Cobb

The National Nullity

It ain't all good, and that's the truth
Thangs ain't goin like you think they should - it's all on you.
-- De La Soul

Following up on my post Why Race Talk Doesn't Work, I remind people that national conversations on race turn out to be useless. My case in point.

TOWARDS ONE AMERICA: A NATIONAL CONVERSATION ON RACE

Here's the Google search. Go spelunking for yourself. Many of you may recall, or perhaps even more telling, you do not recall, that President Clinton initiated a presidential level one year conversation on race from the White House. It doesn't get any better than that, unless you believe that Clinton simply couldn't do it because he was white. In which case you might be likely to hold out hope that Barack Obama can do it because he is black. And of course that would only work if Obama dictates the content, in which case ... well, he's got a lot of 'splaining to do.

In either case, it's a travesty and a sham.  There was nothing created by that presidential commission that improved anything about anything except for the political careers of those people who took part in it, notably Christopher Edley Jr, and the Thernstroms. And there is nothing either of them has done from a national perspective on race that holds a candle to what Shaquanda Cotton, or the Duke Rape Case or Kanye West or Jeremiah Wright or Don Imus or Michael Richards has undone.

Repeat after me. Your racial ethics are a matter of personal responsibility. There is no other way. You should have learned these values at home. Family values.

Once again. The difference between liberals and conservatives. Liberals seek to use the public power of the state to guard against the deprivations of the dysfunctional family. Conservatives seek to use the power of the family to guard against the deprivations of the dysfunctional state.

There is no way to improve the quality of America's race relations by proxy. No committee, no ethnic leader, no policy, no religious crusade, no demonstration, no lobbying group, no campus speech codes, no public service announcement, no MTV Rock-the-whatever, no celebrity endorsement, no multicultural chorus singing We Are The World, no endless loop of MLK speeches, no critical theory reinterpretation of Founding documents, no deconstructive analysis of images in media, no parsing of vocabulary, no editing of dictionaries, no banning of words, hairstyles, websites.

There is nothing but you, your morals and your discipline, and your neighbor and his. 

The Pervasive Racialist Scenario

My friends feel it's their appointed duty
They keep trying to tell me all you want to do is use me.
-- Bill Whithers

Fisher presents the following syllogism:

So because you believe in that essentially color-blind meritocracy, you'll end up blaming yourself for any "lack of success". Besides that it's the manly, Clint Eastwoodesque thing to do. Yes?

No.

You are a victim of a system of racism.

You got let go from Solver because you are black.

Your consultant clients have less confidence in you because you are black.

You get paid late by your clients because you are black.

You got a harder time finding clients because you are black.

And black folks ain't making it easier for you either, because the system trains them to be unreliable, plus most of us have been trained to lie about how much money we have anyhow.

Once you acknowledge the existence of this system and, using cold, hard logic, study how it actually works, you can game the system to an extent, 'cause there are always cracks.

Let's take this reasoning to its logical conclusions.

If it were the case that I could neatly put the blame for all of my failure on being black, then the consequence for black responsibility would be total. Which is to say if white people cannot be trusted, then no responsible black person would ever work for whites. Furthermore, any black person who does is engaged in treachery against their self interest, for then only blacks could properly fulfill other blacks' ambitions.

The evidence for this would be that the most successful blacks would be employed by other blacks. They would be in possession of the answers and the resources and it would be an ethical and moral error for them to hold this to themselves. In other words, if the greatest threat to black success is whitefolks, then the only solution os blackfolks, and any black person with that success is obligated to his kin.

I don't believe this, but I think I understand the logic as presented by Fish. Fish paints the world, not just America, in terms of the operation of a Global System of White Supremacy. So there are certain things implied by the existence and operation of that system which obviously apply to me as a black man. I don't want to get into the existentials of ontology ie, how do I know that what I mean by 'black' is the same thing the Global System sees as 'black'. Let's just presume that Fish knows what he's talking about as far as identifying friend or foe. Friend = black. Foe = white, as commonly understood in America.

Now the question for someone like me would be, how and where can I get some of that black-sponsored success? Which is to say if the true meritocracy would be a black-sponsored regime of meritocracy then I'm objectively worth more there than I've been getting from the Global System. Fish takes a step to acknowledge my talents as he should ethically in keeping with his theory. Hey, this sounds good. Essentially let us also presume that his acknowledgment implies an offer or an invitation, either to join this meritocracy or for an actual j.o.b.  I would thus present a more or less realistic negotiating start point.

