Hip Hop Republican » Commentary on Music, Politics & Culture

"Black Republican Candidates in 2012"

2012-01-23T07:37:00.003-05:00

The candidate list does not constitute an endorsement by Republicans for Black Empowerment. This information is provided for informational purposes only.

NOTE: Click on image to go to campaign site.

Join the NYC Rally to Protest SOPA

2012-01-18T08:55:00.001-05:00

Join Us

When » Wednesday January 18, 2012

Time » 12:30 - 2:00 PM

Where » 780 Third Ave (at 49th street) — outside the offices of New York Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand.

What to Bring » Your bodies and your minds, your co-workers, your friends, your family, and your social networks.

Who Will Be There » Everyone who cares about the New York Tech Industry and the future of the web. Special guest speakers to be announced.

How To Sign Up » Please RSVP here to show your support.

Tweet This » I’ll be at the Emergency NY Tech Meetup on January 18 to stop SOPA and PIPA. Join us: http://nytm.org/sos

Hashtag » #nytmSOS

http://nytm.org/sos/

Chris Ladd: The Mormon Thing

2012-01-18T08:50:00.003-05:00

Last month Christopher Hitchens unloaded on Mitt Romney’s “bizarre” religious beliefs. You expect this sort of thing from the far right and it’s arrived on cue, but Romney probably didn’t anticipate having his underwear selection critiqued by atheists and left wing commentators.

Does Mormonism include some strange beliefs? You bet. They think Jesus came to America after he wrapped up the New Testament story. He preached here to a vast, highly developed culture of whose existence we have no evidence. And it goes on and on. Magic stones, a new gospel written on gold plates that no one has ever seen. There’s some odd stuff in there, but does it matter?

Picking on a candidate’s religious beliefs is like making fun of his mother. Sure, maybe she’s batty and erratic, but he loves her. Perhaps you can make an attenuated case that her weirdness is going to affect his performance, but for the most part bringing her into the race is just mean.

Unless a candidate has made a career of forcing his beliefs on everyone else (you know who you are), their faith should be largely out of bounds. And really, when it comes to strange beliefs, who’s gonna throw stones?

My religion is built on the premise that a murdered guy came back to life. “Wow,” you might say, “That’s amazing. I’d love to talk with someone who has been dead. When can I see him?”

“Uhm, well he’s not here.”

“You said he came back to life. Where is he?”

“He went away…up in the clouds.”

“I see…”

“But he’s coming back. You can meet him then!”

“How long has he been gone?”

“About two thousand years, but he’ll be here any day now…”

Nothing at all odd about that.

And don’t let your Jewish friends get smug. Some of them believe that God parted a sea to let their ancestors escape from a dictator and then closed those walls of water down on that guy’s army. They have a story about a prophet who survived for three days inside a fish. Not strange enough for you? Ask them to explain what a ‘Golem‘ is.

Muslims have a bit less of the miraculous than we do, but they still don’t escape it completely. Mohammed apparently rode a winged-horse up to heaven and came back. That may sound incredible, but they have proof. There’s a hoofprint from Muhammad’s steed in a stone at the center of the al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem at the point where the beast launched itself into the heavens. How can you argue with incontrovertible evidence?

And the atheists don’t get away scot-free either. They’re just as certain of the answers to unknowable questions like ‘what happens when you die’ as your garden-variety fundamentalist. They manage to achieve even greater certainty than us based entirely on an absence of evidence. Sure, that’s not as colorful as believing in flying angels or dragons, but it’s just as much of an intellectual stretch.

If Mitt Romney’s campaign was based on the premise that America is a Mormon country which should be governed according to Mormon dogma, his beliefs would be a serious concern. But as it is, we should all just put the stones back in our pockets. The overwhelming majority of us live within striking distance of whatever religious faith we were raised on. The miracle stories that seem perfectly ordinary to us sound perfectly ludicrous to everyone else.

Those elements of the fantastic are just a piece of the puzzle. Our religious stories guide us as we wrestle with the unanswerable questions in life, just as Jacob wrestled with God. The stories that frame our faith give us a humbling sense of our place in the world and our sacred duties to each other. In them we find inspiration, hope, and meaning.

Using those stories to diminish someone is like picking on an ugly baby.

Hitchens claims that anyone who believes something as bizarre as Mormonism should have to “defend and explain himself.” Hitchens, gifted with an utter certainty of what lies beyond the grave and where precisely the universe came from, shares a surprising common ground with the world’s most extreme fundamentalists. He knows exactly what everyone should believe and insists they be held accountable to his certainty.

That isn’t the system our Founders created when they banned any religious test for office and described a “wall of separation” between church and state. Over time we come to resemble those we hate. Hitchens has overstepped in a particularly ugly way.

Let he who is without ridiculousness crack the first joke.

And in closing, wisdom from Trey Parker and Matt Stone:
Abandon All Hope, yada, yada, yada…

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Chris Ladd is a Texan who is now living in the Chicago area. He has served for several years as a Republican Precinct Committeeman in DuPage County, IL, and was active in state and local Republican campaigns in Texas for many years.

Also check out: http://www.frumforum.com/author/chris-ladd

Philadelphia’s ‘hip hop Republican" says he is running for office.

2012-01-10T08:07:00.001-05:00

Phildephia Weekly: Almost two months later, Mansfield’s campaign is in full swing as he meets with PW back in Northern Liberties. He’s just come from an Independence Hall Tea Party Christmas event where he was named a Board Member of the group.

Mansfield immediately wants to clarify his positions: A ‘fair tax’ code, school choice, veteran’s health care and black empowerment. He says the Republican Party won’t survive past 2020 if it continues ignoring and disrespecting the Black Community and touts himself as Philadelphia’s ‘hip hop Republican.’

Newt Gingrich: Gimme Some of that Black Republican Love

2011-12-15T08:06:00.000-05:00

Charles Ellison, managing Editor of Politic365.com pens an article about Newt Gingrich’s growing support amongst Black Republicans, in light of Herman Cain’s exit from the presidential race.

He writes: As Cain imploded shortly thereafter, it was Gingrich standing on the sidelines as the biggest beneficiary of Herman’s demise. Not only will he absorb Cain’s polling numbers, but he’ll also get a chance to tap Cain’s fundraising machine. But, the debate that played the Cain was symbolic of Gingrich’s enduring relationship with Black Republicans, many who seem to be about the only Black people on the planet who love the racially-charged ex-Congressman.

Many Black Republicans have now clearly shifted away from Cain and are rooting loudly for Newt.

Continue Reading: http://politic365.com/2011/12/15/gingrich-gimme-some-of-that-black-republican-love/

How Brooklyn Got Its Groove Back

2011-12-12T08:58:00.000-05:00

Kay S. Hymowitz, a contributing editor of City Journal writes about how New York’s biggest borough has reinvented itself as a postindustrial hot spot.

I moved with my husband and our two young children into a partly renovated brownstone in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Last year, New York pronounced the area “the most livable neighborhood in New York City,” but in those days, real-estate agents euphemistically described it as “in transition,” meaning that the chances you’d get mugged during a given year were pretty good.

Educated middle-class couples like us, who had been moving into the area between Seventh Avenue and Prospect Park for more than a decade, lived alongside the Irish, Italian, and Puerto Rican immigrants who had given Brooklyn its working-class identity and its former nickname, “Borough of Churches.” For us, Saint Francis Xavier’s was just the sponsor of our children’s Little League teams, but it remained a religious and community center for those who also frequented smoke-filled bars on Seventh like Snooky’s and Moody’s.

Read more: http://www.city-journal.org/2011/21_4_brooklyn.html

Stop Indefinite Military Detention

2011-12-12T08:53:00.001-05:00

The “indefinite detention” sections of the NDAA bill would turn the whole of the United States into a “battlefield” and hand the executive branch the power to have the military arrest U.S. citizens and hold them without trial.

Last week we were part of an epic struggle led by Senator Rand Paul (RLC-KY) to block the inclusion of language in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) which would make it legal for US Military forces to operate inside the US in violation of Posse Comitatus and arrest US civilians and hold them in military detention without charges for an indefinite period of time in violation of the right of Habeas Corpus, a fundamental legal protection under the Bill of Rights. Granting these extraordinary powers to the military is obviously unconstitutional and is opposed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other law enforcement agencies.

Efforts to remove indefinite military detention from the NDAA were blocked by establishment leaders from both parties in the Senate, though Senator Paul did lead a last minute effort to successfully defeat an unexpected additional amendment which would have given the government even more extensive powers to arrest and hold citizens without charges.

The original problem sections (1031 and 1032) are still in the bill and contrary to the claims of supporters of the bill, the wording of section 1032 does not, in fact, provide protection for US citizens. The use of the phrase "not required" instead of "prohibited" leaves the decision to allow the military to detain citizens entirely in the hands of federal authorities.

The only remaining opportunity to have these sections removed from the bill will be during the coming week in the reconcilliation process where members of both houses in a conference committee negotiate a final version of the bill. During this process all members of Congress can make recommendations for changes or adjustments in the language and if there is enough outcry it's possible that the joint committee will do the right thing. Reconcilliation will be wrapping up in the next few days so a final push on this issue on Monday the 12th is absolutely essential.

This will be our last chance to fix the bill and protect our liberties short of hoping for an increasingly unlikely veto from President Obama. Even if you previously wrote in during our effort to stop the bill in the Senate, please take this opportunity to write both your Represenative and Senators using the form provided on our site at http://www.rlc.org/2011/12/09/special-action-alert-help-inform-congress-about-military-detention/

Dave Nalle

Chairman, Republican Liberty Caucus

The Government's War on Street Vendors

2011-12-08T11:15:00.001-05:00

John Stossel, the investigative journalist, author and libertarian columnist turns his attention to local governments obsession with regulating street vendors.

Have you noticed how often government takes sides against the little guy?

Street vending has been a path out of poverty for Americans. And like other such paths (say, driving a taxi), this one is increasingly difficult to navigate. Why? Because entrenched interests don’t like competition. So they lobby their powerful friends to erect high hurdles to upstarts. It’s an old story.

Now, growing local governments are crushing street vendors.

The city of Atlanta, for example, has turned all street vending over to a monopoly contractor. In feudalist fashion, all existing vendors were told they must work for the monopoly or not vend at all.

View this article.

Tamon Pearson : Soul Train & The Republicans

2011-12-08T10:37:00.000-05:00

The other night, I was forced by my family to watch The Soul Train Music Awards. I wanted to watch The Walking Dead and Boardwalk Empire, but I was convinced to watch the award show with them. After all, I grew up watching Soul Train, “the hippest trip in America,” as it was known. I figured it would be quite entertaining. I was wrong.

The show was dated, anachronistic, and had the feel of an old school Summer Jam—something for the Generation X crowd at latest and the Boomers who were teens and twenty-somethings during the 60’s and 70’s at the earliest.

As I watched the show, however, I was struck by an epiphany: everything that was wrong with the Soul Train Music Awards is everything that is wrong with the current incarnation of the Republican Party—it was from older time, led by older people, with almost nothing that appealed to a younger and more in-touch-with-the-times audience; therefore, the younger generation is uninterested at best and contemptuous at worst. We in the GOP are doing Soul Train politics, and our played-out political views are why we are losing members and relevance.

The show had a great start. Cedric the Entertainer hosted. He opened in a dance sequence with some younger folks, and held his own—even while being predictably winded after the scene was over. Throughout the evening, he told jokes that attempted to appeal to the younger audiences—even making references to amusing Tweets that he allegedly received during the show. It was actually rather funny—easily the funniest and most hip thing about the broadcast.

However, Cedric is primarily an older folks comedian after all—someone who appeals to perhaps (if I had one) the era of my older brothers, someone listening to Luther, Maze, and Zapp; someone who grew up more on the Mod Squad and Blacula than on The Cosby Show and 48 Hours; someone for whom Soul Train would have been relevant in an era that still greatly disdained Black music. There was a time when American Bandstand was on, and Black music didn’t get play unless it was very pop-ish. Soul Train fit that niche at that time, at Cedric’s time.
It’s why Cedric makes a nice living playing older sorts (dated, played out, dusty, anachronistic, insert-definition-here) of characters from another era, like Eddie from Barbershop or Rev. Hooker in Kingdom Come. It looks funny on the screen, of course, because they are so dated with their jheri curls and polyester suits. Soul Train is a lot like Cedric. Today, with Black music dominating the Hot 100 charts, Soul Train feels as relevant as the Negro Leagues or the Harlem Globetrotters.

The GOP has the same problem as Soul Train or Rev. Hooker. The party pays lip service to the youth and to minorities—making Twitter and Facebook pages for some of its elected officials, showing speeches on YouTube, running more Latinos and Black candidates.That’s a good start. But the Tweets are dull and infrequent, with none of the hipness and insider information that the youth on Twitter are looking for. The Facebook pages and YouTube accounts are just as dull and lifeless, with no real insight to the candidates as people with ideas and passions, showing dull videos of wack speeches. It’s like looking at your mom wearing Apple Bottoms.

Even the Latino and Black candidates are over our head; older crusty dudes from an era before us, unhip, uncool, bygone products of an anachronistic period. They all look the way it feels when Cedric is acting like Eddie the Barber. It’s like watching one of the old school players clean up his act and decide to run for Congress. You don’t even really believe him—even if he’s sincere. There is no hip-hop in Herman Cain.
There is no street cred given to Allen West. Nobody was feeling Michael Steele or Ken Blackwell. Herman Cain has been compared over and over again to Uncle Rucker from The Boondocks—which is not a good thing—and his comments about Black people seemed to give the same ole, “mind your business around the White folks” jargon that you would have expected from a back-in-the-day cat. All of these guys look dated. They look like my older brother’s candidate—or even my Dad’s candidate—not mine. They don’t feel relevant to me—just like Soul Train doesn’t in an era where Jay-Z and Usher dominate the charts.

The show gave tributes to Gladys Knight and Earth Wind & Fire, as well as a memorial sequence dedicated to recently passed rapper Heavy D. The show also had performances from several artists, including a very new group of middle school-aged gentlemen named Mindless Behavior. As I watched the performances, it had a very mellow and old-school kind of feel, even when artists performed new songs.Gladys Knight for a lengthy amount of time on her pride in her achievement award, pride coming from the fact that it came from her own people, pride coming from the fact that Soul Train was there for Blacks in that time. The tribute to Heavy D featured several rappers that many modern fans of hip-hop would not recognize, such as Kurtis Blow, Doug E. Fresh (despite the dance craze in his name, few know who the heck Doug is), Big Daddy Kane, and Naughty By Nature.Again, we return to the anachronistic nature of the show. This would have been a spectacular lineup in 1992. Nearly twenty years later, after many of these rappers have lost all relevance, it looks like Old Timers Day. My kids perked up when Mindless Behavior was on, but they calmed down considerably when certain performers showed up more than once, and were ready for the show to be over twenty minutes before it ended.

There was simply little or nothing there to appeal to them, there was no sort of connection to the history of Soul Train, and there was no sense of importance to the show—especially in the wake of the American Music Awards from a few weeks ago and the upcoming Grammy Awards; shoot, even the Victoria Secret show has Kanye West and Jay-Z performing. Sadly, nobody cares about Soul Train in this day and age.All the kids know is the Soul Train line, and they don’t even know it’s called that. A memorial performance to a deceased and respected old-school rapper should have had tributes from the newer and younger performers. That’s how you tie the past to the present and preserve a legacy. The show didn’t do this. This is why Soul Train is irrelevant.

Again, I was reminded of the GOP. The party has an old feel to it that the media exploits and that they do nothing to fix. Since 1993, we have been in what I call the Multimedia Era of the Presidency, the successor to the Television Era that began with Eisenhower in 1953 and ended with the inauguration of Clinton in 1993. In this era, network television and newspapers have lost relevance; old school campaigning looks dated; and the cable networks, the internet, the social networks, and talk radio are the mediums by which the candidate must live by.

The party, however, is not taking full advantage of this medium. The Bush Administration did a piss-poor job of getting out its reasons for its actions, and paid a dear price for such in the area of public opinion. The party is not moving into the 21st Century. It feels old, dated, and relevant to people thirty years older than me, something that may have been dynamic and powerful in 1984, but appears old and dusty today.

There is nothing here that appeals highly to the youth. NONE of the current candidates—Herman Cain and Michelle Bachman included—have that crossover superstar quality that can be embraced by people other than die-hard Republican voters—just as nothing in the Soul Train Music Awards had anything that appealed to today’s kids. Nothing ties the history of the Republican Party to the relevance of that party to today’s era. Again, it’s Soul Train politics. I’m reminded Cedric, in The Kings Of Comedy, portraying an old cat from the neighborhood talking with one cigarette dangling off his lip, speaking in an almost unrecognizable speedy ‘hood vernacular. It’s funny because we all know an old cat like that. It’s not funny when the old cats are your candidates.

There have been three presidents in the Multimedia Era: Clinton, Bush, and Obama. What do we see? All of the candidates were relatively young, relatively tall, and relatively handsome. They were all popular in their states and charismatic in speaking. They used the multimedia sources to perfection—Clinton famously went on the Arsenio Hall Show and played the saxophone. What is their background? All of them went to elite schools, all of them are Baby Boomers, none were seasoned veterans of politics, and none of them served in war.

They were all married, all at least nominal Christians, all with daughters, all with popular First Ladies, and all ran as moderates with new ideas for their parties. If we were making a profile, this is the portrait of the candidate we want to run. This is what the voters want to see. This is why Kerry had no business running in 2004 and why McCain had no business running in 2008. People are tired of Soul Train politics, especially from Republicans.

They are tired of the helmet-haired, grumpy, foreign war veterans who hearken back to the days of yesteryear. They want young, dynamic go-getters with new ideas and new concepts—young guys who respect the past without constantly visiting it or wishing to return to it. The Democrats aren’t wasting their time looking for their next John F. Kennedy.

They went and got a first Bill Clinton, a first Barack Obama. Yet Republicans are still wasting their time looking for Ronald Reagan to return to us and usher in a Millennial Kingdom of Conservatism. We are still doing Soul Train Politics.It’s time to upgrade, as Beyonce once sung. We cannot continue to go to the American people in general—and Black people in particular—with lower taxes, smaller government, and personal responsibility. We cannot go to the American people in general—and Black people in particular—with God, family, and country. None of that is enough. In down economic times, people are hurting.They want to know how keeping their taxes low is going to keep them fed—and it’s hard to talk about giving you a thousand dollar break on your taxes when they believe that millionaires are living tax-free. We must be able to communicate what taxes mean, what they do, and what people really pay—without sounding like graduates of Cal Tech. Just claiming to want low taxes while we suffer the in the greatest recession since FDR just doesn’t work anymore. That’s Soul Train politics.

Gay people are out of the closet, now. They can’t be shoved back into the closet, either. These kids have grown up with Tyra’s Show and with Will and Grace. They go to school with our kids, they play sports or cheerlead, they attend prom. These kids have been at school with them for their entire academic careers. They have attended college and have grown up in liberalism. And honestly, they spend far more time around and with gay people at their schools and on their jobs than many of us have.

Some of us, admittedly, still see gay people in a lesser-than-human-light. That’s old school. These kids don’t see that. While they may not favor gay marriage, they don’t favor ostracizing gay people, either. You must deal with these issues. You can’t just ignore gay people anymore. That’s Soul Train politics.

Millions of illegal people live here, with legal children, paying sales taxes and working jobs. Some of them have been here for more than a few decades. They have raised families. No, they didn’t come here legally. Yes, that is a crime. Yes, there need to be penalties for that. No, throwing them out is not an acceptable penalty. It is not even practical to discuss splitting up families and tossing them all back across the border.

You can’t talk about moats and attack dogs and armed guards along the border without conjuring up images of Soviets and East Germans killing citizens who want freedom. We must protect the border from potential enemies without oppressing potential friends. We can’t just pay lip-service to immigration reform anymore. That’s Soul Train politics.

We must come to some sort of understanding about what shall be done in this society with the needs of homosexual people—be that strengthening civil unions, loosening restrictions on adoptions, full recognition of service in the military, or whatever else needs to be tended to in a 21st Century manner. There need to be new discussions about what to do about abortions. Saying you only favor abortion in case of rape, incest, and threat to mother no longer works. That is an anachronistic view. We need comprehensive discussion about abortion and how to limit the numbers—especially in the Black community. That’s how you get rid of Soul Train politics.

Speaking of the Black community, get off of taxes and get onto jobs. Talk about Black entrepreneurship and Black businesses. Talk about funding for projects in Black neighborhoods that will increase jobs. Stop demonizing unions and deifying corporations; point on the necessity of both to bring balance to the workplace. Talk about credit card reform and insurance reform.
Talk about improving public schools, building up charter schools, subsidies for private schools that service lower-income areas, and helping on fee waivers and forgiven debt for colleges. Talk about affirmative action for those coming from economically disenfranchised homes and neighborhoods.

Talk about cutting into gang violence and drug dealing, and making drug laws equal across the board so that the Left can no longer use the arguments about crack versus powder cocaine. Speaking of cocaine, get out of bed with drug producing and drug shipping countries, such as Mexico, Colombia, and Afghanistan—unless they crack down on their countries’ drug problems. Lower the stigma on marijuana; stop treating weed smokers like heroin users. No one ever sold their body or broke into someone’s home or robbed a liquor store to get more money for weed. That’s how you avoid Soul Train politics.

And for God’s sake, stop acting like if people aren’t Republicans they don’t love God. Stop acting like America was built only for the Christians, and to a lesser extent, the Jews. Stop acting like every Muslim left Osama Bin Laden Facebook messages on his status. Stop acting like we should check our Blackness at the front door to be admitted to the GOP lounge. Stop acting like family values means that we’ve never committed sins. Stop acting like we’re holier than thou—show that we have better ideas than thou. Be ready to discuss them at a moments notice, and make ‘em clear without talking in ebonics or being condescending.

Get us candidates that are young and hip and in touch with the community and the multimedia forums. Start drafting them at city councils, at school boards, at churches, at of DA’s offices, and at chambers of commerce. Spend the money to help them run. Build them up for Congress and governorships. Later, we can run them for Senators and presidential candidates—and they come up with us, knowing how we think, knowing how to relate to us. That’s how you avoid Soul Train politics.

If we can do those things, then we won’t be dealing in Soul Train politics anymore. It’ll politics people understand and relate to. We’ll be the Grammies. We’ll be the American Music Awards. That increases memberships. That increases respectability. That makes discussions possible again without being accused of being the Antichrist.

That makes you look like you belong in the room, instead of being in an old fedora with a shirt tucked into your slacks with no belt, with a vest and an afro and some Stacy Adams shoes, getting into a Deuce-and-a-Quarter, playing One Way on 8-Track.

About the Author: Tamon Pearson is a writer and self-proclaimed urban commentator from South Central Los Angeles. He was raised Libertarian and became a Republican in his early thirties. He is the former chair of the Los Angeles chapter of The California Black Republican Council, and the former Vice-President of the Southern California Republican Club. He is an evangelical Christian and an avid Laker fan. He is engaged, and he and his fiancee have six children between them.

Raynard Jackson: Cain Was Not Able

2011-12-08T10:13:00.000-05:00

Former presidential candidate, Herman Cain, proved that despite a load of God given talent, he was unable to be a serious contender for the highest office in the land.

In the immortal words of former British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, “to every man there comes a time when he is figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a great and mighty work; unique to him and fitted to his talents; what a tragedy if that moment finds him unprepared or unqualified for the moment that could be his finest hour.”

Cain, by far, was the best candidate in the Republican field in terms of oratorical skills and ability to connect with an audience. But, like Sarah Palin, he refused to take the necessary time to study the issues so he could articulate thoughtful answers to basic questions one would expect a presidential candidate to speak upon.

Cain had the innate abilities to be considered a legitimate candidate, but was not able to understand what would be required of him to be successful. He had been planning his presidential run for more than two years.

But, when he received his tap on the shoulder, he decided to engage in buffoonery; as opposed to studying to show himself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15).

I literally cringed when he spoke at the National Press Club and a white person asked him to sing—and he obliged; during another speech, he went into this tirade about the Koch brothers being his “brother from another mother.”

The Koch brothers are 2 white billionaires who he considers a friend. These examples evoked the worst of all stereotypes about Blacks—that they are there for the amusement of their white audiences. I don’t think this was intentional on Cain’s part, but this is what happens when one tries too hard to please a narrow part of the electorate.

Cain is a very likable person with a very intoxicating personality. In some ways he reminds me of former president, Bill Clinton. Cain (nor Clinton) ever met a stranger. When you meet Cain, he makes you feel like an instant friend.
If you could merge Cain’s personality and style with Newt Gingrich’s command of policy, Obama would be toast!

Cain reminds me of a professional athlete that everyone concedes has the talent to be the best in his sport, but refuses to practice to be the best (LeBron James). This athlete could win the ultimate prize of his sport, but just won’t dedicate himself to fully exploiting his God given talent.

This is why I am so disappointed in Cain. I would not have had a problem if Cain was defeated by his opponents, but I do have a problem with him losing because he was unprepared.

Cain was tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a great and might work, unique to him and fitted to his talents. I find it very tragic that he was found unprepared for the moment that could have been his finest hour.
The media did not destroy Cain’s campaign, nor the women who made unsubstantiated allegations. What destroyed Cain’s campaign was the man in the mirror.

