Could Robert Mugabe's dictatorship be living on borrowed time? The Roman Catholic archbishop in one of the dioceses in Zimbabwe is calling on the people to take to the streets to protest Mugabe's authoritarian rule. He is not only talking the talk but will be walking as well:

Pius Ncube, the Roman Catholic archbishop of the southern Bulawayo diocese, urged Zimbabweans to take to the streets in protest at the government's ongoing crackdown against dissenters opposed to the government, Reuters reported.

"The biggest problem with Zimbabweans is they are cowards, myself included, but as for me I am ready to stand in front, even of blazing guns," Ncube told a news conference.

"If only Zimbabweans are prepared to stand, so am I prepared to stand ... we are not going to be bullied."...Link

Now thats what I call moral courage. If only the Imams in the Gambia will muster the same courage and take on Yahya Jammeh's insanity, the country will be a different place.

CNN's Africa trotting correspondent, Jeff Koinange was recently invited to the Gambia to report on the mystical AIDS cure perfected by Yahya Jammeh. True to form and perhaps after the bruising he took at the hands of this feisty sky news correspondent, Yahya refused to be interviewed by CNN even though his office extended an invitation to the news channel.

Here is a video of Koinange's trip to the smiling coast broadcasted on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 program: VIDEO

It is really sad to watch Dr. Mbowe attest to this nonsense despite the medical training he went through over the years. This is what he told CNN:

I can swear 100% that this herbal medication his excellency is using is working. It has a potency to treat and cure patients infected with the HIV virus.

That is a bold statement. Dr. Mbowe is swearing 100% to the potency of a herbal medication the contents of which he doesn't know.

A week ago in a USA Today editorial, Alberto Gonzales said the following:

While I am grateful for the public service of these seven U.S. attorneys, they simply lost my confidence. I hope that this episode ultimately will be recognized for what it is: an overblown personnel matter.

In a press conference yesterday, he claims that the firing of eight US attorneys who a week before had lost his confidence happened essentially without his knowledge.

These were the same people he claimed represent "the face of the department," but then claimed he essentially didn't know who they were because this all was done by his chief of staff. I mean hey...there are 10,000 people working for me. How can I possibly know what my CHIEF OF STAFF is doing?

Yeah right Alberto. Undoubtedly, your chief of staff was spending his nights with Arlen Specter's chief of staff re-writing the Patriot Act to give you powers you didn't know you had to fire people you didn't know for reasons you didn't understand.

And you want us to believe you deserve to stay in your present position why?

Having said that, I think those US attorneys deserve to be fired. Yeah call me crazy but the untold story in this developing saga is that none of the purged attorneys would have say or do anything about the politicization of their offices and the legal system in general if they were not relieve of their jobs, power and livelihood.

Case in point is this testimony from David Iglesias [the purged U.S. attorney in New Mexico]:

Iglesias said criticisms of his performance by the Justice Department "are demonstrably untrue statements." He added: "We all have a right to defend our honor. I felt like my honor and the honor of my office was attacked...." http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

Oh poor David. They were impugning his honor. He is not worried about the bush administrations frontal assault on our constitutional rights. In fact he was looking for a positive recommendation from Gonzales as recently as January 10^th as he looks for a new job. He sent an email to Gonzales’s chief of staff looking for one: If you want to read it, it's at the very bottom of this document: http://judiciary.house.gov/...

How about H.E. Cummins, U.S. attorney for Arkansas' Eastern District from 2001-2006, who said the following:

"If given the choice, I'd elect to stay home and mind my own business," Cummins told The Associated Press. "Now that I'm under subpoena, I'll go and give cooperative, truthful answers."
When asked if officials in the Justice Department or White House had asked him to decline the earlier requests, Cummins said he had no comment...http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...

If you still think he deserved the job wait until you read this quote from the same US attorney:

Cummins said in a telephone interview Tuesday that he appreciated Pryor's [Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark] defense of his service, but that he remained a Bush loyalist who had considered leaving his post regardless.

