My Personal Inspiration: Jason Bartlett

What better way to end the month than to recognize an individual who is African American, openly gay, a father, and has served as a political figure for our country. I had the wonderful opportunity to meet Jason Bartlett at a conference that we were both presenting at in West Palm Beach and I was instantly swept away with his charm. When meeting this very intelligent gentleman I was delighted to learn of all his accomplishments and to learn how humble and kind he is. I am the most excited to honor Jason Bartlett as my final inspiration for Black History Month and I challenge each of you to discover your own inspirations for your individual lives.

Jason Bartlett is an American businessman and politician from Connecticut. A Democrat, he was a member of the Connecticut House of Representatives from 2007 to 2011, representing the state's second district in Bethel, Danbury and Redding. He was defeated for re-election on November 2, 2010.

Bartlett was raised in Redding and graduated from Redding Public Schools, before earning a B.A. in political science from the University of Connecticut.

He was elected a state representative in 2006, defeating Republican Phil Gallagher by 4,112 votes (54 percent) to 3,524 (46 percent). In 2008, Bartlett was re-elected to a second term, polling 54% — a margin of 945 votes. In 2010, Bartlett faced Republican Dan Carter and was defeated.

He had previously run in 2002 and 2004, losing on both occasions to Republican Hank Bielawa. He lost by over 450 votes in 2002, but the 2004 result was exceptionally close — Bartlett lost by just 87 votes, with 49.6 percent of the vote to Bielawa's 50.4 percent.

For over a decade, Bartlett has owned and operated his own mortgage company. He is the owner of Connecticut First Capitol in Bethel as well as a restaurant in Hartford. Bartlett is no longer with the mortgage company he owned and operated, and now works for the National Black Justice Coalition, a non-profit dedicated to ending racism and homophobia by empowering black lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.

He raised two sons, the children of his deceased uncle and aunt. Now 21 and 19 years old and both attending community college in Connecticut, they came to live with him when they were 11 and 9 respectively.

Bartlett is gay. Although his district is 96 percent white, Bartlett is African American. He served for a time as the country's only openly gay black state legislator, a distinction he lost when Simone Bell was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in December 2009.

S.C. Democrats Uphold Greene's Primary Win

By: Meg Kinnard, Associated Press

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina Democratic Party officials on Thursday upheld a surprising U.S. Senate primary win by an unemployed military veteran, nixing a protest lodged by their favored candidate that could have required a new vote.



The party's executive committee decided there was not enough evidence of impropriety to nullify the June 8 election victory by Alvin Greene, a 32-year-old who lives with his father and waged no visible campaign against a former lawmaker.



Greene did not attend the meeting and nobody spoke on his behalf. Reached afterward by phone, he reiterated one of his few, common public statements about his candidacy.



"I am the best candidate in the U.S. Senate race in South Carolina. Let's stop my opponent from reversing forward progress in the United States and South Carolina," he said.



The move upholds the improbable win by Greene, who raised no money and didn't even have a campaign website. Democratic Party leaders intensified their scrutiny after The Associated Press reported Greene faces a felony obscenity charge and the candidate stammered through a series of awkward, terse news interviews. Some accused Republicans of having a hand in the election.



Greene won with 59 percent of the vote and faces Republican Sen. Jim DeMint, who is considered a heavy favorite. Vic Rawl, the candidate who filed the protest, had 41 percent.



The party's 92-member executive committee made its decision after experts and voters testified for Rawl that questionable balloting statistics and problems with touch-screen voting machines indicated a corrupted final tally.



Duncan Buell, a computer scientist at the University of South Carolina, testified he had experimented on the same machines in previous elections and was able to trick them into selecting a candidate whose name he had not actually touched.



"I believe that these should be used with an enormous amount of skepticism," Buell said.



But committee members said they hadn't been presented with enough concrete evidence and could not overturn an election, no matter how much they wanted Rawl, a former lawmaker and judge, to win.



"We do the right thing even when it hurts us," state Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter said before the vote that overwhelmingly went in Greene's favor. "We do the right thing even when by doing the right thing it conflicts with everything that we feel in our hearts."



Some had speculated that Greene, who is black, benefited from an undercurrent of support from black groups.



A state lawmaker has suggested that black voters looking for a black candidate might have chosen Greene because of the spelling of his name, with an "e'' on the end.



But the state's NAACP chapter says its leaders didn't even know about Greene's candidacy. And Walter Ludwig, Rawl's campaign manager, said Thursday that most registered South Carolina voters with that spelling are white, and Greene — who had did not attend state or county party conventions — did worse in heavily black counties, anyway.



"How would voters know Mr. Greene was black?" Ludwig asked. "He made no campaign appearances. He attended no Democratic events."



Rawl said he would not appeal the decision but did not answer other questions.



"This is not about me," Rawl said. "It is not about blacks. It is not about whites. It's about the sanctity of our electoral process."



Among the suspicions raised about Greene is that he has failed to fully answer how he paid the $10,440 filing fee to run for office in March. He has said he saved up his military pay for two years but has refused to back it up with bank statements.

Zolra's Corner: Sarah Palin's Been Rogued Again

I have never laughed this much since watching constant episodes of The Golden Girls. I started watching the show two weeks ago for the first time in my life. Yes, I have never watched the The Golden Girls until the age of eighteen. If you don't like it, sue me!!!

Sarah Palin has been in the news more than most politicians. Except for Barack Obama, she is the one person that appears on CNN every time I flip to the channel.

First of all, I'm not going to make any judgment towards this woman. I think she is great at what she does. I have watched from once she first started working for John McCain to when she appeared on Oprah.

However, I will say I am not going to comment on her actions like most people in the world. Judgment and comment are two different things. Just because someone makes some mistakes doesn't mean we shouldn't guess what their lifestyle is like. That is never a good thing. Because of that, I love Sarah Palin at what she does, but that doesn't mean I'm going to comment on her current actions.

There has been so many things going on with Sarah Palin in the past two years since the election she was involved in. In the middle of the election, the most funniest incident that has ever happened related to her was Tina Fey's Emmy Award winning portrayal of her on Saturday Night Live again. I am a huge fan of Tina Fey and she did an amazing performance.


First, she turned as governor of Alaska. Her daughter Bristol Palin gotten pregnant at age sixteen. Levi Johnston, the baby daddy, posed for Playgirl, which is now an online magazine. Then she released her book Going Rogue. The revealing book became a #1 New York Times bestseller, and it showed us a side of Ms. Palin that we have never seen before. People are still wondering what is truth and fiction in this book, but once again, no judgment.

Then she accepted the offer of becoming a commentator of the most critical show I have ever watched and will never watch for the rest of my life. She joined Fox News. In the beginning, I wondered how was this offer put on her table. But then again, I remembered the position: commentator. Then upon reflection, I thought to myself "She always comments on something every time I see her. So this should be a good position."

If it was me, I would take that offer. If I got offered to be paid for my comments on the news, I would be sleeping in the studio the day before my first day on the job. Then again, I hate the show. So if I got the job, I will deliver my point of view, and my limo will be outside of the studio quickly because I would rather not get critical behind the scenes. You never know what happens when the camera turn off.

But just when you think there isn't anything else to humiliate this woman with, I was a club when I saw this video. Once I saw this thing, I was literally on the floor laughing. Other men was looking at me like I was psychotic, but the video was hilarious.

Dorothy Bishop (Sarah) and Gregory Uliasz (Levi) Vogue parody
Directed by Francis Legge
Parody lyrics by James Jorden and Dorothy Bishop