When Cain was tapped on the shoulder, he was found totally unprepared and proved to the world that Cain was truly not able.

ABOUT US:Raynard Jackson is president & CEO of Raynard Jackson & Associates, LLC., a D.C.-public relations/government affairs firm. He is a contributing editor for ExcellStyle Magazine (http://www.excellstyle.com/ ). For those who use skype (http://www.skype.com/ ), please add him.

The name there is: raynard jackson

Personal Invitation to join Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Sunday, December 11th, (Boca Raton, FL.)

2011-11-28T12:05:00.002-05:00

Dear HHR Readers,

I am inviting you to an event I am working on in support of Congressman Eric Cantor.

If you haven’t yet met our friend, Eric Cantor, I am sure you will enjoy meeting him as much as he is looking forward to meeting you at the upcoming reception on December 11th. I have attached the details for your review. Please make plans to join us.

As you know, Eric was elected Majority Leader for the 112th Congress

Through his leadership, the Republican House has stopped tax increases, prevented further restrictive regulations on businesses and changed the debate in Washington from one of how much they can spend to how much government can shrink.

He is working hard to deliver on the commitment of passing legislation to spur private sector job growth and restore fiscal responsibility. He is working to reduce the uncertainty that has pushed capital to the sidelines and once again begin incentivizing job creation in this country.

In addition to our continued economic struggles, America also faces serious national security challenges. That is why Eric knows we must make clear priorities in Washington, and ensure Israel has the resources it needs to defend herself. Eric knows the best way to do that is by standing together with democratic allies like Israel in defense of freedom.

America has many allies who serve a strategic purpose. But while those relationships are grounded in shared ideals and shared aspirations, they are only as durable as the government in power. Support for these ideals, and for the US-Israel relationship has always been a bipartisan effort in Congress. We must continue to ensure that the essential issues rise above partisan politics and that we continue working together on behalf of our shared principles.

Cantor served on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, where he was a proven advocate for America’s working families. He was the chief sponsor of a 2006 bill to make permanent the slashed individual income tax rates for capital gains and dividends, rewarding entrepreneurs, retirees and investors with the ability to create more opportunity for their families and jobs for our communities.

He also quickly earned a reputation as an innovator in health care, fighting for greater choice for families. He authored the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006, which made it easier for families to save for their health care needs through Health Savings Accounts. The legislation became law in late 2006.

As former Chairman of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, Cantor remains focused on promoting a strong national defense, providing needed resources for our nation’s military and intelligence communities.

Our country is at a critical crossroads. One path will take us toward an unrecognizable America and the other will restore us to a land of opportunity and prosperity.

ERICPAC is determined to take our country back. In 2008, citizens across the country voted for change. ERICPAC is committed to real change- change that will right the ship and return our country to prosperity.

Looking forward to you joining us on December 11th. Event CO-HOST and Sponsor opportunities are available. Your support will help Eric continue his work in Washington.

As the day is coming up fast, I’ve posted it as an ‘Event’ on my FB page, https://www.facebook.com/events/205236666220495/

Warmest regards,

Please feel free to contact me with any questions.

Michael Ackerman
Boca Raton, FL.
Brooklyn, N.Y.
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An Able Gingrich Makes for a Bad Cain

2011-11-17T12:53:00.000-05:00

Rule #1, if you’re running for political office, particularly President of the United States, you expect an unimaginable scrutiny of your past by the news media! You prepare for the worst because if there are skeletons in your closet, they will be found. What you don’t do is make excuses for why reporters are digging up dirt on you, like Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain did when Politico ran its story, alleging he sexually harassed several women.

Politics can be dirty sport and the news media can be even dirtier. When it comes to tearing down candidates, reporters love a challenge, taking no prisoners and knowing no friends. People, who are serious about running for POTUS, hire competent staff who deal with the reality of a hostile 4^th estate and vet the candidate for any scintilla of controversy.

The news media’s relentless pursuit of the Politico story is not a “high tech lynching” of Cain because he’s black. These kind of stories happen to politicians every day and in every election. In 1992, Bill Clinton was dogged by allegations of infidelity and faced the music head on during an infamous 60 Minutes interview sitting lovingly, alongside Hillary Clinton. He kept his story straight and consistent, refusing to address any details for which reporters were rabid.

Responding to a question from Newt Gingrich at the end of the debate hosted by the Texas Tea Party this past weekend, Cain said the one thing he didn’t anticipate about running for POTUS was the “nit picking” from the news media. This response along with his performance during the debate left many with the impression Cain isn’t ready for the job of president but better suited for a supporting role to Gingrich.
In what was designed to be a modern day re-play of the Lincoln-Douglass style debate, Newt Gingrich reinforced he’s the best candidate in the GOP field with what appears to be the slimmest odds of capturing the nomination.

Newt not only was knowledgeable of the issues but gave practical solutions for solving the country’s problems. Conversely, Cain repeatedly abdicated first responses to questions to Gingrich and kept agreeing with Newt’s answers. This is a not a great tactic to use to solidify one’s front-runner status among the GOP presidential contenders.

When asked what the candidates would do about unemployment benefits, Cain sounded unrealistic when he said he would cut benefits by half then number of weeks each time a person came back for more benefits. Cain said this would force people to look harder for a job. This may sound nice in theory but some 14 million people unemployed in this country many of whom have been unemployed for more than a year are looking very hard for jobs.

Gingrich’s response was more practical under situation, saying unemployed workers should have to do some kind of work in exchange for collecting government checks and be required to take job training classes. On welfare and Medicaid reform, Gingrich also shined and again talked common sense. Both men emphasized the need to get Americans off of welfare.

Newt observed welfare encourages people to stay on the dole and not rise above: “Nobody should get something for nothing unless they have a very severe disability. If you are an able bodied person and getting something for nothing, we are pretty stupid for giving it to you.”

Gingrich reminded everyone rampant fraud in Medicaid and Medicare forcing the government to pay $70 billion-$120 billion a year to crooks, gaming the system and the Congressional deficit reduction super committee isn’t even looking at this.

Both Cain and Newt agreed Medicaid block grant to the states was the best way to reform the program. But Gingrich offered fresh thinking again saying Medicaid recipients should be held accountable for the care they receive and suffer consequences for abusing the system. He added the “taxpayer shouldn’t be a sucker to be exploited.”

Newt went further adding government and Democrats need to stop treating poor people like they are helpless without responsibility.

“If we are going to provide you with an opportunity to live in public housing, maybe you should have a role in cleaning it up and painting it and fixing it. . . This will be a huge debate with the left. The left has this model in which everybody is weak, helpless and stupid but government will somehow take care of them which leads me to wonder, who do they think government hires?”

On Social Security, Cain talked about personal retirement accounts as an option to younger workers and referred to the Chilean model, as he often has. But it was Newt who electrified the audience with more common sense.
Gingrich referred to Galveston County in Texas, which opted out of Social Security in 1982 for county employees in favor of private retirement accounts. Employees put in half as much money and received twice as much back. Newt noted: “You let younger Americans chose. . .If you have your own personal savings account and you want to retire early on a smaller amount of money. . .Why would Congress tell you not to?. . .Get politicians out of that decision making and let Americans control their own lives.”

When the moderator asked both men about Medicare: “Defined benefit plan or premium support?” Cain looked bewildered and replied “You go first Newt.” By deferring complicated questions to Newt and agreeing with him on many topics, Cain left us with the impression he was auditioning for the role of vice presidential candidate. While Newt looked like he was more than ABLE to step over Cain into the role of president.

About the Author: Crystal Wright is a black conservative woman living in Washington, DC. Some would say she is a triple minority: woman, black and a Republican living in a Democrat dominated city. She’s contemplating moving back to her home state of Virginia, where her vote would count for something. By day, Crystal is a communications consultant and editor and publisher of the new website www.conservativeblackchick.com . Crystal earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Georgetown University and holds a Masters of Fine Arts in Theatre from Virginia Commonwealth University

Public Choice: Why Politicians Don't Cut Spending

2011-11-17T12:14:00.000-05:00

Why did politicians cut a trivial amount of money in the recent budget agreement? Prof. Ben Powell explains why politicians don't cut spending, as a general rule. Using public choice economics, or the economics of politics, he shows how the political system naturally leads to overspending.

LMFAO - Sexy and I Know It

2011-11-12T13:38:00.003-05:00

CNN's “Black In America 4″ in Silicon Valley

2011-11-12T13:36:00.001-05:00

On Sunday Evening at 8pm Eastern-Standard Time, Soledad O’Brien will present her fourth Black In America Series entitled “The New Promised Land: Silicon Valley”. The program will air on CNN. “The New Promised Land” follows the emergence in Silicon Valley of eight African-American Entrepreneurs as they integrate into Silicon Valley.

Silicon Valley once referred to a specific region of Northern California comprised of San Jose, Cupertino, San Carlos, Redwood City and the surrounding area. In today’s modern world, however, Silicon Valley is a Euphemism for all “High-Tech” business in The United States with San Jose symbolically representing the Capitol of Silicon Valley.

This fourth segment of the Black In America Series will track the progress eight African-American entrepreneurs as they try to transcend both the de facto color and class lines of Silicon Valley. The eight African-American entrepreneurs, which Soledad O’Brien follow, believe that their creative and innovative ideas which will make the difference as they compete with Veterans of Silicon Valley for funding.

“The New Promised Land” should be even more compelling for viewers to watch given the Nation’s current demands for the economic empowerment.

Please tune in: Soledad O'Brien chronicles the NewMe Accelerator journey in "Black in America: The New Promised Land: Silicon Valley," at 8 p.m. ET November 13 on CNN.

Link: http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/in.america/black.in.america/

CNN's Soledad O'Brien follows entrepreneurs as they pitch their technology ideas to investors in Silicon Valley.

The Conservative Case for Mitt Romney

2011-11-11T12:21:00.003-05:00

The first and most important reason for choosing Romney is that he, and only he, of the remaining Big Three candidates has any chance at all of beating Barack Obama.

All three Republican candidates left with a real chance are admirable men who would be a colossal improvement on the president: But Obama can still rally his true Believer Base, especially if he drops Vice President Joe Biden and puts Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the ticket.

The GOP-conservative base could shatter if conservatives stay at home or split from a Romney candidacy. Cain and Perry so far have both totally failed to win credibility from independent voters.

Cain, for all his admirable qualities – and I take 9-9-9 seriously – has all the makings of a classic GOP insurgent candidacy in the tradition of Barry Goldwater in 1964, Teddy Roosevelt in 1912 or Wendell Willkie in 1940. He can indeed win the nomination and/or attract tremendous enthusiasm from his core supporters. But he cannot win leading the ticket. And for all his success and courage in beating cancer repeatedly, the health issue alone will discredit him with floating independent voters.

HHR Review: Tyrese's NYC Album Release Party!

2011-11-07T13:05:00.008-05:00

On October 31st, Tyrese's held an album release party for his much anticipated album entitled "Open Invitation" to the public. The party was held at 539 West 21st Street in New York City. Although “upscale trendy dress” was required to attend, costumes (in honor of Halloween) were preferred.

Despite the temperature dipping below 40 degrees, hundreds of adoring fans (many in decorative Halloween costumes) lined up outside Juliet Supper Club - a popular celebrity lounge in Chelsea - to celebrate with one of Americas most beloved R&B singers. After some delay due to traffic, Tyrese eventually walked the Red Carpet as throngs of media outlets and bloggers (this one included) competed with each other for some of his time.

Below is some video of the questions from bloggers at the event:(video courtesy of HipHopWorld.com )

Review of “Open Invitation"

The entirety of “Open Invitation" is quite good. While there were several excellent tracks which stood out from the rest of the album, all of the songs have a certain appeal to them. While the title track (Open Invitation) which features Ludacris, Stay, in which Tyrese manages to sound both like Joe Tex and Otis Redding, and Walk.....A Poem For My Fans are outstanding works of art created by the performing artist; also quite good are One Night, Takeover , and "I Miss That Girl."

These are very pretty and tender melodies which critique Tyrese’ relationships with females. While the lyrics to "I Gotta Chick" might offend those who are pretentious, due some profanity. Other parts of the album contain beautiful poetic lyrics such as the nice slow jam ”Angel". All together, there are are fourteen tracks contained within the entire album.

Some of the other tracks which I liked are: I’m Home, Nothing On You, One Night and I miss that girl. On the other hand, Interlude is just a bit too superfluous. In addition to sounding like Joe Tex at times Tyrese also reminds me of Stevie Wonder. The recording artist also works with fellow musicians such as R. Kelly and Kanye West, in addition to Ludacris, on the album. Actress Tanya P. Henson also appears in the music video of "Stay" with Tyrese as his love interest.

All in all, I give the album four stars out of five. Fans of Tyrese will be quite pleased that after five years’ hiatus, Tyrese has produced a winner.

About The Author: Cleo E. Brown has a Master’s Degree in Contemporary African-American History from The University of California at Davis in Davis, California. She also has a B.A. Minor Degree in Political-Science and has completed course work towards a Ph.D. in Education from The University of San Francisco in San Francisco, California. She is a Free Lance Writer and a Senior Editor at HHR

Gym Class Heroes: Stereo Hearts ft. Adam Levine

2011-11-05T14:49:00.001-04:00

#NP ♫ Gym Class Heroes: Stereo Hearts ft. Adam Levine ♩♪♫♬ Volume: ▁ ▂ ▃ ▄ ▅ ▆ █ ♩♪♫♬ ( Oh oh oh oh, oh to my stereo)

Peter Schiff Speaks for 1 Percent at Occupy Wall Street

2011-11-02T19:23:00.003-04:00

Schiff is no ordinary observer. As the prinicipal of the financial firm Euro Pacific Capital, he's a full-fledged and unapologetic member of "the 1 Percent." As an outspoken radio show host and commentator, he not only predicted the housing crash and financial crisis, he railed bank and auto-sector bailouts as they were happening. Schiff believes that capitalism offers is the only hope for young, frustrated people to have a vibrant and prosperous future. So he went to Occupy Wall Street to engage and debate the protesters.

Touring the Occupy Wall Street scene in New York with a sign that read "I Am the 1%, Let's Talk," Schiff spent more than three hours on the scene, explaining the difference between cronyism and capitalism, bailouts and balance sheets, and more.

"The regulation we want is the market," said Schiff. "That's what works."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGL-Ex1CD1c

Raynard Jackson: Jimmy Graham–A True Baller

2011-11-02T19:21:00.000-04:00

That’s right, Jimmy Graham! Most of the public is only recently becoming aware of the story of Jimmy Graham. I find this very unfortunate, but true.

Jimmy Graham is a tight end for the New Orleans Saints football team. As of this writing, he is the leading tight end in the N.F.L. in terms of receptions and touchdowns. But most importantly, he is proving to be a true “baller” in the game of life!

He was born and raised in Greensboro, North Carolina. This 24 year old has scored big both on and off the field. Just imagine, at the age of 11, being put in a parent’s car and then being dropped off at an orphanage.

Well, unfortunately for Graham, he doesn’t have to imagine this—this was his life. Graham recounts the story of him being in the back seat of a van with his housemates from the orphanage and being beaten until his eyes were swollen shut. He called his mother and asked her to pick him up and she simply hung up the phone.

Ouch!

After bouncing around from house to house, he was eventually taken into the home of his future adoptive mother, Becky Vinson during his high school years.

According to Graham, he and his biological mother are “slowly rebuilding a relationship, but it’s moving very slowly…I told her that I forgive her, but I won’t forget.”

Graham is a better man than I am. I am very impressed with the way he presents himself on TV. But, his attitude towards his mother goes to the type of character he has. Isn’t it a shame that more people are aware of Beyonce’s pregnancy than Graham’s story?

Graham, who now stands 6’6” and 260 pounds, earned a basketball scholarship to attend the University of Miami (commonly referred to as “The U”). He played football in his last year of school (along with four years of basketball).

He graduated in 2009 with a double major in marketing and management. He then enrolled in graduate school so he could play one year of football. During the 2010 NFL Draft, Graham was picked by the New Orleans Saints in the third round (95th overall pick). He was signed to a four year, $ 2.5 million contract.

There is a lot more to this story, but because of space constraints, there is not enough room to write about everything; but just Google his name and you can read all the details of this fascinating person.

So, the next time you hear or read a negative story about a professional athlete, just think about Michael Vick or Jimmy Graham.

Most professional athletes are good, upstanding citizens. Don’t allow the media to cloud your views because of a few bad apples.

Jimmy Graham’s story makes you cry, makes you angry, and makes you joyful.

You can’t help but cry when you think of the traumatic experience he suffered at the age of 11. You can’t help but be angry at how an adult and a mother could subject her own child to such a life altering situation. But, you can’t help but be joyful about how an 11 year old, traumatized kid could develop into such a wonderful, marvelous person!

This story is not about sports, it’s about life. We all have faced or will face our own traumatic situation(s) in our life. How we respond will determine the quality of our life.

There are not many people who I really want to meet in life, but Jimmy Graham is definitely one. I want to know how he went from failing grades, to a basketball scholarship to a very prominent university (with a double major in marketing and management), finished in four years, then enrolled in graduate school so he could play one year of football, and then to excel on the professional level in football. All this while overcoming the trauma of his youth.

Jimmy Graham, your life is truly a touchdown. Whether you know it or not, you have already won the Super Bowl of life!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Raynard Jackson is president & CEO of Raynard Jackson & Associates, LLC., a D.C.-public relations/government affairs firm. He is a contributing editor for ExcellStyle Magazine(http://www.excellstyle.com/ ). For those who use skype (http://www.skype.com/ ), please add him. The name there is: raynard jackson

Women and Minorities in Human History

2011-10-22T13:23:00.002-04:00

Prof. Susan L. Brown addresses the topic of women and minorities through a historical and anthropological overview of human history. She traces the evolution of human society and sociability from the beginning of the species, through hunter-gatherers, early agriculture, the emergence of the state, to the present day. Through this history, she shows how human society evolved from egalitarian to more unequal societies, and how markets and globalization help the plight of disadvantaged groups.

Raynard Jackson: It’s “Hamer” Time

2011-10-22T12:37:00.003-04:00

Fannie Lou Hamer (pronounced hay-mer) was one of the unsung pillars of the civil rights movement in the U.S. She was a phenomenal woman—a woman of great determination and great purpose. She was not one to hold back her feelings, especially when fighting for equality.

In 1964 she was elected Vice-Chair of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP). Their stated purpose was to challenge Mississippi’s all-white delegation to the Democratic National Convention (DNC) which was held in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Democratic President, Lyndon Johnson was furious that a group of Blacks would challenge the Democratic Party and interfere with his reelections plans. Johnson often referred to Hamer as “that illiterate woman.”

Out of desperation, Johnson sent top Democratic Party officials to negotiate with the MFDP, most notably, Senator Hubert Humphrey from Minnesota (he was lobbying very hard for Johnson to choose him as his running mate for Vice President).

Johnson offered to give the MFDP two non-voting seats at the upcoming convention in exchange for their silence and had secured the endorsement of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

Humphrey had indicated to the group that if the group didn’t agree to this deal, Johnson would not choose him as his running mate. Hamer was always considered the moral conscious of the group and here is her response to Humphrey:

“Do you mean to tell me that your position is more important than four hundred thousand black people’s lives? Senator Humphrey, I know lots of people in Mississippi who have lost their jobs trying to register to vote. I had to leave the plantation where I worked in Sunflower County, Mississippi. Now if you lose this job of Vice-President because you do what is right, because you help the MFDP, everything will be all right.

God will take care of you. But if you take [the nomination] this way, why, you will never be able to do any good for civil rights, for poor people, for peace, or any of those things you talk about.

Senator Humphrey, I’m going to pray to Jesus for you.”

As a result of her principled stand, Hamer was excluded from future negotiations. Johnson was so afraid of Hamer that he pressured the MFDP to agree to allow the DNC to select the two delegates to be seated in order to prevent Hamer from being chosen. The MFDP ultimately rejected the proposed deal.

But what does that say about the rest of the leadership of the MFDP—that they would allow their “moral conscious” from attending future meetings? Black leadership, those sanctioned by whites, have always been easy to silence because they have no conscious. They want to be liked. They want to seen in photographs.

Of all of her many accomplishments, she was best known for what would eventually be the epitaph that would be written on the tombstone on her grave: “I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.”

Where are the Fannie Lou Hamers of today? I cannot imagine Hamer allowing Obama, Pelosi and Reid to get away with their total disregard of issues of concern to the Black community. I can’t imagine her “cutting a deal” just to get an invitation to the White House are to be seen standing next to someone in power. She never lost sight of the goal.

Hamer had very little leverage, other than moral suasion, to use against Johnson and the Democrats; but yet forced the DNC to change their platform for the 1968 election. Today, Blacks have money, votes, and media; but lack the will to use moral suasion or any other means to affect change.
The supposed Black leaders of today seem only to be concerned about being invited to the White House for a photo opportunity.

Black Elected officials are too afraid of criticizing Obama. But what are they afraid of? Obama hasn’t given them anything that he could take away from them! Yet, in my private conversations with many of these people, they constantly complain about how Obama is ignoring them and their issues.
Are they not “sick and tired of being sick and tired?”

California representative Maxine Waters is one of the few elected officials to publically criticize Obama, but she also apologizes to him in the same sentence.

So, to all my Black Democratic friends, I challenge you to get on the phone to your Black leaders and all the Democratic Party officials and let them know in no uncertain terms that “it’s Hamer time!”

Raynard Jackson is president & CEO of Raynard Jackson & Associates, LLC., a D.C.-public relations/government affairs firm. He is also a contributing editor for ExcellStyle Magazine (www.excellstyle.com), Freedom’s Journal Magazine (www.freedomsjournal.net), and U.S. Africa Magazine (http://www.usafricaonline.com/ ).

♫ Beyoncé - Love On Top ♩♪♫♬ Volume

2011-10-22T12:30:00.002-04:00

Rehabilitating Lochner and the Freedom to Contract

2011-10-19T15:58:00.002-04:00

Bernstein goes after progressive attempts to limit economic freedom and liberty of contract in his new book Rehabilitating Lochner: Defending Individual Rights against Progressive Reform, a history of the 1905 case Lochner v. New York. The decision nullified a state law regulating work hours for bakers and became the impetus for a 40-year period where American courts protected economic liberty.

A Lochner rehabilitation has not been easy, Bernstein admits. Many legal experts that see Lochner as on par with the infamous Dred Scott decision. The government's encroaching power under the Commerce Clause has also held the case for economic liberty back. But Bernstein remains hopeful and believes both liberals and conservatives have something to gain in reexamining Lochner's implications, which range from protecting the right to an abortion to striking down the health care act's individual mandate.

Hosted by Nick Gillespie. Camera by Meredith Bragg and Joshua Swain; edited by Swain.

http://youtu.be/uNFZV0wE0ZM

HHR Music Video of the Week: Adele - Someone Like You

2011-10-08T11:34:00.002-04:00

Someone Like You" was written and produced by Adele and American songwriter and producer Dan Wilson. It was one of the last written for 21 The track, which epitomizes the lyrical content of 21, summarizes the now defunct relationship that the record is all about.

Adele has openly discussed the genesis of it saying, "Well, I wrote that song because I was exhausted from being such a bitch, with 'Rolling in the Deep' or 'Rumour Has It' ... I was really emotionally drained from the way I was portraying him, because even though I'm very bitter and regret some parts of it, he's still the most important person that's ever been in my life, and 'Someone Like You,' I had to write it to feel OK with myself and OK with the two years I spent with him. And when I did it, I felt so freed."

Read More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Someone_Like_You_(Adele_song)

The Tragedy of Urban Renewal: The destruction and survival of a New York City neighborhood

2011-10-01T12:07:00.004-04:00

In 1949, President Harry Truman signed the Housing Act, which gave federal, state, and local governments unprecedented power to shape residential life. One of the Housing Act's main initiatives - "urban renewal" - destroyed about 2,000 communities in the 1950s and '60s and forced more than 300,000 families from their homes. Overall, about half of urban renewal's victims were black, a reality that led to James Baldwin's famous quip that "urban renewal means Negro removal."

New York City's Manhattantown (1951) was one of the first projects authorized under urban renewal and it set the model not only for hundreds of urban renewal projects but for the next 60 years of eminent domain abuse at places such as Poletown, New London, and Atlantic Yards. The Manhattantown project destroyed six blocks on New York City's Upper West Side, including an African-American community that dated to the turn of the century. The city sold the land for a token sum to a group of well-connected Democratic pols to build a middle-class housing development. Then came the often repeated bulldoze-and-abandon phenomenon: With little financial skin in the game, the developers let the demolished land sit vacant for years.

The community destroyed at Manhattantown was a model for the tight-knit, interconnected neighborhoods later celebrated by Jane Jacobs and other critics of top-down redevelopment. In the early 20th century, Manhattantown was briefly the center of New York's black music scene. A startling roster of musicians, writers, and artists resided there: the composer Will Marion Cook, vaudeville star Bert Williams, opera singer Abbie Mitchell, James Weldon Johnson and his brother Rosemond, muralist Charles Alston, writer and historian Arturo Schomburg, Billie Holiday (whose mother also owned a restaurant on 99th Street), Butterfly McQueen of "Gone with the Wind" fame, and the actor Robert Earl Jones.

