Nigel Lythgoe's Posted a National Dance Day Photo

This just in from Dizzy Feet. WOW! Looks like National Dance Day is a success. The photo below was tweeted by Nigel Lythgoe of So You Think You Can Dance and the Dizzy Feet Foundation. He says it comes from today's festivities on the mall in Washington D.C.



Waiting on video. See more pictures, perhaps, here. You can also follow the hash tag on Twitter, #nationaldanceday, and as I've said before, here's the Facebook page.

Anne Rice quit the Roman Catholic Church, not Christ

I just published a post at Examiner.com about the latest Anne Rice flap regarding her Facebook post saying she "quit Christianity." A more careful reading of her remarks reveals that while the novelist is disillusioned with organized Christianity, in particular the Roman Catholic Church, she's still a believer.

Rice will still quote the Bible and share her faith in Christ Jesus, but she's fed up with more conservative positions within Christianity that rebuke gays and pro-choice advocates. A recent interview she gave to the AP also indicates she was shaken by current reports on Catholic priests and sex scandals. Please read my post at the New Orleans Literature Examiner.

Charles Fuller's Latest: What Will You Learn from a Children's Book?

Contributions from Charles H. Fuller to America’s literary heritage have been rich, theatrical plays based in historical fact that feature adults struggling with racial injustice and each other. So, it’s unsurprising that his much-awaited new release also draws from American history. That, however, is where the similarity with the playwright's older works thins.

Fuller's latest offering, Snatch: The Adventures of David and Me, is neither a play nor is its focus adult characters. It’s an adventure novel about two free black boys in 1838, young brothers who help a runaway slave in New York’s Five Points neighborhood.

He wrote this tale for his sons, who are now working men, Charles III and David Ira Fuller. With this novel, the playwright fullfills a promise he made 40 years ago to place his own boys in a story. ... Please continue reading at the African-American Books Examiner.

Nakul Dev Mahajan: Bollywood Uses Many World Dance Styles, He Says on SYTYCD

Did anyone else notice that Bollywood choreographer Nakul Dev Mahajan of So You Think You Can Dance stressed during last night's episode that Bollywood draws from many world dance styles? I think that was Mahajan's chance to correct what Mia Michaels said three weeks ago when she criticized AdéChiké for adding an African flavor to his Bollywood moves. As I hoped to convey in my post after that episode when I said Mahajan has trained in African tribal dance is that it's highly probable AdéChiké didn't give the routine an African flavor; Mahajan did.

Tonight during the clip of Robert and Billy learning the steps to a new Mahajan Bollywood routine, the choreographer shouted out a dance style during part of the training in a comical way, "Hip Hop/Hip Hop/Hip Hop!" I guess he didn't want a repeat of the judges showing their ignorance about Bollywood, especially Mia's ignorance, which was quite insulting. And the judges complied by praising the performance.

I thought I had heard that before that Bollywood incorporates multiple dance styles, but I couldn't find any documentation online three weeks ago or I would have linked to it in the post back then.

When I wrote about that incident with AdéChiké and Mia, however, I commented that Mahajan stood up when Cat Deeley questioned that the judges seemed to be criticizing the black dancer for doing exactly what they'd praised José for doing during his Bollywood number early in the season, which was to add his own flavor. I suspected then that Mahajan disagreed with Mia's critique. I perceived that there was an "African" feel to some of AdéChiké's movement as well, but unlike Mia, I didn't think it was wrong to have a taste of Africa in a Bollywood number.

I still don't think Mia's comment was racist. She's simply rude, and sometimes she's not even rude. She just neglects to put the sugar on her comments that Adam Shankman and Nigel Lythgoe do. Someone should remind her to always find something encouraging to say because her fellow Americans are easily offended on behalf of their favorite dancers.

Nevertheless, I have been watching her more since people have been claiming she exhibits racist attitudes, trying to gauge if her rudeness is disproportionately directed to dancers of color. She was abrupt with José tonight following his Hip Hop routine with Comfort, but I guess that doesn't count because in the past she's been overly enamored of him. So, jury's still out.

Poem from the Still Small Voice

Under the Covers
By Nordette N. Adams

Under cover of scars crissrossing the torso,
purple-blue etchings mesh into one nest
stubborn spirits of slurs escaped
from inept exorcisms, hiding
an impostor's beat. This metronome
times the rise of withering supplications.

Alone, she skates figure eights,
the eternal curve. If only
she could swerve off the deepening groove
to sail a new arc high through air,
she could retire her blades, rend the mask,
reveal the straight lip, the damp eye,
the brow wrinkled as a mother's
when children fail and fail again.

She's prayed this pain projecting from her
back, through the shrink of cleansing organs,
means wings budding, that God is
closing windows to open the door wide
for her soft, feathered, coverless journey.


© 2010 Nordette N. Adams
July 18

What's Up With WikiLeaks and the Afghanistan War?

What is WikiLeaks.org and why is it in the news? The White House says the website is a security risk. Here are some resources so you can learn more.



The WikiLeaks.org website appears to be offline currently, probably because it's getting so many hits or maybe its enemies are jamming it. According to a post at The Guardian's Comment is Free, WikiLeaks is "a Sweden based non-profit website that publishes leaked documents pertaining to government and corporate misconduct." And you can ferret through Wikipedia's page on the WikiLeaks project.

CNN's stories about the Afghan war leaks: Alleged war documents paint ground-level picture and What leaked documents are telling us about the Afghan war.

The AP story: "WikiLeaks Founder On Afghan War Diary: Evidence Of War Crimes In Leaked Documents"

From Foreign Policy Magazine:

Composed in large measure of "secret" reports and cables from the U.S. military, the initial review of the (92,000) documents reveals new details about multiple aspects of the war, including civilian casualties caused by international forces, the increased use of sometimes unreliable armed drones, Pakistan's alleged role in supporting various Taliban and militant factions and suspicion of Iranian involvement as well, secret special operations task forces that hunt Taliban ... read more

The New York Times: "View Is Bleaker Than Official Portrayal of War in Afghanistan"

A six-year archive of classified military documents made public on Sunday offers an unvarnished, ground-level picture of the war in Afghanistan that is in many respects more grim than the official portrayal.

The Washington Post: "White House, foreign allies downplay impact of classified document leak."

