You know I wasn’t born in this country. I was born in Gujarat, India. We moved here when I was 4 years old, so Cleveland’s really where I grew up & learned everything (school & street).
My b-day’s in May, & 1 month after my 18th birthday, my sister & I got naturalized. The only reason we got naturalized was so that we could vote. Seriously, we had no other benefit from it at the time. We just thought that we should have a say in the country that had become our home. And I’ve voted in every election since then & every primary except for one. The very 1st time I voted, I took my (then) 5 yr old brother in w/ me so he could see what the excitement was all about. And I was full of excitement that very 1st time.
I guess this year, I’ve just been so shocked/surprised by how many ppl over 30 have never registered or voted. I’ve heard ppl say that this is the 1st election they will vote in, & they are 40 years old. I was just appalled the 1st few times I heard that.
I really don’t care* who you or anybody votes for, I just think everybody should cast a ballot.
Anyway, enough of my self-righteousness…..
You remember those wazzzzzup commercials? Well, this is for you, then.
*That’s not really true, I do care. I’m not that open-minded. I believe what I believe & would love to make ppl vote the same way I do. But that’s not kosher, & you’re not really supposed to say that outside of your own head.
I can’t believe we are about to execute (EXECUTE!) a man that may be innocent. There has been SO MUCH doubt in his trial. I’ve posted about him since June of 2007, & I thought for sure the court would be fair. But alas….
Let’s go over the facts:
There was no physical evidence against Troy Davis.
The weapon used was never found.
The case against him consisted entirely of witness testimony.
All but two of the state’s non-police witnesses have recanted or contradicted their testimony.
Many of these witnesses have stated that they were pressured or coerced by the police.
One of the witnesses who has not recanted is Sylvester Coles, the principle alternative suspect.
Nine individuals have signed affadavits implicating Sylvester Coles.
Troy Davis has never had a hearing in federal court on the reliability of the witness testimony used against him.
Ok, so remember the ppl who recanted their stories? Well, Abolish the Death Penalty has what they specifically said about it:
Darrell Collins: “[The police] were telling me that I was an accessory to murder and that I would … go to jail for a long time and I would be lucky if I ever got out, especially because a police officer got killed…I was only sixteen and was so scared of going to jail.“
Antoine Williams: “After the officers talked to me, they gave me a statement and told me to sign it. I signed it. I did not read it because I cannot read … I was totally unsure whether he was the person who shot the officer. I felt pressured to point at him … I have no idea what the person who shot the officer looks like.“
Jeffrey Sapp: “The police came and talked to me and put a lot of pressure on me…. They wanted me to tell them that Troy confessed to me about killing that officer. The thing is, Troy never told me anything about it. I got tired of them harassing me …. I told them that Troy did it, but it wasn’t true.“
Daniel Kinsman: “[T]here was and is no doubt in my mind that the person who shot the officer had the gun in and was shooting with his left hand.” Davis is right-handed.
Shirley Riley: “People on the streets were talking about Sylvester Coles being involved with killing the police officer, so one day I asked him if he was involved …. Sylvester told me he did shoot the officer.“
Joseph Washington: “I am positive that it was Red [Coles] who shot the police officer… [He] was wearing a white shirt…I had no idea that the shirt…was important because no one ever asked me…I would have testified to this but I was not asked by the state or by Troy’s lawyers.“
Please, everyone, click on the pic below to go to Amnesty International’s site & read about him. I’d love for all of you to sign the letter for him, but I’d be happy if you just read about him & share it w/ someone (ANYone) else.
Is it just me? Is your spam getting really, really specific?
I kinda freaked when I saw this in my spam folder…I im’d my bff (freaking out) about it, & she said (jokingly, I hope) that they’re watching me.
If they are watching me, does that mean that I LOOK over 30? I take care of my skin. I still get carded. Ppl in real life always think I’m younger. I even know someone who celebrated my 30th b-day w/ me, cake & all. And a few weeks ago, told me I had nothing to worry about b/c I wasn’t even 30 yet (we were talking about me, Mr. T, & the prospect of any motherhood for me, like ever).
Few weeks ago, over $4.00.
Last week, $3.77.
Yesterday, $3.55.
