What's burnin' me up today...

As I sit and gaze out my window at the twilight falling over Downtown Oakland, it's not the scorching heat that has got me all hot and bothered. The great thing about the built in air conditioning (aka the breeze comin' off da Bay)that we have here in The 'Town is that whenever it is absolutely miserable everywhere else, we can be assured of enjoying temperatures at least 10-15 degrees cooler. Today there was even a nice breeze so the reported 87 degrees didn't really feel like it. Of course I didn't really get to enjoy much of it as I've been inside all day working. I did enjoy the sunshine briefly on my walk back from the gym earlier.

So here's what's got me going today. Well, actually its two things. I'll start with the positive, being the positive person that I am. Actually, it's not really positive, but it just depends on your perspective. Here's issue #1. There's a guy that plays for the Texas Rangers named Josh Hamilton and he's having quite the amazing statistical season thus far. Nothing out of the ordinary there. The remarkable thing about Josh is that he was a crack addict a few years ago and almost didn't make it to the big leagues after being a first round pick the blew through a huge signing bonus, like Dave Chappelle's Tyrone Jenkins, on a $450,000 crack party. Well, good for him, hopefully he'll stay clean. He's pretty much making minimum wage ($396,000) for a big leaguer these days after many teams passed on him and his comeback attempt, thinking that he was too big of a risk. Not surprisingly, somebody did and now he's kickin' a$$ and takin' names as a member of the Texas Rangers and being talked about as the favorite for the MVP candidate as we head into the all-star break. That's all positive, right?

What's burning me up is how he is being received in the media. They love this guy. After hearing his name since the start of the baseball season on Sportscenter highlights, I finally got a chance to hear his story about a month ago when I read about him in Sports Illustrated. I thought it was a nice story, but it immediately got me to thinking about what a pleasant light they had put on this kid. I couldn't help but think about how he might be perceived if he were not Caucasian. I remember my boyhood heroes Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry (both African-American) having had their bouts with cocaine and neither of them was ever given a pass on that issue EVER again.

It seems quite apparent that the media always looks at blacks in the spotlight with a different set of glasses than they look at whites in the spotlight. Don't believe me? Consider a few recent examples other than the one that I mention above. Remember the girls from Gloucester High? About a month ago the story broke about there being 17 teen aged pregnant girls at one high school compared to only 4 the previous year. I recall hearing news reports that these poor girls were "socially isolated" or "lacking the support of their families". The compassion was so thick you could cut it with a knife, in sharp contrast to the promiscuity and lack of good sense that are usually pointed to when young black girls get pregnant. Sadly, the black community has written the book on broeken families and lack of support. Where is our compassion?Even young black women that are furthering their education at institutions of higher learning AND competing in the NCAA basketball championship game get called "hoes" unapolegetically by the media. (C'mon...Imus only apologized because his job was on the line.)

Back on Mr. Hamilton now, the media truly loves him. Meanwhile, Milton Bradley of the same Texas Rangers is getting next to no publicity although his batting average and slugging percentage eclipse those of Hamilton, and he trails him only by 4 in home runs. Unfortunately, Milton has been as famous for his explosive temper as his explosive bat in a tumultuous 8 year career. This year, he has not had any dust-ups that have captured the headlines, and it almost seems like the media is disappointed by that. Adam "Don't call me Pac-Man" Jones is now a Dallas Cowboy and after being suspended for the past year he seems to want to just play some football. But I'm willing to bet that even if he has an All-Pro season, every single one of his interviews this year will lead off with questions about his checkered when they should be more concerned with his ability to pick off a pass to save the game.

Finally, I've had it up to here (I've momentarily stopped typing, stood up, placed my right hand over the top of my head with the palm down, shaking it for emphasis) with the expectation that Barack or anybody in his camp should help to reconcile Hillary Clinton's debt. Is it just me or is this completely preposterous? Surely there have been expensive campaigns before and it's conceivable that both the winning and losing campaigns alike went into the hole. But never have I seen it become headline news that there is some issue over paying off Hillary's debt. I ask you to take special note of the apostrophe "s" after the word Hillary which clearly implies that the ownership of said debt is solely her own. I know the English language can be a bit obscure and confusing with all of its funky rules and such, so let's try it in Spanish. If you caught this story on CNN en Espanol you might hear that lovely Patricia Janiot call it "la deuda de Hillary", or debt of Hillary.

Why do Fox News and all of its little imps, as well as CNN, MSNBC and all of the other news outlets seem to be helping fan the flames of the guilt trip that is being slapped on to Brother Obama? Is it another case of the unique treatment by the media that I've touched on above? It almost seems like, "Look here, Barack, we've let you come around from the back door and actually come in the front door of the restaurant and eat in the dining room, so be grateful and help Hillary out." Does anyone else feel this or is it just me? I don't see anybody making a big deal about Ron Paul's, or Rudy Giuliani's failed campaigns and rushing to their aid and Rudy's camp seems to be in some trouble.

Hillary lost. It has pretty much been a wrap since February or March, but she kept the whole ugly affair going. Surely it cost millions to turn up the negative advertising heat and to fly her people around the country in total panic mode for an additional 4 months. Like Rudy, I'm sure she wasn't chillin' at the Super 8 and buckling down so that she would have enough to ride it out for the long haul. I'm quite sure she was all about ocean views, Four Season's suites, and serious spreads of cold cuts and croquettes on the campaign trail. I don't feel sorry for her or her camp one bit. These are grown people we're talking about. Very very educated grown people. With my little bachelor's degree, I can wrap my head around the concept that if I sink some capital into gaining an advantage over an opponent, no one is going to bail me out. If I'm an Olympic athlete and I don't end up winning the gold medal, I'm not going to go to the actual gold medalist and have him help me pay the coaches and trainers that worked with me all this time in preparation for my 5th place finish in the 400 meter dash. We all hoped that a gold medal would translate into lucrative endorsements, but a 5th place certainly will not.

That's enough burning up for this day. I'd sure like to see this issue go away. Indeed I would. What I'd really like to see though, is for some media personnel to take an objective look at themselves and acknowledge the blatant differences in the way that they report the news along color lines.