What Is Reality Anymore

There is a new reality show on the horizon. The Oxygen Network could possibly air “All My Baby Mamas” starring one Shawty Lo aka Carlos Walker. For those of you not familiar with Mr Walker’s work he is a one hit rapper from Atlanta, GA. The show will highlight a lesser known fact the Lo have father 11 children by 10 different women. (Insert all negative stereotypes here). I like Allhiphop.com’s Nolan Strong reference as a “modern family” unit. I guess he was being kind.

The internet has started buzzing like crazy over this show. There are all calls for boycotts of the show already. Unfortunately that is not what stops a show from getting on air and may even motivate the network to move forward with the program. It appears to follow the current reality show format that creates the no talent internet celebs we have come to enjoy such as a Snooki, Honey Boo Boo or any of the Real Housewives from anywhere. The reward for being outrageous and hard to deal with is stardom.

For those of you who don’t want the show to air and think it will have too many negative images get ready for disappointment. Here is the hard pill we as a society cheer on these type of train wrecks. Twitter and Facebook will have this show as a hit. If you are an outraged member of the black community trust when I tell you the establishment really doesn’t care about your feelings. Also every negative tweet or post you make about the show the network counts that as a viewer. Advertisers love viewers especially that don’t boycott their products.

For my fellow members of the black community don’t overreact. This is not a representation of the entire black community. I mean really do you know a guy with 10 baby’s mothers. This is a representation of what draws TV ratings and as whole what America wants to see. I think maybe the answer is just to ignore it. Don’t talk about it at all. We all know controversy sells so the shame of the entire race will only sell this more.

So I say get ready for spring 2013 when the show is slated to air. If you want to watch with enjoyment or breakdown the physiological issues that all of the characters must be facing in this situation. Of course when I say breakdown that I really mean to mock and make fun of. Ten women with some issues, as they try to make this weird situation work with this irresponsible man who happens to have enough money to make this all work.

Wheres My Political Home

In today's political climate it appears that you have to be on the far right or far left. Well I am kind of in the middle on most subjects. Full disclosure I was a card carrying member of the GOP until about 2010 when the racial dog whistles started blowing really hard.

Now I know there has to more voters like me who do not blindly just watch the D or R next to a person's name and vote that way. Is there a place for a guy who pro 2nd Amendment but does also believe there should be some type of gun control. I do understand that we have to have taxes to sustain a government but don't think that one person should pay a higher rate based on their success. That being said you should not be able to use all types of loopholes to escape paying your part.

So where do you go when all the candidates seem to sell out any moderate leanings to align themselves with a political base. What is you are not that liberal but not that conservative either. Right now I am classified as an Independent but that does not provide me any real political representation. Apparently America only sees Republicans and Democrats.

The way I see it now is that the two party system is basically like professional wrestling.Basically a contest of good guys vs bad guys. Unlike wrestling where the roles are defined for you, in politics everybody thinks that the side that they are on is the good one. While the opposition are the villains. More real life just like wrestling the winners and losers are probably agreed upon before the match starts and in a backroom bargaining session. If you can not make it as a successful babyface then what do you do? You become a heel and go the other way. Just like in wrestling the tweener who doesn't lean that much either way doesn't inspire the fans hate or love and just has no place.   

Political Hype Machine

As we get deeper in this political season, the hype machines are spinning out of control. There are some ideas that the media and politicians float out there to get you all pumped up and excited. Here is the reality, none of the politicians really care about these issues or have any intention of attempting to change. The idea is that some voters are single issue voters and get really bent out of shape on their particular issue.  They are kind of used as weapons of mass distraction to take your eye off what they will really try to push through.  So of course there should be some examples of these types of issues.

Abortion

No matter what you feel about the abortion debate there will not be many changes to the current abortion laws. Every four years we get into this debate because there is a thought that whoever we elect will either protect or destroy the current abortion laws of the land. Reality both parties use this hot button issue to steal your vote. Basically using your passion against you. Think about it George W. Bush was a strong pro-life advocate and with a Republican led House and Senate he never once mad any moves on the abortion law. The Supreme Court has not made any major changes in its position over the last 40 years despite conservative judges being added to the bench.

 

Roe v Wade

http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0410_0113_ZS.html

Same Sex Marriage

The new fire starting political issue is Same Sex Marriage. The reality is that most politicians don't care about the issue and only move based on the polls in their state.  In reality most states will allow the practice of same sex marriage and pass legislation over the next 15 years.  Bad news for supporters of this is that it will probably not happen any sooner.   Marriage is an issue that is traditionally handled by the states and people you elect to national office will not have much effect on the issue.  More conservative states will not pass anything anytime soon but will feel pressure when their more liberal neighbors have jumped on board.  That will probably only happen when these politicians feel some financial pressure from companies that want to ensure they will be able to market to the gay community.

