DarkStar Spouts Off

Thanksgiving

I was going to write a long post along the lines of this:

I may not have the 4 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath, 2 car garage, 3000 sq. ft. home, but I do have a 3 bedroom, 3 1/2 bath, 1700 sq. ft. town home with "easy" mortgage payments, so for the roof over my head, I am thankful.

However, the things in my life that are important, the things in my life that I am most thankful for, "got in the way" and I didn't get the chance to generate that post. And I really don't care.

Thanks to the military people serving our country, thanks to the families holding it down for the military people who are serving our country, and thanks to God for placing me in this time.

I truly am thankful.

Comments R Us: Enough Is Enough

After reading yet another article about Obama being a saving image of a Black person, I had to respond:

Enough is enough.

Why place all of "Blacks burdens" on the shoulder of [ Obama ]?

Damn...

DO FOR SELF!!!!!!

Bailout Question Of The Day

Why should Chrysler, owned by a hedge fund investment firm who deals with, essentially, flipping companies, get bailed out?

Holding Off On Obama

I think it is silly to mention what "is going to happen" during Obama's term when he hasn't taken the oath of office nor yet named his cabinet. But I have to say I find this speculation to be interesting:

Democratic officials made clear on Sunday that the cost of Barack Obama’s economic rescue plan would run into hundreds of billions of dollars and hinted he was prepared to hold off introducing new taxes for his first two years as president.

David Axelrod, Mr Obama’s chief political adviser, said passing a massive economic stimulus package would be the president-elect’s top priority when he took office in January, amid deepening fears of a long and severe recession.

If true, then Obama knows how tax policy can have a negative affect on the economy, and conversely, how tax policy can have a positive affect on the economy.

I Have A Suggestion, Start With SELF

Sophia A. Nelson writes an interesting piece, and it is one that I think is largely correct:

After such a devastating loss, Republicans will have to do some retooling. We'll have to decide whether we want to be the party that believes in smaller government, lower taxes and less regulation, or whether we're going to be a litmus-test party that responds only to the demands of social conservatives. But most important, we'll have to confront our most disastrous modern legacy: our poor relationship with black Americans, the very people the party was formed to protect from the expansion of slavery into Kansas and Nebraska in 1854.

That relationship may be lost for generations, thanks to a campaign by Sen. John McCain that seemed to simply concede the black vote. According to one senior aide, McCain had been polling close to 20 percent of the black vote before the primaries ended. But then his "Forgotten America" tour, which started soon after, never seemed to go anywhere. I knew of only one high-level black adviser or spokesperson on his full-time paid campaign staff. The GOP convention was embarrassingly devoid of people of color -- among more than 2,000 delegates, only 36 were black.

The problem, former Maryland lieutenant governor Michael Steele told the Washington Times last week, is that party officials "don't give a damn." To them, he said, "outreach means let's throw a cocktail party, find some black folks and Hispanics and women, wrap our arms around them -- 'See, look at us.' And then we go back to the same old, same old."

However, I have another suggestion, one that I think needs to happen first. First, how many times has a Black Republican in position to do something done something like this?

And truth be told, it's sometimes an ill fit. Consider the comments of Shannon Reeves, an African American who started a college Republican chapter at Grambling State University in 1988. In 2003, he wrote an open letter to the party after it was disclosed that in 1999, a newsletter published by the then-vice chairman of the California Republican Party had carried an essay suggesting that the country would have been better off if the South had won the Civil War.

Second, and this gets to the core of the title I chose:

"It's not our message as much as it is our messengers that are killing us."

I was inclined to vote for Michael Steele for Senate, but something he said convicted me. On WOLB, a Black talk radio station, he asked the listeners how much they are willing to put up with concerning insults towards Black politicians, particularly Black Republicans, and how much are they willing to put up with insults towards them. He was referencing Democrats taking Black voters for granted. But I took it a step further and decided not to vote for Steele because he kept using, "Blacks are on the Democrat plantation" and strongly defended its use when I challenged him on air. It doesn't matter if you are Black or white, insulting the people you want to vote for you, doesn't make sense. I voted for Kevin Zeese.

So, while you are challenging your, OUR, own party, how about challenging some of the Black messengers as well?

Spelman Kicks Butt

Spelman Students Sparkle In Sciences

Which Atlanta institution produces the most African-American graduates who go on to earn doctoral degrees in science and engineering?

a) Morehouse College

b) Georgia Tech

c) Emory University

The answer is d) None of the above. That distinction goes to Spelman College — a small, historically black, private liberal arts college for women.

