*Hip Hop Republican*

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Judge Anna Diggs Taylor's Dirty Donations

Judge Taylor Diggs is the Secretary and a trustee for CFSEM( http://www.cfsem.org ).

* The foundation made a "recent grant" of $45,000 over two years to the ACLU of Michigan.
* The Foundation’s trustees make all funding decisions at meetings held on a quarterly basis.
* Judge Taylor Diggs also ruled last week on the government’s warrantless wiretapping program.
* The case was brought before her court by the ACLU.
* Judge Taylor Diggs sided with the ACLU in the case.

The Jimmy Carter appointee, Judge Anna Diggs Taylor may be in serious trouble.
It has all the signs of a Rovian Conspiracy.

Chron Watch reported today:

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption and judicial abuse, announced today that Judge Anna Diggs Taylor, who last week ruled the government’s warrantless wiretapping program unconstitutional, serves as a Secretary and Trustee for a foundation that donated funds to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Michigan, a plaintiff in the case ACLU et al. v. National Security Agency. Judicial Watch discovered the potential conflict of interest after reviewing Judge Diggs Taylor’s financial disclosure statements, available on Judicial Watch’s Internet Site,
www.judicialwatch.org.

According to her 2003 and 2004 financial disclosure statements, Judge Diggs Taylor served as Secretary and Trustee for the Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan (the foundation made a “recent grant” of $45,000 over two years to the ACLU of Michigan). She was reelected to this position in June 2005. The official CFSEM website states that the foundation made a “recent grant” of $45,000 over two years to the ACLU of Michigan, a plaintiff in the wiretapping case. Judge Diggs Taylor sided with the ACLU of Michigan in her recent decision.

According to the CFSEM website, "The Foundation’s trustees make all funding decisions at meetings held on a quarterly basis."

"This potential conflict of interest merits serious investigation," said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. "If Judge Diggs Taylor failed to disclose this link to a plaintiff in a case before her court, it would certainly call into question her judgment."

(Judge Diggs Taylor is also the presiding judge in another case where she may have a conflict of interest. The Arab Community Center for Social and Economic Services (ACCESS) is a defendant in another case now before Judge Diggs Taylor’s court [Case No. 06-10968 (Mich. E.D.)]. In 2003, the CFSEM donated $180,000 to ACCESS.)

Roy Innis to Participate in Hip Hop Discussion


Event:

All Hip Hop Week Social Lounge Panel Discussion
August 9, 2006 7pm

Location:

BB King’s Blues Club & Grill
237 West 42 St, New York, NY

Roy Innis, National Chairman of CORE, will participate in a panel
discussion about the role of hip-hop during the third annual
AllHipHop.com

Week on Wednesday, August 9, 2006 at 7pm.

Mr. Innis has been at the forefront of raising concerns about the
influence of rap and hip-hop on Black culture and the Black community.
He sees the invitation as an opportunity to talk about an art form that is
influencing the destiny of the Black Community.


Innis questions the value of rap and hip-hop on society.
He will raise questions about the growing signs of the negative impact that rap and hip-hop culture have on today’s society.

He accuses the industry of censoring decency and fostering
vulgarity.

The panel discussion is referred to as “The Social Lounge”. Organizers
view it as a venue for discussing issues that affect the hip-hop
industry and the community.


Topics will include: the teenage dropout rate,
artist responsibility in hip-hop, politics 2006, and the business of hip-hop.

Corinne Innis, Publicist
CORE
817 Broadway, 3rd Fl.
New York, NY 10003
(212)598-4000
www.core-online.org



Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Liberals taught Islamist how to BITCH!!!

-Wow, every time I see one of these guys complaining it reminds me of Noam Chomsky, Moore and the entire left wing nut house. I wonder if liberals have provided the terroist with the rhetorical justification to bomb and kill us all.

Horray for Hollywood


It would seem like even left wing Hollywood had an Oscar moment

Mmmm.... Now where the heck is Danny Glover's signature?

White Guilt and Islamic Extemism

by Shelby Steele

White guilt in the West -- especially in Europe and on the American left --[sees] Islamic extremism as a response to oppression. The West is soterrified of being charged with its old sins of racism, imperialism andcolonialism that it makes oppression an automatic prism on the non-Westernworld, a politeness.

But Islamic extremists don't hate the West because theyare oppressed by it. They hate it precisely because the end of oppressionand colonialism -- not their continuance -- forced the Muslim world tocompete with the West. Less oppression, not more, opened this world to thesense of defeat that turned into extremism.

...Over and over, white guilt turns the disparity in development between Israeland her neighbors into a case of Western bigotry. ...But white guilt's most dangerous suppression is to keep from discussion themost conspicuous reality in the Middle East: that the Islamic world long agofell out of history. Islamic extremism is the saber-rattling of aninferiority complex.

http://tinyurl.com/eo8ra.

Monday, August 21, 2006

Osama Bin Laden 'Obsessed' With Whitney Houston



As if Whitney Houston doesn’t have enough problems with her rumored struggles with drug addiction, now there’s news that the superstar may be pursued by a high-profile admirer: Osama bin Laden.

The New York Post’s Page Six reports that bin Laden is apparently "obsessed” with the one-time chart-topping pop diva, who is married to troubled entertainer Bobby Brown.

Bin Laden, according to novelist Kola Boof who claims to have been the terrorist mastermind’s "sex slave,” considered Houston to be "the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen,” and even talked about having her husband (Brown) killed so he could make Houston one of his wives.

"He [Bin Laden] said he wanted to give [her] a mansion that he owned in a suburb of Kartoum,” Boof told the Post. "He explained to me that to possess Whitney he would be willing to break his color rule and make her one of his wives.”
Story Continues Below


Bin Laden is apparently "dismissive of black women,” but he was so taken by Houston’s beauty, that he reportedly carried photographs of the singer from Star magazine in his briefcase.

Hip-hopper sings Steele praise

August 21, 2006

Hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons will be the host of a campaign fundraiser Thursday for Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele's run for U.S. Senate. The fundraiser for Mr. Steele, a Republican who would be the state's first black U.S. senator if elected, will be held at the Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park in Baltimore.

Also scheduled to participate in the event are Cathy Hughes, founder and chairman of Radio One, a black-run broadcasting company specializing in urban markets, and hip-hop pioneer DJ Kid Capri. Tickets to the reception are $35. VIP reception tickets are $500. An estimate of how much the event will raise was not available. Ms. Hughes and Mr. Simmons, the man behind the Def Jam Recordings music label and the platinum-plated careers of acts including the Beastie Boys, LL Cool J and Run-DMC, embody Mr. Steele's message of economic opportunity, campaign spokesman Doug Heye said.


"These are both people who not only built extremely successful companies but companies that are actively involved in their communities," Mr. Heye said. "It goes to what Mr. Steele talks about in building legacy wealth."

Mr. Simmons, who often has used his music empire to advance liberal political activism, has backed the Republican administration in Maryland. He applauded Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., a Republican, in February 2005 for winning over black voters with urban initiatives, especially criminal-justice reforms, and raising the Republican Party's profile among blacks nationwide.

"He raised the whole party up," Mr. Simmons said at the time. "He makes every Republican open for discussion" among black voters. Mr. Simmons campaigned in 2002 for Mr. Ehrlich's Democratic rival, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, and said he initially had negative impressions of both Mr. Ehrlich and Mr. Steele. But he says the Ehrlich administration has demonstrated that both men "should be held up to the light as examples" of Republican leaders who are committed to all of their constituents.

http://washingtontimes.com/metro/20060820-111547-3371r.htm

Maryland Senate - poll shows steele competing

As the Democrats brawl in their bruising primary campaign to replace retiring Senator Paul Sarbanes (D) of Maryland, GOP nominee Lt. Gov. Michael Steele has quietly edged into competiveness with either of his likely opponents, a new Rasmussen Reports poll suggests:

In the latest Rasmussen Reports poll of the competitive U.S. Senate contest in Maryland, Republican Lt. Governor Michael Steele slightly trails each Democratic contender. Congressman Ben Cardin (D) leads Steele 47% to 42%. Former NAACP President Kweisi Mfume (D) leads the Republican 46% to 44%. This sets the stage for a closely fought general election no matter which Democrat wins the September 12 primary.

* * * * *
Another surprise in the race is the ongoing competitiveness of presumptive GOP nominee Michael Steele in this very blue state. Despite ups and downs in his campaign and the polls, Steele is right back where he started over a year ago. Our first poll in this race, conducted in July 2005, Steele was only five points behind Cardin.
Read it all at the link above.

A cautionary note: while this is a poll of "likely voters," at this early stage it may have little predictive value, and the margin of error of ± 4.5% means Steele could actually be as much as 14 points behind Cardin - OR slightly ahead. Still, this is encouraging news for Republicans in this very dark blue state.

Saturday, August 19, 2006

Juan Williams discusses his book "Enough"

Juan Williams discusses his book "Enough" on Your World With Neil Cavuto. Segment is called "Holding Back Blacks"

Interracial Adoption

An interesting article came across my screen today as I chose to read the newspaper online; about interracial adoption, where white families are desiring to adopt African-American children, as well as African-American families being open to dating white children.The article is very short.

So I don't feel the need to outline all of the points here.
Click Here to Read the Article

Some questions to help start the discussion...-

What are your thoughts on this?

-Should African-American families be able to adopt white children?

-Should white families be able adopt African-American children?

if so, what will the social implications be?(considering there 45,000 black children on the list waiting to find a family and begin to have some sort of stability in their lives).

-Will this lead to increased progression in race relations in this country?

- Do you think African-American families that are seeking to adopt are put through a more demanding process?

A Tale of Two Standards

By Charles Badger

The blogosphere is abuzz with the story of Senator George Allen's off-the-cuff remark at a campaign stop in Virginia. Is it racist? In my mind, the jury is still out; but put me down as being skeptical. Like Jay Bush, I too, had no idea what a "macaca" was. Jay says it sounds like a nut. I think it sounds like some kid of primate or marsupial (I'm still not entirely convinced it's not).

At any rate, I have chosen to write this post not to make a judgment call about the appropriateness of Allen's remark, but to note a hypocrisy. Once again, liberal Democrats are labeling a Republican as racist. Pardon my sense of deja vu, but haven't we been down this road before?

We hear this same tired line time and again from liberals. Most recently, the Trent Lott controversy comes to mind. Liberals are so quick to point these things out when it involves a Republican, yet they are conveniently silent when it's one of their own.

Prime example?...Robert C. Byrd. The Senior Citizen...I mean, Senior Senator from West Virginia is a former Ku Klux Klan member. Byrd filibustered the 1964 Civil Rights Act for 14 hours! And once declared in a letter that he'd rather "die a thousand times" than serve side-by-side with a black soldier, whom he called "race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds." He voted against both black nominees to the Supreme Court--Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas. He accused Thomas of "injecting race" into the Senate hearings during Thomas's 1991 confirmation hearings. To top it all off, in 2001, Byrd sat for an interview with then-FOX news report Tony Snow. In which, Byrd used the "N-word" not once, but twice!

Now of course, one would expect that Democrats have roundly condemned Byrd, his racist past, and use of the "N-word." Certainly if liberals get all riled up about some obscure word that people of above average intelligence need a dictionary to define, surely they would be equally sensitive to the most inflammatory racial slur in America, right? Uhm, not exactly.

How have Democrats treated Sen. Byrd?...the man they call the "conscience of the Senate?" The man whom a particular Democrat--Senate colleague Chris Dodd of Connecticut--recently declared should have been a sitting Senator "during the time of the Civil War." How has the Democratic Party treated Byrd?

Certainty they immediately rushed to hold a press conference and repudiate him after his 2001 "N-word" comment? Surely, they gave him a firm slap on the wrist? Sent him to the "Time Out" chair? How about a stern finger-waging? Well, not quite.

In 1967 Democrats made Byrd secretary of the Senate Democrat Caucus. In 1971 they made him Senate Democrat Whip. They elected the former Klansman to lead the Senate as Majority Leader when they were in control from 1977-1980. And Senate Minority Leader again from 1981-1986. They elected him to lead their party when they were out of power from 1987-1988. They made Byrd the chairman of the powerful Appropriations Committee and President Pro Tempore of the Senate from 1989 until the 1994 GOP takeover. And as if Byrd had not been rewarded enough for his stellar record of commitment to freedom and justice for all, the Democrats saw fit to give him another promotion. (Hecka ova job, Byrdie!) In 2001, when they briefly gained a majority in the Senate due to Jim Jefford's defection, Senate Democrats again elected him to the highest ranking office in the Senate--President Pro Tempore, putting the former Klansman forth in line for the presidency of the United States.

But of course, Democrats see no hypocrisy between their current treatment of George Allen and past treatment of Trent Lott compared to their treatment of Robert Byrd. Few Americans have heard the word "macaca" (much less know what it is); but all have heard the N-word. Yet the Democrats, see fit to denounce he who speaks the former but not the later? There's a word for that...Double Standard. Actually, that's two words. My first word was so powerful if deserved a sidekick.


-HipHopRepublican.com is pleased to add Charles Badger a young Republican to our fold. Charles blog is centered around politics in his home state of Tennesee.

http://www.charlesbadger.blogspot.com

ABOUT BLACK AMERICANS - RELIGION



2004 Black Entertainment Television/CBS poll, 2003 & 2004 Pew Research Center surveys, 2003 Harris Poll,

2004 Religion and Ethics Newsweekly survey

71% Protestant, 15% non-denominational Christian, 7% Catholic, 4% no religion, 2% Muslim, 1% other

Evangelical Christian rate: 62% say Bible is God's literal word
Religious service attendance: 41% attend every week, 22% a few times a year, 19% once or twice a month, 12% almost every week, 6% never

96% believe in God

76% believe in the devil

86% believe in heaven

77% believe in hell

88% believe in Jesus Christ's resurrection

79% say soul survives after death

78% believe in the Virgin birth

90% believe in miracles

29% believe in reincarnation

Islam is fastest-growing religion (40% of U.S. Muslims are black)

USA has special protection from God: 58% yes, 28% no, 14% don't know

USA's strength & success is based on religious faith: 69% yes, 28% no

Must believe in God to be moral: 69% yes, 25% no

87% believe USA moral values are on the wrong track

Views of Muslim Americans: 58% favorable, 22% unfavorable, 20% don't know

Views of Muslims abroad: 52% favorable, 30% unfavorable, 18% don't know

Lessons of 9/11: 58% say religion has too little influence in the world, 22% say too much

42% believe Jews were responsible for Jesus' death

Israel fulfills biblical prophecy: 51% yes, 33% no, 16% don't know

How religion affects their vote: 26% frequently, 20% occasionally, 51% rarely

Proper for media to ask politicians about religion: 59% yes, 39% no

Should religious institutions express political views: 66% yes, 30% no

President Bush, religion, and policymaking: 56% relies too little on religion, 28% right amount, 8% too much

Consider not voting for president (can pick more than one): 51% atheists, 30% Muslim, 17%

Catholic, 12% Jewish, 10% evangelical Christian

Black Conservative Reading List

Tony Brown Black Lies, White Lies: The Truth According To Tony Brown (1995)

Debra J. Dickerson The End Of Blackness: Returning The Souls Of Black Folk To Their Rightful Owners (2004)

Larry Elder Showdown: Confronting Bias, Lies, And The Special Interests That Divide America (2002)

Larry Elder The Ten Things You Can't Say In America (2000, New York Times bestseller)

Stan Faryna, editor Black And Right: The Bold New Voice Of Black Conservatives In America (1997)

Antonia Felix Condi: The Condoleezza Rice Story (2002)

Ken Hamblin Pick A Better Country: An Unassuming Colored Guy Speaks His Mind About America (1997)

Ayaan Hirsi Ali The Caged Virgin: An Emancipation Proclamation For Women And Islam (2006)

David H. Jackson, Jr. Lieutenant Of The Tuskegee Machine: Charles Banks Of Mississippi (2002)

Alan Keyes Masters Of The Dream: The Strength And Betrayal Of Black America (1995)

Alan Keyes Our Character, Our Future: Reclaiming America's Moral Destiny (1996)

Michael Levin Banking On Our Future: A Program For Teaching You And Your Kids About Money (2002)

John H. McWhorter Losing The Race: Self-Sabotage In Black America (2000, New York Times bestseller)

John H. McWhorter Winning The Race: Beyond The Crisis In Black America (2006)

Stephen Mansfield Then Darkness Fled: The Liberating Wisdom Of Booker T. Washington (1999)

Star Parker Uncle Sam's Plantation: How Big Government Enslaves America's Poor And

What We Can Do About It (2003)

Star Parker White Ghetto: How Middle Class America Reflects Inner City Decay (2006)

Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Scam: How The Black Leadership Exploits Black America (2003)

Joseph C. Phillips He Talk Like A White Boy: Reflections On Faith, Family, Politics, And Authenticity (2006)

Colin Powell My American Journey: An Autobiography (1995, New York Times bestseller)

George Schuyler Black And Conservative (1966)

Thomas Sowell Affirmative Action Around The World: An Empirical Study (2004)

Thomas Sowell Black Rednecks And White Liberals (2005)

Thomas Sowell Race And Economics (1975)

Shelby Steele A Dream Deferred: A Second Betrayal Of Black America (1998)

Shelby Steele The Content Of Our Character: A New Vision Of Race In America (1991, New York Times bestseller)

Shelby Steele White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era (2006)

Lord John Taylor No Blacks, No Irish, No Dogs: The Inspiring Story Of Lord Taylor of Warwick (2004 audio book, Britain)

Booker T. Washington Up From Slavery (1901, bestseller)

James Washington, editor A Testament Of Hope: The Essential Writings Of Martin Luther King Jr. (1986)

J.C. Watts What Color Is A Conservative? My Life And Politics (2003)

Juan Williams Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, And Culture Of Failure

That Are Undermining Black America - And What We Can Do About It (2006)

Carter G. Woodson The Mis-education Of The Negro (1933, bestseller)
READING LIST - YOUTH

Chipping Away At Number Of Imprisoned Black Males


Blacks comprise 62% of imprisoned drug offenders in America, though they are only 13% of the national population. One out of every 115 black males enters prison each year on a felony drug crime, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. And black youths are admitted to state correction facilities for drug offenses at 48 times the rate of white youths.

"There's an attitude of hopelessness and despair that many blacks have as a result of unemployment," says Arthur L. Burnett Sr., executive director of the National African American Drug Policy Coalition. "The only way we can cope with it is by starting with youngsters in the third grade, and that's what we're doing.

"The NAADPC, an umbrella group of 23 professional organizations, is spearheading an educational response with a 10-year goal to reduce the number of black inmates and double the number of black professionals. Among its key plans: an internship program to identify gifted eighth-graders in specific subject areas and pair them with black mentors in law, medicine, engineering and other fields.

"We're saying, let's go back to the ideas of Booker T. Washington," says Mr. Burnett, the first black magistrate, now retired, from the U.S. Magistrate in Washington, D.C. "Don't let's wait for government handouts. Let the black community come together in a spirit of self-reliance."Studies have seized on explanations for the disparity in treatment.

But most start in the courtroom, with the judicial distinction between crack and powder ocaine. "It's so much easier to arrest a crack dealer on the street rather than someone in a business suit who's selling pot and cocaine," says Kurt Schmoke, former Baltimore mayor and current dean of Howard University's Law School, who is leading a legislative effort to allow judges to sentence drug offenders on a case-by-case basis.My response: While I do believe that the War On Drugs - a losing battle - has only exacerbated the problem, the core of the issue stems from dyfunctional and typically fatherless homes with low values. And cool points to the NAADPC for citing Booker T. Washington's strategy.

Black Entertainers Increasingly Sample (Or Cover) White Entertainers' Music

While it has certainly been done on occasion, it was once an unwritten rule for black entertainers to sample or cover the songs of white entertainers. While samples from seemingly from the catalogs of acts such as Parliament Funkadelic, James Brown, Rick James, & The Gap Band have been (over)used by black entertainers to create new songs, those of white peers were pretty much left untouched. This was especially the case for rap artists, who often pride themselves on "keeping it real".

However, you may recall that P-Diddy (then Puff Daddy) sampled The Police's "Every Breath You Take" in his "I'll Be Missing You" dedication to his dead friend, rapper Notorious B.I.G, back in 1997. Or Jay-Z's creative sample of the "Annie" musical in his hit song, "Hard Knock Life", in 1998 or 1999. Yes, P-Diddy's sample of The Police was awful, but yet he and Jay-Z helped make what was once taboo an alright thing to do by less controversial artists.

Mary J. Blige recently did a surprisingly decent (surprising for me, as I'm no MJB fan) cover of U2's "One", complete with Bono in her video. India.Arie does a superb neo-soul cover of Don Henley's "The Heart Of The Matter" on her new CD, Testimony: Vol. 1, Life & Relationship. India does ol' Don one better there, so hopefully it will get radio play. Rhymefest (pictured, and best known for beating later-to-become-famous Eminem in a rapper battle tournament and co-writing the Grammy-award-winning song, "Jesus Walks", with Kanye West) samples The Strokes' "Someday" in "Devil's Pie" off his new major-label debut CD and dedication to black working-class life, Blue Collar. The Roots, a great hip-hop band (yes, band...they play their own instruments) reportedly sample Radiohead in one of their cuts on their upcoming CD, Game Theory, which drops in two weeks. Even lil' Rihanna, the rising teen star and Beyonce wannabe, samples Soft Cell's "Tainted Love" on her hit song, "SOS" (it should be pointed out that "Tainted Love" itself sampled "Where Did Our Love Go?" by The Supremes, the black female supergroup). The way things are going, next we'll hear about 50-Cent sampling the Sex Pistols.

As Marvin Gaye once asked: what's going on? Is this a whitewash of black music, as it is known? Confused racial identity? Payback on behalf of the black artists whose stuff was ripped off by white artists - with zero compensation - back in the day? No. It shows that influences go a multiple of ways. Black entertainers have long been an influence on white entertainers, and the influence is well documented. What is less covered are white entertainers' influences on blacks. Yet some of us are old enough to remember Living Colour's cover of The Clash's "Should I Stay Of Should I Go" (which they should've left alone) or the Run DMC-Aerosmith "Walk This Way" collaboration back in the 1980s. Or Whitney Houston's excellent cover last decade of Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You".

As a black fan of rock music who used to get teased for her musical tastes as a youth, I generally view this trend as a good development. I knew there were some closet black rockers out there, and they are coming out in the open more often. As long as the sampling and covers are kept to a minimum - I'd like to be hear more original music across the board - then it is OK by me.

It shows that good music is good music...regardless of race.

JOHN MCWHORTER: The Wasteful Legacy Of Black Power

From http://www.bookerrising.blogspot.com/

The black moderate-liberal commentator argues that the movement was, from the outset, a mess:

"But Black Power left behind things more significant. Black Power lives on today in the notion that authentic black people are ever waiting for a cathartic moment when white America 'realizes' some 'truth' about our racist past. Hence the reparations distraction. Black Power taught us that there is something deeply 'black' about being lustrously, implacably angry. Hence black ministers at Coretta Scott King's funeral hollering anti-Republican rhetoric, or black academics celebrating 'gangsta' rap as a sophisticated political statement.

Black Power also has its echoes in the glowing blurbs from heavy hitters, white and black, on Mr. Joseph's book jacket — a multihued community of scholars of like politics who would praise to the heights almost any book he wrote.

These blurbs imply an authoritative and insightful chronicle, when the book is more of a dutiful museum tour. It is a rare example of a book that would ideally be twice as long, and the prose is too ordinary to carry it on narrative zing."My response: Mr. McWhorter should've also pointed out that the 1960s black power movement was a pioneer of the "black is beautiful" mantra, which sought to overturn the centuries-ingrained view that black was ugly. That is definitely a good point of the movement.



My response: Mr. McWhorter should've also pointed out that the 1960s black power movement was a pioneer of the "black is beautiful" mantra, which sought to overturn the centuries-ingrained view that black was ugly. That is definitely a good point of the movement.

http://www.bookerrising.blogspot.com/

Quote Of The Day



"The main things that we can change at this moment [are to do with] Africans and not white people. Our fellow Nigerians come over here to Europe to study and instead of going back - usually they have learned how to change something about Nigeria's economy - they don't. This is the same old stuff that the missionaries did all the time. We do see whites who are prejudiced towards blacks. They have and they had an influence. But blacks are oppressing each other over there. The envy, you see the hatred in the eyes. With poverty, I don't know how to put it, there's a lack of opportunities. There's no barrier between actually doing negative things and just keeping yourself away from it. They'll shoot your head off, people don't care. That's the way it goes in Nigeria. People don't have a heart any more." — Nneka, Nigerian-born singer

Friday, August 18, 2006

Comparing Bush to Hilter???

Liberals reject and repute moral distinctions or standards of comparison which in turn allows them to make horrid comments without even blinking. Comparing Bush to Hitler is like comparing a rocking chair to an electric chair, one must be able to use his cognitive fucntions to make such a distinction, something Liberals rebel against.

It is also the same reasons why liberals are quick to say Bush and Saddam, are the same when the context and circumstances are not even slighly similar. They compare America to an oppressive nation, such as Iran, they do this because they have never learned to distinguish between two opposites, to there relativist mind all things are the same, therefore the end results must be the same also.

Most grade children can tell the difference Bush and the terroists.

Neoconservatism.....Why We Need It



Neoconservatism: Why We Need It is a defense of the most controversial political philosophy of our era. Douglas Murray takes a fresh look at the movement that replaced Great-Society liberalism, helped Ronald Reagan bring down the Wall, and provided the intellectual rationale for the Bush administration’s War on Terror. While others are blaming it for foreign policy failures and, more extremely, attacking it as a “Jewish cabal,” Murray argues that the West needs Neo-conservatism more than ever. In addition to explaining what Neoconservatism is and where it came from, he argues that this American-born response to the failed policies of the 1960s is the best approach to foreign affairs not only for the United States but also for Britain and the West as well.


“We have had denunciations, defenses, polemics, phillipics, and even ‘nightmares’ about neoconservatism. Here is a description of it, passionately felt but coolly argued, as a defense of the West against its enemies, foreign and domestic. Mr. Murray demolishes their myths galore — but also some myths held by neocons confused about where their own ideas lead.

Surprisingly readable, and readably surprising.”— John O’Sullivan, editor-at-large of National Review

“Required reading for all conservatives.”— Roger Scruton

“Conservatism is lost in crisis - Douglas Murray brilliantly defines the way out.”— William Shawcross

“Murray is something of a prodigy…His argument, trenchantly and entertaininly made, is that only the neoconservative agenda can restore the Tories to their rightful place.”— Daniel Johnson, Commentary

“Douglas Murray has the vigor and certainty of youth along with a talent for the written word…[I]t is encouraging that a young Brit has the gumption to state the obvious even though it is politically incorrect…This is a book that can be profitably read by everyone, but even more so by those running for office. It will be interesting to see what Mr. Murray gives us the next time out.”— Sol Schindler, Washington Times

Interview
Front Page Magazine

Check out Douglas Murray at the Hudson Institute

Douglas Murray mentioned in The Claremont Institute

Websites discussing this book.

Reviews—August 15th, 2006

Douglas Murray on Fox News.—August 9th, 2006

Neoconservatism: Douglas Murray—August 1st, 2006

Hyllengren. Blogg.—May 24th, 2006

More on the Iranian-Godwin thing—May 22nd, 2006

After Ayaan Hirsi Ali's departure from the... —May 19th, 2006

‘Not very nice’ people—May 5th, 2006

Neoconservatism: why we need it—April 3rd, 2006

Melanie Phillips's Diary—March 23rd, 2006

Andrew Young resigns from Wal-Mart



ATLANTA - Civil rights leader Andrew Young, who was hired to help Wal-Mart Stores Inc. improve its public image, said early Friday he was stepping down from his position as head of an outside support group amid criticism for remarks seen as racially offensive.

"I think I was on the verge of becoming part of the controversy, and I didn't want to become a distraction from the main issues, so I thought I ought to step down," Young, a former Atlanta mayor and U.N. ambassador, told The Associated Press.

Young, once a close associate of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., said his decision to step down followed a report in the weekly Los Angeles Sentinel, which he said was misread and misinterpreted.


In the Sentinel interview, Young was asked about whether he was concerned Wal-Mart causes smaller, mom-and-pop stores to close.

"Well, I think they should; they ran the `mom and pop' stores out of my neighborhood," the paper quoted Young as saying. "But you see, those are the people who have been overcharging us selling us stale bread and bad meat and wilted vegetables.


And they sold out and moved to Florida. I think they've ripped off our communities enough. First it was Jews, then it was Koreans and now it's Arabs; very few black people own these stores."

Young, who has apologized for the remarks, said he decided to end his involvement with Working Families for Wal-Mart after he started getting calls about the story.

"Things that are matter-of-fact in Atlanta, in the New York and Los Angeles environment, tend to be a lot more volatile," he said.

He also said working with the group "was also taking more of my time than I thought."

An after-hours call to Wal-Mart was not immediately returned. Company spokeswoman Mona Williams told The New York Times on Thursday that Young's comments did not reflect Wal-Mart's views.

"Needless to say, we were appalled when the comments came to our attention," Williams said. "We were also dismayed that they would come from someone who has worked so hard for so many years for equal rights in this country."

The remarks surprised Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, who pointed to Young's reputation of civil rights work.

"If anyone should know that these are the words of bigotry, anti-Semitism and prejudice, it's him," Hier said. "I know he apologized, but I would say this, ... during his years as a leader of the national civil rights movement, if anyone would utter remarks like this about African-Americans his voice would be the first to rise in indignation."

