DarkStar Spouts Off

Happy Mother's Day

I'm blessed to have been born into the family of which I am apart.

I'm blessed to have women who are good mothers to my children.

I'm wishing the mothers, biological, adoptive, and/or in actions, a great Mother's Day!

I Love Summer Storms

This picture is why I love summer storms. Yes, I know it's spring, but this is something I normally see in the middle of the summer heat.

This is beautiful.

This Was My Concern About Voting ID

This was my major concern about mandating voter identification, and that was the type of identification that would be required to prove who you are. The hospital that held my birth certificate burned down. It took about a year to get an official birth certificate for me. For years, I used my baptismal certificate as a substitute for my birth certificate. Now I have the certificate and a passport, which I plan on always keeping up to date. When my cousin tried to get her mother's, my great aunt's, birth certificate, there was confusion concerning her date of birth. My aunt wasn't sure and the census records had different dates of birth for her. (She was born in the south and our family tree researchers saw this first hand as well as different spellings of the same person's name).

The battle over voting rights will expand this week as lawmakers in Missouri are expected to support a proposed constitutional amendment to enable election officials to require proof of citizenship from anyone registering to vote.

The measure would allow far more rigorous demands than the voter ID requirement recently upheld by the Supreme Court, in which voters had to prove their identity with a government-issued card.

Sponsors of the amendment — which requires the approval of voters to go into effect, possibly in an August referendum — say it is part of an effort to prevent illegal immigrants from affecting the political process. Critics say the measure could lead to the disenfranchisement of tens of thousands of legal residents who would find it difficult to prove their citizenship.

Voting experts say the Missouri amendment represents the next logical step for those who have supported stronger voter ID requirements and the next battleground in how elections are conducted. Similar measures requiring proof of citizenship are being considered in at least 19 state legislatures. Bills in Florida, Kansas, Oklahoma and South Carolina have strong support. But only in Missouri does the requirement have a chance of taking effect before the presidential election.

There should be a grandfather clause for this. I don't know what the range should be, but I bet most native born Americans couldn't prove their citizenship status.

Hat tip: P6

Obama And Barr?

Two Black men running for president?

WASHINGTON -- Bob Barr, a former congressman from Georgia and a former Republican, today announced his candidacy for president as a Libertarian who would rein in federal spending and foreign wars.

"The government has run amok fiscally," he said at a press conference. Saying that during the first quarter of this year the private sector was losing millions of jobs while the federal government was "hiring with enthusiasm," Barr added, "As the American people see their standard of living falling, the standard of government keeps going up."

Come on! Look at this picture!

Dude is passin'!

What's Wrong With This Picture?

What is wrong with this picture?

Here is an article specifying what's wrong. I don't get it. I see nothing wrong with it.

College Drug Bust

I'm late posting about this drug bust, but I'm left to wonder some things.

1. Why doesn't there seem to be more public hand wringing over this? Is it because it's the beginning of the second quarter of dilly season known as the presidential election race?
2. Six fraternities and seventy-five students were involved in the drug bust. Just imagine that happening at an HBCU.
3. By the end of my first weekend at UVa, I found out which fraternities were known as the drug frats. I'll just say that those frats were included in this list.
   

   Lambda Chi Alpha, Phi Kappa Psi, Phi Kappa Theta, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Sigma Alpha Mu and Theta Chi fraternities were suspended while the case on their involvement in the drug dealing is heard in court.

   My first year at UVa, I got to see the debauchery known as Easters. This article is WRONG when they state the mud bowl was ended at this time. And there was more than drinking going on. In fact, in 1986 or 1987, there was a drug bust at UVa that caused running back Barry Word to go to jail. But they still just scratched the surface.
4. I wonder what would happen if the police used resources to investigate drug use at major universities and colleges across the United States. Would there then be an outcry for "treatment" vs. "punishment"? Or, would it "just happen" with the current tweekers, i.e. meth users, getting treatment more so than jail time? (Read this, and this).
5. Does it matter that meth users are mainly white?

Black Or Not, Off The Hook, Suspend 'em!

I really am sensitive, shall we say, to this situation. My daughter had a teacher who wanted her put on Ritalin because she thought my daughter talked too much. Well, my daughter DID talk too much, especially when she wasn't challenged enough, but for a girl, in kindergarten and first grade, talking too much is normal! For us, her parents, the final straw came when the teacher, again, suggested Ritalin and said if we didn't do it, my daughter's punishment may get more severe which would cause a permanent entry in her school record. My daughter was in the first grade and a woman who had no medical experience at all, was demanding my child be placed on a drug. The school said although there have been complaints by some parents suggesting the woman didn't know how to handle a class, the school would back the teacher. At the end of the school year, we pulled her from the Lutheran school and placed her in a Catholic school.

