History In The Making

Today's blog is going to take a slightly different turn. I took it verbatim from MSN news as I felt it was important to mark a historical milestone with factual information as opposed to my read on this subject matter so read and enjoy:

Barack Obama was poised to reach a major milestone Tuesday in the Kentucky and Oregon primaries — a majority of the elected delegates offered in the Democratic presidential contest — even as Hillary Clinton soldiered on despite her dwindling hopes.

Clinton was vowing to continue the fight through the last primaries in early June as polls opened across Kentucky, a state she was expected to win by a wide margin. Obama was favored in Oregon, where supporters delivered the largest crowd of his campaign on Sunday in Portland.
Regardless of who prevails in those states, Obama was assured that he would be able to claim the largest share of elected delegates who could be won in the long slog of votes since January.
The Illinois senator's campaign is touting the milestone as a big step toward ending the epic nomination battle with Clinton. Superdelegate sway having a majority of delegates elected in state primaries and caucuses could help Obama's case with undecided superdelegates — the party insiders who are not tied to primary or caucus results — to pick up the pace of their endorsements. Superdelegate support is crucial because neither candidate will have enough delegates from the remaining primaries to clinch the nomination without them.

Including superdelegates, Obama had 1,916 delegates to Clinton's 1,721 going into Tuesday's primaries in which 103 delegates are at stake in the two states.
NBC's national delegate count, including superdelegates, currently stands at 1,723.5 for Clinton and 1,905.5 for Obama.

[There are differences in how news organizations count delegates, how they award superdelegates, how they account for states that have held caucuses but have not yet chosen their delegates, and how they project the apportionment of delegates within Congressional districts where the vote was close. The Associated Press and NBC News conduct separate delegate counts.]

By early Wednesday, Obama could be just 50 to 75 delegates short of the total 2,026 needed to nominate a candidate at the party's national convention in Denver in late August.

McCain targeting Obama: Republican John McCain has already been targeting Obama in his campaign speeches as his likely opponent in the November election. On Monday the longtime Arizona senator accused Obama of inexperience and reckless judgment for saying Iran does not pose the same serious threat to the United States as the Soviet Union did in its day.
Obama has been increasingly presenting himself as the nominee as he looks ahead to the battleground swing states in the general election. On Tuesday night, he planned to hold a rally in Iowa, where he won the leadoff caucuses in early January.

Since Iowa, Obama has won 1,610.5 pledged delegates — leaving him just 17 short of a majority of the 3,253 pledged delegates up for grabs. He is sure to cover the gap in Tuesday's primaries because the delegates are allocated proportionately.
(NBC's pledged delegate count currently stands at 1,602 for Obama.)

Of the nearly 800 superdelegates, about a quarter of them have not declared support for either candidate. On Monday, Obama picked up six more superdelegates. Clinton added none.
Clinton has mounting campaign debts, but she vowed there was "no way that this is going to end anytime soon" as she campaigned Monday in Kentucky.

The New York senator soldiered on through event after event, ending her night Monday in Louisville before a crowd of several hundred, her voice raspy.
"There are a lot of people who wanted to end this election before you had a chance to vote," she said, husband and former President Bill Clinton at her side. "I'm ready to go to bat for you if you'll come out and vote for me."
Some of Clinton's female supporters urged Clinton in a full-page ad in The New York Times not to give up.
"We want Hillary to stay in this race until every vote is cast, every vote is counted, and we know that our voices are heard," said the Tuesday ad, paid for by the Women Count political action committee.

'Desire to unify 'But former Sen. Tom Daschle, a key Obama adviser, said now is the time for Democrats to coalesce behind Obama in order to defeat McCain.
"We want to begin the process of bringing this party together, and I think that over the last few weeks we've seen indications at virtually all levels in both campaigns that there's a desire to do that," Daschle told CBS's "The Early Show."
"That doesn't mean we're going to do it tomorrow or the next day, but clearly there is a desire to unify."

Obama, seeking to become the first black U.S. president, won the endorsement of Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, the longest-serving senator in history and a former member of the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan and one-time opponent of civil rights legislation.

Nationally, Obama holds his largest lead yet over Clinton in the Gallup Poll, 55 percent to her 39 percent. The poll, released Monday, was conducted among 1,261 Democratic voters and has a 3 percentage point margin of error. Back in mid-January, Clinton held a 20 percentage point lead in the Gallup Poll.

Obama campaigned Monday in Montana, where voters will join those from South Dakota on June 3 in dropping the curtain on the 2008 primary and caucus season.
The Illinois senator rarely mentions Clinton now except to praise her "magnificent" campaign. Instead, Obama sought to exploit McCain's ties to lobbyists, drawing a contrast between the Arizona senator's reputation as a reformer and his relationship to special interests in his campaign.