I need a base of about 150k/year and total compensation package of around 200k to take an offer of employment seriously. That's a solid upper middle class figure which accords with my comfort level here in California. And I offer my services as a senior data architect, and hands-on consulting exec in the business intelligence area of the software industry with 18 years of experience all around the country and various spots on the globe. Reasonable trade. I could do this kind of gig without thinking for two years, basically anywhere, four years if there is upward mobility and business development upside w/ kickers. But it all comes down to dollars. In the American scheme of things, it's not rich. That's orthodontist money. That's first year NFL money. It's still below the top tax rate. There are millions of Americans who do this well, and probably a million different ways to make this kind of loot. So it is reasonable for me to believe that there are lots of ways to get paid like this.

The question now becomes, what is the difference between black-sponsored success and white-sponsored success - that is to say how will I know which is genuine? I mean is this black meritocracy going to pay me more money, or are there fringe benefits of the sort I have never gotten before? What are the signs I should consider to let me know that the white meritocracy is just a rat maze? Is this my phone call from Morpheus? Don't just offer me a red pill, show me the desert of the real. Help me understand why I'm just a copper top.

Assuming such bona fides are presented, that this black meritocracy exists, how has it been that I haven't seen it or noticed it before now? Am I just finally becoming worthy of consideration? Was there one magic phrase I hadn't said? Is there a test?

OK Enough.

Now. Here's what I do believe. I believe that 12% of Americans are racist and that when dealing with those people, the best thing to do is to game them whether they are black or white. That is to say while it is morally proper to confront their racism and disabuse them of their errors, such efforts are likely to be futile. So I should take Fish's offer and I should also take any white offer, because no matter what their reasons are for using me (employing me), I have to negotiate my best deal with either system. I have to decide if it's worth it to me. It's still my decision.

The decision I have actually made is that I have come to expect none, zero, zilch, cultural fringe benefits from work, and that I provide all of that myself from my family, friends and cultural consumption (books, music, food, blogging). See here for details. The import of this is that it doesn't matter what the fringe benefits are from the black-sponsored meritocracy, if they can't pay more money it doesn't help me for squat. I watched the movie Boomerang, and I thought that was very cool, but that was 17 years ago.

The pervasive racialist scenario means that racism is unavoidable because everybody believes that race is essentially real and unavoidable. Race never means nothing; it tweaks the grid of human existence. You are always tethered to it. It is therefore in my interest to get with the black gang. Hey. If I have no choice, then I am only hurting myself.

Where is the alternative?

The No-Excuses Neighborhood

Stymied

I have gotten 1000 words of nonsense attempting to update this piece and relate it to the Old School. I can't and probably won't. Right now I'm going to just say that I'm an independent voice calling them as I see them. The Old School is my demographic, but I cannot accurately describe it. I have an affinity for black veterans and cops, businessmen and philosophers, writers and musicians. I'm Cosby's side. That's about all I can say. I say what I say about Iraq in retrospect because I saw what I saw. I like Cheney. I look forward to Michael Yon's new book. People disagree. Temple3 wins this round. At the moment my heart's not in it.

It has been about 6 weeks since I've done a radio show, and I think that's OK. I'm very very proud of my boy Jimi Izrael who is blowing up all over the place, and I want the professionals to get paid. I don't need the money and I'm not sure that I need the exposure - and I don't want to be taking up space that aspiring career writers can make better use of.

My book is coming. Slowly but surely.

What I'm doing is a subtle shift in the entire blog and Old School perspective. Basically, I think I have made all my points as clearly as necessary. I'm stepping back a bit from the provocation which is becoming somewhat pointless. I'm just focusing threads of interest here and I continue to facilitate debate.

Wednesday Fragments

Nobody Cares. Nobody's Care. Nobodies Care. Nobody cares about Jamiel Shaw and it shows.

Black & Jews
Ta-Nehisi Coates is riffing a bit with dNA. I weigh in a bit.
It's a very interesting discussion. Where do black nationalists get their vibes from Jews? Real Jews or imaginary Jews? Of course Jews are not a race, and any black can be Jewish. Also, I dig Matisyahu more than KRS-1.

Fox News Accepted
Over the past few weeks, the Democrat mainstream has defied its left side, particularly the Netroots - MoveOn.org & DailyKos by having their top dogs appear on the much loathed Fox News Network. I think that calmer heads have prevailed. Good.

Obama Won NC
Does it change anything?

The Black Survivor

I've been rubbing my noggin around the subject of self a little bit over the past few weeks. Since Boy missed the deadline for application to Loyola and I've recently been in touch with some old alums, I've had some painful moments in dealing with the fact that a very significant experience in my life will not be shared. I haven't gotten through all of that, but I have preliminarily concluded that I'm going to have to be for the kids what the Jesuits were for me. Part of the problem is that I have to disambiguate what was them and what was society and what was me. So that's got me looking at me and Catholicism in particular.

