hip hop music

On the morning of September 11th, phones were dead in most of Manhattan. So I got online to check my email and look for friends who couldn't reach me. I found dozens of new e-mails in my inbox, but they were not from friends. They had messages like:

"Happy Now? Stupid f**king retard."

"you are a piece of shit for sympathizing Bin Laden. Let me guess, you are a black panther too aren't you? You need to burn in hell just like Bil Laden will, you f**king piece of dog shit. there is a difference between blacks and niggers just like whites and honkeys and you are a PURE NIGGER"

I couldn't for the life of me figure why I'd be receiving all these furious, hateful messages.

Then I remembered...

When the name Osama Bin Laden first entered our collective consciousness in 1998, I was struck by how the media feeds us these fast food enemies the same way they manufacture all their disposible instant celebrities, hoping we'll swallow it whole and blindly join in calling for his head without questioning any of the details.

One afternoon I threw together a webpage poking fun at this phenomenon, named "The First Ever Osama Bin Laden Homepage". I filled it with a few sarcastic remarks about the media coverage, links to related sites, and silly stuff like a list of the anagrams you can make with Osama's name.

The page got pretty popular for a little while, a bunch of sites linked to it, then traffic fell off as the evening news moved on to the next Enemy of the Month.

So on the morning of 9/11/01 I had long since forgotten this page existed. But Google had not forgotten. And when you searched in Google for "Osama Bin Laden", my page came up third on the list. Within 24 hours, a quarter of a million people had visited the page.

Now, I was (and still am) willing to stand by everything that was on that page, in the context of the time I wrote it. But it suddenly had a very different context now, and I decided that any attempt at satire would be in poor taste at the moment. So I quickly changed the page to what you see here.

But the hate mail kept coming. Nowhere on the original page had I expressed support for Bin Laden or anything he was accused of, but people needed somewhere to vent their anger, and didn't have time to figure out whether I was really a fair target. So in order to preserve what was left of my sanity, I made Google take my page out their index entirely.

In retrospect, I wish I had kept the page in search engines, I could have reworked it to offer thousands of visitors an alternative, progressive perspective that was sorely lacking in those early days. And I did get some emails encouraging me to restore the page, and stand up for the freedom expression many already feared would be the biggest casualty of all. But the emotional torrent of those first days left me no strength to fight any of these battles.

Nothing irks me more than when right-wingers have the gall to assure us that "if [insert-dead-progressive-here] were alive today, he would surely share our conservative views on [insert-some-bullshit-they'd-never-support-in-a-million-years]."

In discussion about feminist theory in someone's blog recently, this kid (one of those Young Conservative types who reads national review everyday and thinks he's really got his game down) had the nerve to say:

"For the most part, yesterday's liberals who fought for equal opportunity, particularly w/rt race, would be today's conservatives. (MLK Jr. and Bennett come to mind.)"

The reply I posted:

Of all the plays in the right-wing playbook, the "if these dead guys were alive they would switch to our team" angle is the most laughable and the most tasteless. Shoving words into the mouths of dead men is the last refuge of those whose reasoning cannot stand on its own merits.

And in the case of Martin Luther King Jr. it is particularly absurd. Conservatives cling to MLK's quote about judging men by the content of their character as proof that he would join them in opposition to affirmative action and other similar programs. But if you take a closer look at how he believed his principles ought to be applied in the real world, it becomes clear that these right-wingers are kidding themselves.

King led his own organization, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, in a nationwide campaign aimed at changing hiring policies, called Operation Breadbasket. Here is King's own description of the program: "First, a team of ministers calls on the management of a business in the community to request basic facts on the company's total number of employees, the number of Negro employees, the department or job classification in which all are located, and the salary ranges for each category. The team then returns to the steering committee to evaluate the data and to make a recommendation concerning the number of new and upgraded jobs that should be requested. The decision on the number of jobs requested is usually based on population figures. For instance, if a city has a 30 percent Negro population, then it is logical to assume that Negroes should have at least 30 percent of the jobs in any particular company, and jobs in all categories rather than only in menial areas, as the case almost always happens to be."

In Why We Can't Wait he wrote:

"Whenever the issue of compensatory treatment for the Negro is raised, some of our friends recoil in horror. The Negro should be granted equality, they agree; but he should ask nothing more. On the surface, this appears reasonable, but it is not realistic."

And in a Playboy interview he said:

"Within common law, we have ample precedents for special compensatory programs, which are regarded as settlements. American Indians are still being paid for land in a settlement manner. Is not two centuries of labor, which helped to build this country, a real commodity? ...And you will remember that America adopted a policy of special treatment for her millions of veterans after the war."

As you can see, any speculation that MLK would support the current conservative stance on these issues is purely delusional. The truth is Dr. King explicitly endorsed the very ideas that right-wingers rail against today.

I've set up a gallery of the photographs I took at today's historic peace march - uh, i mean rally - in New York City, one of the many that took place around the world on this historic day. Perhaps when I have time I'll set up thumbnails for you to sort through, but for now here's the raw data.

When I was a young kid, in the 70s, my mother was good friends with Malcolm X's widow, Betty Shabazz. She was helping Betty write up her doctoral thesis, typing it up for her, so I spent a lot of time at Betty's house in Mount Vernon when I was little, sometimes being babysat by Malcolm's daughters(!). One of my earliest childhood memories is of sitting with them in their living room and watching Charlie's Angels. I can also remember looking up at a picture of Malcolm on the wall there, as my mom explained to me who he was, why Malcolm is a hero to her.

So Malcolm has always been a big part of my life, for as far back as I can remember, and I've always felt a very personal connection with him. He more than anyone provided the blueprint for my concepts of leadership, activism, and perhaps manhood..I admire him for so many things.. his courage, his intellectual ferocity, his power to be so concise and compelling with his words, carving his ideas into a dagger aimed straight at your head. But most of all it is Malcolm's willingness and ability to evolve that has been a constant source of inspiration.

His life was a neverending process of transforming/reinventing himself, from country boy Malcolm Little to big city hustler Detroit Red...then reborn as within the Nation of Islam as Malcolm X, and finally outgrowing the limitations of the NOI to become El Hajj Malik El Shabazz.. newly reborn once again, even in what became his final days.

Thus, Malcolm showed me that no matter where you are in life, its never too late to turn youself around, if you find the courage look inside yourself and see what needs to be changed, and the strength and determination to make it happen. And he showed me that a life well lived is a neverending journey down that path, there is never a finish line..

I had mixed feelings about Malcolm's resurgence into popular consciousness in the late 80s (thanks primarily to Public Enemy and the other rappers who followed their lead, though it culminated in Spike's film). But no doubt it was tremendously positive for him to be rediscovered that way, even if the process of rediscovery involved some homogenization and commodification.

Anyway just some random thoughts, wanted to take note of yesterday's anniversary.

my friend in korea: this korean pop group made themselves up in black face for one of their videos...pretty shocking
jsmooth: wow
my friend in korea: their justification was something to the effect that they wanted to be recognized for their musical talent as opposed to being pretty the way alot of popstars in korea are....and they said something like "black people are musically talented and we wanted to be like them"
my friend in korea: their video still airs! i just saw it at the gym on korean mtv
jsmooth: oh my god

EDIT: Here goes an article about this, from the Korea Herald

I just discovered that the Federal Emergency Mangement Agency, one of the creepiest branches of our government, has their own official rap song! I'm not kidding. Check out the audio here, and read along here. Our tax dollars paid for this.

This is part of their FEMA for kids website, teaching kids about FEMA's programs that help America deal with various types of "disaster". Here is one such plan they developed in the 80s:

On July 5, 1987, the Miami Herald published reports on FEMA's new goals...to suspend the Constitution in the event of a national crisis, such as nuclear war, violent and widespread internal dissent, or national opposition to a U.S. military invasion abroad. Lt. Col. North was the architect. National Security Directive Number 52 issued in August 1982, pertains to the "Use of National Guard Troops to Quell Disturbances."

The crux of the problem is that FEMA has the power to turn the United States into a police state in time of a real crisis or a manufactured crisis. Lt. Col. North virtually established the apparatus for dictatorship. Only the criticism of the Attorney General prevented the plans from being adopted. But intelligence reports indicate that FEMA has a folder with 22 Executive Orders for the President to sign in case of an emergency. It is believed those Executive Orders contain the framework of North's concepts, delayed by criticism but never truly abandoned.

Someone needs to make a parody of this site where the little cartoon characters teach kids about martial law. "Hey boys and girls, have you ever heard mommy and daddy saying naughty things about the president? Call this number and let us know, so we can give them a free trip to our Happy Funtime Internment Camp!"

In honor of our fearless leaders in Congress, this website shall henceforth refer to American Cheese as "Mindboggling Republican Stupidity Cheese"

The Cincinnati Post says racism and sexism that have left Ohio's juvenile justice system in "shambles".

http://www.cincypost.com/2003/03/13/juvy031303.html

The Washington Post has a lengthy piece analyzing the writings and drawings found in Lee Boyd Malvo's cell, listing all his references to books, music, etc.

The only newsworthy development here is that unless you count Ego Trip's Big Book of Racism, there is no reference to Hip-Hop whatsoever! Guess you can't blame this one on us, suckers!

Al's Morning Meeting posted a freaky little site named You Are Where You Live. It's a database where advertisers and businesses can look up any zipcode in America to find out what kind of people live there and what they are likely to spend money on. Put in your zipcode and find out how corporate America judges you based on your neighborhood.

I grew up in 10032, and evidently we represent (among others) the demographic segment known as "difficult times". We are known for our tendency to "dine at fast food chicken restaurants" and "use non-prescription cough syrup".

New Book Examines African-American Attitude Towards War With Iraq

According to The Evening Standard, the war has already begun, many hours before the announced deadline.

Meanwhile the Drudge Report's headline announces that today is "Game Day". Dude, this is not a sporting event. People are going to die.

Here's the official list of countries that have joined our "coalition" in support of this war (courtesy of warblogging.com):

Afghanistan, Albania, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, El Salvador, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Hungary, Italy, Japan (post conflict), South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey, Britain, Uzbekistan.

Seriously, I'd be more impressed to see "Brooklyn" on the list than half of these names. This is like when a movie trailer has to resort to quoting reviews from the East Podunk Gazette or Movieblab.com.. you know damn well you don't want to see that movie. Unfortunately we don't have much choice about watching this drama unfold.

I feel ill.

Gave up on CNN, trying BBC now. Been tuning out most of what the talking heads are saying, since very little factual information comes out at times like this. But knowing this is underway is making me feel queasy.

I remember very well when the first gulf war started. I was 18 in 1991, and it started right around the time I was sending out my college applications. I remember that profound feeling of illness, as I watched the breaking news with my mother, and realized this was really happening, that my country was doing this. My mother often tells the story of how I turned to her and said "Mom... I don't have a country." So this feeling in my stomach is all too familiar.

You should be reading Dear Raed if you're not already.

A friend has confirmed the rumors that BBC ran raw satellite feed of Bush, getting his makeup done before his speech started:

"I was watching the BBC live raw satellite footage of Bush before his speech last night (at 3 am, I fell asleep on the couch later). They showed about 10-15 minutes of him getting ready. There was no sound, but he was practicing his "earnest and honest" face, the words to his speech, and then occasionally he would get that smirky grin and seemingly joke and laugh with people who were behind the camera. I had to wonder if he even knew the camera was turned on."

Very impressive, hundreds of people out in the rain on very short notice. Most of them students who had walked out of class, and reported that police had threatened them with arrest if they left school. Great to see so many young people come out, and show such enthusiasm. Also glad to see people of color make up at least half the crowd, which goes against the stereotypes of the peace movement.

The girl in this first photo was especially moving, heartbreaking. She broke down in tears as she pleaded with us: "I'm here because of my uncle. He joined the army because he couldn't fnd a job, and they told him he could join the army and be a hero, and now he's risking his life on the other side of the world, in a war that's happening for no reason. So I came here today to tell you all, we have to stand up."

click a thumbnail to see the full size image:

Just like I said in the last post, here is another new article suggesting anti-war protests fail to attract many Black people, even though polls indicate they are predominantly against the war.

Huge turnout in NY today..took many pictures:

Photo Gallery 1

Photo Gallery 2

And indymedia has a bunch of pics from around the world here.

The Beastie Boys - In A World Gone Mad
I love the sentiment, although the actual song is sub-par.

Zach De La Rocha and DJ Shadow - March of Death
Now that's what I'm talking about. Zach is finally back, and he came back hard as hell.

Me'Shell Ndegeocello - Love & Forgiveness
This is nice as well, recorded right after 9/11 and released in the days before the war, as Me'shell explained here

Sarah Jones - Whose War? (Emergency Rough Cut)

And last but not least, a brand new song delivered to me personally by Sarah Jones, at Saturday's protest. Razor sharp lyrics, and nice work flipping the Nas chorus with the Bob Marley "I Need A Hammer" sample.

I love that Michael Moore did what he did, and I damn sure don't think it was "bad taste" or "not the proper forum" or anything like that. But I think he could have gotten the message across much more effectively.

By throwing in all the stuff about the "fictitious election" and what not, his message came across more "I hate Bush" than "I am against this war". And his combative, smirkingly self-righteous tone just seemed out of place, and surely alienated anyone not firmly in his camp already.

I love Michael Moore but I've always thought he is clumsy at times, and too often revels in the easy joke or the cheap shot that doesn't really advance his argument. I think this is a case where he should have put more thought into exactly what message he wanted to send, and who he wanted to reach with it.

Under the leadership of Michael Powell, Colin's kid, the FCC has grown increasingly loony in the last couple of years. First they declared Sarah Jones' political anthem Your Revolution to be "indecent" and "patently offensive", and fined a Portland radio station $7,000 for playing it. Then they fined another station for playing the clean version of Eminem's single, Without Me. Not promising developments for those who value freedom of expression.

Thankfully, the FCC ultimately took a loss on both of those cases, and had to rescind those fines after much public outcry and legal challenges. But the FCC's newest bout with lunacy would be far more damaging if it succeeds. Powell's FCC is now leading the charge to deregulate media ownership, and allow even more of what we see and hear to be controlled by the same few corporations, such as the infamous Clear Channel. As reported in The Nation:

"One of the most important votes of 2003 will be cast not in Congress or in voting booths across the country but at the Federal Communications Commission. At stake is how TV, radio, newspapers and the Internet will look in the next generation and beyond. At stake are core values of localism, competition, diversity and maintaining the vitality of America's marketplace of ideas. And at stake is the ability of consumers to enjoy creative, diverse and enriching entertainment. But most people and most journalists are ignoring this momentous vote."

Here are some links with more info:

The Future of the Media is at Risk
Why Ownership Rules Matter
Relaxing rules raises concerns about diverse media voices

And here is local coverage from North Carolina, where the FCC will hold its next public hearing on this issue, this coming Monday the 31st. If you live down there make sure to come out and represent. And if you can't make it to that, here is a sample letter you can send to the FCC here or here to make your voice heard. Cuz if you don't, it may soon get a lot harder for anyone to make their voices heard in this country.

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Here's the info on Monday's meeting:

FCC Media Ownership Hearing
Monday, March 31, 2003
Duke University Law School, Durham, NC
Time: 12:30 PM � 5 PM
Location: Room 3043 of Law School (overflow room: 2036, Blue Lounge)

As first linked by atrios, this piece in the Washington Monthly makes some very scary predictions about the Bush administration's real agenda in Iraq, and the amount of deception they are willing to use in service of that agenda.

Why Our Nightmare is Bush's Dream

"In short, the administration is trying to roll the table--to use U.S. military force, or the threat of it, to reform or topple virtually every regime in the region, from foes like Syria to friends like Egypt, on the theory that it is the undemocratic nature of these regimes that ultimately breeds terrorism. So events that may seem negative--Hezbollah for the first time targeting American civilians; U.S. soldiers preparing for war with Syria--while unfortunate in themselves, are actually part of the hawks' broader agenda. Each crisis will draw U.S. forces further into the region and each countermove in turn will create problems that can only be fixed by still further American involvement, until democratic governments--or, failing that, U.S. troops--rule the entire Middle East.

There is a startling amount of deception in all this--of hawks deceiving the American people, and perhaps in some cases even themselves. While it's conceivable that bold American action could democratize the Middle East, so broad and radical an initiative could also bring chaos and bloodshed on a massive scale. That all too real possibility leads most establishment foreign policy hands, including many in the State Department, to view the Bush plan with alarm. Indeed, the hawks' record so far does not inspire confidence. Prior to the invasion, for instance, they predicted that if the United States simply announced its intention to act against Saddam regardless of how the United Nations voted, most of our allies, eager to be on our good side, would support us. Almost none did. Yet despite such grave miscalculations, the hawks push on with their sweeping new agenda.