Designating West 99th and 98th Streets a "slum" was bitterly ironic. The community was founded when the great black real estate entrepreneur Philip Payton Jr. broke the color line on 99th Street in 1905. Payton, also credited with first bringing African Americans to Harlem, wanted to make it possible for a black man to rent an apartment, in his words, "wherever his means will permit him to live."

A couple years after Payton moved his first tenants into West 99th and 98th Streets, the black orator Roscoe Conkling Simmon marveled that African Americans for the first time were living in "the most beautiful and cultured neighborhood in New York City...because back of them stands organized and sympathetic capital."

Fifty years later, the federal bulldozer tore that neighborhood apart.

Written, produced, shot, and edited by Jim Epstein. Narrated by Nick Gillespie.

Approximately 6.30 minutes.

Go to http://Reason.tv for downloadable versions, and subscribe to Reason.tv's YouTube Channel to receive notifications when new material goes live.

HHR VIDEO OF THE WEEK: Frank Ocean - Swim Good

2011-09-26T20:28:00.002-04:00

Paul Wolfowitz: 9/11: Did the US Overreact?

2011-09-11T06:26:00.001-04:00

On September 9, The Wall Street Journal asked a group of leading national security thinkers to respond to the question: Did the United States overreact to the 9/11 attacks? AEI's Paul Wolfowitz answered:

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese-Americans were put in concentration camps. That there was no comparable overreaction after 9/11, and that we have been able to preserve a free and open society, owes much to the fact that for 10 years there has been no repetition of those terrible attacks.

That we made mistakes in Afghanistan and Iraq does not prove that we overreacted.Preventing further attacks required the U.S. to drop its law-enforcement approach to terrorism and recognize that we were at war. Consider the difference between Khalid Sheikh Mohammed—the mastermind of 9/11 who told us much of what we now know about al Qaeda—and his nephew Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center who can't be questioned (even most courteously) without his lawyer present and has told us nothing of significance. Or consider the difference between the ineffective retaliatory bombing of Afghanistan in 1998 and the 2001 response that brought down the Taliban regime.

Read More: http://www.aei.org/article/104111

Victor Davis Hanson: The Ripples of 9/11

2011-09-11T06:19:00.000-04:00

Victor Davis Hanson a contributing editor of City Journal reflects on the events since 9/11. He is also the author of the forthcoming novel The End of Sparta.

A decade of surprises in the war on terror

It has been a decade since 3,000 Americans were murdered on September 11, 2001. Much of what followed in the subsequent ten years was unexpected, while what was expected did not happen.

On October 7, just 26 days after the attacks, the United States went after both al-Qaida and its Taliban sponsors when it invaded Afghanistan, removing the Islamists from that nation’s major cities in little more than two months. By early 2002, the “graveyard of empires” had a UN-approved constitutional government—despite earlier warnings of Western failure and a Soviet- or British-like disaster. We forget now the national euphoria over Donald Rumsfeld’s “light footprint” and a new way of war characterized by a few Special Forces troops with laptops who guided volleys of GPS munitions from jets circling above.

Read More: http://city-journal.org/2011/eon0906vdh.html

Lil Wayne New "Anti-Abortion" video entitled 'How To Love'

2011-09-03T13:56:00.006-04:00

New Condoleezza Rice Memoir: No Higher Honor

2011-08-28T18:23:00.007-04:00

CONDOLEEZZA RICE’S NO HIGHER HONOR: A MEMOIR OF MY YEARS IN WASHINGTON, TO BE PUBLISHED ON NOVEMBER 1, 2011 BY CROWN

New York, NY (August 25, 2011) — No Higher Honor by Condoleezza Rice will be published on November 1, 2011, by Crown Publishers. The No Higher Honor memoir is a vivid and forthright account of Rice’s experiences as U.S. National Security Advisor and Secretary of State during the administration of President George W. Bush.

The book will be released simultaneously in the U.S. and Canada in hardcover, e-book, and audio formats. No Higher Honor will also be issued in the United Kingdom by Simon & Schuster UK.

From 2001 through 2004, Rice served as the nation’s first female National Security Advisor, a role that deepened her bond with President Bush and ultimately made her one of his closest confidantes. In 2005, she was confirmed as the 66th U.S. Secretary of State and entrusted with shaping and carrying forward the President’s foreign policy. As America’s chief diplomat, Rice traveled almost continuously around the globe seeking common ground among friends, allies and sometimes bitter enemies, forging international agreements on divisive issues, and compiling a remarkable record of achievement.

In No Higher Honor, Rice shares her unique perspective on the most consequential political, diplomatic, and security issues of the administration. In her own words, she describes the harrowing terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and chronicles her experience of appearing before the 9/11 Commission, for which she was broadly saluted for her grace and forthrightness. She also reveals new details about the contentious debates in the lead-up to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Offering keen insight into how history actually proceeds, No Higher Honor reveals the behind-the-scenes maneuvers that kept the world’s relationships with Iran, North Korea, and Libya from collapsing into chaos. The book also takes the reader into secret negotiating rooms where the fates of Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and Lebanon often hung in the balance, and draws back the curtain on how frighteningly close all-out war loomed in clashes involving India and Pakistan, Russia and Georgia, and in East Africa.

Surprisingly candid in her narrative of Administration colleagues, as well as the hundreds of foreign leaders with whom she dealt, Rice offers in No Higher Honor a master class in statecraft and diplomacy in a way that reveals her essential warmth and humility, and her deep reverence for the ideals on which America was founded. No Higher Honor will be, undoubtedly, an important contribution to the historical record of the United States.

Rice’s previous memoir Extraordinary, Ordinary People: A Memoir of Family, an account of her upbringing in segregation-era Birmingham, Alabama, and of the lasting influence her parents had on her life, was published by Crown in October 2010, and appeared on the New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Denver Post bestseller lists. The trade paperback edition of Extraordinary, Ordinary People is scheduled to be released by Three Rivers Press on October 11, 2011.

Crown Publishers is an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., whose parent company is Bertelsmann AG

SOURCE: http://crownpublishing.com/2011/08/24/press-release-no-higher-honor-by-condoleezza-rice/

Music Playlist: Songs For New York City Hurricane

2011-08-26T14:36:00.004-04:00

Songs you can play while trying to survive this deadly hurricane. Stay safe NYC!!

Music Playlist: Songs For Hurricanes #NP Judy Henske (1963) – Wade in the Water http://youtu.be/q_LkPVyORec

Music Playlist: Songs For Hurricanes #NP The Doors – Riders on the Storm (original album version) – http://youtu.be/5qRJIBtbc2c

Music Playlist: Songs For Hurricanes #NP The Alarm – Where Were You Hiding When The Storm Broke? http://youtu.be/UcEJfCjAuGA

Music Playlist: Songs For Hurricanes #NP Storm Warning Bonnie Raitt http://youtu.be/qAGXPKNPK_M

Music Playlist: Songs For Hurricanes #NP U2 – ELECTRICAL STORM http://youtu.be/CbsTMkttmWM

Music Playlist: Songs For Hurricanes #NP Bryan Ferry/ Roxy Music – - ” Like A Hurricane ” http://youtu.be/CbsTMkttmWM

Music Playlist: Songs For Hurricanes #NP Bob Dylan – A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall http://youtu.be/jHrK6L91BgA

Music Playlist: Songs For Hurricanes #NP Scorpions – Rock You Like A Hurricane http://youtu.be/9Me_tXyq_t4

Music Playlist: Songs For Hurricanes #NP Bad Moon Rising Creedence Clearwater Revival http://youtu.be/UYnySGM9dQA

NYC Hurricane Irene: Evacuation Information

2011-08-26T14:32:00.001-04:00

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has ordered the mandatory evacuation of people in ZONE A of NYC and all of the Rockaways. Shelters will be open by 4 p.m. Friday. Evacuations were underway as early as Friday morning in other locations of the tristate.

Updated: Friday, 26 Aug 2011, 1:58 PM EDT
Published : Friday, 26 Aug 2011, 9:13 AM EDT

New Yorkers: Use Twitter to follow Hurricane Updates @NYCMayorsOffice @NotifyNYC and @311NYC #NYC #Hurricane #Irene

Hurricane Irene: NYC Evacuation Map http://www.docstoc.com/docs/91979612/?ct=40&utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=46&utm_content=587&alt=c70120da-acf7-41e4-8782-a67fd0d6993a

Evacuation routes and shelter information for the New York City area—> http://bit.ly/nVQZ8k

Animal Shelter - RUFF HOUSE RESCUE (QUEENS): Anyone who can take a dog or transport one to the bronx pls call Vicky at 516 557 5915 we are evacuating today.

Hurricane Irene: Evacuation Information http://tinyurl.com/3kr849s

MYFOXNY.COM – New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has ordered the mandatory evacuation of people in ZONE A of NYC and all of the Rockaways. Shelters will be open by 4 p.m. Friday. Evacuations were underway as early as Friday morning in other locations of the tristate.

Here you will find information on who is being evacuated, evacuation routes and what to bring if you’re being evacuated. Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered a Mandatory Evacuation in all of Zone A in New York CIty and The Rockaways (Zone A and Zone B.)

Read more: http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/hurricane-irene-evacuation-information-20110826-KC#ixzz1W9zqAmCz

Zora Neal Hurston Quote

2011-08-25T14:35:00.001-04:00

I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes. I do not mind at all. I do not belong to that sobbing school of Negrohood who hold that nature somehow has given them a lowdown dirty deal. Even in the helter-skelter skirmish that is my life, I have seen that the world is to the strong regardless of a little pigmentation more or less. No, I do not weep at the world — I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife. ~ Zora Neale Hurston

HHR Music Video: Maroon 5 - "Moves Like Jagger" ft. Christina Aguilera

2011-08-25T14:15:00.000-04:00

#NP Maroon 5 - "Moves Like Jagger" ft. Christina Aguilera http://t.co/E8I6mKK Catchy, catchy, Ol' "Mick" Jagger certainly knew how to move.

Charles K. Djou: I’m Running for Congress!

2011-08-25T14:13:00.000-04:00

A year ago I had the great privilege of serving the people of Hawai‘i as their representative in Congress. While there, I worked with Republicans and Democrats alike to achieve the common goal of making life better for the people of Hawai‘i and this great nation.

As I watched the partisan squabbling over the debt ceiling, I expected our congressional representatives to come forward with proposed solutions, some plan or at least an explanation of what the debate meant and how it affected Hawai‘i. My expectations were met with silence. I heard no solutions, saw no plans and heard precious few updates.

As we look to our future, we cannot afford passive representation. The budget debate matters as our nation’s debt has been downgraded for the first time in history. At stake is nothing less than whether we will continue to be a great nation or whether we will slide into obsolescence. At stake is whether our children will find good jobs, whether our families will be able to stay in Hawai‘i, whether we will have the resources to protect our environment and provide the social services we pledged to provide.

The policies of Washington D.C. today have created too few jobs and too little economic growth in Hawai‘i and the U.S. Our nation’s budget deficit needs to be contained, and we must find a long term solution to our looming national debt.

After much thought and consideration with my wife Stacey and our family, I have decided to run for the U.S. House of Representatives in Hawai’i’s 1st Congressional district next year.

I will bring an independent approach to a Washington polarized between political extremes. Hawai‘i needs a bi-partisan congressional delegation that can talk with both sides of the aisle. Hawai‘i needs active representation. I look forward to earning your trust.

Aloha,

http://www.djou.com/

About the Author: Charles Kong Djou is the former U.S. Representative for Hawaii’s 1st congressional district. As a member of the Republican Party, Djou won his congressional seat in a special election in May 2010, but was defeated in the general election in November. Djou previously served in the Hawaii House of Representativesand the Honolulu City Council. Djou is the first Chinese-American Republican to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Fred Siegel: Who Lost the Middle Class?

2011-08-25T14:10:00.004-04:00

Forty years from now, politicians, writers, and historians may struggle to understand how America, once the quintessential middle-class society, became as socially stratified as Europe or even Brazil.

Should that dark scenario come to pass, they would do well to turn their attention first to New York City and New York State, which have been in the vanguard of middle-class decline.

It was in mid-1960s New York—under the leadership of a Barack Obama precursor, Hollywood-handsome John Lindsay—that the country’s first top-bottom political coalition emerged. In 1965, Gotham had more manufacturing jobs than any other city in the country.

But the city’s political elites used eminent domain to push manufacturing aside in favor of business services; they also expanded social programs to help African-Americans and Puerto Ricans. The service sector proved rough going for the less educated, and the social programs failed. New York City responded by inflating its unionized public-sector workforce to incorporate minority workers.

Higher taxes to pay for bigger government joined higher crime to produce a massive exodus of manufacturing and middle-class jobs. Over the last 45 years, New York has led the country in outmigration. A recent study by E. J. McMahon and Robert Scardamalia of the Empire…

Read More: http://www.city-journal.org/2011/eon0811fs.html

The Police - King of Pain

2011-08-20T14:49:00.002-04:00

#nowplaying "King of Pain" by The Police ♫ http://t.co/UskDxL9 A classic for all ages...

The Police were an English rock trio, from London, England, formed originally in 1977. The trio consisted of Gordon Sumner, widely known by his stage name of Sting (lead vocals, bass guitar), Andy Summers (guitar, vocals) and Stewart Copeland (drums, vocals, percussion).

The band became globally popular in the late 1970s and are generally regarded as one of the first New Wave groups to achieve mainstream success, playing a style of rock that was influenced by jazz, punk and reggae music.

Their 1983 album, Synchronicity, was number one in the UK and the US and sold over 8,000,000 copies in the US. The band broke up in 1984, but reunited in early 2007 for a one-off world tour lasting until August 2008, in celebration of the 30th anniversary of their hit single "Roxanne" and also, to a lesser extent, that of their formation as a group. The Police have sold more than 50 million albums worldwide, and became the world's highest-earning musicians in 2008, thanks to their reunion tour.

________________________________________

There's a little black spot on the sun today

It's the same old thing as yesterday

There's a black cat caught in a high tree top

There's a flag-pole rag and the wind won't stop

I have stood here before inside the pouring rain

With the world turning circles running 'round my brain

I guess I'm always hoping that you'll end this reign

But it's my destiny to be the king of pain

There's a little black spot on the sun today

(That`s my soul up there)

It's the same old thing as yesterday

(That`s my soul up there)

There's a black cat caught in a high tree top

(That`s my soul up there)

There's a flag-pole rag and the wind won't stop

(That`s my soul up there)

I have stood here before inside the pouring rain

With the world turning circles running 'round my brain

I guess I'm always hoping that you'll end this reign

But it's my destiny to be the king of pain

There's a fossil that's trapped in a high cliff wall

(That`s my soul up there)

There's a dead salmon frozen in a waterfall

(That`s my soul up there)

There's a blue whale beached by a spring tide's ebb

(That`s my soul up there)

There's a butterfly trapped in a spider's web

(That`s my soul up there)

I have stood here before inside the pouring rain

With the world turning circles running 'round my brain

I guess I'm always hoping that you'll end this reign

But it's my destiny to be the king of pain

There's a king on a throne with his eyes torn out

There's a blind man looking for a shadow of doubt

There's a rich man sleeping on a golden bed

There's a skeleton choking on a crust of bread

King of pain

There's a red fox torn by a huntsman's pack

There's a black-winged gull with a broken back

There's a little black spot on the sun today

It's the same old thing as yesterday

I have stood here before inside the pouring rain

With the world turning circles running 'round my brain

I guess I'm always hoping that you'll end this reign

But it's my destiny to be the king of pain

King of pain

I'll always be king of pain

I'll always be king of pain

Robert Turner: “The Help” — A Review

2011-08-20T14:39:00.004-04:00

By Robert Turner

Set in and around Jackson, Mississippi during the 1960s, at the start of the civil rights movement, The Help offers up a powerful statement of selflessness, tenacity, and strength among southern black women who work in the homes of southern white women.

They cook, clean, take care of the little white babies, and just about everything else around the house. I couldn’t help but initially wonder if this was going to be a black version of Steel Magnolias. It was not!

The stellar cast of Emma Stone, Octavia Spencer, and Viola Davis, along with smaller but great performances from Cicely Tyson, Allison Janney, Sissy Spacek, and True Blood’s Nelsan Ellis all add to the excellent writing of Tate Taylor (screenplay) and Kathryn Stockett (novel).

While the movie definitely shows the ugliness of the day, it instead focuses on the optimism of those who are considered the help.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune said it best, “But as filled with contradictions as it is — genteel but prejudiced, mannered but mean, home to the most civilized brand of cruelty you ever did see — it’s built on tradition.”

It is human story that will make you laugh out loud and break your heart. But it’s a story that is brought from a different perspective. It touches on domestic violence, racism (“There are real racists in this town!”), social status, the failed desires to start a family, and ‘an imaginative sympathy that gets beneath the skin of its characters and into their hearts,’ to paraphrase the Philadelphia Inquirer.

I definitely recommend going to see this film. I will undoubtedly see nominations for the cast of this film, as well as the director. And I am sure a Best Picture nod will be in there as well.

I’m gonna go out and buy the book. You need to go see the movie, or else I will call you “Two Slice Hilly!”

Mary J. Blige "The Living Proof"

About the Author: Robert Turner is president of The Turner Group, a D.C.-based government relations firm. In addition to this he is currently the President of the DC Chapter of Log Cabin Republicans. Reach him at robert@turner-dc.com

Thompson Ayodele: U.S., copy Nigeria: Boost oil output

2011-08-12T14:47:00.003-04:00

The United States routinely faces accusations that its addiction to oil is the cornerstone of its interventionist foreign policy. From Kuwait in 1991 to Iraq in 2003 to Libya today, many believe that the United States is primarily concerned with protecting its oil interests.

These accusations have gained currency because America consumes huge amounts of imported oil. The real problem, however, lies in dependence on foreign oil and continued refusal to ease restrictions on domestic production. While America relies on foreign oil, it remains hesitant to tap into its own bounties of oil along the Gulf of Mexico and the West Coast into Alaska. This unwillingness impairs economic growth and job creation. It also encourages the argument that U.S. involvement in the Middle East is solely for the sake of oil.

As a Nigerian, I have seen firsthand just how much potential the oil and natural-gas industries hold for economic growth. Nigeria is now the largest producer of oil in Africa, with crude oil accounting for 40 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.

By making the most of this natural resource, Nigeria saw 7.6 percent average annual economic growth from 2003 to 2010. Loosening restrictions on domestic oil exploration and development offers economic stimulus in job creation and increased government revenue.

A study by the American Petroleum Institute says that increasing access to U.S. oil could create 530,000 American jobs badly needed in the aftermath of the global economic meltdown and consequently deliver $150 billion more in revenue to the government by 2025. Estimates of oilfield potential are now far more accurate, and many places previously deemed unworthy of exploration are proving to be rich in resources. Older technology was used to estimate that Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay oilfield contained a total of 9 billion barrels. It has already produced over 15 billion.

Seismic technology allows the industry a more precise understanding of where the best opportunities for drilling lie, while subsea technology lets producers use a single platform for development of oil up to 40 miles away.

Together these technologies reduce the number of wells needed for exploration and production, prevent drilling eyesores in oil regions and protect the environment. Despite the potential of this technology, the government is hesitant to issue permits that would let companies move forward with crucial seismic studies of the Atlantic Ocean.

Making fuller use of America’s natural-gas and oil potential would not only spur domestic economic growth, but would benefit the global market as well. For instance, if America were to begin production in accordance with its potential, the increased supply would bring prices down worldwide, unfreeze resources for consumers that could be used for other household items and in turn force producers everywhere to become more competitive.

A move in this direction would also speak volumes to American motives in the Middle East. If instead of consuming excessive amounts of foreign oil and hoarding its own rich supplies, the U.S. contributed to the global oil market, it would quiet arguments that interventionist policies are driven by oil.

When considering whether or not to drill for oil, the U.S. must also consider what the world would be like if every other major oil-producing country took a similar stance and restricted their oil production as severely.
It is time for America to take on its share of global oil production, spurring economic growth through lower oil prices both at home and abroad.

About the Author: Thompson Ayodele is executive director of Initiative for Public Policy Analysis ( http://www.ippanigeria.org/), a policy think tank based in Lagos.

"Hip Hop & Libertarians"

2011-08-12T14:41:00.001-04:00

Public Enemy – Can’t Do Nuttin’ For Ya Man (The best #libertarian rap song ever)…you want 6$ for what??

It is true, the twin libertarian ideals of wealth and individualism are promoted passionately in rap music. In fact, both themes are so important that they, more often than not, comprise the entire subject matter of most rap songs. The time rappers don’t spend enumerating their lavish purchases (rare), they spend tirelessly promoting themselves as the greatest poet, musician, jewelry model, venture capitalist, gangsta, etc., among their peers. This competition, as Mr. Hartfield noted, is textbook rugged individualism. Indeed, J.P. Morgan couldn’t have scripted it any better.

This is the type of confident self-assertion detested by socialists. The only thing they hate more than confident individualism is materialistic desire, and rap provides both in spades. 50 Cent, for example, rose from the adversity of nine bullet holes in his flesh to acquire great fame and wealth. That type of capitalistic work ethic makes Jack Welsh look like a lazy slob.

Capitalism is so ingrained in the rap industry’s Zeitgeist that even the poor, underground rappers who don’t have any money talk about how much money they have. Socialists call this disgusting materialism; Adam Smith would call it the admirable incentive toward upward mobility. We all know who is right.

The smartest, most market-conscious rappers in the rap game brand themselves and become true entrepreneurs. Noting the extreme value of profit, they take a step beyond making money off of their ill flow and clever rhymes, and start making money off of living life as themselves. The only thing more capitalistic than making a profit is being a profit, and this economics lesson is not lost on Jay-Z, 50 Cent, Snoop, Dr. Dre, and the other bling-blinging paradigms of free-market capitalism.

Continue reading the article, in it’s entirety here. http://theprometheusinstitute.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=222:the-libertarian-rap-game&catid=57:musicandfilm&Itemid=53

NOTE: This article was originally published in January 01, 2008 by The Prometheus Institute. PI is a public policy organization dedicated to pioneering innovative technology which increases civic engagement in the United States, especially among the younger generations.

Amy Winehouse - Back To Black

2011-08-02T17:53:00.005-04:00

Amy Winehouse's 'Back to Black' amazing song Re-enters Top 10 on Billboard Chart | Amy, Rest In Peace :(

Amy Winehouse's legacy is not only her music!

2011-08-01T05:01:00.002-04:00

Dying at such a young age is always very sad and tragic. And although, Winehouse’s death – which could have been caused by an overdose – was a great shock it unfortunately was not a surprise. Her short life although troubled was full and rich – with her music she reached and touched millions all over the world.

Her vivid lyrics and powerful unique voice will stay the test of time but her true legacy is her troubled soul and addictive self destructive personality. It will be a waste to talk about one without the other – because Amy’s story is a reminder to all that drugs and alcohol are lethal weapons, their excessive use and dependency should be treated seriously.

A few years ago Jade Goody, a young woman, whose life was cut short by cervical cancer – Jade’s illness and later death have raised much needed awareness of the disease and its silent wickedness, consequently saving many lives young and old. I hope Amy Winehouse’s death also serves as a warning and saves many lives from destruction.

May her troubled soul now rest in eternal peace and may her family finds solace and the strength to carry on without her.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Walaa Idris was born in Germany to Sudanese parents studying for their PhDs. When she was four years old she returned to Sudan where she attended a traditional Catholic Missionary Convent. After gaining a BA degree in Psychology, Sociology and Economics from Indiana University, USA, she returned to Sudan and set up a social enterprise to help families in rural communities to improve their education and health. Today, she owns and runs a property consultancy and offers advisory services to small business setups.

http://www.walaaidris.com/about/

Remy: Raise The Debt Ceiling Rap‏ - YouTube

2011-07-27T18:03:00.004-04:00

South Sudan: Birth of a Nation

2011-07-23T09:03:00.002-04:00

July 9th, 2011 marks the creation of South Sudan the newest country in Africa and the 196th sovereign nation. After years of wrangling, fighting and talking the once one million square miles strong and largest country in Africa is officially split into two independent countries. A million congratulations to all Sudanese on both sides of the border.

Despite what some in the West might want us to believe, this agreement was arrived into amicably and somewhat peacefully – somewhat because the history of the two people is full of conflicts and violent bloodshed. However this particular declaration was achieved peacefully and with mutual agreement.

What about Abyei I hear you ask!?

Like the majority of Africa, Sudan is a tribal nation, even today when a person is introduced the first thing they are asked is where they come from – which tribe and what’s their kin. Sudanese, even the better educated identify and pride themselves by where they came from – it is also extremely important in matters of business, marriage and many social, economic and political issues.

At first glance it might sound alien but if we look closely it’s not all that dissimilar to how the West operates – maybe less sophisticated and more in your face nevertheless not too different. Take politics and the political class for instance – who and where a person is from can equally open and close doors – a Kennedy, a Bush or even a Clinton is not the same as a Palin, an Obama or even a Reagan in the US. An Oxbridge educated upper class with the appropriate contacts and breeding will top any political party list and every opportunity will come their way without the need for any special measures here in the UK!

