail to get the message that voting for anti-GLBT rights Republicans because you're 'mad at Democrats' or sitting out elections is a politically delusional act?

If that wording is harsh, then what would you call letting someone into political office who hates the GLBT community as Scott Brown does and giving them the power to negatively impact it?

Damned sure wouldn't call it 'smart politics'.

If African American and other GLBT peeps of color know that Republicans are not our friends, will fight tooth and nail to see they DON'T get elected, and under any circumstances will not vote for them, why haven't y'all gotten that message?

And that's keeping it real for you vanilla flavored GLBT peeps who agree with Lez Get Real.

Sitting out an election is not an option.

California LGBT Prisoner Safety Bill Passes Crucial Assembly Committee

I talked about a bill last year designed to help protect GLBT prisoners that passed in the California Assembly and the California Senate, but was vetoed by the Governator.

I was advised by Jay Davis of Equality California that the bill, AB 633 was recently reintroduced for this session and on January 12 passed by a unanimous 6-0 vote in the California State Assembly Committee on Public Safety.

AB 633 is sponsored by Equality California (EQCA) and was introduced by Assemblymember Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco). The bill is designed to prevent violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in the state prison system. The bill was vetoed by the Governor last year but was recently reintroduced.

“We must put an end to the brutal assaults LGBT prisoners so often face,” EQCA Executive Director Geoff Kors said. “Passing this bill would be an important step toward preventing violence against LGBT prisoners and ensuring they have access to the same safeguards under the law as other inmates. We have already started discussions with the Governor's office about why this bill is needed and why the current procedures are not working. We are hopeful he will reconsider his position and sign the bill if it passes this year.”

According to a study by UC Irvine commissioned by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, 69 percent of transgender inmates report sexual victimization while incarcerated.

It's not just a California problem. Abuse of transgender prisoners happens across the country and around the world to the point where trans prisoners have to be segregated for their own protection. In Italy a transgender only prison was just opened in the town of Pozzale.

By amending the Sexual Abuse in Detention Elimination Act (SADEA) of 2005 to include self-reported safety concerns related to sexual orientation and gender identity on the list of factors for consideration when classifying and housing prisoners, the legislation promotes safety for and prevents assaults against LGBT people in the prison system. The list of factors currently includes age, type of offense and prior time served.

"All people deserve basic protections — including those serving time in our state prisons," Assemblymember Ammiano said. "No prisoner should fear for his or her life or be the target of abuse because of his or her sexual orientation or gender identity."

The bill originally developed following a Senate Public Safety Committee meeting held in San Francisco in December 2008 and is chaired by Senator and former Majority Leader Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles). The meeting, which was sponsored by EQCA along with Just Detention International, the Transgender Law Center, the National Center for Lesbian Rights and the Transgender, Gender Variant and Intersex Justice Project, exposed the dire issues facing LGBT people in California prisons in order to produce concrete solutions. The LGBT Prisoner Safety Act is an important step toward ensuring the safety of this highly vulnerable population.

Let's hope the bill fares better in this California legislative session than it did last year and actually becomes law.

Statewide Fairness Coalition Awarded $30,000 From State Equality Fund

The Tides Foundation’s State Equality Fund, a philanthropic partnership that includes the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, the Gill Foundation, and anonymous donors, has awarded the Kentucky Statewide Fairness Coalition $30,000 to promote lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) equality. The Fund is programmatically staffed on behalf of the donors by the Gill Foundation’s Movement Building Center.

During the summer of 2009, the Kentucky Statewide Fairness Coalition submitted a letter of intent seeking to submit a complete grant proposal for support. Shortly after submission, the Coalition was invited to apply.

“The State Equality Fund promotes equality through the work of state and local organizations,” said Toni Broaddus, Executive Director of the Equality Federation, national alliance working to further equality in a state-based movement. “Support from the State Equality Fund will assist the Coalition in advancing their work around nondiscrimination and parenting rights of LGBT Kentuckians.”

The Coalition releases the following joint statement: “We are fortunate to receive this grant through the State Equality Fund to support our work advancing the rights and dignity of LGBT Kentuckians. We will continue to bring fair-minded people together for real and substantive change that betters our Commonwealth.”