The New York Times: Leaks Add to Pressure on White House Over Strategy

Remember General McChrystal's resignation scandal: BlogHer

Gibbs at press conference talks of security concerns. Video below.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Blog Break. Blogcation. Hiding Out.

I'm taking a blog break. I may pass through with three-sentence post and links just to remind the Google and Bing people that the blog is still alive or maybe I'll post a poem or two, but my brain needs a vacation. I am on break until further notice.

Thank you all for your support.

Nordette

Former USDA Employee Sherrod's Full Speech, Plus News Recaps of Today's Race Baiting Political Theater

I'm still on my blogging break, but ...

Update, July 23, 2010: President Obama was on Good Morning America to talk about financial reform, but he also answered a question about his telephone conversation with Shirley Sherrod and addressing race in America.


Update, July 22, 2010: President Obama calls Shirley Sherrod to express "sincere" regret.

"The president told Ms. Sherrod that this misfortune can present an opportunity for her to continue her hard work on behalf of those in need," the White House said in a statement about a phone call that Obama had with her at midday. "He hopes that she will do so."

Update, July 21, 2010: CNN's running Shirley Sherrod's whole speech. Gibbs apologized for whole Obama administration. Vilsack is supposed to apologize personally. Andrew Breitbart is saying he was out to get the NAACP not Shirley Sherrod. That's his defense for inaccurate reporting.



The irony in the full video above is that former USDA employee Shirley Sherrod says before her talk to guests at the NAACP Freedom Fund Banquet is that jobs with the federal government are secure. Then she goes on to tell a story about her father being murdered by white men who were never charged, and later she tells the story that got her into trouble after a right wing operative doctored it.

Her meaning is the exact opposite of what Andrew Breitbart's Big Government conservative website made it appear to be. She was telling the story of what she learned by helping a white farmer in the 1980s, who is now deceased. She said she realized that helping farmers was "about the poor versus those who have," not race. Her message is one of transformation and reconciliation. Still, she has no job due to the hasty reaction of her boss, Tom Vilsack.

The farmer's wife, Eloise Spooner, says Sherrod did everything she could to help them save their farm. As the truth's been revealed, people are calling for Sherrod to be reinstated in her post as the agriculture department's director of rural development in Georgia.

Even before the truth came out, anyone who'd been following the NAACP's dust-up with the Tea party and the Mark Williams drama with supposed satire, however, should have been suspicious of both the video and her firing. I was, and so was Eva Rodriguez.

I'm still on blogcation, but couldn't ignore the this story, and so, I'm posting a a link to a recap from the Washington Post, an NPR story, the NAACP's second statement admitting its error of condemning Sherrod, and a CNN video. My take is Agriculture Secretary Vilsack and undersecretary Cheryl Cook overreacted as did the NAACP, and if the WhiteHouse had a hand in forcing Sherrod to resign as she was told it did, then the WH is equally misguided. I mean really, to believe Breitbart and early Fox News reports and not check facts first is insane. Did they not follow the ACORN hit?

I said on Twitter via four tweets, "Ag. Sec. Tom Vilsack sounds like an idiot who's reached the waters of mediocrity. He should be yanked from his post. ... Is it possible WH did not push for Sherrod to resign but Tom Vilsack and Cheryl Cook told her that to scare her? ... Even if WH didn't specifically request it, the way the Agri Sec handled is indication of racial climate in Administration. ... I think the WH chant is "Don't make racial waves please. We can't swim."

NAACP's second statement saying it was "snookered."

WaPo story: "Firing of USDA official highlights larger political problems involving race"

HuffPo story: "'Racism' Video That Led To Firing USDA Official Shirley Sherrod Was Materially Altered"

Listen to a story about the Sherrod issue at NPR.

And no, I don't have much confidence in the Obama administration to address racial matters. I think as the first African-American POTUS, Barack Obama is consigned to compromise and walking a tight rope. I hope he can overcome that challenge, however. For those keeping score, count today's points for conservative pundits and right wing muckrakers. Eyes are not on Breitbart and Fox as they should be because of how the NAACP and the WH dealt with Shirley Sherrod after learning of the the edited video tape. They're on the Obama administration and the NAACP.

Atlanto-occipital Disarticulation

Rizzoli and Isles: Fast, painless way to kill yourself is atlanto-occipital disarticulation. In other words, internal decapitation; head separates from spinal cord, which may be accomplished by hanging if you don't botch it. If you mess it up, then you're strangled, which is a painful way to die. Or you could crash your car and hope the air bag hits your head with enough force to snap it up. How gruesome is that!

What's Up With Louisiana Budget Cuts?

At this link you'll find a round-up of articles, press releases, and FAQs about cuts to the State of Louisiana budget. The focus of the list is education, and I compiled it mainly as a resource for myself as I try to understand how the money flows. Visit here.

National Dance Day: Deadline to Submit Your Ideas is Tonight

You can share your plans for National Dance Day, July 31, at the So You Think You Can Dance Facebook page, and there's also a form at the Fox website. However, make sure you share those plans before midnight tonight, July 16, if you hope they are shared on the show next week.

I posted the Tabitha and Napoleon routine weeks ago at this link and said back then I thought the hope was for flash mob dances.

I also mentioned plans for Washington D.C. at the end of the post about Mia Michaels's apology to AdéChiké here, after Nigel Lithgoe said the Washington D.C. Flash mob dance would be at Meridian Hill. However, on Thursday night's results show, July 15, he said the Mall. I found this from Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton on her website:

Norton Introduces Resolution to Launch Annual National Dance Day

July 13, 2010

WASHINGTON, DC - Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today introduced a resolution to recognize July 31, as National Dance Day. Norton will also host a National Dance Day Flash Mob on July 31, 2010 on the National Mall featuring Nigel Lythgoe, celebrity judge and producer of the popular national television show "So You Think You Can Dance." Norton, an avid proponent of healthy lifestyles and a lover of popular and other dance forms, is using National Dance Day and her resolution to promote physical fitness across the United States and the First Lady's Let's Move campaign.

"Astonishingly, more than 31 percent of U.S. children under the age of 19, and an estimated 68 percent of American adults are overweight or obese," said Norton. "National Dance Day and my resolution encourage Americans to live a physically active lifestyle and to have fun doing it. Organizing an annual National Dance Day in the nation's capital and throughout the country is a terrific way to promote fitness, and to emphasize the First Lady's Let's Move initiative to combat childhood obesity."