Abyei is a small region in the heart of Sudan inhabited by two different tribes Dinka who are pure African in origin and culture and the Messeria who are of Arab decent and lead a nomadic life. The two make their living from cattle; both tribes graze their animals around the river basin but also freely travel around the region in dryer seasons for fodder. For years the two lived side by side and existed in a harmonious understanding.

When the Sudan split, the borders cut in the middle of that region separating it into the two countries therefore restricting their movement and their way of life. That’s what the dispute is really and truly about – the inhabitance who for years lived, married shared cultures and yes sometimes fought, don’t want to become separated – but the two governments can’t agree on an amicable resolution. Logic says pronounce Abyei a neutral zone – but I’m sure it’s not that simple – however it can be!

The right and just thing to do will be to allow the two nations – Sudan and South Sudan – resolve this situation and arrive to a peaceful resolution with as little interference as possible from the Church, Muslim Schoolers and of course the oil thirsty states.

Happy Independence Day South Sudan

About the Author: Walaa Idris was born in Germany to Sudanese parents studying for their PhDs. When she was four years old she returned to Sudan where she attended a traditional Catholic Missionary Convent. After gaining a BA degree in Psychology, Sociology and Economics from Indiana University, USA, she returned to Sudan and set up a social enterprise to help families in rural communities to improve their education and health. With the political climate in Sudan growing increasingly unpleasant, she moved to London where she has been living with her family since 1991.Today, she owns and runs a property consultancy and offers advisory services to small business setups.
http://www.walaaidris.com/about/

The Case for Rick Perry

2011-06-23T13:04:00.001-04:00

Governor Rick Perry will you please run for president in 2012 and end the media’s incessant commentary on “the weak line up of GOP candidates” to challenge Obama?

As Newt Gingrich’s candidacy “burns,” Mitt Romney is haunted by Obamneycare, and Jon Huntsman looks like a squishy RINO, conservatives need Governor Perry to right side this GOP ship for 2012. Perry’s plain talking, tell it like is style and passion, could make him the Bill Clinton of 1992. Clinton entered the presidential race late and rose like a meteor to the top of the heap.

Besides his ability to communicate, Perry could teach President Obama a lesson or two about how to lead and get the economy going. In the midst of the worst recession since the Great Depression and yes we’re still in one, Perry created over 254,000 jobs in Texas last year. Since 2009, 38% of all US jobs created were in Texas, Texas the top state in the nation for job creation. (You paying attention Obama?)

The state of Texas’ business friendly environment has led to companies fleeing hostile regulatory state of California in droves for the greener pastures of Texas. In fact, 14 out of 70 businesses fleeing the debt ridden, sky high tax state of California ran to the heart of Texas. Another benefit to companies moving to Texas is their employees don’t have to pay a state income tax because Texas has none.

Unlike our Robin Hood president, who wants to raise taxes on higher earners, rob from the so-called rich to give to everyone else, to close our $14 trillion debt, Perry refused to raise taxes to balance the state’s budget. Instead he borrowed funds from the state’s reserve fund and proposed budget cuts like slashing $4 billion from education funds.

Perry also recently signed into law ” loser pays“ lawsuit reform aimed at reducing frivolous lawsuits. It requires plaintiffs filing civil lawsuits for less than $100,000 to pay the court and lawyer fees of defendants if they lose the case. Tort reform is good thing and Perry knows this law clear the way for real cases and prevent trial lawyers from getting rich over cases like the woman who scalded herself with hot McDonald’s coffee because she drove with the cup between her legs. Stupid!

And I’m not finished with heaping praise on Perry. He also passed a new voter i.d law requiring voters to show a photo i.d to vote to prevent voter fraud. If you have to have a photo i.d to get on plane, why not to vote?

While Obama thinks of ever increasing costly ways for government to reach its fat hand into our lives, with one job killing law or regulation after another (government ban on food companies advertising to kids, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Obamacare, etc.) Governor Rick Perry is trying to get government out of Texans lives so they can thrive because he knows government “doesn’t know best.”

Obama should be very afraid if Perry becomes the GOP nominee for president in 2012 Perry is a deft, animated communicator, who can back up his talk up with facts not empty promises of hope and change.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Crystal Wright is a black conservative woman living in Washington, DC. Some would say she is a triple minority: woman, black and a Republican living in a Democrat dominated city. She’s contemplating moving back to her home state of Virginia, where her vote would count for something. By day, Crystal is a communications consultant and editor and publisher of the new website http://www.conservativeblackchick.com/ . Crystal earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Georgetown University and holds a Masters of Fine Arts in Theatre from Virginia Commonwealth University

Gov. Chris Christie : Gail, it is none of your business!!

2011-06-17T19:07:00.000-04:00

Ryan Jones: Lupe Fiasco, Hip-Hop, and Libertarianism

2011-06-17T18:41:00.006-04:00

The rapper Lupe Fiasco, recently set the normally Pro-Obama hip hop world on fire with his recent comments labeling President Obama a “Terrorist.”

“In my fight against terrorism, to me, the biggest terrorist is Obama in the United States of America. For me, I’m trying to fight the terrorism that’s actually causing the other forms of terrorism. The root cause of the terrorism is the stuff that you as a government allow to happen and the foreign policies that we have in place in different countries that inspire people to become terrorists. And it’s easy for us because it’s really just some oil, which we can really get on our own.” -Lupe Fiasco

For libertarians, statements like this are nothing new. It’s something libertarians have been saying for the longest. Although Lupe chose some very strong words to describe President Obama and his foreign policy, it served a purpose, and that was to cause attention, not only to himself (rappers in essence have to be self promoters), but to draw attention to the elephant (or donkey) in the room for most hip hop heads; that Barack Obama, who was constantly and consistently promoted, endorsed, and immortalized by rappers, music executives, and hip-hop journalists, is carrying on the same failed and disastrous policies that George Bush instituted.

Barack Obama ran on a platform of “Hope and Change”, saying he will get the troops back home and have a common sense foreign policy that will rely on diplomacy and pragmatism, instead of thousands of troops, tons of bombs, barrels of blood and Trillions (with a T) of dollars. He lied. Since taking office, we still have over 100k troops in Iraq, although for “non-combat” reasons. Obama instituted a surge of troops in Afghanistan, and we have been constantly bombing countries like Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia (countries we have to declared war on) with drones operated by CIA operatives and contractors. This is not the hope and change people were looking for.

Many in hip-hop give Obama a pass, they say “He is doing the best he can” or “At least he got Osama!”, I was even told by a friend of mine that “Obama is not in control.” All of this is ludicrous. It was delightful and refreshing to hear Lupe’s comments. Lupe Fiasco is one of the most intelligent and thoughtful rappers of today. For him to say those things and stand by them only adds to his credibility as an artist and an independent thinker.

Everyone else is still either caught in the glitz and glamour of finally having a black president, or fear that speaking their true feelings will cause them to receive some of the criticism that Lupe is currently receiving. My question is, if you switched the word Obama with Bush, would you feel differently about his comments? Plenty of entertainers have lambasted Bush for his foreign and domestic policies (and rightly so), and were usually given a thumbs up by their peers in the music industry. Why is this so different?

Thousands of innocent people (collateral damage) have been killed at the hands of United States and NATO coalition forces, all in the name of terrorism. What is a terrorist? One who systematically uses of violence and intimidation to achieve some goal. The United States would fit under that description, if you ask the family members and friends of those thousands of innocent people killed by drone strikes and bombing campaigns. This is a tragedy and only fuels the hatred toward America.

America has a right to defend itself, but going into sovereign nations without a declaration or war, occupying them, installing governments of our choice, bombing and rebuilding, and raping their natural resources give cause to terrorists plight. As Ron Paul’s says “We need to get out!” Lupe has ever right to express his opinion on the matter, no matter how you try to morally justify what we are doing over there, it is wrong.

Hip Hop and Libertarianism

As a life long fan of hip-hop music, one of the things that I loved about it is the anti-establishment, challenge authority message in the music. N.W.A’s “Fuck the Police, Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power, 2 Live Crew’s “Banned In the USA” all carry a theme Libertarians endorse. Which is, always challenge authority and people or institutions that try to control your actions. I always found it funny that virtually all in hip hop align themselves with Democrat politicians, when it was the Democrats like Cynthia Tucker and Al Sharpton who waged a war on hip hop claiming rappers like Tupac and Ice Cube were the reasons black neighborhoods have become beds for gang violence and drug crimes. Not the War on Drugs or the United States policies which turn low income people into criminals just by living in a certain neighborhood.

Libertarians have been against the War on Drugs since it’s beginning, believing that you own your own body, and by prohibiting someone from something, only creates more crime and an environment where gangs, organized crime, and violence is the norm. Another libertarian issue is police brutality. Libertarians, not Democrats, and certainly not Republicans, have long been opponents of police brutality, SWAT tactics, misuse of force, and warrantless search and seizures by ALL policing agencies, city, state and federal. This has been a hot button issue in the hip hop nation for decades. When groups like NWA spoke out against police brutality, politicians and public officials lined up to criticize them and tried to limit their rights to free speech, saying they are igniting violence against policeman. Well what about the violence against common citizens? Libertarians have always been on the right side of this issue, while Democrats and Republicans stood with the police.

The government’s blatant attack on free speech hits at the core of what libertarians have been warning about for decades. When you give government the power to regulate portions of your life for “security reasons”, even if they seem inconsequential at the time; there will come a point where the heavy hand of government will eventually knock at your door if they do no agree with your actions or speech. In a time when police departments have set up actual units whose mission is to review rap lyrics and use them to build cases. This is unconstitutional and a waste of taxpayer dollars.

What is Libertarianism? Libertarianism is a political philosophy that upholds individual liberty, especially freedom of expression and action. Libertarians believe in the natural rights of having the freedom to speak and do as you please as long as you’re not interfering with someone else’s freedom to life, freedom, and property. It’s really that simple. I often wonder why there aren’t more libertarian rappers. Mobb Deep’s Prodigy has said he grew interested in Ron Paul after he saw him debate. A lot of rappers and hip hop heads would be surprised how much they have in common with the old white guy named Ron Paul. He’s anti-war, anti-police-state, anti-drugwar, and anti-corporatism. Although he is Republican by name, his stance and his voting record is very anti-establishment and it would behoove fans of hip hop to look into him and the libertarian philosophy.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Ryan Jones was born and raised in New Orleans, LA and undereducated in public schools. After years of unlearning government propaganda, he has become a libertarian and fighter for liberty. He is currently working and living in New Orleans where he hopes to remain. By day, Ryan is a IT Specialist with a Fortune 500 company, by night he is libertarian activist and staunch supporter of individual liberty, economic freedom, and world peace. Ryan received his Associates of Science degree from a local technical college, and is contemplating selling his kidney to pay off student loans.

Contact: rhinton21@cox.net

The Lost Son of Havana — Film Review

2011-06-08T16:33:00.003-04:00

By Cleo Brown

When I was a youngster growing up in Oakland, California my grandmother proved herself to be a traitor to our family and to its die-hard San Francisco Giant sentiments, as well as to its great love for Willie Mays. For Grandma, although she rarely displayed interest in baseball, demonstrated an affinity for Luis Tiant and The Boston Red Sox. She would say, “Elaine, Elaine, let’s watch Luis throw the ball,” never categorizing me with the other members of my immediate family.

It was, therefore, with great pride that Grandma watched Mr.Tiant, who was a pitcher, hit both a double and a homerun to help his team as they struggled to clinch penants and to win The World Series. Gaining my grandmother’s loyalty and devotion as a baseball fan was not easy for Luis Tiant to accomplish for Grandma usually manifested a disdain for organized sports. I ask myself, consequently, in 2010 after viewing Luis Tiant’s story in Lost Son of Havana why he has not yet been inducted into Baseball’s Hall of Fame?

Produced by The Farrelly Brothers in conjunction with ESPN Films, Lost Son of Havana is not only a great baseball film but it is also an excellent documentary managing to gain a foothold inside of Fidel Castro’s Cuba as of November of 2007. Luis Tiant, who was born in a suburb of Havana, Cuba in November of 1940, left Cuba in 1961 for several months to play baseball in the United States. During the interim period of time, however, Fidel Castro’s Regime gained control of the tiny island country refusing to permit those Cubans who were abroad to return unless they did so immediately.

Luis Tiant, therefore, remained in exile in the United States for forty-six years before being given permission to return home to Havana. This is the story, subsequently, which Lost Son of Havana chronicles: Luis Tiant’s exile in The United States playing superior baseball in both the Minor and the Major Leagues for a variety of Teams including The Cleveland Indians, The Minnesota Twins, The Boston Red Sox, The New York Yankees, The Pittsburgh Pirates, and The California Angels.

Walking in the shoes of his father, who played baseball in The Negro Leagues of the United States, Luis Tiant proved himself to be a superior talent on the mound who, unlike most other pitchers of his day, could also hit the ball out-of-the park. This film also chronicles Tiant’s triumphant return to Havana in 2007 in which he witnessed the overwhelming poverty and desolation which his remaining family and friends in Cuba now live.

With a haunting musical score by Robert Miller; Narration by Chris Cooper; Eye-opening photography by Alistair Christopher; and Writing and Direction by Jonathon Hock, Lost Son of Havana is a moving tribute to Luis Tiant which yet fails to answer the question “Why hasn’t Luis Tiant been inducted into Baseball’s Hall of Fame?” Viewing the lengthy film a second time I was struck by the racism which Tiant said he had been the victim of in The United States. In retrospect, however, more indicative of Tiant’s exclusion from Baseball’s Hall of Fame is his Cuban ethnicity indicating a degree of Xenophobia in the selection process despite his American citizenship and forty-six years in The United States.

Ah, if my French, Indian, and African (Creole) Grandma were only living today to watch Luis Tiant pitch once more! More than any other factor, the baseball footage of Tiant on the mound, is the most enticing charm of Lost Son of Havana. I long to hear Grandmother Beaulah say again, “Elaine, Elaine let’s watch Luis throw the ball!” On a scale of from one to twelve roses I give to Lost Son of Havana a thirteen.

Please visit the official movie website for details: http://www.thelostsonofhavana.com/

Mitt Romney’s latest campaign video – In America: Anything Is Possible

2011-06-08T15:49:00.003-04:00

Chris Ladd: Sex Tips for Politicians

2011-06-08T15:46:00.000-04:00

This post is specially dedicated to my thousands of admiring readers who are major political figures (you can’t prove otherwise). It’s time we had a grown-up talk.

When Bill Clinton left office I thought it was finally safe for children to watch the news again. But clearly you folks need some help dealing with two very important subjects: The Internet and your personal sexual choices which creep me out. Why? Not to save your careers, or protect the Republic, or advance your political agenda. I want you to listen to my advice because I’m sick of hearing what you cheeky monkeys do with your free time and I’d like a break.

Many of you came of age in the era of the rotary dial phone, so let me take a moment to explain the Internet. The Internet is a place where people post semi-anonymous naked pictures of themselves for anyone to enjoy. It can also be used for other stuff like playing games, stealing classified information, pirating movies, and virtual farming.

But, mostly it’s for nudity.

You may be thinking, “Awesome, how can I get started?” You’re right to be excited, but first things first.

You need to understand that some of your more repressed constituents might respond negatively to unsolicited messages which include pictures of your crotch (or “weiner” as the kids call it these days). The Internet might seem like a magical, anonymous place where you can finally let your pervy self breathe free, but don’t be fooled. Whatever you do there will eventually find its way onto the pages of the New York Times. We all know this won’t stop you from sending sexually explicit messages to underage staffers, but it requires you to make some plans for the future.

Regardless of your party affiliation, policy positions, or the “substantive issues” you think people ought to be focusing their attention on, you will need to have a plan for what to do when (let’s just skip the “if”) those animals in the lamestream media notice what you’ve been doing with your Twitter feed. I want to help you help me by having your lewd behavior disappear quickly from the headlines.

The good news is that this new era of electronic political sex scandals works just like the good old days when drunken politicians used to drown pretty girls after driving off a bridge. Don’t let the fancy technical details dazzle you. Responding to your digital scandals requires the same political blocking and tackling you learned after that incident at the frat party.

Regardless whether the scandal you’re experiencing is the result of electronic fumbling or failure to pay off your gay masseuse/meth dealer, your response should be the same. The next time you’re caught sending lewd emails, get arrested soliciting sex in a bathroom, or find that your private stash of totally awesome self-crotch-portraits has been raided and shared on the Interwebs, stop for a moment to think before your next move.

In that moment you must resist your overwhelming urge to lie. This goes against every political instinct, but trust me this terribly embarrassing incident is the one time in your political career when it might actually pay to tell the truth. Tell the whole truth. Tell it once. Then kiss your miserable wife and go home.

Compare these examples.

Democratic Congressman Barney Frank engaged in a years’ long relationship with a gay prostitute. Along the way he used his political position to help the guy deal with his criminal problems. Career-ender, right? Wrong. Frank candidly admitted what he had done and convincingly denied what he hadn’t. He is still one of the most powerful figures on Capitol Hill.

And it works just as well for Republicans. Even if you’ve built your career on half-sincere religious prudery, all is not lost when you’re caught at a brothel. Remember Sen. David Vitter’s career-ending scandal? Darn right you don’t, because he handled it correctly. He acknowledged the provable details in a written statement, stopped talking to the media, ignored the more disgusting details as they emerged, and waited for America’s collective attention deficit disorder to work its magic. And he continues to collect a federal paycheck as a Louisiana Senator.

If you look into the camera, tell it straight, and hold your ground you can get away with anything in this country. Newt Gingrich cheated on I don’t know how many wives. He blamed it on America for being so unbelievably hot he couldn’t stand it. And now he’s a serious (well, serious Republican) Presidential candidate.

Compare that to John Ensign, the only honest to God Pentecostal and authentic Promise Keeper in the Senate. He got caught cheating on his wife. Yea, that’s all. No call girls or diapers or corpses. Easy, right?

Instead of using the Vitter Gambit like a pro, he tried to shut the matter up by arranging a political job for the woman’s angry husband and funneling business to him through his political donors. Then he paid the woman off with $96,000. Entirely unnecessary, not to mention expensive. Oh, and criminal.

Now instead of running for President he’s looking at his retirement options, which include a shot at free federal room and board with unlimited homemade tattoos.

Don’t be a Weiner. Even in the Internet Age, whatever you did can’t top Ted Kennedy. Don’t bother lying. And definitely don’t spit out bizarre evasions in front of Rachel Maddow. If your story makes sense and the details check out, the public will lose interest within a week or so regardless of how disgusting your actions might have been.

Swallow your pride, acknowledge what you did, and decide what to do with your career. And please get off the front page. We have more important things to be disgusted by.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Chris Ladd is a Texan who is now living in the Chicago area. He has served for several years as a Republican Precinct Committeeman in DuPage County, IL, and was active in state and local Republican campaigns in Texas for many years.

Crystal Wright: The NAACP vs. Harlem School Kids

2011-06-08T15:43:00.003-04:00

The National Association for the ADVANCEMENT of Colored People, emphasis on the word “advancement,”claims “for 102 years, the NAACP has fought to ensure that all our children have access to high-quality public education.”

If this is indeed true, then why would the NAACP, which used to be the most revered civil rights organization for black Americans, throw New York City black kids under the bus to save unionized teachers’ jobs and keep failing schools open?

In May to the shock and awe of thousands of New York City parents, the NAACP locked arms with the United Federation of Teachers (emphasis on union) and filed a lawsuit in the State Supreme Court to stop the city from closing 22 poor performing schools and giving 20 charter schools space inside public schools.

After 2,500 charter school parents and students protested in Harlem last week, blasting the NAACP, it wrote an op-ed arguing that allowing charter school students to use available space in NYC schools “impedes learning” or “tears at the fabric of communities.” Tell me how giving parents’ access to 20 charter schools impedes learning. What the NAACP failed to mention in weak defense of its actions was that by filing the lawsuit with the teachers’ union, the NAACP prevented 4,100 teachers from losing their jobs and denied 7,000 children access to a better education. That is called hypocrisy!

If the NAACP really espoused Shirley Chisholm’s maxim as it wrote in its op-ed “there are no permanent friends, no permanent enemies, just permanent interests,” particularly when it comes to education of black kids, then the NAACP should be praising Republicans. GOP policies support charter schools, vouchers and programs like the DC Scholarship Program, which House Speaker John Boehner brought back to life after Obama killed the program which helped 1,700 black kids escape failing DC schools.

The NAACP does have permanent enemies, they include Republicans and those enlightened people against teachers unions and possibly the very black people it claims to protect! The one honest thing NAACP wrote in that flimsy op-ed was “we are independent actors.” Yes, you are but not for the good of the constituents you claim to serve.

This NYC school madness is another reason the NAACP has become an irrelevant organization, a distant shadow of the Civil Rights group which worked so assiduously during the 1950s and 1960s to combat racial discrimination. Sadly, it seems the NAACP can be bought by anyone at the expense of black people, who it is supposed to serve and in this case NAACP was bought by the teachers union. As former DC Councilmember Kevin Chavous noted Supreme Court Justice and former NAACP Chief Counsel Thurgood Marshall, who won the infamous 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education case, “must be shaking his head.”

News flash, school choice, vouchers, and charter schools, all are Republican policies, help BLACKS escape education ghettos and succeed in life. As my good friend Michelle Bernard says often “education is the great equalizer.” Stop being stupid my Black people and throwing your vote blindly to Democrats, get educated on who and what you vote for!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Crystal Wright is a black conservative woman living in Washington, DC. Some would say she is a triple minority: woman, black and a Republican living in a Democrat dominated city. She’s contemplating moving back to her home state of Virginia, where her vote would count for something. By day, Crystal is a communications consultant and editor and publisher of the new website http://www.conservativeblackchick.com/ . Crystal earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Georgetown University and holds a Masters of Fine Arts in Theatre from Virginia Commonwealth University

Shikha Dalmia: Shrink the Prisons

2011-06-08T15:36:00.002-04:00

Conservatives are as wrong about prison overcrowding as liberals were about welfare reform.

Sometimes the correct answer is genuinely hard to see. At other times it is obvious, but we are too blinded by our ideological prejudices to see it. That’s what happened to many liberals during the welfare reform debate 15 years ago. And it might be what is happening now to the conservatives protesting Plata vs. Brown, a recent Supreme Court ruling ordering California to relieve the massive overcrowding in its prisons.

Read More: http://reason.com/archives/2011/06/07/conservative-justices-dont-car

D-Day Tribute

2011-06-06T20:46:00.002-04:00

A patriotic D-Day tribute with newsreel footage, Reagan speech and George S. Patton set to music.

NAACP: Charter Schools promote Segregation?

2011-06-04T15:34:00.001-04:00

According to the NAACP, Charter Schools promote segregation? This is how Asinine becomes (ASS-inine) http://tinyurl.com/62csgyd

Janks Morton: HOOD-WINKED

2011-06-04T15:32:00.000-04:00

Travel to any Black-owned barbershop or beauty salon on a Saturday afternoon, and you will hear some of the most outlandish, unsubstantiated and unverifiable (statistical) claims about the state of today’s African-American Male.

I sit in barber chairs across this country and hear “you know half of em’ been locked up, most of em’ dropped out of high school, and all of em’ are marrying white women.” I sit mostly in silence, because the truth about the great economic and educational strides of today’s Black Male usually starts an emotional and fiery debate. And mostly, the barbershop is a place where truth, statistics and evidence gets trumped by whoever shouts the loudest.

If I can give Black America one teachable lesson, it would be this “Never trust a man (or woman) who quotes a statistic that ends in either a five or a zero.” “25% of this, 50% of that, 75% of these” are usually opinion or conjecture, and seldom if ever valid. Fives and zeros are the numbers of men and are usually flawed (look at your fingers).

R.I.P Gil Scott Heron: The Orator Extraordinaire

2011-05-28T14:52:00.002-04:00

(Rest in peace, Bro Gil….) your out of the bottle for good now!!

The music world has lost one of its greats as influential singer-songwriter and poet Gil Scott Heron died yesterday afternoon in New York City. His impact on various modern music genres, such as hip-hop, R&B, cannot be overestimated. He is mostly known for the timeless song “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” which has become a phrase in the culture lexicon. After being incarcerated and battling drug problems during the 2000s, he managed to make an impressive comeback to the music scene with the critically acclaimed I’m New Here followed by the Jamie xx collaboration We’re New Here earlier this year. Below you can find a fine selection of one of his most powerful songs. Rest in Power.

Source: Hypebeast http://t.co/9j2QmFn

Edgar Rivas: Ex-con cherishes freedom but laments that he cannot vote

2011-05-27T20:22:00.002-04:00

By Edgar Rivas

Yesterday, I met an ex-convict, he was a tow truck driver named Johny. He told me that he has never voted and probably will never be able too. He explained to me how that came about.

Johny told me the story of how his mother got tired of getting involved with bad men so for part of his teenage life he grew up without a father figure. But his mother, through her actions, taught him the importance of personal responsibility, self reliance, and living within his means. Johny told me, “I saw my mother struggle, on her own, to pay the bills and to put food on the table so that I could eat; she did not buy lavish things to make herself look good; she thought of my needs first. The memories of her struggles have inspired me to be responsible and self reliant.”