Spelman, with a student body of about 2,200, sent 150 black students on to Ph.D. degrees in those traditionally male disciplines from 1997 to 2006, according to a survey released in August by the National Science Foundation. That’s more than any other undergraduate program in the country except the much larger, coed Howard University, with 224. Howard, also historically black, has about 7,000 undergraduates.

For the record, Morehouse ranked fifth in the country with 99; Georgia Tech came in 48th with 32; and Emory didn’t make the top 50.

More at the link provided.

The Obamas Choose Sidwell Friends School

The Obamas chose The Sidwell Friends School for their children. I'm not surprised at the choice. It's a great school of the privileged upper class children of those who rule.

While I support vouchers and school choice, and I have no problem with their selection, it has to be said to those who have been saying the Obamas looking at private schools should indicate a need for vouchers, there are no vouchers available that will cover the cost of the school. (Was that a big run on sentence or what?) At $29 - $30K, the voucher will barely cover 10%, MAYBE.

Just sayin...

Don't Mess With The Bunny

I wonder if the cat will mess with the bunny again.

What Happens If GM Files For Bankruptcy Protection

I thought I did this, but commentor MIB is still saying he's waiting, so here it goes.

Let's assume GM files for bankruptcy protection. It doesn't mean they close shop, but it should provide the opportunity for them to get their North American operation in order. Please note I'm saying North American operation because their Europe operation seems to be performing well as is the operation in China.

Union Contract Restructuring

It provides an opportunity for GM to rework some of the provisions they previously agreed to with the unions. It seems the big concession should be health plan they provide their workers now and after retirement. There has been some "discussion" concerning GM's, and other U.S. auto companies, participation in the union job bank. This definitely needs to end but I wonder if it is overblown, considering the number of people who have lost their jobs at GM with no backup.

The workers get the bad end of this deal, but if the company comes out of bankruptcy in better financial position, then those workers who want to work for GM until they retire, stand a better chance of getting their desire.

Company Restructuring

The company should be freer to restructure to help cut costs. I think this would mean they could sell assets and/or abandon partnerships that would require a lengthy negotiation and legal processes. Even though what I've learned about the current mess is that GM is still involved in the legal process with former Oldsmobile dealers. And, maybe new management can come in and do more things that current management is afraid to do.

Does it mean they get to merge divisions? Get rid of Pontiac? Get rid of Hummer? Get rid of Saab? Even at losses but they are free to take a big loss without having to worry about shareholders?

Shareholders and Creditors

They definitely get a chance to restructure their current debt, but that means the share holders and creditors get the short end of the stick.

What It Won't Do

It won't give GM time to design better cars. It won't give GM time to quickly change their image of building unreliable cars. It may not allow the company to cut costs as much as may be needed.

Who Suffers?

Of course the employees suffer, but so do the suppliers and the companies and employees of the companies "down stream" that indirectly rely on GM. The mutual fund companies and pension plans  holding GM stock suffer, definitely in the short term and maybe in the long term as well. The U.S. economy suffers because a company as big as GM suffering, can affect the overall economy of the U.S.

But, again, the short term there will be pain, in the long term, there should be growth.

More later, real dot life is calling

Turn Them Into Glass

aQ. says Obama is a "house n****r"!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!

Turn the mountains into glass!

You Gotta Be Kidin' Me!?!?!?!?!?!?!!!!!!

You mean to tell me, for MONTHS now, Somali pirates have been hijacking ships and the ship companies haven't hired armed protection for their ships while in the pirate regions?

Ransom? Do they want cash and if so, where is it placed? Money in bank accounts? Come on, you mean THAT can't be booby trapped?

You mean, they can't be stopped?

You mean to tell me, companies are buying banks or savings and loans so they can be eligible to get the federal bail out money? And the government still wants to go forward with this mess, adding credit card companies, student loan companies, and maybe auto companies to the mix?

STOP THE WORLD I HAVE TO GET OFF!!!!!!!!

Spouting Off On: Auto Makers

Spurred on by MIB, I'm going to make comments on U.S. automakers and their current status.

Chrysler and American Motors Corporation (AMC)

If I remember correctly, AMC and Chrysler both were in financial trouble around the same time. Chrysler got a loan, and was able to stay in business. Meanwhile, AMC didn't get help, got some financial help from Renault, and then finally went under after Chrysler brought the Jeep part of AMC.  For some reason, I liked the Pacer, not that it really matters.

Chrysler got a loan from the U.S. government, cut costs, and developed the "K-Car"that helped revive the company, along with the acquisition of Jeep.

