This is What People like Michale Berry Do Not Get

Today, Michale Berry spent his time on the radio crying about how President Obama didn’t go speak to the homophobic Boy Scouts organization.  (The fact that Berry supports Perry for gov and Perry “wrote” a book about the Scouts might have something to do with that.)  Of course he got a dig in at Sheila Jackson Lee and Bill White, but most of the time he was mocking black people.  You can get a pretty good idea of how Berry feels about black people from how he tries to mock the way he THINKS they all talk.

(I has  a SAD.  I couldn’t get my audios file up.  Just listen here and see if you don’t get what I’m talking about.)

(Curious how few callers he had) — Michale hopes that his listeners accept his excuse that he had so many things to talk about.  But really, Michale is just filling time.  Nobody really calls anymore.  Not even me.

Let’s put this in perspective.  Today a man who was wrongly convicted of rape TWENTY SEVEN YEARS AGO was not released (on bond?  why is there any bond or anything?) as scheduled.  Why?  He got a little pissed off at being shackled hand and foot, so he spends yet another night in jail for nothing.  This is how black Americans have been treated for years.  You behave — even if all of us were wrong and you were right — you BEHAVE!  It’s disgusting.  I’m pretty sure my choice for the inevitable Republican for District Attorney (Jim Leitner) wouldn’t have made this mistake.

It’s a well known, though little talked about fact that the “law and order” Republicans see the justice system as a way to reduce the number of black Americans able to vote.  Their thinking goes along the lines of hit black Americans with everything available and legislate even more ways to make sure a good percentage of blacks get caught up in the penal system.  If a few whites do too, well they represent a larger group and their punishment can be reduced based on the offense.

Just look at how long it took to black farmers to finally (maybe not, sadly, again) to get a settlement from the USDA.  Show me the white farmers with the same grievances.  Oh yeah, they are all of the wealthy farmers living of of government subsidies and bellyaching about the Bush tax cuts expiring.  Right.

I’ve written about this sort of thing before, but not nearly as much as I should have.

This makes me very angry and very sad at the same time.  Listening to Michale Berry today mock black people — while claiming that he didn’t have enough time to get to all of his supposed topics — just made me mad.

And then I realized something.  Michale Berry doesn’t care about black people singularly or in general.  Michale Berry cares about Michale Berry.  Anything he says will not reflect badly on the Republican party because he’s no longer a real player — except to be a handmaiden to Glenn Beck.  In other words, he’s just a tool.  A means to an end.

And so, I don’t feel so angry or mad because you know what?  I can mock him here on my little blog and he links to it and Kevin Whited links to it and every one of their readers turn out to be lame numskull cowards — or paid lackeys.

Here I am.  I support the Innocence Project.  I support the Southern Poverty Law Center.  I support LULAC and La Raza.  And the NAACP.  And Amnesty International and UNICEF.

I don’t support Texas Direct Auto, Gulf Coast Siding, and now IKEA (learn something new every day), or Houston Siding, nor any of the other people who peddle in the hope of making a buck off of the racist audience of Michale Berry.

Gah (vomit) in listening to him to capture the audio I forgot how he falsely accused a Spanish speaker of focusing on Spanish pronunciation.

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Who will worry about white on white crime?

With white people so worried about black on black crime, I wonder who will finally address the bigger problem: white on white crime.

While Michael Berry thinks it’s just fine to bring up black on black crime and lament it by giving examples like Jason’s Lyric and Boyz n the Hood, I worry that whites are not concerned enough about white on white crime.  It seems to be pandemic.

As a case in point, look at the series of books and movies about The God Father.  And then there is the brutal portrayal of white on white crime in the movie Boondock Saints (and its sequel), and even Iron Man 2.  Does anyone remember Monster?  That was white woman on white man crime.  And what about The Untouchables or Bull Durham?

I’m with Michael Berry, let’s worry over black on black crime.  It makes for better radio and it ignores the problems in the white community.  Like the guy who has been molesting children for years in La Port.  Or the priests who have molested kids.  Or the cults that have murdered their own members. Or the cops who shot David West.