Unfortunately, he had not learned the lessons in time to save him from self destruction. You see, Johny was incarcerated for fourteen years for shooting and causing the death of a rival gang member when he was a teenager. And even though Johny lives a responsible life now, he cannot vote, never has because he was not yet eighteen when he had committed his terrible crime, and probably never will because there is little chance he will ever be pardoned. Because of that, he now laments the fact that he had acted so irresponsible. Now he has no say so to what is currently happening to our country.

Having been in jail for fourteen years, Johny had to deal with the Mexican Mafia which was always very demanding and totalitarian. In order to survive, Johny, like others that find themselves incarcerated with the mafia, had to work hard to meet the needs of the mafia which meant that he had to learn to live without. Not unlike many that live in third world nations.

Now that he is no longer incarcerated, is married, has children of his own, and has many responsibilities, Johny explained to me, that he loves the freedom he has now to meet his own needs, but most of all, he takes pride in being able to fulfill the needs of his loved ones like providing food and shelter for them. In order to do that, he told me, he definitely lives within his means so that he does not have to rely on anyone else, not even creditors to pay his bills. He told me, “Whenever I get the urge to buy something, I say to myself, if I don’t have the cash, I just won’t buy it.” He told me that whenever people come to him to borrow money, he simply says, “no.” When they complain, he likes to tell them, “If a little old lady like my mother made it on her own, then you can do it also.” Johny’s mother still lives on her own in a middle class neighborhood in Lakewood, California.

Johny understands the importance of being financially responsible, but most of all, he understands the importance of being self reliant; he appreciates the freedom and empowerment that comes along with it. He understands that reliance on others often leads to complacency and laziness and, he for one, does not feel that he should be funding (although he cannot vote, he still has to pay taxes, of course) the irresponsible behavior of others. That’s why he does not agree with the current administration’s willingness to bail out everyone especially those companies and individuals that do not have his discipline to operate within their means.

If only our leaders were as financially responsible as Johny, a former gang member and current tow truck driver, our country would not be in its current financial state. Instead, the government wants to continue to: spend, spend, spend into oblivion. The only thing the current administration is doing with its “stimulus packages” is stimulating the downfall of our country.

As the Membership Director of the LACYR (Los Angeles County Young Republicans), I would have loved to have recruited Johny on his current principles alone. He understands the importance of voting, something most of us take for granted. Currently, Johny can only dream of making a difference regarding the direction his country is going, if he could only vote, he could’ve been making a difference.

I will be staying in touch with Johny, I believe, that both, him and I, have important personal stories to share with young men and woman, especially those that are growing up in high crime areas. Johny and I have something in common, we’re both ex-gang members, but we both live responsible, productive life styles, now. But, unlike Johny, I never crossed the line and did anything that stripped me of the power to vote. Although Johny can’t vote, he can still join me in talking to young Americans for the purpose of sharing our stories and instilling an appreciation for the right to vote; in the process, hopefully, convincing them not to do anything to jeopardize that right which our forefathers worked so hard to provide. That way, they can retain their ability to influence the direction of their country, indefinitely.

So the next time you consider not voting, remember Johny’s story. Be thankful you live in a country where you have the right to choose your leaders and you have a say in the way your country operates.

Vote, get involved! And don’t do anything to lose that power. Your country’s future depends on it.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Edgar Rivas an ex-gang member that was involved with the Crips, and later a Chicano gang, in Los Angeles. At age eighteen he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and at one point could not read, write, or talk without stuttering. However, since then, he has held management jobs, now owns real estate, and has been married since 1996. Currently, he is attending college and has made the Dean’s List with Honors. He has served on the Los Angeles County Young Republicans board of directors and currently is the Treasurer of “Ready for Change,” a nonprofit organization. Edgar says, “Because I have learned through experience that excuses and denials don’t solve problems, I am a huge advocate of honesty and PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY!”

HHR Film Review of “Thing With No Name”

2011-05-27T20:11:00.002-04:00

Thing With No Name Trailer from Sarah Friedland on Vimeo.

In the documentary film entitled Thing With No Name producers Sarah Friedland and Esy Casey present a touching portrait of two HIV/AIDS afflicted women as they live out their final months in the province of Kwazulu Natal, South Africa. The two women are named Danisile and NTombeleni. Danisile is only thirty-two years old while NTombeleni is only forty years old. Although Danisile is younger, stronger, and has given birth to fewer children than has NTombeleni, she has a lower CD4 Count than does NTombeleni. Despite their weakened immune systems, however, Danisile’s and NTombeleni’s is a valiant struggle to hold onto their lives. With beautiful photography of the Kwazulu Natal region by Esy Casey, and good editing and exceptional direction by Sarah Friedland, the women’s stories are told as they struggle through The Winter Months of 2006.

As Danisile and NTombeleni survive throughout June, July, and August the mental, physical, and the intellectual affects of the disease upon them is contrasted with the health of their children and other family members. Often optimistic, yet f rankly honest, this sensitive glimpse of Danisile and NTombeleni’s lives is intertwined with Traditional South African Customs which the poor people of South Africa depended upon for survival while Apartheid was in place. The South African People have not been able to totally forsake their Traditional Folk Customs. Umemulo (female rights of passage), Ancestor Worship, Traditional Medicinal Practices, and a Traditional African Burial are featured throughout this documentary.

Thing With No Name may be dull and boring for those who are unwilling to read the subtitles for the people in the documentary do not speak English. The English subtitles, however, convey staggering statistics regarding HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa and, specifically, in Kwazulu Natal, South Africa which are astounding enough to compel one to watch the entire film.

For instance, did you know that of The World’s 39.5 million HIV/AIDS infected people that 63% live in Sub-Saharan Africa? Also, did you know that in Kwazulu Natal, one in six people is HIV/AIDS infected. Because of this documentary’s ability to educate its viewers about HIV/AIDS, I would recommend this film as a vehicle with which to improve HIV/AIDS awareness amongst children as well as amongst adolescents and adults. On a scale of from one to twelve roses, therefore, I give Thing With No Name eleven roses.

http://www.thingwithnoname.org/

The Government's War on Cameras!

2011-05-27T20:01:00.002-04:00

Crystal Wright: Obama’s Black Agenda?

2011-05-27T19:01:00.001-04:00

By Crystal Wright

Race baiting, headline chasing Princeton Professor Cornel West set off a firestorm of outrage among Obama supporters and defenders of hope and change, when he said Obama wasn’t culturally black. West suggested because Obama is more “a white man with black skin,” his policies have done nothing to help poor blacks.

West isn’t the first person to say this. The Congressional Black Caucus and other black liberals have complained Obama has no black agenda and ignored problems plaguing blacks more acutely than whites such as double digit unemployment 16% compared national average of 9%. In some cities like DC and Brooklyn the rate is 30%-50%. Black unemployment is on the verge of being the highest in 25 years.

Only 44% blacks own homes compared to 70% whites; According to “One in 100: Behind Bars in America 2008,” published by the Pew Center on the States, one in nine black men between the ages of 20-34 are in prison compared to one in 30 other men of the same age.

The education achievement gap between blacks and whites is still huge. A 2010 report, “A Call for Change,” conducted by the Council of the Great City Schools, found this massive disparity could be attributed to the fact “black children are twice as likely as whites to live in a home where no parent has a job.” This illustrates how cradle to grave government dependency (Welfare to Medicaid) has led to the breakdown of the black family.

I agree with many that Obama is President of all Americans not just one group. But Obama received more than 95% of the black vote in 2008 and like a good Democrat, he pandered to blacks for their vote, running on the same old promises of better education, jobs, blah, blah and delivering ZERO. If I was one of those black voters who voted for Obama, expecting him to address some of these promises and he didn’t, I’d be pissed off too.

I’d be especially perturbed as a black Obama voter the president launched an Educational Excellence for Hispanics Advisory Commission. Blacks have had the lowest educational outcomes for decades, where is their commission? Obama figures he can keep dismissing problems facing blacks and still carry the “black vote” but Hispanics are the fastest growing minority so he wants to throw them a bone for their vote in 2012 and throw blacks under the bus.

Where is the outrage from the Congressional Black Caucus and black advocacy groups like the NAACP, who are supposed to hold the president accountable for implementing policies that help their black constituents? It appears these groups are letting Obama off the hook because he is the country’s first Black president but if it was President George W. Bush or any other white president, the outrage would never cease. All we hear is silence from our “so called” black leaders. (Ever notice how whites don’t have “white leaders” but blacks are always lumped into one monolithic group.) At least Professor West had the guts to tell the truth.

But the real blame lies with black Americans who keep supporting Obama and Democrats every election cycle while these politicians take their vote for granted, ignoring their concerns. While Republicans need to improve their efforts in appealing to more minority voters, their policies like school choice, advocating marriage and family values better address problems plaguing lower income blacks than Democrats government dependency policies.

If any black American believes Obama has a “black agenda” or cares about blacks until it’s time for his re-election, wake up! Look beyond the man’s skin color, examine his policies; ask yourself have they made my life better or worse; and vote on that.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Crystal Wright is a black conservative woman living in Washington, DC. Some would say she is a triple minority: woman, black and a Republican living in a Democrat dominated city. She’s contemplating moving back to her home state of Virginia, where her vote would count for something. By day, Crystal is a communications consultant and editor and publisher of the new website http://www.conservativeblackchick.com/ . Crystal earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Georgetown University and holds a Masters of Fine Arts in Theatre from Virginia Commonwealth University

Julene Allen-Dell’Amor: College Grads, No JOBs, Living at Home

2011-05-27T18:54:00.000-04:00

More college graduates are finding themselves moving back home because they are not finding jobs. And the jobs that they sustain are not allowing them to substantially pay off student loans. The economy is not getting better any time soon. Realistically, we do not have jobs for our college graduates. We have become an age where many jobs have been eliminated. Customer service, data entry, processing and some technical fields are either outsourced or being replaced by new software and programming. For example, yesterday, we had to pay for film and photo editing. Today we can edit video and film ourselves, without paying for the service.

Budget cuts are taking place in many fields. We just don’t need the same number of employees anymore. Employees will work twice as hard for lower wages. This isn’t about trading and outsourcing jobs alone. We simply do not have the jobs we had 30 years ago. The best scores in college, were a pathway to the top companies that provided all sorts of benefits and pension plans. Many of these companies no longer exist. These days are long gone. A decade and a half ago, computers were the market to enter. But the computer and technology age downsized many positions with new programming and technology. The wave of the future is about creating efficiency.

I want Americans to toss out the old formula of obtaining the American dream. Certainly, the old formula of socializing, marketing and retrieving information has transformed, for instance. So we can certainly think about changing the formula when it comes to living the American way of life. I want Americans to think on a larger scale, especially when they are yelling about jobs, or whether there is enough jobs or not. They are not really factoring in how we have changed overall, and how we have become a techie age, one that has shrunk its unskilled labor and even shortened its use for skilled labor.

We are not thinking about the scale of what is really going on in our employment force. Americans are finding themselves increasingly without jobs and in a position where they are unemployed or underemployed for longer periods of time. So we call on our president or our local political leaders to take action. But what are we really asking them to do?

We are in a catch-22 position. If government attempts to assist Americans during his time, it’s socialism. But if we do not, and leave it up to other people, including the rich, to become charitable, then our economy will suffer.

This is not a time for recent college grads to worry about living with parents; this is a time to embrace how they can help their parents with the skills they have obtained and figure out how to pull together with their family.

Unfortunately, recent college grads are more concerned with the image of being at home with their parents, than how to strategically move forward. As a country, we have taught our children to be individualistic and independent. But it’s time to reevaluate the family structure here in America. It’s time to extend our family in numbers and put a halt to yesterday’s American dream.

Whether it is government’s responsibility to step in or not is not the issue. Our government and financial welfare suffers if government decides to withdraw or standby. And this is what’s so interesting about the idea of socialism. Some of us have no idea what we are saying. Government assistance doesn’t end with an impoverished class of people. There are many programs Americans benefit from. There are groups that are severely biased and would rather government fund certain programs over others. These are the same groups that will declare socialism in the name of politics. We have to be careful about what we support on an individual basis, not just as members of a political party or ideal.

But we should support those ideals that are based on reality or our own reality for that matter. No political party has a cookie cut method of securing our future. We have seen this in our past and present. But we know what we want as individuals and as a family, and that should be “the” focus.I have learned that politics has caused many to feel ashamed of their “successes” and “failures”.

So whether an individual has received government assistance at one time or another, or obtained a tremendous amount of wealth, it has a way of isolating certain people, certain members of our republic. Politics will motivate many people to weigh themselves in, even when they feel they are doing something right. We will never be able to satisfy someone else’s politics, but we can stand up for what we feel is good and right.

Families MUST come together and realize what’s at stake. Families have to work together, collaborate, and build a prosperous life and future as one.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Julene Allen-Dell’Amor is a Chicago native, raised in the near west suburbs outside of Chicago. She is a registed Independent who is a successful business owner in the art and antique world. Currently, she is the Founder of “Women for Action” a forum geared towards women taking more political action. Women for Action produces visual awareness via a nonpartisan forum.

Bryson Gipson: Social Justice ≠Mountaintop

2011-05-27T18:50:00.001-04:00

By Bryson Gipson

I am a huge fan of comedy of all kinds. I enjoy it all from sitcoms to stand up. Who doesn’t love to laugh? Before the election in 2008, comedian Steve Harvey put out a stand up set called “Still Trippin’”. Being the Steve Harvey fan that I am, I had to see it. During the set he tells the audience that, as black people, we have an “obligation” to vote for Barrack Obama. He goes onto say that it’s not even a choice. It’s my duty. This hit a nerve with me. But it’s Steve Harvey. You can’t put too much stock into what comes out of his mouth.

But then I heard black conservative commentator, Armstrong Williams, reiterate that same concept in an interview with Dr. Marc Lamont Hill. He confessed that he had this sense of obligation to vote for Obama. This almost made me physically angry.

So because I’m black and he’s black, I have to vote for him? What if I don’t? Am I less black? Am I neglecting my duty as a black man? What would Dr. King say about that? When he said to judge by the content of character and not by the color of the skin did he leave off “…unless they’re the same color as you in which case don’t look into character. Just go with it.”? Isn’t that racism? Aren’t you putting me in a category because of the color of my skin?

As a black man I was extremely insulted by this ridiculous premise that I don’t have a choice or opinion if one of the choices is the same color as me. Why is that? Is it because we have to level the playing field now for black folks? Has affirmative action reached as far as the white house? Hiring someone because you have a minority quota to fill may be acceptable at Office Max or Arby’s. But the leader of the free world? Although I agree with pretty much nothing Obama stands for or believes in, I do concede that he is a smart, capable man. But what if he wasn’t? What if someone as ignorant and corrupt as Jesse Jackson (Sr. or Jr.) had made it that far in the election? Am I obligated to vote for him because he’s black even though I know he’ll lead this country straight to hell? Of course not!

This ideology, that we have to right wrongs by giving those we view as “oppressed”, or in the minority, an unfair advantage, is called social justice (a euphemism for reverse racism). Much of the idea, and the actual term, can find its roots in Black Liberation Theology. (This was the doctrine that Obama’s Chicago based church was founded on… you know. Before he has to suddenly abandon it and has no clue his pastor Jeremiah Wright was teaching this).

This radical ideology manifests in the teachings of Dr. James Cone, the Marxist credited with founding Black Liberation. He preaches that the only way that white people can have “true repentance”, or be saved, is to give back what “they stole from black people.” Furthermore he teaches that our personal salvation is tied to the collective. In other words the only way I can be saved is if everybody is. Really? I’ve skimmed through the Bible once or twice, and found nothing remotely similar to that rhetoric. In fact, the Bible tells me to “work out my own soul salvation,” and that God will judge me according to my good works. Not the community’s.

So here you have a religion founded around reparations and social justice; a religion that our President studied under for 20 years. Should White people be held responsible and be made to pay for their ancestor’s mistakes? Only 20% of southern whites owned slaves. What if their ancestor was an abolitionist or one of the 80% that didn’t own slaves? Are they on the hook still because they’re white? Is this the Mountaintop or the Promised Land that Dr. King dreamed of? Of course not.

It’s ironic that the biggest advocates for social justice love to cite and quote Dr. King even though what he died for was the exact opposite of what they advocate. (I’m talking to you Rev. Sharpton, Rev. Jackson) A good litmus test for social justice is role reversal. As a minority, would it upset me if the roles were switched? If a famous white comedian, say Robin Williams or Larry the Cable Guy, said that white people had an obligation to vote for someone, not because he was smart or good for the country, but because he was white, would I be upset? You bet.

We all remember the lawsuit filed by 20 New Haven firefighters whose promotion tests got thrown out because no blacks passed it. They ended up rightly winning their lawsuit, (which was ruled against by current Justice Sotomayor …an Obama appointee) but what if it was reversed? What if only blacks passed it and the test was scrapped because no whites passed? We would be outraged! And rightly so.

Consider this. A few years back, while elaborating on his white grandmother’s racist tendencies, then candidate Obama referred to her as a “typical white person.” By contrast if John McCain ever in his life referred to anybody as a “typical black person” his career would be over. But if it’s wrong for them, shouldn’t it be wrong for us? Logic dictates that this double standard mentality will only lead us into a vicious circle of revenge. In 200 years, what if whites want reparations because they feel they feel the deck is stacked against them now? Should blacks have to deal with that? What if Jews wanted reparations and social justice from Germans? Or, God forbid, from the Egyptians who kept them in bondage for centuries? I’m sure you understand why this is an impractical, immoral, and unsustainable mentality.

My guess is that Dr. King wouldn’t stand for this politically correct “you owe me” circle that is engulfing society. He gave his life trying to ensure that when I interviewed for a job, ran for office, or applied for a loan I was judged based on my character and what I had accomplished in my life. It’s irrelevant if I’m black, white, yellow, or if I glow in the dark. If you are my employer, my constituent, or my loan officer you don’t owe me anything because of my race. My race should have no bearing on how you treat me, even if it benefits me. At one time or another in life, everyone needs a hand up. But if you should happen to extend that helping hand to me, I want it to be because God put it on your heart. Not because I’m a minority. All I need is a level playing field. I recently heard a quote from a movie that hit me as being very profound. “I don’t need easy. I just need possible.” That is the mountaintop. THAT was Dr. King’s dream.

About the Author: Bryson S. Gipson is a 22 year old student living on the Mississippi Gulf coast. He is currently pursuing a career in music business and media arts, although his passion remains in politics and economics. You can email him at brysongipson@gmail.com .

The "Mamma Grizzly" is on the prowl! Sarah Palin Releases "New" Video

2011-05-27T18:41:00.002-04:00

Chris Ladd: Is Obama Black?

2011-05-23T07:11:00.002-04:00

Cornel West made news this week for his escalating attacks on the Obama Administration. The Princeton professor and prominent author is one of those political figures like Ron Paul whose sincerity, bluntness, and occasional insight make them consistently attractive in spite of their larger body of extreme ideas. Like Paul on the right, West carries heft on the Democratic outskirts and his decision to confront Obama from inside the Black community is significant.

But not as significant as what he actually said.

West opened up a subject that has been off-limits up to now – Obama’s blackness. West claimed that “all he [Obama] has known culturally is white” and “when he meets an independent black brother it is frightening.” He went on to state that Obama is more comfortable with whites and Jews. Classy.

In essence, West is condemning Obama for undermining the left’s central criteria for authentic blackness. That criteria? Acceptance of the belief that black victimhood is perpetual and inevitable in America (see John McWhorter’s book, Authentically Black).

Naturally, West’s comments have caused a stir, though the ruckus is mostly confined to the left. Let me just say that as a white guy, I find some guilty satisfaction in seeing a leftist black leader get himself bogged down in the same swamp of racial misunderstanding and misinterpretation that has frustrated white politicians for years. Dr. West, thank you very much.

So is Obama black? What should “black” mean? I can’t claim the authority to say it is just one thing. But it is hard to conceive of a version of a black American heritage that has no relationship to the experience of slavery or Jim Crow. In that sense, Obama is an African-American as a consequence of having a Kenyan father, but he is not black. Viewed through that definition a lot of the other weirdness we are experiencing suddenly makes more sense.

What difference should Obama’s heritage make? Hasn’t America treated him in the same manner it treated anyone else of his skin color? Well, yes and no.

Obama had an African father who was out of his life at an early age. He was raised in a middle-class white family in the state of Hawaii, which The Simpsons once correctly described as one of the “freak-states.” That upbringing delivered him a unique set of challenges and opportunities, but those were not a set of experiences common to most blacks in America.

Chris Rock has summed up blacks’ complicated relationship to America: “I love America, but if you’re black you gotta look at America as the uncle that paid your way through college,…but molested you.” One of most stubbornly lingering legacies of Jim Crow is the affect it had on blacks’ ability to accumulate wealth and get an education, two of the bedrocks of the American Dream. Until the 1960′s, education for blacks was extremely difficult to acquire, especially a quality higher education. Any wealth a black family accumulated was subject to being taken away from them on a whim, with no meaningful protections. The results were that blacks lagged in both areas.

Obama didn’t grow up hearing stories from relatives about encounters with a racist Sheriff. He didn’t face the limitations of a troubled school. He wasn’t raised with a latent understanding that any accumulated wealth was a vulnerability. He didn’t share any of the cultural cues so broadly experienced by blacks of his age in our country. So, good for him, right? So he lacks some of the burden of being raised black, what difference does it make?

It certainly gave him some strengths. He got an education that would have been very difficult for others of his time to receive. Think back to all those awkwardly racist comments made about Obama by Democrats back in the primaries. Remember how “well-spoken” and “clean” he was? What they were fumbling to express was that Obama was carrying none of the cultural markers born by black Americans. He was free from the legacy of a second-class education, poverty, limited opportunities and most importantly of all, the anger. He was an African-American who wasn’t black. We don’t have a taxonomy for that.

In many ways, the strengths of that upbringing were what made his election possible. I would argue that they have also made it exceptionally difficult for him to govern.

It’s not just that his “blackness” is suspect. Obama is chronically foreign. If he wasn’t raised in a typical black culture, he wasn’t raised in a typical white one either. Even George W. Bush, born wealthy in Connecticut, raised in privilege, divorced in every conceivable way from the realities of middle-class American life was able to communicate as if he knew us. That’s because he basically did. For all his insulation, Bush’s upbringing prepared him to deal with mainstream America. He could communicate his agenda, read the winds, and understand how his decisions (not just his speeches) would be received.

Obama’s background, whatever good things it may have done for him, does not seem to have granted him the kind of innate familiarity with the everyman culture of American life that even a George W. Bush could manufacture. When the time comes to move past soaring homilies and talk brass tacks he can’t seem to connect. And he bowls like his thumbs are broken.

Life under the Obama Administration is like being governed by a competent and admiring Norwegian. He means well and has some fine ideas, but he seems baffled by us. He struggles to comprehend our guns and our religion, our fears, our idioms, and why we don’t recognize the value of his sensible ideas. He never seems to know what he’s stepping in.

In some subconscious way, I think this combination of dark skin and foreignness feeds the hysterical Obamanoia we are living through. It makes it possible for politainers to portray a center-left compromiser as some kind of Marxist – or anything else their imaginations can conjure. An “authentically” black President, for example, would probably have understood the Shirley Sherrod scandal at first whiff. A Bill Clinton or even a George Bush would understand what’s in the heads of the Tea Party supporters and known how to handle them. Obama struggles to get them they way you struggle sometimes to know what your dog is thinking.

Obama’s background sets him apart either from the blue-blooded upbringing of our Bushes and Gores, or the folksy everyman heritage of a Clinton or Reagan. More than that, it sets him apart from…well, just about everybody.

There is nothing inherently wrong with that. No one, black or white should have to apologize for failing to suffer from racism, or having a background that doesn’t fit into a neat box. That’s not the point.

The point is that American politics is very personal. We like to believe that we elect people who reflect ourselves. Bizarre as it may be, even a George W. Bush had to operate under a carefully crafted illusion of familiarity. It is very hard to get elected in this country on the basis of how unique you are. It is even harder to govern that way.

Maybe if he had gone to Wall Street, or taken any other job instead of jumping straight from Harvard to “community organizing” he would have had a chance to get to know us. Maybe standing around in a cube farm, talking about weekend plans, or even sitting in a board room, he would have developed a feel for how middle America thinks. At any rate, it didn’t happen. It’s not clear how he’s going to get a crash course now. Reruns of Everybody Loves Raymond (or The Cosby Show) might shed some light, but they can only accomplish so much.

America will probably have a black President someday. If not, it will be because the term loses its meaning over time. Perhaps that is already happening. Maybe that’s what Cornel West is really concerned about.

But America will have a President who understands her, for better or worse, probably sooner than the Democrats would prefer. Whether you choose to classify him as black, white, gray, or pink, Obama for all his fine qualities, is not that guy.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Chris Ladd is a Texan who is now living in the Chicago area. He has served for several years as a Republican Precinct Committeeman in DuPage County, IL, and was active in state and local Republican campaigns in Texas for many years.

