Yo. I was doing my daily digital media perusal and came upon this photo of Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai.(The Taliban bombed a U.S. military base at Bagram this morning.)

But I was struck! Karzai looks like local Detroit city councilman Kwame Kenyatta. Kenyatta is on the left. Karzai is on the right.

I found a piece of art
It was alive
It was on the corner of Mack and Third within a famished corridor.
It was she
Somebody’s mother
Somebody’s daughter
Somebody’s granddaughter
What lured her to this corner? Standing in the cold begging for a nickel, a dime, a dollar or whatever you can provide. What story does she have to tell? (more…)

My congressman John Conyers stood before the nation on the heels of the 2006 election pushing for a full scale investigation of impeachable offenses by our current Commander and Chief George W. Bush. The whole month leading up to the election Conyers stood firm that a vote for the Democrats would be the 1st step in the impeachment of Bush.

(more…)

 ”My Mic Sounds Nice”

It is the longest relationship I have ever been in. There is no one and no thing that I have ever loved longer than hip-hop. The best memories of my youth have bass and the sound of a DJ scratching in the background. In fact, the sound of a needle on a record is one of the most soothing sounds I have ever heard.

I grew up with crushes on D-Nice and LL Cool J. I sent LL a letter to his fan club and a picture of my cousin, Mychele. She was older and I thought prettier, and I figured if L was going to call anyone, he would call her. He never did.

I wanted to be like Salt ‘n Pepa. Wait, that’s not right. I wanted to BE Salt ‘n Pepa. Leggings, asymetrical haircuts, and all. I had an African medallion and Kwame’s first album the day it came out. I wished I was from New York, names like Brooklyn, Queens and the South Bronx sounded as exotic as Madagascar.

Yes, I was in love.  

(more…)

I was minding my own business, just driving to a meeting when I heard a brief headline on Democracy Now:

In news from Capitol Hill, Congress is coming under criticism for approving a little noticed provision last year that makes it easier for President Bush to declare martial law and to send US troops into American cities. At the administration’s request, Congress approved the changes to a law known as the Insurrection Act without ever holding a public hearing.

Under the new law, the president now has the authority to use both active-duty armed forces and the National Guard on American soil — not just during a rebellion — but also a natural disaster, terrorist attack, pandemic or other chaotic situation.

All 50 of the nation’s governors have opposed the rule changes. Earlier this month Senators Patrick Leahy, the chair of the Judiciary Committee, and Republican Christopher Bond introduced legislation to repeal the changes Congress approved last year.

WHAT??? Wait, how did I miss this?

Oh, yeah. This bill was signed into law on the same day as the infamous Military Commissions Act of 2006. I was so outraged that my Democratic Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow had voted “Yes” on that measure that I didn’t notice this other law. While I was writing Stabenow a heated letter telling her that she had lost my vote forever, the Bush regime was getting away with murder… again!!

Blues Talkin’

As if there weren’t enough reasons to hate the Iraq War, the Washington Post’s expose of the dismal conditions at Walter Reed Army Hospital will make your blood boil.

At town hall meetings, the soldiers of Building 18 keep pushing commanders to improve conditions. But some things have gotten worse. In December, a contracting dispute held up building repairs.

“I hate it,” said Romero, who stays in his room all day. “There are cockroaches. The elevator doesn’t work. The garage door doesn’t work. Sometimes there’s no heat, no water. . . . I told my platoon sergeant I want to leave. I told the town hall meeting. I talked to the doctors and medical staff. They just said you kind of got to get used to the outside world. . . . My platoon sergeant said, ‘Suck it up!’ “

Some soldiers leave Walter Reed with zero disability ratings if military doctors can blame their illnesses on preexisting conditions. Suicides and accidental overdoses of prescription meds are common.

Now, Bush wants to escalate the violence and the impotent Congress can’t even come up with a nonbinding resolution in protest.

We should force Congress members to spend six months in Walter Reed. Bush and Cheney need to be sent to the front lines in Baghdad.
Soldiers Face Neglect, Frustration at Army’s Top Medical Facility

Hip hop executive and music manager Chris Lighty of Violator Management talks about the Black persons’ MBA–earned in “hell.”

“Lighty grew up during the 1980s in the gritty Bronx River Projects surrounded by crack and crime. He was one of six children brought up by a single mom working two jobs to feed the family. He saw his best friend, DJ Scott La Rock, murdered before his eyes, the victim of a trivial spat. Starting a business was “the only option,” he said.”

NYDailyNews

After you read about Rosa Parks for the umpteenth time and watch some PBS biography, Black history month is all over.

It’s so ironic that President’s Day also competes with Black History Month. Yet, President’s day warrants as much/if not more coverage in some media outlets.

At least the Black voiceover people who intone over corporate commercials “Celebrating 100 years of blah, blah” get work this time of year.

Minister Louis Farrakhan will be in Detroit Feb. 23rd to 25th for Saviour’s Day, the annual Nation of Islam Black History month celebration. He will be speaking at Ford Field.

Last week Detroit’s religious and political leaders–including Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, Councilwoman JoAnn Watson, and Councilwoman Monica Conyers–gathered to welcome the Minister in what many believe will be his last public appearance.