Within the past two months I have recognized how much the literal 'old school' themes resonate with me. Yesterday, as I watched Oceans Thirteen I tended to identify with the Brits who went to the same school. Three weeks ago I rented Hitman and admired a killer for his stoicism, single-minded discipline and impregnable ethos. His ability to follow the rules no matter what, to the death. It's the same for Jason Statham's Transporter. A bit closer to reality was Robin Williams in the Dead Poets Society. Cloistered boys figuring out self and life in the context of traditions which are supposed to serve towards greatness for life. If you can survive our discipline, the rest of the world should be no problem, my boy.

A career on the road has had its effect. I am called to help people get through their decision making process, and it is never complete for the customer. I go to a strange town and solve familiar problems. It's my old discipline. I walk through airports and drive rented cars and sleep in hotel beds in silence. And I am comforted in my blogging and writing, solving problems in a slow arc and clarifying what it means to me. It is never complete for the reader, the nemesis, the commenter.

I am at odds with and yet totally comfortable with solitude. I believe, for the same reasons as Dennis Prager, that one must make efforts always to make as many friends as possible. It is a matter of helping good people stay good. Of letting them know that you're looking out for their souls, that they matter. And the mutual effect is positive, it builds value. And yet at the same time I know that my every expansion, every new book I read, every new place I go, every refinement of every idea makes me that more removed. I may spend years communicating to no avail. I have accepted this. Love the one you're with, especially when you're alone.

I survive where I am from. That can never change. My beginnings made me look for the things I have searched for. My beginnings made me ask the questions. And with every answer, with every found thing I have squirreled away, my longings have been satisfied, until I update my beginnings - starting with an older man each time. And in that succession of questions and answers I have been a success. My life has turned over several times, like all of the cells in my body are new, except perhaps some in my teeth. I am a man using his full name.

I am a black survivor, and I do not know what to do with the pain of watching others ask questions of the world I have found answers to. I cannot reverse-engineer the longings of their beginnings, dissonance is eternal. And even if I could, it would be presumptuous and rude to do so. Everyone must find their own way and feel the value of their own searching work. Neither can I go searching for seekers. I'm in the middle of being able to make men and worried about whether or not I should. Instead, as always, I consult. I speak out loud and say, this is how I see it, this is how it works for me. I am a facilitator of thoughts in my avocation and in my vocation. But in both because I find the subjects compelling and important, and so I approach them with humble certitude, like a farmer who bets his life that he is planting corn but can never tell how tall that seed might grow. It depends on a lot, but that damned sure is my best seed.

I have survived and I have succeeded and while I know I am not free, I also know that there is only so far that I desire to run. I am happy with the size of my enclosure, my family, my work, my writing, my face. My spirit is constrained but not subdued. And I ask myself if it is wise to be more ambitious than I am. I have decided on my career destiny. I am ready to say no to the multi-multi millions. Boyd says there are two ways to be successful. One is to be rich and the other is to reduce your needs to zero. I am pursuing both ends in moderation, but the latter with a new inspiration. I am starting to resent being full, and am learning to enjoy being hungry. Being hungry means that I am losing weight, which means I can slow down, which means I can die satisfied.

I enjoy being a man of means, and I am reading gigantic tales of vast scope in order to bring myself to accept the possibility of merest chance. If I can accept that my everything was an accident, that would be good. I was thinking the other day that the wise man is equally prepared for riches or poverty, because in the end all you really own is your self, your discipline, your knowledge, and what people call on you for. You are not, or at least I am not, in control of the rewards associated with those things. So they must bring to you their own motivations. It is providence. There is some order to it, but I'm not so sure that it's important to figure out what that order is. Great things, wars and plagues, make a dogs breakfast of discovered order.

A black survivor is of minor interest at this moment of history. I am not black in any way more than I was young. I did a million things because of my youth and only a few of them mattered. Now my youth is no longer a thing to be shared, but merely to be remembered. And so I am black in memory as I was young. Where I've been and what I've been cannot be changed. But new beginnings are an every day occurrence.

I am coming to terms with chaos, with chance, with great fortune and with great misfortune. I mind my children and become fearless with myself. I kiss the fevered forehead and spite the virus for comfort's sake. I tell what I've known, and show what I've been shown, a man accepting that he is beyond his beginnings. My eyes are opened, one is surprised and curious, one is disciplined and fierce.

Phlebas Considered

The worst thing you could do is read Consider Phlebas back pages first. Once upon a time I used to take the first and last sentences or first and last words as a brief synopsis of every book. It kinda works for the Bible. "In Amen". But to do so for Iain M. Banks celebrated sci-fi would almost obviate the great adventures contained therein.