My mom said it’s supposed to go down to $3.41 soon.
I feel like this is the gov’t.’s way of giving me blood money. My heart sinks everytime I see the prices go down. The lower we fall, I know the more we’re going to pay for it later. It’s gonna hit us in the gut & I’m afraid some of us won’t be able to rise back up.
I knew this would happen. I wanted to blog about this on July 14th. The day Bush overturned that ban on offshore drilling, I felt punched in the stomach. I just felt so sick to my stomach. Like seriously nauseous. I just hoped that we’ve elected a Congress smart enough to not make his executive order come to fruition.
The very next day, the price of oil per barrel dropped. It’s been dropping since. I know it’s only dropping cause ppl think that we’re gonna be drowning in all the crude oil our lil hearts can take real soon. But that ain’t happenin, Charlie.
What’s gonna happen when ppl realize that this isn’t the solution? It’s just gonna skyrocket way past what we thought was high before. The truth is, this country’s been spoiled as far as gas prices go for decades now. If ppl think they can’t afford gas now, they’re gonna be in for a rude awakening when it hits over $8.00 a gallon. That’s what I think will happen when ppl realize that offshore drilling’s not the end-all to this prob.
Please don’t let this congress let us down.
Here’s the long & short of it (mostly long, cause c’mon, you know I ramble):
- if (if) there’s oil to be found, it will be decades (decades) before we actually got that oil & the price drop from it would be minimal. It would come out to a 2¢ drop, 20 years from now.
- 80% of US produced oil (from US reserves) is from 4 states: LA, TX, AK, & CA. If we wanted to find more, our best best would be the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).
- Um… do you know what “National Wildlife Refuge” even means? It means, you told those animals that you weren’t going to destroy their home for your own evil means.
- If they spent a decade looking/finding/drilling for oil, there’s only realistically a year’s worth up there. You’re gonna destroy the sanctuary for that? Really? Really?
- It is very (very) likely that any oil drilled from ANWR will never be sold in the US. It will be sold off to the highest International bidder (most likely China). (C’mon, ppl, didja forget we’re a capitalist society?)
- Currently, we have 500 oil spills in Alaska every year. Yeah, they don’t exactly advertise that. You don’t think that’s gonna decrease when they have more new drilling monstrosities?
- Seismic testing to locate oil creates decibel levels of 260 – twice as loud as an ambulance – underwater. Exposure to these levels of noise underwater can cause disorientation, brain hemorrhaging, or even beaching for whales and dolphins. Only last week over 100 melon-head whales beached off of Madagascar close to where ExxonMobil was conducting seismic testing. (6/19/2008, from Greenpeace website)
Here’s a video of a guy who spent 3 months hiking across Alaska, & spent a LOT of time in the ANWR (it’s 3½ mins ppl):
What we need is an alternate solution. My main concern is that we will lose track of what’s imp: trying to develop alternative renewable energies.
Like this Pickens Plan that this guy T. Boone has.
Yeah, that didn’t link to what you thought it was gonna link to, eh? You sick, sick ppls!
Anyway, I have a couple thoughts on that.
1- they say one of the main factors is that the girl in the video didn’t testify. I’m wondering if anyone’s checked for any weird (& extreme) activity in her bank account since this case has arisen. I’m just sayin.
and deux- I think anyone who has that video on their computer should face some sort of child porn charges. Yes, that prob means a few of the ppl who come to this post googling this whole situation.
No, I haven’t seen the video. No, I have no plans to ever see the video. And yes, I did just write that in a huffy-pretentious voice.
UPDATE: Ok, I was gonna post a comment, but it turned really long, so I’m just adding it here as a radio edit.
It’s absolutely crazy. Kids are having sex at the age of like 12 in suburbs & even younger in inner cities. I’ve heard this from kids! It’s insane & outta control.
I’m so scared for our youth.
The other thing is, I think she was totally willing (as were other teenage girls). And they don’t regret it when they’re older. It’s a “cool thing”. And if they did regret it (doubtful), they would never testify against someone so famous that so many ppl love. Some crazy fans would try to stalk/hurt them if Kells ever went to jail.