There’s every reason to point fingers at the black or Hispanic community.  They prey on their own.   And good white people need to remind them of that fact every once in a while.  Otherwise, they might think they mean something, they might be important.

However, while those perhaps well intentioned white folks point and preach, they don’t see what is coming.  Like good white people supporting the new crap laws in Arizona, and a majority of blacks don’t.  Why might that be?  Driving while black has been a problem for a long time.  When the tables turn, and they will, the bellyaching will  begin, as it ever was.

In the end, I ask that you consider white on white crime.  Please don’t let it slip from your priorities, otherwise we will all kill ourselves.  Or something.

Today and Tomorrow

Today is the anniversary of the Battle of San Jacinto.  There are some who want to stir up shit on this day, but truth be told, it’s nonsense.  I’ve only ever run into one person from Mexico who was pissy about demographics.  And I work with more people from Mexico than the average person.  So that means I KNOW.  Take that.

I was off today.  While listening to lies all day, I cleaned the backyard and “dressed” my hanging tomato plants.  I also found spots for my remaining cucumber and sunflower plants.

I thought about what it means to be a Texan.  I was born here and have lived here all but a year and a half of my life.  When I was a little girl, my family went to the San Jacinto Monument for picnics and to remember.  While the rest of my family is totally wing nutty, I’m not.  I love my city and my state.  While I was overseas, I always said I was from Texas.  It just where you are from.  It’s what pissed (and still does) off so many people from here to have George W. Bush claim to be a native son.  He wasn’t.  It still pisses me off that Barbara Bush lives here and can say nasty things that reflect poorly on us.  It pisses me off the Perry is still the governor.

(Let’s just see if Michael Berry really reads this:  Michael, how does it feel to say the N word on the air?)

Tomorrow is Earth Day.  As I said earlier, I will plant some seedlings.  I hope to also get the peppers and carrots into new planters — not sure if that will happen.  I need to plant the oregano and parsley. . .in other words, every day is Earth Day around here.

And while I’m at it, no one has ever died working on a solar panel — nor have any birds or other animals.  What was that CRAZY Carter guy onto when he put solar panels on the White House.  Have you ever wondered why you can’t afford to get solar panels on your house?  Especially ones that send energy back to the company you pay a ridiculous amount of money to for energy?  Could Chris Baker or Michael Berry address that for once?

The answer is no.  It wouldn’t make for good radio.  Good radio is sound effects, fart noises, silly parody songs and banging on BLACK PEOPLE especially the President.  That’s what makes good radio.

Oh, and how many times a white guy can say nigger on the radio.  That’s the most important part of good radio.

Only in Texas

You ask, (don’t you) why do BLACKS and HISPANICS have clubs that good old white boys can’t join? There’s the BLACK this and the HISPANIC that, and good old white boys say, “Where’s my club, dammit?”

This is our starting point.  Anyone can join any group he wants.  If Michael Berry decided that he wanted to be a member of the NAACP, he could, his adoption of a child born in Africa not withstanding.  Men can join women’s groups, caucasians can join any group.

But there are places, mostly golf clubs and other last refuges of caucasian exclusivity, that historically have not let others in.  True fact.

So, why have people started groups to represent their non-caucasian selves you wonder?  (If you are a teabagger who just woke up, or a talk radio host who just wants to stir up the racial animosities as those who have the means always have in this state and Houston as well.)

I could attribute it to the White Man Whine, but it’s more than that.

The first person to sign up for the new caucasian club was an Hispanic female.  Shocked?  Hispanic is not a race.  If you look at any census, look at the diversity of Hispanics,  it is clear (for the thinking person).  Some Hispanics are caucasian.  Surprised?  Some are mixed.  Some are of African origin.  Some are of Asian origin.

In the end, this club may be forward looking.  Caucasians will be in the minority soon and this club might serve a purpose.  I think there will be a day soon that talk radio, oil companies or the Republican party (and I include teabaggers here because they didn’t try to take over Democratic precincts this spring, only Republican — they have only put out ads about the Republican County Chair.  They don’t care about Democrats — never have) will be the minority.  Hell, they probably already are.  It’s just going to take some time for this white thing to roll over.

