This was the headline I read when I pulled up the webpage on Yahoo! I looked at this headline and remembered that I just I watched the Joint News Conference with President Sarkozy and President Obama on C-SPAN. It is complicated on so many levels. These two countries of course have a history together. Perhaps the most poignant relationship these two countries have with each other resides in the fact that when one of the two countries was in the throes of a revolution, the other was secretly supporting the cause.

When France was close to the nadir of a monarchy, Thomas Jefferson was the Minster representing the United States. He had a front row seat to the passions that overcame the whole of France. I suspect he was probably the biggest cheerleader of the French Revolution because he had such disdane for monacharies in general. He after-all penned the first words of the Declaration of Independence and he directed those words squarely at King George of England.

Looking beneath the surface of the French Revolution and focusing on Thomas Jefferson's life in Paris as the Minister representing the United States is mesmerizing. It reveals an even more complicated story.  And Jefferson's household was the source of this complication. He lived in France with his daughters and his slaves James and Sally Hemings. After reading Annette Gordon-Reed's, The Hemingses of Monticello, I learned that Jefferson paid James and Sally Hemings an income because he, Jefferson did want to cause a scene in Paris. Jefferson paid Sally and her brother about the going rate in France for the work they did in involuntary servitude on this side of the Atlantic.

What I love about Gordon-Reed's book is that she colored in the experiences James and Sally had while they lived in the United States and France. In other words, she humanized them. She stripped the veil of Slavery from American history. She even believes that James learned French as he hired someone to teach him how to speak it.  I think the most memorable aspect of Gordon-Reed's narrative is what Sally Hemings had to go through to be vaccinated against smallpox.

I couldn't help thinking of Annette Gordon-Reed's book as I watched Obama and Sarkozy at this press conference and when I read the headline, "Its complicated." I could not stop thinking about Jefferson, his daughters and the Hemingses during this press conference because Sarkozy and Obama seemed as close as France and the United States has ever been; but it is complicated.

How about that. I believe somewhere in this forums archives a discussion took place about the complicity of the North in American slavery and just like that another Northern state apologizes for its part in America's history of forced servitude.

HARTFORD, Conn.--Connecticut became the second northern state to apologize for slavery, segregation and other racist policies its lawmakers once condoned after an unanimous vote late Wednesday by the state Senate.

The resolution expresses "profound contrition" for the General Assembly's role in perpetuating slavery and other practices. The House approved it last week.

New Jersey last year became the first northern state to apologize for slavery. Five other states--Alabama, Florida, Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia--have approved similar measures.

I was getting comfortable for my regular Sunday evening appointment with Prime Minister's Question Time broadcast from the august body of the British House of Commons. I had grown used to the lively debate every week because the run-up to the America choice to invade Iraq was on the agenda. Then Prime Minister Tony Blair was getting a complete tongue lashing from all sides. One thing about Tony Blair he could give as good as any dished out.

So they went through all the formalities the House of Commons goes through and then they got down to business. The Speaker of the House ( I am sad to see him go) would call upon the MPs after the opposition tossed Prime Minister a few explosive comments. From one of those back benches , Mr. Ian Duncan, a conservative MP lobbed a plum at the Prime Minister and I can't exactly remember the context but remember the line. He said that his right honorable friend the Prime Minister had more positions than the Kama Sutra. The whole House of Commons erupted in laughter. The speaker of the House called for order, order! I don't think the Prime Minister had comeback to that one. He had to wait until the House fell into order.

Over on the Huffington Post, Eric Deggans wonders where are the Latino/a voices in the run-up to the process of nominating Sonia Sotomayer for the Supreme Court? Where are the voices of black, Asian and Native American voices in this process?  At least--and I am sure because I saw them during the run-up to the election-- the MSM media could book two Latino/a guest to give their opinon about Sotomayer's nomination. During this past election cycle the MSM found a multitude of Lantino/a voices. Aren't there Latino/a members of Congress? Did they all just disappear? I believe Alberto Gonzales was on CNN once but most of not all of the discussion I've seen has been by white male politicians or commentaters.

Doesn't the Supreme Court have an impact on all of our lives?