The Congresswoman's resolution received special recognition last week on So You Think You Can Dance when Nigel Lythgoe announced her resolution to recognize July 31, as National Dance Day.

In January, Norton introduced the Lifelong Improvements in Food and Exercise (LIFE) Act to promote exercise and diet changes. Norton's LIFE bill directs the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to be a lead agency in combating obesity and sedentary lifestyles.

I haven't yet heard what's happening in New Orleans, if anything.

Here is a flash mob dance performance in a Canadian mall. It was staged April 29, 2010.

The Movie 12 Angry Men: Where's Rush Limbaugh?

I watched 12 Angry Men on Turner Classic Movies with my son night before last, the 1957 film directed by Sidney Lumet. It's one of those films that reminds you that black and white with no car chases and provocative dialogue can be more riveting that today's special effects-driven blockbusters.

So much of it reminded me of the flow of some political Internet conversations that I said, "The more things change, the more they stay the same, except now some of the most offensive men have talk shows and with blogs and social media the discourse expands." Unfortunately, there's often no one playing Henry Fonda's character.

Henry Fonda, who also produced the film, plays the voice of reason, Juror #8. He is the lone dissenter who's insulted and called a "bleeding heart liberal," an insult he never addresses, but he doesn't back down. He's an architect who wants the men to talk over the case and not rush to judgment. At the end of the movie we find out his name is Davis.

In the clip above, Juror #10 (Ed Begley) reveals more of his prejudice against the ethnic group of the man on trial for stabbing his father. He makes racist statements you can read any day in comments on crime at the Times Picayune website. He voices the same opinions earlier more than once, but the climax of his views that offend others is captured in the embedded clip. The majority of the other jurors stand up and turn their backs to him as he continues his rant. It would be great if people did that in real life, but more often than not, they don't. They just look on uncomfortably or, in the case of some pundits, they watch and increase their ratings, giving them more money and power.

Lee J. Cobb plays Juror #3, a man that makes me think of Rush Limbaugh. He holds out on changing his mind and much of what drives his opinions, his firm belief that he is right, and the need to force his views on others relates to an emotional wound that he needs to address and his political views about "liberals." He's taken the specific and made it general.

The character spends much of the film asking others to repeat themselves, to explain again why certain arguments are not valid. He drove my son a little batty. You'd think Juror #3 was deaf, blind, and stupid as he asks again, even after logical explanations have been provided and court evidence has been debunked, "How do you know?" The difference between Limbaugh and Juror #3 is that Juror #3 can change his mind and recognize he's being unfair, and when Juror #10 goes on his racist rant, he turns his back with the others. Limbaugh would probably be the one delivering the racist rant.

If you could mash Juror #3 and Juror #10 together and never let them change their minds, you'd have Rush Limbaugh today. The man is mentally unstable, which is why I didn't even write about his saying that Oprah and President Barack Obama are only successful because they're black.

BP Oilpocalypse Hysteria: Will the Gulf Explode in the Next Six Months? Are These the Last Days of Humans in Louisiana?

I am trying to ignore all the doomsday scenarios arising as people project their fears onto the BP Deepwater Horizon leak in the Gulf of Mexico. I prefer to keep a positive mindset, as reflected in one of my poems about the disaster. However, I do read about the fear such as those Gena Haskett explored in her post about doomers and the BP oil spill. Last night, I saw the following in my mail, a piece at Helium.com:

The bottom line: BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling operation may have triggered an irreversible, cascading geological Apocalypse that will culminate with the first mass extinction of life on Earth in many millions of years.

The writer has sources (you'll have to decide for yourself how credible they are), but seriously! What the hell does this guy expect anyone to do with this information?

The piece ends telling us that "Most experts in the know, however, agree that if the world-changing event does occur it will happen suddenly and within the next 6 months."

Uh-huh. If many experts are saying this, then why is it not more widely known? At this point, after waiting to find out each summer whether we'll have to evacuate for hurricanes and return to find homes underwater, any so-called news of our imminent destruction is par for the course.

NYPD Stops and Frisks People Randomly

The New York Times has two must-read articles, "A Few Blocks, 4 Years, 52,000 Police Stops," which was published today, and this op-ed by Bob Hebert published in March, "Watching Certain People." I am not writing on this topic, but I wanted to share this because I am appalled.

The most recent article includes video of police giving tickets for tresspassing to people who visiting relatives or friends in Brownsville, Brooklyn, sometimes before they even they enter the building. Herbert's March op-ed begins:

From 2004 through 2009, in a policy that has gotten completely out of control, New York City police officers stopped people on the street and checked them out nearly three million times, frisking and otherwise humiliating many of them.

Sounds like some parts of old south and the new, creeping to the profiling and crackdown in Baton Rouge, which was approved by its black mayor.

The Evolution of One Woman's Romantic Relationships as Mini Musical: Starry-eyed Youth to Midlife Wholeness

First, you step into the romantic stream and infatuation carries you away. He's saying you've got him "Going in Circles" by Luther Vandross. It's the same song you used to hear on the radio when you were nine recorded by "Friends of Distinction." You're also in circles over him, and so, you really want this love affair because it feels like what you think love should feel like based on movies, songs, and romance novels.



Wedding bells! You've gotten exactly what you thought you wanted. It's perfect. You're at the place of "He Is" by Heather Headley.



Time goes by, and you've moved past infatuation and the newlywed phase. Good news! You're still committed: Anita Baker's "Giving You the Best that I Got."




A few babies come. You're both working and your time for each other is limited. One day you look up and realize something's missing. You want to work it out, but he's not cooperating. He's put up a wall. Or maybe you don't really want to work it out for real because you may not want what you once thought you wanted. The only thing holding you together is not wanting to devastate the children, but after a while, the stress is too much for you, and you go there. You tell him "Go!" or maybe you pack and go. Whatever, your message to him is Laura Izibor with the final decision, "Don't Stay."



If you're both mature, the break up is painful but you don't back out. Now you're at ether "I will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor or "On My Own" by Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald, depending on how the break-up went down.



You weep a bit. Nurse your wounds, and then it dawns on you that you are free! So, off you trot hot as "Life of the Party" by Prince!



WOW! Look at you. You're on fire. People keep trying to date you. Some even want to marry you. So, you take a break for awhile to reflect on your relationships. Is it possible you're heading toward the same flat life of settling that was your marriage? Some of these guys are not what you want at all. See Jill Scott's "Whenever You're Around." You sigh, "Been there, done that" and ask yourself, "What do I really want?"