Consider Phlebas is a space opera, something of a cowboy story with a trick ending, an amoral tale of the actions of civilizations on conflict down to the deadly combat and scheming of individuals from different parts of the galaxy.

In one way I didn't follow my own advice. I was advised to read 'Player of Games' first but didn't find this Culture book of Banks available. So I read his most recent treatment of the galaxy 'The Algebraist' and then to his very first, Consider Phlebas. There is no doubt that Banks is a much more accomplished writer now than 20 years ago and so I can see that he has clearly gotten to where he was trying to go which is to convey the essence of the practically infinite scale of galactic events and put the actions of humans in scale. He does so without making humans any larger or smaller than humans. Which is to say that in the largest scheme of things imaginable, human drama still counts for something, as it inevitably would to us humans. And in that regard Banks is an extraordinarily good sci-fi writer, standing just below Samuel R. Delany as the best ever.

But Banks gives us something one better than Neveryon which is a continuing series of novels about the Culture and it is in the matters of the Culture that Banks shines. What is the Culture? It is utopian, and infinite in the ways we are most constrained here on earth. It is a cultural empire that fights for philosophical reasons, and it is run by machines which were created by humans. They are the Minds each of which is capable of nearly god-like intelligence and they work to integrate every alien species into harmonious existence in which all sentient beings are accorded rights.

Of course not every species is interested in following the Culture's scientific and logical perfectionism, chief among them are the Idirans, a race of 3 meter triped giants who evoke the deep religiosity of a warrior cult. In fact they were a perfectly peaceful people, in total harmony with the ecology of their bountiful planet until provoked by the Culture. At that point they realized everything foreign to them as a threat and transformed into a race of annihilation still steeled by religious discipline. So war was inevitable and it is in the midst of that war that our story begins.

It is the story of a lost and crippled Mind, a planet of the dead, a Changer, an intelligence agent of the Culture and a Firefly-like crew of freebooting pirates. The Changer, allied with the Idirans, and pursued by the agent, seeks to capture the Mind from the neutral planet of the dead. He ingratiates his way into the pirate ship and the adventure takes off from there.

Phlebas is a work of great imagination whose galaxy makes extended human sense and yet is not extensively human. I suspect, that in that regard I am going to have to complete about 1000 more pages of the Culture novels to get at what Banks might be implying. To that end I have just begun Matter, his latest.

Even without that these are excellent tales of enormous scale.

Racial Equilibrium

Back in 2002 I was unbecoming a race man and beginning blogging. The stellar and stunning thought which contributed to this political transformation I called 'The Cost of Not'. The subject was Reparations. Back then I wrote:

my point is that a good portion of negoitiating a peace requires a credible threat of war. that's how nations are reformed. african americans are not going to issue a credible threat of war for reparations, and the amount of reparation due from this nation requires that much. i believe olgetree will make the case and prove the theory, but the cost of not repairing is not high enough.

Since that time, I have looked at American politics with regard to the extent that black partisans can unify and aggregate black political opinion and negotiate concessions from non-blacks who see black progress as zero sum in America with Reparations being the primary case in point. But immediately I realized that everybody who was doing anything was doing that. It was kind of an alternate version of that quote that the future is already here, it is only unevenly distributed.

Ta-Nehisi Coates last week about the utterly depressing state of race relations in this country.

And I responded: I think you are coming to the realization that nobody can broker relations for an entire race. As soon as that becomes perfectly clear, then you'll recognize why it's not even desirable.

The first step towards this realization is this: America is at racial equilibrium. Everybody who wants to do anything with regard to changing what race relations means is, at this very moment, living that reality.

Essentially, I think race relations in America is moving at the pace of progress of television sitcoms. Which is to say no faster nor slower than pop culture. It is not any reason to celebrate nor is a reason to be overly concerned, unless you feel put-upon by the racial status quo. People who feel put out and uncomfortable will be cynical and try to get away with as much racial bullshit as possible. That basically covers both sides of the coin, as well as the third side which would be 'disinterested observers'.

My essential observation is that nothing, including the trashing of Obama and the killing of Sean Bell and the execution of Tookie or the freeing of Mumia Abu-Jamal is capable of sustaining a fundamental or national movement. It all just slouches forward or backward if you please, one Supreme Court decision at a time, if that. We're done, and nobody really cares. Or perhaps I should say that nobody who cares, and knows is capable of doing much. Then again, the answers are already here. The examples of doing it right are plentiful and spread all over, just maybe not in your patch. And so the politics are at a stalemate.