...The brazenness of this approach would be hard to believe if it weren't entirely in line with how the administration has pursued so many of its other policy goals. Its preferred method has been to use deceit to create faits accomplis, facts on the ground that then make the administration's broader agenda almost impossible not to pursue. During and after the 2000 campaign, the president called for major education and prescription drug programs plus a huge tax cut, saying America could easily afford them all because of large budget surpluses. Critics said it wasn't true, and the growing budget deficits have proven them right. But the administration now uses the existence of big budget deficits as a way to put the squeeze on social programs--part of its plan all along. Strip away the presidential seal and the fancy titles, and it's just a straight-up con..."

Our friend Amy Goodman talked to Michael Franti yesterday about the current climate of censorship and intimidation, as the government and media seek to suppress anti-war voices. He told a bizarre story of government agents visiting his bandmate's mother:

Well, what�s happened most recently is that we performed at a rally on March 15th in San Francisco and the next day on the 16th�that, that rally was out here�and on the 16th on the East Coast, a band member of mine who prefers to go unnamed, his mother received a visit from two plain clothes men from the military and this band member of mine has a sibling who is in the Gulf. And they came in and talked to her and said you have a child who�s in the gulf and you have a child who�s in this band Spearhead who�s part of the �resistance� in their words, and they had pictures of us performing the day before at the rally, they had pictures of us performing at some of our annual concerts that we put on that are in support of peace and human rights. They had his flight records for the past several months, they had the names of everybody who works in my office, our management office �Guerilla Management�. They had his checking account records. They asked his mother a lot of questions about where he was, what he was doing in this place, why he was going here. They confiscated his sibling�s CD collection that they had brought over to listen to while they were in the Gulf, and basically were intimidating�told her which members of the press she could talk to and which members of the press she should not speak to.

You can hear the interview in its entirety here

Romenesko pointed out this Tribune piece on how the media and the government are blaming eachother for making us expect an "easy" war.

Invasion honeymoon is over; news media get contentious

On the question of a quick war, media critic Marvin Kalb, a senior fellow at Harvard University's Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, said, "The media did not make up the expectation that they expected this to be a brief, essentially bloodless war. They got that from officials, from the vice president and the Joint Chiefs chairman."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,925984,00.html

Three British soldiers in Iraq have been ordered home after objecting to the conduct of the war. It is understood they have been sent home for protesting that the war is killing innocent civilians...

U.S. Army Making Iraqis Pay for Water.

...Under the deal, the military will provide water free to locals with access to tanker trucks, who then will be allowed to sell the water for a "reasonable" fee.

"We're permitting them to charge a small fee for water," said Army Col. David Bassert.

"This provides them with an incentive to hustle and to work," said Bassert, an assistant commander with the 354th Civil Affairs Brigade.

He said he could not suggest what constitutes a reasonable fee and did not know what the truckers were charging. He said the tradition here of haggling at markets would help the system work.

...A British military spokesman angrily objected to the water deal. The British control the city of Umm Qasr while the Americans are in charge of the port.

"We're not going to have any charging for water. What kind of an aid plan would that be? These people don't even have shoes," the spokesman said.

No, this is not an April Fool's joke.

The latest issue of my favorite magazine Wax Poetics is now on sale, check the website for where you can cop it. This installment has interviews with breakbeat legends like Clyde Stubblefield, Manzel, and Galt Mcdermot, plus graffiti pioneer Tracy 168 and a whole bunch more for the hardcore heads.

And you might say I make my debut as a published photographer, cuz they have a two page spread of my pics from the Jam Master Jay memorial that I posted here a few months ago.

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Also, just so this post won't be completely self-serving, here's a bit about Martin Luther Kings's importance as a voice against war, on the 35th anniversary of his death. And here's an excerpt from his landmark speech, "Why I Oppose the War in Vietnam", courtesy of my peoples at Democracy Now.

I know mad people have posted this already, but seriously, this is despicable:

Water - For Christians Only

In this dry desert world near Najaf, where the Army V Corps combat support system sprawls across miles of scabrous dust, there's an oasis of sorts: a 500-gallon pool of pristine, cool water.

It belongs to Army chaplain Josh Llano of Houston, who sees the water shortage, which has kept thousands of filthy soldiers from bathing for weeks, as an opportunity.

''It's simple. They want water. I have it, as long as they agree to get baptized,'' he said...

This time, Boondocks artist went too far

...What the syndicate sent us for publication a week ago Saturday was the Boondocks strip with a statement plastered over it that read:

"Special Boondocks protest strip! In order to express the outrage and the disappointment at the situation in the Middle East, as well as an upcoming movie starring Cuba Gooding Jr., in which the actor will undoubtedly shame himself and his race, today�s installment of The Boondocks will not be appearing.

"Seriously, folks. Let�s stop the madness. The Bush administration�s hunger for war, and Hollywood�s continued production of movies starring Cuba Gooding Jr., must be stopped. � Aaron McGruder"

McGruder essentially mutilated his own strip for the purpose of forcing his political views on a page where they don�t belong in that context.

The syndicate did send an alternative strip for that day, in effect giving editors the chance to censor the strip.

I am not a proponent of censoring comics. In fact, we ran installments of the Cathy comic strip in The Herald-Sun years ago that were censored by other newspapers in this state when one of the characters in the strip endorsed presidential candidate Michael Dukakis.

I said then I would not censor a comic, but would drop it if I thought the author was abusing his or her relationship with our newspaper for personal gratification.

Accordingly, I canceled the Boondocks strip.

It does appear today because our Sunday comics section is pre-printed. We replaced Boondocks in the daily editions with Get Fuzzy, which we have been running just on Sundays.

Whether that tenacious little feline will remain in our lineup remains to be seen. We may sample other strips in the coming weeks to see what our readers like...

Uhh... yeah.

Bill Hawkins is Vice President and Executive Editor of The Herald-Sun. He may be reached at (919) 419-6678 or at bhawkins@heraldsun.com

Don't get it twisted. I was one of millions of Americans who spoke against this war. But just because we did not support this invasion, that doesn't mean we ever doubted Saddam Hussein was a grimy bastard, and that the Iraqi people had every reason to rejoice in his downfall. I felt genuinely happy for the Iraqis we saw celebrating yesterday, and I'm sure most anti-war Americans felt the same.

So any right-wingers who expect us to be "eating crow" today, I'm afraid we will have to disappoint you. Anyone who thinks yesterday's news "proved us wrong" must not have understood what we were saying in the first place. We were never against seeing the end of Saddam Hussein's regime. We were against the means used to bring this about, and we still are.

Yesterday's footage was wonderful to see. All those folks getting their office-chair loot on, it truly warmed the heart. But I also remember images like this one, of 12 year old Ali Ismail Abbas asking if we can put his arms back on. No matter how many times you show us tearing that statue's legs off, it won't make me forget that we also took this little boy's arms off. And that he is only one of thousands. I am just as strongly against that now as I ever was. It didn't need to happen like that.

I'll write more on this later if I have time. But I really don't want to see the left punk out on this, and cave in to all the "i-told-you-so" nonsense.

Here is Atrios on our triumphant victory over the Saddam statue:

One hopes that the widely broadcast scene of cheering Iraqis tearing down the statue of Saddam Hussein in central Baghdad was both the very real and important symbolic moment it was portrayed to be. However, it�s clear that this was a Pentagon-orchestrated p.r. moment, happily enabled by the media.

Despite the close-up crowd shots and breathless commentary accompanying the event�which portrayed it as a scene of mass jubilation by the citizens of Baghdad�the truth is, as the BBC reports, and other pictures confirm, there were in actuality only dozens of Iraqis present. A more accurate view of size of the celebrating crowds can be seenhere. As our military has yet to adequately separate the naughty from the nice over there, any larger crowd would have placed our forces at risk.

You know what's interesting? In the last month we have seen millions of Americans take to the streets against this war, and the media never once offered this as representing the majority view. But right now we are seeing dozens - or at most hundreds - of Iraqis cheering U.S. soldiers, and almost all coverage seems to assume this represents how the entire country feels. Hmm.

Now, I don't doubt for a second that the vast majority of Iraqis are happy to see Hussein's regime go. But I don't believe everyone is thinking "Hooray for America! What a perfect ending!" either. I believe most Iraqi people are able to rejoice in being free from Saddam and still remain aware of the bigger picture, the consequences of the way this came about, and what may come next.

Even the citizens we saw out in the street yesterday, when they actually got a chance to speak, seemed quite wary of America's role there, even as they celebrated the demise of Hussein's crew. As one man said on MSNBC, greeting a Marine coming down the street:

We wait a long time for you. Now you must end very good. Not like 1991.

In other words, we're happy to see Saddam go, but we're not ready to coronate you guys as heroes yet either. We remember how you abandoned us after you got what you wanted in the last war, so we're gonna see how everything settles out before we judge your role in this.

But the feelings of those Iraqi people 6 months from now, or a year from now, will not be plastered all over the evening news. By then we will have long since cued the music, rolled the credits, and went over to film the sequel in Syria.

Can someone tell me what the damn hell Katie Couric meant by this? The tragedy was magnified by her background??

Bias in Today Show's Central Park Jogger Interview?

....the racial aspect of the jogger case was barely mentioned in the hourlong report. The tale of an upper-middle-class white woman attacked by a roving band of black kids played into the modern urban narrative of fear. The guilt of the defendants was taken as fact by the newspapers (sample headline: "Teenage Wolfpack Beats and Rapes Wall Street Exec").

It is, sadly, always a story when poor black men attack a rich white woman - - and not so much a story when rich white men attack a poor black woman. It's even less of a story when a husband attacks a wife, even though some of those batterings result in injuries as severe as those suffered by Trisha Meili.

Indeed, the NBC piece went out of its way to confirm that worldview. White people were shown in contemporary interviews, flatteringly lit, sitting in comfortable chairs. Black people were shown in black-and-white news footage, jostling or yelling or, in one egregious example, confessing to a crime that, it turns out, the confessor did not commit.

Even worse: Katie Couric said the tragedy of the Central Park Jogger was "magnified by her background." Shot of the facade of an Ivy League college, shot of the pricey apartment building where Meili lived.

So successful white woman Katie Couric said that the plight of successful white woman Trisha Meili was "magnified" by her circumstances. Had she been poorer, had she attended a state college in the Midwest or gotten her GED in an adult school, the crime would not have been as great. Had she been black, presumably Couric would have said the crime was "minimized by her background."

Enough rant. You get the point. Shudder.

AMINA LAWAL SET TO BE STONED ON 3RD JUNE 2003

The Nigerian Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence for Amina Lawal, condemned for the crime of adultery on August 19th 2002, to be buried up to her neck and stoned to death. Her death was postponed so that she could continue to nurse her baby. Execution is now set for June 3rd. If you haven't been following this case, you might like to know that Amina's baby is regarded as the 'evidence' of her adultery. The father denied everything when he realised the trouble he was in. To find out more about sharia law, see http://www.guardian.co.uk/theissues/article/0,6512,777972,00.html

Amina's case is being handled by the Spanish branch of Amnesty International, which is attempting to put together enough signatures to make the Nigerian government rescind the death sentence. A similar campaign saved another Nigerian woman, Safiya, condemned in similar circumstances. By March 4th the petition had amassed over 2,600,000 signatures. It will only take you a few seconds to sign Amnesty's online petition. Go to the web page http://www.amnistiaporsafiya.org

Enter your first name in the space marked "nombre", last name ("apellidos"), county ("provincia"), country, and In the drop down box pick Estados Unidos (USA). Then click on "Seguir" and go to the second page. There you have the option of entering your email address if you wish to receive follow-up information. In any case, be sure to click on "aceptar" to have your name added to the petition list.

R.I.P. to one of the greatest heroes of the Anti-Apartheid movement, Nelson Mandela's right hand man for 50 years. As Hip-Hop representative I will note he was name-dropped by Chubb Rock on The One: "Long live the ANC, Walter Sisulu from South Africa, Mr. Mandela you're the real one"

Walter Sisulu, Mandela Mentor and Comrade, Dies at 90

Walter Sisulu, one of Nelson Mandela's earliest political mentors and his closest collaborator for half a century in the campaign against South Africa's racist political order, died yesterday in Johannesburg. He was 90.

Mr. Sisulu's political career was less celebrated than Mr. Mandela's but not much less remarkable. Alongside Mr. Mandela he rejuvenated and led the African National Congress, twice stood trial on capital charges for his activities, served 26 years in prison and still emerged deeply devoted to reconciliation...

...While Mr. Mandela was the public face of the African National Congress, by his own account he rarely acted without first consulting Mr. Sisulu...

...Walter Max Ulyate Sisulu was born into a peasant family in 1912 — the year the African National Congress was founded — in the Transkei, a former British protectorate in the south that was also Mr. Mandela's family home. Like many Africans of his generation, he was not sure of his birth date, although last year his 90th birthday was celebrated publicly on May 18.

He was of mixed race, but in his youth he identified fiercely with the Xhosa, and like Mr. Mandela he was for a time a devoted black nationalist. He studied at an Anglican missionary institute, but quit at age 15 and went to work in a Johannesburg dairy to help support his family. Over the years he labored as a gold miner, a domestic servant, a baker and a factory worker.

After being fired by several employers for trying to organize workers, he opened a real estate office in Johannesburg, helping blacks buy and sell property in the years before they lost that right under apartheid, the laws of strict racial segregation.

More important, he became the regional leader of the African National Congress in Johannesburg and the surrounding black townships. When Mr. Mandela arrived in Johannesburg in 1941, he was referred to Mr. Sisulu, described as a person of connections...

..."I had no hesitation, the moment I met him, that this is the man I need," Mr. Sisulu said in an interview shortly after the elections. Needed for what? "For leading the African people."

Mr. Sisulu's house in the Orlando section in Soweto was the social and political crossroads of the budding liberation struggle. He helped Mr. Mandela through law school, introduced him to his first wife (a Sisulu cousin) and brought him into the African National Congress.

Impatient with the seeming impotence of the liberation movement, Mr. Mandela and Mr. Sisulu joined with Oliver Tambo to create a youth league as a more militant wing of the organization.

Five years after organizing the youth league, the young rebels engineered a coup and took charge of the African National Congress. In the ensuing decades, they would be the congress's governing triumvirate — Mr. Mandela the articulate symbol of the struggle, Mr. Tambo (who died in 1993) the leader who kept the organization together in exile and Mr. Sisulu the behind-the-scenes counselor...

...When the congress set up a military wing to harass the apartheid state, Mr. Sisulu was part of its three-man high command.

With Mr. Mandela and 154 others, Mr. Sisulu stood trial for treason. The defendants were acquitted in 1961, but the top leaders of the resistance were arrested again in 1963 at a farm hideout in Rivonia, near Johannesburg, and convicted of conspiring to overthrow the state. Although the government demanded the death penalty, the men were sentenced to life in prison.

Mr. Sisulu was set free in October 1989, a precursor to Mr. Mandela's release four months later...

...Mr. Sisulu emerged from prison as lacking in vengefulness as Mr. Mandela, and filled with optimism. He said the nonracial philosophy of the African National Congress had trained them not to demonize their enemies.

"Bitterness does not do your cause any good," Mr. Sisulu said. "That doesn't mean you don't get angry. But you don't let it get in the way of your policy."

(I'm putting in such a long excerpt because the NY Times has a crappy new policy of making all their pages inaccessible after a week or so.)

The N word (which I will henceforth refer to as "Ninja", in the tradition of Sacha Jenkins) is a hot news item today. First I saw this strange tale of a Florida radio host who thinks calling Black people "Ninjas" is no different than calling Republicans "right wingers":

Using n-word endangers talk host's diversity role

A national debate over use of the ''n-word'' has barreled into Broward County, and threatens to knock a local radio personality out of his appointed spot on the School Board's Diversity Committee.

Several leaders are calling for conservative radio talk show host Steve Kane to be removed from the committee, following a debate last week on affirmative action at Deerfield Beach High School. Before dozens of students, Kane used the racial slur several times, even after he was asked to refrain.

Doing little to douse the controversy, Kane has defended his use of the word. He argues that he was attempting to demystify the term because arbiters of political correctness have made its mention taboo. He compared calling someone by that name to labeling a person with a conservative viewpoint a "right winger.''