Time is running out, people suggest. But you'd rather not be bothered at all than to deal with game playing and casual dating anymore. If you're going to have a relationship, then you want the whole meal, not just the chocolate chip cookie. That's you in "Come Right or Not at All" by Phyllis Hyman. You'd give your all to the right one, but damn it! Finding the right one takes more time and energy than you'd care to expend on something as unnecessary as a mate.



So, now you're 50 and to your surprise, men still knock on your door. You notice that sometimes you don't even bother to answer it because you're busy doing what you like and really don't care to be interrupted by what they like. Is it possible that you don't really want a relationship with all the required work after all? Maybe you never wanted that. Maybe you were just nudged in that direction because of a biological urge to procreate combined with media and societal messages to marry and produce a family. That's when it hits you. There is a perfect relationship for you after all at your age and for your temperament, some exclusivity without the chains, which means not walking down the aisle and saying "I do." It's "Live By Close, Visit Often" by K. T. Oslin. Ahh. It feels right. You understand now that you are the meal. A mate at your age would be a great chocolate chip cookie, especially if he brings his own milk, but if the cookie's not made to your liking, then abstaining works too.



One morning, you're stretching before your first cup of coffee, and what do you know? The phone rings. It's your "male" friend that you've been spending more time with, and you've got that warm fuzzy feeling you thought you'd never have again. Are you healed? Suddenly you know that you're really free to give someone what you never could before, the best of your love. You can do this because now you know yourself well enough to know exactly what your best love is. Go, Emotions!

Remember When the Saints Had Us So High? (Oil Spill Poetry)

Another poem about the oil leak/spill in the Gulf of Mexico, 2010.

Gold and Black to Black Gold Blues
By Nordette N. Adams

Remember when the Saints had us so high,
so high that low meant do the slower second line
and the dirge signaled juke joint jig?
Remember when New Orleans won the Super Bowl
and none could silence our wild Tchoupitoulas,
Who Dat! hearts? The whole world laughed
and leaped to the beat of rebirth brass.

Black gold creeps up the wetlands grass,
invoking weeping Orishas.
It smothers shrimp, oysters, Brown Pelican wings--
extensions of Cajun and Creole soul,
of fishermen dreaming green,
and the splendid Carnival purple plume,
it dyes morbid gray.

Deepwater Horizon builds like night terrors
its own black hole beneath the Gulf,
swallowing the unseen, hiding
knowledge of death and life.

We live here in a purgatory of anticipation
that oils the slip of the trombone.
What once sounded like music
is noise.

But I must believe in the promise
of Phoenix feathers, in the hope of Easter morn,
I make believe the look of death
is Louisiana life
reborn.

© 2010 Nordette N. Adams

Related:

• Gaining Yardage
• Oil Spilling Poetry
• Crescent City Blues in K
• Brass Band Mythology
• Poet Seeks Oil Spill Poetry to Feature in Column

The Verdict on Oscar Grant Shooting Prompts More Protests

The following is CNN video of one of Oscar Grant's family members speaking to media about the verdict convicting former Bay Area Transit officer Johannes Mehserle of involuntary manslaughter in Grant's shooting death at the start of 2009. That was the least of the possible criminal offenses of which he could have been convicted.



Per CNN:

The verdict was announced in Los Angeles, where the trial was held, shortly after 4 p.m. PT (7 p.m. ET). ... Johannes Mehserle, who was a Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer at the time of the incident, was accused of shooting 22-year-old Oscar Grant on an Oakland train platform on January 1, 2009. ... Mehserle could have been found not guilty, guilty of second-degree murder or guilty of voluntary manslaughter -- or guilty of involuntary manslaughter, as the jury decided. The trial was moved from Alameda County to Los Angeles due to pre-trial publicity.

According to CNN, 83 protesters were arrested after the verdict. His family, while angry, have asked for calm.

This blog's been receiving a lot of traffic from people wanting to read more about this case. In January of 2009, I wrote four posts, the first about the infamous video surfacing that showed police officers pinning Grant to the ground, chest down, Mehserle drawing his weapon and shooting Grant in the back as Grant begged officers not to taser him. Mehserle has maintained that he thought he was pulling out his taser when he drew out his gun and shot Grant.

Later I wrote more about the cell phone video itself posted by the AP and the ensuing Oakland riots. I am still dismayed by the people who think it matters whether Oscar Grant had a criminal record or not. For every two hits I see in my stats using the key words "Oscar Grant" or "Why did police shoot Oscar Grant," I see two searching "Oscar Grant criminal record" or "What did Oscar Grant do?"

The police weren't checking for warrants nor were they dealing with someone who had a weapon threatening them. They were supposedly policing a rowdy crowd returning home via BART after News Year Eve celebrations. They stopped Oscar Grant. He was chest-down on the ground, unarmed and not resisting arrest when he was shot. That could have been you or one of your children chest down with no record begging the police not to use a taser only to be shot instead. What will you say now, that you and nobody in your family would ever be out partying on News Year Eve? What does that mean?

So, what I wrote in 2009 still applies:

As usual, the victim's criminal record is being discussed, even though it has nothing to do with his tragic death. Grant's parents are having to defend their son's past and declare that he turned his life around. But, really, he could have been released from jail New Year's Eve morning, and still, there would be no reason visible to video viewers for why Mehserle needed to draw his gun.

No matter how unjust, a violent act against an African-American person may be during a tense situation, it appears injury becomes the victim's fault, not for what he or she did that day, but what he or she may have done as a supposed criminal on some other day or in some other life. It seems too often that all police officers, and sometimes ordinary white citizens, have to say is, "You know, that black man did drugs once, or he was busted for stealing before" and no questions asked, at least not hard ones.

The Oscar Grant tragedy is the exact case I had in mind when I disapproved of people talking more about the family of Aiyana Jones having a criminal connection than discussing information that not only were the police showing off for a reality TV show when they raided the house, but also that the police may have been at the wrong house.

Aiyana is the seven-year-old who died after police in Detroit stepped over her toys on the lawn, entered her house, and shot her in the head during a raid in May. The officer in that case says the grandmother struggled with him and it was an accident. The people choosing to discuss her family's criminal link instead of what the police did wrong are black people not white people. In the Grant case I've seen just as many whites wanting to discuss his criminal history as blacks, but I have seen blacks who choose that focus. I wonder what they would say if the police entered their homes, and shot one of them and people focused on a relative's criminal history instead of the police having committed outrageous procedural violations designed to stop innocent people from being shot.