Alas, some Detroit Free Press readers had some online comments–revealing their own deep-seated beliefs in free political speech, peace and self determination.

 ”Louis Farrahkan and his followers are an insult to all who believe in the equality of the races and gender equality. Thank God he is old and will be dead soon and will spend eternity in everlasting hell with all the other racist, Nazi trash in the world!!!”

 ”The leadership in Detroit is utterly a joke. No wonder the suburban areas don’t take Detroit seriously.”

“Once again, until the brain dead voters of Detroit actually want to have change and actually move Detroit forward, the like of Conyers and Kilpratrick will continue to consume the fat and leave Detroit worse for the wear.”

“Is this all we can get? Hell, even New Orleans is getting major conventions and its half under-water and looks like a war zone…”

Jeez…

Detroit Free Press, Saviour’s Day 2007

 икони

It can sound a little whiny when Black people are the only ones pointing out American’s love of dead white men. So we love the occassional observation from other white people.

Wonkette, the D.C. gossip, talked about U.S. Mint’s newest series of coins. Dollar coins with pictures of presidents…all dead white men.

The U.S. Mint, always up on the current trends, is also putting some serious thought into the penny. It seems the copper that is used to make a penny is worth more than the cent itself.

“How dumb do you have to be to mint money at a loss? In the latest only-in-Washington episode, we find that the government may have lost as much as $40 million coining pennies and nickels last year.” - NYTIMES

God bless America.

Wonkette, Los Angeles Times, NYTIMES

Freshman Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), who has made headlines as the nation’s first Muslim member of congress is already having problems with one of his new neighbors.

Ellison’s press secretary, Rick Jauert, called the cops on Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.), their next door neighbor in the Longworth House Office Building because Tancredo’s cigar smoke was coming through the walls.

This is how it all went down. On Wednesday evening, around 6 p.m., Tancredo was preparing for his trip to Mississippi. And as he so often does, he was unwinding with a cigar.

Soon enough, however, a police officer walked in to check on the smoke. The officer told Tancredo that the officer came because he was required to do so and not because the officer wanted to. The officer had already told Ellison that Tancredo was permitted to smoke in his office. The visit was more a formality.

Tancredo said he would not stop smoking in his office. “Heck, no!” he said. “If he [Ellison] would have [had] the courtesy to say something I’m sure I would have been more accommodating to his wishes.”

Who knows where this neighborly feud will lead? Cigar ashes on the Ellison doorstep? Backbiting and gossip in committee meetings?

The Hill

According to several news sources, the photos of Anna Nicole Smith and the Bahamian immigration minister Shane Gibson have caused a stir and cries of preferential treatment.

The Bahamian people want answers and the Freeport news editorial asked: “Why and how his name is associated with the whereabouts of Anna Nicole Smith and her baby?”

The photos were originally published by the Tribune of Nassau.

HeartbeatNews

New York Daily News columnist Stanley Crouch weighs in on crime…especially crimes perpetrated by Black people. And he has some harsh criticism for the bleeding heart-types who excuse Black criminal behavior.

“Before the victories of the civil rights movement, the murders of black people during the most intense redneck reigns throughout the South were committed by those once called “poor white trash.” These were the people who became homicidally enraged at the idea of a black man acting as if he was a free person. What is now so appalling is that while the street gangs that presently terrorize black communities across the nation do so with astonishing levels of murder and mayhem, they are so often defined by supposedly empathetic liberals as victims of race and class.”

NY Daily News

Let me start by saying that I am not sipping the Barack Obama Kool-Aid. I agree with Glen Ford of Black Agenda Report who calls the junior Senator from Illinois “…an imperialist at heart who offers George Bush at least another year or two to wage war in Iraq, while warning Iraqis that they can expect no more American ‘coddling’”.

But when people like Debra Dickerson say “Obama isn’t Black”, it just confuses the issue.

According to Dickerson’s Jan. 22 article on Salon.com:

“Black,” in our political and social reality, means those descended from West African slaves. Voluntary immigrants of African descent (even those descended from West Indian slaves) are just that, voluntary immigrants of African descent with markedly different outlooks on the role of race in their lives and in politics. At a minimum, it can’t be assumed that a Nigerian cabdriver and a third-generation Harlemite have more in common than the fact a cop won’t bother to make the distinction. They’re both “black” as a matter of skin color and DNA, but only the Harlemite, for better or worse, is politically and culturally Black, as we use the term.

Hogwash. (more…)

Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly is basically saying he doesn’t have Black friends because he is afraid that he will offend. As if he (and white America) is constantly wrestling with some internal demon force–keeping all of those racist, mean-spirited beliefs suppressed.

So that is why white people and Black people live in separate communities?

This all started because of Sen. Joe Biden’s comments about Sen. Barak Obama being “clean and articulate”.

Now you got to feel sorry for us white folks here, because I’m telling you now I’m afraid to say anything. You know, you’re an articulate guy, doctor, but I’m never going to say that. You’re a smart guy. Is that bad if I say you’re a smart guy? … Yes, absolutely, instead of Black and white Americans coming together, white Americans are terrified. They’re terrified. Now we can’t even say you’re articulate? We can’t even give you guys compliments because they may be taken as condescension? - O’Reilly