Young came under fire from the civil rights community after his company, GoodWorks International, was hired by Working Families for Wal-Mart to promote the world's largest retailer. Young's company, which he has headed since 1997, works with corporations and governments to foster economic development in Africa and the Caribbean.

In an April letter to the General Synod of the United Church of Christ, Young said it was wrong for the church and others to blame Wal-Mart for world ills.

"I think we may have erred in not paying enough attention to the potentially positive role of business and the corporate multinational community in seeking solutions to the problems of the poor," Young wrote at that time.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.



Looks like a Trent Lott moment!!!!

Just a note the The Los Angeles Sentinel is a weekly African American-owned newspaper published in Los Angeles, California. The paper boasts of reaching 125,000 readers as of 2004, making it the oldest, largest and most influential African-American newspaper in Western United States.

The Sentinel was founded and first published in
1933 by Col.

Leon H. Washington for black readers. Since then the newspaper has been considered a staple of black life in Los Angeles. The paper mainly focuses on and thus enjoys most of its circulation in the predominently African-American neighborhoods of South Los Angeles, Inglewood and Compton.

On March 17 2004 the Sentinel was purchased and came under the direction of real estate developer and community activist Danny Bakewell. Recently Bakewell has updated equipment at the paper's publishing facility and has worked to improve marketing and increase subscriptions.

External links
Los Angeles Sentinel

Hezbo-Laa-Laa: Cute Little Terrortubby



Hezbo-Laa-Laa: Cute Little Terrortubby

Hezbollah as a benevolent band of misunderstood peasant warriors, and to foster acceptance of other cultures, the BBC retooled its cutest Teletubby character named Laa-laa into Hezbo-Laa-Laa.

Sporting a characteristic martyr bandana with the motto "From cradle to grave" written in Arabic, and a suicide belt filled nails and rat poison, this cute and cuddly Terrortubby is intended to show European and American kids that beyond its desire to exterminate the Jew, Hezbollah is, in fact, a caring playmate that will tend to your social needs through a strong presence in the big, generous government! ~


Israel's answer:JEWBAKA"Westerners need to look beyond 'the Jew' problem and learn from the early age that someone with so much faith in a one-Party rule, coupled with extensive social services administered by a totalitarian government can't be all bad," declares the BBC Director of children's programming Dan Foster.

"Hezbollah is much like any other decent national-socialist government and we really shouldn't let small issue like Jews get in the way of social progress."BBC is already filming new episodes in which fuzzy little Hezbo-Laa-Laa will perform such tasks as "boarding a Tel Aviv bus," "entering a crowded pizzeria" and sing his favorite song Rocket Man.


http://www.thepeoplescube.com/

Black Women & AIDS

Listen to actress and activist Sheryl Lee Ralph discuss the fact that ever since AIDS has switched from a gay man's disease to a black women's disease how no one seems to care.

Just click link below. http://www.letstalkhonestly.com/page/page/1307246.htm

'Twas the Night Before Miraj



'Twas the night before Miraj, when all through dhimmiland
Not a camel was stirring, nor flea in the sand.


The infidels were hung by the over-pass with care,
In hopes that Twelver soon would be there.

The children were bomb-wired all snug in their beds,
While visions of martyrdom danced in their heads.
A nd mamma in her burqa, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long summer's nap.

When out on the dirt there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the tent to see what was the matter.
Away with my AK I flew like a rip,
Tore open the gunny and threw in a clip.

With my finger on the trigger, I almost let loose a round
When a flying Bourak then landed on the ground.
Then, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But the Twelver himself, and the Prophet, right here!

With Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, so wily and slick,
I knew in a moment it wasn't a Jew trick.

More rapid than katushas his rockets they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, hijacked a plane!

"Now Hamas! now, Hezbollah! now, Ba'athist and Sunni!
On, Shia! On, PLO! we're all freaking loony!
To the Zionist state! to the Wailing Wall!
Now kill the Jews, kill the Jews, kill the Jews all!"

As palm leaves that before the wild sand storm fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky.
So up to Aqsa Mosque the coursers they flew,
With a Bourak full of nukes, and the Twelfth Imam too!
And then, in a moment, I heard on the mosque's roof
The prancing and pawing of each giant hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the minaret The Prophet came with a bound.

He was dressed all in rags, from his head to his shoes,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes from Jews.
A bundle of weapons he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a jihadi, just back from Iraq!

His eyes-how they burned! his grimace how scary!
He laughed like a Stooge, the one they call Larry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a gate,
And the beard of his chin was as oily as Kuwait.

The stump of a Jew he held tight in his teeth,
And the blood it encircled his head like a wreath.
He had a mean face and was more than smelly,
And Al Jazeera showed his image on everyone's telly!

He had flies like a dump, a right nasty old elf,
And I wept when I saw him, in spite of myself!
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know all the Jews were all dead
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And nuked all of Israel, then turned with a jerk.
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the minaret he rose!

He sprang to his Bourak, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like a nuclear missile.
But I heard him exclaim, 'ere he flew out of sight,
"Happy Miraj to all, and to all a good-night!"


-This poem is the product of the Karl Marx Treatment Center - an outpatient Gulag program ThePeoplesCube.com

http://www.thepeoplescube.com/

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Zimbabwe's Reforms from Space



“Land reform begun in Zimbabwe in 2000 was supposed to redistribute land from predominantly white-owned commercial farms to much poorer black farmers who toiled on communal lands.

Proponents argued that the redistribution was necessary because commercial farms occupied the most fertile lands, leaving only dry, dusty land for communal use.”

The Center for Global Development, using Google Earth,
takes a look at this reform from above.



They also link to several commentaries on “how land tenure has affected land use patterns, how the revocation of property rights impacted agricultural productivity, and what these changes mean for Zimbabwe’s future.”

http://www.aworldconnected.org/news/archives/040436.php

The Anti War Movement...Anything But!!

Anti War Moon Bats Gone Wild Pictures
thanks to Zombietime.com

http://www.zombietime.com/

Republican Asian Americans Find there Voice



Claire Yan wins Republican nomination for the Fifth Congressional District.


ELECTION TOTALS -- UPDATED JUNE 26
CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT 5 REPUBLICAN

(WITH 365 OF 365 PRECINCTS COUNTED)

CLAIRE YAN . . . . . . . 19,005 99.25
WRITE-IN. . . . . . . . 144 .75

Following is a statement from Claire Yan, the Republican Party's nominee for Congress in the fifth district:

"I thank the voters of the Republican Party for honoring me with our party's nomination for the Fifth Congressional District of California.

"I congratulate the incumbent, Congresswoman Matsui, for her victory in the Democratic Party. I am looking forward to a spirited race so that by November 7 voters in California's Fifth Congressional District will understand the choice they have over the direction of our federal government. That choice will be between my support for genuine Congressional lobbying reform, and a former lobbyist turned politician who is naturally opposed to reform.

"It will be between a record of supporting bureaucratic solutions for our education system, and a recognized expert in innovative school solutions.

"The choice will be between unflinching support for the War on Terror and an incumbent position that always seems to qualify support for our troops.

"The choice will also contrast my view that securing our borders against illegal immigration is a vital national security strategy and my opponent who doesn't recognize the problem.

"I look forward to sharing my views, challenging those of my opponent and, finally, faithfully serving voters in the Sacramento area."

http://www.claireforcongress.com/cc_about.html

http://www.eastasiawatch.com/2006/03/16/claire-yan-for-congress/


TAN NGUYEN is running as a Republican for California's Congressional 47th District



TAN NGUYEN WAS BORN IN DANANG, VIETNAM IN 1973.

When Tan was eight, his family fled their homeland, escaping the communist regime, on a small boat. Tan's father had been imprisoned after a first failed attempt, but was determined to free his family from the oppressive government. Tan still has vivid recollections of that long, dangerous journey, a pivotal influence in Tan's development and drive.

Settling in California, the family worked hard to achieve a better life. As the eldest of five children, Tan learned from his parents to be responsible and caring for his sisters and brothers, and the value of hard work. Tan labored, along with his mother and father, as farm workers as they began their new life in the U.S.A.

Tan worked his way through college, first at U.C.L.A then graduating from the University of Minnesota with a Baccalaureate degree that emphasized Business-Economics, Biochemistry and Asian Studies.

After graduation, Tan married Hanh Lam and together they settled in Southern California. Tan worked as an Investment Advisor for American Express and then A.G. Edwards where he enjoyed helping clients achieve their financial goals. Currently, Tan is working as an Independent Investment Advisor, specializing in asset management.

In 2004, Tan decided to run for Congress. Tan went up against a political heavyweight, who was the Regional Vice Chair for the Los Angeles County Democratic Party. While critics predicted that Tan would only get 1% to 2% of the votes, he received 33%. The result was viewed as a Herculean effort and a success, given the fact that the Democratic Party backed his opponent heavily.

Tan believes that in AMERICA, Nothing is Impossible.

Tan's message is simple and is populist in nature:

"…A congressman must represent the people of his district and must bring THEIR views to Washington, not the other way around."

Thus, Tan's stance on the issues of the day such as Immigration (against illegal immigration), the Budget (the deficit must be eliminated), and pharmaceuticals for the elderly (medicines should be permitted to be re-imported from Canada), may fly in the face of the powers that be, but will always be close to how people actually feel.

Tan will represent all the people in our district with the same care and diligence that he has applied to his life. Tan has the energy and the enthusiasm to make a difference.

http://65.45.193.26:8026/cms/acct/tan4congress/main/



QUENTIN KUHIO KAWANANAKOA

Born in Honolulu in 1961, Kawananakoa is the son of Edward “Dudie” Kawananakoa and Carolyn Willison. He is descended from Prince David and Princess Abigail Kawananakoa, and related to Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalaniana'ole.

Growing up in Kailua, Quentin attended public schools, including Kainalu Elementary, before entering Punahou School at age 12 as the family moved to Kaneohe. Quentin attended the University of Southern California, and earned his Bachelor of Science degree from the Business Administration’s Entrepreneurship Program in 1983.

With public service in mind, Quentin decided that a degree in law would provide a path to achieve a greater good. He entered the Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawaii in 1989. Three years later he passed the Hawai‘i State Bar exam and became a law clerk to Justice Frank D. Padgett of the Hawai‘i State Supreme Court.

It wasn’t long before he was discovered by Honolulu law firm Case, Bigelow & Lombardi, where he served as attorney for four years, remaining on “Of Counsel” as he entered politics to serve as Representative for the 26th House District from 1994 to 1998. As a longtime member of the Republican Party, he served as minority leader of the State House. His strong bid for United States Congress in 1998 was cut short by illness, from which he has completely recovered.

Over the next decade, Quentin devoted time to his young family and to spearhead the reorganization of the family business – the Estate of James Campbell. Countering the best predictions of financial experts, Quentin helped to successfully transform the expiring estate into an ongoing company. In the process, jobs were preserved, and a vital philanthropic foundation that has funded hundreds of worthy causes in the community.

Quentin was a founding member of the Native Hawaiian Bar Association, an association of lawyers and judges of Hawaiian ancestry that promotes unity and the exchange of ideas. He has also served on a number of boards and commissions: Past President of the Prince Kuhio Hawaiian Civic Club; Board Member of The Friends of Iolani Palace; Regent of Hale O Na Ali‘i O Hawai’i; member of the United States Civil Rights Commission Advisory Committee; and Board Member & Advisory Committee Member of the Moanalua Gardens Foundation.

Presently, Quentin serves as Oahu Commissioner of the Hawaiian Homes Commission, helping the Department of Hawaiian Homelands (DHHL) to effectively manage the Hawaiian Home Lands trust and to develop and deliver land to native Hawaiians. Today, DHHL is the largest developer in the Kapolei region and will develop over 1,200 homes in the next few years.

Quentin has been married for 10 years to Elizabeth Broun Kawananakoa with whom he has two sons, Kincaid, age 8, and Riley, age 6. An avid sports enthusiast from childhood, he played on the USC rugby team, and enjoys canoeing, hiking, snowboarding and paragliding.

http://kawananakoa.com/aboutquentin.asp


Raj Bhakta-Indian American Republican runs for Congress


http://www.rajforcongress.com/index.html

Raj Peter Bhakta (born
December 7, 1975 in Philadelphia, PA) is the Republican Party's nominee for the United States House of Representatives in Pennsylvania's 13th congressional district. The election is to be held on November 7, 2006; he will face incumbent Democrat Allyson Schwartz.

Bhakta moved from
Northeast Philadelphia's Oxford Circle to Blue Bell, Pennsylvania where he grew up. After graduating from The Hill School in 1994, Raj Bhakta earned two bachelor's degrees in Economics and History and a concentration in Finance from Boston College in 1998.

He began his career working at the investment banking firm of Violy & Co. in
New York [1].
Bhakta then founded his first business, Automovia, Inc., a technology company focused on the automotive industry, in the year
2000.

He was 23 when he started the company. In 2003, Bhakta and his family created Vanquish Holdings, which led to the acquisition of a hotel, retail, and condominium project in
Vail, Colorado.

The Apprentice

Main article:
The Apprentice 2 Candidates
In the fall of 2004, Bhakta appeared on the second season of the business oriented reality television show,
The Apprentice. Bhakta was fired by Donald Trump on the ninth week of the show.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Dr" Azzam Tamimi Declares Support For Terrorism

It is often hard to interpret what Islamist want especialy when liberal journalist are interperting there words for us, so below is a video of what these guys realy think about us in there own words.







Update: Believe it or not, Tamimi was on Tucker Carlson’s show pitching his hoax theory to an American audience. Media Blog has the video.




-Just lovely...Dr "Azzam ... absolutely lovely..you are in denial and
a puppet for Islamic Fundementalist you should be proud.

Senator Allen denies remark was racist



(CNN) -- Sen. George Allen denies a remark he made to describe an opponent's campaign worker was racially charged, saying in a statement that the media misunderstood his comments. The Virginia Republican called S.R. Sidarth, a volunteer on Democrat Jim Webb's campaign, "Macaca" on two occasions during an event Friday in Breaks, a town in Virginia's southwest corner near the Kentucky border.

In an e-mail to political supporters Monday, the Webb campaign questioned whether Allen had used a racial slur to describe Sidarth, an American of Indian descent.
Macaca is a genus of monkeys, including the rhesus monkey.

Sidarth was filming Allen, a standard campaign practice that opponents often use for research purposes, as the senator campaigned throughout the state for a second term. He captured Allen's comments on camera, and the Webb campaign provided a link to the video in its e-mail.

"This fellow here, over here with the yellow shirt, Macaca, or whatever his name is," said Allen, who at times pointed directly at the camera. "He's with my opponent. He's following us around everywhere. And it's just great."

After suggesting Webb has not visited many parts of the state as well as criticizing his opponent for meeting with "a bunch of Hollywood movie moguls," the senator turned back to the camera and addressed Sidarth.

"Let's give a welcome to Macaca, here," Allen said. "Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia."

In a four-paragraph statement issued Tuesday, Allen said, "In singling out the Webb campaign's cameraman, I was trying to make the point that Jim Webb had never been to that part of Virginia -- and I encouraged him to bring the tape back to Jim and welcome him to the real world of Virginia and America, outside the Beltway, where he has rarely visited.

"I also made up a nickname for the cameraman, which was in no way intended to be racially derogatory. Any insinuations to the contrary are completely false."

Allen said it "was certainly not my intent" to offend anyone by the remark.

"On every stop on my listening tour, I have talked about one of my missions for this country -- to make it a land of opportunity for all," Allen said. "I have worked very hard in the Senate to reach out to all Americans -- regardless of their race, religion, ethnicity or gender. And I look forward to continuing to advocate this important mission for America's future."

As for Sidarth, Allen said, "I never want to embarrass or demean anyone, and I apologize if my comments offended this young man. Even though he has signed onto my opponent's campaign, I look forward to seeing him on the trail ahead."

In an interview with CNN before Allen released his statement, Sidarth said he had introduced himself to the senator days before he made the remark.

"He was doing that because he could, because he could get away with it," Sidarth said. "I think he was just trying to, trying to point out the fact that I was a person of color, in a crowd that was not otherwise."

Sidarth later said he did not view Allen's statement as an adequate apology. "First of all, if he is going to single me out in a crowd of 100 people, he ought to apologize to me personally," Sidarth said.

Webb campaign manager Jessica Vanden Berg added, "From my perspective, if a U.S. senator wanted to directly apologize to somebody, he would do so. Sidarth has not been apologized to."

Vanden Berg said Webb's "family and roots are in southwestern Virginia," and he has lived in Falls Church "for a number of years."

During the Senate campaign, she said, he has traveled extensively throughout the state. "So to say that Jim doesn't know Virginia is a lie," she said.



The Democrats have been trying to make the case for years
thats Allen is a racist.

The New Republic had him on there cover with the
title Allen's Race Problem.

The author Ryan Lizza finds many of Allen's high school classmates surprised that he's considering running for president because of the racist tendencies he displayed as a teenager.

They say he "plastered the school with confederate flags" and drove a red Mustang with a confederate flag on the front. Then Lizza got a copy of Allen's high school yearbook:

I stared closely at Allen’s smirk in his photo, weighing whether his old classmates were just out to destroy him. And then I noticed something on his collar. It’s hard to make out, but then it becomes obvious. Seventeen-year-old George Allen is wearing a Confederate flag pin.When confronted with this evidence, Allen sent an email through an aide with this explanation:

"When I was in high school in California, I generally bucked authority and the rebel flag was just a way to express that attitude.”Update: The New Republic has posted the entire piece online.

-Given such past comments and the fact the Democrats hate Allens guts, he should
be careful not to assume everything is a joke. If he was not running for President it would not matter, but he is. I do not belive that Allen is a racist, but the DNC thinks he is and no doubt will be taping everything he says.

FOX NEWS Juan Willams Son to run as a Republican!!!



Juan Williams NPR's commentator and Fox News liberal intellect has a son and he is a Republican, and he wants to run for office.

Below is a history of Tony Williams,
and why he is running for DC City Counsil.


Growing up in Washington I was fortunate to have two parents whose accomplishments taught me that with hard work and opportunity anything is possible. My mother, Delise, grew up here in Washington. She attended Western High School (now Duke Ellington) where she saw the difference that a good support structure can make in a child’s life. Today she works as a social worker and psychotherapist to high risk families, enabling parents to give their kids the kind of emotional support they did not receive.

My father, Juan, grew up in Brooklyn and today he works to remind all Americans of the accomplishments of the Civil Rights movement as a journalist and political commentator for NPR and Fox News.

I was fortunate to have a mother and father who had the opportunity to succeed and worked hard to provide me with the same. Unfortunately too many children in Washington don’t have that opportunity and are trapped. They are trapped by a lack of quality education. They are trapped by grinding poverty. They are trapped by a city where services pass them by.

I firmly believe that to whom much is given, much is expected. Since I graduated from Macalester College, the alma mater of leaders such as Kofi Annan and Walter Mondale, I have dedicated myself to bringing responsibility to government and help to those who need it.

Returning to Washington D.C. and to Ward 6, I went to work at the Department of Veterans Affairs where I was part of a team that had the courage to say we can do better. Focusing on people rather than paperwork, I helped to change the way healthcare was delivered and allowed our nation honor its sacred promise to care for those who have borne the battle.

Following the Department of Veteran Affairs I went to work in the U.S. Senate with Senator Norm Coleman. In the Senate I worked to pass pro-growth legislation that expanded the economy and created jobs for all Americans. In addition, I helped promote policies that brought record levels of funding to our schools, colleges, and universities.

I have also put my passion for responsible government to work here in Ward 6. Working with the South-West Collaborative Association I assisted in the organization of a job fair in order to match Ward 6 residents with the developers and businesses that have come to our community. I have worked hard to grow jobs here in Ward 6 because the best welfare program is a job; the best housing program is a job; and access to healthcare most often comes through a job.

There is no better judge of an individual than one’s own neighbors and this year my neighbors in Ward 6 recognized my passion and intellect and elected me president of the Capitol Hill West Condo Association. Since becoming President I have put my endless energy to work bringing the community together, modernizing the buildings, balancing the books, and transforming strangers into neighbors.

Now I want to put that energy to work for you.


Please Support Tony Williams Campaign.

info@ward6fortonywilliams.com

www.ward6fortonywilliams.com

http://www.ward6fortonywilliams.com/


http://www.ward6fortonywilliams.com/blog/


http://www.dcgop.com/Candidates/default.aspx

Interview with Dr. Ada Fisher Republican Candidate for the 12th District



Source The North Carolina Conservative

1. Tell us about your personal and political background.

My father was a Baptist preacher at Durham's White Rock Baptist Church where I grew up. He was also a Professor of Theology at Shaw University's Divinity School having earned a PhD from the University of Chicago and paid his way through school in part by translating Hebrew.

My mother was his equal as a Latin Scholar and teacher at Virginia Union University in Richmond, VA where they met. Both were first in their class at Morehouse and Virginia Union respectively and were devoted to his social ministry based on "The Old Time Religion, " empowerment of the community through action, and self-reliance with sound educational underpinnings as a key to success.

I am the youngest of six children all of whom have at least two degrees. We can support ourselves for it was never a question in my house of whether we were going to college, rather which college would we attend. Despite all of our education we were poor and didn't know it for status in the black community wasn't based solely on income but reflected education, skin color, hair texture and a lot of irrelevant things during my early years.My father, the son of a slave and Seminole Indian mother, was a Republican, a mason and a contemporary of James E. Shepard who founded NCCU (and eulogized him). Many of the members of "Durham's Black Wall Street" were members of his church, and Republicans.

I am a physician, licensed teacher, author, poet and so much more. I am a single-mother of two grown sons (not at home) whom I adopted when they were almost six, one in Tennessee and one in Illinois. They are the loves of my life. I have been a Republican for over 30 years. I have caught hell for it not just in the black community but also among contemporaries.

It was with a sense of horror that folks looked at me as if I were a leper when I supported Senator Helms in the 70's. I didn't have to agree with everything he said, but I believed then as now that he and Sam Irvin were the best articulators of North Carolina's promise. Were it not for Senator Helm's help to tobacco farmers, our economy would have suffered more earlier, for that crop at one time accounted for 35% of our economy.

2. Why are you running?

5 years ago when I became interested in national office, I said in my press release on Labor Day which I think was September 4, 2001 this nation is not prepared for an attack on its person. We need jobs which can't be shipped overseas or sent south of the border, illegal immigration is a threat to our national security, health care should be affordable as well as accessible, and we need a flat tax. On September 11, 2001 we had the attack on the World Trade Center and last year we had the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. I say to you again we are still not prepared and we need people like me in office who have the hands on experience and expertise to deal with issues like this.

Initially, I also decided to run because one of my brothers came down with cancer in 1978. In 2000 he had his second bout of cancer secondary to his prior chemotherapy treatments. As I sat with him day in and day out, we both talked about what happens to people who don't have a doctor in their family. We both appreciated that when you "Get A Doctor in the House" it makes a difference. That's where the slogan originated for my campaign. During my last race I had to miss many things as I sat with a friend, resulting from a medical mistake, and his family as he died. As one who has personally supervised care for over 100,000 patients, I believed then as now that health care must change toward a public health system of prevention, if we are to make it affordable and accessible while dealing with bio-terrorism as well as Avian flu. This will require that we put people in Congress who understand.

3. What are the issues important to your District?

-Jobs, jobs, and more jobs are the main issue for our citizens.
-Health care is the largest employer for this area and state. Anyone who is maliciously injured through the health care system should be fairly compensated. But we must all understand that without insured health care providers, practitioners can't engage in high risk professions such as obstetrics, neuro-surgery, etc. We must have reasonable health care tort reform. The incumbent has consistently opposed this.

-Illegal immigration is overrunning our prisons, our schools and lowering wages for those with labor intensive jobs; however, the incumbent has opposed deporting undocumented workers who break the law as well as many other efforts to control illegal entry for non-citizens.
-Education is important; however under the 10th Amendment to the Constitution that is the province of the states not the federal government. Though the state says drop-outs are less than 6% in our area, a look at the cohort group of this years class reveals that in Mecklenburg County approximately 40+% and in Rowan County 34% of those entering high school in the last 4 years have been lost to the system. This brain drain is a matter of national interest.

4
. Tell us about Rep. Mel Watt.

I have known Congressman Watt for approximately 5 years. I was asked to substitute for him when he excused himself early from a speaking engagement at Salisbury High. He and I are friendly but politically we are quite different. Watt's views are creeping more towards government socialism with the government being centrally involved in programs for people from creating jobs to education to socialized medical care. I believe in a democratic republic where government rest on "We the people. . ." and should insure an atmosphere of fairness. The federal government's rightful mantel is for the National Defense, a judiciary, order and commerce. The federal government in assuming other roles should support the states. Washington cannot and should not micromanage things at the state and local levels nor continue passing non-funded federal mandates for states to implement.

5.
Recently, Rep. Watt has made efforts to frame gay rights as a civil rights issue; how do you respond to that?

I am tired of people saying everything is a civil rights issue whether gay rights or immigrant rights. Our skin color has unfortunately too often dictated our treatment and we can't change our color though people can change other parts of their lives and lifestyles. One should appreciate that the majority of blacks who entered this country early on were forced to be here, not illegally coming here. It was the Republican Party, which opposed slavery, passed the first civil rights bill, and through the Progressive Bull Moose party of Theodore Roosevelt and more recent efforts of Richard Nixon, made equal opportunities the hallmark of where we stand on civilian rights for our citizens. I stand with my party and expect them to stand with me.

6.How are his positions on gay marriage and abortion viewed in the (mostly black) Christian community of the district?

Most black Americans that I know aren't as obsessed with the issue of gay marriage and abortion as are others of society and this is probably true as well for many non-blacks in the 12th District. This is a very cosmopolitan and eclectic district. As a rule, black Americans, particularly the black middle and upper class, are far more conservative than others. Though fundamentally people believe as I do that marriage should be between one man and one woman and believe that all life is precious, if it doesn't affect them personally, many are just willing to live and let live.

Very few people in the 12th District black or white know that Mel Watt was one of three Congressmen to oppose Megan's Law (requiring sentencing of child molesters), didn't support the Defense of Marriage Act, voted Present when asked to vote on keeping "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance or has not supported many efforts to curtail illegal immigration. If they knew this he could not be reelected. One of the facts that people are failing to appreciate is that the evangelical movement and Islam are the fastest growing religious segments of the African American community. This dichotomy is intriguing and could be insightful in our efforts to understand the Moslem mind if we would engage them.

7.
What are your views on illegal immigration, and how do they contrast with Watt's position?

I believe that it is too easy to be illegal in this country. Illegal immigration is the largest threat to our domestic national security from its potential health hazards, related crime and violence of gangs, economic instability from depressed wages for other jobs, and social burdens from educational and social services expenditures. I do not support amnesty or a guest worker program when we have locked up non-violent criminals who could have alternative sentencing for this work. Illegal workers aren't taking jobs that Americans won't do. If paid a minimum wage, these jobs should be filled or why pay unemployment compensation?

Mr. Watt has opposed deporting illegal aliens who have committed crimes as well as funding for border patrols. My opposition to illegal immigration has been a matter of public record for over 5 years. I firmly believe that those who crossed the land bridge illegally from Mexico should not be allowed to stay in this country as long as we continue to return the Haitians home who are escaping political oppression. That is racism and I won't stand for it.

8.
How would you address problems within the black community such as the high rates of illegitimacy and crime?

I believe all children are legitimate. We need to restore hope in our communities and act with compassion toward children. All of our children are legitimate. They must be held accountable for the lives they lead.

We need more economic empowerment zones in areas highly dense with crime. Options for learning which lead to economic stability must be available. A constitutional amendment making 18 the age of adulthood uniformly would put kids on notice of their obligations to act and be so treated as adults, stop the sentencing of children as adults, discourage sexual expressions between non-adults, and allow service to the nation with all the rights and privileges of adulthood. Tax credits for second chance programs should be made available. National service programs with earned educational credit could be had.

Black Americans must put marriage and the positive involvement of black males in families on the front burner. Though controversial, I firmly believe that mothers must name the fathers of children before receiving government support. Proving paternity would stop a lot of problems as well as give children a better sense of family. As a group, we who are black are committing self-genocide in not getting an education, promiscuous sexual involvements, which are passing on AIDS which will wipe us out, and our dependence on the government rather than rediscovering community entrepreneurship and self-reliance.

9. How can public education better serve black students?

Education must be seen as a road to somewhere rather than a track to nowhere for all students not just black students. 40% of students in North Carolina's charter schools are black. I am a supporter of public education and know we don't have enough alternatives for all the students who wish to go to charter schools. With drop-out rates in this district over 30% in several counties, I firmly believe that when students fail or have to repeat courses or are not performing on grade level, parents should have the right to remove their child from a public school and take the state's allocation for that child to any school they feel may better serve the child. This one act would make schools find ways to teach these kids or risk their closing and losing money.

In our county, the Rowan Academy worked with many students who didn't do well in the public schools. That school out performed the public schools. They closed due to a lack of money. If the school system had been smart, it would have made that charter school part of its offerings. The Coast Guard offers a military option in Chicago that has turned around the life of minority student drop-outs. This should be a national effort as part of public education. We must require options for learning and get away from an educational cookie cutter mentality. Every child learns differently and we must fit the program to the child with the concept of the most efficient and effective learning environment not "the least restrictive" as required by law.

