Shut Up Fool Awards-Last Day Of September Edition

Today is the last day of September and with the expiration of this day 2011 has only three more months left in it before we start a new year.  This month has been an interesting one already full of stupidity and ignorance.

It's time to cut the jibber-jabber as our Shut Up Fool! mascot would say and get busy calling out our fool, fools or group of fools vying for our illustrious award.

There were as always plenty of contenders for this week's award such as Michelle Bachmann, Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, the gang at Fox Noise, another group award for the GOP, Gretchen Carlson, and Bryan Fischer.

Honorable mention this week goes to Ed Kikkert, the transphobic owner of the Trail End Farmers Market in London, ON.       .

But this week's Shut Up Fool Award goes to Republifool presidential candidate Herman Cain.   This cookie chomping knee-grow parted his lips and said in a CNN interview with Wolf Blitzer that Black people are 'brainwashed' into not being open minded enough to be conservative.

Excuse me?  

Really Herman?  It was proud conservatives that were hanging our people from trees, have bitterly opposed civil rights legislation, have executed for decades the Southern Strategy, openly denigrated and disrespected our people, worked zealously to suppress our votes, and haven't done, proposed or passed any policies or laws that helped the African-American community since 1964..

And in the face of all this white-sheet wearing Hateraid from proud conservafools we're supposed to be 'open minded' about a failed political system that benefits white people only?

You are clearly delusional Herman Cain. You're a disgrace to your Morehouse education and a sellout .   Shut the HELL up fool!

2011 UH Cougar Watch-Survivor: El Paso

Despite getting off to another slow start offensively, the Cougars business trip to El Paso had a more successful conclusion to it than the last one in 2009.   UH piled up 710 yards of offense and held on for a 49-42 C-USA win against the UTEP Miners.  

UH was held scoreless in the first quarter and spotted UTEP a 14-0 lead but woke up to score 21 points in a 2:31 span to take a brief 21-14 lead on two Charles Sims touchdowns and a 34 yard TD on a fumble recovery by UH linebacker Marcus McGraw. 

UTEP answered with a 63 yard nine play drive capped off by a 20 yard TD strike with 45 seconds left in the quarter to tie the score going into halftime at 21-all.

The Cougars came out on fire in the second half as they scored three times in the third quarter and once in the fourth and held on for dear life in the final minute as UTEP drove the ball from their 22 to the UH 19 before the Cougar defense rose up and withstood four nerve racking plays to put an end to that potential game tying drive.

Case Keenum was 30-46 for 471 passing yards in this game and Charles Sims in addition to rushing for 111 yards and two TD's had 90 yards receiving as UH moved to 5-0 on the season and 1-0 in C-USA West Division play. 

The Cougars are also 5-0 for only the fouirth time in school history and the first time since the 1990 season and the next three games on the schedule are at the Rob.

Eat 'em up!

Lawrence, KS Passes Trans Protective Law

Back in February Manhattan, KS became the first city in the state to pass a trans rights law.  Noting the competitive rivalry between the two cities who are homes to Kansas State and KU I wrote at the time

Since there's always been this rivalry between Manhattan and Lawrence because of the two universities they house, time will tell if Lawrence, the home of the University of Kansas, will step up to the plate and protect its TBLG citizens against discrimination like Manhattan did.

Well, can I call it or what?  Lawrence, KS just passed a trans protective law on a 4-1 vote last night.

The Lawrence City Commission during a two hour meeting in front of an overflow crowd of 70 people added gender identity to the city's anti-discrimination code, making it illegal for employers, landlords and most businesses to discriminate against people who are transgender.

The lone NO vote was from Lawrence City Commissioner Mike Amyx, who said he was not comfortable overruling two previous votes by the city's Human Relations Commission that recommended the ordinance not be adopted.  

Mayor Aron Cromwell had an opposing viewpoint from Amyx, and stated the vote to change the city code was a matter of opposing discrimination.
 
"This is not about morality," Mayor Cromwell said. "It is about discrimination."

It sure is Mayor Cromwell.   Congratulations for stepping up in the civil rights game and matching the 'Little Apple' in protecting the civil and human rights of the trans citizens of Lawrence. 


TransGriot Note: Was just advised Manhattan, KS has regressed on the TBLG inclusive law they passed originally on a 3-2 vote.  Tea Klux Klan legislators ended up on the Manhattan City Council in April and reversed what had positively been done.  

Elections matter people, and it's much harder to keep your rights than it is the get them in the first place, especially when you have religious zealots and bigots that wont rest until you have none.