It has been a while since I've considered the opportunities for institutional reform vis a vis racism. I basically don't see much changing of substance unless and until there is criminal enforcement of racist offenses. Basically you need a movement about the shape and size of the anti-illegal immigration movement so you can identify 12 million bodies and start punishing them and those who harbor them. That's not going to happen, because on the whole Americans don't care that much. On the whole, American racism is like American homosexuality. Sure there are people who are absolutely horrified by it, but nobody is going to stop it. Ever. So shout until you're hoarse, but it all comes down to the strengths of political movements.

I therefore now introduce The Rule of Whatever:

It is what it is. Get in where you fit in.

In general, The Rule of Whatever is in effect until somebody burns down a building, passes legislation in Congress or carries out an assassination.

Coates & McWhorter on Cosby

If you do nothing else today, check out this. It is a must-hear podcast over at Coates' blog on Minnesota Public Radio with some analysis and interpretation of the Cosby message with T. Coates and McWhorter.

Administrative Note

I'm getting a spam storm right about now so I've turned on CAPCHA or whatever that's called which makes you enter six bytes after a comment post. I'd rather have than than require everyone to use Typekey, but having a Typekey account will help.

I've also changed the number of comments per page up to 50 so that you don't have to scroll so much, and the auto close on comments has been extended to a year.

As soon as my domains stop getting spammed, I'll turn Captcha off and we should be back to normal. Sorry for the inconvenience.

I do wish I had an invective switch as well, but you all are only going to be as civilized as you decide.

---

UPDATE: I am requiring TypeKey from this point forward. On the whole, people who contribute most already are or easily could become TypeKey users.

The Culture

Here is my book quote of the week, taken from Iain M. Banks in Consider Phlebas.

It was the Culture's fault. It considered itself too civilized and sophisticated to hate its enemies; instead it tried to understand them and their motives, so that it could out-think them and so that, when it won, it would treat them in a way which insured they would not become enemies again. The idea was fine as long as you didn't get too close, but once you had spent some time with you opponents, such empathy could turn against you. There was a sort of detached, non-human aggression required to go along with such mobilized compassion, and Balveda could feel it slipping away from her.

Shelby GT40

Damn. Too bad my portfolio is all locked up...

Since the legendary Ford GT40 racecars placed 1-2-3 at Le Mans back in 1966, there have been several replicas and reproductions of the original Lola-inspired design. The latest comes from Carroll Shelby, whose Shelby American team fielded the Le Mans cars back in 1966.

The occasion is Shelby's 85th birthday, and to celebrate, Shelby Distribution USA and Shelby Automobiles will offer 85 copies each of the three Le Mans cars: The No. 1 Arcadian Blue car of Ken Miles and Denis Hulme, the No. 2 Red car of Dan Gurney and Jerry Grant and the No. 3 Black car of Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon.

The rolling chassis can accommodate any Shelby-badged V8 crate engine, including the Shelby 427FE, and the cars will be available in street-legal or racing versions, in either left- or right-hand drive. Shelby claims 90 percent of the parts are interchangeable with those of the original car.

Non-Victimology: Hiphop, R&B, Obama & Me

I was thinking, however briefly about gangsters and gangsta rap, and it occurred to me that I cannot recall much rap every saying what it is that's said in some black politics, namely that white people are the cause of black dysfunction.

I know that my assessment seems highly improbable, but outside of PE, I don't know any. NAS for example, in all the cuts I know by him never blamed the Man for his badness. Tupac was given to a sad kind of blues rap, but I can't recall him putting it on white society in particular. I know De La better than any of the other and I know they didn't go there. Black Sheep were my arrogant favorites, and they wouldn't think of it. Ice Cube took on the media and went around ganking white busters, but outside of 'When Will They Shoot'... eh. Maybe Ice Cube did a bit more than a little blame, but he always had a (violent) solution. It's not a question that's going to take me to Jeff Chang but a curious one nonetheless. How much of hiphop venerates the hard afrocentric line? Not much I think.

I was playing a little bass this evening. I haven't been practicing enough. I got into some OJays. Love Train reminded me of Obama. Message In Our Music also reminded me of him. Both were sentimental songs full of optimism and promise. The bass lines were surprisingly simple, yet very riffable. It took me back to the well-wrapped universe and simpler days when all my friends knew the low rider.