10.
How are you received in your district as a black Republican?

Most people in my community know that I am their go to person if you want to get something done or find an answer. This is not done just for black Americans or Republicans, but for all citizens. Just this week I wrote 5 letters for kids to go to college and two were awarded scholarships with my help. Though office holders have the benefit of staff, I have been able to help veterans get their benefits without this help because working in the VA system, as well as knowing applicable statues, I am better than most in helping people figure out what needs to be done to be considered for benefits. Most people in my community didn't even know I was a Republican until I ran for a national office since my school board seat was non-partisan.

11. Are you receiving much party support?

The 12th District Republican County parties have been very supportive of me in my campaign for the 12th US Congressional district seat. We won Davidson and Cabarrus the last time and we should carry them plus 2 or 3 others to victory this time. I have appealed to the National Party and White House for support since they say they want African Americans in the party. Now is the time to demonstrate to us they truly believe what they are saying and will act accordingly.

Michael Steele of Baltimore, Lynn Swann of Pennsylvania and the gentleman running from Ohio are running with national support. The 12th District deserves the same. All Republicans should hold them accountable for supporting this district. My candidacy presents the state of North Carolina and the Republican Party with an opportunity to make history for there has never been a black Republican female elected to the US Congress. Now is the time to make it so.

12. Why is the 12th District so important?

The 12th District contains the financial capital of North Carolina as well as the southeastern US. Wachovia and Bank of America are headquartered in this district, as are so many other businesses and facilities. There is one medical school, over a dozen community colleges, 4 year colleges and universities with 4 Historically Black Colleges and Universities within our boundaries. The Homeland Security operations have ties to optics and screening scanners developed here. And the beauty opportunities are second to none.

13. How do you feel about a gerrymandered seat?

North Carolina has 100 counties with 13 Congressional seats. Simple arithmetic says each Congressional seat here should represent slightly over 7 counties if done fairly. Since that is not the case, the 12th is reflective of more counties than most. The configuration of these counties in the 12th makes it hard to get a good map of who is where. As a constitutionalist, I believe in the founder's original concept of a representative democracy. There should be an independent body to map seats so that they aren't drawn just to protect someone, but can reflect the needs for a representative voice for that state. Edward Brooke, the first black Republican senator since reconstruction is one of my heroes for he was able to get elected in Massachusetts a state not known for its Republican presence or black population. Being able to represent anyone who is a citizen of your state, not just your party, is what it ought to be about.

DR. ADA M. FISHER IS A PHYSICIAN, LICENSED TEACHER FOR SECONDARY EDUCATION IN MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE, PREVIOUSLY ELECTED SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER, AND WAS AND IS THE REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE FOR THE NC 12TH US CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Republican Support for Historically Black Colleges



In the United States, Historically Black Colleges And Universities (HBCU) (a type of minority-serving institution or MSI) are colleges or universities that were established before 1964 with the intention of serving the African American community. Prior to 1964, African-Americans were almost always excluded from higher education opportunities at the predominantly white colleges and universities—with notable exceptions such as the integrated Hillsdale College in Michigan(today a conservative college) and Oberlin College in Ohio.

There are more than 100 historically black colleges in the United States, located almost exclusively in the southern and eastern states. Four HBCUs are located in the midwestern states (two each in Missouri and Ohio), while one is in the Virgin Islands.


Below are the contributions of Republican presidents to Republican Support for Historically Black Colleges.

1)President Ronald Reagan created the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, which encourages federal support for HBCUs. Indeed, historically black colleges and universities also enjoyed a higher public profile since the 1980s.


2)In 1989, President George Bush signed Executive Order 12677. This Executive Order established a Presidential Advisory Board on Historically Black Colleges and Universities to advise the President and the Secretary of Education on methods, programs, and strategies to strengthen these valued institutions.


3)On February 12, 2002, President George W. Bush signed Executive Order 13256. This Executive Order transferred the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities to the Office of the Secretary within the U.S. Department of Education.



Black Republican Groups on Historically Black Colleges

Cheyney State University

Cheyney State University is located in West Chester Pennsylvania about 20 miles south of Philadelphia. Cheyney was originally founded as the Institute for Colored Youth in 1837 and is the oldest Historically Black University in the country. The CSU Republicans have a very active program schedule and membership is between 20 and 30 students.


To contact the Cheyney Republicans write to Che Colter

Southern University

Southern University and A&M; College is located in Baton Rouge Louisiana. Originally opening its doors in New Orleans in 1881 Southern's Baton Rouge campus was instated in 1914. The Southern system includes campuses at 4 locations statewide. The campus Republicans are active in the local community and currently have 10-15 members.


To contact the Southern Republicans write to subrcrs@gmail.com

Texas Southern University

Texas Southern University is located near downtown Houston. Chartered in 1947 TSU now boats undergraduate enrollment of 8,000 diverse students plus the prestigious Thurgood Marshall Law school. The TSU Republican club was founded in 2004 and membership is between 30 and 50 students.

To contact the TSU Republicans write to Justin Jordan

Howard University

Howard University is a private HBCU located in downtown Washington D.C.. One of a small group of schools referred to as the "Black Harvard", Howard enjoys an outstanding academic reputation. The campus Republican club has been active since 2002 and currently holds about 20 members.

To contact the Howard U. Republicans write to Dana Mozie

Project 21 elects Black, Republican Women

Members of Project 21 welcome the appointment of Deneen Moore as a senior fellow for the black leadership network. In her new position, Ms. Moore will enjoy an increased role in the organization's outreach efforts."I am very fortunate and pleased to serve as a senior fellow with Project 21," said Ms. Moore.

"This organization prides itself on communicating the path to prosperity, and independence depends on recognizing the important role of free market principles in meeting today's challenges."

Ms. Moore formally served as a public relations consultant and radio talk show host for the Congress of Racial Equality, one of the nation's oldest civil rights organizations.

In her duties as a senior fellow for Project 21, Ms. Moore will author regular New Visions Commentaries and increase her already highly visible role as a spokesperson for the organization.

"Project 21 provides a platform for me to educate the black community on the importance of individual responsibility and self-reliance as means to improve their lives today for a better tomorrow," added Moore.

A Glimmer of Hope



By Thomas Sowell

It was a common political move when Chicago's city council voted recently to impose a $10 an hour minimum wage on big-box retailers. There is nothing that politicians like better than handing out benefits to be paid for by someone else.

What was uncommon was the reaction. Chicago's Mayor Richard M. Daley denounced the bill as "redlining," since it would have the net effect of keeping much-needed stores and jobs out of black neighborhoods. Both Chicago newspapers also denounced the bill.

The crowning touch came when Andrew Young, former civil rights leader and former mayor of Atlanta, went to Chicago to criticize local black leaders who supported this bill.

While the $10 an hour minimum wage was politics as usual, the unusual backlash against it provides at least a glimmer of hope that more people are beginning to consider the economic consequences of such feel-good legislation.

A survey has shown that 85 percent of the economists in Canada and 90 percent of the economists in the United States say that minimum wage laws reduce employment. But you don't need a Ph.D. in economics to know that jacking up prices leads fewer people to buy. Those people include employers, who hire less labor when labor is made artificially more expensive.

It happens in France, it happens in South Africa, it happens in New Zealand. How surprised should we be when it happens in Chicago?

The economic consequence of political largess -- whether in the form of minimum wage laws or medical or other benefits mandated to be paid for by employers -- is to make labor artificially more expensive.

Countries with generous employee benefits mandated by law -- Germany and France, for example -- have chronically higher unemployment rates than unemployment rates in the United States, where jobs are created at a far higher rate than in Europe.

There is no free lunch. Higher labor costs mean fewer jobs.

Since all workers do not have the same skill or experience, minimum wage laws have more impact on some than on others. Young, inexperienced and unskilled workers are especially likely to find it harder to get a job when wage rates have been set higher than the value of their productivity.

In France, where the national unemployment rate is 10 percent, the unemployment rate among workers less than 26 years old is 23 percent. Among young people from the Muslim minority, the unemployment rate is even higher.

In the United States, the group hardest hit by minimum wage laws are black male teenagers. Those who refuse to admit that the minimum wage is the reason for high unemployment rates among young blacks blame racism, lack of education and whatever else occurs to them.

The hard facts say otherwise. Back in the 1940s, there was no less racism than today and black teenagers had no more education than today, but their unemployment rate was a fraction of what it is now -- and was no different from that of white teenagers.

What was different back then? Although there was a minimum wage law on the books, the inflation of that era had raised wage rates well above the specified minimum, which had remained unchanged for years.

For all practical purposes, there was no minimum wage law. Only after the minimum wage began to be raised, beginning in 1950, and escalating repeatedly in the years thereafter, did black teenage unemployment skyrocket.

Most studies show unemployment resulting from minimum wages. But a few studies that reach different conclusions are hailed as having "refuted" the "myth" that minimum wages cause unemployment.

Some of these latter studies involve surveying employers before and after a minimum wage increase. But you can only survey employers who are still in business. By surveying people who played Russian roulette and are still around, you could "refute" the "myth" that Russian roulette is dangerous.

Minimum wage laws play Russian roulette with people who need jobs and the work experience that will enable them to rise to higher pay levels. There is now a glimmer of hope that more people are beginning to understand this, despite political demagoguery.


Copyright 2006 Creators Syndicate

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/08/a_glimmer_of_hope.html

Pamela from Pajama Media Interviews John Bolton

This Saturday Pamela of Atlas Shrugs managed to get the US Ambassador to the United Nations to sit down with her for nearly an hour.

In a far-reaching and candid back-and-forth, they discuss the UN Ceasefire Resolution, the present and future state of Israel and the Middle East, and what lies ahead for the USA and the world in the War on Terror.

A Production of Pajamas Media, the Best of the Blogs, and POLITICSCENTRAL.

More 24/7 MidEast War Coverage HERE.

More MidEast War Podcasts HERE.

Play (31:53) or download (30.6 MB) Pamela of AtlasShrugs interviews Ambassador John Bolton.

BET Host Joins Kenneth Blackwell's Team






Friday, August 11, 2006

Gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell today announced Black Entertainment Television (BET) host and former NAACP national youth director Jeff Johnson has joined his campaign team. Johnson will serve as the campaign's advocate to young and urban voters.


''Jeff Johnson is one of the most influential leaders of his generation,'' said Blackwell. ''I am proud he has joined my campaign team as we embark on this historic endeavor.''

''Ken Blackwell represents the very best that Ohio has to offer in this year's gubernatorial race,'' said Johnson. ''My feelings reflect the position of many within Ohio's African American community who believe that Mr. Blackwell has a clearer vision for Ohio's diverse Black community. I will carry the message that it is time to challenge the antiquated political alliances which have failed to include young and urban voters in their policy agenda.''

Johnson is considered the voice of a new generation of leadership. He engages viewers on issues ranging from violence to voting on BET's ''Rap City'' on Wednesdays from 5 to 6 p.m.

In addition, Johnson is the CEO of Truth Is Power, a lifestyle consulting firm in Washington D.C., and formerly served as the youth pastor at the Empowerment Temple AME Church in Baltimore, Md.

From 2000 to 2003, Johnson served as the national director of the NAACP Youth and College Division. He was responsible for more than 700 Youth Units representing over 60,000 young people.

Raised in Cleveland, Johnson attended the University of Toledo where he was the first person of color to serve as student government president.


http://www.kenblackwell.com/News/Read.aspx?ID=451

"Russell Simmons to Host Event for Michael Steele"




TEMPLE HILLS, MD – On Thursday, August 24, Russell Simmons, founder of Def Jam Records, will host a reception in support of Michael Steele for the United States Senate. Cathy Hughes, founder and chair of Radio One, will also attend.

Steele said, “Russell Simmons and Cathy Hughes are living examples of the very foundation of my campaign for Senate – building bridges across those issues that have divided us for too long and creating opportunities that lead to ownership and empowerment. They are also both civic leaders who work to reinvest in their communities. I am excited about having them visit Maryland and I look forward to our event on the 24th.”

***Further details on the event to be released closer event date.


Steele and Russel Simmons have held events together before, and Simmons
has praised Steele for his out reach to young people.

Also in April, Maryland Lieutenant Governor Michael S. Steele hosted Russel Simmons
Hip-Hop Summit Action Network the event was sponsored by the the Maryland Hip-Hop Summit on Financial Empowerment.

http://hsan.org/Content/Main.aspx?PageId=119

http://washingtontimes.com/metro/20050201-122040-8896r.htm

GOP Chairman’s Latest Target for Recruitment: Russell Simmons
http://www.blackamericaweb.com/site.aspx/bawnews/simmons620

Monday, August 14, 2006

Jon Stewart interviews "Al Sharpton"

Rev. Al Sharpton was supposed to be on the show, but failed to show up. But unlike other programs, that didn't stop Jon from interviewing him.






Hip Hop Republican Blog Supports Joe Liberman







-It is not everyday that this blog will support a democrat but today Hip Hop Republican will encourage all Republicans to support Joe Lieberman for Senate.

Below is the latest poll showing Liberman up by five points.


Senator Joe Lieberman’s decision to run as an Independent sets up a lively campaign season for Connecticut voters. In the first General Election poll since Ned Lamont defeated Lieberman in the Connecticut primary, the incumbent is hanging on to a five percentage point lead. Lieberman earns support from 46% of Connecticut voters while Lamont is the choice of 41% (see crosstabs).

A month ago, the candidates were tied at 40% each.

Republican Alan Schlesinger earns just 6% of the vote, down from 13% a month ago.

Nationally, interest in the race has been strong among political junkies but modest among the general public. Most (57%) Americans have no opinion about Lamont. However, Democratic strategists may have cause for concern about perceptions of Lamont among independent and unaffiliated Americans.

In Connecticut, 57% of the state's voters view Lieberman as politically moderate while 51% see Lamont as liberal.


Half (52%) of Lamont voters believe Bush should be impeached and removed from office. Just 15% of Lieberman voters share that view.

Overall, 55% of Connectic

Loretta Gaffney to run for State Delegate



Loretta Gaffney will be running for the 2006 election, she is running for a seat in the Maryland House of Delegates, District 13.

There are 3 seats and is asking you to support her bid to be elected to one of the seats by casting a vote for her.




About Loretta

I am proud to be a fourth generation Howard County resident, and have lived in District 13 for the last seven years. Together, my husband Neil and I have six children and six grandchildren. When you look at my background, you will find that I have been in public service for most of my adult life, advocating, challenging the status quo and helping people to connect with the resources they need to move forward in their lives.

I grew up as many of us did, near the start of the Civil Rights movement, and like a sponge, soaked it all in. I was profoundly inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior, and his words are etched in my mind “…that it is not the color of your skin that matters, but rather the content of your character.”

My desire to serve our community has always been strong. My life experience includes began as a Reservist with the Army National Guard of Maryland Combat Support Hospital; later, I became a Program and Case Manager helping the homeless and those in imminent danger of becoming homeless connect with critical survival services; I saw the need and became a Counselor helping women re-entering the workforce and then an Employment Coach helping inmates prepare for successful reintegration into employment and back into their families. I have also served on the Board of Director’s for several social organizations and received the Volunteer of the Year Award from Christmas in April Howard County.

In my continuing effort to serve the community, it has been my honor and privilege to serve as Delegate Bates' Legislative Aide for the past three years. What an eye opener!

We have always been told about the “two-party” system that exists in Maryland and our country; however, in reality, there is only one party in Maryland, and that one party has inevitably led us to an abuse of power - government excesses that resist reform and defy common sense. It is time for a challenge to the balance of power in the Legislature and we can make a start right here in District 13 by sending a new message on Election Day.

As I travel throughout the district and meet more of my neighbors, I believe you will see that I have the passion, the drive and the commitment to listen and serve our community. With your help, on Election Day I will challenge the system and work as your community advocate in the Maryland Legislature.

I promise…We can do better, TOGETHER!

Loretta

Please Support her Campaign below


http://www.lorettagaffney.com/donations.html
http://www.lorettagaffney.com/

Al Sharpton, A black leader?



While Al Sharpton is no leader of mine or people I know he seems to believe he is a black leader.

Why?

Because he has a following.

Now that reasoning would make rapper 50 cent is a leader. But anyway listen for yourself and make up your own mind about Al Sharpton.

Listen to him tell why he is a black leader by clicking link below:

http://www.letstalkhonestly.com/page/page/1307246.htm_

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Sharpton

A. Philip Randolph a Black Republican



Asa Philip Randolph became one of America’s foremost labor leader and civil rights pioneer. He was born in Crescent City, Florida in 1889. In 1925 he organized and served as the first President of the Black International Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.

Randolph was the first African American to serve as an International Vice-President of the AFL-CIO in 1957, and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Lyndon Johnson in 1964.

He organized two major marches on Washington, D.C. in 1941 and 1963, which resulted in important advances in black civil rights. The 1963 march made Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. into a national figure. About the 1963 March Randolph once said:

"By fighting for their rights now, American Negroes are helping to make America a moral and spiritual arsenal of democracy. Their fight against the poll tax, against lynch law, segregation, and Jim Crow, their fight for economic, political, and social equality, thus becomes part of the global war for freedom.”


Hip Hop and the Minstrel Show?

WHY MARTIN LUTHER KING WAS A REPUBLICAN

By Frances Rice

It should come as no surprise that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Republican. In that era, almost all black Americans were Republicans. Why? From its founding in 1854 as the anti-slavery party until today, the Republican Party has championed freedom and civil rights for blacks. And as one pundit so succinctly stated, the Democrat Party is as it always has been, the party of the four S's: Slavery, Secession, Segregation and now Socialism.

It was the Democrats who fought to keep blacks in slavery and passed the discriminatory Black Codes and Jim Crow laws. The Democrats started the Ku Klux Klan to lynch and terrorize blacks. The Democrats fought to prevent the passage of every civil rights law beginning with the civil rights laws of the 1860's, and continuing with the civil rights laws of the 1950's and 1960's.

During the civil rights era of the 1960's, Dr. King was fighting the Democrats who stood in the school house doors, turned skin-burning fire hoses on blacks and let loose vicious dogs. It was Republican President Dwight Eisenhower who pushed to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and sent troops to Arkansas to desegregate schools. President Eisenhower also appointed Chief Justice Earl Warren to the U.S. Supreme Court which resulted in the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision ending school segregation. Much is made of Democrat President Harry Truman's issuing an Executive Order in 1948 to desegregate the military..... Not mentioned is the fact that it was President Eisenhower who actually took action to effectively end segregation in the military.

Democrat President John F. Kennedy is lauded as a proponent of civil rights. However, Kennedy voted against the 1957 Civil rights Act while he was a senator, as did Democrat Senator Al Gore, Sr. And after he became president, John F. Kennedy was opposed to the 1963 March on Washington by Dr. King that was organized by A. Phillip Randolph who was a black Republican. President Kennedy, through his brother Attorney General Robert Kennedy, had Dr. King wiretapped and investigated by the FBI on suspicion of being a Communist in order to undermine Dr. King.

In March of 1968, while referring to Dr. King's leaving Memphis, Tennessee after riots broke out where a teenager was killed, Democrat Senator Robert Byrd, a former member of the Ku Klux Klan, called Dr. King a "trouble-maker" who starts trouble, but runs like a coward after trouble is ignited. A few weeks later, Dr. King returned to Memphis and was assassinated on April 4, 1968.

Given the circumstances of that era, it is understandable why Dr. King was a Republican. It was the Republicans who fought to free blacks from slavery and amended the Constitution to grant blacks freedom (13th Amendment), citizenship (14th Amendment) and the right to vote (15th Amendment). Republicans passed the civil rights laws of the 1860's, including the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the Reconstruction Act of 1867 that was designed to establish a new government system in the Democrat-controlled South, one that was fair to blacks. Republicans also started the NAACP and affirmative action with Republican President Richard Nixon‘s 1969 Philadelphia Plan (crafted by black Republican Art Fletcher) that set the nation‘s fist goals and timetables. Although affirmative action now has been turned by the Democrats into an unfair quota system, affirmative action was begun by Nixon to counter the harm caused to blacks when Democrat President Woodrow Wilson in 1912 kicked all of the blacks out of federal government jobs.

Few black Americans know that it was Republicans who founded the Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Unknown also is the fact that Republican Senator Everett Dirksen from Illinois was key to the passage of civil rights legislation in 1957, 1960, 1964 and 1965. Not mentioned in recent media stories about extension of the 1965 Voting Rights Act is the fact that Dirksen wrote the language for the bill. Dirksen also crafted the language for the Civil Rights Act of 1968 which prohibited discrimination in housing. President Lyndon Johnson could not have achieved passage of civil rights legislation without the support of Republicans.

Critics of Republican Senator Barry Goldwater who ran for president against Democrat President Lyndon Johnson in 1964, ignore the fact that Goldwater wanted to force the Democrats in the South to stop passing discriminatory laws and thus end the need to continuously enact federal civil rights legislation.

Those who wrongly criticize Goldwater, also ignore the fact that President Johnson, in his 4,500 State of the Union Address delivered on January 4, 1965, mentioned scores of topics for federal action, but only thirty five words were devoted to civil rights. He did not mention one word about voting rights. Then in 1967, showing his anger with Dr. King's protest against the Viet Nam War, President Johnson referred to Dr. King as "that Nigger preacher."

Contrary to the false assertions by Democrats, the racist "Dixiecrats" did not all migrate to the Republican Party. "Dixiecrats" declared that they would rather vote for a "yellow dog" than vote for a Republican because the Republican Party was know as the party for blacks. Today, some of those "Dixiecrats" continue their political careers as Democrats, including Democrat Senator Robert Byrd who is well known for having been a "Keagle" in the Ku Klux Klan.

Another former "Dixiecrat" is Democrat Senator Ernest Hollings who put up the Confederate flag over the state capitol when he was the governor of South Carolina. There was no public outcry when Democrat Senator Christopher Dodd praised Senator Byrd as someone who would have been "a great senator for any moment," including the Civil War. Democrats denounced Senator Trent Lott for his remarks about Senator Strom Thurmond. Senator Thurmond was never in the Ku Klux Klan and defended blacks against lynching and the discriminatory poll taxes imposed on blacks by Democrats. If Senator Byrd and Senator Thurmond were alive during the Civil War, and Byrd had his way, Thurmond would have been lynched.

The thirty-year odyssey of the South switching to the Republican Party began in the 1970's with President Richard Nixon's "Southern Strategy" which was an effort on the Part of Nixon to get Christians in the South to stop voting for Democrats who did not share their values and were still discriminating against their fellow Christians who happened to be black. Georgia did not switch until 2002, and some Southern states, including Louisiana, are still controlled by Democrats.

Today, Democrats, in pursuit of their socialist agenda, are fighting to keep blacks poor, angry and voting for Democrats. Examples of how egregiously Democrats act to keep blacks in poverty are numerous.

After wrongly convincing black Americans that a minimum wage increase was a good thing, the Democrats on August 3rd kept their promise and killed the minimum wage bill passed by House Republicans on July 29th. The blockage of the minimum wage bill was the second time in as many years that Democrats stuck a legislative finger in the eye of black Americans. Senate Democrats on April 1, 2004 blocked passage of a bill to renew the 1996 welfare reform law that was pushed by Republicans and vetoed twice by President Bill Clinton before he finally signed it. Since the welfare reform law expired in September 2002, Congress had passed six extensions, and the latest expired on June 30, 2004. Opposed by the Democrats are school choice opportunity scholarships that would help black children get out of failing schools and Social Security reform, even though blacks on average lose $10,000 in the current system because of a shorter life expectancy than whites (72.2 years for blacks vs. 77.5 years for whites).

Democrats have been running our inner-cities for the past 30-40 years, and blacks are still complaining about the same problems. Over $7 trillion dollars have been spent on poverty programs since President Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty with little, if any, impact on poverty. Diabolically, every election cycle, Democrats blame Republicans for the deplorable conditions in the inner-cities, then incite blacks to cast a protest vote against Republicans.

In order to break the Democrats' stranglehold on the black vote and free black Americans from the Democrat Party's economic plantation, we must shed the light of truth on the Democrats. We must demonstrate that the Democrat Party policies of socialism and dependency on government handouts offer the pathway to poverty, while Republican Party principles of hard work, personal responsibility, getting a good education and ownership of homes and small businesses offer the pathway to prosperity.

http://blackrepublican.blogspot.com/

Friday, August 11, 2006

Video/ Cynthia McKinney Anti-Semitic after Party

Watch as supporters of Cynthia McKinney blame everyone for McKinney's loss except McKinney herself.

WARNING: There is some imflammatory language in this footage.








Racist by any color is still racist

New Black Panthers leader Hashim Nzinga showed up with his gang of anti-semitic thugs and served as security for soon to be former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney. During their entrance and exit to her concession speech, the group got in two altercations with reporters covering the scene, something McKinney is familiar with.
It first started when a cameraman defended himself after boom-mic was swatted down and was called a “cracker.” I know, how dare he defend himself and respond to that goon.

On the way out, Nzinga blamed McKinney’s loss on, who else, the Jews! He then proceeded to tell a FOX News producer, who was Jewish, to put on his “yarmulke” on and “celebrate”.

Gateway Pundit and The Independent Conservative have more.




Thursday, August 10, 2006

Tupac admits Rap Lyrics affect on Young Men




Video shows how rap music takes the place of father in his life.

Candidate of the Day

Melvon Everson is running for State Representatives in Snellville, GA




Melvin was born on September 24, 1957 to the late Northern & Willa Everson of Abbeville, Ga. He attended Wilcox High School and graduated in 1975. After high school he attended Albany State University and graduated in 1983 with a BS in Criminology.


Melvin married Geraldine M. Everson and they have one son, Ricardo D. Everson who attended South Gwinnett High School and was an honor graduate. He is a recent graduate from UGA with a B.S. degree in social work. Melvin served 23 years in the military and retired in 1999. He served 5 years on Snellville's Planning Commission before running a successful campaign to become a council member in 2000.

He is a charter member of the Snellville Optimist Club, Associate Pastor of Salem Missionary Baptist Church in Lilburn, Ga., and served on the Take Pride in Snellville Committee. Everson served two terms as President of the South Gwinnett High School PTSA and two terms as Vice President. Melvin was appointed by Gwinnett County Commission Chairman Charles Bannister in October of 2005 to the Gwinnett County Human Relations Board. Prior to this appointment, Chairman Bannister appointed Melvin to the Gwinnett County Planning and Zoning Board.

In April 2006,Melvin was appointed by Gwinnett County Human Resources Director Dr. Frances Davis to to the Gwinnett County School Board Advisory Council.Melvin was a fifteen-year employee with JCPenney Catalog as a Customer Relations Supervisor until the company ceased its Atlanta operations in July 2003.

During fourteen of those years, Melvin served as the United Way Advisory Member for JCPenney for Clayton, Henry and Butts counties, and just recently completed his tenure as the 2003 campaign chair of United Way in Clayton County.

Melvin is currently an Associate Pastor at Salem Missionary Baptist Church where he is the Men's Ministry Leader. As a former Probation Officer with a private probation company, Melvin brings experience from the legal side that will enable him to address the legal aspect of legislation. In Melvin's role on Snellville City Council, his peers selected him each year, for four years, to serve as Mayor Pro Tem. Melvin also had oversight responsibility for the Snellville Police Department.

http://www.electeverson.com/index.asp

Don't Hate the Player, Hate the Game

Went into the store just to get a beer. Came out an accessory to murder and armed robbery. It's funny like that in the hood sometimes.

You never knew what was gonna happen, or when.

Caine, the accessory to murder in Menace II Society, gets all philosophical and blames fate - bet he kept his share of the loot though.


Ethiopiapundit has a great post about the hardships going on
in Ethiopia today.

Please read the latest post from http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/

Republicans And America's Blacks



by Christopher Caldwell


A week ago, President George W. Bush made his first speech in six years to ... the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People. ...

Polls show that black Americans are more conservative than their fellow citizens on such matters as gay marriage, school vouchers and religious involvement in public life ... [T]here have always been Republican strategists who think the party could profit from courting them. ... [K]en Mehlman, has been travelling the country, speaking to dozens of black groups. ... This autumn, Republicans will run black candidates for high-profile offices including the Ohio and Pennsylvania governorships. ...

[T]he Mehlman strategy of mending relations between Republicans and blacks is smart. It is an important development of this year's campaign and ought to ring alarm bells among Democrats. ...

Mr Bush has made Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state, and Colin Powell, her predecessor, the two highest-ranking black officials in US history. He made an ambitious reform of urban schools the foremost domestic priority of his first term. ...


There must be some deeper, structural explanation for Republican weakness among blacks. The New York Times columnist Paul Krugman thinks it lies in the party's heartlessness. "GOP (Grand Old Party) policies," he writes, "consistently help those who are already doing extremely well, not those lagging behind - a group that includes the vast majority of African-Americans." But this explanation is out of date. Fewer black people are poorer than when they shifted en masse to the Democrats in the 1960s. Three-quarters are above the poverty line ...

[D]emocrats can no longer offer blacks what they accuse Republicans of withholding. A modern-day anti-poverty programme might focus more on the challenges of Puerto Ricans or Mexican-Americans, both of whom have higher poverty rates than African-Americans. Of course, classic anti-poverty programmes ... are no longer politically practicable and have been repudiated by both parties.


Overwhelming black support has disguised the erosion of the Democratic party's support elsewhere. ... Such an erosion is under way in key states. In both Ohio and Pennsylvania, to take just the two states where Republicans are running black candidates for governor, Mr Bush roughly doubled his share of the black vote in 2004, to 16 per cent.

The very strength of Democrats among black Americans may be self-defeating.

