Thursday, March 25, 2010

Post Racial American My AZZ

Ex-Ladue police chief: City made me stop blacks

The Associated Press

Thursday, March 25, 2010 | 10:43 a.m.

A lawsuit filed by the former police chief of the posh St. Louis suburb of Ladue claims he was pressured to pull over blacks and set ticket quotas for out-of-towners, but be lenient with the town's residents, even those who drove drunk.

When he refused to go along, he was fired, Larry White said. His suit filed Monday in St. Louis County Circuit Court seeks unspecified damages. It names the city, Mayor Irene Holmes and members of the city council.

Holmes declined comment. Her assistant, Mike Wooldridge, speaking on behalf of the city, said Ladue denies any wrongdoing and believes White's firing was justified.

"We feel confident that we acted appropriately and in the city's best interest," Wooldridge said.

Ladue is among the wealthiest communities in the Midwest. The town of 8,500 residents 10 miles west of St. Louis had a median household income of $161,613 in 2008. That's the most of any town of more than 1,000 residents in Missouri. About 96 percent of Ladue residents are white, and about 1 percent are black.

The city hired White as police chief in 2007. His suit said soon after his hiring, Holmes encouraged him to pull over "those people" and pull them from their cars "so that others would see what was going on and avoid the city of Ladue." White understood "those people" to be blacks who were driving through the city.

But White said he refused to go along. The lawsuit cited racial profiling statistics showing the percentage of black drivers who were stopped, searched and arrested declined under his leadership of the police department.

The suit said that after White eliminated his predecessor's ticket quota system, Holmes told him she wanted a lot of traffic tickets written _ but not against Ladue residents.

White said Holmes also pressured him to vigorously enforce driving while intoxicated laws, except against Ladue residents. The suit said White was told that in the past, Ladue police did not arrest residents suspected of DWI but instead took them home.

White was fired in August.

His attorney, Chet Pleban, did not respond to a phone message seeking comment.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Get A Clue

I was over at necolebitchie.com and I was reading a recent interview by Lisa Raye aka Diamond from Players Club. Here is what Ms. Raye had to say for herself and her choice of men:


My whole life has been a fairytale. Every man that I have ever dated has always been powerful, had money and been generous to me. He (Michael Musicik) was just the next in line. It was like this is how I am supposed to treated. My father was my first introduction to power. I am attracted to power. So when people always ask me why you always date a man with money, why in the hell wouldn’t I? I have my own lifestyle, it’s like, I’m not going for less than what I have. If I can’t be spoiled because he is not that generous, loving and caring, I don’t want you. Go to the next one. I can wait. I don’t know what it is not to be pampered and spoiled. I don’t even want to try it. That’s like saying to me, I’ma be broke. What do you mean? What? No. That don’t work for me. That’s not an option for me. I’ve never been that.”

The more I read, the more knots appeared in my stomach. This seemed wrong on so many levels, where do I start? Well first let me say there is nothing wrong with expecting YOUR man to support you. So that we are clear lets define support.

Support= To uphold by aid or countenance; to aid; to help; to back up; as, to support a friend or a party; to support the present administration

There is absolutely nothing wrong with a man aiding his woman financially. However, unless otherwise stated, I feel that no man is indebted to a woman to be her sole financial care taker. In this modern day and age we should be able to take care of ourselves. I understand once you obtain a certain level of living and a higher financial bracket your crowd may change. No one lives in Bel-Air and goes to Compton looking for their soul mate, at least not on purpose.

But expecting your mate to be rich and powerful may leave a very limited amount of men at your disposal. This mentality has contributed to the profound lonely black woman syndrome. Today Black women are more likely to have a college degree, decent paying job and many other wonderful accolades than her male counterpart. However, it seems like we all are chasing the same group of wealthy powerful brothers. Could this be the reason that the rich and power men have their prime choice of women and women wait their turn to be with these men? Is this the reason that we are hearing so many married rich and powerful men are involved in extramarital affairs with several women?

Men are not stupid creatures. No one wants to feel used or looked at as an open check book. Most men are attracted to women that can fully support themselves. Independence is a sign of confidence and control.

If we only limit our search for love to the rich and power we might miss the man that posses the characteristics that money can’t buy.

Monday, March 22, 2010

History Making Health Reform

It looks like our Prez pulled out the big guns and got those fools in Congress to pass a bill that will reform our health care system. It baffled me that people that made at least 5-6 figures a year would deny health insurance to people who are living pay check to pay check. I am sure it is easy to scrutinize, procrastinate and simply shit on your fellow Americans when you are millionaire but try living week to week on a small paycheck and rent take up 65% of your take home pay and making simply enough to take care of your daily needs. When I say daily needs that means food, water, shelter and clothing.

I know some Republicans are quite salty behind this landmark decision but *****in my best Sam Cook voice…it’s been a looooooong, long time coming, but I know change gone come…Oh yes it will*****

Now there are somethings that I do not agree with in the bill, like in 2014, everyone must purchase health insurance or face a $695 annual fine. There are some exceptions for low-income people.



Here are the highlights of the bill


Cost:
• $940 billion over ten years.

Deficit:
• Would reduce the deficit by $143 billion over the first ten years. That is an updated CBO estimate. Their first preliminary estimate said it would reduce the deficit by $130 billion over ten years. Would reduce the deficit by $1.2 billion dollars in the second ten years.

