Please excuse my rant

I have not been posting for the past few months, swamped by work related issues, but I have not stopped following the biggest spectacle that does not have its own television show, "The Public Option Drama Hour".

The rumors, innuendos, uncited sources, cited sources, blanket statements, vague statements, speeches, the word "public option", Olympia Snowe, scurred Democratic Senators, fierce House Progressives, The White House and Barack Obama are a daily staple for those of us who follow congress on the health care and other innane issues that govern our lives.

At this point, every political junky following the congress knows which Democrats side with the public option being included in the final bill and which Democrats do not. We know that. My frustration is at the White House and why we need to have Senator Olympia Snowe to sign off on any final health care legislation? I have YET, to hear the White House explain this in reality terms, when the fight is amongst Democrats.

Is the word bipartisan that important to President Obama and the Obama White House? If it is, I have news for them, "One vote from a Republican does not make it bipartisan. It makes it a joke if you try to tout it as such." Is the Obama White House getting this message? Are the light bulbs on at that joint? I don't think so.

There are rumors swirling around that the senate leadership will include an opt out public option in their merged bill to be announced sometime this afternoon. If that comes to fruition, progressive advocacy will have something to show for a summer of relentless action.

Happy Father's day Daddy....

As a rule, I'm not a fan of Hallmark Days - those occasions when we're obligated to celebrate and tithe to the tinsel titans who compel us to compassion or guilt.

But Father's Day has always had a special spot on my calendar - not only because I like fathers who stood up to responsibility, but it serves as day for me to reflect on the sacrifices of a man who once called the Village of Saba home. The man with the loud voice, but a gentle heart. The joke on our side of the village is that my old man will scare the living hell out of a lion with his voice but the soul behind the man we called Dad is as gentle as they come.

Father’s day is a day of remembrance for me. I remember the phone call that broke the terrible news… the demise of my father. It is still vivid in my memory as the morning dew. But I will not dwell on that sad news, because his is a life worth celebrating.

Frankly, I don't know why Dad doesn't slam the door on his way out. Considering the abject poverty that bedevils the life of an illiterate African villager; who live literally from hand to mouth.

The reason he doesn't is because fathers, when they are true fathers, don't do that sort of thing. They don't act childishly, throw tantrums, pout and demand attention. They take the guff and keep on trucking or in the case of my old man keep on farming and doing any odd job to feed his family. It's a very grown-up thing.

Before everyone who had a bad father or a lousy husband starts typing my name, allow me to disclaim: The world is full of good and bad men, some of whom have managed to procreate, as well as good and bad women. Ditto. But this is not about them. This is an ode to a man I grow up to respect and even more after he gasp for his last breath.
This is my appreciation for my father’s patience and understanding. His strength and reliability in spite of the forces arrayed against. This is the reason I celebrate father’s day. If only I can give ol' dad a call.

Obama need a spine

Readers of this space can attest to the fact that I have been an Obama supporter since he announced his candidacy. I am no fair weather supporter either. I braved the cold weathers to knock on doors during the presidential elections last fall and contributed to the campaign. For all intents and purpose, I am fully invested in the journey that led to Barack Obama's ascendancy to the presidency. But lately, I am getting disillusioned with President Obama's nice guy approach to governance.

Except for bailing out banks and indebting millions of us, I can't think of any significant legislative accomplishment. I am getting sick and tired of the bipartisanship meme democrats shackle themselves with. We have two political parties for a reason and elections have consequences. Whatever you may think of Bush, you have got to admit that he has the balls to get his agenda through an evenly divided legislative branch. Be it the Iraq war; to trillions of dollars in tax cuts for his rich friends, bush made it all happen. He understand that politics is a blood sport. You have to pull punches to get your agenda through.

President Obama's health care reform plan is been sliced and diced right under his nose and he is playing nice guy. The health insurance industry, pharmaceutical companies and the American medical association are not his friends. They will protect their racket at all cost. Mr Obama's popularity with the public is in the strastosphere and instead of using that to push for the enaction of a public option in health care, he is leaving the heavy lifting to the spineless democrats in the senate. It makes you nostalgic for Bush's cahones.

If President Obama continue on this trajectory, his reelection might falter along the way. I will rather not vote than vote for a guy who won't grow a spine and get his agenda for which he is elected enacted into law. Your are forewarned President Obama...you are taking the wind out of your supporters sails. Do something we can cheer for or don't count on me come 2012.

Dick Cheney is a fear monger

It is unprecedented in contemporary American politics for a former Vice President to openly challenge the views and policies of a sitting President, four month into their term.Vice President Gore waited two years before he made his speech, and it was not covered in its entirety on all three networks at the time.

Vice President Cheney has absolutely no credibility. Just a few minutes spent on Google can refute nearly every public statement Cheney has made. He is a documented liar. Put Cheney's ass under oath, sit him at a table and let him spew away.No other VP in American history has gone so out of his way to defecate on the Constitution of the United States and the laws of the United States that they faced the possibility of war crimes charges. Cheney is a very special character.

Of course the fact the media allows Cheney to present his views as a 'he said/she said' phenomenon does show the power the GOP has over the corporate media. When Gore spoke against the war, he was mercilessly mocked by the kewl kids bloviating on television. Cheney, a gullible paranoid cowardly sadist, gets endless time to spout his drivel, uninterrupted by pesky pertinent questions.

The Problem is, too many Democrats feed this beast. A 90-6 Senate vote refusing to appropriate money to close Gitmo played right into Cheney's hands. When the Dems openly concede that there should be an actual concern about the country's safety once Gitmo is closed, they're tacitly conceding that Cheney is making legitimate points. Obama is being severely handcuffed here by members of his own party. I imagine quite a few of them are feeling pretty foolish right now. They just got schooled by the president. Like Franklin Roosevelt said “ the only thing we have to fear is fear itself” Now if only the GOP will get a life and stop fear mongering. I won’t hold my breath for that, but shaming gutless democrats who cower to the fear mongering should be a progressive mantle.

He refused to cower

Edmund Burke, wrote in "A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful the following:

"No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear ... To make anything very terrible, obscurity seems in general to be necessary. When we know the full extent of any danger, when we can accustom our eyes to it, a great deal of the apprehension vanishes. Every one will be sensible of this, who considers how greatly night adds to our dread, in all cases of danger, and how much the notions of ghosts and goblins, of which none can form clear ideas, affect minds which give credit to the popular tales concerning such sorts of beings. Those despotic governments, which are founded on the passions of men, and principally upon the passion of fear, keep their chief as much as may be from the public eye."

This is so true of the situation in the Gambia. Instilling fear through torture, murder and other vices has been the constant tool in Yahya Jammeh's authoritarian rule. Raiding communities, arresting, detaining and forcibly making their elderly drink concoctions that are lethal is a brutal way to instill fear and power over a people. Yahya has succeeded to certain extent. Most of the people subjected and will be subject to this craziness will be waiting on God to come and rescue them ... as if that ever happens if you don't put in the effort.

The only bright spot in this saga is the stance taken by a single man...Halifa Sallah. Here is an interview he granted Foroyaa after his release from prison, because he dare question the government on the legality and morality of their actions...vis a vis the witch hunts.

“MY RIGHT TO DEFEND THE SOVEREINTY AND WELFARE OF THE PEOPLE IS INVIOLABLE AND NON NEGOTIABLE” ...Halifa

Halifa understands Burke's assertion clearly and he refuse to be fearful. Go and read the whole interview at Foroyaa online. It is beautiful.