Years later, Chrysler was back in trouble and had to kill off the Plymouth division. But, still in trouble, it "merged" with Daimler-Benz. Daimler then sold off the company when it continued to "under perform."

OK, so what's that point of D.S.'s memory of Chrysler history?

If Chrysler had not been bailed out, yes, many people who directly worked for them would have lost jobs, and "down stream" companies that did business with Chrysler would have gone under or never existed, but their current state indicates, to me, that the loan just held off the inevitable.

But what about Jeep? Jeep was a decent brand and, again if I remember correctly, foreign companies were looking to purchase the brand. Lee Iococca "raised the American flag," said an American symbol should not be owned by a non-American company, and purchased Jeep.

If we assume Chrysler can't survive this time, I would expect Cerberus, owner of Chrysler, as one of the options available to it, spin off or sell Jeep, keeping those workers and suppliers employed.

But that's just what I theorize, I could be wrong.

Bothersome Image of Obama

I have a problem with pundits saying President-elect Obama provides a new/game changing/different positive image of Black possibilities of a man in America.

Granted, Obama becoming President IS a game changing event, but commentary saying his election means "no more excuses," to me, ignores and insults all of the Black men in the United States who can be said to be "positive images" especially for Black youth.

Dont' these Black men provide images people are saying Obama presents?

• Stanley O'Neil
• Colin Powell
• Earl Graves, Sr
• Tavis Smiley
• Dr. Ben Carson
• Ken Chenault
• Richard Parsons
• Robert L. Johnson
• Ronald McNair
• Guion Bluford

This isn't meant negate the accomplishment of Obama. By definition, being President of the United States, is an exceptional accomplishment. But can't other brothers of accomplishment get their shine as well? And for the public writers/commentators/talking heads who haven't been providing that light on the other brothers, why not?

Education Effort To Watch

As someone who supports vouchers and charters and REAL "school choice," I think this move by D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee and D.C. mayor Adrian Fenty, is important and necessary.

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee are discussing a dramatic expansion of their effort to remove ineffective teachers by restoring the District's power to create nonunionized charter schools and seeking federal legislation declaring the school system in a "state of emergency," a move that would eliminate the need to bargain with the Washington Teachers' Union.

If adopted, the measures would essentially allow the District to begin building a new school system. Such an effort would be similar to one underway in New Orleans, where a state takeover after Hurricane Katrina placed most of the city's 78 public schools in a special Recovery School District. About half of the district's schools are charters, and it has no union contract.

Pursuit of the ideas would intensify the considerable national attention that Washington has drawn as a staging ground for school reforms. The moves could force a major confrontation with the union and its parent organization, the American Federation of Teachers, which has denounced the changes in New Orleans. The proposals also could place Fenty (D) and Rhee at odds with President-elect Barack Obama, who has praised their reform efforts but who also counts federation President Randi Weingarten as a major supporter in the labor movement.

And, I think this shows a "new school" way of dealing with long standing problems by young Black Democrats. In this case, the public school teachers unions need to be neutered.

Dang Dirty Birds

Can the Ravens beat a good team? After getting owned by Indy and now New York, the obvious answer is HELL2DANAW!!!!!!

Michael Steele Wants The RNC Chair Job

Michael Steele wants to be RNC chair. Listen to the audio in it's entirety.

He's buddies with Julian Bond?
Wants to open dialog with the Urban League?
Wants to open dialog with the NAACP?

Personally, I have no problem with it and think it's the right thing to do, especially since there are Black Republicans who are members of the group anyway!

But this is a man who says Blacks on are the Democratic plantation!

Note the irony there.

Spouting Off On: Whatever

Just putting together random thoughts.

• Michael Steele has gone public saying he wants to head the RNC. He was on WBAL radio on the C4 show, but I couldn't call in. Here is the audio. I have one question. Will Steele still say Blacks are on the Democratic plantation? If so, I hope he gets smoked. If so, I hope Democrats make a BIG issue of his comment and say to Blacks, this is the man who wants you to join his party. But Steele is "buddies" with Julian Bond?
• Related, kinda sorta, to the above point, is this gem by Avery.
• "How It's Made" is a wonderful show. Even if you don't care how things are made, you have to marvel at the people who thought of ways to make the items.
• The ruling class wants to give tax payer money to companies who didn't manage the money they made. How much sense does that make?
• If many people don't like the bailout, and those same people voted, why didn't most incumbants lose?
• I haven't talked with any woman who liked Michelle Obama's dress:
  

Is It Clear Yet?

American Express converts from a financial services company to a bank.