''I didn't use it as an epithet,'' Kane said. "I used it as an example of a pejorative word. There was nothing wrong with my use of it, though I concede it's politically incorrect to use it in any context. But quite frankly, I'm not politically correct...''

"We have now reached the point where every goon with a grievance, every bitter bigot, merely has to place the prefix, 'I know this is not politically correct, but...' in front of the usual string of insults in order to be not just safe from criticism, but actually a card, a lad, even a hero. Conversely, to talk about poverty and inequality, to draw attention to the reality that discrimination and injustice are still facts of life, is to commit the sin of political correctness. Anti-PC has become the latest cover for creeps. It is a godsend for every curmudgeon and crank, from fascists to the merely smug." ---Finian O`Toole, The Irish Times, 5 May 1994

Anyway soon after reading that piece I made another Ninja sighting in the campus paper of California State University Chico:

'America's most loaded word' finds its way to class

Tupac used it. Chris Rock uses it. But what about Chico students? Is it ever OK to say [ninja]?

In his four years at Chico State University, there is one night De'Aunta Richmond will never forget. It was a Saturday night. It was the night he got chased down an alley.

It was the night he was first called a [ninja].

Richmond grew up about 10 minutes outside of Berkeley and moved to Chico in August 1999. Two nights before classes started, Richmond went to visit his cousin in his apartment on West Fourth Avenue.

He started walking back to his Mechoopda Hall dorm room around 11 p.m. On his way, he passed by a young woman stumbling through the street. She was white and obviously drunk.

Richmond put his arm around her waist and helped her to the side of the road. When they reached the safety of the sidewalk, they were standing directly under a street light.

Four white men watched from the porch of a nearby house. "Do you see that [ninja] with that white girl?" one of them yelled. Richmond couldn't believe they'd be talking about him.

"The first time you're called that you have to step back and think about it," Richmond said. "I didn't have time to think because I knew they were coming for me."

The men jumped off the porch and chased Richmond down a side road for more than two blocks. He arrived back in his room out of breath, in tears and desperately wanting to leave Chico.

It was the first time he'd ever been called a [ninja], but it wouldn't be the last...

It is truly amazing, and appalling, that the Rockefeller drug laws are still on the books. This is certainly a more worthy cause to rally behind than whether Ludacris gets to be in a Pepsi commercial:

Coalition Wants New York Drug Law Repealed

Politicians, civil rights groups and rappers on Thursday demanded the repeal of laws in New York that impose mandatory stiff prison terms for possession or sales of small amounts of illegal drugs.

'It makes no sense to keep drug offenders behind bars when the state has an $11 billion deficit,' former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo said at an event to mark the 30th anniversary of the enactment of the drug laws.

Cuomo, who sought the Democratic nomination for governor in the last election, said it costs taxpayers $610 million a year to hold some 22,000 non-violent drug offenders in prison.

Known as the 'Rockefeller' drug laws, they were enacted in 1973 when Nelson Rockefeller, a Republican, was governor. In general, the laws require judges to impose a sentence of 15 years to life in prison for anyone convicted of selling two ounces, or possessing four ounces, of an illegal narcotic such as cocaine or heroin.

Critics of the laws say many of those convicted would be better off in rehabilitation facilities -- an option they say is cheaper and more productive than prison.

'We want to create an awareness campaign so that people know that the law has to be repealed,' said Russell Simmons, chairman of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network...

EDIT: Here is a report with more details on the hip-hop angle.

The FCC done up and done it:

Lawmakers Blast FCC Media Ownership Rule

Within minutes of the FCC decision Monday to let companies increase their media holdings in single markets, lawmakers began blasting the decision.

"The decision today by the [FCC] is a blow to diversity, competition and the public having access to multiple sources of information," Reps. Ciro Rodriguez, D-Texas, chairman of Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Elijah Cummings, D-Md., chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus and David Wu, D-Ore., chairman of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, said in a written statement.

"We are extremely concerned that these new changes will significantly undermine current FCC rules that were intended to promote minority participation, and preserve multiple media voices and opinions in the electronic and print media industries," they said.

On the floor of the Senate, Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., called the decision "dumb and dangerous," and warned it will result in "an orgy" of mergers and acquisitions. He said the new rules will mean less diversity and will result in a system with many stations, but just "one ventriloquist."

The FCC voted 3-2 on party lines to update the rules on media ownership. The new rules allow the broadcast networks to own television stations that reach a combined 45 percent of the national audience, up from 35 percent, and lift a ban that prevents a company from owning both a newspaper and a television or radio station -- except in the smallest markets...

Interestingly, Clear Channel was also critical of the decision, which was not sufficiently evil to satisfy their demonic urges:

Clear Channel critical of FCC decision

...Clear Channel President and Chief Operating Officer Mark Mays charged the FCC with "missing the mark" in its efforts to act in the public interest.

"This FCC action will extinguish the substantial consumer benefits brought on by radio deregulation in 1996," Mays says. "Unfortunately, the FCC chose politics over the public interest, and American consumers will be the ultimate victims."

San Antonio-based Clear Channel, the nation's largest radio company which grew from about 40 radio stations in 1995 to more than 1,200 today, has argued that deregulation helped to save the struggling radio industry.

"Just 10 years ago, nearly 60 percent of the nation's radio stations were operating in the red, cutting news budgets and laying off employees," Mays says. "Deregulation changed all that. But instead of letting radio stations find better and more innovative ways to serve their listeners, the FCC is intent on turning the clock back to a time when the industry was incapable of providing consumers the variety of programming it does today..."

Don't you love the spin these guys put on it? And note this article's chilling last sentence:

Clear Channel operates eight radio stations in the Dayton market.

My high school English teacher would call that "foreshadowing".

You've surely read by now that the Supreme Court delivered a split decision today on Affirmative Action. So is this cup half-full or half-empty? Atrios isn't feeling very positive:

...Yes, the Supremes upheld race-based criteria in college admissions in Grutter v. Bollinger, but just as with the relentless whittling away at Roe v. Wade, this is a strategy of death by a thousand cuts. With Gratz, Rehnquist continues his life's work hamstringing minority advancement, and validates all over again Chris Rock's mordant observation: "There ain't a white person in this room who would trade places with me--and I'm rich."

I just need them to make one of these in Portuquese for when I go to Brazil:

American Traveler International Apology Shirt

I was preparing for an international trip, and I thought, "what can I do tell as many people as possible in other countries that many Americans vehemently disagree with the policies of our own government?" So I made this shirt, and various wonderful people translated it into all of the official UN languages, Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Spanish, and Russian...

In, uhh, Alabama.

Army Depot Starts Destroying Chemical Weapons

Aug. 11 - The U.S. Army plans to destroy as many as eight chemical weapons on Monday.

The Army Depot in Anniston has the task of incinerating the Cold War era weapons.

This weekend, the facility destroyed at least two rockets, each containing enough Sarin gas to wipe out an entire city.

Although many protested the chemical destruction, the judge approved the process late last week.

Some Anniston residents didn't argue. They just got ready. Mike Wood said, "It's going to have to happen. It was going to happen sooner or later any way - we're pretty much prepared. We went ahead and got the safety stuff we needed."

In case of a leak, the Army handed out 16,000 free protective kits, which include gas masks.

So basically the message is: our enemies hate us because of our freedom, our freedom is what makes us different from our enemies, but please try not to actually exercise that freedom cuz it only makes our enemies stronger?

Rumsfeld: Critics Give Terrorists Hope

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said yesterday that critics of the Bush administration's Iraq policy are encouraging terrorists and complicating the ongoing U.S. war on terrorism.

"We know for a fact ... that terrorists studied Somalia and they studied instances where the United States was dealt a blow and tucked in and persuaded themselves they could, in fact, cause us to acquiesce in whatever it is they wanted us to do," he told reporters aboard his plane at the end of a four-day trip to Iraq and Afghanistan.

"The United States is not going to ... [acquiesce]. President Bush is not going to do that. Now, to the extent terrorists are given reason to believe he might, or if he is not willing to, the opponents might prevail in some way ... and they take heart in that, and that leads to more recruiting ... that leads to more encouragement, or that leads to more staying power. Obviously that does make it more difficult."

Rumsfeld made clear that he was talking about both the international press, such as reports on the Arab al-Jazeera television network, and critics in the United States...

Doesn't she know she's only helping the Enemy with comments like these??

Amanpour: CNN practiced self-censorship

the press muzzled itself during the Iraq war. And, she says CNN "was intimidated" by the Bush administration and Fox News, which "put a climate of fear and self-censorship."
As criticism of the war and its aftermath intensifies, Amanpour joins a chorus of journalists and pundits who charge that the media largely toed the Bush administrationline in covering the war and, by doing so, failed to aggressively question the motives behind the invasion.

On last week's Topic A With Tina Brown on CNBC, Brown, the former Talk magazine editor, asked comedian Al Franken, former Pentagon spokeswoman Torie Clarke and Amanpour if "we in the media, as much as in the administration, drank the Kool-Aid when it came to the war."

Said Amanpour: "I think the press was muzzled, and I think the press self-muzzled. I'm sorry to say, but certainly television and, perhaps, to a certain extent, my station was intimidated by the administration and its foot soldiers at Fox News. And it did, in fact, put a climate of fear and self-censorship, in my view, in terms of the kind of broadcast work we did."

Brown then asked Amanpour if there was any story during the war that she couldn't report.

"It's not a question of couldn't do it, it's a question of tone," Amanpour said. "It's a question of being rigorous. It's really a question of really asking the questions. All of the entire body politic in my view, whether it's the administration, the intelligence, the journalists, whoever, did not ask enough questions, for instance, about weapons of mass destruction. I mean, it looks like this was disinformation at the highest levels..."

Christine, there are people all around the world who hate us for our freedoms, and going around demanding a free press only makes them stronger!

Can any of you Brits out there in blogville shed light on this business here?

Too many blacks on TV, says Ludovic Kennedy

Former BBC presenter and champion of liberal causes Sir Ludovic Kennedy has denounced the increasing number of black faces appearing on television programmes as "political correctness [that] has got completely out of hand".

Sir Ludovic said he was "all in favour of black advancement", but claimed ethnic minorities were over-represented on TV and this was an "imbalance" that should be "readjusted".

The comments by the former presenter of Did You See?, which are bound to provoke controversy, were made in a review of former BBC executive Will Wyatt's autobiography, The Fun Factory: a Life in the BBC, for the latest edition of The Oldie magazine.

"I'd like to take issue with Will when he says it was his aim to bring more blacks to the screen, in which it seems he has more than succeeded. I am all in favour of black advancement, but there's now hardly a TV pub, police station, soap, vox pop or ad without rather more than its fair share of black participation," Sir Ludovic wrote.

"The Statistical Office tells me that the proportion of all ethnic groups (blacks, Indians, Pakistanis, Asians) to whites in this country is no more than 7.5%. Political correctness has got completely out of hand and now requires that the imbalance be readjusted," he added.

But Sir Ludovic's criticism was dismissed by a BBC spokesman, who said the corporation was not in the business of "playing 'politically correct' numbers games".

So all us New Yorkers can laugh at your dumb asses!

In fact, in honor of the National Review blogger's idiotic threat to sue Atrios, I will not only call Luskin a stalker, I will now call everyone a stalker in the header of all my posts. Maybe some other idiot will try to sue me too! I'd love some free publicity from people who hate free speech.

Charles Reina, who worked there as a producer for six years, tells the real story about Fox News and how "fair and balanced" they are:

"The Memo" is the bible at Fox News

...The fact is, daily life at FNC is all about management politics. I say this having served six years there - as producer of the media criticism show, News Watch, as a writer/producer of specials and (for the last year of my stay) as a newsroom copy editor. Not once in the 20+ years I had worked in broadcast journalism prior to Fox - including lengthy stays at The Associated Press, CBS Radio and ABC/Good Morning America - did I feel any pressure to toe a management line. But at Fox, if my boss wasn't warning me to "be careful" how I handled the writing of a special about Ronald Reagan ("You know how Roger [Fox News Chairman Ailes] feels about him."), he was telling me how the environmental special I was to produce should lean ("You can give both sides, but make sure the pro-environmentalists don't get the last word.")

Editorially, the FNC newsroom is under the constant control and vigilance of management. The pressure ranges from subtle to direct. First of all, it's a news network run by one of the most high-profile political operatives of recent times. Everyone there understands that FNC is, to a large extent, "Roger's Revenge" - against what he considers a liberal, pro-Democrat media establishment that has shunned him for decades. For the staffers, many of whom are too young to have come up through the ranks of objective journalism, and all of whom are non-union, with no protections regarding what they can be made to do, there is undue motivation to please the big boss.

Sometimes, this eagerness to serve Fox's ideological interests goes even beyond what management expects. For example, in June of last year, when a California judge ruled the Pledge of Allegiance's "Under God" wording unconstitutional, FNC's newsroom chief ordered the judge's mailing address and phone number put on the screen. The anchor, reading from the Teleprompter, found himself explaining that Fox was taking this unusual step so viewers could go directly to the judge and get "as much information as possible" about his decision. To their credit, the big bosses recognized that their underling's transparent attempt to serve their political interests might well threaten the judge's physical safety and ordered the offending information removed from the screen as soon as they saw it. A few months later, this same eager-to-please newsroom chief ordered the removal of a graphic quoting UN weapons inspector Hans Blix as saying his team had not yet found WMDs in Iraq. Fortunately, the electronic equipment was quicker on the uptake (and less susceptible to office politics) than the toady and displayed the graphic before his order could be obeyed.

But the roots of FNC's day-to-day on-air bias are actual and direct. They come in the form of an executive memo distributed electronically each morning, addressing what stories will be covered and, often, suggesting how they should be covered. To the newsroom personnel responsible for the channel's daytime programming, The Memo is the bible. If, on any given day, you notice that the Fox anchors seem to be trying to drive a particular point home, you can bet The Memo is behind it...

Hold up, you mean Matthew McConaughey was driving that ferry!?

No wonder they crashed, you know he stays weeded.

The authorized biography of Jessica Lynch hits bookstores next week, and is getting lots of press right now for offering medical evidence that she was sexually assaulted by Iraqi soldiers. It is horrifying to hear that this happened to her, and I'm also kinda iffy about the way it's being latched onto by the media, it seems a little exploitative. Like the assault is getting milked by the book's publicists as the cornerstone of their marketing strategy.

Also noteworthy is the end of AP's story, where we find an interesting little bio of the author, former NY Times reporter Rick Bragg:

He resigned from the Times in May after the newspaper suspended him over a story that carried his byline but was reported largely by a freelancer.

For anyone who wondered if this book might bend some truths in the name of propaganda, that little tidbit sure tastes funny.

As my friend pointed out in her journal, Jessica Lynch is not the only female soldier who made the evening news for surviving a violent capture in Iraq. But the other one is getting very different treatment from the media and the government. Gee I wonder why that would be?

Ex-POWs' treatment seems unfair to many

Sunday, NBC will air its made-for-TV movie celebrating Pfc. Jessica Lynch, whose capture and dramatic rescue is the feel-good story of America's war with Iraq.

But some African-Americans don't feel so good about Lynch's story. Instead, they ask: What about Shoshana Johnson?

Johnson, an Army specialist, belonged to the same 507th Maintenance Company as Lynch. Unlike Lynch, Johnson fought to stave off their Iraqi captors. Like Lynch, she sustained serious injuries.

But only Lynch got the headlines, the TV movie, the prime-time television interviews and a biography penned by a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer. Lynch, in short, got the full American celebrity treatment, while Johnson largely got ignored. Many African-Americans think that's simply because she didn't have the right ``face.''

African-American suspicions of a racial double standard were reinforced last month when it was revealed that Johnson, who was shot in both ankles, will get only 30 percent of her monthly pay in disability benefits. Lynch, who had a head injury and broken bones in her right arm, right leg, thighs and ankle, will get 80 percent disability pay. Lynch's new book, "I Am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story,'' says she also was raped by her Iraqi captors.

"Shoshana is getting the shaft, and people are outraged about it,'' said Mary Mason, a Philadelphia talk-radio host whose show was bombarded with callers complaining about the disparity in treatment. ``It's ridiculous, and complete racism...''

I don't think race is the only issue here, but there are a number factors and race is certainly one.

Looks like CNN had some funny business going on at their last debate:

CNN planted question at debate, student says

CNN planted a question about computer preferences at last week's debate of the Democratic presidential candidates at Faneuil Hall in Boston, according to the student who posed the query and wrote about it yesterday in an online forum of the Brown (University) Daily Herald. During the debate, cosponsored by the nonprofit Rock the Vote organization, Alexandra Trustman asked the candidates whether they preferred the PC or Mac format for their computers.

