Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Coretta Scott King's funeral, Rove runs the GOP and my interview with Wally

Good evening, let's kick things off with Democracy Now!


Over 10,000 Attend Funeral Service for Coretta Scott King
In Georgia Tuesday, an estimated 10,000 people filled the pews of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in the Atlanta suburb of Lithonia, for the funeral of civil rights pioneer Coretta Scott King. Former presidents Jimmy Carter, George Herbert Walker Bush, Bill Clinton, and President George W. Bush attended the funeral along with 14 US senators and public figures including Maya Angelou, Oprah Winfrey and Stevie Wonder. King died January 30th at the age of 78 after seeking treatment in Mexico for ovarian cancer. She had just recently suffered a rehabilitating stroke and heart attack. At Tuesday’s service both former President Jimmy Carter and the former head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Reverend Joseph Lowery, made subtle criticism of President Bush. They cited the war in Iraq, civil liberties transgressions and accused the president of ignoring the plight of the US poor.

The people care about Coretta Scott King. The mainstream media ain't real concerned. The New York Times sure isn't. Check out this from C.I. on how the paper of no record ignored Coretta Scott King.


Report: Rove Threatens GOP Senate Judiciary Members Over Spy Program
Meanwhile, the conservative publication Insight on the News is reporting White House deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove is threatening any Republican Senate Judiciary members who challenge the White House on the domestic surveillance program. According to Insight, "Sources said the blacklist would mean a halt in any White House political or financial support of senators running for re-election in November.” A senior Republican aide told the publication: "It's hardball all the way."


What? You think Bully Boy knows how to play "hardball"? He knows how to cheer. He's grabbing his pom-poms and hopping around screaming "Beat 'em! Bust 'em! That's our custom!" While Karl plays hardball. Then he leaps in the air, kicks his legs real high and comes down in a split. The cheerleading Bully Boy. You know, I'd buy that doll -- just to laugh at it.

Now get over to Like Maria Said Paz today for Elaine's thought. I'm rushing tonight because I interviewed Wally an hour ago and I'm going to try to get that typed up and get this up at the regular time or close to it so Nina and me can head to the movies.

And speaking of laughs, ladies and gentleman, for the hour, Wally of The Daily Jot.

Wally: For the hour!

For the hour!

Wally: For the hour!

For the hour! How long do you think most readers would keep reading if we kept doing that?

Wally: I'm not sure and not sure we should push it. But what the heck, for the hour!

For the hour! That's our Larry King impression. We love doing that. We'll stop.

Wally: For now.

Okay, so let's kick this thing off. You do The Daily Jot. That's your site. Your blog. You started it back in October.

Wally: And you interviewed me before.

Right. October 20th.

Wally: By starting in October I missed the whole "Let's go to DC!" for the September protests.

Yeah and let me note who was there from the community:

The rallies are back. This time we all focus on D.C. Last time "we" included The Third Estate Sunday Review's Dona, Jess, Ty, Ava and Jim, Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude, Betty who was on the verge of starting Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man and C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review. This time we're joined by Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills), Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix, Mike of Mikey Likes It!, Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz, Ruth of Ruth's Morning Edition Report and her granddaughter Tracey.


Wally: And you all worked on "'Why Are You Here' and 'What's Changed'" which was all these voices from the protest.

And last weekend you went to DC with The Third Estate Sunday Review's Dona, Jess, Ty, Ava and Jim, C.I. of The Common Ills and Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills)?.

Wally: That was so cool. A lot of fun. I understand when you guys went before, you were focused and working like crazy. C.I. said at one point that maybe you got cheated out of some of the fun?

Cause it was my first time visiting? Yeah but we were there having fun. I think the thing was that in September there were tons of activites. Friday, Saturday and Sunday. But we did get to have fun and look around.

Wally: You also had good weather on your trip. "Dreary" was D.C. while we were there. But yeah, we went out to eat, went clubbing, lots of fun.

And you needed some fun. That week, you started out really depressed.

Wally: Oh yeah. The spineless Democrats. "I'll vote but I won't filibuster so why are people mad?" Because you were cowards. I was so disgusted.

C.I. told everyone, "Back off and let Wally have some space."

Wally: I read that on your site. Yeah, C.I. said take some time and just do whatever. It was good advice because if I hadn't, I'd probably be doing this interview with you right now to announce the end of The Jot.

It was that bad?

Wally: It really was. I really thought the Democrats would finally pull together, work together and prove that they could stand up for us. Then they rolled over and confirmed Alito. It just blew away all my illusions that they had spines.

It was really disappointing.

Wally: Yep and then comes the news about Coretta Scott King and it was just like, "I can't take anymore bad news."

So what happened? What changed?

Wally: Well, I guess I needed to wallow in despair. This was the first time I really thought we could make the party represent us and then when it was obvious that it wasn't happening, I just felt like, "What's the point?" When I said that to C.I., I was expecting a lecture like, "Well, it's a long fight and we just keep fighting" or something like that. And I honestly think I would've bagged it if that had happened, just quit blogging. But C.I. didn't say that, didn't give a lecture, just said to take time to relax and not worry or feel guilty about it.

And you did that.


Wally: And I did that and then I started having the itch to write something. But I didn't rush back. The Common Ills was all over the New York Times refusing to do an editorial or an op-ed about Coretta Scott King and I wanted to get in on that.

But you didn't.

Wally: Nope because that was one day. I could blog and then go back into my funk. So I took my time off and then Friday morning I called C.I. and said I was ready to fight again and that's when C.I. goes, "Do you want to go to DC? Kat and I are going for the World Can't Wait rally." And, yeah, did I! Absolutely. The only person more excited than me was my mom who thought it was a great thing and also was probably glad I wasn't in my dark mood. So, yeah, I went to DC. And I got to stay for the NSA hearing on Monday which was pretty cool.


And you've got a new direction at your blog that people are loving.

Wally: Yeah. It's "Bully Boy Press." I'm doing that right now. Just making fun of him. I don't know if that's from now on or just for right now. But it's a "jot" and that was one thing C.I. said to me: "You were going to jot and now you're doing all these heavy entries." That started with Florida. When Hurricane Wilma came through and no one seemed to care. So, I'm back to having fun with my site. I might change it up again, you never know. But I get to "Jot."

And you're not a first of the morning site now.

Wally: I never meant to be and kept saying that but it was like no one wanted to hear. Usually, I do it on campus when I've got a break between classes. I just e-mail it to my site and thanks to C.I. because we set that up when C.I. helped me set up my site back in October but it would never work. So while we were in DC we went in to my "dashboard" and "settings" together to figure out what was going on and we fixed it. So I'm usually posting at my site around two or three. Depending on if I bump into some friends or --

Scope out the ladies!

Wally: Scope out the ladies! You know it! Oops! You don't! You've got Nina!

That's right. No scoping for me. I never look. Never.

Wally: Dude, Nina is sooooo going to know you're being sarcastic.

It's cool. She'll notice other guys too.


Wally: Okay then.

So it's just really cool what you've done with your site and I wanted to talk to you about the new change and about how you were because you were pretty down.

Wally: Yep. I was really down. I bounced back. It was a blow, you know. Smart thing to do was to take time off.

You came back stronger.

Wally: Hope so.

Anything before we stop here because we put a time limit on this.

Wally: You hate typing!

I hate typing!

Wally: No. That's about all. Thanks to my old readers and everyone in the community for understanding I needed a break and sending lots of supportive e-mails.

I could say thank you but then you'd say you're welcome and we ain't going out like that. For the hour!

Wally: For the hour!

For the hour!

Wally: For the hour!

















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