However, if your child is misbehaving, Black or not, there have to be consequences.

Schools address black students' suspensions

Under pressure to reduce the suspension rate of black students, Anne Arundel County is making progress by training staff in how to work with people of different backgrounds and giving troublesome students more support.

Experts say such training is a key to keeping African-American students throughout Maryland in school. Last year, 13.9 percent of black children were suspended statewide, compared with 5.8 percent of white kids. Studies have linked suspensions and expulsions to lower academic achievement and higher dropout rates.

Teachers and administrators may misinterpret the body language and occasional confrontational behavior that some African-Americans learn in their neighborhoods and use at school as a way of standing up for themselves, veteran educators say. They will often back down if they're made to feel safe.

"Being rude means one thing to you and another to me," said Ella White Campbell, a retired city school teacher and an education advocate in Baltimore County.

While I understand the concern, MAYBE instead of "cultural training" of the teachers, training of the kids may be in order. Again, this seems to come down to home training. Rude is rude no matter what your race.

Why?

OK, why?

• Why would a mother walk her child to school while the mother is wearing thin pink pajamas? Her underwear could be seen through the pajamas and she wasn't wearing a bra, which a woman of her, uhhh..., size, definitely needed.
• In one of the business buildings that I am in, it is routine to see people go into the restroom while on the cell telephone. I have now gotten into the habit of purposefully flushing the toilet or urinal a few times so the flushing could be heard over the telephone. But what can you do when a man is in the stall on the cell telephone, flushes, and comes out of the stall, STILL ON THE CELL TELEPHONE? Maybe next time I'll ask him if he can wipe his ass while on the cell phone.
  
• Just why?

"Blacks Are Racists!"?

I know the title seems strange. "Blacks are racists!"? But I think after this post, you will understand why I titled it the way I did.

On local greater Baltimore area conservative radio talk shows, the talking heads are pointing out that Obama is getting 90% of the Black vote and "no one is discussing it." When that was being said I had to scratch my head in wonder how that could be when ALL of the media has been pointing this voting pattern out.

Now, the progression of mentioning this voting pattern is going to, "If whites voted like this, they would be called racists! So, Blacks are racists!" One national example is Rush Limbaugh. Here is a part of a comment Limbaugh made on May 8, 2008:

But has anybody noticed that Obama is getting 90% of the black vote?  And nobody thinks that's racist.  Nobody sees any problem. In fact, the Drive-Bys and the Democrats say, "Why, that's cool! Why, that's absolutely wonderful: 90% of the black vote voting for the black guy." If 90% of white people voted for the white candidate, we would never hear the end from these same people about how racist it is.  If 90% of the white vote in the Democrat primaries were going for Hillary, folks, we would have an even greater Uncivil War going on.  In the meantime, Mrs. Clinton went ahead and got in on this.  Last night, USA Today's Kathy Kiely interviewed Senator Clinton and asked this question.  "How does Hillary Clinton win the nomination?"

His comments, like the comments by others, are disingenuous. The comments are insipid. But I'm going to respond anyway.

When Al Sharpton ran for the Democratic presidential nomination and only won one majority Black voting district, were Black Democrat voters racist for voting against Sharpton and for the white candidates?

This Is What I Expected To See

I thought that if the race got close, it would come down to this and it would be said by white power brokers in the Democratic party. I present Hillary Clinton.

"I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on," she said in an interview with USA TODAY. As evidence, Clinton cited an Associated Press article "that found how Sen. Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me."

"There's a pattern emerging here," she said.

Sure 'nuff, a pattern is emerging. Or is this out of context?

Mo' lata

Egg Heads And N*****s

We cannot win with egg heads and African-Americans

[PAUL] BEGALA: We cannot win with egg heads.

Let me finish my point.

We cannot win with egg heads and African-Americans. OK, that is the
Dukakis Coalition, which carried ten states and gave us four years of
the first George Bush.

President Clinton — reached across to get a whole lot of
Republicans and Independents to come. I think Senator Obama and Senator
Clinton both have that capacity. They both have a unique ability –
well it’s not unique if they both have it. They both have a remarkable
ability to reach out to those working-class white folks and Latinos.
Senator Clinton has proven it; Barack has not yet, but he can. And I
certainly hope he is not shutting the door on expanding the party.