Trustman wrote yesterday that she was called the morning of the debate and given the topic of the question the CNN producers wanted her to ask. She wrote that she was "confused by the question's relevance" and constructed what she thought was a "much more relevant" question.

But when she arrived in Boston for the debate, she wrote, she was "handed a note card" with the question and told she couldn't ask her alternative "because it wasn't lighthearted enough and they wanted to modulate the event with various types of questions."

CNN did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

(jacked from atrios, who also used a Simpsons reference for his title)

London can't get the stink out.. Dubya's been hangin round for days:

Radiohead Frontman Protests Bush Visit To London

Radiohead vocalist Thom Yorke is at the forefront of protests surrounding President George Bush's visit to London this week, with Yorke calling Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair "liars," according to NME.com. The singer emailed NME after learning that London police were planning to create a three-mile "exclusion zone" to keep protesters away from Bush, because of concerns over alleged threats of terror attacks against the American leader.

When asked why he chose to speak out, Yorke said, "To make Blair squirm over his decision to take us into a illegitimate war (in Iraq) and follow this religious lunatic (Bush) toward a dangerous future for the whole planet...both of these men are liars. We have the right to call them such, they are putting our children's future in jeopardy. They are not controlling the terrorist threat, they are escalating it."

Yorke said he was enraged that authorities were using "the threat of terrorism to suppress whatever they choose, intimidate and arrest whoever they wish..."

I don't wanna throw the word Cointelpro around too loosely, but here is something to keep an eye on:

FBI scrutinizing anti-war protesters

The FBI has collected extensive information on the tactics, training and organization of antiwar demonstrators and has advised local law enforcement officials to report any suspicious activity at protests to its counterterrorism squads, according to interviews and a confidential bureau memorandum.

The memorandum, which the bureau sent to local law enforcement agencies last month in advance of antiwar demonstrations in Washington and San Francisco, detailed how protesters have sometimes used "training camps" to rehearse for demonstrations, the Internet to raise money, and gas masks to defend against tear gas. The memorandum analyzed lawful activities such as recruiting demonstrators, as well as illegal activities such as using fake documentation to get into a secured site.

FBI officials said in interviews that the intelligence-gathering effort was aimed at identifying anarchists and "extremist elements" plotting violence, not at monitoring the political speech of law-abiding protesters...

...Civil rights advocates have complained for months that federal officials have surreptitiously sought to suppress the First Amendment rights of antiwar demonstrators.

Critics of the Bush administration's Iraq policy, for instance, have sued the government to learn how their names ended up on a "no fly" list used to stop suspected terrorists from boarding planes. And the New York Police Department this year questioned many of those arrested at demonstrations about their political affiliations, before halting the practice and expunging the data in the face of public criticism.

The FBI memorandum, however, appears to offer the first corroboration of a coordinated nationwide effort to collect intelligence regarding demonstrations...

...The memorandum also discussed "innovative strategies" used by demonstrators, like the videotaping of arrests as a means of "intimidation" against the police. And it noted that protesters "often use the Internet to recruit, raise funds and coordinate their activities prior to demonstrations..."

Umm, videotaping as a means of "intimidation"? That's quite a spin.

Just another post about the wrong path:

Participant at KKK Initiation Wounded After Shots Are Fired Into Sky

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (AP) - A bullet fired in the air during a Ku Klux Klan initiation ceremony came down and struck a participant in the head, critically injuring him, authorities said.
Gregory Allen Freeman, 45, was charged with aggravated assault and reckless endangerment in the Saturday night incident that wounded Jeffery S. Murr, 24.

About 10 people, including two children, had gathered for the ceremony. The man who was being initiated was blindfolded, tied with a noose to a tree and shot with paintball guns as Freeman fired a pistol in the air to provide the sound of real gunfire, Sheriff Fred Phillips said.

A bullet struck Murr on the top of the head and exited at the bottom of his skull, authorities said.

Freeman fled the ceremony but was arrested near his home, authorities said. He was released on $7,500 bail.

(via atrios)

Buy Nothing Day is undoubtedly more worthwhile than the Misgivings Day that precedes it. It's a clever angle, sure to get some press in the slow holiday news week. But like most "culture jamming", it strikes me as more clever than constructive.

I've never been a big fan of Kalle Lasn and his adbusters/culture jamming "movement". Their stunts are always witty and ironic, but they offer no depth of analysis, and no tangible goal besides encouraging distrust of advertising and mass media. That's cool as a means to an end. But as an end in itself it is flimsy. Culture jamming rightfully urges us to reject the ideas that drive our consumer culture, but it offers no ideas of its own in their place, so it is ultimately empty.

Basically it's like:

"Hey everybody, don't listen to their message, listen to our message!"
Okay, what's your message?
"Our message is... don't buy into their message!"

But that's really not a message at all, and with no constructive agenda of its own your movement is not a movement at all.

It is based entirely on reacting to the mainstream, and that means you'll never be able to destroy or replace the mainstream, because you have made yourself a slave to it. The most you'll ever be is an activist version of Weird Al Yankovic, a moon that reflects the pop-culture sun but produces no light of its own.

I call it Fast Food Activism. It is ready-made for young folks who want that immediate satisfaction of feeling cool and rebellious, getting a moment in the spotlight and sticking it to the man in a quick bold stroke. But real social movements rarely achieve their goals with quick bold strokes. They usually involve a lifetime of study and struggle, with precious few opportunities to look cool or bask in the spotlight. And most importantly, real social movements are usually driven by an actual cause of some sort. Without that, it's basically just masturbation.

Ralph, listen. I'm not mad at you. You were never my ideal candidate but you were much closer than the other two guys, and I voted for you in 2000, here in NY where Gore was a shoo-in. If I lived in Florida I would likely have made a different choice, but I won't judge anyone who did vote for you down there. A citizen has every right to save their vote for someone who truly represents their beliefs, regardless of how it pans out from a cynical, strategic standpoint. And I've always been a little offended by this idea that Nader "stole votes" from Gore, as if the left's votes belong to him by some divine right, even though it was Gore and his DLC crew who led the Dems in fleeing from the left and abandoning whatever progressive principles they had represented. If we keep acting like the Democrats own our vote instead of showing them they need to earn it, there's no incentive for them to stop treating us like dirt.

So I'm not mad at you Ralph. But listen man, you gotta know when to hold'em and when to fold'em, and in this election you should really think about sticking to the sidelines. I know this is probably hard to accept, but you are just not a popular guy right now. Justified or not, a lot of people bear a lot of resentment for your "spoiler" role in 2000. The desire to inject new ideas into the debate is always worthwhile, but whatever message you brought to the table right now could be obscured beyond recognition by having you as the messenger. Basically, as they used to say on okayplayer, NGCCOT.*

I just heard you on Democracy Now, responding to a supporter who implored you not to run this time.. and pardon my Kerry-mouth, but you sounded like an asshole. Suggesting that anyone who says you shouldn't run is attempting to curtail your freedom of speech is a cheap, disingenuous tactic. I'm used to getting the "criticism=censorship" dodge from conservatives, but it's very disappointing to hear it coming from you. I'd think you are smarter than that, and I'd hope you know we are too.

Nobody is questioning whether you have a right to run, the question is whether this campaign, at this moment, would be in the best interests of the constituencies you seek to represent. You say you will be holding meetings and such to determine whether running this year is the wisest move, and I hope cooler heads prevail in that process. Cuz I don't like what I'm hearing so far.

--------

Ralph Nader's website is asking for our advice on whether he should run next year. If anybody agrees with what I was saying before, let's head over there and let him know.

Considering that the site does not show us the results of the poll, and he has a disclaimer on the front page about ignoring "orchestrated campaigns", he may well be planning to follow his ego no matter what we tell him. But it's worth a shot.

EDIT: In the interest of fairness, here is a Wall Street Journal interview posted by Daily KOS, where Nader seems to indicate he will not run if Dean gets the nod:

For all the gloominess Democrats may harbor about Howard Dean's chances in the general election, here's a bit of good news: Ralph Nader, whose third-party candidacy cost Al Gore the presidency in 2000, seems unlikely to mount a run against the former Vermont governor.

Mr. Nader says he will decide in the next few weeks whether to run. But in the meantime, his praise of Mr. Dean undercuts any rationale for another independent candidacy.

"Reading his position papers sounds eerily similar to what we've been saying," the longtime consumer advocate notes in an interview with the Online Journal this week. "He speaks clearly ... not in Senate-ese ... and projects vigor. We need a macho Democrat." The front-running Democratic candidate, Mr. Nader says, has an impressive "rope-a-dope ability."

There are caveats. "Dean's record as governor is nothing to shout about," Mr. Nader says, noting that his preference would be Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich.

But Mr. Nader waxes on about how preferable Mr. Dean is to President Bush. In 2000 the consumer advocate suggested there was little difference between candidates Al Gore and Mr. Bush.

"Unlike most of the other candidates," Mr. Nader says, the Vermont governor "is not compromised by votes for the Patriot Act or for the Iraqi war resolution."

I guess I'm just naive, but it truly shocks me that right-wingers are shameless enough (as documented by atrios) to make an issue of the fact that Howard Dean's wife and kids are Jewish.

Recently a rumor spread through blogville (I read it in Pandagon) that presidential candidate Howard Dean had a brief career as an actor, appearing as a police officer in the 1984 b-movie "Ninja III: The Domination".

Apparently IMDB corroborates this claim, but is it really possible that is the same Howard Dean? And who is the loser that actually owns a copy of this movie, and will sit through the whole thing to find out if this is true?

Ladies and gentlemen, I am that loser.

I'm sorry to report that I have now sat through "Ninja III: The Domination" in its entirety (believe me I'm REALLY SORRY to report that), and I did not see Governor Howard Dean. There are probably over 100 police officers in this film, each of whom eventually gets their ass kicked by a ninja, so maybe I just didn't recognize him because a shuriken was embedded in his face. But I'm guessing it's a different Dean.

And just so you can appreciate how much I suffer for my blog peoples, here's a little sample of the dialogue and music I subjected myself to.

(If you're asking why I had ever purchased this tape in the first place: Dude, it stars Lucinda Dickey from "Breakin". And it has ninjas in it. Ninjas... killing cops! How can you expect me to pass that by in the $3.99 bin at Record Explosion?)

Jason Schultz of the EFF, whose words were the subject of scrutiny here a few days ago, has stopped by our humble abode to offer an explanation:

Hi. This is Jason Schultz from the EFF, who was MISquoted in the article. I saw your post here and wanted to make sure I clarified what happened. When I talked to the reporter, I had no idea that the article was going to be about the RIAA holding quasi-legal, racist raids. I thought it was merely another article about the RIAA sending out its investigators to collect info on CD bootleggers and then turn it over to the real police to do an investigation. I was shocked, just like many of you, when I saw the article and learned the real story. Make no mistake, the EFF is entirely committed to preserving all our civil liberties and would never endorse the kind of vigilante tactics the RIAA is using in its street raids.

If you're interested in reading more of my take on this mishap, I have posted a longer reaction on my blog here if you want to read it. Please feel free to share this response and my blogged response with any others who might be concerned.

Thanks,
Jason

Okay, that makes a little more sense. *whew*

My peoples at Rise Up Radio would like you to know about this event next week:

Kayhan Irani in We've Come Undone

WHEN: Tuesday, January 20th, 2004 at 7:00 PM
WHERE: 525 West 120th Street (take the 1/9 to 116th or 125th)
Milbank Chapel @ Teachers College, Columbia University
COST: $5

Join us on January 20th at 7pm for We've Come Undone, a series of
monologues created and performed by NYC artivist Kayhan Irani.
We've Come Undone is an often humorous, sometimes touching - but
always provocative - look at the impact of recent legislation on
Arab, Muslim and South Asian communities within the U.S. Using
research and personal interviews, the monologues portray women and
girls struggling to make sense of life in an America caught in the
grip of distrust.

In the second half of We've Come Undone, the audience will discuss
the issues raised in the monologues. Volunteers will be invited to
engage in interactive theater.

Kayhan Irani created We've Come Undone out of a sincere desire to
open communication "post 9/11" - a term so overused it has perhaps
been rendered meaningless. Precisely because there are so few
channels to facilitate the exploration of these doubts and fears
communally, Kayhan finds joy in creating a safe space for open
dialogue and interaction among various communities and individuals,
and provide more than the one-dimensional, narrow depictions
offered up by our mass media.

For event info, contact Leanne at lms75@columbia.edu. For more
info about Kayhan: http://www.thehousethatwebuilt.com/kayhan.htm.

This event is sponsored by the TC Cultural Studies Department and
Students Promoting Empowerment and Knowledge (SPEaK) at Columbia
University.

Last year President Bush went on at great length about how Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. But this year, in a splendid creative flourish, he tells us instead that Iraq had "weapons of mass-destruction-related program activities." What a magnificent jumble of words that is!

Okay, sure, Dean's Iowa speech was rather comical. But are people seriously going to change their vote because the guy looks geeky on TV once in a while? That clip tells us nothing whatsoever about his ability to serve.

Besides, Dean is just like any other emcee, his only problem is he needs the right beat behind him. That speech is already spawning more remixes than Jay-Z's Black Album, but I think this one gets it just right:

Howard Dean "Through The Io-wire" - Soulkhansenses remix

See? Just put a little Kanye behind him and Dean's Dukakis-Tank-Helmet moment becomes the hip-hop anthem of the year!

The Library of Congress just debuted an incredible online archive of interviews with former slaves. Likely to be the best mp3s you download all year:

Voices From The Days of Slavery: Former Slaves Tell Their Stories

Voices from the Days of Slavery: Former Slaves Tell Their Stories provides the opportunity to listen to former slaves describe their lives. These interviews, conducted between 1932 and 1975, capture the recollections of twenty-three identifiable people born between 1823 and the early 1860s and known to have been former slaves. Several of the people interviewed were centenarians, the oldest being 130 at the time of the interview. The almost seven hours of recordings were made in nine Southern states and provide an important glimpse of what life was like for slaves and freedmen. The former slaves discuss how they felt about slavery, slaveholders, how slaves were coerced, their families, and, of course, freedom. It is important to keep in mind, however, that all of those interviewed spoke sixty or more years after the end of their enslavement, and it is their full lives, rather than their lives during slavery, that are reflected in their words. They have much to say about living as African Americans from the 1870s to the 1930s, and beyond. As part of their testimony, several of the ex-slaves sing songs, many of which were learned during the time of their enslavement.

My friend Jeremy Scahill (well, i met him once) over at Democracy Now ran a Frank Pembleton caliber interrogation on Wesley Clark yesterday:

DEMOCRACY NOW! Confronts Wesley Clark Over His Bombing Of Civilians, Use Of Cluster Bombs And Depleted Uranium And The Bombing Of Serb Television

In a Democracy Now! exclusive, General Wesley Clark responds for the first time to in-depth questions about his targeting of civilian infrastructure in Yugoslavia, his bombing of Radio Television Serbia, the use of cluster bombs and depleted uranium, the speeding-up of the cockpit video of a bombing of a passenger train to make it appear as though it was an accident and other decisions he made and orders he gave as NATO's Supreme Allied Commander...

Just in case anyone missed it, here is President Bush's tribute to Chris Rock's classic "can I get one rib?" routine (real White House press release, not a joke):

Remarks by the President to the Press Pool

Nothin' Fancy Cafe
Roswell, New Mexico

11:25 A.M. MST

THE PRESIDENT: I need some ribs.

Q Mr. President, how are you?

THE PRESIDENT: I'm hungry and I'm going to order some ribs.

Q What would you like?

THE PRESIDENT: Whatever you think I'd like.

Q Sir, on homeland security, critics would say you simply haven't spent enough to keep the country secure.

THE PRESIDENT: My job is to secure the homeland and that's exactly what we're going to do. But I'm here to take somebody's order. That would be you, Stretch -- what would you like? Put some of your high-priced money right here to try to help the local economy. You get paid a lot of money, you ought to be buying some food here. It's part of how the economy grows. You've got plenty of money in your pocket, and when you spend it, it drives the economy forward. So what would you like to eat?

Q Right behind you, whatever you order.

THE PRESIDENT: I'm ordering ribs. David, do you need a rib?

Q But Mr. President...

1. Is Dean Over?

2. Can Kerry win against G-Dub?

What do y'all think? I'm a little worried myself. Dean shaking up his campaign staff has the feel of desperation, and choosing the guy from Gore 2000 as his new head guy doesn't seem too promising. It's obvious the Democrat establishment is vehemently opposed to a Dean nomination, so he can't afford many more missteps if he's gonna come back. Seems like a longshot no matter what.