University Of Houston Second Most Diverse Campus In The Nation

Had to do a little bragging (again) about my alma mater on these electronic pages since it came in second only to Rutgers University-Newark as one of the most diverse campuses in the nation according to a US News and World Report study.

The other schools from the Lone Star State that made the top 25 of this diverse schools list were Rice, UT-Arlington, Texas Woman's University, and UT-San Antonio

That diversity just doesn't extend to ethnic minorities, there is also an LGBT Resource Center on campus under Lorraine Schroeder's able leadership.  

The LGBT Resource Center at the University of Houston mission is to seek to create an environment of inclusion and acceptance for all LGBT students, staff and faculty. Through outreach, programming, education, advocacy, leadership and visibility, we strive to strengthen the UH LGBT community and to eliminate attitudes of homophobia, heterosexism, and gender identity oppression. The Center provides the UH LGBT community with access to a broad range of resources, activities, and support services through collaborations with student organizations, campus departments, and local community organizations.
  
I've attended some of those programs and activities on campus since I returned home and I'm looking forward to working with the UH LGBT center in coordinating more programming that highlights some of the challenges that transpeople of color face..

Houston is a diverse, international city, and it's great that our flagship university not only reflects that diversity but is being recognized for it..

Why Black America Is Pissed At White Progressives Bashing The POTUS Open Letter

I've pointed out here at TransGriot why I and many African Americans TBLG/SGL people are angry with rainbow community white liberal progressives over their dismissive and disrespectful attitudes toward President Obama and why you need to chill with that nekulturny behavior. 

And white progressives, don't even think about pouring gasoline on that smoldering discontent in our community and primary challenging the POTUS next year.  You can try to hide behind Dr West and Tavis Smiley all you want in an attempt to CYA in organizing that effort, but they long ago lost credibility in the African American community over their personal animus toward President Obama and are drifting dangerously close to becoming pariahs in our community..

Heed my words.  If you even dare attempt a primary challenge of President Obama and it is successful in getting the white presidential candidate you seek, the African American community will sit at home on November 6, 2012

Melissa Harris-Perry broke it down in an article she wrote for the Nation articulating those feelings and the perception we have in the African American community about the lukewarm support of the POTUS in white progressive circles which Salon's Joan Walsh responded to.

A letter appeared in the Salon comments section of Joan's piece which masterfully breaks it down

Race and Racism — Why Joan doesn’t get it
Let me begin in the simplest way. Race and Racism are two different things. What happens in discourse, especially internet discourse, is that those two issues become conflated.

This is dangerous for both sides. On the one hand, you have the dismissive white response that is typical. “Just because I criticize the president doesn’t make me a racist.”

But on the other side, you have an equally troubling trend to classify something (ex. discourse, comment, language choice, meme, etc.) as racism without unpacking it or without fully comprehending the term.

Racism is a charge which is a conversation ender. It stops discourse and should, because of this, be used sparingly and only in the most obvious and egregious cases.
However, racialized speech, which is speech that is often dehumanizing, condescending, and aggressive- passively so quite often, must be examined in terms of who is saying it, and what is being said.

Sounds a little confusing? Let me humor you and Joan with specifics:
1) The President is a coward.
This meme exists in the progressive ranks almost as pervasively as the meme that he is a Muslim and wasn’t born here exists in the GOP Tbag ranks.
Why do I liken this expression of frustration with two examples of “Othering” done by the hard right? Because like those examples of otherness calling the President a coward is racialized speech.

History lesson. The first black cadet at West Point was dismissed in his fourth year for cowardice after being strapped to a chair and tortured all night by white classmates who couldn’t imagine him graduating.

The argument against integration of the military was that blacks were cowards. That we lacked the fundamental grit to stand up to hard fighting. All evidence to the contrary in every war fought. From the black regiments of the Revolutionary War, Civil War, WWI and WWII, black soldiers were some of the hardest hit, used and bravest. A history that is almost impossible to convince people of, because of the hidden stereotype of racialized thinking and speech. So calling the president a coward is like calling an accomplished woman “a chick” or “a girl”. It is condescending and aggressively so. And it is NOT an accident of speech.

2) His name is not Obama, it is President Obama, and the number of white commentators on TV, in print, and on the blogs that refer to him this way is legion. I heard an hour of Fox News where they referred to President Bush and Obama. Not President Bush and President Obama. But President Bush and Obama. It struck me that white commentators didn’t care to afford the President the respect he EARNED by winning the election.

