Jack & Jill Politics

ok@truthseeker,


I never said anything about "defending" Kwame...maybe my ambivalence is a default sign of support in your eyes.



Let's accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative...



Letz celebrate Obama and ignore Kilpatrick...



Speak no evil, hear no evil, see no evil...let me be a content, ignorant monkey...an AA mayor of one of the nation's largest cities is succumbing to instant gratification and b/c i'm not a resident of Detroit, i'm not impacted by it...sike.



As much as we endorse Obama here, shouldn't there be condemnation beyond calling the brother "trifling?" It's sort of like the Boondocks - The Trial of R. Kelly Episode...the citizens of Detroit are struggling with whom to support...their Mayor or the MAN?



I read some very interesting comments here today about how people witness and deal with racism in their professions...the silent, systemic racism that denies many of us jobs. Unemployment in Detroit is ridiculous (+16%)...Motown is distressed...Aretha Franklin nearly lost her house...LET's blame it on the Black Mayor!



The Detroit/Kwame situation is a complex prizm that fascinates me...it may very well be definitive of what's yet to come...history is repeating itself.



Black mayors being entrapped...for corruption, buying crack, and now Clinton-style infidelity...dismiss it if you dare.

Does anyone know if he is a Clinton supporter? Nearly everyone in the State is...


Was he an OUT Obama supporter?

@ webb


I think the labels like Gen.x and Civil Rights are misleading. I don't think that is what it was really about. Those labels mask the truth: it is truly about the content of a person's character. Are AA's really human? And if we are, then are we allowed to embody the full spectrum of human strength and frailty. And if we embody the full spectrum shouldn't we self police within our community by calling out these con artists?



Is Kwame as much of a self-serving coward as Spitzer? Should the black community protect Kwame based on racial loyalty? Does our protecting a dishonourable man(Kwame) jeopardize the chances of an honourable man(Barack) attaining higher office? Are we sacrificing everything in exchange for nothing? Do we lose credibility by protecting con artists?

Sharing this comment from another blog:


"We can thank a $5000.00 Ho for the first African American Governor or New York."



According to her MySpace page she is an aspiring Singer. I wonder if she can really sing?

@Truthseeker


I do not think that Kwame Kilpatrick tarnishes Barack Obama.



I do think that's there is something fascinating about Kwame and how he represent(ed)s the next generation of AA politicians...those GenerationX politicians coming into their own 40 years after the Civil Rights Act.



Will Generation-X leadership be the embodiment of "gratitude" to our elders for our present-day opportunities...or will we be about "Greed--it's all about ME--I'm on the COME UP!"



Will we (Generation X) succumb to instant gratification?



Even as an intellectual, i'm struggling to reconcile Kwame's actions. We all should know "Right from Wrong." But many of has grown up with the entitlement syndrome and we would be lying to ourselves if we didn't acknowledge it.

Out of bad, some good things can come.

@ Webb,


I didn't know anything about him other than he'd had an affair and something about emails. I took one look at that footage of him "preaching" about "lynch mob mentality" and knew he was an asshole.



He's a con man. He may be educated, and come from a "good" family, but he's a con artist. He hides behind his wife, kids and racism when he gets caught. Rikyrah is right, trifling is the perfect word in that he sacrifices so much, for so little.



At this time when Obama is trying to get somewhere, we don't need this con artist to come out of the woodwork crying racism and tarnishing Obama by racial association.

Rikyrah,


Definitely respect your position on Kwame and maybe there's other "national" political news worth discussing in this election cycle.



I wish it were simple for me to reduce Kwame to being "trifling." Maybe it's difficult for me b/c I don't rush to classify "Morehouse Men" as trifling.



Kwame is definitely a son of privilege and a product of the Detroit Bourgeoisie. His mom's in a leadership role with the CBC.



Kwame's got a sense of sexual entitlement...apparently no different that Eliot Spitzer or Bill Clinton. My question is: If US politicians are going to "mess around," would we rather they have secret affairs or do like the French President Sarkozy and LEAVE his spouse altogether?



For the record, I don't think that Kwame is trifling...I just think that he's emulating the leaders who have come before him...ALA BILL CLINTON...which is another reason that dude needs to be kept out of the White House.

Anon 8:51, It's no one else's fault that Spitzer did what he did. You should be ill about the race baiting and fear mongering in this campaign instead you are mad that an intelligent person called her out. It shouldn't matter if they are white or black. We don't need anyone to come to our "rescue" as we have indicated those comments were indeed IGNORANT!


Since we all live in a country where there have only been three black senators since Reconstruction and just two black elected governors, many of us know that Ferraro’s affirmative-action-in-politics rhetoric is idiotic plain and simple!

To Anonymous 8:51, You don't have to be Black to know what trifling means! Pick up a dictionary or go to dictionary.com!!!!!!

According to Ms. Ferraro's thinking, Gov. Paterson is doubly lucky to be a black man and legally blind.


Another lucky Negro getting something they didn't earn.



All sarcasm on my part, of course.



I love JJP and it's part of my daily reading. You guys are the best!

rikrah,


Thank you. Obviously, I'm not black.

Anonymous, 8:51


TRIFLING is....



Well, one of my favorite words in the Black English vernacular.



Merely and Trifling don't go together.



Trifling means that Kwame is the most pathetic of the most pathetic. He scrapes the bottom of every barrell there is. Someone who is trifling is a pitiful excuse for a human being, and that is insulting human beings.



Hope I explained TRIFLING.

Let's not forget Paterson's role in the Diallo case. He was the only state legislator to stand in front of the police station and be arrested in protest of the 1999 NYPD shooting.