We need to discuss accountability and crime, but immediately after the police have killed someone and were clearly wrong is not the time to do that. We have a hell of a lot of other criminal cases in our communities that are unrelated to police brutality that we can use to contemplate crime and how we can stop it.

You'll find all four posts about Oscar Grant plus this one and the one about Mehserle fleeing the state of California in 2009, claiming he feared for his life, all under the Bart shooting label. I may have more to say later, but I'm mulling the verdict over now and information such as there were no African-Americans on the jury.

Mia Michaels, Frustrated and Passionate, Apologizes to AdeChike on SYTYCD (Spoiler)

On tonight's So You Think You Can Dance results show, judge Mia Michaels, who was recently nominated for an Emmy again for choreography, apologized to contestant AdéChiké Tolbert. While the 23-year-old, Brooklyn dancer escaped being in the bottom three, he looked a little fragile with host Cat Deeley's arm around him as Michaels tried to make amends and explain herself. She said:

I feel looking back last night, I came across a little harsh and insensitive, and I'm very sorry if I hurt you in anyway. As a teacher I get very passionate and frustrated when I saw such a breakthrough last week, and then this week I feel like, I don't know if it was the stress of the show, but your light dimmed and I got very passionate and frustrated about it, you know. There's such a greatness in you and I want to see that soar. You have gift and I want to see it soar. And you have to know that I believe in you and that I love you, and I will always be tough love Mama Mia.

If you want to read about last last night's "controversial" critique of AdéChiké, in particular Mia Michaels's remarks, I cover it here.

The vote could have gone either way for the contemporary dancer. AdéChiké could have been safe due to not only votes from people who like him but also additional sympathy votes from the at-home audience, or he could have been voted off because folks agreed with the judges, who were unenthusiastic about both his performances last night.

Following the Top 8 show, I saw far more people outraged at Michaels who felt sorry for th dancer than I saw people saying he should go home. One woman on Twitter last night said she voted for him repeatedly for 10 minutes straight in light of Mia's comments, which some people felt were "racist."

What's bad for AdéChiké is that some people will now assume he shouldn't have been safe and that if Mia Michaels had not chewed his bones, he would not have had so many votes. I hope he can overcome that perception and become an undeniable contender for the win.

Billy Bell and Ashley Galvan joined Alex Wong in the bottom three tonight. Wong was automatically placed in the bottom three due to injury. He could not perform a solo tonight, and with the doctors deciding he would be out for the rest of the season, elimination became moot for the other two contestants. Consequently, only Wong went home.

Wong suffered a lacerated Achilles tendon, which Nigel Lythgoe said means he will require surgery and can't dance for three months. His surgery has been scheduled for Tuesday. Understandably, Wong cried. He took a leave from the Miami City Ballet company as a principal soloist. Most of the dancers were in tears with him. I cried as well. I was rooting for him. Lythgoe said Wong will automatically return next season.

Lythgoe also announced that D.C. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton is introducing a bill to make the SYTYCD idea for National Dance Day on July 31st official. There may be a flash mob dance in D.C. that day at Malcolm X/Meridian Hill Park. I've already posted video of the dance routine and more about National Dance Day at this link. The show is also seeking videos, photos, and comments from viewers about their plans for the day.

Cat Deeley Wins So You Think You Can Dance, Top 8, and Mia Michaels is Rude But Not a Racist

Last night on So You Think You Can Dance, horror of horrors! We learned the amazing Alex Wong was injured rehearsing for a Bollywood routine with AdéChiké Torbert and may have to leave the show. I'm not being snarky. I really do like Alex.

Alex is amazing! So, is host Cat Deeley. I love SYTYCD in general, but I specifically hate how the judges handled AdéChiké last night.





Mia Michaels, who I tend to adore almost unconditionally, was the most brutal of all in judging AdéChiké. Actually, I agreed with her observation that something about his movement during the Bollywood routine, choreographed by Nakul Dev Mahajan, who has been trained in African tribal dance, had an African vibe. Before the judges spoke, I told my daughter, who's been trained in African dance as well, "Hmm. Are they making a connection here back to African in that number?" Nevertheless, Michaels was indisputably rude to AdéChiké, going so far as to say how much she missed Alex's presence in the routine. She made a similar remark to Melinda Sullivan last week, telling the tap dancer that the judges made a mistake when they sent ballroom dancer Cristina Santana home the week before and kept Sullivan.

In spite of her rudeness, I strongly disagree with people on Twitter calling Michaels a "racist" for saying the black dancer's movements were more African in style than Bollywood. Some people are so offended on behalf of AdéChiké that they are making broad statements such as Michaels is always harder on black male dancers. WTF! That's not true. Who can forget how Mia nearly worshiped African-American choreographer Desmond Richardson and fawned over contestant Will B. Wingfield in 2008?

One point to make is it may be that there's nothing wrong with Bollywood having a little African feel in parts, but would people be calling Michaels's comments racist if the dancer were not black? Is it Mia who can't separate dance critique from race or is it the audience that can't do so?

I think people are recalling how hard she was on Brandon Bryant in Season 5 and reading too much into that. (Michaels has known Bryant since he was a little boy.) However, she said she was hard on him because he was good. I've had a few teachers like that. I had a professor who kept slapping B+ on my papers because he said I had become lazy, used to getting an "A" easily, and he expected more. As a result, I wrote one of the best papers of my college career and he mailed a note to my house with the words, "Happy now?" and a smiley to tell me my grade for the semester was an "A." He was the professor pestering me to go to grad school while the ones who eagerly marked my papers with "A" never encouraged me to go beyond a B.A. degree.

Nigel Lythgoe criticized AdéChiké as well for bringing his own "funky" flavor to the number and thought adding his own twist to Bollywood was inappropriate. The drama intensified when host Cat Deeley stood up for the 23-year-old dancer and reminded the judges that only a few weeks ago they had praised B-boy Jose Ruiz, whom all the judges shamelessly cherish, by saying he added his own little twist of personality when he performed a Bollywood number. They thought Jose's little twist was charming. Why not AdéChiké's?