I was listening to a radio show while in Chi-town one weekend, & there were a couple girls who called in bragging about having slept w/ him a decade ago when they were teens. Who knows if they were legit, or if they were making it up? But regardless, it was seen as a cool experience.
They mean ill-will & harm to a particular group of ppl. How many ppl die here in the US b/c of their race, religion, gender (transgender), or sexual-orientation? How many are harmed or die, & it goes unreported? It’s sickening.
story: Brigitte Bardot wrote a letter to (then) Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy. In the letter, she provoked discrimination and racial hatred; stating that Muslims are destroying France.
She wrote that France was “tired of being led by the nose by this population that is destroying us, destroying our country by imposing its acts.”
Her statements were also published in her foundation’s quarterly journal.
France has anti-racism laws that “prevent inciting hatred and discrimination on racial or religious or racial grounds”. Bardot has already been convicted four times for this in the past.
*obviously not a happy fairy tale, but a morbid, sad one.
I’m going to my parent’s house tonight. It feels like I haven’t been there in a while; & I know my ma wants to see me. She’d gotten used to seeing me 2-3 times a week. & now that I’ve moved to the east-side, she’s only seen me twice in the last month (both times cause I had to go home to take care of my taxes).
Plus, I get my sunglasses back. I left them there a week ago when I went to do my taxes; & of course it’s been sunny everyday since, even on the rain-days.
Which brings me to the reason for this post… I’ve been leaving things everywhere.
I left my sunglasses at my parent’s house. Left my lil pill bottle (with Advil, Tylenol, etc.) at Mr. T’s house. Lost my black cosmetics case who knows where?!!? I guess I’ll hunt around when I’m at my parent’s tonight, but can’t imagine where else it can possibly be.
If it’s not there, I’m just afraid I might have been at a counter somewhere, & pulled it to set on the counter while I got my wallet out to pay. Then, just forgot to put it back in. I kept everything I always need with me in that black cosmetic case. B/c I change purses so often, I just keep everything in that or in my wallet. Then, when swapping bags, I just need to grab 2 things outta one & into the other.
Bing-Bam-Boom. Done.
But I’ve obviously just been leaving things everywhere. It makes me wonder if I’m subconsciously leaving all these lost objects here & there like a trail for me to go back to; like in Hansel & Gretel
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In other fairy-tale news, I really wanna go see Penelope. One of my MySpace friends** saw it & I asked her if she just loved it; of course she did & said I would too. Actually, what she said was that she’d seen it 3 times & that all women who value fairy-tales should see it. Um…. that’s totally ME!
**I call her my MySpace friend b/c although I’ve hung out with her before in real life, I’ve had more conversations with her via MySpace than in real life. I think I had her phone number at one point, but not anymore, so I think MySpace really is the only way I can even contact her directly.
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I do love fairy tales. It’s weird that I can’t really watch horror movies or read like Stephen King books or anything like that; but I’ll totally read the most horrifying fairy tales. Like the Brothers Grimm stuff? Or, some old Indian tales? Some of them are so vicious & violent.
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The last tidbit of randomness for the day? I’ve had that song, “How do you solve a problem like Maria?” from The Sound of Music running through my head all day today.
Hi everyone. Yes, I’m still here. Sorry I’ve been all absent & stuff. Just a lot going on. I always have 10 days off work from just before Christmas to January 2nd every year, but guess what? This year, I spent much of that time all sick. Yuk.
That’s the worst; well, for me anyway. I’ve told y’all before how I’m super-busy at work from November to March. Like, so crazy busy I have NO time for anything. Well, I look forward all year to that lil break I get at the end of December so that I can have my normal life back, & of course this year, I was all sick for the entire period.
Also, major life-changing news in my life: Mr. T & I broke up. This really is life-changing. We weren’t just bf/gf; we were s’posed to get all married & stuff (this upcoming October). We’d been together for about half-a-decade. That’s a long time to be that close to a person. There really wasn’t anything we didn’t share with each other. So, it’s kinda weird when something happens & the person you normally tell that thing to just isn’t the person you can still tell it to.
Yes, I’m still ending sentences in prepositions. Oh, & talkin about ‘tions, I still haven’t made a New Year’s resolution yet. Although in my defense, I’ve been sayin ‘yo’ more often than I’ve changed my underwear so far this year.