Credit card companies are set to get the bailout money so they can stay above water as people get into more debt (and Christmas time is here!)

There's a real big push to break off automobile companies some of that bail out cheddar.

[ UPDATE ]

The government has said it's fine that banks are using the money to buy banks instead of easing the credit crunch, the thing that is supposed to be hurting the economy right now, you know, lack of credit.

I got that twisted, the government wants banks to stop using the money to buy other banks, but wants the banks to using the money for ease of credit. Credit, the lack of which is hurting the economy right now. The thing that everyone is relying on too damn much. So, if you believe that giving good money to those who have bad credit caused this mess, what good does giving more money to different people/companies with similar bad credit do?

The reliance of companies on lines of credit just to meet payroll, not for infrastructure improvements, just to meet payroll, has surfaced.

So, is it clear to people NOW that this economic mess, while maybe inched forward by the subprime mortgage mess, is MUCH MORE about the FUNDAMENTALS of the U.S. and world economy vs. housing?

Can You Appreciate This?

Getting Real On GM

In July, I brought a Mazda CX-9, nearly fully loaded. I brought it because I found myself needing to borrow relatives or friends SUVs to do occasional light hauling and, mainly because I need the space when I have Mrs. DS, DS 2.0, and two younger cousins with me and we are doing something "kid" related. I looked at the GMC Acadia and it was a rough decision because GMC was dealing and the Acadia had a more rugged look. I went with the CX-9 because of the "SUV of the year rating." The reliability rating of the CX-9 was suspect but against the Acadia, I thought, based on past experience of others with recent GM products, the CX-9 had to be more reliable.

Last week I got the latest Consumer Reports and they had the ratings of vehicles. The CX-9 reliability had increased and was now recommended, while the Acadia reliablity was rated as below average and was not recommended. Even if the Chevy Malibu is a good vehicle, GM has a reputation of not producing good vehicles. I'm glad I made the choice I made.

As i wrote before, GM has too many product lines in the United States. Chevy can stay, Pontiac needs to go with one or two cars going to Chevy. Buick needs to stay around as a transition between Chevy and Cadillac.

If GM goes bankrupt, I would be surprised because they have decent products and decent sales in Europe. Buick is the number one car in China. So I'm STILL confused how the lack of North American sales could be causing this much trouble. Well, actually, it's the pension and medical benefits that GM has to pay that is probably more of the issue than the sales. And it is the pension that has caused me to reverse the idea I have of letting GM go under.

If they go under, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, a U.S. government entity, will be left with the task of covering pension benefits. If GM were to go under and PBGC were to take over, I doubt if the fees paid by companies could cover GM's failure.

To Those Who Served

Thank you.

This Is Why I Miss William Raspberry

This is why I miss William Raspberry. Even when I disagreed with his writing, as I do partially here, the logic was lucid and the writing was well put together. The "replacement" for Raspberry, Eugene Robinson, doesn't even fill the bunyon dent of Raspberry's shoe.

I wish. What we have witnessed, I think, is something less profound but still hugely significant. Obama's election means that in America, including at the highest levels of our politics, race is no longer an automatic deal-breaker. That's a major step forward in the thinking of white America.

For black America, Obama may be the harbinger of a different transformation: the movement away from what might be called the civil rights paradigm. Since the astounding success of the civil rights movement nearly half a century ago, America's black leadership has been a civil rights leadership, focused almost exclusively on grievance -- America owes us the right to vote, to enjoy places of public accommodation, to attend nonsegregated schools, to be free of the laws that underlie American-style apartheid.

...

What more recent black leaders have not acknowledged is that there are some problems that the grievance model cannot address. The schools black children attend don't work as well as they should -- but most often for reasons that have less to do with white attitudes than with our own. Many black children -- and too many of their parents -- don't value education. If they do, they see it as a debt owed rather than a prize to be earned. Their resulting undereducation renders them specially vulnerable to the vicissitudes of the job market. Black communities are beset by crime and violence but, again, less because of racism than because of lack of discipline in those communities. One key reason for this failure of discipline is the dissolution of black families -- not because of discrimination but because black Americans lead the nation in fatherlessness, having allowed marriage to fall to an all-time-low priority.

I wish Raspberry would have named the people to whom he is referring, because I don't think, for example, that Cory Booker fits that model. It can be said that Tavis Smiley does get into the grievance model but, for those who read his last book carefully, he also pointed out where Black individuals can do things on their level to improve their lives and community.

How many African American parents proffer their children another script: They won't let you succeed (except as entertainers and athletes). If you expect to do well elsewhere, you have to be twice as good.

