High End Cultural White House Event

[wetibbe]

Don:

Whenever I have a couple of glasses of wine I usually loosen up and say things that are somewhat risque. Like now!

Please, drop it. Zip, it up. Don't respond any more.

I've been kicked off of many websites. Take it from an old salt. Never, ever engage in an argument with the administrator/owner. It is a foregone conclusion that you will lose.

I think you are level and a valuable contributor. Truth be known that I agree with you. In our democracy peope are completely entitled to their likes, dislikes and yes even racism. But these websites are not democratic.

Regards:

Bill Tibbe

[Jeanfromfillmore]

Originally Posted by wetibbe

Don:

Whenever I have a couple of glasses of wine I usually loosen up and say things that are somewhat risque. Like now!

Please, drop it. Zip, it up. Don't respond any more.

I've been kicked off of many websites. Take it from an old salt. Never, ever engage in an argument with the administrator/owner. It is a foregone conclusion that you will lose.

I think you are level and a valuable contributor. Truth be known that I agree with you. In our democracy peope are completely entitled to their likes, dislikes and yes even racism. But these websites are not democratic.

Regards:

Bill Tibbe

Bill, when it comes to race there's no right or no wrong. Each side of the issue has a point. But what has happened is race has been used as a weapon and no matter how or who approaches the subject, it will be distorted by someone either reading it or writing it.

That does not mean it should not be discussed, but to keep it within our guidelines we try to keep it to a minimum. Because no matter what is said, someone will be offended. Discussing it is a loser for both the person writing and the person reading. This is not because what is being said is not the truth, but because there is often so much to be said to the contrary, and it is up to the reader or writer to view it with the experience they've had.

I could tell you of many Blacks, Hispanics and Asians that are so level headed and understand exactly how race is being exploited to justify so many wrongs. Do I paint with a wide brush and include them when I speak against this exploitation? It is a hard balancing act when talking about race, and as I've often said, the written word is often misunderstood simply by how it is read.

[wetibbe]

Joan:

Thanks. I understand.

Practicing what I preach I am also zipping it up.

BTW - burp - hick, I'm presently sipping a California Chablis. It's Goooooo-d !!!!!!

[Jeanfromfillmore]

White House Defends Invite of Political Rapper to Poetry Event
The White House on Wednesday defended the invitation sent by first lady Michelle Obama to rapper and actor Common to attend a poetry event amid backlash over some of his lyrics that critics say promote violence.
Common, whose real name is Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr., is not considered a gangsta rapper, but some of his songs and poems feature violent imagery.
In one poem, he called for the metaphorical burning of President George W. Bush -- a "burning Bush." And in a song, he praised convicted cop-killer and former Black Panther Assata Shakur.
"While the president doesn't support the kind of lyrics raised here, we do think some of the reports distort what Mr. Lynn stands for more broadly in order to stoke controversy," White House spokesman Jay Carney said Wednesday.
"He is within the genre of hip hop and rap in what's known as a conscious rapper," he said, adding that President Obama appreciates the way Common tries to get children to focus on poetry, "as opposed to some of the negative influences of life on the street."
Carney added that he did not know whether the White House vetted the poetry to be recited at the reading Wednesday night.
"The fact is, Mr. Lynn has participated in other events in the past, including lighting the Christmas tree. I believe he's a multi-Grammy award winning artist and he's been invited to this event about poetry," Carney said.
Some conservatives have howled in protest over Common's invite.
"Oh lovely, White House," Sarah Palin said sarcastically in a tweet.
Karl Rove, a former Bush senior adviser, called Common a "thug."
"President Obama last week said he wanted to recapture that special moment we had after 9/11 and here a week later we have an example of how the White House thinks it can recapture that moment by inviting a thug to the White House -- a man who called for the death of President Obama's predecessor," Rove told Fox News.
Common shrugged off the criticism.
"Politics is politics and everyone is entitled to their own opinion, I respect that," he said in a tweet. "The one thing that shouldn't be questioned is my support for the police officers and troops that protect us every day."
In a 2007 poem entitled "A Letter to the Law," Common railed against the U.S. invasion of Iraq invasion while urban areas were being neglected.
"Seeing a fiend being hung/With that happening, why they messing with Saddam?
"Burn a Bush cos' for peace he no push no button/Killing over oil and grease/no weapons of destruction."
In 2000, Common released an album that included the song, "A Song for Assata," in which he portrayed Shakur, formerly known as Joanne Chesimard, as standing up to an abusive and lawless police force.
"Your power and pride is beautiful," he raps. "May God bless your soul."
Shakur was convicted in the 1973 murder of New Jersey state trooper Werner Foerster. She escaped prison six years later and is now living under political asylum in Cuba.
Former New Jersey state trooper Sal Maggio, who is the vice president of the Former Troopers Association, told Fox News that he opposes the White House invite to Common on the same week that law enforcement officers are honoring their fallen comrades.
"He shouldn't be let into the White House," he said. "I don't think any time is right for a man like this who proposes violence toward police."
But Maggio said he thinks that the president and the first lady didn't know about the lyrics to this song.
Common has also defended the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the pastor at the Obamas' church in Chicago who then-candidate Obama cut ties with after videos of his explosive sermons surfaced during the 2008 presidential campaign.
In the sermons, Wright accused the U.S. government of racism and in the days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. "America's chickens are coming home to roost" after it dropped atomic bombs on Japan and "supported state terrorism against Palestinians and black South Africans," Wright said at the time.
"He never really was against white people or another race," Common told Electronic Urban Report in 2008. "It was more against an establishment that was oppressing people. I think we all can see that this country has problems and a lot of it starts in the political system."
Common said during the 2008 presidential race that Wright's sermons were filled with love, not hate.
"What I picked up from the pews…was messages of love," he said. "Anything that was going on against that love he would acknowledge and expose. He's been a preacher that's helped raise one of the greatest political figures in the world, and hopefully, the next president. He's also raised one of the greatest rappers in the world."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011...#ixzz1M4rwBJDx

[Kathy63]

No one finds it at all unusual or objectionable that of the two rap poets invited to the white house, BOTH strenuously object to interracial marriage.

[Don]

Originally Posted by Kathy63

No one finds it at all unusual or objectionable that of the two rap poets invited to the white house, BOTH strenuously object to interracial marriage.

Interesting reaction. Like most black "artists" and black "activists", this guy defends black murderers and robbers. He supports people who have been convicted of murdering (white) police officers.

Yet many conservatives object to this "poet" because he opposes interracial marriage, "racism" being considered a more serious transgression than murdering white people.

[ilbegone]

Originally Posted by Don

Interesting reaction. Like most black "artists" and black "activists", this guy defends black murderers and robbers. He supports people who have been convicted of murdering (white) police officers.

Yet many conservatives object to this "poet" because he opposes interracial marriage, "racism" being considered a more serious transgression than murdering white people.

I don't know why Obama invites rappers to the white house, maybe it's some sort of clueless pandering - there's an elecetion coming up. But this I know for sure; Obama has less in common with most blacks in America than you, Don, have with all those Jews you're constantly babbling about.