The Coalition began its 2010 work this past weekend with the 2nd Statewide Fairness Summit held in Frankfort Saturday, January 16. Over 100 Fairness supporters from across the state convened in the Commonwealth's Capitol to develop strategy towards passage of the statewide anti-discrimination Fairness law, pre-filed in the House this session by Louisville Representative Mary Lou Marzian.

The Coalition has scheduled its 2010 Statewide Fairness Lobby Day and Rally in Frankfort for Wednesday, February 24.

Members of the Kentucky Statewide Fairness Coalition are: Kentucky Commission on Human Rights, Fairness Campaign, Lexington Fairness, Kentucky Fairness Alliance Foundation, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky Foundation.

Kelis' Letter To PETA

TransGriot Note: Y'all know how much I loathe PETA and their racist, sexist, classist, abelist (pick an ism) behinds. In their anti-fur campaigns they've been getting pimp slapped lately by African-American celebs who don't quite see the issue the way they do.

Mary J. Blige has already warned their anti-fur paint throwing hooligans what will happen if they try to throw paint on any fur she owns.

Well, PETA wrote the singer Kelis a letter, which she responded to on January 14 and posted on her Myspace page. Moni's going to save you the trouble and post it here.

Kelis' Letter to PETA

Good morning all!
Ok, so you’re gonna love this. The other day I got a personalized letter from PETA! Lol so after some thought I've decided to write one back. Goes a little something like this:

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There is no humane way to kill anything, let me start there. It’s unfortunate but it’s part of life. With that being said, I would eat pterodactyl if you found some and you told me it was meaty and delicious. And after doing a very minimal amount of research....... I found out that the founder Ingrid Newkirk is completely batty. I had a feeling but she far exceeded my expectations. I mean certifiably insane! Lol this chicks will is nuts, google it – it’s a riot! Beyond the fact that I think she's a diabetic, which means she needs insulin, which is taken from lab pigs (I know this because my sister happens to be in veterinary school), which would be completely hypocritical. It’s like don't abuse animals unless it can help me.

I feel very strongly about a lot of things such as the sweatshops that spin cotton and the blood on their hands. Btw it’s not just the look of fur. It’s warm as hell and feels glorious, ever rubbed faux fur on your body? Nothing luxurious about that. Then the letter proceeded to name artist and designers who don't wear real fur. Great! More for me! I don't judge them, don't judge me.

If I started wearing endangered animals like polar bear or orangutan then talk to me. (Which btw for the record I would not - I do believe in the preservation of endangered species) But the minks and chinchilla that quite honestly are rodents and if weren't in the form of a coat I would demand they be put to death anyway are not an issue to me.

The death of high fashion. Ugh.

I eat meat, and in fact my mouth salivates as I type the word meat! And the paint throwing that's just ridiculous! What if I was hurling Loubitons and Pierre Hardy's at every sad poorly dressed person on the street? As right as I may be it’s just fanatical and crazy. And people have the right to feel as they please. What about art? Survival of the fittest. Natural selection? No let's just let all the rodents run free and over take our cities. Oh wait they have, NY and LA in particular are infested! Why don't u save them all from scavenging on the streets and ruining my evening strolls, take them home. Make them pets! Get off my back! Pun intended!

Underpaid minorities picking your vegetables, now that's fine for you right? Please, fight for their rights. How about the poverty in the communities of brown people around the world. She had the nerve to say (and I quote) "get over it" talking of the issue of black people and slavery in this country verses cows being slaughtered. Is she kidding me? Lol yes she must be. Actually, she's lucky most black people have real issues to worry about in the U.S and don't give a crap what her delusional privileged opinions are. But she should try saying that again just for kicks n giggles on the corner of Adam Clayton Powell Blvd in Harlem n see how well people "get over it" lol.

If u want to preach do it about something worthwhile don't waste my time trying to save the dang chipmunk.

Find a worthwhile cause like the women being maimed in these Middle Eastern countries. Or female circumcision. Or women's rights here in America, we still get paid less for doing the same jobs as men. Quite honestly if you hate the world so much go live in the forest where no one else has to hear you complain about the perfectly good food chain the good Lord created. Everyone has the right to an opinion, and that's mine on that! xoxo

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Amen, Kelis