Conflict at KTRH, KPRC

Tune into local Houston stations KTRH or KPRC lately and you will hear the personalities crying about the national deficit or debt.  (The two are very different, but I have given up on trying to argue that, just like I have given up trying to explain the difference between economic vs. political ways to organize a state, i.e. the the socialist vs. democracy argument yadda yadda yadda).

According to Pat Shinn on KTRH this afternoon — the U.S. ranks 6th in debt to GDP ratio within the G8.  Sure there are ongoing talks with the Chinese (who manipulate their currency to keep their deficit where it is and you all who buy shit without looking where it is made contribute to it), but there are other countries — not Canada — that are in worse shit than we are.

Will this fact make any difference in the ongoing debate about the deficit/debt?  No.  Just like no one in the media — including every last person (except Pat Shinn) at KTRH and KPRC — will ever acknowledge that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — the most costly parts — were kept off the books until President Obama made the biggest transparency move of all:  putting the wars on the the books.  No one will ever acknowledge that — especially at KTRH or KPRC.

I also listened to Natalie this afternoon.  From what she said, everyone knows about the Houston connections to talk radio and Beck attacking Medina and there seems to be a lawsuit in the works.

Please look at Beck’s website.  The seed conspiracy is more of a dupe/snake oil thing than the ‘buy gold’ thing, but there it is.  And it’s all under KTRH’s URL.  It’s all entertainment, right?  Beck is also planning an event on August 28th this year.  He’s calling it, “Restoring Honor.”  But look closer and you will see that Beck gets his chunk of change before anything goes to the charity,

All contributions made to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation (SOWF) will first be applied to the costs of the Restoring Honor Rally taking place on August 28, 2010.

How charitable of the clearly well-compensated Beck.  It’s much like Hannity’s self promotion concerts.

And we go along and think this is discourse or something.  I never thought I would say it, but I hope AM radio dies — and soon.

In the meantime, President Obama has John Walsh on his team at this point.  Walsh even acknowledged — actually praised the pres for getting it passed  —  that the stimulus bill kept law enforcement officers employed.

Confirmed: Texas Republicans Want a King — or something

It looks like the smear job on Medina not only kept her down but pushed Perry to the nomination AGAIN.  All four of the talk radio stations were on Perry’s side, except for one little voice on for an hour and a half on Saturday afternoons.  The tea party people have to be disappointed, and a little more sober at this point.  They tried to go up against the Republican machine here, and this is what happens.

There’s more than just a little suspicion about what happened to Medina.  Pat Gray, Glenn Beck’s side kick, worked for all but one of the conservative talk radio stations before moving to Beck’s show.  Dan Patrick was at the Perry Rally when Sarah Palin  rallied for Perry.  And remember, Perry jumped on the tea party bandwagon from the beginning.  His acceptance speech was weird in that respect.  It had more national rhetoric and ambitions than local — or that’s the way it seemed to me.  He tried to tie his win in a Republican primary to the state general elections that Republican have won recently in other states.  That’s arrogant and that’s Perry.

To the 18th:  Jackson Lee looks to win.  I guess that means Michael Berry doesn’t have all that many democrats who listen to him.  I voted for Jarvis Johnson.  I find it typical that Berry focused on unseating Jackson Lee from the Democratic side instead of from the Republican side.  The Republicans couldn’t find a single minority in the 18th to run.

The Chronical is basically useless since it doesnt’ give raw numbers — only percentages.  I’ll take a look around to see what happened with the other races.

Haiti

It breaks my heart.  Just Monday, The PBS News Hour had a segment on as part of their series on fragile states, detailing how the Haitian textile industry was set for a comeback, particularly through the work of Bill Clinton.  The title of the report?  “Despite Years of Crushing Poverty, Hope Grows in Haiti.”  I can’t even bring myself to read the transcript.

I donated to the Red Cross and UNICEF.  There was no question in my mind.  In listening to wingnut radio this morning, I was happy to hear that both of the hosts were advertising a number to call for a charity to donate to.