The NAACP has lost influence as it has come to be perceived as a mere Democratic pressure group and Mr Bush's visit a week ago owes much to the new, less partisan leadership of the entrepreneur Bruce Gordon. ...

The writer is a senior editor at The Weekly Standard



To View Entire Article Please Visit:

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Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Maryland Lt. Gov. slightly hurt in Car Crash



Lt. Gov. Michael Steele was treated and released at a hospital Tuesday night after the car he was a passenger in collided with another vehicle in Hanover, state police said.

Steele was in a Chevrolet Suburban driven by Trooper First Class Joseph G. Messinese Jr., 32, and accompanied by Trooper First Class Tony C. Gaines, 46. Both troopers were assigned to state police's executive protection section.

According to state police, the SUV was traveling west on Dorsey Road heading toward Ridge Road. A Chevrolet Cavalier driven by Brittany M. LaPorte, 19, of Baltimore, approached Dorsey Road on Ridge Road.

Both vehicles entered the intersection at the same time and the Cavalier struck the Suburban on the passenger said. Both vehicles had to be towed from the scene.

Paramedics took Steele, Messinese and Gaines to Baltimore Washington Medical Center in Glen Burnie, where all three were treated and released. LaPorte was not injured, troopers said.

A preliminary investigation cites "driver error" by Messinese, but state police said the probe is not complete.

Steele, who is a candidate for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, "is resting at home tonight," according to a statement from his office.


http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,207517,00.html

Sherman Parker Loses Race



By Matthew Hathaway

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

U.S. Reps. Todd Akin and Russ Carnahan crushed their primary opponents on Tuesday, while the area's other congressional incumbent, William Lacy Clay Jr., was unopposed.Akin, a Republican from Town and Country, easily defeated Sherman Parker, a state representative from St. Charles County whose campaign stumbled after Parker was arrested on July 31 on charges of unpaid traffic tickets.

In the race to determine Akin's opponent, Democrat George "Boots" Weber, a former state representative from Eureka, was leading three other candidates with about 60 percent of the precincts counted.

Libertarian candidate Tamara A. Millay was unopposed and will be on the 2nd District ballot.

Weber has run for office several times, including once for president of the United States. In 2000, he finished second in the Reform Party's presidential primary in California. Donald Trump won that primary.Carnahan, a Democrat from St. Louis, trounced Jim Frisella, a retired school administrator who did not campaign extensively. Republican David Bertelsen and Libertarain R. Christophel will challenge Carnahan for the 3rd District seat in November. Neither faced opposition Tuesday.


In the Republican race to challenge Clay, D-St. Louis, Mark Byrne, a 35-year-old lawyer from St. Louis, was leading Leslie Farr and Lou Mansfield with about a third of the precincts counted. Libertarian candidate Robb E. Cunningham will also be on the 1st District ballot. He was unopposed Tuesday.In the 9th District, which includes Columbia, Mo., and stretches into Franklin and St. Charles counties, Rep. Kenny C. Hulshof, R-Columbia, was unopposed in the primary, as were challengers Duane N. Burghard, a Democrat, and Steven R. Hedrick, a Libertarian.

For Shermans Congratualtions to the winner visit his webiste!

http://www.shermanparker.org/

By Sylvester Brown Jr.

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

It's hard to understand why the local Republican Party isn't throwing its weight behind Leslie Farr, the black GOP candidate running for Democrat U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay Jr.'s seat. Republicans are always yakking about reaching out to minority voters but, apparently, the Missouri GOP doesn't realize they have a win/win candidate with Farr.

Last month, Farr unleashed an e-mail war aimed at Republicans he felt had abandoned his campaign. He lashed out at Maryland Heights Township Committeeman Tom Wilsdon following the committee's vote to withdraw its endorsement. Farr forwarded an e-mail in which Wilsdon accused him of falsely listing an National Rifle Association endorsement in his campaign material. Wilsdon wrote that the St. Louis County Central Committee also withdrew its support because Farr violated "Ronald Reagan's 11th commandment" of never attacking fellow Republicans.

Farr claims that he only listed the "A" rating he received from the NRA, not its endorsement. He accused Republicans of punishing him for favoring Rep. Sherman Parker, a black Republican running for the seat of U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, the white Republican incumbent. The party was "after him," Farr wrote in a July 13 e-mail.

He sent another, days later, describing how he and Wilsdon met at a local shooting range, had lunch and resolved the conflict: "We're family again," Farr wrote. "I took this thing public and I apologize publicly."Advertisement

If not for my fear that his party will usher in the apocalypse, I'd vote for Farr. He might be a tad too moderate for some, but imagine if the local GOP backed him. Missouri could send a black, gun-lovin' conservative to Congress, garner national press and gain more minority voters.

It's win/win, baby!

Fundamentally, I think it's a mistake to be a political party hostage. But when the choices are few and the stakes are high, people compromise their loyalties and drift toward oxymoronic "conservative liberals" or "liberal conservatives" - candidates who represent a smidgen of their core values.

That mind-set probably motivates the many south city Republicans who are throwing cash and support into the campaign of former state Rep. Derio Gambaro - the "social conservative Democrat" competing in the 4th District primary race for state Senate. There are no Republicans in the race, just variations of Democrats. Besides Gambaro, there's the uber liberal (political science professor Jeff Smith), the activist progressive (state Rep. Yaphett El-Amin), the urban liberal (state Rep. Amber Boykins) and the chaotic, confrontational Democrat (former alderman Kenny Jones, who once told reporters he'd just swallowed Viagra as he rushed from a board meeting).

Considering the stable of competing Democrats, it's understandable why some conservatives choose Gambaro. I don't think their candidate will win, however. From my view, the competition will most likely boil down to El-Amin and Smith - two win/win candidates as far as I'm concerned. Both ran inspiring, energetic campaigns. Both aggressively went after the urban vote in a district with a slight black majority. And I have no doubt that both young, progressive candidates will challenge conservative agendas and advocate for minority inclusion, public school students, and the interests of the elderly and low-income families.

I'm also watching the 60th District state representative contest. Out of the four candidates running, my bets are on community activist Jamilah Nasheed and lawyer and former alderman Sharon Tyus. I honestly miss Tyus, an old school scrapper who always came to battle armed with facts, figures and gumption. But I'm drawn to Nasheed. I remember telling her 15 years ago, when I visited the book store she operated then, that she had a future in politics. I'd love to see her activist heart unleashed in Jefferson City. But, if she loses to Tyus, voters are still in good hands.

I know my positions seem a bit wishy-washy, but as the French say, "c'est la vie." It's not my fault the upcoming primary has so many win/win candidates.

Colbert: talks to Linda Sánchez



The Colbert Report: This week's installment of the 435 part series was on California's 39th district. In the segment Stephen spoke with Linda Sánchez, the district's Democratic representative. This was my favorite kind of interview because Representative Sánchez was obviously unprepared and Stephen destroyed her... not that he wouldn't have destroyed her if she had been prepared.

From Comedy Central!!!

YouTube - Colbert Interviews Eleanor Holmes Norton

In his 'Better Know a District' segment, Stephen Colbert interviews District of Columbia's Delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton.

After questioning Delegate Norton's lack of 'Stateiness,' Delegate Norton doubts Colbert's patriotism by questioning the French pronunciation of Stephen's silent T.




McKinney's Black Panthers

By Tom Bevan

Check out this nugget on the McKinney campaign buried at the end of a story in today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Several people dressed in black suits and boots followed McKinney around. The patches on their clothes said: "New Black Panther Party Freedom or Death." The organization does not have an official role in McKinney's campaign and are not on her organization's payroll, said McKinney's campaign manager, John Evans.

So members of the "largest organized anti-Semitic black militant group in America" just show up spontaneously to follow McKinney around during the final hours of her campaign? This woman is nothing if not a predictable disgrace.

You'll remember that during the waning, desperate days of McKinney's last primary loss to Denise Majette, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan magically appeared for a rally in the 4th district . Farrakhan wasn't "officially" there on behalf of the McKinney campaign either, of course, though I believe he encouraged people to vote for her. Just another rabidly anti-Semitic coincidence, I guess.

And who can forget the famous remarks by Cynthia's father, Billy McKinney, who blamed her loss on the fact that "Jews have bought everybody. Jews. J-E-W-S."
By the way, it may be that the anti-Semitic appeal doesn't pack as much of a punch as it used to, because Billy was back on the op-ed pages of the Atlanta Progressive News this weekend claiming that it isn't the "J-E-W-S" who are pulling the strings orchestrating the revolt against his daughter - this time around it's the "
R-E-P-U-B-L-I-C-A-N-S."

-Below is a Video with the Black Panthers Leader on Fox's Oreily

DOWNLOAD and view video here.

Cynthia McKinney Sings Upon Defeat

Outgoing Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, who was recently in the media spotlight for an incident with a Capitol Police officer, sings at the podium upon hearing the news of her defeat.




Black Gop Keith Butler Losses Primary



Hat Tip to www.redstate.com

In Michigan Michael Bouchard defeated Keith Butler for the US Senate candidacy. He goes on to face Debbie Stabenow, an incumbent who never quite breaks 50% approval ratings. It will be an uphill fight for Republicans to gain seats from Democrats this year, but Michigan might well be an exception. Polls do not currently suggest the race will be close, but with the primary out of the way that may change.

My question is, where now for Butler?

He is, to say the least, an atypical Republican with atypical patterns of support. The minister in a Detroit mega-church he has been a councilman in a city where about 5% of the electors are registered Republicans. An African-American he has recognised two fairly obvious (but in political conventional wisdom, apparently elusive) truths. A great many black people have conservative views and that the way to reach them is through churches not through sports stars or entrepreneurs.

For all her powerful symbolism as a role model, Dr Condoleeza Rice comes up short in one important respect: most people, black and white, know perfectly well they lack the capacity to become Stanford's youngest ever Provost.

I hope that Keith Butler does not go home and sulk. He will do himself, his party, and the causes he espouses, a great deal of good if he throws himself with energy into the campaign. He can perhaps deliver for Michael Bouchard and for Dick DeVos (gubernatorial candidate, leading the Democrat incumbent against national trends) voters they might not reach themselves.

He does not have to limit himself to campaigning in Michigan. There are major urban areas where the Democrats need to pull out 90% of the black vote in other industrial states. He could possibly achieve most campaigning with other African-American candidates in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland - all of which look to be very close this year. Democrat campaign tactics depend on painting Republicans as racists, and this charge is harder to make against black candidates. But there are other Republicans in tight races who need to dent the Democrat advantage among black voters. Arnold Schwarzeneggar springs to mind.

Butler should show himself to be an enthusiastic campaigner for Republican candidates across the country. After November there is a strong chance that Ken Mehlman, Chairman of the Republican National Committee, will be wishing to return to a governmental position. Butler would be an eminently suitable replacement.

After a suitable rest, perhaps Saul will be returning to RedState, and perhaps he has a comment?

Quentin Langley is editor of http://www.quentinlangley.net an academic at the University of Cardiff and is a columnist with Campaigns & Elections.

http://butlerforussenate.com/

McKinney beaten but unbowed

ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- Rep. Cynthia McKinney is controversial and outspoken, independent and unrepentant, all of which have endeared her to a dedicated corps of supporters in her metro Atlanta district, but not to a majority of her fellow Democrats who turned out in Tuesday's primary runoff.

For the second time in three election cycles, McKinney was defeated in a Democratic primary in Georgia's 4th District, this time by Hank Johnson, a former DeKalb County commissioner who thumped her 59 percent to 41 percent.

Despite her defeat, McKinney was unbowed, unleashing a stemwinder of a concession speech in which she barely mentioned her opponent but praised leftist leaders in Cuba and Venezuela, took aim at the efficacy of electronic voting machines and offered several swipes at the media.

"Members of the press, as well as our political leaders, don't give us explanations that explain, or conclusions that conclude," McKinney said. "There comes a time when people of conscience are compelled to dissent."

Before she began her remarks, she played the song "Dear Mr. President," an anti-Bush anthem by Pink, and sang along, somewhat out of tune, with its critical lyrics.

"We love our country, and that is why we dissent, because we care," she said. "Either we can be a force for good, or we can rely on force and upset the world. Sadly, this administration has chosen the latter."

McKinney has been in this situation before. In 2002, she lost her primary bid after suggesting members of the Bush administration stood to profit from the war that followed the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Two years ago, she made a successful comeback with a low-key campaign in which she largely avoided controversy.

Her denouement this time around may have come in March, when she drew national headlines with a physical confrontation with a U.S. Capitol Police officer, who challenged her after failing to recognize the six-term lawmaker at a security checkpoint.

After first claiming she was the victim of racial profiling, McKinney changed course and apologized on the House floor, and a District of Columbia grand jury refused to indict her. But the episode played into Johnson's charge on the campaign trail that she was an "embarrassment" to her constituents in the 4th District, a majority black, heavily Democratic district on the east side of metro Atlanta.

After being forced into a runoff by Johnson in the July 18 primary, McKinney went on the offensive, accusing him of accepting money and votes from Republicans who wanted to drum her out of Congress. He called her charges "desperate" and vowed to be a less divisive figure.

Given the 4th District's Democratic tilt, Johnson will be a prohibitive favorite in the fall against the Republican nominee, Catherine Davis, a human resources manager from Stone Mountain making her third bid for the seat.

Without mentioning Johnson by name, McKinney concluded her remarks by saying, "I wish the new representative of the 4th Congressional District well."

She said not a word about her own plans or political future.

VIDEO: Inside Cuba





Here's a good video on Cuba from Discovery Times Channel (the "Times" being the NY Times), not exactly a US propaganda station as people like "Socialist" and "Politburo" will try to claim.

From the Discovery Times Channel.

Economic woes plague the island 40 years after Fidel Castro takes power.

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnOFYS6Tgtw

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO7otiSe4HE

Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5DL_usK9a4

Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUpBpuBytfA

Part 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGHwyAjjIGY

Total for all 5 parts is 45 minutes.

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Criticism of Che Increases

Though he has been labeled by some as a hero, opponents of Guevara, including most of the Cuban exile community and some refugees from other countries under communism, view him as a killer and terrorist.

They point to the less savory aspects of Guevara's life, taking the viewpoint that he was enthusiastic about executing opponents of the
Cuban Revolution.

They assert that he was responsible for the torture and execution of thousands of people in Cuban prisons, and for the murder of many more peasants in the regions controlled or visited by his guerrilla forces.

[70] Guevara in fact founded Cuba's labor camp system, establishing its first labor camp in Guanahacabibes to re-educate managers of state-owned enterprises who were guilty of various misdemeanors or violations of "revolutionary ethics".

[71] Cuba's labor camp system was eventually (many years after Guevara's death) used to jail "gays, dissidents, and AIDS victims."[72]

In 2005, after
Carlos Santana wore a Che shirt to the Academy Awards Ceremony, Cuban-born musician Paquito D'Rivera wrote an open letter castigating Santana for supporting "The Butcher of the Cabaña."

The Cabaña is the name of a prison where Guevara oversaw the execution of many dissidents, including D'Rivera's own cousin, who, according to D'Rivera, was imprisoned there for being a Christian and witnessed the executions of many Christians at the prison.
[73]
Detractors argue that while much
propaganda depicts him as a formidable warrior, Guevara was ineffective; in reality, he was a poor tactician. They dispute accounts of the Battle of Santa Clara; on the capturing of a train supplying heavy reinforcements, critic Álvaro Vargas Llosa writes, "Numerous testimonies indicate that the commander of the train surrendered in advance, perhaps after taking bribes."

[74][75] Empirically, Guevara was a major failure at managing the Cuban economy, as he "oversaw the near-collapse of sugar production, the failure of industrialization, and the introduction of rationing—all this in what had been one of Latin America’s four most economically successful countries since before the Batista dictatorship."[76][77]

In "The Cult of Che",
[78] writer Paul Berman critiques the film The Motorcycle Diaries and argues "that modern-day cult of Che" obscures the "tremendous social struggle" currently taking place in Cuba. For example, the article discusses the jailing of dissidents, such as poet and journalist Raúl Rivero, who was eventually freed after worldwide pressure due to a campaign of solidarity by the International Committee for Democracy in Cuba [79] which included Václav Havel, Lech Wałęsa, Árpád Göncz, Elena Bonner and others.

Berman claims that in the U.S., where Motorcycle Diaries received standing ovations at the Sundance film festival, the adoration of Che has caused Americans to overlook the plight of dissident Cubans. This glorification of Che is also satirized by online site che-mart.com, which, among other things, markets T-shirts poking fun at both Guevara and his supporters, casting aspersions on what they perceive as an irony: Che Guevara as one of
capitalism's hottest-selling images.[80] Although much criticism of Guevara and his legacy emanates from the political center and right, there has also been criticism from other political groups such as anarchists and civil libertarians, some of whom consider Guevara an authoritarian, anti-working-class Stalinist, whose goal was the creation of a more bureaucratic state-Stalinist regime.[81]

Kabila ahead in DR Congo election

KINSHASA (AFP)

- Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila appeared to be in the lead in July 30's landmark elections as the first official results were published.

By Tuesday morning results had been posted in at least seven of the country's 62 regional election centres, including four in Kabila's stronghold in the east and three in the west, where support is strong for his main rival for the presidency, Jean-Piere Bemba.

In the seven centres where figures were available, Kabila averaged 68.2 percent of the vote while Bemba, the rebel-turned-politician, was at 11.6 percent, according to AFP calculations.

However, the seven centres account for just 3.5 percent of the 25 million voters registered in DRC.

Cathy Clement, director of Africa for the non-governmental organisation the International Crisis Group, said it was premature to extrapolate from the results available so far.

If Bemba dominated the vote anywhere it would be in the capital Kinshasa and the western province of Equator, for which no results were yet available, Clement said.

The four centres in the east, where Kabila enjoys most support, account for two-thirds of those registered to vote across the seven centres for which results were available.

Across those four centres, which are in the Nord-Kivu, Katanga and Maniema provinces, Kabila won 89.6 percent of the vote.

But in the three centres in the west for which results were available, the president won just 16 percent of the vote to Bemba's 37.8 percent.

An expert on the region who did not wish to be named told AFP it was "no surprise" to see Kabila leading the vote.

Representatives of both Kabila and Bemba declined to comment on the initial results, saying they were doing their own calculations.

The 62 regional election centres receive and compile results from the 50,000 voting centres in the vast central African country.

Final results for the whole country are not expected until later in August because of the logistical hurdles presented by the DRC's size and war-ravaged infrastructure.

The nation will also learn the results of the vote for a 500-seat parliament from more than 9,700 candidates, which took place alongside the presidential poll, within the coming weeks.

A second presidential round will take place on October 29 unless Kabila or one of his 31 challengers wins 50 percent or more of votes cast.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060808/wl_afp/drcongovote_060808175334

Cynthia McKinney: 'I Would Vote for Impeachment'

Posted by Amanda Justice

August 7, 2006 -

McKinney just can't keep her mout shut. After the horrific debacle that was her debate this past Saturday, today she was on the morning radio show, V-103. Both she and Hank Johnson were in the studio, and having only seen the clip below, I wonder if Hank Johnson ever got a word in edge-wise? V-103 is no friend to the President. Jim Angle had a brief piece about this on Special Report tonight. (MsUnderestimated has the video here.)

“This administration has failed across the board, and I have co-sponsored every…every piece of legislation that seeks to investigate it and I would vote – for – impeachment, and I might even write my own impeachment bill if I get enough support from the 4th Congressional District constituents asking me to do that.”

Hat Tip to News Busters ... http://newsbusters.org/node/6826

Pajama Media Lanches .."Conservative NPR"

Well it is about time, I love NPR but hate there lefist tilt

Thank God for Pajama Media

http://politicscentral.com/

Interview with Israeli Ambassador



Daniel Ayalon

Against the backdrop of the Israel-Hezbollah War, Israel's Ambassador to the US speaks to the blogosphere

Daniel AyalonAs missiles fall deep into Israel… in an EXCLUSIVE POLITICSCENTRAL PODCAST Pajamas Media CEO
Roger L. Simon interviews Israeli Ambassador to the US DANIEL AYALON on the ongoing war in Lebanon and the response of his country to the escalating threat from Hezbollah, Syria and Iran. Ayalon also tips his hat to the blogosphere where, he says, “more and more people in America and around the world will be getting their news and opinion.”

Play (12:08) or download (11.6 MB)
Daniel Ayalon speaks with Roger L. Simon.

Monday, August 07, 2006

Busta Rhymes - I Love My Chick






Full video by Busta Rhymes
based on the film Mr and Mrs Smith

Warning this is is not the edited one,

If this is the song you want to get married
to you are ghetto!

Arab Racist, Monkey's and Condi Rice



Palestinian media use racist terms including 'colored dark skin lady'

© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

Condoleezza Rice depicted in Al Quds as pregnant with a monkey. The image's caption read, "Rice speaks about birth of new Middle East."

JERUSALEM – While U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been in the Middle East meeting regional alongside Israel's military campaign in Lebanon, media outlets controlled by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party the past few days have been using racist rhetoric in their reports, referring to the American representative as the "black woman," "raven," "colored dark skinned black lady" and "black spinster."

The Palestinian media coverage follows an article last week in which WND reported senior Fatah members staged an anti-American protest outside the main government building in Ramallah while Abbas met with Rice. Most media coverage of last Wednesday's Ramallah protests claimed ralliers were affiliated with Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

According to a translation by Palestinian Media Watch, the PA daily Al Hayat Al Jadida detailed Wednesday's Ramallah protests in which Rice was described as a "raven" who "brings only destruction."

Al Hayat Al Jadida featured pictures of ralliers brandishing anti-Rice placards, some reading, "Murderer Rice go to Hell" and "Get out." One placard had Rice drinking the blood of dead babies and stating, "I need more blood."


A cartoon last week in the PA controlled Al Quds depicted Rice pregnant with a monkey. A caption read, "Rice speaks about birth of new Middle East."

In a previous article by Al Hayat Al Jadida, Rice is described three times as the "black woman," and her father, who was an ordained Presbyterian minister, was called the "black clergyman [who filled Rice's head with Bible stories]." The article warned, "Beware of this 'black spinster,' we don't want to say 'the black widow' out of respect for her femininity and her intelligence."

A report this weekend by Palestinian Media Watch stated, "In addition to the offending news articles, the PA society is orchestrating demonstrations, children's activities, and hateful visual displays all personally attacking Condoleezza Rice."

WND reported from the scene in Ramallah last week as hundreds of protesters gathered outside a meeting between Abbas and Rice, many chanting, "Down with America," "[Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah hit America," "Fire rockets into Tel Aviv," and "We don't need American money."

Palestinian police clashed with some protesters who tried to shove their way into the government building.

A group of ralliers who said they were affiliated with Fatah told WND they would try to charge Rice when she emerged.

The main protest organizer, who was outside leading the crowd, was Zyad Abu Ein, a senior Fatah official and general manager of the PA's Ministry of Prisoners. Ein is well known to be a close Abbas confidante and is considered one of the most important members in Ramallah of Fatah's Revolutionary Council.

Ein told WND aside from last week's street protests near the Abbas-Rice meeting, he asked Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails to stage what he called a "day of rage" against Rice's visit by not cooperating with prison wardens.


Bush Signs Reauthorization of Voting Rights Act



Almost exactly one week from making the declaration, President George W. Bush made good on a promise by signing the Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act (VRA) of 2006 in a south lawn ceremony at the White House this morning before a throng of noted African American leaders and celebrities.

The president said he would sign the historic legislation when he addressed attendees at the NAACP’s 97th annual convention held in the nation’s capital last week.

Bill O'Reilly kicks Bill Maher's ass.



Bill Maher is reduced to a stuttering amateur when talking to Bill O'Reilly about the previous election.

Bill O'Reilly vs Rev Sharpton on Bush NAACP Speech

Conservative Fox News host Bill O'Reilly discussed President Bush's first speech before the NAACP with Reverend Al Sharpton, who was sharply critical (heh, heh, heh) of the President's speech which he argued was mostly fluff and no substance.

At one point, when Reverend Sharpton brought up the issue of enforcement-- which has been a major concern of civil rights activists since the 1960s when the Supreme Court made rulings that local southern police chose to ignore and not enforce-- O'Reilly simply interrupted the Reverend, saying that he had no idea what he was talking about.



Black Gop Candidates for 06

ALABAMA

Jeffery Ray Jones for Alabama Senate District 33

Tim Bryson for Probate Judge of Walker County

ARKANSAS

Chris Morris for Arkansas State Treasurer

Alphonso Nation, Arkansas Representative District 6

AMERICAN SAMOA
Amata Aumua for US Congress

COLORADO
Senator Ed Jones re-elect to Colorado State Senate District 11

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Marcus Skelton for At-Large City Council

Tony Williams for DC Council Ward 6

Dennis Moore For Mayor

FLORIDA
Representative Jennifer S. Carroll to re-elect to FL House District 13
Eddie Adams, Jr. for US Congress (FL 11)
Gwen ("Dr. Gwen") J. Chandler for Jacksonville City Council
Cain Davis for Florida House District 23
JoAnn E. Gillespie for Florida House District 15
Ken Anthony for Hillsborough County Commission District 3
Donald Foy for Florida House
Willis "K.C." Bowick for Florida House District 59

Armando R. Grundy-Gomés for Escambia Soil and Water Board, Group 2

GEORGIA
Representative Melvin Everson re-elect to Georgia House District 106
Representative Willie Talton re-elect to Georgia House District 145
Deborah Honeycutt For US Congress (GA 13th)

Catherine Davis For US Congress (GA 4th)

Mary Wilhite For Georgia House District 22

ILLINOIS
Eric Wallace, PhD for Illinois State Senate District 19

Marc A. Wiley for Illinois State House District 80

Karl J. Cook for Illinois State House District 38

INDIANA
Eric Dickerson for US Congress (IN-7)

LOUISIANA
Benita Williams Scott for Assessor 5th Municipal District (Algiers)

David Parker for District E in New Orleans

MARYLAND
Lt. Governor Michael Steele for US Senate

Ron Miller for Maryland Senate 27th district

Rene Swafford, Anne Arundel County Council Candidate

Monifais Tarjamo,Charles County Commissioner

Loretta Gaffney, Maryland House of Delegates District 13

MASSACHUSETTS
Bob Parks for Massachusetts State House 2nd Franklin District

MICHIGAN
Keith Butler for US Senate

Senator Bill Hardiman re-elect to Michigan Senate District 29

Larry DeShazor State Representative District 61

Keith Butler for US Senate
Senator Bill Hardiman re-elect to Michigan Senate District 29
Larry DeShazor for State Representative District 61
Charity Jones for State Representative District 6
Melvin Byrd for State Representative District 8
Joel Wilson for State Representative District 95
Edith Floyd for State Representative District 2

MINNESOTA

Obi Sium for US Congress (MN 4th)

MISSISSIPPI
Yvonne R. Brown for US Congress (MS-2)

MISSOURI
State Representative Sherman Parker for US Congress (MO-2)

NEVADA
Senator Maurice Wasington re-elect to Nevada Senate District 11

Lynette Boggs McDonald, Clark County Commission

NEW YORK
Jim Coleman for NY State Assembly 88th district

NORTH CAROLINA
Dr. Ada M. Fisher For US Congress (NC-12)

Vernon Robinson For US Congress (NC-13)
Olga Morgan Wright for General Assembly House District 58
Jim H Bention Sr., For North Carolina State House District 69

Olga Morgan Wright, for North Carolina General Assembly District 58

OHIO
Secretary of State Ken Blackwell for Govenor of Ohio

Jimmie Hicks, Jr. For Ohio State House District 9

OREGON
Bruce Broussard for Oregon for US Congress (OR-3)
Senator Jackie Winters re-elect for Oregon State State District 10

PENNSYLVANIA
Lynn Swann for Governor of Pennsylvania
Ron Holt for Pennsylvania State Senate District 4

RHODE ISLAND
Lloyd Monre for State Senate District 18

TENNESSEE
Novella Smith Arnold for Shelby County County Commission

Derrick Bennett for US Congress (TN 9th)

TEXAS
Michael Williams re-elect to Texas Railroad Commissioner
Ken Bryant for Texas House District 27

VERMONT
State Auditor Randolph D. Brock, III re-elect as State Auditor of Accounts


Please Support the Candiate in youre state, or Nationwide

http://www.nationalblackrepublicans.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=pages.Black%20GOP%20Candidates&tp;_preview=true&x=8834879

Joe Wilson for State Representative



Joel Wilson, graduate of Arthur Hill High School and Boston University, represents a new generation of leadership for Michigan. He used the wings Saginaw's Arts and Science Academy gave him to explore the world, working in Boston, London, Stuttgart, and Dresden.

He has never forgotten his roots though. Nephew of Saginaw High sports legend Reginald Jones and son of Benjamin Pruitt Chairman of UAW 455 and the first Saginaw man elected to the UAW national bargaining team, Joel has carried Saginaw in his heart all over the world, and now has returned to make a difference for you, the people of his home state in his home town.

You, the citizens of Saginaw, in the 2005 city council elections told the politicians that you had enough of corruption, underhandedness, obstructionism, pettiness, cowardliness, and excuses. It's time to tell them again. We need strong, honest, and intelligent leadership. We need new people with new ideas. We need someone who will get the job done. We need Joel I. Wilson in Lansing!

A Word from Joel Wilson:


Unlike my opponents, I am not a career politician. I'm not bogged down by old notions of partisanship. I stand for what I believe in and I'm not going to back down in my fight to help our cities to recover from the decay and mismanagement of the last decade. This isn't about party politics.

It's not Republican vs. Democrat.