But I don't get why people think Kerry is so much more electable. He always looks really stiff and sour to me, I'm afraid he'd be the latest in a long run of Democrat nominees (except Clinton) who were just not ready for prime-time, and never had a shot. I don't get how anyone compares this dude to Kennedy.

Judging strictly on charisma and likability, here's who I think would play best, in order:

1. Edwards
2. Clark
3. Dean
4. Kerry

But that is the exact reverse order of who is most likely to get the nod.

Can somebody cheer me up?

Also appreciated in the Voice: Mr. Matos' reply to Richard Goldstein, whose writing I often have issues with. I'm always down with his efforts to shed light on America's prejudices, but I find his blows for the cause too often weakened by shaky reasoning and oversimplification.

For example, in this critique of Eminem, he starts out with a quite plausible premise:

"Richard Wagner was a great artist, but he was also an anti-Semite, and most assessments of his genius address this fact. The Birth of a Nation is a great film, but no appreciation can ignore its racism. No one dismisses such discussions as politically correct. But when it comes to art that is profoundly, even violently, sexist or homophobic, a different standard applies. Any attempt to confront the social meaning of such work is met with stiff—and I do mean stiff—resistance..."

Fair enough. But then he starts hitting us with some shaky and seemingly random assumptions. Like, where does he get the idea that Em was forced to curtail his gay-bashing as a side-effect of the "war on terror"?

And the more he writes, the more Goldstein sounds opposed to the very sort of nuanced discussion he called for above. The bulk of this piece takes offense at anyone who does acknowledge that Eminem is both a valuable artist and a bigot:

"The real dissenters are the activists who've been pummeled for failing to see the complexity and originality of this bleach-blond Baudelaire. As a former rock critic, I know how easy it is to throw the word genius around. In this case, however, it's not about a lack of standards. It's about using the imprimatur of art to avoid looking your pleasure in the eye..."

His stance seems to be that anyone who calls Eminem a valuable artist is simply in denial about Em's bigotry, and their unexamined enjoyment of his bigotry is the only reason they find value in him. This is a long way from where we started out, and he lost me about halfway through the trip.

All too often that's how his pieces read for me: a worthy premise backed up by a muddle of broad generalizations, each with some truth to them but overstated and under-supported, adding up to less than the sum of their parts rather than building a solid argument.

It's frustrating because I'm totally sympathetic with the principles he's trying to represent, and rooting for him to prove his case, but end up feeling he's overplayed his hand. And it's a delicate situation cuz I don't want to be like the guys who got so caught up in parsing the minutiae of the NY Times sex-slaves piece that they came across as callously dismissive of the undeniable fact that young women are being horrifically exploited just as the piece describes, somewhere at this very moment.

But getting too sloppy in search of the truth can render truth obscured. I usually think Goldstein's columns have an underlying message that needs to be heard, but he makes it too easy for readers who need that kernel of truth to use the flaws surrounding it as an excuse to toss out the whole package, and retreat back into the comfort of their prejudices.

Our friends at American Black agree with John Lee that Gawker and Wonkette are unfunny. We can agree to disagree on that, cuz obviously humor is totally subjective. But the thing is, John didn't just accuse them of being unfunny, he accused them of being racist, and the "proof" he offered did nothing whatsoever to support his charge.

Humor should never be judged only by which topic it addresses, but on how it approaches that topic. If someone makes a joke about race, or refers to a racism in a joke, the first question you need to ask is "from what does the humor derive here? Are they invoking this racism to endorse it or to ridicule it? Does the humor rely on an assumption that the racist attitude is valid, or an assumption that it is bankrupt?" In each of the jokes highlighted by John Lee in his africana.com essay, I'd argue that racism is being skewered, not supported. I'll go through them one by one:

First Lee offers a quote from this Gawker post, made on MLK day, right before the pivotal Iowa Caucus:

Evidently there's some sort of national holiday today? Also some election thing is going on in Nebraska or Iowa or some flat state. I didn't really catch it.

Lee takes this remark at face value, interprets it as belittling MLK day and "denying the holiday even exists." But is that really what the joke is about? Gawker (AKA Choire Sicha) refers to the Iowa caucus, by far the most prominent news event of the week, and feigns total ignorance of it. The premise of the joke is that Gawker makes himself sound like an ignoramus. And by placing MLK day alongside the Iowa Caucus and feigning similar ignorance, Gawker implies that only an ignoramus would be oblivious to MLK day. He's not belittling the holiday, he is belittling those who don't respect it. It's an anti-racist joke.

Next Lee offers this Wonkette post, about a "strategy session" for celebrity Democrats where Russell Simmons raised a stink:

Russell Simmons: Bothering the White Folks Again Lloyd Grove reports on Wednesday night's Victory Campaign 2004: A bunch of liberal celebrities got together to bash Bush and showed PowerPoint presentations. Is there anything more politically inspiring? Way to excite the base, guys. Then hip-hop entrepreneur Russell Simmons harshed everyone's mellow, saying "The shit y'all doing is corny!" and "We are not included!" That's no way to get invited to the after-party, Russell. Can someone give him some "bling-bling" or whatever those people call it and tell him to be quiet?

Lee takes this as making fun of Russell, but it seemed obvious to me she was not speaking in her own voice in that last part, but mockingly adopting the voice of clueless white Democrats who have no idea how to relate to Russell. And sure enough, in Wonkette's post she offered this explanation:

UPDATE: A few readers have written to object to our use of the phrase "those people" as a way of alluding to young African-Americans. We would like to clarify: We intended that line to reflect the dubious nature of white liberals' knowledge of black culture. (Some people call this kind of thing a "joke," or perhaps "satire.") Had we been representing our own view, we would have said "uppity negroes." Now we've got to run or we'll be late for the cross burning.

We're kidding again. (Really!) But we worry about appearing racist. Maybe we should get feedback from a black friend... Will you be the one?

Now first of all, if that addendum was already in the post when John Lee wrote about it, he was dishonest not to include it. But even if it wasn't, it goes to show that his whole case is based on misinterpreting the humor. Once again he's using anti-racist jokes as evidence of racism.

Lee's final example is from a Gawker post surveying media coverage of Blacks in the early days of Black History Month:

Hey! It's Black History Month! And it's leap year, too, so we get a special extra day of blackness in the media. Here's an in-depth report that I like to call "Black History Month: What's Up With Black People These Days?"

[he cites a NY Times piece on trends in hip-hop fashion, and an item on the Russell Simmons incident]

...Well, looks like those are all the black people in the news today -- one presentation of a marketing scheme in the paper of record and one gossip item painting an incredibly successful (if highly annoying) businessman as a buffoon. Okay, we'll look for more black people tomorrow! Maybe Nicole Richie will slice someone up at fashion week.

So what is it that Lee was offended by here? He doesn't bother to tell us, and I'll be damned if I can figure it out. Gawker's point here, clearly, is that even in the middle of Black history Month mainstream news outlets don't cover many stories that relate to Black people, and the ones they do cover serve to trivialize or belittle their Black subjects.

Seems to me this evidence is about as convincing as Colin Powell's proof of WMDs last year. But Lee not only uses it to accuse Gawker and Wonkette of "casual racism", he has the nerve to equate them with the white supremacist National Vanguard, whose racism is far from casual. This comparison is patently ridiculous, and it was irresponsible for Africana.com to even publish it. They both owe Choire Sicha and Ana Marie Cox an apology.

With his complaints that Gawker and Wonkette "continually joke about non-whites as marginalized second-class citizens," Lee is branding them as racist simply because they persistently acknowledge that racism exists. I guess he'd prefer to see white folks stick with the age-old "color-blind" approach, pretending the elephant is not in the room?

Personally I've seen more than enough of that color-blindness, and it always seemed like plain old blindness to me. Call me crazy, but I think it's a good thing when white folks are aware of racism, and aren't afraid to speak about it, frankly and frequently.

Busy preparing for the 6 hour extravaganza tonight, but gotta take a second to acknowledge the 39th anniversary of Malcolm's passing.

A few Malcolm-related links:

Malcolm X's Eulogy as famously delivered by Ossie Davis, via the Official Malcolm X Website which offers a wealth of other resources as well.

Audio of Malcolm's speeches from 1959 to 1965, on brothermalcolm.net

My thoughts posted here last year

Howard Stern, who had been a staunch Bush supporter, seems to have switched teams. There are reportedly millions of people who actually respect his opinions, for some reason. So maybe this will be helpful.

--------------

Ras Kass talks to allhiphop.com from inside Corcoran State Prison
--------------

John Lee keeps on making no sense, this time in the Daily News. And that's a shame because the question he ostensibly raises, whether blogging is all too often a "white man's sport," is a question that needs to be asked. I ask it aloud almost everyday as I wander through blogville, and it deserves far more analysis and discussion than it gets. But Lee's sloppy sniping, IMO, just muddies the waters and makes such discussion harder to pursue.

--------------

And yes of course, Nader is back. But I'm not sure anyone needs to care. Seems doubtful he'll get anywhere near the support he got last time, and equally unlikely this vote will be so uncannily close as 2000. He should be able to have his fun without affecting the outcome.

What purpose he imagines this run will serve is beyond me.. my thoughts are summed up pretty well over here. He reminds me of John Lee actually: the issues he talks about trying to raise are worthy, but the clumsiness of his approach will drown out any message he hopes to send.

I haven't seen Ego Trip's VH1 show yet, but they must have done something right cuz they've got kids freaking out all over VH1's message boards. You'll notice their URL still features the show's original title "TV Race Riot," which VH1 was too wimpy to stick with. Here are a few of the complaints:

This show was reverse racism. VH1 should be ashamed of themselves for promoting all the "kill whitey" comments, it was appalling. Yes, go ahead and keep on promoting racism, keep spinning it to your advantage, shifting the blame to the other foot so whites can be the reason for all the racism in the world. Hope you're proud of yourselves you disgusting pack of dogs. - MisticRogue

...YES this show has now made me a racist, congratulations. But, my whole point is WHERE IS THE UNITY?! What happened to the "I am an American" commercials. I am an American and that's all there is to it. You are an American if you were born here, or if you obtain citizenship. Yes you should be proud of your ancestry but I'll be damned if I will ever call anyone an african/vietnamese american. Unless I ask for you ancestry I don't want to here it... - hobag100

minority's or whiners?
all this crap about equality doesn't mean anything does it? every one wants to be equal but then they all want to seperate themselves. the blacks have more rights than the whitesit seems like. the injustice that has been done to the blacks was terrible but now it's far past time to get over it. the slaves were freed over 130 yrs. ago and the black race has done nothing to help themselves,they just keep complaining about the past [...] blacks are not minority's they're all over the t.v., they took over sports and they're all in the music industry so quite your bitchin. mexicans are another thing. living in california i can tell you what's up. there are mexican -americans and then there are wetbacks. the u.s. doesn't owe wetbacks anything they're not even suppose to be here, they're taking our jobs, our bennifits, and then we the tax payers have to pay for it all. i''m not raceist but i'm real... Vanessa909

Here's when the show will be airing again this week:
02/25/04 07:00 PM Wednesday
02/26/04 04:00 PM Thursday
02/26/04 11:00 PM Thursday
02/27/04 12:00 AM Friday

Funny, right after we mention that Howard Stern is now speaking out against President Bush, he gets banned by Clear Channel. On my radio show right after the Superbowl I said conservatives would use the aftermath of nipplegate to put a spotlight on their position as defenders of our good old christian values, and try to make that the defining issue of this election. I didn't think they'd build up this much momentum this quickly though.

Stern won't be affected too much, since he is on a non-Clear Channel station in most cities. But Daily Kos reports these comments from Stern yesterday:

Interestingly, this morning Stern predicted that he would get fired sometime this year. A Republican insider told him that the party received more mail about Bono using the F word on the grammys than any other subject.

In one of the best defense of the Democrats I've heard on radio, he also spoke out against this gay marriage distraction, called Kerry a hero for what he did during and after the war, and said that he will do everything he can to defeat Bush.

This is getting creepy. Gay marriage, churches denouncing jews, adult radio getting censored - we're in a full on culture war now. As Joe Klein said, "He said he was a war president, but apparently the war he wants to fight is a culture war"

Religious extremists are flexing their muscles.

Thankfully, according to Atrios there's at least one battle they lack the muscle to win, as it's now clear they lack the votes to get their hate amendment through.

When I saw Debra Dickerson getting slammed left and right for her new book "The End of Blackness," I recognized her name from somewhere but couldn't place it. Then I remembered that she has a pair of blogs on her website, that someone showed me about a year ago.

If you're not aware of Debra's fondness for contradicting herself you might find it strange that this advocate of ending blackness has two blogs named "Black Cinderella" and "Black Catharsis", both featuring the dreadful tagline "we put the black in blog." (Note to Debra: when you use the "we put the _____ in ____" device, the first word is supposed to be contained in the second word.)

Sadly she has deleted most of her older entries, evidently so she can focus on spiking Amazon.com with fake reviews. Her instructions to fans are a blatant pitch for reviews from people who haven't read the books yet: "While you're there buying both books, post a positive review. Just follow the instructions on each page. Thanks." I know everybody plays this game nowadays but damn, can't we at least pretend to be honest, just a little?

Along with jabs at Halle Berry and Vivica Fox, the remaining posts also feature Dickerson's venomous tirade against a dwarf, who took her to task for using the word "midget" which many are not aware is considered a slur. The same woman who just called Vivica Fox a "silly 'itch" who "shoulda held out for a brain" lectures this guy for not being sufficiently polite in pointing out her own ignorance. Then she assures us she'd be willing to discuss the issue with a "reasonable Little Person" and proceeds to give the Little People a homework assignment: "Please include a discussion of these questions in your conversation: A) blah blah B) blah blah"

You can see a bunch of her older entries at archive.org, some of which are surprisingly cogent, I'll admit. It is puzzling, because she clearly sees the racism that remains in our society and doesn't hesitate to speak on it, but when others do the same she condemns them as "perpetuating their victimhood" and so on. I guess ideological consistency is too boring to land a book deal.

Amy Goodman and Dennis Bernstein will be doing a special report on the crisis in Haiti, tonight at 7PM EST on WBAI and the other Pacifica stations.. you can tune in at wbai.org. Amy and the Democracy Now! crew have delivered the best coverage throughout this Haiti situation, and are sure to bring a much needed balance to mainstream media's slant tonight.

I can't help but notice that, as of this posting, so many of the big-name political bloggers have been silent on this story, which has been unfolding for weeks.. I see nothing on Talking Points Memo, nothing on Daily Kos, or Eric Alterman or Tbogg..

It's a complex situation and I can understand not wanting to pontificate without a comprehensive knowledge.. this is why I haven't gone beyond offering links here and there (atrios and Matthew Yglesiashave offered thoughts while being up-front about their limited knowledge). And as I've acknowledged before, no single blogger can ever come close to covering everything that deserves coverage. But out of all these guys I'd think somebody would be able to drop some kind of science.

It kinda seems to me like the story has been off their collective radar, which is the type of thing that makes me more acutely aware of how the elite political blogs are almost all done by white males. I dunno, I'm not drawing any conclusions from it, but it's something I notice.. any thoughts, or links to good Haiti posts that I missed?

EDIT: Here is one blog that digs deep into it. (via Matthew Yglesias)

Was I the only one who found it a little jarring when Charlize Theron sent a big-up to her people in South Africa? I guess not, cuz this blog and that blog also commented on it.

My reaction wasn't as strong as theirs, and I don't think it's fair to make any snap judgements based on her Afrikaner heritage. Plus I've gained a lot of respect for her reading about the family drama she went through, so similar to what many of my kids had been scarred by when I worked at the group home. But it did remind me that I've can't recall ever seeing Charlize discuss her experiences growing up under Apartheid. So I did some googling, and found a few references to this 1996 People magazine interview:

..with the dismantling of apartheid and the creation of new affirmative action laws, she became convinced "there was no future for a white South African." One week after turning 16, she accepted an offer from an Italian model scout, and--with her mother's blessing--headed for Milan. Looking back, she says, "I just ran."

Uhh, yeah. That quote leaves a bad taste in the mouth. But it is from a long time ago [insert every defense of Eminem here], and I've done enough interviews to know that when you only see sentence fragments quoted, there's a pretty good chance the context is getting distorted.