McCain recently adopted conflict-of-interest guidelines that led to the departures of several campaign aides due to their links to lobbyists. While campaigning in Georgia, he dared Obama to follow his lead on the guidelines.

Although Obama does not take money from federal lobbyists and political action committees, he does accept cash from state lobbyists and corporate executives interested in issues before Congress. He has had unpaid advisers with federal lobbying clients, and some of his campaign officials were lobbyists before.

After Tuesday, only three primaries remain on the Democratic calendar. Puerto Rico, with 55 delegates, holds its primary on June 1; Montana, with 16 delegates, and South Dakota, with 15, vote two days later.

Double Standard - Maybe ?

What is it with the double standard of the world we all live in today. Why is it right for people to take potshots at our black political candidates and just be able to apologize it away but everything said by anyone vaguely connected to the same black candidate or someone he might have know in his life automatically becomes his thoughts, ideals and morals. Point of reference - Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Of all the speeches and sermons he has preached in his career, white America latches on to 5 minutes of pieced together statements and all of a sudden Barack Obama shares his philosophies and ideals. That is the biggest line of B.S. I have ever heard. Follow me here.

During a speech before the National Rifle Association convention Friday afternoon in Louisville, Kentucky, former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee — who has endorsed presumptive GOP nominee John McCain — joked that an unexpected offstage noise was Democrat Barack Obama looking to avoid a gunman.

“That was Barack Obama, he just tripped off a chair, he's getting ready to speak,” said the former Arkansas governor, to audience laughter. “Somebody aimed a gun at him and he dove for the floor.”

Obama supports extending the assault weapons ban, limits on gun sales, and a national law against carrying concealed weapons, with exceptions for retired police and military personnel.

UPDATE, 8:28 PM: Huckabee released the following statement regarding his comments Friday, according to the New York Times website:

During my speech at the N.R.A., a loud noise backstage, that sounded like a chair falling, distracted the crowd and interrupted my speech. I made an off hand remark that was in no way intended to offend or disparage Sen. Obama. I apologize that my comments were offensive. That was never my intention.

Is that it? Is that all we get. Why is not the world crucifying John McCain for hanging out with this clown. Could we safely say that his statement is representative of the whole Republican Party or even further, the whole Anglo-Saxon race. How can they say Rev. Wright speaks for all of the blacks and at the same time, the whites do not have an all inclusive spokesman.

There is a serious double standard going on and it has to stop. We live in America so I do believe in free speech but I also believe the playing field should be level. I do not like what Huckabee said but I have to respect his right to say it. As for Rev Wright, I believe the same. I would not have said it at such a crucial time and might have gone underground for the time being but like I used to say about O.J Simpson, "If he is guilty of the crimes, He should be punished, I don't know why he would have done it, But I understand"

Peace And Blessings

Blame It On My Head And Not My Heart

I forgot to mention in my blog this morning - Thank You to my Ace B-Luv for the hearts and flowers on his blogspot. it is nice to be appreciated. I want all of my readers to go to the sites I will list and give them some love. B's sister amber is an olympic caliber track and field star who is pursuing a spot on the next olympic team. Let's go folks, show her some support and chck out her spot.

ambercampbellthrows.blogspot.com

cbi5thgear.blogspot.com

See you all on Monday

Peace and love

Blacks and Whites Differ As Investors - Sharply

I am going to do something a little different today. Instead of writing my opinion on this subject, I will state some facts based on my research. Hopefully, it will help somone out there reading this entry. Enjoy and God Bless:

Americans' decisions about how to invest their money are as different as black and white. So says a new survey of African-American and non-African-American investors released exclusively to MONEY; it was commissioned by Chicago-based Ariel Mutual Funds and conducted by pollster Roper Starch Worldwide. The most intriguing finding in this first-of-a-kind nationwide mail survey is this: Black investors are often less willing than whites to take the risks necessary to achieve high returns from their portfolios.

The highlights:

African Americans aim for higher returns than whites on average, but their investment choices fall short. Blacks said they seek an average 14.7% annual return, more than three points higher than the 11.2% anticipated by non-African Americans. But African Americans are less likely than whites to have investments like stocks and stock mutual funds that are most likely to achieve such returns. "African Americans are often inhibited from plunging into the stock market because many of our parents and grandparents were not involved in investing.

Women are much more likely to call the financial shots in black households. Women are the primary financial decisionmakers for 21% of African-American married couples, while wives play that role for just 10% of white couples. "Particularly in African-American families, middle-class status is maintained with both paychecks," says Brooke Stephens, author of Talking Dollars and Making Sense: A Wealth Building Guide for African Americans (McGraw-Hill, $14.95). "Women are more involved because we've had to work just as hard for it."