It's new vs. old, honest vs. corrupt, ideas vs. rhetoric.

I realize a lot of you have voted democrat all your lives, and I respect that loyalty, but you have to ask yourself, fellow citizen, has the Saginaw County Democratic Party earned this loyalty?

Are they proudly carrying on the tradition of the once glorious Democratic Party and serving the people of Saginaw? Are you better off than you were 5 years ago? I was a Democrat too, but after asking myself these questions, I must admit that the party to which I was loyal, is similar only in name to the Democratic Party of today. Now is the time to make a change.

Don't vote for a democrat, don't vote for a republican, look at me, and look at my opponents, and ask yourself, honestly, which one of these people do I want to represent me?

I represent a 21st century way of thinking. Many of my opponents are still stuck in the 80s. We need modern solutions to our modern day problems. Times have changed, the politicians in Saginaw have not.


We need to get crime under control, establish an education system that works, create jobs, and update our infrastructure. We have needed to do this for the past 15 years, but the politicians have just talked. I want to go to Lansing and get these things done, so that we can finally move on into the 21st century and beyond.

These are not the goals, these are simply the things we must achieve before we can begin to achieve our goals. We must build a better and brighter world for the next generation; we cannot afford to offload our social problems onto our children.

http://www.joelwilson2006.org/

Jim Coleman for NY State Assembly



Jim Coleman was born in 1960 in Lexington Kentucky.

He was raised on his family's farm, Coleman Crest, where his parents taught him values that have made him a success. Jim's entire family ran the farm while his father worked as a postal worker and his mother as a social worker. Growing up, Jim was a powerful force in his neighborhood place of worship - the Uttingertown Baptist Church. As the church pianist, he led his church family to excellence despite incredible odds.

Jim worked the family farm year round, with full-time responsibility during summers for raising cows, pigs, chickens, corn and tobacco. With limited resources and basic skills, he was committed to helping his father successfully manage the family farm.

Jim entered Howard University in August 1978 where he studied Economics. During his junior year, he was elected President of the Liberal Arts Student Council. During his senior year, he was inducted into the "Who's Who of Students in America". Jim graduated from Howard University in May 1983 with B.A. in Economics.

While he was a student at Howard University, Jim met his wife Cathy. Cathy studied Chemical Engineering at Howard where she graduated in 1984. Two weeks after Cathy graduated, she and Jim were married.

Jim has held several executive level sales and marketing positions with Fortune 500 companies including: Oscar Mayer & Co., Pepsi Cola Company, Philip Morris USA, and American Express. His diverse business background spans a broad spectrum of industries including consumer products, financial services, interactive technology and security. Jim has managed and developed hundreds of sales and marketing professionals and has successfully managed business enterprises that have ranged from $100 million up to $2 billion in annual revenues.

Today, Jim is a senior executive with T&M; Protection Services, based in New York City. T&M is a premier security services firm that offers large global organizations a diverse portfolio of specialized protective security services. Cathy is a Sales Consultant for Oracle and has an M.B.A. from the University of Michigan and an M.S. from the Polytechnic University of New York.

Jim is a member of Grace Baptist Church in Mount Vernon where he leads several community initiatives. Jim and Cathy live in Scarsdale. They enjoy golfing, traveling and visiting their family farm in Lexington, Kentucky.



http://www.electjimcoleman.com/

Obi Sium for US Congress



Hello!

My name is Obi Sium.

I am running for the Minnesota 4th Congressional District on November 7, 2006.

I was born and raised in the village of Adengoda, Eritrea, located in the horn of Africa. When I was about five years old I went to the only village school in our area that served ten villages with a total population of about 7,000.


It had only three class rooms. I was denied entrance because too many teenagers and young adults were trying to register just as first graders. We had no public schools in Eritrea when I was born in 1941. They were first introduced when I was about two or three years old. Finally, after I had waited four more years, I was admitted to first grade. I walked bare footed three miles one way to school.

I overcame many challenges along life’s way. I worked hard and patiently did my best in school so I could rise from poverty once and for all. I finally achieved my dream when I earned a civil engineering degree in 1968 from Haile Selassie I University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In 1969, I received my dream job as a hydraulic engineer in charge of the Technical Office of the Water Supply Department for the Municipality of Asmara, Eritrea.

I came to the United States in 1973 and earned a Master of Science degree in mechanics and hydraulics from the University of Iowa in 1975. I have served as a water resources engineer for the last 30 years first with the Iowa Geological Survey and then the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR), where I have been for 28 years.

I am running for the U.S. Congress because I am passionate about defending and preserving our freedom and liberties. I would like to limit the size and spending of government and lower taxes to create wealth. I would like to improve the quality of K-12 education, and also to reform health care to make it more affordable. I would like to defend the sanctity of life, and push the frontiers of green energy production. I want to do what I can to raise the standard of ethics both in Congress and government agencies.


Having a very good understanding of African culture, politics and natural resources, I can encourage Congress to have a better grasp of African issues and how essential it is to have good will among African nations. Having grown up very close to the culture and politics of the Middle East, I can also help Congress grapple with the issues emerging from that region

I want you to join me in building a better tomorrow for our children. Please sign up to join my campaign. Thank you for the chance to introduce myself to you.



http://www.siumforcongress.com/

Yvonne R Brown..Black Republican for US Congress



-“Empowerment is the process of increasing the assets and capabilities of individuals or groups to make purposive choices and to transform those choices into desired actions and outcomes.”

-MISSISSIPPI

Yvonne R. Brown for US Congress (MS-2)

http://www.friendsofyvonnerbrown.org/aboutyvonne

Why I Am A Gay Republican

By Djinn

I was responding on another Republican site about why I am a Republican. I used the Wikipedia definition of our parties major factions. I then took the parts of each faction that I agree with so that others would have a better understanding were I and other Gay Republicans come from ideologically.

Religious Right

The term "religious right" is often used synonymously with Christian right because most of its members are fundamentalist Protestants. Some observers consider Mormons, traditionalist Catholics and Orthodox Jews to belong to this category. The Religious Right has become a powerful force within the GOP. This faction is socially conservative, believes that values of faith are vital to society, and should not be separated from governance or education. Though what constitutes moral values is a matter of dispute between different (sometimes even similar) religions and religious denominations, the Religious Right has consisted of social and cultural conservatives united in discouraging and legally restricting abortion, legally defining marriage to include only heterosexual couples, discouraging and prohibiting embryonic stem-cell research, and encouraging and promoting school prayer. The Religious Right rejects the liberal notion that there should be a "wall of separation" between religion and government. In recent years portions of the Religious Right have been active in attacking Darwinism in the public school curriculum.

Neoconservatives

Neoconservatives promote an interventionist foreign policy, including pre-emptive military action against designated enemy nations under certain circumstances. They are the strongest suppoirters of the war in Iraq to overthrow Saddam Hussein. They are willing to act unilaterally when they believe it serves American interests to do so.

Fiscal Conservatives

The fiscal conservative faction favors large reductions in overall taxation, reduced domestic spending, privatization of Social Security, and decreased regulation. Originally, the pro-business branch of the GOP was practically defined by its support of protectionism, but in recent years those elements of the GOP have been more supportive of free-market principles and treaties for open trade.

Moderates

Moderates within the GOP tend to be, to varying degrees, fiscally conservative and socially liberal. While they share the economic views of other Republicans - e.g. balanced budgets, lower taxes, free trade, deregulation, welfare reform - moderate Republicans differ in that they may be for affirmative action, some gay rights, abortion rights, environmental regulation, federal funds for education, gun control, fewer restrictions on legal immigration, or any of the above. Deficit spending is a highly contentious issue, as is foreign policy. Moderates may be less interventionist than neoconservatives.

Libertarians

The libertarian faction of the Republican Party is pro-private property and pro-personal liberty. Similar to the fiscal conservative faction, libertarian Republicans seek to privatize most govermental fuctions or devolve them to the states; massive reductions in overall federal taxation, and an overhaul of the current American tax system; deregulation of industries; more open immigration policies; and open international trade. Unlike many conservative Republicans, however, the libertarian Republicans tend to oppose the "War on Drugs", American membership in most international alliances, and the type of foreign policy that neoconservatives are known to espouse. During the 2004 Republican National Convention, this faction "butted heads" with the Religious Right faction over the party platform.

Paleoconservatives

The paleoconservative group has a "blue-collar", populist tinge with a strong distrust of a centralized federal government, and has heavy appeal among rural Republicans. They are conservative on social issues (e.g. support for gun rights) and oppose multiculturalism, but favor a protectionist policy on international trade and isolationist foreign policy. Many are also active against illegal immigration, or even all immigration.

Security Oriented

This faction of the Republican party emerged after the September 11th attacks. This group includes people regardless of social or economic status who are profoundly concerned with the safety and security of our country. Bush did an excellent job of appealing to this faction with its "war on terror" and the war in Iraq, but he has lost support among the security oriented on the issue of controlling the Mexican border against Illegal immigration.

Now none of these factions have absolute control over the party; further, no person belongs to just one faction there is a substancial overlap. I myself could be considered a member of many factions, even the Religious Right.

Religious Right values I hold to are:

1. values of faith are vital to society
2. discouraging and legally restricting abortion
3. legally defining marriage to include only heterosexual couples
4. discouraging and prohibiting embryonic stem-cell research

Neoconservative values I hold to are:

1. interventionist foreign policy

Fiscal Conservative values that I hold to are:

1. large reductions in overall taxation
2. reduced domestic spending
3. privatization of Social Security
4. decreased regulation
5. supportive of free-market principles and treaties for open trade

Moderate values I hold to are:

1. balanced budgets
2. lower taxes
3. free trade
4. welfare reform
5. some gay rights
6. environmental regulation
7. federal funds for education
8. gun control
9. civil rights

Libertarian values I hold to are:

1. seek to privatize most govermental fuctions or devolve them to the states
2. massive reductions in overall federal taxation
3. overhaul of the current American tax system
4. deregulation of industries
5. more open immigration policies
6. oppose the "War on Drugs"

Security Oriented values I hold to are:

1. profoundly concerned with the safety and security of our country
2. controlling our borders to illigal immigration

All of these issues and values are what make me a Republican, not just one issue.


-Djinn is a 42 years old blogger and resides in MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA

U.S. Chamber of Commerce Endorses Michael Steele

BALTIMORE, MD Today, August 2, 2006, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce endorsed Lt. Gov. Michael Steele’s campaign for the U.S. Senate on behalf of the more than three million businesses they represent. Steele was joined by campaign supporters and Maryland business owners in Baltimore to accept the Chamber’s endorsement.

Steele said, “I am honored to receive the support of the United States Chamber of Commerce and their millions of members all across the country. I have worked tirelessly for Maryland businesses and Maryland workers as Lieutenant Governor and I am excited to take the policies of creating legacy wealth to the United States Senate.

“We need to continue to strip away the government regulations that stifle business expansion. We need to create a health care system that works for small business owners and small business employees – millions of whom are going without health care today because bureaucrats in Washington won’t wake up to the fact that our current system is inefficient and burdensome. With Association Health Plans, small business employers will be able to pool their health insurance costs and have greater purchasing power to achieve better benefits for their employees.

“We also need to continue to reexamine our tax structure that too often punishes and discourages ownership. The ‘death tax’ is making it almost impossible for families to create legacy wealth by passing their businesses down from one generation to the next. I will work to repeal this tax in the United States Senate.”

The United States Chamber of Commerce is the world’s largest business federation, representing more than three million businesses. The Chamber reports that 93 percent of Chamber-endorsed candidates were elected in 2004, and that surveys of likely voters have found the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to be among the most credible sources for deciding which candidates to support.

Madonna will bring peace....



...or just act like a jackass until we all forget all about the Mideast war going on.

Juan Williams on African-American 'Victimhood'



Morning Edition, August 7, 2006

Many African-American leaders have lost touch with a hallmark of the civil rights movement -- the tradition of self-empowerment, Juan Williams says in his new book. Instead, they've embraced the notion of "victimhood," the NPR senior correspondent says.

His book is called Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America -- and What We Can Do About It.

"I think it's a terrible signal to our young people about who black people are to have us constantly wrapped in the cloak of victimhood, and to have black leadership that in a knee-jerk fashion defends negative, dysfunctional behavior," Williams tells Steve Inskeep.
Their conversation begins a week-long series on the state of leadership in the African-American community, and contemporary African-American life.

From the Conversation

Juan Williams on Black Leaders Who 'Delight in Victimhood'


The stinging dart at the center of this controversy targets new black leadership.
Critics often charge Bill Cosby, in his Brown anniversary speech, with beating up on an easy mark: poor black people. Wrong. The critics are the ones who veer off target. Cosby repeatedly aimed his fire at the leaders of today's popular black culture, which is often not just created by black artists, but marketed and managed by black executives.

He was talking about current black political leaders and, most of all, about the civil rights leaders who time and time again send the wrong message to poor black people desperately in need of direction as they try to find their way in a society where being black and poor remains a unique burden to bear.

Cosby's point is that lost, poor black people have suffered most from not having strong leaders. His charge is that these leaders--cultural and political--misinform, mismanage, and miseducate by refusing to articulate established truths about what it takes to get ahead: strong families, education, and hard work. Every American has reason to ask about the seeming absence of strong black leadership.

Where is strong black leadership to speak hard truth to those looking for direction? Where are the black leaders who will make it plain and say it loud? Who will tell you that if you want to get a job you have to stay in school and spend more money on education than on disposable consumer goods?

Where are the black leaders who are willing to stand tall and say that any black man who wants to be a success has to speak proper English? Isn't that obvious? It would be a bonus if anyone dared to say to teenagers hungering for authentic black identity that dressing like a convict, whose pants are hanging off his ass because the jail prison guards took away his belt, is not the way to rise up and be a success.

There's a reason it takes strong leadership to make these points. It takes a leader to articulate why success in a world that so dramatically devalues black people is a worthwhile goal. When young people--and older people--take on a spirit of rebellion in their clothes, language, music, and other forms of expression, they're only responding in a fairly rational way to a society that has first insulted and degraded them.

It takes a real leader to look beyond the immediate emotional satisfaction--and even the academic justification--of throwing up a middle finger in the face of the oppressor, and see the bigger picture. It takes a leader to think through the consequences and outline a better path--even if it requires sacrifice in the short term, sacrifice that may include giving up the easy emotional satisfaction of ultimately pointless acts, unexamined gestures of rebellion that never rise to the level of true resistance or long-term revolution. But that kind of leadership is sorely lacking.

Why have black leaders spent the last twenty years talking about reparations for slavery as if it were a realistic goal deserving of time and attention from black people? Why is rhetoric from our current core of civil rights leaders fixated on white racism instead of on the growing power of black Americans, now at an astounding level by any historical measure, to determine their own destiny? Fifty years after Brown, much of the power to address the problems facing black people is in black hands. Here is Cosby at the very start of his famous speech:
"I heard a prizefight manager say to his fellow, who was losing badly, 'David, listen to me, it's not what he's doing to you. It's what you're not doing.'"

Black Americans, including the poor, spend a lot of time talking about the same self-defeating behaviors that are holding back too many black people. This is no secret. It's practically a joke. And black people are the first to shake their heads at the scandals and antics of the current crop of civil rights leaders who are busy with old-school appeals for handouts instead of making maximum use of the power black people have in this generation to determine their own success.
So how did we end up in this situation?

Black leaders have always risen to the occasion in the past, and in far more desperate situations--why does the talent bench seem so thin today? One key here is that nearly forty years after Reverend King's death, the best black talent don't have civil rights leadership as their chief ambition. Strong black intellects and personalities are leaders in media (Richard Parsons, the head of Time Warner, and Mark Whitaker, editor of Newsweek), securities firms (such as Stanley O'Neal of Merrill Lynch), global corporations (Kenneth Chenault of American Express, Ann Fudge of the public relations firm Young and Rubicam), academic institutions (Ruth Simmons, Kurt Schmoke, Henry Louis Gates, Ben Carson), religious organizations (Floyd Flake, T. D. Jakes), and national politics (Eleanor Holmes Norton, Artur Davis, Barack Obama, and Colin Powell).

That leaves the civil rights leadership of today in older hands: the Jesse Jacksons and Julian Bonds, people who made a name for themselves in the 1960s. And they are still fighting the battles of the 1960s. Then there are the latecomers, such as Al Sharpton, whose contribution is to mimic the aging leaders. Neither the old-timers nor their pale imitators recognize that national politics has changed and black people have changed.

Hell, white people, as well as Hispanics, Asians, and other immigrants, have changed. Yet the black leadership is fighting the old battles and sending the same signals even as poor black people are stuck in a rut and falling further behind in a global economy.

Note that Cosby never identified himself as a civil rights leader. As he later put it, he is not Martin Luther King Jr. Cosby is a legendary figure in America's entertainment industry. He is at the top of his field. In speaking out, he presents himself as an ordinary man with a deep passion for the well-being of his people, black people. He is full of the rage of an average man who sees vulnerable people being hurt and feels compelled to speak out about the glaring errors and lack of truth-telling in dealing with their problems.

"I am not Jesus carrying a cross down the street," he told a reporter less than a month after the speech set fire to the controversy. "I gave the message and I may speak again and again. They want someone to do the work for them. I am not Dr. King. I am not a leader." But Cosby, like everybody else who is paying attention, recognizes bad leadership when he sees it.
One of Cosby's sharpest darts thrown at the current civil rights leaders hit home a few months after his Constitution Hall speech. He was at a town-hall meeting in Detroit to speak directly to black Americans in one of the nation's blackest cities.

He wanted ordinary black people to hear from him directly about his comments at the Brown anniversary gala. When he reflected on today's black civil rights leaders, Cosby essentially asked, Why are black leaders making the case for black crack addicts to get softer sentences? Why are black leaders so concerned that cocaine users get shorter sentences than crack smokers? Let's look at the logic.

It is true that the people snorting cocaine are more often white and middle-class, and crack addicts are disproportionately black and lower-class. You can make the case for a racial disparity in sentencing. But what if all this effort from black leaders was successful and crack addicts got lower sentences?

"Hooray," Cosby said, spitting it out bitterly. "Anybody see any sense in this? Systemic racism, they [black leaders] call it." Then Cosby pointed out the obvious issue--but one that the black civil rights leadership somehow missed or for some reason underplayed. Black leaders, he declared, should tell poor black people to stop smoking crack. They ought to demonize anybody who does it.

They should say it is a betrayal of all the black people who fought to be free, independent, and in control of their own lives since the day the first slave ship landed. They should identify the crack trade as one of the primary reasons why so many young black people are ending up in jail. Certainly, back leaders should be in front of marches pushing those crack dealers out of black neighborhoods. And that effort should include a message that has yet to be heard with sincerity from black leaders: using crack, heroin, or any other addictive drug, including excessive drinking of alcohol, is self-destructive, breaks up families, saps ambition, and is more dangerous than most white racists.

But when was the last time you heard any civil rights leader raging against the clear evil of crack dealers, shaming them to stop selling crack? Has anyone seen the civil rights leaders at the head of a march against bad schools or a boycott against the minstrel acts and sex, beer, and gangster images that are promoted as authentic black identity on Black Entertainment Television? Essence, a black women's magazine, has taken the lead in condemning hateful verbal attacks on black women by black rap musicians. But the most visible black leadership is silent.

The good news about black leadership in America is that it has a history of inspirational success. Working against tremendous odds, black leaders have organized, built coalitions, and trained and inspired people of all colors to break through racism, taboos, and stereotypes to create the greatest social movement in American history--the twentieth-century civil rights movement.

That movement offers examples and tools of consistently innovative leadership that have left America's political, corporate, and cultural leaders hurrying to catch up. Movements for the rights of women, Hispanics, children, and gays have all credited the historical civil rights movement with opening doors for them, and have made the black rights movement the model for achieving their own aspirations.

And that history of strong leadership offers an example of what is possible for people who want to offer sincere, progressive leadership to black America today. Civil rights leaders have a fabulous record of progress, excellence, and achievement, and a willingness to fight and sacrifice for the next generation. Their commitment to democracy, law, and equality has made the civil rights movement the moral center of America for the past century.

Even black leaders who lost battles along the way became legends by setting out a clear path of courageous struggle. Failure wasn't desired, of course, but was willingly risked in the name of standing up for what was right. From the start of slavery in the United States, black leaders devised escapes, sabotaged plantation operations, and plotted strategic acts of violence to defy the system of human ruination that is slavery.

Denmark Vesey led a slave revolt in 1822, in which he organized about 10,000 black people in both rural and urban areas around Charleston, South Carolina. At a time when black people outnumbered whites in the region, Vesey used black servants to spy on whites. He obtained and stored weapons, devised signals for his leaders to communicate, and had a clear plan for seizing the large arsenal in Charleston's harbor and using it to command the region. He recognized the power of religion and religious leaders in the black community, and used the church as a strategic center to identify leaders as well as recruit followers and hold meetings.

Ultimately the plot was uncovered and Vesey was hanged. But he ably demonstrated to black and white people the power of black people to throw off their identity as slaves and take on the mantle of self-determination as smart, courageous people in search of freedom. Less than ten years later, Nat Turner led a slave revolt of similar inspiration. These men were in a desperate situation, but these were not symbolic acts of self-destruction--they were organized resistance to an untenable status quo, and even in failure they inspired others to keep fighting and resisting.

Examples of the power of black leadership are evident in American history as early as 1780, when black leaders formed political groups to advance the right of black people to self-determination. The African Union Society of Newport for the Moral Improvement of Free Africans set requirements for the personal conduct of members who paid monthly dues for disability benefits and to be assured of proper burial. But the Union was also a political organization.

It gave black people a voice in the city's political affairs with the goal of protecting equal rights for black people. The prize of black leadership, from that start, was always to have black people control their destiny by being able to educate their children, operate businesses, participate in politics as equals, and in the earliest struggle of all, live free of the exploitation of slave masters.

A streak of self-determination rises at every turn in the history of black American leadership. But since the stunning success of the modern civil rights movement--the steady rise since the Brown decision in the number of college-educated black people, as well as the concurrent growth in incomes, home ownership, and black elected officials--the strong focus on self-determination has faded, at the moment when its impact could have been the most powerful. In its place is a tired rant by civil rights leaders about the power of white people--what white people have done wrong, what white people didn't do, and what white people should do. This rant puts black people in the role of hapless victims waiting for only one thing--white guilt to bail them out.
The roots of this blacks-as-beggars approach from black leaders are planted in an old debate that is now too often distorted.

The most prominent voice for black liberation before the Civil War belonged to Frederick Douglass, a former slave who secretly taught himself how to read, then became a skilled worker in Baltimore's shipyards, before escaping to the freedom of the North.

As a speaker, as the author of a book about his life in slavery, and as editor of a newspaper, the North Star, Douglass led the charge for all good people to stand against the abomination of slavery, including a call for black people to take up their own fight as a capable, strong force in American life. Douglass was the main black leader who pressed President Lincoln to allow black people to fight with the Union forces in the name of freeing themselves from slavery.

All he asked of President Lincoln was that he officially emancipate the slaves so they could legally fight for their freedom. He personally recruited blacks, including his own two sons, for two regiments in Massachusetts. He asked the president for a military commission so he could lead black people in the fight for their own freedom.

Excerpted from Enough Copyright © 2006 by Juan Williams. Excerpted by permission of Crown, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

"Lebanon: Myths and Facts".Video



"One Minute Movie" from Aish.com, "Lebanon: Myths and Facts" presents the truth in such a succinct way that I thought it would help speed along the dialogue regarding Israel's actions and put to rest a lot of misconceptions in a very short period of time.

Please click
HERE for the movie ... it's very short.

Friday, August 04, 2006

Trickle Down Economics??





Me and my good friend Roz had a discussion on this economic theory before. This is what is considered to be the conservative Republican economic theory, may also be known as supply side economics.

I generally use a personal example of why me and my family vote republican and always will on economic issues alone. People think thattrickle down means only tax breaks for rich which in turn makes people think only millionaires.

My parents are not millionaires but are upper middle class. My dad makes 130,000 a year and mom 100,000 in that range. They pay close to 100,000 a year in taxes or almost 50 percent of their income when put together and when you add federal and state and all the other taxes.

I having done minimum wage jobs qualify as poor and I have virtually never been forced to pay any taxes, I get a refund from the government in the mail and I pay virtually no taxes. Democrats play the class warfare game all the tme and say I should pay less and my parents pay more. This is virtually impossible for me to pay any less and taxing my parents anymore would virtually take away any incentive for them to strive to be successful and do more. Trickle down economics states that those top 10 to 15 percent in income Americans pay 75 percent or more of the taxes.

The bottom 85 percent like me contribute less than 25 percent. The next time you hear someone say tax cuts should go to the poor or lower middle class people think about what that means. They hardly have any taxes to cut. I know. Reagan had acorss the board tax cuts at the same percentage 30 percent reduction. But a 30 percent tax cut to say my parents ends up being a lot more money for them than for me.

Not cuz Reagan was a cold bastard who only loved the rich, but because they pay that much more in taxes. Simple stuff. Final thought I basically state that trickle down economics is best for America's overall economy and competing with the World in production and trade. I do not state that it is best for bringing people out of poverty. I think me and Roz argued over this but about the wrong results on what we want. Roz if you have a compromise between trickle down economic and tax ans spend liberals id love to hear it. Liberals hate tax cuts period dont let anybody fool you with that.

-Brett

Affirmative Action..The Great Gop Divide

I feel this issue alone may be a big reason why Republicans cant even get 20 percent of the black vote. I will post just briefly the 2 extreme positions on this issue the middle ground, and see what people think should be done about it.

Julian Bond Al Sharpton position- Basically you support affirmative action or your racist, quotas in it reparations 2 wrongs make a right and giving a free job to make up for past wrongs somehow makes a right.

Red neck or slight racist extreme- They would take the other end and probably never wanted equal rights to beign with. Keep things way they are.


Middel ground- Would be either requiring an achievment first by the minoirty community and any minority who reaches that achievement gets an automatic job or scholarship. Thus making sure work is fone and its not a freebie, but than discrimination is not done either. Or income based affirmative action. Not race based, because Michael Jordans son would probably not need affirmative action to succeed in life. Someone poor would.


Now their have been Democrats who oppose affirmative action sich as ex Klan member Robert Byrd. Bill Clinton and Al Gore take the affirmative actin view without Quotas. Some Republicans support it like Colin Powell, and Rudy Giuliani. But I think by in large the view is that Republicans oppose it and Democrats support it and I think that costs us every time. By the way do you guys no what particular thing was so scary and Sam Alito as supreme court judge??

I remember reading some civil rights site said quite ironic Coretta Scott King dies on the same day Sam Alito is confirmed as a supreme court justice. WQas Sam Alitop a real anti affirmative action guy?? Was Jon Roberts??

-Brett,


From ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA



Africa chooses Asia over 'inefficient' West

By Heidi Vogt

Dakar - Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade said on
Thursday that Africa is turning to Asia for investment
because alliances with the United States and Europe
have proved too slow and inefficient.

"The Asian countries - China, India, Japan - show an
interest in Africa," Wade said.

"With the Asian countries it's fast and it's direct...
Africa doesn't have a lot of time and it's a
co-operation that's faster."

Wade said the United States and many European
countries have lengthy investment processes that slow
down financial agreements.

China has spent the last few decades courting nations
throughout Africa, sending leaders on regular state
visits and funding infrastructure projects in
resource-rich countries.

It and other Asian countries are seen as building
future raw material hubs and markets in Africa.

In recent months, high-level politicians from Japan,
Taiwan and China have toured West Africa.

Senegal broke ties with Taiwan last year and aligned
itself with China - positioning itself on the side of
the booming Asian economy.

Trade between China and Africa quadrupled between 2001
and 2005 to $40-billion (about R275-billion).

Still, Wade commended Spain for signing on to help
Senegal combat the outflow of illegal immigrants from
its shores to Europe.

He said Spain was supplying Senegal with patrol boats
and planes to help stem the flood of Africans using
Senegal's shores as a launching point for Europe.

Wade spoke to a group of foreign reporters in
Senegal's capital of Dakar. - Sapa-AP

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click;_id=3016&art_id=qw1154042640820B252

Democrats Today. No Vision. No Plan. Not Your Party.



The Democrats will never be able to win another major election as long as they run as simply an "Anti-Republican" Party. They must get back into touch with their roots, and form a plan that is not just, "Hate George Bush."

Cynthia McKinney Celebrates





Ok ...so it wasn't a victory. It was to get a runoff in august. Couldn't tell it by her though

Biggie and Tupac Documentary Pt 1




Intersting Documentary


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aA-wfEcBeU Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gesfptn69ZA Part 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPOzDqvNISM Part 4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7TDRmyB51I Part 5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaJf_Cs42mA Part 6

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53z9rEN6DCQ Part 7

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYTqjJzVg-4 Part 8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTTja3-wTtw Part 9

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLhjpu6tCMQ Part 10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK0RYsjT_dU Part 11

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Bush stumps for Ken Blackwell


By Deb Riechmann


President Bush greets Ken Blackwell, left, Republican candidate for Ohio governor, after arriving Wednesday in Cleveland.

KIRTLAND HILLS, Ohio – President Bush put the weight of his office behind the struggling candidacy of conservative Kenneth Blackwell, helping raise $1.5 million Wednesday for the Republican’s campaign for governor.

Bush won Ohio in 2004, but Republicans are facing a difficult political environment in this GOP-controlled state, which is trying to rebound from political scandal – and recent flooding.