Basically Mia and Nigel seemed to say that Jose's added flavor is genuine and AdéChiké's is not. The implication was Jose is just naturally more lovable than AdéChiké. O.K., so Jose does seem quite sweet, but still, bad form, Mia and Nigel!

I think the Bollywood choreographer also felt the judges were too hard on AdéChiké because he stood up in support when Cat Deeley questioned the judges comments.

Judge Adam Shankman, perhaps after seeing how the crowd cheered for Deeley's defense of AdéChiké, softened his criticism a little in comparison to Nigel and Mia, but he still agreed the dancer's performance could have been better. He assured him that he would see what they meant when he watched the playback and told him his movements lacked the crispness and finish the routine required.

These harsh critiques came after judges had earlier pounded AdéChiké about his Mandy Moore routine with all-star Courtney Galliano and on the heels of all the judges lathering up Robert Roldan, another of their favorites. They feel the public is unfairly voting Robert into the bottom three. Nigel went on and on saying that people online are calling Robert "arrogant" and how Robert is absolutely not arrogant, but a hard worker. Adam and Mia followed up further in Robert's defense.

I got the strong impression that since Alex must be automatically placed in the bottom three, the judges fear having to choose between keeping him and sending another of their favorites home if the audience votes AdéChiké into the top seven. If the doctors say Alex can continue in the competition, and he's automatically in the bottom three but unable to dance a solo, the producers and judges probably want to make a preemptive strike on the fallout of not axing Alex when he can't dance for his life.

Fans were angry last year when Ashleigh Di Lello was injured but the audience voted for her anyway. People felt the votes stemmed from sympathy not merit. And that may be the reason that this year the rule is injury automatically places a dancer in the bottom three. So, now the judges are in a tough spot. The golden one, Alex, is in danger.

I think if the doctors say Alex can finish the season, the judges would prefer to see AdéChiké in the bottom three tonight so they can vote him off, justifying his dismissal by saying Alex's past work is far superior to anyone else's, which would be true but not go over well with fans without him performing a solo. In other words, AdéChiké is their least favorite dancer, male or female, and they can't afford to lose any more girls because they're down to only two. With the thrashing they gave him last night, if he lands in the bottom three, no matter how great his solo, they probably think they will sound fair if they release him instead someone else.

Who's tonight's real winner? Cat Deeley. Whatever points she may have scored for AdéChiké, he may have lost when he pounded his chest at her defense. But he's still not as boring as Robert.

The following screenshot from Twitter is only a small sampling of the kind of tweets applauding her for speaking up that I saw tonight. The shot begins with Ellenore Scott, a season 6 contestant from the show, saying "Cat Deeley is my hero."

Bobby Jindal Signs Bring Your Gun to Church Bill

Bobby Jindal does his imitation of Moses
at an oil clean-up photo op. Photo by
Spencer Platt of Getty Images

I've been posting a little less as I try to concentrate on literature and how to be still/silent, but I must stop and tell you, friends, that our governor, Bobby Jindal, believes you will get closer to the Lord if you take your gun to church. Well, guns have indeed sent a lot of people to heaven or hell, that's for sure, and so maybe pistols, revolvers, and AK47s (if you wear a long black Columbine High trench coat) should be welcomed in church.

Your pastor will send out a newsletter letting the congregation know you and others will be packing after he notifies you that you are on his special security force, which will be after you pass a criminal background check and get licensed to carry a concealed weapon. After that you may proceed to the altar and pray to the Big Gun in the Sky. And just think, if the gun accidentally goes off and shoots you in your femoral artery, while you may die quickly, you'll be exactly where you need to be so people can pray for your soul.

You need guns in church, according to Rep. Henry Burns, R-Haughton who introduced the bill, because ...

Burns contended that religious institutions in crime-ridden or "declining neighborhoods" need the added protection to ward off thieves and muggers.

What? No metal detectors? Oh, I forgot, people are afraid to be scanned too.

Wait! Where in the hell is Haughton, Louisiana?

Haughton is a town in northern Louisiana, 23 minutes east of Shreveport. In 2000 its population was nearing 3,000, but the metropolitan area around it, which includes Bossier City, population nearing 60,000 in 2000, may have grown considerably since Hurricane Katrina evacuees moved in.

Maybe they've had a rash of church shootings up there in Bossier. I haven't heard about any. However, I did hear they had some guys driving around shooting up storage units and trucks last month.

Honestly, I'm so wrapped up in daily New Orleans crime, which sometimes includes six or seven people shot in one day, I don't pay attention to Bossier City. But we should pray for those people up there. They've decided they have more faith in having guns in church than God in church and their representative, with Bobby Jindal's support, has imposed that state of faithlessness on all of Louisiana.

Read more at NOLA.com, site of our daily newspaper, the Times Picayune: "Gov. Bobby Jindal signs bills allowing guns in church, changing sex-solicitation penalty."

I chalk the willingness of Jindal to sign House Bill 1272 not up to concern about crime but his kowtowing to more of the growing paranoia in the nation that may be related to people losing their minds over Obama the Black Man taking office. The current rage to make it seem like we all need guns seems to have increased with Obama taking the presidential oath.

People are not fighting the fear; they're wallowing in it.

While not referring to Jindal signing the guns in church law, anti-gun activist Josh Horowitz writes about relatively recent Supreme Court decisions and the Second Amendment, saying:

Regrettably, since the Heller decision, many gun rights commentators have used Scalia's construct to link the need for unfettered access to firearms with a right to engage in political violence against an administration that has been described as "a secular socialist machine [that] represents as great a threat to America as Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union once did." The past two years have seen several disturbing acts of politically-motivated violence and a dramatic increase in the number of threats against the president and Members of Congress. Equally troubling, gun rights activists have begun to openly carry firearms to political events and presidential speeches in a threatening manner.

He also talks about McDonald v. City of Chicago case and the SCOTUS extending Second Amendment protection to states. (Clarence Thomas really showed off for that one.)

I'm taking all this gun news in with a post at the Intersection of Madness and Reality by Eco.Soul.Intellectual who laments how much the current political climate resembles the post-reconstruction era. It's amazing how easily some white conservatives flipped into paranoia with the election of Barack Obama. And when you consider the number of conservative white Christians who believe Obama is the Anti-Christ, then you have a very neat package, a market for fear that Obama will send people to round-up the Christians in churches.