The same way George Bush with his GOP led congress never got that constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.  Do not expect President Obama to propose one that will protect same sex marriage.  Since you all as voters appear to care so much on both sides they will pretend to care but there will be no action done after November. 

Let's Audit Our Schools

As the country gets deep into this year's election cycle, the subject of education has become a hot topic. Very recently the United States as a whole found out that a little myth was not true. We are not one of the top countries in the subjects of math and science. This is another reason why the American public, is increasingly concern about its children's education. Combined with the high dropout rates of high school students, it's obvious that our current system is not working.

The politicians will try to convince us that they have the solution but I will bet that they don't. Most of them probably want to keep the status quo. Their children for the large part don't fall victim to being at an underperforming school and they are beneficiaries on how the system in currently run. There is no magic bullet answer on how to fix the system but there is one solution that would very useful. America needs to do a full scale audit of the school system.

County by county, state by state, the American people need to needle through the records of their school districts. Our country spends about 10000 dollars per year on each student. So before we decide if the schools need more or less money let's find out where all the money is going. At the current spending rate multiplied by the average class size of 23 students that is 230,000 dollars in every classroom. That means less the 50000 average teacher's salary there is about 180000 dollars that we the people do not actually know where it is going.

Don't get me wrong I understand that the schools need building maintenance, desk, and they have to feed the children. That being said how much are we spending on all this stuff and who is getting the contracts. Are those people over charging us because their brother makes the decisions on behalf of the board? Not saying that all school boards are corrupt but like all politics there is a lot of corruption involved. One thing we can do is utilize our right to the records as citizens. It is our duty to make sure our government entities are running the way that they are supposed to.

This is not just an issue for people with children but for all Americans. All of us pay taxes that go to the public school system. When a neighborhood is known for having good schools the property values go up in that area. Also we as society can only benefit from having well trained and educated young people to drive this country forward.

There is already pressure on the instructors to make sure that, the children pass standardized test. Now we need pressure on the administration to utilize our finances the correct way. Maybe we can shrink some of these class sizes, hire more support staff and upgrade our technology. At the end of the day we need to audit our public school systems to get the most bangs for our buck.

MHP’s (powerful) homework assignment

MHP’s (powerful) homework assignment

The Last Word teams up with UNICEF

The Last Word teams up with UNICEF

Herm is Cooking For Now

Despite even his own efforts the Herman Cain presidential campaign is still rolling. With past accusations of sexual harassment and a total lack of knowledge of Foreign Policy the pizza man from Georgia as still remained one of the top Republican candidates for president. Some people are starting to think that he has a serious chance winning the Republican nomination. This has some voters excited and others scared to death. I will either ease your fears or disappoint you when I say that its not going to happen.

Please do not get fooled by these polls that you see on the news. These polls are sent out to people who may or may not even be Republicans and they also may not even vote. We have a long primary ahead of us and the 24 hour news networks have to try to make this interesting to a mass public that is more interest in Housewife reality shows then politics. People love animated characters that give comedic sound bites. People like Cain, Rick Perry and Michelle Bachmann feeds this need. Where lets say a Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman do not.

The cycle of front runners changing is definitely not over. If we have not learned anything from recent years elections and polls that it doesn't matter until people start actually casting the ballots. At this time in 1991 Bill Clinton was polling 4th in the Democrat Primary behind leader Jerry Brown. Do any of you know who Jerry Brown is without googling him? Probably not. Our current President Barack Obama was 20 points behind Hilary Clinton the polls at this time.

Reasons He will not get The Votes

1. His foreign policy sucks- Its cute to fail basic foreign policy questions in interviews but not cool for a president. What he think is funny could embarrass a country on international scale. He actually asked Henry Kissinger to be his secretary of State which would been an excellent choice 30 years ago.

2. Sexual Harassment Charges- It hasn't hurt him the polls but when ballots are actually cast do not think this will not factor in. Women are not kind to men who are believed to mistreat them. A dirty secret is that most women will experience this in their life and is a very person issue to them.

3. He can't Defend 999 -You can not have a signature plan that your entire campaign is based on that you can not defend. He has failed to accurately explain if the plan can realistically work.


So for now lets just let Herm continue to cook in these never ending GOP debates. He will not be president any time soon. Realistically he will have an evening show on Fox News or some syndicated radio show again but he won't be living in the white house.

