Image: AP

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice delivered a speech at the Republican National Convention last night that was so powerful, it’s got people talking about a run for President in 2016 or 2020.

“The next time Republicans are searching for a presidential candidate, rest assured: Condoleezza Rice will be a part of that conversation,” reads the opening line of a Washington Post story that posted today. Rice’s speech included foreign policy talk, references to her biography and how it was touched by Jim Crow, attacks on President Obama’s record and, finally, a line that made some think she could be considering a return to politics.

“And on a personal note: A little girl grows up in Jim Crow Birmingham – the most segregated big city in America. Her parents can’t take her to a movie theater or a restaurant, but they make her believe that even though she can’t have a hamburger at the Woolworth’s lunch counter, she can be President of the United States. And she becomes the Secretary of State,” she said. You can read her whole speech here.

The article goes on to note that despite her work with the George W. Bush administration, Rice is a popular figure. (She also recently became one of the first women to be granted membership to the notoriously all-male Augusta National Golf Club.)

For her part, Rice has said that she wants to stay out of politics. She’s living in Palo Alto, C.A. and working at Stanford University.

After her speech, Rice told CNN’s Piers Morgan,”I do think Mitt Romney is speaking to black voters, speaking to women voters who hold many of the same concerns, but it has to be some receptivity on the other side, too.” A recent NBC/Wall Street Journal research showed Romney gets zero percent of the black vote, which is hilarious.

Image: GolfDigest.com

-Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is one of the first women ever to be admitted to the He Man Women-Haters Club a.k.a. the Augusta National Golf Club. The other woman to be admitted is Darla Moore, a South Carolina financier who was the highest paid woman woman in the financial industry in the 1980s and 90s and married a billionaire in 1991. The club, which has been around for 80 years, issued a statement yesterday saying, “These accomplished women share our passion for the game of golf and both are well known and respected by our membership.” The issue of admitting woman became major earlier this year. IBM was a big sponsor of the Masters tournament (held at Augusta) but wouldn’t let its CEO, Virginia Rometty, join. The four previous men had. It’s reported that the club also sees the admittance of women as an opportunity for growth — of the game and its own roster.

-Travel is getting trickier. A number of regional airlines, such as Pinnacle and Comair, are shutting down or headed to bankruptcy court. These smaller carriers are responsible for half of the flights that take off and land in the U.S. This means longer drive times to the nearest airport for many across the U.S. At the same time, airfares are going up. Southwest is fixing to charge $5 more on one-way fares for trips that are 500 miles or less. Other airlines will likely follow in their footsteps. But if it’s any consolation, fares to Europe have gone down for the fall now that the Olympics are over. Still, the prices can be steep ($750 to London) because of fuel costs.

-This New York Times article says that President Obama wasn’t aggressive enough with his policies to help homeowners facing foreclosure. “Mr. Obama and his advisers were convinced that even in the depths of an unyielding crisis, most Americans did not want their neighbors rescued at public expense,” the article says. Thoughts?

-The Beloit College Mindset List, which details the reference points for the incoming class of 2016, has been released. Guess what? Most of us are old. Some of the items on the list: they’ve never seen an actual airline “ticket”; the Jacksons (as in Tito, Janet and Jermaine) rather than the Kennedys are “American royalty”; and they have very little use for a radio.

-Missouri Rep. Todd Akin has apologized (again) for his absurd and outrageous comments about “legitimate rape” in this online clip. Some Republicans are urging him to drop out of the race.

Source: GolfDigest.com

“Today, one of the last bastions of male supremacy is no more,” USA Today sports columnist, Christine Brennan announced, “Today, Augusta National has made a crucial statement to every girl and woman who has thought about picking up a golf club. The message is simple: You are welcome.”

Nearly 80 years after it opened for play, and twenty-two years after accepting Black men, the Augusta National Golf Club is allowing two women — former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and business executive Darla Moore — to join the all-boys club.

In a statement released by the club, Augusta National chairman Billy Payne said:

“This is a joyous occasion as we enthusiastically welcome Secretary Condoleezza Rice and Darla Moore as members of Augusta National Golf Club. We are fortunate to consider many qualified candidates for membership at Augusta National. Consideration with regard to any candidate is deliberate, held in strict confidence and always takes place over an extended period of time. The process for Condoleezza and Darla was no different.

These accomplished women share our passion for the game of golf and both are well known and respected by our membership. It will be a proud moment when we present Condoleezza and Darla their Green Jackets when the Club opens this fall.

This is a significant and positive time in our Club’s history and, on behalf of our membership, I wanted to take this opportunity to welcome them and all of our new members into the Augusta National family.”

The club’s “no girls allowed” policy has been a contentious point of debate for years. The New York Times reported:

In 2002 Martha Burk of the National Council of Women’s Organizations began a campaign that urged the club to include women. Hootie Johnson, the chairman at the time, said he would not be forced “at the point of a bayonet” to admit women.

Just this past April, Billy Payne stumbled over questions about their policy and offered that it was a “membership issue” and ultimately a “private matter”. Not all press is good press though, and just months after that PR fiasco, the club has changed their stance.