Where did all this volume come from, or are a few whitefolks being overparanoid for the rest of white humanity they think they are serving? I'm speaking about Wright of course. He's recognizably out of left fields and reminiscent of the Hoteps of the 80s on the black college consciousness chitlin circuit. Quoting one book like nobody ever reads more than that and asserting crazy theories dipping in and out of dialect and over-enunciated five dollar words. Hiphop doesn't roll that way. Only a few blackfolks roll that way. You think whitefolks would be hip to these hijinks by now, but political correctness rules the day. So I'm saying so without going much further and wasting time: Jeremiah Wright is a hard afrocentric, which means he is a zero-sum racialist of the first order and isn't far from talking about sun people and ice people. Different doesn't mean difficient; it means impossible to integrate. It means the man probably resents drinking milk without chocolate in it. Yeah, sorry it had to be that way old man. Get your rocks off and continue your retirement you old relic. It will take a while - Wright has just the kind of gripe that Boomers could never get over, and he updated it right up to Spike Lee circa 1988.

Thanks Obama for rolling back that rock. All the crawlies are in the light. Now wash your hands and brush your shoulders off again. It's time to get off this sidetrack.

Jamiel Shaw vs Sean Bell: Who Makes a Better Victim?

I just wanted to add a bit of snot to the mix and express my disappointment that black partisans have spoken out more loudly on the matter of Sean Bell than that of Jamiel Shaw. Here we have two situations in which an innocent black man was killed, one by a Mexican national gangbanger, another by an undercover vice cop. Two opportunities presented themselves, one to work against police and one to work with police. Most commentators I saw chose the former, but I'll just pick on one Mark Lamont Hill:

When I first heard the news, I was so angry that I was unable to think of anything but retaliation. Where should we riot? What can we destroy? Who can we hurt? Like many people, I craved the sense of power, however ephemeral, that is produced by making our enemies hurt the way they’ve hurt us. Even now, as I make an unequivocal call for peace, a huge part of me wants to see somebody pay for this egregious miscarriage of justice.

In the wake of 9/11, I can remember a noteworthy commentary. It's going to take a long time for people to change, but for the moment everybody is going to accellerate in their same directions. Criminal judges will see it as a criminal justice matter. Military planners will see it as a failure of military planning. Clearly, there are two schools of black political activism in place - when a black man dies, some work to demonize the police others work to improve them. Change comes slowly.

Can't Catch the Rhythm of the Stroke

Everybody reports that in a recent poll it was discovered that 58% of black youth can't swim. Details:

Nearly 60 percent of African-American children can't swim, almost twice the figure for white children, according to a first-of-its-kind survey which USA Swimming hopes will strengthen its efforts to lower minority drowning rates and draw more blacks into the sport.

Stark statistics underlie the initiative by the national governing body for swimming. Black children drown at a rate almost three times the overall rate. And less than 2 percent of USA Swimming's nearly 252,000 members who swim competitively year-round are black.

To alter the numbers, USA Swimming is teaming with an array of partners—local governments, corporations, youth and ethnic organizations_ to expand learn-to-swim programs nationwide, many of them targeted at inner-city minorities. One of the key participants is black freestyle star Cullen Jones, who hopes to boost his role-model status by winning a medal this summer at the Beijing Olympics.

This is kind of old news and I know it to be an inner-city phenomenon but I was a little shocked that it's over half.  What's strange is that while it should be patently evident that poor schools wouldn't have swimming pools, where are all these drownings taking place?

I happen to be one of those folks that thinks swimming is fundamental, and I can recall growing up in the 'hood and knowing how the athletes were superior to the thugs. It got to the point at which one felt sorry for the trash talk of would be 'bangers, who were completely freaked out by 8 feet of water.

On the whole, I wish they would disambiguate 'black.'  Here we go again.

Ayro & AQ in Somalia

I have found some details on the AQ commander in Somalia.

Aden Hashi Ayro, thought to be Al Qaeda's top commander in Somalia, was killed in a U.S. military air strike in the early hours of May 1, 2008.

The Pentagon confirmed the strike on a home in the Somali town of Dusamareeb, but did not specifically identify Ayro as the victim. As many as nine other people were killed in the raid on Ayro's home.

A spokesman for the Islamic al-Shabab militia, Sheik Muqtar Robow, said Ayro died in the blast. 

The raid is one of several U.S.-led bombings in Somalia. The strike was a blow against the Islamist rebels waging a guerrilla campaign against Somalia’s government and its Ethiopian allies. 