Dr. Ada M. Fisher: Obama and Israel like oil and vinegar

2011-05-20T18:40:00.001-04:00

First it was government rule by more than a dozen unelected and congressionally unapproved czars who subverted industry management and the financial system trying to prop up previously ill conceived housing policies and banking greed. Then it was a nontransparent health care plan which bypassed the right of review before it was to be voted upon while granting waivers to over 1700 businesses who like many can’t afford this government largesse.

Followed by an escalation of fighting in Afghanistan and Pakistan with the tacit approval of a congress unwilling to demand as is its constitutional purview a vote on any acts of war especially with an engagement of our air troops under the command of the United Nations which could subject them to world sovereignty and world courts for acts which other nations might refuse to support. As the news of the assassination of Osama Bin Laden was released and people were all over themselves giving the Obama Administration credit for an on-going effort to battle terrorism whose title was banned during this administration, I couldn’t help but reflect on the judgment of George W. Bush.

The name and policies of the Bush Administration have been harangued as evil with a pile on from the media when in fact the successful policies of Bush proved a good Decision Point for policies which continue to pay dividends today. Thank Bush for Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and military mastermind David Patreus.

It was Bush whose detainment facility at Guantalemo continues to demonstrate its need or plan to hold terrorist trials before military tribunals which still rule the day. And give the man credit despite his poll numbers for stating publicly that we were going after Bin Laden at all costs. George Bush also tried to stabilize the economy with the first 700 plus billion dollar stimulus plan.

But no USA administration has followed the policy of returning Israel to pre-1967 borders. All nations concede that when you win a war, especially one you didn’t start, you are entitled to keep territories won. To back Israel in a position, surrounded by peoples not committed to their existence much less their security as the Obama speech on the Middle East has done could unleash the specter of WWIII. As is the motto of Masada, “Never Again” will Jews go quietly towards annihilation. Obama’s words on the Middle East should now convince Jews of every strip that our very existence could be at risk under Obama.

How strange that diplomat and principal secretary of the UN Palestine Commission, Ralph J. Bunche was the first black person to win the Noble Peace Prize in 1950 in recognition of his efforts to negotiate an armistice in the Arab Israeli conflict. To now see us move backwards at the hands of the most recent black recipient of that prize in Barack Obama says we haven’t come as far as we think.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Dr. Ada M. Fisher was previously a Medical Director of Amoco Oil Company and is a physician, previous school board member, licensed secondary education teacher for mathematics and science, as well as the NC Republican national Committee Woman. Contact her at P. O. Box 777; Salisbury, NC 28145; telephone (704) 223-2321; DrFisher@DrADAMFISHER.org .

Crystal Wright: GOP Doubtfuls for 2012

2011-05-20T18:23:00.001-04:00

If the current crop of declared GOP presidential contenders is the party’s field of dreams for 2012, we’re in real trouble. Reviewing the line up thus far, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Herman Cain, Tim Pawlenty, the group has the charisma factor of a ball of wax. Let’s face it charisma is more than 50% of presidential candidates appeal and for the most part this group is just plain dullsville when stacked up against Obama.

So far, Republicans’ quest for the White House in 2012 is looking more like a bad reality show at best, giving team Obama ample room for confidence the president will win a second term. Comb over, business titan Donald Trump’s flirtation with running for president was truly embarrassing. This week, just when we thought he couldn’t top his ridiculous press conference, taking credit for forcing Obama to reveal his birth certificate, Trump declared he wouldn\’t run for president but “I maintain the strong conviction that if I were to run, I would be able to win the primary and, ultimately , the general election.” Hardly, Americans won’t elect a birther as president.

Then Newt Gingrich decided to launch his GOP presidential campaign by slamming House Republican Paul Ryan’s Medicare overhaul plan. The professorial Gingrich appeared on Meet the Press this past Sunday and exclaimed to David Gregory Ryan’s Medicare plan “I don’t think right-wing social engineering is any more desirable than left-wing social engineering. I don’t think imposing radical change from the right or the left is a very good way for a free society to operate.”

What’s so radical about Ryan’s plan to cut Medicare costs by privatizing it, making it competitive and based on quality of care? Medicare needs to end as we’ve known it for 40 plus years because it’s no longer working.

Beside the fact Gingrich has been married three times, the Wall Street Journal summed up Gingrich’s troubled campaign, “The episode reveals the Georgian’s weakness as a candidate, and especially as a potential President –to wit, his odd combination of partisan, divisive rhetoric and poll-driven policy timidity.” Making matters worse, Gingrich now is recanting what he said as inaccurate. Charlie Sheen might call this “losing.”

While Romney may be able to out fund raise his competitors, his fatal flaw is Romneycare, Massachusetts state run healthcare program, which he started as governor. As a Republican, I don’t know how he can explain this away as anything but a stepping stone to government run Obamacare. If Sarah Palin and Rep. Michele Bachmann dive in the race, it will make the crowded field of 2012 GOP presidential candidates look even more doubtful. At this point, Republicans should pray and hope there is a dark horse waiting in the wings because so far 2012 is shaping up to look like 1996 when Bill Clinton faced off against an anemic Bob Dole. And the rest is history.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Crystal Wright is a black conservative woman living in Washington, DC. Some would say she is a triple minority: woman, black and a Republican living in a Democrat dominated city. She’s contemplating moving back to her home state of Virginia, where her vote would count for something. By day, Crystal is a communications consultant and editor and publisher of the new website www.conservativeblackchick.com . Crystal earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Georgetown University and holds a Masters of Fine Arts in Theatre from Virginia Commonwealth University

Michael Steele in talks to join MSNBC

2011-05-20T18:20:00.000-04:00

Steele would be a prominent Republican voice on a network known for its liberal television hosts. If the deal goes through, he would join the cable network in time to offer commentary on the 2012 elections. Steele was ousted as head of the Republican Party in its January election. He signed on as a monthly columnist at The Root, an African-American news site owned by The Washington Post, earlier this month.

Read More: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/162425-steele-in-talks-to-join-msnbc

Mary J. Blige - Your Child

2011-05-20T18:17:00.002-04:00

( In lieu of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Baby Momma Drama)

Young Blacks for Ron Paul

2011-05-18T15:07:00.004-04:00

I pledge to you Dr. Paul, my wealth, my unwaivering support, and above all else, my honor. If you shall stand along my side, along Dr. Paul's side, I encourage you to make your own video stating your claim in defense of liberty. Together, we shall push these ideas who's time is now, into the future. We must not rest, because tyranny never sleeps. It is the age old battle. It is the very same fight every generation before us have fought. This is our battle now. We've drawn our lines in the sand. We must not fear the consequences of standing up, and speaking out. Because the consequence of not doing so, is a much more horrible scenario. So what say you my fellow countrymen?! Onward!!! TO LIBERTY!!!!

Why do young black men find Ron Paul’s message attractive?

African Capitalism not Socialism will save Africa!

2011-05-17T17:23:00.005-04:00

African economist George Ayittey explains that capitalism is an indigenous African institution and that it is the free market system and not socialism which promotes Black economic empowerment

Rand Paul & Slavery

2011-05-17T17:18:00.003-04:00

By Chris Ladd

The old Democratic argument that health care is a “right” has always rankled me. Extending the definition of Rights to include anything in the world that seems like a good idea cheapens what we have achieved.

In our political system Rights are sacrosanct. As citizens and heirs to a great legacy we have an obligation to live, fight and if necessary die to protect the Rights that gave birth to the American idea.

A good education, a job, a nice home, health insurance, life insurance, a car; these are all valuable. Using government policy to make them more broadly available is great. But are they inalienable Rights granted by our creator and equally guaranteed to all people? Absolutely not.

That said, you can always count on those Paul Boys to take a perfectly reasonable idea and go to eleven with it. Rand Paul in a committee hearing this week on health care launched into an argument that quite frankly I have used myself in the past – that extending Rights into the economic sphere violates the 13th Amendment bar on slavery. Then he ran away with it. I had never before heard the idea taken to its most absurd reaches. In light of Paul’s ridiculous argument, I see I was wrong.

Here’s what Paul said, along with video:

“With regard to the idea of whether you have a right to healthcare, you have to realize what that implies. It’s not an abstraction. I’m a physician. That means you have a right to come to my house and conscript me.

“It means you believe in slavery. It means that you’re going to enslave not only me, but the janitor at my hospital, the person who cleans my office, the assistants who work in my office, the nurses…there is an implied use of force.

“If I’m a physician in your community and you say you have a right to healthcare, you have a right to beat down my door with the police, escort me away and force me to take care of you? That’s ultimately what the right to free healthcare would be.”

Paul accidentally exposes the inconsistency that cripples Libertarianism and the Objectivists. Paul is going beyond the debate over socialized medicine to equate every form of collective action with oppression. By that intellectually stunted reasoning civilization itself is slavery. Citizenship is tyranny. Any form of collective activity that fails to offer an explicit, personalized window to opt-out is theft.

He’s saying literally that if the state defined health insurance as a Right then anyone delivering health care would be made slaves. Why? Because if someone has a Right to my labor, I am a slave to them.

My reading of the Constitution and the Founding Fathers suggests to me pretty strongly that I have a clear Right to, among other things, national defense, a justice system, and a jury trial. So, out on the bizarre fringes where the Paul Boys pass their lives, those who deliver those services are slaves.

The soldiers drafted to fight World War II were slaves, every one of them. Jurors – slaves. Their labor is being extorted from them and redistributed to someone who “needs” justice. And what happens if those jurors decide to do something other than come to court? Jackbooted thugs come and drag them back. In PaulWorld (and the Tea Party?) that’s slavery.

Judges? Black-robed slaves, forced to labor for other ‘s benefit because someone claims a “right” under the “Constitution” to have their legal grievances addressed.

And best of all, I have a Right to be represented by Congressmen and Senators whom I choose in free elections. See where I’m going here? As a Senator subject to my Rights and everyone else’s, Rand Paul is by his own definition already a slave.

Sound ridiculous? You bet it is.

Those who lazily describe health insurance as a “right” are trivializing not just the notion of rights, but the spectacular sacrifices required across centuries to guarantee them. The Democratic Party’s embrace of this thinking is a disgrace. Those who trivialize slavery in the manner of Sen. Paul are doing exactly the same thing. This kind of snarky libertarianism is the sulking, spoiled teenager of our political culture. It is rotting us at the core. The right’s embrace of this thinking is an embarrassment.

Paul’s overblown analogy exposed a nasty concept that’s ruining the conservative movement – the idea that there are no authentic values that extend beyond the individual. On the one side of our politics are people who seem to think citizenship is only about what government can take from someone else and give to them. The other side is blind to all government does, imagines they are the only ones producing anything valuable, and defines every civic obligation as tyranny. In the middle are…well, increasingly few who are holding the whole experiment together.

If every obligation we have to each other, every duty we owe to our heritage, to our nation, and to those who would follow us is oppression, we have a short future. Like it or not, we are in this together. Citizenship means shared burdens and shared rewards. If that’s “collectivism,” then the Earth has yet to experience a non-collectivist civilization. And it never will.

Almost any idea applied rigidly and without reason to every conceivable scenario will break down into absurdity. Such is life. Our oppressive civic duties might be relieved someday, perhaps the day after the need to work for a living disappears. In the meantime a little maturity might help us recognize the shades of black and white that torment dogmatic minds.

I’m sure Sen. Paul is sitting in his grim Washington slave cabin right now pining for lost liberty. Under the cruel hand of slavery, maybe the Paul Boys will change their minds about Abe Lincoln. Regardless, I hope they both find their way back to freedom very soon.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Chris Ladd is a Texan who is now living in the Chicago area. He has served for several years as a Republican Precinct Committeeman in DuPage County, IL, and was active in state and local Republican campaigns in Texas for many years.

Grandmaster Flash "Melle Mel" - (Beat Street Theme)

2011-05-17T17:05:00.006-04:00

Believe it or not, there was a time when hip-hop was fun!!

This is what we have to put up with today - http://youtu.be/w7ILhx08alI

The Mis-Education of the Black Man

2011-05-17T16:57:00.004-04:00

In 1933, Carter G. Woodson published his classic book entitled, “The Mis-Education of the Negro.” The premise of his book was that Blacks need to be self reliant and not look for others to do for us what we can (and should) do for ourselves.

Woodson thought that the dominant society was teaching Blacks to have an attitude of dependency and subservience, as opposed to controlling their own destiny and teaching their children the truth about the contributions Blacks made to this country’s history. Woodson was a prolific journalist, author, and a historian who was known as the “Father of Black History.”

According to Woodson, “History shows that it does not matter who is in power… those who have not learned to do for themselves and have to depend solely on others never obtain any more rights or privileges in the end than they did in the beginning.” Woodson continues, “When you control a man’s thinking you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will find his ‘proper place’ and will stay in it. You do not need to send him to the back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special benefit. His education makes it necessary.”

The above quotes by Woodson could be very easily directed at the media chosen Black leaders of today. You know who they are, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Tavis Smiley, Cornell West, Michael Eric Dyson, etc. Especially when it comes to these folks singing the praises of the Democratic Party. Listening to these guys you would think the Republican Party is filled with white racists whose sole purpose in life is to advocate policies that will be detrimental to the Black community.

You have Black entrepreneurs who have been able to make a great living by selling goods and services to the federal government. But, they are totally unaware that former president Richard Nixon is the reason they have these opportunities.

On March 6, 1961, President Kennedy signed Executive Order 10925. It required government contractors to “take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color or national origin.”

It was during the Nixon administration that affirmative action became what we know it to be today. It was adopted as a federal mandate for companies with federal contracts and for labor unions whose workers were engaged in those projects. The late Arthur Fletcher (a Black Republican and dear friend) was put in charge of creating and enforcing the plan. Fletcher call it the Philadelphia Plan. Fletcher was serving in the Department of Labor. He was Assistant Secretary for Wage and Labor Standards (he was one of the highest ranking Blacks in the Nixon administration). As head of the United Negro College Fund, he coined their famous slogan, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” I guarantee that you have never heard the UNCF or Black Democrats ever publically give attribution to Fletcher having created this (especially as a Black Republican).

Fletcher’s plan required federal contractors to meet certain goals for the hiring of Black employees by specific dates in order to combat institutionalized discrimination on the part of specific skilled building trade unions.

In 1971, Nixon issued Executive Order 11625, which was subsequent to him creating the Office of Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) in 1969. The order gave more authority to the Secretary of Commerce to, “implement Federal policy in support of the minority business enterprise program; provide additional technical and management assistance to disadvantaged businesses; and to assist in demonstration projects; and to coordinate the participation of all Federal departments and agencies in an increased minority enterprise effort.”

Presidents Reagan and Bush (the elder) signed Executive Orders 12320 and 12677, respectively in regards to the board of advisors for Historically Black Colleges and Universities. The purpose was to ensure these institutions would be made aware and take advantage of a full range of partnership opportunities with various federal agencies.

Most recently, Republicans spearheaded The Minority-Serving Institution Digital and Wireless Technology Opportunity Act. The Senate bill was drafted by then senator George Allen (R-VA) and co-sponsored by Trent Lott (R-MS). The companion house bill was drafted by Congressman J. Randy Forbes (R-VA-4TH). The purpose of the bill was to assist minority serving institutions in upgrading their technology infrastructure. The bill appropriated and authorized $ 250 million per year for five years ($ 1.250 billion). These were not loans, but grants to help make these schools more competitive with non-minority institutions.

So, my point is, the Republican Party does have a very positive story to share with the Black community if they leave the heated rhetoric behind and focus on the substance of their actions. Listening to the media appointed Black leaders, you would think Republicans are walking around in white sheets. You have Black entrepreneurs who have made millions of dollars from government contracts, but yet they savage the very party that allows them to make this type of money.

You have Historically Black Colleges and Universities who poison the minds of students with liberalism without exposing them to other views. You have Black college students berating Republicans by way of email, text, and twitter messages using the very technology that Republicans made possible. It was not Democrats who spearheaded this (they voted for the bill), it was a totally Republican initiative.

For the Republicans who want to continue to write off the Black vote and the media appointed Black leaders, you both have been mis-educated and need to explore a new school of thought.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Raynard Jackson is president & CEO of Raynard Jackson & Associates, LLC., a D.C.-public relations/government affairs firm. He is also a contributing editor for ExcellStyle Magazine (www.excellstyle.com ). Raynard Jackson has been named to Talkers Magazine’s “Frontier Fifty.” The “Frontier Fifty” is a selection of Outstanding Talk Media Web casters.

For those who use skype (www.skype.com ), please add him. His name there is: raynard jackson

Children & The State: Foster Care in America

2011-05-17T14:10:00.006-04:00

This Foster Care Month, take a min, hour, week or more to get involved to support youth & parents in foster care.

By Cleo Brown

Foster-Care is never an ideal situation for any parent. Many factors contribute to a child not remaining with their parents. Drug and alcohol addiction, AIDS, Mental and Physical Illness, Neglect, Domestic Violence, Abuse, Abandonment, Incarceration, and Homelessness are amongst some of the factors which can contribute to a child’s placement in The Foster-Care System.

In addition to all of these reasons, however, is the superficial and poor training provided by auxiliary support staff (police-officers, paramedics, social workers, health care professionals, teachers, clerics, etc.) that are expected to intercede in altercations in which children and families are involved.

According to statistics compiled in 2005, there are a little over 500,000 children in Foster-Care currently in The United States. While, African-American and Hispanic Children are in the minority in the overall population; they comprise a majority of the children in the Foster-Care System.

Research suggests not only that more of these children are in the Foster-Care System but they also remain in the system for a longer period of time. African-American children comprise 41% of all children in Foster Care while they are only fifteen percent of the population Nationwide.

In the state of Connecticut, similarly, Hispanic children comprise twenty-five percent of the Foster Care Community but are only eleven percent of the overall children’s population. Nationally, fifteen percent of The Foster-Care population is comprised of Hispanic Children.

The failure of support services to professionally and expertly intervene in situations which threaten to destroy the family structure has been cited as the reason for such high numbers of African-American and Hispanic Children in Foster-Care. Not only do those children, who usually enter Foster-Care between the ages of six years old and eighteen years old remain in Foster-Care for a longer period of time, it also takes longer for those children who cannot return home to their parents to find adoptive families. Foster-Care, therefore, is temporary with the child remaining as a ward of the court or of The State.

The State makes all decisions concerning the child. Adoption, on the other hand, is permanent with the adoptive parents assuming all decision making responsibilities for the child. “Of the 400,000 children entering Foster-Care in six states between 1990 and 2002, 24% of African American Children were eventually adopted, compared to 16% of White or Latino Children.” It took longer, however, for these adoptions to occur. (Reform Foster Care Now: African American Foster Youth Are Being Adopted, p.1)

Similarly, children from urban areas placed with relatives were adopted at a higher rate of twenty-six percent. This was the eventual fate of the children in scenario two. Without the birth mother’s knowledge or permission, her children were adopted by a relative living in another state.

It has been suggested by The American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry that “30% of all children in Foster-Care have severe emotional, behavioral, and developmental problems. Physical health problems are also common.”(p.1)

A more permanent situation is always considered to be more ideal such as:

1. reunification with the parents

2. adoption by a biological family member

3. adoption by a foster parent

4. adoption by someone not known to family

5. the permanent transfer of guardianship to a foster parent.

Foster parenting also differs from adoption in that Foster Parents are reimbursed on a monthly basis for expenditures they make on behalf of the children. According to some, “The Foster Parent is ‘remunerated’ by the state for their services.” (Wikipedia, “Foster-Care”, p.1) This remuneration and state-aid (Welfare Benefits) paid to Foster Families has caused one researcher to suggest that children are intentionally and deliberately taken from their parents by support staff and placed in Foster-Care Agencies for the money.

This is particularly true in states such as Texas which “paid mental treatment centers as much as $101,105 a year per child for care,” and California. The findings of The Grand Jury in Santa Clara, California concerning Foster-Care allocations were: “…the department (DFCS) puts too much money into ‘back-end services,’ i.e., therapists and attorneys…in other words, the Agency benefits, financially from placing children in foster-homes.” (Wikipedia, p.3)

Despite the failures, unfortunately there are situations in which Foster-Care remains as the best solution. The task ahead therefore, is to empower families to stay together and to provide well-trained auxiliary employees in recognizing situations which mandate “the careful” use of The Foster-Care System.

Our rallying cry should therefore be, “empower families before a child ever gets into foster care… not afterwards”.

Thus Spake Zora

2011-05-15T17:54:00.004-04:00

John H. McWhorter, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute has written a great article on the life of the black libertarian and social critic Zora Neale Hurston. The article was written for The City Journal and is entitled “Thus Spake Zora”. Below is an excerpt of the article the original can be found at The City Journal’s main website.

Thus Spake Zora – Zora Neale Hurston’s writing challenged black people as well as white.

One of the last photos of Zora Neale Hurston, taken in the late fifties, is heartrending. Once renowned as a handsome figure who could dominate any room, she sits outside a Florida bungalow, a bloated old woman living in poverty, chatting with locals.

As sanguine as she looks, we can’t help wishing that she had been in New York, plugging her latest novel on The Jack Paar Show.

But all her books were out of print, and she was supporting herself on piddling jobs, including working as a maid (not for the first time). She seems to have reached the state of mind that her character Janie describes at the end of her masterwork, Their Eyes Were Watching God: “Ah done been tuh de horizon and back and now Ah kin set heah in mah house and live by comparisons.”

Continue – Thus Spake Zora

Cuban hip-hop: EAST OF HAVANA, a film review

2011-05-15T17:40:00.002-04:00

By Cleo Brown

In East of Havana, Producers Charlize Theron; Clark Peterson; Megan Riley-Grant and Juan Carlos Saizorobatoro, through the provocative photography of Christophe Lanzenburg, tell the story of the rap group (tribe) called El Cartel whose goal is to unify all Hip-Hop Culture in Cuba to strengthen the people in their bid to revolutionize the tiny Island Nation of Cuba.

As the title would suggest, East of Havana are the cities of Alamar and Cojimar which is where all HipHop, Rap, and Dance began in Cuba. The people who live in these two cities are extremely poor and predominantly Black (African-Cuban).

Through the words of Rap Artists from the regions such as Mikki Flow, Magyori(a female), and Soandry, who also belong to El Cartel, it becomes apparent that part of the cultural revolution which they seek is an economic change in the quality of their lives. Good direction by Emilia Menocal and Juaretsi Saizorobator combined with strong editing by Fernando Vilenauva and excellent music by Paul Heck, Frederico Fong, and El Cartel makes East of Havana a treat to watch and to listen to.

If there is a flaw in East of Havana, it is that everyone involved with the project glosses over the fact that musicians in Cuba – as are poets- are being oppressed, suppressed, and imprisoned for speaking what is on their minds and in their hearts about the Cuban Government and about the Society in which they live. We know from listening to the words of Mikki Flow, Magyori, and Soandry that they as a group seek freedom in all aspects of their lives. And We, the viewers, are made aware that something is amiss when The Festival, which the film builds up towards, is cancelled due to Hurricane Charley which is not destructive enough to warrant canceling The Festival.

But, we are never told the real reason why The Cuban Government cancelled the Festival: which is The Government’s fear of a unified people rioting in the streets of Cuba to demand change. In spite of the slick treatment which this film is given, however, I highly recommend this documentary and give East of Havana ten roses on a scale of from one to twelve.

http://www.eastofhavana.com/

Chris Ladd: What Will Follow The Bin Laden Decade?

2011-05-14T12:40:00.001-04:00

By Chris Ladd

It’s very odd how a news item about a death halfway around the world can brighten your day. The news lifts something dark, heavy and strangely personal from our shoulders. In a moment like this you recognize with fresh clarity how the shadow of 9/11 has bent our culture across the past decade – The Bin Laden Decade.

I watched the first of the World Trade Center’s towers collapse while standing barefoot in my living room. More than a thousand miles away, at no risk of personal harm, I experienced a scene like the end of the world.

Anyone witnessing that event could feel the darkness coming, and come it did. The ’80′s and ’90′s had brought victory after victory for peace, liberty, and the American way. It felt like the steady progress from better times to even better ones was a sort of birthright. The world was correcting itself and the century ahead looked so promising it was almost dull. That grand decade ended in a flash of murderous vandalism, a desperate, doomed gesture from the world’s bitterest losers. Bastards.

Better times would have to wait. The Bin Laden Era gave us the global revenge of the retrograde. Rationalism was drowned out by shouting and bombs, thought smothered by lunatic terrors. No fear too unreasonable to animate a crowd. No crackpot scenario too ludicrous to be believed. No good idea strong enough to sweep away the hysteria and unite us.

It has well and truly sucked.

The Bin Laden Decade is a time worth forgetting, except for the painful lessons it has (hopefully) taught. Perhaps a once-young nation now has a bit more maturity under its belt. Maybe we can now be seasoned and mature without surrendering to cynicism. Emerging from this time, we should recognize that the values we cherish are slowly but steadily advancing all over the world, with or without an army to impose them. This is a fine moment to embrace those values more ardently here at home.
All of us owe a hearty thanks to the thousands of men and women in uniform and in the intelligence services whose years of dedicated effort led to justice being done on our behalf. And we owe a unique debt of gratitude to the men who climbed out of a crashed helicopter in the darkness not knowing how or whether they would return home and did what had to be done. There are no words to describe that kind of courage and commitment.