Coverage:
• Would expand coverage to 32 million Americans who are currently uninsured.
Health Insurance Exchanges:
• The uninsured and self-employed would be able to purchase insurance through state-based exchanges with subsidies available to individuals and families with income between the 133 percent and 400 percent of poverty level.
• Separate exchanges would be created for small businesses to purchase coverage -- effective 2014.

• Funding available to states to establish exchanges within one year of enactment and until January 1, 2015.
Subsidies:

• Individuals and families who make between 100 percent - 400 percent of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) and want to purchase their own health insurance on an exchange are eligible for subsidies. They cannot be eligible for Medicare, Medicaid and cannot be covered by an employer. Eligible buyers receive premium credits and there is a cap for how much they have to contribute to their premiums on a sliding scale.
Federal Poverty Level for family of four is $22,050


Paying for the Plan:
• Medicare Payroll tax on investment income -- Starting in 2012, the Medicare Payroll Tax will be expanded to include unearned income. That will be a 3.8 percent tax on investment income for families making more than $250,000 per year ($200,000 for individuals).

• Excise Tax -- Beginning in 2018, insurance companies will pay a 40 percent excise tax on so-called "Cadillac" high-end insurance plans worth over $27,500 for families ($10,200 for individuals). Dental and vision plans are exempt and will not be counted in the total cost of a family's plan.

• Tanning Tax -- 10 percent excise tax on indoor tanning services.
Medicare:
• Closes the Medicare prescription drug "donut hole" by 2020. Seniors who hit the donut hole by 2010 will receive a $250 rebate.

• Beginning in 2011, seniors in the gap will receive a 50 percent discount on brand name drugs. The bill also includes $500 billion in Medicare cuts over the next decade.
Medicaid:

• Expands Medicaid to include 133 percent of federal poverty level which is $29,327 for a family of four.

• Requires states to expand Medicaid to include childless adults starting in 2014.
• Federal Government pays 100 percent of costs for covering newly eligible individuals through 2016.

• Illegal immigrants are not eligible for Medicaid.
Insurance Reforms:

• Six months after enactment, insurance companies could no longer denying children coverage based on a preexisting condition.

• Starting in 2014, insurance companies cannot deny coverage to anyone with preexisting conditions.

• Insurance companies must allow children to stay on their parent's insurance plans until their 26th birthday.
Abortion:

• The bill segregates private insurance premium funds from taxpayer funds. Individuals would have to pay for abortion coverage by making two separate payments, private funds would have to be kept in a separate account from federal and taxpayer funds.

• No health care plan would be required to offer abortion coverage. States could pass legislation choosing to opt out of offering abortion coverage through the exchange.
**Separately, anti-abortion Democrats worked out language with the White House on an executive order that would state that no federal funds can be used to pay for abortions except in the case of rape, incest or health of the mother.
Individual Mandate:

• In 2014, everyone must purchase health insurance or face a $695 annual fine. There are some exceptions for low-income people.
Employer Mandate:

• Technically, there is no employer mandate. Employers with more than 50 employees must provide health insurance or pay a fine of $2000 per worker each year if any worker receives federal subsidies to purchase health insurance. Fines applied to entire number of employees minus some allowances.
Immigration:

• Illegal immigrants will not be allowed to buy health insurance in the exchanges -- even if they pay completely with their own money.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Hey friends and fam,

Sorry for the delay in post but life has been coming at me full force! It has been raining like crazy here in the Midwest and guess what…………..MY ROOF IS LEAKING! Yes you read it right…my damn roof is leaking and I am seething with anger. I have not been in the house a year and my roof is leaking. When I purchased my home I was told that I had a new roof…before you ask yes I got the home inspected and every document I have on the home indicates that I have a new roof.

Well I asked a roofer to go on top of the roof and what do you know he comes down saying I NEED a new roof and he snapped a few pics for proof. Well of course I did not believe him so I called two more roofing companies and they both say “you need a new roof”. Oh by the way a new roof is about 5,000.00 to 8,000.00. My eyes popped out my mf’ing head.

I felt just like 50 cent when he said..................

I got the sickest vendetta when it come to the chedda
And if you play with my paper, you gotta meet my berretta


Chile there was all kind of neck rolling, tongue popping, eyes rolling and hand on hip action when I contacted my realtor. After several attempts of trying to contact the buyer and getting no response…what did you think a sistah did?


You damn right marched my ass straight to the civil court to file me a good ole law suite. I could not wait to hand the clerk my petition and 125.00 filing fee. I was on a mission and ready to take the entire real estate system down! Last weekend was nothing but rain so I had to pay 245.00 to have tarps placed on the roof. Ya know yo girl was ready to go straight hood. That was my damn electric bill money…aint nobody got an extra 245.00 just laying around looking for something to do. So after I spend 245.00 on the tarp and 125.00 on the filing fee here comes the buyer talking about working something out.

Oh now the bish can return a call! Are you freaking kidding me? I will keep y’all posted but if this chick try to play me, I swear I will be posting to this site from St. Louis City Medium Correction Center AKA The Justice Center AKA The Jerk House.


Keep me in your prayers.

Peace, Love and Light