This afternoon was quite different.  I pulled up “Katrina Trash” Chris Baker while I was at work and found that his producer was on the air, making jokes about having fired Baker.  (I’ll leave that to another post.)  The producer also decided that he was obligated to mention the earthquake in Haiti, but what he really wanted to talk about was how there is scientific proof that men are better than women.  How insightful producer guy!

Later, on the way home, Michael Berry wasn’t much better.  He just couldn’t decide if giving aid to Haiti was a good thing to do and asked his listeners to call in (or text or email).  Most of the arguments were about Hurricane Ike and how people are hurting here at home and that the government shouldn’t be in the charity business.  A couple of callers I heard used Haiti’s history to decide that it wasn’t a good idea to donate or help them.  Sort of like it’s their own fault that two tectonic plates decided to slide against each other.  (For example:  one caller pointed out that Haiti and the Dominican Republic are on the same island and what a difference there was between them.  How could one plate and another exist under one island?!?  How could one city get hit by a hurrican and not another? How could one part of an island flood and not another?  Gee, I don’t know!!!!)  It’s clear that neither Michael Berry or his listeners saw the News Hour piece — otherwise all of them would have been lamenting the fact that Haiti had it’s hopes dashed.

I would be irresponsible not to speculate that wingnut listeners, after having seen wall to wall coverage of poor black people (“it’s Katrina all over again!”) in a foreign country on their teevees all day, as well as yet another appearance by the president guy reading from his teleprompter, had decided by 5:00 CST that it was just not their problem.  But they have to have some excuse, so they fired up their computers and looked around Free Republic or other websites and decided that, heck, there are houses somewhere along the Texas coast that still haven’t been rebuilt since Hurricane Ike, there are Americans unemployed, our country is in debt, and you know what, fuck those Haitians.  I would be irresponsible not to speculate that many of Michael Berry’s listeners had had about enough of the blacks on the teevee for one day.  And last but not least, for every excuse each had for not giving or doing something for the people in Haiti, none of them did or will ever do a damn thing for anyone else.

It’s a no-brainer — whether or not to help.  In the aftermath of Katrina, many nations offered to help us, though that was more because they had competence in the problem areas rather than something about resources.  Those nations got burned by the Bush administration.  Again.  And wrt to Ike or unemployment, sorry, there is no equivalence.  Problems with Ike recovery are not about a lack of funds on a national level.  Far from it.  If all of Michael Berry’s callers are so worried about Ike victims (I can still hear Berry cry over the air “PEOPLE DIED!11!11!1!1!11!!), then they would have done something about it before now, dontchathink?

So, I send out a big FUCK YOU to Michael Berry’s callers.  The posse leader will keep riling up the troops no matter what I might say.

Nobody’s Married in Texas

Our lovely culture warriors have struck the stupid post again it seems.  Barbara Ann Radnofsky, who ran against Kay Bailey Hutchison for Senator the time Hutchison had promised she wouldn’t run, is now running for Texas Attorney General and she has looked into the silly amendment to the Texas Constitution passed in 2005 and is pointing out how silly it is.  Via McClatchy:

The amendment, approved by the Legislature and overwhelmingly ratified by voters, declares that “marriage in this state shall consist only of the union of one man and one woman.” But the troublemaking phrase, as Radnofsky sees it, is Subsection B, which declares:

“This state or a political subdivision of this state may not create or recognize any legal status identical or similar to marriage.”

Architects of the amendment included the clause to ban same-sex civil unions and domestic partnerships. But Radnofsky, who was a member of the powerhouse Vinson & Elkins law firm in Houston for 27 years until retiring in 2006, says the wording of Subsection B effectively “eliminates marriage in Texas,” including common-law marriages.

She calls it a “massive mistake” and blames the current attorney general, Republican Greg Abbott, for allowing the language to become part of the Texas Constitution. Radnofsky called on Abbott to acknowledge the wording as an error and consider an apology. She also said that another constitutional amendment may be necessary to reverse the problem.