The Right has spent three years being casually disrespectful of the President, and instead of rallying around him and being hyper sensitive to it or hyper respectful, progressives, White Liberals, have gone right along with the practice. Even one-upping the right on sites like the Huffington Post where they have even gone so far as to call him a dick.

3) Women vs Black — starting with Gerry Ferraro the argument has been:
a) Which is tougher?
b) What can women get from the President? And…
c) How sexist is he?

These subtle messages of discontent in the face of all the facts that refute the claims is part of the larger historical white woman/black man meme. It is a convoluted but racialized binary and it exists, pervasively, persuasively, and dominantly in the liberal psyche.

The constant chatter of white liberals about a primary challenge aside, it is the Hillary love and nostalgia that is most offensive to blacks, men and women. The argument about how “tough, strong and competent” Hillary is as a juxtaposition to how “weak, cowardly, and incompetent” the president is smacks of something more than simple political hyperbolic speech.

4) The LGBT community was insane. From the threat to wear sheets to the first inauguration, to the “Truman integrated the military with the stroke of a pen,” to the “he should get it because he’s black,” ism of their entire argument. It has been the wild west out there and it has come at a cost.

5) By any metric that is reasonable, the President has been wildly progressive. Wildly. We can take legislation apart piece by piece, level by level, and he has been strong on every core progressive metric, including education, civil rights, health care, energy, unions, women’s reproductive health, women’s rights, immigration, and core issues like credit card reform, financial reform, needle exchange, etc.

Let me explain – President Obama took office in 2009 without 50 locked votes in the senate. I know everyone thinks we had 60, but not only did we NEVER actually have 60, those votes we did have were, for a couple of basic reasons, unreliable. Start with the hyper blue of the Blue Dogs: Lincoln, Landrieu, Dorgan, Conrad, Johnson, Bacchus, Bayh, Lieberman, Tester, Nelson.

Those senators represented states Obama lost by an average of 10 electoral votes. For every close state like Montana, there is a blow out state like Arkansas. Bayh (Indiana) and Lieberman (Connecticut) O won, but Lieberman’s hatred was personal and impossible to bridge. So, the entire process of passing legislation is complicated by these ten votes.
Add to that Ted Kennedy was dying and not voting. Byrd was dying and rarely voting. Franken wasn’t seated until June.

That begins the President’s term with 45 reliable Dem votes. We’re OK because the GOP only has 41 republican votes. But those 10 senators had out-sized power. The President was wildly popular out of the gate but he had lost many of those senator’s states by double digits. They had no reason to back his play. So, he started the process compromised and the only thing that could make it worse was to lose these tough close fights.

Add to that the unprecedented number of filibusters and why the GOP filibustered. They determined, because Rush told them to, that it would be better for the country to FAIL than pass anything that might be good for the citizens. They said it clearly. They booed his acceptance speech for the Nobel (Peace Prize), they cheered when Chicago lost an Olympic bid, they violated the Logan Act, demonstrably, by engaging in negotiations with Israel to the detriment of the US Foreign Policy of the President of the United States.

Through all of this the progressive wing was silent or was half hearted in their defense. They had a list of must haves that was insane and unreasonable, and any deviation from that was treasonous.

I understand clearly why the average progressive didn’t get this, didn’t understand this. But my question to you all is why didn’t the pundits, the people paid to observe and write about politics, why didn’t they get what was happening and fight back? Well, there are a couple of reasons.
The NYTimes, the people who would normally lead this kind of charge, spent three years savaging the president instead. Rich, Krugman, Dowd, etc., savaged him. Add to that the progressive blogs, likewise, spent almost every column inch attacking the President rather than supporting progressive policies or attacking the GOP. Part of this was because they had all been so completely (with the exception of Dowd) in the bag for Hillary. But part of this was racialized thinking. Robert Reich has been particularly insane as has Glenn Greenwald, but Greenwald’s attacks are principled in that he is a purist and true believer and he can’t be swayed no matter the president or person. Reich isn’t that, he is a critic for the sake of profile it seems, and he is the least reasonable person of the entire bunch.

Finally, blacks are a key constituency in the Dem party. We are taken for granted, however, and there are long term consequences for that. O won this last time because Donna Brazile halted a coup by women and Hillary supporters. She said, plainly, that blacks would flee the party. It worked, and it had real consequences.

Blacks are quiet for the most part because we got the girl here. We won and we’re taking yes for an answer but the anger and frustration the black community feels towards white progressives is real, and it is major. It is a game changer and perhaps even a coalition ender.
Peace

H/T Jack and Jill Politics