African Americans are more likely than whites to rely on financial advisers and less likely to listen to friends or family members. "Since many blacks are first- or second-generation investors at best, there is no pattern of behavior to follow, so they often feel more secure relying on professional help," says financial consultant Daron Fullwood in Greenbelt, Md., who has a large number of African-American clients. That may explain why a full 54% of blacks surveyed said that they would rely on a financial adviser or planner when making savings and investment decisions (vs. 46% of whites). By contrast, 31% are inclined to ask friends or family for money advice, compared with 39% of whites.

Based on the poll results, experts we've interviewed offer these three tips to help African Americans increase their wealth--their median net worth ($4,418) remains a mere fraction of whites' ($45,740)--and approach the high returns they anticipate:

Boost your ownership in stocks and stock funds. Start by investing through your employer's professionally managed 401(k) or 403(b) retirement savings plan. If you want to buy individual stocks, consider joining or starting a local investment club.
If you want to hire a financial planner, choose one who understands your needs and financial temperament. For referrals, call a trade group like the International Association for Financial Planning (800-945-4237) or the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (800-366-2732). Interview at least three certified financial planners, and be clear about your primary goal.

Even if ethical investing and seeking stocks with integrated management are important to you, don't lose sight of profit performance. According to the survey, blacks are twice as likely to favor socially responsible investments as whites. And 51% of blacks say the diversity of a company's management is very important when they invest; only 10% of whites feel this way. Socially conscious mutual funds tend to underperform their peers, though comparisons are difficult since many of these funds are new.

The top performer, Domini Social Equity Fund (800-762-6814), returned an admirable 17.95% a year on average over the past three years. But remember: If you're going for 14% returns, you're better off scrutinizing a company's earning potential and its strategic plan than, say, its diversity. A company's work force might be black, brown and white.

But the only color that pays is green.

What Is The Race Card ?

The majority of people of African descent, living in America, do not have the luxury of compartmentalizing our collective experience here in America, beginning with forced immigration, enslavement, the Black Codes, Jim Crow, and after slavery, in modern times, the long list of inequalities and abuses that have been brought down upon our heads as a result of who we are and our past relationship to those in stewardship, of non African descent, in America, when we express our feelings, beliefs and concerns over our past and for our as yet to be known futures in America.

Many Americans find it difficult and it makes them uneasy to hear a perspective that does not reflect the experiences of their own. It's difficult to understand another's perspective if one can't hear the speaker because one doesn't like what the speaker is saying.

Race, in America, has remained a divisive force among many Americans, not because America's citizens of African descent speak of it; because the society has never reconciled itself to the reality that for centuries, those of African descent lived in a world so different, with many continuing to do so, it would seemingly require, literally, a physical transformation and, as that saying attributed to caretakers of the land before the establishment of European colonies here, the ability to 'walk in another's moccasins'.

Numerous studies and reports, regarding societal development along separate paths in the United States, including the report from the Kerner Commission, commissioned by President Lyndon B. Johnson, have been conducted over the past few decades that indicate all that has transpired in America, since its inception, has shaped the psyches and consciences of all in America, Black and White, resulting in divergent view points on many things due to our life experiences.

The African slave trade and the system of chattel slavery became major sources of wealth for Europe. Estimates of the number of Africans taken from the continent during the nearly five hundred year period, including the East Coast Slave Trade, carried on by the Arabs of the Middle East, reaches beyond 30 million, taking into account all the European nations involved in the transport of Africans.

As Europe emerged out of the times known as the Dark Ages and as it recovered from the loss of life during the plague that came to be known as the Black Death, the wealth generated from the transport of Africans and their enslavement allowed Europe to continue to rebuild, seeking new, previously unexplored territories outside of Europe.

All who partook of the wealth generated during the slave trade received a leg up, economically, at the expense of lowering an entire continent of people to the status of less than human for those purposes.

I hear and read, nearly on a nonstop basis, the admonition to just 'get over slavery'. Our lives here right now are representative of our ancestors somehow grabbing hold to their belief in a Creator and against so many odds, including choosing not to take their own lives out of heartbreak and despair, who lived to continue, despite their hardships and struggles, in spite of slavery, so that each generation reaped the benefit of the succeeding generations' struggles, propelling us forward until we've arrived here.

One of the silliest notions that exists, whenever anyone of African descent speaks of historical matters that occurred due to America's history and how it viewed race, is that the speaker is playing the 'race' card.

For most within the African American community, the 'race' card is not some trump card that helps you 'win' any discussion or debate. Virtually every time, whenever race is mentioned by an African American, nearly every discussion veers off course, with the speaker being called out for expressing a belief based on their life experience.

This is not a unique set of circumstances or occurrences to be spoken of in our community. Is speaking of these incidents somehow playing the 'race' card? I'm sure many would most likely say it is.