BROWN: OK. Let — egg heads and African-Americans? That’s the new
coalition?

[DONNA] BRAZILE: First of all, Paul, you didn’t hear me right. Maybe I
should come and cook you something because you’ve got a little hearing
problem.

I was one of the first Democrats who were going to the white
working-class neighborhoods, encouraging white Democrats not to forget
their roots. I have drank more beers with “Joe Six Pack,” “Jane Six
Pack” and everybody else than most white Democrats that you’re talking
about.

In terms of Hispanics, you know Paul, I know the math. I know
Colorado; I know Nevada; I know New Mexico. So that’s not the issue.
I’m saying that we need to not divide and polarize the Democratic Party
as if the Democratic Party will rely simply on white, blue collar male–
you insult every black blue collar Democrat by saying that.

So stop the divisions. Stop trying to split us into these groups,
Paul, because you and I know both know we have been in more campaigns.
We know how Democrats win and to simply suggest that Hillary’s coalition
is better than Obama’s, Obama’s is better than Hillary’s — no. We have
a big party, Paul.

BEGALA: That’s right.

BRAZILE: Just don’t divide me and tell me I cannot stand in
Hillary’s camp because I’m black, and I can’t stand in Obama’s camp
because I’m female. Because I’m both.

BEGALA: That’s — Donna –

BRAZILE: And I’m wealthy so I might go with McCain and sit with
Bill Bennett, Paul.

BENNETT: That’s funny.

BRAZILE: Don’t start with me, baby.

No further comment needed.

Michelle Obama: Setting Up To Be The Next Hillary Clinton

Michelle Obama is being set up to be the next Hillary Clinton, and by that I don't mean as a presidential candidate. I mean to be the most "hated" or "divisive" female figures in American politics. In short, the rhetoric is starting to make her the next Hillary Clinton on the hate scale.

First it was the "she hates America because she is only proud now that her man is getting votes."

The Wright mess had commentators suggesting that she wears the pants in the family because she is the only reason her husbanded attended Trinity.

I've noticed a ratcheting up of the rhetoric against her when she went back on the campaign trail prior to the Illinois and North Carolina primaries. And now commenter BrotherBrown mentions Glenn Beck "went on the attack" against Michelle Obama and how his choice of a wife reflects on his judgement.

Yeah, it's on!

[ Update ]

Glenn Beck

Michelle Malkin

My Bad

Obama beat Clinton in N. Carolina. So far, I'm not seeing a call in Illinois.

He May Be A Punk

He may be a punk, but Kobe deserved to be MVP.

Their Kids Aren't In Baltimore City Public Schools

A recent article appeared in the Baltimore City edition of The Examiner asking "Where is the outrage"?

In light of the recent ongoing episodes of school violence, I am wondering whether there are any parents left who care. Are any parents willing to rally together to help their schools, or are they resigned to the notion that they can’t make a difference?

An assault on a teacher or a photographer at school is everyone’s problem. When children no longer respect authority and teachers are no longer safe to teach, everyone suffers. Children still go to school to receive an education, right? We have a responsibility to protect both the students and — yes — the teachers from assault and abuse.

So, what can parents do? For starters, parents can volunteer and encourage other parents to do so. If a few parents do a little, it will lessen the burden on the already taxed school staff. Parents also can let their children know that safety is a basic requirement, not a luxury. Parents can unite together to keep their children safe. Parents who care, that is.

I've been saying for some time that the Baltimore City Public School system needs a core of parents who give a damn. The core doesn't have to be the majority of parents, but it has to be large enough to be not only heard, but feared. The structure of the school system makes it hard for the administration, be it at the school level or at the administration level, to fear the parents, but that fear component has to exist. Right now it doesn't exist.

And where is the outrage? Well, the parents who give a damn either have their children in the magnet schools which don't have issues or the parents don't send their children to the Baltimore public schools because the parents moved or use fake addresses to send their children to county schools.

Obama And Polls

I don't understand how polls show that people are uncomfortable with Obama's association with Wright, but that doesn't affect their support of Obama.

No, let me rephrase.

I don't understand how polls show that white people are uncomfortable with Obama's association with Wright, but that doesn't affect their support of Obama. I think that's the "Bradley Effect" happening.

I could be wrong but I think Obama loses both races on Tuesday.