I'll say it one more time that their reactions are following a path similar to control freaks losing power over women who they've intimidated with verbal abuse and threats of domestic violence. When they think they're losing power, they escalate maligning those they hope to control, use their accusations to justify further beatings, and often claim they are the victim.

More on Tyler Perry and Boondocks

At the African-American Books Examiner, I have published a two-part post about criticism of Tyler Perry and also his reaction to the Boondocks "Pause" episode. A blogger who attended the Essence Music Festival reported his comments straight from his mouth, which I discuss in Part 2. Part 1 is another look at how Zora Neale Hurston's contemporaries criticized her work and the similarities to negative critiques of Perry's movies and television shows.

Tonight's Hubba Hubba Goes to Isaiah Mustafa: The Man My Man Could Smell Like

Finally, I decided I just had to post the latest Old Spice commercial here at my own blog in case the BlogHer.com site where I found it goes down for maintenance or something. I want to be able to watch it whenever I please, but the comments section at BlogHer about it and the actor, Isaiah Mustafa, is nearly as funny as the "manmercial" itself. This new production features him with no need of improvement on a motorcycle, not a horse.



And since I posted the first Old Spice manmercial featuring Isaiah here and then Maria Niles went all gooey and posted it at BlogHer earlier this year, I think I deserve to have my very own Isaiah second manmercial right here at WSATA. where I have easy access.

Isaiah signed a talent deal with NBC last month. Awww sookie, sookie now! in the old "Groove Me" sense, not the True Blood Snoop Dog way. I'll be looking for him there.

Tonight I was wiped out, watched him for a few minutes, started laughing, and felt better. I needed that. After all, he's the man my man should smell like. Plus I really miss seeing Isaiah up top on BlogHer's front page, shirtless, but I suppose they had to take him down. Too distracting. His girlfriend better boot him with a tracking device.

BP's Oil Reaches Lake Pontchartrain

The probability that the oil from the BP Deepwater Horizon oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico would reach Lake Pontchartrain has been one of my concerns since the oil crisis began, and today I and other New Orleans area residents learned that tar balls have been spotted in the lake in the Rigolets. WWL TV reports:

The tarballs floated to the shore in the Treasure Isle subdivision near Slidell.

"The weather is not cooperating," St. Tammany Parish President Kevin Davis said. "You have to pull all those people in for safety reasons and you can't fight it. So then, when we pull in, this is what happens. Last night, it came through, wasn't spotted by air. It goes underwater, then it comes back up."

Monday morning, workers in Tyvek environmental suits, contracted by BP, began scooping up tiny pieces of emulsified oil.

The Times Picayune says:

John Lopez, director of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation's coastal stainability program, spotted the first tar balls in the Rigolets Pass on Sunday.

My father gave me the news this morning.

RNC Chair Michael Steele Must Not Read His Emails

When I first heard that not only had Bill Kristol, a prominent conservative, but also Dick Cheney's daughter, Liz Cheney, had both called for RNC Chariman Michael Steele's resignation based on Steele's remarks that the war in Afghanistan is "unwinnable" and a war of Obama's "choosing," I grinned, but didn't bother to comment publicly. Privately I concluded that Michael Steel must not read his emails and therefore missed the memos informing him that Republicans love the Afghanistan War.

Field Negro's talking about it. The Huffington Post's Sam Stein is on it, and so is John Dickerson at Slate.com. Dickerson writes:

Obviously as a factual matter Steele is incorrect. George Bush started the war in Afghanistan. (This he should know since he attacked John Kerry for not adequately funding the war at the 2004 GOP convention.) But there is also a matter of opinion here, and that's what's getting Steele in even more trouble. By suggesting a land war in Afghanistan is dumb, Steele is putting himself in the minority of his party, which has been largely supportive of the conflict.

The GOP deserves Steele, having only elected him as chairman because he's black anyway, not because he's smart and knows what the hell he's doing. If ever there was a case of tokenism in action, the election of Michael Steele as chariman of the Republican National Committee is it.

And now, today, on ABC's This Week, Sen. John McCain said of Steele's remarks that they were "wildly inaccurate" and that "there's no excuse for them." The Senator also talked about Gen. David Petraeus taking command in Afghanistan since President Barack Obama accepted the resignation of Gen. Stanley McChrystal.

Steele, speaking of Obama, said at a Connecticut fundraiser last week, according to a video at YouTube and CBS:

"Well if he's such a student of history, has he not understood that, you know, that's the one thing you don't do is engage in a land war in Afghanistan," Steele says of the president. "Alright? Because everyone who has tried over a thousand years of history has failed. And there are reasons for that. There are other ways to engage in Afghanistan without committing more troops."

Steele also described the situation around the resignation of Gen. Stanley McChrystal as "very comical."

Steele suffers from foot-in-mouth disease, and so, he's easy prey for people watching or recording him. According to Slate, the video was captured by a progressive activist at the fundraiser. I bet Steele is still mad Obama got such a good laugh at the 2009 WHCD joking about Steele's Hip Hop aspirations. Consequently, he keeps trying to get a lick in.

We've only heard the official furor from the GOP. Can you imagine what's been said to Steele in private. The upbraidings probably sound something like, "You thought! Who gave you permission to think?"

Dear Mike: They are really tired of you. You were not able to raise the money they wanted nor were you able to dupe young black voters into joining the GOP. Pack your bags!

A Republican Connects Dick Cheney's Deeds to BP Disaster

A Republican, Lawrence Wilkerson, connects former vice president Dick Cheney's active restructuring of government to favor deregulation of the oil industry and other commercial enterprises to our current disaster, the BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig leak in the Gulf of Mexico. Wilkerson says we should expect more disasters made worse due to deregulation. This video references Shirley Anne Warshaw's book, The Co-Presidency of Bush and Cheney.

Wilkerson says he doesn't want to blame it all on Cheney because this deregulation mantra has been chanted by Republicans for years, stripping government of its capacity to do what it can and should do to protect the people.



I posted this because when I've explained to people, either in writing or in person, that the dysfunction of the MMS is more related to the Bush years than the Obama years, I suspect they think I'm only saying it because I'm black like Obama and not because it's a fact. So, here's a white guy saying it who self-identifies himself as Republican. Maybe they'll believe him.

And if they still need more proof, here's a 2008 Washington Post report about MMS employees doing drugs and taking kickbacks. Obama wasn't in office then. In the 2008 WaPo article about drugs, sex, and royalties in kind at the MMS, Shell is mentioned frequently, the same company showing off for the MMS in the 2005 report with Bobby Jindal's pro-drilling speech.