This topic sparked some lively discussion recently in a couple of threads at IMDB, with a number of white South Africans joining in. In one of those posts I found a somewhat more palatable Theron quote from Interview Magazine:

IS: When you were growing up, was there something inside you that said, "Wait, I'm living in a situation that's all wrong?"

CT: Yes. It's hard to believe anyone growing up there then wouldn't have
had that reaction. But I'm sure a lot of that had to do with the awareness
in my family. We lived on a farm and we had every nationality living there
and working the land. All the workers' families lived there, so from the age
of three I grew up with their kids. I was always surrounded by Zulus and
South Sothos; apartheid was something that was always being discussed in my
house.

As a kid I remember being extremely happy living in this little world on
our farm where nobody was being abused and human rights were respected. It
was only when I left, when I became a teenager and went to school in
Johannesburg that I went, "Oh wow, people really think it's weird that black
people live on our farm."

So, should that be enough to put our mind at ease? Looks like Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki think so:

SA celebrates with Charlize

South Africans yesterday sang the praises of home-grown Oscar winner Charlize Theron and the country will be rolling out the red carpet when she visits next week [...] Her achievement - she's the first South African to win the award - brought praise from many, including President Thabo Mbeki. "South Africa has done it again, the Nobel prize for peace, the Nobel (prize) for literature and now an Oscar for best actress," Mbeki said.

He added that Theron's personal history, her performance in Monster and her resulting award were a metaphor for SA's recent transformation. "Theron has proved that we as a nation can produce the best in the world. In this film we see her drawing on her innate tough-mindedness and emotional stamina in overcoming the tragic personal circumstances of her own early life, in order to shine."

When Theron was 15, her mother Gerda shot dead her alcoholic husband Charles in self-defence when he came home in a drunken rage threatening to shoot his wife and child. "Theron represents a grand metaphor of SA's move from agony to achievement. We rejoice in the recognition by the most critical minds in filming that Charlize Theron is pure gold."

Mbeki's spokesman, Bheki Khumalo, said: "It is becoming something of a tradition for the government to honour the great achievements of South Africans. The president will receive her at the Union Buildings." He added that Mbeki was particularly gratified that Theron's success was being applauded by all South Africans.

Nelson Mandela also wanted to personally congratulate the star. His spokeswoman Zelda la Grange said: "Mr Mandela was overjoyed - however not surprised - to learn that Charlize won the title." She said Mandela would like to meet Theron - if she could find the time during her visit.

The Times reports that she will indeed be having dinner with Mandela, and is currently picking out a dress for the occasion. If the big man deems her cool enough for a dinner date, who am I to hold a grudge? She should pick up the check though.

She also gets props for speaking out against the death penalty while promoting Monster.

It seemed so outlandish when Jay-Z called himself "the Martha Stewart who's far from jewish," but pretty soon lots of rappers might illustrate their "realness" by comparing themselves with Martha, who is likely on her way upstate.

It's hard not to chuckle at the thought of jailtime for Martha, and it seems clear that ultimately this is nobody's fault but her own. But honestly my impression (as one who didn't follow this story very closely) is that on another level she's totally getting scapegoated by the government.

With all the corporate scandals in recent years, they need to look like they are going after these things, but of course they'd rather avoid taking down any of the corporate bigwigs with whom they share a bed. So what better solution than to make an example out of Martha Stewart, who is far from a major player in this game and whose crime involved a relatively small amount of money, but whose celebrity name will bring the government tons of publicity as champions of the fight against corporate corruption?

1. Anil Dash: Our thoughts are with you today, as yours were with us two and a half years ago. I can't explain or understand what happened today, but I can vouch for the fact that it does get more bearable in time.
2. El diario de Victor Flyte: Hay tanto dolor que no hay palabras. S�lo dolor.
3. Likemolasses: i feel so selfish for feeling this strongly, for weeping over the images, for walking around stonefaced and numb all day, for sending stupid solidarity emails and planning a vigil, but i feel like someone's ripped apart my own house and left the residents for dead. worst part is, i can't even get back into it. madrid, ahora mas de que nunca, me echas de menos...
   
   

click thumbnail for full-size photo

Also check out my photos from one year ago, over here.

Glutter reports that any blogs published on typepad.com or blogs.com are now apparently banned in China, the latest step in their government's crackdown on the free flow of information through the internet, and on Chinese people's freedom of speech in general.

Among the crapload of blogs that would be affected by this are The Blueprint, Diesel Nation and Beats and Rants, just to name a few that we visit regularly. I wonder if it affects sites that use typepad but not their domain, like VH1's Best Week Ever blog?

Not sure what can be done to effectively protest this, but if anyone has ideas let me know. The least we can do is spread the word. You can also stay tuned to Glutter for more news and resources. That is, unless you are in China, in which case you cannot see her site anymore.

The sad thing is they are actually trying to help women with this bill, but they're too clueless to get it right:

Georgia House Votes for Genital-Piercing Ban

Genital piercings for women were banned by the Georgia House Wednesday as lawmakers considered a bill outlining punishments for female genital mutilation.

The bill would make such mutilation punishable by two to 20 years in prison. It makes no exception for people who give consent to have the procedure performed on their daughters out of religious or cultural custom.

An amendment adopted without objection added "piercing" to the list of things that may not be done to female genitals. Even adult women would not be allowed to get the procedure. The bill eventually passed 160-0, with no debate.

Amendment sponsor Rep. Bill Heath, R-Bremen, was slack-jawed when told after the vote that some adults seek the piercings.

"What? I've never seen such a thing," Heath said. "I, uh, I wouldn't approve of anyone doing it. I don't think that's an appropriate thing to be doing."

The ban applies only to women, not men. The bill has already been approved by the Senate but now must return to that chamber because of the piercing amendment (search). Both chambers of the Legislature must agree on a single version of a bill before it can go to the governor for final approval.

As Pandagon said, "this is what happens when old men make laws affecting young women."

I am expecting Condi Rice to do relatively well in her testimony tomorrow.. she will be steadily spewing BS, to be sure, but I think she'll do a fairly good job of it, and the actual testimony will be anticlimactic after all the maneuvering that led up to it.

It's kinda like when Bush came into the 2000 debates, after all the hype about how dumb he was compared to Gore, he just had to string a few complete sentences together and he came out looking like a winner cuz he exceeded the super-low expectations.

At this point there's been so much emphasis on how badly Condi didn't want to testify, she can spend the 2 hours filibustering and pounding home her talking points, and anything other than total disaster will be judged by mainstream pundits as a victory.

I hope I'm wrong though. Either way, I ain't waking up that early.. for those of you who do, maybe you can try out Wonkette's Condi Rice drinking game. (But uhh, maybe do it with herbal tea or something, cuz getting plastered at 9AM is not fresh. Unless your name is Tash or J-Ro)

I'll be posting my pics from DC as soon as I wake up tomorrow. Anybody else make it out there?

This is not funny.

This is also not funny.

And this is most definitely not funny.

But this, my friends, is funny. So thoughtful of Colin Powell and his aide, taking a moment to bring us all a smile in these darkest of times.

What the heck was going on during that excruciating 5-second pause in this sentence? I have two theories:

A) After yet anoter failure to even approach pronouncing "Abu Ghraib " correctly, the President hoped everyone would just politely walk out of the room, and leave him alone with his shame.

B) Dick Cheney took a moment to scratch his nose, then stuck his hand back into the puppet.

a coffee shop in montreal, callously mocking our fearless leaders

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Evidently you guys up north are having some kind of holiday? There seems to be some dispute over what you ought to be celebrating. But if nothing else you can always look southward and think of this as "At Least We're Not Those Guys" Day..

For example, you could revel in the pitiful truth that many Americans still wish the other side had won our Civil War. Like this guy, who ends his feeble critique of Air America thusly: "Hopefully, the liberal left is beginning their lonely march out of the American political landscape. Perhaps, we won't have to secede again after all! " Uhh, listen man, if you really want to leave that badly, don't let us keep you.

Just got alerted to a promising event in Brooklyn tomorrow night, and the organizers have been cool enough to let me offer two pairs of tickets to you, my beloved readers. I need to get to sleep right now, but I will come back later this morning and put up a trivia question for the tickets..

EDIT: Okay here is the question: Up in the Bronx where the people are fresh, who was the one DJ that could pass the test? The first two people who send the correct answer to contest @ hiphopmusic.com will win a pair of tickets for the concert.

NEW EDIT: I heard through the grapevine the show is free now, and they will just ask for donations at the door.

And in the meantime check the info below, looks like a tight show for a good cause:

DEMOCRACY IS LIKE SEX: IT'S ONLY GOOD IF YOU PARTICIPATE

An incredible artist lineup including the legendary Pete Rock, Kurtis Blow, Immortal Technique, The Fire Department (Eric & Neal from Soulive), Groove Collective, Anthony B and MORE, in a show to benefit X The Box, The League of Pissed Off Voters, and ActivElement.

SO GET DOWN TO BROOKLYN AND SHAKE YOUR JUICY TO SOME GOOD GROOVES, because who wants a revolution they can't dance to? It is time to SWING THIS ELECTION OUR WAY... and if you got the groove, you got the power!

Thursday July 8
at VOLUME
Williamsburg Brooklyn
99 N 13th ST
Bedford stop on the L
Doors at 7
Show at 8
Tickets are 20$ at the door
18+

Featuring:
PETE ROCK
KURTIS BLOW
GROOVE COLLECTIVE
THE FIRE DEPARTMENT (Eric & Neal from Soulive) w/ special guest MCs
ANTHONY B
DJ G BROWN
DJ MKL
IMMORTAL TECHNIQUE
CUBAN LINK
AND MORE..

With Special guest speakers

http://www.rezenebe.com/democracy/

Music For America will be there registering people to vote

I thought the punchline would be "Democracy is like sex, you never ever want to see Dubya involved in either one," but they took it in another direction.

Barbara Ehrenreich recently started filling in for Tom Friedman in the NY Times op-ed pages, and some liberal bloggers are not taking it very well.

Most of the A-List lefty bloggers are not really all that far to the left, at least compared to the wild-eyed hippies I hang out with at WBAI. And I don't have any problem with that, we need a variety of voices out there.. but it's disappointing to see how smugly contemptuous some of these guys can be towards folks who are a little further left than themselves.

Ehrenreich's crime, evidently, was to voice her support for Ralph Nader in 2000, which so offended these guys that four years later they still disparage her mental health and (quoting Lenin) diagnose her with an "infantile disorder."

And now that Ehrenreich is joining them in rejecting Nader's 2004 campaign, they can't let go of their grudge, and just keep on with the sniping and condescension even when she's on their side.

Their bias against her is so strong they can't even recognize when she is joking:

So, Ralph, sit down. Pour yourself a Diet Pepsi and rejoice in the fact that -- post-Enron and post-Iraq war -- millions have absorbed your message. You're entitled to a little time out now, a few weeks on the beach catching up on back issues of The Congressional Record. Meanwhile, I've thrown my mighty weight behind Dennis Kucinich, who, unnoticed by the media, is still soldiering along on the campaign trail. In the event that he fails to get the Democratic nomination, I'll have to consider my options.

I think most readers will find it obvious that she she's only kidding when she implies that Kucinich still has a shot (and with the boasts of her own "mighty weight"). I mean, you'd have to assume that Ehrenreich is an abject doofus to think she really believes that. But apparently Matthew Yglesias and Ezra at Pandagon (one of my favorite blogs, for the record) are so caught up in their sense of intellectual superiority over (former) Nader supporters that they will assume just that. And even after Ezra gets called out on his blunder and admits it, he keeps digging himself deeper by insisting it was Barbara's joke that was a misfire, rather than his errant response. Dude, just admit you goofed and move on! It happens to everybody.

Listen, guys, I greatly appreciate the work you all do in your blogs, and I can to some extent understand your frustration with voters who choose principles over pragmatism. But sometimes you can cling to a grudge so tightly it stops the flow of blood to your brain. And if you want those who supported Nader in the past to feel welcome joining you this time, you should probably stop treating them like you think they are idiots.

Do they really think they will hurt Kerry by spreading that picture around? Kerry should thank them, cuz they do him a tremendous favor by poking holes in his stiff patrician facade.

Dukakis' problem was that he came off likea dweeb, and the tank helmet picture accentuated his dweebiness, but that's not the position Kerry's in. If there's anything to be learned from the George W. Bush era, it's that America would much rather elect a average-joe goofball than a haughty upper-crust intellectual, and up until now Kerry has been looking too much like the latter. So if his unwitting Woody Allen impersonation knocks him down a few notches that might be the best thing that ever happened to his campaign.

The resemblance is uncanny:

• Bart's book report
• George's press conference

Too bad George didn't even have a book cover to work off of..

The irrepressible need for all minor public figures to google themselves has struck again, this time bringing much-maligned author Debra Dickerson to our humble pages. You may peruse our colloquy here.

EDIT: Scroll down a bit on this page to find yet another visit from Ms. Dickerson.

Bush's new campaign ad: "I can't imagine the great agony of a mom or a dad having to make the decision about which child to pick up first on September 11th"

Atrios' reponse: I want to hear about the agony of 7 minutes reading "The Pet Goat" after your chief of staff whispers "Amerca is under attack" in your ear.

Also note what Bush says next, and read it carefully: "We cannot hesitate. We cannot yield. We must do everything in our power to bring an enemy to justice, before they hurt us again."

Bring an enemy to justice. I'm not gonna specify which enemy, and I'm damn sure not gonna specify any enemies that were actually connected with 9/11, since we haven't been focused on that at all in the last couple of years. But hopefully you won't be listening closely, and you'll assume that's what I meant. We're the GOP, and we bank on your stupidity!

(Laura Bush creeped me out, sitting there stone-faced the whole time. I was waiting for her to chime in with a "yeahhhh boyeeeeee!" or something. Also, why does George sound so mush-mouthed whenever he says the word "message," like he's been hitting the bottle?)

We ran into a small contingent of right-wing christian zealots with serious anger management issues, but they got more than they bargained for when confronted with Triumph the Insult Comic Dog(!!), who interrogated them on what exactly they think is wrong with sodomy. Triumph's appearance soon inspired a rousing "Poop on Bush!" chant, and he also took a moment on 34th street to lead us in an "H&M makes shitty clothes!" side-protest.

I wonder how much footage Conan will use, if any.. you could tell Robert Smigel was totally down with the march, but it seems like Conan prefers to keep things mostly non-partisan? When I saw Triumph's live show in Montreal he was dissing Bush all night, and getting much more topical than I've ever seen him on NBC.

After finishing the walk from 14th and 7th up to 34th, over to 5th, then back down to 14th, we took a minute to chill in Union Square, then went up to Central Park for a Be-In of sorts. And after all the huffing and puffing that preceded it, even Police Commissioner had to admit "the event went very well."

click on thumbnails for the full size image

There were some ridiculous arrests: Mike of Satan's Laundromat, Joshua Kinberg of Bikes Against Bush and many others at Friday's Critical Mass bike ride.. plus Rosario Dawson on Sunday?? Rosario was filming a remake of the cult-classic "Medium Cool," which mixed actors in with the real life action of the 1968 convention protests. So maybe the arrest will make into the film?

But overall I thought most cops on Sunday did quite a fine job. Early on in the day I saw the guys from protestwarrior.com try to instigate something by slipping inside the main march and baiting people with their sarcastic fake protest signs. Pretty soon they ran into some anarchist kids and a scuffle ensued, and the cops immediately did the right thing and simply booted the right-wingers out of the march, and set them up where they belonged, over on the side in a sad and tiny counterprotest.

So five-o should get credit where it's due, as they did from the marchers around me who started a "give the cops a raise!" chant on 34th st.

These guys have a nice collection of RNC blog feeds, while the booby prize for worst commentary so far goes to Jeff Jarvis' anti-protesting rant. Nuff respect to Jeff as a major player in blogville, but I often disagree with his political analysis, and he's rarely been further off than he was there. Everybody doesn't have the same talents, interests, and resources as you, Jeff.. expressing yourself individually via mass media is what works best for you, and more power to you for sticking with it. But that doesn't make it the most constructive choice for everybody else.

Thanks to Julianne for hipping me to the Shut-Up-A-Thon held today outside the Fox News studios on 47th and 6th. Very entertaining event, brought 1000+ highly creative protestors, observed with a sort of bashful bemusement by a few dozen Fox staffers on the other side of the barricades. Rarely have so few been flipped the bird so much by so many.

It got kinda hectic though, a very heavy police presence was crowding everyone into a big pen, but the overflow still kept the whole block completely packed. At one point they started shoving Amy Goodman down the street as she tried to conduct an interview.