To me, this looks like over-reach on the part of the American Taliban.  It’s also a good stick to poke at them in the debates that will proceed the vote next year.

I remember going out into the parking lot at work and finding a couple of guys putting flyers on cars about the amendment back then.  I easily ran them off even though they could have proclaimed their right to be there.  They were just lackies for the people paying their checks.  These same people were asleep at the beginning of the Houston mayor’s race and have only woken up because Annice Parker made such a good show.  First they trashed their only possible candidate for losing, after having done nothing for him.  Then they have attacked the person they underestimated — through their fault only.  They are simple-minded and short-sighted as well.

I’m proud that Radnofsky is already out there working for the office she seeks.  She’s more than qualified and this is a good start.

How Convenient

I caught this on memorandum this morning:

It’s about a woman who was the director of Planned Parenthood in Bryan/College Station, Texas for two years.  Prior to being the director, she had worked and volunteered there for a few years.

On the way home, I heard an interview Dan Patrick had with her.  It’s unclear how long she actually worked there — she told Patrick 5 years;  the news article says 8.  Patrick has tried twice to pass a bill in the Texas Legislature to force any woman seeking an abortion to first pay for ($500) and view an ultrasound.  Not unsurprisingly, this woman claims to have had her change of heart after viewing and abortion through an ultrasound.  She was the one operating the ultrasound wand.  Also not surprising is that the sermon at her church the very next day was about some scripture she couldn’t remember, but it goes something like if your hand does something evil, cut it off.  The last non surprise is that Patrick plans to call the woman in for hearings when he goes for his third try at passing his abortion tax and punish legislation.

I’m skeptical.  The Coalition for Life is just down the street from Planned Parenthood in Bryan/College Station.  The woman admitted meeting with them.  She also claims that the for-profit organization that runs the PP (along with a non-profit) wanted to make more money (because the non-profit part had been in the red) and the way they decided to do it was to perform more abortions (in the news article) or more ‘chemical’ abortions (what she told Patrick).

The most ridiculous thing about the interview was Patrick’s characterization of what the woman claimed to have seen.  Of course, he referred to the embryo or fetus as a baby, but he also claimed that the ‘baby’ tried to run away from the cannula during the procedure.

All this reminds me of what the poor woman who was the plaintiff in Roe v. Wade went through.  These groups like Operation Rescue and Coalition for Life are what make the American Taliban label stick so well.  They are determined to terrorize women for as long as it takes to get their way.

Radio Radio

I’ve always listened to a lot of radio.  I’ve always irritated my significant other with my need to listen to the radio to go to sleep.

It started with listening to baseball and to the King Biscuit Flower Hour way back in the day in my bedroom at my parents’ home.  That’s where I also watched the early broadcasts of SNL, Monty Python and The Little Show After Monty Python.  And KLOL in Houston was cutting edge rock and roll in Houston.

I listened to Larry King and Art Bell.  I remember when I found Rush Limbaugh.  I remember when I found Jim Rome.  I remember when KTRH was a news radio station.

People commenting on the Houston Chronicle web site have doubted whether or not I actually listen to Limbaugh at the same time that someone I work with has accused me of being a fan because I’ve always got his show in the background (he’s new).

However, without someone leaning over my shoulder all these years, I have no proof that I have listened to Limbaugh.

Is Limbaugh a racist?  No doubt.  Is Limbaugh all out for himself and trying to increase his measurements on the rating tools advertisers use to make ad buys?  No doubt.   Does he think he is smarter than everyone else?  Have you listened to his show?  Did he leak his ownership bid in the NFL himself?  That’s pretty certain, in my view, given how he loves the attention of the media that he flogs at every opportunity.

Think about it.  Limbaugh makes his money off of media types talking about him and at the same time he indefatigably belittles them — insults them.  But they come running to get his take every time.

Another thing to think about is how old AM radio is. It consists of wingnut talk, religious talk, and non-English stations.  While KTRH may be a hold out, I can see the future — AM radio will be religion and non-English broadcasts.

It’s a good thing Michael Berry has a realtor license.