In a statement released by the club, Condoleezza said she looks forward to becoming a member:

“I have visited Augusta National on several occasions and look forward to playing golf, renewing friendships and forming new ones through this very special opportunity. I have long admired the important role Augusta National has played in the traditions and history of golf. I also have an immense respect for the Masters tournament and its commitment to grow the game of golf, particularly with youth, here in the United States and throughout the world.”

Why Condi? She told Golf Digest that she took up the sport seven years ago at the age of 50 as an escape from long hours in the West Wing. Naturally (and perhaps surprisingly) athletic, she was a competitive figure skater when she was younger and plays tennis now. She’s also really into the NFL. Since taking up golf, Condoleezza has memberships at Stanford Golf Course, San Francisco Golf Club, Shoal Creek, and Country Club of Birmingham. Though she’s not hardly the only Black woman to pick up a golf club, Augusta was looking to make headlines thus Condi was an obvious choice.

Undoubtedly, the leaders of Augusta National are patting themselves on the back right now and toasting to their own progress, but admitting Darla Moore and Condoleezza Rice is still only a teensy step in the right direction. In fact, this would be a legitimately laudable move if it were say, 1940, but in 2012 admitting two women is hardly cause for more than a “finally”.  In fact, Augusta should be embarrassed that it took them this long to allow female members.

Still, it’s a good moment for Condoleezza personally who has spent most of her life blasting through one glass ceiling after another. Her politics are highly controversial, but considering her life overall, she’s practically made a career out of inhabiting places previously off-limits to women and black people in general. In fact, for a woman like Condi, being admitted to an all-boys club is probably just another Monday for her. Let’s just hope there will be more joining the club in the future, just like her.

Follow Alissa on Twitter @AlissaInPink 

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Source: andmagazine.com

A number of names have popped up recently as possible rumor mill choices of people that Mitt Romney have considered to run with him for the November election as VP. There’s been Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, crazy a** New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, and now, news reports say that Romney is very much vouching for Condoleezza Rice (Dr. Rice as someone said we should point out on Facebook) to possibly run with him this year. If you were unaware, Rice was the secretary of state under the Bush administration and was the first African American female to do so. She is allegedly a frontrunner for the position according to The Drudge Report. According to ABC News, Matt Drudge, the founder of the popular news aggregation site, has connections amongst people in the Romney campaign’s circle, so he’s got the low-down.

But last time we heard, Rice was saying Oh Hell No to the concept of being Romney’s running mate, even though she is helping him raise money and supports his campaign:

“There is no way that I will do this, because it’s really not me. I know my strengths, and Gov. Romney needs to find someone who wants to run with him. I didn’t run for student council president. I don’t see myself in any way in elective office.”

But then again, that’s what everybody says before they inevitably say yes. But I’ll try and give Rice, or “Condi” as some like to call her, the benefit of the doubt.

It’s an interesting move, as Rice would be the diversity that you could say Romney’s team needs–she’s black, and she’s a woman, that could help him pull in votes with both of those demographics. However, ABC News says that a few of her political views don’t fall in line with social conservative Republicans, which could count against Romney. She wants to keep abortion legal and she is of course forever connected to the Bush era and the war, and that would be something that both Rice and Romney would have to speak on/explain to the public when the election heats up.

On top of all that, she could also come off looking like a “gimmick” according The Washington Times, something like what Sarah Palin’s crazy behind was when John McCain made the #FAIL decision to have her run on his ticket back in ’08. Either way, it would definitely make the campaign all the more interesting, especially since President Obama wants to keep Vice President Biden in place. But as Rice said, Romney truly needs to pick someone who wants the job, because if he reaches for someone just because of their name and experience and not because they want to take on the responsibility, it could backfire against him with the public, and make him an easy target for President Obama. One can only hope that Rice wouldn’t join the ticket as a VP candidate, but these days, expect the unexpected folks.

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By J. Smith

First Colin Powell, and now Condoleeza Rice are defending themselves against allegedly false claims made about them in former Vice President package Cheney’s new memoir. Rice is accusing Cheney of an “attack on my integrity” for his unflattering accounts of Rice’s tenure as Secretary of State under President George W. Bush. According to Rice, Cheney is using his book to take “cheap shots” at specific members of Bush’s administration.  

In “In My Time,” Cheney accuses Rice of misleading the president during nuclear negotiations with North Korea, Reuters reports. She took this as an inability on his part to disagree amicably. “I kept the president fully and completely informed about every in and out of the negotiations with the North Koreans,” she said. “You can talk about policy differences without suggesting that your colleague somehow misled the president. You know, I don’t appreciate the attack on my integrity that that implies.”

Again Cheney rallied against her, alleging that she once “tearfully” admitted that she was wrong for encouraging Bush to apologize for false claims that Iraq had tried to get yellowcake uranium in Niger, Reuters reports. “I would never – I don’t remember coming to the vice president tearfully about anything in the entire eight years that I knew him,” Rice responded. “I did say to the vice president, ‘you know, you were right about the press reaction.’ But I am quite certain that I didn’t do it tearfully.”