Last week, 10 inches of rain fell on northeastern Ohio, killing a man and forcing hundreds from their homes. On Tuesday, Bush declared Lake, Geauga and Ashtabula counties eligible for federal disaster relief.

“The local response was really good,” Bush said at Lake County Emergency Operation and Communication Center in Mentor where he stopped before going to the fundraiser. “The interoperability between various jurisdictions was superb. As a result, a lot of lives were saved.”

Bush, who spoke with dispatchers, law enforcement officers, firefighters and other emergency management officials, said the federal disaster declaration means residents will be helped with rental assistance, temporary housing, grants to rebuild their homes and small business assistance.

“It is now time to help people rebuild their lives,” Bush said before taking a five-minute motorcade ride to the fundraiser, which was closed to reporters.

Blackwell, the state’s secretary of state, who has strong ties to Washington, is one of a handful of prominent black conservatives in the Republican Party, a group that the Bush administration has been courting.

Blackwell, however, is running 20 percentage points behind Democrat Ted Strickland, a congressman from Lisbon in eastern Ohio, according to a recent poll by the Columbus Dispatch.

Strickland received 47 percent of support compared with Blackwell’s 27 percent in the poll, which had a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

Some people polled mentioned an investment scandal within the government, which led to a no contest plea from Republican Gov. Bob Taft for failing to report gifts. It also forced an overhaul of the investment operations of the state’s fund for injured workers.

Two brokers accused of bribing a former workers’ compensation official are scheduled for trial in September. Meanwhile, a trial is scheduled in October for Tom Noe, a prominent GOP donor and coin dealer charged in an ill-fated $50 million coin investment he managed for the state fund.

“Ken Blackwell will reap the benefits of a Republican fundraising machine that has led to a culture of corruption in Washington, D.C., and Columbus,” said Chris Redfern, chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party. “This is the same pay-to-play culture that Tom Noe plead guilty to earlier this summer.”

Last month, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., a potential 2008 presidential candidate, took a swipe at the Ohio secretary of state for his handling of the last presidential election. Without mentioning his name, Clinton suggested that Blackwell had a conflict of interest in overseeing Ohio’s next election because he is running for governor.

In 2004, Blackwell was the honorary co-chairman of the Bush-Cheney campaign in Ohio and secretary of state. Long lines and confusion marked the election in Ohio, the state that put Bush over the top in the Electoral College vote. The fundraiser, billed as a country reception, was being held at the Kirtland Hills home of businessman Ed Crawford. Tickets cost $1,000 a person; $1,500 per couple, and guests can get a photo with Bush for $10,000.

Blackwell and the black vote

By Dan Williamson

The Other Paper, Columbus


When he discusses Ohio's race for governor, East Cleveland Mayor Eric Brewer's thoughts turn to "Gone with the Wind."

In one scene, Scarlett O'Hara encounters a slave named Jim outside a church, where she has been attending to Confederate soldiers.

"She runs up to Jim and says, 'Jim, Jim, where you going?' And Jim says, 'We're going to stop those Yankees, Miss Scarlett.' Here's an African American who was so ignorant that he didn't understand that these Yankee soldiers are coming to liberate him."

To Brewer, black Democrats trying to defeat Republican Ken Blackwell for governor are a lot like Jim the slave.

"I really see the African-American community -- not knowing his record, not knowing his intent of wanting to lift poor blacks, poor whites, poor Hispanics out of poverty -- and I see them fighting against someone who is really there to help them," Brewer said.

Brewer is a black Democrat and -- as you might guess from his "Gone with the Wind" analogy -- a passionate Blackwell supporter.

If there are a few hundred thousand more Eric Brewers among Ohio voters, Blackwell might just be the next governor.

According to the 2001 census, African Americans make up 12 percent of Ohio's population. In most elections, Republicans concede the black vote to the Democrats. It was considered a coup for President Bush when he won 16 percent of Ohio African Americans in 2004 -- compared to just 9 percent four years earlier.

As an African American running against a Caucasian, Blackwell will certainly get more than Bush's 16 percent. The question of how much more will be hotly debated for the next three and a half months.

"I have a bet going on with a white Democrat, and his bet is that they can turn more black people against Blackwell than those of us who support him can turn for him," Brewer said. "I told him that I'm going to take that bet because I don't believe black folks are that stupid."

State Rep. Joyce Beatty also doesn't think black folks are stupid. But she believes they'll come to a different conclusion about Blackwell.

"Obviously he is black, and they will know that," said Beatty, the Ohio House minority leader.

"I think that we are underestimating African Americans. I think African Americans will look at the bigger picture. I don't think that African Americans, any more than white Americans, vote blindly."

The contrast

One of the things the Ohio Democratic Party likes about Ted Strickland is that he isn't from a big city. Strickland hails from the rural, eastern part of the state, a region that is trending overwhelmingly Republican. After winning big in the cities in '04 but losing even bigger in small towns and rural areas, Democrats concluded a guy like Strickland could help them compete.

The flip side of that, though, is Strickland has little contact with African-American voters. His 6th Congressional District is only 2.4 percent black.

"The problem with Ted Strickland is very simple, really," said Gil Price, a reporter for Columbus's Call & Post, a weekly newspaper serving the black community. "It is that Ted Strickland is a guy who is from a district that is almost entirely white."

And for a number of reasons, Price said, "Strickland hasn't been able to energize African-American communities."

Blackwell, on the other hand, is a former Cincinnati mayor and council member who has three statewide elections under his belt.

"Strickland is unknown," said Cornell McCleary, a former Ohio Republican committee member who once served as the party's liaison to African-American voters. "And whether they like Blackwell or not, they know him."

Democratic Cuyahoga County Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones acknowledged he has "a couple of friends" who are Democrats supporting Blackwell and thinks the Republican will win votes "because of the symbolic nature of his race."

Jones also said Blackwell's history of hiring black employees helps to blunt the fact that he's a very conservative Republican.

"His record on affirmative action, at least in the offices he's worked in, is solid enough that it's not going to hurt him," Jones said.

Columbus Mayor Mike Coleman said Blackwell's reputation is "mixed."

"There is concern about what he has said in the past and what he's done in the past, and on the other side of the coin is, well, some recognition that for the first time in the history of our state, there is a potential for an African-American governor," Coleman said. "And that's got people's attention."

Surrogates for Ted

Democrats believe Strickland has a very strong case to make against Blackwell with black voters -- but they're not sure the congressman is the one who should make that case.

Democrats say Blackwell's conservative economic ideology -- crystallized by his since-abandoned constitutional amendment to limit state spending -- is at odds with poorer blacks who depend on public services and receive little or no benefit from income-tax cuts.

Also, Blackwell has long been accused of making it more difficult for people to vote -- a right that is uniquely sacred to African Americans. And though not all the charges against the secretary of state are based on fact, Democrats have done an effective job of giving Blackwell a reputation he must shed.

"There's no merit to the argument," said Mayor Brewer, "but there's merit to the perception."

And what should Strickland do to maximize this and other negative perceptions about Blackwell? Nothing, say his supporters.

He should let black mayors and other African-American elected officials around the state do his dirty work for him in their respective cities.

"I think the fear is that there will be a backlash where you see a European-American candidate beating up on a brother, and that might make him benefit from the predisposition to support black victims," Commissioner Jones said. "You don't want to make Blackwell a sympathetic figure in the African-American community."

Beatty agreed Strickland should keep his own message positive while leaving it to others to disparage his opponent. And she's happy to volunteer.

"I have no problem speaking out," she said.

Neither does Coleman: "I'm supporting Ted 100 percent, and I'm going to do what they ask me to do."

Price, however, said it is OK for Strickland to criticize Blackwell as long as he doesn't appear to be playing the race card.

"It's not whether you beat up on him," Price said. "It's how you beat up on him."

Clergy for Ken

State Rep. Dixie Allen of Dayton, a former Democrat who defected to the Republican Party last week, said Blackwell can effectively counter Strickland's political surrogates with his own religious surrogates.

"He's getting a lot of support from black ministers," Allen said. She believes support from clergy trumps support from elected officials.

"The ministers, they see these people every week, and the politicians, they see them once a year when they're campaigning. There's a difference."

McCleary said Blackwell's high-profile efforts against abortion and gay rights resonate with religious black voters.

"One of Blackwell's secret weapons is that 25 to 40 percent of the so-called values voters are the African-American middle class," he said. Democrats like Beatty and Coleman, he said, "only speak for the ruling class of the black community. Their sentiments do not represent the masses."

Beatty said conservatives overestimate the extent to which African Americans obsess over issues such as homosexuality.

"I get hundreds of calls in my office in a week, and I don't have anybody calling me about gay marriage," she said. "Nor do I believe that ministers are getting calls from their congregations saying, 'Somebody gay moved next door to me.'"

And anyway, Beatty said, pastors aren't allowed to endorse candidates.

That notion drew a laugh from Steve Cheek, president of African-American Republicans of Ohio.

"They cannot endorse," he said, "but you've been around."

The bottom line

At the end of the day, the two big questions for Blackwell are: How much of the black vote can he get, and how much of it does he need?

Blackwell spokesman Carlo LoParo said Blackwell got about 20 percent in his first statewide race in 1994, about 30 percent in his next one in 1998, and about 40 percent in 2002. Blackwell won all three elections.

"I would think that he needs at least 20 percent to win," said Mayor Brewer, "and I think when black folks wake up and realize that their liberation is at hand, that he should get that 20 percent plus."

That estimate seems low on both ends.

In May, the University of Cincinnati's Ohio Poll had Blackwell picking up 32 percent of black voters compared to Strickland's 55. And most Republicans believe Blackwell needs to do at least that well in order to win.

Larry James, a politically ambidextrous attorney supporting Blackwell, boldly predicted the Ohio Poll will be reversed on Election Day, insisting his guy will get "55 percent -- on a bad day."

McCleary is not so optimistic.

"I think Larry's high," McCleary said. "I'm gonna tell you why Larry's high -- because Ken is not going to go for it. He's not going to directly go for the black vote, and if he did, I think he could get to 55. But he's never done it in his career."

Price said the important number won't be the number of black votes Blackwell gets, but rather the number that Strickland doesn't get. Every African-American voter who doesn't bother to vote, Price said, "is a vote for Blackwell."

Jones said he thinks Blackwell will end up getting a third of the black vote, but that won't be enough.

"For every vote he loses in the black community, he'll pick up a vote and a half to two votes from moderate Republicans and independents," Jones said. "This is an unusual election."









The complexities of being you and the pressure to conform


The eagle is my favorite bird. Found only in select regions of the world and a minority in the bird population, its complexities and simplicities, modes and executions, successes and failures, intrinsic characteristics and habitual patterns many derived from ecological demands, rank it high in resilience, fortitude and aptitude within a harsh, unforgiving ecosystem.

Eagles traverse where no bird has dared to explore. Flying higher than any other bird, living in harsh environments often in solitude while employing unfathomable dexterities.

I guess it would be much easier for the eagle if she lived like other birds. In pretty, untouched environments complete with a lovely nest while enjoying peace and tranquility in a beautiful rainforest.

That is the dream life for a bird. No reason to worry not a care in the world. Just singing away life in a state of infinite indulgence. Oh…and don’t forget the evening cruise on cloud street with the homeboys. Flying in grandeur formations, capturing the attention of all living creatures that bother to look up. However, those are the average birds. The eagle is in its own class. Luxury takes a back seat.

Solitude is cherished rather than the company of mediocrity. Eagles choose the harshest environments; fly high above in thin air, constantly hunting and defending its eminence among the best of the best.

It is easy to conform to the norms; to wish to be like everyone else or to want to emulate someone else. We live in a society where one is expected to act in a certain way, to take certain careers. One is ranked in mediocre standards. What kind of clothes one wears, what kind of vehicle one drives, what kind of job one has, what country club membership one holds, and so on and so forth. I know of individuals who took up golfing just because it would place them in a certain "class" and would enable them to brush shoulders with the rich and affluent. In regress, this is not in any way putting down the merit and benefits of networking. Networking is important for any individual who wants to advance in life but networking to boost egos sets in new lows of mediocrity.

This author is not promoting eccentricities or extricating behaviors but rather implying that it is possible to be normal without feeling like a duplicate. The need for self-identity is mostly expressed in the adolescent years but fades as people decide to blend in with society. The unique behavioral DNA is thus bleached and fades into the darkness.

The fear of being ostracized by friends and family leads many of us to living unhappy lives trying to please the influences in our lives. It is critical for us to just step back and ask us the often-difficult questions we try to avoid. For example, am I happy? Why am I in this career? What do I have to lose? Many a times it is necessary for us to take great risks to achieve personal gains and growth. To put it simply, you were not put on this earth to earn a paycheck although it many times feels that way.

The great leaders and pioneers of our times have many times grown from shoots of simplicity to monumental and influential pillars of mankind. They refused to conform and chose to break away to carve their own destinies. I am a great admire of Bill Clinton, Collin Powell, Nelson Mandela, Jomo Kenyatta, Kwame Nkrumah, Steve Biko and yes… George W Bush. Sometimes when you go through the trials of life, the bullshit falls off like dead skin. It changes your inner core and opens up your mind to a totally different dimension. One thing I despise is being inculcated as to whom I should be. I view conformity with contempt and demand only one thing- the fundamental right to have my own identity. Being yourself is not a luxury or a privilege; it’s your right. You have a right to be you.

To be pressured to be anything else is a licentious and an ignominy to the human race. You are the eagle that flies in lonely skies and traverses paths that few have found. Don’t be afraid; spread your wings and fly high. Lift your head up for you are the eagle among the sparrows. As for the rest of the miserable world, they can take you as you are or leave you in their misguided opinion of who they think you should be. Kapish!



-Jay is a contributor for HipHopRepublican.com

He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

He is a student at the University Of New Mexico

This week, Wictory Wednesday

This week, Wictory Wednesday presents Thelma Drake
for US Congress for the Second District of Virginia.

Representative Drake is running for reelection for her second term in
the Congress and is running against MoveOn backed candidate Phillip
Kellam. Polls indicate this will be a tight race, and from the amount of
money being poured in by MoveOn, a race of importance in 2006.
Rep. Drake has been a supporter of victory in Iraq, rejecting calls to
surrender to terrorists and leave the region in chaos.

By providingsupport that the troops need, it gives the military and administration
the latitude needed to do the hard work of reconstruction.

Also a supporter of free trade, Rep. Drake has voted to create a free
trade zone in South America to further economic development that is
beneficial to all parties. Many protectionists keep railing against the
trade deficit without realizing that the trade deficit does more for
other countries developing their economies than humanitarian aid

could ever do.

Lastly, in the light of the recent debate on immigration, Rep. Drake
gets it. Regulating the flow of immigrants is not xenophobia, it is
common sense. It is one thing to be generous in allowing immigrants to
come here to build a better life. It is another to have no real border
and allow anyone, including terrorists, free reign across the border.
Immigration is healthy for a county, unregulated flaunting of a border is
not.

Please consider supporting
http://thelmadrake.com/">Thelma
Drake in her race for reelection.


GOP Chairman Steps Up His Campaign to Convince Blacks to Join the Party



By: Michael H. Cottman

The Republican Party -- gearing up for the November congressional and Senate elections -- is aggressively taking its message of diversity and inclusion to black audiences across the country.

Last week was no different for the GOP as Ken Mehlman, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, spoke to the National Urban League during its annual convention in Atlanta.

Mehlman told delegates, "The Republican Party is inextricably linked with the journey of the African-American community -- the party of Harriet Tubman, Booker T. Washington, Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglass -- and of Condi Rice, Michael Steele, Colin Powell, Michael Williams, Ken Blackwell, and so many others."

Mehlman is working the proverbial room, part of a broad, methodical strategy to attract black voters. The National Urban League appearance marked Mehlman’s 50th speech to black organizations since 2004.

Whether or not black folks are paying attention depends on who you ask.




"Like the Urban League, the Republican Party wants to help improve people’s lives," Mehlman told BlackAmericaWeb.com. "We want every neighborhood, every ghetto, every barrio to have access to the American dream."

Mehlman’s speech to the Urban League comes a week after President George W. Bush delivered his first speech to the NAACP since he was elected president.

Republicans have been aggressively courting black voters over the past two years in hopes of persuading blacks to join the GOP and abandon the Democratic Party. Bush and Melhman have repeatedly told black voters that Democrats are insincere, and they have stepped-up their rhetoric in preparation for the November congressional and Senate elections.

The GOP feels the party only needs subtle shifts in voting patterns among black voters to elect their political candidates, both black and white.

"The honest feedback I’m hearing its that people are tired of one party taking [black] votes for granted," Mehlman said. "We want to talk about how we can we work together for a common agenda."

Mehlman even met last year with Russell Simmons, founder of Def Jam Records and the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network. The hip-hop industry’s most influential spokesman and one of America’s most successful businessmen, Simmons said he was so interested in Mehlman’s message that he blew off a meeting with Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, that was scheduled for the same day.

Dean told BlackAmericaWeb.com last week that Republicans cannot be trusted.

"Republicans are committed to a 'say-one-thing, do-another' strategy when it comes to the African-American community," Dean said. "Democrats are offering a new direction for America, where our values are reflected not just in our words, but in our deeds and choices."

Stephanie Jones, executive director of the National Urban League’s Policy Institute, said the group invited both Mehlman and Dean.

"It’s very important for our constituents and our delegates to hear all sides of the political debate," Jones told BlackAmericaWeb.com. "It’s important that we listen and learn from everybody, and it’s important for each party to understand our concerns."

The GOP hopes its message translates into votes for three of the GOP’s most high-profile black candidates -- Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, who is running for the U.S. Senate; former NFL Hall of Famer Lynn Swann, who is running for governor of Pennsylvania; and Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth J. Blackwell, who is running for governor of Ohio.

"These are three strong, competitive, outstanding nominees and all three races are highly competitive," Mehlman said.

But Ron Walters, a political science professor at the University of Maryland, has told BlackAmericaWeb.com that all three black Republican candidates will likely lose their respective races.

Walters questioned why Swann was running for Governor with no political experience. Swann has been criticized by the media for dodging interviews and for not completely understanding complex social and health-care issues.

Last week, Steele made headlines after his campaign acknowledged that Steele was the anonymous candidate recently quoted in The Washington Post saying that being a Republican was like wearing a "scarlet letter" and that he did not want President Bush to campaign for him this fall.

According to the Post, asked whether he would invite Bush to campaign for him, Steele replied, considering Bush's low approval rating in Maryland, "to be honest with you, probably not."

But a few days later, Steele reversed his comments, calling Bush his "homeboy."

"If the president wants to come and help me in Maryland, he is more than welcome," Steele said during a radio interview last week. "I’m not going to turn my back on a friend."

Republicans maintained their support for Steele, who has earned a reputation for speaking out and making controversial remarks. Mehlman said the GOP appreciates honest disagreements and Steele’s outspoken views. Melhman added that Republicans do not "walk in lockstep."

"Michael’s comments were taken out of context," Mehlman told BlackAmericaWeb.com. "He will make a great Senator."

According to an article published in The New York Times before President Bush's recent address before the NAACP convention, Mehlman’s message may not be resonating with black folks everywhere.

"Starting after President Bush's re-election in 2004, the party chairman, Ken Mehlman, filled his schedule with appearances before black audiences," according to the Times. "He apologized for what he described as the racially polarized politics of some Republicans over the past 25 years. And the White House, in pressing issues like same-sex marriage to appeal to social conservatives, was also hoping to gain support among churchgoing African-Americans ... But as Mr. Bush is tentatively scheduled to speak at the NAACP convention in Washington this week -- after five years of declining to appear before an organization with which he has had tense relations -- it seems fair to say that whatever the motivation, the effort has faltered.“

"That perception of Republicans as insensitive to racial issues was fed again by the opposition mounted by some House conservatives to an extension of the Voting Rights Act," the Times reported.

Black civil rights leaders and politicians assessed Mehlman’s outreach efforts.

"I have heard Ken Mehlman talk about the Republican Party as the party of Lincoln," Bruce S. Gordon, the president of the NAACP, told the Times. "I have not seen that evidence itself as much as Ken would suggest. If the party wishes to reflect the principles of Lincoln, it has a long way to go."

Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), who attended Harvard Law School with Mehlman, told the Times, "Ken was sincere in wanting to reach out to the African-American community, and it would be a healthy thing if both parties actively competed for the African-American vote. Unfortunately, the agenda of the Republican Party keeps getting in the way of that outreach."

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

The Crisis in the Middle East Summed Up

-If the Arabs laid down their weapons and stopped attacking Israel, there would be peace.

If the Israelis laid down their weapons,
they'd be slaughtered.

Enough said.

Bill Cosby - Chocolate Cake Video

Bill Cosby makes breakfast for his kids.



Another classic, Bill Cosby is truly an American Icon.

VIDEO - 9/11 Deniers Speak - Exposing the Movement






WARNING: THIS VIDEO CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES

-Part0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uFNBpjZCI4

- Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUZnHpkyCp4

- Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8srm5Lk4hM

- Part 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-HmcVtiX-s

- Part 4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr2MZwxJRYI


-Part 5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-HmcVtiX-s

Exposing the 9/11 Truth Movement Cult


This Post is a resource for those who are interested in the facts of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, not in rumors and speculation. It was started to counter the myriad lies and misleading statements put forth by conspiracy-mongers.


http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/defense/1227842.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11,_2001_attacks

http://www.911getthefacts.blogspot.com/

http://jod911.com/


http://www.publiceye.org/conspire/Post911/dubious_claims.html

Was Winston Churchill a Racist?

Martin Luther King - I Have A Dream Speech - MLK Video



Only Winston Churchill's "We shall fight them on the beaches" speech comes even close to the righteous power of Martin Luther King's crowning moment.

Russia, Racism, And Pushkin




BY Chance

Chance blogs at
www.chancellorfiles.com

Chance: Every since the fall of communism in 1989, Russia has seen a major increase in racial hate crimes. The Russian political communist system was replaced with Democracy and Capitalism, and for the first time many Russians got the opportunity to see how the western world (Europe and the Americas) operated economically and politically.

After experiencing the capitalistic system for a few years – many Russians preferred the old system of communism because in the communist system everything is provided for you basically Jobs, health care, education, salaries are set at a certain price and everybody gets paid the same, etc for many Russians this was a good system because the communist government chose your life style and destiny for you. In a communist system everything is predictable so there are no surprises. In a communist system the government provides everything basically.
But the CAPITAL system is different – in the capital system you create your own financial destiny, find your own job, housing, food, clothes, career, and find your own health, etc so you choose your life and destiny. Many Russians for the first time now had to make choices for themselves and they had to choose how to live their lives with out the government telling them, and many Russians found this frightening. The capital system is a part of democracy and democracy lets the person chose for his or herself.

Unemployment has rose among Russians because there were not enough entrepreneurs and investors in Russia who were experienced enough to create jobs in a democracy and capitalistic society. They never had to operate as free entrepreneurs, investors, and business owners in Russia with out the communist government having a say so in what they are allowed to do and not do.

And determining how much money the entrepreneurs, investors, and business owners were allowed to keep for themselves while the communist government keeps the rest. When Russia was communist they never had a billionaire when Russia became a democracy and started using the capital system that when business owners started to become billionaires in Russian. Some Russian business owners and investors became billionaires through oil (oil companies).
(more…)

Democrats Using Blacks as Human Sheilds




Although liberals/democrats like to paint themselves as "the political party for the underdog", it's become fairly obvious over the years that liberals like to play the infamous race card when backed into a corner. They know that being smeared as a racist will destroy anyone's political career...and liberals are never above cheap shots when it comes to trying to get what they want.

Even when it comes to gay marriage, liberals are more than willing to throw blacks into the mix. I can't tell you how many times I've heard a liberal compare the "plight" or homosexuals in America to the civil rights movement. Not only is it ridiculous, but it's extremely offensive to the majority of blacks who are God fearing folks. How can you compare homosexuality to what blacks went through?

Although liberals act as though they're sensitive to the issue of race, their true colors emerge when a black person says he/she is a republican/conservative. Suddenly, the liberals are no longer sinsitive to the issue of race. They'll call you a "slave", an "uncle tom"...I've even had liberals throw racial slurs at me upon learning I was a conservative.

Black Liberals, when are you going to wake up to the truth? When are you going to realize that to liberals, you're nothing more than a political pawn?

Let us not forget which political party freed the slaves, and which one stood by and did nothing....

-Ashley

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=2726800



Hip Hip Mogul Usher meets John Bolton..Video



This event occured at the conservative Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) Martin Luther King, Jr. Reception and Awards Dinner in New York.

Ignorant Protestor's at Bolton Confirmation

Two stupid Americans stood up in protest at the confirmation hearing of John Bolton for the UN Ambassadorship. One protestor said we are the terroist..we..America!!

Democrats use racist Cartoon to blast Liberman

Look at the Photoshop that unhinged Jane Hamsher has posted of Sen. Lieberman at the Huffington Post:



I am so sure the Congressional Black Caucus and the NAACP and the civil rights brigade will be protesting this disgusting use of blackface in political discourse. Oh, wait, never mind.
Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are campaigning against Lieberman, too.

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Black U.S. Labor Organizations Blast Mugabe




Black U.S. Labor Organizations Back Zimbabwe Liberation

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe now has a new American acronym to scorn - CBTU.

The Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) has launched a major campaign to clip Mugabe of his "liberator" image in the African American community by exposing the thuggish actions of his regime against the Zimbabwean people.

CBTU President William Lucy announced that CBTU would aggressively reach out to African American media, labor websites/blogs and other progressive media this summer to get Americans "tuned into the Zimbabwe crisis." Lucy also said CBTU would join other organizations in demonstrations at the Zimbabwe Embassy and other locations.

It is, indeed, a grim picture in Zimbabwe:

80 percent of Zimbabwe's workforce is unemployed. 700,000 urban poor and working class people were made homeless a year ago, when the Mugabe government declared them "rubbish" and destroyed their property.

Fuel and food are scarcer now than ever, with many families living on one meal or less a day.

Over the past the two decades of Mugabe's rule, life expectancy in Zimbabwe has plummeted by nearly 20 years - to an almost unimaginable level of 37 years for men and 34 years for women.

Lucy, who is also international secretary-treasurer of the 1.4 million-member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said,"CBTU will not be a silent witness to this tragedy unfolding on distant soil liberated by heroic freedom fighters. Zimbabwe's people, who are suffering crushing poverty, homelessness, hunger and rampant violations of human and trade union rights, need to know that their cries for help echo in our hearts, no less than those of our sisters and brothers in South Africa who prevailed over the racist apartheid regime."

Lucy was one of the founders of the Free South Africa Movement in the 1980s, which conducted the most effective grassroots anti-apartheid campaign in the U.S. He was also instrumental in raising union revenue to finance Nelson Mandela's historic trip to the U.S. in 1990.

In the 1960s Mugabe became an icon of the Zimbabwe nationalist movement that fought white-minority rule and won independence in 1979. However, his Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) party has tightened its autocratic grip on power as Mugabe's support in urban areas has drastically waned. In 2002, he was reelected in a vote marked by government intimidation of the opposition, a crackdown on the free press, and charges of vote rigging.

Mugabe's descent from icon to despot is wrenching for many black Americans. In the 1960s, a lot of black activists here gave money and claimed solidarity with Zimbabwe's liberation fighters. Josh Williams, president of the Washington, D.C. central labor council, recently returned from a visit to Zimbabwe with a verdict on Mugabe's leadership.

"He [Mugabe] has lost touch with the people," Williams said. "In the past 10 years Mugabe has become a totally different person." Williams, who represented the AFL-CIO at the 25th anniversary convention of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions in May, said "Workers there [Zimbabwe] find it hard to accept that many of them are being beaten, arrested and harassed by the same people that they marched with 25 years ago for [Zimbabwe's] liberation."

Mugabe's hand of repression greeted Williams when he arrived at the airport in Harare. "There were about 20 other labor organizations that sent representatives to the ZCTU convention," Williams said. "But when we arrived at Zimbabwe's airport, 11 delegates were denied admission and sent back home by the government, apparently because they had been critical of past actions taken by Mugabe."

To squelch growing dissent from the displaced urban poor, the trade unions, and farmers whose lands have been confiscated by the military, Mugabe has virtually strangled democracy in Zimbabwe.

Barely two months ago, police officers raided the headquarters of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions. They ransacked the accounts department under the pretense of searching for documents relating to foreign currency transactions and fraud allegations. Union officials believe this attack was designed to remove the current union leadership ahead of the annual meeting last month of the International Labor Organization, which has repeatedly cited the Mugabe regime for violating ILO conventions on freedom of association.

The government's campaign to destabilize ZCTU also includes mass arrests, death threats, and bogus investigations; the threat of imprisonment of leaders; the use of provocateurs to disrupt ZCTU meetings; and the creation of splinter unions to undermine and weaken ZCTU. Government thugs have even assaulted leaders of ZCTU's Women's Advisory Council, injuring one woman so badly that she had to be taken to a clinic for x-rays. ZCTU Secretary General Wellington Chibebe says he has been detained "many times" by the government, targeted for beatings, tortured and received death threats. Chibebe spoke at CBTU's 35th anniversary convention in Orlando, Florida in May.

He told the 1,500 delegates, "It is one thing to be independent. It is another to be free. We are still fighting for our freedom in Zimbabwe." The audience responded with a chorus of "Amen's'" when Chibebe added, "Oppression is oppression, whether by a white person or a black person."