"In my case, it's fair to say it was handled poorly, because they could just have easily called me and said 'You haven't done anything wrong. You're a champ. You've been a great performer for the president, and we'd like you to cooperate with us and give this other guy a job for two years,'" Cummins said... http://www.nwaonline.net/...

They would rather go into lucrative practice with Gonzales’s recommendation than go to bat for the American justice system. That is why despite the ineptitude of Alberto Gonzales, [I will not shed any tears if he is canned]: I believe the purged attorneys deserved the fate that befall them.

The Barack Obama candidacy for the presidency is giving the Clintons a heart attack. He is putting an insurmountable road block in the Hillary coronation by staking a large claim on the democratic party's most loyal constituency: the black voter.

Bill Clinton won his presidency because of the black vote. He has never won the white male vote in any presidential election. In fact he has never gotten a majority of the voters, since he never cracked 50%. His wife was counting on the same loyalty until the man with a funny name and more fealty to the community decided to run. To say that the Clinton political machine is scared straight of the Obama candidacy is not far fetched. First they went berserk when Maureen Dowd quoted David Geffen in the new york times saying the following:

I don't think that another incredibly polarizing figure, no matter how smart she is and no matter how ambitious she is--and God knows, is there anybody more ambitious than Hillary Clinton?--can bring the country together. Obama is inspirational, and he's not from the Bush royal family or the Clinton royal family. .

Hillary's campaign responded to this comment by asking the Obama camp to fire Geffen even though the billionaire mogul has no role in the Obama campaign except for been an admirer and supporter of Obama. This episode is a prelude to what the Clinton machine will do to win the nomination. Obama, to his credit didn't budge to the bullying tactics and his rapid response team responded within hours and hit the Clintons where it hurts.

Which brings me to the dueling speeches I just watched on C-Span. Today marks the 42^nd anniversary of what is come to be called Bloody Sunday: Obama and Clinton both gave speeches to mark the occasion. What is the big deal? You may ask. Well it is the drama involved. The fight for the black vote which is huge in southern primaries is getting intensive. Hillary has her husband coming in to help “herd” black folk since they are straying from the farm ala camp Hillary. Bill Clinton was previously busy until polls show that wifey is losing momentum among black folk. Been the anointed “first black president” and all, he decided it is time to straighten black folk out. His only mistake is that his wife was never anointed the first black first lady. Therein lies their predicament and the fact that after all these years in the senate Hillary Clinton is not to enamored of issues affecting black constituents.

In the year 2000 Hillary Clinton won almost 90% of black votes in her New York senatorial campaign, but guess what the first thing in her victory speech was? You would've guessed wrong if you think it has anything to do with the mind blowing unemployment rate among black males in New York or their incarceration and recidivism rate. You would be equally wrong if you think it is a concern for the high number of black kids in New York who are failed by the New York public schools. Nah her concern was and her actions will be geared towards fixing the upstate economy.

But watching her on television rattle of on the significance of the voting rights act marches makes me wonder if most people clapping in that audience could name any initiatives that Hillary Clinton has championed since coming to the senate with significance to black people. She took a stance on trivial issues such as flag burning to appease right wing ideologues who won't vote for her if their life depended on it, but couldn't lift a finger on issues such as police-brutality in New York, racial profiling or the big enchilada: economic development in post Katrina New Orleans.

Which brought me to my pet peeve: the idolization of the Clintons amongst the black community. Granted Bill and Hillary Clinton know how to schmooze black audiences, but when issues affecting our communities need their influence for redress, they miss those parties. They leave the heavy lifting to black politicians, most of whom the Clintons know have no power to effect positive change in those situations, either because of ineptitude in representation or mediocrity because they are products of political machineries created all over major American cities.

It is funny I said all this, and yet, if Hilary was to win the Democratic nomination I will probably have to vote for her; since the Republicans appear to be no option after this Bush disaster. But in this battle royale for the Democratic nomination, I am for Obama and will not hesitate to put forth the flim-flamsy act the Clintons employ when it comes to black electorates. Today's events are a manifestation and continuation of the Clinton machines bamboozlement of the black voter. However this time around, there is a genuine alternative for black voters: Barack Obama...