This is the part of the interview that the whole series revolves around. The first three parts of the Verdie Triplett interview last week focused on the history of the 5 Civilized Tribes and their slaves/freedman. This next part of the interview talks about how the tribes recently conspired to remove black folks from the nations and the fight that is still going on.

In an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Thursday Nancy Pelosi had some choice words for the President. "God bless him, bless his heart, president of the United States -- a total failure, losing all credibility with the American people on the economy, on the war, on energy, you name the subject," Pelosi told Blitzer. I guess Speaker Pelosi doesn't realize that a well placed "her" "hers" and "Speaker of the House" could be substituted in that sentence if Congress doesn't change courses in the very near future. It was all good when she and her party were in the minority, but now that they hold an advantage in both Houses of Congress. As a matter of fact I'd like to revise her comments a bit. The President has LOST all credibility on the subjects that she mentioned. It's Congress that continues to lose credibility every daily. President Bush is a lame duck to put it mildly.  I can get with Obama using Bush as a punchline but Ms. Pelosi needs to move beyond that.  It's time to offer solutions not critiques.

Washington, D.C. – (July 15, 2008) Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson will hold panel discussions on wrongful convictions and DNA exonerations this Saturday, July 19. The event will consist of two discussion panels, one featuring three Texas exonerees and one featuring Michigan Congressman John Conyers, state Senator Rodney Ellis, District Attorney Craig Watkins and Jeff Blackburn of the Innocence Project of Texas. The discussions will be moderated by Judge John Creuzot.   Texas has more wrongful convictions proven by DNA evidence than any other state in the country, and of the 32 in the state, 19 were overturned in Dallas County.     A press conference will immediately precede the first discussion.     What: Panel Discussion: Wrongful Convictions and DNA Exonerations   Date: Saturday, July 19     Time: 4:00 – 4:15 PM – Press Conference 4:15 – 5:00 PM – Panel One – Discussion featuring three Dallas exonorees 5:00 – 6:00 PM – Panel Two – Discussion featuring Michigan Congressman John Conyers, State Senator Rodney Ellis, District ...

The problem with satire is that most of the time people don't think it's funny.  Usually it's the very people the creator is trying to raise awareness about or advocate for.  The New Yorker, a so called liberal publication, isn't helping matters with this latest addition to media misx. Take one of my favorite movies, Spike Lee's Bamboozled from 2000.  I haven't met anyone besides myself who cares to much for it, or even lists it with Spike Lee's other joints.  When my wife and I saw it nearly a decade ago, people were walking out of the theater.  I got it, but I understand those who were not as amused as I was. In this instance, satire is unnessary.  We get it, folks think Obama's Muslim, blah, blah, blah.  The folks who came up with the Michelle Obama lynching picture used the same excuse as the New Yorker.  They're all pretty tired.  We get it.

Gina McCauley from What About Our Daughters is calling for action in the case of PFC Lavena Johnson. By all accounts PFC Johnson was murdered by her colleagues. Here's a recap of the story by WAOD & Jezebel: (Johnson) enlisted in the Army right out of high school in 2003 and was sent to Iraq, where she died. When the Army returned her mutilated body to her grieving parents as a suicide, her dad, Dr. John Johnson, said to himself and the Army coroner, "Somebody murdered my daughter and you picked the wrong person to fuck with." When LaVena's father finally brought himself to look at his daughter's corpse in 2005, sent home from Iraq with a report that she'd committed suicide by shooting herself in the left side of her head with an M-16 — which, by the way, is not a handgun but a relatively long rifle, he thought there was something wrong. Private LaVena Johnson's nose was broken, teeth were loose, one eye was concave and there were abrasions over her body. The supposed M-16 hole to the head was far too small for the revolver-sized exit wound, and was on the wrong side of her skull for ...

Part 3 focuses on how the U.S. government documented inhabitants of Indian Territory leading up to Oklahoma statehood.

Washington, D.C. – (July 9, 2008) Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson today announced that Dallas’s Cedar Valley College, located in the 30th Congressional District of Texas, will receive a grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Strengthening Institutions Program. The college will receive $400,056.00 for FY 2009, and an equal amount in the four following fiscal years, for a total of five years. “Cedar Valley College is a community college that truly serves its community,” Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson said. “The faculty and administration work hard to meet the needs of the students, and the students work hard to balance their schoolwork with the other responsibilities in their lives. I am proud that Cedar Valley College is in my District, and I congratulate it on receiving this grant.” Cedar Valley College is a Minority Serving Institution with an enrollment of almost 5,000 students. It will use the grant money to improve both retention of students and student success, with a focus on enhancing instruction and academic services. Grants made by the U.S. Department of Education’s Strengthening Institutions Program are designed to enable institutions ...

Part One of my interview with Verdie Triplett has been very well received by the Dallas South family. I hope you all did your part and emailed the YouTube link out to your email lists. Here's a little more homework, read through the Treaty of 1866 between the United States and the Choctaw & Chickasaw Nations. There are quite a few shalls, therefores, and herebys, but it's not that long.

By Earnest Gates Sound familiar? This is a line from Prince's song, 1999. Why 1992? That is the year President Bill Clinton ran for President. If you notice, we are starting to see a lot of similarities between Senator Barack Obama and Governor Clinton of 1992. Clinton ran a very centrist general election strategy and Obama is starting to do the same thing. Now that I think about President Clinton, he didn't do a bad job, and it wouldn't be such a bad thing if Obama was to govern like Clinton, but using 21st century methods. If you want a preview of what is ahead, go back and study the Clinton strategy of '92. Don't say I didn't warn you!