History has no corners. The effort to impose a narrative on events is always somewhat artificial. But these moments offer symbolic opportunities to mark our culture for the better or worse. Now we get to decide what will follow The Bin Laden Decade. We have a fresh opportunity, as keen as the one we fumbled in the weeks after 9/11, to decide who we are and choose a new direction for our time. Maybe the cloud of weakness and vulnerability that has darkened our vision will lift, like the feeling when you walk out of a dark movie theater after a matinee to face the late afternoon sun. Our natural American optimism has been with us all along like a neglected toy. It’s time to pick it up and again play.

God Bless America.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Chris Ladd is a Texan who is now living in the Chicago area. He has served for several years as a Republican Precinct Committeeman in DuPage County, IL, and was active in state and local Republican campaigns in Texas for many years.

Mendy Hecht: Is Jill Scott a “Racist” ?

2011-05-14T12:35:00.004-04:00

Looking back or looking forward? A white Jewish guy thinks out loud on Jill Scott’s interracial reticence.

By Mendy Hecht

It very well may not be my place, as a guy and a white (and a Jewish one at that), to comment on an article written by a black woman about interracial marriage.

In a recent article on Essence.com, linked to by Drudge and Rush, she laments black men who marry white women. As a white person, of course, my first impulse was, “What a blatant white-hating racist!”

But upon reading the article thoroughly, the Jew should notice striking similarities to the traditional Jewish ban on marrying outside the faith.

While blacks who frown on blacks marrying non-blacks and Jews who frown upon Jews marrying non-Jews do so for very different reasons (one is a social/cultural/ethnic/racial thing and the other is a religious/spiritual thing), they both have one thing in common: identity–i.e., “Never forget who you are and who and where you come from.” A more careful reading of Scott’s literary freestyling (and it reads flowingly well) reveals not “I hate whites!” but “I identify strongly with being black and our history of suffering at the hands of white people, and seeing a black guy married to a white woman just kicks up strong feelings.”

But consider: Wasn’t integration the ultimate goal of desegregation? Wasn’t the idea to create a world where the black man could do and have whatever the white man could do and have? Wasn’t the vision a world in which people were just people?

Desegregation and the civil rights movement not only tore down the walls that barred blacks from the front of the bus, but also the glass windows against which blacks could only press their faces and hands as they watched whites going to the best colleges, living in the best neighborhoods, getting the best jobs and climbing the highest rungs of industry and government.
But black people have all of that now. From the White House on down.

The future has arrived. And we’re in it. Whether we realize it or not, or whether we’re living it or not.

So as a member of this country’s white majority, I say to (black) people: If you want to have what (white) people have today, go out and get it. If you really want that job, that house, that car, that spouse, go out and get it. Because the world your parents and grandparents could only dream of is here. Now you’re not just standing where the glass window used to be looking to the other side at those people–you are those people.

This white Jew gets Ms. Scott’s sentiment that now that the world has changed and it is the (formerly oppressed) black woman who can be put on the pedestal and fawned over and worshiped and treated like a real woman–and that therefore, black men should honor their past and put black women, not white women, on that formerly-forbidden pedestal.

I get exactly why she feels “betrayed” at beholding successful black men taking white wives: What about us? Do we deserve you less? Sisters need brothers like you!

But that’s all about the past. What about the future? What of the fact that black people and indeed, all of us, have arrived?

If one wants to rectify the injustices of the past and advocate for same-race marriages among blacks, fine and good. (We Jews could tell you a thing or two about ancient grudges.)

But unlike Jewish religious law that forbids intermarriage with non-Jews, it seems that the only obstacle for blacks to marry whites is nothing more than an emotional hang-up.

So if blacks feel the “wince” Ms. Scott writes of upon whites and blacks marrying each other, it’s completely understandable. If they insist on bringing back today’s amazing gifts of social justice and opportunity to their own community rather than melting into the world beyond, that’s cool.

But I daresay let them also see it from the white point of view–from the point of view of people who see them not as black people but as people, and let them celebrate it for the most significant thing it represents: a symbol of how far the world has come and how faded racism has become.

About the Author: Mendy Hecht is a Brooklyn-based freelance writer. He is a journalist who writes on Orthodox Jewish issues from around the world and in Crown Heights.

Shermichael Singleton: The Case for Herman Cain

2011-05-14T12:29:00.001-04:00

By Shermichael Singleton

The Republican Party is often referred to as the GOP (Grand Old Party). Established in 1854, this party has grown to build a reputation as one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States. With a dedicated platform reflecting American conservatism, the GOP has been considered center-right in contrasts to the center-left Democrats.

Such an astounding party has built a strong foundation for themselves within the U.S. political spectrum and is seeking individuals to carry on its legacy. The GOP needs someone who can excite the party and contribute to its growth. Individuals such as Romney and Gingrich have been seen as promising contributors to the GOP and in no way is it my attempt to favor one candidate over the other, however I felt an obligation to come to Cain’s defense.

Many should take into consideration that Herman Cain could bring a new flavor to a dying and rustic party. There is something refreshing about the edginess of Herman Cain, he’s different and it is this prominent factor that will swiftly move him to the front of the line and allow him to capture a victory.

Washington Post writer Rachel Weiner pointed out that Cain stumbled on foreign policy, saying that when it came to Afghanistan he would rely on “the experts and their advice and their input.” I’m not certain about Rachel but I would like a president who’s willing to listen to experts before making important decisions. I should add that none of the candidates have backgrounds that specialize in international relations. So in a debate with more seasoned candidates the gaps in his experience will be NOT be more apparent as Weiner mentioned. She along with many other pundits and analyst have cast Cain as a long shot with no chance of winning, I humble disagree.

In my opinion, to count him out as many others have wouldn’t be in the best interest of the party. There are a few things that Mr. Cain needs to work on to further his progress and growth but no individual is perfect and perfection is not what this country is built upon. His approach being number one, at times causes individuals to see him as a bit fringe which is not an image people want when considering someone for the highest office in the land. Additionally, he needs to continue to develop his base, of course we all know he’s a Tea Party favorite – which undoubtedly will give him a rather large grassroots coalition. However it is my hope that he keeps in mind that the Tea Party is only a fraction of the voters when considering the entire scope of things. Thus far, he ‘appears’ to have only targeted the Tea Party. Perhaps the strategy of Cain’s Team is to first solidify a strong support group and then branch off to a more mainstream audience, which would be a wise decision from a strategic standpoint.

In addition to his approach, some of his statements have been quit controversial at times. As a presidential candidate he has to enhance and clarify his image and his statements so that there is no room for error or misconception. It’s perfectly okay to not be ‘politically correct,’ Cain’s problem is that he has not been able to do it with style and grace.

Furthermore, Cain should seek to broaden his line of issues. Although the economy is the number one pressing concern for voters at the moment, however a candidate shouldn’t be regulated to just one issue. He needs to develop a plan that details more issues not limited to foreign policy and education.

With all of this said, Herman Cain has a real opportunity to be a major candidate. To assert that his flaws, this early in the game, will be his down fall is simply foolish. He already has a massive base of strong supporters (Tea Party), who will undoubtedly go door-to-door canvassing on his behalf. If he can work on his approach, raise the capitol, broaden his scope of issues and do well in future debates with those who are deemed major candidates – he may be able to pull this off.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Shermichael Singleton is the co-founder and spokesperson of the College Republican Chapter at Morehouse college. He is a Political Science Major, who’s currently the CEO of Singleton Strategies a consulting firm, specializing in communication, coalition building, crisis management and interview preparation.

Contact: shermichaelsingleton@yahoo.com

Douglas Knickrehm: My take on the Rapper ‘Common’ Controversy

2011-05-14T12:24:00.002-04:00

There are two separate things I’m going to address concerning the “Common Controversy”. The response by Fox News to this “controversy” was absolutely ridiculous. Different commentators made absurd claims all day long, but the outrage expressed by Karl Rove and Sean Hannity grabbed my attention the most. Rove calling Common a “thug” shows significant ignorance to today’s culture. I know you’re a busy man Mr. Rove, but if you would take an hour to hear one Common album you would learn he is the antithesis of a “gangster rapper”.

In fact, he is probably the most well-known “conscious rapper” in the industry. He has produced quality music for two decades, and provided social commentary with his intelligent lyrics and smooth delivery. I’m sure Karl didn’t actually take the time to learn about someone before he defamed his character. I would imagine Karl’s and Sean’s underlings found out a rapper was invited to the White House, looked up his most controversial lyrics, and the two conservative heavyweights used these as fuel for a red herring attack on Obama.

It’s a shame these Republican commentators are so shallow in their attacks on this “invitation”, not only because it will definitely hurt the Republican Party’s image with young, urban, and black voters, but because they missed the real opportunity to criticize this event. Hannity and Rove cast themselves as patriots and supporters of freedom; however, their reactions to this invitation contradict their images. Their dedicated fan base won’t be dissuaded of the two’s commitment to freedom, but more independent thinkers will take notice of the hypocrisy.

If these two wanted to make a valid complaint about this event it would go like this. We are running a deficit. We have something like 15 trillion dollars in debt, and another 50 to 70 trillion dollars in unfunded liabilities! Why the fuck are we having poetry night at the White House? Is Barack paying out of pocket for this? Because if he is, then it’s his party so he can invite whomever he wants. Leave him alone. I highly doubt that is the case, and thus, from where are these funds coming?

This event is a complete waste of time, money, and controversy. It’s great Michelle wants everyone to know she’s cultured and cares about kids, but I think focusing on reforming/abolishing our out of control entitlement spending is a much more pressing concern. That being said, it’s tough to sell cuts to social services, when the President throws parties every month that would probably fit in the top tax bracket. Cutting federal services needs to be done. Entitlement and defense spending are bankrupting the nation and eroding our civil liberties. These are long term problems that need logical solutions.

While it will hardly dent the deficit, the White House should put a moratorium on all parties, dinners, and special events until we are out of debt. I don’t know about you, but when my money is low I live like it. The US government needs to start living within its means like the rest of us. And for those who want to argue that the National Endowment for Arts and other federal expenditures on art are necessary and must be funded, read “The Law” by Bastiat, and then give me a logical explanation why federal tax dollars should go towards this stuff. I doubt you’ll be able. Here’s the short version why: I like art, so you know what I do? I buy it with my own money. Spending other people’s money (that’s what tax dollars are) on something is hardly showing support or care for it. Thieves are usually the most generous people. If you really love art, poetry, music, etc., support the artists by paying for their work. Don’t steal from the public purse because you deem it “necessary”.

I am supposed to be writing about the controversy, not my political philosophy so I will conclude by focusing on Fox News. The Fox News establishment (referring to anyone propagating this nonsense on FNC) has serious problems with Obama, which is fine; however, when the network resorts to disparaging the president through the spread of misinformation about another man, it casts a world of doubt over the credibility of its reporting. It also leaves little wonder why many minorities believe the network is racist. I’m not calling FNC racist, but the network’s disdain for hip-hop certainly distances it from young people and minorities.

The US government has killed tens of thousands of people in its various armed conflicts over the past 20 years. Common has never killed anyone. Who are the real thugs? Common asks similar questions in some of his raps, and I think this is the real reason Conservatives deem him a thug. They pick and choose the most “alarming” lines to paint him as a radical threat to society. Let’s be honest, what’s really happening here is the establishment does not want to acknowledge or give Common’s arguments any merit so they are assassinating his character. They then take the negativity they’ve associated with Common to make an attack on the president’s “judgment”. This is superficial politics at its finest, and I think America is tired of it. Mr. Rove and Mr. Hannity, if you’re really concerned about the freedom of our citizens and prosperity of our nation, then make arguments grounded in logic please. Leave this trivial banter to the middle schoolers.

Ps: To Hannity, Rove, and most of all Bill O’Reilly: if you think Common is a problem check out my guy Tyler the Creator (whose new album Goblin dropped Tuesday cop it if you have not yet). He and OFWGKTA (look it up you have Google) have their own revolution brewing. I think the folks at Fox News would appreciate this song “Radicals”.

Ps 2: Common often has been critical of certain government institutions, presidents, policies, etc. in his music; however, he has not been as vocal during the Obama presidency. He seems like a smart guy, and should be able to tell there aren’t many differences between this administration and the last. If Common wants to continue to be respected as a “conscious” rapper, he needs to jump off the Obama bandwagon and see the atrocities still being committed by the current administration.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Doug Knickrehm lives in the Bronx, NYC where he is a student at Fordham University. He is a Libertarian whose issues of interest include race, economics, and drug laws.

He be reached at dknickrehm@fordham.edu or @beachousewishes on twitter

Jennifer Lopez - On The Floor ft. Pitbull

2011-05-04T12:54:00.007-04:00

lalalalallalalallllllllllllllllllllllaaaaaaaaaaaaalalalalalalalalal
niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice + like

Carlos Garcia: Why I’m an urban/hip-hop Republican….

2011-05-04T12:52:00.001-04:00

By Carlos Garcia

I grew up urban. An Army brat. Son of an Irish/Celtic mother, and a Colombian/French father whom I mostly favor. From north Miami, Florida; to Reading, Pennsylvania. Both ghetto, both hard, and both to varying degrees, victims of the leftist Democrat system of minority vote harvesting by continuing welfare dependency, radical historical revisionism, reverse racist Affirmative Action, and pop culture brainwashing, Reading especially.

Growing up, I was mostly concerned with graduating high school, and attaining an Associate’s Degree at least so I wouldn’t fall through the economic cracks and become said dependent. So I never paid much mind to politics, until 1997. I was 11, and my pop’s speeches against the Clinton administration began catching my ear more and more. While I pursued and open mind and didn’t take what he said as immediate Gospel, it did get me more interested in politics, and everything related. I began asking him bout many things political, he answered, and my journey into the world of politics and all it entailed was on.

Flash forward 3 years to the 2000 Presidential election, which my pops drafted me into duty for. I was bored and blah bout it at first, but after seeing all the media glamor, meeting cool people, suspense, and free food and drink, I was pretty much hooked. November 4, 2000 was one of the most suspenseful nights of my life, and I loved every minute of it.

President George W. Bush’s coming victory then cemented me as a political junkie, as I know I contributed to it, and felt part of it, the victory, America’s core engine. I began reading my history book for fun in HS study hall, and excelling in History, English, and Global Current Issues classes. I received much praise from my teachers, and it became apparent that my pops had indeed passed his passion, and skill in politics, its national debate and discourse, on to me, his eldest son.

Flash forward another year, to the tragedy of September 11, 2001. I couldn’t believe it at first. I never thought I’d see something so evil, come to our shores like that in my lifetime. The events of that 2nd day of infamy, President Bush’s speech that night, and the coming success of his responsive military campaign cemented my position on him, what our foreign policy should be, and my own party and ideological beliefs in general. I became a rightist ideologically, combining both my new found fiscally conservative (Capitalist) and neo-conservative foreign policy beliefs. I became a proud and staunch supporter of President Bush, and remain so to this day, and always very likely. I believe our top 3 best Presidents ever, in order are Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, and Harry Truman, reasoning upon later request.

I believe in low, flat taxes for all, and relative, general deregulation to encourage economic liberty, competition, and success. I view the far left fiscal ideologies of Socialism, Communism, and its supportive and practicing heads of state worldwide as the Devil really, and the very anti thesis of all that is free, good, and actually, really fair. I’ve seen the destruction the fiscally left policies of the Democrat Party (the same party of slavery, segregation, Jim Crow, Robert Byrd, DADT, and DOMA) cause.

I believe that inner city entrepreneurship, fostered by the fiscally right, GOP policies for mentioned, will help get my fellow, proud, minorities off this Jackass welfare dependency, get us outta the ghetto, and put them on the track to real, prosperous futures. Like may rap and R&B stars have done.

My foreign policy, formed after I was awakened on 9/11, consists of utterly destroying any and all hidden, growing, and festering threats to our great nation’s national security, and strategic interests worldwide, including through pre-emptive military action if such evidence deems it necessary. Yes I believe in diplomacy, but also believe that it’s really, only effective when backed up by powerful military force. My family has been U.S. military dating back to the Civil War, and I’m former Navy myself. I will always, strongly, proudly, and from the bottom of my heart support our heroes in uniform.

By the way, I got that HS Diploma, with my GPA topping out at 3.8, Honor Roll Sophomore year. I got that Associate’s Degree too, in Specialized Business Administration, with repeated quarterly, academic honors. Lastly, I’ve received repeated written and pictured recognition from the RNC for my grass roots, activist efforts. Feels good!

I’m young, urban, mixed Latino, gay, and a proud, die hard, right wing Republican. Everything the left and its Democrat party so rightly fear. A minority who refuses to march mindlessly, and in lockstep with them and their illogical, frankly suicidal fiscal and foreign policy, their march to ultimate oblivion. Through all my time, money, energy, and efforts, I hope to bring said fate to them one day…………

Carlos Garcia: I'm a right-wing, young, mixed Latino, urban, and gay Republican, and damn proud of that all. I guess this makes me a double minority. I'm from north Miami, FL originally. I have my high school diploma, and an Associate's Degree in Specialized Business Administration from CTI tech school. I'm currently living in West Reading, PA. My specialties are writing, rhyming, politics, history, current events, and debating all that. I'm currently unemployed and trying to survive this tough, still mostly jobless economy.....

Hit or Miss

2011-05-03T15:51:00.007-04:00

Dear Mr. President:

Don't do that. Oil companies are making profits. With those profits come two options: a) invest in capital(financial or equipment); or b) repay investors through dividends(who are assumed to be wealthy individuals, something Democrats do not want to see occur).

In reality they are probably pension funds and corporate investors. Your statement means that you plan to take a profitable industry and make it less profitable, as opposed to using the profitable industry to create jobs. One could argue the redistribution of wealth theory, but from a business perspective it costs time, and time cost money.

During the time it takes to move that money into another industry, lets say Healthcare for example, momentum would have been lost. There is going to be a delay between the time Healthcare firms, Hospitals and HMO's, receive the money (through direct appropriation, earmarks, or tax breaks) and the time that they become profitable enough to start hiring. Help gear the unemployed for jobs provided by the oil industry. Maybe even give average citizens a "special" tax break for moving, if the job is related to the oil industry. If job creation and not re-election is the issue, then the subsidy should continue.

About the Author: Kerry Baynes was born on May 9, 1980. He currently attends Bloomfield College in New Jersey, his single residence for the past 15 years. He holds a degree in Business Management, and has 2 years of legislative policy experience. He is the manager of Alpha Strategy Group(ASG) a small Urban Media company.

Contact/Website: info@alphastrategygroup.net

ADELE 'Rolling In The Deep' (Music Video)

2011-05-03T13:16:00.003-04:00

There is POP and Rock and Hip Hop and R&B and Metal..and now we have a whole new genre of music...Adele

Osama bin Laden dead

2011-05-02T02:00:00.009-04:00

"Justice has been done," President Obama says in a televised speech to the nation. Bin Laden, mastermind behind the Sept. 11 attacks and Al Qaeda leader, was killed by a CIA-led team at a compound inside Pakistan.

Here is the Link: http://www.latimes.com/videobeta/244f68d1-77d6-49ae-9f20-08709f65c749/News/KTLA-President-Obama-Speech-Al-Qaeda-Leader-Osama-Bin-Laden-Dead

HHR Interview : Terminal City Inc.

2011-05-02T01:45:00.004-04:00

HHR Blog sat down to do an interview with Just-One a member of the New York City band Terminal City. Terminal City was founded in 2009 by NYC emcee Just-One and guitarist/songwriter Derek Kunkel. The clash between Just-One’s edgy flow and Derek’s melodic guitar quickly became the basis around which Terminal City has developed. Today, the band fuses indie rock with hip hop and funk to create a dark intelligent sound that is both danceable and melodic.

HHR Blog: Tell our blog readers about yourself…where are you from…where were you born…where were you raised…which city and state are currently home to you?

I’m Just-One… I am from NYC… I was born in Upstate New York, and raised in several places along the East Coast. I am currently residing in NYC working with my band, Terminal City Inc.

HHR Blog: What type of a family did you grow up in?

I was adopted by Ministers of the Protestant faith when I was an infant, and raised in a environment of spirituality and education.

HHR Blog: What do you like about the City you currently reside?

NYC is my muse, my mistress, and my disciplinarian. She inspires me, but keeps me humble, and reminds me that at any time she can eat me alive like a Preying Mantis.

HHR Blog: Which do you prefer: performing solo or with a band?

I love performing with my band, but I also love performing solo over dope production. I can’t say I prefer one to the other. I love them both exactly the same, but completely differently which is what we call a paradox.

HHR Blog: Have you written any songs? Who has recorded them?

I have written numerous songs with my writing partner Terrordome, and have written songs with the band’s songwriter, Derek Kunkel. We are recorded at Smoke N Mirrors Studio in Brooklyn, and also at Wonderful Studios in Manhattan.

HHR Blog: Can you dance? On a scale of from one to ten, with ten being phenomenal, how good of a dancer are you?

Like Vince Vaughn in Wedding Crashers, I’m obviously a phenomenal dancer.

HHR Blog: What type of dance do you do?

That same ole Two Step

HHR Blog: What inspires you as an artist be it singing a song or writing a song?

NYC inspires me. Pain inspires me. The occasional psychosis also inspires me.

HHR Blog: What genre of music do you consider your work to be?

I consider the Terminal City Inc. sound to be a fusion of Hip-Hop, Funk, Soul, and Indie Rock

HHR Blog: As a songwriter do you only write lyrics, or do you read and write music?

I write the lyrics of course, but I also write music. I can’t read music, so I record the melody I want and play around with the instruments until I get the sound that was in my head.

HHR Blog: Where have you performed? What was your favorite venue? What was your least favorite venue?

I have performed with my band, and with my partner, Terrordome at several venues in the area including: Gramercy Theater, Webster Hall Studio, Arlene’s Grocery, Sullivan Hall, The Delancey, Bowery Poetry Club, and Crash Mansion, among others. I love performing at all of the venues, but Gramercy Theater and Arlene’s Grocery have phenomenal sound.

HHR Blog: Is there an overriding theme to most of the songs you write and/or sing(play)?

I usually write songs about whatever is going on in my world, in my head, and in my daily travels. I guess it all depends on what kind of a mood I’m in.

HHR Blog: What has been your greatest challenge as a musician and as a songwriter?

My greatest challenge in terms of songwriting would probably lie in turning a collection of hot lines into an interesting story. It can also be hard to say something different with the same words.

HHR Blog: What advice do you have for people who want to break into the music or the Recording Arts Industry?

Don’t ever take no for an answer. If you can’t get a meeting with someone at a label, find out where they live, and make them listen. Throw it in their face constantly until they see the value in your art. In New York, we’re willing to kill to get what we need.

HHR Blog: Where do you see yourself in your career five years from now?

I see myself creating opportunities for other artists, and building my company in five years. I plan to be successful enough to open doors for others that I had to kick down myself.

HHR Blog: How can your fans gain access to your music?

Fans can listen to Terminal City Inc. recorded live on our website, http://www.terminalcityinc.com/ . You can also check out www.myspace.com/justonemc for studio tracks.

Daniel Williamson: The Urban Machine

2011-05-01T17:53:00.013-04:00

I’m quite familiar with Detroit. I’ve been there many times. I was born in Sandusky, Ohio, and I can see that many Detroiters are familiar with my hometown, too, as evidenced by the license plates of the cars snaking their way along the roads leading to Cedar Point.

Ohio has a Rust Belt problem, too. On two occasions (2002 and 2004) I was the Republican candidate for state representative in a portion of Ohio’s Rust Belt, encompassing Lorain, Oberlin, parts of Elyria, and the vicinity. I didn’t win the elections, as one would expect in such Democrat bastions, but I had a chance to think long and hard about remedies for Rust Belt decay as I drew up my own economic development plans for the district I hoped to represent.

It would take a book to detail each facet of what I envisioned, and even my own blog, to date, contains only a fraction of my proposals, so I don’t plan to elaborate much within this thread (it’s already a wall of text, as it is), but my approach to urban renewal differs from most other approaches I’ve come across. My approach is different because my assessment of the causes of the decay are different. While I readily agree that Detroit’s economy must be diversified to counter the prevailing trend, I do not think that the auto industry is at the root of the decay at all.

Attitudes are at the root of the decay.

Most obvious to us Republicans is that the residents of these areas have an attitude that they will only vote for Democrats. As I met voters door-to-door, they expressed opinions on issues that matched up very well with Republican Party platform planks, but they just couldn’t see it. Somehow, these Democrat voters thought they had more in common with their Democrat officeholders than they did with the Republican candidates, but that was far from the truth. The Democrat politicians have always fed these voters propaganda that are just words that the voters wanted to hear. Often, the actions of these Democrat politicians contradicted the words they’d utter to the electorate. To get right to the point, the Democrat politicians flat out lied. Such deluded voters never get the kind of representation that they think they are voting for.

One-party rule is repressive in an American metropolis (but to a much much lesser degree) just as surely as it is repressive in dictatorial regimes. With that kind of entrenched power, there is no accountability. There could be accountability if the voters would occasionally vote Republican to purge some corrupt Democrats from the halls of power, but they’ve been indoctrinated to believe that the Republicans in their own city are more evil than the self-serving Democrats who’ve been helping themselves to the spoils of the city for scores of years. Somehow, they need the blinders removed.