H/T to Robin Kemp.

The Last Airbender: So Many Bad Reviews, So Little Time

I have been reading horrible reviews for M. Knight Shyamalan's new movie, The Last Airbender, based on the Nickelodeon cartoon, Avatar: The Last Airbender. There are so many bad reviews, I can only point out some that have made me laugh the most, and yes, I am laughing because I see the venom critics are spewing at this movie as Shyamalan's bad karma.

His defense for casting white people (Caucasians) instead of Asians for roles in this movie caused me to cross him off my list of directors I've liked in the past. See the website Racebending.com for more on race controversy, but here's a quote from a Time Magazine review that had me chuckling:

You can relax, bloggers. The dearth of racially appropriate casting in the U.S. simply means that fewer Asians were humiliated by appearing in what is surely the worst botch of a fantasy epic since Ralph Bakshi's animated desecration of The Lord of the Rings back in 1978. The actors who didn't get to be in The Last Airbender are like the passengers who arrived too late to catch the final flight of the Hindenburg.

Hilarious. Also see Lindy West asking, "Did he run the script through Google translate and back again?"

In addition, people have taken to the streets to protest this film in person. My household is doing mini jigs because when my offspring first heard of movie, they thought it was exactly the kind of film they wanted to see, but after learning how the director whitewashed the main characters, they opted not to see it. With fans and critics alike yelling "stinker," my son and daughter are sleeping well, feeling they haven't missed a thing.

Happy 4th of July with James Taylor

I love this song. It's not your standard 4th of July song, but "On the 4th of July" by James Taylor is a lovely song that takes the listener on a journey. I go back to a place sweet and peaceful.

Now Syndicated at BlogHer: A Flying Car for Avery Brooks

It's the precursor to better gifts for future Star Trek captains. "Dear Avery Brooks: Your Flying Car is Here!" has been syndicated at BlogHer.

Dear Avery Brooks: Your Flying Car is Here

Remember the old IBM commercial with Avery Brooks asking, "Where are the flying cars? I was promised flying cars."? And then he concludes, "You don't need flying cars" because you've got the Internet. Apparently the company Terrafugia disagrees, and so, it's offering a flying car for sale. According to the Huffington Post:

The company Terrafugia, based in Woburn, Mass., says it plans to deliver its car-plane, the Transition, to customers by the end of 2011. It recently cleared a major hurdle when the Federal Aviation Administration granted a special weight limit exemption to the Transition. ... the car-plane has wings that unfold for flying – a process the company says takes one minute – and fold back up for driving. ... The Transition is being marketed more as a plane that drives than a car that flies, although it is both.

You'll need a runway to get this sucker off the ground. Keep that in mind.

The HuffPo article puts the price at $194,00, more than a Hyundai. Computerworld says a two-seater will set you back about $148,000, and you'll need a sports pilot license to fly it.

Here's video of a test flight.

BP's Bob Dudley Takes Gulf Coast Restoration Questions on PBS NewsHour via Google and YouTube

While I prepared for an appointment yesterday, July 1, I listened to this interview of BP's chief of Gulf Coast restoration Bob Dudley on PBS NewsHour. By no means is he as daft as the oil giant's CE0 Tony Hayward, but I'm pretty sure I heard him say that while BP is doing its best to stop the oil leak from the Deepwater Horizon rig, the company did not anticipate this kind of accident. That's clear to us, and Hayward also admitted BP had no plan for an oil leak a mile below the surface on June 3.

But this was the question from Ray Suarez and answer from Dudley that I heard regarding BP's expectations in the Gulf and lack of preparedness:

Q: Your company had to make assurances to the U.S. before it was able to extract oil. What should've gotten more attention, is the fact you were assuring the U.S. that if there were a leak of even greater magnitude, you'd be able to handle it. Now you're struggling 70+ days in to handle even one-quarter of the amount you said in the filings you could. What happened?

A: What's different about this event is it's a continuous flow. No one anticipated that.

Q: Do you think this could've happened at any offshore rig. Can deepwater drilling ever be safe?

A: What we've learned on this incident is only part of what we're going to learn through the investigation. I believe offshore deepwater oil and gas, it's a tough choice societies have to make because the world depends on energy and oil. Over time there will be a transition... to a lower-carbon economy, but it's going to take time. The fact that we have been drilling for 20 years in the Gulf without an accident, says that I believe the U.S. will need to go back to a period of producing oil and gas in the deep water.

Earlier in the interview, Dudley reminded Ray Suarez that the Deepwater Horizon incident it is not a spill but an ongoing leak. He mentioned the continuous flow at least three times.

Dudley also assured Kirk Cheramie of the United Houma Nation, who said there are 6,000 families in the UHN affected by the spill, that BP is in clean-up for the long haul to do whatever it takes to make good on the claims of businesses and individuals.

We're writing the checks. We have written as of this morning $138 million of checks. So, we are going make good for it. We put aside $20 billion in an escrow account that will be used to pay claims not only just for now, but for as long as the impact is there on your businesses. And that will be not only after we shut the well off, but this cleanup is going to take some time.

The full interview is only available at the PBS NewsHour website. Producers collected questions from people via YouTube and Google, and some of the questions were pretty tough. The second question was why hasn't BP been more proactive. Dudley didn't pretend BP has all the answers.

He also talked about how winds from Alex, the first Hurricane of the season, impacted the clean-up efforts.

In terms of the storm itself, it has sent eight-to-12-foot waves that have come up from the southeast to the northwest right through the area where the operations are and the oil.

So, it's brought in oil, unfortunately, from the Panhandle of Florida to Louisiana right now a higher rate than it has been over the last few days. The waves do not allow us to skim. The booms are ineffective, and the dispersant can't be laid down. So, we're waiting until Saturday, when the waves come down. And we're going to be ready to be back out on the water.

Crews have been working in the evening and at night right now through these three days to clean the oil on the beaches.

He also talked about what may happen if BP's relief wells don't work in August. Dudley is on the BP Board and reprorts to Hayward. Speaking of the troubled CEO, the AP reports that an Irish bookie/bookmaker said, "Odds are, BP's embattled chief executive Tony Hayward will be out of a job before the end of the year." Folks are betting against him 3-1.