For more, go here

Why celebrate? This scandal is a disgrace for all Democrats.


And one less super for HRC.



This isn't change! It's business as usual.



I'll bet Keith Olberman is feeling oh so good about himself right now, accepting the kudos of all his elite liberal friends, who probably view Obama as their 'hip black friend.'



And you all are so happy another, self-righteous white man has come to your rescue!



Meanwhile, the Detroit mayor, his massive corruption, stealing $8.5 MILLION dollars from the coffers of one of our failing cities, is merely a 'trifling' (whatever that means), barely a footnote on this most sordid of days for the party.



I'm feeling ill.

dws, does he? that's cool. what did he have to say about the harlem voting mess? how did he get mixed up with spitzer? does he have the same enemies? or is he more loved than not in new york?


off topic, i saw elsewhere where someone is claiming that paterson screws his co-workers. that makes me sad. however, i am proud of him after hearing he asked that cops not automatically engage in deadly force. i am saddened that new york cops took him to task for asking them to try to incapacitate without killing (ie aiming for leg or arm instead of to kill) after the amadou diallo horror story.

addendum: ludicrous argument, not because it's not true, they are 'half' and 'half'....


but because the people using that argument are trying to make the listener believe that an Obama, or a Halle, or a Patterson, or a Woods would ever have the luxury of having people eyeball them as out and out white, let alone allow them the option to self-identify as out and out white, even after their parentage is made public. the 'best' (in how 'best' in defined behind all the bullshit) that they can do is 'mixed race'.



further examples: vin diesel, wentworth miller, mayor nagin, jennifer beale, the jones sisters and QIII.

I used to see David Patterson walking around the streets of Harlem when I lived there. He is a part of the community. I wish him the best.

Anonymous said... And, I think he's half white, but, of course, this being the USA, the old one drop says you are black, which as insipid


No. he self-identifies as black, leave it at that.



frankly, I'm getting sick of this argument spouting up all over the net in the past couple weeks... mostly in regards to Obama, but now you want to drop it on Paterson?



all that is, is a softer version of The Bell Curve. One's successes are because one is white. One's failures are because one is black.



I'm not having it. Everytime I read that 'half-white' shit, I think of the 'In Living Color' music parody of Michael Jackson's 'Black or White'... and its ending.



When someone is percieved to be doing well, then they are acknowledged to be white, half-white; and the ludicrous arguments about 'he's half white as much as he's half black!' are given a sympathetic audience by people who should know better.



but let something bad happen, and we see (just like in the parody video; or halle berry; even honorary white OJ) just how quickly -- and when -- the 'just as much white' argument is held onto.

Webb,


Kwame was trifling from way back. He NEVER should have been re-elected. When he misspent the people's money to the tune of 250k on an Amex bill for his foolishness, while Detroit went broke - that's a HUGE indicator of his lack of character.



The folks fell for the okeydoke, and now, because of some more foolish and trifling behavior, it's cost Detroit NINE MILLION - that they don't have.



He's trifling.

The people in Harlem are proud (not jumping in the streets) but they have all the RESPECT and HONOR that can bestowed upon David Paterson. Even in his previous position, he was both approachable and attainable.


People must understand that the entire State is still in shock over the Spitzer resignation because his Politics were Pro-People. So the word isn't out as to what is expected. Right now, everyone is focusing on the Hooker that slept with Spitzer and her MySpace page.

Congratulations to him for yet another milestone an the life of someone many would say is disabled and couldn't achieve. And, I think he's half white, but, of course, this being the USA, the old one drop says you are black, which as insipid as those who can't figure out why his constituents would be proud, and, since whites are moving in hordes to Harlem, some of them are happy as well, so, the negative rain his parade is for naught! although, he and them probably wouldn't have wanted him to get the gig this way.

Wow...we get two for the price of one Spitzer:


1. The First AA Governor of NY

2. One less superdelegate for HRC



Gotta LOVE it!



As for Kwame, I don't expect bloggers to defend him...but we as a community should be interested in analyzing his situation. It reminds me of an ancient Chris Rock riff on Biggie and Tupac:



"Assassinated??? Those ____ didn't get assasinated. They got shot!"



I remain ambivalent about the whole Kwame case...I'm not one to condemn him...but I am interested in hearing what the greater AA community thinks about his situation and more importantly, what future generations CAN learn from it.



Do we want our kids to be like Barack or Kwame? Feel me?

Would anyone ask about the celebrating in Harlem if he wasn't black? lol.


Yes they're happy. They have every right to be. Since the votes for Obama in that area were unreported and discounted they're do SOMETHING to celebrate about.

I think we haven't done much on Mayor Kilpatrick, because, personally, I think he's TRIFLING. Completely and utterly TRIFLING.


I don't know how my fellow bloggers see this, but that's why I don't post on crook Kwame.

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is hiding behind race to avoid accountability for his actions. He's implying he's being subjected to "lynch mob mentatlity" ..using the very real suffering of blacks to cover himself against accountability.


I despise this man, he looks arrogant and..well, ...dumb. To use something sacred to protect his own skin from paying for his stupid actions. Then, there's an entire audience of people applauding and supporting him against "victimization". What happens when someone is truly a victim of racism?



It's clear to me he's scared re what happened with Spitzer and is using the controversy surrounding the Obama/Ferraro episode to cry racism to protect his own selfish skin.



He gambled, he lost... he has to pay...but not on the tab of racism.

The man's black AND blind!

If he were White and had cut his political teeth in Harlem and had served them well, then yeah, they would be celebrating, because someone they knew up close and personal would become Governor.

Would they be celebrating in Harlem if he were white?