I Blame Obama Too

The popular thing to do these days is to blame the President for your problems. You may think that this is because the president is a black man or because Democrats are unreasonable but its neither. All Presidents since the good old George Washington. Sometimes its fair and most of the time its not because the President doesn't even have control over most of the stuff the general public complains about.

Now I could turn this into a political science lesson but that's too hard and you don't want to hear it. So like the old saying goes "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em". So I will blame the president for things that I do not like either.

The Things Obama Needs to Handle

Where is The Boondocks

I am not sure if there is or not going to be a 4th season of the Boondocks. I am also very disturbed that the White House has not publicly taken on this issue. The night time cartoon entertainment of America is a serious issue. If he has to give Aaron McGruder a tax break or threaten the Cartoon Network, somebody needs to handle this.

My Student Loans

Yes you heard it right, President Obama needs to do something about my student loans. I know they were not incurred during his presidency but this is federal debt and he is in charge of the federal government. Relieving me of this enormous debt that has not resulted in a job of my major would be the right thing to do. Since his economy is not allowing me to get a better job making a six figure salary. If I did not have to make these payments then I could use the money to help stimulate this economy and create a job or 2.

We Still Have Not Found Biggie and Tupac's Killers

Yes I went there but hear me out. The President is over the Attorney General who is America's top law enforcement officer. We can not have killers of talented African Americans running around unchecked. But this just further illustrates that President does not care enough about the black community.

Dumb People Having Jobs

In this tight economy there is no reason why stupid people are taking jobs that intelligent people could have. I encountered too many people in different places that such at their job because they are not smart. They can not handle basic instructions and screw things up for everyone. They are costing their prospective employers money and wasting my time. Why is there no legislation for the cashiers at Wal Mart be forced to take math test.

Those are my complaints for now but I am sure Mr Obama will ruin my life and yours some more. Well maybe not but why should I or others have to be responsible for our personal issues...

New Direction for The Same Stuff

This post is basically to announce that this blog is changing. Basically I will still talk about politics, history and current events but there will be a more satirical look at life. I am sure that I will have to explain this more than once as after this post. Because you may not get the satire and think that I am dead serious. So sit back and enjoy the ride and laugh a little. Its all fun and life...

I am Done with you Dumb People

I have taken a long break from this blog but I am back but a little broken. I have lost a lot of faith in the collective intelligence of this country. If I have already lost you then you are part of the problem. In our current climate of politics, I have seen that a large portion of the American people have not clue. This crosses all political parties, racial groups and economic statuses. There were times that I felt like there was a large population of people who just not exposed to the proper information. Now I understand that you have it but you still can not figure it out.

During this wonderful debt ceiling debate I learned that many of you have no clue at all. Both the far left and far right can easily be influenced to anything. The fact that some of you all have a vote scares me to death. There are more problems out there that are disturbing me but hey let me just give you some of the examples.

Bachmann as a responsible Presidential Option

Now this one is partially my fault because in a previous post I said I would give her a chance. Well that is over and done with. She is not as stupid as everyone thought initially but instead she is something much worse. Miss Michele is bat-shit insane. I love how when she gets attacked its because she is a woman(well played Michele). Reality is that anyone who actually thinks that it would have a good idea to not raise the debt ceiling and possibly default on our loan obligations should not even a have a real job of consequence. The fact that she tries to rewrite history and remembers our slave owning founding fathers as soldiers of equality. Lets just hope that the Iowa straw polls results are only a reflection of the politics of conservative voters in rural mid America not the view of people who actually been to high school.

So You Support the Self Serving Tour

Just in case you haven't heard Tavis Smiley and Dr Cornel West have embarked on a tour to end poverty. In that tour they aim a lot of criticism at President Obama. Is the President beyond being criticized, the answer is of course not. But the critique should come from a good place and it should acknowledge the good work that has been done. To say the president doesn't care about poor people or poor blacks specifically would be irresponsible. Despite the push of the healthcare bill and advocating for the extension of unemployment benefits Dr West has made no bones about calling a “Black mascot” for “Wall Street oligarchs.” What this really is the sour grapes tour because Tavis hates that the President didn't get the memo that he was some kind of black leader. West wants to remain relevant in the consciousness of America also and hey wouldn't the defacto black leader be the black president. The fact is that a lot you all don't see this obvious conflict going on here and don't understand that the President has to answer to the entire country not just the black voters.

First of the 12% percent of the population that we represent only helped to get the president elected. We did not do it all by ourselves. Secondly when he ran for president he pretty much ran a moderate. He said he would listen and compromise on different issues. Lastly can any of you tell me the black agenda because I have not gotten a memo lately. Because if its jobs, the economy or the housing situation then we and all other races have the same issues.