In reality, that imaginary 'race' card? It's more like the Old Maid card in the children's card game of that same name because, if you're an African American, when you get stuck with that card in your hand at the end of the game, you lose.

I Paid $3.94 A Gallon And Think I Am Pissed

Embrace the memory of the average $3.21 cents we paid for each gallon of regular unleaded gasoline purchased Memorial Holiday weekend in 2007. The chances are we'll pay a lot more this year and the years after that.

Abandon your conspiracy theories, your worries that global oil companies are gouging us at the pump. For the record, they are. It's the kind of profiteering that accompanies any crisis -- war and rumors of war, hurricanes, or other actual or imminent disasters.

What the oil companies are doing isn't moral. Nor is it illegal. But it is business.
Crises usually are profitable for people positioned to exploit them; and they usually are costly for those who aren't. When it comes to oil and the motor fuels it provides, we're in a crisis. We've been in a crisis for nearly 30 years now.
But the only times we've paid attention to it were during those rare, for us, seasons of gasoline shortages, such as the spot shortages that occurred in the United States in the early 1970s. What we now regard as high gasoline prices -- laughable in the rest of the developed world -- have also gotten our attention.
We're upset. Life is unfair. Someone has taken away our cheap gasoline. It just isn't right.

Damn those oil companies and their lackeys in the automotive industry, especially in Detroit, who busily are churning out gas-guzzling trucks when everybody knows that all we've ever wanted in the United States were fuel-sipping sedans such as the gas-electric Toyota Prius. Never mind that Toyota got the money for the Prius through highly profitable sales of models such as the Toyota Land Cruiser, Toyota Sequoia and FJ Cruiser sport-utility vehicles. Never mind that Toyota, hungry for the dollars that Detroit has been raking in on sales of big pickup trucks, is going after that particular cash pile with its new, super-powerful, quite fuel-thirsty Toyota Tundra CrewMax pickup truck.

Fie on those Detroit companies! They have no interest in producing fuel-efficient vehicles. Never mind that they've been doing exactly that for decades in other parts of the world where gasoline isn't dirt cheap. Never mind that they tried on numerous occasions to do the same thing in the bigger-is-always-better United States, much to their fiscal distress.

And on that point, never mind that any American who wanted a car that could get at least 30 miles per gallon could have done so, most certainly, in the last two decades. But year after year, according to U.S. automotive sales histories, those cars lingered at the very bottom of the market regardless of whether they came from Japan, the United States or Europe.

But I digress. I was writing about the crisis. It is this: Despite all of the happy talk you hear from lawmakers who have fooled themselves into believing that the next big exploitable oil reserve is bubbling just beneath the surface of our national will to pump it from the ground or the sea, despite profound media hand-wringing over the putative sins of the oil industry or their cronies in the car business, despite the inane congressional tendency to try to avert an energy crisis by making the car companies produce more fuel-efficient vehicles while asking consumers to do nothing except sit and wait for gasoline prices to come down, world oil production cannot match the trajectory of demand.

No magic turn of the OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) oil wheel is going to alleviate that problem over the long term. No amount of U.S. military boots on the ground of someone else's oil-producing country is going to ultimately alter the inevitable outcome of rapid global consumption of a finite resource.

What is odd -- indeed what is scary -- is that there are so many Americans who don't get this, who don't believe it, who think that a quick fix is just around the corner. When you think about it, our mindset about oil is very much like that of a crack addict desperate for his or her next fix: "There must be some around here somewhere. I've got to have it. What must I do to get it? Whom must I kill? From whom must I steal?"

It's a useless pursuit.

We consume 20.8 million barrels of crude oil per day. But we daily produce only 5.2 million barrels of that amount within U.S. borders. We use 25 percent of the total oil and gasoline consumed in the world -- substantially more than any other country, including those that have no fuel economy rule. But we believe that fuel economy rules alone -- effectively shifting the burden of fuel conservation to the car companies while leaving the consumer side of the equation virtually untouched -- will solve our problem.

It's time to face up and fess up: We're high on cheap gasoline. Our current distemper is caused by the reality that in a world that loves the stuff as much as we do and that is beginning to use it with a profligacy that matches our own, we're going to have to pay much more to get it.

There is not an inexhaustible supply of oil. There is not now, nor has there ever been, and nor will there ever be an inexhaustible finite resource. Get over it. Let's start withdrawing now. Let's face, share, and manage the pain. Let's deal with our own greed either by using only what we need or paying more of the real price for using more than what is needed. Yeah, carbon and horsepower taxes, and congestion pricing to control the egregious fuel waste in urban rush-hour traffic jams.

When it comes to oil, it's not going to get much better than this.