There were also numerous cops standing on the side videotaping everyone, one of whom seemed none too happy that I was taking his picture. And down the block was another group of officers with these weird paint-gun thingies, does anyone know the purpose of these? I spoke with them briefly but they didn't seem too keen on discussing it.

Feedback from right-wingers on the speech by Dubya's daughters:

Instapundit:
Arnold's a tough guy to follow. But they didn't follow him very well.

Fox News:
Bill Kristol: "The last half hour did not help, as far as I can tell, Bush's campaign for reelection."

Mort Kondracke: "Those two girls were ditzes. I'm surprised they were allowed on the program."

Fred Barnes: "I think she [Laura] had no place up there or the daughters either....Their mother said they'll be pursuing their own careers. I would advise them to look in some field other than comedy."

(via talkleft)

National Review Online (The Corner):
Kathryn Jean Lopez: "The girls must go. The girls must go. I can't take it. Bring back Arnold!!!"

Jonah Goldberg: "WHERE ARE THE REAL BUSH TWINS!?!?! These women are definitely impersonators because this the scariest, weirdest, strangest thing I've ever heard at a convention. Did anyone vet this?"

Kathryn Jean Lopez:THE LOOK OF DISAPPROVAL! Did you see Cheney after the Bush girls?

NRO Reader: Wow, I'm shocked, appalled, embarrassed, and just want to look away or hit the mute button... and oddly sort of turned on.

I missed this, but apparently they made some lame jokes about Outkast in their speech? Anybody got audio/video?

If only there was a way to combine this Bush video with that Diplomats in London clip that Catchdubs posted, then throw this guy in for good measure, we could create the holy grail of buffoonery. (no disrespect to those lovable Dip Set kufi-smackers, since I'm pretty sure they're doing it on purpose)

This thing, on the other hand, just gives me the willies. I have no idea if any of that is credible, but as a rule I never discount any conspiracy theory that has such creepy music behind it.

And speaking of outlandish theories, I am loving the rumor that this dude is actually Dr. Laura's son, but that's just too good to be true.

Matt Taibbi of the NY Press didn't think much of the Anti-RNC protests. I won't say I totally agree, but he does offer a more compelling argument than Jeff Jarvis did.

Well, That Was Fun

...marching, as we have seen in the last few years, has been rendered basically useless. Before the war, Washington and New York saw the largest protests this country has seen since the 60s�and this not only did not stop the war, it didn't even motivate the opposition political party to nominate an antiwar candidate.

There was a time when mass protests were enough to cause Johnson to give up the Oval Office and cause Richard Nixon to spend his nights staring out his window in panic. No more. We have a different media now, different and more sophisticated law-enforcement techniques and, most importantly, a different brand of protestor.

Protests can now be ignored because our media has learned how to dismiss them, because our police know how to contain them, and because our leaders now know that once a protest is peacefully held and concluded, the protestors simply go home and sit on their asses until the next protest or the next election. They are not going to go home and bomb draft offices, take over campuses, riot in the streets. Instead, although there are many earnest, involved political activists among them, the majority will simply go back to their lives, surf the net and wait for the ballot. Which to our leaders means that, in most cases, if you allow a protest to happen� Nothing happens.

The people who run this country are not afraid of much when it comes to the population, but there are a few things that do worry them. They are afraid we will stop working, afraid we will stop buying, and afraid we will break things. Interruption of commerce and any rattling of the cage of profit�that is where this system is vulnerable. That means boycotts and strikes at the very least, and these things require vision, discipline and organization.

HIPHOPMUSIC.COM EXCLUSIVE!!
MUST CREDIT HIPHOPMUSIC.COM!!

Remember that "F*** New York" quicktime video (actually named "Mission Accomplished") that was making the rounds during the Republican convention, imagining Bush and his GOP crew as a posse of rich white prep school kids who think they're gangsta?

That video cracked me up, but I was also iffy about how liberally these white kids were tossing "niggas" around.. I found it off-putting, but on the other hand you could argue it's supposed to be off-putting cuz the clip is inviting us to hate these little twerps, and it's true to character for the Teenage Punk GOP to play themselves like that..

So I wasn't quite sure what to think about it, and wished I could find whoever made the video and pick their brains a little. Luckily I happened to mention this to our ace reporter Irina, and within minutes she had tracked them down and gotten them on the phone.

Turns out the video was put together by a couple of young filmmakers named Sam Marks (writer) and Max Rockatansky a.k.a. Matt Lenski (director), who just couldn't stand to see these mark ass Republican bustas rolling into their city. Here's what they had to say:

--------------------------------

IRINA: How did you come up with the idea to do this?

MAX: We're both native New Yorkers - I was born in Manhattan and lived on Eldridge and Houston when I was little - and of course we were all outraged that Republicans were coming here to use the 911 incident and twist it in their favor. They're coming to our home town and we felt like we did when we were sixteen years old and some bully was steppin to you on your block, talking shit. These Republicans are the ultimate punks. I'm a director and Sam Marks is a writer and a playwright so we said let's come up with something.

IRINA: And...

MAX: So one thing led to another and Sam and I collaborated for a couple of days and because of the nature of the project there were a lot of people who wanted to help us out so we got a really good crew together and did a nice casting, shot it in a week. It was edited and mixed and right away we knew we had something that was dope and it was gonna touch a nerve.

IRINA: The kids in the spot, where did you get them?

MAX: In casting this, we did street casting - go to different school yards, places and slowly amassed this group of kids. That's exactly the way that kid (Bush, portrayed by Alex Lerner) talks. He's from Queens. That talk - that speech with the tongue way back in the throat - it's him.

IRINA: Where did you film it?

SAM: On a corner in downtown Manhattan (49th and 1st), so when you saw it, it was clearly NYC.

SAM: The original concept was that Bush is the biggest gangsta of them all so how can we express that? We wanted to make him a white teenage punk. It was an easy thing to visualize cuz we all know those kinds of kids

IRINA: The idea that they're gonna take New York -- where did it come from?

SAM: The general anger on my part that Republicans were coming to New York and they were disrespecting New York and they were taking our whole city, and saying "WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO ABOUT IT, HUH?" So it was like when you're little and these neighborhood bullies, these bullies would just take my hat! And be like, what are you gonna do about it? There's this humorous aspect of Bush being a G and not caring and pushing his will on the general public. It worked so much better with them in uniforms since Republicans are so easily identifiable in the New York landscape.

IRINA: Did you know it was gonna get really big?

MAX: We didn't realize it was gonna get as big as it is! (laughing) There has been a great response by other directors and all sorts of people. Which is great, but most importantly we wanted to do something to make protesting fun, not make it kind of serious.

IRINA: What do you mean?

MAX: If we saw one more poster with a fist on it, in stark black/white contrast, telling me to go fight whatever, I was gonna puke. We feel like protesting needs to be fun and have some sex appeal. We want to get younger people involved. In the 1960s, a lot of people were getting laid for protesting - not that we're getting laid cuz of this movie - (laughs) But protesting is a way to align like minded individuals.

IRINA: Did you have any misgivings about whether it was cool to use the N word?

MAX: We thought it was appropriate for a couple of reasons. These kids are punk-ass young republican prep school kids. We wanted to have a next generation of Republicans shown as the antithesis of the people we want to reach. The antithesis of the people who we want to be involved and who we think this message is for.

Throwing in the fact that the kids are these thugged out individuals is showing that the whole Bush family is the most thugged-out crew in the world. We wanted to write it the way kids talk on the street. we weren't doing it for any company or organization, so we decided not to pull any punches. Not to mention it certainly gets the attention of many people and we have to get as much attention on this election as possible.

White people use the N word. I don't even know if it's a white or a black thing. Any kids who hang out on the street pretty much say nigga this nigga that. You can draw all sorts of things, but a certain lifestyle, a very thugged out mentality - if you can imagine a wigger mixed with a young republican - we wanted that to be our speaker for the RNC. There's no big secret there. and it's kind of hilarious

SAM: I didn't consciously work it out philosophically. To me it's sort of how these characters speak. I think a 16-year-old white guy would use that word. These characters would use that word, they are white "gangstas," and they would use that word. I'm not making a judgment call - it's not right or wrong. It's just how I see the characters speaking, no opinion.

IRINA: Did you ever go to a school where you wore a uniform?

MAX: I'm 26 and I went to Washington Market Nursery School, P.S. 41. I got kicked out of so many schools! I graduated from School of Visual Arts in 2000, but I'm much prouder of P.S. 41 and the nursery school, I had the best time. P.S. 41 is where I first learned how to curse. I attended Dwight academy for one semester where I had to wear a uniform. I got kicked INTO Dwight (laughing). I had never worn a suit ever before and my mom took me to get the clothes and I GOT ALL THE WRONG STUFF. All the other kids were hooked up and I had pants with pleats.

SAM: I'm 28 and I was born in Manhattan and lived in West Village East village - my parents were divorced. I never wore a uniform. I taught an SAT class at Fieldston last summer. I went to Stuyvesant, Stanford, NYU and now I'm at Brown. I got a fellowship to study playwriting.

IRINA: Do you think it's been around the world?

SAM: I've had a lot of people call me or email me throughout America - that says it's out there

MAX: If you Google f**knewyork all together, it gets a huge number of hits. When you start going down, you see who posted it on what blog and what website has it and the comments people have on the blogs, etc. That's huge. The response we've gotten from people shows it struck a nerve. Whether it's because it's about the GOP or if it's five white kids talking slang ..aside from this being fun, it's for a greater purpose.

SAM: What can we do to stop this man from getting re-elected? I really wanted New Yorkers to take to the streets. I'm still so outraged that Republicans came to the city and it was on lockdown - the whole thing is just horrific to me.

IRINA: Are you gonna do a part 2?

MAX: We plan to do another piece right around the elections -- driving people to get out and vote.

IRINA: Have you been recognized formally?

MAX: It showed at rooftop film festival we're thinking of putting it in at (shift.com) they do a digital film festival. But we didn't do this to make money or to get notoriety. We just did it cuz we felt like it needed to be done. And most importantly the mission isn't accomplished.

SAM: It's just getting started.

As an atheist/agnostic/non-believer, this may be the first time I've ever heard a presidential candidate, or any other prominent politician, refer to my beliefs in a tone that was not belittling or disapproving.. that did not implicitly remind me that I am less of an American than those who believe in some sort of God.

John Kerry is further to the right than I am on many issues, and you could say my vote for him will be of the "hold your nose" variety. But that was one moment when I felt genuinely happy to pull the lever for this guy.

Other than that.. not as decisive a victory as the first one, but Bush is clearly 0 for 2 now, right? What the hell was he so angry about? He looked like a pro wrestler doing his pre-match interview..

And what in damn hell did he mean with that "those drugs might come from a third world" comment? Was he referring to the inhabitants of Mars or Bizarro World? Either that or he was making blatantly racist assumptions about where dangerous drugs might come from.

Anyway, what did y'all think tonight?

An old friend from high school googled his way over here this weekend, and while writing to say hello he wondered about my support for Kerry here in the blog, and my rather sour comments about Nader. He suggested that voting for Bush or Nader would be more beneficial to progressives in the long run, and asked if I'd heard Nader on Democracy Now this week.

I'm going to justify the crapload of time I spent composing a reply by reposting it here:

-----------

You mean keep Bush in cuz then maybe things'll get bad enough to wake people up and spark some real change? While Kerry will keep things just bad enough to be tolerable? I can understand that to some extent.

But A) I'm pretty skeptical about America's ability to wake up, and B) I don't think now's the time to go for that gambit cuz the effects of another Bush term could be so long-lasting, if not irreversible. Between the "War on Terror" and the looming Supreme Court vacancies, I see this as more of a stop-the-bleeding-before-we-flatline moment..

I just read this week's DN transcript, and I can't say it really moves me.. every party tries to get every other candidate off the ballot if they have a shot at
it, that's how politics works.. so when he wails about the Dems' "unprecedented dirty tricks" honestly it strikes me as Nader feigning naivete so he can paint
himself as the victim again..

And this whole "I'm running because the democrats are trying to stop me from running" thing doesn't fly for me.. if the main reason you offer for continuing to
run is a circumstance that didn't exist until AFTER you started running, what does that tell me about the reasons you started running in the first place?

This is the kinda stuff that always turns me off when I see or hear him this year, he comes off as evasive and disingenuous.. constantly switching up his reasons for running as previous explanations lose their
currency.. answering questions without really answering them, and protesting the myriad ways he's being personally victimized by critics of his
campaign, which just keeps making him look more self-absorbed..

To be fair to Ralph, I think a lot of this is just caused by his extreme lack of media-savvy. He just can't see that he's making himself look less sincere
and less committed than he actually is.

But even so, it just reinforces my original point when I posted about him on my site: that in 2004, no matter
how well-meaning he was and how right his message, he was the wrong man to deliver that message. That because of how things went down in 2000, any campaign he ran in 2004 would put far more focus on himself as a controversial personality than on the issues he's trying to push. I think at this point he's
proven me right on that.

This is a juicy one, folks. Our intrepid reporter Irina was assigned by her day job to cover the debate last night, and somehow she managed to corner President Bush for a few seconds backstage, and get his thoughts on how the debate went. Check it out here, I think you'll be surprised by how much he lets his guard down:

• President Bush's post debate comments, 10/13/04

Wow.

Have you ever noticed they kinda look alike?

 

I guess it's mostly the chin. Strangely, I think my hybrid of the two looks more attractive than either one does on their own.

HIPHOPMUSIC.COM SUPER MEGA EXCLUSIVE!!!!!!
TO THE EXTREME!!!!!!

The guys who brought us that F**k New York video are back with another anti-Bush call to arms, just in time for the home stretch. Hopefully we'll get some words from them about it later, but for now here's the world.. world.. premiere.. premiere.. premiere:

Mission Accomplished, Part Deux

They're voting.. are you?

We are not exactly a swing state here in the Big Apple, but actforvictory.org says we can still make a difference by volunteering:

Attention New Yorkers!

Thousands of passionate New Yorkers have been working with ACT for
months to defeat George W. Bush and elect Democrats to federal, state
and local governments.

Now, with just 9 days left, it's time to make the final push.
Listed below are dozens of specific volunteer needs here in NYC and in
the critical battleground states of PA and Ohio.

Please sign up today and help ACT get the job done on November 2nd. ACT
now, when it matters most.

Spend 96 Hours in Ohio!
Travel with ACT to the Buckeye state for the final days!
Sign up at: http://acthere.com/signup.php?eventID=4321
Email Contact: ACTNYohiotrips@hotmail.com

Get on the bus to PA and Ohio for Election Day!
Sign up at: http://acthere.com/signup.php?eventID=2940

Volunteer at local Volunteer Phonebanks this week!
We have the following phonebanks open in New York City this week. This
is your chance to reach out to the targeted voters of the battleground
states and urge them to get out to the polls next week.
Each location is in need of callers this week.