Lucy, who sits on the powerful AFL-CIO Executive Council, said CBTU's Zimbabwe resolution and its invitation to Chibebe to speak to thousands of black workers from every sector of organized labor in the U.S. "upped the ante on Zimbabwe." He added, "It's time we - in the labor movement and in the African American community - said 'Enough is enough: Hands off the workers movement in Zimbabwe!' Bring back peace and democracy in Zimbabwe."

Williams echoed Lucy's call to action, saying "We must peel the veil from Mugabe's regime and then be prepared to fully support our sisters and brothers in Zimbabwe, who, sadly, must liberate their country - again."

Based in Washington, D.C., Dwight Kirk writes on employment and union issues.

Legislation Would Provide Help To Start Minority Businesses



By: Michael H. Cottman

U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), a staunch supporter of opportunities for minorities in America, introduced a sweeping commercial enterprise bill Wednesday to help black students, entrepreneurs – and all people of color – open new businesses.

The Minority Entrepreneurship and Innovation Pilot Program of 2006 would set up a $24 million, two-year pilot program to promote small business development in colleges and universities that serve African American, Native American and Latino communities, according to Cummings’ aides.

“Minority-owned businesses provide real opportunity for individuals, families and communities,” Cummings told BlackAmericaWeb.com. “By supporting their growth, we can begin to reverse the increasing ‘wealth gap’ for good.”


Through $1 million grants, the institutions would provide students in highly skilled fields such as engineering, manufacturing and science money to start their own businesses. The bill also calls for universities to set up Small Business Development Centers to provide counseling and other business-related assistance.


“A great legacy of this country has been the opportunity for ordinary citizens to improve their livelihoods by starting their own businesses,” Cummings said in a statement. “The Minority Entrepreneurship and Innovation Pilot Program of 2006 would give minority communities a chance to build generational wealth through entrepreneurship.”


Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.), an original co-sponsor of the bill, said: “Entrepreneurship is the key to the American Dream and this legislations gives communities that have faced barriers the tools they need to pursue that dream – to develop and start successful small businesses.

Black civil rights activists, such as Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League, and Ron Walters, a political science professor at the University of Maryland, have told BlackAmericaWeb.com that economic empowerment is one of the most critical challenges facing black Americans today.



According to federal government figures, the unemployment rate in June for white workers was unchanged at 4.1 percent. Black joblessness edged up to 9 percent from 8.9 percent, more than double the rate of whites, while unemployment among Hispanics rose from 5 percent to 5.3 percent.



The U.S. Census Bureau also has reported that the poverty rate for black Americans has increased significantly, with the income gap between black and white Americans widening to a ration of 62 percent.


Some activists, including author Michael Eric Dyson have also told BlackAmericaWeb.com that black people – and black men in particular – are still having difficulty finding decent-paying jobs in addition to starting their own businesses.

The New York Times recently reported that Columbia, Princeton and Harvard Universities have all introduced recent studies that suggest black men in America “face a far more dire situation than is portrayed by common employment and education statistics.”

“Although the problems afflicting poor black men have been known for decades, the new data paint a more extensive and sobering picture of the challenges they face,” The Times reported.

“There’s something very different happening with young black men, and it’s something we can no longer ignore,” Ronald B. Mincy, professor of social work at Columbia University and editor of “Black Males Left Behind,” told The Times.

“Over the last two decades, the economy did great,” Mincy said, “and low-skilled women, helped by public policy, latched onto it. But young black men were falling farther back.”



According to The Times, these were the most recent findings from several studies:



*The share of young black men without jobs has climbed relentlessly, with only a slight pause during the economic peak of the late 1990s. In 2000, 65 percent of black male high-school dropouts in their 20s were jobless – that is unable to find work, not seeking it or incarcerated. By 2004, the share had grown to 72 percent, compared with 34 percent of white and 19 percent of Hispanic dropouts. Even when high-school graduates were included, half of black men in their 20s were jobless in 2004, up from 46 percent in 2000.

Incarceration rates climbed in the 1990s and reached historic highs in the past few years. In 1995, 16 percent of black men in their 20s who did not attend college were in jail or prison; by 2004, 21 percent were incarcerated. By their mid-30s, 6 in 10 black men who had dropped out of school had spent time in prison.

In the inner cities, half of all black men do not finish high school.

Meanwhile Cummings, who lives in Baltimore’s inner city, told BlackAmericaWeb.com in a recent interview that the Bush administration should declare the state of black males a national emergency.



“I live in the inner city,” Cummings said, “and I’ve lived in the inner city all my life. It’s not unusual to see 125 black men standing on Pennsylvania Avenue in Baltimore in the middle of the day. Black men are not simply being left behind, they are being completely left out.”


The congressman added that 20 years ago he commission a report on black males, recalling that he said then that he hoped the report didn’t end up on a shelf collecting dust.

“And today,” Cummings said. “The problem is worse.”


Way to go Elijah!

Is Mitt Romney Racist or Stupid?



Angela Winters, a black moderate blogger, writes about controversy in Massachusetts:

"Governor Mitt Romney has had to apologize for making 'Tar Baby' comments about the big dig project. I didn't know people still used these stupid phrases, but enough with the apologies. Everyone knows he didn't mean anything racist by it, but there are just some people who feed off of racism and have to make it the issue. It's not the issue here. The big, money burning, horrific, sorry excuse for a construction project that has now killed someone is the problem. Don't let PC take center stage."

I would like to add also that given Mitt Romney's affiliation with the Mormon faith many black people suspect racism, already.


Here are few quote from the LDS Church past

-"THE NEGROES ARE NOT EQUAL WITH OTHER RACES where the receipt of certain spiritual blessings are concerned, ...but this inequality is not of man's origin. IT IS THE LORD'S DOING, is based on his eternal laws of justice, and grows out of the LACK OF SPIRITUAL VALIANCE OF THOSE CONCERNED IN THEIR FIRST ESTATE

-" LDS "Apostle" Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p. 527 - 528, 1966 edition, emphasis added.


- "Now WE ARE GENEROUS WITH THE NEGRO. WE ARE WILLING that the Negro have the highest kind of education. I WOULD BE WILLING to LET every Negro DRIVE A CADILLAC IF THEY COULD AFFORD IT. I WOULD BE WILLING that they have all the advantages they can get out of life in the world.
BUT LET THEM ENJOY THESE THINGS AMONG THEMSELVES.

-" LDS "Apostle" Mark E. Petersen,

Juan Williams's New Book



It is called Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, And Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America--And What We Can Do About It.

The book by the liberal pundit for National Public Radio and FOX News Channel comes out today.
Random House states: "Half a century after brave Americans took to the streets to raise the bar of opportunity for all races, Juan Williams writes that too many black Americans are in crisis—caught in a twisted hip-hop culture, dropping out of school, ending up in jail, having babies when they are not ready to be parents, and falling to the bottom in twenty-first-century global economic competition. In Enough, Juan Williams issues a lucid, impassioned clarion call to do the right thing now, before we travel so far off the glorious path set by generations of civil rights heroes that there can be no more reaching back to offer a hand and rescue those being left behind.

Inspired by Bill Cosby’s now famous speech at the NAACP gala celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the Brown decision integrating schools, Williams makes the case that while there is still racism, it is way past time for black Americans to open their eyes to the 'culture of failure' that exists within their community. He raises the banner of proud black traditional values—self-help, strong families, and belief in God—that sustained black people through generations of oppression and flowered in the exhilarating promise of the modern civil rights movement. Williams asks what happened to keeping our eyes on the prize by proving the case for equality with black excellence and achievement.

He takes particular aim at prominent black leaders—from Al Sharpton to Jesse Jackson to Marion Barry. Williams exposes the call for reparations as an act of futility, a detour into self-pity; he condemns the 'Stop Snitching' campaign as nothing more than a surrender to criminals; and he decries the glorification of materialism, misogyny, and murder as a corruption of a rich black culture, a tragic turn into pornographic excess that is hurting young black minds, especially among the poor.

"While
one black conservative pundit is angry about the book because he argues that Juan Williams makes it sound like this is a new argument - he basically accuses Mr. Williams of stealing the thunder of black conservatives - I say this book is timely. Such critique should non-partisan and ideologically across the board...as should be the highlight of community groups who are addressing the challenges posed in such books. Good to see a black liberal picking up the themes.

NAACP Ponders Suburb Of D.C.

The NAACP will strongly consider moving its headquarters to a $2 billion office and hotel complex rising along the Potomac River in Prince George's County, President Bruce Gordon said yesterday after an intense lobbying effort by state officials to keep America's oldest and largest civil rights group in Maryland.

Mr. Gordon said the NAACP, which currently has its offices in Baltimore, is determined to to move closer to the center of political power in D.C. But after an hourlong, closed-door meeting with Gov. Robert Ehrlich Jr., Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, Prince George's County Executive Jack Johnson and others, Mr. Gordon said he was convinced that the huge National Harbor project - which includes stores, restaurants and an entertainment complex - could suit the civil rights group's needs.

For Gov. Ehrlich and Lt. Gov. Steele (both conservative Republicans), the effort to keep the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in Maryland has taken on significance much greater than keeping an employer of 115 in the state. Instead, they said, having the nation's oldest civil rights institution in Maryland speaks volumes about the state's place in the history and future of black Americans.

In a year when Maryland saw the opening of the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of African-American History and Culture and the renaming of Baltimore-Washington International Airport for civil rights pioneer Thurgood Marshall, it would be unconscionable to see the NAACP leave Maryland, they said.

Waiting To Exhale - Angela Bassett an Bernie's Plight

One of the best dramatic performances by Angela Bassett in black cinema
of all time



On New Year's Eve, Bernie learns that her husband of 11 years plans on ending their marriage to be with his mistress(secretary). First she's hurt, then she gets angry and last she seeks revenge

Monday, July 31, 2006

Quote of the Day



The weird idea that someone who stands up and respects the Founders' belief that we needed a tribunal beyond human power that would guarantee to every individual, whatever their power, the courage and encouragement to stand fast in their human dignity--the idea that that notion has some resemblance to fanaticism or tyranny or oppression or Khomeini or anything else--shows how far some people are willing to go in order to score points when they don't have a point.

-Ambassador Alan Keyes

Congo-Kinshasa: A New Beginning?

In the best scenario, today's elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with more than 25 million voters, will demonstrate the will of the Congolese people for peace and the possibility of increased stability. In the worst case, the elections themselves may prove a stimulus for further violence. In any scenario, the fundamental issues of building a government that works and fighting poverty and corruption lie ahead.


This AfricaFocus Bulletin contains a report from the UN's Integrated Regional Information Networks on violence in recent months, excerpts from a letter to churches in the Congo from the Reverend Samuel Kobia, general secretary of the World Council of Churches, and the executive summary of the report by the UN on the human rights situation in the Congo for January-June 2006.

For a short background summary on the elections, see http://allafrica.com/stories/200607240156.html

For extensive detailed reports, in English and French, see the website of the UN Mission in the DR Congo (http://www.monuc.org).

For earlier AfricaFocus Bulletins on Congo (Kinshasa) and additional links to news and background data, see http://www.africafocus.org/country/congokin.php

The Verdict is in: Dr. King's Dream Not Yet Realized




Thousands braved the cold Chicago wind and rain to witness the annual emergence of the Rev. Jesse Jackson from his warm winter burrow today. Would his appearance announce that at long last we’ve finally achieved the colorblind Utopia of Dr. King’s dream? Or would it predict another twelve months of righteous race baiting and demagoguery in his endless crusade against racial inequality? There was little hope in the gloomy gray sky, though for a moment the clouds seemed to part and the sun strained to poke through. But then it was gone, as was any chance of seeing the Reverend’s stately shadow this year.

The vast throng of gawkers seemed to sense it, too, and a deep moan of disappointment rumbled through the crowd as Jackson crawled out from a hole in the ground and morosely announced: “Dr. King’s dream has not yet been realized.”

It’s a hard pill to swallow, but it’s true. Black politicians, celebrities, and business leaders alike agreed today that they are still by and large oppressed by The Man. Even though it is subtler and almost impossible to detect, racism still exists in every aspect of our society. Indeed, there is strong anecdotal evidence that we’re still living in 1950’s Mississippi. Mayor Nagin of New Orleans, for instance, knows a guy who knows a guy that couldn’t get a bank loan, then watched as a white man simply drove right up and loaded bags of money into his armored car. Oprah's white hairdresser constantly gives her an attitude, and my cousin’s best friend’s crack dealer was “dissed” at a Piggly Wiggly just this year. While he isn’t certain that it was racially motivated, it makes one wonder if society has progressed at all since Dr. King was gunned down by George Bush’s dad.

There was a time, not so long ago, when we were as close as we’d ever be to realizing Dr. King’s vision of an equal and racially just America. We even had our first Black president, and almost a second. But then came the Chimp, and with him a whole slew of white-sheet Republicans stealing their way into power on the backs of millions of disenfranchised Black voters. Almost overnight, Dr. King’s beautiful dream slipped from our fingers. Black churches burned. Hurricanes plowed into predominantly African-American communities. Black children’s books authors were rounded up and systematically exterminated. Jesse Jackson wasn’t allowed to bring hookers to the White House anymore. Officially, Bush replaced "Hymies" as the source of all Black strife, and the Black community is now just one more Republican peeResident away from horse whips and chains again.

As a progressive and long time crusader for racial equality, I yearn for that bright February morning when Rev. Jackson will crawl out of his hole and announce that he will no longer be requiring vast amounts of money to wage his valiant battle against racism. I’m sure he looks forward to that day as well. Yet there is still a long way to go before Dr. King’s dream of a Black community completely dependent on government hand-outs distributed by Democrat politicians will finally be fulfilled.

When in Doubt..Blame Bush

Now Bush is Putting Arsenic in Fiji's Drinking Water


I was scouring the web for more of Bush’s crimes last night when I stumbled upon an interesting news morsel. It seems that when the City of Cleveland conducted a chemical analysis of Fiji brand bottled water, they discovered that it contains dangerously high levels of arsenic – higher even than our own drinking supply.


Which raises the question: exactly why is Bush poisoning the Fijian people? What heinous plot has he hatched now? The answer didn’t come to me as easily as it usually does. Fiji is a major trade partner with the United States and a member of Bush’s Coalition of the Coerced and the Bribed, with over 17 Fijian troops serving in Iraq. English is the official language of the islands, and Christianity is the predominant religion.

Needless to say, Fijian womyn have no Right to Choose, and thousands of young grrrls are beaten by their grandparents on the way to the back-alley abortionist every year. All they need is a Fijian chapter of the Klu Klux Klan and it'd be a tropical version of Texas. So at first glance, one can find little reason for Bush to target the people of Fiji for extermination.


But bear with me. Proceed to your local library and find Baghdad on the globe. Using an ordinary black marker, draw a line from Baghdad to Crawford, Texas. Now draw another line from Crawford to Viti Levu, the main island of Fiji. Look closely. Notice anything peculiar? I didn’t either, although I was a bit distracted by all the shouting.

Sometimes, what appears to be a Rovian conspiracy against a sovereign nation state is something as simple as Bush merely wanting a few less brown people in the World. We learned that lesson in New Orleans, and Fiji is learning it now.

http://blamebush.typepad.com/blamebush/

Ike Turner On Cindy Sheehan's "Hunger Strike"


by Ike Turner

Cindy Sheehan, Cindy Sheehan, Cindy Sheehan. Everywhere I turn it's Cindy Mother-f---ing Sheehan with her loud mouth and big hunger striking ass. Who gave this trick a microphone and media access? Better yet, who's been slipping her the feed bag filled with gravy-soaked bacon double cheeseburgers?

A hunger strike?

I ain't never seen a hunger strike have the sort of effect on a woman like Cindy's has had on her. If she wasn't able to explain away those propeller marks on her back as a childhood incident that occurred when her daddy 'accidentally' threw her under an outboard motor, I'd swear to God she was a manatee. I'm still suspicious about that alibi. Girl, a little more fasting and I can get you some work as a stunt double in the Fahrenheit 9/11 sequel.
Don't get me wrong, I love a nice
thick woman, but I'd have to put an end to all that yapping pronto. I know it's supposedly a 'new era' where women are allowed to speak their minds and learn things, and all that junk, and I think that's sort of cute. In small doses.


Believe me when I tell you, if she was my woman, I'd have her in check. No travelling around the country to protest the president (last time I checked, the president is a man and where I come from ain't no woman gonna protest a man). No more going on television and giving her opinion on foreign affairs, politics or anything else. Period.


However, just to show her that I am somewhat of an enlightened individual, I am willing to make some concessions. She can still pitch a tent in the back yard of the house and invite her lady friends to sleep over. As many as she'd like and as often as she'd like. Provided, of course, that they get on the Cindy Diet and not Saddam's version (he's still my man, but the boy is starting to look a bit gaunt).


Thanks to: Point Five, Wizbang, Samantha Burns

Sheehan Asked To Haul Ass, Forced To Make Three Trips

"Peace Mom" Cindy Sheehan wows the crowd at her new Crawford, Texas ranch with her patented "boa floss" move from her critically acclaimed burlesque show, "The Gastrointestinal Monologues."


The performance was part of the larger week long festivities from the first annual "I'm Doing This All For You Casey! Pork Barbecue & Hunger Strike Housewarming Extravaganza".

It's hard out here for a pimp

"Martin Scorcese-0, Three Six Mafia-1"

Clearly the line of the night, and one that will resonate in the minds of Academy Award patrons for years to come.

I have to admit, however that there was something profoundly artistic and compelling about 3-6's performance (your thinking...what??). The other day I was disgusted by the fact that they were chosen to perform. After seeing the performance, I had to force myself to ponder the success of this movie, and likewise, this song. What is it about Terrance Howard that America suddenly loves so much? The immediate conclusion is that lightskin black men are back in style (fall back Taye).

But there has to be more to this. 3-6 was so serious about their performance, and we saw (although we didn't understand) their acceptance speech...serious to the point it has me considering the merits of minstrel rap. Think about it...as much as some people hate what we consider to be this degrading representation of black music/culture, have we ever stopped to consider that these dudes might actually be out there pimping, if they we'ren't rapping about it? The fervor in their performance suggests a limited perception of reality and possibilities, that characterizes the mentality of a lot of aspiring minstrel rappers. 3-6, jeezy, TI, and every other minstrel rapper to precede them are essentially all rapping about the same thing- the trap. And like Talib Kweli has so lucidly observed, "the drugs, the basketball, and the rap" is precisely how so many of them envision themselves.

Now I intentionally say "them", as opposed to "we", in spite of the fact that I'm a black male that's a product of an urban environment, which is in fact the mecca for hip hop culture. Although I was a freestyle fanatic myself that had pipe dreams of being a rapper in high school (more so in the mold, of talib, common, canibus, etc.- my idols at the time) I never saw that as the only option, certainly not the most feasible option, and not even the ideal option. The world was never that small to me. And when the only world in which so many urban youth reside- figuratively- becomes increasingly homogenous we have a problem. The problem is not misogynistic, materialistic, and gangsta-ridden hip-hop. The problem is that that sector of hip hop now has a monolopy on all other sectors.

In the 1992 Run DMC song, "Down With the Kings", one of the rappers (forgot who) dropped the line "and after 12th grade I went straight to college." There was nothing taboo about rhyming about college back then. Dumbing down your lyrics was not a priority back then- in fact the opposite was the mantra. That may have been the last time I heard a popular rapper allude to college until Kanye came along. AND RUN DMC WAS COMMERCIAL TOO.

So my point/question is this...although many rappers now abide by the blueprint that Jay Z laid out ("dumbed down to my audience and doubled my dollars"), with the ascent of Kanye, and the "resurrection" of Common, the mainstream may finally have to recognize that "conscious" or "backpacker" (I'll save the problematic contemporary usage of these terms for another post) music is marketable and profitable. But and should they?


Does more Common and less 3-6 mean more lyrics, and more pimping?

Does more Kanye and less Jeezy mean less gangsta music,
but more gangsta activity?

Intereresting stat of the week
# of black homicide victims in 1991: 12,226 (pre-commercialization of gangsta rap)
# of black homicide victims in 2003: 6,912 (post-commercialization of gangsta rap)

Source: FBI

Although I'm one of the most avid opponents of gangsta rap, I think I can tolerate us rapping about killing each other, if it leads to less of us actually doing it. Maybe minstrel rap does more to help than hurt the community than we'd previously thought. Maybe it's time to stop the tirade against BET, before we turn these actors back into gangstas.

Just something to think about.

-Conservative Hip Hop Iconolcast

Send The Boondocks, back to the Boondocks?



Interesting article attacking Aaron McGruder's cartoon series the Boondocks:

http://www.projectrace.com/hotnews/archive/hotnews-061899.php

I'm one of the few products of the hip hop generation I know that's not a huge fan of the Boondocks. My reason for that is I feel its entire success hinges on the fact that the main character is embroiled in a perpetual state of rage.

I mean why does Huey have to be angry ALL the time?

For many young blacks (myself included) anger becomes a stage in our cognitive development, after learning about the history of Africa's diaspora, but is it really necessary to have an entire show devoted to this theme?

Don't we see enough young black male anger in the media already? Although it can be funny at times (such as the R. Kelly episode), it's often counterproductive in its approach. But that's what happens when you try to entertain, persuade, and inform simultaneously. Now some might claim it's making a political cartoon.

I recall Talib Kweli saying on The Beautiful Struggle, "they call me the political rapper even after I tell 'em I don't f*** with politics." Somehow I'm pretty sure Aaron McGruder doesn't f*** with politics either.

The truth is the cartoon is little more than 30 minutes of, "tell 'em why you mad son!" from a someone who was born and raised middle class. McGruder is a pretty clever dude though...

http://cantbeboxedin.blogspot.com/2006_06_01_cantbeboxedin_archive.html

Jigga Man: The New American Dream is becoming old news

I recently received an email announcing a concert commemorating the release of Jay Z first album, Reasonable Doubt. Widely regarded as an unheralded hip hop classic in the mainstream, that true Jigga zealots eschew as possibly his most skillful display of the talent and intelligence he later "dumbed down" in order to "double his dollars", the celebratory concert is being promoted as Hova embodying the new American Dream. Hip hop culture seems to be running with this idea. I most recently found my boy adorned in an Ecko tee-shirt, boldly plastering the statement, "I am the American Dream" across the front.

Indeed, promoting Jay Z as the new American Dream, while celebrating his only album that, at least in retrospect, can't be classified as a mainsteam version of Jigga, is another audacious proclamation of hip hop's omnipresence. The drug rap that Jigga helped to popularize with this '96 album, through songs such as "Can't Knock the Hustle", now has a dominant hold on the industry. As ghostwriter, and underground legend Mad Skillz accurately proclaims "All you cats rap about is cars and crack."

People like Jigga Man should heed the words of artists like Skillz. Hip hop's lack of innovation and diversity these days makes me wonder if its nearing it's end. I was delighted to hear that one of my favorite emcees, Nas will be releasing an album called "Hip Hop is Dead." While I'm confident that Nas is alluding to the art form's almost complete departure from its roots, as opposed to prophesying about the end of its corporate profitablity, I for one am not uncomfortable in asserting that its mass appeal will soon decline if CEO's like Jay Z don't revamp its glorification of nihilism.

That's not to say that gangsta/crack rap and naked misogyny won't have an audience. The underground mix-tape scene isn't going anywhere. However, I know I'm not the only person that's getting tired of seeing the same old thing. I've been tired of it for over 7 years, but it's only been within the past year or two that I've essentially stop paying attention to most of it. And that's primarily because I got tired of seeing neo-minstrels test the limits of vulgarity. I finally realized I had to give up on mainstream hip hop when I heard 3-6 Mafia made a song called "Let's Plan a Robbery."

To each his own. That's my philosophy. However hip hop's overrepresentation of ignorant black people is bound to diminish in the next few years. I don't mean this in an offensive way. The choice to exhude ignorance as an entertainer is obviously a profitable venture, a way out of desperate situations for many, and an exercise in personal freedom. However, middle class negroes hoping to follow in the footsteps of their college educated peer Lil Jon should soon realize that 3-6 Mafia's Oscar might be the climactic point for the idiocy that is unconsciously legitimized and promoted in mainstream American music. In other words, minstrels better milk it for what it's worth while it's still here.

I suspect that one of two things will happen in the near future:

1) Hip hop minstrelsy will become increasingly diversified; or
2) The Kanye Wests will take over and push the 3-6 Mafia's and 50 cents out the mainstream

I see this happening within 3-5 years. I happen to think that the latter is more likely, and companies might finally be realizing that there are limits to the dumbing down of commercially successful music. You want to dumb down to your audience, not be dumber THAN them. Part of me feels that people like 50 and his entourage suspect that the same thing is happening, at least domestically. Hence the childish simplistic marketing ploy of beef. His popularity abroad doesn't appear to be waning, proably because no one in Portugal knows what the hell he means most of the time.

The upside-down popular culture with no regard for norms, public decency and shame that hippies, other white liberals, and black entertainers like Rick James (R.I.P.) created in the aftermath of the turmoil of the late '60s, before hip hop babies like myself were born, was the original version of "wildin' out" that we see being promulgated in hip hop entertainment today. This is the only trickle down effect that's occured in recent decades, a cultural one, not an economic one. Ironically, very few young adults seem to be interested in wildin' out in the club anymore, unlike the Studio 54 days. Then again, not all young adults are ready to behave as such, given the inundation of childish mores in popular culture that serve to keep us in our teen years in mind only. All statistics show how everyone's getting married later, having kids later, and maturing later (myself included) these days. Last time I was in the club, it was clearly much more about posting with a drink in hand. In fact, from what I hear and see (from the few visits I've made to NYC clubs in recent months), it seems like a lot of people are throughly bored in the club nowadays.

Thus, Jigga Man may be celebrating on the outside, but if the absolute flop of Young Jeezy's Thug Motivation suggests anything, the Can't Knock the Hustle era's dominance of hip hop will soon be over. The only hustle record companies might not be able to knock is that of Latino immigrants crashing the borders. Reggaeton anyone?

What is Up in the Horn of Africa?

So what is going on in Somalia anyway you may ask?

We are surprised you wonder because since the early 90s the only time that the whole world actually noticed events in Southern Somalia was when "Blackhawk Down" was released five years ago.

You see, trouble in Somalia was ordained by the absurd national mission forced down Somali throats without interruption from independence on by a succession of dictators - that all collapsed in 1991. That ersatz national destiny required the conquest of all of its more populated and powerful neighbors along with 'Revolutionary Democracy' style idiocies such as 'Somali Scientific Socialism' justifying the dictatorship of a few.

Such silly ideology was bad enough but along with a commitment to eternal war it can be no surprise that Somalis had little chance from the beginning and caused its neighbors quite a bit of bother, Ethiopia in particular. Even though Northern Somalia was able to escape what became a tradition of chaos, Southern Somalia became and remains a mess. Since then there has been a steady, almost imperceptible background drum beat of non crisis like stories about warlords, piracy, entrepreneurs providing basic services where there was no government, secret Al Quaeda training camps and the like.

In the past month or so that has all changed big time.

Where to start ... where to start .... OK, the Usual Suspect Clan Warlords (USCW) lost a battle for control of Mogadishu and eventually most of the region to the New Jack Islamist Warlords (NJIW) that we certainly had never heard of. Not only that, but the US was allegedly helping the USCW and Ethiopia definitely was helping them. Oh, and Eritrea was aggressively arming the NJIW in a bid to outflank Meles Inc (actually at this point it seems, just to mess with Ethiopia for hell of it).

The NJIW commenced immediately to vigorously attack Coca Cola drinkers, movie watchers, soccer fans, all females of our species and all men who did not immediately realize what they should have known all along. Namely that if the NJIW said jump - the only appropriate response was an ecstatic and obedient "how high?" Just imagine - the NJIW made even the USCW and Siad Barre 'regimes' look like great liberal democracies in a matter of days.

According to the USCW, Eritrea was joined by Egypt and Saudi Arabia in aiding the NJIW and according to many others the latter had some rather unsavory connections to international terror. As the USCW were being chased across the region, the UN backed (alert the media!), Ethiopian supported, For Real Somali Government in Internal Exile (FRSGIE) welcomed Ethiopian troops sent by Meles Inc. into Baidoia (the FRSGIE capital) and environs.

Meles Inc., however, denied it was attempting any hostile takeovers at all. The FRSGIE said that it was all a mistake due to Ethiopian donated uniforms on its own soldiers while Meles Inc. denied the whole thing with the same straight face it used to deny everything from blocking blogs onto keeping 70 million hostages. A few tame reporters claimed to see nothing but there could have been a legion of Galactic Storm Troopers straight from the Clone Wars right next door for all they were allowed to see.

An old Soviet cargo plane from Kazakhstan loaded with Eritrean arms landed in Mogadishu with goodies for the NJIW along with possibly hundreds of Eritrean troops. FRSGIE ministers started getting killed by somebody, many FRSGIE membere resigned in protest against Meles Inc. troop deployments, some USCW changed sides several times and claimed to be winning and the NJIW declared a jihad against Ethiopia.

Meles Inc. wanted to change the subject from its own bloody dictatorship to just about anything else to finance itself ... and 'fighting terrorism' was rather conveniently waiting right there next door ... especially as the US Congress was considering a bill to sanction the Meles Inc. corporate board for its violent business practices.

The New Jack Islamist Warlords wanted attention ... negative attention from the West and Ethiopia could be turned into positive attention from many other circles in the form of cash ... the invasion by Meles Inc. provided a perfect opportunity to have a real live jihad and to define authentic Somali-ness all at the same time.

This came from Foggy Bottom recently via Nazret
"There are many foreign elements in Somalia right now," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer said, citing reports Ethiopia was sending troops to back the interim government and Eritrea arms for rival Islamists.