And unless I'm not Black, parents who are involved are saying the entertainers and athletes are the exception and it would be best to follow the "rule" path. Additionally, the "twice as good" is more from his generation, isn't it?

And once again I am forced go grapple with the idea of having Obama as a role model. Raspberry writes as if Stanely O'Neil, Ben Carson, Tavis Smiley, Roland Martin, etc, don't exist. And, again, is it more important to have people involved in children's lives on a daily level or have the shining role model?

I miss that man's writing.

Lies, Damned Lies, and Prop. 8

We know that California Proposition 8, which codified marriage as being between a man and a woman, passed. We know there has been some "discussion" concerning the voting pattern:

Exit poll data showed seven in 10 black voters and more than half of Latino voters backed the ballot initiative, while whites and Asians were split.

Though blacks and Latinos combined make up less than one-third of California's electorate, their opposition to same-sex marriage appeared to tip the balance. Both groups decisively backed Obama regardless of their position on the initiative.

With this, homosexuals have been up in arms about how Blacks voted, with them and many commentators saying it passed BECAUSE OF the Black vote.

I got these stats from somewhere and can't find where I jacked them from. I think it was P6:
Non-Black Votes in Favor of Proposition 8:

White Men: 51% of 31% of 10,325,615 votes: 1,632,480 Yes
White Women: 47% of 32% of 10,325,615 votes: 1,552,972 Yes
Latino Men: 54% of 8% of 10,325,615 votes: 446,067 Yes
Latino Women: 52% of 11% of 10,325,615 votes: 592,170 Yes
Asian/Native: 51% of 9% of 10,325,615 votes: 473,946 Yes

Total: 4,697,635 (9.3 times the maximum TOTAL number of Black votes in California.)

About 500,000 Black people voted in the California election.

If we go by the claim that 70% of Blacks voted for Prop 8, then 350,000 Black people voted for Prop. 8.

According to this link (at the time of this writing), there was 5,769,939 total votes in favor, 5,266,794 voted against Prop 8. That's a difference of 503,145. But if 350,000 Black people voted FOR Prop. 8, how can it be said that Prop 8 passed BECAUSE OF Black voters?

Comments R Us: Black Republicans, Doing vs Being

From this thread over a Cobb's spot, I wrote:

All that to say, politics and principle is an oxymoron. That's why I take the pot shots I do. If anyone is going to evangelize a political point of view, for my sanity, I have to examine it for holes and exploit said holes.

Black conservatives need to divorce politics from a "conservative view" as much as possible. If they did that, minds would give a second look. But when Black conservatives don't give Rush Limbaugh a beat down over his bullshit about Blacks not advancing, then the hater-aide is hard NOT to justify, even if I think it's not productive.

I think that was good stuff.

Commentary On The Election

Shelby Steele on the election

Obama is what I have called a "bargainer" -- a black who says to whites, "I will never presume that you are racist if you will not hold my race against me." Whites become enthralled with bargainers out of gratitude for the presumption of innocence they offer. Bargainers relieve their anxiety about being white and, for this gift of trust, bargainers are often rewarded with a kind of halo.

Obama's post-racial idealism told whites the one thing they most wanted to hear: America had essentially contained the evil of racism to the point at which it was no longer a serious barrier to black advancement. Thus, whites became enchanted enough with Obama to become his political base. It was Iowa -- 95% white -- that made him a contender. Blacks came his way only after he won enough white voters to be a plausible candidate.

John McWhorter

Okay: There are whites out there who didn't vote for him because of, or partly because of, his color. We heard all about them in a thousand earnest newspaper and magazine articles all summer and fall. We were told to worry. We did. And now we know what there was no way to know until now--we needn't have worried. America really has come that far.

Yes, there are racists--but not enough of them to keep Barack Obama out of the White House. Do we really care that in a perfect America Obama would have won by __ points instead of __? What's so special about perfection?

Let's celebrate.

Don't talk about how America wouldn't have elected a, well, blacker President.

Okay: It wouldn't have. A black man with the demeanor and politics of Spike Lee could not be elected president. In the grand scheme of things, do we really care? Isn't the fact that a black man of a different kind, but black all the same, is now running our country? Michelle Obama is sure enough black, and she seems to think her husband is quite black enough, thank you very much. I assume his kids pass muster.

Let's celebrate.

Don't worry that now white people will think there's no more racism.

We don't need to worry--they will think that. On barstools and in living rooms throughout America, certain types will be saying "The President's black--what more do they want?"