As historians begin to chronicle Cheney’s story in American history, will his reputation remain intact? No, says Rice. “I have to say that some of the things he said about his colleagues are not in keeping with the high respect that I have always had for him,” she said. “I think they do fall in the category of cheap shots.”

I see no redeemable value to the legacy of Condoleezza Rice.

As the former United States Secretary of State and former National Security Advisor in the Bush administration, Rice was part to one of the worst presidencies in modern-day history.  At the least, Rice is an African-American apologist, who remained ambivalent about racism and racial preferences.  And at the most, Rice is an international war criminal, whose incompetency as a foreign affairs expert was evinced in the fact that she couldn’t decipher several memos, which clearly stated “Bin Laden was determined to strike in the US.”

Yet despite all of her blundering in foreign policy and her participation in the country’s most incompetent regime, various news outlets want for us to forget about Condi, the war-mongerer, and focus on Condi, the likable, talented person.

Rice, who is making the rounds on various talking head programs to promote her memoir “Extraordinary, Ordinary People,” has been treated with soft mink-like kid gloves, from the likes of Jon Stewart to NPR, who feel oddly more comfortable with extolling her virtues than her misdeeds.

Condi, the over-achieving intellectual, who received her doctorates by the age of 26 and became an international war criminal by the age of fifty.  Condi, the concert pianist, who once tickled the ivories for the likes of soulful crooner Aretha Franklin, while scores of angry protestors called for her prosecution for treason and war crimes.  And Condi, the down-to-earth gentle hawk, who once went shoe shopping and watched a Broadway musical in New York as bodies were floating down the street in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.

Call me bias (as many on this site have) but I find it utterly disgusting that NPR and the likes would try to portray Rice as a role model for women and African Americans alike, when in fact she is the opposite. In other words, just because someone is black, or a woman, doesn’t necessarily mean that they are a friend to the race, the gender nor the cause, you feel me?

Case in point, Rice was born in Birmingham, Alabama, as the only child of a Presbyterian minister and a music teacher. Throughout her childhood, Rice and her family experienced firsthand the injustices of Birmingham’s racial prejudice, which at the time was also ground zero for civil rights movement.

Like many black children during that era, Rice witnessed terrorism directed at black folks such as police brutality, bombings and lynchings. In fact, one of her friends was one of the four little girls who died in the 16^th Street Baptist Church bombing.

So by having direct knowledge of what such racial discrimination and terrorism could do to a community, what does Rice do?  She joins the political party, whose existence depends almost entirely upon racial prejudice and exploitation of racism for political purposes. Not saying that the Democrats are any better at dealing with race and racism but when you align yourself, and then become complacent, to the obvious race politics of that party, you pretty much solidify yourself as a lackey.

During her tenure as Secretary of State, Rice pioneered something called “Transformational Diplomacy,” a set of doctrines and policies, which sought to maintain security, fight poverty, and make democratic reforms,” not in the United States, but in countries abroad.  After the September 11th attacks, the doctrine core beliefs would help guide us into not one, but two brutal wars, which has left Iraq, in particular, a bloody, failed mess.

And as National Security Advisor, Rice, along with Cheney, would authorize water boarding for Al-Qaeda detainees, according to a newly released report of the Senate Intelligence Committee.  Makes you wonder what exactly did she learn from the Civil Rights era?

While watching and listening to her on the various news shows, Rice plays up the lessons supposedly taught to her by her parents.  According to Rice, her family preached that despite the racial terrorism, which was happening around them, she was to not view herself as a victim. And that complaining and blaming white racists was simply not tolerated.

This inability to deal with the realities of social injustice may explain why she has total amnesia to the tens of thousand dead or maimed as a direct result of her actions.   To paint Rice as some sort of warm, fuzzy and harmless Renaissance woman would be the equivalent of suggesting that Adolf Hitler shouldn’t totally be demonized in history because he was charismatic and a good community organizer.

And despite her personal achievements, nothing she has done before, during or since her time in the Bush administration has in any way negated the sociopathic and cold-blooded actions she committed voluntarily. Not only do I find nothing to admire about her life, but I think that she represents a tragic tale without redemption.

Alicia Keys & Swizz Beatz give birth to a baby boy! A rep confirmed in a statement to People.com that the two ”have joyfully welcomed their first child, a son Egypt Daoud Dean on Oct. 14 in New York City.”

(Daily Beast) — Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s new memoir is a fascinating look into her childhood and reveals a much misunderstood woman, says bestselling author Stephen Carter. Midway through Condoleezza Rice’s briskly written new memoir, Extraordinary, Ordinary People, comes a scene that captures the central contradiction of her life, and of her career. She is reflecting on why her “conservative, Republican father” was on such good terms with “radicals such as Stokely Carmichael.” The answer the Reverend John Rice gave his daughter was that he loved the battle of ideas. Rice herself offers a quite different explanation. Her father, she says, “admired the willingness of radicals to confront America’s racism with strength and pride rather than with humbleness of supplication.”

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