Fast Facts

1. Ayro high ranking member of Al Qaeda
2. Reports say Ayro trained in Afghanistan prior to 9-11
3. Extremist al-Shabab militia ousted from power in 2006
4. Dusamareeb: 300 miles north of Mogadishu
5. Ayro implicated in the 2005 murder of BBC journalist Kate Peyton

Quotes

1. "As I have said before, we will pursue terrorists worldwide. The U.S. is committed to identifying, locating, capturing and if necessary killing terrorist wherever they operate, train, plan their operations or seek safe harbor." — Bryan Whitman, Defense Department Spokesman
2. "Our brother martyr Aden Hashi, has received what he was looking for — death for the sake of Allah — at the hands of the United States." — Sheik Muqtar Robow

The first thing I need to do is correct what I have been calling al-Shahab. It's al-Shabaab

Second, here is the Nov 2006 report to the UN on activities in Somalia.
Download CFRSomalia.pdf

This timeline of activities from Wikipedia on Al-Shabaab give clarity and detail:

On June 10, 2006 a report in The Guardian stated, "An unnamed network run by one of Aweys's proteges, Aden Hashi Farah "Ayro", has been linked to the murder of four western aid workers and more than a dozen Somalis who allegedly cooperated with counter-terror organisations."^[8]

On June 15, 2006 the leader of Al-Shabaab, Aden Hashi Farah "Eyrow", was said to have taken a load of arms sent from Eritrea ^[9] (see page 12).

On July 26, 2006, Sheikh Mukhtar Roboow "Abu-Mansuur" was reported accepting another load of arms from Eritrea^[9] (see page 15).

In July, 720 Somali volunteers were selected by Aden Hashi Farah "Eyrow" to travel to Lebanon to fight against the Israelis. Of those, only 80 returned to Mogadishu. In September, another 20 returned, along with five members of Hizbollah.^[9] (see page 24).

The bankruptcy of a remittance company, Dalsan International, whose staff included the brother of Aden Hashi Farah "Eyrow", involved the suspicious disappearance of $10 million dollars. It was alleged, "an ICU military leader managed to divert a large amount of money to help financially support the organization in their fight for the control of Mogadishu during the June 2006 confrontation with the former counter terrorism alliance"^[9] (see page 39). (Also see ARPCT, Second Battle of Mogadishu)

As of January 6, 2007, after the Fall of Mogadishu and Kismayo to the TFG, the leaders of the Shabaab were in hiding still at large.^[10] A member of the disbanded group said they once numbered about 1,000 (lower than other claims by former members), but they do not have any weapons any more. Still, there was support for the call of Al-Qaeda leaders to maintain jihad against the Ethiopians and secular government.^[11]

On January 19, 2007 the pro-Islamic Courts Union website Qaadisiya.com featured a video describing the reformation of the ICU into the "Popular Resistance Movement in the Land of the Two Migrations" (PRM), alternatively translated and referred to in press reports as the "Somali People's Insurgent Movement" (SPIM) or "Somali People's Resistance Movement" (SPRM). On January 24, Sheikh Abdikadir was announced to be its commander of the Banadir region.^[12]

On January 31, 2007 the group made a video warning African Union peacekeepers to avoid coming to Somalia, claiming "Somalia is not a place where you will earn a salary - it is a place where you will die."^[13]

On February 9, 2007 a gathering of 800 Somali demonstrators in north Mogadishu, where Islamist support was strongest, burned U.S., Ethiopian, and Ugandan flags in protest of the proposed African Union (AU) led and United Nations endorsed peacekeeping mission, known as AMISOM. "Abdirisaq", a masked representative of the resistance group, the PRM, said Ethiopian troops would be attacked in their hotels.^[2][14][15]

On February 28, 2008, the United States Department of State designated al-Shabaab as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in accordance with section 219 of the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).^[3]

Of particular interest to me is the Eritrean connection and the Hezbollah connection to al-Shabaab.

Jendayi Frazer & The War in Somalia

Ethiopia, Somalia & Eritrea. I've never been able to figure out what has been going on there. I mean once upon a time there was Haile Selassie and the next thing I knew it was Blackhawk Down. What has been going on in the Horn of Africa and what has the US to do with it. Moreover, how is it that one of the most powerful black women in America, Jendayi Frazer, is such an unknown?

I mean everybody I knew back in the anti-apartheid days used to rail and complain about Chester Crocker being the White Man whose opinion could not be swayed by American blacks and he set the tone of our relationship with Africa, and Southern Africa in particular. Man if I had a nickel for every time I heard folks who followed TransAfrica complain about that situation, I'd be a rich as Robert Johnson. But when I reported on Condi's Black Ops, you could hear a pin drop. Now we have Jendayi Frazer. What's she up to?

So I asked my Africa expert, Tim and this is what he had to say.

She's been a pretty low-profile figure in that job when I compare her to some previous Assistant Secretaries/Undersecretaries. I don't have much sense of where she's coming from--I think she must be a Condi Rice protege, because she was at Stanford and she's got some military & NSC connections. If I had to guess, her attention since 2005 has probably been as much on the Horn of Africa and on Nigeria (oil) as Zimbabwe. Though on the other hand, she was the ambassador to South Africa, and she spoke out pretty clearly on the Zimbabwean election this last week. (I gather the ambassador to Zimbabwe, James McGhee, has been pretty forceful both behind closed doors and in public.)