MONDAY MORNING AT SEIU, 10a to 12 noon
(330 West 42nd Street/8th Avenue; 7th floor)
Sign up at: http://acthere.com/signup.php?eventID=4034

MONDAY NIGHT AT UFT, 6p to 9p
(50 Broadway; look for a sign for floor)
Sign up at: http://acthere.com/signup.php?eventID=4276

MONDAY NIGHT AT SEIU, 6p to 9p
(330 West 42nd Street, 7th Floor - 50 callers needed)
Sign up at: http://acthere.com/signup.php?eventID=4030

MONDAY NIGHT AT DC37, 6p to 9p:
(125 Barclay Street in Tribeca - 40 callers needed; look for a sign for a floor)
Sign up at: http://acthere.com/signup.php?eventID=4344

TUESDAY MORNING AT SEIU, 10a - 12 noon:
(330 West 42nd Street, 7th Floor)
Sign up at: http://acthere.com/signup.php?eventID=4035

TUESDAY NIGHT AT SEIU, 6p to 9p:
(330 West 42nd Street, 7th Floor - 50 callers needed)
Sign up at: http://acthere.com/signup.php?eventID=4031

TUESDAY NIGHT AT DC37, 6p to 9p:
(125 Barclay Street in Tribeca - 40 callers needed; look for a sign for floor)
Sign up at: http://acthere.com/signup.php?eventID=4345

TUESDAY NIGHT AT UFT, 6p to 9p
(50 Broadway; look for a sign for floor)
Sign up at: http://acthere.com/signup.php?eventID=4276

WEDNESDAY MORNING AT SEIU, 10a to 12 noon
(330 West 42nd Street/8th Avenue; 7th floor)
Sign up at: http://acthere.com/signup.php?eventID=4034

WEDNESDAY NIGHT AT UFT, 6p to 9p
(50 Broadway; look for a sign for floor)
Sign up at: http://acthere.com/signup.php?eventID=4276

WEDNESDAY NIGHT AT SEIU, 6p to 9p
(330 West 42nd Street, 7th Floor - 50 callers needed)
Sign up at: http://acthere.com/signup.php?eventID=4030

WEDNESDAY NIGHT AT DC37, 6p to 9p
(125 Barclay Street in Tribeca - 40 callers needed; look for a sign for floor)
Sign up at: http://acthere.com/signup.php?eventID=4344

THURSDAY MORNING AT SEIU, 10a to 12 noon
(330 West 42nd Street/8th Avenue; 7th floor)
Sign up at: http://acthere.com/signup.php?eventID=4034

THURSDAY NIGHT AT UFT, 6p to 9p
(50 Broadway; look for a sign for floor)
Sign up at: http://acthere.com/signup.php?eventID=4276

THURSDAY NIGHT AT SEIU, 6p to 9p:
(330 West 42nd Street, 7th Floor - 50 callers needed
Sign up at: http://acthere.com/signup.php?eventID=4030

THURSDAY NIGHT AT DC37, 6p to 9p:
(125 Barclay Street in Tribeca - 40 callers needed; look for a sign for floor)

FRIDAY MORNING AT SEIU, 10a to 12 noon
(330 West 42nd Street/8th Avenue; 7th floor)
Sign up at: http://acthere.com/signup.php?eventID=4034

FRIDAY NIGHT AT DC37, 6p to 9p:
(125 Barclay Street in Tribeca - 40 callers needed; look for a sign for floor)

Please call 212 388 3109 with ANY questions.

I've been nerdily sifting through all the horse race data at electoral-vote.com and elsewhere, then plugging in the most likely results on this interactive map (that 1115.org is using for a nifty little contest). I stumbled onto one scenario that scares the crap out of me.

I suspect Kerry's got the popular vote on lock. But if Bush carries Ohio and Florida, while Kerry takes most of the other swing states, we could easily wind up with the results pictured above, adding up to:

A tie in the electoral college, which leaves it all up to our House of Representatives (whoever is the newly elected batch for 2005). I'm sure you can guess how that would pan out.

Hopefully this won't happen, but I'm reserving a bus ticket to Montreal just in case.

I'm running my own personal phone bank, calling rappers to talk to them about voting. Thankfully Posdnuos didn't need any convincing:

• Pos on voting (small mp3)

• Scienz of Life on voting (mp3)

Unbelievable. As it stands now, this played out almost exactly as I envisioned in my nightmare post. Except New Mexico and maybe Nevada piled on for Bush.

"The youth vote didn't show up" is already established as the dominant narrative. Presumably because "the candidate just sucked" goes without saying.

*shrug*

I really don't have anything to say right now. The likelihood that dark days to come may spark a new "conscious era" in hip-hop is providing little solace for me at the moment.

Next time you see a post in here, it will be from north of the border.

A must read: Dean Esmay on Ebonics/Black English. He holds in down in the comments too.

1/31/05 UPDATE:
Todd Lynn Fired

The truth about the "informed insider" email

watch this page for updates on the story

Hot 97's morning show aired as usual today, with nobody suspended or removed. There was no discussion of the conroversy except a brief apology from Miss Jones, read twice during the four hour show. A taped apology from Program director John Dimick also aired once every hour. Otherwise Miss Jones, Todd Lynn and the rest went on like business as usual. EDIT: My tape didn't catch the apologies, if anybody has the audio please pass it on.

Amazingly, they seem to think this is all behind them now. Just a few insincere half-apologies and we will all go away. I certainly hope we prove them wrong. Hot 97n has now proven they have no conscience or integrity, so it's especially important for us to keep going over their heads, to Emmis corporate and the sponsors. Keep hitting Emmis as hard as we can.

The Here's My Byline blog got a reply from Sprint, about their apparent sponsorship of Hot 97's bigotry.

Sprint claims that Hot 97 "appears to have disciplined the responsible parties," which is not true. No disciplinary actions of any kind have been announced. No, having the staff voluntarily donate some money does not count. Calling that an appropriate "discipline" is insulting.

Any thoughts about this pseudo-response can be sent to James.W.Fisher@mail.sprint.com

STATEMENT FROM SPRINT

* Sprint does NOT have any connection to the Tsunami Song aired on Hot 97 FM.

* Sprint strongly objects to any communication or other effort making light of the devastation of the tsunami disaster. The content of the "Tsunami song" clearly runs contrary to Sprint's commitment to diversity and inclusion, and is not in any way supported or condoned by Sprint.

*Sprint has purchased advertising time on Hot 97 but was incorrectly identified as a sponsor of the segment of the show in which the song was referenced. In any case, Sprint was unaware and had no connection to the content of the "Tsunami Song."

*Sprint has expressed our strong concern about this content to the radio station. The station has issued a public apology and appears to have disciplined the responsible parties. Sprint continually evaluates acceptable content against our own guidelines and we will continue to monitor the process with all outlets in which we advertise.

P.S. While you're here, the best way to show that these people don't represent us is by going to Red Cross and make a donation of our own to help the Tsunami victims.

Whoa.

Author Hunter S. Thompson Kills Himself

Hunter S. Thompson, the acerbic counterculture writer who popularized a new form of fictional journalism in books like "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," fatally shot himself Sunday night at his home, his son said. He was 67...

wow.

I won't try to say anything deep today. Just turn on the radio and hear the man for yourself.

When I looked around blogville for reactions to Cochran's death, most of what I saw was straight up despicable. So I'm glad Rosa Clemente passed this along. (If you don't know the story of Johnnie and Geronimo, this book is highly recommended)

Alisema Kama Atakuja
(He said he would come)

I woke up this morning at 4 am, wide awake. Something led me out of my bed, and out the door of my shamba home here in Tanzania. I walked outside and looked into the Afrikan sky and wondered what this strange feeling was that had come over me. It wasn't bad, it was just a feeling that something was amiss. I just couldn't put my finger on it. I walked back inside and went to the computer and right away i saw Johnnie's face, and i knew it was Johnnie who woke me up. Johnnie, who last time we spoke had told me, "G, I'm coming. I told you I was coming. I am coming to the mama land with you!!!" And true to his word, he is right here with me. I can feel his presence grow stronger as the sun ascends over these sacred lands of the Great Rift Valley where life began. He is talking to me now. "Look out for Chief." "Tell Ed to be cool." "Tell Stu not to worry." "Take care of Ginny."

Yet another scam from the good old Prison Industrial Complex.. hopefully we can make enough noise to shut it down:

Dial R for Ripoff

Protesters will rally in Bryant Park tomorrow at noon, then head over to Gov. Pataki's office to protest, once again, New York State's shabby, unethical practice of forcing the families, lawyers and religious counselors of prison inmates to pay outrageously jacked-up prices to receive collect calls from those behind bars. At the same time, family members of hundreds of inmates around the state will mount an organized boycott by refusing to accept phone calls for a day.

Good for them. Those who want an immediate halt to the prison phone ripoff should support the demonstration by contacting Gov. Pataki at (212) 681-4580.

The boycott and demonstrations will put a dent, albeit small, in New York's policy of shamefully squeezing people who have done nothing wrong. Thanks to an exclusive contract that gives monopoly control over prison phones to MCI, the price of talking to New York inmates is 630% higher than the cost of regular collect calls - a higher rate than what it costs to speak with federal prisoners or those locked up in any other state.

A bunch of good folks (and myself) will be reading exceprts from "Letters From Young Activists: Today's Rebels Speak Out" tonight at the CUNY graduate Center on 34th & 5th Avenue, Room C198. Come through and say hi if you can.. if not be sure to check the book.

WTF? Somebody get Superintendent Chalmers down here..

Youth suspended for speaking Spanish

Most of the time, 16-year-old Zach Rubio converses in clear, unaccented American teen-speak, a form of English in which the three most common words are "like," "whatever" and "totally." But Zach is also fluent in his dad's native language, Spanish -- and that's what got him suspended from school.

"It was, like, totally not in the classroom," the high school junior said, recalling the infraction. "We were in the, like, hall or whatever, on restroom break. This kid I know, he's like, 'Me prestas un dolar?' ['Will you lend me a dollar?'] Well, he asked in Spanish; it just seemed natural to answer that way. So I'm like, 'No problema.' "

But that conversation turned out to be a big problem for the staff at the Endeavor Alternative School, a small public high school in an ethnically mixed blue-collar neighborhood. A teacher who overheard the two boys sent Zach to the office, where Principal Jennifer Watts ordered him to call his father and leave the school.
Watts, whom students describe as a disciplinarian, said she can't discuss the case. But in a written "discipline referral" explaining her decision to suspend Zach for 1 1/2 days, she noted: "This is not the first time we have [asked] Zach and others to not speak Spanish at school."

Since then, the suspension of Zach Rubio has become the talk of the town in both English and Spanish newspapers and radio shows. The school district has officially rescinded his punishment and said that speaking a foreign language is not grounds for suspension. Meanwhile, the Rubio family has retained a lawyer, who says a civil rights lawsuit may be in the offing.

I was just saying to somebody this weekend, "well at least we don't have a Walmart here yet.." but according to this protest I may not be able to say that for long?

Protest Against Backdoor Walmart in the Bronx

Please join with the UFCW, Community Organizations, Small Business Groups,
Members of the Clergy and organizations concerned with responsible and
accountable development at a:

Press Conference and Rally to
Slam "The Backdoor" on Walmart and BJ's

Monday January 23rd
Noon
Steps of New York City Hall

By seeking approval from the City Council to build the new Gateway Mall at
the Bronx Terminal Market and failing to identify the tenants of the proposed
mall, developers are providing a "backdoor" for Walmart and BJ's to
escape scrutiny of their labor and business practices. This deception cannot
be allowed.

Labor, Community and Clergy:
Unified in Keeping NYC Walmart Free

For information and/or to confirm your attendance, Contact
Pat Purcell at

Wow, the website for Vancouver's upcoming Winter Olympics is refreshingly honest:

...The Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games emblem is a contemporary interpretation of the traditional totem pole. The distinctive wood columns are found across the country – from coastlines to mountaintops, from small towns to large cities – in a variety of styles.

The emblem is called "Kuhldaa," which is the Haida word for “to steal”.

Kuhldaa offers the welcome of a nation shaped by its rich, natural and cultural appropriation. Its colours reflect those of both Canada and the host region: the blue waters of our salmon farms, the green forests of our softwood lumber, the red maple leaf of our Canadian identity and the golden sunrises that paint the city skyline and the snow-capped peaks from Vancouver to Whistler. These bright, cheerful colours, along with the playful arrangement of the shapes that make up Kuhldaa, encourage us to overlook the deplorable living conditions, substance abuse issues and unemployment rates of many First Nations in beautiful British Columbia. This tendency to disregard issues occurring within our own country is something all Canadians look forward to sharing with our international visitors.

(via bitch|lab)

A few weeks ago I picked up the NY Times on the subway, and it had this infomercial insert full of faux news articles about "Sudan: The New Happening Hotspot! Things Are Looking Up!" and so on. The sort of "doth protest too much" happy-face advertising that you know must have some evil creepiness behind it, even if you know nothing of the subject matter. In my pre-coffee haze at the time, I thought to myself "wait, doesn't the Sudan have a sort of, uhh, genocide thing going on?"

So for those who may be in a perpetual pre-coffee haze, such as our Chief Executive, here is a reminder: There is, indeed, a sort of genocide thing going on over there. And it's getting worse. And we are doing nothing.

President Bush and millions of Americans today will celebrate Easter and the end of Holy Week. But where is the piety in reading the Bible while averting one's eyes from genocide? Mr. Bush, how about showing your faith by doing something a bit more meaningful - like standing up to the butchers?

In case anybody was surprised by Arnold's race weirdness the other day, here's the classic cringe-inducer from 1983, the governator in Rio De Janiero waxing poetic about the wonders of the "mulatto":

via P6:

Breast cancer deadlier for blacks
Why? Report blames racism, says mammograms, care may be inferior

rican-American women in Chicago are much more likely than white women to die of breast cancer, and the racial gap is widening, according to a new study that calls the disparity "morally wrong, medically unacceptable and reversible."

Just 10 years ago, black and white women in Chicago died at the same rate from breast cancer. But the most recent figures available, for 2003, show the mortality rate among black women was 73 percent higher, researchers at Mount Sinai Hospital's Urban Health Institute report in a study being released today. Nationwide, the gap was about half that -- 37 percent.

The disparity in death rates appears to be the result of racism, "and it appears to be institutionalized," said Alan Channing, chief executive of Sinai Health System. In Chicago, white women are diagnosed with breast cancer at a rate 15 percent higher than the rate in black women.

So why are more blacks dying from the disease?

On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was in Los Angeles, a continent away from my family — my biological kin on the East Coast and my metaphorical relatives, the people of New York. The worst part, for me, was not being here.

Later that morning, I finally got my father on the phone. Dad doesn’t get mad, but sometimes you can hear him quietly seething. As he watched the smoke rise from Ground Zero, he said: “What good is all this power if we can’t use it?”

I don’t think my father meant that the United States immediately march off to war, much less invade the wrong country. But I understand the frustration. We are rich. We are strong. We are smart. Why can’t we have more control?

What my father said on the morning of September 11 brings to mind another quote that answers his question:

“Those magnificent Americans. So much power and so little understanding of what to do with it.”

If the Sylviagate incident proves anything, it’s what happens when you let your opponents control the debate.

As hip-hop grew ever more commercially successful, criticism of hip-hop enjoyed a similar boom, to the extent that the term “hip-hop” itself became synonymous with misogyny, violence, hypersexuality, and crime.

Not that hip-hop’s critics hadn’t always laced the culture with those adjectives. And not that hip-hop didn’t do everything it could to encourage that criticism by its failure to support the artists who could make it a well-rounded genre. But hip-hop itself has begun to accept the fallacy that it is, by and large, a liability. What a shame.

It pains me, in 2007, to have to defend hip-hop against the charges of people like Bill O’Reilly. It’s like being asked to defend Evolution from its Creationist opponents. Or putting Ahmadinejad (or Bush for that matter) onstage with academics looking for straight answers. In a proper debate, you and your opponent play by the same basic logic. In the above discussions, none of that happens. Science cannot debate Belief, because Belief doesn’t care about evidence. Humans cannot debate their humanity against people who believe them ultimately inhuman.

Jay, you want to take this one?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m happy for Obama, encouraged that he won Iowa, and will be even more so if he takes New Hampshire. I think an Obama win is more than symbolic. It actually speaks to huge changes in American culture since the 1988 campaign of Jesse Jackson, most importantly the ability of white Americans to allow themselves to be led by black Americans, one of the leading indicators that multiculturalism has gained significant ground in the last 20 years (disregarding for the moment those pesky Black unemployment, incarceration and education disparities).

Good news aside, let’s not get carried away. People have been raving about Obama’s victory speech after Iowa. But when I hear Obama speak, it’s the same political pabulum that George Bush spews. Just take a look:

The first time I saw the Palestinian hip-hop group D.A.M. was in 2005, when they did their first gig in New York.

A lot has changed since then for this Jewish-American hip-hop writer. Now that D.A.M. released their first album (which I reviewed in the Washington Post), apparently the change shows.

I went to the West Bank in 2006, and saw some things that I needed to see — the Deheisha refugee camp near Bethlehem, Israeli settler terror in Hebron, the streets of Ramallah, and of course, the Wall, the Wall everywhere. It was a sobering counterpoint to my trip to Israel proper the year before, something that I wrote about in my-yet-to-be-published-Masters-Project-because-I’m-neglecting-everything-else-in-my-life-but-this-book

In it, I described my outlook in the years prior to the West Bank trip...

Pete Rock and Smif & Wessun Speak On How The NYPD Scuffle Began, Vow "Enough Is Enough"
hiphopdx

"What happened was, she was trying to protect her mother from the police hitting her, hitting her mom. So they were hitting her on her leg, and she was like, 'Don't hit my mother.' My wife was saying, 'Don't hit my daughter.' That's what happened. No one assaulted cops. The cops were the ones that assaulted people, period. It's just enough is enough. I've had enough. I've had enough of seeing it on the news, I've had enough of seeing it in the street. Now, I'm in the middle of it and I've really had enough. We're just going to support and keep this thing going until we get justice."

See more details, and official statements from Smif & Wessun and Pete Rock's wife here.