"Neither the Union of Islamic Courts nor the Transitional Federal Government can take the high ground by saying the other is violating Somali sovereignty...they've all invited in foreigners, all been backed by foreign forces," she added.
Unless there is some really deep double game being played here it seems that Meles Inc. went into Somalia all on its own. However much Ethiopia's relatively professional army may dominate the field it is simply crazy to imagine Ethiopia sustaining a force in Somalia over time as foreign opposition mounts. Beyond that the attributes of a regular military force would mean little near or in Mogadishu.

Either the expense or logistics or political cost (or all three), of a sustained fight away from the border are well beyond the capacity of Ethiopia's expeditionary force and regime. It would not be humanitarian concerns like those that held back the UN and the US back in the early 90s that would turn back such an Ethiopian force. Unlike the US Rangers and the UN force that took casualties to spare collateral damage, Meles would not hesitate to raze all of Mogadishu to stay in power and collect cash for another day.

Meles Inc. has given all combative and peaceful Somali's the perfect reason to fight to the bitter end. That marks the criminal error of an invasion that costs almost as much if it doesn't go past the border and nothing is accomplished as if it does achieve its nebulous purposes ... Meles has invaded their country just because he did not approve a their potential government - no Somalis, including the temporary allies of Meles Inc will like that in the end.

Unlike Afghanistan, there is no history here of the NJIW supporting international terror (bombings in Ethiopia are generally carried out by the government and blamed on the villian of the moment). Unlike Iraq there is no history here of flouting the UN or waging aggressive international war or of using WMDs. Unlike with Hezbollah or with Chechnyan Islamists, there is no history of sustained acts of terror.

Meles has invaded Somali without any pretext at all that could be sustained in the most forgiving of forums. Via Nazret, this Economist article makes it clear that even those occasional Meles Inc. apologists aren't letting the wool be pulled over their eyes this time around,
Both the Ethiopians and the Islamists have something to gain from fighting. Ethiopia, which has often meddled in Somalia, is one of the world's oldest Christian-led countries, though it has many Muslims too. A war against militant Islam in the region might make it a useful ally of America, bringing cash and diplomatic support. It would also be quite a coup for the prime minister, Meles Zenawi, since America's Congress recently passed a bill condemning his government as an undemocratic abuser of human rights, which it is.
Does this herald an overall 'coming to their senses' phase for the international media after years of breathlessly false 'at least Meles is making the trains run on something resembling a schedule' and 'what a cute & brave former guerrilla fighter he is' nonsense ... we won't hold our breath waiting but every bit of reality is welcome.

Although we are bound to be sympathetic to long standing Ethiopian interest vis a vis Somalia and although we are also supportive of American interests in the War on Terror it seems to us that the policies of Meles Inc. will make everything far worse for everyone. Previous Ethiopian governments going back centuries (even including the reality and mentally challenged Dergue) avoided invading Somalia and did not even intervene except in the most exigent circumstances - and then only temporarily - without a proxy government to prop up.

Not out of fear mind you, but out of common sense because going into Somalia, just like going into any neighbor is like sticking a hand in a hornet's nest. Meles has gone into Somalia with no provocation on an uncertain mission with no end or even clear aim. One miscalculated purpose is finely tuned to influencing Congress with the current parade of tame supposed 'opposition' politicians while the real ones fear death in jail. Another may be a reflexive sense of competition with the former allies of Meles Inc. in Eritrean government.

Whatever the reason this was not thought out well - unless the reason is just to create and perpetuate crisis and instability with the purpose of being seen by the world as both the guarantor of the status quo and its principal manipulator as well. All to the tune of billions of Euros and Dollars and many more years to collect them and ship them into banks and properties abroad.

....................................

One last point about messes that Meles Inc. has and always will be getting Ethiopia and the world into ... because of the tribal based policies and politics of Meles Inc., Ethiopia has become a country which is legally / constitutionally only a barely legitimate collection of bantustans that can become independent at will for any reason at all or for no declared reason at all by anyone from the regional down to the neighborhood level.

In real terms the government uses that potential for chaos as a threat and uses brutal extra-legal means of its own making to hold it all together outside of the absurdities of current 'law'. Like the Sword of Damocles hung over one ruler to teach humility, utter disintegration awaits Ethiopia if it succeeds in getting rid of Meles Inc. - or so Meles Inc. would have us believe - Ethiopia is far more resilient than that.

But ... accepting the espoused logic of Meles and his government ... it seems like the 'Revolutionary Democratic' thing to do would be too ask the people of the Somali Killil what they want and accept that judgement regardless of the larger national interest. They probably wouldn't want to do so but maybe they want to join the Eastern third of Ethiopia immediately to the USCW or the NJIW or to the FRSGIE.

Or given the logic of the Ethiopian constitution, an equally legitimate case is a seat in the UN for any group of kids in Gode or Bishoftu or Adwa or Debre Birhan (or even on Bole Road) who play marbles or soccer together fairly regularly and who feel they have a right to form an independent country. After all, that is what it says in the Meles Inc. constitution right? Confused yet? If you are not you should be.

It is 'governments' and 'leaders' such as these that make us wish conflicts between dictators and aspiring dictators could only be settled by single combat with the victor and vanquished both being shipped off to Devil's Island afterwards. Ethiopia and Somalia (with the exception of Northern Somalia) have never gotten on too well and Somalia has never had a friendly border for that matter.

None of the 'leaders' in question has even a vanishing connection to the interests of the people they supposedly act for. Throughout most of living memory - nation, ideology, tribe, clan and now religion have been the tools of heartless men for the purpose of their personal power.

That is what is up in the Horn of Africa.


http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"I wish Cam'ron spent his vast money holding press conferences, dissing punk ass Congress for taking tainted money from Verizon, SBC, and Comcast instead of going after Jay-Z. Im glad Jay-Z ignored Camron, unfortunately he remained silent as the President of Def Jam on this important issue."


-Davey D on the hip hop commmunity's failure to respond to Congress's attempt to override Internet neutrality

http://community.allhiphop.com/showthread.php?t=264305

Keep it up and the Internet will become another heavily regulated private entity with restrictions on free speech.

Liberals and urban schooling:

Just another reason why I left the Left


http://www.educationsector.org/analysis/analysis_show.htm?doc_id=376661

This is a very revealing and honest interview with a Democratic coucilwoman from NYC. For years everyone has been arguing that the problem with inner city schooling is unequal funding. Logically, this has always bothered me, because it seemed to imply that increasing funding alone will improve education. Well in recent years, much research has surfaced to show that the conventional wisdom is WRONG. WRONG WRONG WRONG.

Conservatives, and free-market advocates have repeatedly questioned this notion by claiming that the monopoly on public education is an even bigger problem, but have the Democrats budged? Nope. Meanwhile, low-income, minority kids continue to suffer, because of an uncritical assertion that more money is the answer to everything. Well, over the past several years school funding in many urban areas has come close to being leveled off and we haven't seen much improvement.

It should come as no surprise that in NYC, Republican Mayor Bloomberg, a business guru prior to his political days, instituted reforms centered on accountability, decentralization, and smaller schools and, what do you know...test scores are rising. This is one of the primary reasons why I left the Left. Education and economic issues have led me to be somewhat of a moderate-conservative. Of course people don't vote on this stuff. They vote on gay marriage, flashy smiles, and statements from Hillary Clinton insulting the intelligence of black people by saying, "The Republicans are running Congress like a plantation!" Yes, we know the Republicans are failures. But can you address something substantive when you come to Harlem?

One of the best books I've read about the urban education policy is "No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning", published in 2003. It is an eye-opening account of how big bureacracies are failing inner city kids, along with a plethora of other factors that liberals are too scared to address because of political correctness, among other things. First it was open-ended welfare, then it was the public school monopoly...what has the Left done in the past several decades to help low-income people? Why are they insistent on keeping kids in failing schools, by limiting school choice?

New Age moderate Democrats, like Cory Booker in Newark, recognize that items like vouchers are essential, in the short-run, until broad reforms occur. Hopefully he won't allow himself to be intimidated by teachers unions, who are highly responsible for the slow process of school reform because they are a leading Democratic interest group.

But this is only part of the story. As I aspire to enter the arena of policy, I've been doing a lot of research on educational reform and policy. There are a lot of problematic issues with liberal politicians. This is why I'm independent, and will not vote for Democrats simply because my parents did. We have to be a little more critical of their policies.

One of the most interesting things to ever come out of Dubya's mouth was his call for "compassionate conservatism." At the time he uttered this, I was college student, and a close-minded liberal that thought Republican = racist, evil capitalist at all times. So, like many of us, I saw through this empty rhetoric about him being compassionate, which he obviously hasn't been. But it's an interesting concept. Here's a good article on what differentiates "compassionate conservatism" from "liberal paternalism" and the welfare state:

http://www.city-journal.org/html/15_2_compassionate.html

Mayor's plea to stop gun violence.

In a sad sign of the times the African American mayor John Street of
Philadelphia appeared on local televison to ask that the gun violence in his city
stop.


Watch his impassioned plea for peace by clicking this link

_Mayor's Plea_ (http://www.letstalkhonestly.com/page/page/1307246.htm)

Saturday, July 29, 2006

Bolton Bitch Slaps John Kerry



Kerry is defending Clinton's policy of accepting an agreement with the North Koreans that even the Clinton administration didn' believe they would keep.

Typical Kerry, he walks knowing little except his staff's memo.
Bolton is one awesome dude.
Best damn "ambassador" we've had in a long, long,long,long,
long,long time.

DoD Report: 50 Trucks Carried Iraqi WMD To Syria

DoD Report:

50 Trucks Carried Iraqi WMD To Syria The following is a translation of a newly posted Iraqi document done by an "unofficial" translator.

The document, posted in Arabic, is from a Department Of Defense program.

In the document an Iraqi opposition source working in Syria reports on the movement of Iraqi trucks to Syria before the start of the US invasion of Iraq.

It is his understanding that the trucks contained proscribed weapons of mass destruction. The translation is dated July 13 — probably 2003.

But the original document is dated March 14th, 2003. (Moharram 10th is the tenth day of the Muslim New Year, which in 2003 began on March 4th.)

The International Coalition Forces attacked Iraq on March 20, 2003.

What exactly is an "unofficial" translator?

When it is not CAIR approved?

Link:

http://www.sweetness-light.com/archive/dod-report-50-trucks-carried-iraqi-wmd-to-syria

Documents:

http://static.flickr.com/62/200505473_51a5c9b170_o.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/78/200505419_f83b5ee970_o.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/71/200492554_d83926db9e_o.jpg

Friday, July 28, 2006

Hip-Hop in Education: Do You Wanna Revolution?



So while we're on the subject of books (a subject I just can't seem to shake lately), I want to recall a recent topic of spicy debate. In all that I do and discuss these days, my favorite hat to wear is the young "millennial" one. That is, by most adults' standards, the rebellious, misunderstood generation cap. This is also where I usually contend with my fellow conservative associations.

A few weeks back, it
came to light that a summer school program in Worcester, MA made "gangsta rap" a part of their curriculum when they placed one of Tupac's collections of poetry, The Rose That Grew from Concrete on their summer reading list. Many people have already tackled the subject of Tupac's poetry being used in the public system. Last month, author and columnist Michelle Malkin delivered a scathing report in her article 2 Lazy 2 Teach.


The backlash was interesting, yet typical. Conservatives got on their moral high horses and spouted their "infinite wisdom" on how we should be teaching, while the usual Tupac lovers emerged from their dens of mourning to defend his honor.

Neither reaction has produced any fruit in my opinion. I have yet to see useful dialogue in this whole topic of the hip-hop generation. I love Michelle Malkin as much as the next, but she and I dissent on a couple of things, and neither of them is Tupac. Due to the hat I wear, I need to come at this from another direction.

(Before we go anywhere, let's clarify the difference between rap and hip-hop. Rap is the act of saying rhymes to the beat of music. Seems rather basic and amoral when you put in those terms doesn't it? Hip-Hop on the other hand, is a four-part cultural movement. It encompasses breakdancing, graffiti art, rapping (aka emceeing) and DJ-ing. For those interested,
Rap New Direct has a more in-depth look at the differences.)

The first mistake intellectuals (especially conservatives) make when discussing the topic of slain rapper Tupac Shakur, is to write him off as just that; a slain rapper. Not so boys and girls. Unfortunately, he's a Hip-Hop icon. There has yet to be another person to enter the sphere of hip-hop with the same cross-cultural effect on the masses.

Tupac was a prophet of doom and voice to his generation. Albeit a hurt and wounded voice that cried vapid declarations and lies, he managed to slip in some tangible truth every now and then. That is of course, the essence of true deception.

With lyrics seeping in anger, he empathized with the fatherless generation, dated his gun, called his own dad a "nigga", and ultimately prophesied his own death. Truth be told, an unsettling percentage of my generation related to this, or related to the "fantasy" of this (white folks included). I never did, although I knew some of his lyrics even without owning any of his albums. The guy was everywhere. He was tangible, palpable, and "real"--as real as you can be when you don't even know yourself.

Listening to Tupac's music alone MAKES you want to be angry. This is an artist who even in his death continues to hold his listeners in bondage. I call him the "Black Elvis", referencing the masses' inability to accept his death. There continue to be numerous theories around the validity of his death and his "second-coming" (warning sign for cult activity). I'm sure it doesn't need to be said, but I'll say it any way. Tupac is dead. Gone. In the grave, and probably in a place you don't want to be. The legacy he's left is more of a stronghold than anything else. I would argue that he's the single most prominent rapper to touch my generation. Hands down. The bells don't go "rah-rah" for this one. It's a sad reality.

The Worcester, MA school's decision to add Tupac's poetry to their reading list is embarrassing and irresponsible. Let's just get that on the table. Conceptually, this attempt to be "hip" and "relevant" is like shooting blanks in the dark. Not because they're using alternative text, but because they're using text steeped in death, lies, and anger.

In her
article, Michelle Malkin writes,"The presumption that children -- and particularly inner-city children -- can only be stimulated by the contemporary and familiar smacks of lazy elitism and latent racism. These educators, and I use that term as loosely as gangster rappers wear their pants, are clearly more interested in appearing cool than in inculcating a refined literary sense in students. Their aim is not enlightenment but dumbed-down ghetto entertainment."May be true. In fact, probably true. I don't trust most educators as far I can throw them. But let's be careful here. Hip-Hop doesn't equal dumbing down. Is this instance, that may be their motive, but this is not a black and white issue (take that for face value please).

In fact, given the right lyricist, rap is one of the most intelligent music genres out there right now. I don't say that lightly. Hip-Hop embodies something more than just rap. It's a movement, and it's full of messages. We can choose what those messages should be. Right now, the dominating message is self-destruction.

In terms of Malkin's comments on elitism, I actually think we teeter on the line of elitism when we begin to define what forms of writing can't be considered poetry. It's like the discussion on what art is. In school I read poets, (white men mind you) who were raving lunatics of death, high on every drug imaginable. Yet we consider them great poets. I'm not suggesting Tupac is, but our standards are questionable.

Let me tell you where conservatives get in trouble. They can't disassociate rap's co-conspirators with the artform. "Gangsta rap" and various other offshoots of the original art form have given the genre a bad rap--if you know what I mean. In its purest form however, rap is amoral. Like money, it's merely a magnifier or in some cases, a modifier of its owner. Most conservatives don't see this.

My new found friend, Avery Tooley of the
Conservative Brotherhood discussed Malkin's column in a piece he wrote called Et Tupac?. Avery's my resident music buff, so he breaks it down gently,

"I've seen Michelle Malkin on television before (thank the Lord for good eyesight!), so I'm pretty sure that her beef here is not with the selection of Tupac specifically, she doesn't like the idea of using hip-hop in the classroom, period. Once again, if somebody doesn't like hip-hop, they just don't like it. That's a matter of taste. However, I think it's intellectually dishonest to suggest that hip-hop is somehow unsuitable for classroom consumption, particularly if a person doesn't listen to it enough to distinguish between the genres within hip-hop.

Certainly there are elements of hip-hop that lack substance, and unfortunately that's what gets the most attention and makes the most money, but there's a whole lot of other records that could be useful in a classroom context. I know when I was teaching math, I couldn't wait to ask the kids what Redman meant when he said, 'I hit the spot like x,y.' It's not all idiot stuff."Avery's perhaps said it better and more nicely than I would. Once again, this is a place where conservatives and I part ways. I don't agree with teaching Tupac in secondary school, but I also don't agree with our marriage to Westernized teaching structures. Growing up, I could memorize song lyric upon lyric, but yet struggled through the Pre-Amble of the constitution. Even today, I memorize things better if I know a corresponding song or set it to a mental beat. Music is a powerful medium. This was the success of shows like Sesame Street and School House Rock.

Mnemonic devices and teaching methods involving music and culture are probably the most untapped area in the arena of education. Hip-Hop has quickly become the top selling musical form amongst all races. Even in all its accompanying garbage, there's something we need to take heed of about the culture. Toyota, Pepsi, Sprite, Chrysler, and McDonald's have realized it. Hip-hop is the next wave of everything. It's not going to die down as analysts have predicted.

If you thought you were uncomfortable now, just you wait. Thankfully, in the midst of the foolishness, there are people who are being raised up to set a righteous standard lyrically, and in lifestyle. Their albums sit in my collection as we speak. Mark my words. The first person who can package hip-hop in a way that teaches a difficult classroom subject will be a multi-millionaire. You can quote me on that.


http://www.nykola.com/archives/000144.html

Miss Indonesia under fire over 'insulting' Islam


Insulting to Islam??

Sharia Alert from modern, moderate Indonesia. From Reuters, with thanks to David:
A MILITANT Islamic group has filed a police report against Indonesia's Miss Universe candidate, accusing her of indecency.

Nadine Chandrawinata's participation in the contest and display of her body in a swimsuit "is actually insulting for Indonesian dignity and women", Islamic Defenders Front lawyer Sugito said yesterday.

Ms Chandrawinata did not make it to the competition's final in Los Angeles on Sunday, which was won by Miss Puerto Rico, but she had drawn heavy media coverage in Indonesia.


Mr Sugito said the Islamic Defenders Front had also filed complaints against four people involved in sponsoring and organising Ms Chandrawinata's participation.
Under Indonesian law, police would have to investigate whether there was sufficient evidence for a case under the complaint, and if so, turn their findings over to prosecutors for a decision on whether it merited going to court.


The offences carried potential sentences ranging from two to six years in jail, Mr Sugito said. The posing requirements of the competition offended the standards not just of Islam but of other religions, he said.

A government decree against participation in beauty contests issued when strongman Suharto was president is still technically in effect in Indonesia, although in practice it has been disregarded since he lost power in 1998.

Video: Matthews Vs Coulter



Conservative women sure do seem to bring out the tiger in him, don’t they?
Two bits of advice for AC. One, it’s time for a new dress.

And two, the idea that we shouldn’t focus too closely on words isn’t the most persuasive defense coming from a writer.



Memo to Media: You are being used

Memo to Media: You are being used

Found in documents secured from one now-deceased Al Zarqawi:

1. To improve the image of the resistance in society, increase the number of supporters who are refusing occupation and show the clash of interest between society and the occupation and its collaborators. To use the media for spreading an effective and creative image of the resistance.

Mainstream Media can pretend that it is objective and non-partisan in all matters. However that position is only valid as long as all parties being covered recognize that position. Islamofascists do not even pretend to honor such a position. Media outlets exist as a tool for their propaganda efforts. It’s to your best interest to recognize this and act accordingly.

Great Signs




Dark skin 'does not block cancer'

Contrary to common perception, people with dark skin are more likely to die from skin cancer than those with fairer skin, warn US researchers.
Although the disease is less common, when it does occur it is typically more aggressive and diagnosed later, which leads to more deaths, they explain.

The Cincinnati University work is a warning to anyone who wrongly assumes skin tone makes some immune to cancers.

Experts advise people of all races to protect their skin from sun damage.

Misconception

Lead researcher Dr Hugh Gloster said: "There's a perception that people with darker skin don't have to worry about skin cancer, but that's not true.

"Minorities do get skin cancer, and because of this false perception most cases aren't diagnosed until they are more advanced and difficult to treat.

"Unfortunately, that translates into higher mortality rates."

He said it was true that the extra pigment in darker skin did afford some added protection against the sun's harmful UV rays and that darker skin is, therefore, less susceptible to sunburn.

But he said this should not lull people with darker skin into a false sense of security.

Dark skin has increased epidermal melanin which provides a natural skin protection factor (SPF) - a measure of how long skin covered with sunscreen takes to burn compared with uncovered skin.

Very dark, black skin has a natural SPF of about 13 and filters twice as much UV radiation as white skin, for example.

Sun protection

However, health experts advise people to use sunscreen with an SPF of at least 15.

Dr Gloster told a meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology in San Diego that doctors should make sure that all of their patients, regardless of race, use sunscreen and self-check for skin cancers.

This study shows that even people with darker skin need to be aware of the signs of skin cancer

Ed Yong, cancer information officer at Cancer Research UK

Malignant melanoma, the most aggressive form of skin cancer, can present differently in different races.

Fairer-skinned people may notice a change in a sun-exposed mole, whilst darker-skinned people might develop the cancer on areas protected from the sun such as the soles of the feet.

There are over 70,000 new cases of skin cancer diagnosed each year in the UK, making it the most common type of cancer.

Ed Yong, cancer information officer at Cancer Research UK, said: "This study shows that even people with darker skin need to be aware of the signs of skin cancer.

"Although those most at risk of skin cancer are people with fair skin, lots of moles or freckles or a family history of the disease, it is also important for black people to check their skin regularly.

"Black people are most likely to develop skin cancers on the palms of their hands or the soles of their feet.

"Checking your skin for unusual changes is crucial as it can mean that the disease can be spotted earlier, when it is easier to treat."





Thursday, July 27, 2006

Bush Signs Voting Rights Act

(AP)— President Bush on Thursday signed legislation extending for 25 years the Voting Rights Act, the historic 1965 law which opened polls to millions of black Americans by outlawing racist voting practices in the South. "Congress has reaffirmed its belief that all men are created equal," he declared.

Bush signed the bill amid fanfare and before an South Lawn audience that included members of Congress, civil rights leaders and family members of civil rights leaders of the recent past. It was one of a series of high-profile ceremonies the president is holding to sign popular bills into law.

The Republican controlled Congress, eager to improve its standing with minorities ahead of the November elections, pushed the bill through even though key provisions were not set to expire until next year.

"The right of ordinary men and women to determine their own political future lies at the heart of the American experiment," Bush said. He said the Voting Rights Act proposed and signed by then-President Lyndon Johnson in 1965 "broke the segregationist lock on the voting box."

With the Republican Party's majority status in Congress in jeopardy and Bush's approval ratings low, the White House has turned to the South Lawn to provide a high-profile backdrop for signing popular bills into law.

Later in the day, Bush is to sign another bill sure to resonate with voters in this congressional election year: legislation establishing a national Internet database designed to let law enforcement and communities know where convicted sex offenders live and work.

By contrast, Bush chose to exercise the first veto of his 5 1/2 years as president in privacy last week, no audience, no cameras, no reporters. The bill he vetoed would have expanded federally funded research of embryonic stem cells, which is opposed by social conservatives but has wide support among the rest of the public.

White House officials said an open ceremony to veto a bill seemed inappropriate, although other presidents have done just that. Forty minutes after the Oval Office veto, Bush gave a major address on the issue in the East Room, open to the press and surrounded by families who have "adopted" leftover frozen embryos and used them to bear children.

In May, Bush took to the South Lawn to sign into law a bill that extended $70 billion in previously passed tax cuts. That package was also seen by Republicans as an opportunity to boost the popularity of the president and the Republican-controlled Congress

The South Lawn is hardly a common venue for presidential bill-signings, which usually occur in an office building next to the White House or, for particularly important legislation, in the East Room. The majestic backyard of the White House is typically reserved for pomp-filled welcoming ceremonies for foreign leaders or large social affairs like the annual Easter egg roll.

On Wednesday, workers scurried to get the expanse of lawn ready for the Voting Rights Act signing, setting up water stations and a large stage for Bush and the bill's primary supporters.

The list of some of the 600 expected guests reads like a who's-who of prominent black leaders and civil rights veterans: the Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson; friends and relatives of Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks; Dorothy Height, the longtime chairwoman of the National Council of Negro Women; and National Urban League head Marc Morial. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, despite its rocky history with Bush, was sending several representatives, including current president Bruce Gordon, chairman Julian Bond and former head Benjamin Hooks.

The White House also anticipated heavy participation from Capitol Hill, where a long line of lawmakers were looking for a chance to share the spotlight.


Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


As usual the Democrats pushed there way to the fron of the line,
to get there picture taken, they will then attack Bush next week
claiming he was "forced" to sign the bill. As usual history will be rewritten
and Republicans will still be called racist.

A perfect example of the the rewriting of history is Edward Blum who says the Bush administration has really done a flip-flop on this," a senior fellow at the Center for Equal Opportunity who.

Mr Blum is no doubt a democrat, who uses he profession to bash Republicans.

"This is not where he was, and this is not the kind of philosophy that then-Governor Bush had when it comes to getting Texas out from under the thumb of the federal government."

Given that Texas was Democrat for many years I am sure the Democrats
opposed it the longest, but Mr. Blum will play dead on this fact.

Democrats opposed the Civil Rights Act.

by R.D. Davis

Former basketball star and current Democratic presidential candidate Bill
Bradley hasn't fouled an opponent on the basketball court in years, but
lately he's fouling the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Bradley claims the
congressional vote on the Act led to which political party he would join.

Oh, really?

On October 9, 1999 at an Iowa Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner, Bradley
exclaimed: "I remember the exact moment that I became a Democrat. It was the
summer of 1964; I was an intern in Washington between my junior and senior
year in college.


And I was in the Senate chamber the night the 1964 Civil
Rights Act passed that desegregated public accommodations in America... And
I became a Democrat because it was the party of justice. It was Democrats
that stepped forward that evening in the Senate and cast their vote that
washed away the stain of segregation in this country."


I believe that Democrats have lied about who supported the Civil Rights Act
for so long that they actually believe their lies. But anytime this lie is
retold, I feel compelled to debunk it. So here we go again...

The Congressional Quarterly of June 26, 1964 (p. 1323) recorded that, in the
Senate, only 69% of Democrats (46 for, 21 against) voted for the Civil
Rights Act as compared to 82% of Republicans (27 for, 6 against). All
southern Democratic senators voted against the Act.

This includes the current senator from West Virginia and former KKK member Robert C. Bryd and former Tennessee senator Al Gore, Sr. (the father of Bradley's Democratic
opponent).

Surely young Bradley must have flunked his internship because
ostensibly he did not learn that the Act's primary opposition came from the
southern Democrats' 74-day filibuster. In addition, he did not know that 21
is over three times as much as six, otherwise he would have become -
according to the logic of his statement - a Republican.

In the House of Representatives, 61% of Democrats (152 for, 96 against)
voted for the Civil Rights Act; 92 of the 103 southern Democrats voted
against it. Among Republicans, 80% (138 for, 34 against) voted for it.

Since Bradley was interning in the Senate, why doesn't he remember the major
role the Republicans played in fighting for civil rights?

During the Eisenhower Administration, the Republican Party made more progress in civil rights than in the preceding 80 years. According to Congressional Quarterly,
"Although the Democratic-controlled Congress watered them down, the
Administration's recommendations resulted in significant and effective civil
rights legislation in both 1957 and 1960 - the first civil rights statutes
to be passed in more than 80 years" ("The Republican Party 1960 Civil Rights
Platform," May 1964).

It reported on April 5, 1963 that, " A group of eight
Republican senators in March joined in introducing a series of 12 civil
rights bills that would implement many of the recommendations made in the
Civil Rights Commission report of 1961."

The principal measures introduced by these Republicans broadened the Civil
Rights Act of 1964, making it "designed to pass unlike Democratic 'public
relations' attempts" (CQ, February 15, 1963, p. 191). Republican senators
overwhelmingly "chided" President John Kennedy about his "failure to act in
this field (civil rights).

" Republican senators criticized the Kennedy
Administration's February 28, 1963 civil rights message as "falling far
short" of the Civil Rights Commission's recommendations and both party
platforms.

"If the President will not assume the leadership in getting
through Congress urgently needed civil rights measures," the Republican
senators said, " then Congress must take the initiative" (CQ, April 5, 1963,
p. 527).

At the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson
praised the Republicans for their "overwhelming" support. Roy Wilkins,
then-NAACP chairman, awarded Republican Senate Minority Leader Everett
Dirksen of Illinois the Leadership Conference of Civil Rights Award for his
"remarkable civil rights leadership.

" Moreover, civil rights activist Andrew Young wrote in his book
An Easy Burden that "The southern segregationists
were all Democrats, and it was black Republicans... who could effectively
influence the appointment of federal judges in the South" (p. 96).

Young added that the best civil rights judges were Republicans appointed by
President Dwight Eisenhower and that "these judges are among the many unsung
heroes of the civil rights movement."

The historical facts and numbers show the Republican Party was more for
civil rights than the Democrats from "the party of justice," as Bill Bradley
called it. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, in reality, could not have been
passed without Republican votes.

It is an "injustice" for contemporary Democratic politicians
and the liberal news media to continue to not give
the Republicans credit for their civil rights triumphs.

Now is the time for Republicans to start informing black Americans
of those historical triumphs to lead them back to their "home party."

http://www.nationalcenter.org/NVDavisBradley1299.html