Jack & Jill Politics

i'm a realtor and mortgage broker. my market has been deciminated. i am 3 months behind on my rent, my car was reposessed, all my credit lines are past due, both of my checking accounts are overdrawn and i had to take a salary job in order to not lose my mind (still only have a slight grip on that), my future and my life. the sad part about it is not that this is happening to me, but that there are so many realtors having the EXACT same experience. i predict suicides will rise because things are so dire out here. inflation is underreported, gas is off the chain, grocery prices have spiked, toiletries are more expensive than ever, we are all materialistic and accustomed to high living therefore our egos and tastes have been obliterated by not being able to access our luxuries, rent prices are at an all time high, cable is getting increasingly more expensive, electricity bills are outrageous, bad credit is gonna set you back 7 years....


both sudden and continual poverty is painful, poisonuous and degrading to the spirit, the vision and the mind.



its really hard out here.

africa is in deep shit.


you know, the place we get a lot of raw material from? the place we sell a lot of subsidized goods to?



yeah, it's a whole continent. china, europe and the us are feuding over its resources. our enterprises spend lotsa money to prop up murderous regimes and murderous warlords in their competition over the natural riches of africa.



africa, the black continent. black in many ways.



not saying that this is new, but it's happening and it's serious.



most recently, africa is getting hit by the global food crisis.

Bob Johnson is at it again:


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080415/ap_on_el_pr/obama_johnson;_ylt=AqUl6.iNpqTR.K2dhoDUEkxh24cA



He's co-signing Ferraro's comments regarding Obama and says that anything said about the campaign is deemed racist.





Lou Dobbs is making me so sick. How is it that CNN allows him on the air?

Angela -


Which posts would you like to identify with - we'll try and help you.

Well, since I'm not black some of the posts I can't identify with.


In my world I'm getting ready to plant some flowers for blooming during the summer months.



finish reading "Into the Wild."



trying to lose 10 pounds...and step up my exercise routine.



Keep my husband from cheating on his diet so he can maintain his blood pressure.



Mundane stuff I know.

Sableverity-


"The Sex Generation

Excerpt:Ladies, we know that when we straddle our man’s lap, in bed or in a chair, that he is going to get an erection; that’s why we do it. Gentlemen, you certainly know that if we bounce up and down on your lap, at some point all you’re going to want to do is take our clothes off and tell us a thing or two, and show us three or four more. When we turn around and “back it up”, c’mon, I mean, does that say “hold my hand”, or, “let’s go steady”? I’ll spare you the exact translation, but no, that’s not it."



Thanx for letting me know!

Alright I've got two from my blog:


The Second Chance Act:

Excerpt:Close to 1.6 million Americans are in prison, a figure that does not count the more than 700,000 people held in local jails. While 650,000 prisoners are released each year, an estimated two-thirds of them can expect to return to prison within three years. Little help is extended for newly released prisoners making this unpromising transition, particularly compared with society’s mammoth investment in building more prisons.





The Sex Generation

Excerpt:Ladies, we know that when we straddle our man’s lap, in bed or in a chair, that he is going to get an erection; that’s why we do it. Gentlemen, you certainly know that if we bounce up and down on your lap, at some point all you’re going to want to do is take our clothes off and tell us a thing or two, and show us three or four more. When we turn around and “back it up”, c’mon, I mean, does that say “hold my hand”, or, “let’s go steady”? I’ll spare you the exact translation, but no, that’s not it.

A major publishing house will be announcing the acquisition of C-Murder's "original" novels and is about to sponsor a contest inviting readers to describe experiences where they have (1)wanted to shoot someone, but didn't, and (2) wanted to either give it up (I guess this is for women) or better still, sexually assault someone, but refrained and (3) wanted to snitch on someone, yet just kept quiet and let "street justice" take care of the problem.


If you listen carefully to the ground, you can hear Richard Wright's coffin spinning, and HL Mencken's ghost, laughing...

Glad somebody mentioned BFP! Also look at Angry Black Woman site for info. There's call for attention to Darfur. I was reading that the Save Darfur campaign has been misappropriated by US & Israeli lobbyists/gov't operatives to take over the country, do a smash and grab on the oil and other resources and get rid of China. Someone on another blog suggested I listen to the survivors and research it from there, but I do wonder why there's more attention being given to the Sudan when Congo has had 10 times the amount of violence. I have to say that it's all wrong and I'm not trying to pit conflict against conflict or diminish people's pain. But when does the US do anything for another country without expecting something in return? And they did nothing to stop the same actions in Rwanda. Any recommendations?

AC, Thanks for the rundown. It was awesome. I think a lot of feminists of color have stopped frequenting feminists blogs because of the hostility against female Obama supporters on them, so the story hasn't gotten around to WOC as much as I'd like.