Yeah, I know… it’s hot.
Ok, so what else….? OH- Guess what comes along with a huge break-up? More hot-stuff… zits! Yeah, I’ve gotten one zit after another. And so now, I’ve got myself a binary-zit. That’s when 2 zits decide to orbit around each other. And lucky me, it’s right on my cheek!
I know…. hot.
I put up a pic of a cantaloupe, b/c I know that the FCC would fine me if I put up a pic of my binary zit. It’s about time for them to make an example of someone to keep us in line; & I just don’t have an extra $300,000 lying around, ya know?
So, I was thinking of my whole one zit after another complex I’m going through right now, & I thought of something. You know how everyone likes melons? No, seriously, there’s a melon out there for everyone. I myself LOVE all melon, but I think honeydews my fave. Santa Claus is cool too, but you have to be in the mood for it cause it’s so sweet. But I do love all melon.
Well, I was thinking of pick-up lines from guys (b/c all guys have them, & most are NOT creative). And thinking of melon. And it hit me! Why can’t a guy who loves melons (99.9% of guys) also love zits on chicks?
Like, why won’t a guy come up to me & be all like:
Damn girl! That sexy thing on yo face reminds me of cantaloupe, & I’ve gots ta get me sum cantaloupe! I just wanna lick it!
But nooooo, I’m not hearing that. Weird, huh?
Oh, & this post is dedicated to Jen, who’s been asking me for months to update. Holla!
So, remember last year, when I went Pink for October? You can click the box below for more info on Pink for October.
Well, I was visiting aquababie again, & remembered it’s that time again. But I’ve already been pink for the last 2 months now, so I’m just gonna change my linkage colors to pink-friendly shades.
I’d written about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad before. He had said then that he wouldn’t do Oli Stone’s doc b/c he wants nothing to do w/ the US b/c anything to do w/ the US relates to “the Great Satan”.
Sooooo…. um, isn’t Columbia University in the US? So, why’d he do that? You know what I really wanna know that I can’t seem find out? How much did they pay him to appear & speak?
You know what I mean? Seriously, even if you wanted Carrot Top to come to your school to speak, you’d have to pay him, & put him up in swanky digs & stuff. So, how much? And the students are ok w/ having contributed to his income?
Y’all remember the tasering that happened at John Kerry’s todo at the University of Florida last week? I mean, they freakin tasered him! He just didn’t agree w/ Kerry. I mean, his tuition & fees helped bring Kerry there, so he’s got a right to say what he wants. I think The Idea of Progress did a great post on it. Yes, he got carried away, & shoulda been removed b/c he was getting in the way of the others who also contributed & actually did want to hear what the Ker-ster had to say. But to TASER him; that’s just sickening. I’ve written about another tasering at a sunny school before too; & so y’all know I’m just pretty anti-tasering.
But the Columbia president paid Ahmadinejad to come to speak there, & then just bent him over & spanked him? If we’re going to taser anyone who is adamantly against whoever we pay to come speak at the school, shouldn’t that be consistent?
The kid paying tuition & fees gets tasered. The president who collects his income from the tuition & fees doesn’t. I’m not saying he shoulda got tasered. I’m saying the kid shouldn’t have.
I hate inconsistencies. Ahmadinejad saying he wants nothing to do w/ the US, then coming here to speak. Someone getting tasered for causing a scene at a lecture, & someone else being commended for it (even though he himself paid big money to the offender?). What’s up w/ all dat yo?!?!
Oh, yeah, & then Evo Morales spoke at Cooper Union on Monday, & said that capitalism is “the worst enemy of humanity”. He got thunderous applause from the 200 students that came to hear him speak. So, don’t tell me it has anything to do w/ denouncing our way of life. Maybe it’s just cause they’re such a hippie school.
Sidenote: don’t think I’m anti Evo, cause I’m not. I think it’s cool that a poor farmer w/ no “formal education” can become president. I put “formal education” in quotes not b/c I love quotes so much, but b/c I don’t think a person’s intelligence or common sense comes is relative to the level of his degree. There are so many ppl among us who may not have formal training, but may be smarter or more qualified than those with a doctoral degree. But that’s a post for another day. Or not (you know how lazy I can be about posting).