I think probably Frazer and anyone else in the Administration interested in Zimbabwe are trying to calculate whether we have any leverage at all in the situation. Over Mugabe or the Zimbabwean military, nil: they don't need the US for anything besides one more name on the list of running-dog neoimperialists out to sabotage the glorious ZANU-PF revolution, etc.

Over South Africa, some, but that's the hub of the matter. I think Mbeki is motivated by two different calculations in opposing tough talk on Zimbabwe. The first is that like many African heads of state, he doesn't want to set a standard for illegitimate behavior that includes actions that he or his party might conceivably take themselves at some point. For example, I think the ANC wants the option of clearing out slum or squatter communities if they decide to--so they couldn't oppose Mugabe's violent slum-clearing. I think frankly a few ANC leaders want the option to lock in a single-party domination of the political system if they ever feel genuinely threatened by oppositon.  The second reason Mbeki is dragging his heels is that he thinks it's more important to establish that African governments act independently of the West than it is to act against Mugabe. So a lot of this is "let's piss off whitey by not doing what whitey wants".  On that second point, Mbeki becomes more determined than ever not to condemn Mugabe in inverse proportion to how much the US and UK publically condemn him for refusing to do so.

But I don't know how much of this informs Frazer's attention to Zimbabwe. I'm sure Zimbabwe is something of a low priority for the current Administration in terms of dedicated resources, though it's a great subject for talking about the spread of democracy, etc.--from a more realpolitik standpoint, we don't have any major interests at stake in Zimbabwe, unlike in the resource-rich areas of the continent or in areas where there is a strong Islamist presence.

Then I watched this Al Jazeera footage this morning to aid in my understanding of Somalia specifically. So basically Somalia is breaking up into four autonomous regions. It is a failed state and has been in the state of failure for about 16 years. The US supports the efforts of the transitional federal government to establish a political process of political integration amongst the clans. Frazer speaks of helping them establish a national congress of reconciliation. We have no problem with local organic Islamist courts. The transitional federal government has asked for military support from Ethiopia. The US say hold off, but we understand if you do. The al-Shabah militia is trying to be a political and military spoiler and has has carried out political assassinations as well as terrorizing one of the local tribes. The Eritreans are also, to spite the Ethiopians, adding chaos to the mix, not only in Somalia but in the Sudan.

From the Economist:

The African Union promised to send 8,000 peacekeepers and then hand authority to a UN mission later this year. But several AU countries failed to honour their pledges. Uganda is still the only African one to have sent troops; with just 1,600 of them there, the UN is unlikely to come in and take over.

All in all, I am satisfied that the US is doing the right thing.

See Also: Subrealism.

DL

I renewed my California Driver's License online yesterday. Here's the fine print.

• I agree to submit to a chemical test of my blood, breath, or urine for the purpose of determining the alcohol or drug content of my blood when testing is requested by a peace officer acting in accordance with Vehicle Code §23137 or §23157.
• I am hereby advised that being under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or both, impairs the ability to safely operate a motor vehicle. Therefore, it is extremely dangerous to human life to drive while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or both. If I drive while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or both, and as a result, a person is killed, I can be charged with murder.
• I understand that if I'm under 21 years of age, I cannot legally drive with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.01% or more. Driving with a BAC of 0.01% or more, refusing to take, or failing to complete an alcohol screening or drug test, results in a one-year suspension of my driving privilege.
• I am the person whose name appears on the renewal notice used to process this application. The mailing address shown on the renewal notice is valid, existing, and accurate. I agree to accept service of process at this mailing address according to §415.20(b), §415.30(a), and §416.90 of the Civil Procedure Code.
• I understand that DMV will add convictions reported by other states' licensing authorities to my driving record, which may result in sanctions against my California driving privilege pursuant to the applicable sections of the California Vehicle Code.
• Social Security Number Collection Disclosure - You are required by law to provide your social security number or your application will be denied. Authority to collect the social security number is 42 U.S.C. 405 and California Vehicle Code Sections 1653.5, 4150, 4150.2, 12800, and 12801.

  It will be used in the administration of driver license laws and motor vehicle registration laws and to respond to requests for information from the:

  • Franchise Tax Board for tax administration
  • Any agency operations pursuant to 42 U.S.C. 601 et.seq.

  It will be used to aid in the collection of monies owed in connection with:

  • Failure to pay fines or failure to appear in court by an applicant
  • Aid to Families with Dependent Children
  • Child Support
  • Establishment of Paternity