Yea, I do not think she should have taken down her site! I believe that she should have kept it up and blown up that women's spot. Not take it down.

So, she took down her site. Brilliant.

Wow, Thank You AC for that!! I am a black feminist/womanist whatever you want to consider me and I have been sick of the same thing. It is so unfortunate. I am going to look into it.

Rhondacoca - Brownfemipower is a blogger who for years has been writing about the intersation of race and feminisim and specfically delving into immigration as a feminist issue. She apparently was extremely well written and researched and an inspiration to a number of women of color bloggers.


Last week she took down her site, permantly, in the wake of what is apparently an appropriation of her work by Amanada Marcotte. (I use hedging language here because I came late to the party and didn't see Marcotte's article and haven't read bfp's work). Marcotte is a feminist writer. She apparently somewhat out of the blue recently did an article discussing how immigration is a feminist issue, something BFP has been fighting to get the white feminist establishment to acknowledge or pay attention to, for years.



Many who regularly read BFP and Marcotte said the points were so similar they expected some level of attribution at the end of the article but Marcotte did not attribute to BFP. They also note that Marcotte herself has been reading BFP for a couple of years and most recently attended a lecture by BFP on this issue, at a Women's confernce they both attended.

You can read more about this and find relevant links at



http://mindthegapuk.wordpress.com/2008/04/10/its-a-jungle-out-there/



and at Feministe: http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2008/04/1....

and http://highonrebellion.wordpress.com/2008/04/09... seems BFP didn't want to make this about her and Marcotte but did want to call attention to the larger issue of white feminists appropriating the works of women of color and how by so doing they change the nature of the issue and create schizms not just between themselves and WoC but schizms within the PoC communities. They "invisiblize" WoC, their work and their investment and inter-relatedness to the problems within their community that they write about. And apprently create more problems. Needless to say this criticism has been met with massive resistence, entitlement and dismissiveness by Ms Marcotte and her allies. SOSO - sigh.

Rhondacoca and D-


She's classic. I love her she has balls. I do not agree with the gangsta rap conspiracy but I do agree with the media and government creation of an east coast/west coast tension.



She can change her last name again. This time to Shakur...Alicia Shakur, I love it.



She will have to go chill with Rev.Wright and myself out on the field!!



I would like to see her comments in context though. What did they ask her that lead to her conspiracy theories?

Natthedem-


Who is Brownfemipower and Amanda Marcotte?

I love how you guys are talking about global food crisises while I am talking about pop culture. Classic.

Anyone in the JJP community have thoughts about the heated discussion between Brownfemipower and Amanda Marcotte?

You mean there's a world outside of those three, and all their related issues?


My 10 month old is teething. LOL



And, yeah, Alicia Keys has gone Black Panther. She'll come back after the drop in album sales.

Tavis Smiley's resignation gave me great joy today. I just found out about it. Now, we don't have to be subjected to his poor diction and ill-suited commentary everyday. Tom Joyner even suggested that we e-mail him to show him some love. Is that what this is about? Stage a phony resignation to help garner some affection. Bye-bye Tavis! Why don't you start bad-mouthing those evil corporate sponsors that you appear to love so much. Wal-mart isn't exactly a good stewart.

Beyonce and Jay-Z are married.


Alicia Keys made some controversial comments in Blender magazine about government conspiracies.





P.S. Hillary embarassed her self in a speech in Pennsylvania. She brought up Obama's "bitter" comments and the crowd told her "no", they booed and they moaned.

The World Bank President is calling for $500 Billion dollars in funds to help stave off world hunger.


While Americans are obssessing over the presidential election people around the world are rioting about food prices.



Small developing countries are starving and we're using corn for fuel.

Global food crisis...here is a snipet from my blog.


The meteoric rise in the price of oil has ignited a renewed push for biofuels. Countries around the globe started biofuel programs to lessen their dependency on fossil fuels. Brazil is the benchmark for these programs as they have been energy self sufficient for years. Their biofuel strategy was a result of a 30 year project that culminated into a very successful plan that uses domestically grown sugar cane for ethanol based fuel. Brazil’s success, while receiving international praise, had another far reaching consequence: foods such as corn and soybeans that would normally be used for consumption, were being reserved for biofuel programs. These crops are in much demand by poorer nations.



As international crude oil prices soared, the rush to find an alternative to Middle Eastern oil has caused global food prices to spiral out of control, causing unrest in many poor nations. In fact, food prices have risen over 40 per cent since last year causing global instability.



In Dhaka yesterday, 20,000 thousand factory workers rampaged through the Bangladesh capital in protest against rising food prices, leaving at least 50 people injured.



In Haiti, hundreds attempted to storm the presidential palace to protest the high cost of rice.



Similarly, violent demonstrations have taken place in Egypt, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Mozambique, Senegal and Cameroon where enraged locals, fed up with the high cost of food, have taken to the streets.