One would think that the unraveling of Kwame Kilpatrick would have spurred a rejection of the status quo, but they just shuffle in some other Democrats to replace the Democrats that just got ousted. Other Democrat politicians whose names are not Kilpatrick are emboldened that voters will never truly clean house, so they have a green light to conduct business as usual. Mostly what made it into headlines, though, about the Kilpatrick episode were just about an exchange of text messages. That’s the tip of the iceberg. Much more lies beneath the surface than that, and it extended, and continues to extend, beyond Kilpatrick and his cronies.

In Cleveland, the Plain Dealer exposed in greater detail the corruption of one-party rule in county government. Clevelanders were ticked off at the corrupt politicians who were exposed by the media, but they wouldn’t go so far as to clean house by electing a slate of Republicans, but they at least voted for a restructuring of county government according to a plan drawn up by Republicans.

I guess that’s a start. In Cleveland, voters finally learned that the economy of the region was hampered by Democrat politicians who were more interested in extorting and shaking business enterprises down (for their own personal enrichment) than they were in helping the businesses to grow (which would have benefited the whole population) If you were a business, what would you do? Put up with the shake-downs? Give in to the politicians’ demands for kickbacks in exchange for freedom from political interference in your business? Or would you rather just relocate, and avoid that headache altogether? This is why the top brass of these Rust Belt cities must wine and dine to attract enterprise.

If it weren’t for wining and dining and cutting a back room deal, the city wouldn’t look attractive enough to
set up shop there. If there wasn’t such favoritism, such horse-trading, such pay-to-play kickback schemes, on top of icky high tax rates, businesses would come of their own accord without need of further enticements.

One-party rule in Republican strongholds can also harbor political corruption that evades accountability, but we’re discussing Detroit, so, ’nuff said about that.

Another attitude is that the future is unfamiliar territory to lifelong residents of these cities. They yearn for the good old days, and don’t want to part with the vestiges of those treasured eras. The truth of the matter is, the good old days really never were all that good. Problems festered back then, too. Just like a song can play on the radio that can remind you of a time of life when you had more vitality, the same can be said of fixtures and landmarks that no longer serve any useful purpose. In Detroit, this can lead to wariness of other industries perceived to potentially supplant the auto industry.

People have emotional ties to this sort of stuff that prevents them from moving on, that prevents them from pushing the frontiers, that prevents them from being on the cutting edge of 21st century technology and innovation. Another manifestation of this is opposition to infrastructure upgrades, particularly the transportation grid, that might be seen as wrecking the neighborhood, such as widening a street into an arterial thoroughfare or adding a highway interchange that requires the exercise of eminent domain and the services of wrecking balls and bulldozers.

'Also, think of all the enterprises that manage to find a suitable property on which to set up shop only to have the local historical society put the kibosh on demolition and new construction plans. They cling to the remnants of the past so religiously that they are willing to chase away the future to preserve the past. They’ll mount a campaign to get the property listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the firm will have to abandon all their best-laid plans. The jobs and the commerce that would have improved the outlook for the city’s future are forfeited.

New public buildings whose proposed plans call for demolition of existing structures may have to jump over these same hurdles. Also, when school enrollment drops to the point where closing some schools are warranted, watch neighborhoods spring into action to make sure it’s not their school that’s closing, even if a newer, safer, more useful and sustainable structure will be the new destination for the neighborhood’s students, and even if few families with school children still reside in the neighborhood compared with generations past.

There are attitudes about education and career preparation that need to change, too. I’ve been a substitute teacher in Lorain, Ohio, and there are students who actually think that they can live at their parents’ house for the rest of their lives without having to work, never mind the fact that they’ll outlive their parents, so eventually there will be no one else to support them. There are some who want to live a life of thuggery, who view time in jail as giving them some street cred, and who may even rely upon prison as a fallback option for obtaining food and shelter if they aren’t faring well out on the streets.

Others delude themselves that they’ll become a pro football player or basketball player without ever having to prepare for college in order to play at the college level. They fancy themselves as the next LeBron James or Kobe Bryant that jumps right from high school to the pros, never mind that they don’t have the work ethic of LeBron or Kobe, so they’ll never really develop their skills. They think that some recruiter will scout them out during their high school games even though their team is not a winning team, and, even at that, they can’t even log enough quality minutes to get their names printed in the sports section of their own local newspaper. There are students who plan to live in style by playing the lottery until they win that multi-million dollar jackpot because they believe the state lottery’s hype that they can get lucky and win big so long as they keep playing. No lottery ever advertises how many people lose, nor how much cash they end up losing.

There are some who fashion themselves as future rap stars, yet they have such a limited vocabulary that it’s hard to imagine them becoming accomplished wordsmiths who can string together any compelling memorable lyrics. I told a high school class that despite the high unemployment rate in Lorain, there were still high-tech, high-wage jobs that companies had difficulty finding qualified applicants for. I mentioned nursing and engineering among the examples. The students asked me, “What’s an engineer?” They didn’t know. I told them an engineer is essentially an inventor, and that local firms had to conduct national job searches to fill those jobs.

Most prospects, though, had little desire to relocate to Lorain because their skills were in demand in other places where they already had connections, such as relatives. Another reason for so little desire to relocate to Lorain is that Lorain is commonly perceived to be a drab decaying town while other cities where they can get hired are so much more vibrant. Since the companies can’t find workers willing to relocate, the companies, themselves, relocate. What we really need is home-grown talent–engineers who do not need to relocate because they already have ties here. How can we raise up a generation of engineers in our cities when the students don’t even have a clue what engineers are or what they do? The citations presented here only confirm that Detroit automakers have to go all the way out to West Coast places like Stanford to recruit qualified workers, but their efforts to entice those prospects to Detroit isn’t as fruitful as they’d like them to be. Lack of homegrown talent is killing Detroit.

Akin to political attitudes, there are the attitudes of The Powers That Be who, though they might not be politicians, they still wield power within the town. Some of those powers might be industry moguls, but there are also mafia dons in the mix. A mafia don doesn’t care, really, whether a town’s population is shrinking or not so long as no new rivals for power emerge. For such folk, a vibrant, growing city might be exactly what they don’t want, for, with all the people that a thriving city will attract, some of those new arrivals might emerge as rivals for power. To hold on to power, it’s better to shrink the town so that it isn’t at all attractive to outsiders.

Seriously, some of this decay is by design.

Youngstown, for example, an important mafia link halfway between NYC and Chicago, has its urban planners engaged in designing how to shrink the city rather than to grow it. Detroit has some huge downtown casinos that have no qualms about cannibalizing Detroit as long as they can keep separating Detroit residents from the money in their wallets. Detroit residents who’ve gambled their money away can’t very well invest in home improvements to help beautify their neighborhood.

The casinos don’t care if all the houses become dilapidated so long as their tall, sleek, always-good-as-new neon-lighted towers highlight the city’s skyline. They dupe the city into thinking that they’re revitalizing it even as they suck the lifeblood out of it, just like they dupe gamblers into thinking they’ll get lucky even as they extract every last dollar out of patrons’ pockets.

I’d spent some time configuring ways to clean up polluted brownfields in my district, but Ohio issues bonds in a statewide program to, supposedly, revitalize brownfields. The only brownfields that get revitalized, though, are the ones where companies see the value of a location but want corporate welfare, i.e., government financial assistance, to pay for the environmental cleanup. The state government pays the big bucks out of the bond funds to attract the business, but the state doesn’t get big bucks in return. It’s the company that will make the big bucks.

These bond funds provide all kinds of cover for backroom deals and political patronage while cloaking themselves in the banner of environmental protection, but the pay-to-play attitude that prevails in these negotiations behind closed doors does a disservice to Rust Belt communities. Brownfield revitalization is not prioritized according to the hazards that these properties could pose to residents.

Instead, deal-brokering rules the day as an unholy alliance between developers and politicians cherry-pick the most prime properties while none of the bond funds get allocated to clean up any properties other than those that the developers want to get their hands on. The persistent neglect of the other brownfields only heightens the perception of urban decay, which, in turn, presents obstacles to marketing the city in such a way as to attract new commerce.

I drew up lots of plans for infrastructure upgrades as well as outlines of pathways to pursue in improving educational outcomes in the local schools in order to share these ideas with editors, reporters, and voters while on the campaign trail, but attitudes, not a lack of carefully crafted proposals, were the major impediment to undertaking any revitalization initiatives, not just my own proposals, but anyone else’s as well.

About the Author: Daniel Jack Williamson is a Republican from Sandusky, Erie County, Ohio. He received his B.A.from Ohio State University where he majord in international studies. He is the publisher of http://buckeyerino.com/

Douglas Knickrehm: The Case for “Lil Boosie” – Guilty until Proven Innocent in Louisiana

2011-05-01T17:35:00.004-04:00

Criticism of “Free Boosie” Movement Trades Liberty and Compassion for the Heavy Hand of Big Brother

By Douglas Knickrehm

Two days ago I came across the article “Free Boosie movement stupid, calls for release of murderer” by Chris Grillot. It was so appalling and misleading I felt a response was necessary. The sad fact is the basis of the American justice system has been perverted in the case of Torrence Hatch aka “Lil Boosie”. Based on Grillot’s title alone, we can believe he presumes Hatch guilty.

This plays directly into the hands of the DA who manufactured the charge against Boosie. In a jury trial, especially one with a high profile defendant, public perception can be a tool for either side. If Grillot’s attitude is the prevailing mindset in Baton Rouge, I fear for anyone accused of a crime there. Fortunately, this attitude is wrong and Grillot’s article provides a perfect example to dissect.

Before we start I’ll provide a brief background for those who may not know who I’m talking about: Lil’ Boosie is a rapper from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He is currently facing a first degree murder charge. He is not to be confused with Lil’ Wayne, who has had his own legal troubles and will be mentioned in the next paragraph. Sorry to those who knew this info, but my mom told me she was confused by the two so I thought I’d clarify for the older crowd.

Grillot’s enthusiasm for arresting and locking away “criminals” triggered the first alarm for me. Specifically, when Grillot writes, “Wayne was finally locked up”. This is the first of many phrases that seem to applaud putting people in cages (prison) for petty crimes. He then complains about people wanting the “gun-toting, tear-drop-tattooed criminal to be released”.

This is a pure ad hominem attack based on subjective judgments. In most states people are allowed to possess the guns Lil Wayne had in New York. Had Wayne been in Louisiana, he would have been within the law. He had a registered firearm, but the gun laws in NYC are so draconian it’s nearly impossible to keep up with every regulation. The Bloomberg administration likes to make examples out of high profile figures violating his laws, so Lil Wayne (like Plaxico Burress a few years back) did time for simple possession of a firearm. Finally, having tattoos does not make someone a criminal, or even a bad person for that matter. There’s a clear bias here (and in American culture) against those who live outside the cookie cutter box “mainstream” America sets.

This brings us to Grillot’s criticisms of the “Free Boosie” movement. First of all, Lil Boosie should not have been arrested, let alone sentenced to two years in prison for a marijuana charge. It was his third offense, but it’s time we reconsider filling government cages with people who smoke weed. Once again, this is an example of the law turning people into criminals without the person committing any actual harm to anyone else. Boosie eventually had his sentence doubled to four years after he violated his probation awaiting sentencing. He is not a drug dealer, he is a rapper. He makes his money doing shows.

There are only so many shows a man can do a month without breaching the boundaries of his probation. It’s reported that all shows must be cleared by the judge for Lil Boosie to perform. If these clearances are anywhere close to the glacial pace of the judicial system they would still hinder his touring abilities. Still, the judge felt Boosie’s violation was severe enough to double his sentence from two to four years. On paper, two to four years does not sound bad, but you must consider this is a man’s life we are talking about. He lost two years of his life for smoking weed and carrying a gun. The laws in Louisiana seem to represent the interests of those enforcing them over those subject to them.

Grillot states, “Boosie does not seem like a person you would want to free”. Why? At this point he has given nothing but highly questionable laws as reason for putting someone in a cage. Consider this: have you ever in your life a) drank while underage b) smoked a joint or c) possessed a firearm? Do those merit a cage? Based on the prevailing logic in Louisiana these actions do. Grillot again states “something we’d like” was jail time and a first degree murder indictment. The murder indictment is based on the testimony of one admitted murderer. In exchange for his testimony against Hatch, he will receive a lighter sentence for actually killing someone.

Boosie faces the death penalty on the strength of the murderer’s words. There is no physical or monetary evidence linking Boosie to the murder he allegedly paid for and “mastermind”. The DA’s case rests on one testimony and portraying Hatch as menacingly as possible to the public. It is important to point out the clearance rate in Baton Rouge has fallen from 77% in 2006 to 40% in 2010. Hallor (the District Attorney) could use a big name conviction to mask his poor performance over the past four years. But this is just speculation.

Our culture has become way too comfortable accepting the powers that be and assuming that the government has a monopoly on justice. Just because the DA files charges does not mean we should presume Lil Boosie is guilty. Criminal law in this country is supposedly based on the presumption of innocience before guilt, but when the suspect in question is an “unsavory” tattooed rap artist we turn the tradition of law on its head. I thought the time when the law was used to assassainate “undesirables” (especially black people) had passed. The prosecutor’s office of East Baton Rouge shows this is not the case. Put the image you’ve conjured in your head about “Lil Boosie” away for a second and consider that another man, Torrence Hatch, has been living as a subject of the state for nearly 2 years over a marijuana charge. He’s been in a cage. Now he’s the subject of a fraudulent murder indictment, which could potentially end his life. And you have the nerve to belittle the “Free Boosie” movement?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Doug Knickrehm lives in the Bronx, NYC where he is a student at Fordham University. His issues of interest include race, economics, and drug laws.

He be reached at dknickrehm@fordham.edu or @beachousewishes on twitter

City Journal: Why Not A Negative Income Tax With Cash Subsidies To The Poor?

2011-02-21T00:13:00.004-05:00

In his 1962 book Capitalism and Freedom, Friedman acknowledged that some form of welfare was necessary in capitalist societies and that the state would likely play a role in its provision. The trick was to imagine a very different, radically improved, and more efficient form of welfare—what Friedman’s son, David, also an economist, calls “libertarian redistributionism.”

What kind of program could help protect every citizen from destitution without granting excessive power to bureaucrats, creating disincentives to work, and clogging up the free-market economy, as the modern welfare state has done? Friedman’s answer was the negative income tax, or NIT.

Read More: City Journal: Why Not a Negative Income Tax?:

The Unemployment Deception

2011-02-07T16:19:00.006-05:00

My commentary about the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' deception in reporting unemployment in America.

Unemployment rate falls to 9.0% in January; payroll employment changes little (+36,000)

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

Raynard Jackson: Tony McGee and the Wyoming 14

2011-02-06T21:21:00.008-05:00

By Raynard Jackson

With the beginning of Black History Month two days ago and the upcoming Super Bowl on Sunday, I thought I would bring you a story that has gotten very little attention, especially in the Washington, DC area.

In many ways, they were the “Rosa Parks” of the Pacific Northwest in the U.S.

College and professional athletes often get a bad rap for the way they behave, both on and off the field. A lot of the criticism is justified, but most athletes are model citizens and never get in any trouble. They go through life just like the rest of us.

Former British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill once stated, “To every man, there comes a time when he is figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a great and mighty work; unique to him and fitted to his talents; what a tragedy if that moment finds him unprepared or unqualified for the moment that could be his finest hour.”

On Oct. 17, 1969, Tony McGee and the Wyoming 14 received their tap on the shoulder.

That was the day all 14 Black players were kicked off the University of Wyoming’s football team by their coach– Lloyd Eaton.

This was all precipitated by Willie Black, head of the Black Student Alliance (BSA). Earlier in the week he had sent a letter to the school asking the university and other Western Athletic Conference (WAC) members not to schedule games with Brigham Young University (BYU) until the Mormon Church rescinded its racist policies towards Blacks (they were not allowed to become priests, strictly based on their race).

After the BSA meeting, Joe Williams (running back) had asked the coach if it would be OK for him and the other 13 Black players to wear a black armband during the upcoming Saturday game against BYU. The players also wanted to protest the usage of racial epithets by BYU during last year’s game. Williams was a tri-captain on the team. Eaton gave Williams an emphatic “NO,” claiming the action would violate a team rule prohibiting any type of demonstration. So, the players attempted to change the coach’s mind by going to meet with him in his office wearing their armbands. Eaton led them to the bleachers in the old fieldhouse, where he immediately dismissed them from the team.

According to McGee (defensive end), “He said we could go to Grambling State or Morgan State… We could go back to colored relief (welfare). If anyone said anything, he told us to shut up. We were really protesting policies we thought were racist. Maybe we should’ve been protesting there.”

Read More http://hiphoprepublican.com/feature/2011/02/03/raynard-jackson-tony-mcgee-and-the-wyoming-14/

Nicole Gelina: Nation-Building in Washington

2011-02-01T10:15:00.012-05:00

By Nicole Gelina

As they assume the majority in the House of Representatives, Republicans have a chance to do something about the nation’s long-deteriorating infrastructure.

The opportunity lies in the federal transportation bill, which must be renewed every six years but has languished in Congress for a year. Judging from past bills and early talk, lawmakers could authorize as much as $500 billion for infrastructure investment, most of it to be funneled through the states.

Though that sum sounds hefty, it isn’t nearly enough: the American Society of Engineers figures that we must spend $1.3 trillion over five years to get our transportation infrastructure into acceptable shape. It follows that Congress should make the most of whatever figure it decides on, and one way to do that would be to assign the funds not through the usual pork-barrel politics but instead through a competition among the states.

Dennis Sanders: Thoughts from a Revolution

2011-01-30T19:26:00.015-05:00

Dennis Sanders, a moderate Republican from Minnesota writes about the recent upheaval in Egypt.

He praises the hopes and ambitions of the Egyptian people ... while at the same time, cautioning that revolutions have “mixed successes” and that without clear democratic principles to guide them, can eventually fall apart and be replaced by a government without any democratic safeguards. In his latest article he uses Iran, Gaza and The “Cedar Revolution” in Lebanon as examples.

By Dennis Sanders

Looking at the wave of protests hitting the Arab world, first in Tunisia and then in Egypt, I feel a sense of both hope and dread. It would be great if democratic cultures were born and allowed to flower in both societies, but the record of democracy in the Middle East is not that great. Iran had a revolution 30 years ago to get rid of tryant and ended up with a whole new tyranny.

The United States tried to promote democracy in Iraq with mixed success at best, and in Gaza, which brought Hamas to power. The “Cedar Revolution” in Lebanon was a time when people thought the war-torn nation would be free of its Syrian-occupiers and on the road towards a strong democracy, only to see that government fall apart and be replaced by government backed by Hezboallah. It seems like everytime a despot is sent packing, another one replaces them.

Continue Reading: http://bigtentrevue.org/2011/01/28/thoughts-from-a-revolution/

Akindele Akinyemi: Is Higher Taxes The Goal for Urban America?

2011-01-21T07:32:00.008-05:00

Akindele Akinyemi, the urban conservative activist from Detroit begs the question: Is Higher Taxes The Goal for Urban America?

Akindele is one the foremost urban conservative policy figures stressing the importance of education, family policy and economics. Mr. Akinyemi is an independent Republican who is the author of “Academic Revolution”, a series of essays dealing with the neeed for more specialized charter schools in urban communities. He has a B.S in African American Studies from Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan and a M.A. in Education with an emphasis in Curriculum and Instruction
By Akindele Akinyemi

The problem with business subsidies is that while they may benefit the targeted business and entice it to locate its operations within the county, they harm existing business and other taxpayers. Such policies do not generate net benefits for a city. Instead they simply hurt some and help others.

Therefore, there’s no such thing as a free subsidy. When a city decides to use tax dollars to entice a new company to set up shop in a community, that money has to come from somewhere. Local businesses and their employees must pay more in taxes and other costs to support the subsidized industry. This is why such programs are referred to as corporate welfare. Since higher taxes are an added cost of doing business, these subsidies depress economic growth for those businesses not receiving the subsidy. In reality the subsidies end up being a mechanism for transferring wealth from existing businesses to the subsidized businesses and the people who work for them.

Higher taxes for our cities at-large are not the only way existing businesses must pay the cost of these subsidies. The subsidized entrants into the market add to the demand for workers, driving up labor costs for all businesses that are employing similarly skilled labor. This effect is particularly pronounced if the unemployment rate is already low. This means that the existing businesses not only have to pay for the subsidies through higher taxes, but, adding insult to injury, they may also face higher production costs.

Contiune Reading:

http://hiphoprepublican.com/opinion/2011/01/18/akindele-akinyemi-is-higher-taxes-the-goal-for-urban-america/

Javier David: Did 50 Cent use Twitter to bilk fans for big bucks?

2011-01-17T06:10:00.005-05:00

Javier David – The conservative writer for TheGrio.com, takes on rapper 50 Cent for his recent decision to dispense stock picks and makeshift financial advice via Twitter.

It’s a given that musicians and actors often have little compunction about sharing their political views with the world. The First Amendment is a beautiful thing, and should be cherished by all.

But when a star uses his or her popularity to dispense stock picks and makeshift financial advice? Now that’s a horse of an entirely different stripe.

Such is the quandary rapper 50 Cent — a.k.a. Curtis Jackson — posed a couple of days ago, when he used the ubiquitous Twitter to promote H&H Imports, a virtually unknown penny stock company in which he has a sizable financial interest.

The 35-year-old hip hop impresario, who made the phrase “get rich or die trying” a cultural mainstay, used the social networking site to plump for H&H’s prospects. “You can double your money right now. Just get what you can afford,” Fitty enthused to his nearly 4 million followers. “They are no joke, get in now,” he added in a subsequent tweet. Never mind that 50 Cent had many reasons — nearly 9 million, in fact — to get the Florida-based company’s stock as high as it could go.

Continue Reading: – http://www.thegrio.com/entertainment/is-50-cent-using-twitter-to-take-your-money.php

Lenny McAllister: Don’t Let Politicians Take Advantage of Tucson

2011-01-17T04:45:00.008-05:00

Lenny McAllister, the noted political/social commentator and radio host for WVON, writes about the recent tragedies in Tucson.

In his latest article for The Root.com, he warns about the pitfalls of rapid political response in times of great tragedy. He argues that its at moments like this when the best intentions can go astray.

By Lenny McAllister

Just as the intrusive and controversial Patriot Act was signed into law soon after Sept. 11 while America was still wrestling with its response to the terror acts, once again we’re hearing proposals that threaten to diminish the freedom we currently enjoy and expect as American citizens. Even the best intentions go astray.

With the Patriot Act came the argument that the federal government would be better equipped to protect America with a series of potential “inconveniences” (and the loss of a few personal liberties). Now the grass roots are telling us that America will be safer still with more gun-control regulations; and legislators are clamoring for a national Internet ID card so that we can better track potential terror threats, and arguing that America will be more serene politically with the reintroduction of the Fairness Doctrine.

Continue Reading – http://www.theroot.com/views/dont-let-politicians-take-advantage-tucson

Walaa Idris: The Sudan Referendum

2011-01-13T17:12:00.002-05:00

A referendum is taking place in Southern Sudan from 9 January until 15 January 2011, on whether or not the region should remain a part of Sudan or be independent. The referendum is one of the consequences of the 2005 Naivasha Agreement between the Khartoum central government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M).

Walaa Idris, a leader in the Conservative Party in London writes about the latest political rumblings in her native country. Idris grew up in Sudan but has lived in London since 1991. In her latest blog entry, she explains the political context for the recent referendum.

By Walaa Idris

This is a historic week for Africa and in particular the Sudan; it’s the week when the people of Southern Sudan hold their long awaited promised referendum on whether to split the country into two nations. The Sudan one of the largest, most resourceful countries in the continent of Africa – once dubbed the Food Basket of the World – measures almost 1,000,000 square miles but was plagued for years with drought, famine and half a century of on – off civil wars that tore it apart and stifled its growth and development.

To the surprise of the West the central government of Khartoum is holding – as part of the peace agreement signed in 2005 – a referendum on the future of creating two neighbouring nations. By the end of which, if 60% voted to separate, then the country will be split into North and South thus creating the 54th state of Africa.

Heather McDonald: Restoring the Social Order

2011-01-08T09:25:00.001-05:00

Heather McDonald, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute, recently published an article detailing the twenty momentous years of conservative policy in urban cities. She argues that Conservative ideas are responsible for the two great urban-policy successes of the last quarter-century: the breathtaking drops in crime and in welfare dependency since the early 1990s.

She writes:

Conservative ideas are responsible for the two great urban-policy successes of the last quarter-century: the breathtaking drops in crime and in welfare dependency since the early 1990s. You’d never know it from members of the opinion elite, however, who have rarely recognized these successes, much less their provenance.

So let’s recapitulate an epic battle about the foundations of social order, a battle that had not just a clear winner but also a clear loser: the liberal policy prescriptions for cities that many opinion makers and politicians still embrace. New York has been at the center of this battle because so many of the bad ideas that wreaked havoc on cities hatched there.

Fortunately, so did many of the antidotes.

Continue Reading – http://www.city-journal.org/2011/eon0106hm.html